US pushing Ukraine to withdraw from Donbas and create ‘free economic zone’, says Zelenskyy – Europe live
We will have more for you from Shaun in Kyiv on the latest US proposal on Ukraine later, so keep an eye on the blog.
Austria votes to ban headscarves in schools for girls under 14
Lawmakers in Austria have voted overwhelmingly to ban headscarves in schools for girls under the age of 14, despite concerns the legislation will deepen societal divisions and marginalise Muslims. The law could also be struck down by the country’s constitutional court. The ban was proposed earlier this year by Austria’s conservative-led government, which took office in March after a far-right party came first in the elections but failed to form a government. Before Thursday’s vote, Yannick Shetty, the parliamentary leader of the liberal Neos, the most junior party in the ruling coalition, defended the ban. He told the lower house: “This is not about restricting freedom, but about protecting the freedom of girls up to 14. “It [the headscarf] is not just an item of clothing. It serves, particularly with minors, to shield girls from the male gaze. It sexualises girls,” he said. The ban is expected to take effect at the start of the new school year in September, with families facing fines of up to €800 (£700) for repeated non-compliance. A soft launch of the legislation will begin in February as the new rules are explained to educators, parents and children. Thursday’s legislation marks the second time that a government led by the centre-right People’s party (ÖVP) has set its sights on the headscarf. In 2019, as part of a coalition that included the far right, Austria introduced a ban on headscarves for girls under 10 years of age. The legislation was later overturned by the country’s constitutional court, which described it as discriminatory in that it specifically targeted Muslims. This time around, the government said it had worked to avoid the same outcome. Shetty recently told reporters: “Will it pass muster with the constitutional court? I don’t know. We have done our best.” Despite the uncertainty, lawmakers backed the ban by a large majority. The only party to oppose it was the opposition Green party, which argued that the law was unconstitutional. In the lead-up to the vote, the bill was criticised by rights organisations, including Amnesty International, which said it would “not empower girls – on the contrary, it will add to the current racist climate towards Muslims”. The official Islamic Community in Austria, the IGGÖ, said the ban would leave children “stigmatised and marginalised”. In a statement on its website, the IGGÖ added: “This is symbolic politics at the expense of those affected.” Angelika Atzinger of the Amazone women’s rights association, said the ban “sends girls the message that decisions are being made about their bodies and that this is legitimate”. Others pointed to the broader picture. Farid Hafez, a senior researcher at Georgetown University, suggested the debate was being used strategically to distract from Austria’s severe economic pressures, including a budget deficit of 4.7% of GDP. “In this context, debate over the hijab offers a convenient way to divert attention from deeper fiscal problems,” he wrote earlier this year. While legal scholars have questioned whether the ban will hold up in court, Hafez noted that even if it were struck down, the damage had been done. “It sends a chilling message to young Muslim girls and boys: that their faith, and by extension their identity, is unwelcome in Austrian society. “Austria’s fixation on legislating against the hijab is not about safeguarding children but about entrenching exclusion, normalising Islamophobia as mainstream politics, and signalling to a new generation of Muslims that their place in Austrian society will always be precarious.”
