Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is in Germany Friday on a short visit overshadowed by the two countries’ very different stances on the war between Israel and Hamas.

Erdogan is holding meetings with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Germany’s largely ceremonial president, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, in Berlin. Scholz invited Erdogan to visit in May following his re-election.

Turkey has long been viewed as an awkward but essential partner in Germany, which is home to more than 3 million people with Turkish roots. It’s a NATO ally that also is important in efforts to control the flow of refugees and migrants to Europe, an issue on which Scholz faces intense domestic pressure, but there have been tensions in recent years over a variety of issues.

This visit is overshadowed by a growing chasm between the two countries’ stances on events following Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel.

Germany is a staunch ally of Israel and has opposed calls for a cease-fire, while pushing for aid to civilians in Gaza, advocating “humanitarian pauses” and seeking to keep open channels of communication with other countries in the region to prevent the conflict from spreading.

Erdogan has taken an increasingly strident stance against Israel. On Wednesday, he called it a “terrorist state” intent on destroying Gaza along with all of its residents. He described Hamas militants as “resistance fighters” trying to protect their lands and people. Hamas is considered a terrorist organization by Israel, the United States and European Union.

Those and similar comments have appalled politicians across the spectrum in Germany. Asked earlier this week about Erdogan’s comments, Scholz didn’t mention the Turkish leader by name but said “the accusations that are being made there against Israel are absurd.”

On Wednesday, Scholz told parliament that his talks with Erdogan will include a discussion of “differing views — in this question, it is very important that there is clarity and that we make our own position very clear.”

Israel recalled its diplomats from Turkey last month after Erdogan accused Israel of committing war crimes. Turkey later also recalled its ambassador from Israel.

Another possible area of tension emerged ahead of the visit. Late Thursday, Turkish Defense Minister Yasar Guler said Turkey plans to purchase 40 Eurofighter Typhoon jets, but Germany was impeding the sale of the warplanes produced by Germany, the U.K., Spain and Italy.

Guler told members of the Turkish parliament’s defense committee that Spain and the U.K. favored selling the jets to Turkey and were now working to persuade Germany.

 
…

More than 2,400 Ukrainian children have been taken to Belarus since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, according to new research published Thursday by Yale University.

The findings by the Humanitarian Research Lab at the Yale School of Public Health are the most extensive yet about Belarus’ alleged role in Russia’s forced relocation of Ukrainian children.

The report found that Ukrainian children, ages 6 to 17, had been transported from at least 17 cities in Ukraine’s Russian-occupied territory.

Yale identified more than 2,000 children who were transported to the Dubrava children’s center in the Minsk region of Belarus between September 2022 and May 2023. More than 390 children were taken to another 12 facilities, the report said.

That’s on top of the nearly 20,000 Ukrainian children who were forcibly taken from Ukraine to Russia since the war began, according to Kateryna Rashevska, a legal expert at the Regional Center for Human Rights in Kyiv.

Ukraine’s war crimes prosecutors are investigating the forced transfer of Ukrainian children as potential genocide.

Meanwhile, Russian shelling on Thursday killed two people and wounded at least 12 across southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, local officials said.

Among the dead was a 75-year-old woman who died in her apartment in the region’s biggest town, which is also called Kherson, regional governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. Eight people were injured, he said on the messaging app Telegram.

Also Thursday, the United Kingdom’s top foreign diplomat, David Cameron, traveled to the Port of Odesa to pledge continued support for the Ukrainian war effort.

Cameron’s visit is the first the former British prime minister has made since being named to his new role of foreign minister.

It also marks the first time a British diplomat has traveled to the port city, a common target for Russian airstrikes during Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Cameron said the U.K. would continue to provide whatever support was needed to Ukraine, “but above all, the military support that you need not just this year and next year but however long it takes.”

The visit came as Ukraine faces significant setbacks in the war effort, including attention shifting to the Israel-Hamas war in the Middle East, the European Union’s inability to provide all the munitions it promised, and political fighting in the United States threatening additional aid to Ukraine.

The U.K. said its $5.7 billion of military aid to Ukraine was second only to the U.S. and that the country had trained 30,000 Ukrainian troops.

“Russia thinks it can wait this war out and that the West will eventually turn its attention elsewhere,” Cameron said in a statement Thursday. “This could not be further from the truth. In my first discussions with President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy in my new role, I made clear that the U.K. and our partners will support Ukraine and its people for as long as it takes for them to achieve victory.”

The Ukrainian counteroffensive has seen little success, and the war appears to be reaching a stalemate, a situation that Zelenskyy has warned would create a “volcano that is sleeping but will definitely wake up.”

“We cannot afford any stalemate,” Zelenskyy told African journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday. “If we want to end the war, we must end it. End with respect so that the whole world knows that whoever came, captured and killed, is responsible.”

According to the Ukrainian president, if the war becomes a stalemate, future generations of Ukrainians will have to fight, because Russia “will come again if it is not put in its place.”

Zelenskyy’s comments came two weeks after General Valery Zaluzhny, commander in chief of the Ukrainian military, told The Economist that the war had “reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate.”

Zelenskyy acknowledged that the situation on the battlefield remained very difficult but said he does not believe that the war has reached a stalemate. He emphasized that Ukraine will not negotiate with Russia until it completely withdraws from Ukrainian territories.

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

The United States on Thursday targeted 10 individuals in a new round of sanctions aimed at containing Russian influence in the Western Balkans, the U.S. Treasury said.

The Treasury also imposed sanctions on 20 entities, including 11 based in Russia, in line with executive orders related to the Western Balkans and Russia, according to a Treasury website.

The Western Balkans-related sanctions are the latest imposed by the United States on politicians, other individuals and organizations designed to contain Russian efforts to prevent the region’s integration into international institutions, the Treasury said.

The sanctions freeze all property and other assets those targeted have in the United States or are controlled by U.S. citizens and generally prohibit Americans from doing business with them.

Those hit with sanctions are individuals from Serbia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and North Macedonia.

They include Savo Cvijetinovic, a senior official of the political party led by Milorad Dodik, the pro-Russia leader of Republika Srpska, or R.S., the Serb-dominated half of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Dodik already is under U.S. sanctions for alleged corruption and promoting the secession of the Serb Republic.

Cvijetinovic is the R.S. representative of a firm owned by a former Russian Air Force deputy chief that “facilitated the illegal transfer” of Ukrainian-made helicopter engines to Russia, the statement said.

Cvijetinovic told Bosnian Serb news agency SRNA that he suspected the U.S. sanctions were politically motivated, and that the company he represented has legal business with Ukraine and Russia. He said it had supplied spare engine parts, rather than engines.

Also targeted was Petar Djokic, Dodik’s minister of industry, energy and mining, who signed an agreement with a Croatian counterpart to build a pipeline from Croatia to a Russia-owned refinery in the Serb Republic.

