World

SAO PAULO — Led by beleaguered ex-president Jair Bolsonaro, Brazil’s political right rallied on Saturday amid a free speech tussle that has seen X, its preferred social platform, suspended in the country.

Bolsonaro called the demonstration for Latin America’s biggest city, Sao Paulo, on Independence Day — which was being celebrated in the capital Brasilia with a parade overseen by leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

In a video, Bolsonaro urged protesters to turn out en masse in green and yellow — the colors of the Brazilian flag but also coopted by his supporters.

“There is no point celebrating our independence if we are deprived of freedom,” the former president said in the post on Instagram.

At the rally scheduled for 2:00 pm (17:00 GMT) Bolsonaro will be hoping to show his political clout a month before municipal elections in the deeply divided country.

He left office nearly two years ago after a razor-thin election defeat to archrival Lula.

That prompted so-called Bolsonaristas to storm the presidential palace, congress and supreme court on January 8, 2023, calling for the military to oust Lula and claiming, without evidence, that the election was stolen.

Bolsonaro, dubbed the “Tropical Trump”, is under investigation for an alleged coup attempt over those events.

‘Toga-clad dictator’ 

Bolsonaro and the far- right are at war with Judge Alexandre de Moraes, who presided over the TSE electoral tribunal when it banned the ex-president from running for office until 2030 over his attempts to discredit Brazil’s electoral system.

Moraes, who has taken on the mantle of an anti-disinformation crusader, is leading several other investigations into Bolsonaro, and it was he who ordered the suspension in Brazil of X for breaching local laws.

The right hates Moraes and accuses him of censorship and abuse of office.

Bolsonaro has described his ruling against X as a “blow to our freedom and legal security, which will drive away foreign investors and have adverse consequences in all spheres of public life in Brazil”.

Lula, for his part, has come out in support of the fight against “fake news”.

Saturday’s demonstration was called before Moraes blocked the platform formerly known as Twitter.

One of the rally’s organisers, evangelical pastor Silas Malafaia, urged followers to come out in numbers to demand “the removal of the toga-clad dictator Alexandre de Moraes”.

Members of the right-wing opposition in Brazil’s senate have said they will file for Moraes’s impeachment next week — a move welcomed by X owner Elon Musk.

Bolsonaro has travelled the country widely in recent months to boost allies who will be seeking office in October local elections.

On Saturday, “We will see the true extent of Bolsonarism,” Geraldo Monteiro, a political scientist with the University of Rio de Janeiro, told AFP, in reference to the turnout.

In his social media appeal, Bolsonaro asked supporters to “not take part in the independence ceremonies organised by the government”.

In February, a pro-Bolsonaro rally also in Sao Paulo gathered an estimated 185,000 people, according to researchers at the University of Sao Paulo.

Another in Rio in April gathered fewer.

In Brasilia, Lula — with Moraes seated near him on the official podium — presided over a parade featuring 30 military athletes who competed in the Paris Olympic Games.

Before taking his seat, Lula waved as he rode through town in the presidential Rolls-Royce.

PARIS — Thousands of left-wing demonstrators on Saturday took to the streets across France to protest against the nomination of the centre-right Michel Barnier as prime minister and denounce President Emmanuel Macron’s “power grab”.

Police said that around 26,000 people demonstrated in Paris, while the left claimed a much higher turnout.

Smaller rallies took place in other cities across France including Nantes in the west, Nice and Marseille in the south and Strasbourg in the east.

Macron on Thursday appointed Barnier, a 73-year-old former foreign minister who acted as the European Union’s Brexit negotiator, as prime minister, seeking to move forward after July snap elections in which his centrist alliance came second.

Barnier said on Friday night that he was open to naming ministers of all political stripes, including “people from the left”.

But a left-wing coalition, which emerged as France’s largest force after the June-July elections, although without enough seats for an overall majority, has greeted Macron’s appointment of Barnier with dismay.

The left-wing alliance wanted Lucie Castets, a 37-year-old economist, to become prime minister, but Macron quashed the idea, arguing that she would not survive a confidence vote in the hung parliament.

