Author: Mirits

The number of Ukrainian citizens seeking to adopt children has increased dramatically since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Lesia Bakalets reports from Kyiv, Ukraine. Camera: Vladyslav Smilianets. …

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Washington — Former President Donald Trump met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York on Friday, amid increased skepticism of U.S. support for Ukraine’s war efforts from the Republican presidential nominee and lawmakers loyal to him. Trump announced the meeting at a press conference Thursday, which was confirmed for VOA by Zelenskyy’s team. The meeting comes a day after the Ukrainian leader met with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris Thursday to discuss U.S. support for the war in Ukraine. Tension has been brewing between the two leaders. Trump is known for his skeptical remarks on U.S. involvement in Ukraine and claims that he can quickly end the conflict by making a deal between Ukraine and Russia, if elected. During a campaign event on Wednesday, Trump slammed Zelenskyy for making “little, nasty aspersions” toward him. He appeared to be referring to Zelenskyy’s comments in a recent New Yorker magazine article that Trump “doesn’t really know how to stop the war even if he might think he knows how.” Trump suggested the Ukrainian leader together with the Biden administration are at fault for prolonging the war that followed Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “Biden and Kamala allowed this to happen by feeding Zelenskyy money and munitions like no country has ever seen before,” Trump said in North Carolina. He argued that Kyiv should have made concessions to Moscow before Russian troops attacked, asserting that Ukraine is now “in rubble” and in no position to negotiate the war’s end. “Any deal — the worst deal — would’ve been better than what we have now,” said Trump. The former U.S. president has repeatedly said he wants the Russia-Ukraine war to end but has not stated whether he wants Kyiv to win or keep all its territories. His position stands in contrast with that of Biden and Harris, who have championed American aid and military support for the embattled country. “Ukraine will prevail, and we’ll continue to stand by you every step of the way,” Biden said Thursday as he met with Zelenskyy at the White House. During her meeting with Zelenskyy, Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, reiterated the administration’s support for Kyiv’s war efforts and underscored that it is up to Ukraine to decide how the war will end. Without mentioning his name, Harris criticized Republican vice-presidential nominee JD Vance, whose proposal to end the war would mean Ukraine … “Trump meets Zelenskyy amid tension, Republican criticism of Ukraine” →

BRUSSELS — s the war in Ukraine enters a critical period, the European Union has decided that it must take responsibility for what it sees as an existential threat to security in its own neighborhood and is preparing to tackle some of the financial burden, perhaps even without the United States. EU envoys have been working in Brussels this week on a proposal to provide Ukraine with a hefty loan package worth up to $39 billion. It was announced by European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a trip to Kyiv last Friday. “Crucially, this loan will flow straight into your national budget,” she told President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. “It will provide you with significant and much-needed fiscal space. You will decide how best to use the funds, giving you maximum flexibility to meet your needs.” Zelenskyy wants to buy weapons and bomb shelters and rebuild Ukraine’s shattered energy network as winter draws near. In international matters, particularly involving major conflicts, the EU rarely moves ahead without the U.S., but it hopes this decision will encourage others to come forward. Russian troops and an election close in Almost 1,000 days since their full-scale invasion, Russian forces are making advances in the east. Ukraine’s army has a shaky hold on part of the Kursk region in Russia, which has provided a temporary morale boost, but as casualties mount it remains outmanned and outgunned. On the political front, Zelenskyy hopes to secure support for a “victory plan” that might force Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table. He’s trying to persuade U.S. President Joe Biden and other allies to help strengthen Ukraine’s hand in any future talks. But a U.S. election looms, and polls suggest that Donald Trump might return to the White House in January. Trump has been critical of U.S. aid to Ukraine. On Wednesday, he said Zelenskyy should have made concessions to Putin before the invasion began in February 2022. Most of the 27-nation EU fears that a Putin victory would lead to deep uncertainty. Russia’s armed forces are depleted and currently incapable of another war, but the prospect of a future land grab in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania or Poland remains. Reworking a G7 loan plan The EU loans are part of a plan by the Group of Seven major industrialized nations to take advantage of interest earned on about $250 billion worth of frozen Russian assets, most of … “As Ukraine war enters a critical period, the EU moves ahead without the US “ →

