Serbia police clash with protesters calling for early election
Serbian police have clashed with a huge crowd of anti-government protesters demanding an early election and end to President Aleksandar Vucic's 12-year rule in the capital Belgrade.A sea of around 140,000 protesters rallied in the city, the largest turnout in recent months, as student-led demonstrations mount pressure on the populist government. "We want elections!" the crowd chanted.Dozens have been arrested, with riot police seen firing tear gas and stun grenades.President Vucic accused protesters calling for an election of being part of a foreign plot trying to usurp his country. "They wanted to topple Serbia, and they have failed," he wrote on his Instagram page.
On Friday, five people were detained, accused of plotting to overthrow the government, according to a statement from Serbia's Higher Court in Belgrade.Following the clashes, the police minister strongly condemned violence by protesters and said those responsible would be arrested.Months of protests across the country - including university shutdowns - have rattled Mr Vucic, whose second term ends in 2027 when there are also parliamentary elections scheduled.
Sladjana Lojanovic, 37, a farmer from the town of Sid in the north, said on Saturday she came to support students."The institutions have been usurped and... there is a lot of corruption. Elections are the solution, but I don't think he (Vucic) will want to go peacefully," she told Reuters.The president has previously refused snap elections. His Progressive Party-led coalition holds 156 of 250 parliamentary seats.Mr Vucic's opponents accuse him and his allies of ties to organised crime, corruption, violence against rivals and curbing media freedoms, which they deny.He has maintained close ties to Russia, and Serbia - a candidate for EU membership - has not joined the Western sanctions regime imposed on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.
Protests by students, opposition, teachers, workers and farmers began last December after 16 people died on 1 November in the collapse of Novi Sad railway station's roof. Protesters blame corruption for the disaster.The accident has already forced the former prime minister to resign.As Saturday's protest ended, organisers played a statement to the crowd, calling for Serbians to "take freedom into your own hands" and giving them the "green light"."The authorities had all the mechanisms and all the time to meet the demands and prevent an escalation," the organisers said in a statement on Instagram after the rally."Instead, they opted for violence and repression against the people. Any radicalisation of the situation is their responsibility."
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The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Thousands of Australian uni students will now receive $331 a week for practical placements. But not everyone's happy
Thousands of university and Tafe students will receive financial support to complete mandatory placements for the first time from Tuesday, in a major win for stakeholders who have spent years pushing the commonwealth to address 'placement poverty'. But not all students are eligible for the payments, and others say the federal government hasn't gone far enough to address a cost-of-living crisis facing young people. Here's what you need to know. From 1 July, eligible domestic students completing teaching, nursery, midwifery and social work degrees will be able to access $331.65 per week during mandatory practical placements, benchmarked to the single Austudy rate. It's equivalent to about $60 per day, or $8 an hour. The education minister, Jason Clare, said the payment would 'give people who have signed up to do some of the most important jobs in this country a bit of extra help to get the qualifications they need'. The federal government estimated about 68,000 higher education students and around 5,000 VET students would be able to access the means-tested support each year. Students would have to prove they weren't earning more than $1,500 per week and had worked more than 15 hours in a job outside of university prior to starting the placement to access the payments. International students have also been excluded. The payments were a recommendation of the Universities Accord, handed down to the commonwealth last year. The blueprint for the future of higher education found providing financial support for placements was 'essential' to ensure students could complete their degrees 'without falling into poverty', and to stem high dropout rates. Clare said he had met students who told him 'they can afford to go to uni, but they can't afford to do the prac'. 'Placement poverty is a real thing,' he said. 'Some students say prac means they have to give up their part-time job, and that they don't have the money to pay the bills.' The accord recommended the government provide support for 'key industries' including nursing, care and teaching. Clare said that was why these three areas were the focus of initial reform. The announcement has received widespread attention. When the prime minister took to TikTok in mid-June to tout paid practical placements, it was his most watched video since joining the platform, raking in 1.3m views. But his audience was split: some praised the PM for taking a 'step in the right direction'; others questioned why their courses had missed out. The Greens, Students Against Placement Poverty (SAPP) and the Australian Medical Students Association (AMSA) have urged the federal government to expand the eligibility to all students completing placements, and to increase the payments to at least the minimum wage. A range of degrees that also require hundreds of hours of mandatory placements – including veterinary science, medicine, occupational therapy, physiotherapy, paramedicine and psychology – have been excluded from the payments. Deputy leader for the Greens and higher education spokesperson, Mehreen Faruqi, called the policy 'overly complex, poorly targeted and far too stingy to make a real difference'. Siena Hopper, a spokesperson for SAPP, accused 'a package initially envisioned to provide a living wage to students undertaking tertiary placement' of being 'largely reduced to another bureaucratic hurdle'. 'The absurdity of means testing is clear in comparison to longstanding trade apprenticeship arrangements,' she said. 'No student should have to prove they are worthy of payment for their labour.' AMSA said in a statement it was 'disheartening' that medical students, who are required to complete 2,000 hours of full-time placements, had been left out, adding the 'intense' study requirements were causing burnout and university dropouts. 'Like all placement students, medical students are a part of the workforce,' AMSA said. 'Nothing exemplifies this more than the recent NSW doctor strikes which saw medical students actively called upon to fill the shoes of junior doctors.' The reforms come off the back of a series of changes to higher education, including wiping $3bn in student debt, the establishment of a student ombudsman and fee-free Tafe places. Clare said he would remain 'directly focused' on students in Labor's current term of government. 'The next step in the reform program, big structural change, is around fixing the funding of our universities. You'll see that roll out next year, including demand-driven funding for equity students and a real needs-based funding approach to universities.' The new Australian Tertiary Education Commission, beginning its work from Tuesday, will be tasked with looking at funding arrangements, including tackling the widely critiqued jobs ready graduate scheme, which increased fees for some courses, including humanities, to fund cuts incentivising students to study teaching, nursing, maths, science and engineering. Around five years since its introduction, arts degrees are now $50,000.
