France adds first nuclear reactor in 25 years to grid

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PARIS — France connected the Flamanville 3 nuclear reactor to its grid on Saturday morning, state-run operator EDF said, in the first addition to the country’s nuclear power network in 25 years.

The reactor, which began operating in September ahead of the grid connection, is going online 12 years later than originally planned and at a cost of about $13 billion — four times the original budget.

“EDF teams have achieved the first connection of the Flamanville EPR to the national grid at 11:48 a.m. The reactor is now generating electricity,” EDF said in a statement.

The Flamanville 3 European Pressurized Reactor is France’s largest at 1.6 gigawatts and one of the world’s biggest, along with China’s 1.75 GW Taishan reactor, which is based on a similar design, and Finland’s Olkiluoto.

It is the first to be connected to the grid since COVAX 2 in 1999 but is being brought into service at a time of sluggish consumption, with France exporting a record amount of electricity this year.

EDF is planning to build six new reactors to fulfill a 2022 pledge made by President Emmanuel Macron as part of the country’s energy transition plans, although questions remain around the funding and timeline of the new projects.
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Pakistan dismisses US official’s warning over missile program

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KARACHI, PAKISTAN — Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry on Saturday dismissed as unfounded and “devoid of rationality” assertions by a senior U.S. official that its missile program could eventually pose a threat to the United States.

Earlier this week, Deputy National Security Adviser Jon Finer said Pakistan’s development of long-range ballistic missiles made it an “emerging threat.”

Finer’s comments, which came a day after Washington announced a new round of sanctions related to the ballistic missile program, underscored the deterioration in once-close ties between Washington and Islamabad since the 2021 U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Addressing Finer’s remarks, Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said the perception of an alleged threat was “unfortunate.”

“These allegations are unfounded, devoid of rationality and sense of history,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said that its strategic capabilities were solely for defending its sovereignty and maintaining regional stability, and that they should not be perceived as a threat to any other country.

It also highlighted Pakistan’s long history of cooperation with the U.S., particularly in counterterrorism efforts, and reiterated its commitment to engaging constructively on all issues, including regional security and stability.

Relations between the United States and Pakistan have seen significant ups and downs. The countries collaborated during the Cold War and in the fight against al-Qaida after 9/11.

Ties have been strained, however, due to coups in the South Asian country by Pakistan’s military, support for the Taliban’s 1996-2001 rule in Afghanistan, and over the nuclear weapons program.
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Germans mourn attack on Christmas market with no answers about why

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MAGDEBURG, GERMANY — Germans on Saturday mourned a violent attack and their shaken sense of security after a Saudi doctor intentionally drove a black BMW into a Christmas market teeming with holiday shoppers, killing at least two people, including a small child, and injuring at least 60 others.

Authorities arrested a 50-year-old man at the site of the attack Friday evening and took him into custody for questioning. He has lived in Germany for nearly two decades, practicing medicine, officials said.

Several German media outlets identified the man as Taleb A., withholding his last name in line with privacy laws, and reported that he was a specialist in psychiatry and psychotherapy.

There were still no answers Saturday as to what caused him to drive into a crowd in the eastern German city of Magdeburg.

Describing himself as a former Muslim, he shared dozens of tweets and retweets daily focusing on anti-Islam themes, criticizing the religion and congratulating Muslims who left the faith.

He also accused German authorities of failing to do enough to combat what he said was the “Islamism of Europe.” Some described him as an activist who helped Saudi women flee their homeland. He has also voiced support for the far-right and anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party.

Recently, he seemed focused on his theory that German authorities have been targeting Saudi asylum seekers.

Prominent German terrorism expert Peter Neumann said he had yet to come across a suspect in an act of mass violence with that profile.

“After 25 years in this ‘business’ you think nothing could surprise you anymore. But a 50-year-old Saudi ex-Muslim who lives in East Germany, loves the AfD and wants to punish Germany for its tolerance towards Islamists — that really wasn’t on my radar,” Neumann, the director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalization and Political Violence at King’s College London, wrote on X.

The violence shocked Germany and the city, bringing its mayor to the verge of tears and marring a festive event that’s part of a centuries-old German tradition. It prompted several other German towns to cancel their weekend Christmas markets as a precaution and out of solidarity with Magdeburg’s loss. Berlin, where a truck attack on a Christmas market in 2016 killed 12 people, kept its markets open but has increased its police presence at them.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Interior Minister Nancy Faeser were due to travel to Magdeburg on Saturday, and a memorial service is to take place in the city cathedral in the evening.

“My thoughts are with the victims and their relatives,” Scholz wrote on X. “We stand beside them and beside the people of Magdeburg.”

Magdeburg is a city of about 240,000 people, west of Berlin, that serves as Saxony-Anhalt’s capital. Friday’s attack came eight years after an Islamic extremist drove a truck into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, killing 13 people and injuring many others. The attacker was killed days later in a shootout in Italy.

Verified bystander footage distributed by the German news agency dpa showed the suspect’s arrest at a tram stop in the middle of the road. A nearby police officer pointing a handgun at the man shouted at him as he lay prone, his head arched up slightly. Other officers swarmed around the suspect and took him into custody.

The two people confirmed dead were an adult and a toddler, but officials said additional deaths couldn’t be ruled out because 15 people had been seriously injured.

“As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know there is no further danger to the city,” Saxony-Anhalt’s governor, Reiner Haseloff, told reporters. “Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many.”

Authorities identified the suspect as a 50-year-old Saudi doctor who moved to Germany in 2006 and who had been practicing medicine in Bernburg, about 40 kilometers south of Magdeburg.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry condemned the attack on X but did not mention the suspect’s connection to the kingdom.

Christmas markets are a German holiday tradition cherished since the Middle Ages, now successfully exported to much of the Western world.

Hours after Friday’s tragedy, the wail of sirens clashed with the market’s festive ornaments, stars and leafy garlands.

Magdeburg resident Dorin Steffen told dpa that she was at a concert in a nearby church when she heard the sirens. The cacophony was so loud “you had to assume that something terrible had happened,” she said, calling it “a dark day” for the city.

The attack reverberated far beyond Magdeburg, with Haseloff calling it a catastrophe for the city, state and country. He said flags would be lowered to half-staff in Saxony-Anhalt and that the federal government planned to do the same.

“It is really one of the worst things one can imagine, particularly in connection with what a Christmas market should bring,” the governor said.
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Trump adds EU to list of trade partners he threatens with tariffs

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WEST PALM BEACH, FLORIDA — President-elect Donald Trump on Friday added the 27 countries that make up the European Union to the list of trade partners he’s threatening with tariffs — unless the group takes steps to import more U.S. goods. 

“I told the European Union that they must make up their tremendous deficit with the United States by the large scale purchase of our oil and gas,” Trump posted shortly after 1 a.m. on social media. “Otherwise, it is TARIFFS all the way!!!” 

In 2023, the United States’ trade imbalance with the EU on goods was $209 billion, according to the Census Bureau. There were $576 billion in imports from Europe and $367 billion in exports from the United States. 

Trump’s transition team did not respond to questions seeking greater clarity on the message, which for all its bluntness was unclear on next steps. 

