Macron says Europe must protect sovereignty in face of Trump’s return
Macron says Europe must protect sovereignty in face of Trump’s return/node/2587388/world
Macron says Europe must protect sovereignty in face of Trump’s return
French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes German Chancellor Olaf Scholz as he arrives for a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, Jan. 22, 2025. (Reuters)
Macron says Europe must protect sovereignty in face of Trump’s return
Macron made the remarks at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz
Updated 22 January 2025
Reuters
PARIS: More than ever, Europeans, including France and Germany, must protect their sovereignty in the face of the return of US President Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday.
He made the remarks at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Paris, adding that it was important to support the automobile, steel, chemical sectors, among others.
“After the inauguration of a new administration in the United States, it is necessary more than ever for Europeans and for our two countries to play their role of consolidating a united, strong and sovereign Europe,” Macron said.
Taliban leaders remain on Washington’s list of ‘specially designated global terrorists’ but the bounty price has been scrapped
Sirajuddin Haqqani had long been one of Washington’s most important targets, with a $10 million bounty on his head
Updated 27 March 2025
AFP
KABUL: The United States has removed multimillion-dollar bounties on leaders of Afghanistan’s feared Haqqani militant network, including the current Taliban interior minister, the State Department and the Taliban government said.
The Haqqani network was responsible for some of the deadliest attacks during the decades-long war in Afghanistan.
The men remain on Washington’s list of “specially designated global terrorists” but the bounty price has been scrapped.
Taliban interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said that Washington had “canceled rewards” for Sirajuddin Haqqani – who also heads the Haqqani network – as well as other key leaders, Abdul Aziz Haqqani and Yahya Haqqani.
Sirajuddin Haqqani had long been one of Washington’s most important targets, with a $10 million bounty on his head.
The US State Department said that “the three persons named remain designated as Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs), and the Haqqani Network remains designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization and a SDGT.”
But while the wanted page remains active, the bounty on the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) website has been removed.
“It is the policy of the United States to consistently review and refine Rewards for Justice reward offers,” a State Department spokesperson said on Wednesday.
The bounty cancelation came days after the first visit by US officials to Afghanistan since President Donald Trump returned to office, and the announcement afterwards of the release of a US citizen by Taliban authorities.
US-based Afghan political analyst Abdul Wahed Faqiri said that the bounty removal is likely “largely symbolic” but a way for the United States to “give credit to Sirajuddin Haqqani,” seen as an emerging more moderate “alternative.”
Media reports talk of increasing tensions between the “pragmatic” Haqqani figures and a more hardline circle around Taliban supreme leader Hibatullah Akhundzada, who vie for influence within the government.
Despite the US bounty and international travel bans, Sirajuddin Haqqani has traveled outside Afghanistan multiple times since the Taliban government swept back to power in 2021.
The government in Kabul is not recognized by any country and has expressed hopes for “a new chapter” with Trump’s administration.
Trump signed a peace deal with the Taliban during his first term in office, that paved the way for the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 and their return to power.
Brazil’s Lula hopes ‘justice is served’ in Bolsonaro trial
The country’s Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to put former leader Jair Bolsonaro on trial
That case could torpedo his hopes of making a Donald Trump-style political comeback
Updated 27 March 2025
AFP
TOKYO: Brazil’s President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Thursday he hopes “justice is served” to far-right former leader Jair Bolsonaro, who will stand trial on charges of plotting a coup.
The country’s Supreme Court on Wednesday decided to put Bolsonaro on trial in a case that could torpedo his hopes of making a Donald Trump-style political comeback.
It will be the first trial of an ex-leader accused of attempting to take power by force since Brazil’s return to democracy in 1985 following two decades of military dictatorship.
Bolsonaro was not in court for the unanimous ruling by the five-judge panel, but in comments to reporters he slammed the allegations as “unfounded.”
“It seems they have something personal against me,” he said.
If convicted, the 70-year-old former army captain, who had nurtured hopes of standing in elections next year, risks a jail term of over 40 years, and political banishment.
Bolsonaro, who served a single term from 2019 to 2022, is accused of leading a “criminal organization” that conspired to keep him in power regardless of the outcome of the 2022 election.
He lost to leftist rival Lula by a razor-thin margin.
Investigators say that after Bolsonaro’s defeat, but while he was still in office, the coup plotters planned to declare a state of emergency so that new elections could be held.
