Although Halloween has passed, pumpkins are still an indispensable part of the fall season in the United States. Americans are expected to spend nearly $800 million on the decorative gourds this year. For many, heading to a pumpkin patch and picking a pumpkin is an annual tradition. Alexey Gorbachev has the story, narrated by Anna Rice
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Category Archives: News
Worldwide news. News is information about current events. This may be provided through many different media: word of mouth, printing, postal systems, broadcasting, electronic communication, or through the testimony of observers and witnesses to events. News is sometimes called “hard news” to differentiate it from soft media
Second Taiwanese fighter killed in Ukraine
Taipei, Taiwan — A second Taiwanese volunteer fighting alongside Ukrainian soldiers against Russia has been killed, Taiwan’s foreign ministry said Sunday.
The man was a member of the Ukrainian Foreign Legion, the ministry said in a statement, expressing condolences to his family, who did not want him publicly identified.
The ministry said it was informed of the man’s death Saturday and that Taiwan’s representative office in Poland had verified the information with the Ukrainian Foreign Legion.
No further details were released about how he died.
At the start of the invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy openly invited foreigners to come to his country to join a “foreign legion” that would fight alongside Ukrainians against the invading Russians.
Taiwanese media reported that the soldier returned to Ukraine in July after recovering from a leg injury.
There are currently “five to six” Taiwanese fighters in Ukraine, Taiwanese lawmaker Puma Shen, a member of the parliamentary defense committee, told AFP.
The first Taiwanese volunteer died on the battlefield in Ukraine in November 2022.
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5 migrants die trying to reach Spain’s Canary Islands
Madrid — Five bodies were found floating in the sea Sunday after the inflatable boat they were travelling in punctured around 90 km (56 miles) off the Spanish island of Lanzarote, in the Canary Islands, Spanish Sea Rescue services told Reuters.
A spokesperson said a rescue aircraft sighted two inflatable boats heading toward the archipelago, and that one of them had one of its floats deflated.
The aircraft launched two life rafts and was able to rescue 17 people from one vessel and 80 from another, but five bodies were also found.
State agency EFE said the rescue services had rescued more than 1,500 people over the weekend.
It also reported Sunday that at least 48 migrants died trying to reach the Canary Islands in a boat that departed Mauritania three weeks ago. Ten more migrants from the same craft were rescued near the island of El Hierro on Saturday, it said.
Calm seas and gentle winds associated with late summer in the Atlantic Ocean off West Africa have prompted a surge of migrants trying to escape extreme poverty and political instability in Africa’s Sahel region.
The Atlantic route to the Canary Islands has seen the fastest growth in irregular migration in recent years, though numbers remain below those on the Central Mediterranean route toward Italy.
Some 32,878 migrants took the route in boats from West Africa to the Canary Islands between January and Oct. 15, according to government figures, a rise of 39.7% from the same period last year.
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Death toll tops 200 in Spain’s deadliest modern-day natural disaster
Spain’s government reports more than 200 dead and dozens still missing following the deadliest flash floods in that country’s modern history. Locals say they feel abandoned by their government. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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Abdi Nageeye of Netherlands and Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya win New York City Marathon
New York — Abdi Nageeye of the Netherlands won the men’s race at the New York City Marathon on Sunday and Sheila Chepkirui of Kenya took the women’s event.
Both runners pulled away from their closest competitors in the final few hundred meters to come away with their first victories in the race.
Nageeye was step-for-step with 2022 champion Evans Chebet before using a burst heading into Central Park to come away with the win in 2 hours, 7 minutes, 39 seconds. Chebet finished 6 seconds behind.
Chepkirui was running New York for the first time and pulled away from defending champion Hellen Obiri in the women’s race. Chepkirui started to run marathons in 2022. She finished the race in 2:24.35. Obiri finished nearly 15 seconds behind.
Obiri was looking to be the first repeat champion since Mary Keitany of Kenya won three in a row from 2014-16. Vivian Cheruiyot of Kenya finished third, giving the African nation the top three spots.
Tamirat Tola, the men’s defending champion and Paris Olympic gold medalist, finished fourth, right behind Albert Korir.
The top Americans finished sixth in both races. Conner Mantz led the men and Sara Vaughn the women. Vaughn was in the lead group heading into Mile 20 when they entered the Bronx before she dropped off the lead pack.
Vaughn was geared up to run Chicago before COVID-19 kept her from competing in that race. She was a late addition to this marathon.
The day got started with an upset in the men’s wheelchair race as three-time defending champion Marcel Hug was beaten by Daniel Romanchuk, who won in 2018 and 2019. Susannah Scaroni won the women’s wheelchair race. It was her second victory in New York, also taking the 2022 race and giving Americans winners in both events — the first time that has happened.
The 26.2-mile course took runners through all five boroughs of New York, starting in Staten Island and ending in Central Park. This is the 48th year the race has been in all five boroughs. Before that, the route was completely in Central Park when it began in 1970. The first race had only 55 finishers while more than 50,000 are expected to compete this year.
The weather was perfect to run in with temperatures in the lower 40s when the race started. Last year, it was 61 degrees when the race started.
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Russia sends nearly 100 drones into Ukraine, as Zelenskyy urges tougher sanctions against Moscow
Kyiv, Ukraine — Moscow sent 96 drones and a guided air missile into Ukraine overnight into Sunday, Ukrainian officials said.
According to Ukraine’s Air Force, 66 drones were destroyed during the overnight barrage, along with the missile. A further 27 drones were “lost” over various areas, it said, likely having been electronically jammed, while one drone flew into Belarusian airspace. No casualties were reported.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russia had launched around 900 guided aerial bombs, 500 drones and 30 missiles against Ukraine over the past week.
Zelenskyy appealed Sunday on X to Ukraine’s allies to provide “long-range capabilities for our security”, saying that these “attacks would have been impossible if we had sufficient support from the world.”
Kyiv is still awaiting word from its Western partners on its repeated requests to use the long-range weapons they provide to hit targets on Russian soil, including for preemptive Ukrainian strikes on camps where North Korean troops are being trained.
The Ukrainian President also urged partners to enact “truly effective sanctions to prevent Russia from importing critical components for drone and missile production”. This appeal followed an address on Saturday, in which he said over 2,000 drones and missiles “still using Western components” were launched against Ukraine in October, and underlined the need for more stringent export controls to prevent sanctions evasion.
In Russia, the Defense Ministry said that 19 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight into Sunday in three regions of Russia: 16 in the Rostov region, two in the Belgorod region and one in the Volgograd region.
A man died Sunday in a Ukrainian drone attack in the Belgorod region, according to regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov.
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Protesters demand arrests over train station roof collapse that killed 14 people in Serbia
BELGRADE — Angry protesters on Sunday left red handprints at the entrances of government buildings in the Serbian capital to demand the arrest of officials, two days after a concrete canopy collapsed at a railway station, killing 14 people and injuring three.
