Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu faces two no-confidence motions this week as France’s political crisis deepens.
Published On 14 Oct 202514 Oct 2025
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France’s embattled prime minister says he backs suspending a pension reform until after the 2027 presidential election in a bid to end the political turmoil that has gripped the country for months.
Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu, 39, announced on Tuesday that he supports pausing an unpopular reform that raised the age of retirement from 62 to 64 in the hopes of securing enough votes to survive two no-confidence votes.
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“I will propose to parliament this autumn that we suspend the 2023 pension reform until the presidential election. There will be no increase in the retirement age from now until January 2028,” he promised lawmakers during his policy speech, responding to a key request from the Socialists, a swing group in parliament crucial to his cabinet’s survival.
President Emmanuel Macron signed into law the bill to raise the retirement age, a signature economic reform that became the biggest domestic challenge of Macron’s second mandate as he faced widespread popular opposition to the changes and also sliding personal popularity.
Lecornu has faced an uphill battle since being appointed prime minister in early September. At the time of his appointment, he was the fifth prime minister in less than two years and faced deep political divides and a high debt load.
He ultimately stepped down from the post in early October, further deepening the country’s long-running political crisis. Macron then reappointed Lecornu as prime minister last week.
Lecornu faces two no-confidence motions by the hard-left France Unbowed and far-right National Rally parties. The two parties do not hold enough seats to topple Lecornu’s government on their own, but the prime minister could be ousted if the Socialist Party were to join forces with them.
The leader of the Socialists in the National Assembly said the decision to suspend the pension reform was a victory for the left.
Boris Vallaud did not explicitly say if his party would vote against the two motions of no confidence this week, but he said he believed in parliamentary debate and he would be ensuring the prime minister’s pledges be turned into actions.
Cyrielle Chatelain confirmed on Tuesday that France’s Greens party will support a no-confidence motion.
Earlier on Tuesday, Macron had warned that any vote to topple Lecornu’s cabinet would force him to dissolve parliament and call elections.
France, the eurozone’s second largest economy, is facing deep economic turmoil as Lecornu fights to keep his cabinet alive long enough to pass an austerity budget by the end of the year. During a speech on Thursday, he warned suspending the pension reform would cost about 400 million euros ($464m) in 2026 and 1.8 billion euros ($2.1bn) the year after and it should be offset by savings.
France’s ratio of debt to its gross domestic product is the European Union’s third highest after Greece and Italy and is close to twice the 60-percent limit fixed by EU rules.
France has been rocked by protests in recent months. In September, the Block Everything campaign spurred a nationwide wave of antigovernment protests that filled streets with burning barricades and tear gas as demonstrators rallied against budget cuts and political instability.
In October, about 195,000 people, including 24,000 in Paris, turned out for another day of nationwide strikes at the urging of French trade unions. The protests were triggered by widespread opposition to an austerity budget that the government has been trying to push through parliament.
FORMER One Direction star Louis Tomlinson was duped by fraudsters in a £4million footie plot.
The Bigger Than Me singer became the face of Doncaster Rovers in the hope he could boost the profile of his childhood team and take them to the Premier League.
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The singer with former Doncaster chairman John RyanCredit: Rex
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Louis Tomlinson was duped by fraudsters in a £4million footie plot
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The pop star making his Doncaster Rovers football debut in 2014Credit: Alamy
But the 33-year-old had the wool pulled over his eyes by a gang who stole millions from people’s retirement nest eggs.
Over two years £3.7million had been funnelled from hard-earned pension pots belonging more than 200 victims.
Prosecutors said the proposed Doncaster deal was used by the thugs to cover upthe missing cash to cops.
As reported by the Mirror, criminal gang Kevin Phelan, Daniel Giles and Adrian Bashforth were all convicted last month and face jail time.
The trial at Leeds Crown Court heard Louis unwittingly became involved with the scammers in 2014.
At the gang’s trial, prosecutor Timothy Hannam KC said: “These defendants nicked money from people’s life savings.”
Former club chairman John Ryan enlisted Louis’ help to bolster support for Doncaster at the time.
