DHAKA: Another 3,000 Rohingya refugees have been relocated by Bangladesh to a remote silt island in the Bay of Bengal, officials said Tuesday, bringing the total number taken to the new settlement to more than 10,000.
Dhaka wants to relocate 100,000 Rohingya from squalid border camps in southeastern Bangladesh, where nearly a million of the Muslim minority have lived in crowded conditions since fleeing a 2017 military offensive in neighboring Myanmar.
About 2,000 more refugees were moved to Bhashan Char on Monday and another 1,000 on Tuesday, Anwarul Kabir, a senior officer with the Bangladesh navy, told AFP.
Their arrival comes after around 7,000 men, women and children were taken in December and January to the 53-square-kilometer island, which is a three-hour boat journey from the southeastern port of Chittagong.
Bangladesh’s Deputy Refugee Commissioner Mohammad Shamsud Douza told AFP the Rohingya had moved to the island “spontaneously and willingly.”
“They are taking their dogs, bunnies and goats to the island with them,” Douza said.
But rights activists say not all the refugees have left voluntarily and critics have said the island is prone to flooding and is in the path of deadly cyclones.
There has been fighting in recent months between rival Rohingya drug gangs in southeastern Bangladesh’s refugee camps — the world’s largest — with several people killed and several others reported injured.
Officials said they were hoping to move more refugees to the island ahead of the April-May cyclone season and the June-September monsoon, when the sea is rough.
The United Nations says it has not been involved in the relocations.
More Rohingya moved to remote Bangladesh island
https://arab.news/j9zgv
More Rohingya moved to remote Bangladesh island
- Dhaka wants to relocate 100,000 Rohingya from squalid border camps in southeastern Bangladesh
- Rights activists say not all the refugees have left voluntarily and critics have said the island is prone to flooding
Germany seeks Israeli partnership on cyberdefense, plans ‘cyber dome’
Germany is among Israel’s closest allies in Europe, and Berlin has increasingly looked to draw upon Israel’s defense expertise as it boosts its military capabilities and contributions to NATO in the face of perceived growing threats from Russia and China.
“Military defense alone is not sufficient for this turning point in security. A significant upgrade in civil defense is also essential to strengthen our overall defensive capabilities,” Dobrindt said during a visit to Israel, as reported by Germany’s Bild newspaper.
Dobrindt, who was appointed by new German Chancellor Friedrich Merz last month, arrived in Israel on Saturday.
According to the Bild report, Dobrindt outlined a five-point plan aimed at establishing what he called a “Cyber Dome” for Germany, as part of its cyberdefense strategy.
Earlier on Sunday, Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Soeder called for the acquisition of 2,000 interceptor missiles to equip Germany with an “Iron Dome” system similar to Israel’s short-range missile defense technology.
French minister calls for extension of EU-US trade talks
- Progress in the negotiations between the huge trading partners remains unclear
- US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this month that deadlines on some countries negotiating in good faith could be extended
PARIS: France’s finance minister has called for extending EU-US trade talks beyond the July 9 deadline in order to secure a better agreement.
US President Donald Trump has set the deadline for the trade talks, warning that failure to reach agreement could trigger higher US tariffs on goods from cars to pharmaceuticals.
Progress in the negotiations between the huge trading partners remains unclear. European officials are increasingly resigned to a 10 percent “reciprocal” tariff imposed by Washington in April being the baseline in any deal, sources familiar with the talks have told Reuters.
“I think that we are going to strike a deal with the Americans,” French Finance Minister Eric Lombard told newspaper La Tribune Dimanche in an interview published on Sunday.
“Regarding the deadline, my wish is for another postponement. I would rather have a good deal than a bad deal on July 9,” he said.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier this month that deadlines on some countries negotiating in good faith could be extended.
French President Emmanuel Macron said following an EU summit on Thursday that France wants a quick and pragmatic trade deal with the United States but would not accept unbalanced terms.
EU leaders discussed a new US proposal at the summit but the European Commission did not reveal the content of the offer.
Lombard said that energy could form part of a trade deal, with the EU potentially increasing its imports of US gas to replace flows from Russia.
