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NATO and G-7 leaders met for an emergency meeting Wednesday on the sidelines of the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, to discuss the explosion in eastern Poland. There were concerns the incident marked a significant escalation in Moscow’s war on Ukraine. However, both Poland and NATO say the explosion was not caused by Russian attack. VOA’s White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report from Bali.
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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Wednesday he believes an agreement allowing for Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea will remain in place beyond its Saturday expiration.

Erdogan told reporters at the G-20 summit in Bali, Indonesia, that there were ongoing talks about extending the deal, and that he planned to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin upon returning from the summit.

The United Nations and Turkey brokered deals with Ukraine and Russia in July to allow for Ukraine to export grain from its Black Sea ports with vessels screened in Turkey, and for Russia to export food and fertilizer.

The U.N. says about 11 million tons of grain and foodstuffs have been exported to 42 countries since the deal began.

Russia launched waves of airstrikes on Ukraine Tuesday, targeting 10 regions, including the capital of Kyiv, in a military rebuke to Ukrainians reveling in one of their biggest wartime successes, last week’s takeover of the key southern city of Kherson.

Air raid alerts sounded throughout the country. The barrage of nearly 100 strikes — including with missiles — followed days of euphoria in Ukraine after the Russian retreat from Kherson and the Ukrainian takeover of the regional capital that Moscow’s forces had captured early in the nearly nine-month war.

In Bali, Indonesia, at the meeting of the leaders of the Group of 20 largest industrialized countries, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan condemned the Russian airstrikes.

“It is not lost on us that, as world leaders meet at the G-20 in Bali to discuss the issues of significant importance to the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, Russia again threatens those lives and destroys Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. These Russian strikes will serve to only deepen the concerns among the G20 about the destabilizing impact of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war,” Sullivan said in a statement. “We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

With its battlefield defeats, Russia has resorted to more long-range aerial attacks on Ukraine’s power grid as winter approaches, believing it to be a demoralizing psychological weapon to leave Ukrainians in the cold and dark.

White House correspondent Anita Powell contributed to this report. Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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U.S. President Joe Biden said it was unlikely that a missile that struck Poland on Tuesday was fired from Russia, adding: “I’m going to make sure we figure out exactly what happened.”

Biden, who is in Bali, Indonesia, for a meeting of the Group of 20 largest economies, came from an emergency meeting where he hosted the leaders of Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the European Union, along with the president of the European Council and the prime ministers of NATO allies Spain and the Netherlands.

Earlier Biden spoke to Polish President Andrzej Duda and NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg.

The United States and Western allies are investigating the reports Tuesday that a blast in NATO member Poland resulted from stray Russian missiles, while Russia’s defense ministry denies any connection to the blast.

“We are aware of the press reports alleging that two Russian missiles have struck a location inside Poland on the Ukrainian border. I can tell you that we don’t have any information at this time to corroborate those reports and are looking into this further,” Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters at the Pentagon.

Stoltenberg said via Twitter that he also had spoken with Duda about the explosion and offered his condolences for the loss of life. Reports say at least two Polish citizens were killed.

“NATO is monitoring the situation, and Allies are closely consulting. Important that all facts are established,” Stoltenberg said.

Eliot Higgins, the founder of the investigative journalism and open-source intelligence group Bellingcat, reposted a social media image of the debris from the alleged site in Poland and noted that it appeared to be from an air defense missile, like the S-300s used by Ukraine to shoot down Russian missiles. If confirmed, this could mean the blast potentially originated from a Ukrainian intercept of a Russian missile targeting Ukrainian territory.

Asked what the incident could mean for the administration, Ryder declined to discuss hypotheticals, adding, “When it comes to our security commitments and Article Five, we’ve been crystal clear that we will defend every inch of NATO territory.”

Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley are to host the Ukrainian Defense Contact Group meeting virtually at the Pentagon on Wednesday. Ryder said Ukraine would provide a battlefield assessment, which would lead to a “robust discussion on Ukraine’s security needs.”

Russia launched waves of airstrikes on Ukraine Tuesday, targeting 10 regions, including the capital of Kyiv, in a military rebuke to Ukrainians reveling in one of their biggest wartime successes, last week’s takeover of the key southern city of Kherson.

