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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Harry’s case against News Group Newspapers is due to go to trial in January.
…

your ad here

ZURICH — Switzerland is scrambling to keep a lid on immigration from its top trade partner, the European Union, as a jobs boom powered by the country’s low-tax business model turns population growth into a political hot potato.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Tax draw

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

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

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

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

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

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

Switzerland is highly dependent on immigrants.

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

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

“We’ve taken away their tax base,” she said. “If we want less immigration, we have to stop luring capital.”
…

your ad here

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

Ukraine’s air force said Russia launched 188 total drones, along with four missiles, in the latest daily aerial assault, and that there was also damage to apartment buildings in several regions.

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

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

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

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

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

your ad here

ISTANBUL — Police detained dozens of people in Istanbul who tried to join a rally Monday calling for greater protection for women in Turkey, where more than 400 women have been murdered this year.

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

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

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

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

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

The local advocacy group We Will Stop Femicide says 411 women have been murdered in Turkey in 2024.
…

your ad here

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The verdicts and sentences are expected around December 20. 

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

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

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

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

your ad here

VOA Russian’s correspondent reports from Georgia, where the first session of the new parliament is meeting after the election won by the pro-Russian Georgian Dream party was boycotted by the opposition and met with street protests outside the parliament building.

See the full story here.   
…

your ad here

London — Hundreds of homeowners in England and Wales were battling floodwaters Monday morning after the second major storm of the winter brought widespread disruption to the United Kingdom. 

Several rail operators cancelled services as more than 180 flood warnings remained in place after Storm Bert lashed the country with heavy rains and wind gusts up to 129 kph over the weekend. As much as 130 millimeters of rain fell in some areas, causing some rivers to overflow their banks and turning roads into waterways. 

A severe flood warning, meaning there is danger to life, was issued early Monday for areas near the River Nene in Northampton as water levels continued to rise. 

Among the hardest hit areas were parts of Wales, where residents of Pontypridd tried to protect their homes by using buckets to bail water over a flood wall and back into the River Taff. Two severe flood warnings issued for the River Monnow in southeast Wales have been lowered to warnings. 

Because of climate change and warmer oceans, storms can pick up more energy, increasing wind speeds, while a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture. 

 
…

your ad here

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN — Anger and frustration from developing nations vulnerable to climate impacts are likely to linger following the conclusion of the climate change summit in Azerbaijan, COP29, as nations adopted a $300 billion global finance target to help poorer nations cope with climate change, a deal that many recipient nations slammed as severely insufficient.

Global North countries, often historic emitters responsible for global warming, agreed on Sunday to pledge $300 billion a year until 2035 for their developing counterparts to stave off the direst effects of climate change — less than a quarter of the acknowledged $1.3 trillion needed annually to reduce emissions and build resilience in vulnerable countries.

The $300 billion figure, also, is an increase by $200 billion each year, compared to the agreement in place since 2009, which is expiring.

Spirited disappointment and rage from Global South countries was expressed at the closing plenary, with some national representatives calling adoption of the new funding package “insulting.”

“We are extremely disappointed,” said Indian negotiator Chandni Raina, who called the figure “abysmal.”

Her Cuban counterpart, Pedro Luis Pedroso, described the deal as “environmental colonialism,” pointing out that, when factoring in today’s inflation, the pledged funding is lower than the $100 billion agreed to in 2009. Bolivia’s negotiator called the deal “insulting” to developing nations.

Some Western representatives were more upbeat.

“COP29 will be remembered as a new era of climate finance,” top EU climate negotiator Wopke Hoekstra said, calling the target amount “ambitious” and “achievable.”

Some experts told VOA that the structure and composition of the $300 billion deal was more important than the actual monetary figure. The final deal allows for both public and private sources of funds to be tapped to bolster climate preparation efforts in the developing world.

Negotiators for developing countries expressed concern that private sources of funding could come in the form of more loans, which could lead to challenging debt accumulation by poorer nations, rather than funding in the preferred form of grants.

Global South countries argued for a new target for green finance and have consistently called for such climate finance to come in the form of public grants. The tense and fraught negotiations of the past week dragged on for two extra days and included at least one episode of negotiators from small island nations and some of the poorest nations in the world walking out of a meeting room with wealthy nations in protest. They asserted that their voices and perspectives were not heard.

”This COP has been a disaster for the developing world,” said Mohammed Adow, director of Kenya-based climate and energy research group Power Shift Africa. ”It’s a betrayal of both people and planet, by wealthy countries, who claim to take climate change seriously.”

The adopted finance package also stated that a further roadmap is set to be discussed at the next conference – likely COP30, set for Belem, Brazil in late 2025 — on how to reach the trillion-dollar figure.

Independent South African climate consultant Gillian Hamilton called the $300 billion core funding target “insufficient,” particularly for building resilience against climate impacts — also known as climate adaptation.

“Developed nations should have shown more leadership and transparency,” Hamilton told VOA. “The biggest emitters need to rapidly decrease their emissions so that adaptation costs for developing countries don’t increase exponentially.”

Campaigners staged multiple environmental protests each day here during the past week-plus of meetings.

Though negotiators for developing nations repeatedly asked for climate finance in the form of grants instead of loans, in the final deal, developed countries stopped short of guaranteeing that could be done.

Adaptation finance

The deal adopted Sunday acknowledges that funding sources for adaptation finance should be public and transparent.

With 2024 going down as the hottest year in history, the world has experienced a slew of climate disasters, ranging from devastating floods in Nepal and Spain, to Hurricane Helene in the Americas, droughts in the Mediterranean and typhoons in the western Pacific region.

Despite the disasters and renewed calls to finance climate-resilient infrastructure across the Global South to guard against rising sea levels and wildfires, funding has been falling short for years, according to a November report from the U.N. Environment Program.

The so-called adaptation projects include developing more advanced disaster warning systems, reforestation, and building catchment mechanisms to ensure water security in regions most affected by climate change.

