US says Russia, Ukraine took ‘big step’, will meet again next week
Ukraine and Russia agreed on Saturday to hold a second round of US-brokered direct peace talks next weekend after a two-day meeting in Abu Dhabi, despite Ukrainian complaints negotiations were undermined by a barrage of deadly strikes.The trilateral talks in the UAE will resume on February 1, a US official said, adding: “I think getting everyone together was a big step.”I think it’s a confirmation of the fact that, number one, a lot of progress has been made to date in really defining the details needed to get to a conclusion.” Russian and Ukrainian negotiators are last known to have met face-to-face in Istanbul last summer, in talks that ended only in deals to exchange captured soldiers.This week was the first time they have faced each other to talk about a plan being pushed by US President Donald Trump to end the nearly four-year war.Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said “a lot was discussed, and it is important that the conversations were constructive”. On the eve of day two, Russian drones and missiles cut off millions from electricity in sub-zero temperatures. Kyiv accused Moscow of undermining the negotiations by launching yet another “night of Russian terror”. AFP journalists saw people running through the streets to find shelter as explosions lit up the night sky over the capital Kyiv.After another sleepless night, weary Kyiv residents had little hope for a breakthrough in the nearly four-year war.”They’ll just say that everything is fine, that again, nothing has been agreed, and again there will be rockets,” said Anastasia Tolkachov, who had to spend a night in a car park. – ‘Again and again’ -A United Arab Emirates government spokesperson said the meetings, which involved top military officers from both sides, were held in a “constructive and positive atmosphere”.The talks focused on “outstanding elements of the US-proposed peace framework as well as confidence-building measures”, the spokesperson said.According to Zelensky, “the central focus of the discussions was the possible parameters for ending the war”. Both warring sides say the fate of territory in the eastern Donbas region is the main unresolved issue in the search for a settlement. Over a million people in Kyiv and Chernigiv were left without electricity in sub-zero temperatures due to Russian strikes. About half of Kyiv’s apartment blocks were cut off from heating, Ukrainian authorities said.”This night in Kyiv, it’s really all happening again and again,” Iryna Berehova, 48, told AFP, adding: “These explosions, these sleepless nights, these worries for our children, for our safety, they are very exhausting.” “These negotiations that are taking place don’t even give us any hope for the better.” The European Union, which has sent hundreds of power generators to Ukraine, has accused Moscow of “deliberately depriving civilians of heat”.Zelensky last week declared a state of emergency in the energy sector, which has been battered by relentless Russian strikes on heat and electricity supplies. The Moscow-installed governor in the occupied Kherson region, Vladimir Saldo, said a Ukrainian drone strike killed three people in an ambulance van heading to a sick man. While diplomacy to end Europe’s worst conflict since World War II has gained pace again, Moscow and Kyiv appear deadlocked over the issue of territory.- Donbas territory dispute -Trump met Zelensky at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday and US Steve Witkoff later held talks with President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.Hours after Putin met Witkoff — and Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — in Moscow, the Kremlin said its demand that Kyiv withdraw from the eastern Donbas region still stood, calling it “a very important condition”.Kyiv rejects it. “The Donbas is a key issue,” Zelensky told reporters on Friday, ahead of the talks in the UAE.Zelensky said he and Trump had agreed on post-war security guarantees in Davos.An initial US draft drew heavy criticism in Kyiv and western Europe for hewing too closely to Moscow’s demands, while Russia rejected later versions because they proposed European peacekeepers in Ukraine.Putin has repeatedly said Moscow intends to get full control of eastern Ukraine by force if talks fail.Trump has in the past pressured Ukraine to agree to terms that Kyiv sees as capitulation.
