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31 May - 6 June 2021 Vol - 31 No. 18 Email : [email protected] Founder : Dr. Govind Narain Srivastava ISSN -2349-1221 Demolition of Barabanki Mosque Learning is a lifelong process driving A Bookworm’s Lockdown A Conspiracy or Law Enforcement? in momentous change "COMPUTERS ARE USELESS. They can only give you answers,” said One of the continuous With the onset of the second wave Picasso in 1968, the year in which Intel processes that individuals of Coronavirus in India, the news was founded and Stanley Kubrick’s acquire throughout their headlines and timelines of social 2001: A Space Odyssey was released. life is that of learning. media platforms got flooded with Picasso didn’t change his mind. Over Learning is imperative for news of communal harmony the last half century computers have the personal as well as the amidst pandemic. Contrary become immensely better at providing professional growth of the to the popular opinion, answers, but not so good at asking individual helping him/ Hindus and Muslims questions. A good book asks questions. her to better understand showed exemplary A better one raises questions you never the surroundings and courage and determination in knew existed. The key to a lockdown facing all the... helping each other during... can lie in a book... By Dr. Ankit Srivastava Page 3 By Dr. Pramila Srivastava Page 24 By M J Akbar Page 20

By NDT Special Bureau Page 2 Who killed Princess Diana? Healers by day, Messiahs by Killing in the name of God is inhumane, night: The Silver Lining! concept of sacrificial animals need revisit

Watching the Duke of Cambridge Prince William blame When Uma Nair, a retired English teacher from Don Around the world Muslims mark the Festival of Sacrifice the BBC and journalist Martin Bashir as contributing to Bosco School, New Delhi, contracted COVID-19 in April on the 10th day of the holy month of Dhu-al-Hijjah. It his mother Princess Diana’s death left me surprised... this year, she went through an unfathomable... honours Abraham’s willingness to slay his son... By Tarek Fatah Page 2 By Aseem Sharma Page 20 By Smt. Maneka Sanjay Gandhi Page 22 For critical insights One Year* Five Year* Subscribe Rs. 350 Rs. 1500 To Subscribe E-Paper Whatsapp +91 9999 331 600 * Details on Page 21

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Opinion NEW DELHI TIMES Assad returns in Syria: West fumes election” in Syria did not represent any ◆ By NDT Special Bureau progress towards a political settlement. @NewDelhiTimes In a separate briefing the United States [email protected] Department of States official called on the international community to reject the attempt ashar al-Assad has been re-elected to by the Assad regime to claim legitimacy the post of the Syrian President after B without protecting the Syrian people, without sweeping the 2021 Presidential Elections. respecting its obligations under international The voting took place on May 26, 2021 law, including humanitarian law and human and a day later, Syria’s Parliament Speaker, rights law, and without meaningfully Hammoud Sabbagh, announced the final participating in the UN-facilitated political results. “The incumbent President Bashar al- process to end the conflict. The European Assad won the election, securing the support PC :Getty Images Union, in a similar vein has stated that the of 95.1% of the voters,” Sabbagh told a May 26 elections in Syria were devoid of news conference in Damascus. “The voter blood, we defend you Bashar,” and “We participate”. On the day of the voting, i.e., any genuine democratic representation. The turnout was 78%,” he said, adding that over only choose three: God, Syria and Bashar.” on May 26, the Foreign Ministers of France, EU High Representative, Josep Borrell, 14 million citizens took part in the election. Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and The elections in Syria were declared a farce the United States of America issued a joint issued a statement mentioning that the The Speaker drew attention to high not only by the opposition political groups statement that categorically stated that the Syrian elections undermined efforts to find a responsibility of the people “that surpassed but by the West too, including the United elections in Syria were neither free nor fair sustainable solution to the Syrian conflict. “It all expectations”. “Syrians showed that Nations, the European Union and the United and in complete contravention of the UN led cannot lead to any measure of international they are full of determination to stand States. On April 28, the United Nations peace process. normalisation with the Syrian regime. The against dangerous challenges and wrote Special Envoy for Syria, Geir O. Pedersen political process must be fully inclusive to another glorious page in the history of stated before the United Nations Security The statement said, “We denounce the Assad ensure that all segments of Syria’s society their country,” he added. Abdullah Saloum Council that the elections in Syria were not regime’s decision to hold an election outside are involved in shaping the country’s future Abdullah and Mahmoud Ahmad Marei were a part of the political process established of the framework described in UN Security unity and reconciliation”, the statement said. two of Assad’s main rival candidates in the by the Security Council resolution 2254. Council Resolution 2254 and we support the election. Marei got 3.3 per cent of the vote, The UN Special Envoy remarked, “The UN voices of all Syrians, including civil society The West is unanimous in denouncing the while Mr. Saloum received 1.5 per cent, is not involved in this election and has no organisations and the Syrian opposition, Syrian elections as farce and illegitimate and Sabbagh said. mandate to be. who have condemned the electoral process in contravention to the UN led peace process. as illegitimate”. Further, the joint statement There are countries with vested interest who “Thank you to all Syrians for their high The UN continues to stress the importance of said that free and fair elections should are backing Assad from behind the curtains sense of nationalism and their notable a negotiated political solution to the conflict be convened under the UN supervision but at the end, those who are going through participation… For the future of Syria’s in Syria. In this regard, resolution 2254 to the highest international standards of hell is none other than the Syrian population. children and its youth, let'’ start from mandates the UN to facilitate a political transparency and accountability. Radical Islamic migrants reaching to Europe tomorrow our campaign of work to build process that culminates in the holding of conceal their identity as innocent Syrians. hope and build Syria,” Assad wrote on free and fair elections in accordance with For an election to be credible, all Syrians They are after all part of some grand plan his campaign’s Facebook page. The a new Constitution, administered under should be allowed to participate, including but what, time will tell. From over a decade electoral victory of Assad was celebrated in United Nations supervision to the highest internally displaced Syrians, refugees, and the country has been facing a civil war and Damascus and the coastal city of Tartus, by international standards of transparency and members of the diaspora, in a safe and God knows when it will end. his supporters who waved flags and pictures accountability, with all Syrians, including neutral environment. The statement said of Assad. They chanted, “With our soul, members of the diaspora, eligible to that without these elements, the “fraudulent Godspeed Syria, Godspeed! Who killed Princess Diana? to perform to get to the source of a story or Canadians coming out of the Victoria Day secure interviews with the most inaccessible weekend need to know, Victoria was well ◆ By Tarek Fatah elites of society, be they movie stars or even aware of this racist animosity towards Abdul Author & Columnist, Canada minor celebrities such as Malala Yusufzai and did not tolerate it. @TarekFatah or terrorists like Bin Laden, some requiring Fritz Ponsonby, her assistant private [email protected] payments via PR agencies or agents. secretary, articulated her unwavering anti- atching the Duke of Cambridge Prince In the case of the 1995 Princess Diana racist stance in a letter: “The Queen insists W William blame the BBC and journalist interview, Martin Bashir admits he fudged on bringing the ‘Munshi’ forward, and if it Martin Bashir as contributing to his mother some financial statements and made her were not for our protest, I don’t know where Princess Diana’s death left me surprised. brother Charles Spencer facilitate the she would stop,” he wrote. “But it is no use, interview. Makes me wonder whether her for the Queen says it is ‘race prejudice’ and Did Prince William truly believe that when brother would have gone along if the price that we are jealous of the poor Munshi.” Princess Diana uttered the words, “There was right? were three of us in this marriage” — Victoria knew that the royal court would not PC :Getty Images referring to Prince Charles’ extra-marital Every word that Princess Diana spoke in the pay Abdul the same respect once she was dead, so she heaped gifts and titles upon him. affair — it was Martin Bashir who had fed interview was hers. At no stage did Martin wife Meghan Markle faced to the attitude The Queen’s fears were justified. Upon her her that infamous line? Bashir edge her on or provoke her into lying. the royals had toward Princess Diana and death on Jan. 22, 1901, Victoria’s children Her words were truthful and that is all that her Egyptian boyfriend Dodi Fayed. If not, the man responsible for the tragedy matters. But does it? worked swiftly to evict their mother’s that killed his mother in a car crash in favorite adviser. Edward VII sent guards In an interview on May 21, Prince Harry said August 1997 was his father Prince Charles, The present turmoil in Buckingham Palace into the cottage Karim shared with his wife, the British press won’t stop until Meghan not Martin Bashir, the son of Pakistani reminds me of Queen Victoria’s favourite seizing all letters from the Queen and burning Markle dies like Princess Diana. immigrants who is the subject of so much attendant and Urdu teacher from India, them on the spot. They instructed Karim to “History was repeating itself,” Harry added. royal indignation. Munshi (clerk) Abdul Karim in 1887. return to India immediately, without fanfare “My mother was chased to her death while or a farewell. Martin Bashir was a friend of Princess Diana Abdul Karim’s presence in the palace she was in a relationship with someone and putting the blame on him for extracting was a source of great friction in the royal The Duke of Cambridge Prince William who wasn’t white, and now look what’s words from her mouth is simply reflective household of Queen Victoria. should have had the courage of Victoria. happened. You want to talk about history of the “institutional racism” her son Instead, he demonstrated that he was simply repeating itself? They’re not gonna stop As Carolly Erickson writes in her book, Her Prince Harry has spoken about. It was the an extension of the “establishment” his until she [Meghan] dies.” Little Majesty, “For a dark-skinned Indian to “establishment” inside the British monarchy mother talked about, and that forced his be put very nearly on a level with the queen’s What can we Canadians learn from the that made her suicidal and cut off all ties to brother to renounce country and title for a white servants was all but intolerable, for mishaps of those we refer to as our Head the Royals and Great Britain. new home and life. him to eat at the same table with them, to of State? Do we need a King William V? Martin Bashir may have pulled out all the share in their daily lives was viewed as an As for the exiled Prince Harry, he drew a Certainly not King Charles IV. Can’t we do tricks of the trade that most reporters have outrage.” parallel between the racist treatment his without a royal? www.NewDelhiTimes.com India’s only International Newspaper

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Editor’s Desk NEW DELHI TIMES Demolition of Barabanki Mosque A Conspiracy or Law Enforcement? happiness and unity in the society. Indian knew that the mosque houses are presenting the whole episode Muslims practiced this aspect in letter and has been constructed on as atrocity on Muslims without detailing ◆ Dr. Ankit Srivastava spirit when they cooperated with district illegal land and offering the actual facts. I must say, biasness Chief Editor administration during the demolition of prayers in these types and hatred towards India have blinded @AnkitNDT Barabanki mosque. The mosque committee of mosques was not the international media as they have [email protected] or the Sunni Waqf Board didn’t lodge any permissible in Islam. starting overlooking the very nuances protest and simply moved to court without When the administration of journalism, i.e., to present facts as they ith the onset of the second wave making any hue & cry. However, after came to demolish the are. The last aspect of the matter highlights W of Coronavirus in India, the news the demolition, everybody became hyper mosque after notice the biasness of national media houses headlines and timelines of social media active and started crying foul. period was over, none as well which extensively compared the platforms got flooded with news of of the locales protested and stayed indoors. Barabanki mosque case with the Babri communal harmony amidst pandemic. Three question arises- why ownership However, organisations with political Masjid demolition case and presented the Contrary to the popular opinion, Hindus papers were not submitted at the SDM motive started highlighting the issue and whole episode as victimization of Muslims and Muslims showed exemplary courage court? Why the concerned people didn’t victimisation of Muslims which in turn was in India. and determination in helping each other move to higher court with ownership highlighted by some international media during this hour of distress. Suddenly, the papers? Why the committee and houses to defame India internationally. They however, cleverly hid the facts related hate mongers started feeling suffocated Sunni Waqf Board remained Under such compelling circumstances, to illegality of the ownership of the mosque, due to absence of communally charged silent while they Indian Muslims showed exemplary failure of the mosque committee to reply atmosphere. knew that the mosque behaviour and sided to the notices of the administration would be and the silence of Sunni Waqf Board Politicians irrespective of ideologies during the entire episode. started finding it difficult to digest the new found unity, their political India is already facing tough times future seemed bleak. The international with the rising Corona cases and the community became fearful of the number of natural disasters which has growing stature of India in the Asia- struck India consecutively since the Pacific. When everything has been at beginning of this year. It is the duty peace, suddenly, the issue of a non- of the citizens of India to stand firmly descript mosque of a small district of with the behind the government in this hour of crisis. Uttar Pradesh came to limelight covering front page in several international print The world at large is aware of the fact that media. What changed? India is developing, and the world leaders acknowledge the same. Very prudently For those who are too immersed in justifying we have stood united in the the actions of their masters, let it be known Coronavirus pandemic. that a mosque in Barabanki, UP, was recently Several demolished by the district administration on developed charge of obstructing a road and for being nations illegally constructed on a government land. too saw This act has been termed illegal by the mosque management committee and Sunni Waqf Board. To find out who is right, the issue has to demolished? be examined from three different perspectives. It is interesting and at the same The revenue records available with the time intriguing to note that Barabanki district administration shows that the same people who have the mosque was constructed on government supported anti-India land which makes it illegal. The mosque activities be it anti- was also situated close to the adjacent road CAA protests, thereby obstructing traffic during prayers. anti-Farmers’ Subsequently, notice was served to the laws protests; economic mosque committee and ownership papers those who were meltdown, loot, were asked to be produced before the SDM. against the arson and what not, The mosque committee instead of producing abrogation but India on the other the papers went to court which dismissed of Article 370 government and proved the reporting hand repatriated the petition. of the Indian of international media as a big lie. its citizens Constitution, Second perspective raises questions about and donated The matter was also disposed of at the SDM those who fuel sectarian the timing of the controversy. In the Israel- vaccines to those court which found the structure illegal. conflicts for vested Palestine conflict, the whole world divided nations who were The mosque was demolished and none of interests, are the ones who are crying foul into two blocks: one supporting Israel and overlooked by other the local Muslims protested. Islam never over the demolition of Barabanki mosque others Palestine. India supported peace and countries. preferred violence over peace with plenty without following the leads and having any the cease-fire reached between Isreal and Modi believes in ‘Vasudhaiva of examples in history to justify this stance. knowledge of the current events. Palestine. This became highly indigestible Kutumbakam’ (world is one family) and Prophet Muhammad knew that peace brings for detractors of India who doesn’t want abided with the same while donating Those having India to have a cordial relation with the vaccines to the needy nations. Indians knowledge of the Muslim nations. Suddenly, the issue of have always had this quality that they Barabanki mosque Barabanki mosque hogged the limelight feel the pain of others even if they issue with coverage in international media themselves are in pain. India did not houses. make any discrimination during the Covid Timing is certainly questionable. The pandemic. intelligentsia must ponder over the Muslims being a minority enjoys equal large-scale coverage of a non-descript rights and opportunities and extremists mosque declared illegal by the district who are trying hard to debunk the administration and petition rejected secular ethos of India are destined to fall

PC :YouTube by the court. The international media no matter what.

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International NEW DELHI TIMES Belarus Journo Arrest: Freedom of Speech suppressed This is a new low ◆ By Sujay Dhawan Will this not create fear in the minds of journalists worldwide? It feels as if the Editor European nation Belarus is no different @SujayDhawan than radical fundamentalist nations like Iran [email protected] or Pakistan. We could expect something like this from Pakistan, where forced A s per Article-19 of the Universal disappearances and extra-judicial killings Declaration of Human Rights have become a part of daily life, but not (UDHR)-“Everyone has the right to freedom from any European nation. Already Belarus of opinion and expression; this right is facing innumerable protests after last includes freedom to hold opinions without year’s elections. Even though Lukashenko interference and to seek, receive and impart expresses he was legally elected, such information and ideas through any media suppression of freedom of speech speaks and regardless of frontiers.” There have otherwise. been more than 70 treaties ratified between the UN Member States based on the UDHR. The European Union, the UK and now the Despite the increase of influence of social US President have vowed to support people media, we still rely on press and journalists of Belarus and also asked other countries to receive true and correct information to put punitive sanctions over Belarus. on any particular subject, but suppression US President also demanded Lukashenko of such opinions and expressions by any to immediately release Journo Raman country comes directly under the scanner of Pratasevich. the world community. PC : Getty Images

One such blatant example is the arrest to Minsk. As fellow passengers recount what is not. The dramatic arrest is like a blot But this incidence raises doubts in the of journalist Raman Pratasevich by the the incidence, “That very second, Mr. on the International Aviation Laws. minds of journalists around the world. Are Belarusian authorities. On May 23, 2021, Pratasevich knew he will be captured once journalists safe? How much are International Journo Mr. Pratasevich with his girlfriend they land in Belarus. All the passengers of Now a question emerges: Are we journalists Aviation Laws flawed? Will a journalist were travelling from Athens to Vilnius when the flight were released but 26 year journalist vulnerable to such suppression as this is or Human Rights activist have to be even suddenly near Belarus border, a MIG-21 and his girlfriend were taken into custody. not the first-time journalists are arrested? careful about which airspace does its flight fighter jet approached the commercial flight And they were never seen”. The flight took Daniel Pearl, James Fowley and recent pass? Can free speech be so costly? Are mid-air and asked the pilot to re-route the off and apparently landed in Lithuania after kidnapping of French journalist Olivier the value Human Rights instilled in the UN flight to Minsk. The Ryanair flight pilot was several hours halt. Dubois in Sahel are some famous examples. Charter forgotten? told by Belarusian authorities that Hamas, a But the difference is they were kidnapped militant group of Palestine, has kept a bomb Was the bomb hoax genuine or was it all a by terrorist groups and this kidnapping of Mark my words, if today we don’t stop such in this flight. The pilot immediately alerted facade to capture the young journalist? It is Raman Pratasevich is done by a republic ghastly acts, tomorrow we can be next. This the passengers that they will be re-routing no rocket science to guess what is true and state that too European. should stop here right now. Period. International Political Scenario of the Week landing of a plane of Bolivian President Evo ◆ By NDT Bureau Morales in 2013 in Austria. The plane of the @NewDelhiTimes Bolivian President was forced to land once. “The President was led out of the plane and [email protected] nothing, silence,” Putin said.