NEW YORK — Donald Trump is set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as public tensions have been rising between the two over Ukraine’s defense against Russia’s invasion.  Trump said Zelenskyy asked for the meeting. The visit is set for about 9:45 a.m. Eastern Time at Trump Tower in New York, less than a day after Vice President Kamala Harris, Trump’s Democratic opponent, met with the Ukrainian leader and expressed unwavering support.  “I look forward to seeing him tomorrow,” Trump said in a press conference Thursday. “I believe I will be able to make a deal between President [Vladimir] Putin and President Zelenskyy, quite quickly.”  The meeting is highly anticipated and comes as Election Day nears, with Trump and Harris taking sharply different positions on backing Ukraine in the third year of its war with Russia.  Trump argues Putin would never have invaded had he been president while derisively calling Zelenskyy a “salesman” for getting U.S. assistance for Ukraine. Trump has in recent days praised Russia’s historic military victories and insisted the U.S. needs “to get out” and end its involvement with Ukraine.  Friday’s meeting almost wasn’t scheduled despite Zelenskyy’s office saying something had been planned during the Ukrainian leader’s visit to the U.N. General Assembly, during which he is making his endgame pitch to allies.  In an interview with The New Yorker magazine that was published earlier this week, Zelenskyy implied Trump does not understand and oversimplifies the conflict. The Ukrainian leader said Trump’s running mate JD Vance was “too radical” and had essentially advocated for Ukraine to “make a sacrifice” by “giving up its territories.”  Trump ripped Zelenskyy and Ukraine on two separate occasions this week. Speaking Wednesday in North Carolina, Trump referred to Ukraine as “demolished” and its people as “dead.”  “Any deal — the worst deal — would’ve been better than what we have now,” Trump said. “If they made a bad deal, it would’ve been much better. They would’ve given up a little bit and everybody would be living, and every building would be built and every tower would be aging for another 2,000 years.”  Meanwhile, Harris on Thursday stood alongside Zelenskyy and said Trump’s push for Ukraine to quickly cut a deal to end the war were “not proposals for peace,” but “proposals for surrender.” Trump on Thursday said he was not advocating for a surrender.  While Trump and Vance have long been skeptics … “Trump and Zelenskyy will meet as tensions rise over US backing for Ukraine “ →

New York — U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to meet with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Friday, on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. This meeting between the countries’ top diplomats comes amid growing U.S. concerns over Chinese firms supplying chips and drones to Moscow, which have significantly bolstered Russia’s battlefield capabilities in its war against Ukraine. Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has told the Congress that China’s material support for Russia’s war effort “comes from the very top.” Blinken’s talks with Wang will take place ahead of a call between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, expected later this fall. Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the U.N. General Assembly that Ukraine would never accept a deal imposed by other nations to end Russia’s 31-month invasion, questioning the motives of China and Brazil in pushing for negotiations with Moscow. For months, U.S. officials have accused China of actively aiding Russia’s war effort. Washington has sanctioned Chinese firms providing crucial components to Russia’s defense industry. State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller recently told VOA that the U.S. openly discusses its “differences” with China to ensure that both countries “at least understand where the other is coming from, even if we can’t reach an agreement.” He added that Washington is managing its relationship with China to prevent it from “veering from competition into conflict.” …

According to the International Energy Agency, the world now invests almost twice as much in clean energy as it does in fossil fuels. But with that shift comes environmental risks related to the mining of critical minerals. VOA’s Jessica Stone looks at how nations are navigating the environmental challenges of creating a renewable future. …

