Around the World briefs
By Associated Press
Thousands rally in Slovakia to mark the 2018 slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancee
BRATISLAVA, Slovakia | Thousands rallied in dozens of cities and towns across Slovakia on Wednesday to mark the sixth anniversary of the slayings of an investigative journalist and his fiancee amid a wave of anti-government protests.
Jan Kuciak and Martina Kusnirova, both age 27, were shot dead at their home in the town of Velka Maca, east of Bratislava, on Feb. 21, 2018.
Three people received stiff prison terms for their roles in the killings, including former soldier Miroslav Marcek, who pleaded guilty to shooting them.
Marian Kocner, a businessman who had been accused of masterminding the killings, has been acquitted twice. Prosecutors have said they believe Kocner paid Marcek to carry it out.
The journalist’s father, Jozef Kuciak, thanked people in the capital “for helping us in the fight for justice for our children.”
The killings prompted major street protests unseen since the 1989 anti-communist Velvet Revolution in Czechoslovakia. The ensuing political crisis led to the collapse of a coalition government headed then by populist Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Fico returned to power last year after his leftist party Smer (Direction) won the Sept. 30 parliamentary election on a pro-Russia and anti-American platform.
Known for his tirades against journalists, Fico has said that a major television network, two nationwide newspapers and online news website Kucia were working for his enemies and said he won’t communicate with them.
“(Fico) again makes a target from journalists and threatens freedom of press,” Pavol Szalai of media watchdog Reporters Without Borders told the crowd in Bratislava.
“Despite those six years, we still can hear threats against journalists,” President Zuzana Caputova said earlier Wednesday after lighting a candle at a monument for the two in downtown Bratislava.
An open statement signed by editors in chief of a number of major Slovak newspapers and other media organizations said that “we will never be silent.”
Thousands of people have repeatedly taken to the streets across Slovakia recently to rally against Fico’s plan to amend the penal code and eliminate the office of the special prosecutor that deals with major crime and corruption.
The changes already approved by parliament also include a reduction in punishment for corruption and some other crimes, including the possibility of suspended sentences, and a significant shortening of the statute of limitations, including for rape and murder.
A number of people linked to the prime minister’s party, including lawmakers, face prosecution in corruption cases.
The legislation faced sharp criticism at home and abroad, and Caputova has challenged it at the Constitutional Court.
Two people are dead and one
is missing in climbing accident
on Mexico’s highest peak
MEXICO CITY | Two people died and another remains missing on Mexico’s Pico de Orizaba, the highest mountain in the country, authorities said Wednesday.
Authorities in the central state of Puebla said late Tuesday that rescuers had found the body of a guide who was leading an ascent of the 18,619 feet (5,675 meter) volcanic peak. Another person from the 12-member climbing group died earlier on the peak, which is also known by its Indigenous name Citlaltépetl.
The guide’s body was found at an altitude of about 15,000 feet, and was being brought down from the mountain on Wednesday.
But the state interior department said the search continues for another climber from the group who was still missing.
The state civil defense office said the group had started up the mountain on Saturday, but lost their way amid difficult weather conditions. Five made it down on their own on Sunday, and four others were rescued on the mountain.
Accidents on the peak are not uncommon, and since 2015 rescuers and climbers have found at least three mummified bodies in the snow there. They apparently were climbers lost in a 1959 avalanche.
In 2018, the U.S. Embassy in Mexico said a member of the U.S. diplomatic mission died while climbing on the mountain.
In November 2017, another American climber died and seven others were rescued on the mountain.
In 2023, four Mexican citizens died in a climbing accident on the Pico de Orizaba.
Thousands of farmers advance
on Madrid for a major tractor protest over EU policies
MADRID | Hundreds of farmers drove their tractors into central Madrid on Wednesday as part of ongoing protests against European Union and local farming policies and to demand measures to alleviate production cost hikes.
The protest, the biggest to take place in the Spanish capital after more than two weeks of daily protests across the country, will include a rally outside the Agriculture Ministry headquarters.
Many of the tractors flew Spanish flags and some farmers carried banners reading, “There is no life without farming,” and “Farmers in Extinction.”
“It is impossible to live from the rural industry, which is what we want, to live from our work. That is all we ask for,” Silvia Ruiz, 46, a livestock farmer from the north-central area of Burgos told The Associated Press.
The Union of Unions organizing group said they were bringing 500 tractors and many more farmers on buses. Many of the tractors may have to stay outside of the city because of government restrictions.
Similar protests have taken place across the bloc in recent weeks. Farmers complain that the 27-nation EU’s policies on the environment and other matters are a financial burden and make their products more expensive than non-EU imports.
Spain and the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, have made some concessions in recent weeks but farmers say they are insufficient.
Besides EU policies, Spanish farmers maintain that a law aimed at guaranteeing that wholesale major supermarket buyers pay fair prices for their goods isn’t being enforced while consumer prices soar.
In neighboring France, the EU’s largest agricultural producer, the government of President Emmanuel Macron is also under intense pressure from angry farmers who held major demonstrations last month and have since continued with more scattered protests to push for better pay and other assistance.
