Turkey is offering to mediate the crisis in Israel. But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces growing international scrutiny for hosting senior members of Hamas, designated by the U.S. and others as a terrorist organization. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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Farmers say the harvest season just ending in Ukraine was a good one, but they face another year of falling profits due to the skyrocketing costs of getting their products to international markets during wartime. Lesia Bakalets reports from the Kyiv region. VOA footage by Yevhenii Shynkar.
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Russia had remained largely silent on the outbreak of hostilities between Israeli forces and Hamas, but the Kremlin this week gave signs that it is weighing its role – and its relationships – with Israel, Hamas and Iran. Without giving a date, Russian officials have announced an upcoming visit by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. Luis Ramirez narrates this report from the VOA Moscow bureau. 
Camera: Ricardo Marquina 
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A Russian official said Thursday that debris from a downed Ukrainian drone killed three people in the Belgorod region of Russia.

Vyacheslav Gladkov, the regional governor, said on Telegram that the debris destroyed a house and that three bodies were recovered from the rubble.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said it thwarted a Ukrainian drone attack, with air defenses downing a drone over Belgorod.

Belgorod is one of the Russian regions that borders Ukraine.

Ukraine’s military said Thursday that Russia attacked overnight with 33 drones targeting multiple regions, and that Ukrainian air defenses destroyed 28 of the aerial vehicles.

One of the targeted regions was Odesa, in southern Ukraine, where officials reported damage to port infrastructure and residential buildings. At least one person was injured.

Odesa has been a frequent target of Russian aerial attacks.

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

European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell arrived in China on Thursday, looking to manage the bloc’s “de-risking” strategy with its largest trading partner while laying the foundations for a planned summit this year.

The visit comes just days after war broke out between Israel and Hamas, prompting Borrell to assemble an emergency meeting of European foreign ministers. China has called on all parties to “cease fire.”

Borrell’s trip, which was postponed twice this year and is expected to last until Saturday, will involve talks with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi and will tackle issues including bilateral relations, global challenges and trade.

The EU says the visit — the latest in a string of high-level EU-China dialogues — “should culminate in the EU-China summit later this year.”

“Just landed in China to co-chair the EU-China Strategic Dialogue with my counterpart Minister Wang Yi,” Borrell said on his verified account on social media platform X, formerly Twitter.

“An important visit to discuss EU-China relations, key regional and global challenges with government authorities, scholars and business representatives,” he added.

Relations between the EU and China have been heavily strained since the Russian invasion of Ukraine last February, which Beijing has stopped short of condemning.

Rather than halting dialogue completely, Brussels is pushing for an approach with Beijing that balances its concerns over relying too much on China while also maintaining ties with the world’s second-largest economy.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has defined the position as “de-risking rather than decoupling” from China.

‘Volatile’ world

Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin told reporters that “China welcomes” Borrell’s visit, adding that his trip would “inject new impetus into the two sides’ joint efforts to address challenges and maintain world peace and stability.”

“The world is currently facing a volatile and turbulent situation,” Wang said.

“China and the EU, as two major global forces, markets and civilizations, have broad common interests in… promoting global development and prosperity and advancing human civilization.”

Von der Leyen — who carried out her own official visit to China in April — announced last month that the EU was launching an investigation into Beijing’s provision of subsidies for its rapidly rising electric vehicle industry.

European leaders have said that the Chinese subsidies have resulted in unfair competition in their automotive market.

But Beijing has criticized the investigation, warning that it will harm its trading relationship with the bloc.

And earlier this month, the EU named sensitive technologies that it must defend from rivals, including artificial intelligence.

Borrell’s visit is also likely to include dialogue on the ongoing war in Ukraine. China has sought to position itself as a neutral party, but the EU has been critical of its stance.

The bloc’s trade commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said Beijing’s position was “affecting the country’s image” during his visit to China last month.
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The United States is providing Ukraine with up to $200 million in additional military aid in a package announced Wednesday, as the Biden administration tried to temper concerns that the growing needs from Ukraine and now Israel could spread the U.S. too thin. VOA Pentagon correspondent Carla Babb has details.
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The European Union has expanded its warnings that tech companies must remove illegal content from their platforms, or risk facing severe legal penalties.

Following the militant Islamist group Hamas’ attack on Israel and Israel’s retaliatory airstrikes in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, social media firms have seen a surge in misinformation related to the conflict, including doctored images and mislabeled videos, alongside images of graphic violence.

On Tuesday, EU industry chief Thierry Breton told Elon Musk to curb disinformation on his messaging platform X, warning it was being used to disseminate illegal content and false information in the wake of recent violence in the Middle East.

Breton issued a similar warning to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday, urging the company to ensure strict compliance with European law.

In his letters to Musk and Zuckerberg, Breton said their companies had 24 hours to inform the EU how they were stopping harmful content on their platforms.

Now, the European Commission, the EU’s executive branch, has sought to remind all social media companies they are legally required to prevent the spread of harmful content related to Hamas.

“Content circulating online that can be associated to Hamas qualifies as terrorist content, is illegal, and needs to be removed under both the DSA [Digital Services Act] and TCO [Terrorist Content Online Regulation,” a commission spokesperson told Reuters.

“The commission will fully apply the DSA and monitor the full implementation of the TCO. The commission urges online platforms to fully comply with EU rules.”

The recently implemented DSA requires large online platforms, including X and Meta’s Facebook, to remove illegal content and to take measures to tackle the risks to public security and civic discourse.

Any firm found in breach of the DSA faces a fine worth up to 6% of global turnover. Repeat offenders could even be banned from operating in Europe altogether.

It is unclear if Breton has sent similar messages to other social media companies designated under the DSA.
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Human rights advocate Oleg Orlov was fined about $1,500 on Wednesday for criticizing the war in Ukraine, the latest step in a relentless crackdown on activists, independent journalists and opposition figures.

