IAEA chief Rafael Grossi says Tehran has failed to cooperate with the watchdog after traces of enriched uranium were detected.
The head of the UN nuclear watchdog has said that he was “extremely concerned” about Iran’s lack of cooperation regarding its nuclear activity as EU envoy Enrique Mora is set to visit Tehran to save the stalled nuclear deal talks.
The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) is “trying to clarify a number of still open matters with Iran”, agency head Rafael Grossi told a European Parliament committee on Tuesday.
“I am referring to the fact that we, in the last few months, were able to identify traces of enriched uranium in places that had never been declared by Iran as places where any activity was taking place,” he said.
“The situation does not look very good. Iran, for the time being, has not been forthcoming in the kind of information we need from them … We are extremely concerned about this,” he said.
Talks between world powers and Iran have stalled since mid-March as negotiators seeking to return to the 2015 landmark accord that curtailed Tehran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.
Negotiations have stalled chiefly over Tehran’s insistence that Washington removes the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), its elite security force, from the US Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) List.
EU diplomat Mora, who chairs the negotiations, will visit Tehran this week, Iran announced on Monday, as the United States – which is seeking to come back to the deal it unilaterally left in 2018 – voiced hope for progress.
Iran has boosted its stockpile of highly enriched uranium since former President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from the deal in 2018, which had capped Tehran’s nuclear ambitions.
Western officials have largely lost hope that the deal can be resurrected, sources familiar with the matter said, forcing them to weigh how to limit Iran’s atomic program even as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has divided the big powers.
The IAEA and Iran announced in March that they had agreed on an approach for resolving issues crucial to reviving the 2015 nuclear accord.
At the time, Grossi said the UN agency and Iran had “decided to try a practical, pragmatic approach” to overcome “a number of important matters”.
Some documents are to be exchanged between the two sides by May 22.
The aim is to settle outstanding questions that the IAEA has about the past presence of nuclear material at undeclared sites in Iran.
Iran “should be at the top of our preoccupations in spite of the drama that is unfolding in Ukraine,” Grossi said on Tuesday, referring to Russia’s invasion of its neighbor.
He said talks to revive the nuclear deal were “at a sort of pause” but the Vienna-based IAEA was “of course still hopeful that some agreement is going to be reached within a reasonable timeframe”.
“Although we have to recognise that the window of opportunity could be closed anytime,” he added.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Long-haul carrier Emirates plans to use projected profits from this fiscal year to pay back the Dubai government some of the nearly $4 billion it pumped into the beleaguered airline during the height of the coronavirus pandemic, its chairman said Tuesday.
The cash infusion of close to 15 billion dirhams ($4 billion), which came in two tranches over 2020 and 2021, providing a lifeline to one of the world’s biggest global airlines at a time when travel had come to a near standstill due to COVID- 19.
Emirates’ CEO and Chairman Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum said the Dubai-based airline expects to see profits this year and will use those earnings to pay back its shareholder, the government. He was speaking to reporters in Dubai at the Arabian Travel Market trade show. It saw two sprawling convention center halls packed with pavilions and stands by major hotel brands, airlines and tourism authorities. They came from as far as Jamaica and Japan in another sign of how travel is picking back up.
“It was an equity to the company and this is why I am saying that as of next year we will be paying all that money … over the period of time,” he said, stating that the payment will be made through dividends from the current 2022-2023 fiscal year. He refrained from stating how much the airline will be able to immediately pay back all at once.
Sheikh Ahmed said US airlines that have complained for years about unequal competition from Mideast carriers accused of being subsidized by their oil-rich Gulf governments also turned to the government to request bailout assistance during the.
“They were complaining about us being subsidized,” he said. “We know that all the major top airlines … they went to their government, they were in Europe, in America, they were in the far East.”
Emirates’ success is seen as integral to the health of Dubai’s economy, which relies heavily on tourism, investment and real estate. After a brief nationwide shutdown of all commercial flights to the United Arab Emirates in 2020, Dubai quickly flung open its doors to tourists and eliminated quarantine upon arrival.
