DHAKA: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Thursday assured Bangladesh that Moscow was committed to complete a nuclear power project on time, despite obstacles resulting from Western sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
Lavrov, the first Russian foreign minister to visit Bangladesh since its 1971 independence, reached Dhaka late on Thursday for a two-day visit after attending the East Asia summit in Jakarta.
Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister Abdul Momen took up the issue of timely completion of the nuclear power project and bilateral trade issues with Lavrov, who also offered export of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to meet Dhaka’s energy needs, officials said.
“Our flagship joint project is construction of the Rooppur nuclear power plant on the territory of Bangladesh,” Lavrov said.
“The project is progressing smoothly in line with the schedule, and delivery and charging of first nuclear fuel are expected as early as in October,” Lavrov said after the meeting.
Bangladesh is building the first of two nuclear power plants in collaboration with Russian state-owned atomic company Rosatom in a $12.65 billion project, 90 percent of which is financed through a Russian loan repayable within 28 years with a 10-year grace period.
The construction of the plant has been delayed due to two years of restrictions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and war-related sanctions. In December last year, because of US sanctions on Moscow, Bangladesh denied entry to a Russian ship that was carrying equipment for the nuclear power plant.
The first unit of the plant, with a total generation capacity of 2,400 megawatts, was due to start operation in July next year but is facing a setback over loan repayments.
Bangladesh has faced its worst electricity crisis since 2013, a Reuters analysis of government data shows, due to erratic weather and difficulty in paying for fuel imports amid declining forex reserves and a weakened currency.
Bangladesh was Russia’s second-largest trade partner in South Asia after India, Lavrov said, adding the bilateral trade was expected to further increase.
The two countries are also collaborating to find solutions for sending essential commodities from Russia to Bangladesh, and alternative currencies to the dollar are being explored for trade settlements, he said.
Both Russia and Western countries are seeking the support of Bangladesh, which has been reluctant to take sides in the Ukraine war even as it struggles with higher fuel and food import costs.
France’s President Emmanuel Macron will also visit Dhaka next week after attending the G20 meeting, aiming to deepen relations with a country experiencing rapid economic growth.
Lavrov will call on Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Friday before heading to New Delhi for the G20 leaders’ summit, government official said.
Dhaka has asked Moscow to ensure it uses non-sanctioned ships to deliver equipment for the plant, while urging a resolution of its conflict with its neighbor through dialogue and discussions.
“We don’t want war. We want all issues to get resolved through dialogue and discussion,” Bangladesh’s foreign minister Momen said.
Russian FM Lavrov assures Bangladesh that Moscow will complete nuclear power plant on time
https://arab.news/np85z
Russian FM Lavrov assures Bangladesh that Moscow will complete nuclear power plant on time
- Lavrov, the first Russian foreign minister to visit Bangladesh since its 1971 independence, reached Dhaka late on Thursday for a two-day visit
- Bangladesh’s FM Abdul Momen took up the issue of timely completion of the nuclear power project and bilateral trade issues with Lavrov
Protester in UK threatened with arrest by armed police over Palestinian flag
- Laura Murton, 42, held signs saying ‘Free Gaza’ and ‘Israel is committing genocide’
- Amnesty International UK describes footage of incident as ‘very concerning’
LONDON: British armed police threatened a peaceful protester with arrest under the Terrorism Act after accusing her of supporting Palestine Action, the activist group that was banned earlier this month.
Laura Murton, 42, held signs saying “Free Gaza” and “Israel is committing genocide” at the demonstration in the city of Canterbury, The Guardian reported on Thursday.
Officers told her that she had expressed views supporting Palestine Action. Neither of the signs held by Murton mentioned the group by name.
Murton, who filmed her encounter with the armed police officers, asked whether she supported any banned groups and replied: “I do not.”
One officer told her: “Mentioning freedom of Gaza, Israel, genocide, all of that — all come under proscribed groups, which are terror groups that have been dictated by the government.” He added that the phrase “Free Gaza” expressed support for Palestine Action.
The government’s proscription of the group means it is an offense to express support for it and is punishable by law.
The officer accused Murton of committing that offense, and said she would be arrested unless she provided her name and address, which she did.
