BEIJING: US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and China’s top diplomat Wang Yi said they were hoping for productive talks as they met in Beijing on Tuesday. After arriving at the Chinese capital, the top US diplomat said that he looked forward to “a very productive round of conversations” with foreign minister Wang. “We’ll delve into a wide range of issues, including issues on which we agree and those issues… where there are still differences that we need to manage effectively and substantively,” he said. Wang told Sullivan he was keen for “substantive” and “constructive” talks during his visit, the…
Author: Hasnain Abid Khanzada
CAIRO: Palestinians displaced by fighting in the Gaza Strip crowded onto the seashore as Israeli forces continued to battle Hamas fighters in central and southern areas, with health officials reporting at least 17 people killed in strikes on Tuesday. Ceasefire talks were continuing in Cairo with little sign of a concrete breakthrough over key issues separating the sides, including future control over two corridors in the Gaza Strip once fighting ends. In recent days, Israel has issued several evacuation orders across Gaza, the most since the beginning of the 10-month conflict, prompting an outcry from Palestinians, the United Nations, and relief officials…
LONDON: Violence marred London’s Notting Hill Carnival, one of the Europe’s largest street festivals, which led to several stabbings and hundreds of arrests. The violence occurred despite heavy police presence of around 7,000 officers on duty at the carnival, which celebrates British Afro-Caribbean culture. A 32-year-old woman who was attending the carnival with her young child over the weekend was stabbed and remains in critical condition. Reports suggest she was caught in the crossfire of an altercation between two groups of men on Sunday. The Metropolitan Police arrested three men in connection with the attack. A 20-year-old man has been…
UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General António Guterres has urged Pakistan to conduct a thorough investigation into Monday’s terrorist attacks in Balochistan and to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice. At a news briefing in New York on Tuesday, the secretary general’s spokesperson, Stéphane Dujarric, said that the UN chief “strongly condemns” the attacks that took place in Balochistan on August 26, which reportedly resulted in numerous casualties. “The secretary-general stresses that attacks against civilians are unacceptable,” Dujarric said, adding that Guterres “extends his deepest condolences” to the families of the victims. In the early hours of Monday, militants affiliated with the banned Balochistan…
Protesters blocked train tracks, stopped buses and shouted slogans in the eastern Indian state of West Bengal on Wednesday, the latest in a series of protests that have rocked the state since the rape and murder of a trainee doctor. Police fired tear gas and water cannons to disperse protesters marching towards the state secretariat on Tuesday, prompting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which is in opposition in the state, to call for a 12-hour state-wide strike on Wednesday, to protest against what it said were police atrocities. Thousands of protesters, most of them BJP workers, blocked roads and…
Bangladesh’s new authorities on Wednesday opened an investigation into hundreds of enforced disappearances by security forces during the rule of ousted premier Sheikh Hasina, the government said. It includes the notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) paramilitary force, accused of numerous rights abuses, and which was sanctioned by the United States for its role in extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances. Human Rights Watch last year said security forces had committed “over 600 enforced disappearances” since Hasina came to power in 2009, and nearly 100 remain unaccounted for. Many of those detained were from Hasina’s rivals, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Jamaat-e-Islami, the country’s largest Islamist…
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke by phone on Tuesday, discussing the Ukraine conflict as well as other important bilateral issues, the Kremlin said in a statement. Prime Minister Modi briefed President Putin on his recent visit to Kyiv and emphasised his commitment to finding a solution to the Ukraine conflict through political and diplomatic means. “Vladimir Putin shared his principled assessment of the destructive policies of the Kyiv authorities and their Western patrons, and went on to highlight Russia’s approaches to resolving this conflict,” the statement added. The leaders also discussed steps to implement…
Egyptian-American comedian Bassem Youssef announced Tuesday that he is back on the social media platform X, following a week-long deactivation due to security and safety concerns. Youssef, known for his support for Palestinian rights, clarified that he deactivated his account after receiving alarming messages that suggested his account might have been hacked and that there were potential safety issues involving people he knows. “A few days ago, I deactivated my X account. Two reasons: I received concerning messages that gave me and my team the impression that my account has been hacked with the potential of being doxed; also, there…
Afghan women have launched an online protest by uploading videos of themselves singing in defiance of the Taliban’s latest draconian laws. The new restrictions, imposed on 27 August 2024, require women to remain silent in public and conceal their faces and bodies, further stripping away their basic freedoms. Women from both within Afghanistan and abroad are challenging these rules by singing about their struggle for freedom. In one video, a woman sings with her face and body fully covered, lamenting the restrictions imposed by the Taliban, which have silenced women and confined them to their homes. The lyrics of these…
Donald Trump faced a revised federal indictment on Tuesday accusing him of illegally trying to overturn his 2020 election loss, with prosecutors narrowing their approach after a US Supreme Court ruling that former presidents have broad immunity from criminal prosecution. US Special Counsel Jack Smith’s team obtained the superseding indictment in the Washington case, though it was highly unlikely to proceed to trial ahead of the Nov. 5 election when the Republican Trump faces Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris. The revised indictment lays out the same four charges prosecutors brought against the former president last year, but this one focuses on Trump’s role as a political candidate…