The carrier’s hub is Dubai International Airport, which is the world’s busiest for international travel.
The airline last year posted a net loss of $5.5 billion as revenue fell by more than 66% due to global travel restrictions sparked by the coronavirus pandemic. It marked the first time in more than three decades that the Dubai-based airline’s parent group has not churned out a profit, underscoring just how dramatic an impact COVID-19 has had on the aviation industry.
Sheikh Ahmed said the airline, which is among Dubai’s biggest employers, is operating at about 80% of its staffing levels as compared to before the pandemic.
Athens, Greece – In about a month, Greece will finish building a pipeline to Bulgaria that will end Russia’s gas monopoly there and in southeast Europe.
Russia has supplied 90 percent of Bulgaria’s gas until now, but on April 27, it cut Bulgaria off after Sofia said it would not renew its contract with Russian gas giant Gazprom at the end of the year.
Poland said the same, and suffered the same fate.
“[Russian President Vladimir] Putin didn’t want it to seem as though he’d lost clients, so he threw them out early,” said Mike Myrianthis, an oil industry veteran and analyst.
Bulgaria is now looking to the Interconnector Greece-Bulgaria, as the new pipeline is called, to supply it with gas from Azerbaijan, which Greece receives via the Trans-Anatolian pipeline that traverses the Caucasus and Turkey.
“Since a few days ago, Bulgaria is already out of the [Russian] pipeline system and fully dependent on Greece [for gas]. That has never happened before. Greece has never been responsible for securing another country’s energy security,” said Michalis Mathioulakis, who heads the Greek Energy Forum, a think-tank.
What gives the IGB strategic importance, however, is that it could soon become the means for supplanting Russian gas throughout the Balkans with liquefied natural gas from the US, Qatar, Egypt and elsewhere.
On January 31, a consortium of Greek, Cypriot, Bulgarian and Italian companies announced that they will build a floating terminal to import LNG offshore Alexandroupolis, in northern Greece.
This floating storage and regasification unit (FSRU), which will re-vaporise liquefied gas, will connect to the IGB pipeline and start supplying it at the end of next year.
“I firmly believe that we are witnessing a new dawn in Europe’s energy independence,” said European Council president Charles Michel, at a ceremony to highlight the FSRU in Alexandroupolis on May 3.
Interest in the project has extended beyond Bulgaria.
North Macedonia, whose prime minister was also in attendance, was reportedly interested in becoming a shareholder in the FSRU.
With Russian gas supply now embroiled in the politics of its war in Ukraine, even Russia-friendly Serbia is intrigued.
Its president, Aleksandar Vucic, told the May 3 gathering of regional leaders, “I was one of the sceptics who always said, ‘It won’t happen’ … Now that we see it’s ready to start, I can say we are truly grateful and we are prepared to receive relatively large quantities of gas.”
Matioulakis told Al Jazeera, “[Southeast Europe] will depend more and more on gas that comes from Greece, so its geopolitical footprint in the Balkans increases.”
Greece is becoming a gateway for LNG because it is surrounded by sea.
It has the only LNG import terminal in the Balkans as far north as Croatia, but its capacity can barely cover Greek demand at the moment.
But demand for non-Russian gas in the region has been rising so fast that the consortium building the Alexandroupolis FSRU, Gastrade, applied for, and received, a license for a second FSRU.
The Ukraine war was the key catalyst both for higher demand and for higher prices.
Motor Oil Hellas, a refinery near Korinth in southern Greece, has been considering its own FSRU. Earlier this year, it conducted a market test petroleum industry circles said was highly successful, and an investment decision is expected this year.
Yet another FSRU is at a conceptual stage of development offshore the eastern Greek port of Volos, which would be sponsored by ExxonMobil and investors from the Gulf.
And Greece’s existing LNG terminal at Revythousa near Athens is being optimized to operate at capacity.
“Greek LNG terminals will be in a position to fully cover not only the Greek market, but to supplant a significant portion of Russian natural gas to the Balkans,” said Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
“Moscow’s recent natural gas blackmail now render this cooperation not just necessary but, I’d say, urgent,” he said.
