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King Charles heckled by lawmaker at Australian parliament

King Charles heckled by lawmaker at Australian parliament
Australian Senator Lidia Thorpe disrupts proceedings as Britain's King Charles III and Queen Camilla attend a Parliamentary reception at Parliament House in Canberra. (AFP)
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Updated 21 October 2024
AFP
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King Charles heckled by lawmaker at Australian parliament

King Charles heckled by lawmaker at Australian parliament
  • “Give us our land back! Give us what you stole from us!” Thorpe screamed in an almost minute-long diatribe
Updated 21 October 2024
AFP
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CANBERRA: Indigenous senator Lidia Thorpe shouted anti-colonial slogans at King Charles during his visit to the Australian parliament on Monday, shocking assembled lawmakers and other dignitaries.
“Give us our land back! Give us what you stole from us!” Thorpe screamed in an almost minute-long diatribe, after the 75-year-old king’s speech.
“This is not your land, you are not my king,” the independent lawmaker said, decrying what she described as a “genocide” of Indigenous Australians by European settlers.
Australia was a British colony for more than 100 years, during which time thousands of Aboriginal Australians were killed and entire communities displaced.
The country gained de facto independence in 1901, but has never become a fully fledged republic. King Charles is the current head of state.
Charles is on a nine-day jaunt through Australia and Samoa, the first major foreign tour since his life-changing cancer diagnosis earlier this year.
Thorpe is known for her attention-grabbing political stunts and fierce opposition to the monarchy.
When she was sworn into office in 2022, Thorpe raised her right fist as she begrudgingly swore to serve Queen Elisabeth II, who was then Australia’s head of state.
“I sovereign, Lidia Thorpe, do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will be faithful and I bear true allegiance to the colonizing Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II,” she said before being rebuked by a Senate official.
“Senator Thorpe, Senator Thorpe, you are required to recite the oath as printed on the card,” said the chamber’s president Sue Lines.
In 1999, Australians narrowly voted against removing the queen, amid a row over whether her replacement would be chosen by members of parliament, not the public.
In 2023 Australians overwhelmingly rejected measures to recognize Indigenous Australians in the constitution at to create an Indigenous consultative assembly.

Topics: King Charles Australia

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London’s Muslim mayor set for knighthood: Report

London’s Muslim mayor set for knighthood: Report
Updated 17 sec ago
Arab News
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London’s Muslim mayor set for knighthood: Report

London’s Muslim mayor set for knighthood: Report
  • Sadiq Khan, 54, has been a prominent face in UK politics for 20 years
  • New Year Honours List not yet given final approval by king, PM: Financial Times
Updated 17 sec ago
Arab News

LONDON: London Mayor Sadiq Khan is reportedly set to receive a knighthood in the New Year Honours List to be announced by King Charles.

Khan, the first Muslim mayor of the UK capital, is believed to have made the annual list of those recognized by the monarch for public service, alongside other prominent current and former British politicians.

Sources close to the mayor did not deny he was in line for the knighthood when approached by the Financial Times.

Khan, 54, has been a prominent face in UK politics for two decades, having been elected to Parliament in 2005 to represent his home borough of Tooting in London.

He served as a government minister under Gordon Brown, became mayor of London in 2016, and won a historic third term in May this year.

The FT said the draft of the list has yet to receive final approval by King Charles or Prime Minister Keir Starmer. A government spokesman said: “We do not comment on speculation on honours.”

Topics: UK Sadiq Khan

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Police prevent Indian Punjabi farmers marching to Delhi to demand better prices

Police prevent Indian Punjabi farmers marching to Delhi to demand better prices
Updated 15 min 53 sec ago
Reuters
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Police prevent Indian Punjabi farmers marching to Delhi to demand better prices