Greenlandic women claim victory in legal fight with Denmark over forced IUD scandal
Victims of Denmark’s IUD scandal, in which thousands of Greenlandic women and girls were forcibly fitted with contraceptive coils without their knowledge or consent, have claimed victory in their legal fight with the Danish government after it was confirmed they will be eligible for compensation. The Danish parliament, Folketinget, and the government reached an agreement on Wednesday that entitles about 4,500 Greenlandic women to claim 300,000 DKK (£35,000) each from a reconciliation fund. The announcement comes after a three-year battle by 143 women who filed a lawsuit demanding the same figure in compensation for the pain and suffering they had endured as a result, which they said was a violation of their human rights. Denmark ruled Greenland as a colony until 1953 and retained control of its healthcare system until 1992. In September, after years of failing to acknowledge the violations, Denmark made an official apology to the women. The prime minister, Mette Frederiksen, said she was sorry for the “systemic discrimination” against women and girls by the Danish healthcare system, who had been subjected to “both physical and psychological harm” because they were Greenlandic. Greenland’s former prime minister, Múte B Egede, has described the IUD scandal as a “genocide”. Referring to the case as a “dark chapter” in Denmark and Greenland’s history, the health ministry said on Wednesday that women who were given contraception without their knowledge or consent between 1960 and 1991 would be able to apply for compensation from April 2026. The law will come into force in June. According to the findings of an impartial investigation of contraceptive practices during that period, the government said an estimated 4,500 women may be entitled to compensation. In order to qualify, the women will have to provide a “credible report” of the incident, must have lived in Greenland during the qualifying period, and declare on oath that they had no knowledge or consent of the procedure taking place. Bula Larsen, one of the group of women who sued the government for their historical mistreatment, said it was politicians’ duty to give them compensation, “whether they like it or not”. She added: “Denmark is busy trying to save its reputation as a democratic country and as a country in which human rights are important to fulfil.” Larsen was 14 when she was told by the head of her dorm in Paamiut in south-western Greenland to go to the hospital, without explanation, and was forcibly fitted with an IUD. She has previously said the experience felt like an assault, left her with pain that felt as if she had “shattered glass in my abdomen” and had left her sterile. “Our activism as speakers and interviewees has been effective,” said Larsen. “We started our activism in 2022 with giving interviews and now within three years we got an apology and compensation for the pains and sorrows we have been through.” Aviaja Fontain, whose mother, Hedvig Frederiksen, was also forcibly fitted with an IUD at 14 at school in Paamiut, said: “We are happy. Like my mother said when she called me: we won.” While Fontain believes the compensation should have been higher, she said: “I am happy that they got the recognition about what happened to them.” Naaja H Nathanielsen, Greenland’s minister for justice and gender equality, said the compensation was “long overdue”. She said: “I am very, very happy that the Danish state finally acknowledges the caused trauma in form of a compensation. It is long overdue. It is not about the money. It is about recognition of the hurt and the very severe implications these actions [have] caused.” Denmark’s health and interior minister, Sophie Løhde, said the IUD scandal was a “dark chapter in our shared history”, adding: “It has had major consequences for the Greenlandic women who have experienced both physical and psychological harm, and which to this day has an impact on the perception of Denmark and the realm.” She said compensation “cannot remove the pain from the women” but it “helps to acknowledge and apologise for the experiences they have gone through”.
Spain’s ruling socialist party accused of failing to act on sexual misconduct by senior men
Spain’s ruling socialist party, which has been battered by a barrage of corruption allegations and political setbacks, is scrambling to reassert its feminist credentials after being accused of failing to act on sexual misconduct by senior men in the party. Pedro Sánchez appointed 11 women and six men to his cabinet when he became prime minister in 2018, saying his Spanish Socialist Workers’ party (PSOE) was “unmistakably committed to equality” and to reflecting recent changes in Spanish society. But seven years on a slew of allegations of sexual harassment – and the PSOE’s response to them – have led some women in the party to call for urgent action. The party’s travails date back to July, when Francisco Salazar, who had overseen institutional coordination at the Moncloa palace in Madrid – the office and official residence of the prime minister – resigned. The online newspaper elDiario.es had published allegations of sexual harassment against him by women in the PSOE. At the time, sources at Moncloa said an investigation had been launched, but added that no official complaints had so far been made against Salazar. However, it has emerged in recent days that internal PSOE complaints lodged against Salazar by two female party members had been ignored for five months. The PSOE admitted “a lack of diligence” but said the failure to act had been the result of a computer system error. Over the weekend, Sánchez fired Salazar’s former right-hand man, Antonio Hernández, for allegedly helping to cover up his boss’s alleged behaviour. Hernández has denied any such wrongdoing, while Salazar has said he could not recall any inappropriate interactions. Then on Wednesday, José Tomé, a senior PSOE politician in the north-western province of Lugo who had been accused of sexual misconduct by several women, resigned from his posts. Tomé insisted he had been the victim of a “set-up”. The PSOE’s commitment to feminism and equality was tarnished