Ukrainian officials say they uncovered a massive defense procurement scheme that saw tens of millions of dollars spent for weapons that never materialized. The discovery follows the downing of a Russian military plane said to have been carrying Ukrainian POWs. VOA’s Arash Arabasadi has this story.
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Month: January 2024
Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso Break from ECOWAS
Spanish Opposition Protests Catalan a Amnesty Law
Madrid — Spanish opposition parties demonstrated in Madrid on Sunday in a last gasp effort to stop an amnesty for Catalan separatists over their role in a 2007 secession bid.
About 45,000 people heeded the call by the Popular Party to gather in the capital’s central Plaza de Espana, according to police estimates.
The amnesty bill, which was imposed by Catalan parties as a condition for agreeing to support Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s coalition, will be presented Tuesday to the lower house of Spain’s parliament.
Once approved and enacted, which could take several months, the law would block legal action against hundreds of Catalan activists who are being investigated or have been charged for their role in the attempted declaration of an independent Catalan state in 2007.
Sunday’s march was attended by PP leader Alberto Nunez Feijoo and former prime minister Mariano Rajoy, as well as president of the Madrid region Isabel Diaz Ayuso.
The crowd carried numerous Spanish and European flags, as well as banners saying “No to amnesty” and “Sanchez traitor”.
Silvia Sobral, 64, said she’d come to protest against “this traitor government” that wants to “destroy the Spanish nation”.
She said the eventual return of Carles Puigdemont, the former head of the Catalan regional government who fled to Belgium after the aborted secession, was “an insult”, unless he was returning “to go to jail”.
For Diego Garcia, 72, it is “unacceptable” to pardon “people guilty of pure and simple terrorism”.
The far-right party Vox has also held numerous protests against the amnesty bill, some of which have turned violent, especially in front of the Socialist party’s headquarters.
Sanchez’s government won a vote of confidence in parliament last November for another four-year term, but the shaky coalition needs the votes of two Catalan parties who insisted on the amnesty law as the price of their support.
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Sinner Rallies From 2 Sets Down to Win the Australian Open Final
MELBOURNE, Australia — Jannik Sinner rallied from two sets down to take the Australian Open final from Daniil Medvedev 3-6, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, 6-3 on Sunday and clinch his first Grand Slam title.
The 22-year-old Sinner was playing in a major final for the first time and got there by ending Novak Djokovic’s long domination of the tournament in a semifinal upset.
He’s the first Italian to win the Australian Open title in what could be a generational shift in tennis.
For 2021 U.S. Open champion Medvedev, the loss was his fifth in six major finals. The third-seeded Medvedev set a record with his fourth five-set match of the tournament and time on court at a major in the Open era, his 24 hours and 17 minutes surpassing Carlos Alcaraz’s 23:40 at the 2022 U.S. Open.
Medvedev lost back-to-back finals here to Djokovic in 2021 and to Rafael Nadal — after holding a two-set lead — the following year. He won three five-set matches to reach the championship match this time and had two comebacks from two sets down. Sinner only dropped one set through six rounds — in a third-set tiebreaker against Djokovic — until he lost two straight to Medvedev.
It wasn’t until a break in the sixth game of the fifth set that he really had a full grip on his first Grand Slam title.
Medvedev started like a man who wanted to win quickly, after playing three five-set matches just to reach his sixth Grand Slam final.
In two of those — a second-round win over Emil Ruusuvuori that finished at almost 4 in the morning, and a 4-hour, 18-minute semifinal win over No. 6 Alexander Zverev — he had to come back from two sets down. Nobody had done that on the way to an Australian Open final since Pete Sampras in 1995.
The 27-year-old Russian had spent 20 hours and 33 minutes on court through six rounds. That was almost six hours longer than Sinner took to reach the final.
Sinner didn’t give Djokovic a look at a breakpoint as he ended the 10-time Australian Open champion’s 33-match unbeaten streak at Melbourne Park dating to 2018.
Against Medvedev, though, he was in trouble early. Medvedev broke in the third game and took the first set in 36 minutes.
He had two more service breaks in the fourth and sixth games of the second set but was broken himself at 5-1 trying to serve it out. He was successful next try.
