International

French President Emmanuel Macron’s flagship pension reform will enter into force swiftly, officials said yesterday after it received the Constitutional Council’s approval despite months of street protests and strikes.The legislation, which pushes up the age at which one can draw a pension to 64 from 62, remains deeply unpopular, and spontaneous protests broke out when the Constitutional Council’s decision was announced.Protesters gathered outside Paris City Hall holding banners reading “climate of anger” and “no end to the strikes until the reform is withdrawn”, in a sign the council’s verdict was unlikely to end widespread anger with Macron and his reform.Some burnt trash bins as they marched through Paris, singing a chant popular with anti-Macron protesters: “We are here, we are here, even if Macron does not want it, we are here.”Opinion polls show a vast majority reject the policy changes, as well as the fact that the government pushed the bill through parliament without a final vote it might have lost.“All the labour unions are calling on the President of the Republic to show some wisdom, listen and understand what is happening in the country and not to promulgate this law,” the leader of the CGT union Sophie Binet said.In a joint statement, unions said this was “the only way to soothe the anger in the country”.However, officials shrugged off the request, saying that the text would be turned into law in the coming days.Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt said it should enter into force on September 1 as initially planned.The Constitutional Council said the government’s actions were in line with the constitution and approved raising the legal retirement age, with only peripheral measures meant to boost employment for older workers struck down on the grounds that they did not belong in this legislation.“The country must continue to move forward, work, and face the challenges that await us,” Macron said earlier this week, looking to move on to other reforms.However, the opposition said they would not back down and unions said they would not attend a meeting Macron wanted to organise with them on Tuesday.“We won’t give up. There will be a great May 1st,” said teacher Gilles Sornay, 65, at the Paris rally, referring to protests planned for international workers’ day.“The fight continues,” hard-left leader Jean-Luc Melenchon declared.Separately, the Constitutional Council rejected a proposal by the opposition to organise a citizens’ referendum on the pension reform.The opposition has tabled another bid for a referendum, which is expected to be reviewed by the Council in early May.The Constitutional Council decision represents a victory for Macron but analysts say it has come at major personal cost for the 45-year-old while causing months of disruption.Sometimes violent protests have left hundreds injured.Macron’s personal ratings are near to their lowest level and many voters have been outraged by his decision to ram the pensions law through parliament without a vote.“Stay the course. That’s my motto,” Macron said yesterday as he inspected Notre Dame Cathedral, four years after a devastating fire there.Political observers say the widespread discontent over the government’s reform could have longer-term repercussions, including a possible boost for the far right.Far-right leader Marine Le Pen wrote on Twitter that “the political fate of the pension reform is not sealed”, urging voters to back those who oppose it in the next election so that they can scrap it.Macron says the French must work longer or else the pension budget will fall billions of euros into the red each year by the end of the decade.However, the pension system is a cornerstone of France’s cherished social protection model and trade unions say that the money can be found elsewhere, including by taxing the rich more heavily.While attention has focused on the retirement age of 62, only 36% of French workers retire at that age and another 36% already retire older on account of requirements to pay into the system for at least 42 years in order to be able to claim a full pension.That means the normal retirement age for a French worker who started working at the age of 22 was 64.5, marginally above a European Union average of 64.3, according to Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) figures based on 2020 data.

A severe tropical cyclone lashed northwestern Australia yesterday bringing the strongest winds the country has ever recorded, but officials said towns and cities appeared to have escaped the worst of the storm.Tropical Cyclone Ilsa made landfall in the early hours as a category five storm — the strongest on the scale — near the sparsely-populated town of Pardoo, about 19 hours’ drive northeast of Perth. Images from the scene showed the storm’s destructive power, blasting through walls and tearing off the roof at the Pardoo petrol station.The Bureau of Meteorology’s Todd Smith said the cyclone brought a wind gust of 289km per hour —believed to be the strongest on record in Australia. Ilsa also packed an Australian record for the strongest sustained wind speeds over a 10-minute period — averaging 218km per hour.The previous record was 194kph, set by Cyclone George in 2007.“It just shows how strong this system was as it approached the coast,” Smith told reporters. For the region’s largest towns and settlements it was a narrow escape, and they appear to have escaped major damage, authorities said.“I’ve been told that early assessments in those areas show damage is fairly minimal,” acting Emergency Services Minister Sue Ellery told reporters. The world’s biggest iron ore-shipping hub reopened yesterday after it was forced to close earlier in the week as the cyclone gathered pace above the Indian Ocean.The cyclone has since been downgraded to a category two, but authorities remain wary as it barrels inland towards several remote Aboriginal communities and a major gold mine.The Department of Fire and Emergency Services issued a new series of “red alerts” as the storm swerved inland yesterday afternoon, ordering people to stay indoors until given the all-clear.“There are several remote communities and mining operations which are yet to be impacted,” Ellery said.These included the Aboriginal community of Punmu and the Newcrest gold mine in Telfer.“It is too early to know the impact of the cyclone as it continues to pass through the area,” Newcrest told AFP in a statement.Tropical storms typically sputter out quickly once they reach land, but Ilsa was forecast to maintain an unusual intensity as it moved across the vast desert Outback in the coming days. The northwest coast of Western Australia is the most “cyclone-prone region” in the country, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.It also has “the highest incidence of cyclones in the southern hemisphere”.The region holds significant deposits of iron ore, copper and gold, and is home to some of Australia’s largest mining operations. Australian researchers have repeatedly warned that climate change amplifies the risk of natural disasters such as bushfires, floods and cyclones.

