Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday expressed concern over the situation in violence-torn Manipur, and urged the prime minister and home minister to take steps to restore peace in the northeastern state.
The Trinamool Congress supremo also urged the people of Manipur to stay calm and uphold peace.
“I am deeply concerned about the situation in Manipur. Politics and elections can wait but our beautiful state of Manipur has to be protected first. I urge PM (Narendra) Modi and Amit Shah (home minister) to take steps to restore peace there. If we burn humanity today, we will cease to be a human tomorrow,” Banerjee tweeted.
The Manipur government on Thursday issued ‘shoot at sight’ orders in “extreme cases” to contain spiralling violence between tribals and the majority Meitei community, which has displaced over 9,000 people from their villages.
Fifty-five columns of the Army and Assam Rifles had to be deployed to contain the widespread rioting that broke out across Manipur.
The Centre, which is monitoring the situation in Manipur, also dispatched teams of the Rapid Action Force (RAF), a specialised force to handle riots, for deployment in violence-hit areas of the northeastern state.
Pune: Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) workers and functionaries in Pune on Tuesday evening urged party president Sharad Pawar to immediately withdraw his resignation from the top post as they broke down on coming to know about his sudden announcement.
They said they will resign en masse if Pawar (82), whose hometown Baramati is located in Pune district in western Maharashtra, does not take back his resignation which was announced in Mumbai in the afternoon.
Pradeep Deshmukh, Pune NCP spokesperson, said after the news of Pawar’s resignation trickled in, hundreds of workers gathered at the party office in the city and could not stop their tears.
He said the NCP is like a family, where Pawar is a father figure and such leaders do not retire.
“If Pawar saheb does not reverse his decision, party workers and office-bearers will remain firm on their resignation,” Deshmukh said.
Meanwhile, Vitthal Maniyar, an aide of Pawar, said the former Union minister’s move to step down as president of the party he founded in 1999 was not abrupt or sudden.
“Pawar saheb might have thought deeply before coming to this decision. He must be thinking of handing over the responsibility to the next team and making them ready while he is still active,” he said.
“Though Pawar saheb has sought time (to rethink his resignation), I am sure it was a well though out decision and he will convince party leaders to accept it,” Maniyar stated.
“Saheb has not given up politics or social work. Whether he is party chief or not, he will continue to work with the same gusto with which he was working till now,” he said.
Asked about Pawar’s possible successor if he stays firm on his decision to quit the top party post, Maniyar said the veteran politician believes in democratic functioning of the party and any decision on the issue will be taken unanimously.
(Except for the headline, the story has not been edited by Siasat staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
Cairo: Countries in the Middle East have expressed concerns over the ongoing conflicts between Sudan’s army and the paramilitary group, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), and called for an immediate ceasefire and resolution of differences through dialogue.
The fight erupted on Saturday morning in the capital Khartoum and adjoining cities. At least three civilians have been killed, according to the Sudan Doctors’ Committee. The RSF announced that they have taken control of key locations, including Khartoum Airport and the Merowe military base in northern Sudan.
The latest armed conflict in Sudan has raised concerns among Middle Eastern countries, including those in the Arab League, prompting them to condemn the ongoing armed conflicts and call for de-escalation, Xinhua news agency reported.
In a statement, the Saudi Foreign Ministry conveyed deep concern about the violence in Sudan and called on Sudan’s military and political leaders to prioritise dialogue, restraint, and wisdom, and unite to complete the consensus that has been achieved, including the framework agreement.
The UAE also urged Sudan’s conflicting parties to exercise restraint and resolve the crisis through dialogue. In a statement, the UAE Embassy in Khartoum expressed deep concern and reaffirmed the importance of de-escalation and finding a peaceful solution through dialogue. It also emphasised the need to support the political process in Sudan and achieve national consensus for the formation of a government.
Qatar, Libya and Jordan also joined in urging Sudan’s conflicting parties to immediately stop fighting and resolve their differences through dialogue.
On Saturday, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul-Gheit on Saturday expressed his shock and condemnation of the armed fighting, especially during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan.
The Secretary-General also stressed the responsibility of the warring parties to preserve the security and safety of Sudanese civilians in the fighting areas and throughout the country, adding that the Arab League General Secretariat is ready to intervene with the warring parties to end the fight.
