ODESSA: Russian President Vladimir Putin has agreed that independent inspectors can travel to the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, the French presidency said Friday, as fears grow over fighting near the site.
The apparent resolution of a dispute over whether inspectors travel via Ukraine or Russia came as a US defense official said Ukraine’s forces had brought the Russian advance to a halt.
“You are seeing a complete and total lack of progress by the Russians on the battlefield,” the official said, speaking on grounds of anonymity.
According to French President Emmanuel Macron’s office, Putin had “reconsidered” his demand that the International Atomic Energy Agency travel through Russia to the Zaporizhzhia nuclear site.
The UN nuclear watchdog’s chief, Rafael Grossi “welcomed recent statements indicating that both Ukraine and Russia supported the IAEA’s aim to send a mission to” the plant.
Meanwhile, UN chief Antonio Guterres urged Moscow’s forces occupying Zaporizhzhia not to disconnect the facility from the grid and potentially cut supplies to millions of Ukrainians.
A flare-up in fighting around the Russian-controlled nuclear power station — with both sides blaming each other for attacks — has raised the spectre of a disaster worse than in Chernobyl.
The Kremlin said that Putin and Macron agreed that the IAEA should carry out inspections “as soon as possible” to “assess the real situation on the ground.”
Putin also “stressed that the systematic shelling by the Ukrainian military of the territory of the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant creates the danger of a large-scale catastrophe,” the Kremlin added.
The warning came just a day after Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Guterres, meeting in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, sounded the alarm over the fighting, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged the United Nations to secure the site.
“This summer may go down in the history of various European countries as one of the most tragic of all time,” Zelensky said in his Friday evening address.
“No instruction at any nuclear power plant in the world provides a procedure in case a terrorist state turns a nuclear power plant into a target.”
During his visit to the southern port of Odessa on Friday, the UN secretary general said that “obviously, the electricity from Zaporizhzhia is Ukrainian electricity. This principle must be fully respected.”
“Naturally, its energy must be used by the Ukrainian people,” he told AFP in separate comments.
On Thursday, Moscow said Kyiv was preparing a “provocation” at the site that would see Russia “accused of creating a man-made disaster at the plant.”
Kyiv, however, insisted that Moscow was planning the provocation, and said Russia’s occupying forces had ordered most staff to stay home Friday.
Guterres visited Odessa as part of an effort to make more Ukrainian grain available to poor countries struggling with soaring food prices, after a landmark deal with Russia last month to allow its export.
The deal, the only significant agreement between Russia and Ukraine since Moscow invaded in February, has so far seen 25 boats carrying some 600,000 tons of agricultural products depart from three designated ports, Kyiv has said.
Guterres is expected to head to Turkey after Odessa to visit the Joint Coordination Center, the body tasked with overseeing the accord.
The grain deal has held, but brought little respite along the sprawling front lines after nearly six months of fighting between US-supplied Ukrainian forces and the Russian military.
The United States on Friday announced a new $775 million arms package, including more precision-guided missiles for Himars systems that enable Ukraine to strike Russian targets far behind the front lines.
The primary tool of Moscow’s forces has been artillery barrages, and recent bombardments over the eastern Donetsk region — which has been partially controlled by Russian proxies since 2014 — left several dead.
The Ukrainian head of the region, Pavlo Kyrylenko, said on social media Friday that Russian strikes had killed five people and wounded 10 more in three settlements.
Strikes early Friday in Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second largest city, left one person dead and damaged a school and a private business, the head of the region said.
Putin to allow inspectors to visit Russia-occupied nuclear plant
https://arab.news/c9t56
Putin to allow inspectors to visit Russia-occupied nuclear plant
Two French prison officers killed in inmate's escape
The inmate was being transported between the towns of Rouen and Evreux in Normandy
ROUEN, France: Gunmen on Tuesday attacked a prison van at a motorway toll in northern France, killing at least two prison officers and freeing a convict who had been jailed last week.
President Emmanuel Macron vowed that everything would be done to find those behind the attack as hundreds of members of the security forces were deployed for a manhunt to find the attackers and the inmate who were all still at large.
Two prison officers were killed in the attack and two others are receiving urgent medical care, Paris prosecutor Laure Beccuau said in a statement.
The incident took place late morning at a road toll in Incarville in the Eure region of northern France, a source close to the case added.
The inmate was being transported between the towns of Rouen and Evreux in Normandy.
A police source said several individuals, who arrived in two vehicles, rammed the police van and then fled.
One of them was wounded, the police source said.
It was not immediately clear how many attackers there were in total.
"Everything is being done to find the perpetrators of this crime," Macron wrote on X.
"We will be uncompromising," he added, describing the attack as a "shock".
Justice Minister Eric Dupond-Moretti immediately headed to a crisis cell at his ministry.
