SYDNEY: Australian anti-immigration politician Pauline Hanson caused a furor Thursday when she entered the Senate wearing a full burqa, earning a blistering rebuke from the country’s top lawyer for the “appalling” stunt.
Hanson wore the garment in the chamber to highlight what she said were the security issues it posed, linking it to terrorism as fellow senators heckled her.
“Will you work to ban the burqa in Australia in light of what is happening with national security?” she said after whipping off the garment to question Attorney-General George Brandis.
She added: “Terrorism is a true threat to our country, many Australians are in fear of it.”
Brandis said his conservative government had no such plans, warning Hanson she risked offending the Muslim community by wearing a burka when she was not a follower of Islam.
“To ridicule that community, to drive it into a corner, to mock its religious garments is an appalling thing to do, and I would ask you to reflect on what you have done,” he said.
Brandis, his voice cracking with emotion, also said that being a strict adherent Muslim, such as those who wear the burka, was “absolutely consistent” with being a law-abiding citizen.
“We have about half-a-million Australians in this country of the Islamic faith and the vast majority of them are law-abiding, good Australians,” he said.
Brandis’ remarks prompted a standing ovation from his political opponents in the Labor and Greens parties.
Independent Sen. Derryn Hinch labelled Hanson’s conduct “disgusting.”
“Pauline Hanson mocked the religion of some Australians ... she made a mockery of an honorable place (the Senate),” he told Sky News.
Labor senator Sam Dastyari accused Hanson of stoking extremism in a poorly timed bid for “a cheap headline.”
“In the same week that we saw white nationalism rear its ugly head in the country of our closest ally — in that week a stunt like this gets pulled in the Australian Senate,” he said.
“It is hurtful, it is offensive, it is wrong,“
Hanson first gained prominence in the 1990s, when she warned Australia was in danger of being “swamped by Asians.”
After a 12-year hiatus from politics she returned in 2014, this time targeting Muslims and was elected to the Senate two years later as leader of the right-wing One Nation party.
In her first speech after returning to parliament, she said Islam was “a culture and ideology that is incompatible with our own.”
Hanson was unrepentant after her latest stunt, telling commercial radio: “Is it extreme? Yes. Is it getting my message across? I hope so.”
Politician rebuked for wearing burqa in Australian Senate
Politician rebuked for wearing burqa in Australian Senate
Close to 600,000 Afghans expelled from Pakistan since deportation drive launched last year
- Radio Pakistan says 13,206 Afghan nationals repatriated over last ten days
- Islamabad blames Afghans for militant violence, smuggling, other crimes
ISLAMABAD: The repatriation of illegal foreigners living in Pakistan continues with more than 10,000 Afghan nationals expelled over the last ten days, state broadcaster Radio Pakistan said on Thursday, bringing the total number of those deported close to 600,000.
The government launched a deportation drive last year after a spike in suicide bombings which the Pakistan government, without providing any evidence, says were carried out by Afghan nationals. Islamabad has also blamed them for smuggling, militant violence and other crimes.
A cash-strapped Pakistan that was navigating its record inflation, alongside a tough International Monetary Fund bailout program last year, had also said undocumented migrants had drained its resources for decades.
“590,445 Afghans have so far been repatriated to Afghanistan,” Radio Pakistan said on Thursday. “According to the latest statistics, 13,206 Afghan nationals returned to their country over the last ten days.”
Until the government initiated the expulsion drive last year, Pakistan was home to over four million Afghan migrants and refugees out of which around 1.7 million were undocumented.
Afghans make up the largest portion of migrants, many of whom came after the Taliban took over Kabul in 2021, but a large number have been present since the 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan.
Islamabad insists the deportation drive is not aimed specifically at Afghans but at all those living illegally in Pakistan.
In October 2023, Pakistan announced phase one of the “Illegal Foreigners’ Repatriation Plan” with a 30-day deadline for “undocumented” aliens to leave the country or be subject to deportation, putting 1.4 million Afghan refugees at risk.
In phase two of the “repatriation plan,” around 600,00 Afghans who held Pakistan-issued Afghan citizenship cards (ACCs) will be expelled while phase three was expected to target those with UNHCR-issued Proof of Registration (PoR) cards.
