Last week’s disastrous earthquakes have shaken the political fortunes of leaders in Turkey and Syria, analysts say. Some see a possible accelerated path to regime normalization for pariah Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, while an onslaught of criticism has engulfed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, calling into question his re-election bid.

More than a decade of conflict and blocked borders to aid deliveries have hampered access to the rebel-held area of northwest Syria, decimated by the powerful quakes. Turkey has received the lion’s share of international assistance to date. The Norwegian Refugee Council and 35 other nongovernmental organizations are demanding increased support for Syria’s affected areas, saying “the humanitarian response must match the scale of the disaster.”   

Syria expert Charles Lister of the Washington-based Middle East Institute said, “It shouldn’t surprise us that the Assad regime is willing to take advantage of a catastrophic natural disaster to serve its own interests,” citing Syrian government appeals to the United Nations and aid deliveries from the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Iraq and Italy. But he warned against lifting sanctions on the government to further its normalization.

“The main area of exploitation is its demand for sanctions relief,” Lister told the Italian Institute of International Political Studies. “There is no correlation between the sanctions imposed on the regime by the United States, the European Union, Canada or the United Kingdom and the delivery of humanitarian aid. In 2022, the billions of dollars of aid that flowed into regime areas, through Damascus, 91% of that was funded by the four sanctioning entities.”

Lister added that “we do probably appear to be on an accelerated path toward the normalization of the regime, but a lot of it will depend on how the regime responds: whether it is stubborn or more pragmatic as it deals with requests for further aid and how it deals with the governments that continue to press against it.”  

Meanwhile, analysts say Erdogan has come under fire for his government’s reaction to the earthquakes, as the death toll rises in the southwest and affects his chances of re-election. 

Dorothee Schmid, who leads the Turkey and Mideast program at the French Institute for International Relations in Paris, said Erdogan “was already in a slightly delicate situation because he has not always been leading in the polls last year. Everybody is wondering whether the popularity of the party is going to be damaged by the difficult response to the earthquakes. The party is really on the front line to confront the growing anger of the local population.”

Schmid also said there a debate about whether Erdogan’s “government is totally unable to cope with the situation or if any government would be completely helpless, given the magnitude” of the quakes.
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The European Union is considering a new set of sanctions totaling 11 billion euros against Russia and several countries providing vital goods that Moscow is using to boost its troops on the battlegrounds in Ukraine.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said Wednesday that the package under consideration by the EU’s 27 member countries seeks to deprive Russia of military equipment it needs and cannot get anywhere else.

It includes proposals to subject seven Iranian entities to sanctions to try to prevent Russia from using Iranian drones to hit Ukrainian civilian infrastructure.

The proposals put forward by von der Leyen center on additional electronic weapons components for equipment such as drones, missiles, helicopters and thermal cameras. She had hinted at some of the measures during an EU-Ukraine summit early this month.

If the proposals are endorsed unanimously by the EU members, “we have banned all tech products found on the battlefield,” von der Leyen said.

Ambassadors were to assess what is called a 10th package of sanctions against Russia later Wednesday. It is expected to be discussed during a Monday meeting of EU foreign ministers in hopes of having final approval by the February 24 anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The package also tries to close loopholes that have allowed some measures from earlier packages to be circumvented and seeks to go after oligarchs who try to escape sanctions.

EU foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said it will also target 100 additional individuals and entities, including those who have been involved in kidnappings and taking Ukrainian children to Russia.

Usually, EU sanctions are decided in close cooperation with major Western partners such as the United States and Britain. The partners usually announce similar packages within a very short time frame.
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Germany’s air traffic control agency said Wednesday that it is diverting all flights away from the country’s busiest airport, Frankfurt, after a problem with Lufthansa’s computer systems caused major disruption at the German airline.

Agency spokesman Robert Ertler said all plane parking spots in Frankfurt were full because passengers and crews are unable to board the airline’s flights.

“All incoming planes are being diverted to alternative airports” such as as Munich, Nuremberg and Duesseldorf, Ertler told The Associated Press.

Lufthansa Group, which also includes subsidiaries such as Swiss International Air Lines and Eurowings, said the IT outage was caused by construction works in the Frankfurt region.

“This is causing flight delays and cancellations,” the company said. “We regret the inconvenience this is causing our passengers.”

Telephone company Deutsche Telekom later confirmed that an excavator had cut through fiber optic lines at a depth of five meters (16 feet) while working on a railroad line.

The company said parts of the destroyed line had already been repaired and the situation will improve significantly in the course of Wednesday afternoon, German news agency dpa reported.

According to dpa all of Lufthansa’s domestic flights were canceled and passengers were urged to switch to alternative forms of travel, such as trains.
…

The European Union proposed a new round of Russian sanctions on Wednesday, while NATO defense ministers gathered in Brussels discussed bolstering defense spending and arms production as they pledge ongoing support for Ukrainian forces.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the sanctions package includes a ban on exports of industrial goods and tech products to Russia, saying the measures would deny Russian forces the components needed for their weapons systems.

