The Russian veto blocked a U.N. resolution calling for a halt to hostilities in Sudan, where a civil war has killed at least 66,000, destroyed civil institutions, causing widespread hunger, disease, sexual violence and a refugee crisis with more than 11 million people displaced.
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Prominent Georgian opposition leader and former journalist Nika Gvaramia is recovering after being beaten unconscious by police Wednesday amid pro-Europe protests in Tbilisi, according to his lawyer.  

Gvaramia, head of the Akhali party under the Coalition for Change umbrella, was detained Wednesday during police searches of opposition parties’ headquarters in the Georgian capital, according to media reports. 

Gvaramia was repeatedly hit in the stomach until he lost consciousness before being dragged into a police vehicle, according to local media reports. 

Gvaramia is Georgia’s former justice minister and the founder of the pro-opposition broadcaster Mtavari Arkhi. He was jailed from 2022 to 2023 on charges he and press freedom experts rejected as retaliatory. 

The high-profile arrest comes amid protests that have been continuing since the ruling Georgian Dream party said it was halting the country’s bid to start talks on joining the European Union. Opinion polls show that about 80% of Georgians support joining the EU. 

Gvaramia’s lawyer, Dito Sadzaglishvili, said Thursday that Gvaramia’s health is now “satisfactory.” 

“He believes that now, of course, is the time for the Georgian people to calmly, firmly and courageously continue to protest and fight against the Russian regime,” the lawyer said, according to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. 

Gvaramia was arrested for “petty hooliganism” and not complying with police orders, his lawyer said. A court hearing is expected to take place within 48 hours of his arrest, according to Sadzaglishvili. 

Police have also detained Aleko Elisashvili, a leader of the Strong Georgia opposition party, as well as a leader of the youth protest movement, and at least six other members of opposition parties. 

The detentions come as thousands of pro-EU protesters continue to gather in Tbilisi, even as police respond with water cannons, tear gas and rubber bullets. More than 330 protesters have been arrested, with rights groups saying many have been beaten in detention. 

Governments, including the United States, have condemned the excessive use of force and criticized Georgian Dream for putting EU accession on hold. 

Journalists attacked, NGOs raided 

At least 50 journalists have been injured during violent police dispersals of demonstrations since they began on November 28, according to multiple reports. 

“The protection of journalists is a hallmark of democratic societies,” Gulnoza Said, the Europe and Central Asia program coordinator at the Committee to Protect Journalists, said in a statement. 

“Georgian authorities’ failure to address the extensive and shocking police violence against journalists covering ongoing mass protests signals a clear departure from democratic values,” Said added. 

In addition to raiding the offices of opposition parties, police have raided the offices of various nongovernmental organizations, according to local media reports.  

Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze of the Georgian Dream party said the raids targeted those who fostered violence during protests in an effort to overturn his government. “I wouldn’t call this repression; it is more of a preventive measure than repression,” he said. 

Protests initially erupted in late October after a contested election that allowed the Georgian Dream party to remain in power, even as monitoring groups said the vote was marked by an array of violations. 

Opposition parties and rights groups accuse Georgian Dream of pushing Georgia — which was once lauded as among the freest former Soviet republics — away from the West and closer to Russia. 

Georgian President Salome Zourabichvili refused to recognize the official election results and contested them in the constitutional court, which rejected her appeal on Tuesday. 

Gvaramia warned that the elections would be rigged when he spoke with VOA last October. 

“Either we have democracy on the ground, or we are Russia. There is no third option from my perspective,” Gvaramia told VOA at the time. 

Last year, Gvaramia was recognized with an International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists in New York. 

“Democracy will never die,” he told VOA last year. “I don’t need anything except democracy.” 
…

PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron vowed Thursday to stay in office until the end of his term, due in 2027, and announced that he will name a new prime minister within days following the resignation of ousted Prime Minister Michel Barnier. 

Macron came out fighting a day after a historic no-confidence vote at the National Assembly left France without a functioning government. He laid blame at the door of his opponents on the far right for bringing down Barnier’s government. 