A 21-year-old member of the US Air National Guard accused of leaking top secret military intelligence records online made his initial appearance before a federal judge in Boston yesterday to face charges that he unlawfully copied and transmitted classified materials.Jack Douglas Teixeira of North Dighton, Massachusetts, who was arrested by heavily armed Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents at his home on Thursday, appeared in a crowded federal court wearing a brown khaki jumpsuit.At the hearing, Boston’s top federal national security prosecutor, Nadine Pellegrini, requested that Teixeira be detained pending trial, and a detention hearing was set for Wednesday.The court appointed a public defender to represent Teixeira.The leaked classified documents at the heart of the investigation were posted online on a social media website in March and perhaps earlier, but news of their existence did not come to light until it was reported by the New York Times last week.It is believed to be the most serious security breach since more than 700,000 documents, videos and diplomatic cables appeared on the WikiLeaks website in 2010. In the WikiLeaks case, the leaker – US Army Private First Class Chelsea Manning - as sentenced to 35 years in prison. Democratic President Barack Obama later commuted her sentence.US officials are still assessing the damage done by the leaks, which included records revealing American concerns about weaknesses in Ukraine’s military, and pointed to US spying on allies including Israel and South Korea.In a criminal complaint made public yesterday, Teixeira was charged with unlawfully copying and transmitting classified defence records. Each offence can carry up to 10 years in prison.He was also charged with another offence which makes it a crime for an employee of the United States to knowingly remove classified records to an unauthorised location.For now, Teixeira faces three charges in connection with just one leaked document: a classified record which described the status of the Russia-Ukraine conflict and included details about troop movements on a particular date.Experts expect the charges against him will only grow, as investigators examine each document he uploaded, confirm its classification status and decide which ones could be disclosed to a jury without gravely damaging national security.The number of times he separately uploaded and transmitted each document could also be a factor in how many charges he will face.“They are going to pick the ones, I would imagine, that foreign governments have already seen,” said Stephanie Siegmann, the former National Security Chief for the US Attorney’s office in Boston and now a partner with Hinckley Allen.In a sworn statement, an FBI agent said Teixeira had held a top secret security clearance since 2021, and that he also maintained sensitive compartmented access to other highly classified programmes.Since May 2022, the FBI said Teixeira has been serving as an E-3/airman first class in the US Air National Guard and has been stationed at Otis Air National Guard Base in Massachusetts.Siegmann said one lingering question is why a 21-year-old Guardsman held such a top-level security clearance.“That’s an issue that Department of Defence needs to now deal with,” she said. “Why would he be entitled to these documents about the Russia-Ukrainian conflict?”US Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin has said that he is ordering a “review of our intelligence access, accountability and control procedures within the (Defence) Department to inform our efforts to prevent this kind of incident from happening again”.Teixeira only spoke twice during the brief proceeding yesterday, answering “yes” when asked whether he understood his right to remain silent.He also confirmed he had filled out a financial affidavit, which the judge said shows he will qualify to be represented by a federal public defender.After the hearing, three of Teixeira’s family members left the courthouse, with a group of reporters trailing them for several blocks. They entered a car without making any comments.The Justice Department opened a formal criminal probe last week into the leaked documents, after a referral from the Department of Defence.The leak was a “deliberate, criminal act”, the Pentagon said on Thursday, adding that the military had taken steps to review distribution lists and ensure people receiving information had a need to know.Reuters has reviewed more than 50 of the documents, labelled “Secret” and “Top Secret”, but has not independently verified their authenticity.The number of documents leaked is likely to be over 100.The investigative news outlet Bellingcat, the Washington Post and the New York Times have traced the documents’ earliest appearance to a defunct server on the instant messaging site Discord.Some of the documents later appeared on other sites, including Twitter, 4Chan and Telegram.In a chat group on Discord, Teixeira went by the handle OG and was admired by the group’s mostly young members, who shared a love for guns and military gear.

A strong earthquake measuring 7 magnitude on the Richter scale struck deep off of Indonesia's Java island on Friday.The quake had a depth of 594 km. There was no risk of tsunami, the country's geophysics agency said.The quake was felt in the urban centers of Surabaya, Tuban, Semarang and Bali's Denpasar, according to the disaster agency.Indonesia straddles the so-called Pacific Ring of Fire, a highly active seismic zone, where different plates on the Earth's crust meet and create a large number of earthquakes and volcanoes.

