MOSCOW — Russian forces have captured the villages of Makarivka and Hryhorivka in Ukraine’s Donetsk region, Russia’s Defense Ministry said on Saturday.
Makarivka is located to the south of Velyka Novosilka while Hryhorivka, which Moscow calls by its previous name of Leninskoye, is situated to the west of the town of Selydove, captured by Russia last month.
Reuters could not independently verify developments on the battlefield in the Russia-Ukraine conflict.
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CHIPINGE, Zimbabwe — Gertrude Siduna appears to have little appetite for corn farming season.
Rather than prepare her land in Zimbabwe’s arid southeastern Chipinge district for the crop that has fed her family for generations — and bitter about repeated droughts that have decimated yields — she turns her thoughts to the prices for chilies and techniques for growing them.
“I pick my chilies from the fields and take them to the processing center close to my home. It’s simple,” said Siduna, 49. She’s received about $400 from the drought-resistant crop and plans to grow more. “Chilies are far better than corn.”
Siduna has been growing chilies for a year since being trained under a climate-smart agriculture program funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development. The program was designed to strengthen small-scale farmers’ resilience to climate change-induced droughts, many requiring food assistance from the government or international donors.
But as climate change worsens droughts and floods worldwide, government agencies and local operators have found that aid efforts can still be made more effective and financially sustainable.
Experts say rich nations like the United States, which have been the biggest contributors of planet-warming emissions historically, have a responsibility to fund humanitarian aid in the countries that are experiencing its effects first and most severely.
The U.S. is the world’s largest international donor of food aid, reaching over 60 million people in about 70 countries annually with direct contributions of food or via programs to help farmers adapt to extreme weather. USAID plans to mobilize $150 billion for climate-related initiatives, according to the agency’s climate strategy report.
In Zimbabwe, around 7.7 million people — almost half the country’s population — require food assistance, according to government and U.N. figures. Frequent droughts are decimating people’s ability to feed themselves, a phenomenon worsened by climate change.
Switching crops
Water-guzzling white corn has been the staple crop of choice for rural farmers in Zimbabwe since its introduction to much of sub-Saharan Africa by the Portuguese in the 17th century.
But with the threat of drought, some, like Siduna, now think it may be better to buy the staple than grow it.
“I don’t lack corn meal. I just use my earnings from chilies to buy it from the local shops,” she said.
Unlike corn or other crops that she has typically grown, chilies do well in the hotter, drier conditions. And, because they end up in stores in the United States, they offer cash rewards.
“You have to continuously pray for the rain if you grow corn,” said the mother of three. “The crop just can’t stand heat. But chilies can. One is assured of a harvest, and the market is readily available.”
Other crops such as millets, which are cereals tolerant of poor soils, drought and harsh growing conditions, are also gaining traction under climate resilience programs.
In Chiredzi, southeast Zimbabwe, Kenias Chikamhi, 54, describes growing corn as “a gamble … whereas with millets you have a good chance of at least getting something.” Millet was the country’s staple before the introduction of maize.
But not all the corn is gone yet. Zimbabwe’s agriculture ministry says it plans to increase land under maize to 1.8 million hectares (4.4 million acres) by using farming techniques such as digging holes into dry land and mulching to cover the growing crops as well as by planting drought-resilient varieties that can better cope with the lack of rain.
The country harvested about 700,000 tons of corn this year, 70% down from the season before and far short of the 2 million tons required annually for humans and livestock.
Solar-powered irrigation
Farming techniques are also changing.
Another of USAID’s initiatives has seen a community garden in Mutandahwe village, where Siduna lives, irrigated by three small solar panels. The panels pump water from a borehole into storage tanks that are connected to the garden taps by pipes, turning the 1-hectare plot of vegetables like onions, leaf cabbage and cowpeas into an island of lush green.
Solar-powered community gardens have been spreading across the district and much of the country’s dry areas.
“We were struggling walking long distances to fetch water from rivers, and right now the rivers are dry,” said Muchaneta Mutowa, secretary of the plot. The plot is shared by 60 members, all growing vegetables they can eat and sell.
“We now have easy access to reliable water that flows from the taps [and] we don’t pay for the sun,” she said. And money from the sale of vegetables goes a long way to pay for family basics such as school fees.
Members pay a dollar each into a savings pot that can be used for low-interest loans or minor repair expenses “so that we are not always reliant on the donor,” said Mutohwa.
Increasing effectiveness
Because USAID’s investments can be so consequential for receiving countries, it’s important they’re done right, said Lora Iannotti, a professor who studies global maternal and youth nutrition at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis.
Richer countries like the U.S. have tended to use direct donations of surplus staple and commodity crops like corn and wheat as a way to benefit their own farmers, according to Iannotti’s research.
Iannotti has seen advances in food aid with dietary variety in mind but thinks there’s room for improvement. Undernourishment became more prevalent after the COVID-19 pandemic, and climate change is making hunger a more pressing issue than ever, with crises that resemble “stuff from 100 years ago,” she said.
Daniel Maxwell, a professor of food security at Tufts University, thinks countries providing aid also need strategies to address problems “causing the hunger in the first place,” whether that’s climate change, war or other factors. He also thinks countries need a more balanced approach, including projects promoting health, protection from violence or nutrition.
USAID and the U.S. Department of Agriculture haven’t yet explained how food aid efforts might be changed or altered by the incoming U.S. administration, but the delay on renewing farm legislation does hold up USDA programming, including food aid projects, in a variety of ways, said Alexis Taylor, undersecretary of trade and foreign agricultural affairs at USDA.
The U.S. Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, released reports finding that USAID and its partner agencies needed to improve the ways they measured the outcomes of their programs.
USAID says they worked with the GAO to address its recommendations. The GAO has closed six of the eight recommendations, indicating satisfactory response; the others were to be resolved this fall, a spokesperson for USAID said.
“We are committing a lot of U.S. taxpayer dollars,” said Chelsa Kenney, the GAO’s director for international affairs issues. “It’s important that we’re good stewards of those taxpayer dollars to ensure that the kind of programming that we are providing to these countries is really making a difference.”
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KENCHANAHALLI, India — On the edges of a dense forest in southern India, six women in a small garage are busy stitching cloth bags, pants, hospital gowns and office uniforms with automated sewing machines.
About four years ago, power cuts constantly interrupted their work. Heavy rain disrupted transmission lines and air conditioners pumping in extreme heat exhausted the grid. But now a small black box in a corner of the garage, not much larger than an office printer, keeps their operations running. The battery pack, made from used electric vehicle batteries, keeps their sewing machines and lights on even when the main power is off.
