World
Frontex chief: NGO rescue ships don't embolden Mediterranean migration
Irregular crossing of EU borders has decreased by over a third in 2024 so far.
NGO ships rescuing migrants in the Mediterranean Sea do not encourage departures, the European border guard agency Frontex director, Hans Leijtens, told Euronews.
“You have never heard me saying that it’s a pull factor. So that’s what my opinion is”, he said at a doorstep in the European Parliament on Wednesday.
“The first thing for our officers is to save lives on land and at sea. What we can do also depends on resources, but at least we always promise to do it,” Leijtens added.
“I repeat: all Frontex agents have taken an oath promising to serve and protect. This is what we do, priority number one.”
Leijtens’ position starkly contrasts a confidential agency document on migration routes from Libya to Europe, never made public but reported in the press in November 2022.
It has been cited repeatedly by the Italian government in its attempts to criticise the activities of NGOs.
More attention to fundamental rights
Leijtens, director of Frontex since 2023, updated the European Parliament on the agency’s activities.
Several MEPs who spoke at the hearing noted that he seems to devote more attention to respecting the fundamental rights of migrants than his predecessor Fabrice Leggeri, who is now a member of the European Parliament for the far-right Patriots for Europe group.
In the first seven months of 2024, irregular crossings of European borders decreased by 36%, mainly due to a decline in traffic on the Balkan and Central Mediterranean routes.
On the other hand, landings on the Canary Islands more than doubled, and entries from Belarus to the Baltic countries almost tripled. UN refugee agency’s data for 2023 shows that refugees and asylum seekers arrived in Europe in record numbers last year.
World
Trump Offers Little Detail at Crypto Business Unveiling
World
Brazilian mayoral candidate hospitalized after rival attacks him with metal chair: Watch
A televised mayoral debate in Sao Paulo, Brazil got heated Sunday night, after one of the six candidates attacked another candidate with a metal chair.
The Associated Press reported that Pablo Marcal, a personal development influencer turned right-wing politician, spoke about allegations against one of his opponents, José Luiz Datena, a former TV presenter turned candidate, during the debate.
Marcal said Datena had wanted to slap him, adding, “You’re not even man enough to do this.”
Datena was then seen during the live video walking toward Marcal’s podium with a metal chair over his head and slamming into Marcal’s side as he raised his arms.
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Immediately following the attack, the debate moderator for TV Cultura interrupted the event and cut to commercials. The debate later resumed on Sunday night without Marcal.
Rather than continue the debate, Marcal was rushed to the hospital in an ambulance, where he reportedly received respiratory support.
On Monday, he explained to his followers that he felt pain while breathing and suffered a fracture on the bottom of his rib cage.
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Hospital officials said in a statement that Marcal suffered “trauma to the right chest region and right wrist without major associated complications,” adding that he had been discharged.
Marcal called the incident an “attempted homicide” on social media, even comparing it to the attempted assassination of former President Trump in July, and to the stabbing of former Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro in 2018.
An inquiry into Datena’s alleged misconduct never resulted in charges, the Associated Press reported, and the issue was shelved after the accuser retracted her statements.
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Datena has also denied the accusations.
After the debate, Datena told reporters the episode had been painful for him because he believes it prompted his mother-in-law to suffer a series of strokes and later dying.
On Monday, Datena acknowledged making a mistake during the debate, though he had no regrets.
“If the circumstances were the same, I would not refrain from repeating the gesture, an extreme response to a history of aggression perpetrated against me and many others by my adversary,” he said.
Marcal’s campaign team said the debate should not have continued without him, adding they hope legal measures are taken against Datena.
On Sunday night, the incident was logged with Sao Paulo’s public security agency as “bodily injury and insult.” An investigation into the matter is ongoing.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
World
US rapper Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs arrested in New York
Charges against Combs not immediately clear as lawyer criticises ‘unjust’ prosecution.
Sean “Diddy” Combs, the American rapper and music producer, has been arrested in New York after being indicted by a grand jury.
The charges on which Combs was arrested on Monday were not immediately clear.
Combs’s lawyer Marc Agnifilo issued a statement expressing disappointment at the authorities’ decision to pursue an “unjust prosecution” against the rap mogul.
“Combs is a music icon, self-made entrepreneur, loving family man, and proven philanthropist who has spent the last 30 years building an empire, adoring his children, and working to uplift the Black community. He is an imperfect person but he is not a criminal,” Agnifilo said.
“To his credit Mr. Combs has been nothing but cooperative with this investigation and he voluntarily relocated to New York last week in anticipation of these charges. Please reserve your judgment until you have all the facts.”
In March, federal authorities carried out raids on properties belonging to Combs in Los Angeles and Miami.
Combs has also been accused of sexual assault and misconduct in a number of lawsuits since November, when his former girlfriend Casandra Ventura sued him for alleged physical and sexual abuse.
Combs and Ventura settled the suit the day after it was filed, without disclosing the terms of the agreement.
Combs has vehemently denied the accusations in the suits against him, saying his accusers were seeking “a quick payday”.
In May, Combs was thrust back into controversy when CNN aired a leaked video of the rapper violently grabbing, dragging and kicking Ventura in 2016.
Combs publicly apologised after the release of the video, calling his actions “inexcusable”.
Combs, who has also gone by the names Puffy Daddy and Love, became one of the most successful producers in the history of rap after founding Bad Boy in the early 1990s.
During his three-decade long career, he has worked with a slew of top-selling artists including the Notorious B.I.G. Mary J. Blige and Usher.
Combs has also ventured into businesses outside of music, including a fashion label, a fragrance brand and a range of alcoholic drinks.
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