conflict

Russia kills 4 in massive Ukraine attack using nuclear-capable missile

US

Trump tempers expectations of a Middle East deal with Iran

BY AFP TEAMS IN WASHINGTON, TEHRAN, JERUSALEM, BEIRUT AND DUBAI

  • A senior US official, quoted by US outlet Axios, said the White House did not expect an agreement Sunday to end the war and "thinks it could take several days" for Tehran to approve the deal. 
  • US President Donald Trump tempered expectations of a Middle East deal by saying on Sunday he had told his negotiators not to "rush", even after both Tehran and Washington signalled signs of progress towards an agreement to end the war.
  • A senior US official, quoted by US outlet Axios, said the White House did not expect an agreement Sunday to end the war and "thinks it could take several days" for Tehran to approve the deal. 
US President Donald Trump tempered expectations of a Middle East deal by saying on Sunday he had told his negotiators not to "rush", even after both Tehran and Washington signalled signs of progress towards an agreement to end the war.
The United States and Iran have observed a ceasefire since April 8 while mediators push for a negotiated settlement, although Iran has imposed controls on Gulf shipping and the US has blockaded Iran's ports.
The war erupted after the United States and Israel attacked the Islamic republic on February 28, and Iran responded with missile and drone attacks across the region.
Iran's Lebanese ally Hezbollah attacked Israel on March 2 after US-Israeli strikes killed Iran's supreme leader.
"I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side," Trump said in a social media post Sunday. 
"The Blockade will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified and signed," he added.
Earlier Trump had posted that the deal "has been largely negotiated, subject to finalisation between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the various other Countries".
Iran's Tasnim news agency said Sunday its information was that key clauses of a possible agreement remained "unresolved at this time", including the issue of frozen Iranian assets.
A senior US official, quoted by US outlet Axios, said the White House did not expect an agreement Sunday to end the war and "thinks it could take several days" for Tehran to approve the deal. 

Nuclear issue

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, told The New York Times that an agreement with Iran had garnered regional support but a nuclear deal couldn't be achieved "in 72 hours on the back of a napkin".
"Right now, we have seven or eight countries in the region that are endorsing this approach, and we're prepared to move forward on this approach," he said.
Earlier Rubio had said a bargain could be struck to end the regional war as early as Sunday.
He had said the agreement would start a "process that can ultimately leave us where the president wants us to be, and that is a world that no longer has to fear or worry about an Iranian nuclear weapon".
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday that he and Trump had agreed that "any final agreement with Iran must eliminate the nuclear threat entirely".
"President Trump made clear that he will remain steadfast in the negotiations regarding his longstanding demand for the dismantlement of Iran's nuclear programme and the removal of all enriched uranium from Iranian territory, and that he will not sign a final agreement absent these conditions," an Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told AFP.

'Lasting peace'

Iranian officials confirmed the existence of a draft agreement, but stressed that -- despite the long-standing US demand for an end to its uranium enrichment -- talks on the issue of Iran's contested nuclear programme have been deferred for 60 days after any deal.
President Masoud Pezeshkian told state television Iran was "still prepared to assure the world that we are not seeking nuclear weapons", but it was unclear if this promise would be enshrined in the text of the deal.
According to Iran's Fars news agency, "sanctions on oil, gas, petrochemicals and their derivatives would be temporarily lifted during the negotiation period so that Iran can freely sell its products".
Leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, as well as representatives from Turkey and Pakistan, joined a call with Trump to discuss the deal on Saturday.
Pakistan, which mediated historic face-to-face negotiations between US and Iranian delegations in April, hopes to host another round of talks "very soon", Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said.
He said Pakistan's army chief Asim Munir, who visited Tehran on Friday and Saturday, also joined the call, which "provided a useful opportunity... to move the ongoing peace efforts forward to bring lasting peace in the region".
In a rare public appearance at the Grand Mosalla mosque in Tehran that was covered by state media, Ali Abdollahi, the head of Iran's central military command, struck a defiant tone.
"We are on a war footing and all our armed forces are fully ready, with all their resources and equipment, to confront any enemy," he said.
burs/amj/srm

police

Turkey riot police use tear gas to take opposition party HQ

BY VOLKAN NAKIBOGLU WITH REMI BANET IN ISTANBUL

  • "They stormed our headquarters, used tear gas, beat us with batons, ransacked the party (building) and threw us out," Ozel told AFP on Sunday evening.
  • Hundreds of Turkish riot police firing teargas forced their way into the Ankara headquarters of the country's main opposition party on Sunday, days after a court had dismissed its leadership, AFP journalists saw.
  • "They stormed our headquarters, used tear gas, beat us with batons, ransacked the party (building) and threw us out," Ozel told AFP on Sunday evening.
Hundreds of Turkish riot police firing teargas forced their way into the Ankara headquarters of the country's main opposition party on Sunday, days after a court had dismissed its leadership, AFP journalists saw.
The dramatic scuffles were the latest episode in a crackdown by Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on his political rivals, who have angrily resisted in the streets.
Party members had blocked the building's entrances, defying the court order issued Thursday as part of an official probe against the Republican People's Party (CHP), before officers broke in to remove the group's leader.
"They stormed our headquarters, used tear gas, beat us with batons, ransacked the party (building) and threw us out," Ozel told AFP on Sunday evening.
He said his rival Erdogan had "lost his senses", claiming the assault was part of the president's manoeuvres "to win the next elections", due in 2028.
Last year, Turkish authorities jailed Erdogan's main political rival, Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who was the CHP's candidate for the 2028 presidential election.
They arrested him on corruption charges which he has dismissed as politically motivated.
Thursday's court order cancelled the 2023 victory in party elections of CHP head Ozgur Ozel and named its former chair Kemal Kilicdaroglu -- a lacklustre figure who suffered a string of electoral defeats -- as interim leader.
"Just as he (Erdogan) jailed the presidential candidate who could have beaten him, he has now officially closed the political party that could have beaten him," Ozel told AFP.

Rights group warning 

Ejected from the party building, Ozel walked several kilometres in the rain towards parliament, surrounded by supporters.
"The Republican People's Party will from now be on the streets or in the squares," he said as he was forced out of the building.
He later added in comments to AFP: "Turkey has ceased to be a modern democratic republic and has turned into an authoritarian regime."
Kilicdaroglu's backers had earlier tried to push their way into the party headquarters, before police received orders to step in and take the building.
Last year, similar scenes broke out in Istanbul, when the courts named an administrator to take charge of the regional CHP offices.
Global NGO Human Rights Watch on Saturday warned that Erdogan's government was undermining Turkish democracy with "abusive tactics" against the CHP.
It called the court order "the latest deeply damaging blow to the rule of law, democracy and human rights" in Turkey.
str-rba/rlp/jj

US

Possible Iran-US deal: What we know

  • - A key sticking point in the talks is traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the vital global conduit for oil shipments that has come under Iranian control since the outbreak of the war.
  • The United States and Iran appear closer than ever to a deal that would end a war that has engulfed the Middle East and disrupted the global oil market.
  • - A key sticking point in the talks is traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the vital global conduit for oil shipments that has come under Iranian control since the outbreak of the war.
The United States and Iran appear closer than ever to a deal that would end a war that has engulfed the Middle East and disrupted the global oil market.
However, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday he had agreed with US President Donald Trump that any final deal must fully end Iran's "nuclear threat".
Iran's Tasnim news agency said its information was that key clauses of a possible agreement remained unresolved, including the issue of frozen Iranian assets.
What do we know about the possible agreement? 

Nuclear question

Iran's foreign ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said the nuclear issue was not part of an initial framework. It will rather be "subject to separate discussions" later. 
But the New York Times, citing two unnamed American officials, said a key element of the proposed agreement was an apparent commitment by Tehran to give up its stockpile of highly enriched uranium.
The question of how Iran would do so would be discussed in a "later round of negotiations over Iran's nuclear program", the paper said.
But Iran's Fars and Tasnim news agencies reported that Iran made no commitments regarding its nuclear programme. 
"Iran has made no commitment in this agreement to hand over nuclear stockpiles, remove equipment, shut down facilities or even commit not to build a nuclear bomb," Fars said.
Both agencies said nuclear-related issues would be negotiated within 60 days of the understanding being signed.
Netanyahu said that in a conversation on Saturday, "President Trump and I agreed that any final agreement with Iran must eliminate the nuclear threat entirely".
"This means dismantling Iran's uranium enrichment facilities and removing enriched nuclear material from its territory," he added.

How will Hormuz reopen? 

