Italy's far-right government wins final approval for its 30-billion-euro budget

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Italy's far-right government wins final approval for its 30-billion-euro budget

2024-12-28 23:33 Last Updated At：23:40

ROME (AP) — Italy’s parliament on Saturday approved the government’s 2025 budget, worth a total of 30 billion euros ($31 billion) — more than half of that in tax cuts and social security benefits for low-income citizens.

The measures, pushed by the far-right cabinet headed by Premier Giorgia Meloni, won final approval in the Upper House by 108 votes to 63.

The country’s center-left opposition had harshly criticized the economic package, saying it didn’t meet the premier’s pledges to slash taxes for most Italians and boost employment.

Meloni has staunchly defended the budget, stressing its “wide balance” and its aim to support low and medium-income earners and families with children, while adding resources for the country’s struggling health system.

“We used the limited resources available to strengthen the main measures approved during the past years, making them structural and widening them to include a larger audience,” the premier said after the budget’s final approval.

The package includes a 1,000-euro bonus for the parents of newborns, with wealthier families excluded, as part of efforts to reverse Italy’s declining birth rate.

Banks, which have enjoyed high profits in recent years thanks to falling interest rates, will be asked to contribute 3.5 billion euros to the budget, which will to go the national health system.

Italy is under pressure from the European Union to slash its deficit after huge spikes in 2022 and 2023, and has pledged to bring it below the EU’s 3% of GDP ceiling in 2026.

Plane burst into flames after skidding off runway at an airport in South Korea, killing at least 62

2024-12-29 11:37 Last Updated At：11:40

SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — A passenger plane burst into flames Sunday after it skid off a runway at a South Korean airport and slammed into a concrete fence when its front landing gear apparently failed to deploy, killing at least 62 people, officials said, in one of the country's worst aviation disasters.

The National Fire Agency said the fire was almost put out but officials were still trying to pull people from the Jeju Air passenger plane carrying 181 people at the airport in the town of Muan, about 290 kilometers (180 miles) south of Seoul.

At least 62 people — 37 women and 25 men — had died in the fire, the agency said. Emergency workers pulled out two people — one passenger and one crew member. It said it deployed 32 fire trucks and several helicopters to contain the fire.

Footage of the crash aired by YTN television showed the Jeju Air plane skidding across the airstrip, apparently with its landing gear still closed, and colliding head-on with a concrete wall on the outskirts of the facility. The transport ministry said the incident happened at 9:03 a.m. local time.

Local TV stations aired footage showing thick pillows of black smoke billowing from the plane engulfed with flame.

Emergency officials in Muan said they were examining the cause of the fire. They said the plane’s landing gear appeared to have malfunctioned. The transport ministry said the plane was returning from Bangkok and its passengers include two Thai nationals.

Thailand’s prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, expressed deep condolences to the families of those affected by the accident through a post on social platform X. Paetongtarn said she had ordered the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to provide assistance immediately.

It’s one of the deadliest disasters in South Korea’s aviation history. The last time South Korea suffered a large-scale air disaster was in 1997, when an Korean Airline plane crashed in Guam, killing 228 people on board.

The incident came as South Korea is embroiled into a huge political crisis triggered by President Yoon Suk Yeol’s stunning imposition of martial law and ensuing impeachment. Last Friday, South Korean lawmakers impeached acting President Han Duck-soo and suspended his duties, making Deputy Prime Minister Choi Sang-mok to take over.

Choi ordered officials to employ all available resources to rescue the passengers and crew before he headed to Muan. Yoon’s office said his chief secretary, Chung Jin-suk, will preside over an emergency meeting between senior presidential staff later on Sunday to discuss the crash.