As images of the war between Israel and Hamas sent shockwaves around the world, people in Italy’s capital held a march this week commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Nazi roundup of Rome’s Jewish community during World War II.

Those gathering on Monday said they remember the past because they care about the future.

Esther, a Jewish resident of Rome, said this 80th anniversary “March of Remembrance” was particularly poignant for her as she turns 80 this year. 

She said she and her family survived the Nazis’ 1943 roundup of Rome’s 1,200 Jews only because they were in Africa at the time; some of her relatives were not so lucky. 

“I was born in Africa in Belgium Congo, so I escaped for this,” she said. “If we were in Europe, I don’t know if I can speak with you today.”

Italian authorities, Rome’s Jewish community, and members of the Catholic Community of Sant’Egidio, a progressive Catholic lay group that works for world peace, remembered the Italian Jews who lost their lives during World War II, and those who survived the horror. 

Julia Camorino’s father, Enzo, and uncle, Lushino, were both taken from the Roman ghetto by the Nazis in 1943, deported to Auschwitz, and then sent to other concentration camps. 

They were two of only 16 Roman Jews who survived the Holocaust. Both were strong enough to work and not chosen for the death camps, she said.

Eventually, they escaped and got picked up by American soldiers.

‘Too much politics’

Camorino told VOA the war between Israel and Hamas worries her. 

“There’s too much politics,” she said. “I’m here for the memory of my ancestors and my dad. He was hoping the world would learn from this and for the world to be better. We should never forget what happened.”

The role of Pope Pius XII and others during the Holocaust has been the subject of controversy, but historical documents show that the Holy See and Italy took actions that ended up saving 80% of the Italian Jewish population. 

Strangers sacrified themselves

Many Italians sacrificed their lives to help people they didn’t know. 

Such was the case of Sandro’s grandfather, who sheltered a Jewish family from the Nazis. 

A Christian, Sandro is a member of the Sant’Egidio community. He took part in the march along with a friend from Italy’s Roma community, whose members were also persecuted by the Nazis during World War II. 

He told VOA it’s imperative to remember all the people who lost their lives. 

“For us, it is very important to remember this day because many citizens of Roma [Rome], many Italian people, Jewish people were martyred in Auschwitz from this area,” said Sandro. “We consider them as a part of this city. The story is very cruel. We will not repeat it. That’s our hope.” 

Stefania Proietti is the mayor of Assisi, the birthplace of St. Francis. She told VOA that while the march memorializes the persecuted Jews of Rome, it calls attention to all victims of injustice. 

“We need to talk about peace,” she said. “We cannot repeat the mistakes of the past. We stay here for all victims — Jewish and many other people [who are] innocent are victims.” 

Italian lawmakers are now considering a Holocaust Museum in Rome, but critics say some oppose the plan because they are reluctant to draw attention to the part that Italy’s pro-Nazi, fascist government played during that time in history. 
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Four-day work weeks improved Spanish workers’ health several ways, such as by lowering stress while reducing fuel emissions and benefiting children, a pilot program showed on Tuesday. 

The coastal city of Valencia — Spain’s third largest with more than 800,000 inhabitants — scheduled local holidays to fall on four consecutive Mondays between April 10 and May 7 this year. The project affected 360,000 workers. 

Many participants used the long weekends to develop healthier habits such as practicing sport, resting and eating homemade food, according to an independent commission of health and social science experts that evaluated the program. 

The data showed an improvement in self-perceived health status, lower stress levels and better feelings regarding tiredness, happiness, mood and personal satisfaction, it added. 

A drop in the use of motor vehicles led to better air quality on the four Mondays during the program’s period, as less nitrogen dioxide was emitted, according to the city’s daily emissions measurements. 

However, smokers and drinkers increased their overall use of tobacco and alcohol, it said.

More time for hobbies, leisure

A high percentage of those surveyed said they were more likely to read, study, watch films and pursue hobbies such as  photography, music or painting, the commission said. It did not specify the percentage. 

Children benefited the most, thanks to improved work-life balance enjoyed by their parents, the commission found. 

Retail sales down

While the hospitality and tourism sectors served more customers during extended weekends, retailers reported a decrease in sales and emergency medical services may have been overextended as more healthcare workers took time off, the report said. 

The project was designed by the left-wing Compromis coalition of progressive, green and regionalist parties, which ruled the city at the time. 

Last year, the Spanish government launched a similar two-year project focused on small and medium-sized industrial companies nationwide. 
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The destruction of the Kakhovka Dam in southeastern Ukraine in June caused $14 billion worth of damage and losses, a Tuesday report by the Ukrainian government and the United Nations said.

Ukraine accused Russia of blowing up the dam, which crosses the Dnipro River, flooding the surrounding area with landmine-contaminated water and leaving areas upstream without water.

Moscow has denied responsibility.

“The stark figures speak for themselves. The destruction of the Kakhovka Dam has resulted in a staggering loss and damage,” said Christophoros Politis, the United Nations Development Program’s deputy resident representative in Ukraine, at a presentation in Kyiv.

The preliminary figures put the damage and losses at $13.79 billion, taking into account the environmental toll, the loss of power generation, irrigation for farming, lost housing and other factors.

The destruction of the dam “is foreseen to have severe, enduring consequences on Ukraine’s environment, economy and society,” a post-disaster needs assessment report said. 

The report identified the lasting environmental impact as its biggest concern.

“The figures are massive … and add to the economic burden on Ukraine,” Politis said. 

A joint report by the World Bank, United Nations, European Commission and Ukrainian government previously estimated the cost of reconstruction and recovery at $411 billion from damage caused during the first year of the war.

“All sectors have been heavily impacted, from health care, water supply facilities to energy and community infrastructure to housing and livelihoods,” Politis said.

The U.N. added that it does not know the extent of damage to Russian-occupied areas of the Kherson region, where the dam was located.

Ukraine’s state-owned hydroelectric company Ukrhydroenergo said that it is also not possible to examine the damage to the dam itself. 

“No access is available because it is very close to the hostilities,” said a company representative, Oleg Ososkov.

Despite the ongoing war, officials said that recovery efforts continue.

“You need to provide water right now for people and there is support going on for that, there is infrastructure building for that,” said Ukrainian Deputy Economy Minister Oleksiy Sobolev.

“It is important to highlight and to stress that recovery will take years, but it has started today,” Politis said.

The U.N. says it supports rebuilding the dam or installing other renewable energy systems as part of medium-term plans for a green recovery in Ukraine.

 

“The opportunity is unique … for Ukraine to rethink the future of all that area in a greener, modern, sustainable and climate-friendly way,” Politis said.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin’s trip to Beijing this week is giving him a rare chance to meet with other world leaders and deepen Moscow’s “no limits” relationship with China. 

In China, Putin will attend Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative forum, which began Tuesday and ends Wednesday. He will deliver a speech, meet with Chinese leader Xi Jinping and hold a press conference.

Putin’s trip to Beijing is his second overseas since the International Criminal Court put out a warrant for his arrest in March. Earlier this month, he traveled to Kyrgyzstan.

The ICC has issued a warrant for Putin’s arrest, obligating member countries to detain the Russian leader if he steps foot on their territory. Neither China nor Kyrgyzstan, the other nation Putin has visited since the warrant, are members.

On Tuesday in Beijing, Putin held his first meeting with a European leader since the launch of the war in Ukraine, Hungary’s Viktor Orban. He also met with Thailand’s newly elected Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin and Mongolia’s president.

At an evening banquet hosted by Xi, the two men shook hands and posed for photos along with other global leaders, many of whom have taken contradictory approaches to the West’s response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Just weeks before Russian troops invaded Ukraine, Xi and Putin signed a pledge declaring their “no-limits” bilateral partnership. Beijing has since become Moscow’s most reliable economic and diplomatic partner as Western nations have imposed strict economic sanctions in response to the invasion.

In addition to seeking support for the war in Ukraine, Putin is expected to continue to offer praise for China’s Belt and Road Initiative as one of the forum’s most prominent guests.

