RIYADMEDIA

Batool Haidari used to be a prominent professor of sexology at a Kabul university before the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan. She taught mixed classes of male and female students and helped patients struggling with gender identity issues.

Her husband owned a carpet factory, and together they did their best to provide a good education for their 18-year-old son and two daughters, ages 13 and 8.

That comfortable life came to an abrupt halt on Aug. 15, 2021, when the former insurgents who adhere to a strict interpretation of Islam swept back into power following a costly two-decade U.S.-led campaign to remake the country.

Haidari, 37, was among the many women who fled the Taliban, fearing a return to the practices of their previous rule in the late 1990s, including largely barring girls and women from education and work. She reached Rome at the end of 2021, after a daring escape through Pakistan aided by Italian volunteers who arranged for her and her family to be hosted in the Italian capital’s suburbs.

She is among thousands of Afghan women seeking to maintain an active social role in the countries that have taken them in. Haidari and her husband are studying Italian while being financially supported by various associations. She keeps in touch with feminist organizations back home and tries to maintain contact with some of her patients via the internet.

“Being alive is already a form of resistance,” she said, adding that she wants her children to contribute to the future of Afghanistan, where she is sure her family will return one day.

“When my son passed the exam to access the faculty of medicine at a university in Rome, for me it was good news,” she said, during a commute to her Italian classes in central Rome. “Because if I came to a European country, it was mainly for the future of my children.”

After they overran Afghanistan in 2021, the Taliban initially promised to respect the rights of women and minorities. Instead, they gradually imposed a ban on girls’ education beyond the sixth grade, kept women away from most fields of employment, and forced them to wear head-to-toe clothing in public.

Haidari tried to stay in Kabul with her family after the Taliban took over. She became an outspoken activist of the Afghanistan Women’s Political Participation Network to fight for women’s education, work and political involvement.

But the risks soon became too high. Haidari was not only an educated female activist, but also a member of the Hazara ethnic group.

The Hazara minority has been a frequent target of violence since the Taliban takeover. Most are Shiite Muslims, despised and targeted by Sunni militants like the Islamic State group, and discriminated against by many in the Sunni majority country.

Haidari received death threats for her research on sensitive issues in Afghan society, and in December 2021 decided to leave. She crossed to Pakistan with her family, and an Italian journalist, Maria Grazia Mazzola, helped her get on a plane from Pakistan to Italy.

“We heard that Taliban were shooting and searching houses very close to their hiding place,” Mazzola said. “We were frantically in touch with the Italian embassy in Pakistan, with confidential contacts in Afghanistan, and we decided together that they had to change their hiding place every three days.”

The Italian government evacuated more than 5,000 Afghans on military planes right after the Taliban takeover. Later, a network of Italian feminists, Catholic and Evangelical churches and volunteers like Mazzola kept organizing humanitarian corridors and set up hospitality in Italy throughout the following year.

Mazzola, who works for Italian public RAI TV and is an expert on Islamic fundamentalism, created a network of associations to host 70 Afghans, mostly Hazara women activists and their families.

Now that the refugees are in Italy and gradually getting asylum, Mazzola said, the priority is to secure for them official recognition of their university degrees or other qualifications that will help them find dignified employment.

“A woman like Batool (Haidari) cannot work as a cleaner in a school. It would be a waste for our society, too. She is a psychologist and deserves to continue working as such,” Mazzola said.

Haidari agreed. While she said she misses the streets and alleys of Kabul, and the easy life she used to have, “most of all I miss the fact that in Afghanistan, I was a much more useful person.”

 
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Russian drones attacked Ukraine’s southern port city of Odesa in the early hours of Saturday, leaving the city and the surrounding area without power, local officials said.

“Due to the scale of the damage, all users in Odesa except critical infrastructure have been disconnected from electricity,” Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov wrote on Facebook.

Odesa regional Governor Maksym Marchenko said two drones were shot down over the Black Sea before they could fly into their targets.

The drones that did make it through left “no electricity in almost all the districts and communities of our region,” Marchenko wrote on Telegram.

Between Friday and Saturday, the Ukrainian military General Staff reported about 20 airstrikes and more than 60 rocket attacks across Ukraine.

General Staff spokesperson Oleksandr Shtupun said more than 20 populated places came under fire in the Bakhmut district, scene of the most active fighting.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the situation “remains very difficult” in several front-line cities in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk provinces.

“Bakhmut, Soledar, Maryinka, Kreminna. For a long time, there is no living place left on the land of these areas that have not been damaged by shells and fire,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address on Friday, naming cities hardest hit.

If Russian forces capture Bakhmut, they could cut Ukraine’s supply lines and open a route to Kramatorsk and Sloviansk, key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk, according to The Associated Press. Russia has battered Bakhmut with rockets for more than half of the year, and shifted troops there for a ground assault after Ukraine drove them from Luhansk in July.

Moscow has “actually destroyed Bakhmut, another Donbas city that the Russian army turned into burnt ruins,” Zelenskyy added in his Friday night address.

Attacks on infrastructure

Since October, Moscow has been targeting Ukraine’s power grid. Kyiv acknowledged Friday that every thermal and hydroelectric power plant in the country had been damaged.

Zelenskyy said the attacks are war crimes targeting civilian life, while Moscow claims they are militarily legitimate.

The chief of the National Police of Ukraine, Ihor Klymenko, said Saturday, that 47,000 Russian war crimes have been recorded in Ukraine since the start of the February 24 invasion. The number includes the torture, rape, and murder of civilians.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is determined to conquer parts of Ukraine and shows no restraint in his brutality, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said at an event in Potsdam near Berlin, Saturday. But, he added, it is still important to keep a channel of communications open in case an opportunity arises to end the war.

“We are of completely different opinions. Nonetheless I will keep speaking with him because I want to experience the moment where it is possible to get out of this situation. And that’s not possible without speaking with one another,” he said, according to Reuters.

“We have seen the brutality the Russian president is capable of. In Chechnya where he basically eradicated the whole country. Or in Syria. There is no restraint there, it’s as simple as that,” Scholz said.

Scholz also defended his government’s aim to raise defense spending to NATO’s goal of 2% of gross domestic output. He said NATO countries needed to be strong enough that nobody would dare to attack them.

Russia-Iran military partnership

Iran has become one of Russia’s top military backers since the invasion of Ukraine, according to the British Defense Ministry intelligence update posted on Twitter Saturday.

Iran’s support of Russia is likely to grow, the ministry said, because “Russia is attempting to obtain more weapons, including hundreds of ballistic missiles. In return Russia is highly likely offering Iran an unprecedented level of military and technical support that is transforming their relationship.”

“Russia has highly likely expended a large proportion of its stock of its own SS-26 Islander short range ballistic missiles, which carry a 500kg warhead up to 500km,” the ministry said. “If Russia succeeds in bringing a large number of Iranian ballistic missiles into service, it will likely use them to continue and expand its campaign of strikes against Ukraine’s critical national infrastructure.”

In Washington, White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said Friday that he was was deeply concerned about the “deepening and burgeoning defense partnership” between Iran and Russia, and that the United States would be using its tools to disrupt that relationship.

U.S. aid to Ukraine

U.S. President Joe Biden authorized a new round of $275 million in military aid for Ukraine, offering new capabilities to defeat drones and boost air defenses, according to a memo released Friday by the White House.

The package also includes rockets for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers made by Lockheed Martin, 80,000 155 mm artillery rounds, Humvee military vehicles and about 150 generators, according to the memo.

This is the 27th use of presidential drawdown authority for Ukraine, which allows the United States to transfer defense articles and services from stocks quickly without congressional approval in response to an emergency.

In total, the United States has committed $20 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration. Since 2014, the United States has committed approximately $22.1 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, and more than $19.3 billion since the beginning of Russia’s invasion in February.

VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report. Some information for this story came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Viktor Bout, the arms dealer freed in a prisoner swap for U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner, said he wished her good luck on the tarmac in Abu Dhabi where they were exchanged.

Bout, who spent 14 years in U.S. jail for arms trafficking, money laundering and conspiring to kill Americans, was swapped Thursday for the basketball star, jailed this year for bringing cannabis vape oil when arriving to play for a Russian team.

Russia’s FSB security service released images of the two being led past each other on the tarmac at the airport in Abu Dhabi during the swap, although the video cuts away as they pass and there was no footage showing them interacting.

“I wished her luck, she even sort of reached out her hand to me,” Bout said Saturday in an interview with Russian state-controlled broadcaster RT.

“Again, it’s our tradition. You should wish everyone good fortune and happiness,” he said, adding that he believed Griner “was positively inclined” toward him.

