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It highlights significant gains made in the fight against hepatitis B and C, which together account for 95 per cent of all hepatitis-related deaths worldwide. These infections claimed 1.34 million lives in…
Supporters of South Korea’s former president Yoon Suk-yeol and his wife Kim Keon-hee react as they watch a live stream of the trial of the former…
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi attend a meeting at the Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library in Saint Petersburg, yesterday. (Reuters) Russian President Vladimir Putin yesterday praised the Iranian people for battling to stay independent in the face of US and Israeli pressure and said Moscow would do all it could to help Tehran. Russia has offered to mediate to try to help restore calm to the Middle East following US and Israeli strikes, which Moscow has strongly condemned. It has also repeatedly offered to store Iran’s enriched uranium as a way of defusing tensions, a proposal spurned by the US. “We see how courageously and heroically the Iranian people are fighting for their independence and sovereignty,” Putin told Araghchi, saying he hoped they could get through what he called a “difficult period” and that peace would prevail. “For our part, we will do everything that serves your interests and the interests of all the peoples of the region to ensure that peace is achieved as quickly as possible,” said Putin.Putin received Araghchi in the presidential library in Russia’s former imperial capital St Petersburg as sources from mediator Pakistan said work had not halted to bridge gaps between the US and Iran. Putin said he received a message from Iran’s new Supreme Leader, Mojtaba Khamenei, last week, and asked Araghchi to convey to him that Russia intended to continue its strategic partnership with Tehran. That 20-year agreement was sealed last year. Russia is building two new nuclear units at Bushehr — the site of Iran’s only nuclear power plant — and Iran has supplied Russia with Shahed drones for use against Ukraine, the production of which Moscow has since localised. Araghchi, who said he wanted to brief Putin on the situation around his country, thanked Putin for Moscow’s support.“It has also been proven to all that Iran has friends and allies, such as the Russian Federation, who stand by Iran precisely in difficult times,” he said.Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesman, said that Moscow wanted to see the US and Iran continue negotiations. There should be no return to military action, he added, something he said was not in anyone’s interests. Source…
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s BJP party strengthened its position in parliament’s upper house after seven opposition lawmakers joined it, a parliamentary list showed yesterday, a shift that could ease the government’s passage of legislation. All seven defectors are from the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), led by one of Modi’s most high-profile critics, Arvind Kejriwal. The party governs the northern state of Punjab and previously ran the national capital territory of Delhi. The defections leave the AAP with just three seats in the Rajya Sabha house, while Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party now has 113 members, 10 short of a simple majority in the 245-member chamber. Modi’s broader National Democratic Alliance coalition holds about 140 seats in the house, also known as the Council of States. Rajya Sabha members are elected for six-year terms by elected members of state legislatures and federal territories with legislatures, using a proportional representation system. Modi’s coalition rules 19 of India’s 28 states and two of its three federal territories with legislatures. The defectors include former Indian cricketer Harbhajan Singh and Raghav Chadha, the de facto leader of the group who gained prominence by raising middle-class concerns such as the high cost of food at airports.Chadha accused the party of being run by “corrupt and compromised” people. The AAP said the defectors were being opportunistic. All but one of the former AAP members were elected from Punjab, where state polls are due next year and Modi’s party has never won a majority on its own. Several other AAP leaders, including Kejriwal, have faced court cases over corruption allegations. A New Delhi court in February declined to proceed with a trial against Kejriwal and other party colleagues in one such case, which the AAP has described as politically motivated. The matter is now before a higher court. Source link