The club was insolvent and staying afloat by Ryan’s loans and other investors.
Seqentia Captial SA tried to buy it twice, but deals fell through on both occasions.
Ryan also asked crook Phelan, 62, if he wanted to buy the club in 2013.
Louis Tomlinson admits feeling nervous ahead of Soccer Aid as Zara’s ex Sam Thompson awkwardly hovers behind him
Louis later met with the gang at his Cheshire pad at the height of 1D’s fame in 2014.
Ryan transferred his 30 per cent shareholding to Sequentia and resigned as Doncaster chairman.
The proposed deal stated 70 per cent of Doncaster would be given to Belize-based Sequentia Capital SA if the takeover was successful.
Louis and Ryan would become the club’s public face while Sequentia would be a “silent participant”.
The One Direction singer started a fundraiser and aimed to rake in an eyewatering £6million from his fans and followers.
But the crowdfunder only raised £600,000 in the end, and £500,000 of that was from one of the fraudulent gang members.
The source of the offshore firm’s funds was “stolen pension money”, the court heard.
Phelan met Louis at his home in January 2014 and Daniel Giles texted the same day: “I’ve been interrogated for the last few hours over 1D boy. Kids want to come to the next meeting mate.
“I’m thinking 16 million brainwashed followers. Very very interesting.
“Let’s crack on now together and build a nice fighting fund.”
The deal would also see Louis take a 10 per cent stake in the club with the hopes they would reach the Premier League.
The singer would show his support at games and behind the scenes.
He met with Phelan and Giles, 51, at a One Direction concert in Dublin’ to sign the deal, however it didn’t go through due to the lack of funds raised.
Louis said at the time: “I’m gutted the Doncaster deal is not going ahead. I am desperate for the club to be given the recognition it deserves.
“I was told the deal to buy the club was not dependent on the money raised by Crowdfunding. Unfortunately I was misled.”
There is no suggestion Louis or Ryan knew about the pension fraud.
The defendants will be sentenced in January.
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Louis supported at matches and behind the scenesCredit: PA
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The former 1D star became the face of the clubCredit: PA:Press Association
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Neither Louis nor John Ryan knew about the dodgy dealingsCredit: Nigel Bennett
MILLIONS of Brits who rely solely on the state pension face having to pay income tax within the next two years.
Rises guaranteed under the triple-lock will push many dangerously close to the £12,570 tax threshold.
State pensions rise each year by the rate of either inflation, earnings growth, or 2.5 per cent — whichever is highest.
With wage growth at 4.7 per cent, the full new state pension will rise to £12,535 a year next April.
That is £35 short of the frozen income tax threshold, meaning OAPs in question are certain to be paying up by 2027.
Despite warnings, the Government has made no commitment to raising tax thresholds or making an exemption for Brits who have only the state pension.
A spokesman said: “We are committed to helping pensioners live their lives with dignity and respect, which is why millions will see their pension rise by up to £1,900 this Parliament.”
They also stated that people completely reliant on the state pension would not have to pay any income tax “this year”.
HMRC is expected to deduct tax directly through pension providers — or send pensioners a Simple Assessment tax bill that they have to work out.
Campaigners last night blasted the news, with ex-Pensions Minister Sir Steve Webb calling it a “creeping injustice” due to “drag millions more into the tax net”.
Rachel Vahey, of pensions firm AJ Bell, said it would force many older Brits to fill out their first self-assessment, and warned that present financial woes made reforms on taxes and pensions unlikely.
State Pension Set to Rise by £562, Sainsbury’s Hikes Meal Deal Price, & Pret to Open First Drive-Thrus – Money News Today
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Millions of Brits who rely solely on the state pension face having to pay income tax within the next two yearsCredit: Getty
At least 24 people were killed and 19 others injured in the village of Yarova after Russian military forces struck the area around 11 a.m. local time at Ukraine’s national post service as local workers and residents stood in line to receive a pension payout. Photo Provided By EPA/State Emergency Service of Ukraine
Sept. 9 (UPI) — At least two dozen people in Ukraine on Tuesday morning were killed in a Russian airstrike, with nearly as many injured at a postal building.