Mitsotakis believed the projects that are in advanced stages of planning or construction would be capable of bringing in about 21 billion cubic metres (bcm) of gas a year. During the next three years, Greece’s consumption has been projected to rise to absorb about half that amount, leaving about 10bcm a year for export to the Balkans.
The IGB can carry only 5.5bcm a year, but that could change if Greece sees demand for LNG beyond the Balkans.
“We’ll see over time how many EU countries will demand LNG gas from Greece through this system,” said Myrianthis.
“It’s clear that a second pipeline will be made, parallel to IGB … The route is now a given. The land has been appropriated so there are no bureaucratic hurdles. It will happen very quickly, so you can easily reach 10bcm a year,” he told Al Jazeera.
Compressors could conceivably double that, making IGB a rival to Turkish Stream, the Russian-built pipeline that crosses the Black Sea to feed into southeast Europe.
Greece has also been planning a separate interconnector to North Macedonia, and old, Soviet-era pipelines that used to bring Russian gas south are being reversed to carry LNG north to Bulgaria and North Macedonia.
But the most audacious use of Russian infrastructure against Moscow is still to come, believed Myrianthis.
A Gazprom-led consortium has just built a new pipeline traversing Bulgaria and Serbia to reach Hungary. Moscow intended it as an extension of Turkish Stream, pumping 15bcm per year of Russian gas into the Balkans.
The EU has banned Russian coal and is in the process of banning Russian oil.
Many analysts believed gas could follow, stranding Russian gas infrastructure.
“EU sanctions [will at some point stop] Russian gas from flowing in it, and the gas from Alexandroupolis can flow through IGB and into this infrastructure. This is the geopolitical importance [of IGB],” said Myrianthis.
Greece is in a position to play the role of gas conduit thanks to the last major Russian gas crisis of 2009, when Russia cut off supply to Ukraine in midwinter, leading to shortages and power cuts throughout southeast Europe.
That was when the European Commission began to fund the so-called “Southern Gas Corridor”, which led to the creation of the Trans-Adriatic Pipeline bringing Azeri gas across Greece. That was also when Gastrode applied to license the Alexandroupoli FSRU.
The concept of a southern energy corridor is being expanded.
The EU announced this year that it will spend 657 million euros ($693m) to lay a two-gigawatt undersea electricity cable to import electricity from Israel via Cyprus and Greece to the EU grid. Greece will also be the conduit for a similar cable stretching from Egypt.
“Unquestionably the geopolitical significance of [Greece] is rising,” said Thrasy Marketos, a visiting lecturer in Eurasian geopolitics at the University of the Peloponnese.
“Russia has attempted to surround Eastern Europe through its energy needs in recent years … Putin understands Europe’s strategic energy security as a geopolitical game to divide Europe and promote his own policy.”
Since Putin declared war on Ukraine, the EU appeared to have declared war on his energy policy.
Gaza City – During last year’s Israeli offensive in Gaza, Imadeldin Abed’s apartment became a refuge for 13 people, gathering to try and avoid the bombs falling on the besieged Palestinian territory.
But on May 17, 2021, Abed said he received a phone call from an Israeli army intelligence officer, telling him his home was about to be targeted.
The apartment, in central Gaza City, was destroyed in the subsequent Israeli air attack.
At the time he received the call, Abed had been combing through the rubble of a relative’s home, which had been bombed, leaving dozens of civilians dead.
“I didn’t expect it would happen immediately to my home,” Abed told Al Jazeera.
“The Israeli officer told me that we should evacuate our building within 15 minutes. The officer stressed it was forbidden to take any of our things or furniture. We just ran out as we were.”
In May 2021, Israel launched a devastating 11-day military offensive on the blockaded Gaza Strip, the major offensive launched by Israel on the Palestinian territory in 14 years.
The assault killed at least 261 people, including 67 children, and wounded more than 2,200, according to the United Nations.
Tel Aviv says the offensive was a justified response to rockets and other projectiles fired from the Gaza Strip and puts the blame on the territory’s rulers, Hamas.
