UK Parliament dissolved ahead of election

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

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

ANC dominance in the balance on vote day

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

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

French, German leaders say allow Ukraine to hit inside Russia

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

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

Rally decries adoption of ‘foreign influence’ law

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

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

Rains cause quarry collapse in India, cyclone deaths at 23

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

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

US Central Command destroys drone over Red Sea

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

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

Pakistan temperatures cross 52C in heatwave

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

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

Spain pledges €1bn to visiting Zelensky

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

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

Cyclone hits Bangladesh as 1mn flee inland for shelter

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

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

Indians head to polls in massive election amid heatwave challenge

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

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

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

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

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