Author: Mirits

OSLO, NORWAY — Norway is introducing temporary border checks on its frontiers with other Western European nations after the domestic security agency raised the terror threat level, police said Saturday. The checks will apply until October 22, according to a police statement. It cited “a challenging threat picture” and the October 8 announcement by the security agency PST that it was increasing Norway’s threat level from “moderate” to “high,” the second-highest level on a five-tier scale. PST pointed to an increased threat to Jewish and Israeli targets in particular. Norway isn’t a member of the European Union, but the country is part of the European ID-check free-travel zone known as the Schengen area. It has land borders with EU and Schengen members Sweden and Finland. The border-free Schengen area guarantees free movement to more than 425 million EU citizens, along with non-EU nationals living in the EU or visiting the EU as tourists, as exchange students or for business purposes. That free movement of people is said to enable EU citizens to travel, work and live in an EU country without special formalities. The Schengen area encompasses most EU countries, with the exceptions of Cyprus and Ireland. Bulgaria and Romania are the newest countries to join the Schengen area, as of March 2024, meaning any person crossing the internal air and sea borders will no longer be subject to checks. Norway police said that the new temporary controls won’t involve all travelers being checked, and that there’s no reason to expect delays at border crossings. …

Kyiv, Ukraine — Russia said on Saturday it had downed 47 Ukrainian drones while Kyiv reported neutralized 24 drones fired by Moscow. The Ukrainian air force said many missiles were fired from the Russian border region of Belgorod, without specifying the number or the type. It said Russia had fired 28 drones at Ukraine, of which 24 were destroyed in the Sumy, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk, Mikolayev and Kherson regions. The Ukrainian chief of staff also said Kyiv’s forces had struck a fuel depot overnight in the eastern Russian-occupied Lugansk region, setting it on fire. It did not give any details. Moscow did not confirm the attack. But the Russian defense ministry said its forces had downed 47 Ukrainian drones overnight, including 17 in the southeastern Krasnodar region, 16 over the Azov Sea and 12 over the border region of Lursk. The Krasnodar governor said on Telegram that Ukrainian drone attacks had damaged three homes and set a vehicle on fire. Russian forces have made advances across the eastern front line and targeted Ukraine’s power grid as the country faces its toughest winter since the full-scale Russian invasion started in February 2022. …

NEW ORLEANS — On the eve of World War II, Nazis in Austria seized a pastel by renowned impressionist artist Claude Monet, selling it off and sparking a family’s decadeslong search that culminated Wednesday in New Orleans. At an FBI field office, agents lifted a blue veil covering the Monet pastel and presented Adalbert Parlagi’s granddaughters with the artwork over 80 years after it was taken from their family. Helen Lowe said she felt that her grandfather would be watching and that he would be “so, so proud of this moment.” Monet’s 1865 Bord de Mer depicts rocks along the shoreline of the Normandy coast, where Allied forces stormed the beaches of Nazi-occupied France during D-Day in 1944, marking a turning point in the war. The Monet pastel is one of 20,000 items recovered by the FBI Art Crime Team out of an estimated 600,000 artworks and millions of books and religious objects stolen by the Nazis. “The theft was not random or incidental, but an integral part of the Nazis’ plan to eliminate all vestiges of Jewish life in Germany and Europe, root and branch,” U.S. State Department Holocaust adviser Stuart E. Eizenstat said in a March speech. After Nazi Germany annexed Austria in 1938, Adalbert Parlagi, a successful businessman and art lover, and his wife, Hilda, left behind almost everything they owned and fled Vienna, using British license plates to drive across the border, their granddaughters said. Though the Parlagis hadn’t identified as Jewish for years and baptized their children as Protestants, they were still considered Jewish under Nazi laws, according to Austrian government records. Other relatives were killed in concentration camps. The Parlagis attempted to ship their valuable carpets, porcelain and artworks out of Vienna to London, but found out later that their property had been seized and auctioned off by the Gestapo to support the Third Reich. Multiple international declarations decried trading in Nazi-looted art, beginning with Allied forces in London in 1943. The 1998 Washington principles, signed by more than three dozen countries, reiterated the call and advocated for the return of stolen art. Yet Adalbert Parlagi’s efforts were stonewalled by the Vienna auctioneer who had bought and sold the Monet pastel and another artwork owned by Parlagi. The records were lost after the fighting in Vienna, the auctioneer told Adalbert in a letter shortly after World War II, according to an English translation of a … “Nazi-looted Monet artwork returned to family generations later” →

