Headline

Ukraine Says Russia Using ‘All Its Power’ To Capture Eastern City

Published

3 years ago

June 5, 2022

Ukraine said Saturday its forces were managing to push back against Russian troops in fierce fighting in Severodonetsk despite Russia “throwing all its power” into capturing the strategic eastern city.

At least seven civilians were reported killed in the Lugansk region where Severodonetsk is located and in the southern city of Mykolaiv, while a revered wooden church was reported to be on fire because of the fighting.

Lugansk regional governor Sergiy Gaiday said in an interview posted online that the invading forces had captured most of Severodonetsk, but that Ukraine’s forces were pushing them back.

“The Russian army, as we understand, is throwing all its power, all its reserves in this direction,” said Gaiday.

“Our soldiers have managed to redeploy, build a line of defence,” said the city’s mayor, Oleksandr Striuk, in a televised interview broadcast on Telegram Saturday.

“We are currently doing everything necessary to re-establish total control” of the city, he added. But he acknowledged the situation was “quite difficult”, with street fighting and artillery exchanges.

Russia’s army claimed some Ukrainian military units were withdrawing from the city.

Severodonetsk is the largest city still in Ukrainian hands in the Lugansk region, where Russian forces have been gradually advancing in recent weeks after retreating or being repelled from other areas, including around the capital Kyiv.

‘Put Russia in its place’
Tens of thousands of people have been killed, millions forced to flee and towns turned into rubble since Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered an all-out assault on his pro-Western neighbour on February 24.

Western powers have slapped increasingly stringent sanctions on Russia and supplied arms to Ukraine but divisions have emerged on how to react.

French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday Putin had committed a “fundamental error” but said Russia should not be “humiliated” so that a diplomatic solution could be found.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba reacted Saturday by saying such calls “only humiliate France” and any country taking a similar position.

“It is Russia that humiliates itself. We all better focus on how to put Russia in its place. This will bring peace and save lives,” he said.

Despite diplomatic efforts, the conflict has raged in the south and east of the country.

Ukrainian officials announced Saturday the death of four foreign military volunteers fighting Russian forces but did not specify when or under what circumstances they died.

The International Legion of Defence of Ukraine, an official volunteer brigade, named the men and published photos of them, saying they were from Germany, the Netherlands, Australia and France.

The deaths of the two men named from the Netherlands and Australia had already been reported and France’s foreign ministry said Friday a French volunteer fighter had been killed in combat.

Ukraine also reported two victims from a Russian missile strike on Odessa in the southwest, without specifying if they were dead or injured.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had struck a “deployment point for foreign mercenaries” in the village of Dachne in the Odessa region.

It also claimed a missile strike in the northeastern Sumy region on an artillery training centre with “foreign instructors”.

Fears over food
Apart from the human toll, the conflict has caused widespread damage to Ukraine’s cultural heritage.

On Saturday, Ukrainian officials reported a large Orthodox wooden church, a popular pilgrim site, was on fire and blamed Russia.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said “Russian artillery again hit” the church, adding bombardment earlier this week had “killed four monks and severely wounded four others”.

Russia continues to prove “its inability to be part of the civilised world,” Culture Minister Oleksandr Tkachenko said in a statement.

Russia’s defence ministry blamed “Ukrainian nationalists” for the blaze and said its forces were not operating in the area.

The church was built in 2009 on the site of another church that was blown up in 1947.

Russian troops now occupy a fifth of Ukraine’s territory and Moscow has imposed a blockade on its Black Sea ports, sparking fears of a global food crisis. Ukraine and Russia are among the top wheat exporters in the world.

The United Nations said it was leading intense negotiations with Russia to allow Ukraine’s grain harvest to leave the country.

Putin said Friday there was “no problem” to export grain from Ukraine, via Kyiv- or Moscow-controlled ports or even through central Europe.

The UN has warned African countries, which normally import over half of their wheat consumption from Ukraine and Russia, face an “unprecedented” crisis.

Food prices in Africa have already exceeded those in the aftermath of the 2011 Arab Spring uprisings and the 2008 food riots.

After a meeting with Putin in Russia Friday, the head of the African Union, Senegalese President Macky Sall, said he was “very reassured”.

Sall added Putin was “committed and aware that the crisis and sanctions create serious problems for weak economies”.

Ukraine’s Defence Minister Oleksiy Reznikov repeated the government’s appeal for the swift delivery of heavy artillery in a telecast address to the Globsec-2022 forum on international security Saturday.

He was asked if Kyiv’s forces could push the Russians out of the country by Christmas if they got the equipment they had asked for.

“I cannot forecast definitely what month we will kick them out, but I hope — and it’s absolutely a realistic plan — to do it this year.”

AFP

Headline

Morocco Jails French Rapper Maes For Kidnapping Bid

Published

15 hours ago

November 26, 2025

Editor

A Moroccan court has sentenced French rapper Maes to seven years in prison on charges including the formation of a criminal gang and attempted kidnapping, local reports said Wednesday.

Maes, who has roots in Morocco and whose real name is Walid Georgey, was arrested upon landing in Morocco in January after fleeing the United Arab Emirates, where he feared he could be extradited to France, the reports said.

