San Francisco trains hit by systemwide outage

San Francisco’s main public transport system abruptly shut down Friday morning, stopping all trains in the Bay Area and throwing the morning commute into chaos.”Due to a computer networking problem BART service is suspended system wide until further notice,” said a message on the Bay Area Rapid Transit website.”Seek alternate means of transport.”The shutdown left tens of thousands of commuters scrambling to find other ways to work.Pictures showed crowds of people pressing aboard buses, while reports said both the Golden Gate Bridge and the Oakland Bay Bridge — key routes into and out of the city — were clogged.Unlike many major US cities, San Francisco has a well developed public transport network that includes an underground train network, buses, trams and ferries that traverse the bay between San Francisco and other cities in the region.The closure of the BART train system, whose 131 miles (210 kilometres) of track carry more than 174,000 passengers every day, appeared to be related to how the system had powered up after overnight maintenance, communications officer Alicia Trost told ABC7.There was no immediate indication that the problems had been the result of a cyberattack, she said.The halt caused misery for those trying to get to work.David Meland told the San Francisco Chronicle he had waited in vain outside his local station for an hour to see if the service would resume.”It’s happened a lot. BART’s just too inconsistent,” he said. “This is pretty bad.”Patrick Dunn, who had driven to an exurban station to ride into the city said he was going to have to switch transport.”Now I have to take the bus, and I never take the bus,” he told the Chronicle.”I already have a long commute and now I have to wait for the (bus). I’ll be late by an half hour or so.”The shutdown came on the day that the overstretched airport in Newark, one of three serving greater New York, also suffered an outage — the second in the last few weeks.The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) said there “was a telecommunications outage that impacted communications and radar display” at the same Philadelphia traffic control station that guides aircraft in and out of Newark’s airspace.The outage occurred around 03:55 (07:55 GMT) on Friday and “lasted approximately 90 seconds,” a short statement said.

La cote de popularité de Bayrou continue de baisser, selon un sondage

La cote de popularité de François Bayrou continue de baisser pour le troisième mois consécutif, passant pour la première fois en-dessous de celle d’Emmanuel Macron, indique vendredi le baromètre politique et territoire Ifop pour Ouest France.  Selon ce sondage réalisé du 7 au 9 mai 2025, le Premier ministre, qui est notamment englué dans l’affaire de violences au sein de l’établissement de Bétharram, a perdu 12 points en trois mois, avec seulement 27% des Français approuvant son action. La cote d’Emmanuel Macron est restée stable à un niveau bas, avec 28% des Français qui lui font confiance.”C’est la première fois dans l’histoire de notre baromètre, fondé en 2003, qu’un Premier ministre est moins populaire que le président de la République”, affirme le directeur général Opinion de l’Ifop Frédéric Dabi à Ouest France.Le point fort de François Bayrou est son “ouverture au dialogue”, saluée par 40% des Français. Mais seuls 23% d’entre eux considèrent le chef du gouvernement comme proche des préoccupations quotidiennes. 46% des personnes sondées font confiance à Emmanuel Macron pour défendre les intérêts de la France à l’étranger, une hausse de quatre points par rapport au mois dernier.  81% des Français considèrent le Président de la République comme éloigné des préoccupations quotidiennes. Enquête en ligne réalisée auprès d’un échantillon de 1.500 personnes représentatif de la population âgée de 18 ans et plus. La marge d’erreur est comprise entre 1,1 pt et 2,5 pts. 

