World

ITAGUAÍ, Brazil — President Emmanuel Macron and counterpart Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva on Wednesday celebrated the launch of Brazil’s third French-designed submarine, which will help secure the country’s immense coastline, dubbed the “Blue Amazon”.

The two men highlighted the importance of their countries’ defense partnership during a time of major global unrest, at a ceremony at Brazil’s ultra-modern naval base in Itaguai near Rio de Janeiro.

It is here that Brazil built the Tonelero, the third of four planned conventional diesel attack submarines, with training, equipment, and technical assistance from France.

Under cloudy skies, the submarine was christened by First Lady Rosangela da Silva, nicknamed “Janja”.

France and Brazil’s defence ties “will allow two important countries, each on a continent, to prepare so that we can face this adversity, without worrying about any type of war, because we are defenders of peace”, said Lula.

Despite differences, notably on the Ukraine war, Macron said “the great peaceful powers of Brazil and France” had “the same vision of the world”.

Macron is on a whirlwind tour of Brazil, a major economic ally, which kicked off Tuesday with the launch of a plan to raise over a billion dollars in green investments to protect the Brazilian and Guyanese Amazon.

Jungle bromance 

The visit, the first by a French president to Latin America’s economic giant in over a decade, is also a move to reset ties which had deteriorated significantly under former president Jair Bolsonaro.

A warm meeting between Macron and Lula in the Amazon, in which the two men were pictured beaming and clasping hands in the jungle, spawned a raft of Internet memes about their bromance.

The cozy scenes — a far cry from the days Bolsonaro lobbed insults at Macron’s wife — continued on Wednesday at the submarine launch.

With its 8,500 kilometres of coastline, Brazil is seeking to ensure the security of what it calls the “blue Amazon”, its immense exclusive economic zone through which more than 95 per cent of its foreign trade passes and where it extracts 95 per cent of its oil.

The construction of the submarines was outlined in a 2008 deal between Lula and former French president Nicolas Sarkozy, which also included the purchase of 50 Caracal helicopters.

The fourth submarine, the Angostura, will be launched in 2025.

France skirts around nuclear sub 

Brazil is also planning to build its first nuclear-powered submarine, the Alvaro Alberto, a project that has suffered significant delays, mainly due to budget constraints.

The French naval defense manufacturer Naval Group is supporting the design and construction of the submarine, except for the nuclear boiler which is being designed by the Brazilians.

Brasilia is however trying to convince Paris to increase technology transfers to help it integrate the reactor into the submarine and sell it equipment linked to nuclear propulsion.

France has been reticent to transfer such technology due to the challenges of nuclear proliferation.

“If Brazil wants to have access to knowledge of nuclear technology, it is not to wage war. We want this knowledge to assure all countries that want peace that Brazil will be at their side,” said Lula.

Macron told Brazil “France will be at your side” during the development of the nuclear-powered submarines, without announcing specific assistance.

“I want us to open the chapter for new submarines... that we look nuclear propulsion in the face while being perfectly respectful of all non-proliferation commitments,” he said.

Later on Wednesday, Macron arrived in the economic capital Sao Paulo, and blasted the long-stalled free trade agreement between the European Union and South America’s Mercosur bloc.

The deal, which has recently run into fierce resistance from European farmers, “as it is negotiated today is a really bad agreement, for you and for us”, Macron told an economic forum in the south-eastern city.

“Let’s build a new agreement ... one which is responsible from a development, climate and biodiversity point of view,” he said of the pact, negotiations for which originally began 25 years ago.

After an agreement was reached in 2019, final approval of the deal was then blocked amid opposition from several countries including France, even as nations such as Spain, Germany and Brazil have championed its adoption.

MOSCOW — The death toll from the attack on a Moscow concert hall claimed by Islamic extremists rose on Wednesday to 143, Russian authorities said.

Authorities listed the names of the dead on the Russian ministry for civil defence and emergency situations five days after last Friday’s attack, the deadliest claimed to date by Daesh on European soil and the worst in Russia in two decades.

By Wednesday afternoon, 80 people injured in the attack, including six children, remained in hospital, TASS news agency quoted Russian Health Minister Mikhail Murashko as saying.

An anonymous medical source told TASS 205 people had received outpatient care.

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova told reporters the previous day that many people in shock had initially not returned to the hospital for treatment.

On Friday, gunmen opened fire at the Crocus City concert hall near Moscow, also setting fire to the venue.

Four attack suspects — all from Tajikistan according to Russian state media — are under arrest along with several suspected accomplices.

A Moscow court has ordered the men be held in pre-trial detention until May 22 — a date likely to be extended until a full trial.

Russia said on Saturday it had arrested 11 people in connection with the attack. There has been no information on the other seven.

The attack was swiftly claimed by Daesh although Moscow has repeated its initial line of a link to Ukraine.

Kyiv rejects any involvement.