A key sticking point in the talks is traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, the vital global conduit for oil shipments that has come under Iranian control since the outbreak of the war.
Iran has insisted that vessels must obtain permission from its armed forces.
Trump said Saturday that "in addition to many other elements of the Agreement, the Strait of Hormuz will be opened", a development that would bring relief to global energy markets.
But, Fars news agency said that, if finalised, the potential agreement would preserve Iran's management over the strategic waterway.
Tasnim reported that "the status of the Strait of Hormuz would not revert to its pre-war situation".
It added that the "the naval blockade, according to the reported framework, would also need to be fully lifted within 30 days", referring to the US blockading Iranian ports.

Funds and sanctions

Iran has long demanded the release of its frozen assets held under longstanding US sanctions.
According to Tasnim, "Iran has insisted that any initial understanding must be conditional on at least partial access to the assets".
It quoted an informed source as saying that Iran "has stressed that there will be no agreement unless a specified portion of Iran's frozen assets is released at the very first stage".
A clear mechanism must also be "established to guarantee the continued release of all blocked funds".
Tasnim's source warned that "disagreements over this matter are among the reasons why no final understanding has yet been reached".
According to Fars, a potential understanding would also see the US temporarily lifting sanctions on oil, gas and petrochemicals during the negotiation period.

Is Lebanon included? 

Israel has been carrying out daily strikes in Lebanon despite a US-brokered ceasefire, saying it is targeting Hezbollah.
Iran has previously said that any ceasefire must apply to all fronts of the regional war, including Lebanon, and Hezbollah has said it is confident that its ally will not abandon it.
Tasnim reported that "a memorandum of understanding (MOU) would first be announced, stressing an end to fighting on all fronts, including in Lebanon".
"Under the arrangement, Israel, as a US ally, would also be expected to halt the war in Lebanon," it added.
Baqaei told state television that "at this stage, we will not discuss the details of the nuclear issue... we have decided to prioritise an urgent issue for all of us: ending the war on all fronts including Lebanon".
burs-srm/amj

US

Trump says US will not 'rush into a deal' with Iran, as criticism mounts

  • "The negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner, and I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side," Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
  • President Donald Trump said Sunday that he had told US negotiators "not to rush into a deal" with Iran amid anticipation -- and mounting criticism -- of an agreement to end the war in the Middle East.
  • "The negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner, and I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side," Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
President Donald Trump said Sunday that he had told US negotiators "not to rush into a deal" with Iran amid anticipation -- and mounting criticism -- of an agreement to end the war in the Middle East.
"The negotiations are proceeding in an orderly and constructive manner, and I have informed my representatives not to rush into a deal in that time is on our side," Trump wrote on his Truth Social account.
"The Blockade will remain in full force and effect until an agreement is reached, certified, and signed," he wrote.
The United States has imposed a blockade of Iranian ports since April 13 after Tehran virtually halted traffic through the economically vital Strait of Hormuz in response to the US-Israeli attacks on Iran that began February 28. 
"Both sides must take their time and get it right," Trump wrote in the same Truth Social post, while slamming the 2015 nuclear deal that former president Barack Obama agreed with Iran.
"Our relationship with Iran is becoming a much more professional and productive one. They must understand, however, that they cannot develop or procure a Nuclear Weapon or Bomb," Trump wrote.
While the White House has not released aspects of the deal, Iran Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei said Saturday on state television that the two sides were nearing "a memorandum of understanding, a kind of framework agreement composed of 14 clauses" in "a trend toward rapprochement."
According to news outlet Axios, a possible agreement would extend the current ceasefire by 60 days, during which the Strait of Hormuz would be reopened, Iran would freely sell oil, and negotiations would be held on Iran’s nuclear program.
It cited a senior US official as saying there are still details "to work out," and the "slow and opaque" nature of Iran's decision-making system could delay an agreement by another few days.
"Our understanding is that the Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, has endorsed the broad template of the deal," the official said. "Whether this becomes an agreement is still an open question."
In Washington, Republican lawmakers close to Trump were among those expressing fears of an agreement favorable to Iran.
The top Republican senator overseeing defense policy, Roger Wicker, said that agreeing to a "rumored 60-day ceasefire" with Iran would mean "everything accomplished by Operation Epic Fury would be for naught!"
Texas senator Ted Cruz wrote on X: "If the result of all that is to be an Iranian regime -- still run by Islamists who chant 'death to America' -- now receiving billions of dollars, being able to enrich uranium & develop nuclear weapons, and having effective control over the Strait of Hormuz, then that outcome would be a disastrous mistake."
Thom Tillis, a Republican senator from North Carolina, said on CNN's "State of the Union" program, "we're talking about a posture where we may accept the nuclear material remaining in Iran. How does that make sense at all?" 
pnb/msp/mjf

diplomacy

India voices concern on US visas but sees alignment with Rubio

BY SHAUN TANDON

  • Jaishankar said he "apprised Secretary Rubio of challenges that legitimate travellers face in respect of visa issuance".
  • India voiced concern on Sunday over a US visa crackdown, striking a rare critical note even as it expressed broad alignment with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on other fractious issues.
  • Jaishankar said he "apprised Secretary Rubio of challenges that legitimate travellers face in respect of visa issuance".
India voiced concern on Sunday over a US visa crackdown, striking a rare critical note even as it expressed broad alignment with Secretary of State Marco Rubio on other fractious issues.
Paying his first visit to India, Rubio said the two democracies were on the same page on all major issues, brushing aside recent unease in New Delhi over trade, China and the Iran war.
India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar agreed that the two countries had a "convergence of national interests in many areas" but publicly took Rubio to task over President Donald Trump's assault on visas.
Jaishankar said he "apprised Secretary Rubio of challenges that legitimate travellers face in respect of visa issuance".
"While we cooperate to deal with illegal and irregular mobility, our expectation is that legal mobility should not be adversely impacted as a consequence," he said, noting that visas were key for US-India tech cooperation.
Trump, who has made curbing non-Western immigration a key political priority, has ramped up restrictions and fees for H-1B visas used largely by Indian tech workers, sending applications tumbling.
The Trump administration followed up Friday by saying that applicants for permanent residency, even when in the United States legally, must leave for processing, likely splitting up many families for extended periods.
Trump has been influenced by nativist critics who say Indian workers take away skilled jobs from Americans who would have earned more.
Last month, Trump reposted a far-right commentator who described India as a "hellhole" and inaccurately alleged that Indian immigrants lack English proficiency.
Asked about racist remarks in the United States about Indians, Rubio said, "Every country in the world has stupid people".
"Our nation has been enriched by people who come to our country," said Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants.
He acknowledged there would be "bumps" as the United States reforms immigration but said the changes were in response to a "migratory crisis" and "not India-specific". 

Trade deal finalised soon

Rubio later headlined a gala party in New Delhi for the 250th anniversary of US independence, in which invited guests, some decked out in red, white and blue, could pose next to cutouts of Trump, Rubio and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Addressing the crowd by speakerphone held up by Ambassador Sergio Gor, Trump hailed his rapport with Modi and boasted, "anything India wants, India gets."
But Trump in fact has shifted decades of US policy of overlooking disagreements with India, which successive previous administrations have viewed as a natural counterweight to a rising China.
Trump has hailed both China and India's historic adversary Pakistan, which has positioned itself as the key mediator on the Iran war, and last year imposed punishing tariffs on India after Modi refused to give him credit for ending a short war with Pakistan.
The tariffs were eased after the arrival in India in January of US ambassador Sergio Gor, who had been a top political aide to Trump. 
Addressing the party, Gor said he expected the interim trade deal to be signed "in the next few weeks".
Rubio, who is paying an unusually long four-day, four-city trip to India, called the country "one of our most important strategic partners in the world".
"It begins with the fact of our shared values. We are the two largest democracies," Rubio told the news conference.
"Our nations are strategically aligned on all of the key issues that will define the new century -- all the great challenges that are before us now in the modern era," he said.
Jaishankar, asked about Pakistan's new role in mediating on Iran, said the United States was free to choose its own partners but acknowledged that differences will emerge between the two countries.
"The Trump administration has been very forthright in putting forward its foreign policy outlook as America First," Jaishankar said.
"We have a view of India First," he said. 
sct/abh/dw