Over the course of the conflict, rockets fired from Gaza killed 13 people in Israel.
Since the attack, Abed and his family have moved into a rented apartment with his married sons.
“We started our life from scratch. My apartment, and the apartments of my married sons, all of that disappeared in moments,” Abed explained.
“Here we are without furniture, clothes, or money. Everything was destroyed.”
The apartment Abed currently lives in is small and overcrowded, and he says that he has not received any help from international or governmental organisations.
“Over the past year, we have received many promises of reconstruction from the UNRWA and the United Nations to no avail,” said Abed, who is a government employee. “Equipping my apartment costed me about $80,000 and, in seconds, it evaporated in front of me.”
For Abed that loss has been difficult to contend with.
“We aren’t to blame for the war. We want our homes to be reconstructed as soon as possible. Enough of what is happening to us in the Gaza Strip,” Abed said.
‘Gaza is completely forgotten’
Others in Gaza have had to deal with not just the material effects of the war, but the physical ones too.
Twenty-one-year-old Mohammed el-Sayed’s family’s apartment was hit during Israel’s offensive, leaving his brother, Ahmed, stuck under the rubble.
“I heard the moan of my brother Ahmed, who is two years older than me,” el-Sayed said. “I tried to remove the rubble above him to save him, but I couldn’t until the ambulance came and pulled him out.”
Ahmed’s condition was very serious. The bombing left him paralysed, unable to move his left hand. He also suffers from a laceration of the spinal cord.
“War created disasters in our lives, we were safe in our home, and suddenly we found ourselves injured and wounded, and we lost our home in moments,” el-Sayed said.
He explained that his father, Rashad, had spent five years preparing and furnishing their apartment.
“We only lived there for three years. Now, my father lost the house in which he put all his savings, as well as my brother, who lost the ability to move while he is still in the prime of his youth,” el-Sayed added.
“We live now in a rented house, which is not healthy for my brother. He does not have a private room that fits his special health condition, and there is no hope for future reconstruction.”
Like many in Gaza, el-Sayed complained that, despite promises and pledges, few reconstruction projects had been implemented.
“Last year was tough for everyone, we no longer have hope that things will improve,” el-Sayed said. “Gaza is completely forgotten.”
Reconstruction vehicles remove the rubble of the al-Shrouq building, which was bombed last May [Mohammed Salem/Al Jazeera]
Reconstruction delays
The offensive last May was marked by its intensity, and the destruction of civilian homes and infrastructure.
Approximately 1,770 homes were destroyed or partially destroyed, according to the United Nations. In addition, another 22,000 units were damaged, resulting in the displacement of tens of thousands of Palestinians, according to authorities in Gaza. At least four high-rise buildings were levelled, and 74 public structures were also hit.
Naji Sarhan, under-secretary of Gaza’s Ministry of Public Works, told Al Jazeera he was frustrated at the delay in reconstructing Gaza.
“Unfortunately, a year has passed since the May offensive, though the process of reconstruction is still at the beginning,” Sarhan said.
According to him, only 200 housing units had been rebuilt, out of 1,700 units that were completely destroyed.
The situation was better when it came to partially destroyed housing units, with Sarhan saying that 70 percent had been rebuilt, while the rest needed additional funding.
According to Sarhan, the losses in the recent offensive are estimated at $497m, with $160m needed to rebuild the damaged or destroyed homes.
“The 14-year Israeli-Egyptian blockade on the Strip has imposed many obstacles on the reconstruction process,” Sarhan said. “Israel bans building materials coming through its border crossings, resulting in increasing living circumstances for Palestinians in Gaza.”
Sarhan added that there are approximately 1,300 severely damaged housing units and 70,000 with some damage to them whose construction has not been financed since the 2014 war.
However, despite that need, only Egypt and Qatar have pledged to support the reconstruction process, promising $500m each.
Israel did agree to remove restrictions on the entry of building materials into Gaza last August, but officials in Gaza argue that Israel is continuing to pressure donors to not fund reconstruction projects.
Sarhan, however, also pinned some of the responsibility on the UN, and specifically its Palestinian refugee agency, UNRWA.