Hong Kong’s last active pro-democracy group says it will disband amid security crackdown
- League of Social Democrats co-founded in 2006 by former lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung
- LSD is the last group in Hong Kong to stage small protests this year
HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s League of Social Democrats said on Sunday that it would disband amid “immense political pressure” from a five year-long national security crackdown, leaving the China-ruled city with no formal pro-democracy opposition presence.
The LSD becomes the third major opposition party to shutter in Hong Kong in the past two years.
Co-founded in 2006 by former lawmaker Leung Kwok-hung as a radical wing of the pro-democracy camp, the LSD is the last group in Hong Kong to stage small protests this year.
Mass public gatherings and marches spearheaded by political and civil society groups had been common in Hong Kong until 2020, but the threat of prosecution has largely shut down organized protests since.
China imposed a national security law on the former British colony in 2020, punishing offenses like subversion with possible life imprisonment following mass pro-democracy protests in 2019.
A second set of laws, known as Article 23, was passed in 2024 by the city’s pro-Beijing legislature covering crimes such as sedition and treason.
Current chair Chan Po-ying said the group had been “left with no choice” and after considering the safety of party members had decided to shutdown. Chan declined to specify what pressures they had faced.
“We have endured hardships of internal disputes and the near total imprisonment of our leadership while witnessing the erosion of civil society, the fading of grassroots voices, the omnipresence of red lines and the draconian suppression of dissent,” Chan told reporters, while flanked by six other core members including Tsang Kin-shing, Dickson Chau, Raphael Wong, Figo Chan and Jimmy Sham.
In February, the Democratic Party, the city’s largest and most popular opposition party, announced it would disband. Several senior members told Reuters they had been warned by Beijing that a failure to do so would mean serious consequences including possible arrests.
Earlier this month, China’s top official on Hong Kong affairs, Xia Baolong, stressed national security work must continue as hostile forces were still interfering in the city.
“We must clearly see that the anti-China and Hong Kong chaos elements are still ruthless and are renewing various forms of soft resistance,” Xia said in a speech in Hong Kong.
The League of Social Democrats is one of Hong Kong’s smaller pro-democracy groups known for its more aggressive tactics and street protests in its advocacy of universal suffrage and grassroots causes including a universal pension scheme. In a 2016 incident, Leung threw a round object at former Hong Kong leader Leung Chun-ying inside the legislature.
Three LSD members were fined on June 12 by a magistrate for setting up a street booth where a blank black cloth was displayed and money was collected in public without official permission. Chan told reporters that the party had no assets to divest and no funds left after several of its bank accounts were shut down in 2023.
While never as popular as the more moderate Democratic Party and Civic Party, it gained three seats in a 2008 legislative election — its best showing.
The LSD’s founder Leung, 69, was arrested and charged with conspiracy to commit subversion in 2021 in the landmark ‘47 Democrats’ case. He is currently serving a sentence of six years and nine months in prison. Another member, Jimmy Sham, was also jailed in the same case and released in May.
The security laws have been criticized as a tool of repression by the US and Britain, but China says they have restored stability with 332 people so far arrested under these laws.
“I hope that the people of Hong Kong will continue to pay attention to the vulnerable, and they will continue to speak out for injustice,” Figo Chan said.
EU plans to add carbon credits to new climate goal, document shows
- An internal Commission summary of the upcoming proposal said the EU would be able to use “high quality international credits” from a UN backed carbon credits market to meet 3 percent of the emissions cuts toward the 2040 goal
BRUSSELS: The European Commission is set to propose counting carbon credits bought from other countries toward the European Union’s 2040 climate target, a Commission document seen by Reuters showed.
The Commission is due to propose a legally binding EU climate target for 2040 on July 2.
The EU executive had initially planned a 90 percent net emissions cut, against 1990 levels, but in recent months has sought to make this goal more flexible, in response to pushback from governments including Italy, Poland and the Czech Republic, concerned about the cost.
An internal Commission summary of the upcoming proposal, seen by Reuters, said the EU would be able to use “high-quality international credits” from a UN-backed carbon credits market to meet 3 percent of the emissions cuts toward the 2040 goal.
