News And Current Events

A happy Independence day to those in the U.S.

This holiday I'm thinking of the relation of technology to freedom and politics: does technology make us freer, or less free?

A variety of views seem to exist, from authoritarians viewing technology as helping them to enforce views of an authority, to authoritarian views that technologies are dangerous to authority and they wish to suppress them [1], to views that technology takes away freedom, to views that technology enhances the freedom of the individual.

What are your views of technology and the relation it has to politics?

1. https://infogalactic.com/info/Internet_kill_switch

The Guardian has seen video evidence of a female Afghan human rights activist being gang-raped and tortured in a Taliban jail by armed men.

There have been mounting reports that sexual violence is being inflicted on women and girls being held in detention in Afghanistan, but this video is believed to be the first direct evidence of these crimes occurring.

According to the activist, the mobile phone footage was later sent to her as a threat that it would be shared more widely if she continued to speak out against the Taliban regime.

In the video recording viewed by the Guardian and Rukhshana Media, the young woman is filmed being told to take off her clothes and is then raped multiple times by two men.

The woman in the video – recorded on a phone by one of the armed men – tries to cover her face with her hands. One of the men pushes her hard when she hesitates as he gives her orders.

At one point she is told, “You’ve been fucked by Americans all these years and now it’s our turn.”

The woman has said that she was arrested for taking part in a public protest against the Taliban and was raped while being held in detention in a Taliban prison. She has since fled Afghanistan. She said that after she spoke out against the Taliban in exile, she was sent the video and told that if she continued to criticise the regime the video would be sent to her family and released on social media.

Someone shared this:

https://apnews.com/article/covid19-vaccines-deaths-hospitalizations-3258cacee8d5d2d08ddaf4341470a7de

> About 300 COVID-19-associated deaths were occurring weekly in May, according to the most recent provisional CDC data.

So I looked up for comparison CDC's flu stats, for 2023-2024 season:

https://www.cdc.gov/flu/about/burden/preliminary-in-season-estimates.htm

> according to this CDC page there was a lower limit of about 25,000 deaths to flu per year (2023-2024) which comes out to about 480 / week on average

I suppose then multiple questions are asked, like do we have a flu pandemic if there are worse deaths? Do we not take flu seriously? Do we take "covid" too seriously? Are covid deaths just flu deaths? etc.

Chime in on your thoughts of the data

As French citizens get set to vote in runoff parliamentary elections on Sunday hundreds of contenders have bowed out in an effort to block the far-right party from the gates of power.

Over 200 candidates from President Emmanuel Macron’s centrist camp and the left-wing alliance have stepped down in a bid to avoid splitting the vote. They’ve put aside their differences with one goal in mind: to keep the far right firmly away from the 289 seats required for an absolute majority currently within their reach.

Last Sunday the French people placed the anti-immigration National Rally (RN) and its allies in first place while Macron’s centrist camp came third, behind the left-wing bloc.

After the first round in constituencies where no candidate won outright, an unprecedented number of seats – over 300 - went to a three-way run-off favoring the RN. By Tuesday, as the deadline to drop out closed, fewer than 100 remain, after centrist and left-wing candidates strategically dropped out in individual seats.

This tactic could stop some RN candidates from winning, according to analyst Antoine Bristielle.

When Israel’s ultra-Orthodox or Haredi Jewish community gathers in force you realise just how large it is.

Thousands of men and boys dressed in black and white are crammed into the streets of Mea Shearim - which is the heart of the ultra-Orthodox community - in Jerusalem for an angry protest against the military draft.

It is the latest demonstration since the Supreme Court’s historic ruling that young Haredi men must be conscripted into the Israeli military and are no longer eligible for significant government benefits.

Young men who are full-time students in Jewish seminaries, or yeshivas, tell me that their religious lifestyle is in jeopardy. They believe that their prayers and spiritual learning is what protects Israel and the Jewish people.

“For 2,000 years we’ve been persecuted, and we’ve survived because we’re learning Torah and now the Supreme Court wants to remove this from us, and it will cause our destruction,” says Joseph.

“Going to the army will make a frum - religious Jew - not religious anymore.”

“The draft does not help militarily. They don’t want us Haredim, us orthodox Jews, they don’t need us,” another student tells me, withholding his name as he does not have his rabbi’s permission to give an interview.

“They’re just gonna give us some dirty job there. They’re there to make us not Orthodox no longer.”

