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Nearly 10,000 evacuated in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region: governor

Nearly 10,000 evacuated in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region: governor
Rescuers evacuate an elderly civilian from Russian shelling in Kharkiv region on May 17, 2024. (Ukrainian Emergency Service via AFP)
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Updated 18 May 2024
AFP
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Nearly 10,000 evacuated in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region: governor

Nearly 10,000 evacuated in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region: governor
  • Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky plays down Russia’s gains in the offensive
  • Moscow has been attacking several settlements including Vovchansk, just five kilometers from the border
Updated 18 May 2024
AFP
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KYIV: Nearly 10,000 people have been forced to leave their homes in Ukraine’s northeastern Kharkiv region since a ground attack launched by Russian forces on May 10, the regional governor said.
The assault may only be the first wave of a wider offensive, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Over a week after its launch, “a total of 9,907 people have been evacuated,” governor Oleg Synegubov said.
They were fleeing Russian soldiers who managed to advance between five to 10 kilometers (three to six miles) along the northeastern border before being stopped by Ukrainian forces.
Synegubov said Ukraine’s armed forces had repelled two attempts to break through defenses overnight.
The situation was “under control” with “defenders in certain areas conducting assault... and combing operations.”
Moscow has been attacking several settlements including Vovchansk, just five kilometers from the border.
“In the area of the city of Vovchansk, Ukrainian troops are reinforcing their defense,” Synegubov said.
A day earlier, he said Russian forces have started to destroy Vovchansk and all but 200 of its residents have fled due to fighting.
Russian forces have taken 278 square kilometers (107 square miles) between May 9 and 15, their biggest gains since the end of 2022, AFP calculated using data from the Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
Russia’s offensive “could consist in several waves. There was the first wave” in the Kharkiv region, Zelensky said journalists.
Zelensky played down Russia’s gains in the offensive but added: “We have to be sober and understand that they are going deeper into our territory. Not vice versa. And that’s still their advantage.”
Speaking about the offensive during a visit to China on Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said it was a response to Ukraine shelling border regions.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict Russia Ukraine

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India warns social media after airline bomb threats

India warns social media after airline bomb threats
Updated 27 October 2024
AFP
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India warns social media after airline bomb threats

India warns social media after airline bomb threats
  • Some threats led to planes being diverted to Canada and Germany, and fighter jets scrambled to escort aircraft above Britain and Singapore
  • The India government called the spread of the threats ‘dangerously unrestrained’ and warned social media platforms of ‘consequential action’
Updated 27 October 2024
AFP

NEW DELHI: India has warned social media platforms of “consequential action” after hundreds of hoax bomb threats to Indian airlines this month triggered travel chaos and terror it said threatened national security.
Some threats led to planes being diverted to Canada and Germany, and fighter jets scrambled to escort aircraft in the skies above Britain and Singapore.
The government called the spread of the threats “dangerously unrestrained.”
It warned social media platforms of “consequential action as provided under any law” if they do not comply with the “prompt removal of misinformation.”
“The instances of malicious acts, in the form of hoax bomb threats to such airlines, lead to a potential threat to the public order and security of the state,” it said in a statement on Saturday.
“Such hoax bomb threats, while affecting a large number of citizens, also destabilizes the economic security of the country.”
At least 275 bomb threats were made since mid-October, all reported to have been false, according to the Press Trust of India (PTI) news agency. Other Indian media suggest it could be as high as nearly 400.
“The exemption from liability for any third party information... shall not apply if such intermediaries do not follow the due diligence obligations,” it added.
Civil aviation authorities have had to check every flight that has been threatened, many by messages posted on X, formerly Twitter.
The government warning did not mention any social media company by name, but cited an advisory notice from the information technology ministry.
“The scale of (the) spread of such hoax bomb threats has been observed to be dangerously unrestrained due to the availability of the option of ‘forwarding/re-sharing/re-posting/re-tweeting’ on the social media platforms,” the information ministry said.
It said companies must report any offenses “likely to threaten the unity, integrity, sovereignty, security or economic security” of the country, and cooperate swiftly with government agencies to aid investigations.
The government on Monday said it is discussing “legislative action” to overhaul aviation and aircraft security laws, and to make those who make such threats guilty of a serious, or “cognizable,” crime with longer potential sentences.
India, the world’s biggest democracy, regularly ranks among the top five countries globally for the number of requests made by a government to remove social media content.
Last year, an Indian court hit X with a $61,000 fine after the platform unsuccessfully challenged orders to remove tweets and accounts critical of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.

