RIYADMEDIA

Fans of England’s Crystal Palace soccer club were in a taunting mood. They unfurled a banner in the stands at the team’s stadium in south London during a match against Newcastle United, mocking their rivals’ new owner — the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, who was portrayed wielding a blood-stained scimitar.

The banner included a mock-up of the pseudo-categories the Palace fans suggested English football authorities require of owners of the country’s top soccer teams. The requirements included terrorism, beheadings, civil rights abuses and murder, and they were ticked off on a clipboard in the banner under the heading “Premier League Owners Test.”

Following complaints about racism, Britain’s Metropolitan Police launched an investigation, saying in a statement, “Any allegations of racist abuse will be taken very seriously.” This month police announced they don’t intend to pursue any prosecutions. “Following an assessment, officers have concluded that no offenses have been committed. No further action will be taken,” the police said in a press statement.

But the $415 million purchase of Newcastle United in October by a Saudi Arabia-led consortium has drawn fire and is fueling a wider debate about England’s premier soccer league, which is not only the richest and most-watched league in the world of football but also seemingly a magnet for oligarchs, authoritarian regimes and autocrats, say critics.

Two of the Premier League’s 20 teams — Manchester City and now Newcastle — are owned by authoritarian regimes. Two others — Chelsea and Wolverhampton Wanders — are owned by oligarchs with links to autocratic regimes. And another, Southampton, is owned by a Chinese businessman whose eventually successful bid for the team was held up as English football authorities probed bribery and corruption allegations lodged against him in China.

Some sponsorship tie-ups have also raised eyebrows. Earlier this year Arsenal signed an extension on a partnership deal with the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) which will see the club earn $55 million between now and 2025 for a “Visit Rwanda” logo on the left sleeve of the players.

The country’s ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF) has come under mounting criticism from international rights campaigners for threatening those who criticize the party.  Human Rights Watch has documented from local sources “arbitrary detention, ill-treatment, and torture in official and unofficial detention facilities.”

Amnesty International has criticized the Saudi buyout of Newcastle, saying the deal is “a clear attempt by the Saudi authorities to sportswash their appalling human rights record with the glamour of top-flight football.”

In February, U.S. intelligence agencies concluded in a report that Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman approved the 2018 killing of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in Istanbul while visiting the Saudi consulate there and his body was cut up. In the report, the agencies alleged the prince approved a plan to either “capture or kill” Khashoggi. Saudi Arabia rejected the report, calling it “negative, false and unacceptable.

Premier League officials say that they received assurances that the Saudi authorities will not be involved in the day-to-day running of Newcastle.

But Amnesty UK’s chief executive, Sacha Deshmukh, told reporters, “Instead of allowing those implicated in serious human rights violations to walk into English football simply because they have deep pockets, we’ve urged the Premier League to change their owners’ and directors’ test to address human rights issues.”

The rights group wants a new human rights-compliant test to be at the heart of approving bids for clubs.

England’s football supporters tend to be ambivalent about foreign owners buying their beloved clubs — often critical when a takeover deal is first announced but then delighted when the funding from deep pockets powers their team to success.

Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, a member of Abu Dhabi’s royal family and deputy prime minister of the United Arab Emirates, bought Manchester City in 2008 and since then is estimated to have spent nearly $3 billion on buying top-flight players and coaching staff. Under his majority ownership the team has won the Premier League five times.

Newcastle fans, though, had no hesitation in celebrating the purchase of their team, which has had little success in recent years and is currently second from last in the league. Chelsea, owned by Roman Abramovich, a Russian oligarch with close ties to President Vladimir Putin, is on top of the league currently, with Manchester City second.  As with Manchester City, so with Chelsea — under Abramovich’s ownership the team has been turned into a football Goliath.

Fans at Newcastle’s St James’ Park Stadium, in northeast England, were jubilant when the Saudi deal was announced last month, saying they hoped it would mark a turnaround for the club. Fans waved Saudi flags and donned mock Saudi-style ghutras (headscarves).  

Lawmaker John Nicolson, a member of the British parliament’s Digital, Culture, Media and Sport committee, condemned the scenes during a panel hearing shortly after the deal was made public. During a committee hearing he said, “I’m trying to imagine what it must be like to be Jamal Khashoggi’s widow, when her husband has been chopped up and murdered. And she sees numpties (silly people) dancing around in cod-Arabic dresses outside Newcastle United.”
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The mix of parties now working to form the next Czech government spans the spectrum from conservative to liberal, but all appear to share a commitment to the democratic principles espoused by founding President Vaclav Havel. And that, says a former Havel aide, could be bad news for China and Russia.

Havel, the erudite playwright whose writings and dissident activities helped undermine communism in Europe, “would be quite pleased” with the state of his country following last month’s parliamentary election, said Jiri Pehe, who advised the former Czech president in the late 1990s. Havel died in 2011.

The election unseated populist billionaire Andrej Babis as prime minister and left his coalition partners, the Social Democrats and the Communist Party, out of parliament altogether. Babis formally submitted his resignation to President Milos Zeman on Thursday, clearing the way for Petr Fiala, head of the Civic Democratic Party and a leading figure in the winning five-party coalition, to begin forming a new government. 

Pehe says he expects the incoming coalition, despite its philosophical differences, to adopt a foreign policy that aligns with the strongly pro-human rights, pro-democratic ideals of his former boss.

“At least for the next four years,” Beijing and Moscow will not have as easy a time as they did in recent years, he told VOA in an interview. 

A foretaste of what may lie ahead was provided last year in a high-profile visit to Taiwan led by Senate President Milos Vystrcil, a longtime member of Fiala’s center-right Civic Democratic Party, known by its Czech acronym of ODS.

“Prior to my trip, I was aware that my decision to visit Taiwan was not supported by the highest constitutional representatives of the Czech Republic,” Vystrcil told VOA in an interview. Among the critics of the visit was Zeman, whose warm relationship with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping has been lauded by the Chinese Embassy in Prague.

