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Anti‑corruption protests hit European nation as calls for new elections grow

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Anti-corruption protests rocked the Serbian capital of Belgrade as student-led demonstrators clashed with supporters of President Aleksandar Vucic and his political party, demanding new elections.
Violent clashes between anti-government protesters and Serbian security forces have intensified over the last week, with protesters setting fire to an office building belonging to the ruling party in Novi Sad.
«You will see the full determination of the Serbian state. We will use everything at our disposal to restore law, peace and order,» President Vucic said in an address to the nation Saturday night.
SERBIA ROCKED BY ANTI-CORRUPTION PROTESTS AFTER CONSTRUCTION TRAGEDY
Demonstrators stand in clouds of tear gas during anti-government protests in Belgrade on August 16. (Oliver Bunic/AFP via Getty Images)
Tens of thousands of college students have been marching and protesting since December, demanding justice and accountability after the deaths of 16 people in the collapse of a railway station in the Serbian town of Novi Sad. The canopy at the railway station collapsed Nov. 1 after renovations led by two Chinese companies.
The government is accused of not implementing student demands, including the release of all documentation related to the reconstruction of the train station. In his speech, Vucic said that justice must be served for all those responsible for the 16 victims of the Novi Sad rail station collapse.
Critics have called out the heavy-handed response used against protesters. Alan Berset, Secretary General of the Council of Europe, said in a post on X that he was concerned with the rising violence.

Students and anti-government demonstrators light the flashlights of their mobile phones during a protest, which has become a national movement for change following the deadly November 2024 Novi Sad railway station roof collapse, in Belgrade, Serbia, March 15. (Igor Pavicevic/Reuters.)
SERBIA, CAUGHT BETWEEN EUROPE AND RUSSIA, COULD MOVE ONE STEP CLOSER TO NORMALIZING RELATIONS WITH KOSOVO
«I call for calm and respect of the right to peaceful assembly. Serbian authorities must uphold Council of Europe standards. The rule of law and respect for human rights must prevail,» Berset said.
Serbia’s foreign minister, Marko Djuric, responded to the criticism in a statement to Fox News Digital. «We respect and protect peaceful protest—it is part of our democratic fabric. But when demonstrations turn into physical attacks and attempts to destabilize the country, the government has both the right and the duty to respond.»
SERBIA, CAUGHT BETWEEN EUROPE AND RUSSIA, COULD MOVE ONE STEP CLOSER TO NORMALIZING RELATIONS WITH KOSOVO
«This is by far the biggest threat Vucic has faced in the last 13 years, and it is very unlikely that Vucic will weather the storm without elections,» Helena Ivanov, senior fellow at the Henry Jackson Society, told Fox News Digital.
«The country is not functioning, and the situation is dangerously escalating. The only way out of the problem is to hold free and fair elections as soon as possible. «Everything else will further destabilize the situation, which could have devastating consequences,» Ivanov added.
The government is accused of not fulfilling one of the original student demands, including the release of all documentation related to the reconstruction of the train station.

Serbian riot police clash with anti-government protesters in Belgrade on August 13. (Oliver Bunic/AFP via Getty Images)
What originally started as spontaneous protests voicing dissatisfaction with the government’s failed response to the railway catastrophe transformed into a movement opposing widespread corruption and the erosion of the rule of law under Vucic.
One of the largest protests in Serbia’s history took place on March 15, with nearly 350,000 people gathered in Slavija Square in central Belgrade.

Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York City in 2019. Vucic said he accidentally voted against Russia in a Ukrainian resolution because he was «probably tired.» (Reuters)
Serbia’s then-Prime Minister Milos Vucevic announced his resignation in January amid the nationwide protests, making him the most senior government member to step down.
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«Serbian students put forward several demands, the first and most important being the release of documentation regarding the reconstruction of the Novi Sad train station, where the collapse of the canopy killed 16 people. To this day, no one has been held accountable,» Filip Ubović, a student from the University of Belgrade and protest participant on the ground in Belgrade, told Fox News Digital.
Ubovic said the protests were originally aimed at influencing the institutions responsible for upholding the rule of law, and not directly against the ruling party. As the government failed to hold any officials accountable for the tragedy or release any information on the canopy collapse, the protesters realized that it was time to demand elections.
europe,the balkans,the european union,world protests,world,conflicts
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Trump slams mail-in ballots as corrupt, but may not have the power to derail them