On Saturday, many demonstrators directed their anger at Macron, 46, and some called on him to resign.

‘Old elephant’ 

“The Fifth Republic is collapsing,” said protester Manon Bonijol. “Expressing one’s vote will be useless as long as Macron is in power,” added the 21-year-old.

Hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, whose France Unbowed party (LFI) and allies belong to the left-wing bloc, has charged that the election had been “stolen from the French” and called on French people to take to the streets.

On Saturday, he urged supporters to prepare for battle.

“There will be no pause,” he vowed.

“Democracy isn’t just the art of accepting that you’ve won, it’s also the humility of accepting that you’ve lost,” Melenchon said at the protest.

Project manager Alexandra Germain, 44, accused Macron of riding roughshod over the wishes of voters.

“Demonstrating is my only way of saying that I don’t agree, even if I am well aware that it is useless,” said Germain.

Abel Couaillier, a 20-year-old student, said he was stunned by the appointment of Barnier whom he called an “old elephant”.

“I am still young, I want to believe that we can change things,” added Couaillier.

Leading LFI figure Mathilde Panot claimed on X, formerly Twitter, that 160,000 demonstrators protested in Paris and 300,000 people across France.

Five people were detained in Paris, police said.

‘Under surveillance’ 

Marine Le Pen, who leads far-right National Rally (RN) lawmakers in parliament, has said her Party would not be part of the new cabinet, and would wait for Barnier’s first policy speech in front of parliament to decide whether or not to back him.

On Saturday, National Rally party head Jordan Bardella, who had hoped to be France’s next prime minister, indicated that the far-right would be watching Barnier’s every move.

“Mister Barnier is a prime minister under surveillance,” said Bardella, 28.

Barnier immediately shot back, saying he had a responsibility towards French people, not the far-right.

“I am under the surveillance of all French people,” he said on the sidelines of a visit to the Necker children’s hospital in Paris.

Barnier will be in charge of the budget, security, immigration and healthcare and will have to take the interests of the National Rally, the single largest party in a fragmented legislature, into account to avoid a motion of no confidence in parliament.

Barnier — who is likely to have only minority support in the assembly — will face the urgent task of presenting the 2025 budget by early October.

MOSCOW — Russia said on Saturday it had seized another village in eastern Ukraine, where Moscow's troops are continuing to advance. 

The defence ministry said Russian forces "have liberated the village of Kalynove" in the Donetsk region and near the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk held by Kyiv's forces.

Ukraine's security services said Saturday they had struck a Russian ammunition factory in a border region, as Moscow's forces claimed yet another advance on the battlefield. 

Ukraine also said it had thwarted a "massive" overnight Russian aerial attack that saw drones launched towards the capital Kyiv. 

The attacks come after a week of intense Russian bombardments across Ukraine that killed at least 55 in the central city of Poltava, and seven in Lviv -- hundreds of kilometres from the frontlines and close to Ukraine's western border with EU and NATO members.

A large fire and several explosions were reported overnight in the Russian region of Voronezh, which borders Ukraine, prompting officials to evacuate locals living near the blaze.

Russian anti-air defence systems "detected and neutralised a drone" early on Saturday morning over the western part of the region, under 150 kilometres from Ukraine, Voronezh governor Alexander Gusev wrote on Telegram. 

"No-one was injured" but when the drone fell, it sparked a large fire "that spread to explosive devices and caused them to detonate", Gusev continued, without providing details of which facility was hit. 

"A decision was taken to evacuate residents of a village" because of the blaze, he said. 

Russian Telegram channels said the fire broke out in a local munitions depot.

Ukraine's SBU security services later claimed it had hit a Russian ammunition depot.

A source in the SBU told AFP that Kyiv was targeting "military airfields, ammunition depots and infrastructure facilities" in order to "create a demilitarised zone in the regions of Russia adjacent to Ukraine."

It called them all "legitimate targets".

