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Category: FOREIGN

  • Hamas announces ‘national unity’ deal with Palestinian rivals

    Hamas announces ‘national unity’ deal with Palestinian rivals

    Hamas announced Tuesday it had signed an agreement in Beijing with other Palestinian organizations, including rivals Fatah, to work together for “national unity”, with China describing it as a deal to rule Gaza together once the war ends.

    Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi, who hosted senior Hamas official Musa Abu Marzuk, Fatah envoy Mahmud al-Aloul and emissaries from 12 other Palestinian groups, said they had agreed to set up an “interim national reconciliation government” to govern post-war Gaza. “Today we sign an agreement for national unity and we say that the path to completing this journey is national unity. We are committed to national unity and we call for it,”

    Abu Marzuk said after meeting Wang and the other envoys. The announcement comes more than nine months into the genocide.

    Israel’s retaliatory military campaign in Gaza has killed more than 39,000 people, also mostly civilians, according to data from the health ministry in Gaza.

    The relentless fighting has plunged Gaza into a severe humanitarian crisis. China has sought to play a mediator role in the conflict, which has been rendered even more complex due to the intense rivalry between Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, and Fatah, which partially governs the occupied West Bank.

    Israel has vowed to keep fighting until it destroys Hamas, and world powers, including key Israeli backer the United States, have scrambled to imagine scenarios for the governance of Gaza once the war ends. As Tuesday’s meeting wrapped up in Beijing, Wang said the groups had committed to “reconciliation”.

    “The most prominent highlight is the agreement to form an interim national reconciliation government around the governance of post-war Gaza,” Wang said following the signing of the “Beijing Declaration” by the factions in the Chinese capital.

    “Reconciliation is an internal matter for the Palestinian factions, but at the same time, it cannot be achieved without the support of the international community,” Wang said. China, he added, was keen to “play a constructive role in safeguarding peace and stability in the Middle East”. Beijing, Wang said, called for a “comprehensive, lasting and sustainable ceasefire”, as well as efforts to promote Palestinian self-governance and full recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN.

    Hamas and Fatah have been bitter rivals since Hamas fighters ejected Fatah from the Gaza Strip after deadly clashes that followed Hamas’s resounding victory in a 2006 election.

    Fatah controls the Palestinian Authority, which has partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank. Several reconciliation bids have failed, but calls have grown since October 7, with violence also soaring in the West Bank, where Fatah is based.

    China hosted Fatah and Hamas in April, but a meeting scheduled for June was postponed. China has historically been sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and supportive of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

  • More than 500 arrested in Bangladesh capital over violence: police

    More than 500 arrested in Bangladesh capital over violence: police

    More than 500 people, including some opposition leaders, have been arrested over days of clashes in the Bangladesh capital Dhaka sparked by protests against job quotas, police said Monday.

    “At least 532 people have been arrested over the violence,” Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP.

    “They include some BNP leaders,” he added, referring to the opposition Bangladesh National Party.

    The detainees included the BNP’s third-most senior leader Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury and its spokesman Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, he said.

    A former national football captain turned senior BNP figure, Aminul Huq, was also held, he added.

    Mia Golam Parwar, the general secretary of the country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, was also arrested, Hossain said.

    He said at least three policemen had been killed during the unrest in the capital and about 1,000 injured, at least 60 of them critically.

    BNP spokesman A.K.M Wahiduzzaman told AFP that nationwide, “several hundred BNP leaders and activists were arrested in the past few days”.

    sa/slb/sco

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Joe Biden quits the US presidential race, endorses Kamala Harris

    Joe Biden quits the US presidential race, endorses Kamala Harris

    Joe Biden on Sunday dropped out of the US presidential election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party’s new nominee, in a move that upends the 2024 race for the White House.

    The 81-year-old Biden stepped aside after weeks of pressure from Demo­crats following a disastrous debate performance, throwing the election battle against Republican Donald Trump into unprecedented turmoil.

    “While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a letter on X while recovering from Covid at his beach house in Delaware.

    Biden said he would “speak to the nation later this week in more detail about my decision”. He later added that he was backing Harris, who is the first female, Black and South Asian vice president in US history, and will now be aiming to become its first female commander-in-chief.

    “Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year,” Biden said on X. “Democrats – it’s time to come together and beat Trump. Let’s do this.” Biden is the first president in US history to pull out so late in an election race, and the first to bow out because of concerns over his mental acuity and health.

    Biden spent more than three weeks resisting calls to step down following the shock of the June 27 debate, at one point insisting that only the “Lord Almighty” could convince him to back out.

