None‘Disgraceful’: Labor points fingers as clock ticks down
"Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip ex ea commodo consequat. Duis aute irure dolor in reprehenderit in voluptate velit esse cillum dolore eu fugiat nulla pariatur. Excepteur sint occaecat cupidatat non proident, sunt in culpa qui officia deserunt mollit anim id est laborum." Section 1.10.32 of "de Finibus Bonorum et Malorum", written by Cicero in 45 BC "Sed ut perspiciatis unde omnis iste natus error sit voluptatem accusantium doloremque laudantium, totam rem aperiam, eaque ipsa quae ab illo inventore veritatis et quasi architecto beatae vitae dicta sunt explicabo. Nemo enim ipsam voluptatem quia voluptas sit aspernatur aut odit aut fugit, sed quia consequuntur magni dolores eos qui ratione voluptatem sequi nesciunt. Neque porro quisquam est, qui dolorem ipsum quia dolor sit amet, consectetur, adipisci velit, sed quia non numquam eius modi tempora incidunt ut labore et dolore magnam aliquam quaerat voluptatem. Ut enim ad minima veniam, quis nostrum exercitationem ullam corporis suscipit laboriosam, nisi ut aliquid ex ea commodi consequatur? Quis autem vel eum iure reprehenderit qui in ea voluptate velit esse quam nihil molestiae consequatur, vel illum qui dolorem eum fugiat quo voluptas nulla pariatur?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" 1914 translation by H. Rackham "But I must explain to you how all this mistaken idea of denouncing pleasure and praising pain was born and I will give you a complete account of the system, and expound the actual teachings of the great explorer of the truth, the master-builder of human happiness. No one rejects, dislikes, or avoids pleasure itself, because it is pleasure, but because those who do not know how to pursue pleasure rationally encounter consequences that are extremely painful. Nor again is there anyone who loves or pursues or desires to obtain pain of itself, because it is pain, but because occasionally circumstances occur in which toil and pain can procure him some great pleasure. To take a trivial example, which of us ever undertakes laborious physical exercise, except to obtain some advantage from it? But who has any right to find fault with a man who chooses to enjoy a pleasure that has no annoying consequences, or one who avoids a pain that produces no resultant pleasure?" To keep reading, please log in to your account, create a free account, or simply fill out the form below.
The health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza said Friday hospitals have only two days' fuel left before they must restrict services, after the UN warned aid delivery to the war-devastated territory is being crippled. The warning came a day after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defence minister Yoav Gallant more than a year into the Gaza war. The United Nations and others have repeatedly decried humanitarian conditions, particularly in northern Gaza where Israel said Friday it had killed two commanders involved in Hamas's October 7, 2023 attack that triggered the war. Gaza medics said an overnight Israeli raid on Beit Lahia and nearby Jabalia resulted in dozens killed or missing. Marwan al-Hams, director of Gaza's field hospitals, told reporters all hospitals in the Palestinian territory "will stop working or reduce their services within 48 hours due to the occupation's (Israel's) obstruction of fuel entry". World Health Organization chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said Friday he was "deeply concerned about the safety and well-being of 80 patients, including 8 in the intensive care unit" at Kamal Adwan hospital, one of just two partly operating in northern Gaza. Late Thursday, the UN's humanitarian coordinator for the Palestinian territories, Muhannad Hadi, said: "The delivery of critical aid across Gaza, including food, water, fuel and medical supplies, is grinding to a halt." He said that for more than six weeks Israeli authorities "have been banning commercial imports" while "a surge in armed looting" has targeted aid convoys. Vowing to stop Hamas from regrouping, Israel on October 6 began an air and ground operation in Jabalia and then expanded it to Beit Lahia. Gaza's health ministry says the operation has killed thousands. The UN says more than 100,000 have been displaced from the area, and an official told the Security Council last week that people "are effectively starving". Issuing the warrants for Netanyahu and Gallant, the Hague-based ICC said there were "reasonable grounds" to believe they bore "criminal responsibility" for the war crime of starvation as a method of warfare, and crimes against humanity including over "the lack of food, water, electricity and fuel, and specific medical supplies". A furious Netanyahu said: "Israel rejects with disgust the absurd and false actions and accusations made against it." He said the judges were "driven by anti-Semitic hatred of Israel". On Friday, he thanked his Hungarian counterpart Viktor Orban for his show of "moral clarity" in inviting him to visit in defiance of the ICC warrant, which Orban branded "political". Hungary currently holds the rotating EU presidency. US President Joe Biden, whose country is Israel's top military supplier, called the warrants against Israeli leaders "outrageous", but other world leaders supported the court. Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said Netanyahu would be arrested if he set foot in the country. Biden and French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday discussed efforts towards a ceasefire in Lebanon, the White House said. The ICC also issued a warrant for Hamas military chief Mohammed Deif, saying it had grounds to suspect him of war crimes and crimes against humanity over the attacks on Israel that sparked the war, and including "sexual and gender-based violence" against hostages. Israel said it killed Deif in July, but Hamas has not confirmed his death. On Thursday, a UN representative said an Israeli raid on Palmyra in Syria this week was "likely the deadliest" by Israel on the country so far. On Friday, a war monitor said the strikes killed 92 pro-Iran fighters. Israel again bombed Gaza on Friday. In Gaza City, just south of Jabalia, one man who said he took his cousins to hospital after a strike urged "the world... to put an end" to the war. Belal, who gave only his first name, said 10 members of his family had been killed. At least 44,056 people have been killed in Gaza during more than 13 months of war, most of them civilians, according to figures from Gaza's health ministry which the United Nations considers reliable. Hamas triggered the war with the deadliest attack in Israeli history, which resulted in the deaths of 1,206 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures. The war expanded to Lebanon in late September when Israel escalated air strikes against Iran-backed Hezbollah and later sent ground troops into southern Lebanon, after nearly a year of tit-for-tat cross-border exchanges which Hezbollah said were in support of Hamas. Lebanon says more than 3,580 people have been killed in the country, most of them since late September. Israeli strikes again targeted Hezbollah's south Beirut stronghold and south Lebanon on Friday, the official National News Agency said. Thousands of UN peacekeepers are based in southern Lebanon and have reported coming under attack numerous times, blaming both Israel and "non-state" actors. On Friday, Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani said Hezbollah was probably behind a rocket attack that lightly wounded four Italian peacekeepers. bur-ami/srm/kir
By Erin Banco WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden administration has urged the rebel group that led the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad not to assume automatic leadership of the country but instead run an inclusive process to form a transitional government, according to two U.S. officials and a congressional aide briefed on the first U.S. contacts with the group. The communications with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a group formerly allied with al Qaeda and designated a terrorist organization by the United States, are being conducted in coordination with Washington's Middle East allies, including Turkey. The administration is also in touch with President-elect Donald Trump's team about the matter, one of the officials said. The discussions, which have taken place over the last several days, are part of a larger effort by Washington to coordinate with various groups inside Syria as it tries to navigate the chaotic aftermath of the sudden collapse of the Assad regime on Sunday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the U.S. has sent messages to the group to help guide early efforts to establish a formal governing structure for the country. The sources declined to say whether the messages were being sent directly or via an intermediary. Washington believes the transitional government should represent the desires of the Syrian people and would not support HTS taking control without a formal process to select new leaders, the officials said. The U.S. National Security Council declined to comment. TERRORIST DESIGNATION The United States in 2013 designated HTS leader Ahmed al-Sharaa, better known as Abu Mohammed al-Golani, a terrorist, saying al Qaeda in Iraq had tasked him with overthrowing Assad's rule and establishing Islamic sharia law in Syria. It said the Nusra Front, the predecessor of HTS, carried out suicide attacks that killed civilians and espoused a violent sectarian vision. The official said the administration is not clear about Golani's role in a future Syrian government - or whether he still holds extremist ideologies. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken laid out on Tuesday criteria for Syria's political transition, saying Washington would recognize a future Syrian government that amounts to a credible, inclusive and non-sectarian governing body. Some lawmakers on Capitol Hill are pushing the administration to consider lifting U.S. sanctions on Syria, including sanctions specifically related to HTS, in exchange for the group meeting certain U.S. demands, the congressional aide told Reuters. The aide said there is a growing feeling among some members of Congress that the U.S. will need to help a transitional government in Syria connect to the global economy and rebuild the country. Sanctions are preventing that from happening, the aide said. Washington is also in communication with HTS and other actors on the ground about battlefield operations, one of the officials said. Senior U.S. officials have repeatedly said they intend to continue military operations in northeastern Syria against ISIS, to ensure the radical extremist group does not become a threat again, given the current power vacuum in the country. U.S. forces in Syria will also continue to prevent Iranian-backed proxy groups from gaining ground, one of the officials said. (Reporting by Erin Banco; Editing by Humeyra Pamuk and Rod Nickel)