In an interview with China’s state-run broadcaster CCTV on Monday, Putin praised the project. 

“Yes, we see that some people consider it an attempt by the People’s Republic of China to put someone under its thumb, but we see otherwise. We just see a desire for cooperation,” he told state broadcaster CCTV, according to a transcript released by the Kremlin on Monday.

The Kremlin says Putin and Xi are set to meet on the sidelines of the forum Wednesday.

China and Russia have seen a growing number of diplomatic exchanges recently, and the two nations’ ties as well as defense cooperation are growing, though they are both self-sufficient and it is unlikely a full-fledged military alliance will form, according to Alexander Gabuev, director of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse.   
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Poland’s ruling nationalist conservative party has lost its majority in parliament after eight years in power.

Official electoral results announced Tuesday show the Law and Justice party winning 35% of the vote. By contrast, the liberal Civic Coalition party won 30.7% of the vote, followed by the centrist Third Way party with 14.4% and the New Left 8.6%, giving the three parties a combined 53.7% of the vote and with it a majority of seats in the 460-seat lower house of parliament, the Sejm.

The three parties ran on separate tickets but with the same promises seeking to oust Law and Justice and restore good ties with the European Union. Leaders of the three parties have pledged to join forces and form a coalition government. Donald Tusk, the leader of Civic Coalition and a former prime minister, is likely to be chosen by the coalition to return to office.

Law and Justice had formed an ironclad grip on many Polish institutions during its time in office, including the judiciary and state-run public broadcasting, which the party allegedly used to demonize political opponents and burnish its image.

The party will still have a chance to remain in power. President Andrzej Duda, an ally of Law and Justice, will give the party a chance to form a government since it won the most votes.  But the far-right Confederation party won only 7% of the vote, not enough to form a governing coalition with Law and Order.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Beijing Tuesday.

Putin will attend a forum convened by Chinese leader Xi Jingping to mark the 10th anniversary of his signature Belt and Road Initiative, a program China uses to build massive infrastructure projects across Asia, Africa, Latin America and parts of Eastern and Southern Europe.

The Kremlin says Putin and Xi are set to meet on the sidelines of the forum Wednesday.

The two leaders signed a pledge last year declaring a “no-limits” bilateral relationship just weeks before Russian troops invaded Ukraine.  Beijing has since become Moscow’s most reliable economic and diplomatic partner as Western nations have imposed strict economic sanctions in response to the invasion. 

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

 

 
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Authorities in Belgium say the suspected gunman in Monday’s deadly terrorist attack in the capital Brussels has been shot and killed by police. 

The suspect was caught Tuesday in the city’s Schaerbeek area.

Amateur videos posted on social media depict a man wearing an orange vest and riding a scooter drove down a busy street, pulling out a gun and opening fire on pedestrians.  The gunman then chased people into a building and resumed shooting before fleeing the scene.

Two Swedish nationals were killed in the attack, while a third was seriously wounded.

The suspected gunman has been identified as a 45-year-old Tunisian man who claimed responsibility for the shooting in a social media post, saying he was inspired by the Islamic State terrorist group. 

Sweden raised its terrorist alert system to its second-highest level in August after a series of burnings of the Quran, the Muslim holy book, resulting in threats of revenge from Islamic extremists.

Authorities say there was nothing to suggest the attack was linked to the current war between Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas.

The crime scene was located just a few kilometers from a stadium where a soccer match between the Belgian and Swedish national teams was being held.  Authorities suspended the match at halftime and kept the 35,000 fans inside as a precaution for two hours.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters, Agence France-Presse.
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All 31 U.S.-made M1A1 Abrams tanks promised to Kyiv by the Biden administration have arrived in Ukraine, according to the U.S. military.

Col. Martin O’Donnell, a spokesman for U.S. Army Europe and Africa, told VOA that all of the Ukrainians who trained on the tanks with U.S. forces in Germany have also returned to Ukraine, along with ammunition and spare tank parts.

“We have lived up to our end of the bargain. From this point forward, it is up to them [Ukraine] to determine when and where they will deliver this capability,” O’Donnell said.

Military officials say it could take time before the Abrams are sent to the battlefield, as Ukrainian troops make sure they have needed support elements in place and determine when and where to use the tanks for greatest effect against Russian forces.

“I think Ukraine will be deliberate in when and where they use it,” O’Donnell said. “The Abrams tank is one hell of an armored vehicle, but it’s not a silver bullet. Ultimately, it’s Ukraine’s determination to break through that matters most.”

The first of the 31 American-made Abrams tanks were delivered to Ukraine late last month, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The delivery came faster than initial estimates and in time for potential use in the final weeks of Kyiv’s counteroffensive against Russian forces before winter sets in.

“Abrams are already in Ukraine and are preparing to reinforce our brigades,” Zelenskyy wrote on Telegram on September 25.

The Abrams will add to other Western tanks already in Ukraine’s arsenal as it fights to reclaim Russian-held territory in Ukraine’s eastern and southern regions.

The U.S. pledge to donate Abrams tanks earlier this year came alongside a pledge from European nations to deliver German-made Leopard 2 tanks, which Berlin had been unwilling to approve without a similar commitment from the United States.

The United Kingdom was the first country to agree to send Western tanks to Ukraine, pledging its Challenger 2 tanks in January of this year, which arrived in the spring.

British Major Nick Bridges told VOA shortly after the U.K announcement that Challenger 2 tanks can “take multiple hits and stay in the fight,” even as they are considered slower than the Abrams and Leopard 2 tanks.

“The battles in the Ukraine will be slow, and what you need is a heavy tank like a Challenger [2 tank] that can take a hit, and more so than a T-72 [Russian-made tank], which will probably be destroyed after one round,” he told VOA.

Russian forces hit a Challenger 2 tank in Ukraine for what appeared to be the first time last month. Video released at the time showed a badly-damaged tank ablaze, with a Western defense source confirming to news outlets that the tank was indeed a Challenger 2 tank and that all of the crew had survived the attack.

Ukraine has asked for hundreds of Western tanks for its offensive. They have received dozens to date.

Ukraine has intensified a campaign of missile and drone strikes to hit targets deep behind Russian lines, which has placed parts of the occupied Crimean Peninsula under repeated attack.

But with winter approaching, Ukrainian forces have yet to achieve a decisive breakthrough, a concern among Kyiv’s backers that has raised questions about the future of international support.

The Abrams tanks’ arrival in Ukraine comes as the United States provided up to $200 million in additional military aid for Ukraine in a package last week. The Pentagon said the package included weapons for air defense such as the AIM-9 Sidewinder missile, artillery munitions for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), TOW anti-tank missiles, and 155mm and 105mm rounds.

The package marked the 48th time that the U.S. has used the presidential drawdown authority to provide Ukraine’s miliary with equipment from U.S. stockpiles, and it was the first since Congress excluded new aid for Ukraine in a stopgap spending bill passed last month to prevent a government shutdown.

The U.S. has provided about $44 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of Russia’s unprovoked invasion in February 2022.

The Pentagon still has about $5 billion of congressionally approved funding for Ukrainian military aid.

Soon after the stopgap spending bill passed, the House ousted House Speaker Kevin McCarthy from his position as speaker. The House has yet to vote for a new speaker, and new aid for Ukraine could hinge on who is selected.
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Belgian authorities raised the terror alert to its highest level in the capital late Monday after the fatal shooting of two Swedes in Brussels that Prime Minister Alexander De Croo linked to terrorism. The gunman remained at large.

The killings happened some 3 miles (5 kilometers) from a stadium where over 35,000 fans were watching a Belgium-Sweden soccer match, Belgium’s anti-terror center said. The match was abandoned halfway through.

“The population needs to be actively vigilant and avoid any unnecessary travel,” anti-terror center spokeswoman Laura Demullier said, adding that the top priority for authorities was to get the thousands of fans safely out of the King Baudouin Stadium.

