Pravin Gordhan, a South African government minister who was activist against apartheid, dies at 75

Pravin Gordhan, a South African government minister who was activist against apartheid, dies at 75
President Cyril Ramaphosa remembered him as “an outstanding leader whose unassuming persona belied the depth of intellect, integrity and energy” with which he acted. (AP)
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Updated 13 September 2024
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Pravin Gordhan, a South African government minister who was activist against apartheid, dies at 75

Pravin Gordhan, a South African government minister who was activist against apartheid, dies at 75
  • President Cyril Ramaphosa remembered him as “an outstanding leader whose unassuming persona belied the depth of intellect, integrity and energy” with which he acted

JOHANNESBURG: Pravin Gordhan, who was a South African government minister for many years after beginning his political career opposing apartheid, died Friday. He was 75 and had cancer.
Gordhan, a long-time member of the African National Congress party, retired from active politics after the May elections when the ANC lost its parliamentary majority for the first since it came into power in 1994.
“Mr. Gordhan passed away peacefully in hospital surrounded by his family, closest friends and his long-time comrades in the liberation struggle in the early hours of this morning,” his family said in a statement early Friday following his death after being hospitalized this week.
“We have lost an outstanding leader whose unassuming persona belied the depth of intellect, integrity and energy with which he undertook his activism, his duty as a parliamentarian and his roles as a member of Cabinet,” President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a statement.
A political activist from his teenage years, Gordhan joined the struggle against the racist and oppressive system of apartheid and joined the ANC’s underground structures in the 1980s.
He was one of the negotiators for the country’s peaceful transition to a constitutional democracy and became a member of parliament in 1994 after Nelson Mandela became the country’s first democratically elected president.
His last position in government was as the minister of public enterprises from 2018 to 2024 in charge of state-owned enterprises. He served two terms as finance minister from 2009 to 2014 and again from 2015 to 2017.
From 1999 to 2009, Gordhan was the head of the South Africa Revenue Services, which he was credited with transforming into a world-class tax and customs service.
Gordhan was an outspoken critic of corruption in government and state-owned enterprises, and was one of the ministers who criticized the leadership of former President Jacob Zuma while he was still serving in his Cabinet.


At least 20 killed in attack on miners in southwestern Pakistan, police say

At least 20 killed in attack on miners in southwestern Pakistan, police say
Updated 10 sec ago
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At least 20 killed in attack on miners in southwestern Pakistan, police say

At least 20 killed in attack on miners in southwestern Pakistan, police say
  • The attackers gathered the miners at one place and opened fire on them, local media reported
  • There are ten coal mines located in the area, a company official told local media
QUETTA, Pakistan: At least 20 miners were killed and seven injured in an attack by armed men on a small private coal mine in the southwestern Pakistani province of Balochistan on Friday, police said.
The mineral-rich region borders Afghanistan and Iran and has been troubled for decades as Baloch insurgent groups fight against the state, saying it denies them their share of regional resources.
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack.
“A group of armed men attacked the Junaid Coal company mines in the Duki area in the wee hours using heavy weapons,” said Humayun Khan, the police station house officer for the town, located east of the city of Quetta.
They fired rockets and grenades at the mines as well, he added.
The attackers gathered the miners at one place and opened fire on them, local media reported, adding that they also set mining machinery on fire.
There are ten coal mines located in the area, a company official told local media.
“We have received 20 bodies and six injured so far at the district hospital,” said Johar Khan Shadizai, a doctor in Duki.
Pakistan has seen a resurgence of Islamist militancy since 2022 when a ceasefire between the Pakistani Taliban and the government broke down.
Two Chinese nationals working for a power plant were killed and a third injured in an explosion near the international airport in the southern city of Karachi earlier this week.
The Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), one of several insurgent groups battling the government, claimed responsibility for the attack.
BLA was also behind Balochistan’s most widespread violence in years in August, when separatist militants attacked police stations, railway lines, and highways, killing more than 70 people.
The region saw violence last month too when armed men stormed a residence housing laborers from eastern Punjab province, killing seven of them.
The attacks come as the country is preparing to host the summit of the eight-member Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in capital Islamabad next week.
The event is expected to see high-level Chinese representation and will also be attended by India’s foreign minister.

