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JEBENIANA, Tunisia — Hundreds of Tunisians marched through the streets of Jebeniana on Saturday to protest the presence of sub-Saharan migrants who have found themselves stranded as the country ramps up border patrol efforts. Anti-migrant anger is mounting in impoverished towns like Jebeniana along the Tunisian coastline that have emerged as a launchpad for thousands of people hoping to reach Europe by boat. Chanting slogans to oppose settling migrants in Tunisia, protesters demanded the government act to assist agricultural communities dealing with thousands of migrants living in tarpaulin encampments among their olive groves. "You brought them here and it's your responsibility to send them back to their home countries," Moamen Salemi, a 63-year-old retiree from nearby El Amra, said at the protest. "There is a shortage of food throughout the city of El Amra, including sugar, flour, bread and many other items." A final stop for many before attempting to reach a better life in Europe, Jebeniana and El Amra reflect the compounding problems facing Tunisia, a key transit point for migrants from Syria, Bangladesh and a variety of sub-Saharan African nations. Law enforcement has expanded its presence in the two agricultural towns, where roughly 83,000 Tunisians live among a growing number of migrants from around the world. Protesters say they have borne the cost of Tunisia's effort to prevent migrants from reaching the European Union less than a year after the country brokered an anti-migration pact with the 27-country bloc to better police its sea border and receive more than $1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) in aid. The Tunisian Coast Guard has said it has prevented more than 21,000 migration attempts by land or sea this year. Fewer than 8,000 successfully traveled by boat from Tunisia to Italy in the first four months of 2024, a threefold decrease from 2023, according to the U.N. refugee agency UNHCR. More Tunisians have traveled by makeshift boat to Italy this year than migrants from sub-Saharan African countries. Anti-migrant protests erupted in the city of Sfax last year, months after Tunisian President Kais Saied called for measures to address violence and crime he said were caused by illegal immigration. But protests are a new development in Jebeniana and El Amra, where a similar one took place earlier this month. Encampments sprung up and expanded on the outskirts of the two towns after local authorities started increasingly clearing them from Sfax last year. The International Organization for Migration's Tunisia office has said roughly 7,000 migrants are living near Jebeniana and El Amra, though residents estimate the number could be much higher.

Dakar, Senegal — An alliance of separatist rebel groups fighting Malian government forces on Saturday accused the army and Russian paramilitary group Wagner of killing 11 civilians earlier in the week. The Malian authorities did not respond to a request for comment from AFP about the allegations posed in a statement from the Permanent Strategic Framework for the Defense of the People of Azawad (CSP-DPA), an alliance of predominantly Tuareg armed rebel groups. The CSP-DPA said that Wednesday, the village of Tassik in the northern Kidal region "was targeted by a patrol of mercenaries from the Russian Wagner group and the Malian army, who committed serious violations against the population." The separatist alliance put the death toll at 11 civilians, whose bodies were discovered "burned," with two more civilians reported missing. It added that the patrol had ransacked several stores and vehicles. "The CSP-DPA unreservedly condemns these terrorist operations programmed with the aim of carrying out a targeted ethnic cleansing and accelerated depopulation of the Azawad territory of its Indigenous people," the statement said. Azawad is the name of the territory claimed by separatists in northern Mali. Fighting between the separatists and Mali government troops broke out last August after eight years of calm, as both sides scrambled to fill the vacuum left by the withdrawal of United Nations peacekeepers (MINUSMA), ordered to leave by the ruling junta in Bamako. The offensive in northern Mali has been marked by numerous allegations of abuses against civilians by Malian forces and, since 2022, their Russian allies, which the Malian authorities systematically deny. Since seizing power in 2020, Mali's junta has broken ties with France and turned politically and militarily toward Russia. 