    In a bid to show he was up to the job, he gave a number of interviews and what was billed as a “big boy” press conference in which he took numerous questions, but made further gaffes including calling Harris “Vice President Trump”. A tide of voices within his own party calling on him to go, starting with donor and actor George Clooney and ending with former president Barack Obama, sealed his fate.

    Chaotic period for US

    The end finally came shortly after Biden had been diagnosed with Covid, forcing him off the campaign trail and into isolation in Rehoboth Beach.

    Biden’s decision to pull out also caps a tense and chaotic period in the US election, with Trump having survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally on July 13.

    Biden joins a small club of US presidents who have decided to throw in the towel after just one term, with the last being Lyndon Johnson in 1968 — a year also marked by political turmoil and violence.

    Johnson’s replacement as nominee, then-vice president Hubert Humphrey, went on to lose heavily to Richard Nixon. But Democrats are counting on Harris to fare better, and hoping that she can prevent convicted felon Trump from making a sensational comeback to the Oval Office.

    In recent weeks, the Biden campaign has reportedly been quietly carrying out a head-to-head survey of voters measuring how she matched up against Trump.

    While Harris struggled to make an impact in her first years in the White House, she has emerged in the last year as a strong performer on the campaign trail on key messages such as abortion rights. She has also made much of her life story as the first woman in US history to hold the vice presidency, as well as the first person of Black and South Asian origin.

    Barring opposition from her party, Harris is now set to be nominated at the Democratic National Conven­tion in Chicago on August 19 in what promises to be a dramatic moment — and a heartrending one for Biden.

    Biden took office in January 2021 pledging to heal the “soul of America” after four turbulent years under Trump and the shock of the January 6, 2021 Capitol assault by his supporters.

    Overcoming a reputation for verbal flubs, Obama’s former vice president pushed through a massive Covid recovery plan and a green industry scheme.

    US allies welcomed his pledge that “America is back” following Trump’s trampling on international alliances, and his strong support for Ukraine as it battled Russia’s 2022 invasion. But he faced criticism over the catastrophic US withdrawal from Afgha­nistan and inflation that meant overstretched Americans ignored otherwise positive economic numbers.

    Behind it all were the ongoing concerns about his age with a series of senior moments, including tripping up the stairs to Air Force One and falling off his bike, contributing to the doddery image played up by Republicans.

    Biden’s Letter

  • Canada gets first ever female army chief

    Canada gets first ever female army chief

    General Jennie Carignan on Thursday took charge as Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), becoming the first woman to lead the country’s armed forces.

    She is a military engineer by training, has led troops in Afghanistan, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Iraq and Syria during her 35 years in the Canadian Army.


    Speaking at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa, General Carnignan said, “I feel ready, poised and supported to take on this manifold challenge.”


    Carignan takes over from General Wayne Eyre, who served as the top military commander since 2021.


    “We’re facing many internal challenges such as recruitment and retention,” Carignan said. “We know the challenges we face and what we need to do to address them.”


    Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau called Carignan “a role model for all Canadians and for the world”.


    Canada’s defence spending is expected to be 1.39 percent of GDP in the 2024-25 fiscal year, according to government projections, reported by Reuters.

  • Bangladesh imposes curfew, calls in military after deadly unrest

    Bangladesh imposes curfew, calls in military after deadly unrest

    Bangladesh on Friday announced the imposition of a curfew and the deployment of military forces after police failed to quell days of deadly unrest that has spread throughout the country.

    This week’s clashes between student demonstrators and police have killed at least 105 people, according to an AFP count of victims reported by hospitals, and pose a momentous challenge to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s autocratic government after 15 years in office.

    “The government has decided to impose a curfew and deploy the military in aid of the civilian authorities,” Hasina’s press secretary Nayeemul Islam Khan told AFP.

    He added that the curfew would take immediate effect.

    Police in the capital Dhaka earlier took the drastic step of banning all public gatherings for the day — a first since protests began — in an effort to forestall more violence.

    “We’ve banned all rallies, processions and public gatherings in Dhaka today,” police chief Habibur Rahman told AFP, adding the move was necessary to ensure “public safety”.

    That however did not stop another round of confrontations between police and protesters around the sprawling megacity of 20 million people, despite an internet shutdown aimed at frustrating the organisation of rallies.

    “Our protest will continue,” Sarwar Tushar, who joined a march in the capital and sustained minor injuries when it was violently dispersed by police, told AFP.

    “We want the immediate resignation of Sheikh Hasina. The government is responsible for the killings.”

