DHAKA: Around 8,000 Rohingya Muslims have fled to Bangladesh in recent months, escaping escalating violence in Myanmar's western Rakhine state, according to Bangladeshi officials.
The violence has intensified as fighting between Myanmar's ruling junta and the Arakan Army, a powerful ethnic militia drawn from the Buddhist majority, continues to worsen.
"We have information that around 8,000 Rohingya crossed into Bangladesh recently, mostly over the last two months," said Mohammad Shamsud Douza, a senior official in charge of refugees for the Bangladeshi government.
"Bangladesh is already over-burdened and unable to accommodate any more Rohingya," he told Reuters on Wednesday.
The Bangladesh government has not previously provided any estimate of how many Rohingya have crossed over in the last few months.
The government will hold a "serious discussion at the cabinet" within the next two to three days to address the crisis, Bangladesh’s de-facto foreign minister, Mohammad Touhid Hossain, told reporters late on Tuesday.
While expressing sympathy for the Rohingya, Hossain said that the country no longer has the capacity to provide humanitarian shelter to additional refugees.
"It is not possible to fully seal the border," he added, adding that efforts will be made to prevent further infiltration.
Tens of thousands of Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh held rallies in camps on August 25, marking the seventh anniversary of the 2017 military crackdown that forced them to flee Myanmar, demanding an end to violence and safe return to their homeland.
Over one million Rohingya currently live in overcrowded camps in southern Bangladesh, with little hope of returning to Myanmar, where they are largely denied citizenship and other basic rights.
The recent surge in violence is the worst the Rohingya have faced since the 2017 Myanmar military-led campaign, which the United Nations described as having genocidal intent.
Last month, Hossain told Reuters Bangladesh cannot accept more Rohingya refugees and called on India and other countries to take greater action.
He also urged the international community to apply more pressure on the Arakan Army to cease attacks on the Rohingya in Rakhine state.
Thousands of Rohingya flee to Bangladesh from violence in Myanmar, official says
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Thousands of Rohingya flee to Bangladesh from violence in Myanmar, official says
- The violence has intensified as fighting between Myanmar's ruling junta and the Arakan Army continues to worsen
- The Bangladesh government has not previously provided any estimate of how many Rohingya have crossed over in the last few months
Vance defends pet-eating story, a claim Democrats call ‘dangerous’
- Trump amplified the claim during his debate Tuesday with Democrat Kamala Harris, provoking widespread mockery at home and abroad
WASHINGTON: The Republican vice presidential nominee defended Sunday his claim that immigrants are eating people’s pet animals in an Ohio town, a claim multiple officials say is “dangerous” and unfounded.
Donald Trump’s running mate JD Vance had made the surprising claim earlier this month — saying Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio — were eating people’s pet cats and dogs. Vance is a US senator who represents Ohio.
Trump amplified the claim during his debate Tuesday with Democrat Kamala Harris, provoking widespread mockery at home and abroad — but also prompting a series of threats that forced some Springfield schools and hospitals to close.
“My constituents are telling me firsthand that they’re seeing these things,” an unapologetic Vance said on CNN.
Vance denied any responsibility for the recent spate of threats against Springfield, blaming them on “psychopaths” and “losers.”
Springfield’s mayor, a local sheriff and the state’s Republican governor have said they have no evidence to back up Vance’s claims.
“These discussions about Haitians eating dogs and cats and other things need to stop,” Governor Mike DeWine said on ABC.
“What we know is that the Haitians who are in Springfield are legal. They came to Springfield to work (and)...they are very good workers.”
Thousands of Haitians have settled in Springfield in recent years, most of them under a federal program granting them temporary protected status.
Governor Josh Shapiro of the neighboring state of Pennsylvania, a Democrat once touted as a possible Harris running mate, on Sunday accused Vance of recklessly fanning the flames of rumor.
“When they go out and they lie about this stuff, they put their fellow Americans at risk,” he told CNN interviewer Dana Bash. “JD Vance should be ashamed of himself. ... This is dangerous stuff.”
Vance denied his remarks had any connection to the threats against Springfield.
“The violence is disgusting,” he said. “We condemn it.” But he repeatedly blamed the problems in places like Springfield on the border policies of the Biden-Harris administration.
Trump, like Vance, has doubled down on his attacks on migrants.
