Author: Mirits

Since 2015, one of America’s oldest eye clinics, Wills Eye Hospital, has been helping wounded Ukrainian soldiers with severe head or face injuries get their vision back. For one surgeon with Ukrainian roots, the work is personal. Iryna Solomko has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. VOA footage by Pavlo Terekhov. …

Paris — French far-right leader Marine Le Pen denied violating any rules as she and her National Rally party and two dozen others went on trial on Monday, accused of embezzling European Parliament funds, in a case that has the potential to derail her political ambitions. Arriving at the court in Paris, Le Pen said she remained confident as “we have not violated any political and regulatory rules of the European Parliament” and vowed to present the judges with “extremely serious and extremely solid arguments.” Le Pen and other National Rally members casually greeted each other before sitting down in the first three rows of the packed courtroom. The nine-week trial will be closely watched by Le Pen’s political rivals as she is a strong contender in the race to succeed Emmanuel Macron when the next presidential election takes place in 2027. It comes as a new government dominated by centrists and conservatives just came into office in the wake of June-July legislative elections. Some observers expect the trial could prevent National Rally lawmakers, including Le Pen herself, from fully playing their opposition role in Parliament as they would be busy focusing on the party’s defense. Since stepping down as party leader three years ago, Le Pen has sought to position herself as a mainstream candidate capable of appealing to a broader electorate. Her efforts have paid off, with the party making significant gains in recent elections at both the European and national levels. But a guilty verdict could seriously undermine her bid to take the Elysee. The National Rally and 27 of its top officials are accused of having used money destined for EU parliamentary aides to pay staff who instead did political work for the party between 2004 and 2016, in violation of the 27-nation bloc’s regulations. The National Rally was called National Front at the time. Le Pen, whose party has softened its anti-EU stance in recent years, denies wrongdoing and claims the case is politically driven. “Parliamentary assistants do not work for the Parliament. They are political assistants to elected officials, political by definition,” she previously said. “You ask me if I can define the tasks I assigned to my assistants; it depends on each person’s skills. Some wrote speeches for me, and some handled logistics and coordination.” If found guilty, Le Pen and her co-defendants could face up to 10 years in prison and fines of … “France’s Le Pen denies wrongdoing as she and her party go on trial accused of embezzling EU funds “ →

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VIENNA — Picknicking with friends in the park after prayers at a Vienna mosque, Saima Arab, a 20-year-old pedicurist originally from Afghanistan, is thankful for her freedoms in Austria. “We could never do this in Afghanistan, never cook, go out, just sit in public like this,” said Arab, who came to Austria in 2017. “Home is like a prison there.” Many Austrians, however, are worried about their country’s ability to integrate migrants, especially Muslims, and their desire for stricter immigration laws was a key issue in Sunday’s election which gave victory to the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) for the first time. Both the FPO and the runner-up, the ruling conservative Austrian People’s Party (OVP), ran on pledges to tighten asylum laws and crack down on illegal immigration. The FPO victory added to critics’ concerns about the rise of the far right in Europe after electoral gains in recent months by the Alternative for Germany and the National Rally in France. “Whatever the government looks like after the election, I’m certain it’ll work towards toughening up asylum and immigration law,” Professor Walter Obwexer, an adviser to the government on migration law, said before the vote. Arab, who also spoke to Reuters in an interview conducted before the election, said she did not like to talk about politics but hoped she too would vote in Austria one day. The number of people in Austria born abroad or whose parents were jumped by more than a third between 2015 and last year, and now account for around 27% of the population of about 9 million. Together the FPO and the OVP won over 55% of the vote and one of the two is almost certain to lead the next government, feeding expectations that Austria, like neighboring Germany and Hungary, and France, will adopt tougher rules. Opinion polls showed immigration and inflation were key voter concerns. Such is the worry that Austria is taking in migrants faster than it can integrate them that even some Austrians of Muslim origin feel Austria is stretched. “I wonder if the system is close to collapse,” said Mehmet Ozay, a Turkish-born Austrian FPO supporter, arguing there were too many asylum seekers not contributing to state coffers. Taylor Swift concert The FPO has combined its tough talk on immigration with criticism of Islam. The issue took center stage last month when police arrested a teenager with North Macedonian roots on … “Austria’s rightward shift puts immigration in crosshairs” →

