SYDNEY: Australia‘s prime minister condemned heckling and booing Friday at two solemn Anzac Day commemorations as “low cowardice”, warning that those responsible would “face the full force of the law”.
Anzac Day originally marked the ill-fated World War I landing of Australia and New Zealand Army Corps troops at Gallipoli, in what is now Turkey, in 1915.
Facing dug-in German-backed Ottoman forces, more than 10,000 Australian and New Zealand servicemen were killed in the Allied expedition.This year commemorates the 110th anniversary of the landing.
Anzac Day now also honours Australians and New Zealanders who have served in all wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations.
Large crowds gathered across cities and towns in both countries just before dawn to pay their respects.
“We, who are gathered here, think of those who went out to the battlefields of all wars but did not return,” said Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese, who attended a service in Canberra.
“We feel them still near us in spirit. We wish to be worthy of their great sacrifice.”
But services in Perth and Melbourne were briefly disrupted by booing and heckling during the Welcome to Country ceremony — a traditional blessing from a local Indigenous elder before an event.
‘Completely disrespectful’
Albanese later described the interruptions as “an act of low cowardice on a day where we honour courage and sacrifice”.
“There is no place in Australia for what occurred. The disruption of Anzac Day is beyond contempt, and the people responsible must face the full force of the law,” he told reporters in Canberra.
The Melbourne interruption was “led by someone who is a known neo-Nazi”, veterans’ affairs minister Matt Keogh said.
“Frankly, when we come together to commemorate on Anzac Day, we’re commemorating some of those soldiers who fell in a war that was fought against that sort of hateful ideology,” he told the national broadcaster ABC.
“And so it was completely disrespectful, and is not something that’s welcome at Anzac Day commemorations, ever.”
When pressed how he knew the identity of the person involved, Keogh said he had “seen the public reporting of at least one of the names of one of the people that was involved”.
Police directed one man — who they have not identified — to leave the event, who they also interviewed “for offensive behaviour”, a Victoria Police spokesperson said in a statement.
Meanwhile, New Zealand’s Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was due to attend an Anzac service in Gallipoli.
In a message, King Charles III, the head of state of both Australia and New Zealand, thanked the countries’ World War II veterans for their “selfless service in those most difficult and dangerous times”.
The annual commemoration comes in the run-up to a May 3 election in Australia, where the most pressing issues for both main parties are the cost of living, managing the energy transition and balancing relations with the United States.
The left-leaning government is leading the opposition in opinion polls.

The White House urged an end to “malicious” European regulations targeting US tech giants [File]
| Photo Credit: REUTERS

Large EU fines on Meta and Apple for breaking competition rules amount to “economic extortion,” the White House said, urging an end to “malicious” European regulations targeting US tech giants.

The European Commission on Wednesday fined Apple 500 million euros ($570 million) after concluding the company prevented developers from steering customers outside its App Store to access cheaper deals.

Facebook and Instagram-owner Meta was also fined 200 million euros over its “pay or consent” system after it violated rules on the use of personal data.

The fines are the first under the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which came into effect last year, forcing the world’s biggest tech firms to open up to competition in the EU.

“This novel form of economic extortion will not be tolerated by the United States,” Brian Hughes, spokesman of the White House National Security Council, told AFP in a statement Thursday.

“The EU’s malicious targeting of American companies and consumers must stop,” he said, reiterating the Trump administration’s position that such regulations “enable censorship” and are a “direct threat to free civil society.”

While not outlining any potential US response, Hughes said the regulations “will be recognized as barriers to trade,” suggesting they may be brought up in upcoming EU-US negotiations.

President Donald Trump launched his steep levies on trading partners, including the European Union, citing the removal of “unfair” non-tariff barriers as one of his goals.

“End the EU’s regulatory death spiral!” Hughes said.

SAN FRANCISCO: Reeling from drug overdose deaths and scenes of people smoking fentanyl on sidewalks, San Francisco moved closer Thursday to adopting a “recovery first” drug policy that sets abstinence from illicit drugs as its primary goal, a proposal that has prompted heated debate in the city that pioneered harm reduction.
Opponents of Supervisor Matt Dorsey’s proposal say its emphasis on stopping drug use alienates those who are not ready to quit, while proponents say the city has been far too permissive and making drug use safer does not help break the cycle of addiction.
Dorsey, himself recovering from alcohol and drug addiction, amended the proposal in his public safety committee to clarify that distributing safer-use paraphernalia and linking people to social services regardless of whether they are using remain critical to the city’s response.
But more than an hour of public comment with cheers and boos from both sides underscored just how touchy the issue remains.
“No one dies from harm reduction,” Patt Denning said. “People die from conventional abstinence-based treatments because they’re either left out or kicked out if they don’t comply with abstinence.”
Brendan Harris, who said he has been clean for six years, countered that harm reduction tactics cannot go on forever and people need a firm if compassionate push into treatment.
“We can’t just keep enabling drugs over and over again,” he said.
In recent years San Francisco’s public health department advised people who use drugs to do so with friends to try to prevent overdose deaths. Critics said that sent the wrong message.
Mayor Daniel Lurie, who took office in January, has vowed to solve the city’s fentanyl crisis. Last year more than 600 people died from accidental overdoses.
He ordered city-funded nonprofits to offer treatment or counseling options before giving out certain paraphernalia such as foil and pipes, and they will no longer be allowed to distribute those items in parks and on sidewalks.
As amended, Dorsey’s proposal states that the “long-term remission of substance use disorders for individuals, with the help of fully supported and staffed evidence-based recovery and behavioral health services, shall be the primary goal.”
It also defines recovery as “the process by which an individual suffering from substance use disorder strives to make positive changes that become part of a voluntarily adopted healthy lifestyle.”
Dorsey said aspiring to live a healthy life free from illicit drug use should not be a controversial goal, and abstention can mean receiving methadone as part of a medication assisted treatment program. San Francisco offers an array of services to help people addicted to drugs, but many residents only see the free foil and pipes, he said.
“We’re losing the battle on harm reduction when people think that’s all we’re doing,” he said after the hearing.
The San Francisco Marin Medical Society, which represents more than 3,500 physicians, proposed the amendments.
The full Board of Supervisors votes on the proposal next month. It is expected to pass, with seven of the 11 members sponsoring or cosponsoring.