A Russian attack on Ukraine’s northeast city of Sumy killed 11 people and injured at least 89, Ukrainian officials said.

“Sunday evening for the city of Sumy became hell, a tragedy that Russia brought to our land,” military administrator Volodymyr Artyukh said in a post on the Telegram messaging channel.

Sumy regional prosecutors said the attack damaged 90 apartments, 28 cars, two educational institutions and 13 buildings.

The attack followed a massive Russian bombardment of Ukraine’s power infrastructure earlier in the day, as well as news reports that the United States granted clearance for Ukraine to use long-range U.S. weapons to hit military targets in Russia.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the country and its allies should focus on “really forcing Russia to end the war.”

“Today marked one of the largest and most dangerous Russian attacks in the entire war – 210 drones and missiles launched simultaneously – including hypersonic and aeroballistic ones,” Zelenskyy said in his nightly address.

Zelenskyy has long been lobbying for permission to use the Army Tactical Missile System, known by its initials ATACMS, to hit targets inside Russia. He said in his address that negotiating with Russian President Vladimir Putin is not an effective strategy to end the war.

“This is the answer to all those who wanted to achieve something with Putin through conversations, phone calls, hugs – appeasement. Today, this ‘dove of peace’ sent us yet another barrage of ‘Kinzhal’ and ‘Kalibr’ missiles. That’s his diplomacy. His language is treachery,” Zelenskyy said.

Long-range capabilities

President Joe Biden authorized Ukraine to use U.S.-supplied missiles to strike deeper inside Russia, easing limitations on the longer range weapons as Russia deploys up to 12,000 North Korean troops to reinforce its war, according to a U.S. official and three other people familiar with the matter, the Associated Press reported.

In recent weeks, Putin has positioned troops – including those from North Korea – along the northern border of Ukraine in a push to regain territory.

Biden had been opposed to any escalation of the war in Ukraine, and Putin has said Moscow could provide long-range weapons for others to hit Western targets if NATO allies allow Ukraine to use their arms to attack Russian territory.

But Zelenskyy has argued that the restriction on long-range weapons has hampered Ukraine’s defense against Russian attacks. Long-range capabilities, he said, are a key component of Ukraine’s victory plan.

“Today, there’s a lot of talk in the media about us receiving permission for respective actions. But strikes are not carried out with words. Such things are not announced. Missiles will speak for themselves,” Zelensky said. “They certainly will.”

Russia downs 59 drones

Meanwhile, Russia shot down 59 Ukranian drones overnight, according to the Russian defense ministry.

“During the past night, attempts by the Kyiv regime to carry out terrorist UAV attacks against targets on the territory of the Russian Federation were thwarted,” the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry said most of the drones were shot down across three regions bordering Ukraine: 45 in Bryansk, six in Kursk and three in Belgorod, Agence France-Presse reported.

Three drones were intercepted in the region of Tula, south of the capital, while two others were downed over the Moscow region.

Ukraine’s air force said on Monday that it shot down eight out of 11 Russian drones during an overnight attack.

Some information in this report came from The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Press.
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The Baltic states have committed to continue providing financial and material support to Ukraine’s fight against Russia in 2025. Part of that support is coming from the Latvian-led Drone Coalition. Vladislav Andrejevs has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Video editing by Sergii Dogotar.
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LONDON — Britain will seek backing from other United Nations Security Council members on Monday for its demand that Sudan’s warring parties stop hostilities and allow deliveries of aid, the British foreign ministry said.

With London holding the rotating presidency of the council, British foreign minister David Lammy is due to chair a vote on a UK/Sierra Leone-proposed draft resolution, which also calls for the protection of civilians.

Lammy will say “the UK will never let Sudan be forgotten” and announce a doubling of Britain’s aid to $285 million, according to a statement from his ministry.

A power struggle between the Sudanese army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces broke out in April 2023 ahead of a planned transition to civilian rule, killing thousands and triggering the world’s largest displacement crisis.

The ministry said Lammy would also criticize restrictions by Israel on humanitarian aid in Gaza and call for an immediate ceasefire along with the release of all hostages.

On the war in Ukraine, he was due to say that Britain “will keep standing with Ukraine until reality dawns in Moscow.” He was due to speak to media with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha.
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Tbilisi, Georgia — Opposition protesters in Georgia’s breakaway province of Abkhazia on Sunday refused to cede control of key government buildings seized during rallies earlier in the week during which at least 14 people were injured in clashes with police.

Demonstrators stormed the buildings Friday to protest new measures allowing Russians to buy property in the seaside region.