But, Vystrcil said through a translator, “In the end, as a politician, you are supposed to do what you think is best for your country. It is also about what is good for the countries around us. I reached the conclusion that it is in the interest of both the Czech Republic as well as Taiwan that I visit Taiwan.” 

Vystrcil was joined on the trip by Czech lawmakers and politicians, including Zdenek Hrib, the mayor of Prague and a member of the left-leaning Pirate Party, also part of the incoming coalition. He and Vystrcil were famously photographed together enjoying a beer at a Czech-styled pub in Taipei, foreshadowing the left-right coalition that would emerge from last month’s elections. 

Beijing also has reason to worry about Jan Lipavsky, another Pirates Party member, who is seen as a candidate to lead the Czech Foreign Ministry. In an essay published as the coronavirus was taking off in March 2020, Lipavsky warned of the “propaganda panda” and predicted that China would seek to deny any responsibility for the worldwide spread of COVID-19.

He also denounced “Chinese and Russian clientelism” as an attack on Czech democracy.

If the new Czech government does turn its back on China and Russia, it is likely to find support for its positions even among members of the defeated coalition. 

Among those sharing a skeptical view of the two authoritarian powers is Tomas Petricek, the former Czech foreign minister and an unsuccessful candidate in this year’s contest for the leadership of the Social Democrats.

Known to have opposed Zeman’s plan to have Russian companies bid for a key nuclear power project, Petricek also sees Beijing as being on a path irreconcilable with his own nation’s democratic ideals.

“You can say I’m against Beijing,” he said in a wide-ranging interview with VOA from Prague.

Democracy, Petricek pointed out, is an intrinsic part of the Social Democratic Party, and he saw no reason why the party would want to sit on the fence when it comes to which camp with which the country should align itself. The fact that the party was seen as ambiguous on this critical issue led to its defeat in the nationwide legislative elections, he said, a view shared by Pehe, Havel’s former aide.

Petricek said he has taken note of the nationalistic tone of the Chinese government’s recent rhetoric; he considers that — along with its aggressiveness abroad and repression at home — a contradiction of the principles of social democratic parties and the supposed ideals of communist parties.

Taiwan’s robust democracy, on the other hand, “negates” Beijing’s claim that Chinese people and society can only be governed by a single-party regime “somewhere between authoritarianism and totalitarianism,” Petricek said. 
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The United States and European members of the U.N. Security Council condemned Belarus on Thursday for what they called the “cynical instrumentalization of migrants,” as tensions simmered along the Polish-Belarusian border.

“We … condemn the orchestrated instrumentalization of human beings whose lives and well-being have been put in danger for political purposes by Belarus, with the objective of destabilizing neighboring countries and the European Union’s external border and diverting attention away from its own increasing human rights violations,” Estonian Ambassador Sven Jürgenson said on behalf of seven Western nations.

The flow of migrants from the Middle East and Afghanistan rose sharply after the European Union imposed sanctions on Minsk for forcing a commercial airliner flying over its territory in May to land. The authorities arrested a Belarusian opposition blogger and his girlfriend, who were on board.

Now thousands of migrants who have traveled legally to Belarus face an uncertain fate and freezing temperatures along the border with Poland.

On Tuesday, Poland closed a border crossing with Belarus after migrants tried to break through.

European and Baltic nations accuse Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko of luring the migrants to his country and then facilitating their travel to the border in order to send them into Poland, Lithuania and Latvia. The migrants apply for asylum when they reach EU member states.

“This tactic is unacceptable and calls for a strong international reaction and cooperation in order to hold Belarus accountable,” Jürgenson said. “It demonstrates how the Lukashenko regime has become a threat to regional stability.”

“Of course, there is a game of shifting blame now by European Union,” Russia’s deputy U.N. envoy, Dmitry Polyanskiy, told reporters. “They want to picture Belarus, and sometimes even Russia, as perpetrators of this crisis.”

Moscow is Minsk’s closest ally.

Polyanskiy said Minsk has neither economic nor political reasons to prevent the migrants from continuing onward.

“They have no reasons to send them back to the countries where they came from,” he said. “That would be a total violation of any international conventions.”

Fearing it could become a new front in the crisis, Ukraine, which is not an EU member, will send another 8,500 troops and police officers, plus 15 helicopters, to guard its border with Belarus, Reuters reported Thursday.

De-escalation calls

The United Nations has called for de-escalation at the Belarus-Poland border.

“I am appalled that large numbers of migrants and refugees continue to be left in a desperate situation in near-freezing temperatures at the Belarus-Poland border,” U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said Wednesday. “I urge the states involved to take immediate steps to de-escalate and resolve this intolerable situation in line with their obligations under international human rights law and refugee law.”

The U.N. refugee and migration agencies have repeatedly said that using migrants and refugees as political tools is deplorable and must stop.

“With several tragic deaths recorded in the border area in recent weeks, UNHCR [U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees) and IOM [International Organization for Migration] remind states of the imperative to prevent further loss of life and ensure the humane treatment of migrants and refugees as the highest priority,” the agencies said in a joint statement Tuesday.

The European Union, meanwhile, is considering imposing new sanctions on Belarus.​

Some information for this report came from Reuters.
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Witnesses, human rights lawyers, international prosecutors and academics gathered Thursday in London for the second day of the Iran Atrocities Tribunal to investigate how mostly peaceful protests turned violent two years ago.

Iranian security forces killed hundreds and arrested thousands of people who were demonstrating against a sudden spike in fuel prices in mid-November 2019. The Iranian government raised the subsidized price of gasoline by 50%, angering Iranians facing high unemployment, inflation and heavy U.S. sanctions.

Appearing virtually and in person at a conference hall in Westminster, the witnesses described in detail the deadly crackdown by authorities two years ago. Some spoke live, others via taped testimonies, with many wearing masks and sunglasses to conceal their identities for fear of reprisals by the Iranian government against family members.

