France seeks government as PM vows to ‘guard against’ extremes

People react to the projection of results during the second round of the legislative elections, near Republique Plaza in Paris on July 7, 2024. (AP/File)
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Updated 12 July 2024
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France seeks government as PM vows to ‘guard against’ extremes

  • Voters from different camps joined forces in the second round to shut the far-right National Rally (RN) out of power in a “republican front“
  • Macron has rejected LFI demands they should be tasked with forming the next government

PARIS: France’s political parties scrambled Friday to break a parliamentary deadlock brought on by an inconclusive snap election, as the outgoing prime minister vowed to prevent any government with far-right or hard-left members.
A runoff Sunday left the National Assembly without any overall majority, but a broad alliance of Socialists, Communists, Greens and the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) won the most seats, with 193 in the 577-strong lower chamber.
Voters from different camps joined forces in the second round to shut the far-right National Rally (RN) out of power in a “republican front,” allowing President Emmanuel Macron’s followers to claim second place with 164 seats and leaving the far right in third at 143.
With each of the three blocs controlling roughly one-third of the chamber, political leaders are admitting it may be a long slog to find a government able to survive a no-confidence vote.
Macron has rejected LFI demands they should be tasked with forming the next government, appearing to rule out a role for either LFI — the largest player in the New Popular Front (NFP) left alliance — or the far-right RN in any new coalition.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal echoed that stance Friday saying that he would seek “to guard against any government” that included RN or LFI ministers.
In a document outlining his bid to take the leadership of the Macron-allied “Renaissance” parliamentary group, Attal acknowledged it had “narrowly escaped extinction” in the vote.
As party group leader, Attal said he would “completely revise our methods and our organization.”
Attal, the only candidate to take over the Renaissance parliamentary leadership, said he hoped to “contribute to the emergence of a majority concerning projects and ideas” in the future parliament.
Renaissance deputies are to elect their new leader on Saturday. If voted in, Attal said he would rename the formation “Together for the Republic.”
The document, seen by AFP, made no mention of Macron, with reports suggesting that Attal is distancing himself from his former mentor, blaming Macron’s decision to dissolve parliament and call the election for the political quagmire.
Under the French constitution Macron, who has just under three years left of his second presidential term, will appoint the next prime minister.
The nominee must be able to garner enough support to negotiate the first hurdle, a confidence vote in the National Assembly.
There is, meanwhile, a good chance that the current government remains in place until after the Paris Olympic Games which open on July 26, according to political observers.
The leftist NFP, which had initially promised to suggest a candidate for prime minister to Macron by the end of the week, on Friday acknowledged that it probably wouldn’t be able to.
“I’d rather not set a deadline,” said LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard, telling the TF1 broadcaster that “more time may be needed for discussions.”
Green party boss Marine Tondelier said the problem was that “everybody claims that they are the biggest group” which she said showed that vote size was perhaps not “the most important criterion.”
A source within the Socialist party who declined to be named said the LFI had put forward four names, including that of firebrand Jean-Luc Melenchon who is unacceptable to all other parties, and controversial even among LFI members.
The Socialists themselves are pushing for their party’s boss, Olivier Faure, who they say would be acceptable as prime minister to a broad range of deputies from the left to center-right.
“Faure or Melenchon? That’s the real question,” remarked a Socialist official who declined to be named.
The head of the RN, Marine Le Pen, has already threatened that her deputies would reject any government that included LFI or Green ministers.
The RN’s vice president Sebastien Chenu meanwhile said that he saw “no satisfactory solution” to the current standoff “except a kind of technocratic government without political affiliation.”


Violence in Bangladesh leaves many people dead, hundreds injured as protests continue

Updated 7 min 46 sec ago
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Violence in Bangladesh leaves many people dead, hundreds injured as protests continue

  • Demonstrators demand resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina over July protests that killed over 200 
  • At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks across the country in student-led protests 

