Britain faces major security threats from the trio of Russia, China and Iran, which all use coercion, intimidation and violence to pursue their interests, the U.K.’s domestic intelligence spy chief said Wednesday.

Ken McCallum, director-general of MI5, added to mounting warnings from British authorities about Russia’s aggression and China’s growing assertiveness. He also singled out Iran as a mounting concern, saying U.K authorities have uncovered at least 10 “potential threats” this year to “kidnap or even kill British or U.K.-based individuals perceived as enemies of the regime.”

He said Iran’s intelligence services “are prepared to take reckless action” against opponents, both on Western soil and by luring people to Iran.

Last week, the U.K. government summoned Tehran’s top diplomat in London for a dressing-down, accusing Iran of threatening journalists working in Britain. U.K-based Farsi-language satellite news channel Iran International said British police had warned two of its journalists about “an imminent, credible and significant risk to their lives and those of their families.”

In a speech outlining the major threats to the U.K. from both hostile states and terror groups, McCallum said there is a risk Russia, China and Iran could help one another, “amplifying their strengths.”

He said Russia’s espionage capabilities had been dealt a “significant strategic blow” since the invasion of Ukraine from the expulsion of 400 spies working under diplomatic cover at Russian missions in Europe, including 23 in the U.K.

But, he said, British spies are still facing a “Russian covert toolkit” that includes assassination attempts, “cyberattacks, disinformation, espionage” and interfering with democracy.

“The U.K. must be ready for Russian aggression for years to come,” he said.

McCallum cast China as an even longer-term problem, saying “the activities of the Chinese Communist Party pose the most game-changing strategic challenge to the U.K.”

Using a sports analogy, McCallum said “Russia thinks nothing of throwing an elbow in the face and routinely cheats to get its way.”

“The Chinese authorities present a different order of challenge,” he said. “They’re trying to rewrite the rulebook, to buy the league, to recruit our coaching staff to work for them.”

McCallum accused Beijing of monitoring, intimidating, coercing and “forcibly repatriating Chinese nationals to harassment and assault.”

He also said Chinese authorities were playing a long game in trying to influence British politics by “seeking to co-opt and influence not just prominent parliamentarians across the political landscape, but people much earlier in their careers in public life, gradually building a debt of obligation.”

He said such activities were likely to grow as Chinese President Xi Jinping “consolidates power on an indefinite basis.”

At a Group of 20 summit in Indonesia this week, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said China posed “a systemic challenge to our values and interests and it represents the biggest state-based threat to our economic security.”

Last month, the head of Britain’s cyberintelligence agency, GCHQ, called China’s growing power the “national security issue that will define our future.”

Speaking at MI5’s high-security London headquarters, McCallum said Britain still faces a terror threat from both self-radicalized lone actors and groups such as al-Qaida and the Islamic State group, which he said “are down but definitely not out.”

He said MI5 had disrupted 37 “late stage” attack plots since 2017, eight of them in the past year. Three-quarters were driven by Islamic extremism and the rest by far-right ideology, he said.

Many of the plots involved “low-sophistication attacks” by self-radicalized extremists. Groups such as IS and al-Qaida have been weakened, but still pose “a very real risk that we are dealing with every day.”

McCallum also said his agents and police had done “quietly effective work” to ensure the safety of 10 days of national mourning that followed the death of Queen Elizabeth II in September.

The commemorations brought the biggest crowds in decades into London, as hundreds of thousands lined up to see the late monarch lie in state or watch her funeral procession.

He said no major attack plots were uncovered, but agents worked “to respond to emerging possible early stage” attacks as well as doing “protective security work.”

“There was nothing close to a late-stage goal-line clearance in respect to those events,” he said. “But there was good work done in a low-key way behind the scenes.”
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The political and diplomatic fallout is growing after Sunday’s bombing in Istanbul. Turkey blames Kurdish militants backed by the United States for the attack, which comes months before elections. 

Mourners have not stopped laying flowers at the scene of Sunday’s fatal bomb attack on Istanbul’s most famous shopping street. 

While the country comes to terms with the bombing, the political repercussions are growing. 

After detaining the alleged bomber, Turkish security forces claim the attack was carried out by the Kurdish militant group the PKK, a charge the group denies. 

Devlet Bahceli, leader of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s parliamentary coalition partner, the MHP, called Tuesday for the closure of Turkey’s legal Kurdish party, the HDP.

Bahceli said the coalition does not want to see separatists in the parliament. He said its members cannot stand seeing terrorists and cannot tolerate “for even a second” the HDP.

The HDP is already facing closure with many of its parliamentary deputies already in jail over links to the PKK, convictions the European Court of Human rights has condemned as politically motivated.

In a statement, the jailed former HDP leader, Selahattin Demirtas, warned the government could use Sunday’s bombing as a pretext to launch a new offensive into Syria against Kurdish forces of the YPG.

 Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu has claimed the alleged Sunday bomber confessed to being trained by the YPG, a group Ankara claims is affiliated with Kurdish militants of the PKK.

Washington backs the YPG in its war against the Islamic State terrorist group. Soylu dismissed condolences by the American ambassador, likening them to a murderer returning to the crime scene. Professor of International relations Senem Aydin Duzgit of Istanbul’s Sabanci University says there is a large audience in Turkey for anti-American rhetoric.

“Well, there is a lot of anti-Americanism in Turkey and anti-Westernism. I mean, some of it historical, ideological, you know, because you have anti-Americanism both on the right and also on the left of the political spectrum,” said Duzgit. “This is not just something that’s sort of unique to the right wing of the political spectrum, but the left suffers from it as well.”   

But any diplomatic discord between Ankara and Washington appears for now to be contained, with Erdogan meeting U.S. President Joe Biden Tuesday on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Indonesia. But analysts suggest the real fallout could be next year’s presidential elections. With Erdogan and his AKP party languishing in the polls, Soli Ozel, who teaches international relations at Istanbul’s Kadir Has University says Sunday’s bombing stokes fears that history could be repeating itself.

“It rekindles the fears that we might find ourselves in a situation in the period between June 7, 2015, and November 1, 2015, when we had repeat elections,” said Ozel. “The AKP lost it absolute majorly in parliament, and an alternate government couldn’t be formed, so we went to repeat election, and in between that period of time, violence escalated; there were terrorist incidents before the repeat election took place.”

Erdogan won the November 2015 election with a large majority.  

Opposition parties are already raising questions over the speed and swift conclusions of the investigation into the Sunday bombing.    

Observers say the opposition’s scrutiny of the government’s handling of the investigation is likely to grow as elections draw closer.  

 
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday he believes an agreement allowing for Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea will remain in place beyond its Saturday expiration.

Erdogan told reporters at the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, that there were ongoing talks about extending the deal, and that he planned to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin upon returning from the summit.

The United Nations and Turkey brokered deals with Ukraine and Russia in July to allow for Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports with vessels screened in Turkey, and for Russia to export food and fertilizer.

The U.N. says about 11 million tons of grain and foodstuffs have been exported to 42 countries since the deal began.

Russia launched waves of airstrikes on Ukraine Tuesday, targeting 10 regions, including the capital of Kyiv, in a military rebuke to Ukrainians reveling in one of their biggest wartime successes, last week’s takeover of the key southern city of Kherson.

Air raid alerts sounded throughout the country. The barrage of nearly 100 strikes — including with missiles — followed days of euphoria in Ukraine after the Russian retreat from Kherson and the Ukrainian takeover of the regional capital that Moscow’s forces had captured early in the nearly nine-month war.

In Bali, Indonesia, at the meeting of the leaders of the Group of 20 largest industrialized countries, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan condemned the Russian airstrikes.

“It is not lost on us that, as world leaders meet at the G-20 in Bali to discuss the issues of significant importance to the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, Russia again threatens those lives and destroys Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. These Russian strikes will serve to only deepen the concerns among the G20 about the destabilizing impact of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war,” Sullivan said in a statement. “We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

With its battlefield defeats, Russia has resorted to more long-range aerial attacks on Ukraine’s power grid as winter approaches, believing it to be a demoralizing psychological weapon to leave Ukrainians in the cold and dark.

White House correspondent Anita Powell contributed to this report. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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The United States and Western allies say they cannot confirm but are investigating reports on Tuesday that a blast in NATO member Poland resulted from stray Russian missiles, while Russia’s defense ministry denies any connection to the blast.

“We are aware of the press reports alleging that two Russian missiles have struck a location inside Poland on the Ukrainian border. I can tell you that we don’t have any information at this time to corroborate those reports and are looking into this further,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters at the Pentagon.

Watch: President Joe Biden Speaking From Bali

The Polish government has not immediately confirmed the report, but one spokesman, Piotr Muller, told The Associated Press that top leaders were holding an emergency meeting over the “crisis situation.”

The White House said President Joe Biden had spoken with Polish President Andrzej Duda from Bali, Indonesia, at 5:30 a.m. local time, without providing further details.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said via Twitter that he also had spoken with Duda about the explosion and offered his condolences for the loss of life. Reports say at least two Polish citizens were killed.

“NATO is monitoring the situation, and Allies are closely consulting. Important that all facts are established,” Stoltenberg said.

Eliot Higgins, the founder of the investigative journalism and open-source intelligence group Bellingcat, reposted a social media image of the debris from the alleged site in Poland and noted that it appeared to be from an air defense missile, like the S-300s used by Ukraine to shoot down Russian missiles. If confirmed, this could mean the blast potentially originated from a Ukrainian intercept of a Russian missile targeting Ukrainian territory.

