A global hunger crisis has left more than 700 million people not knowing when or if they will eat again, and demand for food is rising relentlessly while humanitarian funding is drying up, the head of the United Nations food agency said Thursday.

World Food Program Executive Director Cindy McCain told the U.N. Security Council that because of the lack of funding, the agency has been forced to cut food rations for millions of people, and “more cuts are on the way.”

“We are now living with a series of concurrent and long-term crises that will continue to fuel global humanitarian needs,” she said. “This is the humanitarian community’s new reality — our new normal — and we will be dealing with the fallout for years to come.”

The WFP chief, the widow of the late U.S. senator John McCain, said the agency estimates that nearly 47 million people in over 50 countries are just one step from famine — and a staggering 45 million children younger than 5 are now estimated to suffer from acute malnutrition.

According to WFP estimates from 79 countries where the Rome-based agency operates, up to 783 million people — one in 10 of the world’s population — still go to bed hungry every night. More than 345 million people are facing high levels of food insecurity this year, an increase of almost 200 million people from early 2021 before the COVID-19 pandemic, the agency said.

At the root of the soaring numbers, WFP said, is “a deadly combination of conflict, economic shocks, climate extremes and soaring fertilizer prices.”

The economic fallout from the pandemic and the war in Ukraine have pushed food prices out of the reach of millions of people across the world at the same time that high fertilizer prices have caused falling production of maize, rice, soybeans and wheat, the agency said.

“Our collective challenge is to ramp up the ambitious, multi-sectoral partnerships that will enable us to tackle hunger and poverty effectively, and reduce humanitarian needs over the long-term,” McCain urged business leaders at the council meeting focusing on humanitarian public-private partnerships. The aim is not just financing, but also finding innovative solutions to help the world’s neediest.

Michael Miebach, CEO of Mastercard, told the council that “humanitarian relief has long been the domain of government” and development institutions, and the private sector was seen as a source of financial donations for supplies.

“Money is still important, but companies can offer so much more,” he said. “The private sector stands ready to tackle the challenges at hand in partnership with the public sector.”

Miebach stressed that “business cannot succeed in a failing world” and humanitarian crises impact fellow citizens of the world. A business can use its expertise, he said, to strengthen infrastructure, “innovate new approaches and deliver solutions at scale” to improve humanitarian operations.

Jared Cohen, president of global affairs at Goldman Sachs, told the council that the revenue of many multinational companies rivals the GDP of some of the Group of 20 countries with the largest economies. And he said five American companies and many of their global counterparts have over 500,000 workers — more than the population of up to 20 U.N. member nations.

“Today’s global firms have responsibilities to our shareholders, clients, staff, communities, and the rules-based international order that makes it possible for us to do business,” he said.

Cohen said businesses can fulfill those responsibilities during crises first by not scrambling “to reinvent the wheel every time,” but by drawing on institutional memory and partnering with other firms and the public sector.

He said businesses also need “to act with speed and innovate in real time,” use local connections, and bring their expertise to the humanitarian response.

Lana Nusseibeh, the United Arab Emirates ambassador, said the U.N. appealed for over $54 billion this year, “and until now, 80% of those funds remain unfulfilled,” which shows that “we are facing a system in crisis.”

She said public-private partnerships that were once useful additions are now crucial to humanitarian work.

Over the past decade, Nusseibeh said, the UAE has been developing “a digital platform to support a government’s ability to better harness international support in the wake of natural disasters.” The UAE has also established a major humanitarian logistics hub and is working with U.N. agencies and private companies on new technologies to reach those in need, she said.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said the funding gap has left the world’s most vulnerable people “in a moment of great peril.”

She said companies have stepped up, including in Haiti and Ukraine and to help refugees in the United States, but for too long, “we have turned to the private sector exclusively for financing.”

Businesses have shown “enormous generosity, but in 2023 we know they have so much more to offer. Their capacities, their know-how, and innovations are tremendously needed,” Thomas-Greenfield said. “The public sector must harness the expertise of the private sector and translate it into action.”
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Ukrainian business magnate Ihor Kolomoisky has been served with notice of a third set of allegations following his detention on suspicion of fraud and money laundering, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said Friday.

A new court hearing on the case in Kyiv on Friday also significantly raised the bail demanded from Kolomoisky, who made his first court appearance earlier this month.

News reports from the court said the judge agreed to raise the bail to be posted to the equivalent of $105 million — from an original amount equivalent to under $14 million.

Kolomoisky’s lawyers had previously said they would appeal his detention and would post no bail.

The new allegations against one of Ukraine’s richest men were first reported on Thursday by Serhiy Leshchenko, a former investigative journalist and parliamentarian who now works as an adviser in President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s office.

The SBU, acting with Ukraine’s Economic Security Bureau and the prosecutor general’s office, said Kolomoisky was suspected of receiving 5.8 billion hryvnias from an alleged scheme to embezzle funds from PrivatBank, which he founded and was a shareholder of.

The sum, currently worth $157 million, was the equivalent of more than $700 million at the time, the SBU said.

Kolomoisky is suspected of setting up an organized group of bank employees to obtain the funds from 2013 to 2014, it said.

Reuters could not immediately reach Kolomoisky or his lawyers for comment on the new allegations. Kolomoisky has in the past denied any wrongdoing.

Kolomoisky is among the tycoons who built their fortunes in the ashes of the Soviet Union and amassed political power in Ukraine’s fragile democracy. He is under U.S. sanctions and was once a backer of Zelenskyy, whose election he supported in 2019.

Kolomoisky is a former owner of PrivatBank, which was nationalized in late 2016 as part of a cleanup of the Ukrainian banking system.

He was first served notice of suspicion of fraud and money laundering this month and ordered to be held in custody until the end of October.

Within days, Kolomoisky was identified by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine (NABU) as one of six people suspected of embezzling 9.2 billion hryvnias ($250 million) from PrivatBank.

Zelenskyy is trying to root out corruption and restrict the influence of business magnates as Ukraine strives for membership in the European Union.  
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Poland, Slovakia and Hungary will impose their own restrictions on Ukrainian grain imports, the governments said on Friday, after the European Commission decided not to extend a ban affecting Ukraine’s five EU neighbors.

Restrictions imposed by the European Union in May allowed Poland, Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia to ban domestic sales of Ukrainian wheat, maize, rapeseed and sunflower seeds, while permitting transit of such cargoes for export elsewhere.

“We will extend this ban despite their disagreement, despite the European Commission’s disagreement,” Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki told a rally in the northeastern town of Elk. “We will do it because it is in the interest of the Polish farmer.”

Polish development minister Waldemar Buda said in a post on social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, that he had signed the Polish ban regulation, which would run for an indefinite period of time from midnight.

Hungary imposed a national import ban on 24 Ukrainian agricultural products, including grains, vegetables, several meat products and honey, according to a government decree published Friday.

Slovakia’s agriculture minister followed suit announcing its own grain ban. All three bans only apply to domestic imports and do not affect transit to onward markets.

EU plea

EU Trade Commissioner Valdis Dombrovskis said on Friday countries should refrain from unilateral measures against imports of Ukrainian grain. Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said it would respond in a “civilized fashion” if EU members break the rules.

The EU created alternative land routes, so-called Solidarity Lanes, for Ukraine to use to export its grains and oilseeds after Russia, which invaded in 2022, backed out of a U.N.-brokered Black Sea grain deal in July that allowed safe passage for the cargo ships.

The EU Commission said existing measures would expire as originally planned Friday after Ukraine agreed to introduce any legal measures (including, for example, an export licensing system) within 30 days to avoid grain surges.

“It has concluded that thanks to the work of the Coordination Platform and to the temporary measures introduced on 2 May 2023, the market distortions in the 5 Member States bordering Ukraine have disappeared,” the European Commission said in a statement.

The EU said it will refrain from imposing any restrictions as long as the effective measures by Ukraine are in place and fully working.