Speaking to Maria Butina, who herself spent 14 months in U.S. prison for acting as an unregistered Russian agent and is now a lawmaker and RT presenter, Bout praised President Vladimir Putin, whose portrait he said he had hung on his cell wall.

Asked about Russia’s military campaign in Ukraine, Bout said he wished that Moscow had been able to launch it sooner.

“If I had the chance and the required skills, I’d join up as a volunteer,” he said.

Griner has not yet spoken publicly. Her wife, Cherelle Griner, said Thursday their family was now “whole,” and the couple would work to help secure the release of other Americans held abroad, including former U.S. Marine Paul Whelan, jailed in Russia on spying charges he denies.
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Russia and China are “modernizing and expanding” their nuclear weapons arsenals, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin warned Friday, amid increasing tensions with Moscow over Ukraine and with Beijing over Taiwan.

Speaking at the headquarters of U.S. Strategic Command, the military command in charge of America’s nuclear weapons arsenal, Austin said the United States is “on the verge of a new phase” where two major nuclear powers are “strategic competitors.”

The U.S. defense secretary criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for what he referred to as “deeply irresponsible nuclear saber-rattling” since invading Ukraine in February.

“Nuclear powers have a profound responsibility to avoid provocative behavior, and to lower the risk of proliferation and to prevent escalation and nuclear war,” he said.

Putin said Thursday “the threat of nuclear war is growing.”

He also suggested that if Russia rules out the first use of nuclear weapons it will leave itself vulnerable to a nuclear attack.

“Regarding the fact that under no circumstances will Russia strike first, if it does not strike first under any circumstances, then it will not strike second either, because the possibilities [to do so in case of] a nuclear strike on our territory are very limited,” he said.

Responding to Putin’s remark, a Strategic Command representative said, “The stakes are way too high not to take that seriously.” 

“They would not take first strike off the table,” added the representative, who spoke to reporters on the condition of anonymity.

Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear warheads in the world, followed by the U.S., which has an estimated 3,800 warheads in active status.

New START treaty talks between the U.S. and Russia aimed at reducing nuclear arsenals have been stalled since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24.

Last month, a Pentagon report warned that China now has more than 400 nuclear warheads, approximately doubling its nuclear arsenal in just two years.

The pace of China’s nuclear expansion may enable Beijing to field a stockpile of about 1,500 warheads by 2035, according to the Pentagon’s annual “China Military Power” report to Congress.

On Monday, the top Republicans on the Senate and House Armed Services Committees sent a letter to outgoing U.S. Strategic Command chief Adm. Charles “Chas” Richard urging the military to declassify a determination it recently sent to Congress pursuant to a clause in the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. 

The clause requires the military to notify Congress if China either deploys more intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), deploys more ICBM launchers, or has more nuclear warheads equipped on its ICBMs than the United States, according to Defense News.

Another Strategic Command representative told reporters a response to the request by Sen. Inhofe was “in development” and could be sent as soon as today.

“My understanding is it will be an unclassified response,” the representative added.

Austin’s comments Friday came during a change of command ceremony where Richard passed leadership of U.S. Strategic Command to Air Force Gen. Anthony “Tony” Cotton.

Richard’s 41-year career of military service included becoming the youngest commanding officer of a nuclear-powered submarine.

Cotton has commanded at the squadron group and wing levels and was most recently the head of Air Force Global Strike Command and Air Force Strategic-Air at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. 
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After more than four years of detention in the Sahel, the 63-year-old German humanitarian Jörg Lange has been released, the NGO for which he worked, Help, announced on Saturday.

“We are very relieved and grateful that our colleague Jörg Lange, after more than four and a half years, can return to his family,” Help’s managing director, Bianca Kaltschmitt, wrote in a statement.

According to the weekly Der Spiegel, relying on “security sources,” Lange “is doing well, given the circumstances.” He would have been repatriated to Germany on board an army plane, adds Der Spiegel.

Asked by AFP, the German government declined to comment.

It is thanks to the Moroccan intelligence services and their contacts with jihadist groups in the Sahel, according to Der Spiegel, that this release could take place.

The NGO “heartily thanks all those who have contributed to this release or who have supported it, in particular the crisis unit of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the criminal police, as well as the authorities and friends in Mali, Niger and in neighboring countries.”

Lange was kidnapped on April 11, 2018, in western Niger by armed men on motorcycles near Ayorou, in a border region of Mali plagued by recurrent jihadist attacks. His Nigerian driver was released shortly afterwards.

According to the German press, Lange was sold after his kidnapping to the jihadist group “Islamic State in the Greater Sahara” (EIGS). 

These kidnappers had demanded a seven-figure ransom and sent several videos of the humanitarian, in which he called on the German government not to drag out the negotiations.

According to Der Spiegel, Berlin had considered having him released by an elite unit of the Bundeswehr, the KSK special forces, but had given up on it because of the risks of such an operation.

At least four Western hostages are still being held in the Sahel, according to a count covering only the cases made public by their entourage or their government: Frenchman Olivier Dubois, kidnapped on May 5, 2021, American Jeffery Woodke (October 14, 2016), Australian Arthur Kenneth Elliott (January 15, 2016) and Romanian Iulian Ghergut (April 4, 2015).

Another German, Father Hans-Joachim Lohre, who has not been heard from since late November, is widely believed to have been abducted, although no claims have been reported.

This Catholic priest was to celebrate Mass in a district of Bamako but had disappeared in the evening, a probable kidnapping of an exceptional nature in the Malian capital.

Jihadist violence in the Sahel began in 2012 in Mali, killing thousands and displacing millions. They have spread to neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger and now threaten the states of the Gulf of Guinea.

This serious security crisis leads to violence of all kinds, of which kidnappings are one aspect, whether of foreigners or locals. The motivations, ideological or villainous, range from the demand for ransom to the act of reprisals through the will to bargain.

France completed in August the withdrawal of its troops who had been operating in Mali for almost 10 years. But Paris, which still deploys some 3,000 soldiers in the Sahel, has given itself six months to finalize its new strategy in Africa.
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Amid rampant inflation and an economic crisis in Turkey, and with an election scheduled in 2023, political rhetoric is turning against Syrian refugees in the country. Many are considering returning to their homeland, which is still ravaged by civil war.

Turkey is hosting around 3.6 million Syrian refugees, by far the largest number of any country.

Among them is 38-year-old Muhammed Sheikh, who fled the city of Aleppo with his wife and two children in 2016. They settled in Istanbul and have since had two more children. The inflation crisis means life is getting tougher. He says his monthly wage of 12,000 Turkish lira, around $645, barely covers the bills.

“Our landlord treats us well but in January he will raise the rent to 9,000 Turkish Liras (US$490) and it will be very difficult for us,” Sheikh told VOA. “I will go to Syria if I have to go, but there is no work there and the living conditions are very difficult there. I will try to go to another country if I can.”

Inflation in Turkey hit 85% in October. Sheikh says the economic crisis has also turned some Turkish people against the refugees.

“My Turkish colleagues at work say, ‘Why did you come here? Because of you, rents went up, food prices went up, and making a living became difficult.’ Many Syrians are facing such things here,” Sheikh said.

The United Nations says more than 153,000 refugees returned to Syria from Turkey between January and October 31 of this year. The Turkish government claims the number is closer to half a million.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan faces a tough re-election in June next year, amid Turkey’s economic crisis. Last May, Erdogan pledged to send back one million refugees and create “buffer zones” in northern Syria where they could be returned safely.

Osman Atalay of the IHH Humanitarian Relief Foundation, a Turkish non-governmental organization, says the political rhetoric against refugees is escalating.

“In the last year especially, the political parties began to criticize Syrian refugees very severely and said that if they form a government, they will send Syrians back,” Atalay told VOA. “The big majority of Syrians are working, even with a little salary, they are working to stay here and to make a living. But there are some Syrians who are returning to Syria because of the pressure and physical and verbal attacks on them.”

He questioned the government’s pledge to send back one million refugees. “If there is no security and peace in Syria, how can people go? How can Syrians return?” Atalay said.

Tough choices

Fifty-year-old Husein Kablawi came to Istanbul from Syria in 2019 with his wife and five children. He found a temporary job installing wooden floors. When the job was complete, the manager refused to pay him and told the police that Kablawi was an unregistered refugee. He was forced to move to the central city of Konya.

“Living in Konya was very difficult, there was discrimination against us,” Kablawi said. “The neighborhood I lived in was not safe for me and my children and there was no work there. We had two very bad experiences, and no one helped us. We had to escape and left everything there. We just had the clothes we were wearing — and left for Istanbul.”

Earlier this year the Turkish government suspended refugee registrations in 16 provinces, including Istanbul.

