UK plans tough laws to fight people smugglers

UK plans tough laws to fight people smugglers
In this drone view an inflatable dinghy carrying migrants makes its way toward England in the English Channel on August 6, 2024. (REUTERS)
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Updated 02 January 2025
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UK plans tough laws to fight people smugglers

UK plans tough laws to fight people smugglers
  • PM Keir Starmer has prioritized tackling illegal migration by cracking down on the gangs who smuggle people across the English Channel
  • Government data show that over 36,800 people made the dangerous crossings to arrive in Britain in 2024, a 25 percent year-on-year surge

LONDON: Suspected people smugglers will face severe curbs under new laws in Britain, the government said on Thursday, as it steps up efforts to fight illegal migration and strengthen border security.
Those suspected will face travel bans, social media blackouts and restrictions on phone usage to help the government “dismantle organized immigration crime networks,” the statement added.
“We will give law enforcement stronger powers they need to pursue and stop more of these vile gang networks,” interior minister Yvette Cooper said, describing border security as one of the foundations of the government’s recently laid out ‘plan for change’.
Prime Minister Keir Starmer, elected to office in July, has prioritized tackling illegal migration by cracking down on the gangs who smuggle people across the English Channel, one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes, into Britain from France.
Over 36,800 people made the dangerous crossings to arrive in Britain in 2024, a 25 percent year-on-year surge, according to government data. Several dozen have died attempting to do so, with the Refugee Council charity terming it the deadliest year on record for such crossings.
The planned interim serious crime prevention orders (SCPO) will allow immediate action to disrupt and deter suspected serious criminality, including organized immigration crime, the statement said.
The fresh powers are designed to mirror those already used to disrupt other offenses such as knife crime, slavery and trafficking.
Currently, securing an SCPO on suspects can be a complex and lengthy process. The interim orders will speed up the process.


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

Updated 42 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 28 min 7 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 35 min 20 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 56 min 5 sec ago
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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.


Putin and Turkish foreign minister discuss Ukraine peace efforts, source says

Putin and Turkish foreign minister discuss Ukraine peace efforts, source says
Updated 54 min 46 sec ago
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Putin and Turkish foreign minister discuss Ukraine peace efforts, source says

Putin and Turkish foreign minister discuss Ukraine peace efforts, source says

ANKARA: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkiye’s foreign minister discussed at a meeting in Moscow efforts to end the war in Ukraine and developments since direct talks between the warring parties, a Turkish Foreign Ministry source said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is on a two-day visit to Moscow, where the source said he met Putin on Monday and also Russia’s lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky. Fidan will meet his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday.
While no timetable or location has been agreed for any future talks between Russia and Ukraine, NATO ally Turkiye has repeatedly said it could host them.
Delegates from Moscow and Kyiv met in Istanbul earlier this month for the first time since March 2022, a month after Russia invaded its neighbor. No ceasefire was agreed, but the sides agreed to trade 1,000 prisoners of war and deliver, in writing, their conditions for a possible ceasefire.
In their meeting, Putin and Fidan discussed “the initiatives carried out recently to end the war between Ukraine and Russia, (and) developments following the negotiations held in Istanbul,” the Turkish source said.
Bilateral economy and energy issues were discussed as well, the source added.
Russia said on Monday that the main topic of the talks would be bilateral relations, but that Ukraine would also be discussed.
Ahead of the meeting, the Turkish source had said Fidan would reiterate Ankara’s offer to host the sides and continue playing a “facilitator” role.
Fidan is also expected to travel to Kyiv later this week to meet Ukrainian officials and follow up on the Istanbul talks.
Russian sources have said they viewed Turkiye, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Oman as potentially suitable venues for talks.