“This battery is a godsend for us,” said H. Gauri, one of the women. “Before the battery came, we’d have to stitch manually when there was no electricity which is exhausting. That is not a concern anymore and we’re able to finish all our orders on time.”
While the group is successful, initiatives like it in India are still few and far between. As the country gets more electric vehicles, solar panels and wind turbines, all aimed at reducing the country’s dependency on planet-warming fossil fuels, energy experts say that India will need to find ways to repurpose the batteries, panels and blades at the end of their lifespans or risk creating millions of tons of waste. If the country comes up with a comprehensive strategy to recycle components, it would both reduce waste and lead to fewer imports of the critical minerals needed for clean power in the future.
Currently, many panels, batteries and other clean energy parts end up in landfills. But others are processed by unlicensed waste recyclers, and some newer businesses and organizations are coming up with ways to recycle the valuable components.
Old EV car batteries can power rural livelihoods
The six tailors in Kenchanahalli say their lives have completely changed since the battery smoothed over power cuts.
Gauri, 32, said the steady income from the tailoring work has helped build a new home for her and her three children. She said it has also brought her more independence.
“Earlier, my husband was not happy about me working long hours or going to nearby towns to get tailoring orders,” she said. “However, after seeing how much I was earning, he has taken a step back. It’s not only me, this job has changed everything for all the women in this room.”
The lithium-ion batteries can provide backup power for up to six hours. They were provided by battery refurbishing and energy storage company Nunam and set up at the campus of the Swami Vivekananda Youth Movement, a nongovernmental organization that works to help poor and Indigenous communities in remote regions of Karnataka.
These relatively small electricity needs are perfect ways to reuse electric vehicle batteries, said Prithvi Raj Narendra, an engineer at Nunam. “The way EVs use these batteries is like asking it to run. Using it to power small machines and streetlights is like asking it to walk,” he said.
In the four years since the tailoring operation was set up, Nunam’s orders have exponentially increased. Their two dozen employees in Bengaluru’s electronic city neighborhood are busier than ever designing and packaging battery packs from used EV batteries from cars and three-wheelers.
Narendra said the company aims to produce one gigawatt-hour of power — enough to power 1 million homes for a year — by the end of this decade for homes and small businesses across India, especially those without consistent sources of electricity.
With a surge in solar, planning can minimize waste
India is the world’s most populous nation and among the biggest emitters of planet-warming gases. Like the rest of the world, a major part of transitioning away from dirty fossil fuels for electricity comes in the form of solar panels.
Solar panels typically last between 20 and 30 years. Some estimates say that 100 kilotons of solar power-related waste is already produced every year in India and this number could grow to 340 kilotons by 2030.
“The issue is not very large right now, but it will become so as the installed base of solar panels becomes larger,” said Adarsh Das, who’s worked in India’s solar power sector for the past 30 years.
The country has set an ambitious target of producing 500 gigawatts of clean power by the end of this decade and is also aiming to become a global hub for manufacturing clean power components like solar cells, panels and wind turbines.
The Indian government has included solar, wind and EV components in its electronic waste regulations, and has called for producers to recycle components, but there’s little clarity about how they should do that.
U.S.-based renewable energy company First Solar owns a solar manufacturing site in Chennai, India, and has already included solar panel recycling in their business model. In the future, new panels will be made from old recycled components.
Sujoy Ghosh, their managing director for India, said the government’s waste regulations show it’s thinking in the right direction, but the “devil is in the details.” Rules around how solar panels should be recycled, and how companies can profit from setting up recycling facilities, are needed, he said.
Anjali Taneja, a senior policy specialist at the Indian think-tank Centre for Study of Science, Technology and Policy, thinks recycling can definitely be profitable for Indian solar producers. But without a clear recycling plan, Taneja worries that the country “could become one of the largest waste generators.”
Creating a national effort to recycle raw materials
India currently imports over 95% of lithium-ion batteries as well as large amounts of nickel, cobalt and other rare earth minerals that are needed for clean power and EV batteries, government reports say. Experts estimate that nearly 90% of those materials can be recovered to make new solar power panels, batteries and wind turbines within India.
The ability to recycle critical minerals is “a huge opportunity for India,” said Akansha Tyagi of the New Delhi-based Council on Energy, Environment and Water. “Many strategies can be put in place to design products better, use them better over their lifetime, repair them before you recycle and eventually responsibly recycle.”
The next step, Tyagi said, is to create a comprehensive policy for creating a circular economy — an economic model that aims to maximize the use of anything that is manufactured and create as little waste as possible.
Industry stakeholders agree.
Deepali Sinha Khetriwal, who runs a coworking space for electronic waste recyclers just outside New Delhi, said there is tremendous potential for creating jobs in the clean energy sector if recycling is taken up more seriously.
“You need skilled and semi-skilled people,” she said. “The resource recovery industry is such a great job creator.”
Khetriwal added that her hope is to see more recyclers like her across the country, creating national momentum for clean energy recycling.
“While our setup is still small, what we’re trying to do can be replicated,” she said. “We’re excited about what the future holds if as a country we plan ahead.”
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WINCHESTER, England — In the half-light of dusk, Martin Edwards surveys the shadows of the ancient woodland from a high seat and waits. He sits still, watching with his thermal camera.
Even the hares don’t seem to notice the deer stalker until he takes aim. The bang of his rifle pierces the stillness. He’s killed a buck, one of many wild deer roaming this patch of forest in Hampshire, southern England.
Edwards advocates humane deer management: the culling of deer to control their numbers and ensure they don’t overrun forests and farmland in a country where they no longer have natural predators. For these advocates, shooting deer is much more than a sport. It’s a necessity because England’s deer population has gotten out of control.
There are now more deer in England than at any other time in the last 1,000 years, according to the Forestry Commission, the government department looking after England’s public woodland.
That has had a devastating impact on the environment, officials say. Excessive deer foraging damages large areas of woodland including young trees, as well as the habitats of certain birds like robins. Some landowners have lost huge amounts of crops to deer, and overpopulation means that the mammals are more likely to suffer from starvation and disease.
“They will produce more young every year. We’ve got to a point where farmers and foresters are definitely seeing that impact,” said Edwards, pointing to some young hazel shrubs with half-eaten buds. “If there’s too many deer, you will see that they’ve literally eaten all the vegetation up to a certain height.”
Forestry experts and businesses argue that culling the deer — and supplying the meat to consumers — is a double win: It helps rebalance the ecosystem and provides a low-fat, sustainable protein.
While venison — a red meat similar to lean beef but with an earthier flavor — is often perceived as a high-end food in the U.K., one charity sees it as an ideal protein for those who can’t afford to buy other meats.
“Why not utilize that fantastic meat to feed people in need?” said SJ Hunt, chief executive of The Country Food Trust, which distributes meals made with wild venison to food banks.