“Because we are not registered, we cannot rent an apartment, and I cannot find a proper job,” Kablawi said. “Because I am not registered here, my documents are not accepted — they are only accepted in Konya. So, my children cannot go to school, and we are facing lots of problems.”

Kablawi and his family live in a one-bedroom, unheated apartment. The five children fear going out on the street. If the police find out they are not registered, they worry they could be sent back to Syria.

Like millions of Syrians, they face tough choices: to stay in Turkey where life is getting tougher and society increasingly hostile; to return home to a country still ravaged by war; or to try to reach Europe, a journey with multiple dangers and a future unknown.

Memet Aksakal contributed to this report from Istanbul.
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U.S. professional basketball star Brittney Griner has arrived in the southwestern U.S. state of Texas after a high-stakes prisoner swap that saw notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout returned to Moscow.

Griner was flown to San Antonio and reunited with her family.

She was then taken to Brooke Army Medical Center for a medical checkup. A spokesperson for Joint Base San Antonio-Fort Sam Houston said that is standard protocol.

“The U.S. government is focused on ensuring that Brittney Griner and her family’s well-being are prioritized and that all assistance available be offered in an appropriate manner,” Robert Whetstone said.

Griner would be given “all the access she needs to health care workers just to make sure that she is OK,” John Kirby, National Security Council spokesperson, told NBC on Friday, adding that Griner was in “very good spirits when she got off the plane and appeared to be obviously in good health.”

The actual exchange took place in the United Arab Emirates, where Griner and Bout crossed paths on the runway, heading to their flights home.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who had long pressed the Russian government to free Griner, officially announced her release Thursday.

“She represents the best of America,” Biden said at the White House, noting that Griner would be back in the United States within 24 hours.

“I spoke with Brittney Griner,” Biden said. “After months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable circumstances, Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones, and she should have been there all along.”

Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, thanked Biden and an array of U.S. officials for their efforts in freeing her spouse after nine months of imprisonment. Cherelle Griner said that she and Brittney Griner would continue their support for the release of Paul Whelan, an American held in Russia who was not included in Thursday’s deal.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference, “This was not a choice of which American to bring home. The choice was one or none. I wish we could have brought Paul Whelan on the same plane as Brittney.”

Griner, 32, was detained at a Moscow airport in February when she arrived in Russia with vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage. The Women’s National Basketball Association star had gone to Russia to play for a Russian team during her off-season in the U.S., but instead was convicted on the drug charge after a brief trial, sentenced to nine years of imprisonment, and recently sent to a Russian penal colony.

Even as the U.S. has led the Western coalition of countries supplying munitions to Ukraine in its 10-month fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, the two countries held behind-the-scenes talks about the release of the two prisoners.

In the end, Whelan, a 52-year-old Michigan corporate security executive imprisoned in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government has said are baseless, was left out of the deal.

“Sadly, and for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s,” Biden said. “And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up.”

Biden told Whelan’s family, “We will keep negotiating in good faith. I guarantee it.”

Bout, 55, had served 15 years of a 26-year prison sentence in the U.S. and was once nicknamed “the Merchant of Death.” The Kremlin had long sought his release.

Some information in this report came from Agence France-Presse and The Associated Press.
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Lionel Messi and his teammates hung around on the field for 20 minutes, taking turns dancing and jumping up and down in front of their celebrating, scarf-waving fans.

Argentina was going to savor reaching the World Cup semifinals. Messi’s quest to win soccer’s ultimate prize is still alive.

Argentina beat the Netherlands 4-3 in a penalty shootout Friday, with Messi converting his attempt and Argentina goalkeeper Emiliano Martínez making two saves.

After Lautaro Martinez scored the clinching penalty, Messi — with his arms outstretched — sprinted to jump into the arms of his goalkeeper.

“We had to suffer,” Messi said. “But we got through.”

The match finished 2-2 and was only taken to extra time after the Netherlands equalized in the 11th minute of second-half stoppage time with the second of substitute Wout Weghorst’s two goals.

Before that, Messi had set up the opening goal by Nahuel Molina in the 35th before converting a penalty to make it 2-0.

Argentina will play Croatia in the semifinals on Tuesday after the 2018 runner-up defeated Brazil earlier Friday.

It is only the second time Argentina has reached the last four since 1990. In 2014, Messi was part of the team that lost to Germany in the final.

He looks in the mood to get there again in a tournament that he is turning into his own personal highlight reel.

He delivered a mesmerizing piece of skill and vision to set up Molina’s goal, twisting free and bursting forward from central midfield before delivering a no-look reverse pass for the defender to poke in a finish.

His penalty was his fourth goal of the tournament, taking him to 10 overall in the World Cup — tied with Gabriel Batistuta for the most for Argentina. Messi now has 94 goals in total in his 169 international games.

The game featured 17 yellow cards — a record for a World Cup game — including one for Messi, who had blood coming from his upper lip at one stage of an extra time that was dominated by Argentina.

Enzo Fernandez hit the post near the end of extra time. Martinez’s saves were from attempts by Virgil van Dijk and Steven Berghuis, after which he pulled his shorts high and danced a jig.

The loss ended Louis van Gaal’s third stint in charge of the Netherlands, and Messi shared a moment with the 71-year-old coach at the end.
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U.S. President Joe Biden authorized a fresh round of $275 million in military aid for Ukraine, offering new capabilities to defeat drones and boost air defenses, according to a memo released Friday by the White House.

The package also includes rockets for High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) launchers made by Lockheed Martin, 80,000 155mm artillery rounds, Humvee military vehicles and about 150 generators, according to the memo.

This is the 27th use of Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA) for Ukraine, which allows the United States to transfer defense articles and services from stocks quickly without congressional approval in response to an emergency.

National Security Council spokesman John Kirby told reporters at the White House Friday the equipment was “on its way.”

To counter Russia’s surge in missile attacks against Ukraine, the United States has sent sophisticated anti-aircraft NASAMS systems to Ukraine that have been running for a few weeks.

Washington previously announced it was sending four Avenger short-range air defense systems that use Stinger missiles, made by Raytheon Technologies Corp RTX.N, and HAWK interceptor missiles.

U.S. allies have also been sending air defense systems.

In total, the United States has committed $20 billion in security assistance to Ukraine since the beginning of the Biden administration. Since 2014, the United States has committed approximately $22.1 billion in security assistance to Ukraine, and more than $19.3 billion since the beginning of Russia’s unprovoked and brutal invasion on February 24.

“To meet Ukraine’s evolving battlefield requirements, the United States will continue to work with its Allies and partners to provide Ukraine with key capabilities,” according to a Pentagon statement.

Russia’s weapons

Meanwhile, Russia is expanding and modernizing its nuclear arsenal at a time when Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly suggested he could use nuclear weapons to protect Russia, U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday.

“As the Kremlin continues its cruel and unprovoked war of choice against Ukraine, the whole world has seen Putin engage in deeply irresponsible nuclear saber-rattling,” Austin said. He made the comments at a ceremony for the incoming commander of U.S. Strategic Command, which oversees the United States’ nuclear arsenal.

According to a recent Pentagon policy document on nuclear arms, Russia has the largest stockpile of nuclear weapons in the world, with close to 6,000 warheads, according to experts. Together, Russia and the United States hold about 90% of the world’s nuclear warheads — enough to destroy the planet many times over.

Putin said Friday that Russia’s near-total loss of trust in the West would make an eventual settlement over Ukraine much harder to reach, although contacts between Russian and U.S. intelligence services were at least continuing.

At a news conference in the Kyrgyz capital, Bishkek, Putin lamented the failure to implement the Minsk agreements – cease-fire and constitutional reform deals between Kyiv and Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine in 2014 and 2015 by Russia, France and Germany, at the outset of the war in Ukraine.

“We thought we would still be able to agree within the framework of the Minsk peace agreements. What can you say? There is a question of trust,” Putin said. “And trust, of course, is almost at zero.”

Since suffering a series of military setbacks, Putin has increasingly pitched his invasion on Ukraine as a fight to defend Russia against an aggressive “collective West.”

Russia is working on obtaining more weapons from Iran, including hundreds of ballistic missiles. It is also offering Tehran an unprecedented level of military and technical support in return, Britain’s U.N. Ambassador Barbara Woodward said Friday.

Woodward also said that since August, Iran had transferred hundreds of drones, also known as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), to Russia that had used them to “kill civilians and illegally target civilian infrastructure” in Ukraine.

“Russia is now attempting to obtain more weapons, including hundreds of ballistic missiles,” Woodward told reporters.

Russia-Iran

National Security Council spokesman Kirby said Washington was deeply concerned about the “deepening and burgeoning defense partnership” between Iran and Russia, and that the United States would be using its tools to disrupt that relationship.

