Trump on Harris: ‘Is she Indian or Black?’

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump questioned whether his Democratic rival Kamala Harris is “Black” during a contentious appearance at the country’s largest annual gathering of Black journalists yesterday.“Is she Indian or is she Black?” Trump said of his opponent in the presidential race, drawing a smattering of jeers. “She was Indian all the way, and all of a sudden she made a turn and became a Black person.”Harris, whose mother was Indian and whose father is Black, is the first Black and the first Asian American US vice-president.Since launching her White House campaign earlier this month, Harris has faced a barrage of sexist and racist attacks online, while Republican Party leaders have urged lawmakers to refrain from personal attacks and focus on her policy positions.The interview — in front of a gathering of about 1,000 journalists — started on a tense note, when ABC News reporter Rachel Scott asked Trump to explain why Black voters should support him despite a history of racist comments.In response, Trump called the question “horrible,” “hostile” and a “disgrace” and described ABC as a “fake” network.“I have been the best president for the Black population since Abraham Lincoln,” he said.Trump’s first-ever appearance at the National Association of Black Journalists’ annual convention in Chicago received a backlash from some members, prompting a co-chair of the convention to step down in protest.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687718/international/trump-on-harris-is-she-indian-or-black

Is America ready for its first-ever First Gentleman?

If Kamala Harris wins the US presidential election she will make history — and so will her husband Doug Emhoff.The ebullient 59-year-old lawyer will be the first-ever First Gentleman if Harris, succeeds in becoming the first woman president in the United States’ nearly two-and-a-half-century existence.Emhoff has already got used to blazing something of a trail of his own alongside his trailblazing wife, who’s also 59.He has leaned into his role as the first Second Gentleman, proving an energetic campaigner and fierce defender of Harris in her initially bumpy tenure as the first female, Black and South Asian vice-president.In yet another milestone, Emhoff is also the first Jewish spouse of an American president or vice-president, taking a very visible role in President Joe Biden’s administration combating anti-Semitism.He is now enthusiastic about the prospect of following in the footsteps of famous Democratic first spouses, like Jackie Kennedy, Michelle Obama and Jill Biden — but as the first man to hold the role.Where he doesn’t have a record is in being the first prospective First Gentleman, a title claimed by former president Bill Clinton during his wife Hillary Clinton’s failed 2016 run.“I’m honoured now to have my wife be at the top of the ticket,” he told a podcast recently.The sudden change in Harris’s fortunes caught Emhoff short. He said that when Joe Biden dropped out of the race he was in the gym with his phone off — leading to a flood of missed texts and calls, including from Harris.“Never leaving my phone in the car again,” he said on X.The swift swap in the Democratic ticket has raised questions about whether America is ready to overcome racism and sexism to choose a Black woman president — but Emhoff would be a paradigm shift too.Republicans are already attacking him, based partly on race.Harris’s campaign on Tuesday slammed “Trump’s despicable attack against the Second Gentleman” after Trump nodded along while an interviewer said Emhoff was a “crappy Jew.” Trump himself then said that Harris “doesn’t like Jewish people.”Yet Emhoff has long shown he can give as good as he gets.“Mr Trump, I know you have so much trouble pronouncing her name,” Emhoff said in a recent video, referring to Trump’s habit of mispronouncing Kamala. “After the election, you can just call her Madam President.”An entertainment lawyer, Emhoff met then-California Attorney General Harris on a blind date in 2013 and they married a year later.That made Harris a stepmother to Emhoff’s then-teenage son and daughter from his previous marriage, Cole and Ella. Famously, they dubbed her “Momala”.In 2020 he took a leave of absence from his law firm to campaign for Harris in her first presidential bid, and then in January 2021 officially became Second Gentleman.Emhoff admits the transition wasn’t easy, with some of the “toughest moments” caused by “leaving the career that I loved.”“It was always the president (Biden) who came up to me and said, ‘Look, I know, I know, kid. You’re a great lawyer. I know this must have been tough,’” Emhoff told campaign staff last week.Since then he’s taken a high-profile role in the Biden administration, particularly in a series of speeches calling out anti-Semitism after the October 7 attacks by Hamas on Israel.At the same time Harris has been vocal in urging Israel to ease the suffering in Gaza, meaning that as a couple they have effectively bridged a deep divide in the Democratic Party.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687719/international/is-america-ready-for-its-first-ever-first-gentleman

US vows funds to boost Manila defences amid China disputes

The US yesterday pledged funding of $500mn for the Philippines’ military and coast guard in a big show of support for Manila as it faces Chinese actions in disputed waters in the South China Sea.Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin met their Philippine counterparts in Manila to reaffirm Washington’s unwavering commitment to its oldest treaty ally in Asia.“This level of funding is unprecedented, and it sends a clear message of support for the Philippines, from the Biden-Harris administration, the US Congress and the American people,” Austin said in joint press conference following security talks.Ahead of their meetings, Blinken and Austin met with President Ferdinand Marcos Jr who has moved the Philippines closer to Washington since he replaced Rodrigo Duterte, who was openly hostile to the Americans and pursued warmer ties with China during his six-year term.“I’m always very happy that these communication lines are very open so that all the things that we are doing together...are continuously examined and re-examined so we are agile in terms of our responses,” Marcos said.The Philippines has competing claims with China in the waters to its west also known as the South China Sea. China claims 90% of the sea as its sovereign territory.Violence broke out after a Filipino sailor lost a finger in a June 17 mission to resupply troops stationed at a contested shoal after what Manila described as “intentional-high speed ramming” by the Chinese coast guard.Manila reached a provisional arrangement with China for resupply missions this month to ease tensions and manage differences, but the two sides appear at odds over the details of the deal, which has not been made public.Philippine Foreign Minister Enrique Manalo said in the same news conference his country agreed to an “exchange of information” under its arrangement with China.Blinken said the US shares the Philippines’ concerns about “escalatory” actions China has taken in the South China Sea.Blinken also reaffirmed Washington’s “ironclad” commitment to the defend the Philippines against an armed attack on its vessels, aircraft and soldiers in the waterway.A 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague found that China’s claims had no basis under international law. The case was brought by the Philippines and China rejects the court ruling.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687637/international/us-vows-funds-to-boost-manila-defences-amid-china-disputes

French climber summits Pakistan’s K2 in record time

French climber Benjamin Vedrines summited Pakistan’s K2 in record time on Sunday, his team told AFP, reaching the top of the world’s second-highest mountain in just under 11 hours.The 32-year-old specialist in high-speed ascents — made without the aid of oxygen — left K2 base camp just after midnight on Saturday and reached the summit 10 hours, 59 minutes and 59 seconds later.The ascent slashes by more than half the previous record for climbing K2 without the aid of bottled oxygen, completed in 23 hours by fellow Frenchman Benoit Chamoux in 1986.Vedrines attempted the summit in 2022 but was forced to turn back after suffering from hypoxia, a lack of oxygen in the blood caused by thin air at high altitudes.“I took my revenge on this mountain,” Vedrines said in a voice message shared with AFP. “But above all I wanted to reconcile with it by doing things with maturity.”“It was very symbolic for me because I was returning in my footsteps to where I experienced those very unique moments,” he said.“I really enjoyed seeing the same sections again, but with lucidity this time.” Standing at 8,611 metres on the Pakistan-China border, K2 is 238 metres shorter than Everest but is considered more technically challenging — earning it the nickname “Savage Mountain”.Elite climbers regard the mountain, which was first scaled in 1954, as a quintessential achievement, and often attempt to set records on its jagged slopes. Norwegian climber Kristin Harila and her Nepali guide Tenjin Sherpa conquered K2 a year ago, capping a record for the fastest summit of all 14 of the world’s 8,000-metre mountains.The pair completed the feat in three months and one day. Tenjin was killed in an avalanche less than three months later as he guided another climber on Mount Shishapangma in Tibet.In January 2021, a 10-man team from Nepal became the first to summit K2 in winter as temperatures plunged to minus 65 degrees Celsius. The mountain regularly claims the lives of elite climbers. Rescue prospects seemed remote yesterday for two feted Japanese climbers who fell from K2’s western face at the weekend. Kazuya Hiraide and Kenro Nakajima had been using the same “alpine style” of climbing as Vedrines, which relies on a minimum of fixed ropes, when they plunged from above 7,000 metres.A helicopter spotted the motionless pair but was forced to abort a rescue attempt and their sponsor, clothing brand Ishii Sports, said yesterday they were on “steep terrain that is difficult to reach”. Rescue attempts are still being discussed and no organisation has yet declared the men dead. Successful evacuations from K2 after mishaps are rare. A successful climb up K2’s western face has been achieved only once, in 2007.Vedrines is considered one of France’s pre-eminent climbers and set a speed record climbing Pakistan’s Broad Peak in 2022 before descending by paraglider.He reached the top of the 8,051-metre mountain, not far from K2, in seven hours and 28 minutes.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687577/international/french-climber-summits-pakistans-k2-in-record-time

Children among eight stabbed in UK attack

A knife attack in northern England yesterday wounded at least eight people, reportedly including children, emergency services said.Police said armed officers detained a man and seized a knife after being called to a property in Southport, near Liverpool in northwest England.“There are a number of reported casualties,” police said in a statement.The North West Ambulance Service (NWAS) said it had “treated eight patients with stab injuries who have been taken to Alder Hey Children’s Hospital, Aintree University Hospital and Southport and Formby hospital.”Alder Hey Children’s Hospital said: “We can confirm that the trust has declared a major incident.”Local business owner Colin Parry, one of the people who called police, told the domestic Press Association news agency that he believed several “young girls” had been stabbed.Bare Varathan, who owns a local shop, told PA he saw “seven to 10 kids” who were “injured, bleeding”, adding that he saw they had been stabbed.Prime Minister Keir Starmer called the incident “horrendous and deeply shocking,” adding on X, formerly called Twitter, that “my thoughts are with all those affected”.Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said she was “deeply concerned” about the “very serious incident” in Southport.The area where the incident took place is located in a quiet, leafy neighbourhood of residential streets.Some residents who were allowed to come out from the police cordon sealing it off looked visibly shocked, according to a journalist at the scene.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687573/international/children-among-eight-stabbed-in-uk-attack