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President Trump told Brian Glenn of the conservative Real America’s Voice that he didn’t want to answer his question because it was «off-topic» as he stood there with Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders.
Then he proceeded to answer it at great length.
The idea, it turns out, began with Vladimir Putin, who has a bit of experience at keeping himself in power, which isn’t all that hard if you’re a dictator.
My source? Donald Trump.
ZELENSKYY AGREES TO TRUMP-PUTIN MEETING WITHOUT CEASE-FIRE, BUT WILL KREMLIN DICTATOR GO ALONG?
President Trump’s Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, reportedly told him «it’s impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections.» (Photo by SERGEY BOBYLEV/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
He said Putin told him that «it’s impossible to have mail-in voting and have honest elections,» in an interview with Fox’s Sean Hannity. He said Putin told him he won the 2020 election «by so much,» as Trump has long claimed, «and you lost it because of mail-in voting. It was a rigged election.»
Music to the president’s ears.
So Trump was ready when a friendly reporter asked the question.

Trump slammed mail-in ballots as «corrupt» when asked by a reporter, a position he’s maintained since his re-election defeat in 2020. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig, File)
«Mail-in ballots are corrupt,» he declared. «Mail-in ballots, you can never have a real democracy with mail-in ballots, and we as a Republican Party are going to do everything possible that we get rid of mail-in ballots. We’re going to start with an executive order that’s being written right now by the best lawyers in the country to end mail-in ballots because they’re corrupt.»
He was just warming up.
And, you know, that we’re the only country in the world, I believe I may be wrong, but just about the only country in the world that uses [mail-in ballots] because of what’s happened, massive fraud all over the place. The other thing we want, change of the machines. For all of the money they spend, it’s approximately 10 times more expensive than paper ballots. And paper ballots are very sophisticated with the watermark paper and everything else, we would get secure elections. We get much faster results, the machines, I mean, they say we’re going to have the results in two weeks with paper ballots. You have the results that night. Most people almost have, but most people in many countries use paper ballots. It’s the most secure form.»
A little fact-checking is in order.
As Axios points out, many countries around the world have some form of mail-in voting. And millions of Americans who live overseas, such as military families, are eligible for mailing in their ballots.
Trump actually doesn’t have the power to do this. While he says the states are an «agent» of the feds, the Constitution says the mechanics of holding elections «shall be prescribed in each State by the Legislature thereof.» But Congress can change those requirements. Could the president get this through the narrow majorities in both chambers?
«It’s a fraud,» Trump said, adding: «It’s time that the Republicans get tough and stop it because the Democrats want it, it’s the only way they can get elected.»
DONALD TRUMP AS STRONGMAN, RILING UP HIS BASE AND INVESTIGATING HIS ENEMIES
Trump even invoked Jimmy Carter. In 2004, a commission set up by the former president and ex-Reagan aide James Baker III concluded that «absentee ballots remain the largest source of potential voter fraud.»
In 2020, Trump went all-out in favor of mail-in ballots, arguing that they would help Republicans. Of course, he may just have been trying to make the best of the tools already in place. No party believes in unilateral disarmament.
But his enthusiasm for mail-in ballots in that election stands in stark contrast to his current stance that they are corrupt and should be banned.
Trump wound up telling Brian Glenn, who is dating Marjorie Taylor Greene, «I’m glad you asked that question.»

In 2020, Trump favored mail-in ballots under the impression they’d help Republicans – a far cry from his current stance. (Getty Images)
The president doesn’t let himself be tied down by the rules of consistency that most conventional politicians have to obey. Until last Friday, he was insisting on a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine as a precondition for any peace agreement. After the Alaska summit, he dropped the cease-fire idea that Zelensky had been demanding, given that his country is being bombarded every day, with significant civilian casualties, and adopted the Putin stance of allowing the war to continue to further freeze his military gains in the crucial Donbas region.
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But that flexibility – what critics call flip-flopping – has put the president in the position where he has a shot at hammering out a peace agreement, though major obstacles remain.
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So I expect we’ll hear a lot more about how mail-in ballots are horrible and evil in the coming months, though whether he can get his Hill allies to go along is very much an open question.
media buzz,donald trump,vladimir putin,elections,voting,voter fraud concerns
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La asombrosa vida de las Haenyeo, las “sirenas” surcoreanas que bucean 20 metros hasta el fondo del mar sin asistencia de oxígeno

