Four men suspected of hanging an effigy of Real Madrid player Vinícius Júnior off a highway bridge in Madrid in January have been arrested, Spanish police said Tuesday.

The arrests come two days after the latest case of racial abuse against the Brazil forward in a Spanish league game against Valencia.

The effigy was hanged by the neck the morning of a derby between Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in the Copa del Rey. Along with it was a banner with the words “Madrid hates Real.”

The perpetrators used a black figure with Vinícius’ name on it, tied a rope around its neck and hanged it from an overpass while still dark in the Spanish capital.

Police said three of those arrested belonged to one of Atletico’s fan groups, and the other was a follower of the group. Some had prior bookings with police for other crimes.

The hate message on the banner is often used by Atletico’s ultras, though at the time they denied being responsible for the display.

The men arrested are between the ages of 19 and 24. Authorities said some were previously identified during matches considered at high risk of violence. Police showed images of them arriving in handcuffs and escorted by agents on Tuesday.

Spanish media said police had used security cameras to identify the perpetrators but no action had been taken until now. Police did not say if the timing of the arrests had to do with the widespread attention being received by the latest abuse against Vinícius on Sunday.

Spain has been criticized worldwide for its lack of action in racism cases in soccer. Brazilian government officials, including President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, had publicly expressed their concerns.

Vinícius, who is Black, has been subjected to repeated racist taunts in Spain, especially this season after he began celebrating his goals by dancing.

The match against Valencia was temporarily stopped after Vinícius said a fan behind one of the goals called him a monkey and made monkey gestures toward him. Vinícius considered leaving the field but eventually continued playing.

The Brazilian received support from officials and athletes around the world and heavily criticized Spanish soccer for not doing more to stop racism.

The lights at the Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro were turned off Monday night in a show of solidarity for Vinícius.

“It’s an action of solidarity that is moving,” Vinícius said on Twitter. “But more than everything, what I want is to inspire and bring more light to our fight.”

Vinícius thanked all the support he has received in the last months in Brazil and abroad.

“I know who you are,” he said. “Count on me, because the good ones are the majority and I’m not going to give up. I have a purpose in life, and if I have to keep suffering so that future generations won’t have to go through these types of situations, I’m ready and prepared.”

Valencia banned for life a fan identified of insulting Vinícius during the game. Real Madrid took the case to prosecutors as a hate crime.

The Spanish league has filed nine criminal complaints of cases of racial abuse against Vinícius in the last two seasons, with most of them being shelved by prosecutors.

The league said Tuesday it will seek to increase its authority to issue sanctions in cases of hate crimes during games. It had been saying it can only detect and denounce incidents to authorities and the country’s soccer federation.

Supporters have been fined and banned from stadiums for their abuse against Vinícius, but so far only a Mallorca fan may end up going on trial for allegedly racially insulting the Brazilian during a game.

The first trial against a fan accused of racial abuse in Spanish professional soccer is expected to happen at some point this year; the case involved Athletic Bilbao forward Iñaki Williams, who was insulted by an Espanyol supporter in a match in 2020.
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Interpol, the international police organization founded in 1923 to facilitate cooperation among law enforcement agencies, has transformed into a formidable crime fighting force in recent years. 

However, recent controversies over the misuse of its alert system have cast a shadow over its reputation as an indispensable tool for global law enforcement cooperation.  

Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco, speaking on Monday at a Justice Department event marking Interpol’s centennial, praised the organization’s role in fighting pressing global threats, from terrorism to cybercrime and human trafficking.   

“Over the past 100 years, Interpol has evolved to meet each one of those threats, and in doing so has made the world a safer place,” Monaco told the attendees.   

The ceremony in the Justice Department’s famed Great Hall featured presentations by a pipes and drums band and a local police department honor guard. Top Interpol officials as well as senior officials from the departments of Justice and Homeland Security, the two agencies that co-manage Interpol’s U.S. National Central Bureau, were in attendance. 

As part of its mission, Interpol publishes so-called red notices, which are requests for police forces worldwide to locate and arrest a suspect pending extradition. 

Only Interpol’s 195 member countries can request a red notice as long as it complies with Interpol’s rules.  

Interpol says a task force of lawyers and police officers, established in 2017, conducts a thorough review of all red notice requests received. 