Quad foreign ministers decry dangerous S China Sea actions

Foreign ministers from Australia, India, Japan and the US yesterday said they were seriously concerned about intimidating and dangerous manoeuvres in the South China Sea and pledged to bolster maritime security in the region.The joint statement came after talks between the so-called ‘Quad’ countries in Tokyo, attended by Australia’s Penny Wong, India’s Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, Japan’s Yoko Kamikawa and Antony Blinken from the US.In security talks between the US and Japan on Sunday, the two allies labelled China the “greatest strategic challenge” facing the region.“We are seriously concerned about the situation in the East and South China Seas and reiterate our strong opposition to any unilateral actions that seek to change the status quo by force or coercion,” the ministers said in the statement, which did not directly mention China.They also expressed serious concern about the militarisation of disputed features and coercive and intimidating manoeuvres in the South China Sea, including dangerous use of coast guard and maritime militia vessels.Asked about the statement at a regular news briefing yesterday, Chinese foreign ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said the Quad was “artificially creating tension, inciting confrontation and containing the development of other countries”.Chinese vessels have repeatedly clashed with Philippine ships seeking to resupply its troops on the disputed Second Thomas Shoal in recent months, although the two countries in July reached a provisional agreement that aims to ease tensions.The Quad group said they were working on a series of initiatives to maintain “the free and open maritime order” including helping partners improve domain awareness via satellite data, training and capacity building. They also announced a plan to set up a new maritime legal dialogue.“We are charting a course for a more secure and open Indo-Pacific and Indian Ocean region by bolstering maritime security,” Blinken said in remarks to reporters after the meeting.“In practical terms what does this mean? It means strengthening the capacity of partners across the region to know what’s happening in their own waters,” he added.He said the US would continue to work with its partners to ensure freedom of navigation and the unimpeded flow of lawful maritime commerce.The US announced plans on Sunday for a major revamp of its military command in Japan. It was among several measures announced by the allies to address what they said was an “evolving security environment”, noting various threats from China including its muscular maritime activities.“Uncertainty surrounding the international order as well as the international situation has been increasing with Russia continuing its aggression in Ukraine, attempts to unilaterally change the status quo by force in the East China Sea and South China Sea, and the launch of ballistic missiles by North Korea,” Japan’s Kamikawa said after the talks.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687572/international/quad-foreign-ministers-decry-dangerous-s-china-sea-actions

Maduro re-elected as Venezuela's President with 51.20 percent of votes

Venezuela's National Electoral Council announced on Monday, that current President Nicolas Maduro won the country's presidential elections.Maduro was re-elected after winning 51.20 percent of the vote, besting the Democratic Unitary Platform (PUD) candidate Edmundo Gonzlez Urrutia, who gained more than 44 percent, according to a statement by the National Electoral Council (CNE).President Maduro's campaign said, 'Thank you. It was a victory for everyone. It was a victory that will help us build the future, and of course, we will have to wait for the results.'This marks the third term for the current Venezuelan President Nicols Maduro. Polling stations opened yesterday, Sunday, in Venezuela to allow Venezuelan citizens to cast their votes in a tense presidential election.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687550/international/uslatin-america/maduro-re-elected-as-venezuelas-president-with-5120-percentof-votes

Putin warns US to be ready for the consequences if it deploys missiles

Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday threatened to relaunch production of intermediate-range nuclear weapons if the United States confirmed its intention to deploy missiles to Germany or elsewhere in Europe.The United States said on July 10 that it would start deploying long-range missiles in Germany from 2026 in preparation for a longer-term deployment that will include SM-6, Tomahawk cruise missiles and developmental hypersonic weapons.In a speech to sailors from Russia, China, Algeria and India to mark Russian navy day in the former imperial capital of St Petersburg, Putin warned the United States that it risked triggering a Cold War-style missile crisis with the move.“The flight time to targets on our territory of such missiles, which in the future may be equipped with nuclear warheads, will be about 10 minutes,” Putin said.“If the United States carries out such plans, we will consider ourselves liberated from the unilateral moratorium previously adopted on the deployment of medium- and short-range strike capabilities,” Putin said, adding that now in Russia “the development of a number of such systems is in the final stages”.“We will take mirror measures in deploying them, taking into account the actions of the US, its satellites in Europe and in other regions of the world,” the Russian president warned.Such missiles, which can travel between 500 and 5,500km, were the subject of an arms control treaty signed by the US and the Soviet Union in 1987.But both Washington and Moscow withdrew from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in 2019, each accusing the other of violations.Russia subsequently said it would not restart production of such missiles as long as the United States did not deploy missiles abroad.In early July, Washington and Berlin announced that the “episodic deployments” of long-range US missiles, including Tomahawk cruise missiles, to Germany would begin in 2026.Putin said that “important Russian administrative and military sites” would fall within the range of such missiles that “could in the future be equipped with nuclear warheads, such that our territories would be within around 10 minutes” of a strike being launched.The Russian president also mentioned that the US has deployed Typhon mid-range missile systems in Denmark and the Philippines in recent exercises.Russian and US diplomats say their diplomatic relations are worse even that during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, and both Moscow and Washington have urged de-escalation while both have made steps towards escalation.Putin said that the United States was stoking tensions and had transferred Typhon missile systems to Denmark and the Philippines, and compared the US plans to the Nato decision to deploy Pershing II launchers in Western Europe in 1979.The Soviet leadership, including General Secretary Yuri Andropov, feared Pershing II deployments were part of an elaborate US-led plan to decapitate the Soviet Union by taking out its political and military leadership.“This situation is reminiscent of the events of the Cold War related to the deployment of American medium-range Pershing missiles in Europe,” Putin said.The Pershing II, designed to deliver a variable yield nuclear warhead, was deployed to West Germany in 1983.In 1983, the ailing Andropov and the KGB interpreted a series of US moves including the Pershing II deployment and a major Nato exercise as signs the West was about to launch a pre-emptive strike on the Soviet Union.Putin repeated an earlier warning that Russia could resume production of intermediate and shorter range nuclear-capable missiles and then consider where to deploy them after the United States brought similar missiles to Europe and Asia.US missiles continued to be stationed through the reunification of Germany and into the 1990s.But following the end of the Cold War, the United States significantly reduced the numbers of missiles stationed in Europe as the threat from Moscow receded.The Kremlin had already warned in mid July that the proposed US deployment would mean that European capitals would become a target for Russian missiles.“We are taking steady steps towards the Cold War. All the attributes of the Cold War with the direct confrontation are returning,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told a state TV reporter.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687527/international/putin-warns-us-to-be-ready-for-the-consequences-if-it-deploys-missiles

Jordan’s Umm al-Jimal added to Unesco heritage list

Jordan’s Umm al-Jimal village has been added to Unesco’s World Heritage List, in a move hailed yesterday by the country’s tourism and antiquities minister as a “great achievement”.Unesco, which is hosting a meeting of its World Heritage Committee in New Delhi, said on X on Friday that the earliest structures uncovered at Umm al-Jimal date back to the first century CE, “when the area formed part of the Nabataean Kingdom.” It added that inscriptions in “Greek, Nabataean, Safaitic, Latin and Arabic uncovered on the site... sheds light on the changes in its inhabitants’ religious beliefs”.The village is near the Jordanian-Syrian border, 86 kilometres north of the capital Amman, and is known as “the black oasis” due to the prevalence of black volcanic rock in the area.Jordan’s Minister of Tourism and Antiquities Makram al-Qaisi said in a press conference yesterday that the inclusion of Umm al-Jimal on the World Heritage List is a “great achievement we should be proud of”. He said the ministry hoped to invite local and international investors to the site and “present Umm al-Jimal as an attractive tourist destination”.The name Umm al-Jimal comes from the use of camels as part of trade caravans in the village.The village was first settled by the Nabataean peoples in the first century CE and later occupied by the Romans, becoming an important agricultural and commercial village. Umm al-Jimal is the seventh historical site in Jordan to be added to Unesco’s World Heritage List, along with Petra, Quseir Amra, Umm al-Rasas, Wadi Rum, Mughatas and Salt. Tourism contributes between 12 and 14% of GDP in the kingdom, whose 10mn inhabitants rely heavily on the sector. Qaisi said Jordan welcomed more than 6mn tourists in 2023, bringing in $7bn.But tourism has started to feel the effects of the war raging in nearby Gaza. Qaisi said the kingdom saw a 4.9% drop in tourism revenue so far in 2024, and a 7.9% drop in visitors.Most tourists come from Europe, the US and Canada, followed by Asia Pacific countries.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687523/international/jordans-umm-al-jimal-added-to-unesco-heritage-list

Nigeria courts convict 125 insurgents in mass trial

Nigerian courts convicted 125 Boko Haram militants and financiers of a series of terrorism-related offences in a mass trial this week, the attorney-general’s office said.A Boko Haram insurgency has killed thousands of people and displaced millions since it began in 2009, creating a humanitarian crisis in northeastern Nigeria and putting pressure on the government to bring the conflict to an end.Kamarudeen Ogundele, the spokesman of the Attorney-General’s office, said in a statement late on Friday that “they were convicted of charges bordering on terrorism, terrorism financing, rendering material support, and cases relating to International Criminal Courts (ICC) criminality”.The last mass trials of Boko Haram suspects took place between 2017 and 2018, where 163 people were convicted and 887 set free. Ogundele added that from the previous convictions, 400 defendants who had completed their sentences were moved to a rehabilitation centre known as Operation Safe Corridor in Gombe State, northeast Nigeria “for rehabilitation, deradicalisation and subsequent reintegration”.Boko Haram kidnapped more than 270 girls from a school in the northeastern town of Chibok in April 2014, an attack that sparked outrage and gave rise to the global “#Bring Back Our Girls” campaign, though more than half of the girls have returned, many as mothers of multiple children.The breakdown of the latest convictions showed that 85 people were convicted for terrorism financing, 22 for ICC related crimes, while the rest were convictedfor terrorism.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687447/international/nigeria-courts-convict-125-insurgents-in-mass-trial

