> Ramallah (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Doctors Without Borders (MSF) denounced on Monday the "extremely precarious" situation of Palestinians displaced by the ongoing Israeli military operation in the occupied West Bank.

> According to the United Nations, some 40,000 residents have been displaced since January 21, when the Israeli army launched an operation targeting Palestinian armed groups in the north of the territory.

>The West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, is home to about three million Palestinians as well as nearly 500,000 Israelis living in settlements that are illegal under international law.

>The Israeli operation started two days after a truce agreement came into effect in the Gaza Strip between the Israeli military and the Palestinian territory's Hamas rulers.

>The situation of the displaced Palestinians is "extremely precarious", said MSF, which is operating in the area.

>Palestinians "are without proper shelter, essential services, and access to healthcare", the NGO said.

>"The mental health situation is alarming."

>MSF said the scale of forced displacement and destruction of camps "has not been seen in decades" in the West Bank.

>"People are unable to return to their homes as Israeli forces have blocked access to the camps, destroying homes and infrastructure," said MSF Director of Operations Brice de la Vingne.

>"Israel must stop this, and the humanitarian response needs to be scaled up."

> Maputo (AFP) – Mozambique President Daniel Chapo met the main opposition figure Venancio Mondlane for talks in an effort to ease tensions following months of violent clashes between protesters and security forces, the presidency said late Sunday.

> The gas-rich southern Africa nation has been gripped by political turmoil since October's disputed elections.

>The election, which several international observer missions said was tainted by irregularities, was followed by more than two months of demonstrations and blockades during which more than 360 people died, according to a local civil society group.

>Chapo and Mondlane met in the capital Maputo to "discuss solutions to the challenges facing the country", the presidency said in a statement.

>"The meeting is part of the ongoing effort to promote national stability and reinforce the commitment to reconciliation," it said.

>It was not immediately clear if a political deal was in the offing for Mondlane who recently split with the opposition Podemos party, which had supported his presidential candidacy.

>Chapo took office in January and earlier this month signed a post-election deal with nine other parties -- including Mondlane's former Podemos party.

>The deal, yet to be approved by parliament, aims to culminate with a review of the constitution.

>Mondlane, who is popular with the youth, did not attend that dialogue and instead marshalled hundreds of his supporters to a march in Maputo.

>Some 14 people were wounded in violent clashes with police.

>At least two people were killed last week when police opened fire on a crowd marking another round of protests called by Mondlane.

>Sunday's detente "symbolises the desire to build bridges and promote an open and constructive dialogue", the presidency said, sharing a picture of Chapo and Mondlane shaking hands.

>Chapo's overture comes nearly two weeks after Mondlane said he had been questioned for 10 hours by prosecutors and placed under judicial supervision.

>Official results put Mondlane in second place in last year's election, and handed victory to Chapo of the Frelimo party that has ruled Mozambique since independence from Portugal in 1975.

>Chapo won credited with 65 percent of ballots, compared with 24 percent for Mondlane.

>But the opposition leader claims he won 53 percent, and has rallied enough support to hand Frelimo its first real challenge in half a century.

> Seoul (AFP) – South Korea's Constitutional Court dismissed the impeachment of Prime Minister Han Duck-soo on Monday, reinstating him as acting president -- a role he took after the president was suspended for declaring martial law.

> "The Constitutional Court has rendered a decision to reject the impeachment trial request against Prime Minister Han Duck-soo," the court said Monday in a statement.

>The court ruled five-to-one against Han's impeachment, with two judges arguing the case should not have made it to court as lawmakers did not have a super majority to impeach him in the first place.

>Han's actions while in office "cannot be seen as constituting a betrayal of the people's trust indirectly granted through the President" the court ruled.

>The decision is effective immediately and cannot be appealed.

>Han, who immediately resumed the acting presidency Monday, thanked the Constitutional Court for its "wise decision".

>"I believe that all citizens are clearly speaking out against the highly polarised political sphere. I think there is no place for division now. Our country's priority is to move forward," he added.

> The court's decision was closely watched as it comes ahead of a highly anticipated ruling on suspended President Yoon's impeachment, the date of which has not yet been announced.

>Despite experts predicting a verdict on that case by mid-March, the Constitutional Court has yet to rule, making Yoon's case the longest deliberation in its history.

>The leader of the opposition, Lee Jae-myung, said the verdict on Han should not be "disrespected" but urged the Constitutional Court to move more swiftly on Yoon's case.

>"The entire nation is losing sleep over Yoon Suk Yeol's illegal military coup," he said, adding it was "hard to fathom why the Constitutional Court continues to postpone the ruling date."

>"Every day, every hour, every minute, every second, the international trust in the Republic of Korea is being broken, the economic damage is mounting," he added.

>If Yoon's impeachment is upheld, South Korea must hold fresh elections within 60 days of the verdict.

>Monday's ruling "does not have a direct legal correlation with the pending decision on Yoon's impeachment," Yoo Jung-hoon, attorney and political commentator, told AFP.

>"The judges did not deliberate on the legality of martial law but rather on Han's involvement in the case," he said.

> Hundreds of thousands of South Koreans took to the streets over the weekend, as rallies for and against Yoon intensified ahead of the court verdict.

>Lawmaker Kweon Seong-dong from Yoon's ruling People Power Party told reporters at the National Assembly that Han's reinstatement was welcome.