Campaigning Friday in California, Trump vowed there would be “large deportations” from Springfield if elected. He has promised to deport millions of undocumented migrants nationwide.
Harris, meantime, appeared Friday in Shapiro’s state of Pennsylvania, perhaps the most crucial of the swing states expected to decide the November election.
“I offer a new generation of leadership,” said the 59-year-old Democrat, underlining the contrast to Trump, who is 78.
Released Indian opposition leader Kejriwal to resign as Delhi chief minister
- Kejriwal is a fierce critic of Narendra Modi and a former anti-corruption crusader whose decade-old Aam Aadmi Party quickly rose to mainstream politics
NEW DELHI: Indian opposition leader Arvind Kejriwal said on Sunday he will resign as chief minister of the Delhi regional government, a day after he was released from prison on bail in a graft case. Kejriwal was granted bail on Friday by India’s Supreme Court and left prison on Saturday almost six months after being detained in relation to alleged irregularities in the capital city’s liquor policy.
Kejriwal is a fierce critic of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and a former anti-corruption crusader whose decade-old Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) quickly rose to mainstream politics, although its clout is relatively small compared to older opposition parties.
AAP had expected that Kejriwal’s release from prison would allow him to campaign as a chief minister in regional elections next month in the northern state of Haryana, and in Delhi early next year.
Kejriwal, announcing his resignation as chief minister at a meeting with AAP workers, said he would only return to the post if people certify his honesty by voting for him in the upcoming Delhi election. He called on the Election Commission to bring forward the Delhi election to November, from February 2025.
“I demand elections be held in November with Maharashtra elections, I demand the elections be held immediately,” Kejriwal said.
He was first taken into custody in March by India’s financial crime-fighting agency, weeks before the country’s national elections, in relation to Delhi’s liquor policy.
Although he was granted bail in that case in July, he remained in detention due to his arrest the previous month by the federal police in another graft case related to the same policy.
Kejriwal, 55, and AAP deny the allegations and say the cases are “politically motivated.”
Student at a Japan university shaves her head to support Palestinians
- ITO Risa is a University student in Japan who joined the Palestine Solidarity Camp,
- Her protest is part of a worldwide movement among students at various universities with the aim of encouraging and supporting those who are being oppressed
TOKYO: A Japanese female university student has shaved her head as a sign of solidarity with campaigning students in the United States who have been attacked for supporting the people of Palestine and Gaza.
ITO Risa is a University student in Japan who joined the Palestine Solidarity Camp, and her protest is part of a worldwide movement among students at various universities with the aim of encouraging and supporting those who are being oppressed.
“I wanted to highlight the connection between the genocide in Gaza and the genocide of the Holocaust,” Risa told Arab News Japan. “When I thought about a symbol of the Holocaust, I considered an image of a Jewish man and woman being shaved. By referencing this image, I aimed to re-enact the death of Jews in the Holocaust and by wearing the kufiya to connect these two narratives.”
Risa said students supporting Palestine at Columbia University had been attacked by Zionists, but she made it clear that she and her colleagues are not discriminating against Jews, only the actions of Israel and Zionism. But the main thrust of her protest was to support the Palestinians.
“To the people of Gaza and the Palestinians suffering in Palestine, you are not alone,” she said. “There are many people who want to support you. Many are working together with Palestinians all over the world, including in Japan. We are standing together with Palestinians.”
“I hope this circle of support will continue to grow. I also hope that those watching this video will join this circle, and that it will continue to expand. I believe that resolving the crisis in Palestine will lead to the recovery and empowerment of Palestinians.”
Why Philippines tops ranking of disaster risk countries
- Archipelago nation of 120 million people has faced five typhoons since May
- Country heads 2024 World Risk Index, which breaks down disaster risk of 193 countries
MANILA: The Philippines is the country most at risk from natural disasters, the 2024 World Risk Report shows, with environmentalists highlighting sluggish climate action amid worsening and extreme weather conditions.
The archipelago nation of nearly 120 million people is no stranger to natural disasters, with millions of people often displaced during annual storms and typhoons, which have been made more unpredictable and extreme by the changing climate.
For the third year in a row, the Philippines tops the report’s World Risk Index, which breaks down the disaster risk of 193 countries.
Published by Germany-based research institute IFHV and the alliance of development organizations Bundnis Entwicklung Hilft, this year’s top five most at-risk countries include Indonesia, India, Colombia and Mexico.