Product glut

Farmers in the five countries neighboring Ukraine have repeatedly complained about a product glut hitting their domestic prices and pushing them towards bankruptcy.

The countries, except Bulgaria, had been pushing for an extension of the ban beyond its Friday expiry.

Poland, Hungary and Slovakia previously said they may extend the restrictions unilaterally while Bulgaria on Thursday voted to scrap the curbs.

Romania’s government, which unlike its peers did not unilaterally enforce a ban before May, said on Friday it “regretted that a European solution to extend the ban could not be found.”

It added it was waiting for Ukraine to present its action plan of measures to prevent an import surge by Monday before deciding how to protect Romanian farmers.

Romania sees over 60% of the alternate grain flows pass through its territory mainly via the Danube River, and its farmers have threatened protests if the ban is not extended.

For the last year, Ukraine had been moving 60% of its exports through the Solidarity Lanes and 40% via the Black Sea thanks to the deal.

In August, about 4 million tons of Ukraine grains passed through the Solidarity Lanes of which close to 2.7 million tons were through the Danube. The Commission wants to increase exports through Romania further, but the plan has been complicated by Russian drone attacks on Ukraine’s grain infrastructure along the Danube and near the Romanian border. 
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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock spoke Friday in Washington, both reiterating their long-term support for Ukraine as it defends itself against Russia.

Speaking to reporters following their talks, Blinken said Germany and the United States, along with dozens of other nations around the world, are committed to providing military, economic and humanitarian aid to Ukraine. He said they also discussed Ukraine’s long-term ability not only to survive but to thrive following Russia’s invasion.

Baerbock echoed Blinken’s remarks, saying support for Ukraine goes beyond arms deliveries to include humanitarian issues and repairing infrastructure. She said she discussed with Blinken how the U.S. and Germany can dovetail their assistance to Ukraine more closely.

The two top diplomats were asked about Ukraine’s ongoing requests for long-range missiles systems that could reach deep into Russia and the West’s reluctance to provide them.

Baerbock said Germany and other NATO allies have told Ukraine from the beginning of Russia’s invasion that arms supplies would be limited to Ukraine’s self-defense and reclaiming territory within Ukraine.

The German foreign minister has been in the United States much of this week, traveling on Tuesday and Wednesday to Texas, where she visited an air base where German pilots are trained and meeting Thursday with U.S. lawmakers to discuss their continued support for Ukraine.

Ukraine grain shipments

Blinken said he and Baerbock also discussed the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which Russia ended in July, and alternatives to getting grain out of Ukraine and to developing nations that need it.

Following a meeting on Friday in Bucharest with Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, Romanian Transport Minister Sorin Grindeanu said the nation planned to double the monthly transit capacity for Ukrainian grain through its Constanta port to 4 million metric tons in the coming months.

Speaking at a joint news conference, Kubrakov said they hope to double the port’s capacity by the beginning of October, which could help Ukraine solve at least half of its export issues.

Ukraine military advances

Ukraine’s military said Friday it has recaptured the village of Andriivka, about 10 kilometers south of the key front-line, Russian-occupied city of Bakhmut, following intense battles with Russian troops.

The latest victory in Ukraine’s protracted, multipronged counteroffensive comes just days ahead of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s expected visit to Washington.

Also Friday, Britain’s Defense Ministry confirmed that a missile strike targeting the naval headquarters of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet in Crimea this week delivered a blow that might have crippled portions of the facility for weeks or possibly months to come.

The landing ship Minsk and the Kilo 636.3 class submarine Rostov-on-Don were undergoing maintenance at the Sevmorzavod shipyard in the base’s dry docks when the missiles hit during a predawn strike Wednesday.

Open-source evidence, the ministry said, “indicates the Minsk has almost certainly been functionally destroyed, while the Rostov has likely suffered catastrophic damage.”

According to the ministry’s report, any effort to get the submarine up and running would likely take many years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars.

In addition, the British ministry said there is also “a realistic possibility” that the intricate task of removing the damaged vessels from the dry docks could put the docks out of commission for months and present Russia “with a significant challenge in sustaining fleet maintenance.”

According to the British ministry, the Rostov was one of the four Black Sea fleet’s cruise-missile capable submarines that “have played a major role in striking Ukraine and projecting Russian power across the Black Sea and Eastern Mediterranean.”

Zelenskyy to visit White House

Friday’s developments precede Zelenskyy’s anticipated arrival in Washington next week as the U.S. Congress continues to debate $21 billion more in aid to Ukraine to support its fight against Russia.

U.S. lawmakers are increasingly divided whether to provide Ukraine with more aid. President Joe Biden is seeking $13 billion in military aid and $8 billion in humanitarian aid, but some Republican lawmakers oppose sending more funding.

Zelenskyy is expected to meet with Biden next week at the White House after the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York.

Although Ukraine’s counteroffensive push against the Russian invasion has been slower than expected, Zelenskyy celebrated Thursday what he described as Ukraine’s destruction of a Russian air defense system on the annexed Crimean Peninsula.

“A special mention should be made to the entire personnel of the Security Service of Ukraine as well as our naval forces,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video message. “The invaders’ air defense system was destroyed. Very significant, well done!”

Some information in this article came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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One American and two Russian space crew members blasted off Friday aboard a Russian spacecraft from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on a mission to the International Space Station.

NASA astronaut Loral O’Hara and Roscosmos cosmonauts Oleg Kononenko and Nikolai Chub lifted off on the Roscosmos Soyuz MS-24 spacecraft at 8:44 p.m. local time. O’Hara will spend six months on the ISS while Kononenko and Chub will spend a year there.

Neither O’Hara nor Chub has ever flown to space before, but they will be flying with veteran cosmonaut and mission commander Kononenko, who has made the trip four times already. The trio should arrive at the ISS after a three-hour flight.

When they get to the ISS, their module will dock and when the hatches open they will be met by seven astronauts and cosmonauts from the U.S., Russia, Denmark and Japan. Later in September, three of the ISS crew will depart, including NASA astronaut Frank Rubio who will have been there for more than a year.

According to NASA, when mission commander Kononenko finishes his tour to space in a year’s time, he will hold the record for the person who has spent the longest amount of time — more than a thousand days — in space.
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The European Union on Friday threw its weight behind a plan to protect the Amazon rainforest, pledging to coordinate financial contributions from EU members and make sure the money was spent as intended under its Global Gateway investment plan.

Team Europe, which includes EU members states and institutions such as the European Investment Bank, will coordinate 260 million euros ($277 million) already pledged by Spain, Italy, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands to curb deforestation in the Amazon.

On top of that, the EU will add an undisclosed amount to protect the forest from logging. It will come from the EU’s Global Gateway plan of investment in Latin America, where Amazon rainforest protection is one of the flagship projects.

Under the Global Gateway project, the EU pledged in July to invest 45 billion euros ($48 billion) in Latin America by 2027, and the plan will be discussed in more detail on Friday among EU and Latin American finance ministers in Santiago de Compostela, Spain.

The ministers are looking to ensure the money is delivered and spent as intended, a source with direct knowledge of the negotiations said, asking not to be named.

In the past, the European Commission has been criticized for pledging large amounts of investment to developing regions without any mechanisms to verify that the money was actually disbursed.

Now the commission will take the lead in coordinating the flow of cash, integrating individual country donations into a donor platform launched by the Inter-American Development Bank on Friday on the sidelines of the ministers’ meeting.

More than half of global destruction of old-growth tropical rainforests has taken place in the Amazon and bordering forests since 2002. Rainforests, in particular the Amazon, absorb vast amounts of carbon dioxide and are key in shaping the Earth’s climate, making them vital to address climate change.
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Britain, France and Germany announced Thursday they will keep their sanctions on Iran related to the Mideast country’s atomic program and development of ballistic missiles. The measures were to expire in October under a timetable spelled out in the now defunct nuclear deal between Tehran and world powers.

