Five powers plan bigger, deeper Asia military drills

Australia, Britain, Malaysia, New Zealand and Singapore have agreed to stage more complex military drills in the region this year involving drones, fifth-generation fighter planes and surveillance aircraft.The announcement yesterday by defence ministers from members of the 53-year old Five Power Defence Arrangement (FPDA) on the sidelines of the Shangri-La Dialogue defence meeting in Singapore comes as the tempo of military exercises in Asia increases along with tensions between global powers.“We are increasing the assets that we are bringing to bear in exercises so (at) Bersama Lima later this year, for the first time, Australia will be contributing F-35 Joint Strike Fighters,” said Australian Deputy Prime Minister and Defence Minister Richard Marles.Bersama Lima, “Five Together” in the Malay language, is an annual military exercise held by the five powers. It was held last year in Malaysia.Marles said running more complicated exercises were an example of increasing ambition in the agenda of the FPDA.New Zealand’s Defence Minister Judith Collins said a P-8 Poseidon would be deployed to Singapore for the first time as part of the drills.The P-8 aircraft is the premier US submarine hunter-tracker and is increasingly deployed in the region against China’s submarine patrols.Singapore is close to important submarine channels in Indonesia linking the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.Marles said the FPDA was “not about China” but rather about “our desire to work closely together”. Malaysian Defence Minister Mohamed Khaled Nordin said this year’s exercises would involve drones, among other “non-conventional” elements.British representative Paul Wyatt, director general for security policy, said Britain planned sending an aircraft carrier to the region in 2025 and had discussed how the tour might fit with the FPDA’s exercise programme.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683800/international/five-powers-plan-bigger-deeper-asia-military-drills

Lawyers seek court nod to ditch robes

Soaring temperatures in India’s capital have proven to be too much for some courts and are putting to the test a law in place since 1961 that requires lawyers to wear heavy black robes and coats.At least three High Courts have permitted lawyers to discard the robes and coats for the summer, although the Supreme Court is being urged to make it a general rule for all lawyers in the country.Judges at one New Delhi court postponed a case this week until later in the year, complaining about a lack of air conditioning and water supply.While India’s Supreme Court and most high courts have air conditioning, many lower courts and consumer forums depend on fans and have poor ventilation.New Delhi recorded temperatures of around 50C for the first time this week, forcing authorities to restrict water supply, shut schools and set up heatstroke units at hospitals.They have also deployed paramedics to polling stations for the final day of India’s massive general election today in case any voters fall ill as they queue in the heat. A 40-year-old labourer died of heat stroke on Wednesday.The northwest of India has been experiencing high temperatures for several weeks. India’s meteorological department has predicted two or three times the usual number of heat wave days in the region this month, or days defined by abnormally hot weather.For Delhi, that means sweltering temperatures that are effecting people across the city, including its legal system.At a consumer court in the southwestern district of Dwarka, judges presided over cases against insurance companies in a courtroom fitted with two non-functioning air conditioners. Ceiling fans and open windows offered the only respite from the weather.Three of the court’s judges issued a written order this week stating they had declined to hear a case due to high temperatures in the court room. They adjourned the case for the cooler month of November.“There is neither air conditioner nor cooler in the court room... There is too much heat. In these circumstances, arguments cannot be heard,” the order said.In 2021, India’s then chief justice said courts “still operate from dilapidated structures without proper facilities”, which was “severely detrimental” for both litigants and lawyers.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683799/international/lawyers-seek-court-nod-to-ditch-robes

Bird flu infects 3rd US dairy worker

A third US dairy worker tested positive for bird flu after exposure to infected cows, and was the first to suffer respiratory problems, US officials said yesterday. The infection was the second human case in Michigan, which has confirmed more cases of bird flu in cattle than any other state. It also expands the symptoms for human cases, after the two workers who previously tested positive experienced only conjunctivitis, or pink eye, and recovered.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683704/international/bird-flu-infects-3rd-us-dairy-worker

Robots play soccer at Geneva AI showcase

Teams of robots jostled on a miniature artificial soccer pitch as androids answered trivia questions and took jabs at human ignorance yesterday at an artificial intelligence (AI) summit on the technology’s wide-ranging uses.Organisers said the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva showed the ways the technology could improve and even transform lives.“Sometimes we think about AI as just something big,” said Tomas Lamanauskas, deputy secretary-general of the UN’s International Telecommunication Union (ITU) which staged the event. “At the same time AI can be embedded in so many more things in everyday life ... whether it’s for flood forecasting, disaster management and early-warning systems, in agriculture, in health. It’s across the board.”Displays showed off prosthetic limbs that could learn from a user’s behaviour and adapt to muscle activity, devices to help visually impaired people avoid obstacles in the street and bionic cats and dogs built to act as companions.The football-playing robots were the work of a group of students from the university of ETH Zurich.The team kicked, passed and kept track of the ball based on input from sensors.“The project allows our undergraduate and graduate students to collect experience on a full robotic platform,” Jan-Nico Zaech, the project’s scientific supervisor, said. “It’s a platform to test algorithms that can run in the real world afterwards.”Meanwhile, a top UN official warned that humanity is in a race against time to harness the colossal emerging power of AI for the good of all, while averting dire risks.“We’ve let the genie out of the bottle,” said ITU Secretary-General Doreen Bogdan-Martin.“We are in a race against time,” she told the opening of a two-day AI for Good Global Summit. “Recent developments in AI have been nothing short of extraordinary.”The thousands gathered at the conference heard how advances in generative AI are already speeding up efforts to solve some of the world’s most pressing problems, such as climate change, hunger and social care.“I believe we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to guide AI to benefit all the world’s people,” Bogdan-Martin told AFP ahead of the summit.However, she lamented that one-third of humanity still remains completely offline, and is “excluded from the AI revolution without a voice”.“This digital and technological divide is no longer acceptable.”Bogdan-Martin highlighted that AI holds “immense potential for both good and bad”, stressing that it was vital to “make AI systems safe”.She said that was especially important given that “2024 is the biggest election year in history”, with votes in dozens of countries, including in the United States.She flagged the “rise of sophisticated deep fakes disinformation campaigns” and warned that the “misuse of AI threaten democracy (and) also endangers young people’s mental health and compromises cybersecurity”.Other experts at the conference agreed.“We have to understand what we’re steering towards,” said Tristan Harris, a technology ethicist who co-founded the Centre for Humane Technology.He pointed to lessons from social media – initially touted as a way to connect people and give everyone a voice, but which also brought addiction, viral misinformation, online harassment and ballooning mental health issues.Harris warned the incentive driving the companies rolling out the technology risked dramatically swelling such negative impacts.“The number one thing that is driving Open AI or Google behaviour is the race to actually achieve market dominance,” he said.In such a world, he said, “governance that moves at the speed of technology” is vital.Azeem Azhar, founder of Exponential View, also stressed the need for a more robust institutional response.“This is a technology that tends to winner-take all, and the rewards are so high that there is quite the unseemly landgrab going on at the moment,” he told the gathering. – Reuters/AFP

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683720/international/robots-play-soccer-at-geneva-ai-showcase

India’s gruelling election campaign comes to an end

More than two months of gruelling and acrimonious campaigning in India’s general election that played out in sweltering heat ended yesterday, two days before the final phase of polling, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s constituency will cast its votes.India began voting in seven phases in the world’s largest election on April 19 and it is set to conclude on June 1. Votes will be counted on June 4 although television channels conduct exit polls and project results after voting ends.Modi, who is seeking a record-equalling third straight term and is widely expected to win, began his re-election campaign by focusing on his achievements over the last 10 years but soon switched to mostly targeting the opposition by accusing them of favouring India’s minority Muslims.This change of tack, analysts said, was likely aimed at firing up his Hindu nationalist base after a low turnout in the first phase sparked concerns that supporters of his Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) were not voting.India’s election rules stop campaigning about 36 hours before voting begins.Modi addressed one rally in the northern state of Punjab yesterday, while his main opponent, the Congress party’s Rahul Gandhi, spoke at rallies in the states of Odisha and Punjab.“It is clear from the overwhelming support of people ... that there is going to be an unprecedented victory” for BJP and the alliance it leads, Modi posted on X minutes before campaigning ended. Modi will spend the next two days meditating at the southernmost tip of India at an island memorial for Hindu philosopher Swami Vivekananda, located at where the Arabian Sea, the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean converge.Opposition parties criticised his decision, saying it was a form of campaigning as his meditation would be shown on TV and so was in breach of the rules, with the Congress complaining to the Election Commission.“This is a blatant violation of the code of conduct. We don’t mind if he goes to meditate anywhere after June 1,” Congress spokesperson Jairam Ramesh said.Modi meditated at a cave in the Himalayas two days before the last phase of voting in 2019, an election BJP won resoundingly.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683716/international/indias-gruelling-election-campaign-comes-to-an-end

UK Parliament dissolved ahead of election

The UK Parliament was formally dissolved on Thursday ahead of the July 4 general election.Five weeks of campaigning officially began as 650 seats of members of parliament (MPs) became vacant in line with the electoral schedule.UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak made surprise decision last week calling for a snap general election.Some 129 MPs have so far announced that they will not be standing for re-election. Among them are 77 Conservatives, an unprecedented exodus for a governing party.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683656/international/uk-parliament-dissolved-ahead-of-election

