Indice dei contenuti per 2022-06-17 in Mercury

In an open letter to Ramaphosa, the Road Freight Association said more than R300 million had already been lost THE private sector has thrown the strongest challenge yet to government’s resolve to keep the economy running as the N3 to Durban’s ports and beyond was again under siege from truck drivers who blocked it at critical areas yesterday. They were pressing demands to stop the employment of foreigners on the roads and the recent fuel price increases. The Road Freight Association (RFA) and Business Unity South Africa (Busa) have called on President Cyril Ramaphosa to deploy the army and police to end the blockades. “We consider this continued disruption of economic activity a crisis and ask the president to intervene to ensure appropriate resources are mobilised to pre-empt these disruptions…

EFF leader Julius Malema used his Youth Day speech in Thohoyandou, Limpopo, yesterday to again raise the issue of the criminal charges that have been laid against President Cyril Ramaphosa. Youth Day was marked as youth unemployment is at more than 66% and the cost of living is rising. It also takes place as Ramaphosa is under intense scrutiny after former spy boss Arthur Fraser laid criminal charges against him for not reporting the theft of foreign currency at his Phala Phala farm in 2020 and for allegedly covering it up. Fraser met the Hawks on Wednesday to assist them with their investigation. Ramaphosa has denied any wrongdoing. Malema said Parliament was not a place for “crooks” and, making reference to Ramaphosa, he said those who hid money in mattresses…

ETHEKWINI Metro, with an annual budget of nearly R54 billion, was among the municipalities accused of failing to submit good quality financial statements to the Office of the Auditor-General for auditing purposes. Auditor-General Tsakani Maluleke detailed the state of the municipalities in a briefing this week, citing many challenges, including the failure to submit good quality statements. While the city maintained its good standing with an unqualified audit, the A-G noted that it had been made with findings. “EThekwini, which accounted for 53% (R47bn at the time of the audit) of the local government budget in the province, retained its unqualified opinion with findings. To improve its audit outcome, the metro should focus on strengthening its monitoring and review of procurement and consequence management.” She said while the municipality had…

“Yes, sadly,” I expressed days ago, “we all carry an edge of inhumanity.” It was not written to insult, but to inspire a deeper look, both for you and for me, for none of us escapes the common brush of our inhumanity. For most, it is subtle, for we have highly developed skills to hide the harshness we usually prefer to think is not lurking within. Do you experience any of the following? Indifference when others, strangers, even neighbours, suffer. Indifference when you read of wars and calamity in far-off places. A cold shoulder turned to the person who’s in trouble by his or her own doing where “but for grace there go I” is forgotten. A determined forward stare at a traffic intersection when a hungry child attempts…

The deadly crash of China Eastern Airlines flight 5735 on March 21 remains unresolved. The cockpit voice recorder and the flight data recorder (FDR) were badly damaged, resulting in extreme difficulty in retrieving any valuable information, according to Chinese Civil Aviation Authorities. Investigators from China and abroad have different views on events that led up to the crash and analysis of vital information on hand. Western publications, the news and social media in Asia are convinced that someone in the cockpit was responsible for the horrendous crash. Analysis by US officials of the black box flight recorders found amid the wreckage suggests deliberate input from the cockpit forced the Boeing 737-800 into its catastrophic dive. Within two minutes, the 737 plummeted from 2 900 feet at almost supersonic speed…

President Cyril Ramaphosa has accepted the recommendations of the Independent Commission for the Remuneration of Public Office-Bearers to increase politicians’ salaries by 3%. In March, the commission recommended a 3% pay hike for all categories of public office-bearers including members of Ramaphosa’s executive (ministers and their deputies), premiers, MECs, MPs, MPLs, traditional leaders, judges as well as independent constitutional institutions such as the offices of the Public Protector, Auditor-General and Electoral Commission of SA, among others. Ramaphosa approved the recommendations made by the commission this week. The salary increases, which will be backdated to April last year, will see Deputy President David Mabuza earn more than R2.91 million a year, up from R2.82m. Mabuza, National Assembly Speaker Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula and National Council of Provinces (NCOP) chairperson Amos Masondo earn similar…