Protesters on Sunday continued to demand the ouster of self-styled Abkhazian President Aslan Bzhania, and one prominent politician vowed that the opposition would form a rival government if he refuses to step down.

“If our demands for the president’s resignation are not met, we will have to form a temporary government to ensure the normal functioning of state bodies,” Temur Gulia told his supporters, according to local agencies.

Bzhania, who is backed by Russia, signaled Sunday that he was prepared to step aside temporarily and hold early elections, even as he continued to slam the demonstrations as “an attempted coup d’etat.”

Opponents of the property agreement say it will drive up prices of apartments and boost Moscow’s dominance in the region.

On Saturday, Bzhania announced that he would only agree to a snap election if demonstrators vacated the region’s parliament building. But crowds that gathered in the Abkhazian capital, Sukhumi, rejected the deal and opposition leaders said they would only accept Bzhania’s unconditional resignation.

Meanwhile, protesters on Sunday began dismantling the security barriers around the government complex in Sukhumi.

One prominent opposition figure called the metal barriers a symbol of the authorities being out of touch.

“This barrier shows that the government has decided to fence itself off from its people,” Adgur Ardzinba said, according to local media.

Most of Abkhazia broke away from Georgia in fighting that ended in 1993, and Georgia lost control of the rest of the territory in the short war with Russia in 2008. Russia recognizes Abkhazia as an independent country, but many Abkhazians are concerned that the region of about 245,000 people is a client state of Moscow.

Abkhazia’s mountains and Black Sea beaches make it a popular destination for Russian tourists and the demand for holiday homes could be strong.

At least 14 people were injured Friday when opposition protesters clashed with police, Russian state agencies reported.

Lawmakers had gathered at the region’s parliament building to discuss ratifying measures allowing Russian citizens to buy property in the breakaway state. However, the session was postponed as demonstrators broke down the gate to the building’s grounds with a truck and streamed inside. Some threw rocks at police, who responded with tear gas.

The arrest of five opposition figures at a similar demonstration Monday set off widespread protests the next day in which bridges leading to Sukhumi were blocked.
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Baku, Azerbaiijan — A new set of global carbon credit trade market standards has been agreed to during the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, or COP29, following years of deadlock. Some analysts say that under the guidelines, a bigger number of entities could join a more regulated voluntary carbon credit trading system to reduce emissions.

Known as Article 6.4, delegates agreed on the rules for establishing a system that allows trade in carbon credit between individual countries and companies, under the supervision of a centralized U.N. body. These include how to validate, verify and issue credits. 

Another option, known as Article 6.2, allows countries to set their own terms to trade carbon credits bilaterally. Countries weren’t able to agree on the standards for either option before COP29.

Under the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels by the end of the century, countries have committed to green goals, including slashing carbon emissions. 

The new deal could “reduce the cost of implementing national climate plans by $250 billion per year by enabling cooperation across borders,” the COP29 presidency said in a statement, which hailed the outcome as a “game-changing tool to direct resources to the developing world.”

Controversial move

The agreement is more a recognition from countries of the new rules, but negotiations are still ongoing and details are still being worked out so they are not fixed, according to Je-liang Liou, researcher at the Chung-Hua Institute for Economic Research in Taiwan. 

“In the previous COP, the supervisory body usually drafted a bill for countries to discuss and decide if they approve it or not. But this year, the body of Article 6.4 approved their own draft before COP29 started so it became more of a situation for countries to give their votes,” Liou explained to VOA.

The hasty process drew ire from some countries’ negotiators, including Tuvalu’s. It said that “adopting decisions without prior consultations by the governing bodies does not reflect the Paris Agreement’s party-driven process,” according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development.  

Some climate advocates also said the agreement isn’t a success, as regulations have been an issue for voluntary carbon credit trading in the past. 

“We should be very concerned in the Global South, especially if we don’t have sufficient safeguards in place to protect against the possibility of land grabs, human rights abuses, threats to subsistence and forest-based livelihoods, gender and indigenous interests,” Tara Nair van Ryneveld, climate policy coordinator at the Southern African Faith Communities’ Environment Institute, or SAFCEI, told VOA News. 

She cautioned against carbon credit trading as part of “false solutions” that distract from work to be done on phasing out fossil fuels. 

Last year, Human Rights Watch found that the carbon offsetting projects that Cambodia’s government agreed to, the Southern Cardamom REDD+ Project, violated the rights of the indigenous Chong people. Authorities reportedly made decisions on incorporating villages into a national park two years before consulting the community.