Topics: social media

Japan ruling party projected to miss majority in election

Japan ruling party projected to miss majority in election
Updated 17 min 7 sec ago
AFP
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Japan ruling party projected to miss majority in election

Japan ruling party projected to miss majority in election
  • Voters in Japan have been rankled by rising prices and the fallout from a party slush fund scandal that helped sink previous premier Fumio Kishida
Updated 17 min 7 sec ago
AFP

TOKYO: Japan’s scandal-hit ruling party fell short of a majority for the first time since 2009 in snap elections on Sunday, media projections showed, in a blow to new Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba.
Worse still, it was touch and go whether Ishiba’s conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) could secure a parliamentary majority with its long-term coalition partner, the Komeito party.
“We are receiving severe judgment,” Ishiba told national broadcaster NHK late Sunday.
Voters “expressed their strong desire for the LDP to do some reflection and become a party that will act in line with the people’s will,” he said.
Former defense minister Ishiba, 67, called the election after being narrowly selected last month to lead the LDP, which has governed Japan for almost all of the past 70 years.
But voters in the world’s fourth-largest economy have been rankled by rising prices and the fallout from a party slush fund scandal that helped sink previous premier Fumio Kishida.
Footage from the LDP headquarters after the polls closed on Sunday showed gloomy faces as the projections based on exit polls said Ishiba’s justice and agriculture ministers were likely to lose their seats.
Ishiba, a self-confessed security policy geek who likes making model planes, had said his target in the election was for the coalition to win a majority.
Missing this goal would seriously undermine his position in the LDP and mean finding other coalition partners or leading a minority government.
“If we are unable to obtain a majority as a result of severe public judgment, we will ask as many people as possible to cooperate with us,” the LDP’s election chief Shinjiro Koizumi told reporters.
In Japan’s last general election in 2021, the LDP won a majority in its own right, with 259 seats in parliament’s powerful lower house. Komeito had 32.
On Sunday, national broadcaster NHK projected that the LDP would win between 153 and 219 seats — short of the 233 needed for a majority in the 465-seat parliament.
If confirmed by official results, the LDP losing its majority would be the worst result since it lost power 15 years ago before being brought back in a 2012 landslide by late former premier Shinzo Abe.
Together with Komeito, which is projected 21 to 35 seats, the coalition would hold between 174 and 254 seats, according to NHK.
Projections from the Asahi Shimbun and Yomiuri dailies suggested the coalition would lose its majority. The Asahi projected the LDP would win 185 seats and that the coalition would manage only 210.
Opinion polls before the election had suggested that in many districts, LDP candidates were neck-and-neck with those from the Constitutional Democratic Party (CDP), the second-biggest in parliament, led by popular former prime minister Yoshihiko Noda.
Projections on Sunday suggested that the CDP had made considerable gains, with NHK indicating it could win between 128 and 191 seats — up from 96.
“The LDP’s politics is all about quickly implementing policies for those who give them loads of cash,” 67-year-old Noda told his supporters on Saturday.
Noda said on Sunday night he would hold “sincere talks with various parties.”
“Our basic philosophy is that the LDP-Komeito administration cannot continue,” Noda told Fuji-TV.
Ishiba has pledged to revitalize depressed rural regions and to address the “quiet emergency” of Japan’s falling population through family-friendly measures such as flexible working hours.
But he has rowed back his position on issues including allowing married couples to take separate surnames. He also named only two women as ministers in his cabinet.
He has backed the creation of a regional military alliance along the lines of NATO to counter China, although he has cautioned it would “not happen overnight.”
Noda’s stance “is sort of similar to the LDP’s. He is basically a conservative,” Masato Kamikubo, a political scientist at Ritsumeikan University, told AFP before the election.
“The CDP or Noda can be an alternative to the LDP. Many voters think so.”