The third set went with serve until the 10th game, when Medvedev was a point from leveling at 5-5 until three forehand errors gave Sinner the set, and the momentum.
He won the fourth set, again with a service break in the 10th game, recovering immediately to win three points after mishitting a forehand so far out that it shocked the Rod Laver Arena crowd.
And so the tournament equaled a Grand Slam Open era record set at the 1983 U.S. Open with a 35th match going to five sets.
In the sixth game of the fifth set, Sinner had triple breakpoint against a fatiguing Medvedev. He missed with his first chance but converted with his next, a forehand winner, for a 4-2 lead. From there, he didn’t give Medvedev another chance.
Medvedev had faced either Djokovic or Rafael Nadal in all five of his previous major finals. He beat Djokovic to win the 2021 U.S. Open title but lost all the others, including the 2021 final in Australia to Djokovic and the 2022 final — after taking the first two sets — against Nadal.
He changed up his usual style, going to the net more regularly in the first two sets and standing closer to the baseline to receive serve than he has done recently.
Medvedev has been saying through the tournament that he has more stamina than he used to and is mentally stronger in the tough five-setters. He needed to be.
Medvedev won his first six matches against Sinner but has now lost four straight.
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Bangladesh’s Yunus Vows to Help Poor Despite Legal Woes
Dhaka — Bangladeshi Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus vowed Sunday to overcome scores of court cases that his supporters say are politically motivated to achieve his environmental and economic policies.
“Our dream is to create a new world,” 83-year-old Yunus told reporters outside court, after he was formally granted bail in his appeal against a six-month prison sentence in a case widely criticized by human rights groups.
Yunus is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank but has incurred the wrath of Bangladesh’s longtime Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who has accused him of “sucking blood” from the poor.
Hasina, who was sworn in for a fifth term this month after a landslide victory in an election boycotted by the opposition, has made several scathing verbal attacks against the internationally respected 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
His conviction on January 1 related to labor law violations, but lawyers said Yunus faces at least 170 other cases, including major corruption charges that could see him jailed for years if found guilty.
He denies all wrongdoing.
Yunus, in an emotionally charged speech, said he had dedicated his life to supporting those most in need and was “committed” to continuing his work.
His “Three Zero” plan is aimed to slash carbon emissions, end unemployment and cut poverty.
“We have chased a dream,” Yunus said. “We have incurred the annoyance of someone because of chasing this dream,” he added, without specifying names.
In the most recent case, Yunus and three colleagues from Grameen Telecom, one of the firms he founded, were accused of violating labor laws when they failed to create a workers’ welfare fund in the company.
Yunus alleged the case was brought by a government department, but Minister of Transport Obaidul Quader said the “case was filed by the workers.”
Hasina has rejected calls to pardon Yunus and said instead he should seek forgiveness from his employees.
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Ukraine Says Embezzlers Stole $40M in Weapons Money
Finland Electing President Amid Tensions with Russia
Helsinki, Finland — Finns headed to the polls Sunday to elect a new president, an office whose importance has grown on increased tensions with neighboring Russia since the invasion of Ukraine.
While the president’s powers are limited, the head of state — who also acts as supreme commander of Finland’s armed forces — helps direct foreign policy in collaboration with the government, meaning the changing geopolitical landscape in Europe will be the main concern for the winner.
Two top politicians lead the pack of nine candidates: former conservative prime minister Alexander Stubb, and ex-foreign minister Pekka Haavisto of the Green Party who is running as an independent.
Just behind the frontrunners are far-right Finns Party candidate Jussi Halla-aho, who experts believe could also make it to the second round.
The polls opened at 9 a.m. (0700 GMT), and will close at 8 p.m.
Voter Hannu Kuusitie told AFP the country needs a president with “leadership” and “humanity.”
“Of course, he must also be tough when necessary,” he added.
Relations between Moscow and Helsinki deteriorated following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, prompting Finland to drop decades of military nonalignment and join NATO in April 2023.
Russia, with which Finland shares a 1,340-kilometer border, swiftly warned of “countermeasures.”
Independent and ally
By August 2023, Finland observed an influx of migrants entering through its eastern border without visas.