Orlov, co-chairman of the Nobel Peace Prize-winning human rights group Memorial, was convicted of publicly “discrediting” the Russian military after a Facebook post in which he denounced the invasion of Ukraine.

A law adopted shortly after the Kremlin sent troops across the border made it a criminal offense if committed repeatedly within a year; Orlov has been fined twice for antiwar protests before facing criminal charges.

A Moscow court began hearing the case in March, and Orlov faced up to five years in prison if convicted. In closing arguments Wednesday, however, the prosecution asked the court to impose a fine of 250,000 rubles (about $2,500).

“Thank God!” gasped Orlov’s wife when she heard that in court, according to the Russian news outlet Mediazona.

Several hours later, the judge delivered the verdict and ordered Orlov to pay an even lower fine — about $1,500.

Memorial, one of the oldest and the most renowned Russian rights organizations, was awarded the 2022 Nobel Peace Prize along with imprisoned Belarusian activist Ales Bialiatski and the Ukrainian organization Center for Civil Liberties.

Memorial was founded in the Soviet Union in 1987 to ensure that victims of Communist Party repression would be remembered. It has continued to compile information on human rights abuses and track the fate of political prisoners in Russia while facing a Kremlin crackdown in recent years.

The group had been declared a “foreign agent,” a designation that brings additional government scrutiny and carries strong pejorative connotations. Over the years, it was ordered to pay massive fines for alleged violations of the “foreign agent” law.

Russia’s Supreme Court ordered it shut down in December 2021, a move that sparked an outcry at home and abroad.

Memorial and its supporters have called the trial against Orlov politically motivated. His defense team included Dmitry Muratov, editor-in-chief of the independent newspaper Novaya Gazeta and co-winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2021.

Addressing the court Wednesday, Orlov rejected the charges and stressed he does “not regret” speaking out against the war. He called the punishment the prosecution asked for “extremely lenient,” compared with long prison terms handed to other activists and opposition figures, and “a small price to pay for expressing a position I believe to be true.”

After the verdict was announced, he left the courtroom applauded by his supporters. Orlov promised to appeal the “soft, but unlawful and unjust” sentence and urged his supporters not to forget about political prisoners who have to spend years behind bars.

After invading Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin doubled down on suppressing dissent, adopting legislation effectively outlawing any criticism of what it insisted on calling its “special military operation.”

Since then, nearly 8,000 Russians have faced misdemeanor charges and over 700 people have been implicated in criminal cases for speaking out about or protesting the war, according to the OVD Info human rights and legal aid group.

The authorities have also used the new law to target opposition figures, human rights activists and independent media. Top critics have been sentenced to long prison terms, rights groups have been forced to shut down operations, independent news sites were blocked and independent journalists have left the country, fearing prosecution.

Many of those exiles have been tried, convicted and sentenced to prison terms in absentia. The scale of the crackdown has been unprecedented in post-Soviet Russia.
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Britain’s King Charles III will meet with Kenyan President William Ruto in Nairobi in about three weeks. Charles will address “painful aspects” of Britain’s colonial past, Buckingham Palace said on Wednesday.

During the four-day visit, scheduled for October 31 to November 3, Charles and Ruto will tour the Nairobi National Park and attend a state banquet. The two are expected to discuss the climate crisis, the importance of conservation efforts and working together on national security, Chris Fitzgerald, the king’s deputy private secretary, said in a press conference.

Charles will also acknowledge the fraught history between the two nations a decade after Britain paid reparations for the horrors of the Mau Mau uprising of the 1950s, a conflict in which thousands of Kenyans were slain by British authorities.

“His majesty will take time during the visit to deepen his understanding of the wrongs suffered in this period by the people of Kenya,” Fitzgerald said. 

Nairobi has a particular significance for the royal family. In 1952, while in Kenya, then-Princess Elizabeth, Charles’s mother, learned that she had become queen upon the death of her father, King George VI. Charles himself visited the East African nation in 1971. 

The meeting comes as Kenya celebrates 60 years of independence from Britain. Nairobi is Charles’s latest destination for diplomacy after successful royal tours in Germany in March and France last month.

This is the king’s latest effort to bolster ties with former British colonies. In 2022, Charles attended a meeting for the heads of Commonwealth governments. 

The Commonwealth is a group of 56 independent countries, including Kenya, the majority of which were once under British rule. 

Some information for this report was provided by Reuters. 
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A convenient location with the necessary infrastructure for military exercises, both on land and in sea, made Iceland a perfect venue for two-week NATO military exercises that ended earlier this month. Valentina Vasileva has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Elena Matusovsky.
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China has invested tens of billions of dollars in Europe under its ‘Belt and Road Initiative’ – which is marking its tenth birthday. While the Chinese money has seen new infrastructure built, there is concern over debt payments in some countries and a trend to block Beijing’s acquisition of key strategic assets. Henry Ridgwell has more from London. (Camera: Henry Ridgwell; Produced by: Bakhtiyar Zamanov)
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President Joe Biden said Tuesday that “we have Israel’s back,” as Washington attempts to defuse tensions in the Middle East after a stunning terrorist attack by Hamas militants. More than 1,000 people, including at least 14 Americans, have been killed by Hamas militants who stormed over the border Saturday, killing and kidnapping civilians and security forces. 

VOA Ukrainian Service’s Iuliia Iarmolenko spoke Tuesday to John Kirby, National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, shortly before Biden addressed the nation in a televised address. 

This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.

VOA: Can you lay out a roadmap of how the United States is planning to address the situation in Israel? Are you preparing for a long haul or possible regional work?