Meanwhile, the Egyptian Armed Forces called for the maintenance of security and safety for Egyptian forces training in Sudan. In a statement, the Egyptian Army’s spokesman noted that joint Egyptian forces are present in Sudan for training purposes and are closely following the events. Coordination is underway with the concerned authorities to ensure the security of the Egyptian forces.
Iran also expressed concern about the developments and tensions in Sudan, inviting the conflicting sides to resolve their differences through dialogue.
Major disagreements have recently emerged between the Sudanese Army, led by Chairman of Sudan’s Sovereignty Council Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the RSF, led by al-Burhan’s deputy, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, especially over the RSF’s integration into the army, as stipulated in a framework agreement signed between the military and civilian leaders on December 5, 2022.
It’s one of the weightiest constitutional fights that Smith is likely to undertake, one that could shape the balance of power between all three branches of government in unpredictable ways. Assistant U.S. Attorney Thomas Windom, one of Smith’s lead investigators, was seen entering the courtroom as well.
It’s also an early test for Chief U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg, who took the chief’s gavel last week after his predecessor Beryl Howell’s seven-year term as chief expired. The chief judge is tasked with overseeing all grand jury matters in the district, which include Smith’s special counsel probes.
Pence’s fight to block the subpoena is not the only way Smith’s inquiry could have far-reaching constitutional consequences. A three-judge appeals court panel is expected to rule imminently on his separate effort to access the cellphone data of Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.), a key ally in Trump’s bid to overturn the 2020 election results. Perry, like Pence, is arguing that his communications should be shielded by the Constitution’s “speech or debate” clause, which grants Congress sweeping immunity from compelled testimony — if it pertains to lawmakers’ official duties.
The Perry dispute drew intervention from the House of Representatives, which filed a sealed amicus brief in the matter that raised concerns about the implications for the institution should the appeals court adopt a narrow view of “speech or debate” immunity.
The hearing also underscored the extraordinary confluence of acute legal and criminal matters Trump is facing.
Corcoran himself has been ordered by a federal judge to testify as soon as Friday in Smith’s other ongoing criminal probe of Trump’s handling of sensitive national security records discovered at his Mar-a-Lago estate. And while Corcoran was waiting in the cafeteria Thursday, an attorney for Joseph Biggs — one of five Proud Boys facing seditious conspiracy charges for actions on Jan. 6 — approached him to attempt to serve a subpoena on Trump.
The attorney, Norm Pattis, said Corcoran told him he was ”not authorized” to accept service on Trump’s behalf.
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
London: A group of international students, including many from India, have delivered a petition to British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak urging him to act against the “unjust” revocation of their visas following an English test scandal.
The issue dates back to 2014 when a BBC Panorama’ investigation showed some cheating had occurred at two of the UK’s testing centres for a compulsory language test required for visas.
The UK government responded by a widespread crackdown on such centres, which had the fallout of the revocation of tens of thousands of students’ visas linked with those centres.
The Migrant Voice voluntary group has been supporting the students impacted and coordinated the latest petition delivered at 10 Downing Street on Monday.
“This is one of the biggest scandals in contemporary British history. The initial government reaction was unjust and has been allowed to drag on for years,” said Nazek Ramadan, director of Migrant Voice.
“It could have been resolved by a simple solution, such as allowing the tests to be retaken. The students came here to get a world-class education and best student experience in the world, but instead their lives have been wrecked. It is time for the government to step in and end this nightmare. All it takes to bring this to an end is leadership,” she said.
With no right to stay, work or in a few cases to appeal, most of the accused students returned home.
Those who stayed to clear their names have struggled with homelessness, huge legal fees, stress-induced illnesses and have missed family weddings, births and deaths, the petition appeals.
Parliamentary and watchdog reports over the years have highlighted some flaws in the Home Office evidence used in the case in the past. Although some students won their legal challenges, scores of other students many of them Indian are still in limbo.
Migrant Voice is now underlining the importance of Sunak “addressing the injustice at a time when numbers of students and migrant workers form part of UK-India trade negotiations”.
The group has been running the #MyFutureBack campaign for the affected students for over nine years now and urging the UK government to allow these students the chance to clear their names of alleged cheating.
Sarbjeet is a 46-year-old Indian student who has been separated from her children for 13 years, as she feels she cannot return home to India with the allegations hanging over her.