In addition, Interpol has an independent body, known as Commission for the Control of Interpol’s Files, that removes disputed red notices and other alerts from its system. The commission is an additional oversight body whose members are mostly lawyers. 

Despite the agency’s efforts to ensure compliance, however, countries such as Russia and China have in recent years been accused of misusing Interpol’s alert system for political purposes.  

Interpol Secretary-General Jurgen Stock defended his agency’s “robust” review system during the Justice Department ceremony.  

“When repeated non-compliance occurs, preventive and corrective measures are applied to those member countries to protect the integrity of our channels,” Stock said. 

In 2021, Interpol published nearly 24,000 red notices and wanted persons alerts and rejected nearly 1,300 for non-compliance. 

Monaco lauded Interpol’s increased scrutiny of alert requests in order “to ensure that Interpol isn’t misused in furtherance of transnational repression” by autocratic regimes. 

But critics say authoritarian regimes continue to abuse the system.   

In 2021, Uyghur activist Idris Hasan was arrested in Morocco based on a red notice issued by Interpol at China’s request.  

Though Interpol classified the red notice as “noncompliant” after Hasan’s arrest and release, the case highlights “the inherent dangers of an international policing organization cooperating with non-rule of law countries prone to abuse such instruments for persecution that run counter to Interpol’s constitution,” human rights non-profit Safeguard Defenders wrote in a report.  

Other critics have leveled similar criticism at China. 

“In recent years, China has increasingly used the Interpol red notice system to stifle dissent,” Human Rights Watch wrote in a 2022 report.  

Critics say Russia is another chronic abuser of Interpol. 

In 2018, Bill Browder, an American human rights activist and critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin, was arrested in Spain on an Interpol red notice requested by Russia.  The notice was later rescinded, and Bowder was released.  

Ted Bromund, a senior research fellow at the Heritage Foundation, said Interpol operates on the presumption that its member states act in good faith.   

“As a result, there continues to be a lot of Interpol abuse through notices, through diffusions and through other mechanisms,” Bromund said in an interview. Diffusions are alerts sent by a member country to other member countries.  

Bromund said that Interpol’s own data suggests that its review task force is failing to prevent questionable red notices filed by countries such as China and Russia. 

The number of notices deleted by the Commission for the Control of Interpol Files remains “historically high,” he noted.  

“If the Notices and Diffusions Task Force were actually preventing all abuse, the commission … should not have to keep on deleting so many red notices,” he said. 

Both China and Russia have denied abusing Interpol.  

Despite the criticisms, Interpol retains an essential role in global law enforcement cooperation.  Its role in fighting crime has grown in recent years, as criminals increasingly operate across borders and online.   

Interpol says police departments worldwide query its databases more than 20 million times a day, or roughly 250 searches per second. 
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Ray Stevenson, who played the villainous British governor in “RRR,” an Asgardian warrior in the “Thor” films, and a member of the 13th Legion in HBO’s “Rome,” has died. He was 58.  

Representatives for Stevenson told The Associated Press that he died Sunday but had no other details to share Monday.  

Stevenson was born in Lisburn, Northern Ireland, in 1964. After attending the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School and years of working in British television, he made his film debut in Paul Greengrass’s 1998 film “The Theory of Flight.” In 2004, he appeared in Antoine Fuqua’s “King Arthur” as a knight of the round table and several years later played the lead in the pre-Disney Marvel adaptation “Punisher: War Zone.” 

Though “Punisher” was not the best-reviewed film, he’d get another taste of Marvel in the first three “Thor” films, in which he played Volstagg. Other prominent film roles included the “Divergent” trilogy, “G.I. Joe: Retaliation” and “The Transporter: Refueled.” 

A looming presence at 6-foot-4, Stevenson, who played his share of soldiers past and present, once said in an interview, “I guess I’m an old warrior at heart.” 

On the small screen, he was the roguish Titus Pullo in “Rome,” a role that really got his career going in the United States and got him a SAG card, at the age of 44. The popular series ran from 2005 to 2007. 

“That was one of the major years of my life,” Stevenson said in an interview. “It made me sit down in my own skin and say, just do the job. The job’s enough.” 

In the Variety review of “Rome,” Brian Lowery wrote that “the imposing Stevenson certainly stands out as a brawling, whoring and none-too-bright warrior — a force of nature who, despite his excesses, somehow keeps landing on his feet.” 