Helsinki claimed Moscow was pushing the migrants in a hybrid attack to destabilize it, and Finland closed the eastern border in November.
“We are in a situation now where Russia and especially [Russian President] Vladimir Putin is using humans as a weapon,” Stubb said Thursday evening during a final televised debate.
“It’s a migrant issue, it’s a ruthless, cynical measure. And in that case we have to put Finland’s security first,” he added.
Main rival Haavisto stressed that Finland had to “send Russia a very clear message that this can’t go on.”
In the post-Cold War period, Helsinki maintained good relations with Moscow.
Incumbent President Sauli Niinisto — who is stepping down after serving two six-year terms — once prided himself on his close ties with Putin before becoming one of his most trenchant critics.
Against this backdrop, all the presidential candidates champion both Finland’s independence and its new role as a NATO member, said Hanna Wass, vice dean at the Faculty of Social Science at the University of Helsinki.
“They all seem to have a strong idea emphasizing self-sufficiency, in that in the future Finland should be in charge of its defense independently and also be an active contributor in building a shared European defense and Nordic cooperation,” Wass told AFP.
With such similar stances, the election will focus more on the candidates’ personalities, according to Tuomas Forsberg, professor of foreign policy at the University of Tampere.
“This will be more about electing an individual, where you look at the person’s credibility and reliability and perceived qualities as a leader of foreign policy,” Forsberg said.
Similar views
A poll published by public broadcaster Yle gave Stubb a first round lead with 27% of the vote, Haavisto in second on 23% and Halla-aho 18%.
Stubb was prime minister of Finland between 2014 and 2015, while Pekka Haavisto has held several ministerial posts.
“They both have broad experience in both domestic and foreign politics, which voters seem to value the most,” Wass said.
While sharing similar political views, Haavisto and Stubb represent different backgrounds, Forsberg noted.
“Their background and values … are seen as quite different because Alex is more a representative of the right and Haavisto of the left, even if Haavisto has tried to underline that there is nothing red about him, that he has taken the middle road as a Green,” Forsberg said.
In a second voting round between the two — which will be held on February 11 unless a candidate receives more than 50% — the election debates could be decisive, he added.
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Finns Choose New President for NATO Era With Russia in Mind
HELSINKI, FINLAND — Finland elects a new president on Sunday to lead the country in its new role within NATO after it broke with decades of non-alignment to join the Western defense alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The Nordic country’s admission to NATO last year drew threats of “counter measures” from its vast Russian neighbor.
In December, Finland closed its entire border with Russia to passenger traffic in response to a surge in migrants trying to cross. Moscow denied Finnish charges it was sending them there.
All nine candidates are promising a tough stance toward Russia if elected president, a role that leads on foreign and security policy in close cooperation with the government and represents the country at NATO meetings, while also acting as a Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Defense Forces.
The center-right National Coalition’s Alexander Stubb has emerged as the frontrunner, with recent polls giving him 22-27% support in a first round, just ahead of liberal Green Party member Pekka Haavisto, who polled at 20-23%.
The nationalist Finns Party’s Jussi Halla-aho is not far behind Haavisto, at 15-18%.
Bank of Finland Governor Olli Rehn and Social Democrat European Union Commissioner Jutta Urpilainen are among the other six candidates from across the political spectrum.
If no one gets more than 50% of the votes cast on Sunday, a runoff will be held between the first and second candidates.
Partial results are expected shortly after polls close at 1800 GMT and the competitors for the probable second round should be clear by 2030 GMT unless the results are very close.
The new president will replace 75-year-old incumbent Sauli Niinisto who is required to step down after two six-year terms in office.
He earned the nickname “the Putin Whisperer” during his tenure for his role in maintaining close ties with Russia, which had long been a key role for Finnish presidents.
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Somali Parents Agonize Over Missing Migrants
Pakistan Urges Iran to Investigate ‘Horrifying’ Slayings of 9 Citizens
islamabad — Pakistan confirmed Saturday that nine of its nationals were killed by gunmen in neighboring Iran, demanding an immediate investigation into the “terrorist incident” to punish the perpetrators.
Iranian media reported that the early morning shooting occurred in a home in the southeastern city of Saravan in Sistan-Baluchistan province bordering Pakistan.