According to local authorities, at least 24 people are dead and 19 others injured in the village of Yarova in the Donetsk Oblast region after Russian forces struck the area around 11 a.m. local time at Ukrposhta, Ukraine’s national post service, as local workers and residents stood in line to receive a pension payout.
“Such Russian strikes must not be left without an appropriate response from the world,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on social media.
Two injured were hospitalized but the full extent of damage was not immediately clear.
Regional Governor Vadim Filashkin called Russia’s air attack “pure terrorism” and said it was “not a military operation,” he wrote on Telegram.
The Ukrainian postal service facility sat less than 6 miles from Russian-occupied territory. Video footage depicted bodies among damaged postal service cars.
The attack represented a higher fatality count bombing since the end of last month when around 23 Ukrainians were killed in overnight air strikes on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv.
On Tuesday, Zelensky added that the world “must not remain idle” as a result of Russia’s morning airstrikes.
“A response is needed from the United States. A response is needed from Europe. A response is needed from the G20,” he stated.
Despite his austerity measures, the president’s party is expected to do well in the crucial October mid-term elections.
Argentina’s libertarian president, Javier Milei, has vetoed bills aimed at increasing pensions and disability spending, amid ongoing protests against his austerity fiscal policies, which are hitting many people in their day-to-day lives.
Milei’s administration announced the decision on Monday, less than three months before the crucial mid-term elections, saying the country does not have enough money to finance the legislation.
The vetoes can still be overturned by a two-thirds majority in the Congress, where politicians passed the laws in July.
The Argentinian president, whose party only holds a small number of seats in parliament, will hope for a repeat of last year, when he managed to successfully stop pension rises, thanks to support from the conservative PRO bloc.
In a statement published on X on Monday, the president’s office suggested that the now-vetoed laws had been approved by Congress in an “irresponsible manner”, without identifying funding sources.
It claimed that the spending rises would have amounted to 0.9 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) this year and 1.68 percent of GDP in 2026.
“This president prefers to tell an uncomfortable truth rather than repeat comfortable lies,” the president’s office said.
“The only way to make Argentina great again is with effort and honesty, not the same old recipes,” it added, echoing the “make America great again” rhetoric of the United States President Donald Trump.
Since taking office in December 2023, Milei, a self-described “anarcho-capitalist”, has slashed federal spending in an attempt to reduce inflation.
As part of these largescale economic changes, his government has removed tens of thousands of civil service jobs and made drastic cuts to social spending and public works.
In 2024, Milei’s policies saw Argentina gain its first annual surplus in 14 years, and in June, Argentina’s monthly inflation rate fell below 2 percent for the first time since 2020.
However, the president’s measures have been blamed for tipping millions of people into poverty in the first half of last year.
Unemployment has also grown, and prices are up 40 percent year-on-year, conditions which have led people to protest.
Researchers say pensioners, who have been at the centre of weekly demonstrations, are the hardest-hit group.
Despite the public protests, polls show that Milei’s party holds a sizeable lead ahead of October’s mid-term elections, which will be seen as a referendum on his first two years in office.
State Pension (including Graduated Retirement Benefit)
Severe Disablement Allowance (transitionally protected)
Unemployability Supplement or Allowance (paid under Industrial Injuries or War Pensions schemes)
War Disablement Pension at State Pension age
War Widow’s Pension
Widowed Mother’s Allowance
Widowed Parent’s Allowance
Widow’s Pension
If you’re part of a married couple, in a civil partnership or live together, you’ll both get the cash bonus – as long as you both are eligible.
If you or your partner do not get one of the above qualifying benefits, then they could still get the bonus if they are over the state pension age by the end of the qualifying week.
Winter Fuel payment
The Winter Fuel Payment is made every year to help cover the cost of energy over the colder months.
It has been changed in recent months so that fewer can claim.
However, the cash boost, worth up to £300, is still valuable for those who quality – particularly those on Pension Credit.
The cash is usually paid in November and December, with some made up until the end of January the following year.
If you haven’t got your payment by then, you need to call the office that pays your benefits.
