World

UNITED NATIONS, United States — Russia vetoed a UN Security Council resolution on Monday calling for an immediate end to hostilities in Sudan where a war between two rival generals has been raging since April 2023.

A draft of the resolution prepared by Britain and Sierra Leone, which was seen by AFP, had called on both sides to "immediately cease hostilities" and begin talks on "a national ceasefire."

Chairing a meeting of the council at UN headquarters, British Foreign Secretary David Lammy called the Russian decision a "disgrace" and angrily denounced Moscow's deputy UN ambassador who ignored the remarks while looking at his phone. 

"One country stood in the way of the council speaking with one voice. One country is the blocker," Lammy added in a speech that saw him repeatedly say "shame on Putin" referring to the Russian president. 

The UN Security Council has been largely paralyzed in its ability to deal with conflicts from Ukraine to Gaza because of splits between permanent members, notably Russia and the United States.

A decision by US President Joe Biden to allow Ukraine to use long-range American-made missiles to strike inside Russia, reported for the first time on Sunday, has further ratcheted up tensions between the two sides.

American ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield denounced Russia for standing in the way of "actions to save lives in the world's worst humanitarian crisis."

But Russia's deputy UN ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy said the resolution had a "post-colonial flavoring" and accused Britain of expending "a lot of effort to delete from the text any mention of the legitimate authorities of Sudan."

Sudan has been ravaged by fighting between the regular army of General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan, who seized power in a 2021 coup, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by his one-time deputy, General Mohamed Hamdan Daglo. 

Before Monday's vote, a diplomat told AFP on condition of anonymity that Russia had appeared to become "visibly more aligned" with General Burhan's camp during negotiations over the draft.

During previous votes on Sudan in the Security Council, Moscow had abstained.

 Civilian toll 

The draft had called on member states to avoid any "external interference which foments conflict and instability" and urged all sides to respect an embargo against arms transfers to Darfur.

The conflict has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than 11 million people, including 3.1 million who have fled the country, according to UN figures.

Recent weeks have seen violence flare up again, with each camp seemingly "convinced they can prevail on the battlefield," Rosemary DiCarlo, UN under-secretary-general for political affairs, said recently.

The fighting has taken a high toll among civilians, with some 26 million people facing severe food shortages and both sides exchanging accusations of sexual violence.

Against that backdrop, the draft resolution called on both parties to "fully implement" commitments made in 2023 to protect civilians, to "halt and prevent conflict-related sexual violence," and to allow "rapid, safe, unhindered" humanitarian access into and throughout Sudan.

Even if it had been adopted, it was unclear what effect the Sudan resolution would have produced.

PARIS — The French far right under Marine Le Pen on Monday stepped up threats it could bring down the shaky government of Prime Minister Michel Barnier in a move that would plunge the country into political chaos.

Barnier is "creating all the conditions for a no-confidence motion and is adding to them day by day," the deputy president of Le Pen's National Rally (RN) Sebastien Chenu told Europe 1 radio.

The RN emerged as   e single largest party following this summer's snap parliamentary elections called by President Emmanuel Macron in which no party or bloc won an overall majority.

Centrist Macron and Barnier, a right-winger, managed to cobble a minority right-wing government. But it could be ejected if the RN teams up with the left, which forms the largest single bloc after the election.

The left-wing coalition has made clear it is eager to topple the government but the RN has adopted a wait-and-see approach that analysts see as a "sword of Damocles" hanging over Barnier.

But with the government likely to enrage the opposition by using a controversial constitutional article to push through budget legislation without a vote, such a no-confidence motion could now come before the Christmas break.

"This budget will impact the French, we are not going to resolve anything and therefore it is a very bad budget," said Chenu.

"I am arguing for us to be able to have a no-confidence motion," he said, stressing the final decision lay with Marine Le Pen, who leads the RN group in the National Assembly lower house of parliament.

'Political death' 

The issue comes at a critical time for three-time presidential candidate Le Pen who fancies having her best ever crack at the Elysee in polls due in 2027.

