LONDON — British and American authorities are investigating after several drones were spotted in recent days flying over four U.S. military bases in England. Britain has deployed dozens of troops around the bases amid concerns the overflights could be acts of deception or sabotage by an adversary such as Russia.

In a statement issued Wednesday, U.S. Air Forces in Europe said that “small unmanned aerial systems continue to be spotted in the vicinity of and over Royal Air Force Lakenheath, RAF Mildenhall, RAF Feltwell and RAF Fairford since Nov. 20.” It said the number of drones sighted has fluctuated and has ranged in size and configurations.

“To date, installation leaders have determined that none of the incursions impacted base residents, facilities or assets. The air force is taking all appropriate measures to safeguard the aforementioned installations and their residents,” the statement said.

RAF Lakenheath in the east of England is home to the U.S. Air Force 48th Fighter Wing, a cornerstone of its combat capability in Europe and home to several F-35 stealth fighter jets, among other aircraft. Four American B-52 strategic bombers are currently based at RAF Fairford in the west of the country.

The Pentagon said this week it is actively monitoring the situation. “The bottom line is it’s something that we’re going to take seriously. We’re continuing to look into it. But as of right now, [it] has not had any significant mission impact,” Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder told reporters Tuesday, adding that small drones have become “relatively common now across the landscape.”

Britain has deployed about 60 soldiers around the U.S. bases. British Defense Minister Maria Eagle said they are using “multilayered force protection measures.”

“We will be making sure that anybody that we manage to catch for engaging in this behavior is shown the full force of the law,” Eagle told lawmakers Wednesday.

The nature of the sightings suggests the drones are not being operated by hobbyists, said David Dunn, a professor of international politics at Britain’s University of Birmingham, who has written extensively on the dangers posed by drones.

“It’s particularly alarming in this context that actually talked about there [being] several different sizes of drones. It does seem to be a coordinated and planned activity. The most obvious thing is that these are disruptive practices and that they actually force the airfield to operate in a different way, to suspend air operations,” Dunn told VOA.

The drones can also be used for other purposes.

“They can gather intelligence on how many planes are operating, where they’re based, what the movements are. And, actually, they can also do that for individuals,” Dunn said.

Drones have been sighted above the U.S. base at RAF Feltwell, which primarily serves as living quarters for U.S. military personnel — a “particularly sinister” development, according to Dunn.

“Because in an age where you have highly sophisticated fifth-generation aircraft that operate stealthily and invisibly in the electronic spectrum when they’re flying — and are highly protected on the airbase in hardened aircraft shelters — the most vulnerable part of the overall system is actually the aircrew,” Dunn told VOA.

“And so, if you can identify where they live by following them home onto their married quarters, you can identify where you can actually break the weakest part of that chain,” he said.

The Times of London newspaper reported that authorities have not ruled out Russia as the culprit. Dunn said there’s evidence of Moscow seeking to step up hybrid attacks, meaning a nonmilitary form of warfare that can still be destructive.

“Whether that be the disruption of undersea cables or of incendiary parcels being sent to the city I live in, Birmingham — there was an incendiary parcel found in Birmingham airport. There’s another [example] of a warehouse being burned down, which stored material going to Ukraine. These things are typically, it seems, done at third party, whereby the Russian state, it seems, has employed criminals in the U,K.,” Dunn said.

The Russian Embassy in London had not responded to VOA requests for comment by the time of publication. Moscow has previously denied any involvement in hybrid attacks on the West.
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Russian drones and missiles pounded Ukrainian energy infrastructure Thursday, cutting off power to more than 1 million people across the country, Ukrainian authorities said.

“As of now, 523,000 subscribers in the Lviv region are without electricity,” regional head Maksym Kozytsky said on social media. The region, in the western part of the country, borders Poland.

Directly north of the Lviv region, 215,000 customers lost power in the region of Volyn, and in the neighboring Rivne region, governor Oleksandr Koval said 280,000 consumers were without power.

“Energy infrastructure is once again targeted by the enemy’s massive strike,” Ukrainian Energy Minister German Galushchenko wrote on Facebook.

Ukrenergo, the national electrical grid operator, introduced emergency power cuts amid the attack, Galushchenko said.

Officials told Reuters that several nuclear power units were disconnected from the network during the attacks.

Private power company DTEK said the power cuts impacted Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipropetrovsk and Donetsk regions.

Some regional officials said water service also was affected by the airstrikes.

The head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Andrii Yermak, said in a Telegram post that Russia had stockpiled missiles to strike Ukrainian infrastructure and wage war against civilians during the cold season, The Associated Press reported.