The proposal also includes sanctions against Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps in response to its supply of Shahed drones that Russian forces have used to attack Ukrainian infrastructure sites.

Another piece targets Russian propagandists and military commanders.

Von der Leyen said Russian President Putin is “waging war in the public space with an army of propagandists and disinformation networks,” and that they are “spreading toxic lies to polarize our societies.”

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at the start of the second of two days of defense ministerial talks that allies would examine ways to enhance defense industrial capacity.

Stoltenberg has stressed the need to provide Ukraine with more ammunition to keep up with its fight against Russian forces, and for allies to complete pledged deliveries of tanks and other heavy equipment.

Also Tuesday, the U.N. humanitarian affairs office and U.N. refugee agency launched a joint appeal for $5.6 billion to help those affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The agencies said the funds were needed to provide food, health care and other aid to those within Ukraine, as well as to help Ukrainian refugees and 10 host countries.

“Almost a year on, the war continues to cause death, destruction and displacement daily, and on a staggering scale,” U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said in a statement.

Some material in this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.
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The combined death toll in Turkey and Syria from last week’s powerful earthquake has now risen above 40,000.  

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday that 35,418 people were killed in the 7.8 magnitude quake that struck near the southeastern city of Kahramanmaras on February 6, making it the deadliest earthquake in Turkish history.   

Eight days after the quake, rescue crews continued to dig more survivors from the rubble Tuesday, including 18-year-old Muhummed Cafer Cetin and his 21-year-old brother, who were pulled from the ruins of a building in Kahramanmaras nearly 200 hours after the earthquake. Another miraculous rescue occurred in the city of Antakya, when a teacher was rescued from the rubble of an apartment building. 

Turkish television broadcast scenes of the rescues, but experts warned the window is closing for finding more people alive in what remains of collapsed buildings after so much time.     

The quake, which President Erdogan called “the disaster of the century,” destroyed tens of thousands of buildings and rendered an equal number uninhabitable, leaving scores of residents without shelter from bitter winter temperatures. Authorities have arrested several building contractors and charged them with violating Turkey’s building codes. 

Meanwhile, more than 5,500 deaths have been confirmed in neighboring Syria, according to figures compiled by the United Nations humanitarian agency and Syria’s state-run news agency. At least 1,400 people were killed in areas under government control, while another 4,400 are dead in Syria’s rebel-held northwest. 

An 11-truck U.N. humanitarian convoy entered the rebel-controlled area Tuesday from Turkey through the newly opened Bab al-Salam border crossing, the first since the world agency reached an agreement with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on Monday to allow humanitarian workers to use two additional crossing points from Turkey into opposition-held areas to speed deliveries. It is the first time since the civil war broke out in 2011 that Assad has agreed to allow aid to cross from Turkey to rebel-held areas.   

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres launched a $397 million appeal for the earthquake response in Syria, adding that a similar appeal is being drawn up for Turkey. 

The VOA Turkish Service contributed to this report, which includes some information from The Associated Press and Reuters.   
…

A lifetime ban against former Haitian soccer federation president Yves Jean-Bart over allegations he sexually abused female players was overturned Tuesday by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

The court upheld Jean-Bart’s appeal after noting “inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the statements of the victims and witnesses presented by FIFA.”

A FIFA ethics committee in November 2020 had found Jean-Bart guilty of having “abused his position and sexually harassed and abused various female players, including minors” over several years.

The 75-year-old Jean-Bart had also been fined $1.1 million.

Jean-Bart had denied the allegations, which involved national team players, including minors.

The CAS ruling said information submitted by third parties including Human Rights Watch and world players’ union FIFPro was not “sufficiently evidentiary.”

“In conclusion, the Panel of Arbitrators considers that the evidence against Yves Jean-Bart regarding the allegations of sexual abuse is inconsistent, unclear and contradictory and that, as a result, it is not sufficient to establish a violation of (FIFA’s ethics code),” the CAS ruling said.
…

Despite intense pressure from his Republican opposition, President Joe Biden appears intent on maintaining a measured response to the Chinese spy balloon that crossed the continental United States early this month.

The approach appears calibrated to avoid escalation with a second major adversary as his administration deals with Russia’s almost 1-year-old war on Ukraine.

John Kirby, the National Security Council coordinator for strategic communications, told reporters Tuesday the balloon drama does not change the fact that the administration intends to avoid a conflict and continues to seek open lines of communication with China.

Nothing has changed about the president’s desire “to move this relationship forward in a better place than it is right now,” Kirby said.

This despite Republican demands for a tougher stance on Beijing.

“[Biden] only shot down the Chinese spy balloon after public pressure demanded it,” said John Barrasso, a Republican senator from Wyoming, in a briefing Tuesday. “This is a complete violation of our integrity as a nation, and the president’s indifference and inaction showed weakness not just to China but to the world.”

U.S.-China tensions have been high since the discovery of the balloon that Biden ordered shot down on February 4. Administration officials say the device was part of an international “high-altitude balloon program for intelligence collection” by China’s People’s Liberation Army. Beijing maintains it was a civilian airship used for meteorological research.