new york — Russian dissident Alexey Navalny, who was President Vladimir Putin’s top political opponent before his death in February, believed he would die in prison, according to his posthumous memoir, which will be released October 22. The New Yorker published excerpts from the book Friday, featuring writing from Navalny’s prison diary and earlier. “I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here,” he wrote on March 22, 2022. “There will not be anybody to say goodbye to … All anniversaries will be celebrated without me. I’ll never see my grandchildren.” Navalny had been serving a 19-year prison sentence on “extremism” charges in an Arctic penal colony. His death on February 16 at age 47 drew widespread condemnation, with many blaming Putin. Navalny was arrested in January 2021 upon returning to Russia after suffering a major health emergency from being poisoned in 2020. “The only thing we should fear is that we will surrender our homeland to be plundered by a gang of liars, thieves, and hypocrites,” he wrote on January 17, 2022. The excerpts capture the loneliness of imprisonment, but also a touch of humor. For instance, on July 1, 2022, Navalny outlined his typical day: wake up at 6 a.m., breakfast at 6:20 a.m. and start work at 6:40 a.m. “At work, you sit for seven hours at the sewing machine on a stool below knee height,” he wrote. “After work, you continue to sit for a few hours on a wooden bench under a portrait of Putin. This is called ‘disciplinary activity.’” The book, entitled Patriot, will be released by U.S. publisher Knopf, which is also planning a Russian version. “It’s impossible to read Navalny’s prison diary without being outraged by the tragedy of his suffering, and by his death,” wrote New Yorker editor David Remnick. In the last excerpt published in the magazine, dated January 17, 2024, Navalny responds to the question asked to him by his fellow inmates and prison guards: Why did he return to Russia? “I don’t want to give up my country or betray it. If your convictions mean something, you must be prepared to stand up for them and make sacrifices if necessary,” he said.  …

london — The U.K. government was urged Friday to raise the case of jailed pro-democracy media tycoon Jimmy Lai with China, after reports that David Lammy, the foreign minister, is heading to Beijing.  Lai, 76, is the founder of the now-shuttered popular Chinese-language tabloid Apple Daily, which supported mass pro-democracy protests in the economic hub.  Detained in 2020, he is awaiting trial on charges including colluding with foreign forces and sedition.  In London, his legal team said they hoped Lammy would put Lai’s case “front and center” during his visit, which has not been confirmed by his department.  Lawyer Caoilfhionn Gallagher told reporters it had been “made crystal clear to the U.K.” government that if it is looking to reset relations with China, it needed to use the case “as leverage to ensure that Jimmy Lai is released.”   At a Reporters Without Borders (RSF) event in London, Lai’s son Sebastien said his father, who holds British citizenship, was in deteriorating health after being in prolonged solitary confinement for nearly four years.  “His health could get much worse at any time,” he added.  Lai’s delayed trial began in December 2023, and he is due to testify for the first time on November 20.   “The [U.K.] government does need to stand behind him – much stronger than they even have before,” said Sebastien Lai.  Give priority to it  Both the legal team and Sebastien have met U.K. foreign ministry officials, but Gallagher said they were disappointed that neither Lammy nor British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had yet met Lai’s son.  “If this is a top-priority case for the U.K. government, why is Sebastien not being met by the foreign secretary directly?” asked Gallagher.  “Why is Sebastien not being met by the prime minister directly?”  Gallagher works for the law firm Doughty Street Chambers, where Starmer made his name as a human rights lawyer before entering politics.   The U.K. Foreign Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO) in response said Lammy had raised Lai’s case when he met his Chinese counterpart in July.  “British national Jimmy Lai’s case is a priority for the U.K. government,” an FCDO spokesperson added. “We continue to call on the Hong Kong authorities to end their politically motivated prosecution and immediately release Jimmy Lai.”  Lai denies the charges, which were brought under sweeping national security laws meant to quell dissent in the former British colony, which was returned to … “UK government is urged to raise pro-democracy tycoon’s case with China “ →

STOCKHOLM — Meta Platforms said on Friday that it had removed a network of group accounts targeting Russian speakers in Moldova ahead of the country’s October 20 election, for violation of the company’s policy on fake accounts. Authorities in Moldova, an ex-Soviet state lying between Romania and Ukraine, said they had blocked dozens of Telegram channels and chat bots linked to a drive to pay voters to cast “no” ballots in a referendum on European Union membership held alongside the presidential election. Pro-European President Maia Sandu is seeking a second term in the election and called the referendum on joining the 27-member bloc as the cornerstone of her policies. The fake Meta accounts posted criticism of Sandu, pro-EU politicians and close ties between Moldova and Romania, and supported pro-Russia parties in Moldova, the company said. The company said its operation centered on about a dozen fictitious, Russian-language news brands posing as independent entities with presence on multiple internet services, including Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram, as well as Telegram, OK.ru and TikTok. Meta said it removed seven Facebook accounts, 23 pages, one group and 20 accounts on Instagram for violating its “coordinated inauthentic behavior policy.” About 4,200 accounts followed one or more of the 23 pages and about 335,000 accounts followed one or more of the Instagram accounts, Meta said. In Chisinau, the National Investigation Inspectorate said it had blocked 15 channels of the popular Telegram messaging app and 95 chat bots offering voters money. Users were told the channels “violated local laws” on political party financing. It had traced the accounts to supporters of fugitive businessman Ilan Shor — members of the banned party bearing his name or the “Victory” electoral bloc he had set up in its place from his base of exile in Moscow. Moldovan police said on Thursday that they searched homes of leaders linked to Shor as part of a criminal investigation into election-meddling. Police have said tens of thousands of voters were paid off via accounts in a Russian bank to derail the vote. Shor was sentenced to 15 years in jail in absentia last year in connection with the 2014 disappearance of $1 billion from Moldovan banks. He denies allegations of trying to bribe voters. Sandu accuses Moscow of trying to topple her government while Moscow has accused her of fomenting “Russophobia.” …