Households eligible for the payment are usually told via a letter sent in October or November each year.
If you think you meet the criteria, but don’t automatically get the winter fuel payment, you will have to apply on the government’s website.
The Child Winter Heating Assistance
If you’re based in Scotland, you could receive a child winter heating assistance payment of £255.80.
You get child winter heating payment for a child or young person under 19 who lives in Scotland and who is entitled to:
the highest rate of the care component of child disability payment (CDP) or disability living allowance (DLA), or
the enhanced rate of the daily living component of adult disability payment (ADP) or personal independence payment (PIP).
They must be entitled to the relevant disability benefit during the ‘qualifying week’, which is the week beginning on the third Monday in September (w/c Septmber 15 in 2025).
You do not have to make a claim for the payment, but it should be paid by Social Security Scotland, usually in November.
If you think you’re entitled but have not received payment by the end of December, you should contact Social Security Scotland on 0800 182 2222.
Warm Home Discount
The Warm Home Discount is an automatic £150 discount off energy bills.
As the money is a discount, there is no money paid to you, but you’ll get the payment automatically if your electricity supplier is part of the scheme and you qualify.
You’ll have to be in receipt of one of the following benefits to qualify for one of the payments:
If you don’t claim any of the above benefits, you won’t be eligible for the payment.
Cold Weather payment
Cold weather payments are dished out when temperatures are recorded as, or forecast to be, zero degrees or below, on average, for seven consecutive days between November 1 and March 31.
Eligible Brits are then given extra money to help heat their homes.
You get £25 for each seven-day period where the weather is below zero Celsius on average during this time frame.
You can check if your area has had a cold weather payment by popping your postcode into the government’s tool on its website.
You’ll need to be on certain benefits to qualify, which are:
Student maintenance loans are paid to university students to help cover living costs such as rent.
They are usually paid at the start of each new term, so you typically receive three payments a year.
Maintenance Loans are paid straight into your student bank account in three (almost) equal instalments throughout the year.
The amount you will receive depends on where in the UK you’re from, whether you’ll be living at home or not, your household income and how long you’re studying for.
The average Maintenance Loan is approximately £6,116 a year.
Are you missing out on benefits?
YOU can use a benefits calculator to help check that you are not missing out on money you are entitled to
Entitledto’s free calculator determines whether you qualify for various benefits, tax credit and Universal Credit.
MoneySavingExpert.com and charity StepChange both have benefits tools powered by Entitledto’s data.
You can use Policy in Practice’s calculator to determine which benefits you could receive and how much cash you’ll have left over each month after paying for housing costs.
Your exact entitlement will only be clear when you make a claim, but calculators can indicate what you might be eligible for.
People retiring in 2050 will be worse off than pensioners today, the government has warned, unless action is taken to boost retirement savings.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) is reviving the Pensions Commission, which first reported nearly 20 years ago, to look at how to tackle the issue.
Almost half of working-age adults are not putting any money into a private pension at all, with low earners and the self-employed less likely to be pension saving, the DWP said.
The shortfall is also worse among women and some ethnic groups, with only one-in-four people of Pakistani or Bangladeshi background saving in a private pension.
People drawing their pension 25 years from now are set to be £800 or 8% worse off per year than their counterparts today, the department said, with four in 10 people currently not saving enough for their retirement.
Rather than launching a new commission from scratch, the government said it was reviving the “landmark” Turner Pension Commission which reported in 2006, under the last Labour government, and led to the roll-out of automatic enrolment into pension saving. As a result 88% of eligible employees are now saving, up from 55% in 2012, the DWP said.
Despite that progress, the DWP said new analysis revealed “stark” findings including that:
more than three million self-employed workers are not saving into a pension
only one-in-four low earners in the private sector are saving into a pension
only one-in-four of people of Pakistani or Bangladeshi heritage are saving
The analysis also found a 48% gender gap in private pension wealth among people currently retiring, with a typical woman receiving just over £100 a week and a man receiving £200 from private pension income.
The commission is not designed to directly address issues around the cost of the state pension.
