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MOSCOW: Russia has invited the Taliban to take part in the St. Petersburg Economic Forum in June, the TASS state news agency reported on Monday, citing the foreign ministry.
TASS reported on Monday that Russian ministries advised Putin that Moscow could remove the Taliban from its listed of banned organizations.
Russian air defenses intercepted and destroyed 158 Ukrainian drones overnight, including two over Moscow and nine over the surrounding region, the Defense Ministry said Sunday.
Forty-six of the drones were over the Kursk region, where Ukraine has sent its forces in recent weeks in the largest incursion on Russian soil since World War II. A further 34 were shot over the Bryansk region, 28 over the Voronezh region, and 14 over the Belgorod region — all of which border Ukraine.
Drones were also shot down deeper into Russia, including one each in the Tver region, northwest of Moscow, and the Ivanovo region, northeast of the Russian capital. Russia’s Defense Ministry said drones were intercepted over 15 regions, while one other governor said a drone was shot down over his region, too.
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said that falling debris from one of the two drones shot down over the city caused a fire at an oil refinery.
Ukrainian drone strikes have brought the fight far from the front line into the heart of Russia. Since the beginning of the year, Ukraine has stepped up aerial assaults on Russian soil, targeting refineries and oil terminals to slow down the Kremlin’s assault.
Also in Russia, regional Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said 11 people were wounded in Ukrainian aerial missile attacks in the Russian border region of Belgorod on Sunday. These included eight in the regional capital, also called Belgorod.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said Sunday it had taken control of the towns of Pivnichne and Vyimka, in Ukraine’s Donetsk region. The Associated Press could not independently verify the claim.
Russian forces have been driving deeper into the partly occupied eastern region, the total capture of which is one of the Kremlin’s primary ambitions. Russia’s army is closing in on Pokrovsk, a critical logistics hub for the Ukrainian defense in the area.
At least three people were killed and nine wounded on Sunday in Russian shelling in the town of Kurakhove, some 20 miles (33 kilometers) south of Pokrovsk, Donetsk regional Gov. Vadym Filashkin said.
Also on Sunday, 44 people were wounded when Russia attacked the Kharkiv regional capital, also called Kharkiv, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. The city was struck by 10 missiles, with a shopping center, a sports facility and residential buildings among those damaged.
Elsewhere in Ukraine overnight, eight drones were shot down out of 11 launched by Russia, according to the Ukrainian air force.
One person was killed and four wounded in shelling overnight in the Sumy region, local officials said, while Kharkiv Gov. Oleh Syniehubov said five other people had been wounded in his region.
WASHINGTON: Several US Democratic lawmakers renewed calls for an Israeli-Hamas ceasefire on Sunday in reaction to the killing of six hostages in a tunnel under Gaza, while Republicans criticized President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris for not giving stronger support to Israel.
Israel recovered the bodies of six hostages from a tunnel in Gaza where they were apparently killed shortly before its troops reached them, triggering Israeli protests on Sunday and planned strikes over the failure to save them.
The military said the bodies of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, who is an Israeli-American citizen, Carmel Gat, Eden Yerushalmi, Alexander Lobanov, Almog Sarusi and Ori Danino have been returned to Israel.
US President Joe Biden spoke with Goldberg-Polin’s parents, Rachel Goldberg and Jon Polin, who appeared at the Democratic National Convention last month, to offer condolences, a White House official said.
US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan held a virtual meeting on Sunday with the families of the American hostages held by Hamas in Gaza.
Sullivan discussed the ongoing diplomatic push to drive toward a deal that secures the release of the remaining hostages, the White House said.
Democratic US Senator Dick Durbin said in a post on X that he was “heartbroken and devastated” by the news of Goldberg-Polin’s death, echoing sentiments of other US officials and lawmakers.
“A ceasefire must be reached immediately that allows all remaining hostages to be released, humanitarian aid to flow into Gaza, and an elusive and neglected long-term vision for peace and stability to become a reality,” said Durbin, the second-ranking Senate Democrat.
Jonathan Dekel-Chen, whose son Sagui is another hostage with American citizenship, said the government of Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to engage in negotiations with Hamas to bring hostages home and time was running out.
He said the “entire senior military establishment and intelligence community has been saying publicly and openly for weeks and months that the time has come to end the fighting in Gaza, get our hostages home, as many alive as possible,” Dekel-Chen told the CBS “Face the Nation” program.”
BLAMING BIDEN
Republican lawmakers on Sunday did not urge a stronger push for ceasefire negotiations, with some blaming the Biden-Harris administration for not supporting Israel strongly enough.
“They continue to encourage and embolden Hamas,” with calls for a ceasefire, said Republican Senator Tom Cotton.
Asked what Netanyahu’s government should do in the face of growing protests in Israel, Cotton said: “I would urge him to finish the job against Hamas, which is exactly what Kamala Harris and Joe Biden should have done from the very beginning.”
In a statement released by the White House just before midnight on Saturday, Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, did not call for a ceasefire and condemned Hamas for the deaths.