Some 380,000 people protested across France yesterday against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform, a sharp fall on turnout at last week’s rallies, the interior ministry said.It had counted 570,000 people last week.French union CGT chief Sophie Binet said more than 1.5mn people marched yesterday for the 12th day of protests since January against the reform, again lower than unions’ estimate of almost 2mn for the last protest day on April 6.The interior ministry said 42,000 people protested in Paris yesterday, while unions led by the CGT gave a figure of 400,000 for the capital.There were new violent clashes between police and protesters in western France, while demonstrators also stormed the headquarters of French luxury goods firm LVMH in Paris.All eyes will turn today to France’s Constitutional Council, the country’s highest administrative authority, which will announce its verdict on the pensions legislation in the final hurdle before Macron can sign it into law.The protest march in Paris was closing in on the Constitutional Council’s headquarters, opposite the Louvre museum in central Paris, which was protected by a phalanx of anti-riot police in full body armour brandishing shields.Police had expected 400,000-600,000 people to take part nationwide to protest the reforms, which include raising the retirement age from 62 to 64.“Now’s not the time to give up, because that’s what Macron is expecting,” said Johan Chivert, a student in the Creuse region in central France. “We have to keep going and show the people are against this reform.”If the court issues a green light – as ministers are privately confident it will – Macron hopes to sign the changes into law immediately, clearing the way for them to enter into force before the end of 2023.Protesters said they would keep up the fight if the Council gave a green light.“We don’t want to work until 64,” 50-year-old teacher Kathy Brochard said at the Paris rally.Having repeatedly snubbed calls for talks with union leaders in recent weeks, Macron said he would invite labour representatives for discussions once the court decision was published.“The decision from the constitutional court on Friday will bring an end to the democratic and constitutional procedures,” the 45-year-old leader told reporters on a trip to the Netherlands on Wednesday, adding that public debate “will continue, for sure”.Paris police have banned any demonstration around the Constitutional Council until morning tomorrow.Strike momentum has been clearly waning on what is the 12th day of action since the start of the movement in January, with employees reluctant to sacrifice salaries for what seems like a losing battle.Most trains were running yesterday at state rail operator SNCF and the Paris public transport provider RATP, past bastions of strike participation.However, the movement is “far from over”, said the head of the CFDT union Laurent Berger as the demonstration got under way in Paris, vowing major protests on the May 1 labour day.The hard-left CGT union has called for new strikes by refinery workers and rubbish collectors, whose walkout left the streets of Paris heaving with rubbish for three weeks in March.A Mercedes car and bins were set on fire in the western city of Rennes, while protesters and police clashed in Nantes, a flashpoint of tension in recent weeks, AFP reporters said.Protesters briefly occupied the headquarters of LVMH on the glitzy Avenue Montaigne in central Paris and set off smoke flares.“You’re looking for money to finance pensions? Take it from the pockets of billionaires,” said Sud Rail union leader Fabien Villedieu.“Mobilisation must continue because this bill cannot see the light of day,” Manuel Bompard, a leading lawmaker for hard-left opposition party France Unbowed, told broadcaster France 2 yesterday.The Constitutional Council – whose members are known as “the wise ones” – has the power to block parts of the legislation or even reject it wholesale.Surveys show that about two in three French people are against the pension changes, but Macron argues that they are essential to stop the system falling into heavy deficit in coming decades.Critics accuse the president of riding roughshod over public opinion and parliament, where the minority government invoked controversial executive powers to ram the legislation through without a vote at the end of March.“I’m proud of the French social model and I defend it but if we want to make it sustainable, we have to produce more,” Macron said in the Netherlands.Political observers say the widespread discontent over the government’s reform could have longer-term repercussions, including a possible boost for the far-right.“I’m not that optimistic about the Constitutional Council’s decision,” far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who opposes the pension legislation, told BFM TV. “But what do you want me to do? Burn cars? We’ll just tell the French: Vote for the National Rally.”

