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BRUSSELS: French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said the leaders of a coalition of Ukraine backers would meet again in Paris next week, hoping to finalize plans to secure a potential truce in the war with Russia.
“We will hold another meeting of the coalition of the willing next Thursday in Paris in presence of President (Volodymyr) Zelensky,” Macron told reporters following an EU summit.
LONDON: British police are investigating the vandalism of Muslim grave plaques in the town of Watford, near London, as an Islamophobic hate crime.
About 85 graves, including those of babies and children, were targeted at Carpenders Park Lawn Cemetery, which is designated for Muslim burials. A family discovered the damage at the weekend after attending a funeral.
On Wednesday, Hertfordshire Police appealed to the public for information relating to the crime, which they said happened between 1pm on Friday and 5pm on Saturday.
Chief Superintendent Jon Simpson, head of Hertfordshire’s Local Policing Command, said: “We are continuing to investigate every line of inquiry into this terrible crime, which we are now treating as an Islamophobic act.”
The police “are confident that, sadly, this was a religiously motivated act.”
Sergeant Irfan Ishaq, chair of the Hertfordshire Association of Muslim Police, said: “We recognize that news of this crime will not only impact the Muslim community but those from all walks of life.”
He said a police presence would be maintained in and around the cemetery.
The cemetery site, located off Oxhey Lane, is owned by Brent Council. Its leader, Muhammed Butt, said that grieving families and the community were in shock.
“There is absolutely no place for hate or discrimination of any kind anywhere, but particularly in London, a city where everyone is welcome and where our diversity is one of our greatest strengths,” he said.
He said the council was working to reinstate the damaged plaques and return the cemetery to a “peaceful, quiet place of remembrance for families.”
MOSCOW: The former governor of Russia’s Kursk region and his ex-deputy have been arrested on suspicion of embezzling over $12 million of funds earmarked for border defenses with Ukraine, authorities said Wednesday.
Alexei Smirnov, 51, and Alexei Dedov, 48, were in charge of the region when Ukrainian troops stormed across the border in August 2024, mounting the biggest ground assault on Russian territory since World War II.
The two were detained “as part of a criminal investigation into the embezzlement of budget funds totalling more than one billion rubles ($12 million),” Russian interior ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk said on Telegram.
The funds were allocated to a local state-backed developer “for the construction of fortifications on the region’s border with Ukraine,” she added.
The defendants were taken into custody on Tuesday and Wednesday, she said, without saying which person was arrested on which date.
Video showed Smirnov being escorted into a glass defendant’s box at Moscow’s Meshchansky District Court.
The court said he would be held in pre-trial detention for at least two months.
Smirnov, governor of the region between May to December 2024, had drawn criticism over his response to the incursion, telling residents the situation was under control despite Ukraine breaking into several settlements.
President Vladimir Putin replaced him with pro-Kremlin lawmaker Alexander Khinshtein in December, saying the region needed a new crisis manager after residents voiced anger at the handling of the attack.
Kyiv’s forces captured hundreds of square kilometers of territory in the assault, but Moscow has since reclaimed most of it back.
LONDON: Leaders of the British Jewish community expressed concern for Israel’s future in their first public letter opposing the resumption of military actions after 18 months of Israeli war in the Gaza Strip.
In an open letter published in the Financial Times, 36 members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, the UK’s largest Jewish representative body, said they could not “turn a blind eye or remain silent in the face of this renewed loss of life and livelihoods.”
“We write as representatives of the British Jewish community, out of love for Israel and deep concern for its future,” they wrote in the letter published on Wednesday.
They said the past 18 months of Israeli action in Gaza demonstrated that diplomacy was more effective in securing the release of 135 hostages captured by Hamas. In contrast, military action in Gaza resulted in the return of only eight hostages, with at least three being killed by Israeli forces.
The signatories noted that the Israeli government resumed its military campaign in Gaza in mid-March to fulfill far-right politician Itamar Ben-Gvir’s requirement for rejoining the ruling coalition, which allowed it to pass the budget and avoid an election.
They remarked that the Israeli government broke the ceasefire agreement with Hamas instead of engaging in a deal guaranteed by the US, Qatar and Egypt that would lead to the release of Israeli hostages.
“Since then, no hostages have returned. Hundreds and hundreds more Palestinians have been killed; food, fuel and medical supplies have once again been blocked from entering Gaza,” they wrote.
The Israeli war in the Gaza Strip has killed more than 50,000 people since late 2023, a situation that leading human rights groups are describing as genocide. In the UK, numerous national rallies were organized to express solidarity with the Palestinians in Gaza and call for a ceasefire.
The UK’s Jewish community has been adamant in supporting Israel since the Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, which resulted in 1,200 deaths and 250 hostages. A small minority of British Jews oppose the war in the Gaza Strip, according to the FT.
The 36 signatories to the letter represent nearly 12 percent of the 300 members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews. They are wary of the changes that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is introducing to the country’s institutions, including the judicial system.
