SRI LANKA
President bans strikes
President Gotabaya Rajapaksa yesterday banned strikes in the health and electricity sectors as trade union action that has crippled state-run hospitals entered its sixth day. Rajapaksa invoked a 1979 law prohibiting stoppages in the two sectors, declaring all related work “essential public services,” his office said. The regulations allow courts to hand down five-year jail terms and confiscate the assets of those refusing to work. The move followed health unions on Thursday ignoring a court order instructing them to suspend their strike pending a hearing of a petition against their action. The nation is in the grip of a foreign exchange crisis that has crippled the economy, and the unions are demanding better promotional prospects, restructuring of their pay scales and higher allowances. The government has refused, saying that the economic situation does not allow it to increase the salaries budget.
MICRONESIA
Breakaway plans suspended
Five Micronesian nations yesterday suspended breakaway plans from a Pacific islands political bloc as US Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in the region. The Federated States of Micronesia (FSM), Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Nauru and Palau “have agreed to temporarily rescind their withdrawal” from the Pacific Islands Forum, the FSM Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The five territories announced a year ago that they were quitting the group after their nominee lost the vote for a new forum secretary general. They said the majority decision by the 18-nation body to elect former Cook Islands prime minister Henry Puna had overridden an informal agreement that the position would be filled by Micronesia and had caused an irreparable rift. However, in a statement the Micronesian leaders said they had discussed “specific substantive reforms of the Pacific Island Forum” and had given the forum until June for the reforms to materialize.
UNITED NATIONS
Ethiopian ‘horrors’ described
Fresh off a visit to Ethiopia, UN Deputy Secretary General Amina Mohammed on Friday described “unimaginable” horrors women have faced, and called for justice and accountability. At a news conference recapping her trip to Ethiopia’s Tigray, Amhara, Afar and Somali regions, Mohammed described an instance when a woman had been raped in front of her young child, and then was spurned by her husband, family and society. “Ethiopian women, writ large, were affected in a way that is unimaginable,” Mohammed said. The conflict between the Ethiopian government and Tigrayan rebels started in November 2020 and has left thousands dead, while UN data show that hundreds of thousands have been pushed into famine. “In your worst nightmares, you cannot imagine what has happened to the women in Ethiopia,” Mohammed said, adding that she also saw widespread suffering due to famine. “There is everyone to blame” for these war-fueled horrors and in the 21st century “it’s unacceptable that one human being would do that to another,” she said. “Justice and accountability have to be had,” she said, without specifying what formal actions could be taken. “When men go to war, they come back and they’re heroes, doesn’t matter any injury that they have, right?” Mohammed asked. “But women have been injured — injured in a way that is unimaginable, and yet they’re not coming back heroes. They’re just outcast. That has to stop.”
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
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