Climate change ‘causing change in rainfall, fiercer typhoons’

Climate change is driving changes in rainfall patterns across the world, scientists said in a paper published yesterday, which could also be intensifying typhoons and other tropical storms.Taiwan, the Philippines and then China were lashed by the year’s most powerful typhoon this week, with schools, businesses and financial markets shut as wind speeds surged up to 227kph. On China’s eastern coast, hundreds of thousands of people were evacuated ahead of landfall on Thursday.Stronger tropical storms are part of a wider phenomenon of weather extremes driven by higher temperatures, scientists say.Researchers led by Zhang Wenxia at the China Academy of Sciences studied historical meteorological data and found about 75% of the world’s land area had seen a rise in “precipitation variability” or wider swings between wet and dry weather. Warming temperatures have enhanced the ability of the atmosphere to hold moisture, which is causing wider fluctuations in rainfall, the researchers said in a paper published by the Science journal.“(Variability) has increased in most places, including Australia, which means rainier rain periods and drier dry periods,” said Steven Sherwood, a scientist at the Climate Change Research Centre at the University of New South Wales, who was not involved in the study. “This is going to increase as global warming continues, enhancing the chances of droughts and/or floods.”Scientists believe that climate change is also reshaping the behaviour of tropical storms, including typhoons, making them less frequent but more powerful. “I believe higher water vapour in the atmosphere is the ultimate cause of all of these tendencies toward more extreme hydrologic phenomena,” Sherwood said. Typhoon Gaemi, which first made landfall in Taiwan on Wednesday, was the strongest to hit the island in eight years. While it is difficult to attribute individual weather events to climate change, models predict that global warming makes typhoons stronger, said Sachie Kanada, a researcher at Japan’s Nagoya University.“In general, warmer sea surface temperature is a favourable condition for tropical cyclone development,” she said. In its “blue paper” on climate change published this month, China said the number of typhoons in the Northwest Pacific and South China Sea had declined significantly since the 1990s, but they were getting stronger.Thousands evacuated as record rains pound JapanRecord heavy rain forced the evacuation of thousands of people across parts of northern Japan and killed at least two, as rivers burst their banks washing away bridges and cars, officials and media reports said yesterday.A rescuer is among the dead after the downpours in Yamagata and Akita prefectures on the main island of Honshu. Two other people, including another rescuer, are missing.In Yamagata, where two rivers burst their banks, one police officer in his 20s who had been searching for a missing person was found “submerged” and later confirmed dead, a local police spokesman said.Another police officer also tasked with a search operation, remains unaccounted for, the spokesman said.In northern Akita region, one body was also found, media reports said, with police trying to ascertain whether it was that of an 86-year-old man earlier reported missing.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687420/international/climate-change-causing-change-in-rainfall-fiercer-typhoons

Philippines racing to clean oil spill to avoid ‘catastrophe’

The Philippine Coast Guard yesterday raced to offload 1.4mn litres of industrial fuel oil from a sunken tanker and prevent an “environmental catastrophe” in Manila Bay.One crew member died when the MT Terra Nova sank in rough seas nearly 7km off Limay municipality early Thursday after setting out for the central city of Iloilo.An oil slick stretching several kilometres was detected in the waterway, which thousands of fishermen and tourism operators rely on for their livelihoods.Coast guard spokesman Rear Admiral Armando Balilo said yesterday the spill was “minimal” and that it appeared to be diesel fuel used to power the tanker and not the industrial fuel oil cargo.“No oil has been leaking from the tank itself, so we’re racing against time to siphon the oil so we can avoid the environmental catastrophe,” Balilo said.The coast guard has set a target of seven days to offload the cargo and prevent what Balilo warned would be the worst oil spill in Philippine history if it were to leak.Journalists at the Port of Limay in Bataan province watched coast guard personnel load oil dispersant and a suction skimmer onto a boat to be used against the slick.Balilo said oil spill containment booms had also been deployed in preparation “for the worst case scenario” of the industrial fuel oil leaking before it could be offloaded.Once the weather improved, coast guard divers would inspect the position of the tanker so the “siphoning operation” could get under way, he said.The coast guard met with representatives of the MT Terra Nova’s owner and a contracted salvage company yesterday to discuss the timeline.“There’s nothing to be worried about for now, but we should not be complacent,” Balilo said.The incident happened as heavy rains fuelled by Typhoon Gaemi and the seasonal monsoon lashed Manila and surrounding regions in recent days.After setting out late Wednesday, the captain decided to abort the journey to Iloilo due to rough seas.Balilo said investigators were seeking to verify testimony from the crew that the vessel was damaged as it tried to turn back and had to be towed by another ship.Somehow the tow line was cut and the MT Terra Nova “lost control” in the large waves and went down, he said.“We will see if there were protocols violated or if there was a lapse in decision-making,” Balilo said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687418/international/philippines-racing-to-clean-oil-spill-to-avoid-catastrophe

India’s strategic railway bridge closes the gap to Kashmir

Soaring high across a gorge in the rugged Himalayas, a newly finished bridge will soon help India entrench control of Kashmir and meet a rising strategic threat from China.

The Chenab Rail Bridge, the highest of its kind in the world, has been hailed as a feat of engineering linking the Kashmir valley to the vast Indian plains by train for the first time.

But its completion has sparked concern among some in the territory, home to a permanent garrison of more than 500,000 soldiers.

India’s military brass say the strategic benefits of the bridge to New Delhi cannot be understated.

“The train to Kashmir will be pivotal in peace and in wartime,” general Deependra Singh Hooda, a retired former chief of India’s northern military command, said.

The new bridge “will facilitate the movement of army personnel coming and going in larger numbers than was previously possible”, said Noor Ahmad Baba, a politics professor at the Central University of Kashmir.

But, as well as soldiers, the bridge will “facilitate movement” of ordinary people and goods, he said. That has prompted unease among some in Kashmir who believe easier access will bring a surge of outsiders coming to buy land and settle.

Previously tight rules on land ownership were lifted after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government cancelled Kashmir’s partial autonomy in 2019.

India Railways calls the $24mn bridge “arguably the biggest civil engineering challenge faced by any railway project in India in recent history”.

It is hoped to boost economic development and trade, cutting the cost of moving goods.

But Hooda, the retired general, said the bridge’s most important consequence would be revolutionising logistics in Ladakh, the icy region bordering China.

India and China, the world’s two most populous nations, are intense rivals competing for strategic influence across South Asia, and their 3,500km shared frontier has been a perennial source of tension.

Their troops clashed in 2020, killing at least 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers, and forces from both sides today face off across contested high-altitude borderlands. “Everything from a needle to the biggest military equipment... has to be sent by road and stocked up in Ladakh for six months every year before the roads close for winter,” Hooda said.

Now all that can be transported by train, easing what Indian military experts call the “world’s biggest military logistics exercise” - supplying Ladakh through snowbound passes.

The project will buttress several other road tunnel projects under way that will connect Kashmir and Ladakh, not far from India’s frontiers with China and Pakistan.

The 1,315-metre-long steel and concrete bridge connects two mountains with an arch 359 metres above the cool waters of the Chenab River.

Trains are ready to run and only await an expected ribbon cutting from Modi.

The 272km railway begins in the garrison city of Udhampur, headquarters of the army’s northern command, and runs through the region’s capital Srinagar.

It terminates a kilometre higher in altitude in Baramulla, a gateway trade town near the Line of Control with Pakistan.

When the road is open, it is twice the distance and takes a day of driving.

The railway cost an estimated $3.9bn and has been an immense undertaking, with construction beginning nearly three decades ago.

While several road and pipeline bridges are higher, Guinness World Records confirmed that Chenab trumps the previous highest railway bridge, the Najiehe bridge in China.

Describing India’s new bridge as a “marvel”, its deputy chief designer R R Mallick, said the experience of designing and building was a great learning experience for the engineers.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687366/international/indias-strategic-railway-bridge-closes-the-gap-to-kashmir

Typhoon hits Chinese seaboard, widespread flooding feared

Typhoon Gaemi roared into southeastern China yesterday after churning across the Taiwan Strait, prompting warnings of swelling rivers, flash floods and waterlogging in cities and provinces that were hit by extreme rains just several weeks ago.Gaemi, the third and most powerful typhoon to hit China’s eastern seaboard this year, made landfall in Fujian province at 7.50pm (1150GMT) after whipping Taiwan with gusts of up to 227kph, some of the strongest winds recorded in the Western Pacific Ocean.Ahead of its arrival, 240,800 people in Fujian were evacuated.Despite slightly weakening since its landfall in Fujian’s Putian, a city of over 3mn, Gaemi and its giant cloud-bands are forecast to unleash intense rainfall in at least 10 Chinese provinces in the coming days.The arrival of Gaemi has drawn comparisons with Typhoon Doksuri last year, which triggered historic flooding as far north as Beijing and caused nationwide losses of nearly $30bn.Authorities said water levels in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River as well as the vast freshwater lakes of Poyang and Dongting in central China could rise, returning to dangerous levels seen in early July after intense summer rains.Due to its high vapour content, Beijing cautioned that Gaemi could spawn strong rainfall in the Chinese capital, about 2,000km north of Putian, even as the storm weakens into a tropical depression.Gaemi’s rains could cause flash floods and waterlogging particularly in parts of northern China where the soil remains saturated after being lashed by a passing system of storms earlier this week, authorities warned.In Taiwan, Gaemi killed three people, triggered flooding and sank a freighter after the strongest typhoon to hit the island in eight years made landfall on Wednesday night.The storm cut power to around half a million households, though most are now back online, utility Taipower said.Apart from the three fatalities, 380 were injured by the typhoon in Taiwan, the government said.Taiwan’s fire department said a Tanzania-flagged freighter with nine Myanmar nationals on board had sunk off the coast of the southern port city of Kaohsiung.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687365/international/typhoon-hits-chinese-seaboard-widespread-flooding-feared

