World

President Emmanuel Macron starts a three-day visit Thursday to Algeria to help mend ties with the former French colony, which this year marks its 60th anniversary of independence.

The first French president to be born after Algerian independence, Macron is hoping “to lay a foundation to rebuild and develop” a sometimes difficult relationship with the North African nation, his office said.

Accompanied by seven ministers, Macron will be met at the airport in the capital Algiers by President Abdelmadjid Tebboune at around 3:00 pm (1400 GMT).

The two heads of state will visit a monument to martyrs of the country’s war for independence, which ended more than 130 years of French colonial rule with Algeria’s independence in 1962.

Franco-Algerian relations have seen repeated crises since then.

The French leader, on his second visit to Algeria since he took power in 2017, “has chosen to direct this visit towards the future, (focusing on) start-ups, innovation, youth, new sectors,” the Elysee said on Tuesday.

Macron, alongside a 90-strong delegation, will meet entrepreneurs in Algiers as well as young people in the second city Oran.

Ties between Paris and Algiers have been particularly stormy since last year, when Macron questioned Algeria’s existence as a nation before the French occupation and accused the government of fomenting “hatred towards France”.

Tebboune withdrew his country’s ambassador in response and banned French military aircraft from its airspace.

– Better ties ‘a necessity’ –

But Macron’s office issued a statement saying he “regretted” the misunderstandings caused by his comments, and his aides believe that both sides have moved on.

They note the resumption of normal diplomatic relations and overflights to French army bases further south in Africa.

Analyst Mansour Kedidir said that “given instability in the Maghreb region, conflicts in the Sahel and the war in Ukraine, improving ties between France and Algeria is a political necessity”.

Macron and Tebboune will discuss the situation in Algeria’s southern neighbour Mali, as well as the growing regional clout of Russia, Algeria’s top arms supplier.

France’s latest efforts to mend ties comes as Algeria moves to fill a vast shortfall in gas supplies to Europe following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

European nations are seeking to end their dependence on Russian hydrocarbons, giving Algeria — Africa’s biggest gas exporter with direct pipelines to Spain and Italy — renewed clout.

“The French president will certainly ask Algeria to make an effort to try to increase its gas production,” said Algerian economist Abderrahmane Mebtoul.

But Macron’s office has said that gas is not a major feature of the visit, and an advisor said the trip is “about being oriented towards the future”.

– ‘Different discourse’ –

Macron has long ruled out issuing an apology for the highly sensitive issue of colonialism, but he has made a series of gestures aimed at healing past wounds.

In Algiers, few have much sympathy towards the French leader, who during his first election campaign in 2017 had described French colonialism as a “crime against humanity”.

“Before he was president, he used nice words, he visited (Algeria), but right after he went back to France, he changed,” said computer scientist Othmane Abdellouche, 62. “He used a totally different discourse”.

French historians say half a million civilians and combatants died during Algeria’s bloody war for independence, 400,000 of them Algerian. The Algerian authorities say 1.5 million were killed.

Tebboune’s office said in October that over 5.6 million Algerians were killed during the colonial period.

Algerian rights groups have also urged Macron not to overlook human rights abuses by the government that came to power after long-time leader Abdelaziz Bouteflika stepped down in 2019.

Tebboune, a prime minister under Bouteflika, has clamped down on the Hirak opposition movement that forced his predecessor to resign.

The widely criticized police officer in charge of the response to the Uvalde, Texas school shooting that saw 19 children and two teachers killed was fired Wednesday, US media reported.

The Uvalde school board voted unanimously to terminate the contract of district police chief Pete Arredondo, the Texas Tribune reported.

The state’s public safety chief previously said Arredondo had placed “the lives of officers before the lives of children” and made “terrible decisions” while managing the crime scene. 

Nineteen young children and two teachers were killed when a teenage gunman went on a rampage at Robb Elementary School on May 24 in America’s worst school shooting in a decade. Police eventually shot and killed the gunman.

Local police have been under intense scrutiny since it emerged that more than a dozen officers waited for over an hour outside a pair of adjoining classrooms where the shooting was taking place and did nothing as children lay dead or dying inside.

Arredondo, who was suspended in June pending an investigation, earlier on Wednesday asked for his suspension to be lifted through a statement from his lawyer, criticizing his treatment since the shooting.

