Unemployed youth cling to Indian-administered Kashmir elections for hope

Unemployed youth cling to Indian-administered Kashmir elections for hope
Supporters of Awami Ittehad Party (AIP) leader Sheikh Abdul Rashid cheer during a public rally at Baramulla some 55 kilometers (34 miles) north of Srinagar, Indian controlled Kashmir, Thursday, Sept. 12, 2024. (AP)
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Updated 14 September 2024
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Unemployed youth cling to Indian-administered Kashmir elections for hope

Unemployed youth cling to Indian-administered Kashmir elections for hope
  • Nearly 9 million people are registered to vote for the legislative assembly elections in the Jammu and Kashmir region
  • Decision to hold regional elections comes after India’s Supreme Court upheld a decision to scrap region’s special status

SRINAGAR: Ayaz Nabi Malik from the Pulwama district in India’s Jammu and Kashmir region has a master’s degree but has been unemployed for nearly a decade.
Like many others in his situation, the 30-year old is looking toward the local assembly elections on Sept. 18 to Oct.1 — the first in 10 years — with some hope after political parties put tackling youth unemployment at the heart of their campaigns.
With unemployment in the region running at 18.3 percent, nearly double India’s national average of 9.2 percent, the situation is desperate, say locals. There is a lot of competition for government jobs given the development of the private sector has been limited by decades of conflict and unstable governance.
A 28-year-old man from Srinagar who graduated in civil engineering in 2021 told the Thomson Reuters Foundation that the situation had gotten so bad that he was now suffering from anxiety and depression.
“I’ve been struggling to get a government job ever since I completed my degree, but I haven’t been able to secure one. Now, without a job, I find myself battling suicidal thoughts every day,” said the man, who will remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the issue.
To address these deepening economic and social problems, the contending parties, including India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and regional parties Jammu and Kashmir National Conference (JKNC) and the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), are promising to create jobs for young people and upskill workers.
With an estimated 600,000 people currently out of work in the Jammu and Kashmir region, those policies can’t come soon enough, said Javid Ahmed Tenga, president of the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry (KCCI). The territory had a population of around 12.5 million in 2011, according to the latest census available.
“As the elections approach, it’s crucial that the next government introduces policies that bolster the private sector and promote skill-based initiatives to effectively tackle the unemployment crisis,” he said.
POLITICAL PROMISES
Nearly 9 million people are registered to vote for the legislative assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir. The decision to hold regional elections for the first time in a decade comes after India’s Supreme Court upheld a decision by the government to scrap the region’s special status.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi withdrew Jammu and Kashmir’s special autonomy in 2019 and split the former state into two federal territories, aiming to tighten its grip on the Muslim-majority region. The region has been at the center of decades of animosity between India and Pakistan since independence from British colonial rule.
Modi says the region’s special status had held back its development.
“After the revocation of (the special status), the Modi government claimed that a lot of money would come in and that big companies would arrive to boost the economy and create employment in Kashmir,” said Sarah Hayat Shah, a spokesperson for JKNC, which is seen as the top contender at the regional elections. “However, these turned out to be nothing more than hollow promises.”
She said her party plans to add 100,000 jobs among the youth across various sectors, including skilled jobs under a start-up scheme.
The JKNC also plans to introduce an initiative that focuses on creating sustainable employment opportunities, or the Jammu and Kashmir Youth Employment Generation Act, within three months of taking office, she said.
The PDP party aims to create jobs in various sectors including horticulture, agriculture, and the tourism industry, said Waheed Ur Rehman Para, a PDP candidate for the assembly of the Pulwama constituency.
Para said the PDP was committed to expanding the livelihood program, which foresees setting up centers across municipalities and rural areas to teach prospective candidates practical skills for employment and entrepreneurship, with a focus on the youth.
“Many have been living in a state of hopelessness,” said 36-year old Para, who is also the PDP’s youth leader.
RECRUITMENT PROCESS
The unemployed man from Srinagar said he had applied for several jobs advertised by the local Jammu Kashmir administration but had never been selected, calling the process “unfair” and a “scam.”
The local Jammu Kashmir administration did not immediately reply to the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s request for a comment. Kashmir is currently run by Manoj Sinha, a governor appointed by the BJP-led government.
The BJP said in its election manifesto that it was committed to making sure the recruitment process for government jobs in the Jammu and Kashmir region is transparent.
Such allegations are not uncommon. In June, opposition parties and thousands of students protested against Modi’s government for alleged irregularities in recent government-run tests for medical college admissions.
The man from Srinagar said he would vote in the upcoming election, having not voted in 2014, because the parties seem more focused on tackling youth unemployment this time around.
Back in Pulwama, Malik said he was hopeful as he prepares to vote for the first time in his life.
“After a decade of no local representation, there is significant anticipation among the unemployed youth like me who have been waiting for the democratic process to resume and elect candidates who will prioritize job creation,” he said.