Pandemic population boom
An estimated 2 million deer now roam England’s forests.
The government says native wild deer play a role in healthy forest ecosystems, but acknowledges that their population needs managing. It provides some funding for solutions such as building deer fences.
But experts like Edwards, a spokesman for the British Association for Shooting and Conservation, believe lethal control is the only effective option, especially after deer populations surged during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic was a boon to deer because hunters, like everyone else, stayed home and the restaurant market — the main outlet for venison in the U.K. — vanished overnight.
“There were no sales of venison and the price was absolutely on the floor,” said Ben Rigby, a leading venison and game meats wholesaler. “The deer had a chance to breed massively.”
Rigby’s company now processes hundreds of deer a week, turning them into diced venison or steaks for restaurants and supermarkets. One challenge, he said, is growing the domestic appetite for venison so it appears on more dinner plates, especially after Brexit put new barriers up for exporting the meat.
“We’re not really a game-eating nation, not like in France or Germany or Scandinavia,” he said. “But the U.K. is becoming more and more aware of it and our trade is growing.”
From the forest to the table
Shooting deer is legal but strictly regulated in England. Stalkers must have a license, use certain kinds of firearms and observe open seasons. They also need a valid reason, such as when a landowner authorizes them to kill the deer when their land is damaged. Hunting deer with packs of dogs is illegal.
Making wild venison more widely available in supermarkets and beyond will motivate more stalkers to cull the deer and ensure the meat doesn’t go to waste, Edwards said.
Forestry England, which manages public forests, is part of that drive. In recent years it supplied some hospitals with 1,000 kilograms of wild venison, which became the basis of pies and casseroles popular with patients and staff, it said.
The approach appears to have been well received, though it has attracted some criticism from animal welfare group PETA, which advocates veganism.
Hunt, the food charity chief, said there’s potential to do much more with the meat, which she described as nutritious and “free-range to the purest form of that definition.”
Her charity distributed hundreds of thousands of pouches of venison Bolognese meals to food banks last year — and people are hungry for more, she said.
She recalled attending one food bank session where the only protein available was canned sardines, canned baked beans and the venison meals.
“There were no eggs. There was no cheese. That’s all that they could do, and people were just saying, ‘Thank you, please bring more (of the venison),” she said. “That’s fantastic, because people realize they’re doing a double positive with helping the environment by utilizing the meat as well.”
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Protesters stormed the parliament of the Russian-backed breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia on Friday and demanded the resignation of its leader over an unpopular investment agreement with Moscow.
The self-styled president of the region, Aslan Bzhania, said he had no intention of stepping down or fleeing. He said talks were proceeding with opposition representatives.
But opposition representatives rejected the president’s statement, and news reports said they had broken off the talks.
Russia said it was following the “crisis situation” with concern and urged its citizens to avoid travel to Abkhazia.
Russia recognized Abkhazia and another breakaway region, South Ossetia, as independent states in 2008 after it defeated Georgia in a five-day war. It maintains troop bases in both regions and props up their economies.
In Abkhazia’s capital, Sukhumi, protesters used a truck to smash through the metal gates surrounding parliament. They then climbed through windows after wrenching off metal bars.
An opposition leader, Temur Gulia, said protesters initially demanded cancellation of the investment agreement, which critics feared would allow wealthy Russians and businesses to buy up property in the lush Black Sea region, pricing out locals.
But now, he said, the protesters wanted to oust the president.
Protesters break into offices
Protesters also broke into presidential administration offices in the same complex as the parliament. Emergency services said at least nine people were taken to the hospital.
Bzhania, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said he and other leaders were “staying in place and will keep on working.”
“I ask you not to give in to panic. I am staying in Abkhazia and will work as I have done,” Bzhania wrote, saying that the first task was to clean up after the unrest.
“At this time, talks are going on with the opposition.”
Opposition activist Akhra Bzhania rejected the statement, telling Reuters the president had “lost his legitimacy. His refusal to resign today does not change anything.”
Talks broken off
The Tass news agency quoted opposition representative Kan Kvarchia as saying all talks had been broken off.
Bzhania’s office later said the president, a former chief of the state security service who became head of state in 2020, was in his coastal home village of Tamysh.
Another opposition leader, Eshsou Kakalia, told Reuters the protesters would not leave the government complex until Bzhania agreed to resign.
The presidential administration said in a statement that authorities were preparing to withdraw the investment agreement.
Olesya Vartanyan, an independent regional expert, said the crisis was the culmination of mounting Russian pressure to get more from Abkhazia in return for its financial support.
“The Russians are paying them — they want something back,” she said in a telephone interview. “There is always this question: ‘Why are we supporting you guys and you’re not even allowing Russian citizens to buy property there?’ ”
If Bzhania fell, he would be the third local leader to be toppled in a similar way since 2008. Vartanyan said Moscow’s usual approach was to allow the periodic crises to play out and then strike deals with whichever leader came next.
“Every single Abkhaz leader after they got recognized by Moscow became sort of a hostage to Moscow,” she said. “When you come to power, you have to be loyal to Moscow and then you have to find a way to cooperate.”
Most of the world recognizes Abkhazia as part of Georgia, from which it broke away during wars in the early 1990s.
The opposition said in a statement that the protests were not against Russian-Abkhazian relations, but charged that Bzhania “has been trying to use these relations for his own selfish interests, manipulating them for the sake of strengthening his regime.”
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AMSTERDAM — Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof saved his governing coalition on Friday despite threats of an exodus by Cabinet members over the right-wing government’s response to violence against Israeli football fans last week.
Junior Finance Minister Nora Achahbar unexpectedly quit the Cabinet on Friday to protest claims by some politicians that Dutch youths of Moroccan descent attacked Israeli fans in Amsterdam around the November 7 match between a Dutch team Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.
Her resignation triggered a crisis Cabinet meeting at which four ministers from her centrist NSC party also threatened to quit. If they had, the coalition would have lost its majority in parliament.
“We have reached the conclusion that we want to remain, as a Cabinet for all people in the Netherlands,” Schoof said at a news conference late on Friday in The Hague.
Last week’s violence was roundly condemned by Israeli and Dutch politicians, with Amsterdam’s mayor saying “antisemitic hit-and-run squads” had attacked Israeli fans.
The city’s police department has said Maccabi fans were chased and beaten by gangs on scooters. Police also said the Israeli fans attacked a taxi and burned a Palestinian flag.
Achahbar, a former judge and public prosecutor who was born in Morocco, felt comments by several political figures were hurtful and possibly racist, De Volkskrant daily reported.
“Polarization in the recent weeks has had such an effect on me that I no longer can, nor wish to fulfill my position in this cabinet,” Achahbar said in a statement.
