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France reels from violence as mayors rebuke govt

MP ‘critically’ hurt in attack SYDNEY: Australian independent lawmaker Helen Haines was deliberately struck by a car yesterday and suffered “critical injuries”, authorities said, in what Prime Minister Anthony Albanese described as an attack. Haines was hit outside her office in Wangaratta, just over 200km northwest of Melbourne, police said. The 65-year-old “suffered what has been described as critical injuries” in the attack, Victoria Police Acting Superintendent Ashley Mason said, without identifying the victim in line with police custom in Australia. The 43-year-old male driver was detained by civilians, Mason said, and then arrested by police. “All of our thoughts are with Helen, her family, her friends, her team, and her community at this extremely difficult time. We are praying for her full recovery,” Albanese told journalists. The alleged attacker’s motive remained unknown, Albanese said, with the counter-terrorism squad activated. “Helen Haines is incredibly hardworking. She is fiercely intelligent, but most importantly, she’s just a thoroughly decent human being.” Victoria Police Acting Superintendent Ashley Mason told a press conference there was no further threat to the public. Haines’ family said in a statement: “We thank the swift assistance of bystanders and the dedicated health workers who assisted her and police for their response.” – AFP/Reuters SEX FIEND GETS MORE JAIL SEOU: The leader of the South Korean religious sect Jesus Morning Star was sentenced yesterday to a further 33 years in jail after being found guilty of sexually assaulting and abusing female followers. Jung Myung-seok, believed to be in his early 80s, is serving a 17-year sentence after being convicted of separate sexual assaults of followers. Those assaults occurred after he was released from prison following a 2008 rape conviction. In this latest case, Jung – who was featured in a Netflix documentary series In the Name of God: A Holy Betrayal about four South Korean religious leaders accused of various crimes – was accused of sexually assaulting and abusing 16 female followers for several years through 2022. Jung would serve the 33-year term after the earlier sentence, a Daejeon court official said. – Reuters JAPAN DEPLOYS MISSILES TOKYO: Japan kicked off a joint military exercise with the United States yesterday that will see a type of long-range missiles deployed outside their base for the first time. The Keen Sword drill, which runs through Oct 29, will be one of the largest exercises ever between the two allies, involving around 45,000 Japanese Self-Defence Forces personnel and 12,000 US troops. Japan’s Joint Staff previously said that long-range Type 25 surface to-ship guided missiles would be deployed at a training ground in the southern region of Kyushu. It will be the first time they have been deployed outside of their garrison in Kumamoto prefecture, Kyushu, since their arrival earlier this year. The missile, which has a range of 1,000km, can reach waters close to Taiwan, according to the Nikkei business daily and other local media. – AFP

BR I E F S

o Elysee slams minister for intelligence failures

demonstrations and protests. “But on Saturday ... for the first time, we had the feeling that whole sections of our cities had been left without protection,” the mayors, all from the centre-left, said. “We now need to patch the wounds of our cities and face up to the anger of our residents, aghast at this level of violence.” The start of school holidays yesterday looked likely to hand the government some immediate relief, but students were staging more gatherings and blockades in some places, including the Louvre gallery and Sciences Po university in central Paris.

the head of the Paris chamber of commerce, told BFM television. At the Place Vendome, home to many luxury hotels and boutiques, most shops were shuttered and surrounded by security guards, according to a Reuters reporter. The front door of a Dior boutique was smashed, while the windows were damaged in the stores of various other luxury brands in central Paris, including Rolex, Louis Vuitton, Ralph Lauren and Gucci. In Marseille, Ligue 1 club Olympique de Marseille said its official store on the city's historic main avenue had been looted.

PARIS: The mayors of France’s biggest cities demanded answers yesterday from the government to what they called a lack of preparation by security forces as the country licked its wounds from a weekend of rioting and looting. The protests followed weeks of student demonstrations with occasional bouts of street violence, rocking the country six months ahead of its next presidential election and increasing pressures over a weak economy and surging debt. French assets were underperforming broader European markets yesterday, though moves were more contained than at some other moments of recent political tension. Fears of tensions inside Macron’s fragile government over security shortcomings – coming just as the government needs to pass a much-needed Budget Bill to rein in its finances – could further unsettle investors. President Emmanuel Macron’s office said he had turned down his Interior Minister Laurent Nunez’s (pic) offer to resign, telling him instead to put an end to barricades and looting and be transparent over what Macron called “intelligence and foresight failings”. The mayors of Paris, Marseille and Lyon said in a joint op-ed published by the newspaper Liberation that they were used to US defence technology start-up Anduril jointly developed the extra large submarine drone with Australia’s defence scientists, and is building a Ghost Shark fleet for Canberra under a US$1.3 billion (RM5.3 billion) contract. The AUKUS partners of Australia, Britain and the US pledged this year to develop interchangeable payloads for drones used in undersea warfare, in addition to their nuclear submarine cooperation. Defence Industry Minister Pat Conroy said in Sydney yesterday that after secret trials three payloads had been approved to “do things we don’t want humans to do”. The Ghost Shark will carry up to 12 sea mines, equipment for special forces and Anduril’s Altius aerial drone that can be launched at sea to form swarms to conduct reconnaissance and strike, he told reporters. Potential adversaries will have to consider that any shipping container at an Australian wharf could have a Ghost Shark in it, he said. “Not only could there be Ghost Sharks in those shipping containers but those Ghost Sharks now have teeth,” he said. Australia, concerned at the rapid build-up of China’s navy and tensions in the South China Sea, is rapidly expanding its investment in drones. The Ghost Shark can travel long distances and would work in tandem with the crewed submarine fleet, officials said. “A range of other countries” had expressed interest in acquiring the Ghost Shark, Conroy said. China is focused on developing undersea sensors, weapons and autonomous vehicles to counter US submarines, the US Navy’s

France deployed 60,000 police and other security forces on Saturday, Interior Minister Laurent Nunez told France Inter radio, but acknowledged that wasn't enough to control violent crowds in “certain cities”. Macron’s office said yesterday that Nunez, a former Paris police chief, offered the president his resignation following the riots. Macron refused, but urged Nunez to urgently come up with new concepts “to put an end to the barricades and looting”, his office said. It added that Nunez also needed to “ensure transparency regarding the failures in foresight and intelligence that led to the violence”. European governments have advised citizens travelling to France to avoid large crowds and exercise caution. – Reuters

Marseille, one of the cities worst hit by the riots, put in place a ban on gatherings and demonstrations. French unions called for a new round of national strikes and demonstrations on Nov 5. At the weekend, hundreds of thousands took to the streets to protest over what many say are declining and dysfunctional public services that leave citizens to fend for themselves amid cost of-living pressures. In many places including Paris, Marseille and Lyon, peaceful protests were quickly hijacked by rioters, leading to scenes of vandalism and chaos. In Paris, at least 300 to 400 businesses were vandalised at the weekend, Dominique Restino,

Ghost Shark submarines grow some ‘teeth’ SYDNEY: Australia is boosting its undersea warfare capability by equipping its Ghost Shark autonomous submarine with “swarms” of aerial drones and sea mines, its Defence Ministry said yesterday.

Conroy speaks to the media in front of a Ghost Shark at an Anduril facility in Sydney. – AFPPIC

intelligence director told a US government committee in May. Anduril earlier this month won a US$2.9 billion US Navy contract to build components for the US

Navy’s Virginia-class submarine and said it will build a new submarine shipyard in the US. The US is seeking to speed up production so it can sell the submarines to Australia. – AFP