> The opposition who impeached him should "apologise to the people for paralysing state affairs for 87 days with a hasty impeachment bid," which was done for political purposes, Kweon added.

> Graneros (Chile) (AFP) – The leaders of 22 Indigenous peoples from five continents held prayers for nature in Chile on Sunday at the end of a 46-day pilgrimage around the world.

> The "Indigenous sages" carried out an ancestral ceremony of the Anasazi people, who lived in the Chaco Canyon before European settlement in what was to become the US state of New Mexico.

>It was a ritual that, for the first time, brought together peoples from all over the planet -- travelling together on a journey that began in Italy and passed through India, Australia, and Zimbabwe before concluding in Chile.

>During their closing ceremony, representatives of peoples such as the Khalkha of Mongolia, the Noke Koi of Brazil, and the Kallawaya of Bolivia sang, danced, and prayed to the rhythm of drums, around an altar where they lit a sacred fire.

>"The feathers represent the continents, and today, for the first time, we have the five continents," said Heriberto Villasenor, director of Raices de la Tierra, an NGO dedicated to the preservation of Indigenous cultures.

>At the end of the event, the leaders embraced and shared a message, urging greater care for the environment.

>"We are part of nature. We are not separate from it. We are at a critical moment when so much destruction has taken place, much of it at human hands," Rutendo Ngara, 49, a representative of the South African group Oba Umbuntu, told AFP.

>The leaders also shared their concerns about what is happening in their own home regions.

>"Unfortunately, they are trying to extract uranium in Mongolia. It is an important element that is supposed to remain underground," Tsegi Batmunkh said.

> In January 2025, the French nuclear group Orano signed an agreement with Mongolia to exploit a large uranium deposit in the southwest of the country.

> The leader of Brazil's Noke Koi people, Yama Nomanawa, called for an end to the "destruction of the Earth" -- particularly in the Amazon basin.

> According to a 2024 study published in the journal Nature, scientists estimated that between 10 and 47 percent of the Amazon region will be exposed to forest loss by 2050, which could lead to widespread ecosystem change.

> "The Earth is crying out very loudly, but no one is listening. The jungle is screaming; it is not being respected by humans. Let's protect life, save life here on the planet," the 37-year-old Brazilian Indigenous leader said.

> Rwanda-backed M23 rebels staging an offensive in east Congo said on Saturday they would withdraw forces from the seized town of Walikale in support of peace efforts, having previously said they were leaving troops there as they pushed on to the capital.

> The government said it hoped the move would be translated into concrete action, after M23 this week pulled out of planned talks with Congolese authorities at the last minute due to EU sanctions on some of its leaders and Rwandan officials.

>It would have been their first direct engagement with Congo's government after President Felix Tshisekedi reversed his longstanding refusal to speak to the rebels.

>The Congo River Alliance, which includes M23, said in a statement on Saturday that it had "decided to reposition its forces" from Walikale and surrounding areas that M23 took control of this week.

>This decision was in line with a ceasefire declared in February and in support of peace initiatives, it said in a statement that was greeted with scepticism by army officers.

>A senior member of the alliance who did not wish to be named said repositioning meant withdrawing to "give peace a chance". The source declined to say where M23 rebels would withdraw to.

>"We are asking for Walikale and surroundings to remain demilitarised," the source said. "If the FARDC (Congo's army) and their allies come back, this means they want to relaunch hostilities."

>Foreign Affairs Minister Therese Kayikwamba Wagner told reporters: "We are going to see whether M23 will withdraw from Walikale and whether M23 will give priority to dialogue and peace ... So we hope that this will be translated into concrete action."

> Congo's army did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

> An army officer said he was sceptical about the announced withdrawal. Another officer said M23 was advancing towards Mubi, another town in the area, after the army and pro-government militia bombed Walikale's airport and cut off some of M23's road access.

> "They now have a provision problem," said the second officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "They will not withdraw. They will move in front of (Walikale) and behind it."

> A M23 officer told Walikale residents on Thursday they were leaving a small group of soldiers there to provide security, while other soldiers "continue all the way to Kinshasa".

> Walikale is the furthest west the rebels have reached in an unprecedented advance that has already overrun eastern Congo's two largest cities since January.

> Its capture put the rebels within 400 km of Kisangani, the country's fourth-biggest city with a bustling port at the Congo River's farthest navigable point upstream of the capital Kinshasa, some 1,500 km (930 miles) away.

> Cape Town (AFP) – The South African ambassador who was expelled from the United States in a row with President Donald Trump's government arrived home on Sunday to a raucous welcome and struck a defiant tone over the decision.

> Ties between Washington and Pretoria have slumped since Trump cut financial aid to South Africa over what he alleges is its anti-white land policy, its genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice (ICJ) and other foreign policy clashes.

> "It was not our choice to come home, but we come home with no regrets," expelled ambassador Ebrahim Rasool said in Cape Town after he was ousted from Washington on accusations of being "a race-baiting politician" who hates Trump.

> US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said last week Rasool was expelled after he described Trump's Make America Great Again movement as a supremacist reaction to diversity in the United States.

> Rasool was greeted with cheers and applause from hundreds of placard-waving supporters mostly clad in the green and yellow of the ruling African National Congress party at Cape Town International Airport.

> "I want to say that we would have liked to come back with a welcome like this if we could report to you that we had turned away the lies of a white genocide in South Africa, but we did not succeed in America with that," he said with a megaphone after a more than 30-hour trip via Qatari capital Doha.