When Trump threatened Canada and Mexico with 25% tariffs in November, the leaders of both countries spoke with him to try to resolve any tensions. But the European Union lacks a single figure who can make the purchase commitments of natural gas and oil on behalf of its 27 member states that Trump is seeking. 

EU Commission spokesperson Olof Gill said in reaction to Trump’s post that “we are ready to discuss with President-elect Trump how we can further strengthen an already strong relationship, including by discussing our common interests in the energy sector.” 

Gill noted that the EU is already “committed to phasing out energy imports from Russia and diversifying our sources of supply. We’re not going to go into any details about what that might entail in the future, given that the new administration isn’t even in place yet.” 

Scott Lincicome, a vice president at the libertarian Cato Institute, said it was difficult to parse what Trump was trying to say relative to European trade, given that natural gas exports to the continent are already up after Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine. 

“What we really need to chalk all of this up to is Trump laying the groundwork for future negotiations,” Lincicome said. “This is for better or worse a lot of what we’re going to see for the next four years.” 

While there is a $209 billion trade imbalance, a more complicated relationship lies beneath those numbers. A company such as German automaker BMW can import parts needed to assemble vehicles at its factory in South Carolina, such that the trade totals also reflect the flow of goods within European companies that employ U.S. workers. 

More than half of the liquified natural gas imported by the EU and the United Kingdom in 2023 came from the United States, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The volume of LNG going to the EU and UK has tripled since 2021. 

On Tuesday, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm issued a statement based on a new study saying that unfettered exports of LNG could increase prices domestically and increase carbon emissions. Trump ran for president on the idea that increased oil and natural gas production would reduce costs for U.S. voters who were left frustrated by a 2022 inflationary spike that still lingers. 

Trump’s demands on Europe to buy more oil and natural gas were not especially new. He also made them during his initial term as president and in 2018 reached a deal with Jean-Claude Juncker, then-president of the European Commission, to sell more LNG to Europe. 

The problem with that agreement, as noted by the University of Pennsylvania’s Kleinman Center for Energy Policy, is that the U.S. “cannot force companies to send products to a specific region or country” and the EU cannot force its members to buy American fossil fuels. 
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Pennsylvania’s Bethlehem, founded by Moravians on Christmas eve, keeps its traditions alive

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BETHLEHEM, PENNSYLVANIA — On Christmas Eve in 1741, Moravian settlers named this Pennsylvania city after the biblical birthplace of Jesus. Nearly 300 years later, Moravians continue celebrating their Christmas season traditions in Bethlehem.

They include the “putz,” a Nativity scene that tells the story of Christ’s birth with miniature wooden figurines, the making of thousands of beeswax candles by hand as a symbol of the light that Jesus brought to the world and a “lovefeast,” a song service where worshippers share a simple meal of sweet buns and coffee in their pews.

“Like all Moravian traditions, the importance of it is that it brings people together,” said the Rev. Janel Rice, senior pastor of Central Moravian Church — Bethlehem’s first congregation and the oldest Moravian church in North America.

“Building community, emphasizing that, over doctrine or dogma, is really the Moravian practice and tradition at our core,” she said.

Moravians relate to the story of Jesus, Mary and Joseph, Rice said, because their ancestors began as a refugee church fleeing religious persecution. The Nativity is also a poignant reminder today, when the number of people fleeing their homes because of war, violence and persecution continues to rise worldwide.

“It’s so crucial because this story is not just Jesus’s story of 2,000 years ago. It’s today’s story. And we need to make sure that we’re living the word that we were told when it comes to these refugees,” said church member Sarah Wascura. “That word is to give them refuge and to take care of them and to love them as ourselves.”

A town founded on Christmas Eve

The Moravian Church is one of the world’s oldest Protestant denominations. Its name comes from the historical provinces of Bohemia and Moravia in what is now the Czech Republic.

Their beliefs of practice over dogma began with a religious reformer, John Hus, who led a protest movement against some of the practices of Roman Catholic hierarchy. Hus believed congregants in his church should listen to Mass and read the Bible in their native Czech instead of Latin. He was accused of heresy and burned at the stake in 1415.

His ideas were carried on by his supporters, who broke with Rome and founded the Moravian Church, or Unitas Fratrum (Unity of Brethren) in 1457 — decades before Martin Luther’s Protestant Reformation.

Moravians facing persecution eventually fled to Herrnhut, Germany, and established the original Renewed Moravian Church settlement, according to accounts of church history.

Moravian missionaries later settled in Pennsylvania.

On Christmas Eve in 1741, their leader, Count Nicolas Ludwig von Zinzendorf, who was visiting them, led them to a stable, where they sang the hymn Jesus Call Thou Me. Its lyrics say: “Not Jerusalem — lowly Bethlehem ’twas that gave us Christ to save us.” Thus inspired, Zinzendorf named the settlement Bethlehem.

Beloved tradition retells the story of the birth of Jesus

Bethlehem’s first settlers brought with them hand-carved figures to retell the story of Christ’s birth. The tradition is known as the putz, from the German word “putzen,” meaning to clean or decorate.

“It relates back to the creches of the Middle Ages,” Rice said. “But it’s not just a creche, which would be just the one Nativity scene.”

Instead, it uses figures to tell different parts of the Gospel in miniature, including Mary’s annunciation and the visit of the three wise men to the infant Jesus.

In Victorian days, Rice said, Bethlehem’s residents would “go putzing” — visiting each other’s homes between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day to look at Nativity scenes.

In 1937, the local chamber of commerce launched a campaign promoting Bethlehem as “Christmas City USA.” As part of that promotion, they took the tradition of the putz to the historic Hotel Bethlehem on Main Street. Thousands turned up.

“The story goes that the hotel got so crowded that they couldn’t really accommodate the number of people that were coming to see it, and they asked Central Moravian Church to host it.”

For every Christmas since then, the community putz has been put together by the church’s congregants and displayed at the nearby Christian education building.

“It’s more than Christmas for four weeks a year,” said Wascura, who went to the putz on her first date with Bob Wascura, her husband of 33 years.

“The nature of the faith heritage of the city is something that is never forgotten.”

On a recent day, she led families visiting the community putz to their seats. After recounting a brief history of the Moravian Church and the Pennsylvania city, she drew a curtain to display the dozens of wooden figures — angels, shepherds, kings carrying gifts — in a tiny landscape decorated with pebbles, wood and moss.

Children and parents listened to the recorded voice of Janel Rice, who narrated the biblical story about the other Bethlehem.

“We might wonder why setting up a putz and telling the story of Jesus’ birth is so important to the Moravians, and now to the city of Bethlehem,” Rice says in the recording. “One reason has to do with the naming of the city itself.”

The church choir, after some singing, gave way to the powerful sound of the renowned Moravian Trombone Choir, known for playing its brassy tunes from the belfry of Central Moravian Church. When the lights turned on, children approached the stage to look up close at the figurines and point at surprises near the manger, including miniature zebras, lions and giraffes.

“We feel really lucky to live so close to Bethlehem with all of the history here and specifically the history pertaining to Christmas,” said visitor Kelly Ann Ryan. “It’s just something that we can’t miss every holiday season as it rolls around.”

She came to Bethlehem from a nearby town with her husband, Daniel, and their 5- and 8-year-old sons to see the community putz, in what she said has become a family tradition.

