Category: 2. World

Wia dis foto come from, Reuters

Article Information

• • Author, James Gregory
  • Role, BBC News

• one hour wey don pass

Israel believe say only 20 of di 50 hostages still dey alive afta 22 months of war.

Israeli media bin cite an Israeli official wey say dem go despatch negotiators for renewed talks once dem determine a location.

For one video statement during a visit to di Gaza division headquarters in Israel on Thursday night, Netanyahu say im bin don “instruct dem to immediately begin negotiations for di release of all our hostages”.

“I don come to approve di IDF [Israel Defense Forces] plans to take control of Gaza City and defeat Hamas,” e tok.

“Dis two matters – defeating Hamas and releasing all our hostages – dey go hand in hand,” Netanyahu add, without providing details about wetin di next stage of talks go entail.

Reinforcing Netanyahu message, Defence Minister Katz bin post on social media on Friday: “Soon, fi gates of hell go open upon di heads of Hamas murderers and rapists in Gaza – until dem agree to Israel conditions to end di war, primarily di release of all hostages and dia disarmament.

“If dem no agree, Gaza, di capital of Hamas, go become Rafah and Beit Hanoun,” e add.

Both cities dey reduced to ruins following Israeli military operations.

Gaza Hamas-run health ministry say dem reject “any step wey go affect wetin remain of di health system”.

Di UN say to intensify attacks and “relentless bombardment” for Gaza City dey cause a “high numbers of civilian casualties and large-scale destruction”. Dem and aid groups don vow to stay to help those wey no fit or choose not to move.

Netanyahu announce Israel intention to take control of di entire Gaza Strip afta indirect tok wit Hamas on a ceasefire and hostage release deal break down last month.

Di Israeli military bin launch a campaign in Gaza in response to di Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on 7 October 2023, wia about 1,200 pipo bin dey killed and dem take 251 odas hostage.

At least dem don kill 62,192 pipo for Gaza since den, according to di territory health ministry. Di ministry figures dey quoted by di UN and odas as di most reliable source of statistics available on casualties.

By Sethuraman N R

NEW DELHI (Reuters) -India’s renewable energy developers must align their growth plans with realistic demand projections to avoid the risk of infrastructure investments becoming unprofitable, a power ministry advisor said on Friday.

Speaking at the BloombergNEF Summit in New Delhi, Central Electricity Authority (CEA) Chairman Ghanshyam Prasad warned against building renewable capacity without corresponding demand growth, a challenge the sector has faced in the past.

“If we add 60 GW next year, will it get sold? Probably not,” he said, noting that existing renewable capacity remains unsold.

With electricity supply outpacing demand, grid operators have been forced to curtail power input to maintain system balance.

India has about 44 gigawatts (GW) of renewable projects without supply agreements, Reuters reported earlier this month.

Prasad said that India had suffered from thermal power overcapacity in the past decade.

“Generators were at a loss. Some even faced bankruptcy issues. Let’s not enter an era of stressed assets again,” he said.

Prasad also stressed the importance of better coordination between renewable energy developers and those building transmission lines, warning that having transmission ready does not automatically mean the power will be used.

“We have substations like the one at Khavda (in the western state of Gujarat) with a 4,000 (megawatts) MW capacity, but only 300–500 MW has been hooked up.”

He urged developers developers to submit grid connection requests at least 24-36 months in advance to ensure timely integration.

Several industry representatives at the summit said India’s power transmission sector requires more comprehensive reforms.

“We are able to add capacity very quickly but the need is to distribute that capacity at the equal pace through transmission. That investment is missing, because the whole focus is on the generation side,” said Sanjeev Aggarwal, founder and executive Chairman of Hexa Climate Solutions.

(Reporting by Sethuraman N R in New Delhi; editing by Clelia Oziel)

The US is reviewing the records of more than 55 million US visa holders to assess if they have broken conditions for entry or stay in the country.

People with US visas will be under “continuous vetting”, a state department spokesperson told the Associated Press news agency.

Visas will be revoked if there are indications of “overstays, criminal activity, threats to public safety, engaging in any form of terrorist activity, or providing support to a terrorist organisation”, an official said.

President Donald Trump has made anti-immigration the cornerstone of his second administration, from mass deportations and full-on travel bans on countries to revoking 6,000 student visas.

