Month: August 2024

BAMAKO — Mali is immediately cutting diplomatic ties with Ukraine over comments by a spokesperson for Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (GUR) about fighting in its north that killed Malian soldiers and Wagner fighters in late July, it said Sunday.

Mali’s northern Tuareg rebels say they killed at least 84 Russian Wagner mercenaries and 47 Malian soldiers over days of fierce fighting in the north of the West African country in what appears to be Wagner’s heaviest defeat since it stepped in two years ago to help Mali’s military authorities fight insurgent groups.

GUR spokesperson Andriy Yusov has not confirmed Kyiv’s involvement in the fighting, but in comments published on public broadcaster Suspilne’s website on July 29, he said the Malian rebels had received the “necessary” information to conduct the attack.

“The rebels received all the necessary information they needed, and not just the information, which allowed [them] to conduct a successful military operation against Russian perpetrators of war crimes. We certainly won’t go into details now — you will see more of this in the future,” he said.

Mali said it had learned “with deep shock of the subversive remarks.”

It said Yusov had “admitted Ukraine’s involvement in a cowardly, treacherous and barbaric attack by armed terrorist groups that resulted in the death of members of the Malian Defence and Security Forces.”

“The actions taken by the Ukrainian authorities violate the sovereignty of Mali, go beyond the scope of foreign interference, which is already condemnable in itself, and constitute a clear aggression against Mali and support for international terrorism,” the Malian government said.

It also cited comments by Ukraine’s ambassador to Senegal, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast and Liberia.

Senegal’s foreign minister summoned Ukrainian Ambassador Yurii Pyvovarov on Friday over a video it said the Ukrainian embassy had posted on its Facebook page in which Pyvovarov provided “unequivocal and unqualified support for the terrorist attack” in Mali.
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London — U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday vowed “swift criminal sanctions” following an emergency meeting on the far-right riots that broke out across England last week over the murder of three children.

The prime minister met with ministers and police chiefs, including Scotland Yard boss Mark Rowley, to discuss how to quell the violence that first broke out in Southport, northwest England, on Tuesday.

Over the weekend, several police officers were injured and scores of people were arrested as mobs throwing bricks and flares clashed with officers, burnt and looted shops, and smashed the windows of cars and homes.

As part of a “number of actions” to come out of Monday’s meeting, the government will “ramp up criminal justice” to ensure that “sanctions are swift,” Starmer told the media.

He also said a “standing army” of specially-trained police officers was ready to be deployed to support local forces where any further riots break out.

“My focus is on making sure that we stop this disorder,” he added.

Clashes erupted in Southport a day after three young girls were killed and five more children critically injured during a knife attack at a Taylor Swift-themed dance class.

False rumors initially spread on social media saying the attacker was a Muslim asylum seeker, but police said the suspect was a 17-year-old born in Wales, with UK media reporting he has Rwandan parents.

However, that has not stopped mosques from being targeted.

Police have since arrested hundreds of people in towns and cities nationwide, with anti-immigration demonstrators and rioters facing off against police and counter-protestors, including groups of Muslims.

The prime minister on Sunday warned rioters they would “regret” participating in England’s worst disorder in 13 years, while his interior minister Yvette Cooper told the BBC on Monday that “there will be a reckoning.”

Cooper also said that social media put a “rocket booster” under the violence, and Starmer stressed that “criminal law applies online as well as offline.”

Police have blamed the violence on people associated with the English Defense League, an anti-Islam organization founded 15 years ago whose supporters have been linked to football hooliganism.

Some of the worst scenes on Sunday broke out in Rotherham, northern England, where masked rioters smashed several windows at a hotel that has been used to house asylum seekers.

At least 12 officers were injured, including one who was knocked unconscious, as they battled around 500 protesters with “far-right and anti-immigration views,” South Yorkshire Police’s Lindsey Butterfield told media on Monday.

There were also large scuffles in Bolton, northwest England, and Middlesbrough, northeast England, where mobs smashed windows of houses and cars, leading to 43 arrests.

Protesters there seized a camera from an AFP crew and broke it. The journalists were not injured.

Late on Sunday, Staffordshire police said another hotel known to have sheltered asylum seekers was targeted near Birmingham.

The violence is a major challenge for Starmer, elected only a month ago after leading Labour to a landslide win over the Conservatives.

MPs from all sides have urged Starmer to recall parliament from its summer holiday, including Conservative former interior minister Priti Patel, Labour MPs Diane Abbott and Dawn Butler, and Reform UK leader Nigel Farage.

