DHAKA: Bangladesh summoned Myanmar’s ambassador on Thursday over an increased security presence near their border, where thousands of Rohingya Muslims have been sheltering just inside Myanmar, Bangladesh’s foreign ministry said.
The United Nations refugee agency has expressed concern that thousands of people staying on the strip of land, dubbed “no man’s land” because it is beyond Myanmar’s border fence but on Myanmar’s side of a creek that marks the international border, would be forcibly returned without enough care for their safety.
Nearly 700,000 Rohingya fled Myanmar for Bangladesh after insurgent attacks on August 25 sparked a military crackdown that the United Nations has said amounted to ethnic cleansing, with reports of arson attacks, murder and rape.
About 5,300 people had been staying in a makeshift camp on the border line since late August, but roughly half moved to camps inside Bangladesh after the neighbors met to discuss possible repatriation on February 20.
Several hundred of them have been moved back to the border line, two border guards said.
On Thursday, Myanmar armed soldiers and police, estimated to number more than 200, came to the border fence and appeared to be moving in heavy weapons, including mortars, said a Bangladesh army official and the two guards, all three of whom spoke on condition of anonymity.
Dil Mohammed, a community leader among the roughly 950 Rohingya families staying at the border, said Myanmar officials used loudspeakers to tell them to move from the area.
An official of Bangladesh’s border guard said Myanmar security forces fired one round on Thursday evening in an apparent attempt to scare those on the border, but no one was injured.
“It looks like they attempted to push the Rohingya people on the zero line to Bangladesh,” Major Iqbal Ahmed said.
The movement of troops so close to the border violated international norms, another Bangladesh border guard official, Brig. Gen. Mujibur Rahman, said.
“We are sending them a protest note. We have already asked for a flag meeting,” said Rahman, the force’s additional director general in charge of operations, referring to a meeting of border guards of both countries.
“They have removed heavy weapons, such as machine guns and mortars, from the area after our verbal protests.”
In Dhaka, the foreign ministry said Acting Foreign Secretary Khurshed Alam had asked Myanmar envoy Lwin Oo to ensure that security forces pulled back from the border, as a military build-up would create confusion in Bangladesh and escalate border tension.
The action could also hamper the agreed repatriation of refugees, the ministry said in a statement, adding that it handed a diplomatic note to the ambassador.
A Myanmar official, Myint Thu, on Friday confirmed the ambassador’s meeting and said the two countries were “coordinating” on patrolling the border and resolving the issue of those staying there.
Asked about the troop movements, Myint Thu, the permanent secretary at the foreign ministry, said, “This happens due to security concerns.”
He did not elaborate, and also declined to comment on whether Myanmar forces fired shots at the border on Thursday.
Myanmar government spokesman Zaw Htay has said “terrorists” with links to the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army, which had attacked 30 police posts and an army base in August, were sheltering in the border area.
Zaw Htay said he believed people were staying there to put political pressure on the government and “create a situation where Myanmar security forces and government officials will remove them.”
There was no plan to collect information on the people in the border area, Win Kyaing, the permanent secretary at Myanmar’s immigration ministry, said on Friday, but added that the country had set up two reception centers for returnees.
“They stay there illegally,” he said. “They are leaving for Bangladesh in an illegal way.”
Bangladesh protests against Myanmar troops at border where Rohingya shelter
Bangladesh protests against Myanmar troops at border where Rohingya shelter
France bans smoking in beaches, in parks and bus shelters
PARIS: France will ban smoking on beaches and in parks, public gardens and bus shelters from Sunday, the government said.
The decree, published in the official government gazette on Saturday, will also ban smoking outside libraries, swimming pools and schools, and is aimed at protecting children from passive smoking.
The decree did not mention electronic cigarettes. Violaters of the ban will face a fine of 135 euros ($158).
“Tobacco must disappear from places where there are children,” Health and Family Minister Catherine Vautrin had said in May, underscoring “the right of children to breathe pure air.”
Cafe terraces are excluded from the ban.
Some 75,000 people are estimated to die from tobacco-related complications each year in France.