Information from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters was used in the report. 
…

Tehran, Iran — Iran is set to meet on Friday with France, Germany and the United Kingdom for talks on its nuclear program after the three governments joined with the United States to have Tehran censured by the U.N. atomic watchdog.

Last week’s chiding prompted a defiant response from Tehran, but its officials have since signaled willingness to engage with other parties ahead of the return of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, whose last administration pursued a policy of “maximum pressure” against the Islamic republic.

Iranian diplomat Majid Takht-Ravanchi, who serves as the political deputy to Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, is scheduled to represent Iran in the talks on Friday.

He will meet beforehand with Enrique Mora, deputy secretary general of the EU’s foreign affairs arm, according to the IRNA state news agency.

Last week, the 35-nation board of governors of the UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) adopted a resolution condemning Iran for its lack of cooperation on nuclear issues.

The resolution was brought by France, Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States, and was actively opposed by Tehran.

In response, Iran announced the launch of “new advanced centrifuges” designed to increase its stockpile of enriched uranium.

Tehran’s willingness to sit down with the three European countries so soon after the censure comes just weeks before Trump is set to return to the White House in January.

During his first term, Trump focused on imposing heavy sanctions on Iran following the United States’ unilateral withdrawal from a landmark 2015 nuclear deal three years after it was established.

That agreement between Tehran and major powers aimed to give Iran relief from crippling Western sanctions in exchange for limiting its nuclear program to prevent it from developing a nuclear weapon.

In retaliation for the U.S. withdrawal, Tehran has reduced its compliance with the deal, raising its uranium enrichment levels to 60% — close to the 90% required for a nuclear bomb.

Tehran has consistently denied any intentions of pursuing nuclear weapons.

For Tehran, the goal of the talks on Friday is to avoid a “double disaster” scenario, in which it would face renewed pressures from both Trump and European nations, according to political analyst Mostafa Shirmohammadi.

He noted that Iran’s support among European nations had been eroded by allegations it offered military assistance for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Iran has denied these accusations and hopes to mend relations with Europe, while also maintaining a firm stance.

‘Legal obligations’

The IAEA’s censure resolution urged Iran to “fulfil its legal obligations” under the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) ratified in 1970, which requires member states to declare and maintain their nuclear materials under IAEA supervision.

In response, Foreign Minister Araghchi, who was instrumental in the nuclear negotiations in 2015, said Iran was commissioning “several thousand advanced centrifuges.”

The head of Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, Mohammad Eslami, said Wednesday that they had begun inserting gas into the centrifuges.

Centrifuges work by rapidly spinning uranium gas to increase the proportion of the fissile isotope U-235.

Iran insists on its right to nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, but according to the IAEA, it is the only non-nuclear-weapon state enriching uranium to 60%.

Under the 2015 accord — which will expire in October 2025 — Iran’s enrichment was capped at 3.67%.

Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final authority in Iran’s decision-making, has issued a religious decree, or fatwa, prohibiting the use of atomic weapons.

Iran’s nuclear program dates back to the late 1950s when the United States, then an ally, signed a civil cooperation agreement with Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi.
…

Geneva, Switzerland — A young South African activist living with HIV will take over Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron’s Instagram account on World AIDS Day, the United Nations said Thursday.

Ibanomonde Ngema, a 21-year-old activist, will be given the reins to the South African-born actress’s global account @charlizeafrica, with some 7.6 million followers, on December 1, UNAIDS said in a statement.

The takeover by Ngema, who was born with HIV and has dedicated her advocacy work to dispelling myths and reducing stigma around HIV, will aim to bring awareness to the first-hand experiences of young people living with HIV, it said.

Theron, a so-called UN Messenger of Peace who has long advocated for tackling the systemic inequalities that drive HIV infections among young women and girls, insisted in the statement that “ending AIDS is within reach.”

But, she warned, “only if we completely dismantle harmful patterns of stigma and discrimination through laws, policies, and practices that protect people living with HIV.”

Theron won a best actress Oscar for her lead role in the 2004 film “Monster” and has more recently starred in pictures such as “Mad Max: Fury Road.”

“I have always loved watching Charlize Theron on the big screen and have long been inspired by her using her influence to help people around the world, especially in our home country of South Africa,” Ngema said in the statement.

The announcement came after UNAIDS this week released a new report that showed how rights violations exacerbate the vulnerability of women and girls to HIV.

Last year, women and girls accounted for 62% of all new HIV infections in sub-Saharan Africa, UNAIDS said.
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BERLIN — Russia’s acts of sabotage against Western targets may eventually prompt NATO to consider invoking the alliance’s Article 5 mutual defense clause, the head of Germany’s foreign intelligence service said on Wednesday.

Speaking at an event of the DGAP think tank in Berlin on Wednesday, Bundesnachrichtendienst chief Bruno Kahl said he expected Moscow to further step up its hybrid warfare.