Police have said more than 150 people were arrested over the weekend.

Rioters threw bricks, bottles and flares at police — injuring several officers — and looted and burnt shops, while demonstrators shouted anti-Islamic slurs as they clashed with counter-protesters.

The violence is the worst England has seen since 2011, when widespread rioting followed the police killing of a mixed-race man in north London.

Authorities have said the initial violence was partly caused by the false rumors about suspect Axel Rudakubana, who is accused of killing a six, seven, and nine-year-old, and injuring another 10 people.

Agitators have targeted at least two mosques, with the government now offering new emergency security to Islamic places of worship.

The rallies have been advertised on far-right social media channels under the banner “Enough is enough.”

Participants have waved English and British flags while chanting slogans like “Stop the boats” — a reference to irregular migrants crossing the Channel to Britain from France.

Anti-fascist demonstrators have meanwhile held counter-rallies in many cities.

At last month’s election, the Reform UK party led by Brexit cheerleader Farage captured 14 percent of the vote — one of the largest vote shares for a hard-right British party.
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AMSTERDAM — Semiconductor industry group SEMI Europe called on the European Union on Monday to place as few restrictions as possible on outbound investment in foreign computer chip technology by companies based in the bloc. 

Proposals to screen outbound investment — European capital being invested in foreign semiconductor, AI and biotechnology companies — are being considered, though no EU decision is expected before 2025. 

The U.S. has issued draft rules for banning some such investments in China that could threaten U.S. national security, part of a broader push to prevent U.S. know-how from helping the Chinese to develop sophisticated technology and dominate global markets. 

“European semiconductor companies must be as free as possible in their investment decisions or otherwise risk losing their agility and relevance,” SEMI Europe said in a paper outlining its recommendations. 

It said policies under consideration by the EU appear to be overly broad and if adopted could force companies to disclose sensitive business information, adding that restrictions on cross-border research cooperation would be misplaced. 

“We encourage the European Commission to further address these aspects and to not infringe on the ability of European multinational companies to carry out the necessary investments to sustain their operations,” it said. 

SEMI Europe represents about 300 Europe-based semiconductor firms and institutions, including companies such as ASMLASML.AS, ASMASMI.AS, InfineonIFXGn.DE, STMicroelectronicsSTMPA.PA, NXPNXPI.O, and research centers such as imec, CEA-Leti and Fraunhofer. 

Alongside the proposals for outbound investment screening, the EU has also been moving towards a law that screens inbound investments of foreign capital that might pose a security risk, such as purchases of European ports, nuclear plants and sensitive technologies. 

 
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Geneva — Switzerland’s Locarno Film Festival opens on Wednesday with Shah Rukh Khan, Jane Campion, Alfonso Cuaron and Irene Jacob set to be honored with special awards.

Founded in 1946, Locarno is one of the world’s longest-running annual film festivals and focuses on auteur cinema.

Held on the shores of Lake Maggiore, in the Italian-speaking Ticino region of southern Switzerland, films are screened in Locarno’s central square, a feature of Swiss national life depicted on the country’s 20-franc banknotes.

The open-air Piazza Grande holds up to 8,000 moviegoers, and films are shown on one of the largest screens in the world.

Bollywood superstar Khan, 58, will on Saturday be given the Pardo alla Carriera award for people whose artistic contributions have redefined cinema.

“The wealth and breadth of his contribution to Indian cinema is unprecedented,” said the festival’s artistic director Giona A. Nazzaro.

“Khan is a king who has never lost touch with the audience that crowned him. This brave and daring artist has always been willing to challenge himself.”

The 77th festival, which runs until August 17, features 225 films, including 104 world premieres and 15 debut movies.

Locarno’s top prize is the Golden Leopard. Previous winning directors include Roberto Rossellini, John Ford, Stanley Kubrick, Milos Forman, Mike Leigh and Jim Jarmusch.

Seventeen films, all world or international premieres, are vying for the award, including movies from Lithuania, France, Austria, Italy and South Korea.

The Golden Leopard comes with a prize fund of $87,400, shared between the director and the producer.

Switzerland’s largest film event will feature a retrospective dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Columbia Pictures.

‘Tortured, fascinating characters’

New Zealand’s Campion will be recognized with the Leopard of Honor, given to outstanding personalities of world cinema.