White House — U.S. President Joe Biden is hosting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House Thursday, where the Ukrainian leader is set to discuss his plans for winning the war against Russia, as Republicans accuse him of “election interference.” Zelenskyy is scheduled to meet separately with Democratic presidential nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris following his meeting with Biden. However, no plans have been announced for a meeting with Republican presidential nominee and former President Donald Trump, who has in recent days increased his criticism that the U.S. continues to “give billions of dollars to a man who refuses to make a deal” to end the war. Meanwhile, Congressional Republicans are demanding that the Ukrainian leader fire his ambassador to the U.S., Oksana Markarova, for organizing Zelenskyy’s visit Monday to an ammunition factory in Pennsylvania, a hotly contested battleground state in the November presidential election. In a letter to Zelenskyy, Republican House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson said the visit to the factory that made munitions for Ukraine was a “partisan campaign event designed to help Democrats” that amounts to “election interference.” “Support for ending Russia’s war against Ukraine continues to be bipartisan, but our relationship is unnecessarily tested and needlessly tarnished when the candidates at the top of the Republican presidential ticket are targeted in the media by officials in your government,” Johnson said. On Wednesday Trump suggested that Biden and Harris are at fault for prolonging the war that followed Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. “Biden and Kamala allowed this to happen by feeding Zelenskyy money and munitions like no country has ever seen before,” Trump said. He argued that Kyiv should have made concessions to Moscow before Russian troops attacked, asserting that Ukraine is now “in rubble” and in no position to negotiate the war’s end. “Any deal — the worst deal — would’ve been better than what we have now,” Trump said. New aid announced Ahead of Zelenskyy’s visit, the U.S. administration announced $8 billion in new aid for Ukraine. In a statement, Biden said the aid includes a Patriot missile battery and missiles, as well as air-to-ground munitions and a precision-guided glide bomb with a range of up to 130 kilometers. The administration is also expanding training for Ukrainian F-16 pilots to include an additional 18 pilots next year. “For nearly three years, the United States has rallied the world to stand with … “Zelenskyy meets with Biden, Harris amid Republican allegation of election interference” →

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WASHINGTON — A network of people and virtual currency exchanges associated with harboring Russian cybercrime were hit with sanctions on Thursday, in a government-wide crackdown on cybercrime that could assist Russia ahead of President Joe Biden’s meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.  U.S. Treasury sanctioned alleged Russian hacker Sergey Ivanov and Cryptex — a St. Vincent and Grenadines registered virtual currency exchange operating in Russia. Virtual currency exchanges allow people and businesses to trade cryptocurrencies for other assets, such as conventional dollars or other digital currencies.  Treasury alleges that Ivanov has laundered hundreds of millions of dollars worth of virtual currency for cyber criminals and darknet marketplace vendors for the last 20 years, including for Timur Shakhmametov, who allegedly created an online marketplace for stolen credit card data and compromised IDs called Joker’s Stash. Ivanov laundered the proceeds from Joker’s Stash, Treasury says.  The State Department is offering a $10 million reward for information that would lead to the arrest and possible conviction of the two men, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Virginia has unsealed an indictment against them.  Biden said in a statement announcing the sanctions Thursday that the U.S. “will continue to raise the costs on Russia for its war in Ukraine and to deprive the Russian defense industrial base of resources.”  He meets with Zelenskyy Thursday to announce a surge in security assistance for Ukraine and other actions meant to assist the war-torn country as Russia continues to invade.  State Department Spokesman Matthew Miller said, “We will continue to use all our tools and authorities to deter and expose these money laundering networks and impose cost on the cyber criminals and support networks. We reiterate our call that Russia must take concrete steps to prevent cyber criminals from freely operating in its jurisdiction.”  U.S officials have taken several actions against Russian cybercriminals since the start of the invasion in February 2022.  Earlier this year, Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control sanctioned 13 firms — five of which are owned by an already sanctioned person — and two people who have all either helped build or operate blockchain-based services for, or enabled virtual currency payments in, the Russian financial sector, “thus enabling potential sanctions evasion,” according to U.S. Treasury. …

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis is traveling to once-strong bastions of Christianity in the heart of Europe to try to reinvigorate a Catholic flock that is dwindling in the face of secular trends and abuse scandals that have largely emptied the continent’s magnificent cathedrals and village churches. Francis stops first Thursday in Luxembourg, the European Union’s second-smallest country, with a population of some 650,000 people, and its richest per capita. Torrential downpours are expected, days after the 87-year-old pope canceled his audiences because of a slight flu. He seemed in fine form at the Vatican on Wednesday, during his general audience on the eve of the trip, but his respiratory health is a constant concern and his medical team will be on hand. After meeting with Luxembourg’s political leaders, Francis will speak to the country’s Catholic priests and nuns. The venue is the late-Gothic Cathedral of Notre Dame, which was built in the early 1600s by Francis’ own Jesuit order and stands as a monument to Christianity’s long and central place in European history. Francis is likely to dwell on Europe’s role past, present and future — particularly as war rages on European soil — during his visits to Luxembourg and Belgium, where he arrives later Thursday and stays through the weekend. The trip is a much-truncated version of the 10-day, 1985 tour St. John Paul II made through Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, during which the Polish pope delivered 59 speeches or homilies and was greeted by hundreds of thousands of adoring faithful. In Luxembourg alone, John Paul drew a crowd of some 45,000 people to his Mass, or some 10% of the then-population, and officials had predicted a million people would welcome him in Belgium, according to news reports at the time. But then as now, the head of the Catholic Church faced indifference and even hostility to core Vatican teachings on contraception and sexual morals, opposition that has only increased in the ensuing generation. Those secular trends and the crisis over clergy abuse have helped lead to the decline of the church in the region, with monthly Mass attendance in the single digits and plummeting ordinations of new priests. Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that by traveling to the two countries, Francis will likely want to offer “a word to the heart of Europe, of its history, the role it wants to play in the world in the … “Pope Francis heads for Luxembourg and Belgium on a trip to a dwindling flock” →