John Kirby: Well, how long this conflict goes on is really something for the Israelis to speak to, not the United States. What I think you’ll hear from the president today is that we stand solidly and strongly behind Israel, their right to defend themselves, to live in peace and security, to go after these Hamas terrorists that perpetrated this barbaric violence on Israeli citizens, just innocent people going about their lives, and that we’re going to, we’re going to continue to support their needs. There’s already one tranche of military aid on its way to Israel, it should be there soon. I suspect there’ll be others. The president will talk about that in his remarks. We also are mindful that there’s a hostage situation going on. And this is not like any typical hostage situation; it’s also a war zone. So, that’s going to complicate recovery efforts, and the president will talk about how we are offering our support, our advice and counsel. We have terrific hostage recovery experts here in the United States, and we’re willing to chip in that expertise should the Israelis find that required.

VOA: The administration has been pretty cautious in describing Iran’s role in the Hamas attack on Israel. Why? And any signs of possible Russia’s involvement? 

Kirby: Make no mistake, Iran has a degree of complicity here. They’ve been supporting Hamas for many years: training, tools, weapons, capabilities. So, nobody’s walking away from the fact that Hamas wouldn’t be able to function if it wasn’t for the support that they get from Iran. What we have said and our Israeli counterparts have said as well is we just haven’t seen any direct evidence that they were involved specifically in these attacks. But we’re going to keep looking at this. We’ll keep monitoring the intelligence picture and the evidence, and we’ll see where it takes us. 

VOA: How about Russia’s involvement? 

Kirby: We see no indication that Russia was at all directly involved in these attacks either.

VOA: There are reports that President Biden did not urge Prime Minister Netanyahu to exercise restraint in Gaza in the immediate aftermath of the Hamas attack. Will the administration communicate any concerns or guidance before Israel’s anticipated ground operation in Gaza? 

Kirby: Well, again, without talking to Israeli military operations — that’s for them to speak to — I think we all recognize given the threats that they faced and the violence that they’ve been dealing with in the last few hours, that they have to respond aggressively against Hamas, and you’re seeing that play out. They are doing that. Nobody wants to see innocent civilians killed or hurt. Sadly, there’s been too much of that already. Almost 1,000 Israelis now butchered and slaughtered, raped and tortured in front of their family members, and nobody wants to see innocent life taken. And there, as I said, there’s been too much of it. 

One of the great things about our relationship with Israel is that we’re two vibrant democracies and we mutually believe in things like the respect for innocent life and the rule of law. And we’re always stronger together, our two countries, when we show that to the world, that we do respect innocent life and that we do respect not only the rule of law, but the law of war. So, you know, we’ll obviously, we’ll again provide the kind of support that we need to provide to Israel, and we will always stand up for the opposite example of what Hamas is doing, which is not only no respect for life, but the wanton, indiscriminate, murder, butchery of human life. 

VOA: But is it going to be communicated to Prime Minister Netanyahu? 

Kirby: We, again, this is something that we obviously share with Israel, and you know, these are, these are two countries, two partners that certainly have very open lines of communication, and this is one of the great things about our relationship.

VOA: On Ukraine, you said yesterday the administration wants to make sure that there is no gap in assistance to Ukraine, not even a day. Are you confident that that’s going to be the case? Given all the situation that transpired in Israel? Is the administration considering pairing Ukraine and Israel aid requests for faster approval in Congress? 

Kirby: It is important that Ukraine continue to get the aid that it needs. They are involved in still a counteroffensive in facing Russian aggression on their own soil. And you’re right, we don’t want to see a single lapse. That’s why we’re going to continue to work with Congress to see if we can get supplemental funding. We’ve got enough right now to get us through some time. But as I said the other day, it’s not indefinite, and that’s the reason we made a supplemental request. How those conversations with Congress play out, what that looks like, I can’t say at this point. Both Ukraine and Israel are important. Both need American military assistance, and it’s important to our national security interest, let alone theirs, but ours too, that they get that assistance. So, we’re going to continue to work with Congress.

VOA: But is there communication to put these two funding requests together for their faster approval?

Kirby: Yeah, I’m not going to talk about the process here of the conversations that we’re having with Congress. Both countries need U.S. military assistance in terms of weapons and capabilities. Both are under assault. Both have every right to defend themselves and their citizens. And in that defense, our national security interests are actually benefited. We’re going to continue to have these conversations with Congress. How that’s going to play out I just can’t say, and I wouldn’t talk about the specifics of the conversations that we’re having.

VOA: One more question on that. Does the administration consider requesting bigger funding for Ukraine, so-called “one and done” aid package till the next election in the United States?

Kirby: Again, I don’t want to get into the conversations that we’re having with members of Congress. We already submitted a supplemental for the first quarter of the fiscal year here this fall. We believe that that supplemental request was adequate to the task. We urge Congress to pass that supplemental funding, but as for what other conversations might be happening, I’d really rather not get into that.

VOA: OK. And you said yesterday also that Ukraine has some weeks of good weather to be productive and efficient with their counteroffensive. Isn’t this a good time to provide ATACMS [missiles] for Ukraine?

Kirby: Again, ATACMS are not off the table. We are having continued reviews of the additional capabilities that Ukraine needs. I’m not in a position to announce anything with respect to ATACMS. I would just tell you that as the war has evolved and changed, the capabilities that we have provided Ukraine has evolved and changed, and I would expect that that change will continue. 

VOA: Including ATACMS?

Kirby: I’m just going to leave it there. 

VOA: OK. And just let me ask this: You said yesterday that all energy right now is on helping Israel to defend itself. Do you think that there is a possibility that actors like Russia and China might use this opportunity when all eyes are on Israel to their advantage, and how to prevent that?

Kirby: It is certainly possible that other nations, other actors that are hostile to Israel could try to take advantage of the situation. And that is one of the reasons that the president, as commander-in-chief, ordered a carrier strike group into the eastern Mediterranean to send a strong signal to anybody who might be thinking that this is a good opportunity to get involved and try to broaden this conflict beyond just Hamas, and that they are to rethink that plan. They ought to rethink those considerations. So I can’t speak to anything specific with respect to Russia or China’s involvement one way or the other, but we have made it clear, and we’ll continue to make it clear that we take our national security interests in the region very, very seriously. 
…

Finnish President Sauli Niinisto said on Tuesday a leak leading to the shutdown of a natural gas pipeline from Estonia to Finland this weekend was probably caused by “external” activity.

