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Finns on Sunday will choose either of two experienced politicians to be their next head of state, whose main task will be to steer the Nordic country’s foreign and security policy now that it is a member of NATO, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Ex-Prime Minister Alexander Stubb, 55, on the center right, and former foreign Minister Pekka Haavisto, 65, from the green left, largely agree on Finland’s foreign policy and security priorities. These include maintaining a hard line toward Moscow and Russia’s current leadership, strengthening security ties with Washington, and the need to help Ukraine both militarily and at a civilian level.

In the last days of campaigning, however, tiny differences in style and approach between the candidates have emerged.

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"After the exceptionally polite campaigning of the first round, there has been a bit more confrontation" between the two men vying for the post, said Teivo Teivainen, professor of world politics at the University of Helsinki.

Stubb and Haavisto differ in their stance on the hypothetical question of whether Finland, a NATO newcomer, would allow the transportation of the alliance’s nuclear weapons through its territory.

"Stubb has a more positive attitude in bringing in nuclear weapons into Finland’s territory," Teivainen said. "This reflects his slightly more positive line towards NATO integration and the United States."

Unlike in most European countries, the president of Finland holds executive power in formulating foreign and security policy together with the government, especially concerning countries outside the European Union such as the United States, Russia and China.

The head of state also commands the military, particularly important in Europe’s current security environment and the changed geopolitical situation of Finland, which joined NATO in April 2023 in the aftermath of Russia’s attack on Ukraine a year earlier.

A brief look at a map shows why foreign and security policy are so important in this northern European country of 5.6 million people: Finland shares a 1,340-kilometer (832-mile) border with Russia. In November, Helsinki closed all eight official border crossings with its eastern neighbor, alleging that Moscow was using migrants to destabilize Finland in an alleged act of "hybrid warfare."

A politician with the conservative National Coalition Party, Stubb took the top spot in the first round of the election on Jan. 28 with 27.2% percent of the votes, ahead of the eight other candidates — five men and three women.

Stubb, who led the government in 2014-2015 and earlier held several other Cabinet posts, is the favorite to win the presidency and succeed highly popular President Sauli Niinistö, whose second six-year term expires in March. He is not eligible for reelection.

Haavisto, the runner-up in the first round, was Finland’s top diplomat in 2019-2023 and the main negotiator of its entry into NATO. A former conflict mediator with the United Nations and a devout environmentalist, Haavisto took 25.8% of the votes in the first round.

A runoff was required because none of the candidates got more than half of the votes on Jan. 28. Recent polls indicate Stubb is the front-runner: he is predicted to get 53% to 54% of the votes and Haavisto 46% to 47%.

Haavisto, a former leader of the Green League who is running as an independent, is seeking the post for a third consecutive time after the 2012 and 2018 elections.

The head of state is expected to remain above the fray of day-to-day politics and largely to stay out of domestic political disputes.

However, Finland was hit by massive labor union strikes earlier this month, and the two candidates have faced questions on the campaign trail.

Stubb distanced himself from his party’s approach of giving employers and employees more freedom to settle disputes locally and said he wouldn’t interfere with labor market issues as a president. For his part, Haavisto said he would try — at the very minimum — to bring the parties together for talks behind the scenes.

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The swing voters will be the supporters of the far-right populist The Finns party and the rural-based Center Party. The candidates for those parties were eliminated in the first round, but some 615,000 people, or nearly 20% of voters, cast their vote for the speaker of Parliament, Jussi Halla-aho, the former leader of The Finns.

Those voters favoring traditional values will now decide the Finnish presidency, analysts say.

"The second round of the election will primarily be decided by the voters of The Finns and the Center Party," Teivainen said. "There’s a lot of conservatism and patriotism among them, so Haavisto’s homosexuality and civil service background have significance."

Conscription military service or civil service is mandatory for Finnish males.

Haavisto's strong advocacy for green policies is seen alienating or splitting some voters, while Stubb's center-right backers seem much more united in their support.

The Japanese government adopted plans on Friday to scrap its current foreign trainee program, which has been criticized as a cover for importing cheap labor, and replace it with a system it says will actually teach skills and safeguard trainees' rights as Japan desperately seeks more foreign workers to supplement its aging and shrinking workforce.

Under the new program approved on Friday at a meeting of related Cabinet ministers, people who arrive on a three-year trainee visa will be able to upgrade to a skilled worker category that would allow them to stay up to five years and possibly obtain permanent residency.

Japan's population of 126 million is rapidly aging and shrinking, and many short-staffed industries, including services, manufacturing and construction, rely heavily on foreign trainees and language students. Japan also grants visas to some white-collar professionals, often from the West.

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The current Technical Intern Training Program, introduced in 1993 as a way of transferring skills to developing countries through youth training, has been criticized as a scheme for importing cheap labor under abusive conditions and unequal benefits. As of last June, nearly 360,000 trainees were participating in the program, with most from Vietnam, followed by Indonesia and the Philippines, according to government data.

The new plan, which still requires parliamentary approval, follows the recommendation of a government panel last year that the current system be abolished after reports of rampant abuses, labor rights violations and other maltreatment.

The new program will continue to restrict which types of jobs are available to foreign trainees, as the conservative governing party remains reluctant to allow a more open immigration policy.

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Japan's lack of diversity and inclusivity as well as its comparatively low pay has been making it less attractive to foreign workers, who are increasingly choosing other Asian countries such as South Korea.

"The government seeks to create an inclusive society, and we want to make Japan a country that foreign workers will choose," Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said at the Cabinet meeting where the new policy was endorsed.

The current program prohibits trainees from changing workplaces, a rule that caused thousands to run away from their employers due to unpaid wages, harassment and other maltreatment. The new system would allow them to change jobs after working for one to two years, but only in the same job category.