“It is a horrifying and despicable incident, and we condemn it unequivocally,” said Mumtaz Zahra Baloch, the Pakistan Foreign Ministry spokesperson.
“We are in touch with Iranian authorities and have underscored the need to immediately investigate the incident and hold to account those involved in this heinous crime,” Baloch said.
No group or individual has claimed responsibility for the deadly attack that targeted a group of Pakistanis reportedly working at an auto repair shop in the Iranian border region.
Baloch said that a senior Pakistani diplomat was on the way to the hospital where several injured people were being treated, promising to arrange for an urgent repatriation of the victims’ bodies.
“We are fully seized of this grave matter and are taking all necessary measures in this regard…Such cowardly attacks cannot deter Pakistan from its determination to fight terrorism,” she said.
Saturday’s incident came more than a week after Pakistan’s military launched cross-border retaliatory strikes, targeting alleged militant hideouts in the same Iranian city. Iran said that attack in Saravan killed nine people, mostly women and children.
Islamabad said the Pakistani military had hit bases of outlawed Baluch militant groups orchestrating attacks against Pakistan from Iranian border areas.
The unprecedented strikes came two days after Iranian security forces staged “drone and missile strikes” against what Tehran said were the “strongholds” of the anti-Iran Jaish al-Adl militant group in Pakistan’s southwestern border province of Balochistan.
Islamabad condemned the Iranian raid as a “blatant breach” of its territorial sovereignty, saying it resulted in the deaths of two children. Pakistan immediately recalled its ambassador from Iran and barred the Iranian ambassador from returning to the country.
Both countries have long accused each other of not doing enough to deny fugitive militants safe havens in their respective territories.
The military tensions raised fears of a broader conflict between Iran and Pakistan. However, the two countries announced last Monday that they had decided to immediately “de-escalate” and restore diplomatic relations.
Officials on both sides confirmed Friday that Pakistani and Iranian ambassadors had returned to their respective embassies to resume their routine diplomatic missions.
Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian is also due to arrive in Islamabad on Monday for official talks with his Pakistani counterpart, Jalil Abbas Jilani.
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India Hindu Group Toughens Stance on Mosque-Temple Disputes
NEW DELHI — A powerful Hindu group said several mosques in India were built over demolished Hindu temples, apparently hardening its stance in a decadeslong sectarian dispute just days after a huge temple was inaugurated on the site of a razed mosque.
The comments from the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological parent of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist party, come after Modi and the RSS chief led Monday’s consecration of the temple on the site of a 16th-century mosque demolished by a Hindu mob in 1992.
The fight over claims to holy sites has divided Hindu-majority India, which has the world’s third-largest Muslim population, since independence from British rule in 1947.
Four days after the temple was inaugurated in the northern city of Ayodhya, a lawyer for Hindu petitioners said the Archaeological Survey of India had determined that a 17th century mosque in the Hindu holy city of Varanasi, in Modi’s parliamentary constituency, had been built over a destroyed a Hindu temple.
The Archaeological Survey did not respond to a request for comment.
Late Friday, senior RSS leader Indresh Kumar questioned whether Varanasi’s Gyanvapi mosque and three others, including the razed one in Ayodhya on the site where many Hindus believe Lord Ram was born, were mosques at all.
“Whether we should consider them mosques or not, the people of the country and the world should think about it,” Kumar told Reuters in an interview, referring to the sites in Gyanvapi, Ayodhya, one other in Uttar Pradesh state and one in Madhya Pradesh. “They should stand with the truth, or they should stand with the wrong?”
In the group’s first reaction to the Gyanvapi findings, Kumar said, “Accept the truth. Hold dialogs and let the judiciary decide.”
Raising questions about the mosques does not mean Hindu groups comprise “an anti-mosque movement,” he said. “This is not an anti-Islam movement. This is a movement to seek the truth that should be welcomed by the world.”
“Nothing political”
Muslim groups are disputing the assertions of Hindu groups in court.
Zufar Ahmad Faruqi, chairman of the Sunni Central Waqf Board in Uttar Pradesh, said the group has “confidence in the judiciary that it will do what is correct.”