Elon Musk calls Trudeau an ‘insufferable tool’ on his social media platformThe Financial Times reports that Russia has recruited hundreds of Yemeni men to fight in Ukraine, lured by the promise of high salaries and potential Russian citizenship. The November 23 report said they were helped by a Huthi-linked company to travel to Russia, then forcibly inducted into the Russian Army and sent to the front lines in Ukraine. The report said the action illustrates how the Kremlin is desperately trying to avoid a full mobilization of its society by using foreign fighters following reports that North Korea has sent thousands of soldiers to train and fight alongside Russian forces. Iran on November 24 confirmed it will hold talks regarding its disputed nuclear program with officials from Britain, France, and Germany on November 30, saying they will also focus on “bilateral, regional, and international issues.” In a news conference, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei spokesman did not specific the location of the talks. Earlier, Japan's Kyodo news agency reported that Iran was arranging nuclear talks with Britain and the European Union starting on November 30 in Geneva. Kyodo quoted several diplomatic sources as saying the Iranian administration is seeking a solution to Iran's nuclear impasse ahead of the inauguration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump on January 20. To read the original story by RFE/RL's Radio Farda, click here . More than 80 people have been killed and about 150 others injured in the latest bout of sectarian clashes in northwestern Pakistan, local officials said on November 24. The violence between Sunni and Shi'ite groups in the Kurram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province began on November 21 after gunmen opened fire on a convoy of vehicles carrying Shi'ite Muslims, killing at least 38 people. No group claimed responsibility for the attack, the latest in a series of deadly confrontations in Kurram. Police said armed men torched shops, houses, and government property. A government delegation has arrived in the area to defuse the crisis. To read the original story by RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal, click here . https://gdb.rferl.org/fcdcf26c-4515-4304-a215-0765b77567d3_w1023_r1_s.jpg Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on November 24 his country "needs more air-defense systems" to protect its people as Russia continues to target Ukraine with aerial bombs, combat drones, and missiles. "Strengthening the protection of our skies is absolutely critical," Zelenskiy wrote on social media, adding that Kyiv was "actively working" with its partners on improving the country’s air defenses. Russia has launched more than 800 guided aerial bombs, around 460 strike drones, and over 20 missiles of various types against Ukraine over the past week, according to Zelenskiy. Both Ukraine and Russia on November 24 reported repelling dozens of drones from the other side overnight. Ukrainian military said early in the morning that its air defenses shot down 50 of 73 Russian drones, with more than 10 of the intercepted drones targeting the capital, Kyiv. The Ukrainian Air Force added that it lost track of 19 drones and four more were still in the air. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries. Serhiy Popko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said the air-raid alert lasted for more than three hours as the drones "were flying from different directions" toward the city. Russia's Defense Ministry reported its air-defense systems destroyed 34 drones overnight, including 27 over the Kursk region bordering Ukraine. The ministry did not provide information about any damage or casualties caused by the strikes. Ukrainian forces swept into the Kursk region in a surprise offensive in August, seizing nearly 1,400 square kilometers of Russian territory. But Kyiv has since lost about 40 percent of the territory it captured in Kursk, according to a source in Ukraine’s General Staff. "At most, we controlled about 1,376 square kilometers, now of course this territory is smaller. The enemy is increasing its counterattacks," the source was quoted by news agencies as saying. The source said Kyiv now controls approximately 800 square kilometer in Kursk and "will hold this territory for as long as is militarily appropriate." The United States and the United Kingdom reportedly gave permission to Ukraine recently to strike inside Russia with ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles, respectively. The missiles are precision tactical weapons designed to hit command-and-control centers, logistics, and arms depots near the front. Ukraine has already used the missiles to strike in Kursk and the neighboring region of Belgorod. France also joined the United States and Britain in signaling to Ukraine that it is allowed use long-range weapons against targets on Russian territory. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said in an interview with the BBC that Ukraine could fire French long-range missiles into Russia "in the logics of self-defense.” But he would not confirm if French weapons had already been used. Pakistani authorities have locked down Islamabad and partially suspended mobile phone and Internet services as supporters of imprisoned former Prime Minister Imran Khan geared up for a protest in the capital, calling for his release. The government announced late on November 23 that Internet and cellphone services would be temporarily unavailable "in areas with security concerns" while "continuing to operate as usual in the rest of the country." It did not specify the areas, nor did it explain when the suspension would be lifted. The announcement was posted on X, which is banned in Pakistan. Highways leading to Islamabad through which the protesters are expected to enter the city and gather near the parliament have been blocked by the government. Most major roads in the city have also been sealed off with shipping containers, while large contingents of police and paramilitary personnel could be seen deployed in riot gear. Islamabad police issued a statement, saying gatherings of any sort have been banned under legal provisions. Khan has been in prison since August 2023 and has over 150 criminal cases against him, ranging from corruption to inciting violence. Khan and his party, Pakistan Tehrik-e Insaf or PTI, deny all the charges as politically motivated. Khan’s supporters rely heavily on social media to demand his release and use messaging platforms like WhatsApp to share information, including details of protest rallies. Ali Amin Gandapur, the chief minister of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province and a key Khan ally, called on protesters to gather near the entrance of Islamabad's red zone, known as D Chowk. The red zone houses the country's parliament building and important government offices, as well as embassies and foreign institutions' offices. "Khan has called on us to remain there till all our demands are met," Gandapur said in a video message on November 23. He is expected to lead the largest convoy into Islamabad. Last month, a PTI protest in Islamabad turned violent with one policeman killed, dozens of security personnel injured, and protesters arrested. Both protesters and authorities accused one another of instigating the clashes. The shutdown of Internet and cellphone services during that protest disrupted communications and affected everyday services such as banking, ride-hailing, and food delivery. BUCHAREST -- Romanians are voting on November 24 in the likely first of two rounds in a presidential election that will have a key impact on foreign policy, particularly on Bucharest's current support for embattled Ukraine, with which it shares a 613-kilometer border. Romanian Prime Minister and Social Democratic Party leader Marcel Ciolacu is favored to receive the most votes among the 13 candidates, but if no one garners more than 50 percent, a second round will be held on December 8 featuring the two leaders. According to pre-vote polls, five candidates have a shot at advancing to the runoff to succeed the outgoing center-right incumbent, Klaus Iohannis, who is ending his second term and a decade in office. A possible second-round challenger for Ciolacu is George Simion , leader of the far-right, ultranationalist Alliance for the Unity of Romanians (AUR). Fourteen candidates are officially registered in the race, but Ludovic Orban announced he was withdrawing from the contest. Romania also has parliamentary elections set for December 1. As of 3 p.m., Romanian election officials said turnout was 32 percent, up from 29.2 percent at the same time in the 2019 vote, with long lines at polling stations reported in the capital, Bucharest. At three polling stations, turnout was reported at more than 150 percent. It was not immediately clear if the figure was the result of irregularities or due to supplemental lists holding more names than the permanent lists. Romania has become a key ally of Ukraine , not only providing training and military equipment but playing a key role in transporting Ukrainian grain and other agricultural goods to global markets. Much of the credit for Bucharest's pro-Ukraine stance goes to the incumbent, Iohannis. Romania's president has significant decision-making powers , including on matters of national security and foreign policy. Elected for a five-year term, the president can also reject party nominees for prime minister and government nominees for judicial appointments. Diaspora voting began on November 23, with initial figures indicating a lower turnout than in 2019 among those abroad, with about 222,000 of such votes cast by the morning of November 24. Oana Popescu-Zamfir, director of the Bucharest-based think tank GlobalFocus Center, told RFE/RL that this is a high-stakes election for the NATO and EU nation of 19 million people. "Romania is faced with two important realities next year: the threat of further instability and conflict in the region and globally, especially in the context of a [President-elect Donald] Trump White House," she said. Also, "the risks of deepening economic and financial crisis, given that [Romania is] currently running one of the highest twin budget deficits and inflation rates in the EU and the cost of commodities has continued to increase while government expenditure has stayed high (largely because of the bloated state apparatus)," she added. Foreign policy is also of concern to voters, namely Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine and how that conflict could change with a switch in Washington from U.S. President Joe Biden, who has steadily backed Kyiv, to Trump, who has suggested support could be curtailed. "The threat of regional instability and war is also a source of concern. Voters care about candidates' positions on Ukraine, Russia, Trump, the extent of their Euro-Atlantic orientation," Popescu-Zamfir said, adding that voters were also focused on the presidential candidates' "ability to lead the country in case of escalating tensions with Russia." In an interesting sidelight, election officials say that at least 50 Romanians over the age of 100 are expected to vote in the presidential election. The oldest is a man aged 113, while the oldest woman is aged 108, officials