Djokic’s Socialist Party said in a statement that the sanctions were “the biggest strike” against the accords that ended the 1992-95 Bosnia war “and the future cooperation and dialogue” in the country.

Dodik’s Moscow representative, Dusko Perovic, was sanctioned for lobbying for meetings between Dodik and Russian President Vladimir Putin, serving as a go-between for the Serb Republic government and an unidentified Russian billionaire and working for two of the billionaire’s firms, Treasury said.

Perovic told SRNA he was not involved in any business in Russia and said that his main duty was to lobby for the R.S. and Dodik, and “if this is a sin for Americans … I have no objections.”

In 2022, Dodik said the United States was accusing him of corruption despite the absence of any criminal proceeding against him. 
…

Five years ago, Soledad Gallego-Diaz challenged Spain’s last great taboo: sexual abuse inside the Roman Catholic Church.

The newly appointed editor of the left-leaning daily El Pais launched an investigation into allegations of abuse by clergy and lay people against children.

Unlike in the United States, Ireland and France, the Spanish Church had not sought to address this issue.

Echoing The Boston Globe’s 2002 investigation of child abuse in the Catholic Church, El Pais’ probe sought justice for survivors of abuse.

“I realized that the church was not going to do anything, unlike in the U.S. and Ireland. It had no intention to do anything. It was going to carry on covering up those cases that it knew about. It was the moment to find out the truth,” Gallego told VOA.

Five years after the paper launched its investigation, Spain’s ombudsman published a report estimating that more than 200,000 children suffered sexual abuse from some members of Spain’s Catholic clergy. 

The 700-page report, published October 27, is the first national independent report on this issue. 

Gallego said she believed the government ordered the ombudsman’s report because of the “enormous” public reaction to the paper’s investigation.

Inigo Dominguez, one of two journalists who worked on the investigation from the start, said no other media were covering this issue when El Pais started.

“No other media decided to investigate. It was a deliberate decision. So, El Pais was very alone,” he told VOA.

Their work started shortly after the release of the movie “Spotlight,” about The Boston Globe investigation. 

As the first step in the investigation, El Pais published an email for people to contact the newspaper in confidence. The inbox soon was flooded with people who wanted to tell their stories of abuse. 

Personally, the work has been very tough for the journalists involved, Dominguez said.

“Psychologically, to listen to all these terrible stories, it has put you in contact with human evil. These people have never had anyone to listen to them,” he said.

“When they speak to a journalist, you realize that it is their last hope. You realize that you cannot fail, because it is their last hope.”

But their reporting has gone some way to achieving justice. 

Angel Gabilondo, the Spanish ombudsman, spoke of the “devastating impact” on victims, and criticized the church for its inaction and attempts to cover or deny the abuse.

“What has happened has been possible because of that silence,” he told a press conference.

The ombudsman report is the result of interviews with 8,000 members of the public.

It found that 0.6% of the country’s adult population of roughly 39 million people said they had suffered sexual abuse as children by members of the clergy.

That percentage rose to 1.13% when it included abuse by lay people, making the potential number of victims about 400,000. 

The Spanish Bishop’s Conference apologized to survivors of sexual abuse by priests but questioned the accuracy of the survey that suggested such abuse was far more widespread than previous smaller investigations have found, Reuters reported.

The church’s ruling body expressed its “pain for the damage caused by some church members with the sex abuses and repeated their request to the victims for forgiveness.”

Francisco Garcia, Episcopal conference secretary general, said the church would contribute to a compensation fund but it would have to involve general educational institutions, sports associations and other organizations because abuse happened there too, and not just in the church.

Gallego, who was editor of El Pais from 2018 to 2020, said she has mixed feelings about the ombudsman report. 

“On one hand, it was a relief that a state body, with all the resources at its disposal which are far superior to a newspaper, was uniting all the data and analyzing them. On the other, unhappiness that even the ombudsman was unable to get most bishops to answer his questions. The church hierarchy continues to believe that no one can investigate it,” Gallego told VOA. 

Gallego said the paper’s investigation had revealed more than 2,000 victims and over 1,000 alleged abusers.

The number of reporters increased on the team in the early years of the investigation but has fluctuated throughout.

And the paper is still investigating under current editor Pepa Bueno. 

“The church tried to control the media. I wanted to give a voice to the victims,” she said.

“I hope that Pope Francis, who has pledged to repair the damage, will ensure those priests who have been investigated do not have any more contact with children and are dealt with through the courts.”

Despite falling attendance and the Catholic Church’s influence waning in society, at least 60% of Spaniards describe themselves as Catholic, according to a 2021 survey.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said the ombudsman’s findings were a “milestone” in the country’s democracy.

“We are a better country because a reality that everyone knew about for many years but nobody talked about has been made known,” he said.

Dominguez of El Pais said trying to raise the issue of sexual abuse presented journalistic problems.

“These stories are hard to publish because they are often just one person’s word against another,” he said.

The El Pais investigation was recognized with an Association of Investigative Journalists award this year. 

The jury that presented the award said the paper had formed “the first and only database of this type of cases in the Spanish Catholic Church.” 

“The work of El Pais has also served to give voice to the victims, who have found a channel to bring out and share their suffering. This work represents, therefore, a clear exercise of journalistic responsibility,” the jury said. 

Antonio Rubio, president of the Association of Investigative Journalists, told VOA, “It is a work which tries to change something which is the basis of objective investigative journalism.”    
…

Journalists from India, Togo, Georgia and Mexico are honored with International Press Freedom Awards this week. The legal threats and harassment all four confront reflect a wider downward trend in civil liberties, they say.  For Liam Scott, VOA’s Jessica Jerreat has more. VOA footage by Hoshang Fahim and Cristina Caicedo Smit.
…

Ukraine’s top general, Valery Zaluzhny, outlined his views on the ongoing war in Ukraine in a recent interview with The Economist. VOA’s Andriy Borys asked U.S. military experts their thoughts on Zaluzhny’s message and on how Ukraine can win the war. Anna Rice narrates. VOA footage by Oleksii Osyka.
…

Britain’s highest court ruled Wednesday that the government’s migrant policy of sending asylum-seekers to Rwanda for processing is illegal — a big political blow to Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
…

German police raided 54 locations across the country on Thursday in an investigation of a Hamburg-based center suspected of promoting Iranian ideology and supporting the activities of Hezbollah, the government said.

The Interior Ministry said the Islamic Center Hamburg, or IZH, has long been under observation by Germany’s domestic intelligence agency. It said the activities of the group are aimed at spreading the “revolutionary concept” of Iran’s supreme leader.

Authorities are also looking into suspicions that it supports banned activities in Germany by Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group, which has repeatedly traded fire with Israel across the Israel-Lebanon border since Hamas attacked Israel from Gaza last month.