Sanjoy, another Indian student impacted, is being sued by the company that sponsored him and has also been denied the ability to go to the US because his visa withdrawal prevents him from resuming his studies in another country.
The BBC programme had revealed cheating on a compulsory language test, known as the Test of English for International Communication (TOEIC), at two London test centres by some international students.
The UK government reacted by placing Educational Testing Service (ETS), the company that ran 96 TOEIC test centres, under criminal investigation, while also asking the company to investigate the allegation.
As a result of the investigation by ETS, the UK Home Office suddenly terminated the visas of over 34,000 overseas students, making their presence in the UK illegal overnight.
A further 22,000 were told that their test results were “questionable”. More than 2,400 students have been deported and thousands left voluntarily. The remaining, estimated in hundreds, have been campaigning to clear their name over the years.
Tunis: Arab Interior Ministers called for strengthening the fight against cybercrime as the 40th session of the Arab Interior Ministers Council concluded, according to an official statement.
During the conference, the Council of Arab Ministers of the Interior decided to strengthen its efforts to combat cybercrime and respect for human rights.
It also highlighted the importance of activating mechanisms to combat drug trafficking to contain its serious repercussions on the Arab world, Xinhua news agency reported.
“These mechanisms include the establishment of a working group for the immediate exchange of information on drugs and psychotropic substances,” said the statement on Friday.
The 40th session of the Arab Interior Ministers Council, which opened in Tunis on Wednesday, was attended by Arab Interior Ministers, high-level Arab security delegations and representatives of Arab and international organisations.
Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott, who has criticized Buttigieg for waiting three weeks to visit the site of the Feb. 3 accident, tweeting last week that Buttigieg should “show up, do your job and stop playing politics.”
Asked on Tuesday what Congress should do after the Ohio derailment, Scott would only say that lawmakers should “start doing our oversight and stop approving people that don’t know how to do the job.”
Other Republicans say they want to wait until the National Transportation Safety Board, the independent agency probing the accident, finishes its work. That could take up to 18 months.
“A lot of people have a lot of ideas right now,” Nehls told POLITICO. “The NTSB had their preliminary report. There’ll be more information coming.”
One of DOT’s requests for Congress is an increase in the maximum penalties to railroads for safety violations — an idea Nehls dismissed, instead praising the industry’s safety record.
“The rail industry has a very high success rate of moving hazardous material — to the point of 99-percent-plus,” Nehls said. “Let’s not have more burdensome regulations and all this other stuff.”
Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.), who served as top Republican on the rail panel before the House flipped control, agreed on waiting for the experts to weigh in “before we start speculating on what legislative fixes might be offered, if it’s necessary, and if so what would they be.”
“Probably a little premature at this point,” he added.
And Graves told Fox News Digital on Feb. 16 that he wants to “fully understand the facts involved” before considering legislation, noting that the NTSB is still investigating. Then, he said, “Congress can consider what steps may be necessary.”
Democrats on the whole have been much swifter to call for changes — including Buttigieg, who has pledged to tighten the way his agency regulates trains, but has also asked Congress to increase the $225,455 cap on fines his agency can level and to strengthen braking and tank car requirements.
A few Republicans are showing signs they’re willing to join Democrats sooner rather than later.
Ohio Republican Sen. J.D. Vance, for example, is working with Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) on a rail-safety bill expected to be out soon. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, who has called for Buttigieg’s resignation over the derailment, has said he’s interested in teaming up on their bill.
“There’s a Vance-Sherrod Brown bill that we’re looking at, that we’re very interested in maybe being a part of,” Rubio said in an interview Tuesday.
Brown said the bill he’s working on will likely include provisions including setting minimum requirements for how many employees should be on board a train, along with train length, speed limits and notifications to states when hazardous materials are on their way, he told reporters Tuesday.
He noted that the 150-car train that derailed in East Palestine, carrying hazardous chemicals such as vinyl chloride, had “one trainee and two staff people” aboard when the disaster occurred.
A Brown-Vance team-up may seem to some like an odd couple pairing, but Rubio and Vance previously wrote to Buttigieg asking whether a two-person crew is adequate. Democrats have pushed to enshrine a two-person minimum crew in federal regulations, a move opposed by the railroad industry and, historically, most Republicans. The Trump administration backed the railroad industry when it mothballed a rule that would have mandated at least two crewmembers on board every train. That rule had originally been proposed under the Obama administration.