Asked what the incident could mean for the administration, Ryder declined to discuss hypotheticals, adding, “When it comes to our security commitments and Article Five, we’ve been crystal clear that we will defend every inch of NATO territory.”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley are to host the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group meeting virtually at the Pentagon on Wednesday. Ryder said Ukraine would provide a battlefield assessment, which would lead to a “robust discussion on Ukraine’s security needs.”

Russia launched waves of airstrikes on Ukraine Tuesday, targeting 10 regions, including the capital of Kyiv, in a military rebuke to Ukrainians reveling in one of their biggest wartime successes, last week’s takeover of the key southern city of Kherson.

The airstrikes rocked Ukraine from east to west, hitting energy facilities and other infrastructure, as well as residential buildings in Kyiv, where one death was reported.

A video in Kyiv, published by a presidential aide, showed a five-story building, apparently a residential structure, on fire. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said three residential buildings were hit but that air defense units shot down other missiles.

A senior Ukrainian official, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, characterized the situation as “critical” and urged people to cut back on their power usage and “hang in there.” Power provider DTEK announced emergency blackouts in Kyiv, and authorities took similar steps elsewhere, too.

Air raid alerts sounded throughout the country. The barrage of nearly 100 strikes — including with missiles — followed days of euphoria in Ukraine after the Russian retreat from Kherson and the Ukrainian takeover of the regional capital that Moscow’s forces had captured early in the nearly 9-month war.

In Bali, Indonesia, at the meeting of the leaders of the Group of 20 largest industrialized countries, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan condemned the Russian airstrikes.

“It is not lost on us that, as world leaders meet at the G-20 in Bali to discuss the issues of significant importance to the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, Russia again threatens those lives and destroys Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. These Russian strikes will serve to only deepen the concerns among the G20 about the destabilizing impact of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war,” Sullivan said in a statement. “We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

With its battlefield defeats, Russia has resorted to more long-range aerial attacks on Ukraine’s power grid as winter approaches, believing it to be a demoralizing psychological weapon to leave Ukrainians in the cold and dark.

Ukrainian officials reported strikes Tuesday in Lviv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi and Rivne in the west, and Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in the northeast. Several missiles also hit Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s native city, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the military administration in Kryvyi Rih.

Ukrainian officials were working frantically to restore water and power in Kherson and begin to investigate alleged Russian abuses there and in surrounding communities.

Matilda Bogner, the head of the United Nations human rights office’s monitoring mission in Ukraine, on Tuesday decried a “dire humanitarian situation” in Kherson. She said her teams are trying to verify allegations of nearly 80 cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention and “understand whether the scale is in fact larger than what we have documented already.”

Zelenskyy on Tuesday said a “real and complete cessation of hostilities” will result if Russia withdraws all its troops from Ukraine and restores Ukrainian control to his country’s territory along the border with Russia.

Speaking virtually to the world leaders at the G-20 summit, Zelenskyy said delays in bringing an end to the conflict mean the deaths of more Ukrainians and more threats to the world.

“I am convinced now is the time when the Russian destructive war must and can be stopped,” Zelenskyy said.

The Ukrainian leader’s comments followed a visit Monday to Kherson where he told Ukrainian troops that the country is “ready for peace.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov declined Monday to comment on Zelenskyy’s visit to Kherson but said, “This territory is part of the Russian Federation.”

Russia illegally annexed the region last month, along with three other territories in Ukraine.

White House correspondent Anita Powell contributed to this report. Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
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Poland is increasing the readiness of some of its military units, government officials said Tuesday, after unconfirmed reports that stray Russian missiles killed two people near the country’s border with Ukraine.

Polish President Andrzej Duda, who spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, was reportedly considering whether to call urgent consultations with NATO leaders under the alliance’s Article 4. The article allows NATO members to bring any issue of concern, especially regarding security, for discussion at the North Atlantic Council. 

A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the alliance was looking into the reports, as was the U.S. National Security Council, The Associated Press reported. The Russian Defense Ministry has denied the allegations. 

What is NATO Article 4? 

The article allows NATO members to bring any issue of concern, especially regarding security, for discussion at the North Atlantic Council. Article 4 does not mean there will be direct pressure to act. 

Under Article 4, any member state can convene a meeting of NATO members to “consult” when it feels its independence or security is threatened. In practice, it has rarely been used; regardless, it sends a strong message to the greater world that NATO is concerned about the situation. 

What is NATO Article 5? 

The principle of collective defense — meaning that an attack against one ally is considered as an attack against all allies — is the keystone of NATO. It states that an “armed attack” against one member is an attack against all and sets in motion the possibility of collective self-defense. 

However, it commits each NATO member to “assist the party or parties so attacked” and to take “such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force.” It does not automatically result in military action. 

How would NATO decide to invoke either article? 

