Bangladesh extends curfew ahead of court hearing on controversial job quotas

Bangladesh extends curfew ahead of court hearing on controversial job quotas
Bangladeshi soldiers stand guard along a street amid the anti-quota protests, in Dhaka on July 20, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 21 July 2024
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Bangladesh extends curfew ahead of court hearing on controversial job quotas

Bangladesh extends curfew ahead of court hearing on controversial job quotas
  • Violent student protests in Bangladesh have killed at least 114 people as per news reports
  • Nationwide protests are biggest challenge to Sheikh Hasina’s Bangladesh government 

DHAKA: Bangladesh extended a curfew on Sunday to control violent student-led protests that have killed at least 114 people, as authorities braced for a Supreme Court hearing later in the day on government job quotas that sparked the anger.

Soldiers have been on patrol on the streets of capital Dhaka, the center of the demonstrations that spiralled into clashes between protesters and security forces.

Internet and text message services in Bangladesh have been suspended since Thursday, cutting the nation off as police cracked down on protesters who defied a ban on public gatherings.

A curfew ordered late on Friday has been extended to 3 p.m. (0900 GMT) on Sunday, until after the Supreme Court hearing, and will continue for an “uncertain time” following a two-hour break for people to gather supplies, local media reported.

Universities and colleges have also been closed since Wednesday.

Nationwide unrest broke out following student anger against quotas for government jobs that included reserving 30 percent for the families of those who fought for independence from Pakistan.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government had scrapped the quota system in 2018, but a court reinstated it last month.

The Supreme Court suspended the decision after a government appeal and will hear the case on Sunday after agreeing to bring forward a hearing scheduled for Aug. 7.

The demonstrations — the biggest since Hasina was re-elected for a fourth successive term this year — have also been fueled by high unemployment among young people, who make up nearly a fifth of the population.

The US State Department on Saturday raised its travel advisory for Bangladesh to level four, urging American citizens to not travel to the South Asian country.


Brunei sultan in KL hospital for ‘fatigue’: Malaysia govt sources

Updated 12 sec ago
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Brunei sultan in KL hospital for ‘fatigue’: Malaysia govt sources

Brunei sultan in KL hospital for ‘fatigue’: Malaysia govt sources
KUALA LUMPUR: Brunei’s Sultan Hassanal Bolkiah was admitted to the National Heart Institute in Kuala Lumpur on Tuesday due to fatigue, Malaysian government sources confirmed to AFP.
The sultan is in Kuala Lumpur with other Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) leaders, who are meeting on Tuesday with Chinese Premier Li Qiang and dignitaries from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).
“He was hospitalized in between the ASEAN-GCC and ASEAN-GCC-China summit,” a source told AFP.
“The National Heart Institute is the designated hospital for VIPs during the course of this ASEAN summit and relevant meetings.”
The hospital said it could not comment, but another Malaysian government source separately confirmed the news to AFP.
AFP has contacted Brunei’s embassy in Malaysia for comment.
Sultan Hassanal, 78, ascended the throne in 1967.
He is the world’s longest-reigning monarch and one of the richest people on the planet.
He comes from a family that has ruled Brunei, a small Muslim nation perched on the north of the tropical island of Borneo, for more than 600 years.
His decades ruling Brunei have seen the country gain full independence from Britain and living standards soar to among the highest globally.
But his reign has also been marked by controversies including the introduction of tough Islamic laws legislating penalties such as severing of limbs and death by stoning.

Kremlin says Trump criticism won’t hit US-Russia prisoner swap plans

Kremlin says Trump criticism won’t hit US-Russia prisoner swap plans
Updated 17 min 16 sec ago
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Kremlin says Trump criticism won’t hit US-Russia prisoner swap plans