Kirby said the administration’s approach to its adversaries has not changed, pointing to the National Security Strategy released in October that identifies the main U.S. strategic challenges as competition with China and Russia in shaping the global order, while working with allies and adversaries alike on transnational problems such as climate change, food insecurity, energy shortages and inflation.

“I’m committed to work with China where we can advance American interests and benefit the world,” Biden said in his State of the Union address this month, just days after he ordered his military to shoot down the spy balloon. “But make no mistake about it: as we made clear last week, if China threatens our sovereignty, we will act to protect our country. And we did.”

Incentive to avoid escalation

Biden has incentives to avoid escalation with China. His administration is already seeking to manage the NATO response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while facing other foreign policy challenges, including North Korean and Iranian nuclear programs, and a volatile Middle East following the formation of an extremely right-wing Israeli government under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The administration has committed more than $27.1 billion in security assistance to Kyiv since the war started on February 24, 2022, and it is mindful not to provoke Beijing to further side with Moscow.

Beijing has spread Moscow’s anti-Western propaganda and ramped up trade with Russia, but it has not provided direct military support for Putin’s war effort — nor has it helped his government and banks to evade tough Western sanctions.

“One of the key areas where the Biden administration wants to talk to Beijing is making sure that it stays out of the war in Ukraine, that Beijing does not provide any kind of political, military support for Russia,” Erik Brattberg, senior vice president in the Europe practice at Albright Stonebridge Group, told VOA.

With China’s top diplomat Wang Yi scheduled to fly to Moscow this week and President Xi Jinping expected to follow within the next few months, analysts say the administration is left with limited options.

“The best the United States can hope for is to effectively deal with the immediate threat Russia poses and weaken Russia to the point where it cannot pose a major military threat to its neighbors, and then turn its attention to the far more serious challenge China poses,” said David Sacks, research fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

“The biggest issue, in my view, is the stress that the war in Ukraine is putting on the U.S. defense industrial base, which is seriously unprepared for a direct conflict with China,” Sacks told VOA.

“Unless the Biden administration addresses this issue with urgency and significantly ramps up production of critical munitions and weapons, the United States will be extremely vulnerable if China uses force against Taiwan in the coming years.”

Beijing is also making overtures to another U.S. adversary – Iran. Chinese President Xi Jinping was in Tehran on Tuesday, defending the Islamic Republic’s right to safeguard its rights and interests, according to Chinese state media.

“What we see emerging is a longterm competition between the global West — U.S., EU, and developed democracies — and China, Russia, Iran, and a few other nations that resent the global West’s domination of international systems,” said Robert Daly, director of the Wilson Center’s Kissinger Institute on China and the United States.

Hot-button issue

Several Republican politicians have used the incident to raise campaign contributions, at once attacking Biden and Beijing, according to Pundit Analytics, which tracks communications and social-media postings of elected officials and candidates.

With Republicans helping to stoke voters’ anger, the balloon is becoming a hot-button political issue. Ordinary Americans who had been largely ignoring U.S.-China tensions are now beginning to realize what many in the foreign policy circle agree on – that the U.S. has been on a cold war footing with China for a while now, Daly told VOA.

“This is the real significance of the spy balloon — not that it poses a new threat to the U.S., but that more Americans are signing on to the ‘China Threat’ narrative that had formerly been limited to Washington,” Daly said.

Should Biden decide to run again in 2024 as his officials say he intends to, observers say the political cost of appearing soft on China will be even greater.

VOA Congressional Correspondent Katherine Gypson contributed to this report.
…

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin says he expects Ukraine to conduct an offensive against Russia in the spring, and that the 54 members of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group are focused on providing Kyiv with the ammunition, fuel and spare parts they will need. VOA’s Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.
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Tax officials in India searched the British Broadcasting Corporation’s offices Tuesday in New Delhi and Mumbai, weeks after the Indian government called a BBC documentary about Prime Minister Narendra Modi “propaganda.”

The documentary, “India: The Modi Question,” focuses on communal riots that swept through the western state of Gujarat in 2002, killing at least a 1,000 people, mostly Muslims, when Modi was its head.

In a statement on Twitter, the BBC said it was “fully cooperating” with income tax authorities, who are “currently” in the BBC offices in New Delhi and Mumbai.

“We hope to have the situation resolved as quickly as possible,” the BBC said.

Domestic media reports said authorities seized the phones of BBC employees. 

Gaurav Bhatia, a spokesman for the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), called the action a “tax survey.”

“If you have been following the law of the country, if you have nothing to hide, why be afraid of an action that is according to the law?” he told reporters.

Accusing the BBC of having a “tainted and black history of working with malice against India,” Bhatia told reporters at a press conference, “It would not be wrong to say that it is the most corrupt and ridiculous corporation in the world.”

He said media outlets that “have a hidden agenda” and “spew venom” cannot be tolerated in the country.

The documentary angered the BJP and Modi’s supporters, who questioned why the broadcaster chose a subject that dates back two decades.  

The documentary highlights an unpublished report the BBC obtained from the British Foreign Office which according to the broadcaster raised issues over Modi’s actions during the riots, and claims he was “directly responsible” for the “climate of impunity” that enabled the violence.