“We want to live in harmony and peacefully while protecting the monuments as they are,” he said. “Nothing political about it; we are in the court and facing it legally.”
The Modi-led opening of the Ayodhya temple fulfilled a 35-year-old pledge of his Bharatiya Janata Party ahead of a general election due in May. He is expected to win a third straight term, the longest stretch since India’s first prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru.
The razing of the Ayodhya mosque sparked riots across India that authorities say killed at least 2,000 people, mostly Muslims. Hindu groups have for decades said that Muslim Mughal rulers built monuments and places of worship after destroying ancient Hindu structures.
Indian law bars the conversion of any place of worship and provides for the maintenance of the religious character of places of worship as they existed at the time of independence — except for the Ayodhya shrine. The Supreme Court is hearing challenges to the law.
The court this month halted plans for a survey of another centuries-old mosque in Uttar Pradesh, the country’s most populous and politically important state, to determine if it contained Hindu relics and symbols.
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Nazi Death Camp Survivors Mark Anniversary of Auschwitz Liberation
OSWIECIM, Poland — A group of survivors of Nazi death camps marked the 79th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau camp during World War II in a modest ceremony Saturday in southern Poland.
About 20 survivors from various camps set up by Nazi Germany around Europe laid wreaths and flowers and lit candles at the Death Wall in Auschwitz.
Later, the group was to say prayers at the monument in Birkenau. They were memorializing around 1.1 million camp victims, mostly Jews. The memorial site and museum are located near the city of Oswiecim.
Nearly 6 million European Jews were killed by the Nazis during the Holocaust — the mass murder of Jews and other groups before and during World War II.
Marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day, the survivors will be accompanied by Polish Senate Speaker Malgorzata Kidawa-Blonska, Culture Minister Bartlomiej Sienkiewicz and Israeli Ambassador Yacov Livne.
The theme of the observances is the human being, symbolized in simple, hand-drawn portraits. They are meant to stress that the horror of Auschwitz-Birkenau lies in the suffering of people held and killed there.
Holocaust victims were commemorated across Europe.
In Germany, where people put down flowers and lit candles at memorials for the victims of the Nazi terror, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that his country would continue to carry the responsibility for this “crime against humanity.”
He called on all citizens to defend Germany’s democracy and fight antisemitism, as the country marked the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.
“‘Never again’ is every day,” Scholz said in his weekly video podcast. “January 27 calls out to us: Stay visible! Stay audible! Against antisemitism, against racism, against misanthropy — and for our democracy.”
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose country is fighting to repel Russia’s full-scale invasion, posted an image of a Jewish menorah on X, formerly known as Twitter, to mark the remembrance day.
“Every new generation must learn the truth about the Holocaust. Human life must remain the highest value for all nations in the world,” said Zelenskyy, who is Jewish and has lost relatives in the Holocaust.
“Eternal memory to all Holocaust victims!” Zelenskyy tweeted.
In Italy, Holocaust commemorations included a torchlit procession alongside official statements from top political leaders.
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni said that her conservative nationalist government was committed to eradicating antisemitism that she said had been “reinvigorated” amid the Israel-Hamas war. Meloni’s critics have long accused her and her Brothers of Italy party, which has neo-fascist roots, of failing to sufficiently atone for its past.
Later Saturday, leftist movements planned a torchlit procession to remember all victims of the Holocaust — Jews but also Roma, gays and political dissidents who were deported or exterminated in Nazi camps.
Police were also on alert after pro-Palestinian activists indicated that they would ignore a police order and go ahead with a rally planned to coincide with the Holocaust commemorations. Italy’s Jewish community has complained that such protests have become occasions for the memory of the Holocaust to be co-opted by anti-Israel forces and used against Jews.
In Poland, a memorial ceremony with prayers was held Friday in Warsaw at the foot of the Monument to the Heroes of the Ghetto, who fell fighting the Nazis in 1943.
Earlier in the week, the countries of the former Yugoslavia signed an agreement in Paris to jointly renovate Block 17 in the red-brick Auschwitz camp and install a permanent exhibition there in memory of around 20,000 people who were deported from their territories and brought to the block. Participating in the project will be Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia.