“Telling the Christmas story this way is a great way for kids to connect with it.”

Lighting candles on Christmas Eve, joining Santa for a sleigh ride

Christmas — from the Christian celebration to the secular commercial holiday — is omnipresent in Bethlehem.

On a recent day, Santa Claus checked on a red sleigh (drawn by horses instead of reindeer) outside Central Moravian before he led families who hopped on for a tour of Bethlehem and its Moravian church settlements, which were recently designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site.

Others strolled to nearby holiday-themed wooden huts or along Main Street with its stores decorated with Christmas globes and Moravian stars. Some stopped outside an Italian restaurant to greet Santa and Mrs. Claus, who welcomed diners and posed for photos.

Across town, vendors sold ornaments at Christkindlmarkt, in the shadow of rusting blast furnaces of Bethlehem Steel illuminated in red and green. That company once supplied steel for construction of the Empire State Building, the Golden Gate Bridge and other landmarks.

At Central Moravian, the choir sang hymns while sacristans handed out buns and mugs of coffee to families who enjoyed the sustenance in their pews at the “lovefeast.”

After Rice delivered a final blessing, Linda Thudium walked up the stairs and opened a large closet, where the congregation keeps thousands of handmade candles wrapped in red ribbons that they light during Christmas services.

“To me, this is Christmas — looking at these candles,” said Thudium. She recalled attending Christmas Eve services with lit candles since she was 5, a tradition she continued with her children and grandchildren.

“To me, this is just magical. I remember my parents doing this, my grandparents,” she said. “It’s just a wonderful warm feeling of being connected with this church.”
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Myanmar ethnic rebels say they’ve captured junta western command

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BANGKOK — A Myanmar ethnic rebel group has captured a military regional command in Rakhine state, it said, in what would be a major blow to the junta. 

 

The Arakan Army had “completely captured” the western regional command at Ann on Friday after weeks of fighting, the group said in a statement on its Telegram channel.

Ann would be the second regional military command to fall to ethnic rebels in five months and a huge blow to the military.

Myanmar’s military has 14 regional commands across the country with many of them currently fighting established ethnic rebel groups or newer “People’s Defense Forces” that have sprung up to battle the military’s 2021 coup.

Fighting has rocked Rakhine state since the AA attacked security forces in November last year, ending a ceasefire that had largely held since the putsch.

AA fighters have seized swathes of territory in the state that is home to China- and India-backed port projects and all but cut off state capital Sittwe.

The AA posted photos of a man whom it said was the Ann deputy regional commander, in the custody of its fighters.

AFP was unable to confirm that information and has contacted the AA’s spokesperson for comment.

AFP was unable to reach people on the ground around Ann where internet and phone services are patchy.

In decades of on-off fighting since independence from Britain in 1948 the military had never lost a regional military command until last August, when the Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army captured the northeastern command in Lashio in Shan state.

Myanmar’s borderlands are home to myriad ethnic armed groups who have battled the military since independence for autonomy and control of lucrative resources.

Last month the U.N. warned Rakhine state was heading towards famine, as ongoing clashes squeeze commerce and agricultural production.

“Rakhine’s economy has stopped functioning,” the report from the U.N. Development Program said, projecting “famine conditions by mid-2025” if current levels of food insecurity were left unaddressed. 
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Indonesians mark 2 decades since the tsunami that killed 230,000

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BANDA ACEH, INDONESIA — Two decades after a catastrophic tsunami destroyed her village, Tria Asnani still cries when she recalls how she lost her mother while trying to escape the giant waves.

Asnani, now a schoolteacher, was 17 at the time. Her father, who was a fisherman, never returned home from sea. She doesn’t know how she survived. “I cannot swim. I could only rely on dhikr (Islamic prayer).”

On Dec. 26, 2004, a powerful 9.1 magnitude earthquake off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra triggered a tsunami that killed around 230,000 people across a dozen countries, reaching as far as East Africa.

But Indonesia’s Aceh province, located closest to the earthquake’s epicenter and with 18 of 23 districts and cities located in the coastal line in the Northern side of Sumatra, bore the brunt of the disaster with more than half of the total death toll reported.

The worst-hit areas were in Aceh Besar and Banda Aceh, according to the Aceh Disaster Management Agency.

Asnani’s Lampuuk village lies in a fishermen’s community in Aceh Besar, known for its white sandy beaches and turquoise waters. However, on that day, it was among the hardest hit, with waves more than 30 meters high which changed the coastline in Aceh and led to land subsidence after the earthquake.

Buildings by the coast were flattened to the ground except for Rahmatullah Mosque, 500 meters from the shore, and about a kilometer from Asnani’s house. The photo of the place of worship, left pretty much unscathed, later became iconic.

After the disastrous event, thousands, including Asnani, had to relocate to start afresh. She moved with her uncle to another region in Aceh to continue her studies. After she got married, she returned in 2007 to her parents’ house which was rebuilt with assistance from the Turkish government and lived there for 10 years.

Many international donors and organizations poured in money to help rebuild the affected areas that lost schools, hospitals and basic infrastructure, made stronger than before the tsunami hit.

Tsunami and Disaster Mitigation Research Center at Syiah Kuala University in Aceh recorded more than 1,400 wrecked schools and about 150,000 students had their education process disrupted by the destructive waves in a report published in 2019.

Three “escape buildings” were also constructed in a relatively safer area to accommodate thousands of people if an earthquake and tsunami strike.

Across the province, memories of the tsunami can be felt almost everywhere.

The Aceh Tsunami Museum in Banda Aceh houses photos of the aftermath and vehicle debris, serving as a constant reminder of what was lost that day. Local authorities have also turned a former floating diesel-powered power plant barge that washed about 6 kilometers inland by the tsunami into another memorial place.

Both places have become the most popular tourist destinations in the area.

But development never stops and 20 years after the tsunami the Aceh coast is brimming with residential housing, cafes and restaurants, as well as tourism support facilities, while the hills in some areas from which people are currently being mined for sand and stone.

Fazli, the head of Preparedness in Aceh Disaster Management Agency, said that the government initially stipulated that there should be no activity up to 1 kilometer from the coast. Over time, many displaced fishermen returned to their original coastal homes, drawn by their livelihoods and ties to the sea, despite having received housing elsewhere.

He also said the agency has “provided the Acehnese people with information ” to deal with a potential tsunami. “People already know what to do,” said Fazli, who, like other Indonesians, uses a single name.

Siti Ikramatoun, a sociologist in Banda Aceh, said that despite years of recovery and rebuilding, the people of Aceh must stay vigilant.

“If people experienced (the tsunami), they may have an instinct to anticipate it. But those who do not have the experience, they won’t get what to do,” Ikramatoun said.

Various communities in Aceh commemorate the tsunami yearly along with the government and local authorities.

In Banda Aceh, art communities in early December spread disaster awareness through theatrical or musical performances that can be easier for people to follow and target all groups, including those born after the tsunami.

Muslina, 43, a civil servant, took her youngest son to the Aceh Tsunami Museum to watch one of the shows. She lost relatives and loved ones 20 years ago and she wants to make sure she always remembers them.