The IZH runs a mosque in Hamburg. The Interior Ministry said German intelligence believes it exerts significant influence or full control over some other mosques and groups, and that they often promote a “clearly antisemitic and anti-Israel attitude.” It said authorities are examining whether it can be banned, and material seized during the searches will be evaluated.

Wednesday’s raids were carried out in Hamburg and six other German states — Baden-Wuerttemberg and Bavaria in the south, Berlin, and Hesse, North-Rhine Westphalia and Lower Saxony in the west and northwest. In addition to IZH, the investigation is also targeting five other groups suspected of being sub-organizations of it.

“We have the Islamist scene in our sights,” Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said in a statement. “Now in particular, at a time when many Jews feel particularly threatened, we tolerate no Islamist propaganda and no antisemitic and anti-Israel agitation.”

On Nov. 2, Faeser implemented a formal ban on activity by or in support of Hamas and dissolved Samidoun, a group that was behind a celebration of Hamas’ attack on Israel, following up on a pledge made by Chancellor Olaf Scholz shortly after the attack.
…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that a stalemate in his country’s war against Russia would create a “volcano that is sleeping but will definitely wake up.”

“We cannot afford any stalemate,” Zelenskyy told African journalists in Kyiv on Wednesday. “If we want to end the war, we must end it. End with respect so that the whole world knows that whoever came, captured, and killed, is responsible.”

According to the Ukrainian president, if the war becomes a stalemate, future generations of Ukrainians will have to fight, because Russia “will come again if it is not put in its place.”

Zelenskyy’s comments came two weeks after General Valery Zaluzhny, commander in chief of the Ukrainian military, told The Economist that the war had “reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate.”

Zelenskyy admitted that the situation on the battlefield remains very difficult but said he does not believe that the war has reached a stalemate. He emphasized that Ukraine will not negotiate with Russia until it completely withdraws from Ukrainian territories.

Also Wednesday, Zelenskyy spoke by phone with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

According to the Ukrainian president’s press service, the two leaders talked about the situation on the battlefield, defense cooperation with an emphasis on strengthening Ukrainian air defense and “increasing the capabilities of mobile fire groups to combat [drones].”

Zelenskyy thanked Canada for a new sanctions package and praised Ottawa’s initiative to create an international coalition for the return of deported Ukrainian children. Canada proposed the coalition at a summit of national security and foreign policy advisers on Ukraine’s peace formula, held in Malta on Oct. 29.

Zelenskyy and Trudeau “coordinated the next steps regarding the development of this initiative at the highest level.”

In other diplomacy, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal held a meeting with Pierre Heillbronn, the French president’s special envoy for Ukraine’s relief and reconstruction.

“We discussed the involvement of the private sector in reconstruction. We are preparing specific projects in this direction,” Shmyhal said Wednesday. He also thanked France for extending the mandate of the French Development Agency to Ukraine and pointed to “a number of examples of establishing ties between the communities of Ukraine and France.”
…

How was the air breathed by Caesar, the Prophet Mohammed or Christopher Columbus? A giant freezer in Copenhagen holds the answers, storing blocks of ice with atmospheric tales thousands of years old.

The Ice Core Archive, housing 25 kilometres (15 miles) of ice collected primarily from Greenland, is helping scientists understand changes in the climate.

“What we have in this archive is prehistoric climate change, a record of man’s activities in the last 10,000 years,” glaciology professor Jorgen Peder Steffensen of the University of Copenhagen told AFP.

Blocks of ice have been his passion for 43 years — and it was while drilling into Greenland’s ice sheet that he met his wife Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, also a top expert in the field of paleoclimatology.

Steffensen has since 1991 managed the repository, one of the biggest in the world, with 40,000 blocks of ice stacked on long rows of shelves in large boxes.

The frozen samples are unique, made up of compressed snow and not frozen water.

“All the airspace between the snowflakes is trapped as bubbles inside (and) the air inside these bubbles is the same age as the ice,” Steffensen explained.

The repository’s antechamber is similar to a library’s reading room: this is where scientists can examine the ice they have withdrawn from the main “library”, or storage room.

But they must be quick: the temperature in the antechamber is kept at -18 degrees Celsius (-0.4F) — decidedly balmy compared to the -30C (-22F) in the storage room.

Here, Steffensen removes a block of ice from a box. Its air bubbles are visible to the naked eye: it’s snow that fell during the winter of year zero.

“So we have the Christmas stuff, the real Christmas snow,” says Steffensen with a big grin, his head covered in a warm winter bonnet with furry ear flaps.

Bedrock

A team of researchers brought the first ice cores to Denmark in the 1960s from Camp Century, a secret US military base on Greenland.

The most recent ones date from this summer, when scientists hit the bedrock on eastern Greenland at a depth of 2.6 kilometres, gathering the oldest ice possible.

Those samples contain extracts from 120,000 years ago, during the most recent interglacial period when air temperatures in Greenland were 5C higher than today.

“The globe has easily been much warmer than it is today. But that’s before humans were there,” Steffensen said.

This recently acquired ice should help scientists’ understanding of rising sea levels, which can only be partly explained by the shrinking ice cap.

Another part of the explanation comes from ice streams, fast-moving ice on the ice sheet that is melting at an alarming rate.

“If we understand the ice streams better, we can get a better idea of how much the contribution will be (to rising sea levels) from Greenland and Antarctica in the future,” Steffensen said.

He hopes they’ll be able to predict the sea level rise in 100 years with a margin of error of 15 centimetres — a big improvement over today’s 70 centimetres.

‘Treasure’

Ice cores are the only way of determining the state of the atmosphere prior to man-made pollution.

“With ice cores we have mapped out how greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane vary over time,” Steffensen said.

“And we can also see the impact of the burning of fossil fuels in modern times.”

This project is separate from the Ice Memory foundation, which has collected ice cores from 20 sites worldwide to preserve them for future researchers at the French-Italian Concordia research station in Antarctica, before they disappear forever due to climate change.

“Storing Greenland’s ice memory is very good,” said the head of the foundation, Jerome Chappellaz.

But, he noted, the storage of samples in an industrial freezer is susceptible to technical glitches, funding woes, attacks, or even wars.

In 2017, a freezer that broke down at the University of Alberta in Canada exposed 13 percent of its precious samples thousands of years old to undesirably warm temperatures.

At Concordia Station, the average annual temperature is -55C, providing optimal storage conditions for centuries to come.

“They have a treasure,” said Chappellaz, appealing to the Danes to join Concordia’s project.

“We must protect this treasure and, as far as possible, ensure that it joins mankind’s world heritage.”
…

After living and working in Russia for the last decade, Tajik construction worker Zoir Kurbanov recently decided it was time to head home.

Life for many Central Asian migrants in Russia after it invaded Ukraine was not the same: wages were falling and men faced a danger of being sent by Moscow to the front.

Then, Kurbanov got an offer for jobs on building sites in Mariupol and Donetsk — cities in occupied Ukraine.