    Student protesters stormed a jail in the central Bangladeshi district of Narsingdi and freed its inmates before setting the facility on fire, a police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity.

    “I don’t know the number of inmates, but it would be in the hundreds,” he added.

    ‘Shocking and unacceptable’

    At least 52 people were killed in the capital on Friday, according to a list drawn up by the Dhaka Medical College Hospital and seen by AFP.

    Police fire was the cause of more than half of the deaths reported so far this week, based on descriptions given to AFP by hospital staff.

    UN human rights chief Volker Turk said the attacks on student protesters were “shocking and unacceptable”.

    “There must be impartial, prompt and exhaustive investigations into these attacks, and those responsible held to account,” he said in a statement.

    The capital’s police force earlier said protesters had on Thursday torched, vandalised and carried out “destructive activities” on numerous police and government offices.

    Among them was the Dhaka headquarters of state broadcaster Bangladesh Television, which remains offline after hundreds of incensed students stormed the premises and set fire to a building.

    Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP that officers had arrested Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, one of the top leaders of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP).

    ‘Symbol of a rigged system’

    Near-daily marches this month have called for an end to a quota system that reserves more than half of civil service posts for specific groups, including children of veterans from the country’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

    Critics say the scheme benefits children of pro-government groups that back Hasina, 76, who has ruled the country since 2009 and won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote without genuine opposition.

    Hasina’s government is accused by rights groups of misusing state institutions to entrench its hold on power and stamp out dissent, including by the extrajudicial killing of opposition activists.

    Her administration this week ordered schools and universities to close indefinitely as police stepped up efforts to bring the deteriorating law and order situation under control.

    “This is an eruption of the simmering discontent of a youth population built over years,” Ali Riaz, a politics professor at Illinois State University, told AFP.

    “The job quotas became the symbol of a system which is rigged and stacked against them by the regime.”

    ‘Nation-scale’ internet shutdown

    Students say they are determined to press on with protests despite Hasina giving a national address earlier this week on the now-offline state broadcaster seeking to calm the unrest.

    Nearly half of Bangladesh’s 64 districts reported clashes on Thursday, broadcaster Independent Television reported.

    London-based watchdog NetBlocks said Friday that a “nation-scale” internet shutdown remained in effect a day after it was imposed.

    “Metrics show connectivity flatlining at 10% of ordinary levels, raising concerns over public safety as little news flows in or out of the country,” it wrote on social media platform X.

    sa/gle/sst

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Elon Musk congratulates Modi for most followers; social media says he’s wrong

    Elon Musk congratulates Modi for most followers; social media says he’s wrong

    Elon Musk, the controversial CEO of Tesla and social networking site X (formerly known as Twitter), recently congratulated Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on becoming the most followed world leader.


    Modi has 100.2 million followers on X, which are far less than Musk himself, who has 190.2 million.


    While Modi’s followers along with Indian Media celebrated the tweet as an honour, many netizens reminded Musk of Barack Obama, former American President, who is far ahead of Modi with his 131.7 million followers on X.


    National President of Indian Youth Congress, Srinivas tagged Elon Musk and wrote, “Is Barack Obama from another planet?”

  • ‘Large-scale’ IT outage hits companies worldwide

    ‘Large-scale’ IT outage hits companies worldwide

    A major outage wrought havoc on global computer systems on Friday, grounding flights in the United States, derailing television broadcasts in the UK and impacting telecommunications in Australia.

    Major US air carriers including Delta, United and American Airlines grounded all flights on Friday over a communication issue, according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

    Flights were suspended at Berlin Brandenburg airport in Germany due to a “technical problem”, a spokeswoman told AFP.

    “There are delays to check-in, and flight operations had to be cancelled until 10:00 am (0800 GMT),” the spokeswoman said, adding that she could not say when they would resume.

    All airports in Spain were experiencing “disruptions” from an IT outage that has hit several companies worldwide on Friday, the airport operator Aena said.

    Hong Kong’s airport also said some airlines had been affected, with its authority issuing a statement in which it linked the disruption to a Microsoft outage.

    The UK’s biggest rail operator meanwhile warned of possible train cancellations due to IT issues, while photos posted online showed large queues forming at Sydney Airport in Australia.

    “Flights are currently arriving and departing however there may be some delays throughout the evening,” a Sydney Airport spokesman said.

    “We have activated our contingency plans with our airline partners and deployed additional staff to our terminals to assist passengers.”

    Australia’s National Cyber Security Coordinator said the “large-scale technical outage” was caused by an issue with a “third-party software platform”, adding there was no information as yet to suggest hacker involvement.

