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.
…

ARLINGTON, TEXAS — Jake Paul beat boxing legend Mike Tyson by unanimous decision to win an intergenerational heavyweight battle in Texas on Friday that failed to live up to its enormous hype.

The bout between the 27-year-old social media influencer-turned-prizefighter Paul and the 58-year-old former heavyweight champion Tyson was streamed live on Netflix and played out in front of a sold-out crowd at AT&T Stadium in Arlington.

Those fans were left largely disappointed as Tyson showed his age and was never able to generate any offense against his younger opponent, landing just 18 punches to Paul’s 78.

“First and foremost, Mike Tyson — it’s an honor to be able to fight him,” said Paul. “It was as tough and hard as I thought it would be.”

Tyson, who wore a knee brace, never mounted much of a challenge after being wobbled by some left hands in the third round but did enough defensively to avoid taking any serious damage.

He acknowledged after the contest to fighting through a leg injury.

“Yeah, but I can’t use that as an excuse. If I did, I wouldn’t be in here,” Tyson said. “I knew he was a good fighter. He was prepared, I came to fight. I didn’t prove nothing to anybody, only to myself. I’m not one of those guys that live to please the world. I’m just happy with what I can do.”

Tyson, one of the most fearsome heavyweight champions during his heyday in the late 1980s and early 1990s, was in his first professional fight in nearly 20 years. He was noncommittal when asked if he would return to the ring again.

“I don’t know. It depends on the situation,” he said.

Paul (11-1) said he can now fight anyone he wants, possibly even Mexican Canelo Alvarez, after being the main attraction in the mega event that brought out a star-studded crowd and 72,300 fight fans.

“This is the biggest event, over 120 million people on Netflix,” he said. “We crashed the site, the biggest U.S. boxing gate, $20 million, in U.S. history, and everyone is next on the list.”

Taylor beats Serrano

In the co-main event earlier in the evening, Ireland’s Katie Taylor retained her super lightweight title by beating Puerto Rico’s Amanda Serrano in a controversial unanimous decision after a violent affair.

Serrano came forward throughout the fight, but their heads crashed together hard in the early stages, resulting in a deep cut over Serrano’s right eye. The referee later took a point off Taylor for head butts.

In the end all three judges scored it 95-94 for Taylor, who denied accusations from Serrano’s corner that she was fighting dirty.

Taylor won the pair’s previous meeting, at New York’s Madison Square Garden in April 2022, and said there would be a third meeting.
…

MOSCOW — Russian forces have captured the villages of Makarivka and Hryhorivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday.

Makarivka is located to the south of Velyka Novosilka while Hryhorivka, which Moscow calls by its previous name of Leninskoye, is situated to the west of the town of Selydove, captured by Russia last month.

Reuters could not independently verify developments on the battlefield in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.  
…

WINCHESTER, England — In the half-light of dusk, Martin Edwards surveys the shadows of the ancient woodland from a high seat and waits. He sits still, watching with his thermal camera.

Even the hares don’t seem to notice the deer stalker until he takes aim. The bang of his rifle pierces the stillness. He’s killed a buck, one of many wild deer roaming this patch of forest in Hampshire, southern England.

Edwards advocates humane deer management: the culling of deer to control their numbers and ensure they don’t overrun forests and farmland in a country where they no longer have natural predators. For these advocates, shooting deer is much more than a sport. It’s a necessity because England’s deer population has gotten out of control.

There are now more deer in England than at any other time in the last 1,000 years, according to the Forestry Commission, the government department looking after England’s public woodland.

That has had a devastating impact on the environment, officials say. Excessive deer foraging damages large areas of woodland including young trees, as well as the habitats of certain birds like robins. Some landowners have lost huge amounts of crops to deer, and overpopulation means that the mammals are more likely to suffer from starvation and disease.

“They will produce more young every year. We’ve got to a point where farmers and foresters are definitely seeing that impact,” said Edwards, pointing to some young hazel shrubs with half-eaten buds. “If there’s too many deer, you will see that they’ve literally eaten all the vegetation up to a certain height.”

Forestry experts and businesses argue that culling the deer — and supplying the meat to consumers — is a double win: It helps rebalance the ecosystem and provides a low-fat, sustainable protein.

While venison — a red meat similar to lean beef but with an earthier flavor — is often perceived as a high-end food in the U.K., one charity sees it as an ideal protein for those who can’t afford to buy other meats.

“Why not utilize that fantastic meat to feed people in need?” said SJ Hunt, chief executive of The Country Food Trust, which distributes meals made with wild venison to food banks.

Pandemic population boom

An estimated 2 million deer now roam England’s forests.

The government says native wild deer play a role in healthy forest ecosystems, but acknowledges that their population needs managing. It provides some funding for solutions such as building deer fences.

But experts like Edwards, a spokesman for the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, believe lethal control is the only effective option, especially after deer populations surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The pandemic was a boon to deer because hunters, like everyone else, stayed home and the restaurant market — the main outlet for venison in the U.K. — vanished overnight.