China’s Xi hails ‘new chapter’ in relations with Indonesia

China’s Xi hails ‘new chapter’ in relations with Indonesia
Updated 30 sec ago
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China’s Xi hails ‘new chapter’ in relations with Indonesia

China’s Xi hails ‘new chapter’ in relations with Indonesia
  • Beijing and Jakarta are key economic allies, with Chinese companies plowing money into extracting Indonesian natural resources in recent years
  • But the two countries have sparred verbally over disputed claims in the South China Sea
BEIJING: Chinese President Xi Jinping told his Indonesian counterpart that Beijing hopes for a “new chapter” in bilateral relations, as the two leaders met on Saturday.
Xi held talks with newly sworn-in President Prabowo Subianto in Beijing, the first stop of the Indonesian leader’s inaugural foreign tour since he took office in October.
China is keen to work with Indonesia to “write a new chapter of joint self-reliance, solidarity and cooperation, mutual benefit and win-win results as major developing countries,” Xi told Prabowo in front of journalists.
Beijing and Jakarta are key economic allies, with Chinese companies plowing money into extracting Indonesian natural resources in recent years, particularly the nickel sector.
But the two countries have sparred verbally over disputed claims in the South China Sea.
Prabowo said that the relationship between the two countries was “getting stronger and stronger.”
“I would like to reiterate our commitment... to work together for the mutual benefit of our two peoples and for the prosperity, peace and stability of all of Asia,” he added.
Xi held a welcome ceremony for Prabowo at Beijing’s Great Hall of the People on Saturday before the talks.
Prabowo, who landed in China on Friday, is also meeting Premier Li Qiang and number three official Zhao Leji on his trip, which ends on Sunday.
He will travel onwards to Washington, at the invitation of US President Joe Biden, as part of a world tour which will also include Peru, Brazil and Britain.
Prabowo has pledged to stick to Jakarta’s traditionally non-aligned foreign policy while making the world’s fourth-most populous nation more active abroad.
Confrontations over what Indonesia says are Chinese incursions into its territorial waters have weighed on the trading partners’ relationship in recent years.
In 2020, Indonesia deployed fighter jets and warships to patrol around the Natuna islands in the South China Sea after Chinese vessels entered the area.
Last month, Indonesia said it drove Chinese coast guard ships from contested waters in the South China Sea on three separate occasions.
Indonesia says it is trying to stop foreign vessels from fishing in its waters, costing the economy billions of dollars annually.
Huge unexploited oil and gas deposits are believed to lie under the South China Sea, though estimates vary greatly.
Beijing has for years sought to expand its presence in the contested waters, brushing aside an international ruling that its claim to most of the waterway has no legal basis.
It has built artificial islands armed with missile systems and runways for fighter jets, and deployed vessels that the Philippines says harass its ships and block its fishers.
The latest confrontations are an early test for Prabowo, who has pledged to bolster the defense of Indonesian territory.
Prabowo has promised to be bolder on foreign policy than his predecessor Joko Widodo, who focused more on domestic issues.

Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Odesa kills one, injures 13, governor says

Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Odesa kills one, injures 13, governor says
Updated 58 min 17 sec ago
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Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Odesa kills one, injures 13, governor says

Russian drone attack on Ukraine’s Odesa kills one, injures 13, governor says
  • Russia launched 51 drones, focusing its attack on Odesa and the nearby region in the south of Ukraine
  • Ukraine’s military said that Russia launched more than 2,000 attack drones at civilian and military targets in Octobe

