An American military aircraft crashed after suffering a “mishap” during training in the eastern Mediterranean, the U.S. European Command (EUCOM) said Saturday. 

It did not specify the type of plane or where it was flying from, but the United States has deployed a carrier strike group to the area as part of efforts to prevent the Israel-Hamas war from spiraling into a regional conflict. 

“On the evening of November 10, a U.S. military aircraft conducting training operations in the eastern Mediterranean suffered a mishap and went down,” EUCOM said in a statement that did not provide information on the fate of the crew. 

“We can definitively say that the aircraft sortie was purely related to training and there are no indications of hostile activity,” the statement said, adding, “the cause of the training incident is currently under investigation.” 

Washington rushed military support to Israel and bolstered its forces in the region — including with the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and other warships — after the Hamas militant group carried out a cross-border attack from Gaza on October 7 that Israeli officials say killed about 1,200 people. 

Israel’s military has responded with an air, land and naval assault on Gaza that the territory’s health ministry said has left more than 11,000 people dead.  

VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
…

Tens of thousands are expected to march Sunday in Paris against antisemitism amid bickering by political parties over who should take part and a surge in antisemitic incidents across France. 

More than 3,000 police and gendarmes will be deployed in the capital to maintain security at the “great civic march,” according to Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin. 

On the eve of the march, President Emmanuel Macron condemned the “unbearable resurgence of unbridled anti-Semitism” in the country.  

“A France where our Jewish citizens are afraid is not France. A France where French people are afraid because of their religion or their origin is not France,” he wrote in a letter published late Saturday in the daily Le Parisien.  

He said Sunday’s “great civic march” should show France as “united behind its values, its universalism.”  

Earlier Saturday, however, Macron said he would attend the march only “in my heart and in my thoughts.” 

Thousands of antisemitic acts 

Tensions have been rising in the French capital, home to large Jewish and Muslim communities, in the wake of the October 7 attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel, followed by a month of Israeli bombardments of the Gaza Strip. 

France has recorded nearly 12,250 antisemitic acts since the attack. 

National Assembly speaker Yael Braun-Pivet and Gerard Larcher, the Senate speaker, called Tuesday for a “general mobilization” at the march against the upsurge in antisemitism. 

They are to lead the march behind a banner stating, “For the Republic, against antisemitism.” 

LFI plans to boycott event

The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party said it would boycott the event while the far-right National Rally (RN) plans to turn out. 

“The more people there are, the better,” said far-right leader Marine Le Pen. 

She added that she was ready to march “at the back” if her attendance was a problem.  

Government spokesperson Olivier Veran said Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne would attend. 

But the RN “does not have a place” in the march, Veran said. 

Communist leader Fabien Roussel said he would “not march alongside” the RN, accusing it of being descended from people who were “repeatedly condemned for antisemitic remarks” and who “collaborated” with Nazi Germany. 

LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon dismissed the march, describing it as a meeting of “friends of unconditional support for the massacre” of Palestinians in Gaza. 

Prosecutors investigate incidents

Among the long list of recent antisemitic acts, Paris prosecutors are investigating an incident on October 31, when buildings in the city and suburbs were daubed with dozens of Stars of David.  

The graffiti, which brought back memories of the Nazi occupation of Paris during World War II and deportation of Jews to death camps, was condemned across the political spectrum. 

The October 7 attack in Israel which saw about 1,200 killed, mainly civilians, and 240 people taken hostage, triggered the deadliest ever war in Gaza. 

According to the Hamas-run healthy ministry in the besieged territory, the Israeli military campaign has killed more than 11,000 people, many of them children.  
…

Residents of a fishing town in southwestern Iceland left their homes Saturday after increasing concern about a potential volcanic eruption caused civil defense authorities to declare a state of emergency in the region.

Police decided to evacuate Grindavik after recent seismic activity in the area moved south toward the town and monitoring indicated that a corridor of magma, or semi-molten rock, now extends under the community, Iceland’s Meteorological Office said. The town of 3,400 is on the Reykjanes Peninsula, about 50 kilometers (31 miles) southwest of the capital, Reykjavik.

“At this stage, it is not possible to determine exactly whether and where magma might reach the surface,” the Meteorological Office said.

Authorities also raised their aviation alert to orange, indicating an increased risk of a volcanic eruption. Volcanic eruptions pose a serious hazard to aviation because they can spew highly abrasive ash high into the atmosphere, where it can cause jet engines to fail, damage flight control systems and reduce visibility.

A major eruption in Iceland in 2010 caused widespread disruption to air travel between Europe and North America, costing airlines an estimated $3 billion as they canceled more than 100,000 flights.

The evacuation comes after the region was shaken by hundreds of small earthquakes every day for more than two weeks as scientists monitor a buildup of magma some 5 kilometers (3.1 miles) underground.

Concern about a possible eruption increased in the early hours Thursday when a magnitude 4.8 earthquake hit the area, forcing the internationally known Blue Lagoon geothermal resort to close temporarily.

The seismic activity started in an area north of Grindavik where there is a network of 2,000-year-old craters, geology professor Pall Einarrson, told Iceland’s RUV. The magma corridor is about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) long and spreading, he said.

“The biggest earthquakes originated there, under this old series of craters, but since then it [the magma corridor] has been getting longer, went under the urban area in Grindavík and is heading even further and towards the sea,” he said. 
…

Despite a Russian invasion of his country, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered an optimistic address Friday before the Paris Peace Forum.

“It is precisely the cooperation and unity of all who truly value peace that can prevent catastrophes and stop the suffering of peoples. In this, every nation matters,” he said Friday. “It’s important to remember this.”

There are no “few great” nations, he said, “who supposedly can decide something in the world for everyone… All nations are equal, and every nation deserves respect.”

Meanwhile, European Union countries are having reservations about committing a long-term fund of $21.4 billion in military aid for Ukraine as its grinding fight continues against Russia’s invasion.

EU defense ministers prepared to discuss the plan Tuesday in Brussels, proposed by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell last July. However, diplomats say multiple countries — including Germany — have voiced reservations about committing up to $5 billion annually over four years as part of broader Western security commitments to bolster Ukraine’s defenses.

The EU already has provided aid in the form of arms and equipment worth $26 billion, according to the bloc’s diplomatic service. “Germany has had a lot of questions … and rightfully so. We’re talking about a lot of money,” said a senior diplomat, who remained anonymous.

The debate over military aid comes as EU nations are also debating a proposal to give Ukraine almost $54 billion in economic assistance.

Some EU members have also argued they will struggle to make a big long-term pledge as domestic budgets are squeezed.

“For some member states, there is the reality of the public finances,” said a second EU diplomat.

Additionally, the EU is also facing challenges meeting a target of supplying Kyiv with 1 million artillery shells and missiles by March next year.

Hungary has for months been holding up more than $500 million in payouts from the Peace Facility to EU members for Ukraine aid over Ukraine’s blacklisting a Hungarian bank, OTP.

Since the bank was removed from the blacklist, Hungary has been insisting it wants guarantees it will not return there.

Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said Friday he does not support moving forward on negotiations about Ukraine’s accession in the European Union, signaling that his country could be an obstacle to Kyiv’s ambitions to join the bloc.

Unanimity among all member states is required to admit a new country into the bloc, giving Orbán a powerful veto.

In an interview with state radio Friday, Orbán said Ukraine is nowhere near gaining membership in the world’s largest trading bloc. “The clear Hungarian position is that the negotiations must not begin.”