> The former anti-apartheid campaigner defended his remarks about Trump's policies, saying he had intended to analyse a political phenomenon and warn South Africans that the "old way of doing business with the US was not going to work".

> "Our language must change not only to transactionality but also a language that can penetrate a group that has clearly identified a fringe white community in South Africa as their constituency," he said.

> "The fact that what I said caught the attention of the president and the secretary of state and moved them enough to declare me persona non grata says that the message went to the highest office," he added.

> South Africa, the current president of the Group of 20 leading economies, this week said it considered improving its relationship with the United States a priority.

>The United States is South Africa's second-biggest trading partner and will take over the rotating G20 presidency next year.

>Rasool is due to provide a report to President Cyril Ramaphosa on Monday.

>Pretoria should nonetheless not try to mend its ties with Washington "without sacrificing our values", Rasool said.

>"The declaration of persona non grata is meant to humiliate you, but when you return to a crowd like this... I will wear my persona non grata as a badge of dignity, our values and that we have done the right thing," he said.

> Paris (AFP) – Tens of thousands of people in Paris and other French cities rallied against racism and the rise of the far right on Saturday.

> Some protesters took aim at the US administration of Donald Trump and others carrying Palestinian flags.

> Police officers and some protesters clashed in Paris.

> The rallies took place amid the rightward shift in French politics, with the government pledging to tighten immigration policies and border controls.

> Nearly 91,000 people took part in protests across France, said the interior ministry, with the Paris rally attracting 21,500.

> Two people were arrested and three people injured, including a riot police officer, during the clashes in Paris, the ministry statement added.

> At demonstrations elsewhere in France, there were three other arrests.

> Many of those marching highlighted the growing strength of reactionary political forces, in France but also in the United States.

> In the French capital, thousands of people took to the streets.

> "Fascism is gangrene from Washington to Paris," read one placard.

> "The far right is on the rise everywhere in Europe," said Evelyne Dourille, a 74-year-old pensioner.

> "It's scary because in France we see far-right ideas becoming more and more commonplace, even among ministers in this government."

> One American protester said similar demonstrations should be taking place in the United States.

> "America is sliding towards fascism," said the 55-year-old woman.

> Aurelie Trouve, a lawmaker for the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party, pointed to the growing popularity of the far-right party of Marine Le Pen in France.

>"Far-right ideas are contaminating even the government," she said.

>In the southern port city of Marseille, some 3,300 people took to the streets, while 2,600 protested in Lille in the north, according to police.

>"Against state Islamophobia" and "Tesla is the new swastika" said some of the placards.

>Ines Frehaut, a student taking part in her first demonstration, said some of the statements from France's hardline interior minister worried her.

>"When you see what Bruno Retailleau has said about Islam, Algeria and the wearing of the veil, it's serious!" she said.

>The protests took place a day after the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.

>"There is a global reactionary offensive against foreigners and their children, against Muslims," added Dominique Sopo, head of SOS Racisme, also pointing to increasing racist and anti-Semitic acts.

>In the run-up to the rallies the LFI party caused an uproar in France by publishing the image of Cyril Hanouna -- one of the most influential stars of right-wing media in the country -- as part of a campaign calling on people to turn out for the anti-racism protests.

>The image pictured Hanouna, who was born into a Jewish family that had immigrated to France from Tunisia.

>Critics accused the LFI of imitating the anti-Semitic tropes of the Third Reich. Key LFI figures admitted publishing the image was a "mistake and it was withdrawn.

> Ethiopia's army said on Friday its troops had killed more than 300 fighters from the Fano armed group in two days of clashes in the northern Amhara region, as fears have emerged of a wider regional war.

> The Fano militia fought alongside the army and Eritrean forces in a two-year civil war that pitted Addis Ababa against the Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF), which controls the northern region of Tigray.

> Since then Eritrea and Ethiopia have fallen out, the former was excluded from peace talks to end that war in November 2022.

> Fears of a new war emerged in recent weeks after Eritrea reportedly ordered a nationwide military mobilisation and Ethiopia deployed troops toward their border.

> Fighting between Ethiopia's army and Fano - a loose collection of militias with no centralised leadership - broke out in July 2023, fuelled in part by a sense of betrayal among many Amharas about the terms of the 2022 peace deal.

>The army said in a statement on Friday: "The extremist group calling itself Fano...carried out attacks in various (zones) of the Amhara region under the name of Operation Unity, and has been destroyed."

>It said 317 Fano fighters were killed and 125 injured.

>Abebe Fantahun, spokesperson of Amhara Fano in Wollo Bete-Amhara, contradicted the tally, telling Reuters late on Friday the army had not killed even 30 of their fighters.

>Yohannes Nigusu, spokesperson for Fano in Gondar, Amhara region, said 602 federal army soldiers were killed in the fighting and 430 wounded, while 98 soldiers had been captured and weapons had been seized by the militia.

>Abebe also described as a "lie" the national army's claim that Brigadier General Migbey Haile, a senior military official allied with one of TPLF's factions, supported Fano's Operation Unity and denied he had any links to the militia.

>Reuters was unable to independently verify the number of those killed in the fighting.

> Getnet Adane, the army spokesperson, and Legesse Tulu, the federal government spokesperson, did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the toll shared by Fano.

