How was the air breathed by Caesar, the Prophet Mohammed or Christopher Columbus? A giant freezer in Copenhagen holds the answers, storing blocks of ice with atmospheric tales thousands of years old.

The Ice Core Archive, housing 25 kilometres (15 miles) of ice collected primarily from Greenland, is helping scientists understand changes in the climate.

“What we have in this archive is prehistoric climate change, a record of man’s activities in the last 10,000 years,” glaciology professor Jorgen Peder Steffensen of the University of Copenhagen told AFP.

Blocks of ice have been his passion for 43 years — and it was while drilling into Greenland’s ice sheet that he met his wife Dorthe Dahl-Jensen, also a top expert in the field of paleoclimatology.

Steffensen has since 1991 managed the repository, one of the biggest in the world, with 40,000 blocks of ice stacked on long rows of shelves in large boxes.

The frozen samples are unique, made up of compressed snow and not frozen water.

“All the airspace between the snowflakes is trapped as bubbles inside (and) the air inside these bubbles is the same age as the ice,” Steffensen explained.

The repository’s antechamber is similar to a library’s reading room: this is where scientists can examine the ice they have withdrawn from the main “library”, or storage room.

But they must be quick: the temperature in the antechamber is kept at -18 degrees Celsius (-0.4F) — decidedly balmy compared to the -30C (-22F) in the storage room.

Here, Steffensen removes a block of ice from a box. Its air bubbles are visible to the naked eye: it’s snow that fell during the winter of year zero.

“So we have the Christmas stuff, the real Christmas snow,” says Steffensen with a big grin, his head covered in a warm winter bonnet with furry ear flaps.

Bedrock

A team of researchers brought the first ice cores to Denmark in the 1960s from Camp Century, a secret US military base on Greenland.

The most recent ones date from this summer, when scientists hit the bedrock on eastern Greenland at a depth of 2.6 kilometres, gathering the oldest ice possible.

Those samples contain extracts from 120,000 years ago, during the most recent interglacial period when air temperatures in Greenland were 5C higher than today.

“The globe has easily been much warmer than it is today. But that’s before humans were there,” Steffensen said.

This recently acquired ice should help scientists’ understanding of rising sea levels, which can only be partly explained by the shrinking ice cap.

Another part of the explanation comes from ice streams, fast-moving ice on the ice sheet that is melting at an alarming rate.

“If we understand the ice streams better, we can get a better idea of how much the contribution will be (to rising sea levels) from Greenland and Antarctica in the future,” Steffensen said.

He hopes they’ll be able to predict the sea level rise in 100 years with a margin of error of 15 centimetres — a big improvement over today’s 70 centimetres.

‘Treasure’

Ice cores are the only way of determining the state of the atmosphere prior to man-made pollution.

“With ice cores we have mapped out how greenhouse gases, carbon dioxide and methane vary over time,” Steffensen said.

“And we can also see the impact of the burning of fossil fuels in modern times.”

This project is separate from the Ice Memory foundation, which has collected ice cores from 20 sites worldwide to preserve them for future researchers at the French-Italian Concordia research station in Antarctica, before they disappear forever due to climate change.

“Storing Greenland’s ice memory is very good,” said the head of the foundation, Jerome Chappellaz.

But, he noted, the storage of samples in an industrial freezer is susceptible to technical glitches, funding woes, attacks, or even wars.

In 2017, a freezer that broke down at the University of Alberta in Canada exposed 13 percent of its precious samples thousands of years old to undesirably warm temperatures.

At Concordia Station, the average annual temperature is -55C, providing optimal storage conditions for centuries to come.

“They have a treasure,” said Chappellaz, appealing to the Danes to join Concordia’s project.

“We must protect this treasure and, as far as possible, ensure that it joins mankind’s world heritage.”
…

After living and working in Russia for the last decade, Tajik construction worker Zoir Kurbanov recently decided it was time to head home.

Life for many Central Asian migrants in Russia after it invaded Ukraine was not the same: wages were falling and men faced a danger of being sent by Moscow to the front.

Then, Kurbanov got an offer for jobs on building sites in Mariupol and Donetsk — cities in occupied Ukraine.

“I refused,” the 39-year-old said.

He decided to take a huge pay cut and return home to Tajikistan “because of the war,” taking up a construction job in the capital, Dushanbe.

Russia is increasingly trying to lure Central Asian migrants to work in the parts of Ukraine it occupies, or even to sign up to fight for its army.

While some 1.3 million still migrated to Russia from Central Asia in the first quarter of 2023, some are choosing to leave, rather than be coerced to go to Ukraine.

Moscow is offering high salaries, social benefits and even promises of citizenship to work in places like Mariupol, virtually flattened by the Russian army last year.

Meanwhile, enlistment offices and recruitment campaigns are trying to entice them to join the Russian army.

While there are no exact numbers on how many migrant workers have left Russia – or the numbers sent to work in Ukraine or recruited to the army – Kurbanov’s case is not an exception.

‘Police everywhere’

If offers of bumper paychecks don’t work, Russian authorities have other means of coercing migrants to the front.

“The Russian police were checking me everywhere, asking if I had done my military service,” said Argen Bolgonbekov, a 29-year-old who served in the Kygryz border force.

What starts as a document check can often escalate, he said. On the pretext of uncovering some kind of offense – real or fabricated – Russian authorities sometimes offer migrants a stark choice: prison or the army.

“In Russia, where there are problems with human rights and workers’ rights, migrants are vulnerable. It’s easier to fool them,” Batyr Shermukhammad, an Uzbek journalist who specializes in migration issues, told AFP.

Street searches and police raids of dormitories and work sites were a common feature of life for Central Asian migrants in Russia even before the war. But the invasion has added a new element of risk.

Bolgonbekov was relieved to have just been deported to Kyrgyzstan after police found irregularities with his documents.

“It’s a good thing, because over there you couldn’t walk around in peace anymore,” he said, speaking to AFP at a textile workshop in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek.

Farhodzhon Umirzakov, an Uzbek who worked in Russia for six years before he was also deported, said he was “worn down” by the climate there.

“The pressure on migrants increased. We were disrespected. There were more and more raids – even in mosques people were being arrested,” the 35-year-old told AFP.

He said an Uzbek he knew was sentenced to 12 years in prison for drug trafficking and ended up in the army fighting in Ukraine.

Independent media outlets in Central Asia have also reported similar cases.

‘Russia needs soldiers’

Russia is no longer hiding its targeting of migrants for military service.

Earlier this year, lawmaker Mikhail Matveyev called for Central Asians who have recently been granted Russian citizenship to be drafted instead of ethnic Russians.

“Why are they not mobilized? Where are the Tajik battalions? There is a war going on, Russia needs soldiers. Welcome to our citizenship,” he said in a post on Telegram.

War propaganda uses Soviet imagery of the victory over Nazi Germany, in which Central Asians fought for the Red Army.

Earlier this month, the Russian region of Vladimir published a recruitment video showing two men it said were Tajik doctors talking about their decision to go and fight at the front. In the video they called on their compatriots to “follow our example.”

In another video, an Uzbek man said he joined the army because “Russia is a bulwark. If it falls, our countries will fall too.”

The campaigns have not sat well with governments in Central Asia.

Although economically dependent on Moscow, they are striving to maintain their sovereignty and regularly call on their citizens not to take part in the war.

Despite the escalating pressure, Russia “remains the priority destination” for Central Asian workers, said journalist Shermukhammad.

There is no other country where migrants can go “without a visa, speak Russian and earn money,” he said.

Kurbanov, the Tajik construction worker who recently returned home, agreed.