“There were no sales of venison and the price was absolutely on the floor,” said Ben Rigby, a leading venison and game meats wholesaler. “The deer had a chance to breed massively.”

Rigby’s company now processes hundreds of deer a week, turning them into diced venison or steaks for restaurants and supermarkets. One challenge, he said, is growing the domestic appetite for venison so it appears on more dinner plates, especially after Brexit put new barriers up for exporting the meat.

“We’re not really a game-eating nation, not like in France or Germany or Scandinavia,” he said. “But the U.K. is becoming more and more aware of it and our trade is growing.”

From the forest to the table

Shooting deer is legal but strictly regulated in England. Stalkers must have a license, use certain kinds of firearms and observe open seasons. They also need a valid reason, such as when a landowner authorizes them to kill the deer when their land is damaged. Hunting deer with packs of dogs is illegal.

Making wild venison more widely available in supermarkets and beyond will motivate more stalkers to cull the deer and ensure the meat doesn’t go to waste, Edwards said.

Forestry England, which manages public forests, is part of that drive. In recent years it supplied some hospitals with 1,000 kilograms of wild venison, which became the basis of pies and casseroles popular with patients and staff, it said.

The approach appears to have been well received, though it has attracted some criticism from animal welfare group PETA, which advocates veganism.

Hunt, the food charity chief, said there’s potential to do much more with the meat, which she described as nutritious and “free-range to the purest form of that definition.”

Her charity distributed hundreds of thousands of pouches of venison Bolognese meals to food banks last year — and people are hungry for more, she said.

She recalled attending one food bank session where the only protein available was canned sardines, canned baked beans and the venison meals.

“There were no eggs. There was no cheese. That’s all that they could do, and people were just saying, ‘Thank you, please bring more (of the venison),” she said. “That’s fantastic, because people realize they’re doing a double positive with helping the environment by utilizing the meat as well.” 
…

KYIV, Ukraine — At a secretive factory in Russia’s central grasslands, engineers are manufacturing hundreds of decoy drones meant to overwhelm Ukrainian defenses as they try to protect against a horrific new weapon, an Associated Press investigation has found.

The plant at Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone recently started churning out thermobaric drones alongside the decoys, the investigation found. The thermobaric warheads create a vortex of high pressure and heat that can penetrate thick walls. They suck out all the oxygen in their path, and have a fearsome reputation because of the injuries inflicted even outside the initial blast site: Collapsed lungs, crushed eyeballs, brain damage.

Russia came up with the plan for decoys in late 2022 and codenamed it Operation False Target, according to a person familiar with Russia’s drone production who spoke on condition of anonymity because the industry is highly sensitive. The idea was to launch armed drones along with dozens of decoys, sometimes stuffed with rags or foam, and indistinguishable on radar from those carrying real bombs. Ukrainian forces must make split-second decisions about how to expend scarce resources to save lives and preserve critical infrastructure.

“The idea was to make a drone which would create a feeling of complete uncertainty for the enemy. So he doesn’t know whether it’s really a deadly weapon … or essentially a foam toy,” the person said. With the thermobarics, there is now a “huge risk” an armed drone could deviate from its course and end up in a residential area where the “damage will be simply terrifying,” he said.

Russia’s drone factory

In recent weeks, decoys have filled Ukraine’s skies by the dozens, each one appearing as an indistinguishable blip on military radar screens. During the first weekend of November, the Kyiv region spent 20 hours under air alert, and the sound of buzzing drones mingled with the boom of air defenses and rifle shots.

Unarmed decoys now make up more than half the drones targeting Ukraine, according to the person and Serhii Beskrestnov, a Ukrainian electronics expert whose black military van is kitted out with electronic jammers to down drones.

Both the unarmed decoys and the armed Iranian-designed Shahed drones are being built at a factory in Russia’s Alabuga Special Economic Zone, an industrial complex set up in 2006 about 1,000 kilometers east of Moscow to attract businesses and investment to Tatarstan. It expanded after the 2022 invasion of Ukraine and some sectors switched to military production, adding new buildings and renovating existing sites, according to satellite images analyzed by The Associated Press.

In social media videos, the factory promotes itself as an innovation hub. But David Albright of the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security said Alabuga’s current purpose is purely to produce and sell drones to Russia‘s Ministry of Defense. The videos and other promotional media were taken down after an AP investigation found that many of the African women recruited to fill labor shortages there complained they were duped into taking jobs at the plant.

Russia and Iran signed a $1.7 billion deal for the Shaheds in 2022, after President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine, and Moscow began using Iranian imports of the unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs, in battle later that year. Soon after the deal was signed, production started in Alabuga.

In October, Moscow attacked with at least 1,889 drones – 80% more than in August, according to an AP analysis tracking the drones for months. On Saturday, Russia launched 145 drones across Ukraine, just days after the reelection of Donald Trump threw into doubt U.S. support for the country.

Since summer, most drones crash, are shot down or are diverted by electronic jamming, according to an AP analysis of Ukrainian military briefings. Less than 6% hit a discernible target, according to the data analyzed by AP since the end of July. But the sheer numbers mean a handful can slip through every day – and that is enough to be deadly.

