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France says four migrants drowned trying to cross Channel

France says four migrants drowned trying to cross Channel
This handout photograph released by France’s Prefecture Maritime on July 12, 2024, shows rescuers assisting migrants from an inflatable dinghy off the coast of Boulougne-sur-Mer, northern France, after four migrants drowned overnight in The English Channel. (AFP)
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Updated 12 July 2024
AFP
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France says four migrants drowned trying to cross Channel

France says four migrants drowned trying to cross Channel
  • A navy patrol boat went to the site off of Boulogne-sur-Mer after being alerted that several migrants had fallen into the sea
  • The UK’s new interior minister Yvette Cooper described the deaths as “truly awful“
Updated 12 July 2024
AFP
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LILLE, France: Four migrants drowned in the Channel overnight off France’s northern coast while trying to cross to Britain, French maritime police said Friday.
A navy patrol boat went to the site off of Boulogne-sur-Mer after being alerted that several migrants had fallen into the sea, maritime police told AFP.
Four bodies were pulled from the water, but people were also rescued, the police added.
The UK’s new interior minister Yvette Cooper described the deaths as “truly awful.”
“Criminal gangs are making vast profit from putting lives at risk,” she wrote on X.
“We are accelerating action with international partners to pursue & bring down dangerous smuggler gangs,” she added.
The UK’s Labour government on Saturday confirmed it was scrapping a plan to deport migrants to Rwanda in an effort to reduce the number of irregular migrants arriving on the country’s shores.
Since Labour’s general election win last Thursday, nearly 500 migrants have arrived in Britain on small boats, according to an AFP tally of official government figures.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer has pledged to tackle the problem by smashing smuggling gangs.
The latest Channel fatalities take to 19 the number of people who have lost their life this year trying to cross over to Britain from France on often overloaded boats.
Five migrants died on April 23 off the French coast while trying to make the perilous journey.
A total of 12,313 people have made the crossing so far this year, according to Home Office provisional figures released in mid-June.
The figure is 18 percent higher than for the equivalent point last year, when the figure stood at 10,472.

Topics: France UK English Channel migrants

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Ukrainian drones hit Russian airfield, oil depot: Kyiv source

Ukrainian drones hit Russian airfield, oil depot: Kyiv source
Updated 16 sec ago
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Ukrainian drones hit Russian airfield, oil depot: Kyiv source

Ukrainian drones hit Russian airfield, oil depot: Kyiv source
Updated 16 sec ago
“Last night, drones from Ukraine’s Security Service visited the Morozovsk airfield in the Rostov region” that stored aircraft and guided aerial bombs, the source said
“Ukrainian drones did a great job, hitting the aviation ammunition depot”

KYIV: Ukrainian drones targeted a military airfield and an oil depot in Russia, a defense source in Kyiv said on Saturday, after Moscow reported repelling the latest aerial barrage.
Kyiv has stepped up aerial attacks on Russian territory, saying it carries out the strikes in retaliation for the bombardments Ukraine has faced since Russia invaded more than two years ago.
“Last night, drones from Ukraine’s Security Service visited the Morozovsk airfield in the Rostov region” that stored aircraft and guided aerial bombs, the source said.
“Ukrainian drones did a great job, hitting the aviation ammunition depot,” the source added.
Russia has launched more than 600 guided air bombs on Ukraine in one week alone, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
“Russian combat aircraft must be destroyed where they are, by all means that are effective. Striking at Russian airfields is also quite fair,” he said on social media.
Russian officials did not address claims regarding the destroyed airfield, but local governor Vasily Golubev said on Telegram that authorities introduced a state of emergency in the district of Morozovsk.
“At the moment we have recorded damage to the windows in several social facilities, including schools and kindergartens, as well as in residential houses and industrial premises,” Golubev said on Telegram.
The source in the Ukrainian defense sector also said its forces hit a fuel warehouse in the Kamensky district of the Rostov region, where Russian officials earlier reported a drone attack set fire to oil tanks.
Later the armed forces said they had sunk the B-237 Rostov-on-Don submarine in occupied Crimea the day before, and destroyed air defense systems.
Moscow did not address the specific claim but the Russian defense ministry said it destroyed at least 76 drones launched by Kyiv, including 36 over the border region of Rostov and 17 in the Oryol region.
Russian air defense disabled eight and nine drones respectively over the regions of Kursk and Belgorod, also bordering Ukraine.
Kyiv has stepped up strikes on Russian territory this year, targeting towns and villages just across the border, as well as energy sites that it says fuel Russia’s assault.
On Saturday, Kyiv said it had faced several missiles and 29 drones, out of which 24 drones were destroyed.
Local officials in the central region of Vinnytsia said the attacks damaged infrastructure, without giving more details.