The airstrikes rocked Ukraine from east to west, hitting energy facilities and other infrastructure, as well as residential buildings in Kyiv, where one death was reported.

A video in Kyiv, published by a presidential aide, showed a five-story building, apparently a residential structure, on fire. Mayor Vitali Klitschko said three residential buildings were hit but that air defense units shot down other missiles.

Air raid alerts sounded throughout the country. The barrage of nearly 100 strikes — including with missiles — followed days of euphoria in Ukraine after the Russian retreat from Kherson and the Ukrainian takeover of the regional capital that Moscow’s forces had captured early in the nearly nine-month war.

In Bali, Indonesia, at the meeting of the leaders of the Group of 20 largest industrialized countries, White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan condemned the Russian airstrikes.

“It is not lost on us that, as world leaders meet at the G-20 in Bali to discuss the issues of significant importance to the lives and livelihoods of people around the world, Russia again threatens those lives and destroys Ukraine’s critical infrastructure. These Russian strikes will serve to only deepen the concerns among the G20 about the destabilizing impact of (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s war,” Sullivan said in a statement. “We will stand with Ukraine for as long as it takes.”

With its battlefield defeats, Russia has resorted to more long-range aerial attacks on Ukraine’s power grid as winter approaches, believing it to be a demoralizing psychological weapon to leave Ukrainians in the cold and dark.

Ukrainian officials reported strikes Tuesday in Lviv, Zhytomyr, Khmelnytskyi and Rivne in the west, and Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in the northeast. Several missiles also hit Kryvyi Rih, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s native city, according to Oleksandr Vilkul, head of the military administration in Kryvyi Rih.

Ukrainian officials were working frantically to restore water and power in Kherson and begin to investigate alleged Russian abuses there and in surrounding communities.

Matilda Bogner, the head of the United Nations human rights office’s monitoring mission in Ukraine, on Tuesday decried a “dire humanitarian situation” in Kherson. She said her teams are trying to verify allegations of nearly 80 cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detention and “understand whether the scale is in fact larger than what we have documented already.”

Zelenskyy on Tuesday said a “real and complete cessation of hostilities” will result if Russia withdraws all its troops from Ukraine and restores Ukrainian control to his country’s territory along the border with Russia.

Speaking virtually to the world leaders at the G-20 summit, Zelenskyy said delays in bringing an end to the conflict mean the deaths of more Ukrainians and more threats to the world.

“I am convinced now is the time when the Russian destructive war must and can be stopped,” Zelenskyy said.

White House correspondent Anita Powell contributed to this report. Some information in this report came from The Associated Press.
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Poland is increasing the readiness of some of its military units, government officials said Tuesday, after unconfirmed reports that stray Russian missiles killed two people near the country’s border with Ukraine.

Polish President Andrzej Duda, who spoke with U.S. President Joe Biden and NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg, was reportedly considering whether to call urgent consultations with NATO leaders under the alliance’s Article 4. The article allows NATO members to bring any issue of concern, especially regarding security, for discussion at the North Atlantic Council.

A NATO official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the alliance was looking into the reports, as was the U.S. National Security Council, The Associated Press reported. The Russian Defense Ministry has denied the allegations.

What is NATO Article 4?

The article allows NATO members to bring any issue of concern, especially regarding security, for discussion at the North Atlantic Council. Article 4 does not mean there will be direct pressure to act.

Under Article 4, any member state can convene a meeting of NATO members to “consult” when it feels its independence or security is threatened. In practice, it has rarely been used; regardless, it sends a strong message to the greater world that NATO is concerned about the situation.

What is NATO Article 5?

The principle of collective defense — meaning that an attack against one ally is considered as an attack against all allies — is the keystone of NATO. It states that an “armed attack” against one member is an attack against all and sets in motion the possibility of collective self-defense.

However, it commits each NATO member to “assist the party or parties so attacked” and to take “such action as it deems necessary, including the use of armed force.” It does not automatically result in military action.

How would NATO decide to invoke either article?

In theory, Articles 4 and 5 could be invoked only at the request of a NATO member.