He was Blackbeard in the Starz series “Black Sails,” Commander Jack Swinburne in the German television series “Das Boot,” and Othere in “Vikings.” 

Stevenson also did voice work in “Star Wars Rebels” and “The Clone Wars,” as Gar Saxon, and has a role in the upcoming Star Wars live-action series “Ahsoka,” in which he plays a bad guy, Baylan Skoll. The eight-episode season is expected on Disney+ in August. 

In an interview with Backstage in 2020, Stevenson said his acting idols were, “The likes of Lee Marvin (and) Gene Hackman.” 

“Never a bad performance, and brave and fearless within that caliber,” Stevenson said. “It was never the young, hot leading man; it was men who I could identify with.” 

Stevenson has three sons with Italian anthropologist Elisabetta Caraccia, who he met while working on “Rome.” 
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The European Union on Monday imposed an asset freeze on the investment arm of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, over Tehran’s brutal crackdown on protests over the death of Mahsa Amini. 

The latest round of sanctions — the eighth imposed by the EU over the repression — came after Iran hanged three more men convicted in relation to the demonstrations.

The 27-nation bloc added the IRGC Cooperative Foundation, which handles the Guards’ investments, to an EU asset freeze and visa ban blacklist for “funneling money into the regime’s brutal repression.”

The economic conglomerate, accused of serving as a slush fund for the paramilitary armed wing of Tehran’s Islamic revolution, was sanctioned by the United States in January. 

The EU also blacklisted the Student Basij Organization, which it said acts as enforcers for the Revolutionary Guards on university campuses.

Five regime figures, including three senior police commanders, a top cyber official and a regional prosecutor were also added to the list. 

The Iranian authorities brutally cracked down on protests that sprang up after the death in custody on September 16 of Amini, a 22-year-old Iranian Kurd who was arrested in Tehran for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic’s strict dress rules for women.

The latest three men to be hanged were convicted on charges of killing security force members at a demonstration in the city of Isfahan in November.

Their executions on Friday brought to seven the number of Iranians executed in connection with the protests.

Brussels’ latest blacklistings bring to about 160 the number of individuals, companies and agencies targeted by EU asset freezes and travel bans over the crackdown.

Some EU capitals have pushed to list the Revolutionary Guards as a terrorist group.

European officials say it is proving complicated to demonstrate the legal basis for such a blanket designation. 
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Spanish soccer has a racism problem, football federation chief Luis Rubiales said on Monday, after Real Madrid lodged a complaint following alleged insults hurled at their Brazilian star Vinicius Jr. 

The top-flight LaLiga is under pressure to do more to combat racism after the Brazilian president, FIFA and fellow stars such as Kylian Mbappe voiced support for Vinicius, even as LaLiga President Javier Tebas wrote on Twitter that it is doing enough and Vinicius should inform himself “before you criticize and slander LaLiga”.  

“The first thing is to recognize that we have a problem in our country,” Rubiales said at a press conference in Madrid on Monday. It is “a serious problem that also stains an entire team, an entire fan base, an entire club, an entire country.” 

A match at the Mestalla stadium in Valencia was stopped for 10 minutes after the 22-year-old forward, Real Madrid’s second top scorer this season (23) behind Karim Benzema (29), pointed out fans who were allegedly hurling racist comments at him.  

Videos posted on social media and verified by Reuters showed hundreds of Valencia fans singing “Vinicius is a monkey” as the Real Madrid bus arrived at the stadium before the match.  

“I am sorry for those Spaniards who disagree but today, in Brazil, Spain is known as a country of racists,” Vinicius Jr wrote on Twitter after the game. 

Rubiales criticized Tebas’s comments, describing them as “irresponsible behavior.” 

“Probably Vinicius is more right than we think and we all need to do more about racism,” Rubiales said. 

Real Madrid said on Monday they have lodged a hate crime complaint following the incident in Valencia. It is the 10th episode of alleged racism against Vinicius that has been reported to prosecutors this season, according to LaLiga. 

Spanish police are also investigating a possible hate crime against Vinicius Jr after a mannequin wearing his number 20 shirt was hung from a bridge outside Real Madrid’s training ground in January ahead of the club’s derby match with Atletico Madrid. 

Prosecutors dropped a complaint filed for racist chants aimed at the player in September during another game against Atletico Madrid.  