Some showed photos of dead children. One woman, grasping a picture of her son with his own children, asked during the opening session Wednesday whom she could turn to without help from Iranian courts.

“I don’t know what to do and where to go,” she said. “In this world, isn’t there anyone who can hear my cries?”

Former police officer testifies

Thursday’s session featured a former Iranian police officer — identified only as “Witness 195” — who recalled intelligence agents “spraying the protesters with bullets.” Another person, “Witness 366,” showed X-rays of bullets lodged near his lungs.

The tribunal is organized by civil society groups Justice for Iran, Iran Human Rights and Ensemble Contre la Peine de Mort (Together Against the Death Penalty) and will hear evidence from more than 160 witnesses over four days but carries no legal standing.

As the tribunal proceeds, Amnesty International called Thursday for the international community to listen carefully.

“The hearings at the International People’s Tribunal on Iran’s Atrocities of November 2019 are crucial for ensuring that these atrocities do not fade into memory,” Heba Morayef, the human rights organization’s regional director for the Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement. “Crucially, the tribunal must spur U.N. member states into action.”

Raha Bahreini, an Amnesty International researcher and human rights lawyer, said during Thursday’s session that many protesters were sexually assaulted, tortured and executed by Iranian forces two years ago.

On its website, the Iran Atrocities Tribunal, also known as the Aban Tribunal, says its panelists will determine whether Iranian security forces violated international law and will identify perpetrators after proceedings wrap up November 14. Their findings will be released in early 2022.

24 more victims

Amnesty International also updated its list of people killed in the crackdown. It added 24 newly identified names to the database, which now lists 323 Iranians killed in protests across the country November 15-19, 2019.

One of these victims was Pejman Gholipour Malati, an 18-year-old shot in Tehran. His mother, Mahboubeh Ramazani, spoke at Wednesday’s tribunal via recorded video, surrounded by decorations to mark her son’s 20th birthday.

“We want justice. Hear our cries,” she said. “Tell us who killed our children. … We lost our loved ones in our own homeland.”

Ramazani’s camera panned to a neatly made bed: “My son’s empty bed that I see every day,” she said. Then black pants hanging from a door: “Clothes of Pejman I hanged here, in case he returns one day.” A red box crossed with white ribbon: “My son’s bloody clothes are in that box. They’d removed them in the hospital. There were holes in them.”
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Extreme poverty and extreme wealth are growing around the world, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris told leaders Thursday at the Paris Peace Forum.

“By virtually every measure, the gaps have grown. We face a dramatic rise in inequality, and we must meet this moment,” she said, adding that no nation could fix these challenges alone.

“We must agree that these growing gaps are unacceptable, and we must agree to work together to address them,” she added, according to Agence France-Presse.

The forum, which opened Thursday in person and virtually, brought together about 30 heads of state, along with chief executives, nongovernmental organizations and others, to discuss global issues such as climate change, the COVID-19 pandemic and digital transition.

The leaders of France, Italy, Argentina, Jordan, Morocco and other nations joined with Amazon, Google and YouTube, Meta, Microsoft, Snapchat and Twitter to call for better protection of children online. The U.S. is joining the call, made in 2018, to improve security and better regulate cyberspace, Harris announced.

Harris also will represent the United States at a summit Friday on Libya ahead of that country’s elections next month.

Earlier Thursday, French President Emmanuel Macron laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Paris to commemorate Armistice Day, while Harris observed the ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe.

The event marked the 1918 agreement between Allied powers and Germany to end their fighting in World War I. A White House official said the ceremony was an opportunity to honor the French and American soldiers who died in the conflict.

It followed a Wednesday visit by Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, to Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial outside Paris, where they took part in a wreath-laying ceremony in observance of Armistice Day and Thursday’s Veterans Day holiday in the United States.  The site honors American service members killed in both world wars and holds the remains of nearly 1,600 Americans.

Harris is visiting France as part of an effort to improve soured relations between the longtime allies.  Both she and Macron described the opportunities for cooperation and the start of a “new era” as they spoke to reporters before meeting Wednesday at Elysee Palace.

“I look forward to the next few days where we’ll continue to work together and renew the focus that we’ve always had on our partnership and the benefit to the people of France and the people of the United States and the people of the world,” Harris said.

Symone Sanders, senior adviser and chief spokesperson for Harris, said in a statement that Macron and Harris discussed cooperation on transatlantic security, space exploration and preparing for future pandemics.

Relations between France and the United States plunged in September when Australia scrapped a $65 billion deal to buy traditional submarines from France in favor of an agreement in which Australia will build nuclear subs with the help of the United States and Britain.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Agence France-Presse.
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German Finance Minister and Vice Chancellor Olaf Scholz, the presumptive leader of the next government, presented an updated financial forecast Thursday indicating increased revenues for future government projects.

At a news conference in Berlin, Scholz said that despite the COVID-19 pandemic, the recent “fourth wave” of new infections and the worldwide supply chain problems, Germany’s tax revenue over the next few years would be higher than the estimates made in May.

Scholz said the new revenue forecast showed all levels of government collecting about $205 billion more in revenue through 2025 than the earlier prediction. He credited the higher-than-expected revenue to “a robust labor market.”

Scholz’s Social Democratic Party won the most seats in September’s parliamentary elections, but because it does not control more than 50% of parliament, it is in negotiations with the third- and fourth-place finishing parties, the environmentalist Greens and pro-business Free Democrats, to form a coalition government.

When asked how the power-sharing negotiations were going, Scholz said he was optimistic.

“I see very concrete things going on, and the observations I had are that a lot of things have come together. Everything still left to discuss is not so difficult that it cannot be overcome,” he said.

Scholz said this new forecast meant the next government could “work sensibly,” though he cautioned there were still financial burdens from the pandemic.