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NEW YORK — Among the issues on the agenda for world leaders who gathered this week for the United Nations General Assembly is Russia’s war against Ukraine. In an interview in New York with VOA’s Ukrainian Service, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said his nation stands “shoulder-to-shoulder with the Ukrainians” and will provide Ukraine with military aid for “as long as it takes” to help it “stand off this aggression.” He also cited intelligence findings that Russian President Vladimir Putin is facing mounting problems, with a deteriorating economy and mounting battlefield losses. The following has been edited for length and clarity. VOA: Have you had the chance to discuss with your counterparts in other countries, including U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, the issue of lifting restrictions on Ukraine using long-range Western missiles against targets inside Russia? U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy: It was very important for me to be with Secretary Blinken in Ukraine just two weeks ago to see for ourselves, to discuss with [Ukrainian] President [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy … also to discuss Ukraine’s needs as they head out of the autumn into the winter, and that we continue as allies to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position to stand off this aggression that we’re seeing from Vladimir Putin. That was why I also went to the White House with [U.K.] Prime Minister [Keir] Starmer. We remain in the U.K. absolutely clear that we stand shoulder to shoulder with the Ukrainians. It’s important that Ukraine has the finances and the money, the military aid, as well as the political, diplomatic and humanitarian aid, to get through 2025. And of course, here at the U.N. General Assembly, I will meet with Zelenskyy once again today. But, also, it’s hugely important that we rally the Global South to ensure that they’re not falling into the trap of Russian propaganda … and efforts to destabilize [and distract] the international community … when in fact what they are doing is taking ballistic missiles from Iran to use against [Ukrainian] men, women and children. VOA: You’ve already mentioned this meeting between Prime Minister Keir Starmer and U.S. President Joe Biden in Washington. Can you share the details of the conversation? Lammy: I do think it is very important for us in the U.K. and Europe, and of course in the United States, to understand more the details of President Zelenskyy’s “victory plan.” And over … “UK foreign secretary: ‘We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with the Ukrainians’” →

The war in Ukraine, Sudan’s humanitarian crisis, and an escalation between Israel and Hezbollah dominated the second day of the United Nations General Assembly meetings. VOA U.N. Correspondent Margaret Besheer reports. …

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Madrid — Mexican president-elect Claudia Sheinbaum angered Spain on Wednesday by barring its King Felipe VI from her swearing-in ceremony, accusing him of failing to acknowledge harm caused by his country’s conquest of Mexico five centuries ago. The decision prompted Spain to boycott the event altogether, with its Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez calling the Mexican decision “inexplicable” and “totally unacceptable.” Mexico’s outgoing President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador in 2019 sent a letter to the king asking that he “publicly and officially” acknowledge the “damage” caused by the 1519-1521 conquest, which resulted in the death of a large part of the country’s pre-Hispanic population. “Unfortunately, this letter was never replied to directly, as should have been the best practice in bilateral relations,” Sheinbaum said in a statement. Mexico had in July invited just Sanchez to the swearing-in ceremony on October 1, the statement added. The Spanish foreign ministry said in a statement that the government “has decided not to participate in the inauguration at any level.” “Spain and Mexico are brotherly peoples. We cannot therefore accept being excluded like this,” Sanchez said later in a news conference on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. “That is why we have made it known to the Mexican government that there will be no diplomatic representative from the Spanish government, as a sign of protest.” Mexico published the guest list a week ago for the inauguration of Sheinbaum, who will be the country’s first woman president following her left-wing ruling party’s landslide June election victory. King Felipe VI was not on the list, which includes regional leftist leaders, as well as U.S. first lady Jill Biden. Spanish Defense Minister Margarita Robles told journalists in Madrid on Wednesday: “The head of state, the king of Spain, always attends all swearing-in ceremonies and therefore we cannot accept that in this case he should be excluded.” While Mexico and Spain have close historical and economic links, relations between the Latin American nation and its former colonial ruler have been strained since Lopez Obrador — an ally of Sheinbaum  took office in 2018. He has frequently complained about Spanish companies operating in Mexico and twice declared during his mandate that his country’s relations with Spain were “on pause”. Madrid has rejected his demand for an apology for the events of the Spanish conquest five centuries ago. Sanchez said on Wednesday, without elaborating, that Spain had … “Mexico excludes Spanish king from president’s swearing-in” →

