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World reacts as Taliban sweep through Afghanistan

Taliban fighters and local residents sit over an Afghan National Army (ANA) humvee vehicle along the roadside in Laghman province on August 15, 2021. (Photo by AFP)
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Updated 15 August 2021
Arab News
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World reacts as Taliban sweep through Afghanistan

Updated 15 August 2021
Arab News

DUBAI: The world is reacting to the rapid developments in Afghanistan after Taliban insurgents entered Kabul and President Ashraf Ghani left Afghanistan on Sunday, bringing the Islamist militants close to taking over the country.

US

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken says the US is evacuating remaining staff at the US Embassy in Kabul as the Taliban enter the Afghan capital. But he is playing down America’s hasty exit, saying “this is manifestly not Saigon.”
Speaking on ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday, Blinken said: “The compound itself, our folks are leaving there, and moving to the airport.”
Blinken also confirmed that US Embassy workers were destroying documents and other items ahead of fleeing the embassy, but insisted “this is being done in a very deliberate way, it’s being done in an orderly way, and it’s being done with American forces there to make sure we can do it in a safe way.”
The evacuation of the US Embassy in Kabul had US military helicopters lifting off from embassy grounds Sunday, and sent puffs of black smoke up into the skies over Kabul as US officials worked to keep sensitive material from falling in Taliban hands.
The scene comes after President Joe Biden earlier this year played down any idea that the Taliban could capture the country, or that the Afghanistan war would end up in scenes reminiscent of the Vietnam one, with military helicopters taking off from embassy rooftops.
Blinken defended Biden’s decision to end the nearly 20-year US military mission in Afghanistan, saying Biden’s hands were tied by a withdrawal deal President Donald Trump struck with the Taliban in 2020.
If Biden had called off the withdrawal, “we would have been back at the war with the Taliban,” and forced to surge tens of thousands of American forces back into Afghanistan, Blinken said.

UK
Nobody should bilaterally recognise the Taliban as the government of Afghanistan, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Sunday, adding it was clear that there would be a new administration in the country very shortly.
"We don't want anybody bilaterally recognising the Taliban," Johnson said in an interview clip, urging the West to work together on Afghanistan through mechanisms such as the United Nations and NATO.
"We want a united position amongst all the like-minded as far as we can get one so that we do whatever we can to prevent Afghanistan lapsing back into being a breeding ground for terror."

UAE

The United Arab Emirates foreign ministry on Sunday said it was working on facilitating the evacuation of foreign diplomatic staff from Afghanistan through airports in the Gulf Arab state.
That included diplomatic staff from the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Canada, Egypt, Australia and the European Union it said in a statement.
The UAE is a major international air transit hub.

Russia 
Russia’s state news agency reported Sunday that the Taliban promised to guarantee the safety of the Russian embassy in Kabul.
Tass quoted Suhail Shaheen, a spokesman for the Taliban’s political office, as saying that the organization has “good relations with Russia” and a “policy in general to ensure safe conditions for the functioning of the Russian and other embassies.”
The Kremlin's envoy on Afghanistan said Sunday that there are no plans to evacuate the Russian embassy in Kabul. Zamir Kabulov told the Interfax news agency that Russia’s ambassador and its staff are “calmly carrying out their duties.”
The reports came as Taliban fighters entered Kabul after a week-long blitz ahead of the final pullout of American and NATO troops. The Taliban said they don’t plan to take the capital city by force.

Germany 

German media have issued an urgent appeal to Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country’s foreign minister for an emergency visa program to help local staff who worked for them to leave Afghanistan.
In an open letter Sunday, major German newspapers, public and commercial broadcasters, and the dpa news agency warned that “the lives of these freelance staff are now in acute danger.”
The media outlets stressed that reporting from Afghanistan over the past two decades would have been “unthinkable without the efforts and bravery of the Afghan staff who supported us on the ground: local journalists, stringers and translators.”
Citing several recent fatal attacks on journalists, the letter said that due to the advance of the Taliban “it must be feared that such murders will now dramatically increase - and many of our staff are at risk.”
“We are convinced: there is no time to lose now,” it adds. “Our staff who want to leave the country are at risk of persecution, arrest, torture and deaths. That is why we ask you act quickly.”