“The extensive use of hybrid measures by Russia increases the risk that NATO will eventually consider invoking its Article 5 mutual defense clause,” he noted. “At the same time, the increasing ramp up of the Russian military potential means a direct military confrontation with NATO becomes one possible option for the Kremlin.”

Under Article 5, if a NATO member comes under attack, the other members of the alliance are obliged to help it respond.

NATO and Western intelligence services have warned that Russia is behind a growing number of hostile activities across the Euro-Atlantic area, ranging from repeated cyberattacks to Moscow-linked arson — all of which Russia denies.

Kahl said Russia’s military would likely be capable of attacking NATO by the end of the decade, adding that Moscow’s war on Ukraine meant that it had battle-proven troops under its command, raising the threat emanating from its conventional forces, while it also mastered modern drone warfare.

According to the assessment of his experts, high-ranking officials in the Russian defense ministry doubt whether NATO’s Article 5 including U.S. protective measures for Europe would actually be invoked in case of an emergency, the intel chief said.

“We don’t have any indication yet that Russia intends to go to war, but if such sentiments gain the upper hand in the government in Moscow, then the risk for a military confrontation will grow over the coming years.”

Should Russia attack one or several NATO allies, it would not do so to grab massive swaths of land, Kahl said, but rather to test red lines set by the West with the aim of defeating Western unity and NATO as a defensive alliance.

“In Russia’s view, this goal would be reached if Article 5 were to remain without effect in case of a Russian attack,” he said.

“To meet this target, you don’t need to send tank armies westwards, it is enough to dispatch little green men to the Baltics to protect allegedly threatened Russian minorities or adjust borders on Svalbard.”
…

LONDON — Romania’s top security agency said Thursday it is investigating possible foreign interference in Sunday’s first round of the nation’s presidential election. The far-right candidate, Calin Georgescu, topped all other candidates with almost 23% of the vote, despite polling in single digits before the election.

Georgescu will compete in a December 8 runoff with center-right candidate Elena Lasconi, who finished second with 19% and hopes to pick up support from defeated centrist and leftist candidates. Romanians will also vote in parliamentary elections on December 1.

The Supreme Defense Council, which is led by incumbent President Klaus Iohannis, is due to meet on Thursday to “analyze possible risks to national security generated by the actions of state and non-state cyber parties,” according to a statement released Wednesday by the president’s office.

Additionally, the National Audiovisual Council of Romania, which regulates broadcasting and social media, has urged the European Commission to investigate the role TikTok may have played in Sunday’s vote amid what it called “suspicions of manipulation of public opinion,” according to Reuters.

Protests

Protesters have taken to the streets of Bucharest in the wake of Georgescu’s surprise victory. Uma, a student who did not want to give her family name, joined the protests in central Bucharest on Monday.

“Calin Georgescu, an extremist, a far-right extremist who is a pro-Russian, wants to take Romania away from the NATO course,” she said.

Georgescu has questioned NATO and European Union support for Kyiv in its war against Russian invaders. Romania hosts several thousand U.S. troops and shares a 613-kilometer border with Ukraine.

The 62-year-old presidential candidate has praised fascist politicians in the 1930s as Romanian heroes.

NATO membership, Russian engagement

In a video streamed Tuesday on social media, Georgescu — standing alongside his wife, Cristela — sought to clarify his positions.

“I do not want to leave NATO. I do not want to leave the European Union. What I want, however, is to take a stance, not to kneel over there, not to take everything. We should do everything in our national interest,” Georgescu said. “I have no connection to everything that says, ‘With Russia.’ I am Romanian, first and foremost. … I have no connection, and I am not, first and foremost, antisemitic.”

Georgescu has urged Western engagement with Russia, echoing other right-wing European leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Orban, said noted political analyst Radu Magdin, CEO of Smartlink Communications.

“Mr. Georgescu talks a lot about peace. And the thing is, we all want peace, Ukraine wants peace. But it’s not easy to have peace when somebody invades your territory. So, from this perspective, by claiming peace, he’s part also of a movement across Europe, which in fact is a translation of what you may call war fatigue,” Magdin told VOA.

Speaking on Monday, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was unfamiliar with Georgescu’s policies. “We are well aware of Romania’s current leadership. It is not a friendly country for us. So, we will be watching the further development of electoral processes and who is going to win.”

Inflation

Economic pressures have also driven frustration with the established parties, according to Magdin.

“Beyond the geopolitics, what really bites is the living conditions,” he said. “Romania is affected by inflation, like a lot of other countries, and living conditions are not what they used to be.