In 2012, an inquiry by India’s Supreme Court exonerated Modi of any complicity in the riots, including charges that he had told police officers not to restrain the rioters.

The BBC documentary was not aired in India, but using emergency powers under its information technology laws, the government blocked videos and tweets sharing links to it. Police scrambled to halt screenings arranged by some student groups on university campuses and detained several students in connection with the screenings.  

India’s Foreign Ministry said the film “lacked objectivity” and called it a “propaganda piece designed to push a particularly discredited narrative.” The BBC had said the documentary was “rigorously researched” and that it had featured a range of opinions, including responses from people in the BBC.

Organizations representing media groups in India expressed concern at Tuesday’s search of the BBC offices.

The Editors Guild of India said the move mirrored similar actions against other news organizations such as NewsClick, Newslaundry and Dainik Bhaskar, whose coverage was perceived to be critical of the government. 

In a statement, the guild said the raids were a “continuation of a trend of using government agencies to intimidate and harass press organizations that are critical of government policies or the ruling establishment” and that the trend “undermines constitutional democracy.”

Opposition parties also criticized the action. 

“First came the BBC documentary, it was banned. Now, I-T has raided BBC.” “Undeclared Emergency,” the opposition Congress Party tweeted.

“As hosts of G-20 what we are telling the world that rather than an emerging great power we are an insecure power,” Manish Tewari, a member of the Congress Party and former information minister, tweeted.

Media watchdogs and critics have raised concerns about press freedom in India. Last month, the Committee to Protect Journalists said that ordering social media platforms to block the BBC documentary constitutes “an attack on the free press that flagrantly contradicts the country’s stated commitment to democratic ideals.”

India’s press freedom ranking fell from 142 in 2021 to 150 last year in the 2022 World Freedom Index by global media watchdog Reporters Without Borders. 
…

Rescuers in Turkey pulled several more people alive from the rubble Tuesday, nearly 200 hours after a series of powerful earthquakes struck the region but experts warned the window is closing for finding more people alive.    

In neighboring Syria, more aid is starting to flow to war- and now earthquake-scared civilians in the country’s northwest, following President Bashar al-Assad’s agreement with the United Nations on Monday to allow humanitarian workers to use two additional crossing points from Turkey into opposition-held areas to speed deliveries.  

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Tuesday that an 11-truck convoy “is on the move” to cross through the newly reopened Bab al-Salam border crossing from Turkey, “with many more [convoys] to come.”    

Guterres’ humanitarian chief negotiated the use of two border crossings from Turkey into northwest Syria, meeting with President Assad on Monday in Damascus, bringing to three the number the U.N. has to work with. It is the first time since the conflict began in 2011 that Assad has agreed to allow aid to cross from Turkey to rebel-held areas.     

The U.N. chief also announced an appeal for $397 million in the next three months for the earthquake response in Syria, adding that a similar appeal is being drawn up for Turkey. 

“We all know that lifesaving aid has not been getting in at the speed and scale needed,” Guterres said of opposition-held areas of Syria. “The scale of this disaster is one of the worst in recent memory.”

He emphasized that aid “must get through from all sides, to all sides, through all routes — without any restrictions.” 

The U.N. humanitarian office said Monday the death toll in Syria has surpassed 4,300, with another 7,600 injured.     

In Turkey, authorities have reported at least 31,643 deaths from the earthquake centered in the Gaziantep region.        

The latest rescues included one from a crumbled building in Adiyaman province and two others from a destroyed building in central Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter.   

  Turkish residents in Samandag in Hatay province, complained the government has not done enough in the search for survivors.        

One earthquake survivor told VOA’s Turkish service that everything is being done through volunteers and community efforts, not by the government.          

“We rescued a lady and her baby from under the rubble. Alive. With our own efforts. With our own sledgehammers, with our hammers. I had many friends with me. This is not acceptable,” the survivor said.         

Another said, “Volunteers are working here, day and night, nonstop. They don’t even eat. They don’t even come down to drink water. AFAD [Turkey’s Disaster Management Authority] came to save us supposedly. The team came here to work on detecting. They just came and left. They said, ‘There was nothing here,’ and turned back and left.”         

Turkish television broadcast scenes of the rescues, but experts warned the window is closing for finding more people alive in what remains of collapsed buildings after so much time.     

The VOA Turkish Service contributed to this report, which includes some information from The Associated Press and Reuters.   
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Eight Afghan journalists who worked for the BBC broadcaster won a legal challenge on Monday against Britain’s refusal to relocate them from Afghanistan, which they said put them at high risk of being killed by the Taliban rulers.

The journalists’ lawyers told London’s High Court in December that the government had “betrayed the debt of gratitude” owed to them by refusing to relocate them after the Taliban’s takeover of Afghanistan in August 2021.

Representatives for the government had argued that none of the eight was eligible for relocation under its Afghan Relocations and Assistance Policy (ARAP) program.

David Blundell, a lawyer for the Ministry of Defense, said the Taliban’s perception that the BBC is a part of the British government was irrelevant.

