India PM tells Putin deaths of children in war ‘terrifying’

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday that the death of innocent children was painful and terrifying, a day after a lethal strike on a children’s hospital in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv.The visiting Indian leader used emotive language to deliver an implicit rebuke to Putin at a summit intended to underscore the deepening partnership between their two countries.Winding up his two-day trip, the two sides set out nine key areas for closer co-operation, ranging from nuclear energy to medicine, and said they aimed to boost bilateral trade by more than half to hit $100bn by 2030.But given that Putin has rarely been publicly criticised face-to-face over the war in Ukraine by the leader of a country that Russia sees as a friend, Modi’s televised comments were striking.“Whether it is war, conflict or a terrorist attack, any person who believes in humanity is pained when there is loss of lives,” Modi said.“But even in that, when innocent children are killed, the heart bleeds and that pain is very terrifying.”Ukraine says it has recovered fragments of a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile at the Kyiv children’s hospital which was hit on Monday during a wave of Russian attacks that killed 44 Ukrainians, including four children, across the country.At the hospital itself, two adults were killed and Interfax Ukraine said eight children were among about 50 people wounded.Russia said, without providing evidence, that it was a Ukrainian anti-missile system that struck the hospital.Modi appeared to criticise Russia once before over its actions in Ukraine when he told Putin in September 2022 that “today’s era is not an era of war”. Putin said at that time he understood Modi’s concerns.India, however, has not condemned Russia’s invasion and has taken the opportunity to buy record amounts of discounted Russian oil as sanctions have decimated Moscow’s trade with the West.Indian Foreign Secretary Vinay Mohan Kwatra, accompanying Modi on the trip, said India wanted to further strengthen energy ties and could seek deals with Rosneft and other leading Russian oil firms. The two countries said they were also exploring an increase in Russian coal sales to India.In joint statements, they further outlined plans for closer co-operation in developing the Northern Sea Route through Arctic waters and for working together in space exploration, among other areas.For Russia, India has become an increasingly important partner, both economically and diplomatically, as Moscow seeks to demonstrate that Western attempts to isolate it over the war in Ukraine have failed.Putin, speaking before Modi, said their two countries enjoyed a “particularly privileged strategic partnership”.“I thank you for the attention you are paying to the most acute problems including trying to find ways to resolve the Ukrainian crisis, above all by peaceful means, of course,” he said.Modi told him: “Solutions are not possible on the battleground. Amidst guns, bullets and bombs, peace talks cannot be successful. We have to find the path to peace only through talks.”Putin did not visibly react to Modi’s remarks and it was not clear if they had influenced the summit’s course. The Kremlin said an expected round of delegation-level talks would not take place as the two leaders had covered the agenda in full.SENSITIVE TIMINGThe timing of the Ukrainian hospital incident was embarrassing for Modi, just as he began his visit on Monday.As Modi shared his image hugging Putin on social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it was a “huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day”.The US State Department said on Monday it had raised concerns with India about its relationship with Russia.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686364/international/india-pm-tells-putin-deaths-of-children-in-war-terrifying

