Israeli ministers have redoubled their attacks on the embattled head of the country’s security agency, claiming he is undermining the government with a politically motivated investigation into a Shin Bet agent.

The agent, who has not been named, was arrested last Wednesday on suspicion of committing security-related offenses. Police say he used his position and access to Shin Bet systems to pass classified information to unauthorized parties “on several occasions.” The Shin Bet, officially known as the Israel Security Agency, is the country’s equivalent of the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

The arrest of the agent deepens an already bitter feud between members of the government and the leader of Shin Bet, Ronen Bar, who has said he will resign in the next few weeks. Ministers accuse him of mounting a number of politically motivated investigations designed to discredit the government. The acrimony soared following the QatarGate affair, which has ensnared two close associates of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

In a statement on Tuesday, the Shin Bet acknowledged the leak and the subsequent investigation into the agent’s actions. It said that during the Gaza war, there has been a rise in leaks of classified information by employees of security agencies. More than 20 leaks-related investigations have been carried out, it said.

Last month, Netanyahu said he had lost confidence in Bar, but the Shin Bet chief has received support from the opposition.

The suspect’s lawyers say the information that he passed to a minister and two journalists was “of immense public importance” but posed no threat to public safety.

Amichai Chikli, the minister who received the information from the accused Shin Bet agent, said he was a hero for passing it on.

Chikli claimed the information showed that Bar “was obsessively spying on a sitting minister” and that the agent had “revealed that the parts of the Shin Bet’s investigation into the circumstances of the (Gaza) war’s outbreak that were made public present a false and distorted picture.”

“Israel has never had a Shin Bet chief as reckless, arrogant, and incompetent as (Bar),” he said.

The agent’s lawyers said the information he’d provided presented a more complex account of Shin Bet’s conduct before October 7 than was previously published. Hamas-led militants attacked Israel that day in 2023, killing more than 1,200 people and igniting the ongoing war in Gaza.

‘A real regime coup’

Commenting on the arrest, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich said: “This is what a real regime coup looks like.” He described Bar as a “dangerous individual” who uses the agency’s intelligence and investigative tools “as instruments to retaliate against politicians and journalists.”

The government voted to dismiss Bar late last month. But Israel’s Supreme Court froze the decision after the Attorney General said the firing could not proceed without the approval of a special committee.

Netanyahu’s Likud party portrayed the accused agent as a whistleblower who had exposed how Bar had “transformed parts of the Shin Bet into a private militia of the deep state.” The party accused Bar of working with Attorney General Gali Baharav-Miara, another target of right-wing ire.

Yair Lapid, the head of Israel’s opposition, rushed to Bar’s defense, saying the attacks against him were “a dangerous bloodbath for him and the Shin Bet members whose fighters protect the state’s security.”

“The Israeli government is a government of criminals that attacks investigators who investigate offenses against state security,” Lapid said on social media.

Critics have linked the attempt to fire Bar directly to the QatarGate affair, in which court documents show the two Netanyahu associates arrested by Shin Bet are suspected of receiving money from Qatar and working to portray the country positively in the media.

“When Netanyahu gets in trouble with Qatar he tries to fire the investigator,” said Yair Golan, leader of Israel’s left-wing Democrats party. “He will do everything to save himself. Himself and his mouthpieces. Netanyahu is dangerous to Israel.”

Several French prisons were attacked overnight in response to government efforts to clamp down on drug trafficking, senior officials said on Tuesday, as authorities grapple with what they have called a “tsunami” of cocaine coming into the country.

Unknown assailants fired automatic weapons at the prison in the southern city of Toulon, while vehicles were burned outside other lockups across the country and staff were threatened. It was not immediately clear whether the attacks were coordinated, or who carried them out.

Justice Minister Gerald Darmanin, who has led efforts to toughen prison security and crack down on gangsters who run their empires from behind bars, said he would travel to Toulon.

“Attempts have been made to intimidate staff in several prisons, ranging from burning vehicles to firing automatic weapons,” Darmanin wrote on X. “I am going to Toulon to support the officers concerned. The French Republic is facing up to the problem of drug trafficking and is taking measures that will massively disrupt the criminal networks.”

Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau said he had instructed local prefects, alongside the police and gendarmerie, to immediately step up the protection of staff and prisons.

“The State’s response must be implacable,” he wrote on X. “Those who attack prisons and prison officers should be locked up in these prisons and watched over by these officers.”

French media reported that the prisons targeted included Toulon, Aix-En-Provence, Marseille, Valence, and Nimes in southern France and Villepinte and Nanterre, near Paris.

Years of record South American cocaine imports to Europe have supercharged local drug markets, sparking a wave of drug violence across the continent.

