French leftist leader Melenchon says left ‘ready to govern’

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Jean-Luc Melenchon (C), founder of left-wing party La France Insoumise (LFI), speaks at La Rotonde Stalingrad in Paris on July 7, 2024 as results of the second round of France's legislative election showed a leftist alliance New Popular Front taking the most seats. (AFP)
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Updated 08 July 2024
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French leftist leader Melenchon says left ‘ready to govern’

PARIS: The French left is “ready to govern,” divisive hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon said Sunday, after predictions showed a broad left-wing alliance could be the largest group in parliament ahead of the far right.
“Our people have clearly rejected the worst-case scenario,” said the three-time presidential candidate of the France Unbowed (LFI) party.
Leftist parties including LFI, the Socialist Party, the Greens and the Communist Party joined forces last month to form the New Popular Front (NFP) after President Emmanuel Macron called snap polls.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal “has to go... The New Popular Front is ready to govern,” Melenchon said.
It is unclear who might be the alliance’s top candidate to be prime minister, with Melenchon a divisive figure even among some supporters of his own party.
Within Melenchon’s party, LFI lawmaker Clementine Autain called on the NFP alliance to gather on Monday to decide on a suitable candidate for prime minister.
The alliance, “in all its diversity,” needed “to decide on a balance point to be able to govern,” she said, adding neither former Socialist president Francois Hollande nor Melenchon would do.
The leader of the Socialist Party (PS) Olivier Faure urged “democracy” within the left-wing alliance so they could work together.
“To move forward together we need democracy within our ranks,” he said.
“No outside remarks will come and impose themselves on us,” he said in a thinly veiled criticism of Melenchon.

Raphael Glucksmann, co-president of the smaller pro-European Place Publique party in the alliance, said everyone was going to have to “behave like adults.”
In the projections, “we’re ahead, but in a divided parliament... so people are going to have to behave like adults,” he said.
“People are going to have to talk to each other.”
Communist leader Fabien Roussel, who lost his seat in the first round, said the left would rise up to the task ahead.
“The French have asked us to succeed. And we accept that challenge,” he said.
Marine Tondelier, the 37-year-old leader of the Greens, said it was too early to start suggesting the name of a prime minister.
But “we will rule,” she said.
Macron made the gamble of calling the parliamentary polls three years early after the far right trounced his centrist allies in European elections.
Stephane Sejourne, the secretary-general of Macron’s Renaissance party who has been foreign minister, won a seat in Sunday’s polls.
It is “obvious... Melenchon and a certain number of his allies cannot govern France,” he said.
“The lawmakers from the centrist bloc will ensure this in parliament.”
 


Germany says it broke up a far-right group that planned attacks. 5 teens have been arrested

Updated 7 sec ago
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Germany says it broke up a far-right group that planned attacks. 5 teens have been arrested

  • The early-morning arrests in various parts of Germany were accompanied by searches at 13 properties
  • Prosecutors said they are also investigating three other people, ages 18 to 21, who are already in custody
BERLIN: German police on Wednesday arrested five teenagers accused of involvement with a right-wing extremist group calling itself “Last Defense Wave” that allegedly aimed to destabilize the country’s democratic system by carrying out attacks on migrants and political opponents.
The early-morning arrests in various parts of Germany were accompanied by searches at 13 properties, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
Four of those arrested — identified only as Benjamin H., Ben-Maxim H., Lenny M. and Jason R., in line with German privacy rules — are suspected of membership in a domestic terror organization. The fifth, Jerome M., is accused of supporting the group. Two of the arrested also are accused of attempted murder and aggravated arson. All are between the ages of 14 and 18.
Prosecutors said they are also investigating three other people, ages 18 to 21, who are already in custody. All the suspects are German citizens.
According to the prosecutors, the group was formed in mid-April 2024 or earlier. They said that its members saw themselves as the last resort to defend the “German nation” and aimed to bring about the collapse of Germany’s democratic order, with attacks on homes for asylum-seekers and on facilities associated with the left-wing political spectrum.
Two of the suspects set a fire at a cultural center in Altdöbern in eastern Germany in October, prosecutors said, adding that several people living in the building at the time escaped injury only by chance.
In January, another two suspects allegedly broke a window at a home for asylum-seekers in Schmölln and tried unsuccessfully to start a blaze by setting off fireworks. They daubed the group’s initials and slogans such as “Foreigners out,” “Germany for the Germans” and “Nazi area,” as well as swastikas, prosecutors said.
Also in January, three suspects allegedly planned an arson attack on a home for asylum-seekers in Senftenberg, but it never came about because of the earlier arrests of two of the men.
Justice Minister Stefanie Hubig said it was “particularly shocking” that all of those arrested Wednesday were minors at the time the group was allegedly founded.
“This is an alarm signal and it shows that right-wing extremist terrorism knows no age,” Hubig said in a statement.
In a separate case a week ago, German authorities banned a far-right group called “Kingdom of Germany” as a threat to the country’s democratic order and arrested four of its alleged leaders.
In an annual report released Tuesday, the Federal Criminal Police Office said that the number of violent crimes with a right-wing motivation was up 17.2 percent last year to 1,488. That was part of an overall increase in violent politically motivated offenses to 4,107, an increase of 15.3 percent.