“If the war ends tomorrow, I’ll go back to Russia the day after,” he said.

 
…

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak pledged on Wednesday that his government will keep seeking ways to send some undocumented immigrants on a one-way journey to Rwanda, even though the Supreme Court just ruled that policy was illegal and could imperil refugees.

Five justices unanimously found that Rwanda is not a safe destination for migrants, writing in their decision that asylum-seekers redirected to the East African nation would be “at real risk of ill-treatment.”

The court cited a laundry list of reasons for striking down Sunak’s plan, including Rwanda’s record of human rights abuses, political repression and policy of “refoulement,” or deporting asylees to the countries they had fled from.

The justices argued that Rwanda’s tendency to reject refugees from war-shattered countries means that there is a danger “that asylum claims will not be determined properly…”

The ruling, Sunak said, “was not what we wanted.” But he is undeterred. He said that his administration would broker a treaty with Rwanda to address the court’s worries.

If the treaty falls through, Sunak said, he would consider rewriting British law and backing out of international human rights agreements, which would undoubtedly draw ire from activists at home and abroad.

Rwanda agreed in April 2022, when former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson was still in office, to receive undocumented immigrants who had arrived in the U.K. as stowaways and process their asylum applications.

The Conservative government has already given Rwanda nearly $175 million as part of the plan, although not a single migrant has been sent there yet.

While Britain’s border crisis is not as severe as many of its neighbors in Europe, such as Italy and Germany, tens of thousands of undocumented immigrants have made the harrowing journey to northern France to sail across the English Channel in often overcrowded dinghies.

More than 27,000 refugees from around the world have floated over the channel this year, a marked decrease from last year’s 46,000. Sunak claims that the decline in undocumented immigrants is due to his government’s stringent policies. Others believe the disparity in crossings is due to harsh weather conditions.

In the post-Brexit era, “stop the boats” has become a conservative protest slogan. To Sunak and many of his right-wing supporters, stricter control of the country’s borders represents independence from outside influence.

Human rights groups have condemned Sunak’s positions on immigration.

Amnesty International said the nation’s leaders should “draw a line under a disgraceful chapter in the U.K.’s political history.” The U.K. branch of ActionAid, a global humanitarian charity, struck a similar tone, saying the Supreme Court’s ruling represents “British values of compassion and dignity.”

Rwandan officials have repeatedly affirmed their country’s commitment to human rights, despite a number of scandals, from torture and secret abductions by law enforcement to, as the Supreme Court noted in its judgment, “credible plans to kill” Rwandan defectors living in Britain.

Nevertheless, Yolande Makolo, a spokeswoman for Rwanda’s government, wrote on X, formerly Twitter, that “Rwanda is committed to its international obligations. We have been recognized by the UNHCR and other international institutions for our exemplary treatment of refugees.”

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

Ukrainian troops have established a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in the Kherson Oblast, according to a Ukrainian official.

“Against all odds, Ukraine’s defense forces have gained a foothold on the left bank,” Andriy Yermak, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, said during a speech to a Washington think tank on Tuesday, according to the Associated Press.

Ukraine had been attempting to push Russia from the strategically significant eastern bank of the river, which has served as a natural barrier, preventing Ukraine from advancing farther into the Kherson region towards the Russian-annexed Crimea. 

The river also allowed Russia to concentrate troops in other heavily fortified and mined regions of eastern Ukraine, such as Zaporizhzhia.

Vladimir Saldo, the Russian-installed governor of occupied Kherson, confirmed that Ukrainian troops gained a foothold on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River but are acting in small groups and taking heavy losses.

“Our additional forces have now been brought in. The enemy is trapped in [the settlement of] Krynky and a fiery hell has been arranged for him: bombs, rockets, heavy flamethrower systems, artillery shells and drones,” Saldo said.

Natalia Humeniuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, described the front line as “fairly fluid” with Ukrainian troops pressuring Russian troops along the river.

Russia previously controlled areas on the western side of the river, including the city of Kherson, but left those positions last year.

Ukraine’s counteroffensive has been seen as moving somewhat slowly, though an advancement on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River could prove significant for Kyiv’s efforts, by forcing Russia to spread its troops thinner along the front line. 

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

After 21 months of Russia’s war in Ukraine, Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas says there is much more on the line for the Western world than Russia seizing its neighbor’s territory. She says malign actors globally are watching how the Ukraine war ends and if they see aggression paying off, the world will see many more conflicts.  

In an interview with Ia Meurmishvili of VOA’s Georgian service Tuesday while visiting Washington, Kallas discussed whether western support for Ukraine is sustainable, the status of efforts to seize Russian frozen assets in Europe, and her push to eliminate so-called “gray zones” — areas between the west and Russia, where Moscow’s efforts to exert influence threaten Europe’s security. 

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. 

VOA: How do you think the Ukraine war is going? 

Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas: We are in the war of attrition. It is not a stalemate, but it takes a long time. In war of attrition, you basically have three elements. You have the people, you have the resources, and then you have the morale. Russia is thinking that they can outlast Ukraine. But I have a reason to believe that our support to Ukraine can outlast Russia.  In terms of people — Europe is training 30 to 40,000 [Ukranian] soldiers. If America is doing the same, it is 80,000 trained soldiers versus conscripts that are sent to the battle from the Russian side. So, we can outlast them in terms of people. 

In terms of resources — the combined GDP of Europe is seven times bigger than that of Russia. We also see the sanctions kicking in, which means that the Russian budget is really in trouble. They have lost one-third of their budget and they cannot get any outside. They are in trouble. And, in terms of military aid — if you think of the Ramstein Coalition, then the defense budget of the Ramstein Coalition is 13 times bigger than that of Russia. So, we can outlast there.  

And the third element is the morale of Ukrainians fighting for their homes. Their morale is definitely higher than that of Russia. What we also have to do is believe in Ukraine’s victory. 

VOA: Do you think this support is sustainable?  

Kallas: The U.S. gave a lot of support to Ukraine, and you can say that Europe was a bit behind. But Europe has now picked up the pace and, if you think about the military aid given now, plus the future pledges, then it is bigger in absolute numbers than that of the United States’. 

All the leaders in Europe have put their political will behind supporting Ukraine because it is fundamental for the peace in the world that the aggression does not pay off. Because all the aggressors or would-be aggressors in the world are carefully taking notes. If Russia walks away with more territory than they have, and we say that, okay, let’s draw the line here, then all the aggressors and would-be aggressors are seeing that the aggression pays off. So, we will see more of it, and that is going to be more expensive than to support Ukraine so that Russia will lose this war. I totally agree with the historian Timothy Snyder, who said that in order for a country to become better, it has to lose its last colonial war. If you think about European history that is true for many European countries. Russia has never lost its last colonial war.

VOA: Why do you think it is important for the U.S. to keep engaged? 

Kallas: For me, the question is always of the alternative. Is the alternative to supporting Ukraine right now more expensive or is it cheaper? I say that it’s more expensive, because all the malign actors are very carefully looking — Iran, North Korea. If Russia walks away, and nothing happens to them with more territories than they had before, [if] they do not lose their last colonial war, then others will try to do this in the world as well, and that is going to be detrimental to the world peace.

VOA: Do you see any movement towards seizing the frozen assets of Russia in Europe and using that money for the Ukrainian recovery? 