Police prevent Indian Punjabi farmers marching to Delhi to demand better prices
  • Farmers break through one layer of police barricades only to find security forces waiting behind iron crowd control barriers
  • The farmers are demanding legal guarantees of more state support for crops and a debt waiver
Updated 15 min 53 sec ago
Reuters
SHAMBHU, India: Indian police used tear gas and pepper spray against dozens of farmers who began marching from Punjab state along a key highway to Delhi on Friday to demand better prices for their crops.
The confrontation took place just over 200 km (125 miles) north of the capital as about 100 farmers, most from the northern breadbasket state, attempted to resume their ‘Delhi Chalo’ (Let’s go to Delhi) march, blocked since February.
Farmers broke through one layer of police barricades only to find security forces waiting behind iron crowd control barriers. There were no immediate reports of injuries.
Farmers’ leader Sarwan Singh Pandher said before the march got under way that it would go as far as security forces allowed.
“We will be only around 100 people so it is not like we can break police barricades,” Pandher said.
The farmers are demanding legal guarantees of more state support for crops and a debt waiver, and say the government must honor a promise to double their incomes.
They have been camped at Shambhu on Punjab’s border with neighboring Haryana state since February, when police halted their march.
The Haryana government on Friday suspended mobile Internet and bulk text message services in some places until Dec. 9 to “stop the spread of misinformation and rumors,” and police said “sufficient force” had been deployed to maintain law and order.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government did not comment on Friday’s protests, but Haryana senior minister Anil Vij, who is from Modi’s party, said the farmers would need to secure permission if they wanted to proceed to Delhi.
Modi’s government was forced to repeal some farm laws in 2021 after a year-long protest by farmers when they camped outside Delhi for months.
A spokesperson for India’s main opposition Congress party said it “fully supports” the farmers’ demands.

Indonesia, Philippines agree on repatriation of Filipino on death row

Indonesia, Philippines agree on repatriation of Filipino on death row
Updated 55 min 47 sec ago
AFP
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Indonesia, Philippines agree on repatriation of Filipino on death row

Indonesia, Philippines agree on repatriation of Filipino on death row
  • Indonesian authorities will discuss further details with the Philippines’ embassy in Jakarta on Mary Jane Veloso’s transfer
  • Veloso was arrested in Indonesia in 2010 carrying a suitcase lined with 2.6 kilograms of heroin and later sentenced to death
Updated 55 min 47 sec ago
AFP

JAKARTA: Manila and Jakarta signed an agreement Friday to repatriate Mary Jane Veloso, a Filipino on death row for drug charges in Indonesia since 2015, with officials saying she could return to the Philippines before Christmas.
The announcement came following the Philippines’ Department of Justice undersecretary Raul Vasquez meeting with Indonesia’s senior law and human rights minister Yusril Ihza Mahendra in Jakarta Friday, where both ministers signed the agreement.
Following the signing, Indonesian authorities will discuss further details with the Philippines’ embassy in Jakarta on Veloso’s transfer, Yusril said.
“We agree to return the person concerned to the Philippines and furthermore the obligation to provide guidance to prisoner Mary Jane Veloso becomes the responsibility of the Philippine government,” Yusril Ihza Mahendra said Friday.
He added that they are hoping the transfer “will be carried out before Christmas, 25 December.”
Yusril also said Indonesia will respect the Philippines’ government decision if Manila decide to grant clemency to Veloso.
Veloso was arrested in Indonesia in 2010 carrying a suitcase lined with 2.6 kilograms (5.7 pounds) of heroin and later sentenced to death.
She was due to face the firing squad in 2015 but the Philippine government won a last-minute reprieve for her after a woman suspected of recruiting her was arrested and put on trial for human trafficking in which Veloso was named as a prosecution witness.
The mother-of-two’s case sparked an uproar in the Philippines, with her family and supporters saying she was innocent and had been set up by an international drug syndicate.
Vasquez on Friday expressed the Philippine government’s “heartfelt gratitude” for Jakarta over Veloso’s transfer, adding that Manila respected the Indonesian court’s decision on her case.
“We do understand and we respect the decision of the Indonesian courts with respect to the sentence that was meted on our citizen Mary Jane Veloso,” he said.
“Once transferred to the country, she will serve her sentence in accordance, as agreed upon, in accordance with Philippine laws and regulations with respect to the Penal Code.”
Indonesia has some of the world’s toughest drug laws including the death penalty for traffickers.
At least 530 people were on death row in the Southeast Asian nation, mostly for drug-related crimes, according to data from rights group KontraS, citing official figures.
As of early November, 96 foreigners were on death row in Indonesia, all on drugs charges, according to data from the Ministry of Immigration and Corrections.
Indonesia is also in talks with Australia and France after President Prabowo Subianto had agreed to fulfil their requests to hand back some prisoners who were sentenced on drug charges.
The prisoners include the five remaining members of Australia’s “Bali Nine” — namely Matthew Norman, Si Yi Chen, Michael Czugaj, Scott Rush and Martin Stephens — who are in jail on life sentences.
The Indonesian government also received a letter from the French government requesting the transfer of Serge Atlaoui, who has been jailed in the Southeast Asian archipelago since his 2005 arrest.
Despite the ongoing negotiation for prisoner transfers, the Indonesian government gave the signal Thursday that it will resume execution — on hiatus since 2016 — of drug convicts who are on death row.
“The government will... study the acceleration of the execution of the death penalty for drug convicts that are legally binding and have no more legal remedies,” Coordinating Political and Security Minister Budi Gunawan said Thursday.