For decades, there has been controversy over the role of the ultra-Orthodox in Israeli society. From a small minority, the community is now a million-strong, making up 12.9% of the population.

Ultra-Orthodox parties have often acted as kingmakers in Israeli politics, giving support to successive governments headed by Israel’s prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, in return for continuing the draft exemption and hundreds of millions of dollars for their institutions. This has been a long-standing cause of friction with secular Jewish Israelis who mostly do compulsory military service and pay the largest share of taxes. But the issue has now come to a head at the most sensitive time as the army faces unprecedented strain following its longest ever war in Gaza, and a possible second war with Hezbollah in Lebanon.

“My son has already been in the reserves for 200 days! How many years do you want him to do? How are you not ashamed?” demanded Mor Shamgar as she berated Israel’s national security adviser at a recent conference in Herzliya.

Her exasperated rant about her son - serving as a tank commander in southern Israel - was widely shared on social media.

With army leaders complaining about a shortage of military manpower, Ms Shamgar - who says she has previously voted for the prime minister’s party - believes that the government has “handled the situation very poorly,” putting its own political survival ahead of national interests on the draft issue.

“Netanyahu and his gang made a major judgement mistake on thinking they can dodge it,” she tells me. “Because once you enforce on half the population that you have to go to the army, you cannot enforce that the other half will not go to the army. It's not even secular versus religion. I see it as an equality issue. You can't make laws that make half a population, second grade citizens.”

Earlier this year, a survey by the Israel Democracy Institute indicated that 70% of Israeli Jews wanted to end the blanket exemptions from military service for the ultra-Orthodox.

Despite earlier threats, so far ultra-Orthodox parties have not left the governing coalition over army conscription. Attempts continue to push forward an older bill - once rejected by Haredi leaders - that would lead to partial enlistment of their community.

South Korea’s highest mountain is facing environmental damage from an unexpected source – instant noodles.

The National Park Office of Mount Halla has started a campaign to encourage hikers not to dump ramyun broth on the mountain or in its streams in order to preserve a “clean environment,” according to a press release.

Mount Halla, measuring 1,947 meters (1.2 miles) tall, is the country’s highest mountain and located on popular vacation destination Jeju Island. In South Korea, it’s trendy for hikers to bring ramyun – a type of instant noodles served in a disposable cup – along with them to eat during the day.

Banners put up around the mountain read “let’s preserve the clean Mount Halla and pass it on to descendants as it is,” with signs urging the hikers to use only half of the instant soup and water.

Smoking, leaving food and trash, unauthorized entry and drinking are prohibited at the mountain, and those who violate the rules can face penalties of up to 2,000,000 won ($1,442.15).

“Ramen broth contains a lot of salt, so discarding it along the valley’s water stream makes it impossible for aquatic insects to live in contaminated water,” the National Park Office wrote in a Facebook post.

Photo taken Oct. 20, 2023, from Fujiyoshida in Japan's Yamanashi Prefecture shows a cap cloud over the top of Mt. Fuji. (Photo by Kyodo News via Getty Images) RE

North Korea will send a “large number” of engineering and construction troops to help rebuild Russian-occupied cities in eastern Ukraine, according to reports.

The soldiers will arrive as early as June and take part in “reconstruction” works largely in the heavily bombed Donetsk region, TV Chosun reported, citing a South Korean government official.

The report stated that the North Korean army has 10 engineering brigades, three out of four of which will be sent to Ukraine in exchange for an annual payment of $115 million (£92 million) from Russia.

“The goal is to rebuild a city destroyed by fighting,” said the unnamed official, without specifying further on the location. There is currently no indication the soldiers would have combat roles.

Pentagon spokesman Pat Ryder warned on Tuesday that North Korean troops would become “cannon fodder” if they joined Moscow’s forces on the battlefield in Ukraine.

One of the Muslim community leaders who met privately with Biden in a small group at the White House in April says Biden looks “physically weak and tired” and not as “sharp” as he did during the meeting in April.

The person told NBC News that Biden “seems ill right now."

"He’s struggling, it seems," the person said. "Biden seems more honest and sincere, but still I’m concerned. There is weakness in his voice."

"Trump is sharp, although calculated. He is on message,” the person continued.

