Life demanded for killer in femicide that outraged Italy


By AFP
December 3, 2024

Thousands mourned murdered student Giulia Cecchettin - Copyright AFP/File MANDEL NGAN

A student who admitted murdering his ex-girlfriend in a brutal case that sparked outrage and soul searching in Italy will be sentenced Tuesday.

Prosecutors have asked for life in prison for Filippo Turetta, 22, for killing Giulia Cecchettin in November last year, just days before she was due to graduate from the University of Padua.

Cecchettin, also 22, was stabbed at least 75 times in a shocking murder that prompted protests over violence against women across Italy.

Turetta’s lawyer Giovanni Caruso has called the request for life imprisonment excessive, saying his client was “not Pablo Escobar”, the notorious Colombian drug baron.

When the trial opened in Venice in September, he warned against a “media trial” and last week insisted there were no “aggravating circumstances” such as cruelty, or premeditation.

But prosecutor Andrea Petroni said Turetta acted with “particular brutality”, attacking Cecchettin before fleeing with her in his car.

Her body was found a week after she went missing in a gully near Lake Barcis north of Venice.

Turetta was arrested a day later near Leipzig in Germany after his car ran out of petrol.

Giulia’s father, Gino Cecchettin, refused to comment on the potential sentence.

“I’m already dead inside… for me nothing will change. I will never see Giulia again,” he told RAI public radio last week.

“The only thing I can do… is to ensure there are as few possible cases like Giulia’s, that there are fewer parents who have to mourn a dead daughter.”

– ‘Patriarchy kills’ –

Cecchettin’s murder is one of a string of femicides that have made headlines in Italy in recent years, but it struck a nerve, pushing the issue to the forefront of public discourse.

At her funeral last year, thousands of people turned out to pay their respects and her father implored men to “challenge the culture that tends to minimise violence by men who appear normal”.

Giulia’s sister, Elena, called for a cultural revolution, urging sympathisers to “burn everything” — a message since scrawled on walls and protest banners, often alongside the phrase “Patriarchy kills.”

Out of 276 murders recorded by Italy’s interior ministry so far this year, 100 of the victims were women — 88 killed by someone close to them, the vast majority by a partner or ex.

This compares to 110 out of 310 murders in the same period last year, with 90 killed by someone close to them. In 2022, 106 women were killed by someone close to them, and 107 in 2021.

Cecchettin’s family has set up a foundation in her name, pressing for better education, more support for women facing violence and greater efforts to encourage equality and respect.

Last month, thousands of people marched through Rome and the Sicilian capital Palermo to mark an international day against femicide, many of them walking in Cecchettin’s name.

– Blaming migrants –

While denouncing historic discrimination against women and a lack of policies such as sex education in schools, some of the campaigners accused Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s hard-right government in particular of failing women.

Education Minister Giuseppe Valditara sparked an uproar last month by saying that “male domination no longer exists” in law in Italy, and linking violence against women to illegal immigration.

Elena Cecchettin hit back that her sister, a biomedical engineering student, was killed by a “young white Italian”.

Meloni, Italy’s first woman prime minister, said last week that legislation was not lacking in Italy, but that “the challenge remains above all cultural”.

The leader of the far-right Brothers of Italy party also made a link with illegal immigration — even though official figures from 2022 show that 94 percent of Italian female murder victims were killed by Italians.

Relief as Delhi schools reopen but smog crisis persists


By AFP
December 3, 2024

Nearly two million students across Delhi were out of schools for more than two weeks last month as the skies overhead turned a sickly yellow-grey 

- Copyright AFP Arun SANKAR

Abhaya SRIVASTAVA

Teenage student Aniksha is relieved to be back in class in India’s capital — even if the choking smog that prompted her school to close last month has yet to dissipate.

New Delhi and the surrounding metropolitan area is home to more than 30 million people and is blanketed by a thick and acrid haze each winter.

The public health crisis has grown steadily worse over the years and weeks-long school closures across the capital, aimed at shielding vulnerable children from the harmful skies, are now an annual occurrence.

But for the students like Aniksha it is a dreary ritual that disrupts their learning for weeks and keeps them stuck at home, isolated from friends.

“It’s boring to stay at home,” Aniksha, who uses only one name, told AFP on the grounds of her government school in the capital’s west.

“I’m happy that class is back,” the 13-year-old added. “You can do more in school. You can interact with the teachers and also get their help.”