Preserving the camp, a notorious symbol of the horrors of the Holocaust, with its cruelly misleading “Arbeit Macht Frei” (“Work Makes One Free”) gate, requires constant effort by historians and experts, and substantial funds.
The Nazis, who occupied Poland from 1939 to 1945, at first used old Austrian military barracks at Auschwitz as a concentration and death camp for Poland’s resistance fighters. In 1942, the wooden barracks, gas chambers and crematoria of Birkenau were added for the extermination of Europe’s Jews, Roma and other nationals, as well as Russian prisoners of war.
Soviet Red Army troops liberated Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27, 1945, with about 7,000 prisoners there, children and those who were too weak to walk. The Germans had evacuated tens of thousands of other inmates on foot days earlier in what is now called the Death March, because many inmates died of exhaustion and cold in the sub-freezing temperatures.
Since 1979, Auschwitz-Birkenau has been on the UNESCO list of World Heritage sites.
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Thousands March Against Slayings of Women in Kenya
NAIROBI, Kenya — Thousands of people marched in cities and towns in Kenya during protests Saturday over the recent slayings of more than a dozen women. The anti-femicide demonstration was the largest event ever held in the country against sexual and gender-based violence.
In the nation’s capital, Nairobi, protesters wore T-shirts printed with the names of women who became homicide victims this month. The crowd, mostly women, brought traffic to a standstill.
“Stop killing us!” the demonstrators shouted as they waved signs with messages such as “There is no justification to kill women.”
The crowd in Nairobi was hostile to attempts by the parliamentary representative for women, Esther Passaris, to address them. Accusing Passaris of remaining silent during the latest wave of killings, protesters shouted her down with chants of “Where were you?” and “Go home!”
“A country is judged by not how well it treats its rich people but how well it takes care of the weak and vulnerable,” said Law Society of Kenya President Eric Theuri, who was among the demonstrators.
Kenyan media outlets have reported the slayings of at least 14 women since the start of the year, according to Patricia Andago, a data journalist at media and research firm Odipo Dev who also took part in the march.
Odipo Dev reported this week that news accounts showed at least 500 women were killed in acts of femicide from January 2016 to December 2023. Many more cases go unreported, Andago said.
Two cases that gripped Kenya this month involved two women who were killed at Airbnb accommodations. The second victim was a university student who was dismembered and decapitated after she reportedly was kidnapped for ransom.
The Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology student’s head was found in a dam on Monday, a week after her dismembered body was found in a trash can at the rented home. Two Nigerian men were arrested in connection with her death.
A week earlier, the body of another young woman was found in an apartment with several stab wounds after she went there with a man she met online. Police are holding a suspect identified as John Matara. Several women have come forward to say they had previously told police about alleged acts of torture by Matara but he was never charged.
Theuri, the president of the Law Society, said cases of gender-based violence take too long to be heard in court, which he thinks emboldens perpetrators to commit crimes against women.
“As we speak right now, we have a shortage of about 100 judges. We have a shortage of 200 magistrates and adjudicators, and so that means that the wheel of justice grinds slowly as a result of inadequate provisions of resources,” he said.
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French Farmers to Keep Protesting Despite Government’s Concessions Offer
PARIS — French farmers vowed Saturday to continue protesting, maintaining traffic barricades on some of the country’s major roads a day after the government announced a series of measures that they say do not fully address their demands.
The farmers’ movement, seeking better payment for their produce, less red tape and protection against cheap imports has spread in recent days across the country, with protesters using their tractors to shut down long stretches of road and slow traffic.
They’ve also dumped stinky agricultural waste at the gates of government offices.
While some of the barricades were gradually being lifted Saturday, highway operator Vinci Autoroutes said the A7, a major highway heading through southern France and into Spain, was still closed. Some other roads were also partially closed, mostly in southern France.
Vinci Autoroutes noted that the blockades on two highways leading to Paris have been removed. The highway from Lyon, in eastern France, to Bordeaux, in the southwest, also reopened Saturday, the company said in a statement.
Some angry protesters were planning to give a new boost to the mobilization next week, threatening to block traffic around Paris for several days, starting from Sunday evening.