virus

Dread and denial at heart of deadly DR Congo Ebola outbreak

  • "The authorities need to bring us vaccines," Sakiya, 26, told AFP. But no vaccine or treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola responsible for the vast central African country's 17th outbreak of the disease, believed to have already killed 204 people overall.
  • Unlike other residents of Mongbwalu, a town at the heart of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's latest devastating Ebola outbreak, Laureine Sakiya believes that the blood-letting virus exists after seeing some of her neighbours die.
  • "The authorities need to bring us vaccines," Sakiya, 26, told AFP. But no vaccine or treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola responsible for the vast central African country's 17th outbreak of the disease, believed to have already killed 204 people overall.
Unlike other residents of Mongbwalu, a town at the heart of the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's latest devastating Ebola outbreak, Laureine Sakiya believes that the blood-letting virus exists after seeing some of her neighbours die.
Already suspicious of the Congolese state following decades of neglect and conflict, many in the outbreak's epicentre in the northeastern Ituri province are split between criticism of the government's response and denial of the disease's very existence.
Gold-diggers and hawkers criss-cross mineral-rich and conflict-torn Ituri. Mud-covered motorbikes of travelling Congolese are a regular sight in Mongbwalu, some 100 kilometres (60 miles) from Uganda and just 200 kilometres away from unstable South Sudan.
In the space of several weeks, the outbreak has spread to several provinces nearby and on to Ugandan soil, with the World Health Organization declaring the epidemic an international emergency.
Of the 322 people suspected to have contracted Ebola in Mongbwalu -- where many of the outbreak's first cases were recorded -- 88 have died, according to the latest toll from the authorities.
"The authorities need to bring us vaccines," Sakiya, 26, told AFP.
But no vaccine or treatment exists for the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola responsible for the vast central African country's 17th outbreak of the disease, believed to have already killed 204 people overall.

'Coffin affair'

In the local hospital, a modest building nestled within the hillside town's trees and high grass, healthcare workers are rinsing the floor and walls with a chlorine solution.
All are clad from head to toe in hazard suits with facemasks and goggles, to guard against a disease spread through close physical contact and bodily fluids.
But handwashing is done in plastic buckets -- a sign of the inadequate response to an outbreak many fear could be among the worst in the virus's history.
Local aid groups are on the ground, while medical charity Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has loaned Mongbwalu's hospital tents to isolate suspected victims in.
"The epidemic is out of the ordinary," said an MSF coordinator, Florent Uzzeni, in the main regional city of Bunia.
The official toll was almost certainly an undercount, he said, adding that "the capacities to test people are extremely limited".
Past Ebola outbreaks have sparked violence among locals either wary of the state's response or sceptical of the disease. Some believed that the latest epidemic was of a "mystical malady", a common belief in some remote areas of the DRC.
"At the beginning, people believed it was a coffin affair," said Jonathan Imbalapay, a civil society leader in Mongbwalu.
The first suspected case was identified in Bunia, the Ituri provincial capital. After the man's death, the victim's family brought the body back to Mongbwalu.
But the 80-kilometre journey on the eastern DRC's infamously rickety and bumpy roads damaged the coffin, exposing the Ebola-ridden corpse.
Traditional leaders and some locals wanted to burn the compromised casket.
After tests in a provincial laboratory failed to pinpoint Ebola as the source, the disease and accompanying panic were both allowed to spread in Mongbwalu.
It was only when samples arrived at the biomedical research laboratory in the capital Kinshasa -- nearly 1,800 kilometres away as the crow flies -- that the Ebola outbreak was confirmed. 
Adam Hussein, a 35-year-old representative for Mongbwalu's traditional faith healers, fretted about Ebola denial and called on everyone to take precautions. 
"I worry about those who say that this disease is invented," he said.
str-cld/sbk/rmb/rlp

conflict

Russia kills 4 in massive Ukraine attack using nuclear-capable missile

BY ANIA TSOUKANOVA

  • The missile was used without a nuclear warhead.
  • Russia pounded Kyiv with a massive bombardment that killed four people, authorities said Sunday, with Moscow unleashing its nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile in one of the largest barrages in the more-than-four-year war.
  • The missile was used without a nuclear warhead.
Russia pounded Kyiv with a massive bombardment that killed four people, authorities said Sunday, with Moscow unleashing its nuclear-capable hypersonic Oreshnik missile in one of the largest barrages in the more-than-four-year war.
Multiple rounds of loud explosions were heard in the Ukrainian capital throughout the early hours of the morning, AFP journalists reported, as residents took shelter in underground stations. 
Daylight revealed rescue workers extinguishing fires and sifting through debris of heavily damaged buildings -- houses, shopping centres, museums, theatres, schools and universities.  
Russian President Vladimir Putin had earlier threatened retaliation for Ukrainian strikes in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine that killed 21 people in a vocational school. 
In Kyiv, Sofia Melnychenko, 21, thought she was safe in the subway, "but then there were three loud explosions, and after the fourth one the ceiling in the metro started crumbling," she told AFP.
"There was complete chaos. Children started screaming, people were panicking," she added. 
"It was a very frightening night."
The Ukrainian air force said the raid involved 600 drones and 90 missiles, of which 549 drones and 55 missiles were intercepted. 

'Genuinely deranged'

Kyiv has been grappling with an acute air defence missile deficit since the US-Israeli air campaign against Iran drove up demand for US-made Patriot rounds.
European leaders reacted by saying the salvo showed Russia's desperation.
"Terror against civilians is not strength. It's despair," EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said on X.
French President Emmanuel Macron said the strikes signalled "the dead end of Russia's war of aggression", while German Chancellor Friedrich Merz called the use of Oreshnik a "reckless escalation".
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged more action from allies. "I am grateful to everyone now expressing words of support. But concrete steps to bolster air defence are also needed -- missile deliveries must not stop for a single day," he said on social media.
He earlier said the Russians hit dozens of residential buildings, schools, a water supply facility and a market in a "genuinely deranged" attack. 
Russia's army confirmed it had launched the Oreshnik at Ukraine for the third time in the war, saying it was "in response to Ukraine's terrorist attacks on civilian infrastructure on Russian territory". The missile was used without a nuclear warhead.
Moscow denied targeting civilians, saying it had struck command posts of the Ukrainian army and intelligence.
Four people were killed and more than 100 were wounded in Kyiv and the surrounding region, local officials said. Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko said damage had been recorded in every district of the capital.
The residence of the Albanian ambassador was also hit and the Balkan country summoned the Russian envoy in protest. 
Buildings housing a studio of German broadcaster ARD and an office for German outlet DW were damaged as well, the companies said in statements. Both premises were empty of people at the time.
Projectiles also hit other Ukrainian regions, with dozens of wounded reported in the Kharkiv, Cherkasy and Dnipropetrovsk regions.
Attacks continued during the day, with a shelling killing two and wounding 17 in the frontline city of Kherson. 

Retaliation 

Ukraine had been expecting a major strike after its own forces launched a drone barrage on Starobilsk, in the Russian-occupied east of the country, which Moscow said hit a college dormitory and killed 21 people, most of them young female students.
Launched overnight on Thursday to Friday, the drone salvo -- one of Ukraine's deadliest such strikes in months -- also wounded dozens in the city, located in the occupied Lugansk region.
Ukraine denied targeting civilians, saying it had hit a Russian drone unit stationed in the area.
Ukraine regularly targets Russian-controlled areas of the country with drones, arguing that the strikes are retaliation for Russian attacks.
Kyiv has recently expanded its drone capabilities and stepped up strikes on internationally recognised Russian territory, including residential areas and oil export infrastructure.
Moscow has hit Ukraine almost daily with barrages of missiles and drones since launching its full-scale invasion of the country in 2022, also hitting infrastructure and causing civilian deaths. It denies targeting civilians.
US-led efforts to negotiate an end to more than four years of war have slowed in recent months, with Washington's attention diverted towards its conflict in the Middle East.
bur-asy/rlp

