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