In a joint statement, the three European allies known as E3 and which had helped negotiate the nuclear deal, said they would retain their sanctions in a “direct response to Iran’s consistent and severe non-compliance” with the accord, also known by its official name as Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action or JCPOA.

The measures ban Iran from developing ballistic missiles capable of delivering nuclear weapons and bar anyone from buying, selling or transferring drones and missiles to and from Iran. They also include an asset freeze for several Iranian individuals and entities involved in the nuclear and ballistic missile program.

Iran has violated the sanctions by developing and testing ballistic missiles and sending drones to Russia for its war on Ukraine.

The sanctions will remain in place until Tehran “is fully compliant” with the deal, the E3 said. The sanctions, according to the accord from eight years ago, were to expire Oct. 18.

Iran’s Foreign Ministry called the European decision an “illegal, provocative action” that will hamper cooperation, in comments quoted by the country’s official news agency IRNA.

“The actions of the European parties will definitely have negative effects on the efforts to manage the tension and create a suitable environment for more cooperation between the JCPOA parties,” the ministry said.

The 2015 nuclear deal was meant to ensure that Iran could not develop atomic weapons. Under the accord, Tehran agreed to limit enrichment of uranium to levels necessary for nuclear power in exchange for the lifting of economic sanctions.

In 2018, then-President Donald Trump unilaterally pulled the United States out of the accord, saying he would negotiate a stronger deal, but that did not happen. Iran began breaking the terms a year later and is now enriching uranium to nearly weapons-grade levels, according to a report by the United Nations’ nuclear watchdog.

Formal talks to try to find a roadmap to restart the deal collapsed in August 2022.

The E3 have informed the European Union’s foreign policy chief, Josep Borrell, about their decision, the statement said. Borrell, in turn, said he had forwarded the E3 letter to other signatories of the 2015 deal — China, Russia and Iran.

The development comes at a delicate moment as the United States is preparing to finalize a prisoner swap with Iran that would include the unfreezing of Iranian assets held in South Korean banks worth $6 billion.

Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

U.S. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told reporters that Washington was in touch with the European allies over “the appropriate next steps.”

“We are working closely with our European allies, including members, of course, of the E3, to address the continued threat that Iran poses including on missiles and arms transfers with the extensive range of unilateral and multilateral tools that are at our disposal,” he said.

Iran has long denied ever seeking nuclear weapons and continues to insist that its program is entirely for peaceful purposes, though Rafael Mariano Grossi of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the U.N. nuclear watchdog, has warned that Tehran has enough enriched uranium for “several” nuclear bombs if it chose to build them.

Under the terms of the nuclear deal, a U.N. arms embargo against Tehran will expire on Oct. 18, after which countries that do not adopt similar sanctions on their own as the E3 — likely Russia and perhaps also China — will no longer be bound by the U.N. restrictions on Iran.

However, Iran has lately slowed the pace at which it is enriching uranium, according to a report by the IAEA that was seen by The Associated Press earlier this month. That could be a sign Tehran is trying to ease tensions after years of strain between it and the U.S.

“The decision makes sense,” Henry Rome, an analyst with the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, said of the European decision. “The real question is how Iran will react. Given the broader de-escalation efforts under way, I would expect Iran not to act rashly, but we never know.”
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China, watching this week’s historic Russia-North Korea summit from the sidelines, is likely to welcome a boost for President Vladimir Putin’s war in Ukraine but worry that its longtime client state in Pyongyang could be slipping from its grasp, experts say.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s green bulletproof train headed to Komsomolsk-on-Amur, a city in Russia’s far Khabarovsk region, on Thursday after his rare summit with Putin a day earlier, according to Yonhap News in Seoul.

In Komsomolsk-on-Amur, Kim is expected to meet with Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and visit a manufacturing facility that produces Sukhoi fighter jets. From there, he will head toward Vladivostok to inspect Russia’s Pacific fleet before returning to Pyongyang.

China and Russia, autocratic socialist states, have supported each other for decades. The two have become closer than ever as they seek to counter the United States and its allies in Europe and Asia. But experts say the shift by North Korea, their junior partner and socialist neighbor, toward Moscow may make Beijing feel as if Kim has found a new suitor.

Kim’s summit with Putin on Wednesday at the Vostochny spaceport in Russia’s far eastern Amur region reset Pyongyang’s strategic ties with Moscow based on their common military needs and goals, experts said.

Putin needs artillery shells and ammunition to sustain his war in Ukraine. Kim needs technological help to send a spy satellite into orbit after failed attempts in May and August.

Their converging needs brought them together for the first time since April 2019.

‘That’s why we came here’

Although specifics about this week’s summit were not announced in public, both Kim and Putin seem to have suggested they would meet each other’s needs in defiance of international sanctions and concerns.

“The relationship between Russia and North Korea that’s moving forward now is in violation of numerous U.N. Security Council resolutions,” said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in a podcast on Wednesday. “We don’t want to see Russia be in a position where it can strengthen the capabilities it’s bringing to dealing with the aggression on Ukraine, and we also don’t want to see North Korea benefiting from whatever technologies it might get from Russia.”

Before their meeting, Putin gave Kim a tour of the spaceport and suggested he would provide satellite technology that Kim has been trying to hone. “That’s why we came here,” he said.

Prior to their closed-door, one-on-one meeting, Kim said Pyongyang would stand with Moscow in its “just fight against hegemonic forces” and pledged to provide “full and unconditional support for all measures” taken by Russia in its war in Ukraine.

Kim also said Pyongyang’s relationship with Moscow was its “top priority.”

Putin said before the one-on-one meeting that he planned to discuss with Kim issues including the economy, humanitarian aid and the situation on the Korean Peninsula.

At a reception following their talks, Putin accepted Kim’s offer to visit Pyongyang, according to North Korea’s state media KCNA.

As North Korea’s primary aid provider and top trading partner, China has for years held considerable leverage over Pyongyang. But now, experts say, Beijing might feel anxious that Pyongyang is leaning too much toward Moscow and starting to slip from its influence.

Gary Samore, former White House coordinator for arms control and weapons of mass destruction during the Obama administration, said China probably feels ambivalent about the arms deals.

“On one hand, Beijing wants Putin to survive the Ukraine war, so it probably welcomes North Korean military aid to Russia,” Samore said. “On the other hand, Beijing may be nervous that Russian transfer of advanced military technology to North Korea could increase tensions on the Korean Peninsula and strengthen the U.S.-[South Korea]-Japan alliance.”

South Korea, Japan, US reflect on pledge

In August, Washington, Seoul and Tokyo agreed to bolster their defenses against North Korea at their summit at Camp David. They agreed to hold regular multidomain trilateral exercises and share live ballistic missile defense warning data.

U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan spoke with his South Korean and Japanese counterparts on Thursday about the Putin-Kim meeting and stressed the importance of their commitment to consult against common threats — a pledge made at Camp David — and to cooperate in their efforts to denuclearize the Korean Peninsula.

Experts said China is reluctant to match Russia in providing advanced weapons technologies to North Korea, at least explicitly. They said Beijing does not want to taint its international image by aiding a pariah state, risk further straining its relations with the U.S., and be on the road to become isolated like Russia.

China increasingly wants to be “a world power” and is thinking “globally, not just regionally,” said Ken Gause, director of special projects for the Strategy and Policy Analysis Program at research group CNA and an expert on North Korean leadership.

“They can’t go overboard in terms of the defense stuff in Northeast Asia because it can have negative effects on what they’re doing in the world,” including Beijing’s global Belt and Road Initiative, Gause said.

Gause said Beijing is likely to use its economic leverage over Russia to discourage Moscow from jeopardizing the security of Northeast Asia by giving Pyongyang “all kinds of sensitive technology.”