Starmer goes to Washington on first foreign trip as PM

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer jets off to Washington to attend Nato’s 75th anniversary summit, his first foreign trip since becoming British leader last Friday following a landslide election victory.He will reaffirm Britain’s enduring support for the Western military alliance and Ukraine’s fight against Russian aggression.Starmer, 61, told a meeting of his top team that the summit represents an opportunity to “reset relationships, reinvigorate our unshakeable commitment to the alliance and demonstrate the strength of Britain on the world stage”.The visit kicks off a whirlwind of international diplomacy in Starmer’s first two weeks in power, with the UK also hosting a European leaders’ conference next week.“It will be an opportunity for him to learn and get to know other leaders as much as to communicate any particular messages,” foreign policy expert James Strong told AFP. Britain’s previous Conservative government was one of Ukraine’s staunchest allies, providing money, weapons and troop training to help it repel Russia’s invasion.Starmer has pledged continued support for Kyiv under Labour, and is expected to reaffirm that message in person to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the Nato meeting. Starmer’s Defence Secretary John Healey has already visited Ukraine since last Thursday’s election, and Foreign Secretary David Lammy has been visiting European Nato members.Labour is committed to the alliance and wants to match the Conservatives’ promise to raise defence spending to 2.5% of GDP, above the Nato target of two %.“We can expect lots of talk about ‘business as usual’,” added Strong, a lecturer at Queen Mary University of London.While Starmer will stress continuity on the main foreign policy issues, he will also be keen to signal a reset in relations with allies that were soured by Brexit.Labour has pledged closer co-operation with European neighbours, including on bilateral deals with France and Germany but also on agreements with the EU bloc as a whole. “We can expect to hear a lot of talk about improving relations, about being a more reliable partner, and above all about being more stable and predictable,” said Strong.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686359/international/starmer-goes-to-washington-on-first-foreign-trip-as-pm

Democrats divided over Biden's candidature

Joe Biden's faltering reelection bid received some much needed support from senior Democrats on Tuesday, even as the party's lawmakers fell short of reaching a consensus on keeping the president as their 2024 White House nominee. While the 81-year-old tries to shore up his international reputation in a speech at the Nato alliance's 75th anniversary summit in Washington, his own party is in crisis mode weighing whether to jettison Biden as their election candidate. Most top Democrats have so far publicly rallied behind Biden but the party remains divided over a debate performance watched by some 51mn Americans. The leader of the Democratic minority in the US House, Hakeem Jeffries, huddled with members from districts where fears over Biden's age -- exacerbated by his disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump -- threaten their seats in November. One participating lawmaker, speaking to US media on condition of anonymity, described the meeting as 'intense,' with another member saying the mood was 'pretty much unanimous' that Biden should step down. 'He just has to step down,' House Democrat Mike Quigley told CNN on the way into Tuesday's meeting. But in the party's full caucus meeting later Tuesday there were signs that Biden was able to firm up some support, with several lawmakers walking past rows of reporters and declaring their allegiance to the president. Jerry Nadler, the ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, backed Biden despite having reportedly said at the weekend that he should step aside. 'He said he's going to remain in, he's our candidate, and we're all going to support him -- hopefully we're all going to support him,' Nadler told reporters. Biden is committed to serving a full second term if reelected, the White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said. The president spoke by phone with the influential Congressional Black Caucus late Monday and the grouping's vice chair, House Democrat Troy Carter, concluded that 'this president is ready, and we stand with him.' Senate Democrats were also discussing Biden's candidacy.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686354/international/uslatin-america/democrats-divided-over-bidens-candidature

UN 'appalled' by Israel evacuation orders as Gaza battles rage on

The United Nations protested on Tuesday over the latest mass evacuation orders issued by Israel in Gaza as the army said it had killed dozens of militants in 'close-quarters combat' in its latest offensive in Gaza City.Israel extended its evacuation warning to cover most of Gaza's main city on Monday and intense fighting erupted.Israel has now issued three evacuation orders for Gaza City and one for the south of the Palestinian territory since June 27 in a new stepping up of its military operations. The UN says tens of thousands of civilians have fled.Gaza City residents reported 'explosions and numerous gun battles' and helicopter strikes through the night in southwestern neighbourhoods.Residents said civilians were still leaving the city and many of the displaced said they had already moved from one evacuation zone only to find their new place of refuge had become a target too.The UN Human Rights Office said it was 'appalled' at new orders to civilians, 'many of whom have been forcibly displaced multiple times, to evacuate to areas where IDF military operations are ongoing and where civilians continue to be killed and injured'.The office said civilians told to head west out of central Gaza City on Monday were caught up in new fighting as the Israeli army 'intensified its strikes in the south and west of Gaza City, targeting the very areas where they had instructed people to move to'.Gaza City residents have now been told to move to the central district of Deir al-Balah, which the UN office said 'is already seriously overcrowded with Palestinians displaced from other areas of the Gaza Strip'.The Israeli military said it was pursuing a 'counterterrorism operation' against Hamas and Islamic Jihad targets in Gaza City.'Over the last day, the troops eliminated dozens of terrorists in close-quarters combat and aerial strikes,' the military said in a statement, adding that weapons have been seized and an 'underground route' destroyed.bur-tw/kir

