Top Biden administration officials urged Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant to abandon plans to invade the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where more than 1.4 million Palestinian civilians seek safety, as U.S.- Israel tensions brewed over Israel’s conduct in its 6-month-old war against Hamas. White House Bureau Chief Patsy Widakuswara has this report.
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VEENDAM, Netherlands — A 420-meter, or quarter-mile, white steel tube running alongside a railway line in the windswept northern Netherlands could usher in a new era for the transportation of people and freight.

The tube is the heart of the new European Hyperloop Center that opens Tuesday and will be a proving ground in coming years for developers of the evolving technology.

Hyperloop, once trumpeted by Elon Musk, involves capsules floating on magnetic fields zipping at speeds of around 700 kph (435 mph) through low-pressure tubes. Its advocates tout it as far more efficient than short-haul flights, high-speed rail and freight trucks.

But since Musk unveiled the concept that he said could shuttle passengers the nearly 645 kilometers (400 miles) between Los Angeles and San Francisco in 30 minutes, it has progressed at a much slower pace from the drawing board toward the real world.

“I expect by 2030, you will have the first hyperloop route, maybe 5 kilometers (3 miles) in which people will actually be transporting passengers,” said the center’s director, Sascha Lamme. “Actually, there’s already preparations being done for such routes in, for example, Italy or India.”

Not everybody is as optimistic about Hyperloop’s future.

“This is just another example of policymakers chasing a shiny object when basic investment in infrastructure is needed,” Robert Noland, distinguished professor at the Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy at Rutgers University, said in comments emailed to The Associated Press.

“It costs too much to build,” he added.

Lamme said skeptics should come and look for themselves.

“We built the European Hyperloop Center and from what we have built, we know that we can be competitive with high-speed rail,” he said. “And then, we have not even included all the cost optimizations that we can do in the coming decade to reduce that even further.”

The test center’s tube is made up of 34 separate sections mostly 2½ meters (more than 8 feet) in diameter. A vacuum pump in a steel container next to the tube sucks out the air to reduce the internal pressure. That reduces drag and allows capsules to travel at such high speeds.

A test capsule built by Dutch hyperloop pioneer Hardt Hyperloop will take part next month in the first tests at the center that is funded by private investment as well as contributions from the provincial government, the Dutch national government and the European Commission.

A unique feature of the Veendam tube is that it has a switch — where it splits into two separate tubes, a piece of infrastructure that will be critical to real-life applications.

“Lane switching is very important for hyperloop, because it allows vehicles to travel from any origin to any destination,” said Marinus van der Meijs, Hardt’s technology and engineering director. “So, it really creates a network effect where you sort of have a highway of tubes and vehicles can take an on- and off-ramp, or they can take a lane switch to go to a different part of Europe or to a different destination.”

While testing continues in Veendam, hyperloop developers hope that destinations for their technology are forthcoming.

“Really, the main challenge is finding government commitments to build routes. And on the other hand, finding new funding to realize the necessary test facility and technology demonstration that you need to do to make this happen,” Lamme said.
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Britain’s high court has ruled the United States must guarantee that Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will not get the death penalty if he is extradited to the U.S. on espionage charges. Assange’s lawyers are fighting to allow a full appeal against his extradition on accusations related to Wikileaks’ publishing of stolen military files. For VOA, Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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As American journalist Evan Gershkovich marks one year in Russian prison, his family and colleagues fight for his release. VOA’s Cristina Caicedo Smit has the story. Camera: Mino Dargakis
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NEW YORK — Donald Trump on Tuesday was hit with a judge’s gag order sought by prosecutors in his upcoming criminal trial involving hush money paid to a porn star, restricting him from publicly commenting about witnesses and court staff. 

Ahead of the former U.S. president’s trial, which is scheduled to begin April 15 in the New York state court, Justice Juan Merchan granted a request for the order made last month by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office. 

The prosecution sought an order blocking Trump from “making or directing others to make” statements about witnesses concerning their role in the case and from commenting on court staff and prosecutors other than Bragg himself. 

