Italian Premier Meloni rebukes the youth wing of her far-right party for glorifying fascism

Italian Premier Meloni rebukes the youth wing of her far-right party for glorifying fascism
Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni has admonished youth in her far-right Brothers of Italy party to reject racism and antisemitism after an Italian news outlet published videos showing members of the party’s youth wing glorifying fascism. (AP/File)
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Updated 03 July 2024
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Italian Premier Meloni rebukes the youth wing of her far-right party for glorifying fascism

Italian Premier Meloni rebukes the youth wing of her far-right party for glorifying fascism
  • “There is no space in Brothers of Italy for racist or antisemitic positions, just as there is no space for nostalgics of totalitarianism of the 1900s,’’ Meloni said
  • Meloni has decried the fascist regime’s anti-Jewish racial laws and the suppression of democracy

MILAN: Italian Premier Giorgia Melon i has admonished the youth wing of her far-right Brothers of Italy party after an Italian news outlet published videos showing some of its members glorifying fascism.
“I have said and repeated dozens of times, but perhaps I need to repeat it: There is no space in Brothers of Italy for racist or antisemitic positions, just as there is no space for nostalgics of totalitarianism of the 1900s, or for any other show of stupid folklore,’’ Meloni said in a letter to her party published by Italian media on Tuesday.
The online news outlet Fanpage released the videos last month filmed with a hidden camera by a journalist posing as an activist with Brothers of Italy’s youth wing. They showed members of the group praising the fascist dictator Benito Mussolini, doing fascist salutes and yelling the Nazi cry “Sieg Heil.”
Meloni has decried the fascist regime’s anti-Jewish racial laws and the suppression of democracy, but critics have long said she has not done enough to distance herself from her party’s neo-fascist roots.
The Brothers of Italy has its origins in the Italian Social Movement, or MSI, which was founded in 1946 by former Mussolini officials and drew fascist sympathizers into its ranks. It remained a small far-right party until the 1990s, when it became the National Alliance and worked to distance itself from its neo-fascist past.
Meloni was a member of the youth branches of MSI and the National Alliance, and founded Brothers of Italy in 2012, keeping the tricolor flame symbol of the MSI in her party logo.
Liliana Segre, a 93-year-old senator for life and Holocaust survivor, told Italy’s La7 private television that such sentiments had always existed in Italy but that with the new far-right-led government “they don’t have shame in anything.”
She said the Nazi mottos had revived memories of being deported. “Now at my age, will I be forced from my country, as I was already once?”


Firefighters battle deadly Greece wildfire for fourth day

Firefighters battle deadly Greece wildfire for fourth day
Updated 46 sec ago
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Firefighters battle deadly Greece wildfire for fourth day

Firefighters battle deadly Greece wildfire for fourth day
Nearly 600 firefighters with 160 fire engines and 24 aircraft were deployed in the mountains above the Gulf of Corinth
Three water bombers from Italy and Croatia have been sent to help

ATHENS: Hundreds of Greek firefighters battled for the fourth day Wednesday to control a wildfire in the Peloponnese region that has killed two people and burned huge swathes of forest.
Nearly 600 firefighters with 160 fire engines and 24 aircraft were deployed in the mountains above the Gulf of Corinth, where the fire broke out Sunday.
A dozen villages have been evacuated and two men who were helping firefighters became trapped and died in the flames. Three firefighters were also hurt.
Three water bombers from Italy and Croatia have been sent to help.
Government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis told an Athens radio station it was “a difficult fire” but authorities aimed “to have a full de-escalation in the disparate pockets (of fire) still burning today.”
The Athens national observatory said that according to the European Union’s Copernicus climate observatory, the fire has burned 6,500 hectares (16,000 acres) of forest and farmland.
A preliminary investigation suggested it may have been caused by a beekeeper smoking honey bees, officials said.
Another fire on Wednesday broke out nearby, in Kalavryta, but had been partially controlled, the fire department said. It added that more than 40 rural fires had been reported in 24 hours.