said. Developing nations staged a walkout at the United Nations climate talks in Baku, demanding wealthy emitter nations step up financial aid to combat the effects of global warming. Host nation Azerbaijan urged delegates to seek consensus as COP29, already extended into an extra day, verged on the brink of failure. “I know that none of us wants to leave Baku without a good outcome,” COP President Mukhtar Babayev told climate officials from around the world on November 23, urging them to “bridge the remaining divide.” Small island states and the least developed nations walked out of negotiations on a funding package for poor countries to curb and adapt to climate change, saying their climate finance interests were being ignored. “[The] current deal is unacceptable for us. We need to speak to other developing countries and decide what to do,” said Evans Njewa, chair of the Least Developed Countries group. Developing countries have been pushing rich countries for years to finance their attempts to battle the impact of climate change, saying that the extreme weather and rising seas hurting them is the result of greenhouse gas emitted by the wealthy nations decades ago. In 2009, rich countries pledged $100 billion a year in annual climate aid by the early 2020s but some have been struggling to meet their commitments. The last official draft on November 22 pledged $250 billion annually by 2035, more than double the previous goal, but far short of the annual $1 trillion-plus that experts say is needed. Experts said that rich countries like the United States and Europe are facing budget constraints due to the coronavirus pandemic and now wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. The United States has allocated $174 billion to Ukraine and billions more to Israel to help bolster their defenses. European nations have also allocated well north of $100 billion for Ukraine. In a bid to save COP29, representatives from the European Union, the United States, and other wealthy countries met directly with those of developing nations to work out an agreement. “If we don’t get a deal I think it will be a fatal wound to this process, to the planet, to people,” Panama’s special representative for climate change, Juan Carlos Monterrey Gomez said. Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev has fired several top officials in the State Security Service (SSS) and Interior Ministry in a sweeping reshuffle following an assassination attempt last month on a close ally of his eldest daughter. Abdusalom Azizov, the head of the State Security Service (SSS) and Alijon Ashurov, the head of the Presidential Personal Security Department, were among those dismissed by Mirziyoev on November 22, several law enforcement sources told RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service. Meanwhile, Otabek Umarov, the deputy head of the SSS and the husband of Mirziyoev’s youngest daughter, left the country on November 23, the sources said. It is unclear whether he fled or intends to come back, they added said. The upheaval is the biggest in the security services since the authoritarian Mirziyoev took office eight years ago. It comes amid a back-door power struggle among Uzbekistan's political elite that was thrust into the spotlight following an assassination attempt on Komiljon Allamjonov, a former high-ranking official in the presidential administration. Alisher Ilkhamov, an analyst at U.K.-based political risk firm Central Asia Due Diligence, said Mirziyoev needed to take action to show that no one was above the law and demonstrate his control over the country. "Impunity for such actions is a sign that the group that committed this is given carte blanche. And this will create a certain mood in society - an atmosphere of fear," he said. Allamjonov was traveling in a car on October 26, one day before parliamentary elections, when it was sprayed with bullets. Allamjonov survived, but the incident -- the first assassination attempt on a current or former member of Mirziyoev’s administration -- sent shockwaves through the country. Earlier this month, South Korean authorities detained Uzbek citizen Javlon Yunusov on suspicion of involvement in the attempted murder of Allamjonov. An RFE/RL investigation also linked another man, Shokhrukh Ahmedov, along with Yunusov and other suspects to organized crime, prior assassination attempts in Turkey, and high-level officials within Uzbekistan’s administration, including Umarov. The 40-year-old Allamjonov left his government post in September allegedly to focus on a private business venture. Meanwhile, Umarov had been accused of allegedly establishing a "deep state," controlling the country's security services and major businesses through his proxies. Sources close to the investigation have suggested that the organizers of the attack may have sought to curb Allamjonov’s growing influence and connections within the administration. Prior to the assassination attempt, Allamjonov received the personal backing of 39-year-old Saida Mirziyoeva, the president’s eldest daughter who is widely seen as his potential successor. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that Russia is seeking to drive his forces out of the Kursk region before U.S. President-elect Donald Trump takes office next year but added that the military situation in the Donetsk region is the most critical for his country. “I am certain that [Russian President Vladimir Putin] wants to push us out before January 20,” Zelenskiy told reporters, referring to the day of Trump’s inauguration. “It is very important for him to show that he controls the situation” in Kursk. Ukraine stunned the Kremlin by sweeping into the Kursk region in August, seizing nearly 1,400 square kilometers of Russian territory. With Trump promising to end the war upon entering office, Moscow could be forced to exchange land it seized in Ukraine for Kursk territory should it fail to push Ukrainian forces out in time. Putin has sent tens of thousands of Russian troops to Kursk who are mounting wave after wave of counterattacks, a source on Ukraine's General Staff said. Russia has regained about 800 square kilometers in Kursk or about 40 percent of the territory Ukraine seized, the source said. Zelenskiy said that Ukrainian troops are inflicting large-scale losses on Russian forces in Kursk. Russia has recently been losing as many as 1,500 troops a day to injury and death across the entire theater of the war, the most since the invasion began in February 2022, Ukrainian and Western officials said. “Russia hasn’t suffered such losses as it is now suffering in Kursk,” Zelenskiy said. Russia has recruited more than 11,000 North Korean troops to help it take back Kursk territory. The North Korean troops reportedly arrived last month though it is unclear if they have taken part in fighting yet. The United States and the United Kingdom reportedly gave permission this week to Ukraine to strike inside Russia with ATACMS and Storm Shadow missiles respectively. The missiles are precision, tactical weapons designed to hit command-and-control centers, logistics and arms depots near the front. Ukraine has already used the missiles to strike in Kursk and the neighboring region of Belgorod. Russian Advances Meanwhile, Russian ground forces continue to make incremental advances in eastern Ukraine, including near the town of Velyka Novosilka, according to Deep State, an open-source organization with ties to the Ukrainian Army, and confirmed by other analysts. Ukraine has been struggling to hold back the Russian advances due to a lack of manpower, raising concern about a possible breakthrough. While Russia is losing forces at a greater rate, the Kremlin is able to quickly replace them thanks to lucrative wages and incentives. Putin on November 23 widened those incentives, signing a law permitting the cancellation of debt for new army recruits volunteering to fight in Ukraine. The new law allows the state to forgive up to 10 million rubles ($95,835) of debt for those signing contracts with the Defense Ministry to fight in Ukraine for at least a year, beginning on December 1. The law applies to all potential recruits who have had debt collection proceedings opened against them before December 1. The maximum debt forgiveness is several times the average annual salary in Russia’s provinces. Valeriy Zaluzhniy, the former commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces, said in an interview published on November 23 that new technological advances will prevent a “serious breakthrough” at the front. Ukraine and Russia have been rapidly developing reconnaissance and strike drones as well as electronic warfare weapons. The technology advancements have helped Ukraine partially compensate for its lack of manpower. In the interview, Zaluzhniy said that Russia will struggle to expand the front line and break through because it would require huge resources "which the Russians no longer have." Trump Presidency U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken will meet his counterparts from the Group of Seven (G7) leading industrialized nations outside Rome on November 25-26 to discuss the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East. It will be the last G7 meeting for the Biden administration, which is seeking to ensure that support for Ukraine is sustained when Trump enters office in January. Trump has criticized aid to Ukraine, raising questions whether he will continue support should a peace deal not be reached. The president-elect met with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte in Florida on November 22 to discuss Ukraine and other issues facing the alliance. Meanwhile, Trump is reportedly considering Richard Grenell, his former intelligence chief, for the new post of special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Zelenskiy told reporters that the war could end next year if Ukraine continues to get strong Western support. Zelenskiy spoke with media following the Grain From Ukraine Summit in Kyiv. Ukraine is one of the largest exporters of grains to world markets. Prior to the conference, Zelenskiy visited a memorial to the victims of the Holodomor, the man-made famine orchestrated by the Soviet government in the 1930s that led to the deaths of millions of Ukrainians. In a clear reference to Putin’s war against Ukraine, Zelenskiy said: "There is something we know for certain. They wanted to destroy us. To kill us. To subjugate us. They failed." The violent detentions of brawling foreign university students, including from Iran, in Tatarstan has led to a protest by Iran’s consul general to the Russian region. “Iranian citizens studying abroad have the right to respect and fair treatment,” Consul General Davud Mirzakhani said on November 23. “We will ensure that the rights of our students are fully protected." "The Russian police confuse the Iranian people with those of other nations," Mirzakhani added. "We will never allow anyone to treat our people abroad inhumanely and illegally." The comments came after a brawl broke out among foreign students at Kazan Federal University on the morning of November 22 as they stood in line for documentation needed to renew their