He said what North Korea gets from Russia will indicate Moscow’s stance toward Beijing. If Pyongyang gets advanced military technology such as submarine technology, it shows that “Russia is extremely desperate” and “Russia doesn’t care about what the Chinese say.”

Economic cooperation with China

Russia has become economically dependent on China since its invasion of Ukraine, which triggered multiple sanctions by the U.S. and its allies and partners.

Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok on Tuesday that Moscow’s economic cooperation with Beijing had “reached a very high level,” according to Russian state-run TASS news agency.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi is planning to visit Moscow on Monday to hold talks with his Russian counterpart, Sergey Lavrov, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said Wednesday, according to Interfax news based in Moscow.

Despite differences that might exist among the three autocratic states, Zack Cooper, former deputy national security adviser at the National Security Council and current fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, said it would be difficult to drive “a serious wedge” into Beijing-Moscow-Pyongyang relations as they “increasingly” move in the direction of opposing the U.S. and its key allies.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at a press briefing in Beijing on Thursday that “China and Russia have been in close communication on bilateral ties and international and regional issues.”
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The new trade corridor linking India and the Mideast to Europe is being hailed as a modern version of the Spice Route, the road of yore that connected East and West — and as a way to counter China’s modern Belt and Road Initiative. VOA’s Anita Powell reports from Washington on how the U.S. and allies are promoting the rail and maritime route.
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A press freedom group based in Austria has been combating a cyberattack since early September that the group believes is in retaliation for its recent report on similar attacks against independent media in Hungary.

The International Press Institute announced Thursday that the group has been fighting “a targeted and sustained cyberattack” since September 1. The assault on IPI began with a series of distributed denial-of-service, or DDoS, attacks that took the organization’s website offline for three days.

A DDoS attack is a form of cyberattack that temporarily slows or crashes a website by overloading its servers with millions of simultaneous access requests.

“It really has just strengthened our dedication and our commitment to our mission,” IPI advocacy director Amy Brouillette told VOA from Vienna, where IPI is based.

“It’s sharpened our resolve. We are more committed than ever to our mission, and we’re more committed than ever to supporting Hungarian independent media and independent media around the world,” Brouillette added.

IPI’s website has since been restored, but the organization continues to face milder DDoS attacks, the group said in a statement. The persistent assault marks the most severe attack on IPI’s online infrastructure since the group was founded in 1950, IPI said.

In response to the attack, IPI has reinforced its security measures and filed a report with Austrian police’s cybercrime unit.

IPI believes the cyberattacks are in retaliation for an August report the group published about cyberattacks against independent media in Hungary.

More than 40 Hungarian media websites have been hit by DDoS attacks in the last five months, the report found. Outlets that are critical of the government were hit particularly hard, according to the report.

IPI said evidence suggests the same attacker that has been targeting independent media in Hungary is also responsible for the attack on IPI.

No actor has taken responsibility for the attacks against Hungarian media, but IPI reported in August that the perpetrator appears to go by the nickname HANO, which is a Hungarian acronym for a medical condition that causes bodily swelling.

The attacker left a similar message to IPI. In the log data of the attack, the perpetrator left a message in English: “See you next time Hano hates u.”

Brouillette said IPI wasn’t taking that warning very seriously.

The first phase of the attack on IPI did not knock out the group’s website, but between September 6 and 8, the perpetrators brought it down multiple times. On September 8, the attack increased to 350,000 requests per second. DDoS attacks can be significantly larger.

“It was aggressively persistent,” Brouillette said.

The attacks came from servers around the world, including the United States, Germany, Russia, France, Indonesia and Singapore, but IPI said that doesn’t reveal much about where the attacker is located because the traffic is rerouted.

It is unclear whether the DDoS attacks against IPI and independent media in Hungary are government-backed, according to Brouillette.

Hungary’s Washington Embassy did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment.

Brouillette said the attack on IPI underscores the concerning state of press freedom in Hungary and around the world. In terms of media freedom, Hungary ranks among the worst countries in the European Union.

“It reflects a wider and alarming pattern of the abuse of digital tools by malicious actors, not only against journalists but also against the organizations that defend journalists,” Brouillette said.

Brouillette added that the assault on IPI underscores the increasing threat that DDoS attacks are posing around the world — from Kosovo and Kyrgyzstan to Nigeria and the Philippines.

“DDoS attacks in general are on the rise,” she said. “It’s a really big and very dangerous new front in the war against press freedom.”
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The war in Ukraine is likely to be the big topic for a second year in a row when leaders gather at the U.N. General Assembly next week. But many developing countries are hoping to shine a light on issues important to them, including development, inflation and climate change. VOA U.N. correspondent Margaret Besheer has more.
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Italy is considering whether to leave the Belt and Road Initiative, Beijing’s multibillion-dollar global trade and infrastructure program, by the end of the year. The dilemma comes amid geopolitical pressures from Western allies and domestic disappointment that the program has not delivered the economic benefits that the country hoped for.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni spoke to reporters after meeting the Chinese delegation at last week’s G20 summit in New Delhi.

“There are European nations which in recent years haven’t been part of the Belt and Road but have been able to forge more favorable relations [with China] than we have sometimes managed,” Meloni said. “The issue is how to guarantee a partnership that is beneficial for both sides, leaving aside the decision that we will take on the BRI.”

BRI benefits?

Italy signed on to China’s BRI in 2019, the only member of the Group of 7 most advanced economies — including Canada, France, Germany, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States — to do so. But Italy has not received the expected economic benefits, Filippo Boni, a lecturer in politics and international studies at the Open University in England, told VOA.

“From the Italian side, the idea was to both try and boost its exports but also to make a political move towards Brussels, as a signal that Italy was able to sign successful deals with third countries independently from the European Union,” Boni said, adding that Meloni is seeking to make a clear break with previous [Italian] governments by forging new relationships with China and the EU.

“There is a growing realization that the memorandum of understanding that was signed with China in March 2019 did not really bring the benefits that were expected,” he said. “Trade balance is still heavily tilted in China’s favor, and Italian exports to China did not pick up, did not see the increase that those who wanted [the BRI] were envisaging and hoping for.”

Geopolitics

There are also geopolitical reasons for Italy rethinking its membership in China’s BRI, said Luigi Scazzieri, a senior research fellow at the Centre for European Reform.

“There’s come to be a certain diplomatic stigma attached to it, partly because the whole of the West is rethinking its relationship with China,” Scazzieri told VOA. “And Italy being the only G7 country having signed up to the Belt and Road makes it, on the other hand, look like it’s trying to get closer to Beijing.”

Italy’s Western allies are reducing their reliance on some Chinese imports and restricting the sale of technologies such as advanced semiconductors to Beijing.

In recent years, Italy’s government has blocked the sale of some of its biggest companies to Chinese firms, such as the tire maker Pirelli, under its so-called Golden Power rules.

“It’s really a clear signal the government in Rome is sending to its partners in the European Union, and Washington most importantly, about Italy’s position on the international chess board,” Boni said.

China’s response

Questioned about Italy’s potential departure from the BRI this week, China’s Foreign Ministry insisted the program brings benefits to its members.

“The Belt and Road Initiative has attracted more than 150 countries and a wide range of partners in various fields over the past 10 years and has brought tangible benefits to the people of all countries,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning told reporters. “It is in the interests of all participating countries to further tap the potential of cooperation.”

Italy is choosing its language carefully and said it wants to boost trade with Beijing outside the BRI, Scazzieri said.

“The fear of Beijing reacting in a negative way has been precisely why Meloni has been quite careful about how to go about extracting Italy from BRI,” he said.

Italy already has a strategic partnership with China, an agreement Beijing has signed with many countries aimed at fostering economic and cultural ties. It’s likely Rome will seek to amend that document in the hope of replacing its BRI membership with a looser relationship.