Last year, a series of underwater blasts ruptured three pipelines that carried natural gas from Russia to Western Europe at a time of high geopolitical tensions as Moscow cut gas supplies to Europe.

While the government cautioned against leaping to any conclusions, saying it seemed unlikely that explosives were the cause, the Norwegian seismological institute NORSAR said Monday it detected a “probable explosion” in the area of the leak.

Niinisto said that he had been in touch with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, and that the military alliance was ready to assist in the investigation.

He said that the cause of the damage was not yet clear, and that Finland and Estonia were cooperating in an ongoing investigation.

Estonian officials confirmed Monday that underwater telecommunications lines linking to Finland were also damaged.

The two damaged elements “are in very different locations, although the timing [of the incidents] is quite close,” Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur said at a press briefing.

Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo told reporters later that a preliminary assessment suggested that “the discovered damage could not have been caused by normal use of the pipeline or pressure fluctuations.”

He said the leak was located in the Finnish exclusive economic zone.

When asked about the likelihood of Russian involvement, Orpo said it was important to “gather all the information that is available and not to jump to conclusions at this stage.”

Timo Kilpelainen, head of the investigation department at the National Bureau of Investigation, said at the same press conference that there were “no indications that explosives were used in the act.”

Stoltenberg posted on X, formerly known as Twitter, that the military alliance was “sharing information and stands ready to support Allies concerned.”

European Council President Charles Michel also offered his “full support and solidarity” to the affected countries and called for “a full investigation” in a message on X, formerly Twitter. 

Finland’s gas network operator, state-owned Gasgrid, said Sunday that the Balticconnector pipeline had been shut down over a suspected leak.

The operator said “an unusual drop in pressure” had been noticed in the pipeline running along the seabed of the Gulf of Finland.

Gasgrid said the Finnish gas system was stable, with supply secured through a floating liquefied natural gas terminal in Inkoo.

In late September 2022, a series of underwater blasts ruptured three of the four pipelines that make up Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2, a major conduit for Russian natural gas exports to Western Europe, spewing gas into the Baltic Sea.

The pipelines had been at the center of geopolitical tensions as Russia cut gas supplies to Europe in suspected retaliation to Western sanctions over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Because the leaks occurred in their exclusive economic zones, Denmark and Sweden opened probes into the attack, as did Germany.

All three countries have kept a tight lid on their investigations, which analysts say is unsurprising given the potential diplomatic fallout of what they might uncover.

Telecom operator Elisa also confirmed Tuesday it was experiencing a disruption caused by a “cable break” during the weekend.

“The disruption has no impact on Elisa’s services, as it is a backup connection,” the operator said in a statement.
…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with his counterpart in Romania Tuesday for talks on regional security and to strengthen bilateral ties against the backdrop of Russia’s invasion of his country.

He described the partnership between the two countries as key to “stability for Europe and beyond” on the social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, after meeting with President Klaus Iohannis in the capital, Bucharest.

The two discussed security in the Black Sea region, economic cooperation, shared infrastructure projects, and Ukraine’s requests for military support, Zelenskyy told reporters after the meetings. He also thanked Romania for providing both military and humanitarian support to his war-torn country.

Earlier on Tuesday, the Ukrainian president described the NATO and European Union member country on X as “a friend who came to our help on our darkest day and whose support gets stronger with time.”

In recent weeks, Russia has carried out sustained attacks on Ukraine’s Danube River ports — located just across the river from Romania — as Moscow aims to disrupt Ukraine’s ability to export grain to world markets. Romania has confirmed drone fragment findings on its territory, the type used by the Russian army near its border with Ukraine.

“In Romania, it is well known how dangerous Russian terrorism is, how dangerous the drones and missiles are that attack the villages near the Romanian border,” Zelenskyy said. “Ukrainian pilots will be trained in Romania, and I discussed this with the Romanian president. We discussed our military requests.”

In July, Romania’s Supreme Council of National Defense said the country aims to open a regional training hub for F-16 fighter jet pilots from fellow NATO countries and other partners, including Ukraine.

For his part, Iohannis said Romania is “focused on helping Ukraine win the war” against Russia and that supporting Ukraine is in his country’s strategic interest. “Strengthening Ukraine’s security means strengthening Romania’s security.”

Ukraine and Romania signed an agreement in August to try and boost Kyiv’s grain exports through Romania after Russia withdrew from a wartime agreement a month earlier that ensured safe passage through the Black Sea. Romania’s Black Sea port of Constanta has become a key transport route for the war-torn nation’s grain amid the war.

Ukraine is a major global supplier of wheat, barley, corn and vegetable oil and has struggled since Russia’s invasion to get its food products to parts of the world in need. After Russia blocked the grain’s Black Sea passage, that left more expensive overland routes through Europe as the main path for Ukraine’s exports.

The Ukrainian president’s trip to Romania is his first official visit since Russia launched its full-scale invasion last year. In the wake of the invasion, millions of Ukrainian refugees fled to Romania before moving on to other countries.

Around 85,000 Ukrainian refugees are currently registered in Romania, under the EU’s temporary protection scheme.
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On October 15, Polish voters will choose their next parliament which will form Poland’s new government. One of two main political forces — the Law and Justice Party or the Civic Coalition — will likely have to form a coalition to govern Poland, the largest post-communist EU and NATO member, and a critical supporter of Ukraine in its defense against Russia’s invasion. Myroslava Gongadze in Warsaw explains why these elections are important. Camera and video editing by Daniil Batushchak.
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Pausing during an early morning walk in northeastern Paris, Patrick Street assessed the fallout of the Hamas attack on Israel, thousands of miles away, which ruined the tail end of Jewish Sukkot celebrations with his family.