Police formed a cordon outside the seat of the Ministry of Construction and Infrastructure in central Belgrade as several thousand people called for ranking government ministers, including Prime Minister Milos Vucevic, to immediately step down.
“Arrest, arrest!” chanted the crowd. They shouted at police officers outside the building that they are “guarding murderers” and that “your hands are bloody,” while holding banners reading “corruption kills” and “we are all under the canopy!”
“Everywhere you can, leave bloody hands so they know their hands are bloody. In every city in Serbia, everywhere you can,” opposition political activist Nikola Ristic said.
The concrete canopy that ran along the front of the railway station in the northern city of Novi Sad collapsed suddenly on Friday, landing on people who were sitting on benches or passing through the building’s entrance. Surveillance camera footage showed the canopy crashing down in seconds.
The dead included a 6-year-old girl. The three injured, who are between 18 and 24 years old, all had to have limbs amputated. They were still in serious condition on Sunday, doctors said.
Funerals for the victims, attended by thousands, have been held in northern Serbia.
The train station has been renovated twice in recent years, and critics of Serbia’s populist government attributed the disaster to rampant corruption, lack of transparency and sloppy renovations. The renovation was part of a wider deal with Chinese construction companies.
“Citizens no longer have anything to lose, they are increasingly becoming aware of this,” said liberal politician Biljana Stojkovic. “This is grief combined with anger, despair that is turning into rage.”
Serbia’s populist government has promised a thorough investigation, with prosecutors saying they already have questioned more than two dozen people. But critics believe that justice is unlikely to be served with the populists in firm control of the judicial system and the police.
Officials have insisted that the canopy had not been part of the renovation work, suggesting this was the reason why it collapsed but giving no explanation why this wasn’t done.
The Novi Sad railway station was originally built in 1964, while the renovated station was inaugurated by President Aleksandar Vucic and his populist ally, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, over two years ago as a major stopover for a planned fast train line between Belgrade and Budapest.
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A crowd of Spain’s flood survivors toss mud and shout insults at King Felipe VI
VALENCIA, Spain — A crowd of angry survivors of Spain’s floods tossed mud and shouted insults at Spain’s King Felipe VI and government officials when they made their first visit to one of the hardest hit towns on Sunday.
Government officials accompanied the monarch who tried to talk to locals while others shouted at him in Paiporta, an outskirt of Valencia city that has been devastated.
Police had to step in with officers on horseback to keep back the crowd of several dozens.
“Get out! Get out!” and “Killers!” rang out among other insults.
After being forced to seek protection from the mud, the king remained calm and made several efforts to speak to individual residents. One person appeared to have wept on his shoulder. He shook the hand of a man.
It was an unprecedented incident for a Royal House that takes great care to craft an image of a monarch who is liked by the nation.
Queen Letizia and regional Valencia President Carlo Mazón were also in the contingent.
Over 200 people have died from Tuesday’s floods and thousands have had their homes destroyed by the wall of water and mud. At least 60 of the dead were in Paiporta, an epicenter of suffering.
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Will people leave Florida after devastating hurricanes? History suggests not
orlando, florida — The news rippled through Treasure Island, Florida, almost like a third storm: The mayor planned to move off the barrier island a month after Hurricane Helene flooded tens of thousands of homes along the Gulf Coast and two weeks after Hurricane Milton also ravaged the state.
Mayor Tyler Payne’s home had been flooded and damaged beyond repair, he explained in a message to Treasure Island residents, and he and his husband can’t afford to rebuild. He also was stepping down as mayor.
“While it pains my heart to make this decision in the midst of our recovery from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, this is the best decision for me and my family,” Payne, who had held the office for more than three years and was a fourth-generation Treasure Island resident, said Monday.
Up and down Florida’s storm-battered Gulf Coast, residents are making the same calculations about whether they should stay or go. Can they afford to rebuild? What will insurance cover? People considering moving to Florida are contemplating whether it’s worth the risk to come to a hurricane-prone state.
These existential questions about Florida’s appeal are raised regularly after the state experiences a busy hurricane season, such as in 2004, when four hurricanes crossed the Sunshine State.
If moves into the state offer any answer, then hurricanes have served little as deterrents. Florida’s population has grown by one-third to 23 million residents in the two decades since Charley, Frances, Jeanne and Ivan ravaged the state. Last year, Florida added more than 365,000 residents, second only to Texas among states.
On the other hand, there are signs that Florida’s white-hot real estate market has cooled. Sales of single-family homes were down 12% in September compared with the same time in the previous year. But interest rates, rising home prices and skyrocketing insurance costs likely played bigger roles than the recent hurricanes.
“Florida recovers much faster than you think,” said Brad O’Connor, chief economist for Florida Realtors.
What happens after a storm?
Studies of hurricanes along the Gulf Coast have shown that any outbound migration tends to be short-lived, and if people do leave, it’s usually a short-distance move, such as from a barrier island to the mainland. Older people with more financial resources are more likely to return to devastated communities.
When it comes to the housing market, there may be an initial shock to the supply as homeowners wait for reimbursement from insurance companies to fix up their homes or sell them.
But in the three years after a hurricane, home prices in areas of Florida that were hit by one are 5% higher on average than elsewhere in the state because of smaller supply, according to a study of the impact of hurricanes on Florida’s housing market from 2000 to 2016. New homeowners tend to be richer than previous ones because wealthier buyers can absorb price increases.
Other factors that determine how quickly communities bounce back include whether homes were insured, the speed of insurance reimbursements, and whether there are enough construction workers. Because of stricter building codes implemented in the years after Hurricane Andrew devastated South Florida in 1992, newer homes withstand hurricanes better than older ones, O’Connor said.
“If a property is damaged and uninsured, and the homeowner says, ‘I don’t want to deal with this,’ there are always people willing to scoop up that property because it’s valuable land,” he said. “People build new homes under the new codes and there’s less of an impact from hurricanes.”
Short term and long term
Recent storms offer examples what happens to communities, both short term and longer term.
In Lee County, home to Fort Myers, Hurricane Ian made landfall two years ago in what had been one of the fastest growing parts of the United States. Population growth slowed afterward to 1.5% from 4.4% before the storm. The number of households dropped from about 340,000 to about 326,000, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
In 2019, three-quarters of all United Van Lines truck moves were into Lee County and a quarter were outbound, but that dropped to two-thirds inbound and a third outbound in 2023 to 2024, the company told The Associated Press.
The share of people in their late 20s, 30s and early 40s increased, as did the share of men with no spouse or partner, reflecting an influx of construction and recovery workers. The share of the white population dropped while it increased for the Hispanic community. The percentage of utility and transportation workers in the county jumped, according to the Census Bureau.
Bay County in the Florida Panhandle, where Michael made landfall as the first Category 5 hurricane on the continental U.S. in a quarter century in 2018, offers a portrait of longer term trends. Four years later, Bay County had recovered its pre-hurricane population, which dropped almost 6% in the year after the storm.