Global Edition

China launches three-crew space flight as part of Moon ambitions

  • The Shenzhou-23 mission is part of China's goal to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030, a race in which the United States is also competing with its Artemis programme.
  • China launched its Shenzhou-23 mission on Sunday, which will see a Chinese astronaut spend a full year in orbit for the first time, a crucial step in Beijing's ambition to send humans to the Moon by 2030.
  • The Shenzhou-23 mission is part of China's goal to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030, a race in which the United States is also competing with its Artemis programme.
China launched its Shenzhou-23 mission on Sunday, which will see a Chinese astronaut spend a full year in orbit for the first time, a crucial step in Beijing's ambition to send humans to the Moon by 2030.
The Long March 2-F rocket blasted off in a cloud of flames and smoke on time at 11:08 pm (1508 GMT) from the Jiuquan launch centre in China's northwestern Gobi Desert, video from state broadcaster CCTV showed.
The spacecraft separated from the rocket around 10 minutes later and entered orbit, the Chinese space agency (CMSA) said on social media.
"The astronauts are in good condition, and the launch has been a complete success," it added.
The mission marks the first spaceflight ever undertaken by an astronaut from Hong Kong: 43-year-old Li Jiaying (Lai Ka-ying in Cantonese), who previously worked for the Hong Kong police.
Other crew members include 39-year-old space engineer Zhu Yangzhu and 39-year-old Zhang Zhiyuan, a former air force pilot, who is travelling into space for the first time.
Cheering crowds waved Chinese flags at a farewell ceremony ahead of the launch, while a band played and the three astronauts saluted on stage.
The crew is set to carry out numerous scientific projects in life sciences, materials science, fluid physics and medicine.
A key experiment of Shenzhou-23 will be the full-year stay in orbit by one of the crew in order to study the effects of a long stay in microgravity.
- Year-long experiment –
The experiment is part of China's preparations for future lunar missions, as well as missions to Mars.
The astronaut selected for this one-year mission will be named at a later date, depending on the progress of the Shenzhou-23 mission, a spokesperson for the CMSA said on Saturday.
The main challenges will be long-term effects on humans, including bone density loss, muscle wasting, radiation exposure, sleep disturbances, behavioural and psychological fatigue, said Richard de Grijs, an astrophysicist and professor at Macquarie University in Australia.
He also underlined the importance of reliable water and air recycling systems, as well as the ability to manage potential medical emergencies far from Earth.
China is "steadily" building operational experience for "sustained occupation" of its Tiangong space station, and year-long missions are an important step towards future lunar and potentially deep-space ambitions, de Grijs told AFP.
"A year in orbit pushes both hardware and humans into a different operational regime compared with the shorter Shenzhou missions of the programme's earlier phases," he said.
Crews aboard Tiangong have until now largely remained in orbit for six months before being replaced.
The Shenzhou-23 mission is part of China's goal to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030, a race in which the United States is also competing with its Artemis programme.

Pakistani crew members

China is testing the equipment required for its goal, with an orbital test flight of its new Mengzhou spacecraft set for 2026.
The Mengzhou craft will replace the ageing Shenzhou line, and will carry China's astronauts to the Moon.
Beijing hopes to have built the first phase of a manned scientific base by 2035, known as the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).
China also plans to welcome its first foreign astronaut, from Pakistan, aboard the Tiangong station by the end of this year.
The Asian giant has significantly expanded its space programmes over the last 30 years, injecting billions of dollars into the sector in order to catch up with the United States, Russia and Europe.
In 2019, China landed a spacecraft the Chang'e-4 probe on the far side of the Moon -- a world first.
Then in 2021, it landed a small rover on Mars.
China has been formally excluded from the International Space Station (ISS) since 2011, when the United States banned NASA from collaborating with Beijing, prompting the Asian giant to develop its own space station project.
ehl-dhw/tc

US

Iran and US closing in on deal to end war

BY AFP TEAMS IN TEHRAN, WASHINGTON, JERUSALEM, BEIRUT AND DUBAI

  • According to an Israeli official, Trump also reassured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a call on Saturday, that he would insist that any final settlement with Iran would include an agreement to dismantle its nuclear programme.
  • The United States and Iran could strike a deal to end the Middle East war as early as Sunday, Washington's top diplomat said, while Tehran insisted the agreement would do nothing to limit its nuclear programme.
  • According to an Israeli official, Trump also reassured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a call on Saturday, that he would insist that any final settlement with Iran would include an agreement to dismantle its nuclear programme.
The United States and Iran could strike a deal to end the Middle East war as early as Sunday, Washington's top diplomat said, while Tehran insisted the agreement would do nothing to limit its nuclear programme.
Washington and Tehran have observed a ceasefire since April 8 while mediators push for a negotiated settlement, although Iran has imposed controls on Gulf shipping and the US has blockaded Iran's ports.
On Sunday, during a visit to India, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told reporters: "I do think perhaps there is the possibility that in the next few hours the world will get some good news."
This came after US President Donald Trump posted on social media that the deal "has been largely negotiated, subject to finalisation between the United States of America, the Islamic Republic of Iran and the various other Countries".
Rubio said the agreement would start a "process that can ultimately leave us where the president wants us to be, and that is a world that no longer has to fear or worry about an Iranian nuclear weapon".
According to an Israeli official, Trump also reassured Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a call on Saturday, that he would insist that any final settlement with Iran would include an agreement to dismantle its nuclear programme.
"President Trump made clear that he will remain steadfast in the negotiations regarding his longstanding demand for the dismantlement of Iran's nuclear programme and the removal of all enriched uranium from Iranian territory, and that he will not sign a final agreement absent these conditions," the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

'Seize this moment'

Trump's post stressed that the Strait of Hormuz would be re-opened, a development that would bring relief to energy markets after a long Iranian blockade of a crucial waterway that in peacetime carries a fifth of world oil exports.
European leaders, keen to see Hormuz open and energy prices fall, welcomed the optimism. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailed "progress towards an agreement", while Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed to work with "international partners to seize this moment".
Iranian officials confirmed the existence of a draft agreement, but stressed that -- despite the long-standing US demand for an end to its uranium enrichment -- talks on the issue of Iran's contested nuclear programme have been deferred for 60 days after any deal.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian told state television Iran was "still prepared to assure the world that we are not seeking nuclear weapons", but it was not clear if this long-standing promise would be enshrined in the text of the deal.

'Lasting peace'

According to Iran's Fars news agency, Washington has agreed to release part of Tehran's funds frozen abroad under international sanctions and to end its naval blockade of ships travelling to and from Iranian ports.
In exchange, "according to this draft, passage through the Strait of Hormuz would return to pre-war levels under Iranian management".
And, Fars said, "sanctions on oil, gas, petrochemicals and their derivatives would be temporarily lifted during the negotiation period so that Iran can freely sell its products".
Prominent Iranian-American academic Vali Nasr, in a social media post, said that the deal on the table appeared like an Iranian victory, but warned that if Washington gave too much ground this would increase Tehran's suspicions.
"The deal in play looks like a win for Iran. But Tehran is not convinced that it is not a dress rehearsal for war now or in 30 days," he posted.
"In fact, the more generous the terms for Iran the more the suspicion that the US is not serious about peace and wants to distract Iran ahead of another attack. Iran will be focused on evidence of US military backdown."
Leaders from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and Bahrain, as well as representatives from Turkey and Pakistan, joined a call with Trump to discuss the deal on Saturday.
Pakistan, which mediated historic face-to-face negotiations between US and Iranian delegations in April, hopes to host another round of talks "very soon", Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said.
He said Pakistan's powerful army chief Asim Munir, who visited Tehran on Friday and Saturday, also joined the call, which "provided a useful opportunity... to move the ongoing peace efforts forward to bring lasting peace in the region".
Meanwhile, in a rare public appearance at the Grand Mosalla mosque in Tehran that was covered by state media, Ali Abdollahi, the head of Iran's central military command, struck a defiant tone.
"We are on a war footing and all our armed forces are fully ready, with all their resources and equipment, to confront any enemy," he said.
burs/dc/amj

police

Turkey riot police use tear gas to take opposition party HQ

  • A prominent rights NGO, Human Rights Watch, on Saturday warned that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government was undermining Turkish democracy with "abusive tactics" against the CHP. Last year, Turkish authorities jailed Erdogan's main political rival, Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who was the CHP's candidate for the presidential election due in 2028.
  • Hundreds of Turkish riot police using teargas forced their way into the Ankara headquarters of the main CHP opposition party on Sunday after a court dismissed its leadership, AFP journalists saw.
  • A prominent rights NGO, Human Rights Watch, on Saturday warned that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government was undermining Turkish democracy with "abusive tactics" against the CHP. Last year, Turkish authorities jailed Erdogan's main political rival, Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who was the CHP's candidate for the presidential election due in 2028.
Hundreds of Turkish riot police using teargas forced their way into the Ankara headquarters of the main CHP opposition party on Sunday after a court dismissed its leadership, AFP journalists saw.
Party members had blocked the building's entrances, defying the court order issued Thursday as part of an official probe against the Republican People's Party (CHP), before officers broke in to remove the group's leader.
A prominent rights NGO, Human Rights Watch, on Saturday warned that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's government was undermining Turkish democracy with "abusive tactics" against the CHP.
Last year, Turkish authorities jailed Erdogan's main political rival, Istanbul mayor Ekrem Imamoglu, who was the CHP's candidate for the presidential election due in 2028.
The court order on Thursday cancelled the 2023 victory in party elections of CHP head Ozgur Ozel and named its former chair Kemal Kilicdaroglu -- a lacklustre figure who chalked up a string of electoral defeats -- as interim leader. 
"The Republican People's Party will from now be on the streets or in the squares," Ozel said as he was forced out of the building.
"We will march towards the seat of power," he vowed as he set off for parliament surrounded by supporters.
Kilicdaroglu's backers had tried to push their way in, before police received orders to step in and take the building.
Last year, similar scenes took place in Istanbul, when the courts named an administrator to take charge of the regional CHP offices.
Human Rights Watch called the court order "the latest deeply damaging blow to the rule of law, democracy and human rights" in Turkey.
str-rba/rmb/sbk/rmb