ANC dominance in the balance on vote day

South African voters queued — many of them for hours — to cast their ballots yesterday in a landmark general election that leaves the ruling ANC fighting to protect its three-decade-long exclusive grip on power.More than 27mn voters are registered for the most uncertain poll since the African National Congress (ANC) led the nation out of apartheid rule, but with voting delayed in many districts, some were forced to wait.With opposition challenges from both the left and right, unemployment and crime at near record levels and a new generation growing up with no memory of the struggle against white-minority rule, the ruling party may lose its absolute majority and be forced to share power.The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) said it projected turnout to go “well beyond” the 66 percent recorded in the last election in 2019.“We are experiencing a late surge and are processing a large number of voters” in big cities, IEC’s head Sy Mamabolo told a press conference.Thousands of South Africans were still waiting in hours-long queues outside polling stations after nightfall, just over an hour away from their planned closure.All those who joined the line before closing time would be allowed to vote, Mamabolo said.Earlier the IEC said seven percent of stations opened late because of delays in delivering election materials.After voting, President Cyril Ramaphosa, who is seeking re-election, said: “I have no doubt whatsoever in my heart of hearts that the people will once again invest confidence in the ANC to continue leading this country.”But John Steenhuisen, leader of the biggest opposition party the Democratic Alliance (DA), predicted no single party would win an outright majority, creating an opening for his party and an alliance of smaller outfits.“For the first time in 30 years, there’s an opportunity for change in South Africa”, he said after voting in his home city, Durban.In Soweto, the president’s hometown and unofficial capital of the anti-apartheid battle, elderly ANC loyalists turned out early but, as the queues lengthened, there were signs of disillusionment among younger voters.Kqomotso Mtumba, a 44-year-old bank official, sporting burgundy and black beaded braids, said she voted ANC in the past but had now chosen an “upcoming party” whose manifesto had impressed her. “The last party I voted for, their promises didn’t work out so I’ll be trying this one,” she said.In the eastern city of Durban, accountant and first time voter 25-year-old Sibahle Vilakazi, said she had abandoned the long queue at her polling station three times already but was now back and determined to stick it out.“We’re honestly in need of change in this country and I think that is why the queues are so long,” she said. “I’m not giving up, we need to see the change.”Voters will choose the 400 members of the National Assembly who in the coming weeks will then choose a president from among their number.For the first time since the advent of democracy in 1994, the ANC could be forced to negotiate a coalition to remain in government.“South Africa’s general election is a watershed moment in the political history of the country,” said Aleix Montana, an analyst at risk intelligence company Verisk Maplecroft. Under the leadership of the late Nelson Mandela, the ANC won freedom for black South Africans after decades of apartheid, then lifted millions out of poverty by creating a broad social welfare system.But many in the nation of 62mn are fed up with high unemployment, currently at 32.9%, rampant crime, corruption scandals, and regular power cuts and water shortages.The economy grew a meagre 0.6% in 2023, and polls suggest the ANC could win as little as 40% of the vote, down from 57% in 2019.If the ANC wins fewer than 201 seats, Ramaphosa would have to negotiate with opposition parties and independent MPs to secure a majority. On the right, the DA has vowed to “Rescue South Africa” through clean governance, privatisation and deregulation but has struggled to shake off its image as a party for the white minority.Polls put DA support below 25%.On the left, it is bleeding support to former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) and Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), which are pushing for land redistribution and nationalisations. Polls estimate these two parties are tied at around 10%.Malema waited alongside ordinary voters for four hours to cast his ballot.“We are calling on the IEC to be more efficient and try to reduce the queues,” he said outside his polling station. Long queues were causing people to leave before voting, which compromised the freedom and fairness of the elections, he added.Were the ANC to come close to 50% it could strike an easier deal with some of the dozens of smaller groups in the running. Full results are not expected before the weekend.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683644/international/anc-dominance-in-the-balance-on-vote-day

French, German leaders say allow Ukraine to hit inside Russia

France and Germany’s leaders said on Tuesday Ukraine should be allowed to hit military sites inside Russia from which missiles were being fired at Ukrainian territory, but not other targets.Russian President Vladimir Putin warned the West earlier in the day that Nato members in Europe were playing with fire by proposing to let Ukraine use Western-supplied weapons to strike inside Russia, which he said could trigger a global conflict.“We support Ukraine and we don’t want escalation, that hasn’t changed,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at a joint news conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Meseberg, Germany.“We think we should allow them to neutralise military sites from which missiles are fired, military sites from which Ukraine is attacked, but we shouldn’t allow them to hit other targets in Russia and civilian or other military sites in Russia.”Scholz said he agreed with Macron and that as long as Ukraine respected the conditions given by countries that supplied the weapons, including the United States, and international law, it was allowed to defend itself. “Ukraine has every possibility under international law for what it is doing. That has to be said explicitly,” Scholz said.“I find it strange when some people argue that it should not be allowed to defend itself and take measures that are suitable for this.” Over two years into the deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two, as the West considers what to do about Russian military advances in Ukraine, Putin is increasingly evoking the risk of a global war, while Western leaders play it down. Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg told The Economist that alliance members should let Ukraine strike deep into Russia with Western weapons, a view supported by some European members of the transatlantic alliance though not the United States.In Germany too, there is some resistance to the idea, with fears of an escalation into a wider conflict likely to play a role in upcoming local and state elections in the formerly communist east of the country.Scholz has refused to provide Kyiv Germany’s long-range Taurus missiles, which could potentially reach Moscow.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683569/international/french-german-leaders-say-allow-ukraine-to-hit-inside-russia

Rally decries adoption of ‘foreign influence’ law

Thousands of Georgians rallied on Tuesday outside parliament after ruling party MPs adopted a divisive “foreign influence” law, overcoming a presidential veto on the bill despite Western warnings the move could jeopardise the country’s path to the European Union.The law, which critics have compared to repressive Russian legislation used to silence dissent, forces groups receiving at least 20% of funding from abroad to register as “organisations pursuing the interests of a foreign power.”The proposal has drawn fierce opposition from Western governments including the United States, which said the measure risked “stifling” freedom of expression in the Black Sea Caucasus nation.Brussels warned the measure was “incompatible” with the ex-Soviet republic’s longstanding bid for EU membership, which is enshrined in the country’s constitution and supported — according to opinion polls — by more than 80% of the population. Lawmakers voted 84 to 4 to pass the bill on Tuesday, after overriding pro-EU President Salome Zurabishvili’s veto.Most opposition MPs walked out of the 150-seat chamber ahead of the vote.The EU said that it deeply regretted the law being adopted, and foreign affairs chief Josep Borrell said the bloc was “considering all options to react to these developments”.Waving Georgian and EU flags, thousands of protesters gathered outside parliament on Tuesday evening with crowds swelling after the chamber voted to adopt the law.Georgia’s national anthem and EU’s Ode to Joy were performed at the rally. Zurabishvili addressed the crowd by video link.“You are angry today, aren’t you? Get angry, but let’s get to work. The work is that we have to prepare, first of all, for a true referendum,” she said referring to October’s elections.“Do we want a European future or Russian slavery? Eighty-four men cannot decide this, we can — we, all together.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683568/international/rally-decries-adoption-of-foreign-influence-law

Rains cause quarry collapse in India, cyclone deaths at 23

Torrential rains brought by cyclone Remal caused a stone quarry to collapse in India’s northeastern state of Mizoram, killing 12 people and trapping seven, while 11 more died in landslides and other accidents elsewhere in the remote region, officials said.Rescue workers on the outskirts of Mizoram’s state capital of Aizawl used heavy-duty excavators to cut through stone slabs while battling heavy rain and loose soil at the site, said the state’s Chief Minister Lalduhoma.“There is a continuous flow of soil and mud making matters more difficult,” he said, adding that rescue operations were hampered by the onset of the night.The powerful cyclone had weakened into a depression after devastating regional coastlines the previous day, when it killed at least 16 and cut power to millions in parts of eastern India and neighbouring Bangladesh.“There have been incessant rains in the wake of cyclone Remal, which led to the quarry collapse,” a state disaster management official in Mizoram said, speaking on condition of anonymity.Authorities in India’s northeastern states, some of which share a border with Bangladesh, have issued warnings telling people to stay at home and to take precautions.Six more people were killed in landslides in the last 24 hours in Mizoram, which borders Bangladesh, while a falling tree killed three people in the state of Assam further to the north, officials said. Schools and colleges remained shut.Two more deaths were reported in the states of Meghalaya and Nagaland, local media said.Authorities in India’s eastern state of West Bengal were working to restore electricity in the worst-affected areas, after Remal stripped power lines and uprooted trees.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683549/international/rains-cause-quarry-collapse-in-india-cyclone-deaths-at-23

US Central Command destroys drone over Red Sea

The US Central Command (CENTCOM) announced the destruction of a drone over the Red Sea.US forces destroyed a drone over the Red Sea that had been launched from an area in Yemen controlled by the Houthis, CENTCOM said in a statement, stressing that these drones represent an imminent threat to both coalition forces and commercial ships in the region.Washington leads an international maritime coalition with the aim of 'protecting' maritime navigation in this strategic region, through which 12 percent of global trade passes.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683497/international/us-central-command-destroys-drone-over-red-sea