Recent reports have raised questions over the affordability of the “triple lock”, introduced in 2010, which guarantees that state pensions will rise every year by the same amount as average wages, inflation, or 2.5%, whichever is higher.
As the population ages, and people live longer, the cost of that policy is set to grow significantly.
Its cost is forecast to be three times higher by the end of the decade than was original estimated, after successive years of high inflation, followed by strong wage growth.
Instead, the relaunched Commission, which will report in 2027, will look at savings in private sector pensions.
It will bring together trades unions, employers and independent experts, some of whom also took part in the original Commission. It will look at what is preventing people from putting more into their retirement pots and will aim to build a national consensus around future strategy.
Kate Smith, head of pensions at pension firm Aegon, urged the Commission to make “bold, brave and possibly unpalatable recommendations”, including “significant increases” to auto-enrolment contributions after 2029.
Paul Nowak, General Secretary of the Trades Union Congress described it as “a vital step forward”.
“Everyone deserves dignity and security in retirement, but right now many workers – especially those in the private sector – will find themselves without enough to get by on,” he said.
Caroline Abrahams, charity director of Age UK said that while the state pension provided the bulk of income for most pensioners, it was “hugely important” to consider the role of private savings, as the current system was leaving many pensioners struggling to make ends meet.
“Hopefully this can be avoided in future and particularly disadvantaged groups, including low-paid women and self-employed people on low incomes, can be helped to put money aside when appropriate for them to do so,” she said.
Catherine Foot, director of the think tank Standard Life Centre for the Future of Retirement, said that 17 million people were not saving enough to achieve the retirement they wished to have.
“The next two decades is when the effects of the savings crisis will really start to bite,” she said.
It was crucial that the Commission was able to take a step back and view the system in its entirety,” she added.
“There’s an opportunity to examine how different elements of the system are working together.”
Believe it or not, France has had a form of social security since the 1600s, and its modern system began in earnest in 1910, when the world’s life expectancy was just 32 years old. Today the average human makes it to 75 and for the French, it’s 83, among the highest in Europe.
Great news for French people, bad news for their pensions.
Because people are living longer, the math to fund pensions in France is no longer mathing, and now the country’s debt is nearly 114% of its GDP. Remember it was just a couple of years ago when protesters set parts of Paris on fire because President Emmanuel Macron proposed raising the age of legal retirement from 62 to 64. Well, now Prime Minister Francois Bayrou has proposed eliminating two national holidays, in an attempt to address the country’s debt.
In 2023, before Paris was burning, roughly 50,000 people in Denmark gathered outside of Parliament to express their anger over ditching one of the country’s national holidays. The roots of Great Prayer Day date all the way back to the 1600s. Eliminating it — with the hopes of increasing production and tax revenue — brought together the unions, opposing political parties and churches in a rare trifecta. That explains why a number of schools and businesses closed for the holiday in 2024 in defiance of the official change.
This week, Bayrou proposed eliminating France’s Easter Monday and Victory Day holidays, the latter marking the defeat of Nazi Germany. In a Reuters poll, 70% of respondents didn’t like the idea, so we’ll see if Paris starts burning again. Or maybe citizens will take a cue from the Danes and just not work on those days, even if the government decides to continue business as usual.
Here at home, President Trump has also floated the idea of eliminating one of the national holidays. However, because he floated the idea on Juneteenth — via a social media post about “too many non-working holidays” — I’m going to assume tax revenue wasn’t the sole motivation for his comments that day. You know, given his crusade against corporate and government diversity efforts; his refusal to apologize for calling for the death penalty for five innocent boys of color; and his approval of Alligator Alcatraz. However, while I find myself at odds with the president’s 2025 remarks about the holiday, I do agree with what he said about Juneteenth when he was president in 2020: “It’s actually an important event, an important time.”
Indeed.
While the institution of slavery enabled this country to quickly become a global power, studies show the largest economic gains in the history of the country came from slavery’s ending — otherwise known as Juneteenth. Two economists have found that the economic payoff from freeing enslaved people was “bigger than the introduction of railroads, by some estimates, and worth 7 to 60 years of technological innovation in the latter half of the 19th century,” according to the University of Chicago. Why? Because the final calculations revealed the cost to enslave people for centuries was far greater than the economic benefit of their freedom.