BBC News
2 hours ago
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Church of Scientology protest ban set for refusal
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Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
Police chief sacked for rejecting ‘nonsense' racism claims launches legal battle
The head of the West Midlands Police Federation is taking legal action after he was removed from office for rejecting claims racism was widespread among his colleagues. Richard Cooke, who was elected to represent 7,000 rank and file officers in the country's second largest police force, was suspended and banned from standing in recent elections following comments he made on the X social media platform. Responding to claims made in a Channel 4 news report that racism and misogyny were widespread in West Midlands Police, Mr Cooke wrote: '....I don't recognise these attitudes. They do not represent us – we are an anti-racist organisation'. In a second tweet, he dismissed suggestions that the force had done nothing to tackle racism, writing: 'Nonsense – and so was the report but these reporters rarely bother checking their sources.' Following the remarks, which were made in December, Mr Cooke was suspended by the Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) from his position as branch chairman pending an investigation. Bosses at the police union claimed his comments risked 'alienating those of our members who might be victims of discriminatory treatment -effectively leaving them with nowhere to turn for support and representation''. A 'witch hunt' It is understood the suspension came after the two officers who had featured in the original Channel 4 News report lodged a complaint. Mr Cooke lodged an appeal against his suspension but that was dismissed at a hearing in March he was not invited to attend. He was also banned from standing for election for three years meaning he was not on the recent ballot papers and so has now been replaced as branch chairman. With the support of the Free Speech Union he is challenging the process in the courts and is looking to join forces with Rick Prior, the former chairman of the Metropolitan Police Federation, who was sacked in similar circumstances for comments he made in the media. Mr Cooke, who has been elected as branch chairman in three separate elections since 2018, said he had been the victim of a 'witch hunt'. 'Deeply sinister' He told the Telegraph: 'I have been removed from office for speaking out in defence of my members and for reflecting their views, which is what I was elected to do. 'The media report wrongly suggested that racism and misogyny were widespread in West Midlands Police. I challenged that because I do not recognise that and it is unfair to the vast majority of my colleagues. 'I did not suggest that racism and misogyny do not exist within the force but to shut me down for stating my views is deeply sinister. 'This is a witch hunt. My reputation has been unfairly traduced and I have been removed from an elected post and banned from standing for office for speaking bluntly. There is clearly a political agenda at play here.' Lord Young, general secretary of the Free Speech Union, agreed: 'Twenty-five years ago, a Police Federation Chair would have been suspended for disparaging his fellow officers. Today, you get suspended for defending them. We're through the looking glass.' Mr Cooke is crowdsourcing to fund a legal claim against the PFEW and is hoping to join Mr Prior's judicial review which is currently pending. 'A striking crisis of confidence' Mr Prior was suspended and eventually sacked from his democratically elected post representing 30,000 Met officers after giving an interview in which he suggested his colleagues were worried about using force for fear of being labelled racist. In an interview with GB News, Mr Prior said: 'There's a striking crisis of confidence at the moment within policing in general, and certainly within the Met police, whereby officers are withdrawing from any kind of proactive policing for fear of falling foul of the IOPC [Independent Office of Police Conduct] or a vexatious or malicious complaint.' The day after his comments were broadcast, he was suspended by the PFEW for allegedly making comments that were 'discriminatory in nature'. He was also barred from standing for re-election but launched legal action to challenge the suspension. However after giving an interview to the Telegraph about his situation, he was immediately dismissed for breaching the terms of his suspension. Both he and Mr Cooke have now returned to frontline police roles with their own forces. A PFEW spokesman said: 'Richard Cooke was removed from his role as Chair of the West Midlands Federation branch following an extensive process, which included an appeal. 'He was investigated following complaints from members about comments on social media which were judged by a panel of his peers to have been in breach of the Federation's standards. 'Our processes, which are set in statute, were followed rigorously and applied fairly at all times. Richard Cooke remains a serving police officer with the West Midlands Force.'