Since the alliance’s creation in 1949, Article 4 has been invoked seven times, most recently on February 24, 2022, when Bulgaria, Czechia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania and Slovakia requested to hold consultations under Article 4 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Article 5 has been invoked only once, immediately following the September 11, 2001, terror attacks against the United States.

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty contributed to this article. Some material for this report came from Reuters and The Associated Press.
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Ukraine’s bitter winter is approaching fast, when temperatures can fall as low as minus 30 degrees Celsius.

The conditions will have a big impact on the war with invading Russian forces, according to Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.

“It’s [the] main obstacle for all the military campaign. If it’s rainy, you have to stay, because you cannot use the wheeled armored vehicles or personnel carriers. You can use only [vehicles] with the tracks. If it’s snowy, the same answer. If it’s not snowy but you have frozen … hard ground, you can use wheeled vehicles. So, it all depends on the weather conditions, the next stage of this campaign,” Reznikov told the Reuters news agency on November 10.

Battlefield gains

Ukraine has made significant advances in recent weeks, recapturing the city of Kherson. Its forces are determined to make further battlefield gains.

“Winter will not stop us,” said Serhiy Haidai, governor of the Luhansk region, which is partly under the control of Russian forces.

“It is better for our troops to move forward at least slowly, but we cannot stand still. No one will engage in positional wars,” he told The Associated Press.

There is speculation that Ukrainian forces from Kharkiv could seek to drive southward toward the devastated city of Mariupol on the Sea of Azov. Retired U.S. General Ben Hodges said the Kremlin’s forces are vulnerable.

“They will have trenches, but it is wide open terrain [in the south], easy to target Russians there,” he told Reuters.

Slow progress

Having been forced to retreat both in Kherson and Kharkiv, Russian forces are now digging in. Ukraine said Russia has mined huge areas in the east, and dozens of bridges have been blown up.

Progress for either side will be difficult, according to Justin Bronk, a military analyst at Britain’s Royal United Services Institute, a research institution.

“What maneuvers do take place will be much more roadbound. And so, it will be harder for either side to move without getting bracketed by artillery very quickly, because their movements will be that much more predictable,” Bronk told VOA.

Morale

Conditions for troops on the ground will be extremely tough.

“It may exacerbate the morale differences between the increasingly conscript-supported, with very limited training Russian forces, and the Ukrainian forces, who are equally in miserable conditions but are motivated in defending their homes,” Bronk said.

“Being stuck out in foxholes and trenches in sub-zero temperatures for prolonged periods — especially in the Russian case, with very limited supplies and limited winter clothing — is not a recipe for good morale,” he added.

Air defense

Russia is targeting Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure, including its electricity and running water, Bronk said, adding that the West must help counter Russia’s tactics.

“If we don’t supply Ukraine with significantly enhanced air defense capacity to try and counter those cruise missiles and the Iranian-supplied Shahed loitering munitions, then a huge number more Ukrainians will become refugees. And a lot of people will freeze.

“The key question now on the ground is going to be who is better placed to retake the offensive initiative once the thaw comes in late February, early March,” Bronk said.
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The U.S. midterm elections have been closely followed overseas — especially in Europe, where analysts say some of America’s closest and oldest allies are relieved that U.S. democracy held the course. But many are unsure for how long — and some are calling for a stronger and more independent Europe as a result.

In France and elsewhere in the European Union, the U.S. midterm elections have dominated the airwaves, including on Tuesday, as final results trickle in showing the Democrats retaining control of the Senate and the Republicans likely to narrowly win the House.

French analyst and historian Nicole Bacharan, who specializes in French-U.S. relations, said last week’s relatively smooth congressional vote eased fears within the European Union about the strength of America’s democracy — and their own sometimes fragile multiparty systems — that was shaken during the tumultuous aftermath of the 2020 U.S. presidential vote.

“The comforting thing about these midterms is obviously there is a majority of American citizens — Republicans and Democrats — who want to be heard through the vote,” said Bacharan. “They did vote — a lot. And they waited peacefully for the results.”

It may be a short-term reprieve. The next U.S. presidential election is only two years away.

“Well, 2024 is a big question mark everywhere — and in Europe especially,” said Bacharan. “Who is going to be the next president? What kind of international vision will he or she have? That’s all unknown.”