Pakistan temperatures cross 52C in heatwave

Temperatures rose above 52 degrees Celsius (125.6 degrees Fahrenheit) in Pakistan’s southern province of Sindh, the highest reading of the summer and close to the country’s record high amid an ongoing heatwave, the met office said on Monday.Extreme temperatures throughout Asia over the past month were made worse most likely as a result of human-driven climate change, a team of international scientists have said.In Mohenjo Daro, a town in Sindh known for archaeological sites that date back to the Indus Valley Civilisation built in 2500 BC, temperatures rose as high as 52.2C (126F) over the last 24 hours, a senior official of the Pakistan Meteorological Department, Shahid Abbas told Reuters.The reading is the highest of the summer so far, and approached the town’s and country’s record highs of 53.5C (128.3F) and 54C (129.2F) respectively.Mohenjo Daro is a small town that experiences extremely hot summers and mild winters, and low rainfall, but its limited markets, including bakeries, tea shops, mechanics, electronic repair shops, and fruit and vegetable sellers, are usually bustling with customers. But with the current heatwave, shops are seeing almost no footfall.“The customers are not coming to the restaurant because of extreme heat. I sit idle at the restaurant with these tables and chairs and without any customers,” Wajid Ali, 32, who owns a tea stall in the town. “I take baths several times a day which gives me a little relief. Also there is no power. The heat has made us very uneasy.”Close to Ali’s shop is an electronic repairs shop run by Abdul Khaliq, 30, who was sat working with the shop’s shutter half down to shield him from the sun. Khaliq also complained about the heat affecting business.Local doctor Mushtaq Ahmed added that the locals have adjusted to living in the extreme weather conditions and prefer staying indoors or near water.“Pakistan is the fifth most vulnerable country to the impact of climate change. We have witnessed above normal rains, floods,” Rubina Khursheed Alam, the prime minister’s coordinator on climate, said at a news conference on Friday adding that the government is running awareness campaigns due to the heatwaves.The highest temperature recorded in Pakistan was in 2017 when temperatures rose to 54C (129.2F) in the city of Turbat, located in the Southwestern province of Balochistan. This was the second hottest in Asia and fourth highest in the world, said Sardar Sarfaraz, Chief Meteorologist at the Pakistan Meteorological DepartmentThe heatwave will subside in Mohenjo Daro and surrounding areas, but another spell is expected to hit other areas in Sindh, including the capital, Karachi — Pakistan’s largest city.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683491/international/pakistan-temperatures-cross-52c-in-heatwave

Spain pledges €1bn to visiting Zelensky

Spain on Monday pledged €1bn in military aid to Ukraine as Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a security deal here.The deal “includes a commitment for €1bn in military aid for 2024,” Sanchez told a joint news conference “It will allow Ukraine to boost its capabilities including its essential air defence systems to protect its civilians, cities and infrastructure which are still suffering indiscriminate attacks as seen this weekend in Kharkiv,” he said, referring to a Russian strike on the northeastern city that killed at least 16 people.Zelensky’s visit comes as Ukraine has been battling a Russian ground offensive in the Kharkiv region which began on May 10 in Moscow’s biggest territorial advance in 18 months. With the Russian assault now in its third year, Ukraine has been pleading for more weapons for its outgunned and outnumbered troops, notably seeking help to address its lack of air defence systems. Sanchez said Spain had already pledged to supply Patriot missiles, but what Zelensky needed from Ukraine’s allies was “the systems to launch these missiles”. “That’s what he working on with different allies to see exactly how many we can send to guarantee this aerial security.”Spain would also send “another batch of Leopard tanks and above all ammunition,” Sanchez said, pledging to keep working with Kyiv “to understand how else — and with what other alternative systems — we can help ensure Ukraine’s air security.”Zelensky has already signed bilateral security agreements with several countries including France, Germany and the UK.Sanchez said the security agreement would cover a range of a different issues, ranging from “military, humanitarian and financial support, to collaboration between Spanish and Ukrainian defence industries, as well as help with reconstruction and de-mining among other things”.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683492/international/spain-pledges-1bn-to-visiting-zelensky

Cyclone hits Bangladesh as 1mn flee inland for shelter

An intense cyclone smashed into the low-lying coast of Bangladesh yesterday, with nearly a million people fleeing inland for concrete storm shelters away from howling gales and crashing waves.“The severe Cyclone Remal has started crossing the Bangladesh coast,” Bangladesh Meteorological Department director Azizur Rahman said, adding the raging storm could continue hammering the coast until at least the early hours of today morning.“We have so far recorded maximum wind speeds of 90kms per hour, but the wind speed may pick up more pace.”Forecasters predicted gusts of up to 130kms per hour, with heavy rain and winds also lashing neighbouring India.Authorities have raised the danger signal to its highest level. Cyclones have killed hundreds of thousands of people in Bangladesh in recent decades, but the number of superstorms hitting its densely populated coast has increased sharply, from one a year to as many as three, due to the impact of climate change.“The cyclone could unleash a storm surge of up to 12 feet above normal astronomical tide, which can be dangerous,” Bangladeshi senior weather official Mohamed Abul Kalam Mallik said.Most of Bangladesh’s coastal areas are a metre or two above sea level and high storm surges can devastate villages.“We are terrified,” said 35-year-old fisherman Yusuf Fakir at Kuakata, a town on the very southern tip of Bangladesh in the predicted route of the storm, speaking just before its arrival.While he had sent his wife and children to a relative’s home inland, he stayed put to guard their belongings.At least 800,000 Bangladeshis fled their coastal villages, while more than 50,000 people in India also moved inland from the vast Sundarbans mangrove forest, where the Ganges, Brahmaputra and Meghna rivers meet the sea, government ministers and disaster officials said.“We want to ensure that a single life is not lost,” said Bankim Chandra Hazra, a senior minister in India’s West Bengal state.As people fled, Bangladeshi police said that a heavily laden ferry carrying more than 50 passengers – double its capacity – was swamped and sank near Mongla, a port in the expected path of the storm.“At least 13 people were injured and were taken to a hospital,” local police chief Mushfiqur Rahman Tushar said, adding that other boats plucked the passengers to safety.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683414/international/cyclone-hits-bangladesh-as-1mn-flee-inland-for-shelter

Indians head to polls in massive election amid heatwave challenge

Indian voters braved temperatures of nearly 45° Celsius (113° Fahrenheit) in parts of the country as they headed on Saturday to polling stations in the penultimate phase of the world’s largest election.More than 111mn people in 58 constituencies across eight states and federal territories are eligible to vote in the general election’s sixth phase, which recorded turnout of 49.2% at 3pm, with three hours of polling left.The overall turnout in the same phase of the last election in 2019 was about 63%.Among those casting their ballots early on Saturday in the capital New Delhi was Rahul Gandhi, leader of the opposition Congress party and the main rival of Prime Minister Narendra Modi – whose Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is expected to win a third consecutive term.Gandhi was accompanied by his mother, Sonia Gandhi, and sister, Priyanka Vadra.A son, grandson and great-grandson of former prime ministers, Gandhi paused after voting to take a selfie with his mother Sonia but did not speak to crowds of reporters.The scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades, he was convicted of criminal libel last year after a complaint by a member of Modi’s party.His two-year prison sentence saw him disqualified from parliament until the verdict was suspended by a higher court.After voting, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, 55, leader of the opposition Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), urged citizens: “Please vote, use your right to vote, and vote against dictatorship.”Kejriwal was arrested in March in a long-running graft case and detained for several weeks before the Supreme Court granted him bail earlier this month and he returned to the campaign trail.Investigators “had no proof and yet they jailed him”, opposition voter Yogesh Kumar, 42, told AFP. “This is a blunt show of power.”Congress is spearheading an opposition alliance of more than two dozen parties competing jointly against Modi, including the AAP.Kejriwal’s organisation grew out of an anti-corruption movement a decade ago – its name means Common Man’s party – and has been elected to office in the Delhi region and the state of Punjab, but has struggled to establish itself as a nationwide force.In February, authorities froze several Congress bank accounts as part of a running dispute over income tax returns filed five years ago, a move Gandhi said had severely impacted the party’s ability to contest the election.“We have no money to campaign, we cannot support our candidates,” the 53-year-old told reporters in March.Voting in the elections began on April 19 and will conclude on June 1, with results due on June 4.Paramedics were on hand with oral hydration salts at polling stations in Delhi, where mist machines, shaded waiting areas and cold water dispensers have also been installed by the Election Commission due to concerns about the heat.“We hope that people will overcome the fear of the heatwave and come and vote,” Delhi Chief Electoral Officer P Krishnamurthy told Reuters.Modi also urged people to “vote in large numbers” in a message on Saturday on social media platform X.It was not clear which party would gain from a lower turnout.The temperature in the capital hovered around 42C (107.6F) but felt like 49C (120.2F) at 2pm, the weather department said, prompting many voters to question why polls were not held when the weather was “more conducive”.At 3pm, turnout in the city stood at 44.5%.At a school in the Trilokpuri area that was being used for polling, sheets and tarpaulin were strung up in the courtyard to provide shade to voters queuing up despite the heat.“If we sit at home saying it is hot outside, who will vote?” said housewife Bhuwneshwari Pillai, 32, fanning herself with a sheet of paper and mopping her brow with a towel.In some parts of the northern state of Haryana, people living near polling booths also pitched in to help voters beat the heat, handing out free cold drinks and dried fruits.Price rises and a lack of jobs were two of the major issues mentioned by voters to Reuters on Saturday when asked about the factors that determined their vote.“Our youth are unemployed, the prices of essential commodities have sky-rocketed. We have come to vote for the candidate who resolves these issues,” said Ghulam Qadir Chouhan, 75, in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir’s Anantnag region.In Delhi, Nishu Singh, 43, who travelled from a neighbouring town to vote, said her ballot was “for the country’s development”.For social scientist Savitha Jha, who was voting in Haryana’s business hub Gurugram, which shares a border with Delhi and saw Hindu-Muslim clashes last year, the election was a chance to ensure security for all.“I’m voting for internal security and for external security of the nation and everyone in it, not just any one community,” she said.While the heatwave was a concern in Delhi, a cyclone that is expected to hit land today was being closely watched in eastern Odisha and West Bengal, parts of which are also voting on Saturday.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683346/international/indians-head-to-polls-in-massive-election-amid-heatwave-challenge

