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100,000 gather in Berlin as protests over Russia’s invasion continue

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Tens of hundreds of individuals continued to take to the streets in cities throughout Europe and all around the globe over the weekend to protest towards Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The most important protests occurred in Berlin, with an estimated crowd of 100,000 folks turning up on Sunday to specific their opposition to the warfare and demand an finish to the violence.

Protesters lined the streets within the German capital holding up banners and waving Ukrainian flags as they referred to as on Russia to cease its invasion of its neighbour.

“I’m horrified, completely horrified,” stated Berlin resident Uwe Kruger, who described the invasion as “an assault on us all”.

In Belarus, the protests got here regardless of the authoritarian Belarusian authorities having sided with Moscow.

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The anti-war rallies spanned at the least 12 Belarusian cities, and human rights advocates reported that greater than 170 folks have been arrested.

Within the capital Minsk, demonstrators marched in numerous elements of the town carrying Ukrainian flags. A big pile of flowers saved rising on the constructing of Ukraine’s Embassy.

In France, a whole bunch of individuals protested for the second day in cities like Paris and Good towards the invasion, with Ukrainian flags and people of different jap European nations hoisted excessive. Russians against the warfare joined the gang in Paris.

On the famed Promenade des Anglais in Good — a hub for Ukrainians — a whole bunch of individuals chanted slogans towards the warfare Putin is waging and urged NATO nations to guard them from Russian bombs.

Protesters carried Ukrainian, Moldovan, Georgian and Chechen flags and banners denouncing Putin.

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In Rome, a number of thousand demonstrators marched from the town centre in the direction of the Colosseum, carrying a large Ukrainian flag and holding pro-Ukraine and anti-Russian banners aloft.

Crowds additionally gathered in Milan, waving Ukrainian flags and chanting slogans calling for an finish to the Russian invasion.

‘Barbaric aggression’

In Georgia, a rustic that was the sufferer of a Russian invasion in 2008, some 30,000 folks turned out within the capital Tbilisi on Saturday.

“We’ve compassion for Ukrainians, maybe greater than different international locations, as a result of we have now skilled Russia’s barbaric aggression on our soil,” stated 32-year-old taxi driver Niko Tvauri, as crowds waved Georgian and Ukrainian flags and sang the nationwide anthems of each international locations.

Within the Estonian capital Tallinn, a number of thousand folks congregated at Freedom Sq. to listen to music and a speech from President Alar Karis.

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Estonia was an occupied a part of the Soviet Union and shares a border with Russia.

Finland has EU’s longest border with Russia

Throughout the Baltic Sea in Helsinki, police say at the least 10,000 folks took to the streets of the Finnish capital at a number of anti-war protests on Saturday.

Many demonstrators gathered at Helsinki’s Senate Sq., whereas others marched on the Russian Embassy within the capital’s Eira neighbourhood.

“President Zelenskyy referred to as on all folks around the globe to return out and protest Putin’s warfare crimes,” Coel Thomas, a Inexperienced occasion activist and deputy Helsinki metropolis counsellor informed Euronews.

“Marching to the Russian embassy to convey our message of peace is the very least we will do to help the folks of Ukraine.”

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The Finns share the EU’s longest exterior border with Russia and Russians are the only largest group of foreigners residing in Finland, principally within the capital metropolis area and within the east across the metropolis of Lappeenranta a number of kilometres from the border crossing into Russia.

Protests in France

On Friday, hundreds extra gathered in Paris and Strasbourg to protest towards the warfare; a whole bunch extra got here out on the streets of Montpellier.

“What he’s doing in the present day in Kyiv, he can do it once more tomorrow in Warsaw or Bucharest,” stated Edgar Parant, 21, a legislation pupil.

In Marseille there have been chants of “Cursed be the warfare” and “Putin is bombing my lovely Ukraine” as a whole bunch of individuals gathered within the metropolis’s Outdated Port space on Saturday afternoon.