DHAKA: A new round of violence in Bangladesh has left more than 20 people dead and hundreds injured as student protesters clashed with police and ruling party activists on Sunday, officials and media reports said.
The demonstrators were demanding the resignation of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina after earlier protests in July that began with students calling for an end to a quota system for government jobs escalated into violence that left more than 200 dead.
Authorities in response closed schools and universities across the country, blocked Internet access and imposed a shoot-on-sight curfew. At least 11,000 people have been arrested in recent weeks.
Protesters called for “non-cooperation,” urging people not to pay taxes and utility bills and not show up for work on Sunday, a working day in Bangladesh. Offices, banks and factories opened, but commuters in Dhaka and other cities faced challenges getting to work.
The protesters attacked Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, a major public hospital in Dhaka’s Shahbagh area, torching several vehicles.
In Dhaka’s Uttara neighborhood, police fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of people who blocked a major highway. Protesters attacked homes and vandalized a community welfare office in the area, where hundreds of ruling party activists took up positions. Some crude bombs were detonated and gunshots were heard, witnesses said.
Abu Hena, a hospital official in Munshiganj district near Dhaka, said two people were declared dead after being rushed to a hospital with injuries.
Jamuna TV station reported another 21 deaths in 11 districts including in Bogura, Magura, Rangpur and Sirajganj districts, where the protesters backed by the country’s main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party clashed with police and the activists of the ruling Awami League party and its associated bodies.
The country’s leading Bengali-language Prothom Alo daily said at least 18 people died in Sunday’s violence, but more reports of violence were coming. Channel 24 TV station reported at least 21 deaths.
Users complained of disruptions in mobile Internet service on Sunday afternoon and many others faced problems accessing Facebook.
The protests began last month as students demanded an end to a quota system that reserved 30 percent of government jobs for the families of veterans who fought in Bangladesh’s war of independence against Pakistan in 1971. As violence crested, the country’s Supreme Court scaled back the quota system to 5 percent of jobs, with 3 percent for relatives of veterans, but protests have continued demanding accountability for violence the demonstrators blame on the government’s use of excessive force.
The quota system also includes quotas members of ethnic minorities, and disabled and transgender people, which were cut from 26 percent to 2 percent in the ruling.
Hasina’s administration has blamed the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and now-banned right-wing Jamaat-e-Islami party and their student wings for instigating violence, in which several state-owned establishments were also torched or vandalized.
Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, secretary-general of the main opposition party, repeated a call for the government to step down to stop the chaos.
Hasina offered to talk with student leaders on Saturday, but a coordinator refused and announced a one-point demand for her resignation.
Hasina repeated her pledges to thoroughly investigate the deaths and punish those responsible for the violence. She said that her doors were open for talks and she was ready to sit down whenever the protesters want.
The protests have become a major challenge for Hasina, who has ruled the country for over 15 years, returning to power for a fourth consecutive term in January in an election that was boycotted by her main opponents.


UK police warn far-right fueled street violence affects resources needed to investigate other crimes

Updated 3 sec ago
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UK police warn far-right fueled street violence affects resources needed to investigate other crimes

LONDON: Police warned Sunday that efforts to deal with the violence that has erupted across towns and cities in recent days in the wake of a stabbing rampage at a dance class that left three girls dead and several wounded means that other crimes may not be investigated fully.
The warning comes a day after dozens of people were arrested as far-right activists faced off with anti-racism protesters across the UK, with violent scenes played out in many locations across the UK, from the Northern Ireland capital, Belfast, to Liverpool in the northwest of England and Bristol in the west. Further arrests are likely as police scour CCTV, social media and body-worn camera footage.
In just one incident on Saturday, Merseyside Police said about 300 people were involved in violent disorder in Liverpool, which saw a community facility being set on fire. The Spellow Lane Library Hub, which was opened last year to provide support for one of the most deprived communities in the country, suffered severe damage to the ground floor. Police said rioters tried to prevent firefighters from accessing the fire, throwing a missile at the fire engine and breaking the rear window of the cab.
Liverpool City Region Mayor Steve Rotheram said the attack was not just on the building but “on our very community” and “an insult to those families still grieving and survivors still struggling to make sense of Monday’s attack.”
Further gatherings are scheduled Sunday and police will continue to mount a significant security operation, deploying thousands more officers onto the streets, many in riot gear. Police have also made more prison cells available and are using surveillance and facial recognition technology.
“We’re seeing officers that are being pulled from day-to-day policing,” Tiffany Lynch from the Police Federation of England and Wales told the BBC. “But while that’s happening, the communities that are out there that are having incidents against them — victims of crime — unfortunately, their crimes are not being investigated.”
The violence erupted earlier this week, ostensibly in protest of Monday’s stabbing attack in Southport. A 17-year-old male has been arrested.
False rumors spread online that the young man was a Muslim and an immigrant, fueling anger among far-right supporters. Suspects under 18 are usually not named in the UK, but Judge Andrew Menary ordered Axel Rudakubana, born in Wales to Rwandan parents, to be identified, in part to stop the spread of misinformation.
Police said many of the actions are being organized online by shadowy far-right groups, who are mobilizing support online with phrases like “enough is enough,” “save our kids” and “stop the boats.” Counter-protests are also anticipated with the organization Stand Up To Racism.
Calls for protests have come from a diffuse group of social media accounts, but a key player in amplifying them is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, a longtime far-right agitator who uses the name Tommy Robinson. He led the English Defense League, which Merseyside Police has linked to the violent protest in Southport on Tuesday, a day after the stabbing attack. The group first appeared around 2009, leading a series of protests against what it described as militant Islam that often devolved into violence.
The group’s membership and impact declined after a few years, and Yaxley-Lennon, 41, has faced myriad legal issues. He has been jailed for assault, contempt of court and mortgage fraud and currently faces an arrest warrant after leaving the UK last week before a scheduled hearing in contempt-of-court proceedings against him.
Nigel Farage, who was elected to parliament in July for the first time as leader of Reform UK, has also been blamed by many for encouraging — indirectly — the anti-immigration sentiment that has been evident over the past few days. While condemning the violence, he has criticized the government for blaming it on “a few far right thugs” and saying “the far right is a reaction to fear … shared by tens of millions of people.”
Far-right demonstrators have held several violent gatherings since the stabbing attack, clashing with police Tuesday outside a mosque in Southport — near the scene of the horrific stabbing — and hurling beer cans, bottles and flares near the prime minister’s office in London the next day. Many in Southport have expressed their anger at the organized acts of violence in the wake of the tragedy.
The attack Monday on children at a Taylor Swift-themed summer dance class shocked a country where knife crime is a long-standing and vexing problem, though mass stabbings are rare.
Rudakubana has been charged with murder over the attack that killed Alice Dasilva Aguiar, 9, Elsie Dot Stancombe, 7, and Bebe King, 6. He has also been charged with 10 counts of attempted murder for the eight children and two adults who were wounded.
Britain’s new prime minister, Keir Starmer, has blamed the violence on “far-right hatred” and vowed to end the mayhem. He said police across the UK would be given more resources to stop “a breakdown in law and order on our streets.”
Policing minister Diana Johnson told the BBC that there is “no need” to bring in the army to help police in their efforts to confront the violence.
“The police have made it very clear that they have all the resources they need at the moment,” she said.