“Old ladies need more money!” a group of grey-haired women chants in front of Sweden’s parliament, as their recurring protest against the country’s pension system enters its 10th year.During the warmer months, members of the red-hatted “Tantpatrullen” (The Old Lady Patrol) gather every Thursday on the cobble streets of Stockholm’s Old Town, right across from Sweden’s parliament.They have just begun their 2023 protest season.In a country that prides itself on being a champion of feminism and gender equality, the association of retired women is calling for an increase in pensions for women, who are penalised by a system that favours people with high salaries who work well into their sixties.“The pension system is supposedly neutral but men’s and women’s lives are not neutral,” Brit Rundberg, co-founder and, at nearly 90, the oldest member of the Tantpatrullen, told AFP.In Sweden the average gap between men’s and women’s pensions is 28%, the largest among the Nordic countries, according to a recent study by the inter-parliamentary Nordic Council.Women pensioners on average receive 17,000 kronor ($1,650) before tax a month, while men get an average of 24,200, according to the Swedish Pensions Agency.“Women’s pensions are much lower compared to men’s because women have lower salaries but also because they do a lot more unpaid work and therefore they work more part-time,” said Jenny Andersson, an expert with the feminist umbrella organisation Sveriges Kvinnoorganisationer and author of the Nordic Council study.The gap has led some banks to advise clients to share childcare, parental leave or even to transfer part of the pension to the lower-earning partner.The “patrol” first took to the streets to demonstrate in 2014, outraged that the plights of retired women remained a non-issue in the middle of an election campaign.“We thought ‘No-one is talking about this! We have to talk about it.’ So that’s how we started,” Rundberg said.In the 1990s, Sweden was in the midst of a shift to more liberal and privatised systems, and wanted to move to a more financially sustainable pensions system in the face of rising living standards.In 1999, it introduced a new system based in part on lifetime earnings and in part on funds invested in markets.At the time of retirement, the sum contributed by the employee – plus that invested in the financial markets – is divided by the number of years left to live, based on average life expectancy.The earlier one retires, the more the amount will be divided and the lower the pension will be.Women who have had tough, full-time jobs or have taken care of children “need to stay longer in the workforce to get only a decent pension”, said Joel Stade, a pensions expert at the Swedish National Pensioners’ Organisation PRO, which has some 270,000 members. “This is not right.”Sweden has one of the highest rates of older people in the workforce. Women retire at an average age of 64.9, almost a year earlier than men (65.8), according to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).Swedish women are also more likely to work in the public sector, within healthcare, education and childcare – where salaries tend to be lower than in the private sector.According to Eurostat, 17.2% of women pensioners in Sweden are at risk of poverty, compared to only 9% of men.In addition, 43% of women receive just the minimum guaranteed pension, which is paid to those who have only a small additional pension or none at all, according to the Nordic Council.The minimum guaranteed pension amounted to 10,631 kronor per month in 2021.Andersson believes that Sweden should take inspiration from Nordic neighbours Denmark and Iceland.These countries pay a higher minimum pension and take less account of the level of salary earned before retirement.As a result the gender gap is lower – 8% in Denmark and 5% in Iceland.However, despite criticism and renewed calls for change as inflation has soared, reform in Sweden currently seems a long way off.The pension working group in the national parliament does not include members of the far-right Sweden Democrats (SD), which was absent from parliament at the time of the 1999 reform.Now the SD has grown to become the country’s second largest party and without it at the table, prospects of change in the next few years are considered dim.

Torrential downpours inundated southeast Florida yesterday, bringing total rainfall in the Fort Lauderdale region to more than 2’ in recent days, with widespread flooding that blocked roads, closed schools and shut down an airport.Preliminary reports showed that about 25” (64cm) of rain had fallen in Fort Lauderdale, making it a 1 in a 1,000-year weather event, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.That was almost twice the amount of water that set the previous record in 1979.“It’s extremely rare. That is an astronomical amount of rainfall,” Miami NWS meteorologist Shawn Bhatti said.Some 2mn people in Broward County were under a flood warning as relentless rain drenched the area.Parts of Florida’s Atlantic Coast north of Miami have already seen 20” (51cm) of rain over the last several days, the NWS said.No injuries or deaths have been reported.Video footage on social media showed sheets of rain pounding the area as flood waters reached the tops of cars, and people wading through waters.In one video, a person swam in waters that had flooded a roadway.“This thing has been parked for hours,” meteorologist Alex Lamers said on Twitter on Wednesday night, referring to the storm system pumping rain into the region. “Like putting a faucet right over Fort Lauderdale, turning it on, and walking away.”Emergency management crews answered rescue calls overnight, the city of Fort Lauderdale said on its website early yesterday, noting that there were flood conditions throughout the area.The growing frequency and intensity of such storms amid bouts of prolonged drought across the nation are symptomatic of human-driven climate change, experts say.Runways were flooded at the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport.Authorities had hoped to reopen it yesterday, but said a further delay until today was needed to remove all the water and debris from the runways.Nearly 400 inbound and outbound flights were cancelled, according to the Flightaware tracking site.“This is pure stupidity,” a tourist named Rob Gourley told the Sun Sentinel newspaper.He was angry because his flight to the Bahamas for him and his wife was scrapped because of the storm in Fort Lauderdale.“It’s the first time out in five years because of (the coronavirus pandemic) and everything. We’re ready to just drive home and forget it,” said Gourley, who lives in Sarasota, on Florida’s Gulf coast.The heavy rains and flooding also forced Broward County Public Schools, serving some 250,000 students, to cancel classes.

The Australian authorities warned that tropical Cyclone Ilsa will increase in strength to level five when it reaches the coast of northern Western state today, becoming the strongest cyclone to hit the state in 14 years.The Australian Broadcasting Authority reported that the cyclone is currently classified as level IV, located 245 km north of Port Hedland, with wind speeds of up to 185 km per hour and up to 260 km per hour.The National Hurricane Centre issued a yellow warning covering more than 700 km of coastline between an area in South Broome and Wem Craig. The authorities asked residents along the coast from Broome to Port Hedland to prepare for the hurricane, which is the most violent to hit the region in more than 10 years.Strong winds and tornado-induced heavy rains are expected to cause tree falls and destroy residential and commercial installations along the coast. The Met Office also forecasts heavy rainfall of up to 400 mm in the Kimberley, Pilbara and Du Gray Basin regions.The last level V hurricane to hit Western Australia was Hurricane Lawrence in 2009.