NATO chief seeks defence spending at 5% of GDP by 2032: Dutch PM

NATO chief Mark Rutte wants member countries to agree at a summit in June to reach five percent of GDP on defence-related spending by 2032, Dutch premier Dick Schoof said Friday.US President Donald Trump has demanded that NATO allies ramp up their military spending to five percent of GDP, a level that not even the United States currently hits.Schoof said Rutte had written to NATO’s 32 member countries calling for them to reach 3.5 percent of GDP on “hard military spending” and 1.5 percent of GDP on “related spending such as infrastructure, cybersecurity and other things” over the next seven years.Trump is piling the pressure on Europe and Canada to ratchet up NATO’s spending target at a summit in The Hague next month. Foreign ministers from alliance countries are expected to tackle the matter at an informal gathering in Antalya, Turkey, next week.Rutte on Friday refused to confirm the figures being debated but said “internal discussions” were taking place within NATO.Diplomats within NATO, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the proposal circulated last week envisioned increasing direct military spending by 0.2 percent each year to 2032.They said the discussions were at an early stage and there were no clear signs yet that there would be consensus for the figures.The parameters of what could be included in the 1.5 percent of loosely related defence spending were still to be defined, they said.”It makes no sense to argue about abstract GDP percentages now. What is crucial is that we continuously expand our efforts over the next few years,” Germany’s new chancellor Friedrich Merz said during a visit to NATO’s headquarters in Brussels on Friday. Merz said that for Germany, every increase of one percent of GDP represented 45 billion euros ($50 billion).  – Trump threatens -Trump has long accused Washington’s allies of underspending on their defence and taking advantage of US largesse.He has also threatened not to protect countries that do not spend enough on their military in his eyes.European countries have ramped up their defence spending since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, but Rutte says they must go considerably higher to ward off Moscow.Last year 22 of NATO’s 32 allies hit its current spending target of two percent of GDP on their militaries. A string of countries such as Italy, Spain, Canada and Belgium that still lag below that level have pledged to reach it in 2025. The United States last year spent 3.19 percent of its GDP on defence, behind eastern flank countries Poland, Estonia and Lithuania close to Russia. But Washington remains by far the biggest military spender in NATO in absolute terms, accounting for 64 percent of all defence expenditure last year.In a bid to help European countries bolster their spending, the EU has proposed loosening budget rules and establishing a 150-billion-euro defence fund. 

Le Mexique poursuit Google pour le changement de nom du golfe du Mexique

Le Mexique a lancé des poursuites contre Google pour avoir changé le nom du golfe du Mexique en golfe d’Amérique pour les utilisateurs de l’application Google Maps aux États-Unis en s’alignant sur une décision de Donald Trump, a indiqué vendredi la présidente Claudia Sheinbaum.”La plainte a déjà été déposée”, a déclaré Mme Sheinbaum lors de sa conférence de presse matinale, sans préciser la date ni la juridiction.Dès le 20 janvier, premier jour de son retour à la Maison Blanche, le président Donald Trump avait signé un décret changeant le nom du golfe du Mexique en “golfe d’Amérique”. Le service de cartographie ultradominant affiche désormais “golfe d’Amérique” au sud-est des Etats-Unis, sur la mer encadrée par la Floride, la Louisiane, le Texas, le Mexique et Cuba, pour les usagers situés aux Etats-Unis.La Chambre des représentants a adopté jeudi un texte pour officialiser ce changement de nom et donner ainsi force de loi à ce décret.Mme Sheinbaum avait averti en février Google, filiale d’Alphabet, qu’elle envisageait une action en justice à moins que le géant technologique ne revienne sur sa décision.Le gouvernement mexicain de gauche nationaliste soutient que le décret de Donald Trump ne s’applique qu’à la partie du plateau continental appartenant aux États-Unis.”Tout ce que nous voulons, c’est que le décret émis par le gouvernement américain soit respecté”, a déclaré Mme. Sheinbaum. “Le gouvernement américain n’appelle que la portion du plateau continental américain le golfe d’Amérique, pas l’ensemble du golfe, car il n’aurait pas l’autorité de nommer l’ensemble du golfe”, a-t-elle ajouté.Mme Sheinbaum avait en retour suggéré de renommer les États-Unis “l’Amérique mexicaine”, se référant à une carte géographique d’avant 1848, lorsque le tiers du Mexique avait été cédé aux États-Unis par le traité de Guadalupe.Le Mexique est également en première ligne des guerres commerciales lancées par Donald Trump contre les partenaires commerciaux des Etats-Unis, destination de plus de 80% des exportations mexicaines.