Le Pen, 56, and other RN defendants are currently on trial accused of creating fake jobs at the EU parliament which they deny.

If convicted, she could receive a jail sentence and a ban from public office which would disqualify her from the presidential polls. 

Le Pen responded by saying prosecutors wanted her "political death" and adding that she was being put on trial as a "political target".

The politically-loaded trial has even sparked unease. Former interior minister Gerald Darmanin has said Le Pen "should be beaten at the ballot box, and not elsewhere".

Her young lieutenant Jordan Bardella, 29, who is the RN party chief, is not among the accused. 

He has just published his first book "Ce que je cherche" ("What I am Looking For") describing growing up in the Paris suburbs and his political vision.

RN officials are aware of the risks of such a move, given the party could then be blamed by the French for months of grinding crisis. France's constitution dictates there must be at least a year between elections, so snap polls are ruled out.

"It's not something we are going to do for fun," said one RN official, asking not to be named. "Who would be the new prime minister? What would be different?"

ATHENS — Around 25,000 people marched through Athens on Sunday in closely watched demonstrations to mark the 51th anniversary of the pro-democracy uprising that helped topple military rule in Greece, police said.

The protests are held every year to commemorate the 1973 Athens Polytechnic protests that killed 24 people, when the ruling junta sent troops to break up an anti-government uprising.

As the commemoration is often marred by far-left violence on the sidelines, more than 5,500 officers were deployed on Sunday.

They were backed by riot squads, drones and helicopters monitoring key locations, including the US and Israeli embassies, police said earlier.

More than 110 people were detained during checks made before the march, according to police sources.

Much of the city centre was closed off to traffic and central Athens metro stations closed early.

The brutal crackdown on the 1973 student-led, anti-junta demonstrations shocked Europe, and is generally considered to have broken the dictatorship's grip on power, leading to the restoration of democracy months later.

Sunday's march left from the Polytechnic campus headquarters of the uprising, and was fronted by students carrying a bloodstained Greek flag that flew over the Polytechnic's iron gate the night it crushed by a tank. Many protesters also carried Palestinian flags.

Various civil society groups, anti-authoritarian collectives, opposition parties, workers' unions headed towards the US embassy, to protest against Washington's support for the Greek military dictatorship during the Cold War, and then to the Israeli embassy.

Student associations chanted "The Polytechnic uprising lives on, calling us to fight" and "Freedom in Palestine".

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis on Sunday stressed the importance of free parliamentary democracy.

"The message of resistance emanating from the Polytechnic uprising is an enduring symbol of progress which is neither trapped in the past nor sacrificed to party exploitation."

"That is why, 51 years later, it still shines. To signal loyalty to democracy. Faith in unity. And the prospect of a better life," he said in a message posted in social media.

Protests were held nationwide, including in the cities of Thessaloniki, Patras in the Peloponnese and Heraklion in Crete.

KYIV, Ukraine — Russia on Sunday pummelled Ukraine with a "massive" aerial barrage of missiles and drones in the largest attack in months that Kyiv branded "hellish". 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Moscow launched 120 missiles and almost 100 drones, targeting the capital as well as southern, central and far-western corners of the country. 

Civilians were killed in the Mykolaiv, Lviv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk and Odesa regions in what officials in Kyiv called it one of the biggest barrages of the almost three-year long Russian invasion. 

The attack comes at a time when Moscow has been steadily advancing in Ukraine's east and with the imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House raising fears over the future of US support for Kyiv.

"A hellish night," the spokesman for Ukraine's airforce Yuriy Ignat said on social media, adding that Kyiv downed "144 targets". 

The giant attack followed two days after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz called Russian leader Vladimir Putin for the first time in almost two years, calling on the Kremlin chief to end Moscow's devastating offensive. 

Kyiv had slammed Scholz for reaching out to Putin and Sunday said the attack was the Kremlin's real answer.