Topics: Japan Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba

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British lawmakers accuse Starmer of ‘colonial mindset’ in slavery reparations debate

British lawmakers accuse Starmer of ‘colonial mindset’ in slavery reparations debate
Updated 27 October 2024
Reuters
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British lawmakers accuse Starmer of ‘colonial mindset’ in slavery reparations debate

British lawmakers accuse Starmer of ‘colonial mindset’ in slavery reparations debate
  • Ahead of the Commonwealth heads of government summit in Samoa, where Caribbean and African nations wished to discuss the topic, Starmer said the issue was not on the agenda
Updated 27 October 2024
Reuters

LONDON: Some British Labour lawmakers on Sunday accused Prime Minister Keir Starmer of having a “colonial mindset” and trying to silence nations pushing for discussions on reparations for transatlantic slavery at this month’s Commonwealth summit in Samoa.
Britain has so far rejected calls for reparations but some campaigners hoped Starmer’s new Labour government would be more open to it.
However, ahead of the Commonwealth heads of government summit in Samoa, where Caribbean and African nations wished to discuss the topic, Starmer said the issue was not on the agenda and that he would like to “look forward” rather than have “very long, endless discussions about reparations on the past.”
“(It) is very insulting (to) tell people of African descent to forget and move forward,” said Labour lawmaker Bell Ribeiro-Addy at a cross-party reparations conference in London.
At the end the Samoa summit, leaders of the 56-nation club headed by Britain’s King Charles agreed to include in their final communique that the time had come for a discussion on reparations.
“I’m very proud those nations refused to be silenced,” Ribeiro-Addy said.
Another Labour lawmaker, Clive Lewis, said it was surprising Starmer thought he could take a “colonial mindset” to the summit and “dictate what could and could not be discussed.”
At a news conference in Samoa on Saturday, Starmer said slavery was “abhorrent” and that the discussions agreed to in the communique would not be “about money.”
A Downing Street spokesperson had no further comment on the remarks by Labour lawmakers on Sunday.
Proponents of reparations say slavery’s legacy has caused persistent racial inequalities while opponents say countries shouldn’t be held responsible for historical wrongs.
The lawmakers said that reparations could include a formal apology, debt cancelation, the return of artefacts or changing the school curriculum, not just financial payments.
Diane Abbott, Britain’s first Black woman lawmaker, said Labour previously had plans to establish a national reparations commission but Starmer “seems to have forgotten that.”
“Reparations isn’t about the past, it is about the here and now,” she said.

Topics: UK

Muslim and Arab American leaders in Michigan endorse Trump

Muslim and Arab American leaders in Michigan endorse Trump
Updated 27 October 2024
Arab News
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Muslim and Arab American leaders in Michigan endorse Trump

Muslim and Arab American leaders in Michigan endorse Trump
  • Endorsement of Trump by Muslim and Arab communities would be a notable shift by Michigan’s Muslim community
Updated 27 October 2024
Arab News

DUBAI: Prominent Muslim leaders were invited by former US President Donald Trump on Saturday during a campaign rally in Michigan to announce their support for the Republican candidate.

Trump was joined onstage by what his campaign described as “prominent leaders of Michigan’s Muslim community” to encourage Muslim and Arab American to endorse him in the Nov. 5 presidential election.

The former president also said that he was banking on “overwhelming support” from these voters in the state, according to CNN.

“They could turn the election one way or the other,” Trump said of the Arab and Muslim communities, who are critical of US support for Israel in its war on Gaza.