Kallas: Yes, the European Commission is working on the European solution. In Estonia, we drafted a law that is tackling the same issue. So basically, how it works is that in Hague, in the International Criminal Court, there is a registry that is registering all the damages that Russia is causing to Ukraine, and its cost. At the same time, we have the assets that are frozen or sanctioned and we know the value of those assets. Russia has a legitimate claim towards us regarding those assets. Ukraine has a legitimate claim towards Russia. So, we make a settlement with those claims so that we can use those assets in favor of Ukraine. And after the war ends, and Russia has paid all the reparations to Ukraine and there is something left over, then we can return this.

I think this is fundamental because nobody wants to take this from the taxpayers’ money, but it’s also fundamental in order to think outside of the box, what really influences the Russian elite or the cronies around the Kremlin to have a pressure to really stop this war. And the war will stop when Russia realizes it cannot win there, and that it was a mistake.

VOA: Are your partners listening to your call to eliminate the “gray zones”?

Kallas: I think everybody has understood that the gray zones are sources of conflicts and wars. For us to not have wars, it has to be clear where the lines really are. The question has been from the start, is the unity now collapsing? But it has not. Of course, we are all democracies, and in democracies we debate, we have different opinions. But the point is that we come to a mutual decision. As [Russian President Vladimir] Putin does not believe in multilateralism so it has been a negative surprise to him that we have been able to keep our unity together and we should continue negatively surprising him.

VOA: And now he is uniting with China, North Korea and Iran.

Kallas: Exactly. There are clear authoritarian regimes fighting against the democracies in the world and for freedom, really. And [the] question is, who gets to rule the world, whether it’s freedom and prosperity, or is it authoritarian regimes that have other values? 
…

The use of anti-personnel land mines by Russia and Myanmar triggered a surge in the number of civilian casualties in Ukraine and Myanmar last year, according to a new report by a land-mine monitor.

The report, published by the International Campaign to Ban Landmines, found that Russia, which is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty, “used antipersonnel mines extensively in Ukraine since its all-out invasion of the country in February 2022.”

The report also found evidence that Ukraine, which is a party to the Mine Ban Treaty, used anti-personnel mines in and around the city of Izium, in Kharkiv oblast, in 2022 when the city was under Russian control.

“This has created an unprecedented situation in which a country that is not party to the Mine Ban Treaty is using the weapon on the territory of a [treaty member],” said Mark Hiznay, associate arms director at Human Rights Watch and an editor of Landmine Monitor 2023. “In the 20-plus years [since the Mine Ban Treaty was adopted], this has never occurred before.”

Ukraine has previously said it would look into allegations in a Human Rights Watch report earlier this year detailing “numerous cases” in which Ukrainian forces deployed banned anti-personnel mines.

The International Campaign to Ban Landmines, which is a global coalition of nongovernmental organizations chaired by Human Rights Watch, recorded 4,710 injuries and deaths in 2022, down from 5,544 casualties in the previous year.

“But there were significant increases in some countries, primarily Ukraine,” said Loren Persi, Landmine Monitor 2023 impact team lead. “In Ukraine, the number of civilian casualties recorded increased 10-fold from around 60 in 2021 to around 600 in 2022.”

The Monitor report says civilians accounted for 85% of casualties from land mines and exploded remnants of war last year, roughly half of them children. The highest number of casualties, 834, was recorded in Syria, followed by Ukraine with 608 casualties, and Yemen and Myanmar, each of which recorded more than 500 casualties in 2022.

Hiznay said that Russia began using landmines in 2014 in support of pro-Russian separatist forces in the contested Donbas region of eastern Ukraine.

“Russia has made extensive use of land mines in places like Afghanistan and Chechnya,” he said. “I think they have supplied land mines to 35, 38 different countries over the years.

“Another factor we are noticing is wherever Wagner goes, land mines go,” he said, referring to the Moscow-financed Wagner Group militia. “We do not think that is a coincidence, particularly in Libya, where several new types of land mines were found and documented.”

Myanmar, he said, has been using anti-personnel land mines since 1999, but the magnitude and scope of the contamination is now different.

“It is just bigger,” he said. “You have more use by the government forces and more use by various nonstate armed groups. So, it is a lingering, festering problem that has just got worse in the past reporting period.”

The Monitor report indicates land mines were also used during the reporting period by nonstate armed groups in Colombia, India, Myanmar, Thailand and Tunisia, as well as in eight treaty members in the Sahel region.

Currently 164 countries have signed onto the Mine Ban Treaty, which prohibits the use, stockpiling, production and transfer of anti-personnel mines.

The Monitor says that 30 states who are parties to the treaty have cleared all mined areas from their territory since the treaty came into force in 1999, leaving 60 countries and other areas contaminated. In addition, it notes that 22 states that are not party to the treaty and five other areas remain infested with these lethal weapons.

De-mining activists warn that the number of victims will continue to grow for as long as land mines remain in the ground. They say health care and physical rehabilitation services are seriously underfunded and unable to assist the many people who are disabled by these weapons, including in countries such as Afghanistan, Sudan, Ukraine and Yemen.

“Alarming increases in the number of civilians killed and injured by recently placed mines in several countries further demonstrate the dire need for increased resources to ensure all the rights of the victims are addressed,” said Persi. 
…

The United States and Britain on Tuesday imposed a third round of sanctions targeting the Palestinian militant group Hamas, trying to curb Iranian funding of the group and one of its allies, the Palestinian Islamic Jihad, following their shock attack last month on Israel.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said in a statement the two countries are trying “to deny Hamas the ability to raise and use funds to carry out its atrocities.”

“Hamas’s actions have caused immense suffering and shown that terrorism does not occur in isolation,” Yellen said. “Together with our partners we are decisively moving to degrade Hamas’s financial infrastructure, cut them off from outside funding, and block the new funding channels they seek to finance their heinous acts.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the sanctions are aimed at protecting the international financial system “from abuse by Hamas and its enablers.”

“Iran’s support, primarily through its Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, enables Hamas and [Palestinian Islamic Jihad] terrorist activities, including through the transfer of funds and the provision of both weapons and operational training,” Blinken said. “Iran has trained PIJ fighters to produce and develop missiles in Gaza while also funding groups that provide financial support to PIJ-affiliated fighters.”

Israel says that Hamas fighters killed 1,200 people inside the Jewish state in the attack last month and captured about 240 hostages, only four of whom it has released. Israel has responded with air attacks that Hamas medical authorities say have killed more than 11,000 Palestinians, including thousands of women and children.

Hamas is designated a terrorist group by Israel, the United States, the European Union, Britain and others.

Mahmoud Khaled Zahhar, a senior member and co-founder of Hamas; PIJ’s representative to Iran and the Damascus-based deputy secretary-general of PIJ and leader of its militant wing were among those sanctioned by Washington and London.

Nabil Chouman & Co., a Lebanon-based money exchange group, was also targeted, along with its owner and founder. Treasury accused the company of serving as a conduit for transferring funds to Hamas and said it transferred tens of millions of dollars to the militants.

The sanctions freeze any U.S. assets held by the Hamas officials and bars Americans from conducting any business with them.
…

Icelandic authorities were on Tuesday preparing to build defense walls around a geothermal power plant in the southwestern part of the country that they hope will protect it from lava flows amid concerns of an imminent volcanic eruption.

Seismic activity and underground lava flows intensified on the Reykjanes peninsula near the capital Reykjavik over the weekend, prompting authorities to evacuate nearly 4,000 people from the fishing town of Grindavik on Saturday.

The probability of an eruption remained high despite a decrease in seismic activity, the Icelandic Meteorological Institute said in a statement on Tuesday.

Nearly 800 earthquakes were recorded in the area between midnight and noon on Tuesday, fewer than the two previous days, it said.  

“Less seismic activity typically precedes an eruption, because you have come so close to the surface that you cannot build up a lot of tension to trigger large earthquakes,” said Rikke Pedersen, who heads the Nordic Volcanological Centre based in Reykjavik.

