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Five years after a devastating fire, the restoration of Notre-Dame cathedral is nearing completion as the world’s eyes turn to Paris for the Olympic Games.On the evening of April 15, 2019, the cathedral’s roof burst into flames.Soon, it had engulfed the spire and almost toppled the main bell towers.Around the world, TV viewers watched with horror as the medieval building burned.Macron, whose second and final term ends in 2027, wants the cathedral’s restoration to lift the nation’s mood – and his government’s approval ratings.“Only once in a century does one host Olympic and Paralympic Games, only once in a millennium does one rebuild a cathedral,” Macron said in his 2024 New Year speech.It remains unclear what exactly caused the fire.French authorities have said an electrical fault or a burning cigarette may have been responsible.“A firefighter told me ‘Sir, take a close look at the facade because if we don’t manage to put out that fire, it will all go to ruin’,” remembered Patrick Chauvet, the former Notre-Dame chief priest.The facade held, but the damage has needed five years of intense stabilisation and restoration works.The pride of those working on the project shines through.“This is the construction work of a lifetime, because restoring an entire monument in all its three-dimensionality, that’s quite exceptional,” Emma Roux, an artisan working on the iconic stained glass windows, said.The re-opening is scheduled for December, and is currently running on schedule, according to the official leading the project.“We are on time and on budget,” Philippe Jost said last month at a Senate hearing.He told lawmakers that the project had so far cost €550mn ($587mn), funded in part by massive donations, including from luxury sector billionaires Francois Henri Pinault and the Arnault family.So much money has been donated that there will even be funds left over for further investment in the building, he said.“An additional €150mn should be made available and – provided the approval of our sponsors – it will be used to restore the cathedral and tackle problems that predate the fire, which mainly concern the exterior stonework,” Jost added.Jost, 63, a trained engineer who spent much of his career in the defence ministry, took over the job after his predecessor, General Jean-Louis Georgelin, died in a hiking accident in August 2023.

About 95,000 people have fled rampant gang violence in the Haitian capital Port-au-Prince since early March, the United Nations said yesterday.Insecurity is “pushing more and more people to leave the capital to find refuge in provinces, taking the risks of passing through gang-controlled routes”, according to the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM).The agency is collecting data at high-traffic bus stations in the capital, and notes that its figures may not be complete as some people may not have passed through checkpoints or simply may not have been counted.Haiti is grappling with a wave of violence by powerful gangs that intensified in late February as they sought to oust Prime Minister Ariel Henry, who announced last month he would step down to allow the formation of an interim government.However, delays in that process mean violence, food shortages and a lack of medicine are still blighting the impoverished Caribbean nation.A majority (58%) of those leaving Port-au-Prince have headed towards Haiti’s southern region, which already hosts more than 116,000 displaced people, most of whom have fled the capital region in recent months, the IOM said.Nearly two-thirds of those people were already displaced before fleeing the capital, the IOM said.“Provinces do not have sufficient infrastructures and host communities do not have sufficient resources that can enable them to cope with these massive displacement flows coming from the capital,” the IOM warned in a statement.Haiti has suffered grinding poverty, political instability and natural disasters for decades, including a 2010 earthquake that killed around 220,000 people, according to UN figures.Now, it is awaiting the formation of a transitional governing council, which would pave the way for fresh elections and a new government.However, the body has yet to be officially formed because to repeated delays stemming from disagreements among the various political parties.

The Republican Speaker of the House, Mike Johnson, travelled to Florida yesterday to huddle with Donald Trump in the latest sign of the hard-right presidential candidate’s informal, yet undisputed leadership of the party.Little was said about the agenda for the gathering, other than it will cover “election integrity” – Trump code words for his attacks on US democracy based around the false claim of widespread voter fraud.A news conference was scheduled later.Trump was ejected from the White House in 2020 by Democrat Joe Biden and was shunned by most senior Republicans for his attempts to overturn the election result, culminating with a riot by his supporters through the US Capitol on January 6, 2021.However, Trump has regained his political momentum on the right as he seeks a shock return to the presidency this November and he exercises a powerful grip in Congress – notably steering the Republican blockage of US war aid to Ukraine.For Johnson, the trek from Washington to see Trump comes as he tries to save himself from a rebellion on the far-right of his party, which threatens to eject him from the speakership.Johnson, a long-time Trump loyalist, is walking a tightrope as he tries to balance the demands from his party’s relative moderates and the Democrats to pass bills, including the aid to embattled Ukraine.The result so far has largely been paralysis in the House.For Ukraine, the results have been dire, with ammunition-strapped forces increasingly unable to fend off Russian bombardments of the frontlines and civilian targets.President Joe Biden has implored Congress to approve a bill worth $60bn in war aid. However, despite Republicans and Democrats coming together in the Senate, Johnson has so far refused even to set a vote in the House.Trump and his closest congressional allies have turned sharply on Ukraine, which has been battling a Russian invasion for more than two years.In his latest comments on Wednesday, Johnson remained vague about his plans on Ukraine, saying: “There are a lot of different ideas.”Johnson gained the Speaker’s gavel in a weeks-long October nominating battle after a handful of House Republican hardliners orchestrated the ouster of his predecessor, Kevin McCarthy.Another party hardliner, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, has threatened to make a similar move against Johnson if he allows a vote on more aid for Ukraine.The appearance at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Florida resort with the Republican presidential candidate could help Johnson’s standing with his 218-213 majority.His own members have repeatedly torpedoed his legislative priorities, including this week by temporarily blocking the surveillance bill and in February, when it took two efforts to advance a bid to approve articles of impeachment against Biden’s top border official, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.The meeting with Trump presents Johnson with a chance to demonstrate a united front with the former president that Republicans say is necessary if the party is to retain control of the House and capture both the Senate and the White House in November.“We’ve got to get on the same page about where we want the party to go,” said Representative Kevin Hern, who leads the conservative Republican Study Committee, the biggest House Republican caucus.“I don’t think we’ve all heard directly how the president and the speaker are aligned,” Hern added. “We’ve got to get in lockstep as the Republican Party.”Greene this week has repeated her threats to force a vote to remove Johnson from leadership.“Our voters will not support a Republican Party that continues like his leadership has been,” Greene told reporters after a meeting with Johnson on Wednesday. “We have to have changed behaviour that supports the policies that the American people are supporting under President Trump.”Disorder within the caucus has repeatedly forced Johnson to use a parliamentary manoeuvre bypassing Republican hardliners and relying on substantial Democratic support to pass critical legislation, such as bills averting government shutdowns.