Belarus Brazil In a dramatic incident that send shockwaves Brazil’s main indigenous organization has said across the world, a Ryanair flight FR4978 that wildcat gold miners illegally prospecting carrying passengers from Athens to Vilnius on protected indigenous lands in the Amazon was diverted to the Belarusian capital Minsk fired on a Munduruku village and burned down under the escort of a Mig-29 fighter jet. the house of one of its leaders. The clashes came Activist Roman Pratasevich, who is a critic days after a Supreme Court justice ordered the of the Belarus government was detained government to protect indigenous populations by Belarusian authorities. The Belarusian threatened in recent weeks by illegal Presidential press service said that President miners. Supreme Court Justice Luís Roberto Alexander Lukashenko personally ordered Barroso had ordered the federal government to a MiG-29 fighter jet to accompany the “immediately adopt all necessary measures to Ryanair plane to the Minsk airport. It said protect the life, health and safety of indigenous of Mali. Goita, who led the coup 2020 that States of America is mulling sanctions on a bomb threat was received while the plane populations” in Yanomami and Munduruku toppled then-President Ibrahim Boubacar Mali over the detention of civilian leaders of was over Belarusian territory; officials later territory. He also accused the government for Keita last October, said that he removed Mali’s transition government. Ned Price, the said no explosives were found on board. The “recalcitrance and lack of transparency” in N’Daw and Ouane because they neglected US Department of State Spokesperson, said European Union sternly condemned the forced ensuring the health and safety of indigenous to advise him about a Cabinet reshuffle that that “a democratic, civilian-led government landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk, Belarus groups. Clashes between the indigenous people left out two members of the military, a move presents the best opportunity to achieve and detention of journalist Raman Pratasevich. and miners are likely to continue in the coming he said violated the agreement that created security and prosperity in Mali and the The EU decided to cut air links with Belarus. days as President Bolsonaro’s agenda to legalise the civilian transitional government. He said wider Sahel region. The United States has also suspended its mining in the indigenous territories has led to widespread discontentment amongst the elections would be held next year as planned. discretionary application of the 2019 U.S- The Malian transition government’s indigenous community. Belarus Air Services Agreement. A couple of days after declaring himself as commitment to a civilian-led transition Mali the interim President of Mali, Colonel Assimi and democratic elections in 2022 set the However, the Russian President Vladimir Goita was named the transitional President stage for Mali’s continued engagement with Putin has supported the action by Belarus of Mali is in the midst of another political of the country by Mali’s Constitutional court. international partners to advance democracy, forced landing of a Ryanair flight in Minsk. turmoil as a second military coup has taken The court said that the decision was due to human rights, peace, and security effort”. During a meeting with the Belarus President place in the country in the last nine months. the “vacancy in the Presidency”. The ruling The ECOWAS, the United Nations, the Alexander Lukashenko in Sochi, Putin President Bah N’Daw and Prime Minister by Mali’s Constitutional court stated that African Union and other international bodies called the reactions on the incident as an Moctar Ouane, detained by the military Col. Goïta should take on the responsibilities have also condemned the coup, while French “outburst of emotions”. Putin said that there soldiers, resigned. Colonel Assimi Goita of interim President “to lead the transition President Emmanuel Macron denounced the was no reaction in the West after a forced declared himself as the new interim President process to its conclusion”. The United move as a “coup d’etat.” www.NewDelhiTimes.com India’s only International Newspaper

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International NEW DELHI TIMES Myanmar descends into unprecedented chaos post military coup with foreign media since the coup, junta known but the delay could be for winning By Himanshu Sharma ◆ leader Min Aung Hlaing had also said Suu more support. The draft resolution calls @_Himansh_ Kyi was in good health. on the Myanmar military to end a state of emergency, stop all violence against [email protected] Myanmar has been in chaos since the coup, peaceful protesters and respect the will with daily protests, marches and strikes of the people as reflected in the results O n May 24, Myanmar’s deposed leader nationwide against the junta, which has of November’s election. Aung San Suu Kyi appeared in person been responded with lethal force. at a court hearing for the first time since her Just days before the start of a new school government was overthrown by the military As of May 24, 802 people have been killed year, over 125,000 school teachers have in a February 1 coup. She looked in good in the junta’s crackdown whereas actual been threatened with suspension for joining health and held a face-to-face meeting with PC : Getty Images number of fatalities could be much higher. a civil disobedience movement against the her legal team for about 30 minutes before However, junta leader Hlaing disputed the military coup. the hearing. law was declared before the army launched figure and put fatalities at 300 and police its assault, using artillery and helicopters casualty at 47. Currently, 4120 people Some teachers and parents are boycotting Suu Kyi won the Nobel Peace Prize in against a newly formed Chinland Defence were being detained, including 20 death- school as part of the campaign to paralyse 1991 for building democracy in Myanmar. Force. The militia, armed mainly with detainees. the country. Myanmar had 430,000 school She is among more than 4,000 people hunting rifles, pulled back to spare civilians teachers. detained by military and faces silly from being caught in the crossfire. Food was Myanmar has been in turmoil since the charges ranging from illegally possessing in short supply, 5000—8000 people had fled These could be just statements to threaten army ousted Nobel Peace laureate Suu walkie-talkie radios to violating a state the town, roads were blocked and troops in people to come back to work as actually Kyi’s elected government and detained secrets law. Suu Kyi “wished people good the streets prevented their return. Almost firing this many people could cause the her and officials of her National League health.” Referring to military’s diktat for everyone left the city for the jungle and most whole system to collapse. dissolution of her National League for for Democracy party. The military has of them are in hiding. Democracy party she said that the party responded to protests by pro-democracy The state-run newspaper has called on was established for the people, so will be supporters in cities and towns with lethal The United States and Britain have appealed teachers and students to return to schools there as long as the people are. force, while there has been an upsurge in to the army to avoid civilian casualties. to get the education system started again. fighting between the army and ethnic rebels The shadow National Unity Government Around 19,500 university staff have also The army seized power claiming fraud in border areas and newly formed militia formed by loyalists of Suu Kyi appealed for been suspended. The coup cut short a decade in an election won by Suu Kyi’s party forces. international help. of democratic reforms. in November. The former Electoral Commission has dismissed the Mindat–100 km off the Indian border in A UN General Assembly vote on May The disruption at schools echoes in the accusations of fraud but junta-appointed Chin state-has witnessed the most intense 18 on a draft resolution calling “for an health sector and across government and Election Commission intends to dissolve battles since the February 1 coup between immediate suspension of the direct and private businesses as well. The military coup Suu Kyi’s political party for vote fraud army and the local militias. Thousands of indirect supply, sale or transfer of all has plunged Myanmar into unprecedented and reportedly threatened action against residents are hiding in jungles, villages and weapons and munitions” to Myanmar has chaos. New Delhi is worried about exodus “traitors” involved. In his first interview valleys after fleeing military assault. Martial been postponed. The rescheduled date is not of Myanmar refugees into India. Islamist militant’s resurgence hampers counter-terrorism efforts in Sahel elected government repelled a coup in “modify” operations in the Sahel, raising ◆ By NDT Bureau March 2021, just before the country’s first fears of a future French pull-out in the region @NewDelhiTimes democratic transfer of power. in order to give over more responsibility to the newly created coalition of the Sahel. PC : Getty Images [email protected] On and off the battlefield, Barkhane soldiers G5 Sahel soldiers and international forces, and Mali. The death of Chadian President are under increasing strain. Between 2019 mostly from Europe, make up the coalition. Idriss Déby on April 19, however, is likely he French-led multinational counter- and 2020, the number of French personnel to upset the country’s power balance, which T terrorism campaign in the Sahel, killed in the Sahel climbed dramatically, The coalition created the Takuba Taskforce, might have far-reaching implications for Operation Barkhane, began in August 2014, accounting for over half of the total number which is stationed at the French military Barkhane’s future in the country. and the security situation in the Sahel has not of deaths suffered by French forces since facility in Niamey and is led by Barkhane. improved despite seven years of operations. they first intervened in Mali in 2013. It was officially inaugurated in April 2020. A French withdrawal from the Sahel In the first half of 2021, there were several Its formation foreshadows France’s future without a corresponding boost in the Takuba The reputation of the operation is also being notable and escalating attacks by militant counter-terrorism strategy in the Sahel, Taskforce’s and G5’s military capabilities scrutinised. On March 30, the United Nations Islamist groups, indicating that these groups which will involve a smaller military and resources would almost probably result in Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization are gaining confidence and capacity. footprint and a greater reliance on European heightened state instability in Mali and Chad Mission in Mali (MINUSMA) released in particular. In 2013, France intervened in In 2020, France added 600 soldiers to the and international allies. a report verifying the claims of multiple Mali to prevent Islamist Tuareg rebels from 4,500-strong Barkhane army in an effort to Malian civic groups that the French military The Takuba Taskforce, which was directed moving south and seizing Bamako. handle the deteriorating situation. Burkina murdered civilians during an airstrike in by France and aided by G5-Sahel forces at Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger Bounti, central Mali, on January 3, 2021. the time of writing, was made up of forces Similarly, France’s presence in Chad has formed the Takuba Taskforce, a special Domestically, Paris has been chastised from European countries. Although several been crucial to the country’s and Déby’s counter-terrorism squad that was developed for the operation’s rising costs, which will European countries have offered their help, governments’ stability. Several times, France and sent to fight alongside the Group of 5 total more than USD1 billion in 2020 alone, only the Czech Republic, Estonia, Italy, and intervened to prevent advancing rebels from (G5) Sahel Joint Forces Mission. Several raising doubts about its long-term viability. Sweden have sent soldiers. On the ground, taking N’Djamena’s government seat. Given important members, including Algerian Takuba special operations have yet to hold a the current unstable security situation, a Yahya Abu al-Hammam and Tunisian Governments in the Sahel and West Africa meaningful impact. French retreat is unlikely. France and the Abu Iyad al-Tunisi of JNIM in 2019 have chastised Barkhane for being well- Barkhane forces will be expected to provide and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb’s resourced and equipped without making The G5 forces will struggle to keep Islamist strong leadership and more resources to (AQIMAbdelmalek) Droukdal (alias Abu significant investments in G5 Sahel forces. militant activity in the Sahel under control. Francophone countries in Africa. Musab Abdel Wadud) and another JNIM Furthermore, civil society organisations Gano emphasised that the G5 and other West Despite the high level of anti-French sentiment commander, Bah Ag Moussa (also known have accused French soldiers of failing to African countries bear primary responsibility in these nations, a French withdrawal will as Bamoussa Diarra) in 2020, have been protect people and prolonging the struggle for the long-term sustainability and success elicit a backlash from the same critics, who killed. Despite these setbacks, the militants’ against Islamists in the Sahel in order to of counter-terrorism efforts in the Sahel. will accuse France of desertion and failure operating pace appears to be unaffected. keep France’s military sites in the region operational. Others believe that the presence For the restoration of legitimate powers in to fulfil its obligations and despite the low The poor security situation in Sahelian of French and other European military in the these two nations, greater political stability in possibility of a French pull-out, a large number countries is exacerbated by the deteriorating Sahel has exacerbated the security situation. the region, and continuous counter-terrorism of French casualties and/or a major slowdown political scenario. In August 2020 and April operations, it is vital to prevent further in the French economy could serve as a signal 2021, military coups took place in Mali and In January 2021, French President military takeovers in Sahel nations, as well for a gradual departure, especially considering Chad, respectively, while Niger’s newly Emmanuel Macron revealed plans to as the return to Constitutional rule in Chad the forthcoming Presidential election in 2022.

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International NEW DELHI TIMES UN’s Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) submits landmark report on Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) States. The OEWG report also recognized voluntary basis, survey their national efforts to and misunderstandings, and the reduction of ◆ By NDT Bureau the importance and complementarity of implement norms, develop and share experience tensions. One of the major recommendations @NewDelhiTimes specialized discussions on aspects of digital and good practice on norms implementation, and of the report is that States voluntarily identify technologies addressed by other UN bodies. continue to inform the Secretary-General of their and consider CBMs appropriate to their specific [email protected] national views and assessments in this regard. contexts, and cooperate with other States on The OEWG report contains six sections. The States should not conduct or knowingly support their implementation. States voluntarily engage he United Nations recognises the first section is titled, ‘Existing and Emerging ICT activity contrary to their obligations under in transparency measures by sharing relevant T threats from the malicious use of the Threats’. A concern is expressed about the international law that intentionally damages information and lessons in their chosen format Information and Communication Technologies implications of the malicious use of ICTs for critical infrastructure or otherwise impairs the use and fora, as appropriate, including through (ICTs). The global ICT environment is facing the maintenance of international peace and and operation of critical infrastructure to provide the Cyber Policy Portal of the United Nations a dramatic increase in the malicious use security, and subsequently for human rights services to the public. Furthermore, States should Institute for Disarmament Research. of ICTs by State and non-State actors. The and development. In particular, the report continue to strengthen measures to protect all misuse of ICTs poses a risk for all States and is concerned regarding the development of critical infrastructure from ICT threats, and The fifth section is ‘Capacity Building’. may harm international peace and security. ICT capabilities for purposes that undermine increase exchanges on best practices with regard Ensuring an open, secure, stable, accessible In 2018, an UN-mandated working group – international peace and security. The to critical infrastructure protection. and peaceful ICT environment requires the Open-Ended Working Group (OEWG) continuing increase in incidents involving effective cooperation among States to reduce on Developments in the Field of Information the malicious use of ICTs by State and non- risks to international peace and security. and Communication Technologies (ICTs) State actors, including terrorists and criminal Capacity-building is an important aspect of in the Context of International Security was groups, is a disturbing trend. Some non-State such cooperation. Capacity-building should established. The Cyber OEWG had three actors have demonstrated ICT capabilities respect human rights and fundamental substantive sessions that took place between previously only available to States. The report freedoms, be gender sensitive and inclusive, September 9-13, 2019, February 10-14, 2020, states, “States affirmed that acting together and universal and non-discriminatory. The and the final one was held between March inclusively whenever feasible would produce PC : Getty Images confidentiality of sensitive information 8-12, 2021. more effective and far-reaching results. The should be ensured. The report stressed On March 12, the OEWG adapted its final value of further strengthening collaboration, the need for a concrete, action-oriented report after two years of deliberation. The when appropriate, with civil society, the private The third section is ‘International Law’. approach to capacity-building which could report was also significant and historic as it sector, academia and the technical community, States have reaffirmed that international law, and include support at both the policy and marked the first time such a document being was also emphasized in this regard”. in particular the Charter of the United Nations, is technical levels such as the development of negotiated and agreed upon in a working applicable and essential to maintaining peace and national cyber security strategies, providing The second section is ‘Rules, Norms and group open to all 193 UN Member States. stability and promoting an open, secure, stable, access to relevant technologies, support Principles for Responsible State Behaviour’. accessible and peaceful ICT environment. The to Computer Emergency Response Teams The OWEG report states in its introduction It states that voluntary, non-binding norms report recommends that States, on a voluntary (CERTs) or Computer Security Incident that developments in Information and of responsible State behaviour can reduce basis, continue to inform the Secretary-General Response Teams (CSIRTs) and establishing Communications Technologies (ICTs) have risks to international peace, security and of their national views and assessments on how specialized training and tailored curricula. implications for all three pillars of the United stability and play an important role in international law applies to their use of ICTs in Nations’ work: peace and security, human increasing predictability and reducing risks the context of international security, and continue The sixth section is ‘Regular International rights and sustainable development. ICTs of misperceptions, thus contributing to the to voluntarily share such national views and Dialogue’. The report mentions that regular and global connectivity have been a catalyst prevention of conflict. States stressed that practices through other avenues as appropriate. dialogue under UN auspices supports for human progress and development, such norms reflect the expectations and the shared objectives of strengthening transforming societies and economies, and standards of the international community The fourth section is ‘Confidence-Building international peace, stability and prevention expanding opportunities for cooperation. regarding the behaviour of States in their Measures’. This states that CBMs which of conflicts in the ICT environment and calls The report states that the United Nations use of ICTs and allow the international comprise transparency, cooperative and on States to actively participate in regular should continue to play a leading role in community to assess the activities of States. stability measures can contribute to institutional dialogue under the auspices of promoting dialogue on the use of ICTs by The report recommends that States, on a preventing conflicts, avoiding misperception the United Nations. The pro-Palestine stance of Indian Government - A Slap on the face of extremists the UN partition plan for Palestine, which ◆ By NDT Bureau led to the establishment of Israel. Given @NewDelhiTimes India’s own fearful experience of partition along religious lines and the anti-colonial [email protected] stance, solidarity with the Palestinian cause was natural. he violence in Gaza has always been T eye-catching given the threshold The current position of India on the recent of the violence and stretch of the conflict. violence carefully silences the extremist voices Since 1948, the Palestinian question has because many perceive present day India persisted without any permanent solution. abandoning the idea of peaceful resolution While India recognised Israel as a country through statesmanship and the policy of non- in 1950, Nehru’s ‘West Asia policy’ took violence. As the violence escalated in Gaza, into account Arab feelings and opposed the diplomatic relations with Israel in 1992, truth even at the cost of bilateral friendship all the eyes were on Indian leadership on its Israel’s project in Palestine. complete with embassies, ambassadors, and with an important ally. A pro-Palestinian reaction to the current situation. all the trimmings. Since then, the country stance of the Indian government showed However, the Nehru administration sought has been gradually de-hyphenating the the extremists that the present government However, many extremists (irrespective Israel’s help in the 1962 India-China war, “Israel-Palestine” question, aiming for a is against violence and atrocity even if it’s of religion) took to social media, opposed but the diplomatic relationship between neutral relationship with both. being perpetrated on Muslims (contrary to India’s position on recent violence, and the two countries remained unchanged. the popular belief). voiced that India should stand with Israel. Nehru established a precedent for receiving When Prime Minister Modi took charge of They justified that this was fair treatment military assistance from Israel without the office in 2014, a gradual friendship between At a United Nations Security Council for Muslims and indicated that India should need for a diplomatic exchange or even a India and Israel started to blossom. It meeting on May 17, India went so far as to follow the same. formal agreement. necessitated a juggling act for Modi, who express its support for “the just Palestinian was more transparent about his relationship cause” and an “unwavering commitment to India managed to calm and shut down India was also one of the first non-Arab with Israel than any other Indian Head of the two-state solution.” However, this was the extremist voices as numerous other countries to endorse the Palestine Liberation State. Modi is the first Indian Prime Minister essentially a balancing act, for while India organisation would have casted its pro- Organization and its Chief Yasser Arafat as to visit both Israel and the Palestinian acknowledged Palestinians’ “just” cause, it Israeli stand as a justification for anti-Muslim the official representative of Palestinians Territories while still in office. also “condemned” Gaza’s “indiscriminate” stance. This time, the Indian government has during the Congress government in the rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. In the again proved that its slogan of “Sabka Sath 1970s. Nevertheless, over time, this Despite of this growing friendship, Modi General Assembly in 1948, India was the Sabka Vikaas” has substance in it and is hesitancy faded, and India formed full proved to be the upholder of justice and only non-Arab country that voted against followed with true spirit. www.NewDelhiTimes.com India’s only International Newspaper

