World
Kosovo minister sees Russian influence in growing Serbian tension
![Kosovo minister sees Russian influence in growing Serbian tension Kosovo minister sees Russian influence in growing Serbian tension](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/12/2022-12-27T134959Z_34848733_RC2BEY96LDZY_RTRMADP_3_KOSOVO-SERBS.jpg?resize=1920,1440)
Inside Minister Xhelal Svecla accused Belgrade of supporting Serbian protesters as a method to destabilise Kosovo.
Kosova’s Inside Minister Xhelal Svecla has accused Serbia, below the affect of Russia, of trying to destabilise his nation by supporting the Serb minority in northern Kosovo who’ve blocked roads in an escalation of weeks of protests.
Serbs within the ethnically-divided metropolis of Mitrovica in northern Kosovo erected new barricades on Tuesday, hours after Serbia stated it had put its navy on the very best fight footing following weeks of escalating tensions between Belgrade and Pristina over the protests.
The brand new boundaries, product of heavily-loaded vans, had been put in place in a single day in Mitrovica and signify the primary time for the reason that current disaster began that Serbs have blocked streets in one in every of Kosovo’s foremost cities. Till now, barricades had been set on roads resulting in the Kosovo-Serbia border.
The vans have been parked to dam the street linking the Serb-majority a part of the city to the Albanian-majority half.
“It’s exactly Serbia, influenced by Russia, that has raised a state of navy readiness and that’s ordering the erection of recent barricades, as a way to justify and shield the felony teams that terrorize,” Svecla stated in a press release on Tuesday.
Serbia denies it’s making an attempt to destabilise its neighbour Kosovo and says it solely desires to guard the Serbian minority dwelling in what’s now Kosovan territory however just isn’t recognised by Belgrade.
Belgrade has positioned its military and police on the very best alert, saying that the order was crucial because it believes that Kosovo is getting ready to assault Serbs and forcefully take away the barricades.
Since December 10, Serbs in northern Kosovo have erected a number of roadblocks in and round Mitrovica and exchanged sporadic gunfire with Kosovo police following the arrest of a former Serb police officer working within the Kosovar power.
Ethnic Serb protesters are demanding the discharge of the arrested officer and produce other calls for. Their protests observe earlier unrest over the problem of automobile licence plates. Kosovo has for years wished ethnic Serbs within the north to change their Serbian automobile licence plates to these issued by Pristina as a part of the federal government’s need to claim authority over its territory. Serbs have refused to take action.
Roughly 50,000 Serbs dwell within the northern a part of Kosovo and refuse to recognise the Pristina authorities or Kosovo as an impartial state. They see Belgrade as their capital and wish to hold their Serbian licence plates.
Kosovar officers have accused Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic of utilizing Serbia’s state media to fire up hassle and set off incidents that would act as a pretext for an armed intervention within the former Serbian province.
An educational on the Kosovar Centre for Safety Research, Skender Perteshi, accused Serbia and Russia of deliberate makes an attempt to disrupt the area.
“The thought of Serbia and Russia collectively is to attempt to make conflicts and disaster wherever the place the West has a task and to extend this sort of instability within the area to extend the affect of Russia and Serbia within the area,” he urged.
Kosovo’s former Overseas Minister Meliza Hardinaj additionally tweeted on Wednesday that the barricades within the north of the nation weren’t spurred by a “lack of” Serbian group rights, however had been “a direct order” from Serbia and Russia to ignite battle.
The truth that #Vucic’s felony gangs blocked their a part of Merdare CCP w/ Republic of #Kosovo proves sharply that the illegally erected barricades in north🇽🇰 should not a protest for lack of #Serbian group rights however fairly a direct order from #Serbia/#Russia to spark battle!
— Meliza Haradinaj (@MelizaHaradinaj) December 28, 2022
Kosovo’s authorities has stated that its police power has the capability to take away the Serbia barricades, however they had been ready for NATO’s Kosovo peacekeeping power — KFOR — to answer their request for peacekeepers to take away the barricades.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has led European Union states to commit extra power to bettering relations with the six Balkan nations of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia, regardless of persevering with reluctance to enlarge the EU additional.
Albanian-majority Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008 with the backing of the West within the aftermath of a 1998-1999 warfare through which NATO intervened to guard ethnic Albanian residents.
Kosovo just isn’t a member of the United Nations and 5 EU states — Spain, Greece, Romania, Slovakia and Cyprus — refuse to recognise Kosovo’s statehood.
Russia, Serbia’s historic ally, can also be blocking Kosovo’s membership within the UN.