Kremlin says Trump criticism won’t hit US-Russia prisoner swap plans

MOSCOW: The Kremlin said Tuesday that Donald Trump’s criticism of Vladimir Putin will not affect plans for a US-Russia prisoner exchange that the two presidents discussed in a call last week.
Trump called Putin “crazy” over the weekend after Russia pummelled Ukraine with its largest drone attack since the start of its full-scale offensive, launched in February 2022.
The Kremlin downplayed the spat when asked whether the US leader’s comments could disrupt plans for a nine-for-nine prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.
“It is clear that the Russian and American sides should not and can not agree on everything. There will always be certain disagreements,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“But there is political will to implement the agreements that have been reached, and the work continues. We highly value this mutual willingness,” he added.
Following a two-hour call between Putin and Trump last week, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said the pair had discussed “swapping nine people for nine people” — without giving any details on which prisoners.
There have been several rounds of prisoner exchanges between Washington and Moscow since Trump returned to the White House in January.
Washington has accused Moscow of “hostage taking” — arresting US citizens on baseless charges in a bid to use them as pawns to secure the release of Russians behind bars in the West.
In the latest swap last month, dual US-Russian citizen Ksenia Karelina was released from a Russian jail — where she was serving 12 years on treason charges after donating around $50 to a Ukrainian charity.
In exchange the United States freed Arthur Petrov, a dual German-Russian citizen accused of breaking sanctions by trying to export US-made electronics to Russian military companies.


India approves stealth fighter program amid tensions with Pakistan

India approves stealth fighter program amid tensions with Pakistan
Updated 46 min 53 sec ago
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India approves stealth fighter program amid tensions with Pakistan

India approves stealth fighter program amid tensions with Pakistan
  • India plans to invite initial interest from defense firms for developing a prototype of a 5th generation fighter
  • Indian defense ministry says bids will be open for both private and state-owned firms interested in the program

NEW DELHI: India’s defense minister has approved a framework for building the country’s most advanced stealth fighter jet, the defense ministry said on Tuesday, amid a new arms race with Pakistan weeks after a military conflict between the neighbors.

Indian state-run Aeronautical Development Agency, which is executing the program, will shortly invite initial interest from defense firms for developing a prototype of the warplane, envisaged as a twin-engine 5th generation fighter, the ministry said.

The project is crucial for the Indian Air Force, whose squadrons of mainly Russian and ex-Soviet aircraft have fallen to 31 from an approved strength of 42 at a time when rival China is expanding its air force rapidly.

Pakistan has one of China’s most advanced warplanes, the J-10, in its arsenal.

Militaries of nuclear-armed neighbors India and Pakistan faced-off in four days of fighting this month, which saw use of fighter jets, missiles, drones and artillery by both sides before a ceasefire was announced by US President Donald Trump.

It was the first time both sides utilized drones at scale and the South Asian powers are now locked in a drones arms race, according to Reuters’ interviews with 15 people, including security officials, industry executives and analysts in the two countries.

India will partner with a domestic firm for the stealth fighter program, and companies can bid independently or as a joint venture, the defense ministry said in a statement, adding that the bids would be open for both private and state-owned firms.

In March, an Indian defense committee had recommended including the private sector in military aircraft manufacturing to shore up the capabilities of the Indian Air Force and reduce the burden on state-owned Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd, which makes most of India’s military aircraft.

Air Chief Marshal Amar Preet Singh has previously criticized Hindustan Aeronautics for slow delivery of light combat Tejas aircraft, a 4.5 generation fighter, which the firm blamed on slow delivery of engines from General Electric due to supply chain issues faced by the US firm.


Opposition’s Lee leading South Korea presidential race: poll

Opposition’s Lee leading South Korea presidential race: poll
Updated 54 min 6 sec ago
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Opposition’s Lee leading South Korea presidential race: poll

Opposition’s Lee leading South Korea presidential race: poll
  • Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung is set to become the country’s next president according to a Gallup poll