Since Michael, the county has grown more diverse, wealthier and older, with the median age rising from 39.6 to 41.4 and more people identifying as multiracial or Hispanic. The share of households earning $200,000 or more went from 4.3% before the hurricane to 8.3% in 2022 in a sign that some of the least affluent residents couldn’t afford to rebuild or return.
Treasure Island’s mayor
In his message to constituents, Payne said he would still stay connected to the Treasure Island community because his parents plan to rebuild on the barrier island, one of a string of beach towns along the Gulf of Mexico west of St. Petersburg known for motels, restaurants and bars lining the street. Payne, an attorney who also is an executive in his family’s eyeglass-lens manufacturing business, said in his message that his decision to move was “difficult.”
“I completely empathize with the difficult decisions that are facing so many of our residents,” he said.
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Opponents use parental rights, anti-trans messages to fight abortion ballot measures
CHICAGO — Billboards with the words “STOP Child Gender Surgery.” Pamphlets warning about endangering minors. “PROTECT PARENT RIGHTS” plastered on church bulletins.
As voters in nine states determine whether to enshrine abortion rights in their state constitutions, opponents are using parental rights and anti-transgender messages to try to undermine support for the ballot proposals.
The measures do not mention gender-affirming surgeries, and legal experts say changing existing parental notification and consent laws regarding abortions and gender-affirming care for minors would require court action. But anti-abortion groups hoping to end a losing streak at the ballot box have turned to the type of language many Republican candidates nationwide are using in their own campaigns as they seek to rally conservative Christian voters.
“It’s really outlandish to suggest that this amendment relates to things like gender reassignment surgery for minors,” said Matt Harris, an associate professor of political science at Park University in Parkville, Missouri, a state where abortion rights are on the ballot.
Since the U.S. Supreme Court eliminated constitutional protections for abortion, voters in seven states, including conservative Kentucky, Montana and Ohio, have either protected abortion rights or defeated attempts to curtail them.
“If you can’t win by telling the truth, you need a better argument, even if that means capitalizing on the demonization of trans children,” said Dr. Alex Dworak, a family medicine physician in Omaha, Nebraska, where anti-abortion groups are using the strategy.
Tying abortion-rights ballot initiatives to parental rights and gender-affirming is a strategy borrowed from playbooks used in Michigan and Ohio, where voters nonetheless enshrined abortion rights in the state constitutions.
Both states still require minors to get parental consent for abortions, and the new amendments have not yet impacted parental involvement or gender-affirming care laws in either state, said David Cohen, a law professor at Drexel University.
“It’s just recycling the same strategies,” Cohen said.
In addition to Missouri and Nebraska, states where voters are considering constitutional amendments this fall are Montana, Arizona, Colorado, Florida, Maryland, Nevada and South Dakota.
Missouri’s abortion ballot measure has especially become a target. The amendment would bar the government from infringing on a “person’s fundamental right to reproductive freedom.”
Gov. Mike Parson and U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley, both Republicans, have claimed the proposal would allow minors to get abortions and gender-affirming surgeries without parental involvement.
The amendment protects reproductive health services, “including but not limited to” a list of items such as prenatal care, childbirth, birth control and abortion. It does not mention gender-affirming care, but Missouri state Sen. Mary Elizabeth Coleman, a Republican and lawyer with the conservative Thomas More Society, said it’s possible that could be considered reproductive health services.
Several legal experts told The Associated Press that would require a court ruling that is improbable.
“It would be a real stretch for any court to say that anything connected with gender-affirming care counts as reproductive health care,” said Saint Louis University law and gender studies professor Marcia McCormick. She noted that examples listed as reproductive health care in the Missouri amendment are all directly related to pregnancy.
As for parental consent for minors’ abortions, she pointed to an existing state law that is written similarly to one the U.S. Supreme Court found constitutional, even before Roe v. Wade was overturned.
Most states have parental involvement laws, whether requiring parental consent or notification. Even many Democratic-leaning states with explicit protections for transgender rights require parental involvement before an abortion or gender-affirming care for minors, said Mary Ruth Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California, Davis School of Law.
A state high court would have to overturn such laws, which is highly unlikely from conservative majorities in many of the states with abortion on the ballot, experts said.
In New York, a proposed amendment to the state constitution would expand antidiscrimination protections to include ethnicity, national origin, age, disability and “sex, including sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, pregnancy, pregnancy outcomes, and reproductive health care and autonomy.” The constitution already bans discrimination based on race, color, creed or religion.
The measure does not mention abortion. But because it is broader, it could be easier for opponents to attack it. But legal experts noted that it would also not change existing state laws related to parental involvement in minors getting abortions or gender-affirming care.
The New York City Bar Association released a fact sheet explaining that the measure would not impact parental rights, “which are governed by other developed areas of state and federal law.” Yet the Coalition to Protect Kids-NY calls it the “Parent Replacement Act.”
Rick Weiland, co-founder of Dakotans for Health, the group behind South Dakota’s proposed amendment said it uses the Roe v. Wade framework “almost word for word.”
“All you have to do is look back at what was allowed under Roe, and there were always requirements for parental involvement,” Weiland said.
Caroline Woods, spokesperson for the anti-abortion group Life Defense Fund, said the measure “means loving parents will be completely cut out of the equation.” Weiland said those claims are part of a “constant stream of misinformation” from opponents.
If this campaign strategy failed in Michigan and Ohio, why are anti-abortion groups leaning on it for the November elections?
Ziegler, the University of California, Davis, law professor, said abortion-rights opponents know they may be “playing on more favorable terrain” in more conservative states like Missouri or in states like Florida that have higher thresholds for passing ballot measures.
“Anti-abortion groups are still looking for a winning recipe,” Ziegler said.
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Ukrainian front-line school system goes underground to protect against bombs, radiation
ZAPORIZHZHIA, Ukraine — To be a parent in the Ukrainian front-line city of Zaporizhzhia means weighing your child’s life against the Russian weapons within striking distance.
Most rain death in an instant: the drones, the ballistic missiles, the glide bombs, the artillery shells. But Russian soldiers control another weapon they have never deployed, with the potential to be just as deadly: The nearby Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant.
The NPP, as it’s known, once produced more electricity than any other nuclear power plant in Europe. It fell to Russian forces in the first weeks of the full-scale invasion, and Russia has held its six reactors ever since. The plant has come under repeated attacks that both sides blame on the other.
These twin dangers — bombs and radiation — shadow families in Zaporizhzhia. Most of the youngest residents of the city have never seen the inside of a classroom. Schools that had suspended in-person classes during the COVID-19 pandemic more than four years ago continued online classes after the war started in February 2022.
So with missiles and bombs still striking daily, Zaporizhzhia is going on a building binge for its future, creating an underground school system.
Construction has begun on a dozen subterranean schools designed to be radiation- and bomb-proof and capable of educating 12,000 students. Then, officials say, they will start on the hospital system.