“Given the centrality that ‘strategic partnerships’ have in China’s foreign policy — as of the end of last year, there were 110 strategic partnerships that China signed with countries globally — I think it might be a good way out of the Belt and Road Initiative for both countries to say, ‘We’re still engaged in bilateral cooperation,’ ” Boni said.
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North Korean leader Kim Jong Un appears to be using this week’s much-heralded summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin to tighten his control over a country struggling with international sanctions and a pandemic-stricken economy, analysts said.

Putin and Kim met on Wednesday at the Vostochny Cosmodrome, a rocket launch facility in the Russian Far East, for their first summit in more than four years.

North Kores’s official Korean Central News Agency said Putin and Kim vowed to strengthen “strategic and tactical cooperation” without providing details.

Concern over arms deal

Washington suspects Pyongyang may supply Moscow with munitions for its war in Ukraine in return for help from Moscow in overcoming critical barriers to building intercontinental ballistic missiles, nuclear-propelled submarines, and military reconnaissance satellites.

After the meeting, the U.S. warned North Korea against supplying arms to Russia.

“No nation on the planet, nobody should be helping Mr. Putin kill innocent Ukrainians. And if they decide to move forward with some sort of arms deals, well, obviously we’ll take a measure of that, and we’ll deal with it appropriately,” White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Wednesday.

Analysts, however, say Kim might be looking for more than technical assistance in his weapons programs.

Seong Ok Yoo, a former South Korean intelligence official who extensively dealt with North Korea, said Kim is trying to use the summit as a propaganda tool to elevate his image globally while seeking greater internal unity. 

“Kim seeks international recognition. He believes he can push the U.S. to soften its attitude toward him by touting his presence,” said Yoo, who played a key role in an inter-Korean summit in 2007.

“He wants to ensure the U.S. takes him seriously,” Yoo added.

Dog-eared strategy

Jong Dae Shin, a professor at the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said using an international event as a tool to rule a country is a long-established practice for members of North Korea’s ruling Kim dynasty.

For a country like North Korea, which has been isolated for many decades by heavy sanctions, the dog-eared ruling strategy has served the regime by re-enforcing loyalty and devotion among the citizens, according to Shin.

Shin said Kim seems to follow the path of his predecessors.

For Kim, a serious opportunity to enhance his standing came in 2018, when he started rapprochement with a series of summits with the leaders of China, South Korea, and the U.S.

Kim’s summit diplomacy culminated in the historic meeting with former President Donald Trump in June 2018 in Singapore, at the time hailed as a possible path to peace on the Korean Peninsula.

The two leaders met in February 2019 in Hanoi for their second summit, but they failed to reach an agreement.

Analysts say recent geopolitical developments, including Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the U.S.-China strategic competition, give Kim another chance to elevate his image.

Accoridng to them, Kim sees a golden opportunity to advance his country’s weapons programs with few repercussions and increase its leverage with Russia and China, which are at odds with the U.S.

In 2022, North Korea conducted a record number of missile tests in violation of multiple U.N. sanctions.

The U.N. Security Council, however, failed to act because of objections by Russia and China, which have veto power. 

In December 2017, the council passed tough sanctions against North Korea in response to the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile by Pyongyang with the support of Russia and China.  

Increased leverage

Yoo believes North Korea’s leverage with Russia has increased because of Moscow’s confrontation with Washington over the war in Ukraine. 

“There is a reversal of position from the previous summit,” said Yoo, referring to the summit between Russia and North Korea in April 2019.

Then, Kim turned to Putin for diplomatic support following the failed summit with Trump but now Russia, hungry for ammunitions, is reaching out to Kim, according to Yoo.

“In 2019, Kim had no choice but to rely on Putin to break out of diplomatic isolation. Now, Kim is in the driver’s seat,” said Cho Han-Bum, senior research fellow at the Korea Institute for National Unification.

International news coverage of the latest summit between Putin and Kim underscored the lavish welcome Putin prepared for the North Korean leader.

Some South Korean news outlets reported that Putin, who is known for showing up late for meetings with foreign leaders, waited for Kim for 30 minutes at the meeting venue.

The Associated Press reported that Putin greeted Kim with a handshake of about 40 seconds.  

North Korea state media hailed the summit as a “new milestone” for the development of relations between Pyongyang and Moscow.

Internal pressure

This week’s summit took place as North Korea appears to be facing severe food shortages.

Elizabeth Salmon, the U.N. special rapporteur on North Korea’s human rights, told a Security Council meeting last month some people are dying “due to a combination of malnutrition, diseases and lack of access to health care.”

In March, South Korean lawmakers briefed by the country’s main intelligence agency told reporters there was a surge of deaths from starvation and suicide due to acute food shortages.

Intae Kim, a former North Korean defector who is now the chief research fellow at the Institute for National Security Strategy (INSS), a think tank run by South Korea’s National Intelligence Service, said Kim has pursued a policy of pushing economic growth and expanding nuclear development simultaneously since he took power in December 2011.

While the North Korean leader has advanced the country’s nuclear program, his economic plan has completely failed, according to Kim.

Cha Du Hyeogn, principal fellow at South Korea’s Asan Institute, said Kim is trying to send a message to his people with the latest summit that he is working hard to salvage the country’s economy crippled by sanctions, the pandemic and natural disasters.

Kim’s decision to ride a slow train for his journey instead of a short flight might be an attempt to send the message, according to Cha.

“The train ride reminded me of his journey to Hanoi,” said Cha, referring to Kim’s second summit with Trump.

At the time, Kim took a 60-hour train trip for the summit.

“Kim might have intended to promote an image of a leader who would be willing to take a long journey for his people,” said Cha.
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Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Thursday it has expelled two U.S. Embassy employees from the country, accusing them of working with a Russian national that Moscow had previously accused of spying.

In a statement, the foreign ministry said it had summoned U.S. Ambassador Lynne Tracy and informed her that the two diplomats — Jeff Sillin and David Bernstein — conducted “illegal activities by liaising with a Russian citizen, Robert Shonov,” and they must leave the territory of Russia within seven days.

Shonov had worked as a local employee at the U.S. consulate in the eastern city of Vladivostok for more than 25 years until Russia ordered the termination of the U.S. mission’s local staff in 2021. 

Russia’s Federal Security Service — the FSB — arrested Shonov in May and accused him of cooperating “on a confidential basis with a foreign state,” alleging he passed information to the United States about Russia’s war in Ukraine. 

Last month, the FSB announced it planned to interrogate Sillin and Bernstein after it accused them of directing Shonov to gather information.  

In a statement, U.S. State Department spokesman Matt Miller called the allegations “wholly without merit,” and he insisted Shonov was employed by a company contracted to provide services to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow “in strict compliance with Russia’s laws and regulations.”

Miller went on to say the U.S. strongly protested the Russian security service’s attempts to “intimidate and harass our employees.” It is unclear if Sillin and Bernstein were ever questioned by the FSB.

Some information for this report came from Reuters and AFP.
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The luxury cruise ship MV Ocean Explorer was “successfully” pulled free in Greenland on Thursday, three days after running aground with 206 people on board, authorities and the ship’s owner said.

The ship was freed by a fisheries research vessel at high tide, said the cruise ship’s owner, Copenhagen-based SunStone Ships and the Arctic Command, which had been coordinating the operation.

It was done “based on a pull from the vessel (owned by the Greenland government) and vessel’s own power. There have not been any injuries to anybody onboard, no pollution of the environment and no breach of the hull.” The name of the Greenland ship was Tarajoq and it belongs to the Greenland Institute of Natural Resources, a government agency.

The ship’s owner added that “the vessel and its passengers will now be positioned to a port where the vessel’s bottom damages can be assessed, and the passengers will be taken to a port from which they can be flown back home.”

