Brussels — The EU’s trade chief, Valdis Dombrovskis, said Thursday he had held “constructive” talks with China’s commerce minister, Wang Wentao, as Beijing seeks a deal with Brussels to avoid steep tariffs on imported electric vehicles.

The meeting was held as divisions grow in Europe over the proposed tariffs, after Spain urged the EU last week to “reconsider” plans for duties of up to 36% on Chinese electric cars, joining Germany in opposition.

“Constructive meeting with Minister of Commerce Wang Wentao. Both sides agreed to intensify efforts to find an effective, enforceable and WTO (World Trade Organization) compatible solution,” Dombrovskis said on X.

Wang also spoke to businesses in the EV sector on Wednesday in Brussels after which he said China “will certainly persevere until the final moments of the consultations,” as quoted in a statement by the Chinese Chamber of Commerce to the EU.

The European Commission in July announced plans to levy import duties on electric vehicles imported from China after an anti-subsidy investigation started last year found they were unfairly undermining European rivals.

The EU wants to protect its automobile industry, a jewel in Europe’s industrial crown, providing jobs to around 14 million people.

The commission is in charge of trade policy for the 27-country bloc.

The tariffs are currently provisional and will only become definitive for five years after a vote by member states that is expected before the end of October.

China has angrily responded to the EU’s plans, warning it would unleash a trade war. Last month China also filed an appeal with the WTO over the tariffs.

Beijing has already launched its own investigations into European brandy and some dairy and pork products imported into China.

Dombrovskis told Wang that the probes were “unwarranted, are based on questionable allegations, and lack sufficient evidence,” the EU’s trade spokesperson, Olof Gill, said.

“(He) thus called for these investigations to be terminated and informed the Chinese side that the EU will do its utmost to defend the interests of its industries,” Gill added in a statement. 
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Moscow’s decision this week to expand its military capabilities is a sign of the stress that its military is facing in the third year of its slow-moving, full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Analysts say the mobilization’s unpopularity and other factors are driving Russia to look for mercenaries from other countries. Marcus Harton narrates this report from Ricardo Marquina.
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White House — President Joe Biden will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the White House next week (Sept 26) for talks on the ongoing Ukraine-Russia conflict, the White House announced Thursday.

A statement from Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said Zelenskyy will also meet separately with Vice President Kamala Harris.

“The leaders will discuss the state of the war between Russia and Ukraine, including Ukraine’s strategic planning and U.S. support for Ukraine in its defense against Russian aggression. The President and Vice President will emphasize their unshakeable commitment to stand with Ukraine until it prevails in this war, she said

Zelenskyy has said that he has a plan for victory in Russia’s war against his country, and that he intends to present the proposal to Biden.

In a speech at the opening of the 20th Annual Yalta European Strategy Meeting in Kyiv last Friday, Zelenskyy said wars of aggression, such as the one being waged by Russia against Ukraine, can end positively by either the occupying army being pushed out on the battlefield or through diplomacy, in which the invaded country is freed from occupation and its independence is preserved.

“In both cases, Ukraine needs a strong position,” he said. “The United States can help with this. If we, along with our key partner, equally strive for victory.”

In recent weeks, Zelenskyy has expressed his frustration at not yet receiving permission from allies — specifically the United States and Britain — to use their long-range weapons against targets inside Russia.

Both nations have expressed concern about being drawn into a direct confrontation with Russia.
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berlin — Weeks after topping a state vote for the first time and nearly winning another, Germany’s far-right is taking aim at Olaf Scholz’s Social Democrats (SPD) in another regional election that could shape his political future.

Sunday’s tight-looking vote in Brandenburg, the swampy lakeland round the capital Berlin, takes place in a region the SPD has ruled since reunification more than three decades ago.

The Alternative for Germany (AfD), with its nationalist demands for halts to immigration, windfarm construction and arming Ukraine, has a narrow roughly three-point lead in polls with nearly 30% of voting intentions.