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paris — Scientist Jim Wild has traveled to the Arctic Circle numerous times to study the northern lights, but Thursday night he needed only to look out of his bedroom window in Lancaster, England. For at least the second time this year, sky-gazers in many parts of the world were treated to colorful auroras at latitudes beyond the polar extremes where they normally light up the skies.  The dazzling celestial shows were caused by a gigantic ball of plasma — and an accompanying magnetic field — that erupted from the sun earlier this week.  When this eruption, called a coronal mass ejection (CME), arrived at Earth about 1600 GMT on Thursday, it triggered a strong geomagnetic storm.   This storm in turn sparked northern and southern lights — aurora borealis and aurora australis — in swaths of Europe, the United States, Australia and elsewhere.   While Wild could see the shimmering reds and greens from his back garden, he jumped in the car with his family to get a better look away from the bright lights of Lancaster.  “All the little backroads and parking spots were full of people with flasks of coffee and deck chairs looking at the northern lights,” he told AFP.  “It was a party atmosphere,” he said, comparing the scenes to UFO spotters looking up at the sky in the movie “Close Encounters of the Third Kind.”  While Wild was explaining the phenomenon to his 11- and 13-year-old children, another nearby sky-gazer approached and asked how come he knew so much about it.  “Well, actually, this is what I study for a living,” responded the professor in space physics at Lancaster University, who specializes in how solar weather disrupts power grids and transport here on Earth.   Perfect hit  Auroras were also visible across northern Europe, including near London and Berlin, and as far south in the U.S. as the state of Georgia. In the Southern Hemisphere, areas of Australia and New Zealand were also treated to a show, AFP photos showed.  The CME that triggered Thursday’s auroras erupted from a spot on the sun pointed directly at Earth, said Juha-Pekka Luntama, the head of the European Space Agency’s Space Weather Office.  “It was a perfect hit,” he told AFP.  The CME caused a “severe” geomagnetic storm given a rating of G4. This fell narrowly short of the highest level of G5, which was seen in May, … “Sky-gazers treated to another aurora show “ →

ASHGABAT, Turkmenistan — Russian President Vladimir Putin met Iran’s president Friday, at a time when Tehran is supplying weapons for Moscow’s war in Ukraine and concerns are growing over escalating attacks between Israel and Iran and its militant allies. Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian discussed the situation in the Middle East on the sidelines of an international forum in the Turkmen capital, Ashgabat, Russian state media said. Moscow and Tehran signed a $1.7 billion deal for Iran to export drones to Russia after Putin invaded Ukraine in 2022, and the U.S. also believes it has transferred short-range ballistic missiles. Both countries were accused this week by Ken McCallum, the head of Britain’s domestic intelligence agency MI5, of carrying out a “staggering” rise in attempts at assassination, sabotage and other crimes on U.K. soil. McCallum said his agents and police have tackled 20 “potentially lethal” plots backed by Iran since 2022 and warned that it could expand its targets in the U.K. if conflicts in the Middle East deepen. During the two presidents’ meeting, Putin told Pezeshkian that Moscow and Tehran’s positions on international events are often very close, according to Russian state news agency Tass. He also invited the Iranian leader to visit Russia and Pezeshkian accepted, Tass said. “We have many opportunities now, and we must help each other in our relationships. Our principles, our positions in the international arena are similar to yours,” Pezeshkian said at the start of his meeting with Putin. Pezeshkian said that Israel’s “savage attacks,” on Lebanon are “beyond description.” The Israeli military sent ground troops into southern Lebanon and is carrying out airstrikes in the country against Iran-backed Hezbollah fighters. Speaking Friday as the forum opened, Putin said he wants to create a “new world order” of Moscow’s allies to counter the West, according to video provided by the Kremlin. The conference is being attended by other regional leaders including Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari and the heads of the other Central Asian nations, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan. Putin is also expected to hold talks with Turkmen President Serdar Berdymukhamedov. Berdymukhamedov was elected in March 2022 to succeed his father, Gurbanguly, who had run the gas-rich country since 2006. Turkmenistan has remained largely isolated under autocratic rulers since it became independent following the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. …