France has not been spared, with record cocaine seizures, and gangs reaping windfalls from the white powder as they expand from traditional power bases in cities like Marseille into smaller regional towns unaccustomed to drug violence.

The rise in gang crime has lifted support for the far-right National Rally party, and helped drag French politics rightward. Darmanin, a former interior minister, and Retailleau have prioritized tackling drug trafficking.

In February – as he announced record cocaine seizures of 47 tonnes in the first 11 months of 2024, versus 23 tonnes in all of 2023 – Retailleau said France had been hit by a “white tsunami” that had rewritten the rules of the criminal landscape.

Darmanin has proposed a series of measures to tighten prison security, including isolating the country’s top 100 kingpins.

Lawmakers are also close to approving a sweeping new anti-drug trafficking law that would create a new national organized crime prosecutors’ office and give greater investigative power to police probing narcos.

French authorities scored a win against drug crime in February, when they recaptured Mohamed Amra, a French fugitive known as “The Fly.” His escape as he was being transported from prison to a court hearing resulted in the deaths of two prison guards and was seized upon by right-wing politicians as evidence that France had lost its grip on drug crime.

Police have arrested two people suspected of breeding and selling exotic cats in Spain.

Officers detained the pair at a property in Manacor, on the island of Majorca, after finding 19 exotic cats including a desert lynx and two servals, according to a statement from the Guardia Civil on Monday.

“The detainees sold different animal species such as white tigers, black leopards, hyenas and pumas to different parts of the world via the internet,” police said.

Investigators seized extensive documentation as well as more than 40 animal passports from Russia, Belarus and China, as well as two computers, three cellphones and two pen drives, according to the statement.

“The operation has uncovered a global criminal organization which included breeders, traffickers and veterinarians,” it added.

The investigation started in March when the nature protection service (Seprona) received reports that a couple were breeding exotic cats at a property in Majorca before selling them online.

Authorities said that the couple had an “extremely active” presence on social media and that the breeding operation in Majorca was just “the tip of the iceberg.”

The couple are accused of being part of an international wildlife trafficking network that saw the majority of animals being smuggled into the European Union from Russia, Belarus and Ukraine via the Poland-Belarus border, according to the Guardia Civil.

Species offered for sale included a clouded leopard with an asking price of 60,000 euros ($68,000), police said.

The seized animals, which included 16 mixed breeds, have been temporarily placed at the Safari Zoo de Son Servera in Majorca.

They will later be permanently rehomed in Alicante, mainland Spain.

These species require lots of space and can also be dangerous to humans, the Guardia Civil said.

As a result, traffickers have started trying to breed species such as desert lynx with domestic cats in order to produce exclusive but less dangerous animals, added the statement.

All of the seized animals are protected by the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES), an international agreement for the protection of certain species.

The couple are accused of wildlife crimes, smuggling, falsifying documents and criminal conspiracy.

According to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), the European Union is thought to be the third largest destination for illegal wildlife as well as “a crucial transit hub for illegal wildlife trade.”

France said Tuesday it was expelling 12 Algerian diplomatic officials a day after Algeria announced the expulsion of the same number of French officials in escalating tensions between the two countries.

Algeria said Monday that its expulsion of 12 French officials was over the arrest of an Algerian consular official by French authorities in a kidnapping case, but relations between the two sides have been deteriorating since last summer.

That’s when France shifted its position to support Morocco’s autonomy plan for Western Sahara – a disputed territory claimed by the pro-independence Polisario Front, which receives support from Algeria.

Tensions further peaked in November after Algeria arrested French-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, who is an outspoken critic of Islamism and the Algerian regime. He has since been sentenced to five years in prison – a verdict he subsequently appealed.

In addition to what French officials called the “symmetrically” calibrated expulsion of 12 Algerian officials, France’s ambassador to Algiers also was being recalled home for consultations, a statement from the French presidential palace said Tuesday.

It said Algerian authorities were responsible for “a brutal deterioration in our bilateral relations.”

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot said on X that Algeria’s decision was “unjustified” and that dialogue “cannot go one-way.”

French counterterrorism prosecutors said three Algerian nationals in total were arrested last week and handed preliminary charges of “kidnapping or arbitrary detention … in connection with a terrorist undertaking.”

The group is allegedly involved in the April 2024 kidnapping of an Algerian influencer, Amir Boukhors, or Amir DZ, a known critic of the Algerian government with 1.1 million followers on TikTok.

The Algerian foreign affairs ministry said the arrest of the consular official as part of the kidnapping case aimed to “humiliate Algeria, with no consideration for the consular status of this agent, disregarding all diplomatic customs and practices, and in flagrant violation of the relevant conventions and treaties.”