He said the U.S. government also would be calling on partner countries to discuss and address the Russia-Iran partnership.

An escalation of war could engulf Europe and marshal NATO against Russia, warned NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg.

“If things go wrong, they can go horribly wrong,” Stoltenberg said in remarks to Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

“It is a terrible war in Ukraine. It is also a war that can become a full-fledged war that spreads into a major war between NATO and Russia,” he said. “We are working on that every day to avoid that.”

Speaking Friday via video link to defense and security chiefs of several ex-Soviet nations, Putin accused the West of using Ukraine as a tool against his country.

“For many years, the West shamelessly exploited and pumped out its resources, encouraged genocide and terror in the Donbas and effectively turned the country into a colony,” he said. “Now it’s cynically using the Ukrainian people as cannon fodder, as a ram against Russia by continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons and ammunition, sending mercenaries and pushing it to a suicidal track,” he said.

Ukrainians say they are fighting for freedom against an unwanted invader and aggressor.

Heavy fighting continued Friday in eastern and southern Ukraine, mostly in regions that Russia illegally annexed in September. Ukraine’s presidential office said five civilians have been killed and another 13 have been wounded by Russian shelling in the last 24 hours.

Zaporizhzhia plant

Russia has placed several Grad rocket launchers at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power utility.

Energoatom said the “most likely” scenario Russia is preparing for with the launchers at the power plant is “the shelling of the opposite bank of the Dnieper, in particular the Nikopol and Marhanets … using the ‘cover’ of power units and spent nuclear fuel storage.”

Energoatom said Russia has used Zaporizhzhia for “military purposes” since the “very beginning” of its invasion of Ukraine.

“And once again,” Energoatom said, “we call for the creation of a security zone inside and around the station for its complete demilitarization and de-occupation.”

VOA White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara contributed to this report. Some information for this story came from Reuters.
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On the eve of Human Rights Day, the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, Volker Tuerk, launched a yearlong campaign to mark the adoption 75 years ago of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Tuerk said he hopes the campaign will renew people’s awareness and commitment to human rights and rekindle the vision that inspired the document.

He said human rights violations must be of concern to everyone. He noted that expressions of alarm and offers of aid must not be restricted to heartbreaking headline events, such as the war in Ukraine or the sanctioned killings of protesters by state security forces in Iran.

The high commissioner said the human suffering in what he calls forgotten crises must not go unreported. He cited the many killings and kidnappings by gangs in Haiti and acute hunger faced by millions there, as well as humanitarian catastrophes in Yemen, Afghanistan, Somalia, Mozambique and other nations. 

“These and many other crisis situations that have faded from the headlines, not only have severe consequences for the people that are directly affected, but are likely to have ripple effects across borders, and risk further destabilizing their regions,” Tuerk said. “One thing they and so many other crises have in common is disregard for human rights.”

Tuerk noted that disregard for human rights can trigger multiple and interlocking human rights violations, which include racial and other forms of discrimination, violent crackdowns on dissent, and the denial of an adequate standard of living. He said hate speech can exacerbate tensions and set back rights, such as gender equality. 

“The brunt of the impact of these crises is always borne by the most marginalized, the most excluded, among those in particular: women, children, migrants, indigenous peoples, internally displaced people, people with disabilities, older people, ethnic and racial minorities, and LGBTIQ-plus people,” he said.

Tuerk warned that the world is facing a crisis of trust, and the rise in social movements and protests across all regions is a sign that the institutions meant to serve people are breaking down.

Adherence to the principles set forth by the Universal Declaration can set societies back on the path toward a better future, one that is based on justice and equality for all, he said. 

 
…

Belgium’s Supreme Court has prohibited the implementation of a prisoner exchange treaty with Iran.

Opponents of the exchange were concerned that the deal would facilitate a bomb-plot mastermind’s return to Iran.

Assadollah Assadi, who was an Iranian diplomat, was sentenced to 20 years in prison, convicted of supplying explosives to bomb a meeting in Paris of Iranian exiled opposition. 

In exchange for his release, Iran was set to release aid worker Olivier Vandecasteele, detained in Iran since February.

The Belgian court has suspended the exchange treaty for at least three months until a final ruling.

The court had ruled that Assadi had masterminded the plot to attack the exiled Iranian opposition under the cover of a diplomat to Austria and therefore had no immunity in Belgium.

Iran wants Belgium to recognize Assadi’s diplomatic immunity.

Meanwhile, aid worker Vandecasteele says he is being treated inhumanely in his Iranian prison and has launched a hunger strike and his family members are concerned about his failing health.
…

U.S. professional basketball star Brittney Griner has arrived in the southern U.S. state of Texas after a high-stakes prisoner swap that saw notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout returned to Moscow.

Griner was flown to San Antonio and after reuniting with her family will have a medical checkup after her time in a Russian penal colony.

The actual exchange took place in the United Arab Emirates, where Griner and Bout crossed paths on the runway, heading to their flights home.

U.S. President Joe Biden, who had long pressed the Russian government to free Griner, officially announced her release Thursday.

“She represents the best of America,” Biden said at the White House, noting that Griner would be back in the United States within 24 hours.

“I spoke with Brittney Griner,” Biden said. “After months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable circumstances. Brittney will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones, and she should have been there all along.”

Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, thanked Biden and an array of U.S. officials for their efforts in freeing her spouse after nine months of imprisonment. Cherelle Griner said that she and Brittney Griner would continue their support for the release of Paul Whelan, another American held in Russia who was not included in Thursday’s deal.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a news conference, “This was not a choice of which American to bring home. The choice was one or none. I wish we could have brought Paul Whelan on the same plane as Brittney …”

Griner, 32, was detained at a Moscow airport in February when she arrived in Russia with vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage. The Women’s National Basketball Association star had gone to Russia to play for a Russian team during her off-season in the U.S., but instead was convicted of the drug charge after a brief trial, sentenced to nine years of imprisonment, and recently sent to a Russian penal colony.

Even as the U.S. has led the Western coalition of countries supplying munitions to Ukraine in its 10-month fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, the two countries held behind-the-scenes talks about the release of the two prisoners.

Earlier this year, Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov talked about the would-be prisoner exchange, which at the time was their first known contact in more than five months, as Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine continued.

In an extraordinary move during otherwise secret negotiations, Blinken revealed publicly in July that the U.S. had made a “substantial proposal” to Russia for Griner and Whelan.

In the end, Whelan, a 52-year-old Michigan corporate security executive imprisoned in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government has said are baseless, was left out of the deal.

“Sadly, and for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s,” Biden said. “And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up.”

Biden told Whelan’s family, “We will keep negotiating in good faith. I guarantee it.”

Bout, 55, had served 15 years of a 26-year prison sentence in the U.S. and was once nicknamed “the Merchant of Death.” The Kremlin had long sought his release.

Bout is a former Soviet military translator turned international arms dealer. He was imprisoned for more than a decade after he was lured to Thailand in a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration sting operation that spanned three continents.

“Viktor Bout, in my eyes, is one of the most dangerous men on the face of the Earth,” Michael Braun, the former chief of operations for the drug agency, told CBS News’ “60 Minutes” show in 2010.

Griner’s arrest upon arrival in Moscow made her the most high-profile American jailed abroad. Her status as an openly gay Black woman, locked up in a country where authorities have been hostile to the LBGTQ community, infused racial, gender and societal issues into the case. American news outlets regularly televised her court appearances.

She said carrying the carrying the cannabis oil into the country was a mistake borne of hastily packing her luggage. During one court proceeding in Russia, a Griner lawyer said she had a note from a U.S. doctor saying Griner needed medical cannabis in order to treat pain, although Griner said she packed the cannabis in her luggage by mistake.

Before being sentenced on August 4, an emotional Griner apologized “for my mistake that I made.”

She told the judge, “I hope in your ruling it does not end my life.”

(Some material in this report came from Agence France-Press and The Associated Press.)
…

Russia has placed several Grad rocket launchers at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, according to Ukraine’s state-owned nuclear power utility.

The weapons were placed “near power unit No. 6, right next to the territory of the station’s dry storage of spent nuclear fuel, where they had previously built some ‘protective structures’ in a secret regime, violating all the conditions for the organization of nuclear and radiation safety,” the company said.

Energoatom said the “most likely” scenario Russia is preparing for with the launchers at the power plant is “the shelling of the opposite bank of the Dnieper, in particular the Nikopol and Marganets … using the ‘cover’ of power units and spent nuclear fuel storage.”

Energoatom said Russia has use Zaporizhzhia for “military purposes” since the “very beginning” of its invasion of Ukraine.

“And once again,” Energoatom said, “we call for the creation of a security zone inside and around the station for its complete demilitarization and deoccupation.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday in his daily address that he has signed decrees for honors that will be awarded posthumously to four police officers who lost their lives Wednesday to Russia mines in the Kherson region.