"This is war criminal Putin's true response to all those who called and visited him recently," Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said after the attack. 

"We need peace through strength, not appeasement." 

Scholz on Sunday defended the call and insisted that Berlin's backing for Kyiv was unwavering.

"Ukraine can count on us," the German leader said ahead of flying to a G20 meeting in Brazil, promising that "no decision will be taken behind Ukraine's back" on ending the conflict. 

But Poland's prime minister joined the backlash on Sunday.

"No-one will stop Putin with phone calls. The attack last night, one of the biggest in this war, has proved that telephone diplomacy cannot replace real support from the whole West for Ukraine," Donald Tusk wrote on X.

Civilian deaths across Ukraine 

The strikes caused massive power cuts across the country, with fears of a precarious winter to come. 

"A massive attack on our country," Zelensky said. 

"Over the past week, the aggressor used nearly 140 missiles of various types, more than 900 guided aerial bombs, and over 600 strike drones," he said, accusing Moscow of trying to "intimidate us with cold and blackouts". 

AFP journalists heard explosions in the early morning in Kyiv and close to Sloviansk in the Donetsk region. 

Moscow, meanwhile, said it had hit all its targets, claiming it had targeted an "essential energy infrastructure supporting the Ukrainian military-industrial complex".

But civilian deaths were reported across the country. 

Officials in Kherson said a 51-year-old woman was killed by a drone. 

In the southern Mykolaiv region, local leader Vitaliy Kim said two women were killed in a night attack and that seven people -- including two children -- were wounded. 

The death toll included two employees of the state railway company Ukrzaliznytsia in the city of Nikopol, who were killed when a depot was hit, the Dnipropetrovsk region's governor Sergiy Lysak and the operator said. Three more people were wounded in the bombing.

Two people were also killed in the Odesa region, where a teenager was wounded. 

Russian drones also made their way to Zakarpattia -- a mountainous region rarely hit -- with officials saying fragments fell in the village of Pavshyno, near the border with Hungary and Slovakia. 

The head of the Lviv region, Maksym Kozytsky, said a 66-year-old woman was killed in her car in the village of Sheptytsky -- some 20 kilometres from the Polish border. 

That prompted NATO-member Poland to scramble fighter jets and mobilise all available forces on Sunday in response.

Warsaw puts its armed forces on alert whenever attacks against its neighbouring country are deemed likely to create a danger for its own territory. 

Two killed in Russia 

In the border Kursk region, where Kyiv has held onto swathes of Russian land since the summer, Russian officials said a Ukrainian drone strike killed a local journalist.

Kursk leader Alexei Smirnov said Yulia Kuznetsova, the editor of the local "People's Paper" was killed in the Bolshesoldatskiy district of the Kursk region as she "took archives to her editorial office". 

The West and Ukraine says thousands of North Korea soldiers are in Russia, with some in the Kursk region, to reinforce Moscow's forces. 

Russia also said a man was killed by a Ukrainian drone in its border Belgorod region. 

Ukraine's energy operator DTEK on Sunday announced emergency power cuts in the Kyiv region and two regions in the east.

Energy grid hit 

Russia's relentless aerial bombardment has destroyed half of Ukraine's energy production capacity, President Volodymyr Zelensky has said.

With the harsh Ukrainian winter fast approaching, the country is already suffering from major energy shortfalls, while its outmanned and outgunned forces have been steadily ceding ground to the Kremlin's troops for weeks.

Kyiv has implored its Western allies for help to rebuild its energy grid -- a hugely expensive undertaking -- and to supply its outgunned forces with more aerial defence weapons.

But many in Ukraine fear that Western help will not be as freely given when Trump returns to the White House in January. 

BERLIN — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Friday urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to engage in peace talks with Ukraine, in the first call between the leaders in almost two years.

In the call, Scholz "condemned Russia's war of aggression against Ukraine and called on President Putin to end it and withdraw troops", the chancellor's spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said.