He identified investments in mitigating climate change and upgrading Germany’s public sector computer and internet infrastructure as two of his priorities.​

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Germany’s carnival season, a series of festivals among German Catholics, began Thursday but under strict COVID-19 restrictions, because of a surge in new infections in the nation.

Costumed revelers in the western city of Cologne had to line up Thursday to show proof of their COVID-19 vaccinations before they could start the outdoor celebrations. Last year’s festivals were canceled altogether because of the coronavirus pandemic. 

The carnivals are being held despite the fact Germany is undergoing a fourth wave of COVID-19 infections, setting a record Wednesday for the number of daily infections.

And while the vaccine requirement was strictly enforced, the streets of Cologne were filled with people, side by side, without masks.

Thursday’s celebrations began with a somewhat ominous sign – designated so-called prince for the Cologne carnival, Sven Oleff, had tested positive for COVID-19 the previous day, a breakthrough case since he is fully vaccinated. The festival committee said he showed no symptoms and was feeling well.

The German celebrations – which Germans refer to as the “fifth season” – is a series of festivals celebrated originally by Catholics, primarily in Germany’s Rhineland region. They feature music, food and alcoholic beverages, and they run until Ash Wednesday in February – or the beginning of the Lenten season of fasting and reflection.
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Ukraine will deploy another 8,500 troops and police officers, and 15 helicopters, to guard its border with Belarus, aiming to prevent possible attempts by migrants to breach the frontier, the Ukrainian interior minister said on Thursday.

The European Union has accused Belarus of encouraging migrants to come to its territory then pushing thousands of them to cross into Poland and other neighboring EU states in retaliation for sanctions imposed on Minsk.

While not an EU member, Ukraine is wary of becoming another front in the migrant crisis.

Interior Minister Denys Monastyrskiy said the new forces would include 3,000 border guard servicemen, 3,500 servicemen of the National Guard and 2,000 police officers.

“Aviation [from] the interior ministry will also be on duty, in particular 15 helicopters, which will ensure mobility and, if necessary, will transfer our forces to the border,” he said.

Monastyrskiy said earlier on Thursday that Ukrainian border guards, police and the national guard would hold drills on the border with Belarus.

“In order to counter the potential crisis with migrants, we will involve all five structures of the Ministry of Internal Affairs without exception,” the minister was quoted as saying in the statement.

Monastyrskiy said the latest actions would deter migrants from entering Ukraine, but the former Soviet republic needed to radically re-equip its border with neighboring Russia and Belarus in order to avoid similar problems in the future.
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Hundreds of bots and thousands of fake accounts run by “troll farms” tried to manipulate social media debates in favor of the European Super League (ESL) after the project was announced last April, according to a study from a Spanish digital consultancy. 

The study from Pandemia Digital, which was first published by Spanish news outlet El Confidencial, said several fake Twitter accounts amplified pro-ESL and anti-UEFA content in the 72 hours following the project’s announcement. 

Twelve clubs signed up to the breakaway ESL project, only for it to unravel when all six English sides plus Inter Milan, AC Milan and Atletico Madrid withdrew, leaving Juventus, Barcelona and Real Madrid as its only remaining members. 

Unlike in the Champions League, where teams have to qualify through their domestic league, the founding Super League teams guaranteed themselves a place in the new competition every year. 

The study said that more than two million tweets were published from 272,000 accounts about the Super League in those 72 hours, the great majority against the ESL. 

However, the fake social media accounts published more than 10 tweets per second and were mostly located in Spain and Arabic countries, the study said.

One hashtag supporting Real Madrid president Florentino Perez (#EstamosContigoPresi) appeared in 18,000 tweets posted by 7,000 accounts, most of them recently created with no followers. 

The study said that there were 3,600 tweets published in a few hours with the exact same sentence: “The super league is a good idea and will revolutionize football.” 

A ‘troll farm’ is a coordinated effort to manipulate public discourse using fake accounts. A ‘bot’ is a software program that performs automated, repetitive, pre-defined tasks. 

They operate much faster than human users and are often used to gain control over a narrative in social media, creating fake trending topics. 
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Iran is facing renewed scrutiny for its deadly suppression of nationwide protests in 2019, as a London tribunal organized by rights groups began hearing testimony Wednesday from relatives of those killed and others regarding alleged crimes committed in the crackdown.  

The event known as an international people’s tribunal opened in London’s Church House conference center. Its goal is to investigate alleged Iranian atrocities, including the alleged killing by security forces of hundreds of protesters and wounding of thousands more during the November 2019 protests.  

A panel of human rights law and international relations experts from Britain, Indonesia, Libya, South Africa and the United States led the first day of the tribunal, scheduled to last until Sunday. The hearings are organized by three rights groups including London-based Justice for Iran, Oslo-based Iran Human Rights and Paris-based Together against the Death Penalty.  

In a TV interview with VOA Persian from the venue, the tribunal’s co-counsel Hamid Sabi said the panelists will hear statements from about 160 witnesses vetted by him and fellow co-counsel Regina Paulose during the five-day event.

The counsels’ role is to gather evidence from the witnesses and provide it to tribunal panelists. 

“We gave priority [to getting statements from] families whose loved ones were killed, wounded or imprisoned,” Sabi said. “We also prioritized testimony from eyewitnesses to the crackdown,” he added.  

Iran’s government sparked the nationwide demonstrations on November 15, 2019, by ordering a 50% increase in the subsidized price of gasoline, further straining the finances of Iranians facing high unemployment and inflation in a shrinking economy under heavy U.S. sanctions. Rights activists have said Iranian security forces killed hundreds of people and arrested thousands more while crushing the mostly peaceful protests, in which some people also damaged public buildings and businesses. 

In Iran’s only acknowledgement of the scale of the killings to date, then-Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli told state television in May 2020 that the death toll was around 200. 