The prosecutor archived the case because the chants of “monkey” were only said a couple of times and “only lasted a few seconds,” highlighting how Spain’s penal code makes it difficult to prosecute racist incidents at football games. 

Spanish prosecutors officially investigated just three cases of racist acts during the 2021-22 season, according to the Interior Ministry. Under current rules, people found guilty of racist behavior can be fined up to $4,403 and banned from stadiums for a year. 

There is growing momentum for Spain to do more to tackle the problem. Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva called on FIFA and LaLiga to “take real action” while FIFA President Gianni Infantino offered his “full solidarity” and called for LaLiga to enforce a rule that penalizes clubs with points deductions if racist chants persist.
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Tens of thousands of Moldovans rallied in the capital Chisinau on Sunday to support their pro-Western government’s drive toward Europe amid what officials have said are Russian efforts to destabilize their country. 

Moldova has been badly hit by the impact of Moscow’s invasion of neighboring Ukraine, which Chisinau has repeatedly condemned, and applied to join the European Union. 

President Maia Sandu has accused Russia of seeking to sabotage its European integration by fueling anti-government protests and propaganda. Moscow denies meddling in Moldova’s affairs. 

“Moldova does not want to be blackmailed by the Kremlin,” Sandu said at the rally, which was organized by her government and packed a central square. 

SEE ALSO: A related video by Ricardo Marquina

Police said more than 75,000 demonstrators were present. 

“We don’t want to be on the outskirts of Europe anymore,” she said, pledging that Moldova would become an EU member by 2030. 

European Parliament President Roberta Metsola, on a visit to Chisinau, also addressed the rally, saying Europe would welcome Moldova “with open arms and open hearts.” 

“This is about the both of us: You will bring a piece of Moldova to Europe, and you will make Europe stronger,” she said. 

Demonstrators called on Moldova’s political leaders to amend the constitution to specifically mention the country’s European orientation. 

“I believe in a European Moldova and want for my country a future with advanced economic and socio-political development,” said 18-year-old attendee Alexandrina Miron. “Right now, we are a little behind, but we will slowly catch up and stand on par with Europe.” 

The leader of the pro-Russian opposition Shor party, exiled businessman Ilan Shor, told his supporters at rival protests in several cities via video link that he would seek a referendum on Moldova’s foreign policy. 

Shor, sanctioned by the U.S. as an agent of Russian influence in Moldova, was handed a 15-year jail sentence in absentia last month for his role in the 2014 theft of $1 billion from Moldovan banks. 
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German police are investigating the possible poisoning of exiled Russians after a journalist and an activist reported health problems following a Berlin meeting of dissidents, a spokesman for the force said on Sunday.

The probe is being handled by the state security unit, a specialized team that examines cases related to terrorism or politically motivated crimes, a Berlin police spokesman told AFP.

“An investigation has been opened. The probe is ongoing,” he said, declining to provide further details.

Russian investigative media outlet Agentstvo this week published a report saying two participants who attended a April 29-30 meeting of Russian dissidents in Berlin experienced health problems.

The Berlin meeting was organized by exiled former oligarch turned Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

One participant, identified as a journalist who had recently left Russia, experienced unspecified symptoms during the event. They said the symptoms may have started earlier.

The report added that the journalist went to the Charite University Hospital in Berlin — where Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny was treated after being poisoned in August 2020.

The second participant mentioned was Natalia Arno, director of the NGO Free Russia Foundation in the United States, where she has lived for 10 years since having had to leave Russia.

Arno had attended the Berlin meeting of dissidents before travelling to Prague, where she experienced symptoms and discovered that her hotel room had been opened, Agentstvo reported.

Leaving the next day for the United States, she contacted a hospital there as well as the authorities.

Arno detailed her problems — “sharp pain” and “numbness” — on Facebook this week, saying the first “strange symptoms” appeared before she arrived in Prague. She said that she still had symptoms but felt better.

Contacted by AFP, Czech authorities said they did not have information on the case.

‘Inconclusive tests’

The Agentstvo report also said former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine John Herbst, now senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, suffered from poisoning symptoms a few months before Russia invaded Ukraine.

The Atlantic Council think tank confirmed Herbst showed symptoms that could be those of poisoning in April 2021 but medical tests were inconclusive.

