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BRUSSELS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said the leaders of a coalition of Ukraine backers would meet again in Paris next week, hoping to finalize plans to secure a potential truce in the war with Russia.
“We will hold another meeting of the coalition of the willing next Thursday in Paris in presence of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky,” Macron told reporters following an EU summit.
SANTIAGO, Chile: A tsunami threat was issued after a magnitude 7.8 earthquake struck the Drake Passage, a stretch of water located between the southern tip of South America and Antarctica, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said on Friday.
The quake was at a depth of 10 km (6.21 miles), the United States Geological Survey said.
Chile’s SHOA marine authority issued a precautionary tsunami alert for the country’s Antarctic territory and authorities asked people to evacuate the beaches. (Reporting by Fabian Cambero in Santiago and Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Nia Williams)
PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday reappointed his outgoing prime minister, Sebastien Lecornu, back into that position, just four days after Lecornu gave his resignation.
Both allies and the opposition had been hoping for a fresh face in government to help end months of paralysis over an austerity budget, but Macron instead reappointed Lecornu, 39.
“The president of the republic has nominated Mr.Sebastien Lecornu as prime minister and has tasked him with forming a government,” the Elysee Palace said.
France has been mired in political deadlock ever since Macron gambled last year on snap polls that he hoped would consolidate power — but ended instead in a hung parliament and more seats for the far right.
Lecornu on X said after the Elysee announcement that he had accepted the mission “out of duty.”
“We must end the political crisis,” he said.
He pledged to do “everything possible” to give France a budget by the end of the year and added that restoring the public finances remained “a priority for our future.”
Macron, facing the worst domestic crisis since the 2017 start of his presidency, has yet to address the public.
Lecornu’s reappointment was met with indignation.
Far-right National Rally party leader Jordan Bardella called it a “bad joke” and pledged to immediately seek to vote out the new cabinet.
A spokesman for the hard left said Lecornu’s return was a huge “two fingers to the French people.”
The Socialists, a swing group in parliament, said they had “no deal” with Lecornu and would oust his government if he did not agree to suspend a 2023 pensions reform that increased retirement age from 62 to 64.
The French parliament toppled Lecornu’s two predecessors in a standoff over cost-cutting measures.
No ‘presidential ambitions’
Lecornu, a Macron loyalist who previously served as defense minister, after he quit agreed to stay on for two extra days to talk to all political parties.
He told French television late Wednesday that he believed a revised draft budget for 2026 could be put forward on Monday, which would meet the deadline for its approval by the end of the year.
But it was not immediately clear if this would require a fresh cabinet line-up to be announced by the end of the weekend.
He warned on Friday that all those who wanted to join his government “must commit to setting aside presidential ambitions” for 2027 elections.
Lecornu’s suggested list of ministers last Sunday sparked criticism that it did not break enough with the past, and he suggested on Wednesday that it should include technocrats.
The escalating crisis has seen former allies criticize the president.
In an unprecedented move, former premier Edouard Philippe, a contender in the next presidential polls, earlier this week said Macron himself should step down after a budget was passed.
But Macron has always insisted he would stay until the end of his term.
The far-right National Rally senses its best-ever chance of winning power in the 2027 presidential vote, with Macron having served the maximum two terms.
Its three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen has been barred from running after being convicted in a corruption case, but her 30-year-old lieutenant Bardella could be a candidate instead.
TENNESSEE: A blast that leveled an explosives plant Friday in rural Tennessee left 19 people missing and feared dead, authorities said.
Humphreys County Sheriff Chris Davis said the blast at Accurate Energetic Systems, which supplies the military, was one of the worst scenes he’s ever seen. He said multiple people were killed but declined to say how many, referring to the 19 missing as “souls” because officials were still speaking to family.
“There’s nothing to describe. It’s gone,” Davis said of the plant.
The blast occurred about 7:45 a.m., Davis said, with aerial footage by WTVF-TV showing the smoldering hilltop facility and the burnt-out shells of vehicles.
People reported hearing and feeling the explosion from miles away. The company’s website says it makes and tests explosives at an eight-building facility that sprawls across wooded hills in the Bucksnort area, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Nashville.
Davis said investigators are trying to determine what happened and couldn’t say what caused the explosion.
There’s no further danger of explosions, and the scene was under control Friday afternoon, according to Grey Collier, a spokesperson for the Humphreys County Emergency Management Agency.
Emergency crews were initially unable to enter the plant because of continuing detonations, Hickman County Advanced EMT David Stewart said by phone. He didn’t have any details on casualties.
Accurate Energetic Systems, based in nearby McEwen, did not immediately respond to a phone message seeking comment Friday morning.
“This is a tragedy for our community,” McEwen Mayor Brad Rachford said in an email. He referred further comment to a county official.
Residents in Lobelville, a 20-minute drive from the scene, said they felt their homes shake and some people captured the loud boom of the explosion on their home cameras.
The blast rattled Gentry Stover from his sleep.
“I thought the house had collapsed with me inside of it,” he said by phone. “I live very close to Accurate and I realized about 30 seconds after I woke up that it had to have been that.”
