German police advised travelers on Sunday not to use Hamburg airport due to a developing hostage situation.

The airport in the northern part of the city has been closed to passengers and flights canceled since Saturday night when an armed man broke through an airport gate with his vehicle and fired twice into the air with a weapon, according to German news agency dpa.

Authorities also said the man’s wife had previously contacted them about a child abduction.

Police said that the 35-year-old man had his 4-year-old daughter inside the car whom he had reportedly taken by force from the mother in a possible custody battle.

A psychologist has been negotiating with the man for hours and there was no indication other people could be harmed since all passengers had evacuated the airport, police said.

“We must currently assume that he is in possession of a live firearm and possibly also explosive devices of an unknown type,” police wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

“Our top priority is to protect the child. According to our current knowledge, the child is physically well,” they added.

Hundreds of people whose flights couldn’t depart on Saturday night because of the situation were put up at hotels close by. Arriving planes were either rerouted to other German airports or canceled.
…

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Saturday visited Kyiv, where she met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The European Union is expected to make an announcement this week about Ukraine’s progress in fulfilling the necessary steps to begin EU membership negotiations, set for December.

“I must say you have made excellent progress. This is impressive to see,” von der Leyen said after meeting with Zelenskyy. “We should never forget you are fighting an existential war and at the same time you are deeply reforming your country,” she said.

Zelenskyy said in his daily address Saturday, “Ukraine has passed an enormous path – from a point where many didn’t believe in the possibility of our alignment with the European Union during a full-scale war to achieving the status of a candidate country at record speed and fulfilling the necessary prerequisites for opening negotiations.”

Ukraine applied to become a member of the EU days after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February of last year.

During a press conference with von der Leyen, Zelenskyy denied that the war had reached a stalemate and said Ukraine needs more help from its allies to strengthen its air defenses as it enters the 21st month of war.
…

A diver who spotted something metallic not far from Sardinia’s coast has led to the discovery of tens of thousands of ancient bronze coins.

Italy’s culture ministry said Saturday that the diver alerted authorities, who sent divers assigned to an art protection squad along with others from the ministry’s undersea archaeology department.

The coins dating from the first half of the fourth century were found in sea grass, not far from the northeast shore of the Mediterranean island. The ministry didn’t say exactly when the first diver caught a glimpse of something metallic just off shore, not far from the town of Arzachena.

Exactly how many coins have been retrieved hasn’t been determined yet, as they are being sorted. A ministry statement estimated that there are at least about 30,000 and possibly as many as 50,000, given their collective weight.

“All the coins were in an excellent and rare state of preservation,” the ministry said. The few coins that were damaged still had legible inscriptions, it said.

“The treasure found in the waters off Arzachena represent one of the most important coin discoveries,” in recent years, said Luigi La Rocca, a Sardinian archaeology department official.

La Rocca added in a statement that the find is “further evidence of the richness and importance of the archaeological heritage that the seabed of our seas, crossed by men and goods from the most ancient of epochs, still keep and preserve.”

Firefighter divers and border police divers were also involved in locating and retrieving the coins.

The coins were mainly found in a wide area of sand between the underwater seagrass and the beach, the ministry said. Given the location and shape of the seabed, there could be remains of ship wreckage nearby, the ministry said.
…

Pro-Palestinian demonstrators staged protests Saturday in London, Berlin, Paris, Ankara, Istanbul and Washington to call for a cease-fire in Gaza and castigate Israel after its military intensified its assault against Hamas.

In London, television footage showed large crowds holding sit-down protests blocking parts of the city center, before marching to Trafalgar Square.

Protesters held “Freedom for Palestine” placards and chanted “cease-fire now” and “in our thousands, in our millions, we are all Palestinians.”

Police said they had made 29 arrests. One person was arrested for displaying a placard that could incite hate, contrary to terrorism legislation.

Britain has supported Israel’s right to defend itself after Hamas killed 1,400 people and took more than 240 hostages in an Oct. 7 assault in southern Israel. Britain, along with United States and others in the West, has designated Hamas a terrorist organization.

Echoing Washington’s stance, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak’s government has stopped short of calling for a cease-fire, and instead advocated humanitarian pauses to allow aid into Gaza.

In Washington

Thousands of protesters marched down the streets of Washington waving Palestinian flags, some chanting “Biden, Biden you cannot hide, you signed up for genocide,” before congregating at Freedom Plaza, steps away from the White House.

Speakers denounced President Joe Biden’s support of Israel, declaring “you have blood on your hands.” Some vowed not to support Biden’s bid for a second term in the White House next year as well as campaigns by other Democrats seeking office, calling them “two-faced” liberals who were “not a refuge from right wingers.”

Others lashed out at civil rights leaders for not condemning the killing of women and children by Israeli bombings.

Gaza health officials said Saturday that more than 9,488 Palestinians have been killed so far in the Israeli assault.

In Paris

In central Paris, thousands marched to call for a cease-fire with placards reading “Stop the cycle of violence” and “To do nothing, to say nothing is to be complicit.”

It was one of the first, big gatherings in support of Palestinians to be legally allowed in Paris since the Hamas attack on October 7.

French authorities had banned some previous pro-Palestinian gatherings over concerns about public disorder.

France will host an international humanitarian conference on Gaza on Thursday as it looks to coordinate aid for the enclave.

“We came here today to show the people of France’s solidarity with the Palestinian people and our support for peace, for a peace solution with two states, an Israeli state and a Palestinian state,” said Antoine Guerreiro, a 30 year old civil servant.

Wahid Barek, a 66-year-old retiree, lamented the deaths of both Israeli and Palestinian civilians.