TORONTO — Residents of the Canadian oil town threatened by an out-of-control wildfire can return home, authorities said Saturday, even as they warned the community will have to contend with the blaze for the foreseeable future. Thousands of residents of Fort McMurray, in northern Alberta, had been ordered to leave their homes earlier this month. But favorable weather made returning home possible. "With the current and forecast weather conditions, specifically the amount of rain that has fallen on the fire, combined with continued fire suppression and community protection efforts, I am pleased to announce it is now safe for us to end the current evacuation and allow people to return to their homes," said Sandy Bowman, mayor of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo that includes Fort McMurray. "We thank all of you for your patience, resolve and strength," he said. Fort McMurray is the hub for most of Canada's oil output. The wildfire season is getting an early start one year after a historically fiery 2023 left some remembering a devastating 2016 fire dubbed "The Beast" that forced the evacuation of 90,000 residents, burned down 2,400 buildings and idled more than 1 million barrels per day of oil production. But while conditions are now favorable and the community is not presently under threat, authorities warned they were not yet out of the woods. The fire "is not yet under control," said Alberta Wildfire information office Josee St-Onge. Fire behavior will likely increase when sunshine and warm weather return, she added. "While it is safe for evacuees to return, residents will have to live with an active wildfire near their community for weeks if not months. Bringing a wildfire of this size under control will take time and hard work," she said. 

JOHANNESBURG, south africa — Former South African President Jacob Zuma Saturday lamented the high levels of poverty among black South Africans and promised to create jobs and tackle crime as he launched his new political party's manifesto ahead of the country's much anticipated elections. He told thousands of supporters who gathered at Orlando Stadium in Johannesburg that his party would build factories where many people would be employed and provide free education to the country's youth. "We want our children to study for free, especially those from poor households because the poverty we have was not created by us. It was created by settlers who took everything, including our land. We'll take all those things back, make money and educate our children," he said. Zuma also has pledged to change South Africa's Constitution to restore more power to traditional leaders, saying their role in society has been reduced by giving more power to magistrates and judges. Zuma's uMkhonto weSizwe party, known as the MK Party, has emerged as a significant player in South Africa's upcoming elections after it was launched in December last year. He is currently involved in a legal battle with the country's electoral authority, the Independent Electoral Commission. He has appealed against a court judgment that barred him from standing in the election because of his criminal record. Zuma was sentenced to 15 months in prison for defying a court order to appear before a judicial commission of inquiry which was probing corruption allegations in government and state-owned companies during his presidential term from 2009 to 2018. In 2018, he was forced to resign as the country's president following wide-ranging corruption allegations, but he has made a political return and now seeks to become the country's president again. "When they talk about unemployment, they are talking about us, there is nobody else. When they talk about people who live in shacks, that is us, there is nobody else who lives in shacks except us," Zuma told his supporters, many of whom had travelled from other provinces such as Mpumalanga and KwaZulu-Natal, where he still enjoys significant support. Poverty among black people is the reason behind South Africa's high levels of crime, according to the former president. "Our hunger and poverty is what creates a perception that we are criminals, we don't have a brain, we have nothing. That time is over, because we are good people who are giving, but some people are pushing us towards criminality," he said. Zuma said his party was aiming to get more than 65% of the national vote in the upcoming elections as it would allow them to change many laws in the country's constitution. Recent polls and analysts have suggested that the ruling African National Congress might get less than 50% of the vote and would need to form a coalition with smaller parties to remain in power. South Africans will go to the polls on May 29.

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Baghdad, Iraq — Iraq's lawmakers failed to elect a speaker Saturday as neither of the two main candidates secured a majority during a tense session of parliament.  It is the latest in a series of failed attempts to replace the former head of parliament who was dismissed in November, with political bickering and divisions between key Sunni parties derailing every effort so far.  Saturday's vote was the closest yet to selecting a new head of the 329-member parliament, with 311 lawmakers showing up for the session and the leading candidate falling just seven votes short.  The parliament's media office announced that 137 lawmakers chose Mahmoud al-Mashhadani, the oldest MP, while 158 picked Salem al-Issawi.  However, candidates require at least 165 votes to win.  Many lawmakers did not return for a second attempt Saturday, with local media sharing videos of a brief brawl between MPs and reporting that at least one of them was injured.    The parliament's media office then announced that the session had been adjourned.  Iraq, a mosaic of different ethnic and religious groups, is governed by complex power-sharing arrangements.  The largely ceremonial role of president traditionally goes to a Kurd, that of prime minister to a Shiite, while the speaker of parliament is usually Sunni.  But parliament is dominated by a coalition of pro-Iran Shiite parties, reflecting the country's largest religious group.  A coalition of three Sunni blocs backed Issawi, while Mashhadani, who served as Iraq's first speaker following the adoption of the 2005 constitution, received the support of the former speaker Mohamed al-Halbussi's sizable bloc. The new speaker will replace Halbussi, the influential politician dismissed by Iraq's top court in November after a lawmaker accused him of forging a resignation letter.  Halbussi had been the country's highest-ranking Sunni official since he first became a speaker in 2018.  The new speaker's stint will not last long with the general election due in 2025. 