“Already returning after completing one of the tasks, when they removed weapons and ammunition from the cache of the occupiers, many of which were left in the Kherson region, the policemen stumbled upon a mine trap,” the president said.  “And this is the form of Russian terror that will have to be countered for years to come.”

Russian and Ukrainian forces traded attacks in the critical eastern and southern regions of Ukraine on Thursday as the two countries fought over territory that Moscow has tried to annex in its 10-month war.

Fighting raged along the entire line of demarcation in the Donetsk region, with a Ukrainian official saying the front-line town of Avdiivka was shelled by Russian tanks Thursday morning.

Ukraine’s governor of the Luhansk region, Serhiy Haidai, said that Russia deployed more troops near the city of Lysychansk to try to capture the village of Bilohorivka and described an intensifying Russian air offensive.

“They are bringing in more and more reserves” around Bilohorivka, Haidai told Ukrainian television. “There are constant attacks.”

In the settlement of Bakhmut and other parts of the Donetsk region that neighbors Luhansk, an assault killed nine civilians, a Ukrainian official said. Ukrainian forces countered with barrages from rocket launchers.

In the Russian-controlled Ukrainian city of Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhia region, a supply route into Crimea, Russian-installed authorities summoned men of fighting age to mobilize, Ukraine’s military general staff said in a statement.

Russia has launched dozens of attacks from multiple rocket launchers since Wednesday, the Ukrainian general staff said, along with 16 airstrikes and seven missile attacks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has given conflicting statements on the goals of the war since his Feb. 24 invasion, but it is now clear that his aims include some expansion of Russia’s borders.

Putin said Wednesday that the war will be a “long process” but asserted that Russia had already become geographically bigger by annexing Ukrainian territory, a reference to internationally disputed claims he made in September that four Ukrainian provinces are now part of Russia.

“This is a significant result,” Putin said, although Russia does not control all of the Ukrainian land it claims. He described the Sea of Azov as its “internal sea,” now bounded by Russia and Russian-controlled territory in southern Ukraine, including Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized in 2014.

Zelenskyy says his troops will eventually drive Russia from all the captured territory, including Crimea.

Some material in this report came from Reuters.
…

Britain, Italy and Japan are combining their resources to create a new generation of fighter jets.

“We are announcing the Global Combat Air Program (GCAP) – an ambitious endeavor to develop a next-generation fighter aircraft by 2035,” the three nations said in a joint statement.

Other countries, including the United States, may also join the collaborative jet-building effort.

“We have begun important collaboration through a series of discussions on autonomous systems capabilities, which could complement Japan’s next fighter program among other platforms,” the United States and Japan said in a joint statement.

The announcement of the development of the fighter jet comes as Russia, China and North Korea have become increasingly aggressive.
…

Former NATO Secretary-General Anders Rasmussen has joined a growing chorus of voices calling for the United States and its European allies to furnish Ukraine with more advanced weapons systems to help it combat a Russian missile onslaught on its energy and other infrastructure systems as winter sets in.

“I don’t understand why we have imposed those restrictions on our weapon deliveries that prevent the Ukrainians from doing all they could to retake lost land, so that’s why I’m in Washington right now to urge the Americans to lift all the self-imposed restrictions on weapons deliveries,” Rasmussen told Voice of America in a recent interview.

“We have set a limit on how far missiles can go, so to speak; there’s a clear difference between missiles with a range of 120 kilometers and missiles with a range of 300 kilometers … we should deliver all the means that the Ukrainians need, they have the will to fight, it’s our obligation to give them the means to fight.”

Rasmussen is not alone in calling for a more robust response from the U.S. and its allies to Ukrainian appeals for more advanced weapons systems. A bipartisan group of 16 U.S. senators urged the Biden administration late last month to give “careful reconsideration” to Ukraine’s request for a sophisticated unmanned drone system known as the MQ-1C Gray Eagle.

“The MQ-1C, along with already provided long-range fires capabilities, provides Ukraine additional lethality needed to eject Russian forces and regain occupied territory,” the senators said a November 22 letter addressed to Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Among those signing the letter, which was first reported by The Wall Street Journal, was Republican Senator Joni Ernst, one of the staunchest supporters of Ukraine who has said that time spent in a homestay program in Ukraine during her youth has played a critical role in shaping her views of the region.

It was also signed by outgoing Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Republican James Inhofe, Republican Lindsey Graham, and Democrats Tim Kaine, Joe Manchin and Mark Kelly.

And in a recent interview with VOA’s Georgian service, Republican Senator Jim Risch said he has “wanted to ratchet up” U.S. support to Ukraine for some time.

“The Ukrainians are fighting with one hand tied behind their back. They’ve got a country adjacent to them that has invaded them and is committing all of these atrocities,” he said. “On top of that, over the recent weeks, [the Russians] have done everything they can to totally eliminate [Ukraine’s] infrastructure for heat and electricity and everything else. We can’t stand by and watch that happen.”

Billions in aid already

As of mid-November, the U.S. alone had authorized $68 billion in military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine and asked Congress to approve another $37.7 billion, according to figures compiled by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The assistance has been so extensive as to significantly reduce U.S. stockpiles, causing weapons delivery to other allies and partners, including Taiwan, to be pushed back.

However, the administration of President Joe Biden has consistently refused to equip Ukraine with weapons that would allow it to strike deep into Russia, citing concerns that the U.S. and NATO could be drawn into a wider war with Moscow, with potential nuclear consequences.

Early in the war, the U.S. and its allies rejected Ukrainian requests for jet fighters that would help it prevent Russia from gaining control of its skies. And this week, it was reported that highly effective HIMARS missile systems shipped to Ukraine had been modified to limit their range.

The West also has been slow to respond to Kyiv’s latest appeal for sophisticated Patriot missile systems to help shield the country’s electrical grid and other vital infrastructure against a daily deluge of Russian missiles and suicide drones.

“It’s not only Patriot missile systems,” Rasmussen told VOA. “It’s all missile systems that the Ukrainians need: French [missiles], American HIMARS, Patriots, everything!”

“So far, we have delivered some, but not enough,” he said. “So I would also encourage the Europeans to step up on delivering missile systems as well as heavy tanks; for instance, the Germans should deliver heavy Leopard tanks, the Ukrainians need desperately those tanks.”

Patriots a high priority

While Ukraine is anxious for all the weapons it can get, the Patriots — considered one of the most effective air defense systems available — are a high priority for Kyiv as winter sets in and Moscow focuses more intently on its long-range aerial assaults.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba stressed the need for more advanced air-defense systems and gear to maintain the country’s electrical grid during a late November meeting of NATO ministers in Bucharest, Romania, The Associated Press reported.

Speaking before a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Kuleba said that Ukraine at the session had received “a number of commitments, new commitments, from various NATO members with regard to providing Ukraine with more defensive weapons and energy equipment.”

But when asked if that included Patriots, Kuleba declined to answer. He did say his country would be happy to receive the Patriot systems that Germany has offered for deployment in Poland. Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak made clear this week that Poland would have preferred Germany send the systems to Ukraine instead, even as Warsaw announced it would host Patriots offered by Berlin on its territory.

Determined to fight

In Washington, visiting Ukrainian lawmaker Oleksiy Goncharenko expressed frustration this week at his inability to get straight answers from administration officials about the request for the Patriot systems.

“I can’t receive an explanation on Patriots,” he told guests attending an event hosted by American Purpose, an organization established by Francis Fukuyama and other thinkers to deliberate on current events.

“Speaking about other weaponry, I hear about ‘escalation.’ About Patriots, just no explanation,” Goncharenko said.

But in spite of the loss of heat and power as winter sets in, the lawmaker insisted that the Ukrainian people are determined to carry on the struggle against Russia for as long as it takes, despite the hardships of coping with the scarcity of heat and electricity.

“We are ready to fight,” he said. “If it would take two winters, five winters, 10 years. We will fight till then.”
…

As the Biden administration celebrates the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner from Russian custody, it is under pressure to free other Americans held hostage abroad, including Paul Whelan, detained in Russia since 2018. White House bureau chief Patsy Widakuswara has the report.
…

From the Netherlands to Suriname, pride is swelling at the number of Dutch players in Friday’s World Cup quarterfinal who trace their roots to the South American former colony.

On a pitch beneath the Amsterdam tower blocks where they grew up, two young friends of Surinamese origin practice free kicks and dream of wearing the Netherlands’ famed orange jersey.

“We’re people of color ourselves. It’s good that people of color have been so successful. We’re proud,” said Nigel Marengo, 18, a junior player for Heerenveen, a club whose first team is in the Eredivisie.