Rights abuses aside, amid the prospect of companies joining in for carbon trading, voluntary carbon offsetting projects from companies were revealed to be ineffective in serving their purpose, according to a 2023 investigation from The Guardian newspaper and trade watchdog Corporate Accountability. 

Nearly four in five of the top carbon offset projects are considered “worthless” as they can’t guarantee cutting greenhouse gases, the report found.

Despite the criticisms, Article 6.4 can be a “push toward stronger regulation and accountability” and bolster transparency in climate finance, according to Luca Taschini, director of the Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability at the University of Edinburgh.

Expanded inclusion

For non-U.N. member regions like Taiwan that have long been excluded from discussions and the country-to-country trading system, the expanded system under Article 6.4 can be positive news, Liou said. This allows companies to invest in projects, potentially allowing its participation, he added. 

“Taiwan isn’t eligible for bilateral carbon credit trading because it’s not a U.N. member party, so it wasn’t able to join in directly to purchase credits from developing countries and fulfill our climate commitment, but Article 6.4, compared to Article 6.2, allows Taiwan a higher chance to trade carbon credits internationally,” he elaborated. 

Liou said the expanded carbon credit system – if set up and starts next year – can boost governments’ climate ambitions, amid nations’ looming submission deadline for a new climate plan by February 2025. 

Self-ruled Taiwan imports almost all of its energy from other countries. Under its climate goal to source 15 percent of its power from renewables by 2025 and reaching net-zero in 2050, slashing emissions in the medium term can be challenging and carbon trade can be beneficial for the island, according to Liou. 

Taschini said that Article 6 allows countries to invest in actions beyond their borders and raise global ambition.  

“This is because, even if all NDCs [national determined contributions] are met, we will still fall short of our climate goals,” he explained. 

The year’s largest climate conference is set to end November 22.

Some information for this article came from Reuters.
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Russia launched a massive airstrike campaign against neighboring Ukraine on Sunday. Local officials say several people died and the power system suffered “severe damage.” VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has more.
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Rome — Pope Francis has called for an investigation to determine if Israel’s attacks in Gaza constitute genocide, according to excerpts released Sunday from an upcoming new book ahead of the pontiff’s jubilee year.  

It’s the first time that Francis has openly urged for an investigation of genocide allegations over Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip. In September, he said Israel’s attacks in Gaza and Lebanon have been “immoral” and disproportionate, and that its military has gone beyond the rules of war.  

The book, by Hernán Reyes Alcaide and based on interviews with the Pope, is entitled “Hope never disappoints. Pilgrims towards a better world.” It will be released on Tuesday ahead of the pope’s 2025 jubilee. Francis’ yearlong jubilee is expected to bring more than 30 million pilgrims to Rome to celebrate the Holy Year.  

“According to some experts, what is happening in Gaza has the characteristics of a genocide,” the pope said in excerpts published Sunday by the Italian daily La Stampa.   

“We should investigate carefully to determine whether it fits into the technical definition formulated by jurists and international bodies,” he added.  

Last year, Francis met separately with relatives of Israeli hostages in Gaza and Palestinians living through the war and set off a firestorm by using words that Vatican diplomats usually avoid: “terrorism” and, according to the Palestinians, “genocide.”  

Francis spoke at the time about the suffering of both Israelis and Palestinians after his meetings, which were arranged before the Israeli-Hamas hostage deal and a temporary halt in fighting was announced.  

The pontiff, who last week also met with a delegation of Israeli hostages who were released and their families pressing the campaign to bring the remaining captives home had editorial control over the upcoming book.  

The war started when the militant Hamas group attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing 1,200 people and abducting 250 as hostages and taking them back to Gaza, where dozens still remain.  

Israel’s subsequent yearlong military campaign has killed more than 43,000 people, according to Gaza health officials, whose count doesn’t distinguish between civilians and fighters, though they say more than half of the dead are women and children.  

The Israel-Hamas conflict in Gaza has triggered several legal cases at international courts in The Hague involving requests for arrest warrants as well as accusations and denials of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide.  

In the new book, Francis also speaks about migration and the problem of integrating migrants in their host countries.  

“Faced with this challenge, no country can be left alone and no one can think of addressing the issue in isolation through more restrictive and repressive laws, sometimes approved under the pressure of fear or in search of electoral advantages,” Francis said.  

“On the contrary, just as we see that there is a globalization of indifference, we must respond with the globalization of charity and cooperation,” he added. Francis also mentioned the “still open wound of the war in Ukraine has led thousands of people to abandon their homes, especially during the first months of the conflict.” 
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COPENHAGEN, Denmark — Artifacts and human remains taken by a Norwegian explorer and anthropologist in the late 1940s are being returned by a museum in Oslo to Chile’s remote territory of Easter Island in the mid-Pacific, the Kon-Tiki Museum said Wednesday.