Global Edition

China to launch three-crew space flight as part of Moon ambitions

  • The Shenzhou-23 mission is part of China's goal to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030, a race in which the United States is also competing with its Artemis programme.
  • China is launching its Shenzhou-23 mission on Sunday, which will see a Chinese astronaut spend a full year in orbit for the first time, a crucial step in Beijing's ambition to send humans to the Moon by 2030.
  • The Shenzhou-23 mission is part of China's goal to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030, a race in which the United States is also competing with its Artemis programme.
China is launching its Shenzhou-23 mission on Sunday, which will see a Chinese astronaut spend a full year in orbit for the first time, a crucial step in Beijing's ambition to send humans to the Moon by 2030.
A Long March 2-F rocket is scheduled to lift off at 11:08 pm (1508 GMT) from the Jiuquan launch centre in China's northwestern Gobi Desert, carrying three astronauts to the Tiangong space station.
The mission will mark the first spaceflight ever undertaken by an astronaut from Hong Kong: 43-year-old Li Jiaying (Lai Ka-ying in Cantonese), who previously worked for the Hong Kong police.
Other crew members include 39-year-old space engineer Zhu Yangzhu and 39-year-old Zhang Zhiyuan, a former air force pilot, who will be travelling into space for the first time.
The crew is set to carry out numerous scientific projects in life sciences, materials science, fluid physics and medicine.
A key experiment of Shenzhou-23 will be the full-year stay in orbit by one of the crew in order to study the effects of a long stay in microgravity.
- Year-long experiment –
The experiment is part of China's preparations for future lunar missions, as well as missions to Mars.
The astronaut selected for this one-year mission will be named at a later date, depending on the progress of the Shenzhou-23 mission, a spokesperson for the Chinese space agency (CMSA) said on Saturday.
The main challenges will be long-term effects on humans, including bone density loss, muscle wasting, radiation exposure, sleep disturbances, behavioural and psychological fatigue, said Richard de Grijs, an astrophysicist and professor at Macquarie University in Australia.
He also underlined the importance of reliable water and air recycling systems, as well as the ability to manage potential medical emergencies far from Earth.
China is "steadily" building operational experience for "sustained occupation" of its Tiangong space station, and year-long missions are an important step towards future lunar and potentially deep-space ambitions, de Grijs told AFP.
"A year in orbit pushes both hardware and humans into a different operational regime compared with the shorter Shenzhou missions of the programme's earlier phases," he said.
Crews aboard Tiangong have until now largely remained in orbit for six months before being replaced.
The Shenzhou-23 mission is part of China's goal to land astronauts on the Moon before 2030, a race in which the United States is also competing with its Artemis programme.

Pakistani crew members

China is testing the equipment required for its goal, with an orbital test flight of its new Mengzhou spacecraft set for 2026.
The Mengzhou craft will replace the ageing Shenzhou line, and will carry China's astronauts to the Moon.
Beijing hopes to have built the first phase of a manned scientific base by 2035, known as the International Lunar Research Station (ILRS).
China also plans to welcome its first foreign astronaut, from Pakistan, aboard the Tiangong station by the end of this year.
The Asian giant has significantly expanded its space programmes over the last 30 years, injecting billions of dollars into the sector in order to catch up with the United States, Russia and Europe.
In 2019, China landed a spacecraft the Chang'e-4 probe on the far side of the Moon -- a world first.
Then in 2021, it landed a small rover on Mars.
China has been formally excluded from the International Space Station (ISS) since 2011, when the United States banned NASA from collaborating with Beijing, prompting the Asian giant to develop its own space station project.
ehl-dhw/tc

train

Pakistan train blast kills at least 24 in Balochistan

  • The local official told AFP that the train carrying army personnel and their family members was going from Quetta to Peshawar in Pakistan's northwest.
  • A blast targeting a train carrying military personnel killed at least 24 people on Sunday in Pakistan's turbulent southwestern province of Balochistan, a senior official said.
  • The local official told AFP that the train carrying army personnel and their family members was going from Quetta to Peshawar in Pakistan's northwest.
A blast targeting a train carrying military personnel killed at least 24 people on Sunday in Pakistan's turbulent southwestern province of Balochistan, a senior official said.
Army servicemen were among the victims of the attack in the provincial capital Quetta, which wounded more than 50 people, the official told AFP.
The attack, which was claimed by the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) militant group, was branded a "cowardly" act of terrorism by Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.
Images showed a mangled train carriage on its side as people clambered over the wreckage to find survivors.
People could be seen carrying blood-soaked victims on stretchers away from a derailed car, while armed security forces stood guard.
The local official told AFP that the train carrying army personnel and their family members was going from Quetta to Peshawar in Pakistan's northwest.
The train was passing a signal at Chaman Pattak in Quetta "when an explosive-laden car hit one of the carriages that resulted in a big blast", the official said.
Windows were blown out and nearby vehicles were destroyed in the explosion.
Another official told AFP that the army personnel were travelling to celebrate the Eid holiday, which is due to start on Tuesday.

'Running for shelter'

Balochistan is Pakistan's poorest province and largest by landmass. It lags behind the rest of the country in almost every index, including education, employment and economic development.
Baloch separatists accuse Pakistan's government of exploiting the province's natural gas and abundant mineral resources without benefiting the local population.
Mohammad Rahim, who was near the site of the attack, told AFP he was sleeping when the explosion ripped through the area.
"My family and I jumped out of our beds when we heard a loud bang," he said. 
"I heard screaming and the crying of women and children in the building, including my family."
Another witness, Abdul Basit, told AFP he was standing in a queue to buy breakfast when he heard the blast.
"People started running for shelter," he said.
Mujib Ahmad said that his car was damaged in the explosion.
"When I heard the blast, I thought that it must be an attack," he said.
"I came out of the building and saw the devastation and my car was completely damaged."
A police official told AFP the weight of the improvised explosive device used in the attack was around 35 kilograms (77 pounds).
They said that police and security agencies were investigating the attack.
The BLA, the province's most active militant separatist group, claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement sent to AFP.
The group, which the United States has designated a terrorist organisation, said it had targeted military installations as well as police and civil administration officials in gun attacks and suicide bombings.
The BLA has intensified attacks on Pakistanis from other provinces working in the region in recent years, as well as foreign energy firms.
Last year the separatists attacked a train with 450 passengers on board, sparking a deadly two-day siege.
Sharif condemned the "heinous bomb explosion... which has resulted in the tragic loss of innocent lives and left many others injured".
"Such cowardly acts of terrorism cannot weaken the resolve of the people of Pakistan," he said.
"I express my heartfelt condolences to the families of the victims and pray for the swift recovery of the injured." 
str-je/mtp