The daily bombs are a more tangible fear than radiation, said Kateryna Ryzhko, a mother whose children are the third generation in her family to attend School No. 88. The main building, dating to the Soviet era of the children’s grandmother, is immaculate but the classrooms are empty. The underground version is nearly complete, and Ryzhko said she wouldn’t hesitate to send her kids to class there. Nearly four years of online learning have taken their toll on kids and parents alike.
“Even classmates don’t recognize each other,” she said. “It’s the only safe way to have an education and not be on screens.”
Nuclear shadow
Within days of Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Zaporizhzhia’s 300,000 residents found themselves on the front lines. Unlike larger Ukrainian cities, like Kyiv or Kharkiv, there is no subway system that could do double-duty as a bomb shelter and few schools had basements where students could more safely attend classes.
Many residents left — though some have returned. But the single-family homes and Soviet-style apartment blocks of Zaporizhzhia, the capital of the region that shares its name, filled nearly as quickly with Ukrainians fleeing areas seized by Russian forces, like the cities of Mariupol, Melitopol and Berdyansk.
By the start of the school year in September 2022, which was supposed to mark the post-pandemic return to classrooms, schools were empty. Windows were boarded up to protect against bomb shockwaves, the lawns left unkempt. Fifty kilometers away, the nuclear reactor went into cold shutdown after intense negotiations between the International Atomic Energy Agency and the Russian government.
The IAEA has rotated a handful of staff on site ever since. There are risks even in cold shutdown, when the reactor is operating but not generating power. The main danger is that its external electrical supply, which comes from Ukrainian-controlled territory under constant Russian bombardment, will be cut off for a longer period than generators can handle.
The nuclear plant needs electricity to keep crucial backups functioning, including water pumps that prevent meltdowns, radiation monitors and other essential safety systems.
During a recent Associated Press trip to the Ukrainian-controlled zone closest to the nuclear plant, two airborne bombs struck electrical infrastructure in a matter of minutes as night fell. Russia has repeatedly struck at Ukraine’s grid, attacks that have intensified this year. Highlighting the constant danger, electricity to the NPP was cut yet again for three days as emergency workers struggled to put out the fire. It was at least the seventh time this year that the plant was down to either a single electrical line or generator power, according to the global Nuclear Energy Agency.
“Nuclear power plants are not meant to be disconnected from the grid. It’s not designed for that. It’s also not designed to be operating in cold shutdown for that long,” said Darya Dolzikova, a researcher on nuclear policy at the Royal United Services Institute in London.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accuses Russia of targeting nuclear plants deliberately. The 1986 meltdown in Ukraine’s Chornobyl, on the northern border nearly 900 kilometers from Zaporizhzhia, increased the country’s rates of thyroid disease among Ukrainian children far from the accident site and radiation contaminated the immediate surroundings before drifting over much of the Northern Hemisphere. To this day, the area around the plant, known in Russian as Chernobyl, is an “exclusion zone” off-limits except to the technical staff needed to keep the decommissioned site safe.
Russian forces seized control of Chornobyl in the first days of the invasion, only to be driven back by Ukrainian forces.
The Zaporizhzhia plant has a safer, more modern design than Chornobyl and there’s not the same danger of a large-scale meltdown, experts say. But that doesn’t reduce the risk to zero, and Russia will remain a threatening neighbor even after the war ends.
An investment that might seem extreme elsewhere is more understandable in Ukraine, said Sam Lair, a researcher at the Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
“They are there under a conventional air and missile attack from the Russians, and they have experience with the fact that those attacks aren’t being targeted only at military targets,” Lair said. “If I were in their position, I would be building them too.”
In addition, the Zaporizhzhia region received a European Union donation of 5.5 million iodine pills, which help block the thyroid’s absorption of some radiation.
Since the start of the war, Russia has repeatedly alluded to its nuclear weapons stockpile without leveling direct threats. In September, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Russia would consider any attack by a country supported by a nuclear-armed nation to be a joint attack and stressed that Russia could respond with nuclear weapons to any attack that posed a “critical threat to our sovereignty.”
Ukrainian officials fear that the Russian attacks on Chornobyl and the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plants may be just a start. During his speech in late September to the U.N. General Assembly, Zelenskyy warned that Russia was preparing strikes on more nuclear plants, which generate a large portion of Ukraine’s electricity.
“If, God forbid, Russia causes a nuclear disaster at one of our nuclear power plants, radiation won’t respect state borders,” Zelenskyy said.
Underground for the future
The cost to build a subterranean school system is enormous — the budget for the underground version of Gymnasium No. 71 alone stands at more than 112 million hryvnias ($2.7 million). International donors are covering most of it, and the national and local governments have made it a priority on par with funding the army.
“Everybody understands that fortification and aid for the army, it’s priority No. 1,” said Ivan Fedorov, head of the Zaporizhzhia region. “But if we lose the new generation of our Ukrainians, for whom (do) we fight?”
Daria Oncheva, a 15-year-old student at Gymnasium 71, looks forward to the underground classes, and not just because she’ll finally be in the same place as her schoolmates.
“It’s safer than sitting at home remotely,” she said.
School No. 88, across town, is further along, with rooms carved out and fully lined with concrete thick enough to block an initial onslaught of radiation. The contractor leading the project is also digging trenches for Ukraine’s military. When done, it will also be the primary bomb shelter for the neighborhood, whose single-family homes tend to have small orchards and trellised gardens — but no basements.
An optimistic timeline has the school ready for children by December. It has three layers of rebar totaling 400 tons of metal, plus 3,100 cubic meters of reinforced concrete. The building will be topped by nearly a meter of earth, concealed by a soccer field and playground.
The school will have an air filtration system, two distinct electrical lines and the ability to operate autonomously for three days, including with extra food and water supplies.
Michael Dillon, a scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory who studies how people can survive nuclear fallout, said being underground improves survival by a factor of 10.
But Alicia Sanders-Zakre at the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons said ultimately people can do more — “which is eliminating these weapons instead of … building, really not even a Band-Aid, for the actual problem.”
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Moldovan runoff election starts amid fraud and intimidation claims
CHISINAU, Moldova — Moldovans are casting votes in a decisive presidential runoff Sunday that pits pro-Western incumbent Maia Sandu against a Russia-friendly opponent, as ongoing claims of voter fraud and intimidation threaten democracy in the European Union candidate country.
In the first round held October 20, Sandu obtained 42% of the ballot but failed to win an outright majority. She will face Alexandr Stoianoglo, a former prosecutor general, who outperformed polls in the first round with almost 26% of the vote.
Polling stations opened Sunday at 7 a.m. local time (0500 GMT) and will close at 9 p.m. (1900 GMT).
A poll released by research company iData indicates a tight race that leans toward a narrow Sandu victory, an outcome that might rely on Moldova’s large diaspora. The presidential role carries significant powers in areas such as foreign policy and national security and has a four-year term.
Moldova’s diaspora played a key role in a nationwide referendum also held on October 20, when a narrow majority of 50.35% voted to secure Moldova’s path toward EU membership. But the results of the ballots including Sunday’s vote have been overshadowed by allegations of a major vote-buying scheme and voter intimidation.
