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France’s president is visiting Morocco after his Western Sahara change brings a ‘new honeymoon’

France’s president is visiting Morocco after his Western Sahara change brings a ‘new honeymoon’
Macron is scheduled to meet with King Mohammed VI and Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch and address Morocco’s Parliament. (AFP)
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Updated 28 October 2024
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France’s president is visiting Morocco after his Western Sahara change brings a ‘new honeymoon’

France’s president is visiting Morocco after his Western Sahara change brings a ‘new honeymoon’
  • Macron is scheduled to meet with King Mohammed VI and Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch and address Morocco’s Parliament
  • Morocco is the top destination for French investment in Africa and France is Morocco’s top trade partner
Updated 28 October 2024
AP
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RABAT: French President Emmanuel Macron arrives Monday in Morocco, where he is expected to meet with the North African kingdom’s leaders and discuss partnerships regarding trade, climate change and immigration.
During the president’s three-day visit to Rabat, he is scheduled to meet with King Mohammed VI and Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch and address Morocco’s Parliament.
It comes months after Macron changed France’s longstanding public position and backed Morocco’s autonomy plan for the disputed Western Sahara. The move endeared the country to Morocco and alienated it from Algeria, which hosts refugee camps governed by the pro-independence Polisario Front and has long pushed for a UN-organized referendum to solve the conflict.
In the days leading up to the visit, Moroccan publications lauded the “warm reunion” and a “new honeymoon” between the two countries while French flags were hung throughout Rabat.
France and Morocco have historically partnered on issues ranging from counterterrorism to Western Sahara. Morocco is the top destination for French investment in Africa and France is Morocco’s top trade partner. Morocco imports French cereals, renewable energy infrastructure like turbines and weapons. Morocco exports goods to France including tomatoes, cars and airplane parts.
Moroccans are among the largest foreign-born communities in France, where North African immigrants are a key political constituency and a focal point of debates about the roles of Islam and immigration in French society. In recent months, France’s new Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau has pushed for the country to take a hard-line approach toward immigration and seek deals with countries like Morocco to better prevent would-be migrants from crossing into Europe.
On Macron’s last visit to Morocco, he and King Mohammed VI inaugurated Al Boraq, Africa’s first high-speed rail line, made possible by French financing and trains manufactured by the French firm Alstrom.
Despite close ties, relations have at times been fragile between France and Morocco, which was a French protectorate from 1912 to 1956. In 2021, Morocco suspended consular relations France momentarily reduced the number of visas offered to Moroccans in protest of its refusal to provide documents needed to deport people who migrated to France without authorization.
Relations between the two countries soured further that year when a 2021 report revealed Morocco’s security services had used Israeli spyware to infiltrate the devices of activists and politicians, including Macron. Morocco denied and sued over the allegations.

Topics: France Morocco Western Sahara

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UK anti-Islam activist 'Tommy Robinson' admits breaching injunction

UK anti-Islam activist 'Tommy Robinson' admits breaching injunction
Updated 1 min 14 sec ago
Reuters
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UK anti-Islam activist 'Tommy Robinson' admits breaching injunction

UK anti-Islam activist 'Tommy Robinson' admits breaching injunction
Updated 1 min 14 sec ago
Reuters
LONDON: British anti-Muslim activist Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, known by the pseudonym Tommy Robinson, on Monday admitted contempt of court by breaching an injunction made after he was successfully sued for libel.
Yaxley-Lennon was made subject to an injunction in 2021, preventing him from repeating libellous statements about a Syrian refugee who he wrongly claimed had attacked a girl at his school.
Britain's Solicitor General took legal action against Yaxley-Lennon for contempt of court for breaching the injunction. Yaxley-Lennon appeared at London's Woolwich Crown Court and admitted breaching the injunction on Monday.
Yaxley-Lennon was accused by some media and politicians of inflaming tensions which led to days of rioting across Britain at the end of July in the wake of the murder of three young girls at a dance workshop in Southport.
He appeared at court in custody after he was charged on Friday under terrorism laws with failing to provide his mobile phone PIN code when he left Britain in July.