shark

Shark kills man in Australia's Queensland state

  • Sunday's fatal shark attack is the third in Australia this year, and comes a week after a man was killed by a shark while spearfishing in Western Australia.
  • A man died after a shark attack in northern Queensland state on Sunday, the third fatal shark attack this year in Australia.
  • Sunday's fatal shark attack is the third in Australia this year, and comes a week after a man was killed by a shark while spearfishing in Western Australia.
A man died after a shark attack in northern Queensland state on Sunday, the third fatal shark attack this year in Australia.
The 39-year-old man died from a critical head injury after he was attacked while spearfishing at Kennedy Shoal, an offshore reef, Queensland police said.
"He was retrieved from the water by another person who was in the water with him at the time of the attack," Queensland Police Inspector Elaine Burns said in a news briefing.
"That's quite a terrifying thing to see happen in front of you," she added.
Police were providing support to three men who called the coast guard for help from a private boat just before noon (0200 GMT), and then travelled over an hour with their injured friend to shore.
The critically injured man arrived at a boat ramp at Hull River Heads at 1:00 pm, where emergency services were waiting.
The man died at the boat ramp, Queensland Ambulance said.
"This is a tragic incident for everyone involved," Burns said, urging people to "continue to enjoy our beautiful coastline and be aware of your surroundings".
The attack site is around 160 kilometres (100 miles) south of the popular tourist city of Cairns, where the man, who was not named by police, had lived.
Kennedy Shoal is a well-known fishing reef in deep water.
Gererd Pike of Hooked Up Fishing said his fishing charter boat was six miles from Kennedy Shoal on Sunday and he had seen large numbers of "vicious, unpredictable" bull sharks in the area.
"We were chasing Spanish mackerel and had one eaten by a pack of six of them, four metres off the edge of the boat," he told AFP.
"We were not going to dip toes in the water," he added.
Pike said he heard the emergency services call in the incident over his boat's radio.
Another boat charter operator with a vessel nearby said shark attacks in the area were rare, although bull sharks and tiger sharks were found there.
"It is not very common at all. It is one of those unfortunate things," Rob Parsonage, of Mission Beach Dive, told AFP.
"The sharks are competing with the fishermen," he said.
Sunday's fatal shark attack is the third in Australia this year, and comes a week after a man was killed by a shark while spearfishing in Western Australia.
Daryl McPhee, a shark expert at Queensland's Bond University, said fatal shark attacks are rare in north Queensland.
"There have now been six fatal bites in Queensland since 2020," he told AFP.
The last fatal attack offshore between Townsville and Cairns was in 1990, he said. 
"We do not know currently with certainty what species of shark was involved. Possible candidates are bull or tiger sharks," he said.
McPhee added that spearfishing represents "a different risk profile than other activities and requires different approaches for mitigation compared to surfing".
kln/mtp

train

Dozens killed in blast targeting train in SW Pakistan: official

  • Balochistan is Pakistan's poorest province and largest by landmass.
  • At least 24 people were killed on Sunday in a blast targeting a train carrying military personnel in Pakistan's turbulent southwestern province of Balochistan, a senior official said.
  • Balochistan is Pakistan's poorest province and largest by landmass.
At least 24 people were killed on Sunday in a blast targeting a train carrying military personnel in Pakistan's turbulent southwestern province of Balochistan, a senior official said.
Army servicemen were among the victims in the attack in the provincial capital Quetta, which left more than 50 people injured, the official told AFP.
Images showed a mangled train carriage on its side as people clambered over the wreckage to find survivors.
People could be seen carrying blood-soaked victims on stretchers away from a derailed car, while armed security forces stood guard.
The official told AFP that the train carrying army personnel and their family members was going from Quetta to Peshawar in Pakistan's northwest.
The train was passing a signal at Chaman Pattak in Quetta "when an explosive-laden car hit one of the carriages that resulted in a big blast", the official said.
Windows were blown out and nearby vehicles were destroyed in the explosion.
Another official told AFP that the army personnel were travelling to celebrate the Eid holiday, which is due to start on Tuesday.
Balochistan is Pakistan's poorest province and largest by landmass. It lags behind the rest of the country in almost every index, including education, employment and economic development.
Baloch separatists accuse Pakistan's government of exploiting the province's natural gas and abundant mineral resources without benefiting the local population.
str-je/mtp

Global Edition

NYC immigrant hubs eye FIFA bounce after Trump crackdown woe

BY JOHN BIERS

  • - Cheaper than going - Immigrant communities in New York have felt under siege since Trump returned to the White House and launched his mass deportation drive.
  • World Cup fever is beginning to hit New York's immigrant communities where wariness of the Trump administration's deportation crackdown has weighed on foot traffic.
  • - Cheaper than going - Immigrant communities in New York have felt under siege since Trump returned to the White House and launched his mass deportation drive.
World Cup fever is beginning to hit New York's immigrant communities where wariness of the Trump administration's deportation crackdown has weighed on foot traffic.
In Brooklyn's "Little Haiti," street blocks once busy with merchants were quiet earlier this week. 
Mahalia Desrosiers, a project manager for the civic group Little Haiti BK, has seen some businesses shut down even though the neighborhood has not actually been raided by immigration agents.
But she is becoming more confident the community will rediscover its joie de vivre as Haiti's first World Cup appearance in more than 50 years quickly approaches.
"I think the World Cup will give people a sense of life, of hope, energy," Desrosiers told AFP. "Haitians will put their flag on everything. We will paint this town red and blue."
City officials have been canvassing immigrant neighborhoods ahead of the first games on June 11 to publicize FIFA-related opportunities.
The city's tourism agency is preparing a FIFA calendar of events so visitors can experience matches in neighborhoods with the most passion at stake. They also plan to post short videos promoting watch parties to social media.
Another program, the Five Borough Winners Special, will supply eating and drinking establishments with complementary drinking cups celebrating the soccer extravaganza.
"With FIFA it's an opportunity to maybe reach a new market, reach a new group of people that may not have visited your business before," said Jacques Brunvil, a senior liaison executive with the New York City Department of Small Business Services (SBS).
There are five dishwasher-friendly commemorative cups, one for each New York City borough. The city is hoping tourists will collect all five and post the bounty online.
The set consists of "taxi yellow for the Bronx, coffee cup blue for Brooklyn, ferry orange for Manhattan, thank you red for Queens and Liberty green for Staten Island," said an NYC Tourism spokesperson.
As of May 20, about 600 businesses had signed up for the program.
Brunvil envisions the boroughs as the backdrop to a kind of roving sports festival celebrating New York's diversity.
"We think that depending on the game, we'll see groups of people migrating to different parts of the city, whether it be Little Haiti to watch the Haiti game or an area like Little Senegal to watch that game," Brunvil said. 
"People will move so that they can feel the vibrancy with the fans of that different country."

Cheaper than going

Immigrant communities in New York have felt under siege since Trump returned to the White House and launched his mass deportation drive.
City officials have described the toll anecdotally but say they lack the tools to quantify the economic impact.
At a City Council hearing this month, SBS Chief of Staff Haris Khan said his agency doesn't collect sales data from individual businesses or employ software to monitor foot traffic.
SBS does track real estate indicators, but "just because occupancy rates are healthy, doesn't really mean we're in a great place for our immigrant communities," he said.
Khan told the hearing his agency saw the World Cup as an opportunity, but he was "certain it won't completely alleviate a year and a half worth of pain for some of these businesses."
At Golden Blue Bar & Restaurant, business has been uneven, with the Little Haiti venue's initial opening in 2020 hit by the pandemic before the more recent worries about immigration raids.
But Amantha Chery, who helps manage the restaurant owned by her parents, expressed confidence the community will come out to celebrate. Tickets for Haiti's first match against Scotland on June 13 are currently more than $600 on Stubhub.
"Because of the (ticket) prices, it's better for us," Chery said.
The restaurant, known for its "Mini Golden Delight" plantains and empanadas, has two televisions in the main dining room, plus a garden room that can house a wide screen.  
"It's been a struggle with how Haiti has been represented in the press ... with how 'Haiti's so dangerous' and all that stuff," she said.
"But there's so much resilience and beauty in our culture with our people. I'm just happy that we're finally in the press for something amazing." 
jmb/des

virus

Ebola toll tops 200, other African countries seen at risk

BY DYLAN GAMBA

  • - First known victims - The Red Cross said on Saturday that three Congolese volunteers had died in Ituri after apparently contracting Ebola there. 
  • Officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo updated the death toll from the Ebola outbreak to 204 late Saturday, hours after the Red Cross said three volunteers had died there and Uganda confirmed three new Ebola cases.
  • - First known victims - The Red Cross said on Saturday that three Congolese volunteers had died in Ituri after apparently contracting Ebola there. 
Officials in the Democratic Republic of Congo updated the death toll from the Ebola outbreak to 204 late Saturday, hours after the Red Cross said three volunteers had died there and Uganda confirmed three new Ebola cases.
A health ministry statement said 204 deaths had been recorded in three provinces of the vast central African country, from 867 suspected cases. The last World Health Organization toll on Friday put the number of deaths at 177 from 750 suspected cases.
The World Health Organization has declared the outbreak of the highly contagious haemorrhagic fever an international emergency.
On Saturday, the African Union's health agency warned that more countries on the continent were at risk of being affected by the Ebola virus, in addition to the DRC and Uganda.
"We have 10 countries at risk," said Jean Kaseya, head of the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC), listing Angola, Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Zambia.
Kaseya said "high mobility and insecurity" in the region were helping spread the disease.
The new cases confirmed in Uganda on Saturday bring to five the total confirmed in the east African country since it was detected there and in the DRC on May 15. One person in Uganda has died.
The health ministry named the new patients as a Ugandan driver, a Ugandan health worker and a woman from the DRC. All are alive.
Ebola is a deadly viral disease that spreads through direct contact with bodily fluids. It can cause severe bleeding and organ failure.
The current epidemic centres on the conflict-wracked eastern DRC, where it was detected in Ituri province, which borders Uganda, before spreading to South Kivu.