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686317/international/un-appalled-by-israel-evacuation-orders-as-gaza-battles-rage-on

Samsung says 'no disruption' to production despite strike

South Korean tech giant Samsung said Tuesday that production was not being disrupted despite a three-day general strike by thousands of workers.More than 5,000 members of the National Samsung Electronic Union stopped working Monday, the organisation said, as part of a long-running battle over pay and benefits.The union has more than 30,000 members -- more than a fifth of the company's total workforce.'There has been no disruption to production,' local media quoted Samsung as saying.Park Seol, a senior member of the union, told AFP Tuesday that production was being affected.'But more importantly, the company should understand that we aren't trying just to affect their production line, we want them to hear our voice and understand how desperate we are,' he said.The union has been locked in negotiations with management since January, but the two sides have failed to narrow differences on benefits and a 5.1 percent pay raise offer from the firm was rejected.In a regulatory filing last week, Samsung Electronics said that its April-June operating profits were expected to rise to 10.4 trillion won ($7.54 billion), up 1,452.2 percent from 670 billion won a year earlier.Sales, meanwhile, are expected to rise 23.3 percent to 74 trillion won, Samsung said.Samsung Electronics is the world's largest memory chip maker and accounts for a significant chunk of the global output of high-end chips.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686316/international/samsung-says-no-disruption-to-production-despite-strike

France condemns Israeli occupation's plan to expand settlements in West Bank

The Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs in France condemned the Israeli occupations plan to expand settlements in the West Bank, stressing that this expansion decision could have serious consequences for peace and stability in the region.The Ministry denounced, in a press statement, the occupation authorities plan to legalize five colonial outposts, and its approval of a plan to build more than 5,000 additional settlement units in the West Bank.The statement indicated that the occupation authorities approved a plan to build more than 20,000 new settlement units in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem since 2023, and seized more than 2,300 hectares of land.Israel's occupation of Palestinian territories is a violation of international law that has inflamed tension in the region, the Ministry stressed.The so-called Israeli Ministerial Council for Political and Security Affairs (the Cabinet) recently approved the legalization of settlement outposts in the West Bank, and advanced plans to build thousands of new settlement units throughout the West Bank.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686312/international/france-condemns-israeli-occupations-plan-to-expand-settlements-in-west-bank

Russia missile attack kills 36

Russia blasted the main children’s hospital in Kyiv with a missile in broad daylight yesterday and rained missiles down on other cities across Ukraine, killing at least 36 civilians in the deadliest wave of air strikes for months. Parents holding babies walked in the street outside the hospital, dazed and sobbing after the rare daylight aerial attack. Windows had been smashed and panels ripped off, and hundreds of Kyiv residents were helping to clear debris.“It was scary. I couldn’t breathe, I was trying to cover (my baby). I was trying to cover him with this cloth so that he could breathe,” Svitlana Kravchenko, 33, told Reuters.The government proclaimed a day of mourning today for one of the worst air attacks of the war, which it said demonstrated that Ukraine urgently needs an upgrade of its air defences from its Western allies. Air defences shot down 30 of 38 missiles, the air force said. Fifty civilian buildings, including residential houses, a business centre and two medical facilities were damaged in Kyiv, the central cities of Kryvyi Rih and Dnipro and two eastern cities, the interior minister said. An online video obtained by Reuters showed a missile falling from the sky towards the children’s hospital followed by a large explosion. The location of the video was verified from visible landmarks. The Security Service of Ukraine identified the missile as an Kh-101 cruise missile.Twenty-two people, including two children, were killed in Kyiv and 82 more were wounded in the main missile volley and another strike that came two hours later, officials said.Eleven were confirmed dead in the Dnipropetrovsk region and 64 were wounded, regional officials said. Three people were killed in the eastern town of Pokrovsk where missiles hit an industrial facility, the governor said. President Volodymyr Zelensky said Ukraine would retaliate and called on Kyiv’s Western allies to give a firm response to the attack. “We will retaliate against these people, we will deliver a powerful response from our side to Russia, for sure. The question to our partners is: can they respond?” Zelensky who is visiting Poland said during a joint press conference with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. Diplomats said the UNSC would meet today at the request of Britain, France, Ecuador, Slovenia and the US.The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces had carried out strikes on defence industry targets and aviation bases in Ukraine. Ukraine’s Prosecutor General said he discussed the attacks with International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan, adding that his office would be sharing evidence with the ICC.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686303/international/russia-missile-attack-kills-36