At COP29, Germany pledged $62 billion, to the adaptation fund; France highlighted its 2023 pledge of $2.9 billion, in adaptation; the U.S. said it pays $3 billion into it each year. A total of 14 Global North countries including Spain, Sweden, South Korea and Switzerland promised to provide $300 million this year, according to a separate negotiation text in the conference.

Despite pledges in recent years, countries didn’t completely deliver on promises. This year, for example, more than $122 million of pledged financial support to poor nations for adapting to climate risk is still up in the air, even though this assistance has been a stated priority at recent COP meetings.

What to expect in Belem?

Countries will be tasked at the Brazil meeting next November with ironing out the details of a global carbon trade system governed by a centralized U.N. regulatory body. They also will try to find a path for wealthy, developed countries to reach the target of $1.3 trillion to support efforts in the Global South to address the consequences of climate disasters. A major component will be reviewing national climate plans, which are due to be submitted in February. Britain, Brazil and the UAE are among the nations that this past week aimed to get ahead of the February deadline and shared some of the goals in their national climate preparation plans.

Harjeet Singh, global engagement director of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty, said it is likely that ‘most’ nations will not meet the February deadline to submit their updated plans to address climate change.

The future participation of Argentina is unclear, after hardline President Javier Milei — who has called climate change a hoax — reportedly told his government delegates here to pack their bags and leave the negotiations on the third day of the summit.

Singh was asked by VOA whether wealthy nations would deliver on their promises to lead the effort toward $300 billion in climate finance support, and he responded that the key lies in their ‘willingness, as the money has always been there.’
…

your ad here

ROME — Foreign ministers from the world’s leading industrialized nations are meeting Monday, with the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East entering decisive phases and a certain pressure to advance diplomatic efforts ahead of the new U.S. administration taking over.

Hopes for brokering a cease-fire in Gaza and Lebanon are foremost on the agenda of the Group of Seven meeting outside Rome that is gathering ministers from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.

On the first day of the two-day gathering Monday, the G7 will be joined by ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar, as well as the Secretary General of the Arab League.

“With partners will be discussed ways to support efforts to reach a ceasefire in Gaza and Lebanon, initiatives to support the population and the promotion of a credible political horizon for stability in the region,” the Italian foreign ministry said.

The so-called “Quint” grouping of the U.S., Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Egypt and the UAE has been working to finalize a “day after” plan for Gaza, and there is some urgency to make progress before the Trump administration takes over in January. President-elect Donald Trump is expected to pursue a policy that strongly favors Israel over the aspirations of the Palestinians.

Host Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani added another item to the G7 agenda last week after the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, his former defense minister and Hamas’ military chief.

Italy is a founding member of the court and hosted the 1998 Rome conference that gave birth to it. But Italy’s right-wing government has been a strong supporter of Israel after the Oct. 7 Hamas attacks, while also providing humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza.

The Italian government has taken a cautious line, reaffirming its support and respect for the court but expressing concern that the warrants were politically motivated.

“There can be no equivalence between the responsibilities of the state of Israel and the terrorist organization of Hamas,” Premier Giorgia Meloni said, echoing the statement from U.S. President Joe Biden.

Nathalie Tocci, director of the Rome-based Institute for International Affairs think tank, said Italy would be seeking to forge a united front on the ICC warrants, at least among the six G7 countries that are signatories of the court: everyone but the U.S.

But in an essay this weekend in La Stampa newspaper, Tocci warned it was a risky move, since the U.S. tends to dictate the G7 line and has blasted the ICC warrants against Netanyahu as “outrageous.”

“If Italy and the other (five G7) signatories of the ICC are unable to maintain the line on international law, they will not only erode it anyway, but will be acting against our interests,” Tocci wrote, recalling Italy’s recourse to international law in demanding protection for Italian U.N. peacekeepers who have come under fire in southern Lebanon.

The other major talking point of the G7 meeting is Ukraine, and tensions have only heightened since Russia attacked Ukraine last week with an experimental, hypersonic ballistic missile that escalated the nearly 33-month-old war.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha is expected at the G7 in Fiuggi on Tuesday, and NATO and Ukraine are to hold emergency talks the same day in Brussels.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said the strike was retaliation for Kyiv’s use of U.S. and British longer-range missiles capable of striking deeper into Russian territory.

The G7 has been at the forefront of providing military and economic support for Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in February 2022 and G7 members are particularly concerned about how a Trump administration will change the U.S. approach.

Trump has criticized the billions of dollars that the Biden administration has poured into Ukraine and has said he could end the war in 24 hours, comments that appear to suggest he would press Ukraine to surrender territory that Russia now occupies.

Italy is a strong supporter of Ukraine and has backed the U.S. decision to allow Ukraine to strike Russia with U.S.-made, longer-range missiles. But Italy has invoked the country’s constitutional repudiation of war in declining to provide Ukraine with offensive weaponry to strike inside Russia and limiting its aid to anti-air defense systems to protect Ukrainian civilians.

The G7 foreign ministers’ meeting, the second of the Italian presidency after ministers gathered in Capri in April, is being held in the medieval town of Fiuggi southeast of Rome, best known for its thermal spas.

On Monday, which coincides with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, ministers will attend the inauguration of a red bench meant to symbolize Italy’s focus on fighting gender-based violence.

Over the weekend, tens of thousands of people marched in Rome to protest gender-based violence, which in Italy so far this year has claimed the lives of 99 women, according to a report last week by the Eures think tank.
…

your ad here

Ukrainian officials said Monday a Russian attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv injured at least 19 people.

Oleh Syniehubov, governor of the Kharkiv region, said on Telegram that Russian forces hit a courtyard in central Kharkiv, damaging more than 40 houses.

In Ukraine’s Odesa region, Governor Oleh Kiper said a rocket attack hit the city of Odesa and that there were casualties.

Another Russian attack, in the Zaporizhzhia region, injured a child and damaged several houses, according to Governor Ivan Fedorov.

Mykolaiv Governor Vitaliy Kim said Monday on Telegram that Russian drone attacks targeted energy infrastructure and disrupted electricity services.

Ukraine’s air force said Monday it shot down 71 of more than 140 Russian drones used in the latest string of overnight attacks.