Russia rules out nuclear talks with US given its stance on NATO expansion

Russia rules out nuclear talks with US given its stance on NATO expansion
Updated 02 October 2024
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Russia rules out nuclear talks with US given its stance on NATO expansion

Russia rules out nuclear talks with US given its stance on NATO expansion
  • “We see no point in dialogue with Washington without respect for Russia’s fundamental interests,” Zakharova said

MOSCOW: Russia has dismissed the possibility of nuclear talks with the United States citing Washington’s stance on NATO expansion, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday.
“We see no point in dialogue with Washington without respect for Russia’s fundamental interests. First of all, this is the problem of NATO’s expansion into the post-soviet space, which poses threats to common security,” Zakharova said.
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Russia will not discuss signing a new treaty with the United States to replace an agreement limiting each side’s strategic nuclear weapons that expires in 2026 as it needs to be broadened and expanded to cover other states.


Ukraine probes allegations Russia killed 16 POWs

Ukraine probes allegations Russia killed 16 POWs
Updated 02 October 2024
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Ukraine probes allegations Russia killed 16 POWs

Ukraine probes allegations Russia killed 16 POWs
  • “This is the largest known case of the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war on the front line,” Ukrainian prosecutor general Andriy Kostin said
  • The probe — into allegations of the “violation of laws and customs of war” and “premeditated murder” — was launched based on videos shared on social media

KYIV: Ukraine is probing allegations the Russian army shot dead 16 prisoners of war near the eastern city of Pokrovsk, Kyiv’s prosecutor general said Tuesday.
Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of killing POWs since Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
“This is the largest known case of the execution of Ukrainian prisoners of war on the front line,” Ukrainian prosecutor general Andriy Kostin said in a statement.
Kostin said the alleged incident showed that the “killing and torture of prisoners is not an accident but a deliberate policy of the Russian military and political leadership.”
The probe — into allegations of the “violation of laws and customs of war” and “premeditated murder” — was launched based on videos shared on social media that appeared to show the execution of Ukrainian soldiers, Kostin said.
Video images captured by a drone showed captured Ukrainian troops, under Russian control, coming out from a wooded area and lining up, Ukraine’s prosecutors said.
The Russians then “deliberately opened fire with deadly force,” Kyiv said.
Those still showing “signs of life” were then “finished off at close range with automatic fire.”
AFP could not independently verify the reports.
The Ukrainian prosecutor’s office said Tuesday that “measures are currently being taken to verify the published material.”
The alleged incident was reported to have taken place close to the villages of Sukhiyi Yar and Mykolayivka near Pokrovsk, a strategic hub that Russia is trying to capture.
It is the latest allegation of POWs being killed during the conflict.
In March 2023 a video showing an imprisoned Ukrainian soldier shouting “Glory to Ukraine!” moments before being executed by shooting squad, went viral.
The UN has documented “numerous violations of international humanitarian law against prisoners of war, including cases of summary execution of both Russian and Ukrainian POWs,” a spokeswoman for the UN Human Rights Office told AFP last year.


Philippines struggles to repatriate workers as Israel invades Lebanon

Philippines struggles to repatriate workers as Israel invades Lebanon
Updated 02 October 2024
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Philippines struggles to repatriate workers as Israel invades Lebanon

Philippines struggles to repatriate workers as Israel invades Lebanon
  • Dozens of Filipinos sought shelter at the Philippine government’s Migrant Workers Office in Beirut
  • Authorities in Manila seek charter flights, sea and land routes to evacuate nationals from Lebanon

MANILA: The Philippines is trying to arrange flights for hundreds of overseas Filipino workers in Beirut, the government said Wednesday, as it struggles to bring them to safety in the wake of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon.

More than 11,000 Filipinos are living and working in Lebanon, which has faced a series of Israeli attacks that began in mid-September, with pagers exploding at shops and hospitals around the country, followed by relentless bombing targeting densely populated areas.

Israeli forces have killed more than 1,000 people across Lebanon and wounded nearly 3,000, according to Lebanon’s Health Ministry.

