Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron raced Wednesday to meet a self-imposed 48-hour deadline to name a new prime minister after he hosted party bosses in a bid to hammer out a consensus and avoid a protracted political crisis.
Following the ouster of the government of Michel Barnier in a historic no-confidence vote last week, Macron on Tuesday gathered leaders from across the political spectrum in a bid to form a “government of national interest.”
The bosses of the far-right National Rally (RN) and hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), who joined forces to oust Barnier, were not invited.
Macron, who is set to travel to Poland on Thursday, aimed to name a new prime minister “within 48 hours,” said the party chiefs who had met him Tuesday.
Several people close to the president said the announcement could come as early as Wednesday evening.
Last week far-right and hard-left lawmakers joined forces to oust the minority government of Barnier following a standoff over an austerity budget.
Macron is now under huge pressure to form a government that can survive a no-confidence vote and pass a budget for next year in a bid to limit political and economic turmoil.
The French leader dissolved parliament in June after the far right trounced his alliance in European elections and called snap parliamentary polls that resulted in a hung parliament.
Elusive progress
He told party leaders on Tuesday that he did not want to dissolve the National Assembly lower house again before the end of his second and final term in 2027, a person close to him said.
Barnier, prime minister for only three months, remains in charge on a caretaker basis until a new government is appointed.
On Wednesday, the cabinet were due to discuss a special budget law to allow the French state to keep functioning in the new year.
The National Assembly will debate the bill on Monday, a parliamentary source said, with most parties saying they will back it in the name of stability.
Some commentators said that bringing together so many parties marked progress from Macron’s new attempt to reach consensus after the snap election, but progress still appeared elusive.
Greens leader Marine Tondelier said on Tuesday the presidential camp was not ready for any “compromise or concession,” but Macron had stressed the need “to no longer rely on the RN to govern.”
Her party is part of the left-wing New Popular Front (NFP), which emerged as the largest bloc in the National Assembly after the summer elections.
Macron has hoped to prise the Socialists, Greens and Communists away from their pact with the LFI but their bosses insist a new prime minister should be named from their ranks.
On Wednesday morning, Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure spoke out against the candidacy of Macron’s centrist ally Francois Bayrou tipped as a possible contender for prime minister.
Faure told broadcaster BFMTV/RMC that Bayrou, 73, would embody a “continuity,” whereas he wanted to see a prime minister “from the left.”
He refused to say whether the Socialists would censure a government led by the centrist.
'Medal of opposition'
Far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who emerged as kingmaker after the elections, said she relished being awarded the “medal of the opposition” while mainstream parties held “a banquet to share out jobs” in government.
An Ifop-Fiducial poll for Le Figaro Magazine and Sud Radio published on Wednesday indicated that Le Pen would win between 36 percent and 38 percent of the vote in the first round of the French presidential election.
The poll, carried out after Barnier’s ouster, suggested Le Pen would obtain 36 percent of the vote against center-right former premier Edouard Philippe (25 percent) and 38 percent against Barnier’s predecessor Gabriel Attal (20 percent).
Some observers have suggested that Le Pen, 56, is seeking to bring down Macron before his term ends by joining forces with the hard left and ousting Barnier.
“Macron hopes to replace the informal deal with Le Pen’s far right which initially sustained the short-lived Barnier government with a more formal deal with the moderate left and independents,” risk consultancy Eurasia Group said.
France’s Macron races to choose new PM
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France’s Macron races to choose new PM
- Following the ouster of the government of Michel Barnier in a historic no-confidence vote last week, Macron on a bid to form a “government of national interest“
Russia tells its citizens to avoid travel to the West
- Russian and US diplomats say the relationship between the two countries is worse than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis
MOSCOW: Russia said on Wednesday that relations with the United States were so confrontational that Russian citizens should not travel to the United States, Canada and some EU countries because they were at risk of being “hunted” down by US authorities.
Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry, said that relations with the United States were teetering on the verge of rupture.