“These Russian strikes on Ukrainian lives can be stopped—with pressure, with sanctions, by blocking the occupiers’ access to the components they use to manufacture the means of this terror, by providing arms packages for Ukraine, and with a determination that must be unwavering,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.

Russia’s Defense Ministry said Monday it shot down 23 Ukrainian drones in overnight attacks.

Russian air defenses downed eight of the drones over the Kaluga region, the ministry said, along with seven over Kursk, five over Bryansk and three over Belgorod.

Officials in Kaluga said falling drone wreckage damaged an industrial facility.
…

your ad here

BUCHAREST — A Romanian hard-right NATO critic and leftist Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu appeared in dead heat after the first round of presidential elections on Sunday, partial tallies showed, in a shock result threatening Romania’s staunchly pro-Ukraine stance. 

After nearly 93% of votes were counted, Calin Georgescu, 62, was at 22%, while Ciolacu had 21%, suggesting they will likely qualify to face each other in the second round, due on Dec. 8. 

A center-right contender, Elena Lasconi, was running second, behind Georgescu, among the hundreds of thousands of voters living outside Romania, with about 50% ballots cast there counted. But that margin might not be enough to win her a spot in the final race after all votes are tallied, observers said. 

Romania’s president has a semi-executive role that gives him or her control over defense spending — likely to be a difficult issue as Bucharest comes under pressure to uphold NATO spending goals during Donald Trump’s second term as U.S. president while trying to reduce a heavy fiscal deficit. 

Some opinion polls had Georgescu running at around 5% of the vote in the run-up to the election, after barely registering in earlier polls. 

Political commentator Radu Magdin said the difference between his single-digit popularity and Sunday’s result was without precedent since Romania shed communism in 1989. 

“Never in our 34 years of democracy have we seen such a surge compared to surveys,” Magdin said. 

Campaigning focused largely on the soaring cost of living, with Romania having the EU’s biggest share of people at risk of poverty. 

Ciolacu had courted voters with a promise of generous spending and no tax hikes, despite Romania running the European Union’s largest budget deficit at 8% of economic outlook, while offering a sense of security in policy stability at a time of a war next door. 

Formerly a prominent member of the hard-right Alliance for Uniting Romanians party, Georgescu has called NATO’s ballistic missile defense shield in the Romanian town of Deveselu a “shame of diplomacy.” 

He has said the North Atlantic alliance will not protect any of its members should they be attacked by Russia. 

“We are strong and brave, many of us voted, even more will do so in the second round,” Georgescu said standing alone on Sunday evening outside a residential building near capital Bucharest. 

Lasconi, a former journalist, joined the Save Romania Union (USR) in 2018 and became party head this year. She believes in raising defense spending and helping Ukraine, and surveys suggest she would beat Ciolacu in a runoff. 

Romania shares a 650-kilometer (400-mile) border with Ukraine and since Russia attacked Kyiv in 2022, it has enabled the export of millions of tons of grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta and provided military aid, including the donation of a Patriot air defense battery. 

Villages on the border with Ukraine have seen a barrage of drones breaching national airspace although no casualties have been reported. 

One political commentator said Russian meddling to give Georgescu an edge could not be ruled out in the election. 

“Based on Georgescu’s stance towards Ukraine and the discrepancy between opinion surveys and the actual result, we cannot rule (that) out,” said Sergiu Miscoiu, a political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University. 

Outgoing two-term president Klaus Iohannis, 65, had cemented Romania’s strong pro-Western stance but was accused of not doing enough to fight corruption. 

“It will be a tight run-off, with the Social Democrat leader more vulnerable to negative campaigning due to him being an incumbent PM,” Magdin said.
…

your ad here

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is “incredibly concerned” about the escalating use of different types of weaponry in Russia’s nearly three-year war on Ukraine, his designated choice for national security adviser said Sunday.

Michael Waltz, now a Florida congressman, told “Fox News Sunday” that the decision by the outgoing administration of President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to use anti-personnel land mines to try to halt Russia’s battlefield ground troop advances has turned the fight in eastern Ukraine into something akin to “World War I trench warfare.”

Waltz said the decision “needs to be within a broader framework to end this conflict.”

“It is just an absolute meat grinder of people and personnel on that front,” he said.

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said last week the United States is sending the anti-personnel mines to Ukraine because of the changing nature of the conflict in eastern Ukraine, the main battlefield.

He said Russian ground troops, rather than forces more protected in armored carriers, are leading Moscow’s advance, so Ukraine has “a need for things that can help slow down that effort.”

Waltz said Trump, who takes office January 20, is concerned about the carnage but said that in the broad picture, the question that must be preeminent is, “How do we restore deterrence and how do we bring peace?”

“We need to, we need to bring this to a responsible end,” he added.

Trump has often claimed that he would end the Russia-Ukraine war even before he is inaugurated as the 47th U.S. president. Trump has never said how and refused to say during a campaign debate in September that he wants Ukraine to win.

Biden gave Ukraine authority to launch Washington-supplied missiles with a 300-kilometer range deep into Russia in response to North Korea’s dispatch of 10,000 troops to fight alongside Moscow’s forces. Within two days, Kyiv targeted weapons warehouses in Russia’s Bryansk region with the missiles.

Then, Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a new experimental rocket, targeting Dnipro in Ukraine’s eastern region.

“This is a clear escalation,” Waltz said. “Where is this escalation going? How do we get both sides to the table” for peace negotiations?

Waltz, whose appointment does not require Senate confirmation, said he has been meeting with Jake Sullivan, Biden’s national security adviser. Waltz said that any U.S. adversary “is wrong” if it thinks it can “play one side off against the other” with the switch in power in Washington from Biden, a Democrat, and his long-time political foe, Trump, a Republican.

Waltz said he is “confident” Trump will restore peace “in pretty short order” in the multiple conflicts in the Middle East involving Israel fighting Iran-funded militants — Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

But months of cease-fire talks on the conflict in Gaza are stalemated and talks to reach a halt in the Hezbollah-Israel fighting have yet to produce a deal.
…

your ad here

KYIV — Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a law granting debt forgiveness to new army recruits who enlist to fight in Ukraine.