Pakistan says India has brought neighbours ‘closer to major conflict’

Pakistan charged India Friday with bringing the nuclear-armed neighbours “closer to a major conflict”, as the death toll from three days of missile, artillery and drone attacks passed 50.The bloody escalation comes after an attack on tourists last month in the Indian-run part of disputed Kashmir that killed 26 people, and which New Delhi accused Islamabad of backing — an allegation Pakistan denied.India responded with air strikes Wednesday on what it called “terrorist camps” in Pakistan, killing more than 20 civilians and fuelling the worst clashes between the two in decades.Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesman Shafqat Ali Khan said that India’s “reckless conduct has brought the two nuclear-armed states closer to a major conflict”.Military spokesman Ahmed Sharif Chaudhry told media: “We will not de-escalate — with the damages they did on our side, they should take a hit.””So far, we have been protecting ourselves but they will get an answer in our own timing,” he added.On a third day of tit-for-tat exchanges, the Indian army said it had “repulsed” waves of Pakistani attacks using drones and other munitions overnight, and gave a “befitting reply”.Late Friday, an Indian defence source told AFP drones had been sighted in the Indian-administered Kashmir areas of Jammu and Samba, and in neighbouring Punjab state.Earlier, Pakistan’s military spokesman denied that Islamabad was carrying out such attacks. The two countries have fought several wars over Muslim-majority Kashmir, which is divided between the two.- Drone warfare -Most of the more than 50 deaths were in Pakistan during Wednesday’s air strikes by India and included children. On Friday, Pakistani security and government officials said five civilians — including a two-year-old girl — were killed by Indian shelling overnight in areas along the heavily militarised Line of Control (LoC), which separates Kashmir between India and Pakistan.On the other side, a police official said one woman was killed and two men wounded by heavy overnight shelling.Pakistani military sources said that its forces had shot down 77 Indian drones in the last two days, with debris of many incursions seen by AFP in cities across the country. India said 300 to 400 drones had attempted to cross into its territory, and also accused Pakistani forces on Thursday of targeting three military stations.Pakistan’s military said on Wednesday that five Indian jets had been downed across the border, but New Delhi has not responded to the claims, while a military source said three jets had crashed on home territory.Both sides have made repeated claims and counter-claims that are difficult to verify. “The youth of Kashmir will never forget this act of brutality by India,” said 15-year-old Muhammad Bilal in Muzaffarabad, the main city in Pakistan-administered Kashmir where a mosque was hit Wednesday.In Jammu, under Indian administration, 21-year-old student Piyush Singh said: “Our [attack] is justified because we are doing it for whatever happened to our civilians.”- Schools closed -Militants have stepped up operations in Kashmir since 2019, when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu-nationalist government revoked its limited autonomy and took the state under direct rule from New Delhi.Pakistan has rejected claims by New Delhi that it was behind last month’s attack in Pahalgam, Indian-administered Kashmir, when gunmen killed 26 people, mainly male Hindu tourists.India blamed the Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Taiba — a UN-designated terrorist organisation — for the attack.On Friday, schools were closed on both sides of Kashmir and in Punjab state, affecting tens of millions of children. The conflict has caused major disruption to international aviation, with airlines having to cancel flights or use longer routes that don’t overfly the India-Pakistan frontier. India also closed 24 airports, but according to local media, the suspension on civilian flights may be lifted on Saturday. The mega Indian Premier League (IPL) cricket tournament was on Friday suspended for a week, the Indian cricket board announced, a day after a fixture was abandoned in Dharamsala, less than 200 kilometres (125 miles) from Jammu, where explosions had been reported.The Pakistan Super League was moved to the United Arab Emirates, after an Indian drone struck Rawalpindi stadium on Thursday.- Calls for de-escalation -US Vice President JD Vance has called for de-escalation, while underlining that Washington was “not going to get involved in the middle of a war that’s fundamentally none of our business”.Several countries have offered to mediate, and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi met his Indian counterpart Subrahmanyam Jaishankar in New Delhi on Thursday, days after visiting Pakistan.Diplomats and world leaders have pressured both countries for restraint.However, the International Crisis Group said “foreign powers appear to have been somewhat indifferent” to the prospect of war, despite warnings of possible escalation.Amnesty said the warring sides “must take all necessary measures to protect civilians and minimise any suffering and casualties”.burs-ecl-aha/sst

Italy extradites mosque murder suspect to France: prosecutorFri, 09 May 2025 16:48:22 GMT