Topics: Philippines Indonesia Mary Jane Veloso

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Modi’s party says US State Department targeting India

Modi’s party says US State Department targeting India
Updated 06 December 2024
Reuters
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Modi’s party says US State Department targeting India

Modi’s party says US State Department targeting India
  • New Delhi and Washington have forged a strong relationship in last two decades
  • Both have vowed to further strengthen ties despite some differences and irritants
Updated 06 December 2024
Reuters

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has accused the State Department and “deep state” elements in the US of trying to destabilize India in conjunction with a group of investigative journalists and opposition leader Rahul Gandhi.
The accusation comes as a surprise as New Delhi and Washington have forged a strong relationship in the last two decades and both have vowed to further strengthen ties despite some differences and irritants.
Gandhi’s Congress party used the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP)’s articles that “singularly focused” on the Adani Group and its alleged closeness to the government to undermine Modi, the ruling party said on Thursday.
Group chair Gautam Adani and seven others were indicted last month in the US for being part of a $265 billion scheme to bribe Indian officials — allegations the group has termed “baseless.”
OCCRP’s articles have also accused state-sponsored hackers in India of using Israeli-made Pegasus spyware to target government critics.
The government has previously denied both allegations.
The BJP has previously accused Gandhi, the OCCRP and 92-year-old billionaire financier-philanthropist George Soros of attacking Modi.
On Thursday, it cited a French media report that said that OCCRP was funded by the US Agency for International Development and “other deep state figures” like Soros.
“The Deep State had a clear objective to destabilize India by targeting Prime Minister Modi,” the BJP said in a series of messages on X.


“It has always been the US State Department behind this agenda...OCCRP has served as a media tool for carrying out a deep state agenda,” it said.
Sambit Patra, a BJP national spokesperson and lawmaker, repeated the accusations at an official media briefing by the party on Thursday.
“A French investigative media group...has revealed that... 50 percent of OCCRP’s funding comes directly from the US State Department,” Patra said. “OCCRP has served as a media tool for carrying out a deep state agenda.”
The State Department, US AID, Soros and the Congress party did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Indian foreign ministry also did not respond to a request for comment on the ruling party’s accusation against the State Department.
OCCRP said in a statement it was an independent media outlet and not associated with any political party.
“The US government, while providing some funding to OCCRP, has no say in our editorial processes and no control over our reporting,” it said.
The government has lately been facing heat over the US indictment of Gautam Adani, who opposition leaders say Modi has always protected, and the country’s parliament was suspended multiple times last week as opposition lawmakers demanded a discussion on the issue.
Modi’s BJP and Adani have denied the accusations.

Topics: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi US State Department Bhartiya Janata Party

China warns Taiwan relying on US for independence will ‘inevitably hit a wall’

China warns Taiwan relying on US for independence will ‘inevitably hit a wall’
Updated 06 December 2024
AFP
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China warns Taiwan relying on US for independence will ‘inevitably hit a wall’

China warns Taiwan relying on US for independence will ‘inevitably hit a wall’
  • Beijing takes aim at a Pacific tour by the self-ruled island’s President Lai Ching-te
  • Lai’s trip, which has included two stops on US soil, draws criticism from China
Updated 06 December 2024
AFP

BEIJING: China warned Taiwan Friday that relying on the United States to help it seek independence “will inevitably hit a wall,” as Beijing took aim at a Pacific tour by the self-ruled island’s President Lai Ching-te this week.
Lai’s trip, which has included two stops on US soil, has drawn a barrage of criticism from China, which claims Taiwan as part of its territory and opposes any international recognition of the island.
Lai this week held a phone call with US Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson, which also angered Beijing.
“Seeking independence with the help of the United States will inevitably hit a wall, and using Taiwan to contain China is doomed to fail,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian told reporters on Friday.
He added that China has “lodged solemn representations” with Washington and urged it to “stop emptying and gutting the one-China principle.”
Asked about Lai’s comment on Friday that he was “confident” that Taiwan would deepen cooperation with incoming US president Donald Trump, Lin warned the United States to “cease meddling in Taiwan-related affairs.”
During a Friday press conference, Lai also urged democracies to be “more united” to counter growing authoritarianism.
He also insisted that Taiwan and China were “not subordinate to each other.”
Asked to respond to the latter, Lin said that “separatist activities... are the biggest threats to peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.”
“No matter what they say or do, they cannot change the objective fact that Taiwan is part of China, nor can they stop the historical trend that China... will inevitably reunify,” he added.

Topics: Taiwan China US

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