The person also said that on Gaza, he or she is worried Trump’s comments mean Israel would kill more Palestinian civilians if he were re-elected. The person said Biden’s comments show he is consistent in the war, but it’s still unclear “what his true red line is when it comes to continuing to send aid to Israel.” The person believes Biden’s three-stage plan shows he is trying to end the war between Israel and Hamas.

LOS ANGELES — Michael Jackson was more than $500 million in debt in 2009 when he died ahead of a planned concert tour, according to new court documents.

The deep financial hole the “King of Pop” found himself in was detailed in a petition the executors of his estate filed Friday in Los Angeles County Superior Court.

“At the time of Michael Jackson’s death, Michael Jackson’s most significant assets were subject to more than $500 million of debt and creditors’ claims, with some of the debt accruing interest at extremely high interest rates, and some debt in default,” the filing said.

A letter signed by 16 top economists warning of the economic dangers of electing former President Trump, which is being amplified by the Biden campaign and other Biden surrogates, is littered with signatories who have either donated to Biden or supported him politically in the past.

"While each of us has different views on the particulars of various economic policies, we all agree that Joe Biden's economic agenda is vastly superior to Donald Trump," the economists wrote in a letter first reported on by Axios this week that has been promoted by various members of the Biden campaign on X, formerly known as Twitter.

The letter’s Nobel Prize-winning signatories show political donations to President Biden's 2020 and 2024 campaigns. The signatories also donated tens of thousands of dollars to other Democrat candidates and signed previous letters supporting Biden's agenda, including attacking "selfish and reckless" Trump, a Fox News Digital review found.

Economist Joseph Stiglitz, the Columbia University professor who reportedly spearheaded the letter, previously signed a letter supporting Biden’s Build Back Better agenda and donated $1,250 to the Biden Victory Fund in 2020.

Between 2004 and 2020, Stiglitz donated over $90,000 to Democrat candidates, FEC records show.

Georgetown University Professor George A. Akerlof, who is married to Biden’s Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, donated $25,000 to the Biden Victory Fund and maxed out as a donor in 2020, giving the campaign $5,600.

Akerlof, who donated nearly $90,000 to Democrats between the 1990s and 2022, also signed a letter supporting Build Back Better, and signed a letter in 2020 calling Trump’s re-election effort "selfish and reckless."

Harvard University economist and historian Claudia Goldin donated $500 to the Biden campaign in 2020 and 2024 and has donated over $8,000 to Democrats in recent years. Goldin also signed a 2020 letter endorsing the Biden campaign.

Economist and mathematician Eric Maskin signed a 2020 letter expressing support for the Biden campaign’s agenda and donated $3,000 to Democrats in recent years, including Senate candidates Raphael Warnock, Beto O’Rourke and Jon Ossoff.

When reached for comment on his background supporting Biden and Democrats, Maskin said, "Although I am a registered Democrat and have donated money to Democratic candidates on occasion, I have also voted for many Republicans over the years (including Bill Weld and Charlie Baker for governor of Massachusetts)" in a statement to Fox News Digital.

Following WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange reaching a plea deal with the United States that saw Assange plead guilty to conspiring to obtain and disclose classified national defense information, WikiLeaks’ entire database on the nearly 45,000 emails leaked from the Democratic National Committee have been deleted.

The homepage of the leak on WikiLeaks now just states "Internal Server Error" when trying to be reached by users. An archived version of the page stated that beginning on July 22, 2016, WikiLeaks "released over 2 publications 44,053 emails and 17,761 attachments from the top of the US Democratic National Committee -- part one of our new Hillary Leaks series."

Luis Arce says country’s democracy at stake after army troops seize control of La Paz’s political heart and military police storm palace

Bolivia’s President Luis Arce has urged citizens to take to the streets to defend the country’s democracy from an apparent coup attempt after heavily armed army troops seized control of La Paz’s political heart and military police were filmed trying to force their way into the former government palace.

“We need the Bolivian people to mobilize and organize themselves against this coup d’état and in favour of democracy,” Arce said in a video message filmed at the Great House of the People, the official presidential residence in Bolivia’s de facto capital of La Paz.

Flanked by members of his cabinet, Arce declared: “We cannot allow, once again, attempted coups to claim Bolivian lives.”

“Long live the people of Bolivia! Long live democracy!” the ministers shouted, thrusting their left fists into the air. “Long live our president, Luis Arce!”

The comments came after other members of Arce’s leftwing administration and Latin American leaders claimed an army-led putsch was under way.