washington — A media watchdog group’s report is prompting renewed scrutiny of the role Serbia is playing in the dissemination of Russian propaganda in the Balkans, particularly as it concerns Moscow’s war on Ukraine.  “Thanks to the Serbian government’s grip on the media and favorable political environment, RT — formerly Russia Today — uses its Belgrade office to adapt the Kremlin’s narratives before disseminating them across southeastern Europe,” said the report from Reporters Without Borders (RSF), which was updated early this week.  The Paris-based watchdog group added that it “calls on the European Union (EU) and its member states to hold Serbia accountable for hosting [Russian President] Vladimir Putin’s factory of lies.”  The EU’s response was not long in coming. On Tuesday, EU spokesperson for external affairs Peter Stano called on Serbia to take urgent measures to counter Russian media manipulation and interference.   “The European Union has adopted sanctions against Russian state-owned media, including RT,” Stano told Agence France-Presse, adding that those outlets have become an instrument of Russia’s war against Ukraine and “a channel for the dissemination and manipulation of information.”  A day earlier, Pavol Szalai, head of the Europe and Balkans desk at RSF, told AFP that the Serbian government was allowing the country, an EU candidate nation, to be used as “an amplifier and translator of Kremlin propaganda in the Balkans.”  In a post on X, Arno Guyon, who heads the Serbian government’s Office for Public and Cultural Diplomacy, responded to the comments by the EU’s Stano and RSF’s Szalai, calling them “very worrying.”  “It reminds of the period of communism during which censorship was applied in Yugoslavia in the name of fighting against ‘harmful or undesirable ideas.’ It contradicts the values of pluralism, tolerance and freedom of speech, which the Serbs believe in and for which numerous Serbian intellectuals who were imprisoned and killed because of it fought.”  Asked by VOA’s Serbian Service about the accusations concerning the Serbian government’s alleged role in disseminating Russian disinformation, the U.S. State Department responded:   “Media manipulation and interference poses significant risks to democratic processes and societal stability in Serbia and the Western Balkans. The Department of State’s Global Engagement Center previously warned  that the Kremlin’s state-funded and state-directed media outlets RT and Sputnik are critical elements in Russia’s disinformation and propaganda ecosystem.”    The State Department added that it would continue its cooperation with Serbian partners in responding … “Report focuses attention on Serbia’s spread of Russian propaganda” →

zurich — Two months before FIFA is set to confirm Saudi Arabia as the 2034 World Cup host, the soccer body was urged again Friday to allow independent scrutiny of the kingdom’s human rights obligations for the tournament. A group of law and human rights experts plus Saudi activists abroad want FIFA to mandate ongoing reviews — and a potential termination clause — into the 2034 World Cup hosting contract. The advisers who came to Zurich on Friday want FIFA president Gianni Infantino, who is closely tied to Saudi political and soccer leaders, to learn from how Qatar was picked to host the 2022 World Cup. Qatar won in 2010 with little thought from FIFA’s then-leaders about legal safeguards and reputational challenges. Saudi Arabia, like Qatar, is a traditionally conservative society and needs a huge construction project relying on migrant workers to build stadiums and other infrastructure for global soccer’s biggest event. “There are really no excuses now,” British lawyer Rodney Dixon told The Associated Press. “If it means that they therefore have to come to a different kind of agreement in December, that is what they should do.” World Cup hosting contracts will be signed after the Dec. 11 decision by more than 200 FIFA member federations at an online meeting. Saudi Arabia is the only candidate for 2034. Promising not to be confrontational with FIFA, Dixon said: “We are not naive. It is not FIFA’s role to change the world. They are not the UN.” The briefing in FIFA’s home city came two days after the UN General Assembly in New York rejected a Saudi bid to get a seat on the 47-nation Human Rights Council for the next three years. On Friday, the would-be FIFA advisers cited Saudi Arabia’s record on freedom of speech and assembly, and laws on labor and male guardianship that limit women’s freedoms. After Infantino was first elected in 2016, when scrutiny was intense on Qatar and its treatment of migrant workers, FIFA demanded a human rights strategy from future World Cup hosts. Bid rules for the 2030 and 2034 men’s tournaments refer to “activities in connection with the bidding for and hosting” rather than rights in wider society. In May, FIFA got an offer from the law and human rights experts to create an independent process for monitoring progress in Saudi Arabia. Swiss law professor Mark Pieth, an anti-corruption advisor to FIFA from … “FIFA urged to put more human rights scrutiny into 2034 World Cup deal with Saudi Arabia” →

STOCKHOLM — Japanese organization Nihon Hidankyo, a grassroots movement of atomic bomb survivors from Hiroshima and Nagasaki who are also known as Hibakusha, won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday.   Below are some facts about the background and efforts of the movement.   Atomic bombing of Japan    In 1945 the United States dropped two atomic bombs on Japan to bring an end to World War II and avoid a hugely costly invasion of the Japanese home islands.   The two bombs killed an estimated 120,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, while many thousands more died of burns and radiation injuries in the following years. The two atomic bombs remain the only nuclear weapons used in war.   Local associations     The fates of those who survived the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings were long concealed and neglected, especially in the initial years after the end of the war.   Local Hibakusha associations, along with victims of nuclear weapons tests in the Pacific, formed the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organisations in 1956.    The organisation, whose name was shortened in Japanese to Nihon Hidankyo, would become the largest and most influential Hibakusha organisation in Japan.    Witness accounts   Through the years, Nihon Hidankyo has provided thousands of witness accounts relating the experience of the nuclear bombs. It has issued resolutions and public appeals, and sent annual delegations to bodies such as the United Nations and peace conferences to advocate nuclear disarmament.    The movement has helped drive global opposition to nuclear weapons through the force of the survivors’ testimonies while also creating educational campaigns and issuing stark warnings about the spread and use of nuclear arms.   Future   With each passing year, the number of survivors from the two nuclear blasts in Japan nearly 80 years ago grows smaller.   But the grassroots movement has played a part creating a culture of remembrance, allowing for new generations of Japanese to carry on the work.   Source: The Norwegian Nobel Committee       …