The center also said that the terror alert for the rest of the country was raised to its second-highest level. Raising the terror level in the capital to the top 4 rating means that a “threat is extremely serious.” It previously stood at 2, which means the threat was average.

“I have just offered my sincere condolences to @SwedishPM following tonight’s harrowing attack on Swedish citizens in Brussels,” De Croo said. He added on X, formerly known as Twitter, “As close partners the fight against terrorism is a joint one.”

It was not immediately clear if the shooting was linked to the international uproar over the Israel-Hamas war.

“A horrible shooting in Brussels, and the perpetrator is actively being tracked down,” said Interior Minister Annelies Verlinden, adding that she was joining government talks at the National Crisis Center.

Media reports aired amateur videos showing a man shooting several times near a station using a large weapon.

A police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters, said the two victims were Swedes.

Police spokeswoman Ilse Vande Keere said officers arrived soon at the scene and sealed off the immediate neighborhood. She declined to elaborate on circumstances of the shooting.

The shooting came at a time of increased vigilance linked to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war that has heightened tension in several European nations.

At the same time, the Belgian capital has been the scene of increased violence linked to increasing international drug trafficking.

Sweden raised its terror alert to the second-highest level in August after a series of public Quran-burnings by an Iraqi refugee living in Sweden resulted in threats from Islamic militant groups.
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Foreigners who live in Italy will be able to use the national health service after paying a $2,109 annual fee, the government said Monday. 

The charge, part of the 2024 budget adopted by the cabinet, will apply only to citizens from outside the European Union, the economy ministry said in a statement.  

The ministry said there would be an unspecified discount for those with legal residency papers, as well as for foreign students and au pairs.  

It was not immediately clear how far the reform would change the current system, which already foresees payments for some categories of foreigners. 

Giordana Pallone of the Cgil trade union told the Adnkronos news agency the reform risked falling foul of the Italian constitution, which guarantees free medical care for the poor.  

“We’ll now have to wait to see how the law is written, because as it is reported today, it has no value or basis compared to the system and regulations that we have,” she said.  

Foreign workers, job seekers, asylum-seekers and unaccompanied minors currently have access to free health care, like Italian nationals.  

Other foreigners with legal residency, such as diplomats and students, can join the Italian health service voluntarily, for a variable fee. 

For students, for example, the charge is capped around $150 per year, while for others it depends on their annual income and can go up to more than $2,950.  

Last month, Italy’s right-wing government sparked controversy by decreeing that migrants would have to pay more than $5,200 to avoid detention while their request for protection was being processed. 
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European Union heads of state will hold an emergency meeting Tuesday on the conflict between Israel and Palestinian militants in Gaza, following the cross-border attack by Hamas gunmen on October 7 that killed at least 1,400 Israelis. 

Health authorities in Gaza say at least 2,750 Palestinian civilians have been killed by Israeli bombings. 

EU Meeting

Charles Michel, the president of the European Council, said he had called an urgent video conference of EU leaders to address the many consequences that conflict would have for the bloc.

“First, we must work towards urgently providing assistance for the basic needs of the most vulnerable civilians, and it must be done in full accordance with the humanitarian law. Second, everything must be done to avoid regional escalation and strong engagement with regional actors is thus key. We must continue to work towards a sustainable peace based on a two-state solution and this should be based on renewed efforts in the Middle East peace process, such as the Peace Day initiative.”

“Third, the conflict could have major security consequences for our societies. It has the potential to worsen tensions between communities and to feed extremism. Finally, there is a major risk of migration and movements of a large number of people to neighboring countries,” Michel said in a televised statement Monday.

Coherent policy

It’s vital that Europe formulates a coherent policy on the Middle East conflict, said analyst Andreas Krieg, an associate professor at the Department of Defense Studies at Kings College London.

“It is, I would say, the most important neighborhood region for the European Union. And so a lot of what Europe does in this region is not based on the luxury of having a choice but of pure necessity,” he told VOA.

Mixed messaging

European nations gave Israel their full support in the days following the Hamas attacks. However, critics say there has been mixed messaging from EU leaders as the Israeli assault on Gaza intensifies and the mounting Palestinian death toll exposes divisions in the European response.

EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited the Kfar Aza kibbutz in southern Israel Friday, where Israeli forces say Hamas tortured and murdered dozens of civilians. She offered unequivocal support for Israel in its response to the attacks.

“Israel has a right to defend itself. In fact, it has the duty to defend its people. And we must call by their name the atrocities committed by Hamas. This is terrorism. This is an act of war,” von der Leyen said at a joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “Hamas’ despicable actions are the hallmark of terrorists and I know that how Israel responds will show that it is a democracy.”

Humanitarian law

Von der Leyen’s speech sparked criticism from some senior European politicians. Nathalie Loiseau, a French MEP and chair of the European Parliament’s security and defense committee, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that the EU commission president was “forgetting an important message: Israel must respect international humanitarian law.”

Meanwhile the EU’s foreign policy chief Josep Borrell last week said that Israel’s siege of Gaza “is against international law,” following a meeting of EU foreign ministers. 

The political narrative is becoming more nuanced, said analyst Krieg of Kings College London.

“I think we’re already seeing some of the Western policymakers backtracking and trying to put things into context — and saying, well, we stand with Israel, we also have to make sure that the lives of Palestinian civilians have to be secured and protected,” he told VOA.

European public opinion

That view is echoed in European public opinion, says Andreas Bohm of the University of St Gallen in Switzerland. “There is a significant part of the public today that acknowledges, recognizes the Palestinian struggle. They do have solidarity for Israel, I think, due to the nature of the attack. But in … the long run, if we see these pictures of, say, thousands or tens of thousands of people killed in Gaza, well that might change it,” Bohm told VOA.

For Hamas, such an outcome is desirable, Bohm added. “They want to weaken Israel. And so for them, any large scale ground invasion, with say thousands or tens of thousands of casualties — that would be a major success for them, because it hurts Israel. It tarnishes Israel’s reputation both in the region and globally with Western audiences,” he said.

Krieg, however, said Israel is unlikely to change course.

“I think the Israelis also will be more resilient in sustaining criticism and sustaining also the leverage of Western policy makers, because they’re saying, ‘This is our war. Look at these atrocities and we’ll do whatever is necessary to eradicate Hamas,’” Krieg told VOA.

EU Aid

Meanwhile, the European Union Monday announced a tripling of humanitarian assistance to Gaza, to $79 million, despite suggestions in the days following the Hamas attack that all aid to Gaza could be suspended.

With Israel maintaining a complete siege of the territory, it isn’t clear how or when the assistance might reach those in need.
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Russia’s foreign minister will visit North Korea this week, the Foreign Ministry said Monday, days after the United States claimed Pyongyang had delivered munitions and military equipment to Russia for use in the fighting in Ukraine.

Sergey Lavrov will be in North Korea on Wednesday and Thursday, the ministry said in a brief statement that did not specify whom he would meet or the aims of the trip.

The White House said Friday that more than 1,000 containers of equipment and ammunition have been sent to Russia from North Korea.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un traveled to Russia last month to meet President Vladimir Putin and visit key military sites, triggering speculation about a possible North Korean plan to refill Russia’s munition stores that have been drained by the protracted conflict with Ukraine.

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said that the U.S. believes Kim is seeking sophisticated Russian weapons technologies in return for the munitions to boost North Korea’s military and nuclear program.

The White House released images that it said show the containers were loaded onto a Russian-flagged ship before being moved via train to southwestern Russia. The containers were shipped between Sept. 7 and Oct. 1, according to the White House.
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The majority of voters in Poland’s general election supported opposition parties who promised to repair the nation’s constitutional order and its relationship with allies, including the European Union and Ukraine, according to projections Monday.

After a bitter and emotional campaign, voters turned out in droves on Sunday to make their voice known. Turnout was at the highest level in the country’s 34 years of democracy, surpassing the 63% who turned out in the historic 1989 vote that toppled communism.