“I refused,” the 39-year-old said.

He decided to take a huge pay cut and return home to Tajikistan “because of the war,” taking up a construction job in the capital, Dushanbe.

Russia is increasingly trying to lure Central Asian migrants to work in the parts of Ukraine it occupies, or even to sign up to fight for its army.

While some 1.3 million still migrated to Russia from Central Asia in the first quarter of 2023, some are choosing to leave, rather than be coerced to go to Ukraine.

Moscow is offering high salaries, social benefits and even promises of citizenship to work in places like Mariupol, virtually flattened by the Russian army last year.

Meanwhile, enlistment offices and recruitment campaigns are trying to entice them to join the Russian army.

While there are no exact numbers on how many migrant workers have left Russia – or the numbers sent to work in Ukraine or recruited to the army – Kurbanov’s case is not an exception.

‘Police everywhere’

If offers of bumper paychecks don’t work, Russian authorities have other means of coercing migrants to the front.

“The Russian police were checking me everywhere, asking if I had done my military service,” said Argen Bolgonbekov, a 29-year-old who served in the Kygryz border force.

What starts as a document check can often escalate, he said. On the pretext of uncovering some kind of offense – real or fabricated – Russian authorities sometimes offer migrants a stark choice: prison or the army.

“In Russia, where there are problems with human rights and workers’ rights, migrants are vulnerable. It’s easier to fool them,” Batyr Shermukhammad, an Uzbek journalist who specializes in migration issues, told AFP.

Street searches and police raids of dormitories and work sites were a common feature of life for Central Asian migrants in Russia even before the war. But the invasion has added a new element of risk.

Bolgonbekov was relieved to have just been deported to Kyrgyzstan after police found irregularities with his documents.

“It’s a good thing, because over there you couldn’t walk around in peace anymore,” he said, speaking to AFP at a textile workshop in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.

Farhodzhon Umirzakov, an Uzbek who worked in Russia for six years before he was also deported, said he was “worn down” by the climate there.

“The pressure on migrants increased. We were disrespected. There were more and more raids – even in mosques people were being arrested,” the 35-year-old told AFP.

He said an Uzbek he knew was sentenced to 12 years in prison for drug trafficking and ended up in the army fighting in Ukraine.

Independent media outlets in Central Asia have also reported similar cases.

‘Russia needs soldiers’

Russia is no longer hiding its targeting of migrants for military service.

Earlier this year, lawmaker Mikhail Matveyev called for Central Asians who have recently been granted Russian citizenship to be drafted instead of ethnic Russians.

“Why are they not mobilized? Where are the Tajik battalions? There is a war going on, Russia needs soldiers. Welcome to our citizenship,” he said in a post on Telegram.

War propaganda uses Soviet imagery of the victory over Nazi Germany, in which Central Asians fought for the Red Army.

Earlier this month, the Russian region of Vladimir published a recruitment video showing two men it said were Tajik doctors talking about their decision to go and fight at the front. In the video they called on their compatriots to “follow our example.”

In another video, an Uzbek man said he joined the army because “Russia is a bulwark. If it falls, our countries will fall too.”

The campaigns have not sat well with governments in Central Asia.

Although economically dependent on Moscow, they are striving to maintain their sovereignty and regularly call on their citizens not to take part in the war.

Despite the escalating pressure, Russia “remains the priority destination” for Central Asian workers, said journalist Shermukhammad.

There is no other country where migrants can go “without a visa, speak Russian and earn money,” he said.

Kurbanov, the Tajik construction worker who recently returned home, agreed.

“If the war ends tomorrow, I’ll go back to Russia the day after,” he said.

 
…

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged on Wednesday that his government will keep seeking ways to send some undocumented immigrants on a one-way journey to Rwanda, even though the Supreme Court just ruled that policy was illegal and could imperil refugees.

Five justices unanimously found that Rwanda is not a safe destination for migrants, writing in their decision that asylum-seekers redirected to the East African nation would be “at real risk of ill-treatment.”

The court cited a laundry list of reasons for striking down Sunak’s plan, including Rwanda’s record of human rights abuses, political repression and policy of “refoulement,” or deporting asylees to the countries they had fled from.

The justices argued that Rwanda’s tendency to reject refugees from war-shattered countries means that there is a danger “that asylum claims will not be determined properly…”

The ruling, Sunak said, “was not what we wanted.” But he is undeterred. He said that his administration would broker a treaty with Rwanda to address the court’s worries.

If the treaty falls through, Sunak said, he would consider rewriting British law and backing out of international human rights agreements, which would undoubtedly draw ire from activists at home and abroad.

Rwanda agreed in April 2022, when former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was still in office, to receive undocumented immigrants who had arrived in the U.K. as stowaways and process their asylum applications.

The Conservative government has already given Rwanda nearly $175 million as part of the plan, although not a single migrant has been sent there yet.

While Britain’s border crisis is not as severe as many of its neighbors in Europe, such as Italy and Germany, tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants have made the harrowing journey to northern France to sail across the English Channel in often overcrowded dinghies.

More than 27,000 refugees from around the world have floated over the channel this year, a marked decrease from last year’s 46,000. Sunak claims that the decline in undocumented immigrants is due to his government’s stringent policies. Others believe the disparity in crossings is due to harsh weather conditions.

In the post-Brexit era, “stop the boats” has become a conservative protest slogan. To Sunak and many of his right-wing supporters, stricter control of the country’s borders represents independence from outside influence.

Human rights groups have condemned Sunak’s positions on immigration.

Amnesty International said the nation’s leaders should “draw a line under a disgraceful chapter in the U.K.’s political history.” The U.K. branch of ActionAid, a global humanitarian charity, struck a similar tone, saying the Supreme Court’s ruling represents “British values of compassion and dignity.”

Rwandan officials have repeatedly affirmed their country’s commitment to human rights, despite a number of scandals, from torture and secret abductions by law enforcement to, as the Supreme Court noted in its judgment, “credible plans to kill” Rwandan defectors living in Britain.

Nevertheless, Yolande Makolo, a spokeswoman for Rwanda’s government, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that “Rwanda is committed to its international obligations. We have been recognized by the UNHCR and other international institutions for our exemplary treatment of refugees.”

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press.
…

Ukrainian troops have established a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson Oblast, according to a Ukrainian official.

“Against all odds, Ukraine’s defense forces have gained a foothold on the left bank,” Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said during a speech to a Washington think tank on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

Ukraine had been attempting to push Russia from the strategically significant eastern bank of the river, which has served as a natural barrier, preventing Ukraine from advancing farther into the Kherson region towards the Russian-annexed Crimea. 

The river also allowed Russia to concentrate troops in other heavily fortified and mined regions of eastern Ukraine, such as Zaporizhzhia.

Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor of occupied Kherson, confirmed that Ukrainian troops gained a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River but are acting in small groups and taking heavy losses.

