Bangladesh’s Yunus urges unity to counter ‘Indian aggression’

Bangladesh’s Chief Adviser of the interim Government, Muhammad Yunus, speaks in a meeting with the representatives of political parties at the Foreign Service Academy in Dhaka, on December 4, 2024. (Photo Courtesy: CA Press Wing)
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Updated 04 December 2024
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Bangladesh’s Yunus urges unity to counter ‘Indian aggression’

  • India, where ex-PM Hasina has sought refuge, accuses Bangladesh of failing to protect Hindus
  • After Hasina’s ouster, Hindus and other minorities suffered attacks for allegedly supporting her

DHAKA: Bangladesh’s interim leader Muhammad Yunus on Wednesday urged the country’s politicians to keep differences at bay and put up a united front to counter “Indian aggression.”

The Muslim-majority nation saw a student-led uprising in August, toppling autocratic premier Sheikh Hasina and ending her 15-year rule.

India — Hasina’s biggest international patron and the destination of her exile — has accused Yunus’ administration of failing to protect minority Hindus, straining ties between the neighbors.

“They are undermining our efforts to build a new Bangladesh and are spreading fictitious stories,” Yunus told a gathering of Bangladeshi political parties.

“They have spread these rumors in particular countries and among influential players.”

Yunus urged politicians at the meeting to unite against what he characterised as a disinformation campaign, describing the matter as “a question of our existence.”

A caretaker administration headed by Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize laureate, has been tasked with enacting democratic reforms ahead of fresh elections.

The chaotic aftermath of Hasina’s ouster saw a smattering of reprisal attacks against Hindus and other minorities, based in part on their perceived support for her government.

Yunus’s administration has acknowledged and condemned attacks on Hindus but said in many cases they were motivated by politics rather than religion.

It has accused India of exaggerating the scale of the violence and running a “propaganda campaign.”

Wednesday’s meeting, Yunus’s media team said, was part of an initiative to promote national unity in the face of “Indian aggression.”

Yunus also met with student leaders on Tuesday evening.

Numerous street demonstrations have been staged against India in Bangladesh since Hasina’s ouster as diplomatic relations have cratered.

Several rallies were held on Wednesday to protest against an attempt by Hindu activists this week to storm a Bangladeshi consulate in an Indian city not far from the neighbors’ shared border.

India has condemned the breach and arrested seven people over the incident.


King Charles III experiences side effects after receiving medical treatment and is in hospital

Updated 3 sec ago
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King Charles III experiences side effects after receiving medical treatment and is in hospital

  • King Charles III engagements for Thursday afternoon and Friday were canceled

LONDON: King Charles III was hospitalized for observation on Thursday after experiencing “temporary side effects,’’ related to a scheduled cancer treatment, Buckingham Palace said in a statement.
His engagements for Thursday afternoon and Friday were canceled.
“His majesty has now returned to Clarence House and as a precautionary measure, acting on medical advice, tomorrow’s diary program will also be rescheduled,’’ the palace said. “His majesty would like to send his apologies to all those who may be inconvenienced or disappointed as a result.’’
Charles, 76, has been undergoing treatment for an undisclosed form of cancer for more than a year. The king has continued fulfilling his state duties, such as reviewing government papers and meeting with the prime minister, even though he took some time off public duties.


Firefighting helicopter tackles Thailand blazes

Updated 19 min 10 sec ago
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Firefighting helicopter tackles Thailand blazes

  • Forest fires are burning in several areas of northern Thailand

CHIANG MAI: A bright orange helicopter races over the jungle to dump water on a raging wildfire that is adding to the air pollution choking Thailand’s northern tourist hub of Chiang Mai.
Chutaphorn Phuangchingngam, the only female captain in Thailand’s national disaster prevention team, draws on two decades of flying to steer the Russian-made chopper through the thick smoke.
Forest fires are burning in several areas of northern Thailand, contributing to the annual spike in air pollution that comes with farmers burning stubble to prepare their land for the next crop.
Chiang Mai had the sixth worst air quality of any major city in the world on Thursday morning, according to monitor IQAir, and the city governor has warned residents against staying outdoors.
Chutaphorn  said the dense forest and hilly terrain made helicopters the best tool to fight the blazes.
“We use (helicopters) to put out fire in areas that are difficult to reach, especially in the mountains,” she said.
Chutaphorn and her six-member crew flew over Huai Bok reservoir, collecting 3,000 liters of water each time before heading 2 kilometers to the fire zone, spread across more than 1.6 hectares.
Northern Thailand is the latest area around the world to suffer significant wildfires, after South Korea — currently battling its biggest on record — Japan and California.
While the causes of forest fires can be complex, climate change can make them more likely by creating hotter, drier weather that leaves undergrowth more prone to catching light.
As well as damaging important forests, the fires are fueling Thailand’s anxieties about air pollution, which causes millions of people to need medical treatment each year.