Orbán’s government has refused to supply Ukraine with weapons in its war against Russia. It also accuses Ukraine of violating the rights of an ethnic Hungarian minority in western Ukraine by restricting its use of the Hungarian language in schools.

Naval drones

On Friday, Ukrainian naval drones sank two small Russian landing boats in Crimea, according to Ukraine’s military intelligence agency.

Reuters could not independently verify the report. There was no immediate comment by Russia, whose Black Sea Fleet is headquartered in the Crimean city of Sevastopol.

An initial report from military intelligence said the two small, amphibious Russian ships had been hit overnight.

“As a consequence of the attack, both vessels went to the bottom, the Akula straight away and the Serna after attempts to save it,” the report said.

The Ukrainian military said the vessels were manned and loaded with armored vehicles. Ukraine says some Russian navy vessels have relocated from Sevastopol following recent attacks.

Russian artillery and drone attacks Friday killed three people and damaged an unspecified infrastructure facility, power lines and a gas pipeline in the Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson regions, local officials said.

Both regions come under regular shelling by Russian troops in occupied territory on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River.

In Nikopol, Dnipropetrovsk region, a 67-year-old woman was killed in an afternoon drone attack, Serhiy Lysak, the governor, said on the Telegram messaging service.

“A 68-year-old man received shrapnel wounds. He’s hospitalized,” Lysak added on Telegram.

Images from the site shared by Lysak showed buildings with shattered windows, huge holes in the walls, and a burnt car. An infrastructure facility, a gas pipeline and power lines, as well as 11 private houses, had been damaged.

In Kindiyka, Kherson region, shelling Friday morning killed a 69-year-old man and injured another 63-year-old, Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin said on Telegram.

He later wrote that a 61-year-old man was also killed and five more injured in a separate shelling in Novoraysk.

Russian President Vladimir Putin visited his southern military headquarters in Rostov-on-Don late Thursday assessing the state of his country’s forces in Ukraine as the war drags on toward winter.

It was Putin’s second public visit to the headquarters in less than a month. He was accompanied by Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and Valery Gerasimov, chief of the General Staff. After almost 21 months of fighting in Ukraine, both Russia and Ukraine’s military resources have been significantly eroded. With winter looming, the fighting is likely to further settle into attritional warfare.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse. 
…

North Korea’s foreign ministry on Saturday slammed U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s comments on Pyongyang’s relations with Moscow, saying the remarks would “only escalate the dangerous political and military tension” on the peninsula.

Blinken was in Seoul earlier this week after attending a G7 foreign ministers’ meeting in Japan. He met with South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and other top officials.

During his visit to the South Korean capital, he said military ties between Pyongyang and Moscow were “growing and dangerous”, and urged Beijing, Pyongyang’s main ally, to restrain the nuclear-armed North.

Pyongyang on Saturday condemned Blinken and said his comments were “irresponsible and provocative.”

The remarks “only escalate the dangerous political and military tension in the Korean peninsula and the region,” Pyongyang’s foreign ministry said, according to the state-run Korean Central News Agency.

“The U.S. should be accustomed to the new reality of the DPRK-Russia relations,” it added, using the North’s official name.

Historic allies Russia and North Korea are both under international sanctions — Russia for its invasion of Ukraine and North Korea for its nuclear weapons and missile programs.

Their growing military cooperation has been a source of concern for Ukraine and its allies, especially following North Korean leader Kim Jong Un’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in September.

Seoul has said that Pyongyang sent one million artillery rounds to bolster Moscow’s war in Ukraine in exchange for advice on satellite technology.

Pyongyang said Saturday that “no matter what others may say, the friendly and cooperative relations between the DPRK and Russia aspiring after independence, peace and friendship will steadily grow stronger.”

Following Blinken’s visit, U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin is set to meet with his South Korean counterpart Monday in Seoul, as the South and the U.S. ramp up their own defense cooperation.
…

Bar associations across Turkey reacted with demonstrations, marches and legal actions Friday to a constitutional crisis in which a lower-ranking appeals court filed an unprecedented criminal complaint against Supreme Court judges over their decision to release a jailed parliamentarian.

Parliamentarians from opposition parties have started a “justice watch” campaign, refusing to leave the parliament until the issue is brought to the floor for discussion, while President Recep Tayyip Erdogan caused further consternation Friday by weighing in on the side of the lower court.

Can Atalay, a Turkey’s Workers Party (TIP) parliamentarian representing the southern province of Hatay, has been held in custody since April of last year when a local court charged him with “assisting the overthrow of the government” during the Gezi Park protests of 2013, the largest protests against Erdogan’s government.

Others charged in the case include renowned businessman Osman Kavala, academic Tayfun Kahraman and journalist Cigdem Mater.

Lawyers for Atalay, 47, took his case to the Supreme Court, where nine of the 15 judges ruled on October 25 that the MP’s imprisonment breached his rights “to be elected” and “to have personal freedom and security.”

Immediate uproar

But rather than comply with the ruling, the local court that first charged Atalay took the case to the Court of Cassation, the nation’s highest appeals court, which responded on Wednesday by filing a criminal complaint against the nine Supreme Court judges.

That action, in apparent violation of the Turkish Constitution, prompted an immediate uproar from opposition politicians, among others.

At the call of the main opposition party CHP, several MPs remained seated in the parliament overnight Thursday, demanding that the speaker of the parliament, Numan Kurtulmus, bring the issue to the floor.

Several opposition leaders, including the head of TIP, Erkan Bas, and CHP’s newly elected chair, Ozgur Ozel, described the Court of Cassation’s action as a “judiciary coup attempt.”

Holding a copy of the constitution in his hand during his speech delivered to the Turkish Grand National Assembly, TIP leader Bas referred to the constitution’s relevant article, reading out the phrase “Supreme Court’s decisions are final and obliges all.”

“This is a point where law has vanished, we are faced with a judiciary coup, loud and clear,” Bas said, concluding his speech by emphasizing this was a “threat faced by all citizens of Turkey that needs to be repulsed.”

Erdogan, meanwhile, entered the debate for the first time Friday, seeming to come down in support of the lower court.

“Firstly, I guess, nobody can deny that the Court of Cassation is also a high court. Unfortunately, the Supreme Court has come to a point where it has been making mistakes, one after another, in this regard. And, this seriously saddens us,” Erdogan said.

As criticism of the president’s comments grew, he made another statement asserting he was “not taking sides but rather acting as an arbitrator as the head of the state.”

However, independent analysts were not persuaded by Erdogan’s disclaimer.

“Erdogan is not outside of this judiciary game. He is absolutely not inactive,” said Ismet Akca in an interview with VOA Turkish. Akca is a former professor of political science at Turkey’s Yildiz Technical University and a former nonresident scholar at the Carnegie Middle East Center. “He is an actor in this game. As always, he first watched everything, he waited, and then, he delivered his position.”

Warning about Turkish commitment

Ibrahim Kaboglu, a retired law professor from Marmara University and former MP from CHP, told VOA Turkish that as president, Erdogan “has a constitutional duty to ensure the constitution is abided by” and warned that the crisis could feed into growing doubts about Turkey’s commitment to constitutional rule among its Western allies.

The challenge to the constitution has alarmed the country’s lawyers, hundreds of whom gathered in Ankara on Friday at the bidding of the Union of Turkish Bar Associations and marched on the Court of Cassation demanding “respect for rule of law.”