“Our additional forces have now been brought in. The enemy is trapped in [the settlement of] Krynky and a fiery hell has been arranged for him: bombs, rockets, heavy flamethrower systems, artillery shells and drones,” Saldo said.

Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, described the front line as “fairly fluid” with Ukrainian troops pressuring Russian troops along the river.

Russia previously controlled areas on the western side of the river, including the city of Kherson, but left those positions last year.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been seen as moving somewhat slowly, though an advancement on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River could prove significant for Kyiv’s efforts, by forcing Russia to spread its troops thinner along the front line. 

Some information in this report was taken from the Associated Press and Reuters. 
…

After 21 months of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas says there is much more on the line for the Western world than Russia seizing its neighbor’s territory. She says malign actors globally are watching how the Ukraine war ends and if they see aggression paying off, the world will see many more conflicts.  

In an interview with Ia Meurmishvili of VOA’s Georgian service Tuesday while visiting Washington, Kallas discussed whether western support for Ukraine is sustainable, the status of efforts to seize Russian frozen assets in Europe, and her push to eliminate so-called “gray zones” — areas between the west and Russia, where Moscow’s efforts to exert influence threaten Europe’s security. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. 

VOA: How do you think the Ukraine war is going? 

Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas: We are in the war of attrition. It is not a stalemate, but it takes a long time. In war of attrition, you basically have three elements. You have the people, you have the resources, and then you have the morale. Russia is thinking that they can outlast Ukraine. But I have a reason to believe that our support to Ukraine can outlast Russia.  In terms of people — Europe is training 30 to 40,000 [Ukranian] soldiers. If America is doing the same, it is 80,000 trained soldiers versus conscripts that are sent to the battle from the Russian side. So, we can outlast them in terms of people. 

In terms of resources — the combined GDP of Europe is seven times bigger than that of Russia. We also see the sanctions kicking in, which means that the Russian budget is really in trouble. They have lost one-third of their budget and they cannot get any outside. They are in trouble. And, in terms of military aid — if you think of the Ramstein Coalition, then the defense budget of the Ramstein Coalition is 13 times bigger than that of Russia. So, we can outlast there.  

And the third element is the morale of Ukrainians fighting for their homes. Their morale is definitely higher than that of Russia. What we also have to do is believe in Ukraine’s victory. 

VOA: Do you think this support is sustainable?  

Kallas: The U.S. gave a lot of support to Ukraine, and you can say that Europe was a bit behind. But Europe has now picked up the pace and, if you think about the military aid given now, plus the future pledges, then it is bigger in absolute numbers than that of the United States’. 

All the leaders in Europe have put their political will behind supporting Ukraine because it is fundamental for the peace in the world that the aggression does not pay off. Because all the aggressors or would-be aggressors in the world are carefully taking notes. If Russia walks away with more territory than they have, and we say that, okay, let’s draw the line here, then all the aggressors and would-be aggressors are seeing that the aggression pays off. So, we will see more of it, and that is going to be more expensive than to support Ukraine so that Russia will lose this war. I totally agree with the historian Timothy Snyder, who said that in order for a country to become better, it has to lose its last colonial war. If you think about European history that is true for many European countries. Russia has never lost its last colonial war.

VOA: Why do you think it is important for the U.S. to keep engaged? 

Kallas: For me, the question is always of the alternative. Is the alternative to supporting Ukraine right now more expensive or is it cheaper? I say that it’s more expensive, because all the malign actors are very carefully looking — Iran, North Korea. If Russia walks away, and nothing happens to them with more territories than they had before, [if] they do not lose their last colonial war, then others will try to do this in the world as well, and that is going to be detrimental to the world peace.

VOA: Do you see any movement towards seizing the frozen assets of Russia in Europe and using that money for the Ukrainian recovery? 

Kallas: Yes, the European Commission is working on the European solution. In Estonia, we drafted a law that is tackling the same issue. So basically, how it works is that in Hague, in the International Criminal Court, there is a registry that is registering all the damages that Russia is causing to Ukraine, and its cost. At the same time, we have the assets that are frozen or sanctioned and we know the value of those assets. Russia has a legitimate claim towards us regarding those assets. Ukraine has a legitimate claim towards Russia. So, we make a settlement with those claims so that we can use those assets in favor of Ukraine. And after the war ends, and Russia has paid all the reparations to Ukraine and there is something left over, then we can return this.

I think this is fundamental because nobody wants to take this from the taxpayers’ money, but it’s also fundamental in order to think outside of the box, what really influences the Russian elite or the cronies around the Kremlin to have a pressure to really stop this war. And the war will stop when Russia realizes it cannot win there, and that it was a mistake.

VOA: Are your partners listening to your call to eliminate the “gray zones”?

Kallas: I think everybody has understood that the gray zones are sources of conflicts and wars. For us to not have wars, it has to be clear where the lines really are. The question has been from the start, is the unity now collapsing? But it has not. Of course, we are all democracies, and in democracies we debate, we have different opinions. But the point is that we come to a mutual decision. As [Russian President Vladimir] Putin does not believe in multilateralism so it has been a negative surprise to him that we have been able to keep our unity together and we should continue negatively surprising him.

VOA: And now he is uniting with China, North Korea and Iran.

Kallas: Exactly. There are clear authoritarian regimes fighting against the democracies in the world and for freedom, really. And [the] question is, who gets to rule the world, whether it’s freedom and prosperity, or is it authoritarian regimes that have other values? 
…

The use of anti-personnel land mines by Russia and Myanmar triggered a surge in the number of civilian casualties in Ukraine and Myanmar last year, according to a new report by a land-mine monitor.

The report, published by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, found that Russia, which is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty, “used antipersonnel mines extensively in Ukraine since its all-out invasion of the country in February 2022.”

The report also found evidence that Ukraine, which is a party to the Mine Ban Treaty, used anti-personnel mines in and around the city of Izium, in Kharkiv oblast, in 2022 when the city was under Russian control.

“This has created an unprecedented situation in which a country that is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty is using the weapon on the territory of a [treaty member],” said Mark Hiznay, associate arms director at Human Rights Watch and an editor of Landmine Monitor 2023. “In the 20-plus years [since the Mine Ban Treaty was adopted], this has never occurred before.”

Ukraine has previously said it would look into allegations in a Human Rights Watch report earlier this year detailing “numerous cases” in which Ukrainian forces deployed banned anti-personnel mines.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which is a global coalition of nongovernmental organizations chaired by Human Rights Watch, recorded 4,710 injuries and deaths in 2022, down from 5,544 casualties in the previous year.

“But there were significant increases in some countries, primarily Ukraine,” said Loren Persi, Landmine Monitor 2023 impact team lead. “In Ukraine, the number of civilian casualties recorded increased 10-fold from around 60 in 2021 to around 600 in 2022.”