As part of the wide-ranging review, prospective students and visitors to the US will be subjected to social media vetting with officials looking for “any indications of hostility toward the citizens, culture, government, institutions, or founding principles of the United States”.

State Department officers have also been instructed to spot individuals “who advocate for, aid, or support designated foreign terrorists and other threats to national security; or who perpetrate unlawful antisemitic harassment or violence”.

Matthew Tragesser, a spokesperson from US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said in a statement: “America’s benefits should not be given to those who despise the country and promote anti-American ideologies.”

He added that the immigration service was committed to “implementing policies” that “root out anti-Americanism”.

The latest announcement came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the US would “immediately” pause the issuance of worker visas for truck drivers.

“The increasing number of foreign drivers operating large tractor-trailer trucks on U.S. roads is endangering American lives and undercutting the livelihoods of American truckers,” Rubio wrote in a post on X on Thursday.

Since Trump came to power in January, several foreign students have been arrested at US university campuses for taking part in protests against the conduct of the war in the Gaza Strip by Israel – which is supported by the US.

A few weeks ago, the US announced that citizens from Malawi and Zambia would be required to pay a $15,000 (£11,300) deposit for a tourist or business visa.

Trump has also banned foreign nationals from 12 countries from travelling to the US and imposed partial restrictions on another seven.

In May, the Trump’s administration was allowed to temporarily revoke the legal status of over 500,000 migrants living in the US. He has even vowed to end birth right citizenship.

• Wickremesinghe arrested over alleged misuse of state funds.
• Arrest linked to London trip for wife’s graduation.
• Wickremesinghe was PM a record six times, made president in 2022.
  

---

COLOMBO: Former Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe was arrested by the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) on Friday in connection with allegations of misuse of state funds, local television channel Ada Derana reported.

Wickremesinghe, 76, was taken into custody after arriving at the CID office in the capital Colombo to record a statement in an investigation into his visit to London to attend his wife’s graduation ceremony, the report said.

A Sri Lankan police spokesperson did not immediately confirm the arrest. Wickremesinghe’s office did not respond to a request for comment from Reuters.

He was due to appear in court later on Friday, local media reported.

A lawyer who served as Sri Lanka’s prime minister a record six times, Wickremesinghe was made president in 2022 during the Indian Ocean island nation’s debilitating financial crisis.

Wickremesinghe, who is the leader of the United National Party (UNP), took over after widespread protests caused by an economic meltdown forced his predecessor Gotabaya Rajapaksa to flee the country and later resign.

He finished third in last year’s presidential election – the first since the economic crisis – behind Marxist-leaning Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who won the vote, and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa.

The election was a referendum on Wickremesinghe, who led a successful but fragile economic recovery that included austerity measures that angered voters.

Born into a prominent family of politicians and businessmen with large media interests, in 1978 Wickremesinghe was, at 29, made the country’s youngest cabinet minister by his uncle, President Junius Jayewardene.

In 1994, following assassinations that wiped out several of his senior colleagues, Wickremesinghe became leader of the UNP.

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Police in Sri Lanka arrested former President Ranil Wickremesinghe on Friday over allegations that the senior opposition politician misused public funds during his presidency, police said.

Wickremesinghe, who was president from 2022 to 2024, is accused of using the funds to attend his wife’s graduation ceremony in London after an official visit to the United States, police spokesman Fredrick Wootler told The Associated Press.

Wickremesinghe appeared for a lengthy hearing before a magistrate court in the capital, Colombo, and was ordered to be kept in custody until Aug. 26. He didn’t comment during the hearing, and there was no immediate statement from his office. A large crowd of Wickremesinghe’s supporters gathered outside the court to protest his arrest.

Wickremesinghe is the first Sri Lankan former head of state to be arrested and the most prominent leader under investigation for corruption under the government of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who came to power last year on an anti-corruption platform.

Dissanayake won the presidential election in September when voters rejected an old guard accused of leading the country into an economic crisis. Two months later, his party won a landslide victory in the parliamentary election that enabled him to form a strong government.

Already more than a dozen former high government officials and political leaders are under investigation for alleged wrongdoing.

Wickremesinghe became president after Sri Lanka’s economic upheaval led to a political crisis that forced then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign in 2022.

Wickremesinghe was credited with stabilizing the crumbling economy. Under his leadership, inflation fell, the local currency strengthened and foreign reserves increased. But he faced public backlash over his government’s stringent austerity measures, including raising taxes and utility rates, imposed as part of a bailout package with the International Monetary Fund.