The final result was not expected for many hours. But a so-called late exit poll by Ipsos suggested that voters had finally grown tired of the ruling nationalist party, Law and Justice, after eight years of divisive policies that led to frequent street protests, bitter divisions even within families and billions of dollars in funding held up by the EU over rule of law violations.

The poll showed that three centrist opposition parties that campaigned on a promise to reverse the illiberal drift of the government had together secured around 248 seats in the 460-seat lower house of parliament, or Sejm — a clear majority.

“I am really overjoyed now,” Magdalena Chmieluk, a 43-year-old accountant, said on Monday morning. The opposition “will form a government and we will finally be able to live in a normal country, for real.”

Still, Poles on Monday were facing weeks of political uncertainty. Law and Justice won more votes than any single party and said it would try to keep governing.

“No matter how you look at it, we won,” Law and Justice campaign manager Joachim Brudzinski said Monday morning in an interview on the RMF FM radio broadcaster.

He said that his party would try to build a government led by Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki.

President Andrzej Duda, an ally of Law and Justice, must call the first session of the new parliament within 30 days of the election and designate a prime minister to try to build a government. In the meantime, the current government will remain in a caretaker role.

The tradition in the democratic era has been for the president to first tap someone from the party with the most votes, but he is not required to do so.

It was not clear how Law and Justice could realistically hold onto power, unless it managed to win over some lawmakers from opposition parties, something it did in the past to maintain the thin parliamentary majority it held for eight years. But that seemed unlikely given the large number it would be required to change allegiances. 

The Ipsos poll showed Law and Justice with 36.6% of the votes cast; the opposition Civic Coalition, led by former European Council President Donald Tusk, with 31%; the centrist Third Way coalition with 13.5%; the Left party with 8.6%; and the far-right Confederation with 6.4%.

The electoral commission said it expected to report the final result by early Tuesday.

Tusk on Sunday evening declared that it was the end of Law and Justice rule and that a new era had begun for Poland.

Some Polish media were more cautious on Monday, only reporting that the opposition could take power.

Cezary Tomczyk, vice-chairman of Tusk’s party, said the governing party would do everything to try to maintain power. He called on it to accept the election result, saying it was the will of the people to hand over power to the opposition.

“The nation spoke,” Tomczyk said.
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Martti Ahtisaari, the former president of Finland and global peace broker awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2008 for his work to resolve international conflicts, died Monday. He was 86.

The foundation he created for preventing and resolving violent conflicts said he died Monday. Its statement said the foundation was “deeply saddened by the loss of its founder and chair of board.”

In 2021, it was announced that Ahtisaari had advanced Alzheimer’s disease.

Among his most notable achievements, Ahtisaari helped reach peace accords related to Serbia’s withdrawal from Kosovo in the late 1990s, Namibia’s bid for independence in the 1980s, and autonomy for Aceh province in Indonesia in 2005. He was also involved with the Northern Ireland peace process in the late 1990s, being tasked with monitoring terrorist group IRA’s disarmament process.

When the Norwegian Nobel Peace Committee picked Ahtisaari in October 2008, it cited him “for his important efforts, on several continents and over more than three decades, to resolve international conflicts.”

Ahtisaari who was the Nordic country’s president for one six-year term — 1994 until 2000 — later founded the Helsinki-based Crisis Management Initiative, aimed at preventing and resolving violent conflicts through informal dialogue and mediation.
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Voters in Poland are choosing representatives for both houses of parliament. Poles outside the country are joining the vote. Svitlana Prystynska has our story from the Western U.S. state of Colorado.
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For soldiers fighting on Ukraine’s front lines, a split second first aid decision can be the difference between life or death.

Whether learning to apply a tourniquet, wrap a bandage or carry a wounded person, regular basic medical training is an essential part of their skill set in the field.

“It’s crucial training, because every soldier needs to know how to save his own life and that of others nearby,” said Victor Pylypenko, a 36-year-old medic in the 72nd Ukrainian brigade.

According to analysts, at least tens of thousands of soldiers have been wounded and killed on both sides since Russia’s invasion on Ukraine on February 24, 2022, although neither Kyiv nor Moscow have disclosed their losses.

Near the town of Kurakhove, situated 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the eastern front, some 15 soldiers from Pylypenko’s unit gathered for a course delivered by intensive care nurse Mossy, an Australian volunteer.

Starting inside, and then moving to work in the undergrowth, the soldiers practiced applying tourniquets to an arm or leg to stop massive external bleeding, which can lead to death in a matter of minutes. 

Every soldier is equipped with an individual first aid kit (IFAK), which includes one or two tourniquet straps.

Measuring roughly 70 centimeters (28 inches) and fitted with a twisting handle, the straps grip the limb above the wound and thus stop the bleeding.

“The most common wounds in the field are (shrapnel) wounds in the limbs,” Pylypenko said.

The chest and back are also often hit, because “the bullet-proof vest doesn’t fully protect you,” he added. 

‘Fake tourniquets’

“There are frequent cases of massive hemorrhaging, and tourniquets have really saved hundreds, if not thousands, of lives,” said Pylypenko, adding that it was “essential” that soldiers knew how to use them correctly. 

Both the way they are applied and the quality of the tourniquet determines their effectiveness.

“The government provides us with IFAKs, but they are not always good quality,” said Pylypenko, lamenting “fake tourniquets that are deadly on the battlefield.”

Ukrainian NGOs and combat unit nurses this summer criticized the lack of standardization and poor quality of first aid equipment provided by the government.

Faced with backlash and after 19 months of war, Ukraine’s defense ministry has only recently announced the creation of a medical department within its ranks.

“We are working with our Western partners on the possibility of a rapid decision to confirm the quality of tourniquets produced in Ukraine,” deputy defense minister Natalia Kalmykova said in a TV interview.

During the training course, Mossy advised soldiers to check the origin of their equipment, noting that he had seen “very poor quality” tourniquets coming from China.  

“I can’t read the language on some” first aid items, he told AFP, using Pylypenko as a translator to communicate with the soldiers.   

“Sometimes when we ask the guys to show this part, they point to something else,” he said.

Although most of the soldiers had already undergone first aid training and applied it in combat, trainers say it is essential to practice and repeat the gestures regularly.

Survived three times

To illustrate his point, Mossy told the story of some soldiers who had placed a tourniquet on a wounded man, which then loosened in transit.

“They didn’t think to check the tourniquet while they were transporting him. It came off and their friend died on the stretcher,” he said. 

“You have to continually revise (knowledge). It comes with training and experience, but unfortunately, these lessons are learned in blood,” he added.

Vasyl, a 52-year-old sergeant, listened keenly to the medical training.

He had been wounded three times since the start of the war, including his right eye which appeared a little sunken.

He said that basic medical knowledge “enabled me to survive three times.”

“The second year of the war is almost over. Those who are left have learned to survive,” he said. 

For 39-year-old Arkady, “in a stressful situation, with a lot of adrenaline, you don’t always understand what you’re doing.” 

“So it’s important that you’re constantly reminded of these (first aid) gestures, so you can save your life of someone else’s,” he said.
…

The White House said Sunday it plans to try this week to win congressional approval of a new weapons aid package for Ukraine and Israel that would total significantly more than $2 billion. 

White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan told CBS’s “Face the Nation” show that President Joe Biden will lobby Congress this week on the need for the package to be approved as Ukraine’s 20-month war with Russia slogs on with no end in sight and Israel appears set to launch a ground invasion of Gaza in response to the Oct. 7 shock attack on Israel by Hamas militants.

Biden also could lump in aid to support Taiwan and control migration at the southern U.S. border with Mexico in hopes of winning passage.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said Sunday in Jerusalem after meeting with Israeli officials that the Senate would move quickly to approve more aid for Israel.

“We will work to move this aid through the Senate ASAP, and the Israeli leaders made it clear to us they need the aid quickly,” Schumer said.

He said among Israel’s requests are additional interceptors for its Iron Dome missile defense system, which has been operating nonstop shooting down Hamas rockets from Gaza, and precision munitions.