Russia has for some years been a target of Daesh owing to its role in suppressing unrest in regions with a substantial Muslim majority as well as its support for the regime in Syria’s civil war.

On Monday, three days after the attack, President Vladimir Putin admitted for the first time that the presumed gunmen were radical Islamists but continued to insist on a link to Ukraine, saying the perpetrators were headed there when they were caught some 150 kilometres from the border.

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo called for calm on Wednesday after escalating tensions between Turkish and Kurdish groups in the country just days before local elections in Turkey.

“We are asking everyone to calm down, stop the provocations and continue living together (in harmony) as we have done for decades in our country,” De Croo said.

“Let’s stop... these demonstrations of support for organisations classified as terrorist,” he told reporters, referring to the Kurdish PKK group.

There have been a series of clashes between Turks and Kurds in eastern Belgium including riots on Sunday, with subsequent tit-for-tat claims.

The Turkish foreign ministry blamed outlawed “PKK militants” from Leuven for Sunday’s clashes in Limburg. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) is proscribed as a terrorist organisation by Ankara and its Western allies including Belgium.

But NavBel, the council representing Kurdish groups in Belgium, said a Syrian Kurdish family suffered a “brutal attack” by Turkey’s Grey Wolves, an ultra-nationalist organisation.

Then in an incident believed to be an anti-Turk attack, a cafe in Vise, near Liege, was targeted overnight between Monday and Tuesday by individuals armed with baseball bats that left several people hurt.

The public prosecutor’s offices in Limburg and Liege confirmed to AFP they were investigating the violent incidents but would not provide more information.

Tensions rose again after a protest on Monday in front of the European Parliament in Brussels by Kurdish groups in response to the riots at the weekend.

The demonstration descended into violence and the police used water cannon to disperse around 200 protesters, who had held images of jailed Kurdish PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke to his Belgian counterpart Hadja Lahbib on Sunday night after the clashes, his ministry said this week.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to one of those injured, a 16-year-old boy of Turkish origin, by telephone in a video shared by the presidency on Tuesday evening.

De Croo said Belgium was “following this closely because there are other key moments in the coming days”, referring to local elections in Turkey on March 31.

GENEVA — The UN expert who concluded Israel was committing acts of genocide in the Gaza Strip received broad support at the United Nations on Tuesday, with countries speaking up to back her and her report.

Francesca Albanese, the special rapporteur on human rights in the Palestinian territories, told the UN Human Rights Council that countries should impose an arms embargo and sanctions on Israel.

Expanding in person on her report released on Monday, Albanese said Israel was characterising the entire Gazan population as "targetable, killable and destroyable", and had ostentatiously laid bare its "genocidal intent" to "rid Palestine of Palestinians".

Dozens of diplomats, mostly representing Arab and Muslim countries but also Latin America, took the floor to defend her mandate and her work.

Pakistan, speaking for the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, backed her call for sanctions and an arms embargo.

"We commend your courage in documenting the... acts amounting to genocide in Gaza," Islamabad's representative said.

"The occupation force's dangerous and ruthless push for a final solution to the Palestinian question is plain for all to see, as its forces encircle Rafah like vultures and its ravenous land grab continues unabated in the West Bank."

Egypt, speaking for Arab group countries, affirmed their support for her mandate and said they were gravely concerned about Israel's "structured and systematic attack to make the Gaza Strip uninhabitable".

And Qatar, on behalf of the Gulf Cooperation Council, thanked Albanese for her report and demanded the international community "put an end to genocide being perpetrated by the Israeli war machinery".

In her speech, Albanese told the top UN rights body that Israel had "destroyed Gaza".

"When genocidal intent is so conspicuous, so ostentatious, as it is in Gaza, we cannot avert our eyes: we must confront genocide, we must prevent it and we must punish it," she said.

“The genocide in Gaza is the most extreme stage of a long-standing settler-colonial process of erasure of the native Palestinians.”

Special rapporteurs are independent experts appointed by the Human Rights Council but they do not speak on behalf of the UN.

Albanese’s speech concluded to applause in the chamber. Israel was not present, nor was its chief ally the United States.

The bloodiest ever Gaza war was sparked by Hamas’s October 7 surprise attack on Israel.

Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 32,414 people in Gaza, most of them women and children, according to the health ministry in the territory.

CARACAS — Venezuelan opposition figure Manuel Rosales registered to challenge President Nicolas Maduro in July’s elections, after the main opposition coalition said it was prevented from nominating its candidate by the midnight deadline.

Opposition party Un Nuevo Tiempo (UNT) registered Rosales “by automated means”, the National Electoral Council (CNE) announced early Tuesday, just after the nomination window closed.

A former exile, mayor and ex-presidential candidate who lost to Hugo Chavez in 2006, Rosales is the current governor of the northwestern Venezuelan state of Zulia.