Las buceadoras tradicionales de Corea del Sur conocidas como Haenyeo pasan un asombroso 56 por ciento de su jornada laboral bajo el agua conteniendo la respiración, superando en tiempo subacuático a algunos mamíferos marinos como los castores e incluso rivalizando con nutrias y leones marinos. Por primera vez, un estudio científico ha logrado medir el comportamiento y la fisiología de estas extraordinarias mujeres mientras bucean hasta 20 metros de profundidad sin equipo respiratorio alguno.
La investigación, publicada en la revista Current Biology, monitoreó a siete Haenyeo de entre 62 y 80 años mientras recolectaban erizos de mar en las aguas que rodean la isla de Jeju. Los resultados revelan capacidades que desafían los límites humanos conocidos: estas buceadoras realizan hasta 100 inmersiones diarias y pueden mantener la respiración durante dos minutos consecutivos.
“Las Haenyeo son seres humanos increíbles», declaró Chris McKnight de la Universidad de St Andrews, autor principal del estudio. “Sus habilidades de buceo son reconocidamente excepcionales, pero poder medir tanto su comportamiento como su fisiología mientras realizan sus inmersiones diarias de rutina es realmente único.”

El equipo de investigación utilizó instrumentos diseñados originalmente para medir el comportamiento y la fisiología de mamíferos marinos salvajes para rastrear las actividades de buceo y natación de las mujeres. También midieron sus ritmos cardíacos y niveles de oxígeno en sangre a lo largo de toda su jornada laboral, que puede extenderse entre dos y diez horas diarias.
Los hallazgos científicos demuestran que estas mujeres pasan más tiempo bajo el agua que los célebres buceadores Bajau de Indonesia, un grupo de individuos mucho más jóvenes reconocidos mundialmente por sus capacidades de contención respiratoria. El estudio determinó que las Haenyeo dedican una mayor proporción de tiempo diario en el mar que los osos polares. Tras cada inmersión, las buceadoras se recuperan en promedio apenas nueve segundos en la superficie antes de sumergirse nuevamente.

De manera sorprendente, las mujeres no muestran la clásica “respuesta de buceo” mamífera, que consiste en una desaceleración del corazón y reducción del flujo sanguíneo a los músculos durante las inmersiones. En su lugar, exhiben ritmos cardíacos acelerados y solo reducciones leves de oxígeno en el cerebro y músculos. Esta respuesta fisiológica única sugiere que su estilo particular de inmersiones cortas, poco profundas y frecuentes puede activar adaptaciones diferentes a las de sus contrapartes mamíferas.

Las Haenyeo bucean únicamente con trajes de neopreno, aletas, gafas y chalecos o cinturones con peso para facilitar el descenso. Su equipo también incluye un dispositivo de flotación circular llamado tewak, del cual cuelga una red para capturar los alimentos recolectados, que incluyen caracolas, abulón y diversas criaturas marinas. Trabajan individualmente pero siempre permanecen al menos dos personas en el agua simultáneamente para cuidarse mutuamente.
Esta tradición excepcional tiene raíces que se remontan al siglo XVII, cuando los hombres de la isla fueron reclutados para el ejército o perdieron la vida en el mar, dejando a las mujeres como principales proveedoras de sus familias. La isla de Jeju, ubicada a 80 kilómetros de la costa coreana, es el hogar de este grupo exclusivamente femenino de buceadoras.
El término Haenyeo, o jawmnye en idioma de Jeju, significa literalmente «mujeres del mar“. Las buceadoras y el buceo en apnea son elementos integrales de la cultura de Jeju. La influencia de esta práctica es tan prominente que la característica abreviación del idioma de Jeju se atribuye coloquialmente a la necesidad de las buceadoras de comunicarse rápidamente en la superficie del agua.

Las Haenyeo están reconocidas por la UNESCO como Patrimonio Cultural Inmaterial de la Humanidad, pero representan un grupo en peligro de extinción. El 90 por ciento de estas buceadoras supera actualmente los 60 años de edad. Sus números han experimentado una caída dramática en décadas recientes, disminuyendo de 14.000 en los años setenta a apenas entre 3.000 y 4.000 en la actualidad.

“Creo que usar animales que consideramos como animales acuáticos para contextualizar y dar perspectiva sobre las buceadoras Haenyeo realmente ayuda a demostrar lo increíbles que son”, explicó McKnight al Daily Mail. La investigación confirma que estas mujeres aprenden la técnica desde adolescentes y continúan trabajando hasta los 90 años de edad.
Los expertos advierten que estas buceadoras podrían representar la última generación de Haenyeo, con la posibilidad de que el grupo desaparezca completamente en los próximos veinte años.
Entertainment and Lifestyle,Environment,Asia
INTERNACIONAL
¿Nicolás Maduro en la mira? Estados Unidos dice estar preparado para usar «todo su poder» para frenar narcotráfico en Venezuela

El cartel detrás de la acusación
¿Por qué se llama así y cómo funciona?
Estados Unidos,Venezuela,Nicolás Maduro,Donald Trump,Narcotráfico
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