The latest surge in acrimony followed a brief easing of tensions about two weeks ago when French President Emmanuel Macron called Algerian counterpart Abdelmadjid Tebboune. French officials said at the time that they had agreed to revive bilateral relations.

Four journalists linked to the late Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny were sentenced to spend five years and six months in a penal colony on Tuesday, after they were accused of working for a banned organization run by the Kremlin critic, Russian state media TASS has reported.

The reporters – Antonina Favorskaya, Sergei Karelin, Konstantin Gabov and Artem Kriger – have been on trial behind closed doors since October on charges, which they deny, of belonging to an “extremist” group established by Navalny in 2011.

Prosecutors claimed the four had produced material for the YouTube channel of Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation (FBK), according to Reuters, which is prohibited under the country’s “foreign agents law.” Amnesty International has warned that the “repressive” legislation is an “attack on freedom of association” in Russia, where Moscow has increasingly attempted to stifle journalists under censorship laws.

In February, mourners gathered at Navalny’s graveside in the Russian capital to mark the first anniversary of his death in prison. Dozens of people were detained at memorials, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW) and other rights groups.

Over his storied political career, Navalny generated some of the largest anti-government demonstrations in recent years, and unfurled corruption at Russia’s highest seat of power, under the FBK.

Navalny died suddenly at the age of 47 on February 16, 2024, while serving a 19-year sentence on extremism charges he denied. At the time, Russia’s prison service claimed he “felt unwell after a walk.” But Navalny’s wife, Yulia Navalnaya, and former US President Joe Biden have long held Russian President Vladimir Putin responsible for his death. Moscow has rebuffed those allegations.

Authorities in Russia have since tried to “erase Navalny’s political legacy” through their “extensive arsenal of repressive tools,” according to HRW – which called the arrests on the first anniversary of his death “just the tip of the iceberg in the Kremlin’s continued crackdown on his supporters.”

Africa’s electric vehicle (EV) market is accelerating. But so far, one particular group of potential users — rural women — has largely been left behind, with investors favoring electric motorbike start-ups that serve a predominantly urban and male clientele. One company thinks it has the answer: electric tricycles.

“The boys with the two-wheelers get all the money,” said Shantha Bloemen, founder of Mobility for Africa, a Zimbabwean start-up with a 77% female customer base and one of a handful of EV companies in Africa operating solely in rural areas. Bloemen exclusively supplies tricycles, generally preferred by female riders in rural areas due to their non-straddling seat and greater stability on uneven roads. “Three-wheelers mean you’re inclusive of women,” she said.

Bloemen sees tricycles as the key to unlocking for rural women the potential of Africa’s EV market, which is expected to grow to $28.3 billion by 2030, according to data from Mordor Intelligence. She wants the continent to follow in the footsteps of Asia-Pacific, where tricycles are popular. “I want to be everywhere,” she said, “I want to be the queen of tricycles.”

For her customers, the vehicles, designed to cope with the unsurfaced roads, are transformative. “It has changed (our) way of life,” said Beauty Simango, 33, resident of the Zimbabwean village of Hauna and, since May last year, one of more than 300 people to lease or buy an electric tricycle from Mobility for Africa.

Simango no longer spends hours each day walking to fetch water or deliver crops to the market. By transporting goods and running a taxi service, her weekly income has increased from $30 to $150, although she now pays $65 towards her lease and regular battery swapping. Within 12 months, she will have paid off the price of the vehicle ($2,340). With her weekly profit, Simango pays her children’s school fees and funds farming projects. “It has helped our self-esteem as women,” she added.

But Mobility for Africa has struggled with a lack of investment. While Bloemen has raised a total of $6 million since 2019, half of which is from grants, including $380,000 from the Toyota Mobility Foundation, companies selling motorbikes in cities have been far more successful. Ampersand in Rwanda, whose clientele is, according to CEO Josh Whale, “overwhelmingly” male, raised over $21 million in a single year ending in August 2024. Spiro, the giant of the sector, has tens of millions of dollars in financing.

Most EV companies are focused on urban areas due to greater population density, said Tom Courtright, research director at the Africa E-Mobility Alliance think tank. Currently, most electric bikes and trikes must regularly swap their batteries at purpose-built facilities (Mobility for Africa currently has six such facilities) — but the cost of building and running these facilities can deter investors in areas with low populations. Currently, Courtright said, “urban areas are a better bet.”

For now, women in rural Africa must wait for the EV revolution to reach them. “Things are definitely moving in that direction,” said Ampersand’s Whale, “it’s just that the low hanging fruit is in the cities.”

Ecuador has been requesting foreign military support for months, saying that its fight against gangs is a “transnational war” that requires the contribution of multiple countries.