Nahid Shirpisheh, whose 27-year-old son, Pouya Bakhtiari, was killed by a gunshot to the head while protesting in the northern city of Karaj, spoke to the panel by video from Iran. Shirpisheh said she and members of her family have been repeatedly intimidated and detained by Iranian authorities in retaliation for publicly campaigning for justice for Pouya. She said her ex-husband and Pouya’s father, Manouchehr Bakhtiari, is currently in prison for his activism.  

Iranian rights activist Masih Alinejad, host of VOA Persian’s Tablet TV program, testified in person at the tribunal. She said she also heard from sources in Iran that authorities have been harassing relatives of slain protesters, including by making them bury their loved ones in remote places.  

At the start of Monday’s hearing, the panelists said they had sent letters to 133 Iranian officials, including Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, accusing them of grave human rights violations and crimes against humanity in suppressing the 2019 protests. The letters invited the officials to present evidence in their defense but no responses were received, the panelists said.

A VOA reporter in London visited the Iranian consulate in the city’s Kensington district Tuesday, seeking comment about the tribunal. The reporter identified himself as affiliated with VOA and asked for a comment after an Iranian consulate staffer opened the door. A male staff member would not respond and escorted the reporter out.

Holly Dagres, a London-based Iran analyst for the Atlantic Council, told VOA it was notable that Iranians provided live video testimony to the tribunal from inside Iran at the risk of angering the Iranian government. 

“It demonstrates just how desperate the families of the victims are to have their voices heard, as they seek accountability and justice, that they are willing to risk their own safety, especially with the Islamic Republic actively trying to silence them,” she said.  

Amnesty International, which is based in London, was to present its latest findings about Iran’s crackdown on the November 2019 protests to the tribunal Thursday. The group’s Middle East and North Africa director, Heba Morayef, said in a statement provided to VOA Wednesday that the tribunal is a crucial step toward ending impunity for the Iranian perpetrators of the alleged atrocities.  

“Crucially, the tribunal must spur U.N. member states into action, both at the current session of the U.N. General Assembly and the next session of the U.N. Human Rights Council, to pave the way for the accountability that is so desperately needed,” Morayef said.  

Jason Brodsky, policy director for U.S. advocacy group United Against Nuclear Iran, said in a VOA interview that the international community has not taken action on the issue because it is too focused on trying to revive restraints on Iran’s nuclear program under a 2015 deal between Tehran and world powers. The United States and Iran have said they are seeking a mutual return to compliance with the deal after Washington withdrew from it in 2018 under the administration of former President Donald Trump and Iran retaliated by openly violating constraints on its nuclear activities a year later.  

“The international community spends most of its time chasing after Iranian diplomats on the nuclear deal, but it does not spend a lot of time on the stories that we heard today and that we’ll be hearing in the coming days. And that has to change,” Brodsky said, noting that Iran’s deputy foreign minister and lead nuclear negotiator Ali Bagheri Kan was scheduled to be in London on Thursday for talks with British officials.  

The administration of U.S. President Joe Biden has said it is willing to ease some U.S. sanctions on Iran in return for Tehran restoring full compliance with measures designed to prevent it from developing nuclear weapons. Tehran has denied seeking nuclear arms under cover of a civilian energy program.  

Brodsky said U.S. offers to ease sanctions on Iran, whose leaders have been accused by the tribunal of committing crimes against humanity, send a “mixed and concerning message” about Biden’s pledge to also prioritize human rights in his foreign policy.   

The U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to a VOA request for comment about whether the tribunal will influence the U.S. to tighten human rights-related sanctions on Iran.  

This article originated in VOA’s Persian Service. Click here for the original Persian version of the story. Ramin Haghjoo reported from London. Some of the information for this story came from Reuters.  
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U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris is joining French President Emmanuel Macron at a ceremony Thursday in Paris to commemorate Armistice Day. 

The ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe marks the 1918 agreement between Allied powers and Germany to end their fighting in World War I. 

It follows a Wednesday visit by Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, to Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial outside of Paris where they took part in a wreath-laying ceremony in observance of Armistice Day and Thursday’s Veterans Day holiday in the United States.  The site honors American service members killed in both world wars and holds the remains of nearly 1,600 Americans. 

Harris is visiting France as part of an effort to improve soured relations between the two longtime allies.  Both she and Macron described the opportunities for cooperation and the start of a “new era” as they spoke to reporters before meeting Wednesday at Elysee Palace.

“I look forward to the next few days where we’ll continue to work together and renew the focus that we’ve always had on our partnership and the benefit to the people of France and the people of the United States and the people of the world,” Harris said. 

Symone Sanders, senior and adviser and chief spokesperson for Harris, said in a statement that Macron and Harris discussed cooperation on transatlantic security, space exploration and preparing for future pandemics. 

Harris is set to speak Thursday at the Paris Peace Forum and represent the United States at a summit Friday on Libya ahead of that country’s elections next month.   

Relations between the France and the United States plunged to a historic low in September when Australia scrapped a $65 billion deal to buy traditional submarines from France in favor of an agreement in which Australia will build nuclear subs with the help of the United States and Britain. 
…

Ukraine’s foreign minister has held strategic security talks in Washington with the U.S. secretary of state. The meeting comes as Ukraine’s Defense Ministry reports that about 90,000 Russian troops have been positioned along their common border and in rebel-controlled parts of eastern Ukraine. VOA Senior Diplomatic Correspondent Cindy Saine reports.

Camera: VOA Ukraine Service. Contributing: Ostap Yarysh.
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The World Health Organization said in its weekly epidemiological COVID-19 update that Europe again was leading the world in percentages of new cases and deaths from the disease.

The WHO said the number of new cases in Europe rose by 7% last week and the number of deaths rose by 10%. Africa was the only other region to report an increase in new cases.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Wednesday called for an urgent meeting with state governors after the nation’s Robert Koch Institute for Infectious diseases reported a record number of COVID-19 cases for a single day.