“The (Israeli) police increasingly resembling a militia and repressive laws are being advanced as provocative partisan populism is bitterly dividing Israeli society,” they wrote.
“Israel’s soul is being ripped out and we, members of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, fear for the future of the Israel we love and have such close ties to.”
The signatories said they stand against the war in Gaza, “acknowledge and mourn the loss of Palestinian life,” and yearn to see an end to the conflict.
LONDON: UK universities hold almost $610 million worth of investments linked to Israel, research by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign has shown.
The organization submitted freedom of information requests to universities across the UK, discovering financial ties to major Israel-linked companies including BAE Systems, Siemens and Barclays.
Student-led campaigns to divest university investments from Israel have won a series of victories in Britain and continue to gain momentum.
The PSC has led efforts to pressure universities and other institutions into abandoning financial ties to Israel.
It is part of the larger Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement launched among Palestinian civil society in 2005.
The organization received responses from 87 universities following the freedom of information request campaign and has published a database of university ties to Israel through financial investments.
“Direct complicity includes military, security, technological, financial, logistical or infrastructure support,” the PSC said.
“This information adds impetus to the growing divestment campaigns led by students and academics that have won significant concessions from university authorities in the past 18 months.”
The organization found that several universities, including the Essex, Kingston and Warwick, have invested significant funds into companies such as HSBC, Alphabet and Booking.com.
All three companies have faced criticism over their ties to Israel.
Stella Swain, the PSC’s youth and student officer, said: “It’s absolutely shameful that any university is investing in companies complicit in genocide. The fact that our universities invest £460 million ($610 million) in these corporations is an outrage.
“But students across the country are taking action to demand an end to this complicity, standing in a proud history of student resistance to occupation, colonization and apartheid.”
The organization singled out four companies with extensive ties to the Israeli military: Caterpillar, which supplies bulldozers to the IDF; BAE Systems, a key partner in the F-35 jet program; Palantir, which provides AI tools to the IDF; and Alphabet, Google’s parent company which offers cloud computing services to Israeli forces.
Several universities across the UK have made major concessions to student protesters amid mounting pressure from the BDS movement.
Swansea University in Wales committed to abandoning the £5 million it holds in Barclays Bank, while Cambridge’s Trinity College voted last year to divest its sizable investment portfolio from arms companies.
Meanwhile, the University of Portsmouth recently divested an £800,000 investment in Caterpillar following significant student pressure.
“Universities can choose to end their complicity,” Swain said. “Many have started divestment negotiations as a result of student organizing over the past two years.
“These wins show that we need to keep up the pressure until we achieve divestment at every university.”
JAKARTA: Saudi Arabia’s Industry and Mineral Resources Minister Bandar Al-Khorayef held talks with his Indonesian counterparts in Jakarta on Wednesday, as the two countries explore cooperation in critical minerals and other key resources driving the global energy transition.
Indonesia is the world’s largest source of nickel and has rich deposits of other minerals, such as copper and bauxite. Its mining sector makes a significant contribution to the economy, accounting for about 11.9 percent of GDP in 2023.
Al-Khorayef arrived in the Indonesian capital for a three-day visit on Tuesday and his delegation is meeting both officials and top industry executives.
“We discussed ways to enhance industrial cooperation and expand partnerships between private-sector entities in the two countries, in addition to reviewing investment opportunities and the Kingdom’s goals to become an industrial and logistics hub in the region,” he said in a post on X, after talks with Indonesia’s Industry Minister Agus Gumiwang Kartasasmita and State-Owned Enterprises Minister Erick Thohir.
Tohir also took to social media to highlight the focus of the planned partnerships.
“State-owned enterprises in mining, communications infrastructure, banking and renewable energy sources are the priority of our discussions and the cooperation we will forge,” he wrote on X.
Trade and investment relations between Saudi Arabia and Indonesia have been on the rise. Non-oil trade was worth about $3.3 billion in 2024, showing a 14.5 percent increase compared to 2020.
“There’s still plenty of room for mutual growth. This is why the Indonesian government welcomes the rising interest of Saudi investors in Indonesia’s strategic sectors, including to strengthen the ecosystem of our national industries,” Kartasasmita said.
“Indonesia, with its huge potential in natural resources, market and workforce, and the government’s commitment to industrial downstreaming efforts, is opening up vast opportunities for mutually beneficial collaborations,” he said.
Al-Khorayef’s visit was aimed at attracting more investment to the Kingdom and exploring mutual investment opportunities in mining, food, pharmaceuticals and auto parts industries, in line with Saudi Vision 2030.
On his first day in Jakarta, he met Indonesia’s special envoy for energy and the environment, Hashim Djojohadikusumo, representatives from Indonesia’s state-owned mining industry holding company, MIND ID, and mineral mining company PT Vale Indonesia.
“Indonesia and Saudi Arabia are at a key point in redefining the mineral economy,” MIND ID CEO Maroef Sjamsoeddin said.
“We are ready to explore cooperation opportunities, knowledge exchange and transformational innovation (projects),” he said.