Applicants for the new trainee system will also be required to pass a Japanese language proficiency test.

Swiss police say a 32-year-old Iranian asylum-seeker was killed by police after he used an axe and a knife to seize more than a dozen hostages for several hours on a train in western Switzerland. No passengers were injured.

The man took the hostages early Thursday evening and police, alerted by passengers, sealed off the area while the train was stopped in the town of Essert-sous-Champvert, police in the French-speaking Vaud region said Friday.

The man, speaking Farsi and English, demanded that the train engineer join the 15 hostages.

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Nearly four hours after the incident began, police stormed the train after trying to negotiate with the man through an interpreter. More than 60 police were involved.

"The hostages were all freed safe and sound," a police statement said. "The hostage-taker was mortally injured during the operation."

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Vincent Derouand, a spokesperson for the Vaud prosecutors' office, said an investigation was underway in part to determine the man’s motive.

Seven royal artifacts looted 150 years ago by British colonial forces from Ghana’s ancient Asante kingdom and kept by a United States museum have been returned and presented to the kingdom on Thursday, the latest of a series of stolen treasured items being repatriated to several African countries.

Looted from British-colonized Ghana in the 19th century before being transferred to Fowler Museum at the University of California, Los Angeles, in the 1960s, the artifacts included an elephant tail whisk, an ornamental chair made of wood, leather and iron, two gold stool ornaments, a gold necklace and two bracelets.

""We are here ... (because) the white man came into Asanteman to loot and destroy it," Otumfuo Osei Tutu, the king of the Assante kingdom in Ghana’s largest city of Kumasi, said at a presentation ceremony that brought joy and relief to the kingdom.

UK MUSEUMS RETURN LOOTED ARTIFACTS TO GHANA UNDER LONG-TERM LOAN ARRANGEMENT

After decades of resistance from European and Western governments and museums, the efforts of African countries to repatriate stolen artifacts are paying off with the increasing return of treasured pieces. Activists, though, say thousands more are still out of reach.

The royal items were first received by the kingdom on Monday, which marked the 150th anniversary of when British colonial forces sacked the Asante city in 1874. That was when four of the items were looted while the other three were part of an indemnity payment made by the Asante kingdom to the British, the museum said.

The repatriation of the artifacts to Ghana "signifies the return of our souls," said Kwasi Ampene, a lecturer who helped negotiate their return.

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All seven items are being returned unconditionally and permanently though the kingdom allowed their replicas to be made, the museum added.

"We are globally shifting away from the idea of museums as unquestionable repositories of art, as collecting institutions entitled to own and interpret art based primarily on scholarly expertise, to the idea of museums as custodians with ethical responsibility," said Silvia Forni, director of the Fowler Museum.

The items are seen as symbols of prestige and reverence for the Asante ruler and having them back is a dream come true, according to Samuel Opoku Acheampong, a staff of the Asante palace.

"Our forefathers and our fathers told us about the artifacts," Acheampong said. "And ever since, as a kid, I had the vision that one day we shall have all these artifacts back to our Asante nation."

Russian leaders say the recent change-up at the highest levels of the Ukrainian military will not make a difference in the ongoing invasion.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday appointed Сol. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi as the country's highest-ranking army general of the country in a national military shake-up. 

"We don't think it's a factor that will change the course of the 'special military operation'," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.

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Syrskyi replaced Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi as commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian military following nearly two years of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev also reacted to the appointment in a vitriolic essay posted to his Telegram account.

"Looking at the biography of the new commander-in-chief of the Ukrainian armed forces Syrskyi one feels a sense of hatred, contempt and disgust," Medvedev wrote on the social media platform, according to Reuters.

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"Disgust for a man who was a Soviet Russian officer, but became a Bandera traitor, who broke his oath and serves the Nazis, destroying his loved ones. May the earth burn under his feet!" the former president added. 

Stepan Bandera was a far-right Ukrainian nationalist leader in the World War II era who is often referenced by the Kremlin in justifying the invasion. 

He is sometimes cited as an architect of "nazification" in Ukraine by Putin and the ruling Russian regime.

Medvedev currently serves as deputy chairman of the Russian Security Council.

Zelenskyy said his decision to turn the position over to a new commander was not a reflection of Zaluzhnyi's performance, but part of a wider refresh of the country's war leadership.

"The time for such a renewal is now," Zelenskyy said.

"A reset, a new beginning is necessary," Zelenskyy added. The Ukrainian president claimed the review is "not about a single person but about the direction of the country’s leadership."

Denmark’s defense minister is warning Friday that "new knowledge" indicates Russia could attack a NATO country within the next three to five years. 

Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen told the Jyllands-Posten newspaper that there is no direct threat against his country but "Russia's capacity to produce military equipment has increased tremendously," according to Reuters. 

"It cannot be ruled out that within a three- to five-year period, Russia will test Article 5 and NATO's solidarity. That was not NATO's assessment in 2023," Poulsen was quoted as saying. "This is new knowledge that is coming to the fore now." 

"Russia potentially has the will to do so. Now they can also have the ability to have a military capability earlier than we expected," he reportedly added. "There is reason to be genuinely concerned." 

ZELENSKYY FIRES TOP GENERAL AS WAR WITH RUSSIA NEARS SECOND ANNIVERSARY 

Russia is currently engaged in its war with Ukraine, which is now in its 716th day Friday.  

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said last month that NATO should be ready for a Russian attack within five to eight years, Reuters reports. 

NATO says on its website that "Article 5 provides that if a NATO Ally is the victim of an armed attack, each and every other member of the Alliance will consider this act of violence as an armed attack against all members and will take the actions it deems necessary to assist the Ally attacked." 

