World

Russian forces launched an offensive Tuesday against the Azovstal steel plant, the last hold-out of Ukrainian forces in the battered southern port city of Mariupol, after a ceasefire that had allowed civilians to evacuate.

“Using artillery and aircraft, units of the Russian army and the Donetsk People’s Republic are beginning to destroy” the “firing positions” of the Ukrainian troops, the defence ministry said in a statement carried by Russian news agencies.

The ministry accused members of the Azov battalion and other Ukrainian troops of using a pause in fighting to take their combat positions at the plant.

It was not immediately clear what the attacks meant for the fresh attempt that had been planned Tuesday to evacuate civilians from the Azovstal complex, from where Kyiv said around 100 people had been brought out over the weekend.

Meanwhile Britain’s Boris Johnson became the first foreign leader since the war to address Ukraine’s parliament, promising another £300 million ($376 million, 358 million euros) in military aid.

Speaking via videolink, the premier evoked Britain’s fight against the Nazis in World War II in hailing Kyiv’s resistence as its “finest hour”, and vowed to help ensure “no-one will ever dare to attack you again”.

In a further attempt to punish Moscow for the February 24 invasion of its neighbour, the European Commission was also set Tuesday to propose a new package of sanctions, including an embargo on Russian oil.

Fighting meanwhile raged in the east and south of Ukraine, with Kyiv reporting attacks in and around Kharkiv, in the Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk regions.

At least nine people were killed Tuesday in the Donetsk region, according to regional governor Pavlo Kyrylenko, including three women in Vugledar as they tried to find water.

– ‘We don’t live, we survive’ –

The conflict has killed thousands of people and displaced more than 13 million, creating the worst refugee crisis in Europe since World War II.

The strategic southern port city of Mariupol has been under constant siege, with the last Ukrainian forces now confined to the sprawling Azovstal steel plant, where hundreds of civilians are also believed to be hiding in a maze of underground tunnels.

At the weekend, Kyiv said around 100 civilians were brought out although by mid-Tuesday, there was no sign of the planned convoy in Zaporizhzhia, 200 kilometres to the north-west, where a parking lot has been transformed into a reception centre.

“The evacuation continues,” the Ukrainian presidency said early Tuesday, before the Russian assault, following an agreement with the UN and the Red Cross.

Sviatoslav Palamar, deputy commander of Ukraine’s Azov military unit, said another 20 people were transferred out late Monday after a five-hour delay as “the enemy’s artillery caused new rubble and destruction”.

Elsewhere in Mariupol, residents are emerging from two months of hiding to find their once-vibrant city in ruins.

The city is now largely calm, AFP journalists saw on a recent press tour organised by Russian forces, with daily life dominated by the hunt for the most basic of essentials.

“We don’t live, we survive,” said Irina, a 30-year-old video game designer, as she gathered food and water from an aid distribution point. 

– ‘Never easy’ –

In the early weeks of the invasion, Russian forces encircled Ukraine’s capital Kyiv but have shifted to the east, including largely Russian-speaking areas, and south.

Russia’s defence ministry said Tuesday its forces had struck a logistics centre at a military airfield in the region around the Black Sea port of Odessa, used for the delivery of foreign-made weapons.

Storage facilities containing Turkey’s Bayraktar drones as well as missiles and ammunition from the United States and Europe have been destroyed, it said.

Local officials in Odessa, a largely Russian-speaking city and cultural hub, had on Monday said a 15-year-old boy died in a missile strike on a residential building there.

In the east, the Ukrainian military said Russians were continuing to advance towards Lyman and Sloviansk, a major urban hub in the eastern Donbas region whose capture would be a significant Russian gain.

Ukrainian soldiers in Lyman told AFP they have rigged with explosives a railway bridge over the Donets river on the way to Sloviansk, and were waiting for orders to blow it up.

“It’s never easy to destroy one of your own pieces of infrastructure. But between saving a bridge or protecting a city, there’s no question at all,” said one, going by the nom de guerre of “The Engineer”.

– ‘Sham referenda’ –

The United States warned on Monday that Moscow was preparing imminently to annex the eastern regions of Lugansk and Donetsk.

Pro-Russian separatists in the two regions declared independence in 2014, but Moscow has so far stopped short of formally incorporating them as it did that year with the Crimean peninsula. 