Silencing Trump was necessary because of his “longstanding history of attacking witnesses, investigators, prosecutors, judges and others involved in legal proceedings against him,” prosecutors said.  

Trump’s lawyers argued that a gag order would violate his right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, leaving him defenseless against attacks by political opponents over the case. 

Merchan separately ruled on March 7 that jurors were to remain anonymous except to Trump, his lawyers, prosecutors and a handful of others, after prosecutors highlighted Trump’s history of publicly deriding trial jurors and grand jurors. 

Bragg’s case is one of four criminal indictments the Republican presidential candidate faces, with Trump pleading not guilty in all the cases and portraying them as politically motivated. 

It could be the only case to reach trial before his expected Nov. 5 rematch with President Joe Biden. 

Trump pleaded not guilty to 34 felony counts of falsifying business records to hide reimbursements to his former lawyer Michael Cohen for a $130,000 payment to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence before the 2016 election about a sexual encounter she claimed to have had with Trump a decade earlier. 

Trump has denied having the encounter with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.  

The requested gag order was similar to restrictions a federal judge imposed last year in a criminal case over Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss to Biden. 

Trump also faces state criminal charges in Georgia over his push to reverse the 2020 results, and federal criminal charges in Florida over his handling of sensitive government documents after leaving the White House in 2021.  

In a separate civil fraud case brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James, another New York state judge fined Trump $15,000 last year for twice violating a gag order against publicly talking about court staff.  

Trump is appealing a $454.2 million judgment in that case for misstating the values of his family real estate company’s properties to dupe lenders. On March 25, a midlevel state appeals court paused that judgment as long as Trump posts a smaller $175 million bond within 10 days. 
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London — A new report and research from a British defense research group has found that many Western nations are still reliant on Russian nuclear fuel to power their reactors, despite efforts to sever economic ties with the Kremlin following its February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

“Russia may be able to take advantage of incongruencies in sanctions or other restrictions, as well as persistent contractual dependencies and supply challenges, to maintain access to Western nuclear fuel supply chains and continue generating revenue through its enriched uranium exports,” the Royal United Services Institute, or RUSI, says in its report.  

Rosatom 

Of those supplying nuclear fuel, Rosatom, Russia’s State Atomic Energy Corporation, “is the biggest supplier of uranium enrichment to the global market” and has continued to export significant volumes of enriched uranium product since February 2022. The report estimates that Russia sold enriched uranium worth $2.7 billion in 2023. 

Rosatom supplied some 30 percent of the enriched uranium purchased by European Union states in 2022, and 23 percent of that purchased by U.S. utility companies, according to the RUSI analysis of publicly available statistics. Not all countries publish their import or export figures for nuclear materials. 

Western companies may be finding it difficult to change long-term contracts with Rosatom, said Darya Dolzikova, author of the RUSI report. “In the enriched uranium space in particular, there are historical dependencies, so there are contractual obligations that might be difficult for certain utilities to get out of,” she told VOA. 

French dependency 

France, which has 56 nuclear reactors generating around two-thirds of the country’s electricity, is one of Russia’s biggest customers for enriched uranium, despite growing political tensions between Paris and Moscow over the invasion of Ukraine. 

“Imports into France of Russian enriched uranium have increased significantly since the start of 2022. So there was an increase of about 184 percent in volume,” Dolzikova said.

French utility EDF is even planning a joint venture with Russia’s state-run Rosatom to process uranium at a site in Lingen, Germany.  

The RUSI report also details Russian uranium exports to the United States, Germany and the Netherlands. “Russia is still the biggest exporter of enriched uranium and enrichment services globally. They account for about 44% total capacity of enrichment services,” Dolzikova added. 

Decarbonization 

Global enthusiasm for nuclear power fell after the 2011 Fukushima reactor meltdown in Japan.  

However, as countries try to slash carbon emissions to combat climate change, many governments are rethinking their approach to atomic power. At a March 21 meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency in Brussels, several world leaders called for a reinvestment in nuclear power.   