According to a recent opinion survey, six out of 10 French people (62 percent) favor a smoking ban in public places.
‘Waiting for others’: Belarusians hope for more prisoner releases
- A popular blogger, Tikhanovsky, 46, was jailed in 2020, weeks before he was due to stand in presidential elections against Belarus’s long-time leader, Alexander Lukashenko
WARSAW: Belarusian exile Asya watched from the sidelines in central Warsaw as a crowd greeted and applauded Sergei Tikhanovsky, the Belarus opposition figure who was unexpectedly released, barely recognizable after five years in prison.
A popular blogger, Tikhanovsky, 46, was jailed in 2020, weeks before he was due to stand in presidential elections against Belarus’s long-time leader, Alexander Lukashenko.
His arrest was the opening salvo in a sweeping crackdown that escalated after Lukashenko claimed victory over Svetlana Tikhanovskaya – Tikhanovsky’s wife, who ran in his place – in a ballot widely decried by critics and rights groups as rigged.
Asya was among several hundred fellow Belarusians, living in exile in neighboring Poland, celebrating his surprise release under pressure from the United States.
But her mind was with others still incarcerated.
“I am happy for those who are freed, but with each release I always look for the names of my friends,” she said.
There are 1,169 political prisoners in Belarus, according to the Viasna rights group.
The sight of Tikhanovsky – who lost almost half his weight and appeared to have drastically aged behind bars – has given even more urgency to securing their release, Asya said.
“Honestly, regime change is needed. But for me, the priority is for people to be freed and for them to be safe,” she said.
Having been held incommunicado since March 2023, many had long feared for how Tikhanovsky was being treated.
His emaciated appearance was still a shock.
“I cried all day when I saw him,” said Alexandra Khanevich, a 71-year-old activist who fled Belarus in the wake of the protests.
“My mother went through concentration camps... This is what I thought of.”
Tikhanovskaya said the couple’s young daughter did not recognize him.
The bones on his face and fingers are visible, and the 46-year-old looks far older.
“Only when we heard his voice, we knew it was really him,” said Yulia Vlasenko, who had protested in 2020 against Lukashenko in the eastern city of Vitebsk.
Others said they knew him by his distinctive ears.
Tikhanovsky has broken down in tears several times when talking about his ordeal in prison, describing alleged torture and being held in solitary confinement.
Prison officials had attempted to “fatten him up” in the months before his release by giving him “meat, fats, butter,” he told a rally in Warsaw.
He believes there will be more releases.
Officers from the KGB state security service – which has retained the feared Soviet-era name – were touring prisons pressuring people to sign statements asking for pardons from Lukashenko, he said.
Many were hopeful his release could give a new energy to the mostly exiled Belarusian opposition movement.
Tikhanovsky, who has pledged not to get in the way of his wife, said he has “even more energy” than before he was jailed.
The couple are radically different in style.
Svetlana has spent five years touring Western capitals, meeting leaders in polished suits.
Sergei is known for his tongue-in-cheek colloquialisms, having famously called Lukashenko a “cockroach” in one YouTube broadcast.
“Svetlana is more of a diplomat... Sergei is like from the street,” said protester Alexandra Dobrovaya, giggling.
Vitaly Moisa, a 42-year-old in construction, said he hoped the pair would be a “double hit” for the regime, with the opposition boosted by Tikhanovsky’s “charisma.”
He drove more than six hours from southern Poland to see “hero” Tikhanovsky.
“It’s hard to imagine he was not broken by such conditions,” he said.
Many came to the rally with masks on, fearing retribution for their families back home if they were recognized attending the rally.
Ukrainian Oleg Abrashim – who has never been to Belarus – had come with a mission: to give Tikhanovsky a hand-written letter from his Belarusian girlfriend.
“She did not want to come as it will be full of the KGB and she has not got her parents out yet,” he told AFP.
Listening to Tikhanovsky, he was reminded of the style of someone back home he had voted for in 2019: Volodymyr Zelensky.
“I understand why they followed him,” Abrashim said.