student visas. Video of the incident can be seen here: According to the Russian news agency TASS, two students who instigated the brawl were detained. Iranian students involved in the incident were later released. However, Tatarstan’s Investigative Committee announced that it has opened a criminal case against one student who “used violence against a police officer.” It is not clear if the student being investigated was among those released. Local media reported that the brawl may have started when someone cut into a large line of students who had been waiting to register their documents for hours. Foreign students were reportedly transferred from their dormitories at the university to make room for attendees of the BRICS summit held in Kazan on October 22-24. Students affected by the move launched a petition to protest the decision at the time, and were reportedly among those attempting to get their documentation in order on November 22. Local media reported that the foreign students lining up for documents were there trying to extend their student visas needed to study in Kazan. Following the brawl, the university reportedly opened additional service stations for the foreign students to submit their documents. Local authorities have reported that at least 25 people, most of them Shi’a, were killed on November 22 in fresh sectarian violence in a tribal region of northwest Pakistan long known as a hotspot of Shi’ite-Sunni conflict. The deaths in the Kurram district of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province came just two days after dozens of people were killed when gunmen opened fire on a convoy of vehicles in the Sunni-majority district. Speaking to RFE/RL’s Radio Mashaal on November 23, Kurram district administrative head Javedullah Mehsud said the renewed clashes erupted unexpectedly and the authorities could not respond in sufficient numbers to control them. Other news agencies, citing local officials, reported that at least 32 people had died and 47 were wounded in the violence on November 22. Locals in the Bagan area of the district told Radio Mashaal that an angry mob of hundreds of Shi’a set several shops and homes on fire. Locals in the predominantly Sunni area claimed that some inhabitants were unaccounted for. Local Shi'ite leader Malik Dildar Hussain told Radio Mashaal that Shi’a have frequently come under attack in the area. On November 21, at least 50 people, including several women and children, were killed and more than 40 wounded when gunmen opened fire on November 21 on a police-escorted convoy of 200 vehicles carrying Shi'ite Muslims. The convoy was traveling from the provincial capital, Peshawar, to Parachinar, the capital city of the Kurram district. The threat of additional violence led local authorities to impose a curfew on November 22 and to suspend mobile telecommunications services in the remote mountainous district. Local leaders told RFE/RL that most of those killed in the renewed violence on November 22 were Shi'a, but at least four Sunnis were also among the dead. No group has taken responsibility for the attack. RFE/RL correspondents on the ground reported on November 22 that heavily armed people set fire to a military checkpoint in the area overnight. In Parachinar, witnesses reported seeing dozens of angry people armed with automatic weapons gathering amid reports that several other facilities of the Pakistani Army and the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary had been attacked and destroyed. RFE/RL correspondents reported hearing heavy gunfire. Jamshed Shirazi, a social activist in Parachinar, told RFE/RL that several government installations were damaged by the mob. "People are expressing their anger by attacking government offices," Shirazi said. Jalal Hussain Bangash, a local Shi'ite leader, voiced dismay at the violence during a Friday Prayers sermon on November 22 and said that Shi'a had nothing to do with the ensuing violence, RFE/RL correspondents on the ground reported. Hamid Hussain, a lawmaker from Kurram in the national parliament, was adamant that the violence was the work of provocateurs. "We are helpless. Neither Shi'a nor Sunnis are involved in this. This is [the result of] some other invisible forces who do not want to see peace in the area," Hussain told RFE/RL. Sectarian tensions have risen over the past several months in the Kurram district, which was formerly semiautonomous. Seventeen people were killed in an attack on a convoy on October 12, and there have been a handful of deadly attacks since then. Sunnis and Shi'a living in Kurram have clashed over land, forests, and other property as well as religion over the years, despite government and law enforcement efforts to build peace. Minority Shi'ite Muslims have long suffered discrimination and violence in Sunni-majority Pakistan. Russia has included the territories it occupies in Ukraine in its recent greenhouse gas inventory report to the United Nations, drawing protests from Ukrainian officials and activists at the COP29 climate summit in Baku. The move by Moscow comes as Russian President Vladimir Putin eyes potential peace deal negotiations with incoming U.S. President Donald Trump that could decide the fate of vast swaths of territory. "We see that Russia is using international platforms to legalize their actions, to legalize their occupation of our territory," Ukraine's Deputy Environmental Minister Olha Yukhymchuk told Reuters. She said Ukraine is in touch with officials from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), the UN's main climate body, to ask it to resolve the dispute. Russia had already included emissions from Ukraine's Crimea region, annexed in 2014, in its last few reporting submissions to the UNFCCC. The Moscow-friendly Georgian Dream party, fresh off a contested victory in parliamentary elections last month that ignited calls for fresh polls and pro-EU demonstrations in Tbilisi, is preparing to hold its first parliamentary session on November 25. In comments to RFE/RL, Parliament Speaker Shalva Papuashvili said that foreign diplomats would not be invited to attend the opening session, saying it “should only be celebrated by the Georgian people." EU and other Western officials have expressed serious doubts about the October 26 elections in which Georgian Dream officially won 53.9 percent of the vote. Opposition leaders this week called on foreign diplomats not to legitimize the new parliament by attending the first session of parliament. Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili has refused to recognize the result validated by the country’s Central Election Committee (CEC), and protests demanding new elections continue to be held in the country’s capital. Protesters have alleged that there was widespread fraud during the campaign and vote, and that Russia heavily influenced the outcome favoring Georgian Dream, which has been in power since 2012. In recent days, Georgian police have shut down the demonstrations, including through the use of violence on November 19. Video footage by RFE/RL correspondents in Tbilisi showed police dragging people to the ground, including women, and beating them before taking them away. The same day, Zurabishvili filed a lawsuit in the Constitutional Court "requesting annulment of the election results as unconstitutional.” The first item on the agenda for the opening session, which will be attended by the head of the CEC, will be recognizing the authority of all 150 parliament members. Georgia has been a candidate for EU membership since last year, but a "foreign influence" law and anti-LGBT measures enacted under Georgian Dream’s leadership have stalled that effort. The United States in July announced that it would pause more than $95 million in assistance to the Georgian government, warning it that it was backsliding on democracy. U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is considering tapping Richard Grenell, his former intelligence chief, to be a special envoy for the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to four sources familiar with the transition plans. Grenell, who served as Trump's ambassador to Germany, as special envoy to Serbia-Kosovo talks, and was acting director of national intelligence during Trump's 2017-2021 term, would play a key role in Trump's efforts to halt the war if he is ultimately selected for the post. While there is currently no special envoy dedicated solely to resolving the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Trump is considering creating the role, according to the four sources. Grenell has advocated for the creation of "autonomous zones" as a means of settling the conflict. He also suggested he would not be in favor of Ukraine joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization in the immediate future. EU Parliament President Roberta Metsola supports the use of long-range missiles by Ukraine in its defense against Russia's full-scale invasion and said Germany should quickly deliver its long-range Taurus system to the embattled country. Metsola, in an interview published on November 23 by the Funke Mediengruppe newspapers, said "yes," when asked whether countries providing long-range missiles to Ukraine should allow it to use them against targets in Russia -- and whether Germany should deliver its Taurus weapons system to Ukraine. Chancellor Olaf Scholz, a Social Democrat, has been staunchly opposed to sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine. His coalition partners, the pro-business Free Democrats and the Greens, however, are in favor of sending Kyiv the missiles. Austria has dropped its long-standing veto to Bulgaria and Romania joining the passport free Schengen zone, opening the door to their accession next year. The breakthrough development was announced on November 22 by the Hungarian presidency of the EU Council, which hosted a meeting in Budapest with the interior ministers of Romania, Bulgaria, and Austria. The EU will meet with the two candidate countries to finalize a joint security package at a meeting on December 11-12. The two countries could become Schengen members in January. “Bulgaria and Romania belong fully to the Schengen area. I welcome the positive outcome of informal discussions in Budapest today.” Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission, said in a tweet following the announcement. The addition of Bulgaria and Romania will expand the Schengen zone to 28 states, including 24 EU members. Ireland and Cyprus will remain the only EU members not part of the Schengen Area. Bulgarians and Romanians currently are not permitted to travel freely into other Schengen member states over land borders. Early this year, they received the right to travel freely by air and sea in the first concession by Vienna. After the meeting in Budapest, Hungarian Interior Minister Sandor Pinter told media that the agreement to be signed next month includes the establishment of a special contingent of at least 100 border police officers on the Turkish-Bulgarian border. Hungary will contribute to the full deployment of the officers and provide the necessary technical equipment to ensure effective protection of the border, he said. Pinter expressed confidence that the issue could be resolved by December 31. EU Commissioner for Home Affairs Ylva Johansson said a January accession date is a realistic goal. Yekaterina Neroznikova, a journalist and member of the Marem human rights group, is facing administrative charges in Russia for her alleged involvement with an "undesirable organization." The charges stem from Neroznikova's participation in an interview with RFE/RL earlier this year, where she discussed the high-profile abduction of Seda Suleimanova, a native of Chechnya. The administrative protocol was filed with the Zhukovsky City Court in Moscow Oblast on November 15, with a hearing scheduled for November 26. Neroznikova, who left Russia following the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, disclosed the development to the OVD-Info human rights group, a prominent watchdog monitoring political persecution in Russia. The case against Neroznikova is linked to her April 2024 appearance on RFE/RL’s program Human Rights Are A Right. During the program, she discussed the abduction of Suleimanova, who was forcibly taken from St. Petersburg in August 2023 by local police and Chechen operatives. Suleimanova, who fled Chechnya in 2022 because of pressure being put on her to agree to a forced marriage, has been missing since September last year. The charges against Neroznikova are seen as part of Russia’s broader crackdown on dissent and press freedom. Suleimanova's case has prompted global protests and solidarity campaigns highlighting ongoing human rights concerns in Chechnya and Russia in general. According to Neroznikova, a man identifying himself as an officer of the Interior Ministry contacted her relatives last week before reaching out to her directly. He informed her of the administrative charges, citing her commentary on RFE/RL as the reason. RFE/RL's Russian Service and its multiple projects in the Russian language were designated as "undesirable organizations" in Russia in February 2024, making any association with them punishable under Russian law. Participation in the activities of an “undesirable organization” in Russia can result in fines of up to 15,000 rubles for individuals. Repeat offenses within a year can escalate to criminal charges, carrying penalties of up to four years in prison. Suleimanova's case has drawn international attention. In 2022, she fled her family in Chechnya to avoid an arranged marriage and persistent conflicts. In August 2023, she was abducted in St. Petersburg by individuals including local police and plainclothes Chechen security officers. She was taken to her family in Chechnya, and no information about her whereabouts has been available since September 2023. An investigation into Suleimanova’s disappearance was launched in March 2024 following thousands of public appeals. Despite the family's claims that she left home again in February, observers remain skeptical, citing conflicting statements made by her relatives. Russian President Vladimir Putin said the country's new intermediate-range ballistic missile, a nuclear-capable weapon, will continue to be tested, including in combat conditions, as Moscow struck several Ukrainian regions with other, less powerful weapons. "We will continue these tests, including in combat conditions, depending on the situation and the nature of the security threats that are created for Russia," Putin said on November 22 at a meeting with Defense Ministry officials and military-industrial complex officials. The Kremlin leader also called for serial production of the large missile to begin. Russia launched the so-called Oreshnik ballistic missile against Ukraine on November 21 in a strike targeting the city of Dnipro. Putin said at the time it was part of Moscow's response to Ukrainian attacks on Russian soil with U.S.-supplied ATACMS and British-supplied Storm Shadow missiles. The use of the Oreshnik "is first and foremost a messaging and saber rattling kind of weapon. This is the sort of delivery system that's not cheap. It's not a battlefield sort of weapon," Tom Karako, a missile defense expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, told RFE/RL. Putin added on November 22 that the Oreshnik is new and not an upgrade of previous Soviet-designed weaponry. The United States said the new missile is “experimental” and based on Russia’s RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). Ukraine initially accused Russia of having used an ICBM in the Dnipro attack. An ICBM has never been used in a war. Strategic Weapons Russia has been striking Ukraine with Iskanders, ground-launched, short-range ballistic missiles, and Kinzhals, air-launched, intermediate-range ballistic missiles, as well as various cruise missiles. Russia probably only has several units of the Oreshnik in stock, a U.S. official told media following the November 21 strike. Ukraine's military intelligence put the figure at up to 10 units. If Russia were to move forward with serial production of the Oreshnik, it would be for its nuclear force posture and not for use in a conventional war like the one with Ukraine, Karako said. "This is not an alternative to a cruise missile. It's probably designed for strategic weapons," he said. Zelenskiy's Response In his November 21 address to the nation announcing the use of the Oreshnik, Putin said that the missile traveled at a speed of Mach 10, or 2.5-3 kilometers per second, claiming that "there are currently no ways of counteracting this weapon." Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on November 22 that Ukraine was working on developing new types of air defenses to counter "new risks," a reference to missiles like the Oreshnik. In his nightly video address, Zelenskiy said testing a new weapon for the purposes of terror in another country was an "international crime" and called for a worldwide "serious response" to keep Russia from expanding the war. "When someone starts using other countries not only for terror, but also for testing their new missiles through acts of terror, then this is clearly an international crime." A lack of air defenses has been one of Ukraine's major weak spots in the 33-month war with Ukraine. Zelenskiy has called on the West to deliver more air defense systems since the first days of the invasion. He had also called on the West to ease restrictions preventing Ukraine from striking inside Russia with powerful long-range weapons. Zelenskiy said the deep strikes were necessary to target airfields critical for Russia's daily aerial attacks. The United States and the United Kingdom reportedly lifted the restrictions on November 17 with Ukraine using their long-range weapons -- ATACMS and Storm Shadow respectively -- to hit targets in Russia's regions of Belgorod and Kursk. Putin launched the Oreshnik into Ukraine to warn the West against arming Ukraine. Parliament Session Canceled Russia did not use the Oreshnik to strike Ukraine during another deadly air attack on November 22. Two people were killed and 12 wounded in Russian strikes on Sumy, Artem Kobzar, the mayor of the northeastern Ukrainian city, reported in a video statement on Telegram. The Ukrainian Air Force said Russian drone attacks were under way in four regions -- Sumy, Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Zhytomyr. In the capital, which has been on edge for several days amid intense Russian attacks on Ukraine, lawmakers were advised to avoid the government district on November 22 and parliament canceled a scheduled session due to warnings of a potential missile strike. "We were informed about the risk of a missile strike on the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv in the coming days. Putin has significantly raised the stakes . Tomorrow's parliamentary session is canceled," lawmaker Taras Batenko said. Oleksiy Honcharenko, another lawmaker, said on Telegram that the next session was now planned for December, although parliament leaders have not officially commented on the warnings. Zelenskiy's office assured the public that the presidential administration would continue operating "as usual" on November 22. The Russian Supreme Court has declared the international organization Post-Russia Free Nations Forum a terrorist group, the latest move in the Kremlin's clampdown on any sign of dissent. The organization, founded in Poland in 2022, has been accused of promoting separatism and aiming to disband the Russian Federation into independent states under foreign influence. Russia is a multiethnic state comprised of more than 80 regions, many of which have large indigenous populations, such as Chechnya and Tatarstan. Since coming to power in 1999, Russian President Vladimir Putin has centralized authority, curtailing the autonomy that some ethnic regions enjoyed. Russia's invasion of Ukraine and its attempt to wipe out Ukrainian identity has shone a bright light on the Kremlin's historical mistreatment of its own indigenous populations and triggered a "decolonization" movement that seeks to give more prominence to ethnic groups within Russian historical and cultural studies. The case against the Post-Russia Free Nations Forum was launched in late October by the Prosecutor-General’s Office, which cited its activities as a threat to Russia’s territorial integrity and national security. In its statement, the Prosecutor General’s Office alleged that the forum operates through 172 regional and national entities, including the Baltic Republican Party, the Ingria Movement, the Congress of Peoples of the North Caucasus, the Free Yakutia Foundation, and the Far Eastern Confederation. The office claims these groups are directed by exiled leaders of separatist movements. “These leaders aim to divide the Russian Federation into independent states that would fall under the influence of hostile foreign countries,” the Prosecutor-General’s Office stated on its official website. The Post-Russia Free Nations Forum is registered in Poland and describes itself as a civic movement advocating for greater regional autonomy within Russia, with some members supporting full independence for regions. On its website and social media platforms, the organization also uses variations of its name, such as the Post-Russia Free States Forum. Ukrainian businessman Oleh Mahaletskiy positions himself as one of the founders of the group and is believed to be a major sponsor. The group’s activities have included discussions on decentralization and independence, with notable speakers such as the noted Tatar activist Nafis Kashapov, Bashkir activist Ruslan Gabbasov, Russian opposition politician Ilya Ponomaryov, U.S. political analyst Janusz Bugajski, and others. Following the November 22 terrorist designation by the Supreme Court, all activities of the Post-Russia Free Nations Forum are now banned in Russia. Membership or association with the group is subject to criminal prosecution under Russian anti-terrorism laws. Critics of the ruling argue that the designation reflects a broader crackdown on dissent and regional autonomy movements in Russia. They note that the Forum primarily operates abroad and online, raising questions about the ruling’s effectiveness outside Russian borders. The Forum has not yet