Five days before the snap elections in France, the far-right National Rally (RN) leads the polls on 36%, followed by the left-wing coalition New Popular Front (27%). French President Macron's party is trailing, polling at 20%. Follow our live blog below.

As the campaign for the snap legislative election enters its final week, President Emmanuel Macron has been increasing his public interventions despite warnings from his allies and his fall in popularity.

On Monday, the French leader said the programmes of the “extremes” could lead “to civil war."

His plea came a day before the 28-year-old leader of the far-right National Rally, Jordan Bardella, unveiled a more detailed plan of his proposals if his party were to win.

Rep. Jamaal Bowman, D-N.Y., became the first member of the progressive group of House lawmakers known as “the squad” to lose a primary challenge in the 2024 cycle on Tuesday night, after suffering a bruising defeat to a more moderate Democratic candidate in his Bronx-area district.

Bowman, 48, lost to Westchester County Executive George Latimer, 70, in a high-profile contest that largely hinged on the two Democratic candidates' opposing views about the Israel-Hamas War.

A second-term representative and former public middle school principal, Bowman has been a vocal critic of Israel’s handling of the war and the Biden administration’s continued support for aid to the country. He has accused Israeli officials of committing genocide and was an early proponent of a cease-fire in the war.

*The American Israel Public Affairs Committee, a pro-Israel lobbying group that supports Republican and Democratic candidates, spent millions against Bowman in the race, including giving more than $1.5 million in donations to Latimer’s campaign. *

With U.S. soldiers within shouting distance of Gaza’s bombed-out coast, the American military is taking another stab at delivering aid to hungry Palestinians by sea.

After several fits and starts, a $230 million pier is up and running again. The U.S. military invited reporters for a tour of it on Tuesday, marking the first time international media has witnessed its operations firsthand.

International journalists have not been allowed to enter Gaza independently since the Israel-Hamas war began Oct. 7.

The project, which first launched in mid-May, resumed operations last week after a recent pause due to rough seas.

As journalists looked on Tuesday, U.S. soldiers with machine guns directed the pier’s operations. U.S. vessels carrying trucks loaded with humanitarian aid docked at the pier.

A U.S. bankruptcy court trustee is planning to shut down Alex Jones' Infowars media platform and liquidate its assets to help pay the $1.5 billion in lawsuit judgments Jones owes for repeatedly calling the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax.

In an "emergency" motion filed Sunday in Houston, trustee Christopher Murray indicated publicly for the first time that he intends to "conduct an orderly wind-down" of the operations of Infowars' parent company and "liquidate its inventory." Murray, who was appointed by a federal judge to oversee the assets in Jones' personal bankruptcy case, did not give a timetable for the liquidation.

Jones has been saying on his web and radio shows that he expects Infowars to operate for a few more months before it is shut down because of the bankruptcy. But he has vowed to continue his bombastic broadcasts in some other fashion, possibly on social media. He also had talked about someone else buying the company and allowing him to continue his shows as an employee.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has accepted a plea deal with the US government that will allow him to avoid jail time in the states over his leaking of top secret military information.

Assange is expected to plead guilty to violating the Espionage Act and receive credit for time served for the five years he spent behind bars in the UK while fighting extradition to the US, according to court documents and reports.

Assange, of Australia, was charged with conspiracy to obtain and disclose national defense information for releasing classified reports of the US wars in Afghanistan and Iraq on his WikiLeaks site, according to the documents.

“They can keep saying that, and we can keep proving them wrong.”

That was the response of Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in a TV documentary broadcast in July 2023, while talking about scepticism surrounding Saudi Arabia’s flagship construction projects.

Almost a year later, some of the doubts are turning out to be true. In recent months, Saudi Arabia has seemingly scaled back plans for its vast desert development project Neom, which is the centrepiece of Vision 2030. This is the economic diversification programme spearheaded by Prince Mohammed, the Gulf state’s de-facto ruler, to transition the country’s economy away from oil-dependency.

As well as Neom, Saudi Arabia is also developing 13 other large construction schemes, or “giga projects” as they are referred, worth trillions of dollars. These include an entertainment city on the outskirts of the capital Riyadh, multiple luxury island resorts on the Red Sea, and a cluster of other tourist and cultural destinations.