Joy across Kabul after Afghanistan’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup cricket win

Joy across Kabul after Afghanistan’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup cricket win
Updated 5 min 20 sec ago
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Joy across Kabul after Afghanistan’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup cricket win

Joy across Kabul after Afghanistan’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup cricket win
  • Cricket is considered the most popular sport in Afghanistan
  • Sunday’s win is Afghanistan A’s 1st-ever title in Emerging Teams Asia Cup
Updated 5 min 20 sec ago
MODASER ISLAMI

KABUL: Afghans in Kabul celebrated with joy and pride on Monday after the country’s cricket team won the 2024 ACC Emerging Teams Asia Cup.

Afghanistan A beat Sri Lanka A at the finals in Muscat, Oman on Sunday evening, giving them their first-ever title in the tournament organized by the Asian Cricket Council, aimed at developing talented young cricketers in Asia.

People in Kabul and other Afghan cities were swift to mark the national team’s victory with celebratory fireworks, which was how Khalil Ahmed first learned about the win.

“It was a very happy moment after a long and tiring day. Cricket has given us continuous joy and happiness and the heroes made us proud in many stages. They came from nowhere but reached heights,” Ahmed, a vendor based in Kabul, told Arab News.

Cricket is considered the most popular sport in Afghanistan and has represented a rare bright spot for many Afghans as they struggle amid a devastating economic and humanitarian crisis sparked by sanctions slapped on the Taliban administration following their takeover in 2021.

In June, the main national team made history when it won a place for the first time in the semifinals of the Twenty20 World Cup.

Sunday’s winning Afghanistan A, the “second tier” of international Afghan cricket, stands just below the full national team.

“It’s a big victory. A win for the whole country. Our boys are making history. With very little facilities and support, our national team has made significant achievements,” said Sharifullah Khan, a 54-year-old taxi driver in Kabul.

“They make us proud and bring so much happiness to the nation. The people and country’s leaders need to encourage our heroes and support them as much as they can. The boys are trying hard but with little support,” he said. “If we have those facilities that other nations have, our heroes will win not only Asia but the whole world.”

Ahmad Zia, another cricket fan who resides in Afghanistan’s second-largest city of Kandahar, is hoping that the latest win will inspire the government to provide the team with more support.

“Our heroes are working very hard. The equipment they possess is little, but their morale is very high and their love for the country is immense. With their efforts and prayers and support from the nation, they continue to shine and make more victories,” he told Arab News.

“The officials need to provide more facilities and support to the team. With increased support, they will make even bigger victories.”

Topics: Afghanistan

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Current climate pledges still fall way short on Paris goals, UN body says

Current climate pledges still fall way short on Paris goals, UN body says
Updated 16 sec ago
Reuters
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Current climate pledges still fall way short on Paris goals, UN body says

Current climate pledges still fall way short on Paris goals, UN body says
  • Nearly 200 countries will thrash out the details of a new global emissions trading system as well as a hefty $100 billion annual financial package to help developing countries meet their climate goals
Updated 16 sec ago
Reuters