He is also accused of being aware of a plot to assassinate Lula, his vice president Geraldo Alckmin and Supreme Court Justice Alexandre de Moraes — a Bolsonaro foe and one of the judges in the current case.
“I only hope that justice is served,” Lula told reporters on Thursday during a state visit to Japan.
“It’s obvious the former president tried to stage a coup, he knows he tried to assassinate me, he knows he tried to assassinate the vice president and everyone knows what he did,” he said.
Moraes, who has called Bolsonaro a “dictator,” was the first judge to give his findings in Wednesday’s hearing.
“There are reasonable indications from the prosecution pointing to Bolsonaro as the leader of the criminal organization,” he said.
Analysts say it is unlikely Bolsonaro will be placed in preventive custody, and he will probably stand trial as a free man to avoid perceptions of election interference.
Bolsonaro will be the second former Brazilian president in under a decade to face a criminal trial.
In July 2017, then ex-president Lula was found guilty of corruption.
He spent a year and a half in prison but had his conviction annulled by the Supreme Court and went on to win back the top office.
Bolsonaro is charged with attempting a “coup d’etat,” the “attempted violent abolition of the democratic rule of law” and “armed criminal organization,” among other crimes.
The prosecution says the plot did not come to fruition due to a lack of support from the army high command.
Seven alleged conspirators will be tried alongside the ex-president, including former ministers and an ex-navy commander.
Bolsonaro insists he is the victim of a political plot to obstruct his return to power.
A supporter in Sao Paulo, 44-year-old financial supervisor Cleber Fonseca, said he thought this amounted to a “political persecution” as “so far, no evidence has been shown.”
Bolsonaro’s political future had already appeared in doubt before Wednesday’s ruling.
He has been disqualified from holding public office until 2030 for having sought to cast doubt on Brazil’s electronic voting system. He had been hoping to have the ban overturned in time to stand in next year’s election.
A conviction for plotting to subvert Brazil’s democracy would likely force the political right to find a new candidate.
Dubbed the “Trump of the tropics” after the US president, his political idol, Bolsonaro has been the target of multiple investigations since his turbulent years as leader of Latin America’s biggest economy.
The latest investigation yielded a dossier of nearly 900 pages.
It also mentions the disturbances of January 8, 2023, when thousands of Bolsonaro’s backers stormed the presidential palace, Congress and Supreme Court demanding the military oust Lula a week after his inauguration.
Bolsonaro was in the United States at the time and says he condemned the “violent acts” committed that day.
He has consistently compared his fate to that of his “friend” Trump, who returned to the White House this year despite his own legal troubles and after a similar storming of the US Capitol by his supporters in January 2021.
“I am not dead yet,” he told reporters Wednesday in Brasilia, insisting the candidate for the right in next year’s vote “will be Bolsonaro.”
Police investigating the alleged coup plot confiscated Bolsonaro’s passport last year.
US religious freedom panel urges sanctions against India’s external spy agency
Panel says India is seeing rising minority abuse, India dismisses report as biased, politically motivated
Commission urges Vietnam to be designated as country of particular concern, panel’s recommendations not binding
Updated 27 March 2025
Reuters
WASHINGTON: A US panel on religious freedom said on Tuesday the treatment of minorities in India is deteriorating and it recommended sanctions be imposed on India’s external spy agency over its alleged involvement in plots to assassinate Sikh separatists.
The US Commission on International Religious Freedom also said in its annual report that communist-ruled Vietnam had stepped up efforts to regulate and control religious affairs. It recommended Vietnam be designated a “country of particular concern.”
“In 2024, religious freedom conditions in India continued to deteriorate as attacks and discrimination against religious minorities continued to rise,” the commission said in the report released on Tuesday.
Hindu nationalist Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) “propagated hateful rhetoric and disinformation against Muslims and other religious minorities” during last year’s election campaign, it said.
India dismissed the report on Wednesday, calling it part of a pattern of “biased and politically motivated assessments.”
“The USCIRF’s persistent attempts to misrepresent isolated incidents and cast aspersions on India’s vibrant multicultural society reflect a deliberate agenda rather than a genuine concern for religious freedom,” Indian foreign ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in a statement.
Washington has sought to build close ties with both India and Vietnam given their shared concerns about China’s rising influence in Asia. Analysts say that as result Washington has overlooked human rights issues.
Since 2023, India’s alleged targeting of Sikh separatists in the US and Canada has emerged as a wrinkle in US-India ties, with Washington charging an ex-Indian intelligence officer, Vikash Yadav, in a foiled plot. India labels Sikh separatists as security threats and has denied involvement.