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houston, texas — As the Houston, Texas, area works to clean up and restore power to hundreds of thousands after deadly storms left at least seven people dead, it will do so amid a smog warning and scorching temperatures that could pose health risks. National Weather Service meteorologist Marc Chenard said Saturday that highs of around 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32.2 Celsius) were expected through the start of the coming week, with heat indexes likely approaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 Celsius) by midweek. "We expect the impact of the heat to gradually increase ... we will start to see that heat risk increase Tuesday into Wednesday through Friday," Chenard said. The heat index is what the temperature feels like to the human body when humidity is combined with the air temperature, according to the weather service. "Don't overdo yourself during the cleanup process," the weather service's Houston office said in a post on the social platform X. In addition to the heat, the Houston area could face poor air quality during the weekend. Heavy rainfall was possible in eastern Louisiana and central Alabama on Saturday, and parts of Louisiana were also at risk of flooding. The Houston Health Department said it would distribute 400 free portable air conditioners to area seniors, people with disabilities, and caregivers of disabled children to contend with the heat. Five cooling centers also were opened — four in Houston and one in Kingwood. Hundreds of thousands without power The widespread destruction of Thursday's storms brought much of Houston to a standstill. Thunderstorms and hurricane-force winds tore through the city — decimating the facade of one brick building and leaving trees, debris and shattered glass on the streets. A tornado also touched down near the northwest Houston suburb of Cypress. More than a half-million homes and businesses in Texas remained without electricity by midday Saturday, according to PowerOutage.us. Another 21,000 customers were also without power in Louisiana, where strong winds and a suspected tornado hit. CenterPoint Energy, which has deployed 1,000 employees to the area and is requesting 5,000 more, said power restoration could take several days or longer in some areas, and that customers need to ensure their homes can safely be reconnected. "In addition to damaging CenterPoint Energy's electric infrastructure and equipment, severe weather may have caused damage to customer-owned equipment" such as the weatherhead, which is where power enters the home, the company said. Customers must have repairs completed by a qualified electrician before service can be restored, CenterPoint added. High-voltage transmission towers that were torn apart and downed power lines pose a twofold challenge for utility companies because the damage affected transmission and distribution systems, according to Alexandria von Meier, a power and energy expert who called that a rare thing. Damage to just the distribution system is more typical, von Meier said. How quickly repairs are made will depend on a variety of factors, such as the time it takes to assess damages, replace equipment and dispatch workers. Storm caught many off guard Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez reported late Friday that three people died during the storm, including an 85-year-old woman whose home caught fire after being struck by lightning and a 60-year-old man who had tried to use his vehicle to power his oxygen tank. Houston Mayor John Whitmire previously said at least four other people were killed in the city when the storms swept through Harris County, which includes Houston. School districts in the Houston area canceled classes Friday for more than 400,000 students; government offices were closed. Houston Independent School District Superintendent Mike Miles said Saturday that he hoped to reopen schools Monday, but that is dependent upon the restoration of electricity in school buildings. "If a school doesn't have power, it will remain closed," Miles told reporters during a tour of the heavily damaged Sinclair Elementary School. Whitmire warned that police were out in force, including state troopers sent to the area to prevent looting. He said the speed and intensity of the storm caught many off guard. Noelle Delgado, executive director of Houston Pets Alive, said she pulled up at the animal rescue Thursday night and found the dogs and cats — more than 30 in all — uninjured, but the building's awning had been ripped off, the sign was mangled, and water was leaking inside. She hoped to find foster homes for the animals. "I could definitely tell that this storm was a little different," she said. "It felt terrifying." Recovery assistance on the way Considering the storm damage, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Whitmire both signed disaster declarations, paving the way for state and federal storm recovery assistance. A separate disaster declaration from President Joe Biden makes federal funding available to people in seven Texas counties — including Harris — that have been affected by severe storms, straight-line winds, tornadoes and flooding since April 26.