Warming relations

Frosty European Union-U.S. relations under former U.S. President Donald Trump have thawed considerably under pro-Europe President Joe Biden. Today, the two sides generally agree when it comes to key issues such as climate change and the war in Ukraine. But tensions still exist, for example, over last year’s hasty U.S. pullout in Afghanistan, or over a nuclear submarine deal with Australia that strained relations between Washington and Paris.

All of this bolsters calls for Europe to invest in its own security.

“We cannot be sure U.S. democracy sustains a medium-term, long-term commitment to underwriting European security in the [generous] way the U.S. has done over the past seven decades,” said Thorsten Benner, who heads the Global Public Policy Institute, a Berlin-based research group. He believes a Republican majority in the U.S. House, for instance, will push Europeans to invest more in Ukraine’s war against Russia. It’s a call he agrees with.

“It is primarily Europe’s problem,” said Benner. “This is a war in our neighborhood and not in Mexico or Canada. So we need to invest more.”

The call for a stronger European defense isn’t new. French President Emmanuel Macron has championed it for years. But progress has been slow.

“Europeans among themselves don’t agree on how to go about it. Just think of the French and the Germans, for instance,” said Bacharan. “And the capabilities of the United States — their military capabilities — [are] so much bigger, so much more enormous than anything going on in Europe. It’s not possible.”

Many said Europe may not have a choice. The next generation of U.S. leaders may be far less committed to the trans-Atlantic alliance than their predecessors. The earlier Europeans prepare for that possibility, they said, the better.
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Monica Fernández knows only too well the pain of exile.  

In 1958, in the years after the Spanish civil war when the country was in ruins, her father left in search of a better life in Argentina but always wanted to return to Spain.   

It was not to be.  

Instead, Manuel Fernández Lago died in his adopted home in 1987. 

Now, his daughter, a lawyer, is embarking on an emotional journey as she represents hundreds of people from across Latin America who wish to move to Spain. 

They hope to take advantage of Spain’s new so-called Democratic Memory Law which took effect in October. It gives the descendants of exiles from the 1939-1975 dictatorship of General Francisco Franco the right to claim Spanish citizenship.   

Historians estimate about 2 million people left Spain between the start of the civil war in 1936 and the first democratic constitution in 1978, with many heading to Latin America or other parts of Europe.  

“This is a real personal thing for me. My family was from Asturias in northern Spain. My grandmother died singing the hymn of Asturias,” Fernández told VOA by telephone from Buenos Aires.  

Lawyers and consulates across South America reported that they have received thousands of applications. Law firms and exiles’ organizations estimate that about 400,000 people may be eligible to apply.  

The law was intended to atone for the wrongs of the past but could also help Spain deal with a big threat to its future: its aging population. Spain has the second lowest birth rate in Europe with each woman giving birth to an average of 1.19 children, according to 2020 data from Eurostat, the European Commission statistics office. The lowest figure was for Malta at 1.13 while the highest was 1.83 in France.   

The legislation has been dubbed the “ley de nietos” – the grandchild law – because it is based on family links rather than where an applicant was born.   

It also covers the descendants of women who lost their Spanish citizenship by default when they married non-Spanish men. Applicants must show proof of parentage or proof of political persecution.   

There is a broad definition of what constitutes persecution. It can refer to physical, moral or psychological damage, economic damage or the loss of fundamental rights.  

Lila Andrea González, an English teacher from Buenos Aires, is tracing her family back to Lugo in northern Spain where her grandmother Florentina López lived before leaving in the 1930s. The grandmother moved to Uruguay and later settled in Argentina. 

González is claiming citizenship on behalf of her late grandmother. Part of the law allows for applications from the descendants of women who lost their citizenship because they married foreign nationals.   

“This is not just about Franco and persecution but about reparation for women who lost all their rights when they married,” González told VOA from Patagonia in southern Argentina.  

“It is important that we recognize the rights of women. They did not have any of these rights until the first democratic constitution in 1978.” 

Demographic crisis  

Migrants offer some hope to solve Spain’s demographic conundrum.   