“Hamas is an evil terrorist organization. With these murders, Hamas has even more American blood on its hands. I strongly condemn Hamas’ continued brutality, and so must the entire world,” Harris said.
Harris later posted on X that she and her husband Doug Emhoff spoke to Goldberg-Polin’s parents “to express our condolences following the brutal murder of their son by Hamas terrorists.”
Republican senator Lindsey Graham called for more pressure on Iran, Hamas’ main sponsor, telling ABC’s “This Week” that the Biden administration and Israel “should hold Iran accountable for the fate of remaining hostages and put on the target list oil refineries in Iran if the hostages are not released.”
Usha Chilukuri Vance loves her “meat and potatoes” husband, JD Vance. She explained to a rapt Republican National Convention audience how their vice presidential candidate adapted to her vegetarian diet and even learned to cook Indian food from her immigrant mother.
That image of her white, Christian husband making the spicy cuisine of her parents’ native state in South India is atypical for the leaders of a party whose members are still largely white and Christian. Her presence at the RNC sparked enthusiasm on social media among some Indian American conservatives, particularly Hindu Americans, although most Indian Americans identify as Democrats.
But for all Usha Vance shared about their identity-blending marriage in her speech last month in Milwaukee, which was a little over four minutes, she made no mention of her Hindu upbringing or her personal faith and their interfaith relationship – biographical details that have exposed her to online vitriol and hate.
While some political analysts say her strong presence as a Hindu American still makes the community proud, others question whether the Republican Party is really ready for a Hindu second lady.
Usha Vance is choosing to remain silent about her religion in the run-up to the election and declined to speak with The Associated Press about it. She opted not to answer questions about whether she is a practicing Hindu or if she attends Mass with her Catholic husband, an adult convert to the faith, or in which faith tradition their three children are being raised.
Brought up in San Diego by immigrant parents, both professors, in a Hindu household, Usha Vance did confirm that one of their children has an Indian name, and she and JD Vance were married in both “an Indian and an American wedding.” The pair met as students at Yale Law School.
Her Hindu background could appeal to some South Asian voters, which might add value in swing states with larger South Asian communities like Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina, said Dheepa Sundaram, a Hindu Studies professor at the University of Denver. Sundaram says that while some Indian and Hindu conservatives may be eager to embrace Usha Vance, that doesn’t appear to be part of the party’s public-facing strategy.
“To me it seems like her Hindu identity is more of a liability than an asset,” she said. “It also feels like the campaign wants to have it both ways: Usha may be Hindu, which is great, but we don’t want to talk about it.”
Sundaram said Usha Vance would appeal particularly to those Hindu Americans who support the politics of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, under whom Hindu nationalism has surged.
There are deep divisions within some Indian American communities over issues such as taxes, education, relations with India and anti-caste discrimination legislation that gained momentum in Seattle and California. Caste is a division of people based on birth or descent and calls to outlaw related discrimination are growing in the US.
About 7 in 10 Indian Americans identify with or lean toward the Democratic Party, while about 3 in 10 identify with or lean toward the Republican Party, according to Pew Research Center surveys conducted in 2022 and 2023. AAPI Data/AP-NORC surveys from earlier this year found that less than 1 in 10 South Asian Americans trust the Republican Party over the Democrats on key issues like abortion, gun policy and climate change, while around half or more trusted the Democratic Party more than the Republicans.
Still Usha Vance, “a second lady who looks like us and speaks like us,” may help capture the attention of a block of voters that has been challenging for Republicans to reach, said Ohio State Sen. Niraj Antani, a Republican and Hindu American who is the youngest member of the state senate.
“If Republicans don’t reach out to minority groups, we will lose elections.”
Vivek Ramaswamy, the 39-year-old biotech entrepreneur who ran for president in 2020 and now supports the Trump-Vance ticket, made his Hindu faith front and center during his campaign last year. He said Hindu teachings had much in with common Judeo-Christian values. He declined to comment about Usha Vance’s religious background.
Usha Vance’s silence about her religion and Ramaswamy’s defeat in the primary election may indicate that being anything other than Christian in the Republican Party might still be an issue for a part of the base, said Karthick Ramakrishnan, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, and executive director of AAPI Data.
“What we’ve seen since the convention is more exclusionary elements within the Republican Party speaking up and against Usha and JD Vance,” Ramakrishnan said. “This, to me, suggests that there is a political price to pay in terms of being open about one’s religious identity that is not Christian. There’s still a long way to go.”
Antani, a Hindu candidate who has won several Ohio state elections in a region that is mostly Christian and deeply conservative, said “the racism in the Republican Party is coming from racists, not Republicans.” Antani, who celebrated Usha Vance speaking about her Indian heritage at the RNC, believes Ramaswamy lost not because he is Hindu, because he was not as well-known as the other candidates.
Vance was baptized and converted to Catholicism in 2019, and says he and his family now call the church their home. The campaign did not answer questions as to whether the three children had been baptized. He has also talked about how his wife helped him find his Catholic faith after a roller coaster of a spiritual journey as he was raised Protestant and became an atheist in college.
