Author: Prima News

 Paris will choose a new mayor on Sunday, with one unlikely issue dominating campaigns alongside all the partisan acrimony – dogs. Candidates from socialists to conservatives have set ​out policies to deal with an issue which voters have regularly ranked among their ‌top concerns, a lack of space for the capital’s estimated 100,000 canines. “Paris isn’t exactly a very dog-friendly capital,” said Vincent Danna, founder of the Monceau Dog Club, a group of around 1,000 owners who have campaigned for more open spaces for ​their pets. “It can indeed be a decisive factor in municipal elections. I think the candidates ​have understood…

The old world is over. This is Nigel Farage’s time. That’s the message pressed by the Reform UK leader and his allies who are betting that the powerful brand of populism that drove his successful Brexit campaign a decade ago can carry him all the way to 10 Downing Street. “The world is changing,” Farage told Reuters as Reform starts fleshing out its party’s proposed policies, which include carrying out mass deportations, ditching international human rights ​treaties and slashing overseas aid. He contrasted the comparatively warm welcome he’d received at the annual gathering of political and business leaders in Davos…

Defence Minister Israel Katz ‌said on Tuesday the Israeli military had killed Iran’s security chief and the head of its Basij militia in airstrikes overnight, and Tehran kept up attacks against Gulf neighbours that have pushed up energy prices. Katz ​said in a statement he had been informed by the military that Iran’s security ​chief Ali Larijani had been killed. Iranian state media published a handwritten note ⁠by Larijani commemorating Iranian sailors killed in a U.S. attack whose funeral was expected on ​Tuesday but there was no immediate comment by Tehran on Katz’s remarks. Larijani would be the most senior…

Over 400 people were killed and 250 injured in an air strike by Pakistan on a drug rehabilitation hospital in Kabul, a spokesman of ​the Afghan Taliban government said on Tuesday, a sharp escalation in the conflict between the neighbours. Pakistan rejected the claim as false and misleading and said it “precisely targeted military installations and terrorist support ‌infrastructure” on Monday night. “The visible secondary detonations after the strikes clearly indicate the presence of large ammunition depots,” Pakistani Information Minister Attaullah Tarar said in a post on X. The air strike came hours after China said it remained ready to continue…

 President Donald Trump was warned that attacking Iran could trigger retaliation against U.S. Gulf allies despite his claims on Monday ​that Tehran’s reaction came as a surprise, said a U.S. official and two sources familiar with U.S. intelligence reports. Pre-war ‌intelligence assessments did not say that Iran’s response was “a guarantee, but it certainly was on the list of potential outcomes,” said one source, who like the other two requested anonymity to discuss the issue. The president twice on Monday said that Iran’s retaliatory strikes against Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Kuwait were ​a surprise, the…

Shigeaki Mori, the survivor of the Hiroshima atomic bombing whom former U.S. President Barack ​Obama embraced during a historic visit to the ‌city in 2016, has died at 88, Jiji Press reported on Tuesday. The image of Obama’s arms wrapped around ​a tearful Mori at the Hiroshima Peace ​Memorial Park became a defining moment of that ⁠visit – the first ever by a sitting ​U.S. president. Mori was eight years old when the ​U.S. dropped the atomic bomb on Hiroshima, flattening the city on August 6, 1945 and knocking him unconscious with the ​force of its blast. Thirty years later, Mori ​embarked…

European Union foreign policy chief Kaja ​Kallas said on Tuesday ‌diplomatic ways have to be found in order to ​keep the Strait ​of Hormuz open, as U.S. ⁠President Donald Trump ​calls on allies to send ​warships there to secure transit amid the war in Iran. “Nobody ​is ready to ​put their people in harm’s way ‌in ⁠the Strait of Hormuz. We have to find diplomatic ways to keep ​this ​open ⁠so that we don’t have a food ​crisis, fertilizers crisis, ​energy ⁠crisis as well,” Kallas said in an interview ⁠with ​Reuters.

 Iraq’s oil minister said Baghdad is talking to Iran about allowing some of the country’s oil ​tankers to pass through the Strait of Hormuz, the state ‌news agency reported on Tuesday, as Iraq seeks to ease disruptions to crude exports following recent attacks on tankers in its own waters. Iraq is also working ​to restore a disused pipeline that would allow oil to ​be pumped directly to Turkey’s Ceyhan port without passing through ⁠the Kurdistan region, Oil Minister Hayan Abdel-Ghani said in a video ​statement released on Monday. Iraq will complete an inspection of a 100-km (62-mile) section ​of the…

Asian utilities are boosting coal-fired power generation to cut costs and safeguard energy supply, ​industry officials say, as the U.S.-Israeli war on Iran chokes liquefied natural gas (LNG) shipments and soaring prices threaten to suppress LNG demand. Asia spot ‌LNG prices have doubled to three-year highs in the second major supply shock in four years, as shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has all but stopped and No.2 global exporter Qatar has halted shipments. In South Asia, Bangladesh is increasing coal power generation and coal-fired power imports in March, daily government data shows. Pakistan, meanwhile, aims to further boost power…

Britain, Finland and the Netherlands are looking at teaming up to jointly finance and ​procure weapons, munitions and military equipment, given the ‌increasing threat level across the world, with war in Ukraine and in the Middle East. The three countries said that ​together with other unnamed partners they were exploring ​setting up a new mechanism by 2027 which ⁠would speed up investment and boost demand for ​defence kit, a statement from Britain said on Tuesday. The ​plans come as British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy are due to meet in London later on Tuesday, ​with NATO…