HONG KONG: Thousands of people attended a pro-Beijing rally in Hong Kong Sunday in support of China’s decision to effectively bar two pro-independence legislators from taking office, as fears grow of the city’s freedoms being under threat.
Beijing’s ruling last week preempted a decision by the Hong Kong courts over whether lawmakers Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching should be disqualified from Parliament after deliberately misreading their oaths of office, inserting expletives and draping themselves with “Hong Kong is not China” flags.
Beijing’s interpretation of the city’s constitution issued on Monday said that any oath taker who does not follow the prescribed wording of the oath, “or takes the oath in a manner which is not sincere or not solemn,” should be disqualified.
On Sunday rowdy crowds, waving Chinese flags, surrounded the government’s headquarters in a show of support for Beijing’s unprecedented decision, slammed by pro-democracy activists and legal experts as a massive blow to Hong Kong’s judicial independence.
Supporters chanted slogans such as “fight against Hong Kong independence, support the interpretation” at the rally, which was attended by pro-Beijing legislators.
“The cancer cells are those who are promoting Hong Kong independence... we will fight them to the end,” lawmaker Michael Tien told the crowd who cheered loudly in response. “China will never, ever tolerate the splitting of the nation,” Tien said.
Priscilla Leung, another pro-China legislator who attended the rally, said the lawmakers’ behavior at the swearing-in ceremony “humiliated all of the Chinese people.” Police said that 28,500 people attended the rally.
The Hong Kong High Court’s decision into whether Leung and Yau should be disqualified is still pending.
Hong Kong was handed back to China by Britain in 1997 under a “one country, two systems” deal which protects its freedoms for 50 years, but there are growing concerns those liberties are disappearing.
Thousands attend pro-Beijing rally in Hong Kong
Thousands attend pro-Beijing rally in Hong Kong
India’s new deepwater port announces presence on global maritime map
- Port will triple India’s cargo handling capacity and reduce foreign transshipment dependence
- Critics say project comes at high environmental and human cost
NEW DELHI: India on Friday registered its presence on the global maritime map with the inauguration of its first deepwater multipurpose seaport at Vizhinjam in the southern Indian state of Kerala.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi commissioned the Vizhinjam port, built at a cost of $1.04 billion under a public-private partnership with business conglomerate the Adani Group and the Kerala government holding the majority stake.
Late last year, the port began limited operations and received MSC Turkiye — one of the world’s largest cargo ships with a capacity of more than 24,000 containers — making it the first port in India to handle a vessel of that size.
The port is to be built in four phases by 2028 at a total cost of 180 billion Indian rupees ($2.11 billion). In full-page advertisements in several national and local dailies a day before the inauguration, the Adani Group — considered close to Modi — said the port is only 10 nautical miles from global shipping routes and will have an annual capacity of up to 5 million TEUs (20ft equivalent units).
TEU is a unit of measurement used to quantify the capacity of container ships and terminals. It represents the volume of a standard 20-foot shipping container and is a common way to express the cargo-carrying capacity of vessels and facilities.
“The existing capacity of this transshipment hub will triple in the coming time,” Modi said in his inaugural address.
“So far 75 per cent of the Indian transshipment used to take place outside the country. This used to cause huge revenue loss to the country.
“Now this situation is going to change.
“Now the money of this country will be utilized for the service of the nation. The money which used to go outside will now bring new economic opportunities for the people of Kerala and Vizhinjam.”
India has 13 major ports and 217 non-major ports, but none of them are deepwater multipurpose transshipment ports, which include terminals where cargo containers are shifted from one vessel to another before reaching their final destination. With India until now lacking infrastructure to handle large vessels, close to 75 percent of its transshipment cargo went through external ports like Colombo, Singapore and Jebel Ali, UAE.
Industry bodies see a big opportunity with the opening of the Vizhinjam port.
“It’s a mother port. One of the kinds in the country. It is a fully automated port, and the port can handle any ship, the biggest in the world. It is hardly 10 nautical miles from the international sea route. It’s very conveniently set. It’s a God-given gift to the country,” S.N. Raghuchandran Nair, president of the Trivandrum Chamber of Commerce and Industry, told Arab News.
“Cargos originating from this place will cut down the time by almost two weeks, it is also going to save $600 to $1,000 per container in view of the handling charges and various things. This is going to be a big saver. You will save 2,000 to 3,000 crore rupees ($2.5 million to $3.5 million) by way of foreign exchange every year once this port opens fully.”
The Vizhinjam port has been controversial from the beginning and faced protests from fishermen and environmentalists over displacement and harm to coastal and marine life.