4 killed, 38 hurt in Russian strike on Kharkiv DIY store

Russia on Saturday bombed a hardware superstore in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, killing four people and wounding 38, Ukraine officials said, in an attack condemned as “vile” by President Volodymyr Zelensky. Kharkiv regional governor Oleg Synegubov said “unfortunately there are already four dead” and “38 wounded” after two guided Russian bombs hit the store. Two of those killed “were men who worked in the hypermarket,” Synegubov said earlier in a video posted on Telegram. “The number of wounded has gone up to 35 people,” Kharkiv’s mayor, Igor Terekhov, posted on Telegram. Thick black smoke billowed from the gutted building of the Epitsentr DIY superstore in the northeastern outskirts of the city, as firefighters sprayed water on a blaze sparked by the strikes, an AFP journalist saw. The Epitsentr chain sells household and DIY goods. “As of now, we know that more than 200 people could have been inside the hypermarket,” Zelensky said on Telegram, condemning the daylight attack on an “obviously civilian” target. The regional governor said there was “no contact with some of the staff” and “according to our information, visitors could still be in the building”. Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, is just a few dozen kilometres from the border and regularly comes under attack from Russian missiles — strikes on the city killed seven people Thursday. Later on Saturday, another strike hit the centre of Kharkiv, injuring eight, Terekhov said, without giving details. Zelensky had visited Kharkiv on Friday and met officials to discuss the defence of the surrounding region. On Saturday, he urged world leaders to supply Ukraine with “sufficient air defence protection” to “prevent such terrorist attacks”. “Russia struck another brutal blow at our Kharkiv — at a construction hypermarket — on Saturday, right in the middle of the day,” Zelensky said. The latest attacks came after Russia launched a ground offensive in the Kharkiv region on May 10. Ukraine said Friday that it had managed to halt Moscow’s progress and was counterattacking. Ukraine’s rescue service posted images of firefighters spraying water inside the blazing Epitsentr store building, with the roof torn open and debris strewn around. They said the fire had raged over an area of 10,000 sq m but that the firefighters had managed to contain it. “There were a lot of workers and shoppers inside,” Zelensky said. Terekhov, Kharkiv’s mayor, said that according to the store’s owner, 15 employees had not been in contact and approximately 200 people were in the building at the time of the strikes. He described the attack as “pure terrorism”.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683334/international/4-killed-38-hurt-in-russian-strike-on-kharkiv-diy-store

G7 ministers cite ‘progress’ but no done deal on Russian assets for Ukraine

G7 finance ministers cited “progress” in finding ways to use profits from frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine as they wrapped up a meeting on Saturday, envisioning a concrete proposal to present to a leaders’ summit next month. A search for creative yet legally sound solutions was top of the agenda at the two-day Group of Seven meeting in Stresa, northern Italy, as Kyiv continues its urgent appeals for more funds from Western allies in its third year of war with Russia. “We are making progress in our discussions on potential avenues to bring forward the extraordinary profits stemming from immobilised Russian sovereign assets to the benefit of Ukraine, consistent with international law and our respective legal systems,” the ministers said in a final statement. They hope to present a proposal that is “defined in all its dimensions” to G7 leaders ahead of a summit in Puglia, southern Italy, on June 13-15, Italian Finance Minister Giancarlo Giorgetti said during a press conference on Saturday following the summit. “Progress has been made,” Giorgetti said, cautioning however that an agreed proposal “is clearly not yet finalised because it has significant technical and legal issues”. “We do not deny the difficulties but there is a firm determination to arrive at a solution,” he added. G7 finance ministers reiterated in their final statement that Russian assets frozen by the Group of Seven nations “will remain immobilised until Russia pays for the damage it has caused to Ukraine”. But they went further, saying they were “committed to further financial and economic sanctions...including continuing to target Russia’s energy revenue and future extractive capabilities”. The G7 is “ready to impose sanctions on individuals and entities that help Russia acquire advanced materials, technology, and equipment for its military industrial base,” added the statement. The summit wrapped up a day after the US announced a new $275mn package of aid for Kyiv, part of a $61bn military aid deal passed by Congress last month after months of delays. Kicking off the talks in Stresa, US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen had urged her counterparts to embrace “ambitious options” in considering how to use the frozen Russian assets. A debated US proposal would tap the interest generated by the €300bn ($325bn) of Russian central bank assets frozen by the G7 and EU, creating a $50bn loan facility backed by future interest on the assets. Giorgetti — whose country Italy holds this year’s G7 presidency — called the US proposal a “flexible and pragmatic” plan that answered the legal and regulatory concerns shared within the EU. Last week, the European Union agreed to a more modest plan, using interest from Russian assets frozen by the bloc potentially amounting to up to three billion euros a year. Finance ministers attending the talks had warned that the Stresa summit was not likely to result in a concrete deal. On Friday, France’s Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire described what they had reached as a “political agreement in principle, not a turnkey solution”. Ukrainian Finance Minister Sergii Marchenko, who also attended the Stresa talks, said it was a “good signal that we are moving in the right direction”. “I hope that during the G7 leadership summit in June there will be some decision,” he told reporters. The G7 ministers also called out China’s trade policies and industrial overcapacity, warning that the bloc could take measures to counter them. The United States has led warnings that a surge of low-cost Chinese exports fuelled by Chinese government support in key sectors like solar and electric vehicles pose a risk to global markets. “While reaffirming our interest in a balanced and reciprocal collaboration, we express concerns about China’s comprehensive use of non-market policies and practices that undermines our workers, industries, and economic resilience,” said the statement. The G7 will “continue to monitor the potential negative impacts of overcapacity” and “consider taking steps to ensure a level playing field, in line with World Trade Organisation (WTO) principles”. In February, the US argued that G7 nations should seize the frozen assets outright, an idea it later backed away from due to the concern of allies that it could be a dangerous legal precedent and that Russia could retaliate.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683333/international/g7-ministers-cite-progress-but-no-done-deal-on-russian-assets-for-ukraine

Nine killed as Rajasthan reels under heatwave

At least nine people have died of suspected heat stroke in India’s western state of Rajasthan, media said on Friday, with temperatures expected to soar further amid predictions of a severe heat wave.Searing heat in the country’s north has been a cause of concern during a mammoth general election, and the capital, New Delhi, is set to vote today in temperatures forecast to be around 45 degrees C.India’s summer temperatures often peak in May, but scientists have predicted more heatwave days than usual this year, largely caused by fewer non-monsoon thundershowers and an active but weakening El Nino weather phenomenon.At least nine deaths in Rajasthan were suspected to have resulted from people falling sick in the sweltering heat, local media said.The state’s disaster management officials said they had yet to ascertain the cause, as medical examinations were not complete.The news comes after the city of Barmer in Rajasthan topped temperature charts this week with a record 48.8C on Thursday.Weather officials have warned of conditions ranging from a heatwave to a severe heatwave in many parts of the state, as well as in the northern states of Punjab and Haryana.Indian weather officials set the heatwave threshold at a maximum temperature of 40C in the country’s plains, as well as a departure of at least 4.5C from the normal maximum temperature.In the southern state of Kerala, by contrast, at least seven people died following pre-monsoon rains that were about 18% heavier than normal, bringing floods that disrupted flight schedules in some areas.A red alert has been issued by the weather department in Kerala.Meanwhile, a team of international scientists said extreme temperatures throughout Asia last month were made worse most likely as a result of human-driven climate change.Parts of Bangladesh and neighbouring states are likely to be hit by a cyclone in a couple of days.In neighbouring Pakistan, the climate change ministry said that about 26 districts in the country were boiling under a severe heatwave as of Thursday, with the current spell of sizzling temperature likely to last until May 30.The temperature was expected to hit 50C in at least two cities in the southern province of Sindh on Friday, which has already delayed week annual school exams due to the blistering heat.In a striking contrast, Bangladesh and parts of West Bengal in eastern India are expected to be hit by “severe cyclonic storm” Remal, which is likely to make landfall tomorrow, IMD has predicted.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683269/international/nine-killed-as-rajasthan-reels-under-heatwave

Heatwave cancels classes for half Pakistan’s schoolchildren

Half of Pakistan’s pupils will be shut out of schools for a week as the nation takes crisis measures to lessen the effect of a series of heatwaves, officials said yesterday.Some 26mn students will be out of lessons from tomorrow (Saturday) in Punjab, Pakistan’s most populous province, which has ordered schools to close for the summer break one week early because of the soaring temperatures.The early closure was confirmed by a spokesperson for Punjab’s Education Department.Pakistan’s meteorological office has forecast three heatwaves – one already underway and two more set to hit in early and late June.Temperatures in Punjab are currently 6-8° Celsius above normal, the disaster management agency said, with the provincial capital Lahore due for 46C (111° Fahrenheit) at the weekend.The government’s Co-ordinator on Climate Change and Environment told journalists in Islamabad yesterday that “global warming is causing a sudden change in weather patterns”.Parts of Pakistan are facing power cuts of up to 15 hours as demand for fans and air conditioning surges, leaving students sweltering at their desks.The Save the Children NGO said the 26mn Punjabi schoolchildren with lessons cancelled account for 52% of pre-primary, primary and secondary students in Pakistan.“Prolonged exposure to intense heat impacts children’s ability to learn and to concentrate and this puts their education at risk,” country director Mohamed Khuram Gondal said. “Excess heat is also potentially lethal to children.”The UN children’s agency Unicef said that more than three-quarters of children in South Asia – or 460mn – are exposed to temperatures above 35C (95F) for at least 83 days per year.It warned that children are at risk of “dehydration, higher body temperature, rapid heartbeat, cramps ... and coma”.Pakistan is responsible for less than 1% of global greenhouse gas emissions.However, the nation of 240mn ranks high among countries vulnerable to extreme weather events, which scientists have linked to climate change.A third of Pakistan was submerged by unprecedented monsoon rains in 2022 that displaced millions of people.It was also battered by above-normal rainfall last month that killed at least 144 people in the wettest April recorded since 1961, with more deluges forecast this summer.Lahore’s students also saw lessons cut this winter when schools were shut as the megacity was enveloped by choking smog.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683226/international/heatwave-cancels-classes-for-half-pakistans-schoolchildren