Nearly two million students across Delhi were out of schools for more than two weeks last month as the skies overhead turned a sickly yellow-grey.

At the peak of the smog, levels of PM2.5 — dangerous cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs — surged more than 60 times the World Health Organization’s recommended daily maximum.

Delhi’s government gave schools the option to reopen last week, and many have resumed in-person classes in the days since.

But the crisis has not abated, with PM2.5 levels still 16 times the WHO limit on Tuesday, and the city regularly ranking as the world’s most polluted by monitoring company IQAir over the past few days.

Schools are directed to offer online alternatives during smog closures to minimise disruption to lessons.

In practice, remote learning highlights the gulf between the city’s prosperous classes and its mass of urban poor.

“Online teaching doesn’t help much, many children don’t have smartphones or struggle for network,” language teacher Vandana Pandey, 29, told AFP.

Pandey said the school closures also did nothing to protect the health of students at her government school, who did not have the means to shield themselves from the poisonous air.

“They come from humble backgrounds,” she said. When they don’t have school, they are either playing outside or helping out their parents. They are not staying at home,” she told AFP.

“It’s not helping them in any way.”

– ‘Fit and healthy’ –

Delhi is enveloped each winter by a mix of factory emissions and vehicle exhaust alongside smoke from seasonal crop burn-offs by farmers.

The toxic melange builds and lingers for weeks thanks to cooler temperatures and slow-moving winds.

A study in the Lancet medical journal attributed 1.67 million premature deaths in India to air pollution in 2019.

The foul air severely impacts children, with devastating effects on their health and development.

Scientific evidence shows children who breathe polluted air are at higher risk of developing acute respiratory infections, a report from the UN children’s agency said in 2022.

A 2021 study published in the medical journal Lung India found nearly one in three school-aged children in the capital were afflicted by asthma and airflow obstruction.

Piecemeal government initiatives, such as partial restrictions on fossil fuel-powered transport and water trucks spraying mist to clear particulate matter from the air, have failed to make a noticeable improvement.

School closures are also ostensibly meant to improve air quality by cutting down on the number of Delhi residents commuting each day.

But Kashish, a sanitation worker and mother of two young students, who uses only one name, told AFP that it was obvious this year’s closures had made no impact.

“You can’t get rid of the pollution just by keeping children away from school,” she said.

China curbs exports of key chipmaking components to US


By AFP
December 3, 2024


Semiconductors are essential to the functioning of most electronic devices, including smartphones - Copyright AFP ADEK BERRY

Isabel Kua and Oliver Hotham

Beijing said Tuesday it would restrict exports to the United States of some key components in making semiconductors, after Washington announced curbs targeting China’s ability to make advanced chips.

Among the materials banned from export are metals gallium, antimony and germanium, Beijing’s commerce ministry said in a statement that cited “national security” concerns.

Exports of graphite, another key component, will also be subject to “stricter reviews of end-users and end-uses”, the ministry said.

“To safeguard national security interests and fulfil international obligations such as non-proliferation, China has decided to strengthen export controls on relevant dual-use items to the United States,” Beijing said.

“Any organisation or individual in any country or region violating the relevant regulations will be held accountable according to the law,” it added.

In its own latest curbs, Washington on Monday announced restrictions on sales to 140 companies, including Chinese chip firms Piotech and SiCarrier, without additional permission.

They also impact Naura Technology Group, which makes chip production equipment, according to the US Commerce Department.

The move expands Washington’s efforts to curb exports of state-of-the-art chips to China, which can be used in advanced weapons systems and artificial intelligence.

The new US rules also include controls on two dozen types of chip-making equipment and three kinds of software tools for developing or producing semiconductors.

Beijing swiftly vowed to defend its interests, saying the United States “abuses export control measures” and has “hindered normal economic and trade exchanges”.

– ‘Weaponised’ trade –

And on Tuesday, China said Washington had “politicised and weaponised economic, trade and technological issues” as it unveiled its own export curbs.

The moves also restrict the exports of “dual-use items to United States military users or for military purposes”, Beijing said.

China accounts for 94 percent of the world’s production of gallium — used in integrated circuits, LEDs and photovoltaic panels — according to a report by the European Union published this year.

For germanium, essential for fibre optics and infrared, China makes up 83 percent of production.

Beijing last year had already tightened restrictions on exporters of the metals, requiring them to provide information on the final recipient and give details about their end use.