“It’s like a never-ending nightmare. We had COVID, then we had the first wave of economic impact. Then we had war in the region, an energy crisis and an inflation wave again. And yes, you could say that Europe has tried to be resilient. But the reality is, we are all tired.”

TikTok

Young and overseas voters appear to have boosted Georgescu’s results.

“On social media, he was dominant on TikTok compared with other candidates,” Magdin said. “His vision is mostly conservative, traditionalist. … For example, he talks about peasants, not farmers, so as to connect with that part of the electorate. He sounds a little bit bucolic. He invokes God quite a lot, as well.”
…

President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said he will nominate retired Army Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg to serve as assistant to the president and special envoy for Ukraine and Russia. 

Kellogg was chief of staff on Trump’s National Security Council during his first administration and was the national security adviser to former Vice President Mike Pence.

“Together, we will secure peace through strength, and make America, and the world, safe again,” Trump said in a statement naming Kellogg as envoy.

Kellogg spoke exclusively with VOA’s Ukrainian service in July about his vision for ending the war in Ukraine, published as part of the book, “An America First Approach to U.S. National Security.” At the time he said he had not presented the plan to Trump nor was he a formal adviser but said the plan would be one option to consider.

He recommended then that the U.S. begin a formal policy “to seek a ceasefire and negotiated settlement of the Ukraine conflict.” The U.S. would continue to arm Ukraine to deter Russia from attacking during or after a deal is reached, under the condition that Kyiv agrees to enter into peace talks with Russia.

To persuade Russia to participate in the negotiations, Kellogg wrote that the U.S. and other NATO partners would delay Ukraine’s membership in the alliance for an extended period in exchange for a “comprehensive and verifiable deal with security guarantees.”

Under the imagined deal, Ukraine would not be asked to give up its ambition to regain all land seized by Russia, but Kyiv should agree to use diplomatic means only and realize that it might take a long time to regain all of the territories. The strategy proposes partial lifting of sanctions on Russia to encourage the Kremlin to take steps toward peace and establish levies on Russian energy imports to fund Ukraine’s reconstruction.
…

Russia’s demographic crisis is deepening, with the nation projected to lose up to half of its population by the end of this century. In response, Moscow is stepping up its war on Western-style liberal influence with a law that fines anyone who promotes a childless lifestyle. Elizabeth Cherneff narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina.
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Ukrainian officials said Wednesday that Russian forces launched 89 drones in a wave of overnight attacks that left three people injured in Ukraine’s capital, Kyiv.

Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv’s City Military Administration, said on Telegram that falling debris from a destroyed drone damaged a building.

Ukrainian air defenses shot down 36 of the 89 drones, the country’s military said.

In addition to Kyiv, intercepts took place over the Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Mykolaiv, Poltava, Sumy, and Zhytomyr regions.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Wednesday it shot down 25 Ukrainian drones over the Black Sea and Russia-occupied Crimea.

That followed another 22 drones that Russian air defenses shot down overnight, the ministry said.

Most of the drones were shot down in areas along the Russia-Ukraine border, including over the Rostov, Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk and Bryansk regions.

There were no reports of major damage from the Ukrainian attacks.

“The only effective way to protect ourselves from this is to eliminate Russian weapons and Russian launchers directly on Russian territory,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Tuesday.

“That is why the ability to strike Russian territory is so important to us. This is the only factor that can limit Russian terror and Russia’s capacity to wage war in general,” he added.

Countries that have given Ukraine weapons to fight Russia have been reluctant to give Ukraine permission to launch those weapons directly into Russia, but Zelenskyy said he is “grateful to all the partners who understand this and convey it to other partners.”

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters
…

THE HAGUE — The International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor asked judges on Wednesday to issue an arrest warrant for the head of Myanmar’s military regime for crimes committed against the country’s Rohingya Muslim minority.

Senior Gen. Min Aung Hlaing, who took power from elected leader Aung San Suu Kyi in a coup in 2021, is accused of crimes against humanity for the deportation and persecution of the Rohingya.

Nearly a million people were forced into neighboring Bangladesh to escape what has been called an ethnic cleansing campaign involving mass rapes, killings and the torching of homes.

From a refugee camp in Bangladesh, the court’s top prosecutor, Karim Khan, said in a statement that he intends to request more warrants for Myanmar’s leaders soon.

“In doing so, we will be demonstrating, together with all of our partners, that the Rohingya have not been forgotten. That they, like all people around the world, are entitled to the protection of the law,” the British barrister said.

The allegations stem from a counterinsurgency campaign that Myanmar’s military began in August 2017 in response to an insurgent attack. Hlaing, who heads the Myanmar Defense Services, is said to have directed the armed forces of Myanmar, known as the Tatmadaw, as well as national police to attack Rohingya civilians.

