Ecuadorian President Daniel Noboa has granted preemptive pardons for police and military personnel responding to an armed attack that killed at least 22 in the southern city of Guayaquil yesterday.

“We need you to act decisively and without fear of reprisal,” Noboa wrote in a post on X on Friday morning. “Defend the country, I will defend you.”

It’s not the first time the increasingly hardline Noboa has offered pardons to security officers fighting crime in Ecuador, even before they have been deployed or accused of wrongdoing.

“Among the deceased and injured, several have a history of robbery, drug trafficking, and weapons possession,” police wrote.

Ecuadorean authorities raided “several homes” overnight and early in the morning after the attack, arresting 14 individuals and seizing weapons and ammunition, Ecuador’s Ministry of Defense announced in a post on X on Friday.

Guayaquil, Ecuador’s largest city, has suffered grievously in the country’s ongoing drug-fueled violence epidemic. In 2024, the city recorded nearly 2,000 homicides, government statistics show.

Noboa has sought to crack down on Ecuador’s spiraling security crisis since becoming president in 2023, declaring several states of emergency and designating 22 criminal organizations as terrorist groups, moves that have prompted criticism from some rights groups domestically and abroad.

Instability in Ecuador, fueled by the international drug trade, has been the backdrop of Noboa’s campaign for a second term this year. He fell short of securing an outright majority in the first round of voting in Ecuador’s general election last month.

A second-round vote in the coming months will decide if the Latin American country will stick with Noboa’s approach or seek an alternative voice in leftist candidate Luisa González.

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — A 17-year-old boy with a loaded shotgun boarded a plane at an Australian airport before being restrained by a pilot and two passengers, police said Friday.

The boy was disarmed and detained before police arrived on the scene Thursday at Avalon Airport in Victoria state.

Barry Clark, a passenger who tackled the suspect, said the boy had posed as a maintenance worker and became agitated when questioned by a flight attendant at the plane’s entrance.

“I looked up and then within a second I saw the barrel of a shotgun and I thought to myself that ain’t a tool that should be on a plane,” Clark told Network 10 television.

“When I saw the complete gun I said: we’re in trouble here,” Clark said.

“Then I saw it (move) towards her chest and so I thought, well, I’ve got to do something — this is all happening in a matter of seconds,” Clark added.

Clark, a former professional boxer and sheep shearer, said he snuck up behind the boy then pushed the gun and the flight attendant away in different directions so that she would not be hit if the gun discharged.

“I then proceeded to do what I had to do and just put him in a bit of a lock, got his hand and twisted it and put it up in his back, threw him to the floor and then put my knee in his back and held him in a position where he couldn’t get out,” Clark said.

Victoria Police Superintendent Michael Reid told reporters the boy from Ballarat in regional Victoria had climbed through a hole in the airport’s security fence before making his way to the plane’s stairs.

Reid credited Clark, the pilot and another passenger with restraining the boy.

“This would have been a very terrifying incident for the passengers of that plane and Victoria Police really commend the bravery of those passengers who were able to overpower that male,” Reid said.

Sydney-bound Jetstar Airways Flight 610 was carrying about 150 people and no one was hurt, police said. The flight was cancelled.

Counterterrorism police not involved in the investigation

An investigation was being carried out by crime squad detectives with no involvement from the police force’s counterterrorism unit.

The boy has been charged with multiple offenses including unlawfully taking control of an aircraft, orchestrating a bomb hoax and possessing a firearm, a police statement said. He was remanded in custody to appear in a children’s court on a date to be determined.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Australian airports had robust security.

“This incident is concerning for members of the public. I commend the work of police and aviation officials in responding to it quickly,” Albanese told reporters.

Avalon Airport’s chief executive Ari Suss said his organization was working with Victoria Police in response to the emergency.

“As part of our ongoing commitment to security, we have implemented further measures across the airport, including within the terminal and surrounding areas,” Suss said in a statement.

“We continue to work closely with authorities to maintain a safe and secure environment for all travelers,” he added.

Jetstar, a budget subsidiary of Sydney-based Qantas Airways, said it was working with police and the airport to understand what happened.

In the worst outbreak of unrest since Syria’s transitional government took power, hundreds of people have been killed or wounded in clashes between the security forces and supporters of former President Bashar al Assad this week, according to a human rights monitoring group.