It added that it worked with US federal investigators who took a blood sample but the lab results had failed to detect toxic compounds.

Herbst has since recovered to full health, it said.

Several poison attacks have been carried out abroad and in Russia against Kremlin opponents in recent years.

Moscow denies its secret services were responsible.

But European laboratories confirmed Navalny was poisoned with Novichok, a Soviet-made nerve agent.

The nerve agent was also used in an attempted murder in 2018 of former double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in the English city of Salisbury.

The Skripal case further exacerbated already dire relations between London and Moscow since the 2006 radiation poisoning death in the British capital of former spy Alexander Litvinenko.
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Greeks were voting Sunday in the first election since their country’s economy ceased to be subject to strict supervision and control by international lenders who had provided bailout funds during its nearly decade-long financial crisis.

The vote pitches conservative Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, 55, a Harvard-educated former banking executive, against 48-year-old Alexis Tsipras, who heads the left-wing Syriza party and served as prime minister during some of the financial crisis’ most turbulent years, as the two main contenders.

The rising cost of living was at the forefront of many voters’ minds as they headed to polling centers set up in schools across the country.

“Every year, instead of improving, things are getting worse,” said Athens resident Dimitris Hondrogiannis, 54, “Things are expensive. Every day, things are getting out of control. It’s enough to make you afraid to go to the supermarket to shop. We’ll see how things go.”

Hondrogiannis said he hoped for a stable government that would help reduce prices for food and general goods. “People cannot make ends meet,” he said.

Although Mitsotakis has been steadily ahead in opinion polls, a newly introduced electoral system of proportional representation makes it unlikely that whoever wins the election will be able to garner enough seats in Greece’s 300-member parliament to form a government without seeking coalition partners.

The winner of Sunday’s election will have three days to negotiate a coalition with other parties. If that fails, the mandate to form a government passes to the second party and the process is repeated. But deep divisions between the two main parties and four smaller ones expected to enter parliament mean a coalition will be hard to come by, making a second election likely, probably on July 2.

The second election would be held under a new electoral law which makes it easier for a winning party to form a government by giving it a bonus of up to 50 seats in parliament, calculated on a sliding scale depending on the percentage of votes won.

A total of 32 parties are running, although opinion polls have indicated only six have a realistic chance of meeting the 3% threshold to gain seats in parliament.

Greece’s once-dominant socialist Pasok party is likely to be at the center of any coalition talks. Overtaken by Syriza during Greece’s 2009-2018 financial crisis, the party has been polling at around 10%. Its leader, Nikos Androulakis, 44, was at the center of a wiretapping scandal in which his phone was targeted for surveillance.

Pasok would be vital in any coalition deal, but Androulakis’ poor relationship with Mitsotakis, who he accuses of covering up the wiretapping scandal, mean a deal with the conservatives is unlikely. His relationship with Tsipras is also poor, accusing him of trying to poach Pasok voters.

The far-right Greeks Party, founded by a jailed former lawmaker with a history of neo-Nazi activity, was banned from participating by the Supreme Court. His former party, Golden Dawn, which rose to become Greece’s third largest during the financial crisis, was deemed to be a criminal organization.

In the run-up to the election, Mitsotakis had enjoyed a double-digit lead in opinion polls, but saw that erode following a rail disaster on Feb. 28 that killed 57 people after an intercity passenger train was accidentally put on the same rail line as an oncoming freight train. It was later revealed that train stations were poorly staffed and safety infrastructure broken and outdated.

The government was also battered by a surveillance scandal in which journalists and prominent Greek politicians, including Androulakis, discovered spyware on their phones. The revelations deepened mistrust among the country’s political parties at a time when consensus may be badly needed.

Tsipras has campaigned heavily on the rail disaster and the wiretapping scandal.

In power since 2019, Mitsotakis has delivered unexpectedly high growth, a steep drop in unemployment and a country on the brink of returning to investment grade on the global bond market for the first time since it lost market access in 2010, at the start of its financial crisis.

Debts to the International Monetary Fund were paid off early. European governments and the IMF pumped 280 billion euros ($300 billion) into the Greek economy in emergency loans between 2010 and 2018 to prevent the eurozone member from bankruptcy. In return, they demanded punishing cost-cutting measures and reforms that saw the country’s economy shrink by a quarter.