The measure, whose final version appeared on a government website Saturday, underscores Russia’s needs for military personnel in the nearly 3-year war, even as it fired last week a new intermediate-range ballistic missile.

According to Russian state news agency Interfax, the new legislation allows those signing up for a one-year contract to write off bad debts of up to 10 million rubles ($96,000). The law applies to debts for which a court order for collection was issued and enforcement proceedings had commenced before Dec. 1, 2024. It also applies to the spouses of new recruits.

Russia has ramped up military recruitment by offering increasing financial incentives, in some cases several times the average salary, to those willing to fight in Ukraine.

The strategy has allowed the military to boost its ranks in the conflict zone while avoiding another mobilization order. A “partial mobilization” in September 2022 sparked an exodus of tens of thousands of Russian men, who fled the country to avoid enlistment.

The intense and drawn-out war has strained Russian resources. Putin in September called for the military to increase its troops by 180,000.

The U.S., South Korea and Ukraine say North Korea sent more than 10,000 troops to Russia in October, some of whom have recently begun engaging in combat on the front lines, piling more pressure on Ukraine’s also weary and overstretched army.

AP sees wreckage of Russia’s new experimental missile

The push for recruits coincides with the firing of a new intermediate-range ballistic missile at Ukraine on Thursday. Putin said it was in response to Kyiv’s use of American and British missiles capable of striking deeper into Russia.

Ukraine’s Security Service showed The Associated Press on Sunday wreckage of the new experimental ballistic missile, which struck a factory in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro.

The fragments of the missile called Oreshnik -– Russian for hazel tree, and which the Pentagon said is based on Russia’s RS-26 Rubezh intercontinental ballistic missile -– have not been analyzed yet, according to security officials on site in an undisclosed location in Ukraine. The AP and other media were able to see the fragments before they were taken by investigators.

Charred, mangled wires and an ashy airframe the size of a large snow tire was all that remained of the weapon, which can carry either conventional or nuclear warheads.

“It should be noted that this is the first time that the remains of such a missile have been discovered on the territory of Ukraine,” said an expert with Ukraine’s Security Service, who identified himself only by his first name Oleh because he wasn’t authorized to discuss the issue with the media.

Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate said the missile was fired from the 4th Missile Test Range, Kapustin Yar, in Russia’s Astrakhan region and flew for 15 minutes before striking Dnipro. The missile had six warheads, each carrying six submunitions. The peak speed was 11 Mach.

U.S. needs to “get ahead” of escalation, says incoming national security adviser

In light of the missile strike, U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s incoming national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said Sunday that the incoming administration wants “to get both sides to the table” and is concerned about escalation.

Waltz made clear on “Fox News Sunday” that he has met with Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, to discuss U.S. policy and options in Ukraine, and the Florida congressman assured that those conversations will continue.

“For our adversaries out there that think this is a time of opportunity, that they can play one administration off the other, they’re wrong,” Waltz said. “We are hand in glove. We are one team with the United States in this transition.”

Waltz seemed to endorsed Biden’s decision to send antipersonnel mines for Ukraine forces to use in the conflict. “It is a step towards somewhat solidifying the lines, and we also needed to stop Russian gains,” Waltz said.

The congressman also emphasized Trump’s desire for the conflict to end quickly. Trump, who has praised Putin over the years, avoided throughout the campaign setting conditions for an end to the conflict, suggesting he would be open to considerable annexations of Ukraine. Waltz avoided discussing any terms Trump might pursue once he takes office.

“The president-elect has been very concerned about the escalation and where it’s all going,” Waltz said. “We need to bring this to a responsible end. We need to restore deterrence, restore peace and get ahead of this escalation ladder, rather than responding to it.”

In other developments:

— Moscow sent 73 drones into Ukraine overnight into Sunday. According to Ukraine’s air force, 50 drones were destroyed and four lost, likely having been electronically jammed.

— Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Sunday that Russian forces over the past week had struck Ukraine with more than 800 guided aerial bombs, about 460 attack drones and more than 20 missiles.

— In Russia, the Defense Ministry said that 34 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight into Sunday in four regions of western Russia, including Kursk, Lipetsk, Belgorod and one over the Oryol region.
…

your ad here

DUBAI, UNITED ARAB EMIRATES — Iran said on Sunday that it would hold nuclear talks in the coming days with the three European countries that initiated a censure resolution against it adopted by the U.N.’s atomic watchdog. 

Foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said the meeting of the deputy foreign ministers of Iran, France, Germany and the United Kingdom would take place on Friday, without specifying a venue. 

“A range of regional and international issues and topics, including the issues of Palestine and Lebanon, as well as the nuclear issue, will be discussed,” the spokesman said in a foreign ministry statement. 

Baghaei described the coming meeting as a continuation of talks held with the countries in September on the sidelines of the annual session of the U.N. General Assembly in New York. 

On Thursday, the 35-nation board of governors of the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency adopted a resolution denouncing Iran for what it called a lack of cooperation. 

The move came as tensions ran high over Iran’s atomic program, which critics fear is aimed at developing a nuclear weapon — something Tehran has repeatedly denied. 

It also came after IAEA head Rafael Grossi returned from a trip to Tehran, where he appeared to have made headway.  

During the visit, Iran agreed to an IAEA demand to cap its sensitive stock of near weapons-grade uranium enriched up to 60 percent purity. 

In response to the resolution, Iran announced it was launching a “series of new and advanced centrifuges.” 

Centrifuges enrich uranium transformed into gas by rotating it at very high speed, increasing the proportion of fissile isotope material (U-235). 

“We will substantially increase the enrichment capacity with the utilization of different types of advanced machines,” Behrouz Kamalvandi, Iran’s atomic energy organization spokesman, told state TV. 

The country, however, also said it planned to continue its “technical and safeguards cooperation with the IAEA.”  

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, in power since July and a supporter of dialogue with Western countries, has said he wants to remove “doubts and ambiguities” about his country’s nuclear program.  