Macron is expected to attend the opening of France’s major annual agricultural fair this weekend in Paris. Ahead of that test, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal sought Wednesday to convince the agricultural sector that he is speeding ahead with promised efforts to make farming more lucrative and simpler.
“In recent weeks, across Europe, farmers have made themselves heard with a cry of anger, a cry that comes from deep down,” he said. “Behind this cry is, most of all, a call for action.”
Attal promised draft legislation by the summer to strengthen the hand of French farmers in commercial negotiations with distributors over prices for their produce. He also promised measures to make it easier and cheaper for farmers to hire seasonal workers, including from abroad.
Attal also said his government is working to protect French farmers against imports from Ukraine of chicken, eggs, sugar and cereals.
“Solidarity with Ukraine is obviously essential, but it cannot be to the detriment of our farmers,” the prime minister said.
Singapore Airshow kicks off with aerial displays; Boeing and China’s COMAC announce new orders
SINGAPORE | The Singapore Airshow — Asia’s largest — kicked off Tuesday with an array of aerial displays including some by China’s COMAC C919 narrow-body airliner, with aircraft manufacturers such as COMAC and Boeing announcing new orders.
It’s the first time Singapore will open the event to the public since 2020, when a scaled-down version went ahead as the COVID-19 pandemic was just starting.
The biennial show comes as Asia’s aviation sector is taking off following the hard years of the pandemic, when many countries in the region closed their borders to most international travel.
Subhas Menon, director general of the Association of Asia Pacific Airlines, said that this year’s show was “back in full swing” with over 1,000 exhibitors.
“The Singapore Airshow is a good opportunity for exhibitors to show off the direction they’re going, in terms of technology like autonomous vehicles and so forth,” Menon said in an interview Tuesday.
He said passenger loads in the region are nearly back to pre-COVID levels, and that Asia Pacific is expected to account for 50% of the growth in air travel demand this year.
But even as the aviation sector bounces back, the industry faces a broader supply chain crunch, with parts and plane shortages and shortages of personnel, from air crews to pilots.
“Supply chain issues are definitely affecting the timely delivery of aircraft and spares, and that’s one of the reasons why capacity growth is lagging behind traffic growth,” Menon said.
“We do not know when this will ease as it’s related to trade tensions and geopolitical problems that are happening around the world,” he said.
On Tuesday, China’s Tibet Airlines finalized an order for 40 C919 passenger jets and 10 ARJ21 regional jets from the Commercial Aircraft Company of China (COMAC). The two companies signed the deal on the sidelines of the airshow.
COMAC’s C919 is a narrow-body airliner, similar to the Airbus A320neo and Boeing’s 737 Max jets. COMAC designed many of the C919’s parts but some of its key components, including its engine, are still sourced from the West.
The orders come as COMAC attempts to position itself as a viable option for single-aisle jets, as companies like Boeing and Airbus grapple with a backlog of orders.
The company has received over 1,000 orders for its C919, according to Chinese media, although the plane is currently only certified in mainland China. Four C919s are currently operational with China Eastern Airlines.
The C919’s debut at the show is the first time the jet has made a trip outside Chinese territory, though the aircraft performed a fly-past in Hong Kong in December in its first foray outside of mainland China.
Separately, Boeing and Thai Airways on Tuesday jointly announced that the airline had ordered 45 787 Dreamliners to grow its fleet as it seeks to expand its international network.
The flying display — a highlight of the biennial air show — saw Singapore’s air force perform an aerial display with a F-15SG fighter jet and an AH-64D Apache helicopter. COMAC’s C919 and Airbus’ widebody A350-1000 aircraft also performed fly-pasts.
The Indian air force’s Sarang helicopter team showed off an array of aerial acrobatics, while the Indonesian air force’s Jupiter and the Australian air force’s Roulettes performed acrobatic maneuvers, including crossovers and drawing giant hearts in the sky.
The South Korean air force’s Black Eagles, flying in their acrobatic aircraft T-50B, were the finale of Tuesday’s aerial display, performing maneuvers including the drawing of the Taegeuk — the yin-yang circle found on the South Korean flag — via the jets’ smoke system.
The U.S. Air Force’s B-52 Stratofortress is expected to make a fly-past on Thursday.
U.S. aircraft manufacturer Boeing will not be featuring any passenger jets at the show. The firm is under scrutiny after a midflight blowout of a fuselage panel on one of its 737 Max 9 jets last month.
This year’s airshow is also expected to spotlight sustainable aviation, with Airbus using a blend of sustainable aviation fuel made of feedstock from cooking oil and tallow, together with conventional jet fuel for the A350-1000 aircraft in its aerial display.
Singapore said this week it will impose a new green jet fuel levy on travelers from 2026, as flights departing from Singapore will be required to use sustainable aviation fuel that year.
Hyundai’s U.S.-based Supernal unit, which specializes in advanced mobility aircraft such as air taxis, is also an exhibitor in this year’s airshow.
The event, which runs from Feb. 20 to 25, is expected to draw more than 50,000 visitors, with the last two days open to the general public. More than 1,000 companies from over 50 countries are participating.
—From AP reports