But the curbs unveiled Tuesday now ban them outright.

It had also previously restricted curbs on exports of certain types of graphite –also key to making batteries for electric vehicles.

“The move is clearly a retaliatory strike at the US,” Chong Ja Ian, an associate professor of political science at the National University of Singapore, told AFP.

“Should these back and forth curbs affect trade for third parties, this can create some trade and supply chain disruption—as well as associated inflationary pressures,” he said.

Japan to use AI to tackle online manga and anime piracy


By AFP
December 3, 2024

In 2022, Japan's gaming, anime and manga sectors raked in 4.7 trillion yen ($30 billion) from abroad -- close to microchips exports at 5.7 trillion yen

 - Copyright AFP/File Charly TRIBALLEAU

Japan is planning to use AI to police anime and manga pirating websites that the pop-culture powerhouse accuses of costing it billions of dollars in lost revenue every year.

There are at least 1,000 websites illegally offering free downloads of Japanese content, mostly its globally-renowned manga graphic novels, a group of domestic publishers claimed earlier this year.

But under a 300 million yen ($2 million) pilot scheme proposed by Tokyo’s cultural agency, AI will scour the web for sites pirating manga books and anime cartoons, using an image and text detection system.

“Copyright-holders spend a significant amount of human resources trying to manually detect pirated content online,” cultural agency official Keiko Momii told AFP on Tuesday.

But human moderators can “barely keep up” with constantly proliferating illegal content, the agency said in a written document.

The initiative features in the agency’s supplementary budget request for this fiscal year ending in March.

It is inspired by a similar project in South Korea and if successful could also be applied to other illegally shared films and music.

Japan, the birthplace of comic and cartoon epics such as “Dragon Ball” and game franchises from “Super Mario” to “Final Fantasy”, sees the creative industries as a driver for growth on par with steel and semiconductors.

In its revised “Cool Japan” strategy released in June, the government said it aims to boost exports of these cultural assets to 20 trillion yen ($130 billion) by 2033.

Around 70 percent of pirating sites offering Japanese content operate in foreign languages including English, Chinese and Vietnamese, Japanese publishers say.

In 2022, Japan’s gaming, anime and manga sectors raked in 4.7 trillion yen ($30 billion) from abroad — close to microchips exports at 5.7 trillion yen, government data shows.

Vietnam pushes electric motorbikes as pollution becomes ‘unbearable’


By AFP
December 3, 2024


Hanoi authorities say more than two thirds of the poisonous smog that blankets Vietnam's capital is caused by petrol vehicles, and officials have ordered that a quarter of two-wheelers across the country must be electric by 2030 

- Copyright AFP Nhac NGUYEN

Tran Thi Minh Ha

In Vietnam’s heavily polluted capital Hanoi, teenage taxi driver Phung Khac Trung rides his electric motorbike through streets jammed with two-wheelers belching toxic fumes.

Trung, 19, is one of a growing number of Generation-Z workers driving an e-bike trend in the communist nation where 77 million — largely petrol — motorbikes rule the roads.

A cheap set of electric wheels can now be had for as little as $500, but issues include wasting hours at charging stations and people finding it hard to give up their habits.

Trung has long hated riding in Hanoi, rated among the world’s top 10 polluted capital cities in 2023 by air quality technology firm IQAir.

The air “is unbearable for motorbike riders”, said Trung, who is working as a motorbike taxi driver before applying to university.

“When stopping at T-junctions… my only wish is to run the red light. The smell of petrol is so bad,” he told AFP after a morning rush-hour shift in air labelled “unhealthy” by IQAir.

More than two thirds of the poisonous smog that blankets Hanoi for much of the year is caused by petrol vehicles, city authorities said last year. The World Bank puts the figure at 30 percent.

Vietnam officials have ordered that a quarter of two-wheelers across the country must be electric by 2030 to help battle the air crisis.

In 2023 just nine percent of two wheelers sold were electric, according to the International Energy Agency — although only in China was the share higher.

– Hard to give up –

Low running costs and cheap prices are pulling in students, who account for 80 percent of electric two-wheeler users in Vietnam, transport analyst Truong Thi My Thanh said.

But for older drivers, it is harder to give up what they know.

Fruit vendor Tran Thi Hoa, 43, has been driving a petrol motorbike for more than two decades and has no intention of switching.

“The gasoline motorbike is so convenient. It takes me just a few minutes to fuel up,” she said.