Governments, business leaders and development banks have two years to take action to avert far worse climate change, the UN’s climate chief said yesterday, in a speech that warned global warming is slipping down politicians’ agendas.Scientists say that halving climate-damaging greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 is crucial to stop a rise in temperatures of more than 1.5° Celsius that would unleash more extreme weather and heat.Yet last year, the world’s energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions increased to a record high. Current commitments to fight climate change would barely cut global emissions at all by 2030.Simon Stiell, executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) said that the next two years are “essential in saving our planet”.The Group of 20 developed and developing economies including the United States, China and India faced many geopolitical challenges but this “cannot be an excuse for timidity amidst this worsening crisis”, Stiell said.“I’ll be candid: blame-shifting is not – is not – a strategy. Sidelining climate isn’t a solution to a crisis that will decimate every G20 economy and has already started to hurt,” he said. “The financial firepower the G20 marshalled during the global financial crisis should be marshalled again and pointed squarely at curbing runaway emissions and building resilience right now.”“We still have a chance to make greenhouse gas emissions tumble, with a new generation of national climate plans. But we need these stronger plans, now,” he said.Speaking at an event at the Chatham House think-tank in London, Stiell said that the Group of 20 (G20) leading economic powers – together responsible for 80% of global emissions – urgently needed to step up.The main task for this year’s UN climate negotiations in Baku, Azerbaijan, is for countries to agree a new target for climate finance to support developing countries struggling to invest in shifting away from fossil fuels and fighting climate change.UN climate summits have swelled in size in recent years, with thousands of lobbyists and business representatives attending alongside the government delegations directly involved in the negotiations.Nearly 84,000 people attended last year’s COP28 summit in Dubai, drawing criticism from campaigners after more than 2,000 fossil fuel lobbyists registered to attend.Stiell said he would like to see future COP meetings reduced in size, while prioritising strong negotiation outcomes.He said he was in talks with Azerbaijan and Brazil – host of the next two UN climate summits – about this.He called for more climate finance to be raised through debt relief, cheaper financing for poorer countries, new sources of international finance such as a tax on shipping emissions, and reforms at the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development says wealthy nations likely provided $100bn in climate finance to poorer nations in 2022.However, this is far from the estimated $2.4tn annually that developing countries – excluding China – will need to meet their climate and development needs.“Every day finance ministers, chief executives, investors, and climate bankers and development bankers, direct trillions of dollars. It’s time to shift those dollars,” Stiell said.In a bumper year for elections around the world – with voters going to the polls from India, to South Africa and the United States – Stiell warned too often climate action was “slipping down cabinet agendas”.Politicians from Republican frontrunner Donald Trump in the United States, to far-right parties seeking gains in the EU’s upcoming election, have pushed back on climate policies as they court voters.

Switzerland said yesterday that it would organise a high-level peace conference for Ukraine in mid-June, but without Russia, which promptly slammed the event as a US-orchestrated plot.Ukraine and up to 100 countries would attend the conference at the luxury Burgenstock resort near the central city of Luzern on June 15-16, which Swiss President Viola Amherd said she would host.“This is a first step in a process towards a lasting peace,” she told reporters in Bern.Amherd acknowledged that “we will not sign a peace plan at this conference” but “we hope to start the process”.Russia, which invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and whose forces are putting Ukraine under new pressure, condemned the event as being part of a scheme by US President Joe Biden’s Democratic Party ahead of this year’s presidential election.“American Democrats, who need photos and videos of events that supposedly indicate their project ‘Ukraine’ is still afloat, are behind this,” the state-run Tass news agency quoted foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying.Switzerland hopes to include Russia in later talks.The Swiss government agreed during a January visit by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to organise a peace conference this year.It said in a statement yesterday that it now determined that “there is currently sufficient international support for a high-level conference to launch the peace process”.Traditionally neutral Switzerland has from the start insisted that Moscow must be brought into the talks, and has been battling to attract China and other emerging powers.Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in New York in January to try to woo him to the conference.However, Russia, angered by the Swiss decision to go along with sanctions imposed by the European Union, has said the country can no longer be considered neutral.“A peace process cannot happen without Russia, even though it will not be there during the first meeting,” Cassis said. “Peace cannot be achieved without all the parties to the conflict onboard.”