HELSINKI — Norway may put a fence along part or all the 198-kilometer (123-mile) border it shares with Russia, a minister said, a move inspired by a similar project in its Nordic neighbor Finland. “A border fence is very interesting, not only because it can act as a deterrent but also because it contains sensors and technology that allow you to detect if people are moving close to the border,” Justice Minister Emilie Enger Mehl said in an interview with the Norwegian public broadcaster NRK published late Saturday. She said the Norwegian government is currently looking at “several measures” to beef up security on the border with Russia in the Arctic north, such as fencing, increasing the number of border staff or stepping up monitoring. The Storskog border station, which has witnessed only a handful of illegal border crossing attempts in the past few years, is the only official crossing point into Norway from Russia. Should the security situation in the delicate Arctic area worsen, the Norwegian government is ready to close the border on short notice, said Enger Mehl, who visited neighboring Finland this summer to learn about how the entire 1,340-kilometer (830-mile) Finnish-Russian land border was closed. The Finnish government was prompted to close all crossing points from Russia to Finland in late 2023 after more than 1,300 third-country migrants without proper documentation or visas — an unusually high number — entered the country in three months, just months after the nation became a member of NATO. To prevent Moscow using migrants in what the Finnish government calls Russia’s “hybrid warfare,” Helsinki is currently building fences with a total length of up to 200 kilometers (124 miles) in separate sections along the border zone that makes up part of NATO’s northern flank and serves as the European Union’s external border. Finnish border officials say fences equipped with top-notch surveillance equipment — to be located mostly around crossing points — are needed to better monitor and control any migrants attempting to cross over from Russia and give officials time to react. Inspired by Finland’s project, Enger Mehl said that such a fence could also be a good idea for Norway. According to NRK, her statement was supported by police chief Ellen Katrine Hætta in Norway’s northern Finnmark county. “It’s a measure that may become relevant on all or part of the border” between Norway and Russia, Enger Mehl said. The Storskog border … “Norway mulls building a fence on Russian border, following Finland’s example” →

Moscow — Russia announced Sunday that Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin will meet Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian in Tehran on Monday. The announcement came as Russia has condemned Israel’s “political murder” of Iran-backed Hezbollah chief Hassan Nasrallah in Beirut. Mishustin will hold talks with Pezeshkian and First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref, the government statement said. “It is planned to discuss the full range of Russian-Iranian cooperation in the trade and economic and cultural and humanitarian spheres,” Russia said.   The talks will focus on “carrying out large joint projects in fields involving transport energy, industry and agriculture,” the statement added.   Western governments have accused Iran of supplying both drones and missiles to Moscow for its war on Ukraine, a charge Tehran has repeatedly denied. Pezeshkian is set to hold talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin during a visit to Russia next month to attend the BRICS summit. After leaving Iran, Russian Prime Minister Mishustin will attend a meeting in Armenia on Tuesday of the Eurasian Economic Forum, the government said Sunday, referring to a body within the framework of a grouping of former Soviet states. The statement said the meeting would discuss digitalization, market operations and cooperation within the Eurasian Economic Union, made up of Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Russia. Russia often presents the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) as an alternative to Western political and economic groupings. …

Lisbon — Thousands of protesters waving Portuguese flags and roaring the national anthem rallied in Lisbon on Sunday to express their anger at “illegal” and “uncontrolled” immigration. The demonstrators marched behind banners demanding the “end of mass immigration” and the expulsion of immigrants guilty of crimes, at the protest called by the far-right Chega party, the country’s third-largest political force. Immigration is “very good” but “rules are needed,” said Cecilia Guimaraes, a 66-year-old teacher whose parents emigrated to Canada.  “We emigrated legally. That’s how it should happen in a developed country,” she told AFP, complaining of a rise in insecurity she fears is linked to foreign arrivals. Chega lawmaker Rui Afonso said Portugal and other European countries were unable to control entries, which generated a “feeling of insecurity” because “we don’t know their past.” Afonso added that European nations were ill-equipped to “decently” take in immigrants who were sometimes “forced to live on the street and fall into crime.” Among the protesters was Chega leader Andre Ventura, whose party more than quadrupled its seats at this year’s election. Tensions surfaced as the market approached working-class neighborhoods with large immigrant populations. Some protesters engaged in a standoff with pro-immigration activists in favor of a Portugal open to foreigners. Posters reading “No Portugal without immigrants” also covered walls and bus stops along the route of the march. The number of foreigners living in Portugal jumped by 33.6 percent last year to reach more than one million, about one-tenth of the total population, according to the Agency for Integration, Migration and Asylum. The center-right government toughened migration policy in June. It scrapped a measure allowing immigrants to apply for regularization if they could prove they had been working for at least one year even if they had entered the country illegally.  …