“I know e-bikes are good for the environment and can help me save on petrol, but I am too used to what I have,” Hoa told AFP from behind her facemask.

Although most electric two-wheelers can easily be charged at home, fears over battery safety cause many to instead use one of the 150,000 EV power points installed by Nasdaq-listed VinFast across the country.

After a fire last year in Hanoi that killed 56 people, several apartment buildings temporarily restricted EV charging — before police later ruled out battery charging as a possible cause.

But some remain fearful, while others living in crowded apartment shares have no space to power up.

Trung, whose VinFast scooter has a 200-kilometre (124-mile) range, spends up to three hours a day drinking tea and scrolling on his phone while he waits for his battery to charge — time he could be picking up fares.

But home-grown start-up Selex, which makes e-bikes and battery packs, has pioneered a quick-fix — stations where riders can instantly swap a depleted battery for a new one.

– ‘Swapping is critical’ –

Bowen Wang, senior sustainable transport specialist at the World Bank, told a news conference this month, that it was delivery and taxi firms, as well as rural drivers, who could really benefit.

They “typically drive much longer distances than urban users”, he said. “That’s where the swapping is critical.”

Selex, which is now backed by the Asian Development Bank, has partnerships with delivery giants Lazada Logistics and DHL Express, who use e-bikes for some of their shipments.

Vingroup — helmed by Vietnam’s richest man — runs a taxi company with a fleet of thousands of e-bikes, mostly in major cities.

Selex founder Nguyen Phuoc Huu Nguyen, who left his job on a top-secret defence ministry research project to set up the company, urged the government to help drive momentum through incentives.

He suggested that a vehicle registration fee waiver for EVs would help “end-users see the benefits of buying an e-bike”.

“We all understand that EVs are good for the environment. But it needs investment.”

Transport analyst Thanh emphasises that Hanoi must also embrace public transport alongside EVs if it wants to free up gridlocked streets.

But if a shift to electric cannot fully solve Hanoi’s issues, the growth in ownership “is a beacon of hope”, Thanh told AFP.

Huge Vietnam fraud case raises questions over banking system


By AFP
December 3, 2024

Vietnamese property tycoon Truong My Lan (2-L) is at the centre of a massive fraud case that has raised questions about the country's banking system

 - Copyright AFP OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT

Alice Philipson and Tran Thi Minh Ha

A multi-billion-dollar fraud scandal involving one of Vietnam’s most prominent tycoons exposed systemic weaknesses in the country’s banking sector, say analysts who warn other such cases could yet emerge.

Judges on Tuesday upheld the death sentence of property developer Truong My Lan, who was convicted this year of embezzling vast sums from the Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB), which she controlled, having borrowed from tens of thousands of small investors.

Corruption is extensive in Vietnam, which ranked 83rd out of 180 in Transparency International’s most recent Corruption Perception Index.

But the monumental scale of Lan’s crime was unprecedented, with the $27 billion in losses prosecutors said she caused equivalent to Bosnia’s entire annual gross domestic product.

Banking experts fear other damaging allegations are lurking in hidden recesses of the financial sector of the fast-growing economy, which is seen as a favoured destination for foreign investors looking for an alternative to China.

“SCB is not a single problem, it is an illness of the whole economy,” banking expert Bui Kien Thanh told AFP.

The Vietnamese financial system was “characterised by a lack of tight state management”, he said.

“Similar issues are rampant in society, so (Vietnam) needs to study and fix the problem before others arise.”

Experts say a key systemic weakness is in the regulation of the corporate bond market, where companies borrow money from investors.

– Contemplating suicide –

In most developed markets, bonds are issued through independently regulated brokers on the basis of a full prospectus, graded by ratings agencies, and traded on stock exchanges.

But SCB, through its branches, misleadingly sold its bonds directly to retail customers, with staff trained for weeks on how to falsely reassure them their money was secure and the investment carried little risk.

Tens of thousands of people invested their savings in the bonds and lost everything when the bank collapsed and had to be bailed out by authorities, some of them contemplating suicide.

Most Vietnamese company debt is not rated for creditworthiness at all, with local ratings agency FiinRatings saying there were no corporate bonds with credit ratings in the country in the years before Lan’s arrest.

That compared with an average of around 50 percent across the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

According to state media, a judge at Lan’s original trial asked police to look into the role played by staff at three of the world’s biggest accounting firms that audited SCB’s books — Ernst & Young, Deloitte and KPMG.

