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Germany FM warns of new Syria violence ahead of Turkiye visit

Germany FM warns of new Syria violence ahead of Turkiye visit
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock attends a presentation of The Greens party 2025 general election campaign programme, in Berlin, Germany. (File/Reuters)
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Updated 20 December 2024

Germany FM warns of new Syria violence ahead of Turkiye visit

Germany FM warns of new Syria violence ahead of Turkiye visit
  • Her trip to Ankara comes almost two weeks after Islamist-led rebels overthrew Syrian president Bashar Assad
  • She warned Syria must not become “the plaything of foreign powers or an experiment for radical forces”

BERLIN: German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock warned against the threat of “new violence” in Kurdish-held northern areas of Syria as she left for a visit to neighboring Turkiye on Friday.
Her trip to Ankara comes almost two weeks after Islamist-led rebels overthrew Syrian president Bashar Assad, sparking popular jubilation but also concern about new turmoil.
“Those who want peace in the region must not undermine the territorial integrity of Syria,” she said in a statement.
Syria’s future is “hanging by a thread,” said Baerbock, who was set to meet her Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan as well as members of the large Syrian refugee community on her one-day visit.
Before leaving Berlin, Baerbock said that people in the Kurdish-held northern Syrian border town of Kobani, also known as Ain Al-Arab, were “holding their breath again” in fear of “new violence.”
Turkiye has thousands of troops in northern Syria and also backs a proxy force there which has engaged in ongoing clashes with the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a US-backed and Kurdish-led force.
Ankara sees the SDF as an extension of its domestic nemesis, the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), and said on Thursday that it would continue to push for Kurdish fighters in northern Syria to disarm.
The SDF on Thursday accused Turkiye and allied fighters of not respecting a ceasefire around the northern town of Manbij and encouraged residents to “take up arms against the (Turkish) occupation.”
Also on Thursday, thousands of people in the northeastern Syrian city of Qamishli demonstrated in support of the SDF and chanted against “Turkiye’s attack” in the region.
Baerbock said that Syria’s reconstruction and the return of refugees “can only work if people have no more fear of persecution.”
“This should also be in the interest of the Turkish government, as more than three million Syrian refugees live in Turkiye.”
She warned that Syria must not become “the plaything of foreign powers or an experiment for radical forces.”
Germany has also urged Israel to abandon plans to step up settlement in the occupied and annexed Golan Heights at the southwestern edge of Syria.
Israel seized the demilitarised zone there after Assad fell and launched hundreds of strikes on Syria to destroy the former government’s military assets.


Ukraine’s Zelensky to meet Trump after US-Russia summit yields no peace deal

Ukraine’s Zelensky to meet Trump after US-Russia summit yields no peace deal
Updated 34 sec ago

Ukraine’s Zelensky to meet Trump after US-Russia summit yields no peace deal

Ukraine’s Zelensky to meet Trump after US-Russia summit yields no peace deal
  • Ukrainian leader said he held a ‘long and substantive’ conversation with US president on Saturday
  • Donald Trump also was on the phone with NATO leaders after summit with Vladimir Putin
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that he plans to meet US President Donald Trump in Washington next week after Trump’s summit with Russia’s Vladimir Putin secured no agreement to end the war in Ukraine.
Zelensky said he held a “long and substantive” conversation with Trump on Saturday after the US leader met Putin in Alaska. He thanked Trump for an invitation to meet in person in Washington on Monday and said they would “discuss all of the details regarding ending the killing and the war.”
Zelensky reiterated the importance of involving Europe.
“It is important that Europeans are involved at every stage to ensure reliable security guarantees together with America,” he said. “We also discussed positive signals from the American side regarding participation in guaranteeing Ukraine’s security.”
Zelensky said he spoke to Trump one-on-one and then in a call with other European leaders. In total the conversations lasted an hour and a half.
Trump rolled out the red carpet for Putin in Alaska, but Friday’s summit appeared to end without concrete progress on bringing an end to the war.
Trump said that “there’s no deal until there’s a deal,” after Putin claimed the two leaders had hammered out an “understanding” on Ukraine and warned Europe not to “torpedo the nascent progress.”
During an interview with Fox News Channel before leaving Alaska, Trump insisted that the onus going forward might be on Zelensky “to get it done,” but said there would also be some involvement from European nations.
Trump did not speak to reporters on his flight back to Washington. When his plane landed, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that Trump was on the phone with NATO leaders after a lengthy call with Zelensky.
Trump then disembarked Air Force One without speaking to reporters. He didn’t respond to shouted questions about the phone calls as he climbed into his limousine.
Trump spoke with Zelensky, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, Polish President Karol Nawrocki, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, European Commission spokesperson Arianna Podesta said. She gave no details of the conversation.
There was no immediate comment Saturday from European leaders who, like Zelensky, didn’t have a place at the table at Friday’s summit.
Putin’s foreign affairs adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said on Russian state television Saturday that a potential trilateral meeting between Trump, Putin and Zelensky has not been raised in US-Russia discussions. “The topic has not been touched upon yet,” Ushakov said, according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
Russian attacks on Ukraine continued overnight, using one ballistic missile and 85 Shahed drones, 61 of which were shot down, Ukraine’s Air Force said. Front-line areas of Sumy, Dnipropetrovsk, Donetsk and Chernihiv were attacked.