Kerala journalist K.A. Shaji made a documentary, “Stolen Shorelines,” highlighting the displacement of fishermen and environmental damage.
He questions the need for the port.
“Actually, there is a big port in Colombo and international movements of freight are through Singapore, Dubai and Colombo, there is no need for the big vessels to come to Vizhinjam, which is in a corner of Kerala and it has to take a deviation from the main route,” Shaji told Arab News.
“I feel in the highly competitive world of international freight movement Vizhinjam can do very little, but environmental and socio-economic costs are very high.”
He said thousands of families have been affected by the port, directly and indirectly.
“Directly more than 450 fishermen’s families have been impacted and indirectly over 4,500 families have been impacted as coastal erosion and change of the direction of the waves by the impact of the project destroyed most of the houses and livelihood.”
Polish right-wing presidential candidate visits Trump
- Nawrocki has the backing of the right-wing opposition party Law and Justice
- “An immensely important meeting... with US President D. Trump at the White House,” Nawrocki said
WARSAW: Poland’s nationalist presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki said on Friday he had an “important” visit with US President Donald Trump at the White House, drawing accusations of election interference from some governing politicians.
Nawrocki has the backing of the right-wing opposition party Law and Justice (PiS) and outgoing President Andrzej Duda and is polling second two weeks ahead of the May 18 ballot.
The frontrunner, pro-European Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski, has the support of Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition (KO).
“An immensely important meeting... with US President D. Trump at the White House and joint talks on the strategic alliance as well as future cooperation,” Nawrocki wrote on his Facebook page.
He added a campaign hashtag and photos of the two men posing at the White House during the Thursday visit.
The White House also posted the photos to X and said: “President Donald J. Trump welcomes Polish presidential candidate Karol Nawrocki to the Oval Office.”
Nawrocki separately told TV Republika that “President Trump said, ‘You will win’... I understood that as him wishing me success in the upcoming elections.”
Some lawmakers from the governing coalition took to X on Friday to criticize the meeting.
MP Roman Giertych accused Trump of being Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “friend” and of “brazenly interfering in the elections in Poland.”
Fellow lawmaker Tomasz Trela wrote: “Mr Nawrocki, Trump will not be choosing our president for us, just like he didn’t choose Canada’s prime minister.”
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals won Canada’s election on Monday after a campaign defined by threats from Trump.
Nawrocki, a 42-year-old historian, has been campaigning on the slogan of “Poland first, Poles first.”
While Nawrocki does not question Poland’s support for neighboring Ukraine against Russia’s invasion, he has denounced the generous benefits accorded to Ukrainians refugees.
He also wants Poland to boost its troop numbers and has called for controls on the border with Germany to keep out migrants.
Arab News coverage moves Pakistani governor to fund treatment of teen separated from Indian mother
- Pakistani teen Ayan, 17, was receiving spinal treatment in New Delhi but was separated from his Indian mother after his family was forced to leave India following the April 22 attack in Kashmir
- The Sindh governor praised Arab News for highlighting Ayan’s case and pledged support for his treatment
KARACHI: The governor of Pakistan’s southern Sindh province, Kamran Tessori, has pledged to cover the medical expenses of a paralyzed Pakistani teenager who was separated from his Indian mother amid escalating tensions between the two countries, his office said on Thursday, following Arab News’ coverage of the boy’s story.
Seventeen-year-old Muhammad Ayan was being treated at New Delhi’s Apollo Hospital after a spinal injury he sustained during a 2023 gunfight between police and criminals in Karachi. He and his family were forced to leave India after the April 22 attack in Indian-administered Kashmir that killed 26 tourists. India accused Pakistan of backing the assault. Islamabad has strongly denied the allegation.
In the wake of the attack, both countries ordered each other’s nationals to leave, exchanged gunfire in Kashmir, and imposed diplomatic restrictions, leaving many families stranded or divided. Among them was Ayan’s family. His Indian mother, Nabeela, was unable to leave with them. The family returned to Karachi while she remained in New Delhi.
“Arab News is doing a good job. You should highlight the problems of the people and keep pointing toward the solution — which you people keep doing — then the problems move toward a solution. Ayan’s case is an example of this. You pointed it out, and we are trying now,” Tessori told Arab News on Friday.
“If Ayan’s treatment is not possible in Pakistan, then we are also contacting different countries to see where this treatment is possible. God willing, we will get it done wherever it is possible.”
The Pakistani official urged India to put an end to its “war mania,” pointing to several other cases such as Ayan’s. There has been no immediate comment from the Indian side on Ayan’s case.
Arab News published a report earlier this week highlighting Ayan’s separation from his mother and the abrupt end to his treatment in India, which prompted Tessori to take action.