“Chief Arredondo will not participate in his own illegal and unconstitutional public lynching and respectfully requests the Board immediately reinstate him, with all backpay and benefits and close the complaint as unfounded,” lawyer George Hyde said in a statement released shortly before the school board’s vote.

Texas state lawmakers also slammed Arredondo in a report last month, saying he “did not assume his preassigned responsibility of incident command” and made analytical errors because he did not have all the necessary information. 

The lawmakers said the situation was “chaotic” due to the 376 on-scene officers’ “lackadaisical approach” to subduing the gunman. 

They said no other officers offered to help or replace Arredondo during the massacre.

Seventy-three minutes elapsed between the first officers’ arrival and the shooter’s death, an “unacceptably long period of time.”

“The void of leadership could have contributed to the loss of life,” the report said.

“It is plausible that some victims could have survived if they had not had to wait 73 additional minutes for rescue,” according to the report.

Following the release of the Texas lawmakers’ report, local media reported that Uvalde police lieutenant Mariano Pargas had been suspended while the city investigated his role in the shooting response. 

The United States has faced a spate of brutal gun massacres in recent months, including at a grocery store in a predominately Black neighborhood in New York state and at an Independence Day parade in Illinois.

In June, US lawmakers broke a decades-long stalemate on firearms control, passing the first major safety regulations in almost 30 years, less than 24 hours after the Supreme Court bolstered the constitutional right to bear arms.

Pope Francis, who recently raised the possibility of retiring due to his declining health, will create 20 new cardinals on Saturday — many of whom could one day choose his successor.

It is the eighth consistory since the 85-year-old was elected in 2013, but is being particularly closely watched for signs of the kind of Catholic Church he hopes to leave behind.

The new cardinals include men known for their progressive views and their pastoral work, and they hail from around the world: from Brazil to Nigeria, India, Singapore and East Timor.

After Saturday’s swearing-in at St Peter’s Basilica, they will join a two-day meeting of all cardinals starting Monday.

The gathering was called earlier this year to discuss the pope’s new constitution for the governance of the church — but has only fuelled speculation he is on his way out.

Francis, who has cancelled numerous events in recent months and been forced to use a wheelchair due to knee pain, said last month “the door is open” to stepping down.

If he did follow his predecessor Benedict XVI and resign, a conclave involving all cardinals aged under 80 would be called to choose a successor.

After this weekend, Francis will have chosen around 90 out of the 132 cardinals eligible to elect a new pope, around two-thirds of the total — precisely the percentage needed for any proposed name to pass.

– Global choices –

The naming of cardinals, normally an annual event, is always scrutinised as an indication of the future direction of the Catholic Church and its priorities for its 1.3 billion faithful.

But Francis’s choices for cardinals do not automatically guarantee that the next pope would be someone reflecting his own priorities, Vatican specialist Bernard Lecomte told AFP. 

“We always have the impression there will be continuity, but in reality, history has shown the opposite,” said Lecomte, citing the “balancing” from one pope to the next throughout the 20th century. 

Francis’ papacy has been defined by efforts to make the Church more inclusive, transparent and focused on the most vulnerable members of society.

This year the Argentine pontiff completed a major shake-up of the Vatican’s powerful governing body, the Roman Curia, which makes winning new converts a priority.

He has named cardinals who have rejected Church hierarchy and status quo and helped to counter the centuries-long hegemony of Europeans.

Virgilio Do Carmo Da Silva, the archbishop of Dili, will on Saturday become the first cardinal of tiny East Timor, an overwhelmingly Catholic nation in Southeast Asia.

Another new appointment is Robert McElroy, the 68-year-old bishop of San Diego, California, who has supported gay Catholics and criticised moves to deny Communion to US politicians — like President Joe Biden — who support abortion.

Two years ago, the pope made history by creating the first African-American cardinal — Wilton Gregory, the archbishop of Washington. 

And Saturday will also see the creation of the youngest cardinal in the world, 48-year-old Italian missionary Giorgio Marengo, who works in Mongolia.

– Curia insiders –

The group also includes Nigeria’s Peter Okpaleke, the bishop of Ekwulobia, and Leonardo Ulrich Steiner, archbishop of Manaus, Brazil. 

Three future cardinals already hold positions in the Curia: Arthur Roche of Britain, Lazzaro You Heung-sik of South Korea, and Fernando Vergez Alzaga of Spain.

Lucas Van Looy, the 80-year-old bishop emeritus of Ghent, was nominated as a cardinal but asked to be exempted following criticism of his handling of child sexual abuse by priests in Belgium. 