SINGAPORE: National pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions still fall far short of what is needed to limit catastrophic global warming, the United Nations said on Monday as countries prepare for the next round of climate change negotiations in November.
The “nationally determined contributions” (NDCs) already submitted by countries to the UN are enough to cut global emissions by 2.6 percent from 2019 to 2030, up from 2 percent last year, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said in its annual assessment.
But they are far from sufficient to achieve the 43 percent cut that scientists say is required to stay within reach of a Paris Agreement target to limit global temperature rises to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit), it warned.
As part of their Paris obligations, nations must deliver new and stronger NDCs before a deadline in February next year, and the report’s findings should mark a “turning point,” said Simon Stiell, UNFCCC secretary general.
“Current national climate plans fall miles short of what’s needed to stop global heating from crippling every economy and wrecking billions of lives and livelihoods across every country,” he said.
“The last generation of NDCs set the signal for unstoppable change,” said Stiell. “New NDCs next year must outline a clear path to make it happen.”
Persuading nations to set and implement more ambitious pledges could depend on the success of COP29 climate talks beginning in two weeks in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku.
Nearly 200 countries will thrash out the details of a new global emissions trading system as well as a hefty $100 billion annual financial package to help developing countries meet their climate goals.
“What we are seeing is that in some cases, (the NDC process) might be used as a negotiating mechanism — more money for more ambition,” said Pablo Vieira, global director of the NDC Partnership, a non-government group that is helping around 60 countries draw up updated pledges.
“They also want to make sure that the new NDCs are investable, that they have the necessary elements that will attract not just public finance, but also private,” he said.

ATMOSPHERIC CO2 AT NEW RECORD
In a separate report, the UN’s weather monitoring body said on Monday that greenhouse gases have been accumulating in the atmosphere “faster than any time experienced during human existence” over the last two decades.
Carbon dioxide concentrations hit a new high of 420 parts per million (ppm) last year, up 2.3 ppm from a year earlier, and they have risen by 11.4 percent in just 20 years, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said in its annual greenhouse gas bulletin.
There are already signs that rising temperatures are driving dangerous “feedbacks” that will further increase atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, the report warned.
Last year’s increase in CO2 concentrations, the second largest annual rise of the last decade, could have been driven by a surge in forest fires, with the carbon released from Canada’s worst ever wildfire season exceeding the annual emissions of most major countries.
CO2 concentrations are now 51 percent higher than pre-industrial levels, while methane — another potent greenhouse gas — is 165 percent higher than in 1750, WMO said.
“This should set alarm bells ringing among decision makers,” said WMO Secretary General Celeste Saulo.
“These are more than just statistics. Every part per million and every fraction of a degree temperature increase has a real impact on our lives and our planet.”

Topics: climate change

Russian state media says Moscow spirited a US citizen working for it out of Ukraine

Russian state media says Moscow spirited a US citizen working for it out of Ukraine
Updated 28 October 2024
Reuters
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Russian state media says Moscow spirited a US citizen working for it out of Ukraine

Russian state media says Moscow spirited a US citizen working for it out of Ukraine
  • The US embassy in Moscow said it could not comment “due to privacy concerns”
Updated 28 October 2024
Reuters

MOSCOW: Russian state media said on Monday that Moscow’s forces fighting in Ukraine had successfully extracted a US citizen from eastern Ukraine who had secretly helped them target Ukraine for at least two years.
State media published a picture of the purported American in civilian clothing embracing a group of what looked like Russian special forces wearing combat uniforms. His face was blurred out in the photograph.
Reuters was unable to independently confirm the Russian reports which cited Moscow’s forces in the Donetsk region of eastern Ukraine as saying they were calling the American “Kenneth M.”
The US embassy in Moscow said it could not comment “due to privacy concerns.”
Russian media cast the man as “The Quiet American” after the 1955 novel by Graham Greene which tells the story of early US involvement in Vietnam through the adventures of a British journalist and an American agent.
Russian forces in the Donetsk region were quoted as saying that Russian special forces and army units had spirited the American out of eastern Ukraine and that he had been supplying Russia with “valuable intelligence” for two years.
Russian media said he had supplied information that had allowed the Russian military to “execute precision strikes against the enemy.”
“The life of the rescued American is not in danger,” Rusisan-backed forces in Donetsk were cited as saying. “The issue of granting political asylum and becoming a citizen of Russia is being resolved.”