>Amanuel Assefa, a senior official in Debretsion Gebremichael's faction of the TPLF Migbey belongs to, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

(Reuters)

> Beijing (AFP) – China on Saturday announced measures to simplify the marriage registration process and lessen the financial burden on couples, the latest initiative by Beijing to boost births.

> Couples having children outside of marriage is rare in China, where there is social stigma and fewer protections for such families.

>Measures have already been taken to tackle the decline in couples tying the knot and having children, such as cash incentives and pledges to build more childcare infrastructure.

>The latest step allows people to register their marriage where they live, state broadcaster CCTV reported Saturday citing a government document.

>"This reform is aimed at addressing the needs of people who live or work away from their registered hometowns, particularly younger generations," state news agency Xinhua reported.

>Until now, couples have had to travel to wherever the bride or groom is named in the civil registry, which has created travel and financial burdens.

>For example, a couple living in Beijing in the country's north, would not have been able to register their marriage in the capital if they came from different parts of the country.

>"To better respond to public expectations and based on the success of pilot projects, the registration of marriages in the whole country will be implemented," CCTV announced.

>As China faces an uncertain economic outlook, the country saw marriages decline by one-fifth last year and experienced a third consecutive year of overall population decline.

>In a further step to address the issue, the Ministry of Civil Affairs will promote the "fight against certain harmful customs such as high 'bride prices' and wasteful expenses for weddings", according to CCTV.

>The "bride price" is usually cash offered by the groom's family to his future wife.

>It is often seen as a mark of respect towards in-laws and a contribution to a young couple's life together.

>But the cost can sometimes be prohibitively high and create financial pressure on the groom's family, as well as increasing social inequality.

>Among the numerous reasons young Chinese hesitate to wed and have children is a shortage of savings to buy an apartment, a step which usually comes before marriage.

>Education fees are also a key factor, whether daycare costs or private tuition that is seen as almost essential for a child's academic success.

> Khartoum (AFP) – Sudan's army said it recaptured the presidential palace in the capital Khartoum from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces on Friday after a fierce battle.

> "Our forces completely destroyed the enemy's fighters and equipment, and seized large quantities of equipment and weapons," army spokesman Nabil Abdallah said in a statement broadcast on state television.

>Abdallah vowed the army would "continue to progress on all fronts until victory is complete and every inch of our country is purged of the militia and its supporters ".

>On social media, soldiers shared videos appearing to be inside the presidential palace, exchanging congratulations. AFP could not immediately verify the footage.

>Paramilitary fighters overran the palace in April 2023, when war broke out between the RSF and the army.

>At the time, the RSF swiftly took control of Khartoum's streets, with the army-aligned government fleeing to Port Sudan on the Red Sea coast.

>Central Khartoum, where the presidential palace stands alongside ministries and the capital's business district, has seen fierce fighting in recent months, after army troops surged through the city.

>Earlier this week, the army said its forces had merged from the north and south, hemming in the RSF.

>"With the army entering the Republican Palace, which means control of central Khartoum, the militia has lost its elite forces," a military expert told AFP, requesting anonymity for their safety.

>The paramilitary had stationed its elite forces and stored ammunition in the former seat of government and symbol of Sudan's state sovereignty, according to military sources.

>"Now the army has destroyed equipment, killed a number of their forces and seized control of one of its most important supply centres in Khartoum," the expert continued.

>In recent months, the army has appeared to turn the tide of the war, first advancing in central Sudan to reclaim territory before shifting focus to Khartoum.

>In January, it broke an almost two-year RSF siege of the General Command headquarters, allowing troops to merge with other battalions and encircle the RSF in the city centre.

>"What remained of RSF militias have fled into some buildings" in central Khartoum, a military source told AFP, requesting anonymity because they were not authorised to speak to the media.

>Nearly two years of war has killed tens of thousands, displaced over 12 million, and triggered the world's largest hunger and displacement crises.

> Washington (AFP) – The United States is importing Turkish and South Korean eggs to ease an avian flu-fueled supply crunch that has pushed up prices across the country, Donald Trump's agriculture secretary confirmed Friday.

> Brooke Rollins told reporters in Washington that imports from Turkey and South Korea had already begun and that the White House was also in talks with other countries about temporarily importing their eggs.

>"We are talking in the hundreds of millions of eggs for the short term," she added.

>The cost of eggs has skyrocketed due to multiple bird flu outbreaks in the United States, forcing farmers to cull at least 30 million birds and sharply constraining supply.

>Egg prices became a rallying point for Trump in last year's presidential election campaign as he sought to capitalize on voters' frustrations with the rising cost of essential items during his predecessor Joe Biden's presidency.

>After returning to office in January, Trump tasked Rollins with the job of boosting the supply of eggs, and bringing down prices.

>In the weeks since, producers in several countries have reported American interest in their produce, with the Polish and Lithuanian poultry associations telling AFP that they had been approached by US diplomatic staff on the hunt for fresh eggs.

>"There is a shortage of eggs in many countries," Katarzyna Gawronska, director of Poland's National Chamber of Poultry and Feed Producers, said recently. "The key question would be what financial conditions would be offered by the Americans."

>The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) recently noted that wholesale egg prices have fallen by almost 50 percent since late February, which suggests that consumer prices could soon start to fall.

>"The downward trend underscores the effectiveness of USDA's approach," the agency said in a statement.