Schoof, a former civil servant who does not have a party affiliation, denied any ministers in the Cabinet are racist. Details of the Cabinet discussion were not disclosed.
The coalition is led by the anti-Muslim populist party PVV of Geert Wilders, which finished first in a general election a year ago. The government was installed in July after months of tense negotiations.
Wilders, who is not a Cabinet member, has repeatedly said Dutch youth of Moroccan descent were the main attackers of the Israeli fans, although police have not specified the backgrounds of suspects.
Schoof said on Monday the incidents showed that some youth in the Netherlands with immigrant backgrounds did not share “Dutch core values.”
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Western diplomats have urged Somaliland’s three presidential candidates and their supporters to accept the election results, expected in the coming days, as vote counting continues. The diplomats said they have visited 30 polling stations in different cities in Somaliland to “reaffirm their support for the democratic process.”
The foreign diplomats from nine European countries and the United States, who were in Somaliland on Wednesday to witness the elections, said they commend Somaliland’s National Electoral Commission for conducting a “transparent voter registration and candidate nomination process.”
In a statement read by the U.K. ambassador to Somalia, Mike Nithavrianakis, the diplomats said they stand ready to work alongside Somaliland to further strengthen democracy and accountability in the future.
Meanwhile, international observers in Somaliland said the elections were peaceful, although in some parts the polling stations did not open “due to conflict.”
Tim Cole, a former British diplomat, is the chief observer of the International Election Observation Mission Somaliland. He is leading a team of 28 international observers invited by the Somaliland election committee.
Cole said the observers visited 146 polling stations and saw “some administrative issues” and said in some places “procedures weren’t followed.” However, he said the team observed that in general, people wanted to participate in the election, there was enthusiasm for voting and the elections were peaceful.
“In some parts of Somaliland … the polling stations didn’t open because of conflict. So that’s one issue that some voters faced,” he told VOA’s Horn of Africa Service.
“There were long queues, which can be seen as a good thing, but it also means people are standing around for a long time. But, yeah, the main challenges were really, I would say, there were some procedural issues. As I said, some of the polling stations, for example, didn’t open as early as they should have done. They were due to open at 7 o’clock and they opened later. That was also true in the capital, Hargeisa.”
The observer said the tallying starts when the ballot boxes are brought from all six regions of Somaliland. He said the results will take days to be released.
“It will be sometime next week before we know the final results,” he said. “So, I’m not sure exactly which day that could be, because all of those things can take time or could be done very quickly depending on logistics, cars breaking down, all those sorts of things. That can happen in any country. So, it will be a few days yet before we get the final result.”
The Brenthurst Foundation, a Johannesburg-based think tank that sent observers to Somaliland, said no serious incidents threatened the integrity of the election on voting day.
“In our opinion, this election was free, fair and credible despite the constraints of Somaliland’s financial and institutional means,” it said in a report published Friday.
More than 1.2 million people registered to vote in the election, the fourth in Somaliland since 2003. The region seceded from the rest of Somalia in 1991 but gained no international recognition. Somalia still considers Somaliland as part of its territory.
Guleid Ahmed Jama is a prominent Somaliland human rights lawyer and analyst. He says the economy, international recognition, foreign affairs, and peace and security were the main issues the candidates have been campaigning on.
“The economy of Somaliland is in a very poor position. Somaliland is a poor country; it’s one of the poorest places in the world. It doesn’t produce or manufacture anything. Most of the things, most of the goods used in Somaliland are imported from the outside,” he said.
“Somaliland export is only livestock and also gets some money from remittance and by the diaspora community. So, its economy is very poor. That is an issue in Somaliland, particularly to the youth,” Jama said.
Recognition is another key issue in Somaliland. The current president, Muse Bihi Abdi, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Ethiopia in January, agreeing to lease 20 kilometers of seafront to the landlocked country in return for recognition.
Jama said if the incumbent wins, he will implement the MOU. He said the opposition has welcomed the agreement, but with reservations.
“The political leaders, particularly two main contenders, are all on the same page to have some sort of agreement with Ethiopia in relation to access to [the] sea. But the opposition’s position is that they will like to see the memorandum of understanding — what is written — because they haven’t seen it. It is not a public document, and they say the people will be consulted and the process will be transparent,” he said.
“But the ruling party candidate obviously says if he gets elected, he will convert it to a legally binding agreement. So, it depends on who wins in this election, whether they will proceed with the memorandum of understanding or not.”
Somalia condemns the MOU as illegal and an infringement of its sovereignty and territorial unity, while Ethiopia and Somaliland defend it.
Without commenting on the MOU, Ethiopia praised Somaliland’s election and congratulated the people of Somaliland “on the conduct of [voters for the] peaceful and democratic election.”
In a statement issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ethiopia commended Somaliland’s National Electoral Commission for conducting a “free and fair election.”
“This process reflects the maturity of Somaliland’s governance and democratic system,” the statement concluded.
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washington — Reports that billionaire Elon Musk has held multiple calls with Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin, should be investigated by the Pentagon and law enforcement agencies on national security grounds, two senior Democratic senators said in a letter seen by Reuters on Friday.
Musk, who has been appointed to a senior government role by Republican President-elect Donald Trump, oversees billions of dollars in Pentagon and intelligence community contracts as CEO of aerospace company SpaceX.
Senator Jeanne Shaheen, a senior Foreign Relations Committee member, and Senate Armed Services Committee Chair Jack Reed told U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Pentagon’s inspector general that Musk’s involvement in those SpaceX programs should be probed for potential debarment and exclusion after reports as recent as October of his conversations with Russian officials. Debarment refers to exclusion from certain contracts and privileges.
“These relationships between a well-known U.S. adversary and Mr. Musk, a beneficiary of billions of dollars in U.S. government funding, pose serious questions regarding Mr. Musk’s reliability as a government contractor and a clearance holder,” the lawmakers said in a joint letter dated Friday.
Several Democratic lawmakers have publicly called for a probe into Musk’s communications with Moscow since a report by The Wall Street Journal last month on the alleged contact, but the letter to the U.S. officials who could launch such an investigation has not been previously reported.
The call by Shaheen and Reed for a federal probe is a long-shot effort as Trump prepares to return to the White House with backing from Musk, who spent over $119 million on Trump’s reelection campaign and was appointed co-head of the president-elect’s forthcoming Department of Government Efficiency.
SpaceX, Musk and the Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Pentagon and Justice Department did not immediately respond to similar requests.