From Ukraine’s Kharkiv, which has been pounded relentlessly by Belarus’s ally Russia since it invaded, he was inspired by the messages of hope.
“Belarus and Ukraine should be free,” he said, clutching the letter.
Drilling for water in Venezuela’s parched oil town
- No water came out of the taps in certain parts of the city for over a month at the start of 2025
- Experts blame the nationwide shortage of drinking water on corruption and years of underinvestment and mismanagement by national and local governments
MARACAIBO: In Venezuela’s oil capital of Maracaibo, a drilling frenzy has led to dozens of new wells — but the valuable liquid being pumped out is just water, not petroleum.
In a symbol of the woes of Venezuela’s crumbling economy, the once flourishing oil town of 2 million people is parched.
Experts blame the nationwide shortage of drinking water on corruption and years of underinvestment and mismanagement by national and local governments, resulting in frequent water cuts.
The corroding infrastructure has led to schools, homes, businesses, churches and health centers all digging their own wells — at a huge expense.
A private well costs between $1,000 and $6,000, a fortune in the sanctions-hit Caribbean country where the minimum monthly wage is around $200.
As a result, homes that come with a ready-made well and generator — Venezuelans also live with recurring power cuts — sell for a premium.
While water rationing has been in place in Venezuelan cities for years, the situation in Maracaibo has become critical, as pumping stations break down, old pipes leak and reservoirs run dry.
No water came out of the taps in certain parts of the city for over a month at the start of 2025.
Manuel Palmar and six other families in the lower-middle-class neighborhood of Ziruma saw the writing on the wall four years ago.
They each paid $2,500 to build a 12-meter-deep (40-foot) well, which can store up to about 80,000 liters (21,000 gallons) of spring water each week.
Now when Palmar turns on the tap, water gushes out for free.
The water is not fit for drinking due to its high salinity — saltwater from the Caribbean Sea seeps into Lake Maracaibo, a coastal lake used as a freshwater source — but “it’s perfect for washing clothes and flushing toilets,” he explained.
“It’s a blessing!” the 34-year-old accountant said.
There’s a solution of sorts for every budget.
Some residents fill 200-liter drums at official filling stations or communal taps for $2-$3.
Others order a water truck to fill their building’s tank for between $40 and $60.
Some even recycle the water produced by the tropical city’s ubiquitous air conditioners or collect rainwater.
But those are all quick fixes.
Over the past six years, more and more residents have begun digging wells to guarantee their long-term supply for the future.
Gabriel Delgado has built about 20 wells in Maracaibo, including at a heart disease clinic and four private schools.
He also built one at his mother-in-law’s home: a gray cement cylinder, one and a half meters in diameter, buried under metal sheeting and rocks.
Cobwebs dangle just above the water level, but as soon as he activates the pump, water pours forth.
It’s crystal clear, unlike the yellowish liquid that flows from the city’s taps during the rainy season, and Delgado eagerly sips it.
Venezuelans must receive authorization from health and environmental authorities before drilling a well, and they are required to provide water samples for testing to ensure it is fit for consumption once it’s built.
But not everyone bothers.
Javier Otero, head of Maracaibo’s municipal water department, told AFP that he had come across shallow artisanal wells built near sewers or polluted ravines.
“Some people drink water that is not potable, that is brackish,” he told AFP.
The municipality has built seven wells to supply Maracaibo’s poorer neighborhoods.
Many South Asians and Muslims in NYC and beyond electrified by Mamdani’s mayoral primary triumph
- Some his rise as a sign of hope in a city where racism and xenophobia erupted following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attack
The success of Zohran Mamdani in New York City’s Democratic primary for mayor is euphoric for Hari Kondabolu, a stand-up comedian who’s been friends with the candidate for 15 years.
Mamdani stunned the political establishment when he declared victory in the primary on Tuesday, a ranked choice election in which his strongest competition, former New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, conceded defeat.