The cruise ship ran aground above the Arctic Circle on Monday in Alpefjord, which is in the Northeast Greenland National Park, the world’s northernmost national park. The park is nearly the size of France and Spain combined, and approximately 80% is permanently covered by an ice sheet. Alpefjord sits about 240 kilometers (149 miles) away from the closest settlement, Ittoqqortoormiit, which itself is nearly 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from the country’s capital, Nuuk.

The Bahamas-flagged cruise ship has passengers from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. It has an inverted bow, shaped like the one on a submarine, 77 cabins, 151 passenger beds and 99 beds for crew, and several restaurants.

The owner also had “arranged additional tug assistance in case it was needed, however, this has now been canceled.”

Earlier Thursday, Australia-based Aurora Expeditions which has chartered the ship, said that three passengers had COVID-19.

“These passengers are currently in isolation. They are looked after by our onboard doctor, medical team and crew, and they are doing well,” Aurora Expeditions said in a statement. The others on the MV Ocean Explorer were “safe and healthy,” it added.

Australian newspaper The Sydney Morning Herald quoted a retiree from Australia, Steven Fraser, who is on the ship, saying: “Everyone’s in good spirits. It’s a little bit frustrating, but we are in a beautiful part of the world.”

Fraser told the newspaper that he himself had come down with COVID-19 on the ship.

It added that “the vessel and its passengers will now be positioned to a port where the vessel’s bottom damages can be assessed, and the passengers will be taken to a port from which they can be flown back home.”

The cruise ship ran aground above the Arctic Circle on Monday in Alpefjord, which is in the Northeast Greenland National Park, the world’s northernmost national park.

The park is nearly the size of France and Spain combined, and approximately 80% is permanently covered by an ice sheet. Alpefjord sits about 240 kilometers (149 miles) away from the closest settlement, Ittoqqortoormiit, which itself is nearly 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from the country’s capital, Nuuk.

The Bahamas-flagged cruise ship has passengers from Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, the United Kingdom and the United States. It has an inverted bow, shaped like the one on a submarine, 77 cabins, 151 passenger beds and 99 beds for crew, and several restaurants.

Denmark’s Danish Maritime Authority have asked police in Greenland to investigate why the ship ran aground and whether any laws had been violated, a police statement said, adding that no one has been charged or arrested. An officer had been on board the ship to carry out “initial investigative steps, which, among other things, involve questioning the crew and other relevant persons on board,” it added.

The cruise liner began its latest trip on Sept. 2 in Kirkenes, in Arctic Norway, and was due to return to Bergen, Norway, on Sept. 22, according to SunStone Ships.

The primary mission of the Joint Arctic Command is to ensure Danish sovereignty by monitoring the area around the Faeroe Islands and Greenland, including the Arctic Ocean in the north. Greenland is a semi-independent territory that is part of the Danish realm, as are the Faeroe Islands.
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Beijing on Thursday blasted the launch of a probe by the European Commission into China’s electric vehicle (EV) subsidies as protectionist and warned it would damage economic and trade relations, as shares in Chinese EV makers slid.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced the investigation on Wednesday, accusing China of flooding global markets with electric cars that had artificially low prices because of huge state subsidies.

The probe, which could result in punitive tariffs, has prompted analyst warnings of retaliatory action from Beijing as well as pushback from Chinese industry executives who say the sector’s competitive advantage was not due to subsidies.

The investigation “is a naked protectionist act that will seriously disrupt and distort the global automotive industry and supply chain, including the EU, and will have a negative impact on China-EU economic and trade relations,” China’s Ministry of Commerce said in a statement.

“China will pay close attention to the EU’s protectionist tendencies and follow-up actions, and firmly safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese companies,” it added.

Eurasian Group analysts warned that should Brussels ultimately levy duties against subsidized Chinese EVs, Beijing would likely impose countermeasures to hurt European industries.

Other analysts said the probe could slow capacity expansion by China’s battery suppliers, although the move should not pose a big risk for Chinese EV makers because they could turn to other growing markets like Southeast Asia.

Still, it could hurt perceptions of Chinese EV makers as they expand abroad, Bernstein analysts said in a client note.

The manufacturers have been accelerating export efforts as slowing consumer demand in China exacerbates production overcapacity.

Hong Kong-listed shares of market leader BYD fell more than 3%. Smaller rivals Xpeng and Geely Auto dropped 0.6%, while Nio slid 2%.

Shanghai-listed shares of state-owned car giant SAIC, whose MG brand is the best-selling China-made brand in Europe, fell as much as 3.4%.

Nio and Geely declined to comment on the EU probe, while BYD, Xpeng and SAIC did not respond to requests for comment.

The Shenzhen-listed shares of battery maker CATL fell more than 1%. CATL did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

Shares in European carmakers were also among the biggest fallers on the euro zone stock index in early trading. BMW, Volkswagen, Mercedes and Stellantis were down between 1.3% and 2.1% at 0728 GMT.

Strained relations

The anti-subsidy probe, initiated unusually by the European Commission and not from any industry complaint, comes amid broader diplomatic strains between the EU and China.

Relations have become tense due to Beijing’s ties with Moscow after Russian forces swept into Ukraine, and the EU’s push to rely less on the world’s second-largest economy, which is also its No.1 trading partner.

The EV probe will set the agenda and tone for bilateral talks ahead of the annual China-EU Summit, set to take place before year-end, with a focus returning to EU demands for wider access to the Chinese market and a rebalance of a trade relationship that Brussels describes as “imbalanced.”

Cui Dongshu, the secretary general of the China Passenger Car Association, said on his personal WeChat account on Thursday that he was personally “strongly against” the review and urged the EU to take an objective view of the industry’s development and not “arbitrarily use” economic or trade tools.

The price of China-made cars exported to Europe is generally almost double the price they sell for in China, he added. Underscoring challenges facing established European automakers as they battle growing competition from China, Volkswagen is looking at cutting staff at its plant in eastern Germany due to low demand for EVs, the dpa news agency reported on Wednesday.

Growing market share

EU officials believe Chinese EVs are undercutting the prices of local models by about 20% in the European market, piling pressure on European automakers to produce lower-cost EVs.

The European Commission said China’s share of EVs sold in Europe had risen to 8% and could reach 15% in 2025.

In 2022, 35% of all exported electric cars originated from China, 10 percentage points higher than the previous year, according to U.S. think-tank the Center for Strategic and Internal Studies.

Most of the vehicles, and the batteries they are powered by, were destined for Europe where 16% of batteries and vehicles sold were made in China in 2022, it said.

The single largest exporter from China is U.S. giant Tesla, CSIS data showed. It accounted for 40.25% of EV exports from China between January and April 2023.

 
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Ukraine’s military said Thursday it shot down 17 drones that Russia used to target multiple areas of Ukraine in overnight attacks.

The Ukrainian military said Russia launched a total of 22 drones in several waves of attacks directed at the Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, Sumy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

Serhiy Lysak, the regional governor of Dnipropetrovsk, said wreckage from one of three drones downed over the region damaged buildings and cars and started a grass fire.

Lysak said Russian shelling also struck the region, but that there were no casualties reported.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said its air defenses shot down multiple Ukrainian drones over the Bryansk region of western Russia early Thursday.

Russia also said it repelled an attack Thursday on a patrol ship in the Black Sea, with Russian forces destroying five unmanned boats.

Over Russian-controlled Crimea, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Telegram it destroyed 11 Ukrainian drones.

That came a day after a Ukrainian missile hit a strategic shipyard in Crimea, wounding 24 people and damaging two ships that were undergoing repairs.

Some information in this article came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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Russian President Vladimir Putin met Wednesday with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un at Russia’s most advanced spaceport amid warnings from the United States and South Korea against a potential arms transfer. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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The U.S. ambassador to Russia on Wednesday visited Paul Whelan, a former Marine serving a 16-year sentence for espionage, charges he denies. Ambassador Lynne Tracy emphasized to Whelan during the meeting that the Biden administration was committed to securing his release, the State Department said.