Germany's Frankfurt Airport suspends flights after climate activists stormed airport grounds

Air traffic at Germany's Frankfurt airport has been temporarily suspended after activists from the climate group Last Generation managed to gain access to the airport grounds, police said on Thursday morning.According to dpa, several protesters entered through a fence in the early hours and glued themselves to the tarmac at Germany's biggest airport.'All security authorities are currently working to resolve disruptions as quickly as possible,' a spokesman for federal police stationed at the airport said.Six Last Generation activists had gained access to the airport's runways, calling for an end to fossil fuel use by 2030.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687340/international/germanys-frankfurt-airport-suspends-flights-after-climate-activistsstormed-airport-grounds

Trump shooter ‘did online search for JFK assassination’

The 20-year-old man suspected of trying to kill former president Donald Trump conducted an online search of the John F Kennedy assassination on the day he registered for Trump’s rally in Butler, Pennsylvania, FBI Director Christopher Wray said yesterday.“Analysis of a laptop that the investigation ties to the shooter reveals that on July 6, he did a Google search for ‘how far away was Oswald from Kennedy’,” Wray said in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee.“That is the same day that it appears that he registered for the Butler rally,” he said, adding that suspect Thomas Crooks had become “very focused on Trump and his rally” at the time.Former president Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas, on November 22, 1963, by Lee Harvey Oswald.Wray said Crooks, a nursing home aide, fired at least eight rounds from his rooftop position near the July 13 rally, wounding the Republican presidential candidate in the ear, killing one rally attendee and wounding two others.Crooks used an AR-15 assault-style rifle with a collapsible stock, “which could explain why it might have been less easy for people to observe,” Wray said.The motive for the shooting remains unclear. Wray said many people have described Crooks as a loner and the list of contacts in his phone was short.Wray also told lawmakers that Crooks flew a drone about 200 yards from the stage where Trump spoke to the crowd and live-streamed footage for about 11 minutes, some two hours before the event.He said the crude explosive devices recovered from Crooks’ car and home were designed to be detonated remotely. Crooks had a transmitter with him at the time of the shooting, Wray added. But he said the FBI believes the suspect would not have been successful had he tried to detonate the devices.The hearing also focused on the increasingly tense political atmosphere surrounding the presidential campaign.“I have been saying for some time now that we are living in an elevated-threat environment. And tragically, the...assassination attempt is another example, particularly heinous,” Wray testified.Kimberly Cheatle resigned as director of the US Secret Service on Tuesday after bipartisan demands to quit over the failure to prevent the attempted assassination.Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said he expected Wray to answer questions about what happened before, during and after the incident but expressed doubt about the FBI director’s answers even before questioning began.“I’m sure you understand that a significant portion of the country has a healthy scepticism regarding the FBI’s ability to conduct a fair, honest, open and transparent investigation,” Jordan said.Representative Jerrold Nadler, the panel’s top Democrat, condemned the Trump shooting “unequivocally and unabashedly” but pointed to years of political threats and violence, and violent rhetoric from Republicans including Trump himself.“If you think that this one assassin’s bullet was a bolt out of the blue, and not part of a wave of violence that has threatened this nation for years, then you have missed the point,” the New York Democrat said.Wray has long faced opposition from hardline Republicans, some angered over the arrest of Trump supporters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, as Congress certified President Joe Biden’s 2020 election victory.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687310/international/trump-shooter-did-online-search-for-jfk-assassination

Modi sets aside billions for jobs, allies in post-election budget

India’s government assigned billions of dollars for job creation and regions run by key coalition partners in a budget aimed at cementing the coalition and winning back voters after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s election setback.Tax changes unveiled in the budget included a higher levy on equity investments to allay concerns the market might be overheating and lower taxes for foreign companies to attract more investment.The $576bn in total outlays included $32bn for rural programmes, $24bn to be spent over five years to create jobs, and more than $5bn for two states ruled by coalition partners.“In this budget, we particularly focus on employment, skilling, small businesses, and the middle class,” Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said yesterday.The government will also implement reforms across factors of production, including land and labour, she said.Subsequent budgets would continue to focus on those areas, Sitharaman said while presenting her seventh annual budget.Despite the new spending, India cut its fiscal deficit target to 4.9% of gross domestic product in fiscal year ending on March 31, 2025, from 5.1% in February’s interim budget, helped by a large surplus of $25bn from the central bank.The government also marginally reduced gross market borrowing to Rs14.01tn.Economist had blamed the distress in rural areas and a weak job market for a poor poll showing that cost Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) its absolute majority. They say land and labour reforms are essential for India to sustain strong economic growth.Asia’s third-largest economy grew 8.2% in the past fiscal year and the government sees growth of 6.5% to 7% this fiscal year, a report showed on Monday.Sakshi Gupta, principal economist at HDFC Bank, said the budget managed to strike a balance between policies supporting growth and maintaining fiscal discipline.However, implementing more ambitious reforms, will be “challenging” for the coalition, Gene Fang, associate managing director for sovereign risk at Moody’s Ratings, said.Previous attempts to make it easier for companies to acquire land and lay off staff have repeatedly faced pushback from states concerned about protests such measures might provoke.Among measures aimed at boosting employment, the budget included incentives for companies to train staff as well as and cheaper loans for higher education, Sitharaman said.India’s reported urban unemployment rate is 6.7%, but private agency the Centre For Monitoring Indian Economy pegs it higher, at 8.4%.The budget also maintains spending on long-term infrastructure projects at Rs11.11tn, with states assigned Rs1.5tn in long-term loans to fund such expenditure. Some will be linked to reform milestones in areas such as land and labour, which Sitharaman said the government intended to push in its third term.In a concession to the government’s allies, Sitharaman said it would hasten loans from multilateral agencies for the eastern state of Bihar and the southern state of Andhra Pradesh.India raised to 20% from 15% its tax rate for equity investments held for less than a year, while the rate for those held longer than 12 months rose to 12.5% from 10%. The taxes will be applicable from today.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687245/international/modi-sets-aside-billions-for-jobs-allies-in-post-election-budget

India’s Union Budget: Balances today’s needs while establishing priorities of tomorrow

India’s Union Budget 2024 is a thought-provoking one that balances the needs of today while establishing the priorities of tomorrow.At the same time, one could always view it as a budget that could have done more in addressing immediate concerns.The focus on promoting entrepreneurship, skilling, and MSMEs (micro, small and medium enterprises ) is commendable. The scheme offering internship opportunities in the top 500 companies will enable students to effectively translate their academic knowledge into practical professional skills, facilitating a smoother transition into the workforce.MSMEs have a vital role to play in the country’s development going forward and the moves taken in this budget to increase credit access and financial support will help these companies to scale and modernise. The initiatives to ensure credit access to MSMEs during their stress period and increase the limit in MUDRA (Micro Units Development and Refinance Agency) loans are welcome ones.I am also happy to see the initiative to bring out a Financial Sector Vision and Strategy Document. This will provide a clear agenda for all stakeholders over the next five years, ensuring that the efforts of the government, regulators, financial institutions, and market participants are aligned towards common goals.At the same time, there could have been more incentives for the tourism and hospitality industry. Rethinking lending norms and envisioning hospitality development as a vital part of infrastructure development were necessary. With the growing use of AI in other sectors, tourism and hospitality are poised to become a major driver of job creation and the sector needs more support.There could also have been more in terms of measures to attract NRI investments to the country. Reducing corporate tax for foreign companies to 35% is a welcome development, while the move to abolish the Angel Tax for startups is indeed commendable. However, the NRI community was expecting more policies and reforms to boost NRI investment in India.Overall, while this budget is a balanced one and will stand the country in good stead over the long run, one could always argue that there are missed opportunities.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687244/international/indias-union-budget-balances-todays-needs-while-establishing-priorities-of-tomorrow

Desperate search: Gazans scour ruins for water

To get his family the water they need for drinking, bathing and laundry, Ahmed al-Shanbari steels himself for a lengthy search through the north of the Gaza Strip.Shanbari said most of the wells near his makeshift shelter in the Jabalia refugee camp have been destroyed.And the water distribution network barely works after more than nine months of war that has devastated Gaza’s infrastructure.Water was already scarce before the conflict erupted in October, and most of it was undrinkable. The 2.4mn population relies on an increasingly polluted and depleted aquifer, humanitarian agencies say. To collect what little of the fetid supply remains can take Shanbari four hours in sweltering heat.He sets off with his three children, buckets in hand, weaving through mounds of rubble and trash in search of a working spigot or an aid agency hose connected to a water truck.“We are suffering greatly to obtain water,” he said.Shanbari said the situation has worsened since heavy fighting broke out in Jabalia in May between the Israeli army and Hamas.“After the last incursion, not a single well remains,” he said.The UN humanitarian office OCHA said most of Gaza’s groundwater was contaminated with sewage even before the war. More than 97% was unsafe to drink.Today, many aid groups describe the situation in Gaza as “catastrophic”.For weeks, Palestinians in Gaza have said journalists about the intense thirst that drives them to delirium, their dreams of a cup of tea and the humiliation of being unable to wash.For the Shanbari family, water is so precious they try not to spill a single drop after finding it.From the jerrycans they haul home, they carefully transfer the water into basins for cleaning dishes and pitchers for bathing.The parents say they are “exhausted” by the constant struggle to get the barest of necessities, and their children are sick.“All my children have fallen ill, they’re suffering from kidney failure, jaundice, itching, cough,” said Shanbari. “I don’t know what to say, and there aren’t even medicines available in the north.” Not far from the Shanbari home, huge puddles of sewage, sometimes as big as ponds, cover the roads.INOPERABLEEven if he could locate a well with water, Shanbari said there is no fuel in the north to run the pumps needed to extract it.Wastewater treatment plants are also reportedly shutting down because of the lack of fuel .An expert on water infrastructure in the Gaza Strip described the territory’s water distribution system as effectively inoperable.Only a ceasefire could get it back up and running again, he said, given the need for spare parts and experts to access the stations and wells. The Israeli military on Sunday maintained that water collection points were accessible in the Al Mawasi humanitarian zone, to which it has ordered hundreds of thousands of Palestinians to move.But people are afraid to go there after Israeli strikes on Al Mawasi killed at least 92 people and wounded 300 on July 13, according to the health ministry in the Hamas-run territory.Israel, UN agencies and the Palestinian Authority have all raised the prospect of resupplying electricity from Israel to a desalination plant and a water treatment plant in Gaza.But the local electricity distribution company said the line was still too damaged to distribute power.The Gaza war was triggered by Hamas’s October first week storming of southern Israel.Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed at least 39,006 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the Gaza health ministry.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687185/international/desperate-search-gazans-scour-ruins-for-water

