World

MOSCOW — Russia's upper house of parliament on Thursday set March 17, 2024 as the date for the next presidential election, in which longtime President Vladimir Putin is widely expected to run again.

In a meeting televised live, the senators unanimously approved the date in a decision that "practically kicks off the presidential campaign", according to the head of the chamber, Valentina Matvienko.

Putin, who has been in power in Russia either as president or prime minister since 2000, has not officially announced if he will stand in the vote, but is widely expected to do so.

The election will take place two years after Russia launched what it calls a special military operation in Ukraine in February 2022 and later annexed the Ukrainian regions of Lugansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.

The election "will be a sort of culmination of reunification" for the regions, Matvienko said.

WESTON, United States — US President Joe Biden said on Tuesday he was unsure if he would be seeking reelection next year were Republican rival Donald Trump not also trying for a second term.

"If Trump wasn't running, I'm not sure I'd be running. But we cannot let him win," the 81-year-old Democrat told a 2024 election campaign fundraiser in Weston, Massachusetts.

Biden praised the "powerful voice" of former Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney who warned on Sunday that the United States would be "sleepwalking into dictatorship" if twice-impeached former president Trump returns.

He also mentioned the Atlantic magazine outlining what it said were the threats posed by a second Trump term, one of three major US media outlets to issue similar warnings in recent days along with The Washington Post and New York Times.

During an earlier fundraiser in Boston, Biden cited Trump's increasingly extreme language on the campaign trail, including calling his opponents "vermin". Biden said that echoed the language used in Germany in the 1930s, when Adolf Hitler's Nazis were on the rise.

“Trump’s not even hiding the ball anymore. He’s telling us what he’s going to do,” Biden said. “He’s making no bones about it.”

On his return to Washington, reporters asked Biden again if he’d be running without Trump as his opponent.

“He is running and I have to run,” Biden said.

If Trump drops out, would Biden do the same?

“No, now now,” Biden said.

The Democrat, who beat Trump in 2020, an election that Trump still refuses to accept, has repeatedly portrayed himself as defending American democracy in next year’s vote.

Trump, however, is narrowly ahead in opinion polls despite facing a number of criminal trials including one for election subversion.

Biden’s age is a particular concern with voters and there have been calls from some Democrats for him to step aside for a new candidate.

“Joe Biden is the real dictator,” Trump responded in a post on his conservative Truth Social network on Tuesday.

LONDON — Britain’s hardline former interior minister Suella Braverman on Wednesday issued Prime Minister Rishi Sunak an ultimatum to get tougher on immigration or face certain wipeout at the polls.

Braverman, sacked last month after a series of outspoken comments, told parliament it was “now or never” to tackle “mass, uncontrolled, illegal immigration”.

Her statement comes just a day after her successor as home secretary, James Cleverly, signed a new treaty with Rwanda that the government hopes will see thousands of migrants deported to cut record immigration levels.

Braverman, a trained lawyer, has called for tougher measures before, and criticised the UN convention on refugees and European human rights legislation for blocking the government’s plans.

But her latest comments go further, and will be red meat to fellow right-wingers in the Conservative Party, who see having total control over Britain’s borders as the final piece in the Brexit jigsaw.

“The Conservative party faces electoral oblivion in a matter of months if it introduces yet another bill destined to fail,” Braverman told MPs, referring to expected emergency legislation.

The Tories faced a stark choice to “fight for sovereignty or let our party die”, she said, adding: “I refuse to sit by and allow us to fail.”

Sunak, she said, needs “political courage” to go further than his existing plans, which were formulated after supreme court judges deemed the deportation policy illegal under international law.

She called for any new bill to address the court’s concerns about the safety of Rwanda to allow flights before the next election expected next year, by “blocking off all routes of challenge”.

“The powers to detain and remove [migrants] must be exercisable notwithstanding the Human Rights Act, the European Convention on Human Rights, the Refugee Convention, and all other international law,” she said.

Braverman called for removals to happen within days of arrivals, and for the “administrative detention of illegal arrivals until they are removed”.

“If the prime minister leads that fight he has my total support,” she said, indicating that Sunak will face damaging in-fighting if he does not.

The first deportees were due to be sent to Rwanda in June last year but were pulled off a flight at the last minute after a judge at the European Court of Human Rights issued an injunction.

Since then, their cases — and the wider legality of the policy — have been stuck in the courts.

LONDON — Lawyers for Prince Harry on Tuesday began a legal challenge over his security arrangements in the UK, after he quit frontline royal duties and moved to North America.

The case about his loss of UK taxpayer-funded protection is the latest in a string of court proceedings initiated by Harry, whose father is King Charles III.