In 2015, Iran and world powers reached an agreement that saw the easing of international sanctions on Tehran in exchange for curbs on its nuclear program. 

But the United States unilaterally withdrew from the accord in 2018 under then-President Donald Trump and reimposed biting economic sanctions, which prompted Iran to begin rolling back on its own commitments. 

Tehran has since 2021 decreased its cooperation with the IAEA by deactivating surveillance devices monitoring the nuclear program and barring U.N. inspectors.  

At the same time, it has increased its stockpiles of enriched uranium and the level of enrichment to 60 percent.  

That level is close, according to the IAEA, to the 90 percent-plus threshold required for a nuclear warhead, and substantially higher than the 3.67 percent limit it agreed to in 2015. 

 
…

your ad here

paris — When Jean-Charles de Castelbajac watched as Notre Dame cathedral burned in April 2019, he felt compelled to act. 

Returning home, the French fashion designer began sketching ideas, imagining the monument’s reconstruction. 

So, when the Paris Archbishop’s emissary approached him to design the liturgical garments for the cathedral’s reopening next month, Castelbajac — a believer with personal roots with the church — felt the moment transcended mere coincidence. 

“It’s bigger than a job. It’s a bit mysterious … mysterious,” Castelbajac said, his eyes brimming with wonder as he previewed some of the 2,000 colorful pieces for 700 celebrants at his Paris home. “It’s a calling. To be called like that is synchronicity.” 

This duty, as he calls it, led to a collection of work crafted in collaboration with the esteemed artisans of 19M studio. The garments, often in thick off-white Scottish wool gabardine, blend his signature eye-popping pop-art aesthetic with a reverence for the cathedral’s centuries-old legacy with medieval touches.

The unorthodox designs are fun, modern — and perhaps shockingly minimalist. 

They undoubtedly break with the richly embellished styles associated with the cathedral’s near-900-year-old liturgical garb. At their center is a large gold cross, accented by debris fragments of vivid color-blocked red, blue, yellow, and green velvet. 

“It’s something that is exploded that reconstructs itself,” Castelbajac said, likening the dissipated shards coming together to the cathedral’s own rebirth. 

The commission was not subject to an open call. Instead, Castelbajac was handpicked by the Catholic leadership, due to his history of designing for the church. 

In 1997, he created the rainbow-colored robes worn by Pope John Paul II for World Youth Day in Paris, garments later enshrined in Notre Dame’s treasury as a relic. That connection carried a special weight during the fire. 

“As I watched the fire, I was thinking, ‘Are the relics burning? Are the relics safe?’ So my link was not just material. It’s really a strong spiritual link,” he said. 

For Castelbajac, 74, the memory of those two hours in 2019 spent watching the fire with his wife amid people praying on their knees still evokes both grief and determination. 

“It was not Notre Dame burning. It was hope burning. It was spirituality burning. It was such an intense moment … I was thinking, what can I do?” he said. 

The vestments, which will be worn in liturgies permanently — forever, as Castelbajac put it — carry a sense of continuity with his past work. The designs are a variation on the pontiff’s robes, infused with Castelbajac’s signature aesthetic: bright, almost childlike hues that evoke optimism. 

Color defines career

Castelbajac’s fascination with color began as a child in a military boarding school in Normandy, an experience he recalled as stifling and gray. “It was the absolute loneliness. It was colorless,” he said. 

For the young boy, color became a lifeline. 

“Color was like my teddy bear, my transitional element in a world of conflict. Each morning, there was the stained glass in the church and the coats of arms in the refectory that filled my world with primary colors,” he explained. 

This obsession would define his career, earning him a reputation as a provocateur in the fashion world. 

Castelbajac’s creations have dressed pop culture royalty for decades: Madonna in her teddy bear coat, Beyonce in sequins, Rihanna in a Donald Duck costume. Collaborating with Andy Warhol, Keith Haring, and Jean-Michel Basquiat, he fused art and fashion into a playground of exuberance. 

Cathedral’s vestments reflect hope

While his designs have graced runways and music icons, Castelbajac’s work for Notre Dame strikes a different, more personal chord. 

The playful vestments might raise eyebrows among traditional Catholics, but he has no doubt about the faith Notre Dame’s leadership placed in him. “Maybe I have the trust of the archbishop,” he mused, reflecting on the “carte blanche” he said he received for his designs. 

This combination produced a modern-looking body of work that reflects the unity, hope, and rebirth symbolized by Notre Dame itself—just like the phoenix-like rooster gleaming like fire atop the newly constructed spire. 

When the cathedral reopens on the weekend of December 7-8, Castelbajac hopes the vestments will be viewed by the world as a testament to renewal and the “power of color” to heal and inspire. 
…

your ad here

NEW YORK — The brooding waltz was carefully composed on a sheet of music roughly the size of an index card. The brief, moody number also bore an intriguing name, written at the top in cursive: “Chopin.”

A previously unknown work of music penned by the European master Frederic Chopin appears to have been found at the Morgan Library & Museum in Manhattan.

The untitled and unsigned piece is on display this month at the opulently appointed institution, which had once been the private library of financier J. P. Morgan.

Robinson McClellan, the museum curator who uncovered the manuscript, said it’s the first new work associated with the Romantic era composer to be discovered in nearly a century.

But McClellan concedes that it may never be known whether it is an original Chopin work or merely one written in his hand.

The piece, set in the key of A minor, stands out for its “very stormy, brooding opening section” before transitioning to a melancholy melody more characteristic of Chopin, McClellan explained.

“This is his style. This is his essence,” he said during a recent visit to the museum. “It really feels like him.”

Curator finds composition in collection

McClellan said he came across the work in May as he was going through a collection from the late Arthur Satz, a former president of the New York School of Interior Design. Satz had acquired it from A. Sherrill Whiton Jr., an avid autograph collector who had been director of the school.

McClellan then worked with experts to verify its authenticity.

The paper was found to be consistent with what Chopin favored for manuscripts, and the ink matched a kind typical in the early 19th century when Chopin lived, according to the museum. But a handwriting analysis determined the name “Chopin” written at the top of the sheet was penned by someone else.