In April, the Ministry of States and Frontier Regions (SAFRON) issued a notification validating the extension of the POR card till June 30 this year.
Before the deportation drive, many people used to cross the Pak-Afghan border back and forth for business and personal purposes daily. The main entry points into Afghanistan are the borders in the Kandahar and Nangarhar provinces.
The deportation drive had led to a spike in tensions between Pakistan and the Taliban rulers in Afghanistan. The Taliban deny militants are using Afghan soil to launch attacks, calling Pakistan’s security challenges a domestic issue.
Rising violence strikes fear into West Bank school
“We tell the students ... to come to school together and not on their own, because we do not know when their (settlers) attack will be,” said Mazin Shehadeh, vice-principal for the high school located in a village south of the city of Nablus.
On the hill above the village sits the Israeli settlement of Yitzhar, from where Palestinians say settlers descend to attack them.
“Every day when we arrive, we inspect the area around the school for fear that there might be explosive devices,” said the educator, whose office floor was charred black by what he said was an arson attack.
Israel has occupied the West Bank since 1967 and now some 490,000 Israelis live across the Palestinian territory in settlements that are considered illegal under international law.
Palestinians have long faced harassment by settlers.
Recalling an attack on the school, one 15-year-old student said, “We were in class, and the settlers attacked us from the back of the school. They threw stones at the windows.”
“The (Israeli) soldiers were standing above, near the water tank, firing tear gas and stun grenades toward the school.”
Now the pupils fear an attack at any moment.
“At the slightest noise, at the slightest gunshot or at the slightest explosion near the town, we say to ourselves that the (Israeli) army or the settlers have attacked the school,” said Qais.
Since October 7, 519 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank by Israeli soldiers or settlers, according to the health ministry in Ramallah.
More checkpoints and other Israeli military installations have been erected since the start of the war, complicating the journey to school.
“Sometimes the army harasses us, sends us tear gas bombs and sound bombs and prevents us from going to school,” said a 12-year-old student.
The school year, which ended on Wednesday, turned into “a nightmare” for Palestinian students, the United Nation’s children’s agency UNICEF has said.
Some 27.5 percent of elementary school students do not feel safe at school, according to a study by UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.
Between October 7 and May 7, 60 children were killed in the West Bank, 345 injured and 68 schools targeted by acts of vandalism, according to the Palestinian education ministry.
It said another 125 students have been detained by the Israeli military, who when asked by AFP about the arrests said they were part of their “counter-terrorism activities“
Last week, a 15-year-old boy was shot dead while evacuating from his school by bicycle during an Israeli military raid in the northern West Bank city of Jenin.
Even before the war, violence between communities in the West Bank near the school reached a record high.
In June 2023 two residents of Urif village, members of the armed group Hamas, killed four Israelis in an attack to the south.
In response, dozens of masked settlers could be seen in footage reviewed by AFP setting fire to a school and trees, and throwing stones at homes in the village.
In response to repeated attacks by settlers, school administrators in Urif said they had spent the equivalent of 62,500 euros on a tarpaulin to catch thrown stones and they have also installed barbed wire.
In the classrooms, thick purple curtains are drawn over barred windows, and staff run regular evacuation drills.
The violence and consequent fortifications have made students feel like they are trapped and “entering a prison,” said Shehadeh.
The school has had many of its “most hardworking and brilliant students” drop out, he added.
Others have left to help their parents, who have been without an income since Israel placed increased restrictions on Palestinians working in Israel.
Those pupils who remain only attend in-person classes three days a week and do the rest remotely due to the security concerns and the Palestinian Authority not paying teachers their full salaries.
However, not all students have the electronic devices or Internet connections needed to learn remotely, said Refat Sabbah, founder of the Teacher Creativity Center, a charity.
“In such a context, when students feel at risk at every moment, how can they learn? The psychological impact is huge on the students and the teachers,” he added.
What lies ahead for the new Indian government
- Economic disparity, inflation, taxes and unemployment likely to be key challenges
- Foreign relations with China, Pakistan, Canada will continue to plague any new administration
NEW DELHI: India is expected to have a new government in place by the middle of June after a six-week election that began on April 19. Votes will be counted on June 4 and analysts expect Prime Minister Narendra Modi to win a third straight term.
Here are some key issues the winning party, or coalition, will need to tackle in office.