Russia launches 85 attack drones, ballistic missile on Ukraine overnight

Russia launches 85 attack drones, ballistic missile on Ukraine overnight
Updated 16 August 2025

Russia launches 85 attack drones, ballistic missile on Ukraine overnight

Russia launches 85 attack drones, ballistic missile on Ukraine overnight
  • Frontline territories in the Sumy, Donetsk, Chernihiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions were targeted in the overnight strike

Russia launched 85 attack drones and a ballistic missile targeting Ukraine’s territory, Ukraine’s Air Force said on Saturday.

Frontline territories in the Sumy, Donetsk, Chernihiv, and Dnipropetrovsk regions were targeted in the overnight strikes, the air force said on the Telegram messaging app. It said its air defense units destroyed 61 of the drones.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s Armed Forces said in its daily morning report that 139 clashes had taken place on the front line over the past day.


Off-duty NYPD officer fatally shoots man on Staten Island pointing fake gun

Off-duty NYPD officer fatally shoots man on Staten Island pointing fake gun
Updated 16 August 2025

Off-duty NYPD officer fatally shoots man on Staten Island pointing fake gun

Off-duty NYPD officer fatally shoots man on Staten Island pointing fake gun
  • Man told to put the firearm down but instead he pointed it at the officers; one officer then fired at the man

NEW YORK: An off-duty New York Police Department officer fatally shot a man pointing a fake gun at the officer on Friday night on Staten Island, according to law enforcement.

At about 8 p.m., a 911 call came in about a man with a gun at the back of a diner, Assistant Chief Melissa Eger, of the NYPD Patrol Borough of Staten Island, said during a news conference.

An off-duty officer then spotted the same man with what appeared to be a firearm and told another off-duty officer, said Eger.

They told the man to put the firearm down but instead he pointed it at the officers, said Eger, who added that surveillance video captured the events. One officer then fired at the man.

The officers “performed life-saving measures” and then the man was taken to a hospital, where he was pronounced dead, she said.

“Our officers were confronted with a dangerous and unpredictable situation, and they attempted to de-escalate the situation multiple times,” she said.

An imitation firearm was found at the scene, she said.

The shooting is being investigated.

She said the man has a criminal history, but the details were not immediately clear.


Air Canada flight attendants go on strike, shutting down service

Air Canada flight attendants go on strike, shutting down service
Updated 16 August 2025

Air Canada flight attendants go on strike, shutting down service

Air Canada flight attendants go on strike, shutting down service
  • The Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents Air Canada’s 10,000 flight attendants, in a legal position to strike as of 12:01 a.m.
  • Air Canada, which transports about 130,000 passengers daily, had said it would gradually wind down operations ahead of the possible strike

TORONTO: Air Canada’s flight attendants went on strike Saturday, a work stoppage the airline has said will shut down service and create summer travel chaos for its 130,000 daily passengers.

“We are now officially on strike,” the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents Air Canada’s 10,000 flight attendants, said in a statement.