kyiv, Ukraine — A Russian missile slammed into a commercial building in Ukraine’s southern Odesa region overnight, killing four people including a 16-year-old girl, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Friday. It was the fourth Russian attack on the Black Sea port of Odesa and the nearby region in the last five days. Kiper said a day of mourning had been announced for Friday in the region to remember people killed in a Russian drone attack on October 9. “In two days Russian terrorists killed 13 civilian people in the Odesa region and most of them are youth,” Kiper said on the Telegram messaging app. The ability to maintain exports through the Black Sea ports is vital for the Ukrainian economy which has been hit hard by Russia’s war in Ukraine. The Prosecutor General’s office said Russian forces had struck civilian infrastructure with a ballistic Iskander missile at about 22:35 (19:35 GMT) on Thursday night. A two-story commercial building hosting food production facilities where civilians worked was hit and 10 more people were wounded, officials said. Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said the Russian attacks targeted civilian infrastructure and strived to create impossible living conditions for millions of Ukrainians. The Ukrainian air force said it had shot down 29 out of 66 Russian drones launched at Ukraine overnight. Moscow also fired two missiles, it said, and 31 drones were “locationally lost,” an apparent reference to electronic warfare, while two drones returned towards Russian territory. Zelenskyy meets foreign leaders The new wave of strikes on Ukrainian Black Sea ports has coincided with visits by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy this week to meet leaders in London, Paris, Rome and Berlin to discuss his proposed “victory plan.” There was no immediate comment from Moscow on the strike on Odesa. Russia, which invaded in February 2022, denies targeting civilians. It says it targets only military infrastructure and other military targets although towns and cities across Ukraine have been struck repeatedly. A Russian missile hit a Palau-flagged vessel in Odesa port Monday, while on Sunday, another Russian missile damaged a civilian Saint Kitts and Nevis-flagged vessel loaded with corn in the port of Pivdennyi. Ukrainian officials said Russia had carried out almost 60 attacks on ports over the past three months, resulting in the damage and destruction of almost 300 port infrastructure facilities, 177 vehicles and 22 civilian vessels. “They are trying from all sides to suppress our … “Russian strikes on Ukraine’s Odesa region kill 4, governor says” →

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ROME — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was city-hopping across Europe on Thursday to promote a “victory plan” that he said “aims to create the right conditions for a just end to the war” against Russia, detailing the proposals to European allies after a summit with President Joe Biden was derailed by Hurricane Milton. Zelenskyy’s talks in London with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte were quickly followed by another meeting in Paris with French President Emmanuel Macron, who just the previous day sent a strong signal of support for Ukraine by visiting Ukrainian troops being trained in France. Zelenskyy posted on X that he “outlined the details” of the Ukrainian victory plan to Starmer and added: “We have agreed to work on it together with our allies.” Starmer’s Downing Street office said the leaders discussed the blueprint, the challenges for Ukraine of the approaching winter and “how investment in the country’s security today would support Europe’s broader security for generations to come.” The Ukrainian leader also met Rutte with Starmer. Zelenskyy posted afterward that they discussed trans-Atlantic cooperation and further reinforcing Ukraine militarily. He gave no details but posted that “these are the steps that will create the best conditions for restoring a just peace.” Zelenskyy has yet to publicly present his proposals for victory. But the timing of his efforts to lock in European support appeared to have the looming U.S. election in mind. Former President Donald Trump has long been critical of U.S. aid to Ukraine. Zelenskyy had planned to present his blueprint at a weekend meeting of Western leaders in Germany, but it was postponed after Biden stayed home because of the hurricane that struck Florida. Zelenskyy then embarked on his whistle-stop tour of European capitals that have been among Ukraine’s staunchest allies outside of the United States. In Paris, Macron and Zelenskyy hugged before talks on the plan at the French presidential Elysee Palace. Afterward, Zelenskyy said “all the details” would come in November and that he’s talking with allies about securing more military aid and permission for Ukrainian forces to carry out long-range strikes. Kyiv wants Western partners to allow strikes deep inside Russia, using long-range weapons they provide. Some, including the U.K. and France, appear willing, but Biden is reticent about escalating the conflict. “The situation looks bleak for all sides,” Tatiana Stanovaya, a senior fellow at the Carnegie Russia Eurasia … “Ukraine’s Zelenskyy city-hops across Europe, promoting ‘victory plan’” →