Addressing the crowd, the organization’s president, Erinc Sagkan said, “We have expressed to the public that the crisis we have been going through for the past two days cannot be defined as a simple judiciary crisis, that it is a major state crisis. Unfortunately, the constitution is being breached with the hands of judiciary itself.”

Several local bar associations have also filed criminal complaints against the Court of Cassation for its refusal to abide by the Supreme Court decision.

Speaking to VOA Turkish, Ankara Bar Association head Mustafa Koroglu said a lower court refusing to comply with a Supreme Court decision “stands as a first in legal literature.”

“In the history of law, constitutional courts are the courts that have been established to eliminate fascism,” Koroglu added.

“Today in Turkey, the Supreme Court is being accused. Where is the rule of law and where is Turkey being dragged to with fascism and similar systems?”

VOA Turkish’s Burcu Gündoğan in Washington contributed to this report.
…

Concerns about slow progress on political and economic reforms appear to have done little to dampen the atmosphere during talks this week between a U.S. delegation and government officials in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

“The United States reaffirmed its unwavering support for Uzbekistan’s independence, sovereignty, and territorial integrity,” said a U.S. State Department statement on the November 6-7 talks, which were led on the American side by Donald Lu, the assistant secretary for South and Central Asian Affairs.

The discussions in both Astana and Tashkent focused on political, economic, security, human rights, and cultural dimensions, the department said. It quoted Lu expressing Washington’s gratitude to the presidents of both countries for their “active engagement” within the “C5+1” diplomatic platform in which the five Central Asian republics (the C5) and the U.S. hold periodic talks.

Human rights advocates regularly criticize the governments of both countries for their failure to allow real political opposition or tolerate dissent. However, the two are key players in a region where the U.S. sees an opportunity to increase its influence amid growing distrust of Russia after its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine.

The energy-rich region also figures in the global competition for influence between the United States and China. Kazakhstan is the largest economy in the region, while Uzbekistan is the most populous, with median age under 30 in both countries.

Countries partner with U.S.

In the more than three decades since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have cemented themselves as strategic partners of the United States, supporting the 20-year U.S. campaign in Afghanistan and cooperating on counterterrorism operations, non-proliferation initiatives and other common goals.

Kairat Umarov, Kazakhstan’s first deputy foreign minister, stressed during the talks in Astana that his country is in an “enhanced strategic dialogue” with Washington with open channels of communication, aiming to boost trade and investment, specifically in energy and technology.

Kazakh and U.S. officials also emphasize ongoing consultations on U.S.-led sanctions against Russia, Kazakhstan’s northern neighbor, that were imposed after its invasion of Ukraine.

Washington wants Astana to speed up systemic reforms, which President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev claims are a top priority. Umarov “underscored Kazakhstan’s commitment to fully implement” that program, and Lu reiterated Washington’s strong support, according to the U.S. State Department statement.

Media freedom and civil society issues are always part of the dialogue, say U.S. officials, adding that they want to increase educational exchanges.

Similar assurances were offered in the U.S.-Uzbek strategic partnership session. While Uzbekistan is counting on Washington’s assistance in joining the World Trade Organization, the U.S. wants to work closely with Tashkent on regional connectivity and security.

This week’s discussions focused on defense, law enforcement, border and customs cooperation, the State Department said.

A joint statement following the talks said the United States and Uzbekistan share “a desire to continue to grow and diversify trade and investment, advance agricultural reforms in Uzbekistan, improve women’s economic empowerment, and jointly address the climate crisis.”

Economic and political reforms remain problematic in Uzbekistan, where advocates argue that progress on expansive promises made by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev since taking office in 2016, has stalled or moved backward in recent years.

But Deputy Foreign Minister Gayrat Fozilov told the U.S. delegation his country is committed “to continue irreversible democratic reforms … promoting respect for human rights, including freedom of religion or belief, combating trafficking in persons and corruption, and preventing gender-based violence.”

To demonstrate U.S. support for women’s empowerment, Lu played hockey in Astana with young female athletes. In Uzbekistan, he met with Mirziyoyev’s closest aide, his eldest daughter Saida Mirziyoyeva.

“We discussed the current state and prospects of bilateral relations between our countries in education, culture, and ensuring the rights of women and children. We also exchanged views on issues of supporting the media and civil society in Uzbekistan and interaction in the field of human rights,” said Mirziyoyeva via social media.

Bloggers, media face scrutiny

Such conversations are taking place while yet another blogger is on trial in Uzbekistan. Olimjon Haydarov, 34, known in his native Ferghana for investigating corruption, believes the extortion and defamation charges against him are false and retaliation for his activism. Uzbek authorities say that he was caught “red-handed” taking a bribe.

Blogger Abduqodir Muminov, 33, was sentenced to more than seven years in prison this summer on similar charges. While he admitted acting illegally, Muminov claimed following the trial that he had been tortured in detention.

In September, guilty verdicts on charges of financial crimes were handed to three media figures: Khurshid Daliyev, founder of the Human.uz news site; Mavjuda Mirzayeva, a former Labor Ministry press secretary; and Siyovush Hoshimov, the former communications head of the state oil and gas holding company.

Daliyev and Hoshimov were sentenced to seven years behind bars, while Mirzayeva got a suspended punishment due to illness.

The Ezgulik Human Rights Society in Tashkent puts the number of officially targeted bloggers at more than 25 this year alone, with at least seven of them behind bars.

Uzbek media regulators tell VOA they want to see responsible journalism, free of corrupt practices. Many in the state and private media agree but point to the government as the main culprit and “chief censor.”

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan remain among the most repressive environments in terms of media and political freedoms, according to Reporters Without Borders and Freedom House.

Current rights concerns in Kazakhstan include the case of government critic Marat Zhylanbaev, whom authorities allege is a member of a banned extremist organization.

Human Rights Watch’s Central Asia senior researcher Mihra Rittman said, “The sum total of Zhylanbaev’s so-called wrongdoing is publicly but peacefully advocating for a political alternative to Kazakhstan’s authoritarian government, and he should be released.”

Call to release Muslims

Meanwhile, the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom, which hosted Mirziyoyev’s advisers last week in Washington, has been calling on Uzbek authorities to release “Muslims imprisoned in connection with their religious activities” and reexamine their convictions.

Uzbek Ambassador to the U.S. Furkat Sidikov said his government is open to tackling any issue and regularly engages the members of the U.S. Congress through the Uzbekistan Caucus in the House of Representatives.

He told VOA that he spoke this week at a special briefing at the Department of Labor, as a representative of a country “making significant progress against forced labor and child labor in recent years.”

Sidiqov and Kazakh Ambassador Yerzhan Ashikbayev have been pressing Congress to exempt their countries from a 1974 trade law that blocks them from having normal trade relations with the U.S. Such a step has been proposed by both Republicans and Democrats but has yet to be considered in either chamber.

The law, known as the Jackson-Vanik Amendment, was originally adopted to punish the Soviet Union for its human rights abuses and emigration restrictions.
…

Belgian anti-terrorism investigators on Friday were holding one alleged member of an extreme right group suspected of preparing bomb attacks and inciting violence. 

The Belgian probe also found evidence allowing police in Germany, Italy, Croatia and Lithuania to carry out raids that may lead to further arrests.  

The investigation was launched in May and house raids were carried out on Thursday in the North Sea port of Ostend and in Diepenbeek in the east of the country. 