Berlin — A man has been arrested after allegedly setting two fires in the western German city of Essen that left 30 people injured and driving a van into two shops, authorities said Sunday.  Emergency services were alerted to two fires in residential buildings in quick succession shortly after 5 p.m. Saturday, police said. The injured people included eight children who were seriously hurt, and two of them were in a life-threatening condition after inhaling smoke.  Shortly after the fires broke out, a van drove into two shops in the city, causing damage to property but no injuries. The suspect then allegedly threatened people with weapons, but several men managed to push him back with shovels and poles and hold him until police arrived.  Police said the suspect was a 41-year-old Essen resident with Syrian citizenship. They said the man’s motive appeared to be that his wife had left him, and he targeted houses and shops where people who supported her lived.  The fire service said that, when it arrived at the scene of the first blaze, smoke was billowing from the entrance of the building and people were calling for help from windows. Neighbors had put up ladders to help people escape, but they weren’t long enough to reach the upper floors.  The suspect hasn’t commented so far on what happened Saturday but was previously known to authorities for threats and damage to property, police said. Prosecutors were seeking to have him kept in custody on suspicion of arson and attempted murder.  …

Puerto de la Estaca, Spain — Rescue teams on Sunday resumed searching for at least 48 migrants who went messing the day before when their boat overturned just as it was being rescued off Spain’s Canary Islands, killing at least nine people. Hopes of finding survivors were slim as sea rescue teams searched the waters off El Hierro, an island in the Atlantic archipelago. It is the latest in a series of such disasters off the coast of Africa. “The search operation is resuming,” Spain’s maritime rescue organisation told AFP. The 48 are “presumed dead,” Canaries regional president Fernando Clavijo told journalists on Saturday night. More bodies will likely appear “over the next two, three days,” washed up by the current, he added. Twenty-seven migrants were rescued and nine bodies recovered after the boat, which had set out from Nouadhibou in Mauritania, some 800 kilometers (nearly 500 miles) away, overturned off El Hierro. The tragedy hit when rescuers arrived to assist the migrants after they themselves called emergency services, Spanish officials said. Migrants rushed to one side of the precarious boat, causing it to tip. The migrants “had gone two days without food or water”, which may have fueled their panic, Anselmo Pestana, head of the Canary Islands prefecture, told journalists in the port of La Estaca. Spanish government sources said the boat may have been carrying up to 90 people, instead of 84 as originally announced, which could put the number of missing at more than 50. This disaster follows the death of 39 migrants in early September when their boat sank off Senegal while attempting a similar crossing to the Canaries, from where migrants hope to reach mainland Europe. Thousands of migrants have died in recent years setting off from west Africa to reach Europe via the Atlantic aboard overcrowded and often dilapidated boats.   …

KYIV — More than 100 Ukrainian drones were shot down over Russia Sunday, officials said, sparking a wildfire and setting an apartment block alight in one of the largest barrages seen over Russian skies since Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Russia’s Ministry of Defense reported that it had shot down 125 drones overnight across seven regions. The southwestern region of Volgograd came under particularly heavy fire, with 67 Ukrainian drones reportedly downed by Russian air defenses. Seventeen drones were also seen over Russia’s Voronezh region, where falling debris damaged an apartment block and a private home, said local governor Aleksandr Gusev. Images on social media showed flames rising from the windows of the top floor of a high-rise building. No casualties were reported. A further 18 drones were reported over Russia’s Rostov region, where falling debris sparked a wildfire, said Gov. Vasily Golubev. He said that the fire did not pose a threat to populated areas, but that emergency services were fighting to extinguish the blaze, which had engulfed 20 hectares (49.4 acres) of forest. Meanwhile, 13 civilians were injured in an overnight barrage on the southern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia Sunday after Ukrainian military leaders warned that Moscow could be preparing for a new military offensive in the country’s south. The city was targeted by Russian guide bombs in 10 separate attacks that damaged a high-rise building and several residential homes, regional governor Ivan Fedorov wrote on his official Telegram channel. More people could still be trapped beneath the rubble, he said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said that the Zaporizhzhia attack had damaged the city’s transport links. “Today, Russia struck Zaporizhzhia with aerial bombs. Ordinary residential buildings were damaged and the entrance of one building was destroyed. The city’s infrastructure and railway were also damaged,” Zelenskyy said in a post on X, formerly Twitter. “In total, 13 people were injured, and two were rescued from under the rubble. I thank all the emergency services for their rapid response and providing necessary assistance. The rubble clearing is still ongoing.” The attacks come after the Ukrainian military warned Saturday that Russian forces may be preparing for offensive operations in the wider Zaporizhzhia region. Vladyslav Voloshyn, spokesperson for Ukraine’s southern military command, said that Russia was amassing personnel in this direction. Ukraine’s air force also reported that 22 Russian drones were launched over the country overnight. It said that 15 were … “125 Ukrainian drones reported in attack sparking fires across Russia, Moscow officials say “ →