Khan was in Bangladesh where he met with members of the displaced Rohingya population.

Myanmar does not belong to the global court, but Bangladesh does. In 2018 judges at the court ruled the prosecutor could look into crimes which were “completed” on the territory of a member state, such as forcible deportation.

In 2019, Khan’s predecessor, Fatou Bensouda, formally requested to open an investigation into the situation and judges gave the green light for investigations into “any crime, including any future crime” committed at least partly in Bangladesh or another court member state and linked to the Rohingya.

The move paved the way for Khan to pursue crimes beyond forcing men, women and children over the border and into refugee camps.

The request comes days after a powerful rebel group seized a key trading town in northeastern Myanmar on the Chinese border, taking control of a lucrative rare earth mining hub in another setback for the military-led government.

The military seized power from Aung San Suu Kyi’s government in February 2021, triggering intensified fighting with long-established armed militias organized by Myanmar’s ethnic minority groups in its border regions which have struggled for decades for more autonomy.

In 2022, the International Court of Justice, the United Nations’ highest court, advanced a separate case against Myanmar brought by Gambia alleging the Southeast Asian nation is responsible for genocide against the Rohingya. Five European countries and Canada have asked the court to back Gambia in the proceedings.
…

Former Russian federal and local parliament deputies who broke away from Russian President Vladimir Putin and turned against the Kremlin are gathered for a meeting in Warsaw. Former Russian State Duma member Gennady Gudkov told VOA Russian that Russian exiles need to create efficient media outlets to oppose Kremlin propaganda and reach Russian-speaking populations inside and outside of Russia.

See the full story here.

 

 
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Russia launched its largest drone strike on Ukraine overnight with 188 drones, Ukraine’s air force said Tuesday.   

Ukraine’s military said it shot down 76 Russian drones in the overnight attacks that targeted areas across the country and damaged critical infrastructure facilities.  

The air force said Russia also used four missiles in the aerial assault.  

“Unfortunately, there were hits to critical infrastructure facilities, and private and apartment buildings were damaged in several regions due to the massive drone attack,” according to an air force statement.  

The attack coincided with a push by Russia on the front lines in eastern Ukraine, where Russia claimed to have gained nearly 240 square kilometers in the past week, for a total of about 600 square kilometers in November, Reuters reported, citing the Russian army and other analysts. 

For its part, Ukraine reporting repelling Russian troops from Kupiansk, a logistical center in Kharkiv, for the third time, according to Reuters. 

“The only effective way to protect ourselves from this is to eliminate Russian weapons and Russian launchers directly on Russian territory,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address. 

“That is why the ability to strike Russian territory is so important to us. This is the only factor that can limit Russian terror and Russia’s capacity to wage war in general,” he added.  

Countries that have given Ukraine weapons to fight Russia have been reluctant to give Ukraine permission to launch those weapons directly into Russia, but Zelenskyy said he is “grateful to all the partners who understand this and convey it to other partners.”   

“Nearly 200 Russian drones against Ukraine in one day — that is nearly 200 proofs that Russian ambitions are utterly detached from any ideas of real peace,” Zelenskyy said. 

Ukraine’s president said rescue operations are still underway in Sumy, where Russia’s barrage of drones targeted a vehicle service station. The president said two people had been killed in Sumy and “one person is likely still trapped under the rubble.”   

Ukrainian air defenses shot down drones in the Cherkasy, Chernihiv, Chernivtsi, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Khmelnytskyi, Kirovohrad, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Poltava, Rivne, Sumy, Ternopil, Vinnytsia, Zaporizhzhia and Zhytomyr regions. 

The power grid of Ternopil in western Ukraine, about 134 miles east of Poland was hit in the attack. 

“The consequences are bad because the facility was significantly affected and this will have impact on the power supply of the entire region for a long time,” the governor of Tenopil, Vyacheslav Nehoda, said in a televised address.  

Serhiy Lysak, governor of Dnipropetrovsk, said on Telegram that one drone hit the center of Nikopol. 

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Tuesday it shot down 39 Ukrainian aerial drones overnight. 

Most of the drones were shot down over the Rostov region, with other intercepts taking place over Bryansk, Belgorod, Kursk, Oryol, Voronezh and Russia-occupied Crimea. 

Officials in Rostov, Bryansk and Voronezh said on Telegram there were no reports of damage or casualties from the attacks. 

Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters. 
…

Moscow awaits Donald Trump’s inauguration amid escalating military tensions with Ukraine and Western powers following the Kremlin’s use of a new nuclear-capable missile against Ukrainian positions. Elizabeth Cherneff narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina.
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WASHINGTON — Exiled members of China’s Uyghur minority group accuse Beijing of human rights violations and say the Communist Party chief in the Xinjiang region where most of them are from has been more heavy-handed in his approach toward them than his predecessor.