Daily drone swarms

The swarms have become a demoralizing fact of life for Ukrainians.

Russian drone tactics continue to evolve. Now, more powerful missiles often follow close behind as air defenses are exhausted by the drones. The most destructive are the ballistic and cruise missiles that fly many times faster than the drones, which buzz loudly and can be tracked by the naked eye.

Even the decoys can be useful to Russia. One decoy with a live-feed camera allows the aircraft to geolocate Ukraine’s air defenses and relay the information to Russia in the final moments of its mechanical life.

Night after night, Ukrainian sharpshooters spring into action to down the drones with portable surface-to-air missiles.

One sharpshooter, who like most Ukrainian soldiers asked to be identified by his call-sign Rosmaryn, said he’s shot down perhaps a dozen drones in all over nearly two years and saw one that was stuffed with rags and foam. Rosmaryn sees his adversary in almost human terms, describing the aircraft’s quest to outwit his small unit.

“It was part of a swarm, flying as one of the last ones,” he said. “When it’s in the sky, we can’t tell what kind it is, because everything is inside the drone. We only find out after it’s shot down.”

Many fly at 2,000 to 3,000 meters before dropping to lower altitudes on their final approach, Rosmaryn said. Leaked videos suggest Ukraine is now using helicopters to shoot down the high-altitude drones.

Three decoys of Russian origin have crashed in Moldova in the past week, authorities there said.

Thanks to optical trickery, radar can’t distinguish a drone armed with a Shahed’s usual 50-kilogram payload of explosives or with a thermobaric weapon – also known as a vacuum bomb – from those without a warhead or topped with live-feed surveillance cameras. There are also other even rougher-quality drones, armed and unarmed, but in fewer quantities than the Shahed-style unmanned aircraft.

That’s why, even knowing that decoys now make up most of an incoming swarm, Ukraine can’t afford to let anything through.

“For us, it’s just a point on the radar … It has speed, direction, and altitude,” said Col. Yurii Ihnat, an Air Force spokesperson. “We have no way of identifying the exact target during flight, so we have to either jam them with electronic warfare or use firepower to neutralize them. The enemy uses these to scatter our attention.”

The engines and electronics for the armed Shaheds and decoys are a mix of Chinese and Western imports, according to fragments seen by The Associated Press at a Ukrainian military lab. Without them, the drones can’t fly. Despite nearly three years of sanctions, Moscow can still source the parts – largely from China and via third countries in Central Asia and the Middle East.

Halfway through the series of air alerts on November 2, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the swarms of Shaheds, which he put at 2,000 for the month of October alone, were made possible by Western technology slipping through sanctions.

“Included in this many Shaheds are more than 170,000 components that should have been blocked for delivery to Russia. Microcircuits, microcontrollers, processors, many different parts, without which this terror would simply be impossible,” Zelenskyy said.

The joint manufacturing of the drones — some to carry bombs, others to divert attention — is saving Russia’s military money. Production of the decoys started earlier this year and now the plant turns out about 40 of the cheaper unarmed drones a day and around 10 armed ones, which cost an estimated $50,000 and take longer to produce, according to the person with knowledge of Russian drone production.

The Russian news outlet Izvestia in late October said the aim of the decoy is to “weaken” the enemy by forcing it to waste ammunition before sending in armed Shaheds.

Both Beskrestnov and the person familiar with Russian drone production said engineers at Alabuga are also constantly experimenting, putting Moscow at the cutting edge of drone production. To make electronic interference harder, they add Ukrainian SIM cards, roaming SIMS, Starlinks, fiberoptics – and can sometimes receive real-time feedback before the drones are jammed, downed or run out of fuel. Sometimes they attach a silver-painted foam ball to make the drone seem larger on a radar.

But the latest thermobaric variant is causing new anguish in Ukraine.

Thermobaric fears

From a military point of view, thermobarics are ideal for going after targets that are either inside fortified buildings or deep underground.

Alabuga’s thermobaric drones are particularly destructive when they strike buildings, because they are also loaded with ball bearings to cause maximum damage even beyond the superheated blast, said Albright.

Beskrestnov, who is more widely known as Flash and whose black military van is kitted out with electronic jammers to down drones, said the thermobarics were first used over the summer and estimated they now make up between 3% and 5% of all drones.

“This type of warhead has the possibility to destroy a huge building, especially block flats. And it’s very effective if the Russian Federation tries to attack our power plants,” he said.

They have a fearsome reputation because of the physical effects even on people caught outside the initial blast site, said Arthur van Coller, an expert in international humanitarian law at South Africa’s University of Fort Hare.

“With a thermobaric explosion, because of the cloud it would create, everything in its radius would be affected,” he said. “It creates massive fear in the civilian population. Thermobaric weapons have created this idea that they are really horrible weapons, and that creates fear.” 
…

Top Republican members of the House of Representatives say lawmakers have begun discussions about Russia’s war in Ukraine in an effort to carry out President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign pledge to quickly end the conflict there.

Lawmakers told VOA’s Ukrainian Service that they are optimistic that Trump can achieve his goal.