They idolize Dutch players like Virgil van Dijk, born in the Dutch city of Breda to a Dutch father and Surinamese mother; Denzel Dumfries, whose mother is from Suriname and whose father is from Aruba, the Caribbean island that is part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands; and Xavi Simons, whose father is of Surinamese descent.

Marengo and his friends will cheer on the “Oranje” against Argentina on Friday, in a match that he said will be tough but winnable, largely thanks to Van Dijk in defense.

“I’m happy that he chose to play for the Netherlands” instead of Suriname, the tiny Caribbean coast nation ranked 139 by FIFA, aded Marengo.

His friend Divayo Olf, 18, said that while it “drags down Suriname in terms of football … they were all born here or grew up here and they all started their careers here, so I understand their choice.”

The Netherlands boasts a long line of footballing legends with Surinamese heritage, from Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard in the 1980s to Clarence Seedorf and Edgar Davids in the 1990s.

‘Historical connection’

But that also reflects the tangled history of the Netherlands as rulers of a string of colonies — including Suriname, which became independent in 1975 — that the Dutch are wrestling with to this day.

In the Surinamese capital Paramaribo, two huge TV screens hang on the wall of the Sportcafe Munder, a Suriname flag hangs in the middle, and the room is decorated with Dutch banners.

“I have been a fan of the Netherlands since 1978, because I grew up there. … And boys with a Surinamese background playing, that also plays a role,” said owner Ramesh Jagesar.

For Friday’s match they will serve Dutch meatball snacks called “bitterballen” with Netherlands flags on cocktail sticks.

But he adds that “you do have groups that are really against the Netherlands, they would rather go for Brazil or Argentina.”

Retired doctor Ruben del Prado said he was supporting the Dutch team.

“I love the Netherlands but my heart is in Suriname … there is a natural historical connection between them,” he said.

But Micky van Leeuwaarde will be wearing light blue instead of orange, as he is a member of the Argentina Fan Club of Suriname.

“This generation of football players with Surinamese roots means nothing to me,” he said. “I am more of the old generation: Seedorf, Davids and Rijkaard.”

He said he was born in 1978 when Argentina beat Netherlands in the World Cup final, loved Maradona and had been a fan all his life.

‘Makes me proud’

A corner kick away from Amsterdam’s famed Ajax stadium, a father and son recall the glory days of Dutch football and the key role players of Surinamese heritage have played in it.

“It’s important that the whole of Dutch society is represented in the national football team,” says Giovanni Qureshe, 21, behind the counter of his family’s Surinamese restaurant, P&G Roti. “That’s the case under the current manager Louis van Gaal. I am very proud that we, the Surinamese, are also part of the Netherlands team.

“And we’re doing very well, I hope we’ll be world champions!”

Despite the multicultural image of both the Netherlands and its football teams, racism remains a problem in a society where far-right parties command significant support.

Gullit, who led the Dutch to their only major trophy when they won the European Championships in 1988, complained of receiving racial abuse when he was one of only a few Black players.

But he has said that things have changed now that football has become more diverse.

Near the Ajax stadium, Urbian Fitz-James runs a shop selling products from his native Suriname but “will always have a link with the Netherlands.”

“When I see a Surinamese kid playing in the national team, of course it makes me proud,” he said.

A saleswoman in the shop, Xafiera Schipper, 34, believes that players from Suriname, where her parents were born, “would do better to play for their own country.”

But she adds: “That would mean the Dutch team wouldn’t be so strong anymore.”
…

German authorities said Thursday that further arrests are likely after a far-right plot to overthrow the government was thwarted. Prosecutors said they had identified over 50 suspects in the case.

Three thousand police officers raided properties across Germany early Wednesday, arresting 25 people. Police in Austria and Italy also carried out several raids.

The suspects are alleged members of the Reichsbuerger movement (Citizens of the Reich), who have been accused of hatching a plan in November 2021 to overthrow the German government.

Police say they found rifles, ammunition, crossbows and protective vests, along with plans to recruit soldiers and police officers.

“Based on current findings, the suspected terrorist group … was founded based on coup d’etat fantasies and conspiracy ideologies,” Germany’s Interior Minister Nancy Faeser told reporters Wednesday.

“Only a further investigation will give us a clear picture how far advanced those coup plans were. The militant Reichsbuerger are united by the hatred for democracy, for our state and for people who support our community,” she said.

Royal ringleader

The suspected ringleader of the Reichsbuerger plan calls himself Prince Heinrich XIII and is a descendant of the former royal House of Reuss. He was arrested in Frankfurt. The Reuss family once ruled large parts of eastern Germany before the monarchy was abolished a century ago.

Police are searching a hunting lodge belonging to Heinrich in eastern Germany. Prosecutors say the 71-year-old contacted Russian officials to ask for help. There was no evidence of a positive response, and Moscow has denied involvement.

Police also arrested Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, a former lawmaker for the far-right Alternative for Germany political party, or AfD, who currently serves as a judge.

A soldier serving in the German army’s Special Forces Command and several military reservists were also detained.

Peter Frank, Germany’s federal prosecutor, said Thursday the suspects shared ideologies.

“The arrested are followers of conspiracy myths consisting of different narratives of the Reichsbuerger ideology, as well as the QAnon ideology,” Frank told reporters.

The QAnon movement originated in the United States. Its followers falsely claim the world is controlled by a deep state government. Several QAnon followers have been accused and in some cases convicted of taking part in the storming of the U.S. Capitol Building on January 6, 2021, following the defeat of former President Donald Trump in the 2020 presidential election.

In August 2020, German far-right protesters stormed the steps of Germany’s parliament building following a march against coronavirus restrictions. Police prevented them from entering the building.

Inspired by Capitol insurrection?

Conspiracy theories have been amplified between similar groups around the world, said social scientist Alexander Haeusler, a research associate in right-wing extremism at FORENA, a research center that studies right-wing extremism and neo-Nazism at the University of Applied Sciences Duesseldorf.

“The pandemic fueled the conspiracy theories present in these circles, and the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine fueled those theories with its political alternatives, which are admired by these circles. And not least, the storming of the U.S. Capitol after the last presidential election showed these people that there are options to destroy the state order,” Haeusler told Reuters.

Anke Hoffstadt, also a research associate at FORENA, told VOA the assaults on the German parliament and the U.S. Capitol bear striking similarities.

“You see some habitual similarities — the chanting, the banners, and the absolute want to reach the symbol of democracy,” Hoffstadt said.

“The idea of running a coup d’etat is, in their universe, really possible. So, we have to look that this is a really dangerous situation, because the people and activists who do this are armed, well-prepared and in knowledge of how to use the weapons,” she added.

AfD party

Georg Maier, interior minister of the eastern German state of Thuringia, accused the AfD Party of helping to “spread fantasies about toppling the state.” The AfD is the second-largest party in eastern Germany and has 78 lawmakers in parliament.

“People are scared, and the AfD takes advantage of that and offers simple solutions,” Maier told German broadcaster Deutschlandfunk on Thursday.

AfD lawmakers have frequently attended demonstrations against policies on matters such as coronavirus restrictions and migration in recent years, Hoffstadt noted.

“We find people who are members or supporters for the QAnon ideology maybe in the first line of demonstrations or as participants in the demonstrations. And there you can see politicians from the AfD, as well, maybe even the most famous ones. So, I don’t know if you really can say they are to blame … but they are obviously making a good job to fix the narratives,” she said.

In a statement issued Wednesday, the AfD condemned the coup plot and expressed confidence in the investigation.
…

Viktor Bout, the former Russian military officer convicted of illegal arms trafficking in U.S. courts in 2012, and who was serving a 25-year prison sentence, has had his sentence commuted and is being repatriated as part of a prisoner exchange that freed United States basketball star Brittney Griner from prison in Russia.

Bout, nicknamed the “Merchant of Death,” started an air freight business in the years after the fall of the Soviet Union, which prosecutors alleged he used to transport military-grade weapons around the world, often supplying arms to combatants on opposing sides of the same conflicts.

In an indictment of Bout issued in February 2010, the U.S. Justice Department alleged, “Bout, an international weapons trafficker since the 1990s, has carried out a massive weapons-trafficking business by assembling a fleet of cargo airplanes capable of transporting weapons and military equipment to various parts of the world, including Africa, South America, and the Middle East. The arms that Bout has sold or brokered have fueled conflicts and supported regimes in Afghanistan, Angola, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Liberia, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, and Sudan.”

The Russian government has long claimed that Bout was wrongly convicted and unjustly imprisoned. He had, most recently, been held in a federal prison facility in the city of Marion in the U.S. state of Illinois.