Moments before his registration was announced, the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) said it had been unable to officially register its own candidate after it could not access the web platform.

“We have been working all day ... trying to exercise our constitutional right to nominate our candidate. This was not possible,” coalition official Omar Barboza said in a video released by PUD early Tuesday.

Maduro, 61, meanwhile formalised his own run for the presidency with great fanfare on Monday, with thousands turning out to rally behind him and the ruling United Socialist Party of Venezuela.

“I was moved by so much generosity and recognition on the part of the people for this humble man from the neighborhoods of Caracas, this humble worker,” said Maduro, carrying an illustration of his mentor, revolutionary leader Chavez.

The former bus driver is seeking to extend his turbulent time in power with a third six-year term, amid rising concerns over his slide into authoritarianism and crackdown on the opposition.

Wearing a jacket in the red, yellow and blue of the Venezuelan flag, he called on his supporters to rally behind him, as the crowd chanted his name.

“Nicolas is the hope, he is the continuity of a project that Commander Hugo Chavez started,” Pedro Mata, 52, told AFP at the rally.

However, opinion surveys show Maduro is not the favorite at the July 28 polls.

Opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, 56, overwhelmingly won an opposition primary vote last year, and some surveys put her support at about 72 per cent.

She was declared ineligible, however, and banned from public office for 15 years by courts loyal to Maduro on charges of corruption widely dismissed as spurious, and for supporting Western sanctions against the government.

In her place, the opposition coalition had been trying to nominate 80-year-old university professor Corina Yoris.

Proxy blocked 

Just before the registration clock ran out, PUD said on Monday night it had not yet received the necessary access codes to nominate Yoris on the CNE website.

“The system is completely closed,” Yoris told a press conference.

“My rights as a Venezuelan citizen are being violated,” she said.

She said that her team had gone in person to the CNE to deliver a letter requesting a three-day extension to the period to nominate candidates, but had been unable to do so.

In a joint statement, Argentina, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay expressed concern over Yoris’s inability to register.

Just as the nomination window was due to close, former opposition vice-president of the national assembly Enrique Marquez announced his candidacy as an independent.

He said his bid had nothing to do with the opposition coalition. “This is autonomous, I am an independent politician,” he said.

Several other candidates presenting themselves as opposition figures also registered, but most were considered aligned with Maduro’s government.

The final list of presidential candidates will be published at the end of April.

UN chief Antonio Guterres last week warned against interference in the election.

Seven of Machado’s party and campaign officials have been arrested, and warrants have been issued for several more, all accused of seeking to destabilize the country.

Many countries refused to recognise the results of Maduro’s last election in 2018, citing fraud and a lack of transparency, and instead recognized parliamentary president Juan Guaido as the country’s legitimate leader. Six years later Maduro is still firmly in charge of the oil-rich nation after his rival’s government collapsed and the war in Ukraine choked energy supplies and shifted global priorities.

UNITED NATIONS, United States — After more than five months of war, the UN Security Council for the first time on Monday demanded an immediate ceasefire after the United States, Israel's ally which vetoed previous drafts, abstained.

Drawing unusual applause in the often staid Security Council, all 14 other members voted in favour of the resolution which "demands an immediate ceasefire" for the ongoing Islamic holy month of Ramadan.

The resolution calls for the truce to lead to a "lasting, sustainable ceasefire" and demands that Hamas and other militants free hostages seized on October 7.

Russia at the last minute objected to the removal of the word "permanent" ceasefire and called a vote, which failed to gain passage.

The successful resolution was drafted in part by Algeria, the Arab bloc's current member on the Security Council, with a diverse array of countries including Slovenia and Switzerland.

The United States has vetoed previous bids for a ceasefire but has shown growing frustration with Israel, including its stated plans to expand its military operation to the packed southern city of Rafah.

A change in tone towards its Middle Eastern ally was seen on Friday, when the United States put forward a resolution to recognise "the imperative" of an "immediate and sustained ceasefire".

But that text was blocked by Russia and China, which along with Arab states criticised it for stopping short of explicitly demanding Israel halt its campaign in Gaza.

The United States had repeatedly blocked ceasefire resolutions as it attempts to walk a line between supporting Israel with military aid and voicing frustration with leader Benjamin Netanyahu as the civilian death toll in the Gaza Strip mounts.

Unlike Friday's text, the call for a ceasefire in the new resolution is not directly linked to ongoing talks, led by Qatar with support from the United States and Egypt, to halt fighting in return for Hamas releasing hostages.

Israel has criticised the Security Council for previous resolutions that have not specifically condemned Hamas.

The Security Council has been divided over the Hamas-Israel war since the October 7 attacks, only approving two of eight resolutions, which both mainly dealt with humanitarian aid.

And those resolutions seem to have had little effect on the ground, where UN personnel say Israel continues to block aid convoys as experts warn of looming famine.