Advisory group Meridian Economics recently published two reports “Resolving the Power Crisis”, “Part A” and “Part B”, which analysed the energy sector and outlined a game plan to end load shedding by early 2024. The report showed that load shedding was eminently solvable and would have been virtually eliminated in 2021, had there been more renewables on the system. “If we had 5GW (gigawatts) of additional renewable energy on the grid in 2021 (the worst year for load shedding on the record), this would have essentially solved load shedding, while enabling better use of our existing pumped storage and diesel-fired OCGT (open cycle gas turbine) assets (Eskom's most important weapons to plug demand and supply gaps),” the Meridian team said. The report was sent to key stakeholders in the Department…

From crop-wilting drought to the creeping devastation of rising seas, climate change is already bringing death, destruction and hefty costs to vulnerable nations, spurring growing calls for richer countries to help them cope in a warming world. The contentious issue of “loss and damage” had been a major focus at the UN climate talks in Germany, which is tasked with laying the groundwork for the COP27 summit later this year. “The impacts of climate change are borderless,” outgoing UN climate change chief Patricia Espinosa told delegates last week. “They continue to particularly affect the most vulnerable people, communities and countries disproportionately.” While climate negotiators met in Germany, the Horn of Africa was facing a record drought, raising fears of famine for tens of millions of people. “These kinds of impacts…

The City of uMhlathuze says preventive and mitigation measures are in place to ensure that gas leaks are controlled in the Richards Bay area. The municipality was commenting after the DA in the City of uMhlathuze said it was concerned about the investigation being conducted into a gas leak that affected 370 residents and pupils earlier this year in Richards Bay. “It has been four months since the incident took place and yet the municipality has done little to nothing to engage with the affected residents,” said DA councillor Henning de Wet. At time of the incident in February, some pupils at a school were hospitalised. City of uMhlathuze spokesperson Bongani Gina said a preliminary report did serve before the council structures in March and, among others, it was recorded…

Mpumalanga police commissioner Lieutenant-General Semakaleng Manamela has ordered the mobilisation of maximum resources to arrest suspects who robbed the Kwaggafontein police station on Wednesday. Manamela assured the public yesterday that police were searching for the robbers. Police spokesperson Brigadier Selvy Mohlala said: “The investigation is ongoing and members of the media will be updated.” There were reports that there were six robbers who took shotguns, rifles, pistols and four cellphones. They also allegedly took 83 rounds for R-5 rifles, 25 rounds for pistols, 250 rounds for pump gun and a bullet-proof vest. Last November, Malamulele police station in Limpopo was robbed. Officers were bundled into a van while the station was robbed. Three suspects were arrested. | Mercury Correspondent…

It is a well-worn truism that innovation is what separates successful countries from their competitors. An indispensably vital element to innovation, inarguably, is the country’s educational system and how it can convert innovation into a functional instrument for engendering solutions. The two, education and innovation, depend largely on public and private investments in the youth, who are the largest beneficiaries and drivers of education and innovation. This explains why President Xi Jinping, and all his predecessors in the Communist Party of China, have emphasised education and training. More recently President Xi said that “a nation will prosper only when its young people thrive; a country will be full of hope and have a great tomorrow only when its younger generations have ideals, ability and a strong sense of responsibility”. As…

The leaders of major EU powers France, Germany and Italy vowed yesterday to help Ukraine defeat Russia and to rebuild its shattered cities, in a visit to a war-torn Kyiv suburb. French President Emmanuel Macron, Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi arrived in Ukraine by train and headed to Irpin, scene of fierce battles early in Russia’s invasion. “France has been alongside Ukraine since day one. We stand with the Ukrainians without ambiguity. Ukraine must resist and win,” Macron said. Surrounded by the wreckage left by Ukraine’s successful but hard-fought defence of its capital in the early stages of the 113-day-old conflict, Draghi said: “We will rebuild everything. They destroyed kindergartens, they destroyed playgrounds. Everything will be rebuilt,” he promised. It is the first time the…