“Earlier my son asked me if there might be another tsunami when he grows up,” she said. “I told him I do not know. Only God knows, but if there is a strong earthquake and the seawater recedes, we run, run, run to find higher ground.” 
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Thousands rally at US Embassy in Cuba against trade embargo

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HAVANA — Thousands of Cubans joined a protest Friday in front of the U.S. Embassy in Havana that was led by President Miguel Diaz-Canel and ex-leader Raul Castro against Washington’s long-standing trade blockade.

“We are marching now to tell the U.S. government to let the Cuban people live in peace. Down with interference!” Diaz-Canel told a crowd that had gathered a month before Republican Donald Trump returns to the White House.

Communist Cuba is enduring a worsening economic crisis that the government blames on U.S. sanctions that have been in place since 1962 and were tightened during Trump’s first term.

“If we didn’t have the blockade, we would not be facing difficulty like this,” said 85-year-old retiree Faustino Miranda.

The Caribbean nation faces a lack of food and medicine, frequent blackouts and a wave of emigration.

Rogelio Savigne, 55, head of transport at a state-owned company, told AFP: “We need them to open the doors for us to be able to trade with all countries.”

Authorities said that 700,000 people marched in the capital on Friday. AFP was not able to independently verify that number.

Former president Castro, 93, stood at the head of the march along with Diaz-Canel, who earlier Friday had blamed the U.S. embargo for making this year “one of the most difficult” for Cuba.

On Tuesday, the country’s deputy foreign minister reiterated its willingness to enter into a dialogue with Trump, who will take office on Jan. 20.

During his first term, Trump halted an easing of relations between Washington and Havana that began in 2014.

He implemented 243 measures that reinforced the embargo, including the reincorporation of the island into the U.S. blacklist of “countries that sponsor terrorism,” alongside Iran and North Korea.

Current U.S. President Joe Biden has kept Cuba on that list but resumed discussions with Havana on counterterrorism and combating illegal migration. 
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Ukraine strike kills 6 in Russia’s Kursk region

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Ukraine attacked a town in Russia’s Kursk region Friday, killing six people, including a child, a senior local official said.

Ten others were hospitalized in the town of Rylsk after the attack with U.S.-supplied HIMARS rockets, Kursk acting Governor Alexander Khinshtein said.

The attack, Ukrainian officials said, followed an earlier Russian missile attack on Kyiv.

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said an early Friday morning Russian ballistic missile attack on the capital killed at least one person, wounded 13 and damaged six foreign embassies and a university in the city’s center.

On its Telegram social media account, Ukraine’s air force said it intercepted five Iskander short-range ballistic missiles fired at the city, but falling missile debris caused damage and sparked fires in three districts. City officials reported damage to multiple residential buildings, medical facilities and schools.

Air force officials urged citizens to immediately respond to reports of ballistic attack threats because they provide very little time to find shelter.

At a briefing in Kyiv on Friday, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Georgiy Tykhyi said the missile attack did significant damage to a building that houses the embassies of Albania, Argentina, the Palestinians, North Macedonia, Portugal and Montenegro. He shared pictures of the damage to the buildings. No injuries were reported in those attacks.

The Kyiv National Linguistics University said on its Instagram account that its building also had been hit, and it shared a picture of an area near an entrance where two large windows had been blown out.

Russia has said it launched the attack in retaliation for Kyiv’s firing U.S.-made weapons into Russia.

Russia’s attacks on Kyiv came one day after Russian President Vladimir Putin’s year-end press conference. Putin has been talking about negotiations to end the war “for quite some time, but the bombing has continued,” said Charles Kupchan, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations.

President-elect Donald Trump has talked about the possibility of talks with the Russian and Ukrainian presidents to end the war. He has said he could broker a deal to end the war in 24 hours.

Kupchan said Trump is “naive” to think he could get the two countries to come to an agreement so swiftly.

Trump “cannot afford a deal that effectively subjugates Ukraine and leaves it a ward of Russia,” Kupchan said. Ukraine must be defensible, he said, and “not left in a geopolitical limbo that invites Russia to simply pick up the war where it left off six months from now … or a year later.”

Meanwhile, Olha Stefanishyna, Ukraine’s deputy prime minister and minister of justice, reported Friday that Russia had launched a cyberattack on state registers, resulting in a shutdown.

Stefanishyna made the initial report from her Facebook page, where she said it was clear the attack was orchestrated by Russia to “sow panic among citizens of Ukraine and abroad.”

She held a briefing later Friday in Kyiv along with Ukraine’s acting head of the Cybersecurity Department of the security service, Volodymyr Karastelov.

She told reporters that while it appeared no data were lost or stolen, the ministry suspended the activities of all state registers to avoid further deployment of threats. The affected registries include civil acts such as marriages, wills, births and car registrations, and Stefanishyna said they were working to restore them.

The Cybersecurity Department said its main line of investigation was that a hacker group affiliated with Russian military intelligence was behind the attack. Russia has yet to comment on the attack.

VOA’s Kim Lewis contributed to this report. Some information came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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Foreign worker visa program faces uncertainty under second Trump term

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WASHINGTON — Foreign workers seeking U.S. jobs enjoyed near-guaranteed visa success in fiscal year 2024, with immigration authorities approving more than 97% of H1-B visa applications, as reported by the National Foundation for American Policy.

The was the second-highest approval rate in more than a decade. But the exceptionally high success rate could soon end if President-elect Donald Trump’s team revives his first administration’s restrictive immigration policies, according to immigration lawyers. That in turn could significantly affect U.S. businesses and other institutions that rely on highly skilled foreign workers, especially those from India, they warn.

“I think it’s going to get harder, and it’s going to be more complicated to approve things,” said Sharvari Dalal-Dheini, senior director of government relations at the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA) and a former lawyer for U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS).

Companies exploit program, say critics

Created in 1990, the H-1B program lets U.S. employers hire foreign talent in specialized fields such as technology, engineering and health care, with 85,000 visas issued by lottery. Indian workers received more than 70% of the slots in recent years, followed by Chinese nationals.

The program has long been the subject of controversy. Proponents point to its role allowing the U.S. to attract top foreign talent and fill critical jobs. A 2016 study by the National Foundation for American Policy found that nearly one-quarter of America’s billion-dollar startups had a founder who first came to the U.S. as an international student.

But critics view the program as a weapon against American workers. Ira Mehlman of the Federation for American Immigration Reform (FAIR) pointed to Disney’s controversial move a decade ago to lay off hundreds of U.S. staff members, forcing them to train foreign replacements as a condition of their severance.

Though Disney denied any wrongdoing and beat subsequent lawsuits, the case became a rallying cry among anti-immigrant groups.

FAIR says U.S. companies exploit the system to hire cheaper foreign labor, driving down U.S. wages.

“There are plenty of tech workers available here in the United States, and that should be the first resort for these companies to go out there and hire people who are American citizens,” Mehlman, FAIR’s media director, said in an interview with VOA.

Mehlman said the program has strayed from its roots as a temporary foreign worker program, with foreign nationals using it as a backdoor to American citizenship.

“This should be a program that says you’re going to come here for a specified amount of time, the duration of your visa, and then you’re going to return home,” Mehlman said.

The criticism is shared by many congressional Republicans as well as Trump, who in 2016 campaigned to end what he called “a cheap labor program.”