>Speaking to reporters on Friday, Rollins said that the imports of eggs would stop once US poultry farmers were able to ramp up supply.

>"When our chicken populations are repopulated and we've got a full egg laying industry going again -- hopefully in a couple of months -- we then shift back to our internal egg layers and moving those eggs out onto the shelf," she said.

> London (AFP) – Britain's Heathrow airport, Europe's busiest, shut down early Friday after a major fire at an electricity substation cut power to the sprawling hub, disrupting hundreds of flights and thousands of travellers.

> Airport authorities said they "expect significant disruption" over the coming days, while online flight tracking service FlightRadar24 said at least 1,351 flights to and from the airport would be affected.

>"Heathrow is experiencing a significant power outage," the airport operator said in a statement on its website, adding it would be closed until just before midnight Friday (2359 GMT).

>"Passengers should not travel to the airport under any circumstances until the airport reopens."

>Some 120 flights heading to Heathrow were in the air when the closure was announced, FlightRadar24 said.

>London Fire Brigade said there had been a "significant" fire at a substation in Hayes, a nearby town in the London borough of Hillingdon, which caused the power outage.

>It said 10 fire engines and around 70 firefighters were on the scene, while around 150 people had been evacuated from nearby properties.

>Images on social media -- which could not immediately be verified by AFP -- showed huge flames and smoke rising from the substation.

>Other videos, apparently shot inside Heathrow's terminals, showed shuttered shops and deserted corridors, lit only by emergency lighting.

>"The fire has caused a power outage affecting a large number of homes and local businesses, and we are working closely with our partners to minimise disruption," said London Fire Brigade assistant commissioner Pat Goulbourne.

...

> Geneva (AFP) – All 19 of the world's glacier regions experienced a net loss of mass in 2024 for the third consecutive year, the United Nations said on Friday, warning that saving the planet's glaciers was now a matter of "survival".

> Five of the last six years have seen the most rapid glacier retreat on record, the UN's World Meteorological Organization weather, climate and water agency said, on the inaugural World Day for Glaciers.

>"Preservation of glaciers is a not just an environmental, economic and societal necessity: it's a matter of survival," said WMO chief Celeste Saulo.

>Beyond the continental ice sheets of Greenland and Antarctica, more than 275,000 glaciers worldwide cover approximately 700,000 square kilometres, said the WMO.

>But they are rapidly shrinking due to climate change.

>"The 2024 hydrological year marked the third year in a row in which all 19 glacier regions experienced a net mass loss," the WMO added.

>Together, they lost 450 billion tonnes of mass, the agency said, citing new data from the Swiss-based World Glacier Monitoring Service (WGMS).

> It was the fourth worst year on record, with the worst being in 2023.

> "From 2022-2024, we saw the largest three-year loss of glaciers on record," said Saulo.

> Glacier mass loss last year was relatively moderate in regions such as the Canadian Arctic and the peripheral glaciers of Greenland -- but glaciers in Scandinavia, Norway's Svalbard archipelago and North Asia experienced their worst year on record.

> Based on a compilation of worldwide observations, the WGMS estimates that glaciers -- separate from the continental ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica -- have lost more than 9,000 billion tonnes since records began in 1975.

> "This is equivalent to a huge ice block of the size of Germany with a thickness of 25 metres," said WGMS director Michael Zemp.

> At current rates of melting, many glaciers in western Canada and the United States, Scandinavia, central Europe, the Caucasus, New Zealand "will not survive the 21st century", said the WMO.

> The agency said that together with ice sheets, glaciers store around 70 percent of the world's freshwater resources, with high mountain regions acting like the world's water towers. If they disappear, that would threaten water supplies for millions of people downstream.

> For the UN, the only possible response is to combat global warming by reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

>"We can negotiate many things in the end, but we cannot negotiate physical laws like the melting point of ice," said Stefan Uhlenbrook, the WMO's water and cryosphere director.

>He declined to comment on the return to office in January of US President Donald Trump, a climate change sceptic who has pulled the United States out of the landmark 2015 Paris climate accords.

>However, Uhlenbrook said that "ignoring the problem" of climate change "is maybe convenient for a short period of time", but "that will not help us to get closer to a solution".

>For the inaugural World Day for Glaciers, the WGMS named a US glacier as its first Glacier of the Year.

>The South Cascade Glacier in Washington state has been monitored continuously since 1952 and provides one of the longest uninterrupted records of glaciological mass balance in the western hemisphere.

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> Jerusalem (AFP) – The head of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency, was dismissed Friday, according to a statement from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's office.

> Netanyahu last week cited an "ongoing lack of trust" as the reason for moving to sack Ronen Bar, who was appointed in October 2021 for a five-year term.

>"The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar's term of office," a statement said.

>Bar, meant to end his tenure only next year, was appointed by the previous Israeli government that briefly forced Netanyahu from power between June 2021 and December 2022.

>His relations with Netanyahu were strained [...] notably over proposed judicial reforms that had split the country.

>Relations worsened after the March 4 release of the internal Shin Bet report on the Hamas attack.

>It acknowledged the agency's own failure in preventing the attack, but also said "a policy of quiet had enabled Hamas to undergo massive military buildup".

>Bar had already hinted that he would resign before the end of his term, taking responsibility for his agency's failure to prevent the attack.