Tokyo Governor Koike wins 3rd term: media

Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike declared victory in yesterday’s vote to elect the leader of one of the world’s most populous cities after Japanese media said exit polls showed her winning in a landslide.Koike, 71, a former minister and television anchor, has been Tokyo governor since 2016 and immediately vowed to strengthen the Japanese capital’s welfare, economy, and management of natural disasters.Exit polls by public broadcaster NHK and other media after voting stations closed at 8pm showed Koike had shrugged off challenges from other candidates.Among her most prominent challengers had been another woman running in Japan’s male-dominated political sphere, the 56-year-old former opposition lawmaker, model and TV anchor Renho, who goes by one name.“With Tokyoites’ strong support, I was assigned to lead this great city Tokyo,” Koike told her supporters after exit polls showed she had won her third term as governor of the megacity of 14mn people.“Today Japan and Tokyo face various challenges”, such as inflation and the low birth rate, Koike said.“I have to upgrade efforts of Tokyo’s reforms, and as I appealed in my election campaign, I will protect Tokyo residents’ lives and livelihoods,” she said.Japan has never had a woman prime minister and a large majority of lawmakers are men, although Tokyo accounts for a 10th of the national population and a fifth of the economy.While much of the campaigning attention centred on Koike and Renho, NHK’s poll showed independent candidate Shinji Ishimaru, 41, the former mayor of Akitakata in western Japan, coming second.Ishimaru had stressed his financial expertise as a former banker.Japanese media said the Tokyo election would have some impact on national politics because the opposition bloc had supported Renho while Koike was backed by an alliance led by Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), of which she was a former member.The Japanese government’s public support rate has been dwindling to around 20%, partly due to a political funds scandal revealed late last year, and Kishida will face the LDP leadership election later this year before a national vote due by late 2025.The Tokyo vote comes after new government data showed the birth rate hit a record low of 1.20 last year, with Tokyo’s figure 0.99 – the first Japan region to fall below one.Koike and her major rivals pledged to expand support for parenting, with the former promising subsidised epidurals.“After having their first child, I hear people say they don’t want to experience that pain again,” Koike said during the election campaign, according to local media. “I want people to see childbirth and raising children as a happiness, not a risk.”Vote counting started immediately after ballot boxes closed and the official result will be announced by early morning today.A record 56 people were standing in the election, not all of them serious, with one dressing as “The Joker” and calling for polygamy to be legalised.Others campaigned for more golf, poker or just to advertise their premises in Tokyo’s red-light district.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686243/international/tokyo-governor-koike-wins-3rd-term-media