However, some U.S. Republican lawmakers, especially in the politically fractious House of Representatives, have turned against more U.S. aid to Ukraine.

That leaves the Biden administration with the hope of winning congressional approval of aid to Kyiv by linking it to assistance for Israel. In turn, some Republicans have already rejected combing the two aid packages, leaving overall prospects in doubt.

Approval of any aid package in the House is complicated by the current political chaos in the majority Republican caucus after Speaker Kevin McCarthy was ousted by a small faction of right-wing lawmakers nearly two weeks ago and Republicans have been unable to agree on a replacement. Without a speaker in the chamber, no action has been taken on any legislation.

The current front-runner for the speakership, Representative Jim Jordan of Ohio, has won support from McCarthy and former President Donald Trump and in the caucus of House Republicans. Even so, he is well short of the 217-vote majority he would need when the full House votes.   

Some material in this report came from Reuters.
…

Several International Olympic Committee members called on Sunday for President Thomas Bach to stay on after his second term ends in 2025 and continue for an unprecedented third one.

Elected in 2013, Bach is due to step down in 2025 in line with current Olympic Charter rules, following a first eight-year term and a second four-year one.

The IOC, however, said it would be discussing the matter in a future executive board meeting.

Sunday’s open declaration by IOC members followed speculation in recent months that Bach could potentially continue as president of the one of the most powerful bodies in global sports.

So far no IOC member has declared an intention to run for the top job, though there are several who are seen as potential candidates.

The number of terms was limited to avoid lengthy tenures such as that of former president Juan Antonio Samaranch, who was in charge for 21 years from 1980 to 2001.

“You have shown us the best way to go forward,” IOC member Luis Mejia Oviedo told Bach as he proposed him for a third term.

“We have to look after this movement. That is why I would like to put forward this approach.”

Several other members also called on Bach to stay on and asked for a Charter change.

It will not happen during their meeting in the Indian financial capital, as such changes need to be proposed in writing and handed in 30 days prior to an IOC session.

Bach, a German lawyer, said he was deeply honored but refused to say if he planned to stay and whether he would propose a Charter change in future to make that possible.

“You know I am very loyal to the Olympic Charter. Being a core author of this Olympic Charter drives me to be more loyal to this Olympic Charter,” Bach said.

“These words of support are not only directed to me. They are directed to all of us. What made us to overcome the challenges we had was exactly this unity,” he said.

The next scheduled IOC session is in Paris just before the start of the Olympics Games next July.

Since taking over, Bach has had to tackle a number of major crises such as the Russian doping scandal following the 2014 winter Games in Sochi.

He also had to co-ordinate postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics by a year due to COVID-19 as well as the fallout on world sport from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The former Olympic fencing champion has also pushed through many major reforms aimed at making the bidding and organising for the Olympics less expensive and complicated, and more attractive, for future host cities.

The IOC said the matter of any presidency term would now be taken up by the executive board at its next meeting.

“When members make a point it needs to be fully considered,” said IOC spokesman Mark Adams. “They [points] will be discussed later on in a considered manner, as they should be.”

“There are a number of members who make a point, some representing large constituencies,” Adams added. “It would be strange if we were to deny members, trying to raise a point.”

 
…

Poland is holding a high-stakes election on Sunday that has energized many voters, with the ruling conservative nationalist party pitted against opposition groups that accuse it of eroding the foundations of the democratic system.

The ruling party, Law and Justice, has a devoted base of supporters in the Central European nation of 38 million who appreciate its defense of Catholic traditions and its social spending on pensioners and families with children. The payments have given relief to poor people. 

But support for the party has shrunk since the last election in 2019 — when it won nearly 44% of the vote — amid high inflation, allegations of cronyism and bickering with European allies. Law and Justice has been polling in recent weeks at over 30%, making it the single most popular party but still at risk of losing its majority in parliament. 

In that case, some speculate that Law and Justice could need the support of the far-right Confederation party to govern, though both parties campaigned saying that was not an option.

Many Poles feel like it is the most important election since 1989 when a new democracy was born after decades of communism. The health of the nation’s constitutional order, its legal stance on LGBTQ+ rights and abortion, and the foreign alliances of a country that has been a crucial ally to Ukraine are all at stake.

Polling in recent days suggested that opposition parties have a chance to deprive the governing populists of an unprecedented third term in a row.

The Civic Coalition, Third Way and New Left have campaigned on promises to repair the rule of law and ties with the EU and other allies if they manage to gain power. The final outcome of the vote could be ultimately decided by the small margins gained or lost by the smaller parties.

Tomasz Druzynski, an information technology specialist, voted in Warsaw saying he believes change is possible.

“I believe in it and I think this is the first chance in eight years to change something. And I hope this change will come,” Druzynski said.

The continued growth of Poland’s dynamic economy is also on voters’ minds.

Jan Molak, an 80-year-old supporter of the ruling party, credited it with creating a more just economic system and the development boom of recent years.

“Things are getting better and better,” he said after voting in Warsaw.

Others see economic threats in the way the party has governed and believe the high social spending has helped to fuel inflation.

There is also a high level of state ownership in the Polish economy, and the ruling party has built up a system of patronage, handing out thousands of jobs and contracts to its loyalists. Some fear over time that will cause damage.

The EU, whose funding has driven much of the economic transformation, is also withholding billions of euros in funding to Poland over what it views as democratic erosion.

Political experts say the election will not be fully fair after eight years of governance by Law and Justice, which has eroded checks and balances to gain more control over state institutions, including the courts, public media and the electoral process itself.

Retired nurse Barbara Burs voted early in Warsaw, saying she cast her vote to change the government because she wants a better country for her children and grandchildren — a “just and undivided Poland.”

The fate of Poland’s relationship with Ukraine is also at stake. The Confederation party campaigned on an anti-Ukraine message, accusing the country of lacking gratitude to Poland for its help in the war.

While Poland has been a staunch ally of Ukraine and a transit hub for Western weapons, relations chilled over the Ukrainian grain that entered Poland’s market.

Some 29 million Poles aged 18 and above are eligible to vote. They are choosing 460 members of the lower house, or Sejm, and 100 for the Senate for four-year terms.

A referendum on migration, the retirement age and other issues is being held simultaneously. Opposition groups oppose the referendum, accusing the government of seeking to tap into emotions to mobilize its electorate in the close and unpredictable race. Some called on voters to boycott the referendum.

At one polling station on the southern edge of Warsaw, people could be seen apparently declining to vote in the referendum, casting just two ballots into the assigned boxes. Voters were offered three ballots, one for the Sejm, one for the Senate and one for the referendum.

More than 31,000 voting stations across Poland are open from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. Over 400 voting stations will operate abroad. In a sign of the huge emotions being generated by the vote, more than 600,000 Poles registered to vote abroad.

On Friday, the Foreign Ministry fired its spokesman after he said that not all the votes cast abroad could be counted before the deadline for submitting them, which would cause them to be invalidated. The ministry said he was dismissed for spreading “false information.”

Exit poll results by global polling research firm Ipsos will be announced after polls close.

Individual parties need to get at least 5% of votes to win seats in parliament, coalitions need at least 8% of votes.
…

Rail logistics remain “a vital component” in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the British Defense Ministry said Sunday in its daily intelligence update, adding that Russia uses its rail system for transportation of ammunition, armor, fuel and personnel into the country.

At the same time, it said, rail facilities in occupied parts of Ukraine are vulnerable to Ukrainian artillery, missiles and sabotage. The ministry said Russia “almost certainly” continues to maintain and improve its rail lines of communication.

In addition, the new railway line to Mariupol that Russia is building will shorten travel time for supplies to the Zaporizhzhia front, according to the ministry’s update.

The White House has accused North Korea of shipping weapons to Russia, near the Ukraine border. Its claims are based on an image released Friday showing a shipment from an ammunition depot in North Korea that was loaded onto a Russian-flagged ship before being moved by rail to a depot along Russia’s southwestern border. The delivery took place between Sept. 7 and Oct. 1, the U.S. says.

