French riots : police detained 4,000 people during riots — Minister
About 10% do not have French citizenship
PARIS (TASS) – The French police and the gendarmerie have detained 4,000 people during the riots in France, with 10% of detainees having no French citizenship, French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin said during a hearing in the Senate.
“During the riots, 4,000 people have been detained, with average age of 17,” Darmanin said. “About 10% do not have French citizenship, 60% were previously unknown to the police.”
According to the minister, the detainees’ age ranges from 11 to 59 years.
The riots
Unrest broke out in France on June 27 after police shot dead a 17-year-old driver of Algerian origin in the Paris suburb of Nanterre after he failed to comply with an order to stop his car. The police officer who shot and killed the teenager was detained.
On Tuesday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced that the peak of the riots has passed. In turn, Darmanin said Wednesday that the situation across the country has returned back to normal.
According to the Interior Ministry, about 24,000 arsons were registered during the riots, including over 12,000 cars. The rioters damaged over 2,500 buildings, including 273 law enforcement buildings, about 500 city administration and 168 educational facilities.
NATO reaffirms plan to set up NATO-Ukraine Council, hold its first meeting on July 12
BRUSSELS (TASS) – NATO Has reaffirmed the plan to set up a NATO-Ukraine council and hold its first meeting in Vilnius on July 12, the second day of the bloc’s summit, according to the event’s agenda provided by NATO’s press service.
The meeting of the Ukraine-NATO Council is set to happen from 13:00 to 15:00, with heads of state and government, including from Sweden, to be in attendance, the agenda showed. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg plans to deliver opening remarks.
Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda said earlier that Ukraine would not receive an invitation to join the alliance at the summit in Vilnius, but NATO countries “will find in the days remaining before the summit the wording that will not disappoint Ukraine.”
There have been reports previously, citing officials from various NATO member countries, that work is afoot to convert the existing NATO-Ukraine Commission into the Ukraine-NATO Council. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said that Ukraine should receive equal status with NATO countries in the council.
The idea of “equality” in the Ukraine-NATO Council is that formally all member countries in this council are equal, whereas the current NATO-Ukraine Commission has Kiev talking to NATO as a bloc.
The mechanism of equitable membership was invented in 2002 for the Russia-NATO Council. It was believed that the format would alleviate Moscow’s concerns about the alliance’s expansion.
All three Russian permanent representatives to NATO who served on this council (Konstantin Totsky, Dmitry Rogozin and Alexander Grushko) have repeatedly stated that speaking “on their own behalf” in the council, NATO countries have in reality always voiced the alliance’s consolidated position. Moreover, this body had no influence on decision-making within NATO.
Moscow diplomats meet with Russian detained in US on cybercrime charges
Ohio (Reuters) – Vladimir Dunaev, a Russian national who is in pre-trial detention in Ohio on cybercrime charges, has met for the first time with Russian embassy employees, the Russian embassy in the U.S. told the TASS state news agency on Tuesday.
Dunaev was a member of a cybercriminal organization that deployed a computer banking trojan and ransomware suite of malware known as “Trickbot”, the Justice Department said after his 2021 extradition from South Korea to Ohio.
“The compatriot does not consider himself guilty,” Nadezhda Shumova, head of the consular section at the embassy, told TASS.
“He does not intend to sign an agreement with the prosecutor’s office. Will stand to the end and fight for justice,” she added.
This was Dunaev’s first in-person meeting with embassy officials, Shumova said.
Dunaev’s indictment alleges that beginning in November 2015, and continuing through August 2020, he and others stole money, confidential information, and damaged computer systems from unsuspecting victims, including individuals, financial institutions, school districts, utility companies, government entities, and private businesses.
He has been charged with conspiracy to commit computer fraud and aggravated identity theft, conspiracy to commit wire and bank fraud, conspiracy to commit money laundering, and multiple counts of wire fraud, bank fraud, and aggravated identity theft.
If convicted of all counts, Dunaev faces a maximum penalty of 60 years’ imprisonment.
Shumova said Dunaev has health issues and his vision has deteriorated. She added that the embassy on Monday “sent a demarche to the State Department demanding that he be provided with qualified medical care”.
Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Himani Sarkar
Why did Israel attack Jenin? West Bank operation explained
Zenin (Reuters) – Israel unleashed a major raid on July 3 on Jenin refugee camp, a Palestinian militant stronghold in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, killing 12 Palestinians in clashes with gunmen.