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict US

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Inside the secret train evacuating wounded Ukrainian soldiers

Inside the secret train evacuating wounded Ukrainian soldiers
Updated 28 October 2024
AFP
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Inside the secret train evacuating wounded Ukrainian soldiers

Inside the secret train evacuating wounded Ukrainian soldiers
  • Blue-and-yellow carriages of this train operated by the military are carrying wounded soldiers to hospitals away from the precarious front line
Updated 28 October 2024
AFP

UKRAINE: It looks like an ordinary train waiting to depart an ordinary station, but through its fogged windows, a Ukrainian serviceman with face injuries lies stretched out on a gurney.
All of the other blue-and-yellow carriages of this train operated by the military are carrying wounded soldiers to hospitals away from the precarious front line.
Nearly three years after Russian forces invaded Ukraine, many medical facilities in war-battered eastern Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed, while those left untouched are overcrowded.
For Oleksandr, the army doctor overseeing the evacuation, there are clear benefits to rail: many people can be moved at once and it is safer than transporting wounded soldiers by helicopter, given Russian superiority in Ukraine’s airspace.
But there are risks too.
“Our adversary in the war does not distinguish between what’s medical and military, so we take certain security measures,” the 46-year-old said.
AFP was recently granted rare media access to the train, whose points of departure and arrival are not being disclosed for security reasons.
Inside the secret train
Ambulances arrived at the station carrying dozens of wounded troops who were then hauled onto the train on stretchers and settled on beds with floral-patterned sheets.
Ukrainian flags and hand-drawn pictures by children annotated with patriotic messages lined the walls inside the train.
The carriages resemble a hospital until the train rolls away from the platform and gently rocks patients and staff — and everything else inside — as it crawls farther from the front.
“We do everything on the move, everything. Starting from the usual intravenous injections, ending with incubations,” said Viktorya, a nurse dressed in khaki and wearing blue medical gloves.
“We get dizzy afterwards,” the 25-year-old said, standing in front of a window, the sweeping Ukrainian landscape rolling by.
The journeys to and from the front, where Ukraine is coming under increasing pressure, have given Viktorya a painful insight into the cost of the conflict grinding through its third year.
“I understand the number of wounded now. It’s very hard to see it every day,” she said.
Kyiv — like Moscow — is tight-lipped about its soldier casualty count.
President Volodymyr Zelensky in February said the number of Ukrainian servicemen confirmed killed was around 31,000 — a figure observers say is likely an underestimate — but the number of missing and wounded has never been disclosed.
Severe injuries
Most of those wounded were struck in artillery or drone attacks, staff explained, and many have had arms or legs amputated or were unconscious.
One carriage is designated for patients who have been in intensive care and doctors can even operate on patients in case of “force majeure,” doctor Oleksandr said.
Things can go wrong and mass bleeding — an unpredictable and rapid killer — is a major concern for staff.
“Staff are always near the patient,” Oleksandr explained, adding that they take turns using the toilet or eating.
Despite the logistical issues around caregiving on moving trains, the wounded soldiers’ preoccupations lie elsewhere.
“Their psychological state is not good,” Olena, a medical staff worker, told AFP.
“They’re not worried about losing a limb or whatever else. What depresses them is how their comrades are and how their family is,” Olena added.
Tales of war
One Ukrainian serviceman on the train was being treated for a gunshot wound after being caught in a Russian ambush that also killed one of his fellow soldiers.
“Four of us left but not all of us returned,” the 28-year-old who identified himself as Murchyk said.
But he was already gauging when he might be able to make his way back to the front, where Ukraine’s outnumbered forces have been ceding ground to determined Russian advances.
Whether Murchyk can return to combat will be decided by a medical commission, but he said he was clear-eyed about his wish.
“I’d like to go back,” he told AFP.
The train evacuations in Ukraine began when the war did, in February 2022.
It revives a process used in World War II, with several refitted trains now taking wounded troops from the front.
When Oleksandr’s train arrives at its destination, ambulances are already waiting for the patients to be loaded off and taken onwards to hospital.
“It is of course very stressful and yes, you breathe a sigh of relief when you arrive and unload,” he said, “when you see that all the ambulances have left, when the platform is empty and the train is empty.”

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict

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