International
Simon Harris confirms his candidacy for Irish Prime Minister, without other candidates
The Irish Minister of Higher Education, Simon Harris, announced on Thursday his candidacy for the position of leader of the Christian Democratic party Fine Gael and Prime Minister, after the resignation of Leo Varadkar.
In the absence of other applicants and after already receiving the support of more than half of his parliamentary group, Harris, 37, will be confirmed on Monday as leader of the formation, as a step prior to assuming the head of the Government after Easter.
The next ‘taoiseach’ (prime minister) has previously occupied the Health and Interior portfolios, the latter during a maternity leave of the current holder, Helen McEntee, who today refused to dispute the charges.
In making the announcement, Harris declared himself “honored” for receiving the support of “so many” co-religionists during the last 24 hours, while thanking the leadership shown by Varadkar during his seven years at the head of the party and in two stages as prime minister.
“Leo has guided our party and our country during very difficult times, including Brexit, the COVID-19 pandemic and the recent rise in the cost of living,” the conservative leader explained in an interview with the public broadcaster RTE.
The deadline for submitting candidacies for the leadership of Fine Gael began this Thursday and will end on Monday, although no last-minute announcement is expected, so Harris will be confirmed in office on April 5, on the eve of the party’s annual conference.
The Dáil (lower house) will meet again after the Easter holidays and the investiture session is scheduled to be held then.
Harris pledged to hold his future positions with “energy and enthusiasm,” to which he hopes to contribute, he said, with his own “life experiences”
“I want to work with my colleagues, I want to listen, I really want to reconnect with our party throughout the country,” he added.
Varadkar announced his resignation on Wednesday by surprise, two weeks after the unexpected defeat of the Executive’s proposal in two referendums aimed at modernizing the concept of family and the role of women in society.
The conservative leader, 45 years old, took the reins of the Government in December 2022, after two years as deputy prime minister in the coalition Executive with the centrists of the Fianna Fáil and the Green Party.
International
Alberto Fernández accuses Milei of hurting the relationship with Spain and other countries
Former Argentine President Alberto Fernández (2019-2023) accused Javier Milei’s Government on Saturday of damaging bilateral relations with Spain and other countries and questioned the travels of the current president, who is currently visiting Madrid.
“The national government has hurt our relations with Spain, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, China and much of the Arab world. Wanting to get closer to the ‘powerful’, he has taken us away from our brothers in the region and from our main commercial export destinations,” Fernández said.
Through the social network X, the Peronist leader asserted that Milei “only cares about taking his violent speech to those who, like him, screen democracy, deny climate change and repudiate respect for gender diversity.”
“In just six months, he has traveled more than 100,000 kilometers and spent millions of pesos to participate in conservative and fascist conventions, present books in which he falsifies his background, give lectures that incite violence, meet with billionaires who manipulate social networks and even show off his worrying mysticism,” he said.
Fernández pointed out that this “would have cost” Argentina less “if it had a centered chancellor” – alluding to Foreign Minister, Diana Mondino – “and its foreign policy was governed by autonomy and not by the imposition of a dehumanized ideology and submission to a power in crisis,” alluding to Milei’s decision to align Argentina’s foreign policy with the United States, in addition to Israel.
“While in Argentina the lives of its inhabitants deteriorate, we continue to pay for the absurd decisions of an ‘ambassador of light’ who is leaving us in the dark,” Fernández said, alluding to the recognition as an “international ambassador of light” that the Jewish community of Miami gave to Milei on his trip to the United States last April.
Milei, leader of the far-right formation La Libertad Avanza and who assumed the Argentine Presidency last December, left last Thursday on the presidential plane bound for Spain, in what is his first official visit to the European country, despite the fact that he does not plan to meet with Felipe VI or government authorities, but he will participate in the annual convention of the far-right Vox party.
This Friday he presented in Madrid his new book, “The path of the libertarian”, and this Saturday he met with managers of Spanish companies and is scheduled a meeting with the deputy and president of Vox, Santiago Abascal.
The central act of the visit will take place on Sunday, when he participates with other international leaders of the far-right in the annual Vox convention, Europa Viva 24, in whose edition last year he already spoke, when he was still a presidential candidate.
This year, Milei will give a speech to the attendees.
“Milei travels with state money to a rally of world fascism. That happens while your salary is depressed and the registered job is broken. Do we understand that Argentine development and the well-being of the people are not in their plans?” asked Alberto Fernández.
International
Israel intensifies attacks in the north and east of Rafah on another deadly day for Gaza
The Israeli Army issued new evacuation orders on Saturday on neighborhoods in the north of Gaza, where it intensified its attacks on the Yabalia refugee camp, on a day with more than 80 deaths and great devastation also in the east of Rafah.
According to medical sources, at least 28 Palestinians died this Saturday in Yabalia, including ten children and ten women, in an Israeli airstrike against a residential block near the Kamal Adwan Hospital, in which an indeterminate number of people were also injured.
Last weekend, the Army already ordered an evacuation of Yabalia, after the reunification of Hamas in this area, and since then has expanded it twice, now including the coastal areas of al Atatra and al Karama, as announced today by a military spokesman.