Russian contact
Reports of Musk’s contact with Russian officials emerged in 2022, when political scientist Ian Bremmer, president of consulting firm Eurasia Group, said he was told by Musk that he had spoken with Putin about the Ukraine war and Russia’s red line for using nuclear weapons. Musk denied Bremmer’s claim and said he had only spoken to Putin 18 months earlier, about space.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported Musk has had multiple conversations with Russian officials, including Putin and his first deputy chief of staff, Sergei Kiriyenko, citing unnamed U.S., European and Russian officials.
Shaheen and Reed said in the letter it was “deeply concerning” that Musk reportedly had conversations with Kiriyenko. He was charged this year with other Russian officials by the U.S. Justice Department for spearheading an AI-powered propaganda campaign on Musk’s social-media platform X and other sites to promote Russian interests and influence voters ahead of the U.S. presidential election.
Musk has publicly claimed he holds a U.S. security clearance, giving him access to secret information at SpaceX, which holds billions of dollars in Pentagon and NASA launch contracts. The company also has a $1.8 billion intelligence community contract to build a vast spy satellite network, Reuters has reported.
“Communications between Russian government officials and any individual with a security clearance have the potential to put our security at risk,” the lawmakers said in the letter.
Tensions between the U.S. and Russia in space have spiked since Russia’s 2022 Ukraine invasion. Pentagon officials have condemned suspect maneuvers by Russian satellites in orbit and this year accused Russia of developing a space-based nuclear weapon capable of disabling large satellite networks.
Musk’s SpaceX has come to dominate the U.S. space industry and is relied on heavily by NASA and the Pentagon.
The company’s Starlink internet network of nearly 7,000 satellites has made SpaceX the world’s largest satellite operator and a disruptive force in the satellite internet sector, with heavy interest from the Pentagon for military communications. Ukraine’s military relies heavily on Starlink for battlefield connectivity.
The senators sent a separate letter on Friday to U.S. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall saying Musk’s reported conversations raise the need for more competition in the launch and satellite communications industries and to use more companies besides SpaceX for sensitive national security missions.
“Mr. Musk’s reported behavior could pose serious risks to national security, and as CEO of a company with billions of dollars in sensitive defense and intelligence contracts, warrant reconsideration of SpaceX’s outsized role in [the Defense Department’s] commercial space integration,” the lawmakers said.
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Since 2015, advocates for human rights in Russia have gathered in London every November to present the Magnitsky Human Rights Awards, which honor individuals who have shown great courage in fighting for human rights and opposing corruption. Past honorees have included the likes of Boris Nemtsov, Jamal Khashoggi and Maria Ressa. VOA’s Amy Kellogg has the story.
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islamabad — Pakistan’s top advisory body on religious affairs on Friday declared that using virtual private networks to access blocked content on the internet is against Shariah, or Islamic law.
The statement came as authorities deploy a nationwide firewall and push users to register VPNs with the state’s media regulator, ostensibly to enhance cybersecurity and fight terrorism.
Critics say such measures, however, increase online surveillance, curb freedom of expression and hurt e-commerce.
Virtual private networks enable internet users to hide their identity and location, allowing them to maintain privacy and security and access online content that is blocked in their country.
The Council of Islamic Ideology said the technology was being used in Pakistan to access content prohibited according to Islamic principles or forbidden by law, including “immoral and porn websites or websites that spread anarchy through disinformation.”
“Using VPNs to access blocked or illegal content is against Islamic and social norms, therefore, their use is not acceptable under Islamic law. It falls under ‘abetting in sin,’ ” said the statement, quoting the council’s chairman, Raghib Naeemi.
The statement declared that any technology, including the internet, used to access “immoral or illegal activities is prohibited according to Islamic principles.”
Earlier in the day, the Ministry of Interior sent a letter to the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority, or PTA, the country’s independent media regulator, asking it to block all “illegal” VPNs, claiming terrorists were using the cyber tool.
“VPNs are increasingly being exploited by terrorists to facilitate violent activities and financial transactions in Pakistan,” the letter said.
The ministry also pointed to the use of VPNs for viewing pornography.
“Pakistan is also considered as one of the leading [countries] in terms of [people] visiting porn sites using VPNs. However, these trends warrant prohibition of unauthorized VPNs to address the critical threats,” the note added.
Along with using VPNs for online business and entertainment, many Pakistanis use the tool to access social media platform X, formerly Twitter, which remains mostly inaccessible since February’s controversial general elections.
According to court filings, the interior ministry ordered the PTA to suspend the platform “in the interest of upholding national security, maintaining public order and preserving the integrity of our nation.”
Opponents of the restrictions say the increased push to control online activities is aimed at curbing criticism of the Pakistani military. The powerful institution is facing intense backlash for its alleged meddling in politics since incarcerated former Prime Minister Imran Khan was pushed out of office in April 2022.
Denying political interference, the military repeatedly has referred to online criticism and smear campaigns as “digital terrorism.”
Speaking Friday at a security forum in Islamabad, Pakistan’s army chief, General Asim Munir, reiterated the call for greater regulation of online speech.
“Freedom of expression without rules and regulations is becoming a source of degradation of values in all societies,” Munir told the audience at the Margalla Dialogue.
Earlier this week the PTA announced a meeting with representatives from the Ministry of Information Technology & Telecommunication, the Pakistan Software Export Board and the Pakistan Software Houses Association to discuss a VPN registration framework.
The authority also announced a “streamlined” VPN registration process that it said allows “legitimate users to register their VPNs through a new online platform.”
This came after Pakistanis reported widespread disruption in VPN connectivity over the weekend.
A cybersecurity source confirmed to VOA the outage was part of a government-run experiment to block VPNs using the firewall that is being deployed and was tested for months.
Officials reject the notion the government is attempting to throttle the internet. However, experts say the nationwide internet regulation tool acquired from China increases the Pakistani state’s capability to monitor communications.
To register a VPN, the user must submit, among other details, a subscriber ID issued by the person’s internet service provider, national identity card number and the IP address, which is a unique number that identifies a device connected to the internet. Experts say such information can enable authorities to track online activities, limit privacy and increase a person’s vulnerability to data breaches.
In its letter Friday, the interior ministry asked the PTA to allow users to register VPNs until the end of the month.
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The Taliban’s Ministry of Refugees and Repatriation announced plans this week to return millions of internally displaced people (IDP) to their home villages and provinces in Afghanistan, a move analysts warn could worsen the country’s humanitarian crisis.
“In the first phase, 5,000 displaced families in Kabul would be moved to different places to their places of origin. Most of these families are from [the northeastern province of] Kunduz,” said the ministry’s statement, issued Wednesday.
The Taliban called on national and international organizations to support their relocation plan. “This is a priority for the ministry,” the statement said.
“It is a good decision to relocate displaced families to their communities of origin,” said Sayed Ahmad Selab, the founder of the Selab Charity Foundation and former Afghan parliamentarian, adding, “but it could bring about a humanitarian crisis under the current circumstances.”