ECONOMIC DISPARITY
India’s economy is expected to have grown by about 8 percent in the last fiscal year, one of the fastest rates among major economies, but voters have pointed to disparities on the ground, with growth more visible in cities than in the vast hinterland.
The economy has jumped five places to be the fifth-largest in the world in the past decade under Modi and he has said he will lift it to the third position if elected. But the country’s per-capita income still remains the lowest among G20 nations.
Nevertheless, S&P Global Ratings in late May raised India’s sovereign rating outlook to ‘positive’ from ‘stable’ while retaining the rating at ‘BBB-’, saying the country’s robust economic expansion was having a constructive impact on its credit metrics.
INFLATION ABOVE CENBANK TARGET
Annual retail inflation (INCPIY=ECI) in April stood at 4.83 percent, slightly lower than March, but still above the central bank’s 4 percent target.
Food inflation, which accounts for nearly half of the overall consumer price basket, was an annual 8.70 percent in April, compared with a 8.52 percent rise in the previous month. Food inflation has been at more than 8 percent year-on-year since November 2023.
Countering the steep increase in food prices has been one of the key campaign planks of the main opposition Congress party, which has promised several cash handouts to alleviate the situation.
Modi has meanwhile banned exports of wheat, rice and onions to contain domestic inflation.
UNEMPLOYMENT
Unemployment in India has also been one of the main issues in the campaign with Congress accusing the Modi government of doing little to provide jobs for the country’s youth.
The unemployment rate in India rose to 8.1 percent in April from 7.4 percent in March, according to the private think-tank Center for Monitoring Indian Economy.
Government estimates for the latest January-March quarter show that the urban unemployment rate in the 15-29 age group ticked higher to 17 percent from 16.5 percent in the prior quarter.
Overall, urban unemployment rate in the January-March quarter stood at 6.7 percent, compared to 6.5 percent in the previous quarter, according to government data.
The Indian government does not release quarterly unemployment figures for rural India.
FOREIGN RELATIONS
India’s rising world stature and assertive foreign policy have been touted as major recent achievements by Modi’s administration.
A key diplomatic strain, however, remains with China which was spurred by a 2020 border clash that left 20 Indian and four Chinese soldiers dead. Modi said last month the countries should address the “prolonged situation” on their border.
Modi’s government has been trying to attract foreign companies to diversify supply chains beyond China.
Relations with Canada have also been strained in recent months after Ottawa and Washington accused an Indian official of directing the plot in the attempted murder of Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, a Sikh separatist and dual citizen of the United States and Canada.
In May, Canadian police arrested and charged three Indian men with the murder of Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar last year and said they were probing whether the men had ties to the Indian government.
TAXES
An industry lobby group earlier this year called for a tax exemption limit for individuals to be increased and linked with inflation to help boost consumption.
The Confederation of Indian Industry also asked that the government review its capital gains tax structure by bringing consistency in tax rates for different asset classes such as debt, equity and immovable assets.
FARMERS
Stagnant farm income is a major sign of widening inequality between urban and rural India that has led to widespread protests. The BJP had promised to double farm income by 2022 in its manifesto for the last election, but has failed to do so.
Despite that, Modi has set a new goal to lift rural per-capita income by 50 percent by 2030 but farmers in the hinterland remain skeptical of such plans, Reuters reported earlier.
LAND, LABOUR REFORMS
In February, a BJP spokesperson told Reuters that Modi could make labor reforms a priority if he wins the general election.
New labor codes, which would make it easier for firms to hire and fire workers and impose operating restrictions on unions, were approved by parliament in 2020, but they have yet to be implemented following resistance from workers and states.
The new government may also continue to delay taking on land reforms as any such moves would be contentious and lead to losses in state elections later this year.
In his first term as prime minister, Modi tried to push through legislation that would have made it easier to buy land for industrial corridors, rural housing and electrification, and for defense purposes. However, the plan was put on the backburner amid stiff resistance from the opposition.
WHO emergencies team faces funding crunch as health crises multiply
- It will likely have to ask for funding again to cover salaries up to June, the document, released ahead of the WHO’s annual meeting in Geneva this week, said
LONDON: The World Health Organization’s emergencies department is facing “existential threats” as multiplying health crises have left it so short of cash that it needed emergency funds to pay staff salaries at the end of last year, an independent report said.