“It should never be taken as a sign that an outbreak is not on the way,” she said.

Authorities said they were preparing to construct a large dyke designed to divert lava flows around the Svartsengi geothermal power plant, located just over 6 kilometers (4 miles) from Grindavik.

Iceland’s Justice Minister Gudrun Hafsteinsdottir told state broadcaster RUV that equipment and materials that could fill 20,000 trucks were being moved to the plant.  

Construction of the protective dyke around the power station was awaiting formal approval from the government.

A spokesperson for HS Orka, operator of the power plant, said the plant supplies power to the entire country, although a disruption would not effect power supply to the capital Reykjavik.

Almost all of Grindavik’s 3,800 inhabitants, who were evacuated over the weekend, were briefly allowed back in on Monday and Tuesday to collect their belongings, the Icelandic department of civil protection and emergency management said.

Grindavik resident Kristin Maria Birgisdottir, who works for the town municipality, told Reuters on Tuesday she only had the clothes she had worn for work on the day the town was evacuated.

“I’m getting prepared in case I get a chance to visit my house and get some of my belongings,” said Birgisdottir, who has moved to a summer house with her family.

Some residents had to be driven into Grindavik in emergency responders’ cars, while most inhabitants were allowed to drive into Grindavik in their private cars accompanied by emergency personnel.

Most pets and farm animals had been rescued from Grindavik by Monday night, according to charity Dyrfinna.
…

A former Russian detective who was convicted in connection with the 2006 murder of investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya has been pardoned after fighting in Ukraine, his lawyer said on Tuesday.

Sergei Khadzhikurbanov was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2014 for organizing the deadly attack on Politkovskaya outside her apartment building. Politkovskaya, a staunch critic of President Vladimir Putin, unveiled abuses committed by Russian and allied forces against rebels in Chechnya for the independent magazine Novaya Gazeta.

Khadzhikurbanov, one of five men tried and convicted in Politkovskaya’s murder, was among thousands of prisoners who were sent to the front lines on the Ukrainian war front in exchange for a pardon.

Russia has probably recruited roughly 100,000 people from prisons to fight in Ukraine, Olga Romanova, the head of an independent prisoners’ rights group, has estimated.

Local Russian media outlets have reported several instances of released prisoners going on to commit serious offenses, including murders, after having left the army.

Some information is from Agence France-Presse.
…

A British convert to Islam who was convicted in Turkey of being part of the Islamic State group was sentenced to eight years in prison in Britain on Monday after he pleaded guilty to terrorism charges.

Aine Leslie Davis, 39, was deported from Turkey in August 2022 and detained on arrival at London’s Luton Airport after serving a seven-and-a-half-year sentence for membership in IS.

He pleaded guilty last month to having a firearm for terrorism purposes and two charges of funding terrorism.

Prosecutors said Davis, who left his home in London and travelled to Syria in 2013 to join the armed conflict there, enlisted his wife to persuade a friend to bring him $21,400 to support his cause. The friend was stopped at Heathrow Airport in 2014, and Davis’s wife, Amal El-Wahabi, was convicted of funding terrorism.

Davis’ defense lawyer, Mark Summers, issued an apology to the Syrian people on his behalf, saying he and others like him “caused more harm than good.”

British authorities had long suspected that Davis was part of an IS cell known as “The Beatles” — so called because of the men’s British accents — that tortured and killed Western hostages in Syria a decade ago, when IS controlled a large swath of Syria and Iraq.

Davis has denied being connected to the cell.

Two members of the “Beatles” cell, Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh, were captured by U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in 2018 and are serving life sentences in the U.S. A third, Mohammed Emwazi, was killed in a drone strike in 2015.

Summers asserted during the trial that prosecutors in the U.S. decided last year they would not seek to put Davis on trial as a member of the cell due to insufficient evidence.

The judge said he was sentencing Davis for the offenses on the indictment and not for the reported allegations.
…

 European Union officials are finalizing the “last details” of a proposed 12th package of sanctions on Russia that will include a diamond ban, EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said on Monday.

Borrell said the European Commission, the EU executive, could approve the proposed package on Wednesday. It would then go to the Council of the EU, comprising the bloc’s 27 member countries, for discussion and approval.

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the EU has already applied 11 packages of sanctions against Moscow to diminish the Kremlin’s ability to finance the war. The measures span across sectors and include some 1,800 individuals and entities.

“This twelfth package will include … new export bans, among them … diamonds, actions to tighten the oil price cap, in order to decrease the revenue that Russia is getting from selling its oil — not to us but to others — [and] fighting against circumvention,” Borrell told reporters after a meeting of EU foreign ministers.

EU diplomats told Reuters last week the 27-nation bloc had been waiting for a G7 green light to move ahead with the diamond ban. An EU official said the current timing for a European Commission proposal for the package, that would then be debated by the EU’s 27 governments, was “early next week”.

“We are finalizing the last details of this package,” Borrell said.
…

NATO member Romania inaugurated on Monday an international training hub for F-16 jet pilots from allied countries and other partners, including Ukraine. 

The training facility situated at an air base in Fetesti in southeast Romania will aim to increase interoperability between NATO allies, and better position the military alliance “to face the complex challenges” in Eastern Europe and the Black Sea region, Romania’s defense ministry said. 

It said the powerful U.S.-made warplanes will be supplied by the Royal Netherlands Air Force while the aircraft maker Lockheed Martin will provide instructors and maintenance at the training center.

Kathleen Kavalec, the U.S. ambassador to Romania who attended the opening, called the collaboration an “example of how the public and private sectors can cooperate to further our defense priorities.” 

“I am here with one simple message,” she said. “The United States government is here to support in any way we can.” 

Romania, which has been a NATO member since 2004, shares a long border with Ukraine. Since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Kyiv has repeatedly asked its backers to send sophisticated fighter planes to give it a combat edge, and some NATO countries have.

In response to the war next door, Romania ramped up defense spending while NATO bolstered its presence on Europe’s eastern flank by sending additional multinational battle groups to alliance members Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria, and Slovakia.

The center’s opening comes after Romania said last week that it is pushing to buy 54 latest-model Abrams main battle tanks and related equipment from the United States in a deal worth at least a billion dollars to help the European Union country meet regional security challenges.

In April, Romania’s Supreme Council of National Defense also approved the acquisition of an unspecified number of latest generation American-made F-35 fighter jets, as Romania pushes to modernize its air force.

Romania has played an increasingly prominent role in the alliance throughout the war, including hosting a NATO meeting of foreign ministers in November 2022. 
…

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron has made a surprise return to government as the United Kingdom’s foreign secretary, following a Cabinet reshuffle and a weekend of violent protests and political chaos in London.  

He succeeds James Cleverly, who now becomes Britain’s new home secretary after the incumbent Suella Braverman was fired Monday by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.  

The 57-year-old Cameron is no longer an elected lawmaker. Instead, Sunak nominated him as a peer who will sit in the House of Lords, Britain’s unelected upper chamber.  

Cameron resigned as prime minister in June 2016 after Britain voted to leave the European Union in a referendum called Brexit for which he legislated. He campaigned to stay in the EU, but voters chose to leave by a margin of 52% to 48%.   

A recent poll taken in July found that 45% of Britons believed Cameron had changed Britain for the worse, versus 29% who thought he had changed it for the better.  

Cameron said in an interview after his appointment as foreign secretary that he felt a dedication to public office.  

‘Daunting challenges’ 

“The prime minister asked me to do this job, and it’s a time where we have some daunting challenges as a country: the conflict in the Middle East, the war in Ukraine,” Cameron said.  