That did not happen, but the first Trump administration moved swiftly against the program after Trump issued his Buy American, Hire American executive order within months of taking office. Immigration officials followed up with stricter degree and wage requirements for foreign workers.

Most of those rules were eventually blocked by courts. But immigration officers found other ways to squeeze the program. They approved some visa requests for one year instead of three, rejected automatic extensions and ramped up worksite inspections. Visa applicants were hit with mounting demands for evidence to process their petitions, according to immigration lawyers.

The crackdown hit hard. New visa denials soared to 24% in 2018 and dropped to 21% in 2019 before easing to 13% in 2020. That marked a sharp departure from the Obama era, when fewer than 1 in 10 petitions were denied.

“What we did see that kind of worked effectively under the Trump administration was a gutting of the system,” said Dalal-Dheini, who worked as a special counsel at the USCIS during the first Trump administration.

Trump’s plan for visas uncertain

While changing rules and regulations are cumbersome and time-consuming, immigration lawyers warn about a likely return to the tactics the first Trump administration used to limit the number of visas issued to foreign workers.

Kathleen Campbell Walker, head of immigration practice at the Dickinson Wright law firm, said she is particularly concerned that increased scrutiny by federal anti-fraud agents could slow things down and potentially create “more difficulty in getting your H-1B visa status approved.”

“That worries me,” Walker, a former national president of AILA, said in an interview with VOA.

The incoming administration’s plans for the visa program remain uncertain. The Trump transition team did not immediately respond to a VOA request for comment, but a campaign spokesperson said in a statement to The Washington Post earlier this year that Trump “will restore all of his prior [immigration] policies” immediately upon returning to the White House.

While Trump’s new administration is expected to focus on cracking down on undocumented immigrants, immigration lawyers say the new administration could target legal as well as illegal immigration, pointing to the appointment of immigration hardliners such as Stephen Miller, Trump’s incoming White House deputy chief of staff.

Yet signals are mixed. Trump has floated the idea of giving green cards to foreign graduates of American colleges and universities. And key Trump ally Elon Musk is a staunch supporter of the H-1B program, with Tesla hiring 742 new foreign workers in fiscal year 2024, ranking 16th among U.S. companies with the most H-1B visa approvals.

While it’s unclear what influence, if any, Musk will have on Trump’s immigration policies, Walker said she’s “hoping he may be in there to try to help tweak things that are from a positive perspective for the H-1B category.”
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Musk backs German far-right party in social media post

Posted on by SeeEU

Elon Musk, the billionaire ally of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, has praised the far-right Alterative for Germany party ahead of the election due in Germany early next year. The party wants to end Western support for Ukraine in its war against Russian invaders. Henry Ridgwell reports.
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VOA Mandarin: China’s influence campaign targets local US officials

Posted on by SeeEA

A new Foundation for the Defense of Democracies report warns about Beijing’s years-long efforts in establishing connections and exerting influence on state officials in the United States, an area that’s been overlooked by national security authorities on the federal level. 

Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 
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VOA Russian: Moscow ramped up repressions against journalists and LGBTQ+ in 2024

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VOA Russian spoke to OVD-Info, Russia’s most trusted watchdog dealing with political arrests and trials. It said 620 people were persecuted in Russia on political grounds in 2024, with court cases involving terrorism charges rising sharply. Journalists became the most persecuted part of the society in the past year, while numerous arrests of LGBTQ+ people formed a worrying trend in 2024.

Click here for the full story in Russian. 
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VOA Russian: Russian society broadly supports Putin’s ideas, including possible nuclear strikes

Posted on by SeeEU

A well-known expert on Russia, CSIS analyst Maria Snegovaya, has presented her new, much-discussed report in which she outlined how Russian society closed its ranks behind Russian President Vladimir Putin with the support for the country’s war against Ukraine remaining stable and high at up to 70%. Snegovaya also notes that Russian elites would not stand in the way of any Putin’s initiatives, while the support for use of Russia’s nuclear weapons is rising.

Click here for the full story in Russian.
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VOA Mandarin: Xi’s Macau visit celebrates 25 years since city returned to China

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Chinese leader Xi Jinping is in Macau for events marking 25 years since the city was returned to China from Portugal. Xi hailed Macau’s development since 1999, saying the city’s development potential is being unleashed and the special administrative region has a bright future.  

Click here for the full story in Mandarin. 
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US charges Russian Israeli dual national tied to Lockbit ransomware group

Posted on by SeeUS

washington — The United States has charged a Russian Israeli dual citizen over alleged involvement with the Lockbit ransomware group, the Justice Department said Friday. 

Rostislav Panev, 51, was arrested in Israel in August and is awaiting extradition to the United States, the department said. 

Panev was a developer at Lockbit from its inception in 2019 until at least February 2024, during which time the group grew into “what was, at times, the most active and destructive ransomware group in the world,” the department said.  

“The Justice Department’s work going after the world’s most dangerous ransomware schemes includes not only dismantling networks but also finding and bringing to justice the individuals responsible for building and running them,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. 

Lockbit and its malware were linked to attacks on more than 2,500 victims in at least 120 countries around the world, according to the department, including small businesses and large multinationals, hospitals, schools, critical infrastructure, government and law enforcement agencies. 

Lockbit was discovered in 2020 when its eponymous malicious software was found on Russian-language cybercrime forums. 

It operated a ransomware-as-a-service operation, in which a core group of developers and administrators worked with affiliates who carried out attacks. Extortion proceeds were split among the parties involved. 

Lockbit and its affiliates extorted at least $500 million in payments from victims, according to the Justice Department, as well as causing significant costs from lost revenue and incident response and recovery. 

The arrest followed two guilty pleas in July from a pair of Russian members of the Lockbit gang — Ruslan Astamirov and Mikhail Vasiliev — and the seizure in February of numerous Lockbit websites by Britain’s National Crime Agency, the FBI and other international law enforcement agencies. 

Lockbit reappeared online not long after the seizure, defiantly saying: “I cannot be stopped.” But law enforcement officials and experts say the bust helped damage the gang’s standing in the cybercriminal underworld. 

Government actions “have proven incredibly effective at dismantling and discrediting” Lockbit as a brand and bringing the group’s volume of attacks down precipitously, said Jeremy Kennelly, a cybersecurity analyst with Google owner Alphabet.  

Affiliates and others working with the group may have shifted to collaborating with other gangs, Kennelly said, but the crackdown has been “critical to ensuring that ransomware and extortion are seen as crimes for which there are consequences.” 
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US flu season is under way, as cases surge in some areas and vaccinations lag

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NEW YORK — The U.S. flu season is under way, with cases surging across much of the country, health officials said Friday. 

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted sharp increases in several measures, including lab tests and emergency room visits. 

“It’s been increasing at a pretty steady pace now for the past several weeks. So yeah, we are certainly in flu season now,” said the CDC’s Alicia Budd. 

Thirteen states reported high or very high levels of flu-like illness last week, about double from the week before. One is Tennessee, where a sickness spike is hitting the Nashville area, said Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious diseases expert at Vanderbilt University. 

“Flu has been increasing, but just this last week has exploded,” Schaffner said. He noted that in a local clinic that serves as an indicator of illness trends, as many as a quarter of the patients have flu symptoms. 