HIGHLIGHT

Forest fires are burning in several areas of northern Thailand, contributing to the annual spike in air pollution that comes with farmers burning stubble to prepare their land for the next crop.

Levels of PM2.5 pollutants — dangerous cancer-causing microparticles small enough to enter the bloodstream through the lungs — were almost 15 times the World Health Organization’s recommended limit in Chiang Mai on Thursday, according to IQAir.
The government banned crop burning early this year to try to improve air quality, with violators facing fines and legal action, but authorities said the measures have proven ineffective.
“There are still large numbers of farmers who continue to burn their fields,” said Dusit Pongsapipat, head of the Department of Natural Disaster Prevention and Mitigation in Chiang Mai.
Danaipat Pokavanich, a clean-air advocate involved in drafting the Clean Air Act — a bill to curb pollution in Thailand — praised the firefighting efforts but called them a “temporary fix.”
“The law alone won’t stop farmers from burning,” he said.
He recommended offering financial incentives to encourage sustainable farming practices and investing in technology to reduce the need for burning.
Until then, Chatuphorn and her team remain ready to take to the skies to do their part to clean up the air by putting out forest fires.
“Flying a helicopter for disaster work is different from flying passengers,” she said, citing limited visibility as a major challenge.
She remains committed to her childhood dream.
“I just wanted to touch the cloud,” she said, after the helicopter landed. “Though now all I feel is just the smoke.”


French FM urges ‘powerful’ ties with China

Updated 26 min 14 sec ago
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French FM urges ‘powerful’ ties with China

  • China hopes visit will see the countries deepen cooperation

BEIJING: France’s Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot called for a “powerful Franco-Chinese partnership” amid geopolitical turmoil, as he met Chinese counterpart Wang Yi on Thursday for talks on the war in Ukraine and Beijing’s trade row with Europe.
China has said it hopes this week’s visit by Barrot will see the countries deepen cooperation in a world facing “turbulence and transformation.”
It has said the two sides will discuss ways to “jointly resist unilateralism and the resurgence of the law of the jungle” — a veiled reference to US President Donald Trump, whose return to the White House in January has rocked the international order.
Paris expects the talks will focus on a resolution to Russia’s war in Ukraine, which Beijing has never condemned, as well as the Middle East conflict and trade tensions between China and the European Union. Barrot met top Chinese diplomat Wang at Beijing’s ornate Diaoyutai guesthouse on Thursday morning.
The two shook hands in front of large French and Chinese flags, then entered a room for closed-door discussions.
Barrot kicked off the day with a visit to the Beijing Language and Culture University, where he addressed students, touting the benefits of learning French and strong ties between the two countries.
“More than ever, the current context requires a powerful Franco-Chinese partnership in the service of geopolitical stability, prosperity and the future of our planet,” he told the students. In the afternoon, he will hold a meeting with an as-yet-unnamed senior official.

FASTFACT

France and China have sought to boost ties in recent years, but Paris has also pressed Beijing on its relations with Moscow, which have strengthened since the invasion of Ukraine.

Barrot will then head to economic powerhouse Shanghai, where he will on Friday inaugurate a hydrogen production plant built by the Air Liquide group and participate in a Franco-Chinese business forum.
Beijing has said it will use the visit “to consolidate political mutual trust.”
France and China have sought to boost ties in recent years, but Paris has also pressed Beijing on its relations with Moscow, which have strengthened since the invasion of Ukraine.
China says it is a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict.
But China is a close political and economic ally of Russia, and NATO members have branded Beijing a “decisive enabler” of the war, which it has never condemned.
Barrot’s visit to China comes as part of a wider tour of Asia, including stops in Indonesia and Singapore.
In the Southeast Asian city state on Wednesday, he warned the threat of Russian aggression in Europe was “not theoretical.”
“Its aggressivity over the past three years has extended way beyond Ukraine itself,” Barrot told journalists.