“In the context of the increasing confrontation in Russian-American relations, which are teetering on the verge of rupture due to the fault of Washington, trips to the United States of America privately or out of official necessity are fraught with serious risks,” Zakharova told a news briefing.
“We urge you to continue to refrain from trips to the United States of America and its allied satellite states, including, first of all, Canada and, with a few exceptions, European Union countries, during these holidays,” she said.
Russian and US diplomats say the relationship between the two countries is worse than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis due to disagreements over the Ukraine war.
Relations reached crisis point last month over Ukraine’s use of US and British missiles to strike Russian territory and Russia lowered its nuclear threshold.
Both Moscow and Washington accuse each other of detaining citizens on trumped-up charges that have no foundation.
‘Lost generation’: millions of Ethiopian children deprived of school
- Amhara is Ethiopia’s second most populous region, home to some 23 million people, but has been roiled by conflict since April 2023
ADDIS ABABA: “I don’t know when I’ll be able to go back to school,” 14-year-old Desta said, one of millions of children in northern Ethiopia’s Amhara region deprived of school.
Desta has not been in a classroom for nearly four months and now divides his time between farming duties and household chores at home — yet another silent casualty of the armed clashes in the country’s restive north.
Until September, the teenager — whose name has been changed over security fears — walked the 10 kilometers or so to school from his village roughly 250 kilometers (155 miles) east of Bahir Dar, the regional capital.
But after fighting broke out in the area, Desta’s father Tesfaye refused to send him to class.
“I don’t want my son to risk his life by going to school,” he told AFP by phone from the village.
Amhara is Ethiopia’s second most populous region, home to some 23 million people, but has been roiled by conflict since April 2023.
The Fano “self-defense” militia took up arms against the state after authorities attempted to disarm them.
Although a state of emergency ended in June, Addis was forced to deploy troops in September, with the unrest continuing.
Federal authorities said last month that the humanitarian situation was “catastrophic.”
The UN Office for Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) estimated that more than 4,000 schools have closed in the region due to the clashes and 300 others have been damaged.
Some children have been without formal education for years, rights groups say, because of the double-punch of the war in Tigray and Covid shuttering schools.
“When war rages, women and children are the most vulnerable, and this war has really affected children who can no longer go to school,” said Yohannes Benti, head of the Ethiopian Teachers’ Association, which has some 700,000 members nationally.
Of the seven million children who should have enrolled for the last school year in Amhara, only three million were able to do so, he said.
The impact was felt not just in the restive north, he added.
Millions of other children were deprived of schooling in Tigray and in Oromia, Ethiopia’s most populous region.
“When you miss even one day of school, you already miss a lot, so imagine over several months, several years,” he said, adding that the impact falls hardest on the youngest.
“This is a lost generation.”
Desta hopes his classmates will soon be together and learning again.
“What I miss most is spending time with my friends and I hope to see them again soon,” he said.
“I don’t know when I’ll be able to go back to school, but if they tell me it’s possible tomorrow, I’ll go.”
But teachers like Dawit, who taught in the northern Amhara town of Dessie for 17 years, have lost the optimism of youth.
Over the decades, Dawit said he had seen his life’s work disappear.
“Last year we were only able to teach for a month” due to the fighting, he told AFP.
He described how the numerous government and Fano roadblocks deter parents from sending their children to school.
“There’s fighting every day, and we’re caught in a vice between the government, which wants us to continue teaching, and the Fano, who are trying to stop us,” he said.
“We’ve lost hope.”
Kremlin plays down blow to Russia from Assad’s fall
- When Russia intervened in the Syrian Civil War in 2015, it helped tip the balance in Assad’s favor, so his fall from power dealt a serious setback
MOSCOW: The Kremlin on Wednesday played down the damage to Russian influence in the Middle East from the fall of Syrian ally Bashar Assad, saying that its focus was Ukraine and that Moscow was in contact with the new rulers of Syria.
When Russia intervened in the Syrian Civil War in 2015, it helped tip the balance in Assad’s favor, so his fall from power dealt a serious setback to both Russia, which is fighting a major land war in Ukraine, and to Iran, which is battling US-backed Israel across the Middle East.