Macron veut l’interdiction des réseaux sociaux aux moins de 15 ans “dès la rentrée prochaine”
Emmanuel Macron a promis, dans une vidéo diffusée samedi par BFMTV, que le gouvernement engagerait “la procédure accélérée” pour que le texte sur l’interdiction des réseaux sociaux aux moins de 15 ans soit rapidement adopté par le Parlement et puisse entrer en vigueur à la rentrée prochaine. “J’ai demandé au gouvernement d’engager la procédure accélérée pour …
Meurtre d’une mère de famille à Nice: le suspect interpellé
La police a arrêté samedi à Grasse un homme de 45 ans recherché pour l’assassinat par balles mercredi à Nice de Lizabete, une jeune mère de 23 ans qui se trouvait avec son bébé dans une voiture.Visé par deux mandats d’arrêt, un national et un européen, le suspect, né au Portugal, serait un ancien compagnon de la belle-mère de la victime.Il a été arrêté samedi en début d’après-midi sur les hauteurs de Grasse, par les enquêteurs de la police judiciaire de Nice “avec l’appui” des policiers spécialisés de la Brigade de recherche et d’intervention (BRI) et du Raid, a indiqué le procureur de Nice, Damien Martinellia, dans un communiqué.Deux autres personnes ont été interpellées et placées en garde à vue samedi, soupçonnées de lui avoir apporté de l’aide, en le logeant pour l’une d’elles, selon une source policière.Les enquêteurs avaient rapidement porté leurs soupçons sur l’homme arrêté à Grasse, qui avait, quelques jours avant l’assassinat de mercredi, été placé en garde à vue pour des violences aggravées sur son ex-compagne.Déféré dimanche, il avait été placé sous contrôle judiciaire avec interdiction d’approcher cette femme.L’assassinat de Lizabete, qui a suscité une forte émotion à Nice, a eu lieu mercredi en début de soirée, à une intersection proche d’un lycée dans l’ouest de la ville.Un homme circulant à scooter s’est porté à la hauteur de la jeune femme, qui était au volant de son véhicule, et a tiré à une dizaine de reprises à bout portant au travers de la vitre.Arrivés rapidement sur les lieux, les pompiers ne sont pas parvenus à réanimer la jeune femme.Miraculeusement, la petite fille de la victime, Ayla, âgée de 7 mois, qui était sanglée à côté sur le siège passager dans un fauteuil bébé, n’a pas été blessée.La police a retrouvé le scooter utilisé par le suspect abandonné juste derrière la gare de Nice.Le procureur de Nice avait annoncé dès jeudi soir l’ouverture “d’une information judiciaire du chef de meurtre avec préméditation”.Le suspect a été placé en rétention samedi “pour une durée maximale de 24H00” dans le cadre de l’exécution d’un mandat d’arrêt et doit être présenté à un juge d’instruction, a-t-on précisé.- Un acte “barbare” -Tard mercredi soir, le Raid était déjà intervenu une première fois pour tenter d’interpeller le suspect à son domicile mais il ne s’y trouvait pas.Selon plusieurs médias locaux, cette opération avait eu lieu au sein d’une école située dans le nord de Nice, où l’homme travaillait et disposait d’un logement.À la suite de l’assassinat de Lizabete, les candidats aux municipales à Nice avaient décidé de mettre en pause pendant trois jours leur campagne. Juliette Chesnel-Le Roux (PS-PCF-Verts) s’était dite “sidérée et révoltée” par “cette violence d’une barbarie absolue”, appelant à cette initiative.Le maire de la ville, Christian Estrosi (Horizons), avait également appelé à “un esprit de solidarité et de décence”.Eric Ciotti, le candidat UDR-RN, avait accepté la proposition “face au choc immense qui a frappé notre ville”.Vendredi, un hommage a été rendu à la jeune victime à la mairie de Nice, la ville ayant promis d’accorder à sa fille le statut de pupille afin d’accompagner cette enfant jusqu’à sa majorité.Le maire a salué samedi sur X “le travail des enquêteurs, mené sous l’autorité du procureur de la République”, soulignant “l’apport déterminant”, selon lui, de la vidéoprotection.