Representative of the Secretary-General and Head of the UN Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) El-Ghassim Wane said that "the security situation in Mali remains quite volatile, marked by pockets of violence, with devastating consequences for civilians.The head of the UN mission stressed the need to calm tensions between the government and the armed groups signatories to the peace agreement in light of the security situation in Gao and Menaka, noting that the mission also promotes reconciliation efforts aimed at defusing intra-communal tensions.Malian authorities must make every effort to ensure that military operations against armed groups are conducted in full compliance with international human rights and humanitarian law, that violations and abuses are transparently and promptly investigated and that perpetrators are brought to justice.The UN official drew the attention of Council members by saying that while the challenges in Mali are many, advances made in many areas should not be overlooked "even if what has been achieved after a decade of intense international engagement is below expectations, not least those of the Malian people."Fighting has been going on in Gao and Menaka for some time between two armed groups, which has caused a massive displacement crisis.For nine years, about 13,000 soldiers from several countries have been deployed in Mali, forming the UN Peacekeeping operation in this country, which is suffering security disturbances due to the activities of armed groups moving on the African coast, and threatening security and peace in a number of West African countries.

US authorities evacuated more than 2,000 people following a large industrial fire at a facility in the northern US state of Indiana, storing plastics and other recyclables.The fire, northwest of Richmond's downtown area, sent thick, choking clouds of black smoke high enough into the atmosphere.Indiana State Fire Marshal Stephen Jones told the press "The smoke is definitely toxic".The fire has forced more than 2,011 people living within an 800-metre radius to evacuate from their homes.

Protesters disrupted a keynote speech by Emmanuel Macron yesterday as his domestic troubles cast a shadow over the first state visit to the Netherlands by a French president in 23 years.Demonstrators shouted “Where is French democracy?” and unfurled banners at the start of the address in The Hague by Macron, who has faced violent protests and strikes at home over pensions reforms, AFP journalists saw.The two-day visit got off to a stormy start for other reasons too, with Macron facing criticism over controversial remarks in which he said that Europe must not be a “follower” of either the United States or Beijing over Taiwan.Macron is confronting the biggest challenge of his second term over his flagship pension overhaul, which includes raising the retirement age from 62 to 64 and requiring people to work longer for a full payout.In The Hague, the demonstrators had stood in an upper tier of the theatre and shouted “you have millions of protesters in the streets” while holding up a banner that read “President of Violence and Hypocrisy”.Macron tried to answer as they heckled, and then after security guards had removed them he hit back by saying that people who do “whatever (they) want” against laws they disagree with “put democracy at risk”.He added that he was “not sure that the tax payer in the Netherlands will accept that we will finance a long social model in France ... so I have to do the job back home”.The 45-year-old’s speech made no mention of Taiwan, sticking instead to themes of Europe’s need to promote its own economy and security in a time of war and turmoil.The speech came after Macron said in an interview with media including Politico and French business daily Les Echos that “we don’t want to depend on others on critical issues”, citing energy, artificial intelligence and social networks.“The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must be followers and adapt ourselves to the American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction,” Macron said after a three-day state visit to Beijing last week.His comments raised eyebrows on both sides of the Atlantic, especially after days of Chinese war games around Taiwan.Poland’s Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said the alliance with the United States was an “absolute foundation” of European security.“Some Western leaders dream of cooperation with everyone, with Russia and with some powers in the Far East,” he added, without naming those leaders.US Senator Marco Rubio said on Twitter that “we need to find out if Emmanuel Macron speaks for Europe”.The Elysee Palace insisted yesterday that the president had never called for Europe to keep an “equidistance” from the United States and China.“The United States are our allies, we share common values,” the French presidency said.Earlier yesterday Macron and his wife Brigitte were greeted by Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima on their arrival in Amsterdam.The French leader stood to attention alongside them outside the Royal Palace as a band played the Marseillaise, the French national anthem. He later laid a wreath at the Dutch National Monument.A few people cheered as Macron’s car arrived, an AFP journalist saw, in a contrast to the recent scenes of anger in France.Macron will also have a state dinner with the king and queen, see the hot-ticket Johannes Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and meet Prime Minister Mark Rutte on a canal boat.The visit is meant to highlight a new dynamic between Paris and The Hague after the turning point of Brexit.In the wake of the speech, France and the Netherlands will sign a “pact for innovation” today focusing on co-operation in semiconductors, quantum physics and energy.They will also work to finalise a defence pact by 2024.

Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinian fighters yesterday in the West Bank, on a day mourners laid to rest a British-Israeli woman who died in an attack that also killed her two daughters.Israeli-Palestinian violence has surged over the last week.“I commend the actions of the soldiers who eliminated two fighters who opened fire on them near Elon Moreh”, a Jewish settlement close to the West Bank city of Nablus, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said on Twitter. The army said it seized two M-16 rifles and a handgun.The Palestinian ministry of health named the two men as Saud Abdullah Saud Titi and Mohamed Abu Dhiraa. The Al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade — the armed wing of Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah movement — claimed the two men as members.They were from the nearby Balata refugee camp, a statement from Fatah said.The incident came as thousands of mourners gathered yesterday at an Israeli settlement in the West Bank for the funeral of a British-Israeli woman killed in a shooting attack days earlier. Israel has occupied the West Bank since the 1967 Six-Day War and hundreds of thousands of settlers live in Israeli-approved settlements there which are considered illegal under international law. Israelis holding national flags lined the roads in the rain leading to the funeral for Lucy Dee in Kfar Etzion. UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, in a statement, labelled the killings “abhorrent” and added “the UK condemns this appalling attack on civilians”.He said Britain urged “all sides to de-escalate tensions in Israel, and the occupied Palestinian territories, and end the deadly cycle of violence.” The latest surge in unrest began last Wednesday with an Israeli police raid on Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa Mosque, followed by rocket fire from Gaza, Lebanon and Syria, and a car-ramming in Tel Aviv that killed an Italian tourist.The body of Alessandro Parini arrived back in Rome yesterday, after the 36-year-old was killed when a car ploughed into pedestrians on the city’s seafront on Friday evening.On Monday, Palestinian mourners had gathered near Jericho city for the funeral of a 15-year-old boy, Mohamed Fayez Balhan, who was shot dead by Israeli forces during a raid in the Jordan Valley.The army said it was working to apprehend “a suspect,” and one person was detained during the operation.The conflict has this year claimed the lives of at least 96 Palestinians, 19 Israelis, one Ukrainian and one Italian, according to an AFP count based on Israeli and Palestinian official sources. These figures include, on the Palestinian side, combatants and civilians, including minors, and on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, including minors, and three members of the Arab minority.

Visiting UN chief Antonio Guterres appealed yesterday for significant international support for Somalia as it battles a desperate humanitarian crisis caused by “a perfect storm” of drought and protracted armed conflict.Guterres said at a press conference with President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud in Mogadishu that he was on a “visit of solidarity” to the troubled Horn of Africa nation, where 5mn people are facing high levels of food insecurity.Somalia’s worst drought in decades has driven many to the brink of famine, while the government is also engaged in a major offensive to quell a bloody insurgency.“This combination of terrorism and drought, largely caused by climate change, creates a perfect storm for the people of Somalia and requires massive support from the international community,” Guterres said during a visit to a camp for internally displaced people.“The people I met have lost their livestock, they have lost their property, they have lost everything,” he told reporters in the drought-hit district of Baidoa.The UN has launched a $2.6bn call for humanitarian assistance, but Guterres said the appeal was only 15% funded.“The international community has been absent-minded in relation to the drama of the people of Somalia,” Guterres said.Mohamud said the UN chief’s two-day visit, the first since March 2017, was also a gesture of solidarity “towards the government and the democratic process of Somalia”.“This visit ensures that the UN is fully committed to support our plans for state building and stabilising the country,” his office said in a statement.Five successive failed rainy seasons in parts of Somalia as well as Kenya and Ethiopia have led to the worst drought in four decades, wiping out livestock and crops and forcing at least 1.7mn people from their homes in search of food and water.While famine thresholds have not been reached in Somalia, the UN says about half its population will need humanitarian assistance this year, with 8.3mn affected by the drought.Adding to the woes, seasonal rains in March led to flooding that claimed the lives of 21 people and displaced more than 100,000, according to the UN, which warned that the rains were unlikely to be enough to improve the food security outlook for many. “Although Somalis make virtually no contribution to climate change... the Somalis are among the greatest victims,” Guterres said.Somalia was hit by a famine in 2011 that killed 260,000 people, more than half of them children under six, partly because the international community failed to act fast enough, according to the UN.A report by the UN and the Somali government released in March said that drought might have led to 43,000 “excess deaths” last year, with children under the age of five accounting for half the victims.One of the poorest countries on the planet, Somalia has been wracked by decades of civil war, political violence and an insurgency by the Al Qaeda affiliate Al Shebaab.Last year, Mohamud declared “all-out war” against the conservatives and sent in troops in September to back an uprising against Al Shebaab launched by local clan militias in central Somalia. In recent months, the army and the militias known as “Macawisley” have retaken swathes of territory in an operation backed by an African Union force known as ATMIS, and by US air strikes.The government said late last month that more than 3,000 Al Shebaab fighters had been killed since it launched the offensive.It also said 70 towns and villages had been “liberated” from Al Shebaab, which has been fighting the fragile central government for more than 15 years.It was not possible to independently verify the claims.Al Shebaab has frequently retaliated against the offensive with bloody attacks, underlining its ability to continue to strike civilian, political and military targets despite the government’s advances.In a report to the UN Security Council in February, Guterres said that 2022 was the deadliest year for civilians in Somalia since 2017, largely as a result of Al Shebaab attacks.