Members of the largely Turkic Muslim minority group said they had hoped Ma Xingrui, with his technocratic background, might moderate the region’s hardline stance, but three years into his current position, observers said the opposite is happening in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in northwest China.

“Under Ma’s watch, arbitrary detentions have persisted, and forced labor has expanded, especially in Belt and Road projects,” said Abduweli Ayup, a Norway-based Uyghur activist. China’s Belt and Road Initiative is a global infrastructure and trade endeavor that has lasted for more than 10 years.

Ayup also said that under Ma, 240 Uyghurs who sought refuge in cities such as Shanghai and Beijing were forced to return to Xinjiang.

“These individuals were arrested and forcibly returned to Xinjiang, where their fates remain uncertain,” Ayup told VOA, citing information from trusted sources from China.

Obtaining and verifying information from inside China has been challenging due to the government’s tight control over communications and the people’s fear of repercussions for disclosing sensitive details.

Despite the risks, Uyghurs from within and outside of China rely on discreet networks and encrypted messaging to get the word out, often at great peril, according to Ayup and other exiles.

Activists said they notice during Ma’s tenure, he has not only upheld but intensified the internment of over 1 million Uyghurs, turning temporary detentions into long-term imprisonments.

The United States and Canada have accused China of genocide. The European Union and rights organizations have condemned China’s policies against the Uyghurs and described Beijing’s approach as crimes against humanity.

Chinese authorities deny allegations of repression in Xinjiang, framing their policies as efforts to combat “terrorism, extremism and separatism.”

“China is a law-based country. Judicial departments handle cases in accordance with law,” Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, wrote in a response to a VOA request for comment.

Repression extends beyond Xinjiang

Observers said Beijing’s narrative sharply contradicts firsthand accounts and international reports that accuse China of human rights abuses, including mass detentions and cultural erasure.

Some Uyghurs have tried to move out of Xinjiang and away from the scrutiny of Chinese officials within the region. But the crackdown has spilled beyond Xinjiang’s borders, targeting Uyghurs in other parts of China, Ayup said.

One such case involves Irpan Yarmemet, a Uyghur content producer who was arrested in Shanghai in September for traveling to Turkey eight years ago to study. Ayup said Yarmemet was living in Shanghai for fear of arbitrary detention in Xinjiang. After his arrest, he was detained in Xinjiang. It is unknown whether he is charged or convicted of a crime.

“His hopes of staying safe by avoiding Xinjiang were dashed,” Ayup said. “The recent arrests and forced returns show that the crackdown under Ma Xingrui has no geographical boundaries.”

The human cost

Uyghur exile Madina Mehmet, now living in the Netherlands, said leaving China was a matter of survival.

In 2012, she enrolled at Beijing Foreign Studies University but was forced out after just a year.

“They kept pressuring me to remove my headscarf,” Mehmet said. “They wouldn’t let me live in peace. I couldn’t take it anymore.”

She eventually secured a university scholarship in Turkey, where she lived and studied for eight years. She then moved to the Netherlands. However, Beijing’s reach continued to haunt her.

“While I was in Turkey, Chinese officials demanded proof that I was a student there,” she said. “Even now, they interrogate my mother in Urumqi, asking for my address and details about my life in the Netherlands.” Urumqi is Xinjiang’s capital.

Mehmet said her relatives have also been scrutinized for their travels. She said almost a decade ago, her sister, Mihray Mehmet, cousin and aunt had either studied or traveled to Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey, all countries Beijing has deemed sensitive.

In late 2021, Madina Mehmet said, the three women were detained in Urumqi. They were falsely accused of being “connected to terrorist organizations,” said Mehmet.

Rights groups reported that Uyghurs who had visited a sensitive country prior to 2017 would be scrutinized for possible arrests and interrogations.

“My sister was an exceptional student,” Mehmet said of her sister, who was attending Xinjiang Medical University when her academic aspirations were derailed by state harassment over her headscarf.

“Teachers humiliated her by forcibly removing it in front of her classmates,” Mehmet said. Mihray Mehmet eventually left university to study in Egypt — a decision later used to justify her detention.

VOA asked the Chinese Embassy in Washington about Mihray Mehmet’s case, and Liu responded by saying, “I have not heard about the case you mentioned.”

Last year, Madina Mehmet’s aunt was released from detention, but her sister and cousin were sentenced to at least seven years in prison.

“They’ve committed no crime,” Mehmet told VOA. “My sister’s children — just 3 and 5 years old when she was arrested — are growing up without their mother.”

Despite the risks of speaking out, Madina Mehmet refuses to stay silent.