Italy has handed over to France the man accused of stabbing a young Malian to death in a mosque two weeks ago, a French prosecutor said Friday.Aboubakar Cisse was stabbed dozens of times while attending prayers at the mosque in the southern French town of La Grand-Combe on April 25.Olivier Hadzovic, a 20-year-old French national …

Italy extradites mosque murder suspect to France: prosecutorFri, 09 May 2025 16:48:22 GMT Read More »

Thousands gather for rare peace event in Jerusalem

Thousands gathered for a rare peace event in Jerusalem on Friday, with the Gaza war in its 20th month, the UN warning of humanitarian catastrophe and Palestinian militants still holding dozens of Israelis captive.In recent days, Israel has announced plans for an expanded military campaign in Gaza entailing the “conquest” of the Palestinian territory. Israel’s far-right Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has said this meant that the Gaza Strip would be “entirely destroyed”.”We cannot let the extremists on both sides that thrive over revenge, fear and hate also control our future,” said Maoz Inon, 50, an Israeli entrepreneur and peace activist who was one of the main organisers of Friday’s “People’s Peace Summit”.  “Even though they are controlling our present and reality, we must choose an alternative and create and shape an alternative future,” he told AFP.Friday’s event was organised by a grouping of some 60 grassroots peace-building organisations working to end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict through a political agreement.At the event, former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert and ex-Palestinian Authority foreign minister Nasser al-Kidwa presented their proposal for peace, originally unveiled last year.Kidwa, the nephew of late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, joined via livestream from the occupied West Bank. “Only a two-state solution is a prescription for a dramatic change in the direction of our country and of the entire region,” said Olmert, a centrist predecessor to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.”We have to end the war and pull out of Gaza, Gaza is Palestinian… and it has to be part of a Palestinian state,” he added.He advocated for the establishment of an “internal security force” linked to the Palestinian Authority that would have “objective powers… to try and rebuild Gaza without any participation” of the militant group Hamas.- Two-state solution -Kidwa said the pair’s peace proposal involved a two-state solution including the exchange of 4.4 percent of territory between Israel and a Palestinian state.Under the plan unveiled last year, Kidwa and Olmert said this territory swap would involve Israel annexing land where the main Jewish settlement blocs exist in the West Bank, including some of the area around Jerusalem.In exchange, an equally sized piece of Israeli territory would be annexed by a future Palestinian state, they said. Their vision of a two-state solution is based on Israel’s June 4, 1967 borders — before the occupation of the West Bank.The Olmert-Kidwa plan also advocates for shared sovereignty over Jerusalem’s Old City, involving a trusteeship which would include Israel and a Palestinian state.The current war in Gaza was sparked by Hamas’s October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, which resulted in the deaths of 1,218 people on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.Of the 251 people abducted in Israel that day, 58 are still being held in Gaza, including 34 declared dead by the Israeli army.Israel’s retaliatory campaign has killed at least 52,787 people in Gaza, also mostly civilians, according to figures from the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry that the United Nations regards as reliable.The territory has been under a total Israeli blockade since March 2, with UN agencies and other humanitarian organisations warning of dwindling supplies of everything from fuel and medicine to food and clean water.