Ukraine's air force said Russia fired 67 drones at the country overnight, adding that it shot down 58 of them.

AFP reporters in Kyiv heard loud explosions overnight.

"There are almost no nights when Russian attack drones do not attack the territory of Ukraine. And today was another night, massive drone attack," the Kyiv city administration said in a social media post on Saturday.

Debris from one downed drone landed near the Ukrainian parliament in the centre of the city.

In the east of the country, three people were killed in Russian shelling on Kostyantynivka -- in the Donetsk region where Russian troops are advancing -- the local governor said.

Russia's military said Saturday it had seized the village of Kalynove, around 25 kilometres  southeast of the key logistics hub of Pokrovsk, which Russia is seeking to capture. 

Russian President Vladimir Putin said last week that Russia's "primary objective" in the conflict was to capture the entire Donbas region -- which consists of Ukraine's Donetsk and Lugansk regions.

Moscow claimed to have annexed them, along with the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions in 2022, months after it launched its full-scale military offensive and despite not having full control over them.

The head of Ukraine's neighbouring Dnipropretovsk region said the number of wounded in a missile attack on the city of Pavlograd a day earlier had increased to 82, including seven children. 

"Sixty people remain in hospital," Governor Sergiy Lysak said.

On the diplomatic front, Ukrainian President Volodymyr met Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on the sidelines of an economic forum in the country on Saturday.

Meloni reaffirmed her strong support for Kyiv.

Zelensky was using the brief trip to Europe, which also included meetings with Germany's Olaf Scholz and an address to the Ramstein defence summit, to press allies for more weapons supplies.

MUNICH, Germany — German police shot dead a gunman who had opened fire on them near Munich's Israeli consulate on Thursday, the anniversary of the hostage-taking at the 1972 Olympic Games.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog expressed "horror" at what he described as a "terror attack" near the diplomatic mission and close to a Nazi-era historical exhibit.

The exchange of gunfire sparked panic and a widespread police lockdown in the downtown area of the Bavarian state capital, near the Documentation Center for the History of National Socialism.

"Police responded with armed force against the perpetrator, who was carrying a rifle and had fired a number of shots," said Bavaria's state interior minister, Joachim Herrmann. The gunman died of his wounds.

"The identity of the suspect must now be clarified, as well as his motives," Herrman added.

It was "obvious that the crime scene" near the Israeli diplomatic mission and documentation centre "could provide further clues" about the gunman's motive, he said.

Herrman pointed that Thursday marks "the 52nd anniversary of the terrible attack on the Israeli team during the Olympic Games" of 1972 at the hands of a Palestinian militant group.

A memorial service for the victims of the hostage-taking in Fuerstenfeldbruck, where the Israeli athletes were shot, was cancelled, according to the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper.

Israeli President Isaac Herzog wrote on X, formerly Twitter: "I spoke now with President of Germany, my dear friend Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

"Together we expressed our shared condemnation and horror at the terror attack this morning near the Israeli consulate in Munich."

 'Bitter to swallow'

The exchange of gunfire shortly after 9:00 am (0700 GMT) sparked fear in the downtown area. Residents and office workers went into lockdown as police swept in, sirens blaring, and a police helicopter circled the sky.

Munich police wrote on X that, after the shooting, there were "no indications of any other suspects" and that no one else had been wounded.

The gunman had used a vintage long-barrelled weapon, they added.

Federal Interior Minister Nancy Faeser labelled it a "serious incident".

Its location was a "bitter pill to swallow", she added, stressing that "the protection of Jewish and Israeli institutions is of the highest priority".

Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza after the October 7 attack, many Jewish communities worldwide have been targeted in attacks and hate crimes.

This is a special cause of concern in Germany, which in the aftermath of World War II and the Holocaust has committed itself to steadfast support for Israel and Jewish life.

A record number of 5,164 anti-Semitic crimes were recorded in 2023, compared to 2,641 in 2022, according to German internal intelligence.

The Central Council of Jews in Germany estimates that there are around 100,000 practising Jews in the country and around 100 synagogues.