A severe recession and years of emergency borrowing left Greece with a whopping national debt that reached 400 billion euros last December and hammered household incomes, which will likely need another decade to recover.

Retired Bank of Greece employee Evangellos Tassis, 78, said he can still make ends meet with his pension. “We’re from an older generation and we were a bit lucky. You young people have it hard now,” he said.

Tassis said he hoped the election would produce “better days. That’s it. What else can I say?”

The other three parties with realistic chances of parliamentary seats are Greece’s Communist Party, or KKE, led by Dimitris Koutsoumbas; the left-wing European Realistic Disobedience front (MeRA25), led by Tsipras’ flamboyant former finance minister; and the right-wing Elliniki Lysi, or Greek Solution, headed by Kyriakos Velopoulos.

The KKE, a staple of Greek politics, has seen a steady core of support around 4.5%-5.5% over the past decade, while Varoufakis’ party has been polling at just over the 3% parliamentary threshold. Velopoulos’ party elected 10 lawmakers in 2019 and looks set to enter parliament again.
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In Hiroshima, Japan, the Group of Seven industrial powers Sunday convened the summit’s working session on the war in Ukraine, guest starring Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Ukrainian president made his dramatic entrance to city the day earlier in a French plane, following his appearance at the Arab League summit in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, Friday, where he appealed for support for Ukraine’s efforts to defend itself against Russian aggression.

Dressed in his signature sweater, Zelenskyy addressed the G7 as the group announced more military, financial and humanitarian support to his country. G7 member countries also increased sanctions and export controls on Russia and measures to crack down on those helping Moscow evade them.

But the biggest boost for Kyiv is the United States finally deciding to allow its allies to provide their American made F-16 fighter jets and train Ukrainian pilots to fly them. In a meeting scheduled for Sunday afternoon, Zelenskyy will no doubt thank U.S. President Joe Biden for finally agreeing to his request for F-16s after months of refusal because of concerns over escalating the conflict. The fighter jets will modernize Ukraine’s current fleet, which mostly consists of Soviet-era aircraft.

Prior to his address at the G7, Zelenskyy held individual meetings Saturday with the group’s leaders, including British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, French President Emmanuel Macron and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. In the evening he met with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who has been criticized for refusing to condemn Russia’s invasion.

He met Sunday morning with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and is scheduled to meet summit host Japanese Prime Minister Kishida later in the day.

In their communique released Saturday, G7 leaders again condemn the war in Ukraine “in the strongest possible terms.”

“Russia’s brutal war of aggression represents a threat to the whole world in breach of fundamental norms, rules and principles of the international community,” the statement said. “We reaffirm our unwavering support for Ukraine for as long as it takes to bring a comprehensive, just and lasting peace.”

Invited guests attending the G7 working session on Ukraine in person include leaders of Australia, Brazil, Comoros, Cook Islands, Indonesia, India, South Korea and Vietnam. Their participation is part of Kishida’s outreach to the Global South, where many countries bear the brunt of the impact of the war on food and energy prices.

Hours after Zelenskyy’s arrival in Japan, Moscow announced that its forces had occupied Bakhmut, the eastern Ukrainian city that Zelenskyy’s troops have tried to defend for months. 
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Tens of thousands of people rallied in Serbia’s capital Friday for a third time in a month in protest at the government’s handling of a crisis after two mass shootings in the Balkan country earlier this month, even as officials rejected the criticism and ignored their demands. 

In a show of defiance, the nationalist right-wing party of autocratic Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic organized a counter-protest in a town north of Belgrade attended by thousands of his supporters. 

The opposition protesters in Belgrade were chanting slogans against Vucic, demanding the resignations of two senior ministers and the revocation of broadcasting licenses for two TV networks which, they say, promote violence and glorify crime figures. 

Prime Minister Ana Brnabic and other government officials attended a parliamentary session Friday focusing on the May 3 and May 4 shootings and the opposition demands to replace the interior minister and the intelligence chief following the carnage that left 18 people dead, many of them children. 

The two shootings stunned the nation, especially because the first one happened in an elementary school in central Belgrade when a 13-year-old boy took his father’s gun and opened fire on his fellow students. Eight students and a school guard were killed, and seven more people wounded. One more girl later died in hospital from head wounds. 

A day later, a 20-year-old used an automatic weapon to randomly target people he ran into in two villages south of Belgrade, killing eight people and wounding 14. 