Nigeria’s giant Dangote refinery is benefiting from record margins for producing jet fuel that it is mostly selling abroad, while the domestic airlines it also supplies have threatened to stop flying because of the surge in fuel prices. The refinery, the largest on the continent, was built to turn Africa’s biggest oil producing country into a net exporter of refined products, end Nigeria’s reliance on fuel imports, and shield its economy from global energy shocks. It became fully operational at the start of this year and is producing at its maximum capacity of 650,000 barrels per day. That has improved local fuel availability but domestic fuel prices are still among the highest in Africa as Nigeria’s market is fully deregulated, meaning fuel prices are not subsidised by the government as they are in most African countries. The issue is further complicated by the state oil company’s long-standing debt repayment agreements that mean Dangote has to import most of its crude oil, making it easier to balance its books if it sells abroad.Industry body the Airline Operators of Nigeria said prices, taking logistics and storage costs into account, have climbed to 3,300 naira ($2.44) per litre, nearly triple the level in February before the start of the Iran war. Nigeria’s energy regulator said Dangote was selling jet fuel at 1,879 naira ($1.39) per litre, little changed from imported fuel prices of about 1,900 naira ($1.41) per litre delivered to Lagos earlier this month. The MiddleEastern conflict has led to unprecedented energy disruption and the risk of jet fuel shortages is pressing. Airlines around the world have hiked prices, added fuel surcharges and grounded planes. Nigerian airlines last week threatened to halt all flights, prompting the government on Thursday to approve measures including some relief on debts owed by local airlines and ordering talks to try to agree lower prices. Dangote, meanwhile, as a new, highly efficient refinery, has been able to take advantage of record margins for producing jet fuel from crude.Its profits could be even higher if it could rely on Nigerian crude and avoid almost all freight costs. State oil firm, the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited’s joint-venture crude, however, is tied to oil-backed loans and pre-export deals. That means much of Nigeria’s roughly 1.5 mn barrels per day of production goes to paying debts to international oil majors, banks and traders. The NNPC does not disclose its obligations, but analysts estimate they amount to about 400,000 bpd. Dangote Group Vice President Davekumar Edwin said Dangote imported most of its crude from the US, as well as some from other African producers and Brazil. He did not give precise figures. He said the bulk of the 24 mn litres of jet fuel it produces daily was shipped to Europe, although he also said the refinery largely supplied the needs of Nigerian airlines, which the aviation industry estimates at about 2.1 mn litres per day. As European buyers are willing to pay a premium ahead of the peak demand summer travel season, European imports from Nigeria have averaged 78,000 to 96,000 barrels per day in April so far, data from Kpler and LSEG showed, the highest on record.Alan Gelder, senior vice president for refining, chemicals and oil markets at Wood Mackenzie, said European refiners had earned about $15 per barrel. He estimated Dangote’s margins at more than double that as a result of access to Nigerian crude and the plant’s scale and sophistication. Source link
Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and New Zealand counterpart Christopher Luxon have held a telephone conversation to discuss the evolving situation in the Middle East, according to officials.During the call on Tuesday, Luxon acknowledged Pakistan’s recent diplomatic efforts aimed at facilitating dialogue between the United States and Iran, as well as promoting regional stability.Sharif, for his part, briefed his New NewZealand counterpart on Islamabad’s ongoing diplomatic outreach to support de-escalation and encourage peace in the region.Both leaders emphasized the importance of diplomatic engagement in addressing tensions and maintaining stability across the Middle East. Related Story Source link
US President Donald Trump met with his top security advisers yesterday to discuss an Iranian proposal that would reportedly re-open the Strait of Hormuz as broader negotiations over the war continue, the White House said. When asked about the reported plan — which would see both Iran and the US lift their blockades ahead of further talks on the thorny issue of Tehran’s nuclear programme — spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told a White House briefing that “the proposal was being discussed.” “Only because it’s been reported, I will confirm the president has met with his national security team this morning,” she said, refusing to say if Trump would accept the proposal.Secretary of State Marco Rubio meanwhile said Iran’s stance on the Strait of Hormuz, a key waterway through which a fifth of global oil and liquid natural gas normally transits, did not meet US demands. “If what they mean by opening the straits is, ‘yes, the straits are open as long as you co-ordinate with Iran, get our permission or we’ll blow you up and you pay us,’ that’s not opening the straits,” Rubio said in a Fox News interview. “They cannot normalise — nor can we tolerate them trying to normalise — a system in which the Iranians decide who gets to use an international waterway, and how much you have to pay them to use it,” he said. US outlet Axios had earlier reported that Trump would meet with his national security team to discuss an offer by Iran on re-opening the strait and postponing nuclear negotiations to a later stage.ABC News, citing two anonymous US officials, meanwhile reported that the deal fell short of Washington’s red lines.Leavitt told reporters that “the president’s red lines with respect to Iran have been made very, very clear, not just to the American public, but also to them as well.” Source link
