Dense fog and cold weather delayed train and flight departures in several parts of northern India, including its capital New Delhi, on Wednesday.
India’s weather office issued an orange alert for Delhi, the second highest warning level, forecasting dense to very dense fog in many areas.
Visibility at Delhi’s main airport was between zero to 100 meters (328.08 ft), the weather office said, and more than 40 trains across northern India were delayed because of fog, local media reported.
Some aircraft departures from Delhi were delayed, airport authorities said on social media platform X, warning that flights lacking the CAT III navigation system that enables landing despite low visibility would face difficulties. Delhi’s main airport handles about 1,400 flights every day.
“Low visibility and fog over Delhi may lead to some delays,” the country’s largest airline IndiGo said in a social media post.
Local media showed images of vehicles crawling along highways through the fog, and people huddled indoors as the temperature dipped to 7 degrees Celsius (44.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
Delhi was ranked as the world’s most polluted city in live rankings by Swiss group IQAir on Wednesday, with a reading of 254, ranked as “very unhealthy.”
The Indian capital has been battling poor air quality and smog since the beginning of winter.
Dense fog over Indian capital delays flights, trains
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Dense fog over Indian capital delays flights, trains
- Delhi was ranked as the world’s most polluted city in live rankings by Swiss group IQAir
All eyes on Democrats as US barrels toward shutdown deadline
WASHINGTON: The US government, already shaken by Donald Trump’s radical reforms, could begin shutting down entirely this weekend as Democrats grapple with the option of opposing the president’s federal funding plans — at the risk this blows up in their faces.
With a Friday night deadline to fund the government or allow it to start winding down its operations, the Senate is set for a crunch vote ahead of the midnight cut-off on a Trump-backed bill passed by the House of Representatives.
The package would keep the lights on through September, but Democrats are under immense pressure from their own grassroots to defy Trump and reject a text they say is full of harmful spending cuts.
“If it shuts down, it’s not the Republicans’ fault. We passed a bill... If there’s a shutdown, even the Democrats admit it will be their fault,” Trump told reporters on Thursday.
A handful of Democrats in Trump-supporting states — worried that they would be blamed over a stoppage with no obvious exit ramp — appear ready to incur the wrath of their own supporters by backing down.
But the vote remains on a knife edge, with many Democrats yet to reveal their decision.
Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, who voted against a bill to avert a shutdown as recently as 18 months ago, urged the minority party to “put partisan politics aside and do the right thing.”
“When the government shuts down, you have government employees who are no longer paid, you have services that begin to lag. It brings great harm on the economy and the people,” he told Fox News.
The funding fight is focused on opposition to Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), unofficially spearheaded by tech mega-billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk, which is working to dramatically reduce the size of the government.
DOGE aims to cut federal spending by $1 trillion this year and claims to have made savings so far of $115 billion through lease terminations, contract cancelations and firing federal workers.
Its online “wall of receipts” accounts for a tiny portion of that total, however, and US media outlets have found its website to be riddled with errors, misleading math and exaggerations.
Grassroots Democrats, infuriated by what they see as the SpaceX and Tesla CEO’s lawless rampage through the federal bureaucracy, want their leaders to stand up to DOGE and Trump.
The funding bill is likely to need support from at least eight Democrats in the Senate, but its Republican authors ignored the minority party’s demands to protect Congress’s authority over the government’s purse strings and rein in Musk.
Washington progressive representative Pramila Jayapal told CNN there would be a “huge backlash” against Senate Democrats supporting the bill.
Several top Democrats have warned, however, that a shutdown could play into Musk’s hands, making further lay-offs easier and distracting from DOGE’s most unpopular actions, which just this week has included firing half the Education Department’s workforce.
“Now it’s a (bill) that we all agree we don’t like — but for me we can’t ever allow the government to shut down,” Pennsylvania’s Democratic Senator John Fetterman told CNN, warning that a recession could follow.
Republicans control 53 seats in the 100-member Senate.
Legislation in the upper chamber requires a preliminary ballot with a 60-vote threshold — designed to encourage bipartisanship — before final passage, which only needs a simple majority.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer told his members privately on Thursday he will vote yes at the preliminary stage, according to congressional media outlet Punchbowl News.
He and Fetterman are the only Democrats committed to allowing the bill to move forward, and Schumer has not ordered his members to follow suit.