Noboa said that while his administration “would love to have” US forces in Ecuador, he insisted that they would not be out patrolling the streets. Instead, they would play a supportive role in Ecuador’s security operations.

“We would like to cooperate with US forces, and I think there are many ways that we can do that, especially in monitoring illegal operations that move out of Ecuador, but the control of the operations will be in the hands of our military and our police,” he said.

The US has previously carried out operations in that area. From 1999 to 2009, it ran surveillance flights targeting drug routes in the eastern Pacific at the now-defunct Manta Air Base.

He said the US had been waiting until the outcome of Sunday’s election to resume talks. Noboa won the vote decisively against leftist lawyer Luisa González, having campaigned on a promise to restore security with a hardline approach and revitalize the economy.

Noboa, who was born and educated in the United States, has been trying to boost cooperation with Washington on various issues – from trade to migration. On the latter issue, he says he wants to improve living conditions at home to incentivize Ecuadorians to remain in the country, instead of migrating to the US.

Asked whether his relationship with US President Donald Trump is comparable to the one Trump has cultivated with El Salvador’s strongman President Nayib Bukele – who has agreed to take in deported migrants from the US accused of violent crimes – Noboa said his situation is different.

“My case is different than El Salvador’s case. And we both respect each other. We both support each other, but at the same at the same time, different realities. And we need to view things according to each country and each country,” he said, noting that he has invited both Trump and Bukele to his inauguration on May 24.

Asked whether another meeting with US officials was on the horizon, he replied, “Yes, I think sooner (rather) than later.”

The national police says the start to the year has been the most violent in the country’s history, with more than 2,500 homicides. Data from organized crime research center InSight Crime suggests Ecuador now has the highest homicide rate in Latin America, with nearly twice as many killings as Mexico. The surge has been fueled by drug trafficking routes, turf wars and alliances between local gangs and foreign cartels.

In March, Noboa also announced a “strategic alliance” to fight organized crime with Erik Prince, the founder of the controversial private defense contractor formerly known as Blackwater.

Peru’s former First Lady Nadine Heredia requested asylum at the Brazilian Embassy in Lima on Tuesday, the same day she and her husband, former President Ollanta Humala, were sentenced to 15 years in prison on money laundering charges.

The embassy informed Peru that Heredia had arrived Tuesday morning, according to a statement from the Peruvian Foreign Ministry. It’s unclear if she entered the facility before or after the sentence was announced by the Peruvian Judiciary.

The trial relates to alleged illicit contributions to Humala’s election campaigns in 2006 and 2011.

Prosecutors had alleged that Humala’s Nationalist Party received illicit contributions from the Venezuelan government and the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht to finance his campaigns.

Humala and his wife had previously denied any wrongdoing.

Humala was in attendance as a judge read out the verdict on Tuesday, three years after the trial began. Heredia did not attend.

Moments after the ruling was announced, the judiciary ordered Humala to start serving his sentence immediately and be sent to prison.

“The panel has said that the illegality of the crimes can be verified along the way – that is inadmissible. Here, in oral trial and in sentencing, affirmations must be made, no longer presumptions,” he argued.

Prosecutors were seeking 20 years in prison for the former president and 26 years for the former first lady.

An Israeli fighter jet dropped a bomb near an Israeli community on the Gaza border on Tuesday night as a result of what the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) called a “technical malfunction.”

The bomb fell near the Nir Yithzak kibbutz adjacent to southern Gaza, which sits approximately two miles from the border.

“A short while ago, a munition fell from an IDF fighter jet that was on its way to a mission in the Gaza Strip. The munition landed in an open area near Nir Yitzhak due to a technical malfunction,” the Israeli military said in a short statement.

The IDF did not say what type of bomb it was.

There are no injuries as a result of the bomb falling, the military said, and the incident is now under review.

A spokesman for Nir Yitzhak said the bomb landed in the village’s farm area.

The kibbutz is in contact with military officials and expects a thorough investigation, the spokesman said.

According to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics, Nir Yitzhak has a population of approximately 550 people.

It was one of the villages that came under attack in the Hamas-led attack on October 7, 2023.

According to an interview in Israel’s YNet news in February, about half of the kibbutz has returned to live in the community.

The incident is extraordinarily rare, but not entirely unprecedented.

Last May, an Israeli fighter jet accidentally dropped a bomb on the community of Yated, which neighbors Nir Yitzhak.

The munition did not explode and was collected by Israeli forces.

One month later, an Israeli tank shell fired in southern Gaza deviated from its target and impacted near the border fence, according to the IDF.

Shrapnel damaged a car in southern Israel as a result of the impact.