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Jumat, 14 April 2023

France pension reforms: Constitutional Council clears age rise to 64 - BBC

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By Kathyrn Armstrong

BBC News

France's top constitutional body has cleared the Macron government's highly unpopular move to raise the state pension age from 62 to 64.

The Constitutional Council also rejected calls for a referendum by political opponents but struck out some of the reforms citing legal flaws.

Twelve days of protests have been held against the reforms since January.

In March, the government used a special constitutional power to force through the changes without a vote.

President Emmanuel Macron argues the reforms are essential to prevent the pension system collapsing and Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne tweeted on Friday that "tonight there is no winner, no loser".

Labour minister Olivier Dussopt has vowed to improve the employment rates of those aged over 50 in an effort to ease concerns about the financial impacts of the raised retirement age.

The authorities had banned demonstrations in front of the Constitutional Council building in Paris until Saturday morning, but crowds of protesters had gathered nearby and the ruling was met with jeers.

Some demonstrators chanted they would continue protesting until the changes were withdrawn.

Later, several fires were set across the city as riot police tried to contain the situation, sometimes using tear gas. A Paris police official said 112 people have been arrested.

Fires were also lit during demonstrations in Rennes and Nantes, while there were tense standoffs at times between protesters and police in Lyon.

Trade unions made a last-ditch appeal to the president not to sign the pension-age increase into law, faced with the public's "massive rejection of this reform". The unions pointed out that six concessions that had been added to the reforms had been rejected by the court, so what was already unfair was now "even more unbalanced".

Among the reforms struck down by the nine members of the Constitutional Council was a so-called "senior index" aimed at urging companies with more than 1,000 workers to take on employees over 55.

While the Élysée Palace has said the president is open to dialogue, he is expected to push through the law within two days. Mr Dussopt has said he expects the reforms to be implemented by the start of September.

Lucy, 21, was among the protesters who gathered outside the City Hall and told the BBC that she was disappointed "we don't have the power any more".

"Nobody is listening to us no matter how hard we are shouting," she added, vowing to keep on speaking out.

Two people protesting against France's pension reforms

Raphaëlle, also 21, said she had hoped there would be something in the council's ruling that would reflect the huge consensus there has been on the streets against the reforms.

Barriers were erected in the streets near the court and riot police were deployed in case of further, potentially violent protests.

The unions called on workers across France to return to the streets on 1 May, in another day of national mobilisation against the reforms.

Lucas, 27, said he was worried about the future and what Mr Macron intended for the rest of his presidency.

BBC

Making this reform is really short-sighted to me, and it brings up other questions like what are [the president's] priorities?
Lucas
Aerospace engineer, 27

The left-wing Nupes political alliance was one of the groups that lodged an appeal with the court over the reforms and its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, said the "fight" would continue.

"The Constitutional Council's decision shows that it is more attentive to the needs of the presidential monarchy than to those of the sovereign people," he said.

Marine Le Pen of the far-right National Rally, which had also appealed to the court, responded on social media that "the political fate of the pension reform is not sealed".

While the court rejected an initial bid for a referendum on the reforms, it will decide next month on a further proposal for a national vote by the left.

French political analyst Antoine Bristielle told the BBC he did not think there would soon be an end to the protests that have taken place across France for the past three months.

"A lot of people were saying that the reforms would pass and that the Constitutional Court would not avoid it so it's not a surprise," he said.

"But I think we will see in the upcoming hours and at the weekend a lot of riots and strikes in the country because there are still 70% of the French population against the reform."

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2023-04-14 21:37:34Z
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North Korea missile launch was new kind of ICBM, regime says, as first images emerge - The Guardian

North Korea claims it has successfully tested a solid-fuel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) for the first time – a breakthrough that the country’s leader, Kim Jong-un, warned would make its enemies “suffer in endless fear”.

South Korea’s military said it had detected the launch on Thursday morning of one “medium-range or longer” ballistic missile on an elevated trajectory from near the North Korean capital Pyongyang.

The US National Security Council described it as a long-range missile, while Japan’s government said it likely had an intercontinental range.

The missile flew upwards at a steep angle – apparently to reduce the risk of it accidentally striking neighbouring countries – and is believed to have covered a distance of 1,000km (620 miles), although experts say that, flown at a regular trajectory, it could cover much longer distances.

North Korean state media said the regime had tested a “new type of intercontinental ballistic missile” called the Hwasung-18. Its predecessor, the liquid-fuelled Hwasung-17, which the regime tested in March, has an operational range of 15,000km – far enough to reach the US mainland.

Thursday’s launch triggered a scare in northern Japan, where Hokkaido residents were told to take cover, though there turned out to be no danger.

“The test proved … the new intercontinental ballistic missile’s military efficiency as a strategic attack capability,” the North’s official KCNA news agency said.

Kim said the new weapon would “greatly reorganise our strategic deterrence and reinforce effectiveness of our nuclear counterattack”, according to KCNA.

“We will strike with deadly force and respond aggressively until the enemy gives up its idle strategy and foolish behaviour and so that it will suffer in endless fear.”