KYIV: Russian drones attacked Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa overnight, killing one person and injuring 13 others, including two boys, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Saturday.
Several residential apartment buildings, private houses, commercial buildings and dozens of private cars were damaged in what was the second day in a row of Russian drone attacks on the city, Kiper said.
“At night the enemy again attacked Odesa and the nearby region with attack drones. One person died and 13 were wounded. Among the injured there were two children,” he said on the Telegram messaging app.
Prosecutors said the children were boys aged four and 16.
Russia launched 51 drones, focusing its attack on Odesa and the nearby region in the south of Ukraine, the Ukrainian air force said, adding that Ukrainian air defense units and mobile drone hunter groups shot down 32 Russian drones.
It also said that 18 drones were “lost,” most likely meaning they had been thwarted electronically.
Russian drones also triggered a large fire in one of Odesa’s districts, public broadcaster Suspilne reported, quoting residents.
Other media outlets in the city posted video footage showing cars and buildings ablaze and thick smoke billowing skyward.
As the war against Russia nears its 1,000-day mark, Moscow’s forces have intensified air attacks on Ukrainian cities and towns, sending swarms of drones almost every night.
Ukraine’s military said that Russia launched more than 2,000 attack drones at civilian and military targets in October.
Moscow says it does not target civilians. The UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine had verified 11,743 civilian deaths in conflict-related violence from Russia’s full-scale invasion in Feb. 2022 to the end of August this year. The Ukrainian government says the toll is likely to be much higher due to difficulties accessing parts of the country.


Maryland, California election offices received bomb threats, officials say

Maryland, California election offices received bomb threats, officials say
Updated 09 November 2024
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Maryland, California election offices received bomb threats, officials say

Maryland, California election offices received bomb threats, officials say

WASHINGTON: Several Maryland boards of elections and an office in a county in California received bomb threats on Friday, state authorities said, adding everyone was safe and law enforcement authorities were conducting probes.
Election officials were counting mail-in ballots when the threats came in Maryland. State Administrator of Elections Jared DeMarinis said the threats led to evacuation of some buildings. He called the threats “cowardly,” adding local officials will resume counting on Saturday.
“Safety is a top concern — but we WILL resume canvassing tomorrow. Cowardly threats whether from abroad or not shall not deter us,” DeMarinis said on social media platform X.
“The Baltimore County Police Department is aware and currently investigating the bomb threat received via email by the Baltimore County Board of Elections Office,” police posted on X, later adding that a probe found that threat unfounded.
In California’s Orange County, the registrar of voters received a bomb threat at an office in Santa Ana after which the office building was evacuated and bomb detection dogs were used to conduct a search. No explosives were located, officials said, adding normal operations will resume on Saturday.
The offices of California Governor Gavin Newsom and Maryland Governor Wes Moore said they were monitoring the situations and working with local officials.
Republican Donald Trump defeated Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris in Tuesday’s presidential election. Counting continued in parts of the country in local, congressional and presidential races.
The FBI said that hoax bomb threats, many of which appeared to originate from Russian email domains, were directed on Tuesday at polling locations in five battleground states — Georgia, Michigan, Arizona, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — as Election Day voting was under way. Russia denies interfering in US elections.
Ahead of the elections, officials had braced for attacks and threats arising from misinformation and conspiracy theories about the vote.


Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’

Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’
Updated 09 November 2024
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Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’

Iran foreign ministry says Trump assassination plot claim ‘totally unfounded’
  • The US Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump
  • Investigators learned of the plan to kill Trump from Farhad Shakeri, an Iranian government asset

WASHINGTON/TEHRAN: Iran’s foreign ministry on Saturday described as “totally unfounded” US accusations of a plot by Tehran to assassinate president-elect Donald Trump.

The foreign ministry “rejects allegations that Iran is implicated in an assassination attempt targeting former or current American officials,” spokesman Esmaeil Baghaei said in a statement, after US prosecutors announced charges over the alleged plot.

The Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump, charging a man who said he had been tasked by a government official before this week’s election with planning the assassination of the Republican president-elect.

Investigators learned of the plan to kill Trump from Farhad Shakeri, an accused Iranian government asset who spent time in American prisons for robbery and who authorities say maintains a network of criminal associates enlisted by Tehran for surveillance and murder-for-hire plots.

Shakeri told investigators that a contact in Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard instructed him this past September to set aside other work he was doing and assemble a plan within seven days to surveil and ultimately kill Trump, according to a criminal complaint unsealed in federal court in Manhattan.

The official was quoted by Shakeri as saying that “We have already spent a lot of money” and that “money’s not an issue.” Shakeri told investigators the official told him that if he could not put together a plan within the seven-day timeframe, then the plot would be paused until after the election because the official assumed Trump would lose and that it would be easier to kill him then, the complaint said.

Shakeri is at large and remains in Iran. Two other men were arrested on charges that Shakeri recruited them to follow and kill prominent Iranian-American journalist Masih Alinejad, who has endured multiple Iranian murder-for-hire plots foiled by law enforcement.

“I’m very shocked,” said Alinejad, speaking by telephone to The Associated Press from Berlin, where she was about to attend a ceremony to mark the anniversary of the tearing down of the wall. “This is the third attempt against me and that’s shocking.”