The Democratic Republic of Congo has pledged to combat stigmatisation and “manhunts”, the national broadcaster said yesterday, a day after an anti-Rwanda protest descended into sectarian looting. Friction between the DRC and neighbouring Rwanda has surged in the past few weeks over the M23 rebel group. The government in the DRC’s capital, Kinshasa, accuses Rwanda of backing the rebels, a charge that Rwanda has denied. This week several thousand people protested against Rwanda in the eastern city of Goma. The Congolese High Defence Council, which is chaired by the president, has also recommended suspending agreements with Rwanda. Relations between Kinshasa and Kigali have been strained since the mass arrival in DRC of Rwandan Hutus accused of slaughtering Tutsis during the 1994 Rwanda genocide. | AFP…

ATALAIA DO NORTE: Police have found human remains in their search for British journalist Dom Phillips and Brazilian indigenous expert Bruno Pereira after a suspect confessed to killing them in the Amazon rainforest, investigators said. The main suspect, a fisherman who had clashed with Pereira over illegal fishing in indigenous territory, led police to a remote burial site. Phillips and Pereira were in a remote jungle area near the border with Colombia and Peru. The suspect and his brother were seen meeting on the Itacoai river moments after Phillips and Pereira passed by on June 5. Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro said Phillips had made enemies by writing about environmental issues. | Reuters…

RUNNING a successful bowling club is a costly exercise at the best of times, but after the recent flood damage many Port Natal clubs are finding their financial resources stretched to the limit. Two of the worst-hit were Hillary and Durban Collegians and they have faced an uphill battle to get their clubs back into shape. Concerned Hillary President, Angus Napier, pointed out that this was the fifth time in eight years that the club in Stella Road had been under almost a metre of water after a nearby stream flooded the two greens and the clubhouse. "The big problem is that no companies will insure the club any more, so we have to bear the cost ourselves. Luckily, our members and other clubs have been fantastic in helping…

Leonardo Castro has said that he wishes to stay in South Africa and would be open to playing for Cape Town City. The 33-year-old is currently a free-agent after Kaizer Chiefs offloaded him as part of their mass exodus. “My first option is South Africa. I’m very grateful to be in South Africa. It’s like my second home. “I have been here for six-and-half years with my family. We have been comfortable and we love the culture and people here. I would like to play in the (CAF) Champions League again. The only teams I can play for at this point would be Sundowns. Cape Town City would be another option,” said Castro. In reality, it is difficult to see Castro returning to Sundowns. He is beyond his prime…

KwaZulu-Natal businesses and business confidence as a whole – which has already been battered by the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, the recent floods and the aftermath of last July’s unrest – cannot afford any further disruptions or destruction to the economy. This was said by economists after traffic was brought to a standstill for hours yesterday in parts of the province due to truck blockades on the N3 at Van Reenen’s Pass, at Maydon Wharf which leads to the Durban Harbour, and on the N11 near Newcastle. Dr Ntokozo Nzimande, a senior lecturer in the Department of Economics at UCT, said that any blockades or destruction to property would severely harm the already weakened business confidence in KZN. He said this would have a devastating impact on the province’s…

NASA’s Mars Perseverance rover has spotted a shiny silver object that looks like a discarded packet or foil stuck between two rocks on the Red Planet. The image, captured by the rover’s left Mastcam-Z camera on June 13, may show a piece of debris discarded by the robotic craft during its touchdown in February 2021. According to Perseverance officials, the “shiny bit of foil is part of a thermal blanket – a material used to control temperatures”. Taking to Twitter, officials from the Perseverance said they believed the piece of a thermal blanket may have come from the descent stage when the rocket-powered jet pack set the rover down on landing day back in 2021. However, the officials said that the rocket that landed the rover descended about 2km away…