“And of course, I hope that six years as prime minister — 11 years leading the Conservative Party — gives me some useful experience and contacts and relationships and knowledge that I can help the prime minister to make sure we build our alliances, we build partnerships with our friends, we deter our enemies, and we keep our country strong,” he said. 

Israel-Hamas    

The Israel-Hamas war rages on, after an October 7 attack by Hamas on Israel that killed more than 1,200 people and saw 240 hostages taken from Israel into Gaza by Hamas militants. 

Palestinian health authorities said that more than 11,000 civilians, more than half of them women and children, have been killed by Israel’s bombardment and ground assault on the Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million people.  

As prime minister in 2010, Cameron called the Gaza Strip “a prison camp” and criticized Israel’s illegal settlements in the West Bank, although he maintained Britain’s close alliance with Tel Aviv.  

“It’s going to be very hard for David Cameron to jump back in as foreign secretary,” said Bronwen Maddox, director of the British policy institute Chatham House.  

“In the Middle East, some of the conflicts have not changed. David Cameron is remembered for intervention in Libya, which was not the greatest success. And in Europe, while he was a ‘remainer,’ he triggered the [Brexit] referendum — some think too casually — which led to Britain leaving the EU and changed all its relations not only with Europe but with many other countries as a consequence,” Maddox told Reuters.  

Domestic signaling  

Cameron’s appointment is unlikely to change Britain’s foreign policy, said Anand Menon, a professor of European politics at King’s College London and director of the UK in a Changing Europe initiative.  

“British foreign policy has been relatively consistent over the last few years and benefits from broad cross-party consensus. So, I don’t think there’s a question of changing foreign policy,” Menon told VOA. “I think this is largely signaling to a domestic audience, and I think the shape of the rest of the reshuffle, as well, indicates a desire to appeal to the more liberal parts of the conservative electoral base than had been the case up till now.”  

China relations  

In 2015, Cameron signaled a “golden era” in relations between Britain and China when he hosted Chinese President Xi Jinping at a lavish state visit.  

But relations have soured dramatically amid rising security and geopolitical tensions between Beijing and the West.  

“The golden era is well and truly over, is it not? And I think the mood, particularly inside the Conservative Party in parliament, has hardened considerably on China. And I think David Cameron is just going to have to get used to following a new approach when it comes to Beijing,” Menon said. ‘

Braverman sacked  

Cleverly, who had been foreign secretary since September 2022, now replaces Braverman, who was sacked as home secretary a week after the publication of an article she wrote in The Times newspaper accusing Britain’s police of showing “left-wing bias” toward pro-Palestinian demonstrations, which she described as “hate marches.” 

Sunak reportedly requested changes to the article prior to publication, but these were seemingly ignored.   

Braverman, a favorite figure of the right-wing of the Conservative Party for her hard-line approach to immigration, was asked to step down in a telephone call with Sunak Monday morning.  

London protests  

At least 300,000 people joined a pro-Palestinian protest in London on Saturday calling for a cease-fire. Police had appealed to the demonstrators to postpone the march, as it coincided with Armistice Day commemorations, when the country marks the end of World War I and remembers those killed in past wars.   

There were violent far-right counterdemonstrations, and police made over 120 arrests. Opposition Labour Party lawmakers, including London Mayor Sadiq Khan, accused Braverman of stoking community tensions and causing the violence, which she denied.  

Community tensions  

Reports of antisemitic and Islamophobic attacks have risen sharply since the Israel-Hamas conflict broke out. 

“Amongst those who have strong views on the issue, the pro-Israel people tend to break Conservative, and the more pro-Palestine people tend to break Labour. So, it reinforces existing party divisions, which I think makes it more likely that this kind of thing will explode along party political lines,” Menon said.   

“With Israel-Gaza, you see it in a particularly acute form, particularly as well, of course, given the high levels of violence from both sides that we’ve seen during this awful war,” he added.  

Political observers say the Cabinet reshuffle and the surprise restoration of Cameron to front-line politics is an effort by Sunak to broaden his Conservative Party’s appeal, as it lags far behind Labour in the polls.  

Britain is due to hold an election before the end of 2024.  
…

Russian shelling hit the southern Ukrainian city of Kherson Monday, killing three people and injuring at least 12, including a 2-month-old infant, according to local governor Oleksandr Prokudin.

Since their liberation last year, Kherson and the western bank of the Dnipro River have been regularly bombarded by Russians from Dnipro’s eastern bank. There are usually rounds of air alerts during the day.

Two people were killed and 10 more injured in an afternoon combined attack in the central part of the city, Prokudin said.

“Eight vehicles, including one ambulance, an administrative building, a hospital, and at least fifteen houses were destroyed or damaged,” he added.

In a separate message, the governor said on the Telegram messaging app, a car was shot at in a suburb of Kherson, killing one person and wounding a 2-month-old infant and his mother.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksandr Dubinsky has been formally notified that he is suspected of treason for allegedly spreading misinformation about Ukraine’s political leadership and cooperation with Russia’s military intelligence, officials said on Monday.

In his own post on Telegram, Dubinsky called the notice of suspicion fabricated and “based on the absolute lies of top state officials.”

The Security Service of Ukraine, known as the SBU, said the suspect was a member of a criminal organization, created in 2016 and financed by Russia’s military intelligence.

“It is established that on the instructions of the Russian special services, it organized events to discredit the image of Ukraine in the international arena in order to worsen diplomatic relations with the United States and hamper Ukraine’s accession to the European Union and NATO,” the State Investigative Bureau said in a separate statement published on its website.

In January 2021, the United States imposed sanctions on several Ukrainian individuals and entities, including Dubinsky, accusing them of U.S. election interference and associating with a pro-Russian Ukrainian lawmaker linked to efforts by then-president Donald Trump’s allies to dig up dirt on President Joe Biden and his son.

Ukraine has launched a criminal investigation into the case.

Separately, a Ukrainian military officer is accused of allegedly coordinating last year’s attack on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, according to The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources in Ukraine and Europe.

No one has taken responsibility for the September 2022 explosions, off the Danish island of Bornholm, that damaged three out of four offshore natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea and delivering Russian gas to Europe.

The United States and NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, called it an act of sabotage, while Moscow said it was an act of international terrorism.

Roman Chervinsky, a decorated 48-year-old colonel who served in Ukraine’s special operations forces, was the “coordinator” of the Nord Stream operation, according to people familiar with his role, The Post reported Saturday.

Chervinsky, sources say, managed logistics and support for a six-person team that rented a sailboat under false identities and used deep-sea diving equipment to place explosive charges on the gas pipelines, The Post reported.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military told the Reuters news agency he had “no information” about the claim. The Ukrainian foreign ministry and Kyiv’s domestic security service, the SBU, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The newspaper also reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has denied Kyiv’s role in the blasts, had been unaware of the operation. Zelenskyy last week replaced the head of Ukraine’s special operations forces.

The Kremlin called the report alarming.

“It says that President Zelenskyy may not have been aware of such actions by his subordinates from the security agencies. This is a very alarming signal not only for us, but also for the countries of the collective West,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov told reporters, Monday.

In a statement to The Washington Post and Germany’s Der Spiegel, Chervinsky denied any involvement in the pipeline explosions. An outspoken critic of Zelenskyy’s administration, he claims the case against him is politically motivated.

Chervinsky is currently under arrest for attempting to convince a Russian pilot in 2022 to defect to Ukraine which investigators say led to a deadly Russian attack on a Ukrainian air base. Although he is accused of acting alone in this, his commanding officer at the time, Maj. Gen. Viktor Hanushchak, told Ukrainian media earlier this year that senior military leadership had signed off on the plot to lure the Russian pilot.