    Banks, airports hit

    Sky News in the UK said the glitch had ended its morning news broadcasts, while Australian broadcaster ABC similarly reported a major “outage”.

    Some self-checkout terminals at one of Australia’s largest supermarket chains were rendered useless, displaying blue error messages.

    New Zealand media said banks and computer systems inside the country’s parliament were reporting issues.

    Australian telecommunications firm Telstra suggested the outages were caused by “global issues” plaguing software provided by Microsoft and cybersecurity company CrowdStrike.

    Microsoft said in a statement it was taking “mitigation actions” in response to service issues.

    It was not clear if those were linked to the global outages.

    “Our services are still seeing continuous improvements while we continue to take mitigation actions,” Microsoft said in a post on social media platform X.

    CrowdStrike could not immediately be reached for comment.

    ‘Enormous’

    University of Melbourne expert Toby Murray said there were indications the problem was linked to a security tool called Crowdstrike Falcon.

    “CrowdStrike is a global cyber security and threat intelligence company,” Murray said.

    “Falcon is what is known as an endpoint detection and response platform, which monitors the computers that it is installed on to detect intrusions (i.e. hacks) and respond to them.”

    University of South Australia cybersecurity researcher Jill Slay said the global impact of the outages was likely to be “enormous”.

    sft/djw/ser/mca

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Indian man thown out of mall for wearing ‘dhoti’

    Indian man thown out of mall for wearing ‘dhoti’

    An Indian man from a rural area dressed in a ‘dhoti’ was stopped by a security official from entering a mall. 

    In a Brut. India report, a video shows 70-year-old farmer Fakirappa being stopped from entering a mall in Bengaluru, Karnataka, for wearing a dhoti and kurta.

    Reports indicate that the elderly farmer had come to the mall with his son to watch a film.

    Despite the fact that the son explained to the authorities that they had travelled a long distance and couldn’t change clothes, the mall supervisor allegedly insisted that these were strict managerial instructions.

    Fakirappa’s son, seen speaking in the video, also alleged that the security personnel demanded that the man change into pants to enter.

    Brut’s report states that a similar incident happened in Bengalaru metro station where an elderly man was not allowed to sit in a train because he was wearing “dirty clothes” even though he had  a valid ticket. 

  • Biden tests positive for Covid, fueling health worries

    Biden tests positive for Covid, fueling health worries

    US President Joe Biden tested positive for Covid with mild symptoms Wednesday, shortly after conceding he would consider dropping his reelection bid if doctors diagnosed him with a serious medical condition.

    The 81-year-old Democrat gave reporters the thumbs up and said “I feel good” as he cut short a trip to Las Vegas and flew to his beach home in Delaware to go into isolation, which will take him off the campaign trail for days.

    Biden thanked well-wishers on X, adding that “I will be isolating as I recover, and during this time I will continue to work to get the job done for the American people.”

    The infection comes at a critical moment for Biden’s campaign, with the president seeking to show he is up to the job after a disastrous debate performance against rival Donald Trump sparked concerns about his health and calls from some Democrats for him to step aside.

    It is also the latest development in a tumultuous few days in an already frenetic White House race that saw Trump survive an assassination attempt at a campaign rally.

    Biden was forced to cancel a speech to a union representing Latino workers who will be crucial for his election bid, having attended a campaign event earlier in the day and given a radio interview.

    His spokeswoman Karine Jean-Pierre said Biden was vaccinated and boosted, was now taking the Covid medication Paxlovid and “continues to carry out the full duties of the office while in isolation.”

    White House doctor Kevin O’Connor said Biden had complained of suffering from a runny nose, a cough and “general malaise,” but that “his symptoms remain mild.”

    Biden was seen walking from his limousine to his plane at Las Vegas without a mask. “Good,” he said when asked how he felt, “I feel good.”

    Janet Murguia, the president of the Unidos union for Latino workers, told the crowd about the diagnosis shortly before the White House announcement.

    ‘Pass the torch’

    People waiting for the speech said Biden’s health did not worry them despite the Covid diagnosis.

    “I think he’s strong and he’s going to recover soon,” Anne Vilagut told AFP.

    But Biden’s illness comes as concerns over the fitness of the oldest US president in US history reach fever pitch.

    Asked what could make him rethink his presidential bid, Biden told the Black media outlet BET in an interview taped Tuesday in Las Vegas: “If I had some medical condition that emerged, if somebody, if the doctors came and said ‘you’ve got this problem, that problem.’”

    Biden has so far refused to drop out, and blamed his debate debacle, when he appeared tired and confused, on a bad cold and jet lag.