Louisiana is another early hot spot. 

“Just this week is really that turning point where people are out because of the flu,” said Dr. Catherine O’Neal, an infectious diseases doctor at the largest private hospital in the state, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center in Baton Rouge. “You hear parents saying, ‘I can’t come to work because of the flu’ and ‘Where can I get a flu test?’” 

There are a number of bugs that cause fever, cough, sore throat and other flu-like symptoms. One is COVID-19. Another is RSV, or respiratory syncytial virus, which is a common cause of cold-like symptoms but can be dangerous for infants and the elderly. 

The most recent CDC data show COVID-19 hospitalizations have been declining since summer. COVID-19 activity is moderate nationally, but high in the Midwest, according to CDC wastewater data. 

RSV hospitalizations started rising before flu did and now show signs of possibly leveling off, but they remain a little more common than admissions for flu. Overall, RSV activity is low nationally, but high in the South, the wastewater data show. 

The CDC called the start of flu season based on several indicators, including lab results for patients in hospitals and doctor’s offices, and the percentage of emergency department visits that had a discharge diagnosis of flu. 

No flu strain seems to be dominant, and it’s too early in the season to know how good a match the flu vaccine will be, Budd said. 

Last winter’s flu season was considered “moderate” overall, but it was long — 21 weeks — and the CDC estimated there were 28,000 flu-related deaths. It was unusually dangerous for children, with 205 pediatric deaths reported. That was the highest number ever reported for a conventional flu season. 

The long season was likely a factor, Budd said. Another factor was a lack of flu vaccinations. Among the children who died who were old enough for flu vaccinations — and for whom their vaccination status was known — 80% were not fully vaccinated, according to the CDC. 

Vaccination rates for children are even lower this year. As of Dec. 7, about 41% of adults had received a flu vaccination, similar to the rate at the same point last year. The percentage is the same for kids, but for them that’s a drop from a year ago, when 44% were vaccinated against the flu, according to CDC data. 

Vaccination rates are lower still against COVID-19, with about 21% of adults and 11% of children up to date. 

Flu experts suggest everyone get vaccinated, especially as people prepare to attend holiday gatherings where respiratory viruses can spread widely. 

“All those gatherings that are so heartwarming and fun and joyous are also an opportunity for this virus to spread person to person,” Schaffner said. “It’s not too late to get vaccinated.”
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Thailand calls regional talks on war-torn Myanmar frank but short on agreement

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BANGKOK — Thailand says regional talks it hosted Friday on a stalled peace plan for Myanmar were “frank” but reached no consensus on a path forward.

Members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, or ASEAN, gathered in Bangkok to discuss the Five-Point Consensus the bloc agreed to in April 2021, two months after Myanmar’s military seized power from the democratically elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi. That coup sparked a civil war that has killed thousands and displaced more than 3 million people.

In addition to an immediate cessation of violence and negotiations among “all parties” to the conflict, the plan calls for the appointment of a special envoy to meet with all sides and assistance from ASEAN’s humanitarian aid agency.

Myanmar’s junta did grant a meeting last year between Suu Kyi — who has been held in custody since the coup — and Thailand’s then-foreign minister. Some aid has also trickled in via Thailand under ASEAN’s watch. But the bloc has not appointed a permanent special envoy, and there have been no meaningful negotiations between the junta and its foes as fighting shows no signs of letting up.

Friday’s talks followed a meeting in Bangkok on Thursday among Myanmar and its immediate neighbors on cross-border concerns, including crime.

After Friday’s meeting, Thai Foreign Affairs Ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura told the press that the talks between the foreign ministers of Laos, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand and Singapore were “cordial and very frank.”

The bloc’s other members sent delegates but not ministers, he added.

Bolbongse Vangphaen, director-general of Thailand’s Department of ASEAN Affairs, said the delegates agreed that the peace plan from 2021 would continue to anchor their efforts.

“The foreign ministers reaffirmed that the … Five-Point Consensus remains the main reference for ASEAN’s efforts in addressing the situation in Myanmar,” he said, adding that “all recognize that there is a need to step up efforts” to see it through. “We are aware that there are obstacles to making progress.”

As for any broad agreement on how to tackle those obstacles, however, Bolbongse said “nothing specific” came out of Friday’s talks, and that they would continue at another meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers next month.

“The meeting today was a chance for the foreign ministers and representatives to just sound out ideas and seek various approaches to see … how we could perhaps converge on some common terms to push forward,” he said. “There’s no clear approach as yet.”

David Mathieson, an independent Myanmar analyst, told VOA that Thailand was trying to create momentum on regional efforts after “another lost year of empty diplomacy.”

He called meetings among Myanmar’s immediate neighbors “crucial” now that the junta has lost control of most borders. Those meetings, he added, are potentially more useful than ASEAN, which generally acts only when all members are in agreement.

Like many of the bloc’s critics, he called the Five-Point Consensus “effectively dead” from the start.

“It’s fundamentally flawed, depending on engaging the [State Administration Council, or SAC], who don’t want to respond,” he said, using the junta’s formal title. “That’s where all these efforts will fail, ascribing the SAC with reason they don’t possess.”

Surachanee Sriyai of Singapore’s ISEAS-Yusof Ishak institute agreed that the plan “has never been a viable path” out of the crisis for Myanmar, but at least gives the bloc the semblance of taking collective action while sticking to its norms of acting by consensus and staying out of each other’s affairs.

Following Thursday’s meeting, Thailand said junta officials told the group it was open to “inclusive political dialogue.” Junta officials, however, have labeled many of their opponents “terrorists” and banned dozens of political parties, including Suu Kyi’s ousted National League for Democracy.

Mathieson said any efforts to help Myanmar out of its crisis need to include both the junta and all opponents. That means not only the National Unity Government comprising ousted lawmakers, but all the revolutionary groups now aligned against the junta.

Whether together or on their own, Surachanee said, ASEAN members should cultivate relationships with those opposition groups as they continue to gain ground on the junta, which, by some estimates, now controls less than half the country.

“Plenty of [situational reports] have pointed at the SAC losing ground and the ability to govern,” she said. “In this way, countries, especially Thailand, should look to other alternative counterparts to work with.”

Following Friday’s meeting, Bolbongse said other ASEAN members were free to “engage with whichever groups that they may have influence on” and that those efforts could “complement each other.”

But by focusing their attention on dialogue with the junta, critics say the bloc and most of its members are legitimizing a regime that many if not most in Myanmar consider illegitimate.

Asked to respond to the critique, Bolbongse said Thailand was simply engaging in state-to-state dialogue.

“Whether the SAC is seen as legitimate or not, Myanmar as a whole is still a member of ASEAN, so we are engaging with Myanmar,” he said. “That’s all, thank you.”

The junta claims its military is waging a legitimate campaign of proportionate force. But numerous well-documented accounts of violence describe indiscriminate air and artillery attacks, with many destroying churches, schools and clinics. Rights groups allege repeated cases of rape, torture and murder. U.N.-appointed experts and envoys have accused the junta of war crimes and crimes against humanity.
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East Africa remembers victims of deadly Indian Ocean tsunami

Posted on by SeeAF

nairobi, kenya — Mwalola wa Mwalola, a longtime fisherman in the Indian Ocean on the Kenyan coast, vividly remembers the events of the deadly tsunami of 20 years ago.