---

Update 20250321

>Jerusalem (AFP) – Israel's supreme court Friday froze a decision by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government to sack the internal security agency chief, an unprecedented move that has deepened divisions in the country.

https://www.rfi.fr/en/international-news/20250321-israeli-opposition-appeals-against-intel-chief-sacking

> Manila (AFP) – Philippine senators on Thursday grilled government officials over their decision to hand former president Rodrigo Duterte to the International Criminal Court last week, with the country's justice minister denying coordinating the arrest ahead of time.

> Duterte was detained March 11 and put on plane to the ICC in the Netherlands the same day to face a crimes against humanity charge tied to his drug war in which thousands were killed.

>Speaking at Thursday's hearing, Secretary of Justice Jesus Remulla said the government had kept the ICC at "arm's length" until receiving the arrest warrant via Interpol.

>"We never, up to now, had any communication with the ICC, officially or unofficially," he told the hearing called by Senator Imee Marcos, a close friend of Vice President Sara Duterte who is the daughter of the detained ex-leader.

>But Senator Marcos, sister of President Ferdinand Marcos, pointed to language in the Interpol diffusion -- a more informal version of a red notice -- that she said suggested deeper coordination.

>"This diffusion is transmitted after prior consultations with the government of the Philippines, who have agreed to comply with this request for arrest," the notice dated March 10 reads.

>Remulla, however, said the wording of the notice was that of "a form letter" and not an explicit reference to the Duterte arrest.

>"When it was mentioned that they coordinated with the government of the Republic of the Philippines, that made me wonder who they were talking to here because it was not us," he said.

>Until just weeks ago, the Philippine government had steadfastly repeated its refusal to cooperate with ICC investigators, citing their lack of jurisdiction since Duterte pulled the country out of the international body in 2019.

>That changed only with recent statements from government officials that they would be obligated to act if they received a request to do so from Interpol.

>Joining the hearing via video link from The Hague, the vice president insisted her father's arrest had been aimed at dismantling opposition to the incumbent leader -- with whom she has fallen out spectacularly.

>"This is all about politics. The administration is using government resources, the ICC to demolish the opposition," she said.

>An hour later, she conducted an online briefing in which she urged voters to show their displeasure by turning out for her party's candidates in coming May mid-term elections.

>"Maybe the reason the former president became the subject of an extraordinary rendition was because (they feared) the entire Philippines would vote for our 10 (senatorial candidates)," she said.

>The feud between the Duterte and Marcos clans, simmering since they teamed up for a landslide win in the 2022 presidential election, exploded into public warfare this year.

>Last month, the vice president was impeached on charges including an alleged assassination plot against her former running mate. She now faces a Senate trial that will decide her political future.

>Duterte also said Thursday that she had spoken with new lead counsel Nicholas Kaufman and informed him her family would likely seek help covering their legal bills via the ICC's legal aid fund.

>"Yesterday I told him there's a big possibility that we will apply for legal aid and this will not be a privately funded case," she said.

> Four Canadians were executed in China on drug-related charges earlier this year, Canadian authorities have confirmed.

>All of them were dual citizens, and their identities have been withheld upon the request of their families, Canada's foreign minister Mélanie Joly told reporters on Wednesday.

>She condemned the killings as "irreversible and inconsistent with basic human dignity", adding that she had "asked personally for leniency".

>A spokesperson for the Chinese embassy in Canada said evidence for the Canadian nationals' crimes was "solid and sufficient" and urged Canada to "stop making irresponsible remarks", according to reports.

>The Chinese embassy also added that Beijing had "fully guaranteed the rights and interests of the Canadian nationals concerned" and urged the Canadian government to respect "China's judicial sovereignty".

>China does not recognise dual citizenship and takes a tough stance on drug crimes.

>Joly said she had been following the cases "very closely" for months and had tried with other officials, including former prime minister Justin Trudeau, to stop the executions.

>In a statement to Canadian media, Global Affairs Canada spokesperson Charlotte MacLeod said Canada had "repeatedly called for clemency for these individuals at the senior-most levels and remains steadfast in its opposition to the use of the death penalty in all cases, everywhere".

>China imposes the death penalty on serious crimes including those related to drugs, corruption and espionage. While the number of executions are kept secret, human rights groups believe China has one of the highest execution rates in the world.

>However, it's rare for the death penalty to be carried out on foreigners.

>The executions revealed this week have sparked criticisms from campaigners.

>"These shocking and inhumane executions of Canadian citizens by Chinese authorities should be a wake-up call for Canada," said Ketty Nivyabandi from Amnesty International Canada. "We are devastated for the families of the victims, and we hold them in our hearts as they try to process the unimaginable."

>"Our thoughts also go to the loved ones of Canadian citizens whom China is holding on death row or whose whereabouts in the Chinese prison system are unknown."

...

> Meru (Kenya) (AFP) – Charles Kibaki Muchiri traced the water trickling across the surface of the Lewis Glacier with his fingers, illustrating how quickly climate change is melting the huge ice blocks off of Africa's second-highest mountain.

> For nearly 25 years, the affable 50-year-old guide has been taking hikers to the peaks of Mount Kenya, nearly 5,000 metres (16,400 feet) above sea level, and observing their transformation from a landscape of snow and ice, to brown rock.

> "It was very beautiful," he told AFP mournfully on a recent ascent.

> He recalled the ice caves and thick layer of snow that lasted several months on the peaks of this ancient volcano.

> The Lewis Glacier once covered one of Mount Kenya's slopes.