France’s second metropolis, twinned with Odesa in south-west Ukraine, mayor Benoît Payan adorned the facade of the city corridor on Thursday with the blue and yellow flag of Ukraine, which flies beside the French, European and Marseille flags.

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“We’re all in shock, we’re simply attempting to grasp, my household is bombarded, these days, it appears so inconceivable,” says Ludmila Tonka Fannière, a Ukrainian who has been residing in France for the previous 11 years.

“I got here as a result of it is crucial that the French are current, to defend Ukraine is to defend Europe, France, democracy and it’s to place a cease to Putin who’s outdoors of all of the treaties worldwide,” defined Olivier Baudry.

He provides: “We will not let it occur, we’re actually on the verge of a warfare in Europe”.

Protests throughout Europe, and the world

In London on Saturday protesters outdoors the Consular Part of the Russian Embassy had been joined by Conservative MP Matt Hancock, a former well being minister.

In Rome on Friday night time hundreds of individuals marched in a torchlight procession to the Colosseum.

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“Putin, murderer!”, “Sure to peace, no to warfare”, “Banish Swift’s Russia”, may very well be learn on banners. Different placards confirmed Russian President Vladimir Putin with a bloodstained hand on his face, or evaluating him to Hitler with the phrases: “Do you acknowledge historical past when it repeats itself?”

“We’ve all the time been near the Ukrainian folks… From right here, our feeling of helplessness is big. We will not do anything in the intervening time” stated Maria Sergi, an Italian who was born in Russia.

Vladimir Putin “has carried out lots of hurt, even to his personal folks. We’ve lots of mates who’ve suffered loads due to his insurance policies,” she added.

In Athens on Friday night, in entrance of the Russian Embassy, ​​greater than 2,000 folks gathered on the name of the Greek Communist Get together and the novel left occasion Syriza. Historically pro-Russian, these events denounced “Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ” and an “imperialist warfare towards a folks”.

These demonstrations of solidarity usually are not confined to Europe: different protests in Seoul, Tokyo, Taipei, Australia, Canada’s Montreal, Israel and Kenya additionally voiced their opposition to the warfare, whilst Russian forces continued to assault targets in Ukraine.

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Slovakia PM Robert Fico in ‘very serious’ condition after being shot

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Slovakia PM Robert Fico in ‘very serious’ condition after being shot

Deputy PM Kalinak says Fico is stable post-surgery after being shot five times in an attempted assassination.

Slovakia’s Prime Minister Robert Fico is stable but his condition remains “very serious”, his deputy has said, after an assassination attempt that shocked the country and drew global condemnation.

Fico, 59, was shot five times in the central town of Handlova on Wednesday. He was in critical condition and underwent several hours of emergency surgery.

“During the night, doctors managed to stabilise the patient’s condition,” Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak said on Thursday.

“Unfortunately, the condition is still very serious as the injuries are complicated,” said Kalinak, who is also the defence minister.

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A state security council meeting is scheduled for Thursday following the attack. The alleged attacker, a 71-year-old writer, was taken into custody.

Environment Minister Tomas Taraba told the BBC on Thursday that the operation had “gone well”. He said one bullet went through Fico’s stomach, and the second hit a joint during the attack after Fico left a government meeting.

The shooting was “politically motivated”, Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said on Wednesday.

“This assassination [attempt] was politically motivated, and the perpetrator’s decision was born closely after the presidential election,” Sutaj Estok said, referring to an April election won by Fico’s ally, Peter Pellegrini.

Pellegrini described the attack as an “unprecedented threat to Slovak democracy”.

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“If we express other political opinions in squares, and not in polling stations, we are jeopardising everything that we have built together over 31 years of Slovak sovereignty,” Pellegrini said.

A man is detained after Slovak PM Robert Fico was shot multiple times, in Handlova, Slovakia [File: Radovan Stoklasa/Reuters]

Following the attack, Fico was rushed to a hospital in Handlova but was transferred by helicopter to the regional capital, Banska Bystrica, for urgent treatment.

Russia said it considered the attack “absolutely unacceptable”.

“This is really a great tragedy,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Thursday.