On April 25, dozens of Palestinians in Gaza protested in front of the UNRWA headquarters, accusing the agency of not fulfilling its duty to rebuild Palestinian homes destroyed in the 2021 and 2014 wars, as well as demanding that UNRWA Commissioner-General Philip Lazzarini retract his recent request that UNRWA projects be transferred to other international networks and institutions.
In turn, UNRWA responded in a statement that it had completed the rebuilding of “partially damaged houses,” and explained that it would begin to rebuild the completely damaged houses “within a week”.
UNRWA’s media adviser, Adnan Abu Hasna, said that the agency had “rebuilt around 7,000 partially-damaged houses and another 450 severely-damaged houses.”
For Sarhan, that is not enough.
“We call on UNRWA and all parties to abide by their commitments to reconstruct the Gaza Strip,” he said. “Life has completely halted in the Strip and people are in dire need of assistance, and to have their homes rebuilt.”
AP Photo/Martin Meissner” src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/vKDisr2kW6w.NxCqCRTMjQ–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTQ3NA–/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/DT9DxHOXwoH2ROY23OHAFQ–~B/aD05Njg7dz0xNDQwO2FwcGlkPXl0YWNoeW9u/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_conversation_us_articles_815/ec6db960150db0bdd42afadd73398aab” data-src=”https://s.yimg.com/ny/api/res/1.2/vKDisr2kW6w.NxCqCRTMjQ–/YXBwaWQ9aGlnaGxhbmRlcjt3PTcwNTtoPTQ3NA–/https://s.yimg.com/uu/api/res/1.2/DT9DxHOXwoH2ROY23OHAFQ–~B/aD05Njg7dz0xNDQwO2FwcGlkPXl0YWNoeW9u/https://media.zenfs.com/en/the_conversation_us_articles_815/ec6db960150db0bdd42afadd73398aab”/>
Germany, heavily reliant on natural gas from Russia, has seen a fast expansion in solar power since Russia attacked Ukraine.AP Photo/Martin Meissner
Six months ago, negotiators at the United Nations’ Glasgow climate summit celebrated a series of new commitments to lower global greenhouse gas emissions and build resilience to the impacts of climate change. Analysts concluded that the new promises, including phasing out coal, would bend the global warming trajectory, though still fall short of the Paris climate agreement.
Today, the world looks ever more complex. Russia is waging a war on European soil, with global implications for energy and food supplies. Some leaders who a few months ago were vowing to phase out fossil fuels are now encouraging fossil fuel companies to ramp up production.
In the US, the Biden administration has struggled to get its promised actions through Congress. Last-ditch efforts have been underway to salvage some kind of climate and energy bill from the abandoned Build Back Better plan. Without it, US commitments to reduce emissions by over 50% by 2030 look fanciful, and the rest of the world knows it – adding another blow to US credibility overseas.
Meanwhile, severe famines have hit Yemen and the Horn of Africa. Extreme heat has been threatening lives across India and Pakistan. Australia faced historic flooding, and the Southwestern US can’t keep up with the wildfires.
As a former senior UN official, I’ve been involved in international climate negotiations for several years. At the halfway point of this year’s climate negotiations, with the next UN climate conference in November 2022, here are three areas to watch for progress and cooperation in a world full of danger and division.
Crisis response with long-term benefits
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has added to a triple whammy of food price, fuel price and inflationary spikes in a global economy still struggling to from the pandemic.
But Russia’s aggression has also forced Europe and others to move away from dependence on Russian oil, gas and coal. The G7 – Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK and the US – pledged on May 8, 2022, to phase out or ban Russian oil and accelerate their shifts to clean energy.
In the short term, Europe’s pivot means much more energy efficiency – the International Energy Agency estimates that the European Union can save 15%-20% of energy demand with efficiency measures. It also means importing oil and gas from elsewhere.
In the medium term, the answer lies in ramping up renewable energy.
There are issues to solve. As Europe buys up gas from other places, it risks reducing gas supplies relied on by other countries, and forcing some of those countries to return to coal, a more carbon-intense fuel that destroys air quality. Some countries will need help expanding renewable energy and stabilizing energy prices to avoid a backlash to pro-climate policies.