Born in Poland, Chopin was considered a musical genius from an early age. He lived in Warsaw and Vienna before settling in Paris, where he died in 1849 at the age of 39, likely of tuberculosis.

He’s buried among a pantheon of artists at the city’s famed Pere Lachaise Cemetery, but his heart, pickled in a jar of alcohol, is housed in a church in Warsaw, in keeping with his deathbed wish for the organ to return to his homeland.

Artur Szklener, director of the Fryderyk Chopin Institute in Warsaw, the Polish capital city where the composer grew up, agreed that the document is consistent with the kinds of ink and paper Chopin used during his early years in Paris.

Chopin expert calls piece ‘little gem’

Musically, the piece evokes the “brilliant style” that made Chopin a luminary in his time, but it also has features unusual for his compositions, Szklener said.

“First of all, it is not a complete work, but rather a certain musical gesture, a theme laced with rather simple piano tricks alluding to a virtuoso style,” Szklener explained in a lengthy statement released after the document was revealed last month.

He and other experts conjecture the piece could have been a work in progress. It may have also been a copy of another’s work, or even co-written with someone else, perhaps a student for a musical exercise.

Jeffrey Kallberg, a University of Pennsylvania music professor and Chopin expert who helped authenticate the document, called the piece a “little gem” that Chopin likely intended as a gift for a friend or wealthy acquaintance.

“Many of the pieces that he gave as gifts were short – kind of like ‘appetizers’ to a full-blown work,” Kallberg said in an email. “And we don’t know for sure whether he intended the piece to see the light of day because he often wrote out the same waltz more than once as a gift.”

David Ludwig, dean of music at The Juilliard School, a performing arts conservatory in Manhattan, agreed the piece has many of the hallmarks of the composer’s style.

“It has the Chopin character of something very lyrical and it has a little bit of darkness as well,” said Ludwig, who was not involved in authenticating the document.

But Ludwig noted that, if it’s authentic, the tightly composed score would be one of Chopin’s shortest known pieces. The waltz clocks in at under a minute long when played on piano, as many of Chopin’s works were intended.

“In terms of the authenticity of it, in a way it doesn’t matter because it sparks our imaginations,” Ludwig said. “A discovery like this highlights the fact that classical music is very much a living art form.”

The Chopin reveal comes after the Leipzig Municipal Libraries in Germany announced in September that it had uncovered a previously unknown piece likely composed by a young Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart in its collections.
…

your ad here

BUCHAREST — Romanians vote on Sunday in the first round of a presidential election that may give a shot at victory to hard-right politician George Simion, who opposes military aid to Ukraine, admires Donald Trump and wants to emulate Giorgia Meloni’s Italy.

Outgoing two-term president Klaus Iohannis, 65, had cemented Romania’s strong pro-western stance but was accused of not doing enough to fight corruption.

Voting starts at 0500 GMT and ends at 1900 GMT with exit polls to follow immediately. The second round is scheduled for December 8 while a parliamentary election is also due next Sunday.

Voting by Romanians abroad, who can influence the result and where Simion is popular, began on Friday. Simion voted in Rome.

Opinion surveys show leftist Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu, 56, leader of Romania’s largest party, the Social Democrats, will make it into the run-off vote with Simion, 38, of the Alliance for Uniting Romanians the likely runner-up.

Analysts expect Ciolacu to win the second round against Simion, appealing to moderates and touting his experience running Romania during a war next door, but do not rule out a switch-up amid frustration with the high cost of living.

They also say the prospects of a Ciolacu-Simion run-off vote could mobilize center-right voters in favor of Elena Lasconi, leader of center-right opposition Save Romania Union.

Simion has cast the election as a choice between an entrenched political class beholden to foreign interests in Brussels and himself, an outsider who will defend Romania’s economy and sovereignty. Romania has the EU’s largest share of people at risk of poverty.

“We take as a model the right-wing government formed in Italy,” Simion told foreign media earlier this week.

Since Russia attacked Ukraine in 2022, Romania has enabled the export of millions of tons of grain through its Black Sea port of Constanta and provided military aid, including the donation of a Patriot air defense battery.

“Romania has been for Ukraine unconditionally and it will remain so,” Ciolacu told television channel Antena3.

Senate speaker Nicolae Ciuca, leader of the Liberal Party that is currently in a strained ruling coalition with Ciolacu’s party was trailing behind Lasconi, surveys showed.

“The outcome is still very difficult to predict due to the high concentration of candidates and the splitting of the center-right vote,” said Sergiu Miscoiu, a political science professor at Babes-Bolyai University.

Most candidates, he said, have campaigned on conservative messages such as protecting family values.

“Mainstream party candidates have a very catch-all message, on the one hand the nation, the army, religion and so on. On the other hand, we see a commitment to Europe, although it is seen more as a revenue source than an inspiration for values.”

Romania’s president, limited to two five-year terms, has a semi-executive role which includes heading the armed forces and chairing the supreme defense council that decides on military aid.

The president represents the country at EU and NATO summits and appoints the prime minister, chief judges, prosecutors and secret service heads. 
…

your ad here

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN — United Nations climate talks adopted a deal to inject at least $300 billion annually in humanity’s fight against climate change, aimed at helping poor nations cope with the ravages of global warming in tense negotiations in the city where industry first tapped oil.

The $300 billion will go to developing countries who need the cash to wean themselves off the coal, oil and gas that causes the globe to overheat, adapt to future warming, and pay for the damage caused by climate change’s extreme weather. It’s not near the full amount of $1.3 trillion that developing countries were asking for, but it’s three times a deal of $100 billion a year from 2009 that is expiring. Some delegations said this deal is headed in the right direction, with hopes that more money flows in the future.

It was not quite the agreement by consensus that these meetings usually operate with and developing nations were livid about being ignored.

COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev gaveled the deal into acceptance before any nation had a chance to speak.

When they did, they blasted him for being unfair to them, the deal for not being enough, and the world’s rich nations for being too stingy.