Here is what you need to know about Jenin:
WHY DID ISRAEL ATTACK JENIN?
Since March 2022, Jenin and outlying areas in the north of the Israeli-occupied West Bank have drawn intensified raids ordered by Israel’s nationalist-religious government after a spate of Palestinian street attacks.
The Jenin camp has long been a hotbed of militants with an array of light weapons and a growing arsenal of explosive devices. The Israeli military regularly accuses militant groups of basing fighters within densely populated urban areas such as refugee camps that date back to 1948. Many of the militants live in the camp, often with their families.
In January, Israeli forces killed seven gunmen and two civilians in a raid in Jenin. Last month, militants and Israeli troops waged an hours-long gunbattle in which six Palestinians were killed and over 90 wounded. Seven Israeli personnel were wounded by a landmine that crippled their armoured vehicle.
Palestinian gunmen shot dead four Israelis near a Jewish settlement in retaliation, prompting settlers to rampage through Palestinians towns, torching buildings and cars.
This slide into some of the worst violence since the Palestinians’ 2000-05 Intifada (uprising) comes amid a prolonged absence of peace talks envisaging Palestinian statehood, an increasingly weak Palestinian political leadership and a steady expansion of Jewish settlements on occupied land under Israel’s most hardline nationalist government ever.
WHERE IS JENIN AND WHAT IS LIFE LIKE THERE?
Jenin is a small city in the hilly, far north of the West Bank, near the border with Israel, and contains a teeming, concrete and cinder-block refugee camp by the same name housing some 14,000 people. They are descendants of Palestinians dispossessed when Israel was created in 1948, and most are impoverished and unemployed. This harsh heritage generates die-hard hostility to Israel and support for Palestinian militant groups.
Reuters Graphics
WHAT IS THE SIGNIFICANCE OF JENIN REFUGEE CAMP?
Jenin was the arena of some of the worst bloodshed during the second Intifada, which began after the collapse of U.S.-backed peace talks in 2000 and escalated into an armed conflict between Israel and militant groups.
Jenin produced many of the suicide bombers who spearheaded the uprising and, to curb it, Israeli armoured forces carried out a devastating raid on its camp in April 2002 as part of a wider clampdown on areas where Palestinians had exercised limited self-rule under 1990s interim peace deals.
U.N. reports said 52 Palestinians died in Jenin, as many as half of them civilians, while Israel lost 23 soldiers, with over 400 homes demolished and over a quarter of the population left homeless, necessitating a reconstruction of the camp.
Two decades on, Israel has sounded alarms over the growing number of gunmen in Jenin and their stockpiling of munitions. Israel says the camp is a hub for planning and preparing militant attacks as well as a safe haven for fighters funded by Hamas or the Iranian-backed Islamic Jihad group.
Israel also says more than 50 shooting attacks have been carried out by Jenin-area militants since the beginning of 2023 and that almost half the population is affiliated either with Hamas or Islamic Jihad.
The launch of two improvised rockets by militants near Jenin last month raised alarm in Israel that the West Bank could be going the way of the Gaza Strip, from which it withdrew settlers in 2005 and where armed Islamist factions are now in power.
Recent smaller-scale Israeli raids on Jenin, often employing squads of commandos disguised as Palestinians, have encountered difficulties given militants’ booby-trapping of the narrow lanes with bombs and quick detection of strangers in the camp.
WHAT MILITANT GROUPS ARE PRESENT IN JENIN?
Militant groups present in Jenin include the Iran-backed Islamic Jihad; the Islamist Hamas, which controls Gaza; and the armed wing of President Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah faction. The camp’s militants operate under the umbrella of the Jenin Brigades.
Their growing presence has been partly due to inaction by the security forces of Abbas’s internationally backed Palestinian Authority (PA), which says Israel has undermined its credibility on the street. But their strength also feeds on the weakness of 87-year-old Abbas, whose formula of statehood negotiations with Israel collapsed in 2014, with no revival on the horizon, and perceived endemic incompetence and corruption within the PA.
WHAT IS THE HISTORY OF ISRAELI-PALESTINIAN CONFLICT?
Israel’s founding in 1948, defeating Arab armies from around the Middle East, scattered hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees through the wider region in what Palestinians call their Nakba (catastrophe).