They chose “Not to do but to undo,” he said. “They chose disorder.” 

The president said the far right and the far left had united in what he called “an anti-Republican front” and stressed: “I won’t shoulder other people’s irresponsibility.” 

He said he’d name a new prime minister within days but gave no hints who that might be. 

Earlier in the day, Macron “took note” of Barnier’s resignation, the Elysee presidential palace said in a statement. Barnier and other ministers will be “in charge of current affairs until the appointment of a new government,” the statement said. 

The no-confidence motion passed by 331 votes in the National Assembly, forcing Barnier to step down after just three months in office — the shortest tenure of any prime minister in modern French history. 

Macron faces the critical task of naming a replacement capable of leading a minority government in a parliament where no party holds a majority. Yael Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly and a member of Macron’s party, urged the president to move quickly. 

“I recommend he decide rapidly on a new prime minister,” Braun-Pivet said Thursday on France Inter radio. “There must not be any political hesitation. We need a leader who can speak to everyone and work to pass a new budget bill.” 

The process may prove challenging. Macron’s administration has yet to confirm any names, though French media have reported a shortlist of centrist candidates who might appeal to both sides of the political spectrum. 

Macron took more than two months to appoint Barnier after his party’s defeat in June’s legislative elections, raising concerns about potential delays this time. 

The no-confidence vote has galvanized opposition leaders, with some explicitly calling for Macron’s resignation. 

“I believe that stability requires the departure of the President of the Republic,” said Manuel Bompard, leader of the far-left France Unbowed party, on BFM TV Wednesday night. 

Far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, whose party holds the most seats in the Assembly, stopped short of calling for Macron’s resignation but warned that “the pressure on the President of the Republic will get stronger and stronger.” 

Macron, however, has dismissed such calls and ruled out new legislative elections. The French constitution does not call for a president to resign after his government was ousted by the National Assembly. 

“I was elected to serve until 2027, and I will fulfill that mandate,” he told reporters earlier this week. 

The constitution also says that new legislative elections cannot be held until at least July, creating a potential stalemate for policymakers. 

The political instability has heightened concerns about France’s economy, particularly its debt, which could rise to 7% of GDP next year without significant reforms. Analysts say that Barnier’s government downfall could push up French interest rates, digging the debt even further.
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This month marks 30 years since Ukraine signed an agreement to give up its nuclear arsenal, the world’s third largest at the time. With Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearing the three-year mark, Kyiv now calls the agreement with Moscow short-sighted. VOA Ukrainian’s Tatiana Vorozhko looks at the history of the deal. Videographer: Iurii Panin
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Ta’Qali, Malta — Ukraine’s foreign minister called Russia’s top diplomat Sergei Lavrov a “war criminal” Thursday as they both attended an international summit in Malta, the latter’s first visit to an EU member since the 2022 invasion.

Ukraine’s Andriy Sybiga also accused Moscow of being “the biggest threat to our common security” as the two foreign ministers sat on the same huge table at a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken was also in Ta’Qali, near Valetta, for the talks, though officials said he had no plans to meet Lavrov.

“Russia is not a partner; it is the biggest threat to our common security. Russia’s participation in the OSCE is a threat to cooperation in Europe,” Sybiga told ministers from the 57-member body. 

“When Russians say they want peace they lie,” he said, adding: “Ukraine continues to fight for its right to exist.”

“And the Russian war criminal at this table must know: Ukraine will win this right and justice will prevail.”

‘Destabilizing’

Lavrov, who has been sanctioned by the European Union, had not visited an EU country since a December 2021 trip to Stockholm, again for an OSCE meeting, Russian media reported.

Sitting between the representatives of San Marino and Romania, he railed against the EU, NATO and in particular the United States.

He said the West was behind a “reincarnation of the Cold War, only now with a much greater risk of a transition to a hot one,” according to a transcript of his remarks from RIA Navosti.

He also accused Washington of military exercises in the Asia-Pacific region that sought to “destabilize the entire Eurasian continent.”