She was the first woman to be nominated twice for the best director Oscar: first for “The Piano” (1993) and then for “The Power of the Dog” (2021), which secured her the Academy Award.

“Her work, peopled with tortured, fascinating characters and marked by an astonishing skill in grappling with the more disturbing side of the human condition, represents one of the undisputed pinnacles of contemporary filmmaking,” Nazzaro said.

Previous recipients include Ennio Morricone, Jean-Luc Godard, Bernardo Bertolucci, Paul Verhoeven, Terry Gilliam and Werner Herzog.

Mexican filmmaker Cuaron, who won the best director Oscars for “Gravity” (2013) and “Roma” (2018), will receive the lifetime achievement award.

“Cuaron has reinvented himself as an artist with each new film,” said Nazzaro.

French-Swiss actress Jacob, who starred in “The Double Life of Veronique” (1991) and “Three Colours: Red” (1994), will receive the Leopard Club Award, given for film work touching the collective imagination.

Stacey Sher — the U.S. film producer behind “Pulp Fiction,” “Get Shorty,” “Gattaca,” “Erin Brockovich,” “Django Unchained” and “The Hateful Eight” — will receive the Raimondo Rezzonico Award for major achievements in international movie production.

Nearly 150,000 people attended last year’s festival.
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Paris — Rarely on the podium and barred from the opening ceremony, the 15 Russians competing at the Paris Olympics have an uneasy status as “Individual Neutral Athletes” following Russia’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Some in the Olympic Village opposed them taking part in the Summer Games, and Russian opinion is divided.

In Russia, the Olympics aren’t being shown on TV and some politicians and media figures have even described those willing to compete in Paris as traitors.

It’s a complex environment for the athletes, some of them teenagers, to navigate and they’re wary of talking about politics or the war. 

What do the Russian athletes think?

“My family is proud of me, that’s all that matters,” said tennis player Diana Shnaider. She and Mirra Andreeva became the first Russians to win a medal at the Paris Olympics, taking silver in women’s doubles Sunday.

The 20-year-old former college player for North Carolina State said it was “amazing” to be at her first Olympics.

“There are still a lot of people from my country in the stands and they are still putting in a lot of support. I heard words of encouragement today,” she said after winning in Thursday’s quarterfinals.

Tennis players like Shnaider and 2021 U.S. Open winner Daniil Medvedev are used to dealing with the media and playing around the world without a Russian flag. Others seem a little overwhelmed.

Anzhela Bladtceva, a 19-year-old trampolinist, placed fifth in her event Friday and clutched a stuffed animal as she spoke with media afterward.

“There are so many emotions, so many people, everyone is so kind and happy and so helpful,” she said.

Bladtceva said she was spending time in the Olympic Village with a trampolinist friend from Azerbaijan and that she hadn’t been asked about the war. “No one asks at all, they ask if it was hard for us to get here, only positive questions. No one is saying bad things,” she said.

National delegations sailed down the Seine River on a flotilla of boats in the opening ceremony, but the neutral athletes weren’t included.

“It’s upsetting that they didn’t let us, but what can you do?” said Bladtceva, who was still in Russia for the ceremony. “I didn’t really watch it.”

Why are so few Russians competing in Paris?

Of the 32 “neutral” athletes in Paris, 17 previously represented Belarus and just 15 represented Russia. That’s compared to more than 300 Russians at the last Summer Games in Tokyo.

International Olympic Committee restrictions barred Russian athletes who are in the military or publicly supported the invasion of Ukraine. The IOC also blocked Russians from team sports. Track and field enforced its own blanket ban.

In gymnastics and weightlifting, Russia’s teams skipped qualifying events in protest of being forced to compete as neutrals or to undergo vetting, including checks of their social media.

Some athletes even qualified, accepted their IOC invitations, then withdrew weeks before the Olympics began. It wasn’t clear whether they made that decision under pressure at home. The IOC lists 10 Russians and one Belarusian who “initially accepted but subsequently declined.” 

Wrestler Shamil Mamedov briefly seemed to defy a Russian wrestling federation decision not to send athletes. The federation later told Russian state news agency Tass that Mamedov was out of the Olympics because an old injury flared up.

What happens when Russians win medals?

Shnaider and Andreeva’s silver in the tennis on Sunday was the first for Russian athletes.

They stood on the podium in matching green-and-white tracksuits as a green flag with the inscription AIN — the French acronym for Individual Neutral Athlete — was raised alongside the flags of Italy and Spain.