But low oil prices have impacted government revenues, forcing Riyadh to reassess these projects, and explore new funding strategies. An advisor, who is associated with the government but wished not to be named, tells the BBC that the projects are being reviewed, with a decision expected soon.

“The decision will be based on multiple factors,” he says. “But there is no doubt that there will be a recalibration. Some projects will proceed as planned, but some might get delayed or scaled down.” Announced in 2017, Neom is a $500bn (£394bn) plan to build 10 futuristic cities in a desert region in the north west of the country. The most ambitious of them, and the one that has gained all the headlines, is The Line. This will be a linear city consisting of two adjoined, parallel skyscraper walls standing 500m high - taller than the Empire State Building. Yet they will have combined width of just 200m, including the gap between them.

The original plan was that they would extend for 170km (105 miles), and become home to nine million inhabitants.

But according to people familiar with the details – and as already leaked to the press - the project developers will now focus on completing just 2.4km by 2030, as part of the first module. When The Line was first announced it was billed as a “carbon-free linear city” that would redefine urban living, with amenities for residents like parks, waterfalls, flying taxis, and robot maids. The city would have no roads or cars, and would be made up of interconnected, pedestrianised communities. It would also include an ultra-high-speed train, with a maximum journey duration of 20 minutes anywhere within city limits.

How many of these features will be part of the first phase are unclear. Along with The Line, Neom is also due to include an octagon-shaped floating industrial city, and a mountain ski-resort that will host the Asian Winter Games in 2029.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the "intense phase" of fighting in Rafah in southern Gaza is nearly over, but that this does not mean that the war is coming to an end. He said the war would continue until Hamas was completely driven from power.

He added that the Israeli military would soon be able to redeploy troops to the border with Lebanon, where exchanges of fire with Hezbollah have been escalating.

Mr Netanyahu also again rejected the idea that the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority should run Gaza in place of Hamas.

“In the end, you will have to do two things: you will need the ongoing military demilitarisation by the Israel Defense Forces and you will need to establish a civil administration, I hope that with the support and management of certain countries in the region, I think this is the right way to move forward," he said in an Israeli television interview. "I'll tell you what I'm not ready to do, I'm not ready to establish a Palestinian state there, I'm not ready to hand it over to the Palestinian Authority. I'm not ready to do that.”

Residents of Rafah said there had been more clashes in the city, while Israeli air strikes on Gaza City are reported to have killed the Hamas-run health ministry's director of emergency services.

>A Canadian court awarded a trans-indetified male, who claims to be a woman, $35,000 after an Ontario women's salon refused to wax "her" male genitalia. The salon employee working that day was a devout Muslim woman who refrained from physical contact with men, and the salon owner told the trans woman that they could not find a way to accommodate her request.

Interesting that the employee is specifically a Muslim. There is certainly precedent for them to want to refuse this within their own religion.

The Ukrainian military launched several US-made ATACMS long-range missiles armed with highly controversial cluster munitions on Russia’s Crimea on Sunday, resulting in numerous civilian casualties, the Defense Ministry in Moscow has said.

The strike was first reported by Sevastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozhaev. He said that the attack killed at least three people, including two children. The death toll later rose to four. According to Russia’s Health Ministry, 124 people were injured, including 27 children.

The Russian Defense Ministry has confirmed the Ukrainian attack, which it said took place at around noon local time. Officials said that the shelling involved five ATACMS missiles, four of which were destroyed mid-air.

The remaining one, however, was damaged by air defenses, veered off course and detonated over the city of Sevastopol. As a result, the falling fragments of cluster munitions led to numerous civilian casualties, the statement read

Sounds like it might make their economic problems worse

A bold and new generation of young Kenyan protesters has emerged on the streets forcing the government to back down on some of a slew of unpopular tax proposals.

What started as anger on TikTok about a controversial finance bill has morphed into a revolt - without being organised by political parties.

The government of President William Ruto has managed to do what generations of politicians in the East African nation have failed to do - unite huge numbers of Kenyans beyond ethnicity and party.

On Tuesday, hundreds of trainer-wearing protesters, who feel Kenyans are already overtaxed with little to show for it, braved tear gas lobbed by police to march through the capital, Nairobi, bringing the city's central business district to a standstill.

Armed with their smartphones, they live-streamed the intense confrontations with officers.

The origins of the Israeli lobby’s influence can be traced to the late 1970s when the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) monitored campus activities and trained young advocates for Israel.