“There’s no limit to the cruelty,” said Street, who has family in Israel, of the Hamas strikes that killed hundreds of Israelis— even as he recalled previous antisemitic attacks in France.

“It’s just gratuitous hatred,” he said. “Kill just to kill.”

As leaders across Europe condemn Hamas’ assault and express solidarity with Israel, Jews like Street worry about the potential reaction at home — in a region that is no stranger to Islamist attacks. So do some French Muslims, as the death toll mounts in both Israel and Gaza, and the Israeli government mounts a fearsome counterattack in the Palestinian territory.

In countries like Italy, Spain, Germany and Britain, governments are tightening security for Jewish institutions, banning pro-Palestinian demonstrations for fear of violence and calling for zero tolerance against antisemitism.

European cities have also held rallies for peace and the Israeli victims in Saturday’s early morning attack by Hamas. And fears are mounting that a spreading conflict in the Middle East could have effects on European soil.

“No violence, no riots and no hatred on German streets,” wrote the Central Council of Jews in Germany, whose Jewish population numbers about 100,000. The Council said it was in “intensive contact” with German authorities.

Concern about a potential uptick in violence is especially high in France, home to Western Europe’s largest populations of Jews and Muslims — and where a raft of antisemitic attacks over the past two decades helped drive thousands of Jews to resettle in Israel.

“The fear is real,” said Michel Serfaty, a French rabbi who heads a Jewish-Muslim friendship association, noting especially the country’s longstanding fight against radical Islam. “We are trying to stay serene.”

For now, authorities are playing down those concerns.

“There is no blatant threat” to France’s Jewish community for the moment, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin told a local radio station Monday. Still, he described roughly a dozen antisemitic acts that had been registered over the weekend. Police have been dispatched to guard Jewish schools and synagogues across the country.

Yonathan Arfi, president of the Representative Council of Jewish Institutions of France, or CRIF, similarly said he was not “excessively worried” about attacks against the roughly half-million Jews in the country.

Even so, “we are vigilant,” Arfi told France Info radio, of a potential uptick in violence by terrorists or other assailants. “In their eyes,” he added, “attacking French Jews is a way of doing their share in the fight against Israel.”

On Monday, thousands of people gathered in Paris in support of Israel, with others held elsewhere in France. The rally was attended by an array of French politicians who have largely deplored the Hamas strikes.

A rare holdout, the far-left France Unbowed Party, has been blasted for qualifying the Hamas attacks as taking place within “intensifying Israeli occupation policy.” French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne called the party’s response a “revolting ambiguity.”

Politically fraught

Tensions in the Middle East have long boomeranged in France, where many of the country’s roughly 500,000 Jews and up to 6 million Muslims hail from similar North African roots.

The country has seen a spate of antisemitic acts in recent decades, and a rise in radical Islam, especially during the spreading grip of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria. In 2012, three students and a rabbi were gunned down by an Islamist militant in the southern city of Toulouse. In early 2015 another militant, Amedy Coulibaly, killed four shoppers at a kosher supermarket in Paris.

Over the past decade roughly 30,000 Jews have reportedly made their Aliyah, or immigration, to Israel, although the departures dropped off earlier this year. Muslims say they are also victims of slurs and attacks, although these are smaller in number and intensity.

Patrick Street, who was celebrating the Jewish holidays with family in Paris, said he kept a low profile in his home city of Lyon.

“I wouldn’t walk around with a kippah on my head,” he said. “I put on a baseball cap. I’m discreet.”

A few years ago, many mainstream French Muslims and Jews came together in demonstrations following a spate of Islamist terrorist attacks in Paris and elsewhere that killed hundreds of people of all faiths. France’s Muslim population is offering a more muted and mixed response the Hamas attacks against the Jewish state, given widespread support Palestinians still have across the Arab and Muslim worlds.

At an outdoor food market in Paris’ 19th arrondissement, fruit seller Hichem Gafef from Cairo said he was simply saddened by the brutality.

“We Egyptians made peace with Israel in 1979,” he said. “If there are problems, they need to be solved by politicians.”

Abdallah Zekri, vice president of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, condemned the death of “innocent people on both sides,” referring to both Israeli victims but also Palestinians killed in retaliatory Israeli airstrikes on Gaza. But he specifically refused to condemn Hamas.

“What is happening is distressing,” Zekri said in an interview. “We need a durable peace with a Palestinian and Israeli state that live side by side.”

Tareq Oubrou, rector of the Bordeaux Mosque, similarly condemned “all terrorist and savage action to the peaceful, innocent and weak.” In a response by text message, he did not single out a perpetrator.

One Muslim woman who lives outside Paris, and who has long worked to build ties with her Jewish counterparts, said many like herself were fearful of speaking out. She declined to be identified, for fear of retaliation.

“We’re not free,” she said, describing worries of being targeted by fellow Muslims who were suspicious of French Jews and held strong, anti-Israel views. “I can’t open my mouth, because the penalties are really heavy. We’re afraid for our families.”

Serfaty, the rabbi from the Jewish-Muslim friendship association, said the only Muslim leader to reach out to him since the Hamas attack was the imam in the French suburb where he lives.

“He came to tell me of his solidarity and his attachment to the Jewish community,” Serfaty said. “I haven’t heard news from the others.”
…

A Moscow court on Tuesday rejected U.S. reporter Evan Gershkovich’s appeal of his detention on spy charges and ordered him held until November 30.

Gershkovich was arrested during a reporting trip at the end of March in the Urals city of Yekaterinburg, becoming the first Western reporter to be jailed on spy charges in Russia since the Soviet era.

The 31-year-old Wall Street Journal Moscow correspondent, his employer and the U.S. government have rejected the spying allegations.  

Judge Yuri Pasyunin at Moscow City Court ruled to “keep (the detention) without changes” until November 30, an AFP reporter at the court said.