HELSINKI — A zoo in Finland has agreed with Chinese authorities to return two loaned giant pandas to China more than eight years ahead of schedule because they have become too expensive for the facility to maintain as the number of visitors has declined. The private Ahtari Zoo in central Finland some 330 kilometers north of Helsinki said Wednesday on its Facebook page that the female panda Lumi, Finnish for “snow,” and the male panda Pyry, meaning “snowfall,” will return “prematurely” to China later this year. The panda pair was China’s gift to mark the Nordic nation’s 100 years of independence in 2017, and they were supposed to be on loan until 2033. But since then, the zoo has experienced several challenges, including a decline in visitors due to the 2020 coronavirus pandemic and Russia’s war against Ukraine, as well as an increase in inflation and interest rates, the facility said in a statement. The panda deal between Helsinki and Beijing, a 15-year loan agreement, had been finalized in April 2017 when Chinese President Xi Jinping visited Finland for talks with then-Finnish President Sauli Niinisto. The pandas arrived in Finland in January 2018. The Ahtari Zoo, which specializes in typical northern European animals such as bears, lynxes and wolverines, built a special annex at a cost of about $9 million in hopes of luring more tourists to the remote nature reserve. The upkeep of Lumi and Pyry, including a preservation fee to China, cost the zoo $1.7 million annually. The bamboo that giant pandas eat was flown in from the Netherlands. The Chinese Embassy in Helsinki noted to Finnish media that Beijing had tried to help Ahtari solve its financial difficulties by urging Chinese companies operating in Finland to make donations to the zoo and supporting its debt arrangements. However, declining visitor numbers combined with drastic changes in the economic environment proved too high a burden for the smallish Finnish zoo. The panda pair will enter a monthlong quarantine in late October before being shipped back to China. Finland, a country of 5.6 million people, was among the first Western nations to establish political ties with China, doing so in 1950. China has presented giant pandas to countries as a sign of goodwill and closer political ties, and Finland was the first Nordic nation to receive them. …

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis took the unusual decision Wednesday to expel 10 people — a bishop, priests and laypeople — from a troubled Catholic movement in Peru after a Vatican investigation uncovered “sadistic” abuses of power, authority and spirituality. The move against the leadership of the Sodalitium Christianae Vitae, or Sodalitium of Christian Life, followed Francis’ decision last month to expel the group’s founder, Luis Figari, after he was found to have sodomized his recruits. The decision was announced by the Peruvian Bishops Conference, which posted a statement from the Vatican embassy on its website. The statement was astonishing because it listed the abuses uncovered by the Vatican investigation that have rarely been punished canonically with such measures, and the people responsible. According to the statement, the Vatican investigators uncovered physical abuses “including with sadism and violence,” sect-like abuses of conscience, spiritual abuse, abuses of authority, economic abuses in administering church money and the “abuse in the exercise of the apostolate of journalism.” The latter was presumably aimed at a Sodalitium-linked journalist who has attacked critics of the movement on social media. Figari founded the movement in 1971 as a lay community to recruit “soldiers for God,” one of several Catholic societies born as a conservative reaction to the left-leaning liberation theology movement that swept through Latin America, starting in the 1960s. At its height, the group counted about 20,000 members across South America and the United States. It was enormously influential in Peru. Victims of Figari’s abuses complained to the Lima archdiocese in 2011, although other claims against him reportedly date to 2000. But neither the local church nor the Holy See took concrete action until one of the victims, Pedro Salinas, wrote a book along with journalist Paola Ugaz detailing the twisted practices of the Sodalitium in 2015, entitled “Half Monks, Half Soldiers.” An outside investigation ordered by Sodalitium determined that Figari was “narcissistic, paranoid, demeaning, vulgar, vindictive, manipulative, racist, sexist, elitist and obsessed with sexual issues and the sexual orientation” of Sodalitium’s members. The investigation, published in 2017, found that Figari sodomized his recruits and forced them to fondle him and one another. He liked to watch them “experience pain, discomfort and fear” and humiliated them in front of others to enhance his control over them, the report found. Still, the Holy See declined to expel Figari from the movement in 2017 and merely ordered him to … “Pope expels bishop, 9 others from Peru movement over ‘sadistic’ abuses” →