Two migrants dead after rescue at sea: Italian coast guard

Updated 04 August 2024
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Two migrants dead after rescue at sea: Italian coast guard

ROME: Italy’s coast guard said Sunday two migrants died after they were rescued along with more than 30 others in the Mediterranean off the eastern coast of Sicily.
The coast guard said it received a distress call late Saturday from a boat located about 17 miles southeast of Syracuse carrying Syrian, Egyptian and Bangladeshi migrants.
Search and rescue operations began after the coast guard dispatched a patrol boat and plane to the area, but “the occupants of the vessel ended up in the water as the patrol boat approached,” it said in a statement.
Although 34 people were recovered from the water, put onto the patrol boat and transferred to Syracuse’s port, one died upon arrival and another after reaching the hospital.
“The search at sea for a missing person who was on board the vessel, which later sank, is currently under way,” it said.
The coast guard said it was investigating how the migrants ended in the water as the boat approached.
At least 384 migrants died in the first quarter of this year crossing by sea via the central Mediterranean route toward Italy and Malta, according to the International Organization for Migration.


Nigeria’s president calls for end to protests against economic hardship

Updated 04 August 2024
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Nigeria’s president calls for end to protests against economic hardship

  • Nigerians have been mobilizing online to organize protests against economic hardship and bad governance

ABUJA: Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu called on Sunday for a suspension of protests against a cost of living crisis, saying this would create an opportunity for dialogue, his first public comments since frustrated citizens took to the streets last week.
Amnesty International has said at least 13 people were killed in clashes with security forces on the first day of protests on Thursday. Police denied using excessive force and said seven people had died as of Saturday — four from an explosive device during a march in northeast Borno state, two who were hit by a car and another who was shot by a guard when protesters looted a shop.
In a televised broadcast, Tinubu called for an end to violence in several states since the protests started, saying he was always open for dialogue.
“My dear Nigerians, especially our youth, I have heard you loud and clear. I understand the pain and frustration that drive these protests, and I want to assure you that our government is committed to listening and addressing the concerns of our citizens,” he said.
Nigerians have been mobilizing online to organize protests against economic hardship and bad governance and have called for a cut in petrol prices and electricity tariffs, among several demands.
Tinubu, in office since May 2023, defended his economic reforms, which have included a partial end to petrol and electricity subsidies and devaluation of the naira, as necessary to reverse years of economic mismanagement.
He government revenues had more than doubled to 9.1 trillion naira ($5.65 billion) in the first half of this year while 68 percent of revenue now went to debt servicing, down from 97 percent before he took office in May last year.
The government was also ramping up spending on infrastructure projects, started a loan scheme for university students and was building thousands of housing units across Nigeria’s 36 states, the president said.
“But we must not let violence and destruction tear our nation apart,” said Tinubu.