Léon XIV déplore le recul de la foi lors de sa première messe

Léon XIV, premier pape américain de l’Histoire, a déploré le recul de la foi vendredi lors d’une première messe dans la droite ligne de son prédecesseur François. Après quelques mots en anglais pour inviter à “annoncer l’Évangile”, Robert Francis Prevost, 69 ans, a prononcé en italien sa première homélie en tant que chef de l’Eglise catholique, devant les cardinaux réunis dans la chapelle Sixtine.Ce pasteur augustinien féru d’histoire chrétienne et de mathématiques y a déploré le recul de la foi au profit “d’autres certitudes comme la technologie, l’argent, le succès, le pouvoir, le plaisir”.Léon XIV, qui portait des chaussures noires comme François et non rouges comme le veut la tradition papale, a également déploré “les contextes où Jésus, bien qu’apprécié en tant qu’homme, est réduit à une sorte de leader charismatique ou de surhomme”.Lors de sa première apparition jeudi soir devant une foule en liesse de quelque 100.000 personnes place Saint-Pierre, Léon XIV s’était adressé aux plus de 1,4 milliard de catholiques: “Que la paix soit avec vous tous!”Vendredi en milieu de journée, le Vatican a rendu public tous les engagement prévus à court terme de Léon XIV.La messe d’inauguration de son pontificat aura lieu ainsi le dimanche 18 mai place Saint-Pierre où il tiendra trois jours plus tard, le mercredi 21 mai, sa première audience générale.”Le pape Léon XIV va apporter son génie propre à l’Eglise, c’est quelque chose de très positif” a affirmé vendredi à l’AFP le cardinal français François-Xavier Bustillo, décrivant un pape “doux et déterminé”.Les réactions internationales se sont multipliées après son élection.Donald Trump a parlé d’un “grand honneur” pour les Etats-Unis, le président français Emmanuel Macron a plaidé pour un pontificat “porteur de paix et d’espérance”. Le président ukrainien Volodymyr Zelensky a espéré que le Vatican continuera à soutenir “moralement et spirituellement” Kiev, et Vladimir Poutine s’est dit certain d’une coopération constructive entre la Russie et le Vatican.- “Héritage de François” -Son élection a suscité la fierté de nombreux fidèles au Pérou, où Robert Francis Prevost a passé des années. “Il a montré sa proximité, sa simplicité avec les gens”, a affirmé à l’AFP Luis Alberto Barrera, l’évêque d’El Callao.”J’espère juste qu’il va porter l’héritage de François”, a affirmé à Houston Azul Montemayor, 29 ans, en espérant “qu’il ne se laissera pas entraîner par une idéologie plus conservatrice comme on en a en ce moment aux Etats-Unis avec le président Trump”.Avant d’être élu pape, Robert Francis Prevost a été très actif sur les réseaux sociaux, n’hésitant pas à affirmer sur X que le vice-président américain “JD Vance a tort” car “Jésus ne nous demande pas de hiérarchiser notre amour pour les autres”.Dans les prochains jours, Léon XIV honorera une série de rendez-vous, dont la prière du Regina Coeli dimanche à 12H00 (10H00 GMT), et rencontrera lundi matin les journalistes au Vatican.Ses premiers faits et gestes seront observés de près: décidera-t-il de vivre à la résidence Sainte-Marthe, comme François, ou reviendra-t-il dans les appartements pontificaux? Quelles seront ses premières décisions?Le natif de Chicago devra rapidement affronter des défis considérables pour une Eglise en perte de vitesse en Europe: finances, lutte contre la pédocriminalité, baisse des vocations… Il devra aussi apaiser une Eglise parfois bousculée par le pontificat de François (2013-2025), ponctué de réformes qui ont fait l’objet de vives critiques internes. Sa connaissance parfaite de la Curie romaine (administration du Saint-Siège) devrait l’aider dans cette tâche.Elu par les cardinaux après à peine 24 heures de conclave, le 267e pape de l’Eglise catholique est le quatrième non italien de suite après le Polonais Jean-Paul II (1978-2005), l’Allemand Benoît XVI (2005-2013) et l’Argentin François.- “Manifeste social” -Léon XIV porte “dans son nom un manifeste social” venu de Léon XIII, soulignait vendredi le quotidien Il Messaggero, tandis que La Stampa décrivait un “pape des deux mondes”, né au Nord mais enraciné au Sud.Avec Robert Francis Prevost, homme d’écoute et de synthèse, classé parmi les modérés, les cardinaux ont opté pour la continuité, même si cet Américain, créé cardinal en 2023 par François qui a porté son ascension au Vatican, devrait mettre davantage les formes que son prédécesseur.”Nous cherchions quelqu’un qui suive la voie de François, mais (…) je crois que le pape Léon XIV ne sera pas une photocopie du pape François”, a déclaré le cardinal américain Robert W. McElroy.”C’est à la fois une opposition au gouvernement américain et la prise en considération des critères géopolitiques”, a affirmé à l’AFP François Mabille, directeur de l’Observatoire géopolitique du religieux.”Et c’est également, à la fois par le choix de son nom Léon XIV, et par son origine missionnaire, un lien qui est fait avec l’Amérique latine, où il vivait”, a-t-il ajouté.