The document said the credits would be phased in from 2036, and that additional EU legislation would later set out the origin and quality criteria that the credits must meet, and details of how they would be purchased.
The move would in effect ease the emissions cuts — and the investments required — from European industries needed to hit the 90 percent emissions-cutting target. For the share of the target met by credits, the EU would buy “credits” from projects that reduce CO2 emissions abroad — for example, forest restoration in Brazil — rather than reducing emissions in Europe.
Proponents say these credits are a crucial way to raise funds for CO2-cutting projects in developing nations. But recent scandals have shown some credit-generating projects did not deliver the climate benefits they claimed.
The document said the Commission will add other flexibilities to the 90 percent target, as Brussels attempts to contain resistance from governments struggling to fund the green transition alongside priorities including defense, and industries who say ambitious environmental regulations hurt their competitiveness.
These include integrating credits from projects that remove CO2 from the atmosphere into the EU’s carbon market so that European industries can buy these credits to offset some of their own emissions, the document said.
The draft would also give countries more flexibility on which sectors in their economy do the heavy lifting to meet the 2040 goal, “to support the achievement of targets in a cost-effective way.”
A Commission spokesperson declined to comment on the upcoming proposal, which could still change before it is published next week.
EU countries and the European Parliament must negotiate the final target and could amend what the Commission proposes.
Iran’s judiciary says at least 71 killed in Israel’s attack on Tehran’s notorious Evin prison
- Judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir said that those killed included staff, soldiers, prisoners and members of visiting families.
- The June 23 attack, the day before the ceasefire between Israel and Iran took hold, hit several prison buildings
DUBAI: At least 71 people were killed in Israel’s attack on Tehran’s Evin prison, a notorious facility where many political prisoners and dissidents have been held, Iran’s judiciary said on Sunday.
Judiciary spokesperson Asghar Jahangir posted on the office’s official Mizan news agency website that those killed on Monday included staff, soldiers, prisoners and members of visiting families. It was not possible to independently verify the claim.
The June 23 attack, the day before the ceasefire between Israel and Iran took hold, hit several prison buildings and prompted concerns from rights groups about the safety of the inmates.
It remains unclear why Israel targeted the prison, but it came on a day when the Defense Ministry said it was attacking “regime targets and government repression bodies in the heart of Tehran.”
The news of the prison attack was quickly overshadowed by an Iranian attack on a US base in Qatar later that same day, which caused no casualties, and the announcement of the ceasefire.
Jahangir did not break down the casualty figures but said the attack had hit the prison’s infirmary, engineering building, judicial affairs and visitation hall, where visiting family members were killed and injured.
On the day of the attack, New York-based Center for Human Rights in Iran criticized Israel for striking the prison, seen as a symbol of the Iranian regime’s repression of any opposition, saying it violated the principle of distinction between civilian and military targets.
At the same time, the group said Iran was legally obligated to protect the prisoners held in Evin, and slammed authorities in Tehran for their “failure to evacuate, provide medical assistance or inform families” following the attack.
Jahangir said some of those injured were treated on site, while others were sent to hospitals.
Iran had not previously announced any death figures, though on Saturday confirmed that top prosecutor Ali Ghanaatkar — whose prosecution of dissidents, including Nobel Peace Prize winner Narges Mohammadi, led to widespread criticism by human rights groups — had been killed in the attack.
He was one of about 60 people for whom a massive public funeral procession was held on Saturday in Tehran, and he was to be buried at a shrine in Qom on Sunday.
Israel attacked Iran on June 13 in a bid to destroy the country’s nuclear program.
Over 12 days before a ceasefire was declared, Israel claimed it killed around 30 Iranian commanders and 11 nuclear scientists, while hitting eight nuclear-related facilities and more than 720 military infrastructure sites. More than 1,000 people were killed, including at least 417 civilians, according to the Washington-based Human Rights Activists group.
In retaliation, Iran fired more than 550 ballistic missiles at Israel, most of which were intercepted, but those that got through caused damage in many areas and killed 28 people.