None of the three responded to requests for comment by AFP.

At every level of the Vietnamese financial sector — from employees on the ground to regulatory authorities — there is a lack of training on financial markets, the risks involved and regulatory obligations, Thanh said.

On paper, Lan owned just five percent of shares in SCB, but at her trial, the court concluded that she effectively controlled more than 90 percent through family, friends and staff who were asked to hold stocks on her behalf.

– ‘Can of worms’ –

She then used her position to direct SCB management staff to withdraw money from the bank, over time transporting the equivalent of $4.4 billion in cash in trucks to her home and the offices of her Van Thinh Phat property firm.

“They don’t question the paperwork… they just say, how are we going to do it? How fast can we do it?” said Khuong Huu Loc, an economist based in the United States.

“The whole system is a game based on collusion,” he added. “The problem is, it gets so bad, (but) people let her continue on because you don’t want to open the can of worms.”

That comes on top of the corruption that is deeply embedded in the system — one former chief inspector at the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) was found guilty of accepting a $5 million bribe to overlook financial problems at SCB.

Since the scandal emerged, Vietnam has stepped up an anti-corruption drive.

But Carl Thayer, an emeritus professor at The University of New South Wales, warned foreign investors were concerned anti-graft efforts had “led to a chilling effect on the state bureaucracy and a slowing of procedures”, with officials fearing taking any decision could lead to their motives being questioned.

Even so, he said the revelations from the case meant Vietnam “will have to take exceptional steps to audit the banking system effectively”.

Even if there was nothing on the gargantuan scale of SCB waiting to be found, Loc said that “there could be a smaller version out there”.

“The question is how many?”

Ghana thrusts economy into limelight in tight race for president

By AFP
December 3, 2024

Ghanaians go to the polls on Saturday with the economy one of the main issues - Copyright AFP OLYMPIA DE MAISMONT

Kent Mensah

When Ghana’s Vice President Mahamudu Bawumia announced last year he would run for president, his ruling New Patriotic Party (NPP) was certain he would lead them to an unprecedented third term.

Even their slogan dared to say they would be “Breaking the eight” — a reference to going beyond President Nana Akufo-Addo’s two terms of four years to reach a third mandate.

Just days before the December 7 election though, Bawumia faces a very tight contest against former president John Mahama who hopes to tap into the frustration of many Ghanaians over the country’s economic management.

“The new government that is coming, whether A or B or C. Anybody who is coming, they should wake up with the economy,” Richard Norte, a boutique owner in Accra, told AFP.

“They should work out the economy for us.”

Results from Saturday’s election to decide the successor to Akufo-Addo, who must step down after two terms, and for the new parliament, are expected a few days after the ballot.

A gold, cocoa and oil exporter, Ghana has a history of political stability in a region where recent coups and jihadist insurgencies have other tested democracies.

Since the country emerged from its own military rule in 1992, political power in Ghana has alternated peacefully between the NPP and the opposition National Democratic Congress (NDC).

But this year, the country’s economic situation has dominated the campaign, with Ghana slowly pulling out of a crisis that prompted a $3 billion bailout deal with the International Monetary Fund.

Inflation has steadily slowed, but it is still at around 23 percent, with the cost of living triggering scattered protests in the capital Accra this year.

Several analysts and pollsters have forecast Mahama may win the election because of lingering frustration over what many see as the government’s mismanagement of the economy.



– IMF and blackouts –



For Mahama, who was president from 2012-2017 but unsuccessful in 2016 and 2020 bids, that is an opportunity to paint Akufo-Addo’s government as a failure.

He has touted his presidential experience as what is needed to guide Ghana. Analysts say many, though, will remember the power blackouts that marked his presidency.

“If we go to war, and we encounter difficulties, we go back to call the retired general to come back and lead us,” Mahama said during the campaign.

“I am a retired general and I went to rest, but it is time to come back for we are in a difficult period.”

A former central bank official and UK-educated economist, Bawumia has tried to distance himself from criticism over the economic leadership of Akufo-Addo.

He says the economy is recovering from the crisis and is performing better than under Mahama’s own administration, attacking the power cuts, known locally as dumsor, Ghana suffered then.

“He said we are a failed government. I want to tell him that we have rather failed to do 4 years of dumsor,” he told supporters.

“Ghanaians rejected Mahama in 2016 and 2020. What is he coming to do again?”