“It is definitely a worsening and concerning trend. There are noticeable extreme weather conditions, heat during the summers have been record-breaking, seasons have been unpredictable, there have been high intensity and (high) frequency typhoons,” Ann Dumaliang, a Filipino conservationist and managing trustee of Masungi Georeserve, told Arab News.
“In the Philippines, it is no longer vulnerable communities that are affected. It’s now felt widely across the nation — schools need to be canceled, heatstroke patients overwhelm emergency rooms, in addition to devastating floods.”
This month, more than a dozen people were killed when Typhoon Yagi, known locally as Enteng, passed central and northern Philippines, before it wreaked havoc in southern China and parts of Vietnam and Thailand.
For Filipinos, it is the fifth tropical storm to hit their country since May.
It is more accurate to describe natural disasters as geographical realities, Dumailang said, which for the Philippines are multifold due to its archipelagic nature and location in the “Ring of Fire,” the arc of volcanoes and fault lines in the Pacific Basin.
Those aspects intersect with “man-made causes that lead to continuous environment degradation and poor infrastructure,” and are further “exacerbated by lack of political willpower to make the necessary interventions at the right time,” she added.
John Leo Algo, national coordinator of Aksiyon Klima Pilipinas, a leading civil society network for climate action, said the country’s vulnerability to natural disasters has got worse over time.
“The Philippines’ vulnerability to the climate crisis is worsening because of a combination of more extreme impacts and the lack of capacity to address them. There really is no such thing as a ‘natural disaster’; disasters, by definition, occur when stakeholders do not properly prepare against an impending hazard,” Algo said.
The country’s vulnerability can be traced to insufficient local understanding of the climate crisis and its effects, delays and incoherence in climate policy development, as well as issues with funding and support to implement climate solutions, he added.
Resolving the issue would require “every sector, every stakeholder, and every community” to be prepared to address the effects of the climate crisis.
For now, the Philippines’ National Adaptation Plan and Nationally Determined Contribution Implementation Plan, new mechanisms adopted in an effort to address climate change, “are crucial to reduce the country’s risk to the climate crisis,” Algo said.
“But a lot of work still has to be done, especially in improving its inclusion of communities and civil society groups in both the decision-making and implementation process.”
New Delhi’s chief minister announces resignation two days after he was released on bail
- Arvind Kejriwal, a fierce Modi critic, was arrested nearly six months ago ahead of elections
- Kejriwal said his party will hold a meeting later to decide who will take over his position
NEW DELHI: One of India’s main opposition figures and New Delhi’s chief minister said he would resign from office Sunday, two days after he was granted bail in a bribery case.
Arvind Kejriwal, a fierce critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, was arrested nearly six months ago ahead of national elections on charges of receiving bribes from a liquor distributor. India’s top court released him on bail Friday.
Kejriwal has consistently denied the accusations and called them a political conspiracy.
“Today I have come to ask the public whether you consider Kejriwal honest or a criminal,” he said in a public address Sunday at the headquarters of his Aam Aadmi Party, which governs New Delhi. “I will resign from the post of chief minister two days from today.”
Kejriwal said his party — a part of a broad alliance of opposition parties called INDIA and was the main challenger to Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party in June’s elections — will hold a meeting later to decide who will take over his position.
He also demanded the New Delhi elections, scheduled for February next year, be held in November instead.
Opposition parties widely condemned Kejriwal’s arrest. They accused Modi’s government of misusing federal investigation agencies to harass and weaken its political opponents. They pointed to several raids, arrests, and corruption investigations of key opposition figures in the months before the elections.
Kejriwal’s supporters celebrated his release by lighting firecrackers and dancing in the rain outside his New Delhi residence, with many carrying placards with photos of the popular politician.
Some leaders from Modi’s party warned that he was released on bail and not acquitted.
Government agencies have accused Kejriwal’s party and ministers of accepting 1 billion rupees ($12 million) in bribes from a liquor distributor nearly two years ago in return for revising a liquor sales policy in New Delhi, allowing private companies greater profits.
Kejriwal, a former civil servant, launched the Aam Aadmi Party in 2012. He promised to rid the Indian political system and governance of corruption and inefficiency.
The party’s symbol — a broom — and its promise to sweep the administration of graft struck a chord with New Delhi’s residents, fed up with runaway inflation and slow economic growth.
