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Serbian police shut down cultural exchange festival with Kosovo

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Serbian police shut down cultural exchange festival with Kosovo

The festival ban comes a day after the EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell said no progress had been made during talks in Brussels towards implementing an EU-backed agreement towards normalising ties between Belgrade and Pristina.

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Serbian police have banned a festival that promotes cultural exchange with Kosovo following a rally by far-right protesters outside the venue. 

In a statement, Belgrade police cited security concerns as the reasons for stopping the event from going ahead, saying they wanted to prevent ‘danger to the security of people and property and to public peace and order on a larger scale.’ 

The police statement also said that the anti-festival protest, which saw several dozen right-wing extremists gather outside the festival venue, waving Serbian flags and banners saying ‘No surrender’, had also been banned. 

Several Serbian government officials have sharply criticised the festival in recent days, describing it as anti-Serb.

While the festival has been held alternatively in Serbia and Kosovo for the past decade, this year’s ban in Serbia illustrates a general toughening of the government’s stance toward its critics.

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The Mirëdita, dobar dan festival, whose name means ‘hello’ in Albanian and Serbian, is organised by youth groups from Serbia and Kosovo and was due to open on Thursday with a theatre show from Kosovo.

According to the festival’s website the event, which was due to run for two days, aims to ‘enrich regional perspectives and foster cooperation and peacebuilding’.

No progress

The festival ban came a day after the EU Foreign Policy chief Josep Borrell said no progress had been made during talks in Brussels towards implementing an agreement between Belgrade and Pristina.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić and Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti had met to discuss an EU-backed plan to normalise ties. However, unresolved issues, including Pristina’s demands that Belgrade hands over the suspected organisers of the Banjska attack, blocked further progress.

Speaking after the meetings, Borrell said that the European Union will continue to exert all its efforts and capacity to normalise relations between Belgrade and Pristina.

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“Kosovo was not ready for this, Kosovo was not willing to do this trilateral meeting. Serbia was ready to do it, but you need two to dance tango and we need two to sit around the table in order to continue the dialogue,” Borrell added.

Borrell said on Wednesday ahead of the meeting that a new round of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina would “hopefully send a different message and end in a different note.”

Brussels has warned both Belgrade and Pristina that refusal to compromise jeopardises Serbia and Kosovo’s chances of joining the bloc.

Kosovo, a former Serbian province, declared independence in 2008, a move Belgrade does not recognise.

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Video: Young People Demand Change Ahead of Britain’s Election

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Video: Young People Demand Change Ahead of Britain’s Election

Many young people feel disillusioned by politics in the United Kingdom, as the country readies for a pivotal general election after 14 years of Conservative governments. Megan Specia, an international correspondent for The New York Times based in London, spoke with young voters in the northern English cities of Liverpool and Manchester to hear their perspectives on the election.

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1 confirmed dead after severe rain causes roof collapse at India's New Delhi airport

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1 confirmed dead after severe rain causes roof collapse at India's New Delhi airport
  • One person was killed after a portion of the canopy at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport’s departure terminal collapsed on Friday.
  • The collapse occurred due to monsoon rains that lashed the Indian capital, officials say.
  • Six others were injured during the collapse.

A portion of a canopy at a departure terminal at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport in India collapsed Friday as monsoon rains lashed the Indian capital, killing one person and injuring six others, officials said.

All flight departures from Terminal 1 were temporarily suspended as rescuers cleared the debris to rescue anyone trapped there, the airport authority said.

Terminal 1 is used for domestic operations at New Delhi’s main airport.

DEATH TOLL LINKED TO METHANOL-LACED LIQUOR ILLEGALLY BREWED IN INDIA RISES TO 47

The fire services control room said the injured were taken to a hospital.

A crew inspects the damage to a part of a departure terminal canopy at New Delhi’s Indira Gandhi International Airport that collapsed in heavy pre-monsoon rains in New Delhi, India, on June 28, 2024. (AP Photo)

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“Due to heavy rain since early this morning, a portion of the canopy of the old departure forecourt” collapsed at around 5 a.m., an airport authority statement said.

In addition to the roof, some support beams also collapsed, damaging cars in the pickup and drop-off area at the terminal, the Press Trust of India news agency said.

One of the six injured people was rescued from a car on which an iron beam had fallen, PTI said.

Anees Khan, a taxi driver, said he was sleeping in his car. “Around 5:30 in the morning there was a very loud lightning sound. When I got out, I saw that the roof had collapsed and there were around eight to 10 cars under it.”

Civil Aviation Minister K. Rammohan Naidu visited the airport and said boarding operations at the damaged terminal were being shifted to two other terminals.

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He told reporters that a thorough inspection of the damaged structure was being carried out.

An IndiGo airline official said passengers inside the terminal had already boarded their flights and those booked on flights later in the day would be offered alternatives.

Friday’s rain was the first big shower of the monsoon season in New Delhi, the India Meteorological Department said. It flooded New Delhi streets, causing traffic snarls. The monsoon season lasts until the end of September.

According to the department, as much as 9 inches of rain fell in New Delhi in the past 24 hours, nearly three times the amount the city usually receives in the entire month of June. The intense rain follows a punishing heatwave that claimed at least 100 lives across India, including in New Delhi.

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India is among the most vulnerable regions in the world to the effects of climate change. A report by the Reserve Bank of India earlier this year found it could cost more than $1 trillion by 2030 for the country to adapt to the changes. Climate experts say monsoon rains have become more erratic, resulting in extreme rainfall events that cause landslides and flooding.

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Norway's LQBTQ community party at the Pride parade in Oslo

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Norway's LQBTQ community party at the Pride parade in Oslo

According to the Brussels-based NGO ILGA-Europe, Norway this year ranks the 8th best state in Europe for the LGBTQ community.

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Revellers took to the streets of central Oslo this weekend to celebrate the city’s annual pride parade as June’s Pride Month draws to a close.

The two-hour march ended on Saturday at the so-called Pride Park, in the central Sofienbergparken.

Oslo Pride is Norway’s largest celebration of love and diversity and focusses on equal rights and human dignity.

It’s created by around 80 year-round volunteers with around 300 extra getting involved during the nine-day festival.

According to the Brussels-based NGO ILGA-Europe, Norway this year ranks the 8th best state in Europe for the LGBTQ community. The index takes into account the legal, political and social environment for LGBTQ people in each country in Europe.

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However during 2022’s festival, a homophobic gunman opened fire in Oslo’s nightlife district, killing two people and wounding 20 others.

Heavy police presence at Pride parade in Greece

Meanwhile, in Greece, around 15,000 people attended the annual EuroPride parade on Saturday, police said, in support of the LGBTQ+ community in the northern Greek city of Thessaloniki but police had to come out in large numbers to keep the parade safe.

“This participation from across Europe sends a message,” parade participant Michalis Filippidis told reporters. “It is very, very good. We are all united like a fist and, despite many things happening, we are all here to fight for our rights.”

There was a heavy police presence to prevent demonstrations against the parade. In the end, police said, 15 people were detained for shouting obscenities at parade participants and, in one case, trying to throw eggs at them.

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