Gazans did their best to celebrate the end of Ramadan in the driving rain yesterday, as the war raged on with 14 killed, including children, in a strike on their home, the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said.The Israeli military said it struck several targets on the first day of the Eid al-Fitr holiday, with a jet hitting a rocket launch site and troops killing a “terrorist cell” in close quarters fighting.An AFP photographer witnessed the aftermath of the bombing of the home in Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza.Family members clutched the bodies of dead children at the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in nearby Deir el-Balah.There was no immediate comment from the Israeli army.Israel said that 468 aid trucks – a record since the war began – were allowed into Gaza on the eve of the holiday which is traditionally celebrated with family gatherings.However, with the United Nations warning the besieged territory is on the verge of famine, there was little to feast on for the 2.4mn residents of Gaza, up to 1.5mn of whom are crammed into camps around the far-southern city of Rafah.The faithful gathered at dawn outside the city’s flattened Al-Farooq Mosque, where worshipper Khairi Abu Singer complained that Israel’s relentless bombardment had even “deprived Palestinians from praying inside their mosques”.Father-of-four Ahmed Qishta, 33, told AFP that there was little to celebrate at what should be a joyous time: “We prepared sweets and biscuits from the aid we got from the UN and now we are giving it to the children. We try to be happy but it is difficult.”He said they went to pray at the graves of family members killed in the war before going to the Ibn Taymiyyah mosque for Eid prayers.There has never been “such an Eid – all sadness, fear, destruction and a grinding war”, he said.Abir Sakik, 40, who fled her home in Gaza City with her family and is now living in a tent in Rafah, said she had no “ingredients for the cakes and sweets” she would usually make.Instead she made cakes from crushed dates: “We want to rejoice despite all the blood, death and shelling.”Sakik said that despite it being a religious holiday, the Israeli military “committed a massacre and killed women and children” in the camp.“We are tired and weary – enough, enough of war and destruction,” she said, adding that Gazans were desperate for a truce. “We try to bring joy to the children. Before all this, there was a great atmosphere at Eid with the children’s toys, the Eid cakes, the food, the chocolates in every house – everything was sweet and beautiful.“But they destroyed all of Gaza,” she said.Nihaya Atallah, 49, from Jabalia camp in Gaza, also celebrated the festival in a tent in Rafah.“Our spirits are broken, our homes destroyed,” she told AFP. “There’s no Eid, no joy, only war and loss.”Rafah resident Moaz Abu Moussa said that “despite the pain and massacres, we will show our happiness in these difficult circumstances”.“We don’t care about the war, we will live Eid like other Muslims and show our happiness to the displaced people and families of martyrs and detainees,” he declared.Meanwhile, in Jerusalem tens of thousands of worshippers poured into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, Islam’s third holiest site, for morning prayers.“It’s the saddest Eid ever,” said nurse Rawan Abd, 32, from Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. “At the mosque you could see the sadness on people’s faces.”In the occupied West Bank, the atmosphere was even more sombre, with many Palestinians in the flashpoint northern city of Jenin visiting its cemetery to pray for those who have been killed since the Gaza war began.The conflict erupted on October 7 with events that resulted in the death of 1,170 people in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of Israeli official figures.Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 33,482 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the health ministry.

Eight out of 10 schools in Gaza are damaged or destroyed, Unicef says, but it is the psychological damage the war has done to the territory’s nearly 1.2mn children that has experts really worried.“To be able to learn, you need to be in a safe space. Most kids in Gaza at the moment have brains that are functioning under trauma,” child psychiatrist Audrey McMahon of Doctors Without Borders said.Younger children could develop lifelong cognitive disabilities from malnutrition, while teenagers are likely to feel anger at the injustice they have suffered, she said.“The challenges they will have to face are immense and will take a long time to heal.”David Skinner of Save The Children said rebuilding the “schools is massively complicated... but it’s straightforward compared to the education loss”.“What’s often lost about the coverage of Gaza is that this is a catastrophe for children. “These are children who have been bereaved, who have lost people, who are sick and malnourished,” he said.COGNITIVE DAMAGESmall children whose brains are still developing are particularly at risk from mental health and cognitive damage, Skinner said.The UN child welfare agency estimates that 620,000 children in Gaza are out of school.Skinner said getting them back into class and rebuilding their schools were only the first steps.The true challenge will be healing displaced and traumatised young Gazans so that they can learn to learn again.Fighting has ravaged Gaza since Hamas fighters’ unprecedented October first week storming of Israel.Israel has responded with a relentless offensive against Hamas that has killed at least 33,207 Palestinians. When the war broke out, schools immediately stopped classes and the majority were turned into shelters for families fleeing air strikes.Nearly half of the Palestinian territory’s population is under 18, and its education system was already struggling after five wars in 20 years. DESTRUCTIONSo far in this war at least 53 of Gaza’s 563 school buildings have been destroyed, according to Unicef.More than eight out of 10 schools have been damaged and 67% took direct hits, according to a report by aid agencies including Unicef based on satellite imagery and on-the-ground reporting.“This is an unprecedented situation,” said Juliette Touma of the UN Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA, which helps educate 300,000 Gazan children.“Colleagues who have been here the longest remember maybe one school being hit” in previous conflicts, she said. Majd Halawa didn’t have to wait for the bombs to destroy his school in Gaza City to realise his dreams of becoming a lawyer would have to be put on hold. Two weeks after the war began, the Israeli army gave him and his family three minutes to leave their apartment block in the north of Gaza.“I left all my books, thinking it wouldn’t take long to go back, but it didn’t happen,” the 16-year-old said. Their home was flattened by an air strike.Makeshift schools have been set up in tents in the southern city of Rafah, where half of the territory’s population has now fled.In one tent, Hiba Halaweh was teaching 30 children to learn to read their first words. “The children are happy to get back into it,” said the teacher, who lacks even “textbooks and pens”.The Hamas-run education ministry plans 25,000 such temporary schools. Elsewhere in the world, many children who have lived through wars never return to school. In Iraq, six years after the government declared victory over the Islamic State group, tens of thousands are still out of school. Thousands of destroyed school buildings have yet to be rebuilt, according to the World Bank.But for Majd, whose family managed to get him out to Canada, it is not just about having a school to go to again.“No one can get over all the memories of what happened, not in 100 years.”