Murton told The Guardian: “I don’t see how anything I was wearing, how anything I was displaying, anything I was saying, could be deemed as supportive of the proscribed group.
“It’s terrifying. I was standing there thinking, this is the most authoritarian, dystopian experience I’ve had in this country, being told that I’m committing terrorist offenses by two guys with firearms.
“I ended up giving my details, and I really resent the fact I had to do that because I don’t think that was lawful at all.”
Lawyer’s representing Palestine Action’s co-founder, Huda Ammori, said in court submissions that the group’s proscription would likely produce a “wide chilling effect on speech and assembly of those seeking to speak out against Israel’s serious violations of international law.”
One of the officers who confronted Murton said: “We could have jumped out, arrested you, dragged you off in a van.” The police were “trying to be fair” in dealing with her, he added.
Murton said she was motivated to protest because “day to day, people are getting killed (in Gaza), and I can’t handle that … I can’t handle sitting and doing nothing.”
Amnesty International UK’s law and human rights director, Tom Southerden, described the footage as “very concerning.”
He added: “We have long criticized UK terrorism law for being excessively broad and vaguely worded and a threat to freedom of expression. This video documents one aspect of exactly the kind of thing we were warning about.”
Magnitude 5.8 earthquake hits off Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara
JAKARTA: A magnitude 5.8 earthquake hit off Indonesia’s East Nusa Tenggara province on Thursday, with a 10-kilometer (6.2-mile) depth and no tsunami potential, the country’s geophysics agency said.
There were no immediate reports of damage.
Taliban deny arresting or monitoring Afghans after UK data leak
- The Taliban government said Thursday it had not arrested or monitored Afghans involved in a secret British resettlement plan
KABUL: The Taliban government said Thursday it had not arrested or monitored Afghans involved in a secret British resettlement plan after a data breach was revealed this week.
Thousands of Afghans who worked with the UK were brought to Britain with their families in a secret program after a 2022 data breach put their lives at risk, the British government revealed on Tuesday.
The scheme was only revealed after the UK High Court on Tuesday lifted a super-gag order banning any reports of the events.
UK Defense Minister John Healey said the leak was not revealed because of the risk that the Taliban authorities would obtain the data set and the lives of Afghans would be put at risk.
“Nobody has been arrested for their past actions, nobody has been killed and nobody is being monitored for that,” said the Afghan government’s deputy spokesman, Hamdullah Fitrat, in a voice message to reporters on Thursday.
“Reports of investigation and monitoring of a few people whose data has been leaked are false.”
After the Taliban swept back to power in 2021, their Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada announced an amnesty for Afghans who worked for NATO forces or the ousted foreign-backed government during the two-decade conflict.
“We don’t need to use the leaked documents from Britain. Regarding the general amnesty, nobody is investigated or monitored,” Fitrat added.
“The rumors being spread are just to scare these people and create fear and worry among their families, which we deny.”
France court orders release of Lebanese militant after four decades in prison
PARIS: A French appeals court Thursday ordered the release of pro-Palestinian Lebanese militant Georges Ibrahim Abdallah, who has been imprisoned for 40 years for the 1982 killings of two foreign diplomats.
Abdallah, 74, is one of the longest serving prisoners in France, where most convicts serving life sentences are freed after less than 30 years.
He has been up for release for 25 years, but the United States — a civil party to the case — has consistently opposed his leaving prison.
Abdallah was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for his involvement in the murders of US military attache Charles Robert Ray and Israeli diplomat Yacov Barsimantov.
He has always insisted he is a “fighter” who battled for the rights of Palestinians and not a “criminal.”
The Paris Appeals Court ordered he be freed from a prison in the south of France next week, on Friday, July 25, on the condition that he leave French territory and never return.
Several sources before the hearing said that it was planned for him to be flown to Paris and then to Beirut.
Lebanese authorities have repeatedly said Abdallah should be freed from jail, and had written to the appeals court to say they would organize his return home.
The detainee’s brother, Robert Abdallah, in Lebanon told AFP he was overjoyed.
“We’re delighted. I didn’t expect the French judiciary to make such a decision nor for him to ever be freed, especially after so many failed requests for release,” he said.
“For once, the French authorities have freed themselves from Israeli and US pressures,” he added.
Prosecutors can file an appeal with France’s highest court, the Court of Cassation, but it is not expected to be processed fast enough to halt his release next week.