Ruto: Kenya deployment will ‘break the back’ of Haiti gangs

Kenyan President William Ruto vowed yesterday that his country’s upcoming deployment to Haiti will seek to crush gangs that have ravaged the Western Hemisphere’s poorest country.Ruto was speaking on a state visit to Washington alongside President Joe Biden, who saluted Kenya’s willingness to assist and promised that the United States would provide intelligence and equipment in hopes of stabilising its troubled southern neighbour.“Gangs and criminals do not have status. They have no religion,” Ruto told a White House news conference.He vowed that the international mission would “deal with them firmly, decisively, within the perimeters of the law”.Kenya and the other nations set to deploy to Haiti aim to “secure that country and to break the back of the gangs and the criminals that have visited untold suffering in that country”, Ruto said.Asked if the Kenyan deployment can succeed in defeating gangs that have plunged Haiti into near anarchy, Biden said: “Yes.”“This is a crisis. It’s able to be dealt with,” Biden said, praising Kenya’s “first-rate capability”.The Biden administration had searched extensively for a country to take the lead but had ruled out sending in US forces, who have a long history of intervention in Haiti.“We’re in a situation where we want to do all we can without us looking like America, once again, is stepping over and deciding this is what must be done,” Biden said. “Haitians are looking for help, as well as the folks in the Caribbean are looking for help.”Ruto said that the deployment was a decision by Kenya, not the United States, as his country wanted to advance “peace and stability as a responsible global citizen”.In 2021 Biden withdrew the last US troops from Afghanistan, ending America’s longest war, and has promised to avoid putting US forces at risk overseas.Meanwhile, the deployment of the first Kenyan police officers to Haiti to lead an international anti-gang force has been delayed after a planned flight from Nairobi was postponed on Tuesday, two sources briefed on the matter told Reuters.US officials had previously indicated that the officers would be in Port-au-Prince yesterday to coincide with Kenyan President Ruto’s state visit to the White House.Kenya volunteered in July to lead the mission but has faced repeated delays deploying due to litigation brought by opponents of the government’s plan and a surge of violence in March that led the Haitian prime minister to resign.The mission, which will comprise up to 2,500 personnel, is intended to counter gangs who control most of Port-au-Prince and have carried out widespread killings, kidnappings and sexual violence.Kenya has committed 1,000 police officers to the UN-approved mission, most of which is being financed by the United States.Two hundred Kenyan officers assigned to the mission were told they would fly out of Nairobi on Tuesday evening, the two sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive information.One source, a former police officer in contact with members of the mission, said the officers were given no explanation for the last-minute delay and were told to remain on standby.The other source, who was briefed by a government official, said conditions were not in place in Port-au-Prince to receive the officers.Kenya’s government spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683219/international/ruto-kenya-deployment-will-break-the-back-of-haiti-gangs

17 martyrs in Israeli occupation shelling in Gaza, Rafah

At least 17 Palestinians, including more than ten children, were martyred, and dozens were injured at dawn Thursday, after the Israeli occupation forces targeted two homes in the cities of Gaza and Rafah.Palestinian news agency (WAFA) reported that 16 Palestinians, including ten children, were martyred, and a number of citizens were injured following the occupation bombing of a house in Al-Daraj neighborhood in central Gaza City.A person was killed after the occupation forces targeted a house belonging to Al-Shaer family in Rafah, WAFA added.The occupation forces targeted, Thursday dawn, a house in Nuseirat Camp in the central Gaza Strip, leading to eight martyrs.The unprecedented Israeli occupation aggression against the Gaza Strip by sea, land and air has been continuing for 230 days, causing a complete humanitarian catastrophe embodied by tens of thousands of martyrs, wounded and missing persons, along with massive destruction of vital infrastructure and facilities.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683149/international/17-martyrs-in-israeli-occupation-shelling-in-gaza-rafah

Norway, Ireland, Spain recognise Palestinian state

Norway, Ireland and Spain announced Wednesday they will recognise a Palestinian state from next week, highlighting the deep split over the issue within the EU as the Israel-Hamas war rages.The three nations hope other countries will follow, but France said that now was not the right moment for it to take that step -- yet Paris noted recognition was not 'taboo'.This announcement by prime ministers Jonas Gahr Store of Norway, Pedro Sanchez of Spain and Simon Harris of Ireland comes days after the International Criminal Court prosecutor said he would seek arrest warrants for Israel's prime minister and Hamas leaders.Sanchez, who has visited several nations to drum up support for recognition, said the move would reinforce efforts to revive a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict, which he said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was jeopardising with the Gaza offensive.Israel reacted with fury again, immediately recalling its envoys to the three nations.'The intention of several European countries to recognise a Palestinian state is a reward for terror,' Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu said, adding a sovereign State of Palestine would be a 'terror state'.But the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) hailed the move as 'historical'. Palestinian resistance movement Hamas praised what it called an 'important step' that resulted from the 'brave resistance' of Palestinians.According to the Palestinian Authority, which rules parts of the occupied West Bank, 142 of the 193 UN members already recognise a Palestinian state.Sweden, which has a large Palestinian community, became the first European Union member in western Europe to recognise Palestinian statehood in 2014.A Palestinian state was recognised by Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland and Romania before they joined the EU.Norway -- which has played a key role in Middle East diplomacy, hosting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in the 1990s which led to the Oslo Accords -- said recognition was needed to support moderate voices amid the Gaza war.'In the midst of a war, with tens of thousands killed and injured, we must keep alive the only alternative that offers a political solution for Israelis and Palestinians alike: Two states, living side by side, in peace and security,' Store said, adding that the moves could give renewed momentum for peace talks.Harris drew parallels with international recognition of the Irish state in 1919.'From our own history, we know what it means,' he went on, referring to Ireland's declaration of independence from British rule, which eventually led to formal statehood.In March, Slovenia and Malta signed a statement with Spain and Ireland expressing their willingness to recognise a Palestinian state.Slovenia's government this month passed a decree on recognising a Palestine state that will be sent to parliament for approval by mid-June.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683078/international/norway-ireland-spain-recognise-palestinian-state

Small island states win ‘historic’ climate case

The UN maritime court on Tuesday ruled in favour of nine small island states that brought a case to seek increased protection of the world’s oceans from catastrophic climate change.Finding that carbon emissions can be considered a sea pollutant, the court said countries had an obligation to take measures to mitigate their effects on oceans.The countries that brought the case called the court decision “historic”, and experts said it could be influential in shaping the scope of future climate litigation involving greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.“Anthropogenic GHG emissions into the atmosphere constitute pollution of the marine environment” under the international UNCLOS treaty, the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea (ITLOS) ruled in an expert opinion.Polluting countries therefore have “the specific obligation to take all measures necessary to ensure that...emissions under their jurisdiction or control do not cause damage by pollution to other states and their environment”, the court said.The case was brought in September by nine small countries disproportionately affected by climate change, including Antigua and Barbuda, Vanuatu and Tuvalu.They asked the Hamburg-based court to issue an opinion on whether carbon dioxide emissions absorbed by the oceans could be considered pollution, and if so, what obligations countries had to address the problem.The UNCLOS treaty binds countries to prevent pollution of the oceans, defining pollution as the introduction of “substances or energy into the marine environment” that harms marine life.But it does not spell out carbon emissions as a specific pollutant, which the plaintiffs had argued should qualify.The court’s opinion is advisory and non-binding but will influence how the UN treaty is interpreted around the world.“This is the first-ever decision by an international tribunal on climate change and the oceans and clarifies the legally binding obligations of 169 countries that are party to the (UNCLOS treaty),” the nine plaintiff countries said in a statement.The prime minister of Antigua and Barbuda, Gaston Browne, said small island nations were “fighting for their survival”.“Some will become uninhabitable in the near future because of the failure to mitigate greenhouse gas emissions. We demand that the major polluters respect international law, and stop the catastrophic harm against us before it is too late,” he said.The other island nations joining the ITLOS case were the Bahamas, Niue, Palau, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, and St Vincent and the Grenadines.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/683061/international/small-island-states-win-historic-climate-case