In 1492, when Christopher Columbus “discovered America,” civilizations had been thriving on this land for millennia. The colonizers introduced slavery to these shores two years before the first “Thanksgiving” in 1621. That was more than 50 years before King Louis XIV started France’s first pension; 60 years before King Christian V approved Great Prayer Day; and 157 years before the 13 colonies declared independence from Britain on July 4, 1776.
Of all the national holidays around the Western world, it would appear Juneteenth is among the most significant historically. Yet it gained federal recognition just four years ago, and it remains vulnerable. The transatlantic slave trade transformed the global economy, but the numbers show it was Juneteenth that lifted America to the top. Which tells you the president’s hint at its elimination has little to do with our greatness and everything to do with the worldview of an elected official who was endorsed by the newspaper of the Ku Klux Klan.
If it does get to the point where we — like France and Denmark — end up seriously considering cutting a holiday, my vote is for Thanksgiving. The retail industry treats it like a speed bump between Halloween and Christmas, and when history retells its origins, it’s not a holiday worth protesting to keep.
The following AI-generated content is powered by Perplexity. The Los Angeles Times editorial staff does not create or edit the content.
Ideas expressed in the piece
LZ Granderson advocates for eliminating national holidays but argues this should start with historically problematic ones, highlighting Thanksgiving’s origins in colonialism and slavery as a prime candidate for removal.
The author criticizes President Trump’s suggestion to reduce holidays—made on Juneteenth—as racially motivated, given Trump’s past controversies involving race and his endorsement by a KKK-linked newspaper.
Granderson defends Juneteenth as economically transformative, citing research that ending slavery spurred unprecedented U.S. growth, and condemns any effort to revoke this holiday.
He supports holiday reduction for fiscal reasons, citing France and Denmark as models, but emphasizes that the choice must prioritize justice over convenience.
Different views on the topic
French Prime Minister François Bayrou proposed cutting Easter Monday and WWII Victory Day to boost economic output and tax revenue, framing it as essential to reducing France’s debt (114% of GDP) and funding defense needs[1][2][4].
The plan faced immediate backlash: 70% of French citizens opposed it in polls, unions condemned it, and the far-right National Rally—Parliament’s largest party—rejected it[2].
Historical precedent warns against such moves; France’s 2003 attempt to scrap Pentecost Monday caused widespread confusion, protests, and enduring public resentment[3].
Denmark’s elimination of Great Prayer Day in 2023 triggered mass defiance, with schools and businesses closing anyway—illustrating deep cultural attachment to holidays.
Unlike Granderson’s focus on racial justice, macroeconomic arguments dominate overseas: Bayrou asserted cutting “holy cheese” holiday clusters would streamline productivity without targeting specific historical narratives[1][2][4].
Norway’s largest pension fund, KLP, has said that it will no longer do business with two companies that sell equipment to the Israeli military because the equipment is possibly being used in the war in Gaza.
The two companies are the Oshkosh Corporation, a United States company mostly focused on trucks and military vehicles, and ThyssenKrupp, a German industrial firm that makes a broad selection of products, ranging from elevators and industrial machinery to warships.
“In June 2024, KLP learned of reports from the UN that several named companies were supplying weapons or equipment to the [Israeli army] and that these weapons are being used in Gaza,” Kiran Aziz, the head of responsible investments at KLP Kapitalforvaltning, said in a statement provided to Al Jazeera.
“Our conclusion is that the companies Oshkosh and ThyssenKrupp are contravening our responsible investment guidelines,” the statement said.
“We have therefore decided to exclude them from our investment universe.”
According to the pension fund, it had investments worth $1.8m in Oshkosh and almost $1m in ThyssenKrupp until June 2025.
KLP, founded in 1949 and the country’s largest pension fund, oversees a fund worth about $114bn. It is a public pension fund owned by municipalities and businesses in the public sector, and has a pension scheme that covers about 900,000 people, mostly municipal workers, according to its website.