Harris wins crucial backing in her race against Trump

US Vice-President Kamala Harris won the crucial backing of Democratic heavyweight Nancy Pelosi to lead the party against Donald Trump in November after Joe Biden’s stunning exit from the 2024 race.Biden’s departure was the latest shock to a White House race that included the near-assassination of former president Trump by a gunman during a campaign stop and the nomination of Trump’s fellow hardliner, US Senator J D Vance, as his running mate.As the endorsements stacked up, the 59-year-old Harris made her first public appearance since Biden’s announcement in a ceremony at the White House where she warmly praised the outgoing president’s “unmatched” achievements.However, while she steered away from any triumphalism, Harris will now feel she has one hand on the prize after securing the support of Pelosi, the former US House speaker and a prime mover in moves to oust the 81-year-old Biden.“With immense pride and limitless optimism for our country’s future, I endorse Vice President Kamala Harris for President of the United States,” Pelosi, 84, said in a message on X. “I have full confidence that she will lead us to victory in November.”A flood of Democratic leaders has backed Harris as the party’s new candidate for November’s election, building momentum for a lightning-fast coronation despite some calls to show transparency with an open primary.Biden endorsed Harris – who is the first female, black and South Asian vice-president in US history – as he dropped out of the race on Sunday following a disastrous debate performance.He was followed by former president Bill Clinton and a host of other lawmakers, but ex-president Barack Obama has notably held off so far.In a strikingly symbolic moment, Harris hosted a ceremony for college athletes at the White House yesterday while Biden remained stuck in isolation with the coronavirus (Covid-19) at his Delaware beach house.“Joe Biden’s legacy of accomplishment over the past three years is unmatched in modern history,” Harris said in her brief remarks on the White House South Lawn, as a light rain fell.Some of her sporting metaphors did seem to nod towards the political race ahead of her, though, as she talked of bringing home the gold and “what it means to commit and to persevere”.Harris was to make a first trip to campaign headquarters in Wilmington, Delaware, later in the day – not far from Rehoboth Beach, where Biden has spent most of the last week nursing his Covid-19 infection.Harris’s campaign said it had raised a stunning $49.6mn in grassroots donations since Sunday.A series of other top Democrats have backed Harris, including a number considered as her possible running mates.“Let’s win this,” posted Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer.The governor of Kentucky, Andy Beshear, also declared his support, as did Illinois Governor J B Pritzker.Harris must still win over some key hold-outs if she is to wrap up the nomination, but it could happen as early as a remote ballot on August 1, or failing that by the Democratic National Convention starting August 19.The stunning withdrawal by Biden has completely upended the 2024 race, transforming a long slog between two unpopular elderly men into one of the most compelling in modern US presidential history.The move has brought a jolt of energy to a demoralised party that Harris could now unify, and could give America its first female president.It has also hit Republicans hard, with former president Trump, 78 – now the oldest presidential nominee in US history – having to completely retool a strategy that had been built around attacking Biden over his age and physical frailty.Harris’s entry not only flips the age issue but puts Trump – a convicted felon who has faced a series of legal cases over sexual assault – up against a woman and former prosecutor.Trump has seemed to find it hard to move on from his old opponent.He launched a series of invective-filled social media posts after Biden quit, mocking the president’s age and saying that he and Harris posed a “threat to democracy”.The challenges facing Harris remain daunting, however, with less than four months until election day.The vice-president has long suffered from poor approval ratings after a lacklustre first two years in the White House.She is polling largely neck-and-neck with Trump in the polls that have looked at a direct match up.In a head-to-head match-up, Harris and Trump were tied with 44% support each in a July 15-16 Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted immediately after the July 13 assassination attempt on Trump.Trump led Biden 43% to 41% in that same poll, though the two percentage point difference was not meaningful considering the poll’s three-point margin of error.Biden, the oldest person ever to occupy the Oval Office, said he would remain in the presidency until his term ends on January 20, 2025.Some Democrats were concerned about a Harris candidacy, in part because of the weight of a long history of racial and gender discrimination in the US, which has not elected a woman president in its nearly 250-year history.“We should all prepare for the onslaught of attack that would face any historic candidate,” Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez told reporters. “Misogyny in our politics is far from over. Racism in our politics – especially confronting Donald Trump as an opponent – is far, far from over.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687182/international/harris-wins-crucial-backing-in-her-race-against-trump

Meloni put domestic concerns first in rejecting von der Leyen

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni’s decision not to back Ursula von der Leyen as European Commission chief was driven by fear of losing right-wing grassroots supporters, analysts say, but may curb her influence over EU choices.The European Parliament elected von der Leyen for a second five-year term on Thursday to lead the bloc’s executive with support from centre-right, centre-left, liberal and green groups. She got 401 votes, with 284 against in a secret ballot in the 720-member chamber.Meloni’s Brothers of Italy, part of the European Conservatives and Reformists group (ECR), revealed its decision after the vote when it said von der Leyen had shifted too far left, particularly on green pledges.Even though von der Leyen did not need Meloni’s 24 lawmakers to win, the vote marked a shift from the prime minister’s past efforts to keep good relations with the Commission as Rome grapples with mammoth public debt.“Meloni cares a lot about being consistent. She had said she would never vote with the left. When it became clear that her votes were not needed, she stuck to that pledge,” said Giovanni Orsina, politics professor at Rome’s Luiss university.However, the move dismayed many Italian commentators who said the Commission may now be less indulgent towards Italy’s public finances and its faltering attempts to spend billions of euros of EU post-Covid recovery funds.That remains to be seen, but Meloni’s first concern appeared to be fending off internal competition at home from her hard-right coalition ally, Matteo Salvini’s League. “She is afraid of exposing herself on the right, and this fear overwhelmed everything else,” said Francesco Galietti, from Rome-based political risk consultancy Policy Sonar.Brothers of Italy is now polling at nearly 30% — its highest ever — while the League is around 8.5%, but Galietti pointed to volatility in Italian politics and said Meloni could not afford to alienate traditional voters.Before moderating her positions after coming to power in 2022, Meloni was considered further to the right than Salvini, and used to advocate for Italy to leave the eurozone. The Commission declined to comment for this story.Von der Leyen, asked by reporters on Thursday whether she regretted seeking Meloni’s support, said only that the vote showed she had taken the right approach in assembling backers who are “pro-European, pro-Ukraine and pro-rule of law.”Carlo Calenda, leader of centrist party Action, said in a radio interview on Friday that Meloni had preferred to be “a faction leader rather than a prime minister,” and it was “dangerous” for Italy to be in opposition in Europe.Meloni triumphed in Italy’s European Parliament elections last month, in contrast to setbacks for French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, but since then things have not gone her way.After being left out of a deal on the bloc’s top jobs she protested that von der Leyen and other leaders were flouting voters’ wishes by ignoring a surge in right-wing support.She refused to back von der Leyen along with groups including the Patriots for Europe, a far-right alliance which includes Marine Le Pen’s French National Rally (RN) and Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s Fidesz.Some analysts are suggesting Meloni did not want to side with the EU’s mainstream forces ahead of a possible Donald Trump victory at US elections in November that could boost the bloc’s nationalists.Yet Wolfango Piccoli of London-based political risk consultancy Teneo, said such a strategy could backfire as Trump would likely embrace an isolationist foreign policy which would oblige Italy to strengthen European bonds.“A plan like that would not be useful to the Italian national interest,” Piccoli said.In an interview with Italian daily Corriere della Sera published on Saturday, Meloni said she would still be able to work with von der Leyen and that it would be “surreal” to imagine Brussels would punish Italy when it came to deciding on Commission roles. Rome’s candidate is European Affairs Minister Raffaele Fitto.But her relationship with Brussels looks trickier now and Piccoli said it might be harder to have a say on issues including defence and migration, though budget procedures based on pre-established steps are less likely to be affected.“The real question is to count in Europe,” he said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687119/international/meloni-put-domestic-concerns-first-in-rejecting-von-der-leyen

Advisory issued as Kerala teen dies from Nipah virus

Authorities in southern India’s Kerala state are taking preventive steps after the death of a 14-year-old boy from the Nipah virus and the identification of 60 persons in the high-risk category, the state’s health minister said yesterday.Parts of Kerala are among those most at risk globally for outbreaks of the virus, a Reuters investigation showed last year. Nipah, which comes from fruit bats and animals, can cause a lethal, brain-swelling fever in humans.Nipah is classified as a priority pathogen by the World Health Organisation (WHO) because of its potential to trigger an epidemic. There is no vaccine to prevent infection and no treatment to cure it.“The infected boy died on Sunday after a cardiac arrest,” Veena George, the state health minister told local TV reporters, speaking in the Malayalam language.Earlier, in a statement on Saturday, she said as part of Nipah control, the government has issued orders to set up 25 committees to identify and isolate affected people.Dr Anoop Kumar, director of critical care medicine at Aster MIMS Hospital in Calicut, said one positive case of Nipah had been diagnosed in a school-going boy and persons who had been in contact with him were being watched.“There is a minimum chance of an outbreak of Nipah virus at this stage,” he said, adding that the situation would be monitored for the next 7-10 days.There are 214 people on the primary contact list of the boy, the statement said. Among them, 60 are in the high-risk category, it said, and isolation wards have been set up at health institutions to treat patients.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687116/international/advisory-issued-as-kerala-teen-dies-from-nipah-virus