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Kyiv — At least 11 people were wounded on Sunday in a series of Russian strikes on Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, emergency services announced. The regional capital was hit by several “massive aerial strikes” at dawn, Ukrainian emergency services said in a statement. “A building and six houses in different city neighborhoods suffered a lot of destruction,” said the statement, adding that 42 members of the emergency services were helping those potentially trapped under the rubble. “According to preliminary information, the number of wounded people has risen to 11,” said the emergency services, adding that rescue operations had ended. A woman dragged from the rubble was taken to the hospital. Regional governor Ivan Fedorov had earlier said that six people were wounded. He said that Zaporizhzhia was hit by 10 Russian strikes that destroyed “one multistory building and some houses.” Andriy Yermak, the head of the office of the president, hit out in a social media post at an attempt to “terrorize” the civilian population. Yermak also reiterated his called on Western allies to supply more weapons to intercept Russian missiles and apply more economic sanctions against Moscow. Russia annexed the Zaporizhzhia region in 2022, but the main city of the same name remains under Kyiv’s control.  …

KRITZENDORF, Austria — While shoveling mud out of gardens almost two weeks after torrential flooding battered the small Austrian town of Kritzendorf, Abulhkeem Alshater gestures towards a banner: “Austro-Syrians say: Thank you, Austria.”  Alshater, 45, originally from Homs, Syria, has been working with dozens of his countryfolk to help clean up the mess left by floods. The work is a gesture of gratitude to Austria at a time when immigration has become a hot topic in Sunday’s general election.  Alshater hopes the sight of Syrians devoting time and energy to bring relief to the hard-hit state of Lower Austria will take some steam out of the often-strident campaign rhetoric about uncontrolled immigration.  “There’s an election on. We’re trying to show that we’re not all the same,” said Alshater, who heads the Free Syrian Community of Austria, a support group for Syrians.  Fleeing war in their homeland, the number of Syrians living in Austria rose more than eightfold between 2015 and 2024, according to official data, with 95,180 there as of January.  Right-wing efforts to curb immigration to Austria have gained traction since deadly attacks in Germany blamed on migrants of Muslim origin, and a foiled plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert supposedly masterminded by an ISIS-inspired teenager.  For weeks, the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) has led opinion polls, just ahead of the ruling conservative Austrian People’s Party (OVP). Both parties promise to enact tougher asylum laws and crack down on illegal immigration if victorious.  Alshater, a painter and decorator who arrived in 2015, has spent the past few days helping locals recover from flooding in places like Kritzendorf just north of Vienna, where the deluge left houses partially submerged in muddy water.  Homeowner Dinko Fejzuli, a resident of Austria who was born to parents from Croatia and Macedonia, said the Syrian volunteers had given rise to some interesting encounters.  “Yesterday, I brought some of the helpers to a lady who I know will be voting FPO,” he said. “They helped her because she had neither friends nor family to help. It was ironic.”  …

MUNICH — The head brewmaster for Weihenstephan, the world’s oldest brewery, has a secret: He really likes alcohol-free beer. Even though he’s quick to say he obviously enjoys real beer more, Tobias Zollo says he savors alcohol-free beer when he’s working or eating lunch. It has the same taste but fewer calories than a soft drink, he said, thanks to the brewery’s process of evaporating the alcohol. “You can’t drink beer every day — unfortunately,” he joked last week at the Bavarian state brewery in the German town of Freising, about 30 kilometers north of Munich. Zollo isn’t alone in his appreciation for the sober beverage. Alcohol-free beer has been gaining popularity in recent years as beer consumption shrinks. At Weihenstephan, which was founded as a brewery in 1040 by Benedictine monks, non-alcoholic wheat beer and lager now make up 10% of the volume. The increase over the last few years, since they started making alcohol-free drinks in the 1990s, mirrors the statistics for the rest of Germany’s beer industry. “The people are unfortunately — I have to say that as a brewer — unfortunately drinking less beer,” Zollo said Friday, the day before Oktoberfest officially started. “If there’s an alternative to have the crisp and fresh taste from a typical Weihenstephan beer, but just as a non-alcoholic version, we want to do that.” Even at Oktoberfest — arguably the world’s most famous ode to alcohol — alcohol-free beer is on the menu. All but two of the 18 large tents at the festival offer the drink through the celebration’s 16 days. The sober beverage will cost drinkers the same as an alcoholic beer — between 13.60 and 15.30 euros ($15.12 and $17.01) for a 1-liter mug — but save them from a hangover. “For people who don’t like to drink alcohol and want to enjoy the Oktoberfest as well, I think it’s a good option,” Mikael Caselitz, 24, of Munich said Saturday inside one of the tents. “Sometimes people feel like they have more fun with alcohol, which is not a good thing because you can also have fun without alcohol.” He added: “If you want to come and drink alcohol-free beer, nobody will judge you.” This year marked the first time an alcohol-free beer garden opened in Munich. “Die Null,” which means “the zero” in German, served non-alcoholic beer, mocktails and other alcohol-free drinks near the city’s main train … “Alcohol-free beer is gaining popularity, even at Oktoberfest” →