The Monitor report says civilians accounted for 85% of casualties from land mines and exploded remnants of war last year, roughly half of them children. The highest number of casualties, 834, was recorded in Syria, followed by Ukraine with 608 casualties, and Yemen and Myanmar, each of which recorded more than 500 casualties in 2022.

Hiznay said that Russia began using landmines in 2014 in support of pro-Russian separatist forces in the contested Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

“Russia has made extensive use of land mines in places like Afghanistan and Chechnya,” he said. “I think they have supplied land mines to 35, 38 different countries over the years.

“Another factor we are noticing is wherever Wagner goes, land mines go,” he said, referring to the Moscow-financed Wagner Group militia. “We do not think that is a coincidence, particularly in Libya, where several new types of land mines were found and documented.”

Myanmar, he said, has been using anti-personnel land mines since 1999, but the magnitude and scope of the contamination is now different.

“It is just bigger,” he said. “You have more use by the government forces and more use by various nonstate armed groups. So, it is a lingering, festering problem that has just got worse in the past reporting period.”

The Monitor report indicates land mines were also used during the reporting period by nonstate armed groups in Colombia, India, Myanmar, Thailand and Tunisia, as well as in eight treaty members in the Sahel region.

Currently 164 countries have signed onto the Mine Ban Treaty, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines.

The Monitor says that 30 states who are parties to the treaty have cleared all mined areas from their territory since the treaty came into force in 1999, leaving 60 countries and other areas contaminated. In addition, it notes that 22 states that are not party to the treaty and five other areas remain infested with these lethal weapons.

De-mining activists warn that the number of victims will continue to grow for as long as land mines remain in the ground. They say health care and physical rehabilitation services are seriously underfunded and unable to assist the many people who are disabled by these weapons, including in countries such as Afghanistan, Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen.

“Alarming increases in the number of civilians killed and injured by recently placed mines in several countries further demonstrate the dire need for increased resources to ensure all the rights of the victims are addressed,” said Persi. 
…

The United States and Britain on Tuesday imposed a third round of sanctions targeting the Palestinian militant group Hamas, trying to curb Iranian funding of the group and one of its allies, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, following their shock attack last month on Israel.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement the two countries are trying “to deny Hamas the ability to raise and use funds to carry out its atrocities.”

“Hamas’s actions have caused immense suffering and shown that terrorism does not occur in isolation,” Yellen said. “Together with our partners we are decisively moving to degrade Hamas’s financial infrastructure, cut them off from outside funding, and block the new funding channels they seek to finance their heinous acts.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the sanctions are aimed at protecting the international financial system “from abuse by Hamas and its enablers.”

“Iran’s support, primarily through its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, enables Hamas and [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] terrorist activities, including through the transfer of funds and the provision of both weapons and operational training,” Blinken said. “Iran has trained PIJ fighters to produce and develop missiles in Gaza while also funding groups that provide financial support to PIJ-affiliated fighters.”

Israel says that Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people inside the Jewish state in the attack last month and captured about 240 hostages, only four of whom it has released. Israel has responded with air attacks that Hamas medical authorities say have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, including thousands of women and children.

Hamas is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, the European Union, Britain and others.

Mahmoud Khaled Zahhar, a senior member and co-founder of Hamas; PIJ’s representative to Iran and the Damascus-based deputy secretary-general of PIJ and leader of its militant wing were among those sanctioned by Washington and London.

Nabil Chouman & Co., a Lebanon-based money exchange group, was also targeted, along with its owner and founder. Treasury accused the company of serving as a conduit for transferring funds to Hamas and said it transferred tens of millions of dollars to the militants.

The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets held by the Hamas officials and bars Americans from conducting any business with them.
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Icelandic authorities were on Tuesday preparing to build defense walls around a geothermal power plant in the southwestern part of the country that they hope will protect it from lava flows amid concerns of an imminent volcanic eruption.

Seismic activity and underground lava flows intensified on the Reykjanes peninsula near the capital Reykjavik over the weekend, prompting authorities to evacuate nearly 4,000 people from the fishing town of Grindavik on Saturday.

The probability of an eruption remained high despite a decrease in seismic activity, the Icelandic Meteorological Institute said in a statement on Tuesday.

Nearly 800 earthquakes were recorded in the area between midnight and noon on Tuesday, fewer than the two previous days, it said.  

“Less seismic activity typically precedes an eruption, because you have come so close to the surface that you cannot build up a lot of tension to trigger large earthquakes,” said Rikke Pedersen, who heads the Nordic Volcanological Centre based in Reykjavik.

“It should never be taken as a sign that an outbreak is not on the way,” she said.

Authorities said they were preparing to construct a large dyke designed to divert lava flows around the Svartsengi geothermal power plant, located just over 6 kilometers (4 miles) from Grindavik.

Iceland’s Justice Minister Gudrun Hafsteinsdottir told state broadcaster RUV that equipment and materials that could fill 20,000 trucks were being moved to the plant.  

Construction of the protective dyke around the power station was awaiting formal approval from the government.

A spokesperson for HS Orka, operator of the power plant, said the plant supplies power to the entire country, although a disruption would not effect power supply to the capital Reykjavik.

Almost all of Grindavik’s 3,800 inhabitants, who were evacuated over the weekend, were briefly allowed back in on Monday and Tuesday to collect their belongings, the Icelandic department of civil protection and emergency management said.

Grindavik resident Kristin Maria Birgisdottir, who works for the town municipality, told Reuters on Tuesday she only had the clothes she had worn for work on the day the town was evacuated.

“I’m getting prepared in case I get a chance to visit my house and get some of my belongings,” said Birgisdottir, who has moved to a summer house with her family.

Some residents had to be driven into Grindavik in emergency responders’ cars, while most inhabitants were allowed to drive into Grindavik in their private cars accompanied by emergency personnel.

Most pets and farm animals had been rescued from Grindavik by Monday night, according to charity Dyrfinna.
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A former Russian detective who was convicted in connection with the 2006 murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya has been pardoned after fighting in Ukraine, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

Sergei Khadzhikurbanov was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2014 for organizing the deadly attack on Politkovskaya outside her apartment building. Politkovskaya, a staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin, unveiled abuses committed by Russian and allied forces against rebels in Chechnya for the independent magazine Novaya Gazeta.

Khadzhikurbanov, one of five men tried and convicted in Politkovskaya’s murder, was among thousands of prisoners who were sent to the front lines on the Ukrainian war front in exchange for a pardon.

Russia has probably recruited roughly 100,000 people from prisons to fight in Ukraine, Olga Romanova, the head of an independent prisoners’ rights group, has estimated.

Local Russian media outlets have reported several instances of released prisoners going on to commit serious offenses, including murders, after having left the army.

Some information is from Agence France-Presse.
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A British convert to Islam who was convicted in Turkey of being part of the Islamic State group was sentenced to eight years in prison in Britain on Monday after he pleaded guilty to terrorism charges.