But Judge Peter Lane said in a written ruling that the perception was “clearly relevant” to the risks the journalists faced.

The decision on whether to relocate the eight will now have to be taken again, which their lawyers said would have to be done within three weeks.

The journalists were embedded with military personnel and worked on British government-funded projects, the lawyers said.

As part of their work, they spoke out against the Taliban and exposed corruption and abuse, resulting in numerous threats and attacks by Taliban fighters, the lawyers added.

Erin Alcock, who represented the journalists, said her clients have been “living in fear for over 18 months.”

A spokesperson for the Ministry of Defense said the department does not comment in detail on specific legal cases but was considering potential next steps. 
…

Ford said Tuesday that it will cut 3,800 jobs in Europe over the next three years in an effort to streamline its operations as it contends with economic challenges and increasing competition on electric cars.

The automaker said 2,300 jobs will be eliminated in Germany, 1,300 in the United Kingdom and 200 elsewhere on the continent. It said its strategy to offer an all-electric fleet in Europe by 2035 has not changed and that production of its first European-built electric car is due to start later this year.

The Dearborn, Michigan-based company said it is looking for “a leaner, more competitive cost structure for Ford in Europe.” The automaker will embark on consultations “with the intent to achieve the reductions through voluntary separation programs.”

The job cuts come amid a sea change in the global auto industry from gas-guzzling combustion engines to electric vehicles. Governments are pushing to reduce the emissions that contribute to climate change, and a resulting race to develop electric vehicles has generated intense competition among automakers.

It’s even stirred tensions among Western allies as the U.S. rolls out big subsidies for clean technology like EVs that European governments fear could hurt homegrown industry.

Ford aims to cut 2,800 of the European jobs in engineering by 2025 as a result of the transition to electric cars that are less complex, though it plans to keep about 3,400 engineering jobs on the continent. The remaining 1,000 jobs will be cut on the administrative side.

“Paving the way to a sustainably profitable future for Ford in Europe requires broad-based actions and changes in the way we develop, build and sell Ford vehicles,” Martin Sander, general manager of Ford’s Model e unit in Europe, said in a statement. “This will impact the organizational structure, talent and skills we will need in the future.”

“These are difficult decisions, not taken lightly,” he added. “We recognize the uncertainty it creates for our team, and I assure them we will be offering them our full support in the months ahead.”

Ford also announced in August cuts of about 3,000 white-collar jobs in North America as it reduces costs to help make the long transition from internal combustion to battery-powered vehicles.

In a step in that direction, it said Thursday that it plans to build a $3.5 billion factory in Michigan that would employ at least 2,500 people to make lower-cost batteries for new and existing EVs.

Company officials reported that its net income fell 90% in the last three months of 2022 from a year earlier. It said costs were too high and that it contended with a global shortage of computer chips and other parts used in its vehicles.

In Europe, Ford has some 34,000 employees at wholly owned facilities and consolidated joint ventures.
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Rescuers in Turkey pulled several more people alive from the rubble Tuesday, nearly 200 hours after a series of powerful earthquakes struck the region. 

The latest rescues included one from a crumbled building in Adiyaman province and two others from a destroyed building in central Kahramanmaras, near the epicenter. 

Turkish television broadcast scenes of the rescues, but experts warned the window is closing for finding more people alive in what remains of collapsed buildings after so much time. 

Turkish residents in Samandag in Hatay province, complained the government has not done enough in the search for survivors.   

One earthquake survivor told VOA’s Turkish service that everything is being done through volunteers and community efforts, not by the government.  

“We rescued a lady and her baby from under the rubble. Alive. With our own efforts. With our own sledgehammers, with our hammers. I had many friends with me. This is not acceptable,” the survivor said.  

Another said, “Volunteers are working here, day and night, nonstop. They don’t even eat. They don’t even come down to drink water. AFAD (Turkey’s Disaster Management Authority) came to save us supposedly. The team came here to work on detecting. They just came and left. They said, ‘There was nothing here,’ and turned back and left.”   

Turkish authorities have reported at least 31,643 deaths from the massive earthquake centered in the Gaziantep region.   

Across the border in northern Syria, the United Nations humanitarian office said Monday the death toll there had topped 4,300, with another 7,600 injured.

The VOA Turkish Service contributed to this report, which includes some information from The Associated Press and Reuters. 
…

Moldova’s president outlined Monday what she described as a plot by Moscow to overthrow her country’s government using external saboteurs, put the nation “at the disposal of Russia” and derail its aspirations to one day join the European Union. 

President Maia Sandu’s briefing comes a week after neighboring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country had intercepted plans by Russian secret services to destroy Moldova, claims that were later confirmed by Moldovan intelligence officials. 

“The plan for the next period involves actions with the involvement of diversionists with military training, camouflaged in civilian clothes, who will undertake violent actions, attack some state buildings, and even take hostages,” Sandu told reporters at a briefing. 

Since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly a year ago, Moldova, a former Soviet republic of about 2.6 million people, has sought to forge closer ties with its Western partners. Last June, it was granted EU candidate status, the same day as Ukraine. 