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday his main aim in Ukraine after 30 months of fighting was to capture the eastern Donbas area -- and claimed that Ukraine's Kursk counter-offensive had made that easier.

Putin was speaking a day after Russia attacked Ukraine's western Lviv region with deadly strikes, and after recent advances by Moscow's forces in the Donbas. 

Since the start of its offensive in February 2022 when it failed to capture the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, Russia has adapted its aims, concentrating instead on trying to conquer eastern Ukraine.

While Ukraine's surprise push into Russia's Kursk region last month caught Russian forces off-guard, Putin stressed that the move had failed to slow Moscow's advance in occupied Ukraine. 

"The aim of the enemy [in Kursk] was to force us to worry, hustle, divert troops and to stop our offensive in key areas, especially in the Donbas, the liberation of which is our main primary objective," Putin said at a forum in Vladivostok, in Russia's far east.

Russia claims the eastern Donetsk region and three other Ukrainian regions, as its own. 

Moscow has this summer advanced strongly and its troops are now around a dozen kilometres from the city of Pokrovsk -- a key logistics hub in east Ukraine from where thousands have now fled. 

Putin said Ukraine had sent "quite well-prepared units" into Kursk and so had made Moscow's advance in Donbas quicker.

"The enemy weakened itself in key areas, our army has accelerated its offensive operations," he argued.

'Holy duty' 

Putin also claimed that Moscow's army has begun to push out Ukrainian forces from the Kursk region, where Kyiv's forces have held on to towns and villages for almost a month.

"Our armed forces have stabilised the situation and started gradually squeezing [the enemy] out from our territory," Putin said.

It was not possible to verify these claims.

Russia did not mount a large-scale response in the first days of the incursion, which became the biggest on Russian soil since WWII. He has since played down the significance of the Ukrainian attack. 

But Putin hardened his rhetoric in recent days. 

"It is the holy duty of the Russian army to do everything to throw out the enemy from this territory and to protect our citizens," he said Thursday.

Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told US TV channel NBC that Ukraine would hold on to the territory captured in the Kursk region.

Kyiv has also said that it wants to force Moscow into "fair" negotiations.

-Aborted deal -

While Russian officials have rushed in recent weeks to say that the Kursk incursion makes any talks with Ukraine impossible, Putin appeared to roll back those statements.

Russia was ready to talk, he said -- but on the basis of an aborted deal reached in Istanbul in 2022, the details of which were never made public by either side.

But Putin has repeatedly said that Moscow can only negotiate with Ukraine if Kyiv surrenders four of its regions -- Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson.

"Are we ready to negotiate with them? We have never refused to do so," Putin said on Thursday.

"But not on the basis of some ephemeral demands, but on the basis of those documents that were agreed and actually initialled in Istanbul," he added.

The Kremlin has claimed Russia and Ukraine were on the verge of a deal in the spring of 2022, shortly after Moscow launched its offensive in Ukraine.

SINGAPORE — Rising temperatures should trigger a global “red alert”, the United Nations’ weather and climate agency chief said on Wednesday, after global heat indices again smashed records in August.

The world saw record average temperatures in August for the second year running, preliminary data from the EU’s climate monitor seen by AFP showed.

And Australia, Japan, parts of China and Norway all experienced their hottest August on record, according to meteorological agencies.

“It’s clear that the temperatures are rising, above what we would like,” said Celeste Saulo, head of the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO).

“And it is because the action is not enough.”

While the exact average global temperature for August 2024 is not yet known, the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) has established it will be above the record 16.82ºC measured in August last year.

“Thresholds are all the time being beaten,” Saulo said, speaking in Singapore at a regional climate forum of local meteorological services.

Saulo also called for better monitoring and support for meteorological agencies, adding that “we need more resources”.

The forum comes days after the WMO released its latest assessment on the impacts of climate change in Asia and the Pacific, warning that sea-level rise is above average in many areas.

And the record August continues a near unbroken 15 month streak, where each month eclipsed its own temperature record for the time of year, according to the C3S.