The SPD has been battered by the federal government’s unpopularity amid high inflation, the Ukraine war impact and high migrant influxes, but it has closed the gap recently in Brandenburg polling.

“Brandenburg is historically an SPD stronghold,” said Philipp Thomeczek, politics professor at Potsdam University. “If they don’t win here that would be a massive break.”

Coming a year ahead of a national election, the vote could trigger a party backlash against Scholz or, if the SPD holds the state, confirm him as their candidate for 2025.

His conservative opponents are far ahead with their bloc commanding around a third of the vote in most nationwide polls, while the SPD and AfD vie for a distant second.

The conservatives this week settled on their chancellor candidate for next year: Friedrich Merz, a sharp-tongued arch-conservative. But Scholz and many Social Democrats believe the gaffe-prone Merz’s low personal popularity gives them a chance.

Though none will yet say it openly, some in Scholz’s party believe he should follow his idol Joe Biden and step aside for a more charismatic champion like defense minister Boris Pistorius.

But a win in Scholz’s home state — his constituency is in the state capital Potsdam and his wife is a Brandenburg minister — may quell the murmurs against him.

The party has made barely any mention of Scholz in the campaign, relying instead on the popularity of state premier Dietmar Woidke, a trained food chemist. He said that if the AfD wins most votes he would step aside and not even offer himself as a candidate to lead any potential coalition.

“The aim is to stop the AfD from winning,” he said.

‘Mordor’ windmills

Unable to form a coalition despite winning most votes in Thuringia state earlier this month, the AfD has almost no chance of forming a regional or federal government given every other party refuses to work with a movement security services class as extremist. The AfD has faced — and denies — accusations of racism and of harboring agents for China and Russia.

Brandenburg presents a mixed economic picture: it is home to Tesla’s first factory in Europe and has wealthy parts within the Berlin commuter belt. But some of its outlying villages and farmscapes have been shrinking for decades.

As well as concern over Ukraine and migration, the AfD has channeled public anxiety over energy transition: its state head Hans-Christoph Berndt likened windfarms to “unbearable horror landscapes like Mordor,” the fictional land of evil.

He provoked mockery — but also some approval — when in one debate he reinterpreted religious doctrine to say: “As a Catholic I think loving your neighbor means looking out for your own countrymen.”

Should the SPD struggle on Sunday, that could open the way for Merz’s Christian Democrats to form a coalition in Brandenburg, perhaps with the backing of a new party, the socially conservative, economically left Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance, and others.

Unseating the SPD in its stronghold would be a boost for Merz, fresh from his anointment, and could tip an already restive SPD into open revolt against the chancellor.
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Islamabad/Washington — Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk met with Pakistani officials in Islamabad on Wednesday to deepen economic ties and expand cooperation “across multiple sectors,” as Moscow grapples with U.S. and EU economic sanctions over its war against Ukraine.

Overchuk’s visit comes after two days of meetings between John Bass, U.S. acting undersecretary of state for political affairs, and Pakistani army chief General Asim Munir and Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar in Islamabad.

 

During a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Wednesday in Islamabad, Dar said discussions centered on expanding economic ties between the two countries.

Pakistan’s bilateral trade with Russia reached an unprecedented $1 billion last year. The countries are committed to expanding trade ties by addressing logistical and related issues, Dar said.

According to Dar, Pakistan and Russia are expanding ties in many fields, including liquefied natural gas (LNG) purchases. However, sanctions against Russia restrict cooperation between the two countries.

“Even today, we looked at how to expand our relationship, and overcome this constraint of the banking system, which you know are facing sanctions, which obviously constrains our relationship, the volume of our relationship could have been much bigger,” Dar said

Dar said Pakistan and the U.S. Department of State had detailed discussions in October 2023, and American officials agreed to Pakistan’s request to purchase Russian LNG, as long as a committee of U.S. trade officials determines the price.

 

According to Dar, Pakistan views Russia as an important player in West, South and Central Asia. He said Pakistan aims to work with Moscow toward peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Pakistan’s army media wing said in a statement on Wednesday that Russia’s Overchuk spoke with General Syed Asim Munir, chief of the army staff (COAS), in Rawalpindi.