“During one of the house searches in Diepenbeek, large numbers of Nazi memorabilia, including Nazi flags and swastikas, were found,” prosecutors said in a statement Friday. 

In the searches, the statement said, a man and a woman in their early 20s were detained and identified as Daan C. and Kayley W. from the Dutch-speaking region of northern Belgium.  

The male suspect, Daan C., was found at the house with Nazi symbols, and he has been remanded in custody under an arrest warrant pending further investigation. 

Kayley W. was freed after questioning. 

“Both persons are suspected of participating in the activities of a terrorist group,” the statement said, with Daan C. accused of being a leader. 

Prosecutors accuse him of “recruiting people with a view to committing terrorist crimes and preparing to commit terrorist crimes.” 

But a source close to the inquiry told AFP on condition of anonymity that no evidence was found of specific, imminent planned attacks.  

Using encrypted online platforms, group members shared manuals for 3D-printed guns and shared images appearing to show pipe bombs and Molotov cocktails. 

“It also turned out that some members of the online groups had written a manifesto, and there are indications that they had weapons at their disposal,” the federal prosecutor’s office said.
…

The number of rail freight cars heading to the ports of Ukraine’s Odesa region continued to rise over the past week thanks to the successful operation of the alternative Black Sea exports corridor, a senior railways official said late Thursday.

Valeriy Tkachov, deputy director of the commercial department at Ukrainian Railways, said on Facebook that over the last week the number of grain cars heading to Odesa ports increased by more than 26% to 5,341 from 4,227.

He said up to 970 cars were unloaded at the ports’ silos every day.

A week earlier the number of cars jumped by around 50%.

In August, Ukraine launched a “humanitarian corridor” for ships bound for African and Asian markets to try to circumvent a de facto blockade in the Black Sea after Russia quit a deal that had guaranteed Kyiv’s seaborne exports during the war.

Later, a senior agricultural official said the route – which runs along Ukraine’s southwest Black Sea coast, into Romanian territorial waters and onward to Turkey – would also be used for grain shipments.

Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on Thursday 91 vessels had exported 3.3 million tons of agricultural and metal products since the corridor started operating in August.

The UCAB agricultural business association said this month that Ukrainian grain agricultural exports rose by 15% to 4.8 million metric tons in October thanks to the new corridor.

Ukraine’s government expects a grain and oilseeds harvest of 79 million tons in 2023, with a 2023/24 exportable surplus of about 50 million tons. 
…

A sweeping plain dotted with ruined houses stretched into the horizon and toward the blue expanse of the Dnipro River, where a clutch of Ukrainian forces were poised for Russian attacks.

The Dnipro, Europe’s fourth-longest river and a historic trading route, has become a key front since Ukrainian troops pushed Russian forces back over its banks in the south last year.

The river winds the length of the country from north to south, eventually flowing into the Black Sea from the Kherson region, where it separates the two armies.

While Ukraine’s recapture of Kherson city last November was a defeat for the Kremlin, Russian forces on the opposing bank still control swathes of territory and shell towns and villages they retreated from.

“The Russians are throwing everything they have at us: artillery, attack drones, phosphorus,” an army sergeant with the call sign Vozhd, or Leader, told AFP.

His unit was keeping watch on the riverbank southwest of Kherson city, ready to alert artillery units if Russian forces made an incursion across the river.

Wearing a balaclava and carrying a gun, the 38-year-old serviceman said the good weather the region had been enjoying was playing in their favor.

“Rain is the enemy. When the sky is clear, you can see boats arriving much better,” he said.

‘Solid’ Russian defenses

Kyiv launched a major counteroffensive in the south and east in June but the front line has barely moved and the two sides have continually bombarded each other with heavy weaponry.

“We have the advantage on this side,” Vozhd said, standing on a small promontory topped with tufts of dry grass.

This position is higher than the opposite bank sheltering the Russian lines, around 10 kilometers across the water.

This autumn, Ukrainian forces appeared to have established several small bridgeheads on the left bank northeast of the city of Kherson.

Vozhd’s 45-year-old commander, whose call sign is Armyanchik, said his men also sometimes cross to the Dnipro’s left bank.

“The Russians are well prepared. They have solid lines of defense. It won’t be easy but on the other hand, this is our homeland and we know the terrain,” Armyanchik told AFP, conceding his forces lacked armored boats.

Karamba, a mustachioed 35-year-old, participated in operations on the opposite bank.

His work was to clear mines before assault brigades arrive, a task made more difficult by the breach of the dam in June, which sent a torrent of floodwater downstream and dislodged landmines.

“Because of the flooding, there are mines everywhere: inside ruined houses, in thickets and caught in dead branches,” he said.

At another position near the Dnipro, a unit of the 123rd territorial brigade was using a large abandoned building as a mortar position and to hide boats.

“We have to be discreet here,” said one soldier, referring to pro-Russian informers among the local population.

Barrier between two camps

Nearby a 31-year-old gunner with the call sign Vitamin was tasked with firing mortar rounds at coordinates provided by scouts like Vozhd.

“The Russians have had faster boats for two months now,” he said, making adjustments to his mortar.

His main target was a network of small islands scattered across the river, where he said the Russians were “trying to set up positions.”

“I’m here to stop them,” said the gunner, who said he’d sunk six Russian boats with their crews. He said he did not know the number of Ukrainian boats sunk in turn.

“The river is a natural rampart. It makes it more difficult for the enemy to position itself, but also for us to land on the other side,” he said.

Between his legs, a small dog named Zhulka barked. The Ukrainian soldiers rescued her from one of the islands during an operation.

She has since become a kind of “alarm signal,” since she always runs away from approaching drones — a serious hazard on the plains.

“Drones are always flying over our heads, our mortars and tanks. They constantly fire down at you — and that’s on top of the aviation,” Karamba said.

“The Russians have more drones than us,” Vitamin added.

“I’m sure they are watching us right now.”
…

Russia, Venezuela and Pakistan are the top three recipients of Chinese development funding in the past two decades, but the crisis-riddled countries may be losing attraction for Beijing.

China is moving to protect its global investments under the Belt and Road Initiative, according to a study released this week by AidData, a research lab at the U.S. university, William and Mary. The research shows that China gave $1.34 trillion dollars in grants and loans for more than 20,000 projects to 165 low-income and middle-income countries between 2000 and 2021.

While the top three recipients received funding for different reasons, AidData senior researcher Ammar Malik told VOA, “In the global chess board of great power competition between the U.S. and China, every country matters.”

Russia

With nearly $170 billion in development loans, Russia received the biggest chunk of Chinese funding over two decades.

Russia tops the list because China sees it as “strategically important” and Chinese funding is “one of the few options available” to it, Yun Sun, director of the China Program at the Washington-based Stimson Center, wrote to VOA.

China invested most heavily in the Russian industry, mining and construction sectors followed by banking and financial services, and communications.

Unlike many low and middle-income countries that rely on Chinese investments and aid for their domestic needs, the bulk of funding to Russia supports industries that export to China.

Although Russia has seen a drop in Chinese development funding over the years, Moscow will keep courting Beijing, said Ali Wyne, senior analyst with Eurasia Group’s Global Macro-Geopolitics practice.

“Russia believes that it can advance its great-power pretensions by deepening its ties to China, which is the only country that might eventually be able to contest the United States for global preeminence,” Wyne told VOA in a written statement.