“I deplore civilian deaths on both sides. Civilians have nothing to do with these actions. It really is shameful,” he said.

In Berlin, elsewhere

In Berlin, demonstrators waved Palestinian flags, demanding a cease-fire. One woman marched with her arm in the air, her hand covered in fake blood.

Hundreds of protesters gathered in Istanbul and Ankara, a day before a visit to Turkey by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken for talks on Gaza.

Turkey, which has sharply criticized Israel and Western countries as the humanitarian crisis has intensified in Gaza, supports a two-state solution and hosts members of Hamas. Ankara does not consider Hamas a terrorist organization, unlike the United States, the European Union, and some Gulf states.

In Istanbul’s Sarachane park, protesters held banners saying “Blinken, the accomplice of the massacre, go away from Turkey,” with a picture of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Blinken together with a red “X” mark on it.

“Children are dying, babies are dying there, being bombed,” said 45-year-old teacher Gulsum Alpay.

Footage from Ankara showed protesters gathered near the U.S. Embassy, chanting slogans and holding posters which read: “Israel bombs hospitals, Biden pays for it.”
…

Countries moved a step closer Saturday to getting a fund off the ground to help poor states damaged by climate disasters, despite reservations from developing nations and the United States.  

The deal to create a “loss and damage” fund was hailed as a breakthrough for developing country negotiators at United Nations climate talks in Egypt last year, overcoming years of resistance from wealthy nations.  

But in the past 11 months, governments have struggled to reach consensus on the details of the fund, such as who will pay and where the fund will be located.  

A special U.N. committee tasked with implementing the fund met for a fifth time in Abu Dhabi this week — following a deadlock in Egypt last month — to finalize recommendations that will be put to governments when they meet for the annual climate summit COP28 in Dubai in less than four weeks. The goal is to get the fund up and running by 2024.  

The committee, representing a geographically diverse group of countries, resolved to recommend the World Bank serve as trustee and host of the fund — a tension point that has fueled divisions between developed and developing nations. 

Housing a fund at the World Bank, whose presidents are appointed by the U.S., would give donor countries outsized influence over the fund and result in high fees for recipient countries, developing countries have argued. 

To get all countries on board, it was agreed the World Bank would serve as interim trustee and host of the fund for a four-year period. 

Jennifer Morgan, Germany’s special climate envoy, said in a post on X that Berlin “stands ready to fulfill its responsibility — we’re actively working towards contributing to the new fund and assessing options for more structural sources of financing.” 

Others were less optimistic. 

“It is a somber day for climate justice, as rich countries turn their backs on vulnerable communities,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at nonprofit Climate Action Network International.  

“Rich countries … have not only coerced developing nations into accepting the World Bank as the host of the Loss and Damage Fund but have also evaded their duty to lead in providing financial assistance to those communities and countries.” 

The committee also recommended that developed countries be urged to continue to provide support to the fund, but failed to resolve whether wealthy nations would be under strict financial obligation to chip in. 

“We regret that the text does not reflect consensus concerning the need for clarity on the voluntary nature of contributions,” a U.S. State Department official told Reuters. 

The U.S. attempted to include a footnote clarifying that any contributions to the fund would be voluntary, but the committee chair did not allow it. The U.S. objected to that denial. 

Sultan al-Jaber, who will preside over the COP28 talks, said he welcomed the committee’s recommendations and that they would pave the way for an agreement at COP28.  
…

The protest movement that erupted in Iran last year has transformed the country both outside and inside prison, a French-Iranian academic, who returned to Paris last month after being held in the country since 2019, told AFP.  

Fariba Adelkhah was finally allowed to leave Iran in October after a four-and-a-half-year ordeal that began with her sudden arrest in 2019 and saw her spend years in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison. 

But there she was also able to witness the courage of her fellow women inmates, who included this year’s Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, amid the “Woman. Life. Freedom.” protests.   

Female political prisoners have often sung together in a show of defiance, Adelkhah, who was released from prison in February but remained unable to leave Iran for months, told AFP in an interview in Paris. 

That movement “has changed Iranian society and also its prisons,” said Adelkhah. 

The movement — calling for the end of Iran’s imposition of a headscarf on all women and clerical rule — was sparked by the death in Iranian custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in September 2022 after being arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s dress rules for women.  

Iranian security forces have cracked down on protests in the country, killing hundreds, according to rights groups, and have executed seven men in cases connected to the protests. 

Adelkhah said that in Evin the resistance movement brought together people from all walks of life — including rights activists, environmentalists, political opponents, and representatives of religious minorities. 

“We became united by this cause,” said the 64-year-old researcher in Iranian Shiite religion and politics.  

She herself was arrested on June 5, 2019, at Tehran’s airport, where she was waiting for her companion Roland Marchal. Neatly-dressed security agents “very respectfully” asked her to follow them, she said.  

Several hours later she was questioned for the first time, her head “facing the wall.” 

Psychological humiliation 

Adelkhah would be subjected to many other interrogations in the future, but she was never hit, Adelkhah said. 

“This happens very often to men, but I never heard women mention it when I was detained,” she said. 

“But the absence of physical violence does not prevent constant psychological humiliation,” she quickly added. 

Others, including rights activist Mohammadi, have spoken of the sexual abuse of detainees in prisons. 

The researcher was eventually sentenced to six years in prison. A five-year term was handed down for “colluding with foreigners” and one for “propaganda against the Islamic Republic,” she said. 

Marchal, a French sociologist specializing in sub-Saharan Africa, was arrested with Adelkhah. He was released in March 2020 as part of a prisoner exchange between Tehran and Paris. 

“I still don’t understand what I was accused of,” sighed Adelkhah, smiling. 