“She was separated from us while crying, and we also came here with great difficulty, crying,” Ayan told Arab News, choking back tears.
Ayan’s father, Muhammad Imran, married Nabeela — his maternal cousin and a New Delhi resident — 18 years ago. She had been living in Pakistan on a visa that was periodically renewed, without ever obtaining Pakistani nationality. After the attack, the suspension of visa services invalidated the family’s 45-day Indian medical visa, and Nabeela was left behind.
Imran said that he had spent every last rupee in hopes that his son would walk again. But rising bilateral tensions made the family fearful while in India.
“I told them, ‘I’m married (to her),’ I pleaded, cried, and showed a lot of humility,” he said of his conversations with Indian authorities. “But they said, ‘No, write an exit and leave.’”
For Ayan, the trauma of paralysis was compounded by the emotional shock of being separated from his mother.
“I went for treatment with hope, but that hope shattered because of the accident and the fact that my mother couldn’t come with us,” he said. “I was completely separated from a mother’s love. We were far apart; it made me cry.”
Kashmir has been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947. The region is divided between the two countries, though both claim it in full. They have fought two of their three wars over the disputed territory.
Since 1989, several Kashmiri groups have carried out attacks in Indian-administered Kashmir, seeking independence or a merger with Pakistan. India accuses Pakistan of supporting these groups — a charge Islamabad denies, insisting it offers only diplomatic and political support to Kashmiris.
Ayan’s father thanked Arab News for highlighting his family’s plight.
“They conveyed our words to higher officials, because of which Sindh Governor Kamran Tessori took notice,” he said on Friday.
“I am also very thankful to him, who promised to have my son treated anywhere in the world.”
Vatican chimney installed ahead of papal conclave
Cardinals from around the world have been called back to Rome following the death on April 21 of Francis
VATICAN CITY: Firefighters installed the chimney atop the Sistine Chapel on Friday which will emit white smoke to signal the election of a new pope as preparations proceed just five days before cardinals gather for the conclave.
Some 133 Catholic cardinals will gather below Michelangelo’s famed frescoes in the 15th-century chapel, situated inside the Apostolic Palace at the Vatican, to elect a successor to Pope Francis.
Held behind locked doors, the conclave will signal to the world the outcome by burning ballots in a special stove, with the chimney emitting black smoke if no one has been elected, or white smoke if there is a new pope.
Cardinals from around the world have been called back to Rome following the death on April 21 of Francis, an energetic reformer from Argentina who led the Catholic Church for 12 years.
All but four of the cardinal electors — those aged under 80 — who can vote in the conclave are already in Rome, Vatican spokesman Matteo Bruni said.
Ahead of the election, cardinals of all ages have been meeting daily at the Vatican to discuss the challenges facing the next head of the world’s 1.4 billion Catholics.
Friday’s meeting emphasized spreading the Catholic faith, the need for unity and the risk of “counter-witness” — problems such as sexual abuse and financial scandals — among other issues, Bruni told reporters.
Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle of the Philippines, Italy’s Pietro Parolin — who served as secretary of state under Francis — and Ghana’s Peter Turkson are among the favorites to be the next pope.
But there is an old Roman saying that he who enters the conclave a pope, leaves a cardinal — a warning that the favorite rarely emerges as the winner.
“I think the Church is in prayer mode, but it must also put itself in surprise mode,” Cardinal Gregorio Rosa Chavez, 82, told reporters as he headed into Friday morning’s meeting.
“Remember what happened with Pope Francis — what a surprise!“
Among the crowds of tourists and pilgrims in St. Peter’s Square on Friday, the installation of the chimney on the Sistine Chapel — a thin metal tube with a capped top — went largely unnoticed.
But many were aware that history was in the making.
“It definitely is a historic moment and it definitely feels special to be in Rome,” said Glenn Atherton, a Briton visiting from London.
“It feels like a once-in-a-lifetime thing,” he told AFP.
There are 135 cardinals eligible to vote in the conclave, but two have withdrawn for health reasons.
These were Cardinal Antonio Canizares Llovera, Archbishop emeritus of Valencia in Spain, and Cardinal John Njue, Archbishop emeritus of Nairobi in Kenya, the Vatican confirmed.
The conclave is due to begin at 4:30 p.m. (1430 GMT) on Wednesday, where the cardinals will take an oath to maintain the secrecy of the election, on pain of excommunication.
That first day they will hold one ballot, with the winner — technically any baptised male, but in reality always one of their own — needing a two-thirds majority, or 89 votes, to win.
During the following days they will hold two votes in the morning and two in the afternoon.