Italy

Italian media reported Sunday that most personnel at the Italian Embassy in Kabul are being transferred to the Afghan capital’s airport in preparation for evacuation.
The report Sunday by Corriere della Sera said the move affects some 50 Italian staffers and 30 Afghan employees and their families, along with Carabinieri paramilitary police protecting the embassy.
The Foreign Ministry confirmed that staff were being transferred to the airport, as other nations were in the process of doing, but could not give numbers or timing.
Italy’s defense minister has said that 228 Afghans and their families have already been transferred to Italy, calling it a “moral duty” to protect those who had worked with Italy and who would face reprisals by the Taliban.
The Italian agency LaPresse reported a flight carrying Italian embassy staff would depart Kabul Sunday evening.

Sweden  
Sweden will evacuate all its embassy staff from Kabul on Sunday, public service broadcaster Swedish Radio reported, citing sources.

Vatican – Pope Francis 
Pope Francis expressed his “concern” Sunday over the conflict in Afghanistan and called for dialogue so that the “battered population” can live in peace.
“I join in the unanimous concern for the situation in Afghanistan,” the pontiff said during the weekly Angelus at the Vatican.
“I ask all of you to pray with me to the God of peace so that the clamour of weapons might cease and solutions can be found at the table of dialogue.
“Only thus can the battered population of that country – men, women, elderly and children - return to their own homes, and live in peace and security, in total mutual respect.”

(with input from Reuters, Associated Press and AFP) 

Topics: Afghanistan Taliban Taliban capture Kabul

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Animals collapse, water shortages bite amid India’s searing heat

Updated 7 sec ago
Reuters
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Animals collapse, water shortages bite amid India’s searing heat

  • India’s capital Delhi recorded first heat-related death on Wednesday as sun scorches
  • Extreme temperatures spark fires in several regions of country such as Jammu and Kashmir
Updated 7 sec ago
Reuters

NEW DELHI: Animals collapsed, people jumped on water tankers with buckets amid shortages and government employees changed their work hours as blistering summer heat kept its grip on north India on Thursday.

Although Thursday’s readings were marginally lower in Delhi than the previous day when one area recorded an all-time high of 52.9 degrees Celsius (127.22 Fahrenheit), the region still saw temperatures touching 47 C (116.6 F).

Delhi, which has a population of 20 million, recorded its first heat-related death on Wednesday, with a 40-year-old laborer dying of heatstroke, local media reported. Authorities said they are investigating if the 52.9 C reading in the Mungeshpur neighborhood on Wednesday was caused by a sensor error at the local weather station.

Television images showed people chasing water tankers or climbing on top of them in parts of the city to fill containers amidst an acute water shortage that the government blames on low levels in the Yamuna River — Delhi’s primary source of water.

Along the river’s banks, women in shanties endured stifling conditions in their homes as their cooking stoves aggravated the sweltering weather.

“The heat is worse this year. We work like this every day so we get into the habit,” said Seema, 19, who cooks for her family twice a day.

In the neighboring state of Uttar Pradesh, a policeman used CPR to revive a monkey that he said had fainted and fallen from a tree because of the heat, pumping its chest for 45 minutes, local media reported, and Delhi also saw cases of heatstroke among birds.

As more people chose to order food and groceries by home delivery instead of venturing out in the heat, delivery personnel have been spending more time on their scooters and motorbikes, their employers said.

“Order frequency has been higher during the afternoon when people are avoiding stepping out,” said Ateef Shaikh, a delivery fleet manager at a Swiggy delivery app store in Mumbai.

Zomato and its grocery delivery business, Blinkit, have taken additional measures to help delivery workers, including providing refreshments and comfortable clothing, their spokespersons said.

Blinkit is installing air coolers in the waiting areas of all its stores, the spokesperson added.