In 1947, explorer Thor Heyerdahl sailed on a log raft named Kon-Tiki from Peru to Polynesia in 101 days to prove his theory — that the South Sea Islands were settled by seafarers from South America.

He brought 5,600 objects back from Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui. This is the third time objects taken by him are being returned.

Many have been stored and displayed at the Kon-Tiki Museum in Oslo, Norway’s capital, and some were given back in 1986 and others 2006. The return has been a collaboration between the museum, Chile and Rapa Nui’s local authorities.

“My grandfather would have been proud of what we are about to achieve,” said Liv Heyerdahl, head of the museum and the explorer’s granddaughter.

She told the Norwegian news agency NTB that the objects were brought to Norway “with a promise that they would one day be returned.”

Among those that are being returned this time around are human remains called Ivi Tepuna and sculpted stones.

A nine-person delegation had traveled to Norway this week to collect the items. Four of them spent the night at the Oslo museum, alongside the remains as part of a ritual ceremony to take back the spirits of the remains.

“First one must awaken the spirits, and then speak to them in our original language. Food is then prepared to eat a meal with them, where the smell of the food goes to the spirits,” a member of the delegation, Laura Tarita Rapu Alarcón, told NTB.

“It is important that those who own the culture are involved in the process,” Liv Heyerdahl was quoted as saying by NTB. “Of course these remains should be returned, and it feels right because they belong to the Rapa Nui.”

In 2019, an agreement was signed in Santiago, Chile, during a visit by Norway’s King Harald. However, the COVID-19 pandemic stopped all activities in 2020, the museum said. Harald met with the Rapa Nui delegation on Tuesday.

A book about Thor Heyerdahl’s voyage — he died in 2002 at the age of 87 — has become an international bestseller, and his film of the journey won an Academy Award for best documentary in 1951.

Rapa Nui is best known for the hundreds of moai — monolithic human figures carved centuries ago by this remote Pacific island’s Rapanui people.

Covering about 164 square kilometers and home to about 7,700 people, half of them with Rapa Nui ancestry, Easter Island was formed at least 750,000 years ago by volcanic eruptions and is one of the world’s most isolated inhabited islands.

Located 3,700 kilometers from South America, Rapa Nui was declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. In 2019, it was officially renamed “Rapa Nui-Easter Island” from its previous name of just Easter Island.
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Brussels — Josep Borrell took a deep breath as the train rumbled across Ukraine at the end of his final visit after five tumultuous years as the EU’s foreign policy chief.

“I feel a certain nostalgia,” the 77-year-old Spaniard said, hunching forward to be heard over the noise of the tracks.

“We’ve been working closely with these people, who are great people, who are fighting for their survival,” he said. “And who knows what’s going to happen with them?”

The job of EU top diplomat has often been seen as thankless — trying to coordinate the sometimes radically opposed positions of 27 countries, each jealously guarding their own foreign policy.

But Borrell’s tenure, wrapping up next month, has thrust him into the center of some of the most consequential events in recent world history.

He has helped steer the bloc’s response to the COVID pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and war in the Middle East.

Ukraine war

It was Moscow’s all-out assault in February 2022 that upended European security and came to dominate his time at the helm.

Borrell, a Socialist former Spanish foreign minister with more than 40 years of political experience, immediately pushed for the EU to pay for weapons deliveries to a country at war, a longstanding red line for the bloc.

“This was a breakthrough in the way we behaved.”

Since then, the EU has spent billions more on arming Ukraine and Russia has been hit by repeated rounds of unprecedented sanctions despite regular obstacles from reluctant EU states such as Hungary.

While the Ukraine crisis has revealed the EU’s willingness to act, the war in Gaza by contrast has been the most painful episode for Borrell.

Since Israel unleashed its devastating offensive after the October 7, 2023, attack by Hamas, the EU has had no influence to curb the suffering, with its member states deeply divided over the conflict.

He said the refusal by member states supportive of Israel to do more has damaged the EU on the global stage.

“My biggest frustration is not being able to make it understood that a violation of international law is a violation of international law, whoever does it,” Borrell said.

‘Break taboos’

The EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs is constrained by how far member states are willing to go, and a simple statement can take days of wrangling.

Borrell has frequently angered EU capitals by going beyond their agreed positions.