“Adapting supply chains take time. And doing it in a secure and reliable way takes time. But it is clearly one of the assignments to the industry and to governments working on this, is to adapt supply chains as fast as possible and also … to disconnect from Russian supply,” Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo told delegates at the IAEA meeting. 

“But we need to balance things, I mean, in a sense, if you want to decarbonize, if you want to reduce CO2 production, we need to make sure that our nuclear power plants can continue,” De Croo added. 

China ‘displacement’ 

The report says Russian exports to China have also increased, raising suspicions that Beijing could be importing Russian enriched uranium to facilitate greater exports of China’s own enriched uranium supply — so-called “displacement.” 

“We know that China is also keen to increase its own role, expanded zone role on global nuclear fuel markets. So that raises questions as to whether the additional imports into China of Russian uranium could potentially be backing increased exports of Chinese material. That is very difficult to prove definitively,” said report author Dolzikova. 

Self-sufficiency 

Western nations are trying to boost their nuclear self-sufficiency. France is boosting uranium enrichment capacity by more than 30 percent at a site in the southern region of Valence, according to nuclear industry reports. The American firm Westinghouse and Ukrainian firm Energoatom have begun producing nuclear fuel that can supply former Soviet reactors in eastern Europe, from a site in Sweden.   

Dolzikova of RUSI said it will take at least two years for the West to end its reliance on Russian nuclear fuel. While boosting Western enrichment capacity is vital, the RUSI report also recommends that trade measures are tightened to cut Russia out of global markets. 

“Sanctions — or any kind of restrictions — need to be multilateral. Otherwise, because of the complexity of enriched uranium supply chains and fuel supply chains, Russia will find the weakest link in that wall of restrictions to try to continue accessing Western markets,” Dolzikova added.
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An analysis by Britain’s Royal United Services Institute has found that many Western nations still rely on Russian nuclear fuel to power their reactors, despite efforts to sever economic ties with the Kremlin following its 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Henry Ridgwell reports from London.
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Los Angeles — Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani said Monday he never bet on sports and interpreter Ippei Mizuhara stole money from him and told lies.

Ohtani held a news conference at Dodger Stadium, five days after Mizuhara was fired by the Dodgers following reports from the Los Angeles Times and ESPN about his alleged ties to an illegal bookmaker and debts well over $1 million.

“I am very saddened and shocked someone whom I trusted has done this,” the Japanese baseball star said sitting next to Will Ireton, the team’s manager of performance operations, who translated.

Ohtani spoke for nearly 12 minutes, referring to a document in front of him. He did not take questions.

“Ippei has been stealing money from my account and has been telling lies,” Ohtani said. “I never bet on sports or have willfully sent money to the bookmaker.”

A two-time Most Valuable Player, Ohtani left the Los Angeles Angels in December to sign a record $700 million, 10-year contract with the Dodgers.

“I never bet on baseball or any other sports or have never asked somebody to do it on my behalf and I have never gone through a bookmaker to bet on sports. And I was never asked to assist betting payment for anyone else,” Ohtani said.

The Internal Revenue Service has confirmed that Mizuhara and Mathew Bowyer, the alleged illegal bookmaker, are under criminal investigation through the agency’s Los Angeles Field Office.

Mizuhara told ESPN on March 19 that Ohtani paid his gambling debts at the interpreter’s request and the bets were on international soccer, the NBA, the NFL and college football. Major League Baseball rules prohibit players and team employees from wagering — even legally on baseball — and also ban betting on other sports with illegal or offshore bookmakers.

ESPN said Mizuhara changed his story the following day, claiming Ohtani had no knowledge of the gambling debts and had not transferred any money to bookmakers.

“All of this has been a complete lie,” Ohtani said. “Ippei obviously basically didn’t tell me about the media inquiry. So Ippei has been telling everyone around that he has been communicating with me on this account to the media and my team and that hasn’t been true.”

Ohtani said he first became aware of Mizuhara’s gambling problem during a team meeting after last Wednesday’s game with San Diego in Seoul, South Korea.
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Geneva — Russian activists are warning that Russian President Vladimir Putin will use the deadly terrorist attack on a concert hall outside Moscow to tighten his grip on power and further repress society.