Border collie Sam, along with his owner Gonzalo Chiang, who have taken it upon themselves to keep a park in Chile’s capital clean and green have been recognised for their efforts. The duo take regular walks in Santiago’s metropolitan park and Chiang began noticing the large amount of litter lying around including plastic bottles, masks, cans and food packages. “On Sam’s walks we began to find a lot of garbage,” Chiang said in an interview. In April alone, Sam and Chiang collected 602 masks, 585 bottles and 304 cans in addition to clothing, helmets and food wrappers. “The walk is a good opportunity to clean, rather than litter,” Chiang said. Park officials were impressed by Sam, who visits the tourist attraction at least three times a week, and decided to…

I was so excited that I was included when The Mercury invited avid writers and some subscribers to a get-together at Gateway on Wednesday. I believe there were at least 10 readers who were invited. Unfortunately, many of them were unable to attend, probably due to the uncertain weather. Although there were only a few of us that did, it turned out to be a splendid opportunity to exchange ideas regarding readership, improving the paper’s circulation, improving some areas of format and modifying others. A special bond was definitely created among writers who would otherwise normally go for each other’s necks in the paper, propelled by differing viewpoints. Rather, what emerged most usefully, most importantly out of this quaint exercise was the age-old axiom that can probably save the world:…

A woman who allegedly sold a multimillion-rand Durban North house that didn’t belong to her will know whether her application for bail has been successful next week. Sharmaine Chan, 58, who faces a charge of fraud, was arrested by the Hawks for selling the house worth R2.2 million that allegedly belonged to the national Department of Public Works. Chan made her third appearance in the Durban Specialised Commercial Crimes Court this week. According to Natasha Ramkisson- Kara, provincial spokesperson for the National Prosecuting Authority, judgment in her bail application is expected on June 21. At the time of Chan’s arrest in early June, Hawks spokesperson Captain Simphiwe Mhlongo said the complainant had alleged that he was looking for a property and Chan had enticed him into buying a home in…

A DIVORCED father who stopped certain payments towards his two children – both older than 18 – was ordered to pay his ex-wife R166 000 within 30 days. If he fails to do so, the sheriff of the court is entitled to take possession of his assets to sell in order to recoup the money. The father stopped the payments in respect of his daughter’s tertiary studies because he felt she did not do as well as he wanted her to do. He turned to the Western Cape High Court to have a warrant of execution for arrears maintenance, school fees, tertiary education and other amounts set aside. His ex-wife obtained the warrant as she said she had to pay for the children because her ex-husband had stopped paying the…

Ryanair has dropped a requirement for South African passengers to prove their nationality before travelling by completing a test in Afrikaans, chief executive Michael O’Leary said after the policy drew a backlash from South Africans. The South African government said last week it was taken aback by the low-cost carrier’s decision to force UK-bound travellers holding the country’s passport to take the test, calling the move a “backward profiling system”. Afrikaans is spoken by just 12% of the 58 million people in the country and often associated with apartheid and white minority rule. O’Leary, whose airline does not operate flights to and from South Africa but carries more passengers around Europe than anyone else, described the South African government’s profiling accusation as “rubbish”, but said the test had been dropped.…

The former head of the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Treasury was convicted of fraud, corruption, money laundering and contravention of the Public Finance Management Act in the Durban High Court this week. National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) provincial spokesperson Natasha Ramkisson-Kara said Dumisani Sipho Derrick Shabalala’s conviction related to his receipt of R1.5 million from Intaka Investments for the acquisition of Wataka water purification plants valued at R44 million. She said the offence occurred between 2004 and 2007 when Shabalala formed a relationship with Uruguayan businessman Gaston Savoi and the company Intaka Investments. “Shabalala then travelled to Brazil to view the purification equipment. On his return to South Africa, he wrote to then MEC Dr Zweli Mkhize, recommending that money be allocated from the poverty alleviation fund for the acquisition of the water…

Cosatu leadership in KwaZulu-Natal say they expect minimal disruption to businesses in the Durban CBD owing to its protest demonstration today. The protest is aimed at highlighting the “daily struggles of working people” amid rising fuel prices, the high cost of living, poor wages and the high unemployment rate. Cosatu KZN secretary Edwin Mkhize sought to assure the public that there was no stayaway or shutdown. “We have noted reports suggesting there is a strike, which is not true. Cosatu would never allow its members to embark on an unprotected strike and that is why we call today’s action a protest demonstration,” Mkhize said. He added while they had noted that protests and marches in recent times had often led to looting of businesses, they remained confident that theirs would…