Moscow’s debt to Beijing totals almost $130 billion, or 7.3% of its GDP. However, the lack of grants to Russia speaks to the strength of the Russian economy and shows that China expects economic gains by investing there, according to AidData.

But Beijing’s deepening economic and strategic ties with Russia come with a cost, Wyne noted.

“Russia’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine has significantly undermined China’s relationships with the United States and the European Union,” he said.

Venezuela

With almost $113 billion in investments from China in the past two decades, Venezuela is the second-largest recipient of Beijing’s credit and aid.

In AidData’s report, the bulk of China’s funding went to multisector projects that do not fall into any specific category due to a lack of information from Beijing, followed by the sector titled “industry, mining and construction.”

Venezuela has the world’s largest volume of proven oil reserves, and the country’s rapid growth created enormous demand for energy, making it attractive for Beijing to invest there, Wyne told VOA.

However, the third-largest chunk of Chinese spending in Venezuela went to budgetary support to save its economy. This reflects a trend seen in many recipients of Chinese funds.

“This rescue lending is intended to keep the whole financial system in these countries afloat so that they can repay the loans that they had taken on in the previous years,” said Malik.

According to AidData, more than half of China’s loans to low and middle-income countries have entered a repayment phase, but many of the borrowers are unable to pay back the debt. This has forced Beijing, the world’s single biggest creditor, to spend less on infrastructure projects under its global Belt and Road Initiative — known as BRI — launched in 2013, and more on rescuing countries in financial distress.

“The collapse of oil prices between mid-2014 and late 2015 as well as the economic mismanagement under President Nicolás Maduro undercut Venezuela’s ability to make loan repayments to China, thereby making Beijing more cautious about its economic dealings with Caracas,” Wyne said.

Since 2016, Caracas has seen a drop in Chinese funding.

Venezuela joined BRI in 2018. Yun Sun told VOA the South American country is not a key BRI target and will not be, for the foreseeable future.

Pakistan

With deep strategic, diplomatic and, lately, defense ties with China, Pakistan is the third-biggest recipient of Beijing’s credit and aid totaling more than $70 billion.

Pakistan’s 3,300-kilometer border with India to the east and the warm waters of the Arabian Sea to the south make this western neighbor of China an attractive choice for investment.

“Pakistan provides that long-term access into the Arabian Sea and through that into the Middle East for China,” said Uzair Younus, director of the Pakistan Initiative at the Washington-based Atlantic Council. “In a world where India and U.S. continue to come closer together, there is basically a default approach that the Chinese will take towards Pakistan.”

In the past two decades, China has invested most heavily in Pakistan’s energy sector, followed by budget support and loans for projects in the transportation and storage sector.

Home to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, or CPEC, which many call the BRI’s “crown jewel,” the country has seen a dramatic rise in Chinese funding since 2014.

The Pakistani government’s data indicates CPEC has so far created nearly 200,000 jobs, built more than 1,400 kilometers of highways and roads, and added 8,000 megawatts of electricity to the national grid. The country’s deep-sea southwestern port of Gwadar, the centerpiece of CPEC, handled 600,000 tons of cargo in the past 18 months, according to officials.

Despite billions in Chinese development funding, Pakistan has struggled economically, barely escaping collapse this year.

Islamabad now owes China more than $67 billion which equals 19.6% of its economy. Experts say Beijing’s heavy budgetary support to Islamabad — almost $21.3 billion in 22 years — is a sign that China does not want Pakistan to fail.

“The country that is basically building that crown jewel [CPEC] going into default or a disorderly default or an economic crisis is not good for the broader reputation of the BRI,” Younus said.

As in Venezuela and other financially distressed recipients, Chinese development funding to Pakistan is drying up as Beijing focuses on keeping the country afloat.

“The attractiveness of Pakistan even in Chinese eyes has definitely taken a hit,” Younus said, pointing to Chinese insurance company Sinosure’s hesitation in providing coverage to new projects in Pakistan.

Future outlook

Malik sees Pakistan as a microcosm of what is happening around the world in countries with Chinese investments, especially since the launch of BRI.

“Our research shows that when China faces headwinds in the form of political instability on the ground or a country running into debt crisis, China generally backs down and reduces its commitments,” Malik said.

China is looking to reduce the risks to its global investments, research shows. That means opting for countries that not only favor Beijing over Washington, but also provide a stable and secure environment for investments.
…

Turkey’s media regulator has voted to order the German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle, or DW, to obtain a broadcast license for its Turkish-language website.

The Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTUK) ruled on the move Wednesday in a majority vote, saying the German broadcaster must comply with a Turkish licensing regulation that came into force in 2019.

RTUK previously moved to block DW’s content in 32 languages under its dw.com domain, along with VOA Turkish, over the refusal by both media outlets to obtain a license.

Both international broadcasters said previously they could not comply with the regulation because of censorship concerns.

Since that initial ban in 2022, DW’s Turkish Service has used dwturkce.com to deliver news to audiences inside Turkey.

Tuncay Keser, an RTUK member appointed to the board by the opposition Republican People’s Party, announced that the regulator would give DW three days to apply for a broadcast license.

Failure to comply will result in RTUK’s request that a court block access inside the country to DW’s domain name, Keser said.

RTUK has yet to officially announce the three-day notice for DW on its website.

Erkan Arikan, who heads the DW Turkish language service, has said the broadcaster will continue to deliver news to audiences in Turkey.

“With our existing resources, we will continue to deliver the developments in the world, Europe, Germany and Turkey from different perspectives and with background information to our readers and viewers on different platforms, as always,” DW Turkish cited Arikan as saying.

The broadcaster has a pending case at Turkey’s Constitutional Court that argues that the ban imposed in 2022 “violated rights to freedom of expression, press, a fair trial and an effective remedy.”

Legal tensions

Carla Hagemann, DW’s corporate spokesperson, told VOA the legal requirements for obtaining a broadcast license in Turkey include establishing a company that is “50 percent owned by a Turkish citizen.”

“The responsibility for programs must be transferred to this person,” she said.

But, said Hagemann, that requirement is incompatible with German law, which puts overall responsibility for DW with its director-general. That power, she said, “may not be transferred to an external party.”

The licensing could enable Turkey to censor content, she added.

DW is governed by the Deutsche Welle Act, which defines the broadcaster’s programming, structure and financing.

According to the act, the director-general must manage the broadcaster independently and is “solely responsible for the preparation and planning of programs and for the operating of the corporation as a whole.”

RTUK did not respond to VOA’s email, sent late Thursday, requesting comment.

But in July 2022, when it first imposed bans on DW and VOA, RTUK said that if the outlets had complied, “blocking their websites by the independent judiciary would not have been applied.” 

“RTUK supports pluralism, free press and free reporting by media outlets. However, like every democratic country, Turkey is a state with the rule of law. RTUK, which is a guide to the sector, is in favor of the legal dissemination of news content under certain guarantees,” the regulator added.

Censorship concerns

In 2022, RTUK issued 54 penalties to five independent broadcasters but only four penalties to pro-government channels, according to the European Federation of Journalists.  

Several press freedom advocates in Turkey view the licensing requirement for international broadcasters as a tool for censorship.

“The main purpose of RTUK is to end, prevent and intimidate broadcasts that the [Turkish] government does not like. DW and VOA were among the broadcasts that the government did not like,” Faruk Bildirici, a media ombudsman and former RTUK member, told VOA.

