Cyclone Idai in Zimbabwe leaves 31 dead
Cyclone Idai has left 31 people dead along the Zimbabwe-Mozambique border while 73 are still missing, the BBC has reported. Reports suggest that the death toll is likely to rise.
The Zimbabwe government has issued a state of emergency in the affected areas, as bridges and homes were washed away during the floods.
A school in the Zimbabwean town of Chimanimani, the Charles Lwanga Secondary School, has been cut off and the army has been deployed to evacuate 200 students still stuck inside.
Israeli SC bans far-right candidate Ben-Ari
Israel’s Supreme Court has banned the leader of the country’s far-right Power Party, Ben-Ari, from contesting next month’s national elections. Ari has been accused of peddling anti-Israeli Arab comments.
The court, however, lifted the poll ban on various other parties that had been banned for their criticism of the Israeli Defence Forces and the state of Israel itself.
Moroccan model’s death linked to former Italian PM Berlusconi
An investigation is underway in Italy to look into the death of Moroccan model, Imane Fadil, a key witness in a case against former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Fadil had died on 1 March, a month after she was admitted due to severe stomach ache, with Italian media alleging she may have been poisoned by a radioactive substance.
Fadil was a witness in a case that accuses Berlusconi of paying for sex with an underage prostitute. She claimed to have been a regular at Berlusconi’s ‘bunga bunga’ sex parties at his private villa.
Fadil had been writing a memoir about her experiences and magistrates have obtained a copy of her manuscript.
On the other hand, Berlusconi has denied having played any role in her death.
France’s Macron pushes for a new global social contract
French President Emmanuel Macron and his Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire are using France’s presidency of the G7 to push for a radical new agenda. Warning about the current structure of global capitalism, they argue that it exacerbates inequality, fails at delivering the required public goods, and destroys the planet.
In turn, they have a radical global agenda, which pushes for “minimum global taxes” and “higher levies on multinational giants” such as Amazon and Google.
In other news:
Financial Times published a long read on how the Chicago model could be the solution to America’s higher education problem. The model essentially is developed along the lines of the German model — which prioritises technical education over a college education.