Brnabic rejected allegations that the populist authorities were in some way responsible for the shootings. Instead, she accused the opposition of fueling violence in society and threatening President Aleksandar Vucic. Brnabic blasted the opposition-led protests as “purely political,” saying they were intended to topple Vucic and the government by force. 

“You are the core of the spiral of violence in this society,” Brnabic told opposition lawmakers. “You are spewing hatred.” 

She also said that “everything that has happened” in Serbia after the mass shootings was “directly the work of foreign intelligence services,” adding that her government could be changed only by the will of the people in elections and not on the streets. 

The opposition gathering Friday evening outside the parliament building in Belgrade, is the third since the shootings. The two previous gatherings drew tens of thousands of people who marched peacefully, only occasionally chanting slogans against Vucic. 

Authorities have launched a gun crackdown in the aftermath of the shootings and sent police to schools in an effort to boost a shaken sense of security. 

Faced with public pressure, the increasingly autocratic Vucic has scheduled a rally of his own for next week in the capital while suggesting that the entire government could resign, and a snap vote be called for September. 

He also attended his party’s rally Friday in the town of Pancevo that started at the same time as the opposition-led protest in the capital. 

In his speech, Vucic mirrored his prime minister’s narrative, suggesting the opposition protests had been orchestrated from abroad. He accused his political opponents of trying to take power through violence and “destroy Serbia.” 

“There can be no (coming to) power without elections,” Vucic told the crowd. “I will never serve foreigners.” 

Earlier in the parliament, Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic, whose resignation is demanded by protesters, defended the police measures in the aftermath of the shootings. He also told parliament that citizens have so far handed over more than 23,000 weapons and over 1 million rounds of ammunition since a one-month amnesty was declared May 8. 

“Police could not have known or predicted that something like this would happen,” he said of the school shooting, the first ever in Serbia. 

Gasic also confirmed media reports that a man who was recently released from a mental hospital fired an anti-tank missile Thursday at an empty house from a grenade launcher in the town of Ruma, outside Belgrade. No one was injured in the incident, and Gasic said two people were arrested. 

Serbia is flooded with weapons left over from the wars of the 1990s, including rocket launchers and hand grenades. Other gun-control measures declared in the wake of the shootings include better control of gun owners and shooting ranges, a moratorium on new licenses and harsh sentences for possession of illegal weapons. 
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Spanish authorities said Saturday that firefighters and soldiers were managing to contain a blaze in the country’s west that has forced hundreds of people to evacuate from nearby villages, as strong winds eased.

“Today we’re hoping to strike a blow against this fire … It’s a very intense task,” said civil protection coordinator Nieves Villar, adding that conditions were improving as high wind speeds of recent days dropped back.

Despite that improvement, Villar said authorities were “still far from saying this fire is under control,” with winds expected to calm on Sunday, when there is the possibility of light rain.

Local authorities have blamed arson for the wildfire that broke out Wednesday near the village of Pinofranqueado in the sparsely populated region of Extremadura bordering Portugal.

The flames have ravaged some 3,500 hectares (8,500 acres) of forest and scrubland and forced the evacuation of around 700 people from several villages, the regional government said.

Villar said 600 firefighters had been deployed overall, including Portuguese colleagues. Backing them are 14 water-bombing aircraft, the regional agriculture ministry said.

Regional government leader Guillermo Fernandez Vara lashed out Friday against those who set fires that cause “irreversible damages that take decades to recover, if they ever recover.”

Vara added that strong winds of up to 60 kilometers (35 miles) an hour had made controlling the flames “extremely difficult.”

Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez cancelled his participation on Friday at a rally in Extremadura ahead of regional elections on May 28 because of the blaze.

Spain, which is experiencing long-term drought after three years of below-average rainfall, has already experienced multiple wildfires this year.

The drought was made worse by an unusually early heatwave at the end of April that brought exceptionally high temperatures normally seen only in summer.

Temperatures hit 38.8 degrees Celsius (101.8 degrees Fahrenheit) in the southern city of Granada on April 27, the highest ever recorded in mainland Spain during that month.

In 2022, a particularly bad year for wildfires in Europe, Spain was the continent’s worst-hit country.

Nearly 500 blazes destroyed more than 300,000 hectares, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.