Republican Representative Mike Waltz, who was nominated by Trump this week to be his national security adviser, told VOA that “the president has been clear in terms of getting both sides to the table and is focused on ending the war and not perpetuating it.”

Waltz said that while Trump did not address Russia’s war in Ukraine when he gave a speech to lawmakers at their leadership meeting Wednesday, he said discussions about the war were happening “off to the side.” He did not give further details.

Republican Representative Mike Rogers, who serves as the chair of the House Armed Services Committee, was bullish about Trump’s ability to negotiate a cease-fire.

“I expect the president to negotiate an armistice before the end of the year,” he told VOA.

When asked how the United States would pressure Russia to lay down its weapons, he said, “I have an idea what it is but I’m not going to talk about it.”

Trump spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin last week and urged him not to escalate the war, according to U.S. media outlets, first reported in The Washington Post. The Kremlin denies the call took place.

Republican Representative Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, who has been a strong supporter of U.S. military aid to Ukraine, told VOA that Trump wants to have a “very strong military presence in Europe,” part of a “path of deterrence that eventually will get us to a period of negotiation.”

However, he cautioned that he does not believe that Ukraine has enough leverage right now for successful negotiations with Russia.

Russia and Ukraine are engaged in fierce battles in eastern Ukraine, as uncertainty mounts over how a Trump presidency will affect the war and whether the two sides will be pushed into negotiations. Analysts say that both sides are looking to increase their territory before any negotiations take place.

When asked about how the U.S. could pressure Russia to the negotiating table, Republican Representative Tom Cole, who serves as the chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, told VOA, “I think you have to persuade them what is in their best interest.”

Cole said he thinks the war has been a disaster for Russia, noting that the conflict pushed Sweden and Finland to join NATO, the Western military alliance formed in 1949 to provide collective security against the Soviet Union.

He said talks in the House have not yet led to any definitive plan on the Russia-Ukraine war, but said, “I think there is just hope that President Trump can bring this conflict in Europe — the worst conflict since 1945 — to a speedy end.”

Trump has yet to detail how he will fulfill his campaign pledge to end the war quickly. During a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in September, Trump said he “can work out something that’s good for both sides.”

When asked at that time whether Ukraine should turn over some of its own land to Russia to end the war, Trump said, “We’ll see what happens.”

Vice President Kamala Harris said on the campaign trail that suggestions by the Trump camp to create a demilitarized zone between Russia and Ukraine at the current battle lines “are not proposals for peace.”

“Instead, they are proposals for surrender, which is dangerous and unacceptable,” she said.

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken assured Ukraine and its NATO allies Wednesday that Washington remains committed to putting Ukraine “in the strongest possible position” in the final months of President Joe Biden’s administration.

“President Biden has committed to making sure that every dollar we have at our disposal will be pushed out the door between now and January 20th,” Blinken told reporters at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Wednesday.

Trump told reporters in September that his plan to end the Russia-Ukraine war is “not a surrender.”

“What my strategy is, is to save lives,” he said.

Kateryna Lisunova contributed to this report.
…

washington — North Korean defectors say Pyongyang has likely kept the deployment of that nation’s soldiers to fight in Russia’s war against Ukraine as a secret from its own people, including the soldiers’ own families, but the news will undoubtedly leak out, causing anxiety and pain.

Western intelligence officials estimate that as many as 10,000 North Korean soldiers are now in place, mainly in locations around Russia’s Kursk region where Ukrainian forces have captured some Russian territory, and that the troops have already suffered combat casualties.

“North Korean mothers who sent their children to Russia must feel unimaginable pain,” said Kim Jeong-ah, a North Korean defector and former first lieutenant in the North Korean People’s Army who spoke to VOA Korean by phone Wednesday.

“It drives you crazy; how else can you express that feeling?” said Kim, herself a mother who now runs a nonprofit in Seoul that promotes women’s rights in North Korea. “They cannot even cry as hard as you want at home, because there’s no soundproof walls between houses.”

Kim, who escaped North Korea in 2009, said, “The families of those North Korean soldiers in Russia must be suffering without being able to express their grievances due to pressure from the North Korean regime.”

Rising human rights concerns 

It is widely believed that the Kim Jong Un regime mobilized its elite “Storm Corps” special forces to support Russia.

Lee Hyun Seung, a former soldier in the Storm Corps unit and an escapee who now lives in the U.S., told VOA Korean in a phone call Wednesday that “the North Korean regime does not inform families of overseas deployments, unit locations or personal safety issues,” for fear of leaking military secrets.

Lee suggested that news of the deployment is likely already spreading by word of mouth among residents, and that “there will certainly be internal opposition among residents to this clear violation of human rights — deploying the troops without notice to the families.”

“Rumors will spread quickly, and if the families who were not aware of the deployment find out their sons were sacrificed, this will be a huge blow to the regime.”

In a recent talk hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, Tae Young-ho, former North Korean diplomat who served in South Korea’s National Assembly after his defection, said although Pyongyang is keeping the deployment secret, North Korean troop fatalities will be hard to keep from public view.