“Both reiterated Pakistan’s commitment to fostering traditional defense ties with Russia. Both sides reaffirmed their resolve to strengthen security and defense cooperation in multiple domains,” the statement says.

Analysts say the Russian deputy prime minister’s visit and the expansion of cooperation shows Moscow is expanding its influence in the region.

“In my view, a vacuum has emerged after the U.S. exit from Afghanistan, and Russia is positioning itself to fill that void. China is also making efforts in this direction. As a result, Pakistan is working under this policy framework to improve its relations with regional countries, including Russia,” professor Manzoor Afridi, a Pakistani academic on international relations, told VOA.

Muhammad Taimur Fahad Khan, a Pakistani international affairs expert at Institute of Strategic Studies, Islamabad, told VOA, “The primary goal during this period is to enhance trade, strengthen diplomatic ties, and develop infrastructure, particularly in the energy sector. However, the United States has restricted certain aspects of Pakistan’s ballistic missile program, while tensions between Russia and Ukraine have escalated. In this context, Pakistan’s relationship with Russia holds significance.”

Pakistan received its first shipment of Russian liquefied petroleum gas in 2023. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif discussed the possibility of liquefied natural gas supplies earlier in July on the sidelines of a Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit at Astana, Kazakhstan.

This story originated in VOA’s Deewa service.
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AVIGNON, France — Lawyers for some of the men accused of raping an unconscious French woman who had been drugged by her husband questioned her Wednesday about her habits, personal life and sex life, and even questioned whether she was truly unconscious during the encounters.

Gisèle Pelicot’s testimony came a day after her ex-husband, Dominique Pelicot, told the court that for nearly 10 years, he drugged her and invited dozens of men to rape her as she lay defenseless. She fiercely rejected any suggestion that she was anything but an unwitting victim.

“Since I’ve arrived in this courtroom, I’ve felt humiliated. I am treated like an alcoholic, an accomplice. … I have heard it all,” she said at the start of the day’s proceedings, breaking at times with the remarkable calm and stoicism she has shown throughout the often harrowing trial that has gripped France.

Gisèle Pelicot, who was married to her husband for 50 years and shares three children with him, has become a hero to many rape victims and a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in France for waiving her anonymity in the case, letting the trial be public and appearing openly in front of the media.

Her ex-husband and the 50 other men on trial, who range in age from 26 to 74, face up to 20 years in prison if convicted.

Many of the defendants deny having raped Gisèle Pelicot. Some claim they were tricked by Dominique Pelicot, others say they believed she was consenting, and others argue that her husband’s consent was sufficient.

Gisèle Pelicot and her lawyers say the preponderance of evidence — thousands of videos and photos taken by her ex-husband of men having sex with her while she appeared to be unconscious — should be enough to prove she was a victim and was entirely unaware of what Dominique Pelicot was subjecting her to from at least 2011 until 2020.

But on Wednesday, defense lawyers focused their questions on the notion of consent and whether she was aware of what was happening at any point during some of the 90 sexual encounters that prosecutors believe were rapes.

“Don’t you have tendencies that you are not comfortable with?” one lawyer asked Gisèle Pelicot.

“I’m not even going to answer this question, which I find insulting,” she responded, her voice breaking. “I understand why victims of rape don’t press charges. We really spill everything out into the open to humiliate the victim.”

Another lawyer asked whether she was indeed unconscious during one of the encounters captured on video.

“I didn’t give my consent to Mr. Pelicot or these men behind me for one second,” she said, referring to her ex-husband’s co-defendants. “In the state I was in, I could not respond to anybody. I was in a state of coma — the videos will attest to it.”

The line of questioning upset her.

“Since when can a man decide for his wife?” she said, stressing that only one of her ex-husband’s 50 co-defendants had refused his invitation to rape her. That man met Dominique Pelicot online and invited him to rape his own wife, who was also drugged, authorities contend.