In theory, Articles 4 and 5 could be invoked only at the request of a NATO member. 

Since the alliance’s creation in 1949, Article 4 has been invoked seven times, most recently on February 24, 2022, when Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia requested to hold consultations under Article 4 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Article 5 has been invoked only once, immediately following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks against the United States. 

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty contributed to this article. Some material for this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press. 
…

Seeking a boost in upcoming elections, the Turkish president wants to show he can help avert rising world food prices. Dorian Jones reports.
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A team of U.N. investigators finds both Ukrainian and Russian prisoners of war have been subjected to torture and ill-treatment by their captors. The report is based on interviews over the past several months with 159 POWs, including 20 women held by the Russian Federation and 175 male POWs held by Ukraine.

The investigators report only Ukraine has granted them confidential access to Russian prisoners of war in places of internment. They say Russia did not grant them similar access, so they have conducted interviews with Ukrainian POWs upon their release.

Speaking from Kyiv, the head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, said Ukrainian prisoners of war told her team they were beaten immediately upon capture. Some had their personal belongings pillaged.

When they arrived at certain Russian internment centers, Bogner noted the POWs said they were subjected to prolonged beatings, threats, dog attacks, were stripped and put into stress positions.  

Bogner said the mission has received information that nine POWs have died during these so-called admission procedures since mid-April. She said her team is working now to corroborate these reported deaths.

“The vast majority of those we interviewed told us that during their internment they were tortured and ill-treated,” she said. “Torture and ill-treatment were not only used to coerce prisoners of war to give military information or statements about alleged crimes. They were, interviewees told us, used on a daily basis to intimidate and humiliate them.”  

Bogner said the U.N. mission has documented cases of Russian POWs subjected to torture and ill-treatment by members of the Ukrainian armed forces. According to Bogner, some of the men said they were punched and kicked after surrendering and when interrogated. Others said they were stabbed or given electric shocks by Ukrainian law enforcement officers or military personnel guarding them.

“There have been allegations, credible allegations of summary executions carried out by Ukrainian armed forces,” she said. “These happened earlier on in the conflict. The authorities, Ukrainian authorities have opened investigations into those allegations. But we have not seen progress in the investigations thus far.”  

Bogner said she and her team have not yet been to the southern port city of Kherson, which Ukraine recently recaptured from Russia. She noted U.N. monitors have conducted investigations in several nearby villages which were abandoned by the Russian forces in the past few weeks. 

She said they have “documented over 70 – almost 80 – cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions” in the area. 

Bogner said the mission will investigate alleged war crimes, and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law that may have been committed by Russian forces in Kherson.
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Roberto Saviano, Italy’s best-known anti-Mafia author and a leading human rights campaigner, is due to stand trial in Rome on Tuesday for calling Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni a “bastard.”

If convicted of the libel charge Saviano, 43, could in theory face up to three years’ imprisonment, but under Italy’s legal system a fine of at least about $520 (500 euros) or a suspended sentence are more likely.

“I’ll defend the legitimacy of the critique of Power, even when it is harsh. I have always argued my criticism and I will also do so in court,” the author said in written remarks to Reuters before the first hearing.

A spokesperson for the prime minister’s party did not respond to a request for comment.

Meloni sued Saviano following a December 2020 TV interview in which he lambasted her and fellow right-wing leader Matteo Salvini over their attacks on migrant rescue NGOs.

“All the bullshit [said about NGOs], sea taxis, cruises [for migrants],” he said. “All I can say is: bastards, how could you? Meloni, Salvini: bastards.”

Saviano spoke after seeing footage of a sea rescue by Spanish NGO Open Arms in which a six-month old baby from Guinea died before he could be airlifted to Italy.

Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party was then in opposition, responded with legal action against the “serial hater” Saviano.

Their court battle will play out against a backdrop of disputes between migrant rescue charities and Italy’s new right-wing government.

Rome authorities accuse NGO ships of acting illegally, and last week refused to let one of them dock in Italy, forcing it to sail to France and provoking a bitter row with the French government.

Saviano, who has lived under 24-hour police protection since his 2006 breakthrough book “Gomorrah,” an expose on the Naples mafia that was adapted into a movie and a TV series, was unrepentant about his attack on Meloni.

“What should I be apologizing for? For doing my duty to criticize Power, as all intellectuals should do?” he said.

Saviano faces two more defamation cases pitting him against Salvini, now deputy prime minister, and Culture Minister Gennaro Sangiuliano.

The PEN International writers’ association has urged Meloni to drop her lawsuit.

“Pursing your case against him would send a chilling message to all journalists and writers in the country, who may no longer dare to speak out for fear of reprisals,” it said.
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The Israeli so-called Law of Return says that anyone with one Jewish grandparent can immigrate to Israel and receive Israeli citizenship. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to draft 300,000 men to fight in the war against Ukraine has prompted thousands of Russians to move to Israel, with tens of thousands of others on the way. Linda Gradstein reports from Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv. VOA footage by Ricki Rosen.
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The European Union on Monday slapped new sanctions on Iran for its crackdown on anti-government protesters and launched a mission to train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers in member states.

European foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday imposed travel bans and asset freezes on 29 Iranians, including high-ranking members of the country’s Revolutionary Guard and Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi.

Four Iranian organizations are also targeted, as the EU hardens its response to Tehran’s crackdown on a massive protest movement that erupted following the September death of a young woman in Iranian police custody. On Monday, Iran issued its first death sentence against a protester.

Also in the EU’s sanctions crosshairs: attack drones Iran supplied to Russia for its war on Ukraine. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell demanded Iran stop providing Moscow with military aid — which reports suggest might also include ballistic missiles — and said the bloc would take further steps, if needed.

“The drones provided by Iran to Russia allegedly a month ago,” Borrell said, “Are being used in that war, and it’s a clear violation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231.”

The EU is discussing a ninth sanctions package against Moscow. More immediately, it will begin training thousands of Ukrainian troops in various member states, including Poland, Spain and France.

Borrell said Europe had so far provided Ukraine with about $8 billion worth of military equipment — or roughly 45 percent of what Washington has furnished.

He added that “We will continue isolating Russia internationally. We will continue imposing restrictive measures against the Russian economy. We stand ready to continue enforcing restrictive measures and target third countries involved, especially the ones … that are providing arms and military support [to Russia].”

Countering speculation that Europe might pressure Kyiv to enter peace talks, Borrell said it will be up to Ukraine to decide if and when to start talks with Russia, and that “We will continue supporting Ukraine until Ukraine’s victory — and it has to be understood, on the Ukrainian parameters.”

The war in Ukraine has sparked a massive refugee influx to the EU, along with soaring prices and an energy crunch.
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All extraditions to China from Europe could be blocked after a recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), in a judgment that campaigners described as a landmark decision with global ramifications.

Judges at the court in Strasbourg, France, unanimously ruled October 6 that Hung Tao Liu, a Taiwan national accused of telecoms fraud, should not be extradited from Poland to China as he could face ill-treatment or torture and may not have access to a fair trial.

The judges also ruled that Liu’s five-year detention in Poland while he appealed the extradition request was unlawful. The judgment is due to come into effect in January.

Crucially, Liu is neither a political activist nor critic of China, nor is he from a religious or ethnic minority, explained his Polish lawyer Marcin Gorski, a legal scholar at the University of Lodz.

“So, the outcome of the case is that basically, regardless of your personal status — whether you are a political activist involved in some sort of opposition activities in China or not — you must not be extradited to China, basically because any person being [sent] there is likely to be subject to ill-treatment,” Gorski told VOA.

Hung Tao Liu fled to Poland from Spain in 2016, after Spanish authorities arrested and extradited more than 200 suspects of Taiwanese origin to mainland China on accusations of telecoms fraud. Liu allegedly was the group’s ringleader.

Human rights groups accused Spain of ignoring warnings of ill-treatment and torture in China’s judicial system. “The Spanish government knew about the situation in China,” Jing-Jie Chen of the Madrid-based human rights group Safeguard Defenders told VOA.

“What the Chinese government tried to say is that we are going to have this diplomatic assurance, we’re going to ensure fair trials, we’re going to ensure that there won’t be any capital punishment or life imprisonment, so then it’s OK for you to send those people over here.

“This [ECHR] judgment also clearly says that it doesn’t really matter about these kind[s] of diplomatic assurances,” Chen said.

Liu was detained in Poland in 2017 after Interpol issued a “red notice” based on a request from Beijing authorities. Polish judges approved his extradition to China, a ruling later upheld by Poland’s Supreme Court in 2018. Liu then applied to the European Court of Human Rights, whose rulings take precedent over domestic courts.

Poland can appeal the ECHR verdict, but legal experts say it is unlikely to be overturned as the ruling was unanimous.

Forty-six countries are signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights, overseen by the ECHR in Strasbourg. Nations that are not signatories to the convention will also take note of the recent ruling, said lawyer Gorski.

“The judgment is likely to have an impact on the proceedings in these kind of cases going on worldwide. And we actually have a very good feedback of this judgment from also the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,” he told VOA.

The ruling could also impact relations between Europe and China.

“For instance, the impact of this decision on the ongoing process of negotiations and ratification of the trade deals with China now,” Gorski said.

China consistently rejects claims that it violates human rights and says the right to a fair trial is enshrined in law. Human rights campaigners say China does not grant international oversight of its judicial system and that torture, forced confessions and executions are common.
…

All extraditions to China from Europe could be blocked after a ruling by European judges. As Henry Ridgwell reports, human rights campaigners describe it as a landmark judgment with global ramifications. Videographer: Henry Ridgwell
…

The United States on Monday targeted Russian military’s supply chains, imposing sanctions on 14 individuals and 28 entities that it said were part of a transnational network that procures technology to support Moscow in its invasion of Ukraine.