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International NEW DELHI TIMES

the United States has expressed its concerns. Increasing Russian military activity On May 21, 2021, on the heels of the meeting of the Arctic Council in Reykjavik, the in the Arctic draws US concern capital of Iceland, the US Secretary of State Antony Blinken remarked that “the Arctic of the Northern Fleet of Russia at the present is a region for strategic competition that has ◆ By NDT Bureau time are as follows: seized the world’s attention. But the Arctic @NewDelhiTimes 1) Maintenance of naval strategic nuclear is more than a strategically or economically [email protected] forces in constant readiness for nuclear significant region. It’s home to our people, deterrence; its hallmark has been and must remain n recent times, Russia has stepped up its peaceful cooperation. It’s our responsibility 2) Protection of the economic zone and I military as well as commercial activity to protect that peaceful cooperation and to areas of productive activities, suppression of in the Arctic region and is looking upon that build on it.” illegal productive activities;

region to assert its sphere of influence. The PC : Getty Images Blinken stressed the importance of upholding Russian military has rebuilt and expanded 3) Ensuring safety of navigation; and “effective governance and the rule of law” to numerous facilities across the polar region a globally competitive national transport 4) Implementation of foreign policy ensure that the “Arctic remains a region free in recent years, revamping runways and communication channel of the Russian actions of the Government in economically of conflict where countries act responsibly.” deploying additional surveillance and air Federation, environmental protection in important areas of the oceans (visits, routine This was an obvious reference to Russia. defence assets. the Arctic, protection of primordial living entries, joint exercises, activities as a part of environment and the traditional way of life NATO is also increasingly worried about the On May 24, the press office of the Russian peacekeeping forces, etc.). of native minorities inhabiting the territory growing Russian military footprint in the Arctic. Northern Fleet reported that Northern Fleet’s In June 2020, Russian President Vladimir of the Arctic zone of the Russian Federation” warships led by the heavy nuclear-powered “Increased Russian presence, more Russian Putin signed an executive order making the were specified as Russia’s national interests missile cruiser Pyotr Veliky held multi- bases in the High North, has also triggered Northern Fleet an independent military- in the Artic. service force drills in the Barents Sea. “At the need for more NATO presence, and administrative entity, effective January 1, sea, the warships practiced manoeuvring in Since then, Russia has conducted a series we have increased our presence there with 2021. In March 2020, Putin has signed a deployment order, searched for a notional of military exercises and defence presence more naval capabilities, presence in the air, the Executive Order on Basic Principles enemy’s submarine in interaction with in the Arctic. In April 2021, the Russian and not least, the importance of protecting of Russian Federation State Policy in the Ka-27 anti-submarine warfare helicopters Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu’s visited transatlantic undersea cables transmitting a Arctic to 2035. The document defined the and Il-38 aircraft,” the press office said in the Kola Peninsula to examine the defence lot of data,” NATO Secretary-General Jens goals, main directions and objectives, as a statement. The drills were directed by units located along the Barents Sea coast. He Stoltenberg remarked. well as mechanisms for implementing the Northern Fleet Deputy Commander Vice explained how Russian forces now are being state policy of the Russian Federation in Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov Admiral Oleg Golubev at close-in naval equipped with modern weapons and new the Arctic zone. “Ensuring sovereignty and remarked in response, “We hear whining training ranges. The naval manoeuvres\ infrastructure is built along the country’s territorial integrity of the Russian Federation, about Russia expanding its military activities involved over 10 minesweepers, small anti- northern coasts. “The USA and its allies are preserving the Arctic as a territory of peace, in the Arctic, but everyone knows that it’s our submarine warfare and missile ships, and boosting their military concentration in the stable and mutually beneficial partnership, territory, our land. We bear responsibility for also anti-submarine helicopters and aircraft Arctic, they increase the intensity of military ensuring high quality of life and wellbeing the Arctic coast to be safe, and everything and a special group of the Kola Flotilla of preparedness and expand and modernize of the population of the Arctic zone of the our country does there is fully legitimate”. All Arms Forces for fighting underwater military infrastructure,” Shoigu said. In Russian Federation, development of the saboteurs, the press office said. March 2021, military drills were conducted As Russia assumed the rotating Arctic zone of the Russian Federation as around Alexandra Land, an island that is part Chairmanship of the Arctic Council, the US The Northern Fleet is an operational- a strategic resource base and it efficient of the Franz Josef Land archipelago where has now rallied other members to oppose strategic association of the Navy of Russia use for the purposes of speeding up Russia recently built a base. Moscow’s plans to set maritime rules in and operates in the Arctic region. As per the economic growth of the Russian Federation, the Northern Sea Route, which runs from Russian Ministry of Defence, the main tasks development of the Northern Sea Route as Amidst these increasing Russian activities, Norway to Alaska. China’s changing demography posits significant challenges to Xi Jinping alter the demand and preference for various The political consolidation which makes ◆ By NDT Bureau goods and jobs. President Xi so powerful is also a double @NewDelhiTimes edged sword. If the Chinese regime To counter the transition and nullify the goes on to implement reforms at a fast [email protected] effects of greying population, reforms by pace without success, it would make Xi China would be considered. The last reform

Jinping’s first major decision affecting PC : Getty Images hina’s 7th census data was released effected by President Xi Jinping was in each Chinese family look worse than the C recently. The data suggests that 2016 which effected the two-child policy population crisis. population growth has slowed down in China replacing the one-child policy. Last year, a significantly and working population might state run Chinese media suggested that the The issue of demography is a legacy problem, be seeing a crunch in the coming years. The government is considering a three-child set in precedence by Deng Xiaoping in net Chinese population as of 2020 was 1.41 policy. The state-controlled fertility has 1970s. The population reversal is not easy billion and the average annual growth rate led to a massive decline in fertility falling to effect and except well-off provinces; other in the period 2010-20 was 0.53 per cent. to 1.3 much below the planned figure of provinces may not be able to implement The working age population fell for the first 1.8. Keeping in mind the replacement the costly reforms. The increase in social time while old age population is growing at ratio of 2:1, the population decline would protection schemes like pension-reimburses a faster rate. be steep. will cost the governments much more. Higher retirement age also has political Trends in the census data suggests that the One of the proposed measures to cope connotations. working population available will decline with the changes is automation. Chinese consensus in the party as he did with his faster in the coming decade. The rural-urban planners are promoting automation These aberrations can explain why Xi anti-corruption drive. divide has also grown with 40% of population in many labour intensive industries. Jinping has chosen not to drastically based in urban areas of the flourishing East. Promoting population increase through propose new policies after abolition of The increase in retirement age without The national urban population has grown incentivized measures will be on the previous family planning program. The proper compensation in the industry is to 64% of the net population of China. And agenda though the catch remains that massive disparity between the different likely to create dissatisfaction among the urban influx into eastern provinces from changing child-birth preference among regions of China and urban-rural divide many. The dissenting voices in China rural areas has only accelerated. But other couples will be seen as intrusive. The will be problematic issues. Unlike the which decreased considerably after areas in China showed status-quo in their Fourteenth Financial Year Plan suggested prosperous Eastern region of China successful management of coronavirus populations. increasing the age of retirement to boost which account for most of the population may rise following pressures to increase availability of skilled workers, and other and major cities; other regions are fertility rate among Chinese women. A decline in Chinese working population measures to facilitate the availability of considerably backward. They are unlikely will seriously strain its worker-intensive labour. to attract better labour and without major However, the good performance of the industries. Many of the industries like demand, they will simply be not interested Chinese economy and relaxation of trade- assembly lines, shipbuilding, small-scale The political scenario which oversees the enough in new radical schemes to reverse pressures due to Sino-American trade production hubs are all manpower heavy. planning and implementation of reforms the demography. This nationwide disparity war will give Xi Jinping enough political These sectors will face the labour crunch is complex even though Xi Jinping has presents a political challenge which mileage to implement the drastic changes hard. The shift in the demography is likely to removed limit on his Presidential term. will require Xi to first seek widespread required to offset demographic losses.

India’s only International Newspaper www.NewDelhiTimes.com 8 31 May - 6 June 2021

International NEW DELHI TIMES Portugal promises to seek EU assistance for the Mozambican army in Cabo Delgado, but economic concerns remain majeure,” removed all of its employees, trends away from gas usage, and increased ◆ By NDT Bureau and said that the important Afungi LNG environmental, social, and governance @NewDelhiTimes project in Cabo Delgado province would be (ESG) criticism against hydrocarbon delayed for at least a year. During President development projects, delaying production [email protected] Nyusi’s visit to Paris, Total told him that to 2026 or 2027 would raise the chance of it would clear “pending monies” owed to project cancellation. O n May 18, Mozambican Head Filipe small and medium-sized businesses under the Nyusi met French President Emmanuel LNG project, but cautioned that the project The Mozambican government would be Macron, CEO of French oil firm Total, and would only restart “when it is calm.” Given forced to request extra debt restructuring Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa, the conservative LNG output assumption, or re-profiling under the G20’s Common the current President of the European Union the medium-term growth prediction will stay Framework plan if LNG construction was (EU) Council, in Paris, to discuss support constant. The Coral South project is expected delayed. Longer-term debt sustainability for Mozambique’s security forces in taming still necessitates a support programme from

PC : Getty Images to expand output by 3.4 million tonnes per the insurgency in the northern Cabo Delgado annum (MMtpa) in 2022–23, and Total LNG the International Monetary Fund, which region. by security concerns and the sluggish Area 1 is expected to raise production by 12.88 Mozambique has yet to secure. implementation of the coronavirus MMtpa in 2025–26. Mining and manufacturing Portugal is supporting the EU engagement LNG production is still critical for disease 2019 (COVID-19) immunisation are estimated to contribute 4.5 percentage in northern Mozambique’s unrest province. Mozambique’s future government revenue, programme in 2021–22. Since September points to Mozambique’s 7.2 percent growth Following the meeting, Portuguese Prime debt sustainability, and ability to repay 2020, when insurgents burned down luxury rate in 2022, and 5.7 percentage points to the Minister Costa offered Portugal’s assistance Eurobond debt. In 2019, the Mozambican hotels on the island of Vamizi (Quirimbias predicted 11.1 percent growth rate in 2025. for “stopping this crisis” during Portugal’s islands), a famous tourist destination, the government restructured the country’s leadership of the Council, as well as “full tourism business has been disrupted. The Afungi LNG project in Mozambique USD726.5 million Eurobond for the solidarity with the Mozambican people in has a two-year window to restart. Security second time, with creditors approving a this struggle against terrorism, which is a The COVID-19 pandemic and border closures forces in Mozambique are unlikely to be able new USD900 million bond with a maturity global issue.” In response, Mozambican between South Africa and Mozambique in to secure the area 25 kilometres around the extension to 2031 and a yield of 5% until President Filipe Nyusi remarked that 2020–21 harmed Mozambique’s tourism project’s development site in the foreseeable 2023 and 9% thereafter. “terrorism cannot be defeated on its own” industry and remittance inflows even more as future, allowing Total to begin operations. and that “Mozambique has never refused the country’s hotels and restaurants sector – Mining activity in Montepuez will be assistance.” a proxy for tourism – shrank 22.8 percent in Total believes that it can only continue affected if militants attack Pemba or 2020 compared to 2019, according to statistics operations safely if its personnel and Montepuez in Cabo Delgado province, Axel van Trotsenburg, the World Bank’s from the National Institute of Statistics subcontractors are stationed outside of worsening the impact on subcontracted SMEs Director General of Operations, met with (Instituto Nacional de Estatistica: INE). insurgent-affected areas, and that the and jeopardising economic prospects. But, Nyusi and stated that the World Bank’s insurgency is also driving up project costs by if the Mozambican government announces International Bank for Reconstruction Given delays to Total’s Afungi liquefied requiring more air and ocean transportation. that US and Portuguese soldiers presently and Development “would not forsake natural gas (LNG) project, the IMF has cut Total will have to renegotiate contracts with training Mozambican units will be allowed to Mozambique” despite the “tough process” of its GDP growth prediction for Mozambique customers, contractors, and the Mozambican enter Cabo Delgado province and accompany operating under the current circumstances. to 1.6 percent in 2021, down from 1.8 percent government if it does not formally start Mozambican troops on operations, collateral before. Total suspended its contracts with operations within two years. Given expected harm to assets and personnel in projects based In Mozambique, tourism will be hampered local subcontractors in April, declared “force future market downturn, longer-term there will be reduced. Has political Islam taken a beating in Gaza? the Arabs. As Muslim converts who carry state. Its PM cannot afford a plane ride to Foreign Minister foolishly made anti- ◆ By NDT Bureau no weight vis-à-vis the real Muslims of the New York and its FM travels to Turkey in Semitic comments in an interview and was @NewDelhiTimes Middle-East, Pakistanis had to grapple with his Turkish counterpart’s aircraft. Pakistani duly pulled up. He lost an opportunity to inferiority complex. Like a dull student ever freeloaders have a field day, without realising address the global audience. [email protected] trying to impress the school teacher, Pakistan how much disdain the world views them overdid its Islamism. Excessive obsession with. You can visualise Pakistan seeking Open divisions among the Democrats in o you know which country is shouting with Kashmir never allowed Pakistan to free aircraft with free fuel and pilot from the the US encouraged the Islamists. As for the D the loudest about the Muslims? It’s devote time and energy to develop itself OIC for its leaders to shuttle among Islamic Ummah, the words of Egyptian nationalist our neighbour Pakistan. And Turkey under economically. Now it is a basket case. nations for propagation of Islamic causes. Saad Zaghloul about Arab unity ring are expansionist Erdogan comes the close true: Zero plus zero is equal to zero. second, predictably. The reasons, though Pakistan remained drunk with Islamism and numerous, are not hard to find. Kashmir for seven decades before waking Muslim Ummah is no more keen in the liberation of Palestine from Israel. They are After 1947 partition, Pakistan inherited up to realise that the world has moved a lot wisely more focussed towards saving their the best irrigated land of the Indian along its axis. Now the Muslim countries Kingdom rather than engaging in suicidal subcontinent. Lahore was progressive have become more worldly wise to mind Islamic pursuits. and in many ways more developed than their education, trade, commerce and its Indian counterpart Mumbai. But like employment. a profligate son squandering away all For Pakistan it’s fashionable to champion the inherited riches, Pakistan squandered The Muslim Ummah is no more foolish human rights for Palestinian’s thousands of to fight for the Palestinians against Israel. miles away while prosecuting minorities at away everything to become a failed state PC : Getty Images within mere seven decades of its existence. Muslim world capitals do not fall over home. And the political leadership foolishly Pakistan’s unbridled pursuit of Islamism had each other to help Palestine. When the thinks that they are making a difference! At the height of Azerbaijan war in 2020, brought it to such a pass. OIC meeting was decrying the Gaza raids, Are they bent upon creating another when Turkey was dreaming of the Caliphate, the UAE and Turkey airline’s flights were Afghanistan? This truth never sinks into the Except Pakistan, all other Muslim countries Pakistan contrived uniting the OIC and flying to Israel as scheduled. Diplomatic average Pakistani’s mind. And mostly they have got on with life. They are not un-Islamic Muslim Ummah to arouse Muslim’s hysteria relations remained normal though Turkey’s are so average! but never feel the necessity to wear Islamic over Kashmir. Foreign Minister flew to Pakistan on a label on their forehead every moment! They special aircraft and returned home with Syria, Libya, and Sudan suffered loss of forged ahead with developments in science, It sensed a similar opportunity during recent Pakistani counterpart for politicking on the several human lives including women engineering, and secular education. Israel-Palestine war but Islamic world, Palestinians. and children. Many families were forced never as uneducated as Pakistanis, could not to move out of their ancestral land. And Pakistan showcases its Islamism for many trust hard-core Islamic Pakistan for ceasefire Even Turkey did not halt its annual trade no country raised their voices when these reasons. First of all, the tag “Islamic negotiations. Pakistan is now damn frustrated totalling $6 billion with Israel, or recalled countries were bombarded. The fact is: All Republic of Pakistan” became too heavy that well-to-do, prosperous Islamic states its ambassador or reduced staff at the two Muslim nations combined can’t face Israel to carry. In the process, Pakistan vainly are yet not picking up its bait. In pursuit of Israeli missions in Ankara and Istanbul. No with its hands tied behind its back. That’s the projected itself as more Islamic than even Islamism, Pakistan has become a pauper Muslim country made any threat. Pakistan real politic! www.NewDelhiTimes.com India’s only International Newspaper

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International NEW DELHI TIMES Pragmatic Bangladesh drops ‘except Israel’ from new passports but still vote against in UNHRC surrounding the latest violence in Gaza, but ◆ By NDT Bureau also of “systematic” abuses in Palestinian @NewDelhiTimes territories and inside Israel. [email protected] At the UN Human Rights Council Bangladesh “strongly condemned Israel’s T raditionally, the Bangladeshi passport illegal and belligerent actions against the used to have a note written on it Palestinians”. Bangladesh reiterated calls allowing travel to all countries of the world for creation of a sovereign, independent except Israel. Several Muslim countries, and viable State of Palestine with the East including Pakistan, contained similar Jerusalem as its capital living in harmony provisions in their passports restricting and peace side by side with the state of travel to Israel. Mujibur Rahman had taken a strong pro- Ministry. Although, the Bangladeshi Foreign Israel. Just a few months ago, Bangladesh dropped Palestine stance and the same has been Ministry statement clarified that the ban on the words “except Israel” from the new followed by all successive rulers. But such a travel of Bangladeshi passport holders to Progressive Bangladesh must take rational electronic passports. Current Bangladeshi sudden decision at a time when Bangladesh Israel remains unchanged. The Government decisions, otherwise Islamic fundamentalism passports no longer bear the text “valid for is marking the golden anniversary of its of Bangladesh has not deviated from its will drive half a world away from them. all countries of the world except Israel.” The independence and the 100th anniversary position on Israel and Bangladesh remains Jewish owned, invested brands can stop sheer timing of this disclosure has caused of the birth of Rahman surprises hard- firm on its long-standing position in this making the apparels in Bangladesh and shift confusion among its citizens and has set the cores. Islamists applaud Bangladesh regard.” to Vietnam, Cambodia or India. proverbial cat among the Islamist pigeons! condemning the recent Israeli attacks on the Palestinians and hope the same will The statement said, “Bangladesh reiterates Jewish owned financial institutions can Since its birth in 1971, Bangladesh has continue in the greater interest of humanity its principled position concerning the Two- revoke financial instruments like Letters of favoured Palestine. During the recent Gaza and justice. State Solution of the Palestine-Israel conflict Credit. If Bangladesh turns a political issue conflict, Bangladesh’s Prime Minister in light of the UN resolutions recognising into a religious one, the non-Muslim world Gilad Cohen, the Israeli Foreign Ministry’s Sheikh Hasina and Foreign Minister Momen pre-1967 borders and East Jerusalem as the knows well how to deal with it. reiterated support for Palestinians. Deputy Director General for Asia and capital of the State of Palestine.” the Pacific, said on Twitter, “Great news! It is high time Bangladesh acts like civilized Last year, some Muslim countries mended #Bangladesh has removed travel ban to Meanwhile, Palestinian Ambassador in world where everyone is moving ahead relations with Israel but Bangladesh Israel. This is a welcome step & I call on the Dhaka Yousef Ramadan told local media except Pakistan which still refuses to use continued to support the Palestinian cause. Bangladeshi government to move forward that, “I’m aware of the development. Every common sense. Pakistan’s fixation over Islamists still do hope that withdrawing and establish diplomatic ties with #Israel so country has the sovereign right to take becoming leader of Muslim World is one two words from the passports won’t shake both our peoples could benefit & prosper.” decision on passport or any other issues. of the myriad dreams they have been Bangladesh’s long-standing moral position Having admitted that, I would say this hanging onto. Bangladesh should learn from on the Israel-Palestine conflict. Bangladesh Foreign Minister Momen decision is unacceptable to us.” clarified that the words “except Israel” Pakistan’s mistakes. Bangladesh has been supporting the two- have been withdrawn from the passports At the same time, it cannot be denied that state solution and may never change this for “administrative convenience”. “This the stance and pressure of the OIC against Turkey was the first country to recognize position. There is no Israeli Embassy in has nothing to do with the foreign policy Israel can be seen influencing Bangladesh’s Israel and continues billions of dollars’ Bangladesh and no bilateral trade between of Bangladesh”. The decision was taken decision in multilateral international forums. worth trade and travel with them. The UAE them, but Bangladesh has been allowing the six months ago. Momen added, “This move & Bahrain has signed Peace Deal and now Palestinian Embassy in Dhaka for years. will not affect our position ... We are strong This was manifested conspicuously in the are enjoying latest technology brought supporters of Palestine.” Foreign Ministry country’s support to the resolution at the in from Israel. Prudent Bangladesh must Pro-Palestinian crusaders reiterate that statement on May 23, urged people not to UN Human Rights Council proposing to set recognize that trade and travel can go on Bangladesh’s founding leader Sheikh get confused over a tweet by Israeli Foreign up a Commission of Inquiry into violations despite religious and political differences. Boris Johnson defends virus record after ex-aide’s attack rime Minister Boris Johnson rejected “some of the commentary I have heard P claims by his former chief aide that he doesn’t bear any relation to reality.” botched Britain’s coronavirus response and “This has been an incredibly difficult series is unfit for office, denying an allegation his of decisions, none of which we’ve taken government oversaw tens of thousands of lightly,” Johnson said. needless deaths. He said that “at every stage, we’ve been Health Secretary Matt Hancock also hit back governed by a determination to protect life, after Dominic Cummings singled him out to save life.” for criticism in an excoriating attack on the government. “What people want us to get on with is delivering the (reopening) road map and Cummings, who left his job as Prime trying, cautiously, to take our country Minister Boris Johnson’s top adviser in