“It truly scares me how this regime uses terrorism,” said Evgenia Kara-Murza, a human rights activist and wife of political prisoner Vladimir Kara-Murza.

Addressing reporters a press conference in Geneva, she warned that Putin would likely use Friday’s horrific event “to start new aggressions against our neighbors.”

“And, of course, the fact that the terrorists were caught near the Ukrainian border raises many questions as to whether it is a provocation or whether the terrorist attack is being used as such,” she said.

Though the militant Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack, which killed at least 137 people and injured some 182 others, the Kremlin has been trying, without any evidence, to link the attack to Ukraine.

Kara-Murza said she doubts that Putin will even investigate the attack, noting that there were no investigations into previous attacks that occurred after the Chechen war in 1999 and the Beslan school massacre in 2004.

In a report on the Beslan attack for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, Leonid Velekhov, a former aide to Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny, reported that the official investigation “ignored any question of responsibility on the part of federal authorities or the local command center for the high price paid for the liberation of Beslan’s surviving hostages.”

Kara-Murza also said she was scared by calls by members of Putin’s regime to bring back the death penalty following Friday’s attack on the concert hall.

“If the death penalty were reinstated, it would first be used against those people who were being accused of terrorism.

“People accused of terrorism in today’s Russia include activists or just regular citizens who were trying to set conscription centers on fire,” she said, referring to 28 arson attempts on Russian military enlistment offices in Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea between July 29 and August 2.

Kara-Murza said the lives of political prisoners are at risk, and that she fears for her husband, who is serving a 25-year sentence for treason, charges he denies.

Sergei Davidis, head of the political prisoners support program at the Memorial human rights center, which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2022, said that pictures of the four men accused of the concert hall terror attack showed signs of severe beating, indicating that they had been tortured.

He observed that mass torture of those charged with terrorism and other crimes has been a common occurrence in Russia. However, what is different this time is that for the first time, this practice of torture “was made public,” he said.

“They think, I am sure, that they will be supported by the people. … They decided now that there is no reason to conceal their methods. They are not limited by the European Court of Human Rights now. They just were honest this time because they decided it was possible,” he said. “Unfortunately, it is rather a bad sign.”

Davidis expressed concern that a more emboldened Russia would likely increase the hardships and levels of cruelty and brutality to which political prisoners are exposed daily.

According to Memorial, around 700 people are imprisoned in Russia for exercising their human rights and freedoms; among them are at least 250 people imprisoned because of their anti-war stance.

“Those people who support Ukraine are actively aggressed” by the authorities, he said. “Any expression of opposition, any statement that contradicts official propaganda narratives, are ground for the deprivation of liberty.”

OVD-Info, another human rights project, provides data on 3,679 people subjected to politically motivated criminal prosecution in Russia.

Violetta Fitsner, a lawyer with OVD-Info, said, “All these people are in danger, especially those who have poor health and are punished for their activities.”

Citing Navalny, who died in prison February 16, Fitsner said, “About 70% of prisoners deprived of liberty on political grounds, who have poor health, are denied medical care,” adding that many have serious physical and mental issues.

“We demand the immediate release of political prisoners whose health and lives are in danger,” she said.

Davidis said Russian prisons are teeming with prisoners of conscience, including people trying to evade conscription into the army and thousands of religious minorities who are deprived of their liberty for practicing their faith.

“The prosecution and deprivation of liberty is the foundation of Putin’s regime,” he said. “The release of Russian political prisoners must become a condition of any easing of sanctions against Russia, and of any peace settlement for Ukraine.”
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BOSTON — Families staying in overflow shelter sites in Massachusetts will soon have to document each month their efforts to find a path out of the overflow system, including looking for housing or a job, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced Monday. 

Beginning May 1, families will have to be recertified monthly to remain eligible to stay in the state-run overflow sites. 

They will need to show what steps they’ve taken to work toward independence, including applying for work authorization permits, participating in a workforce training program, submitting job applications, taking English classes or searching for housing, according to the administration. 

Healey said the requirement is critical as a means of accountability. 