The U.S. Treasury also designated family members of Russian oligarch Suleiman Kerimov, as well as individuals that it said worked as financial facilitators in Suleiman’s network.

“The United States will continue to disrupt Russia’s military supply chains and impose high costs on President Putin’s enablers, as well as all those who support Russia’s brutality against its neighbor,” U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a statement.

The U.S. Treasury blacklisted Milandr, a Russian microelectronics company that Washington says is part of Moscow’s military research and development structure. It has also designated three entities tied to the company, and several company executives.

The U.S. Treasury has sanctioned major military industrial firms in Russia and the Commerce Department has cut off exports of American-made components and U.S. technologies that have been used in some of Russia’s military hardware.

Russia has managed to procure drones from Iran that have been used to attack cities and power infrastructure in Ukraine. Iranian military entities and industries are already under heavy U.S. sanctions over Tehran’s nuclear development program.
…

Turkey is claiming a breakthrough in Sunday’s fatal bombing with security forces detaining a woman suspected of planting the bomb that killed six people and injured over 50 others. Ankara is accusing Syrian Kurdish militants backed by the United States of ordering the attack.

In the early hours of Monday morning in Istanbul, Turkish security forces arrested the woman suspected of planting the bombing in Sunday’s attack. Turkey’s Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu announced what authorities touted as a breakthrough.

Soylu said, “A short while ago, the person who carried out the incident, who left the bomb, was detained by the Istanbul police; 21 other people had been detained.”

Arrests are continuing, with more than 50 being held as of early Monday.

Video footage of a woman appearing to leave a bag at the site of the bombing and then running away was released shortly after the attack.

Turkish security forces named the suspect as Syrian national Ahlam Albashir. They claim she has confessed to being trained by the Kurdistan Workers Party, the PKK. The PKK in a statement Monday denied involvement in the bombing, saying it doesn’t target civilians.

So far, no one has claimed responsibility for the attack.

The PKK has been fighting the Turkish state for greater Kurdish rights for more than 40 years. The militant group was linked to the bombing of an Istanbul football match in 2016, killing more than 40 people.

But Soylu, the Turkish interior minister, claims Sundays’ attack was organized in Kobani, a Syrian city controlled by the YPG, a Syrian Kurdish militia, which Ankara says is affiliated with the PKK, a charge it denies. The United States backs the YPG in its war against the Islamic State. Soylu speaking at the site of the Istanbul bombing says that Turkey needs to reconsider its ties with its American ally following Sunday’s attack.

Soylu said Turkey rejects the condolences of the American Embassy. Turkey, he said, does not accept it. The Turkish official said an alliance with a state that sends money from its own Senate to these groups, feeding the terror zones in Kobani, which aims to disturb Turkey’s peace, is — in his words — in a controversial situation. This is open and clear, Soylu said.

Washington’s backing of the YPG and its political affiliate, the PYD, is poisoning relations with its Turkish ally, says international relations professor Senem Aydin-Duzgit of Istanbul’s Sabanci University.

You have the American alliance with the Kurds, with PYD, in particular in northern Syria. So, there is this perception that America is sort of is an alliance with the PKK and the Kurdish nationalist movement. And that sort of creates kind of hostility as well.

The escalating diplomatic dispute between Turkey and United States comes as shopkeepers clear the devastation of Sunday’s bombing and, like the rest of the city, try to come to terms with this latest attack, as shopkeeper Lokman Kalkan explains.

He said, “It has been a disaster, you see. This is all that happened. People were fighting for their lives. There is nothing we can do,” he said.

Details of those killed by Sunday’s attack are now being released. A mother and son, a father and daughter, and a married couple, the oldest victim was 40.

 
…

U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director William Burns is in Turkey to deliver a message to President Vladimir Putin’s foreign spy chief about the consequences of a potential Russian use of nuclear weapons, a White House spokesperson said.

In the first known high-level face-to-face U.S.-Russian contact since Putin’s Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, Burns was in Ankara on Monday to meet Sergei Naryshkin, head of Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence service.

“He is not conducting negotiations of any kind. He is not discussing settlement of the war in Ukraine,” said the spokesperson, speaking on condition of anonymity.

“He is conveying a message on the consequences of the use of nuclear weapons by Russia, and the risks of escalation to strategic stability,” the spokesperson said. “He will also raise the cases of unjustly detained US citizens.”

Burns, a former U.S. ambassador to Russia who was sent to Moscow in late 2021 by U.S. President Joe Biden to caution Putin about the troop buildup around Ukraine, is not discussing a potential settlement to the war in Ukraine, the spokesperson said.