Tae also said that North Korea has a very low birth rate, with families having only one or two children, so parents will not be able to accept the fact that their children died defending Russia, not their own country.

 

Lack of training, resources

Lee Woong-gil, who defected from North Korea after 13 years of service with the Storm Corps, told VOA Korean by phone that he had heard that the training conditions and capabilities of North Korean special forces have deteriorated, compared with when he served.

“If you look at the photos and videos [of North Korean soldiers in Russia], they don’t look like the best-trained special forces soldiers, they just look like soldiers who came out during training,” Lee said. “They didn’t look very fit, and they looked like run-of-the-mill soldiers who were just drafted during training.”

North Korea is one of the most militarized countries in the world. All men between the ages of 17 and 30 must enlist for military service for a period of five to 13 years.

Lee also said it is very difficult for the North Korean regime to provide proper economic compensation to deployed troops and their families, adding “the only thing North Korean soldiers can hope for is the safety of themselves and their families.”

Lee predicted that when faced with extreme pain and fear of death, North Korean soldiers in Russia would feel agitated and would highly likely surrender during combat or attempt to escape and even seek asylum.

Risk of severe trauma

Oh Eun-kyung, a counselor at the Korean Counseling Psychological Association in Seoul, who counsels North Korean defectors, said in a phone call with VOA Korean on Monday that North Korean soldiers deployed in Russia are highly likely to suffer from severe trauma due to mental stress.

“The psychological isolation and helplessness of not being able to do anything will increase among the families left behind in North Korea,” said Oh. “The families’ anger at the regime’s anti-human rights measures could serve as a trigger for major social unrest within North Korea.”

David Maxwell, a former U.S. Special Forces colonel who served on the U.N.’s Combined Forces Command in South Korea, told VOA Korean by phone that North Korean soldiers who have never participated in actual battles are being sent to the front line, risking exposure to even more serious trauma.

“They will suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. They will suffer from traumatic experience, but they have been so thoroughly indoctrinated … that I don’t think you will see it manifest in ways that it does in the rest of the world,” said Maxwell, who now is vice president of the Center for Asia Pacific Strategy. “They certainly will not be properly cared for [to deal with] the experience.”

War without just cause

Ri Jong Ho, a North Korean defector now in the U.S. and a former high-ranking economic official for the Kim regime, said Pyongyang will not publicly acknowledge the Russia deployment, given its weak justification.

“When North Korea sent troops to Vietnam, our goal was to protect the socialist front; it was the Cold War back then,” Ri told VOA Korean by phone Wednesday.

North Korea has long denied that it sent members of its air force into the Vietnam War, although it was belatedly confirmed in 2002 when North Korean state media reported that a delegation had retrieved remains of North Korean airmen from Vietnamese soil.

“They don’t have any justification this time,” Ri said. “They participated in the war of aggression. The North Korean soldiers are just there as cannon fodder.” 

This story originated in VOA’s Korean Service. 
…

A German government spokesperson said that Chancellor Olaf Scholz held direct talks via telephone Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin during which he demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine and that Russia show a willingness to negotiate a just and lasting peace.

A statement from German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said Scholz condemned Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and called on Putin to end it and withdraw troops.

The statement said the chancellor reaffirmed Germany’s unwavering determination to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression for as long as necessary. The brief statement did not include a response from Putin.

The spokesperson said Scholz spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before his call with the Russian leader and intended to call him again afterwards. Media reports say that call lasted about an hour.

Reuters news agency reported the Kremlin confirmed the call, which it said had come at Berlin’s request. The news agency reported the Kremlin said Putin told Scholz any agreement to end the war in Ukraine must take Russian security interests into account and reflect “new territorial realities.”

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said despite deep disagreements, the fact the two leaders had the call at all was “very positive.”

Zelenskyy, however, was not as pleased by the call. In a video address posted to his website Friday, Zelenskyy said that in his opinion, the call is a “Pandora’s box.”

“This is exactly what Putin has wanted for a long time: It is crucial for him to weaken his isolation. Russia’s isolation,” Zelenskyy said. “And to engage in negotiations, ordinary negotiations, that will lead to nothing.”

He said it is what Putin has done for decades. “This allowed Russia to change nothing in its policy, to do nothing substantial, and ultimately it led to this war.”

Zelenskyy said Ukraine understands how to act regarding Putin and handle negotiations accordingly.

“And we want to warn everyone: There will be no Minsk-3,” he said, referencing the Minsk agreements, two failed cease-fire deals between Kyiv and Moscow over the status of the eastern Donbas region. “What we need is real peace.”

The call came roughly one week after Scholz’s coalition government fell apart, and he is facing new elections early next year.

Also on Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a state radio interview the European Union must abandon its sanctions against Russia or face economic collapse.

The EU and its western partners have imposed numerous sanctions against Russia and Putin since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many of which target Russia’s energy sector.

Orban, a staunch ally of Putin’s, said in the interview the sanctions on Russia have driven up energy prices and must be reviewed by EU leaders in Brussels. He said the sanctions have failed and as long as they are in place, energy prices will not come down and it will destroy the European economy.