Geneva — As Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine grinds on for a third year, a United Nations report says all dissenting voices in the Russian Federation have been muzzled, civic and political rights have been shut down, and the human rights situation in the country “has significantly worsened.” “The country is now governed by a state-sponsored system of fear and punishment including the use of torture, with absolute impunity,” Mariana Katzarova, who monitors rights in Russia under a mandate from the U.N.-backed Human Rights Council, said Tuesday. Katzarova said civil and political freedoms in Russia have become further restricted since she submitted her first report to the council more than a year ago. “The severity of the government’s human rights violations has escalated, and its tools expanded to suppress dissent against its repressive domestic policy and war-driven foreign policy,” she said. As with last year’s report, Katzarova noted that she was obliged to gather information for this year’s 23-page report from a range of sources inside and outside the Russian Federation. Despite repeated requests, she said she was not granted access to Russia, “which would have allowed a dialogue with the government and other stakeholders and enabled the reflection of their position in this report.” The report paints a chilling picture of a dystopian society in which Russian citizens are not free to express their views, state-driven human rights violations are legalized by new or amended legislation, public anti-war expression or dissent of any kind is criminalized, the use of violence by law enforcement is condoned, and “an environment of absolute impunity has been created.” ‘War censorship’ Under Russia’s so-called “war censorship” legislation, Katzarova noted that hundreds of people who “dare to speak the truth” about what is happening in the war against Ukraine have been prosecuted, given long prison sentences and subjected to the “crippling financial punishment” of having property and assets confiscated. The report says at least 1,372 human rights defenders, journalists and anti-war critics have been detained on politically motivated charges and sentenced “in sham trials to lengthy imprisonment, often with treatment amounting to torture.” While Russian authorities have intensified their crackdown on these “traditional sources of opposition,” Katzarova said poets, playwrights, artists, religious figures, indigenous groups, migrants, and those who’ve fled abroad are often targeted with “harsh censorship, intimidation and prosecution for any perceived transgression.” “Of particular concern is the evidence of state-condoned violence and torture against … “UN: Russia muzzling dissent amid climate of fear, repression” →

A volunteer group is searching for the remains of people killed in the conflict with Russia in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The group Platsdarm says it has recovered around 2,000 bodies since 2014. Yaroslava Movchan has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Videographer: Dmytro Hlushko …

HELSINKI — Finland will return two giant pandas to China in November, more than eight years ahead of time, as the zoo where they live can no longer afford their upkeep, the chair of the zoo’s board told Reuters on Tuesday.  The pandas, named Lumi and Pyry, were brought to Finland in January 2018, months after Chinese President Xi Jinping visited the Nordic country and signed a joint agreement on protecting the animals.  Since its founding in 1949, the People’s Republic of China has sent pandas to foreign zoos to strengthen trading ties, cement foreign relations and boost its international image.  The Finnish agreement was for a stay of 15 years, but instead the pandas will soon go into a month-long quarantine before they are shipped back to China, according to Ahtari Zoo, the pandas’ current home.  The zoo, a private company, had invested over 8 million euros ($8.92 million) in the facility where the animals live and faced annual costs of 1.5 million euros for their upkeep, including a preservation fee paid to China, Ahtari Chair Risto Sivonen said.  The zoo had hoped the pandas would attract visitors to the central Finland location but last year said it had instead accumulated mounting debts as the pandemic curbed travel, and that it was discussing a return.  Rising inflation had added to the costs, the zoo said, and Finland’s government in 2023 rejected pleas for state funding.  In all, negotiations to return the animals had lasted three years, Sivonen said.  “Now we reached a point where the Chinese said it could be done,” Sivonen said.  The return of the pandas was a business decision made by the zoo which did not involve Finland’s government and should not impact relations between the two countries, a spokesperson for Finland’s foreign ministry said.  Despite efforts by China to aid the zoo, the two countries in the end jointly concluded after friendly consultations to return the pandas, the Chinese embassy in Helsinki said in a statement to Reuters.  …