In the next major Middle East war 19 years later, Israel captured the West Bank and East Jerusalem from Jordan and Gaza from Egypt. Israel annexed East Jerusalem in a move not recognised internationally, and launched settlements in the West Bank and Gaza.
In the mid-1990s, Israel and the Palestinians reached interim peace accords but a series of follow-up “final status” negotiations on a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza foundered repeatedly on intractable disputes over borders, settlements, refugees and Jerusalem. The last round of U.S.-brokered talks broke down in 2014.
Oman vs West Indies Highlights, ICC World Cup Qualifier: West Indies Defeat Oman By 7 Wickets
NDTV – OMA vs WI, ICC World Cup Qualifiers 2023, Highlights: West Indies recorded their first win in the Super Six stage of the ongoing ICC World Cup Qualifier, defeating Oman by seven wickets with 62 balls to spare in an inconsequential match in Harare on Wednesday.
The West Indies will not be a part of a 50-over World Cup for the first time in 48 years as the Caribbean side has already been knocked out of the qualification race. Brandon King scored 100 off 104 balls (15x4s) while Shai Hope made an unbeaten 63 as the West Indies remained largely unchallenged in the contest, scoring 222 for three in 39.4 overs after restricting Oman to 221 for nine in 50 overs.
Here are the Highlights from the ICC World Cup 2023 Qualifier match between West Indies and Oman from Harare:
Super Sixes – Match 7, ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifiers, 2023, Jul 05, 2023Match Ended
Divorce rumours abuzz after Pawan Kalyan’s wife Anna Lezhneva not spotted at recent family functions in Hyderabad
Hyderabad (ET)- Is ‘Power Star’ Pawan Kalyan and his third wife Anna Lezhneva heading for splitsville?
Buzz around the couple parting ways began doing the rounds on the grapevine when Lezhneva was not seen at multiple family functions. Reports of her living separately with their two kids in Singapore or Dubai began doing the rounds on social media.
Trouble In Paradise?
Lezhneva was conspicuously absent in several family events such as the engagement ceremony of Varun Tej and Lavanya Tripathi as well as the cradle ceremony of Ram Charan and Upasana Kamineni’s daughter Klin Kaara Konidela. This led to more rumours that the couple have drifted apart. She was also not spotted at Kalyan’s yagam which took place before the commencement of the Varahi Yatra.
A source told ETimes that Lezhneva has returned to Russia and their two kids have kept in contact with Kalyan through phone and video calls. However, none of these rumours were confirmed by the Kalyan or the Mega Family.
Lezhneva met Kalyan during the shooting of the 2011 rom-com ‘Teen Maar’. They tied the knot in December 2013. They have two kids, a son named Mark Shankar Pawanovich and Polena Anjaba Pawanova.
Earlier, Kalyan was married to Nandini. Later, he fell for actress Renu Desai on the sets of ‘Badri & Johnny’. He divorced Nandini in 2008 and married Desai in 2009. However, they separated in 2012.
On the work front, the Jana-Sena party leader recently made his Instagram debut, ahead of his upcoming release ‘Bro’. Helmed by Samuthirakani, ‘Bro’ is a fantasy comedy. It is a remake of the 2021 Tamil film ‘Vinodhaya Sitham’.
Triumph bike Speed 400 launched in India at Rs. 2.23 lakh
After officially unveiling the Speed 400 and Scramble 400X in June, Triumph India has officially launched the Speed 400 now. Here are all the details of the new Triumph motorcycle.
What are the design cues of the new Triumph Speed 400?
Triumph has equipped the new 400 with retro-modern bodywork. So, it gets a round LED headlight, LED turn indicators, a flat wide handlebar, and a nut-shaped fuel tank. Further, it gets a one-piece seat, tubular grab-rail, and upswept exhaust.
What’s the engine capacity for the new Triumph 400 bike?
A 398cc, liquid-cooled engine powers the new Triumph Speed 400. It makes 39.5bhp at 8,000rpm and 37.5Nm at 6,500rpm. This motor is linked to a six-speed gearbox.
What features does the Speed 400 get?
Apart from LED illumination, Triumph has equipped the bike with a semi-digital instrument console and switchable traction control. However, the Scrambler 400X gets heated grips too in its accessory package. The list of readouts on the instrument cluster includes the speedometer, trip meter, odometer, gear position indicator, fuel level reading, clock, and more.
What hardware does the Speed 400 get?
