World Briefing: November 3, 2024

Moldovans head to the polls today for a second-round vote to choose between the incumbent pro-EU president, Maia Sandu, and a Russia-friendly challenger. Despite securing 42% of the vote in the first round, Sandu faces a tough challenge in the runoff against an opposition bloc led by Alexandr Stoianoglo of the Socialist party, which aligns with Moscow. The election in this small nation of under 3 million people in south-eastern Europe follows a referendum in which a slim majority voted in favour of pursuing membership of the EU. Since the breakup of the Soviet Union, Moldova has gravitated between pro-western and pro-Russian courses. But under Sandu, a former World Bank adviser, the impoverished country has accelerated its push to escape Moscow’s orbit amid its war in neighbouring Ukraine. The results of the referendum and first round of the election were marred by allegations of a Moscow-backed vote-buying scheme. Sandu and her allies have accused Russia and its proxies of leading a large-scale campaign involving vote-buying and misinformation to sway the election. They accuse the fugitive Moldovan businessman Ilan Shor, a vocal opponent of EU membership, of running a destabilising campaign from Moscow. - Guardian

King Charles is profiting from the deaths of thousands of people in the north-west of England whose assets are secretly being used to upgrade a commercial property empire managed by his hereditary estate, the Guardian can reveal. The Duchy of Lancaster, a controversial land and property estate that generates huge profits for King Charles III, has collected tens of millions of pounds in recent years under an antiquated system that dates back to feudal times. Financial assets known as bona vacantia, owned by people who died without a will or known next of kin, are collected by the duchy. Over the last 10 years, it has collected more than £60m in the funds. It has long claimed that, after deducting costs, bona vacantia revenues are donated to charities. However, only a small percentage of these revenues is being given to charity. Internal duchy documents seen by the Guardian reveal how funds are secretly being used to finance the renovation of properties that are owned by the king and rented out for profit - Guardian

Spain's King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia are due Sunday to visit the Valencia region, Spanish media reported, where devastating floods have killed more than 200 people. Hopes of finding survivors ebbed five days after torrents of muddy water wrecked towns and infrastructure in Spain's worst such disaster in decades. Almost all the deaths have been in the Valencia region, where thousands of security and emergency services frantically cleared debris and mud in the search for bodies. Describing "the worst natural disaster in the recent history of our country," Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez said it was the second deadliest flood in Europe this century. The government had accepted the Valencia region leader's request for 5,000 more troops and informed Sanchez of a further deployment of 5,000 police and civil guards, the premier said. Spain was carrying out its largest deployment of military and security force personnel in peacetime, he added. - France 24

China appears to have built a new and unusual aircraft carrier, intriguing experts with a potentially first-of-its-kind vessel that could further increase Beijing’s rapidly expanding maritime power. Satellite imagery from Planet Labs shows a vessel with a large, open flat top under construction at Guangzhou Shipyard International on Longxue Island, in the southern province of Guangdong. This potential new aircraft carrier “is of a somewhat unusual shape and size – much smaller than China’s previous naval aircraft carriers,” said Thomas Shugart, a former US Navy submarine commander and now a fellow at the Center for a New American Security. But the vessel is even smaller than the Type 075 amphibious assault ships used by Beijing’s navy, suggesting that China may be building the world’s first “ostensibly civilian ‘aircraft carrier’ as an oceanographic research vessel of some sort,” Shugart added. - CNN

Russia is importing butter from the United Arab Emirates and Turkey, in a move aimed at containing soaring prices that have alarmed consumers. Agricultural watchdog Rosselkhoznadzor said on Saturday that deliveries of butter from the UAE began on Oct. 18. "Previously, there had been no deliveries of butter from the UAE to Russia," it said in a statement. The price of a block of butter has risen by 25.7% since last December, according to Russia's statistics service. That compares with an inflation rate of 8.6% and has prompted a spate of butter thefts at some supermarkets - Reuters

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