Rescuers searched off the northern coast of Mozambique yesterday after a makeshift ferry boat carrying people fleeing a cholera outbreak capsized, killing at least 97.The converted fishing boat, with about 130 people on board, ran into trouble late on Sunday as it headed for an island off Nampula province, officials said.Most of those on board were trying to escape the mainland after misinformation about cholera caused a panic, according to Nampula’s secretary of state Jaime Neto.Many children were among the victims, he added.On Sunday, authorities said the boat was believed to have sunk as it was overcrowded and unsuited to carrying passengers.It was later clarified that the vessel capsized after taking on water.“Water filled the boat... and the tragedy happened,” Menque Amade, a crew member who survived the accident, told national broadcaster TVM.Silverio Nauaito, the island’s administrator, said that six bodies were pulled from the waters yesterday, bringing the death toll to 97. Rescuers have found 12 survivors and search operations are continuing, the official said.The southern African country, one of the world’s poorest, has recorded almost 15,000 cases of cholera and 32 deaths since October, according to government data.Nampula is the worst affected region, accounting for a third of all cases.Locals said that health authorities recently stepped up outreach and prevention efforts.But the increased medical presence caused a scare among some residents, pushing a number of them to flee, they said.In recent months, the province has also received a large influx of people fleeing a wave of militant attacks in its northern neighbour of Cabo Delgado. Some of those on board were planning to go and stay with family on the island.“They were running away from the cholera outbreak. They got into the boat, the sea was rough, the boat capsized and it killed a lot of people,” Abdul Chemuna, a relative of three of those who died in the accident, told national television.The boat was headed to the Island of Mozambique, a small coral islet that used to serve as the capital of Portuguese East Africa and gave its name to the country.Nauaito said it was not clear how many people were missing at sea as authorities were yet to determine the exact number of passengers.Television footage showed locals gathered around the red and green wooden boat, which had been pulled onto a beach.Some looked out at the windy sea. Others stood next to bodies lying on the ground covered by blankets.A trading-post on the route to India, initially used by Arab merchants, the Island of Mozambique was claimed for Portugal by famed explorer Vasco da Gama.Hosting a fortified city and linked to the mainland by a bridge built in the 1960s, the island is listed as a World Heritage Site by the UN’s culture agency, Unesco.Mozambique, which has a long Indian Ocean coastline, was a Portuguese colony until independence in 1975.Home to more than 30mn people, it is regularly hit by destructive cyclones.In March, at least one person died as an illegal fishing vessel foundered near a southern beach. With almost two thirds of the population living in poverty, Mozambique has set high hopes on vast natural gas deposits discovered in Cabo Delgado in 2010.But an insurgency since 2017 waged by militants linked to the Islamic State group has stalled progress. More than 5,000 people have been killed and almost a million forced to flee their homes since fighting began.

Palestinian Redwan Abu Alkas lost his daughter in an Israeli airstrike. His home was destroyed and the family’s dream of opening its own business, a pizzeria in the once bustling Gaza Strip, was shattered.The family had saved up the money and bought all the equipment. That was before the Israeli bombardment of one of the most densely populated areas in the world began in the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas fighters who rule Gaza.“In this war, I lost my daughter, first of all. I used to have money to start a good project. I had gained enough experience from working in restaurants in Gaza Strip - I worked in most of the restaurants in Gaza - and now there is nothing,” Redwan told Reuters at a UN-run school being used as a shelter for displaced Palestinians.“...I had a brother who was going to be my partner, he is now wounded. He might get better, he might not. All the money that I had for the project is gone because of price rises.”Redwan’s brother, Hamza, is confined to a wheelchair. He was wounded while trying to secure food aid. “I stopped going out and seeing people. I’m sitting in a wheelchair and in bed, being treated and sometimes circumstances prevent me from getting to the hospital to get treatment because of the occupation,” he said.The war erupted six months ago when Hamas fighters stormed Israel. There are tragedies that don’t get as much attention as the bloodshed - the loss of livelihoods and plans for the future.

Palestinian Muslims marked a tense and sombre last Friday of Ramadan in Jerusalem, with minor scuffles between worshippers and Israeli police controlling the entrance to the Al-Aqsa Mosque.Some 120,000 people descended on the shrine, which dominates the Old City, officials said, with grand mufti Mohamed Ahmad Hussein urging the faithful to brave the heavy police presence because of the war in Gaza.Adli al-Agha, 53, from Jerusalem, said that many people “had to flee dawn prayers” after Israeli police deployed a mini-drone spraying tear gas to disperse people chanting “Glory to God”.“In our soul and our blood, we sacrifice for you Al-Aqsa,” worshippers declared, according to Agha.Police said they arrested eight people for incitement.Yasser Basha, from Tulkarem in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, said police were restricting entrance to the mosque to the old and the very young. Only men over 55 and women over 50 were being allowed inside, he said.“If it wasn’t for the war, things would have been much easier,” he added.Yesterday also marked Laylat al-Qadr (“The Night of Destiny”), the spiritual climax of the holy month.But many Palestinians are not in the mood to celebrate and are praying for an end to the war in Gaza after almost six months of bloodshed.Sameeha al-Qadi, 55, who had come from near Bethlehem, said Jerusalem “is sad and has lost its light - we all feel what is going on in Gaza. We can’t escape it for a minute.”This year there are few Ramadan decorations or lights in the Holy City, with Palestinians instead having a bitter coffee and a date — traditionally to mark mourning — on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, when feasts are usually held. “There is sweet nothing about the feast this year. People are not celebrating,” said Sabah, 54, some of whose relatives have been killed in Gaza.“Everything is bitter in my mouth. It is so painful at this time which is all about family.”Easter was similarly subdued last weekend for Palestinian Christians.Adnan Jafar, 60, a sweet maker in the Old City, said usually in Ramadan his shop is at its busiest. “But I have never had a Ramadan like this. And we all know why. (Gaza) is not just affecting us, it is affecting the whole world.”The bloodiest ever Gaza war erupted with Hamas’ fighters storming of Israel in the first week of October.Israel’s retaliatory campaign against Hamas has killed at least 33,091 people in Gaza, mostly women and children, according to the territory’s health ministry.