    But US broadcaster ABC News reported Wednesday that Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer had told Biden over the weekend that it would be “better for the country if he were to bow out,” in what would be a fatal blow.

    A spokesperson for Schumer played down the report, saying: “Unless ABC’s source is Senator Chuck Schumer or President Joe Biden the reporting is idle speculation.”

    “Leader Schumer conveyed the views of his caucus directly to President Biden.”

    The Washington Post and New York Times meanwhile reported that both Schumer and House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries had warned Biden that his candidacy puts the party’s electoral prospects at risk.

    White House spokesman Andrew Bates pushed back in a statement, saying: “The President told both leaders he is the nominee of the party, he plans to win, and looks forward to working with both of them to pass his 100 days agenda to help working families.”

    Adding further pressure, CNN reported that former House speaker Nancy Pelosi privately told Biden he cannot win and could harm Democrats’ chances of recapturing the lower chamber of Congress.

    Earlier on Wednesday, Representative Adam Schiff of California became the highest-profile Democrat to publicly urge Biden to “pass the torch.”

    “A second Trump presidency will undermine the very foundation of our democracy, and I have serious concerns about whether the President can defeat Donald Trump in November,” Schiff said in a statement to the Los Angeles Times.

    Biden insists that Democratic voters support him, but a poll by the Associated Press and NORC Center for Public Affairs Research said Wednesday that nearly two-thirds want him to step aside.

    dk/wd/sn

    © Agence France-Presse

  • Six killed, hundreds injured as student protests rage across Bangladesh

    Six killed, hundreds injured as student protests rage across Bangladesh

    Bangladesh ordered schools across the country on Tue­sday to close indefinitely after six students were killed as protests over quotas for coveted government jobs turned into deadly clas­hes, prompting the mobilisation of paramilitaries to keep order.

    Following escalating demonstrations against civil service hiring policies, every high school, Islamic seminary, and vocational education institute in the country was told to remain shut until further notice.

    Tuesday saw a significant escalation in violence as protesters and pro-government student groups attacked each other with hurled bricks and bamboo rods, and police dispersed rallies with tear gas and rubber bullets. Demonstrators mobilised in cities, defying earlier calls by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and the Supreme Court to return to class.

    Three died in Chittagong and had signs of “bullet injuries”, hospital director Mohammad Taslimuddin said, adding that another 35 had been injured during clashes in the port city.

    Border security force deployed in Dhaka, Chittagong and three other cities as protesting students demand end to job quota system

    Another two died in Dhaka, where rival student groups threw bricks at each other and blocked roads in several key locations that ground traffic to a halt in the megacity of 20 million.

    Police inspector Bacchu Mia confirmed the deaths to AFP, saying one had succumbed to head injuries, while at least 60 people were also injured.

    In the northern city of Rangpur, police commissioner Mohammad Moniruzzaman said a student had been killed in clashes there. He did not give details as to how the student died, but said police had fired rubber bullets and tear gas to disperse protesters.

    Rangpur Medical College hospital director Yunus Ali said the “student was brought dead to the hospital by other students”.

    Tauhidul Haque Siam from Rokeya University told AFP that ruling party supporters had attacked anti-quota protesters, while police fired rubber pellets from shotguns. “Police opened fire from their shotguns on the protesters,” Siam said, adding he had been injured.

    He said the dead student had been “killed in the firing”. But it was not possible to independently verify his account.

    As the day wore on and with some key highways around the country blocked by the protesters, authorities deployed the paramilitary Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) force in five major cities, including Dhaka and Chittagong.

    They had been tasked with controlling “the law and order situation in view of the quota protests”, a BGB spokesman said.

    ‘Violence against peaceful protesters’

    Tuesday clashes came a day after confrontations between anti-quota demonstrators and members of the ruling Awami League’s student wing that left over 400 people injured in Dhaka.

    “We are not here to do violence,” said a protester in Dhaka who declined to give their name for fear of reprisal. “We simply want our rights. But the ruling party goons are attacking our peaceful protests.”

    Near-daily marches this month have demanded an end to a quota system that reserves more than half of civil service posts for specific groups.

    Critics say the scheme benefits children of pro-government groups that back PM Hasina, 76, who won her fourth consecutive election in January after a vote “without genuine opposition”.

    Amnesty International afterwards urged Bangladesh to “immediately guarantee the safety of all peaceful protesters”.

    US State Department spokesman Matthew Miller also denounced the “violence against peaceful protesters”, prompting a rebuke from Bangladesh’s foreign ministry.