Harry is taking legal action against the UK interior ministry over a February 2020 decision by a committee that deals with the security of members of the royal family.

The Duke of Sussex, as he is formally known, had been told he would no longer be given the “same degree” of personal protective security that he previously enjoyed.

Shaheed Fatima, representing Harry, told the High Court in London the case was about the prince’s right to “safety and security”.

She added in written submissions that the impact of any harm to Harry on the UK’s reputation should have been considered when the committee took the decision to downgrade his protective security when visiting the UK from his new home in California.

She said this was especially important given his “status, background and profile within the royal family — which he was born into”.

In response, lawyer James Eadie, for the Home Office, said Harry was treated in a lawful “bespoke manner” when it came to his security on visits home.

He said it was “simply incorrect” to suggest that there was no evidence that the issue of impact was considered, adding that the death of Harry’s mother Princess Diana was raised as part of the decision.

Private hearing 

Diana, who was stripped of the title “Her Royal Highness” after she and Charles were divorced, died in a high-speed car crash in Paris in 1997 while trying to shake off paparazzi photographers.

The barrister said it was decided that Harry would not be provided with protective security “on the same basis as before” due to him no longer being a working member of the royal family and living abroad most of the time.

In May, Harry lost his bid for a legal review of a government decision refusing him permission to pay for specialist UK police protection himself.

Lawyers for the interior ministry argued that it was “not appropriate” for wealthy people to “buy” protective security when it had decided that it was not in the public interest for such protection to be paid for by the taxpayer.

London’s Metropolitan Police also opposed Harry’s offer on the grounds that it would be wrong to “place officers in harm’s way upon payment of a fee by a private individual”.

The latest case will largely be held in private, without the press or public present, due to confidential evidence over security measures.

The hearing is due to conclude on Thursday, with a ruling expected at a later date.

MOSCOW — Russia has been launching major investments and building up its military presence in the Arctic as it steps up its drive to develop a crucial northern maritime route linking Asia and Europe.

In the country’s latest move, Russia’s nuclear agency Rosatom on Tuesday presented its two new RITM-200 reactors that will power the future Chukotka icebreaker ship.

The need to expand those Arctic ambitions, made possible by global warming and the consequent melting ice sheets, has become more acute due to Western sanctions over Russia’s offensive in Ukraine.

Moscow wants to redirect its sanctioned hydrocarbons to Asia through the Northern Sea Route.

Faced with challenges to the economy, Russian President Vladimir Putin has called the development of the route “one of the obvious strategic priorities”.

After launching its assault on Ukraine last year, the government confirmed plans to invest around 20 billion euros up to 2035 on a Northern Sea Route development project.

Authorities say the number of ports of call were recently increased from four to 11, with the route extended to the far eastern city of Vladivostok.

Rosatom said this had allowed for 31.4 million tonnes of cargo traffic via the Northern Sea Route between January and October — 10 times more than a decade ago.

‘Uncertainty’ 

“There’s all kinds of projects but Ukraine and sanctions have created uncertainty on how to finance those projects,” said Malte Humpert, founder of US think tank The Arctic Institute.

He gave the example of Russia’s massive Arctic LNG 2 gas project, which was hit with US sanctions last month.

“But Russia doesn’t have much alternative. The European market is off-limit... It needs to produce oil and gas and export to get money, and buyers are now in Asia,” Humpert told AFP.

Yet, numerous logistical challenges remain.

When it comes to the Arctic fleet, “replacing a number of technologies originating from unfriendly countries is the main challenge,” Arctic Minister Alexei Chekunkov said in May.

In recent months, Russia has had to turn to third countries to obtain parts for its LNG tankers, which are often produced in Asia using Western technology, to which Russia no longer has access.

At this stage, the Russian fleet is limited to 30 Arctic class ships in operation and another 33 under construction, according to Rosatom head Alexei Likhachev.

“Overall, we will need up to 100 Arctic class ships,” he said in May.

Russian authorities hope to ship more than 190 million tonnes of cargo through the Northern Sea Route in 2030.

That volume cannot compete with that of the Suez Canal, where ships carried 1.41 billion tonnes of cargo last year.

But it is a shorter route to Asia than heading through the Mediterranean to the Suez Canal.

Military presence 

In September, Russia sent its first two oil tankers through the northeast passage to China without assistance from ice-breakers to pave the way — a move that presents substantial environmental risks.

“If you have tankers without ice classification sailing in those waters, then you can have a big hazard, a big risk of incident of oil spills,” Humpert said.

The accelerated melting of the Arctic’s glaciers has also attracted the interest of other foreign powers including the United States and China.

Russia has in recent years beefed up its military presence in the Arctic region by reopening and modernising several bases and airfields abandoned since the end of the Soviet era.