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LA VICTORIA, Venezuela — The presidential candidate of Venezuela's chief opposition coalition sought Saturday to cultivate a mood of hope and possibility in a massive rally that marked the start of a campaign he admittedly never imagined leading.  Edmundo Gonzalez Urrutia, the former diplomat chosen by the coalition to replace the fiery leader Maria Corina Machado on the ballot, drew thousands of supporters to the streets of La Victoria, his hometown.  He urged them to imagine a country where public services are not a luxury, people are not imprisoned for their political beliefs, and millions will return after having migrated throughout a decade in search of better economic opportunities.  "I guarantee a peaceful alternation in which all political forces will be able to exercise their rights within the framework of the constitution," Gonzalez said, addressing an audience of retirees, young adults and residents of the capital.  "I want to call on all Venezuelans to join me in a peaceful and orderly change of government. We will move from division to unity, from abuse by a few to the rule of law for all, and from this undignified present to a dignified future for all."  Gonzalez was joined on stage by Machado, whose candidacy for the July 28 election was barred by the government of President Nicolas Maduro. The crowd cheered for both under sweltering temperatures. Street vendors sold T-shirts and baseball caps promoting the duo for $10.   Gonzalez is the third candidate that the Unitary Platform opposition coalition has promoted as its own this year.  Machado, a former lawmaker, entered 2024 as the group's candidate after winning an October presidential primary, but a top court loyal to Venezuela's ruling party affirmed in January an administrative decision to ban her from office. She appointed a substitute in March — former academic Corina Yoris — but she, too, was barred from the ballot. Four days later, the coalition picked Gonzalez.  La Victoria resident Maria Contreras, 75, arrived 4 1/2 hours early to the street where Saturday's rally was to take place. She waved at acquaintances as they arrived to catch a glimpse of Machado and Gonzalez, whose mother was Contreras' fourth-grade teacher.  "We will achieve it! I have faith in God, and I ask him for this, on my knees, every day so that my grandchildren and children can return," Contreras, a retired secretary, said. "I came here alone and on an empty stomach. It's horrible what happened to this community."  Contreras said she cleans homes in exchange for food. Her $3-a-month pension does not allow her to buy even a kilogram of cheese or a 1-liter bottle of cooking oil.  La Victoria was once home to an auto assembly plant, a glass making company and other industrial facilities. But those shut down, and the community's streets are lined with boarded-up businesses.  'One step forward' Gonzalez began his career as an aide to Venezuela's ambassador in the U.S. in the late 1970s. He had postings in Belgium and El Salvador and served as Caracas' ambassador to Algeria.  His last post was as ambassador to Argentina during the first years of the presidency of Hugo Chavez, who came to power in 1999. Chavez transformed Venezuela with socialist policies like nationalizing industries and launching welfare programs. Chavez handpicked Maduro to replace him before dying of cancer in 2013.  More recently, Gonzalez worked as an international relations consultant and wrote a historical work on Venezuela during World War II.  Surrounded by Machado, his wife, sister-in-law and a daughter, Gonzalez told the crowd that he "never" aspired to run for public office, but that he agreed to become the Unitary Platform's candidate to move Venezuela "one step forward."  "Let's imagine for a moment the country that is coming," he told the audience with a bit more energy than his usual subdued tone characteristic of a diplomat. "A country in which the president does not insult or see his adversaries as enemies. A country where when you get home from work you know that your money has value, that when you turn on the switch there will be electricity, that when you turn on the faucet there will be water."  But it did not match the energy of a seasoned politician like Machado, who practically crowd-surfed to reach the stage Saturday.  Maduro seeks third term President Maduro is seeking a third term in July. His presidency has been marked by a crisis that pushed millions of people into poverty, while more than 7.7 million others migrated.  Many of those gathered Saturday in La Victoria loudly rejected the president, whose party again held a rally on the same day and community as the opposition coalition.  "I don't want a bag!" some chanted referring to a bag of food the government hands out to people. "What I want is for Nicolas to leave!" 