The Western Cape High Court has dismissed an appeal from a man who was convicted of the rape of his 9-year-old stepdaughter. The accused was convicted at the Wynberg Magistrate’s Court in July 2019 on two counts of rape and attempted rape and sentenced to 26 years’ imprisonment. In the appeal, the high court upheld his sentence for the rape but changed the attempted rape charge to attempted assault and reduced that sentence. Therefore he will serve an effective 22 years. The man was married to the victim’s mother in 2011 and they then moved into a one-bedroom flat. The victim slept in the same bedroom as the married couple and it was proven in court that he would rape the child while her mother worked night shift. High Court…

Independence of public protector has been gravely undermined PRESIDENT Cyril Ramaphosa has brazenly demonstrated, through his summary suspension of Public Protector advocate Busisiwe Mkhwebane while she is investigating him for corruption and violation of Section 96 of the Constitution, that he believes there is one law applicable to his predecessor Jacob Zuma, and another law applicable to himself when it comes to matters of good governance and public administration. Ramaphosa knew to a moral certainty that a president suffering from alleged conflict of interest cannot make valid appointment, suspension or removal decisions. This was the admonition of the court in Corruption Watch (RF) NPC and Another v President of RSA and Others; 1 All SA 471 (GP); 2018 (1) SACR 317 (GP) (December 8 2017). There Judge Dunstan Mlambo declared…

Talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO) were going deep into overtime yesterday with countries trying to thrash out an over-arching deal encompassing food security, fishing and combating Covid-19. With ministers struggling to conclude agreements on each separate topic, countries were going round the clock making tit-for-tat trade-offs which they hope could see several measures go through as one package. Ministers from the global trade body’s 164 members have been talking since Sunday at the WTO’s headquarters in Geneva, in their first conference since December 2017. They added a fifth day of talks to try to break the deadlock, and prove the organisation has a role in tackling big global challenges. But yesterday’s negotiations were going past the deadline. The WTO only takes decisions by consensus among all its members,…

LONDON: Actor Kevin Spacey was granted unconditional bail at court yesterday after he was charged with four sexual offences against three men. The 62-year-old Oscar winner appeared at Westminster Magistrate’s Court where he “strenuously denied” the allegations against him, and did not enter pleas to four charges of sexual assault and one count of causing a person to engage in penetrative sex without consent. At the end of the hearing, it was announced that Spacey will next appear at Southwark Crown Court on July 14 for a plea and trial preparation hearing. | Bang Showbiz…

Lagos: Nigerian police say they have rescued 35 teenage girls from a hotel where they were used as sex slaves and then forced to give birth and sell their babies. Nigerian police have previously freed dozens of under-aged women and babies from illegal maternity homes known as “baby factories” where women are forced to have children for sale on the black market. The teenagers were rescued from the Gally Gally hotel on Monday in the south-eastern state of Anambra, where they were used “for sex slaves, prostitution and baby factory,” state police spokesperson Tochukwu Ikenga said. Four of the girls were pregnant, he said. | AFP…

Whichever of the Stormers or the Bulls weather the weather best will lift the maiden United Rugby Championship title this weekend. The Cape-based side and the men from Pretoria will no doubt be in a war of attrition tomorrow at Cape Town Stadium (7.30pm kickoff), but it is also expected that they will have to struggle against cold and wet conditions. As such, a forward-dominated encounter is expected; with possession largely dictated by who can hold onto the ball best, while both sides drive their packs forward through territory; and that was certainly how Springbok assistant coach Deon Davids and Bok prop Ox Nche see it panning out. Speaking at the national team’s Youth Day initiative on Wednesday, both Davids and the Ox expressed the belief that, with the conditions…