Instead of winning the overwhelming support that Sandu had hoped, the results in both races exposed Moldova’s judiciary as unable to adequately protect the democratic process.
On Friday, Moldova’s Prime Minister Dorin Recean said that people throughout the country were receiving “anonymous death threats via phone calls” in what he called “an extreme attack” to scare voters in the former Soviet republic, which has a population of about 2.5 million people.
“These acts of intimidation have only one purpose: to create panic and fear,” Recean said in a statement posted on social media. “I assure you that state institutions will ensure order and protect citizens.”
Outside a polling station on Sunday in Romania’s capital, Bucharest, 20-year-old medical student Silviana Zestrea said the runoff would be a “definitive step” toward Moldova’s future.
“People need to understand that we have to choose a true candidate that will fulfill our expectations,” she said. “Because I think even if we are a diaspora now, none of us actually wanted to leave.”
In the wake of the two October votes, Moldovan law enforcement said that a vote-buying scheme was orchestrated by Ilan Shor, an exiled oligarch who lives in Russia and was convicted in absentia last year of fraud and money laundering. Shor denies any wrongdoing.
Prosecutors say $39 million was paid to more than 130,000 recipients through an internationally sanctioned Russian bank to voters between September and October. Anticorruption authorities have conducted hundreds of searches and seized over $2.7 million (2.5 million euros) in cash as they attempt to crack down.
In one case in Gagauzia, an autonomous part of Moldova where only 5% voted in favor of the EU, a physician was detained after allegedly coercing 25 residents of a home for older adults to vote for a candidate they did not choose. Police said they obtained “conclusive evidence,” including financial transfers from the same Russian bank.
On Saturday at a church in Comrat, the capital of Gagauzia, Father Vasilii told the Associated Press that he’s urged people to go and vote because it’s a “civic obligation” and that they do not name any candidates. “We use the goods the country offers us — light, gas,” he said. “Whether we like what the government does or not, we must go and vote. … The church always prays for peace.”
On Thursday, prosecutors also raided a political party headquarters and said 12 people were suspected of paying voters to select a candidate in the presidential race. A criminal case was also opened in which 40 state agency employees were suspected of taking electoral bribes.
Cristian Cantir, a Moldovan associate professor of international relations at Oakland University, told the AP that whatever the outcome of the second round, it “will not deflate” geopolitical tensions. “On the contrary, I expect geopolitical polarization to be amplified by the campaign for the 2025 legislative elections,” he said.
Moldovan law enforcement needs more resources and better-trained staff working at a faster pace to tackle voter fraud, he added, to “create an environment in which anyone tempted to either buy or sell votes knows there will be clear and fast consequences.”
Savlina Adasan, a 21-year-old economics student in Bucharest, says she voted for Sandu and cited concerns about corruption and voters uninformed about the two candidates.
“We want a European future for our country,” she said, adding that it offers “many opportunities, development for our country … and I feel like if the other candidate wins, then it means that we are going ten steps back as a country.”
A pro-Western government has been in power in Moldova since 2021, and a parliamentary election will be held in 2025. Moldova watchers warn that next year’s vote could be Moscow’s main target.
In the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Moldova applied to join the EU. It was granted candidate status in June of that year, and in summer 2024, Brussels agreed to start membership negotiations. The sharp Westward shift irked Moscow and significantly soured relations with Chisinau.
Since then, Moldovan authorities have repeatedly accused Russia of waging a vast “hybrid war,” from sprawling disinformation campaigns to protests by pro-Russia parties to vote-buying schemes that undermine countrywide elections. Russia has denied it is meddling.
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Families separated by US-Mexico border reunite for a few precious minutes
CIUDAD JUAREZ, Mexico — Nearly 200 families gathered Saturday along a stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border for heartfelt but brief reunions with loved ones they had not seen for years because they live in different countries.
Tears flowed and people embraced as Mexican families were allowed to reunite for a few minutes at the border with relatives who migrated to the U.S. Adults and children passed over the Rio Grande to meet with their loved ones.
This year, the annual “Hugs Not Walls” event organized by an immigrant rights advocacy group happened three days before the U.S. presidential election, whose monthslong campaigns have focused heavily on immigration and border security. It also took place under decreased security, according to the Network in Defense of the Rights of Migrants.
“We did not have barbed wire, we did not have so many soldiers deployed in our community,” said Fernando Garcia, the organization’s director, highlighting the border security changes that the border has seen since the reunions began last decade. “The barbed wire had to be opened so that the families could have this event.”
Garcia said he expects migration into the U.S. to continue regardless of who wins Tuesday’s election. Family reunions, he said, will continue, too.
“Deportation policy, border policy, immigration policy, is separating families in an extraordinary way and is deeply impacting these families,” he said.
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VOA immigration weekly recap, Oct. 27–Nov. 2
Editor’s note: Here is a look at immigration-related news around the U.S. this week. Questions? Tips? Comments? Email the VOA immigration team: ImmigrationUnit@voanews.com.
By immigrants, for immigrants: ‘Documented’ covers immigration through a personal lens
In New York City, a media outlet run by immigrants for immigrants uses messaging apps to engage with communities on elections, crime and local issues. Liam Scott and Cristina Caicedo Smit have the story, narrated by Caicedo Smit. Tina Trinh contributed.
Naturalized citizens to play a bigger role in 2024 election
Naturalized immigrants will make up 10% of Americans eligible to vote in 2024. What impact might they have on the election?
US border arrests remained lower in October amid Biden asylum restrictions
U.S. border authorities apprehended about 54,000 migrants illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in October, according to preliminary figures obtained by Reuters. They show a marginal rise from September but continue the broader downward trend since June when new restrictions were imposed under President Joe Biden. Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, has called for even tougher border restrictions in the face of criticism by Republican candidate Donald Trump over illegal immigration. Reuters reports.
Migrant families separated under Trump still feel fallout, fear his return
With the United States on the verge of an election that could put former President Donald Trump back in office, Billy wants people to know that what happened to him and several thousand other children still reverberates. Some families have not been reunited, and many of those together in the U.S. have temporary status and fear a victorious Trump carrying out promised mass deportations. The Associated Press reports.
Immigration around the world
VOA60 World – At least 10 dead after Israeli airstrike on a street in Gaza’s Nuseirat Refugee Camp
An Israeli strike on a street in central Gaza’s Nuseirat Refugee Camp killed at least 10 people, including children, and injured 20 others, according to Palestinian health officials and Associated Press journalists.
Myanmar opposition: Dialogue impossible, China must rethink junta support
Malaysia, hosting about 200,000 Myanmar refugees, has a direct stake in resolving the crisis. Produced by Nyein Chan Aye.
