Biden condemns ‘deplorable’ Ukraine attack, pledges aid

Biden condemns ‘deplorable’ Ukraine attack, pledges aid
US President Joe Biden speaks at the kickoff event of the Investing in America content series in the South Court Auditorium of the White House in Washington, DC, September 3, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 04 September 2024
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Biden condemns ‘deplorable’ Ukraine attack, pledges aid

Biden condemns ‘deplorable’ Ukraine attack, pledges aid
  • Attack on Poltava killed at least 51 people
  • Biden pledged to provide more air defense systems

WASHINGTON: US President Joe Biden on Tuesday strongly condemned Russia’s “deplorable attack” on the Ukrainian city of Poltava that killed at least 51 people, pledging to provide more air defense systems.

“I condemn this deplorable attack in the strongest possible terms,” Biden said in a statement, adding that Washington will continue military aid to Kyiv, “including providing the air defense systems and capabilities they need to protect their country.”


Indian man charged with rape and murder of doctor that sparked widespread protests

Indian man charged with rape and murder of doctor that sparked widespread protests
Updated 16 sec ago
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Indian man charged with rape and murder of doctor that sparked widespread protests

Indian man charged with rape and murder of doctor that sparked widespread protests
  • The suspect, named as Sanjoy Roy, was arrested the day after the murder on August 9 and held in custody since
  • Roy, who had been working as a volunteer supporting patients, would potentially face death penalty if convicted

Kolkata: Indian police on Monday charged a man with the rape and murder of a 31-year-old doctor, a crime which appalled the country and triggered wide-scale protests.
The discovery of the doctor’s bloodied body at a government hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata on August 9 sparked nationwide anger at the chronic issue of violence against women.
The suspect, named as Sanjoy Roy, arrested the day after the murder and held in custody since, was formally charged on Monday with a confidential document of evidence submitted to the court.
“Sanjoy Roy has been charged with the rape and murder of the on-duty trainee post-graduate doctor inside the hospital,” a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) official told AFP.
Roy, widely reported by Indian media to be aged 33, and who had been working as a volunteer in the hospital supporting patients, would potentially face the death penalty if convicted.
Doctors in Kolkata went on strike for weeks in response to the brutal attack.
Tens of thousands of ordinary Indians joined in the protests, which focused anger on the lack of measures for women doctors to work without fear.
While most medics have returned to work, a small group began a hunger strike this month.
The doctors say the West Bengal state government had failed to deliver on its promises to upgrade lighting, security cameras and other measures to protect them.
India’s Supreme Court last month ordered a national task force to examine how to bolster security for health care workers, saying the brutality of the killing had “shocked the conscience of the nation.”
The gruesome nature of the attack drew comparisons with the 2012 gang rape and murder of a young woman on a Delhi bus, which also sparked weeks of nationwide protests.
 


UK’s Starmer urges Middle East ‘restraint’ on Oct 7 anniversary

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer makes a statement on the anniversary of the Hamas terror attacks in Israel.
Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer makes a statement on the anniversary of the Hamas terror attacks in Israel.
Updated 51 min 27 sec ago
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UK’s Starmer urges Middle East ‘restraint’ on Oct 7 anniversary

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer makes a statement on the anniversary of the Hamas terror attacks in Israel.
  • “All sides must now step back from the brink and find the courage of restraint. There is no military solution to these challenges,” Starmer said

LONDON: British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday urged “all sides” in the Middle East conflict to “find the courage of restraint,” on the first anniversary of Hamas’ October 7 attack on Israel.
Addressing lawmakers in parliament, the UK leader said the region “cannot endure another year of this” and that “civilians on all sides have suffered too much.”
“All sides must now step back from the brink and find the courage of restraint. There is no military solution to these challenges,” Starmer told MPs in a somber House of Commons.
His comments followed a statement earlier Monday in which he paid tribute to the victims of those killed a year ago, saying: “We stand together to remember the lives so cruelly taken.”
Starmer, who took power in early July, added that Britain “must unequivocally stand with the Jewish community and unite as a country,” following a surge in reports of anti-Semitism across the UK.
“On this day of pain and sorrow, we honor those we lost, and continue in our determination to return those still held hostage, help those who are suffering, and secure a better future for the Middle East,” he said.
In his brief speech in parliament, Starmer said 15 British citizens were killed on October 7 in the attacks, and that another died while being held in captivity.
The Hamas onslaught left 1,205 dead on the Israeli side, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on the latest official Israeli figures.
Some 251 people were captured and taken as hostages to the Gaza Strip. Of those 97 are still held captive including 34 the Israeli military says are dead.
Starmer also noted that more than 41,000 Palestinians had also been killed in Israel’s military response, reiterating his calls for immediate ceasefires in Lebanon and Gaza, and more aid to be allowed into the latter.
Again urging British citizens in Lebanon to leave, the UK leader noted 430 people had already left the country on government chartered flights over the last week.