Mwalola said the fisherfolk’s experience and knowledge of the ocean saved his life after they sensed danger and decided to keep off the ocean on the fateful day.

“My place of work was hit, but I was not affected because I heeded the warning,” he said. “We avoided losses because we warned our colleagues of the impending danger and asked everyone to keep off the ocean that day.”

On December 26, 2004, a powerful earthquake off the coast of the Indonesian island of Sumatra generated a devastating tsunami that was observed worldwide and caused tremendous devastation and deaths throughout the Indian Ocean region, including in East Africa.

Out of the 228,000 people killed, more than 300 were from the East African countries of Somalia, Tanzania and Kenya, according to the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization.

The disaster raised awareness about the threat tsunamis pose to coastal communities around the world and the need for improved tsunami detection, forecasting, warning and preparedness.

Observers say more remains to be done in the East African countries that were affected.

Shamim Wasii Nyanda, an environmental activist at the Tanzania Ocean Climate Innovation Hub in Dar es Salaam, said, “There’s an increase of vulnerability due to climate change but also … limited adaptation funding. Most of the coastal cities lack sufficient financial resources to implement these climate adaptation measures, particularly in urban, under-resourced communities. They do not have that kind of technology or resources for them to be able to work on these problems that we are experiencing,” especially tsunamis.

Nyanda said increasing urbanization is compounding the risk.

“Coastal cities like Dar es Salaam itself have continued to expand, with informal settlements encroaching on vulnerable areas where facilities like disasterproof housing and infrastructure are not available.” People then build housing in areas where they shouldn’t, “so, when these disasters come, like the tsunami, they are not prepared. They do not have the technology. They do not have the infrastructure … and what happens? They are just swept away.”

As countries observe the 20th anniversary of the 2004 tsunami, experts say preparedness, prevention and mitigation measures are key in preventing such disasters in the future.
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Teen stabs 7-year-old girl to death at school in Croatia

Posted on by SeeEU

A 7-year-old girl was stabbed to death Friday at an elementary school in Croatia by a knife-wielding teenager who also wounded three other children and a teacher, officials said.  

Video footage Friday showed children running away from the school as a medical helicopter was landing.   

The attacker is a former student of the Precko Elementary School in Zagreb where the attack took place, according to Interior Minister Davor Bozinovic. 

The teen had a history of mental health issues and after Friday’s incident “shut himself in a nearby health center where he tried to injure himself with the knife,” according to Bozinovic. Police were able to prevent him from committing suicide. 

Last year, the teen also tried to kill himself, the minister said.  

“Five persons have been hospitalized, and their lives are not in danger,” Croatian Health Minister Irena Hrstic said, including the attacker in the count. 

Leaders declare day of mourning

School attacks are rare in Croatia.   

“There are no words to describe the grief over the horrible and unthinkable tragedy that shocked us all today,” said President Zoran Milanovic. 

“We are horrified,” said Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic.  

Following the assault at the school, Croatian officials declared Saturday as a day of mourning.  

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press and Reuters.   
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UN official calls for end to siege of El Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur

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GENEVA — United Nations human rights chief Volker Türk is calling for an end to the siege of El Fasher in Sudan’s North Darfur state, which has resulted in hundreds of civilian deaths and injuries, and the widespread destruction of homes and infrastructure.  

“The continuing siege of El Fasher and the relentless fighting are devastating lives everyday on a massive scale,” Türk said in a statement Friday to coincide with the release of a report describing the devastating impact of the seven-month-long siege of El Fasher in Sudan by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.   

“This alarming situation cannot continue. The Rapid Support Forces must end the horrible siege. And I urge all parties to the conflict to stop attacks on civilians and civilian objects … and to comply with their obligations and commitments under international law,” he said. 

Since the siege of El Fasher, the capital of Sudan’s North Darfur state, began in May, the report finds at least 782 civilians have been killed and more than 1,143 injured. 

Fighting displaces millions

The RSF and Sudan National Forces have been battling for control of the country since April 2023. Since the RSF and Sudanese warlords made a power grab, plunging the country into chaos, more than 11.5 million people have been forced to flee their homes.  About 8.5 million are displaced inside Sudan. Another 3 million have fled as refugees to neighboring countries. 

Additionally, the United Nations reports more than half of Sudan’s population or 26.5 million are suffering from acute hunger, with thousands on the brink of famine. 

Authors of the report say the findings indicate a persistent disregard of international humanitarian law by the parties to the conflict, “as evidenced by the indiscriminate use of explosive weapons with wide-area effects in populated urban areas and direct attacks against civilians and civilian objects, including attacks on health facilities.”   

Seif Magango, a spokesperson for human rights chief Türk, told journalists in Geneva on Friday that the RSF, Sudanese Armed Forces, or SAF, and their allies “have turned the city into a battleground” from which there is no escape.   

“There has been regular and intense shelling by the RSF of densely populated residential areas, recurrent airstrikes by the SAF, and artillery shelling by both the SAF and its Allied Joint Forces. 

“Residential neighborhoods, markets, hospitals and camps hosting internally displaced people have been struck,” Magango said. 

Survivors who fled El Fasher have testified that intense artillery shelling by the RSF on densely populated residential areas and recurrent airstrikes by the SAF and Joint Forces “in most cases were conducted without warning despite the presence of thousands of civilians.”   

The U.N. human rights report accuses the warring parties of the indiscriminate use of explosive weapons in populated areas. It says the Zamzam Camp, which hosts hundreds of thousands of internally displaced people, and where famine has been declared, has been shelled repeatedly.

It says the Abu Shouk IDP camp, northwest of El Fasher, housing more than 100,000 internally displaced people from African tribes, has been subjected to recurrent artillery shelling by the RSF, “amounting to direct attacks on civilians and civilian objects.” 

Between May 9 and November 28, the U.N. human rights office has documented 13 attacks on health facilities, most attributed to and “deliberately targeted” by the RSF.  For example, it notes the Al-Saudi Maternity Hospital, in western El Fasher, “has been repeatedly shelled since the start of the hostilities.” 

“This is the last remaining public hospital in the city with the capacity to perform surgery and provide sexual and reproductive health services, including necessary medical care for survivors of sexual violence,” it says, noting that “this is particularly tragic as there has been a surge in cases of sexual violence since the siege began.”   

Monitors track sexual violence reports

Human rights monitors have documented numerous reports of sexual violence against women and girls during the siege and as they fled El Fasher after May 2024. 

The report quotes a reliable source who says the 20 to 40 victims of sexual violence reaching service providers each month “is considered to be significantly underreported due to stigma and artillery shelling that restricted movement.”  

“Attacks on civilians and civilian objects may amount to war crimes,” Magango said. “This alarming situation cannot be allowed to continue. All parties to the conflict must refrain from attacks on civilians and civilian objects and respect international law.”   

The report’s authors express concern about a buildup of SAF-allied Joint Forces in the densely populated Zamzam camp. This, coupled with the increased mobilization of fighters along tribal lines across Darfur, they say, “indicates preparations for further hostilities may be under way.”   