In a post on the social media platform X, she said: “I came to America to practice my First Amendment right to freedom of speech — I don’t want to die. I want to fight against tyranny, and I deserve to be safe. Thank you to law enforcement for protecting me, but I urge the US government to protect the national security of America.”

Lawyers for the two other defendants, identified as Jonathan Loadholt and Carlisle Rivera, did not immediately return messages seeking comment. Iran’s UN Mission declined to comment.

Shakeri, an Afghan national who immigrated to the US as a child but was later deported after spending 14 years in prison for robbery, also told investigators that he was tasked by his Revolutionary Guard contact with plotting the killings of two Jewish-Americans living in New York and Israeli tourists in Sri Lanka. Officials say he overlapped with Rivera while in prison as well as an unidentified co-conspirator.

The criminal complaint says Shakeri disclosed some of the details of the alleged plots in a series of recorded telephone interviews with FBI agents while in Iran. The stated reason for his cooperation, he told investigators, was to try to get a reduced prison sentence for an associate behind bars in the US

According to the complaint, though officials determined that some of the information he provided was false, his statements regarding a plot to kill Trump and Iran’s willingness to pay large sums of money were determined to be accurate.

The plot, disclosed just days after Trump’s defeat of Democrat Kamala Harris, reflects what federal officials have described as ongoing efforts by Iran to target US government officials, including Trump, on US soil. Last summer, the Justice Department charged a Pakistani man with ties to Iran in a murder-for-hire plot targeting American officials.

“There are few actors in the world that pose as grave a threat to the national security of the United States as does Iran,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement Friday. FBI Director Christopher Wray said the case shows Iran’s “continued brazen attempts to target US citizens,” including Trump, “other government leaders and dissidents who criticize the regime in Tehran.”

Iranian operatives also conducted a hack-and-leak operation of emails belonging to Trump campaign associates in what officials have assessed was an effort to interfere in the presidential election.

Intelligence officials have said Iran opposed Trump’s reelection, seeing him as more likely to increase tension between Washington and Tehran. Trump’s administration ended a nuclear deal with Iran, reimposed sanctions and ordered the killing of Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani, an act that prompted Iran’s leaders to vow revenge.

Trump spokesman Steven Cheung said the president-elect was aware of the assassination plot and nothing will deter him “from returning to the White House and restoring peace around the world.”


EU’s Borrell in Kyiv to reassure Ukraine of Europe’s backing

EU’s Borrell in Kyiv to reassure Ukraine of Europe’s backing
Updated 09 November 2024
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EU’s Borrell in Kyiv to reassure Ukraine of Europe’s backing

EU’s Borrell in Kyiv to reassure Ukraine of Europe’s backing
  • ‘The message is a clear one — the Europeans will continue to support Ukraine’
  • Europe together has spent around $125 billion on supporting Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion

KYIV: EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell arrived Saturday in Kyiv to reassure Ukraine of Europe’s backing in the first visit by a top Brussels official after Donald Trump’s poll win.
The volatile Republican’s victory in the United States election has set nerves jangling in Ukraine and Europe that Trump could end Washington’s support for Kyiv’s fight against Russia’s invasion.
“The message is a clear one — the Europeans will continue to support Ukraine,” Borrell, who is set to leave office next month, told an AFP journalist accompanying him.
“We have been supporting Ukraine since the beginning, and on this my last visit to Ukraine, I convey the same message, we will support you as much as we can.”
On the campaign trail, Trump cast doubt on maintaining the vast US military and financial aid to Ukraine and said he could cut a quick deal to end the war.
“Nobody knows exactly what the new administration is going to do,” Borrell said, pointing out that incumbent Joe Biden still has two months in power to make decisions.
“But we Europeans have to use this opportunity in order to build a stronger and united Europe, and one of the manifestations of being united and being stronger and able to act is our role in supporting Ukraine.”
Europe together has spent around $125 billion on supporting Ukraine since Russia’s 2022 invasion, while the United States alone has coughed up more than $90 billion, according to a tracker from the Kiel Institute.
Keeping the US, Ukraine’s single biggest donor, on board is seen by most as key for ensuring Kyiv stays afloat, especially at a time of political uncertainty in major European powers Germany and France.
On the battlefield, Ukraine’s fatigued troops are struggling to stave off Russia’s advances as they approach three years of full-scale combat.
Borrell, who will meet top Ukrainian officials on his visit, said it was up to EU countries to decide “when and how to increase” their support if needed.
But he said that at a meeting of EU leaders in Budapest Friday “most of the member states were insisting on the same line, continue supporting Ukraine.”