“We briefed Ukraine in advance on his trip. We firmly stick to our fundamental principle: nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine.”

Putin has repeatedly said Russia will defend its territory with all available means, including nuclear weapons, if attacked. Putin says the West has engaged in nuclear blackmail against Russia.

The remarks raised particular concern in the West after Moscow declared in September that it had annexed four Ukrainian regions that its forces control parts of.

The U.S.-Russian contact in Turkey was first reported by Russia’s Kommersant newspaper. The Kremlin, asked about the Kommersant report, said it could neither confirm nor deny it. The SVR did not respond to a request for comment.

Beyond the war, Russia and the United States have a host of outstanding issues to discuss, ranging from the extension of a key nuclear arms reduction treaty and a Black Sea grain deal to a possible U.S.-Russian prisoner swap and the Syrian civil war.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, asked at a summit of the Group of 20 (G-20) leading economies in Indonesia about the U.S.-Russian contact in Turkey, said the United Nations was not involved.

“It’s very positive that the U.S. and Russia are having talks because that is an extremely relevant development in relation to the future, but we are not involved,” Guterres said.

Biden said this month he hoped Putin would be willing to discuss seriously a possible prisoner swap to secure the release of U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, who was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony on drugs charges.

Former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, who holds American, British, Canadian and Irish passports, was sentenced in 2020 to 16 years in a Russian jail after being convicted of spying. He denied the charge.

Viktor Bout, a Russian arms dealer jailed in the United States, has been mentioned as a person who could be swapped for Griner and Whelan in any future prisoner exchange.

Kremlin says grain talks with U.N. last week were ‘constructive.’

Biden expects Russia to get more serious about prisoner swap for Griner.
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U.S. President Joe Biden joined world leaders at the island resort of Bali, Indonesia, for the G-20 Summit hosted by President Joko Widodo.

“I don’t think I’m going home,” Biden joked in a meeting with Widodo at the sidelines of the summit. “You had me staying on the beach.”

“It’s great to see you again, Jokowi,” Biden said using the Indonesian leader’s nickname. “This is a — you’ve been a good friend.”

The friendly banter belies months of intense diplomatic back and forth between Washington and Jakarta ahead of the gathering of the leaders of the world’s twenty largest economies that has been overshadowed by the war in Ukraine and Western pressure to isolate Russia.

Seventeen G-20 members are represented by their heads of government, including leaders of the Group of Seven (G-7) leading industrialized nations as well as Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is not attending in person, and it is unclear whether he will participate virtually. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will participate virtually despite Ukraine not being the group’s member.

National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan sidestepped the question of whether Biden is happy with the final list of attendees. He said Biden sees the summit as an opportunity for leaders of the world’s major economies to deal with the consequences of Russia’s war in Ukraine and will focus on practical issues including food security, energy security and debt reform.

“And so, ‘happy/unhappy,’ I think, is not quite the right way to think about, you know, whether President Putin chose to show up or not,” Sullivan told VOA on board Air Force One Sunday, en route to Bali. “President Putin made his decision for his reasons under the pressures he’s facing.”

Sullivan declined to respond whether Biden is planning to walk out should Putin participate virtually.

“That’s a hypothetical that we have not yet engaged, in terms of what the President — how the President would react,” he said.

Optimal outcome

While Widodo had to navigate more geopolitical tensions than he had bargained for as summit host, from Jakarta’s perspective having Western leaders as well as leaders of China, Japan, South Korea, India and others, without embarrassing Moscow is an optimal outcome.

“Discussion[s] also very, very good and I’m glad that America and China [can] also be here,” Coordinating Minister for Maritime Affairs and Investment Luhut Pandjaitan told reporters Saturday.

Inviting Zelenskyy was a diplomatic middle-ground for Widodo who maintained that he had no flexibility to disinvite Moscow despite boycott threats from Western leaders

“And ultimately, the Western countries flinched. They blinked; Indonesia got its way,” Aaron Connelly, a research fellow at the International Institute for Strategic Studies told VOA. “Indonesia is very comfortable in this space, being a nonaligned power, trying to convene great powers that are at odds with each other.”

Jakarta will try to keep its focus on three main pillars it has selected under its presidency — global health architecture, sustainable energy transition and digital transformation. It wants to ensure the agenda developed not just by governments but also business stakeholders and civil society are carried forward to the next G-20 meeting under India as next year’s chair, Dinna Prapto Raharja, founder of the Jakarta-based think tank Synergy Policies told VOA.

Additionally, with geopolitical fault lines sharpened by the war in Ukraine, Jakarta is aiming to not stir tensions further and keep its options open.

Indonesia is facing a new kind of equilibrium, she said. “We don’t know where it will end. But definitely it won’t be the era of unipolarism where the U.S. will be the only major power.”