“What are these men? Are they degenerates?” she said angrily. “They have committed rapes. That’s all I have to say.”

Another questioned the time and date stamps on the videos, and whether she thought the sexual acts lasted as long as the stamps suggested. “Rape is not a question of time,” she said.

“To talk of minutes, seconds. … It does not matter how long they spent. It’s so degrading, humiliating what I am hearing in this room,” she said.

At one point, Dominique Pelicot, who already said during the trial that all of the accusations against him are true, came out in support of his ex-wife, saying, “Stop suspecting her all the time … I did many things without her knowing.”

On Tuesday, he testified that all of his co-defendants knew exactly what they were doing when he had them over, saying, “They knew everything. They can’t say otherwise.”
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state department — A senior U.S. State Department official said Wednesday that Beijing’s support for Moscow’s defense industry comes directly from the top leadership of the People’s Republic of China, or PRC. The official also pointed out that chips supplied by China have significantly bolstered Russia’s battlefield capabilities in its war against Ukraine.

For months, U.S. officials have accused the PRC of actively aiding Russia’s war effort. Washington has sanctioned Chinese firms providing crucial components to Russia’s defense industry.

On Wednesday, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell told lawmakers that the U.S. had been slow to fully grasp the “absolute intensity of engagement” between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping.

“The most worrisome thing is that it [China’s support for Russia] comes from the very top,” Campbell said during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.

He added that “chips, some design features, some capacities associated with the making of explosives” have been enhancing Russia’s battlefield operations.

“We see the role of UAVs [unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones] and other capacities that are penetrating the Ukrainian airspace. Much of that has been supported surreptitiously by China, and it raises real concerns.”

Chinese officials rejected Washington’s accusations, asserting that the U.S. should not “smear or attack the normal relations between China and Russia” or infringe upon “the legitimate rights and interests” of China and its companies.

Beijing also continues to call for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine leading to a political settlement, more than two and a half years into the war.

Some members of Congress have urged President Joe Biden’s administration to sanction Chinese banks for supporting Russia’s war on Ukraine.

“We’ve put many of their [PRC] financial institutions on watch. … We’ve got to have Europeans with us. I think we’re beginning to make headway,” said Campbell.

The State Department’s second-ranking diplomat said the challenges posed to the U.S. by the PRC exceed those of the Cold War, following a large-scale joint military exercise between China and Russia.

Dubbed “Ocean-2024,” the massive naval and air drills spanned a huge swath of ocean and involved more than 400 naval vessels, at least 120 military aircraft and upward of 90,000 troops, according to the Russian Defense Ministry.

Without naming specific countries, Chinese officials said that the military exercise between the two allies, which concluded Monday, was intended to address joint threats.

Mao Ning, a spokesperson for China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, elaborated during a recent briefing in Beijing, saying, “China and Russia [held] this joint exercise in order to deepen their mil-to-mil strategic coordination and strengthen the capacity to jointly address security threats.”
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The three candidates vying to become the next secretary-general of the Commonwealth have all given strong backing for Britain and other European powers to pay reparations to their former colonies for past atrocities, including the transatlantic slave trade. Henry Ridgwell has more from London.
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A group of young activists in Turkey known as 1000 Youth for Palestine is posing a rare and potent challenge to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan by using social media to expose Turkey’s ongoing trade with Israel. This, despite Erdogan’s public claims that he has imposed a strict trade embargo on Israel over the war in Gaza. As Dorian Jones reports from Istanbul, the group’s message is crossing the deep political, social and religious divides of Turkey.
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Paris — France’s budgetary situation is “very serious,” Prime Minister Michel Barnier told AFP on Wednesday, saying more information was needed to gauge the “precise reality” of French public finances.  

France was placed on a formal procedure for violating European Union budgetary rules before Barnier was picked as head of government this month by President Emmanuel Macron.  

And the Bank of France warned this week that a projected return to EU deficit rules by 2027 was “not realistic.”  