When he launched his campaign, the unabashed democratic socialist ranked near the bottom of the pack. Now, the 33-year-old state assemblyman has a chance to be New York City’s first Asian American and Muslim mayor. Mamdani’s family came to the United States when he was 7, and he became a citizen in 2018. He was born to Indian parents in Kampala, Uganda.
For Kondabolu, this moment is not just exciting, but emotional.
“I think so many of us have had those experiences in New York of being brown and in a city that has always been really diverse and feels like ours. But after 9/11, like you start to question it like, is this our city too,” Kondabolu said. “And 25 years later ... it’s surreal, like this is the same city but it’s not because we’ve elected this person.”
Mamdani’s campaign has piqued the interest of many Indian, Pakistani and other South Asian Americans, as well as Muslims — even those who may not agree with Mamdani on every issue. Despite that opposition, some still see his rise as a sign of hope in a city where racism and xenophobia erupted following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
South Asians and Muslims riveted by primary in New York, and beyond
Many of New York City’s over 300,000 South Asian residents have been inspired by Mamdani’s extraordinary trajectory.
“My mom was texting her friends to vote for him. I’ve never seen my mother do that before,” Kondabolu said. “So the idea that it’s gotten our whole family activated in this way — this is, like, personal.”
Snigdha Sur, founder and CEO of The Juggernaut, an online publication reporting on South Asians, has been fascinated by the response from some people in India and the diaspora.
“So many global South Asians ... they’re like, ‘Oh, this guy is my mayor and I don’t live in New York City,’” Sur said.
At the same time, some are also concerned or angered by Mamdani’s past remarks about Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who he publicly called a “war criminal.”
In Michigan, Thasin Sardar has been following Mamdani’s ascent online. When he first heard him, he struck him as “genuine” and he felt “an instant connection,” he said.
“As a Muslim American, this victory puts my trust back in the people,” said Sardar, who was born and raised in India. “I am happy that there are people who value the candidate and his policies more than his personal religious beliefs and didn’t vote him down because of the color of his skin, or the fact that he was an immigrant with an uncommon name.”
New York voter Zainab Shabbir said family members in California, and beyond, have also excitedly taken note.
“My family in California, they were very much like, ‘Oh, it’s so nice to see a South Asian Muslim candidate be a mayor of a major city,’” she said. A brother told her Mamdani’s rise is a great example for his kids, she said.
But the 34-year-old — who donated, voted and canvassed for Mamdani — said it was his vision for New York City that was the draw for her. She and her husband briefly chatted with Mamdani at a fundraiser and she found him to be “very friendly and genuine.”
She suspects that for some who aren’t very politically active, Mamdani’s political ascent could make a difference.
“There’s a lot of Muslim communities like my parents’ generation who are focused a lot more on the politics back home and less on the politics here in America,” said Shabbir. “Seeing people like Zohran Mamdani be in office, it’ll really change that perspective in a lot of people.”
Embracing Indian and Muslim roots
Supporters and pundits agree that Mamdani’s campaign has demonstrated social media savvy and authenticity. He visited multiple mosques. In videos, he speaks in Hindi or gives a touch of Bollywood. Other South Asian American politicians such as Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna praised that.
“I love that he didn’t run away from his heritage. I mean, he did video clips with Amitabh Bachchan and Hindi movies,” Khanna said, referencing the Indian actor. “He shows that one can embrace their roots and their heritage and yet succeed in American politics.”
But his triumph also reflects “the urgency of the economic message, the challenge that people are facing in terms of rent, in terms of the cost of living, and how speaking to that is so powerful,” the progressive California Democrat added.
Tanzeela Rahman, a daughter of Muslim immigrants from Bangladesh, said she grew up “very low income” in New York.
“I felt seen by him in a way politicians have not seen me ever,” the 29-year-old financial systems analyst said. “I think very few people in government understand … how hard it is to survive in New York City.”
She found Mamdani to be “unabashedly Muslim” and also “a voice, who, literally, to me sounds like a New Yorker who’s stepping in and saying, hey, let’s reclaim our power,” she said.
While Mamdani has been speaking to the working class, he had a somewhat privileged upbringing. His mother is filmmaker Mira Nair and his father, Mahmood Mamdani, is a professor at Columbia University.