Bangladesh students step up protests to press PM’s resignation

Bangladesh students step up protests to press PM’s resignation
Updated 03 August 2024
AFP
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Bangladesh students step up protests to press PM’s resignation

Bangladesh students step up protests to press PM’s resignation
  • Students Against Discrimination have asked their compatriots to cease paying taxes and utility bills from Sunday to pile pressure on the government
Updated 03 August 2024
AFP

DHAKA: Bangladeshi student leaders on Saturday said they would carry on a planned nationwide civil disobedience campaign until Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resigned following last month’s deadly police crackdown on protesters.
Rallies against civil service job quotas sparked days of mayhem in July that killed more than 200 people in some of the worst unrest of Hasina’s 15-year tenure.
Troop deployments briefly restored order but crowds returned to the streets in huge numbers this week ahead of an all-out non-cooperation movement aimed at paralysing the government planned to begin on Sunday.
Students Against Discrimination, the group responsible for organizing the initial protests, rebuffed an offer of talks with Hasina earlier in the day before announcing their campaign would continue until the premier and her government step down.
“She must resign and she must face trial,” Nahid Islam, the group’s leader, told a crowd of thousands at a monument to national heroes in the capital Dhaka to roars of approval.
Students Against Discrimination have asked their compatriots to cease paying taxes and utility bills from Sunday to pile pressure on the government.
They have also asked government workers and laborers in the country’s economically vital garment factories to strike.
“She must go because we don’t need this authoritarian government,” Nijhum Yasmin, 20, told AFP from one of many protests staged around Dhaka on Saturday.
“Did we liberate the country to see our brothers and sisters shot dead by this regime?“
The looming non-cooperation campaign deliberately evokes a historical civil disobedience campaign during Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.
That earlier movement was spearheaded by Hasina’s father Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s independence leader, and is remembered by Bangladeshis as a part of a proud battle against tyranny.
“Now the tables have turned,” Illinois State University politics professor Ali Riaz told AFP.
“The regime’s foundation has been shaken, the aura of invincibility has disappeared,” he added. “The question is whether Hasina is ready to look for an exit or fight to the last.”
Hasina, 76, has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.
Her government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
Demonstrations began in early July over the reintroduction of a quota scheme — since scaled back by Bangladesh’s top court — that reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups.
With around 18 million young Bangladeshis out of work, according to government figures, the move upset graduates facing an acute employment crisis.
The protests had remained largely peaceful until attacks on demonstrators by police and pro-government student groups.
Hasina’s government eventually imposed a nationwide curfew, deployed troops and shut down the nation’s mobile Internet network for 11 days to restore order.
But the clampdown provoked a torrent of criticism from abroad and failed to quell widespread rancour at home.
Crowds returned to the streets in huge numbers after Friday prayers in the Muslim-majority nation, heeding a call by student leaders to press the government for more concessions.
European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell this week called for an international probe into the “excessive and lethal force against protesters.”
Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan told reporters last weekend that security forces had operated with restraint but were “forced to open fire” to defend government buildings.
At least 32 children were among those killed last month, the United Nations said Friday.

Topics: Bangladesh Protests

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Al Qaeda affiliate says it has taken two Russians hostage in Niger

Al Qaeda affiliate says it has taken two Russians hostage in Niger
Updated 03 August 2024
Reuters
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Al Qaeda affiliate says it has taken two Russians hostage in Niger

Al Qaeda affiliate says it has taken two Russians hostage in Niger
  • The video from the media foundation of Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa Al-Muslimin (JNIM) includes what appears to be on-camera statements by the two captives
  • Speaking in Russian-accented English, both identified themselves as Russians and said they were taken hostage in Mbanga
Updated 03 August 2024
Reuters

NIGER: An Al-Qaeda affiliate in West Africa’s Sahel region has taken two Russian citizens hostage in Niger, according to a video released by the group on Friday.
The video from the media foundation of Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa Al-Muslimin (JNIM) includes what appears to be on-camera statements by the two captives, who say they were working for a Russian company in southwest Niger when they were taken prisoner.
Speaking in Russian-accented English, both identified themselves as Russians and said they were taken hostage in Mbanga, an area about 60 km (40 miles) west of the capital Niamey. They did not say when this happened.
One called himself Yuri and said he was a geologist, the other gave his name as Greg and said he came to work in Niger a month ago.
It was not clear when the video was filmed or where. The pair spoke in front of a backdrop made out of traditional West African cloth. The video did not include a ransom demand.
Russia’s foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
A security source in Niger, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the pair were taken about a week ago while visiting gold mines.
Mbanga is located in the gold-rich Tillaberi region, where Islamist militants linked to Al-Qaeda and Daesh are active in insurgencies that have destabilized swathes of territory in Niger, and in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso.
Since seizing power in a coup last year, the Niger junta, like the military rulers in Mali and Burkina Faso, has kicked out Western forces, and forged closer military and business ties with Russia.