Death toll in new Bangladesh anti-government protests rises to at least 24

Updated 14 min 37 sec ago
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Death toll in new Bangladesh anti-government protests rises to at least 24

  • Some former military officers have since joined the student movement
  • Army did not explicitly say whether the army backed the protests

DHAKA: Thousands of Bangladeshi protesters demanding Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina resign clashed with pro-government supporters Sunday, with at least 24 people killed in confrontations using sticks, knives and guns.
Protesters danced on the roof of an armored car and, unlike the past month of rallies that repeatedly ended in deadly crackdowns, soldiers and police in several cases did not intervene.
A respected former army chief also demanded the government withdraw troops and allow protests in a hugely symbolic rebuke of Hasina.
Demonstrators in Dhaka, surrounded by a tightly packed and cheering crowd, waved a Bangladeshi flag on top of an armored car as soldiers watched, according to videos on social media verified by AFP.
Rallies against civil service job quotas sparked days of mayhem in July that killed more than 200 people in some of the worst unrest of Hasina’s 15-year tenure.
Troops briefly restored order but crowds returned to the streets in huge numbers this month in a non-cooperation movement aimed at paralysing the government.
Vast crowds of protesters, many wielding sticks, packed into Dhaka’s central Shahbagh Square on Sunday, with street battles in multiple sites as well as in other key cities, police said.
Police have ordered a nationwide curfew beginning at 6:00 p.m. (1200 GMT), while mobile Internet access was widely curbed in a bid to frustrate the organization of rallies.

Growing violence
Violence on Sunday took the total of people killed to at least 230.
“There were clashes between students and the ruling party men,” police inspector Al Helal told AFP, saying two young men were killed in Dhaka’s Munshiganj district.
“One of the dead was hacked in his head and another had gunshot injuries.”
Another policeman, who asked not to be identified, said “the whole city has turned into a battleground.”
Two people were killed in the northern city of Kishioreganj, where protesters torched a ruling party office, police said.
Police and doctors also reported deaths elsewhere in Dhaka, in the northern districts of Bogra, Pabna, Rangpur and Sylhet, as well as in Magura in the west, Comilla in the east, and Barisal and Feni in the south.
Asif Mahmud, one of the key protest leaders in the nationwide civil disobedience campaign, earlier asked supporters to be ready after last month’s rallies were crushed by police.
“Prepare bamboo sticks and liberate Bangladesh,” he wrote on Facebook Sunday.
Some former military officers have since joined the student movement and ex-army chief General Ikbal Karim Bhuiyan turned his Facebook profile picture red in a show of support.
“We are deeply concerned, troubled and saddened by all the egregious killings, torture, disappearances and mass arrests that have been tormenting Bangladesh over the past three weeks,” Bhuiyan told reporters Sunday, in a joint statement alongside other senior ex-officers.
“We call the incumbent government to withdraw the armed forces from the street immediately,” Bhuiyan said, adding that people “no longer fear to sacrifice their lives.”
“Those who are responsible for pushing people of this country to a state of such an extreme misery will have to be brought to justice.”

'Army stands with people'
Current army chief Waker-uz-Zaman told officers at military headquarters in Dhaka on Saturday the “Bangladesh Army is the symbol of trust of the people.”
“It always stood by the people and will do so for the sake of people and in any need of the state,” he said, according to an army statement, which gave no further details and did not say explicitly whether the army backed the protests.
The protests have grown into a wider anti-government movement across the South Asian nation of some 170 million people.
The mass movement includes people from all strata of Bangladesh society, including film stars, musicians and singers. Rap songs calling for people’s support have spread widely on social media.
“It is no longer about job quotas,” said Sakhawat, a young female protester who gave only one name, as she scrawled graffiti on a wall at a protest site in Dhaka, calling Hasina a “killer.”
“What we want is that our next generation can live freely in the country.”
A group of 47 manufacturers in the economically vital garment sector said Sunday they stood in “solidarity” with the protesters.
Obaidul Quader, general secretary of Hasina’s ruling Awami League, has called on party activists to gather “in every district” nationwide to show their support for the government.
Hasina, 76, has ruled Bangladesh since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.
Her government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including through the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.
Demonstrations began in early July over the reintroduction of the quota scheme, which reserved more than half of all government jobs for certain groups. It has since been scaled back by Bangladesh’s top court.