Aine Leslie Davis, 39, was deported from Turkey in August 2022 and detained on arrival at London’s Luton Airport after serving a seven-and-a-half-year sentence for membership in IS.

He pleaded guilty last month to having a firearm for terrorism purposes and two charges of funding terrorism.

Prosecutors said Davis, who left his home in London and travelled to Syria in 2013 to join the armed conflict there, enlisted his wife to persuade a friend to bring him $21,400 to support his cause. The friend was stopped at Heathrow Airport in 2014, and Davis’s wife, Amal El-Wahabi, was convicted of funding terrorism.

Davis’ defense lawyer, Mark Summers, issued an apology to the Syrian people on his behalf, saying he and others like him “caused more harm than good.”

British authorities had long suspected that Davis was part of an IS cell known as “The Beatles” — so called because of the men’s British accents — that tortured and killed Western hostages in Syria a decade ago, when IS controlled a large swath of Syria and Iraq.

Davis has denied being connected to the cell.

Two members of the “Beatles” cell, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, were captured by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in 2018 and are serving life sentences in the U.S. A third, Mohammed Emwazi, was killed in a drone strike in 2015.

Summers asserted during the trial that prosecutors in the U.S. decided last year they would not seek to put Davis on trial as a member of the cell due to insufficient evidence.

The judge said he was sentencing Davis for the offenses on the indictment and not for the reported allegations.
…

 European Union officials are finalizing the “last details” of a proposed 12th package of sanctions on Russia that will include a diamond ban, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.

Borrell said the European Commission, the EU executive, could approve the proposed package on Wednesday. It would then go to the Council of the EU, comprising the bloc’s 27 member countries, for discussion and approval.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU has already applied 11 packages of sanctions against Moscow to diminish the Kremlin’s ability to finance the war. The measures span across sectors and include some 1,800 individuals and entities.

“This twelfth package will include … new export bans, among them … diamonds, actions to tighten the oil price cap, in order to decrease the revenue that Russia is getting from selling its oil — not to us but to others — [and] fighting against circumvention,” Borrell told reporters after a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

EU diplomats told Reuters last week the 27-nation bloc had been waiting for a G7 green light to move ahead with the diamond ban. An EU official said the current timing for a European Commission proposal for the package, that would then be debated by the EU’s 27 governments, was “early next week”.

“We are finalizing the last details of this package,” Borrell said.
…

NATO member Romania inaugurated on Monday an international training hub for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries and other partners, including Ukraine. 

The training facility situated at an air base in Fetesti in southeast Romania will aim to increase interoperability between NATO allies, and better position the military alliance “to face the complex challenges” in Eastern Europe and the Black Sea region, Romania’s defense ministry said. 

It said the powerful U.S.-made warplanes will be supplied by the Royal Netherlands Air Force while the aircraft maker Lockheed Martin will provide instructors and maintenance at the training center.

Kathleen Kavalec, the U.S. ambassador to Romania who attended the opening, called the collaboration an “example of how the public and private sectors can cooperate to further our defense priorities.” 

“I am here with one simple message,” she said. “The United States government is here to support in any way we can.” 

Romania, which has been a NATO member since 2004, shares a long border with Ukraine. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv has repeatedly asked its backers to send sophisticated fighter planes to give it a combat edge, and some NATO countries have.

In response to the war next door, Romania ramped up defense spending while NATO bolstered its presence on Europe’s eastern flank by sending additional multinational battle groups to alliance members Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovakia.

The center’s opening comes after Romania said last week that it is pushing to buy 54 latest-model Abrams main battle tanks and related equipment from the United States in a deal worth at least a billion dollars to help the European Union country meet regional security challenges.

In April, Romania’s Supreme Council of National Defense also approved the acquisition of an unspecified number of latest generation American-made F-35 fighter jets, as Romania pushes to modernize its air force.

Romania has played an increasingly prominent role in the alliance throughout the war, including hosting a NATO meeting of foreign ministers in November 2022. 
…

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron has made a surprise return to government as the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary, following a Cabinet reshuffle and a weekend of violent protests and political chaos in London.  

He succeeds James Cleverly, who now becomes Britain’s new home secretary after the incumbent Suella Braverman was fired Monday by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.  

The 57-year-old Cameron is no longer an elected lawmaker. Instead, Sunak nominated him as a peer who will sit in the House of Lords, Britain’s unelected upper chamber.  

Cameron resigned as prime minister in June 2016 after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum called Brexit for which he legislated. He campaigned to stay in the EU, but voters chose to leave by a margin of 52% to 48%.   

A recent poll taken in July found that 45% of Britons believed Cameron had changed Britain for the worse, versus 29% who thought he had changed it for the better.  

Cameron said in an interview after his appointment as foreign secretary that he felt a dedication to public office.  

‘Daunting challenges’ 

“The prime minister asked me to do this job, and it’s a time where we have some daunting challenges as a country: the conflict in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine,” Cameron said.  

“And of course, I hope that six years as prime minister — 11 years leading the Conservative Party — gives me some useful experience and contacts and relationships and knowledge that I can help the prime minister to make sure we build our alliances, we build partnerships with our friends, we deter our enemies, and we keep our country strong,” he said. 

Israel-Hamas    

The Israel-Hamas war rages on, after an October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people and saw 240 hostages taken from Israel into Gaza by Hamas militants. 

Palestinian health authorities said that more than 11,000 civilians, more than half of them women and children, have been killed by Israel’s bombardment and ground assault on the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people.  

As prime minister in 2010, Cameron called the Gaza Strip “a prison camp” and criticized Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank, although he maintained Britain’s close alliance with Tel Aviv.  

“It’s going to be very hard for David Cameron to jump back in as foreign secretary,” said Bronwen Maddox, director of the British policy institute Chatham House.  

“In the Middle East, some of the conflicts have not changed. David Cameron is remembered for intervention in Libya, which was not the greatest success. And in Europe, while he was a ‘remainer,’ he triggered the [Brexit] referendum — some think too casually — which led to Britain leaving the EU and changed all its relations not only with Europe but with many other countries as a consequence,” Maddox told Reuters.  

Domestic signaling  

Cameron’s appointment is unlikely to change Britain’s foreign policy, said Anand Menon, a professor of European politics at King’s College London and director of the UK in a Changing Europe initiative.  

“British foreign policy has been relatively consistent over the last few years and benefits from broad cross-party consensus. So, I don’t think there’s a question of changing foreign policy,” Menon told VOA. “I think this is largely signaling to a domestic audience, and I think the shape of the rest of the reshuffle, as well, indicates a desire to appeal to the more liberal parts of the conservative electoral base than had been the case up till now.”  

China relations  

In 2015, Cameron signaled a “golden era” in relations between Britain and China when he hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at a lavish state visit.  

But relations have soured dramatically amid rising security and geopolitical tensions between Beijing and the West.  