Abdallah’s lawyer Jean-Louis Chalanset also welcomed the decision.
“It’s both a judicial victory and a political scandal that he was not released earlier,” he said.
In November last year, a French court ordered his release conditional on Abdallah leaving France.
But France’s anti-terror prosecutors, arguing that he had not changed his political views, appealed the decision, which was consequently suspended.
A verdict was supposed to have been delivered in February, but the Paris appeals court postponed, saying it was unclear whether Abdallah had proof that he had paid compensation to the plaintiffs, something he has consistently refused to do.
The court re-examined the latest request for his release last month.
During the closed-door hearing, Abdallah’s lawyer told the judges that 16,000 euros had been placed on the prisoner’s bank account and were at the disposal of civil parties in the case, including the United States.
Abdallah still enjoys some support from several public figures in France, including left-wing members of parliament and Nobel prize-winning author Annie Ernaux, but has mostly been forgotten by the general public.
US senators approve $9 billion of Elon Musk’s federal cuts
- US Senate approves package of spending cuts proposed by Trump cancelling more than $9 blln in funding for foreign aid programs and public broadcasting
WASHINGTON: The US Senate approved early Thursday a package of spending cuts proposed by President Donald Trump that would cancel more than $9 billion in funding for foreign aid programs and public broadcasting.
The upper chamber of Congress green-lit the measure in what was seen as the first test of how easily lawmakers could usher into law savings sought by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) — in the aftermath of the tech mogul’s acrimonious exit from the government.
Despite the cutbacks’ unpopularity in some sections of both parties, the Republican-led Senate passed the measure with 51 votes for and 48 against in a session that went more than two hours past midnight.
The version of the text passed in June by the House of Representatives sought to eliminate $400 million in funding allocated to health programs, including the PEPFAR global AIDS relief fund created by then-president George W. Bush.
But defunding PEPFAR — which has saved an estimated 26 million lives — was seen as a nonstarter among a handful of moderate Republican senators, and the proposal was dropped.
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham told AFP the bill was consistent with Trump’s promises to cut spending.
“I’ve been a big fan of the foreign aid accounts... I’m a big hawkish guy, but you need foreign aid. You need soft power,” he said.
“But when you start spending money on a bunch of junk, and liberal programs disconnected from the purpose of the aid package, it makes it difficult on a guy like me.”
The bill now goes back to the House for final approval, with lawmakers up against the clock. Congress, which had already allocated the money, has to approve the cuts by Friday or the White House must spend the cash as originally intended.
Legislation to claw back money already approved by Congress — known as a “rescissions package” — is extremely rare, and no such measure has passed in decades.
Around a dozen Republicans had voiced concerns about allowing the White House to dictate spending cuts, placing them in the crosshairs of Trump, who last week threatened to withhold his endorsements from any rebels.
The vote was the first in what Republicans have touted as a potential series of packages codifying the spending cuts made by DOGE.
Musk was tapped by Trump to lead the task force after the tech billionaire spent $290 million helping him get elected. The SpaceX and Tesla boss boasted that he would be able to save $2 trillion in federal spending — but left the White House under a cloud in late May as he feuded with Trump over deficits and spending.
DOGE acknowledges that it has saved taxpayers just $190 billion — and fact checkers even see that claim as dubious, given previous inaccuracies in its accounting.
The rescissions package slashes around $8 billion in foreign aid, with much of that approved for humanitarian organization USAID, one of DOGE’s first targets.
Around $1 billion is to be taken back from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, which helps fund National Public Radio (NPR) and the Public Broadcasting Service (PBS), as well as more than 1,500 local radio and television stations.
Conservatives often accuse PBS and NPR of bias, and Trump signed an executive order in May to cease federal funding for both networks. Democrats say cutting the funding will not meaningfully reduce the deficit, but instead dismantle a trusted source of information for millions of Americans.
“It is yet another example of the spirit and ideals of our Constitution being undermined in a terrible way. We are a nation that believes that (Congress) has a real role,” New Jersey Senator Cory Booker told AFP.
“And this is a bunch of my colleagues in thrall of the president, surrendering the powers of us, and the urgency for us to work together and do it in a bipartisan way to improve budgets.”
