Month: April 2023

A man was detained at the scene in Wakayama, where Mr Kishida had been due to give a speech, local media reported.

A witness said they saw a person throwing something, followed by smoke, while another said they heard a big bang. No injuries were reported.

Video showed officers piling on top of a person, believed to be a suspect.

He was arrested on suspicion of obstruction of business and later identified by the authorities as 24-year-old Ryuji Kimura. His motivation is still unclear.

Japan’s public broadcaster, NHK, quoted Mr Kishida as saying there was a “loud blast” at the venue. “Police are investigating details, but I’d like to apologise for worrying many people and causing them trouble.”

NHK broadcast footage in which crowds of people appear to be running away from the scene.

The footage also shows people swarm around one man, hold him down, and then carry him away.

Mr Kishida had just started to deliver a speech after touring the fishing harbour in Wakayama for a campaign event when the object was thrown and he took cover.

After the incident, Mr Kishida addressed a crowd in another location and said the incident should not disrupt the electoral process.

A woman at the scene told NHK: “I was stunned. My heart is still beating fast.”

A person who said they saw an object flying through the air said it gave them a “bad feeling, so we ran away unbelievably fast”.

“Then we heard a really loud noise. It made my daughter cry,” they added.

Another witness told NHK that the crowd began to disperse in panic before the blast was heard, as someone said an explosive had been thrown.

Hiroshi Moriyama, a member of Mr Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party, said: “That something like this happened in the middle of an election campaign that constitutes the foundation of democracy is regrettable. It’s an unforgivable atrocity.”

Violent attacks are extremely rare in Japan. But there is nervousness about security around politicians, after former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe was shot dead while on the campaign trail last year.

It happened hours after France’s top constitutional body cleared the change.

The Constitutional Council rejected opposition calls for a referendum – but it also struck out some aspects of the reforms, citing legal flaws.

Following the council’s ruling, protesters set fires across Paris and 112 people were arrested.

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

Unions have vowed to continue opposing the reforms, and called on workers across France to return to the streets on 1 May.

President Macron argues the reforms are essential to prevent the pension system collapsing. In March, the government used a special constitutional power to force through the changes without a vote.

He signed the reforms into law in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The Labour Minister Olivier Dussopt has said he expects the reforms to come into effect by the start of September.

After the Friday ruling of the Constitutional Court, trade unions made an unsuccessful last-ditch appeal to the president not to sign the pension-age increase into law.

The unions pointed out that six concessions that had been added to the reforms were 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.

Mr 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 on Friday 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.

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.

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.

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

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”.

Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne tweeted on Friday that “tonight there is no winner, no loser”.

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.”

The National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting comes amid a police probe into party finances and a row over the release of membership numbers.

First Minister Humza Yousaf has said the public has “very reasonable” questions to ask over transparency.

He also said he was unware until he became leader that the SNP’s auditors had resigned more than six months ago.

Mr Yousaf said Johnston Carmichael resigned “around October” of last year and would not be able to conduct an audit due in July.

And on Thursday, Mr Yousaf said he had only recently learned that the SNP had bought a luxury motorhome.

It was seized by police from outside a property in Dunfermline last week.

Former SNP chief executive Peter Murrell, Nicola Sturgeon’s husband, was also arrested while their home was searched as part of the police investigation. He was later released without charge.

One NEC member has now suggested he might resign unless “forensic auditors” are appointed to examine the party’s finances

Bill Ramsay, the SNP trade union group convener, said: “I have been raising issues about the governance of the party for some time.

“In June last year, as the world was moving out of governance restrictions imposed by Covid, I was making calls for more transparency.

“I forced a vote to ensure that members of the NEC could see how other members were voting.”

He added: “If the call to appoint forensic auditors is not moved forward, I will have to seriously consider whether I can continue on the NEC.”

Police are investigating SNP finances in response to complaints about how the party spent more than £600,000 of donations that it had received from activists.

Accountants Johnston Carmichael, which audited its accounts for more than a decade, said the decision to no longer work with the party was taken after a review of its clients.

Meanwhile, Mr Yousaf has said he will set out his “positive, ambitious and radical vision” as he campaigns in an area where the SNP could face a by-election.

The SNP leader will be in the Rutherglen and Hamilton West constituency later, where there is the potential for a recall petition to be used against sitting MP Margaret Ferrier.

Ms Ferrier won the seat for the SNP in 2019 – but was later found to have damaged the reputation of the Commons and placed people at risk by taking part in a debate and travelling by train while suffering from Covid-19.

If she is barred from the Commons for 10 days or more, that could trigger a recall petition, which would result in a by-election in the constituency – although 10% of voters there would need to support this for it to go ahead.