forward through what has been one of the Photo AP PC : November, claimed the government’s slow most difficult periods that I think anybody and chaotic initial response, and Johnson’s can remember,” he told reporters. failure to learn from mistakes, meant added, saying “it wasn’t possible” to test The government says it will begin an that tens of thousands of people had died Cummings accused Hancock of lying to the everyone being discharged from hospitals at independent public inquiry into its handling unnecessarily. public and said he “should have been fired” the start of the outbreak. of the pandemic within the next year. for mistakes including testing failures that “People did not get the treatment they Opposition politicians, and families who saw patients with the virus discharged from The health spokesman for the opposition deserved. Many people were left to die in have lost loved ones to COVID-19, want it hospitals to nursing homes. Around 20,000 Labour Party, Jonathan Ashworth, said horrific circumstances,” he said during his to start sooner. people died with COVID-19 in British the government had questions to answer, hours of testimony to lawmakers. whether or not Cummings’ testimony was nursing homes in the first months of the The U.K. has recorded almost 128,000 true. “These allegations from Cummings Cummings — whose key role in the outbreak. Hancock said “the unsubstantiated coronavirus deaths, the highest toll in are either true, and if so the secretary of state campaign to take Britain out of the European allegations around honesty are not true.” Europe, and experienced one of the (Hancock) potentially stands in breach of the Union helped propel Brexit-backer Johnson world’s deepest recessions in 2020 as “We worked as hard as we could to protect Ministerial code,…or they are false and the into the Prime Minister’s post — said three successive lockdowns hobbled the people who live in care homes,” he said at a Prime Minister brought a fantasist and a liar into Johnson was “unfit for the job,”. economy. news conference. “But we could only do that the heart of Downing Street,” Ashworth said. Johnson brushed aside the criticism, saying once we had the testing capacity,” Hancock “Which is it?” Credit : Associated Press (AP)

India’s only International Newspaper www.NewDelhiTimes.com 10 31 May - 6 June 2021

International NEW DELHI TIMES Warsaw university aims to shape future conservative lawyers n increasingly influential Polish Catholic that abortions in cases of fetal abnormalities A legal institute inaugurated a university are not constitutional. The result is that in Warsaw that aims to educate a new Polish women are now required to carry generation of conservative lawyers in very sick or even unviable fetuses to term - a central Europe who it hopes will also shape ruling that in practice drives more women wider European culture. to have abortions abroad. The ruling sparked weeks of mass protests in the country, which The institute, Ordo Iuris, works to promote already had one of Europe’s most restrictive

conservative causes, including restrictions Photo AP PC : abortion laws. on abortion and opposition to same-sex legal unions as its seeks to support traditional The institute has worked across the region, family structures. It successfully lobbied for instance assisting a Romanian group that for the recent restriction of abortion rights successfully lobbied to block the legalization in Poland and is also urging countries of same-sex unions. not to ratify the Istanbul Convention, an international treaty against domestic Intermarium (Latin for “between the seas”) acknowledging the diversity of different Neil Datta, the head of the Brussels- violence, due to objections over how the is a historical term that refers to a swath of cultural spheres of Europe.” based European Parliamentary Forum on treaty depicts gender relations in the family. central Europe between the Baltic, Black Sexual and Reproductive Rights who has and Adriatic seas. It’s a region of ex- The Polish culture and Education extensively researched Ordo Iuris, says Jerzy Kwasniewski, a Warsaw lawyer who communist countries that are largely more Ministers praised the university as a place he believes the university will become a heads Ordo Iuris, said that the university, conservative than in Western Europe and that will nurture Europe’s traditional center for training “a new cadre of elites that Collegium Intermarium, is meant to be a where conservative and nationalist parties Christian traditions, while a letter was basically can transform and whitewash far- space of free academic inquiry at a time of have seen their support grow in recent years. read out from Prime Minister Mateusz right thinking so it appears professional and censorship in traditional academic settings Morawiecki, underscoring the conservative acceptable in a certain political discourse.” that overwhelmingly targets and silences The name points to a larger ambition, with government’s support for the new conservative thinkers. Kwasniewski saying he also hopes the institution. Representatives of the Hungarian He said the plan reminds him of what institution will allow conservatives from government also voiced their support. happened in the United States, where the Kwasniewski also described the college central Europe to one day shape the larger Christian right years ago began funding as a counterweight to existing institutions, — often more secular culture — dominant universities which over time produced new Ordo Iuris is widely viewed with suspicion including the Central European University, elsewhere in the European Union. elites with influence at think tanks and in by LGBT and women’s rights groups, which which was founded by the liberal Hungarian- politics. American investor George Soros and which “We don’t follow the French way of a accuse the Catholic group of being part of an international network seeking to erode the recently relocated from Budapest to Vienna division between church and state. We “This is a first step in the same thing,” Datta rights they have gained in recent decades. under pressure from Hungary’s nationalist rather follow the more American way of an said. conservative government. alliance of the spiritual with the republic,” Kwasniewski told The Associated Press on Ordo Iuris successfully backed a successful Ordo Iuris members say the group is unfairly “We all hope that Collegium Intermarium the sidelines of the conference. “We are not effort to restrict abortion rights in Poland. portrayed by activists and the media. will bring change to the academic sphere of able to to follow the motto of the European It provided legal arguments to the central Europe,” he said. Union, ‘United in diversity,’ without constitutional court, which ruled last year Credit : Associated Press (AP) Hong Kong tycoon gets 14-month As Russia tensions jail term over 2019 protest simmer, NATO ong Kong media tycoon and outspoken 1997. Beijing promised that the territory conducts massive H pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai was could retain its freedoms not found on the sentenced to more jail time over his role mainland for 50 years. war games in an anti-government protest in 2019, as s tensions with Russia simmer, thousands authorities step up a crackdown on dissent With the two sentences combined, Lai will A of NATO troops, several warships and in the city. serve a total of 20 months behind bars. dozens of aircraft are taking part in military PC : AP Photo AP PC : The founder of The Apple Daily, a feisty exercises stretching across the Atlantic, pro-democracy tabloid, Lai is also being through Europe and into the Black Sea blocking the free navigation of ships. investigated under the city’s sweeping region. national security law, imposed last year, on The war games, dubbed Steadfast Defender NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg suspicion of colluding with foreign powers 21, are aimed at simulating the 30-nation says the exercises send an important to intervene in the Hong Kong affairs. military organization’s response to an message to any potential adversary: “NATO attack on any one of its members. It will is ready.” Also receiving jail terms of 18 months each test NATO’s ability to deploy troops from were former lawmakers Albert Ho and Leung “NATO is there to defend all our allies, America and keep supply lines open. Kwok-hung, as well as Lee Cheuk-yan, a and this exercise sends a message about

PC : AP Photo AP PC : our ability to transport a large number of pro-democracy activist and ex-lawmaker Already in recent years, the United States troops, equipment across the Atlantic, across who helped organize annual candlelight and its allies have deployed troops and Europe and also to project maritime power,” vigils in Hong Kong to commemorate the equipment in Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Stoltenberg told The Associated Press bloody crackdown in Beijing’s Tiananmen Poland to try to reassure those members Lai and nine others were charged with aboard a British aircraft carrier off the coast Square in 1989. neighboring Russia that their partners will incitement to take part in an unauthorized of Portugal. assembly when they walked down a road ride to the rescue should they come under with thousands of residents on Oct. 1, Figo Chan, head of a political organization attack. The ship, the HMS Queen Elizabeth, is the 2019, to protest against dwindling political known for organizing protest rallies in the pride of the British Navy. It’s making its Russia’s decision last month to send freedoms in Hong Kong. All 10 pleaded city, also received 18 months behind bars. maiden voyage and carrying 18 F-35 jets: thousands of troops to the border area with guilty to organizing an unauthorized the first ever deployment of so many of the Three activists — Yeung Sum, Cyd Ho and Ukraine has raised concern at the military assembly. 5th generation planes aboard an aircraft alliance, which launched one of its biggest Avery Ng — received 14-month jail terms. carrier. Two others, Richard Tsoi and Sin Chung- ever defense spending initiatives after Lai, 73, was sentenced to 14 months in kai, had their jail terms suspended. Russian troops annexed Ukraine’s Crimean The ship’s presence, part of a 6-7 month prison. He is currently serving a separate Peninsula in 2014. deployment that will take it south past India, 14-month jail term for other convictions Some of the activists are already serving jail through Southeast Asia to the Philippines earlier this year also related to unauthorized sentences for previous convictions and will Top NATO brass insist that the military Sea, is aimed in part at restoring Britain’s rallies in 2019, when hundreds of thousands serve part of their new sentences consecutive exercises, involving some 9,000 troops tarnished image as a major global power repeatedly took to the streets in the biggest to their current jail terms. from 20 nations, are not aimed at Russia since it left the European Union. challenge to Beijing since the city was specifically, but they focus on the Black handed from British to Chinese control in Credit : Associated Press (AP) Sea region, where Russia stands accused of Credit : Associated Press (AP) www.NewDelhiTimes.com India’s only International Newspaper

31 May - 6 June 2021 11

International NEW DELHI TIMES Germany Egypt bets on ancient finds to Spain criticized for recognizes colonial unequally priced killings in Namibia pull tourism out of pandemic ‘equality stamps’ orkers dig and ferry wheelbarrows archaeologist, announced the discovery of a as genocide W laden with sand to open a new shaft at a 3,000-year-old lost city in southern Luxor, pain’s postal service is feeling a bustling archaeological site outside of Cairo, complete with mud brick houses, artifacts S backlash from its attempt to highlight ermany has agreed to officially while a handful of Egyptian archaeologists and tools from pharaonic times. It dates racial inequality. G recognize the colonial-era killings of supervise from garden chairs. The dig is back to Amenhotep III of the 18th dynasty, tens of thousands of people in Namibia as at the foot of the Step Pyramid of Djoser, whose reign (1390–1353 B.C.) is considered State-owned Correos España this week genocide and to spend a total of 1.1 billion arguably the world’s oldest pyramid, and a golden era for ancient Egypt. issued a set of four stamps in different skin- euros ($1.3 billion), largely on development is one of many recent excavations that are colored tones. The darker the stamp, the projects. yielding troves of ancient artifacts from the That discovery was followed by a made- lower the price. The lightest color costs 1.60 country’s largest archaeological site. for-TV parade celebrating the transport of euros ($1.95). The darkest one costs 0.70 22 of the country’s prized royal mummies euros ($0.85). As some European countries re-open to from central Cairo to their new resting place international tourists, Egypt has already in a massive facility farther south in the The postal service calls them “Equality been trying for months to attract them capital, the National Museum of Egyptian Stamps” and introduced them on the to its archaeological sites and museums. Civilization. anniversary of George Floyd being killed by PC : AP Photo AP PC : Officials are betting that the new ancient a police officer in Minneapolis. It said the discoveries will set it apart on the mid- and The Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh is stamps “reflect an unfair and painful reality post-pandemic tourism market. They need now home to an archaeological museum, as that shouldn’t be allowed” and that every visitors to come back in force to inject cash is Cairo’s International Airport, both opened letter or parcel sent with them would “send a into the tourism industry, a pillar of the in recent months. And officials have also message against racial inequality.” The accord with Namibia announced is the economy. said they still plan to open the massive new result of more than five years of talks on the Grand Egyptian Museum next to the Giza The campaign was launched during events of 1904-1908, when Germany was But like countries elsewhere, Egypt Pyramids by January, after years of delays. European Diversity Month in collaboration the southern African country’s colonial continues to battle the coronavirus, and is Entrance fees for archeological sites have with Spain’s national SOS Racism ruler. Federation, a nonprofit group, and featured a 60-second video with Spanish hip-hop star Historians say German Gen. Lothar von and activist El Chojín. Trotha, who was sent to what was then German South West Africa to put down But while the goal of Correos España was an uprising by the Herero people in 1904, to “shine a light on racial inequality and instructed his troops to wipe out the entire promote diversity, inclusion and equal tribe. They say that about 65,000 Herero rights,” critics are accusing the company were killed and at least 10,000 Nama. of having a tin ear for racial issues and misreading the sentiment of Black people in “In the light of Germany’s historical and Spain. moral responsibility, we will ask Namibia and the descendants of the victims for Photo AP PC : Antumi Toasijé, a historian who heads the forgiveness,” German Foreign Minister government’s Council for the Elimination of Heiko Maas said in a statement. Racial or Ethnic Discrimination, urged the postal service to stop selling the stamps. “Our aim was and is to find a joint path to genuine reconciliation in remembrance of “A campaign that outrages those it claims to the victims,” he said. “That includes our defend is always a mistake,” he tweeted. naming the events of the German colonial struggling to get its people vaccinated. The been lowered, as has the cost of tourist visas. era in today’s Namibia, and particularly country has, up until now, received only 5 The postal service’s initiative has divided The government has for years played up its the atrocities between 1904 and 1908, million vaccines for its population of 100 Spanish anti-racism activists. While the ancient history as a selling point, as part of unsparingly and without euphemisms.” million people, according to its Health national SOS Racism Federation backed it, Ministry. In early May, the government a yearslong effort to revive the country’s the organization’s Madrid section poured “We will now officially call these events announced that 1 million people had been battered tourism industry. It was badly hit scorn on the effort. what they were from today’s perspective: a vaccinated, though that number is believed during and after the popular uprising that genocide.” to be higher now. toppled longtime autocrat Hosni Mubarak and the ensuring unrest. The coronavirus Germany says that representatives of In the meantime, authorities have kept the dealt it a similar blow, just as it was getting the Herero and Nama were involved in publicity machine running, focused on the back on its feet. the negotiations, though Berlin’s direct new discoveries. dealings have been with the Namibian In 2019, foreign tourism’s revenue stood government. In November, archaeologists announced at $13 billion. Egypt received some 13.1 the discovery of at least 100 ancient coffins million foreign tourists — reaching pre- Talks between Germany and Namibia dating back to the Pharaonic Late Period 2011 levels for the first time. But in 2020, opened in 2015, more than a decade and Greco-Ptolemaic era, along with 40 it greeted only 3.5 million foreign tourists, Photo AP PC : after a 2004 visit to Namibia in which gilded statues found 2,500 years after they according to the minister el-Anany. then-Development Minister Heidemarie were first buried. That came a month after SOS Racismo Madrid said the campaign Wieczorek-Zeul offered Germany’s first the discovery of 57 other coffins at the same At the newly opened National Museum of helps conceal the structural nature of apology for the killings, which she said were site, the necropolis of Saqqara that includes Egyptian Civilization, Mahmoud el-Rays, racism and perpetuate the notion of Black “what today would be labeled as genocide.” the step pyramid. a tour guide, was leading a small group of inferiority. European tourists at the hall housing the Maas said that “as a gesture of recognition of “Saqqara is a treasure,” said Tourism and royal mummies. Any racially aware person would have the incalculable suffering,” Germany plans Antiquities Minister Khaled el-Anany identified what was wrong with the to support Namibia and the descendants while announcing the November discovery, “2019 was a fantastic year,” he said. “But campaign, it said, adding that the blunder of the victims with a 1.1 billion-euro estimating that only 1% of what the site corona reversed everything. It is a massive proved the need for more racially aware “rebuilding and development” program contains has been unearthed so far. blow.” people in decision-making positions at in whose design and implementation “the companies. communities affected by the genocide will “Our problem now is that we don’t know Tourism traffic strengthened in the first take a decisive role.” how we can possibly wow the world after months of 2021, el-Anany, the minister, told The campaign also received criticism on this,” he said. The Associated Press in a recent interview, social media. At the same time, he said that “legal claims though he did not give specific figures. He to compensation cannot be derived from If they don’t, it certainly won’t be for lack was optimistic that more would continue to Correos España said that it would make no this.” of trying. come year-round. comment on the controversy.

Credit : Associated Press (AP) In April, Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s best-known Credit : Associated Press (AP) Credit : Associated Press (AP)

India’s only International Newspaper www.NewDelhiTimes.com 12 31 May - 6 June 2021

Art & Lifestyle NEW DELHI TIMES Russia swims Mainstream A Poem by Prof. Shri Prakash The citadel of Eurasia but to trade its wares as rich as they can but practiced freely that has built the mighty Kremlin, in the global markets rather than hold an equal share and available for everyone's salvation. and the majestic St. Petersburg and earn its rightful gain in national poverty, Investors and Tourists can come and go called the Paris of Eastern Europe To use the versatile and look at others abroad as they want. has risen again to swim Mainstream and scientific Russian brain gather more and more wealth, Let these notional freedoms be true in the World of Democracies for making further productions while crying that it was being done Not ruined by cloak and dagger rule having banished the Communist which are in demand only by capitalist stealth. but nurtured by supremacy of law Autocracy, and earn a wholesome price Russia has realized the value of seen to be equal for all. a Prison for the Russian people be it Petroleum or Gas competition where justice stands tall. holding them paralyzed or Military Hardware, as a force for new social wealth creation Russia has renewed its historical pride in the State's monopolistic strangle hold. the central idea is to and individual happiness of all citizens but is still like a newly wed bride They have now made bold promote commercial fare. as the main source of national elation wedded to the promise of Democracy. and broken free So it is time for history to turn the tide and democratic stabilization. If this marriage has to flourish and not to try to sprint and spree and once again Russia has reinstated the Christian fail on the stage of make economic and financial gain Church Russia has to keep its promise economic growth and civilized culture, the mainstay of national pride. as the provider of spiritual true in word and deed no longer forced to be hungry The New mantra is for everyone emotion and emancipation. And endeavour its best like a foolish and lost vulture, to try to become Religion is no longer forbidden to fully live up to its new creed. Howard names College of Fine Fractured fairy tale musical Arts for Chadwick Boseman to use Britney Spears music hile studying at Howard University, sequels planned. W young Chadwick Boseman helped lead a student protest against plans to merge Howard University President Wayne his beloved College of Fine Arts into the Frederick said he and Boseman discussed College of Arts and Sciences. ways of reviving the College of Fine Arts multiple times. He failed in that goal, but 20 years later, the acclaimed actor is being posthumously “It was always important to him,” Frederick honored as the namesake of Howard’s told The Associated Press. “His commitment newly re-established Chadwick A. Boseman was very strong.” College of Fine Arts. The announcement comes a few weeks after fellow Howard alum Phylicia Rashad was announced as the fine arts college’s new dean. Boseman and Rashad met during his undergrad years, and Boseman publicly cited her as a mentor.