Kentucky and Tennessee political leaders called yesterday for tighter controls on guns, including tougher laws preventing people in crisis from accessing firearms, after two mass shootings killed 11 people in Louisville and Nashville.A 23-year-old bank employee shot dead five colleagues and wounded nine other people at his workplace in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday. On March 27, three 9-year-olds and three staff members were killed at a private Christian school in Nashville, Tennessee, by a former student.Tennessee Governor Bill Lee urged General Assembly members to find a compromise to bolster the state’s so-called “red flag” laws, aimed at making it more difficult for people deemed to be a threat to the public or themselves from having access to firearms.“I’m asking the legislature to bring forth thoughtful, practical measures to do that, to strengthen our laws, to separate those dangerous people from firearms, while at the same time preserving the constitutional rights of the people of this state,” the Republican governor told reporters yesterday morning.Such legislation would supplement an existing law allowing courts to bar perpetrators of domestic abuse, sexual assault, and stalking from owning or possessing firearms.Lee’s call for co-operation followed the Republican-dominated Assembly’s expulsion of two black Democrats who staged a protest in the Tennessee State Capitol calling for tighter gun controls.The governor also said he would sign an executive order requiring local courts to report criminal records to state law enforcement within 72 hours, a measure aimed at more effective screening of those purchasing guns.Lee called on the legislature “to separate those dangerous people from firearms, while at the same time preserving the constitutional rights of the people of this state” at a news conference in Nashville yesterday.At a news conference in Louisville, US Representative Morgan McGarvey urged federal lawmakers to support universal background checks. The Democrat said that during his time in the state legislature, he worked with conservative colleagues to introduce laws that would help temporarily remove firearms from people in crisis.McGarvey pointed out that the Louisville shooter could have been flagged as a risk, citing reports that the man legally purchased the assault-style rifle he used on April 4, and texted or called someone to tell them he was suicidal and contemplating harm before carrying out the shooting.“We don’t have the tools on the books to deal with someone who is an imminent danger to themselves or to others,” the congressman said.Mayor Craig Greenberg said at the news conference that Monday’s shooting brought the number of people killed by gun violence in Louisville to 40 in 2023 so far, calling the level of firearms violence in his city “beyond horrific”.The Democratic mayor noted that under current Kentucky law, the rifle will one day be legally auctioned off, and urged state lawmakers to allow guns used in deadly shootings to be destroyed.“The laws we have now are enabling violence and murder,” he said.Any person 21 or older who is eligible to lawfully possess a firearm can carry a concealed deadly weapon, according to Kentucky State Police.Mass shootings have become commonplace in the US. There have been 146 so far in 2023, the most at this point in the year since 2016, according to the Gun Violence Archive. The nonprofit group defines a mass shooting as four or more shot or killed, not including the shooter.The Louisville gunman was fatally shot at the scene, police said. It was unclear whether he was slain by police or took his own life.Police identified the shooter as Connor Sturgeon, who was employed at the Old National Bank’s downtown branch at the time of the shooting, Louisville interim Police Chief Jacquelyn Gwinn-Villaroel told reporters at the news conference yesterday.Authorities executed a search warrant at the gunman’s residence and have recovered items, but the chief said she couldn’t disclose details about what was recovered since the investigation was ongoing.Louisville police responded within minutes to reports of an attacker on Monday morning at the bank office near Slugger Field baseball stadium.Officers fired at the gunman, who broadcast live video of his attack on social media, police said. He had no prior contact with Louisville police, according to Gwinn-Villaroel.The dead were identified as Joshua Barrick, 40; Deana Eckert, 57; Thomas Elliot, 63; Juliana Farmer, 45; and James Tutt, 64.Four of the nine wounded remained hospitalised yesterday, with two in intensive care, according to Dr Jason Smith, chief medical officer at University of Louisville Health.A 26-year-old recent police academy graduate who was shot in the head remained in critical condition, Smith said. The doctor added his voice to the chorus calling for gun control, saying he was “weary” of having to treat so many shooting victims.“There’s only so many times you can walk into a room and tell someone they’re not coming home tomorrow,” he said. “It just breaks your heart when you hear someone screaming ‘Mommy’ or ‘Daddy’.”

Twitter's income from advertising will fall by 28 percent in 2023, a closely watched forecast said Tuesday, as the platform struggles under the ownership of Elon Musk.Analysts at Insider Intelligence said they were slashing an earlier worldwide revenue estimate of $4.74 billion by more than a third to $2.98 billion as trust in the platform deteriorates."The biggest problem with Twitter's ad business is that advertisers don't trust Musk," said Jasmine Enberg, principal analyst at Insider Intelligence."Twitter needs to unravel Musk's personal brand from the company's corporate image to regain advertiser trust and bring back ad dollars," she added.Musk's tumultuous takeover of Twitter has already seen several major advertisers suspend their activity on the platform after the Tesla tycoon loosened the reins on content moderation and laid off over half of a 7,000 strong workforce.According to research firm Pathmatics, in January fourteen of the top 30 advertisers on Twitter stopped advertising on the platform since Musk took charge on October 27.Insider Intelligence noted that Musk's efforts to build up a subscription service "won't make up for the lost ad revenue."Musk's leadership has also cooled Twitter's remaining users, with Insider Intelligence forecasting a two minute drop in time spent on the platform to 34 minutes per day -- TikTok's users stay on the app for almost an hour.Insider Intelligence said the drop in usage was due to the proliferation of hateful content and technical glitches on the platform, as well as a failure to expand into social video and pose a challenge to TikTok."Twitter engagement is still heavily dependent on the news cycle," said Engberg. "The takeover saga caused a spike in time spent in 2022 that has now dissipated, as users have lost interest in Musk's antics."Musk is set to speak at a major marketing conference in Miami on April 18 in a likely effort to woo back major advertisers to Twitter.Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion, though he has since written down the company's value to half that.