The suspension hardware comprises USD front forks and a monoshock and the braking hardware consists of a front and rear disc with dual-channel ABS. However, the Speed 400 gets a 300mm front disc, whereas the Scrambler 400X benefits from a larger 320mm unit. Then, the former rides on 17-inch alloys wrapped in road-biased tyres, whereas the latter gets a 19-inch front and a 17-inch rear wheel wrapped in 100/90 front and 140/80 rear dual-purpose tyres.
How much does the new Triumph Speed 400 cost?
Triumph has priced the Speed 400 at Rs. 2,23,000 (ex-showroom, Delhi) for the first 10,000 customers. This makes it the most affordable motorcycle from the British bikemaker’s stable.
Palestinian attacker wounds 8 in Tel Aviv as Israel presses on with West Bank operation
JENIN, West Bank (AP) — A Hamas militant drove his car into a crowded bus stop in Tel Aviv on Tuesday and began stabbing people, wounding eight in an attack praised by Palestinian militant groups as a response to Israel’s ongoing military operation in the occupied West Bank.
Police chief Kobi Shabtai told reporters that an armed civilian shot and killed the assailant.
The attack came as Israeli troops pressed ahead with their hunt for Palestinian militants and weapons in the Jenin refugee camp, after military bulldozers tore through alleys and thousands of residents fled to safety. The two-day Palestinian death toll rose to 10.
The large-scale raid, which began Monday, was one of the most intense military operations in the occupied West Bank in nearly two decades and comes amid a more than a yearlong spike in violence. More than 140 Palestinians have been killed this year in the West Bank, and Palestinian attacks targeting Israelis have killed at least 26 people.
The raid bore hallmarks of Israeli military tactics during the second Palestinian uprising in the early 2000s and came as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing pressure from his ultranationalist political allies for a tough response to recent attacks on Israeli settlers, including a shooting last month that killed four people.
But the current violence is also different from the intense years of what was known as the second intifada, a period that claimed thousands of lives. It’s more limited in scope, with Israeli military operations focused on several strongholds of Palestinian militants.
The Israeli army said that fewer than 10 targets remained in its Jenin operation but gave no indication how long it would take to complete. Israel’s Channel 12 TV station quoted military officials as saying they expected to wrap up the offensive within 24 hours.
Islamist militant group Hamas praised the Tel Aviv attacker as a “martyr fighter” and said the attack was “heroic and revenge for the military operation in Jenin.” It was not immediately clear if the attacker was dispatched by the group or acted on his own. Islamic Jihad, a militant group with a large presence in Jenin, also praised the assault.
Israeli’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, identified the attacker as a Palestinian from the West Bank with no prior security record. Shabtai, the police chief, said that several people connected to the man were arrested but did not provide details.
Israel’s hard-line national security minister, Itamar Ben-Gvir, rushed to the scene of attack. “We knew that terror would raise its head,” he said. He praised the civilian for killing the attacker and called for arming more citizens with guns, as he was heckled by an angry onlooker.
Earlier in the day, rubble littered the streets of Jenin and there were reports of damage to shops. Columns of black smoke periodically punctuated the skyline over the camp, which along with an adjacent town of the same name has been a flashpoint since Israeli-Palestinian violence began escalating in spring 2022. It was also a hotbed of Palestinian militant activity in the uprising in the early 2000s.
Jenin Mayor Nidal Al-Obeidi said that around 4,000 Palestinians had fled the Jenin refugee camp, finding accommodation in the homes of relatives and in shelters. Residents said there was no water or electricity in the camp.
Across the West Bank, Palestinians observed a general strike to protest the Israeli raid.
The Palestinian Health Ministry said Tuesday that the two-day death toll rose to 10, with two more deaths reported overnight. The Israeli military has claimed all were militants, but did not provide details.
A spokesman for the Israeli military, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Monday that Israel had launched the operation because some 50 attacks over the past year had emanated from Jenin.
The Palestinian self-rule government in the West Bank and three Arab countries with normalized ties with Israel – Jordan, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates – condemned Israel’s incursion, as did the 57-nation Organization of Islamic Cooperation.
Israel says the raids are meant to crack down on Palestinians militants and thwart attacks. The Palestinians say such violence is inevitable in the absence of any political process with Israel and increased West Bank settlement construction and violence by extremist settlers.
Israel says most of those killed have been militants, but stone-throwing youths protesting the incursions and people uninvolved in confrontations have also died.
Israel captured the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.