over the summer when recordings emerged of the former transport minister, José Luis Ábalos, and one of his aides, Koldo García Izaguirre, apparently discussing the various attributes of different sex workers. Defence lawyers for the accused have sought to question the authenticity of the recordings, but police analysis has suggested they have not been manipulated. On Sunday three senior female members of the party called in an opinion piece in El País for “profound transformations that guarantee, full, real and effective equality”. Adriana Lastra, a former PSOE deputy secretary general, has also urged the party to fulfil its commitment to “women’s independence, safety and freedom” and to hand over details of the Salazar case to prosecutors. Sánchez has assumed personal responsibility for the shortcomings of the Salazar investigations and has said his party will support Salazar’s alleged victims if they file a criminal complaint against him. Opposition parties have seized on the allegations and the PSOE’s lack of action as proof of the government’s sleaze, hypocrisy and corruption. In parliament on Wednesday, Alberto Núñez Feijóo, the leader of the conservative People’s party (PP), told Sánchez: “Now everyone can see that when it comes to choosing between the abuser and the abused, you’re with the abuser. This doesn’t look like an isolated case – it’s the way you always act.” Santiago Abascal, the leader of the far-right Vox party, accused Sánchez of “coming up with more plots than Netflix”. Sánchez said his government was fighting to help women and to achieve greater equality, adding that all the PP was doing was embracing the reactionary views of Vox. “Feminism offers lessons to all of us – and to me, first and foremost,” he said. “But the big difference between us and the PP is that we take responsibility for our mistakes when we make them and we act as a result. What you do is cosy up to the historic mistake known as Vox.” A senior PP figure accused of sexual misconduct last year announced on Wednesday that he was temporarily stepping back from the party after the PSOE filed a criminal complaint against him, accusing him of misuse of public funds, influence-peddling and sexual assault. José Ignacio Landaluce – a senator who is also the mayor of the southern port city of Algeciras – said he would remain in those posts but was resigning as the leader of the local branch of the PP, adding that he maintained his “absolutely innocence” with regard to the accusations.
Former Bolivian president Luis Arce detained on corruption charges
Bolivia’s former president Luis Arce was detained on Wednesday on charges that he “enabled illicit enrichment” by allegedly allowing state funds earmarked for Indigenous communities to be transferred into government officials’ personal accounts. Arce served as Bolivia’s president until last month, when he handed the sash to the centre-right former senator Rodrigo Paz Pereira, who won the runoff in an election that ended nearly 20 years of dominance by the leftwing Movement for Socialism, or Movimiento al Socialismo (Mas). The new interior minister, Marco Antonio Oviedo, said Arce was being investigated as the “principal person responsible” for at least 360m bolivianos (£39.2m) in economic losses involving a fund intended to channel hydrocarbon tax revenues into development projects for Indigenous peoples. The natural-gas boom was the main reason for astonishing economic growth that lifted thousands out of poverty – particularly many Indigenous and rural communities – during the early years of the administration of the former president Evo Morales, under whom Arce served as finance minister. The fund, however, was shut down in 2015 after a corruption scandal involving the alleged misappropriation of resources, though the accusations never reached Arce until now. Investigations were revived after Paz Pereira took office. The president established at least 10 commissions to audit and investigate Mas administrations, one of them focused on the “Indigenous fund”. Oviedo said on Wednesday that Arce, had failed in his duties while serving as economy minister by authorising the transfer of large sums of money into officials’ personal accounts for “ghost projects” that were never carried out. One such official is the former Mas MP Lidia Patty, who has been in custody since Friday. Arce “is the principal person responsible for this multimillion economic damage that has occurred in the country”, he told a press conference. “At the time he served as economy minister, Arce Catacora acted as president of this fund, and therefore bore direct responsibility.” Morales has not been named in the case. The country’s first Indigenous president has been hiding for more than a year in the coca-growing region of Chapare, where hundreds of farmers prevent police or the military from enforcing an arrest warrant against him for allegedly having fathered a child with a 15-year-old girl in 2006. Paz Pereira has not yet addressed Arce’s arrest directly, but his vice-president, Edmand Lara, posted a video on his social media congratulating the police for apprehending the former president: “We said that Luis Arce would be the first to go to prison, and we are delivering. Everyone who has stolen from this country will return every last cent and be held to account.” Lara, a former police officer, became famous on TikTok for making corruption accusations. According to the attorney general, Róger Mariaca, Arce remained silent during questioning at the headquarters of the Special Force to Fight Crime in La Paz. Mariaca said he had requested Arce’s detention on the grounds of a risk he might flee or obstruct the process. A precautionary hearing is scheduled for Thursday, at which a judge will decide whether Arce should face proceedings in custody or at liberty. María Nela Prada Tejada, a former minister under Arce, was the first to denounce the former president’s arrest on Wednesday. She said he was innocent and had already presented all relevant evidence in his defence while still serving as a minister. “This has been a total abuse of power,” she said. “We hope this case is not being taken as an opportunity to carry out political persecution.”