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In January, NATO launched its biggest military exercises in decades with around 90,000 personnel scheduled to take part in months of drills aimed at showing the alliance can defend all of its territory up to its border with Russia, top officers said at the time. 

The exercises – dubbed Steadfast Defender 24 – "will show that NATO can conduct and sustain complex multi-domain operations over several months, across thousands of miles, from the High North to Central and Eastern Europe, and in any condition," the 31-nation organization said. 

Troops will be moving to and through Europe until the end of May in what NATO describes as "a simulated emerging conflict scenario with a near-peer adversary." Under NATO’s new defense plans, its chief adversaries are Russia and terrorist organizations. 

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

The U.S. launched "self-defense" strikes against four Houthi unmanned surface vessels (USV) and seven mobile anti-ship cruise missiles prepared to launch into the Red Sea, U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) announced.

In a post on the social media platform X, CENTCOM said cruise missiles were prepared to launch against ships in the Red Sea.

"CENTCOM identified these missiles and USVs in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen and determined they presented an imminent threat to U.S. Navy ships and merchant vessels in the region," the post read. "These actions will protect freedom of navigation and make international waters safer and more secure for U.S. Navy and merchant vessels."

Iranian-backed Houthi rebels have launched 48 attacks on vessels in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden since Nov. 19.

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Pentagon press secretary Maj. Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters on Thursday that since the first coalition strikes on Jan. 11, U.S. forces have destroyed or degraded over 100 missiles and launchers, including anti-ship land attack and surface-to-air missiles, numerous communication capabilities, unmanned aerial vehicles, unmanned surface vessels, coastal radars, air surveillance capabilities and weapons storage areas.

The Pentagon did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital on the strikes.

While these self-defense strikes against Houthis and other Iranian-backed proxies continue, the U.S. continues to claim it is not looking for a war.

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"I will repeat again, that the U.S. does not want escalation and that these strikes are directly in response to the actions by the Iranian-backed Houthis," Ryder said. "Again, however, we will not hesitate to defend lives and the free flow of commerce in one of the world’s most vital waterways."

Earlier this week, CENTCOM published a video showing U.S. forces supporting joint strikes against Houthi militants.

The video showed rockets launching from the ships in pitch-black darkness. The efforts were part of joint strikes against the Houthis, which included support from the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, Denmark, Bahrain, the Netherlands and New Zealand.

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CENTCOM said that the Saturday strikes were launched by USS Carney, USS Gravely and USS Dwight D. Eisenhower.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said that the recent counterstrikes are aimed to "degrade the capabilities" of the Houthis.

"These strikes are intended to further disrupt and degrade the capabilities of the Iranian-backed Houthi militia to conduct their reckless and destabilizing attacks against U.S. and international vessels lawfully transiting the Red Sea," Austin said in a statement on Saturday.

"This collective action sends a clear message to the Houthis that they will continue to bear further consequences if they do not end their illegal attacks on international shipping and naval vessels," he added.

 Fox News Digital's Liz Friden and Andrea Vacchiano contributed to this report.

A former British soldier will be prosecuted for the killing of a man in Belfast during sectarian violence known as the "Troubles" half a century ago, Northern Irish prosecutors said Thursday.

The ex-soldier, who is not named, is accused of the murder of Patrick McVeigh, 44, who was shot in the city of Belfast on May 13, 1972. He and three other veterans also face attempted murder charges related to incidents in the same year.

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The soldiers all belonged to a temporary British army unit, known as the Military Reaction Force, that was operating in Belfast at the time.

Prosecutors made the announcement following investigations into the activities of the army unit.

The cases will not be affected by a contentious law that will give immunity from prosecution for offenses committed during the Troubles, the three decades of violence in Northern Ireland in which more than 3,500 people died.

The Legacy and Reconciliation Bill is expected to come into effect from May 1. Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who proposed the bill, said it would enable Northern Ireland to "draw a line under the Troubles."

But the families of those killed and local politicians have strongly criticized it, saying it will airbrush the past and shut down access to justice for victims and survivors. Dozens of legacy inquests have yet to be heard.

An Olympic medal inlaid with a piece of the Eiffel Tower. How’s that for a monumental prize?

A hexagonal, polished chunk of iron taken from the iconic landmark is being embedded in each gold, silver and bronze medal that will be hung around athletes’ necks at the July 26-Aug. 11 Paris Games and Paralympics that follow.

Games organizers revealed their revolutionary design on Thursday.

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Simone Biles has seven medals from her two previous Olympics and LeBron James has two golds and one bronze from London, Beijing and Athens. But neither of those athletes who are targeting the Paris Games nor any of the roughly 36,600 other medalists at 29 previous Summer Olympics stretching back to 1896 ever owned one quite like these.

By making history at the Games, Paris medalists will take a bit of France and its history home, too.

Here’s a deep dive into the medals that are sure to wow:

Absolutely. The 1,083-foot tall tower is made of 18,038 iron parts. But it’s also getting a bit long in the tooth. Built for the 1889 World’s Fair — which celebrated the 100th anniversary of the French Revolution — engineer Gustave Eiffel’s tower was only intended to stand for 20 years.

Instead, it just goes on and on — thanks to a bit of rejuvenating surgery from time to time and constant care. The 135-year-old tower is a veteran of two previous Games — in 1900 and 1924, the last held in Paris.

The iron pieces embedded in the center of the Olympic medals each weigh about two-thirds of an ounce.

They were cut from girders and other bits that were swapped out of the Eiffel Tower during renovations and stored for safekeeping, according to Joachim Roncin, head of design at the Paris Games organizing committee.