But others could cross the aisle if Republicans allow amendment votes on their legislative priorities.
Each would fail, but it is a face-saving exercise that would allow Democrats to tell their activists at home that they fought for their principles.
It is not clear however that this would shield them from the criticism that they bent the knee to Trump and Musk.
Duterte’s first ICC appearance set for Friday
- Former Philippines president faces crimes against humanity charges over his deadly war on drugs
- The 79-year-old will appear before judges for a hearing where he will be informed of the crimes he is alleged to have committed.
THE HAGUE: Rodrigo Duterte’s first appearance at the International Criminal Court has been set for Friday, the court said, as the former Philippines president faces crimes against humanity charges over his deadly war on drugs.
“The Chamber considers it appropriate for the first appearance of Mr.Duterte to take place on Friday, 14 March 2025 at 14:00 hours (1300 GMT),” the court said in a statement late on Thursday.
The 79-year-old will appear before judges for a hearing where he will be informed of the crimes he is alleged to have committed, as well as his rights as a defendant.
Duterte stands accused of the crime against humanity of murder over his years-long campaign against drug users and dealers that rights groups said killed tens of thousands of people.
As he landed in The Hague, the former leader appeared to accept responsibility for his actions, saying in a Facebook video: “I have been telling the police, the military, that it was my job and I am responsible.”
Duterte’s stunning arrest in Manila came amid a spectacular meltdown in relations between his family and the Marcos family, who had previously joined forces to run the Philippines.
Current President Ferdinand Marcos and Vice President Sara Duterte — Rodrigo’s daughter — are at loggerheads, with the latter facing an impeachment trial over charges including an alleged assassination plot against Marcos.
Sara Duterte is in The Netherlands to support her father, after labelling his arrest “oppression and persecution,” with the Duterte family having sought an emergency injunction from the Supreme Court to stop his transfer.
But victims of the “war on drugs” hope that Duterte will finally face justice for his alleged crimes.
Gilbert Andres, a lawyer representing victims of the drug war, told AFP: “My clients are very thankful to God because their prayers have been answered.”
“The arrest of Rodrigo Duterte is a great signal for international criminal justice. It means that no one is above the law,” Andres added.
The high-profile Duterte case also comes at a critical moment for the ICC, as it faces unprecedented pressure from all sides, including US sanctions.
Last month, US President Donald Trump imposed sanctions on the court over what he said were “illegitimate and baseless actions targeting America and our close ally Israel.”
The ICC has issued an arrest warrant for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former defense minister Yoav Gallant for alleged war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Gaza war.
Chief Prosecutor Karim Khan hailed Duterte’s arrest as a key moment for victims and international justice as a whole.
“Many say that international law is not as strong as we want, and I agree with that. But as I also repeatedly emphasize, international law is not as weak as some may think,” Khan said in a statement following Duterte’s arrival in ICC custody.
“When we come together... when we build partnerships, the rule of law can prevail. Warrants can be executed,” he said.
At the initial hearing, a suspect can request interim release pending a trial, according to ICC rules.
Following that first hearing, the next phase is a session to confirm the charges, at which point a suspect can challenge the prosecutor’s evidence.
Only after that hearing will the court decide whether to press ahead with a trial, a process that could take several months or even years.
“It’s important to underline, as we now start a new stage of proceedings, that Mr. Duterte is presumed innocent,” said Khan.
Southern African bloc ends military mission in DR Congo
JOHANNESBURG: The southern African regional bloc decided on Thursday to end its military deployment to the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where it lost more than a dozen soldiers in conflict in January.
The 16-nation Southern African Development Community, or SADC, decided at a virtual summit on the conflict in the area that has seen some three decades of unrest and claimed millions of lives.
The “summit terminated the mandate of SAMIDRC and directed the commencement of a phased withdrawal of SAMIDRC troops from the DRC,” it said in a statement at the end of the meeting.
The SADC Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo, or SAMIDRC, — made up of soldiers from Malawi, Tanzania, and South Africa — was sent to the region in December 2023 to help the government of the DRC, also SADC member, restore peace and security. South Africa lost 14 soldiers in the eastern DRC conflict in January.
Most were from the SAMIDRC mission, but at least two were deployed as part of a separate UN peacekeeping mission.