Boseman declared his love for the school Photo AP PC : in a 2018 commencement speech, praising, “the magic of this place. Almost anything can happen here.”

Boseman’s family said his student protest proved his passion for his alma mater.

“Chad fought to preserve the College of Fine Arts during his matriculation at Howard and lans are afoot to put some old hit songs performances at Sidney Harman Hall on remained dedicated to the fight throughout P by Britney Spears into a stage musical Nov. 29. It represents a significant pivot for his career, and he would be overjoyed by about woke princesses, and the hope is that The Shakespeare Theatre Company, known this development,” the Boseman family said the result isn’t “Toxic.” for it’s more stately offerings.

PC : AP Photo AP PC : in a statement. The Shakespeare Theatre Company in The temptation to use already proven, Boseman’s widow, Simone Ledward- Washington, D.C. announced that it will popular songs to fuel a musical is an old Boseman, who graduated in 2000 with a Boseman, called him “a very proud Bison” stage “Once Upon a One More Time,” one and on Broadway has lately led to bachelor’s degree in directing, died in August and said the naming of the school “brings featuring Spears’ tunes, including “Oops!… shows with music from The Temptations, at 43 of colon cancer. He rose to prominence this part of his story full-circle and ensures I Did It Again,” “Lucky,” “Stronger” and The Go Go’s, Tina Turner and Alanis playing a succession of Black icons in that his legacy will continue to inspire young “Toxic.” Morissette. biographical films: Jackie Robinson, singer storytellers for years to come.” James Brown and Thurgood Marshall. The musical will have an original story Spears has been under the spotlight lately Howard Fine Arts alumni include actors written by Jon Hartmere about classic after the recent FX and Hulu documentary The South Carolina native’s portrayal of Taraji P. Henson, Oscar-nominated fairy tale princesses — Cinderella, Snow “The New York Times Presents: Framing African superhero Black Panther spawned cinematographer Bradford Young, and White and Little Mermaid, among them Britney” looked at the circumstances that led a thousand memes and its cultural impact singers Roberta Flack and Jessye Norman, — who are transformed after reading “The to the establishment of her conservatorship launched him to broader stardom. At the as well as Rashad and her sister, Kennedy Feminine Mystique,” a landmark feminist in 2008 and has spurred sympathy for the time of his death, Boseman’s character was Center Honors recipient Debbie Allen. text. singer. poised to become an anchor of the Marvel Comics movie machine, with multiple Credit : Associated Press (AP) “Once Upon a One More Time” begins Credit : Associated Press (AP) www.NewDelhiTimes.com India’s only International Newspaper

31 May - 6 June 2021 13

THIS DAY | THAT YEAR | NEW DELHI TIMES

May 31, 1961 South Africa became an independent republic on this day that year. PC : Getty Images

June 1, 1979 Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) ended 90 years of white rule on this day that year. PC : Getty Images

June 2, 1946

Italy became a parliamentary republic from a monarchy

on this day that year. PC : Getty Images

June 3, 1982 The Israeli ambassador to the United Kingdom, Shlomo Argov survived the assassination attempt by a Palestinian terrorist group, in London, on this day that year. PC : Getty Images

June 4, 1989 Thousands died in the Tiananmen Square as using assault rifles and tanks, Chinese troops massacred unarmed civilians who had taken

part in pro-democracy protests on this day that year. PC : Getty Images

June 5, 1968

Robert F. Kennedy was assassinated on this day that year.

June 6, 1946

The National Basketball Association (NBA) was founded on this day that year.

India’s only International Newspaper www.NewDelhiTimes.com 14 31 May - 6 June 2021

Delhi/NCR NEW DELHI TIMES Black Fungus declared Delhi government will give 5 epidemic in Delhi lakhs to kin of those who die of oxygen shortage ◆ By NDT Bureau @NewDelhiTimes [email protected]

he Delhi government has announced it T will give Rs 5 lakhs as compensation to those families whose members died because

PC : Getty Images of oxygen shortage.

A committee of six doctors has been formed by the Delhi government to prepare PC : Getty Images a framework for the compensation. The newly constituted committee-comprising and/or representations received regarding an official from the Directorate General death due to lack of oxygen, for grant of ex- steroids and that the ordinary provision of of Health Services, and senior doctors and gratia compensation over and above the no- ◆ By NDT Bureau law for the time being in force are insufficient administrators from various hospitals-will fault ex-gratia of Rs 50,000 already ordered @NewDelhiTimes for the purpose." “assess on case-to-case basis, complaints by the government. [email protected] The Delhi Epidemic Diseases (Mucormycosis) Regulations, 2021' will remain valid for one elhi declared Black Fungus infection year, the Delhi government said on May Sputnik V makers agree to supply D or Mucormycosis on May 27. The 27. During this time, both government and Delhi government order notifying the private healthcare facilities will be required disease read: "The Lieutenant Governor of to report "each and every suspected or vaccines to Delhi: Kejriwal Delhi is satisfied that Delhi is threatened confirmed case of Mucormycosis" to the with the outbreak of a dangerous epidemic Health Department through a medical disease, namely, Mucormycosis, among superintendent/medical director/hospital in- immune-compromised patients, especially charge/chief district medical officer of the COVID-19 patients being treated with concerned district. PC : Getty Images

"Talks with the makers of Sputnik V are on. ◆ By NDT Bureau They will give us vaccine, but the quantity is @NewDelhiTimes yet to be decided”, he said. [email protected] Kejriwal made these remarks at the launch of Delhi's first drive-through vaccination elhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal centre at Vegas Mall in Dwarka, he also said D has said that manufacturers of Sputnik that vaccines made by Moderna and Pfizer V have agreed to supply the Russian are both suitable for children and the Central COVID-19 vaccine to Delhi, However, the government should procure these jabs to quantity as of now is undecided. vaccinate kids. Gautam Gambhir says he will continue serving people even if PILs are filed against him

◆ By NDT Bureau @NewDelhiTimes [email protected]

autam Gambhir, who is serving as the G Member of Parliament from the East Delhi Lok Sabha constituency has said that he will continue serving the people despite any number of ppublic interest litigations (PILs) filed against him.

“I entered politics to help people and save PC : Getty Images people’s lives, and in the future too, if I get the opportunity… one or hundred or “Whatever the court decides, we will accept thousand PILs are filed against me, I am not it. But whenever I get an opportunity in the afraid of that… if I get the opportunity in future to help people, I will do it because the future to help people, I will help them,” saving people’s lives is the meaning of he said. politics,” he said. www.NewDelhiTimes.com India’s only International Newspaper

31 May - 6 June 2021 15

National NEW DELHI TIMES Supreme Court calls Central Allocation of National Mission on use on District Authorities of Biomass in coal based to help Children Remdesivir to States Cancelled thermal power plants Orphaned During the by Central government to be set up by the COVID Crisis Ministry of power ◆ By NDT Bureau ◆ By NDT Bureau @NewDelhiTimes @NewDelhiTimes [email protected] [email protected] he Ministry of Power has decided to he Indian Supreme Court has called T set up a National Mission on use of T on the district authorities across India Biomass in coal based thermal power plants. to immediately fan out and identify these children in need of care and provide them This would further support the energy with basic needs like food, shelter, and transition in the country and our targets to clothes. move towards cleaner energy sources.

The "National Mission on use of biomass in thermal power plants" will have the following objectives;

(a) To increase the level of co-firing from present 5% to higher levels to have a larger share of carbon neutral power generation from the thermal power plants. PC : Getty Images (b) To take up R&D activity in boiler design Mansukh Mandaviya informed that the to handle the higher amount of silica, alkalis By NDT Bureau ◆ production of Remdesivir is ramped up ten in the biomass pellets. @NewDelhiTimes times from 33,000 vials/day on 11th April 2021 to 3,50,000 vials/day today under the (c) To facilitate overcoming the constraints “Days are passing by without children [email protected] leadership of Prime Minister Shri Narendra in supply chain of bio mass pellets and agro- getting any food... Hope you will understand Modi. residue and its transport upto to the power [to the Centre and the State governments] he Central government has decided to plants. the agony these children are undergoing on T discontinue the Central Allocation of the streets... We do not know the age of these Remdesivir to States. Minister of State for The Minister further informed that the (d) To consider regulatory issues in biomass children starving on the streets or how many Chemicals and Fertilizers Shri Mansukh Government has also increased the number co-firing. of them are there in such a large country,” a Mandaviya informed that he has directed the of plants producing Remdesivir from 20 to visibly anguished Justice L. Nageswara Rao, National Pharmaceuticals Pricing Agency 60 plants within a month. Now the country NHAI issues guidelines accompanied by Justice Aniruddha Bose on and CDSCO to continuously monitor the has enough Remdesivir as the supply is the Bench, said. availability of Remdesivir in the country. much more than the demand, he added. to ensure that service time per vehicle at ACCR Portal and toll plazas should be 3rd version of maximum of 10 seconds Ayush Sanjivani ◆ By NDT Bureau @NewDelhiTimes App launched [email protected]

◆ By NDT Bureau @NewDelhiTimes [email protected]

n May 27, the Ayush Ministry launched O the Ayush Clinical Case Repository ational Highways Authority of India (ACCR) portal and the third version of Ayush N (NHAI) has issued guidelines to ensure Sanjivani App in a virtual event. Minister of service time of not more than 10 seconds per state (IC) for Youth Affairs and Sports and vehicle even during peak hours at the toll Ayush, Kiren Rijiju launched the portal as plazas on the National Highways. well as the new version of Sanjivani app. data collection for a perspective multicentre of successful clinical cases and the Sanjivani community-based study,” documentation of App will prove to be critical steps and serve The Ministry of Road Transport & Ayush Clinical Case Repository (ACCR) efficacy of selecting Ayush interventions, to neutralise the negative voices downplaying Highways said in a statement that the new Portal is conceptualized and developed including Ayush 64 and Kabasura Kudineer the contribution of India’s traditional medicine guidelines will also ensure seamless flow by the Ministry of Ayush as a platform medicines in asymptomatic & mild to systems. While lauding the work of Ayush of traffic at the toll plazas by not allowing to support both Ayush practitioners and moderate COVID- 19 patients in home ministry, the Minister said that Ayush ought vehicles to queue up more than 100 metres. the public. This portal aims to portray the isolation”. Public can enter the details by to keep up the pace with current technology in strengths of Ayush systems for treatment of filling the requisite forms and information this fast-changing world. Although at most of the toll plazas, there is no various disease conditions. entered through these forms will be making waiting time after mandatory 100% Fastag, a significant contribution to public health All the rich and scientific health traditions of even then if there is queue of waiting vehicles ACCR welcomes Ayush practitioners research in the country. The information India will have to harness the potential and of more than 100 metres due to some reason, from all over the world to enrol and share entered in this application will be used only offerings of IT. He said that the contribution the vehicles will be allowed to pass without information about successfully treated cases for research purpose made by Ayush in Pandemic is tremendous paying toll till the queue comes within 100 for the benefit of all. Cases whose details and the ongoing work will be of great metres from the toll booth. For this purpose, are posted here will be screened by experts, The Ayush Minister marked the event as contribution to Atmanirbhar Bharat. He a yellow line at a distance of 100 metres from and will be uploaded for all to read/ view historic and of great importance. Reiterating also reminded that today’s launch is another toll booth will be marked in each toll lane. This subject to their review. The third version of that Ayush streams are very much scientific landmark after the launch of Namaste portal is to inculcate further sense of accountability in the Ayush Sanjivini application facilitates Shri Rijiju emphasised that this ACCR portal by the Hon’ble PM a few years ago. toll plaza operators. India’s only International Newspaper www.NewDelhiTimes.com 16 31 May - 6 June 2021

Neighbourhood NEW DELHI TIMES Bad dream stopped Everest guide from climbing peak 26th time record-holding Sherpa climber halted to try to scale the peak a 26th time. His wife, A his attempt to scale Mount Everest for a few of his friends and government officials a 26th time because of a bad dream but plans greeted him at the Kathmandu airport, but to try again next year. there was no celebratory parade like in the past because the capital is under lockdown Kami Rita already reached the summit of the due to spiking cases of coronavirus. world’s highest mountain for a record 25th time earlier this month but stopped his most Rita and 11 other Sherpa guides reached recent climb more than halfway to the top. the summit on May 7 and fixed ropes that enabled hundreds of other climbers to use

“I was making (the 26th) attempt and had the icy route to the top. Photo AP PC : reached up to Camp Three but the weather turned bad and I had a really bad dream,” Rita did not comment about the current Rita said on return to Kathmandu on a virus situation on Everest after an prominent helicopter from the mountain. Austrian outfitter over the weekend said at their tents. A total of 408 foreign climbers Nepal each year seeking to stand on top of least 100 climbers and support staff on the were issued permits to climb Everest this the 8,849-meter (29,032-foot) mountain. “The gods were telling me not to go and mountain were infected. season, aided by several hundred Sherpas because I really believe in God, I decided to and support staff who’ve been stationed at His father was among the first Sherpa return,” he said but would not elaborate on Nepalese mountaineering officials have base camp since April. guides, and Rita followed in his footsteps the dream. denied there were any active cases at the and then some. In addition to his 25 times base camps for climbing the country’s Rita, 51, first scaled Everest in 1994 and has been to the top of Everest, Rita has scaled several Sherpas believe Everest to be a goddess and Himalayan mountains. Foreign guide Lukas making the trip nearly every year since then. other peaks that are among the world’s have a religious ceremony before stepping Furtenbach halted his Everest expedition highest, including K-2, Cho-Oyu, Manaslu on the mountain to make their climbs. due to virus fears and said the outbreak was He is one of many Sherpa guides whose and Lhotse. obvious because he could see sick people expertise and skills are vital to the safety and Rita said he would certainly return next year at base camp and hear them coughing in success of the foreign climbers who head to Credit : Associated Press (AP) Pakistan Rules Out Military Bases for Myanmar’s junta uses bodies as US Anti-Terror Afghan Operations tools of terror in akistan dismissed the possibility of Qureshi’s statement came a day after P allowing the United States to operate Russia's Presidential envoy for Afghanistan, a military base on Pakistani territory or Zamir Kabulov, said that the turmoil-hit crackdown conduct "kinetic drone” operations against nation’s Central Asian neighbors, Tajikistan wo black pickups speed down an Afghanistan. and Uzbekistan, will not allow the U.S. to T empty city street in Myanmar before establish military bases on their territories. coming to a sudden stop. Security forces Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s standing in the back of the trucks begin statement came amid reports Islamabad is U.S. President Joe Biden directed the firing at an oncoming motorbike carrying allegedly negotiating a new arrangement remaining around 2,500 U.S. troops and three young men. with Washington to facilitate future U.S. roughly 7,000 NATO partners to leave counterterrorism operations in the war- Afghanistan by September 11. The bike swerves, crashing into a gate. More torn neighboring country following the shots are fired as two of the passengers The foreign troop drawdown started on withdrawal of international troops. run away, while the third, Kyaw Min Latt, May 1 and the U.S. military said that it had remains on the ground. Moans are heard as Qureshi rejected the reports as baseless and already completed “between 16-25% of the officers grab the wounded 17-year-old from speculative. retrograde process.” the pavement, throwing his limp body into a

“Let this house and the Pakistani nation Pakistan shares a 2,600-kilometer border with PC : Getty Images truck bed before driving off. be a witness to my testimony that under Afghanistan, and Pakistani military bases, as there will be civil war God forbid,” he said. [Prime Minister] Imran Khan there will be well as ground and air lines of communication, no American base built on Pakistani soil. played a vital role in facilitating and sustaining Qureshi recounted efforts Pakistani is Forget about the past,” he told the upper the U.S.-led military invasion of the making to facilitate peace and reconciliation house of the parliament. neighboring country 20 years ago. between the U.S.-backed government and the Taliban insurgency in Afghanistan. “The government of Pakistan has categorically The punitive military action was undertaken said that we will not allow kinetic use of to oust the Islamist Taliban from power days He noted that Washington and the rest of drones nor are we interested in the surveillance after the September 11, 2001, attacks on the the global community are “appreciative” of of your drones. That’s a very clear-cut policy U.S. that were plotted by al-Qaida leaders Islamabad’s role as a “responsible neighbor” of this government,” Qureshi said. from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan at the time. in advancing the Afghan peace process. Photo AP PC : The chief Pakistani diplomat delivered his Pakistan maintains close ties with the Pakistan has long retaken control of its The incident lasted just over a minute and speech a day after U.S. Defense Secretary Taliban and U.S. officials have been pressing bases, though its airspace and land routes are was captured on a CCTV camera. It is part Lloyd Austin spoke to Pakistan's Chief of the country to use its leverage over the still being used to ferry nonlethal military of a growing trove of photos and videos Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa. insurgents and convince them to negotiate a supplies for international forces across the shared on social media that’s helping expose peace deal to end Afghan hostilities. That conversation followed meeting in Afghan border and facilitating the ongoing a brutal crackdown carried out by the junta Geneva between U.S. National Security U.S. troop drawdown process. “Without going into the details, Pakistan since the military’s Feb. 1 takeover of the Adviser Jake Sullivan and his Pakistani Pakistani Prime Minister Khan, who has is playing its role,” Foreign Minister Southeast Asian nation. counterpart, Moeed Yusuf. Qureshi told the Senate session. “There long opposed the foreign military invasion An analysis by The Associated Press and the are things that are visible to you and U.S. and Pakistani officials released few of Afghanistan, took office about three years Human Rights Center Investigations Lab then there are things that are currently details of the meeting, though they said the ago and has since repeatedly vowed that at the University of California, Berkeley, not visible to you today, but the history contacts mostly focused on the evolving his country will become "only partners in looked at cases where bodies of those will recall the role Pakistan is playing situation in Afghanistan. peace” and not join any future U.S. war. targeted indiscriminately by police and the and it ought to play.” The flurry of high-level contacts fueled Qureshi reiterated that Pakistan is in favor military are being used as tools of terror. The speculation Islamabad and Washington were of a “responsible” and “orderly” withdrawal “Our objective is peace and stability in findings are based on more than 2,000 tweets on the verge of striking a new cooperation of the U.S. military. “We are concerned Afghanistan. We want to see prosperity, and online images, in addition to interviews deal to help counter future terrorist attacks that a vacuum if created in Afghanistan can we want to see progress because in your with family members, witness accounts, and against the U.S. once the withdrawal from drag and suck the country into the decade of progress lies my progress,” he said. local media reports. Afghanistan is complete. the [19]90s and there will be anarchy there, Credit : Voice of America (VOA) Credit : Associated Press (AP) www.NewDelhiTimes.com India’s only International Newspaper