Vehicles and warships
KLP said that it had been in touch with both companies before it made its decision and that Oshkosh “confirmed that it has sold, and continues to sell, equipment that is used by the [Israeli army] in Gaza”, mostly vehicles and parts for vehicles.
ThyssenKrupp told KLP that “it has a long-term relationship with [the Israeli army]” and that it had delivered four warships of the type Sa’ar 6 to the Israeli Navy in the period November 2020 to May 2021.
The German company also said it had plans to deliver a submarine to the Israeli Navy later this year.
When asked by KLP what checks and balances were made when it came to the use of the equipment the companies delivered, KLP said both Oshkosh and ThyssenKrupp “failed to document the necessary due diligence in relation to their potential complicity in violations of humanitarian law”.
“Companies have an independent duty to exercise due diligence in order to avoid complicity in violations of fundamental human rights and humanitarian law,” said Aziz.
Previous divestments
This is not the first time that the pension fund has divested from companies linked to possible human rights abuses.
In 2021, KLP divested from 16 companies, including telecom giant Motorola, that it concluded were linked to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
The pension fund said there was an “unacceptable risk that the excluded companies are contributing to the abuse of human rights in situations of war and conflict through their links with the Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank”.
That same year, KLP also said it was divesting from the Indian port and logistics group Adani Ports because of its links to the Myanmar military government.
Last summer, KLP also divested from US firm Caterpillar. In an opinion piece for Al Jazeera, the KLP’s Aziz wrote that Caterpillar’s bulldozers undergo adjustments in Israel by the military and local companies, and are subsequently used in the occupied Palestinian territory.
“The constant use of these weaponised bulldozers in the occupied Palestinian territory has led to a series of human rights warnings from United Nations agencies, and nongovernmental organisations over the last two decades about the company’s involvement in the demolition of Palestinian homes and infrastructure,” she wrote.
“It is therefore impossible to assert that the company has implemented adequate measures to avoid becoming involved in future norm violations.”
The latest move builds on a series of similar decisions among several large investment funds in Europe that have cut ties with Israeli companies for their involvement in either the war in Gaza or because of links to illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank.
In May, Norway’s sovereign wealth fund, the largest in the world, said it would divest from Israel’s Paz Retail and Energy because of the company’s involvement in supplying infrastructure and fuel to illegal Israeli settlements.
This came after an earlier decision in December last year to sell all shares it had in another Israeli company, Bezeq, for its services provided to the illegal settlements.
Other pension funds as well as wealth funds have also, in recent years, distanced themselves from companies accused of enabling or cooperating with Israel’s illegal occupation of the West Bank or its war on Gaza.
In February 2024, Denmark’s largest pension fund divested from several Israeli banks and companies as the fund feared its investments could be used to fund the settlements in the West Bank.
Six months later, the United Kingdom’s largest pension fund, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), said it would sell off all its investments linked to Israel because of its war on Gaza. The fund, which totals about $79bn, said it would sell its $101m worth of investments after pressure from its members.
Clashes with police have left at least one person dead and about 30 injured in a major banana-producing province.
Panama has declared a state of emergency in western Bocas del Toro province, where antigovernment protesters opposing a pension reform law are accused of setting fire to a baseball stadium and of looting businesses, including a provincial airport.
The protests that erupted two months ago in Bocas del Toro, a major banana-producing region, intensified this week, culminating in clashes with police that left one person dead and injured about 30 people, including several officers, police said on Friday.
Presidential Minister Juan Carlos Orillac said in a news conference on Friday that the move to suspend some constitutional rights and ban public gatherings would allow the government to reestablish order and “rescue” the province from “radical groups”, adding that the damage caused to public properties was “unacceptable and did not represent a legitimate protest”.
“In the face of the disruption of order and acts of systematic violence, the state will enforce its constitutional mandate to guarantee peace,” he said.
The measure will be in place for five days, he said.
The protesters, backed by unions and Indigenous groups across the country, have faced off with authorities over a pension reform law passed in March.
Confrontations have been particularly intense in Bocas del Toro, largely led by workers at a local Chiquita banana plantation. The multinational banana giant Chiquita called the workers’ strike an “unjustified abandonment of work” and sacked thousands of employees.
