Aussie Labor Party topples conservatives after almost 10 years
CANBERRA, Australia — Australia’s center-left opposition party toppled the conservative government after almost a decade in power, and Prime Minister-elect Anthony Albanese in his Saturday election victory speech promised sharper reductions in greenhouse gas emissions while he faces an early foreign policy test.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he quickly conceded defeat, despite millions of votes yet to be counted, because an Australian leader must attend a Tokyo summit slated for Tuesday with U.S. President Joe Biden, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Albanese, who has described himself as the only candidate with a “non-Anglo Celtic name” to run for prime minister in the 121 years that the office has existed, referred to his own upbringing in a Sydney suburb.
“It says a lot about our great country that a son of a single mom who was a disability pensioner, who grew up in public housing down the road in Camperdown can stand before you tonight as Australia’s prime minister,” Albanese said.
Albanese will be sworn in after his Labor party clinched its first electoral win since 2007.
Labor has promised more financial assistance and a robust social safety net as Australia grapples with the highest inflation since 2001 and soaring housing prices.
The party also plans to increase minimum wages, and proposed to establish a Pacific defense school to train neighboring armies in response to China’s potential military presence in the
Solomon Islands.
It also wants to tackle climate change with a more ambitious 43% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and net-zero emissions by 2050.
Morrison’s Liberal-partyled coalition was seeking a fourth three-year term. It held the narrowest of majorities — 76 seats in the 151-member House of Representatives, where parties need a majority to form a government.
In early counting Saturday, the coalition was on track to win 51 seats, Labor 72; 10 were unaligned lawmakers and 18 were too close to call.
Turkey talks NATO: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed his objections to Sweden and Finland joining NATO with the countries’ leaders Saturday, Erdogan’s office said.
He spoke to Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson in separate calls to address Ankara’s concerns about those it considers terrorists in their countries, the presidential communications office said in a statement.
It said Erdogan called upon Sweden to lift defensive weapons export restrictions it imposed on Turkey over Turkey’s 2019 incursion into northern Syria.
Erdogan also said he expected Stockholm to take “concrete and serious steps” against the Kurdish Workers’ Party and other groups Turkey views as terrorists.
He told Niinisto “that an understanding that ignores terrorist organizations that pose a threat to an ally within NATO is incompatible with the spirit of friendship and alliance,” the statement added.
In another call, the Turkish president also raised
Turkey’s concerns with NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, who has said he would listen to Turkey’s concerns.
No commission for cadets:
Three cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy who have refused the COVID-19 vaccine will not be commissioned as military officers but will graduate with bachelor’s degrees, the academy said Saturday.
Academy spokesman Dean Miller said that a fourth cadet who had refused the vaccine until about a week ago, decided to be vaccinated and will graduate and become an Air Force officer.
In a statement, Miller said that a decision on whether to require the three to reimburse the United States for education costs in lieu of service will be made by the secretary of the Air Force.
As of Saturday, the Air Force is the only military academy where cadets are not being commissioned due
to refusal of the vaccine.
Palestinian teen killed: Israeli troops shot and killed a 17-year-old Palestinian militant as fighting erupted when soldiers entered a volatile town in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian health ministry and local media said.
The shooting came amid intensified Israeli military activity in the northern West Bank town of Jenin in recent months.
The ministry identified the dead teen as Amjad al-Fayyed.
It said another Palestinian, 18, was in critical condition after being wounded by Israeli gunfire.
Later Saturday, the militant group Islamic Jihad said al-Fayyed was a member of its armed wing.
Local media reported that clashes erupted outside Jenin’s refugee camp when Israeli forces stormed the area.
In a statement, the army said soldiers opened fire
after gunmen shot at them from a passing vehicle. It said the suspects also threw explosives toward the soldiers.
Israel has stepped up its military activity in Jenin in recent weeks in response to a series of deadly attacks inside Israel. Several attackers were from the Jenin area, which is known as a stronghold of Palestinian militants.
On May 11, a veteran Palestinian journalist for the Al Jazeera satellite channel was killed while covering an Israeli military operation in the Jenin refugee camp.
Tornadoes in Germany: A storm that swept across parts of Germany spawned three tornadoes, the country’s weather service said Saturday.
Meteorologists had warned of heavy rainfall, hail and strong wind in western and central Germany on Friday. Storms on Thursday disrupted traffic, uprooted trees and flooded hundreds of basements in western
Germany.
The German Weather Service confirmed three tornadoes in North RhineWestphalia — in Paderborn, in nearby Lippstadt, and on the edge of the town of Hoexter, news agency dpa reported.
In Paderborn on Friday, 43 people were injured, 13 of them seriously, Mayor Michael Dreier said.
Kashmir tunnel Rescuers on Saturday found the bodies of nine more workers in a collapsed tunnel in Indian-controlled Kashmir, bringing the death toll to 10.
The tunnel is part of a highway tunnel system that was under construction in the disputed Himalayan region when it collapsed Thursday night. One body was recovered Friday.
Officials said the section that collapsed was an approach tunnel used for ventilation and moving supplies and equipment to the main tunnel.