“Russia has deployed S-300 and S-400 missiles, extended runways to accommodate different types of nuclear type bombers. It has also set up large radar installations,” Humpert said.

In August, the northern fleet — tasked with protecting the Arctic sea routes — held massive military drills with more than 8,000 service personnel and several submarines.

“The increased competition and militarisation in the Arctic region, especially by Russia and China, is concerning,” Admiral Rob Bauer, chair of the NATO military committee, said in November.

“We must remain vigilant and prepare for the unexpected,” he warned.

PADUA, Italy — Thousands of Italians paid their last respects on Tuesday to Giulia Cecchettin, a university student killed by her ex-boyfriend in a case that has triggered nationwide grief and rage at violence against women.

The funeral of the 22-year-old at a basilica in Padua, near Venice, attracted fellow students, public officials and ordinary Italians in a show of solidarity against one of the country’s most recent and most shocking episodes of femicide.

Cecchettin, who was studying biomedical engineering at the University of Padua, was stabbed to death last month by her former boyfriend, fellow student Filippo Turetta, who confessed to the murder before a judge, according to his lawyer.

Under grey skies, pallbearers carried Cecchettin’s rose-covered coffin into the Basilica of Santa Giustina, where mourners included Italy’s justice minister, as thousands of people gathered in the piazza outside.

“Giulia’s life was cruelly taken, but her death can and must be the turning point to end the terrible scourge of violence against women,” her father, Gino, said in his eulogy.

“In this time of grief and sadness we need to find the strength to react, and turn tragedy into a push for change,” he added.

He implored men to “challenge the culture that tends to minimise violence by men who appear normal”.

The killing of Cecchettin, who was due to graduate just days after her death, was front-page news in Italy and ushered in a period of national reflection on violence against women.

The couple disappeared on November 11. Turetta was found in Germany a week later, the day after Cecchettin’s body was found in a gully near Lake Barcis, about 120 kilometres north of Venice.

She had been stabbed more than 20 times in the head, neck and body, according to local media, citing the autopsy report.

Make some noise 

Outside the basilica, 29-year-old student Angela Russo said she felt it her duty to pay her respects to Cecchettin and honour all victims of femicide.

“All of us could have been Giulia, me, my sister, a friend. So it’s right to take to the streets and make some noise for her too,” Russo told AFP.

“We can’t take it anymore... it’s not acceptable, almost in 2024, to die like this.”

Marking what activists had hoped would be a turning point in Italy, hundreds of thousands of demonstrators took to the streets in Rome, Milan and other cities on November 25, the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, calling for cultural change.

Giorgia Meloni, the country’s first woman prime minister, assured women on Facebook “they are not alone”, reminding them of the call-centre number for victims of violence or stalking.

According to the interior ministry, as of November 26, 107 women in Italy were murdered this year, of whom 88 were killed by family members or current or former partners.

Inconsistent official data on femicides makes comparisons with other European countries difficult.

Following Cecchettin’s death, Italy’s parliament adopted a package of bills to strengthen existing laws to protect women.

But critics say a cultural change is needed in the treatment of women, starting with compulsory education on the topic in schools.

Cultural problem 

Despite the recent attention, many see such crimes continuing unabated where traditional gender roles still hold sway in many areas, with fewer women working outside than home than the EU average and where abortion is hard to access.

A July 2021 report from the government’s department of gender equality found that “while violence is unacceptable for more than 90 per cent of people, in some regions of Italy up to 50 per cent of men consider violence in relationships to be acceptable”.

In a speech last month, the newly appointed president of the Tribunal of Milan, Fabio Roia, who has advocated for better training on gender violence among prosecutors, judges and law enforcement, warned that much was yet to be done.

“Violence against women that goes as far as femicide is a cultural and social problem, and unfortunately the power imbalance in gender relations is still strong,” said the judge.

A 2020 independent report measuring Italy’s compliance with the Council of Europe’s convention on preventing violence against women encouraged more extensive awareness campaigns and better training of professionals, among other measures.

It also recommended Italy “pursue proactive and sustained measures to promote changes in sexist social and cultural patterns of behaviour, especially of men and young boys, that are based on the idea of inferiority of women”.

GENEVA —  The Red Cross president arrived in war-torn Gaza on Monday, calling for the protection of civilians in the Palestinian territory, where she warned that human suffering was "intolerable".

The International Committee of the Red Cross said ICRC President Mirjana Spoljaric's travel to the region would happen in several stages with "a visit to Israel expected over the coming weeks". 

"I have arrived in Gaza, where people's suffering is intolerable," Spoljaric said on X, formerly Twitter.

"It is unacceptable that civilians have no safe place to go in Gaza, and with a military siege in place there is also no adequate humanitarian response currently possible," she added in an ICRC statement.