First known victims

The Red Cross said on Saturday that three Congolese volunteers had died in Ituri after apparently contracting Ebola there. 
The three "were carrying out dead body management activities on March 27 as part of a humanitarian mission unrelated to Ebola", said the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).
"At the time of the intervention, the community was not aware of the Ebola virus disease outbreak... They are among the first known victims."
Ebola has killed more than 15,000 people in Africa in the past half-century.
On Friday, the WHO raised the risk from Ebola in the DRC to its highest level -- "very high".
It said the risk in central Africa was "high" but the global risk remained "low".
The outbreak, which experts suspect was circulating under the radar for some time, is caused by the less common Bundibugyo strain, for which there are no approved vaccines or treatments.
On Thursday, Uganda suspended public transport to the DRC after confirming its first two cases -- one infection and one death -- involving Congolese nationals who crossed the border.
It said the driver confirmed infected on Saturday had been at the wheel of the vehicle in which one of the ill Congolese nationals had travelled to Uganda.
The health worker was exposed to the virus when treating that Congolese patient.
The third case was a Congolese woman who had visited Uganda and tested positive for Ebola after returning to the DRC.

'Everyone's problem'

The eastern DRC has been plagued for three decades by conflict involving numerous armed groups.
State services in rural areas of Ituri have been largely absent for decades.
South Kivu is controlled by the Rwandan-backed armed group M23, which has never had to manage an epidemic like Ebola.
"This is everyone's problem," Congolese Health Minister Samuel Roger Kamba told a news conference in Addis Ababa alongside Kaseya.
He said the Kinshasa government needed to have "total control" of the DRC territory to stop the virus spreading.
bur-jj/rlp

film

Romania's Mungiu wins top prize at glitzy Cannes finale

BY ADAM PLOWRIGHT AND FIACHRA GIBBONS

  • In his second Palme d'Or-winning film, Mungiu explores the contradictions of Scandinavia's supposed tolerance in a drama starring Renate Reinsve ("Sentimental Value") and Sebastian Stan ("The Apprentice").
  • "Fjord", a thought-provoking drama by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu that challenges left-wing prejudices, won the best film prize at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday at a star-packed closing ceremony.
  • In his second Palme d'Or-winning film, Mungiu explores the contradictions of Scandinavia's supposed tolerance in a drama starring Renate Reinsve ("Sentimental Value") and Sebastian Stan ("The Apprentice").
"Fjord", a thought-provoking drama by Romanian director Cristian Mungiu that challenges left-wing prejudices, won the best film prize at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday at a star-packed closing ceremony.
In his second Palme d'Or-winning film, Mungiu explores the contradictions of Scandinavia's supposed tolerance in a drama starring Renate Reinsve ("Sentimental Value") and Sebastian Stan ("The Apprentice").
It follows a devoutly Christian Norwegian-Romanian couple and their five children who move to a remote village in Norway and become the subjects of a child abuse investigation. 
"This is a message about tolerance, inclusion and empathy. These are wonderful values that we all cherish, but we need to put them into practice more often," Mungiu told the audience.
The movie is based on true events and is notable for how it questions the progressive values of Norwegian society and appears sympathetic to the conservative religious characters -- a departure from most arthouse festival fare. 
The 146-minute drama became one of the biggest talking points in Cannes, praised as a "brilliantly knotted social drama" by Variety and a "masterful drama of our polarized times" by Deadline. 
Russian family drama "Minotaur" by Andrey Zvyagintsev, which depicts a callous businessman caught up in Russia's invasion of Ukraine, won the Grand Prix second prize.
Another Cannes regular, Zvyagintsev is an acclaimed filmmaker whose bleak portraits of modern Russia under Vladimir Putin have led to a string of awards and two Oscar nominations.
The 62-year-old, who now lives in exile in France, urged Putin to put an end to the "carnage" in Ukraine in his acceptance speech.
- Double winners - 
Among the other prizes, Belgium's Virginie Efira and Japanese actor Tao Okamoto shared the best female performance award for their roles in touching nursing home drama "All of a Sudden" by Japan's Ryusuke Hamaguchi. 
Belgian duo Emmanuel Macchia and Valentin Campagne from gay World War I romance drama "Coward" also shared the male best actor award for their roles in the Lukas Dhont-directed movie. 
Rwandan filmmaker Marie-Clementine Dusabejambo won the Camera d'Or for best first film for her genocide drama "Ben'Imana" which she dedicated to "the women of my country". 
Other critics' favourites in Cannes included arty black-and-white historical drama "Fatherland" and "La Bola Negra", a big-budget Spanish drama about multiple gay lives.
The movies both won best director, in a third shared award.

Talking points

Cannes is the world's biggest film festival, providing a crucial platform for independent cinema, as well as a showcase for fashion and celebrities to rival the Academy Awards or the Met Gala. 
The 79th edition was packed with its usual stable of A-listers, from John Travolta to Cate Blanchett and Vin Diesel, but Hollywood studios largely skipped it.
No major US studio agreed to launch a blockbuster there this year, or at the Berlin Film Festival in February, raising questions about why giants such as Universal, Disney or Warner are dodging European events.
Other big talking points included the use of artificial intelligence in filmmaking, as well as the continued under-representation of women in the industry.
Only five of the 22 films in the main competition this year were directed by women.
Geena Davis, star of "Thelma & Louise" which features on the Cannes poster this year, reflected on how the 1991 movie was meant to be a breakthrough for women as she presented a prize. 
"All these years later, we have to acknowledge that the change is happening slowly," she said.
Other prizes in Cannes include best documentary for "Rehearsals for a Revolution", a highly personal account of political repression in Iran by exiled actress and director Pegah Ahangarani.
"Elephants in the Fog" -- Nepal's first-ever film in competition at Cannes -- won the jury prize of the official Certain Regard section Friday for its story about the country's traditional transgender community. 
And the best actor prize in the Certain Regard section went to 18-year-old Bradley Fiomona Dembeasset, who was discovered in a street audition in the Central African capital Bangui for the crowd-pleasing "Congo Boy", a refugee rap drama.
adp-fg/rlp

demonstration

Tens of thousands rally in Serbia demanding elections

BY OGNJEN ZORIC

  • The students leading the movement hope Saturday's demonstration will relaunch their campaign to push nationalist president Vucic to call early elections. 
  • Tens of thousands of demonstrators massed in central Belgrade Saturday to renew calls for early elections that grew out of the anti-corruption movement sparked by a deadly rail station disaster.
  • The students leading the movement hope Saturday's demonstration will relaunch their campaign to push nationalist president Vucic to call early elections. 
Tens of thousands of demonstrators massed in central Belgrade Saturday to renew calls for early elections that grew out of the anti-corruption movement sparked by a deadly rail station disaster.
Since the station canopy collapse in November 2024 in Novi Sad, which killed 16 people, calls for a transparent investigation into what happened have snowballed into a push for early polls.
Yelling the movement's signature slogan, "The students are winning," to the din of drums and whistles, crowds streamed through the city to Slavija Square in the centre. Large banners hanging from trees, T-shirts, badges and stickers also bore the slogan.
Later Saturday, as the rally broke up, clashes broke out between demonstrators and police. Masked men threw stones, bottles and firecrackers at police, who responded with tear gas. 
An AFP journalist saw several people arrested and gendarmes' vehicles kept the crowds away from the presidential and parliament buildings.
"All those who, this evening after the end of the public gathering at Slavija, attacked police officers who were securing the event will be identified and prosecuted in accordance with the law," said a statement from the prosecutors' office.
"The scenes we witnessed tonight... are scenes that are not good for Serbia, scenes that have saddened every citizen of our country," Serbian President Alexander Vucic said in a post on Instagram.
"They will not change anything with this," he added.

