Released Indian opposition leader Kejriwal to resign as Delhi chief minister

Arvind Kejriwal (C), Chief Minister of Delhi and leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), greets his supporters after Supreme Court granted him bail in New Delhi on September 13, 2024. (AFP)
Arvind Kejriwal (C), Chief Minister of Delhi and leader of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), greets his supporters after Supreme Court granted him bail in New Delhi on September 13, 2024. (AFP)
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Updated 15 September 2024
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Released Indian opposition leader Kejriwal to resign as Delhi chief minister

Arvind Kejriwal, Chief Minister of Delhi, greets his supporters after Supreme Court granted him bail in New Delhi.
  • Kejriwal is a fierce critic of Narendra Modi and a former anti-corruption crusader whose decade-old Aam Aadmi Party quickly rose to mainstream politics

NEW DELHI: Indian opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday he will resign as chief minister of the Delhi regional government, a day after he was released from prison on bail in a graft case. Kejriwal was granted bail on Friday by India’s Supreme Court and left prison on Saturday almost six months after being detained in relation to alleged irregularities in the capital city’s liquor policy.
Kejriwal is a fierce critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a former anti-corruption crusader whose decade-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) quickly rose to mainstream politics, although its clout is relatively small compared to older opposition parties.
AAP had expected that Kejriwal’s release from prison would allow him to campaign as a chief minister in regional elections next month in the northern state of Haryana, and in Delhi early next year.
Kejriwal, announcing his resignation as chief minister at a meeting with AAP workers, said he would only return to the post if people certify his honesty by voting for him in the upcoming Delhi election. He called on the Election Commission to bring forward the Delhi election to November, from February 2025.
“I demand elections be held in November with Maharashtra elections, I demand the elections be held immediately,” Kejriwal said.
He was first taken into custody in March by India’s financial crime-fighting agency, weeks before the country’s national elections, in relation to Delhi’s liquor policy.
Although he was granted bail in that case in July, he remained in detention due to his arrest the previous month by the federal police in another graft case related to the same policy.
Kejriwal, 55, and AAP deny the allegations and say the cases are “politically motivated.”


US to send anti-missile system and troops to Israel, Pentagon says

US to send anti-missile system and troops to Israel, Pentagon says
Updated 32 sec ago
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US to send anti-missile system and troops to Israel, Pentagon says

US to send anti-missile system and troops to Israel, Pentagon says
  • The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, is a critical part of the US military’s layered air defense systems and adds to Israel’s already formidable anti-missile defenses

WASHINGTON: The United States said on Sunday it will send US troops to Israel along with an advanced US anti-missile system, in a highly unusual deployment meant to bolster the country’s air defenses following missile attacks by Iran. US President Joe Biden said the move was meant “to defend Israel,” which is weighing an expected retaliation against Iran after Tehran fired more than 180 missiles at Israel on Oct 1.
The United States has been privately urging Israel to calibrate its response to avoid triggering a broader war in the Middle East, officials say, with Biden publicly voicing his opposition to an Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear sites and his concerns about a strike on Iran’s energy infrastructure.
Pentagon spokesperson Major General Patrick Ryder described the deployment as part of “the broader adjustments the US military has made in recent months” to support Israel and defend US personnel from attacks by Iran and Iranian-backed groups.
But a US military deployment to Israel is rare outside of drills, given Israel’s own military capabilities. US troops in recent months have aided Israel’s defense from warships and fighter jets in the Middle East when it came under Iranian attack.
But they were based outside of Israel.
The Terminal High Altitude Area Defense system, or THAAD, is a critical part of the US military’s layered air defense systems and adds to Israel’s already formidable anti-missile defenses.
A THAAD battery usually requires about 100 troops to operate. It counts six truck mounted launchers, with eight interceptors on each launcher, and a powerful radar.
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi warned earlier on Sunday that the United States was putting the lives of its troops “at risk by deploying them to operate US missile systems in Israel.”
“While we have made tremendous efforts in recent days to contain an all-out war in our region, I say it clearly that we have no red lines in defending our people and interests,” Araqchi posted on X. Still, experts say Iran has sought to avoid a direct war with the United States, making deployment of US forces to Israel another factor in its calculus going forward.
Iran launched missiles and drones at Israel in April. Then on Oct. 1, Iran fired more than 180 ballistic missiles at Israel amid another escalation in fighting between Israel and Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon. Many were intercepted in flight but some penetrated missile defenses. US officials did not say how quickly the system would be deployed to Israel.
The Pentagon said a THAAD was deployed to southern Israel for drills in 2019, the last and only time it was known to be there.
Lockheed Martin, the biggest US arms maker, builds and integrates the THAAD system, which is designed to shoot down short-, medium- and intermediate-range ballistic missiles. Raytheon, under RTX, builds its advanced radar.


UN chief says any attacks on Lebanon peacekeepers could be a war crime

UN chief says any attacks on Lebanon peacekeepers could be a war crime
Updated 14 October 2024
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UN chief says any attacks on Lebanon peacekeepers could be a war crime

UN chief says any attacks on Lebanon peacekeepers could be a war crime
  • “UNIFIL peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement

NEW YORK: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned on Sunday that any attacks against peacekeepers “may constitute a war crime,” his spokesperson said after Israeli tanks burst through the gates of a peacekeeping base in southern Lebanon.
It was the latest accusation of Israeli violations and attacks against the UN peacekeeping mission, known as UNIFIL, in recent days.
“UNIFIL peacekeepers remain in all positions and the UN flag continues to fly,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said in a statement.
“The Secretary-General reiterates that UNIFIL personnel and its premises must never be targeted. Attacks against peacekeepers are in breach of international law, including international humanitarian law. They may constitute a war crime,” he said.