Whelan was arrested in 2018 and convicted in 2020. Both Whelan and the U.S. government deny he is a spy. The U.S. says Whelan and Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich are both wrongfully detained.

“Ambassador Tracy did meet with Paul Whelan earlier today. It was a consular visit,” State Department spokesman Matthew Miller told reporters at a briefing.

“We believe Paul continues to show tremendous courage in the face of his wrongful detention. Ambassador Tracy reiterated to him that President [Joe] Biden and Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken are committed to bring him home,” Miller said.

Tracy has also met with Gershkovich three times in recent months. Like Whelan, he denies accusations that he was working undercover as a spy gathering intelligence against Russia.

Miller wouldn’t address rumors of a potential prisoner swap involving Vadim Krasikov, a convicted Moscow assassin imprisoned in Germany, for Whelan.

The Biden administration has negotiated two prisoner swaps with Russia. The first involved freeing former Marine Trevor Reed in April 2022 in exchange for a Russian pilot and drug smuggler. The second involved WNBA basketball star Brittney Griner, who was released in December 2022 in exchange for international arms dealer Viktor Bout, known as the “Merchant of Death.”
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Foreign ministers of the G7 and European Union have condemned “sham elections” in Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine, saying they are meant to legitimize Moscow’s rule in areas illegally seized by force.

The elections took place in Crimea and the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson, where President Vladimir Putin’s United Russia party says it won at least 70% of the overall vote. Detailed results have yet to be released.  

In the statement issued Wednesday, the ministers said the elections are a further violation of Ukraine’s independence and sovereignty. “Russia has no legitimate basis for any such actions on the territory of Ukraine,” the statement reads. 

Watchdogs say the vote was rigged. “[T]hese are not real elections,” said Stanislav Andreychuk, who co-chairs Golos, an independent Russian election monitor. 

Andreychuk said he has evidence of widespread political suppression, including opposition candidates being thrown into jail and having their cars vandalized. In one instance, a poll-watcher was even handed draft papers. 

United Russia is expected to use the election success it has claimed for itself to exercise unbridled political control in the contested territories, including quashing potential uprisings. The party has appointed a mix of veteran separatist bosses and young pro-Putin officials to regional posts.

Russia already tortures, arbitrarily detains, and forcibly deports dissidents “to instill fear and to suppress Ukrainian culture,” the G7 statement said. As far as the G7 is concerned, these elections will only tighten Moscow’s iron grip.

But the Kremlin claims positive opinion polls and landslide election results are proof that United Russia serves the public interest.
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The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations on Wednesday called on Moscow to immediately release American journalist Evan Gershkovich. 

Speaking at the United Nations in New York, Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Russia’s actions were “beyond cruel” and “a violation of international law.” 

Gershkovich has been detained in Russia since March 29 on espionage charges that he and his publication, The Wall Street Journal, deny. The Moscow-based reporter was arrested while on assignment in the eastern city of Yekaterinburg.

In her remarks, Thomas-Greenfield urged the international community and U.N. member states to “stand with us, to stand on the side of justice, and to condemn Russia’s flagrant violations of international law.” 

“No family should have to watch their loved one being used as a political pawn, and that’s exactly what [Russian] President [Vladimir] Putin is doing,” Thomas-Greenfield added.  

Russia’s embassy in Washington did not respond to an email from VOA requesting comment.

Gershkovich’s parents and his sister also joined Thomas-Greenfield at the U.N. on Wednesday. They spoke of the emotional toll of the more than five months’ imprisonment. 

“We are still in shock. Every day is a day too long. I miss him every day,” said Ella Milman, Gershkovich’s mother. “He cares deeply about people. His reporting has kept the world informed. And we all miss reading his stories.”   

On Tuesday, lawyers representing the Journal’s publisher Dow Jones requested that the U.N.’s working group on arbitrary detention declare Gershkovich arbitrarily detained and push Russia to release him immediately.

The U.S. government has already declared the journalist wrongfully detained.

If the U.N. determines that Gershkovich’s detention is arbitrary, it would publish an opinion on the matter and issue recommendations to the Kremlin, according to the Journal.   

With heads of state convening at the U.N. General Assembly this month, Mikhail Gershkovich, Evan’s father, said, “We urge all world leaders to stand with Evan and what he represents.”

“The basic right of free press and freedom of expression — these rights are bedrock principles of the United Nations,” he added at the press conference.

In response to a question about a potential prisoner swap, Thomas-Greenfield said she couldn’t share details.

“We are working around the clock. We’re working diligently to have Evan, as well as others who have been wrongfully detained, released,” she said.

She also called for the release of American businessman and former Marine Paul Whelan, whom Russia sentenced to 16 years in prison on espionage charges, which Whelan and the U.S. government deny.

Gershkovich’s sister, Danielle, said that instead of advocating for her brother’s release, the family should be planning for his next visit home.

“Evan should be doing the important work of helping people understand matters in the world that affect us all,” she said.

“Instead, we are here to remind the world that Evan is innocent, and journalism is not a crime. We ask that world leaders help find a solution to secure Evan’s release,” she said. “If this can happen to my brother, it can happen to any journalist trying to report the news.”

Gershkovich’s arrest came as Russia imposed an even tougher crackdown on independent media after its invasion of Ukraine. 

Shortly after the war, Moscow introduced new laws defining how media could cover the conflict, which carry hefty prison sentences. 

Two weeks ago, it labeled the Nobel laureate and renowned Russian journalist Dmitry Muratov a foreign agent.

In early September, a court in Russia sentenced a journalist to five and a half years in prison for spreading what authorities said was fake news about the armed forces, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.  

The country ranks 164 out of 180 countries in terms of press freedom, where 1 shows the best media environment, according to Reporters Without Borders.  
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A fishing vessel owned by Greenland’s government will attempt to use a high tide to pull free a Bahamas-flagged luxury cruise ship carrying 206 people that ran aground in the world’s northernmost national park, authorities said.

Capt. Flemming Madsen of the Danish Joint Arctic Command told The Associated Press that the passengers and crew on the ship stranded in northwestern Greenland were doing fine and “all I can say is that they got a lifetime experience.”

The scientific fishing vessel was scheduled to arrive later Wednesday and would attempt, when the conditions were right, to pull the 104.4-meter-long (343 feet) and 18-meter-wide (60 feet) MV Ocean Explorer free.

The cruise ship ran aground above the Arctic Circle on Monday in Alpefjord, which is in the Northeast Greenland National Park. The park covers 972,000 square kilometers (603,973 square miles), almost as much land as France and Spain combined, and approximately 80% is permanently covered by an ice sheet, according to the Visit Greenland tourism board.

Alpefjord sits in a remote corner of Greenland, some 240 kilometers (149 miles) away from the closest settlement, Ittoqqortoormiit, which itself is nearly 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) from the country’s capital, Nuuk.

The Ocean Explorer’s crew made two failed attempts to get the ship to float free on its own during high tide.

In a statement, Australia-based Aurora Expeditions, which operates the ship, said that the passengers and crew members were safe and well and that there was “no immediate danger to themselves, the vessel or the surrounding environment.”

“We are actively engaged in efforts to free the MV Ocean Explorer from its grounding. Our foremost commitment is to ensure the vessel’s recovery without compromising safety,” the statement said.

Dozens of cruise ships sail along Greenland’s coast every year so passengers can admire the picturesque mountainous landscape with fjords, musk oxen, waterways packed with icebergs of different sizes and glaciers jutting out into the sea.

Madsen, of Denmark’s Joint Arctic Command, said the passengers on the Ocean Explorer were “a mix” of tourists from Australia, New Zealand, Britain, the United States and South Korea. Greenland is a semi-independent territory that is part of the Danish realm, as are the Faeroe Islands.