'Change must come'

Earlier Saturday, marchers gathered for the rally carrying Serbian flags or ones representing their university faculty. Other people, who had travelled from around the country held banners with the names of their towns.
"The goal of today's protest is for all of us to gather again and to make it clear to people that we are still here, that we are fighting and working, that we have not and will not stop," 24-year-old architecture student Andjela told AFP.
Students in high-vis tops served as stewards while war veterans and bikers were also present to protect the crowd.
Police chief Dragan Vasiljevic told journalists the force estimated the turnout at 34,000. No independent estimate was available.
"Today, a clear message is being sent," said another marcher, pensioner Zoran Savic.
"Change must come, Serbia must become a democratic state, the rule of law must be present for everyone, meaning the rule of law equally for everyone," he said.
"And Serbia must be part of the democratic, European community."

Election demand 

The protests have not stopped since the Novi Sad disaster, with one demonstration in March 2025 bringing as many as 300,000 together.
The students leading the movement hope Saturday's demonstration will relaunch their campaign to push nationalist president Vucic to call early elections. Vucic, who regularly raises the issue, suggested on Thursday that they could take place in autumn.
While the protests have passed off peacefully for the most part, some have been marred by clashes in recent months, with several protesters saying they were attacked by masked government supporters.
On Friday, the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner warned that Serbia's rights situation had worsened, citing attacks on activists and journalists, shrinking civic space and alleged police abuses of protests.
"After a year and a half of protests, people have not given up and have not lost their strength," said Ivan Milosavljevic, a demonstrator who came from eastern Serbia.
"The strength of the protests can be seen in the number of people here today. We will continue until this anti-people regime is removed."
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film

Mungiu wins Cannes again with culture wars drama

BY FIACHRA GIBBONS WITH MIHAELA RODINA IN BUCHAREST

  • After directing several short films, he made his first feature, "Occident", which was a critical success and was shown in the Director's Fortnight sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002.
  • Cristian Mungiu, who won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday with "Fjord", is not a man who is afraid of taking on difficult issues.
  • After directing several short films, he made his first feature, "Occident", which was a critical success and was shown in the Director's Fortnight sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002.
Cristian Mungiu, who won the top prize at the Cannes Film Festival on Saturday with "Fjord", is not a man who is afraid of taking on difficult issues.
He won his first Palme d'Or almost 20 years ago with "Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days", a gruelling indictment of the criminalisation of abortion in Romania that left audiences wincing.
This time he took on another prickly subject with his story drawn from a real-life culture war story of a conservative Christian family whose children are put into care because they are suspected of smacking them. 
It raises questions about the prejudices of well-meaning progressive left-wingers without taking a clear position and left many critics at Cannes hotly debating Mungiu's views.
"Much more should be expected of a progressive society that believes it has found the right answers for the future and still considers itself superior," Mungiu, who is only the 10th filmmaker to win two Palmes at Cannes, told AFP this week.
The director put together an A-list cast that includes Norwegian star Renate Reinsve of "Sentimental Value" fame and Sebastian Stan, who played Donald Trump in "The Apprentice".
The story covers a familiar theme in Mungiu's work -- the anxieties of a remote community confronted with the arrival of newcomers, in this case a devout Christian family.
"I'm not here to make people feel comfortable," he told AFP. 

'Try to fix things'

Mungiu and other New Wave Romanian directors have shone at international festivals for the past two decades with often gritty stories of the country's post-communist transition.
"Sometimes what we put in our films is not very nice, but if we don't like what we see, you should try to fix things," he told AFP in 2016.
Mungiu himself was among tens of thousands who rallied against corruption and controversial judicial reforms in massive 2017 Bucharest protests that eventually brought down the government.
"Before becoming a filmmaker, I am a citizen of this country. I am raising my children here and I would have liked this country to have progressed more" since the fall of communism in 1989, Mungiu said.
In his movies, Mungiu makes ample use of sequence shots, avoids working in studios and prefers natural decors.
"I like it when the environment also tells its story," he has said.
Born in Iasi city in northeast Romania, Mungiu studied English and American literature at the local university before going to film school in Bucharest.
During his film studies he worked as assistant director on foreign productions made in Romania, notably French director Bertrand Tavernier's "Captain Conan".
After finishing his studies, he worked as a teacher and then as a journalist before turning to filmmaking.
After directing several short films, he made his first feature, "Occident", which was a critical success and was shown in the Director's Fortnight sidebar at the Cannes Film Festival in 2002.
Mungiu founded his own production company, Mobra Films, the following year.
- 'Ambitious works' - 
Four years later, in 2007, he won the top Palme d'Or at Cannes for the harrowing "Four Months, Three Weeks, Two Days" about an illegal abortion in the 1980s communist Romania of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
In 2012, his drama "Beyond the Hills", which looks behind the walls of an Orthodox convent, won him the best screenplay award at the festival and the two protagonists shared best actress.
He won again in 2016, this time named best director for "Graduation", a film about fatherhood and the corruption undermining the Romanian education system.
He has also been a member of various juries at Cannes.
mr-adp-fg/jj

accident

China authorities report 82 dead in coal mine blast, serious violations

BY ISABEL KUA

  • The state news agency Xinhua said early Sunday an all-out rescue operation was under way to save the two people who were missing.
  • Rescue teams were searching for two people missing in a coal mine blast in northern China that left at least 82 dead, state media said early Sunday.
  • The state news agency Xinhua said early Sunday an all-out rescue operation was under way to save the two people who were missing.
Rescue teams were searching for two people missing in a coal mine blast in northern China that left at least 82 dead, state media said early Sunday.
The blast marked China's worst mining disaster in 17 years and authorities said the company involved had committed "serious" violations, with toxic gases accumulating in the mine.
The state news agency Xinhua said early Sunday an all-out rescue operation was under way to save the two people who were missing.
A total of 247 workers were underground at the time of the blast, which occurred at 7:29 pm (1129 GMT) on Friday at the Liushenyu coal mine in Shanxi province, according to Xinhua.
Of those, 128 people were sent to hospital for treatment, CCTV said.
Toxic and harmful gases under the mine shaft had exceeded safe limits for a long time, posing a risk of secondary disasters, officials told a news conference Saturday evening, according to Xinhua.
Preliminary findings showed the mining company had committed "serious illegal violations", authorities said in the press conference broadcast on CCTV.
A total of 755 emergency and medical personnel were dispatched to the site, CCTV said.
On Saturday evening rescue teams took turns going down into the mine shaft to look for the missing workers.
"As long as there is hope, we will make every possible effort," one rescuer told Xinhua.
Friday's explosion was the deadliest mining disaster in China since 2009, when 108 people were killed in a mine blast in northeast Heilongjiang province.

Sulphur smell

Injured miner Wang Yong told CCTV he heard no sound but smelled sulphur when the explosion happened.
"I didn't hear any sound at all, but then a cloud of smoke appeared," Wang said.
"When I smelled it, it was the smell of sulfur like when people set off firecrackers. When the smoke came down, I shouted for people to run," he said.
He recalled seeing people choked by smoke before he fainted.
"After more than an hour, I came to on my own, and then I woke up the person next to me" and got out, he told CCTV.
Helmeted rescuers were carrying stretchers at the site, with ambulances visible in the background, CCTV footage showed.
Hospitalised people lay in beds with bandages around their heads, the images showed. Others were on oxygen support.
Doctors provided oxygen, dehydration to reduce intracranial pressure and psychological treatment to patients, a nurse told CCTV.
President Xi Jinping urged "all-out efforts" to treat the injured and called for thorough investigations into the incident, according to Xinhua.
China's government vowed to severely punish those responsible and ordered a nationwide crackdown on illegal mining activities, Xinhua said.
"The State Council's accident investigation team will conduct a rigorous and uncompromising investigation," Xinhua said.
"Those found responsible will be severely punished in accordance with laws and regulations."
"All regions and relevant authorities are required to... launch tough crackdowns on illegal and unlawful activities", including the falsification of safety data, unclear headcounts of underground workers and illegal contracting, it added.
A person "responsible for" the company involved in the explosion has been "placed under control in accordance with the law", Xinhua said.

Lax safety protocols

Shanxi, one of China's poorer provinces, is the centre of the country's coal mining.
Mine safety in China has improved in recent decades, but accidents still occur in an industry where safety protocols are often lax and regulations vague.
In 2023, a collapse at an open-pit coal mine in the northern Inner Mongolia region killed 53 people.
China is the world's top consumer of coal and the largest greenhouse gas emitter, despite installing renewable energy capacity at record speed.
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