“I want the Chinese government to release my sister and cousin,” she said. “They deserve to be free, to raise their children, to live without fear.”

Targeting prominent Uyghurs

Rehmutulla Semet, the vice chair of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Xinjiang and a prominent real estate developer, was also a target of China’s Xinjing policies. He was sentenced to 19 years in prison in 2021 on charges of “assisting terrorist activities” and “gathering a crowd to disrupt public order,” according to a source who requested anonymity out of fear of reprisal.

Sources close to Semet fear retaliation and request not to be revealed but told VOA the charges are false. They said he was targeted due to his ethnicity, social status and wealth.

Since Ma’s arrival in Xinjiang, Semet’s assets, valued at more than $400 million, have been seized. Some of his assets were auctioned off on platforms such as Douyin, China’s domestic version of TikTok.

“One of his signature buildings, the Gold Coin Hill Building, a high-rise in Urumqi, was among those auctioned off,” a source told VOA. “He owned similar buildings in other major cities in the region, all of which were officially confiscated by the government this past August.”

Ayup said such prosecutions are part of a broader pattern of stripping influential Uyghurs of their wealth and silencing dissent.

Mehmet and Ayup are part of a growing number of Uyghur exiles who are calling for international accountability and action.

“The world must act — justice for Uyghurs is long overdue,” Mehmet said.
…

Among the lasting effects of Russia’s war in Ukraine is the mental health toll that the conflict has taken on the country’s children. As Lesia Bakalets reports from Kyiv, their parents often also need help. Camera: Vladyslav Smilianets
…

London — Prince Harry and other high-profile British figures’ privacy lawsuits against the Daily Mail newspaper’s publisher will go to trial in early 2026, London’s High Court heard on Tuesday, with the parties’ legal costs set to exceed $47 million. 

Harry, the younger son of King Charles, is one of seven claimants suing Associated Newspapers over allegations of voicemail interception – commonly known as phone-hacking – and other serious privacy breaches dating back 30 years. 

Associated, which also publishes the Mail on Sunday, has always denied involvement in unlawful practices. Its lawyers said in filings for a preliminary hearing on Tuesday that the claimants’ allegations were “firmly denied.” 

The publisher’s attempt to throw out the lawsuits was rejected last year, paving the way for a trial which the claimants and Associated say should begin in early 2026. 

Lawyers representing the claimants, who also include singer Elton John and actors Elizabeth Hurley and Sadie Frost, expect to spend around $22 million up to and including the trial, with Associated incurring nearly $24 million, according to court filings made public on Tuesday. 

Harry and the other claimants’ lawsuits, which were filed in 2022, marked the first time Associated had been dragged into the phone-hacking scandal, which emerged more than a decade ago and prompted a public inquiry into the ethics of the press and several criminal trials. 

It also sparked long-running litigation against Rupert Murdoch’s British newspaper arm, News Group Newspapers, and the publisher of the Daily Mirror, Mirror Group Newspapers (MGN). 

Harry’s case against Associated is one of several he has brought against British media organizations as part of his “mission” to purge executives and editors whom he accuses of spreading lies and intruding into people’s lives. 

The prince accepted substantial damages from MGN to settle the remainder of his phone-hacking lawsuit, having been awarded around $178,000 after the High Court ruled he had been targeted by journalists. 

Harry’s case against News Group Newspapers is due to go to trial in January.
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ZURICH — Switzerland is scrambling to keep a lid on immigration from its top trade partner, the European Union, as a jobs boom powered by the country’s low-tax business model turns population growth into a political hot potato.

The issue helped derail talks in 2021 to overhaul rules governing some $338 billion of annual trade, and threatens to do so again after Brussels and Bern relaunched negotiations in March, aiming for a deal by year-end.

With runaway population growth fueling calls by Swiss nationalists to reject closer ties with the bloc, Switzerland is seeking to introduce a “protection clause” into the EU deal that would let it control immigration, diplomats and lawmakers say.

Since Switzerland secured unfettered access to the EU’s single market in 1999, its economy has expanded faster than those of Germany, Austria, France and Italy, neighbors whose growth it had lagged during the decade before. Jobs growth has been faster, while average wages have risen more.

And its population – just 7 million in 1995, according to World Bank data – is now above 9 million.

“This is a result of the success story of needing lots of workers in Switzerland,” said Peter Fischer, board chairman of metal processing company Fischer Reinach. He wants to see the deal updated so that Swiss firms can continue to recruit freely from the 27-nation EU.

The Swiss foreign ministry said the government understands how important free movement is for the economy and wants to establish specifics on a protection mechanism.

“It is crucial for (the government) that free movement of people and immigration from the EU takes place into the labor market and not into the welfare system,” it said.