Modi, in April last year, referred to Muslims as “infiltrators” who have “more children.”
US State Department reports on human rights and religious freedom have noted minority abuses in recent years. New Delhi calls them “deeply biased.”
Modi, who has been prime minister since 2014, denies discrimination and says his government’s policies like electrification drives and subsidy schemes help all communities.
Rights advocates point to rising hate speech, a citizenship law the UN called “fundamentally discriminatory,” anti-conversion legislation, opens new tab that critics say challenges freedom of belief, the revoking, opens new tab of Muslim majority Kashmir’s special status and the demolition of properties owned by Muslims.
The panel recommended the US government designate India as a “country of particular concern” for religious freedom violations and impose targeted sanctions against Yadav and India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) spy service.
The commission is a bipartisan US government advisory body that monitors religious freedom abroad and makes policy recommendations.
But it is unlikely the US government will sanction RAW as the panel’s recommendations are not binding.
On Vietnam, the panel said a new decree issued this month allowed Vietnamese authorities to further demand financial records from religious organizations and suspend religious activities for what the report said were vaguely worded “serious violations.”
As of December, the US panel’s Freedom of Religion or Belief Victims List included over 80 prisoners whom the Vietnamese government punished for religious activities or religious freedom advocacy.
The Vietnamese embassy had no immediate comment.
South Korea faces uphill battle to contain massive wildfires as the death toll rises to 26
Multiple wildfires have been raging across South Korea’s southeastern regions since last Friday
The government has mobilized thousands of people, dozens of helicopters and other equipment to extinguish the blazes
Updated 27 March 2025
AP
CHEONGSONG, South Korea: Helicopters dumped water over a burning forest in South Korea on Thursday as authorities struggled to contain the country’s worst-ever wildfires, which have killed 26 people, forced at least 37,000 others to flee their homes and destroyed more than 300 structures.
Multiple wildfires have been raging across South Korea’s southeastern regions since last Friday. The government has mobilized thousands of people, dozens of helicopters and other equipment to extinguish the blazes, but officials said strong winds are hampering their efforts.
Korea Forest Service chief Lim Sang-seop said “a small amount” – less than 5 millimeters (0.2 inches) – of rain was expected in the area on Thursday, not enough to play a meaningful role in extinguishing the wildfires.
The fatalities include a pilot whose helicopter crashed during efforts to contain a fire and four firefighters and other workers who died after being trapped by fast-moving flames driven by strong winds.
Authorities haven’t disclosed details of the civilian dead, except that they are mostly in their 60s and 70s. They suspect human error caused several of the wildfires, including cases where people started fires while clearing overgrown grass from family tombs or with sparks during welding work.
The wildfires have burned 36,010 hectares (88,980 acres) of land in the southeast, the government’s disaster response center said in a report Thursday. Observers say that’s the worst figure of its kind in South Korea. The report said the blazes have also injured 30 people, eight of them seriously, destroyed 325 buildings and structures and forced more than 37,180 people to evacuate.
As of Thursday morning, the center said authorities were mobilizing more than 9,000 people and about 120 helicopters to battle the wildfires.
In Cheongsong, one of the fire-hit areas, thick plumes of smoke were bellowing from Juwang Mountain. Helicopters repeatedly hovered over the mountain, dropping water. The amount of smoke later appeared to have diminished.
At a Buddhist temple near the mountain, workers covered a stone pagoda and other structures with fire-resistant materials, while firefighters poured water on sites near the temple.
“Damages are snowballing,” acting President Han Duck-soo said in a televised address on Wednesday. “There are concerns that we’ll have wildfire damages that we’ve never experienced, so we have to concentrate all our capabilities on putting out the wildfires this week.”
The hardest-hit areas include Andong city and the neighboring counties of Uiseong and Sancheong, and the city of Ulsan.
On Wednesday night, strong winds and smoke-filled skies forced authorities in the southeastern city of Andong to order evacuations in two villages, including Puncheon, home to the Hahoe folk village – a UNESCO World Heritage Site founded around the 14th-15th century. Hikers were advised to leave the scenic Jiri Mountain as another fire spread closer.
Officials said earlier this week that firefighters had extinguished most of the flames from the largest wildfires in key areas, but wind and dry conditions allowed them to spread again.