PNG Air Force takes to skies among Top Guns

One of the world’s youngest air forces is taking part in war games alongside cutting-edge stealth fighter jets as the Pacific Island nation of Papua New Guinea (PNG) boosts defence ties with Australia and the United States.Papua New Guinea’s trainee pilots have queued for take-off with US F-22 Raptor and Australian Joint Strike Fighter jets in northern Australia this week in the 20-nation “Pitch Black” war games.“It is a learning experience for us as a small air force and it helps to build our air force,” said Major Randall Hepota, one of six PNG Air Force pilots flying three small P-750 turboprop aircraft.At home, the New Zealand-made plane can take off and land in very short spaces and transports supplies and troops to border areas in treacherous mountain terrain.Lieutenant-Colonel Douglas Vavar, the commanding officer of PNG Air Wing, said Pitch Black offered exposure to the world’s best pilots and was helping PNG learn how to integrate with a large coalition force.“We are becoming an air force. Flying in Papua New Guinea is a must,” he said in an interview yesterday at RAAF Base Darwin. “Eighty per cent of the population live in rural areas – so the only way you can get access to them is to fly.”The PNG Air Force could land closer to the site of the Enga landslide disaster in May to deliver aid than larger Royal Australian Air Force planes, he said.“We have been training with the Royal Australian Air Force for several years and the Enga landslide was the first time we had to deploy,” he said.The small PNG planes have been landing in remote Jabiru to deliver supplies during Pitch Black, as well as RAAF Tindal Base, home to Australia’s F-35 fighter jets.Australia’s Governor-General, Sam Mostyn, inspected one of the PNG aircraft at the RAAF Darwin base open day.Australia and the United States last year struck defence deals with PNG, which is also being courted by Beijing, amid strategic competition by major powers in the Pacific Islands.“Papua New Guinea is one of our key allies in the region,” said Fiona Pearce, senior Australian Defence Force officer for RAAF Tindal.“Their survival and our survival are interdependent,” she added.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687064/international/png-air-force-takes-to-skies-among-top-guns

Thousands protest military operation in Pakistan

Thousands of people rallied on Friday against a planned operation by the Pakistan military to root out militants along the Afghan border, with at least one protester killed when gunfire broke out, officials and witnesses said.

More than 10,000 people waving white flags and calling for peace gathered for the rally in Bannu – 40km (25 miles) from Afghanistan – where a suicide bomber on Monday rammed an explosive-packed vehicle into an army enclave, killing eight Pakistani troops.

“Military operations have been ongoing for 20 years, yet peace has not been established,” protester Jamaluddin Wazir told AFP. “Military operations can never be a substitute for peace.”

Pakistan’s government announced earlier this year, without giving details, that the military would launch a new campaign to counter violence in areas along the border with Afghanistan, which has surged following the Taliban government’s return to power.

Friday’s protest turned violent when crowds reached the walls of an army facility and gunfire broke out, witnesses and officials reported.

“They chanted slogans against the army, and some started throwing stones at the facility’s wall. This led to firing in the air by the military, causing a stampede,” an intelligence official in the nearby city of Peshawar told AFP on condition of anonymity.

At least one protester died, according to Pakhtun Yar, the provincial minister for public health, who was a speaker at the protest.

He accused the military of opening fire on the protesters.

“During the rally, shots were fired directly at me and the people standing near me. This wasn’t just firing in the air – it was intended to kill us,” Yar told AFP. “The shooting was carried out by those who want to destroy our peace. They want to spill the blood of our people, but the community is no longer willing to tolerate this.”

For years the Pakistan Taliban – a separate group from the Afghan Taliban but with a similar ideology – waged a bloody campaign in the area, killing thousands of civilians and taking control of parts of the border region, before being pushed back by a military campaign that began in 2014.

The clearance operation displaced hundreds of thousands of people and destroyed countless homes and businesses, sparking a local backlash calling for the rights of ethnic Pashtuns to be protected.

However, protests against the powerful military, which analysts say holds large sway over the government and foreign policy, are rare and often brought down quickly.

Violence has surged along the border since the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021, with Islamabad accusing Kabul of failing to root out groups taking shelter on Afghan soil while preparing assaults on Pakistan.

The Taliban government insists it will not allow foreign militant outfits to operate from Afghanistan, but Islamabad-Kabul relations have soured over the issue.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/687015/international/thousands-protest-military-operation-in-pakistan

Oil tankers on fire after colliding close to Singapore

Two large oil tankers were on fire yesterday after colliding near Singapore, the world’s biggest refuelling port, with two crew members airlifted to hospital and others rescued from life rafts, authorities and one of the tanker owners said.Singapore is Asia’s biggest oil trading hub and the world’s largest bunkering port. Its surrounding waters are vital trade waterways between Asia and Europe and the Middle East and among the busiest global sea lanes.The Singapore-flagged tanker Hafnia Nile and the Sao Tome and Principe-flagged tanker Ceres I were about 55km northeast of the Singaporean island of Pedra Branca on the eastern approach to the Singapore Straits, the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA) said.The 22 crew of the Hafnia Nile and the 40 on the Ceres I were all accounted for, the MPA said, which was alerted to the fire at 6.15am (2215 GMT)The owner of Hafnia Nile confirmed the vessel was involved in a collision with Chinese owned Ceres I. Photographs released by the Singapore Navy showed thick black smoke billowing from one tanker and crew being rescued from life rafts and flown to hospital. The environmental authorities in neighbouring Malaysia said they had been told to prepare for potential oil spills.Norway’s Gard, one of Hafnia Nile’s insurers, told Reuters it was too early to assess the environmental impact.“We are supporting our member as they are dealing with the incident,” Gard said.Navigational traffic had not been affected, although the status of the vessels or any pollution was unknown at present, a spokesperson at the UN’s International Maritime Organisation (IMO) said. “No aerial surveillance has been conducted so far,” the spokesperson said.“Salvage and fire-fighting assets have been arranged by both vessel owners to support the fire-fighting efforts and subsequent towage of the vessels to safety.”The IMO spokesperson said a salvage team had been appointed and was en route to the area.The 74,000 deadweight-tonnes capacity panamax tanker Hafnia Nile was carrying about 300,000 barrels of naphtha, according to ship-tracking data from Kpler and LSEG.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686995/international/oil-tankers-on-fire-after-colliding-close-to-singapore

Boy lives in permanent shade to survive dangerous sunlight

Pol Dominguez, 11, is enjoying his summer holidays in Spain. But unlike most children his age, he does not spend his days at the beach or pool, instead staying indoors to avoid ultraviolet radiation that could be deadly for him. Dominguez has Xeroderma Pigmentosum (XP), a rare disease that affects his skin and eyes. Patients are unable to repair their DNA from solar damage, which puts them at high risk of developing cancer.His case is extreme: even brief exposure to sunlight causes serious burns. With only 2.3 cases per million live births in Western Europe — and around 100 people living with XP in Spain — the hereditary disease is usually detected early when burns appear.Dominguez and his family, who live in Barcelona, have radically modified their habits to avoid exposure to UV radiation. To avoid severe sunburns and blistering, Dominguez wears a hood, jacket, sunglasses and gloves outside, even in winter.In summer, he stays indoors as much as possible, but when he does need to leave the house, the protective clothing is hot and uncomfortable.Dominguez’ school has adapted windows and lights so he can have as normal a life as possible, although he needs to bundle up for outside activities and carries a UV meter to check that an environment is safe.“It’s very hot and I use a fan to make it cooler,” he told Reuters on one of his last days of school, using a portable fan underneath the shield he wears over his face.Dominguez’ home is UV-light-proof, with protective film on windows, blinds lowered and fans to keep the environment well-ventilated, said his mother, Xenia Aranda.“What we do is go out at night,” Aranda said. “At around 10pm we say: ‘What would we like to do, Pol? Go to the beach, grab an ice cream, go for a run?’”Pol is spending part of the summer with his grandparent Ferran Aranda in Portbou, near the French border. When the sun sets, he can finally go to the beach without protective gear. Just eating an ice cream outside or turning his towel into a superhero’s cape brings a smile of delight to his face.As heatwaves become more frequent and intense and spread across seasons due to climate change, the risks to Pol and others like him increase.“The more hours of sunshine, the more solar damage. Therefore more illness,” said Asuncion Vicente, a paediatric dermatologist at Barcelona’s Sant Joan de Deu hospital.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686953/international/boy-lives-in-permanent-shade-to-survive-dangerous-sunlight