Tesla CEO Musk unveils ‘Cybercab’, ‘Robovan’ as focus shifts to automation

Tesla CEO Musk unveils ‘Cybercab’, ‘Robovan’ as focus shifts to automation
Updated 44 min 23 sec ago
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Tesla CEO Musk unveils ‘Cybercab’, ‘Robovan’ as focus shifts to automation

Tesla CEO Musk unveils ‘Cybercab’, ‘Robovan’ as focus shifts to automation
  • Cybercab production to start in 2026, to cost less than $30,000
  • Also showcased were the Robovan, capable of carrying up to 20 people, and Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot

Tesla CEO Elon Musk showcased a two-door robotaxi with gull-wing doors and no steering wheel or pedals at a much-hyped event on Thursday, sticking to long-held promises of autonomous cars driving long-term growth at the electric vehicle maker.
Musk traveled to the stage in a "Cybercab" and said production will start in 2026 with the vehicles being available to buy for less than $30,000.
"The autonomous future is here," Musk said. "We have 50 fully autonomous cars here tonight. You'll see model Ys and the Cybercab. All driverless."
The Cybercab will cost 20 cents a mile to operate over time, use inductive chargers and not require any plugs. They will also rely only on cameras and artificial intelligence, without the need for other hardware that robotaxi players use.
Musk also showcased a larger, self-driving vehicle — called Robovan — capable of carrying up to 20 people, and showed off Tesla's Optimus humanoid robot.

Tesla's robovan is unveiled at an event in Los Angeles, California, on October 10, 2024. (Tesla/Handout via REUTERS)

Enthusiasm around the event has been on display across social media for weeks, with screenshots of invites and speculation on what might be disclosed. But investors and analysts have flagged challenges with the technology and reined in expectations.
Musk's plan is to operate a fleet of self-driving Tesla taxis that passengers can hail through an app. Individual Tesla owners will also be able to make money on the app by listing their vehicles as robotaxis.
Thursday's event at the Warner Bros studio near Los Angeles, California, is titled "We, Robot" - an apparent nod to the "I, Robot" science-fiction short stories by American writer Isaac Asimov, but also echoes Musk's insistence that Tesla "should be thought of as an AI robotics company" rather than an automaker.
Those attending included investors, stock analysts and Tesla fans.
"Everything looks cool, but not much in terms of time lines, I'm a shareholder and pretty disappointed. I think the market wanted more definitive time lines," said Dennis Dick, equity trader at Triple D Trading. "I don't think he said much about anything... He didn't give much info."

Tesla's Optimus robots walk on the day of an unveiling event in Los Angeles, California,on October 10, 2024. (Tesla/Handout via REUTERS)

Missed promises
Musk said in 2019 he was "very confident" the company would have operational robotaxis by the next year. After missed promises, Musk this year diverted his focus to developing the vehicles after scrapping plans to build a smaller, cheaper car widely seen as essential to countering slowing EV demand.
Tesla is at risk of posting its first-ever decline in deliveries this year as buying incentives have failed to attract enough customers to its aging EV lineup. Steep price cuts meant to offset high interest rates have also squeezed profit margins.
Complicated technology and tight regulation have led to billion of dollars in loss for other companies attempting to crack the robotaxi market, forcing some to shut shop.
Some are still pushing, including General Motors' Cruise, Amazon's Zoox and Chinese firms such as WeRide.
Unlike expensive hardware such as lidar that others use, Musk is relying only on cameras and AI to run FSD to keep costs down. But FSD, which requires constant driver attention, has faced regulatory and legal scrutiny with at least two fatal accidents involving the technology.

