Month: July 2023

The measure – part of a big reform package – will prevent the court from overruling government actions it considers unreasonable.

Police in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv used water cannon to disperse protesters blocking highways.

Critics say the hard-right government’s reforms threaten Israeli democracy.

After months of mass street protests over the judicial reform Monday’s Knesset (parliament) vote was an important victory for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

But the battle is not over. It may go on for months.

A political watchdog group and centrist opposition leader Yair Lapid plan to petition the Supreme Court to annul the new law.

Moreover, Israel’s Histadrut trade union confederation has threatened a general strike and thousands of military reservists, including air force pilots, have vowed to not report for duty if the law is allowed to stand.

For a country that prides itself on its ability to respond fast to any kind of threat, the fact that Israel’s very security might be compromised is causing real anxiety.

Mr Netanyahu has insisted the law is necessary for the government to “carry out policy in line with the decision of the majority of the citizens of the country”.

But he said he was willing to resume talks with the opposition, even until November, to find an all-inclusive agreement.

The planned reforms have triggered some of the biggest protests in Israel’s history. On Monday at least 22 people were arrested, police said.

Opponents fear the changes could undermine the country’s democratic system, tipping it into authoritarian territory.

They worry that nationalist and ultra-Orthodox religious parties allied to Mr Netanyahu will be able to shape policy with unchecked power.

But the government argues that the reforms are necessary to correct an imbalance in power which has seen the courts increasingly intervene in political decisions.

The so-called “reasonableness” bill was approved by 64 votes to 0, after the opposition boycotted the final vote.

The White House – a key ally of Israel – called it “unfortunate” that the law had been passed.

The vote brings to a head months of turmoil, with Israel’s president warning political leaders on Monday that the country was “in a state of national emergency”.

The street protests outside the Knesset lasted all of Monday, amid a cacophony of noise from drums, whistles and air horns.

A demonstrator lying in the street told the BBC he was defying “dictatorship”, adding that his grandfather had been a wartime codebreaker against the Nazis at the UK’s famous Bletchley Park.

Asked how long he would stay put he said: “We will never surrender”.

Another, Reut Yifat Uziel, the daughter of a paratrooper pictured in an iconic Israeli photograph of the capture of the Western Wall in the 1967 Middle East war, said she feared for her children’s future.

“Netanyahu kidnapped the country and I am worried it will become a theocracy,” she said.

The protesters – tens of thousands of whom marched some 45 miles (70km) from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem at the end of last week – set up camp in a park between the Knesset and the Supreme Court, which are located almost next to each other.

Mr Netanyahu was in parliament for the vote hours after being discharged from hospital following unscheduled surgery for a pacemaker on Saturday.

The controversial reforms have polarised Israel, triggering one of the most serious domestic crises in the country’s history.

Hundreds of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets weekly since the start of the year in protest at what they say is an attack on democracy.

Former heads of Israel’s security services, chief justices, and prominent legal and business figures have also been vocal against the government’s reforms.

The measures have also been criticised by the US President Joe Biden, who in his most explicit comments yet called for the “divisive” reforms to be postponed.

Transport officials are considering a change that would mean people have around seven rather than six seconds to cross the typical road.

The guidance for local councils is meant to help people with disabilities, and older people.

Campaigners welcomed the idea, saying millions of people currently struggled to cross when the green man was lit.

Current UK-wide guidance for traffic engineers assumes an average walking speed of 1.2 metres per second – a figure first calculated in the 1950s.

It was updated in 2019 to specify that councils could reduce this to one metre per second, either on a “site‑by‑site basis or as an area‑wide policy”.

Now Active Travel England (ATE), an executive agency of the transport department, is considering adopting one metre per second as its standard recommendation for councils in England.

The change will be subject to consultation from interested parties. If approved, it will be included in new advice expected to be issued to English councils before the end of the year.

Local authorities are in charge of traffic management, but Active Travel England factors in adherence to its recommendations when allocating funding for schemes to boost walking and cycling.

Research published by University College London in 2012 found that 76% of men and 85% of women had a walking speed lower than the 1.2 metres per second standard.

The average walking speed for men was calculated as 0.9 metres per second, and 0.8 metres per second for women.