Topics: Al Qaeda Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin Russian Sahel region Niger

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Putin vows support to North Korea after devastating floods

Putin vows support to North Korea after devastating floods
Updated 03 August 2024
AFP
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Putin vows support to North Korea after devastating floods

Putin vows support to North Korea after devastating floods
  • North Korea said this week it had seen a record downpour on July 27 which killed an unspecified number of people
  • “I ask you to convey words of sympathy and support to all those who lost their loved ones as a result of the storm,” Putin said
Updated 03 August 2024
AFP

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin has offered condolences to North Korean counterpart Kim Jong Un over devastating floods that caused untold casualties and damaged thousands of homes, the Kremlin said on Saturday.
North Korea said this week it had seen a record downpour on July 27 which killed an unspecified number of people, flooded dwellings and submerged swathes of farmland in the north near China.
“I ask you to convey words of sympathy and support to all those who lost their loved ones as a result of the storm,” Putin said in a telegram to Kim.
“You can always count on our help and support.”
North Korea and Russia have been allies since the North’s founding after World War II and have drawn even closer since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Media in South Korea, which has offered urgent support to the victims, said this week the toll of dead and missing could be as high as 1,500.
Kim lashed out at the reports, dismissing them as a “smear campaign to bring disgrace upon us and tarnish” the North’s image.
Natural disasters tend to have a greater impact on the isolated and impoverished country due to its weak infrastructure, while deforestation has left it vulnerable to flooding.

Topics: Russia North Korea floods Kim Jong Un President Vladimir Putin

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Jailed Belarus Nobel winner should have been freed in prisoner swap, say supporters

Jailed Belarus Nobel winner should have been freed in prisoner swap, say supporters
Updated 03 August 2024
Reuters
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Jailed Belarus Nobel winner should have been freed in prisoner swap, say supporters

Jailed Belarus Nobel winner should have been freed in prisoner swap, say supporters
  • Allies of Bialiatski and other jailed Belarusians are disappointed they were not included in the swap
  • Alena Masliukova, a member of Viasna — the human rights organization founded by Bialiatski, said: “This was a total disappointment, and we still haven’t overcome it“
Updated 03 August 2024
Reuters

VILNIUS: Supporters of jailed Belarusian Nobel Peace laureate Ales Bialiatski say the human rights activist should have been included in the biggest East-West prisoner swap since the Cold War on Thursday.
Allies of Bialiatski and other jailed Belarusians are disappointed they were not included in the swap, which saw eight Russians, including a convicted murderer, exchanged for 16 prisoners in Russian and Belarusian jails, many of them dissidents.
Some of the Russian dissidents freed in the swap, including Ilya Yashin, an opposition activist, expressed anger or reservations on Friday at having been deported from their country against their will.
Bialiatski, 61, who is serving a 10-year sentence for financing anti-government protests after a trial in 2023 condemned by the US and the European Union as a “sham,” was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022 — a year after his arrest.
“When we heard that the deal is imminent, we hoped that someone from Belarus political prisoners will surely be a part of it. First of all, of course, the jailed Nobel Peace Prize winner,” said Alena Masliukova, a member of Viasna — the human rights organization founded by Bialiatski.
“This was a total disappointment, and we still haven’t overcome it,” said Masliukova, who now lives in exile in Vilnius, the Lithuanian capital.
Among those released in this week’s swap was German citizen Rico Krieger who had been sentenced to death on terrorism charges in Belarus, a close ally of Russia where — according to Viasna — 1,390 people are in jail for political reasons — many linked to mass protests four years ago.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, in power since 1994, faced large protests after a disputed 2020 presidential election — the biggest challenge to his rule.
He has long dismissed accusations of human rights abuse.
Viasna says activists are still dragged before courts for their role in the protests, and Masliukova said political prisoners faced harsh conditions in jail.
“They are kept in cold cells, without contact with relatives. They leave jail with damaged health,” she said.
Bialiatski returned voluntarily from exile to Belarus in 2021 despite knowing he likely faced arrest, which supporters said meant he might not be willing to leave the country again, a process which legally requires the prisoner to ask for a pardon.
“I know his character and I am sure there is no way he would ask for pardon from Lukashenko,” said Siarhei Sys, a long-time friend. “I don’t know what happens in five years ... It all depends on the state of his health.”

Topics: Russia US belarus Ales Bialiatski Viasna prisoner swap

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