Government spokesman Steffen Seibert told the DPA news agency the disease was “spreading dramatically” and said a “quick and unified response” was required.

Seibert said Merkel was conducting talks with ministers, regional governments and likely future coalition parties.

The European Commission, the executive branch of the European Union, acknowledged the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Europe during a Wednesday news briefing in Brussels. Spokeswoman Dana Spinant described the situation as “complex” and “rapidly changing,” adding that member states were discussing next steps to be taken.

Bulgaria seeks help

It was also announced that Bulgaria on Wednesday activated the European bloc’s civil protection mechanism, an emergency designation in which member states request assistance with disasters or other emergencies.

Bulgaria, which reported 334 COVID-19 patient deaths on Tuesday — the country’s highest daily toll since the start of the pandemic — requested oxygen devices, patient monitors and hospital beds.

In the U.S., drugmaker Pfizer on Tuesday filed a request with the Food and Drug Administration to make booster shots of its COVID-19 vaccine available to all U.S. adults 18 or older. The request cited a new clinical trial involving 10,000 volunteers who had each received a third injection of the two-dose vaccine, which it developed in collaboration with Germany-based BioNTech. Pfizer said preliminary results showed the third shot boosted a person’s protection against the virus to about 95%.

The request came weeks after the FDA and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention authorized third shots of the Pfizer vaccine for Americans 65 and older, adults at high risk of severe illness and front-line workers such as teachers, health care workers and others whose jobs place them at greater risk of contracting COVID-19.

The Pfizer booster shot is available for people regardless of whether they initially received the two-shot Moderna vaccine or the single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which offers less protection than either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines.

Some information for this report came from the Associated Press and Reuters. 
…

Authorities in Turkey say they arrested a shop owner and two employees Wednesday, one day after the collapse of a commercial building that trapped several people. The private DHA news agency reported that those arrested are suspected of having conducted unauthorized renovations. An investigation is continuing by local authorities in the city of Malatya in central Turkey.

At the time of the collapse on Tuesday, about 20 people were inside the two-story building, which housed a coffee shop and other retail businesses, according to the Associated Press.

Turkish emergency agencies said they sent 260 personnel to the site to search for people trapped under the rubble and rescue them. Local authorities said workers helped 13 people escape. They were taken to area hospitals for treatment. Others reportedly were able to find their way out on their own.

The state-run Anadolu News Agency reported Wednesday that the suspects were hospitalized for injuries sustained in the collapse. Two of them received medical treatment in intensive care but were not in critical condition, the news service reported.

DHA News reported that authorities accused the suspects of illegal changes to the building that might have resulted in its structural failure.

A survivor told Anadolu that a wall fell on him but he was able to escape with two friends.

According to Sky News, the building was on a busy street in Malatya, a city of 450,000 about 500 kilometers east of Ankara. The incident reportedly occurred shortly before 5 p.m. Tuesday, while people were shopping on their way home from work.

Emergency service agencies concluded their operations late Tuesday after determining that no one remained under the building debris, Anadolu reported.

Workers have begun using excavators to clear the site.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Sky News 
…

The European Union’s General Court has rejected Google’s appeal of a $2.8 billion European Commission fine for giving its own shopping suggestions an illegal advantage in search results.

The commission fined the American technology giant in 2017 for wrongfully directing visitors to its Google Shopping service at the expense of smaller European competitors.

The General Court ruled that it “largely dismisses” Google’s appeal and is upholding the fine after “finding that Google abused its dominant position by favoring its own comparison-shopping service over competing” services.

Google, which is also appealing two other EU antitrust penalties totaling $9.5 billion, said in a statement it amended its practices in 2017 to comply with the European Commission’s decision.

“Our approach has worked successfully for more than three years, generating billions of clicks for more than 700 comparison shopping services,” the statement said.

Earlier this year, the commission launched antitrust probes into whether Google and Facebook are suppressing competition in the classified and digital advertising sectors. The commission is also investigating Apple over payments and Amazon, another U.S. tech giant, over concerns it is unfairly competing with independent retailers on its platform with its own products.

Google said it has not decided whether to appeal Wednesday’s ruling in the European Court of Justice, the EU’s highest court.

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

The International Space Station will perform a brief maneuver on Wednesday to dodge a fragment of a defunct Chinese satellite, Russian space agency Roscosmos said.

The station crewed by seven astronauts will climb 1,240 meters higher to avoid a close encounter with the fragment and will settle in an orbit 470.7 km (292 miles) above the Earth, Roscosmos said. It did not say how large the debris was.

“In order to dodge the ‘space junk’, (mission control) specialists … have calculated how to correct the orbit of the International Space Station,” the agency’s statement said.

The station will rely on the engines of the Progress space truck that is docked to it to carry out the move.

An ever-swelling amount of space debris is threatening satellites hovering around Earth, making insurers leery of offering coverage to the devices that transmit texts, maps, videos and scientific data.

The document reaffirms the goals set in Paris in 2015 of limiting warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, with a more stringent target of trying to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) preferred because that would keep damage from climate change “much lower.”

Highlighting the challenge of meeting those goals, the document “expresses alarm and concern that human activities have caused around 1.1 C (2 F) of global warming to date and that impacts are already being felt in every region.”

Small island nations, which are particularly vulnerable to warming, worry that too little is being done to stop warming at the 1.5-degree goal — and that allowing temperature increases up to 2 degrees would be catastrophic for their countries.

“For Pacific (small island states), climate change is the greatest, single greatest threat to our livelihood, security and wellbeing. We do not need more scientific evidence nor targets without plans to reach them or talking shops,” Marshall Islands Health and Human Services minister told fellow negotiators Wednesday. “The 1.5 limit is not negotiable.”

Separate draft proposals were also released on other issues being debated at the talks, including rules for international carbon markets and the frequency by which countries have to report on their efforts.