“We condemn the DPRK for providing Russia with this military equipment, which will be used to attack Ukrainian cities, kill Ukrainian civilians, and further Russia’s illegitimate war,” National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said Friday, using the abbreviation for North Korea’s formal name, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.

Kirby has disclosed that in recent weeks, North Korea has provided Russia with “more than 1,000 containers of military equipment and munitions.”

He said that the U.S. believes North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is seeking sophisticated Russian weapons technologies in return for the munitions to boost North Korea’s military and nuclear program.

“This expanding military partnership between the DPRK and Russia, including any technology transfers from Russia to the DPRK, undermines regional stability and the global nonproliferation regime,” Kirby said.

He said Washington is in lockstep with allies and partners to counter arms deals between Russia and North Korea by sanctioning individuals and entities working to facilitate such arms deals.

“We will not allow the DPRK to aid Russia’s war machine in secret, and the world should know about the support that Russia may again provide the DPRK in return,” Kirby said.

North Korea Friday lambasted the arrival of a U.S. aircraft carrier battle group in South Korea, calling it “an undisguised military provocation” and proof that the U.S. plans an attack against it. North Korea threatened to respond in line with its escalatory nuclear doctrine that authorizes the preemptive use of nuclear weapons.

The U.S. has accused North Korea of previously providing ammunition, artillery shells and rockets to Russia. North Korea has previously denied providing weaponry to Moscow. 
…

Poles vote Sunday in a parliamentary election the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) hopes will earn it an unprecedented third term in office, while the opposition warns it could put the country on a path towards leaving the European Union.

Opinion polls suggest PiS will come out ahead but could lose its majority amid intensifying discontent over its democratic record, which has cost Poland billions of euros in EU aid, and concerns over women’s rights and the cost of living.

With war raging in neighboring Ukraine and a migrant crisis brewing, the EU and Washington are watching the vote closely, although both PiS and its mainstream opposition support NATO-member Poland’s key role in providing military and logistical support to Kyiv.

PiS has cast the election as a choice between security from unfettered migration, which it says its opponents support, and a creeping westernization it sees as contrary to Poland’s Catholic character.

“This election will show whether Poland will be governed by Poles, or by Berlin or Brussels,” PiS leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski told supporters at the party’s last campaign rally Friday.

“What will win is good, patriotic governance … not the screaming and hatred that fill the media and which affect weaker minds,” he said in Skarzysko Kamienna, a city in the PiS heartland in southeastern Poland.

Since sweeping to power in 2015, the party has been accused of undermining democratic checks and balances, politicizing the courts, using publicly owned media to push its own propaganda, and stirring up homophobia.

PiS denies wrongdoing, or wanting to leave the EU, and says its reforms aim to make the country and its economy more fair while removing the last vestiges of communism. It has built its support on generous social handouts, which it says rival parties will stop.

Its main rival, the liberal Civic Coalition (KO), led by former European Council president Donald Tusk, has campaigned on a pledge to undo PiS reforms, hold its leaders to account and resolve conflicts with Brussels over democratic rule. Tusk says his party would maintain social support.

“We need change if you care about fundamental values such as trust, accountability, tolerance to dominate public life again,” Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, who is a senior KO official, told voters on Friday in Kalisz, in central Poland.

Voting starts at 7 a.m. local time and ends at 9 p.m.

Political analysts say Poland could face a period of instability if PiS fails to secure a majority.

One option would be to rely on lawmakers from the far-right Confederation party, whose support among younger voters jumped earlier this year on the back of promises to reduce taxes and limit support for Ukrainian refugees.

The mainstream opposition might also end up with a majority, but it may take time before it has a turn at forming a government if PiS takes the top spot.

Regardless of who wins, credit rating agencies believe that pledges of higher social spending will be hard to reverse, raising questions about the public finances and leaving markets jittery.

Foreign investors have pulled $2.3 billion from domestic government bonds and in July held less than 15% of outstanding bonds, the lowest level in well over a decade and below the historic average of 20%, JPMorgan calculations show. 
…

Jews in communities far from Israel gathered at synagogues this weekend for Shabbat services held amid the ongoing war ignited by Hamas militants’ attack on Israel a week earlier. Rabbis led prayers of peace and shared grief with their congregations. At many synagogues security was tight.

Pittsburgh Rabbi: Hamas attack resurfaces generations of trauma for Jewish people

The deadly Hamas attack is not just another geopolitical event for Jewish people, explained one U.S. rabbi. It is dredging up generations of visceral trauma, especially in Pittsburgh – the city scarred by the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.

“More Jews were killed last Shabbat … than on any other day since the Holocaust,” said Rabbi Daniel Fellman during a service at Temple Sinai. “It isn’t that Hamas wants the destruction of Israel. It’s that Hamas wants the destruction of you and me.”

“The world deserves better, the Palestinian people deserve better and we need to do better.”

Despite that anguish, Fellman’s congregation – and others across the world – heeded the words of an Israeli soldier who had urged worshippers “to go sing and dance, go make sure that every person in the world hears us singing this prayer this Shabbat.”

Fellman preached on the biblical story of the first murder – that of Abel by his brother Cain – and urged an understanding that all people are siblings, including Jews, Christians and Muslims.

“They are all our brothers and sisters, and when one of us hurts, we all hurt. If we can’t see that we share this earth, that we share God’s love, … then we are doomed to live the curse of Cain and Abel again and again.”

For Rabbi Seth Adelson of Congregation Beth Shalom in Pittsburgh, receiving the news about the attack last Saturday morning as he headed to worship brought back traumatic memories of Oct. 27, 2018. That Sabbath morning was shattered by news that a gunman attacked the nearby Tree of Life synagogue and killed 11 people from three congregations meeting there.

The difference, he said in an interview, was “we just we could not comprehend the idea of a shooting at a synagogue in Pittsburgh.” By comparison, last week’s Hamas attack was “tragic and horrifying and gut wrenching, but it was believable.”

After the Pittsburgh synagogue attack, “we felt the whole community embraced us,” Adelson said. “One of the things that many of us are feeling right now is that we are not feeling that embrace. We are really a community in pain and we don’t feel support.”

But they are carrying on with the rhythms of ritual life, Adelson said. Saturday’s service at Beth Shalom includes a bar mitzvah, a young man’s coming-of-age initiation.

“Sometimes we celebrate, even as we know we must grieve,” he said.

 

At other U.S. synagogues, tears, prayers, anger — and police deployments

In Pennsylvania, a SWAT officer guarded the entrance at the Shul at Newtown during its service. Outside, Edward Mackouse, 80, said he was carrying a concealed gun to protect the Orthodox synagogue – part of Chabad Lubavitch, a Hasidic movement. “We cannot be too prepared,” he said.

Inside, Rabbi Aryeh Weinstein denounced those who justify the attacks by Hamas.

“There’s something very wrong with a mind when it thinks it can justify the enormity of the tragedy,” he said.

He told congregants that if someone questions them about the Jewish right to Israel, they should not engage in intellectual debate.

“It’s very simple: because there’s a God in the world. God created the world. And God decided that he wants to give us that land – and therefore, it is our land.”

In Washington, D.C., police cruisers with flashing lights were parked outside during services at Adas Israel Congregation, a prominent Conservative synagogue. Rabbi Aaron Alexander reminded congregants that this week’s liturgy repeated the Hebrew refrain to “free the captives.” He invoked the Israelis held hostage and Palestinians trapped in Gaza.

Alexander noted there were worshippers connected to those killed by Hamas: a rabbi on staff lost a cousin on the Gaza border; and a friend of his was being held hostage.

The rabbi paused at times, overcome with emotion. Worshippers wiped their eyes.

“No matter whose fault it may be, if we can’t well up for innocent humans lost, for babies and for children, even within enemy territory, we have lost some part of us that God has given us – the peace that makes us utterly special and unique among all creations,” Alexander said.

At Temple Adas Israel in Sag Harbor, New York, Rabbi Daniel Geffen urged his congregation to stay strong and uphold the teachings of the Torah.