"These are people for whom life counts for nothing. They will be arrested, they will be judged and they will be punished according to the crime they committed," he said.
Both the officers killed were men and they were the first prison officers to be killed in the line of duty since 1992, he added.
One of them was married and had two children while the other "left a wife five months pregnant", he said.
"I am frozen with horror at the veritable carnage that took place at the Incarville toll," said Alexandre Rassaert, the head of the Eure region council.
"I hope with all my heart that that the team of killers which carried out this bloody attack will be arrested quickly."
A unit of the GIGN elite police force has been despatched to apprehend the suspects.
Traffic was stopped on the A154 motorway where the incident took place.
Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on X he had ordered the activation of France's Epervier plan, a special operation launched by the gendarmerie in such situations.
"All means are being used to find these criminals. On my instructions, several hundred police officers and gendarmes were mobilised," he said.
Prosecutor Beccuau named the inmate as Mohamed Amra, born in 1994, saying that last week he had been convicted of aggravated robbery and also charged in a case of abduction leading to death.
The case has been handed to prosecutors from France's office for the fight against organised crime known by their acronym JUNALCO.
Law and order is a major issue in French politics ahead of next month's European elections and the incident sparked fierce reactions from politicians, especially the far right.
"It is real savagery that hits France every day," said Jordan Bardella, the top candidate for the far-right National Rally (RN) which is leading opinion polls for the elections.
Indonesia’s president-elect seeks to boost defense ties with UAE
- Prabowo Subianto is set to succeed President Joko Widodo in October
- His visit to Abu Dhabi seen as a strategic move ahead of presidency
JAKARTA: Indonesia’s President-Elect Prabowo Subianto wants to boost defense ties with the UAE, his office said on Tuesday, as he made the first official trip to Abu Dhabi since winning the general vote.
Indonesia-UAE relations grew under incumbent Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who in 2021 secured an over $46 billion investment commitment from the Gulf state. A year later, the two countries signed a free trade deal, which came into force last September.
Subianto, a former special forces commander and Indonesia’s current defense minister, is set to succeed Widodo and take office in October following his landslide victory in the presidential election in February.
On Monday, he was in Abu Dhabi to receive the UAE’s highest civilian honor, the Order of Zayed, in recognition of his efforts in enhancing bilateral ties.
“I hope Indonesia-UAE relations will continue to develop and grow in accordance with the ambitions of the two countries in strengthening cooperation across various fields, including in defense,” Subianto said in a statement after meeting UAE President Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan.
During Subianto’s time in office as minister, Indonesia and the UAE agreed to strengthen defense ties with the signing of a memorandum of understanding in 2020, followed by a protocol agreement on the development of their defense industries in 2022.
Subianto’s visit to the UAE can be seen as a strategic move ahead of his presidency.
“As we get closer to his inauguration, Prabowo has gained a boost in confidence to directly meet with MBZ and discuss strategic issues at the bilateral, regional and global level,” said Teuku Rezasyah, an international relations expert from Padjadjaran University in West Java.
“It’s only natural that Prabowo is visiting Abu Dhabi because it’s one of the world’s biggest sources of foreign investments … Certainly, Prabowo wants to seriously guarantee that investments from Abu Dhabi will be very strategic in the development of Indonesia.”
India sets sights on Iranian port as gateway to Afghanistan, Central Asia
- New Delhi signed a 10-year deal to operate Chabahar port on Monday
- India began helping Iran to develop Chabahar in 2016
NEW DELHI: India’s newly signed deal to operate the Iranian port of Chabahar is expected to provide it a gateway to landlocked Afghanistan and Central Asia, offering possible competition to Pakistan’s Gwadar.
The 10-year contract, under which India will invest $120 million in Chabahar’s infrastructure, was signed in Tehran on Monday between the state-owned Indian Ports Global Ltd and the Port & Maritime Organization of Iran.
India’s Shipping Minister Sarbananda Sonowal welcomed the deal, saying the development of Chabahar was an “India-Iran flagship project” and that the port would be a “gateway for trade with Afghanistan and broader Central Asian countries.”
New Delhi’s commitment to Chabahar started in May 2016 when Iran, India, and Afghanistan signed a trilateral transit agreement to develop the port into a regional trade hub.
“The signing of the deal signifies the strength of bilateral ties between India and Iran,” said D.P. Srivastava, who was India’s ambassador to Iran when talks on the project started.
“The present agreement will build on progress achieved so far.”
India’s 2016 involvement in Chabahar came after the US eased sanctions on Iran. The sanctions were reimposed by Donald Trump’s administration in 2018.
After the signing of Monday’s agreement, US State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel told reporters that the sanctions on Iran remained in place, and that Washington would enforce them.
Prof. Sujata Ashwarya from the Centre for West Asian Studies at Jamia Millia Islamia in New Delhi said it was not likely that sanctions would affect India, as its presence was helping deter China — the main rival of the US — from becoming involved in the Iranian port.
