Stock Markets
Austria’s polarising far-right leader bids to become chancellor
By Francois Murphy
VIENNA (Reuters) – He is abrasive, provocative and has one of the lowest approval ratings among top Austrian politicians, but far-right leader Herbert Kickl is still the man to beat in Sunday’s parliamentary election, which has at times resembled a referendum on him.
“Kickl here, Kickl there, Kickl everywhere,” he joked at a typically rowdy, beer-filled rally in February.
Weeks earlier Chancellor Karl Nehammer framed the election as a choice “between him and me”, at a conservative People’s Party (OVP) meeting featuring lengthy video footage of Kickl.
“I don’t know if I should feel more honoured or stalked!” Kickl said.
Such barbs punctuate Kickl’s withering tirades against the unpopular OVP-Greens coalition government, helping make him arguably the most entertaining speaker in parliament.
He and his Freedom Party (FPO) have the wind at their backs. The economy is poised to shrink for a second year running and inflation has remained stuck above the European Union average.
Polls have long shown the Islam-critical FPO, which wants tougher immigration laws, leading a two-horse race with the OVP. The winner will need to form a coalition to govern.
Kickl is loathed by other party leaders, who have vowed not to work under him. He has shown no indication he could emulate Dutch nationalist Geert Wilders, who in March stepped aside so a government could form after his party won in 2023.
The FPO’s lead is now wafer thin, and the OVP has stepped up its depictions of Kickl, an ally of Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, as an extremist threat to security and democracy.
“It’s impossible to form a government with someone who adores conspiracy theories, who describes the WHO, the World Health Organization, as the next world government and the economic forum in Davos as preparation for global domination,” Nehammer said this month.
Nehammer has left the door open to working with the FPO without Kickl. The parties, which overlap on immigration policy and cutting taxes, were in coalition from 2017 until 2019, when Kickl’s predecessor Heinz-Christian Strache was shown in a sting video offering to fix state contracts.
Kickl has long been a central figure in the FPO, but he regularly lands at the bottom of an OGM survey for news agency APA of leading politicians’ popularity. Only the departing speaker of parliament Wolfgang Sobotka fares worse.
Kickl has cast himself as the future “Volkskanzler”, or people’s chancellor – a term the Nazis used for Adolf Hitler, though others have also used it.
In 2010, Kickl said he opposed deeming Hitler’s Waffen-SS “collectively guilty” for war crimes. The FPO’s first leader in 1955 had been a senior SS officer and a Nazi minister.
Kickl and the FPO oppose sanctions against Russia over its invasion of Ukraine, saying it violates Austria’s neutrality.
He has embraced conspiracy theories, claiming the de-worming agent ivermectin is effective against COVID-19, as did former U.S. President Donald Trump.
Yet his campaign against coronavirus restrictions like lockdowns and vaccine mandates helped revive the party’s fortunes after it crashed out of government in Austria, which had the highest rate of vaccine holdouts in the EU.
‘CLEAR AND VERY FOCUSED STRATEGIST’
Kickl was interior minister and Nehammer a senior OVP official during a coalition between their parties that imploded in 2019.
After the sting video, then-Chancellor Sebastian Kurz had Kickl dismissed as interior minister. Nehammer subsequently became interior minister, but when a 2020 deadly jihadist attack in Vienna revealed serious failings at the domestic intelligence agency Nehammer oversaw, he blamed Kickl.
That was a reference to a 2018 police raid of the agency’s offices that opponents say Kickl orchestrated to purge it of OVP loyalists.
Kickl denies that, but President Alexander Van der Bellen, who will oversee the formation of the next government, has criticised the FPO chief for the raid and hinted he would not let him become chancellor.
Kickl cuts a far more serious figure than predecessors like Strache and Joerg Haider. He shuns parties and has competed in Ironman-style ultra-triathlons.
“He is a very, very clear and very focused strategist, and as we see every day he is very much on the attack and even aggressive,” political analyst Thomas Hofer said.
By Fedja Grulovic
TRUSINA, Bosnia (Reuters) – Women sat on the ground in tears in the Bosnian village of Trusina on Sunday as an excavator dug through the remains of their homes that were destroyed in the country’s deadliest floods in years.
A flash flood swept through the Jablanica area, southwest of Sarajevo on Friday, killing at least 15 people, the cantonal government said, and the search for those missing continued on Sunday.
In Trusina, no people were reported to have died, but houses, orchards and gardens were devastated.
“It is difficult to believe that an orchard, garage, car and another smaller house was here,” Duda Sutlic said “Everything disappeared in 10 minutes.”
“I was happy here. I had a life and I worked hard. Today I have no strength. All we have left now are our pensions – 500 marka ($282.21).”
A meteorologist Nedim Sladic told N1 TV that in under six hours, the region around Jablanica received as much rain as usually falls in three or four months.
Ecologists say the floods in Bosnia have been particularly damaging because years of neglect of river beds, deforestation and uncontrolled construction and exploitation of wood and stone have aggravated the impact of climate change.
Other parts of Europe have also been hard hit by flooding as well as extreme heat and wildfires.
“Everything that my father created and that I have created after him disappeared in 30 minutes,” Admir Poturovic, another resident of Trusina said.
“But life goes on. One has to move on” he said.
($1 = 1.7717 marka)
Stock Markets
OceanaGold’s Waihi North and Macraes Listed as Proposed Projects Under the Fast-track Approvals Bill in New Zealand
VANCOUVER, BC, Oct. 6, 2024 /PRNewswire/ – OceanaGold (OTC:) Corporation (TSX: OGC) (OTCQX: OCANF) (“OceanaGold” or the “Company”) welcomes the inclusion of projects at both our Waihi and Macraes mines in the list of proposed projects under the New Zealand Government’s Fast-track Approvals Bill for regionally and nationally significant infrastructure and development projects.