While in jail Adelkhah, along with another prisoner, Australian academic Kylie Moore-Gilbert, staged a hunger strike that lasted 50 days.  

They were among some two dozen Western passport holders held in Iran in what activists and some governments have termed a deliberate strategy of hostage-taking. 

Some have now been released, including all the American detainees, but around a dozen Europeans are still believed to be held, including four French nationals. 

Space of combat 

The “Woman. Life. Freedom.” protest movement has seen women prisoners defy prison authorities in Evin. 

In the jail, located in the hills of northern Tehran, female prisoners are bareheaded when they are among themselves, but required to cover themselves if a man enters or if they have to go to the hospital.  

After the start of the protests, “nearly no one wore the veil” when a man entered, said Adelkhah. 

On Wednesday, Iranian prison authorities blocked the jailed rights activist Mohammadi’s hospital transfer for urgently needed care over her refusal to wear the compulsory hijab, according to her family. 

Adelkhah praised the 51-year-old journalist and activist, seen as one of the women spearheading the uprising who has been repeatedly jailed and has been imprisoned again since 2021. 

She said Mohammadi has turned prison into “a space of combat, of protest par excellence,” adding that she was “more heard” in jail than when she outside. 

The researcher was still in Iran when Mohammadi was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in early October. She said she saw “smiles” in the streets. 

While the government quashed the daily protests with its repression, the slogan “Woman. Life. Freedom.” has become part of Iranian culture, she argued.  

“The Islamic Republic is forced to give ground over many things,” said Adelkhah. 

Today, like-minded Iranian women greet each other when they go out without their headscarves. Before it was “unthinkable,” said the researcher.  

Now they tell each other: “‘You are so beautiful!'” 
…

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is in Kyiv. Her Saturday visit takes place days before the European Union is set to announce Ukraine’s progress in fulfilling necessary steps to begin membership negotiations with the bloc.

Ukraine applied to become a member of the EU days after Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

The membership process usually takes years, but Ukraine considers membership vital as it battles Russia’s invasion and wants to join as soon as possible.

The EU is set to announce Wednesday whether Ukraine can begin accession talks with the group, which would begin in December.

Grateful for U.S. sanctions

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address Thursday he is grateful to the United States for “the new and very powerful sanctions” on more than 220 Russian “entities that work on aggression.”

The U.S. imposed sanctions Thursday on more than 100 people and firms from China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates who aid Russia in obtaining tools and equipment that are vital for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Zelenskyy said every sanction “must work in full, so that there is no chance for Russia to circumvent sanctions.”

“The power of sanctions is the power of the world,” he said.

Two civilians killed in Russian shelling

Russian shelling killed two more civilians Thursday — an 81-year-old woman in her yard and a 60-year-old man — in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, according to local authorities, marking the latest deaths in Russia’s assault on the region.

Russian artillery that targeted Kherson-area villages killed the two civilians, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. Four others were injured in the strikes, which also damaged buildings.

These two deaths come after one person died Wednesday in Russian shelling in the region’s capital, which is also called Kherson. Prokudin called it “an apocalyptic scene,” referring to damage caused by the assault.

Ukraine recaptured the city of Kherson last November after nearly nine months of Russian occupation. The Kherson region is a strategic area in the war given its proximity to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014 and is now where significant Russian war logistic operations are based.

Nuclear power plant

Meanwhile, Russia said Thursday Ukraine is “playing with fire” after Ukraine launched a drone attack near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear station. The plant has been under Russian control since March 2022.

Russian forces shot down nine Ukrainian drones, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry.

“Kyiv is continuing to ‘play with fire’ and is carrying out criminal and irresponsible provocations,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has regularly warned about the risk of a nuclear accident at the plant.

Progress of the war

As Ukraine’s four-month counteroffensive slowly continues, Ukrainian commander in chief General Valery Zaluzhny said the two sides had reached a stalemate.

“Just like in the First World War, we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate,” he told The Economist, adding, “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.”

Moscow rejected that characterization of the war, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying, “Russia is steadily carrying out the special military operation. All the goals that were set should be fulfilled.”

On the contrary, Ukraine claimed Friday that Russia’s latest assault in the Donbas town of Avdiivka was unsuccessful, saying of the fighting there that Russia’s “large-scale military assault has floundered on strong Ukrainian defenses.”

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

A new, permanent addition to the sprawling National WWII Museum in New Orleans is a three-story complex with displays as daunting as a simulated Nazi concentration camp bunk room, and as inspiring as a violin pieced together from scrap wood by an American prisoner of war.

The Liberation Pavilion, which opened Friday, is ambitious in scope. Its exhibits filling 3,065.80 square meters commemorate the end of the war’s death and destruction, emphasize its human costs and capture the horror of those who discovered the aftermath of Nazi atrocities. Films, photos and recorded oral histories recount the joys and challenges awaiting those who returned from battle, the international effort to seek justice for those killed and tortured, and a worldwide effort to recover and rebuild.

Underlying it all is the idea that almost 80 years later, the war’s social and geopolitical legacies endure — from the acceleration of civil rights and women’s equality movements in the U.S. to the formation of international alliances to protect democracy.

“We live in a world created by World War II,” Rob Citino, the museum’s Samuel Zemurray Stone Senior Historian. said when asked what he wants the pavilion’s visitors to remember.

It’s a grim tour at first. Visitors entering the complex pass a shimmering wall of military dog tags, each imprinted with the name of an American killed in action, a tribute to the more than 414,000 American war dead. The first centerpiece exhibit is a large crate used to ferry the coffin of an Army private home to his family in Ohio.

