BARCELONA: Nearly 200 people were hurt in another night of violent clashes in Catalonia, authorities said Saturday, after radical separatists hurled rocks and fireworks at police who responded with teargas and rubber bullets.
In Barcelona, which resembled a chaotic battleground Friday, 152 people were injured, with dozens more hurt in the rest of Catalonia, taking the total to 182.
The deterioration came on the fifth consecutive day of protests in the Catalan capital and elsewhere over a Spanish court’s jailing of nine separatist leaders on sedition charges over a failed independence bid two years ago.
Emergency services had already reported 500 injured since Monday even before the latest clashes erupted.
According to the interior ministry, 83 people were detained in the overnight violence, in addition to the 128 arrests police had reported before Friday’s march.
Early Saturday, the air in the Catalan capital was still heavy with a burning stench as municipal workers cleared the streets of broken glass, rocks and rubber bullets, and repaired pavements where bricks had been ripped out.
Around half a million people had rallied in Barcelona on Friday in the biggest gathering since Monday’s court ruling as separatists also called a general strike in the major tourist destination.
While most marchers appeared peaceful, hordes of young protesters went on the rampage near the police headquarters, igniting a huge blaze that sent plumes of black smoke into the air, as police fired teargas to disperse them, an AFP correspondent said.
Other fires raged near Plaza de Catalunya at the top of the tourist hotspot Las Ramblas, where hundreds of demonstrators rallied in defiance of the police, who tried to disperse them with water cannon.
“Anti-fascist Catalonia!” they roared. “The streets will always be ours!”
Scores of police vans could be seen fanning out around the streets, their sirens screaming as the regional police warned people in a message in English on Twitter “not to approach” the city center.
Earlier, many thousands of “freedom marchers,” who had set out to walk from five regional towns on Wednesday, arrived in Barcelona wearing walking boots and carrying hiking poles.
The rally coincided with the general strike, prompting the cancelation of flights, the closure of shops, business and several top tourist attractions, and slowing public transport to a trickle in a region that accounts for about a fifth of Spain’s economic output.
Activists also cut off Catalonia’s main cross-border highway with France.
In downtown Barcelona, many shops and luxury outlets were closed on the city’s Paseo de Gracia, with blackened, charred patches a testimony to the nightly clashes that have raged since Monday.
“With these demonstrations bringing this large city to a halt, we are using Barcelona like a microphone,” said 23-year-old engineering student Ramon Pararada.
“It’s all in reaction to the injustice,” he said.
Retired lawyer Jaume Enrich said the court sentence was “the straw that broke the camel’s back.”
“Madrid is putting Spanish unity above everything, including basic rights,” he said, wearing a badge saying “No surrender.”
Spain’s top tourist destination, the Sagrada Familia basilica in Barcelona closed as protesters massed outside, and the Liceu opera house canceled Friday night’s performance.
With the region mired in chaos, football authorities canceled the Barcelona and Real Madrid Clasico set for October 26 at the Camp Nou stadium. Both clubs had reportedly refused an offer to hold the match in Madrid.
And Manchester City’s Catalan manager Pep Guardiola, an outspoken campaigner for the independence movement, urged European intervention to ease the crisis.
“The international community must help us to solve the conflict between Catalonia and Spain,” he said. “Some mediator from outside (must) help us sit (down) and talk.”
The Supreme Court’s explosive decision has thrust the Catalan dispute to the heart of the political debate as Spain heads toward a fourth election in as many years, which will be held on November 10.
Nearly 200 injured in police clashes with Catalan separatists
Nearly 200 injured in police clashes with Catalan separatists
- Emergency services had already reported 500 injured since Monday even before the latest clashes erupted
- Early Saturday, the air in the Catalan capital was still heavy with a burning stench
Taliban arrest 14 people for playing music and singing
Wedding halls are no longer allowed to play music
KABUL: Taliban authorities have arrested 14 people in northern Afghanistan for playing musical instruments and singing, activities they restricted since taking power, provincial police said on Saturday.
The Taliban government has steadily imposed laws and regulations that reflect their austere vision of Islamic law since seizing power in 2021.
This includes cracking down on music in public, from live performances to playing at gatherings, in restaurants, in cars or on radio and TV.
The police said in a statement that on Thursday night in the capital of northern Takhar province “fourteen individuals... took advantage of the nighttime to gather in a residential house where they were playing musical instruments and singing songs, which caused disturbance to the public.”
Those detained were under investigation, it added.
After their takeover, Taliban authorities shuttered music schools and smashed or burned musical instruments and sound systems, saying music caused “moral corruption” and public disturbance.