France’s public-sector deficit is projected to reach around 5.6 percent of GDP this year and go over six percent in 2025, which compares with EU rules calling for a three-percent ceiling on deficits.  

“I am discovering that the country’s budgetary situation is very serious,” Barnier said in a statement to AFP.  

“This situation requires more than just pretty statements. It requires responsible action,” he said.  

The new prime minister, who has yet to appoint a cabinet, is scheduled to submit a 2025 budget to parliament next month, in what is expected to be the first major test for the incoming administration.   

‘Out of the question’ 

Within days of taking office in early September, Barnier said in an interview that “French people want more justice” in terms of fiscal policy, while several politicians have reported the prime minister mentioning possible tax increases in private conversations.  

Such a move would be a red rag to allies of Macron, who oversaw cuts in the corporate tax rate from 33.3% to 25% as well as tax reductions for households, including the wealthiest taxpayers.  

Macron has claimed a reduction in the overall tax burden by 50 billion euros ($56 billion) since he became president in 2017.  

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, a staunch Macron ally, said Wednesday that it was “out of the question” to join, or even back, a government that raised taxes.   

But years of extra spending during the Covid pandemic combined with sluggish growth have caused the French deficit to balloon, sparking the “excessive deficit procedure” by the EU, which is designed to force a country to negotiate a plan with Brussels to get their deficit or debt levels back on track.  

Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire, who is to be replaced soon, promised to bring the deficit back below three percent by 2027 but many analysts have dismissed the plan as implausible.  

France’s central bank governor, Francois Villeroy de Galhau, said this week that the objective was “not realistic” unless the government was willing to risk “stopping growth in its tracks.”   

Apparently backing Barnier’s approach, Villeroy de Galhau called for an “exceptional and reasonable effort asked of some major companies and wealthy taxpayers” to help a recovery in finances. France, he said, could no longer afford “unfunded” tax cuts.   

But tighter fiscal policies could put Barnier on a collision course with Macron, who appointed the experienced politician — best known internationally as the EU’s former chief Brexit negotiator — in the hope that he can survive an early no-confidence vote in parliament.  

‘Dreadful error to go back’ 

“We want a stable fiscal policy that does not undermine policies that caused unemployment to fall and our country’s attractiveness to rise,” said Jean-Rene Cazeneuve, a National Assembly deputy and Macron ally. “It would be a dreadful error to go back on this.”  

Laurent Wauquiez, head of the conservative Les Republican (LR) parliamentary group on whom Barnier will depend for support, said last week that “our conviction is that in a certain number of areas we need rightist policies”. This, he said, meant “no tax rises.”  

The tax question is likely to deepen budding tensions between Macron and Barnier, who is said to have been irritated that the president did not consult him about nominating Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne to the EU Commission.  

“Knowing where Michel Barnier stands on Europe and the loss of French influence, I think he’s just suffered his first humiliation,” said one LR deputy on condition of anonymity. 
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Lisbon — Deadly wildfires raging in Portugal have forced more people to evacuate their homes as crews battled dozens of blazes on Wednesday in the nation’s north.

Stifling heat and strong winds have fanned a spate of forest fires across the north and centre of the country that have killed seven people dead since the weekend.

Civil protection authorities listed 42 active fires on its website on Wednesday and said they had mobilized around 3,900 firefighters and over 1,000 vehicles.

In the Gondomar municipality, just outside Porto, authorities carried out more evacuations on Tuesday night.

Firefighters battling blazes in Arouca in the hard-hit Aveiro region told local media outlets the situation there was “uncontrollable.”

Around 20,000 hectares (49,400 acres) of vegetation have burned in the region, south of Porto, since Monday, according to data from the European Forest Fire Information System (Effis).

A total of 15 separate fires have passed the 1,000-hectare threshold since the fires began over the weekend, Effis data also showed.

Authorities in Aveiro said Tuesday evening that firefighters were on the verge of bringing one group of fires that had spread across a 100-kilometre (60-mile) perimeter under control.

Three firefighters died on Tuesday when their vehicle was trapped by the flames, civil protection authorities said, bringing the fire-related toll up to seven, with some 50 injured.