Griner had spent 10 months in prison in Russia after being arrested at a Moscow airport with a small amount of cannabis oil in an electronic cigarette cartridge in her luggage. Sentenced to nine years in prison, she was recently transferred to a prison labor camp.

Early life

Little is known for certain about Bout’s early life, other than that he grew up in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, and was conscripted into the Russian military at age 18. He is believed to be multilingual, and is thought to have studied at the Military Institute of Foreign Languages in Moscow. The institute has close ties to Russian intelligence services.

Bout appears to have left military service around the time of the breakup of the Soviet Union, and moved to the United Arab Emirates, where he purchased four Soviet-era Antonov-8 cargo planes and established an air freight firm called Air Cess.

Bout’s fleet of planes eventually numbered around 60, and much of his business was legitimate. According to Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun, authors of the book Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes, and the Man Who Makes War Possible, Bout’s contracts included some with the U.S. government for ferrying reconstruction supplies into Afghanistan and some with the United Nations for delivering humanitarian aid.

Active in Africa

It was arms dealing, however, that made Bout both internationally famous and extremely wealthy. In the years following the breakup of the Soviet Union, vast quantities of military weapons appeared on the black market, and prosecutors and journalists have produced evidence that Bout transported weapons to conflict zones around the globe, often to parties that were subject to international arms embargoes.

Bout was especially active in Africa, and in the 1990s is believed to have supplied arms to both the government of Angola and the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) who were fighting against it.

Similarly, Bout is believed to have supplied arms to both sides of the civil war in what was then Zaire, and is now the Democratic Republic of Congo, and to have sold arms used in conflicts in Rwanda, Sudan, and Somalia.

Charles Taylor, the former president of Liberia who was convicted of war crimes for his role in the civil war in neighboring Sierra Leone, is also believed to have been one of Bout’s clients.

‘Truly a monster’

David M. Crane, the founding chief prosecutor of the U.N. Special Court for Sierra Leone, saw the results of Bout’s arms dealing in West Africa up close.

“He was truly a monster in his own right,” Crane told VOA. “This is someone who spread his arms and ammunition around the world, in very dark corners of the world, causing pain and suffering wherever he went.”

Crane, who went on to found the non-profit Global Accountability Network, which seeks justice for the victims of war crimes and crimes against humanity, said that the destruction wrought in Sierra Leone by the forces Bout armed was extensive.

“He was the main supplier of arms and ammunition…to that terrible conflict in West Africa, which saw the murder, rape, maiming and mutilation of over 1.2 million human beings,” Chase said.

While Africa may have been Bout’s primary focus, he was also active in other parts of the world. For example, he is believed to have sold weapons and equipment to both the Taliban in Afghanistan and the Northern Alliance that opposed it in the late 1990s.

Captured

By the late 2000s, Bout was subject to multiple arrest warrants around the world, and rarely left Russia, where the government of Vladimir Putin refused to extradite him.

In 2008, however, he was lured to Bangkok, Thailand, for a meeting with people he believed to be representatives of Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, or FARC, the rebel group that for decades sought to overthrow the Colombian government before a 2016 peace accord. FARC was, at the time, designated as a terrorist group by the U.S. government.

In fact, Bout was actually meeting with informants for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, who recorded him offering to sell them hundreds of surface-to-air missiles and other heavy weaponry. In the conversation, Bout acknowledged that the missiles, in particular, were to be used to bring down U.S. planes flying drug interdiction missions.

Bout was arrested on the spot by Thai law enforcement, and two years later he was extradited to the U.S., where he was charged with several crimes, including breaking weapons embargoes, conspiring to kill U.S. officials, and various money laundering and wire fraud charges.

In 2012, Bout was convicted and sentenced to 25 years in prison.

Long process

In a statement on Thursday, the Russian Foreign Ministry characterized the negotiations that led to Bout’s release as long, with the U.S. resisting demands that he be made part of the deal.

“Washington was categorically refusing to engage in dialogue on putting the Russian national on the exchange scheme,” the foreign ministry told the news outlet TASS. “Nevertheless, the Russian Federation continued to actively work towards the release of our fellow countryman.”

In remarks announcing Griner’s release Thursday morning, U.S. President Joe Biden did not mention Bout, but criticized Russia for holding the basketball star. He said that Griner “lost months of her life [and] experienced a needless trauma.”

Biden also referred to another high-profile American detainee in Russia, former Marine Paul Whelan, who has been held there for four years.

“We’ve not forgotten about Paul Whelan, who has been unjustly detained in Russia for years,” Biden said. “This was not a choice of which American to bring home….Sadly, for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s. And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up.”
…

The World Health Organization reports COVID-19 cases are continuing their downward spiral in Africa but warns the pandemic is not over and nations must remain vigilant.

Following a recent four-week resurgence of COVID-19, cases and deaths once again are dropping in Africa. Since this month-long spike ended on November 20, the World Health Organization has recorded slightly more than 12,300 new cases and 50 deaths.

The WHO regional director for Africa, Matshidiso Moeti, said these numbers are at their lowest levels since the start of the pandemic in 2020.

“Despite the recent uptick, there is hope that Africa will be spared the challenges of the previous two years when surging cases marred the holiday season for many,” said Moeti. “While the current efforts keep the pandemic within control, we are carefully monitoring its evolution. We must remain vigilant and be ready to adopt more stringent preventive measures if necessary.”

Moeti said investments in COVID-19 management over the last three years are paying off and the region is better able to cope with the virus. She notes the number of intensive care unit beds has increased and medical oxygen production has grown.

She said Africa also has strengthened its laboratory capacity including conducting genomic sequencing. But she added that worrisome gaps in vaccination remain, especially among the most vulnerable.

Moeti said it is urgent that health workers be vaccinated to protect them from getting severe illness and dying. Other high-risk groups who must be vaccinated, she said, include the elderly, people living with HIV, and those who have potentially life-threatening conditions such as diabetes, obesity, and cardiovascular disease.

“These, in our view, are the groups in which we need to … really push, accelerate in coverage, increasing the proportion of people that are covered and reaching the highest level of coverage possible, while also, of course, making sure that those of them who took their first series of vaccines early also are boosted so to sustain the level of immunity, particularly protect them against severe illness,” she said.

The WHO reports only 26 percent of Africans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19. Regional director Moeti said greater coverage can be achieved and more people reached by integrating COVID-19 vaccination into routine immunization and primary health care services.

As the pandemic winds down, she said, COVID-19 should be brought out of an emergency response mode and integrated into routine health care.
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Ukrainian American Yakov Gradinar makes prostheses.  So, after Russia’s war on Ukraine began to take its toll, he knew how he could help. Along with a team of specialists that includes American doctors and veterans, he has already assisted nearly two dozen people who lost limbs in the conflict. More are on their way. Elona Voytovych has the story. VOA footage by Valery Shmarko.
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The U.S. and Russia carried out a high-stakes prisoner swap on Thursday, with Moscow freeing professional basketball star Brittney Griner and Washington handing over notorious Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout.

Russia said the swap was carried out in the United Arab Emirates and later U.S. President Joe Biden, who had long pressed the Russian government to free Griner, officially announced her release at the White House.

“She represents the best of America,” Biden said, noting that Griner would be back in the United States within 24 hours.

“I spoke with Brittney Griner,” Biden said. “She’s safe. She’s on a plane. She’s on her way home. After months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under intolerable circumstances. Brittany will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones, and she should have been there all along.”

Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, thanked Biden and an array of U.S. officials for their efforts in freeing her spouse after nine months of imprisonment. She vowed that she and Brittney Griner would continue their support for the release of Paul Whelan, another U.S. prisoner held in Russia who was not included in Thursday’s deal.

Griner, 32, was detained at a Moscow airport in February when she arrived in Russia with vape canisters containing cannabis oil in her luggage. The Women’s National Basketball Association star had gone to Russia to play for a Russian team during her off-season in the U.S. but instead was convicted of the drug charge after a brief trial, sentenced to nine years of imprisonment, and recently sent to a Russian penal colony.

Even as the U.S. has led the Western coalition of countries supplying munitions to Ukraine in its 10-month fight against Russian President Vladimir Putin’s invasion, the two countries held behind-the-scenes talks about the release of the two prisoners.

Earlier this year, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov talked about the would-be prisoner exchange, at the time their first known contact in more than five months as Moscow’s attacks on Ukraine raged on.

In an extraordinary move during otherwise secret negotiations, Blinken revealed publicly in July that the U.S. had made a “substantial proposal” to Russia for Griner and Whelan.

In the end, Whelan, a 52-year-old Michigan corporate security executive jailed in Russia since December 2018 on espionage charges that his family and the U.S. government has said are baseless, was left out of the deal.