WASHINGTON — Russian opposition politician and journalist Vladimir Kara-Murza was released from a Russian prison on August 1 as part of a wide-ranging exchange of prisoners between Russia and several Western countries. He had been jailed in April 2022 on charges of treason for criticizing Russia’s war in Ukraine. He was almost fatally poisoned twice, in 2015 and 2017. Since his release, Kara-Murza has been actively involved in the Russian opposition’s diplomatic efforts, meeting with the U.S. and French presidents and the German chancellor. During a recent visit to Washington, he sat down for interviews with Voice of America journalists. Speaking to VOA’s Ukrainian Service, he discussed the agenda that the Russian opposition is promoting in the West. The following interview has been edited for brevity and clarity. VOA: After your release, you met with [U.S.] President [Joe] Biden, [French] President [Emmanuel] Macron and [German] Chancellor [Olaf] Scholz. What was your main message to them about policy toward Russia? Vladimir Kara-Murza, Russian opposition politician: There are two main messages. The first message is that [Russian President] Vladimir Putin must lose the war in Ukraine, because if he does win, that means that in a year or a year and a half, we will be talking about another war or another Russian invasion, because this is what this man does. The second message is that the democratic nations of the free world must have a strategy. We know from the last couple of centuries of Russian history that failed wars of aggression always lead to political changes at home. Once Putin is defeated in Ukraine, there must be a prepared strategy for reintegrating a new, changed, post-Putin democratic Russia back into Europe, back into the civilized world, and back into what we call the international rules-based order. VOA: If Putin loses power, how can democratization possibly happen? Someone from his inner circle would most likely grab power. Kara-Murza: I hope he doesn’t die in office and that’s how it ends. I’m a Christian, and I know that everybody gets a trial up there, and so will he. But I really want that man to get a trial in this life, too. On the question of change, this is a personalistic dictatorship. It is not an ideological dictatorship like in Soviet times, with the collective Politburo, when you could replace the person at the top without replacing the regime. This system is going … “Russian opposition politician Kara-Murza: ‘Putin must lose in Ukraine’ “ →

washington — The article in the Seattle Tribune had everything: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Adolf Hitler and a $15 million classic car. Unsurprisingly, it spread like wildfire across Russia’s state and pro-Kremlin media. But the subject was a strange one for a news site about a U.S. city; such outlets usually cover only local stories. In fact, the article with headline “Hitler’s parade car bought by Ukraine’s Zelensky” was another fake spread by Russian propaganda. There is no such media outlet as the Seattle Tribune, just a website masquerading as a full-fledged publication. And the article itself was a compilation of Russia’s disinformation “greatest hits” about Ukraine — “Nazism,” “unrestrained corruption” and “wasting American aid.” According to the phony news article, Zelenskyy was spotted in Kyiv exiting a Mercedes-Benz 770K Grosser Offener Tourenwagen, Adolf Hitler’s parade car. The sighting supposedly occurred just days after the Ukrainian leader returned from Washington, where the U.S. government had allocated an $8 billion aid package to his country. The article featured a screenshot of a post by the Ukrainian Telegram messenger channel Realna Viyna (“Real War” in Ukrainian) featuring a photo of the vehicle parked in front of the Ukrainian presidential administration building in Kyiv. However, beyond the Seattle Tribune news site not actually existing, the article had several other glaring problems. First, Realna Viyna did not publish the post in the screenshot. Second, the image of “Hitler’s car” was stolen from a photo widely available on the internet that was digitally edited into an image of the Ukrainian presidential administration building. VOA found that the angle of photo in the screenshot, a black spot on the asphalt under the car’s running board, and the reflection on the front windshield completely match the image of the Mercedes-Benz 770K found across the internet. Third, the Seattle Tribune website was registered on October 3, 2024, just six days before the fake article was published. And the registration was set for only one year. The Seattle Tribune appears to belong to a network of disinformation websites controlled by John Mark Dougan, an American living in Russia, according to Shayan Sardarizadeh, a journalist who fact checks and debunks disinformation at the BBC. He noted on social network X that creating fake local American news sites is Dougan’s standard approach. That conclusion matches VOA’s observations about Dougan’s network. A former deputy sheriff in Florida, Dougan was charged with extortion and … “Russian propagandists push fake story that Zelenskyy bought Hitler’s car” →

STOCKHOLM — Swedish police said on Thursday they were investigating a shooting near an Israeli target in the city of Gothenburg, which the national broadcaster said was a unit of Israeli defense electronics firm Elbit Systems.  Police said in a statement it had apprehended a young suspect at the scene and launched a probe into suspected attempted murder and serious weapons crimes.  They did not identify the company, but Elbit Systems Sweden CEO Tobias Wennberg told Reuters there had been a serious incident outside its premises on Thursday, adding that no one was injured in the incident.  “Elbit Systems Sweden otherwise has no knowledge of the incident. Our operations continue as usual,” he said in an email.  A police spokesperson said there was only one suspect, and investigators were not aware of any concrete threats against other Israeli targets in the city on Sweden’s west coast.  The suspect is under 15 years of age, public broadcaster SVT and other Swedish media reported, without identifying their sources.  The Israeli Embassy in Stockholm did not immediately respond to a request for comment.  Swedish police in May said they had stepped up security around Israeli and Jewish interests in the Nordic country after officers on patrol heard suspected gunshots near Israel’s embassy in Stockholm.  Sweden has seen an epidemic of gun violence in recent years, driven by criminal gangs feuding over drugs and other illicit activities.  …