An ATE spokesperson said making crossing times “inclusive” was a big part of its plans to boost the number of people making short journeys on foot.

“Crossing times can be a challenge, particularly for elderly and disabled people, and a bad experience is enough to put someone off doing it,” they added.

Living Streets, a charity that promotes everyday walking, welcomed the proposal, saying it recognised walking speeds in the UK’s ageing population.

“Millions of older people, disabled people and families with children struggle to cross the road in the time given,” added chief executive Stephen Edwards.

“If people don’t feel safe crossing the street, they simply won’t make the journey or will make it in a less sustainable and less healthy way,” he added.

Officials say the heaviest rains to hit the Atlantic region in 50 years have triggered floods that have left thousands of homes without electricity.

Three months of rain fell in just 24 hours in some areas.

Residents have been urged not to join in searches for the missing due to the dangerous conditions.

The two missing children were in a car that was submerged by flood waters, police reported. The three other people in the car managed to escape.

A man and a young person are also missing after the vehicle they were in was also submerged. Two people were rescued from the vehicle.

Roads have been washed away and bridges have been weakened in Nova Scotia, where a state of emergency has been announced in some areas.

“We have a scary, significant situation,” said Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston, adding that at least seven bridges would have to be replaced or rebuilt.

“The property damage to homes … is pretty unimaginable,” he told a news conference.

He estimated that is could take several days for the waters to recede.

More than 80,000 people were left without power at one point.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said he was very concerned about the floods and promised that the government “will be there” for the province.

Environment Canada says torrential rain in the eastern area of the province could continue into Sunday.

“People should not assume that everything is over. This is a very dynamic situation,” Halifax Mayor Mike Savage told a press conference.

He added that the city had been hit by “biblical proportions of rain”.

The flooding is the latest extreme weather event to hit northeast Canada – recent wildfires have burnt a record area, sending clouds of smoke south into the US.

There has also been extreme flooding in the US this month. The body of a two-year-old girl found along a river in Pennsylvania is believed to be one of two missing children swept away by flash floods last weekend. Her nine-month-old brother is still missing.

Scientists cannot say for certain that such extreme rainfall is caused by climate change, but the floods are consistent with the changes they expect in a warming world.

This is because the warmer the earth becomes the more moisture the atmosphere can hold. This results in more droplets and heavier rainfall, sometimes in a shorter space of time and over a smaller area.

People turning up to the polls in Phnom Penh told the BBC they expected the Cambodian People’s Party (CPP) to sweep all 125 seats in parliament again.

Hun Sen, who has been in power for 38 years, faces no real challenge after the only credible opposition party was disqualified in May.

Critics have called the vote a sham.

“It’s a rigged election because there are no real strong opposition parties,” one voter, an aid worker in Phnom Penh, told the BBC earlier this week.

Western nations, including the US, have also expressed concerns about the integrity of the vote. To ensure the highest possible turnout when people are being offered no real choice, the government has criminalised any attempt to boycott the election or spoil the ballot papers.

Opposition lawmakers this year have reported violent attacks, with Human Rights Watch reporting the government stepped up intimidation and arbitrary arrests of political opposition in the run-up to the poll.

In May, the government barred the country’s main opposition party, the Candlelight Party, on a technicality. The National Election Commission said the party was missing paperwork, which it had not needed for the local elections last year.

Candlelight had won 22% of the vote in local elections last year – and analysts say Hun Sen saw them as a potential threat to his rule.

But the poll comes as Hun Sen, who cast his vote in the capital early on Sunday morning, shows the clearest signals yet that he’s planning to hand power to his eldest son, Hun Manet – possibly within weeks. The military chief has led the CPP’s campaign alongside his father.

Hun Sen has become increasingly authoritarian in his rule, political analysts say.

Earlier this year, leading opposition figure Kem Sokha was sentenced to 27 years prison on alleged treason charges, and key news outlet Voice of Democracy shut down.

It is the second election in a row where Hun Sen has targeted democratic institutions and crippled the opposition before voting day, analysts say.

In 2018, his Cambodian People’s Party won every single seat in the 125-seat National Assembly after the main opposition alliance was dissolved by the politically controlled courts.