Homeland Security Secretary Noem visits El Salvador prison where deported Venezuelans are held

Updated 27 min 9 sec ago
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Homeland Security Secretary Noem visits El Salvador prison where deported Venezuelans are held

  • About a dozen prisoners were lined up by guards near the front of their cell and told to remove their T-shirts and face masks
  • Kristi Noem: ‘Know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people’

TECOLUCA, El Salvador: US Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday visited the high-security El Salvador prison where Venezuelans who the Trump administration alleges are gang members have been held since their removal from the United States. The tour included two crowded cell blocks, the armory and an isolation unit.
Noem’s trip to the prison — where inmates are packed into cells and never allowed outside — comes as the Trump administration seeks to show it is deporting people it describes as the “worst of the worst.”
The Trump administration is arguing in federal court that it was justified in sending the Venezuelans to El Salvador, while activists say officials have sent them to a prison rife with human rights abuses while presenting little evidence that they were part of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.
Noem notably dodged questions by the press about if the Venezuelan deportees were going to be in the prison indefinitely and if the Venezuelans could ever be brought back to the US if a court orders the administration to do so.
“We’re going to let the courts play out,” she told reporters following the visit.
Noem toured an area holding some of the Venezuelans accused of being gang members. In the sweltering building, the men in white T-shirts and shorts stared silently from their cell, then were heard shouting an indiscernible chant when she left.
In a cell block holding Salvadoran prisoners, about a dozen were lined up by guards near the front of their cell and told to remove their T-shirts and face masks. The men were heavily tattooed, some bearing the letters MS, for the Mara Salvatrucha gang, on their chests.
After listening to Salvadoran officials, Noem turned her back to the cell and recorded a video message.
If an immigrant commits a crime, “this is one of the consequences you could face,” Noem said. “First of all, do not come to our country illegally. You will be removed and you will be prosecuted. But know that this facility is one of the tools in our toolkit that we will use if you commit crimes against the American people.”
Noem also met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, a populist who has gained right-wing admiration in the US due to his crackdown on the country’s gangs, despite the democratic and due process implications that have come with it.
“This unprecedented relationship we have with El Salvador is going to be a model for other countries on how they can work with America,” Noem said to reporters Wednesday.
Since taking office, Noem has frequently been front and center in efforts to highlight the immigration crackdown. She took part in immigration enforcement operations, rode horses with Border Patrol agents and was the face of a television campaign warning people in the country illegally to self-deport.
Noem’s Wednesday visit is part of a three-day trip. She’ll also travel to Colombia and Mexico.
The Venezuelans were removed from the US this month after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and said the US was being invaded by the Tren de Aragua gang. The Alien Enemies Act gives the president wartime powers and allows noncitizens to be deported without the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal court judge.
An appeals court Wednesday kept in place an order barring the administration from deporting more Venezuelan immigrants to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act.
A central outstanding question about the deportees’ status is when and how they could ever be released from the prison, called the Terrorism Confinement Center, as they are not serving sentences. They no longer appear in US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s online detainee locator and have not appeared before a judge in El Salvador.
The Trump administration refers to them as the “worst of the worst” but hasn’t identified who was deported or provided evidence that they’re gang members.
Relatives of some of the deportees have categorically denied any gang affiliation. The Venezuelan government and a group called the Families of Immigrants Committee in Venezuela hired a lawyer to help free those held in El Salvador. A lawyer for the firm, which currently represents about 30 Venezuelans, said they aren’t gang members and have no criminal records.
The US government has acknowledged that many do not have such records.
Flights were in the air March 15 when a federal judge issued a verbal order temporarily barring the deportations and ordered planes to return to the US
The Trump administration has argued that the judge’s verbal directions did not count, that only his written order needed to be followed and that it couldn’t apply to flights that had already left the US
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters that about 261 people were deported on the flights, including 137 under the Alien Enemies Act.
Bukele opened the prison in 2023 as he made the Central American country’s stark, harsh prisons a trademark of his fight against crime. The facility has eight sprawling pavilions and can hold up to 40,000 inmates. Each cell can fit 65 to 70 prisoners.
Prisoners can’t have visitors. There are no workshops or educational programs.
El Salvador hasn’t had diplomatic relations with Venezuela since 2019, so the Venezuelans imprisoned there do not have consular support from their government.
Video released by El Salvador’s government after the deportees’ arrival showed men exiting airplanes onto an airport tarmac lined by officers in riot gear. The men, who had their hands and ankles shackled, struggled to walk as officers pushed their heads down.
They were later shown at the prison kneeling on the ground as their heads were shaved before they changed into the prison’s all-white uniform — knee-length shorts, T-shirt, socks and rubber clogs — and placed in cells.
For three years, El Salvador has been operating under a state of emergency that suspends fundamental rights as Bukele wages an all-out assault on the country’s powerful street gangs. During that time, some 84,000 people have been arrested, accused of gang ties and jailed, often without due process.
Bukele offered to hold US deportees in the prison when US Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited in February.
At the prison Wednesday, El Salvador Justice Minister Gustavo Villatoro showed Noem a cell holding Salvadorans he said had been there since the prison opened. “No one expects that these people can go back to society and behave,” he said.