– Advertisement –

ISLAMABAD, Aug 22 (APP):Speakers at a round table conference on Friday urged the international community, particularly the Muslim world, to take concrete legal, diplomatic and policy measures to counter the rising trend of Islamophobia across the globe.

The event, titled “The International Day Commemorating the Victims of Acts of Violence based on Religion or Belief: Addressing Islamophobia”, was organized by the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI), said a press release.

Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Munir Akram, in his remarks, called on the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to formally define Islamophobia and pursue legal remedies at international forums. He also stressed the need for Class Act Suits against perpetrators capitalising on extra-territoriality and universal jurisdiction through an institutionalised support of the OIC.

Amb Akram said that Pakistan has led from the front at international forums and its initiative to mark a day against Islamophobia was initially opposed vehemently by the world community.

Yet, he said that it was a huge success that March 15 was marked as International Day against Islamophobia and the resolution was carried unanimously. He also called for protecting the Islamic heritage sites in India and elsewhere and to provide legal assistance to victims of Islamophobia through the OIC forum.

IPRI President Lt Gen. (retd) Majid Ehsan called for a thorough discourse on the soaring phenomenon of Islamophobia, and said that it has led to marginalisation and a sense of otherness globally.

He regretted that Islam has not been understood in its true essence, and there is an industry that is thriving on Islamophobia to the benefit of those who are crafting this narrative.

Brig Dr Raashid Wali Janjua, Director Research IPRI, expressed his displeasure at the term “Islamophobia,” and regretted that Muslims too have come to accept it as fait accompli. He said, while Islam is a religion of peace, then as to why there is a phobia associated with it? He coined the term ‘anti-Abraham-ism” to address it more comprehensively and logically.

Chairman Institute of Policy Studies, Khalid Rehman, said that the quality of governance at local or international levels has also contributed to the spread of Islamophobia. He also underscored the need for a debate in the realms of public policy discourse as to why this terminology and sense of otherness started in the 1990s. He pointed out that the Cold War issues were capitalism and communism, which had nothing to do with Islam. He, however, pointed out that in the 1990s, the narrative of Islamophobia began and then spread very fast in the 2000s, and it has much to do with the Afghan Jihad and the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran.

“We too are to be blamed for this tendency because terrorism has been the foundation of Islamophobia. But there is no set definition of terrorism and anyone can mold the definition of it as they want. It has been established through media and movies, too, where Muslims are portrayed as terrorists. Terrorism existed before 9/11, too. And it used to be a crime that required investigation in the court of law. Now that the process of definition does not exist, then the issue of investigation remains a concern,” Rehman elucidated.

Dr Sadia Zahoor, an expert in public international law, touched upon the sensitivities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and ChatGPT, and observed that its content surprisingly is Islamophobic. She also mentioned how AI in the US military is targeting Muslim communities, especially the Palestinians. She said that globalization has amplified, and it has evolved a structured outcome from powerful actors against Islam. “Portraying Muslims as villains in video games, and the binary of otherness that has been created on the web are cases in point,” she added.

Dr Ayesha Khan of Bahria University said that the rise of Islamophobia is a very critical area and it needs to be understood with the evolving trends of globalisation. “Globalisation has contributed to prejudice and has multiplied fears. Global media has been prejudiced and has created the perfect storm for the rise and spread of Islamophobia. It started from colonialism and orientalism. Globalisation today has amplified Islamophobia. It is not neutral at all,” she explained.

The speakers also referred to a growing sense of discrimination based on religion in India, and how Muslim-phobia has become a state-centric issue. They lamented the so-called terminology and worries of Islamophobia and in the West against the fastest-growing religion, i.e., Islam. They said that the world is witnessing the worst manifestation of Islamophobia in Gaza, where more than 60,000 Muslims have been massacred, and the champions of civilization are silent spectators. Likewise, it is ironic that freedom struggles in Kashmir and Palestine are equated with Islamophobia.

It was also questioned as to what Western values are: whether it is the protests seen on the streets of Western capitals against barbarism and genocide in Gaza, or the acts of violence that elites and governments are perpetrating.

Speakers stressed the need to develop media literacy and improve ignorance at indigenous levels in Muslim societies so that the misperception of Islam can be addressed in a better way, and the menace of Islamophobia can be negated successfully.