 


Blinken at ASEAN meet condemns China’s ‘increasingly dangerous’ sea moves

Blinken at ASEAN meet condemns China’s ‘increasingly dangerous’ sea moves
Updated 11 October 2024
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Blinken at ASEAN meet condemns China’s ‘increasingly dangerous’ sea moves

Blinken at ASEAN meet condemns China’s ‘increasingly dangerous’ sea moves
  • Blinken is representing the US at the annual Southeast Asian meeting, where China has heard directly from leaders of concern about the dispute-rife South China Sea
  • The Philippines has been alarmed by violent incidents as Beijing exerts its claims in the strategic waterway.

VIENTIANE, Laos: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned Beijing’s “increasingly dangerous” actions in the South China Sea and voiced support for freedom of navigation as he met leaders of the ASEAN bloc on Friday.
“We remain concerned about China’s increasingly dangerous and unlawful actions on the South and East China Seas, which have injured people, harmed vessels from ASEAN nations and contradict commitments to peaceful resolution of disputes,” Blinken told Southeast Asian leaders gathered in Laos.
“The United States will continue to support freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight in the Indo-Pacific,” he said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, back right, takes part in the 12th ASEAN-US Summit in Vientiane on  Oct. 11, 2024. (Pool Photo via AP)

Blinken said that the United States also hoped to work with ASEAN leaders to “protect stability across the Taiwan Strait,” where tension has risen again as China this week denounced remarks by the self-governing democracy’s president.

Blinken is representing the United States at the annual Southeast Asian meeting, where China has heard directly from leaders of concern about the dispute-rife South China Sea.
The Philippines has been alarmed by violent incidents as Beijing exerts its claims in the strategic waterway.
 

Another prominent theme at the summit is Myanmar, whose military junta sent a representative to the ASEAN meeting for the first time in more than three years. Myanmar’s delegation joined the meeting with Blinken but it was unclear if there was any direct interaction.
Blinken said he wanted to discuss the “deepening crisis in Myanmar” — a rare US usage of the country’s official name and not the former Burma.
Blinken also urged firmness against Russia’s “war of aggression” in Ukraine, ahead of a full East Asia Summit in which Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov will participate.
 


Gunmen kill 20 miners and wound others in an attack in southwest Pakistan

Gunmen kill 20 miners and wound others in an attack in southwest Pakistan
Updated 11 October 2024
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Gunmen kill 20 miners and wound others in an attack in southwest Pakistan

Gunmen kill 20 miners and wound others in an attack in southwest Pakistan

QUETTA, Pakistan: Gunmen killed 20 miners and wounded another seven in Pakistan’s southwest, a police official said Friday.
It’s the latest attack in restive Balochistan province and comes days ahead of a major security summit being hosted in the capital.
Police official Hamayun Khan Nasir said the gunmen stormed the accommodations at the coal mine in Duki district late Thursday night, rounded up the men and opened fire.
Most of the men were from Pashtun-speaking areas of Balochistan. Three of the dead and four of the wounded were Afghan.
Nobody claimed immediate responsibility for the attack.
The province is home to separatist groups who want independence. They accuse the federal government in Islamabad of unfairly exploiting oil- and mineral-rich Balochistan at the expense of locals.
On Monday, a group called the Baloch Liberation Army said it carried out an attack on Chinese nationals outside Pakistan’s biggest airport. There are thousands of Chinese working in the country, most of them involved in Beijing’s multibillion-dollar Belt and Road Initiative.
The explosion, which the BLA said was the work of a suicide bomber, also raised questions about the ability of Pakistani forces to protect high-profile events or foreigners in the country.
Islamabad is hosting a summit next week of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, a grouping founded by China and Russia to counter Western alliances.