Sandu said the alleged Russian plot’s purpose is “to overthrow the constitutional order, to change the legitimate power from [Moldova’s capital] Chisinau to an illegitimate one,” which she said “would put our country at the disposal of Russia, in order to stop the European integration process.” 

She defiantly vowed, “The Kremlin’s attempts to bring violence to our country will not succeed.” 

There was no immediate reaction from Russian officials to Sandu’s claims. 

Sandu said that between October and December, Moldovan police and its Intelligence and Security Service, the SIS, have intervened in “several cases of organized criminal elements and stopped attempts at violence.” 

Over the past year, non-NATO member Moldova has faced a string of problems. These include a severe energy crisis after Moscow dramatically reduced gas supplies; skyrocketing inflation; and several incidents in recent months involving missiles that have traversed its skies, and debris that has been found on its territory. 

Moldovan authorities confirmed that another missile from the war in Ukraine had entered its airspace on Friday. 

Last April, tensions in Moldova also soared after a series of explosions in Transnistria — a Russia-backed separatist region of Moldova where Russia bases about 1,500 troops — which had raised fears it could get dragged into Russia’s war in Ukraine. Transnistria has a population of about 470,000 and has been under the control of separatist authorities since a civil war in 1992. 

Sandu claimed that Russia wants to use Moldova in the war against Ukraine, without providing more details, and that information obtained by intelligence services contained what she described as instructions on rules of entry to Moldova for citizens from Russia, Belarus, Serbia and Montenegro. 

“I assure you that the state institutions are working to prevent these challenges and keep the situation under control,” Sandu said. 

She said that Moldova’s Parliament must adopt draft laws to equip its Intelligence and Security Service, and the prosecutor’s office, “with the necessary tools to combat more effectively the risks to the country’s security.” 

Costin Ciobanu, a political scientist at the Royal Holloway University of London, said it’s likely there “was a huge pressure” on Moldovan authorities to explain more to the public after Zelenskyy first went public with the security information last week in Brussels. 

“Today’s announcement by President Sandu legitimizes the narrative that Moldova needs to focus on its security,” he told The Associated Press. “Probably, based on the evidence they received, they are now more sure of these kinds of attempts by [the] Russians.” 

He added that Sandu going public could also be a preemptive bid to thwart “Russia’s attempts to destabilize Moldova,” in the same way Western officials called out the Kremlin’s war plans before its invasion of Ukraine. 

The president added that the plan would “rely on several internal forces, but especially on criminal groups,” and went on to name two Moldovan oligarchs, Ilan Shor and Vladimir Plahotniuc, both of whom are currently in exile. Both men last year were sanctioned by the U.S. and the U.K. 

Last fall, a series of mass anti-government protests organized by Shor’s populist, Russia-friendly Shor Party, also rocked Moldova amid the energy crunch. 

The president’s press briefing on Monday comes after the surprise resignation on Friday of Moldova’s Prime Minister Natalia Gavrilita. The same day, Sandu appointed her defense and security adviser, pro-Western economist Dorin Recean, to succeed Gavrilita. 

On Friday, after Moldovan authorities confirmed the missile incident, U.S. State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel told reporters in Washington that “Russia has for years supported influence and destabilization campaigns in Moldova, which often involve weaponizing corruption to further its goals.” 
…

The eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut on Monday endured heavy artillery fire. The Ukrainian military reported Russian shelling all along the front line and said 16 settlements had been bombarded near Bakhmut.

Ukrainian fighters, who have already held out there for months, are bracing for new ground attacks, Ukrainian military officials said. 

Bakhmut is a prime objective for Russian President Vladimir Putin, and its capture would give Russia a new foothold in the Donetsk region and a rare victory after several months of setbacks. The Donetsk and Luhansk regions make up the Donbas, Ukraine’s industrial heartland now partially occupied by Russia, which wants full control. 

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said a new major Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine has already begun as the anniversary of Russia’s February 24 invasion approaches. 

“It is clear that we are in a race of logistics,” Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels. “Key capabilities like ammunition, fuel and spare parts must reach Ukraine before Russia can seize the initiative on the battlefield. Speed will save lives,” he stressed. 

Stoltenberg said Ukraine’s use of ammunition in the war against Russia is outstripping supply and that the alliance needs to increase production to meet Ukraine’s needs.  

The NATO chief made these comments one day before the ninth meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, known informally as the Ramstein summit, set to take place in the Belgian capital.  

NATO’s call for an increase in ammunition production is expected to dominate the discussions on Tuesday. Stoltenberg said the contentious issue of providing modern combat aircraft to Ukraine would be discussed, as well. 

The Russian assault on Bakhmut has been headed by mercenaries of the Wagner paramilitary group. The renewed Russian shelling has made the situation even more tense. 

“The city, the city’s suburbs, the entire perimeter and essentially the entire Bakhmut direction and Kostyantynivka, are under crazy, chaotic shelling,” said Volodymyr Nazarenko, deputy commander of Ukraine’s Svoboda battalion.