“I understand the anger. I share that anger. I don’t think I’ve been angrier,” said Geffen, his voice breaking. “Tradition teaches us another way.”

As he spoke, Geffen dabbed away his tears with tissues pulled from the box on the pulpit. The rabbi, a pacifist, explained how that ideology was being tested by the attack.

It’s a “slippery slope of rage,” he said, and now is the time to unite behind Israel. “Do not abandon our people.”

 

In Berlin, heightened security at synagogues

Police in Germany’s capital, Berlin, visibly increased security in front of synagogues as worshippers flocked to Shabbat prayer services.

The heightened safety measures come in reaction to global tensions triggered by Hamas’ attack, and Israel’s subsequent bombing of Gaza, as well as calls on social media to violently protest in front of Jewish institutions in Germany.

At Berlin’s Chabad community in Berlin’s Wilmersdorf neighborhood, the street leading to the synagogue and adjacent community center was blocked to traffic. Police and private security service patrolled on the sidewalk as congregants arrived at the house of worship.

Some men wore their yarmulkes hidden under baseball hats, while others didn’t wear any skullcaps until they entered the synagogue.

Rabbi Yehuda Teichtal, head of the local Chabad community, told The Associated Press on Friday evening that “this is a very challenging moment for the Jewish people.”

“At the same time we will stand together with resilience and complete trust in God for a positive future,” Teichtal added. “There is nothing more than the terrorists want than to demoralize us — they’ve achieved the opposite.”

 

 

At Indonesia’s only synagogue, Rabbi calls for fighting to end

An Indonesian rabbi at the only synagogue in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation called for peace Saturday and an end to the fighting in the Israel-Hamas war.

“We call and pray for peace,” Modechai Ben Avraham said, “Because when peace is restored to our lives, we can carry out any activity and worship peacefully.”

The rabbi, who led prayers at Shaar Hashamayim synagogue in Tondano city on Sulawesi island, said the conflict has not caused anxiety or a sense of fear and isolation for the synagogue and its worshippers “because people know our community only focuses on carrying out religious services.”

Shaar Hashamayim is currently the only synagogue in Indonesia; it has served a local Jewish community of some 50 people in Tondano since 2019. Judaism is not recognized as one of the country’s six major religions, but its practices are allowed under Indonesia’s constitution.

There are an estimated 550 Indonesian Jews, mostly in North Sulawesi, a province of more than 2.6 million people who are mainly Christian in the mostly Muslim archipelago nation.

 

 

Strong emotions at synagogue in Miami Beach

As his parents hunkered down in their safe room in northern Israel, Juval Porat tried to remain focused on preparing a mix of joyful and comforting hymns for the Shabbat services at his Miami Beach, Fla., synagogue.

“For the life of me, I’m not going to cry,” the cantor said before Friday evening services in the stained-glass-filled Temple Beth Sholom. “I need to be strong, so that other people can cry.”

Tears did flow as Porat and the rabbis led the 300 congregants in praying for peace, for safety for the people of Israel and the soldiers defending it, and especially for the hostages.

“It’s the first time I cried,” said Michael Conway, who wore a white kippah decorated with blue doves as symbols of peace.

The prayers in Hebrew and English were “a chance to release the pent-up emotion of the week, and to be with a lot of people who knew how I feel,” he added.

In her sermon, Senior Rabbi Gayle Pomerantz named those emotions — fear, anger, shock that Israel and the Jewish people are facing “an existential moment.”

“We want to pummel Hamas with our own hands,” she told the congregation sitting in silence after she shared testimonials from survivors of a now-devastated kibbutz where, as a student, she had celebrated many Shabbats.

“But hate will never repair what is broken,” she said, urging the faithful instead to show solidarity and to support Israel’s relief efforts.

Rabbi Robert Davis struck the same note as he lit a candle to commemorate the hostages and those killed by Hamas — “the infants and children and teens, the soldiers, the concert-goers, and people waiting for the bus.”

“There aren’t enough candles,” Davis said. “Let us be the lights.”
…

Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.

No Shade, No Water, Record Heat: More Migrants Die in US Desert

In the past 12 months through September, U.S. Customs and Border Protection logged 60 migrant deaths due to heat in the El Paso sector, triple the same period a year ago. The sector spans the Chihuahuan Desert through New Mexico and parts of Texas along 431 kilometers (268 miles) of the border. It has been the busiest area for migrant crossings into the U.S. southwest at a time when overall border apprehensions are on track to match or surpass record levels. Reuters reports.

New York Governor Backs Suspension of ‘Right to Shelter’ as Migrant Influx Strains City

New York Governor Kathy Hochul is supporting New York City’s effort to suspend a unique legal agreement that requires it to provide emergency housing to homeless people, as a large influx of migrants overwhelms the city’s shelter system. Hochul endorsed the city’s challenge to the requirement in a court filing this week, telling reporters Thursday that the mandate was never meant to apply to an international humanitarian crisis. Reported by The Associated Press.

VOA DAY IN PHOTOS: Refugee children play at the kindergarten in the first reception center for refugees in Giessen, Germany

Immigration Around the World

Decade-Old Syrian Refugee Camp Video Falsely Claimed to Be Recently Shot in Gaza

On October 11, verified X account Random Memes posted a video it claimed was filmed that day in Israeli-besieged Gaza. The post received some 269,000 views and nearly 10,000 reposts, quotes and likes. The claim that the video was recently filmed in Gaza is false. Reported by Polygraph.info.

Displaced Sudanese Face Protection Crisis as War Drags On

The U.N. refugee agency, UNHCR, warned Wednesday that the humanitarian emergency in Sudan triggered by two rival generals battling for control of the country has created a protection crisis inside Sudan and in neighboring asylum countries that risks destabilizing the region the longer the conflict goes on. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.

Chad’s President Says Refugees, Host Towns Need Help

Leaders in Chad say the central African nation is struggling to meet the humanitarian needs of 2 million foreign and displaced people seeking refuge there, many of them women and children fleeing violence and increasing hardship in neighboring Sudan. Moki Edwin Kindzeka reports for VOA from Cameroon.

World Food Program Urges Humanitarian Corridors for Gaza Strip

The World Food Program called Tuesday for the establishment of humanitarian corridors for the Gaza Strip and appealed for the safe passage of its staff and essential assistance. In a statement, the WFP said it has launched an emergency operation to provide food assistance to more than 800,000 people in Gaza and the West Bank who lack access to food, water and essential supplies. Reported by VOA’s U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer.

Chinese Dissident Receives Asylum in Canada After Fleeing China

A Chinese dissident who was stranded in the transit area of a Taiwanese airport has arrived in Canada after Ottawa granted him asylum — but some observers say his path to safety, including stops in Laos, Thailand and Taiwan, reflects the growing hardship that Chinese activists face when they try to leave China. William Yang reports from VOA from Taipei.

At Least 29 People Killed in Attack on Refugee Camp in Myanmar

At least 29 people are dead after an artillery strike on a camp housing internally displaced persons in northern Myanmar near the Chinese border, according to sources in the region. News outlets say the attack occurred late Monday night in the town of Laiza, which is controlled by the Kachin Independence Army, the military arm of an ethnic group that has been fighting the Myanmar army for greater autonomy for decades. Local media outlets reportedly showed images of several bodies laid out along the ground, as well as rescuers digging through rubble to recover more bodies. VOANEWS reports.

Aid Fatigue Growing as Refugee, Displacement Crisis Reaches New Heights

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has warned that aid fatigue is growing at a time when a record number of people are fleeing conflict, persecution, human rights violations, climate change and grinding poverty. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.

UK Supreme Court to Decide on Britain Asylum-Seekers’ Resettlement

The British government’s contentious policy to stem the flow of migrants faces one of its toughest challenges this week as the U.K. Supreme Court weighs whether it’s lawful to send asylum-seekers to Rwanda. The Associated Press reports.