responded to the court’s decision. Observers suggest that this ruling may escalate tensions between Russia and countries hosting members of the organization, particularly Poland, where it is registered. The authoritarian ruler of Belarus, Alyaksandr Lukashenka, has threatened to shut down the Internet in the event of mass protests during or after the upcoming presidential election, after the previous vote in 2020 erupted in unprecedented unrest amid opposition allegations it was rigged. Speaking to students at Minsk State Linguistic University on November 22, Lukashenka defended past Internet restrictions and warned of future measures to throttle dissent. "If this happens again, we will shut it down entirely. Do you think I will sit idly and pray you don't send a message when the fate of the country is at stake?" state news agency BelTA quoted him as saying. Lukashenka admitted that Internet disruptions during the 2020 protests were conducted with his approval, citing the need to "protect the country." Following the August 9, 2020, election, which many Western governments have said was not free and fair, Internet access across Belarus was disrupted for several days and intermittently blocked. The disputed election that extended Lukashenka's decades of rule -- he has held power since 1994 -- for another term was widely condemned as fraudulent by the United States, the European Union, and other international actors. The protests, which demanded Lukashenka’s resignation, were met with mass arrests, alleged torture, and violent crackdowns that left several people dead. Many opposition leaders remain imprisoned or in exile, while Lukashenka refuses dialogue with his critics. The next presidential election in Belarus is scheduled for January 26. Alsu Kurmasheva, a journalist for RFE/RL's Tatar-Bashkir Service, was honored with the International Press Freedom Award by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in a ceremony held in New York on November 21. Kurmasheva, who was recently released from detention in Russia after spending 288 days in custody, thanked the CPJ for its efforts toward gaining her freedom. "Journalism is not a crime," she said , noting that more than 20 journalists are currently imprisoned in Russia. Kurmasheva added that she was dedicating the award to her colleagues still imprisoned , including RFE/RL journalists Ihar Losik and Andrey Kuznechyk in Belarus, Vladislav Yesypenko in Crimea, and Farid Mehralizada in Azerbaijan. "My colleagues are not just statistics; like me they are real human beings with families who miss and love them. There are dozens of other journalists in Russian prisons. They should be released at once," Kurmasheva stressed . Other recipients of the award this year included Palestinian journalist Shorouq al-Aila, Guatemalan journalist Kimi de Leon, and Nigerien investigative journalist Samira Sabou, all recognized for their courage in the face of persecution. Detained by authorities in June 2023 as she was visiting relatives in the central Russian city of Kazan, Kurmasheva was initially charged with not declaring her U.S. passport. She was released but barred from leaving the country. That October, however, she was arrested, jailed, and charged with being an undeclared "foreign agent" -- under a draconian law targeting journalists, civil society activists, and others. She was later hit with an additional charge: distributing what the government claims is false information about the Russian military, a charge stemming from her work editing a book about Russians opposed to the ongoing invasion of Ukraine. RFE/RL, as well as the U.S. government, called the charges absurd. The prisoner exchange that came to fruition on August 1 included 24 people in all -- including Kurmasheva, Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gerskovich, and Russian political activist Vladimir Kara-Murza -- in a complex, seven-country deal. Religious tensions are on the rise in northwestern Pakistan following a deadly attack on a police-escorted convoy of Shi'ite Muslims that threatened to reignite sectarian violence in a strife-plagued region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Province. In the aftermath of the attack on the 200-vehicle convoy traveling from Peshawar to Parachinar, the capital city of the Kurram district, authorities on November 22 imposed a curfew and suspended mobile service in the remote mountainous district. RFE/RL correspondents on the ground reported on November 22 that heavily armed people set fire to a military checkpoint in the area overnight. In Parachinar, dozens of angry people carrying automatic weapons were gathering, amid reports that several other facilities of the Pakistani Army and the paramilitary Frontier Constabulary were attacked and destroyed, with RFE/RL correspondents reporting sounds of constant heavy gunfire. Jamshed Shirazi, a social activist in Parachinar, told RFE/RL that several government installations had been damaged by the angry protesters. "People are expressing their anger by attacking the government offices," Shirazi said. But Jalal Hussain Bangash, a local Shi'ite leader, voiced dismay at the violence during a Friday Prayer sermon on November 22 and said that Shi'a had nothing to do with the ensuing violence, RFE/RL correspondents on the ground report . Hamid Hussain, a lawmaker from Kurram in the national parliament, was adamant that the violence was the work of provocateurs. "We are helpless. Neither Shi'a nor Sunnis are involved in this. This is some other invisible forces who do not want to see peace in the area," Hussain told RFE/RL. At least 48 people, including several women and children, were killed and more than 40 wounded when gunmen opened fire on November 21 on the convoy of vehicles in the Kurram district of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province near the Afghan border. Local leaders told RFE/RL that most of those killed were Shi'a, but at least four Sunnis were also among the dead. No one has taken responsibility for the attack, the latest in a series of deadly confrontations in Kurram, long known as a hotspot of Shi'ite-Sunni sectarian conflict. Local tribal leader Malik Dildar Hussain told RFE/RL that there were about 700 people in the convoy. Tensions in Kurram began to heat up in the past several months, where clashes again erupted between Sunni and Shi'ite Muslim tribes in the area, which was formerly semiautonomous. On October 12, 17 people were killed in an attack on a convoy, and there have been a handful of deadly attacks since then. Sunnis and Shi'a live together in Kurram and have clashed violently over land, forests, and other property as well as religion over the years, despite government and law enforcement efforts to build peace. Minority Shi'ite Muslims have long suffered discrimination and violence in Sunni-majority Pakistan. Moscow launched another deadly attack on Ukraine on November 22, a day after firing what it said was a new intermediate-range missile that the Kremlin boasted was a " warning " for the West, after Kyiv reportedly obtained permission from President Joe Biden to strike into Russia with U.S. long-range missiles. Two people were killed and 12 wounded in Russian strikes on Sumy, Artem Kobzar, the mayor of the northeastern Ukrainian city, reported in a video statement on Telegram. Ukraine's air force said Russian drone attacks were under way in four regions -- Sumy, Kyiv, Chernihiv, and Zhytomyr. In the capital, which has been on edge for several days amid intense Russian attacks on Ukraine, lawmakers were advised to avoid the government district on November 22 and parliament canceled a scheduled session due to warnings of a potential missile strike. "We were informed about the risk of a missile strike on the Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv in the coming days. Putin has significantly raised the stakes . Tomorrow's parliamentary session is canceled," lawmaker Taras Batenko said, while lawmaker Oleksiy Honcharenko said on Telegram that the next session was now planned for December, although parliament leaders have not officially commented on the warnings. The office of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy assured the public that it would continue operating "as usual" on November 22. On November 20, the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine warned of a significant Russian air attack, prompting the temporary closure of its operations. The embassies of Spain, Italy, and Greece also suspended services for the day. On November 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the "successful combat testing" of a new Oreshnik (Hazel Tree) intermediate-range ballistic missile amid the Kremlin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Putin claimed the missile was used in a strike on Ukraine's eastern city of Dnipro, asserting it was a response to NATO’s "aggressive actions" and Ukraine’s use of Western-supplied missiles to target Russian territory. On November 22, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov reiterated that the test was a message to the West that Moscow will respond harshly to any "reckless" Western moves in support of Ukraine. "The main message is that the reckless decisions and actions of Western countries that produce missiles, supply them to Ukraine, and subsequently participate in strikes on Russian territory cannot remain without a reaction from the Russian side," Peskov told reporters. "The Russian side has clearly demonstrated its capabilities, and the contours of further retaliatory actions in the event that our concerns are not taken into account have been quite clearly outlined," he said. Ukraine's military intelligence said on November 22 that Russia may have up to 10 units of the new missile. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has invited his Israeli counterpart to visit Hungary, defying an arrest warrant for issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Benjamin Netanyahu that other European states say they will honor. Orban, speaking during his regular weekly interview with Hungarian state radio, said on November 22 that the ICC's decision a day earlier to issue the warrant accusing Netanyahu of "crimes against humanity and war crimes" committed during the war in Gaza was "outrageously brazen" and "cynical." The ICC issued similar arrest warrants for former Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant and a Hamas military leader who Israel claims to have killed but whose death the U.S.