Wedding halls are no longer allowed to play music, though segregated women’s sections often do so secretly.
Many Afghan musicians fled the Taliban takeover out of fear or in need of work after losing their livelihoods in one of the world’s poorest countries.
The Taliban authorities have encouraged former musicians to turn their talents to Islamic poetry and unaccompanied vocal chants — the only forms of music allowed under their previous rule from 1996-2001.
Newly elected Reform UK councillors face scrutiny over Islamophobic social media posts
- Party made major breakthrough at last week’s local elections
- Campaign group: ‘They have yet to drop any of the candidates that have been exposed’
LONDON: Up to a dozen newly elected councillors from Reform UK have been accused of posting Islamophobic and far-right content on social media, The Guardian reported on Saturday.
It comes a week after the party made a major breakthrough in local elections across the country, winning 677 of the more than 1,600 contested seats.
Reform UK councillors at three country councils have shared social media content from Britain First, a far-right party known for its anti-Islam views.
Paul Harrison, who was elected to Leicestershire’s county council, retweeted and voted “yes” to an X poll asking if the UK should conduct mass deportations.
The post was accompanied by an image, generated by artificial intelligence, of Muslim men holding Pakistani flags.
Reform UK officials are facing greater scrutiny in the wake of the local elections, with many of the social media posts being revealed by counter-extremism campaign group Hope Not Hate.
Its director of campaigns, Georgie Laming, said: “(Party leader) Nigel Farage has claimed that Reform UK have the ‘most in-depth vetting procedure’ of any party. Our investigation shows that their processes leave much to be desired.
“Not only have they admitted using ‘AI techniques and other things’ to do the vetting, but Reform UK continue to shirk responsibility for their candidates’ online behaviour. They have yet to drop any of the candidates that have been exposed.”
The campaign group previously uncovered Islamophobic content posted by Reform candidates on social media, as well as far-right conspiracies and support for extremist figures including Tommy Robinson and David Irving.
Nigerian state bans petrol aiming to curb militant attacks
- “I have directed the immediate ban on the sale of petrol in Bama town,” Borno state governor said
- The ban is part of the “state government’s strategic response to counter insurgency operations“
KANO: Nigeria’s northeastern state of Borno, the epicenter of the militant insurgency, on Saturday said it was banning the sale of petrol in a bid to curtail a resurgence of militant attacks.
“I have directed the immediate ban on the sale of petrol in Bama town, ...and other parts of Bama Local Government Area with immediate effect,” Borno state governor Babagana Umara Zulum was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his office.
The ban is part of the “state government’s strategic response to counter insurgency operations,” the statement added.
The cutting of fuel supplies for vehicles is expected to restrict the militants’ mobility.
The town targeted by the ban is the largest after the state capital Maiduguri, and sits on the fringes of Sambisa forest, a major enclave of the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), a splinter group of Boko Haram.
The town witnessed the worst devastation by Boko Haram militants who seized it in 2014 and killed hundreds of residents.
Northeastern Nigeria has seen an upsurge in Islamist militant attacks in recent weeks, reigniting a grinding 16-year conflict that has left more than 40,000 dead and displaced some two million people.
More than 100 people have been killed in the region since April.
The state of Borno in particular, where the Boko Haram militant group emerged 16 years ago, remains the epicenter of the conflict in Africa’s most populous country.
Recovery of sunken yacht in Italy suspended after diver’s death
- The diver was part of a team working to raise the 56-meter “Bayesian” yacht
- The yacht sunk within minutes after being struck by something akin to a mini-tornado
ROME: Work to raise a superyacht that sank in Sicily last year, killing a UK tech mogul and six others, was suspended Saturday after the death of a specialized diver, according to local news reports.
The diver was part of a team working to raise the 56-meter (185-foot) “Bayesian” yacht that was struck by a pre-dawn storm in August last year while anchored off Porticello, near Palermo.
The yacht sunk within minutes after being struck by something akin to a mini-tornado, killing British tech tycoon Mike Lynch, his teenage daughter and five others.
Authorities suspended work on raising the vessel after prosecutors opened an investigation Friday into the death of a 39-year-old diver, according to Italian media.
According to initial reports, the diver was part of a team working to cut and remove the 75-meter mast, a first step before recovery of the yacht itself, which is lying on its side on the seabed some 50 meters down.
TMC Marine, the British company working to raise the superyacht, did not immediately respond to an AFP request for more information.