The people onboard “are in a difficult situation, but given the circumstances, the atmosphere on the ship is good, and everyone on board is doing well. There are no signs that the ship was seriously damaged by the grounding,” the Joint Arctic Command said Wednesday.

The weather in the region Wednesday featured sun, a clear blue sky and a temperature around 5 degrees Celsius (41 degrees Fahrenheit), according to the Danish Meteorological Institute.

The Ocean Explorer was built in 2021 and is owned by Copenhagen SunStone Ships, which is part of Denmark’s SunStone Group. It has an inverted bow, shaped like the one on a submarine. It has 77 cabins, 151 passenger beds and 99 beds for crew, and several restaurants, according to the Sunstone Group website.

The Joint Arctic Command said there were other ships in the vicinity of the stranded cruise liner and, “if the need arises, personnel from the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol can be at the accident site within an hour and a half.”

On Tuesday, members of the Sirius Dog Sled Patrol, a Danish naval unit that conducts long-range reconnaissance and enforces Danish sovereignty in the Arctic wilderness, visited the passengers and explained the situation, “which calmed them down as some were anxious,” said Madsen, who was the on-duty officer for the Joint Arctic Command.

The command, which was coordinating the operation to free the cruise ship, said the nearest Danish navy ship was about 1,200 nautical miles (more than 2,000 kilometers or 1,380 miles) away. It was heading to the site and could be expected to reach the grounded ship as soon as Friday.

The primary mission of the Joint Arctic Command is to ensure Danish sovereignty by monitoring the area around the Faeroe Islands and Greenland, including the Arctic Ocean in the north.
…

A government watchdog agency in France has ordered Apple to withdraw the iPhone 12 from the French market, saying it emits levels of electromagnetic radiation that are too high.

The National Frequency Agency, which oversees radio-electric frequencies as well as public exposure to electromagnetic radiation, called on Apple in a statement Tuesday to “implement all available means to rapidly fix this malfunction” for phones already being used.

Corrective updates to the iPhone 12 will be monitored by the agency, and if they don’t work, “Apple will have to recall” phones that have already been sold, according to the French regulator’s statement.

Apple disputed the findings and said the device complies with all regulations governing radiation.

The agency, which is known by the French acronym ANFR, said it recently checked 141 cellphones, including the iPhone 12, for electromagnetic waves capable of being absorbed by the body.

It said it found a level of electromagnetic energy absorption of 5.74 watts per kilogram during tests of a phone in a hand or a pocket, higher than the European Union standard of 4 watts per kilogram.

The agency said the iPhone 12 met the threshold when radiation levels were assessed for a phone kept in a jacket or in a bag.

Apple said the iPhone 12, which was released in late 2020, has been certified by multiple international bodies and complies with all applicable regulations and standards for radiation around the world.

The U.S. tech company said it has provided the French agency with multiple lab results carried out both by the company and third-party labs proving the phone’s compliance.

Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s minister in charge of digital issues, told France Info radio that the National Frequency Agency “is in charge of controlling our phones which, as there are software updates, may emit a little more or a little less electromagnetic waves.”

He said that the iPhone 12 radiation levels are “slightly higher” than the standards but “significantly lower than levels where scientific studies consider there may be consequences for users. But the rule is the rule.”

Cellphones have been labeled as “possible” carcinogens by the World Health Organization’s cancer research arm, putting them in the same category as coffee, diesel fumes and the pesticide DDT. The radiation produced by cellphones cannot directly damage DNA and is different from stronger types of radiation like X-rays or ultraviolet light.

In 2018, two U.S. government studies that bombarded mice and rats with cellphone radiation found a weak link to some heart tumors, but federal regulators and scientists said it was still safe to use the devices. Scientists said those findings didn’t reflect how most people use their cellphones and that the animal findings didn’t translate into a similar concern for humans.

Among the largest studies on potential dangers of cellphone use, a 2010 analysis in 13 countries found little or no risk of brain tumors.

People’s mobile phone habits also have changed substantially since the first studies began and it’s unclear if the results of previous research would still apply today.

Since many tumors take years to develop, experts say it’s difficult to conclude that cellphones have no long-term health risks. Experts have recommended that people concerned about their cellphone radiation exposure use earphones or switch to texting.
…

Two U.K.-based activists have described troubling interactions with a researcher in the British parliament who was arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

The 28-year-old suspect, whose name has been withheld by British police because he has not been formally charged, worked in the China Research Group in Westminster as a researcher and had a parliamentary pass. He has insisted on his innocence and is currently free on bail.

Finn Lau, a Hong Kong human rights activist currently in the U.K. and wanted by the Hong Kong authorities, told VOA Mandarin he had an unusual coffee meeting with the suspect, who initially expressed support for Lau’s work.

But when Lau mentioned plans to counter the Chinese Communist Party’s influence in British politics and raised objections to a sister-city partnership between cities in the two countries, the man suddenly said that he was busy and left in a hurry, Lau recounted.

Lau said he made repeated attempts to continue communication with the man but received no response to his emails. “I was very shocked when I saw his name in the newspaper,” Lau said.

The suspect also left a strongly negative impression on Luke de Pulford, the founder and executive director of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China (IPAC), an international cross-party group of legislators that urges their governments to take a tougher approach to China.

Writing on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, de Pulford said the suspect “had an impact upon the China debate in the U.K. Parliament. He made my job harder. He hated @ipacglobal and worked to cleave people away from the IPAC network.”

De Pulford wrote in a series of posts that the suspect “briefed very strongly against some politicians in our network, and against me personally. … Privately, he was vicious – telling journalists that I was ‘dangerous’ and ‘not to be trusted on China.'”

De Pulford described the suspect as “an authoritative and knowledgeable voice” and incredibly clever.

“He hid behind a visage of ‘reasoned hawkishness,'” de Pulford wrote, describing the treatment of Uyghurs in China’s Xinjiang province as “terrible” but then seeking to minimize the horror.

“Using this kind of argument he blunted the unity of the parliamentary campaign,” de Pulford wrote. “You could go as far as to say that he divided the China hawks. He was rhetorically very sophisticated. Never pushed it too far. Used his credentials deftly and reasonably.”

Reports of the researcher’s arrest have prompted questions about the level of security in the British Parliament and whether individuals are adequately vetted before being hired into sensitive positions.

David Moore, a policy researcher in the House of Commons, told VOA Mandarin the vetting process for obtaining a parliamentary pass is “relatively thorough. They ask for your previous addresses, charges and convictions. In theory, it’s quite a strong system. But the question is, how far do they delve into that? My concern is they might just be rubber-stamping applications without a genuine review.”

Moore pointed out potential security threats. “Anyone can walk into the Parliament and go to a committee room. One can easily sneak off, or even worse, personnel can let in visitors, posing national security risks. Anyone with a parliamentary pass has quite a bit of power.”

David Alton, a member of the House of Lords, called it “deeply disturbing” that parliamentary passes had been issued to an alleged Chinese Communist Party spy, enabling him to have full access to the parliamentary estate.

He told VOA Mandarin in an email, “This, in turn, gives them access to confidential information, provides an opportunity to influence Members and staff, and to subvert the workings of Parliament.”

He said, historically, the failure to detect the penetration of spies from hostile states resulted in a dilution of trust by Britain’s allies and deterred them from talking to senior members of Parliament.

However, Isabel Hilton, a Scottish journalist and founder of the China Dialogue Trust, told VOA Mandarin in an email: “We do not have much evidence about the alleged breach, but given that the suspect was arrested in March, then released on police bail, I conclude that he was not regarded either as a flight risk or a national security risk.”

“This researcher had no access to classified information,” Hilton continued. “If he was reporting to Beijing, it would have been information about how [members of Parliament] were thinking about China and what they were doing.

“At best, he could have reported on internal conversations. Clearly all pass-holders should be vetted, as I believe they are, and if these allegations are substantiated, there should perhaps be closer coordination between different branches of the security services.”
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