The clashes broke out Thursday in the Latakia and Tartous regions on the Mediterranean coast, areas where support among Syrian Alawites for Assad was strong and which has seen outbreaks of sectarian violence over the past three months.

More than 225 people have been killed since Thursday in the clashes, the Syrian Network for Human Rights (SNHR) said on Friday.

At least 100 Syrian government “security personnel” are included in the death toll, the UK-based independent human rights monitoring group said, while 125 civilians were killed when joint forces from Syria’s Ministries of Defense and Interior “launched a large-scale security operation in dozens of villages across the countryside of Latakia, Tartous, and Hama.”

The Assad family, members of the minority Alawite sect, ruled Syria for over half a century until Assad was ousted late last year by Sunni Islamist militants who sought to reshape the country’s political and sectarian order.

Syria’s Alawites – some 10% of the population – were prominent in the Assad regime, and while many Alawites have surrendered their weapons since December, many others have not.

The latest surge in violence highlights the challenges Syria’s new regime faces in appeasing disenfranchised groups, especially those that remain heavily armed.

Syria’s transitional president, Ahmad al-Sharaa, vowed in a televised speech on Friday to pursue those responsible for killing dozens of Syrian security personnel. He also urged security forces to “ensure no excessive or unjustified responses occur” following reports of many civilian casualties during clashes.

Syria’s interior ministry also said earlier on Friday that they are standing “at the threshold of a critical phase that demands awareness and discipline.”

The official Syrian news agency SANA said that after several police and security personnel had been killed, “large, unorganized crowds moved toward the coast,” citing an official with Syria’s Ministry of Interior.

Anas Khattab, head of Syrian intelligence, said that “former military and security leaders affiliated with the defunct regime were behind the planning and execution of these crimes.”

He said that the “treacherous operation” had claimed the lives of “dozens of our finest men in the army, security, and police.”

Khattab added: “To those who failed to heed our earlier warnings: you have been deceived by malicious hands into doing what you are doing today,” blaming individuals outside Syria.

Social media videos published since Thursday apparently show extensive casualties among both Syrian security forces and young men in civilian clothing.

Defense Ministry spokesman Colonel Hassan Abdel Ghani said Friday that “senior war criminals” were “scattered in the mountains with no refuge except the courts, where you will face justice.”

“Do not become fuel for a lost war… The choice is clear: surrender your weapons or face your inevitable fate,” he said, addressing other Assad supporters.

Other social media footage from Friday showed substantial military reinforcements converging on the area. The city of Tartous has been placed under curfew until Saturday.

The videos indicate that the security forces reached the coastal city of Jableh, near the Russian airbase at Hmeimim, and showed clashes and columns of smoke rising from near the base.

Other videos showed government forces entering Al-Qardaha, the home town of the Assad family, amid explosions and columns of smoke. An official with the defense ministry confirmed later on Friday that security forces carried out operations “against the remnants of the former regime,” in Al-Qardaha, according to SANA. And one video geolocated to the coast near Jableh showed improvised bombs being dropped from a military helicopter.

The Syrian Interior ministry issued a statement Friday urging “all civilians to stay away from military and security operation zones.”

It said all military and security units had been ordered “to strictly adhere to established procedures and laws to safeguard civilians.”

Syria’s Health Ministry said that six hospitals in the rural areas of Latakia and Tartous had come under attack on Thursday night by pro-Assad elements, resulting in several deaths.

Abdul Rahman Taleb, a Latakia-based activist and journalist, said he was attacked by Assad loyalists on Thursday while he was covering clashes with the Syrian security forces.

“We were besieged for about 12 hours in one of Latakia’s neighborhoods, with remnants of militants spreading all around us. I didn’t expect we’d make it out alive,” Taleb said.

He added he had been sheltered by other Alawites in the area “until the first reinforcements arrived and evacuated us.”

The violence has sparked pro- and anti-government demonstrations in several Syrian cities.

Saudi Arabia, a strong backer of the new government, condemned what it called “crimes committed by outlaw groups” in Syria.

Panama will allow more than a hundred undocumented immigrants deported by the United States to stay in the country for at least another 30 days, Security Minister Frank Ábrego said on Friday.