“Russia plans to engineer referenda upon joining sometime in mid-May,” said Michael Carpenter, the US ambassador to the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe.

He said Russia was considering a similar plan in a third region, Kherson, where Moscow has recently solidified control and imposed use of its ruble currency.

As with Crimea, he vowed that the international community would not support Russian-dictated changes to Ukraine’s borders.

“Such sham referenda — fabricated votes — will not be considered legitimate, nor will any attempts to annex additional Ukrainian territory,” Carpenter said.

– Bracing for new sanctions –

Western powers have levelled unprecedented sanctions against Russia over the war while delivering money and weapons to Ukraine.

The European Commission will on Tuesday propose to member states a new package of measures, including a phased-out ban on Russian oil, officials said.

The package will also target Russia’s largest bank, Sberbank, which will be excluded from the global banking communications system SWIFT.

After talks on Monday, EU warned member states to prepare for a possible complete breakdown in gas supplies from Russia, on which many EU countries are highly dependent.

EU and French officials said the 27-member bloc was united with Poland and Bulgaria, whose gas supplies were cut last week after they refused to pay in rubles.

burs-ar/lc

At least two people have died in a building that collapsed in central China, state media said Tuesday, the first fatalities reported four days into a rescue operation searching for dozens still missing.

The commercial building in Changsha city, Hunan province — which housed apartments, a hotel and a cinema — caved in on Friday, sparking a massive response with hundreds of emergency workers.

By Tuesday, the flattened structure — which has left a gaping hole in a dense Changsha streetscape — was still a mess of debris and crumbled concrete beams.

The official Xinhua news agency reported in the evening that two people have died, citing local officials.

According to a video published by the People’s Daily newspaper, emergency response expert Liang Buge said the two victims had showed “no signs of life”. 

“We tried to remove them from the site, but found that they were pinned down by heavy objects, and there was no way to move them,” he said. 

Earlier in the day, a woman — still alive — was pulled out from the structure by emergency workers, state media said, hailing it as a “miracle”.

The state-run People’s Daily said the woman was conscious and able to talk to rescuers through a small hole before being rescued, adding that her “vital signs were stable”.

She was the ninth person to be extracted from the debris in four days. 

State broadcaster CCTV showed footage of a person wrapped in a thick striped blanket being carried on a stretcher while other rescuers applauded.

CCTV also released footage of rescuers using a small camera and microphone to communicate with a woman trapped behind the rubble — though it is unclear if it was the same person rescued Tuesday.

“Please come and save me as soon as possible,” the woman could be heard pleading.

“We are trying to save you now and we can see your hands… If your legs aren’t comfortable, you should stay still and save your strength,” one rescuer responded.

At least 14 people are still known to be trapped in the rubble while no contact has been established with 39 others missing.

– ‘Illegal alteration’ –

CCTV wrote on its official social media page Tuesday: “Looking forward to more miracles.” 

The day before, an eighth survivor was recovered from the site despite having had her limbs pinned down by debris. Emergency medical workers had delivered a saline solution to her through three-metre tubes during a long rescue process, Xinhua said.

Eleven people — including the building’s owner and a team of safety inspectors — have been detained in connection with the collapse, including two people suspected of engaging in “illegal alteration” of the building, according to Changsha authorities.

Authorities have alleged that surveyors falsified a safety audit of the building. 

President Xi Jinping earlier called for a search “at all cost” and ordered a thorough investigation into the cause of the collapse, state media reported.

Building collapses are not uncommon in China due to weak safety and construction standards, as well as corruption among officials tasked with enforcement.

In January, an explosion triggered by a suspected gas leak brought down a building in the city of Chongqing, killing at least 16 people.

France’s left-of-centre parties were on Tuesday close to a broad alliance for June parliamentary polls, hoping that a united front can offer stiff opposition in President Emmanuel Macron’s second term after a disappointing presidential election.

Greens and Communists look to have fallen into line behind the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) movement, and the once-mighty Socialist Party (PS) is expected to follow.

“The different parts of the left are not as irreconcilable as all that,” PS negotiator Pierre Jouvet told Europe 1 radio.

He said the talks were “a few steps from a historic agreement” — while acknowledging that there were “some adjustments” to party programmes and constituency allocations to fine-tune before a deal was sealed.

“There are some sticking points, sometimes on policy but mostly about seats,” said LFI negotiator Manuel Bompard.