The OSCE was founded in 1975 to ease tensions between the East and the West during the Cold War, and now counts 57 members from Turkey to Mongolia, including Britain and Canada as well as the United States.

It helps its members coordinate issues such as human rights and arms control, but Lavrov at the last ministerial summit a year ago in North Macedonia accused the OSCE of becoming an “appendage” of NATO and the EU.

Ukraine has called for Russia to be excluded from the organization, and boycotted the Skopje summit over Lavrov’s attendance.

Summit host Ian Borg, Malta’s foreign minister, opened proceedings Thursday with a call for Russia to withdraw from Ukraine.

Blinken also accused Lavrov — who at that point was no longer in the room — of spreading a “tsunami of misinformation” and blamed Moscow for an escalation in Ukraine.

Many other participants railed against Moscow’s aggression at a delicate time for Kyiv.

U.S. president-elect Donald Trump has vowed to press for a quick deal to end the war, leaving Kyiv scrambling to obtain security guarantees from Western allies and supplies of key weaponry before the January inauguration.

‘Channels of communication’

In 2022, OSCE host Poland refused to let Lavrov attend their summit, and Poland’s minister questioned why Moscow was still allowed to be part of the organization.

A spokesman for Malta told AFP on Wednesday that while he faces an EU asset freeze, there was no travel ban on Lavrov, and he was invited to “keep some channels of communication open.”

Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said Wednesday that a number of Western countries were “using this platform for their own interests,” arguing that the body had been “Ukrainianized.”

But German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told reporters in Malta that the OSCE “stands for security and freedom and we will defend it.”

The OSCE has been paralyzed since the Ukraine invasion, as Russia has vetoed several major decisions, which require consensus.

The posts of secretary general and three other top officials have been vacant since September because of a lack of agreement over their successors.

Ambassadors have reached agreement on Turkish diplomat Feridun Sinirlioglu as new secretary general to replace Germany’s Helga Maria Schmid, a diplomatic source told AFP.

The ministers in Malta will also be seeking to agree which country will chair the OSCE in 2026 and 2027.

Russia had blocked NATO member Estonia from holding the chairmanship this year. Finland, which joined NATO last year, is up for the post in 2025.

The OSCE sends observers to conflicts as well as elections around the world. It also runs programs that aim to combat human trafficking and ensure media freedom.

But its efforts have been hampered by an inability to agree a budget since 2021.
…

WASHINGTON — Thirty years ago, leaders of the United States, Britain Russia and Ukraine met in Budapest, Hungary, and signed a memorandum that provided security assurances to Ukraine in exchange for it giving up its nuclear arsenal, then the world’s third largest.

Today, nearly three years after Moscow launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Ukrainian officials are calling the Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances “a monument to short-sightedness in strategic security decision-making” and seek NATO membership for their country.

Presidents Leonid Kravchuk of Ukraine, Boris Yeltsin of Russia and Bill Clinton of the U.S., along with British Prime Minister John Major, signed the memorandum on December 5, 1994.

Steven Pifer, a veteran diplomat who served as U.S. ambassador to Ukraine from 1998 to 2000, helped negotiate the memorandum.

“In that document, basically, the United States, Britain and Russia committed to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty, independence and existing borders, and committed not to use force or threaten to use force against Ukraine,” Pifer told VOA’s Ukrainian Service.

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Ukraine inherited the world`s third-largest nuclear arsenal and agreed to transfer all the nuclear munitions on its territory to Russia for dismantlement, and to decommission nuclear missile launch silos.

All parties to the memorandum agreed to “refrain from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of the signatories to the memorandum.”

However, in 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and fueled a separatist movement in eastern Ukraine. In February 2022, it launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

In a December 3 statement marking the 30th anniversary of the signing of the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry called the agreement “a monument to short-sightedness in strategic security decision-making.”

Clutching a copy of the memorandum after arriving in Brussels for a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha called the pact a reminder that any long-term decisions made at the cost of Ukrainian security are “inappropriate and unacceptable.”