Ukrainian ex-politician shot dead outside Madrid’s American school

Updated 21 min 16 sec ago
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Ukrainian ex-politician shot dead outside Madrid’s American school

MADRID: An unidentified gunman or gunmen shot and killed former Ukrainian politician Andriy Portnov on Wednesday morning outside the gates of the American School in Madrid’s affluent neighborhood of Pozuelo, a source close to the investigation said.
Police received the call about the shooting at 9.15 a.m. (0715 GMT) local time, the Madrid police told Reuters, without identifying the victim.
Radio station Cadena SER said the man was taking his children to the school when he was shot.
Portnov was a senior aide to Ukraine’s former President Viktor Yanukovich who was ousted in 2014.


Russian missile attack kills Ukrainian servicemen in training

Updated 21 May 2025
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Russian missile attack kills Ukrainian servicemen in training

  • Moscow’s forces have inflicted casualties in attacks on Ukrainian military educational institutions and various formal outdoor gatherings

KYIV: A Russian missile attack on a Ukrainian military shooting range killed six servicemen and wounded at least 10 more during training on Tuesday, Ukraine’s national guard said on Wednesday, adding that the commander of the unit had been suspended.
Russia’s defense ministry had said on Tuesday that the missile attack on the training camp in the Sumy region in northeastern Ukraine near the Russian border killed up to 70 Ukrainian service members, including 20 instructors.
The Ukrainian national guard statement said an internal investigation was underway and the necessary information was shared with law enforcement agencies.
“The investigation will provide a legal assessment of the actions of all persons who made the relevant decisions,” it said about the attack on the military unit’s shooting range.
After previous deadly strikes on military training camps, Ukraine launched investigations into possible negligence.
During more than three years of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Moscow’s forces have inflicted casualties in attacks on Ukrainian military educational institutions and various formal outdoor gatherings.


Four children killed in school bus attack in southwestern Pakistan: government officials

Updated 21 May 2025
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Four children killed in school bus attack in southwestern Pakistan: government officials

  • At least four children were killed on Wednesday and over 30 wounded in a suspected suicide bombing that targeted a bus carrying students from a military run school in southwestern Pakistan, officials

QUETTA: At least four children were killed on Wednesday and over 30 wounded in a suspected suicide bombing that targeted a bus carrying students from a military run school in southwestern Pakistan, officials said.
“A bus carrying children of the APS (Army Public School) was targeted with a bomb, the nature of which is still being determined,” Yasir Iqbal Dashti, a senior local government official in Khuzdar district of Balochistan province, told AFP.
“The initial probe suggests it was a suicide bombing,” he added.
A senior police official confirmed the death toll to AFP on condition of anonymity, as he was not authorized to speak to the media, adding that it could rise.
The school caters to the children of army personnel and civilians living in the area.
In 2014, the Army Public School in Peshawar in northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province was attacked by gunmen who killed more than 150 people — mostly students.
The horrific attack sparked a massive crackdown against militancy that had thrived for years in the border regions.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister Mohsin Naqvi offered his “heartfelt sympathy” to the families of the victims, adding that “beasts who target innocent children deserve no mercy.”


Flood victims stranded on roofs as downpours lash eastern Australia

Updated 21 May 2025
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Flood victims stranded on roofs as downpours lash eastern Australia

  • Storms have already dumped more than four months of rain in just two days in parts of New South Wales
  • Authorities say that water levels of a river in Taree surged past a previous record in 1929

SYDNEY: Fast-moving floodwaters rose Wednesday in eastern Australia, inundating homes and leaving residents stranded on their roofs overnight, as authorities warned more rain was expected in coming days.
Storms have already dumped more than four months of rain in just two days in parts of New South Wales, engulfing homes, businesses and roads in muddy waters, authorities said.
“We have a situation where the rain has been falling quite heavily and hard and it has not been moving away. Part of that is because the ground is saturated and the rivers are swollen,” the state’s emergency minister Jihad Dib told reporters.
Taree, about 300 kilometers (180 miles) north of Sydney, is a key area of concern for emergency services after 415 millimeters (16.34 inches) of rain lashed the town since Monday – more than four times the mean monthly rainfall for May.
Authorities said that water levels of a river in Taree surged past a previous record in 1929, reaching 6.3 meters (20.6 feet) on Wednesday.
The rising floodwaters left locals stuck on roofs overnight, with rescuers unable to reach them due to the bad weather.
Taree resident Holly Pillotto, who was among those stranded on an upper level of her home, said she was desperate for assistance as floodwaters continued to rise.
“Our neighbors on the back verandah here are also stranded,” she told Australia’s Channel Nine. “It’s a really dangerous spot to be.”
Dib said that emergency services were “throwing everything we have into” reaching those affected.
State Emergency Service Chief Superintendent Dallas Byrnes said the situation was “incredibly dynamic and escalating,” with more than 150 flood rescues conducted overnight.
“We’ve got a lot of people getting rescued from rooftops and from upper levels of houses,” Byrnes told the national broadcaster ABC.
However, he warned that “conditions are quite treacherous and it may be that those aviation assets are unable to fly throughout the day.”
The agency said that about 16,000 people, or 7,400 dwellings, would remain isolated until at least Thursday.
More heavy rain is expected in the coming 48 hours – with some locations to receive 200 millimeters (7.87 inches) – before conditions begin to ease, authorities said Wednesday.
Scientists have warned that heatwaves and other extreme weather events are becoming more frequent and more intense as global temperatures rise because of climate change.