Steps away is a recreation of the secret rooms where Anne Frank and her family hid from the Nazis in Amsterdam. Then, a dimly lit room of wooden bunks and life-size projected images of the emaciated survivors of a Nazi concentration camp. Nearby is a simulated salt mine, its craggy walls lined with images of centuries-old paintings and crates of statuary — representing works of art plundered by the Germans and recovered after the war.

Amid the bleakness of the pavilion’s first floor are smaller and more hope-inspiring items, including a violin constructed by an American prisoner of war. Air Force 1st Lt. Clair Cline, a woodworker, used wood scavenged with the help of fellow prisoners to assemble the violin as a way of fighting the tedium of internment.

“He used bed slats and table legs. He scraped glue from the bottom of bits of furniture around the camp,” said Kimberly Guise, a senior curator at the museum.

The pavilion’s second floor focuses in part on what those who served faced upon returning home — “the responsibilities at home and abroad to defend freedom, advance human rights, protect democracy,” said Michael Bell, a retired Army colonel and the executive director of the museum’s Institute for the Study of War and Democracy.

Black veterans came back to a homeland still marred by segregation and even violence against people of color. Women had filled non-traditional roles at home and abroad. Pavilion exhibits make the case that their experiences energized efforts to achieve equality.

“Civil rights is the ’50s and women’s equality is more more like the ’60s,” Citino said. “But we think both of those seminal changes in American society can be traced back in a significant way to World War II.”

Other second-level exhibits include looks at the Nuremberg war crimes trials, the post-war emergence of the United States as a world superpower and the formation of international alliances meant to sustain peace and guard against the emergence of other worldwide threats to freedom.

“We talk about NATO or the United Nations, but I don’t know that most people understand that these are creations, American-led creations, from the war,” said Bell. “What our goal is, at least I’d say my goal, is to give the visitor a frame of reference or a lens in which way they can look at things going on in the world.”

The third floor includes a multi-format theater with moving screens and a rotating audience platform featuring a production of images and oral histories that, in Bell’s words, “really lays out a theme about freedom under pressure and the triumph of the American-led freedom.”

Museum officials say the pavilion is the final permanent exhibit at the museum, which opened in 2000 as the National D-Day Museum — a project spearheaded by two University of New Orleans professors and historians, Gordon Mueller and the late author Stephen Ambrose.

It soon expanded to encompass all aspects of the Second World War — overseas and on the home front. It is now a major New Orleans tourist attraction and a downtown landmark near the Mississippi River, highlighted by its “Canopy of Peace,” a sleek, three-pointed expanse of steel and fiberglass held roughly 46 meters over the campus by towers of steel.

The Liberation Pavilion is the latest example of the museum’s work to maintain awareness of the war and its aftermath as the generation that lived through it dies off — and as the Baby Boom generation raised on its lore reaches old age.

“World War II is as close to the Civil War as it is to us. It’s a long time ago in human lives, and especially our media-drenched culture. A week seems like a year and 80 years seems like five centuries,” said Citino. “I think the museum realized a long time ago it has a responsibility to keep the memory of this war, the achievement of that generation alive. And that’s precisely what Liberation Pavilion’s going to be talking about.”
…

Officials in Western Europe said Storm Ciaran killed at least 14 people over three days as it swept from the North Atlantic across Britain and northwestern France and into the North Sea, bringing with it record-breaking wind, heavy rain, high seas, hail and possibly a tornado.

The storm, named Ciaran by Britain’s meteorological agency, known as the Met Office, brought record-breaking wind to France, with 193-kph (120-mph) wind gusts reported in Brittany. The nation’s energy minister reported 1.2 million households lost power.

Officials in Italy’s Tuscany region declared a state of emergency with trees down and streets flooded. Nearly 200 millimeters (8 inches) of rain was reported on the northwestern coast.

On X, formerly known as Twitter, Tuscany Governor Eugenio Giani said six people had died in the storm, including an 85-year-old man who drowned on the ground floor of his house near Prato, north of Florence.

Media reports said falling trees, uprooted by strong winds, killed several people in France, Belgium, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany.

Britain’s Met Office reported the storm brought hailstones the size of tennis balls on the island of Jersey, where it also may have generated a tornado, rare for the region. The office said the storm set a record for the lowest barometric pressure recorded in the month of November. Meteorologists say, typically, that the lower the pressure, the stronger the storm.

The storm receded in northern France and along the Atlantic coast Friday, with the main parts of Ciaran spinning over the North Sea.  But heavy rains continued in some regions.

Meanwhile, in the Mediterranean, Corsica faced unusually fierce winds Friday – up to 140 kph (87 mph) – and regions in the Pyrenees, the mountains that separate the Iberian Peninsula from the rest of Europe, were under flood warnings.

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

The U.S. Department of Treasury on Friday sanctioned Ekaterina Zhdanova, an accused Russian money launderer who allegedly helped her country’s oligarchs move funds out of Moscow using cryptocurrency to evade Western sanctions.  

According to an official Treasury announcement, Zhdanova allegedly also helped ransomware groups and other “illicit actors” launder their gains.  

“We remain focused on safeguarding the U.S. and international financial system against those who seek to exploit this technology [cryptocurrency], among other illicit finance risks in the virtual assets ecosystem,” said Brian Nelson, undersecretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence. 

Zhdanova has reportedly used cryptocurrency exchanges such as Garantex to shift large sums of money across borders. She also is accused of transporting cash physically, as well as using traditional businesses as fronts for her operation, including an international luxury watch business that was not identified by name in the Treasury’s announcement.  

Her main clientele are Russian elites living outside of the country. According to one allegation, a Russian oligarch based in the United Arab Emirates contacted Zhdanova to move more than $100 million; she did so by using physical cash and virtual currency.  