A 28-year-old Brazilian who worked for a forestry company died after he become trapped by the flames as he tried to collect some times. Two others suffered heart attacks and a volunteer firefighter died while taking a break from battling the flames.

Lisbon has upped fire prevention funding ten-fold and doubled the budget to fight wildfires since deadly blazes in 2017 claimed hundreds of lives.

The Iberian peninsula is particularly vulnerable to global warming, with heatwaves and drought exposing the region to blazes.

 
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PENTAGON — Russia’s military is bigger and stronger than it was prior to invading Ukraine in February 2022, the commander of United States Air Forces in Europe and Africa cautioned Tuesday.

“Russia is getting larger, and they’re getting better than they were before. … They are actually larger than they were when [the invasion] kicked off,” Air Force General James Hecker told reporters at the Air & Space Forces Association’s annual Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

The improvements come despite heavy casualties inflicted by Ukraine. U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has estimated that since 2022, more than 350,000 Russian troops have been killed or wounded.

“The rates of casualties that they’re experiencing are staggering,” Pentagon press secretary Major General Pat Ryder told reporters Tuesday in response to a question from VOA.

On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered that the Russian army grow by 180,000 active-duty troops for a total of 1.5 million soldiers, making Russia’s military the second largest in the world, behind China’s.

“Russia is going to be something that we’re going to have to deal with for a long time, no matter how this thing ends,” Hecker said.

However, William Pomeranz, a senior scholar at the Kennan Institute, told VOA that “this move suggests that Vladimir Putin is losing the war.”

“This is an open signal from Vladimir Putin that his army and his military is in trouble and doesn’t have the resources to maintain troops in the field,” Pomeranz said.

Despite Russian improvements on the battlefield, Ukraine has continued to put chinks in Russia’s armor, shooting down more than 100 Russian aircraft since Moscow began its full-scale invasion, which amounts to dozens more aircraft than Russia has been able to down on the Ukrainian side, according to General Hecker.

“So what we see is the aircraft are kind of staying on their own side of the line, if you will, and when that happens, you have a war like we’re seeing today, with massive attrition, cities just being demolished, a lot of civilian casualties,” he said.

To gain even the slightest advantages in a war where no clear side dominates the skies, Ukraine has turned to low-cost solutions that also appeal to the U.S. military.

“We have to get on the right side of the cost curve with this. Taking down $10,000, $15,000, $20,000 one-way UAVs [drones] with $1 million missiles, we just can’t afford to do that in the long-term,” the general told reporters. 

General Chance Saltzman, the chief of the U.S. Space Force, announced Tuesday that a Space Force pilot program that uses commercial satellite imagery and related analytics to create more situational awareness for military leaders has proven very cost-effective when compared with traditional intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance collection via U.S. MQ-9 drones, which are expensive and limited in number.

AFRICOM was able to use the $40 million Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance and Tracking Program to maintain situational awareness during the full withdrawal of U.S. forces from two air bases in Niger in July and August. The drawback, however, was that instead of real-time situational awareness, the data took one to four hours to get to the security team.

“Not as good as real time, right? With MQ-9 that you would have, but it’s better than nothing, right?” Hecker said.

Hecker also said the U.S. was looking into more cost-effective ways to sense incoming threats around bases, including methods like Ukraine’s Sky Fortress system that uses thousands of inexpensive sensors to identify aerial threats. He says the technology has been demonstrated in Romania and other countries.
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WASHINGTON — U.S. lawmakers welcomed Vladimir Kara-Murza to Capitol Hill Tuesday, celebrating the release of the Russian activist from a Kremlin prison last month. 

Kara-Murza was part of the biggest prisoner exchange between the U.S. and Russia since the end of the Cold War. 

 

Senate Foreign Relations Committee Chairman Ben Cardin said Tuesday that Kara-Murza “was at the forefront of the human rights struggle and an inspiration for so many people around the world.” 