Seventeen other parties are participating in this year’s election, but almost all are too small, new or are aligned with the ruling party to be considered credible challengers.

The vote comes at an uncertain time for Cambodia’s economy – with locals reporting struggles with rising fuel prices, stagnant wages and growing debts.

While Hun Sen is campaigning for re-election, he has flagged that this may be his last term. In 2021, he said would hand over control to his eldest son who currently commands the Royal Cambodian Army.

Han Manet is a first-time candidate for a parliament seat this election and led the final day of party rallies in Phnom Penh on Friday.

No timeframe had been given for the transition of power until Thursday, when Hun Sen signalled his son “could be” prime minister in three or four weeks.

Hun Sen’s party has won all six of the national elections held every five years since the 1990s, when the UN helped the Southeast Asian nation of 16 million people become a functioning democracy post decades of civil war and the murderous Khmer Rouge regime.

Over four decades, he has consolidated power through control of the military, police and moneyed interests. Observers say he has dispatched opponents through co-opting, jailing or exiling them.

Socialist Pedro Sánchez has been prime minister since 2018.

He hopes his government’s social reforms, crisis management and handling of a strongly performing economy will persuade voters to keep him in office.

But his party has been lagging in polls behind the conservative People’s Party (PP) led by Alberto Núñez Feijóo, who may end up needing far-right support.

This is the first Spanish general election of modern times held in the searing heat of mid-summer, when many Spaniards are on holiday.

Mr Feijóo, 61, caused controversy during the campaign by appearing to cast doubt on the management of postal votes, which has surged to almost 2.5 million.

Polling for the rest of Spain’s 37 million voters will continue on Sunday until 20:00 (18:00 GMT).

The conservative leader wants to roll back many of the Socialists’ reforms, but to form a majority in Spain’s 350-seat parliament he may turn to far-right Vox.

Vox leader Santiago Abascal is a Spanish nationalist whose popularity has been driven as much by a fierce opposition to Catalan separatism and feminism as by anti-immigration policies.

“This will be a victory of progress over backwardness, the future over the past, truth over lies,” Mr Sánchez has said. “The right is focusing on telling lies, we are focusing on making a comeback.”

Since 2020, Mr Sánchez, 51, has led the first coalition government of Spain’s modern era together with Unidas Podemos, to his left.

His administration has navigated the pandemic, a volcanic eruption on the Canary island of La Palma and the impact of the war in Ukraine, while overseeing a steady drop in the jobless rate and one of the fastest-growing economies in Europe.

However, these issues have featured much less during the campaign than Mr Sánchez would have liked. Instead, he has faced fierce criticism of his government’s reliance on the parliamentary support of Basque and Catalan separatists.

The right has cast Mr Sánchez as a cynical power-grabber, willing to engage with the enemies of Spain’s constitutional democracy in order to remain in office.

Mr Feijóo has said that if elected he plans to reverse a series of reforms introduced by the left-wing government, including laws tackling the legacy of the Franco nationalist dictatorship and making gender transition easier. He also wants to review new euthanasia and abortion legislation.

He has appealed to Spaniards to give him enough votes to “end the impasses” in the country’s politics. “A strong majority that doesn’t need to rely on radicals is crucial in order for us to move forwards,” he said.

He has come under pressure in the latter stages of the campaign over his friendship with a notorious Galician drug trafficker, Marcial Dorado, during the 1990s. Mr Feijóo has said he was unaware of Dorado’s criminal activities at the time.

In regional and municipal elections in May, the PP gained ground as the Socialists and other parties on the left suffered losses.

However, a new left-wing platform, Sumar, has been formed for the general election, gathering 15 parties under the same banner, including Unidas Podemos. Led by charismatic labour minister Yolanda Díaz, Sumar is aiming to secure third place ahead of Vox, and thus give Mr Sánchez a chance of forming a new coalition government.

The PP and Vox have already formed dozens of coalitions and governing partnerships on a local level.

The parties on the left warn that victory on Sunday for Mr Feijóo would open the door to the far right entering the national government, bringing with it a rolling back of rights for immigrants, women and the LGBTQ+ community.