‘It’s unbearable’: heatwaves scorch eastern, southern Europe

Unrelenting heat is blanketing swathes of southern and eastern Europe, with dozens of cities on red alert as scorching temperatures fuel wildfires, strain power grids, and make daily life unbearable.There was no let-up yesterday as the mercury again hovered near or above 40 degrees Celsius in many countries, with worse expected in the coming days.Europe is no stranger to baking summer spells but climate change is making heatwaves longer, stronger and more frequent, sustaining dangerously high temperatures even at night.Greece, which recorded its earliest-ever heatwave this summer, withered through its 11th-straight day above 40C yesterday.Nights in the capital Athens have hit 30C as heat rolls unbroken from one day to the next.Yesterday, authorities closed the Acropolis, the country’s most visited attraction, during the hottest hours for a second day in a row.Some outdoor work, like construction and meal delivery, have also been suspended.Cooler weather isn’t expected until July 26.In the heart of Athens, tourists sought precious shade as Sam Rizek, a waiter, drank chilled water to keep the heat at bay.“It’s not easy, it makes my work harder,” the 19-year-old told AFP. “Here in Greece, we have to get used to it.”In Italy, zoo keepers gave animals ice blocks to ward off heat stroke as temperatures soared, while 14 cities including Florence, Palermo and Bologna were placed on red alert.To make matters worse, swarms of locusts thriving in the hot conditions have invaded fields and orchards in the eastern region of Emilia Romagna.“The high temperatures and the lack of rain have favoured the massive proliferation of one of the insects most feared by farmers,” said Italy’s main agricultural lobby Coldiretti.In Hungary, which has been under a maximum heat warning since July 7, searing temperatures have warped an airport runway while the state-run train operator urged passengers to take air-conditioned buses instead of its outdated rail cars.Croatia and Serbia this week consumed a record amount of electricity as residents switched on air conditioners to beat the heat.It followed an early start to the Balkans summer in June when a sudden heatwave saw power grids overwhelmed in Albania, Bosnia, southern Croatia and Montenegro.In Romania, gripped by a heatwave since Saturday, evening temperature records have tumbled as blistering daytime highs have carried into long, suffocating nights.“Without air conditioning it’s unbearable,” 20-year-old Alexandru Tudor told AFP in Bucharest, which is on its highest state of alert.“It’s very hot in the evening too, and we can’t sleep.”Ilan Kelman from University College London said prolonged heatwaves could turn deadly if the human body was not given ample chance to cool off at night.“This is what we need to be worried about. Temperatures are not falling at night,” said the professor of disasters and health.The past 13 months have been the hottest ever recorded, and heatwaves have already this year hit North America, Mexico, India and Thailand, to name a few.The EU’s climate monitor Copernicus said the average temperature for June across Europe was 1.57C above the 1991-2020 average, making the month the joint-second warmest on record.But this was largely felt in southeast regions and Turkiye, with western Europe experiencing a slow start to summer, with near or below average temperatures for June.Paco Pozo from Cordoba, a southern region of Spain, said the heat so far had been “completely bearable” compared to past years.“At this time of year, normally, we would be asphyxiated. But so far, we are doing really well,” he said.But this doesn’t look set to last.Spain declared its first heatwave of the year yesterday with temperatures forecast to hit 44C in some southern areas in coming days, accompanied by hot and uncomfortable nights.A wall of heat from Africa driving up temperatures was also expected to bring sand and dust from the Sahara across Spain, the State Meteorological Agency said. In all these regions, deadly wildfires have accompanied the tinder-dry conditions.Two firefighters died on Wednesday battling a blaze near the southern Italian city of Matera, while a separate fire near Rome shrouded the capital in a choking yellow haze.In Greece — where 40 new blazes were recorded in the past 24 hours — firefighters were stretched to the limit.“We’re worried,” veteran firefighter Konstantinos Goularas told AFP in Athens as a small group of comrades rallied outside parliament for more resources.“We don’t have enough firefighters for the summer.”Hans-Martin Fussel, from the European Environment Agency, said western Europe was often better prepared for heatwaves than southern or eastern regions where the threat was much greater.“Cities in Europe are clearly waking up but most of them are not yet ready for the threat,” the climate change adaptation expert told AFP.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686950/international/its-unbearable-heatwaves-scorch-eastern-southern-europe

US right takes aim at women Secret Service agents who protected Trump

As questions swirl over how a would-be assassin managed to get anywhere near Donald Trump, some conservatives are blaming the Secret Service for hiring the women agents who threw themselves into the line of fire to protect the former president.Women are too short, too weak — and in some cases, too overweight — to protect someone like Trump, according to people on the US political right who accused the Secret Service of “woke” hiring practices they say nearly got the former president killed.Several women can be seen among the black-suited, sunglass-clad agents racing to shield Trump with their bodies as the gunman opened fire at a rally in Pennsylvania on Saturday, before hustling him from the stage and into a waiting car and safety.But they, along with their boss Kimberly Cheatle — only the second-ever woman director of the federal agency tasked with protecting presidents current, former and would-be — are now caught in the intense scrutiny over the nearly catastrophic attack.“There should not be any women in the Secret Service. These are supposed to be the very best, and none of the very best at this job are women,” right-wing activist Matt Walsh wrote on X, in one typical post.“I can’t imagine that a DEI hire from @pepsi would be a bad choice as the head of the Secret Service. #sarcasm,” tweeted Republican congressman Tim Burchett.Burchett was referring to Cheatle’s previous job as director of global security for Pepsi — a post she held for several years before returning to the Secret Service, where she had previously spent nearly three decades.With the phrase DEI — diversity, equity and inclusion — he was invoking one of the most popular conservative fronts in the culture wars: the so-called “wokeification” of the workplace as employers strive to diversify their hiring practices beyond white men.The first women were sworn in as Secret Service agents in 1971. CBS News reported last year that the agency aims to have 30 percent women recruits by 2030.“I’m very conscious...of making sure that we need to attract diverse candidates and ensure that we are developing and giving opportunities to everybody in our workforce, and particularly women,” Cheatle told CBS at the time.The wildly popular conservative Libs of TikTok account cited that interview in a post also blaming hiring practices for the Trump shooting that has received more than 10 million views on X.“The results of DEI. DEI got someone killed,” it read.Diverse hiring practices accelerated in 2020 after the George Floyd killing forced America into a new reckoning over racism and inclusivity.But they have seen a growing backlash from conservatives in recent months who complain they unfairly disadvantage white workers in general, and white men in particular.None other than Ohio Senator JD Vance — Trump’s newly-announced running mate — has spearheaded a recent bill to do away with such efforts.“DEI is racism, plain and simple. It’s time to outlaw it nationwide, starting with the federal government,” he tweeted last month as the bill was introduced.Such practices at the Secret Service faced scrutiny as recently as May, when Congress launched an investigation after a female agent in Vice President Kamala Harris’s detail reportedly got into an altercation with colleagues.The incident raised concerns about this agent’s hiring, Kentucky Republican James Comer said in a letter to Cheatle — specifically, whether staff shortages “had led the agency to lower once stricter standards as a part of a diversity, equity and inclusion effort.” The Secret Service did not immediately respond to questions from AFP. But in response to the Comer letter, spokesman Anthony Guglielmi told US media that Secret Service employees “are held to the highest professional standards...at no time has the agency lowered these standards.”Cheatle has shrugged off calls for her resignation since the shooting, and the agency has agreed to cooperate with an independent review ordered by President Joe Biden.Comer has also announced that Cheatle will appear before a congressional panel on July 22 for a hearing on the assassination attempt.Biden — in whose detail Cheatle served when he was vice-president — told NBC News on Monday that he feels “safe with the Secret Service”, though he agreed it was an “open question” whether they should have anticipated the shooting.When Trump made his first public appearance after the shooting, at the Republican National Convention in Milwaukee on Monday, he appeared to be surrounded by an all-male Secret Service detail.“Now THIS is how you protect a President,” posted conservative commentator Rogan O’Handley on X.“Trump gets the Secret Service A-team now.”

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686893/international/us-right-takes-aim-at-women-secret-service-agents-who-protected-trump

Russia, North America in fierce start to wildfire season

Extreme wildfires are spreading across Russia and North America and shrouding swathes of the region in smoke, the EU’s climate monitor said yesterday as it warned of worse to come.Copernicus said unusually hot and dry conditions were causing blazes in Siberia, Canada and Alaska and a “remarkable intensification” of planet-heating gases as swathes of forest burn.A column of smoke containing ash and harmful particles from wildfires in eastern Russia had drifted 3,000km across parts of eastern Mongolia, northeastern China and northern Japan.The “anomalously high” levels of some airborne pollutants over that region were many times globally accepted safe limits, said the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS).Parts of Canada were on evacuation alert as flames ripped through western provinces, while nearly 250,0000 hectares in Alaska had been torched this year in an early start to the wildfire season.“The current wildfires are already at record levels in some regions and with the second half of the summer still to come, more extreme fire emissions are anticipated, and we will be closely monitoring how they develop and how they impact air quality,” said CAMS senior scientist Mark Parrington.Wildfire smoke contains fine airborne particles that can lodge deep in the lungs when inhaled and are harmful to human health.Mostly caused by lightning strikes, wildfires are part of the natural cycle of boreal forests, which circle the far northern hemisphere and are dense, remote and difficult to access.So-called “zombie fires” can smoulder beneath the surface during winter months, surviving on carbon-rich fuels before reigniting at the onset of spring or summer.But this region is also warming quickly and forests there “have experienced a significant increase in the number and intensity of wildfires over the last two decades”, Copernicus said.Scientists have described increasing wildfires in famously frosty Siberia as a clear signal that Earth’s natural systems are being fundamentally altered by global warming.These fires have a direct impact on global warming, razing forests that store carbon and pumping enormous volumes of heat-trapping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.The smoke can also settle on ice, reducing its ability to reflect solar radiation, and causing more heat to be absorbed.As of July 15, carbon emissions from wildfires in Russia had already exceeded the June-July total estimated for the previous two years, Copernicus said.This was particularly acute in the eastern Amur oblast, where emissions since June 1 from fires there had already doubled the previous record for the same period.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686802/international/russia-north-america-in-fierce-start-to-wildfire-season