Sunak decries infected blood scandal cover-up

An infected blood scandal in Britain was no accident but the fault of doctors and a succession of governments that led to 3,000 deaths and thousands more contracting hepatitis or HIV, a public inquiry reported on Monday.Inquiry chair Brian Langstaff said more than 30,000 people received infected blood and blood products in the 1970s and 1980s from Britain’s state-funded National Health Service, destroying lives, dreams and families.The government hid the truth to “save face and to save expense”, he said, adding that the cover-up was “more subtle, more pervasive and more chilling in its implications” than any orchestrated conspiracy plot.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said it was “a day of shame for the British state”.“The result of this inquiry should shake our nation to its core,” he said, adding that ministers and institutions had failed in the most “harrowing and devastating way”.“I want to make a wholehearted unequivocal apology for this terrible injustice,” he told parliament and promised full compensation to those affected.The families of victims and survivors had sought justice for years and Langstaff, who led a six-year inquiry, said the scale of what happened was both horrifying and astonishing.In some cases, blood products made from donations from US prisoners or other high-risk groups paid to donate were used on children, infecting them with HIV or hepatitis C, long after the risks were known.Other victims were used in medical trials without their knowledge or consent. Those who contracted HIV were often shunned by their communities.“This disaster was not an accident,” said Langstaff to a standing ovation from campaigners.“The infections happened because those in authority – doctors, the blood services and successive governments – did not put patient safety first.”Stephen Lawrence received blood after he was knocked down by a police car in London in 1985. Two years later, he was diagnosed with HIV and Hepatitis C at the age of 15.“I was accused of being on drugs, drinking, all that,” he told Reuters, adding that he had not been compensated because his records had gone missing.“It’s about justice,” he said. “I’ve been struggling with this for 37 years.”The use of infected blood has resulted in thousands of victims in the United States, France, Canada and other countries.The British government agreed in 2022 to make an interim payment of £100,000 ($126,990) to some of those affected.Clive Smith, chair of the Haemophilia Society, said the scandal had rocked faith in the medical establishment. “(It) really challenges the trust that we put in people to look after us, to do their best and to protect us,” he told reporters.Infected blood and blood products were used for transfusions, which were not always clinically needed, and as treatments for bleeding disorders like haemophilia.Haemophiliacs received Factor 8 concentrates from the United States which carried a particularly high risk.Some of the concentrates carried the HIV virus, the inquiry said, but authorities failed to switch to safer alternatives and they decided in July 1983, a year after risks were apparent, not to suspend their importation.Systemic failures resulted in between 80 and 100 people becoming infected with HIV by transfusion, the inquiry found, and about 26,800 were infected with Hepatitis C, often from receiving blood after childbirth or an operation.Both groups were failed by doctors’ complacency about Hepatitis C and their slowness to respond to the risks of AIDS, it said, compounded by an absence of meaningful apology or redress.“It will be astonishing to anyone who reads this report that these events could have happened in the UK,” Langstaff said.The former judge’s inquiry does not have the power to recommend prosecutions.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682978/international/sunak-decries-infected-blood-scandal-cover-up

Trump biopic Apprentice premieres at Cannes

The Apprentice, Iran-born director Ali Abbasi’s much-anticipated drama of a young Donald Trump’s ascendancy as a New York real estate mogul, premiered at the Cannes Film Festival on Monday.Part of the pull of the film is its timing, as Trump, now 77, looks to win another term as US president in November.The film shares its title with the reality show that helped turn Trump into a household name.Sebastian Stan, who made his name in the Captain America trilogy as the Winter Soldier, morphs into Trump, from his early stages as an upstart working for his father’s business to a brazen, self-centred tycoon.The story focuses on Trump’s time under the tutelage of Roy Cohn, a political fixer best known for his involvement in Senator Joseph McCarthy’s anti-communist scare campaigns of the 1950s and portrayed by Succession’s Jeremy Strong.His three rules for success, which Trump later takes credit for while speaking with the writer of his business advice book The Art of the Deal, are prescient of his traits in office: deny everything, always be on the attack and never admit defeat. Abbasi is known for his eclectic film repertoire.Critics were mixed, praising for Stan and Strong while seeing the film’s basis in actual events as a limitation.Sebastian Stan Plays Donald Trump in a Docudrama That Nails Everything About Him but His Mystery, read the headline for entertainment website Variety, while trade publication IndieWire pointed out that the film “can’t get around the fact that Trump is too base and pathological to be of much dramatic interest”.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682977/international/trump-biopic-apprentice-premieres-at-cannes

Slovak PM’s life no longer in danger after shooting

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico’s life was no longer in danger following an assassination attempt, Deputy Prime Minister Robert Kalinak said on Sunday.The suspected gunman appeared in court on Saturday after Fico was shot four times last Wednesday, leaving him fighting for his life at one stage.“He has emerged from the immediate threat to his life, but his condition remains serious and he requires intensive care,” Kalinak, Fico’s closest political ally, told reporters.The Slovak premier was shot as he was greeting supporters after a government meeting in the central town of Handlova. He underwent a five-hour operation on Wednesday and another on Friday at a hospital in the central city of Banska Bystrica.“We can consider his condition stable with a positive prognosis,” Kalinak said outside the hospital, adding that “we all feel a bit more relaxed now.”Kalinak added that Fico would stay at Banska Bystrica for the moment.The suspected gunman, identified by Slovak media as 71-year-old poet Juraj Cintula, has been charged with premeditated attempted murder and was held in custody following a hearing on Saturday.Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said that if one of the shots “went just a few centimetres higher, it would have hit the prime minister’s liver”.Sutaj Estok added on Sunday that police were looking into the possibility that the gunman may not have acted alone.“One version is that the culprit was part of a group of people who encouraged each other to commit the crime,” he said, adding the gunman may also have disclosed his intentions to someone. Citing intelligence reports, Sutaj Estok said that someone had erased the gunman’s history and communication on Facebook while he was detained.The attempted assassination has highlighted acute political divisions in the country where 59-year-old Fico took office in October after his centrist populist Smer party won a general election.He is serving his fourth term as prime minister after campaigning on proposals for peace between Russia and Slovakia’s neighbour Ukraine, and to halt military aid to Kyiv, which his government has done.Fico leads a coalition comprising his Smer party, the centrist HLAS and the small nationalist SNS party.Kalinak said the government would carry on without Fico “according to the programme he has outlined”. Slovakia was already sharply divided over politics since the 2018 murder of journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee.Kuciak pointed at links between Italian mafia and Fico’s then government, and his murder sparked nationwide protests that resulted in Fico’s resignation in 2018.The divisions deepened further with the pandemic and the war in Ukraine.Following the attack on Fico, outgoing President Zuzana Caputova and her successor Peter Pellegrini, a Fico ally who takes over in June, tried to quell the tensions.Following a proposal by Caputova and Pellegrini, several parties have suspended campaigning for European Parliament elections scheduled for June.But some politicians have been quick to blame the Fico attack on their opponents or media.SNS chairman Andrej Danko blamed the media just after the shooting, and Kalinak took on the opposition and media in an emotional speech on the Smer website on Friday.Pellegrini on Sunday said that a meeting of parliamentary party leaders he was planning to host tomorrow to help ease tensions would probably not take place.“The past few days and some press conferences have shown us that some politicians are simply not capable of fundamental self-reflection even after such a huge tragedy,” said Pellegrini.“It has turned out that the time is not ripe for a round table with the representatives of all parliamentary parties yet,” he added.In a debate on the TA3 news channel, Danko said it was “false to say that a meeting tomorrow would reconcile society”.Police have meanwhile charged several people who expressed approval for the attack on Fico on social media.Sutaj Estok said police were monitoring places with increased movement of people and guarding top politicians and those facing death threats, newspaper publishers and TV studios as well as hospitals.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682895/international/slovak-pms-life-no-longer-in-danger-after-shooting

Blue Origin flies thrill seekers to space, including oldest astronaut

After a nearly two year hiatus, Blue Origin flew adventurers to space yesterday, including a former Air Force pilot who was denied the chance to be the United States’ first black astronaut decades ago.It was the first crewed launch for the enterprise owned and founded by Amazon billionaire Jeff Bezos since a rocket mishap in 2022 left rival Virgin Galactic as the sole operator in the fledgling suborbital tourism market.Six people, including the sculptor Ed Dwight, who was on track to become the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa)’s first astronaut of colour in the 1960s before being controversially spurned, launched around 9.36am local time (1436 GMT) from the Launch Site One base in west Texas, a live feed showed.The passengers, also including a venture capitalist, were paying customers of Blue Origin’s space tourism business, though Dwight’s seat was sponsored by a space-focused nonprofit and a private foundation.Blue Origin has not disclosed how much it charges customers.Dwight – at 90 years, eight months and 10 days – became the oldest person to ever go to space.“This is a life-changing experience, everybody needs to do this,” he exclaimed after the flight.“I thought I didn’t really need this in my life,” he added, reflecting on his omission from the astronaut corps, which was his first experience with failure as a young man.“But I lied,” he said with a hearty laugh.Mission NS-25 is the seventh human flight for Blue Origin, which sees short jaunts on the New Shepard suborbital vehicle as a stepping stone to greater ambitions, including the development of a full-fledged heavy rocket and lunar lander.Including yesterday’s crew, the company has flown 37 people aboard New Shepard – a small, fully reusable rocket system named after Alan Shepard, the first American in space.The programme encountered a setback when a New Shepard rocket caught fire shortly after launch on September 12, 2022, even though the uncrewed capsule ejected safely.A federal investigation revealed an overheating engine nozzle was at fault.Blue Origin took corrective steps and carried out a successful uncrewed launch in December 2023, paving the way for yesterday’s mission.After liftoff, the sleek and roomy capsule separated from the booster, which produces zero carbon emissions. The rocket performed a precision vertical landing.As the spaceship soared beyond the Karman Line, the internationally recognised boundary of space 62 miles (100km) above sea level, passengers had the chance to marvel at the Earth’s curvature and unbuckle their seatbelts to float – or somersault – during a few minutes of weightlessness.The capsule then re-entered the atmosphere, deploying its parachutes for a desert landing in a puff of sand.However, one of the three parachutes failed to fully inflate, possibly resulting in a harder landing than expected.The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which oversees launchsite safety and commercial rocket mishaps, did not immediately respond to questions about the New Shepard capsule’s parachute and whether the agency would investigate.Asked for comment, a Blue Origin spokesperson stressed its system was designed with multiple fail-safes. “The capsule is designed to safely land with one parachute. The overall mission was a success, and all of our astronauts are excited to be back.”In all, the mission lasted around 11 minutes.Bezos himself was on the programme’s first ever crewed flight in 2021.A few months later, Star Trek’s William Shatner blurred the lines between science fiction and reality when he became the world’s oldest ever astronaut at age 90, decades after he first played a space traveller.Dwight, who was almost two months older than Shatner at the time of his flight, became only the second nonagenarian to venture beyond Earth.Astronaut John Glenn remains the oldest to orbit the planet, a feat he achieved in 1998 at the age 77 aboard the Space Shuttle Discovery.Yesterday’s mission finally gave Dwight the chance he was denied decades ago.He was an elite test pilot when he was appointed by President John F Kennedy to join a highly competitive Air Force programme known as a pathway for the astronaut corps, but was ultimately not picked.Dwight left the military in 1966, citing the strain of racial politics, before dedicating his life to telling black history through sculpture.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682881/international/blue-origin-flies-thrill-seekers-to-space-including-oldest-astronaut