World Bank says 26 poorest countries in worst financial shape since 2006

World Bank says 26 poorest countries in worst financial shape since 2006
Updated 13 October 2024
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World Bank says 26 poorest countries in worst financial shape since 2006

World Bank says 26 poorest countries in worst financial shape since 2006
  • IDA normally is replenished every three years with contributions from World Bank shareholding countries

WASHINGTON: The world’s 26 poorest countries, home to 40 percent of the most poverty-stricken people, are more in debt than at any time since 2006 and increasingly vulnerable to natural disasters and other shocks, a new World Bank report showed on Sunday.
The report finds that these economies are poorer today on average than they were on the eve of the COVID-19 pandemic, even as the rest of the world has largely recovered from COVID and resumed its growth trajectory.
Released a week before World Bank and International Monetary Fund annual meetings get underway in Washington, the report confirms a major setback to efforts to eradicate extreme poverty and underscores the World Bank’s efforts this year to raise $100 billion to replenish its financing fund for the world’s poorest countries, the International Development Association (IDA).
The 26 poorest economies studied, which have annual per-capita incomes of less than $1,145, are increasingly reliant on IDA grants and near-zero interest rate loans as market financing has largely dried up, the World Bank said. Their average debt-to-GDP ratio of 72 percent is at an 18-year high and half of the group are either in debt distress or at high risk of it.
Two thirds of the 26 poorest countries are either in armed conflicts or have difficulty maintaining order because of institutional and social fragility, which inhibit foreign investment, and nearly all export commodities, exposing them to frequent boom-and-bust cycles, the report said.
“At a time when much of the world simply backed away from the poorest countries, IDA has been their lifeline,” World Bank chief economist Indermit Gill said in a statement. “Over the past five years, it has poured most of its financial resources into the 26 low-income economies, keeping them afloat through the historic setbacks they suffered.”
IDA normally is replenished every three years with contributions from World Bank shareholding countries. It raised a record $93 billion in 2021 and World Bank President Ajay Banga is aiming to exceed that with over $100 billion in pledges by Dec. 6.
Natural disasters also have taken a greater toll on these countries over the past decade. Between 2011 and 2023, natural disasters were associated with average annual losses of 2 percent of GDP, five times the average among lower-middle-income countries, pointing up the need for much higher investment, the World Bank said.
The report also recommended that these economies, which have large informal sectors operating outside their tax systems, do more to help themselves. This includes improving tax collections by simplifying taxpayer registration and tax administration and improving the efficiency of public spending.


Sweden wants EU to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ‘terror’ group: PM

Sweden wants EU to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ‘terror’ group: PM
Updated 13 October 2024
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Sweden wants EU to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ‘terror’ group: PM

Sweden wants EU to brand Iran’s Revolutionary Guards ‘terror’ group: PM
  • Sweden’s Sapo intelligence agency has accused Iran of recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden, a claim Iran has denied

STOCKHOLM: Sweden wants the European Union to officially deem Iran’s Revolutionary Guards a terrorist organization after several attacks on Israeli targets in Sweden, Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said Sunday.
Sweden’s Sapo intelligence agency has accused Iran of recruiting members of Swedish criminal gangs to commit “acts of violence” against Israeli and other interests in Sweden, a claim Iran has denied.
Three attacks have been carried out against the Israeli embassy in Stockholm in the past year, and two attacks have targeted an Israeli military technology firm in the past six months.
“We want Sweden to seriously address, with other EU countries, the incredibly problematic connection between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and their destructive role in the (Middle East) region, but also their escalating actions around various European countries, including Sweden,” Kristersson told the Expressen newspaper.
“The only reasonable consequence ... is that we get a joint terror classification, so that we can act more broadly than (we can with) the sanctions that already exist,” he said.
The Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps is a special branch of the Iranian armed forces whose officers hold key positions in Iran’s establishment
In May, Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter cited documents from Israel’s intelligence agency Mossad as saying that the head of the Swedish criminal network Foxtrot, Rawa Majid, and his archrival Ismail Abdo, head of the Rumba gang, had both been recruited by Iran.
Swedish public broadcaster SVT reported in early October that two recent attacks on the Israeli embassies in Stockholm and Copenhagen had been ordered by Foxtrot at the behest of Iran.
 

 


France’s ‘unhappy’ Macron seeks new role after government shakeup

France’s ‘unhappy’ Macron seeks new role after government shakeup
Updated 13 October 2024
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France’s ‘unhappy’ Macron seeks new role after government shakeup

France’s ‘unhappy’ Macron seeks new role after government shakeup
  • In public, the 46-year-old Macron is still all smiles, but in private, he has been seething

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron weathered a turbulent political summer, but he feels isolated and is frustrated with his new right-wing government, according to people close to him.

Macron’s appointment of 73-year-old conservative Michel Barnier as prime minister ended two months of political chaos after snap legislative elections in July.

In line with his new role under the power-sharing arrangement, the center-rightpresident has taken a back seat on the domestic front, letting Barnier name a Cabinet and concentrating on foreign policy.

In public, the 46-year-old Macron is still all smiles, but in private, he has been seething.

“I did not choose this government,” Macron recently told a trusted confidante, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.

“They make me feel ashamed,” the president said of some of the most conservative ministers.

The most hard-line member of the new government, Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau, stirred controversy just days into the job, vowing to crack down on immigration and saying that “the rule of law is neither intangible nor sacred.”

After performing strongly in the snap election but failing to secure an outright victory, Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party is a potential kingmaker that could decide the fate of Barnier’s fragile minority government.