The Post and Der Spiegel collaborated on reporting and wrote separate stories that they agreed to publish at the same time.

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

An ally of Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny has been transferred from house arrest to a detention center, where she will be held for the remainder of her trial on extremism charges.

Ksenia Fadeyeva, who formerly ran Navalny’s office in the Siberian City of Tomsk, is the latest in a string of Russian crackdowns on political activists, independent journalists and rights workers.

Fadeyeva was also a member of the local legislature in Tomsk.

The transfer to a detention center comes after she was placed under house arrest three weeks ago for violating her restrictions. A prosecutor demanded the ruling be switched and she be jailed.

Fadeyeva is facing charges of extremism and has been placed on Russia’s “terrorist” list — though allies of hers have said she is only promoting “legal and open political activity.”

“The state cannot and does not want to punish real extremists,” Fadeyeva ally, Andrei Fateyev said.

Fadeyeva was arrested in 2022 and has since been forbidden from using the internet, communicating with others without permission and attending public events.

Her trial began in August and was closed to the media after it began.

Fadeyeva is one of many Navalny associates who have faced criminal charges, after Russia outlawed his Foundation for Fighting Corruption and a network of regional offices. Many other allies of Navalny have fled Russia.

Navalny is serving a total of 19 years in prison on extremism and other charges he claims are politically motivated.

Navalny was arrested in 2021 after returning to Russia from Germany where he was recovering from a poisoning he blamed on the Kremlin. Moscow has denied any involvement in his poisoning.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
…

Former British Prime Minister David Cameron made an unexpected return to high office Monday, becoming foreign secretary in a major shakeup of the Conservative government that also saw the firing of divisive Home Secretary Suella Braverman. 

Cameron, who led the U.K. government between 2010 and 2016 and triggered the country’s exit from the European Union, was appointed by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak in a Cabinet shuffle in which he sacked Braverman, a law-and-order hardliner who drew anger for accusing police of being too lenient with pro-Palestinian protesters. 

She was replaced by James Cleverly, who had been foreign secretary. Sunak was making further changes to the government throughout the day, with Environment Secretary Therese Coffey saying she would be leaving her job. 

The bold changes are an attempt by Sunak to reset his faltering government. The Conservatives have been in power for 13 years, but opinion polls for months have put them 15 to 20 points behind the opposition Labour Party amid a stagnating economy, persistently high inflation, an overstretched health care system and a wave of public sector strikes. 

Cameron’s appointment came as a surprise to seasoned politics-watchers. It’s rare for a non-lawmaker to take a senior government post, and it has been decades since a former prime minister held a Cabinet job. 

The government said Cameron had been appointed to Parliament’s unelected upper chamber, the House of Lords. The last foreign secretary to serve in the Lords, rather than the elected House of Commons, was Peter Carrington, who was part of Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s government in the 1980s. 

Cameron, 57, said Britain was “facing a daunting set of international challenges, including the war in Ukraine and the crisis in the Middle East.” 

“While I have been out of front-line politics for the last seven years, I hope that my experience — as Conservative leader for 11 years and prime minister for six — will assist me in helping the prime minister to meet these vital challenges,” he said in a statement. 

Cameron’s foreign policy legacy is mixed. As prime minister he backed NATO-led military intervention in Libya in 2011 that toppled Moammar Gadhafi and deepened that country’s chaos. In 2013, he tried and failed to gain Parliament’s backing for U.K. airstrikes against President Bashar al-Assad’s forces in Syria. He also announced a short-lived “golden era” in U.K.-China relations, shortly before that relationship soured. 

And he will be forever remembered as the unwitting author of Brexit, a rupture that roiled Britain’s politics, economy and place in the world. Cameron called a 2016 EU membership referendum, confident the country would vote to stay in the bloc. He resigned the day after voters opted to leave. 

Bronwen Maddox, director of international affairs think-tank Chatham House, said Cameron “will bring undoubted strengths into the top team and to the U.K.’s relationships abroad,” where many will welcome “a heavyweight and moderate foreign secretary.” 

“The concern must be, however, that these could be outweighed by the controversial legacy he brings too,” she said. 

Sunak was a strong backer of the winning “leave” side in the referendum. But his decision to appoint Cameron and sack Braverman is likely to infuriate the Conservative Party’s right wing and inflame tensions in the party that Sunak has sought to soothe. 

Prominent right-wing lawmaker Jacob Rees-Mogg said sacking Braverman was “a mistake, because Suella understood what the British voter thought and was trying to do something about it.”

Sunak had been under growing pressure to fire Braverman — a hard-liner popular with the party’s authoritarian wing — from one of the most senior jobs in government, responsible for handling immigration and policing. 

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

On Saturday, far-right protesters scuffled with police and tried to confront a large pro-Palestinian march by hundreds of thousands through the streets of London. Critics accused Braverman of helping to inflame tensions. 

Last week, Braverman wrote an article for the Times of London in which she said police “play favorites when it comes to protesters” and acted more leniently toward pro-Palestinian demonstrators and Black Lives Matter supporters than toward right-wing protesters or soccer hooligans. 

The article was not approved in advance by the prime minister’s office, as would usually be the case. 

Braverman said Monday that “it has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve as home secretary,” adding that she would “have more to say in due course.” 

Braverman, a 43-year-old lawyer, has become a leader of the party’s populist wing by advocating ever-tougher curbs on migration and a war on human rights protections, liberal social values and what she has called the “tofu-eating wokerati.” Last month she called migration a “hurricane” that would bring “millions more immigrants to these shores, uncontrolled and unmanageable.” 

As home secretary, Braverman championed the government’s stalled plan to send asylum-seekers who arrive in Britain in boats on a one-way trip to Rwanda. A U.K. Supreme Court ruling on whether the policy is legal is due Wednesday. 

Critics say Braverman has been building her profile to position herself for a party leadership contest that could come if the Conservatives lose power in an election expected next year. 

Last month Sunak tried to paint his government as a force of change, saying he would break a “30-year status quo” that includes the governments of Cameron and other Conservative predecessors. 

“A few weeks ago, Rishi Sunak said David Cameron was part of a failed status quo. Now he’s bringing him back as his life raft,” said Labour lawmaker Pat McFadden. 
…

A Ukrainian military officer allegedly coordinated last year’s attack on the Nord Stream natural gas pipeline, according to The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources in Ukraine and Europe.

No one has taken responsibility for the September 2022 explosions, off the Danish island of Bornholm, that damaged three out of four offshore natural gas pipelines running under the Baltic Sea and delivering Russian gas to Europe.

The United States and NATO, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, called it an act of sabotage, while Moscow said it was an act of international terrorism. 

Germany, Denmark and Sweden have launched investigations into the Nord Stream explosions, which sent plumes of methane into the atmosphere in a leak that lasted several days.

Roman Chervinsky, a decorated 48-year-old colonel who served in Ukraine’s special operations forces, was the “coordinator” of the Nord Stream operation, according to people familiar with his role, The Washington Post reported Saturday.

Chervinsky, sources say, managed logistics and support for a six-person team that rented a sailboat under false identities and used deep-sea diving equipment to place explosive charges on the gas pipelines, The Washington Post reported. 

On Sept. 26, 2022, three explosions caused massive leaks on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines, The attack left only one of the four gas links in the network intact as winter approached.