On Saturday, the future cardinals will kneel one by one at the feet of the pontiff, who will place on their heads the quadrangular scarlet cap, or biretta. 

The ceremony will be followed by the Vatican’s traditional “courtesy visit,” in which the new cardinals greet the general public.

Los Angeles County must pay $31 million in damages to Kobe Bryant’s widow and a co-plaintiff over graphic photos taken at the site of the helicopter crash that killed the basketball star and eight others, a jury ordered Wednesday.

Sheriff’s deputies and firefighters who rushed to the scene of the January 2020 crash snapped pictures of the carnage, including the mangled remains of the Los Angeles Lakers legend and his 13-year-old daughter, Gianna.

A trial in Los Angeles heard how some of these first responders showed the photographs to members of the public — including a bartender — while one deputy texted them to a friend as the pair played video games.

Vanessa Bryant and Chris Chester, whose wife, Sarah, and daughter, Payton, also perished in the crash, sued for emotional damages over the pictures, which they said they feared would one day surface on the internet.

The civil jury ordered the county to pay $16 million to Bryant, and $15 million to Chester, after deliberating for just a few hours.

The award represents redress for past and future suffering.

Bryant wept while the verdict was read and left court without speaking to waiting reporters.

She later posted a picture on Instagram of her with her late husband and daughter, with the caption: “All for you! I love you! JUSTICE for Kobe and Gigi!”

– ‘Accountability’ –

Chester’s lawyer on Tuesday had called for $1 million for every year of the plaintiffs’ expected lives, a figure that amounted to $40 million for 40-year-old Bryant, and $30 million for 48-year-old Chester.

“You can’t award too much money for what they went through,” said attorney Jerry Jackson.

Bryant’s lawyer Craig Lavoie said he was asking for “justice and accountability” for the basketball great — a hero to the city of Los Angeles — and his widow.

“We’re here because of intentional conduct. Intentional conduct by those who were charged with protecting the dignity of Sarah and Payton, and Kobe and Gianna.”

“The county violated Mrs Bryant and Mr Chester’s constitutional rights,” Lavoie said, asking the jury to hold the county liable for “the constitutional violations of its employees.”

For the county, Mira Hashmall said that while employees had broken confidentiality policies, Bryant and Chester’s privacy had not been violated because the pictures had never been in the public domain.

“This is a photo case, but there are no photos,” she told jurors earlier. “There’s a simple truth that cannot be ignored — there’s been no public dissemination.”

After the verdict, Hashmall said she and fellow lawyers would be consulting with the county about “next steps.”

“Meanwhile, we hope the Bryant and Chester families continue to heal from their tragic loss,” a statement said.

Relatives of other victims of the crash were last year granted a total $2.5 million in compensation over the photo-taking.

The jury’s order came as Los Angeles celebrated “Mamba Day” on August 24, or 8/24, the two numbers Kobe Bryant wore over 20 years as a professional.

An investigation into the crash found the pilot had probably become disoriented after flying the Sikorsky S-76 into fog as he transported his passengers to a girls’ basketball tournament in nearby Thousand Oaks.

Kobe Bryant is widely recognized as one of the greatest basketball players ever, a figure who became the face of his sport during a glittering two decades with the Los Angeles Lakers.

He was a five-time NBA champion in a career that began in 1996 straight out of high school and lasted until his retirement in 2016.

Russian authorities quickly blamed Ukraine for the car bomb that killed a Russian journalist last weekend, but intelligence experts say that although Kyiv is capable of orchestrating such an attack, the prospect is unlikely.

Daria Dugina, 29, who died Saturday outside Moscow, was the daughter of ultranationalist Alexander Dugin, a vocal supporter of the Ukraine invasion launched by President Vladimir Putin six months ago.

Kyiv has rejected the claim by Russia’s FSB security services that the killing was the work of a Ukrainian woman sent to track and eliminate Dugina, who later fled to Estonia.

“Could we get 400 grammes [just under a pound] of TNT into Russia? In theory, yes. Could we set a bomb? Yes,” a high-ranking member of Ukraine’s intelligence service told AFP on condition of anonymity.

“But the big problem is, what good would it do? Nobody in Ukraine even really knows about Dugin. Who would have something against his daughter? Killing her makes no sense,” the source said.

Since Russia’s seizure of the Crimean peninsula in 2014, Ukraine has effectively been waging a clandestine war against Russia, building out spy networks in preparation of future tensions.