Once an account becomes based in a country that is not sanctioned, a Russian oligarch can transfer the money all over the world, undermining international restrictions that were imposed in the aftermath of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.  

The new sanctions placed on Zhdanova mean that she is now blocked from accessing any property of hers in the U.S., and banks and cryptocurrency exchanges that continue to do business with her will be exposed to sanctions themselves.  
…

Ukrainian farmers say Russian drones have been targeting grain storehouses in central Ukraine in an attempt to harm the country’s infrastructure and economy. Anna Kosstutschenko has this story from Ukraine’s Odesa and Cherkasy Regions. VOA footage by Pavel Suhodolskiy.
…

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his daily address Thursday that he is grateful to the United States for “the new and very powerful sanctions” on more than 220 Russian “entities that work on aggression.”

The U.S. imposed sanctions Thursday on more than 100 people and firms from China, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates who aid Russia in obtaining tools and equipment that are vital for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The Ukrainian leader said every sanction “must work in full, so that there is no chance for Russia to circumvent sanctions.”  Zelenskyy said, “The power of sanctions is the power of the world.”

Russian shelling on Thursday killed two more civilians — an 81-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man — in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, according to local authorities, marking the latest deaths in Russia’s assault on the area.

The shelling targeted several villages, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. Four others were injured in the strikes, which also damaged buildings.

The two deaths came after one person died Wednesday in Russian shelling in the region’s capital, which is also called Kherson. Prokudin called the damage left by the assault “an apocalyptic scene.”

Ukraine recaptured the city of Kherson last November after nearly nine months of Russian occupation. The Kherson region is a strategic area in the war, given its proximity to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014 and is now where Russia has based significant logistic operations.

Meanwhile, Russia on Thursday said Ukraine was “playing with fire” after Ukraine launched a drone attack near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear station. The plant has been under Russian control since March 2022.

Russian forces shot down nine Ukrainian drones, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry.

Kyiv “is carrying out criminal and irresponsible provocations,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has regularly warned about the risk of a nuclear accident at the plant.

As Ukraine’s counteroffensive of more than four months slowly continues, General Valery Zaluzhny said the two sides had reached a stalemate.

“Just like in the First World War, we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate,” he told The Economist, adding, “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.”

Moscow rejected that characterization of the war, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying, “Russia is steadily carrying out the special military operation. All the goals that were set should be fulfilled.”

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

Record-breaking winds in France and across much of western Europe left at least seven people dead and injured others as Storm Ciarán swept through the continent Thursday. The storm devastated homes, causing travel mayhem and cut power to a vast number of people.

Winds of more than 190 kph slammed the northern tip of France’s Atlantic coast, uprooting trees and blowing out windows. Huge waves slammed into French ports and shorelines, as wind flattened street signs and ripped off roofing. Felled trees blocked roads around western France.

A truck driver was killed when his vehicle was hit by a tree in northern France’s inland Aisne region, Transport Minister Clement Beaune said. Meanwhile, a 70-year-old man in the port city of Le Havre, Normandy, died in a fall from his balcony. Local media outlet FranceBleu quoted a prosecutor as saying it appeared the man was closing his shutters against the wind when he fell. At least 16 people were injured in France, seven of them emergency workers.

About 1.2 million French households lost power, electrical utility Enedis said in a statement. That includes about half of the homes in Brittany, the Atlantic peninsula hardest hit by Ciarán. Enedis said it would deploy 3,000 workers to restore power when conditions allowed.

The wind reached up to around 160 kph on the Normandy coast and up to around 150 kph inland. Fishing crews put their livelihoods on hold and stayed ashore. Local authorities closed forests, parks and beachfronts in some regions.

Local trains were canceled across a swath of western France, and all roads in the Finistère region of Brittany were closed Thursday morning. Beaune, the transport minister, urged people to avoid driving and exercise caution when traveling across areas with weather warnings.

”We see how roads can be fatal in these circumstances,” he told broadcaster France-Info.

Much of Spain was battered by heavy rains and gale-force winds, city parks were closed, and several trains and flights were canceled. Emergency services in Madrid said a woman died after a tree fell on her. Three other people were slightly injured in the incident on a city center street.

Two people were killed by falling tree branches in central Ghent, Belgium, including a 5-year-old child. A 3-year-old was slightly injured in the same incident, said the Ghent prosecutor’s office in a statement. Another branch hit three German tourists in the central Ghent Citadel Park, killing a 64-year-old woman. Her daughter was seriously injured but the father was unhurt.

Belgian media reported a man was seriously injured when a wall collapsed due to the storm in the port city of Antwerp.

A storm warning was issued for the North Sea coast in Germany, and a warning of high winds for part of the Baltic Sea coast. Authorities said a 46-year-old woman was fatally injured by a falling tree in the Harz mountains in northern Germany. Weather alerts were also issued for much of Slovenia as the storm advanced, and the Adriatic port of Koper was closed to traffic.

Thousands were also without power in the United Kingdom. Sharp gusts blew roofs off buildings and toppled trees. Some had to evacuate their homes as Ciarán pummeled the south of England.

Hundreds of schools closed in the southern coastal communities of Cornwall and Devon, as downed trees and flooding hindered morning commutes.

Rail companies urged commuters to work from home if possible because of the potential for falling trees and debris on the tracks. P&O Ferries said tourist traffic was being sent away from the Port of Dover, which has suspended sailings. A major road in town was partly closed for public safety.

The Maritime and Coastguard Agency urged people to keep away from the coast.

“Stay out of dangerous situations,” the agency tweeted. “A selfie in stormy conditions isn’t worth risking your life for.”