The head of the Wagner Group claimed Sunday to have taken control of Krasna Hora, a village a few kilometers north of Bakhmut. 

Serhii Cherevatyi, a spokesperson for the Eastern Grouping of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, denied Russian claims that Krasna Hora had been captured.

“There are ongoing battles there,” Cherevatyi said. “We are keeping it under our control,” he told CNN. “We have the ability to supply weapons, food, equipment, medicines, and to evacuate the wounded from there,” he added. 

A report by Britain’s Ministry of Defense says that as of February 7, Russia had likely further strengthened defense fortifications in the central part of Zaporizhzhia Oblast, in particular near the town of Tarasivka.

Russian forces have also established defensive fortifications between the towns of Vasylivka and Orihiv in the same region as of January 8.  

Russia has “highly likely” restarted major offensive operations in Ukraine aiming to capture the remaining Ukrainian-controlled parts of Donetsk Oblast.

Russia’s front line in Ukraine is approximately 1,288 kilometers, with the partially occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast front line amounting to 192 kilometers, the report adds.

A significant breakthrough by Ukrainian troops in Zaporizhzhia Oblast would “seriously challenge” the viability of the Russian “land bridge” connecting its Rostov region and occupied Crimea, the ministry wrote in its latest intelligence update.  

Wagner’s private army is pushing hard to give Russia battlefield wins in Ukraine, but mounting evidence suggests the Kremlin has moved to curb what it sees as the excessive political clout of Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of the Wagner Group. 

Recently, Prigozhin, a 61-year-old ex-convict, grabbed headlines over his bloody role in Ukraine. Wagner has openly criticized Russia’s top military brass and tried to win the Kremlin’s favor through his group’s battlefield success.  

Prigozhin’s public prominence has created speculation among analysts that he is eyeing an official role in politics. 

There is growing evidence though, that the Kremlin has moved to nip such speculation in the bud, ordering Prigozhin to halt public criticism of the Defense Ministry while advising state media to stop mentioning him or Wagner by name.  

“The position of the [Kremlin] political bloc is not to let him into politics. They are a little afraid of him and find him an inconvenient person,” Sergei Markov, a former Kremlin adviser who remains close to the authorities, told the Reuters news agency. 

Prigozhin confirmed last week he had also been stripped of the right to recruit convicts from prisons — a key element of his growing political influence and one which had bolstered his forces to make small but steady gains in eastern Ukraine.  

Moldova coup attempt

The president of Moldova accused Russia on Monday of planning to use foreign saboteurs to bring down her leadership and break Moldova’s path to Europe. Moldova has been granted candidate status in the European Union. Moldova’s breakaway region, Transnistria, has survived for three decades with support from Moscow.

President Maia Sandu made her comments after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said last week that his country had uncovered a Russian intelligence plan “for the destruction of Moldova.” Days later, the government of the country, which borders Ukraine and Romania, resigned.

Responding to reporters during the White House briefing on Monday, National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said the U.S government is concerned over reports of Russia’s attempts to influence the pro-European government of Moldova.

“We absolutely stand with the modern Moldovan government and the Moldovan people,” he said.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.   
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A German newspaper critic had animal feces smeared on her face in the city of Hannover by a ballet director who apparently took offense at a review she wrote.

The Hannover state opera house apologized for the incident and said Monday that it was immediately suspending ballet director Marco Goecke.

The daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reported that a furious Goecke approached its dance critic, Wiebke Huester, during the interval of a premiere at Hannover’s opera house on Saturday and asked what she was doing there. It said that the two didn’t know each other personally.

The newspaper said that Goecke, who apparently felt provoked by a recent review she wrote of a production he staged in the Dutch seat of government, The Hague, threatened to ban her from the ballet and accused her of being responsible for people canceling season tickets in Hannover.

He then pulled out a paper bag with animal feces and smeared her face with the contents before making off through a packed theater foyer, the newspaper said. Huester identified the substance as dog feces and said she had filed a criminal complaint, German news agency dpa reported.

In a statement on its website, the opera house said Huester’s “personal integrity” was violated “in an unspeakable way.” It said that it contacted her immediately after the incident to apologize.

The opera house said that Goecke’s “impulsive reaction” violated the ground rules of the theater and that “he caused massive damage to the Hannover State Opera and State Ballet.” As a result, it said, he is being suspended and banned from the opera house until further notice.

Goecke has been given the next few days to apologize “comprehensively” and explain himself to theater management “before further steps are announced,” it added.

The ballet director appeared at least partly unrepentant, however. In an interview with public broadcaster NDR, Goecke acknowledged that his “choice of means wasn’t super, absolutely.”

“Of course, socially that is also certainly not recognized or respected, if one resorts to such means,” he said of the attack, adding that he had never done anything like that before and was “a bit shocked at myself.”

Goecke said that while having his work “soiled for years” was a price he had been told he had to pay for being in the public eye, there was a limit.

“Once a certain point has been reached, I disagree,” he said.

The German journalists’ association DJV denounced the attack.