Canada’s new prime minister says he’ll be speaking soon with Trump for the first time

Updated 40 min 53 sec ago
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Canada’s new prime minister says he’ll be speaking soon with Trump for the first time

  • “We will be speaking soon, certainly in the course of the next day or two,” Carney said
  • “It is clear that the United States is no longer a reliable partner”

TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said Thursday that he would speak with US President Donald Trump in the coming days after Trump announced 25 percent tariffs on auto imports.
Carney, who hasn’t spoken with Trump since becoming Canada’s new leader nearly two weeks ago, said that the US president reached out Wednesday night to schedule a call.
“We will be speaking soon, certainly in the course of the next day or two,” Carney said.
Carney said that Trump has to respect Canada’s sovereignty. “That’s not much to ask, but apparently it’s a lot for him,” he said.
Trump has declared a trade war on Canada and continues to call for the United States’ northern neighbor to become the 51st US state, a position that has infuriated Canadians.
“It is clear that the United States is no longer a reliable partner. It is possible the negotiations that, with comprehensive negotiations, we will be able to restore some trust, but there will be no turning back,” Carney said. “We will need to dramatically reduce our reliance on the United States. We will need to pivot our trade relationships elsewhere.”
The former central banker was sworn in as Canada’s new prime minister on March 14. It’s unusual for a US president and Canadian prime minister to go so long without talking after a new leader takes office.
Carney, who replaced Justin Trudeau as Canada’s leader and the head of the Liberal Party, is at the start of a five-week campaign after calling an early election for April 28.
The governing Liberals had appeared poised for a historic election defeat this year until Trump declared a trade war and challenged Canada’s sovereignty. The crisis has created a surge in patriotism among Canadians, with many in the country feeling that Carney is the best person to lead the country at the moment.
Trump has acknowledged himself that he has upended Canadian politics.
Carne called the tariffs unjustified and left the election campaign to chair his special Cabinet committee on US relations in Ottawa. He said many Canadians are feeling worried and anxious about the future.
He said over the coming years Canadians must fundamentally reimagine the economy in a drastically different world. More than 75 percent of Canada’s exports go to the US
“The old relationship we had with the United States based on deepening integration of our economies and tight security and military cooperation is over,” he said.
Carney is asking Canadians for a clear and strong mandate given “the biggest crisis in our lifetimes.”
Automobiles are Canada’s second-largest export and the sector employs 125,000 Canadians directly and almost another 500,000 in related industries.
Carney announced this week a CA$2 billion ($1.4 billion) “strategic response fund” that will protect Canadian auto jobs affected by Trump’s tariffs.
Trump previously had granted a one-month exemption on his stiff new tariffs on auto imports from Mexico and Canada for US automakers.
In the auto sector, parts can go back and forth across the Canada-US border several times before being fully assembled in Ontario or Michigan.
Trump previously placed 25 percent tariffs on Canada’s steel and aluminum and is threatening sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products — as well as on all of America’s trading partners — on April 2.
The president has plunged the US into a global trade war — all while on-again, off-again new levies continue to escalate uncertainty.
The tax hike on auto imports starting in April means automakers could face higher costs and lower sales.
“This is not an industry that is Donald Trump’s to steal or take,” said Lana Payne, the National President of Unifor, the union that represents auto workers in Canada.
Payne said that Carney should tell Trump that if US automakers are going to sell cars and trucks in Canada, they are going to have to build in Canada.