Gershkovich wore a checkered shirt and jeans, smiling to journalists that he knew from behind the glass cage where he was held in court. 

U.S. diplomats were present at the hearing. 

Gershkovich had appealed an August decision to prolong his detention by three months. 

Russia has not provided public evidence of the allegations it has made against Gershkovich.

The American, who previously worked for AFP, continued to report from Russia after the Kremlin launched its Ukraine offensive, despite many Western journalists leaving the country.

He has been held at Moscow’s notorious Lefortovo prison. 
…

In a sign that President Vladimir Putin may resume nuclear testing, Russian lawmakers were given until October 18 to examine ways to rescind Moscow’s ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT), a global nuclear test ban.

The possible step was announced Friday by Russia’s envoy to the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO).

In a statement Monday, the head of the CTBTO, Robert Floyd, expressed concern about the developments. “Banning nuclear testing remains essential to preventing the spread of nuclear weapons and to safeguarding current and future generations from the harmful effects of explosive nuclear testing,” he said

Washington has denounced Russia’s move as endangering “the global norm” against nuclear test blasts.

However, Putin said Russia’s possible action to revoke the ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty would bring it into line with the United States, which has signed but not ratified the pact.

The U.S. did not ratify the treaty, but it has observed a moratorium on nuclear weapon test explosions since 1992.

The 1996 treaty prohibiting “any nuclear weapon test explosion or any other nuclear explosion” anywhere in the world has been signed by 187 nations but not ratified by eight of them, including the United States.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) urged Moscow to think before acting.

“Russia must drop its reckless threat to leave,” ICAN said in a statement.

“International treaties … are critical to making sure nuclear testing, which has harmed people’s health and spread lasting radioactive contamination, is not resumed.”

Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Washington-based Arms Control Association, has said the move could “take Russia and the world backward to a dangerous era of tit-for-tat nuclear threats.”

Ukraine-Middle East

Addressing the NATO Parliamentary Assembly on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy drew a parallel between the atrocities on civilian populations in Ukraine and those on the people of Israel.

“The only difference is that there is a terrorist organization that attacked Israel, and here is a terrorist state that attacked Ukraine,” he said, and called for unity amid the crisis.

In a separate video address, Zelenskyy warned Russia is interested in triggering a war in the Middle East, “so that a new source of pain and suffering could undermine world unity, increase discord and contradictions, and thus help Russia destroy freedom in Europe.”

“We see Russian propagandists gloating. We see Moscow’s Iranian friends openly supporting those who attacked Israel. And all of this is a much greater threat than the world currently perceives,” he added.

In an exclusive interview with the Ukrainian service of VOA, Ukraine Main Directorate of Intelligence spokesperson Andrii Yusov claimed that the Russian special services are using the terrorist attacks on Israel in an anti-Ukrainian propaganda campaign.

Yusov claimed that Ukrainian intelligence received information that Russia has funneled to Hamas “trophy” weapons captured by Russia in Ukraine. This move, Yusov alleged, is meant to implicate Ukraine as a supplier of western weaponry to Hamas terrorists and subsequently discredit it “in the eyes of the free world, its partners and allies.” Yusov added such a propaganda campaign aims “to disrupt or complicate the provision of further Western military assistance” to Ukraine.

“These are fakes and provocations, of course,” Yusov said, “All aid to Ukraine and all armaments are under strict control by our partners, the United States and the countries of the European Union, NATO. The results of this control and the results of inspections have been reported on several times. Ukraine is being as transparent and open as possible,” he said.

A warning that the Kremlin “is already and will likely continue to exploit the Hamas attacks on Israel” — to hype its rhetoric against Western interference in Ukraine, demoralize Ukrainians, and reassure Russians the focus of the West on the Israeli crisis will deflect its attention from the war in Ukraine — was reiterated Sunday by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).

Following Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, the Kremlin primarily blamed the West for neglecting conflicts in the Middle East in favor of supporting Ukraine and claimed that the international community will turn its attention to the Middle East crisis and will cease to focus on Ukraine.

Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council, said that the United States and its allies should be “busy” with work on a “Palestinian-Israeli settlement” and not “interfere” in Russia’s affairs and provide military aid to Ukraine, the ISW reports.

Hroza burial

Residents of the Ukrainian village of Hroza, in northeastern Ukraine, wept beside coffins Monday as they buried relatives and neighbors killed in one of the deadliest attacks in nearly 20 months of war.

The small community has been devastated by Thursday’s attack, in which Ukrainian officials said a Russian missile slammed into a cafe in Hroza as people gathered to mourn a fallen Ukrainian soldier.

United Nations investigators are in the Ukrainian village where the Russian missile strike killed 52 people. The lead investigator said in a statement, “My initial conversations with local residents and survivors indicate that virtually all those killed were civilians and that the target itself, a busy village cafe and store, was also clearly civilian.”

Among the dead were the village leader, a couple who left behind four children, and the dead soldier’s wife and son.

VOA Ukrainian Service reporter Mariia Ulianovska contributed to this report. Some information came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy drew parallels Monday between Hamas attacks on Israelis and Russian strikes on Ukrainians, calling them “equally evil.”

“And the Israelis themselves, the Israeli journalists who were with us, in Ukraine, who were in Bucha, now say that they saw the same evil where Russia came. Equal evil. And there is only one difference: There is a terrorist organization that struck Israel, here there is a terrorist state that struck Ukraine,” Zelenskyy told participants at a NATO meeting via video link.

“The declared intentions are different, but the essence is the same. You see it. You see the same blood on the streets. The same shot civilian cars. These are the same bodies of tortured people,” the Ukrainian leader said.

Disinformation campaign

Ukraine’s main intelligence directorate Monday accused Russian intelligence of conducting a campaign to discredit Kyiv.

“The aggressor state Russia is using the Hamas terrorist attack on the State of Israel for a large-scale provocation against Ukraine. The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine reports that the Russian GRU has already transferred captured weapons produced in the USA and EU countries to Hamas terrorists captured during the fighting in Ukraine,” said a statement on the department’s Facebook page.

