French President Emmanuel Macron says the pension bill that he pushed through without a vote in parliament needs to be implemented by the “end of the year.” He is sticking to his decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64 despite mass protests and recent violent incidents in the streets. Macron spoke in an interview broadcast on national television on Wednesday. He said the bill will “continue its democratic path” as the Constitutional Council needs to review it in the coming weeks. It was the first time that Macron spoke publicly since his government forced the pension bill through parliament last week. The move prompted scattered protests in Paris and across the country, some degenerating into violence.

Japan’s prime minister has pledged to provide Poland with development support to help the European country assist neighboring Ukraine as it defends itself from Russia’s invasion. Polish Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki hosted Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida in Warsaw a day after Kishida made a surprise visit to Kyiv and met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Kishida said Japan would offer the Polish government development assistance in lights of "the increasing burden on Poland due to the prolonged invasion of Ukraine.” Japan usually provides the type of promised aid to developing countries, which Poland is no longer, but Kishida says the Japanese government is making a special exception.

Travel experts say they aren’t seeing any dip in travel demand for the busy summer season or shoulder seasons, but people will likely spend a lot more money this year to take their vacation. Prices for flights, car rentals and hotels are still 15% higher than before the pandemic, though they have come down a bit from last year. There is also more interest in destinations in Asia, as many countries have reopened to tourists. Travelers are also booking more last-minute flights, so to avoid the rush and price hikes, book early.

TikTok’s CEO plans to tell Congress that the video-sharing app is committed to user safety, data protection and security, and keeping the platform free from Chinese government influence. Shou Zi Chew is due to answer questions Thursday from U.S. lawmakers concerned about the social media platform’s effects on its young user base and possible national security risks posed by the app. In prepared remarks released ahead of his appearance, Chew says TikTok’s efforts to ensure the security of its user data go “above and beyond” what any of its rivals are doing. He's urging officials against pursuing an all-out ban on the TikTok app or for the company to be sold off.

Spain’s parliament has dismissed an attempt by the far-right Vox party to topple the governing leftist coalition. Lawmakers on Wednesday voted overwhelmingly against a no-confidence motion brought against Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez's government. The motion failed on a 201-53 vote, while the 91 members of the conservative Popular Party abstained. Vox had proposed 89-year-old economist Ramón Tamames as an independent candidate for prime minister. He promised to call an immediate election if he were chosen to replace Sánchez. Tamames presented himself and Vox as protectors of the unity of Spain against Catalan separatist parties that Sánchez has relied on to win important votes in parliament.

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak faces a rebellion from some fellow Conservatives in a vote on his deal with the European Union over Northern Ireland trade. Former prime ministers Boris Johnson and Liz Truss both say they will vote against the agreement on Wednesday. The deal is designed to resolve a thorny trade dispute that vexed U.K.-EU relations and triggered a political crisis in Belfast. Johnson led Britain out of the EU in 2020. He says Sunak's deal is “not acceptable” because it keeps some EU laws in operation in Northern Ireland. Despite the opposition, the government is expected to win the vote because the opposition Labour Party backs the changes.

French President Emmanuel Macron says in TV interview that pension bill needs to be implemented by 'end of the year.'

Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is facing a high-stakes grilling by a committee of lawmakers. The question is whether he misled Parliament about rule-breaking parties in government buildings during the coronavirus pandemic. Johnson says he never deliberately lied and "the evidence conclusively shows that I did not knowingly or recklessly mislead Parliament.” The televised hearing on Wednesday is a moment of peril for a politician whose career has been a roller-coaster of scandals and comebacks. Johnson could be suspended or even lose his seat in Parliament if the House of Commons Committee of Privileges concludes Johnson lied deliberately. That would likely end hopes of a comeback for the 58-year-old politician. Johnson resigned in July after three years in office.

A German environmental group is suing Facebook’s parent company Meta over persistent death threats posted on the social network against its staff. Environmental Action Germany known by German acronym DUH says Meta has failed to stop the threats of violence regularly directed at its director Juergen Resch and others in a Facebook group with more than 50,000 members. DUH has conducted high-profile campaigns demanding that German cities enforce air quality rules by banning certain heavily polluting vehicles. Meta said in a statement that it actively works to stop hate speech on its platforms. German lawmaker Renate Kuenast won a case against Facebook last year forcing the company to remove fake quotes attributed to her from its site and pay damages. Facebook is appealing the ruling.

The IMF and Ukraine have agreed on a new loan package aimed at shoring up government finances severely strained by Russia’s invasion. The $15.6 billion deal is expected to leverage even more support by assuring other donors that Ukraine is pursuing strong economic policies and fighting corruption. Ukraine’s finance ministry said Wednesday that the program will “help to mobilize financing from Ukraine’s international partners" and “ensure the path to post-war reconstruction.” The government is running a huge budget deficit amid massively higher military spending and is reliant on outside help to fund pensions, salaries and basic services. The deal also aims to support Ukraine's bid for European Union membership and post-war reconstruction.