Spain’s birth rate has been falling for the past century and last year 338,532 babies were born, a 39% drop compared to a decade ago, according to the Spanish National Institute (INE), a statistics agency. 

The population is set to rise from the current figure of 47 million to 51 million by 2037, according to a projection by INE last month. New arrivals from abroad will boost numbers, not people born in Spain, experts believe.  

Alejandro Macarrón Larumbe of Demographic Renaissance, a foundation which studies population issues, told VOA that more migrants would help but not solve Spain’s underlying problem of a decreasing birth rate.   

“Already it is easier for many Latin Americans to get Spanish citizenship than many other countries like the United States or Britain. They only have to be in Spain for a shorter time than other nations who, like Britons, must be in Spain for 10 years,” he noted. 

“But expecting other people to come over to Spain to have babies will not solve the underlying problem of an older population where the number of babies born to Spanish-born people is less and less.”   
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A team of U.N. investigators finds both Ukrainian and Russian prisoners of war have been subjected to torture and ill-treatment by their captors. The report is based on interviews over the past several months with 159 POWs, including 20 women held by the Russian Federation and 175 male POWs held by Ukraine.

The investigators report only Ukraine has granted them confidential access to Russian prisoners of war in places of internment. They say Russia did not grant them similar access, so they have conducted interviews with Ukrainian POWs upon their release.

Speaking from Kyiv, the head of the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine, Matilda Bogner, said Ukrainian prisoners of war told her team they were beaten immediately upon capture. Some had their personal belongings pillaged.

When they arrived at certain Russian internment centers, Bogner noted the POWs said they were subjected to prolonged beatings, threats, dog attacks, were stripped and put into stress positions.  

Bogner said the mission has received information that nine POWs have died during these so-called admission procedures since mid-April. She said her team is working now to corroborate these reported deaths.

“The vast majority of those we interviewed told us that during their internment they were tortured and ill-treated,” she said. “Torture and ill-treatment were not only used to coerce prisoners of war to give military information or statements about alleged crimes. They were, interviewees told us, used on a daily basis to intimidate and humiliate them.”  

Bogner said the U.N. mission has documented cases of Russian POWs subjected to torture and ill-treatment by members of the Ukrainian armed forces. According to Bogner, some of the men said they were punched and kicked after surrendering and when interrogated. Others said they were stabbed or given electric shocks by Ukrainian law enforcement officers or military personnel guarding them.

“There have been allegations, credible allegations of summary executions carried out by Ukrainian armed forces,” she said. “These happened earlier on in the conflict. The authorities, Ukrainian authorities have opened investigations into those allegations. But we have not seen progress in the investigations thus far.”  

Bogner said she and her team have not yet been to the southern port city of Kherson, which Ukraine recently recaptured from Russia. She noted U.N. monitors have conducted investigations in several nearby villages which were abandoned by the Russian forces in the past few weeks. 

She said they have “documented over 70 – almost 80 – cases of enforced disappearances and arbitrary detentions” in the area. 

Bogner said the mission will investigate alleged war crimes, and violations of human rights and international humanitarian law that may have been committed by Russian forces in Kherson.
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The Israeli so-called Law of Return says that anyone with one Jewish grandparent can immigrate to Israel and receive Israeli citizenship. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to draft 300,000 men to fight in the war against Ukraine has prompted thousands of Russians to move to Israel, with tens of thousands of others on the way. Linda Gradstein reports from Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv. VOA footage by Ricki Rosen.
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The European Union on Monday slapped new sanctions on Iran for its crackdown on anti-government protesters and launched a mission to train 15,000 Ukrainian soldiers in member states.

European foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday imposed travel bans and asset freezes on 29 Iranians, including high-ranking members of the country’s Revolutionary Guard and Interior Minister Ahmad Vahidi.

Four Iranian organizations are also targeted, as the EU hardens its response to Tehran’s crackdown on a massive protest movement that erupted following the September death of a young woman in Iranian police custody. On Monday, Iran issued its first death sentence against a protester.

Also in the EU’s sanctions crosshairs: attack drones Iran supplied to Russia for its war on Ukraine. EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell demanded Iran stop providing Moscow with military aid — which reports suggest might also include ballistic missiles — and said the bloc would take further steps, if needed.