“Republicans have seen what’s happened, too,” Brown said, explaining the bipartisan interest he’s seen so far. “The rail companies have done pretty effective lobbying in keeping Congress and the administration, the [Federal Railroad Administration] and others from doing what we ought to be doing.”
Indeed, Rubio said Tuesday that the freight rail industry’s “push for efficiency — the desire to put more cargo, longer lines, longer stretches and less people” — creates vulnerabilities.
“We have not just dangerous but important cargo being transported on longer [trains] with less people,” he said.
Other legislation has been floated in the House. Rep. Chris Deluzio (D-Pa.), whose district includes the area affected by the Ohio spill, has introduced a bill along with a dozen other Democrats that seeks to include more types of trains under stricter laws governing hazardous materials transport. That means more types of materials would be subject to tougher safety requirements such as slower speeds, newer rail cars and better braking equipment.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee will hold a hearing on the derailment, featuring the Environmental Protection Agency, top committee Republican Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia said Tuesday. She said the Senate Commerce Committee would also hold a hearing, though as yet nothing has been scheduled.
Like many of her GOP colleagues, Capito didn’t have many positive words for the Biden administration.
The federal response to the derailment “has been, I think, miserable to watch,” she said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell had sounded a similar theme Monday, accusing Buttigieg of seeming “more interested in pursuing press coverage for woke initiatives and climate nonsense than in attending to the basic elements of his day job.”
But so far, McConnell hasn’t said what, if any, legislation he thinks is needed to make rail safer.
Buttigieg shot back Tuesday.
“The freight rail industry has wielded a lot of power here in Washington,” he said on CNN. “I would love to see Leader McConnell join us in standing up to them.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Ramallah: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has called on US Secretary of State Antony Blinken to pressure the Israeli government to stop its unilateral measures in the Palestinian territories.
An official statement sent to reporters said that Abbas received a phone call from Blinken, during which they discussed the latest developments “in the wake of the recent Israeli decisions that violate the signed agreements and international resolutions.”
Last week, the Israeli government decided to authorise nine settlement outposts that were illegally built up in the West Bank in response to a series of attacks by Palestinians in Jerusalem, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Abbas called on the US “to intervene quickly and effectively to put pressure on Israel to stop all these dangerous measures” to ensure the continued prospect of a two-state solution.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Blinken on Saturday confirmed that he would contact the Israeli government and that his administration would continue its efforts to stop unilateral Israeli actions.
Israel occupied the West Bank in 1967 and has since established settlements on it, a move considered a violation of international law and a major source of conflict between Israelis and Palestinians.
The settlement issue is the most prominent aspect of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and one of the main reasons for halting the last direct peace negotiations between the two sides in 2014.
The letter was organized by Maine Democrat Jared Golden. Also signing on were Democrats Jason Crow of Colorado and Chrissy Houlahan of Pennsylvania and Republicans Tony Gonzales of Texas and Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin.
The missive is the latest push from Capitol Hill to give Kyiv U.S.-made fighters. It also comes as supporters of Ukraine aid in both parties look to navigate a faction in the new House Republican majority that wants to curtail assistance.
The lawmakers contend that fighters — either the Lockheed Martin-manufactured F-16 or something similar — would give Ukrainian forces greater capability than ground-based artillery provided by the U.S. and other nations.
“F-16s or similar fourth generation fighter aircraft would provide Ukraine with a highly mobile platform from which to target Russian air-to-air missiles and drones, to protect Ukrainian ground forces as they engage Russian troops, as well as to engage Russian fighters for contested air superiority,” they argued.
The bipartisan push from Capitol Hill comes after a coordinated U.S.-German decision to send main battle tanks to the front lines. After some wrangling, the U.S. agreed to send Abrams tanks at a future point while Germany will donate Leopard tanks that will enter the field sooner.
But Biden appeared to reject sending F-16s to Ukraine last month, though the president later said he’d speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Even if Biden elected not to send U.S. F-16s, other Western nations that fly the American-made fighters could send them to Ukraine, though the U.S. would need to approve the transfer.
POLITICO reported the move has picked up steam at the Pentagon. But some argue there’s a greater need for artillery, air defenses and armor for Ukraine.