AIPAC, along with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), also recruited students to help them identify professors and campus organizations with anti-Israel positions, which they would document in dossiers and then systematically slander in their publications.

Toward the end of the 20th century, these lobby groups did not pay much attention to shaping the discussion at universities because the Oslo peace process was underway, with little violence in the occupied territories, and consequently with less criticism of the Israeli regime’s policies.

However, at the beginning of the new century when peace negotiations failed, the extremists led by Ariel Sharon took the helm of the Israeli regime and the Second Intifada ensued, the criticism at higher education institutions in the United States became much stronger and more intense.

The Israeli lobby, exerting considerable influence, responded with an aggressive attempt to "take back the campuses," and the most important organization in that campaign was once again AIPAC, which more than tripled its spending on pro-Israel college programs.

According to AIPAC leadership at the time, these funds were intended to significantly expand the number of students involved in activities in favor of the Israeli regime on campuses, their competence, and their involvement in the national pro-Israel effort.

Hundreds of students were sent to AIPAC all-expenses-paid courses in Washington DC where they received intensive advocacy training, and they were instructed to concentrate on networking with campus leaders of all kinds and winning them over to promote the regime’s cause.

The multi-year campaign resulted in annual AIPAC Policy Conferences being attended by over 1,200 students from 400 colleges and universities across the US, including 150 student body presidents.

Simultaneously, this campaign to cultivate students has been accompanied by efforts to influence university faculty and hiring practices.

In addition to AIPAC, other pro-Israel lobby groups have also been involved in pro-Israel campaigns at American universities, notably the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), an umbrella organization for the coordination of 26 different Zionist groups in US universities.

Although the ICC is not registered under the required Foreign Agent Registration Act, its leadership admitted that they have close ties and coordinate actions with Israel's ministry of strategic affairs.

The Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) likewise initiated a series of advocacy training sessions for college students with the aim of defending the Israeli regime on their campuses.

A similar role was played by the David Project (TDP), which partnered with Christians United for Israel (CUFI), organizing training programs for students to agitate for Zionism.

The founder of the David Project was an Islamophobe who advocated banning the construction of mosques on American soil and co-founder of CAMERA, another Zionist group involved in smearing pro-Palestinian students on campuses.

New groups also emerged, such as the Caravan for Democracy (CFD), which brought Israeli settlers to speak at American universities, promoting the farce of Israel as "the only democracy in the region."

The website Campus Watch, an affiliate of the Middle East Forum (MEF), was also established, whose dossiers continued AIPAC's tradition of publicly defaming all campus critics of Israeli politics.

Press TV website in July 2023 published an investigation on how the Middle East Forum has shaped into a hardline Zionist and anti-Muslim think tank, founded by Daniel Pipes in 1990.

Its website stated that its mission is to “promote American interests in the Middle East (West Asia) and protect Western values from Middle Eastern threats”, secretly serving the Zionist agenda.

A crucial medical exam in India has sparked anger, protests and allegations of cheating after thousands of candidates secured unusually high marks in this year’s test.

...

Millions of students take the exam every year, but only a small percentage get good enough marks to secure a college placement. But this year the challenge is somewhat different: too many candidates have got top marks, pushing down the ranking system and making it hard for even high-scorers to get admission.

Since the results were declared on 4 June, the exam has come under scrutiny for reasons ranging from errors in the question paper and grace marks (compensatory marks) being given in a faulty manner to allegations of paper leaks and fraud. Students and parents have demanded a re-test and dozens of petitions have been filed in courts to this end.

NTA officials have denied allegations of paper leaks, but on Sunday, federal Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan admitted that “some irregularities” had come to light in certain exam centres. He said that no-one, including NTA officials, would be spared if irregularities were found. On Tuesday, India's top court issued a notice to the NTA, saying that even if there was "0.001% negligence on the part of anyone it should be thoroughly dealt with". But all this is small consolation for students who spend months or even years preparing for this highly competitive exam.

Tens of millions of students in India dream of getting into a good medical or engineering college every year - the professions command a lot of respect and also hold out hope for a steady, long-term income in a country with a jobs crisis.

This year, an astounding 2.4 million students competed for just 110,000 available seats in the NEET exam, underscoring the intense pressure and fierce competition faced by aspiring candidates.

Of the total seats, 55,000-60,000 seats belong to government-run colleges, while private colleges offer the rest. Half of the seats are reserved for underprivileged students.