Bawumia is also the first northern Muslim candidate to lead the NPP, which is an ethnic Akan and southern-dominated party by tradition.

Bawumia’s selection of a vice presidential running mate from the southern Ashanti region aims to bolster his support in the party’s stronghold there.

But with both top candidates — Bawumia and Mahama — coming from the north, which was traditionally an NDC stronghold, the region is set to be a key battleground.

“The appearance of, particularly, Vice-President Bawumia, seemed to be helping the NPP with gaining ground in the North,” Fred Oduro, a governance expert, told AFP.

Insecurity may also be a major worry for Ghana which like its neighbours Ivory Coast, Togo and Benin, faces violent spillover across its northern border from jihadist insurgencies in Burkina Faso and Niger.

Illegal gold mining that has polluted rivers and damaged land used for cocoa production has also been a concern for some Ghanaians.

But those worries appear far from the minds of most voters.

“The economy is too hard, so if he can do something about it,” said Accra cloth trader Rita Obaapa, talking about the next president.

“He will release more money and jobs for we the youths, we will appreciate it.”

Second major Myanmar rebel group calls for talks with junta


By AFP
December 4, 2024

Lashio, a city near northern Myanmar's border with China held by rebel groups, is among the issues the MNDAA says it is willin to discuss - Copyright AFP STR

A second major Myanmar ethnic rebel group has said it is ready for Beijing-mediated talks with the junta to end more than a year of renewed fighting that has ravaged areas along the Chinese border.

The Myanmar National Democratic Alliance Army (MNDAA), with about 8,000 available fighters, has fought the Myanmar military for over a decade for autonomy for the Kokang ethnic minority in northern Shan state.

Last year, it and two other allied rebel groups launched an offensive against the military and seized swathes of Shan state, including ruby mines and a lucrative trade highway to China.

Last week, MNDAA ally the Ta’ang National Liberation Army (TNLA) said it was ready for talks with the military.

“From today onwards we will cease fire immediately, and will not actively attack the Myanmar army,” the MNDAA said in a statement released late Tuesday.

“Under the mediation of China, we are willing to engage in peace talks with the Myanmar army on issues such as Lashio,” it said, referring to the city its fighters captured in August in a huge blow to the junta.

The MNDAA was “willing to send a high-level delegation to engage in dialogue and consult with the Myanmar military and resolve conflicts and differences through political means,” it said.

A junta spokesman did not respond when contacted for comment on the MNDAA statement.

AFP has contacted China’s embassy in Myanmar for comment.

The junta has not publicly responded to the TNLA offer, and local media outlets have reported continued air strikes on TNLA-held territory.

The Arakan Army (AA), the third group in the rebel alliance, is still fighting the military in coastal Rakhine state in Myanmar’s west, home to China and India-backed port projects.

AFP has contacted an AA spokesman for comment.

China is a major ally and arms supplier of the junta but also maintains ties with ethnic rebel groups that hold territory near its border.

It has repeatedly called for fighting to stop in Shan state, a key link in its trillion-dollar Belt and Road initiative.

Earlier this month, Beijing said the head of the MNDAA had come to China for “medical care” after news reports in Myanmar said he had been arrested on China’s orders.

Myanmar is home to about a dozen ethnic rebel groups that have battled the military for decades for autonomy and control of lucrative resources including jade, timber and opium.

Some, including the TNLA, have given shelter and training to newer “People’s Defence Forces” that sprang up to battle the military after it seized power in a 2021 coup.

Trump’s vows of quick peace fall flat on Ukraine frontlines


By AFP
December 4, 2024

Trump has not provided any details on how he would secure a ceasefire in 24 hours - Copyright AFP Jung Yeon-je

Maryke VERMAAK, Florent VERGNES

Months of fighting on the Ukrainian front have not taken away Kostya’s sense of humour — even when it comes to the topic of Donald Trump.

Fears are high across Ukraine that the US president-elect, who claimed he would secure a ceasefire within 24 hours of coming to office, will push Kyiv into accepting peace on Russia’s terms.

Soldiers like Kostya, fighting a slow but relentless Russian advance in the eastern Donbas region, are sceptical of a quick deal between Kyiv and Moscow.

“January 20 is Trump’s inauguration. January 21 is the end of the war. On January 22, I plan to celebrate my birthday at home,” Kostya said, sarcastically.