President Emmanuel Macron’s new prime minister, Gabriel Attal, announced a series of measures Friday during a visit to a cattle farm in southern France. They include “drastically simplifying” certain technical procedures and the progressive end to diesel fuel taxes for farm vehicles, he said.
Attal also confirmed that France would remain opposed to the European Union signing a free-trade deal with the Mercosur trade group, as French farmers denounce what they see as unfair competition from Latin American countries. The agreement has been under negotiation for years.
In response to Attal’s announcement, France’s two major farmers’ unions quickly announced their decision to continue the protests, saying the government’s plan doesn’t go far enough.
The protests in France are also symptomatic of discontent in agricultural heartlands across the European Union. The influential and heavily subsidized sector is becoming a hot-button issue ahead of European Parliament elections in June, with populist and far-right parties hoping to benefit from rural disgruntlement against free trade agreements, burdensome costs worsened by Russia’s war in Ukraine and other complaints.
In recent weeks, farmers have staged protests in Germany, the Netherlands, Poland and Romania.
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Gunmen Kill 9 People in Iran Near Pakistan Border
TEHRAN, Iran — Unknown gunmen shot to death nine people Saturday in the southeastern part of Iran that borders Pakistan, media reports said.
A report by the semiofficial Mehr news agency said the shooting took place in a home near the town of Saravan, in Iran’s Sistan and Baluchestan province. It added that the victims were not Iranian.
No official news outlet reported the shooting, and no group has yet taken responsibility for the attack.
HalVash, an advocacy group for the Baluch people, shared images online that appeared to be bodies of the victims and said three more people were wounded. It said they were Pakistani nationals and identified four of them, saying all the victims were workers at an auto repair shop.
Last week, Pakistan launched retaliatory strikes on the same area, allegedly targeting militant hideouts in an attack that killed at least nine people. The strikes followed Iran’s attack Tuesday on Pakistani soil that killed two children in the southwestern Balochistan province.
The tit-for-tat attacks appeared to target two Baluch militant groups with similar separatist goals on both sides of the Iran-Pakistan border. The two countries have accused each other of providing a safe haven to the groups in their respective territories.
On Friday, media reports said both nations’ ambassadors resumed activities in each other’s capital that were idled following the attacks.
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Sabalenka Overpowers Zheng to Retain Australian Open Crown
MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — Aryna Sabalenka continued to be an irrepressible force at the Australian Open as she powered to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Chinese 12th seed Zheng Qinwen on Saturday to successfully defend her title and add a second Grand Slam trophy to her cabinet.
The Belarusian second seed has barely put a foot wrong as she became the first woman to retain the Melbourne Park crown since compatriot Victoria Azarenka in 2013.
“It’s been an amazing couple of weeks, and I couldn’t imagine myself lifting this trophy one more time,” Sabalenka said.
“I want to congratulate you, Qinwen, on an incredible couple of weeks here in Australia. I know it’s really tough to lose in the final, but you’re such an incredible player,” she said. “You’re such a young girl, and you’re going to make many more finals and you’re going to get it.”
Sabalenka came into the match without dropping a set at the year’s first major. She remained perfect to join Ash Barty, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova and Lindsay Davenport in the elite club of players to have managed the feat since 2000.
She unleashed monster groundstrokes to grab the final by the scruff of the neck with an early break, and thousands of Chinese supporters and millions back home watched Zheng fall behind 3-0.
Sabalenka did not have her nation’s flags in the stands because of a ban over her country’s role in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but the charismatic 25-year-old has a big Melbourne fan base. She rode the Rod Laver Arena support to take the first set.
Zheng, who had saved four set points, showed she was slowly growing in confidence in her second meeting with Sabalenka by firing up her own big forehand amid the rallying cry of “Jia You” from her compatriots in the crowd.
The 21-year-old first-time finalist, bidding to match her idol Li Na — the Melbourne Park champion 10 years ago and first Chinese player to win a major — saw her hopes fade after two more errors on serve left her 4-1 down.
Sabalenka shrugged off a shaky service game to close out the most one-sided final since Azarenka beat Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-0 in 2012.
“It’s my first final and I’m feeling a little bit pity, but that’s how it is,” Zheng said. “I feel very complicated because I could have done better than I did in this match.”
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