State Rep. Jody Barrett, a Republican from the neighboring town of Dickson, was worried about the possible economic impact because the plant is a key employer in the area.
“We live probably 15 miles as the crow flies and we absolutely heard it at the house,” Barrett said. “It sounded like something going through the roof of our house.”
BERLIN: Germany wants to organize an international conference with Egypt for the reconstruction of the Gaza Strip, Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on Friday, as Israel and Hamas edged closer to ending hostilities.
The main goal of this conference “should be to address the most urgent needs, such as rebuilding water and energy supplies and medical care,” Merz said in a statement.
A spokeswoman for the German Development Ministry said on Friday that Berlin could quickly provide 850 temporary accommodation units for Gaza.
“Fifty of them are in Ramallah and can quickly be brought to Gaza so that people can be provided with urgently needed shelter,” she said, adding that 90 to 92 percent of Gaza’s buildings have been badly damaged or destroyed.
The main goal of the conference should be to address the most urgent needs, such as rebuilding water and energy supplies and medical care.
Chancellor, Friedrich Merz
On Friday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said the government had “approved the framework” of a hostage release deal with Hamas.
Merz said the deal must be “implemented swiftly” and that “the hostages, including German nationals, must finally return to their families.”
“Humanitarian aid must quickly reach the people in Gaza,” he added.
Merz said Germany would provide an additional €29 million ($33.6 million) in humanitarian aid and would also help in “supporting the medical and psychological care of the released hostages.”
Netanyahu said on Friday that 48 hostages were still in Gaza, 20 of them still alive and 28 dead.
One of the dead is understood to be an Israeli soldier killed in 2014 whose remains are being held by Hamas.
Four of those still alive are reported to be German nationals.
Gaza’s civil defense agency said on Friday that Israeli forces had begun pulling back from parts of the territory, particularly in Gaza City and Khan Younis.
“Israeli forces have withdrawn from several areas in Gaza City,” said Mohammed Al-Mughayyir, a senior official with the agency.
He added that Israeli military vehicles had also pulled out from sections of the southern city of Khan Younis.
Palestinians have expressed relief that the war may end, tempered with concern about the future and lingering pain from the staggering death and destruction.
GENEVA: The UN children’s charity UNICEF called on Friday for all crossings for food aid into war-shattered Gaza to be opened, saying children in the territory were especially vulnerable because they have gone without proper food for long periods.
“The situation is critical. We risk seeing a massive spike in child death, not only neonatal, but also infants, given their immune systems are more compromised than ever before,” said UNICEF spokesperson Ricardo Pires.
Children’s immunity is low because “they haven’t been eating properly and recently at all for way too long,” he said.
Israeli troops began pulling back from some parts of the Palestinian territory on Friday under a ceasefire deal with Hamas, in the first phase of an initiative by US President Donald Trump to end the two-year-old war.
The UN plans to ramp up humanitarian aid deliveries to Gaza, where some areas are experiencing famine, in the first 60 days of a ceasefire in the enclave, a top UN official said on Thursday.
An Israeli security source and the UN World Food Programme said they expect about 600 aid trucks to enter Gaza daily.
“Under the ceasefire arrangement, we will have more than 145 community distribution points, in addition to up to 30 bakeries and all of our nutrition sites,” Ross Smith, WFP director of emergencies, said on Friday.
The WFP expects to begin scaling up deliveries early next week, but that would depend on the withdrawal of Israeli forces so that humanitarian safe zones can be expanded.
Access to northern Gaza is critical, the WFP said, with up to 400,000 people who have not received assistance for several weeks.
The agency has urged improved scanning and approval of aid convoys to speed truck entry.
UNICEF said 50,000 children were at risk of acute malnutrition and in need of immediate treatment.
UNICEF also aims to provide 1 million blankets for every child in Gaza and hopes to deliver wheelchairs and crutches, which it said had previously been blocked.
The UN children’s agency said it had evacuated two of 18 newborns from a North Gaza hospital to be reunited with their parents further south.
Its attempt to move two of the babies was suspended on Thursday amid an ongoing Israeli military assault on the city, but the children have since been reunited with their parents.
“We had 18 babies in incubators at the beginning of week. Two got moved yesterday,” spokesperson Pires told the Geneva press briefing, saying the others are waiting in incubators for Israeli security clearance.
“I hope this is just an example of what will come after the ceasefire is fully implemented,” he said.
Also on Friday, CARE International said it still had not received clearance for its supplies to enter, as it faces ongoing registration barriers, like other agencies, including the Norwegian Refugee Council.
“We still need clarity on how we’ll be able to get supplies into Gaza that have been stuck outside for months,” said Jolien Veldwijk, CARE Palestine country director.
Both UNICEF and the UN Palestinian refugee relief agency UNRWA said they have yet to receive details on their roles during the ceasefire.
UNRWA, which is banned from operating in Israel, has urged the Israeli authorities to allow it to take 6,000 trucks’ worth of aid into Gaza, including enough food to feed the population for three months, from Jordan and Egypt.
“We’ve not had any progress to move those supplies into Gaza ... and this is absolutely critical in controlling the spread of famine,” Juliette Touma, the spokesperson for UNRWA, said