The group, mainly from countries in Asia and the Middle East, will receive temporary humanitarian permits for one month that could be extended up to 90 days, Ábrego told reporters, adding that the individuals had declined repatriation help from the United Nations and the International Organization for Migration.

They were among an original group of nearly 300 migrants sent to Panama from the US as part of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign, which it has pressured Latin American nations to help with.

Many of the group have been held in a makeshift camp near the remote Darien jungle.

A group of lawyers representing the deportees – who previously filed suit against Panama in the Inter-American Commision on Human Rights – welcomed Friday’s decision in a statement, but emphasized that asylum seekers should not be repatriated at the end of the 90 day-period.

“Today, in the context of our pending lawsuit, the Panamanian government has changed course – they have made a commitment not to deport our clients and to release them from incommunicado and arbitrary detention,” said Silvia Serna Roman, an attorney and co-counsel in the case, in the statement.

“Our primary concern is that the government offers no solution to our clients who cannot return to their countries due to a fear of persecution.”

The migrants were originally confined to a hotel in Panama City, before some were moved to the remote camp, which Herischi described as tough and dirty, with limited access to medication and the internet.

Panamanian President José Raúl Mulino has repeatedly denied that authorities have violated the deportees’ rights in accepting their deportation or confining them while in Panama.

“These organizations are respectful of human rights. It’s false and I deny that we are mistreating them,” Mulino has said.

Unpaid work. Sexual harassment. Violence. Low wages. The “motherhood penalty.” These are just some of the issues that millions of women continue to face at work in 2025.

Despite progress made towards global gender equality, men continue to hold the highest paid positions in industries worldwide, while many women still typically handle grunt work across companies and supply chains.

Meanwhile, many women around the world are still struggling to find work, with many holding precarious jobs or forced to hustle in the informal economy just to get by.

Overall, women continue to carry a disproportionate share of unpaid care and domestic work, underlining United Nations Secretary General António Guterres’ comments that global poverty “has a female face.”

“If the quantity and quality of employment are failing women, the impact is higher poverty risk,” said Sally Roever, formerly the international coordinator at Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), a global network that aims to improve working conditions for women in the informal economy.

Labor experts say that the working world excludes, underpays, overlooks and exploits around half of its available force – and as such, work systems – in their current structures – are failing women.

What is work and why is it not working for women?

The International Labor Organization (ILO) defines work as “any activity performed by persons of any sex and age to produce goods or to provide services for use by others or for own use.”

Globally, the most common form of work is informal and unregulated, according to the ILO, who estimates nearly 60% of all workers are involved in this type of work, most of whom are women in the Global South.

Although work in the informal economy is most prevalent in developing economies, it is also an important part of advanced economies, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). Informal work takes many different forms globally and includes jobs such as street sellers, unregistered taxi drivers, domestic workers and day laborers.

For women working in the formal economy, they often don’t hold the same legal rights as men, according to a 2024 World Bank report. More than 90 countries do not have laws mandating equal pay for equal work, while dozens of others prohibit women from working in certain industries, such as construction or manufacturing. Some countries prohibit women from working jobs deemed “too dangerous,” and others ban women from working at night.

What work do women do?

In the formal sector, women typically hold lower-paying roles and are only likely to hold leadership positions in occupations “traditionally viewed as female-centric,” according to the ILO.

For example, women make up 67% of the global health and social care workforce – providing essential health services for an estimated five billion people worldwide – yet men are estimated to hold 75% of leadership roles in the sector, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

Women working in the informal economy are over-represented in the most vulnerable types of employment, including domestic work, food production and agriculture, according to the ILO.

The invisible burden of care work

Unpaid care work is a barrier to women actively engaging in the labor market, leaving women marginalized, and without any social protections or income stability in many parts of the world, experts say.

In 2023, around 708 million women worldwide were unable to enter the labor force because of unpaid care responsibilities, according to the most recent ILO global estimates, who said the data “confirm that care responsibilities continue to be the main reason women are not looking or not available for employment.”

And even when domestic work is paid, safety risks are often not accounted for, she said. For example, domestic work is mostly carried out in homes, which are not commonly considered a workplace. Paz said this means occupational health and safety standards are rarely in place to protect people – mostly women – who are paid to do that work.