The European Union’s executive arm has proposed rules to protect consumers from businesses selling goods labeled as green which actually aren’t. The European Commission said greenwashing was a notable problem, with 53% of green claims on products or services making “vague, misleading or unfounded information.” With its “green claims” directive unveiled on Wednesday, the commission wants to set common criteria that would bring more clarity. Under the proposal, companies that claim the packaging for their products is made of 30% recycled plastic would have to prove it with scientific evidence. EU countries would be in charge of setting up verification processes overseen by independent bodies.

European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde says future interest rate decisions are open after upheaval in the global banking system has left the economic outlook more uncertain. Speaking at a conference Wednesday at Frankfurt’s Goethe University, Lagarde that decisions would depend on whether the numbers shows painfully high inflation is headed convincingly down. She says that means the ECB is “neither committed to raise further nor are we finished with hiking rates." The open-ended approach is a shift from the ECB’s stance of clearly indicating more rate hikes were in the offing to fight inflation. But bank failures have sent shudders through financial markets due to fears that others may suffer losses from high interest rates.

Train services in Greece resumed Wednesday for the first time since a deadly rail disaster three weeks ago. The previous evening, the embattled conservative prime minister announced early elections for May. The Feb. 28 head-on collision, the deadliest in the country’s history, killed 57 people and left dozens injured. Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, whose center-right government has been struggling to regain its footing after the crash said late Tuesday he would hold elections in May ‒ a month later than initially expected ‒ but did not give an exact date. Greece must hold elections by July when the government’s term expires. National and suburban train services restarted along limited sections of the network, at lower speeds in certain areas.

MARSEILLE, France (AP) — On a sunny afternoon in the center of Marseille in southern France, traffic was stopped as the sound of drumming and a swarm of rollicking beasts filled the streets.

Britain’s inflation rate has risen for the first time in four months in February. The new figures released Wednesday surprised analysts and increased pressure on the Bank of England to raise interest rates at its meeting on Thursday. The consumer price index jumped to 10.4% in the 12 months through February from 10.1% the previous month. The Office for National Statistics said Wednesday that high energy prices continued to squeeze household budgets. Economists expect prices to drop rapidly later this year. But inflation is more than five times higher than the Bank of England’s 2% target.

UK inflation jumps to 10.4%, surprising analysts.

Complexes of McMansions, fast food restaurants, real estate offices and half-constructed high-rises line wide, U.S.-style highways in Irbil, the seat of the semi-autonomous Kurdish region in northern Iraq. Many members of the political and business elite live in a suburban gated community dubbed the American Village, where homes sell for as much as $5 million, their lush gardens consuming more than a million liters of water a day in the summer. The visible opulence is a far cry from 20 years ago. Back then, Irbil was a backwater provincial capital without even an airport. That rapidly changed after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein.

Asian shares are higher after stocks rallied on Wall Street, including the banks most beaten down by the industry's crisis. Oil prices fell back and U.S. futures were little changed. The S&P 500 rose 1.3% Tuesday for its first back-to-back gain in two weeks after Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the government could offer the banking industry more assistance if needed. Markets around the world have pinballed this month on worries the banking system may be cracking under the pressure of the fastest set of hikes to interest rates in decades. Treasury yields rose in another dramatic swing as the Federal Reserve began its latest meeting on interest rates.

Residents of a Louisiana parish located in the heart of a cluster of polluting petrochemical factories filed a lawsuit in federal court raising allegations of civil rights, environmental justice and religious liberty violations. In the lawsuit, filed against the St. James Parish, residents and environmental organizations claim that the parish council approved the construction of several factories in two Black districts of the parish that emit harmful amounts of toxic chemicals that negatively affected the health of the areas Black residents. The lawsuit calls for a moratorium on the construction of new petrochemical plants like one under construction by Formosa Plastics, which was approved by the council in 2019.

A Native American group that’s trying to stop an effort to build one of the largest copper mines in the United States told a full federal appeals court panel Tuesday that the project would prevent Apaches from exercising their religion by destroying land they consider sacred. The 11-member panel is expected to rule in the next months. A smaller 9th Circuit panel previously ruled 2-1 that the federal government could give the Oak Flat land east of Phoenix to Resolution Copper for a mining project that would swallow the site, ending Apache religious practices there. Resolution Copper says it's trying to address concerns.

U.S. regulators say they need more time to wrap up a final safety report and make a decision on whether to license a multibillion-dollar complex meant to temporarily store tons of spent fuel from commercial nuclear power plants around the nation. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issued a new schedule Monday, citing unforeseen staffing constraints. The agency was initially expected to issue a decision by the end of March. It will now be the end of May. The announcement comes just days after New Mexico approved legislation aimed at stopping the project. The governor on Tuesday asked the agency to suspend its consideration of the license application.