Canada-India tensions could escalate cyberthreats, hinder immigration
Canada’s deepening dispute with India over its alleged campaign of violence against Sikhs in Canada could intensify Indian-based cyber espionage and hold back immigration, but analysts and experts see no immediate impact on trade. Concern about a widening rift between the two countries comes after a senior Canadian official told a parliamentary national security committee Tuesday that Indian Minister of Home Affairs Amit Shah, a close ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was the mastermind behind the alleged plots. Reported by Reuters.
Sudan displacement crisis worsens as fighting, hunger, sexual violence escalates
The International Organization for Migration warned Tuesday that Sudan’s displacement crisis is worsening as increasing numbers of people flee fighting, hunger and sexual violence, thereby threatening “regional instability.” “The scale of this displacement and the corresponding humanitarian needs grows every day,” Amy Pope, IOM director general, told journalists in Geneva on a video link from Port Sudan. Lisa Schlein reports for VOA from Geneva.
Uganda struggles to feed 1.7 million refugees as international support dwindles
Uganda is home to more than 1.7 million refugees, the largest refugee-hosting country in Africa, according to the United Nations refugee agency. Despite being renowned for welcoming those fleeing neighboring violence, Ugandan officials and humanitarians say dwindling international support coupled with high numbers of refugees have put much pressure on host communities. Reported by The Associated Press.
Russian army deserters hope French asylum decision will encourage others to flee
Thousands of Russians, including soldiers, have sought asylum in the West since Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 — though only a small fraction of their applications have been approved. This month, however, France allowed several Russian army deserters to enter the country to seek refugee status. Henry Ridgwell reports.
News Brief
— An investigation led by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Newark resulted in the sentencing of a New Jersey woman for harboring two undocumented women from India and for failing to pay taxes on their wages.
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Russia, Ukraine accuse each other of obstructing prisoner swaps
MOSCOW — Kyiv called on Moscow on Sunday to provide a list of Ukrainian prisoners of war ready for a swap after Russia accused Ukraine of sabotaging the exchange process.
In requesting the list of Ukrainians from his Russian counterpart, Ukrainian human rights commissioner Dmytro Lubinets wrote on his Telegram messaging channel: “We are always ready to exchange prisoners of war!”
Kyiv and Moscow have frequently exchanged prisoners since Russia’s full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbor in 2022. The last swap took place in mid-October with each side bringing home 95 prisoners.
On Saturday, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that Ukraine was essentially sabotaging the process and has refused to take back its own citizens.
Zakharova said Russia’s defense ministry had offered to hand over 935 Ukrainian prisoners of war, but that Ukraine had taken only 279.
Lubinets, in turn, said that Ukraine was always ready to accept its citizens and accused Russia of slowing the exchange process.
Russian Commissioner for Human Rights Tatyana Moskalkova said on Saturday that Ukraine has politicized the issue.
“We consider it necessary to return to a constructive dialog and speed up the exchange of prisoners,” Moskalkova wrote on Telegram.
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Time to ‘fall back’ an hour as daylight saving time ends
The good news: You will get a glorious extra hour of sleep. The bad: It’ll be dark by late afternoon for the next few months in the United States.
Daylight saving time ends at 2 a.m. local time Sunday, which means you should set your clock back an hour before you go to bed. Standard time will last until March 9, when we will again “spring forward” with the return of daylight saving time.
“Fall back” should be easier. But it still may take a while to adjust your sleep habits, not to mention the downsides of leaving work in the dark or trying to exercise while there’s still enough light. Some people with seasonal affective disorder, a type of depression usually linked to the shorter days and less sunlight of fall and winter, may struggle, too.
Some health groups, including the American Medical Association and American Academy of Sleep Medicine, have said it’s time to do away with time switches and that sticking with standard time aligns better with the sun — and human biology.
Two states — Arizona and Hawaii — don’t change and stay on standard time.
Here’s what to know about the twice-yearly ritual.
How the body reacts to light
The brain has a master clock that is set by exposure to sunlight and darkness. This circadian rhythm is a roughly 24-hour cycle that determines when we become sleepy and when we’re more alert. The patterns change with age, one reason that early-to-rise youngsters evolve into hard-to-wake teens.
Morning light resets the rhythm. By evening, levels of a hormone called melatonin begin to surge, triggering drowsiness. Too much light in the evening — that extra hour from daylight saving time — delays that surge and the cycle gets out of sync.
How do time changes affect sleep?
Even an hour change on the clock can throw off sleep schedules — because even though the clocks change, work and school start times stay the same.
That’s a problem because so many people are already sleep deprived. About 1 in 3 U.S. adults sleep less than the recommended seven-plus hours nightly, and more than half of U.S. teens don’t get the recommended eight-plus hours on weeknights.
How to prepare for the time change
Some people try to prepare for a time change jolt by changing their bedtimes little by little in the days before the change. There are ways to ease the adjustment, including getting more sunshine to help reset your circadian rhythm for healthful sleep.
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VOA Interview: UN special rapporteur details Russia’s state-sanctioned torture
washington — Mariana Katzarova, United Nations special rapporteur on human rights in Russia, reported Tuesday on the human rights situation in Russia at the U.N. General Assembly in New York, describing torture as Moscow’s main tool of repression. In an interview with VOA, Katzarova detailed how the Russian government has turned brutality into the new norm and how Russians are persecuted for their anti-war views.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
VOA: You came to Washington with a new report about torture in Russia. The torture system is not something new. Did it get worse during Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine?
U.N. Special Rapporteur on Russia Mariana Katzarova: The main message of this report was about the state-sanctioned system of torture being a tool used in a widespread and systematic manner by the authorities for oppression and control of Russian society.
Yes, it did get worse. First of all, because it’s a tool in the war against Ukraine. For example, we don’t even know how many. Still, thousands of Ukrainian civilians have been detained in the occupied territories of Ukraine by the Russian forces and then deported to Russia proper in Russian prisons. They’re kept incommunicado. They have been tortured, including with electric shocks, with sexual violence, rape against them. Many of them haven’t even been charged with any criminal offenses; they’re just kept there kidnapped. I’ve seen pictures of some of them who have been tried in Rostov-on-Don in military courts. I mean, they look like [they’re] coming from concentration camps.
Also, after the terrorist attack in March in Moscow, it was kind of, you know, a new page was turned where the authorities almost legitimized torture, normalized it, almost encouraged it to be happening because they allowed it on the national television to show torture of the suspects, Tajik migrants. As it happened, the suspects in the Crocus [City Hall] attack, terrorist attack, [were subjected to beatings and torture] including the electric shock to the genitals of one of the suspects or [the] cutting of the ear. There was another transmission on television. These people were [nearly] dead and were brought in front of a judge, and the judge completely pretended that nothing was happening.
VOA: Are you expecting any reaction from Russian officials regarding that report?
Katzarova: I, of course, as a special rapporteur of the U.N. system, I hope that the Russian Federation will pay attention because governments around the world are in charge of protecting the rights of their citizens. If the Russian authorities are not interested in the protection of the human rights of their own people, this is shocking. I mean, that’s why I’m hoping that they’re not going to turn a blind eye, particularly when we’re talking about torture, which is entirely outlawed by international law under all circumstances.
