US government shuts down as Congress fails to vote on budget
The US government has officially shut down for the second time this year because Congress failed to meet a deadline to vote on a new budget.
Senators struggled with last-minute objections from Republican Rand Paul, but have now passed the bill, which has gone to the House for its vote.
Federal funding for government services expired at midnight (05:00 GMT).
The 600-page plan proposes an increase in spending, by about $300bn (£215bn), on defence and domestic services.
If the plan is passed in the House of Representatives and signed by the president in the next few hours, the shutdown could be rescinded before the US working day begins on Friday.
Giorgia Meloni, the friendly face of Italy's surging far right
Leader of rightwing Brothers of Italy party cherishes hopes of becoming the nation’s first female prime minister
The far-right Brothers of Italy party is the junior partner in a three-way coalition led by Silvio Berlusconi competing in national elections on 4 March, but its leader, Giorgia Meloni, is aiming high. The 41-year-old, who is honing a softer image as she strives to broaden her party’s appeal, would like to be Italy’s first female prime minister.
With Brothers of Italy, a descendant of the post-fascist Italian Social Movement (MSI), polling at between 5% and 6%, the numbers indicate that the chances of that ambition being fulfilled are remote.
But the election campaign has been good to Meloni. In particular, she has struck a chord in central Italy and the poorer south, areas where Matteo Salvini, leader of her far-right coalition partner the Northern League, has struggled to gain traction.
Israel's outrage over the Palestinian President’s new private jet is hypocritical
Exclusive: It isn’t as if Israel doesn’t have its own plans for a prime ministerial ‘Air Force One’, which would reportedly cost far more than Abbas’s jet – around $70m, although similar in manufacture and design
A deeply cynical game is being played over a BBJ1 Boeing Business Jet aircraft bearing the registration mark B-5286. It’s a version of the familiar Boeing 737-700 airliner that you and I might travel on – economy class in our case, perhaps – a 541mph jet with a range of more than 6,000 miles and a going rate of $50m (£36m) for none other than 82-year old Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The Israelis were the first to publicise the purchase of the aircraft. How could the Palestinians afford such opulence when Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t even have a private jet? What parsimoniousness the Israeli Prime Minister shows! What economy of spirit! What a splendid comparison to the free-spending refugees of “Palestine”!
Official documents seen by The Independent do prove that a subsidiary of the Palestine Investment Fund – the putative state’s own sovereign wealth fund whose ultimate shareholder is declared to be “the people of Palestine” – will own the aircraft when the purchase is complete, but the Israeli media have inevitably been crowing about the extraordinary “luxury” in which Abbas will travel while his minions are condemning last month’s threat by Donald Trump to cut aid to Palestinians and “starve Palestinian children in refugee camps”. Touché.
Five rings, one dream: African athletes' winding road to PyeongChang Winter Games
When the 2018 Winter Olympics kick off this week in PyeongChang, true to modern Games founder Pierre de Coubertin’s five iconic interlinked rings, every continent will have athletes to cheer for – including eight plucky African contingents.
While representatives from relative Winter Olympic’ veterans Morocco and South Africa are poised for competition in South Korea, Eritrean and Nigerian fans will enjoy their nations’ first-ever Winter Games appearances. Even tiny tropical Togois sending a two-woman team, a skiing pair of Olympic sophomores seasoned at Sochi in 2014.
Some of the African athletes competing in these Games practise sports virtually unheard of in the nations they will represent. Many were born and/or raised in more traditional wintersport climes abroad and chose their colours for these Games, some switching flags to compete, some rediscovering roots. FRANCE 24 takes a closer look.
Aboul Fotouh: Opposition in 'worst condition ever'
by Mohamed Hashem
Egypt's presidential election is a "referendum with guaranteed results" for President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, according to a leading opposition figure.
In an interview with Al Jazeera, Abdul Moneim Aboul Fotouh said he encouraged citizens to boycott the "absurd" vote, expected to take place between March 26 and 28, saying "no sane Egyptian would accept" the poll.
A former member of the Muslim Brotherhood and leader of the centrist Strong Egypt Party, Aboul Fotouh ran as an independent candidate in the 2012 presidential elections, gaining nearly a fifth of the vote in the first round.
Regulator begins inspections of all cryptocurrency exchanges in Japan
Japan's financial regulator has begun on-site inspections of multiple digital currency exchanges to check their risk management systems, following a massive theft of digital money worth 58 billion yen ($533 million) from Coincheck Inc, a minister said Friday.
The probes come a week after all exchange operators in Japan, both registered and those awaiting approval, were due to report to the Financial Services Agency on how they manage risks to protect customer assets.
"We have started on-site inspections on multiple operators to examine their internal management systems, including system risk management," Financial Services Minister Taro Aso told reporters after a Cabinet meeting.
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