Pakistan’s ruling party now plots ban on rival

Pakistan’s government will seek to ban the political party of jailed ex-prime minister Imran Khan, the information minister said yesterday, days after twin court decisions that favoured the former leader.Former cricket star Khan was ousted in 2022, before launching a comeback campaign in which he criticised Pakistan’s powerful generals and drew massive crowds onto streets across the country.His arrest last year saw supporters storm military buildings and unleashed a crackdown against his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party, culminating in elections marred by allegations of pre-poll rigging.Khan has been jailed for nearly a year, but last week an Islamabad judge overturned his illegal marriage conviction while the Supreme Court awarded PTI more parliamentary seats — a move set to make them the largest party in the National Assembly.Both cases were considered a major blow to the coalition government of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.Information Minister Attaullah Tarar told reporters the government would now bring a case to ban PTI to the Supreme Court.“We will vigorously defend this case and spare no effort to contest it,” he said, citing allegations against Khan including leaking state secrets and inciting riots.Khan, 71, was banned from contesting the February elections, while PTI was sidelined and the Sharif-helmed alliance of parties considered close to the military came to power.“The federal government will move a case to ban the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaaf,” he said, adding that the plan will be taken up before the cabinet, which was empowered to take a decision.The government will also file a legal reference against Khan and former president Arif Alvi for treason charges under the country’s constitution before the Supreme Court, Tarar said.Khan’s aide Zulfikar Bukhari said the decision was a move towards “soft martial law”. “This is a sign of panic as they have realised the courts can’t be threatened and put under pressure,” he said.The latest turmoil comes at a time when the country has to make politically unpopular reforms such as raising taxes on farm income to get $7bn from the IMF.“A weak government, hobbled by questions about its legitimacy and consumed with desperate attempts to keep Imran Khan from being released will struggle to take the kinds of decisions that are needed to keep the IMF programme on track,” said Khurram Husain, an economic analyst and journalist.A PTI spokesman said in a statement that the bid to formally ban the party “is a sign of panic as they have realised the courts can’t be threatened and put under pressure”.The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan called the attempt to ban PTI “an enormous blow to democratic norms” and said it “reeks of political desperation”.“If pushed through, it will achieve nothing more than deeper polarisation and the strong likelihood of political chaos and violence,” Chairman Asad Iqbal Butt said in a statement.Khan served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, when he was ousted after falling out with the military establishment, which wields huge influence over civilian politics.In opposition, more than 200 court cases were quickly brought against him. He was first briefly arrested in May 2023 — sparking nationwide unrest, some of which targeted military installations.The regime used the riots as justification for a crackdown which saw senior PTI leaders jailed or defect, before Khan was re-arrested last August and barred from standing for office.PTI members were forced to campaign for February 8 elections as independents, and in the days ahead of the vote Khan was hit with a trio of swift convictions for graft, treason and illegal marriage.Independent legal expert Osama Malik warned “it would be very difficult to prove, before the Supreme Court, that an entire party should be banned for the actions of a few”.“It would be in violation of the constitutionally guaranteed freedom of association,” he told AFP.A UN panel of experts found this month that Khan’s detention “had no legal basis and appears to have been intended to disqualify him from running for political office”.The “prosecution was not grounded in law and was reportedly instrumentalised for a political purpose,” it said, calling for his immediate release.In a landmark ruling on Friday, the Supreme Court granted PTI more parliamentary seats in a post-election dispute arising from their run as independent candidates.Khan’s conviction for illegal marriage — which carried a seven-year sentence — was then overturned by an Islamabad court on Saturday.All three of the convictions Khan was hit with ahead of the election have now been at least partially rolled back on appeal, though he remains jailed after other cases swiftly prevented his freedom.PTI information secretary Raoof Hasan told AFP the party “will not tolerate” the government’s effort to ban it. “PTI has become stronger than before. We will face it,” he said.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686752/international/pakistans-ruling-party-now-plots-ban-on-rival

Georgian top court asked to annul ‘foreign influence’ law

Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili (pictured) yesterday asked the country’s top court to annul a controversial “foreign influence” law that has sparked mass protests and condemnation from the West.Initiated by the ruling Georgian Dream party, the law was adopted in May despite weeks of unprecedented street protests and warnings it would undermine Tbilisi’s bid for EU membership.The law, which critics have compared to repressive Russian legislation used to silence dissent, forces groups receiving at least a fifth of their funding from abroad to register as “organisations pursuing the interests of a foreign power”.Yesterday, the pro-Western president Zurabishvili filed a complaint to Georgia’s constitutional court asking it “to suspend the law’s enactment and to annul it definitively”, her parliamentary secretary, Giorgi Mskhiladze, told reporters.He called the law “unconstitutional” because it contradicts a provision requiring the authorities to “take all measures within the scope of their competence to ensure the full integration of Georgia into the European Union and Nato”.Lawmakers earlier overrode a veto by Zurabishvili to pass the law.Zurabishvili, a fierce critic of the ruling party, has called on the opposition to form a united front ahead of parliamentary elections in October.The Georgian government has defended the law as only aimed at boosting transparency of NGOs’ foreign funding.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686750/international/georgian-top-court-asked-to-annul-foreign-influence-law

100 hurt as Bangladesh student groups clash

Rival students in Bangladesh clashed yesterday leaving at least 100 people injured, as demonstrators opposing quotas for coveted government jobs battled counter-protesters loyal to the ruling party, police said.Police and witnesses said hundreds of anti-quota protesters and students backing the ruling Awami League party battled for hours on Dhaka University campus, hurling rocks, fighting with sticks and beating each other with iron rods.Some carried machetes while others threw petrol bombs, witnesses said.The quota system reserves more than half of well-paid civil service posts totalling hundreds of thousands of government jobs for specific groups, including children of heroes from the country’s 1971 liberation war from Pakistan.“They clashed with sticks and threw rocks at each other,” local police station chief Mostajirur Rahman said.Masud Mia, a police inspector, said “around 100 students including women” were injured, and had been taken to hospital. “More people are coming”, Mia added.Students launched protests earlier this month demanding a merit-based system.They have continued despite Bangladesh’s top court suspending the quota scheme.Anti-quota protesters blamed the ruling party students for the violence.“They attacked our peaceful procession with rods, sticks and rocks,” Nahid Islam, the national co-ordinator of the anti-quota protests, said.“They beat our female protesters. At least 150 students were injured including 30 women, and conditions of 20 students are serious.”Critics say the system benefits children of pro-government groups who back Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Hasina, 76, won her fourth consecutive general election in January, in a vote without genuine opposition parties that saw a major crackdown against her political opponents, who boycotted the poll.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686749/international/100-hurt-as-bangladesh-student-groups-clash

Rwanda: landlocked nation with influence beyond its borders

A small landlocked African nation playing in the big league: with military might, image branding and political influence, Rwanda under President Paul Kagame has become a major strategic player with tentacles spread far and wide.De facto leader since the 1994 genocide and running for a fourth term as president in elections Monday, Kagame has established a sphere of influence far outweighing Rwanda’s size to develop the country and entrench his own power base.Unlike many other African nations, “Rwanda is pursuing a real foreign policy strategy”, says Paul-Simon Handy, East Africa director at the Institute for Security Studies. This strategy is similar to “smart power”, says Handy, combining hard power — the use of military and economic means for influence — and soft power.The Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) is one of the pillars of this policy, though its role is contradictory. The Democratic Republic of Congo has for years accused its neighbour of fomenting instability in the east and supporting armed groups.A recent UN experts report said 3,000-4,000 Rwandan soldiers are fighting alongside M23 rebels and that Kigali had “de facto control” of the group’s operations.Questioned repeatedly on the issue, Kagame has not explicitly denied the presence of Rwandan forces in DRC, instead pointing to the “persecution” of the Tutsi minority and the risk of instability on Rwanda’s border. “By nature, Rwanda’s security posture has always been defensive, not offensive. We only act when trouble is brought on us,” he said this month.Its murky role in the DRC has however cost Kigali some financial support from the West, which since 2012-2013 has cut development aid and investment.At the same time, Kagame has established his army as the “policeman of Africa”.Since 2024, the RDF has taken part in numerous UN peacekeeping missions. With 5,894 men deployed as of March 31, Rwanda is the fourth largest contributor, with forces in South Sudan and the Central African Republic.“By participating in and leading peacekeeping and unilateral military missions, Rwanda has significantly enhanced its global image and strategic relevance beyond its historical association with the 1994 genocide,” said Federico Donelli, assistant professor of international relations at the University of Trieste.It also reaps a financial windfall. The UN pays contributors $1,428 per soldier per month, meaning Kigali receives more than $100mn a year. The RDF has also been deployed under bilateral deals with, for example, CAR and Mozambique.These military commitments are often accompanied by economic agreements, offering development opportunities for Rwanda, which does not have its own natural resources or industrial base, and is reliant on international funding.In CAR, Rwandans enjoy privileged investment access to sectors such as mining, agriculture and construction, often led by Crystal Ventures, an investment firm owned by Kagame’s ruling Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF).DIPLOMATIC LEVERThese deals also represent a valuable diplomatic lever to ward off sanction threats over the DRC or its dismal human rights record.“Rwanda has never hidden its threat to withdraw from peacekeeping operations if it were to be sanctioned,” said Handy. “It has proven its effectiveness: DRC efforts to have Rwanda sanctioned for its support for the M23 were unsuccessful.” Donelli said Kagame has an ability to read global dynamics.“He knows that Western actors are increasingly reluctant to get involved in African crises,” he added.“In an increasingly chaotic regional context, he is using Rwanda’s role as a reliable partner in crises to reduce Western criticism and divert attention from domestic issues such as the lack of democratic development, centralisation of power and human rights concerns.” Kagame is accused of muzzling the media and political opposition, while according to the World Bank almost half the population lives on less than $2.15 a day.But he has sought to burnish Rwanda’s image abroad — selling itself as an African flagship for new technology, a hub for conferences and major sporting events, and a leading ecotourism destination.Sponsorship deals have seen “Visit Rwanda” emblazoned on the shirts of European football teams Arsenal, PSG and Bayern Munich.Rwanda has also boosted its presence in global organisations.In 2009, it became a member of the Commonwealth and hosted its 2022 summit, while a former minister is head of the International Organisation of La Francophonie (French-speaking union), another serves as deputy chair of the African Union Commission.Handy says Rwanda’s “smart power” was illustrated by the controversial deal to take in asylum seekers deported from Britain.“The interest was essentially financial but it was also the projection of an image of a peaceful country where it would be good for refugees to live.”Widely condemned by rights groups and blocked by UK courts, the scheme has now been scrapped by Britain’s new government — but Rwanda insists it is not obliged to return the £240mn ($311mn) payment already sent by London.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686664/international/rwanda-landlocked-nation-with-influence-beyond-its-borders