The German leader "urged Russia to show willingness to negotiate with Ukraine with the aim of achieving a just and lasting peace", Hebestreit added in a statement.

Scholz also stressed "Germany's unwavering determination to support Ukraine in its fight against Russian aggression for as long as necessary".

The call comes at a crucial juncture in the war. Ukrainian troops are coming under pressure and the election of Donald Trump in the United States has cast doubt over Washington's continued support for Kyiv.

The call between the two leaders was the first time they have been in contact since December 2022. The conversation lasted "for an hour", a German government source told AFP.

Scholz "particularly condemned the Russian air strikes against civilian infrastructure in Ukraine", said a government source.

"He made it clear that sending North Korean soldiers to Russia for combat missions against Ukraine would lead to a serious escalation and expansion of the conflict," the source added.

The Kremlin, in its readout of the conversation, said the two leaders had had a "frank exchange of views", adding that the call had been initiated by Germany.

"Possible agreements should take into account the security interests of the Russian Federation, proceed from the new territorial realities and, most importantly, address the root causes of the conflict," the Kremlin added.

- Limited contact -

Before picking up the phone to Putin, Scholz spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, Hebestreit said. 

The German and Ukrainian leaders spoke "beforehand and will do so again after the conversation with the Russian president", the spokesman said.

Launched in February 2022, Russia's full-scale of invasion of Ukraine is headed into its third winter, with Kyiv's troops increasingly on the back foot. 

Germany has been one of Ukraine's biggest military supporters, second only to the United States in the aid it has sent to Kyiv. 

But the election of Trump, who criticised aid to Ukraine on the campaign trail, has called into question Washington's continued support.

Scholz's December 2022 call with Putin was the last known phone call between the Kremlin chief and the leader of a major Western country.

Putin has not spoken to most NATO and Western leaders since 2022, when the EU and the US imposed massive sanctions on Russia for launching its shock Ukraine offensive.

Within the NATO bloc, Putin maintains contact with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban -- who is critical of Western policy on Russia -- and with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Putin has not met other Western leaders in person since days before launching the offensive in February 2022, when a flurry of Western officials visited Moscow in a bid to deter the Kremlin chief from attacking Ukraine.

He will skip a meeting of G20 leaders in Brazil next week, which Scholz will attend, on the grounds that his presence would "wreck" the gathering.

Putin denied an International Criminal Court warrant out against him, for Russia's actions in Ukraine, was a factor in his decision to steer clear of the summit, where Moscow will be represented by Russia's foreign minister.

The German and Russian leaders "agreed to remain in contact", the German government source added.

THE HAGUE — The Netherlands' right-wing government averted collapse on Friday after a junior minister resigned over alleged racist comments by cabinet colleagues related to last week's attacks on Israeli football fans.

Deputy Finance Minister Nora Achahbar handed in her resignation late Friday, setting in motion crisis talks between leaders of the four-party Dutch coalition government. 

Achahbar decided to exit the government after a heated cabinet meeting discussing the violence that flared on the streets of Amsterdam after a football match between local club Ajax and Maccabi Tel Aviv.

"The polarising interactions of the past weeks made such an impact on me that I am no longer able to effectively carry out my duties as deputy minister," Achahbar said in her resignation letter to parliament.

Her departure prompted speculation that other members of her New Social Contract (NSC) party would follow, with the acting party leader Nicolien van Vroonhoven saying before emergency meetings that "we will see" about continuing in the ruling coalition.

After a five-hour scramble, Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof announced late Friday that the coalition was intact, and his not-yet-five-month-old government had survived.

"Nora Achahbar has decided not to continue as deputy minister," the premier said after the coalition leaders' talks at his official residence in The Hague.

"We have as a cabinet decided that we have the confidence to continue together."

Addressing "the incidents in Amsterdam last week", Schoof said: "There is a lot of upheaval in the country. It was an emotional week, a heavy week and a lot has been said and a lot happened."

But he added: "There has never been any racism in my government or in the coalition parties."