"The concept came after a few discussions. We realized that there’s one symbol known across the world, which is the Eiffel Tower," Roncin said. "We said to ourselves, ‘Hey, what if we approached the Eiffel Tower Operating Co. to see if it’s possible to get a bit of the Eiffel Tower to integrate into the medal?’"

The company agreed, and "the dream became reality," he said. "It’s really a bit of metal from the Eiffel Tower."

They were stripped of paint, polished and varnished for their second life.

They are stamped with "Paris 2024" and the Games logo — which looks like a flame or the face of a woman with a chic bob haircut. The five Olympic rings are also stamped on the iron of the Olympic medals. The Paralympic logo of three swooshes, known as the Agitos, is stamped on the medals for the Aug. 28-Sept. 8 Paralympics.

The iron pieces’ hexagonal form represents France. The French sometimes refer to their country as "L’Hexagone" — the hexagon — because of its shape.

Paris jewelry house Chaumet designed the medals. Six small clasps that hold the iron pieces in the medals are a wink at the 2.5 million rivets that bind the Eiffel Tower together.

Around the iron pieces are disks of gold, silver or bronze. They’re crinkled to reflect the light, making the medals shine. Games organizers say the metal is all recycled, not newly mined.

Yes. Olympic medals have tended to be quite sober. In what was a first, medals for the 2008 Beijing Olympics contained inlaid jade disks. But Paris is the only host city to include chunks of a famous monument.

"Having a gold medal is already something incredible. But we wanted to add this French touch and we thought that the Eiffel Tower would be this cherry on the top," Roncin said.

"Having a piece of it is a piece of history."

The ancient Greek goddess of victory, Nike, features on the Olympic medals’ other side — as she has done at every Games since 1928. But Paris has also added a small representation of the Eiffel Tower on that side, in another break with tradition.

The other side of the Paralympic medals shows a view of the tower as if looking upward from underneath. For visually impaired people, "Paris 2024" is written in Braille and the edges have notches: one for gold, two for silver, three for bronze.

The Paris Mint is manufacturing 5,084 medals — about 2,600 for the Olympics and 2,400 for the Paralympics. That is likely more than will be required. Some will be stored in case that medals need to reassigned after the Games, which can happen when medal-winners are subsequently stripped of the prizes for doping. Some go to museums. Any other spares could be destroyed.

The gold medals weigh 529 grams and are not pure gold. They are made of silver and plated with 6 grams of gold.

The silvers weigh 525 grams.

The bronzes weigh 455 grams and are a copper, tin and zinc alloy.

The medals are 85 millimeters across and 9.2 millimeters thick.

They’ll come in a dark-blue box from Chaumet and a certificate from the Eiffel Tower Operating Co. that the iron pieces came from the monument. Paris organizers didn’t give a monetary value for the medals.

Rescuers dug out more bodies from a landslide-hit southern Philippine village on Thursday, bringing the death toll to 11 as the number of missing rose to 110, officials said.

At least 31 residents survived with injuries when the landslide hit the gold-mining mountain village of Masara in Davao de Oro province on Tuesday night, officials said.

Army troops, police and volunteers halted their search for the missing Thursday afternoon due to fears of more landslides and will begin a "retrieval operation" on Friday, Davao de Oro provincial spokesperson Edward Macapili said by telephone.

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"The idea that it will be hard to find more survivors among the missing has been acknowledged," Macapili said.

More than 1,165 families have been moved to evacuation centers for their safety, disaster response officials said.

Among the missing were some gold miners who had been waiting in two buses to be driven home when the landslide hit and buried the buses, Macapili said.

Several miners jumped out of the windows or dashed away and survived, he said.

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Torrential rains that swamped the mountainous region in recent weeks had eased and the weather was clear when the landslide hit. Earthquakes also damaged houses and buildings in the region in recent months, officials said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday replaced the country's highest-ranking army general of the country in a national military shake-up. 

Gen. Valerii Zaluzhnyi was relieved of his position and thanked by Zelenskyy for his service — the president said it was not indicative of poor performance but part of bigger refresh of the military.

"The time for such a renewal is now," Zelenskyy said.

Zaluzhnyi, who remains highly popular with Ukrainian troops and civilians alike, was replaced as commander-in-chief by Сol. Gen. Oleksandr Syrskyi.

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"A reset, a new beginning is necessary," Zelenskyy said. He claimed the review is "not about a single person but about the direction of the country’s leadership."

The changing of the guard comes close to the second anniversary of Russia's invasion — a conflict not expected to last this long due to the drastically different military capabilities going into the war.

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The duration of the war has stressed Ukraine's manpower and left the pool of combatants shallow.

Citizens turned out in force at the start of the conflict, signing up in huge numbers that kept the fighting force strong. Stories recounted how even old women had signed up for military training to rebuff Russia’s invasion.

Going into the second year of the conflict, Kyiv hyped up its counteroffensive for the spring and summer, but the effort failed to produce the anticipated results, leading many to question the future of the conflict and resist further plans to fund and equip Ukraine without a clear end in sight for the conflict.

Despite the lack of manpower, the Ukrainian military has remained a difficult opponent to Russian invading forces — which has been suffering its own setbacks.

Last week, Ukrainian media touted a major victory over the Russian fleet with the publication of a video that allegedly showed the destruction of a nearly $70 million missile ship, the Ivanovets. Multiple drones hit the vessel and sank it, with the crew’s fate unknown. 

"As a result of a number of direct hits to the hull, the Russian ship received damage that was incompatible with further movement – the Ivanovets tilted to the stern and sank," said the Military Informant Telegram channel.

Fox News' Peter Aitken contributed to this report.

Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry urged calm in a public address early Thursday following three days of violent protests that have paralyzed the country as thousands of protesters demand his resignation.

The brief speech in the pre-dawn hours did little to appease people who are angry and frustrated over unrelenting gang violence, deepening poverty and the lack of any plan in sight for general elections.

"I think the time has arrived for all to put our heads together to save Haiti, to do things another way in our country," Henry said without offering specifics.

PROTESTS ERUPT ACROSS HAITI, AS DEMONSTRATORS DEMAND PRIME MINISTER'S RESIGNATION

He urged Haitians not to look at the government or at Haiti’s National Police as their adversaries. Those who choose violence, destruction and killing people to take power are "not working in the interests of the Haitian people," he said.

His comments come as thousands of Haitians gathered daily this week in cities and towns across the country to demand that Henry step down, saying they will keep protesting until he leaves.

Haiti's legislature is currently empty, after the terms of its last 10 senators expired in January 2023. The country failed to hold planned elections in 2019 and 2023, and Henry assumed power with the support of the international community following the July 2021 assassination of President Jovenel Moïse.

On Wednesday, police killed five armed environmental protection agents in the capital of Port-au-Prince in a shooting some worry could worsen Haiti’s crisis.

Lionel Lazarre, head of a police union known as Synapoha, told The Associated Press that the shooting between police and agents with Haiti’s Security Brigade for Protected Areas occurred in the Laboule community. He claimed that the environmental agents opened fire after police asked them to drop their weapons, prompting officers to shoot.

Clashes between the environmental protection agents and police have erupted since January, leading Henry to announce a restructuring of the environmental agency and the dismissal of its chief.

In a statement on Thursday, Haiti's Office of Citizen Protection condemned the killings of the environmental agents and called for an independent commission to investigate the incident.

It also said three journalists in the southern coastal city of Jeremie were injured by bullets while covering protests and accused police of seizing reporters' equipment in the northern coastal city of Cap-Haïtien, calling the incidents "serious attacks on press freedom."

In his speech, Henry said Haitians need peace, security, work and the ability to move freely around the country.

"Haitian people need for their children to go to school without fear, because that’s what’s going to guarantee them a future," he said.

Henry once again pledged to hold general elections as soon as Haiti’s insecurity issues are resolved, saying he would continue to reach out and work with all those who want the country to move forward, "to take decisions together that are going to help us emerge from the crisis."

He also congratulated police for their efforts in fighting gangs and promised he would keep pushing for the U.N.-backed deployment of a Kenyan police force that is currently blocked by a court order.

"I want to reassure everyone the government will do whatever it can for the mission to come as fast as possible," he said.

Henry also extended his sympathies to all those who have died in the violent protests this week.

"I give you assurance that the Haitian people will have peace and development with prosperity," Henry said, without providing details. "Together, hand-in-hand, we will change our destiny."

Haitians said they wanted Henry to step down by Feb. 7, the date Haitian leaders are typically sworn into office. The date also carries deep historical significance in Haiti: On that date in 1986, former dictator Jean-Claude Duvalier fled for France, and in 1991, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, Haiti’s first democratically-elected president, was sworn in.

Unusually mild weather and droughts in Italy are destroying crops and threatening livelihoods this winter, Italy's main farming lobby Coldiretti said on Thursday.

The world has just experienced its hottest January on record, continuing a run of exceptional heat fueled by climate change, according to data published by the European Union's Copernicus Climate Change Service on Thursday.

"A boiling winter is causing nature to crash," Coldiretti said in a statement, adding that some plants are blossoming too early and will be exposed to harm from any drop in temperatures.

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The dry spell is also threatening to disrupt the sowing of cereals, legumes and vegetables, with effects on animal feed too, the lobby group said.

"Italy's agriculture is the part of the economy that, more than any other, experiences the consequences of climate change on a daily basis," Coldiretti said.

The farming lobby wants help for farmers forced to try to respond to the changing weather and its effects on crop cycles, water management and the land.

It called for the "commitment of the institutions to support innovation, from agriculture 5.0 with drones, robots and satellites to GMO-free green genetics".

Climate concerns, alongside low prices for produce, rising costs and cheap imports have led Italian farmers to join colleagues across Europe in organizing mass protests to demand action by authorities.

As well as harming agriculture, a mild winter has left ski resorts in central Italy idle because of a lack of snow.

Winter has been exceptionally mild in other parts of southern Europe, with Spain seeing its warmest January on record, worsening a long-running drought in the regions of Catalonia and Andalusia.

Chinese coast guard vessels have been passing by Japanese-claimed waters for weeks in the East China Sea and China's warships have been edging near Japan's southwestern islands in recent days, Japanese officials said.

A fleet of four Chinese coast guard vessels on Thursday passed just outside of the territorial waters of Japan-controlled islands, which Beijing also claims, for the 49th day in a row, the Japanese Coast Guard said.

It warned China’s vessels against further approaching the islands, called the Senkaku in Japanese, while Beijing calls them the Diaoyu. China's Coast Guard on Tuesday acknowledged that it was patrolling waters off the Diaoyu Islands, which are also claimed by Taiwan.

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China routinely sends coast guard vessels and planes into waters and airspace surrounding the islands to harass Japanese vessels in the area and force Japan to scramble jets in response.

Japan Coast Guard Commandant Shohei Ishii said last month that Chinese Coast Guard activity in infiltrating Japanese territorial waters violates international law, and that the "situation is extremely serious and is unpredictable."

Tokyo in recent years has significantly reinforced defense of southwestern Japan, including Okinawa and its outer islands that are considered strategically key to the Japanese defense in the face of China’s growing assertiveness and tension around Taiwan, an autonomous island that Beijing says is its territory.

