Month: November 2023

November 6 is the International Day for the Prevention of Environmental Exploitation in War and Armed Conflict. According to the Ukrainian prosecutor-general, the environmental damage of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine totals roughly $56 billion, with destruction of the Kakhovka Dam as one of the worst disasters. Lesia Bakalets reports on how Ukrainian eco-activists and law enforcement gather information on eco-crimes. Videographer: Daniil Batushchak …

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Two climate change protesters were arrested Monday after they smashed a protective glass panel covering a famous Diego Velazquez oil painting at London’s National Gallery, police said Monday. The two activists from the group Just Stop Oil targeted Velazquez’s “The Toilet of Venus,” also known as “The Rokeby Venus,” with small hammers. Photos showed the protective glass panel punctured with several holes. Just Stop Oil, which has previously led similar protests targeting famous artworks and public buildings, said Monday’s action was to demand Britain’s government immediately halt all licensing for the exploration, development and production of fossil fuels in the …

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 The conflict in Gaza, rather than the war in Ukraine, dominated a fiery press conference in Pretoria following a meeting between Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba and his South African counterpart Naledi Pandor. It was Kuleba’s first visit to South Africa, as he tries to shore up support for Kyiv on a continent where Moscow holds considerable influence. Pretoria has officially remained neutral on the Ukraine war, but critics, including U.S. officials, have accused the South African government of essentially siding with Moscow. South African Foreign Minister Pandor expressed her desire to see a peaceful, negotiated end to the war …

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Security alerts ramped up following Islamists attacks in France and Belgium, following a pair of Islamist attacks. A spike in anti-Jewish acts and a string of bomb alerts. Once again, some European countries are seeing the spillover of another conflict in the Middle East, a month into the Israel-Hamas war. But there are clear differences between the nature and potential ramifications of today’s security threat and that of nearly a decade ago — when the Islamic State, which controlled large swathes of Iraq and Syria, spawned terrorist attacks that killed hundreds in Europe, officials and analysts say. If the Israel-Hamas …

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Polish President Andrzej Duda will appoint a new prime minister in a national address on Monday, an aide said. The announcement will trigger the process of forming a new government after general elections last month in which the ruling right-wing Law and Justice party lost its parliamentary majority to three allied opposition parties but emerged as the single biggest vote-getter. This has fed speculation over Duda’s choice. “Following consultations and after deep consideration, President Andrzej Duda has taken his decision regarding the so-called first step” [in forming a government], presidential aide Marcin Mastalerek said on X, formerly known as Twitter. …

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Russia’s war on Ukraine is the driving force behind continued high inflation and a decline in social services in Russa, according to the latest intelligence report from Britain’s ministry of defense.  Inflation rose to six percent in Russia in September, the ministry said Monday, driven by the rising cost of basic consumer items, like food and fuel.  The report also found that inflation will likely impact government spending on social services, a move the ministry said “further illustrates the reorientation of Russia’s economy to fuel the war above all else.” The high inflation rate will also likely influence borrowing costs …

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Ukraine said Sunday it had opened a criminal investigation after a Russian missile strike killed multiple soldiers during what media reports said was an “award ceremony” near the frontline this week. At least 20 soldiers were reported to have been killed in the attack, which local media said took place on Friday as a brigade gathered to receive awards in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region. “This is a tragedy that could have been avoided,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in an evening address Sunday. “A criminal investigation has been registered into the tragedy,” he added. AFP was not able to immediately …

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A German citizen abducted in Dubai and sentenced to death by Iran is almost unable to walk and talk because of health conditions that prison authorities have failed to properly treat, his daughter told AFP. Jamshid Sharmahd, who is also a U.S. resident, suffers from Parkinson’s disease and could die because of his deteriorating health, Gazelle Sharmahd told AFP after her father last week made a rare phone call from prison to the family. Sharmahd, 68, was kidnapped in the United Arab Emirates and forcibly transferred to Iran in the summer of 2020, according to the U.N. Working Group on …

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