KCNA released photos of Kim watching the launch, accompanied by his wife, sister and daughter, with the missile covered in camouflage nets on a mobile launcher.

Kim has long pushed for the development of solid-fuel ICBMs that can be launched from land or submarines. Missiles that use liquid propellants must be fuelled just prior to launch, but those that use solid-propellant are fuelled when they are manufactured, making them easier to transport and cutting the time it takes to prepare them for launch.

Those capabilities make them harder to detect and destroy in a pre-emptive strike.

Kim Jong-un, centre, and his daughter, left, watch Thursday’s missile test, in a photo released by North Korea

North Korea showed off a record number of nuclear and ICBMs at a military parade in Pyongyang in February, including what analysts said was possibly a new solid-fuel ICBM.

“The reason North Korea is obsessed about solid-fuel missiles is because it will significantly reduce the preparation time before launch,” said Go Myong-hyun, a researcher at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

“This is important as the longer it takes after bringing out the missile from a silo or a tunnel, the higher the possibility of destruction before launch.”

South Korea’s defence ministry challenged North Korean claims that it had perfected a solid-fuel ICBM, saying on Friday that the regime would need more time to master the technology.

The ministry also maintains that the North has yet to reach the point where it can protect its ICBM warheads during re-entry into the atmosphere. The defence minister, Lee Jong-Sup, told lawmakers last month that the North was unlikely to have mastered the technology needed to place nuclear warheads on its most advanced short-range missiles, although he acknowledged that the regime was making “considerable progress”.

The latest launch came days after Kim called for strengthening the country’s war deterrence in a “more practical and offensive” manner to counter what North Korea called aggressive moves by the US.

North Korea has criticised recent US-South Korean joint military exercises as as a rehearsal for an invasion, while Washington and Seoul insist they are purely defensive. The drills, along with North Korean weapons tests, have significantly raised tensions on the peninsula in recent months.

The ICBM claims come just before North Korea is set to mark one of its most important political anniversaries, the Day of the Sun, on Saturday.

The date commemorates founding leader Kim Il-sung’s birth anniversary and has typically been marked by significant weapons tests or military parades.

With Reuters and Agence France-Presse

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2023-04-14 17:58:00Z
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France's top court backs most of Macron's controversial pension reform - Euronews

France’s Constitutional Council on Friday approved an unpopular plan to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 in a victory for President Emmanuel Macron after months of mass protests that have damaged his leadership.

The decision dismayed or enraged critics of the pension plan. Hundreds of union activists and others gathered peacefully in Paris Friday evening before some groups broke off in marches toward the historic Bastille plaza and beyond, setting fires to garbage bins and scooters as police fired tear gas or pushed them back.

Unions and Macron's political opponents vowed to maintain pressure on the government to withdraw the bill, and activists threatened scattered new protests Saturday.

Macron's office said he would enact the law in the coming days, and he has said he wants it implemented by the end of the year. Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne said Friday's decision “marks the end of the institutional and democratic path of this reform,” adding that there was “no victor" in what has turned into a nationwide standoff and France's worst social unrest in years.

The council rejected some measures in the pension bill, but the higher age was central to Macron’s plan and the target of protesters’ anger. The government argued that the reform is needed to keep the pension system afloat as the population ages; opponents proposed raising taxes on the wealthy or employers instead and said the changes threaten a hard-won social safety net.

In a separate but related decision, the council rejected a request by left-wing lawmakers to allow for a possible referendum on enshrining 62 as the maximum official retirement age. The council will rule on a second, similar request, next month.

Carl Pfeiffer, a 62-year-old retiree protesting outside City Hall, warned that the Constitutional Council’s decision won’t spell the end of tensions.

The council members “are irresponsible, because the anger that will come right after in the country, it’s their fault,″ he said.

Bartender Lena Cayo, 22, said she was disappointed but not surprised by the decision.

“We are protesting for so many weeks and the government didn’t hear us,” she said. "Workers who have gone on strike or protested the legislation since January are fighting “for their rights, but nothing changes.”

As tensions mounted hours before the decision, Macron invited labor unions to meet with him on Tuesday no matter what the Constitutional Council decision was, his office said. The unions rejected Macron’s invitation, noting that he had refused their previous offers of a meeting, and called for mass new protests on May 1, international workers’ rights day.

Unions have been the organizers of 12 nationwide protests since January and have a critical role in trying to tamp down excessive reactions by protesters. Violence by pockets of ultra-left radicals have marked the otherwise peaceful nationwide marches.

The plan to increase the retirement age was meant to be Macron's showcase measure in his second term.

The council decision caps months of tumultuous debates in parliament and fervor in the streets.

Spontaneous demonstrations were held around France ahead of the nine-member council's ruling. Opponents of the pension reform blockaded entry points into some cities, including Rouen in the west and Marseille in the south, slowing or stopping traffic.

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2023-04-14 20:15:00Z
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Pentagon leaks: US airman arrested by FBI over ‘deliberate criminal’ breach to appear in court - The Independent

Armed FBI officers arrested a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard over the alleged leak of classified military intelligence online.