Scientists say human-induced climate change is making extreme weather events including heatwaves and droughts more frequent and more intense. They increase the risk of fires, which emit climate heating greenhouse gases.
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Italy received offers of international aid on Friday for floods, described as its worst for a century, which killed 14 people and left thousands stranded in waterlogged homes or in evacuation centers.

As some areas began the clean-up following downpours earlier this week, others were newly evacuated on Thursday and authorities extended a red weather alert in parts of the Emilia Romagna region, where nearly two dozen rivers have broken their banks.

A mammoth rescue effort is underway after six months’ rain fell in 36 hours, with emergency services and the armed forces searching for people stuck in their homes — and those who lost their lives.

The latest victim found was a man recovered from a house in Faenza, a picturesque city usually surrounded by green pastures and vineyards left largely under water.

“As Italy reels from the worst flooding there in a century, WHO Europe sends condolences for the lives lost,” tweeted Hans Kluge, World Health Organization regional director for Europe, saying it was “ready to support… as needed.”

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni shared images of the disaster with fellow G7 leaders at their summit in Japan, prompting French President Emmanuel Macron to tweet that France was “ready to provide every useful help.”

Stefano Bonaccini, head of the Emilia Romagna region, called for a national plan to mitigate the impact of natural disasters, saying: “This must never happen again.”

More than 15,000 people have been evacuated from their homes across the region, as farmers survey the damage that Bonaccini has compared to an earthquake.

Over half the evacuees were expected to spend the night in local refuge centers set up in gyms or hotels.

Others received hot meals from mobile kitchens deployed in several cities.

‘Lost everything’

AFP reporters in Faenza found residents shoveling mud out of their homes, piling sodden mattresses, clothes and furniture together in mountains of waste.

“I lost everything except for these pajamas,” said Fred Osazuwa, 58, as he surveyed the mess left of his home.

“But me and my family, we are alive. I thank God.”

Pierluigi Randi, head of weather experts’ association Ampro, told the Repubblica daily it was the worst flood to affect Italy in a century.

The mayor of nearby Casola Valsenio, Giorgio Sagrini, told SkyTG24: “Landslides have cut us off from the rest of the world.”

“There are families stuck in their houses,” he said.

The town of Lugo was one of several reporting that food and water supplies were “running low.”

“We know you are tired, scared and worried,” the council said to its residents in a Facebook post.

“The emergency is not over… As much as possible, stay calm and be patient,” it said.

‘Climb as high as possible’

Authorities in Ravenna ordered several small towns to be evacuated on Thursday, while officials warned of the plight of hamlets up in the hills surrounding the city.

As rescue workers searched the filthy, debris-strewn waters, details emerged of the final moments of some of those who died.

Marina Giocometti told Corriere della Sera of the last moments of her neighbor, 75-year-old Giovanni Pavani, who was on the phone to her when waters began rushing in.

She advised him to stand on the table and said she would call the emergency services but the line suddenly cut out, she said.

One mother, Fabiana, 36, told Corriere she would “never forget” the selflessness of the man — a Serbian cook called Dorde — who helped carry her son to safety.

“I told my son it was a game and he had to climb as high as possible up whoever picked him up,” she said.

Sodden fruit

The downpour caused billions of dollars’ worth of damage, just a fortnight after the region was hit by another round of floods that left two people dead.

In Reda, near Faenza, 84-year-old farmer Giovanni Frega showed AFP his sodden peach and apricot trees and vines.

He is hoping the water will evaporate when the weather clears up but said there is a risk of falling fruit rotting.

“With all this water, the earth can’t breathe,” he said.

Formula One — which canceled Sunday’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix in Imola — on Friday said it was donating $1.1 million to relief operations, matching a pledge made by Ferrari.

The disaster has prompted questions nationally as to why more is not being done to mitigate the effects of climate change.

Experts warn such disasters are becoming the norm due to human-induced climate change, which is exacerbating both droughts and storms.

According to the Legambiente environmental association, 6.8 million Italians live in flood risk areas.

In 2014, then prime minister Matteo Renzi set up a task force called Italia Sicura (Safe Italy), entrusted with flood and landslide prevention.

But it was scrapped in 2018 by Giuseppe Conte — head of a coalition government uniting the populist Five Star Movement and right-wing League — and replaced with a project that failed to get off the ground.
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