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World
Analysis-Apple Set for Music, TV Streaming Fight in India After Airtel Deal
World
Trudeau called out by steelworker who refuses to shake his hand during blunt exchange: 'Don't believe you'
![Trudeau called out by steelworker who refuses to shake his hand during blunt exchange: 'Don't believe you' Trudeau called out by steelworker who refuses to shake his hand during blunt exchange: 'Don't believe you'](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/AP24163040206540.jpg)
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau got an earful during a photo op from a cash-strapped steelworker who told the leader his policies have left his family scratching to make ends meet.
Footage of the tense exchange in Sault Ste. Marie, a city in Ontario, which was obtained by CTV News, went viral. The unidentified worker spurned Trudeau’s offer of doughnuts to complain about high taxes, medical bills and giveaways to people he deemed “lazy.”
“The 25% tariffs we just brought in is going to help you out … that’s going to keep your job,” Trudeau told the man.
“What about the 40% taxes I am paying? And I don’t have a doctor,” the employee of Algoma Steel shot back.
CANADA MOVES TO LIMIT IMMIGRATION AMID STRAINED RELATIONS WITH US
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)
Trudeau responded by saying that a multimillion-dollar investment from the Canadian government meant the man would have a job “for many years to come.” The man responded by saying that he expected Trudeau to be voted out.
“That’s what elections are for,” said the Liberal Party leader, who stayed calm and collected during the exchange. “I look forward to everyone exercising the right to vote. … We are going to invest in you and your job.”
“I don’t believe you for a second,” the steelworker shot back.
The man also mentioned that he felt unemployed Canadians got better access to affordable health care than he did after Trudeau referenced an initiative to help hundreds of thousands of Canadians get dental care.
CANADA’S TRUDEAU TO REMAIN IN OFFICE DESPITE LOSS OF KEY SEAT IN SPECIAL ELECTION
![Justin Trudeau speaking at an event](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/04/1200/675/JT.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau (Arlyn McAdorey/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
“Probably like my neighbor who doesn’t go to work because she’s lazy?” the steelworker asked.
“You know what? Most Canadians try to stick up for each other, and that’s what we’ve got to keep doing,” Trudeau responded before wishing the man good luck. At the end, the laborer appeared to refuse a handshake from Trudeau.
The next federal election in Canada is set to take place on Oct. 20, 2025. Trudeau’s government has been scrutinized amid a cost-of-living crisis affecting the country, though Trudeau has remained optimistic.
“Inflation came down last month, beating out expectations,” the prime minister wrote in a Facebook post on July 17. “But, until Canadians can feel that relief in their wallets, at the grocery store, and on their mortgages, the job’s not done.”
![Trudeau during bilateral meeting with Zelenskyy](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/09/1200/675/GettyImages-1683460862.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Justin Trudeau, Canada’s prime minister, center, is shown during a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, not pictured, on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, on Sept. 22, 2023. (Sean Kilpatrick/Canadian Press/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reached out to Trudeau’s office for comment.
World
Taiwan court orders release of ex-Taipei mayor arrested in corruption probe
![Taiwan court orders release of ex-Taipei mayor arrested in corruption probe Taiwan court orders release of ex-Taipei mayor arrested in corruption probe](https://www.aljazeera.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/AP24012110364280-1725260164.jpg?resize=1920%2C1440)
Taiwan People’s Party leader Ko Wen-je freed after court finds insufficient evidence to justify his detention.
A court in Taiwan has ordered the release of a former mayor and presidential candidate who was arrested over his alleged role in a corruption scandal, citing insufficient evidence for his detention.
Taipei District Court on Monday ruled that Ko Wen-je, a former mayor of Taipei and the leader of the Taiwan People’s Party (TPP), should go free after finding that prosecutors had failed to make the case for his detention.
The court said prosecutors had not met the standard of there being a “high possibility” Ko had committed a crime.
“It cannot be concluded that the defendant… knowingly violated the law,” the court said in its ruling.
Ko was arrested on Saturday as part of a probe into alleged corruption in the redevelopment of the Core Pacific City shopping centre in the Taiwanese capital.
Ko, who came third in January’s presidential election, told reporters outside court that there was “no evidence” of his involvement in the real estate scandal.
A surgeon by training, Ko entered politics in 2014 when he successfully ran for the mayorship of Taipei as an independent candidate.
Re-elected as mayor of Taipei in 2018, he founded the TPP the following year as a third force to challenge the dominance of the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and China-leaning Kuomintang (KMT).
Under the TPP banner, Ko received about one-quarter of the vote in the last presidential election, which was won by the DPP’s William Lai Ching-te.
While the TPP has only eight legislators in Taiwan’s 113-seat parliament, the party has gained outsized influence as both the DPP and KMT lack a ruling majority.
Ko, who draws much of his support from young people, is widely seen as a contender for the next election in 2028, although his popularity has been dented by a separate campaign funds scandal.
On Thursday, Ko said he would take a three-month leave of absence from the TPP leadership to take responsibility for the misreporting of campaign money and the use of election subsidies to set up a personal office space.
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