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Workers in the southern Tunisian city of Gabes launched a general strike on Tuesday following weeks of protest over a chemical factory residents blame for a spike in serious health issues.Thousands have recently rallied in the city of some 400,000 inhabitants to demand the closure of a state-run phosphate processing plant which they say is behind a rise in gas poisonings after it ramped up production.The plant, inaugurated in 1972, processes phosphate to make fertilisers, and some of the gases and waste it discharges into the open air and Mediterranean are radioactive and can cause cancer, researchers have found.”Everything is closed in Gabes,” said Saoussen Nouisser, a local representative of Tunisia’s main labour union, UGTT, which called the general strike. “We’re all angry at the catastrophic environmental situation in our marginalised city,” she told AFP.Thousands marched in the city centre in the afternoon, calling for the factory’s closure. “Health is a right, breathing is a right,” protesters chanted. “Living without pollution is a right.”Activist Noureddine Boukhris said the protesters would ramp up their campaign after the general strike.   “We want the state, the prime minister’s office and the ministers involved in this matter to react by dismantling the plant,” he said.- ‘Urgent measures’ -Over 200 people have been hospitalised in recent weeks for respiratory distress and gas poisoning, according to authorities and NGOs.Videos circulated online of children seemingly having breathing issues last week pushed thousands to rally in the coastal city.Police have used tear gas to disperse the crowd at some demonstrations, with the city seeing clashes between residents and security forces sometimes at night.Dozens were arrested over the weekend.National Guard spokesman Houcem Eddine Jebabli told local media that protesters have used “over 800 Molotov cocktails” targeting security forces, adding there were cases of “robbery and looting”.In 2017, the Tunisian government promised to gradually shut down the factory, but earlier this year authorities said they would instead ramp up production at the plant.President Kais Saied had long vowed to revive the sector hindered by unrest and underinvestment, calling phosphate a “pillar of the national economy”.Authorities have said “urgent measures” were underway to address pollution in Gabes as the government called on Chinese companies to help manage the plant’s waste.Equipment Minister Salah Zouari said they would help “control gas emissions” and “prevent the discharge of phosphogypsum into the sea”.The solid waste contains radioactive elements, which also impact soil quality and groundwater.Taking advantage of rising world fertiliser prices, the government now wants the plant’s output to nearly quintuple by 2030, from less than three million tonnes a year to 14 million tonnes.

Sanae Takaichi was named Japan’s first woman prime minister Tuesday, with the social conservative saying she wanted “candid discussions” with US President Donald Trump just days ahead of his visit to Tokyo.Japan’s fifth premier in as many years leads a minority government and has a bulging in-tray, not least the scheduled arrival of the US …

Conservative Takaichi named Japan’s first woman PM Read More »

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was due in Doha late Tuesday as Ankara sought to acquire some of Qatar’s used Eurofighter Typhoon jets, a Turkish security source told AFP.Erdogan flew in from Kuwait and was expected to meet Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on Wednesday, according to the Turkish leader’s office.”Turkey has been trying to negotiate to acquire some of Qatar’s used Eurofighters,” the source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to talk to journalists.”In exchange, Turkey has offered access to its new-generation fighter jet, the Kaan, as part of a potential technology transfer arrangement.”So far “no concrete progress” had been made with the negotiations still ongoing, the source said.Turkey wants to modernise its air force and has in recent years sought to buy 40 new Eurofighter Typhoons built by a four-nation consortium of Germany, Britain, Spain and Italy.The move came after Washington booted Ankara out of its F-35 fighter programme in 2019 over Turkey’s purchase of an S-400 Russian surface-to-air missile defence system.The purchase had raised fears it would give NATO’s main adversary a window into Western jet operations.-‘Strategic bluff’-Some defence observers see Turkey’s push to acquire the Eurofighters as a strategic bluff aimed at putting pressure on Washington to readmit Ankara to its fighter jet programme.”For Turkey, the main priority remains the F-16 and F-35 programmes,” the Turkish source said.In May, Erdogan expressed confidence that the sanctions would quickly be ended, and his meeting last month with US President Donald Trump further cemented those hopes.Washington’s Turkey Ambassador Tom Barrack said in June that US sanctions were likely to be over by the year’s end.But the Turkish source said it was likely to take a bit longer.”Due to the current political gridlock in the US Congress, progress on these deals is unlikely before the new year.”In 2017, Qatar placed an order for 24 Eurofighter jets, and in December, Doha reportedly said it was looking to acquire another 12 more, according to several defence news outlets.Ankara’s request might receive a lukewarm reception, according to the Turkish source, in light of Qatar’s own defence requirements following Israeli strikes on Hamas figures in the emirate last month.