VIENNA — Austrians elect a new parliament Sunday with the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) aiming to secure its first general election win in a neck-and-neck race with the ruling conservatives that has been dominated by economic worries and immigration. Having led opinion polls for months, the FPO’s edge over the Austrian People’s Party (OVP) has shrunk to almost nothing as Chancellor Karl Nehammer casts himself as a statesman and depicts his rival, FPO leader Herbert Kickl, as a toxic menace. Whoever wins will fall well short of an absolute majority, polls show but claim the right to lead a coalition government. Projections are due minutes after polls close at 5 p.m. (1500 GMT), with results being finessed over the ensuing hours. “What’s at stake is whether the FPO will appoint the chancellor or not,” said Kathrin Stainer-Haemmerle, political science professor at the Carinthia University of Applied Sciences. “Should that happen, then I have to say the role of Austria in the European Union would be significantly different. Kickl has often said that (Hungarian Prime Minister) Viktor Orban is a role model for him and he will stand by him.” The Eurosceptic, Russia-friendly FPO, which is critical of Islam and pledges tougher rules on asylum-seekers, won a national vote for the first time in June when it beat the OVP by less than a percentage point in European elections. An FPO victory would make Austria the latest European Union country to register surging far-right support after gains in countries including the Netherlands, France and Germany. President Alexander Van der Bellen, who oversees the formation of governments, has voiced reservations about the FPO because of its criticism of the EU and its failure to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The party also opposes EU sanctions on Moscow, citing Austria’s neutrality. He has hinted he might thwart Kickl, noting the constitution does not require him to ask the first-placed party to form a government, even though that has long been the convention. The OVP, which like the FPO backs tougher immigration rules and tax cuts, is the only party open to forming a coalition with the far-right party. Polls suggest they could muster a majority together, but Nehammer says his party won’t join a government with Kickl. “Ideally I would vanish into thin air for you, but I won’t do you that favor, Mr. Nehammer,” Kickl, 55, said this week when asked if he … “Austria holds tight election with far-right bidding for historic win” →

UNITED NATIONS — European, Arab and Islamic nations have launched an initiative to strengthen support for a Palestinian state and prepare for a future after the war in Gaza and escalating conflict in Lebanon, Norway’s foreign minister said Friday. Espen Barth Eide told The Associated Press that “there is a growing consensus in the international community from Western countries, from Arab countries, from the Global South, that we need to establish a Palestinian Authority, a Palestinian government, a Palestinian state — and the Palestinian state has to be recognized.” Eide said many issues need to be addressed, including the security interests of Israel and the Palestinians, recognition and normalization of relations after decades of conflict and the demobilization of Hamas as a military group. “These are pieces of a bigger puzzle,” Norway’s chief diplomat said. “And you can’t just come in there with one of these pieces, because it only works if all the pieces are laid in place.” But even if the puzzle is completed, it’s unlikely to gain traction with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Still, Eide believes that after decades of failed or stalled negotiations, “we need to take a new approach” to achieving an independent Palestinian state. To accelerate work on these issues, Eide said almost 90 countries attended a meeting Thursday on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly’s current gathering of world leaders. He and Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister co-chaired the session to launch “The Global Alliance for the Implementation of a Palestinian State and a Two-State Solution.” “We have to see how we can come out of this deadlock and try to use this deep crisis also as an opportunity to move forward,” Eide told a U.N. Security Council meeting on Gaza later Friday. Norway is the guarantor of the 1993 Oslo Accords, hailed as a breakthrough in the decades-long conflict between Arabs and Jews, which created the Palestinian Authority and set up self-rule areas in the Palestinian Authority. Eide said more than 30 years later, Israel’s “occupation” is continuing, and there are no negotiations leading to a final settlement and an independent Palestinian state, which led to Norway’s decision in May to recognize a Palestinian state. Eide brought up the alliance again Saturday during his address to the annual meeting of world leaders at the U.N. General Assembly, stressing that “while cease-fires in Gaza and Lebanon are most urgently needed, ending hostilities must … “Europeans, Arab and Muslim nations launch initiative for Palestinian state” →