Most of these families would not have shelter, Selab said, if they were returned to their provinces.
“They were displaced because of the yearslong conflict and drought. Most of them lost their houses and would have no prospects of jobs and places to live if they were returned,” he said.
The United Nations refugee agency, or UNHCR, says there are 3.2 million IDPs in Afghanistan.
More than 7.6 million Afghans are living as refugees in Pakistan and Iran, including 1.6 million Afghans who left after the Taliban’s takeover in August 2021.
About a year ago, both Iran and Pakistan started forcible repatriation of Afghan refugees from their countries. The Taliban government said in June that around 2,000 Afghans were arriving daily from these countries.
Hafiz Ahmad Miakhil, a former adviser to the Ministry of Refugee and Repatriation, told VOA that he does not think the Taliban “have any policy in place for the relocation plan.”
He told VOA that the Taliban’s ministry is not in a position to undertake the repatriation of millions of internally displaced people.
“For the repatriation of internally displaced people, there is the need to construct schools and provide shelters and health services. The Taliban don’t have the resources to do so,” Miakhil said.
He added that the Taliban would need the support of the international community and for that, the Taliban “have to get recognized nationally and internationally.”
The Taliban, who seized power in August 2021 after the former Afghan government collapsed, are not yet recognized as the legitimate government of Afghanistan by any country.
Under the Taliban, Afghanistan is facing multiple crises. Sanctions against the Taliban, no banking transfers, frozen assets, no access to global institutions and the dwindling of foreign aid have moved millions into poverty and hunger.
There are 11.6 million people who are food insecure in Afghanistan.
In September, the U.N. said that it received only 30% of the $3 billion needed this year for the humanitarian response in the country.
Since returning to power, the Taliban have imposed repressive measures on women and imposed their strict interpretation of Islam in the country.
“The de facto authorities are exacerbating this crisis by policies that focus insufficiently on the real needs of its people and undermine its economic potential,” said Roza Otunbayeva, the U.N. special representative for Afghanistan.
Abdul Hamid Jalili, the former Afghan attache in the Peshawar Consulate, told VOA that the Taliban’s decision to return IDPs to their villages “would bring yet another humanitarian crisis.”
This story originated in VOA’s Afghan Service.
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washington — Three investigative journalists are being recognized with international awards for their courage and reporting.
Reporters John-Allan Namu from Kenya, Valeriya Yegoshyna from Ukraine and Rana Sabbagh from Jordan were in Washington this week for a ceremony highlighting their work.
Namu and Yegoshyna were honored with the ICFJ Knight International Journalism Award by the global media network, the International Center for Journalists, or ICFJ. Sabbagh was awarded the ICFJ Knight Trailblazer award.
“From corruption to war crimes, the outstanding journalism they have done has led to greater accountability and change,” ICFJ President Sharon Moshavi said in a statement.
For Sabbagh, the award is the most important one she’s received in her career.
As a co-founder of the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism and senior editor for the MENA region within the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, Sabbagh has worked as a journalist for over 40 years in the Middle East.
She is known for her commitment to free speech and for producing accountability journalism, including on human rights and gender equality.
Sabbagh has faced numerous cyberattacks. In the past three years, her phone was infected six times by Pegasus, a surveillance software developed and marketed to governments by an Israeli company. The journalist’s career has also put her health and private life at risk.
She said that she and other journalists in the region are often victims of a “very rigid political system that is going to punish anybody.”
But, she said, reporting is her mission in life. Her mother taught her to always protect those who are weak, and this value has guided her journalism career.
“I feel like I give a voice to the voiceless, and I talk about people that are totally ignored, and I expose corruption that is eating at the root of our societies in the Middle East,” Sabbagh told VOA.
Sabbagh appreciates seeing the real-world effects of her reporting. Every time she publishes an investigation, she said, “something happens for the better.”
With the Arab Reporters for Investigative Journalism, she investigated neglect and abuse in privately run care homes for children with disabilities. After the piece was published, the Jordanian king visited the care homes and closed them, Sabbagh told VOA.
“It shows me that the 40 years of my life have not been in vain, that I was able to take big risks, sometimes at my own expense,” she said. “But in the process, it allowed me such a great possibility to meet people that I would have never met.”
Fellow awardee Namu also covers human rights abuses and corruption, including an investigation on bribery between city inspectors and criminal gangs in Kenya.
For Namu —co-creator and editorial director of Africa Uncensored — the award is about the body of work he’s created over a 20-year career.
Namu hopes his reporting can help dispel the notion that the “Global South” is disconnected from the rest of the world, he told VOA. He said stories that begin in Africa can have worldwide implications.
“There’s no [Global] North or South,” he told VOA. “People are just people, and the stories we tell should be interconnected and looked at in that way.”
Namu has faced numerous lawsuits for his work with Africa Uncensored, but he believes it is easier to be a reporter in Kenya, where the democracy is relatively more stable, than in some other countries on the continent.
One global trend he has seen, however, is how misinformation and disinformation in political conflicts creates a dangerous environment for reporters.
“Recently, there’s been a lot of coordinated inauthentic messaging and disinformation around me and my organization,” he told VOA.
False claims were circulated claiming Africa Uncensored received funding to cause social upheaval. That falsehood, he said, made the organization a target of the Kenyan public.
The other awardee, Ukrainian reporter Yegoshyna, also knows what it is like to be targeted.
A reporter for Schemes, an investigative project at VOA sister outlet RFE/RL, Yegoshyna was awarded for her “powerful, enterprising, clever and innovative” reporting, ICFJ judge Simon Robinson said in a statement.
“I’m so glad about this award,” Yegoshyna told VOA. “I’m also kind of proud because I’m the second Ukrainian who received this award.”
Yegoshyna reports from “de-occupied zones” — towns in Ukraine that border or are extremely close to Russian-controlled areas. There, she interviews attack survivors and digs through destroyed buildings.
Yegoshyna joined the team at Schemes before Russia’s full-scale invasion and focused primarily on anti-corruption reporting. But now her coverage includes investigating war crimes.
“When the invasion started, we didn’t know what to do, but we decided not to stop working for even a single day,” she told VOA.
The team members’ investigative reporting skills help them uncover and publicize information about occupied areas. Sometimes that involves details from calls between Russian soldiers and their relatives.
She and her team analyzed satellite images to uncover mass graves in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol.
Russia’s siege of the Ukrainian city left thousands dead and others displaced.
The work can often be dangerous. According to the ICFJ, reporters at Schemes have experienced wiretapping and online harassment as a result of their investigations.