It will likely have to ask for funding again to cover salaries up to June, the document, released ahead of the WHO’s annual meeting in Geneva this week, said.
In 2023, the department responded to 72 emergencies. They included earthquakes in Turkiye and Syria, conflict in Sudan, Ukraine and Gaza, and a large global cholera outbreak.
The report, by an independent oversight committee, said that countries need to strengthen their own preparedness efforts and the WHO must improve the way it transfers responsibilities to national authorities to cope with the increased demands.
It also recommends new guidelines for the WHO’s role in managing long-lasting humanitarian emergencies, rather than the acute disease outbreaks that the department also deals with.
“More numerous natural disasters and conflicts in fragile states pose existential threats” to the performance of the emergencies program, the document reads.
Without increased capacity in countries, the WHO’s emergencies program “will be obliged to cut back critical activities”, it adds.
The WHO has a system of grading emergencies, with its highest level of alert being a “public health emergency of international concern”, or PHEIC. Only polio remains at this level; WHO declared the end of the emergency for both COVID-19 and mpox in 2023.
However, the agency also responds to increasing numbers of other emergencies, from conflict to floods and infectious disease outbreaks.
Last year, while the WHO’s overall budget was “relatively well funded”, the emergencies program had a “critical” funding gap of $411 million, or around a third of its entire budget, the report said.
WHO member states have taken steps to reform WHO’s funding and member states are set to discuss the report on Thursday.
India election 2024: What next after voting ends?
- Winners of India’s April 19-June 1 general election expected to form new government after votes counted on June 4
- Analysts largely expect PM Narendra Modi to win third straight term as predicted by opinion polls before voting began
NEW DELHI: The winners of India’s April 19-June 1 general election are expected to form a new government by the middle of June after votes are counted on June 4. Analysts largely expect Prime Minister Narendra Modi to win a third straight term, as predicted by opinion polls before voting began.
Here is a look how votes, opens new tab are counted and what happens after that.
VOTE COUNTING
Vote counting is decentralized and done simultaneously at counting stations in each of the 543 constituencies around the country.
Counting begins at 8 am (0000 GMT) on June 4 with the tallying of postal ballots that only select groups can use, including people with disabilities, or those involved in essential services including security forces and some government officials.
After paper ballots, votes recorded in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) are counted, which India has used since 2000, moving away from paper ballots for national and state elections.
CRITICISM OF THE PROCESS
Along with the electronic record of each vote cast through the EVM, a corresponding paper slip is also produced, which is visible to the voter, and then stored in a sealed box.
The poll watchdog, the Election Commission of India (ECI), counts and verifies these paper slips against electronic votes at five randomly selected polling stations — drawn by lots — in different segments of each constituency.
While critics and some members of civil society, including some political parties, want verification to be done at more booths to increase transparency, the Supreme Court has declined to order any change in the vote-counting process.
The ECI has dismissed allegations that EVMs can be tampered, calling them foolproof.
FORMING THE GOVERNMENT
Results are announced for each constituency as soon as counting is completed. India follows the first-past-the-post system, under which a candidate with the highest number of votes wins, regardless of garnering a majority or not.
Result trends generally become clear by the afternoon of counting day and are flashed on television news networks. The official count from the ECI can come hours later.
After the ECI announces the results for all 543 seats, the president invites the leader of the party, or an alliance, which has more than half the seats to form the government.
The party or coalition with 272 or more seats then chooses a prime minister to lead the government.
In the 2019 elections, Modi’s Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party won 303 seats and its National Democratic Alliance partners secured about 50 more. Meanwhile, the main opposition Congress won just 52 seats, with another 91 seats going to its allies.
If no political party or alliance gets a simple majority, leading to what is called a “hung house,” the president asks the party with the largest number of seats to form a government, and prove a majority on the floor of the house later.
A new Lok Sabha, the lower house of parliament, has to be in place before its current term ends on June 16.
WILL MODI WIN?
Opinion polls conducted before voting began on April 19 projected an easy victory for Modi for a rare third consecutive term, but a lower voter turnout, and a more unified opposition compared to 2019 have emerged as surprise challenges for him. Most analysts however say he is still likely to win.