Rwanda-backed M23 rebels say they have captured key city in eastern DRC
Rwanda-backed M23 rebels claimed to have captured a key eastern city in Democratic Republic of the Congo as they continued their march to control more of Africa’s second largest country. In statements in English and French on Wednesday evening, a rebel spokesperson, Lawrence Kanyuka, claimed the city of Uvira had been “fully liberated, secured and under the control of the liberation forces”. He said on X that the rebels were committed to “protecting civilian populations and defending their rights against any aggression, regardless of its source”, urging soldiers and the Wazalendo militia allied to the Congolese military to surrender immediately. However, speaking to Reuters, Burundi’s foreign minister, Edouard Bizimana, said Uvira “has not yet fallen”. Since Bukavu, the capital of South Kivu province, fell to M23 in February, the lakeside city of Uvira, strategically located between DRC and Burundi, has served as the temporary headquarters of the Kinshasa-appointed government. Its capture could give rebels a clear path to expand further into other parts of the DRC, observers say. In recent days, the Congolese army and allied militias have reportedly evacuated heavy weapons from Uvira toward Burundi, suggesting they are bracing for the rebel takeover. The rebel sweep has already claimed other major eastern cities this year, including Goma and Bukavu, as analysts accuse Rwanda of wanting to annex Congolese territory for itself particularly because of the abundance of minerals such as coltan and gold. Reports from Reuters say the advance by M23 displaced about 200,000 civilians, and at least 74 people were killed, as clashes intensified around Uvira and other flashpoints. In total, more than 6 million people across North and South Kivu provinces have been displaced at various points since M23’s renewed offensive in 2021. Some of the camps for displaced people have been dismantled in a “forcible transfer” that Human Rights Watch has said is “a war crime under the Geneva conventions”. M23, formally known as the March 23 Movement, is a rebel group formed in 2012 by former members of the National Congress for the Defence of the People (CNDP), a Rwanda-backed militia in eastern DRC. Its name was a reference to a 23 March 2009 peace agreement, which the rebels claim Kinshasa violated. Congolese authorities and UN experts accuse Rwanda of backing M23, citing evidence of Rwandan troop presence, supplies, and logistical support. Rwanda continues to deny these claims, framing the allegations as politically motivated. It instead accuses the DRC of collaborating with hostile militias including the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which it claims is planning a regime change in Kigali. M23, which has become notorious for human rights abuses, initially disbanded in 2013 after a major defeat by the Congolese army and the UN peacekeeping mission (Monusco). Around that time, Barack Obama, the then US president, had told Kagame that backing the rebels was “inconsistent with desire for stability and peace”. M23 re-emerged in 2021 and has begun taking territory at a faster pace, with fighting continuing despite peace deals signed in Doha and Washington DC this year. The advance into Uvira comes less than a week after Trump brokered a peace deal between the Congolese president, Felix Tshisekedi, and his Rwandan counterpart, Paul Kagame, to ease regional tensions. “Signing an agreement and not implementing it is a humiliation for everyone, and first and foremost for President Trump,” said Bizimana, calling for sanctions against Rwanda. “It’s truly a slap in the face to the United States, a middle finger.” On Tuesday, the Congolese foreign minister, Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner, told Reuters that the US should impose sanctions on Rwanda. “Washington has to restore the credibility of its process through accountability,” she said. “It is not enough to condemn. It is not enough to be preoccupied or to be concerned.” However, her Rwandan counterpart, Olivier Nduhungirehe, has claimed Kinshasa has failed to implement peace deals or honour the ceasefire deal. Speaking to Reuters on Wednesday, he said Burundian and Congolese forces had been attacking towns near the border between both countries before the latest escalation. “The international community has not demanded an end to these attacks prepared for months by the DRC and instigated in the past week,” he said.