SEOUL: A Gallup poll released Tuesday indicates South Korean opposition leader Lee Jae-myung is the clear frontrunner to become the country’s next president, with less than a week to go until the elections.
South Koreans go to the polls on June 3, capping months of political turmoil triggered by ex-leader Yoon Suk Yeol’s ill-fated effort to suspend civilian rule in December.
Gallup put Democratic Party leader Lee as the clear frontrunner, with 49 percent of the respondents stating they saw him as the best candidate.
Trailing behind is conservative former labor minister Kim Moon-soo of the ruling People Power Party at 35 percent.
In third place is Lee Jun-seok of the Reform Party — running a campaign targeting South Korean youth — with 11 percent.
The poll, conducted by Gallup Korea over the phone, surveyed 1,004 respondents over the weekend, with a stated margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
The poll suggested the Democratic Party leader would win handily in almost all of the country, securing the most populous regions of capital Seoul, Incheon and Gyeonggi.
Third place Lee Jun-seok has faced growing pressure from conservatives to abandon his presidential bid to stop left-leaning Lee Jae-myung from winning.
But the 40-year-old has remained firm, declaring that his name will be “clearly visible” on the ballot on election day.
Around five percent of those polled said they had no preference or that they did not know who would be the best candidate.
The survey is one of the last to be released before next week’s vote, with further polls in the run-up banned.
Conservative candidate Kim shot to public attention in the aftermath of Yoon’s martial law debacle, when he declined to bow in apology to the public for failing to prevent the suspension of civilian rule.
After trailing behind Lee Jae-myung for weeks, he is slowly catching up.
A poll by Next Research released Monday suggested the gap between the two candidates had narrowed to just nine percentage points nationwide, and in Seoul to a mere 3.2 points.
Lee lost the 2022 presidential elections to Yoon by the smallest margin of any vote in the country’s history.


Tuesday’s poll indicated Lee Jae-myung would win even if he faced a unified conservative candidate.
And Lee Jun-seok at a press conference on Tuesday vowed there would be “no candidate merger” with “those responsible for the emergency martial law.”
“I will fight to the end and win,” he said.
Heo Jin-jae, research director at Gallup Korea, said the fact that the election was now a “three way race” — with a third candidate polling in double digits — was noteworthy.
But, he added, “even if Kim Moon-soo and Lee Jun-seok successfully unified their candidacy, I believe it will not be easy for them to win.”


Macron gives Vietnamese students a lesson in ‘impulsive’ superpowers

Macron gives Vietnamese students a lesson in ‘impulsive’ superpowers
Updated 27 May 2025
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Macron gives Vietnamese students a lesson in ‘impulsive’ superpowers

Macron gives Vietnamese students a lesson in ‘impulsive’ superpowers
  • French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to a group of around 150 students at the University of Science and Technology in Hanoi

HANOI: Between jabs at Donald Trump’s US trade tariffs and criticism of Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea, French President Emmanuel Macron warned Vietnamese students Tuesday that “on the impulse of a superpower, everything can change.”
Macron is in Vietnam as part of a six-day Southeast Asian tour that includes Indonesia and Singapore, as he tries to pitch his offer of a “third way” between the United States and China to a region caught up in a confrontation between the two.
“The conflict between China and the United States of America is a geopolitical fact that casts the shadow of risk of a much larger conflict in this important region,” he told a group of around 150 students at the University of Science and Technology in Hanoi, listening through translation headsets.
China would do well to remember that “freedom of navigation, maritime freedom is important for the South China Sea,” he said, adding that what is happening there “worries everyone.”
Macron quickly moved on to a swipe at the United States, which he described as “imposing tariffs according to the side of the bed on which he woke up,” before presenting France as a reliable alternative.
His address comes a day after he visited a Hanoi war memorial to those who fought against French colonial occupation, which ended in 1954 following a bloody uprising by Vietnamese pro-independence forces.
Vietnam has been careful to follow a balancing act between China and the United States.
It shares concerns about Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the contested waterway, but it has close economic ties with its giant neighbor.
Communist-run Vietnam has also been threatened with a hefty 46 percent tariff by US President Donald Trump as part of his global trade blitz.
France’s “Indo-Pacific strategy” could offer a “path of freedom” and “sovereignty,” Macron told the students.
More than 100 other students who were unable to fit into the university hall where he spoke tuned in via video link from a side room, often clapping as he spoke.
Some seemed convinced, seeing an opportunity in France to avoid the chaos that many international students in the United States are enduring after Trump attempted to block Harvard University from enrolling foreigners.
“Given the context in the US where visa issues for international students are quite risky, I will prioritize studying in France because it is more stable,” 21-year-old Nguyen Quang Bach told AFP.
Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh, 21, who chatted to Macron ahead of the speech, called the president “friendly and approachable.”
During the speech, Macron also urged the students, a few of whom spoke French, not to fall into the “world of fools” that prevails on social media, where people are free to criticize with short messages “those whose thoughts you do not understand.”
“I do not believe all words are equal. I think there are people who know (things) and people who know less,” he said.