Tax draw

Underpinning government concerns is a drive by the biggest group in the lower house of parliament, the right-wing Swiss People’s Party, to enshrine population curbs in law.

The party says infrastructure will be overwhelmed and rents will skyrocket if the population is not stopped from reaching 10 million by 2050 – a figure it is on track to hit far sooner.

The Swiss population grew at its fastest clip in six decades last year and the rate of increase since the mid-1990s has been more than quadruple that of the EU.

Freedom of movement is a pillar of the single market and diplomats do not expect a formal curb to be granted. But they express confidence a deal can be done.

After Britain voted in 2016 to leave the EU, Brussels is keen to persuade one of the world’s wealthiest countries to embrace it.

That would not be the end of it, however. The Swiss parliament would have to approve any deal, as would Swiss voters, if – as is likely – it is later put to a referendum.

Switzerland is highly dependent on immigrants.

Some 27% of the population is foreign – over four times the EU average, official data show.

Many companies have moved to Switzerland to take advantage of low taxes, something that has cost its EU neighbors, said Jacqueline Badran, a businesswoman and federal lawmaker for the center-left Social Democrats.

“We’ve taken away their tax base,” she said. “If we want less immigration, we have to stop luring capital.”
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ISTANBUL — Police detained dozens of people in Istanbul who tried to join a rally Monday calling for greater protection for women in Turkey, where more than 400 women have been murdered this year.

The demonstrators tried to enter the main pedestrian street, Istiklal, to mark the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, in defiance of a ban on all protests in the area.

Earlier, police barricaded all entrances to Istiklal and to the city’s main square, Taksim, while authorities shut down several metro stations to prevent large gatherings.

Many demonstrators were protesting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decision in 2021 that withdrew Turkey from a landmark European agreement known as the Istanbul Convention. The treaty, which aims to protect women from violence, was signed in Istanbul in 2011.

Erdogan’s decision came after some members of his Islamic-rooted ruling party accused the treaty of promoting LGBTQ+ rights and other ideals they said were incompatible with Turkey’s traditional family values.

On Monday, Erdogan dismissed calls for Turkey’s return to the convention and reiterated his government’s commitment to protecting women.

The local advocacy group We Will Stop Femicide says 411 women have been murdered in Turkey in 2024.
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VOA Russian’s correspondent reports from Georgia, where the first session of the new parliament is meeting after the election won by the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party was boycotted by the opposition and met with street protests outside the parliament building.

See the full story here.   
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AVIGNON, France — French prosecutors asked for the maximum 20-year prison sentence for Dominique Pelicot, who organized the repeated mass rape of his then-wife by knocking her unconscious with drugs and inviting dozens of strangers to abuse her in the family home. 

Pelicot, 71, has admitted the charges in a trial that attracted worldwide attention and turned into an examination of the pervasiveness of sexual violence in France and beyond. Fifty other men also stand trial for participating in the sex acts. 

The prosecutors, who will over the next two days say what sentences they seek against the co-accused, rejected the arguments made by many of the men that they did not realize they were raping Gisele Pelicot or had not intended to do it. 

Gisele Pelicot appeared motionless while the accused abused her in thousands of videos and pictures recorded by her then-husband and shown in court over the past weeks. 

“The accused are trying to shirk responsibility by saying they thought Gisele Pelicot consented,” public prosecutor Laure Chabaud told the court on Monday. 

“But it’s not possible, today, in 2024, to consider that,” Chabaud said, adding that video and pictures clearly showed Gisele Pelicot was unconscious and therefore unable to give her consent. 

As for Dominique Pelicot, “the maximum sentence is 20 years, which is a lot … but at the same time … too little in view of the seriousness of the acts that were committed and repeated,” Chabaud said. 

The prosecutors also said they were seeking a 17-year sentence for Jean-Pierre Marechal, 63, who has admitted to working with Dominique Pelicot to drug his own wife, Cilia, and for both men to rape her, after the men met on a now-shuttered website. 

The verdicts and sentences are expected around December 20. 

Gisele Pelicot, 71, could have demanded the trial be kept behind closed doors but instead asked for it be held in public, saying she hoped it would help other women speak up and show that victims have nothing to be ashamed of. 

The trial has triggered protest rallies in support of Gisele Pelicot and spurred soul searching, including a debate on whether to update France’s rape law. 

Unlike in some other European countries, French law makes no mention of a requirement that sex involve consent and requires prosecutors to prove a perpetrator’s intent to rape using “violence, coercion, threat or surprise.” 

Dominique Pelicot’s lawyer, Beatrice Zavarro, told reporters it was not a surprise that prosecutors had sought the longest sentence possible.
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