“You know, of course, that we are in contact with those who are currently in control of the situation in Syria,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Asked how much the fall of Assad had weakened Russia’s influence in the region, Peskov said that Moscow maintained contacts with all countries in the region and would continue to do so.
Moscow’s priority, Peskov said, was the war in Ukraine, which President Vladimir Putin calls a “special military operation.”
“The special military operation is the absolute priority for our country: we must ensure the interests of our security, the interests of our Russian people, and we shall do so,” Peskov said.
Moscow has supported Syria since the early days of the Cold War, recognizing its independence in 1944 as Damascus sought to throw off French colonial rule. The West saw Syria as a Soviet satellite.
Amsterdam football violence trial opens
AMESTERDAM: The trial opened Wednesday of five suspects facing charges including one of attempted manslaughter after last month’s hit-and-run attacks in Amsterdam on Israeli football supporters.
The men, ranging in age from 19 to 32, are to face a three-judge bench at the Amsterdam District Court in staggered appearances. Two more suspects are to appear on Thursday.
All seven have been charged with public violence, Dutch prosecutors said.
Supporters of Maccabi Tel Aviv were assaulted in the early hours of November 8 in various parts of the city.
The violence sparked outrage in Israel and among Dutch politicians, who described them as anti-Semitic.
The attacks followed two days of skirmishes that also saw Maccabi fans chant anti-Arab songs, vandalize a taxi and burn a Palestinian flag.
Police said they were investigating at least 45 people in connection with the violence, which saw five Maccabi fans briefly hospitalized.
First up before the judges Wednesday was a 19-year-old man from the town of Monnickendam, just northeast of Amsterdam, followed by four others.
The first man stands accused of committing public violence around the Johan Cruyff Arena, including shouting anti-Semitic slogans and throwing rocks at the police.
He also faces a charge of sharing information about public violence and illegal possession of fireworks.
Later Wednesday, a 22-year-old man from Son en Breugel, near Eindhoven, will appear facing the most serious charge of attempted manslaughter, prosecutors said.
The charge against him related to assaults near Amsterdam’s famous Dam square in the violence that followed the game between home team Ajax and Maccabi.
Apart from the seven suspects appearing this week, at least six others are also to face charges in connection with the violence on the night and its aftermath.
Three of these suspects are minors and their cases will be heard behind closed doors.
“Charges have also been laid against Maccabi fans, who displayed provocative behavior before the game,” the Dutch Public Prosecution Service said in a statement.
The incident and its aftermath left the freewheeling Dutch capital reeling — and its various communities polarized.
Malaria cases up again in 2023, African children worst hit, WHO reports
- There were 597,000 deaths the vast majority among African children aged under 5 years old, the WHO said
LONDON: There were around 11 million more cases of malaria in 2023 than in 2022, up to an estimated 263 million, according to a new World Health Organization report, marking another year of negligible progress against the age-old killer.
There were 597,000 deaths, a similar total to 2022, the vast majority among African children aged under 5 years old, the WHO said.
“No-one should die of malaria; yet the disease continues to disproportionately harm people living in the African region, especially young children and pregnant women,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, in a statement.
Malaria cases and deaths fell significantly between 2000 and 2015, but since then progress has stalled and even reversed, with a particular jump in mortality during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Case numbers are not only going up as populations grow. In 2015, there were 58 cases for every 1,000 people deemed to be at risk; in 2023, there were 60.4, nearly three times higher than the WHO’s target. There were 13.7 deaths per 100,000 people at risk, more than twice the target.
There are new tools available to fight the mosquito-borne disease, including two vaccines as well as next-generation bed nets, but climate change, conflict and displacement, drug and insecticide resistance and a lack of funding have all combined to challenge the response, the WHO said, despite progress in some countries.
In 2023, $4 billion was available to fight malaria, compared with an estimated $8.3 billion needed, the UN health agency added.