AFTER a two-year hiatus, the return of Turkish Airlines to Durban’s King Shaka International Airport will add much-needed traffic between Europe and South Africa. This is according to Airports Company South Africa (Acsa) regional general manager, Nkosinathi Myataza, who said the resumption of the Turkish Airlines flights signified the resilience of the aviation industry which had been hit hard by the Covid-19 pandemic. Passengers on board the Turkish Airlines flight that landed at King Shaka yesterday were given a warm Durban welcome as they stepped into international arrivals. The airline has extended two of its Istanbul-Johannesburg flights to include Durban on Thursdays and Saturdays and has plans to increase these to four weekly flights later this year, depending on passenger uptake. Myataza said the flights would help propel the recovery…

THESE modern automatic cars can be very tricky to drive. For those of us who are accustomed to the gearstick, the need occasionally to double-declutch and all the rest of it, to drive one can be an unnerving experience. A friend – former Durban city councillor Laurie Kaplan – has bought a gleaming monster of an automatic vehicle, top of the range. Its engine doesn’t purr – that’s audible – it’s completely silent. It doesn’t even give off a vibration. And, of course, it’s automatic. You don’t change gear, the car does it for you. Laurie insisted we should take it for a spin, myself behind the wheel. It’s pretty daunting. Getting into the vehicle is bad enough. You don’t put the ignition key into the door lock, that’s too…

It has been nearly a year since the violent riots and looting that broke out in KwaZulu-Natal and parts of Gauteng, which cost our economy about R50 billion and resulted in 340 lives being lost. Since then, communities and businesses have focused on recovering from the damage caused during the violence, with the SA Human Rights Commission also launching a probe into the unrest. The final report released following this investigation has recommended that Cabinet drives a national response plan that includes bringing to book those responsible for planning and instigating the violence. In this regard, UPL South Africa has made its statements, surveillance footage and information about the attack available to the SAPS in an effort to ensure the people responsible for the arson attack against its leased Cornubia…

After just a month in bookstores, late Struggle stalwart Ebrahim Ebrahim’s memoir Beyond Fear reached number six on South Africa’s top 100 titles nationwide. “I am not surprised, but just amazed by how quickly (it rose to top 6). I track the best-seller list and it is not many South African books that do so well,” author and communications strategist Kim Heller said. The long-awaited memoir relates “Comrade Ebie’s” story of Struggle as one of the only freedom fighters to have been sentenced twice to lengthy sentences on Robben Island. “The apartheid judge said at the end of my treason trial in 1989 that he was sentencing me to a further 20 years on Robben Island as clearly the first 15 years had done me no good,” Ebrahim recounts in…

The US is once again a favourite travel destination for South Africans eager to spread their wings. With the US lifting the final barrier to entry for travellers – a Covid-19 PCR test a day before travelling to the country – South Africans are now able to travel more freely to one of their most favoured destinations. Global travel search site Cheapflights.co.za said it noticed a 17.5% increase in flight searches to the US from SA after the announcement compared to the same day in the previous week. Flights to New York, especially, saw a spike in searches by about 30%. Additional flight search data analysed by Cheapflights.co.za revealed that the US is the second most-searched-for destination by South Africans wanting to travel abroad this winter – with the UK…

The South African Social Security Agency (Sassa) says payments of the Covid-19 social relief of distress (SRD) R350 grant will start this week for applicants who were successful. Sassa called on grant recipients not to go to the Post Office to collect their SRD grant, but to go to approved retail outlets, such as Pick n Pay, Checkers, Shoprite, Boxer or USave. “Sassa has been dealing with the thorny issue of reconsideration since August, 2021. The process has now ended and those who qualify will start receiving their payment this week. Check your bank notification for payment,” the agency said. On its social media platforms, Sassa said payments for the new cycle of the special Covid-19 SRD grant, from April 2022, would be paid from mid-June 2022. “Payments are under…