31 May - 6 June 2021 17

North America NEW DELHI TIMES Canada and PAHO US cuts Mexico’s aviation safety St Kitts-Nevis announces announce cooperation a series of restrictive rating, curbing new flights measures to check spread of to advance COVID-19 COVID-19 vaccination S. regulators have downgraded The FAA decision to lower Mexico from U. Mexico’s aviation safety rating, a “Category 1” to “Category 2” puts it in a ◆ By NDT Bureau move that prevents Mexican airlines from group of countries that includes Bangladesh, ◆ By NDT Bureau @NewDelhiTimes expanding flights to the United States just as Pakistan and Thailand. @NewDelhiTimes travel is recovering from the pandemic. [email protected] The FAA found that Mexico’s ability to [email protected] The Federal Aviation Administration said oversee its airlines falls short of standards he St Kitts-Nevis government has that it downgraded Mexico after finding that set by a U.N. group called the International new collaboration between the T announced a series of measures, the country does not meet standards set by a Civil Aviation Organization. Those standards A Government of Canada and the Pan including a curfew, in a bid to curb the spread United Nations aviation group. cover a broad range of issues including the American Health Organization (PAHO) is of COVID-19 after the twin island Federation regulator’s technical expertise, inspection being launched to improve the health and The downgrade means that U.S. airlines recorded a recent cluster of cases of the virus. procedures and record-keeping. protection of populations in situations of won’t be able to sell tickets on flights high vulnerability due to COVID-19. operated by Mexican airlines, a setback that The U.S. agency said it reviewed Mexico’s will mainly hit Delta Air Lines, which has a Agencia Federal de Aviacion Civil from partnership with Aeromexico. October through February and found “several areas” of concern. Delta said its own service to Mexico is not affected by the downgrade, and it will continue In a statement, Mexico’s Communications to operate all its flights there normally. Delta and Transport Department suggested that might have to issue new tickets, however, to low staffing due to the coronavirus customers who used Delta to book a flight pandemic-which cut flights drastically- operated by Aeromexico. Aeromexico said may have played a role in the FAA To meet this target, Canada is contributing its flights won’t be affected, and it will decision. CAN$50 million (close to US$40 million) in support of PAHO’s critical work in the Caribbean and Latin America towards Prime Minister Dr Timothy Harris in a readiness and access to COVID-19 vaccines public broadcast said that “We should avoid for at-risk women, migrants, refugees, naming persons, circulating photos and or transient persons, Indigenous and vulnerable disseminating any information on the affected populations in areas where health conditions individuals. Ultimately we will have to live are typically precarious. with COVID-19 for the foreseeable future and the most effective way of doing this will be to “This collaboration was born with the get yourself and your loved ones vaccinated”. common vision that COVID-19 vaccines A curfew was imposed for 14 days in the should not be a privilege but a right for first instance to decrease the possibility of every person, regardless of their ethnicity, the continued spread of the virus. Schools economic condition, gender, migratory will remain closed for two weeks in the first status or whether they reside in a city or instance to facilitate contact tracing, testing and rural area,” said PAHO Director Carissa F. other necessary precautions consistent with the Etienne. “Canada’s contribution will help COVID-19 Prevention and Control Act. Caribbean and Latin American countries make meaningful progress on access to There will be no mass events allowed and COVID-19 vaccines for every eligible funerals must adhere to COVID-19 protocols. person, starting with the most vulnerable — most frequently women.” Photo AP PC : Police in Guyana deny

work with Mexican regulators to reverse the charges that Haiti citizens Activities will include technical cooperation “The (U.S.) review was carried out in downgrade. to strengthen all instances and stages of the October, when the AFAC was operating are banned from entering COVID-19 vaccination deployment in Latin “At Aeromexico, safety is our top priority with one-fourth of its personnel, and the country America and the Caribbean. and because of that we will continue to amid a significant surge in the COVID-19 operate under the highest international pandemic,” the department wrote. “Despite ◆ By NDT Bureau This incorporates training for public health standards,” the airline tweeted. this, the agency acted responsibly to take workers and health care professionals action on all the observations made by U.S. @NewDelhiTimes on equitable COVID-19 vaccine rollout, Volaris tweeted that the downgrade was authorities.” [email protected] as well as comprehensive technical related to factors “outside the control of cooperation on regulatory and oversight Mexican airlines.” It was unclear if the low staffing levels were he Guyana Police Force (GPF) have processes, reinforcing immunization due to employees calling in sick or being T denied that citizens from Haiti are Mexico has been by far the most popular policies and vaccine delivery strategies, furloughed during the pandemic. being prevented from entering the country. international destination for Americans supporting vaccine procurement, logistics during the pandemic. In the first two months But if it was due to cost-cutting measures and cold chain challenges, strengthening In a statement, the GPF said “it has not of this year, U.S. citizens took more than during the pandemic, it may be the most communication strategies, and advocating been directed by any authority, neither has 800,000 trips to Mexico, accounting for visible illustration to date of the real for fair access and allocation of vaccines. the commissioner of police been instructed 42% of all foreign air travel by Americans costs of President Andrés Manuel López by the Minister of Home Affairs” to ban in that period, according to figures from the Obrador obsession with cutting government “Populations like migrants and indigenous individuals from the French-speaking U.S. Commerce Department. spending. communities move across areas and borders, Caribbean Community (CARICOM) and many times they do not have access to Most of those flights are operated by The department said Mexico would continue country entering Guyana. “There is no the health coverage they need,” said PAHO U.S. airlines. Five Mexican carriers are to adhere to international safety standards ban on Haitian nationals seeking to enter Director of Health Emergencies Dr. Ciro scheduled to operate 6,152 flights — 27% and is committed to recovering its previous Guyana,” the GPF said, adding that it “is Ugarte. “By offering vaccines to transient of the total — between the two countries Category 1 rating. categorically refuting such allegations populations, countries in the Caribbean which are being peddled on social media by next month, according to data from Officials at U.S. airlines became aware of and Latin America can deter additional irresponsible, mischievous and misleading research firm Cirium. the potential downgrade recently, but they burdens to their national health systems media reporting”. held out hope that Mexican authorities and due to infections while mitigating further FAA safety ratings of other countries the FAA could resolve their differences. transmission of the virus. are designed to measure those countries’ In its statement, the police said that it More than a decade ago, the FAA considered oversight of its airlines but do not mean that wanted to clarify an issue that occurred, downgrading Israel but held back after Israel This alliance is pivotal to offer much-needed the airlines are unsafe. The FAA said it will May 23 and Monday, May 24, when 17 out took steps to reassure the FAA about its technical cooperation for a comprehensive increase scrutiny of Mexican flights to the of 61 Haitians, “were refused entry into the oversight of aviation. response against COVID-19, to save lives United States, but the downgrade does not country because of the fact that they did not and leave no one behind.” immediately affect current flights. Credit : Associated Press (AP) satisfy immigration requirements”.

India’s only International Newspaper www.NewDelhiTimes.com 18 31 May - 6 June 2021

Africa NEW DELHI TIMES France’s Macron admits some guilt for Rwanda’s genocide n a key speech on his visit to Rwanda, “We don’t want to hear him talk about I French President Emmanuel Macron responsibility, about France’s role in said he recognizes that France bears a heavy the genocide,” genocide survivor Dan responsibility for the 1994 genocide in the Karenzi told The Associated Press. “We, central African country. the survivors, wanted to hear Macron apologizing to us officially. I am really Macron solemnly detailed how France had disappointed.” failed the 800,000 victims of the genocide but he stopped short of an apology. The opposition Rwandese Platform for Democracy party tweeted ahead of Macron’s France “was not an accomplice” in speech that it hoped he would “apologize the genocide but ended up siding with honestly” and “promise to pay reparations” Rwanda’s “genocidal regime” and bore an to genocide victims. “overwhelming responsibility” in the slide toward the massacres, the French leader Macron arrived in Kigali and met Kagame said, speaking at the genocide memorial in at the Presidential residence. Macron then the capital, Kigali. toured the memorial to the frenzied 1994 PC : AP Photo AP PC : slaughter in which Hutu extremists killed “France has a role, a history and a political Kagame for his “powerful speech.” Appearing to explain his lack of apology, mainly minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus responsibility in Rwanda. It has a duty: Macron said: “A genocide cannot be who tried to protect them. That of looking history in the face and “His words were something more valuable excused, one lives with it.” recognizing the suffering that it inflicted than an apology, they were the truth,” Macron’s trip builds on a series of French on the Rwandan people by favoring silence Kagame said. “This was an act of tremendous Instead, he explained that he decided to efforts since his election in 2017 to repair over the examination of truth for too long,” courage.” apply “the white light of truth” to France’s ties between the two countries. Macron said. role in the genocide and recognize its Kagame and Macron both signaled that a responsibilities. Two reports completed in March and in April When the genocide started, “the international page had been turned in France-Rwanda ties. that examined France’s role in the genocide community took close to three months, helped clear a path for Macron’s visit, the “This recognition is what I can give. three interminable months, before reacting “This visit is about the future, not the past,” first by a French President in 11 years. A pardon is not mine to give,” Macron and we, all of us, abandoned hundreds of Kagame said, adding that he and Macron said, promising beefed-up efforts to bring thousands of victims.” discussed a range of issues, including The previous visit, by Nicolas Sarkozy in genocide suspects to justice. investment and support for businesses. 2010, was the first by a French leader after France’s failures contributed to “27 years of the 1994 massacre sent relations into a bitter distance” between the two countries, Macron said they were opening “a new Macron also said that he’d come with tailspin. Rwanda’s government and genocide he said. “I have to come to recognize our page” and rebuilding ties that are “strong 100,000 coronavirus vaccines for Rwanda. survivor organizations often accused France responsibilities,” Macron said. and irreversible.” He said that he asked to of training and arming militias and former be able to appoint a French ambassador to Rwandans who had hoped for an apology government troops who led the genocide. Although Macron didn’t apologize, he Rwanda, after six years where France has said they were disappointed by Macron’s won praise from Rwandan President Paul been without one in the country. speech. Credit : Associated Press (AP) Zimbabwe unveils statue Aide: Western honoring anti-colonialist heroine Sahara movement leader to testify in Spain he leader of the Western Sahara T independence movement at the heart of a diplomatic spat between Spain and Morocco will appear before an investigating judge in Spain on June 1, Photo AP PC : representatives of the Polisario Front in leave Spain when his health allows. the country said. PC : AP Photo AP PC : Ghali “will leave Spain when he’s out of imbabwe’s President unveiled a Mnangagwa presided over the unveiling of Brahim Ghali heads the Polisario Front danger, when the reason for him being in our Z towering bronze statue in the center of the statue, more than 3-meters high, at a and the self-declared Sahrawi Democratic country is no longer valid - that is, a critical Harare, the capital, honoring a 19th-century major intersection in Harare, close to the Arab Republic based in refugee camps in medical situation,” she told reporters. Black anti-colonialist heroine who was place where Nehanda was hanged. The western Algeria. He has been recovering hanged for leading a rebellion against white event was held to mark the Africa Day from COVID-19 in a Spanish hospital, She declined to comment on her contacts occupation. holiday. where he checked in under a false identity with Moroccan uthorities, saying diplomacy after arriving in the country with an Algerian requires discretion. diplomatic passport. President Emmerson Mnangagwa vowed to The statue of Nehanda “is a declaration that A Polisario official, who wasn’t authorized press for the return of her skull from Britain. we stand proud of our history and identity,” His presence has irked Rabat, which to be named in media reports, said that Ghali said Mnangagwa. annexed the Western Sahara in the 1970s, would abide by a National Court summons Nehanda Charwe Nyakasikana, more widely and has been tied to the sudden arrival of to testify on June 1 “in a show of trust of the known as Mbuya (grandmother in Shona) Nationalists still say her name to evoke a more than 8,000 migrants — many of them Polisario Front in justice.” Nehanda, was hanged in 1898 for leading spirit of patriotism and a major road and unaccompanied children — to a Spanish an anti-colonial rebellion. She was an the maternity wing of one of the southern enclave in northern Africa that shares a Investigating Judge Santiago Pedraz has influential spirit medium who rallied people African country’s biggest hospitals in the border with Morocco. rejected petitions by the plaintiffs, to fight against the seizure of their land by capital, Harare, are named after her. including an association of Sahrawi colonialists. The Moroccan government has said that it rights aligned with Moroccan interests, Zimbabwe, like some other African won’t reinstate its ambassador to Madrid if to have Ghali arrested. He is also After her death, Nehanda became a symbol countries, has been trying to get European Ghali leaves Spain with the same secrecy giving Ghali the opportunity to testify of resistance and inspiration for the 1970s museums to return skulls and other items used for his arrival in mid-April and without via videoconference from Logrono, the bush war that brought an end to the white- shipped there as part of war trophies during answering for genocide allegations and other northern city where the 71-year old has minority ruled country of Rhodesia and led colonialism. possible crimes that anti-Polisario groups been hospitalized. to majority rule and the independence of accuse him of. Spanish Foreign Minister Zimbabwe in 1980. Credit : Associated Press (AP) Arancha González Laya said that Ghali will Credit : Associated Press (AP) www.NewDelhiTimes.com India’s only International Newspaper

31 May - 6 June 2021 19

South America NEW DELHI TIMES Ex-official in Bolivia charged Mafia fugitive for bribes in tear gas deal among Italy’s olivia’s former interior Minister has “Murillo became the key force behind the most-wanted B been arrested in the U.S. for allegedly de facto govt’s repression,” said Kathryn taking part of $602,000 in kickbacks from Ledebur, director of the Bolivia-based arrested in Brazil Florida-based businessmen accused of Andean Information Network. “His arrest uthorities in Brazil have arrested one selling tear gas at inflated prices to the is an important message that rampant A of Italy’s most-wanted fugitives, a conservative government of former interim corruption and abuse cannot be tolerated by drug boss inside the Calabrian ’ndrangheta

President Jeanine Áñez. the international community.” organized crime network who escaped a Photo AP PC : Arturo Murillo was charged with a single prison in Uruguay two years ago, Italian According to investigators, Murillo, Méndez count of conspiring to commit money officials said. and another unnamed co-conspirator in the laundering, according to a Department of The operation coordinated by anti-mafia Defense Ministry helped a Florida-based Rocco Morabito, who has been wanted by Justice statement. prosecutors in the northern Italy city of company obtain a $5.6 million contract to Italy since 1994, was arrested in northern Turin and Reggio Calabria in the south The Associated Press previously reported supply tear gas and non-lethal equipment to Brazil following a two-year investigation also involved Interpol, Brazilian police, the that Murillo’s former chief of staff had been the Áñez government. involving multiple agencies, the Italian U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and arrested as part of the investigation along Interior Ministry said in a statement. Another Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Italy’s with the owner of a Florida-based supplier The company was allegedly owned by person suspected of drug trafficking, paramilitary Carabinieri. of police and military equipment and his Bryan Berkman, a dual Bolivian-American identified as Vincenzo Pasquino, was father, who press accounts indicate was national who purchased the tear gas in arrested along with him. “Once again, the determination, dedication charged two decades ago in Bolivia with Brazil for a much-smaller sum of $3.3 Morabito, 54, is considered the second-most and professionalism of all the investigators weapons smuggling. Murillo, 57, was one million, according to an affidavit from a dangerous fugitive on Italy’s most-wanted involved helped bring to justice, after list. Matteo Messina Denaro, regarded as the two years of complex and detailed boss of bosses within the Sicilian Mafia, has investigation, the leading exponent of the been sought since 1993. ’ndrangheta,” Interior Minister Luciana Lamorgese, Italy’s top security official, Morabito was living in Uruguay before said in a statement. he was arrested in 2017. He escaped from prison two years later. Credit : Associated Press (AP) Venezuela asks Spain to extradite leading opposition figure enezuela has filed a request to get The Spanish judiciary has in the past refused V a prominent opposition activist to extradite former Venezuelan officials extradited from Spain to complete the accused of corruption and dissidents

PC : AP Photo AP PC : remaining 8 years of a 14-year prison sought by Caracas, with judges arguing that sentence for instigating violence in their concerns they would be politically of the most outspoken voices in the Áñez Department of Homeland Security agent antigovernment protests and other alleged prosecuted were founded. government that took power in November that accompanies the complaint. Part of the crimes, The Associated Press learned. 2019 after President Evo Morales stepped profits allegedly were used to coordinate the Even if the request is finally dismissed, down amid violent protests disputing his bribe payments, some of which were to be Leopoldo López is a former Caracas-area it will bring pressure from opposition reelection to a fourth straight term. paid from a delivery of $700,000 in cash to mayor who has led some of the recent parties on Sánchez’s left-wing coalition Bolivia. years’ biggest challenges to the rule of government, which has tried to keep He has a long history of far-right provocation. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. He channels of communication open with As a congressman, he supported a ban on While the American company is not named fled the country last year and found shelter both the Venezuelan government and its abortion by once telling women that they in the complaint, Berkman is the chief in Spain. opponents. should commit suicide by jumping from executive of Taramac-based Bravo Tactical a five-story building if they wanted to Solutions, according to Florida’s corporate If allowed to proceed judicially, it could also terminate a pregnancy. registry. His father, Luis Berkman, who snare López in lengthy legal red-tape and a As interior Minister, he referred to opponents was also arrested and charged, runs a judge could restrict the politician’s overseas as “narco-terrorists,” brought charges separate Tamarac-based company called travel. against Morales for sedition and led the International Defense Group. The 50-year-old politician, who has used his deadly police response against protesters Bolivian press reports indicate that the Madrid base to lobby European and other that drew rebuke from international human older Berkman was arrested on weapons governments in the opposition’s campaign rights groups. He also bragged about trafficking charges in 2001, accused of for free elections, has said he’s at the meeting with the CIA when he traveled to heading a criminal ring that tried to smuggle disposal of the court to voluntarily appear Washington to meet with senior officials military assault weapons to Paraguay. He before Spanish judges “as many times as I in the Trump administration who initially

was declared a fugitive in 2013 without Photo AP PC : am called in.” viewed Áñez’s ascent as an opportunity having been found guilty, according to a to improve bilateral relations that turned Bolivian judicial filing. Venezuela’s High Court had announced hostile under Morales. It wasn’t immediately clear if the Spanish government or the National Court, which earlier this month that it would seek to According to the complaint, evidence But the crackdown on Bolivia’s left handles all extradition matters in the extradite López for serving “eight years, compiled from text messages, emails and backfired, and almost a year later, Morales’ country, would allow the lengthy extradition six months, 25 days and 12 hours” of a bank records show that Méndez was asked ally, Luis Arce, was elected and proceeded procedure to begin. sentence he was given for a conviction on to lock up Áñez and other officials tied to her by a co-conspirator to write a letter to the arson, injuries, public disorder and criminal short-lived rule. Brazilian tear gas manufacturer insisting association charges. that Bolivia’s government would only But a Spanish government official who wasn’t authorized to be identified by name His successor as Interior Minister, Eduardo purchase its products via the Berkman- The sentence for a total of 14 years was in media reports told the AP that the request del Castillo, said the Arce government owned company. issued in 2015 and López served the first arrived via the Venezuelan Embassy in would ask the U.S. to extradite Murillo and three of them in an infamous military On Jan. 13, 2020, Bolivia’s Central Bank Madrid. Sergio Méndez, his former chief of staff, so prison before he was put under house arrest. attempted to wire transfer $5.6 million to they could face justice at home. Bolivian Following a failed military uprising against a U.S. account belonging to the Berkman- authorities also arrested a relative of Murillo The Foreign and Justice ministries are Maduro’s government in 2019, he holed up owned company. On the same day, Murillo as he was withdrawing money and valuable involved in vetting the request first, which at the Spanish ambassador’s residence in met Bryan Berkman in Miami and opened a from a security deposit box at a bank in the needs to be elevated to the Cabinet led by Caracas. city of Cochabamba held in Murillo’s name, bank account with a $10,000 deposit. Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez before it even according to press reports. Credit : Associated Press (AP) lands in the hands of a judge. Credit : Associated Press (AP)

India’s only International Newspaper www.NewDelhiTimes.com 20 31 May - 6 June 2021

Opinion NEW DELHI TIMES Healers by day, Messiahs by night: The Silver Lining!