As the West races to renewables, it will also need to secure a supply chain for critical minerals and metals necessary for batteries and renewable energy technology, including replacing an overdependence on China with multiple supply sources.
Ensuring integrity in corporate commitments
Finance leaders and other private sector coalitions made headline-grabbing commitments at the Glasgow climate conference in November 2021. They promised to accelerate their transitions to net-zero emissions by 2050, and some firms and financiers were specific about ending financing for coal plants that don ‘t capture and store their carbon, cutting methane emissions and supporting ending deforestation.
Their promises faced cries of “greenwash” from many climate advocacy groups. Some efforts are now underway to hold companies, as well as countries, to their commitments.
A UN group chaired by former Canadian Environment Minister Catherine McKenna is now working on a framework to hold companies, cities, states and banks to account when they claim to have “net-zero” emissions. This is designed to ensure that companies that pledged last year to meet net-zero now say how, and on what scientific basis.
For many companies, especially those with large emissions footprints, part of their commitment to get to net-zero includes buying carbon offsets – often investments in nature – to balance the ledger. This summer, two efforts to put guardrails around voluntary carbon markets are expected to issue their first sets of guidance for issuers of carbon credits and for firms that want to use voluntary carbon markets to fulfill their net-zero claims. The goal is to ensure carbon markets reduce emissions and provide a steady stream of revenue for parts of the world that need finance for their green growth.
Climate change influencing elections
Climate change is now an important factor in elections.
French President Emmanuel Macron, trying to woo supporters of a candidate to his left and energize young voters, made more dramatic climate pledges, vowing to be “the first major nation to abandon gas, oil and coal.”
With Chile’s swing to the left, the country’s redrafted constitution will incorporate climate stewardship.
In Australia, Scott Morrison’s government – which supported opening one of the world’s largest coal mines at the same time the Australian private sector is focusing on renewable energy – faces an election on May 21, 2022, with heatwaves and extreme flooding fresh in voters’ minds . Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro faces opponents in October who are talking about protecting the climate.
Elections are fought and won on pocketbook issues, and energy prices are high and inflation is taking hold. But voters around the world are also experiencing the effects of climate change firsthand and are concerned.
The next climate conference
Countries will be facing a different set of economic and security challenges when the next round of UN talks begins in November in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, compared to the challenges they faced in Glasgow. They will be expected to show progress on their commitments while struggling for bandwidth, dealing with the climate emergency as an integral part of security, economic recovery and global health.
There is no time to push climate action out into the future. Every decimal point of warming avoided is an opportunity for better health, more prosperity and better security.
This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit news site dedicated to sharing ideas from academic experts. It was written by: Rachel Kyte, Tufts University.
Read more:
Rachel Kyte does not work for, consult, owning shares in or receiving funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin urged authorities on Tuesday to take stronger action to prevent wildfires and increase coordination between various official agencies in dealing with them.
Speaking in a video call with federal and regional officials, asserting that wildfires that hit Russia last year were the biggest in years and asked local governors to report on measures that were taken to increase fire safety across the country.
He noted that a series of wildfires already spread across several regions.
“We can’t allow a repeat of the last year’s situation,” Putin said. “We need to combat fires in a more efficient, systemic and consistent way.”
He reaffirmed the importance of forests for dealing with global warming, noting that “large-scale wildfires of our climate protection efforts.”
“This issue is of principal importance for our country and the entire world,” he said.
In recent years, Russia has recorded high temperatures that many scientists regard as a clear result of climate change. The hot weather, coupled with the neglect of fire safety rules, has caused a growing number of wildfires that authorities say have consumed more than 17 million hectares (42 million acres) last year in Russia.
Russian experts decried a 2007 decision to disband a federal aviation network tasked to spot and combat fires and turn over its assets to regional authorities. The much-criticized transfer led to the force’s rapid decline.
The government later reversed the move and reestablished the federal agency in charge of monitoring forests from the air. However, its resources remain limited, making it hard to survey the massive forests of Siberia and the Far East.