The draft calls on nations that don’t have national goals that would fit with the 1.5- or 2-degree limits to come back with stronger targets next year. Depending on how the language is interpreted, the provision could apply to most countries. Analysts at the World Resources Institute counted that element as a win for vulnerable countries.

“This is crucial language,” WRI International Climate Initiative Director David Waskow said Wednesday. “Countries really are expected and are on the hook to do something in that timeframe to adjust.”

Greenpeace’s Morgan said it would have been even better to set a requirement for new goals every year.

In a nod to one of the big issues for poorer countries, the draft vaguely “urges” developed nations to compensate developing countries for “loss and damage,” a phrase that some rich nations don’t like. But there are no concrete financial commitments.

“This is often the most difficult moment,” Achim Steiner, the head of the U.N. Development Program and former chief of the U.N.’s environment office, said of the state of the two-week talks.

“The first week is over, you suddenly recognize that there are a number of fundamentally different issues that are not easily resolvable. The clock is ticking,” he told The Associated Press.
…

Governments are poised to express “alarm and concern” about how much Earth has already warmed and encourage one another to end their use of coal, according to a draft released Wednesday of the final document expected at U.N. climate talks.

The early version of the document circulating at the negotiations in Glasgow, Scotland, also impresses on countries the need to cut carbon dioxide emissions by about half by 2030 — even though pledges so far from governments don’t add up to that frequently stated goal.

In a significant move, countries would urge one another to “accelerate the phasing out of coal and subsidies for fossil fuels” in the draft, though it has no explicit reference to ending the use of oil and gas. There has been a big push among developed nations to shut down coal-fired power plants, which are a major source of heat-trapping gases, but the fuel remains a critical and cheap source of electricity for countries like China and India.

While the language about moving away from coal is a first and important, the lack of a date when countries will do so limits the pledge’s effectiveness, said Greenpeace International Director Jennifer Morgan, a long-time climate talks observer.

“This isn’t the plan to solve the climate emergency. This won’t give the kids on the streets the confidence that they’ll need,” Morgan said.

The draft doesn’t yet include full agreements on the three major goals that the U.N. set going into the negotiations — and may disappoint poorer nations because of a lack of solid financial commitments from richer ones. The goals are: for rich nations to give poorer ones $100 billion a year in climate aid, to ensure that half of that money goes to adapting to worsening global warming, and the pledge to slash emissions that is mentioned.

The draft does provide insight, however, into the issues that need to be resolved in the last few days of the conference, which is scheduled to end Friday but may push past that deadline. Still, a lot of negotiating and decision-making is yet to come since whatever emerges from the meetings has to be unanimously approved by the nearly 200 nations attending.

The draft says the world should try to achieve “net-zero (emissions) around mid-century.” That means requiring countries to pump only as much greenhouse gas into the atmosphere as can be absorbed again through natural or artificial means.

It also acknowledges “with regret” that rich nations have failed to live up to the climate aid pledge.

Poorer nations, which need financial help both in developing green energy systems and adapting to the worst of climate change, are angry that the promised aid hasn’t materialized.

“Without financial support little can be done to minimize its debilitating effects for vulnerable communities around the world,” Mohammed Nasheed, the Maldives’ parliamentary speaker and the ambassador for a group of dozens of countries most vulnerable to climate change, said in a statement.

He said the draft fails on key issues, including the financial aid and strong emission cuts.

“There’s much more that needs to be done on climate finance to give developing countries what they need coming out of here,” said Alden Meyer, a long-time conference observer, of the European think-tank E3G.

The document reaffirms the goals set in Paris in 2015 of limiting warming to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times, with a more stringent target of trying to keep warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) preferred because that would keep damage from climate change “much lower.”

Highlighting the challenge of meeting those goals, the document “expresses alarm and concern that human activities have caused around 1.1 C (2 F) of global warming to date and that impacts are already being felt in every region.”

Small island nations, which are particularly vulnerable to warming, worry that too little is being done to stop warming at the 1.5-degree goal — and that allowing temperature increases up to 2 degrees would be catastrophic for their countries.

“For Pacific (small island states), climate change is the greatest, single greatest threat to our livelihood, security and wellbeing. We do not need more scientific evidence nor targets without plans to reach them or talking shops,” Marshall Islands Health and Human Services minister told fellow negotiators Wednesday. “The 1.5 limit is not negotiable.”

Separate draft proposals were also released on other issues being debated at the talks, including rules for international carbon markets and the frequency by which countries have to report on their efforts.

The draft calls on nations that don’t have national goals that would fit with the 1.5- or 2-degree limits to come back with stronger targets next year. Depending on how the language is interpreted, the provision could apply to most countries. Analysts at the World Resources Institute counted that element as a win for vulnerable countries.

“This is crucial language,” WRI International Climate Initiative Director David Waskow said Wednesday. “Countries really are expected and are on the hook to do something in that timeframe to adjust.”

Greenpeace’s Morgan said it would have been even better to set a requirement for new goals every year.

In a nod to one of the big issues for poorer countries, the draft vaguely “urges” developed nations to compensate developing countries for “loss and damage,” a phrase that some rich nations don’t like. But there are no concrete financial commitments.

“This is often the most difficult moment,” Achim Steiner, the head of the U.N. Development Program and former chief of the U.N.’s environment office, said of the state of the two-week talks.

“The first week is over, you suddenly recognize that there are a number of fundamentally different issues that are not easily resolvable. The clock is ticking,” he told The Associated Press.
…

Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai, who was shot by the Pakistani Taliban for campaigning for girls’ education, got married on Tuesday in a small ceremony in Birmingham, central England, she announced on social media.

“Today marks a precious day in my life. Asser (Malik) and I tied the knot to be partners for life,” she wrote on Twitter, where she also posted images of herself and her new husband on their wedding day.

“We celebrated a small nikkah ceremony at home in Birmingham with our families. Please send us your prayers. We are excited to walk together for the journey ahead,” she added.