The children of Gaza have little to eat, have had to flee their homes and have survived nearly six months of terrifying Israeli bombardment.But for a few precious minutes children in the Nuseirat refugee camp in the centre of the Gaza Strip laughed and yelped with joy.Clowns and acrobats performed for them in the courtyard of a school where their displaced families have been sheltering the bombing.The unrelenting war has taken a terrible toll on Gaza’s children. Most of the more than 32,782 people killed in the besieged territory since the October first week storming of Israel by Hamas fighters have been women and children.But for once they could forget all that horror as performers in rabbit costumes led them in a conga, pushing one injured boy in a wheelchair.Then it was then the turn of clown Omar al-Saidi to tickle their funny bones with zany antics at the expense of another jester.Wassim Lobed, whose support group organised the show and who acted as compere, said: “Traumas are beginning to appear on children so we are trying to provide psychological relief.“We hope to God that this war will end for the sake of our children in Gaza,” he added.So deep is the mental suffering of Gaza’s children that some hope to die quickly to escape the “nightmare”, a spokesman for the UN child welfare agency said on Tuesday.“The unspeakable is regularly said in Gaza” now, said Unicef spokesman James Elder, who is in the territory. After meeting young people, he said several teenagers said they were “so desperate for this nightmare to end that they hoped to be killed”.But Saidi, whose clown name is Uncle Zaatar, said he hoped the show had lifted some of that “burden” from the children’s shoulders.As the children clapped and cheered at the end, he said he hoped the “smile will remain on their faces forever”.

Workers have lifted out the first, 200-tonne chunk of Baltimore’s collapsed bridge, officials said yesterday, as efforts get underway to clear the harbour of the steel structure destroyed by an out-of-control ship.Demolition crews using blow torches sliced through the upper part of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which crumbled when the Dali cargo vessel lost power and struck it on Tuesday, killing six people.Authorities hope that removing the bridge — by cutting it into smaller sections and lifting them out — will help rescuers recover all the victims’ bodies as well as reopen the crucial shipping lane.“The first lift was made last night after the cutting of the top portion of one of the northern sections of the Key Bridge was completed,” said US Coast Guard spokeswoman Kimberly Reaves in a statement.“The piece removed last night was approximately 200 tonnes,” she said, adding it would be moved to a barge that, once filled with additional pieces, would be taken to a debris-holding site on land.As salvage operations continued yesterday, Maryland Governor Wes Moore said that “progress is beginning to happen despite the fact that it’s an incredibly complicated situation.” He said adverse weather conditions and underwater debris meant divers were unable to assist.Moore told CNN that a huge crane — the Chesapeake 1,000 that can lift 1,000 pounds — was being used in the salvage operation.Video footage shared on Saturday by the Unified Command — the overall response team that includes the US Coast Guard — showed sparks flying as crews suspended in cages cut through an upper section of bridge.Moore said the recovery would be a “long road,” adding “but movement is happening.” The difficult conditions have hampered efforts to recover the bodies of the road workers — all Latino immigrants — who died when the bridge collapsed, with just two of six bodies recovered so far.Shipping in and out of Baltimore — one of the United States’ busiest ports — has been halted, with the waterway impassable due to the sprawling wreckage.Moore told MSNBC yesterday that his priorities were recovering the victims’ bodies before reopening the channel.“It’s impacting the nation’s economy. It’s the largest port for new cars, heavy trucks, agricultural equipment. It’s impacting people all over the country,” he said.The ship veered towards the bridge due to power trouble, with the pilot issuing a Mayday call that allowed some road traffic to be stopped just before the collision at 1:30am after which the structure collapsed in seconds.Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg told “Face the Nation” on CBS that there was no timeline to clear the harbour and reopen the port.“It takes a lot to make sure that it can be dismantled safely, to make sure that the vessel stays where it is supposed to be and doesn’t swing out into the channel, but it has to be done,” he said.