Princess Kate takes her seat in Royal Box at Wimbledon, right next to Roger Federer
WIMBLEDON, England (AP) — Kate, the Princess of Wales, had the best seat in the house Tuesday on Centre Court at Wimbledon — in the front row of the Royal Box and right next to Roger Federer.
The future queen, wearing a mint green blazer, made her way down to her seat only moments before Federer was feted ahead of the opening match on Day 2 of the grass-court tournament.
Federer, an eight-time champion at the All England Club, sat between the princess and his wife, Mirka.
The first match on a wet second day of Wimbledon — with the retractable roof closed — featured Elena Rybakina against American opponent Shelby Rogers. As is tradition at the most traditional of all tennis tournaments, Rybakina opened play on Tuesday as the defending women’s champion.
Kate has been somewhat of a regular visitor to Wimbledon since marrying Prince William. The late Queen Elizabeth II, William’s grandmother, made only a handful of trips to the All England Club during her 70-year reign. Her last appearance in the Royal Box was in 2010.
King Charles III has taken his seat in the Royal Box at times but not since taking over as monarch from his mother. Elizabeth died last September and Charles had his coronation in May.
NATO again extends Stoltenberg’s mandate, happy with a safe pair of hands as the war drags on
BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg will stay in office for another year, the 31-nation military alliance decided on Tuesday.
Stoltenberg said in a tweet that he is “honoured by NATO Allies’ decision to extend my term as Secretary General until 1 October 2024.”
“The transatlantic bond between Europe and North America has ensured our freedom and security for nearly 75 years, and in a more dangerous world, our Alliance is more important than ever,” he said.
Stoltenberg, a former Norwegian prime minister, has been NATO’s top civilian official since 2014. His term had been due to expire last year but was extended then to keep a steady hand at the helm after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
U.S. President Joe Biden and his NATO counterparts had been due to name a successor when they meet in Vilnius, Lithuania, on July 11-12. But the world’s biggest security organization makes decisions by consensus, and no agreement could be found on a new candidate.
“With his steady leadership, experience, and judgement, Secretary General Stoltenberg has brought our Alliance through the most significant challenges in European security since World War II,” Biden said in a statement. “Today, our Alliance is stronger, more united and purposeful than it has ever been.”
Stoltenberg’s fellow countryman, Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, welcomed the news, saying that it was “good, important and reassuring.”
“It is also important that this was now clarified before the summit in Vilnius next week,” Gahr Støre was quoted as saying by the Norwegian news agency NTB. He said that NATO’s unity “is particularly crucial in a troubled time of war in Europe.”
Most NATO countries had been keen to name a woman to the top post, and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen was thought to be a favorite after a meeting with Biden last month.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, ruled out her candidacy. Other possible names floated, but never publicly named as in the running, were Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and U.K. Defense Secretary Ben Wallace.
It’s the fourth time Stoltenberg has had his mandate extended. He’s the second-longest serving NATO secretary-general after former Dutch foreign minister Joseph Luns, who spent almost 13 years at the helm from 1971.
Quizzed repeatedly in recent weeks over whether he would agree to have his term renewed, Stoltenberg said that he was not seeking to stay and had no plans other than to continue to carry out his duties and wrap his time at the helm in September.
NATO secretaries-general are responsible for chairing meetings and guiding sometimes delicate consultations between the member countries to ensure that compromises are found so that an organization that operates on consensus can continue to function.
They also ensure that decisions are put into action and speak on behalf of all nations with one voice.
Stoltenberg has managed to tread a very fine line, refraining from criticizing members led by more go-it-alone presidents and prime ministers, like former U.S. President Donald Trump, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan or Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban.
With NATO’s historical adversary, Russia, locked in a war with Ukraine, the process of naming a new secretary-general has become highly politicized.
Poland opposes the next secretary-general coming from a Nordic state after Stoltenberg’s long tenure, and that of his predecessor, Anders Fogh Rasmussen from Denmark. Polish officials wanted someone from a Baltic state. Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas was a preferred candidate.
But other countries are wary of accepting a nominee from the Baltics or Poland, given what appears to be their unconditional support for Ukraine, including on NATO membership, which the U.S. and Germany, among others, insist should not happen before the war ends.
In naming Fogh Rasmussen, a former Danish premier, their 12th secretary general in 2009, NATO’s leaders signaled that they wanted a government leader or president at the head of their organization. This has made the path almost impossible for Wallace.