Turkey pro-Kurd party urges end to Kobane siege
Turkey’s pro-Kurdish DEM party on Saturday called for the blockade on the Kurdish-majority city of Kobane in northern Syria to be lifted immediately, warning of a “humanitarian tragedy”.The situation in Kobane had escalated from a crisis into a “deadly catastrophe”, DEM said after sending a delegation to visit northeastern Syria which over the past week has been targeted by a major Syrian military offensive. The Kurdish-held city, which is also known as Ain al-Arab, is surrounded by the Turkish border to its north and government forces on all sides.It lies around 200 kilometres (125 miles) from the Kurds’ stronghold in Syria’s far northeast.”Both the military and humanitarian siege on Kobane must be lifted as soon as possible,” said DEM co-chair Tulay Hatimogullari. Kurdish forces have withdrawn from areas near Kobane over the past week following pressure from the Syrian military as President Ahmed al-Sharaa seeks to extend his control across the country. As the military offensive advanced, residents of surrounding villages flooded into Kobane, where they were now stranded, Hatimogullari said.”When we went, the snow was knee-deep… Electricity has been cut off, the internet is cut off, water is cut off. This is a great humanitarian tragedy,” she told a news conference.With Kobane’s access to fuel and heating cut off, DEM said four children had frozen to death on Saturday as a result of extreme cold and a lack of shelter. Pharmacies were empty and there was a severe shortage of flour, food and medicine, with hunger widespread, it said. “Guarantor countries… must urgently carry out their responsibilities to lift the siege on northern and eastern Syria,” she said.She was referring to the US and western allies who for years have thrown their support behind the Kurdish-dominated SDF forces that have been forced out of the area.- Another protest banned -Damascus is now demanding the SDF disband, and Washington has indicated its historical alliance with the force has served its purpose.Kobane is highly significant for the Kurds as it was overrun by Islamic State (IS) jihadists in 2014 but the city was liberated in January 2015 by US-backed SDF forces. Although SDF went on to spearhead the fight that forced IS out of Syria in 2019, Turkey has long viewed the force as linked to the Kurdish militant PKK and a major threat along its southern border. It has thrown its weight behind Damascus’s current military offensive, prompting fury from DEM and Turkey’s Kurdish community who have staged a number of protests against the offensive. In Istanbul, scuffles broke out during the afternoon as riot police sought to prevent around 300 people from protesting, firing riot balls and pepper spray to disperse them, an AFP correspondent said.A DEM lawmaker was injured and taken to hospital, local media said, and police could be seen making arrests but it was not clear how many. Earlier on Saturday Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan hailed the ongoing Syrian offensive against the SDF.”Terrorist organisations are being pushed out of those regions by the Syrian army.. All these sources of trouble for our country are being resolved,” he said. “When this separatist terrorist organisation is tackled once and for all in northern Syria, the whole region will benefit from it.”
Minnesota governor slams ‘another horrific shooting’ by federal agents
Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said Saturday that federal agents deployed in Minneapolis as part of a sweeping immigration crackdown had carried out “another horrific shooting,” less than three weeks after the fatal shooting of Renee Good.An unconfirmed video was circulating of a person who appears to have been shot during a street disturbance, with several gunshots heard and at least one person in the vicinity wearing a vest marked “POLICE.”The city government said it was “aware of reports of another shooting involving federal law enforcement in the area of 26th Street W and Nicollet Ave” and seeking more details.”I just spoke with the White House after another horrific shooting by federal agents this morning. Minnesota has had it. This is sickening,” Walz said on X. “The President must end this operation. Pull the thousands of violent, untrained officers out of Minnesota. Now.”Thousands of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents have been deployed to the Democratic-led city, as President Donald Trump presses his campaign to deport undocumented immigrants across the country.Minneapolis has been rocked by increasingly tense protests since federal agents shot and killed Good, a US citizen, on January 7.An autopsy concluded that the killing was a homicide, a classification that does not automatically mean a crime was committed.The officer who fired the shots that killed Good, Jonathan Ross, has neither been suspended nor charged.The detention of a five-year-old boy this week, as agents sought to arrest his father, rekindled public outrage.
Foot: première défaite de la saison en Bundesliga pour le Bayern, battu par Augsbourg (2-1)
Le Bayern Munich a subi sa première défaite de la saison en Bundesliga, battu 2 à 1 par Augsbourg samedi sur sa pelouse de l’Allianz Arena, à l’occasion de la 19e journée.Les Munichois avaient ouvert le score par le défenseur japonais Hiroki Ito (23e), mais ont ensuite perdu le fil de la rencontre et ont encaissé deux buts dans le dernier quart d’heure de jeu par Arthur Chaves (75e) et Han-Noah Massengo (81e).Le Bayern reste à 50 points et ouvre la porte au Borussia Dortmund (39), qui se déplace samedi en début de soirée (18h30) à Berlin sur la pelouse de l’Union. Les hommes de Niko Kovac ont l’occasion de revenir à 8 points du leader en cas de victoire.Les autres concurrents du Bayern en ont profité, puisque Hoffenheim est allé s’imposer sur la pelouse de l’Eintracht Francfort (3-1) après avoir été mené 1-0, Leipzig a fait la différence à Heidenheim en seconde période (3-0) et le Bayer Leverkusen a tenu sa victoire (1-0) sur sa pelouse contre le Werder Brême.Avec 36 points et un match en retard de la 16e journée à jouer sur la pelouse de Brême mardi, Hoffenheim conserve sa 3e place, un point devant Leipzig, qui doit aussi jouer un match en retard mardi, à St. Pauli. Leverkusen compte 32 points, mais jouera un match en retard à Hambourg contre le HSV début mars.Ce premier coup d’arrêt pour le Bayern est un signal avant de se déplacer mercredi à Eindhoven, où un match nul lui suffira pour conserver sa 2e place à l’issue de la phase de groupe de la Ligue des champions derrière Arsenal.