Fox News and a voting machine company that claims the conservative network defamed it by amplifying baseless allegations of fraud following the 2020 presidential election are facing off in a courtroom over whether journalists have a responsibility to be cautious with explosive and implausible allegations. Denver-based Dominion Voting Systems argued Tuesday that Fox recklessly repeated false accusations from supporters of former President Donald Trump that its machines and the software used were responsible for Trump's 2020 election loss. Documents released during the lawsuit have shown that top Fox executives and personalities didn’t believe the claims but aired them anyway.

Nevada's largest power provider is set to build a new natural gas plant in the state for the first time in nearly 15 years. State utility regulators last week gave NV Energy approval to start construction on two gas turbines north of Las Vegas. The Public Utilities Commission says the gas plant limited to summertime operation is needed to fill a gap in demand during the hottest months of the year. But environmental activists say the project is a huge step backwards for Nevada's goal to have a carbon-free power grid by 2050. An energy expert says the decision highlights growing tensions across the American Southwest, where extreme drought conditions threaten power grids.

The failures of two U.S. banks this month meant losses for U.S. public-sector pension systems that invested in them. Experts don't see the holdings in Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank as especially risky for the funds, which provide retirement incomes for teachers, firefighters and other public workers. But there are worries that the funds have too many risky holdings. More aggressive investing is one way funds have narrowed funding gaps over the last decade. After years of benefit increases and funding contribution cuts in the early 2000s, funds were hit hard by the 2008 financial crisis.

Russian and Ukrainian officials have given conflicting accounts of what appeared to be a brazen attack on Russian cruise missiles being transported by train in Moscow-annexed Crimea. A Ukrainian military spokesperson hinted that Kyiv was behind the explosion late Monday that reportedly destroyed multiple Kalibr missiles near the town of Dzhankoi. But Ukrainian officials on Tuesday stopped short of claiming responsibility. Russian-installed authorities in Crimea by contrast denied that an attack on the railway took place and said that a Ukrainian drone strike targeted civilian infrastructure in Dzhankoi.

Switzerland’s government says it’s ordering Credit Suisse to temporarily suspend bonuses for employees after orchestrating a plan for the No. 2 Swiss bank to be taken over by rival UBS. The Swiss Department of Finance said Tuesday that federal law allows the government to set “remuneration-related measures” in cases involving Switzerland’s biggest banks. Authorities in Switzerland scrambled late last week and this weekend to cobble together a $3.25 billion sale of Credit Suisse to UBS. An outflow of deposits and years of trouble raised fears that it could fail and trigger an international financial crisis after the collapse of two U.S. banks.

Spain’s parliament is debating ahead of a confidence vote brought by the nation’s far-right Vox party against the governing left-wing coalition. The motion has little chance of succeeding. No other party has said it will support the attempt by Vox’s 52 lawmakers to topple the government of Socialist Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez when the vote is held on Wednesday. Vox is presenting an independent candidate instead of its leader in attempt to lure votes. The 89-year-old former communist and university professor Ramón Tamames has pledged that if the vote succeeds, he will immediately call national elections.

The European Union has warned Spain that it won’t tolerate renewed plans by regional politicians in the country’s south to expand irrigation near its endangered Doñana wetlands. The Donana wetlands are a UNESCO world heritage site and considered one of Europe’s key biospheres. But regional lawmakers in Andalusia have dusted off plans to reclassify some land near the park as irrigable. They say that the water would come from surface sources. Ecologists say that many of these lands already used water illegally drawn from unauthorized wells. The EU warns that any increase of water extraction from aquifer underlying Doñana would earn a fine for Spain.

Nigeria’s opposition has filed a petition in court against the ruling party’s victory in the West African nation’s presidential election. Peter Obi was the third-place finisher and a candidate of the Labour Party. Obi filed the petition in Nigeria's capital to seeking the disqualification of the ruling party's Bola Tinubu and his declaration instead as the winner of the election. A spokesman for Obi's Labour Party said they will seek to prove in court that Obi won the highest number of votes in the election. The Associated Press saw the court documents on Tuesday.

Badgers burrowing under rail tracks have halted trains in the northern and southern Netherlands, forcing lengthy cancellations on at least two lines. All trains were halted Tuesday afternoon on a busy line between the southern cities of Den Bosch and Boxtel after the animals dug into a dike carrying rails. The national railway company says the line will be out of service for at least a week. A week earlier, badgers also burrowed under tracks in a northern village, knocking a line out of service until next month. Badgers are protected in the Netherlands so rail operators have to get permission to move them before repairs can begin. Buses have been laid on for travelers.