Students flock to government colleges for their affordability. A five-year MBBS course in a government college costs between 500,000 and 1 million rupees ($5,992 - $11,984), whereas private colleges can charge up to ten times more.

When results were announced on 4 June, it turned out that an unprecedented 67 students had achieved the perfect score of 720 marks.

Since 2016 - when NEET became the official entrance exam for medical colleges in India - only one to three students have got full marks each year, and sometimes not even that. This year, there was also a significant increase in the number of candidates scoring in the high range of 650-680 marks, intensifying the competition for seats in India’s top medical colleges.

The unusual results sparked concerns among parents and students, who alleged irregularities in the exam's conduct and grading and called for an investigation.

But the NTA refuted these allegations, saying that the “integrity of the examination had not been compromised” and that there were more high scorers this year because more students had taken the exam.

It also said that 1,563 candidates were given "grace marks" for delays at exam centres and because a physics question turned out to have two correct answers. Notably, 50 out of the 67 top scorers achieved perfect marks due to these compensatory points.

But on 13 June, India’s top court cancelled the compensatory marks after several students filed petitions challenging the NTA’s decision, calling it “arbitrary” and “unfair”.

The Supreme Court also asked for students who had received grace marks to be given the option to take the test again - this is set to be held on 23 June. But protesters say the court’s ruling doesn’t address the larger issues they raised, like allegations of paper leaks, cheating and systemic corruption.

Anwar Ibrahim made the remarks in an interview with Chinese media outlet Guancha.

"We have made a decision, we will be placing the formal procedures soon... we are just waiting for the final results from the government in South Africa," Anwar said, according to a video of the interview posted by Guancha on Sunday.

A representative from Anwar's office on Tuesday confirmed his comments to Reuters.

During the interview, he did not provide further details on the application process.

Anwar's comments came ahead of a three-day visit by Chinese Premier Li Qiang this week, as part of celebrations marking the 50th year of diplomatic relations between Malaysia and China.

Far from the gleaming high-rises of India's financial capital Mumbai, impoverished villages in areas supplying the megacity's water are running dry -- a crisis repeated across the country that experts say foreshadows terrifying problems.

"The people in Mumbai drink our water but no one there, including the government, pays attention to us or our demands," said Sunita Pandurang Satgir, carrying a heavy metal pot on her head filled with foul-smelling water.

Demand is increasing in the world's most populous nation of 1.4 billion people, but supplies are shrinking -- with climate change driving erratic rainfall and extreme heat.

Large-scale infrastructure for Mumbai includes reservoirs connected by canals and pipelines channelling water from 100 kilometres (60 miles) away.

But experts say a failure of basic planning means that the network is often not connected to hundreds of rural villages in the region and several nearby districts.

Instead, they rely on traditional wells.

But demand far outstrips meagre resources, and critical groundwater levels are falling.

"Our days and our lives just revolve around thinking about collecting water, collecting it once, and collecting it again, and again," Satgir said.

"We make four to six rounds for water every day... leaving us time for nothing else".

• Heatwaves and dry wells -

Climate change is shifting weather patterns, bringing longer-lasting and more intense droughts.

Wells rapidly run dry early in the extreme heat.

In the peak of summer, 35-year-old Satgir said she can spend up to six hours a day fetching water.

Temperatures this year surged above a brutal 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit).

It feels like we are hitting new high temperatures all the time and it is really leaving a mark on people.

After his employer implemented a return-to-office policy last year, Jin Bian decided to cut down his one-hour commute time by purchasing a house closer to the office in Tampa, Florida. Then, he was told the purchase might get him prison time.

“That was really shocking to me. It’s just purchasing property,” Bian, who is originally form Nanjing, China, said. “Once I learned that, I didn’t even bother to look anymore.”

Bian, a 31-year-old software engineer who has lived in the US for 12 years, is a recipient of an H-1B visa, which allows companies to employ foreign workers. For nearly a year, however, it has been a crime for him to purchase a home in Florida after the state’s governor, Ron DeSantis, signed a law restricting Chinese nationals without US green cards from purchasing property in the state.

Bian and other Florida residents told CNN that the rules have fostered uneasiness and confusion among ethnic Chinese people living in the state. Some say the law has damaged their businesses, while others say they are considering abandoning Florida altogether. And the law underscores the heightened tensions between the two biggest economies in the world in a US presidential election year.