Gurkan Ozturan, coordinator of the Media Freedom Rapid Response at Leipzig-based European Center for Press and Media Freedom, told VOA, “RTUK has long been acting like an apparatus of the government, targeting independent media, which poses a great threat against media pluralism in the country.”

Ozturan added that the demand that Deutsche Welle obtain a license “seems far from being well-intentioned, when we look at the track record of RTUK’s activities in recent years, issuing fines against independent media, making statements that threaten and endanger journalists.”

RTUK’s vote came on the same day the European Commission released its annual report on Turkey’s EU accession process.

The report criticized the state of freedom of expression and press in Turkey and listed the violations this year, including the ban on VOA Turkish’s website in August.

It also noted that Turkish authorities declined to extend the operating license of DW’s office in Turkey.

VOA Turkish contributed to this report. 
…

French President Emmanuel Macron gave opening remarks on Thursday in Paris at an aid conference for Gaza, stressing that “all lives have equal worth.”

Representatives from more than 50 nations, including the U.S. and several Arab states, were in attendance. Israeli officials weren’t invited but were informed of the meeting in advance, Macron’s press office said.

Macron appealed for a humanitarian pause in Israel’s counteroffensive against Hamas, saying that ensuring the safety of civilians is “non-negotiable.”

According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, around 1.5 million Palestinians – roughly 70% of Gaza’s population – have been forced to flee their homes because of Israeli air and ground attacks, prompted by the devastating October 7 Hamas assault on southern Israel. The Israeli government says it left 1,400 people dead.

More than 10,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli airstrikes, according to the Hamas-run Gaza health ministry.

The Paris forum hosted diplomats from the West and Middle East, as well as NGOs and U.N. dignitaries, with the goal of quickly mobilizing support for Palestinians in the Gaza Strip who are stuck in the worst humanitarian crisis there in recent memory.

Helping Palestinians access food, water, healthcare, fuel and electricity is a top priority, Macron and other leaders said.

The French president also argued the need for a two-state solution to lasting peace.

Palestinian Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh gave remarks demanding an end to the war, which he characterized as a war not against Hamas but “a war against the whole Palestinian people.”

“We must take care of the wounded, provide electricity, water, medicines,” he continued.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry said that while Israel had allowed some aid shipments into Gaza through the Rafah border crossing, they weren’t nearly enough.

Shoukry called on “the entire international community, and donor countries in particular, to continue supporting the Palestinian people in Gaza.”

Cyprus President Nikos Christodoulides detailed his plan to open a path by sea “to provide continued rapid, safe and unhindered flow of humanitarian aid in a pragmatic and effective manner.”

Thursday’s talks also saw European nations pledge financial support for the people of Gaza.

Macron said at the conference that France will give 80 million euros, or $85.7 million, in humanitarian support for Gazan civilians in addition to $21.4 million it had previously committed this year.

Macron’s announcement comes two days after Germany said it would donate 20 million euros on top of releasing 71 million euros, or $76.1 million, it had already set aside for the U.N. agency for Palestinian refugees, or UNRWA.

Denmark also promised to provide $10.7 million to Gazan civilians through U.N. humanitarian groups and the International Red Cross.

At a press conference after the conference, activists and philanthropic groups called for an immediate cease-fire, saying that humanitarian pauses wouldn’t allow enough time to address the ravages of war.

Agnès Callamard, the secretary general of human rights group Amnesty International, said that Israel’s military operations in Gaza constitute “a litany of violations of international law … not seen since World War II.”

UNRWA Commissioner-General Phillippe Lazzarini on Thursday sharply condemned how Israel has handled the war, saying, “Thousands of children killed cannot be ‘collateral damage.’”

Martin Griffiths, the under-secretary-general for humanitarian affairs at the U.N., said that nowhere in Gaza is there access to “adequate shelter, food, water, sanitation and health.”

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

Spanish police say that veteran right-wing politician Alejandro Vidal-Quadras, has been taken to the hospital after being shot in the face in Madrid.

Alejo Vidal-Quadras, 78, a member of Spain’s conservative popular party, and was its regional leader in Catalonia, was shot in the wealthy Salamanca area of central Madrid at about 1.30 p.m. local time.

Vidal-Quadras was conscious when he was taken to the hospital.

Police have identified two men in connection with the shooting, who got away on a black motorcycle. The gunman, wearing a helmet, left the motorcycle to carry out the shooting.

No arrests were made following the incident.

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

Britain’s interior minister on Thursday accused the country’s largest police force of being more lenient toward pro-Palestinian demonstrators than other groups, deepening a political feud sparked by the Israel-Hamas war. 

In a highly unusual attack on the police, Home Secretary Suella Braverman said London’s Metropolitan Police force was ignoring lawbreaking by “pro-Palestinian mobs.” She described demonstrators calling for a cease-fire in Gaza as “hate marchers.” 

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak was under growing pressure to fire Braverman, a divisive figure popular with the authoritarian wing of the governing Conservative Party. Sunak’s spokesperson, Max Blain, said that Braverman’s article had not been approved by the prime minister’s office before publication, but that Sunak still had full confidence in the home secretary. 

Pro-Palestinian protests have been held in London and other British cities every weekend since the war began more than a month ago. The government has criticized organizers for planning a march on Saturday because it is Armistice Day, the anniversary of the end of World War I, when many in Britain pause to remember victims of war.

Sunak has criticized planned protests on Remembrance weekend as “provocative and disrespectful.” But after summoning police chief Mark Rowley for talks on Wednesday, Sunak said the government backed “the right to peacefully protest. And the test of that freedom is whether our commitment to it can survive the discomfort and frustration of those who seek to use it, even if we disagree with them.” 

That appeared to end the dispute, but Braverman escalated it dramatically with an article in the Times of London newspaper. She accused the police of acting more leniently toward pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Black Lives Matter supporters than to right-wing protesters or soccer hooligans. 

“There is a perception that senior police officers play favorites when it comes to protesters,” Braverman said, and called demonstrations calling for a cease-fire in Gaza “an assertion of primacy by certain groups,” particularly Islamic extremists “of the kind we are more used to seeing in Northern Ireland,” an apparent reference to demonstrations by Irish republican groups. 

More than 3,600 people died in 30 years of violence involving Irish republicans, British loyalists and U.K security forces in Northern Ireland. Many politicians there called Braverman’s comparison insensitive and inaccurate. 

Colum Eastwood, leader of the Irish nationalist Social Democratic and Labour Party, said Braverman showed “ignorance of the conditions faced by the civilian population in Gaza, ignorance of the role of the Met police, ignorance of the complex history and traditions of marching and protest in Northern Ireland.” 

“She has managed to offend just about everyone — no mean feat in a divided society,” he said. 

Opposition politicians said Sunak’s unwillingness to fire Braverman showed weakness on the prime minister’s part. 

“He must know that this isn’t the way that a home secretary should behave,” said opposition Labour Party leader Keir Starmer. “He must know in himself that the role of responsible government is to reduce tension and to support police in the difficult decisions they have to make.” 

Hundreds of thousands of people have taken part in the Saturday demonstrations since the war began, sparked by Hamas’ deadly incursion into Israel on October 7. The protests are organized by left-wing groups and Muslim organizations. There also have been large rallies supporting Israel and demanding Hamas free the hostages it seized in its October 7 attack. 

