PARIS, July 4, 2023 (AFP) – The risks of harvest failures in multiple global breadbaskets have been underestimated, according to a study Tuesday that researchers said should be a “wake up call” about the threat climate change poses to our food systems. Food production is both a key source of planet-warming emissions and highly exposed to the effects of climate change, with climate and crop models used to figure out just what the impacts could […]
Europe
Russia says drone attacks near Moscow ‘not possible’ without US, NATO help
MOSCOW, July 4, 2023 (AFP) – Moscow said Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory would “not be possible” without US and NATO help, ratcheting up its rhetoric after reporting it had downed five drones near the capital on Tuesday. Ukraine meanwhile said 43 people, including 12 children, were injured in a Russian strike on the town of Pervomaisky in the eastern Kharkiv region. Moscow accused the West of enabling Ukraine to carry out the drone […]
China says UK offering ‘protection to fugitives’ after bounty put on Hong Kong activists
BEIJING, China (AFP) — China has accused the UK of giving protection to fugitives after its foreign secretary slammed Hong Kong’s decision to offer bounties for information leading to the capture of prominent democracy activists based overseas. “British politicians have openly offered protection for fugitives,” a spokesperson for Beijing’s embassy in London said in a statement late Monday. “This is crude interference in Hong Kong’s rule of law and China’s internal affairs,” they continued. “China […]
Ukraine says Russian troops advancing in ‘fierce fighting’
KYIV, Ukraine (AFP) — Ukraine said on Sunday that Russian troops were advancing in four areas in the east of the country amid “fierce fighting” but reported its forces moving forward in the south. Deputy Defense Minister Ganna Maliar said that Russian troops were advancing near Avdiivka, Mariinka, Lyman and Svatove. “Fierce fighting is going on everywhere,” Maliar wrote on social media, adding: “The situation is quite complicated”. Ukrainian forces have made gradual progress in […]
France’s mayors call on public to gather in anti-riot display
By Tiphaine LE LIBOUX and Stuart WILLIAMS Agence France-Presse PARIS, France (AFP) — France’s mayors have called on members of the public and elected officials to gather at town halls across the country on Monday in a show of mass opposition to violent protests that have dragged on for nearly a week. The government has been battling nightly riots and looting ever since 17-year-old Nahel M. was shot dead by a police officer during a […]
International office probing Ukraine war opens in The Hague
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AFP) — An international office to investigate Russia over its invasion of Ukraine opens on Monday in The Hague, in the first step towards a possible tribunal for Moscow’s leadership. The International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression (ICPA) features prosecutors from Kyiv, the European Union, the United States and the International Criminal Court (ICC). It will investigate and gather evidence in a move seen as an interim step […]
Saudi summons Swedish ambassador over Koran burning
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia — Saudi Arabia has summoned Sweden’s ambassador to denounce a Koran burning outside a Stockholm mosque that sparked a diplomatic backlash across the Muslim world, state media reported early Monday. The kingdom — home to the holiest sites in Islam, in Mecca and Medina — had already condemned Wednesday’s incident in which an Iraqi citizen living in Sweden, Salwan Momika, 37, stomped on the Muslim holy book and set several pages alight. […]
Policeman who killed French teen says ‘sorry’ to the family: lawyer
NANTERRE, France, June 29, 2023 (AFP) – The policeman who killed a French teenager in a Paris suburb on Tuesday, sparking violent protests across the country, has apologised to the family while in custody, his lawyer said. “The first words he pronounced were to say sorry and the last words he said were to say sorry to the family,” Laurent-Franck Lienard told BFMTV late Thursday. “He is devastated, he doesn’t get up in the morning […]
Police brace for more violent protests over French teen’s killing
PARIS, June 29, 2023 (AFP) – French police braced for more violent protests Thursday over the fatal shooting of a teen by a policeman that has left authorities scrambling to contain an escalating crisis. According to an internal security note, the coming nights are expected “to be the theatre of urban violence” with “actions targeted at the forces of order and the symbols of the state”, a police source said. One Paris suburb, Clamart, has […]
Geneva airport strike to ground flights Friday
GENEVA, June 29, 2023 (AFP) – Flights at Geneva’s international airport will be grounded for four hours on Friday morning due to a workers’ strike, affecting thousands of passengers at the start of summer travel season. The strike was called after the airport’s board approved on Thursday a new wage policy contested by staff. There will be no flights between 6:00 am and 10:00 am (0400 GMT and 0800 GMT), affecting some 8,000 passengers, […]
France braces for new protests as anger grows over police killing
PARIS, June 29, 2023 (AFP) – France on Thursday ordered the mobilisation of tens of thousands of police to prevent a further escalation of violence after two nights of clashes over the killing of a teenager by a policeman. Cars and bins were torched in parts of the country, while some 150 people were arrested nationwide following clashes and unrest that included a tramway’s carriages being alight in a Paris suburb. France has been hit […]
EU fears ‘weaker Putin’
BRUSSELS, June 29, 2023 (AFP) – The EU warned Thursday that Russia has become unstable and more dangerous following the brief mutiny by its Wagner mercenaries that exposed President Vladimir Putin as weaker than previously thought. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the “aftershocks” of the Wagner rebellion were still playing out. “A weaker Putin is a greater danger,” EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said as he arrived for a Brussels summit. […]