Bian said that lately, he had begun reconsidering his life in Florida. He isn’t alone. Ever since Florida Senate Bill 264 went into effect on July 1, 2023, Chinese citizens without green cards face a felony charge and possible prison time if they purchase property in the state. Sellers and real estate agents can also be found liable under the law.

“We feel like we’re different from everyone else because of this type of law,” said Echo King, a US citizen who was born in China and is president of the Florida Asian American Justice Alliance. “We feel like we’re not welcome.”

Armenia will leave a Russia-led military alliance, Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan confirmed Wednesday, accusing members of the bloc of plotting with bitter rival Azerbaijan to start a war against them.

Pashinyan has for months accused the Kremlin’s Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) of failing to protect Armenia from resurgent Azerbaijani aggression, threatening to leave the bloc if Moscow did not provide greater assurances and trying to cleave more closely to the United States and European Union.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, Armenia and Azerbaijan have fought two wars over the breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh region, which Azerbaijan reclaimed in full by force in September. Russia has traditionally allied with Armenia, but their relations have soured in recent months while Moscow’s ties to Azerbaijan have deepened.

Speaking to parliamentarians in the capital Yerevan, Pashinyan said his country had “frozen” its participation in the CSTO and would leave the bloc at a time of Armenia’s choosing.

A shipwreck in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has killed more than 80 people, the Congolese president’s office said Wednesday.

“The President of the Republic is calling for an investigation into the true causes of this unfortunate incident, to prevent such a disaster from happening again in the future,” the office said in a statement.

The ship sank in the Kwa River, 70 kilometers away from the city of Mushie, in the province of Maï-Ndombe, according to the statement.

The president of the DRC, Félix Tshisekedi, expressed his condolences to the families of the victims.

Deadly shipwrecks are unfortunately frequent in the DRC as the country lacks road infrastructure and many people rely on boats to cross the many branches of the Congo River which runs alongside the country’s western border.

In October last year, at least 52 people were killed in the northwestern part of the country after a boat carrying more than 300 passengers capsized in the Congo River, authorities said at the time.

Another six people were killed months earlier in the DRC’s Lake Kivu after a boat carrying 150 villagers overturned.

A federal district court has blocked Florida from enforcing a law that bans medical care for transgender children, calling it “unconstitutional.”

“Gender identity is real,” District Judge Robert Hinkle wrote, going on to say Florida’s law banning care for transgender youth and restricting it for transgender adults violates their equal protection rights.

The 2023 law, passed by Florida’s Republican-led legislature and signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis, prohibits doctors and nurses from prescribing medication, including hormones or puberty blockers, to anyone under 18.

“The State of Florida can regulate as needed but cannot flatly deny transgender individuals safe and effective medical treatment—treatment with medications routinely provided to others with the state’s full approval so long as the purpose is not to support the patient’s transgender identity,” the order states.

The transgender plaintiffs and their parents argued the law violated their constitutional rights.

In a 105-page order, Hinkle agreed, writing: “Whether based on morals, religion, unmoored hatred, or anything else, prohibiting or impeding a person from conforming to the person’s gender identity rather than to the person’s natal sex is not a legitimate state interest.”

The order does not address the state law’s ban on gender-affirming surgery for minors or surgery restrictions for adults as the lawsuit did not challenge those provisions, Hinkle noted.

>Hong Kong’s security minister on Wednesday cancelled the passports of six wanted overseas activists, using powers granted under the city’s national security law.

>The move is seen as stepping up Hong Kong’s crackdown against dissidents who moved abroad.

>Among them were former pro-democracy lawmaker Nathan Law, unionist Mung Siu-tat and activists Simon Cheng, Finn Lau, Johnny Fok and Tony Choi. All of them are accused of endangering national security by authorities and the government has declared them to have "absconded" to the UK.

What this essentially means is that they will potentially be forced to move back home if they do not get refugee status... and, the giant in trade that China is, a lot of countries may be unwilling to stick their necks out for them.

>Last year, police declared a bounty of HK$1m (£100,000) accusing them of offences under domestic national security law.

>Besides cancelling their passports, the authorities have also banned anyone from providing funds or economic resources to the six, leasing properties to them or forming any joint venture with them, among other restrictions. Doing so without authorisation would carry a penalty of up to seven years in prison.

Yeah, they are not messing around.