 

In a letter written upon Kara-Murza’s release, Cardin said, “Your return home is both a personal victory and a testament to the unwavering strength of the human spirit.” 

 

Democratic Representative Bill Keating described Kara-Murza as one of the people Russian President Vladimir Putin most despises because of his ability to speak directly to the Russian people. Kara-Murza has twice survived suspected poisoning attempts. 

 

Kara-Murza, a deputy leader of the People’s Freedom Party, was arrested in Russia in April 2022 and later faced charges of treason and spreading disinformation about the Russian military. Russian prosecutors suggested he face the maximum 25-year sentence in a prison colony. 

 

Kara-Murza was awarded the Václav Havel Human Rights Prize by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe in October 2022 and the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 2024. 

 

“Surreal doesn’t come close to describing what I feel — just a few weeks ago sitting in a maximum-security prison in Siberia and now seeing so many friends in the halls of the U.S. Congress,” Kara-Murza told a gathering of lawmakers, journalists and activists on Capitol Hill. 

 

Kara-Murza thanked the public for keeping their attention focused on his situation.

“The only way we will be able to achieve long-term peace, stability, security and democracy on the European continent will be with a peaceful, free and democratic Russia,” he said.

The Biden administration secured the release of 16 detainees in return for the release of eight detainees and two minors on Aug. 1.

James O’Brien, assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, thanked Kara-Murza for his work on the Global Magnitsky Act, bipartisan legislation that authorizes the U.S. government to sanction government officials throughout the world who are human rights offenders.

“Vladimir, you gave us one of the main tools that we use to focus our advocacy for your freedom in the Global Magnitsky Act, and your work on that, I’m sure you didn’t do it as a tool for yourself, but your work on that has helped us enormously as we work to free prisoners in the Western Hemisphere, in other countries across the world,” O’Brien said.

Democratic Senator Chris Coons said Putin is still holding untold numbers of political prisoners in Russia.

“We must realize [Putin] does that, like all authoritarians, because he’s afraid, afraid of his own people, afraid of accountability, afraid of the Ukrainians who just on the border of Russia are fighting with determination,” Coons said.
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Moscow — Iran’s president committed his country to deeper ties with Russia to counter Western sanctions on Tuesday, state media reported, amid U.S. worries that Tehran is supplying Moscow missiles to hit Ukraine.

Russia’s top security official Sergei Shoigu arrived in the Iranian capital days after meeting North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in Pyongyang. More than two and a half years into its conflict with Ukraine, Moscow has been seeking to develop ties with the two nations, both hostile to the United States.

“My government will seriously follow ongoing cooperation and measures to upgrade the level of relations between the two countries,” the state IRNA news agency quoted Iranian president Masoud Pezeshkian as telling Shoigu, Secretary of Russia’s Security Council.

“Relations between Tehran and Moscow will develop in a permanent, continuous and lasting way. Deepening and strengthening relations and cooperation between Iran and Russia will reduce the impact of sanctions.”

The United States views Moscow’s growing relationships with Pyongyang and Tehran with concern and says both are supplying Russia with ballistic missiles for use in the conflict in Ukraine.

Iran has denied sending ballistic missiles to Russia. Moscow has said only that Iran is Russia’s partner in all possible areas.

Shoigu’s trips are taking place at a crucial moment in the war, as Kyiv presses the United States and its allies to let it use Western-supplied long-range weapons to strike targets such as airfields deep inside Russian territory.

President Vladimir Putin said last week that Western countries would be fighting Russia directly if they gave the green light, and that Moscow would respond.

The Nour news agency, affiliated to Iran’s Supreme National Security Council, said Shoigu met his Iranian opposite number, Ali Akbar Ahmadian. There was no immediate information on the outcome of the meeting.

Russia has repeatedly said it is close to signing a major agreement with Iran to seal a strategic partnership between the two countries.

Shoigu was Russian defense minister until May, when he was appointed secretary of the Security Council that brings together President Vladimir Putin’s military and intelligence chiefs and other senior officials.