>The imposing mass of ice visible in archive photos has now been reduced to just two blocks -- the biggest only a few dozen metres wide.

>Muchiri said he fears the glacier will be entirely gone in a few years, transforming the landscape and discouraging visitors.

>His observations are backed up by numerous studies, while scientists have found ice loss from the world's glaciers has accelerated over the past decade as the planet warms.

>Mount Kenya is one of the only mountains on the African continent with glaciers, and scientists fear that as soon as 2030, it could become one of the first to turn entirely ice-free in modern times.

>The Lewis Glacier lost 90 percent of its volume between 1934 and 2010, according to a 2011 study led by Rainer Prinz of Austria's University of Innsbruck.

>A satellite study last year, published in the journal Environmental Research: Climate, found that the surface area of the ice on Mount Kenya was just 4.2 percent of the size compared with the first reliable observations in 1900.

>That is in keeping with other African mountains, including the highest, Mount Kilimanjaro, which has just 8.6 percent of its ice surface left, according to the study.

>Although less well-known than Kilimanjaro, Mount Kenya is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site that attracts thousands of visitors each year.

> Elephants can sometimes be seen in the dense forest at its base, while the trees give way to verdant hills on the ascent. After long hours of hiking, the brown rocks of the summit appear.

> Prinz said the ice shrinkage is down to temperature changes at the surface of the Indian Ocean that transport moisture throughout east Africa, "and, hence, affected by our warming planet".

> The mountains no longer receive sufficient snow and are deprived of the white blanket that protects the glaciers from the effects of solar radiation, he said.

> "If they don't have that, they will just melt away," he said.

> Porter and guide Godfrey Mwangi, 28, said he has already seen many glaciers disappear.

> He pointed to a whitewashed cliff overlooking Shiptons Camp at an altitude of 4,200 metres, once covered in a sheet of ice.

> The mountain is still home to atypical flora and unique landscapes, Muchiri added, but the loss of glacier ice has put a stop to certain types of technical climbing.

> Rivers are also drying up, with consequences for the flora, fauna and residents of villages at the foot of the revered mountain.

> The glaciers were never large enough to constitute significant water reservoirs, according to scientists, but had considerable tourist and scientific importance.

> There are other ice blocks left on the mountain, but Prinz said they are now "more or less a pile of ice cubes".

> The Lewis Glacier did once have an effect on local water supplies, added Alexandros Makarigakis, a UNESCO hydrologist, but it has become so small that its contribution to the local environment has evaporated.

> Makarigakis welcomes projects led by young Kenyans to plant trees around the base of the mountain in the hope of slowing the loss of snow.

> But he said it will only delay the inevitable.

> "Pretty soon we will have a generation that will never associate Africa with glaciers," he said.

> Skärholmen (Sweden) (AFP) – Swedish government officials are to meet food industry giants on Thursday to discuss soaring food costs and rising consumer anger in the Nordic country.

> Food prices rose by 3.9 percent in February from the same month a year earlier, the highest annual rate in two years, according to the country's official statistics agency.

>Independent watchdog site Matpriskollen (The Food Price Checker) found in January that prices in Swedish grocery stores had risen by 19.1 percent over two years.

>The rising prices have sparked a viral online campaign calling for a boycott of Sweden's main grocery chains this week in a bid to get them to lower prices.

>In Skarholmen, a neighbourhood in southwestern Stockholm, residents told AFP they were struggling to make ends meet.

>Here, open air markets and small independent grocers offer Eastern or African specialities at competitive prices for consumers looking to avoid the big chains.

>"Every day the prices increase, by maybe five kronor ($0.50) for a carton of milk. The other day, I was going to buy nuts and it was very shocking: 350 kronor ($35) a kilo," said Hayedeh, a 79-year-old pensioner.

>Dairy products are among those with the highest increases. The price of butter has gone up 26 percent in a year, while milk and cheese have also risen, according to the statistics agency.

>Finance Minister Elisabeth Svantesson and Rural Affairs Minister Peter Kullgren will meet the main supermarket chains ICA, Coop and Axfood on Thursday to "listen to the industry's assessment of the situation and work together to lower prices for customers," according to the government.

>The main chains account for 90 percent of Sweden's grocery store market.

>"Consumers have had to pay more for many food products than what is justified by the increase in cost for the components in food production," said then head of the Swedish Competition Authority Rikard Jermsten in a report last year.

>"This situation would not have happened if there had been healthy competition," he said.

>Food industry actors have insisted the increases are due to factors out of their control, including the Covid pandemic, the war in Ukraine and inflation.

>Bogdan Skorzynski, a 37-year-old painting business employee, said he quit smoking in order to be able to continue buying the same food items.

>"It's a good thing for me", but "prices have risen enormously and my salary has stayed the same".

>"It's not okay."

> Lilongwe, Milawi – In Milawi's capital city of Lilongwe, Charles Kabenan desciribed his recent experience when visiting a shop to purchase building materials. The previous day, the total cost of the items had been K1,195,400 (US$681.38), yet within mere hours, it had surged to K1,390,000 (US$792.30).

> Shocked by the situation, he observed that some items were running out of stock and that suppliers were ‘feeling the pinch of the unstable economy,’ as he now faced a 17% increase on his original quotation since the price surge had begun.