“This document, this paper, failed to secure Ukrainian security and transatlantic security,” Sybiha said. “So, we must avoid repeating such mistakes. That’s, of course, why we will discuss with my partners the concept of peace through strength, and we have a clear understanding which steps we need from our friends.”

 
In its December 3 statement, Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry said, “The only real guarantee of security for Ukraine, as well as a deterrent to further Russian aggression against Ukraine and other states, is Ukraine’s full membership in NATO.”

That view was echoed by former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, now an opposition leader, in an interview with VOA.

“Please consider the signature on [an] invitation to [join] NATO as a continuing obligation of our partners, including the United States, on the Budapest Memorandum,” Poroshenko said.

“This is the precondition when Ukraine voluntarily gives up the third biggest nuclear arsenal in the world, and everybody said that if Ukraine now [had] this nuclear arsenal, there would be no war and no occupation,” he told VOA.

Russian officials accuse Ukraine and its partners of having violated the Budapest Memorandum by expanding NATO — which, they say, threatens Russia’s security interests.

Pifer recalled that in the early 1990s, Ukrainian officials asked what the U.S. would do if Russia violated the Budapest Memorandum.

“We said the United States will do things; we will take an interest,” Pifer told VOA. “However, we were clear: We said, ‘We’re telling you now — that does not mean we’ll send American military force to defend Ukraine.’ That’s why the document is the memorandum on security assurances, not security guarantees.”

Mariana Budjeryn, an author and senior research associate with the Project on Managing the Atom at Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center, believes that Ukraine and its Western partners failed to fully recognize the Russian threat. Those were different times, she said.

“There was this narrative that Ukraine is a peaceful country and it’s not really threatening anyone, and it was to join the international community on good terms,” she told VOA. “The Cold War was over, the Soviet Union fell apart, and the whole issue of weapons, including nuclear weapons, became passé, became a thing of the past.”

After Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Pifer and others called on the Obama administration to provide defense assistance to Ukraine to fulfill its obligations under the Budapest Memorandum.

“I thought the Obama administration should have done more in terms of providing defense assistance to Ukraine,” Pifer said. “But if you look at the last two and a half years, the Biden administration has provided well over a hundred billion dollars in military and financial assistance to Ukraine. That’s certainly consistent with what we were saying 30 years ago.”

Budjeryn noted that the nuclear weapons Ukraine inherited in 1991 did not amount to a “fully fledged nuclear deterrent that it could just grab and use to deter Russia.”

“It was a chunk of a nuclear arsenal developed by a different country, the Soviet Union, for the strategic purposes of that country. And the strategic kind of aim of the Soviet Union was to deter NATO and the United States,” she said.

“But ultimately, to have a credible nuclear deterrent, Ukraine would have needed to invest a lot more into an independent nuclear program, which it did not have,” Budjeryn said.

Budjeryn said Ukraine could have invested more in its conventional military capabilities after it signed the memorandum. In the end, “the main lesson for any country is that no single document, no matter how legally binding or well written and robust, is a sufficient basis for national security. You have to be able to really invest in your own defense and national security,” she said.

The Budapest Memorandum is not the only document Russia signed and violated, which raises questions about future agreements with Moscow, Pifer said: “It was also in the 1997 Russian-Ukrainian Treaty on Friendship, Cooperation and Peace. It was several other documents where the Russian government clearly said, ‘We recognize Ukraine in the borders of 1991. We will recognize and accept Ukrainian sovereignty and independence.’”

According to Budjeryn, there is a larger lesson for the global community.

“It’s a story about just how fragile our system of international law — of international agreements — is, and that its credibility, its existence, a continued existence, and its workings are as much dependent on states observing voluntarily, but also on states reacting adequately and sufficiently to violations,” she said.
…

An operation by Ukraine launched on August 6 captured dozens of towns and villages and gained control of about 1,000 square kilometers in Russia’s Kursk region. Gradually, Russia has pushed Ukrainian forces out of about half of the territory they captured.  