Biden – Jokowi

Widodo’s government is aiming for $89 billion in investments for next year and aggressively seeking funds for the relocation of its capital to Borneo, estimated to be a $34 billion project.

In their meeting, Biden and Widodo discussed expansion of their partnership including through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment, according to the White House. PGII is the West’s infrastructure funding scheme to counter China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

Washington and Jakarta are unveiling PGII initiatives on Indonesia’s energy transition during the summit. The countries are also launching a $698 million deal to develop climate-conscious transportation infrastructure in five Indonesian provinces and increase access to finance for Indonesia’s women-owned businesses and micro to medium sized enterprises.

Meanwhile trials of a nearly $8 billion high-speed railway project connecting Jakarta and Bandung, part of China’s BRI will be conducted during the G-20 summit and is scheduled to be launched next year.
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Art restorers in the Italian city of Florence have begun a six-month project to clean and virtually “unveil” a long-censored nude painting by Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the most prominent women in the history of Italian art.

Swirling veils and drapery were added to the “Allegory of Inclination” some 70 years after Gentileschi painted the life-size female nude, believed to be a self-portrait, in 1616.

The work to reveal the image as originally painted comes as Gentileschi’s contribution to Italian Baroque art is getting renewed attention in the #MeToo era, both for her artistic achievements but also for breaking into the male-dominated art world after being raped by one of her art teachers.

Her work was featured in a 2020 exhibit at the National Gallery in London.

“Through her, we can talk about how important it is to restore artwork, how important it is to restore the stories of women to the forefront,” said Linda Falcone, coordinator of the Artemisia Up Close project.

“Allegory of Inclination” originally was commissioned for the family home of Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, the great-nephew of the famed artist. The building later became the Casa Buonarotti museum, and the painting was displayed until recently on the ceiling in a gilded frame. When lead conservator Elizabeth Wick removed the painting in late September, a shower of 400-year-old dust was released.

Wick’s team of restorers is using ultraviolet light, diagnostic imaging and X-rays to differentiate Gentileschi’s brush strokes from those of the artist that covered the nudity. The public can watch the project underway at the museum through April 23.

Restorers won’t be able to remove the veils because the cover-up was done too soon after the original, raising the risk that Gentileschi’s painting would be damaged in the process.

Instead, the restoration team plans to create a digital image of the original version that will be displayed in an exhibition on the project opening in September 2023.

Gentileschi arrived in Florence shortly after the trial in Rome of her rapist, during which the then-17-year-old was forced to testify with ropes tied around her fingers that were progressively tightened in a test of her honesty.

She also had to endure a physical examination in the courtroom behind a curtain to confirm that she was no longer a virgin. Eventually, her rapist was convicted and sentenced to eight months in prison.

“Somebody else would have been crushed by this experience,” Wick said. “But Artemisia bounces back. She comes up to Florence. She gets this wonderful commission to paint a full-length nude figure for the ceiling of Casa Buonarroti. So, I think she’s showing people, ‘This is what I can do.'”

While in Florence, Gentileschi also won commissions from the Medici family. Her distinctive, dramatic and energetic style emerged, taking inspiration from the most renowned Baroque painter of the time, Caravaggio. Many of her paintings featured female heroines, often in violent scenes and often nude.

She was 22 when she painted “Allegory of Inclination,” which was commissioned by Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger. Another member of the family, Leonardo Buonarroti, decided to have it embellished to protect the sensibilities of his wife and children.

“This is one of her first paintings. In the Florentine context, it was her debut painting, the same year she was then accepted into the Academy of Drawing, which was the first drawing academy in Europe at the time,” Falcone said.

With the younger Michelangelo as her patron, Gentileschi gained entry to the cultural milieu of the time.

“She was able to hobnob with Galileo and with other great thinkers. So this almost illiterate woman was suddenly at the university level, producing works of art that were then, you know, appreciated by the Grand Duke,” Falcone said. “And she became a courtly painter from then on.”
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An explosion on one of Istanbul’s most popular pedestrian thoroughfares killed four people and injured 38 Sunday, authorities said. 

The cause of the blast on Istiklal Avenue was not immediately clear. Five prosecutors were assigned to investigate the explosion, state-run Anadolu news agency said. 

A video posted online showed flames erupting and a loud bang, as pedestrians turned and ran away. Other footage showed ambulances, fire trucks and police at the scene. Social media users said shops were shuttered and the avenue closed. 

Turkey’s media watchdog imposed a temporary ban on reporting on the explosion — a move that prevents broadcasters from showing videos of the moment of the blast or its aftermath. The Supreme Council of Radio and Television has imposed similar bans in the past, following attacks and accidents. 

Istanbul Gov. Ali Yerlikaya tweeted the death toll and said those injured were being treated. 

Turkey was hit by a string of deadly bombings between 2015 and 2017 by the Islamic State group and outlawed Kurdish groups. 
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