Orban also referenced U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s victory last week. Referring to Trump as “our comrade in arms,” and “our fellow peace fighter,” he said his victory means minds have to be changed in Brussels — site of EU headquarters.

Orban said they must urge “a pro-peace” turn in the EU, referring to their support for Ukraine.

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
…

GENEVA — Ukraine is heading into its third, most challenging winter since the war started nearly 1,000 days ago because “systematic attacks” by Russia have damaged and destroyed most of the country’s energy infrastructure, a senior U.N. official warned.

“I am told that by now, 65% of Ukraine’s own energy production capacities has been destroyed,” Matthias Schmale, resident and humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, told journalists Friday in Geneva.

“There are a lot of worries that the Russian Federation’s military forces might strike the energy sector again,” he said. “And the real concern is, if they were to target the energy sector again, this could be a tipping point, also a tipping point for further mass movements, both inside the country and outside the country.

“The systematic attacks on energy infrastructure may pose an additional risk in winter, especially for already vulnerable people, as power cuts extend more than a few days in subzero temperatures,” he said. “Deliberately attacking and destroying energy infrastructure that the civilian population depended on is a violation of international humanitarian law and has to stop.”

The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, said more than 12,000 people have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion against Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

It said civilian infrastructure has been decimated, with more than 2,000 attacks on health care facilities and 2 million damaged homes. It said almost 40% of the population in Ukraine needs humanitarian assistance.

“There is also a sort of hidden crisis,” Schmale noted. “I think this prolonged war, almost three years in February, has led to widespread trauma and psychological distress, and I think the need for mental health support is very evident. It will take years to help people deal with their traumas.”

The World Health Organization has verified 2,134 attacks on health care targets in Ukraine, killing at least 197 health workers and patients. The agency said attacks on health facilities have “intensified significantly” since December 2023, “occurring on a near-daily basis.”

“The marked increase in attacks on Ukraine’s energy and health infrastructure has led to widespread disruptions to power and water,” said Dr. Margaret Harris, a WHO spokesperson. “The high cost of medicines, treatment and insufficient number of health care workers have emerged as major concerns, including near the front lines.

“In the coming months we anticipate civilians who live near the front lines may experience coronary vascular diseases, mental health issues and dental problems,” she said, noting that the WHO continues to call for humanitarian access to all parts of Ukraine, including Russian-controlled areas.

Resident coordinator Schmale expressed grave concern about the escalating use of drones against the civilian population, many supplied to Russia by North Korea.

“During my many visits to the front lines, civilians have increasingly described to me being targeted,” he said, underscoring that the drones not only cause physical damage but also are being used as a form of “psychological terror.”

“I am very worried, along with many others, that increased use of drones by the armed forces of the Russian Federation will have an increasingly damaging impact on the civilian population,” he said. “The fear of a nuclear fallout because of either a deliberate or accidental hit on a nuclear power plant, such as the one in Zaporizhzhia … would be extremely devastating, and the worst-case scenario.”

OCHA said that U.N. agencies are prioritizing support to people close to the front line, as well as to the thousands who have evacuated in recent weeks and months to help them survive the freezing temperatures that are coming.

It said U.N., international and volunteer organizations have been able to assist 7.2 million people thanks to $1.8 billion received for the humanitarian response in Ukraine. However, another $500 million will be needed to address the emergency needs of 1.8 million people by March.

Schmale underscored the appeal by emphasizing that vulnerable people in high-rise residential buildings in urban areas, the disabled, the elderly and the 3.6 million internally displaced people inside the country are most at risk and in need of help.

He said that helping people to get through this winter “is a race against time,” made more difficult because of waning support from the donor community. While the trend was downward, he expressed hope the international community and humanitarian support from the U.S. would continue under the new leadership.

“They have been by far our biggest individual country supporter at country level,” he said. “The hope is that they understand like the present administration that there are huge humanitarian needs that need to continue to be addressed.

“We must not normalize the war in Ukraine,” he said. “We must continue to support this country to the best of our abilities.”
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The Hague, Netherlands — The Dutch government needs “more time” to flesh out a strategy to fight anti-Semitism after last week’s violence between Israeli football fans and locals, the justice minister has said.  

“Because of the terrible events of November 7 and 8 and because I want to promote a fruitful debate in parliament, I have decided to take more time to get a strategy ready,” Justice Minister David van Weel said.  

“The strategy will soon be sent to parliament,” he said in a letter to MPs, published late on Thursday.  

Prime Minister Dick Schoof promised “far-reaching measures” earlier this week.   

He said they would be announced after a cabinet meeting on Friday but this now seems to be postponed.  

The discussions follow violence in the streets of Amsterdam before and after the Europa League match between Dutch giants Ajax and Maccabi on November 7.  

Amsterdam police chief Peter Holla said that before the match Maccabi fans burned a Palestinian flag, attacked a taxi and chanted anti-Arab slogans, according to city authorities.  

They also reportedly booed a minute’s silence during the match for victims of Spain’s recent deadly floods.  

After the game, youths on scooters engaged in “hit-and-run” assaults on Maccabi fans, officials said.  