- and EU-designated terrorist group has not officially acknowledged. The ICC said Netanyahu and Gallant were suspected of using "starvation as a method of warfare" by restricting humanitarian aid while targeting civilians in Israel's war in Gaza -- charges Israeli officials deny. Orban said the ICC move against Netanyahu "intervenes in an ongoing conflict...dressed up as a legal decision, but in fact for political purposes." "Later today, I will invite the Israeli prime minister, Mr. Netanyahu, to visit Hungary, where I will guarantee him, if he comes, that the judgment of the ICC will have no effect in Hungary, and that we will not follow its terms," he added. "There is no choice here, we have to defy this decision," Orban said. Shortly after the ICC decision was announced, the European Union's top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said ICC decisions "are binding on all states party to the Rome Statute, which includes all EU member states." However, the EU's most powerful members, Germany and France, on November 22 reacted with restraint to the ICC warrants. A spokesman said the German government will refrain from any moves until a visit to Germany by Netanyahu is planned. "I find it hard to imagine that we would make arrests on this basis," Steffen Hebestreit said on November 22, adding that legal questions had to be clarified about the warrant. In Paris, Foreign Ministry spokesman Christophe Lemoine only said that France acknowledged the ICC's move and voiced its support for the ICC's independence. "France takes note of this decision. True to its long-standing commitment to supporting international justice, it reiterates its attachment to the independent work of the court, in accordance with the Rome Statute," Lemoine said. Hungary, a NATO and European Union member state, has signed and ratified the 1999 document. However, it has not published the statute's associated convention and therefore argues that it is not bound to comply with ICC decisions. Netanyahu on November 22 thanked Orban for his show of "moral clarity." "Faced with the shameful weakness of those who stood by the outrageous decision against the right of the State of Israel to defend itself, Hungary" is "standing by the side of justice and truth," Netanyahu said in a statement. A right-wing nationalist in power since 2010, Orban has maintained close relations with Russian President Vladimir Putin and has voiced opposition to the EU's sanctions imposed on Moscow after its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. Orban has previously said that Hungary would not arrest Putin either, despite the ICC arrest warrant issued on the Russian leader's name for war crimes for his role in deporting Ukrainian children. Furthermore, he flew to Moscow in July immediately after Hungary took over the EU's rotating six-month presidency to meet with Putin, in defiance of the fellow members of the bloc. Soltan Achilova, a veteran journalist and former RFE/RL correspondent in Turkmenistan, was forcibly hospitalized in Ashgabat on November 20 in what appears to be a move by the government to prevent her from flying to Geneva to receive an international award. According to the Chronicle of Turkmenistan website, four men in medical gowns arrived at the 75-year-old's apartment early that morning, claiming she was suspected of carrying an infectious disease and needed an "urgent" examination. Achilova, who showed no signs of illness, was forcibly taken to the Center for the Prevention and Treatment of Infectious Diseases in Ashgabat's Choganly district. Her family was not allowed to accompany her and her apartment keys were confiscated. One family member said one of the men told Achilova, "Why do you need keys in the afterlife?" Doctors have not disclosed when she will be released. Turkmenistan is consistently ranked by media watchdogs, such as Reporters Without Borders (RSF), among the worst countries in the world for press freedom. Independent media are nonexistent in the authoritarian Central Asian state, where journalism "amounts only to praise for the regime," according to RSF. The government continues a relentless clampdown on dissent -- with critics being harassed, beaten, tortured, jailed, and even killed. Many others have been forced abroad into exile. Human rights groups, including the Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights and the International Partnership for Human Rights, immediately condemned Achilova's forced detention, calling it a stark escalation in Turkmenistan's crackdown on free speech. They demanded her immediate release and an end to the persecution of journalists. Achilova, the only journalist in Turkmenistan who openly criticizes the authoritarian government, has faced repeated harassment, threats, and attacks. In November 2023, border guards at the Ashgabat airport destroyed her passport to prevent her from traveling to Switzerland, where she was scheduled to attend the Martin Ennals Award human rights ceremony. Achilova has faced verbal threats and physical attacks, which the journalist and her supporters describe as government retaliation for her work. Many of her relatives have also been threatened. Ashgabat doesn't tolerate any dissent, and the government has stifled independent media, forced opposition activists into exile, and blocked access to all major social media and messaging apps to virtually cut its citizens off from the rest of the world.
SAC members award winners in different sports competitionsLast week, UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson was shot to death on a New York City sidewalk in what was clearly a thoroughly planned-out attack. Over the next few days, as authorities hunted for the killer, online progressives did not try hard to hide their delight that a millionaire health insurance executive like Thompson was killed. Social media was flooded with posts and videos—with different ranges of subtlety—suggesting that Thompson, at the very least, did not deserve to be mourned because of all the health care his company has denied to poor and working people. Progressives framed the shooting as an act of self-defense on behalf of the working class. Before the alleged killer was caught Monday, they promised not to snitch if they saw the shooter themselves and fantasized about a working-class jury nullifying all charges, leading to other CEOs getting gunned down with impunity if they oversaw price increases. The narrative that these online progressives clearly subscribe to and perpetuate is one where, in the United States, healthcare is a totally unfettered, unregulated industry; where—because of a total lack of government involvement—wealthy CEOs charge whatever prices they want and then refuse to provide customers what they already paid for without facing any bad consequences. The characterization of healthcare and health insurance companies charging absurdly high prices while treating their customers terribly without the risk of losing them is spot on. But the idea that what caused this was a lack of government involvement in the healthcare system is completely delusional. And this delusion conveniently removes all the responsibility progressives bear for the nightmare that is the US healthcare system. Today, healthcare is one of the most heavily government-regulated industries in the economy—right up there with the finance and energy sectors. Government agencies are involved in all parts of the process, from the research and production of drugs, the training and licensing of medical professionals, and the building of hospitals to the availability of health insurance, the makeup of insurance plans, and the complicated payment processes. And that is nothing new. The US government has been intervening heavily in the healthcare industry for over a century. And no group has done more to bring this about than the progressives. It really began, after all, during the Progressive Era, when the American Medical Association maneuvered its way into setting the official accreditation standards for the nation’s “unregulated” medical schools. The AMA wrote standards that excluded the medical approaches of their competitors, which forced half of the nation’s medical schools to close. The new shortage of trained doctors drove up the price of medical services—to the delight of the AMA and other government-recognized doctor’s groups—setting the familiar healthcare affordability crisis in motion. Around the same time, progressives successfully pushed for strict restrictions on the production of drugs and, shortly afterward, to grant drug producers monopoly privileges. After WWII, as healthcare grew more expensive, the government used the tax code to warp how Americans paid for healthcare. Under President Truman, the IRS made employer-provided health insurance tax deductible while continuing to tax other means of payment. It didn’t take long for employer plans to become the dominant arrangement and for health insurance to morph away from actual insurance into a general third-party payment system. These government interventions restricting the supply of medical care and privileging insurance over other payment methods created a real affordability problem for many Americans. But the crisis didn’t really start until the 1960s when Congress passed two of the progressive’s favorite government programs—Medicare and Medicaid. Initially, industry groups like the AMA opposed Medicare and Medicaid because they believed the government subsidies would deteriorate the quality of care. They were right about that, but what they clearly didn’t anticipate was how rich the programs would make them. Anyone who’s taken even a single introductory economics class could tell you that prices will rise if supply decreases or demand increases. The government was already keeping the supply of medical services artificially low—leading to artificially high prices. Medicare and Medicaid left those shortages in place and poured a ton of tax dollars into the healthcare sector—significantly increasing demand. The result was an easily predictable explosion in the cost of healthcare. Fewer and fewer people could afford healthcare at these rising prices, meaning more people required government assistance, which meant more demand, causing prices to grow faster and faster. Meanwhile, private health “insurance” providers were also benefiting from the mounting crisis. In a free market, insurance serves as a means to trade risk. Insurance works well for accidents and calamities that are hard to predict individually but relatively easy to predict in bulk, like car accidents, house fires, and unexpected family deaths. Health insurance providers were already being subsidized by all the taxes on competing means of payment, which allowed their plans to grow beyond the typical bounds of insurance and begin to cover easily-predictable occurrences like annual physicals. And, as the price of all of these services continued to shoot up, the costs of these routine procedures were becoming high enough to resemble the costs of emergencies—making consumers even more reliant on insurance. With progressives cheering on, the political class used government intervention to create a healthcare system that behaves as if its sole purpose is to move as much money as possible into the pockets of healthcare providers, drug companies, hospitals, health-related federal agencies, and insurance providers. But the party could not last forever. As the price of healthcare rose, the price of health insurance rose, too. Eventually, when insurance premiums grew too high, fewer employers or individual buyers were willing to buy insurance, and the flow of money into the healthcare system started to falter. The data suggests that that tipping point was reached in the early 2000s. For the first time since the cycle began back in the 1960s, the number of people with health