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WASHINGTON — Neither rising death tolls nor plunging temperatures are likely to change the trajectory of Russia’s war against Ukraine, according to senior U.S. officials charged with supporting Kyiv’s fight against Moscow’s forces.  The officials, briefing reporters Wednesday on the condition of anonymity to discuss battlefield developments, said fighting over the past several weeks has resulted in only minor changes to the front lines, with few indications Russia is making any adjustments. “It’s an attritional strategy,” said a senior U.S. military official. “It’s kind of the Russian way of war that they continue to throw mass into the problem.” That willingness to try to overwhelm Ukrainian positions with sheer numbers has cost Russia’s military, according to the latest U.S. military assessments. The U.S. estimates Russian forces have suffered 600,000 casualties, killed and wounded, since Moscow first launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 — a toll that U.S. officials said surpasses the number of Russian casualties in any conflict since World War II. September has been especially costly, with Russia sustaining more casualties last month than in any other month of the war, officials said.  Russia’s military has also suffered in other ways. Senior U.S. officials estimate Ukraine has destroyed or damaged more than 30 medium to large Russian ships stationed in the Black Sea, forcing Russia to relocate its Black Sea fleet. Ukraine is also thought to have destroyed more than two-thirds of Russia’s prewar tank inventory. “[It is] forcing the Russian military to dig into Soviet-era stockpiles and fuel tanks from World War II,” said a senior U.S. defense official. And then there are the Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian ammunition depots, believed to have destroyed hundreds of thousands of Russian and North Korean-made rounds. U.S. officials said the damage would likely slow delivery of ammunition and artillery rounds to the front lines. Still, they warned, the Kremlin appears undeterred, even it means more Russian casualties. “Russia does continue to devote significant amounts of resources and … lives toward a grinding campaign, redoubling its efforts in the east,” said the senior defense official.  “Russia has also demonstrated time and time again a willingness to do whatever it takes to attempt to force the Ukrainians to capitulate, including purposely targeting Ukrainian civilians and critical infrastructure.” For now, senior U.S. officials assess that Russian President Vladimir Putin has managed to avoid calling for a mass mobilization, like the call-up of … “Russia-Ukraine war appears frozen in place as winter approaches” →

WASHINGTON — “What Americans are really worried about now is not wars, shootings or homelessness. It’s the puzzling absence of any issues with China,” declares a blonde influencer on TikTok, speaking in near-fluent Mandarin. “A U.S. presidential candidate recently stated that America should learn from China and stop causing trouble,” she added, displaying an image of President Biden. The influencer, who says her name is Alina and claims to be a Russian living in Singapore, promotes what she says are “high-quality Russian and Chinese products” on her account. However, the same blonde Russian woman also appears in other posts on TikTok and goes by the name Lisa. Lisa likes to discuss such topics as “celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of China,” “Germany is facing a dead-end,” and “the U.S. is on the brink of bankruptcy.” In one video posted on September 17, she talked about the two assassination attempts against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, suggesting that the intensifying political rivalry is fueling violence in the U.S. and could lead to further societal division. Patriotism before commerce  A joint investigation by Voice of America and social media analytics firm Doublethink Lab uncovered several accounts on TikTok like Alina’s and Lisa’s that feature videos of Russian women generated by artificial intelligence, or AI. All the accounts emerged around July and August and followed a similar pattern of leveraging patriotic sentiment to bolster China-Russia ties before going on to promote products.  Earlier this year, VOA noted a similar trend on Chinese social media platforms like Douyin and Xiaohongshu, and the use of AI-manipulated videos of young, purportedly Russian women to rally support for China-Russia ties and stoke patriotic fervor before selling products such as snacks, nutritional supplements and drinks. It is hard to tell whether the creators of the videos have an ideological motive or are simply trying to exploit Chinese patriotism to sell their products, said Wei-Ping Li, who holds a fellowship at the Taiwan FactCheck Center. “I still think they are more like aiming to sell products rather than state-sponsored influence campaigns,” she told VOA. Either way, the use of Russian AI personas to foster patriotism was once limited to Chinese social media sites targeting domestic audiences. The accounts identified on TikTok, however, appear to be operated from Singapore, indicating that the use of attractive blonde Russian women to push patriotism, propaganda and products has expanded beyond China.  TikTok … “On TikTok, AI-generated ‘Russian’ women deliver pro-China messages with sales pitch” →

WASHINGTON — A prominent Ukrainian news outlet reported Wednesday it is facing “ongoing and systematic pressure” from the office of the Ukrainian president that is threatening the outlet’s work. In a statement on its website, the online newspaper Ukrainska Pravda said officials are being blocked from communicating with the outlet’s journalists, its reporters are being denied access to official events and businesses are being pressured to stop advertising on its website. In the statement, the outlet also highlighted a tense exchange between Ukrainska Pravda journalist Roman Kravets and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a recent press conference. During the interaction, Zelenskyy questioned the outlet’s editorial independence. Ukrainska Pravda editor-in-chief Sevgil Musayeva told VOA it was important for the outlet to be honest with readers about the pressure it faces from the government. “Ukraine is fighting for the right to exist but also for the right to be democratic, independent and transparent,” Musayeva said from Kyiv. “And freedom of press and freedom of speech is one of [the] essential values of democracy. That’s why we will protect this value as much as we can,” Musayeva continued. Ukrainska Pravda said it views the government’s actions as attempts to influence the outlet’s editorial policy. The outlet has been facing this kind of pressure for about one year, but it has become even worse over the past two months, according to Musayeva. From now on, Ukrainska Pravda said, it will make public any attempts by the president’s office to pressure the outlet, according to the statement. “Each such attempt only strengthens our motivation to expose corruption and mismanagement in the highest ranks of power,” the statement said. “We call on everyone who values freedom of speech and the independence of Ukrainian journalism to join us in defending these values.” Media watchdogs — and Ukrainian journalists — have expressed concern about the state of press freedom in Ukraine in recent months amid Russia’s war on the country. In June, Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, said press freedom was “shrinking” in Ukraine, with challenges that include rising political pressure, surveillance and threats. “The pressure, threats and interference must stop,” Jeanne Cavelier, head of RSF’s Eastern Europe and Central Asia desk, said in the June statement. “Despite their admirable resilience after Russia launched its full scale invasion on 24 February 2022, the Ukrainian media landscape remains fragile.” The Ukrainian president’s office, the Foreign Ministry and Ukraine’s Washington embassy … “Ukrainian news outlet says it faces ‘pressure’ from Zelenskyy’s office” →