On stage, the Muslim leaders cited Trump’s commitment to ending conflicts.

“We, as Muslims, stand with President Trump because he promises peace, not war,” Imam Belal Alzuhairi told the crowd. 

Alzuhairi described Trump as the “peace” candidate.

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CLICK HERE TO READ ARAB NEWS/YOUGOV POLL OF ARAB AMERICAN VOTERS

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“The bloodshed has to stop all over the world. And I think this man can make that happen.”

Trump said that Muslim and Arab voters in Michigan and across the country want a “stop to the endless wars and a return to peace in the Middle East.”

“That’s all they want,” he said.

The endorsement of Trump by Muslim and Arab communities would be a notable shift by Michigan’s Muslim community, who have traditionally aligned with the Democrats.

Topics: US Election 2024 US Election Donald Trump

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Typhoon death toll rises to 90 in Philippines with some areas still submerged

Typhoon death toll rises to 90 in Philippines with some areas still submerged
Updated 27 October 2024
Ellie Aben
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Typhoon death toll rises to 90 in Philippines with some areas still submerged

Typhoon death toll rises to 90 in Philippines with some areas still submerged
  • More than half a million Filipinos displaced and nearly 28,000 houses damaged by Trami
  • Authorities are bracing for tropical storm Kong-rey, which may affect Luzon in coming days
Updated 27 October 2024
Ellie Aben

MANILA: The death toll from tropical storm Trami has risen to at least 90 in the Philippines, officials said, with 36 people reported missing. Some of the worst-affected areas were still submerged on Sunday.

Trami, known locally as Kristine, caused widespread flooding and triggered landslides that forced more than half a million people from their homes and damaged nearly 28,000 houses. It caused power disruptions in more than 150 cities and municipalities, according to the Office of Civil Defense.

It was the 11th and deadliest tropical cyclone to hit the Philippines in 2024, affecting people across Luzon, the country’s most populous island, and in Visayas islands and parts of Mindanao, along the Philippines’ eastern coast.

Relief workers were struggling to reach some of the worst-hit areas in the province of Camarines Sur and particularly Naga City, located in Luzon’s Bicol region.

“The situation, particularly in the five towns of Camarines Sur, is still the same. There is still heavy flooding …  (and) very little change, the waters have receded by just less than a foot,” Claudio Yucot, regional director at the OCD in Bicol, told Arab News.

Floods were above head-level in some areas, he said, adding that the destruction left by Trami was “unprecedented,” citing local residents who said they have never experienced such strong rains.

“There was no wind, in fact the storm was far from us, we were outside of the cone of uncertainty. But the amount of rain dumped in our area was really unprecedented.”

Authorities were bracing for yet another tropical storm, Kong-rey, which was moving over the Philippine Sea on Sunday with similar wind speeds. While the storm, known locally as Leon, may not make landfall in the Philippines, weather authorities say it may still affect northern Luzon in the coming days.

OCD administrator Ariel Nepomuceno said in a radio interview that authorities were still unable to access some areas on Sunday, due to the floods caused by Trami.

“We need to use boats or rubber boats, we cannot reach them via ordinary vehicles. But we are reaching them albeit slowly because land vehicles still cannot pass through,” he said.

Trami also triggered deadly landslides in Talisay and Batangas, killing at least 20 people in the village of Sampaloc.

 “Due to the non-stop heavy rains, the mountain gave way and when the landslide happened, many people were killed. Twenty bodies have already been recovered and there is still one missing,” Hibirio Garcia, Sampaloc village head, told Arab News.

“The houses are gone, because most (of them) are huts, they are not made of cement, just made of wood.”

The Philippines is the country most at risk from natural disasters, according to the 2024 World Risk Report.

Millions of Filipinos are affected by storms and typhoons every year, which have grown more unpredictable and extreme due to the changing climate.

Last month, more than a dozen people were killed when Typhoon Yagi, known locally as Enteng, hit the country’s east.

Topics: Philippines

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