Three Malawian troops in the SADC deployment were also killed, while Tanzania said two of its soldiers died in clashes.
Calls have been mounting in South Africa for the soldiers still in the DRC to be withdrawn, with reports that they are confined to their base by M23 fighters. Malawi in February, ordered its military to prepare for a withdrawal.
Columbia University says it expelled some students who seized building last year
- The university said its judicial board had issued its sanctions against dozens of students
- The university did not provide a breakdown of how many students were expelled, suspended or had their degree revoked
NEW YORK: Columbia University says it has expelled or suspended some students who took over a campus building during pro-Palestinian protests last spring, and had temporarily revoked the diplomas of some students who have since graduated.
In a campus-wide email sent Thursday, the university said its judicial board had issued its sanctions against dozens of students who occupied Hamilton Hall based on its “evaluation of the severity of behaviors.”
The university did not provide a breakdown of how many students were expelled, suspended or had their degree revoked.
The culmination of the monthslong investigative process comes as the university’s activist community is reeling from the arrest of a well-known campus activist, Mahmoud Khalil, by federal immigration authorities this past Saturday – the “first of many” such arrests, according to President Donald Trump.
At the same time, the Trump administration has stripped the university of more than $400 million in federal funds over what it describes as the college’s inaction against widespread campus antisemitism.
The takeover of Hamilton Hall came on April 30, 2024, an escalation led by a smaller group of students of the tent encampment that had sprung up on Columbia’s campus against the war in Gaza.
Students and their allies barricaded themselves inside the hall with furniture and padlocks in a major escalation of campus protests.
At the request of university leaders, hundreds of officers with the New York Police Department stormed onto campus the following night. Officers carrying zip ties and riot shields poured in to the occupied building through a window and arrested dozens of people.
At a court hearing in June, the Manhattan district attorney’s office said it would not pursue criminal charges for 31 of the 46 people initially arrested on trespassing charges inside the administration building — but all of the students still faced disciplinary hearings and possible expulsion from the university.
The district attorney’s office said at the time that they were dismissing charges against most of those arrested inside the building due in part to a lack of evidence tying them to specific acts of property damage and the fact that none of the students had criminal histories.
More than a dozen of those arrested were offered deals that would have eventually led to the dismissal of their charges, but they refused them, protest organizers said, “in a show of solidarity with those facing the most extreme repression.” Most in that group were alumni, but two were current students, prosecutors said.
Ethiopia and Eritrea on path to war, Tigray officials warn
ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia and Eritrea could be headed toward war, officials in a restive Ethiopian region at the center of the tensions have warned, risking another humanitarian disaster in the Horn of Africa.
Analysts said that direct clashes between two of Africa’s largest armies would signal the death blow for a historic rapprochement for which Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2019 and could draw in other regional powers.
It would also likely create another crisis in a region where aid cuts have complicated efforts to assist millions affected by internal conflicts in Sudan, Somalia, and Ethiopia.
“At any moment, war between Ethiopia and Eritrea could break out,” Gen. Tsadkan Gebretensae, a vice president in the interim administration in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, wrote in Africa-focused magazine the Africa Report on Monday.
A 2020-2022 civil war in Tigray between the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, and Ethiopia’s central government killed hundreds of thousands of people.
Fears of a new conflict are linked to the TPLF’s split last year into a faction that now administers Tigray with the blessing of Ethiopia’s federal government and another that opposes it.
On Tuesday, the dissident faction, which Tsadkan accused of seeking an alliance with Eritrea, seized control of the northern town of Adigrat.
Getachew Reda, the head of Tigray’s interim administration, asked the government for support against the dissidents, who deny ties to Eritrea.
“There is clear antagonism between Ethiopia and Eritrea,” Getachew told a news conference on Monday.
“What concerns me is that the Tigray people may once again become victims of a war they don’t believe in.”
Ethiopia’s federal government has not commented on the tensions.
Eritrea’s information minister dismissed Tsadkan’s warnings as “war-mongering psychosis.”
However, according to UK-based Human Rights Concern-Eritrea, Eritrea ordered a nationwide military mobilization in mid-February.
Two diplomatic sources and two Tigrayan officials said Ethiopia deployed troops toward the Eritrean border this month.
Payton Knopf and Alexander Rondos, the former US and EU envoys to the region, say the prospects of a new war are real.