The KwaZulu-Natal Department of Education has given an assurance that financial constraints and rising food prices will not result in any pupils who currently benefit from the School Nutrition Programme being excluded. This comes after some stakeholders in the education sector including school governing bodies and teacher unions raised concerns over the reported cuts that were said to be implemented by the department because of an instruction from the National Treasury. For many impoverished children, the meals provided through the school feeding scheme programme may be their only meal for the day. Provincial secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers’ Union Nomarashiya Caluza indicated that they had learnt of the move from some service providers. “Our worry is that this could result in many learners getting excluded from the programme…

The eThekwini Municipality says from Monday it will implement a water-rationing schedule over vast parts of the city which will last for the next 10 to 12 months. The city and Umgeni Water said the rotational supply of water would be for areas that were supplied by the Durban Heights Water Treatment Plant, which is operated and managed by the water utility. They said water rationing would ensure equal distribution of available water in a switch-on and switch-off basis, rotating from one to the other. The areas that are affected include Durban North, Westville, uMhlanga, Chatsworth, Ntuzuma, uMlazi, Phoenix, and Newlands West and East. They said because water rationing was a planned event, tankers would not be dispatched to cover the rationing period. They would only be dispatched to areas…

Flights were cancelled, public transport ground to a halt and government offices were closed in a nationwide strike by Tunisia’s main trade union confederation yesterday, that piled pressure on a president already facing a string of crises. The powerful UGTT confederation had called on up to three million public sector workers to strike, halting work at 159 state agencies and public companies to demand concessions on salaries and threatened reforms. The action appeared to be widely observed. A strike by public sector workers at Tunis airport saw dozens of flights cancelled, while public utilities and post offices were closed. Around 1 000 strike supporters gathered outside UGTT headquarters in central Tunis, singing the national anthem and waving flags. In a fiery speech, UGTT chief Noureddine Taboubi said the action had…

The British government said yesterday a European rights court should not have blocked the removal of migrants to Rwanda, promising legislation to override some of the court’s orders. The government says it has been forced to respond with drastic action to record numbers of migrants crossing the Channel because the costs associated with housing asylum seekers are unsustainable. A charter plane was on the tarmac at a British military base, ready to take the first batch of claimants to Kigali, when the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) stepped in. The Strasbourg-based court ordered British judges to first examine the legality of the removal scheme before making any deportations. Justice Secretary Dominic Raab said the UK High Court, Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court had all already rejected urgent…

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron has issued a warning to his ministers running for a seat in the National Assembly: “If you fail, you lose your place in the cabinet.” Three days ahead of the run-off vote in France’s parliamentary election, three ministers will be sweating over their jobs after the president’s centrist alliance failed to shine in round one. Their uncertain fate raises the prospect of a mini-reshuffle even if the alliance holds back a surge by a bloc led by the hard-left veteran Jean-Luc Melenchon and wins an absolute majority on June 19. Among them are Clement Beaune, Macron’s right-hand man on Europe, and Amelie de Montchalin, ecological transition minister. Beaune, 40, would represent a significant loss for Macron. He is a key architect of his European policy.…

Probolinggo: Thousands of Hindu worshippers climbed an active volcano in Indonesia yesterday to throw offerings from crops to livestock down its smouldering crater in a centuries-old religious ceremony. Every year people from the Tengger tribe gather from villages in the highlands around Mount Bromo to trek to its peak to cast goats, chickens, fruit, flowers and vegetables into its crater as part of the Yadnya Kasada festival. A chain of worshippers, some with goats on their backs, trekked to the edge of the crater in hope of pleasing their Hindu gods while bringing prosperity and fortune to the communities of the Tenggerese, an indigenous group. | AFP…

They are on their way! The biggest news this week is the imminent arrival of the silver mass, the sardines. The fishing has been great all around, but it is about to get a lot better. Sardines! Keep an eye on social media, don’t spread false news and only follow reliable sources of information. This time of the year, is always an exciting one, with everyone waiting for the arrival of the sardines. Get ready guys and girls! Any day now we will see the sardines washing up on our shores. The sea has calmed down a bit and with it, shore fishing has started to pick up. From garrick to shad, there is something for everyone at the moment. The north coast has seen plenty of grey sharks being…