A nikkah ceremony is the first step in an Islamic marriage.

When she was 15, Yousafzai was shot in the head by militants from the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan, an offshoot of the Afghan Taliban, in her home town in the Swat valley while on a school bus in 2012.

She recovered after months of treatment at home and abroad before co-writing a best-selling memoir titled “I am Malala.”

Yousafzai was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize as a 17-year-old in 2014, sharing the award with Kailash Satyarthi, a children’s rights activist from India.

She graduated last year from the University of Oxford with a degree in philosophy, politics and economics.

Now 24 years old, she advocates for girls’ education, with her non-profit Malala Fund having invested $2 million in Afghanistan.

She has also signed a deal with Apple TV+ that will see her produce dramas and documentaries that focus on women and children. 
…

French President Emmanuel Macron is set to host U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris for talks Wednesday at Elysee Palace with an agenda that includes climate change, the economy, global health and supply chain issues. 

A senior U.S. administration official told reporters Tuesday that the bilateral meeting is important because the U.S. relationship with France is a global one, and that France and other European allies are key to the future of the United States. 

In addition to meeting with Macron, Harris and her husband, Doug Emhoff, are taking part in a wreath laying Wednesday at Suresnes American Cemetery and Memorial outside of Paris to mark the U.S. Veterans Day holiday and Armistice Day, which commemorates the end of World War I. The site honors American service members killed in both world wars and holds the remains of nearly 1,600 Americans. 

Harris and Macron will take part in a further Armistice Day ceremony as it is observed on Thursday. 

The U.S. vice president’s trip to France is the latest step in a push to improve soured relations with the country’s oldest ally. 

Relations between the two countries plunged to a historic low in September when Australia scrapped a $65 billion deal to buy traditional submarines from France in favor of an agreement in which Australia will build nuclear subs with the help of the United States and Britain.    

U.S. President Joe Biden told Macron in Rome last month the United States had been “clumsy” in its handling of the matter.    

Harris will also represent the Biden administration Thursday at the Paris Peace Forum and at a summit Friday on Libya ahead of that country’s elections next month.    

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

Turkey is being accused by Kurdish security forces of carrying out a drone attack Tuesday in northeastern Syria that killed three civilians in a car. 

The strike took place in Qamishli, a city on the Syria-Turkey border that is controlled by the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).

The three victims were from the same family, according to a statement by SDF’s internal security forces, which also said the attack was “carried out by a Turkish drone.” 

Turkey has not commented on the incident, but Kurdish forces say the Turkish military has increased targeted drone operations in northeastern Syria in recent months. 

Turkey views the SDF and its main component, the People’s Protection Units (YPG), as an extension of the Turkey-based Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a militant group labeled as terrorist by Washington and Ankara. 

The United States, on the other hand, distinguishes between the two Kurdish groups. In the war against Islamic State, the SDF has been a key U.S. ally. 

The reason for the strike on the civilian vehicle in Qamishli is unknown, although local sources claim the victims were tied to a high-ranking YPG commander. 

Following a massive military assault against SDF members, Turkish military and allied Syrian militias have been in control of sections of northeastern Syria since October 2019. 

Tensions between the SDF and Turkish-backed forces have increased in recent weeks. Turkish officials have also hinted at a potential push into Kurdish-controlled territory in northeastern Syria. 

This story originated in VOA’s Kurdish service. 

 
…

Poland has warned of a possible armed escalation on its border with Belarus. Europe accuses Belarus of directing the migrants towards the border as part of a campaign of ‘hybrid warfare’. Henry Ridgwell reports from London. Producer: Henry Ridgwell, Barry Unger
…

As France approaches an election in which questions over the country’s image of itself are being raised, hunting has come under the spotlight. As the nation’s third most popular pastime, growing debate over the practice raises the issue of French tradition versus modernity. Jacob Russell reports for VOA from Charente-Maritime.
…

U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris began a four-day visit to France Tuesday aimed at improving soured relations with America’s oldest ally.

Relations between the two countries plunged to a historic low in September when Australia scrapped a $65 billion deal to buy traditional submarines from France in favor of an agreement in which Australia will build nuclear subs with the help of the United States and Britain.

Harris will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron after U.S. President Joe Biden told Macron in Rome last month the U.S. had been “clumsy” in its handling of the matter.

Harris will first visit the renowned Institut Pasteur to underscore what U.S. officials said were longstanding scientific exchanges between the U.S. and France. She will meet with French and American scientists working to combat COVID-19 globally. Her late mother, a scientist, conducted breast cancer research in the 1980s with the institute’s scientists.

Minutes after her arrival in Paris, Harris said, “It is good to be in France” and added “I’m looking forward to many, many days of productive discussion to strengthen our relationship.”

On Thursday, she’ll visit the Suresnes American Cemetery for an Armistice Day ceremony marking the end of World War I.

Harris will also represent the Biden administration Thursday at the Paris Peace Forum and at a summit Friday on Libya ahead of that country’s elections next month.

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

 
…

Poland and Belarus traded accusations Tuesday as a group of migrants remained on the Belarus side of the border between the two countries. 

Poland says the migrants, mostly from the Middle East, are being encouraged to push their way into European Union member Poland by the government of Belarus’ President Alexander Lukashenko. 

Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki wrote on Twitter that it is in Poland’s interest to seal its border, and that with Belarus’ actions “the stability and security of the entire EU is at stake.” 

Belarus denies the accusations, with its defense ministry saying in a statement Tuesday they are “unfounded and unsubstantiated.” 

The Belarussian foreign ministry, in its own statement, further warned Poland “against the use of any provocations.” 

Tensions were heavy along the border Monday, but Polish police said Tuesday the situation overnight was calm. Polish authorities shut an official border crossing in the area and shared a video showing a group of migrants with tents and campfires on the Belarus side. 

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