French authorities had issued an international arrest warrant for him over a separate criminal case.

He appeared in court late Tuesday and was found guilty of “forming a criminal organisation, attempted abduction and unlawful confinement” of a rival in Morocco, news website TelQuel reported.

The rapper with over a billion views on his YouTube channel was accused of tasking a gang and hitmen with killing the rival, but the plot was foiled, TelQuel added.

Maes has denied all charges, with his lawyers calling the case “empty” and “arguing that no evidence linked him to the other defendants”, TelQuel added.

Ten other people were sentenced as part of the case, with terms ranging from one to 10 years, according to news website Media24.

AFP was unable to independently verify the reports as prosecutors were not immediately reachable for comment.

In 2020, when Maes was one of France’s most-streamed rappers, he fell victim to extortion attempts in his native Sevran, a suburb north of Paris, according to reports.

He retaliated by opening fire with weapons he had at home, leading to a shootout. He then fled to Dubai with his family, according to an interview with French YouTube channel LEGEND.

Following the killing of his manager in 2022, he was suspected of ordering reprisals against those he believed were behind the murder, according to reports.

AFP

Headline

UK Court Clears Comedy Writer Of Harassing Transgender Woman

Published

15 hours ago

November 26, 2025

Editor

A London court on Tuesday cleared Emmy award-winning comedy writer Graham Linehan of harassing a transgender activist online but found him guilty of criminal damage to their mobile phone.

Linehan, who co-created the popular 1990s sitcom “Father Ted” but has more recently become well-known for his gender critical views, had been accused of sending Sophia Brooks “abusive and vindictive” messages on social media.

He was also charged with criminal damage after deliberately knocking a phone out of Brooks’s hand as they filmed him on the sidelines of a London conference.

Ruling on the case, District Judge Briony Clarke said she was not convinced Linehan’s conduct “was oppressive and unacceptable beyond merely unattractive, annoying or irritating”.

Clarke also concluded Brooks was not “as alarmed and distressed as they portrayed themself to be”.

But convicting Linehan of criminal damage, the judge ruled he was “angry and fed up” and did not use “reasonable force” when the phone was taken from Brooks.

Clarke fined him £500 ($655) and ordered him to pay costs of £650 and a statutory surcharge of £200.

The Irish writer, who also co-created the popular sitcoms “Black Books” and “The IT Crowd”, became embroiled in a free speech row in Britain earlier this year over his anti-transgender stance.

It followed his arrest at London’s Heathrow Airport by armed police over accusations of inciting violence with his X posts insulting transgender people.

The arrest sparked a backlash and claims of state overreach, including from US tech billionaire Elon Musk. But in October, UK prosecutors said they would take “no further action” in that case.

AFP

Headline

Prosecutors Seek Jail For Italian Influencer Ferragni In Fraud Case

Published

15 hours ago

November 26, 2025

Editor

Italian prosecutors asked a court on Tuesday to sentence fashion influencer Chiara Ferragni to one year and eight months in prison if found guilty of alleged fraud over charity endorsement deals.

The Instagram star and businesswoman has been on trial since September for aggravated fraud over promotions of a pandoro cake — a Christmas treat similar to a panettone — and Easter eggs, which purported to raise money for charity or social causes.

The 38-year-old, who is based in Milan, told the court during the closed-door hearing on Tuesday that she denied the charges and had always acted “in good faith”, her lawyer Giuseppe Iannaccone said.

Leaving the audience, Ferragni told a throng of journalists that she felt “confident… I can’t say anymore”.

A verdict is expected in January.

Aggravated fraud carries a jail term of between one and five years.

But Ferragni has chosen a fast-track trial, which gives defendants a sentence reduction — meaning she cannot receive more than a maximum penalty of two years and three months, according to a source close to her team.

In Italy, people sentenced to prison for less than two years rarely serve jail time.

Ferragni started out with a fashion blog, The Blonde Salad, in 2009, and in 2017, Forbes magazine named her its top fashion influencer.

Chronicling her glamorous lifestyle and being paid to promote high-end brands, she built the blog into a lucrative business, then used it as a springboard to launch her own eponymous label with stores around the world.

Her trailblazing story even became a Harvard Business School example of how social media fame can be monetised.

But the fraud accusations have hit her reputation and her endorsements.

Outside court for a hearing earlier this month, Ferragni acknowledged to journalists that it was a “difficult phase of my life”.

The allegations relate in part to Ferragni’s 2022 endorsement of a pandoro cake purportedly to raise funds for children undergoing treatment at a Turin hospital.

In December 2023, Italy’s communications watchdog (AGCOM) fined two of Ferragni’s companies one million euros ($1.2 million) for unfair commercial practices for the “Pandoro Pink Christmas” promotion — around the same sum they had made in the deal.

Shoppers were led to believe that buying the special edition cake made by Balocco would benefit the hospital, but it only received a single 50,000-euro donation from the company.

Balocco was fined 420,000 euros at the same time.

AGCOM also investigated Ferragni-branded Easter eggs from 2021 and 2022, linked to a social enterprise initiative.

Ferragni and her husband, rapper and music producer Fedez, who were one of Italy’s most famous celebrity couples, split in 2024.

AFP