Simon Partridge, senior meteorologist at U.K. government weather agency the Met Office, said the worst for England appeared to be over by midmorning. The storm is “starting to lose the energy it had when it first arrived,” he said.

Britain’s Environment Agency urged people to prepare for inland flooding, as some river levels remain high and the ground is saturated. By just after midday, there were 82 flood warnings, meaning flooding is expected, and 197 flood alerts, meaning flooding is possible, in place across England.

“Flooding of low-lying coastal roads is also possible and people must avoid driving through flood water, as just 30 centimeters of flowing water is enough to move your car,” said the agency’s flood duty manager, Ben Lukey.

The Met Office said the mean sea level pressure reading for England and Wales in November is the lowest ever, breaking a record from 1916.

On the Channel Islands, winds were between 144 kph and 160 kph for a full three hours. They smashed windows, damaged cars and tore roofs from buildings. Flights from airports on the islands of Jersey, Guernsey and Alderney were canceled.

“The hailstones were quite a bit heavier and bigger than a golf ball and we’ve had three windows damaged by them — in my daughter’s bedroom, a landing and a bathroom,” said Suzie Phillips, a homeowner in Jersey.

Jersey Police tweeted that 35 people were relocated after their homes were damaged and three others were hospitalized. They said trees were down across the island.

Dutch media reported that several people had been hit by falling trees in the Netherlands. One person was killed in the southern town of Venray.
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Russian shelling on Thursday killed two more civilians — an 81-year-old woman and a 60-year-old man — in southern Ukraine’s Kherson region, according to local authorities, marking the latest deaths in Russia’s assault on the area.

The shelling targeted several villages, Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said. Four others were injured in the strikes, which also damaged buildings.

The two deaths came after one person died Wednesday in Russian shelling in the region’s capital, which is also called Kherson. Prokudin called the damage left by the assault “an apocalyptic scene.”

Ukraine recaptured the city of Kherson last November after nearly nine months of Russian occupation. The Kherson region is a strategic area in the war, given its proximity to the Crimean Peninsula, which Moscow annexed in 2014 and is now where Russia has based significant logistic operations.

Meanwhile, Russia on Thursday said Ukraine was “playing with fire” after Ukraine launched a drone attack near the Zaporizhzhia nuclear station. The plant has been under Russian control since March 2022.

Russian forces shot down nine Ukrainian drones, according to Russia’s Defense Ministry.

Kyiv “is carrying out criminal and irresponsible provocations,” Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said.

The International Atomic Energy Agency has regularly warned about the risk of a nuclear accident at the plant.

As Ukraine’s counteroffensive of more than four months slowly continues, General Valery Zaluzhny said the two sides had reached a stalemate.

“Just like in the First World War, we have reached the level of technology that puts us into a stalemate,” he told The Economist, adding, “There will most likely be no deep and beautiful breakthrough.”

Moscow rejected that characterization of the war, with Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov saying, “Russia is steadily carrying out the special military operation. All the goals that were set should be fulfilled.”

Some information for this report came from Reuters, The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
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North Korea has likely supplied several types of missiles to Russia to support its war in Ukraine, along with its widely reported shipments of ammunition and shells, South Korea’s military said Thursday. 

In a background briefing for local journalists, South Korea’s military said North Korea was suspected of sending an unspecified number of short-range ballistic missiles, anti-tank missiles and portable anti-air missiles to Russia, in addition to rifles, rocket launchers, mortars and shells. 

The contents of the briefing were shared with The Associated Press. 

North Korea has been pushing to expand cooperation with Russia and China in the face of protracted security tensions with the United States and pandemic-caused domestic hardships. In an apparent sign of its economic troubles, the country is moving to close some of its overseas diplomatic missions. 

Last week, South Korea, the U.S. and Japan strongly condemned North Korea’s alleged supplying of munitions and military equipment to Russia, saying such weapons shipments sharply increased the human toll of Russia’s war in Ukraine. Any weapons trade with North Korea would be a violation of multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions that Russia, a permanent council member, previously endorsed. 

Both Russia and North Korea dismissed the weapons shipment accusations as baseless. 

In a private briefing with lawmakers Wednesday, the National Intelligence Service — South Korea’s main spy agency — said that more than a million North Korean artillery shells have been sent to Russia since August via ships and transport planes. The NIS said the deliveries roughly amounted to two months’ worth of shells for the Russians, according to lawmaker Yoo Sang-bum, who attended the NIS briefing. 

The NIS assessed that North Korea has been operating its munitions factories at full capacity to meet Russian munition demands and has also been mobilizing residents to increase production. 

The NIS said North Korea, for its part, is likely receiving Russian technological assistance over its plan to launch its first military spy satellite into space. North Korea’s two recent attempts to launch a spy satellite ended in failure for technical issues. The North failed to follow through with its vow to make a third launch attempt in October, without giving any reason. 

South Korea’s military said North Korea also seeks to receive nuclear-related technologies, fighter jets or related aircraft equipment, and assistance on the establishment of anti-air defense networks from Russia. 

North Korea is currently focusing on enlarging its nuclear arsenal while refusing to return to talks with the U.S. and South Korea. The country’s economy is reeling from major setbacks caused by draconian curbs imposed during the coronavirus pandemic and stringent U.S.-led sanctions.
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Iran’s foreign minister visited Ankara Wednesday amid growing regional rivalry as Turkey seeks to expand its influence from the Caucasus to Central Asia. But for now, the conflict in the Middle East is providing common ground. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul.
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North Korea has decided to close diplomatic missions in at least four locations across the globe, a significant diplomatic shift that some observers say may indicate severe economic challenges.