The climate forum also announced the designation of Singapore as a regional hub for monitoring pollution caused by vegetation fire and smoke.

One of only two such centres in the world, the facility will offer better quality information on fires and pollution forecasts, plugging a gap in regional data, officials said.

JAKARTA — Pope Francis appealed Wednesday for religious unity to counter extremism and intolerance, as the longest tour of the 87 year old’s papacy got into full swing in Muslim-majority Indonesia.

On the first full day of his four-nation trip to the Asia-Pacific, the pontiff zeroed in on the role all faiths can play on flashpoint security issues.

“In order to foster a peaceful and fruitful harmony that ensures peace, the church desires to strengthen interreligious dialogue,” the Pope said in a speech after meeting President Joko Widodo.

“[Extremists] through the distortion of religion attempt to impose their views by using deception and violence.”

The Pope also said self-interest was preventing the religious unity he had called for and was driving wars around the world, without referring to a specific one.

“In various regions we see the emergence of violent conflicts, which are often the result... of the intolerant desire to let one’s own interests, one’s own position, or one’s historical narrative prevail at all costs,” he said.

Widodo echoed the Pope’s remarks.

“Freedom and tolerance is what Indonesia, together with the Vatican want, to spread... in the midst of an increasingly turbulent world,” he said.

Indonesia, which is the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation, has long struggled with Islamist militancy.

Bombings on the resort island of Bali in 2002 that killed 202 people were the deadliest in Indonesian history and led to a crackdown on militancy.

Catholics represent fewer than 3 per cent of the population of Indonesia, about eight million people, compared with the 87 per cent, or 242 million, who are Muslim.

But they are one of six officially recognised religions or denominations in the nominally secular nation, including Protestantism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Confucianism.

The trip to Indonesia is the third ever by a Pope and the first since John Paul II in 1989.

Fragile health 

The Pope’s fragile health is set to be tested on the trip, which will also take in Papua New Guinea, East Timor and Singapore.

He had not travelled abroad since visiting Marseille in France in September last year.

Accompanying him to Indonesia are his personal doctor and two nurses, but Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said that was standard procedure.

The pontiff appeared refreshed when he arrived in Jakarta from Rome on Tuesday, and again when he met Widodo on Wednesday morning in the first major set piece of his tour.

He arrived in a civilian Toyota car, sitting in the front passenger seat before getting out in a wheelchair to greet spectators.

Hundreds of children wearing traditional costumes screamed, shouting “welcome Pope” and waving flags.

He was greeted by Widodo and Defence Minister Prabowo Subianto, the country’s president-elect who will take office next month.

The pontiff got out of his wheelchair using a cane for talks with the Indonesian leader.

As he left the palace, dozens waiting outside tried to chase his car.

The Pope was later scheduled to hold a private meeting with members of the Society of Jesus, the Jesuit order to which he belongs — at the Holy See’s mission in Jakarta.

Meeting the faithful 

Interfaith ties are the central theme of his Indonesia leg.

He is due to host a meeting on Thursday with representatives from all six religions at the Istiqlal Mosque, the largest in Southeast Asia and a symbol of religious co-existence.

He will sign a joint declaration with the mosque’s grand imam focusing on “de-humanisation” through the spread of conflict, as well as environmental degradation, according to the Indonesian bishops’ conference. 

The Pope will on Thursday host a mass at the country’s 80,000 national football stadium, which Catholics are expected to pack out.

In a sign of solidarity, the religious affairs ministry has called on TV stations to not run daily Muslim dusk prayer videos during the mass, and use text reminders instead.

Before that the Pope will try to energise the local Catholic faithful on Wednesday afternoon with an address at Jakarta’s cathedral, which sits across the road from the mosque.

The cathedral, linked to the mosque by a “tunnel of friendship”, was rebuilt at the end of the 19th century after a fire and in recent days Christians have been taking selfies with a life-sized Pope cutout there.

The Pope will end his day with a meeting with young people who are part of a global network of schools aimed at helping disadvantaged children, which he established in 2013.