Twist in the French election tale

A loose alliance of French left-wing parties thrown together for snap elections was on course yesterday to become the biggest parliamentary bloc and beat the far-right, according to shock projected results.The New Popular Front (NFP) was formed last month after President Emmanuel Macron called snap elections, bringing together socialists, greens, communists and the hard-left into one camp.Veteran presidential candidate Marine Le Pen’s National Rally (RN) led the race after the June 30 first round, with opinion polls predicting that she would lead the biggest party in Parliament after yesterday’s run-off.But projections based on vote samples by four major polling agencies and seen by AFP, showed no group on course for an absolute majority, and the left-wing NFP ahead of both Macron’s centrist Ensemble and Le Pen’s eurosceptic, anti-immigration RN.The left-wing group was predicted to take between 172 and 215 seats, the president’s alliance on 150 to 180 and the National Rally — which had hoped for an absolute majority — in a surprise third place on 115 to 155 seats.This marks a new high water mark for the far-right, but falls well short of a victory that would have been a rebuke for Macron, who called the snap election in what he said was bid to halt France’s slide towards the political extremes.Hard-left France Unbowed leader Jean-Luc Melenchon, giving his first reaction, called on French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal to resign and said the left-wing coalition was ready to govern. Macron will attend next week’s landmark Nato summit in Washington a diminished but not defeated figure and France has been left without a stable ruling majority less than three weeks before Paris hosts the Olympics.The election campaign, the shortest in French history, has been marked by a febrile national mood, threats and violence — including racist abuse — against dozens of candidates and canvassers.Some 30,000 police have been deployed to keep order, and many voters expressed fears that rioting could erupt in some cities after the results were announced.Turnout was nevertheless high, with left-wing and centrist candidates urging supporters to defend democratic values and the rule of law – while the far-right scented a chance to upend the established order.By 5pm, according to interior ministry figures, some 61.4% of voters had turned out — the most at this stage of a legislative race since 1981.In the village of Rosheim, outside the eastern city of Strasbourg, an “anguished” 72-year-old Antoine Schrameck said he feared France would see “a turning point in the history of the republic”.And in Tourcoing, near the northeast city of Lille, 66-year-old retiree Laurence Abbad said she feared violence after the results are announced. “There’s so much tension, people are going mad,” she said.An outright RN victory would have seen Macron forced into an uneasy cohabitation with prime minister Bardella for the remaining three years of his term. Even without that scenario, France is left with a hung parliament with a large eurosceptic, anti-immigration contingent. This would have weakened France’s international standing and threaten Western unity in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.EU officials, already learning to deal with far-right parties in power in Italy and The Netherlands and frustrated by Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban, are watching France closely.With the country on tenterhooks, last week saw more than 200 tactical-voting pacts between centre and left-wing candidates in seats to attempt to prevent the RN winning an absolute majority.This has been hailed as a return of the anti-far right “Republican Front” first summoned when Le Pen’s father Jean-Marie faced Jacques Chirac in the run-off of 2002 presidential elections.The question for France now is if this last-ditch alliance of last resort can now support a stable government, dogged by a huge RN bloc in parliament led by Le Pen herself as she prepares a 2027 presidential bid.If no coalition emerges Prime Minister Gabriel Attal could try to lead a minority government as, under French rules, the president cannot dissolve parliament again and call a fresh poll for 12 months.“France is on the cusp of a seismic political shift,” said analysts at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR), warning of “legislative gridlock” that would weaken “France’s voice on the European and international stage”.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686241/international/twist-in-the-french-election-tale

6 injured in Spanish bull running

Six people were hurt yesterday in Spain’s traditional annual San Fermin bull running festival, with one participant gored and five suffering bruising, local government sources said.A 37-year-old Spanish man emerged from his goring with slight injuries, officials said.The curtain went up on nine days of festivities on Saturday as thousands of revellers dressed in white clothes and red scarves filled the city’s main square for the “chupinazo” — the firecracker which launches an event dating back to medieval times.The run became world famous after being immortalised by US writer Ernest Hemingway in his novel The Sun Also Rises in 1926.The festivities include concerts, religious processions and copious amounts of wine.Each day at 8am hundreds of attendees launch themselves into a dangerous 850m race, seeking to outrun — or at least avoid — six heavy fighting bulls through the city centre’s narrow streets. During the intense “running of the bulls”, which lasts less than three minutes, the runners try to get as close as possible to the animals in their sprint to the Pamplona bullring, where bullfights are held in the afternoon.This year’s edition saw the day of San Fermin fall on a Sunday, allowing a stronger turnout than when the saint’s day falls on a weekday.Anyone aged 18 or above may participate.Dozens of people are injured each year, although most are injuries resulting from falls or being stomped by animals. To date, 16 deaths have also been recorded since 1911, the last coming in 2009.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686240/international/6-injured-in-spanish-bull-running