The 23-year-old was enjoying some respite with a few comrades — eating a kebab he called “disgusting” — a few kilometres from the city of Kurakhove under attack from Russian forces.

“A quick peace is possible,” Kostya continued, more seriously.

“But only at our expense,” interjected Valerya, a 22-year-old who serves with him.

Trump has not provided any details on how he might bring the warring sides to the negotiating table, let alone strike a deal that both would accept.

And in contrast to President Joe Biden, he has not called for Ukrainian victory and has repeatedly criticised American military aid to Kyiv.

Fears over the approach he will take in office have only increased after he named as his Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg, a retired general who has called on Kyiv to make concessions to end the war.

– ‘We are being abandoned’ –

The promise of a quick end to the fighting has not brought reassurance to Ukrainian soldiers, exhausted by nearly three years of combat against Russian troops.

Kostya said even a hypothetical truce would not stop Russia.

“We would get only a short-term peace, the war will continue,” he said.

He already felt that Western allies were leaving Ukraine to fend for itself against a much more powerful enemy.

“We are being abandoned now. It doesn’t matter if Trump is president or not. They will make a deal with Russia again. We will be absorbed,” he said.

Russia’s offensive accelerated in November, when its troops advanced over 725 square kilometres (280 square miles) of Ukrainian territory, mainly in the eastern Donetsk region, according to an AFP analysis of data from the US Institute for the Study of War.

That was the largest monthly gain for Moscow since March 2022, with its forces pushing in multiple directions, including near the logistics hub of Pokrovsk in the Donetsk region.

“We are losing,” said Volodymyr, posted near the coal-mining city.

He is 23, but looks much older after months of gruelling fighting.

“Soldiers have had enough. Everyone has families, relatives… Everyone wants to go home,” he said in a sombre voice.

But he also agreed that the prospects for a quick peace were bleak.

“Russia will attack again, whatever happens.”

– ‘Till the end’ –

Many shared that opinion, including a former history teacher turned soldier who goes by the call-sign of French author Alexandre Dumas.

The 44-year-old said he did not care much about Trump’s election and did not believe “in sweet dreams of peace in 24 hours”.

“As soon as they declare a ceasefire, I’m leaving this country. Because they’ll come to us, rearmed, in five to 10 years,” he said.

“Of course everyone is exhausted, but we have to keep fighting,” he said, adding that civilians were the ones pushing for an agreement.

But Yuri, a civilian who had just fled the city of Toretsk, was also firmly against a truce.

Sitting in an evacuation bus with his cat, the 56-year-old former miner was staring into space.

His house was recently bombed and he recalled having to “dig, dig and dig some more” to try, in vain, to retrieve the body of his son.

He took calls for a quick peace as an insult.

“I don’t believe it. Putin will go right to the end of Ukraine,” he said.

Gunman held after failed attack on Sikh leader in India


By AFP
December 4, 2024

Sikh political leader Sukhbir Singh Badal was attacked by a gunman at the Golden Temple in Amritsar - Copyright AFP Narinder NANU

A gunman who attempted to shoot a Sikh political leader at the faith’s holiest shrine in India was arrested Wednesday after the thwarted attack, police said.

The assailant entered the Golden Temple in northwestern Amritsar city as a visitor and attempted to shoot Sukhbir Singh Badal, the president of a Sikh political party.

Badal’s security tackled the gunman after he took his weapon from his waist and the sole shot he fired off missed its target, instead hitting a marble pillar.

“Security of Sukhbir Singh Badal has been tightened. The assailant is in police custody and investigation is in process,” senior Punjab state police officer Harpal Singh told reporters.

Badal, 62, was at the temple to serve a punishment imposed by the faith’s hierarchy for alleged “mistakes” committed while his party was governing Punjab state in the decade up to 2017.

He had been ordered to sit at the Golden Temple’s entrance holding a spear since the beginning of the week as an act of contrition.

The Golden Temple — a gleaming structure in a large artificial pond, revered by Sikhs the world over — has been the scene of violence in the past.

Indian special forces stormed it in 1984 to remove Sikh militants that had barricaded themselves inside during an insurgency demanding an independent Sikh homeland carved out of India.

Hundreds were killed, many of them civilians, when the army stormed the temple, and outraged Sikhs accused soldiers of religious desecration.

In the aftermath later that year, then prime minister Indira Gandhi was assassinated by two Sikh bodyguards, leading to brutal reprisals that killed thousands of Sikhs around India.