U.S.-made F-16s have been on Kyiv’s wish list for weapons since Russia’s invasion began a year ago. Lawmakers have also said the U.S. should send F-16s to Eastern European that transfer their old MiG fighters to Ukraine. That move won bipartisan support, though a weapons swap never came.
In their pitch to Biden, the lawmakers argued a decision on F-16s “must be made quickly” given the time needed to train Ukrainian pilots.
Still, they noted many Ukrainian pilots have already trained with the U.S. military in major exercises before the war and argued sending the jets “represents a sound strategic investment in bolstering Kiev’s military capability and bringing this conflict to a just conclusion.”
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( With inputs from : www.politico.com )
Nicola Sturgeon’s resignation could prompt a major rethink around her plans to fight the next UK general election as a de facto referendum on independence, the Scottish National party’s leader in Westminster has suggested.
After the shock announcement of the first minister’s departure on Wednesday, Stephen Flynn said the special conference due to be held next month on Sturgeon’s plan should be pushed back to give the new leader time to set out their intentions.
“I think it’s sensible that we do hit the pause button on that conference and allow the new leader the opportunity to set out their vision,” he told Sky News.
That proposal was supported by Mike Russell, the party’s president, who told BBC Scotland on Thursday: “There is a question to be asked as to whether that should be postponed whilst the leader comes into place.”
Russell, one of the SNP’s most senior figures, said Sturgeon had touched on that prospect in her speech on Wednesday. Although he supported Sturgeon’s stance on how to fight the next general election, he said: “I think it’s a matter that needs to be discussed.”
The conference was organised to approve Sturgeon’s highly controversial proposal but it is one Flynn and others inside the SNP have widely criticised, and is deeply unpopular with voters. There is speculation at Holyrood it may now be repurposed as a leadership hustings event for SNP members in the Edinburgh area.
Jostling will begin in earnest among potential replacements for Sturgeon, who served as the first female first minister and spent decades in frontline politics – outlasting all the leaders both in Holyrood and Westminster she worked alongside.
The SNP’s national executive committee is scheduled to meet online at 6.30pm on Thursday to discuss the timing for a leadership contest. Russell has said he expects that process to be “shortened” and for there to be a “contested election”.
Nicola Sturgeon: the moments that marked her leadership – video
Sturgeon’s push to use the next general election, expected to be held in 2024, as the main battleground for another independence push caused controversy within the SNP. Some believe she was anticipating heavy opposition to the plan, and the outgoing first minister acknowledged in her resignation statement it would have been dishonest to chair the conference, knowing she was minded to quit soon after.
Flynn, who became Westminster leader of the SNP in December, said party figures were “going to be discussing and debating the merits” of the treatment of the next general election as a de facto referendum.
But he added: “I personally think that party conference should be paused, for obvious reasons. I think the new leader should have the opportunity and indeed the space to set out their position, their values and their intentions going forward.”
Asked if the position of treating the next general election as a de facto referendum was “dead” on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday, he said the party should give the next leader space to set out their “agenda”.
As speculation mounted about who could replace Sturgeon, Flynn said he had “not seen anyone throw their name in the ring yet” and declined to say who he would most like to see lead the SNP.
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Flynn ruled out taking up “the big task” himself, and said he had “no doubt there’ll be a number who will consider themselves as being capable of taking on the challenge”.
While Sturgeon has said she will remain as first minister until her successor is chosen, the SNP’s national executive committee has not yet published a timetable for the election of its next party leader.
Early possible contenders to succeed Sturgeon include Keith Brown, the SNP’s deputy leader; the finance and economy secretary, Kate Forbes; the constitution secretary and former Westminster leader of the party, Angus Robertson; the deputy first minister, John Swinney; and the health secretary, Humza Yousaf.
A protracted leadership election, given pressures on the NHS and the cost of living crisis, is likely to be capitalised on by opposition parties. Douglas Ross, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives, said the Scottish government should focus on issues that “really matter to people”.
Kenny MacAskill, the deputy leader of the pro-Scottish independence Alba party, argued on Thursday that Sturgeon’s departure should lead to a recognition that the cause was about more than “one individual or one party”.
He told the Today programme the SNP was “one part of the independence movement” and should use Sturgeon’s departure “to recalibrate, to recognise that there have been strategic flaws, to look for a new direction”.
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( With inputs from : www.theguardian.com )