LONDON — That long-held Wimbledon tradition of line judges dressed in elegant uniforms is no more.  The All England Club announced Wednesday that artificial intelligence will be used to make the “out” and “fault” calls at the championships from 2025.  Wimbledon organizers said the decision to adopt live electronic line calling was made following extensive testing at the 2024 tournament and “builds on the existing ball-tracking and line-calling technology that has been in place for many years.”  “We consider the technology to be sufficiently robust and the time is right to take this important step in seeking maximum accuracy in our officiating,” said Sally Bolton, chief executive of the All England Club. “For the players, it will offer them the same conditions they have played under at a number of other events on tour.”  Bolton said Wimbledon had a responsibility to “balance tradition and innovation.”  “Line umpires have played a central role in our officiating setup at the championships for many decades,” she said, “and we recognize their valuable contribution and thank them for their commitment and service.”  Line-calling technology has long been used at Wimbledon and other tennis tournaments to call whether serves are in or out.  The All England Club also said Wednesday that the ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles finals will be scheduled to take place at the later time of 4 p.m. local time on the second Saturday and Sunday, respectively — and after doubles finals on those days.  Bolton said the moves have been made to ensure the day of the finals “builds towards the crescendo of the ladies’ and gentlemen’s singles finals, with our champions being crowned in front of the largest possible worldwide audience.”   …

BEIJING — China’s anti-dumping measures against brandies imported from the European Union are “legitimate trade remedy measures,” the commerce ministry said on Wednesday, a day after imposing the temporary curb. French brands such as Hennessy and Remy Martin will face the strictures, adopted just days after the 27-nation bloc voted for tariffs on Chinese-made electric vehicles (EVs), sparking its biggest trade row with Beijing in a decade. China’s commerce ministry said preliminary findings of an investigation showed that dumping of brandy from the European Union threatened “substantial damage” to domestic industry. On Wednesday the ministry said the EU’s actions against Chinese EVs “seriously lack a factual and legal basis” and “clearly violate” World Trade Organization (WTO) rules. China has protested strongly to the WTO, it added. Trade tensions have surged since the European Commission said last week it would press ahead with tariffs on China-made EVs, even after Germany, the bloc’s largest economy, rejected them. Another sign of rising trade tension was the ministry’s remarks on Tuesday that an anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigation into EU pork products would deliver “objective and fair” decisions when it wraps up. It also said it was considering a hike in tariffs on imports of large-engine vehicles, which would hit German producers hardest. German exports to China of vehicles with engines 2.5 liters in size, or larger, reached $1.2 billion last year. …

BEIJING — Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy will visit China next week, sources familiar with the plan said, as the new Labor government seeks less confrontational ties with the world’s second-largest economy and to resume trade and investment talks. British officials have said they want to recalibrate many of the previous Conservative Party-led government’s positions on China, which it described as an “epoch-defining challenge,” particularly around accepting Chinese job-creating investment. But Britain is unlikely to budge on issues such as Chinese firms’ involvement in providing key infrastructure, human rights and restoring the license of state broadcaster CGTN, as it is controlled by China’s ruling Communist Party. Lammy, who has vowed to overhaul Britain’s ties with China, will meet Chinese officials in Beijing and representatives of British firms in Shanghai, two of the four sources, who all spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters. His itinerary has not yet been finalized, however, another person familiar with the planning said. A Foreign Office spokesperson said ministerial travel would be announced in the usual way. China’s foreign ministry did not respond to a request for comment. During a telephone call in August, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who took office the previous month, told Chinese President Xi Jinping their countries must be able to talk frankly about disagreements while pursuing closer economic ties and co-operation on global issues. British finance minister Rachel Reeves is also considering traveling to China in the near future, said two sources. Her visit will aim to revive trade and investment talks that are supposed to take place annually. The last round of the UK-China Economic and Financial Dialogue, as it is called, was held in 2019. China is Britain’s sixth largest trading partner, accounting for 5% of total trade, British government figures show. But questions on Hong Kong, espionage accusations, and plans for a new Chinese embassy in London await resolution and may slow plans to resume talks and promises of fresh investment. Last week, two Britons, including a former researcher for a senior British lawmaker, pleaded not guilty to a charge of spying for China. That followed China’s accusation in June that British foreign intelligence service MI6 recruited two staff members from unnamed state bodies to act as spies. Beijing is also waiting for a go-ahead on plans to build a new embassy in London after they were thrown out on security grounds in December 2022. In recent … “British Foreign Secretary Lammy to visit China in bid to reset ties, sources say” →