Airports, Wall Street, Olympics in crosshairs of climate activists

Climate activists in the United States and Europe are planning protests at airports, banks and the Olympic Games in a summer of stunts they have defended as necessary even if their tactics differ.From blocking highways to spray painting jets and the megaliths at Stonehenge, and throwing food at artworks, some climate activists have turned to more provocative tactics since the Covid-19 pandemic put an abrupt end to the mass marches spurred by Greta Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement.The last 12 months have been the hottest ever recorded and with swathes of the world blanketed in extreme heat, campaigners have heavy-polluting corporations and business interests in their sights.A22 Network, an alliance of activist groups committed to non-violent protest, said it was planning to disrupt airports in eight countries over the northern hemisphere summer.Protests are planned in the UK, Austria, Netherlands, Switzerland, Canada, US, Scotland and Norway, UK-based activists from the alliance told AFP.Global aviation is responsible for around 2.5% of global carbon emissions, more than the annual carbon footprint of Brazil and France combined.“Our resistance will put the spotlight on the heaviest users of fossil fuels and call everyone into action with us,” Just Stop Oil, one of the groups that embraced more controversial forms of protests, said in a statement.UK police said they pre-emptively arrested 27 supporters from Just Stop Oil before the protest had even begun under laws that make it illegal to conspire to disrupt national infrastructure.But Gabriella Ditton, a spokesperson for the group, said the arrests hadn’t deterred them.“While we face the massive crisis that we are in, we can’t stop,” she told AFP.They are demanding governments sign the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative, which seeks a halt to the expansion of fossil fuels and the phasing out of coal, oil and gas.In the US, activists have been targeting Wall Street and barricading the entrances to major banks and firms that finance, insure and invest in fossil fuel companies.Organisers of “The Summer of Heat” campaign have vowed “joyful, relentless non-violent direct action to end fossil fuel financing” over the coming months.Notably in Europe, Extinction Rebellion (XR), once notorious for shutting down bridges over the Thames River in London, have shifted their main focus from mass civil disobedience to building an inclusive grassroots movement.This summer, they are calling on governments in the UK and France to establish citizen assemblies on climate and nature, while picketing the companies insuring the fossil fuel industry.Gail Bradbrook, XR’s co-founder, told AFP their new-look approach to climate activism strived “to reach more mainstream folks” and do “the deeper work of local organising”.They are, however, planning “mass occupations” over the summer — including one at the start of the Olympic Games opening in Paris on 26 July.Organisers in France say this could last several days but would be “more visible than disruptive”, but have not offered further planning details.Which approach is best at grabbing attention — and which is better at driving change — has been the subject of debate, particularly following polarising stunts targeting famous landmarks.When two Just Stop Oil activists threw orange cornflour on Stonehenge in June “they got a heck more media attention than by spraying paint on airfields,” said Dana Fisher, a sociologist at American University in Washington DC.The goal of these “shock” actions “is to make people mad”, Fisher said. The more people talked about the protest, the more they discussed the climate issue, she added.Several studies in the UK and Germany showed that public concern about climate change stayed the same — or even increased — after acts of civil disobedience even if most people were unsupportive of such stunts.“Historically, there is substantial evidence that shows that the radical flank drives support for the cause and moderate factions,” said Fisher.But between “gluing yourself to something, blocking a bank or throwing soup, which is more effective, we do not know yet,” she added.For Jamie Henn, co-founder of campaign group 350.org and director of Fossil Free Media, “confrontational tactics work best when they’re confronting the source of the problem”.“Mainstreaming the idea that we can finally go fossil free needs to be a top priority for the climate movement,” he said.Laura Thomas-Walters, a social scientist at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, said political change was achieved “by targeting the people of power propping up the status quo, and we need to do it in a sustained way”.

source https://www.gulf-times.com/article/686184/international/airports-wall-street-olympics-in-crosshairs-of-climate-activists