Yesterday, the New Zealand Government released the names of 149 Listed Projects that will be eligible to apply for approvals through processes under the proposed Fast-track Approvals Act. Included in the list was the Waihi North Project, which includes the highly prospective Wharekirauponga (WKP) proposed underground mine, as well as the Macraes Phase 4 Project, a mine extension permit.
Gerard Bond, President & CEO of OceanaGold, said “I am delighted to see both of our projects on the list for consideration under the new Fast-track Approvals Bill. We welcome a clear and timely regulatory process in New Zealand which supports the development of projects that can provide economic benefits while respecting important environmental, cultural and social protections. Expediting the permitting of our projects will preserve the jobs of 1,000 employees we have in New Zealand, provides new jobs and will deliver wider economic benefits for the local communities and the country.”
The Fast-track Approvals Bill is expected to be passed into law later this year, allowing listed projects to apply directly to a Government-appointed expert panel for final decision.
www.oceanagold.com
About OceanaGold
OceanaGold is a growing intermediate gold and producer committed to safely and responsibly maximizing the generation of Free Cash Flow from our operations and delivering strong returns for our shareholders. We have a portfolio of four operating mines: the Haile Gold Mine in the United States of America; Didipio Mine in the Philippines; and the Macraes and Waihi operations in New Zealand.
Cautionary Statement for Public Release
Certain information contained in this public release may be deemed “forward-looking” within the meaning of applicable securities laws. Forward-looking statements and information relate to future performance and reflect the Company’s expectations regarding the generation of free cash flow, execution of business strategy, future growth, future production, estimated costs, results of operations, business prospects and opportunities of OceanaGold Corporation and its related subsidiaries. Any statements that express or involve discussions with respect to predictions, expectations, beliefs, plans, projections, objectives, assumptions or future events or performance (often, but not always, using words or phrases such as “expects” or “does not expect”, “is expected”, “anticipates” or “does not anticipate”, “plans”, “estimates” or “intends”, or stating that certain actions, events or results “may”, “could”, “would”, “might” or “will” be taken, occur or be achieved) are not statements of historical fact and may be forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements are subject to a variety of risks and uncertainties which could cause actual events or results to differ materially from those expressed in the forward-looking statements and information. They include, among others, the accuracy of mineral reserve and resource estimates and related assumptions, inherent operating risks and those risk factors identified in the Company’s most recent Annual Information Form prepared and filed with securities regulators which is available on SEDAR+ at www.sedarplus.com under the Company’s name. There are no assurances the Company can fulfil forward-looking statements and information. Such forward-looking statements and information are only predictions based on current information available to management as of the date that such predictions are made; actual events or results may differ materially as a result of risks facing the Company, some of which are beyond the Company’s control. Although the Company believes that any forward-looking statements and information contained in this press release is based on reasonable assumptions, readers cannot be assured that actual outcomes or results will be consistent with such statements. Accordingly, readers should not place undue reliance on forward-looking statements and information. The Company expressly disclaims any intention or obligation to update or revise any forward-looking statements and information, whether as a result of new information, events or otherwise, except as required by applicable securities laws. The information contained in this release is not investment or financial product advice.
Stock Markets
Thousands stage pro-Palestinian protests worldwide, on eve of Oct 7 attack that triggered Gaza war
PARIS (Reuters) – Thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators protested in cities around the world on Sunday on the eve of the first anniversary of the deadly Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that triggered the war in Gaza.
Demonstrations were held in major cities from Jakarta to Istanbul to Rabat, and followed protests on Saturday in major European capitals as well as Washington and New York.
“We are here to support the Palestinian resistance,” said protester Ahmet Unal in Istanbul, where thousands assembled.
In Paris, the Jewish community gathered on Sunday to mark one year since the attack by Palestinian militant group Hamas, when militants attacked southern Israeli communities, killing 1,200 people and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli figures.
Israel’s subsequent military campaign against Hamas in Gaza has killed nearly 42,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s health ministry, and laid waste to the enclave.
Israel launched air attacks on Beirut’s southern suburbs overnight and early on Sunday, the most intense bombardment of the Lebanese capital since Israel sharply escalated its campaign against Iranian-backed group Hezbollah last month.
In Jakarta, the capital of Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslim-majority country, at least 1,000 pro-Palestinian protesters gathered on Sunday morning near the U.S. embassy demanding that Washington stop supplying weapons to Israel.
In Sydney, thousands of pro-Palestinian protesters gathered ahead of the Oct. 7 anniversary, chanting and waving Lebanese and Palestinian flags amid a heavy police presence.
One person was arrested for waving an Israeli flag with a swastika in the middle of it instead of the Star of David.
In Rabat, thousands of Moroccans marched, calling for a halt to the violence in Gaza and Lebanon, in one of the largest protests in the country since the beginning of the war in Gaza.
Protesters demanded an end to Morocco’s diplomatic ties with Israel, chanting “no to normalisation, Palestine is not for sale,” referring to Morocco’s establishing of diplomatic relations with Israel.
Over the past year, the scale of the killing and destruction in Gaza has prompted some of the biggest global demonstrations in years, including in the U.S., which saw weeks of pro-Palestinian college campus encampments.
Advocates have raised concerns over antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric in some protests and counter-protests related to the conflict. Rights advocates have warned about rising threats against Jews and Muslims around the world.
The United States and other allies have supported Israel’s right to self-defence, but Israel has faced wide international condemnation over its actions in Gaza, and now over its bombarding of Lebanon.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu says his government is acting to prevent a repeat of the Oct. 7 assault by Hamas.
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