SA top court to rule on Zuma election ban

South Africa’s graft-tainted former president Jacob Zuma today will learn whether he can legally be barred from standing as a candidate in the country’s May 29 general election.The decision by the Constitutional Court could have deep implications on the result of the imminent vote, and observers fear violent unrest if the decision goes against Zuma.Zuma left office in 2018, dogged by corruption allegations, and was briefly jailed for contempt. He has since founded a party to challenge his successor Cyril Ramaphosa’s ANC.The ANC has won every South African election since the country became a democracy in 1994, and Zuma served as the party’s fourth president between 2009 and 2018.But his era has come to symbolise the corruption allegations haunting the former anti-apartheid movement, and electoral authorities argue that Zuma’s 2021 conviction bars him from the ballot. Zuma and his new party, named uMkhonto Wesizwe (MK) after the ANC’s former armed wing, challenged that ruling, but their case will come before the top court today. In a social media post, the court said it would make a judgment at 10.00am (0800 GMT) on whether “Mr Zuma (is) disqualified from standing as a candidate for the National Assembly”. After a South African general election, the president is chosen by MPs from among their own ranks, so if Zuma is not on the ballot he could not become president.Under section 47 of the South African constitution, anyone convicted of an offence and sentenced to 12 or more months cannot stand for office until five years after the end of the jail term.But the court will also rule on Zuma’s case that the electoral commission exceeded its authority and that a contempt of court conviction, which cannot be appealed, should not lead to a ban.Today’s ruling could have deep and destabilising political consequences. Ramaphosa’s ANC is still expected to remain South Africa’s largest party, but some polls indicate that it may struggle for the first time to win an absolute majority.Zuma’s MK does not poll well nationwide but among his native KwaZulu-Natal and among Zulus he retains support – more than 30,000 supporters cheered him at a Soweto stadium rally on Saturday. If his party eats into the ANC’s traditional support base, Ramaphosa may be forced to negotiate a coalition after the election to ensure he is re-elected to the presidency.Any attempt to strike Zuma from the ballot may also trigger a deadly wave of unrest. Rioting after his 2021 imprisonment left more than 350 people dead.South Africa’s respected Independent Electoral Commission says ballot papers have already been printed with Zuma’s image on them, but he would be unable to sit as an MP if ineligible.The ANC was the leading political force in the struggle of black South Africans against the former apartheid regime, and has led the country for 30 years.But late liberation leader Nelson Mandela’s party has struggled in the polls in the run up to this year’s vote, dogged by corruption allegations and soaring crime and unemployment rates.Just under a third of the workforce is unemployed and the murder rate has reached 84 a day.But Ramaphosa’s party still has a formidable nationwide electoral machine, has overseen the creation of a broad social welfare system, and many older South Africans remain loyal to its historic role.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682879/international/sa-top-court-to-ruleon-zuma-election-ban

SA’s Zuma stages rally despite candidacy doubts

Graft-tainted former South African president Jacob Zuma staged a huge election rally on Saturday, vowing to return to power despite a legal challenge to his candidacy.More than 30,000 supporters packed the Orlando Stadium in Soweto to hear their champion promise black South Africans more jobs and better wages.“When we reach the final destination nobody will be poor, or unemployed, we are going to be doing things for all of us,” the 82-year-old declared to cheers.The elderly party leader appeared tired as he arrived in the stadium, escorted by MK fighters in military fatigues and traditional Zulu warriors with spears and leopard skins.But he rallied as he stepped forward to speak, leading the crowd in revolutionary song and speaking for more than an hour before launching into another chorus.Between 2009 and 2018 Zuma served as a South Africa’s fourth president in the post-apartheid era and leader of the ruling African National Congress (ANC).But he left office under the shadow of a corruption probe and was jailed in 2021 for contempt of court, a decision that triggered a wave of riots that left 350 people dead. He has now launched a new party, uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK), to challenge his ANC successor Cyril Ramaphosa for the presidency in the general election on May 29.In South Africa, a president is chosen by newly elected MPs, but electoral authorities say he should be barred from standing because of the conviction.The Constitutional Court has been called on to decide the matter after a lower tribunal found in Zuma’s favour, but Zuma’s supporters plan to push on regardless. There are concerns that if Zuma, still popular with many of his fellow Zulus, is declared ineligible at this late stage there may be another round of unrest.But the party, named after the ANC’s armed wing during the anti-apartheid struggle, will remain on the ballot and could cut into Ramaphosa’s vote.“We see him as our Moses from the religious text,” said 55-year-old job seeker Nomthandanzo Nhlapho. Observers do not credit the MK with much support outside Zuma’s native KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa’s key electoral battleground.But at the stadium in Soweto, the symbolic heart of ANC support, speaker after speaker declared that the party was on course for a two-thirds super majority.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682793/international/sas-zuma-stages-rally-despite-candidacy-doubts

N Korea confirms missile launch

North Korea has test-fired a tactical ballistic missile equipped with a “new autonomous navigation system”, state media said on Saturday, with leader Kim Jong-un vowing to boost the country’s nuclear force.Kim oversaw the Friday test-launch into the East Sea, also known as the Sea of Japan, on a mission to evaluate the “accuracy and reliability of the autonomous navigation system”, Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.The launch was the latest in a string of ever more sophisticated tests by North Korea, which has fired off cruise missiles, tactical rockets and hypersonic weapons in recent months, in what the nuclear-armed, UN-sanctioned country says is a drive to upgrade its defences.The Friday launch came hours after leader Kim’s powerful sister Kim Yo Jong denied allegations by Seoul and Washington that Pyongyang is shipping weapons to Russia for use in its war in Ukraine.Seoul’s military on Friday described the test as “several flying objects presumed to be short-range ballistic missiles” from North Korea’s eastern Wonsan area into waters off its coast. The suspected missiles travelled around 300km before splashing down in waters between South Korea and Japan, the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said.“The accuracy and reliability of the autonomous navigation system were verified through the test fire,” Pyongyang’s KCNA said Saturday, adding leader Kim expressed “great satisfaction” over the launch. In a separate report released on Saturday, KCNA said Kim visited a military production facility the previous day and urged for “more rapidly bolstering the nuclear force” of the nation “without halt and hesitation”.During the visit, he said the “enemies would be afraid of and dare not to play with fire only when they witness the nuclear combat posture of our state”, according to KCNA.Pyongyang’s nuclear force “will meet a very important change and occupy a remarkably raised strategic position” when its munitions production plan, aimed to be completed by 2025, is carried out, it added. Seoul and Washington have accused North Korea of sending arms to Russia, which would violate rafts of United Nations sanctions on both countries, with experts saying the recent spate of testing may be of weapons destined for use on battlefields in Ukraine.North Korea is barred by UN sanctions from any tests using ballistic technology, but its key ally Moscow used its UN Security Council veto in March to effectively end UN monitoring of violations, for which Pyongyang has specifically thanked Russia. But leader Kim’s sister Kim Yo-jong said on Friday that Pyongyang had “no intention to export our military technical capabilities to any country”, adding that the North’s priority was “to make the war readiness and war deterrent of our army more perfect in quality and quantity”.She accused Seoul and Washington of “misleading the public opinion” with their allegations that Pyongyang was transferring arms to Russia. The Friday launches come as Russian leader Vladimir Putin was in China on Friday, the final day of a visit aiming to promote crucial trade with Beijing - North Korea’s most important ally - and win greater support for his war effort in Ukraine.North Korea’s latest weapons tests were likely intended to attract the attention of Putin while he was in China, said Ahn Chan-il, a defector-turned-researcher who runs the World Institute for North Korea Studies. The North would benefit greatly from an expected visit by Putin to Pyongyang, and “they want their country to be used as a military logistics base during Russia’s ongoing war (in Ukraine)”, he told AFP.Yang Moo-jin, president of the University of North Korean Studies in Seoul, said: “China and Russia’s irresponsible handling of North Korea, riding on the new Cold War dynamics, is further encouraging Pyongyang’s nuclear armament.”Inter-Korean relations are at one of their lowest points in years, with Pyongyang declaring Seoul its “principal enemy”. It has jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification and threatened war over “even 0.001 mm” of territorial infringement.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682791/international/n-korea-confirms-missile-launch

Two Palestinians martyred in Israeli airstrike on Rafah

Two Palestinians were martyred in an Israeli airstrike on Rafah, southern Gaza Strip, early Saturday morning.According to the Palestinian news agency WAFA, Israeli aircraft targeted a house in central Rafah, resulting in the deaths of two Palestinians. Additionally, Israeli artillery targeted areas in the east and center of the city.The airstrikes extended to the Al Farahin area, east of Abasan Al Kabira town in Khan Younis, in the southern part of the Strip.Israeli forces continue their ground invasion of wide neighborhoods in Rafah, defying international warnings against attacking this densely populated city.The Israeli occupation persists in committing genocide in the Gaza Strip for the 225th consecutive day. This ongoing aggression includes dozens of air raids and artillery shelling across Gaza, resulting in the martyrdom of 35,303 Palestinians, the majority of whom are children and women. Additionally, 79,261 others have been injured. These numbers are not final, as thousands of victims remain buried under the rubble.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682760/international/two-palestinians-martyred-in-israeli-airstrike-on-rafah