If a winner is elected, the ballots will be burned in the special stove with the addition of chemicals to emit a white smoke to alert the waiting world to the decision.
If no candidate has enough votes during the first morning vote, the cardinals will proceed to a second vote, and only after that point will the ballots be burned.
The afternoon session follows the same procedure — if a pope is elected, there will be white smoke, but if not, the cardinals will proceed to a second vote and only after that will the ballots be burned.
If no pope is elected, the smoke emitted by the chimney is black.
The ancient signalling system — which still remains the only way the public learns whether a pope has been elected — used to involve mixing wet straw with the ballots to produce white smoke, and tarry pitch to create black smoke.
But after several episodes in which greyish smoke caused confusion, the Vatican introduced a new system in 2005.
At the last conclave, in 2013, the Vatican said it used a mixture of potassium perchlorate, anthracene and sulfur to produce black smoke, and potassium chlorate, lactose and rosin for white.
Two stoves stand in a corner of the chapel, one for burning the ballots and the other for the chemicals, with the smoke from both stoves going up a common flue, it said then.
Details for the procedure of next week’s conclave have not yet been confirmed.
Understanding Nigeria’s new wave of militant attacks
- The Lake Chad basin serves as a crucial strategic corridor for militant groups, said Adamu
- “Governance has been abandoned in so many of these places,” said Confidence McHarry, from consulting firm SBM Intelligence in Lagos
LAGOS: Nigeria’s northeast is facing a brutal resurgence of militant attacks, which have killed at least 100 people in April.
The state of Borno in particular, where the Boko Haram militant group emerged 16 years ago, remains the epicenter of a conflict that has killed more than 40,000 and displaced some two million people in Africa’s most populous country.
The Lake Chad basin serves as a crucial strategic corridor for militant groups, said Kabir Adamu, director of the Nigerian consulting firm Beacon Consulting, in terms of logistics, recruitment and cross-border attacks involving Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
Boko Haram, also known as Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS):
The movement was founded in 2002 in Maiduguri, Borno state, by radical preacher Mohammed Yusuf, who attributed Nigeria’s woes to the Western values left by former British colonial powers.
It launched an insurgency in 2009 and took control of significant areas in the northeast.
Through counteroffensives, the Nigerian army took back some of the lost territories but Boko Haram remains operational in some regions.
The Al-Qaeda-affiliated group relies heavily on fear-based tactics, targeting civilians, looting villages and conducting kidnappings.
The Daesh West Africa Province (Daesh-WAP):
This group emerged in 2016 from a split within Boko Haram, with Daesh-WAP opposing the killing of Muslims. It is proving to be more organized and more ideological, focusing its attacks on military targets and infrastructure.
Other groups are operating in the northwest of the country, near the border with Niger, such as Ansaru, a dissident movement linked to Al-Qaeda, or Lakurawa.
It is also worth noting the emergence of other groups, particularly in the northwest and central regions of the country, “which may not be strictly militant but utilize similar methods, blurring the lines between criminal and terrorist activities,” said Adamu.
The ongoing resurgence of attacks is linked to several factors, experts said.
“There were direct calls made by the Daesh between January and March 2025, urging its affiliates worldwide to intensify their operations,” Adamu said.
Idriss Mounir Lallali, director of the Algeria-based African Center for the Study and Research on Terrorism (ACSRT), has seen a “strategic recalibration” by Boko Haram and Daesh-WAP, as the two groups seem to have overcome a period of mutual conflicts.
The militants have adapted their combat tactics, through the use of drones, improvised explosive devices (IEDs), ambushes and coordinated raids, allowing them to intensify operations in rural and semi-urban areas.
Regional efforts in the fight against terrorism in the Sahel and west Africa are facing structural weaknesses.
“Governance has been abandoned in so many of these places,” said Confidence McHarry, from consulting firm SBM Intelligence in Lagos.
Niger in March withdrew from a task force it had created along with Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad to combat militants around Lake Chad, disrupting cross-border patrols and intelligence sharing.
Chad has also threatened to withdraw from the task force.
“Without a reinvigorated multinational approach, these gaps risk becoming safe havens for militant expansion,” Lallali said.
While Nigerian forces have achieved territorial gains and succeeded in neutralising key militant commanders, Daesh-WAP and Boko Haram have both demonstrated significant resilience.
Many of their fighters have retreated into ungoverned areas.
“Security forces, while concentrated in key garrisons, have left many border and rural areas exposed,” Lallali said.
Insurgents take advantage of these vulnerabilities to restore supply routes and rebuild their influence among local populations.
At the end of April, Nigeria appointed a new leader for anti- militant operations in the northeast, General Abdulsalam Abubakar.