Some 9,000 patients in the Gaza Strip require evacuation for emergency care, with the war-torn Palestinian territory down to just 10 barely functioning hospitals, the head of the WHO said.“With only 10 hospitals minimally functional across the whole of #Gaza, thousands of patients continue to be deprived of health care,” World Health Organisation Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus wrote on X.Before the war, Gaza had 36 hospitals, according to the WHO.“Around 9,000 patients urgently need to be evacuated abroad for lifesaving health services, including treatment for cancer, injuries from bombardments, kidney dialysis and other chronic conditions,” he said.That is up from 8,000 in the WHO’s previous assessment at the beginning of March.Israel vowed to eliminate Hamas after the group’s unprecedented October first week storming of Israel, and has been bombing Gaza without respite, damaging many healthcare facilities.Violent ground combat has also been underway for weeks, sometimes around Gaza’s hospitals, which are also providing refuge for thousands who have lost their homes or fled the fighting.Gaza is subject to an almost complete blockade, and NGOs and the United Nations accuse Israel of preventing the delivery of humanitarian aid needed by the 2.4mn inhabitants who are mostly massed in Rafah at the territory’s southern tip. Israel has defended its policies as it pursues its stated goal of destroying Hamas, saying the UN should send more aid to Gaza, pushing back on reports by the UN and NGOs that cumbersome Israeli inspections are blocking food and other essentials. Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 32,705 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry.Tedros said that “so far, over 3,400 patients have been referred abroad through Rafah, including 2,198 wounded and 1,215 ill. But many more need to be evacuated.“We urge Israel to speed up approvals for evacuations, so that critical patients can be treated. Every moment matters.”Before the war, 50-100 patients a day were transferred to East Jerusalem or the West Bank, half of them for cancer treatment.

Pope Francis urged the world to resist “the logic of weapons” in his Easter message at the Vatican yesterday, easing growing health fears as he greeted thousands of Catholics.The 87-year-old’s “Urbi et Orbi” (To the City and the World) blessing came after he led Easter Mass in front of 60,000 worshippers at Saint Peter’s Square while appearing in good spirits.In his traditional speech broadcasted worldwide, Francis condemned war as “always an absurdity and a defeat”, raising conflicts in Ukraine, Gaza, Sudan, Myanmar and beyond. He renewed appeals for a ceasefire in Gaza, calling for greater aid deliveries to the devastated territory and the release of hostages.The civilian population is “now at the limit of its endurance”, he said, lamenting the impact on children especially. “Let us not allow the strengthening winds of war to blow on Europe and the Mediterranean. Let us not yield to the logic of weapons and rearming,” he added. The pope proposed a “general exchange of all prisoners between Russia and Ukraine” as the war between the two countries grinds through its third year. Francis also urged world leaders to “spare no efforts in combatting the scourge of human trafficking” to free its victims. Moments before the blessing, Francis passed through the adoring crowd on his “popemobile” as pilgrims shouted “Long live the pope!”, waved flags and strained to take pictures.The pope on Saturday presided over the Easter Vigil at the Vatican in front of some 6,000 people from around the world, a day after his last-minute cancellation at a major Good Friday procession revived questions about his health.He delivered a 10-minute homily in Italian, speaking without any undue difficulty and condemning “the walls of selfishness and indifference” in the world.At the end of the two-and-a-half-hour service he showed little sign of fatigue, taking time to greet and bless some of the worshippers.In a brief statement Friday, the Vatican had said that “to preserve his health ahead of tomorrow’s vigil and the Easter Sunday mass, Pope Francis will this evening follow the Way of the Cross at the Colosseum from the Santa Marta Residence”, where he lives.

Bulgaria and Romania joined Europe’s vast Schengen area of free movement yesterday, opening up travel by air and sea without border checks after a 13-year wait.A veto by Austria however means the new status will not apply to land routes, after Vienna expressed concerns over a potential influx of asylum seekers.Despite the partial membership, the lifting of controls at the two countries’ air and sea borders is of significant symbolic value.“I travel often and this really eases things”, Kristina Markova, 35, said as she readied to fly out of the Sofia airport yesterday morning.“We got to the terminal in less than three minutes, including baggage check,” she said. “It’s a real improvement”.Admission to Schengen is an “important milestone” for Bulgaria and Romania, symbolising a “question of dignity, of belonging to the European Union”, according to foreign policy analyst Stefan Popescu.“Any Romanian who had to walk down a lane separate from other European citizens felt being treated differently,” he told AFP.“This is a great success for both countries, and a historic moment for the Schengen area — the largest area of free movement in the world,” EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said in a statement Saturday.“Together, we are building a stronger, more united Europe for all our citizens.”With Bulgaria and Romania, the Schengen zone now comprises 29 members — 25 of the 27 European Union member states as well as Switzerland, Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.Romania’s government said Schengen rules would apply to four sea ports and 17 airports, with the Otopeni airport near the capital Bucharest serving as the biggest hub for Schengen flights.More staff including border police and immigration officers will be deployed to airports to “support passengers and detect those who want to take advantage to leave Romania illegally”, it added.Random checks will also be carried out to catch people with false documents and to combat human trafficking.Bulgaria and Romania both hope to fully integrate into Schengen by the end of the year, but Austria has so far relented only on air and sea routes.Croatia, which joined the EU after Romania and Bulgaria, beat them to becoming Schengen’s 27th member in January 2023.Created in 1985, the Schengen area allows more than 400mn people to travel freely without internal border controls.While some have reason to celebrate, truck drivers, faced with endless queues at the borders with their European neighbours, feel left out.One of Romania’s main road transport unions the UNTRR has called for “urgent measures” to get full Schengen integration, deploring the huge financial losses caused by the long waits.“Romanian hauliers have lost billions of euros every year, just because of long waiting times at borders,” secretary general Radu Dinescu said.According to the union, truckers usually wait eight to 16 hours at the border with Hungary, and from 20 to 30 hours at the Bulgarian border, with peaks of three days. Bulgarian businesses have also voiced their anger over the slow progress.“Only three percent of Bulgarian goods are transported by air and sea, the remaining 97% by land,” said Vasil Velev, president of the Bulgarian Industrial Capital Association (BICA).“So we’re at three percent in Schengen and we don’t know when we’ll be there with the other 97%,” he told AFP.Bucharest and Sofia have both said there will be no going back.“There is no doubt that this process is irreversible,” Romanian Interior Minister Catalin Predoiu said this month, adding it “must be completed by 2024 with the extension to land borders”.