Australia has reached an agreement with China to resolve their dispute over barley imports, Foreign Minister Penny Wong said on Tuesday, in the latest sign of improving ties between the trade partners.Relations between the two had been strained for years, and worsened after Australia called for an inquiry into the origins of COVID, triggering trade reprisals by Beijing including anti-dumping duties on Australian wine and barley.But tensions have eased since the centre-left Labor party won power last year in Australia. Wong met her Chinese counterpart Wang Yi in Beijing in December, the first such visit by an Australian minister since 2019.Chinese purchases of Australian coal resumed in January after almost three years, and imports of beef have accelerated.Wong said Australia would suspend a case at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over China's anti-dumping and countervailing duties on barley, while China hastens a review into the tariffs."China has agreed to undertake an expedited review of the duties imposed on Australian barley over a three-month period, that may extend to a fourth, if required," she told a news conference."In return, we have agreed to temporarily suspend the WTO dispute for the agreed review period."The government expects a similar result in a second dispute on wine tariffs, she added.MUTUAL TRUSTChina's Ministry of Commerce, which imposed the tariffs for a five-year period, did not respond to a request for comment."China is willing to work with Australia ... to advance the rebuilding of mutual trust between both countries and for bilateral ties to return to the right track," said foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin on Tuesday.He did not comment on the agreement.On Monday, China said Ma Zhaoxu, a vice foreign minister, would visit Australia and Fiji this week to hold a new round of "political consultations".The 80.5% duties on Australian barley all but wiped out imports of the grain by the world's biggest beer market, prompting a formal complaint by Australia to the WTO in 2020.Until then duties had ranged between A$1.5 billion ($1 billion) and A$2 billion a year.The Grain Producers Australia welcomed the move. "This process to reach a resolution would be significantly shorter than if the WTO process continued," said Chairman Barry Large in a statement.China's duties on Australian barley prompted its buyers to turn to Canada, France and other markets.Prices of barley have fallen since the start of the year, partly on hopes that Australia will resume imports."Everybody is waiting for Australian barley to come," said Yang Zhenglong, general manager at Malteurop China.While most maltsters in China already have enough stocks for this year, resumption of trade in a few months time would allow Australia's new barley crop, harvested from October, to reach China at the end of the year, he added.

Violent confrontations erupted between the Palestinians and the Israeli occupation forces after they stormed Jenin city and its camp, during which live bullets and sound and gas bombs were fired. As a result a young man was hit by shrapnel in his foot.The Israeli occupation forces arrested Tuesday five Palestinians during their raid on Jenin.Local and security sources told the Palestinian News Agency (WAFA) that large forces of the occupation army stormed the neighborhoods of Al-Hadaf and Jabriyat and the vicinity of Jenin camp, and snipers were deployed on the roofs of some of the houses they raided.A special force of the occupation army surrounded a house in Al-Hadaf neighborhood, adjacent to Jenin camp and explosions were heard there.

Despite global promises and progress, some 263 million children and young people are out of school, indicating that achieving quality education for all by 2030 is 'seriously off track', UN Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed warned.The issue is under the microscope this week at the latest session of the Commission on Population and Development (CPD), taking place at UN Headquarters in New York. Delivering opening remarks, Mohammed began by highlighting the situation of women and girls in Afghanistan, who have been banned from high school and university, calling this "one of the gravest educational challenges of our time."She underlined how education is a crucial long-term investment for a sustainable future, for people and the planet.However, she said countries are facing "a triple crisis in education one of equity and inclusion, quality and relevance, to equip current and future generations with the skills they need to thrive in a fast-changing world."Equally concerning is the fact that many students simply are not learning, she said, as nearly 70% of children in poorer countries cannot understand a basic text by age 10, mainly due to chronic factors such as poverty and malnutrition."Ultimately, we need to reimagine and transform our educational systems if they are to be fit for purpose," Mohamed said. "We need to learn how to learn throughout our lives, and learn to live in peace with one another and with nature."She stressed that success will also require examining the link between education, technology and demographic trends, and acting upon the opportunities and challenges they bring.She called for initiatives to get all learners connected to the internet and the world of digital innovation, which is especially important for girls and women from the Global South, who are the most excluded.

US President Joe Biden said today that he plans to run for the 2024 Presidential elections, but that he was not ready to announce it yet."I plan on running...but we're not prepared to announce it yet, "Biden said at a press conference.Biden said last October that he plans to run for re-election, but that he is not ready to make an official announcement.Biden is one of the oldest US President. He will celebrate his 80th birthday on Nov. 20.

The Federal Aviation Administration announced that it has listed the rocket's orbital test flight for Monday, April 17, pointing out that SpaceX can only proceed if a launch license is approved by then.SpaceX said that the vehicle team is preparing a launch rehearsal for next week, after which the first flight test will be conducted on an orbital flight of the vehicle.SpaceX is supposed to adopt this type of rocket vehicle on long-range spaceflights, such as flights to Mars and the Moon.SpaceX announced the Starship project for the first time during the Adelaide Space Conference in Australia in 2017 and revealed the vehicle's initial design in 2018.