Israeli Police Use Water Cannon to Disperse Anti-PM Crowd

A protester wears a shirt that reads "go", waves a flag while others gather under a bridge on their way to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
A protester wears a shirt that reads "go", waves a flag while others gather under a bridge on their way to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
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Israeli Police Use Water Cannon to Disperse Anti-PM Crowd

A protester wears a shirt that reads "go", waves a flag while others gather under a bridge on their way to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)
A protester wears a shirt that reads "go", waves a flag while others gather under a bridge on their way to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem, Saturday, Jan. 30, 2021. (AP Photo/Maya Alleruzzo)

Israeli police sprayed a crowd of protesters with a water cannon Saturday night as they tried to disperse demonstrators calling for Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's resignation over corruption charges.

Temperatures were about 10 degrees Celsius (50 Fahrenheit) on a raw winter evening when the crowd was sprayed.

The protesters have been gathering every week near Netanyahu's official residence in Jerusalem for over seven months, but the use of water cannons is rare.

In a statement, police said hundreds of protesters took part in the demonstration, The Associated Press reported.

They accused some protesters of unruly behavior, including throwing objects and trying to break through a police barricade. It said one officer was lightly hurt, and several protesters were arrested.

The protesters say Netanyahu cannot serve as prime minister when he is on trial for charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three separate cases.

They also accuse him of mismanaging the coronavirus crisis, with unemployment in double digits after a series of nationwide lockdowns.

The country is in the midst of its third lockdown, despite one of the world's most successful vaccination campaigns.

Israel is preparing to hold new elections March 23.



Pay up or Face Climate-Led Disaster for Humanity, UN Chief Warns COP29 Summit

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 12 November 2024. (EPA)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 12 November 2024. (EPA)
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Pay up or Face Climate-Led Disaster for Humanity, UN Chief Warns COP29 Summit

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 12 November 2024. (EPA)
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres delivers his speech at the UN Climate Change Conference COP29 in Baku, Azerbaijan, 12 November 2024. (EPA)

United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told world leaders at the COP29 summit on Tuesday to "pay up" to prevent climate-led humanitarian disasters, and said time was running out to limit a destructive rise in global temperatures.

Nearly 200 nations have gathered at the annual UN climate summit in Baku, focused this year on raising hundreds of billions of dollars to fund a global transition to cleaner energy sources and limit the climate damage caused by carbon emissions.

But on the day of the summit designed to bring together world leaders and generate political momentum for the marathon negotiations, many of the leading players were not present to hear Guterres' message. After victory for Donald Trump, a climate change denier, in the US presidential election, President Joe Biden will not attend. Chinese President Xi Jinping has sent a deputy and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is not attending because of political developments in Brussels.

"On climate finance, the world must pay up, or humanity will pay the price," Guterres said in a speech. "The sound you hear is the ticking clock. We are in the final countdown to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius and time is not on our side."

This year is set to be the hottest on record. Scientists say evidence shows global warming and its impacts are unfolding faster than expected and the world may already have hit 1.5 degree Celsius (2.7 F) of warming above the average pre-industrial temperature - a critical threshold beyond which it is at risk of irreversible and extreme climate change.

As COP29 began, unusual east coast US wildfires that triggered air quality warnings for New York continued to grow. In Spain, survivors are coming to terms with the worst floods in the country's modern history and the Spanish government has announced billions of euros for reconstruction.