The authorities responded to last year’s fires by beefing up monitoring assets and rapid response forces. The Kremlin has ordered to earmark additional funds for combating the blazes.
The Kashmir Files banned in the Southeast Asian city-state over its ‘provocative and one-sided portrayal’ of Muslims.
Singapore has banned a controversial film on the exodus of Hindus from Indian-administered Kashmir for its “provocative and one-characteral” of Muslims that officials in the city-state fear has the “potential to cause enmity between different communities”.
Released in March, The Kashmir Files depicts in harrowing detail how about 200,000 Kashmiri Hindus – known as Pandits – fled the Muslim-majority region following by rebels in 1989 and 1990, when an armed resistance against New Delhi’s rule began.
Up to 219 Hindus may have been killed, according to official figures.
The 170-minute Hindi language film was praised by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his right-wing Hindu nationalist followers and is one of India’s highest-grossing films this year.
After the film was released, Modi said it showed the truth and that “vested interests” were running a campaign to discredit it.
“They are shocked, that the truth that was hidden for so many years is out and is backed by facts,” Modi said, without clarifying to whom he was referring.
But critics say the film is loose with facts and tackles themes close to the political agenda of Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, which has been accused of marginalizing and vilifying Muslims.
“The film will be refused classification for its provocative and one-sided portrayal of Muslims and the depictions of Hindus being persecuted in the ongoing conflict in Kashmir,” the Singapore government said in a statement on Monday in response to media queries.
“These representations have the potential to cause enmity between different communities, and disrupt social cohesion and religious harmony in our multi-racial and multi-religious society,” the statement added.
Singapore’s 5.5 million population is made up mainly of ethnic Chinese, Malays and Indians. The tightly-controlled Southeast Asian country has strict laws that punish any attempts to disrupt interracial and religious harmony.
It occasionally bans films and publications for fear of inflaming divisions, leading some to ridicule it as a “nanny state”.
The film’s director, Vivek Agnihotri, lashed out at the decision, tweeting that Singapore was the “most regressive censor in the world”.
Thousands of people, many of them Hindus, fled Kashmir after a violent uprising against the Indian rule began in the valley in 1989.
The Kashmir Files revolves around a university student who learns about the death of his parents in the 1990s in Kashmir – a disputed region split between India and Pakistan since 1947.
Supporters of the movie say it shines a light on an often overlooked chapter of the region’s history, while others see it as evidence of the growing religious polarisation Modi’s critics say he has fostered since coming to power in 2014.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Food-delivery workers across Dubai protesting meager pay and inadequate protections have walked off the job across the city, the company confirmed on Tuesday, marking the second strike in as weeks in an emirate that outlaws dissent .
The foreign workers contracted by Talabat, the Middle East unit of Delivery Hero, began their walkout late Monday after organizing on social media, crippling the application’s services.
As fuel prices surge, many said they were pressing for a modest pay increase from their current rate of $2.04 per delivery — a wage less than what sparked another extremely rare strike among contractors for delivery service Deliveroo last week.
Deliveroo drivers make $2.79 per delivery after the walkout forced the UK-based company to backtrack on its plans to cut workers’ pay and extend their hours. Strikes and unions remain illegal in the United Arab Emirates, where the subject of labor standards has grown contentious in recent years.
Videos shared on social media showed scores of Talabat riders gathering in lots beside their parked motorcycles at dawn. It was not clear how many riders took part in the strike, which caused Talabat to acknowledge some “operational delays” on Tuesday.
Talabat, owned by Germany-based Delivery Hero, confirmed the work stoppage in a statement to The Associated Press, saying the company was “committed to ensuring riders can continue to rely on our platform to provide for their families.”
“Up until last week rider pay satisfaction was well above 70%,” the company added, without disclosing how it came to that number. “Yet, we understand the economic and political realities are changing constantly, and we will always continue to listen to what riders have to say.”
Several striking Talabat riders say they hoped to secure a raise to roughly $2.72 per delivery, especially as they’re squeezed by spiking gas prices that they pay out of pocket. Many drive some 300-400 kilometers (190-250 miles) a day.
