Monday morning update

Cristina's reading list, an update from the chancelleries, our YouTube channel, and a book club reminder

Cristina’s tour d’horizon of the global news now includes a section called “What the State Department says.” We liked this idea so much that we plan to expand it: “From the Chancelleries” will be a weekly roundup of significant statements from diplomatic offices the world around.

Have you noticed an interesting statement from your foreign office? Or someone else’s? We welcome submissions.

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• Igor Danchenko, a primary source for the 2016 Steele dossier of allegations against former President Donald Trump, was arrested on charges that he repeatedly lied to the FBI. You can read the indictment here. 

• The Biden Administration placed Israeli spyware company NSO Group on a US blacklist after determining that the company acted “contrary to the foreign policy and national security interests of the US.”

• Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan canceled his plans to attend the COP26 climate conference after Britain failed to meet Ankara’s demands for security arrangements, two Turkish officials told Reuters. 

• US President Joe Biden discussed “the political process in Syria, the delivery of humanitarian assistance to Afghans in need, elections in Libya, the situation in the Eastern Mediterranean, and diplomatic efforts in the South Caucasus,” according to a White House readout. He also raised the issue of human rights and expressed concerns about Turkey’s possession of the S-400 Russian missile system.

• Bulgaria is deploying 350 troops and 40 army vehicles along its southern border with Turkey to help border police deal with a growing influx of migrants, the Associated Press reports.  

• North Macedonia’s Prime Minister Zoran Zaev announced he will step down from his positions as prime minister and leader of the ruling Social Democratic Union of Macedonia following the defeat of his center-left party in local elections, Politico Europe reports. 

• The High Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Christian Schmidt, warned that the country is in imminent danger of breaking apart, and there is a “very real” prospect of a return to conflict, the Guardian reports. 

• Bisera Turković, Bosnia and Herzegovina’s Minister of Foreign Affairs, told Newsweek that the country must join NATO as soon as possible to avoid war. The prospect of a revived ethnic Serb army has set off alarm bells throughout the Balkans.

• Majda Ruge writes for Foreign Policy that the European Union and the United States need to stop making concessions to Serbian secessionist forces in Bosnia backed by Russia.

• An extensive and detailed Conflict Armament Research report, funded by the European Union and the German government, catalogues the panoply of Russian weapons that have flooded into into Donetsk and Luhansk, fueling the war.

• US and EU officials are concerned about the renewed movements and buildup of Russian troops near Ukraine’s border, the Washington Post reports. CIA Director Bill Burns was dispatched to Moscow earlier this week to warn the Kremlin that the US is watching this troop buildup closely.

• Far-right groups in Ukraine’s capital are planning a march in the nightlife district of Podil. Many fear this could escalate into a raid on nightclubs, Resident Adviser reports. 

• Russia’s Black Sea naval forces practiced destroying enemy targets following complaints from Moscow about the presence of two US warships in the area, Reuters reports. 

• The Dutch Supreme Court upheld part of a Russian appeal against a US$50 billion arbitration award to former shareholders of oil giant Yukos, quashing a lower court’s decision to uphold the award, the Associated Press reports. 

• Poland summoned Belarusian chargé d’affaires Alexander Chesnovsky after Belarusian soldiers crossed into Polish territory, Deutsche Welle reports. 

• Saudi Arabia banned imports from Lebanon and expelled Lebanon’s ambassador after Lebanon’s information minister implied that Saudi Arabia was the aggressor in the war in Yemen, the Wall Street Journal reports. 

• Israel authorized plans to build more than 1,300 homes for Palestinians in the West Bank days after granting approval for 3,000 Israeli settler homes, Al Jazeera reports. 

• Philippine forces killed rebel commander Jorge Madlos, who went by the nom de guerre Ka Oris, the Associated Press reports. Madlos had been a leading figure and spokesman for communist fighters in the southern Philippines for decades.

• US journalist Danny Fenster, who has been jailed in Myanmar for five months, was denied bail by a Myanmar court, the Associated Press reports. He has been charged with incitement and sedition by spreading false or inflammatory information.

• Following a pact between the Pakistani government and the banned militant Islamist group Tehreek-e-Labaik, Pakistani officials reopened the key national highway T.L.P. supporters had occupied, the New York Times reports.

• The Taliban’s supreme leader, Haibatullah Akhundzada, made his first public appearance in months, belying rumors of his death, Reuters reports. 

• Sudan’s army General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan agreed with the US about the urgency of forming a new government, according to a statement from al-Burhan’s office released following the general’s phone call with US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Al Jazeera reports.

• Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed urged his supporters to use any weapons in their possession to stop an advance by Tigrayan rebel forces, who claim to be gaining territory and moving toward the capital, the BBC reports. 

• Nine anti-government factions in Ethiopia are to form an alliance against the Ethiopian government, Reuters reports. 

• The new United Front of Ethiopian Federalist Forces seeks to “establish a transitional arrangement in Ethiopia” so that Ethiopia’s prime minister can go as soon as possible, the Associated Press reports.

• All sides in Ethiopia’s Tigray conflict have violated international human rights and some may have committed crimes against humanity, according to a joint investigation by the Ethiopian Human Rights Commission and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. The report documented extrajudicial executions, torture, rape, and attacks against refugees and displaced people.

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From the Chancelleries:

What the State Department says: 

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Read more by Cristina Maza, including a discussion of the Biden Administration’s position on Western Sahara.

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Welcome to the Cosmopolitan Globalist’s new YouTube channel!

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Reminder: The Cosmopolitan Globalist Book Club reconvenes this coming Saturday, November 13, at 15:00 GMT, to discuss Carter Malkasian’s history of The American War in Afghanistan. Don’t forget about the time change.

Please RSVP to cgbookgroup@gmail.com. You’ll receive a Zoom link on the day.

Note: The book club is only open to people who’ve read the book. (Reviews of the book or articles by the author don’t count.)

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