A strong showing from LFI leader Jean-Luc Melenchon saw him fall just short of reaching the second round run-off in the April presidential vote, while other left candidates were all but wiped out.

After Macron’s presidential win, Melenchon immediately called on voters to “elect him prime minister” and hand the left a National Assembly majority to block the centrist’s plans.

Surveys from recent days suggest most French voters would prefer Macron, widely attacked for his pro-business reforms seen as favouring the rich, to “cohabit” with a prime minister from another political school of thought.

Like the presidential election, the legislative polls in France’s 577 constituencies work in a two-round system — meaning alliances off the bat offer the best chance of making it to the run-off.

“I think that if we’re being reasonable, we have to get things finalised today” with just weeks until the first round on June 12, LFI lawmaker Eric Coquerel said.

– Fear of ‘disappearance’ –

At stake in the negotiations are important policy issues — with LFI’s proposal to unilaterally “disobey” the provisions of some European Union treaties a particular sticking point for more moderate potential allies.

Last week, the PS indicated that it could broadly accept 12 of Melenchon’s core policy proposals, including raising the minimum wage, reducing the retirement age to 60 and rolling back labour market reforms.

Party leaders appear determined to press on despite opposition from heavyweights like former president Francois Hollande, in power just five years ago before the Socialists’ precipitous fall from grace.

He has warned the proposed left-wing tie-up could amount to the “disappearance” of the Socialists.

Hollande “set Macron up for us” by naming the former banker economy minister in his government, LFI MP Francois Ruffin retorted on broadcaster BFM on Tuesday.

But other PS figures have called for any alliance deal to be subject to a vote by members — so far brushed off by the party’s negotiators.

Behind the euphoria at overcoming the traditionally fragmented French left’s differences, the junior partners are also eyeing how constituencies will be parcelled out between the parties, with each hoping to run on the united ticket in a maximum of “winnable” seats.

The Greens will run for 100 seats, with 30 seen as winnable, while the PS hopes to add to its existing parliamentary group of 25 MPs.

“Unbelievable that all these people supposedly shot through with principles are ready to abandon all convictions… for a handful of seats,” Sacha Houlie, a pro-Macron MP, tweeted on Monday.

“And they want to govern our country?” he added, potentially foreshadowing the majority’s line of attack on its new opponents.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has vowed to ban online cockfighting following outcry over the industry sparked by the disappearance of dozens of workers and concerns about the social costs of gambling.

Cockfighting is a popular sport in the Southeast Asian nation, but the Covid-19 pandemic forced the closure of traditional arenas where spectators flock to watch roosters wearing bladed spurs fight to the death.

The government instead granted franchises to seven firms to show the bloody contests and take bets online — known as “e-sabong” — 24 hours a day.

Duterte had previously rejected calls to stop the practice, noting that the roughly 640 million pesos ($12 million) in monthly taxes from the industry were helping to replenish government coffers depleted by the pandemic.

But in a recorded television address aired Tuesday, weeks before he leaves office, Duterte said “e-sabong will end by tonight”.

Interior Secretary Eduardo Ano had advised Duterte to ban it due to its “social impact”.

“This is his recommendation and I agree with it and it is good,” Duterte said.

A presidential palace official told AFP Tuesday that a ban had not yet been issued.

Online cockfighting came under scrutiny this year after the alleged kidnapping and suspected murder of 34 people who had supplied roosters to a licenced e-sabong operator.

Senator Ronald dela Rosa, a Duterte ally who chaired a public hearing into the sport in March, said the victims were suspected of sabotaging the roosters so they would lose their fights. They would then bet on the other roosters.

Online cockfight operators told the hearing that about three billion pesos were bet on cockfights in the Philippines every day.

The easy availability of e-sabong platforms also fuelled unease as reports emerged of fans becoming addicted to gambling, neglecting their work and families, and pawning assets for bets.

In one extreme case, a young Manila mother was accused of selling her eight-month-old daughter for about 45,000 pesos to a buyer she contacted through social media in March to pay off e-sabong debts.

Police said the girl was later found and the buyer arrested.

Traditional cockfighting operators have also been wary of the online version, which they said had effectively cornered all the money generated by the sport.

“Most of the other cockpit operators were unable to earn anything for more than two years already,” Alfredo Lamoste, a Manila-based pit manager, told AFP recently.

Spokespeople for e-sabong operators could not be reached for comment.