“I think that since March there are Ukrainian logistical and operational networks in place in Russia… There are Ukrainians on the other side of the border,” said Gerald Arboit, an international intelligence expert at the CNAM research institute in Paris.  

However, “For this type of attack you’d need reconnaissance, to follow her, and then call in a team to carry it out — you’d need two or three people to booby-trap a car — one person alone couldn’t do it all,” he said.

He did not dismiss Ukrainian involvement, possibly with domestic Russian opposition groups, noting that Russia’s FSB security services had dismantled Ukrainian networks in recent years. 

– Counter-productive –

Getting Ukrainian agents into Russia would also require eluding Russian intelligence agencies presumably on high alert after six months of war.

“The assassination of Dugina took place in Moscow, which would be an incredibly hard target for the Ukrainian services to penetrate,” said Colin Clarke, research director at the Soufan Center in New York.

“But at the same time, I think it could be possible… elite Ukrainian special forces or intelligence assets are likely capable of pulling off the attack,” he said.

Experts also noted that Dugina’s killing would most likely serve Putin’s interests, fomenting anger that could bolster support for a general mobilisation to muster more soldiers for a war that has largely stalled in Ukraine’s south and east.

“I don’t rule out that Dugina was killed by the Russians to step up the Ukraine war, potentially with non-conventional weapons” such as thermobaric bombs, said a French intelligence source contacted by AFP.

Targeted assassinations of high-profile Russian targets, particularly a young woman, would also be counter-productive for Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is banking heavily on sympathy and military aid from Western allies.

“I don’t see the rationale of such an operation for the Ukrainians, which would be very complex to carry out,” said Alexander Grinberg, an analyst at the Jerusalem Institute for Security and Strategy.

“And I can’t imagine the Americans or British letting them do it,” he added. “It seems like an FSB ploy to undermine Kyiv, especially since Dugin doesn’t have any real influence at the Kremlin.”

Clarke agreed that if Ukraine were to assassinate a high-profile Russian, Dugina would not be its choice.

“I still suspect this was done by another entity, including the possibility that this was an inside job,” he said.

Six months into Russia’s invasion, Ukrainian officials are drawing up plans to make sure Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top military commanders will be tried for launching the war.

The plan for a special international tribunal to investigate Russia’s alleged “crime of aggression” is being spearheaded by Andrii Smirnov, deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential administration.

The definition of the crime of aggression was adopted in the 2010 Rome Statute, and the similar notion of “crime against peace” was used in trials in Nuremberg and Tokyo after the Second World War.

The International Criminal Court, which has been trying the gravest crimes for the past 20 years, is already investigating war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide in Ukraine.

But it cannot look into accusations of aggression because neither Ukraine nor Russia have ratified the Rome Statute.

This court is “the only way to make sure that the criminals who started the Ukraine war are held accountable quickly,” Smirnov told AFP.

“The world has a short memory. That’s why I would like this tribunal to start working next year.”

Ukraine knows that the accused will not be present, but this tribunal “will serve to make sure that these people are labelled as criminals, and that they cannot travel in the civilized world,” he said.

– International treaty drafted –

Ukrainian prosecutors have identified some 600 suspects in the aggression so far, including senior military officials, politicians and commentators.

An international treaty to set up the tribunal has been drafted, ready to be signed by governments.

The court’s decisions would then be recognised on the territory of the signatory countries, which means that any convicted offenders could be arrested there.

Smirnov said several countries are set to sign the document before the end of the year and negotiations are ongoing with “several European partners (who) are willing to host the tribunal.”

“We want this court’s decisions to be recognised” he said, arguing he “perfectly understands” that the court needs strong legitimacy.

Despite several reforms, Ukraine courts have been criticised for lack of independence and corruption in the past.

While Poland and the Baltic states — Ukraine’s closest partners — have been very supportive of the proposals, Germany and France have given more measured reactions.

Political considerations may explain this.

“Some countries, while acknowledging the aggression against Ukraine, are trying to keep a small window for negotiations with Vladimir Putin open,” Smirnov said.

But, even in Western Europe, support is slowly building for the idea.

The European Parliament called for a special international tribunal for crimes of aggression on May 19.

And, speaking at an international conference on war crimes in Ukraine in The Hague last month, Dutch Foreign Minister Wopke Hoekstra said the question of a special court was a “very valid point”.