Neutral athletes from Belarus won gold and silver medals in the men’s and women’s trampoline competitions, respectively, on Friday, and Belarusian rower Yauheni Zalaty won a silver Saturday.

When a neutral athlete wins a gold medal, an “anthem” commissioned by the IOC plays. With stirring strings and a prominent drumbeat, it’s more like the soundtrack to an inspirational video than a national anthem. Their medals don’t count in Olympic organizers’ official medal table.

Russian athletes competed at the last Summer Olympics, in Tokyo, under the name “Russian Olympic Committee” and under less onerous restrictions in the aftermath of a doping scandal.

They were allowed to wear national colors and music by Russian composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky played for gold medalists.

Are Russians competing for other countries?

At least 82 athletes at the Paris Olympics were born in Russia, including the neutral athletes, according to statistics from Norwegian broadcaster NRK. That leaves more than 60 competing for other nations. 

Some have lived outside Russia for years or moved abroad as children. Others switched their sporting allegiance since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Swimmer Anastasia Kirpichnikova competed for ROC at the Tokyo Olympics. She trained in France for years before making her switch to the French team official last year. Kirpichnikova won a silver medal for France in the women’s 1,500-meter freestyle behind Katie Ledecky on Wednesday.

What does Ukraine think?

Ukraine’s government and Olympic committee wanted Russian athletes excluded from all international sports and opposed IOC efforts to include them as neutrals. The limited Russian presence is like “nothing,” the head of Ukraine’s Olympic delegation told The Associated Press this week.

Ukraine briefly had a policy of boycotting Olympic qualifying competitions that allowed Russians to attend but dropped that last year because it risked not being represented at the Olympics at all. 

Ukrainian activists gathered information from Russian athletes’ social media in the months leading up to the Olympics, flagging posts to the IOC that they considered to support the war.

Some Ukrainians view changes of allegiance with suspicion, too. Fencing champion Olga Kharlan said last month that Russian athletes who switched allegiance to other countries’ teams after the invasion “should be checked more.” 
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Somewhere in Ukraine — Ukraine’s newly arrived F-16 fighter jets were put on display Sunday by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who said the planes will boost the country’s war effort against Russia.

“These jets are in our sky and today you see them,” said Zelenskyy, standing in front of two of the fighter jets as two others flew overhead in close formation. “It’s good that they are here and that we can put them to use.”

Ukraine is also trying to get neighboring countries to help defend it against Russian missiles, Zelenskyy said.

“This decision is probably a difficult one for our partners, as they are always afraid of unnecessary escalation,” said Ukraine’s president. “We will work on this … I think we have a good option of a NATO-Ukraine council … so that NATO countries could talk to Ukraine about the possibility of a small coalition of neighboring countries that would shoot down enemy missiles.”

Two F-16 jets, sporting Ukraine’s trident insignia on their tails and draped in camouflage netting, were a dramatic background for Zelenskyy’s address to Air Forces Day, an event held under tight security at an undisclosed location to protect the fighter jets from Russian attacks.

“Since the beginning of this war, we have been talking with our partners about the need to protect our Ukrainian skies from Russian missiles and Russian aircraft,” Zelenskyy said. “Now we have a new reality in our skies. The F-16s are in Ukraine. We made it happen. I am proud of our guys who are mastering these aircraft and have already started using them for our country. … Our combat aviation will bring us closer to victory.”

Ukraine may keep some of the F-16 fighter jets at foreign bases to protect them from Russian strikes, according to a senior Ukrainian military official. Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned that Moscow could consider launching strikes at facilities in NATO countries if they host the warplanes used in Ukraine.

The American-made F-16 is an iconic fighter jet that’s been the front-line combat plane of choice for the NATO alliance and numerous air forces around the world for 50 years.

Although new to Ukraine, the F-16s are older jets that have been donated by Western allies of Ukraine. Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and Norway have committed to providing Ukraine with more than 60 of them over the coming months in what could be a slow trickle of deliveries. Zelenskyy did not say how many F-16s have arrived in Ukraine or which countries they came from.

United States President Joe Biden gave the go-ahead in August 2023 for used F-16s to be deployed to Ukraine, though the U.S. won’t be providing any of its own planes.

The F-16s will boost Ukraine’s military strength, especially by upgrading its air defenses. But analysts say they won’t turn the tide of the war on their own.

Russia is making small but steady battlefield gains in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region and its steady forward movement is adding up as Ukraine gradually yields ground.
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