People around the world marked International Women’s Day yesterday with protests, demonstrations and celebrations.Some countries marked the day by voting on – or confirming – groundbreaking legislation.In Afghanistan, small groups of women staged rare demonstrations in private spaces, after a crackdown by Taliban authorities forced activists off the streets.A handful of women in several provinces gathered to demand restrictions on jobs, travel and education be lifted, said activists from the Purple Saturdays group.In Pakistan, hundreds of women rallied in major cities to highlight street harassment, bonded labour and the lack of female representation in parliament.“We face all sorts of violence: physical, sexual, cultural violence where women are exchanged to settle disputes, child marriages, rape, harassment in the workplace, on the streets,” said Farzana Bari, lead organiser of the Islamabad event.In Ireland voters are taking part in a double referendum on proposals to modernise its constitution, which could expand the definition of family from those founded on marriage to “durable relationships”.Another proposed change would replace old-fashioned language around a mother’s “duties in the home” with a clause recognising care provided by family members.In Italy, thousands of people marched in Rome and Milan calling for an end to violence against women following a number of high-profile cases of young women murdered by their boyfriends.Holding banners, dancing and chanting slogans, at least 10,000 people gathered in the Italian capital at the Circo Massimo, an ancient Roman racing ground, according to police.In Japan, six couples marked International Women’s Day by filing a case suing the government for the right to use different surnames after marriage.Under laws in place since the 19th century, married couples must choose the husband’s or the wife’s name, and about 95% take the man’s, according to the plantiffs’ lawyers.In Britain, protesters in London dressed as characters from The Handmaid’s Tale, Margaret Atwood’s dystopian novel about a future in which women have been reduced to chattel.They held placards calling for women’s rights in Iran.A separate demonstration in Parliament Square highlighted the plight of women in Afghanistan, and called for the right of girls to go to school.In France, President Emmanuel Macron presided over a ceremony enshrining the right to abortion into the French constitution, the first country to make such a move.“We will not rest until this promise is held everywhere in the world,” he said.France’s former prime minister Elisabeth Borne denounced the “insidious sexism” she said permeates French politics in an interview broadcast on International Women’s Day.“Men in politics, they all have an interest in imposing masculine codes, it eliminates the competition,” she told French broadcaster RTL.Thousands of women dressed in black marched in the Democratic Republic of the Congo to mourn those killed in conflicts in the east of the country.They women from all walks of life gathered in Bukavu, capital of the South Kivu province in the east, which has been ravaged by decades of armed violence.In Kosovo capital Pristina, women marched in a rally for to press for gender equality and to protest violence against women.Cases of gender-based violence remain high due in part to Kosovo’s patriarchal culture, post-traumatic stress linked to war, and a legal system that has allowed domestic violence to sink deep roots.In South Africa, a group of Jewish women held a march to denounce the government’s silence regarding abuse by Hamas fighters against Israeli hostages.Organised by the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), the women marched in the scorching Johannesburg sun under the banner “Me Too unless you are a Jew”.In occupied Ukraine, masked Russian soldiers in combat gear handed out flowers to women, as Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed women soldiers fighting on the frontlines.A Russian defence ministry video showed soldiers with scarves pulled over their faces distributing flowers in Mariupol, the Ukrainian port city captured by Russian forces at the start of the war.