 'Racist statements' 

The Netherlands is grappling with the political fallout of what Amsterdam Mayor Femke Halsema called a "poisonous cocktail of anti-Semitism and hooliganism".

In attacks that sparked outrage around the world, Maccabi Tel Aviv supporters were briefly hospitalised after coming under assault following a match with the local Ajax team on November 7.

Prime Minister Schoof described the attackers as men "with a migration background", while far-right leader Geert Wilders claimed that the perpetrators were "all Muslims" and "for the most part Moroccans".

Dutch authorities have however reported that Maccabi fans set fire to a Palestinian flag before the match, chanted anti-Arab slurs and vandalised a taxi.

On Monday, during a cabinet meeting to discuss the violence, "things reportedly got heated, and in Achahbar's opinion racist statements were made," the NOS public broadcaster reported.

"Achahbar reportedly indicated then that she, as a minister, had objections to certain language used by her colleagues," NOS added.

Achahbar's exit threw into question whether the fragile coalition could retain the numbers needed to govern. 

Wilders's anti-immigration Freedom Party (PVV) won the most seats in Dutch elections a year ago, but shares power with the centre-right NSC, the Liberal Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), and the agriculture-friendly Citizen-Farmer Movement (BBB). 

The coalition would lose its majority if the NSC pulled out.

'Hard action' 

During a debate on Wednesday, Wilders further exacerbated tensions by calling for the attackers of the Israeli football fans to be prosecuted "for terrorism".

Premier Schoof has promised "hard action" against those guilty.

Many opposition politicians and commentators have meanwhile stressed that although anti-Semitism is abhorrent, the violence in Amsterdam was not one-sided.

Police have launched a massive probe into the incident which Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel said was "racing ahead", although much remained unclear about the night's events.

The violence took place against the backdrop of an increasingly polarised Europe, with heightened tensions following a rise in anti-Semitic, anti-Israeli and Islamophobic attacks since the start of the war in Gaza.

The Dutch government late Thursday said it needed "more time" to flesh out a strategy to fight anti-Semitism.

RIO DE JANEIRO — Hundreds of protesters marched in support of Palestinians in Rio on Saturday, in a demonstration aimed at world leaders about to converge on the city for a G20 summit.

The march, held peacefully under constant rain along Copacabana Beach, was watched by dozens of police and soldiers deployed as security for the summit to be held Monday and Tuesday.

The meeting will see heads of state and government, including US President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping, discuss coordination on international issues.

The Rio protesters, a few wearing Arabic keffiyeh scarves, held aloft the Palestinian flag and banners, including one reading "Break Brazil-Israel Relations" and demands that Israeli allies stop financing its military offensives in Gaza and in Lebanon.

"We're here to make a contrast with the G20 summit," said Tania Arantes, 60, from one of the Brazilian unions organizing the protest.

She said the march embraced a number of other leftist issues too, such as climate change, the fight against poverty and a demand to tax the super-rich, because the leaders at the summit "have economic control over nations they believe are subordinate in this globalized world."

One marcher, Giancarlo Pereira, a 43-year-old veterinarian, said the multiple leftist issues converged with the Palestinian cause "because the big companies fueling the war (being conducted by Israel in Gaza) are the billionaires of the world."

A short distance along Copacabana Beach, another protest was being staged with activists placing rows of plates with red crosses on them in the sand.

The 733 plates laid out represented the 733 million people in the world the UN says suffered from hunger last year.

Another demonstration was to take place in Rio later Saturday organized by a Brazilian Indigenous umbrella group, the Articulation of Indigenous People of Brazil, to underline a perceived lack of effort by rich countries to combat climate change.

The various protests were taking place as activists, NGOs and civil society bodies took part in a pre-summit G20 Social event in Rio promoted by Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.

Lula was to receive a list of action points drawn up by that event to help inform summit discussions on Monday and Tuesday.

Headline talks to take place at the summit include an initiative by Lula for a Global Alliance against Hunger and Poverty, and international efforts to mitigate global warming.