Putin to meet Iran president in Turkmenistan Friday

Putin to meet Iran president in Turkmenistan Friday
Updated 07 October 2024
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Putin to meet Iran president in Turkmenistan Friday

Putin to meet Iran president in Turkmenistan Friday
  • Leaders will meet in Ashgabat while attending an event celebrating a Turkmen poet
  • Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin visited Iran last week for talks with Masoud Pezeshkian

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin is to meet Iran’s President Masoud Pezeshkian for talks Friday at a forum in the Central Asian country of Turkmenistan, a senior aide said Monday.
Yury Ushakov, Putin’s aide on foreign policy, told journalists the leaders will meet in Ashgabat while attending an event celebrating a Turkmen poet.
“This meeting has great significance both for discussing bilateral issues as well as, of course, discussing the sharply escalated situation in the Middle East,” Ushakov said.
Leaders of Central Asian countries are meeting to commemorate the 300th anniversary of the birth of 18th-century poet Magtymguly Pyragy.
Putin’s attendance had not been previously announced.
Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin visited Iran last week for talks with Pezeshkian and First Vice President Mohammad Reza Aref.
The talks come as Israel intensively bombs Lebanon, targeting Iran-backed Hezbollah and Russia has evacuated some citizens.
Russia has close relations with Iran, and Western governments have accused Tehran of supplying Moscow with drones and missiles, which it has repeatedly denied.
Pezeshkian will also hold talks with Putin during a visit to Russia this month to participate in a BRICS summit of emerging economies.


Russia says grain harvest hit by Ukraine war, bad weather

A combine harvests wheat in a field in the Rostov Region, Russia July 10, 2024. (Reuters)
A combine harvests wheat in a field in the Rostov Region, Russia July 10, 2024. (Reuters)
Updated 07 October 2024
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Russia says grain harvest hit by Ukraine war, bad weather

A combine harvests wheat in a field in the Rostov Region, Russia July 10, 2024. (Reuters)
  • Russia, the world’s top wheat exporter, has officially forecast this year’s grain harvest at 132 million metric tons, an 11 percent drop from 148 million tons in 2023
  • However, after bad weather hit many grain-producing regions, the forecast is set for a downward revision

MOSCOW: Russia’s grain harvest will be hit by the impact of Ukraine’s attacks on grain-producing regions close to the border and by bad weather in many other regions, the RIA news agency cited Agriculture Minister Oksana Lut as saying on Monday.
Russia, the world’s top wheat exporter, has officially forecast this year’s grain harvest at 132 million metric tons, an 11 percent drop from 148 million tons in 2023 and a 16 percent drop from a record 158 million tons in 2022.
However, after bad weather, ranging from early spring frosts to drought and rain, hit many grain-producing regions, the forecast is set for a downward revision. The IKAR consultancy sees this year’s grain harvest at 124.5 million tons.
Concerns over Russia’s smaller-than-expected grain harvest supported international prices in recent months, with wheat reaching four-months high last week.
“We are currently calculating the figures, taking into account the bad weather in Siberia,” Lut was quoted by RIA Novosti as saying.
“And on the other hand, unfortunately, considering the inability to harvest crops in regions where a counter-terrorist operation regime has been introduced,” Lut added in a first public acknowledgment of the war’s impact on the harvest.
Russia introduced the regime in Kursk, as well as neighboring Bryansk and Belgorod regions, following a major Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk region, Russia’s seventh-largest grain-producing region, on Aug. 6.
Both Belgorod and Bryansk regions, major grain-producing areas, have become targets of regular attacks by Ukraine’s military. Ukrainian forces still control a large swathe of the Kursk region.
Kursk Governor Alexei Smirnov said in September that after the attack, the harvesting of grains could not be completed on an area of 160,000 hectares. He estimated the damage from the attack at almost $1 billion.
Lut said the final estimate for this year’s harvest will be announced on Oct. 10. Sovecon consultancy earlier estimated that as of Oct.1, Russian farmers had harvested 111 million metric tons of grain.
Lut also said that winter crops sowing in many regions was difficult because of the continued drought. Sovecon consultancy said that no rains were expected in winter grain sowing areas until mid-October.
“The sowing is going very hard. We plan to sow 20 million hectares, as we did last year. But we are practically sowing in sand,” Interfax news agency quoted Lut as saying.