The UN estimates that more than a million people across the country have been displaced by the strikes, with the numbers expected to rise as Israel also launched its ground invasion of Lebanon on Tuesday.

Dozens of Filipinos in Beirut have sought shelter at the Philippine government’s Migrant Workers Office. As its vicinity was bombed by Israeli forces over the weekend, they have since been sheltered in a hotel in Beit Mery, a town overlooking Beirut, as they await repatriation.

“There are presently 101 Filipino workers in our shelters ready to be repatriated,” DMW Undersecretary Bernard Olalia told reporters in Manila.

“The challenge is that we do not have flights … We’re talking to some airline companies so that the chartered flights will be able to accommodate for example no less than 300 overseas Filipino workers from Beirut.”

Olalia said that while the government was facing several challenges, including securing landing rights for chartered flights, other options were also being considered in case the situation escalated.

“The DMW is also studying the possibility of other routes. Apart from the air route, we will be assessing the sea and the land route, should … the situation there worsen,” he said.

“We have men on the ground. They work around the clock. And we augmented our staff both in Lebanon (and) nearby posts to be able to provide (the) safest route to evacuate and ultimately to facilitate the repatriation of our OFWs.”

Migrante International, a global alliance of overseas Filipino workers, told Arab News on Tuesday that the Philippine nationals it has been in touch with have expressed “urgent concern” for their safety.

“They are worried about the bombings and the explosions coming closer to their homes, in their communities. So, they are worried for their safety, they are worried for their life and not being able to go back home safely to their families,” Migrante International President Joanna Concepcion said.

“They feel there is nowhere safe anymore. They feel that Israel can target anywhere, anytime.”


UN: More than 700,000 displaced in Haiti, half of them children

UN: More than 700,000 displaced in Haiti, half of them children
Updated 02 October 2024
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UN: More than 700,000 displaced in Haiti, half of them children

UN: More than 700,000 displaced in Haiti, half of them children
  • One of the world’s poorest countries plunged into anarchy, with gangs taking over the capital
  • UN report says around 75 percent of those displaced were now sheltering in the country’s provinces

GENEVA: More than 700,000 people are now displaced from their homes in Haiti, more than half of whom are children, the United Nations said Wednesday, as gang violence ravages the country.
One of the world’s poorest countries has been plunged into anarchy, with gangs taking over the capital, Port-au-Prince, and the security and health systems collapsing.
The UN’s International Organization for Migration agency said that by early September, some 702,973 people were displaced in the Caribbean country.
“These latest figures show a 22 percent increase in the number of internally displaced people since June, highlighting the worsening humanitarian situation,” the IOM said.
The agency called for greater international attention on the crisis.
“The sharp rise in displacement underscores the urgent need for a sustained humanitarian response,” said Gregoire Goodstein, the IOM’s chief in Haiti.
“We call on the international community to step up its support for Haiti’s displaced populations and the host communities that continue to show remarkable resilience in the face of these challenges.”
The report said around 75 percent of those displaced were now sheltering in the country’s provinces.
The remainder are in Port-au-Prince “where the situation remains precarious and unpredictable,” said the IOM, with people often living in overcrowded sites, with little to no access to basic services.
The agency said 83 percent of displaced people were being hosted by families.
“The strain on resources is immense, with the majority of host households reporting significant difficulties, including food shortages, overwhelmed health care facilities, and a lack of essential supplies on local markets,” it said.
“It is crucial that efforts to restore stability and security across the country continue, alongside humanitarian aid to alleviate the immediate suffering of those affected.”
On Friday, the UN human rights office said more than 3,600 people had been killed this year in “senseless” gang violence in Haiti.
In October 2023, the UN Security Council approved sending a multinational stabilization force, led by Kenya, to assist the Haitian police.
The Security Council on Monday extended its authorization of the multinational policing mission in crime-ravaged Haiti, but without any call to transform it into a UN peacekeeping mission, as floated by Port-au-Prince.