According to a series of media reports that began emerging last week, North Korea will shutter its embassies in Uganda, Angola and Spain, as well as its consulate in Hong Kong.

North Korean state media have not publicly explained the reasons behind the closures. However, a North Korean ambassador was quoted in The Independent, a Ugandan newspaper, as saying Pyongyang is reducing its number of embassies in Africa to “increase the efficiency” of its “external institutions.”

South Korea’s Ministry of Unification, which handles relations with the North, attributed the closures to strengthened international sanctions against North Korea, which have disrupted the cash-earning operations of its overseas missions.

“This is one aspect that shows North Korea’s difficult economic situation, where it is now difficult to even maintain minimal diplomatic relations with traditionally friendly countries,” a South Korean official told local media outlets.

Before the closures, North Korea had diplomatic missions in 53 places, according to South Korea’s unification ministry.

Many North Korean embassies have been involved in the smuggling of weapons, drugs, and luxury goods, as well as other illicit commercial activity meant to earn cash for their economically isolated government, according to media reports.

Sanctions pressure

North Korea is barred from a wide range of global trade activities under U.N. Security Council resolutions first put into place over its nuclear weapons program in 2006.

As sanctions pressure increased, North Korea expanded its economic ties in Africa, by sending construction workers there and exporting massive, communist-style statues that are erected in public squares.

In recent years, some African countries, including Angola, have taken steps to sever contracts with North Korean construction companies, and requested that North Korean workers leave, in order to comply with U.N. sanctions.

It not clear, however, how those developments may have factored into North Korea’s decision to close its embassies in Uganda and Angola.

In reality, multilateral sanctions pressure on North Korea has remained flat for several years, even as it rapidly expands its nuclear arsenal.

That’s because Russia and China, North Korea’s primary international backers, have refused to support more sanctions at the U.N. Security Council.

Severe economic woes?

Some observers say the embassy closures may instead point to even broader problems with North Korea’s economy.

Thae Yong-ho, a former senior North Korean diplomat who now serves as a South Korean lawmaker, said the closures “prove that North Korea is struggling economically.”

In a Facebook post, Thae said North Korea’s difficulties can be seen as a second version of the “Arduous March,” the famine in the 1990s that may have killed millions.

“North Korea claims their harvest this year was good, but North Korean defectors who fled recently have complained of hunger,” Thae added.

There are no signs of mass starvation in North Korea – but even if there were, the outside world would not necessarily know. Virtually all foreigners, such as aid workers and diplomats, left North Korea during the COVID-19 lockdown and have not returned.

Amid the isolation, North Korea has grown closer to China and Russia. Most notably, North Korea has sent many artillery shipments to Russia for use in Moscow’s war against Ukraine, according to U.S. and South Korean officials.

More profitable ventures?

Those steps are apparently not enough for North Korea to overcome its financial woes, said Mason Richey, associate professor at South Korea’s Hankuk University of Foreign Studies.

“Unless it’s just streamlining, a North Korean version of corporate restructuring – getting rid of non-core lines of business to be able to focus attention where it is most profitable,” he said.

One possibility, according to Richey, is that North Korea has found cyber attacks, such as theft of cryptocurrency, to be a much more efficient means of acquiring cash.

Over the past five years, North Korean hackers have stolen more than $2 billion in cryptocurrencies, according to an August report by TRM Labs, which studies crypto-related financial crime.

“If sanctions make generating money from embassies difficult, and the arms trade in Africa perhaps tougher, and they don’t need that so much anymore because of crypto theft … then why keep open useless embassies that are a drain on North Korean funds?” Richey said.

Lee Juhyun contributed to this report.
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The United States on Thursday imposed sweeping new measures against Moscow over the war in Ukraine, targeting Russia’s future energy capabilities, sanctions evasion and a suicide drone that has been a menace to Ukrainian troops and equipment, among others, in sanctions on hundreds of people and entities.

The latest measures target a major entity involved in the development, operation and ownership of a massive project in Siberia known as Arctic-2 LNG, the State Department said in a statement. The project is expected to ship chilled natural gas, known as liquefied natural gas, to global markets.

Washington also targeted the KUB-BLA and Lancet suicide drones being used by the Russian military in Ukraine, designating a network it accused of procuring items in support of their production as well as the creator and designer of the drones.

The U.S. Department of Commerce on Thursday added 13 entities in Russia and Uzbekistan to its export control list for acting contrary to U.S. national security or foreign policy interests.

The U.S. also cracked down on sanctions evasion in the United Arab Emirates, Turkey and China, as the Treasury Department said companies based in the countries continue to send high priority dual-use goods to Russia, including components Moscow relies on for its weapons systems.

The Treasury Department also imposed sanctions on seven Russia-based banks and dozens of industrial firms, including Gazpromneft Catalytic Systems LLC, which Treasury said manufactures chemical agents for advanced oil refining in Russia.

The Kremlin said on Thursday ahead of the action that it expected the West to impose ever tougher sanctions on it over the war, but that there was a growing sense that such penalties hurt Western interests while Russia’s economy was adapting well.

With the sanctions on limited liability company Arctic LNG 2, along with previous measures imposed on the project in September, the U.S. is trying to target Russia’s upcoming energy production, similar to how it targeted its future deep-sea, shale and Arctic oil production after Moscow’s invasion of Crimea in 2014. All of these hard-to-produce projects depend on Western technology.

The U.S., itself a large liquefied natural gas producer that exports to Europe, is also trying to reduce Russia’s LNG shipments to Europe, which has only banned Russian gas sent via pipeline.