Japan's Defense Ministry said this week that it has repeatedly spotted Chinese warships off the coast of Okinawa since the previous week. On Feb. 1, a Chinese guided missile destroyer and frigate crossed the waters between Okinawa and the Miyako islands as they moved south, causing the deployment of a Japanese Self Defense Force warship and a reconnaissance aircraft.

On Saturday, a reconnaissance ship passed the area to the north. Then, on Sunday, the Chinese reconnaissance ship showed up in the waters again, the ministry said. On Monday, the guided missile destroyer and the frigate were spotted crossing the waters between Okinawa and Miyako, the ministry said.

Japan has been increasingly concerned about China's maritime activities, including its joint military exercises with Russia around the Japanese coasts. Under a new security strategy adopted in December, 2022, Japan is accelerating the development of long-range cruise missiles that can hit targets in China or North Korea.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pushed for further U.S. and European aid for Ukraine as he set off Thursday for a visit to Washington, declaring it was time to send Russian President Vladimir Putin a "very clear signal" that the West won't let up on supporting Kyiv.

Scholz is to meet members of the Congress later in the day and President Joe Biden on Friday. His visit comes after wartime aid for Ukraine was left hanging in the Senate as Republicans blocked a bipartisan border package that had been tied to the funding, then struggled to coalesce around a plan to salvage the aid for Kyiv.

Scholz didn't mention that directly in a statement to reporters before his departure, and took no questions. But he said a key issue now is "how Europe, but also the United States, can perpetuate support for Ukraine."

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"What has been pledged so far in Europe and what has been pledged by decisions of the American Congress isn't yet enough," he said. "So we must achieve a way for all of us together to do more."

Germany is stepping up aid for Ukraine this year, planning more than $7.5 billion for weapons deliveries despite a domestic budget crisis. It has delivered air-defense systems, tanks and armored personnel carriers among other aid since Russia's full-scale invasion started and is now Kyiv’s second-biggest supplier, after the U.S.

Leaders of the 27-nation European Union, of which Germany is the most populous member, last week sealed a deal to provide Ukraine with 50 billion euros in support for its economy.

Berlin is making "a very big contribution, but it won't be enough on its own if sufficient support doesn't come together everywhere," Scholz said. "Now is the moment for us to do what is necessary — give Ukraine the possibility to defend itself, and at the same time send the Russian president a very clear signal: the signal that he can't expect our support to ease off."

The message in the coming weeks needs to be that Western support "will last long enough and be big enough," the chancellor added.

Scholz already called recently for other European countries to step up with more weapons deliveries for Ukraine, saying that "it can’t be down to Germany alone."

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The German leader said in mid-December that if the situation in Ukraine worsens, other countries reduce their aid or the threat to Germany and Europe increases, "we will have to react to that" with a possible further increase in aid, and his government could seek an exemption from the country's strict self-imposed borrowing limits.

But officials have stressed that the priorities are for all in Europe to step up and for the U.S. to continue its aid.

In an opinion piece published in the Wall Street Journal ahead of his U.S. trip, Scholz wrote that "we must continue to move in a strategic lockstep on both sides of the Atlantic."

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Putin "is trying to undermine our unity and turn our citizens against supporting Ukraine," and others are watching to see whether those divisions can be exploited and "whether disinformation campaigns can take hold," he added. "We must prove them wrong by convincing citizens on both sides of the Atlantic that a Russian victory would make the world a far more dangerous place."

The stabbing of a 23-year-old Palestinian American who advocates say was attacked near the University of Texas campus while riding in a truck displaying support for Palestine merits the label of a hate crime, Austin police announced Wednesday.

Bert James Baker, 36, was arrested following the Sunday evening attack on Zacharia Doar, who was hospitalized. Baker was charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon. Police said Wednesday that their Hate Crimes Review Committee had determined that the stabbing met the definition of a hate crime. They have provided that information to prosecutors, who will make the final decision on whether to enhance the offense.

The Travis County District Attorney’s Office said Wednesday that they are in the process of receiving the evidence from police and "look forward to working with them."

TEXAS ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT INDICTED ON CAPITAL MURDER CHARGE IN CHEERLEADER'S BEATING, STABBING DEATH

Doar was one of four Muslim Americans who were in the truck, according to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), which said Baker allegedly tried to rip a flagpole with a keffiyeh scarf reading "Free Palestine" off of their vehicle. CAIR said the four had previously attended a pro-Palestinian protest.

An arrest affidavit said that Baker, who was on a bicycle, rode up to the truck Doar and three others were riding in, opened the tailgate and doors and yelled racial slurs at them. The group exited the truck and approached Baker, who punched Doar in the shoulders, the affidavit said. A fight ensued, with Baker eventually pulling out a knife and stabbing Doar in the rib, the affidavit said.

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When Baker was interviewed by police, he said he was an alcoholic and had more to drink that day than he normally did, the affidavit said.

Baker was being held in jail on Thursday on $100,000 bond. Jail records did not list an attorney for him.

Threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities increased across the U.S. during the Israel-Hamas war. Israel invaded Gaza after an Oct. 7 attack on Israel by Hamas militants.

In Vermont in November, three college students of Palestinian descent were shot and seriously wounded while taking an evening walk in an attack that authorities are investigating as a possible hate crime. In October, a landlord in Illinois was accused of fatally stabbing a 6-year-old Muslim boy and wounding his mother. He was charged with a hate crime after police and relatives said he singled out the victims because of their faith.

An addled tourist faces criminal charges for his outburst on a packed passenger plane. 

When a flight attendant refused to let him disembark, he leaped up, ran toward an emergency exit and shouted as he forced it open.