Suhag Shukla, executive director of the Hindu American Foundation, said the fact that Usha Vance inspired her husband on his religious journey to become Catholic is “as Hindu as it gets.”
“Hinduism is about finding your own path and getting in touch with your own spirituality,” she said, adding that the definition of a “practicing Hindu” ranges from someone who goes to temple and performs rituals to someone who is a cultural Hindu who observes festivals such as Diwali, or just engages in a spiritual practice such as meditation.
Usha Vance is an example of the positive contributions made by Hindu Americans, and her interfaith marriage and her ability to listen to different perspectives are reflective of Hindu teachings, she said.
“Hindu Americans assimilate, but also hold on to what inspired them from their tradition and culture,” Shukla said. “Our pluralistic background puts us in a good position to get along with different people without compromising who we are. Hindu culture is very comfortable with differences of opinion.”
Shukla said those who are turning to the Republican party are reacting to anti-Hindu prejudice against Hindu Democrats that is not being shut down by their own party.
“There is this perception that the Democratic Party does not care about the well-being of Hindu Americans or is deaf to the community’s concerns,” she said, referring to legislation including caste as a category in anti-discrimination laws, which was proposed and passed in Seattle. Similar legislation was vetoed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in California.
But Ramakrishnan is not so sure Indian Americans feel welcome in the Republican Party even if they may see eye to eye with conservatives on some issues.
“One of the reasons Indian Americans have been consistently supporting the Democrats is because of the rise of Christian conservatism and nationalism,” he said. “That in itself makes it less likely they will vote Republican or identify as Republican.”
PARIS: Manizha Talash, the Afghan breakdancer from the refugee team who was disqualified at the Paris Olympics for displaying the words “Free Afghan Women” on her cape in her routine last month, said she planned her action for four months and would do it again.
Talash, who lives in Spain, wore a light blue cape with the phrase written on it in large white letters in her pre-qualifier loss to India Sardjoe of Netherlands at Place de la Concorde, which she said was inspired by the ‘Hunger Games’ movie.
Political slogans and statement are banned on the field of play and on podiums at the Olympics and breaking’s governing body later said the 21-year-old had been disqualified.
“As long as I can remember, I grew up with the sound of the bombs around me every day, with my loved ones, some of whom I lost in the bombings,” Talash, who was in Paris after a local association for Afghan women raised funds to fly her from Spain, told Reuters at the Paralympic Games, where fellow Afghan Zakia Khudadadi clinched a bronze medal in taekwondo — a first for a para athlete from a refugee team at an Olympics.
“I am like a bomb because I grew with bombs around me.
“I used the first competition, the first dance performance I was able to do, to act directly and highlight the action I wanted to take. If I had to do it again I would do the same.”
The Taliban’s restrictions on women and freedom of expression have drawn sharp criticism from rights groups and many foreign governments since the former insurgents resumed control of Afghanistan in 2021.
WOMEN’S CAUSE
Talash, who stayed for a year in Pakistan hoping to return to her home country before moving to Spain after the Taliban took Kabul three years ago, said Afghan women were “in a cage” and it was her duty to “resist.”
“For four months I thought about what I could do so that the cause of Afghan women would he heard,” she said.
“But I want to be clear that this was not a political message, it was a message I wanted to send to the world.
“I’m not just a sports person, I’m a hip hop person who wants to be able to think and dress differently.
“My message was not about (wearing) the hijab (or not), it was about freedom of movement and education (for women in Afghanistan),” Talash added in a press conference as tears rolled down her cheeks.
After drying her eyes, two pearly jewels looking like tears remained under them.
“It’s a message and in the same way it’s the idea that a woman’s tears are important and that we have to be very careful not to have women shed tears,” she said.
Western capitals, led by Washington, have said the path to formal recognition of the Taliban is largely stalled until they reverse course on women’s rights and open high schools to girls.
“I’m also fighting for this generation, but also the future generations who will end up being illiterate,” Talash said.
“The burqa (cape) I wore at the Olympics was a symbol — like wings for Afghan women to take flight and break free.”
BERLIN: The Alternative for Germany (AfD) was on track on Sunday to become the first far-right party to win a regional election in Germany since World War Two, exit polls showed, but was almost certain to be excluded from power by rival parties.
The AfD was projected to win 33.5 percent of the vote in the state of Thuringia, comfortably ahead of the conservatives’ 24.5 percent, broadcaster ZDF’s exit poll showed. In the neighboring state of Saxony, the conservatives led on 32 percent, just half a percentage point ahead of the AfD.
The left populist Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW), which like the AfD demands sharper controls on immigration and wants to stop arming Ukraine, came third in both states, though significantly underperformed earlier polls.
With a year to go until Germany’s national election, the results look punishing for Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition, though his Social Democrats looked to have cleared the 5 percent threshold for staying in the parliaments of both states.
However his coalition partners, the Greens and the business-friendly Free Democrats looked less secure in both parliaments, in a development that could herald yet more conflict in Scholz’s already fractious coalition government.
All parties including the BSW have pledged not to allow into coalition an AfD they regard as anti-democratic and extremist.