A spokesperson for Ukraine’s military told the Reuters news agency he had “no information” about the claim. The Ukrainian foreign ministry and Kyiv’s domestic security service, the SBU, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The newspaper also reported that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has denied Kyiv’s role in the blasts, had been unaware of the operation. Zelenskyy last week replaced the head of Ukraine’s special operations forces.

Chervinsky denied any involvement in the pipeline explosions. An outspoken critic of Zelenskyy’s administration, he said the case against him is politically motivated.

“All speculations about my involvement in the attack on Nord Stream are being spread by Russian propaganda without any basis,” Chervinsky said in a written statement to The Washington Post and Der Spiegel, which conducted a joint investigation of his role.

Chervinsky is currently under arrest for attempting to convince a Russian pilot in 2022 to defect to Ukraine, which investigators say led to a deadly Russian attack on a Ukrainian air base.

Although he is accused on acting alone in this, his commanding officer at the time, Maj. Gen. Viktor Hanushchak, told Ukrainian media earlier this year that senior military leadership had signed off on the plot to lure the Russian pilot.

The Post and Germany’s Der Spiegel newspaper collaborated on reporting and wrote separate stories that they agreed to publish at the same time.

During his nightly video address Sunday, President Zelenskyy warned Ukrainians to brace for new waves of Russian attacks on Ukraine’s infrastructure as winter approaches.

“We are almost halfway through November and must be prepared for the fact that the enemy may increase the number of drone or missile strikes on our infrastructure,” Zelenskyy said, adding that troops were anticipating an onslaught in the eastern war front.

His warning comes a day after Russia renewed its missile attacks against Kyiv. 

Ukraine’s energy minister, German Galushchenko, said late Saturday that the country has enough energy resources to get through the coming winter, but an expected surge in Russian attacks could disrupt the supply networks.

A military spokesperson said Russian attacks on the shattered eastern town of Avdiivka had eased in the past day but were likely to intensify soon.

Ukrainian military intelligence said an explosion killed at least three Russian servicemen in the Russian-occupied southern town of Melitopol, which it described as an “act of revenge” by resistance groups.

Large elements of the mercenary Wagner Group have “likely” been absorbed into the command structure of Russia’s National Guard (Rosgvardiya), the British defense ministry said Sunday in its daily intelligence report on Ukraine.

This new faction is “likely” being led by Pavel Prigozhin, the son of the late Yevgeny Prigozhin, who headed the group before his death in an airplane crash, weeks after staging a mutiny targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In addition, the report says Wagner fighters and medical personnel have also joined Chechen special forces.

Russia is now “exercising more direct control” over Wagner Group activities, the British defense ministry said.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing coalition has agreed in principle to double the country’s military aid for Ukraine next year to 8 billion euros (about $8.5 billion), a political source in Berlin said Sunday.

If approved by parliament, where Scholz’s parties hold a majority, the boost would lift Germany’s defense spending to 2.1% of its gross domestic product target, beyond the 2% pledged by all NATO members, the source added.

Germany’s proposal comes amid reservations by multiple European Union countries, including Germany, about committing long-term military aid of up to $5 billion annually over four years as part of broader Western security commitments to bolster Ukraine’s defenses.

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

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

It is a familiar sight in this remote rural town: a migrant in a headscarf and thick winter coat carrying her belongings to the overcrowded reception center as a storm brews over the flat landscape.

For many here and across this nation once known as a beacon of tolerance, it is too familiar.

“Immigration is spiraling out of control,” Henk Tapper said while visiting his daughter in Ter Apel two weeks before the Netherlands votes in parliamentary elections on Nov. 22.

Candidates across the political spectrum are campaigning on pledges to tackle migration problems that are crystallized in Ter Apel, just over 200 kilometers (120 miles) northeast of Amsterdam. Once mostly known for its monastery, the town has now become synonymous with Dutch struggles to accommodate large numbers of asylum-seekers.

In the summer of 2022, hundreds of migrants were forced to sleep outside because the reception center was full. The Dutch branch of Doctors Without Borders sent a team to help the migrants, the first time it was forced to deploy within the Netherlands.

The center still is overcrowded, and locals complain of crime and public order problems blamed on migrants who wander in small groups through the village.

It is not only asylum-seekers, though. Political parties also are pledging to crack down on labor migrants and foreign students, who now make up some 40% of university enrollments.

Tapper said he plans to vote for anti-Islam lawmaker Geert Wilders’ Freedom Party which advocates a halt in asylum-seekers and opting out of EU and United Nations agreements and treaties on refugees and asylum.

The migration debate in the Netherlands echoes across Europe, where governments and the European Union are seeking ways to rein in migration. Italy recently announced plans to house asylum-seekers in Albania.

In Germany, the center-left government and 16 state governors have agreed on a raft of measures to curb the high number of migrants flowing into the country. They include speeding up asylum procedures and restricting benefits for asylum-seekers.

Outgoing Prime Minister Mark Rutte was part of an EU delegation visiting Tunisia over the summer to hammer out a deal with the North African nation intended to combat the often-lethal smuggling of migrants across the Mediterranean Sea.

Meanwhile, many Dutch voters are calling for tougher domestic policies in this country once famed for its open-arm approach to refugees dating all the way back to the Pilgrim Fathers who lived in Leiden after fleeing religious persecution in England and before setting sail for what is now the United States.

One of the leading candidates to succeed Rutte is herself a former refugee. Now, Dilan Yeşilgöz, leader of the center-right People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) advocates making her adopted country less welcoming.

“Our laws, our regulations are … way more attractive than the laws and regulations of the countries around us, which makes us more attractive for people to come here,” she told The Associated Press.

Yeşilgöz is the daughter of Turkish human rights activists who fled to the Netherlands when she was a child.

“Being a refugee myself, I think it’s very important that … we take the decisions to make sure that true refugees have a safe place,” she said. “And politicians who refuse to take those difficult decisions they are saying to the true refugees, but also to the Dutch public: ‘You’re on your own.'”

The vote is shaping up to be very close, with the VVD and the recently formed conservative populist party New Social Contract leading in polls against a center-left bloc of Labor and Green Left.

According to the official Dutch statistics agency, just over 400,000 migrants arrived in the Netherlands last year — that includes asylum-seekers, foreigners coming to work in the Netherlands and overseas students. The number was pushed higher by thousands of Ukrainians fleeing the war sparked by Russia’s invasion.

Ekram Jalboutt, born to Palestinian parents in a Syrian camp, has been granted asylum in the Netherlands and doesn’t like what she sees in the debate about migration. “I hate the idea of playing with this card of migration in this political game,” she said at the headquarters of the Dutch Refugee Council, where she now works.

The recently formed New Social Contract party wants to set a “guideline” ceiling of 50,000 migrants a year allowed into the Netherlands — including asylum-seekers, labor migrants and students. Along with the VVD, it wants to introduce an asylum system that differentiates between people fleeing persecution and those fleeing war. The latter group would have fewer rights, including the right to family reunifications. Acrimonious discussions on such moves brought down the last ruling Dutch coalition in July.

The number of new arrivals blends into another major problem Tapper highlighted— a chronic shortage of housing in this crowded nation of about 18 million people.

“There are houses for foreigners, and Dutch people can hardly get a house … that is a bit strange here in the Netherlands,” he said.

Advocates for cracking down on migration argue that people granted refugee status are also fast-tracked into scarce social housing and can leapfrog Dutch people who can languish for years on waiting lists.

The Dutch Refugee Council argues that refugees make up only a small proportion of people whose applications for social housing are fast-tracked.