brussels — Pope Francis’ burdensome trip through Belgium reached new lows Saturday when defiant Catholic university women demanded to his face a “paradigm change” on women’s issues in the church and then expressed deep disappointment when Francis dug in.  The Catholic University of Louvain, the Francophone campus of Belgium’s storied Catholic university, issued a scathing statement after Francis visited and repeated his view that women are the “fertile” nurturers of the church, inducing grimaces in his audience.  “UC Louvain expresses its incomprehension and disapproval of the position expressed by Pope Francis regarding the role of women in the church and society,” the statement said, calling the pope’s views “deterministic and reductive.”  Francis’ trip to Belgium, ostensibly to celebrate the university’s 600th anniversary, was always going to be difficult, given Belgium’s legacy of clerical sexual abuse and secular trends that have emptied churches in the once staunchly Catholic country.  Francis got an earful Friday about the abuse crisis starting with King Philippe and Prime Minister Alexander Croos and continuing on down to the victims themselves.  But it’s one thing for the pope to be lambasted by the liberal prime minister for the church’s mishandling of priests who raped children. It’s quite another to be openly criticized by the Catholic university that invited him and long was the Vatican’s intellectual fiefdom in Belgium.  Church needs ‘paradigm shift,’ say students The students made an impassioned plea to Francis for the church to change its view of women. It is an issue Francis knows well: He has made some changes during his 11-year pontificate, allowing women to serve as acolytes, appointing several women to high-ranking positions in the Vatican, and saying women must have greater decision-making roles in the church.  But he has ruled out ordaining women as priests and has refused so far to budge on demands to allow women to serve as deacons, who perform many of the same tasks as priests. He has taken the women’s issue off the table for debate at the Vatican’s upcoming three-week synod, or meeting, because it’s too thorny to be dealt with in such a short time. He has punted it to theologians and canonists to chew over into next year.  In a letter read aloud on stage with the pope listening attentively, the students noted that Francis’ landmark 2015 environmental encyclical Laudato Si (Praised Be) made virtually no mention of women, cited no women theologians … “Belgian Catholic university denounces pope’s views on women’s roles in society” →

paris — Hundreds of people came out Saturday in Paris, marching in support of the right to abortion for women across the world, just six months after France became the first country to guarantee in its constitution a woman’s right to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy.  The protest, organized by civil society groups to mark International Safe Abortion Day, also called for greater and easier access to abortion in France, denouncing budget cuts, staff reductions and the closure of abortion centers and maternity wards, which organizers say all contribute to penalizing women.  Sarah Durocher, president of France’s not-for-profit family planning services, said French women sometimes must travel to another region to access the medical services needed to abort, denouncing the “obstacle course” they sometimes face.  Thibault Thomas, 28, said the ongoing trial of a man who has confessed to drugging his wife so that dozens of men could rape her while she was unconscious, was one of the reasons that motivated him to attend the protest Saturday.  “There’s a mood in France, a particular context with the Mazan trial,” he said, referring to the name of the small Provence town where the couple had bought their retirement home, and where the repeated rapes occurred.  “This sweeps away all the excuses, or all the mitigating circumstances that we thought could have existed before,” Thomas said. “In fact, it is something broader, generalized.”  Earlier this year, France became the only country to explicitly guarantee a woman’s right to voluntarily terminate a pregnancy, when lawmakers overwhelmingly approved a bill to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution.  Abortion in France has been legal since 1975 and enjoys wide support across most of the political spectrum.  Enshrining the right in the Constitution sought to prevent the kind of rollback seen in the United States in recent years.  Still, many in the protest Saturday said the right to abort could never be taken for granted, especially at a time when far-right nationalist parties are gaining influence in France and other European countries.  “Every time the far right comes to power, sexual and reproductive rights are threatened. I don’t see why there would be a French exception,” said Durocher, stressing that every nine minutes, a woman dies somewhere in the world for not having been able to access safe abortion. “So obviously these rights are threatened.”  Also in the Saturday march was a small organization representing Colombian women in … “Hundreds rally in Paris to support world abortion rights” →

WARSAW, Poland — The death toll in Poland from recent floods rose to nine after two more bodies were found, the national police chief said Saturday.  One person is still missing, police chief Marek Boron said during a government meeting on the effects of the floods that hit southwestern Poland earlier this month.  The floods following torrential rains inundated houses and damaged bridges and roads in the towns of Stronie Slaskie, Nysa and many villages in the area. More than 20 people have died in Poland and elsewhere in Central Europe from the floods.  A German citizen is among the dead in Poland, Prime Minister Donald Tusk said earlier this week.  In the wake of the floods, Poland’s 2025 draft budget will set aside $836 million as a reserve for dealing with natural disasters, the government said Saturday.  The worst floods in at least two decades left many towns in southwestern Poland submerged, and the government plans to free up millions of dollars from the budget and European Union funds to deal with the aftermath.  The deluge has also compounded the financial worries of a government facing the prospect of EU budget discipline measures.  In a statement published after the government adopted the 2025 budget with changes due to the floods, it said that the reserve for counteracting and removing the effects of natural disasters would be increased.  It said that around $5 million in EU funds would be allocated to helping regions affected by the floods.  Finance Minister Andrzej Domanski said that no decision has been made on whether changes to the 2024 budget would be necessary.  …