Nationwide protests in India demand stop to arms trade with Israel 

Activists gather in New Delhi in solidarity with Palestine and to demand the Indian government ceases ties with Israel on Oct. 7
Activists gather in New Delhi in solidarity with Palestine and to demand the Indian government ceases ties with Israel on Oct. 7
Updated 07 October 2024
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Nationwide protests in India demand stop to arms trade with Israel 

Activists gather in New Delhi in solidarity with Palestine and to demand the Indian government ceases ties with Israel on Oct. 7
  • Protesters took to the streets of New Delhi, Kolkata, Bangalore and Lucknow in solidarity with Palestine
  • Indian civil society calls on government to cease diplomatic, defense and labor ties with Israel

NEW DELHI: India’s largest civil society organizations staged protests in cities across the country on Monday demanding the Indian government stop arms exports to Israel, as they gathered to mark a year since the start of the war on Gaza.

Since the deadly onslaught on Gaza began on Oct. 7, Israeli forces have killed at least 41,870 Palestinians and wounded over 97,000 others, according to estimates from the enclave’s Health Ministry.

India’s leading civil society organizations, main trade unions and top lawyers have held rallies in solidarity with Palestine for the past year, demanding a ceasefire and more action from parties that have ties with Israel, including the government in Delhi.

“The main demand of the protest is that we want a complete arms embargo, we want the Indian government to stop sending arms to Israel because we know that it is resulting in the loss of life. It is only being used to bomb innocents,” Anjali, an activist with the India for Palestine collective, told Arab News.

“We want an immediate and permanent ceasefire. We want the Indian government to end all arms and trade deals with the Israeli government … This protest is important. We are fed up with being part of a country which is signing stronger ties with Israel.”

Indian arms sales to Israel came into the spotlight in May, following reports of two shipments loaded with weapons that originated from Chennai in southeast India, which was later prevented from docking in the Spanish port of Cartagena.

In June, Palestinian reporters released clips showing remains of a missile found after a deadly bombing with a label that read: “Made in India.”

Though support for Palestine was an important part of India’s foreign policy for decades, that support has visibly shifted toward Israel especially in the past year, which saw police stopping rallies held in solidarity with Gaza.

On Monday, activists took to the streets not only in the Indian capital, but also in the eastern city of Kolkata, the southern city of Bangalore and Lucknow, the capital of India’s largest state of Uttar Pradesh.

There were dozens of organizations represented at the New Delhi demonstration, including rights bodies, trade unions, student and youth associations, and women’s groups.

In a letter to mark one year since Israel’s war on Gaza, they called on the Indian government to cease all diplomatic ties with Israel. And to “vote against genocidal actions of the US-backed Israeli government,” while also urging a stop to all arms trade and labor ties with Tel Aviv.

“We are asking the Indian government to stop the military supply. It’s the same demand, which they are not listening to … therefore this is a tactic to put pressure on the Indian government,” Aban Raza, an artist who took part in the Delhi rally, told Arab News.

Prasenjit, a student leader in Delhi, said the Indian government should “take a position” and send the message to the world. “The barbaric attack on Palestine should stop,” he said.

In Kolkata, more than a thousand people showed up to participate in the Palestinian rally.

“This is not a war, but genocide, and the whole world is raising voice against this genocide. This attack on Palestine and Lebanon is being done with the help of the USA and NATO,” Nilasis Bose of the All India Students Association told Arab News.

“We demand that the genocide should stop, the UN should get proactive. We fear that the (Gaza) war will push the world into the third world war,” he said.

“We also want war criminals like Netanyahu to be tried and punished.”

Feroze Mithiborwala, an activist in Bangalore, was expecting over a thousand people to show up at the evening protest in the city.

“They are calling for the stoppage of weapon supply and trade deals with Israel and we are calling for the establishment of the Palestinian independent state. Israel needs to be tried for war crimes too,” he said.

“People can see the horror happening (that) Israel is committing. People are protesting to demand an end to the war. They are calling for an immediate and permanent ceasefire.”