The Thai Airways passenger, 40-year-old Wong Sai Heung of Vancouver, Canada, was escorted off the Airbus A320 by authorities at Chiang Mai International Airport around 9 p.m. local time Wednesday.

Passengers had already taken their seats, and the doors had been sealed. However, Heung ordered a flight attendant to let him off Thai Airways flight TG121 just as it was lining up on the runway, according to Nation Thailand. 

He shouted "that someone was going to assault him" as he pushed the door behind the cockpit open, causing the emergency slide to unfurl and rendering the plane immobile in the middle of the tarmac. 

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Heung could be seen escorted away in handcuffs in a video captured after the incident. 

"I was very paranoid and had anxiety," he said. "It was the thing I had last time on the trip to Vietnam, but it's pretty much, the second big trip, but it was a big panic attack, I thought I was getting killed in that spot. I'm not doing well."

Police told Nation Thailand that Heung was not under the influence when he was arrested. He was taken to Phu Ping Ratchaniwet Police Station for questioning after the incident, and remains in custody. 

He faces charges for rendering an airplane to be in a condition likely to cause danger to a person and failing to comply with an order of an aircraft commander or crew member, according to the police station's deputy superintendent, Colonel Nattawut Noisorn. 

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"The suspect may face further charges for aviation offenses, which are currently being processed by the relevant organizations," he added. "Additionally, if the 13 airlines affected by the incident decide to file a report, he could face additional charges."

Heung's outburst not only delayed the flight he was on, but prevented other arriving flights from landing. Departing planes were delayed on the ground while arriving planes were caught in a midair holding pattern. 

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Other passengers aboard Thai Airways flight TG121 were checked into an area hotel after their flight was rescheduled. Originally, the hourlong flight was supposed to depart at 9:05 p.m. and arrive at Suvarnabhumi International Airport in Bangkok. 

"A plane was about to take off, but someone panicked and tried to open the door," passenger Watcharapon Pethsurp told Nation Thailand. "As far as I know, at 9:45 p.m., the plane was about to leave before there was a scream and then an announcement from a flight attendant saying that someone panicked and attempted to leave through the exit, causing it to slide open."

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"The plane was unable to fly, and we had to wait for the mechanics to take it back to the pit stop," Pethsurp said. 

Thai Airways wrote in a statement that the flight was able to depart several hours later, just after midnight. 

Thailand expects to open up a humanitarian corridor in about a month to deliver aid to suffering civilians in war-torn Burma, Thai Foreign Minister Parnpree Bahiddha-Nukara said Thursday after inspecting the planned staging area in the northern Thai province of Tak.

The plan, initiated by Thailand with the endorsement of Burma and other fellow members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, is relatively small in scale and initially would reach just a tiny proportion of the 2.6 million civilians the U.N. estimates are displaced throughout Burma.

Burma is wracked by a nationwide armed conflict that began after the army ousted the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi in February 2021 and suppressed widespread nonviolent protests that sought a return to democratic rule.

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Large areas of the country, especially frontier areas, are now contested or controlled by anti-military resistance forces, pro-democracy fighters allied with armed ethnic minority organizations that have been fighting for greater autonomy for decades.

Thai officials have said they expect about 20,000 displaced people will benefit from the plan in its initial stage. The Thai and Burma Red Cross societies would implement distribution, to be monitored by the ASEAN Coordinating Centre for Humanitarian Assistance on Disaster Management.

Other details of the cross-border aid plan remain incomplete or unrevealed, but Parnpree described it at a news conference as a government-to-government deal, meaning activities on the Burma side of the border will be handled by that country’s ruling military council.

The ongoing hostilities, however, make unlikely any expansion of what is considered a pilot project, confined for now to a small area just across the river border from Thailand.

"We have long been calling for a program of direct cross-border humanitarian assistance to the refugees and civilians truly in need of help," said Nay Phone Latt, a spokesperson for Burma's shadow National Unity Government, the leading political body of the anti-military resistance.

He rejected the Thai plan, however, urging that the aid instead go through the ethnic minority groups that control much of the border area, and charging that previous efforts to assist displaced person had been diverted to help the military.

Asst. Prof. Surachanee Sriyai, a visiting fellow at Singapore's ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, also doubts that Burma's military government has the will or the competence to run a legitimate assistance program. Neither the Thai nor the Burma Red Cross is capable of dealing with delivering assistance in such complicated circumstances, she believes.

At his news conference in Mae Sot, in Tak province, Parnpree defended Thailand’s approach, saying, "If we don’t start with the government, eventually, if we start with other people, we will have to come back to start with the government anyway.

In other forums he has acknowledged that the Thai initiative has deep roots in regional geopolitics. Speaking last month at the Diplomacy Dialogue on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, he said that with no end in sight to Burma’s conflict, "The fear among the regional countries is Burma becoming increasingly fragmented and becoming an arena for major-power competition."

As Burma's eastern neighbor, Thailand especially fears an influx of refugees.

Parnpree said ASEAN needs to actively push to implement what it calls the Five-Points Consensus, which it agreed just a few months after the army’s 2021 takeover in Burma..

The agreement called for the immediate cessation of violence, a dialogue among all concerned parties, mediation by an ASEAN special envoy, provision of humanitarian aid through ASEAN channels, and a visit to Burma by the special envoy to meet all concerned parties.

Burma's generals, despite initially assenting to the consensus, failed to act on it.

Parnpree told his Davos audience that while it was desirable to have Burma return to the path of democracy, it was meanwhile imperative to address its peoples’ humanitarian needs.

FORMER UNITED NATIONS HEAD URGES BURMA’S MILITARY TO END VIOLENCE

He said Thailand hopes its aid plan will be the building block for constructive dialogue and engagement within Burma and between Burma and the international community as the process goes forward.