Police say there have been almost 200 arrests across London related to the conflict, including 98 for suspected antisemitic offenses and 21 for alleged anti-Muslim offenses. 

Protests can be banned in Britain only if there is a risk of serious disorder. Police said that threshold has not been met, although they are worried that “breakaway groups intent on fueling disorder” may show up, including far-right activists. 

The home secretary is responsible for law and order and immigration policy, including the government’s stalled plan to send asylum-seekers who arrive in Britain in boats on a one-way trip to Rwanda. 

Countries around the world have grappled with how to handle the strong emotions stirred by the Middle East conflict. France’s interior minister last month issued an order to local authorities nationwide to ban pro-Palestinian protests, citing risks to public order. France’s highest administrative authority overturned the blanket ban a week later and said decisions should be made locally, based on risks to public order. 

Since then, France has seen several pro-Palestinian protests, some authorized and peaceful, some banned and quickly dispersed by police. 
…

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba Thursday rejected any calls for talks with Russia amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“Those who argue that Ukraine should negotiate with Russia now are either uninformed or misled, or they side with Russia and want Putin to take a pause before an even larger aggression,” Kuleba posted on X.

Kuleba said Ukraine “should not and will not fall into this trap.”

The Kremlin said Wednesday that it would engage in talks.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his side will not participate in negotiations until Russia has withdrawn all of its troops from areas it occupies in Ukraine.

Kuleba said Thursday that Ukraine and Russia held 200 rounds of talks between 2014 and 2022, which included 20 cease-fire agreements, and that none of those actions prevented Russia from launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year.

Some information for this story came from Agence France-Presse.
…

The sound of children’s footsteps echoed along a school hallway in the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson as pupils gathered to board a coach marked “Evacuation.”

Nadiya Kondratkova stood surrounded by suitcases, her crimson lips trembling and her eyes filled with tears. This was the first time she had parted from her daughters.

“They have to get some rest far away from the explosions and sirens,” Nadiya said, explaining her decision to send them away. 

“They’re exhausted,” she told AFP. “They can’t sleep anymore and they scream at night.”

The city has suffered daily attacks since it was recaptured by Ukrainian forces last November, after eight months under Russian occupation.

It lies on the Ukrainian-controlled west bank of the Dnipro River, the de-facto front line between the two warring sides.

But as Ukrainian troops launch attacks east of the river and Russian strikes intensify, parents now face a daunting choice: face the bombs as a family or get at least their children to safety.

Amid the growing danger, local officials set up a program to temporarily evacuate children to a holiday camp nestled in the idyllic mountains of western Ukraine.

“Our task is to get the children to a place of safety for a few months,” said Kherson official Anton Yefanov, standing next to a bus preparing to evacuate 65 children on top of the more than 280 already taken to safety.

“We’ve been feeling it’s getting more dangerous because there is more and more shelling,” he said.

Thuds of explosions sounded in the distance, while families of the evacuees chatted, alternating between laughter and tears.

“I don’t know when I’ll see them again,” Kondratkova said.

“I’m afraid to be in Kherson but I’m used to that. I lived through the occupation.”

‘Forget the war’

Ukraine says over 500 children have been killed since Russia invaded in February last year, a grim milestone in the more than 20-month conflict.

Yet not all families in Kherson are willing to separate, despite the calls to evacuate.

Volodymyr and Maryna Pсhelnyk, both in their 40s, said they preferred to keep their children with them, “even if it is dangerous”.

Their 11-year-old daughter Dariya darted around dressed as a witch for Halloween outside their flower stall in the city’s central market, while Volodymyr applied red makeup around the eyes of her 6-year-old sister, Anna.

“I am death, I hide in the shadows!” Dariya chanted, wrapped in a black cape.

“We celebrate Halloween to forget the war,” Volodymyr said, smiling. “They miss their friends. Many have gone abroad and to other cities.”

The girls, draped a sheet printed with cobwebs and bats, ran around bumping into elderly neighbors out shopping. 

“It’s difficult to be a parent at the moment. It’s difficult to explain to a child what’s happening without traumatizing them. We tell them to be more careful, to listen out for the sirens.”

He and his wife try to take their children to playgrounds “before the sirens,” he said, “so that they don’t forget there is warmth, cheeriness, happiness, and not just tragedy and death.”

‘Tragedy’

Children are a rare sight in Kherson. A few fly kites in play areas protected by sandbags or go out with their parents after dark when there are fewer air raids.

Gennadiy Grytskov, 43, decided to flee his Kherson suburb last month, after a missile hit his sister’s house, killing her 6-year-old son and wounding her 13-year-old son.

He now lives on the site of a former boarding school in Mykolaiv, some 70 kilometers to the northwest.

“It was a tragedy. When we fled, we just took my documents and the children’s clothes, that’s all,” he said, sitting on a makeshift bed.

The smell of stewed cabbage from a canteen pervaded the corridors of the building, now a temporary reception point for displaced people.

He shares a classroom converted into a bedroom with his five children, including a son who has a disability, and his 62-year-old mother, Lyubov.

Sitting close to her son, she showed a picture of her dead grandson on her phone.

“We were supposed to celebrate my son’s birthday that day. My grandson had told me he wanted to go to school, that he wanted to learn to write. He never got to go,” she said, in tears. 

Despite all this, she hopes to go back home one day.

“My home is my home,” she said, wiping away a tear.
…

Some 80 countries and international organizations meet in Paris on Thursday to coordinate aid and assess how to help the wounded in the Palestinian enclave of Gaza, although expectations for concrete results are low without some pause in fighting.

France offered support for Israel after a deadly Oct. 7 attack by Hamas Islamists, yet Israel’s retaliatory bombardment has raised concerns as civilian casualties have soared. Thousands have been killed, wounded and displaced in Gaza.

“It’s not a secret for anybody that access is difficult today in Gaza for basic necessities, medicines, water, etc… So the object is really to work with all the participants and also with Israel … to allow improved access,” a French presidential official told reporters ahead of the conference.

The Palestinian Authority’s prime minister will be present, but Israel was not invited. French officials said Israel was being kept informed of developments.

The conference brings together regional stakeholders such as Egypt, Jordan and the Gulf Arab countries as well as Western powers and G20 members except for Russia. International institutions and non-governmental organizations (NGOs) operating in Gaza, such as Doctors Without Borders, are also due to attend.

However, few heads of state, government or foreign ministers will attend, and NGOs have been critical that there is not more pressure at the conference for a cease-fire.

“It will be an exercise in repeating the national positions, saying what each state has given and will give, that civilians have to be protected and international humanitarian law kept to,” said one European diplomat.

French officials hope it will lay the groundwork for a swift international response when there is an actual pause in the fighting.

There will be some effort to mobilize financial resources with several sectors identified for emergency support based on U.N. assessments of the $1.1 billion of immediate needs and the opening of strictly humanitarian crossing points into Gaza.

France is due to announce an increase in its commitments.

Reestablishing the supply of water, fuel and electricity would be under discussion, while ensuring accountability processes to ensure aid was not diverted to Hamas.

There will be a discussion to set up a maritime corridor to use sea lanes to ship humanitarian aid into Gaza and see how ships could be used to help evacuate the wounded.

Talks will also assess the prospect for establishing field hospitals, although diplomats have said Egypt is reluctant to host a multitude of hospitals on its territory while setting them up in Gaza seems difficult without a humanitarian pause or cease-fire.