Spoljaric, whose organisation has faced criticism from both sides in the conflict for not providing adequate help to Israeli hostages held by Hamas and Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, insisted that "all those deprived of liberty must be treated humanely".

"The hostages must be released, and the ICRC must be allowed to safely visit them," she said.

Her visit comes after full-scale fighting resumed on Friday following the collapse of a week-long truce brokered by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, during which Israel and Hamas exchanged scores of hostages and prisoners.

“The last week provided a small degree of humanitarian respite, a positive glimpse of humanity that raised hopes around the world that a path to reduced suffering could now be found,” Spoljaric said in the statement.

“As a neutral actor, the ICRC stands ready to support further humanitarian agreements that reduce suffering and heartbreak.”

She said the purpose of her visit was “to advance efforts that alleviate the desperate humanitarian situation”.

“I will convey my deep concern for the plight of civilians and underline the ICRC’s utmost commitment to doing everything we can to ease their suffering,” she added.

The ICRC said that during her visit to Gaza, Spoljaric would also spend time with the organisation’s team on the ground and “visit the European Hospital, where ICRC medical teams have been conducting life-saving surgery alongside local healthcare workers”.

“We have urgently appealed for civilian life to be protected and respected on all sides, in line with international humanitarian law, and I reiterate that appeal today,” Spoljaric said, insisting that “an unimpeded and regular flow of aid must be allowed to enter Gaza”.

PADANG, Indonesia — Eleven hikers were found dead Monday and another 12 were missing after a volcano erupted in Indonesia, with rescuers racing to carry injured and burned survivors down the mountain on foot.

Rescuers worked through the night to find dozens of hikers stranded on Mount Marapi on the island of Sumatra after it spewed an ash tower 3,000 metres, taller than the volcano itself, into the sky on Sunday.

The dead hikers were found near Marapi's crater after the 2,891-metre volcano rained ash on nearby villages, according to a local rescue official.

Twelve were missing, three more were found alive and 49 had safely descended from the crater, some with burns and fractures, the official said.

"They are being carried down manually, rescuers are taking turns bringing them down. We can't do an air search with a helicopter because the eruption is ongoing," said local rescue agency chief Abdul Malik, who added about 120 rescuers were involved in the search.

The three other people who had been found alive were yet to be taken down the mountain, along with the 11 dead.

Those three survivors were found near the crater and "their condition was weak, and some had burns," Malik said.

A clip shared with AFP showed a rescue worker with a flashlight strapped to his head piggybacking a hiker, who moans in pain and says "God is greatest" as she is led to safety in the darkness of night.

Zhafirah Zahrim Febrina, one of the rescued hikers, is shown in a video message from the volcano desperately appealing to her mother for help.

The 19-year-old student appeared shocked, her face burnt and her hair matted with thick grey ash.

“Mom, help Ife. This is Ife’s situation right now,” she said, referring to her nickname.

She is now in a nearby hospital with her father and uncle after being trapped on the mountain on a hiking trip with 18 school friends.

“She is going through a tremendous trauma,” said her mother Rani Radelani, 39. 

“She is affected psychologically because she saw her burns, and she also had to endure the pain all night.”

 ‘Tremendous trauma’ 

Local rescue agency spokesperson Jodi Haryawan said the rescue efforts had been broken up by sporadic eruptions but the search was still going despite the risks.

“Once it was safer they continued the search. So the search was not halted,” he told AFP.

Rudy Rinaldi, head of the West Sumatra Disaster Mitigation Agency, told AFP some of the rescued hikers had suffered burns.

“Those who are injured were the ones who got closer to the crater,” he said.

At least eight people suffered burns, one had burns and a fracture and another had a head wound, according to a list of those found from Basarnas, a national search and rescue agency, seen by AFP.

Ahmad Rifandi, an official at the Mount Marapi monitoring station, told AFP that ash rain was observed after the eruption and had reached Bukittinggi, the third-largest city in West Sumatra that has a population of more than 100,000.

The plume of smoke and ash blocked out the sun after the eruption and coated nearby cars, scooters and ambulances.

Marapi is on the second alert level of Indonesia’s four-step system and authorities have imposed a 3 kilometre exclusion zone around its crater.

The Indonesian archipelago sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.

The Southeast Asian country has nearly 130 active volcanoes.

As the search goes on for the missing 12 hikers, Febrina’s family was relieved she was one of the lucky ones.

Good news arrived in the form of a livestream on video app TikTok by a member of the rescue services, in which Radelani saw her visibly shaken daughter.

“It felt incredible, praise God she has been found,” Radelani said.

“If she asks me to allow her to climb a mountain, I’ll say no.”