“It’s a paltry sum,” India negotiator Chandni Raina said, repeatedly saying how India objected to rousing cheers. “I’m sorry to say we cannot accept it.”

She told The Associated Press that she has lost faith in the United Nations system.

Nations express discontent

A long line of nations agreed with India and piled on, with Nigeria’s Nkiruka Maduekwe, CEO of the National Council on Climate Change, calling the deal an insult and a joke.

“I’m disappointed. It’s definitely below the benchmark that we have been fighting for for so long,” said Juan Carlos Monterrey, of the Panama delegation. He noted that a few changes, including the inclusion of the words “at least” before the number $300 billion and an opportunity for revision by 2030, helped push them to the finish line.

“Our heart goes out to all those nations that feel like they were walked over,” he said.

The final package pushed through “does not speak or reflect or inspire confidence and trust that we will come out of this grave problem of climate change,” India’s Raina said.

“We absolutely object to the unfair means followed for adoption,” Raina said. “We are extremely hurt by this action by the president and the secretariat.”

Speaking for nearly 50 of the poorest nations of the world, Evans Davie Njewa of Malawi was more mild, expressing what he called reservations with the deal.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in a post on X that he hoped for a “more ambitious outcome.” But he said the agreement “provides a base on which to build.”

Some see deal as relief

There were somewhat satisfied parties, with European Union’s Wopke Hoekstra calling it a new era of climate funding, working hard to help the most vulnerable. But activists in the plenary hall could be heard coughing over Hoekstra’s speech in an attempt to disrupt it.

Eamon Ryan, Ireland’s environment minister, called the agreement “a huge relief.”

“It was not certain. This was tough,” he said. “Because it’s a time of division, of war, of (a) multilateral system having real difficulties, the fact that we could get it through in these difficult circumstances is really important.”

U.N. Climate Change’s Executive Secretary Simon Stiell called the deal an “insurance policy for humanity,” adding that like insurance, “it only works if the premiums are paid in full, and on time.”

The deal is seen as a step toward helping countries on the receiving end create more ambitious targets to limit or cut emissions of heat-trapping gases that are due early next year. It’s part of the plan to keep cutting pollution with new targets every five years, which the world agreed to at the U.N. talks in Paris in 2015.

The Paris agreement set the system of regular ratcheting up climate fighting ambition as away to keep warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. The world is already at 1.3 degrees Celsius and carbon emissions keep rising.

Hope more cash will follow

Countries also anticipate that this deal will send signals that help drive funding from other sources, like multilateral development banks and private sources. That was always part of the discussion at these talks — rich countries didn’t think it was realistic to only rely on public funding sources — but poor countries worried that if the money came in loans instead of grants, it would send them sliding further backward into debt that they already struggle with.

“The $300 billion goal is not enough, but is an important down payment toward a safer, more equitable future,” said World Resources Institute President Ani Dasgupta. “This deal gets us off the starting block. Now the race is on to raise much more climate finance from a range of public and private sources, putting the whole financial system to work behind developing countries’ transitions.”

And even though it’s far from the needed $1.3 trillion, it’s more than the $250 billion that was on the table in an earlier draft of the text, which outraged many countries and led to a period of frustration and stalling over the final hours of the summit.

Other deals agreed at COP29

The several different texts adopted early Sunday morning included a vague but not specific reference to last year’s Global Stocktake approved in Dubai. Last year there was a battle about first-of-its-kind language on getting rid of the oil, coal and natural gas, but instead it called for a transition away from fossil fuels. The latest talks only referred to the Dubai deal, but did not explicitly repeat the call for a transition away from fossil fuels.

Countries also agreed on the adoption of Article 6, creating markets to trade carbon pollution rights, an idea that was set up as part of the Paris Agreement to help nations work together to reduce climate-causing pollution. Part of that was a system of carbon credits, allowing nations to put planet-warming gasses in the air if they offset emissions elsewhere. Backers said a U.N.-backed market could generate up to an additional $250 billion a year in climate financial aid.

Despite its approval, carbon markets remain a contentious plan because many experts say the new rules adopted don’t prevent misuse, don’t work and give big polluters an excuse to continue spewing emissions.

“What they’ve done essentially is undermine the mandate to try to reach 1.5,” said Tamara Gilbertson, climate justice program coordinator with the Indigenous Environmental Network. Greenpeace’s An Lambrechts, called it a “climate scam” with many loopholes.

With this deal wrapped up as crews dismantle the temporary venue, many have eyes on next year’s climate talks in Belem, Brazil.
…

your ad here

BAKU, AZERBAIJAN — Wealthy countries raised their offer of climate finance to $300 billion a year at COP29 on Saturday, raising hopes of a deal with developing nations that had dismissed an earlier proposal as insufficient to address the impacts of global warming. 

The United Nations climate summit had been scheduled to finish on Friday but ran into an extra day as negotiators from nearly 200 countries — who must adopt the deal by consensus — tried to reach agreement on the contentious funding plan for the next decade. 

The two-week conference cut to the heart of the global debate over the financial responsibility of rich industrialized countries, whose historical use of fossil fuels caused the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions, to compensate for the damage wrought by climate change. 

Negotiators from several developing countries and island nations aired frustration over a U.N. process they said was not rising to the challenge of global warming and temporarily walked out of talks on Saturday afternoon. 

It was unclear if they would ultimately accept the proposed figure of $300 billion a year by 2035. 

Fiji’s Deputy Prime Minister Biman Prasad said he was optimistic. “When it comes to money it’s always controversial, but we are expecting a deal tonight,” he told Reuters. 

COP29 President Mukhtar Babayev asked country delegations to overcome their differences: “I ask you to now step up your engagement with one another to bridge the remaining divide,” he said in a plenary speech. 

Developing countries had dismissed as insufficient a previous proposal, drafted by the Azerbaijan host on Friday, that would have seen the United States, Europe and other developed countries lead $250 billion in annual funding. 

Past failures to meet climate finance obligations have also made developing countries mistrustful of new promises. 

Five sources with knowledge of the closed-door discussions said the EU had agreed it could accept the higher number of $300 billion a year. Two of the sources said the United States, Australia and Britain also were on board. 