Without buy-in from Israel or Hamas for a pause there is little prospect of things moving quickly.

“We expect that the conference on humanitarian issues in Gaza will certainly raise the issue of the 241 Israeli hostages, who are in Gaza, including babies, children, women and the elderly,” an Israeli official told Reuters.

“This is a first-rate humanitarian issue and the international community has to discuss this topic as part of a humanitarian discussion on Gaza.”

The French presidency official said the issue would be on the table.
…

Transsexual people can be godparents at Roman Catholic baptisms, witnesses at religious weddings and receive baptism themselves, the Vatican’s doctrinal office said on Wednesday, responding to questions from a bishop. 

The department, known as the Dicastery of the Doctrine of the Faith, was vague, however, in response to a question about whether a same-sex couple could have a church baptism for an adopted child or one obtained through a surrogate mother. 

Bishop Jose Negri of Santo Amaro, Brazil, sent the doctrinal office six questions in July regarding LGBTQ people and their participation in the sacraments of baptism and matrimony. 

The three pages of questions and answers were signed by the department’s head, Argentine Cardinal Víctor Manuel Fernandez, and approved by Pope Francis on October 31. They were posted in Italian on the department’s website Wednesday. 

Francis, 86, has tried to make the church more welcoming to the LGBTQ community without changing church teachings, including one saying that same-sex attraction is not sinful but same-sex acts are. 

In response to a question of whether transsexual people can be baptized, the doctrinal office said they could with some conditions and as long as there is “no risk of causing a public scandal or disorientation among the faithful.” 

It said a transsexual people could be godparents at a baptism at the discretion of the local priest, as well as a witness at a church wedding, but the local priest should exercise “pastoral prudence” in his decision. 

A person in a same-sex relationship could also be a witness at a Catholic wedding, the office said, citing current church canonical legislation that contained no prohibition against it. 

The response was less clear regarding persons in same-sex relationships and their role in baptism, which is the initiation into the church for infants, children or adults. 

The Brazilian bishop sought guidance on whether a same-sex couple who had adopted a child or obtained it from a surrogate mother could have that child baptized in a Catholic ceremony. 

The response said that for the child of a same-sex couple to be baptized, there had to be “a well-founded hope that it would be educated in the Catholic religion.” 

There was a similarly nuanced response to a question about whether a person in a same-sex relationship could be a godparent at a church baptism. It said the person had to “lead a life that conforms to the faith.” 
…

On Wednesday, the European Commission recommended opening European Union membership negotiations with Ukraine and Moldova. The news was welcome in Ukraine, which remains at war with Russia but wants to bind its future with the EU. VOA’s Myroslava Gongadze reports. Camera: Eugene Shynkar.
…

The husband of Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist jailed in Russia on accusations that she failed to register as a foreign agent, is calling on the U.S. government to declare her “wrongfully detained.”

Kurmasheva, an American-Russian dual citizen, was detained on October 18. Authorities ordered her held until at least December 5.

The editor works with the Tatar-Bashkir service for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, or RFE/RL. She and her media outlet deny the charges against her.   

In his first public comments since Kurmasheva’s detention, her husband, Pavel Butorin, is urging the United States to classify the journalist as “wrongfully detained,” which would open additional government resources to help secure her release.

“We’re already very grateful for the support that we are receiving,” Butorin told VOA’s sister outlet RFE/RL. “This is a very important designation, the kind that comes from the United States government and from the State Department.”

Butorin, like Kurmasheva, works from the RFE/RL offices in Prague. Butorin heads Current Time TV, a Russian-language TV and digital network led by RFE/RL in partnership with VOA. 

“There is nothing we want to happen more than to get Alsu back. My children need her. I need my wife back,” Butorin said.

Kurmasheva has had no contact with her family since her arrest. 

The journalist had traveled to Russia in May for a family emergency. When she tried to return to Prague in June, her passports were confiscated. She was waiting for those documents to be returned when authorities detained her on October 18. 

Now, Kurmasheva is facing five years in prison for allegedly violating Russia’s “foreign agent” law.

Moscow says its foreign agent law is a response to the U.S. Foreign Agent Registration Act, but analysts say that the Kremlin uses the designation to target critics. 

Russia designated the U.S. Congress-funded RFE/RL a foreign agent in 2020.

The independent network refused to comply with the requirement to register as a foreign agent, saying it would be an invasion of its editorial processes and would limit the ability of the network to work.

U.S. officials and the U.N. Human Rights Office, along with media freedom and human rights groups, have called on Moscow to release Kurmasheva. 

“This appears to be another case of the Russian government harassing U.S. citizens,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in October.

Russia’s Washington embassy did not immediately reply to VOA’s email requesting comment. 

One of two journalists detained this year

Kurmasheva is the second American journalist jailed in Russia this year. 

In March, Russian authorities detained American Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich on espionage charges that he, his employer and the U.S. government deny. 

Declared wrongfully detained by the U.S. government, Gershkovich, 32, is in pre-trial detention until at least November 30. The detention period has been twice extended and appeals for bail denied.

“It’s really hard to believe that our colleague, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, has now been wrongfully detained for more than six months,” Almar Latour, chief executive of Dow Jones and publisher of The Wall Street Journal, said Tuesday at an Atlantic Council event about threats facing foreign correspondents.

“In 2023, journalism is under attack. Make no mistake about it,” Latour said. 

Paul Beckett, an assistant editor at the Journal who is focused on securing Gershkovich’s release, said the reporter is “in pretty decent shape” considering the circumstances. He added that the letters of support Gershkovich receives mean “a massive amount.”

The jailings of Gershkovich and Kurmasheva underscore global threats facing press freedom.  

At the end of 2022, a record high of 363 reporters were jailed around the world, according to research by the Committee to Protect Journalists. Of those, 19 were detained in Russia.

“The environment for journalists everywhere has deteriorated dramatically in recent years, and that’s in part because we’re seeing a global decline in democracy,” CPJ president Jodie Ginsberg said at the Atlantic Council. 
…

France has denounced an action taken by an Iranian court that sentenced a French national to five years in prison.

Louis Arnaud, a banking consultant who has been held in Iran’s Evin prison for over a year, was tried on national security charges.

The charges handed down by a Revolutionary Court include propaganda against and seeking to harm the security of the Islamic republic, the family said in a statement.

His family called the charges “baseless” and said that Arnaud, who they described as a “passionate traveler,” didn’t get involved with political movements while in Iran. The family added that Arnaud has appealed the sentence.

The French foreign ministry immediately condemned the ruling, calling the sentence “unacceptable” and saying that “there is no evidence” to support the ruling as Arnaud has no access to a lawyer.

“We call for his immediate release, as well as that of all French citizens arbitrarily detained in Iran,” the ministry said in a statement.

Iran has not confirmed the sentencing, and Iranian media has not reported on the court ruling.

Three other French citizens are currently held by Iran: teacher Cecile Kohler and her partner, Jacques Paris, and a man identified only by his first name, Olivier. France has described Iran’s keeping of French prisoners as state hostage taking.

Iran released French prisoners Bernard Phelan, who also is an Irish citizen, and Benjamin Briere in May after their health worsened following a hunger strike. French-Iranian academic Fariba Adelkhah was also able to return to France in October after he was held for four and a half years.

Iran has set free several other prisoners, including five Americans in a deal that released billions of dollars of Iranian funds that had been frozen in a South Korean account.

Some information in this report was taken from Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…