> The experience is a reflection of the Malawian economic picture. The southeastern African nation - the fourth poorest country in the world, where over half of the population lives in poverty and one-fifth in extreme poverty, according to data from the World Bank- is going through an economic downturn that has seen the price of goods and services skyrocket in a matter of months.

> The country, like others in the region, is reeling from the aftermath of El Niño and La Niña weather conditions, which has led to drought and severe hunger.

> There is also a lack of foreign exchange, making it almost impossible for companies to operate or export raw materials. The result has been a thriving business on the black market, as well as some companies closing down or raising the price of their commodities. A bag of maize, the staple food, costs over MK100,000 (€50), while the country’s minimum wage is €45.

> While presenting the 2025/26 National Budget in parliament, the minister of finance and economic affairs, Simplex Chithyola Banda, announced strategies to revamp the economy, including stabilising foreign exchange by clamping down on the black market, banning the importation of non-essential commodities that can be produced locally, and giving companies and individuals incentives to ramp up local production.

> Recently, this was compounced by a wave of protests by street vendors, who accuse the government of failing to control the rise in the cost of goods and subsequently putting them out of business and disrupting livelihoods, has broken out in both the capital, and Blantyre, the commercial city.

> Meanwhile, Banda has said the economy will grow by 3.2 per cent this year. He also announced plans to prop up the economy through measures such as cracking down on the black market, prohibiting the importation of non-essential goods that can be produced domestically, and providing businesses and individuals with incentives to increase local output. The government has since applied a 20 per cent salary increase for all civil servants.

> The President of the Economics Association of Malawi (ECAMA), Bertha Bangara-Chikadza, observed that the country is struggling because of a shortage of foreign exchange in the banks and the speculative behaviour that follows, as well as a poor harvest of maize, which contributes significantly to the food basket. She told RFI, "We are glad that inflation has started going down.”

> She explained that the disparity between the black market exchange rate and the official financial sector rate typically occurs due to high demand for foreign currency that banks are unable to fully meet. As a result, people turn to the black market to obtain this scarce resource.

> Additionally, she added, some individuals are taking advantage of the situation by inflating prices beyond necessary levels, and speculative behavior became evident in the economy.

> Furthermore, a drought negatively affected agricultural production, leading to a decline in food and agricultural exports. This, she said, worsened the situation, as rising food prices—especially maize, the staple food for Malawians—added significant economic pressure.

> Jerusalem (AFP) – Blowing foghorns and beating drums, thousands of Israelis on Wednesday took over the winding Jerusalem street outside the prime minister's residence to protest what they see as Benjamin Netanyahu's bid to weaken democracy.

> "We've all been taken hostage by the government of blood," some chanted.

>Others called for the long-serving Netanyahu to stand down, yelling: "You're the head, you're to blame for this catastrophe" [...]

>On Tuesday, Israel launched a series of deadly air strikes on the Palestinian territory after a nearly two-month ceasefire that largely halted violence and saw the handover of 33 Israeli hostages seized during the Hamas attack.

>Among the banners held by protesters in Jerusalem were many calling on the government to end the war and return the hostages, with some reading: "We are all hostages."

>Some relatives of the hostages still being held in Gaza also joined the protest, after expressing anger that the decision to resume strikes could "sacrifice" their loved ones.

>Of the 251 hostages seized during the Hamas attack, 58 are still held in Gaza, including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.

> "We want him to know that the most important issue is to get the hostages back," Nehama Krysler, 67, told AFP, explaining why she was protesting outside Netanyahu's house.

> Arriving from across the country, protesters marched by foot the final ascent into Jerusalem early in the morning, first rallying outside the parliament, and then sitting down defiantly on the black asphalt as close as they could get to Netanyahu's residence.

> A tense police force manned makeshift barricades around the protest, which grew throughout the day.

> By the afternoon police said that four protesters were arrested for "attempting to break through the protest area fences".

> Wednesday's demonstration was organised by a broad conglomeration of anti-Netanyahu groups, who called to protest the premier's move to oust Ronen Bar, the head of the Shin Bet internal security agency.

> Similar protests were widespread throughout the year leading up to October 2023.

> At that time, the government had been attempting to reform the country's judicial branch, a move that was halted when the war broke out.

> But it has returned to the government's agenda in recent weeks as attorney general and government legal adviser, Gali Baharav-Miara, has contested some of Netanyahu's moves.

> Justice Minister Yariv Levin has been clear about his intentions to remove Baharav-Miara from her position.

> "They still want to change the judiciary because they want to do whatever they like without any limits," Raffi Lipkin, 76, from Tel Aviv said of Netanyahu's government.

>"Our democracy is under threat from this government."

>Opposition leader and former prime minister Yair Lapid joined the protest, saying "he had come to tell the world what is happening to our democracy."

>In a post on X on his way to the demonstration, Lapid said: "This government is tearing us apart, it is dismantling us, it is an illegitimate government and we are taking to the streets."

>"The protest is to stop this government from taking Israel on this awful path, to losing our democracy," said Eyal Ben-Reuven, 70, a former parliament member and vocal Netanyahu critic.

>"This prime minister needs to go home, he has failed and by staying in power, he is hurting the country and its citizens," Ben-Reuven, a retired army general, told AFP.

>Earlier, outside the parliament, 18-year-old Roni Sharon, a student from the city of Rehovot, told AFP that she had skipped school to join the protest.

>"This is my country, and at this rate we won't have a country left -- not a democratic one. It will be a dictatorship," she said.