The destruction in Yabalia is “massive” and there are already more than 300 homes completely destroyed after a week of re-offensive, the spokesman for Civil Defense in the Gaza Strip, independent of Hamas, announced on Saturday.
“The atrocious attack carried out by the Fascist Occupation Army in the Yabalia camp continues for the seventh consecutive day, witnessing an intensification of brutal raids, the destruction of entire residential blocks on the heads of their residents and attacks on schools and shelters,” denounced today in a statement the Islamist group Hamas, which governs the enclave ‘de facto’.
For its part, the Israeli Army confirmed clashes with militiamen in this area, in addition to having dismantled a long-range rocket launcher, and located several tunnels, weapons and explosive devices in the area, according to a statement.
Troops have continued to penetrate the southern town of Rafah, from where the UN estimates that more than 630,000 Gazans have already fled since Israel began its ground offensive on the 6th, closing the Rafah crossing and further decreasing the entry of humanitarian aid, which has begun to arrive through the pier.
Since the early hours of Saturday, at least 18 more Palestinians have died as a result of Israeli “indiscriminate attacks” in various areas of the south, but also in the center of the enclave, medical sources told the Palestinian agency Wafa today.
Five civilians died and several more were injured in an Israeli air raid against a group of people, according to local sources, who were piled up on 20th Street of the Nuseirat refugee camp (center).
According to the Army, in recent weeks, about 130 alleged militiamen have been eliminated – by soldiers of the Givati and 401 brigades – in specific areas of the east of Rafah, where they also located dozens of rifles, grenades and ammunition.
“The Givati reconnaissance unit also located an important infrastructure of underground tunnels in the area,” a military statement said today, which will be destroyed.
While the attacks in Gaza continue, the Israeli government faces new divisions after almost seven and a half months of war, more than 35,200 Gazans killed and areas where Hamas militiamen have regrouped while the Army does not seem to have clear directives.
After the Minister of Defense, Yoav Gallant, warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a few days ago that he would not accept military control in a post-war Gaza, today the also Minister of the Cabinet of War Benny Gantz announced that he will give a speech in the coming hours, and local media point out that he could launch an ultimatum to Netanyahu and demand clear guidelines.
Opponant Yair Lapid joined the dispute today, and said on social network X that Gantz should announce that he is “retiring from the worst government in the history of the country.”
“He must announce that he is no longer willing to help the abandonment of the kidnapped, the abandonment of the north, the crushing of the economy and the middle class. He should say that he will no longer help Netanyahu stay in power,” he added.
International
Afghanistan, a risky tourist destination but on the rise since the arrival of the Taliban
The promise of authentic adventure through the less traveled corners of the planet has been attracting tourists to the violent Afghanistan, which received about 5,000 foreign tourists between March 2023 and March 2024, despite being under the Taliban regime and the international warning not to visit the country for any reason.
Most of the tourists last year come from neighboring China, the result of good diplomatic relations between Beijing and the de facto Taliban government. But there were also visits by tourists from European countries, the Deputy Minister of Information and Culture of the Fundamentalist Government, Muhajir Farahi, told EFE recently.
The Taliban have strived to accentuate the security condition that the country has been experiencing since its arrival in August 2021, and although the attacks have decreased because they were the ones who committed most of the attacks before taking power, the presence of the jihadist group Islamic State has become their biggest challenge.
The attack last Friday on a group of foreign tourists in a bazaar in the city of Bamiyán, in the center of the country, a popular tourist destination for its archaeological heritage, put the focus on this flow of visitors.
In addition to three Afghans, three tourists of Spanish nationality died and four others – a Spanish, a Lithuanian, a Norwegian and an Australian – were injured, according to the Spanish Government.
According to the Taliban, the attack was perpetrated by unidentified armed men who opened fire on tourists from a vehicle.
The 5,000 visitors of the last year is a number that is very far from the almost 90,000 foreigners who traveled the Asian nation in 1970, decades before the emergence of the Taliban.
Insecurity, added to instability, placed it as one of the least visited in the world, according to World Bank international tourism income statistics, which date back to 2020.
The country has beautiful landscapes especially thanks to its mountainous regions, and was part of the famous ‘hippie path’ between Europe and South Asia in the 60s and 70s, before the Soviet invasions, in 1979, and American invasions, in 2001.
Although the return to power of the Taliban, after their victory in the war in August 2021, meant the total paralysis of tourism, the country is increasingly trying to be an attractive destination, especially promoted by the fundamentalists.
An online travel agency based in the United Kingdom offers visitors “the hidden gems and the rich cultural tapestry of Afghanistan; a land that has captivated hearts for centuries,” with trips starting at $2,858 per person for about nine days departing from Kabul.
The provinces of Kandahar, Gazni, Mazar e Sharif, Herat, Bamiyan and Kabul are the most attractive and exotic.
In addition to its lakes and caves, the huge stone sculptures of Buddha that were once destroyed by the Taliban for considering them an example of idolatry were what made Bamiyan famous, long considered one of the safest areas of a country devastated since then by decades of war and conflict.
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