A European Commission spokesperson and an Australian government spokesperson both declined to comment on the negotiations. The U.S. delegation and the UK energy ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

The new goal is intended to replace developed countries’ previous commitment to provide $100 billion in climate finance for poorer nations per year by 2020. That goal was met two years late, in 2022, and expires in 2025. 

Representatives from the least developed countries and small island nations blocs walked out of a negotiating room in frustration at one point on Saturday afternoon, but said they remained committed to finding a deal. 

“We want nothing more than to continue to engage, but the process must be inclusive,” the Alliance of Small Island States said in a statement. 

In a sign of some progress, countries agreed Saturday evening on rules for a global market to buy and sell carbon credits that proponents say will mobilize billions of dollars into new projects to help fight global warming.  

Push for $390 billion

Marina Silva, Brazil’s minister of the environment and climate change, has said that the Amazon rainforest nation — which is set to host next year’s summit — was pushing for $390 billion annually from developed countries by 2035. 

“After the difficult experience that we’re having here in Baku, we need to reach some result, some outcome which is minimally acceptable in line with the emergency we are facing,” she said on Saturday in a speech to the summit. 

Negotiators have worked throughout the two-week summit to address other critical questions on the finance target, including who is asked to contribute and how much of the funding is on a grant basis, rather than provided as loans. 

The roster of countries required to contribute — about two dozen industrialized countries, including the U.S., European nations and Canada — dates back to a list decided during U.N. climate talks in 1992. 

European governments have demanded others join them in paying in, including China, the world’s second-biggest economy, and oil-rich Gulf states. 

Donald Trump’s U.S. presidential election victory this month cast a cloud over the Baku talks. Trump, who takes office in January, has promised to again remove the U.S. from international climate cooperation, so negotiators from other wealthy nations expect that under his administration the world’s largest economy will not pay into the climate finance goal. 

A broader goal of raising $1.3 trillion in climate finance annually by 2035 — which would include funding from all public and private sources and which economists say matches the sum needed — was included in the draft deal published on Friday. 
…

your ad here

Business owners in the Ukrainian city of Khmelnytskyi wanted to find a way to say thank you to the thousands of members of the military who have spent years fighting Russia’s invasion. Over 60 businesses joined to start the “Khmelnytskyi Grateful” platform. Tetiana Kukurika has the story, narrated by Anna Rice. Camera: Sergiy Rybchynski
…

your ad here

KYIV, UKRAINE — Ukraine has lost more than 40% of the territory in Russia’s Kursk region that it rapidly seized in a surprise incursion in August as Russian forces have mounted waves of counterassaults, a senior Ukrainian military source said.

The source, who is on Ukraine’s General Staff, said Russia had deployed some 59,000 troops to the Kursk region since Kyiv’s forces swept in and advanced swiftly, catching Moscow unprepared 2½ years into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“At most, we controlled about 1,376 square kilometers; now, of course, this territory is smaller. The enemy is increasing its counterattacks,” the source said. “Now we control approximately 800 square kilometers. We will hold this territory for as long as is militarily appropriate.”

The Kursk offensive was the first ground invasion of Russia by a foreign power since World War II and caught Moscow unprepared.

With the thrust into Kursk, Kyiv aimed to stem Russian attacks in eastern and northeastern Ukraine, force Russia to pull back forces gradually advancing in the east and give Kyiv extra leverage in any peace negotiations.

But Russian forces are still steadily advancing in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region.

The Ukrainian General Staff source reiterated that about 11,000 North Korean troops had arrived in the Kursk region in support of Russia, but that the bulk of their forces was still finalizing their training.

The Russian Defense Ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment on Kyiv’s freshest assessment of the state of play in the Kursk region. Reuters could not independently verify the figures or descriptions given. Moscow has neither confirmed nor denied the presence of North Korean forces in Kursk.

Ukraine’s armed forces chief said on November 11 that its beleaguered forces were not just battling crack Russian reinforcements in Kursk but also scrambling to reinforce two besieged fronts in eastern Ukraine and bracing for an infantry assault in the south.

Threatening Russian advance

The General Staff source said the Kurakhove region was the most threatening for Kyiv now as Russian forces were advancing there at 200 to 300 meters a day and had managed to break through in some areas with armored vehicles backed by anti-drone defenses.

The town of Kurakhove is a stepping stone toward the critical logistical hub of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region. Overall Russia has about 575,000 troops fighting in Ukraine, the Ukrainian General Staff source said, and is aiming to increase its forces up to around 690,000.

Russia does not disclose numbers involved in its fighting, and Reuters could not independently verify those figures.

Ukraine’s strategy

As Ukraine fights a bigger and better-equipped enemy, Kyiv has sought to disrupt Russian logistics and supply chains by hitting Russian weapons and ammunition depots, airfields and other military targets well inside Russia.

Ukraine gained a freer hand to do so earlier this month after, according to sources familiar with the matter, U.S. President Joe Biden dropped his opposition to Kyiv firing U.S.-supplied missiles at targets deep inside Russia in response to North Korea’s entry into the war.

Last week Ukraine fired U.S. ATACMS and British Storm Shadow cruise missiles into Russia. One of the ATACMS targets was an arms depot about 110 kilometers inside Russia.

Moscow vowed to respond to what it sees as an escalation by Ukraine’s Western supporters. On Thursday, Russia launched a new medium-range ballistic missile into the Ukrainian city of Dnipro, in a likely warning to NATO.

Ukrainian officials are holding talks with the United States and Britain regarding new air defense systems capable of protecting Ukrainian cities and civilians from the new longer-range aerial threats.

The Ukrainian General Staff source said the military had also implemented measures to bolster air defenses over the capital, Kyiv, and planned similar steps for the city of Sumy in the north and Kharkiv in the northeast, both near front lines.

Russia now occupies a fifth of Ukraine, and President Vladimir Putin has said he wants Kyiv to drop ambitions to join the NATO military alliance and retreat from four Ukrainian regions that he partially holds, demands Kyiv has rejected as tantamount to capitulation.
…

your ad here