“Any large-scale attack on Zamzam camp and El Fasher city will catapult civilian suffering to catastrophic levels, deepening the already dire humanitarian situation, including famine conditions,” warned High Commissioner Türk in Friday’s statement. 
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Taiwan lawmakers brawl over bills that would ‘damage democracy’

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TAIPEI, TAIWAN — Taiwanese lawmakers tackled and doused each other with water on Friday as President Lai Ching-te’s party tried to block the passage of bills they say could harm the self-ruled island’s “democratic system.”

Scores of lawmakers from Lai’s Democratic Progressive Party, or DPP, occupied the podium of the parliament’s main chamber since Thursday night and barricaded themselves inside — piling up chairs to block entrances.

The DPP parliamentarians were attempting to stop three legal amendments proposed by the opposition bloc that would make it more difficult for voters to oust elected officials who they see as unfit.

“Parliamentary dictatorship,” some DPP lawmakers shouted to criticize the opposition Kuomintang, or KMT, party and its ally Taiwan People’s Party, or TPP, for trying to pass the bills with their majority.

“If the KMT forcefully passes the amendments … Taiwan’s democratic self-checking and self-repairing mechanism will be gone, and it will also cause significant and irreversible damage to Taiwan’s civil society and democratic system,” the ruling party said in a statement.

“At a time when Taiwan’s democracy is being violated and damaged, we must stand up and take action,” it said.

Among the disputed bills was a planned revision to the Public Officials Election and Recall Act pressed ahead by the KMT and TPP to raise the threshold for removing elected officials.

The Beijing-friendly KMT said it would prevent the power of recalls from “being abused,” but some DPP lawmakers said they fear the move would revoke voters’ rights to remove unfit officials.

Han Kuo-yu, the current parliament speaker from the KMT, was ousted in 2020 as mayor of southern Kaohsiung city following a failed presidential bid.

Outside the parliament on Friday, thousands of people gathered to protest the bills, shouting “return the evil amendments” and “defend Taiwan.”

“I am here to protest the opposition parties for trying to confiscate the people’s rights to recall,” graduate student David Chen told AFP.

Earlier this year, reform bills expanding parliament’s powers pushed by the opposition sparked brawls among lawmakers and massive street demonstrations.

Proponents of the expansion say it is needed to curb corruption, but critics fear the laws could weaken Taiwan’s democracy against the influence of China, which claims the island as part of its territory.

In October, Taiwan’s Constitutional Court struck out the most controversial sections of the law, delivering a partial victory to the DPP.
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New US missile defense base in Poland fortifies NATO’s eastern flank

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The United States last month formally opened a permanent military base in Poland, part of NATO’s missile defense system amid rising tensions with Russia. The Polish defense minister says the base is a testament to Polish-American cooperation. VOA Eastern Europe Bureau Chief Myroslava Gongadze reports from Redzikowo, Poland.
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Elon Musk considers funding Nigel Farage’s populist party in UK

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LONDON — It’s a photo that sent a tremor through British politics: Elon Musk flanked by British politician Nigel Farage and a wealthy backer, in front of a gilt-framed painting of a young Donald Trump.

Taken this week at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, the image suggested that Musk, a key player in the incoming U.S. administration, could soon turn his disruptive attention to the U.K.

Farage, Trump’s highest-profile British champion, confirmed talks are under way about Musk making a hefty donation to Farage’s party, Reform U.K. The Times of London reported it could be as much as $100 million, which would be far and away the largest political donation in U.K. history. The reports have sparked calls for Britain’s rules on political donations to be tightened — quickly.

“We did discuss money,” Farage told broadcaster GB News after the meeting with Musk. “That’s a negotiation we will go back and have again. He is not against giving us money. He hasn’t fully decided whether he will.”

Britain has strict limits on how much political parties can spend on elections, but they can accept unlimited donations, as long as the donors are U.K. voters or companies registered in Britain. Musk’s social network X has a British arm, Twitter U.K. Ltd., with a registered address in London.

Critics say that’s a loophole that allows foreign influence in U.K. politics. The voting watchdog, the Electoral Commission, is calling for changes, including limiting the amount a company can donate to how much it earns in Britain.

“It’s crucial that U.K. voters have trust in the financing of our political system,” the commission’s chief executive, Vijay Rangarajan, told The Guardian. “The system needs strengthening, and we have been calling for changes to the law since 2013, to protect the electoral system from foreign interference.”

Britain’s center-left Labour Party pledged during the summer election campaign to tighten the rules on political donations, although legislation is not scheduled in the coming year. Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesperson Dave Pares said Wednesday that work is already under way to “reinforce existing safeguards” against “impermissible proxy donations.”

The Labour government and the right-of-center opposition Conservatives are trying to figure out how to deal with Musk, who has taken a keen interest in the U.K. — and seemingly formed a strong dislike for Starmer.

Musk often posts on X about the U.K., retweeting criticism of Starmer and the hashtag TwoTierKeir — shorthand for an unsubstantiated claim that Britain has “two-tier policing,” with far-right protesters treated more harshly than pro-Palestinian or Black Lives Matter demonstrators. Musk has compared British attempts to weed out online misinformation to the Soviet Union, and during summer anti-immigrant violence across the U.K. tweeted that “civil war is inevitable.”

Farage has echoed some of those themes in his own social media output and his party’s anti-“woke” agenda, which includes pledges to slash immigration, scrap green-energy targets and leave the European Convention on Human Rights.

Founded in 2021, Reform U.K. is the latest in a string of small hard-right parties led by Farage that have had limited electoral success but an outsized influence on British politics. Farage’s opposition to the European Union helped push the country toward voting in 2016 to leave the bloc, a seismic political and economic break with the U.K.’s nearest neighbors.

Reform U.K. won just five of the 650 seats in the House of Commons in July’s election, but it came second in dozens more and secured 14% of the vote. Now it is pushing for fast growth, trying to professionalize its previously ramshackle organization and holding gatherings around the U.K. to recruit new members.

Farage, a strong communicator who has embraced TikTok and other platforms, aims to emulate Trump’s success in using the power of personality and social media to reach the “bro vote” — young men who are traditionally less likely to turn out at election time.

Farage told GB News that Musk has “already given me considerable help – understanding the process from start to finish, reaching disaffected communities who frankly feel there’s no point voting for anybody.”

The electoral power of social media was on show recently in Romania, where far-right candidate Calin Georgescu came from nowhere to win the first round of the presidential election in November, aided in part by a flood of TikTok videos promoting his campaign. Amid allegations that Russia had organized the social media campaign to back Georgescu, Romania’s Constitutional Court canceled the presidential election runoff two days before it was due to take place.

With Britain’s Conservative Party trying to recover from its worst election result since 1832, Farage dreams of making Reform the main opposition — or even the government — after the next election, due by 2029.

That’s a long shot, but Rob Ford, professor of political science at the University of Manchester, said a big donation from Musk could have “disruptive potential in all sorts of ways.”

He said Musk’s money would give Reform “the opportunity to try and build up a serious campaign organization, which is something that they have generally lacked.”

“It’s certainly adding a new joker to the pack of cards in British politics,” Ford said. “We’ve had no shortage of surprising developments here in the past few years. And maybe this is the next one.”
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