Some social media posts had included calls to “hunt Jews”, according to police.    

Schoof said the attacks amounted to “unadulterated anti-Semitism.”   

‘Pouring oil on the fire’  

The authorities have set aside 4.5 million euros ($4.8 million) for the new strategy, including 1.2 million euros for securing Jewish institutions, Dutch media reported.  

Schoof told parliament on Wednesday the government was looking at “far-reaching measures” to punish anti-Semitic violence.  

This included the possibility of scrapping Dutch nationality for people with dual nationality.  

Police, prosecutors and other law authorities have launched a massive probe into the incidents surrounding the Maccabi-Ajax match, with eight suspects behind bars so far.   

Far-right anti-Islam MP Geert Wilders, leader of the biggest party in the coalition government, accused the country’s Muslim community for the unrest.  

He demanded perpetrators be prosecuted “for terrorism, lose their passports and kicked out of the country.”   

But opposition parties condemned Wilders’ language, saying he was “pouring oil on the fire, abusing the genuine fear and pain of one group to stoke hate against another.”  

Many opposition politicians and commentators said that although anti-Semitism was abhorrent, the violence was not one-sided.  

The violence took place against the backdrop of an increasingly polarized Europe, with heightened tensions following a rise in anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli and Islamophobic attacks since the start of the war in Gaza. 
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Valencia, Spain — The head of Spain’s eastern Valencia region admitted Friday to “mistakes” in handing the country’s deadliest flood in decades that killed 216 people there.  

“I’m not going to deny mistakes,” Carlos Mazon told the regional parliament in an address, adding he was “not going to shirk any responsibility.”  

As the head of the regional government “I would like to apologize” to those who “felt” that “the aid did not arrive or was not enough,” he added.  

The October 29 disaster marked the country’s deadliest floods in decades. A total of 224 people were killed nationwide, with 216 of them in Valencia.  

While he spoke, dozens of protesters gathered outside the regional parliament, jeering and chanting slogans demanding his resignation.  

The floods wrecked infrastructure, gutted buildings and submerged fields. The final bill is expected to soar to tens of billions of euros.  

Almost half of the people killed in Spain’s Valencia region during recent floods were 70 years old or older and 26 were foreigners, including two Britons.  

Outrage at the authorities for their perceived mismanagement before and after the floods triggered mass protests on Saturday, the largest in Valencia city which drew 130,000 people.  

Critics have questioned the efficiency of the Valencia region’s alert system during October’s downpour, when in some cases only reached residents’ telephones when floodwater was already gushing through towns.  

Many local residents have also complained that they were left without food and water for days, and had to rely on aid provided by volunteers instead of the government. 
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washington — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was among the first foreign leaders to congratulate U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on his early November election victory.

President Joe Biden has not hosted Erdogan at the White House though the two have met on sidelines of international summits and spoken by phone.

Speaking to journalists accompanying his return from visits to Saudi Arabia and Azerbaijan, Erdogan expressed his hope for improved U.S. ties, adding, however, that in-person meetings would be needed to achieve that end, and that Ankara needs to wait to see what kind of a Cabinet Trump forms.

The two leaders had a close personal relationship during Trump’s first term in office. However, bilateral relations have also been marked by tough times during that administration. With Trump’s January return to the White House, analysts told VOA that although there may be opportunities for more cooperation in some areas, they don’t expect major changes.

James Jeffrey, who served as the U.S. ambassador to Turkey from 2008 to 2010, sees Ukraine as one area with potential for cooperation.

Referring to Trump’s promise to end the war in Ukraine, Jeffrey says Turkey could play a role in negotiating a cease-fire, making both sides “well-aligned for a productive relationship.”

Alan Makovsky, a senior fellow for national security and international policy at the Center for American Progress, also believes Trump’s priority to end the war in Ukraine creates a significant opportunity for Erdogan.

A NATO ally, Turkey has adopted a careful balancing act amid the war in Ukraine, supplying armed drones to Ukraine while maintaining ties with Russia in energy and tourism.

Erdogan, who has maintained good relations with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian President Vladimir Putin, has long said neither side is gaining from the war and offered to host and mediate negotiations.

Disagreement over Syria

Disagreements between Turkey and the United States during Trump’s first term included Ankara’s frustration with U.S. support for Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) led by Kurdish militia — People’s Protection Units, known as YPG in northern Syria.

After a phone call with Erdogan on October 6, 2019, Trump unexpectedly announced that the U.S. would withdraw from Syria. Many U.S. military officials, all of whom were caught off guard by the announcement, did not support the idea.

Tension between the allies worsened after Trump on October 9 sent a letter to Erdogan, warning him against a military incursion into Syria.

Following Trump’s withdrawal announcement, Turkey launched a military operation in northern Syria targeting the YPG on October 9.

A cease-fire agreement was reached during then-Vice President Mike Pence’s visit to Ankara on October 17.

Now, some in Ankara expect the U.S. may reconsider its presence in northern Syria during Trump’s second term.

Jeffrey, a U.S. envoy for Syria from 2018 to 2020, suggests Trump’s administration may reassess this issue.