EU Mediterranean Ministers Call for Migrant Repatriations, More Resources

Migration and interior ministers from five European Union countries most affected by migration across the Mediterranean — Cyprus, Greece, Italy, Malta and Spain — hailed a new EU pact on migration but said more resources were needed. The ministers from the Med 5 group, who met in Thessaloniki, Greece, October 6-7, took a hard line on returning migrants who have crossed into the bloc illegally to their countries of origin, arguing that if Europe does not tackle the problem decisively, more extreme voices will take over. The Associated Press reports.

UN Urges Halt to Pakistan’s Forcible Returns of Afghan Migrants

The United Nations agencies for migration and refugee protection last Saturday jointly appealed to Pakistan to suspend plans to deport undocumented Afghan immigrants, warning they could be at imminent risk back in Afghanistan. Ayaz Gul reports for VOA from Islamabad, Pakistan.

7 Die in Suspected Migrant Smuggling Crash in Germany

German officials said Friday that seven people died and several others were injured after a van, believed to have been driven by a suspected people-smuggler, overturned while trying to avoid being stopped by federal police. VOANEWS reports.

Thailand Pledges to Repatriate Its Nationals From Israel

The first groups of Thais who were evacuated from Israel following the onslaught by Hamas in southern Israel have landed in Bangkok. Fifteen Thais arrived Thursday at Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi International Airport following the long flight from Tel Aviv. Throngs of reporters awaited them, along with government officials and anxious family members. Tommy Walker reports for VOA from Bangkok.

Activists Slam China After Alleged Forced Repatriation of North Koreans

Human rights activists are criticizing China after reports that Beijing forcibly returned more than 500 North Korean defectors. According to several South Korean rights groups that work with North Korean refugees, the defectors were sent across the China-North Korea border earlier this week, shortly after the end of the 2022 Asian Games held in Hangzhou, China. Reported by William Gallo, VOA Seoul bureau chief and regional correspondent.

News Brief

— USCIS clarifies changes to the EB-5 program in the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) made by the EB-5 Reform and Integrity Act of 2022 (RIA), “specifically the required investment timeframe and how we treat investors who are associated with a terminated regional center.”
…

A man of Chechen origin who was under surveillance by French security services over suspected Islamic radicalization stabbed a teacher to death at his former high school and wounded three other people Friday in northern France, authorities said.

France raised its threat alert to its highest level, and the attack was being investigated by anti-terrorism prosecutors amid soaring global tensions over the war between Israel and Hamas. It also happened almost three years after another teacher, Samuel Paty, was beheaded by a radicalized Chechen near a Paris area school.

The suspected attacker had been under surveillance since the summer on suspicion of Islamic radicalization, French intelligence services told The Associated Press. He was detained Thursday for questioning based on the monitoring of his phone calls in recent days, but investigators found no sign that he was preparing an attack, Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said.

“There was a race against the clock. But there was no threat, no weapon, no indication. We did our our job seriously,” Darmanin said on TF1 television. French intelligence suggested a link between the war in the Middle East and the suspect’s decision to attack, the minister said.

The suspect, identified by prosecutors as Mohamed M., was reportedly refusing to speak to investigators. Several others also were in custody Friday, national counterterrorism prosecutor Jean-Francois Ricard said. Police said the suspect’s younger brother was among those held for questioning.

President Emmanuel Macron said France had been “hit once again by the barbarity of Islamist terrorism.”

“Nearly three years to the day after the assassination of Samuel Paty, terrorism has hit a school again and in a context that we’re all aware of,” Macron said at the site of the attack in Arras, a city 185 kilometers north of Paris.

A colleague and a fellow teacher identified the dead educator as Dominique Bernard, a French language teacher at the Gambetta-Carnot school, which enrolls students ages 11-18. The victim “stepped in and probably saved many lives” but two of the wounded — another teacher and a security guard — were fighting for theirs, according to Macron.

Authorities said the third person wounded worked as a cleaner at the school. The prosecutor said the alleged assailant was a former student there and repeatedly shouted “Allahu akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic during the attack.

Police officer Sliman Hamzi was one of the first on the scene. Hamzi said he was alerted by another officer, rushed to the school and saw a male victim lying on the ground outside the school and the attacker being taken away. He said the victim had his throat slit.

“I’m extremely shocked by what I saw,” the officer said. “It was a horrible thing to see this poor man who was killed on the job by a lunatic.”

The National Police force identified the suspect in the attack as a Russian national of Chechen origin who was born in 2003. The French intelligence services told the AP he had been closely watched since the summer with tails and telephone surveillance and was stopped as recently as Thursday for a police check that found no wrongdoing.

Friday’s attack had echoes of Paty’s slaying on Oct 16, 2020 — also a Friday — by an 18-year-old who had become radicalized. Like the suspect in Friday’s stabbings, the earlier attacker had a Chechen background; police shot and killed him.

Martin Doussau, a philosophy teacher at Gambetta-Carnot, said the assailant was armed with two knives and appeared to be hunting specifically for a history teacher. Paty taught history and geography.

“I was chased by the attacker, who … asked me if I teach history,'” said Doussau, who recounted how he barricaded himself behind a door until police used a stun gun to subdue the attacker. “When he turned around and asked me if I am a history teacher, I immediately thought of Samuel Paty.”

The school went into lockdown, and some children were held inside classrooms for hours while distraught parents gathered outside.

“My husband was in tears. There were a lot of people crying, a lot in a state of panic,” said Céline Bourgeois, whose 15-year-old son, Louis, was inside.

Prosecutors said they were considering charges of terror-related murder and attempted murder against the suspect.

Macron visited the school, stopping for a moment before the blanket-covered body of the teacher, which was in the parking lot in front of the school, then met with students.

He said police thwarted an “attempted attack” in another region of France after the teacher’s fatal stabbing. He did not provide details, but the Interior Ministry said he was referring to a man armed with a knife arrested coming out of a prayer hall in the Yvelines region west of Paris. The man’s motives weren’t immediately clear, police said.

School attacks are rare in France, and the government asked authorities to heighten vigilance at all schools across the country.

The government also increased its threat alert to its highest level Friday, allowing for larger police and military deployments to protect the country. Darmanin said there was no specific threat that prompted the move, but cited calls by extremists to attack amid the Mideast war.

He said authorities have detained 12 people near schools or places of worship since the Hamas attack on Israel last Saturday, some of whom were armed and were preparing to attack. France has heightened security at hundreds of Jewish sites around the country this week.

The suspect’s telephone conversations in recent days gave no indication of an impending attack, leading intelligence officers to conclude that the assailant decided suddenly on Friday to act, intelligence services told the AP.

The suspect’s father was expelled from France in 2018 for radicalism, the interior minister said.

An older brother is serving a 5-year prison term for terror offences. He was convicted this year of involvement in a plot for an armed attack around the presidential Elysee Palace in Paris that was thwarted by the intelligence services. Other members of the radical Islamist group were also jailed for up to 15 years. He was the group’s only Chechen.

The older brother also was a former pupil at the high school targeted Friday, according to legal records from his trial earlier this year on terror-related charges. Investigation records show that during a school class in 2016 about freedom of expression, the older brother defended a terror attack in 2015 that killed 12 cartoonists at the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo.

Friday’s attack came amid heightened tensions around the world over Hamas’ attack on southern Israel and Israel’s blistering military response, which have killed hundreds of civilians on both sides.

Darmanin on Thursday ordered local authorities to ban all pro-Palestinian demonstrations amid a rise in antisemitic acts.

France is estimated to have the world’s third-largest Jewish population after Israel and the U.S., as well as the largest Muslim population in Western Europe.

A moment of silence was held at the opening of a France-Netherlands soccer match Friday night to honor victims of the Israel-Hamas fighting and the slain teacher.

Macron said the school in Arras would reopen as soon as Saturday morning, and he urged the people of France to “stay united.”

“The choice has been made not to give in to terror,” he said. “We must not let anything divide us, and we must remember that schools and the transmission of knowledge are at the heart of this fight against ignorance.”
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