“The political debate about asylum and migration is very polarized,” said Anna Strolenberg, a spokesperson for the council. “We see most political parties proposing solutions that are too simplistic, that are not realistic, and they’re actually capitalizing on the gut feelings of people.”
…

Russia plans to block certain Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) and protocols that are deemed by a commission of experts to pose a threat, state news agency RIA reported, citing correspondence from the digital ministry.

Demand for VPN services soared after Russia restricted access to some Western social media after President Vladimir Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

A 2017 Russian law obliged providers of VPN technology to cooperate with the Russian authorities and to restrict access to content banned by Russia or be banned themselves.

Many VPN services remain widely in use throughout Russia and there has been a public debate among lawmakers about how much further to go in blocking VPN services that still allow access to banned information but also a host of other information.

RIA quoted a reply from the digital ministry to an address by lawmaker Anton Tkachev who had raised concerns about what he said were plans to essentially block all VPNs, a step he said would increase pressure on Russians by cutting them off from using some simple household appliances.

“On the basis of a decision by the expert commission… the filtration of certain VPN services and VPN protocols can be carried out on the mobile communication network for foreign traffic which is identified as a threat,” RIA quoted the ministry as saying.

RIA said that the ministry said that circumvention of restrictions on certain information was considered a threat.
…

Evacuations are underway in Iceland as civil defense authorities prepare for a possible volcanic eruption. The decision follows increased seismic activity indicating the flow of partially melted rock now underneath a fishing community. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
…

Five U.S. service personnel were killed Friday when their aircraft crashed into the Mediterranean Sea during a routine air refueling training mission, the U.S. Defense Department said Sunday.

The U.S. European Command gave no further details of the incident or where it occurred but said the crash did not involve hostile fire. It said the names of those killed would not be released until 24 hours after their relatives had been notified.

The U.S. military has deployed two aircraft carriers, their supporting ships and dozens of aircraft to the eastern Mediterranean since Hamas militants’ surprise October 7 attack on Israel, to act as a deterrent to a spread of the conflict.

Nearby U.S. military aircraft and ships began an immediate search for the wreckage, while authorities said they were opening an investigation into the cause of the crash.

In a statement, U.S. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden paid tribute to the five who were killed, saying the “daily bravery and selflessness” of the country’s service members “is an enduring testament to what is best in our nation. Jill and I are praying for the families and friends who have lost a precious loved one — a piece of their soul.”
…

Tens of thousands of people marched through the streets of Amsterdam on Sunday calling for more action to tackle climate change, in a mass protest just 10 days before a national election. 

Organizers claimed that 70,000 people took part in the march and called it the biggest climate protest ever in the Netherlands. 

Activist Greta Thunberg was among those walking through the historic heart of the Dutch capital. She and former European Union climate chief Frans Timmermans, who now leads a center-left, two-party bloc in the election campaign, were among speakers due to address a crowd that gathered on a square behind the landmark Rijksmuseum. 

“We live in a time of crises, all of which are the result of the political choices that have been made. It has to be done and it can be done differently,” organizer the Climate Crisis Coalition said in a statement. 

While the coalition included the Fridays for Future youth movement, protesters were all ages and included a large contingent of medics in white coats carrying a banner emblazoned with the text: “Climate crisis = health crisis.” 

“I am a pediatrician. I’m here standing up for the rights of children,” said Laura Sonneveld. “Children are the first to be affected by climate change.” 

Tackling climate change is one of the key policy areas for political parties contesting the Nov. 22 general election. 

“It is time for us to protest about government decisions,” said Margje Weijs, a Spanish teacher and youth coach. “I hope this influences the election.” 

 
…

A lion prowled the streets of an Italian seaside town for several hours Saturday after escaping from a local circus, before being sedated and captured.

Alessandro Grando, mayor of Ladispoli, near Rome, had warned residents to stay at home while police and circus staff sought to catch the animal.

Videos later published by Italian media, apparently taken by locals but not confirmed by AFP, showed the adult lion walking through dark and deserted streets.

In a Facebook post around 10:30pm (2130 GMT), more than five hours after his original message raising the alarm, Grando said the lion had been “sedated and captured.”

“Now he will be taken in hand by the circus staff,” he wrote, thanking emergency services and volunteers who helped during “these hours of great concern.”

“I hope that this episode can stir some consciences, and that we can finally put an end to the exploitation of animals in circuses,” the mayor added.

Anticipating residents’ complaints, he earlier said he had not authorized the presence of a circus with lions in the town, but said he did not have the power to block it.
…

Large elements of the Wagner mercenary Group have “likely” been absorbed into the command structure of Russia’s National Guard (Rosgvardiya), the British Defense Ministry said Sunday in its daily intelligence report on Ukraine.

This new faction is “likely” being led by Pavel Prigozhin, the son of the late Yevgeny Prigozin, who headed the group before his death in an airplane crash, weeks after staging a mutiny targeting Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

In addition, the report says Wagner fighters and medical personnel have also joined Chechen special forces.

Russia is now “exercising more direct control” over Wagner Group activities, the British Defense Ministry said.

Kherson residents in Eastern Ukraine are marking one year since the liberation of their city from occupying Russian forces. And though they experience constant shelling from the left bank of the Dnipro River, where Russian troops are positioned, they say they have become resilient against such attacks.

Municipal workers are accustomed to wearing bullet-proof vests and staying ready to sweep up the rubble from yet another strike.

Between lulls of artillery fire coming from the river, Ukrainians venture out to buy food, bicycle down grassy residential lanes, or gather in the few restaurants that remain open.

“When you have lived under occupation, you know what freedom means,” say residents marking the anniversary of their city’s liberation, on Nov. 11, 2022.

“It’s why we have a special attitude toward the continued shelling. We can withstand it because we know how it could be worse,” said Grigori Malov, who owns one of the three restaurants still operating in the city.

Russia launched a missile attack Saturday on Kyiv and the nearby region and pounded the east and south of the country with drones, Ukrainian officials said.

“After a long pause of 52 days, the enemy has resumed missile attacks on Kyiv,” Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv city military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app. “The missile failed to reach Kyiv, air defenders shot it down as it was approaching the capital,” he said.

Russian anti-aircraft units downed two Ukrainian drones over the Moscow region and Smolensk region to the west near the border with Belarus, the Russian Defense Ministry said early Saturday.

Reuters could not independently verify the reports.

The British Defense Ministry reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin and former President Dmitry Medvedev have issued documents described by the British ministry as the “weaponization of history … aimed at inculcating anti-Westernism in the minds of the Russian population and intimidating its immediate Western neighbors.”

In Saturday’s intelligence update on Ukraine, the British Defense Ministry said Putin’s publication is a collection of 242 documents entitled, “On the historical unity of the Russians and Ukrainians.” The documents, from the 11th century to the 20th century, are Putin’s attempt to justify the Kremlin’s current Ukraine policy and features “interpretative comments” from the president.

Medvedev’s publication is an article the British ministry says he “ostensibly wrote” about the history of Russian-Polish relations. He accuses Poland of engaging in “aggressive revisionist Russophobic policy,” according to the British ministry, and he threatens Poland with a military attack.

EU aid to Ukraine

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

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

The EU has provided aid in the form of arms and equipment worth $26 billion, according to the bloc’s diplomatic service.

“Germany has had a lot of questions … and rightfully so. We’re talking about a lot of money,” said a senior diplomat, who asked to remain anonymous.

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

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

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

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

Obstacles from Hungary

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

Since the bank was removed from the blacklist, Hungary has insisted on guarantees it will not return there.

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

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

In an interview with state radio Friday, Orban said Ukraine is nowhere near gaining membership in the world’s largest trading bloc.

“The clear Hungarian position is that the negotiations must not begin,” he said.

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

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