Russia has not signaled that it is supporting any party in the conflict, and has called on all sides to cease violence and negotiate. But Hamas leaders reportedly have traveled to Moscow several times in recent years, and Moscow and Tehran are strategic allies.

In a follow-up interview with VOA’s Ukrainian Service, representative Andrii Yusov of Ukraine’s intelligence directorate said they have information that Russian agents have taken captured equipment in Ukraine and begun handing it over to representatives of Hamas, to create the impression that Ukrainian officials have been selling off the weapons.

“We have information that some of the trophy weapons captured in Ukraine have already been handed over [by Russia] to terrorists-representatives of Hamas, with further unfolding of this IPSO (informational and psychological special operation) and the conclusion that Ukraine was selling something to someone.”

Yusov warned there will be more false accusations that Hamas militants are allegedly fighting the Israeli army with weapons from Ukraine.

Russia hopes attacks divert attention

The American Institute for the Study of War wrote in a report on October 7 that the Kremlin is using, and will likely continue to use, Hamas attacks in Israel to promote information campaigns aimed at reducing U.S. and Western support for and attention to Ukraine.

“The Kremlin has stepped up several information operations since the Hamas attacks in Israel on October 7, most notably accusing the West of neglecting conflicts in the Middle East in favor of supporting Ukraine and declaring that the international community will stop paying attention to Ukraine while reaffirming attention to the Middle East,” ISW analysts say.

The report quotes one Russian propagandist as saying that Russia would benefit from the escalation as the world would “temporarily look away from Ukraine and return to putting out the eternal flames in the Middle East.”
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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.

“It is mainly conflict that has driven forced displacement to unprecedented numbers — 110 million refugees and displaced people, the highest in decades,” said Filippo Grandi, UNHCR chief, as he opened the organization’s annual conference.

The yearly event got off to a solemn start with a minute of silence to honor the victims of the recent earthquake in Afghanistan and the conflict in Israel — two incidents that struck both countries on Saturday with devastating repercussions for millions.

Grandi expressed his shock at “the appalling attacks carried out by Hamas against Israeli civilians,” warning that this would cause more suffering for both Israeli and Palestinian civilians, “bringing grave instability to a region already plagued by tensions.” 

Grandi called the escalating violence another “very dangerous piece in a growing mosaic of crises which, if not addressed courageously, spells doom for world peace.” 

As conflicts grow, he said, so does disrespect for international humanitarian law with serious consequences for millions of people caught in the middle and forced to flee. 

During a visit to Egypt, South Sudan, and Chad earlier this year, Grandi said he met some refugees fleeing the devastating conflict in Sudan and who spoke of the destruction, death, torture, and rapes they left behind. 

“They recounted how they had to run from the brutal violence that erupted without warning on 15 April. Their lives upended as suddenly as were those of the Ukrainians the year before, and of many Ukrainians now, facing every day the death and destruction resulting from the Russian invasion,” he said, adding that all 110 million people around the world who are uprooted by conflict, violence, and persecution share the same experiences. 

While it was up to the UNHCR to help protect, assist, and find solutions for these people, he acknowledged that this was becoming harder to do every year. 

Grandi said the global situation was dire and worsening. In the past year, he said the UNHCR responded to 44 new emergencies in 31 countries, “capping off an awful record of number of crises in one year.”

The latest emergency, he said saw 100,000 refugees fleeing Nagorno-Karabakh, an enclave in Azerbaijan, for safety to Armenia a few days ago.

But he notes violence continues in many other places, such as in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where nearly 1.5 million people have been newly displaced this year alone, “78,000 of whom fled within the country in just one day last week.” 

“Or in central Sahel, where amidst growing political instability, violence perpetrated by armed groups is forcing more people to flee, including to coastal states. Or in Somalia, where the climate emergency coupled with conflict has forced nearly 900,000 from their homes. 

“Or in Myanmar, where hundreds of thousands have been and are being displaced by fighting,” he said.

Given this backdrop, the high commissioner said he was extremely worried that underfunding was hampering the UNHCR’s humanitarian operations. For example, he noted that the $1 billion Regional Refugee Response Plan, for refugees from Sudan, was just one quarter funded.

Grandi added that this was only one of many humanitarian operations that are short of cash and have been forced to make drastic cuts in food rations, protection needs and other services.

When humanitarian aid is in short supply, he said many people feel compelled to leave their country or countries of refuge and embark on dangerous journeys in search of a better life.

For example, among those reaching Tunisia and Italy today, he said, are Sudanese nationals who recently fled fighting back home and have moved on from countries neighboring Sudan because of insufficient assistance.

Then again, he notes a significant increase in the number of Syrians attempting the dangerous Mediterranean Sea crossing “at a time when humanitarian aid in Syria and in neighboring countries like Jordan and Lebanon is experiencing, again, drastic reductions.”

The latest data from the International Organization for Migration show nearly 2,000 migrants died between January 1 and June 26 while crossing the Mediterranean to reach Europe. 
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Russian shelling has destroyed or damaged 27 out of 34 schools in the Chernihiv region, according to NOVA Ukraine, a nonprofit group that provides aid to the people of Ukraine.
But even as the war continues, some schools are starting to reopen with lots of help. Anna Kosstutschenko reports from Ukraine’s Chernihiv region. Camera and video editing by Pavel Suhodolskiy.
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In an animal shelter near Athens, veterinarian Kleopatra Gkika gently smears soothing cream on the leg of a tortoise, one of hundreds singed in Greece’s devastating summer wildfires.

The healing process is going well, the vet noted.

The burnt skin has fallen off and the tortoise can soon be released back into its natural habitat.

Even though, there may not be much of that habitat left, Gkika mused.

In July and August, Greece was affected by a series of successive wildfires around the country that left at least 26 people dead.