prague — The main Czech opposition group led by former populist Prime Minister Andrej Babis won an election Saturday for a third of the seats in Parliament’s upper house, the Senate. The ruling coalition of Prime Minister Petr Fiala still retained a majority in the Senate. With all the votes from the two-day ballot counted, Babis’ ANO, or YES in English, won eight of the 27 seats up for grabs in the 81-seat Senate in the two-round election. It’s the first time the centrist movement won that many seats in the chamber. The results are a boost for Babis ahead of next year’s parliamentary elections. ANO has been the most popular party and is favored to win that vote. The candidates linked to the coalition won 15 seats. Parliament’s lower house dominates the legislative process, but the Senate plays an important role in passing constitutional amendments and approving Constitutional Court judges. In a separate vote last week, ANO dominated Czech regional elections, winning 10 of the 13 regions contested. The current Czech government firmly stands behind Ukraine after it was invaded by Russia. The country has donated arms, including heavy weapons, to the Ukrainian armed forces and is behind a plan to acquire artillery shells Ukraine badly needs from countries outside the European Union. Some 320,000 refugees from Ukraine currently live in Czechia. …

Madrid — A boat carrying migrants capsized off Spain’s Canary Islands overnight, killing at least nine people and leaving 48 missing, the national maritime rescue service said Saturday. Eighty-four people were on board and 27 were saved after rescuers responded to a distress call received shortly after midnight from off El Hierro, one of the islands in the Atlantic archipelago, a statement said. This follows the death of 39 migrants in early September when their boat sank off Senegal while attempting a similar crossing to the Canaries, from where migrants hope to reach mainland Europe. Thousands of migrants have died in recent years setting off into the Atlantic to reach Europe onboard overcrowded and often dilapidated boats. The latest tragedy “again underlines the dangerousness of the Atlantic route,” Canaries regional President Fernando Clavijo wrote on X. “We need Spain and the EU to act decisively in the face of a structural humanitarian tragedy” as lives are lost “meters from Europe’s southern border,” he said. In late August, Spain’s Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez visited Mauritania and Gambia to sign cooperation agreements to crack down on people smugglers while expanding pathways for legal immigration. As of August 15, some 22,304 migrants had reached the Canaries since the start of the year, up from 9,864 in the same period the previous year. Almost 40,000 migrants entered the Canaries in 2023, a record on course to be broken this year as easier navigation conditions from September tend to lead to a spike in crossing attempts. The Atlantic route is particularly deadly, with many of the crowded and poorly equipped boats unable to cope with the strong ocean currents. Some boats depart African beaches as far as 1,000 kilometers from the Canaries. The International Organization for Migration, a U.N. agency, estimates that 4,857 people have died on this route since 2014. Many aid organizations say that is a massive undercount, with Caminando Fronteras, a Spanish nongovernmental organization that aids migrants, saying 18,680 have died trying to reach Europe. …

United Nations — China ‘s Foreign Minister Wang Yi warned Saturday against the expansion of the war in Ukraine, which has accused Beijing of assisting Russia in its war. Kyiv has been particularly scornful of Beijing’s calls for talks to resolve the conflict, but Wang reiterated China ‘s offer to help broker an end to fighting. “The top priority is to commit to no expansion of the battlefield, no escalation of fighting, and no provocation by any party, and push for de-escalation of the situation as soon as possible,” he told the U.N. General Assembly. “China is committed to playing a constructive role, engaging in shuttle mediation and promoting talks for peace, not throwing oil on the fire or exploiting the situation for selfish gains.” Wang also called for an immediate cease-fire in the fighting between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but only noted the resumption of fighting in Lebanon without commenting on the death of Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, who was killed in an Israeli strike. “There must not be any delay in reaching a comprehensive cease-fire, and the fundamental way out lies in the two-state solution,” Wang said. “China has always been a staunch supporter of the just cause of the Palestinian people to regain their legitimate national rights, and a staunch supporter of Palestine’s full U.N. membership.” …

KYIV, Ukraine — Russian forces hit a medical center in Sumy in northeastern Ukraine on Saturday morning, then struck again as the building was being evacuated, killing a total of nine people, Ukrainian officials said. Ukrainian prosecutors said that at the time of the attacks, 86 patients and 38 staff members were in the hospital. “The first attack killed one person and damaged the ceilings of several floors of the hospital,” Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said on Telegram. As people were being evacuated, the Russians struck again, killing five more people, he said. Ukrainian emergencies service later said nine people were killed and 10 wounded in all. “Everyone in the world who talks about this war should pay attention to where Russia is hitting. They are fighting hospitals, civilian objects, and people’s lives,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Telegram. “Only force can force Russia to peace. Peace through force is the only right way.” Klymenko did not specify what weapons were used in Saturday’s attacks, but the regional administration and air forces said the strike was carried out by drones. Attacks on Sumy city and the Sumy region have become much more frequent since Ukrainian forces launched an operation in Russia’s Kursk region in August and captured dozens of settlements. Sumy city is located just 32 kilometers from the Russian border. Russian forces, which began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, have been attacking the region and the city with drones and guided bombs. Ukrainian air forces earlier on Saturday said they shot down 69 of 73 drones during an overnight Russian attack that included two ballistic and two cruise missiles. About 15 Russian attack drones were destroyed by air defenses in the capital, Kyiv, and on its outskirts, the military administration there said. …