New Caledonia ‘calm’ after deadly rioting

French marines patrolled on Friday the French Pacific territory of New Caledonia, which local authorities said was “calmer” after days of riots over voting reform that have left five dead and hundreds injured.Military and police “reinforcements will control areas that have got out of our hands in recent days”, said French high commissioner Louis Le Franc, the top state official in New Caledonia.Anger over France’s plan to impose new voting rules has spiralled into the deadliest violence in four decades in the archipelago of 270,000 people, which lies between Australia and Fiji – 17,000km from Paris.French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal said on Thursday that about 1,000 extra security forces were being sent to New Caledonia – adding to the 1,700 already present.They began landing on Thursday at the French army-controlled La Tontouta International Airport and could be seen moving through the capital Noumea in red berets, toting rifles, gas masks and riot shields.France’s EFS blood supply agency said that supplies of blood were being sent over to deal with the “critical” situation.President Emmanuel Macron cancelled a video conference with local leaders on Thursday for lack of willing participants, but began contacting pro- and anti-independence officials individually on Friday, his office said.Using state of emergency powers, security forces had imposed “a calmer and more peaceful situation” around Noumea for the first time since the unrest broke out on Monday, the high commission said.However, there were fires at a school and two companies, it added.On Friday AFP journalists saw flames and smoke pouring from a shopping centre, smouldering buildings, dozens of burned-out cars and residents dragging the remnants of vehicles off the roads.Hundreds of people lined up outside shops for desperately needed food and supplies, although authorities have promised to bring in essential goods.Le Franc described areas “where there are several hundred rioters waiting for just one thing: contact with the security forces”.Ten independence activists accused of organising violence have been placed under house arrest, according to authorities.Two gendarmes have been killed: one shot in the head and a second shot in friendly fire, officials said.Three other people – all indigenous Kanaks – have also been killed: a 17-year-old and two men aged 20 and 36.One suspect in an unspecified homicide handed himself in and a second has been arrested on suspicion of killing two Kanaks.France has accused Azerbaijan of “interference” in the politics of its Pacific territory, but Baku has rejected the claims.A French government agency, Viginum, said on Friday that it detected a “massive and coordinated” online campaign pushing claims that French police had shot pro-independence demonstrators in New Caledonia.The government pointed to the involvement of “Azerbaijani actors” in the campaign.The violence is the worst seen in New Caledonia since unrest involving independence radicals rocked the French overseas territory in the 1980s.New Caledonia has on three occasions rejected independence in referendums, but the cause retains strong support among the Kanak people, whose ancestors have lived on the islands for thousands of years.Colonised by France from the second half of the 19th century, it has special status with some local powers transferred from Paris.French lawmakers this week pushed forward plans to allow people who moved to New Caledonia at least 10 years ago to vote in the territory’s elections.Pro-independence forces say that would dilute the vote of Kanaks, who make up about 40% of the population.Groups of Kanaks have set up roadblocks around the main island, waving the territory’s flag, burning tyres and blocking or slowing traffic.Other mostly non-indigenous residents, some armed, piled up garden chairs, crates and other belongings in neighbourhood barricades.A local business group estimated the damage, concentrated around Noumea, at €200mn ($217mn).French Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti has called on prosecutors to “take the strongest possible action against the perpetrators of the violence” and also indicated he was considering transferring the “criminals” to mainland France.The Noumea public prosecutor’s office opened an investigation targeting “the instigators” of the riots.Paris has accused a group known as CCAT, which gathers the most radical separatists, of being behind the riots.CCAT issued a statement on Friday calling for “a time of calm to break the spiral of violence”.Paris has closed the airport to commercial flights, shuttered schools, imposed a night-time curfew and banned gatherings, carrying weapons and the sale of alcohol.The government has also blocked social network TikTok, saying that it was being used by protesters.On Friday the Pacific Conference of Churches joined regional inter-governmental groups in calling for France to withdraw the constitutional bill, and said the United Nations should lead a dialogue mission to New Caledonia.In a statement, the churches said there had been a breakdown in dialogue between the French government and Kanak people.Pacific Elders Voice, a group of former Pacific leaders, said decisions were being made in Paris without meaningful consultation and France should listen to “indigenous Kanak voices and the Pacific-wide support for self-determination”.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682756/international/new-caledonia-calm-after-deadly-rioting

‘Black history is American history,’ Biden says in fresh appeal to voters

President Joe Biden launched a fresh bid on Friday to bolster support from African American voters, looking to seal up cracks in the Democratic coalition that carried him to victory over Republican Donald Trump in 2020.Biden visited the popular National Museum of African American History and Culture in downtown Washington and greeted his audience by declaring: “Black history is American history.”He and Vice-President Kamala Harris later will meet privately at the White House with the Divine Nine, a group of historically black sororities and fraternities.Harris joined one of those sororities, Alpha Kappa Alpha, when she attended Howard University.On Thursday, Biden met families who had relatives involved in the Supreme Court’s landmark May 17, 1954, Brown v. Board of Education ruling 70 years ago that led to the desegregation of schools.“We learn better when we learn together,” Biden said at the museum.This leads up to Biden’s commencement speech tomorrow at Morehouse College in Atlanta, a historically black school that was the alma mater of slain civil rights icon Martin Luther King Jr.He will attend an event in Georgia today focused on engaging black voters.Democrats are deeply divided over Biden’s handling of the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, a new Reuters/Ipsos poll found, fraying the coalition that he relied on four years ago to beat Trump.A New York Times/Siena College poll released early this week found Trump winning 20% of the black vote, a sign that he has made inroads into a bloc of voters who have traditionally overwhelmingly voted for Democrats.Biden singled out Trump and other Republicans for attacking programmes aimed at improving diversity, equity and inclusion.He said during the museum visit that the “extreme” Republican and his allies were trying to “erase history”.“My predecessor and his extreme MAGA friends are now going after diversity, equity and inclusion all across America,” he said, referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” movement.“They want a country for some, not for all,” he said at the museum, which was opened in 2016 by Barack Obama, America’s first black president, and has since become a Washington landmark.Biden also criticised the “extreme” US Supreme Court which, with three judges appointed by Trump, has issued a string of controversial rulings on abortion, voting rights and diversity.Biden joined Atlanta radio show host Darian “Big Tigger” Morgan on Wednesday and had some sharp criticism for Trump, the former president who is trying to regain the office in the November 5 election.“Look, Trump hurt black people every chance he got,” Biden said. “Black unemployment, uninsurance rates went up under Trump. Trump’s tax plan reinforced discrimination.”“Typical white households got double the cut of the typical black household,” he continued. “They botched the coronavirus (Covid-19) response, leaving black people dead and Black-owned businesses shuttered.”Some Morehouse faculty members and students had wanted the college to withdraw its invitation to Biden over his administration’s staunch support for Israel’s war in Gaza, where the death toll has mounted to more than 35,000.However, the White House said the visit would go ahead as planned.Biden has taken steps that benefit black Americans, such as expanding access to healthcare coverage, and has fostered economic gains that led to record low black unemployment rates and the Child Tax Credit expansion, which helped cut childhood poverty in half in 2021.Opinion polls show the November 5 election shaping up to be a close match between Biden and Trump, making turnout among black Americans – who comprise sizable populations in key battleground states like Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania – a crucial aspect of Biden’s path to victory.Biden’s re-election campaign, in a memo released by senior adviser Trey Baker, said that the president is not taking a single voter for granted.“We are not, and will not, parachute into these communities at the last minute, expecting their vote. Every day, from now until election day, we will continue working diligently to ensure that come November, black voters send Joe Biden and Kamala Harris back to the White House to continue delivering for black America in unprecedented ways,” he said.“We are meeting black voters where they are,” Baker said in an e-mail. “After Donald Trump failed us, no administration has delivered for black America like President Biden and Vice-President Harris.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682752/international/black-history-is-american-history-biden-says-in-fresh-appeal-to-voters

Palestinians martyred after Israeli warplanes bomb school in Nuseirat Camp in Gaza

Four Palestinians were martyred and several others were injured at dawn Friday in an Israeli airstrike on a school sheltering refugees in the Nuseirat Camp in central Gaza Strip.Since Thursday evening, the occupation warplanes have launched a series of airstrikes targeting various parts across the Gaza Strip, simultaneously with artillery bombardment.Local sources reported that the occupation warplanes bombed a house in the Shatea Camp, west of Gaza City, and launched airstrikes on the central of Gaza City.Earlier, one Palestinians was martyred and two others were injured in Israeli shelling near Al-Awda Roundabout in the center of Rafah, south of the Gaza Strip. The east of the city was also subjected to artillery shelling.Meanwhile, a number of Palestinians were injured in violent air raids launched by the occupation warplanes on the Jabalia Camp. The occupation artillery also bombed various areas in the northern Gaza Strip, and the forces blew up residential squares in the Jabalia Camp.Medical sources announced that the bodies of 9 martyrs had arrived at the Gaza European Hospital near Khan Yunis in last hours.In an infinite toll, the death toll in the Gaza Strip surged to 35,272, in addition to 79,205 injuries, since the start of the Israeli occupation aggression on Oct. 7.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/682732/international/palestinians-martyred-after-israeli-warplanes-bomb-school-in-nuseirat-camp-in-gaza