Bahrain has revoked the citizenship of 69 people over what the country described as sympathy with Iran’s hostile acts and collaboration with foreign entities, the kingdom’s interior ministry said in a statement. The ministry said that the 69 people including family members of accused individuals were all of non-Bahraini origin.“The Bahraini nationality has been revoked from those individuals for glorifying or sympathising with the hostile Iranian acts, or engaging in contacts with external parties,” the ministry said. It said the revocations had been carried out in accordance with royal directives from King Hamad bin Isa al-Khalifa and were based on Article 10/3 of the Bahraini Nationality Law. The article provides for the revocation of citizenship in cases of “causing harm to the interests of the kingdom or acting in a manner that contradicts the duty of loyalty to it.”The interior ministry said the competent authorities were “continuing to study and review” who deserves Bahraini citizenship. Sayed Ahmed Alwadaei, Advocacy Director at the Britain-based Bahrain Institute for Rights and Democracy (BIRD), condemned the move, calling it “the beginning of a dangerous era of repression” and saying the decisions were “imposed without legal safeguards or any right of appeal.” BIRD said it was the first such revocation of citizenship in Bahrain since 2019. Between 2012 and 2019, Bahrain revoked the citizenship of at least 990 nationals, the group said. Iran fired at targets in Bahrain and other Gulf Arab states where the US has military bases after it was attacked on February 28. Bahrain’s National Communication Centre did not immediately respond to a request for comment. (Reuters) Source link
Amazon announced the successful launch of 29 new satellites as part of its satellite internet provider, Amazon Leo- formerly Project Kuiper- from Cape Canaveral in the US state of Florida, using the ULA Atlas 5 rocket.The company explained that this step aims to enhance its satellite network in low Earth orbit. Through these intensive launches, Amazon seeks to accelerate the schedule for operating its high-speed Internet service and fulfill its legal obligations to operate half of its planned network before mid-2026.The project aims to deploy a constellation of 3,236 satellites to provide broadband Internet coverage globally. Related Story Source link
Smoke rises following explosions in southern Lebanon, near the Israel-Lebanon border, as seen from northern Israel, yesterday. (Reuters) The Israeli military began carrying out strikes in eastern Lebanon yesterday, expanding the scope of its bombing campaign during a ceasefire that has failed to fully halt hostilities with Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. The strikes on Lebanon’s eastern Bekaa Valley marked the first time the area has been hit since a US-brokered ceasefire came into force on April 16, significantly reducing the pace of attacks without entirely stopping the exchanges of fire. Israel has continued to carry out strikes across southern Lebanon, and its troops are occupying a strip of the country’s south, destroying homes they describe as infrastructure being used by Hezbollah. The Iran-backed group, meanwhile, has kept up its drone and rocket attacks against Israeli troops in Lebanon and on northern Israel. A spokesperson for the Israeli military said it was beginning to strike Hezbollah infrastructure in the Bekaa as well as areas in southern Lebanon. Security sources told Reuters strikes had hit near the town of Nabi Chit, near Lebanon’s eastern border with Syria, with no immediate reports of casualties. Lebanon’s state media agency reported several strikes across the south that left at least three people wounded. Hezbollah said yesterday it had attacked an Israeli tank in southern Lebanon with a drone. The Israeli military said a drone launched by Hezbollah exploded near its troops in southern Lebanon, without causing casualties. More than 2,500 people have been killed in Israeli strikes across Lebanon since Hezbollah’s attack on Israel on March 2 in support of its ally Iran that triggered an Israeli ground and air campaign which has left swathes of southern Lebanon in ruins. The war has deepened differences among people in Lebanon, who are divided over Hezbollah’s arms and over prospective peace talks with Israel. The Lebanese and Israeli ambassadors to the United States have met twice to discuss the ceasefire, intended to pave the way for direct talks to secure a peace deal between the longtime foes. Hezbollah fiercely opposes direct negotiations, with its head Naim Qassem describing the talks in a written statement yesterday as a “humiliating and unnecessary concession.” “Let it be clear, these direct negotiations and their outcomes are considered nonexistent to us and do not concern us at all. We will continue our defensive resistance for Lebanon and its people,” Qassem said. Lebanese President Joseph Aoun has defended the government’s move to engage in face-to-face talks and yesterday made a jab at Hezbollah without naming the group. “What we are doing is not treason; rather, treason is committed by whoever takes his country to war to achieve external interests,” he said in a statement released by his office, an apparent reference to Hezbollah’s decision to enter the regional war last month.“Some hold us accountable for deciding to go to negotiations on the pretext of the lack of national consensus, and I ask: When you went to war, did you first obtain national consensus?” Aoun said. Source link