Arctic LNG 2 has been expecting to start exporting soon, and it is uncertain how much Russian LNG would be blocked by the new measures. The largest Russian LNG producer, Novatek NVTK.MM, said in September it would start shipments from Arctic LNG 2 early next year.

Thursday’s action marks the first measures Washington has taken directly targeting the Lancet drone, an angular gray tube with two sets of four wings that has been an increasing threat on Ukraine’s frontlines, according to Ukrainian solders.

Washington targeted limited liability company ZALA Aero, a Russia-based manufacturer the State Department said designs, manufactures and sells loitering munition and suicide drones to the Russian Ministry of Defense, as well as A Level Aerosystems CST, a Russia-based entity manufacturing and selling drones under the ZALA brand.

The owner of the companies, Aleksandr Zakharov, was also targeted, as were his wife, daughter and sons, and companies they own. The State Department said Zakharov is the creator and designer of the drones.

Washington has stepped up diplomatic pressure on countries and private companies globally to ensure enforcement of the barrage of sanctions it has unleashed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Among those designated on Thursday were Turkish and UAE firms, including companies that sent high-priority goods to Russia and firms that have shipped aviation parts and equipment.

Three Chinese entities — two that the Treasury said have conducted hundreds of shipments of electro-optical equipment, cameras and other items, and one that has shipped radar components to Russia-based firms — were also targeted.

The State Department also imposed sanctions on multiple defense-related entities and procurement companies in the UAE.

Construction companies, Russian officials and a metals and mining company implementing a project to develop the largest titanium ore deposit in the world located in Russia were also hit with sanctions.
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The final Beatles recording is here.

Titled “Now and Then,” the almost impossible-to-believe track is four minutes and eight seconds of the first and only original Beatles recording of the 21st century. There’s a countdown, then acoustic guitar strumming and piano bleed into the unmistakable vocal tone of John Lennon in the song’s introduction: “I know it’s true / It’s all because of you / And if I make it through / It’s all because of you.”

More than four decades since Lennon’s murder and two since George Harrison’s death, the very last Beatles song has been released as a double A-side single with “Love Me Do,” the band’s 1962 debut single.

“Now and Then” comes from a batch of unreleased demos written by Lennon in the 1970s, which were given to his former bandmates by Yoko Ono. They used the tape to construct the songs “Free As a Bird” and “Real Love,” released in the mid-1990s. But there were technical limitations to finishing “Now and Then.”

On Wednesday, a short film titled “The Beatles — Now And Then — The Last Beatles Song” was released, detailing the creation of the track. On the original tape, Lennon’s voice was hidden and the piano was “hard to hear,” as Paul McCartney describes it. “And in those days, of course, we didn’t have the technology to do the separation.”

That changed in 2022, when the band — now a duo — was able to utilize the same technical restoration methods that separated the Beatles’ voices from background sounds during the making of director Peter Jackson’s 2021 documentary series, “The Beatles: Get Back.” And so, they were able to isolate Lennon’s voice from the original cassette and complete “Now and Then” using machine learning.

When the song was first announced in June, McCartney described artificial intelligence technology as “kind of scary but exciting,” adding: “We will just have to see where that leads.”

“To still be working on Beatles’ music in 2023 — wow,” he said in “The Beatles — Now And Then — The Last Beatles Song.” “We’re actually messing around with state-of-the-art technology, which is something the Beatles would’ve been very interested in.”

“The rumors were that we just made it up,” Ringo Starr told The Associated Press of Lennon’s contributions to the forthcoming track in September. “Like we would do that anyway.

“This is the last track, ever, that you’ll get the four Beatles on the track. John, Paul, George and Ringo,” he said.

McCartney and Starr built the track from Lennon’s demo, adding guitar parts George Harrison wrote in the 1995 sessions and a slide guitar solo in his signature style. McCartney and Starr tracked their bass and drum contributions. A string arrangement was written with the help of Giles Martin, son of the late Beatles producer George Martin — a clever recall to the classic ambitiousness of “Strawberry Fields,” or “Yesterday,” or “I Am the Walrus.” Those musicians couldn’t be told they were contributing to the last ever Beatles track, so McCartney played it off like a solo endeavor.

On Friday, an official music video for “Now and Then,” directed by Jackson, will premiere on the Beatles’ YouTube channel. It was created using footage McCartney and Starr took of themselves performing, 14 hours of “long forgotten film shot during the 1995 recording sessions, including several hours of Paul, George and Ringo working on ‘Now and Then,’ ” Jackson said in a statement.

It also uses previously unseen home movie footage provided by Lennon’s son Sean and Olivia Harrison, George’s wife, and “a few precious seconds of the Beatles performing in their leather suits, the earliest known film of the Beatles and never seen before,” provided by Pete Best, the band’s original drummer.

“The result is pretty nutty and provided the video with much needed balance between the sad and the funny,” said Jackson.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a bill on Thursday to throw out the Kremlin’s ban on nuclear testing.

Moscow’s move to renege on the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty, also called the CTBT, would “mirror” the White House’s position on nuclear testing, Putin said.

The United States is a signatory to the CTBT but has never ratified it. Seven other countries including China, Iran, Israel, Egypt, North Korea, India and Pakistan also never ratified the treaty.

In October, both houses of the Russian parliament passed the bill opting out of the CTBT. Putin’s signing it into law was expected.

Putin has sent a clear message to the West, and some analysts think that restarting nuclear tests after a more than two-decade ban could be a political maneuver to scare off NATO countries from helping Ukraine’s counteroffensive. 

But Putin is still undecided about whether Russia should go forward with nuclear testing, though various experts, he said, have argued to do so.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said last month that the Kremlin would respect the ban unless the United States stages any new nuclear tests.  

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