He lived in Queens but attended The Bronx High School of Science. Even as a teen, he cared about social justice, Kondabolu, the comedian, recalled.
His campaign messaging on issues such as affordable housing and free bus rides might not resonate with South Asian households in New York City who have income levels above the median. But, the irony is that his campaign and “great kind of soundbites” earned support from that demographic, too, according to Sur.
“It was, I think, a surprise that he did so well among the wealthiest, including his own community,” Sur said.
Mamdani’s outspoken support for Palestinian causes and criticism of Israel and its military campaign in Gaza resonated with pro-Palestinian residents, including Muslims, but caused tension in the mayor’s race. Some of his positions and remarks on the charged issue have drawn recriminations from opponents and some Jewish groups, though he’s also been endorsed by some Jewish politicians and activists.
Racism and xenophobia
Mamdani’s success immediately elicited strong anti-Muslim and anti-immigrant rhetoric from some high-profile conservatives on social media, including conservative media personality Charlie Kirk who posted that “legal immigration can ruin your country.” In response, Democratic Congressman Maxwell Frost, the youngest member of Congress, tweeted “For years they sold people the lie of ‘we have no problem if you come the right way!’”
His supporters aren’t concerned that racism and Islamophobia will distract from Mamdani’s campaign. Those feelings clearly weren’t “enough for him to lose” the primary, Kondabolu said.
“There’s a new generation that wants their voice heard and that generation came out in full force, not just by voting, but by, like, getting all these other people to be emotionally invested in this candidate,” Kondabolu said. “That’s extraordinary.”
Trump says he would consider bombing Iran again, drops sanctions relief plan
- US leader reacts sternly to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamanei’s first remarks after a 12-day conflict with Israel
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump sharply criticized Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ali Khamanei, on Friday, dropped plans to lift sanctions on Iran and said he would consider bombing Iran again if Tehran is enriching uranium to worrisome levels.
Trump reacted sternly to Khamanei’s first remarks after a 12-day conflict with Israel that ended when the United States launched bombing raids last weekend against Iranian nuclear sites.
Khamanei said Iran “slapped America in the face” by launching an attack against a major US base in Qatar following the US bombing raids. Khamanei also said Iran would never surrender.
Trump said he had spared Khamanei’s life. US officials said on June 15 that Trump had vetoed an Israeli plan to kill the supreme leader.
“His Country was decimated, his three evil Nuclear Sites were OBLITERATED, and I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the US Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life,” Trump said in a social media post.
“I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH,” he said.
Iran said a potential nuclear deal was conditional on the US ending its “disrespectful tone” toward the Supreme Leader.
“If President Trump is genuine about wanting a deal, he should put aside the disrespectful and unacceptable tone toward Iran’s Supreme Leader, Grand Ayatollah Khamenei, and stop hurting his millions of heartfelt followers,” Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi said in a post on X in the early hours of Saturday.
Trump also said that in recent days he had been working on the possible removal of sanctions on Iran to give it a chance for a speedy recovery. He said he had now abandoned that effort.
“I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more,” he said.
Trump said at a White House news conference that he did not rule out attacking Iran again, when asked about the possibility of new bombing of Iranian nuclear sites if deemed necessary at some point.
“Sure, without question, absolutely,” he said.
Trump said he would like inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency – the UN nuclear watchdog — or another respected source to be able to inspect Iran’s nuclear sites after they were bombed last weekend.
Trump has rejected any suggestion that damage to the sites was not as profound as he has said.
The IAEA chief, Rafael Grossi, said on Wednesday that ensuring the resumption of IAEA inspections was his top priority as none had taken place since Israel began bombing on June 13.
However, Iran’s parliament approved moves on Wednesday to suspend such inspections. Araqchi indicated on Friday that Tehran may reject any request by the head of the agency for visits to Iranian nuclear sites.
Trump said Iran still wants to meet about the way forward. The White House had said on Thursday that no meeting between the US and an Iranian delegation has been scheduled thus far.