“The drones provided by Iran to Russia allegedly a month ago,” Borrell said, “Are being used in that war, and it’s a clear violation of the United Nations Security Council Resolution 2231.”

The EU is discussing a ninth sanctions package against Moscow. More immediately, it will begin training thousands of Ukrainian troops in various member states, including Poland, Spain and France.

Borrell said Europe had so far provided Ukraine with about $8 billion worth of military equipment — or roughly 45 percent of what Washington has furnished.

He added that “We will continue isolating Russia internationally. We will continue imposing restrictive measures against the Russian economy. We stand ready to continue enforcing restrictive measures and target third countries involved, especially the ones … that are providing arms and military support [to Russia].”

Countering speculation that Europe might pressure Kyiv to enter peace talks, Borrell said it will be up to Ukraine to decide if and when to start talks with Russia, and that “We will continue supporting Ukraine until Ukraine’s victory — and it has to be understood, on the Ukrainian parameters.”

The war in Ukraine has sparked a massive refugee influx to the EU, along with soaring prices and an energy crunch.
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All extraditions to China from Europe could be blocked after a recent ruling by the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR), in a judgment that campaigners described as a landmark decision with global ramifications.

Judges at the court in Strasbourg, France, unanimously ruled October 6 that Hung Tao Liu, a Taiwan national accused of telecoms fraud, should not be extradited from Poland to China as he could face ill-treatment or torture and may not have access to a fair trial.

The judges also ruled that Liu’s five-year detention in Poland while he appealed the extradition request was unlawful. The judgment is due to come into effect in January.

Crucially, Liu is neither a political activist nor critic of China, nor is he from a religious or ethnic minority, explained his Polish lawyer Marcin Gorski, a legal scholar at the University of Lodz.

“So, the outcome of the case is that basically, regardless of your personal status — whether you are a political activist involved in some sort of opposition activities in China or not — you must not be extradited to China, basically because any person being [sent] there is likely to be subject to ill-treatment,” Gorski told VOA.

Hung Tao Liu fled to Poland from Spain in 2016, after Spanish authorities arrested and extradited more than 200 suspects of Taiwanese origin to mainland China on accusations of telecoms fraud. Liu allegedly was the group’s ringleader.

Human rights groups accused Spain of ignoring warnings of ill-treatment and torture in China’s judicial system. “The Spanish government knew about the situation in China,” Jing-Jie Chen of the Madrid-based human rights group Safeguard Defenders told VOA.

“What the Chinese government tried to say is that we are going to have this diplomatic assurance, we’re going to ensure fair trials, we’re going to ensure that there won’t be any capital punishment or life imprisonment, so then it’s OK for you to send those people over here.

“This [ECHR] judgment also clearly says that it doesn’t really matter about these kind[s] of diplomatic assurances,” Chen said.

Liu was detained in Poland in 2017 after Interpol issued a “red notice” based on a request from Beijing authorities. Polish judges approved his extradition to China, a ruling later upheld by Poland’s Supreme Court in 2018. Liu then applied to the European Court of Human Rights, whose rulings take precedent over domestic courts.

Poland can appeal the ECHR verdict, but legal experts say it is unlikely to be overturned as the ruling was unanimous.

Forty-six countries are signatories to the European Convention on Human Rights, overseen by the ECHR in Strasbourg. Nations that are not signatories to the convention will also take note of the recent ruling, said lawyer Gorski.

“The judgment is likely to have an impact on the proceedings in these kind of cases going on worldwide. And we actually have a very good feedback of this judgment from also the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand,” he told VOA.

The ruling could also impact relations between Europe and China.

“For instance, the impact of this decision on the ongoing process of negotiations and ratification of the trade deals with China now,” Gorski said.

China consistently rejects claims that it violates human rights and says the right to a fair trial is enshrined in law. Human rights campaigners say China does not grant international oversight of its judicial system and that torture, forced confessions and executions are common.
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All extraditions to China from Europe could be blocked after a ruling by European judges. As Henry Ridgwell reports, human rights campaigners describe it as a landmark judgment with global ramifications. Videographer: Henry Ridgwell
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