While unpaid care work isn’t counted in traditional economic measures, it is vital to economic activity, Pozzan of the ILO added, noting that care work allows others participate in the workforce. “You cannot have paid work unless you have unpaid care work,” she said.

Women face more risks at work

While all workers face some risk and vulnerabilities on the job, women face them in greater numbers, particularly those working in the informal economy across the Global South.

This is partly because of the nature of the jobs they do. For example, domestic and factory workers risk exposure to toxic chemicals, industrial workers face extreme pain and farm workers risk prolonged sun exposure. And many women in the agricultural industry – who make up most rural smallholder farmers worldwide – are often not recognized formally as farmers in many countries, leaving them without any rights to the land they work.

Across nearly every sector, gender-based violence and sexual harassment at work continues to persist as patriarchal societies have normalized gender-based violence, according to the experts.

That violence has a knock-on effect on the overall economy.

In Cambodia, a 2017 study by the humanitarian agency CARE said that almost one in three women garment factory workers reported they had been sexually harassed, lowering productivity and seeing many women leave the job – costing employers an estimated $89 million annually.

Meanwhile, women are facing risks to the future of work, with big tech and the climate emergency two of the most prominent disruptors.

Women’s jobs are more at risk of being lost to AI as women typically hold low-skill positions requiring less education and formal qualifications that are more likely to be replaced by automation.

Climate change is also disrupting work and affects women differently than men. During an extreme weather event, which is often exacerbated by human-made climate change, women are usually the ones to shoulder a larger burden when it comes to running the household, making cooking, cleaning, gathering resources and childcare more challenging and time consuming.

More women are working until they die

Women are also working longer than men as they typically have less access to state and social benefits – including sick leave, unemployment pay, or pensions.

For example, in a high-income country such as the United Kingdom, women retire with an average pension savings of £69,000 (approximately $87,340), compared to men’s £205,000. ($259,480), according to NOW: Pensions, a UK-based pension scheme.

In developing countries, women often withdraw from the workforce due to family responsibilities, according to Aura Sevilla, also from WIEGO. Maternity policies that aim to fill in income gaps are often inadequate, according to WEF figures.

Nearly one in two women who become pregnant aren’t protected from income loss if they have their child, according to the ILO, leaving women with less overall wealth just because they started a family.

At an average life expectancy of 74, women also live longer than men, whose life expectancy is 69, according to World Bank data. In many heterosexual relationships, this means women need to keep working if their partners are no longer able to work, or die, said Florian Juergens-Grant, also from WIEGO.

Are there solutions to improve work for women?

Experts say that investing in the care economy, changing the culture of care, and strengthening unions and workers protections will help improve work conditions for women globally.

For work to really work for women, experts agree that it is important to invest in the care economy, as it can create new jobs and offer a return on investment.

Unpaid domestic and care work would equal a substantial portion of global GDP if given an equivalent monetary value, according to the ILO, who said that in some countries that amount would exceed 40%, based on conservative estimates.

An example of how this action works in practice can be seen in a city-run project located in Bogotá, Colombia, where men are taught basic care skills in a bid to rebalance domestic care responsibilities.

More than 400,000 people have benefitted from the Care Schools for Men program since its inception in 2021, and a survey from late 2023 suggests more men and women in Bogotá say that they now distribute household work more equally than in 2021.

The city government also runs “‘Care Blocks”’ to support caregivers – the majority of whom are women – which include laundry services, legal aid, daycare, psychological support, and dance classes, among others.

Between March 2021 and December 2023, almost 250,000 caregivers benefitted from these services, and the team is hoping to add a further 23 Care Blocks by 2035.

Another way to improve work for women is to encourage multinational brands to audit working conditions all the way across their supply chain, WIEGO experts said.

For example, many women in the garment and footwear industry prefer to work from home than in factories to either balance care responsibilities, for cultural or religious reasons, because they are too old to work in factories, or because they live in villages. But they often receive low wages, unstable and irregular pay, and endure poor working conditions.

The strengthening of unions and collectives is also key in establishing better workers’ rights for women.

One success story comes from São Paulo, Brazil, where after years of organizing, the women-led Domestic Workers Union successfully negotiated a minimum wage above the national minimum, and weekly rest periods for live-in domestic workers, among other achievements.

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