The area around the shelter in Kalyvia Thorikou, some 60 kilometres (37 miles) southeast of Athens, was among the first to be hit.

A few weeks later, the pristine forest of Dadia in northeastern Greece, which contains a natural park, went up in flames.

The fires eventually engulfed nearly 94,000 hectares of the forest in the largest blaze ever recorded on European soil.

Deflecting criticism, the conservative government of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis — which won re-election in June by a landslide — has blamed the disaster on climate change.

Some 400 tortoises overall were rescued from blaze sites surrounding Athens and on the nearby island of Evia.

‘Nothing left’

They were brought to Anima, a non-profit first aid center for wildlife, and to a zoo near the capital.

“Some tortoises had burns on their legs or on their shell. Others had breathing difficulties because of smoke inhalation,” said Vassilis Sfakianopoulos, the founder of “Save your hood”, a volunteer group that normally cleans up litter.

This summer, the group rescued the tortoises as well as snakes, cats and other animals trapped in the inferno.

“The intensity of the fires was such that there was nothing left. Shrubs turned to charcoal,” added Celine Sissler-Bienvenu of the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) charity, which carried out a mission to Greece.

With thousands of people in Greece forced to flee for their safety from the fires, the wildlife was largely forgotten, she said.

But tortoises are resilient animals.

“Tortoises will reduce their metabolism. They can go without eating for several weeks,” Sissler-Bienvenu noted.

“And at the first rain, they will come out to eat.”

At the Kalyvia shelter, the first thing an injured tortoise requires is immersion in a water basin for rehydration.

When an injury is not immediately apparent, vets attempt to detect possible internal injury through smell, Gkika said.

Racing against time

Tortoises ready to be released into the wild have a blue chalk cross mark on their shell.

Around a hundred were already relocated in September.

The team know they are racing against the clock to release them from captivity as soon as possible, said Sissler-Bienvnu.

For animals such as these, which are wild and not social at all, placing them together in an enclosure constitutes additional stress,” she told AFP.

In particular, males will continuously seek to mate and need to be kept apart from the females lest they injure — or even kill them.

Tortoises are also extremely attached to their home area, where they are familiar with hiding places and water sources, and may stop eating if moved elsewhere, Sissler-Bienvenu said.

A 38-year-old engineer, Sfakianopoulos said he is enraged at the sight of the suffering reptiles.

“I find it extremely unfair that no-one in Greece has been taking care of wildlife since the financial crisis,” he said, referring to the decade-long crunch that brought the country to its knees.

But in confronting disaster, “you find hope”, he said.

“It makes you grow and change and you have a real impact on the environment.”
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Britain’s main opposition Labour Party says that if it wins power, it will appoint a “COVID corruption commissioner” to try and recoup some of the billions lost to fraud and waste during the pandemic. 

Labour economy spokeswoman Rachel Reeves is due to outline the plan in a speech Monday at the party’s annual conference. She says the commissioner will bring together tax officials, fraud investigators and law enforcement officers will track down an estimated $8.8 billion in lost public money spent on grants and contracts related to COVID-19. 

Like many countries, the U.K. was forced to sidestep usual rules as it rushed to procure essential supplies and prop up people’s livelihoods during the coronavirus pandemic. 

Reeves told the BBC the Conservative government was “embarrassed” by the scale of the losses and “doing nothing to get that money back.” 

A multi-year public inquiry is examining Britain’s handling of the pandemic, which left more than 200,000 people in the country dead. 

Reeves’ announcement comes during a four-day conference in Liverpool, where Labour is trying to cement its front-runner status in opinion polls before an election due in 2024. 

The party is running 15 or more points ahead of the governing Conservatives in multiple opinion polls, as Britain endures a sluggish economy and a cost-of-living crisis driven by the pandemic, the war in Ukraine and economic disruption following the U.K.’s exit from the European Union. 

Labour is trying to show it can provide an alternative to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives, who have been in power since 2010. But the opposition party is wary of promising big public spending increases that would require tax hikes. 

Instead, the party says it will get the economy growing faster to fund public services. It’s pledging to build 1.5 million homes to ease Britain’s chronic housing crisis, reform an “antiquated” planning system it says is holding back infrastructure improvements, and repair the creaking, overburdened state-funded National Health Service. 

Leader Keir Starmer has steered the social democratic party back toward the political middle-ground after the divisive tenure of predecessor Jeremy Corbyn, a staunch socialist who advocated nationalization of key industries and infrastructure. Corbyn resigned after Labour suffered its worst election defeat in almost a century in 2019. 

In a sign of Labour’s improving fortunes, the party says more than 200 executives are taking part in a business forum at the conference on Monday. For years, businesses were wary of the party, which has its roots in the trade union movement, and tended to favor the Conservatives. But recent economic and political upheavals have made many think again. 

 
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Luxembourg’s three-party coalition led by liberal Prime Minister Xavier Bettel lost its decade-long hold on power in tight parliamentary elections, mostly because of a poor showing by the Green party, according to election results early Monday.

Bettel’s DP liberal party surged from 12 to 14 seats in the 60-seat house in Sunday’s elections and the socialist LSAP also added a seat to reach 11. But the fall of the Greens from nine to four seats meant that the coalition falls just short of the numbers needed for a continued five-year stint in government.

The Christian Democrat CSV remains the biggest single party in parliament with 21 seats and will be the power broker to form the next government.

Ten years ago, Bettel succeeded Jean-Claude Juncker, the Christian Democrat who had been Europe’s longest serving democratically elected leader at the time. The CSV Christian Democrats have been left uncharacteristically on the sidelines for the past 10 years, despite being the single biggest party.

In the last elections, Bettel’s coalition controlled 31 of the 60 seats in the Luxembourg parliament.

Coalition talks might take anywhere from a few days to several weeks. Luxembourg is the European Union’s second-smallest country, with a population of 650,000 people, and is its richest per capita.

 
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