insurance began to fall each year. Healthcare providers—who had seemingly assumed that the flow of money would never stop increasing—began to panic. Then came Barack Obama. Obama’s seminal legislative accomplishment—the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare—can best be understood as a ploy by healthcare providers and the government to keep the party going. Obamacare required all fifty million uninsured Americans to obtain insurance, and it greatly expanded what these “insurance” companies covered. Demand for healthcare shot back up, and the vicious cycle started back up again—which is why the bill enjoyed so much support from big corporations all across the healthcare industry. Before it was passed, economists were practically screaming that the Affordable Care Act would make care less affordable by raising premiums and healthcare prices while making shortages worse. Progressives dismissed such concerns as Reagan-era “free market fundamentalist” propaganda. But that is exactly what happened . Now, the affordability crisis is worse than ever as prices reach historic levels. And, because Obamacare brought American healthcare much closer to a single-payer system, the demand for healthcare far exceeds the supply of healthcare—leading to deadly shortages. There are literally not enough resources or available medical professionals to treat everyone who can pay for care. Also, the tax code and warped “insurance” market protect these providers from competition—making it almost impossible for people to switch to a different provider after their claims are unfairly denied. If it were simply greed, denying customers who already paid would be a feature in all industries. But it’s not. It requires the kind of policy protections progressives helped implement. And on top of all that, despite paying all this money, Americans are quickly becoming one of the sickest populations on Earth. This is one of the most pressing problems facing the country. A problem that requires immediate, radical change to solve. But it also requires an accurate and precise diagnosis—something that, this week, progressives demonstrated they are incapable of making. Related Articles Commentary | After so many years of failure, time’s up for California Democrats Commentary | Vince Fong: We don’t need Newsom to lecture us. We need him to listen to us. Commentary | Deregulation rather than fossil fuel controls needed to fix California insurance market Commentary | The FBI has been political from the start Commentary | A new Legislative session: Time for pocketbook pragmatism The American progressive movement is responsible for providing the political class the intellectual cover they needed to break the healthcare market and transform the entire system into a means to transfer wealth to people like Brian Thompson. Now, they want to sit back, pretend like they’ve never gotten their way, that the government has never done anything with the healthcare market, and that these healthcare executives just popped up and started doing this all on their own—all so they can celebrate him being gunned down in the street. It’s disgusting. Brian Thompson acted exactly like every economically literate person over the last fifty years has said health insurance CEOs would act if progressives got their way. If we’re ever going to see the end of this century-long nightmare, we need to start listening to the people who have gotten it right, not those who pretend they are blameless as they fantasize online about others starting a violent revolution. Connor O’Keeffe ( @ConnorMOKeeffe ) produces media and content at the Mises Institute. This commentary is republished with permission from the Mises Institute.
Doctored images have been around for decades. The term "Photoshopped" is part of everyday language. But in recent years, it has seemingly been replaced by a new word: deepfake. It's almost everywhere online, but you likely won't find it in your dictionary at home. What exactly is a deepfake, and how does the technology work? RELATED STORY | Scripps News Reports: Sex, Lies, and Deepfakes A deepfake is an image or video that has been generated by artificial intelligence to look real. Most deepfakes use a type of AI called a "diffusion model." In a nutshell, a diffusion model creates content by stripping away noise. "With diffusion models, they found a very clever way of taking an image and then constructing that procedure to go from here to there," said Lucas Hansen said. He and Siddharth Hiregowdara are cofounders of CivAI, a nonprofit educating the public on the potential — and dangers — of AI. How diffusion models work It can get complicated, so imagine the AI – or diffusion model – as a detective trying to catch a suspect. Like a detective, it relies on its experience and training. It recalls a previous case -– a sneaky cat on the run. Every day it added more and more disguises. On Monday, no disguise. Tuesday, it put on a little wig. Wednesday, it added some jewelry. By Sunday, it's unrecognizable and wearing a cheeseburger mask. The detective learned these changes can tell you what it wore and on what day. AI diffusion models do something similar with noise, learning what something looks like at each step. "The job of the diffusion model is to remove noise," Hiregowdara said. "You would give the model this picture, and then it will give you a slightly de-noised version of this picture." RELATED STORY | Scripps News got deepfaked to see how AI could impact elections When it's time to solve the case and generate a suspect, we give it a clue: the prompts we give when we create an AI-generated image. "We have been given the hint that this is supposed to look like a cat. So what catlike things can we see in here? Okay, we see this curve, maybe that's an ear," Hiregowdara said. The "detective" works backward, recalling its training. It sees a noisy image. Thanks to the clue, it is looking for a suspect — a cat. It subtracts disguises (noise) until it finds the new suspect. Case closed. Now imagine the "detective" living and solving crimes for years and years. It learns and studies everything — landscapes, objects, animals, people, anything at all. So when it needs to generate a suspect or an image, it remembers its training and creates an image. Deepfakes and faceswaps Many deepfake images and videos employ some type of face swapping technology. You've probably experienced this kind of technology already — faceswapping filters like on Snapchat, Instagram or Tiktok use technology similar to diffusion models, recognizing faces and replacing things in real time. "It will find the face in the image and then cut that out kind of, then take the face and convert it to its internal representation," Hansen said. The results are refined then repeated frame by frame. The future and becoming our own detectives As deepfakes become more and more realistic and tougher to detect, understanding how the technology works at a basic level can help us prepare for any dangers or misuse. Deepfakes have already been used to spread election disinformation, create fake explicit images of a teenager, even frame a principal with AI-created racist audio. "All the netizens on social media also have a role to play," Siwei Lyu said. Lyu is a SUNY Empire Innovation Professor at the University of Buffalo's Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and the director of the Media Forensics Lab. His team has created a tool to help spot deepfakes called "DeepFake-o-meter." "We do not know how to handle, how to deal, with these kinds of problems. It's very new. And also requires technical knowledge to understand some of the subtleties there," Lyu said. "The media, the government, can play a very active role to improve user awareness and education. Especially for vulnerable groups like seniors, the kids, who will start to understand the social media world and start to become exposed to AI technologies. They can easily fall for AI magic or start using AI without knowing the limits." RELATED STORY | AI voice cloning: How programs are learning to pick up on pitch and tone Both Lyu and CivAI believe in exposure and education to help combat any potential misuse of deepfake technology. "Our overall goal is that we think AI is going t impact pretty much everyone in a lot of different ways," Hansen said. "And we think that everyone should be aware of the ways that it's going to change them because it's going to impact everyone." "More than just general education — just knowing the facts and having heard what's going to happen," he added. "We want to give people a really intuitive experience of what's going on." Hansen goes on to explain CivAI's role in educating the public. "We try and make all of our demonstrations personalized as much as possible. What we're working on is making it so people can see it themselves. So they know it's real, and they feel that it's real," Hansen said. "And they can have a deep gut level feel for tthe impact that it's going to have." "A big part of the solution is essentially just going to be education and sort of cultural changes," he added. "A lot of this synthetic content is sort of like a new virus that is attacking society right now, and people need to become immune to it in some ways. They need to be more suspicious about what's real and what's not, and I think that will help a lot as well."
Global Changemakers Unite at Giving Economy Awards 2024, Announcing Geneva HQ, Unveils 10-City Global Initiative
Should You Forget Palantir and Buy These 2 Artificial Intelligence (AI) Stocks Instead? - Yahoo FinanceFormer U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner has filed to run for a seat on the New York City Council, launching a potential political comeback after his once-promising career was destroyed by sexting scandals and later a criminal conviction for having illicit online contact with a child. Campaign finance records list a campaign committee that was set up on Friday for Weiner called Weiner 25, in addition to listing him as a candidate for a council seat in lower Manhattan. In a phone conversation Tuesday with The Associated Press, Weiner, a Democrat, said he is “still exploring” whether to actually campaign for the office. He said he opened the committee late last week so he could participate in a forum held by the Downtown Independent Democrats later this week. He referred additional questions to recent statements he made on his weekly radio show, “The Middle with Anthony Weiner,” where he said: “I haven't decided if I want to do this yet" while considering the personal dynamics of a return to politics. Weiner represented a congressional district in New York City for about 12 years before he resigned in 2011 after sending lewd photos to several women. He tried to make a comeback in 2013 to run for mayor but was damaged by new revelations of explicit photos Weiner had sent under the online alias “Carlos Danger.” Weiner pleaded guilty in 2017 to having illicit online contact with a 15-year-old girl and was sentenced to 21 months in federal prison. He was released in 2019 and was ordered to register as a sex offender . ___ Izaguirre reported from Albany, N.Y. Anthony Izaguirre, The Associated Press