◆ By what really set them apart was their desire Sqn Ldr (Dr) Aseem Sharma (R) to do more – the NGO initiated a ‘free- @draseemsharmamd food-and-ration drive’ with local bodies for COVID-afflicted families, families below the [email protected] poverty line, daily wagers who were rendered jobless and other underprivileged groups. W hen Uma Nair, a retired English teacher from Don Bosco School, New Delhi, More than 500 people have already contracted COVID-19 in April this year, benefitted from the myriad initiatives by she went through an unfathomable turmoil. ‘Chhoti Chhoti Khushiyan’. And with From consultations to testing, arranging Varun’s innovative and adaptive mind medication to reserving a hospital bed, from behind the scenes, countless others will. bare necessities to unforeseen demands, she encountered many a roadblock on her road to A Bosconian at heart, it is almost poetic recovery. Enter Dr. Varun Khullar, a student that he emulates the workings of John who she had taught decades ago, who came Melchior Bosco, the great Italian priest to her rescue. And his help transcended the who dedicated his life to the betterment mere treatment of her disease – he guided her of disadvantaged youth and juvenile through every step on the way. For Uma, who model to help needy children. They cater profession, started by creating liaison cells delinquents, more than a century ago. lives to tell her story, life came around a full to children below poverty line, children with local pathologists and radiologists to Dr. Varun Khullar and his NGO ‘Chhoti circle as ‘the student educated the teacher’. with special needs, neglected children ensure seamless and timely testing. Free Chhoti Khushiyan’ can be reached and orphans with a focus on education, consultation cells were been setup across telephonically at +919557933587 and What is more heartening is the fact that she nourishment and upliftment of their quality Delhi to cater to different zones. through their homonymous social media is not the only blessed one to have crossed of life. True to their name, they strive to profiles on Facebook and Instagram. paths with Varun. He and his wife, Dr. restore joy from the trivial things in life. His trust funded the purchase and distribution Sqn Ldr (Dr) Aseem Sharma (R) Swati Arora, a psychiatrist by profession, of medicines which they distributed to MD, DNB, MBA, FMUHS (Trichology) run an NGO by the name of ‘Chhoti When the COVID-19 pandemic ravaged many in need. Amidst the raging hypoxic Chief Dermatologist, Skin Saga Centre for Dermatology, Mumbai Chhoti Khushiyan’. Conceived in 2016, through the capital city, the NGO repurposed crisis, they purchased and leased oxygen Ex-Assistant Professor of Dermatology, LTMMC & GH, this registered charitable trust serves as an itself to cater to the disease-stricken concentrators to key makeshift installations Mumbai effective, approachable and sustainable demographic. Varun, a dermatologist by at gurudwaras, mosques and temples. But Honorary Secretary, IADVL Maharashtra

very Churchillian, hiding strong purpose behind trenchant wit. But the Casablanca A Bookworm’s Lockdown conference took place between January agreeing to sleep on it. By the next morning 14th and 24th, while Gandhiji’s epic 21- ◆ By M J Akbar Roosevelt had firmed up on the name. He day hunger strike in prison, which Churchill Member of Parliament wheeled himself to Churchill’s room and repeatedly tried to “expose” as fraudulent, @mjakbar entered, only to find Churchill ‘stark naked did not begin till February 10th, 1943. and gleaming pink from his bath’. Roosevelt prepared to retreat but Churchill made his The first swadeshi movement was in "C OMPUTERS ARE USELESS. They often-quoted remark, ‘The Prime Minister America, not India. can only give you answers,” said of Great Britain has nothing to hide from the Picasso in 1968, the year in which Intel was I did not pick up A History of the World in 6

President of the United States’. Thereupon PC : Getty Images founded and Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Glasses, by Tom Standage, in search of any Roosevelt said, ‘The United Nations,’ and lofty politics or philosophy, but during that Odyssey was released. Picasso didn’t change plantations. It was the kind of protectionism Churchill replied simply, ‘Good!’” brief spell of panic at an airport when you his mind. Over the last half century computers that devastated Indian textiles and turned wonder if you have enough palliative for a have become immensely better at providing The term was put on paper in the United Lancashire millowners into millionaires. transcontinental haul. The book remained answers, but not so good at asking questions. A Nations Declaration issued on January 1st, British sugar was inferior to the French unopened on the flight because the Agatha good book asks questions. A better one raises 1942 by Roosevelt and Churchill; Stalin’s variety, leading to lower American Christie I was already reading and fatigue questions you never knew existed. The key to Soviet Union and Chiang Kai-shek’s China production and higher prices at a time when were sufficient to induce sleep. The book a lockdown can lie in a book. signed the next day through representatives, rum accounted for 80 per cent of American remained unexplored for forgotten reasons along with 22 countries. The “United exports. Who knew that Stalin was a fan of Tarzan and Nations” promised that no member would until one began rummaging through shelves cowboy films? Or that Stalin and Roosevelt make a separate peace with Germany, during the long Covid season of 2020-21. Rum was the people’s drink, cheaper and smoked the same cigarette brands: Camels, Japan or Italy. They also agreed “to ensure The glass of American rum became a mirror stronger than wine or brandy. It was drunk Chesterfields and Lucky Strikes? Thank you, life, liberty, independence and religious of democratic surge and upsurge. on every occasion, from signing a contract to Diana Preston, for Eight Days at Yalta: How buying a farm to private or public festivity. freedom, and to preserve the rights of man In 1758, George Washington, later first Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin Shaped the Local consumption amounted to about four and justice”. President of the US, was a candidate for Post-War World. gallons per year for every man, woman and Eight decades later, how many countries Virginia’s Assembly, the House of Burgesses. child. Assuming that children did not drink, The Russian leader was a warm host at the would remain on the UN register if the His campaign distributed 28 gallons of rum, and women drank less than men, make conference in February 1945, where he let principles of liberty and religious freedom 50 gallons of rum punch, 34 gallons of that about six gallons for every adult male. Roosevelt and Churchill deliberate over the were to be strictly enforced? wine, 46 gallons of beer and two of cider America had high standards. last phase of the fighting, while he expanded to the electorate. According to my sober Footnote: The most intense German Americans responded to the Molasses Tax the strategic boundaries of the Soviet Union calculations, given that there were only 361 bombing during World War II was not over with a boycott of British goods. The battle in post-war Europe and set off the icy tremors voters, this adds up to nearly half-a-gallon London during the Blitz, as we commonly cry “no taxation without representation” was of the Cold War. When the American and of alcohol per voter. By those standards, assume, but over Malta (then British) in the first heard in the 1730s. Groups like the “Sons British delegations landed at Saki airport in America’s latest President Joe Biden would Mediterranean. In one sustained spell, the of Liberty” began to suggest independence Crimea, en route to Yalta, they were greeted have had to hand out over 40 million gallons Luftwaffe dropped 6,770 tonnes of bombs, at clandestine meetings in distilleries, where with caviar, sturgeon, smoked salmon, eggs, of spiritual nourishment on his way to the or twice that of the Blitz, on this tiny island they fuelled their patriotism with rum champagne, vodka and tumblers of Crimean White House. Democracy, however, has 17 miles long and nine miles wide. punch, tobacco, cheese and biscuits. But brandy. The British had their own gin, but made progress. Instead of rum, we have colonisation has an inexhaustible appetite someone forgot the lime; so Stalin had a It is well known that Churchill wanted opinion polls. They cost much more, but are for money. London applied a further squeeze lemon tree brought on a special plane. Mahatma Gandhi anywhere but in India. equally heady until actual results prove them The British, at various points of the freedom to be as illusory as intoxication. through the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Tea According to Preston, and we have no good movement, were ready to send their bête Act of 1773. Americans dumped British tea In other news: The American Revolution reason to disbelieve her, the term “United noire to Aden, Burma or southern Africa, into the Boston harbour in 1773, and dumped began not over a tax on tea, but a tax on rum. Nations” was chosen in the last week of but did not for fear of public upheaval. But Britain in 1779. But it all started with rum. December 1941 by Roosevelt and Churchill I doubt Diana Preston’s contention that In 1733, the British parliament passed To Read Full Article : https://www. in a naked display of fraternal power. The Churchill suggested sending Gandhi to the Molasses Act, imposing a tax of six newdelhitimes.com/a-bookworms-lockdown story is best told by the author: “Late one America during his talks with Roosevelt, pence a gallon upon molasses, and a tariff M J Akbar is an MP and the author of, most evening in the White House they had been adding, “He’s awfully cheap to keep, now on sugar imported by its North American recently, Gandhi’s Hinduism: The Struggle discussing several suggestions before that he’s on hunger strike”. The line sounds colonies from any source other than British against Jinnah’s Islam www.NewDelhiTimes.com India’s only International Newspaper

31 May - 6 June 2021 21

Sports NEW DELHI TIMES Tokyo Olympics COVID-19 crisis hits European looking more and more like football’s financial landscape fan-free event ◆ By Dr. Pawan Mathur @PawanMathur he President of the Tokyo Olympic T organizing committee hinted that [email protected] even local fans may be barred from venues when the games open in just under two he COVID-19 pandemic has hit sports months. T hard in financial terms and the usually cash rich football in Europe is no exception. Fans from abroad were ruled out months ago The 12th UEFA club licensing report as being too risky during a pandemic. released on May 21 provides an in-depth examination of the impact of the pandemic The prospect of empty venues at the on European football. Andrea Traverso, postponed Olympics became more likely Director of Financial Sustainability when the Japanese government decided to and Research at UEFA, remarks in the extend a state of emergency until June 20 as introduction to the report that football has COVID-19 cases continue to put the medical been hit hard by the crisis. “Similar to other system under strain. sectors such as tourism and entertainment, the pandemic generated a revenue crisis The state of emergency was to have been in the football industry that triggered lifted. The extension in Tokyo, Osaka and

widespread liquidity shortfalls. COVID-19 PC : Getty Images other prefectures raises even more questions has caused unprecedented and unforeseen if the Olympics can be held at all. disruption and affected football at all levels: professional and amateur football, Organizers and the IOC are insistent they men’s and women’s football, senior, youth before the massive disruption to their The impact of the pandemic on the transfer will go ahead despite polls in Japan showing and grassroots football, clubs and national business models. It mentions that top- market is also explored in detail in the 60-80% want them called off. teams, sponsors and broadcaster”. division club revenues increased by 9.1% report. It shows that European clubs’ transfer between 2018 and 2019, fuelled by larger spending in the summer of 2020 was down The report highlights that before the revenue distributions as a result of the new by an estimated 39% on the record summer pandemic, European football was growing UEFA club competition cycle and strong 2019 window, and down by 30% on the financially strong. Top-division revenues 10.3% growth in sponsorship revenue. average for the previous three summers. had surged with an annual average growth There were strong net cash inflows prior of 8.2% over the last twenty years. The 711 to the pandemic. Clubs’ cash balances Total transfer spending only passed the €4bn top-division clubs added €1.9 million to their strengthened significantly over the ten mark because of significant spending during revenues in 2019, while operating profits years to end-2019, with top- division clubs the final month, and it was driven even more reporting a net cash balance of over €3.5bn than usual by English clubs, with their share

PC : AP Photo AP PC : were the second highest ever recorded and club cash reserves and balance sheets were at the end of FY2019, compared with of total European transfer spending rising to the strongest on record. In fact, the lowest €1.2bn and €1.3bn for FY2012 and FY2013 37%, up from 25% in 2019. All in all, 43% of annual growth rate in the 20 years up to end- respectively. Clubs reported net cash inflows global transfer activity by value involved at 2019 was 3.0%, during the global financial of €220m in FY2019. Net stadium and asset least one English club. The report mentions crisis of 2008-09. investment* outflows totalled €1.4bn, and that deep stakeholder cooperation enabled player investment outflows totalled €1.8bn. the global transfer window to be extended and Financial Fair Play rules to be adapted. However, the pandemic forced football “We would like to make a decision as soon The report then identifies the factors that led So far this has prevented any contagion in to shut down for a period of 10-20 weeks as possible (on fans), but after the state to the dwindling revenues post pandemic the settlement of transfer debts depending upon the specific situation of of emergency is lifted we will assess,” resumption of football. A drastic reduction the country leading to a period of declining organizing committee President Seiko in gate receipts due to the restrictions on UEFA President Alexander Ceferin revenues and finances. The current projection Hashimoto said at her weekly briefing. crowds and matches played behind closed remarked: "The whole football ecosystem, of lost revenues across the 2019-21 period is doors was one such major factor. Just under professional, amateur and youth have €7.2bn for top tier and €1.5bn for lower tier Hashimoto promised to decide on local fans 74 million spectators were recorded as been heavily disrupted by the pandemic. professional football. Every level and every by April, then put it off until early June. Now attending matches across all of Europe’s top This requires deep co-operation and a co- corner of professional football has been hit the deadline is within a month of the July 23 divisions in the 2019/20 (2020), compared ordinated response across the football hard. Clubs with heavy reliance on supporter opening date. to 105 million the previous season, pyramid. Solidarity, not self-interest, must attendance are particularly impacted by the representing an annual decline of 30%. prevail and will win the day. This report pandemic. “There are many people who are saying Weekly lost ticket revenues from closed clearly shows that we are now operating in that for the Olympic Games we have to run doors amounted to €85m. Coupled with a new financial reality, and it is becoming without spectators, although other sports The report looks at the at the impact that the this was a loss in sponsorship due to halted clear that our current Financial Fair Play are accepting spectators,” Hashimoto said. pandemic has had on competitions structures commercial activities. Decline in broadcast regulations will need to be adapted and “So we need to keep that in mind. We need and match calendars. The pandemic had revenue is another factor. If the pandemic updated. Financial sustainability will remain to avoid that the local medical services a significant impact on Europe’s football had not struck, the overall expected growth our goal, and UEFA and European football are affected. We need to take those things calendar in 2020. Since the Return to Play rate of broadcast revenue was 7% in 2019/20 will work as a team to equip our sport with into consideration before agreeing on the Protocol established medical and operational and 4% in 2020/21. new rules for a new future”. spectator count.” standards for staging European club and national team competitions last summer, Cancellation pressure grows daily on Tokyo UEFA has successfully held more than 1,000 and the IOC as more questions arise about matches with only 16 games called off due the risks of bringing 15,000 Olympic and to the pandemic. In order to return to their Paralympic athletes from more than 200 original timelines, at least eight more leagues countries and territories into Japan, a country did not organise a mid-season break of more that has been largely closed off during the than 14 days in 2020/21, including the pandemic. French Ligue 1 and the German Bundesliga. In addition, 16 different top divisions had a The IOC says more than 80% of athletes mid-season break that was at least one week and staff staying in the Olympic Village shorter than last season. on Tokyo Bay will be vaccinated. They are expected to remain largely in a bubble at the village and at venues. The report then presents the key pre- pandemic trends and highlights clubs’ Credit : Associated Press (AP) financial positions at the end of 2019

India’s only International Newspaper www.NewDelhiTimes.com 22 31 May - 6 June 2021