“It’s important as we look to manage this responsibly,” she told reporters Monday. 

Healey acknowledged there could be good reasons why certain individuals are not able to fulfill the requirements, but warned those who aren’t putting in the effort could lose their place in line for the state’s shelter system. 

“If they don’t have a good reason for not fulfilling requirements then they will lose their spot,” she said. “The whole idea of this is to divert people from our emergency shelter system, to get them on a different path.” 

The policy does not apply to sites operated by the United Way of Massachusetts Bay, a charitable organization. 

Immigrant advocates say they’re worried the new regulations will complicate the lives of homeless migrants who are already focused on leaving the shelter system. 

“We are deeply concerned that forcing families to reapply for emergency shelter each month will create unnecessary red tape, sow confusion, and ultimately, place more families on the street,” said Elizabeth Sweet of the Massachusetts Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition. 

State and federal officials should instead focus on providing community service organizations the resources they need to support arrivals in pursuing work authorization, long-term housing and case management services, she said. 

Massachusetts has been grappling with the growing influx of homeless migrant families seeking shelter. 

The state’s Emergency Assistance family shelter system serves homeless families with children or pregnant women. Less than half of families in EA are new arrivals to Massachusetts, officials said. 

Last fall, the administration announced that the system could no longer safely or responsibly expand and set up a waiting list. Families who qualify for emergency shelter and are on the waiting list are eligible to stay at the state’s overflow or safety-net sites, currently providing shelter for about 200 families. 

The administration also announced Monday that it will be opening a new overflow shelter site next month in Chelsea at the former Chelsea Soldiers’ Home. The site is vacant and is eventually slated to be demolished. 

At full capacity, the Chelsea site will be able to accommodate approximately 100 families. 

The announcement comes after the Massachusetts Senate last week approved limits on how long homeless families can stay in emergency state shelters as part of an $850 million plan to fund the system at the center of the migrant crisis. 

Under the bill approved late Thursday by a vote of 32-8, the state would limit maximum stays to nine months with the possibility of 90 more days for veterans, pregnant women and people who are employed or enrolled in a job training program. 

Currently, there are no limits on the time a family can spend in emergency housing. 

A bill already passed by the House would provide funding covering the rest of the 2024 fiscal year that ends June 30 and part of 2025. The two bills are expected to go to a conference committee to hammer out a single compromise bill before it’s shipped to Democratic Governor Maura Healey’s desk for her signature.
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london — The U.S. and British governments on Monday announced sanctions against a company and two people linked to the Chinese government over a string of malicious cyberactivity targeting the U.K.’s election watchdog and lawmakers in both countries.

Officials said those sanctioned are responsible for a hack that may have gained access to information on tens of millions of U.K. voters held by the Electoral Commission, as well as for cyberespionage targeting lawmakers who have been outspoken about threats from China.

The Foreign Office said the hack of the election registers “has not had an impact on electoral processes, has not affected the rights or access to the democratic process of any individual, nor has it affected electoral registration.”

The Electoral Commission said in August that it identified a breach of its system in October 2022, though it added that “hostile actors” had first been able to access its servers in 2021.

At the time, the watchdog said the data included the names and addresses of registered voters. But it said that much of the information was already in the public domain.

In Washington, the Treasury Department said it sanctioned Wuhan Xiaoruizhi Science and Technology Company Ltd., which it calls a Chinese Ministry of State Security front company that has “served as cover for multiple malicious cyberoperations.”

It named two Chinese nationals, Zhao Guangzong and Ni Gaobin, affiliated with the Wuhan company, for cyberoperations that targeted U.S. critical infrastructure sectors including defense, aerospace and energy.

The U.S. Justice Department charged Zhao, Ni, and five other hackers with conspiracy to commit computer intrusions and wire fraud. It said they were part of a 14-year long cyber operation “targeting U.S. and foreign critics, businesses and political officials.”

“Today’s announcements underscore the need to remain vigilant to cybersecurity threats and the potential for cyber-enabled foreign malign influence efforts, especially as we approach the 2024 election cycle,” Assistant Attorney General Matthew G. Olsen said.