But Yegoshyna said being an investigative journalist also allows her to show the world what is going on in Ukraine.
“It’s important to report in a war zone area because we’re fixing history, and we’re giving the truth to people who are living in Ukraine and outside Ukraine,” she told VOA. “History is going on right now.”
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Muslims in India are largely welcoming a ruling this week from the country’s Supreme Court declaring authorities must not demolish any property simply because its owner has been accused of a crime.
Such demolitions — decried as “bulldozer justice” by critics — have targeted mostly Muslim-owned properties in states ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party over the past few years.
On Wednesday, while issuing the verdict, India’s highest court called bulldozer justice “totally unconstitutional” and laid down strict guidelines concerning such demolitions.
“The chilling sight of a bulldozer demolishing a building, when authorities have failed to follow the basic principles of natural justice and have acted without adhering to the principle of due process, reminds one of a lawless state of affairs,” the court said.
Such “high-handed and arbitrary actions” have no place in a constitutional democracy and would be dealt with through the “heavy hand of the law,” the court added.
Jamiat Ulama-e-Hind, a leading organization of Islamic scholars in India, said it welcomes the Supreme Court verdict.
“The court has declared demolishing someone’s house as a crime, and an unacceptable form of punishment. It has also emphasized that the government may not play judge, and only the judiciary has the authority to determine what is legal or illegal,” JUH President Maulana Syed Arshad Madani told VOA.
“This ruling is a victory for justice, and we hope it will serve as a lesson to all authorities,” he said.
After firebrand monk and Hindu nationalist BJP leader Yogi Adityanath became chief minister of the northern state of Uttar Pradesh in 2017, he ordered his officials to take the strictest possible actions against all criminals.
Soon, the police and other civic officials in Uttar Pradesh started taking strict action against those accused of crimes, including demolishing their properties deemed illegal.
Properties of hard-core criminals were targeted initially. But it was not long until others began losing their properties to demolition for allegedly partaking in protest rallies, pelting stones at others during communal disturbances, slaughtering cows and other offenses.
Over the past few years, houses, shops and other “illegal” structures owned by accused criminals, communal violence rioters and others have been demolished in states including Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Assam and Maharashtra — where the BJP was in power. In most cases, the victims belonged to the minority Muslim community.
According to the Housing and Land Rights Network, a housing rights group, more than 153,000 homes were demolished by various state governments in India, displacing about 738,000 people in the last few years.
Since 2022, JUH filed multiple petitions to the Supreme Court seeking orders to prevent the governments from demolishing properties as a form of extrajudicial punishment.
On September 13, while hearing another petition, the court observed that running a bulldozer on the property of an accused is “akin to bulldozing the law of the land.”
In its verdict on Wednesday, the Supreme Court firmly stated that the executive must not overstep its bounds by acting as a judge and executing punitive measures such as demolitions.
“The executive cannot pronounce a person guilty. Only on the basis of accusation, if the executive demolishes the property of the person, it will strike at the rule of law. The executive cannot become a judge and demolish the properties of the persons accused,” the verdict said.
“No demolition can be carried out without prior show-cause notice and within 15 days from the date of the notice being served,” it said.
New Delhi-based lawyer Mohammad Huzaifa said that this week’s verdict marked a “historic stand against ‘bulldozer justice,’ affirming that punitive demolitions have no place in our democratic framework.”
“While justice may have come too late for many, this ruling offers renewed faith in our judiciary and stands as a beacon of hope for those wronged by arbitrary demolitions impacting scores of people living under the fear of bulldozer state terror,” Huzaifa, a member of the legal team of civil rights group Association for Protection of Civil Rights, told the VOA.
“The challenge now lies in vigilant implementation — true justice will be measured by how effectively these guidelines are enforced on the ground,” he said.
Muslim community leader Zafarul-Islam Khan said he welcomed the verdict although it has come too late.
“Demolition of people’s homes was a huge issue of human rights violation. Courts should have taken suo motu notice of the cases as soon as those demolitions began some years ago,” Khan, former chairman of the Delhi Minorities Commission, told VOA.
“No doubt, the authorities will not feel so free as before in demolishing homes in the future, but they may still look for their devious ways to do so,” he said.
The verdict, in some ways still sounds not complete, Khan added.
“This welcome verdict will remain incomplete unless and until tens of thousands of the previous victims are also compensated and the powerful people who violated the law at will are punished,” he said.
Human rights activist Harsh Mander said that he was relieved that the Supreme Court had spoken out against a process that was “entirely unlawful and unconstitutional.”
“State injustice bulldozing the homes and shops of the working poor has continued for decades, and periodic orders to follow the compassionate due process from the Supreme Court similar to the recent order have not restrained the executive,” Mander told VOA.
“But my problem with the ruling is that it doesn’t act effectively to deter the current form of demolition, which is essentially targeting a particular community, Indian Muslims. I would have wanted the court to both reprimand and punish political leaders who order and justify such unlawful retributive targeting, and officers who implemented these acts.”
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A German government spokesperson said that Chancellor Olaf Scholz held direct talks via telephone Friday with Russian President Vladimir Putin during which he demanded the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine and that Russia show a willingness to negotiate a just and lasting peace.
A statement from German government spokesperson Steffen Hebestreit said Scholz condemned Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine and called on Putin to end it and withdraw troops.
The statement said the chancellor reaffirmed Germany’s unwavering determination to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression for as long as necessary. The brief statement did not include a response from Putin.
The spokesperson said Scholz spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy before his call with the Russian leader and intended to call him again afterwards. Media reports say that call lasted about an hour.
Reuters news agency reported the Kremlin confirmed the call, which it said had come at Berlin’s request. The news agency reported the Kremlin said Putin told Scholz any agreement to end the war in Ukraine must take Russian security interests into account and reflect “new territorial realities.”
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said despite deep disagreements, the fact the two leaders had the call at all was “very positive.”
Zelenskyy, however, was not as pleased by the call. In a video address posted to his website Friday, Zelenskyy said that in his opinion, the call is a “Pandora’s box.”
“This is exactly what Putin has wanted for a long time: It is crucial for him to weaken his isolation. Russia’s isolation,” Zelenskyy said. “And to engage in negotiations, ordinary negotiations, that will lead to nothing.”
He said it is what Putin has done for decades. “This allowed Russia to change nothing in its policy, to do nothing substantial, and ultimately it led to this war.”
Zelenskyy said Ukraine understands how to act regarding Putin and handle negotiations accordingly.
“And we want to warn everyone: There will be no Minsk-3,” he said, referencing the Minsk agreements, two failed cease-fire deals between Kyiv and Moscow over the status of the eastern Donbas region. “What we need is real peace.”
The call came roughly one week after Scholz’s coalition government fell apart, and he is facing new elections early next year.