An aid worker in Mae Sot who has been involved for about a decade in humanitarian activities involving displaced people in Burma’s Kayin state, where the project will be implemented, described what he knows so far about the plan as a good initiative but far too limited, given huge numbers of displaced people across Burma.

Speaking on condition of anonymity because he feared interference in his work from the authorities, he blamed Burma's military for the humanitarian crisis and said they should not be involved at all in the assistance plan. He added that he believed Burma’s military authorities were incapable of carrying out such a program, charging that had failed to deliver assistance to people in need during the coronavirus pandemic.

At least 13 Sudanese migrants died and 27 others are believed missing after their small metal boat sank Thursday off the Tunisian coast as they sought to cross the Mediterranean to reach Europe, according to local authorities.

The Tunisian coast guard was able to rescue just two people from the capsized boat nine miles off the coast of the port of Chebba, and is searching for those missing, regional court spokesperson Farid Ben Jha said. The survivors said a total of 42 people were aboard, all from Sudan.

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They said the group had left from the coast of nearby Sfax, a common jumping-off point for illegal boat journeys across the Mediterranean to Italy. The boat sank soon after setting to sea, Ben Jha said.

Such migration attempts have increased recently from Tunisia, by both Tunisians and people from elsewhere in Africa.

Migration activists sounded the alarm last month about mass expulsions and arbitrary arrests of migrants in Tunisia, where authorities are seeing more migrants arrive for attempted Mediterranean crossings from the North African nation to Europe.

The Tunisian Forum for Economic and Social Rights cited witness accounts indicating the situation had become particularly dire around Tunisia’s borders with Libya and Algeria as well as around Sfax, the country’s second most populous city, 117 miles from the Italian Island of Lampedusa.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk torched American Republican senators on Thursday after an additional $60 billion in U.S. aid for Ukraine stalled in a recent vote. 

"Dear Republican Senators of America. Ronald Reagan, who helped millions of us to win back our freedom and independence, must be turning in his grave today. Shame on you," Tusk wrote in a post on the X, invoking the former Republican president and his efforts in the 1980s to support Poland's struggle to shake off Moscow's dominance. 

Poland borders Ukraine and has been pressing the U.S. and Europe for unwavering support for Kyiv’s forces nearly two years after Russia's full-scale invasion, as security concerns for NATO members and allies in the region mount. In a national election in November, Polish voters turned out in huge numbers to embrace Tusk and more centrist, moderate conservative and left-wing parties after eight years of rule by a nationalist conservative party that was at odds with the European Union. 

The country saw tens of thousands of demonstrators take to the streets in support of "God, Family and Fatherland" after the election signaled a more globalist shift. The European Union had blasted the previous Warsaw government for not ending an impasse at the Poland-Ukraine border in protest of grain imports and favorable treatment for Ukrainian truckers. 

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In response to Tusk's rebuke of U.S. Republicans, Polish conservative journalist Wojciech Wybranowski wrote, "In Poland, we are also fighting a silent battle. A silent war against economic backwardness, against social exclusion, economic exclusion, against competition from Germany." Reagan "might be ashamed for today's Republicans in the US, but the great men of independent Poland: Grabski, Kwiatkowski etc. would be ashamed today for the ineptitude of you and your associates," he wrote to Tusk. 

The U.S. Senate on Wednesday failed to pass a supplemental spending agreement that included aid for Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, as well as an ambitious border security and immigration package that drew widespread opposition from conservative Republicans in both chambers since its release on Sunday.

Wednesday's vote was 49-50. It needed 60 votes to pass. The vote went mostly along party lines, except for five Democratic no votes and four Republicans voting yes. 

Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass.; Bob Menendez, D-N.J.; Alex Padilla, D-Calif.; Bernie Sanders, I-Vt.; and Elizabeth Warren, D-Ma., voted against, with Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., also voting against as a procedural move to allow it to be reconsidered at a future time. Republicans voting yes were Sens. James Lankford, R-Okla.; Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska; Susan Collins, R-Maine; and Mitt Romney, R-Utah. The package had been negotiated for months by Sens. Lankford; Chris Murphy, D-Conn.; Krysten Sinema, I-Ariz.; and Biden administration officials.

The $118 billion package included $60 billion for Ukraine, $14 billion for Israel, aid to Taiwan, humanitarian assistance to Gaza and $20 billion in measures to tackle the historic and ongoing crisis at the southern border. 

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After Wednesday's rejection of the supplemental, Schumer tried to push ahead to a crucial test vote on a $95 billion package for Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies – a modified package with the border portion stripped out. The standalone $95 billion package would invest in domestic defense manufacturing, send funding to allies in Asia and provide $10 billion for humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, Israel, Gaza and other places.

The White House said President Biden believes there should be a new border policy but would also support moving the aid for Ukraine and Israel alone, as he has from the start.

"We support this bill which would protect America’s national security interests by stopping Putin’s onslaught in Ukraine before he turns to other countries, helping Israel defend itself against Hamas terrorists and delivering life-saving humanitarian aid to innocent Palestinian civilians," White House spokesman Andrew Bates said. 

Even though support for Ukraine has been a top priority for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, the deeply divided Republican conference was scrambling to find support for the wartime funding. After former President Trump eviscerated the Senate’s bipartisan border proposal, House Speaker Mike Johnson said the package would be dead on arrival. Trump has also led many Republicans to question aid for Ukraine and insist on an exit strategy. 

As a result of the impasse, the U.S. has halted arms shipments to Ukraine at a crucial point in the nearly two-year conflict.

Fox News' Adam Shaw and The Associated Press contributed to this report.