In a statement Friday cited by news reports, TMC Marine said it was cooperating with the probe and that “the circumstances of the accident are currently being investigated by the authorities.”
Work to bring up the yacht began last week, with Italy’s coast guard saying it would take up to 25 days.
Inquests into the deaths of the five British victims of the yacht sinking are currently being held in Ipswich, in eastern England.
In Italy, prosecutors in Termini Imerese have opened investigations into the captain and three others on suspicion of manslaughter and the crime of negligent shipwreck.
Lynch, the 59-year-old founder of software firm Autonomy, had invited friends and family onto the boat to celebrate his recent acquittal in a huge US fraud case.
Ukraine and its allies push for a 30-day ceasefire starting Monday
- Saturday also marked the last day of a unilateral three-day ceasefire declared by Russia
- The leaders of France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom arrived together at the train station in Kyiv, and met Zelensky
KYIV: Ukraine and its allies are ready for a “full, unconditional ceasefire” with Russia for at least 30 days starting Monday, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Saturday.
His remarks came as the leaders of four major European countries visited Kyiv to push for Moscow to agree to a truce and launch peace talks on ending the nearly three-year war. They followed what Sybiha said was a “constructive” phone call between them, US President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky.
Saturday also marked the last day of a unilateral three-day ceasefire declared by Russia that Ukraine says the Kremlin’s forces have repeatedly violated.
In March, the United States proposed an immediate, limited 30-day truce, which Ukraine accepted, but the Kremlin has held out for terms more to its liking.
The leaders of France, Germany, Poland and the United Kingdom arrived together at the train station in Kyiv, and met Zelensky shortly after to join a ceremony at Kyiv’s Independence Square marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. They lit candles at a makeshift flag memorial for fallen Ukrainian soldiers and civilians slain since Russia’s invasion.
The visit marked the first time the leaders of the four countries had traveled together to Ukraine, with Friedrich Merz making his first visit to Ukraine as Germany’s new chancellor.
Sybiha on Thursday called the Russian truce a “farce,” accusing Russian forces of violating it over 700 times less than a day after it formally came into effect. Both sides also said attacks on their troops had continued on Thursday.
“We reiterate our backing for President Trump’s calls for a peace deal and call on Russia to stop obstructing efforts to secure an enduring peace,” the leaders said in a joint statement.
“Alongside the US, we call on Russia to agree to a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire to create the space for talks on a just and lasting peace.”
Retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, said Saturday that a “comprehensive” 30-day ceasefire, covering attacks from the air, land, sea and on infrastructure, “will start the process for ending the largest and longest war in Europe since World War II.”
Trump has pressed both sides to quickly come to an agreement to end the war, but while Zelensky agreed to the American plan for an initial 30-day halt to hostilities, Russia has not signed on. Instead, it has kept up attacks along the roughly 1,000-mile (1,600-kilometer) front line, including deadly strikes on residential areas with no obvious military targets.
On Saturday morning, local officials in Ukraine’s northern Sumy region said Russian shelling over the past day killed three residents and wounded four more. Another civilian man died on the spot on Saturday as a Russian drone struck the southern city of Kherson, according to regional Gov. Oleksandr Prokudin.
Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, French President Emmanuel Macron said: “What’s happening with Poland, Germany and Great Britain is a historic moment for European defense and toward a greater independence for our security. Obviously, for Ukraine and all of us. It’s a new era. It’s a Europe that sees itself as a power.”
Trump said last week that he doubts Russia’s Vladimir Putin wants to end his war in Ukraine, expressing new skepticism that a peace deal can be reached soon, and hinted at further sanctions against Russia.
Progress on ending the war has seemed elusive in the months since Trump returned to the White House, and his previous claims of imminent breakthroughs have failed to come to fruition.
Trump has previously pushed Ukraine to cede territory to Russia to end the war, threatening to walk away if a deal becomes too difficult.
Ukraine’s European allies view its fate as fundamental to the continent’s security, and pressure is now mounting to find ways to support Kyiv militarily, regardless of whether Trump pulls out.
Ukrainian presidential aide Andrii Yermak, who met the European leaders at Kyiv’s main train station, wrote on Telegram earlier on Saturday: “There is a lot of work, a lot of topics to discuss. We need to end this war with a just peace. We need to force Moscow to agree to a ceasefire.”
Later in the day, the leaders began hosting a virtual meeting alongside Zelensky to update other leaders on the progress being made for a future so-called “coalition of the willing” that would help Ukraine’s armed forces after a peace deal and potentially deploy troops to Ukraine to police any future peace agreement with Russia.