Athens — Greece and Turkey will explore whether they can start talks aimed at demarcating their maritime zones, Greece’s foreign ministry said on Wednesday. Neighbors Greece and Turkey, both NATO allies but historic foes, have been at odds for decades over a range of issues from airspace to maritime jurisdiction in the eastern Mediterranean and ethnically split Cyprus. An agreement on where their maritime zones begin and end is important for determining rights over possible gas reserves and power infrastructure schemes. Tensions have eased in recent years and both countries agreed last year to reboot their relations, pledging to keep open channels of communication and work on the issues that have kept them apart. Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met on the sidelines of the annual United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday and discussed bilateral ties, according to statements from the Turkish presidency and the Greek foreign ministry. “The two leaders tasked the foreign ministers to explore whether conditions are favorable to initiate discussions on the demarcation of the continental shelf and exclusive economic zone,” Greek Foreign Minister George Gerapetritis said. Foreign ministers from the two countries will start preparations for a high-level meeting to take place in Ankara in January, the Greek prime minister’s office said. …

Helsinki — Environmental activists sprayed red paint on Finland’s parliament building on Wednesday to protest against the peat industry, sparking strong criticism from politicians. Activists from Extinction Rebellion Finland and Swedish organization Aterstall Vatmarker (Restore Wetlands) smeared several granite columns at the building’s main entrance in red paint resembling blood. They told AFP they were protesting against the Finnish state-owned company Neova mining peat in Swedish wetlands. Peat extracted from wetlands is often used as an energy source or for farming purposes, emitting large amounts of carbon dioxide. In their natural state, peatlands store large amounts of carbon dioxide. “We have painted the columns with this easily washable paint to show that Finland is actively involved in accelerating the climate crisis,” said Valpuri Nykanen, an activist from Extinction Rebellion Finland standing outside the building. “Finland is mining peat in Sweden, while we know that we must phase out oil, gas and all fossil fuels and peat is very fossil,” added Lior Tell-Stefansson from Aterstall Vatmarker. Police arrived at the scene after 8:00 am (0500 GMT) and removed 10 protesters sitting on the stairs with signs in their hands. The incident was investigated as aggravated damage to property, the police said in a statement. Several Finnish politicians immediately condemned the act. Newspaper Helsingin Sanomat quoted Prime Minister Petteri Orpo as saying it was “completely incomprehensible and unacceptable vandalism.” “Finland is a free democracy. We have the right to demonstrate and influence things, but we have civilized ways of doing it,” Orpo said. …

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WARSAW, Poland — Climate change has made downpours like the one that caused devastating floods in central Europe this month twice as likely to occur, a report said on Wednesday, as its scientific authors urged policymakers to act to stop global warming. The worst flooding to hit central Europe in at least two decades has left 24 people dead, with towns strewn with mud and debris, buildings damaged, bridges collapsed and authorities left with a bill for repairs that runs into billions of dollars. The report from World Weather Attribution, an international group of scientists that studies the effects of climate change on extreme weather events, found that the four days of rainfall brought by Storm Boris were the heaviest ever recorded in central Europe. It said that climate change had made such downpours at least twice as likely and 7% heavier. “Yet again, these floods highlight the devastating results of fossil fuel-driven warming,” Joyce Kimutai, a researcher at Imperial College London’s Grantham Institute and co-author of the study, said in a statement. “Until oil, gas and coal are replaced with renewable energy, storms like Boris will unleash even heavier rainfall, driving economy-crippling floods.” The report said that while the combination of weather patterns that caused the storm – including cold air moving over the Alps and very warm air over the Mediterranean and the Black Seas – was unusual, climate change made such storms more intense and more likely. According to the report, such a storm is expected to occur on average about once every 100 to 300 years in today’s climate with 1.3 degrees Celsius of warming from pre-industrial levels. However, it said that such storms will result in at least 5% more rain and occur about 50% more frequently than now if warming from pre-industrial levels reaches 2 C, which is expected to happen in the 2050s. …