For Muslims worldwide, Ramadan is a time of prayer, reflection and joyful evening meals, but all Gazans wish for this year is an end to five months of war and suffering.It is a hope shared widely across the Islamic world, where the thoughts of many are with Gaza ahead of the fasting month.The war sparked by Hamas’s October first week storming of Israel has devastated Gaza, killed tens of thousands of Palestinians and triggered violence elsewhere in the Middle East, from Lebanon to the seas off Yemen.Amid the ruins of southern Gaza, Nevin al-Siksek sat recently outside her makeshift tent, distracting her young daughter from the carnage around them with a plastic Ramadan lantern.The colourful fanous lanterns are an iconic symbol of Ramadan, marked by dawn-to-dusk fasting and, in better times, festive evening Iftar meals with family and friends.Across Gaza this year, the lights are among the few signs signalling the coming holy month, amid dire warnings of mass starvation.While international mediators were hoping for a truce in time for Ramadan, no breakthrough had come by yesterday.Much of the territory of 2.4mn people has become a hellscape of bombed-out neighbourhoods, emaciated children and mass graves dug in the sand.Siksek and her family, instead of tucking into lamb and sweets at the home they had to flee in northern Gaza, will break their fast in the bare-bones tent they share with other displaced civilians. If they can find anything to eat, that is.“We do not have any food to prepare,” Siksek said as her husband, Mohamed Yasser Rayhan, nodded in agreement.In the past during Ramadan, “there was life, joy, spirit, decorations and a beautiful atmosphere”, Rayhan said.“Now Ramadan is coming and we have war, oppression and famine.” ‘A PRAYER FOR OUR BROTHERS’ The Gaza war erupted after Hamas staged an unprecedented storming of southern Israel.Israel’s retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 30,800 people so far, the vast majority women and children, according to Hamas-run Gaza’s health ministry.Other parts of the Islamic world may be grappling with their own challenges, from conflicts to high inflation. But many Muslims say their thoughts are with Palestinians this year.“Every time I pray, I always send a prayer for our brothers and sisters in the Palestinian territory,” said Indonesian housewife Nurunnisa, 61, in Aceh province in the west of the country with the world’s largest Muslim population.“I can’t help them with anything so I can only help them with prayer. I pray the war will be over soon. The people there are suffering so much.” The reports of looming famine in Gaza, where desperate residents have taken to eating slaughtered horses and even leaves, also weigh heavily on Jordanian father-of-five Saif Hindawi, he said as he shopped for rice and oil in Amman.“Imagine in Jordan, there are high prices, but there is still the ability to buy what is available,” said the 44-year-old.In Gaza, he said, “they have used animal fodder to make bread”.The war has had a severe impact on southern Lebanon, where Hezbollah fighters have exchanged near-daily strikes with Israel and tens of thousands have been displaced on both sides of the border.Retired teacher Maryam Awada, now living in a school-turned-shelter in the city of Tyre, said she would be unable to fast this Ramadan because of the stress. “God will not force me to fast here in this hall we’re living in,” she said.In Yemen, Houthi fighters began firing missiles at vessels linked to Israel in November.The Houthis’ campaign has won them fans abroad, but within Yemen it has worsened a humanitarian crisis brought on by a nearly decade-long civil war.In the port city of Hodeidah, an area targeted by anti-Houthi US strikes, restaurant manager Ali Mohamed said he was bracing for a lean month.“When the air strikes began, business suddenly collapsed,” he said. “If the situation continues... our only option will be to close down.” In Somalia’s capital, trader Abdirahim Ali said he worried the Red Sea crisis would drive up prices, something that “affects people during Ramadan” especially.‘TIRED AND DRAINED’Muslims in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem worry about violence at the Al-Aqsa mosque compound.During Ramadan, Muslims in their tens and even hundreds of thousands pray at the compound’s iconic Dome of the Rock.But in February, Israel’s hard-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir argued that Palestinian residents of the occupied West Bank “should not be allowed” entry to Jerusalem during Ramadan.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said on Tuesday that worshippers would be allowed to enter the mosque “in similar numbers” to past years.That did little to reassure Ahlam Shaheen, 32, who works at a community centre near Al-Aqsa.When Israeli police stormed the mosque in 2021, Shaheen saw women praying next to her get shot with rubber bullets, and she fears it could happen again.“We’re living with the war for five months now,” she said. “We’re really tired and drained.” In Cairo, the most festive of cities during Ramadan, a Gazan student who asked not to be named feared the holy month this year would be unbearable.“For the first time in my life, I can’t stand the idea of Ramadan,” she said. “It hurts every time I see a fanous,” she said about the lanterns that festoon the city’s streets.“My brothers and sisters can’t even eat once a day, and we’re supposed to have a fast-breaking meal like everything is normal?”

Donald Trump (pictured) has obtained a bond sufficient to cover an $83.3mn penalty as the former president appeals a jury’s verdict in a sexual assault defamation case, court documents showed yesterday.On January 26 Trump was ordered by a jury in New York to compensate the writer E Jean Carroll, whom he was found to have sexually assaulted and defamed, a decision he is now challenging in a higher court.Trump’s lawyer Alina Habba said that he had obtained a bond of $91.6mn, according to a document filed with a Manhattan court.He was ordered to pay $65mn in punitive damages after the jury found Trump acted maliciously in his many public comments about Carroll, $7.3mn in compensatory damages and $11mn for a reputational repair programme.Trump was required to either post the full amount of the compensation as he appeals, or a bond that could be executed in the event that his challenge is unsuccessful.The judge who oversaw the case denied his team’s application to postpone a Monday deadline to post a bond to cover the penalty, US media reported.Trump – whom a jury found liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in a separate federal civil case in New York – used his Truth Social platform to fire off a spate of insulting messages attacking Carroll, the trial and the judge, whom he called “an extremely abusive individual”.He was not required to attend the trial or to testify.However, he has used the case, as well as others he faces, to generate heated media coverage and to fuel his claims of being victimised as he campaigns for a return to the White House in November’s election.Trump has also been faced with the task of securing a bond for his much larger civil fraud ruling which requires him to pay $355mn plus significant and mounting interest.His lawyers offered a $100mn bond to partially cover that penalty as he appeals, but that was rejected by an appeals judge. – AFPTrump tightens grip on party as daughter-in-law takes key postDonald Trump cemented his grip on the Republican National Committee (RNC) yesterday after his daughter-in-law and another ally assumed top leadership posts amid a debate among members over whether the organisation should help pay his legal bills.RNC members meeting in Houston voted to appoint North Carolina Republican Party head Michael Whatley and Lara Trump (pictured) as chair and co-chair of the organisation, which will play a key role in marshalling voters and funds for the November 5 general election.The move comes after Trump swept the Super Tuesday primary contests, prompting Nikki Haley to drop out of the Republican race and all but assuring the former US president will be the nominee and face off against President Joe Biden, a Democrat.“The goal on November 5th is to win, and as my father-in-law says ‘bigly’,” Lara Trump said, promising that “every single penny of every dollar raised” would go toward the goal of winning the White House, the House of Representatives and the Senate for Republicans.The reshuffling sees Ronna McDaniel replaced atop the organisation.McDaniel faced criticism over fundraising and the party’s performance at the ballot box.During her tenure, Trump was defeated in 2020, and the party turned in a weaker-than-expected performance in the 2022 congressional midterm elections.Some RNC members have called for the committee to help pay for Trump’s legal expenses, which along with penalties have ballooned to hundreds of millions of dollars.Neither Whatley or Lara Trump directly addressed the issue yesterday. – Reuters