Authorities raided the Massachusetts home of 21-year-old Jack Teixeira, who worked in cyber security for the Guard and took him into custody without incident on Thursday.

Mr Teixeira is due to appear before a Boston court on Friday.

Hundreds of pages of classified military intelligence have been shared with an online gaming group before becoming public in an embarrassing string of disclosures last week.

Suspect in leak of Pentagon secrets, identified by media outlets as Jack Texeira, is arrested by armed FBI agents in North Dighton, Massachusetts

“We are aware of the investigation into the alleged role a Massachusetts Air National Guardsman may have played in the recent leak of highly-classified documents,” the National Guard said in a statement.

Following the arrest, the Air Force released the suspect’s service file. It shows that he has been an enlisted airman for the Massachusetts Air National Guard since joining it in September 2019.

The suspect’s official job title is Cyber Transport Systems Journeyman. The Air Force says that the job of Cyber Transport Systems specialists is to ensure that the service’s “vast, global communications network” works properly.

“Whether it’s repairing a network hub at a stateside base or installing fibre-optic cable at a forward installation overseas, these experts keep our communications systems up and running and play an integral role in our continuing success,” the Air Force states on its website.

Jack Teixeira arrested in connection with leaking national security documents

(Instagram)

The suspect had also earned one Air Force Achievement Medal.

Video played on CNN appeared to show the suspect, who was wearing shorts and a t-shirt, being taken into custody by the FBI.

Following the arrest, Attorney General Merrick Garland appeared at the DOJ to confirm that the suspect, Jack Teixeria, worked for the Air National Guard and had been taken into custody “without incident.”

Mr Garland said that the suspect was being investigated for the alleged “unauthorized removal, retention and transmission of classified national defence information” and that he would make his first court appearance at the US District Court for Massachusetts.

The suspect will make his first court appearance in Boston on Friday, according to the US Attorney’s office in Massachusetts. Mr Garland did not take any questions on the case or the arrest.

Meanwhile, Pentagon spokesman Brigadier General Pat Ryder called the leak of classified information a “deliberate, criminal act.”

“We continue to review a variety of factors as it relates to safeguarding classified materials. This includes examining and updating distribution lists, assessing how and where intelligence products are shared and a variety of other steps. I would say, though, that it is it is important to understand that we do have stringent guidelines in place for safeguarding classified and sensitive information,” General Ryder said.

Attorney General Merrick Garland speaks at the Department of Justice in Washington, Thursday, April 13, 2023.

“And so, again, I think that’s important to understand that we will continue to do everything we can to ensure that the people who have a need to know, when it comes to this kind of information, have access to that. We’re always going to learn from every situation. But again, this is something that will continue to look at,” he added.

And he said that the suspect had been through “proper vetting.”

“We entrust our members with a lot of responsibility at a very early age,” he said. “So you’ve received training, and you will receive an understanding of the rules and requirements that come along with those responsibilities.

“And you’re expected to abide by those rules, regulations and responsibility; it’s called military discipline.”

Earlier, President Joe Biden told reporters in Dublin, Ireland, that the US government was closing in on the leaker.

“There’s a full-blown investigation going on, as you know,” Mr Biden said. “The intelligence community and the Justice Department. And they’re getting close. I don’t have an answer for you.”

In this image taken from video, police block a road in North Dighton, Mass., Thursday, April 13, 2023.

The Washington Post reported on Wednesday that the leaker had shared documents with a group of friends on the popular gaming platform Discord.

A Facebook post last July from the 102nd Intelligence Wing, which is based at Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, congratulated someone by the name of Jack Teixeira for promotion to airman first class.

A Discord spokesperson told CNN on Sunday that the company is cooperating with law enforcement on the investigation.

The so-called “Pentagon Papers”, widely shared and leaving many in Washington ashen-faced with embarrassment, have yet to be officially authenticated but appear to contain details on deeply sensitive matters pertaining to national security and foreign affairs.

The slides of photographed files that were made public include detailed battlefield maps from Russia’s war in Ukraine and the alarming suggestion that the US believes Kyiv will soon run out of missiles for its air defence systems, in addition to awkward revelations about America’s attitude towards many of its allies around the world, including the UK, South Korea, Egypt, Israel and the UAE.

Precisely how many documents were leaked is not known, with estimates varying from 50 into the hundreds.

It is believed that a member of that community, known only as “Lucca”, began posting several dozen images of the documents to another Discord server affiliated with the YouTuber wow_mao on 28 February.

From here, they were seemingly posted to a Minecraft Earth Map forum on 4 March, before gradually making their way to the messaging platform 4chan and to Russian Telegram channels such as Donbas Devushka, before finally ending up on Twitter by 5 April.

“I can sort of understand how sharing big, private, military secrets could be a funny thing to do among your internet friends. But c’mon, take care of yourself and stay away from doing stuff like this,” wow_mao himself said in a YouTube video on Monday.

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2023-04-14 08:46:02Z
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German foreign minister warns China on Taiwan - Financial Times

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2023-04-14 07:38:56Z
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