Air Canada, which transports about 130,000 passengers daily, had said it would gradually wind down operations ahead of the possible strike.

As of 8:00 p.m. Friday, the airline said it had canceled 623 flights affecting more than 100,000 passengers.

In addition to wage increases, the union says it wants to address uncompensated ground work, including during the boarding process.

Rafael Gomez, who heads the University of Toronto’s Center for Industrial Relations, said it’s “common practice, even around the world” to compensate flight attendants based on time spent in the air.

He said the union had built an effective communication campaign around the issue, creating a public perception of unfairness.

An average passenger, not familiar with common industry practice, could think, “’I’m waiting to board the plane and there’s a flight attendant helping me, but they’re technically not being paid for that work,’” he said.

“That’s a very good issue to highlight.”

Air Canada detailed its latest offer in a Thursday statement, specifying that under the terms, a senior flight attendant would on average make CAN$87,000 ($65,000) by 2027.

CUPE has described Air Canada’s offers as “below inflation (and) below market value.”

The union has also rejected requests from the federal government and Air Canada to resolve outstanding issues through independent arbitration.

Gomez said that if the flight attendants strike, he does not expect the stoppage to last long.

“This is peak season,” he said.

“The airline does not want to lose hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue... They’re almost playing chicken with the flight attendants.”


More than 300 people killed due to heavy rain, floods in Pakistan

More than 300 people killed due to heavy rain, floods in Pakistan
Updated 16 August 2025

More than 300 people killed due to heavy rain, floods in Pakistan

More than 300 people killed due to heavy rain, floods in Pakistan
  • Majority of the deaths were recorded in mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa where the rains triggered landslides and flash floods
  • Seven killed when government helicopter crashed due to bad weather during a mission to deliver relief goods

PESHAWAR, Pakistan: The death toll from heavy rains and flooding in Pakistan has crossed 300, local officials said on Saturday.

The majority of the deaths were recorded in mountainous Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, according to the National Disaster Management Authority.

Five others, including two pilots, were killed when a Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government helicopter crashed due to bad weather during a mission to deliver relief goods, the chief minister of the province, Ali Amin Gandapur, said in a statement.

The provincial government has declared the severely affected mountainous districts of Buner, Bajaur, Mansehra and Battagram as disaster-hit areas.

In Bajaur, a tribal district abutting Afghanistan, a crowd amassed around an excavator trawling a mud-soaked hill, AFP photos showed.

Funeral prayers began in a paddock nearby, with people grieving in front of several bodies covered by blankets.

The meteorological department has issued a heavy rain alert for the northwest, urging people to avoid “unnecessary exposure to vulnerable areas.”

In the Indian-administered part of Kashmir, a region divided with Pakistan, rescuers pulled bodies from mud and rubble on Friday after a flood crashed through a Himalayan village, killing at least 60 people and washing away dozens more.

The monsoon season brings South Asia about three-quarters of its annual rainfall, vital for agriculture and food security, but it also brings destruction.

Landslides and flash floods are common during the season, which usually begins in June and eases by the end of September.

Syed Muhammad Tayyab Shah, a representative of the national disaster agency, told AFP that this year’s monsoon season began earlier than usual and is expected to end later.

“The next 15 days, particularly from August 16 till the 30th of August, the intensity of the monsoon will further exacerbate,” he added.

The provincial government has declared Saturday as a day of mourning, chief minister Gandapur said.

“The national flag will fly at half-mast across the province, and the martyrs will be laid to rest with full state honors,” the statement from his office said.

Scientists say that climate change has made weather events around the world more extreme and more frequent.

Pakistan is one of the world’s most vulnerable countries to the effects of climate change, and its population is contending with extreme weather events with increasing frequency.

The torrential rains that have pounded Pakistan since the start of the summer monsoon, described as “unusual” by authorities, have killed more than 320 people, nearly half of them children.

In July, Punjab, home to nearly half of Pakistan’s 255 million people, recorded 73 percent more rainfall than the previous year and more deaths than in the entire previous monsoon.

In 2022, monsoon floods submerged a third of the country and killed 1,700 people.