“The golden era is well and truly over, is it not? And I think the mood, particularly inside the Conservative Party in parliament, has hardened considerably on China. And I think David Cameron is just going to have to get used to following a new approach when it comes to Beijing,” Menon said. ‘

Braverman sacked  

Cleverly, who had been foreign secretary since September 2022, now replaces Braverman, who was sacked as home secretary a week after the publication of an article she wrote in The Times newspaper accusing Britain’s police of showing “left-wing bias” toward pro-Palestinian demonstrations, which she described as “hate marches.” 

Sunak reportedly requested changes to the article prior to publication, but these were seemingly ignored.   

Braverman, a favorite figure of the right-wing of the Conservative Party for her hard-line approach to immigration, was asked to step down in a telephone call with Sunak Monday morning.  

London protests  

At least 300,000 people joined a pro-Palestinian protest in London on Saturday calling for a cease-fire. Police had appealed to the demonstrators to postpone the march, as it coincided with Armistice Day commemorations, when the country marks the end of World War I and remembers those killed in past wars.   

There were violent far-right counterdemonstrations, and police made over 120 arrests. Opposition Labour Party lawmakers, including London Mayor Sadiq Khan, accused Braverman of stoking community tensions and causing the violence, which she denied.  

Community tensions  

Reports of antisemitic and Islamophobic attacks have risen sharply since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out. 

“Amongst those who have strong views on the issue, the pro-Israel people tend to break Conservative, and the more pro-Palestine people tend to break Labour. So, it reinforces existing party divisions, which I think makes it more likely that this kind of thing will explode along party political lines,” Menon said.   

“With Israel-Gaza, you see it in a particularly acute form, particularly as well, of course, given the high levels of violence from both sides that we’ve seen during this awful war,” he added.  

Political observers say the Cabinet reshuffle and the surprise restoration of Cameron to front-line politics is an effort by Sunak to broaden his Conservative Party’s appeal, as it lags far behind Labour in the polls.  

Britain is due to hold an election before the end of 2024.  
…

Russian shelling hit the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson Monday, killing three people and injuring at least 12, including a 2-month-old infant, according to local governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Since their liberation last year, Kherson and the western bank of the Dnipro River have been regularly bombarded by Russians from Dnipro’s eastern bank. There are usually rounds of air alerts during the day.

Two people were killed and 10 more injured in an afternoon combined attack in the central part of the city, Prokudin said.

“Eight vehicles, including one ambulance, an administrative building, a hospital, and at least fifteen houses were destroyed or damaged,” he added.

In a separate message, the governor said on the Telegram messaging app, a car was shot at in a suburb of Kherson, killing one person and wounding a 2-month-old infant and his mother.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky has been formally notified that he is suspected of treason for allegedly spreading misinformation about Ukraine’s political leadership and cooperation with Russia’s military intelligence, officials said on Monday.

In his own post on Telegram, Dubinsky called the notice of suspicion fabricated and “based on the absolute lies of top state officials.”

The Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, said the suspect was a member of a criminal organization, created in 2016 and financed by Russia’s military intelligence.

“It is established that on the instructions of the Russian special services, it organized events to discredit the image of Ukraine in the international arena in order to worsen diplomatic relations with the United States and hamper Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and NATO,” the State Investigative Bureau said in a separate statement published on its website.

In January 2021, the United States imposed sanctions on several Ukrainian individuals and entities, including Dubinsky, accusing them of U.S. election interference and associating with a pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker linked to efforts by then-president Donald Trump’s allies to dig up dirt on President Joe Biden and his son.

Ukraine has launched a criminal investigation into the case.

Separately, a Ukrainian military officer is accused of allegedly coordinating last year’s attack on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, according to The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources in Ukraine and Europe.

No one has taken responsibility for the September 2022 explosions, off the Danish island of Bornholm, that damaged three out of four offshore natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea and delivering Russian gas to Europe.

The United States and NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, called it an act of sabotage, while Moscow said it was an act of international terrorism.

Roman Chervinsky, a decorated 48-year-old colonel who served in Ukraine’s special operations forces, was the “coordinator” of the Nord Stream operation, according to people familiar with his role, The Post reported Saturday.

Chervinsky, sources say, managed logistics and support for a six-person team that rented a sailboat under false identities and used deep-sea diving equipment to place explosive charges on the gas pipelines, The Post reported.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military told the Reuters news agency he had “no information” about the claim. The Ukrainian foreign ministry and Kyiv’s domestic security service, the SBU, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The newspaper also reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has denied Kyiv’s role in the blasts, had been unaware of the operation. Zelenskyy last week replaced the head of Ukraine’s special operations forces.

The Kremlin called the report alarming.

“It says that President Zelenskyy may not have been aware of such actions by his subordinates from the security agencies. This is a very alarming signal not only for us, but also for the countries of the collective West,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters, Monday.

In a statement to The Washington Post and Germany’s Der Spiegel, Chervinsky denied any involvement in the pipeline explosions. An outspoken critic of Zelenskyy’s administration, he claims the case against him is politically motivated.

Chervinsky is currently under arrest for attempting to convince a Russian pilot in 2022 to defect to Ukraine which investigators say led to a deadly Russian attack on a Ukrainian air base. Although he is accused of acting alone in this, his commanding officer at the time, Maj. Gen. Viktor Hanushchak, told Ukrainian media earlier this year that senior military leadership had signed off on the plot to lure the Russian pilot.

The Post and Der Spiegel collaborated on reporting and wrote separate stories that they agreed to publish at the same time.

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

An ally of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has been transferred from house arrest to a detention center, where she will be held for the remainder of her trial on extremism charges.

Ksenia Fadeyeva, who formerly ran Navalny’s office in the Siberian City of Tomsk, is the latest in a string of Russian crackdowns on political activists, independent journalists and rights workers.

Fadeyeva was also a member of the local legislature in Tomsk.

The transfer to a detention center comes after she was placed under house arrest three weeks ago for violating her restrictions. A prosecutor demanded the ruling be switched and she be jailed.

Fadeyeva is facing charges of extremism and has been placed on Russia’s “terrorist” list — though allies of hers have said she is only promoting “legal and open political activity.”

“The state cannot and does not want to punish real extremists,” Fadeyeva ally, Andrei Fateyev said.

Fadeyeva was arrested in 2022 and has since been forbidden from using the internet, communicating with others without permission and attending public events.

Her trial began in August and was closed to the media after it began.

Fadeyeva is one of many Navalny associates who have faced criminal charges, after Russia outlawed his Foundation for Fighting Corruption and a network of regional offices. Many other allies of Navalny have fled Russia.

Navalny is serving a total of 19 years in prison on extremism and other charges he claims are politically motivated.

Navalny was arrested in 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany where he was recovering from a poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. Moscow has denied any involvement in his poisoning.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
…