Our correspondent spoke to experts about how the military situation in the region could affect the initial positions taken in future peace talks between Ukraine and Russia. 

See the full story here. 
…

The U.S. and EU are urging Beijing to stop supporting Russia’s war machine. German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock visited China on Monday, asking China to stop backing Russia and to work for peace in Ukraine. Our correspondent spoke to experts: Can Western sanctions change Beijing’s position? 

See the full story here. 

 
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PARIS — France’s far-right and left-wing lawmakers joined together Wednesday to pass a no-confidence motion prompted by budget disputes that forces Prime Minister Michel Barnier to resign.

The National Assembly approved the motion by 331 votes. A minimum of 288 were needed.

President Emmanuel Macron has insisted he will serve the rest of his term, which ends in 2027. However, he will need to appoint a prime minister for the second time after July’s legislative elections led to a deeply divided parliament.

Macron, on his way back from a presidential visit to Saudi Arabia, said discussions about him potentially resigning were “make-believe politics,” according to French media reports.

“I’m here because I’ve been elected twice by the French people,” Macron said.

He was also reported as saying, “We must not scare people with such things. We have a strong economy.”

The no-confidence motion rose from fierce opposition to Barnier’s proposed budget.

The National Assembly, France’s lower house of parliament, is deeply fractured, with no single party holding a majority. It comprises three major blocs: Macron’s centrist allies, the left-wing coalition New Popular Front, and the far-right National Rally.

Both opposition blocs, typically at odds, united against Barnier, accusing him of imposing austerity measures and failing to address citizens’ needs.

Barnier, a conservative appointed in September, could become the country’s shortest-serving prime minister in France’s modern Republic.

In last-minute efforts to try to save his government, he called on lawmakers to act with “responsibility” and think of “the country’s best interest.”

“The situation is very difficult economically, socially, fiscally and financially,” he said, speaking Tuesday evening on national television TF1 and France 2. “If the no-confidence motion passes, everything will be more difficult and everything will be more serious.”

Speaking at the National Assembly ahead of the vote, National Rally leader Marine Le Pen, whose party’s goodwill was crucial to keeping Barnier in power, said, “We’ve reached the moment of truth, a parliamentary moment unseen since 1962, which will likely seal the end of a short-lived government.”

“Stop pretending the lights will go out,” hard-left lawmaker Eric Coquerel said, noting the possibility of an emergency law to levy taxes from January 1, based on this year’s rules. “The special law will prevent a shutdown. It will allow us to get through the end of the year by delaying the budget by a few weeks.”

While France is not at risk of a U.S.-style government shutdown, political instability could spook financial markets.

France is under pressure from the European Union to reduce its colossal debt. The country’s deficit is estimated to reach 6% of gross domestic product this year and analysts say it could rise to 7% next year without drastic adjustments. The political instability could push up French interest rates, digging the debt even further.
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PARIS — U.S. President-elect Donald Trump and U.S. first lady Jill Biden are among global dignitaries expected in Paris Saturday as the city’s iconic Notre Dame Cathedral reopens five years after a massive fire.

Trump’s visit to Paris is expected to be his first foreign trip since winning the election last month. U.S. President Joe Biden is not expected to attend.

It has taken five years, 2,000 artisans and workers, and hundreds of millions of dollars to restore the medieval Gothic masterpiece. It was nearly destroyed during a fire in April 2019.

French President Emmanuel Macron visited the restored cathedral Friday and said the reconstruction workers had participated in an unprecedented project.

Macron will join the archbishop of Paris, along with Catholic and other dignitaries, for official opening ceremonies Saturday. The cathedral will open its doors to the public on Sunday as part of weeklong reopening events.

Even covered with scaffolding and closed to visitors, Notre Dame has attracted hordes of tourists during the years of reconstruction. Manuele Monica, a visitor from Italy, said, “I can understand why people in the past created buildings such as this one, because it’s so huge. It’s really tall — like it’s going up in the sky.”

The event offers a short reprieve for France, which is facing pre-Christmas strikes, soaring debt and an uncertain political future.
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