Destroyed in the blazes were houses, factories, vehicles and some historic structures. In Uiseong, about 20 of the 30 structures at the Gounsa temple complex, which was said to be originally built in the 7th century, have been burned. Among them were two state-designated “treasures” – a pavilion-shaped building erected overlooking a stream in 1668, and a Joseon dynasty structure built in 1904 to mark the longevity of a king.
The Korea Forest Service has raised its wildfire warning to the highest level, requiring local governments to assign more workers to emergency response, tighten entry restrictions for forests and parks, and recommend that military units withhold live-fire exercises.
Things to know about the limited ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine brokered by the US
Russia conditioned its part in opening Black Sea shipping on the US lifting sanctions, which Kyiv dismissed
While the benefits to Russia are clear, Ukrainian officials questioned how the Black Sea deal announced Tuesday would profit them
Updated 27 March 2025
AP
KYIV, Ukraine: After three days of intense negotiations, the Trump administration, Ukraine and Russia agreed to a limited ceasefire in which the key details, including what was covered and how it will start, were disputed by the warring sides, indicating the road to a complete truce will be long and mired with contention.
The negotiations focused on easing Black Sea shipping and halting long-range strikes on energy infrastructure, relatively low-hanging fruit that both sides had experience in negotiating before the US brokered indirect talks.
While much is yet unknown, here is a breakdown of the key elements of the partial ceasefire and what is at stake in the coming weeks as talks continue. The limited ceasefire began with a rocky start
Conflicting statements emerged immediately after the talks on Tuesday. Both sides differed on the start time of halting strikes on energy sites and accused the other of violating the ceasefire.
Russia also conditioned its part in opening Black Sea shipping on the US lifting sanctions, which Kyiv dismissed.
Russian officials have greeted the results of the talks with optimism, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described it as a good start, though some Ukrainian officials have expressed discontent.
“Something tells me this is more advantageous for the enemy,” Ukrainian lawmaker Yaroslav Zheleznyak told the Interfax Ukraine news agency.
A general view of the Ritz-Carlton hotel in Riyadh, where talks between Russia and the US were held on March 24, 2025, in an effort to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. (Reuters)
Stopping fighting around Black Sea shipping routes
The US said Tuesday it had reached a tentative agreement with Ukraine and Russia to stop fighting and ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea in separate talks with the two sides.
Details of the deal were not released, including how or when it was to be implemented and monitored, but it appeared to mark another attempt to ensure safe Black Sea shipping after a 2022 agreement that was brokered by the UN and Turkiye was halted by Russia one year later, in July 2023.
Russia said the Black Sea deal announced Tuesday could only be implemented after sanctions against the Russian Agricultural Bank and other financial institutions involved in food and fertilizer trade were lifted and their access to the SWIFT system of international payments was ensured.
Zelensky said Moscow was lying about the terms of the agreement, despite the US later saying it would help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports. It’s unclear how the Black Sea deal would benefit Ukraine
While the benefits to Russia are clear, Ukrainian officials questioned how the Black Sea deal announced Tuesday would profit them. It isn’t clear, for instance, if it would also halt attacks on Ukrainian ports.
“Personally, I don’t think this will significantly boost our export capacity. Frankly speaking, thanks to Ukrainian naval drones, we have considerably expanded our capabilities in the Black Sea,” Ukrainian lawmaker Zhelezniak said.
That’s because Ukraine took matters into its own hands after Russia backed out in 2023 of the earlier deal to ensure safe Black Sea shipping. Ukraine carved out a trade route requiring ships to sail near the coast lines of Bulgaria and Romania, guided by the Ukrainian Navy. At the same time, Ukrainian forces launched a campaign of sea drone attacks to further push back Russia’s fleet.
“Unfortunately,” Zhelezniak said, the new deal “worsens our position in terms of influence in the Black Sea.” Trading blame over halting of energy strikes
The ceasefire also included a halt to long-range strikes on energy infrastructure, but sharp differences emerged immediately after Tuesday’s announcement over when the halt to fighting would begin.
Moscow said the ceasefire had started on March 18 and accused Kyiv of violating the terms by striking energy sites inside Russia, a charge that Ukraine’s General Staff denied on Wednesday.
The Kremlin later posted a list of the types of facilities covered by the limited ceasefire.
It included refineries, oil and gas pipelines, oil storage facilities, including pump stations, power-generating and transmitting infrastructure, as well as power plants, substations, transformers, distribution switchgear, nuclear power plants and hydropower plant dams.