Trump raises eyebrows with Democratic state blitz

Trump raises eyebrows with Democratic state blitz
Updated 11 October 2024
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Trump raises eyebrows with Democratic state blitz

Trump raises eyebrows with Democratic state blitz
  • For Kronus Communications founder Adrienne Uthe, the sorties into Democratic territory are about nationwide optics and messaging, rather than a simple grab for local votes
  • For Jeb Bush's former communications chief Tim Miller, people in swing states are tired of the Trump “shtick” so he needs to go to red areas of blue states to get the crowd size that he needs

WASHINGTON: Spend any time in a swing state in the closing weeks of a US election and it’s hard to avoid the barrage of rallies, TV interviews and attack ads as candidates grasp for those final few undecided voters.
So when Republican nominee Donald Trump announced an expansion of his campaign map into “deep blue” Democratic real estate that he has virtually no chance of taking, political analysts wondered what he was up to.
Trump, 78, is in Aurora, Colorado on Friday and California’s Coachella Valley on Saturday. Next week he heads to Chicago, Illinois and on October 27 he will appear at New York’s iconic Madison Square Garden, home of the NBA’s New York Knicks.
Colorado is the only one of those states to have voted Republican in a presidential election this century. It was the most competitive of the four in 2020, and it was still a cakewalk for Biden, who won by 13 points.
Meanwhile Trump and his Democratic opponent Kamala Harris are neck-and-neck in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Arizona and Nevada — where a few thousand wavering voters could determine who gets the White House.
So why put in time that takes you away from the Americans who do the hiring and firing less than four weeks before November 5?
The Trump campaign did not respond to a request for comment but aides have pointed to a strategy of wooing voters in areas they say are hurt by failed Democratic policies.

Optics and symbolism

For Adrienne Uthe, the founder of Utah-based PR firm Kronus Communications, the sorties into Democratic territory are about nationwide optics and messaging, rather than a simple grab for local votes.
“He’s not there to flip these states, he’s there to fuel the narrative of a ‘national movement’ and energize his base where they feel like underdogs,” she told AFP.
“Rallying in traditionally Democratic areas gives his supporters the thrill of ‘enemy territory,’ while allowing Trump to frame his campaign as transcending party lines.”
Andrew Koneschusky, a political communications expert and former press secretary to Democratic Senate leader Chuck Schumer, agreed that Trump’s strategists were thinking about “optics, symbolism and ego” rather than electoral math.
Trump has pushed exaggerated stories of migrant gangs running rampant in Aurora, and his aim in visiting is to transform the city into a “national battleground” on immigration, says the consultant.
Coachella, a three-hour drive from Mexico, offers the same opportunity and has the added advantage of looking like a bold, aggressive throw of the gauntlet in Harris’s home state.
“New York is a real head-scratcher,” Koneschusky told AFP. “But this choice may be a product of Trump’s ego. He likely wants to orchestrate a spectacle at Madison Square Garden and demonstrate he can fill a 20,000-seat arena in a Democratic bastion.”
Trump’s obsession with his crowd sizes, in fact, is being offered by some Washington-watchers as the whole explanation for his idiosyncratic campaign strategy.

Tired of Trump “shtick”
The ex-president has reacted badly to Harris’s packed rallies, inventing multiple conspiracy theories to dismiss them as fake, and his sensitivity has been mocked on the late night talk show circuit — and by his predecessor, Barack Obama.
In a moment that defined September’s presidential debate, the mercurial tycoon allowed himself to get riled by Harris claiming his rally speeches were so boring that his supporters were getting up and leaving before the end.
Images of empty seating even at the start of his rallies have been shared widely on social media, including footage of an event in Pennsylvania on Wednesday that showed large sections of the arena unfilled as Trump took the stage.
Tim Miller, who was communications director for Jeb Bush when he ran against Trump for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, believes people in swing states are tired of the Trump “shtick.”
“And so he needs to go to these red areas of blue states — or deep red states where people haven’t seen him — so that he can get the crowd size that he needs,” said Miller on center-right outlet The Bulwark’s podcast, which he hosts.
But Koneschusky, Schumer’s former aide, says the nationwide focus is unlikely to sway voters in battleground states.
“He’d probably be better served to take up residence in Pennsylvania,” he told AFP. “In the end, it’s electoral math, not spectacle and theatrics, that usually determines the outcome of the election.”