Riders also described a mountain of other costs draining their salaries, including visa fees to contractors who secured them jobs in Dubai, toll charges, regular motorcycle maintenance costs like oil changes and hospital expenses. Contractors do not provide drivers with adequate accident insurance, drivers say, even as many frequently crash on Dubai’s dangerous roads.
That leaves delivery workers, part of Dubai’s vast foreign work force mainly from Africa and Asian countries such as India and Pakistan, with little cash to pay rent and send back home to families they support.
As it seeks to burnish its image as a cosmopolitan haven for expat workers, the UAE has faced persistent criticism from human rights groups over the long hours, tough conditions and relatively low pay endured by the country’s manual laborers. Authorities say the country has made labor reforms and offers many workers better money than they would find amid poverty, and sometimes conflict, back home.
Khan, a 24-year-old Talabat driver and breadwinner for his family of nine in Peshawar, Pakistan, said he can barely make ends meet in Dubai — even though he hasn’t taken a day off in three months and works 15 hours a day. He has been struck by cars twice and injured his foot on the job, he said, but could never afford to get treatment.
“I’m not striking for me or for my friends. I know it’s not good for us,” he said, asking that he only be identified by his family name for fear of reprisals. “It’s for the future. For guys like us, coming here to Dubai.”
Nomaliso Musasiwa’s tech business connects farmers and consumers to provide fresh produce to Zimbabweans.
Nomaliso Musasiwa does not believe in waiting for the government to fix problems, so she is tackling Zimbabwe’s food challenges directly.
She runs a fresh food tech company, connecting small farmers to online clients – from locals looking for fresh, affordable food, to diaspora Zimbabweans who want to support relatives back home.
Fresh Farm by Rumbi Katedza explores this creative commercial response to Zimbabwe’s food insecurity.
Rumbi Katedza is a multi-award-winning Zimbabwean director and writer with a range of fiction and documentary experience. Her work includes the short film Asylum, TV drama Big House, Small House, and the feature film Playing Warriors. Rumbi is a former director of the Zimbabwe International Film Festival. She is currently working on a feature documentary.
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese President Xi Jinping on Tuesday promoted the role of the ruling Communist Party’s youth wing ahead of a key party congress later this year that comes amid rising economic and social pressures.
Addressing a meeting marking the centenary of the Communist Youth League of China, Xi said the body should “always be a vanguard force in mobilizing China’s youth in continuous endeavor.”
Despite strict anti-virus measures in the Chinese capital, the event saw hundreds of masked participants gathered at the Great Hall of the People in central Beijing.
While relying heavily on traditional political formulas, Xi’s speech skirted controversial issues, including expectations he will seek a third five-year term as party leader at the congress later this year.
And’s rule’s rule remains unchallenged among young people, and it faces a range of economic and social challenges to appeal to extreme nationalism rally support.
This year especially, China’s economy has taken a battering linked to lockdowns and other disruptions brought about by the governments insistence on a hard-line “zero-COVID” policy. That has increased employment pressures, particularly on the country’s 11 million new college graduates, along with the roughly 280 million migrant workers, many of them young people from the countryside.
The implementation of the policy in China’s largest city Shanghai, which included tightening lockdowns even as the number of COVID-19 cases fell, has sparked anger at authorities, leading to rare acts of defiance posted online.
China also faces a demographic crunch blamed largely on the former one-child policy that employed severe measures to drive down the birthrate and left China with about 35 million more men than women. The end of the policy and official encouragement for couples to have additional children have failed to stem the decline, with marriages and births hitting lows not seen in the decades.
It wasn’t clear what specific role Xi envisions for the 73 million-member organization in facing such challenges, other than to inculcate loyalty to the ruling party.
In his speech, he called on members to “build up firm beliefs, and boost their courage and skills to carry out struggles,” saying they should be “patriotic and innovative, while not being misguided or intimidated by difficulties.”
“Unswervingly following the party and striving for the party and the people is the original mission of the Communist Youth League,” Xi said.