British authorities did not name the company or the two individuals. But they said the two sanctioned individuals were involved in the operations of the Chinese cyber group APT31 — an abbreviation for “advanced persistent threat.” The group is also known as Zirconium or Hurricane Panda.

APT31 has previously been accused of targeting U.S. presidential campaigns and the information systems of Finland’s parliament, among others.

British cybersecurity officials said that Chinese government-affiliated hackers “conducted reconnaissance activity” against British parliamentarians who were critical of Beijing in 2021. They said no parliamentary accounts were successfully compromised.

Three lawmakers, including former Conservative Party leader Iain Duncan Smith, told reporters Monday they have been “subjected to harassment, impersonation and attempted hacking from China for some time.” Duncan Smith said in one example, hackers impersonating him used fake email addresses to write to his contacts.

The politicians are members of the Inter-Parliamentary Alliance on China, an international pressure group focused on countering Beijing’s growing influence and calling out alleged rights abuses by the Chinese government.

Britain’s Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden said his government will summon China’s ambassador to account for its actions.

China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said ahead of the announcement that countries should base their claims on evidence rather than “smear” others without factual basis.

“Cybersecurity issues should not be politicized,” ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said. “We hope all parties will stop spreading false information, take a responsible attitude and work together to maintain peace and security in cyberspace.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak reiterated that China is “behaving in an increasingly assertive way abroad” and is “the greatest state-based threat to our economic security.”

“It’s right that we take measures to protect ourselves, which is what we are doing,” he said, without providing details.

China critics including Duncan Smith have long called for Sunak to take a tougher stance on China and label the country a threat — rather than a “challenge” — to the U.K., but the government has refrained from using such critical language.
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Washington — Vice President Kamala Harris plans to meet on Monday with President Bernardo Arévalo of Guatemala as the U.S. grapples with an influx of migrants to its southern border, thousands from that Central American nation. 

The two leaders are expected to discuss the Biden administration’s use of so-called “safe mobility offices,” which were set up in Guatemala, Colombia, Costa Rica and Ecuador in the fall, among other immigration matters. The safe mobility offices are designed to streamline the U.S. refugee process so migrants apply where they are and avoid paying smugglers to make the journey north. 

As the 2024 election heats up, immigration has become a rising bipartisan concern. Both Democrats and Republicans in Congress say the system is broken, but efforts by lawmakers to address the problems have failed. Meanwhile, President Joe Biden has tasked Harris with working to address the reasons people choose to leave their homelands to migrate to the U.S. 

Harris and Arévalo will also discuss Arévalo’s anti-corruption agenda and how the U.S. can support the effort, according to a White House official, previewing the talks on the condition of anonymity. 

Arévalo won the presidency in August, beating the establishment candidate by a comfortable margin. He is the son of a former president credited with implementing some of Guatemala’s key labor protections, but his strong showing in a crowded field was still a shock. 

The politician with a background in academia and conflict resolution caught fire with a message of challenging the country’s entrenched power structure and resuming the fight against corruption. 

The Democratic vice president is also expected to announce $5.2 billion in investments in Central America. 

While still among the lowest monthly tallies in Biden’s presidency, the number of arrests for illegally crossing the U.S.-Mexico border nudged upward in February over the previous month to 189,922. Of those, 23,780 were Guatemalan. 
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sydney — New Zealand said Monday a free trade agreement with the European Union would come into effect on May 1, after the country’s parliament ratified the deal.

New Zealand notified the European Union it ratified the agreement earlier on Monday, Trade and Agriculture Minister Todd McClay said in a statement.

Wellington and Brussels signed the deal in July 2023, with the European Parliament ratifying its side of the agreement in November.

New Zealand expects the deal to benefit its beef, lamb, butter and cheese industries, as well as removing tariffs on other exports like its iconic kiwi fruit.

The EU will see tariffs lifted on its exports including clothing, chemicals, pharmaceuticals and cars, as well as wine and confections.

The EU is New Zealand’s fourth-largest trade partner, according to government data, with two-way goods and services trade worth $12.10 billion in 2022.
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