Fico’s European counterparts, including Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, condemned the shooting and wished him a complete recovery.

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The country of 5.4 million has seen polarised political debate in recent years, including last year’s presidential election that helped Fico tighten his grip on power.

Since returning as prime minister last October, his government has scaled back support for Ukraine while opening up dialogue with Russia, looked to lessen punishments for corruption, and is revamping the RTVS public broadcaster despite a call to protect media freedoms.

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TVLine Items: Conan O’Brien Must Go Renewed, Harry Potter Baking Competition and More

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TVLine Items: Conan O’Brien Must Go Renewed, Harry Potter Baking Competition and More


‘Conan O’Brien Must Go’ Renewed for Season 2 at Max



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Chances of Cyprus peace talks restart look dimmer as Turkish Cypriot leader sees no common ground

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Chances of Cyprus peace talks restart look dimmer as Turkish Cypriot leader sees no common ground

Chances of restarting formal talks to mend Cyprus’ decades-long ethnic division appeared dimmer Wednesday as the leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots told a U.N. envoy that he saw no common ground with Greek Cypriots for a return to negotiations.

Turkish Cypriot leader Ersin Tatar said that he conveyed to the U.N. secretary general’s personal envoy, María Ángela Holguín Cuéllar, that talks can’t happen unless separate Turkish Cypriot sovereignty in the island’s northern third first gains the same international recognition as the Cyprus republic in the Greek Cypriot south.

CYPRUS’ PRESIDENT CALLS ON EU TO TAKE ACTION AGAINST INFLUX OF SYRIAN REFUGEES FROM LEBANON

Tatar was quoted by Turkish Cypriot media as saying that a permanent Turkish military presence coupled with military intervention rights are prerequisites to any peace deal, despite Greek Cypriot attempts to “remove Turkey” from the settlement equation.

Tatar also expressed irritation with Holguín’s contacts with civil society groups that support an accord that would reunify Cyprus as a federation made up of Turkish Cypriot and Greek Cypriot zones, in line with a U.N.-endorsed framework.

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A man walks across the U.N buffer zone in front of a blocked road as a banner shows the Cyprus island divided, the Turkish occupied area at the north and Cyprus republic at the south, in divided capital Nicosia, Cyprus, on Wednesday, May 15, 2024. Chances of restarting formal talks to mend Cyprus’ decades-long ethnic division appeared dimmer as the leader of the breakaway Turkish Cypriots told a United Nations envoy that he saw no common ground with Greek Cypriots for a return to negotiations.  (AP Photo/Petros Karadjias)

The majority of Greek Cypriots reject a deal that would formalize a partition through a two-state deal, the permanent stationing of Turkish troops on the island, the right for Turkey to militarily intervene as well a demand for a Turkish Cypriot veto on all federal-level government decisions.

The Turkish Cypriot leader’s remarks don’t waver from a line that he’s consistently kept since his 2022 rise to power. But the fact that he remains unyielding despite four months of Holguín’s shuttle diplomacy doesn’t bode well for a talks restart.

Holguín was appointed at the start of the year to determine what the chances are of resuming formal talks seven years after the last major push for a deal collapsed amid much acrimony.

An agreement has defied numerous, U.N.-facilitated rounds of talks since 1974 when the island was cleaved along ethnic lines following a Turkish invasion preceded by a coup aimed at uniting the island with Greece. Only Turkey recognizes a Turkish Cypriot declaration of independence, and although Cyprus is a European Union member, only the south enjoys full membership benefits.

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Holguín has refrained from speaking at length about her contacts over the last few months, but she noted in an interview with Kathimerini newspaper that it was up to the leaders to “listen to the people” and that she had been surprised at Tatar’s rejection of her proposal for a three-way meeting with Cypriot President Nikos Christodoulides.

Holguín will “soon” prepare a report for U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres about her findings over the last five months, according to U.N. deputy spokesman Farhan Haq.

Christodoulides struck a more upbeat note on Wednesday, saying that efforts for a resumption of talks continue and that time should be given for diplomacy to work.

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