Those workers ultimately withdrew from the protests after they were able to negotiate the restoration of some benefits that had been removed under the March pension reform.
Still, the government has said roadblocks in Bocas del Toro have yet to be lifted, though it did not directly attribute them to the Chiquita workers.
The violence peaked in the city of Changuinola, Bocas del Toro’s main city, on Thursday when groups of hooded individuals looted businesses and partially set fire to a baseball stadium with police officers inside, authorities said.
Police said “vandals took over” the local airport, stole vehicles belonging to car rental companies, and looted an office and a warehouse containing supplies belonging to Chiquita. Flights at the airport were still suspended on Friday.
Panama’s right-wing President Jose Raul Mulino has been facing protests on several fronts in recent months.
Besides the pension reforms, Panamanians have also been in the streets over a deal Mulino struck with US President Donald Trump in April allowing US troops to deploy to Panamanian bases along the Panama Canal.
Mulino made the concession to Trump after the US leader repeatedly threatened to “take back” the US-built waterway.
Mulino has also angered environmentalists by threatening to reopen Cobre Panama, one of Central America’s biggest copper mines.
Dreaming of retiring already? A stunning country just a couple of hours from the UK has one of the highest paying pensions in Europe – but there are several big catches
The UK’s State Pension is currently below £12,000 per year(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
Million of Brits could see a huge boost to their retirement, after HM Treasury unveiled plans to double the number of UK pension megafunds by 2030.
As previously explained, this is where smaller local authorities and private workplaces come together, with the aim that bundling larger funds will result in a much greater return. The government states these changes will ‘drive more investment directly into the UK economy for new homes and promising scale-up businesses’.
“With over £50 billion secured through the recent voluntary commitment from pension funds to invest five percent of assets in the UK and new local investment targets for Local Government Pension Scheme authorities,” HM Treasury added. “This tackles the gradual decline in domestic investment from UK pension funds, where around 20 per cent of Defined Contribution assets are currently invested compared to over 50 per cent in 2012.”
Iceland has one of the highest pensions in Europe(Image: Getty Images/iStockphoto)
For now, Brits on the State Pension will receive just £230.25 a week (£11,973 per year) as long as they have enough qualifying years of National Insurance (NI). If your NI record started after April 2016, you will need 35 qualifying years to get the full rate of the New State Pension.
But in comparison to nearby countries, the UK’s state pension seems mediocre at best. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) – as of 2022 – the full basic pension in Iceland is valued at ISK 3,439,428, equivalent to 31 per cent of average worker earnings. This roughly converts to £20,063.08 per year – more than £8,000 compared to the UK state pension.
“There is an annual allowance of ISK 300,000 (£1,751.11) for exempt income, equivalent to three per cent of average earnings,” OECD added. “Above this allowance, the basic pension is withdrawn at a rate of 45 per cent against income from pension funds. It is also withdrawn at 45 per cent against employment income but only after employment income is above ISK 2,400, 000 (£14,011) in addition to the allowance. There is also an annual holiday payment of ISK 106,765 (£623) which is withdrawn at two per cent above the income limits.”
However, the State Pension age is currently 66-year-old for men and women in the UK – although it is slated to increase to 67 by 2028 – whereas the normal pension age in Iceland is already 67 (except for seamen who have been working for more than 25 years in the occupation, who can retire at 60). If you claim your basic pension in Iceland before you reach 67, your funds will be reduced by 6.6 per cent for each year that the pension is claimed early.
Iceland also has a pension supplement which is applicable for single pensioners. The maximum value of this benefit is ISK 869,124 (£5,0712) per year, some eight per cent of average earnings. This benefit is withdrawn at 11.9 per cent, subject to the same thresholds as the basic pension.
If you’re tempted to ditch Britain for Iceland, you may want to think twice, as you can only receive the full basic pension if you have 40 years of residency. While Iceland’s pension may seem extremely generous, it is worth considering that the cost of living here is around 40-50 per cent higher than in the UK. This means you’d be spending almost double on your weekly food shop, property, and basic goods.
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