VOA: You said you would like to have some constructive dialogue with the Russian officials. Is that possible?
Katzarova: All special rapporteurs of the U.N. are independent experts the governments appoint, members of the U.N., to advise and present the truth about the human rights situation in these countries. Of course, in normal circumstances, I should have had a constructive dialogue with the Russian authorities.
So far, it’s been one way. It’s a monologue. I’m presenting my report. They’re reading it, but they’re not answering. All I can say is that I am planning to send them my new letters. I do it every year after my mandate is voted on by the governments of the Human Rights Council.
They’re not allowing me to visit Russia to meet with all the Russian people, victims of human rights violations, lawyers, the government authorities, the ombudsperson for human rights. This is what we should be doing as special rapporteurs.
VOA: What kind of role can the U.N. play in helping the victims?
Katzarova: First of all, this report is shedding light on the continuing almost full, complete impunity for torturing ill-treatment. Various people of various targeted groups, starting with [the ones] I just mentioned, the Ukrainian detained civilians and POWs, but also from the Russian society. These are the LGBT persons who are pronounced as extremist organizations by the Supreme Court of Russia.
These are the mobilized conscientious objectors and the mobilized men who refuse to fight and who are tortured as well, subjected to torture, to … convince them to continue fighting or join the war against Ukraine.
And, of course, now another targeted group where the political prisoners, they’re being subjected to torture as conditions of detention. They’re also a target for the authorities, of course, to begin with. Alexey Navalny spent something like 394 and 96 days in SHIZO, which is a special punishment cell.
Also, anti-war activists have been subjected in administrative detention to something called Carrousel. They’re kept for two weeks, then another two weeks until criminal cases are fabricated against them. And we know of deaths in custody of such activists under torture.
VOA: If some Russian officials, let’s say, Sergey Lavrov, would listen to us right now, what would you say?
Katzarova: I would say, “Dear Mr. Lavrov, Your Excellency, please respect your own laws and most importantly, the international law and the rules of the United Nations. All the conventions that you have signed and ratified. And please respect the human rights of the Russian people. They’re your people, and they deserve better than languishing in prisons. They deserve better than being herded, and then sent to fight in the war, which is not their war. So, please respect human rights and show the United Nations that you deserve to be a member of the Security Council and a beacon, a country to show the way for other countries that need to follow in your steps because you’re one of the five permanent members of the Security Council.
And please stop the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian people and the Russian people suffered enough because of this aggressive war.
What else can we do apart from shed light? Speak up, not be afraid, and wait for our messages and the truth to be heard. As we say in Bulgaria and other countries, the darkest time is before sunrise.
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Presidential candidates make pitch to Black voters in North Carolina
North Carolina is one of seven so-called swing states that could determine the next U.S. president. Kamala Harris, Donald Trump and their surrogates have spent a lot of time campaigning in this southern state. Black Americans make up 22% of the population, and those voters could decide who gets North Carolina’s 16 Electoral College votes. Rafael Saakov has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Aleksandr Bergan
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California attempts to regulate election deepfakes
The state of California has passed several laws attempting to regulate artificial intelligence, including AI used to create realistic looking but manipulated audio or video — known as a deepfake. In this U.S. election season, the aim is to counter misinformation. But it has raised concerns about free speech. From California, Genia Dulot has our story.
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Greek anti-terror police arrest man after deadly Athens blast
ATHENS, GREECE — Greek anti-terror investigators have arrested a man in connection with a deadly explosion in Athens, police said Saturday, warning of “a new generation of terrorists” at work.
Thursday’s blast in an apartment in the capital, which killed a man and seriously injured a woman, is suspected to have been caused by the accidental detonation of a homemade bomb.
Police sources told AFP they had identified the dead man from his dismembered remains as a 36-year-old from the port city of Piraeus who had been previously arrested in Germany.
His fingerprints were in the international database of Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, the sources said.
Investigators have also opened a case for alleged participation in a terrorist organization and committing terrorist acts against the injured woman, 33, who was hospitalized under police supervision, and a 30-year-old woman who remains at large.
In their statement, police said Saturday that the arrested man was detained after turning himself in Friday.
He is believed to have a connection with one of the two women wanted in the case but has denied having anything to do with the explosion, police said.
Police said that a search of the apartment produced two handguns, wigs and face masks among other materials.
Greek police sources told AFP that investigations were ongoing and that the deceased and those charged were probably members of “a new generation of terrorists.”
The country has a decades-old history of far-left extremism involving small urban groups.
The shadow November 17 group, named after an anti-junta student uprising, was behind the 1975 killing of the CIA’s Athens station Chief Richard Welch and claimed responsibility for assassinating 23 people in scores of attacks on U.S., British, Turkish and Greek targets between the 1970s and 1990s.
In the past decade, scores of arson and bomb attacks in Greece have hit financial, diplomatic and political targets, with police blaming radical anarchists.
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Russia jails ex-US consular employee on security charges
MOSCOW — A court in Russia’s far east said on Friday it had convicted Robert Shonov, a former U.S. consular employee, of illegally and covertly cooperating with the U.S. government to harm Russia’s national security and had jailed him for nearly five years.
Russia’s FSB security service detained Shonov, a Russian national, in Vladivostok in May 2023 and accused him of taking money to covertly supply U.S. diplomats with information that was potentially harmful to Russia.
The United States on Saturday condemned the conviction, calling it “an egregious injustice.”
“The allegations against Mr. Shonov are entirely fictitious and without merit,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement.
A court in the Primorsky region in Russia’s far east confirmed in a statement on Friday that it had found Shonov guilty and had sentenced him to four years and 10 months in a penal colony.
Video of the verdict being read, released by the court, showed Shonov listening inside a courtroom cage as the judge sentenced him.
The FSB published a video in August 2023 showing a purported confession by Shonov in which he said two senior U.S. diplomats based in Moscow whom Russia later expelled had asked him to collect information about Russia’s war effort in Ukraine, its annexation of “new territories,” its military mobilization and the 2024 Russian presidential election.
In the video, Shonov said he was told to gather “negative” information on these topics, to look for signs of popular protest, and to reflect these in his reports.
It was not clear whether he was speaking under duress.
Shonov was employed by the U.S. Consulate General in Vladivostok for more than 25 years until Russia in 2021 ordered the dismissal of the U.S. mission’s local staff.
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Taiwan expects Ukraine-tested weapons from US amid rising Chinese pressure
TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Taiwan is expected to receive several weapons that have been battle tested in Ukraine from the United States over the next few years. Analysts say those weapons can help bolster Taiwan’s defense and strike capabilities amid growing military pressure from China.
In the latest round of arms sales to Taiwan, worth about $2 billion, the United States plans to deliver three medium-range National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems, also known as NASAMS. The weapons include advanced AMRAAM Extended Range surface-to-air missiles.
The proposed sales will help improve Taiwan’s security and “assist in maintaining political stability, military balance, and economic progress in the region,” the Pentagon’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency said in a statement released October 26.