Technology & Health NEW DELHI TIMES Killing in the name of God is inhumane, concept of sacrificial animals need revisit The Qu’ran says, “It is not their meat, nor their blood, that reaches god. It is their piety.” Except now there is no piety, only bloodlust or honours anyone, much less the Lord, by part of this honours Allah. The Qu’ran says, cows had been smuggled from India. In the killing an animal. And over the centuries “It is not their meat, nor their blood, that months preceding Eid, hundreds of camels ◆ By Smt. Maneka the festival has come to revolve primarily reaches god. It is their piety.” Except now are bought at melas by ‘farmers’ (even Sanjay Gandhi around killing. No honour, no sacrifice, it is there is no piety, only bloodlust. though the camel is used in no fields) and simply about buying an animal and killing taken to West Bengal, Meerut, Hyderabad, @ManekaGandhiBJP him. Nothing of the original form or intent Chennai and Kerala to be slaughtered. remains. Devotees are not supposed to round the world Muslims mark the purchase the animals they sacrifice. They do If someone lives in a place and time where A Festival of Sacrifice on the 10th day of it anyway. No killing should happen before meat-eating is a matter of survival, or it the holy month of Dhu-al-Hijjah. It honours lengthy prayers. It happens anyway. To be is the ultimate luxury which cannot be Abraham’s willingness to slay his son acceptable, sacrificial animals, or aḍḥiya, forgone, the issue of animal sacrifice has Ishmael at Allah’s bidding. The killing did must meet certain age and quality standards. some context and relevance. But we live not happen. Apparently, the angel Gabriel Sick and old animals are sacrificed anyway. in the modern world. We have to seriously appeared and declared that God was so Even which animal, has become irrelevant question practices that not only have lost moved by Abraham’s devotion that now he – it’s no longer just goats— now it’s lambs, meaning, but also are contributing to could kill a goat instead. sheep, cows, camels. It’s the killing that is PC : Getty Images needless bloodshed, health problems and important, not the story nor the grace and environmental destruction. Such a frightening story. First, it has been compassion behind it. lifted wholesale from the Christians. The Meat-eating (and in relation to it, animal story is known as the Akedah in Judaism Are the animals raised by Muslims as part sacrifice) is not intrinsic to who the Holy and originates in the Tora, the first book of their family in accordance with the entire The purpose: to offer up something precious Prophet was, or to what he preached. Did of Moses (Genisis, Ch. 22) and Ishmael is story? In most countries they are certainly as a reminder to not become preoccupied the Holy Prophet practice this himself? No, originally Isaac. not raised, or killed in a Halal manner. by one’s possessions – has been long and neither did many of his most prominent They are bought from countries like New forgotten. If one were to substitute the companions. The Prophet was known for Second, it has been twisted. In the original Zealand, and shipped over in brutally killing of the animal with offering up one’s his compassion toward animals. “There is Old Testament story, Abraham kills no one – overcrowded conditions, where large jewels or property, and giving the money to not an animal that lives on the earth, nor a even though Jehovah is a violent God. When percentages regularly die from disease or charity, I doubt if the ‘festival’ would be so being that flies on its wings, but they form the Muslims adopt the story, the killing of an heat exhaustion. This is not halal. enthusiastically celebrated. No, it is always communities like you. Nothing has we innocent animal gets added. The very name easier and happier to kill in the name of omitted from the Book, and they all shall of the festival Eid-al-Adha indicates its new As for the killing itself, it takes place God, than it is to really offer up something be gathered to their Lord in the end,”- Al- emphasis. The word ‘id’ derives from the anywhere. Not in sacred places, not with you value. Like Christmas, originally Quran, 6:38. Arabic ‘iwd’ means ‘festival’ and the word sacred rites. It happens in markets and meant to mark the birth of Christ, has now Adha means sacrificial animal. The word bylanes, in houses, above gutters, near degenerated into a massive shopping frenzy, One of the better-known Hadiths is, ‘god’ does not even appear in the name, it garbage dumps. Some residential colony so too has Eid, sadly, become a bloodbath. “Whoever is kind to the creatures of God, is the festival of killing animals. In India, in gutters run with rivers of blood. In Egypt, is kind to himself”, a statement attributed to fact, the festival is better known as Bakr-id - Saudi Arabia, and the Middle East, the In India, you can kill wherever you like and the Holy Prophet and narrated by Abdallah a reference to the unfortunate animal whose slaughter takes place on the streets, in whatever you like. While the law does not bin Amru. This declaration is one of the life is snatched. between rushing cars. Even the governments permit the slaughter of animals in public most profound ever made on so many levels: there have called the killing ‘barbaric and places, implementation is a far cry. It has peace on Earth is the ultimate goal we desire, Third, there seems to be the narrow unacceptable’ and levy heavy fines on become a matter of right to slaughter animals reaching heaven is the second desire. Being presumption that Allah is a human male who private citizens, or vendors, who kill animals in houses, residential complexes, societies kind gets us both. Killing, whether in the understands the agony of the human father in public at pop-up livestock markets. and, in some localities, roads. In West name of property, jealousy, or religion, gets faced with killing his son, but not that of the Bengal, Assam, Jharkhand, inspite of court us nowhere. animal and his family. I refuse to accept that. There are videos of ‘the faithful’ kicking the prohibition, cows are killed openly. I was To join the animal welfare movement dying animals, spitting on them, standing on in Bangladesh many years ago on Eid and contact [email protected], I also fail to understand how one celebrates, their stomachs – I fail to understand which I saw thousands of cow carcasses. All the www.peopleforanimalsindia.org Forecast: 40% chance Earth to Change may

be hotter than Paris goal soon allow scientists Photo AP PC : here’s a 40% chance that the world will T get so hot in the next five years that it to grow human will temporarily push past the temperature limit the Paris climate agreement is trying to prevent, meteorologists said. embryos longer ew guidelines released remove a A new World Meteorological Organization N decades-old barrier to stem cell research, arbitrary and prevented study of a critical forecast for the next several years also recommending that researchers be allowed to period in embryo development — typically predicts a 90% chance that the world will Photo AP PC : grow human embryos longer under limited between 14 and 28 days, said Robin Lovell- set yet another record for the hottest year conditions. Badge, a stem cell expert at London’s Crick by the end of 2025 and that the Atlantic will industrial times — the more stringent of two Institute and chair of the group behind the The “14-day rule,” an international ethical continue to brew more potentially dangerous Paris goals. The world is already 1.2 degrees new guidelines. hurricanes than it used to. Celsius (2.2 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer standard that limits laboratory studies of than pre-industrial times. human embryos, has been in place for “We think a lot of congenital abnormalities are For this year, the meteorologists say large decades and has been written into law in developing quite early during this period,” said parts of land in the Northern Hemisphere Last year, the same group forecasted a 20% countries including Britain and Australia. Lovell-Badge. “By understanding these early will be 1.4 degrees (0.8 degrees Celsius) chance of it happening. Scientists previously have been required stages better, it might allow us to adopt simple warmer than recent decades and that the The doubling of the odds is due to to destroy human embryos grown in a lab procedures to reduce the amount of suffering.” U.S. Southwest’s drought will continue. improvements in technology that show it before they reach 14 days. The guidelines, last updated in 2016, were The 2015 Paris climate accord set a goal has “actually warmed more than we thought Some researchers have favored revising issued by the International Society for Stem of keeping warming to a few tenths of a already,” especially over the lightly-monitored the rule to further study the development Cell Research, whose standards are widely degree warmer from now. The report said polar regions, said Leon Hermanson, a climate process while opponents say such accepted by countries, medical journals and there is a 40% chance that at least one of the scientist at the United Kingdom’s Met Center experiments at any stage cross a moral the research community. It didn’t specify next five years will be 1.5 degrees Celsius who helped on the forecast. boundary and it’s unclear the change would how much longer embryos could be grown. (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than pre- Credit : Associated Press (AP) advance research. The original limit was Credit : Associated Press (AP) www.NewDelhiTimes.com India’s only International Newspaper

31 May - 6 June 2021 23

Entertainment & Lifestyle NEW DELHI TIMES Oscars set next Samantha Akkineni Says Anxiety Amazon to buy Has Prevented her from Signing MGM, studio behind show date for James Bond and March 2022 any New Bollywood Projects ‘Shark Tank’ lanning is already underway for the nline shopping giant Amazon is buying P 94th Oscars, which will be held on ◆ By NDT Bureau O MGM, the movie and TV studio March 27, 2022, the film academy and ABC @NewDelhiTimes behind James Bond, “Legally Blonde” and said. [email protected] “Shark Tank,” with the hopes of filling its After a year of disruption, innovation and video streaming service with more stuff to amantha Akkineni, a well-known catastrophically low ratings, the Academy watch. S actress in the Tamil and Telugu film Awards are getting back to business as usual. industries, has yet to make her Bollywood Amazon is paying $8.45 billion for MGM, The show will return to the Dolby Theatre debut. She justified her decision in a new making it the company’s second-largest for its ABC broadcast and the eligibility interview, saying she was "scared" to enter acquisition after it bought grocer Whole window will once again close at the end of the Hindi film industry. Foods for nearly $14 billion in 2017. the calendar year. Samantha Akkineni has expressed her The deal is the latest in the media industry This past year, the academy extended aversion to working in Bollywood, claiming that’s aimed at boosting streaming services the eligibility window into February and that she is "scared" to do so. She stated that to compete against Netflix and Disney+. canceled non-televised events like the if she were to be cast in a romantic Hindi AT&T and Discovery announced last week Governors Awards and the Nominees film, she would choose to work alongside that they would combine media companies, Luncheon because of the pandemic. All Ranbir Kapoor. creating a powerhouse that includes HGTV, those trimmings are now back on the CNN, Food Network and HBO. schedule, with the Governors Awards set Samantha is currently preparing for the for Jan. 15 and the luncheon to be held on release of her first Hindi web series, which Amazon doesn’t say how many people March 7. Nominations will be announced on will also be her digital debut. In the second watch its Prime Video streaming service, but Feb. 8. season of Raj and DK's The Family Man, more than 200 million people have access to which stars Manoj Bajpayee, she will play it because they pay for Prime membership, the adversary. Ranbir Kapoor was her first choice. which gives them faster shipping and other perks. When asked about why she hasn’t signed to Samantha's big-screen debut was in 2010 any Hindi Fils, she said, “Because maybe I with Ye Maaya Chesave, which was then am scared? The talent here is amazing. I am dubbed in Hindi as Ekk Deewana Tha. scared,”. Samantha was also asked to select Dookudu, Eega, Attarintiki Daredi, Kaththi, the actor with whom she would like to star in Theri, and Rangasthalam were among her a romantic Bollywood film if she were cast. many successful films. Kartik Aaryan has Dropped Out

of Ajay Bahl's Red Chillies Film Photo AP PC : PC : AP Photo AP PC :

The academy said, however, that dates remain subject to change. The organization is also acknowledging that the movie business is still being impacted by the pandemic Amazon said that it would use MGM’s vast and are extending the streaming eligibility library, which includes famous characters caveat they adopted last year into the 2021 such as Rocky, RoboCop and Pink Panther, awards season. That means that films don’t to create new movies and shows. necessarily have to have a theatrical run to qualify and can debut on streaming or video “It’s going to be a lot of fun work,” said on demand services. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, during the company’s shareholder meeting. “People The end of March broadcast date is much who love stories are going to be the big later than usual for Hollywood’s biggest beneficiaries.” awards show. Originally the 94th edition was set to air on Feb. 27, but that month is also Sucharita Kodali, an e-commerce analyst crowded with major live events, including at Forrester Research Inc., said streaming the 2022 Olympics and the Super Bowl. PC : Getty Images companies need shows people can’t watch work because it differed from what had been elsewhere in order to stand out and be The audience for the 93rd Oscars, which ◆ By NDT Bureau told to him as a one-liner plot. Kartik has competitive. were held at Los Angeles’ Union Station in @NewDelhiTimes repaid Red Chillies the Rs. 2 crore signing late April, was less than half of its previous fee for the project. “There is an arms race to get what you low, with only 9.85 million viewers tuning [email protected] can while the window is open,” she said. in to watch “Nomadland” win best picture. Kartik Aaryan made waves earlier this year Plus, the price tag is just a tiny fraction of It was par for the course for a pandemic artik Aaryan has dropped out of the Red after declining to participate in Karan Johar's Amazon’s valuation, which is nearing $2 awards show: Both the Golden Globes (6.9 K Chillies film being directed by Ajay film "Dostana 2." The actor had spent a lot trillion. million viewers) and Grammy Awards (9.2 Bahl. The film, tentatively titled Goodbye of time shooting with Janhvi Kapoor for million) had record low audiences as well. Freddie, also starred Katrina Kaif and Kartik the film, but he opted to leave the Collin Known for its roaring lion logo, MGM Aaryan. DCunha-directed picture due to creative is one of the oldest studios in Hollywood, And next year will be different without the issues. Rajkummar Rao is rumoured to be in founded in 1924 when films were still silent. Golden Globes, which generally air in early The social comedy picture, which was talks to replace Kartik in this film. But its shine has faded considerably over January, stealing some of the Oscars thunder. revealed a few months ago, was set to begin the years. In the mid-1980s, it sold much NBC said earlier this year that it would production in June of this year. However, Kartik is now working with Kiara Advani of its pre-1948 catalog, including “The not air the Golden Globes in 2022 amid with Kartik opting out, it appears that in Anees Bazmee's horror comedy "Bhool Wizard of Oz” and “Gone with the Wind,” controversies and calls for reform within the the casting for the film may have to be Bhulaiya 2." He's also signed on to star in which is now owned by Warner Bros. And Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the reconsidered. Kartik and director Ajay Bahl Rohit Dhawan's project, which is now in pre- its sprawling California lot was bought by organization that puts it on. reportedly had creative disputes, which led production. The film ‘Dhamaka,' starring Sony. to the actor's decision to leave the movie. Kartik Aaryan and produced by Ronnie Credit : Associated Press (AP) Kartik was dissatisfied with the finished Screwwala, will be released on OTT soon. Credit : Associated Press (AP)

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Think - Tanks NEW DELHI TIMES Learning is a lifelong process driving in momentous change Learning is the only thing the mind never exhausts, never fears, and never regrets. - Leonardo Da Vinci times, it constitutes a great chunk of total ◆ By Dr. Pramila lifetime learning of an individual. Informal Srivastava learning is a spontaneous and lifelong learning activity @PramilaBK [email protected] An analogy will best explain the difference between formal and informal learning. ne of the continuous processes that Imagine two scenarios of an individual sitting O individuals acquire throughout in a vehicle. In the first case, the vehicle is their life is that of learning. Learning is being driven by someone else and the driver imperative for the personal as well as the decides the destination of the vehicle. This is professional growth of the individual analogous to formal learning. In the second scenario, the individual himself is the driver

helping him/her to better understand the PC : Getty Images surroundings and facing all the problems of the vehicle and he decides the destination, one may encounter. According to the internalized and mixed with what we have Learning may be formal or informal. Formal the route to be taken as well as the speed APA Dictionary of Psychology, learning experienced-changes what we know and learning takes place within an entity that of the vehicle. This may be considered is “the acquisition of novel information, builds on what we do. It’s based on input, could be an educational institute or a work analogous to informal learning. Acquisition behaviours, or abilities after practice, process, and reflection. It is what changes based professional organisation. Formal of both formal as well as informal learning observation, or other experiences, as us”. learning is structural in nature and includes contribute to the growth and success of an evidenced by change in behaviour, purposeful, planned effort to impart specific individual. knowledge, or brain function. Learning is thus a continuous process as skills or information. Informal learning, the human mind grasps and understand new on the other hand, takes place outside a Learning helps persons to acknowledge Learning involves consciously or non- things around it with every passing day. traditional formal learning environment. that they can learn new skills and personal consciously attending to relevant aspects of Continuous learning may be understood This takes place in our daily lives and is and professional growth and development incoming information, mentally organizing as the process of learning new skills and contingent of the daily life experiences like in life. The process of learning – be it the information into a coherent cognitive knowledge on an on-going basis. The curious peer groups, family or any other influence formal or informal- impacts the individual representation, and integrating it with mind is always looking to learn in order in one’ surrounding. Informal learning positively as he/she becomes more agile relevant existing knowledge activated to expand his/her horizon of knowledge experiences thus include non-compulsory, and responsive to change and enhances from long-term memory. Learning may and acquire skills that enable a better self-guided learning experiences. Although their cognitive ability to cope with a rapidly thus be understood as the transformative understanding, adaptation and interaction informal education is unorganised, changing environment. There is no limit to process of taking in information that—when with the surrounding environment. unsystematic and even unintentional at learning. It is an endless process. Better Work Bangladesh Programme and its steady Success and national legislation covering wages, the country’s largest export earner. Women in the industry, they remain overrepresented ◆ By International Institute for Non - Aligned Studies contracts, workplace safety and health, and make up 56 percent of jobs in Better Job in lower-paid positions, with men holding working time has gradually improved as a Bangladesh partner factories. Bangladesh is the majority of supervisory positions. @iinsNAM result of their involvement with Better Work currently the world’s second-largest exporter Better Work Bangladesh is well positioned [email protected] Bangladesh. of ready-made garments. Bangladesh’s within the industry to put a greater emphasis garment exports were reported to be worth he Better Work Bangladesh (BWB) Better Work Bangladesh collaborated with on gender equality in its factory work, while US$34.13 billion in 2019. T Programme, a collaboration between the government in the early stages of the also encouraging tripartite constituents to do the International Labour Organization (ILO) programme to better align certain aspects By incorporating gender equality and so. This plan examines Bangladesh’s current and the International Finance Corporation of the labour code with international labour inclusion concepts into all facets of its job, gender equality situation and outlines (IFC), aims to improve the lives of workers, standards. To that end, labour law changes Better Work Bangladesh has renewed its Better Work Bangladesh’s approach, as their families, and their communities while were introduced, as well as revisions to union strategic emphasis on gender equality and well as a potential roadmap for fostering also increasing the competitiveness of membership requirements, resulting in the women’s economic empowerment. Gender gender equality in the Bangladeshi garment Bangladesh’s ready-made garment industry. registration of around 150 new factory-level problems have always been a part of Better industry. unions. Better Work Bangladesh focuses Work Bangladesh, and the latest Gender Better Work Bangladesh was established in Better Work Bangladesh has published its first on improving working conditions and Strategy 2020-2022 is motivated by the 2014 with a single goal in mind to assist in the Industry and Enforcement Review, which opportunities for women, advancing their Better Work Global Gender Strategy (2018- creation of a competitive garment industry that covers 200 factory evaluations performed competitiveness and career advancement, as 2022), as well as the implementation of the provides decent employment for workers, good between June 2015 and December 2018, and well as their health and safety, in addition to International Labour Organization’s (ILO) business for factories and brands, and economic provides an overview of noncompliance findings our tried-and-true strategies for addressing the Violence and Harassment Convention, development for Bangladesh. It aims to help in factories participating in the programme. Non- root causes of non-compliance in factories. 2019. (No. 190). Bangladesh build a competitive garment industry compliance is measured in eight labour standard that provides decent employment for workers, The Gender Equality and Returns (GEAR) Better Work Bangladesh’s Gender Strategy is clusters: four based on ILO core labour laws, including women, good business for factories initiative, for example, trained 144 the product of an ongoing collaboration with such as child labour, sexism, forced labour, and and brands, and economic growth. female employees in the pilot process in key players leading to the enhancement of freedom of association and collective bargaining; collaboration with the IFC; 58 of them are Better Work Bangladesh aims to increase capacity working conditions and the competitiveness and four based on Bangladeshi labour law, now in supervisory positions with a 39 at the factory and national systemic levels so that of the ready-made garment (RMG) industry, such as wages, contracts and human resources, percent pay rise. GEAR is being expanded to stakeholders can recognise, avoid, and solve as well as pooling the useful knowledge of workplace safety and health, and working time. include 700 female operators and managers related issues in the most efficient and successful other Better Work Country Programs. in 70 factories. In 80 garment factories, (in arrangement with way possible (tripartite, bipartite, individually). Better Work Bangladesh has worked with The RMG market, as a major employer News from Non-Aligned World) Better Work Bangladesh has been collaborating UNICEF to promote breastfeeding and of women, can be attributed to the rise www.iins.org with staff, employers, and the government to maternal rights for working mothers. in women’s economic create lasting change in the industry through participation in Better Work Bangladesh currently operates our core services – Advisory, Assessments, and Bangladesh over the last Contact New Delhi Times in the greater Dhaka area and Chattagram, Training – as a unique collaboration between the fifteen years. Despite covering factories in major garment industry International Labour Organization (ILO) and the these advancements, For Complaints & Suggestions belts. Plans are in the works to expand International Finance Corporation (IFC). business leaders should do operations even more, with the aim of +91-9999331600 In addition to advising garment factories, more to enhance women’s having 400 factories participating in the Better Work Bangladesh works with the working conditions A-2/59, Safdarjung Enclave, New Delhi-110029 programme by 2021. Bangladeshi government to reform labour and prospects for regulations, as well as with brands to Bangladesh’s garment industry employs empowerment. Although Visit us at : twitter@NewDelhiTimes ensure that progress is maintained. Factory four million people, 60 percent of whom are women still account for facebook.com/newdelhitimes compliance with ILO core labour standards women, in over 4,500 factories, making it more than half of all jobs Printer and Publisher: Dr. (Mrs.) Pramila Srivastava, on behalf of Dr. Ankur Srivastava, Printed at Sudhir Printers, 151, Desh Bandhu Gupta Market, Karol Bagh, Delhi - 110005, Published at A-2/59 Safdarjung Enclave New Delhi-110029. Ph.: 26102520, 26105846 Fax: 26196294 Email: [email protected], Vol. 31, No. 18 Editor : Dr. Ankit Srivastava www.NewDelhiTimes.com India’s only International Newspaper