Apart from meeting North Korea’s Kim last week, he also held talks in St. Petersburg with Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi.
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Human rights groups have urged Britain not to copy Italy’s approach in trying to reduce the number of migrants arriving on its shores. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer traveled to Rome this week to learn more about its success in tackling migration, as a surge of people arrive on small boats across the English Channel. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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AVIGNON, France — A 71-year-old French man acknowledged in court on Tuesday that over nearly a decade, he was drugging his wife at the time and inviting dozens of men to rape her, as well as raping her himself. He pleaded with her and their three children for forgiveness.

“Today I maintain that, along with the other men here, I am a rapist,” Dominique Pelicot told the court. “They knew everything. They can’t say otherwise.”

Pelicot’s testimony is the most important moment so far in a trial that has shocked and gripped France and raised awareness about sexual violence. Many also hope his testimony will shed some light — to try to understand the unthinkable.

While he previously confessed to investigators, the court testimony will be crucial for the panel of judges to decide on the fate of some 50 other men standing trial alongside him. Many deny having raped Gisele Pelicot, saying they were manipulated by her then-husband or claiming they believed she was consenting.

Gisele Pelicot has become a symbol of the fight against sexual violence in France for agreeing to waive her anonymity in the case, letting the trial be public and appearing openly in front of the media. She is expected to speak in court after her ex-husband’s testimony on Tuesday.

Under French law, the proceedings inside the courtroom cannot be filmed or photographed. Dominique Pelicot is brought to the court through a special entrance inaccessible for the media, because he and some other defendants are being held in custody during the trial. Defendants who are not in custody come to the trial wearing surgical masks or hoods to avoid having their faces filmed or photographed.

After days of uncertainty due to his medical state, Dominique Pelicot appeared in court Tuesday and told judges he acknowledged all the charges against him.

His much-awaited testimony was delayed by days after he fell ill, suffering from a kidney stone and urinary infection, his lawyers said.

Seated in a wheelchair, Pelicot spoke to the court for an hour, from his early life to years of abuse against his now ex-wife. Expressing remorse, his voice trembling and at times barely audible, he sought to explain events that he said scarred his childhood and planted the seed of vice in him.

“One is not born a pervert; one becomes a pervert,” Pelicot told judges, after recounting, sometimes in tears, being raped by a male nurse in a hospital when he was 9 years old and then being forced to take part in a gang rape at age 14.

Pelicot also spoke of the trauma endured when his parents took a young girl in the family, and witnessing his father’s inappropriate behavior toward her.

“My father used to do the same thing with the little girl,” he said. “After my father’s death, my brother said that men used to come to our house.”

At 14, he said, he asked his mother if he could leave the house, but “she didn’t let me.”

“I don’t really want to talk about this, I am just ashamed of my father. In the end, I didn’t do any better,” he said.

Asked about his feelings toward his wife, Pelicot said she did not deserve what he did.

“From my youth, I remember only shocks and traumas, forgotten partly thanks to her. She did not deserve this, I acknowledge it,” he said in tears.

At that moment, Gisele Pelicot, standing across the room, facing him across a group of dozens of defendants sitting in between them, put her sunglasses back on.

Later, Dominique Pelicot said, “I was crazy about her. She replaced everything. I ruined everything.”

A security agent caught Pelicot in 2020 filming videos under women’s skirts in a supermarket, according to court documents. Police searched Pelicot’s house and electronic devices and found thousands of photos and videos of men engaging in sexual acts with Gisele Pelicot while she appears to lie unconscious on their bed.

With the recordings, police were able to track down a majority of the 72 suspects they were seeking.

Gisele Pelicot and her husband of 50 years had three children. When they retired, the couple left the Paris region to move into a house in Mazan, a small town in Provence.

When police officers called her in for questioning in late 2020, she initially told them her husband was “a great guy,” according to legal documents. They then showed her some photos. She left her husband, and they are now divorced.

He faces 20 years in prison if convicted. Besides Pelicot, 50 other men, ages 26 to 74, are standing trial.
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