NASAMS has been battle-tested in Ukraine and is viewed by experts as a significant elevation of Taiwan’s air defense capabilities. Australia and Indonesia are the other countries in the Indo-Pacific region that have received the system from the U.S.
Experts say that NASAMS has a high interoperation capability, and that the medium-range air defense system provides needed coverage in Taiwan’s existing air defense capabilities.
“Currently, Taiwan relies on Stinger missiles for short-range air defense while using the Patriot missile system or Taiwan’s indigenous Tien Kung for long-range air defense, so NASAMS can help fill the gap of Taiwan’s medium-range air defense,” said Su Tzu-yun, a military expert at the Taipei-based Institute for National Defense and Security Research.
He told VOA by phone that when NASAMS is incorporated into Taiwan’s air defense system, it can improve the island’s capabilities to deal with the increasingly frequent patrols the Chinese military is conducting around Taiwan.
“As Chinese naval vessels and military aircraft increase the frequency of their combat-readiness patrols near Taiwan, the risk of abrupt missile attacks launched by Chinese vessels is also increasing, so acquiring NASAMS can further enhance Taiwan’s capabilities to deal with these potential threats,” Su said.
In addition to the surface-to-air missile system, Taiwan’s National Defense Ministry said the island is expected to receive 29 sets of the M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems, or HIMARS, from the United States between the end of 2024 and 2026.
The rocket system has been credited with helping Ukraine destroy Russian weapons or equipment in the ongoing conflict. Apart from receiving HIMARS from Washington, at least 17 Taiwanese soldiers were trained to use the rocket system at a military base in Fort Sill, Oklahoma, this past August.
After a post on the military base’s official Facebook page showed Taiwanese soldiers participating in HIMARS training with counterparts from Romania and Estonia, which has since been removed, Taiwanese Defense Minister Wellington Koo said Friday that Taiwan had planned to send at least 30 soldiers to receive HIMARS training in the U.S. between February and October this year.
Since Ukraine has used HIMARS to strike Russian military bases and weaken the Russian military’s momentum, some Taiwanese experts say the systems potentially can be used to target Chinese military facilities in coastal areas.
“The Taiwanese military can use HIMARS to hit some Chinese military facilities along the southeastern coast or target invading troops in different parts of Taiwan,” said Chieh Chung, a research fellow at the Association of Strategic Foresight in Taiwan.
Overall, Chieh told VOA by phone, the acquisition of NASAMS and HIMARS can enhance Taiwan’s capabilities in conducting network-centric warfare and deter China from easily launching an attack against Taiwan.
Other analysts say the series of U.S. arms sales to Taiwan reflects Washington’s commitment to supporting Taiwan’s self-defense capabilities, but China will interpret the latest developments as a provocation from Taiwan and the U.S.
“Beijing will interpret this as changing the status quo [across the Taiwan Strait] nevertheless,” Stephen Nagy, a regional security expert at the International Christian University in Japan, told VOA in a written response.
China views Taiwan as part of its territory and repeatedly has vowed to reunify with the island, by force, if necessary. In response to the latest U.S. arms sales to Taiwan last week, Beijing condemned it and urged Washington to stop what it called dangerous moves that undermine peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.
China showcases its naval capability
The arms sales and training come as China’s two aircraft carriers, Liaoning and Shandong, conducted a dual formation exercise for the first time in the disputed South China Sea from late September to October.
Chinese military analyst Song Zhongping told the state-run China Daily newspaper that the exercise will allow the two Chinese aircraft carriers to “integrate and magnify the power” and “enable the fleet to better organize strikes and handle threats from air and sea.”
Chieh in Taiwan said China is showing the U.S. it could assert maritime claims in disputed waters in the Indo-Pacific region at a time when U.S. aircraft carriers are deployed to the Middle East.
“Since the ongoing conflict in the Middle East has forced the U.S. to deploy its aircraft carrier groups to the region, China is trying to remind Washington that it can impose control over certain parts of the Indo-Pacific region amid an American absence,” he said.
Nagy in Japan said that while China can demonstrate its capability to operate aerial and naval assets near areas of potential conflicts in the Indo-Pacific region — such as the South China Sea and Taiwan Strait — such a formation also exposes the Chinese aircraft carriers as obvious targets for more experienced fighting forces.
“Losing one or two of China’s few aircraft carriers would have a very serious reputational cost for the Chinese Communist Party, and the U.S. and its partners understand this, so they are preparing for their scenarios,” he said.
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Georgia 2024: Inside a critical battleground state
Georgia appeared to be on track to elect former U.S. President Donald Trump earlier in the 2024 presidential campaign when President Joe Biden was still in the race. But Vice President Kamala Harris has put the state back into play for Democrats.
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Spain braces for more flood deaths, steps up aid
VALENCIA, SPAIN — Rescuers resumed a grim search for bodies on Saturday as Spain scrambled to organize aid to stricken citizens following devastating floods that killed more than 200 people.
Hopes of finding survivors more than three days after torrents of mud-filled water submerged towns and wrecked infrastructure were slim in the European country’s deadliest such disaster in decades.
Almost all deaths have been recorded in the eastern Valencia region, where thousands of soldiers, police officers and civil guards were frantically clearing debris and mud in the search for bodies.
Officials have said that dozens of people remain unaccounted for, but establishing a precise figure is difficult with telephone and transport networks severely damaged.
Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska on Friday told Cadena Ser radio station that 207 people had died and that it was “reasonable” to believe more fatalities would emerge.
It is also hoped that the estimated number of missing people will fall once telephone and internet services are running again.
Restoring order and distributing aid to destroyed towns and villages — some of which have been cut off from food, water and power for days — is a priority.
Authorities have come under fire over the adequacy of warning systems before the floods, and some residents have also complained that the response to the disaster is too slow.
Susana Camarero, deputy head of the Valencia region, told journalists on Saturday that essential supplies had been delivered “from day one” to all accessible settlements.
But it was “logical” that affected residents were asking for more, she said.
Authorities in Valencia have restricted access to roads for two days to allow emergency services to carry out search, rescue and logistics operations more effectively.
‘Overwhelmed’ by solidarity
Thousands of people pushing shopping trolleys and carrying cleaning equipment took to the streets on Friday to help with the effort to clean up.
Camarero said some municipalities were “overwhelmed by the amount of solidarity and food” they had received.
The surge of solidarity continued Saturday as around 1,000 people set off from the Mediterranean coastal city of Valencia toward nearby towns laid waste by the floods, an AFP journalist saw.
Authorities have urged them to stay at home to avoid congestion on the roads that would hamper the work of emergency services.
Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez chaired a meeting of a crisis committee made up of top cabinet members on Saturday and is due to address the country later.
The storm that sparked the floods on Tuesday formed as cold air moved over the warm waters of the Mediterranean and is common for this time of year.
But scientists warn that climate change driven by human activity is increasing the ferocity, length and frequency of such extreme weather events.
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