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tripoli — At least one person was killed and six injured when fierce clashes broke out Saturday in the city of Zawiya in western Libya, prompting calls for a cease-fire to rescue families trapped in the conflict area, a Libyan TV channel said. Ali Ahneesh, head of the Red Crescent branch in Zawiya, told the Istanbul-based Libya Alahrar TV channel that 10 families had been evacuated, and called for "a cease-fire to evacuate families stuck in the areas where the clashes have taken place." Red Crescent volunteers had been receiving calls from families in the conflict area asking to be evacuated, he said. There was no immediate indication of who had taken part in the violence or why they were fighting. Libya has been plagued by unrest since the overthrow of Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. Imad Ammar, a member of Zawiya's elders and notables' council, said the fighting appeared to involve individuals rather than armed groups. Zawiya, 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of the capital Tripoli, is home to Libya's biggest functioning refinery, with a capacity of 120,000 barrels per day. "The clashes in the morning were fierce, and the casualties are one killed and six injured," Tripoli-based Ambulance and Emergency Services spokesperson Osama Ali told the TV channel. Ali said rescue teams had been unable to reach the conflict zone, and it was not clear if the casualties were civilians or military. Zawiya has witnessed repeated armed clashes that have at times forced the closure of the coastal road to the border with Tunisia. Reports of unrest in the city were circulated on the internet with unverified footage of gunmen exchanging fire. Libya's state electricity firm, GECOL, said that the unrest had led to power cuts in some areas in the city. "The situation was very bad in the morning. There is calm now, but the security and government authorities must use all their power to end this conflict," said Ammar. He said there had been no response from the city's security authorities to what he described as "a fight between persons and not specific parties" for which civilians were paying the price.

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DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip — Benny Gantz, a centrist member of Israel's three-member War Cabinet, threatened on Saturday to resign from the government if it doesn't adopt in three weeks a new plan for the war in Gaza, a move that would leave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu more reliant on his far-right allies.  His announcement escalates a divide within Israel's leadership more than seven months into a war in which it has yet to accomplish its stated goals of dismantling Hamas and returning scores of hostages abducted in the October 7 attack.  Gantz spelled out a six-point plan that includes the return of scores of hostages, ending Hamas' rule, demilitarizing the Gaza Strip, and establishing an international administration of civilian affairs. It also supports efforts to normalize relations with Saudi Arabia.  He said if it is not adopted by June 8, he will quit the government.  "If you choose the path of fanatics and lead the entire nation to the abyss — we will be forced to quit the government," he said.  Gantz, a popular politician and longtime political rival of Netanyahu, joined his coalition and the War Cabinet in the early days of the war.  The departure of the former military chief of staff and defense minister would leave Netanyahu even more beholden to far-right allies who have taken a hard line on negotiations over a cease-fire and hostage release, and who believe Israel should occupy Gaza and rebuild Jewish settlements there.  Gantz spoke days after Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the third member of the War Cabinet, openly said he has repeatedly pleaded with the Cabinet to decide on a postwar vision for Gaza that would see the creation of a new Palestinian civilian leadership.  Netanyahu is under growing pressure on multiple fronts. Hard-liners in his government want the military offensive on Gaza's southernmost city of Rafah to press ahead with the goal of crushing Hamas. The U.S. and others have warned against the offensive on a city where more than half of Gaza's population of 2.3 million had sheltered — hundreds of thousands have now fled — and they have threatened to scale back support over Gaza's humanitarian crisis.  The U.S. national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, will be in Saudi Arabia and Israel this weekend to discuss the war and is scheduled on Sunday to meet with Netanyahu, who has declared that Israel would "stand alone" if needed.  Many Israelis, anguished over the hostages and accusing Netanyahu of putting political interests ahead of all else, want a deal to stop the fighting and see them freed. There was fresh frustration Friday when the military said its troops in Gaza found the bodies of three hostages killed by Hamas in the October 7 attack. The discovery of the body of a fourth hostage was announced Saturday.  The latest talks in pursuit of a cease-fire, mediated by Qatar, the United States and Egypt, have brought little. A vision beyond the war is also uncertain.  The war began after Hamas' October 7 attack on southern Israel that killed 1,200 people and took about 250 others hostage. Israel says around 100 hostages are still captive in Gaza, along with the bodies of around 30 more.  The Israeli offensive has killed more than 35,000 Palestinians in Gaza, local health officials say, while hundreds more have been killed in the occupied West Bank. 