“(India) will effectively keep China out of the project,” Ashwarya said. “If we are there, then China won’t be there, and the US would not impose sanctions.”
Located in Iran’s southeast, Chabahar is less than 100 km from Gwadar in southwestern Pakistan — a flagship project of the multibillion-dollar China–Pakistan Economic Corridor under Beijing’s Belt and Road Initiative.
Ashwarya said the Iranian port is Gwadar’s potential competitor.
“It is an investment in trade facilitation with an eye on making Chabahar a hub,” she said.
“It provides competition to Gwadar, it could potentially lead to a secured corridor to Afghanistan and Central Asia, which means that India’s trade with these regions can flourish and broaden.”
Haldiram’s: India’s beloved snack maker eyed by foreign investors Blackstone, UAE wealth fund
- Haldiram’s started in 1937 from “tiny shop” in Bikaner in desert state of Rajasthan
- Haldiram’s has almost a 13% share of India’s $6.2 billion savoury snacks market
From fried Indian snacks to local sweet delicacies, family-run Indian snack maker Haldiram’s has long been one of the country’s most popular food brands. Now, foreign investors like Blackstone and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority want a big bite of it.
Haldiram’s was last year also an acquisition target for India’s Tata Group, one of the country’s biggest conglomerates.
Here are some facts about the popular Indian brand:
* Haldiram’s started in 1937 from a “tiny shop” in Bikaner in the western desert state of Rajasthan. It later expanded to New Delhi in 1983.
* The company’s website says it has 1,000 distributors and its products are available in 7 million outlets. It also exports to many foreign countries including Japan, Russia, United Kingdom and Australia.
* One of its most popular snacks is “bhujia,” a crispy fried Indian snack made with flour, herbs and spices and sold for as little as 10 rupees (12 US cents) across mom-and-pop stores. Haldiram’s calls it “an irresistible Indian snack” which can “captivate your taste buds.”
* Haldiram’s started exporting products in 1993. The US was its first market, where it began with 15 savoury products, and later, in 2016, opened its first overseas factory in the UK.
* Beyond snacks, Haldiram’s also sells ready-to-eat and frozen foods such as Indian curries and rice items. It also runs more than 150 restaurants which sell street-style Indian food, as well as Chinese and western cuisine.
* Last year, during deal talks with Tata, Haldiram’s was seeking a $10 billion valuation. Reuters has previously reported Haldiram’s annual revenues are around $1.5 billion.
* Haldiram’s has almost a 13% share of India’s $6.2 billion savoury snacks market, Euromonitor International estimates.
($1 = 83.5200 Indian rupees)
Internally displaced people reached 76 million in 2023 – monitoring group
- Almost 90 percent of the total displacement was attributed to conflict and violence
- The group reported a total of 3.4 million movements within Gaza in the last quarter of 2023
GENEVA: Conflicts and natural disasters left a record nearly 76 million people displaced within their countries last year, with violence in Sudan, Congo and the Middle East driving two-thirds of new movement, a top migration monitoring group said Tuesday.
The Internal Displacement Monitoring Center report found that the number of internally displaced people, or IDPs, has jumped by 50 percent over the past five years and roughly doubled in the past decade. It doesn’t cover refugees — displaced people who fled to another country.
The report tracks two major sets of information. It counted 46.9 million physical movements of people in 2023 — sometimes more than once. In most of those cases, such as after natural disasters like floods, people eventually return home.
It also compiles the cumulative number of people who were living away from their homes in 2023, including those still displaced from previous years. Some 75.9 million people were living in internal displacement at the end of last year, the report said, with half of those in sub-Saharan African countries.
Almost 90 percent of the total displacement was attributed to conflict and violence, while some 10 percent stemmed from the impact of natural disasters.
The displacement of more than 9 million people in Sudan at the end of 2023 was a record for a single country since the center started tracking such figures 16 years ago.
That was an increase of nearly 6 million from the end of 2022. Sudan’s conflict erupted in April 2023 as soaring tensions between the leaders of the military and the rival Rapid Support Forces broke out into open fighting across the country.
The group reported a total of 3.4 million movements within Gaza in the last quarter of 2023 amid the Israeli military response to the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel. That means that many people moved more than once within the territory of some 2.2 million. At the end of the year, 1.7 million people were displaced in Gaza.
Group director Alexandra Bilak said the millions of people forced to flee in 2023 were the “tip of the iceberg,” on top of tens of millions displaced from earlier and continuing conflicts, violence and disasters.
The figures offer a different window into the impact of conflict, climate change and other factors on human movement. The UN refugee agency monitors displacement across borders but not within countries, while the UN migration agency tracks all movements of people, including for economic or lifestyle reasons.