Islamabad — Taliban leaders in Afghanistan have defended their Islamist rule amid intensified accusations of “gender-based” discrimination against women and girls at this week’s U.N. General Assembly. “The situation is not as it is portrayed and propagated abroad,” Maulavi Abdul Kabir, the Taliban deputy prime minister for political affairs, asserted in an interview with an Afghan television channel aired Friday. Kabir’s comments came a day after nearly two dozen countries jointly supported Germany, Canada, the Netherlands and Australia in their initiative to hold the Taliban accountable for their alleged campaign to systematically exclude women from public life since the Taliban regained power in 2021. The de facto Afghan rulers have imposed a strict interpretation of Islamic law, known as Sharia. The enforcement includes banning girls’ secondary school education, prohibiting Afghan women from most workplaces, and requiring them not to speak aloud and to cover their faces and bodies in public. Kabir, while speaking to the local Ariana News station on Friday, asserted that Western allegations of the Taliban driving women out of public spaces were misplaced, insisting that the human rights of all Afghans are protected under Islamic principles. “Education for girls beyond the sixth grade and at universities is currently suspended,” he responded when asked when secondary schools would reopen for girls. “The Islamic Emirate has not decided to keep them closed indefinitely, nor has the cabinet approved any such policy,” Kabir reiterated, using the official title of their government in Kabul. However, the Taliban deputy prime minister said that women are allowed to pursue education in religious seminaries, known as madrassas, across Afghanistan, including in the capital. “There are female teachers. It is a single-sex Islamic educational system that requires hijab under the prevailing societal norms. It also permits women to pursue medical education,” Kabir stated. He said that the Taliban government employs 85,000 women in health, immigration, education, passport and other departments. “There are hospitals in Kabul being run by female directors,” Kabir said. Nations urge Taliban to address concerns Countries such as Spain, Sweden, Belgium, Bulgaria, Chile, Croatia, Finland, Honduras, Ireland, Iceland, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malawi, Morocco, Moldova and Romania are supporting the four-nation push to start proceedings against the Taliban at the International Court of Justice in The Hague. The United States in not a member of the ICJ. In their joint statement issued in New York on Thursday, these countries urged the Taliban to respect international … “Taliban push back against allegations of gender bias, rights abuses” →

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New York — Among those in New York City for the 79th United Nations General Assembly is exiled Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya. On Monday, Tsikhanouskaya and Evgenia Kara-Murza, the Russian human rights activist and wife of former political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza, received the annual human rights prize awarded by the Lantos Foundation for Human Rights and Justice, founded by the late Tom Lantos, who was the only Holocaust survivor ever elected to the U.S. Congress. Addressing the U.N. Human Rights Council in Geneva that same day via video link, Tsikhanouskaya said she was speaking on behalf of the more than 1,400 Belarusians imprisoned for political reasons by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko’s government. “Many of them are held in complete isolation, incommunicado … no letters, no phone calls, no contact with the outside world,” she said. “My husband, Syarhei, has been cut off for over a year. I do not know if he is alive.” Tsikhanouskaya was interviewed in New York by Victoria Kupchinetsky of Voice of America’s Russian Service. This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity. VOA: What is the purpose of you coming here to New York to the General Assembly? Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya: The U.N. is a good platform where you can meet not only your allies, but also the countries who might be useful to your cause. We are, as Belarusians … fighting for the restoration of democracy in Belarus, for the release of our political prisoners. And we are looking for world leaders who can somehow assist us with these questions. People in Belarusian prisons are dying. This is the most painful topic for us in the democratic movement. And I think that countries who still have some relationship with this [Lukashenko] regime, they can assist us in solving the humanitarian crisis. VOA: Why do you think Lukashenko released those dozens of political prisoners? Do you know if there are any negotiations about an exchange similar to the recent prisoner exchange with Russia? Tsikhanouskaya: Lukashenko wants to sell the release of about 100 people as an act of humanity. But it has nothing in common with this. I think this release is connected with the pressure that is imposed on Lukashenko’s regime. They want to have the sanctions lifted, they want to be relevant in the political world, but they are not. Our task is to make sure that the policy of our democratic allies will not change toward Belarus. And, … “Exiled opposition leader: ‘We want Belarus to return to family of European countries’” →