Also on Friday, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said in a state radio interview the European Union must abandon its sanctions against Russia or face economic collapse.
The EU and its western partners have imposed numerous sanctions against Russia and Putin since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, many of which target Russia’s energy sector.
Orban, a staunch ally of Putin’s, said in the interview the sanctions on Russia have driven up energy prices and must be reviewed by EU leaders in Brussels. He said the sanctions have failed and as long as they are in place, energy prices will not come down and it will destroy the European economy.
Orban also referenced U.S. President-elect Donald Trump’s victory last week. Referring to Trump as “our comrade in arms,” and “our fellow peace fighter,” he said his victory means minds have to be changed in Brussels — site of EU headquarters.
Orban said they must urge “a pro-peace” turn in the EU, referring to their support for Ukraine.
Some information for this report was provided by The Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse.
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GENEVA — Ukraine is heading into its third, most challenging winter since the war started nearly 1,000 days ago because “systematic attacks” by Russia have damaged and destroyed most of the country’s energy infrastructure, a senior U.N. official warned.
“I am told that by now, 65% of Ukraine’s own energy production capacities has been destroyed,” Matthias Schmale, resident and humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, told journalists Friday in Geneva.
“There are a lot of worries that the Russian Federation’s military forces might strike the energy sector again,” he said. “And the real concern is, if they were to target the energy sector again, this could be a tipping point, also a tipping point for further mass movements, both inside the country and outside the country.
“The systematic attacks on energy infrastructure may pose an additional risk in winter, especially for already vulnerable people, as power cuts extend more than a few days in subzero temperatures,” he said. “Deliberately attacking and destroying energy infrastructure that the civilian population depended on is a violation of international humanitarian law and has to stop.”
The U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, OCHA, said more than 12,000 people have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion against Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.
It said civilian infrastructure has been decimated, with more than 2,000 attacks on health care facilities and 2 million damaged homes. It said almost 40% of the population in Ukraine needs humanitarian assistance.
“There is also a sort of hidden crisis,” Schmale noted. “I think this prolonged war, almost three years in February, has led to widespread trauma and psychological distress, and I think the need for mental health support is very evident. It will take years to help people deal with their traumas.”
The World Health Organization has verified 2,134 attacks on health care targets in Ukraine, killing at least 197 health workers and patients. The agency said attacks on health facilities have “intensified significantly” since December 2023, “occurring on a near-daily basis.”
“The marked increase in attacks on Ukraine’s energy and health infrastructure has led to widespread disruptions to power and water,” said Dr. Margaret Harris, a WHO spokesperson. “The high cost of medicines, treatment and insufficient number of health care workers have emerged as major concerns, including near the front lines.
“In the coming months we anticipate civilians who live near the front lines may experience coronary vascular diseases, mental health issues and dental problems,” she said, noting that the WHO continues to call for humanitarian access to all parts of Ukraine, including Russian-controlled areas.
Resident coordinator Schmale expressed grave concern about the escalating use of drones against the civilian population, many supplied to Russia by North Korea.
“During my many visits to the front lines, civilians have increasingly described to me being targeted,” he said, underscoring that the drones not only cause physical damage but also are being used as a form of “psychological terror.”
“I am very worried, along with many others, that increased use of drones by the armed forces of the Russian Federation will have an increasingly damaging impact on the civilian population,” he said. “The fear of a nuclear fallout because of either a deliberate or accidental hit on a nuclear power plant, such as the one in Zaporizhzhia … would be extremely devastating, and the worst-case scenario.”
OCHA said that U.N. agencies are prioritizing support to people close to the front line, as well as to the thousands who have evacuated in recent weeks and months to help them survive the freezing temperatures that are coming.
It said U.N., international and volunteer organizations have been able to assist 7.2 million people thanks to $1.8 billion received for the humanitarian response in Ukraine. However, another $500 million will be needed to address the emergency needs of 1.8 million people by March.
Schmale underscored the appeal by emphasizing that vulnerable people in high-rise residential buildings in urban areas, the disabled, the elderly and the 3.6 million internally displaced people inside the country are most at risk and in need of help.
He said that helping people to get through this winter “is a race against time,” made more difficult because of waning support from the donor community. While the trend was downward, he expressed hope the international community and humanitarian support from the U.S. would continue under the new leadership.
“They have been by far our biggest individual country supporter at country level,” he said. “The hope is that they understand like the present administration that there are huge humanitarian needs that need to continue to be addressed.
“We must not normalize the war in Ukraine,” he said. “We must continue to support this country to the best of our abilities.”
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HARARE, ZIMBABWE — Heads of state of the Southern African Development Community regional bloc are due to meet next week in Zimbabwe on post-election violence in neighboring Mozambique, where the political opposition is disputing poll results.
Mozambique has been rocked by violence following its October 9 elections, with police accused of killing some 30 protesters, according to civil society organizations there. Amnesty International says the crackdown on human rights by the government led by the winning Frelimo party continues.
Venancio Mondlane, leader of Mozambique’s opposition PODEMOS party, is disputing that Frelimo’s Daniel Chapo won the presidential election.
Speaking to VOA Friday from her base in Johannesburg, Amnesty International’s deputy regional director for East and Southern Africa, Khanyo Farise, urged Southern African Development Community leaders to advocate for an end to the violence when they meet in Harare.
“The situation in Mozambique gets worse every day as the death toll spirals, yet the SADC remains shockingly silent,” Farise said. “Regardless of the outcome of the elections, SADC must take a strong stand against the assault on the right to protest and the killing of protesters.
“SADC has been painfully slow to respond to Mozambique’s crisis,” she said. “The bloc must forcefully speak out now against the ongoing violations of human rights by Mozambican security forces and put human rights and accountability at the center of its upcoming summit in Harare.”
Adriano Nuvunga, director of the Center for Democracy and Human Rights in Mozambique, said that his country has experienced post-election violence before but that this year, “the magnitude and the duration of incidences is unprecedented.”
“It is nationwide violence led by the young people,” Nuvunga said, who “feel that the results announced favoring Frelimo did not reflect the will of the people expressed at the polls.”
“In the past three days everything is paralyzed,” he said. “The ports are paralyzed, corridors, borders are paralyzed, which is affecting not only Mozambique but neighboring countries that depend on Mozambique to access to sea and ports. So, this makes it a regional crisis not only a domestic crisis.”
But, Nuvunga said, the leaders of Tanzania, Zimbabwe and South Africa have “taken sides [a] long time ago” because they acknowledged Frelimo and Chapo as the winners of the election even before results were announced by the Constitutional Council.
“So, SADC will meet. SADC will discuss. But the trust in SADC is not that big,” he said.
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