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DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — Yemen’s Houthi rebels hit an oil tanker in the Red Sea with a ballistic missile early Saturday, damaging the Panama-flagged, Greek-owned vessel in their latest assault over the Israel-Hamas war in the Gaza Strip, officials said. Although the Houthis did not immediately claim the assault, it comes as they claimed to have shot down a U.S. military MQ-9 Reaper drone over Yemen and have launched other attacks on shipping, disrupting trade on a key maritime route leading to the Suez Canal and the Mediterranean Sea. The attack around 1 a.m. struck the oil tanker Wind, which recently docked in Russia and was bound for China, the U.S. military's Central Command said. China and Russia maintain ties over military equipment and oil to Iran, the Houthis' main benefactor. The missile strike “caused flooding which resulted in the of loss propulsion and steering,” Central Command said on the social platform X. “The crew of M/T Wind was able to restore propulsion and steering, and no casualties were reported. M/T Wind resumed its course under its own power.” The British military's United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations center and the private security firm Ambrey similarly acknowledged the attack earlier Saturday. Ambrey said it caused a fire aboard the Wind. It can take the Houthis hours — or even days — to claim their attacks. The Houthis have launched attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden, demanding Israel ends the war in Gaza. The Houthis have launched more than 50 attacks on shipping, seized one vessel and sunk another since November, according to the U.S. Maritime Administration. Houthi attacks have dropped in recent weeks as the rebels have been targeted by a U.S.-led airstrike campaign in Yemen. Even so, shipping through the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden still remains low because of the threat. The Houthis claimed that they shot down the Reaper on Thursday with a surface-to-air missile. They described the drone as “carrying out hostile actions” in Yemen’s Marib province, which remains held by allies of Yemen’s exiled, internationally recognized government. Since the Houthis seized the country’s north and its capital, Sanaa, in 2014, the U.S. military has previously lost at least five drones to the rebels. Reapers, which cost around $30 million apiece, can fly at altitudes up to 50,000 feet and have an endurance of up to 24 hours before needing to land.

BERLIN — Six climate activists broke through a security fence at the Munich airport Saturday and glued themselves to access routes leading to runways, temporarily halting flights.  The activists from the group Last Generation were protesting flying as the most polluting form of transportation, said the German news agency dpa. Police detained the six.  Some 60 flights were canceled during the disruption that lasted a couple of hours, and passengers were rebooked on alternative flights, airport spokesperson Robert Wilhelm told dpa. Fourteen flights that were due to land in Munich were diverted to other airports, according to police.  Last Generation accused the German government of downplaying the negative effects of flying on the environment instead of “finally acting sincerely,” in a post on the social media platform X.  German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser called for an end to such protests. “Such criminal actions threaten air traffic and harm climate protection because they only cause lack of understanding and anger,” she wrote on X.  Fraser also applauded police efforts to bring order back to the airport and called for airport safety measures to be checked.  Minister for Transport Volker Wissing said that his ministry was already working on further tightening existing laws.  The general manager of the German Airports Association, Ralph Beisel, also criticized the activists’ actions. “Trespassing the aviation security area is no trivial offense. Over hundreds of thousands of passengers were prevented from a relaxed and punctual start to their Pentecost holiday,” he told dpa.  Beisel also called for harsher penalties for activists who break into airports.  Climate activities blocked flights at Hamburg and Duesseldorf airports for several hours in July.  In January, Last Generation — known for its members gluing themselves to streets to block traffic, which has infuriated many Germans — said it would abandon the tactic and move on to holding what it calls “disobedient assemblies.” Their actions have been widely criticized, and Chancellor Olaf Scholz described them as “completely nutty.”