“One has to break taboos,” he said. “Agreed language most of the time says nothing. We agree on saying nothing.”

Critics, and there are plenty in sharp-elbowed Brussels, say Borrell has not helped his case, with numerous gaffes and some tactical missteps.

A low point of his tenure was a disastrous trip to Moscow in early 2021 when he was caught in a diplomatic ambush and failed to push back against Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov.

But as Moscow’s assault on Ukraine played out, he proved a fast learner, said Gabrielius Landsbergis, foreign minister of Lithuania, one of the Baltic states wary of nearby Russia.

“We witnessed a transformation from Russia-threat agnostic into Russia hawk — who could very well come from the Baltics,” he told AFP.

‘All things pass’

On Borrell’s final trip to Ukraine, he held talks with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, visited a drone factory, and headed to a defensive position near Russia’s border.

“It generates a lot of adrenaline,” he said, to explain how he has kept up with the pace.

Despite the weight on his shoulders, he said there have been moments of joy.

He pointed to the warm welcome he received on his final Ukraine visit, appreciation from some Palestinians and being able to help repatriate hundreds of thousands of Europeans during the pandemic.

As he leaves the stage, the global situation looks perilous, with a new U.S. administration heralding challenges for Europe, Russia advancing in Ukraine and war raging in the Middle East.

Borrell is to be replaced in the job by former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, 47, who is expected to bring a more tightly controlled style.

“She will perform very well, and she will be very happy, and she will suffer less than me,” he said. “I wish her the best.” 
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TBILISI, GEORGIA — Opposition protesters in Georgia’s breakaway province of Abkhazia have refused to cede control of key government buildings that demonstrators stormed to protest new measures allowing Russians to buy property in the area.

Abkhazian President Aslan Bzhania announced Saturday that he would step down and hold early elections if demonstrators vacated the region’s parliament building. But crowds that gathered in the Abkhazian capital, Sukhumi, rejected the deal, and opposition leaders said they would accept only Bzhania’s unconditional resignation.

“None of us have come here for the sake of seats [in parliament],” former Abkhazian Prime Minister Valery Bganba told the crowd in a video livestreamed on social media. “We came here to save our people, our country.”

At least 14 people were injured Friday when opposition protesters clashed with police, Russian state news outlet RIA Novosti reported.

Lawmakers had gathered at the region’s parliament building to discuss ratifying measures allowing Russian citizens to buy property in the breakaway state. However, the session was postponed because demonstrators broke through the gate to the building’s grounds with a truck and streamed inside. Some threw rocks at police, who responded with tear gas.

Most of Abkhazia broke away from Georgia in fighting that ended in 1993, and Georgia lost control of the rest of the territory in a short war with Russia in 2008. Russia recognizes Abkhazia as an independent country, but many Abkhazians are concerned that the region of about 245,000 people is a client state of Moscow.

Opponents of the property agreement say it will drive up prices of apartments and boost Moscow’s dominance in the region. Abkhazia’s mountains and Black Sea beaches make it a popular destination for Russian tourists, and the demand for holiday homes could be strong.

The arrest of five opposition figures at a similar demonstration Monday set off wide protests the next day in which bridges leading to Sukhumi were blocked.
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VIENNA — Russia’s state-owned natural gas company Gazprom stopped supplies to Austria early Saturday, according to the Vienna-based utility OMV, after OMV said it would stop payments for the gas following an arbitration award.

The official cutoff of supplies before dawn Saturday came after Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Friday held a hastily called news conference to emphasize that his country has a secure supply of alternative fuel for this winter.

OMV said it would stop paying for Gazprom gas to its Austrian arm to offset a $242 million arbitration award it won from the International Chamber of Commerce over an earlier cutoff of gas to its German subsidiary.

The Austrian utility said in an email that no gas delivery was made from 6 a.m. on Saturday.

OMV said Wednesday it has sufficient stocks to provide gas to its customers in case of a potential disruption by Gazprom and said storage in Austria was more than 90% full.

“Once again Putin is using energy as a weapon,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen wrote in a post on social media platform X. “He is trying to blackmail Austria & Europe by cutting gas supplies. We are prepared for this and ready for the winter.”

Russia cut off most natural gas supplies to Europe in 2022, citing disputes over payment in rubles, a move European leaders described as energy blackmail over their support for Ukraine against Russia’s invasion.

European governments had to scramble to line up alternative supplies at higher prices, much of it liquefied natural gas brought by ship from the United States and Qatar.

Austria gets the bulk of its natural gas from Russia, as much as 98% in December last year, according to Energy Minister Lenore Gewessler.
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