US Vice President JD Vance was in Israel on Tuesday to shore up a fragile Gaza ceasefire deal, as President Donald Trump piled more pressure on Hamas over the agreement he spearheaded. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner were in Tel Aviv, where they met Israeli hostages released by Hamas after two years of captivity in Gaza.”Welcome to Israel, Vice President Vance,” Israel’s foreign ministry posted on social media. “Together, the Promised Land and The Land of the Free, can secure a better future, including the release of the remaining 15 hostages.” Vance met Witkoff and Kushner on Tuesday, reporters said, and was due to also meet US military experts monitoring the truce. According to Israeli media reports he will meet Israeli leaders, including Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, on Wednesday in Jerusalem.After Israel said Hamas killed two soldiers on Sunday and accused the group of stalling the handover of hostages’ bodies, it unleashed a wave of strikes on the territory — later saying it had “renewed enforcement” of the ceasefire.The United States is now redoubling efforts to cement the fragile Gaza deal Trump helped broker.Trump said that allied nations in the Middle East were prepared to send troops into Gaza to confront Hamas if it did not cease alleged violations of his peace plan.”Numerous of our NOW GREAT ALLIES in the Middle East, and areas surrounding the Middle East, have… informed me that they would welcome the opportunity, at my request, to go into GAZA with a heavy force and ‘straighten our (sic) Hamas’ if Hamas continues to act badly,” Trump posted on his Truth Social platform.- ‘Very, very fragile’ -Trump says he believes the deal is still holding and that Hamas militants understand what will happen if they breach it. “They’ll be eradicated, and they know that,” he told reporters at the White House on Monday.Hamas has denied any knowledge of Sunday’s deadly violence in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.Israel responded after the soldiers’ deaths with an intense wave of bombings the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry said killed 45 Palestinians.”The only thing stopping Israel from further destroying Gaza is Trump,” said Mairav Zonszein, senior analyst on Israel for the International Crisis Group (ICG).Netanyahu is “saying certain things to make Trump happy, but he’s doing other things, and the ceasefire is very, very fragile”, she told AFP.Zonszein said that Hamas’s future was “still very much something that Israelis are concerned with”.”As far as Israelis are concerned, they’re happy the hostages are out. They want to stabilise… But they also are scared that Hamas is still standing,” she said.- Challenges, opportunities -Both sides say they are committed to the truce despite the weekend’s violence, and Hamas’ armed wing said it would return the bodies of two more hostages exhumed on Tuesday, with the handover taking place at 1800 GMT.Militants have so far handed over 13 of the 28 hostage bodies pledged to be returned under the deal, but Hamas has warned the search is hampered by the level of destruction in the territory.Netanyahu’s office has said Israel “will not compromise on this and will spare no effort until we return all of the deceased hostages, every last one of them”.The Red Cross said it facilitated on Tuesday the transfer of the bodies of 15 Palestinians from Israel to Gaza as part of the deal, taking the total to 165.The ceasefire, which went into effect on October 10 also proposed an ambitious roadmap for Gaza’s future, but its implementation has quickly faced challenges.On Monday, Netanyahu — who is under pressure from hardliners in his government to abandon the deal and resume the fighting — said he and Vance would discuss “the security challenges we face and the diplomatic opportunities before us”.- Egypt spy chief in Israel -Egypt’s intelligence head Hassan Rashad was also in Israel on Tuesday to reinforce the truce, according to Netanyahu’s office and Egyptian state-linked media. US ally and fellow truce mediator Qatar accused Israel of what its leader called the “continued violation” of the now 11-day-old ceasefire.  “We reiterate our condemnation of all Israeli violations and practices in Palestine,” Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani told legislators.Hamas’ Gaza leader, in Cairo for talks with Egypt and Qatar, issued a statement expressing confidence the truce will hold. “What we heard from the mediators and from the US President reassures us that the Israeli war on the Gaza Strip has ended,” Khalil al-Hayya said. The war, triggered by Hamas’ October 7, 2023 attack on Israel, has killed at least 68,229 people in Gaza, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory, figures the UN considers credible.The data does not distinguish between civilians and combatants but indicates that more than half of the dead are women and children.Hamas’ 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,221 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official Israeli figures.