“An artist must tolerate criticism, even if it seems exaggerated,” the union’s regional head in Lower Saxony state, Frank Rieger, said. “Whoever reacts violently to criticism is unacceptable. The attack on the … journalist is also an attack on press freedom.”
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Poland’s president and defense minister met Monday with Polish and foreign instructors intensively training Ukrainian troops to operate the German-made Leopard 2 tanks that some European countries and Canada have offered Kyiv to help fight the Russian invasion.

President Andrzej Duda and minister Mariusz Blaszczak also watched Leopard 2 training at a military base and test range in Swietoszow, in southwestern Poland. The training is part of the European Union’s military assistance to Ukraine, but Canadian instructors also have a role, as do Norwegians.

Taking part are Ukrainian tank crews from units fighting in the east of the country. The intensive training lasts up to 10 hours a day, including weekends, the Polish military said. Instruction is also being held in Germany.

Duda voiced hope the tanks would help Ukrainian forces “in a much more efficient way to defeat the enemy.”

He said the Ukrainian trainees have come straight from the front line. “You can see in their faces that these people have gone through terrible things, but they are determined to defend their homeland.”

A Polish instructor, Senior Staff Warrant Officer Krzysztof Sieradzki, said the Ukrainians are so motivated to learn everything fast that the instructors “have to hold them back and transfer knowledge to them in small batches.”

The trainees’ commander, Major Vadym Khodak, said they all have combat experience.

“They didn’t come from the street, they’ve been fighting on our tanks for a long time, so I think learning how to operate these tanks will be a lot easier,” said Khodak, who’s from Dnipro in eastern Ukraine.

Khodak said the modern tanks would be a great help.

“If we learn how to use them, we will put them to test in combat conditions and it will give a great effect,” he said.

Stationed in Swietoszow are Poland’s 10th Armored Cavalry Brigade and a U.S. armored cavalry combat group.

Warsaw is among the most active supporters of neighboring Ukraine, and has pushed European nations to provide the Leopard 1 and 2 tanks. Germany has pledged at least 178 Leopard 1 tanks and 14 Leopard 2s. Poland has pledged 14 Leopard 2s. Other contributing countries include Norway, Denmark and the Netherlands, while Britain has pledged Challenger tanks and the U.S. its M1 Abrams main battle tanks.

Duda especially thanked Germany for allowing the German-made tanks to be made available to Kyiv and for its own contribution.

Poland has also provided or pledged more than 300 of its Soviet-era T-72 tanks and modernized PT-91 tanks.

Ukrainian officials say they expect Russian forces to make a new drive in eastern and southern Ukraine, as the Kremlin strives to secure territory it illegally annexed in late September and where it claims its rule is welcomed.

Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said last week that the first battalion of 31 Leopard 1 tanks in Ukraine should be ready in April. The first Ukrainian soldiers to be trained on the tanks departed for Germany last week.
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February 13 marks one week since devastating twin earthquakes struck the Turkish Syrian border. With the death toll surpassing 30,000 and hundreds of thousands more homeless, the region remains in the grip of a growing humanitarian crisis. Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul. Camera: Memet Aksakal, Mouneb Taim.
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Overall World Cup winners Mikaela Shiffrin, Federica Brignone and Aleksander Aamodt Kilde are among nearly 200 athletes from multiple disciplines who have signed a letter addressed to the International Ski and Snowboard Federation demanding action over climate change.

The letter was delivered during the skiing world championships after warm weather and a lack of snow wiped out nearly a month of racing at the start of this season, with preseason training on melting European glaciers heading toward extinction and the impact of climate change on the schedule being seen even in January.

“It’s about time to address a really important topic,” Kilde said after earning a silver medal in downhill on Sunday. “We see that the world is changing. We see also the impact of our sport. … I want the future generations to experience winter and to be able to do what I do.”

The letter was written by Austrian downhiller Julian Schütter, an ambassador for the nonprofit organization Protect Our Winters, known as POW.

“We are already experiencing the effects of climate change in our everyday lives and our profession,” the athletes said in the letter. “The public opinion about skiing is shifting towards unjustifiability. … We need progressive organizational action. We are aware of the current sustainability efforts of FIS and rate them as insufficient.”

Olympic cross-country skiing champion Jessie Diggins and Freeride World Tour champions Arianna Tricomi and Xavier de le Rue were also among the letter’s signees.

“This is our most important race, let’s win it together,” the athletes said.

In terms of Alpine skiing, the athletes asked the federation, known as FIS, to shift the start of the season from late October to late November and the end of the season from mid-March to late April.

“The seasons have shifted and in the interest of us all we need to adapt to those new circumstances,” they said.

Racers also requested a more “geographically reasonable” race schedule to reduce carbon emissions, citing how the men’s circuit will have traveled from Europe to North America and back twice by the end of this season.

“The races of Beaver Creek in November and those in Aspen in February are 50 kilometers [30 miles] away from each other,” the skiers said, referring to the two Colorado resorts. “Planning those two races one after the other would reduce approximately 1,500 tons of [carbon emissions].”

The athletes also asked FIS to create a sustainability department.

There was no immediate response from FIS.
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