“Each time people were able to convince [Trump on Syria, it] was that the troops were serving a set of important purposes. This is one of the most low-cost, high-return military deployments. We are keeping the Islamic State under control. Secondly, we are holding vital terrain, blocking Iranian, Assad and Russian ambitions,” he told VOA.

Washington has long said its SDF partnership is necessary for the enduring defeat of ISIS and countering Iran.

Ankara considers YPG a Syrian offshoot of PKK, which U.S. officials have also designated as a terrorist organization.

Trump nominated Marco Rubio, a Republican senator from Florida, for secretary of state. Rubio was one of the strongest opponents of a U.S.-pullout from Syria at the time.

He labeled the decision as “a catastrophic mistake that will have dire consequences far beyond Syria,” urging Trump to reconsider it.

“We’ll have to see how that works out and how Marco Rubio’s views may have changed to accord more with Trump’s or vice versa,” Makovksy said. “But anyone who thought that Trump’s election meant that the U.S. would soon be withdrawing from Syria would certainly have to rethink that view in light of the Rubio appointment. I think that makes it unlikely that we will withdraw from Syria.”

Trump’s nominees for Cabinet positions will require Senate approval before they assume office.

F-35 program

One complicating factor in U.S.-Turkey relations during Trump’s first term was Turkey’s purchase of the S-400 missile defense system from Russia, which prompted Washington to remove Ankara from an F-35 joint strike fighter program.

“The F-35 cannot coexist with a Russian intelligence collection platform that will be used to learn about its advanced capabilities,” said a White House statement when the system was delivered in July 2019, explaining the U.S. decision to remove Turkey from the project.

The Trump administration in December 2020 sanctioned Turkey under the Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA).

Turkey, which has since requested removal of CAATSA sanctions, has returned to talks with U.S. officials about a possible return to the F-35 program.

Analysts say that while there is a likelihood that CAATSA sanctions might be lifted during Trump’s second term, any solution to the S-400 issue that is not permanent would not be technically acceptable to the U.S. military.

Describing the F-35s as the U.S. military’s largest project since World War II, Jeffrey said, “A permanent solution is that they [the S-400s] go away, they’re sold to somebody else. I would like to have a solution, but technically, I don’t think there is one.’’

Makovsky called Turkey’s return to the F-35 program unlikely in the near term.

“If they completely get rid of the S-400s, really give up possession as the law requires, there could be a reasonable chance for F-35,” he told VOA. “But it will be up to the so-called Four Corners – the chairman and senior members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.”

This story originated in VOA’s Turkish Service.
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ROME — The ancient Roman Colosseum will be the venue of gladiator fights — albeit staged — for the first time in two millennia under a $1.5 million sponsorship deal with Airbnb that aims to promote “a more conscious tourism.”

But some visitors to the monument Thursday, as well as housing activists, were skeptical about the value of the arrangement, citing ongoing controversies in many cities over the role of short-term rental platforms in fueling overtourism and limiting affordable housing for residents and students.

Under the deal announced by Airbnb and the Colosseum on Wednesday, the sponsorship by the short-term rental giant will cover the renewal of an educational program inside the ancient Roman amphitheater covering the history of the structure and gladiators.

Eight of the platform’s users and their plus-ones will be able to participate in faux gladiator fights after the Colosseum’s closing time on May 7-8, taking the same underground route used by gladiators in ancient Rome to reach the arena. People can apply for the experience on November 27 at no cost, and the “gladiators” will be chosen by lottery.

The superintendent of the Colosseum Archaeological Park, Alfonsina Russo, told The Associated Press that the deal is in conjunction with the release of Ridley Scott’s new film “Gladiators II,” which opened in Italy on Thursday.

Russo characterized the sponsorship arrangement as one of the many such deals to help finance projects at the park.

The Italian fashion brand Tod’s, for example, has funded a multimillion renovation of the Roman monument, including a cleaning, replacing the locking system of arches with new gates and redoing the subterranean areas.

Alberto Campailla, the coordinator of the Nonna Roma nonprofit organization that focuses on housing and food for the poor, called the campaign with Airbnb “a disgrace,” and a form of “touristification.”

Airbnb and other platforms offering short-term rentals “are literally driving people out of not only the city center, but also the outskirts and suburban neighborhoods,” Campailla said.

Tourists from other European cities grappling with overtourism also took issue with the deal.

“It seems to me that the purpose of the Colosseum today is to be a tourist attraction, but not to create an amusement park within it,” said Jaime Montero, a tourist visiting from Madrid. “In the end, tourism eats the essence of the cities, here in Rome, as in other capitals.”

Visiting from Naples, Salvatore Di Matteo saw the deal as “yet another takeover of the territory” by big companies.

“If they start to touch sacred monuments such as the Colosseum here in Rome, it is obviously something that should make us think and is, in any case, a bit worrying,” he said.

The Colosseum is the most important and largest amphitheater constructed by the ancient Romans. Built in the 1st century, it was the center of popular entertainment, hosting hunts and gladiator games, until the 6th century. 
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