“Sadly, and for totally illegitimate reasons, Russia is treating Paul’s case differently than Brittney’s,” Biden said. “And while we have not yet succeeded in securing Paul’s release, we are not giving up. We will never give up.”

Biden promised Whelan’s family, “We will keep negotiating in good faith. I guarantee it.”

Watch President Biden announcing Griner’s release:

“After months of being unjustly detained in Russia, held under a tolerable circumstances. Brittany will soon be back in the arms of her loved ones and she should have been there all along,” Biden said later at the White House.

Griner, the twice Olympic gold medalist was arrested February 17 at a Moscow airport with vape cartridges containing cannabis oil, which is banned in Russia. She was sentenced August 4 to nine years in a penal colony on charges of possessing and smuggling drugs.
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Gunning the engine of his aging skiff, Oleksiy Kovbasyuk races away from Kherson toward an island in the Dnipro River, where stranded Ukrainians are desperate for help — or to escape.

Russian troops retreated from the southern city of Kherson last month to the other side of the Dnipro, but their snipers and artillery are still trained along the broad river, rendering it a new front line.

Forty-seven-year-old Kovbasyuk’s concern is that vulnerable residents isolated on the islands in the river, a gray zone where Ukrainians either desperate for a ride out or for more supplies need his help.

“Some of these people haven’t left their dacha since Kherson was liberated. They need some bread,” Kovbasyuk, wrapped in a hat and red scarf against the cold, told AFP journalists on his boat.

The crossing, with snow falling, is short but perilous.

“I got two bullet holes in my boat … right after Russian soldiers fled to the other side,” the construction worker said.

Russian shelling missed his boat by just meters last week at the regularly targeted industrial waterfront south of Kherson city, where his boat was stored.

His destination one day this week was Potemkin Island, 8 kilometers long and 4 kilometers wide, just downstream from Kherson city.

The patch of land surrounded by icy currents has been caught up in intense shelling. Of the several hundred small summer homes on the island, only a handful are still inhabited.

Still Kovbasyuk is determined to bring food to those who want to stay and on evacuating others to the newly liberated west bank.

Icy winds buffet the boat and freezing water splashes over its side for 40 minutes until Kovbasyuk arrives and meets Oleksandr Sokolyk, a 64-year-old pensioner, also shuttling people to the mainland.

“Oleksiy, brother! I’m so happy to see you!” says the pensioner, hugging his friend on a pontoon next to a dacha.

The island was once an oasis of calm just a short trip from Kherson.

But that was before the Russian invasion in February and Kherson’s easy capture by Moscow’s forces shortly after.

The fighting escalated in September as Ukrainian troops were clawing back territory. Now there is relentless crossfire over the river.

“The situation seems better now in Kherson. They have electricity. We haven’t had any power here for a week,” Sokolyk said.

“And we spend every night under shelling. Left to right, right to left, just flying over us.”

Olga Shpinyova, in an elegant purple hat and winter coat is leaving the island to stay with her sister in Kherson.

“It will be better there than in my own flat in a building without water, heating or electricity,” she said, her dog, Tosha, and two small bags in hand.

She told AFP she had decided to leave the island after urgent pleas from her daughter and a close call when her home was shelled.

“I was lucky to be at my daughter’s house at the time. It saved my life. My daughter called and said, ‘You have to leave!'” Shpinyova told AFP.

Authorities announced civilian evacuations by ferry between December 3 and 5 but they never materialized.

“We can’t organize regular transport on the river. The occupiers wouldn’t let us,” the regional governor Yaroslav Yanushevych told AFP.

“Unfortunately, we can’t guarantee the security of the people” crossing, he said.

On the return journey to Kherson with three people boarded, a missile fell right in front of Sokolyk’s boat.

“I have no idea where it came from,” he told AFP in shock.
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A Russian scheme to facilitate natural gas sales to China and other Asian markets through a “gas union” with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan has met political resistance in the two Central Asian countries, at least partly because of unease over Russia’s war in Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Uzbek Energy Minister Jurabek Mirzamahmudov dashed cold water on the proposal, first made public early last week, saying his nation will never risk its independence for economic benefits.

“If we import gas from another country, we cooperate only based on a commercial contract. We will never agree to political conditions in exchange for gas,” he said in a video statement.

“Even if a gas agreement is concluded with Russia, this does not mean a union … Uzbekistan does not border with Russia. Therefore, negotiations are conducted to deliver it through neighboring Kazakhstan. This would be a technical contract … not a union,” Mirzamahmudov said.

The scheme was put forward by Russian President Vladimir Putin at a November 28 meeting with Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Moscow.

While details of the proposed union remain vague, according to some analysts, the plan makes some economic sense for the Central Asian countries, especially Uzbekistan, which produces barely enough natural gas for its own consumption in winter and has been suffering shortages during cold spell.

As part of a gas union with Russia, a major exporter, they would be able to receive ample supplies through an existing pipeline that runs to the two countries from Russia and then sell surplus gas through another existing pipeline that runs through their territory from Turkmenistan to China.

Russia, meanwhile, would instantly acquire a new means of earning revenue from gas sales to China and possibly other Asian markets, helping it to make up for lost energy sales to Europe because of sanctions imposed in response to the war in Ukraine.

However, the scheme has encountered strong public opposition in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, fueled by fears the deal may come with political strings attached. Many worry that the territorial ambitions of “the northern brother” may extend beyond Ukraine, which like them is a former member of the Moscow-led Soviet Union.

“We have nothing to gain from the Kremlin’s gas union and everything to lose,” Abdulla Abdukadirov, an Uzbek economist and former official, told VOA. “Russia wants to boost its position here through our strategic resource.”

Kazakhstan, which shares a 7,600-kilometer border with Russia and enjoyed $21.5 billion in bilateral trade last year, sees Moscow as a strategic partner and belongs to two Putin-led blocs: the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU).

But Astana has maintained distance from Moscow during the war in Ukraine and has not recognized Russia’s annexation of four partially occupied regions of that country. This has triggered criticism from Russian public figures, who remind Kazakhs that ethnic Russians comprise nearly 16% of their population.

So far, the Kazakh government has said only that it is studying the Russian proposal, while the Uzbek administration had been silent on the matter until Wednesday’s remarks by Mirzamahmudov, the energy minister.

However, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev did not receive Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin when he visited the country last week, even though Russia is Uzbekistan’s second-largest business partner, with $7 billion in trade this year.

Mishustin held talks instead with his Uzbek counterpart, Abdulla Aripov, and spoke at a bilateral economic forum in Samarkand.

“Our biggest initiatives are in the energy sector,” Mishustin said, arguing that EEU membership would offer Uzbekistan “free movement of goods, services, capital and labor.”

The Russian prime minister also pressed Tashkent “to speed up implementation” of a 2018 agreement for the joint construction of a Russian-designed nuclear power plant, which would be completed within 10 years under the supervision of Rosatom, Russia’s nuclear energy agency.

Several officials have told VOA that Uzbekistan is no longer interested in the project, though the government won’t confirm this openly.

Abdukadirov, the Uzbek economist, sees the Russian energy moves as motivated by a desire to undermine recently renewed economic and security partnerships between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan.

“Russia clearly does not want this, since it wants to control the region and its hydrocarbons. Kazakhstan has large oil and gas resources, Uzbekistan has some,” he said. “Russia oversees energy sales, including to China. Uzbekistan’s role is limited. So, Moscow, which also exports energy, wants to ensure no competition.”

Abdukadirov argued that the natural gas swaps proposed by Putin would benefit only Moscow. “Russia wants to sell our own gas to us and others while it directly exports its gas to China,” he said.

Iskander Akylbayev, Central Asia director at U.K.-based Oxford Policy Advisory Group, pointed out that Uzbekistan recently suspended gas exports to China through the existing pipeline because of domestic shortages, and said “Kazakhstan plans to stop or limit gas exports next year. This certainly concerns Beijing.”

“Russia considers it logical to send some excess gas to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan through a trilateral union with special tariffs and agreements,” he said. But he acknowledged that in the long term, both states could become more dependent on Russia.

Paul Stronski of the Carnegie Endowment said Russia “is eager to show it’s not isolated” by striking an energy deal with the Central Asian countries, but Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan are “wary of aligning too closely with Moscow, given its weaponization of energy and the fear of Western sanctions.”

Landlocked and struggling in the energy sector, Astana and Tashkent could use support “but are very good at placating the Kremlin by having meetings, letting Russia pronounce what it wants, and then really watering down whatever comes of it,” he said. “Central Asians are good about deferring to Russia symbolically but limiting the substance.”

Stronski said the Central Asian countries can “stand up to Russia to some extent” by working together and by including gas-rich Turkmenistan. “Working regionally gives each state political cover, enhancing leverage with both Russia and China.”
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