The extreme temperatures have also sparked more fires in several parts of the country, including in the northern state of Jammu and Kashmir, where authorities are using drones to monitor forest fires.

The country, which is nearing the end of multi-phase national elections, is not alone in experiencing unusually high temperatures. Billions across Asia are grappling with the heat and in neighboring Pakistan the temperature crossed 52 C (125.6 F)this week.

Scientists say this trend has been worsened by human-driven climate change. India, the world’s third-biggest greenhouse gas emitter, has long held that, as a developing nation, it should not be forced to cut its energy-related emissions but has set a target of becoming a net-zero emitter by 2070. 

Topics: heatwave India

Ukraine to get up to 100,000 shells in June: Czech official

Updated 58 min 45 sec ago
AFP
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Ukraine to get up to 100,000 shells in June: Czech official

  • Ukraine could get millions of shells if allies managed to collect the money
  • Ukrainian forces said earlier this year they were so low on supplies that they were forced to ration ammunition, letting Russia seize ground
Updated 58 min 45 sec ago
AFP

PRAGUE: Ukraine will receive 50,000-100,000 shells in June under a Czech-led initiative to buy ammunition for the war-ravaged country largely outside Europe, a Czech official said Thursday.
Tomas Kopecny, the Czech government envoy for Ukraine reconstruction, told reporters that Ukraine, battling a Russian invasion since February 2022, could get millions of shells if allies managed to collect the money.
“The first delivery under the umbrella of this Czech initiative will be in June, and it will be dozens of thousands of shells, between 50 and 100,” he said on the fringes of a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Prague.
Ukrainian forces said earlier this year they were so low on supplies that they were forced to ration ammunition, letting Russia seize ground.
Russia has more recently launched a widescale offensive in northeastern Ukraine ahead of the delivery of US weapons that were approved after a long delay in Congress.
Besides the Czech Republic, Canada, Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands and Portugal have so far contributed some 1.7 billion euros ($1.8 billion) to buy 500,000 shells in the first phase, Kopecny said.
Ten other countries are “in the process” with talks for donations under way, he said.
In Prague for the NATO meeting, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken hailed the so-called Czech initiative, estimating that the effort will bring one million shells to Ukraine by the end of the year.
“Czechia’s leadership is really quite extraordinary,” Blinken said. “We’re not only stronger, we’re more likely to prevent — to deter — aggression when we’re united.”
Kopecny urged further contributions as Ukraine will need 200,000 shells a month in the next two years “just to make the balance” vis-a-vis Russia.
The necessary supplies will swallow “between seven and ten billion euros per year,” he said, adding the 500,000 shells obtained or pledged so far would suffice for two and a half months.
He said allies were competing for millions of rounds of ammunition produced outside Europe with Russia.
“It’s about speed,” he said. “It’s a market where the owner of a product wants to sell it at the highest price.”
Kopecny also slammed allies for a failure to use bank loans to finance the weapon supplies to Ukraine.
“It’s so frustrating when you compare it with the expenses and the loans the EU took for Covid. Hundreds of billions of euros. Easy. And here we’re struggling with hundreds of millions.”

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict czech Shells Ammunition

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Indian space startup launches first rocket with fully 3D-printed engine

Updated 30 May 2024
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Indian space startup launches first rocket with fully 3D-printed engine

  • Rocket launched from India’s first private launchpad in Sriharikota
  • Agnibaan has the first indigenously produced semi-cryogenic engine
Updated 30 May 2024
Sanjay Kumar

NEW DELHI: An Indian startup launched the world’s first rocket with a single-piece 3D-printed engine on Thursday, marking another milestone in the country’s booming space economy.

The Agnibaan SOrTeD (Suborbital Tech Demonstrator) rocket weighing 575 kg and 6.2 meters long, was launched by Agnikul Cosmos from a private launchpad at the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, off the Bay of Bengal.

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi took to social media to congratulate the team and mark the launch as a “remarkable feat which will make the entire nation proud.”

The feat was achieved “entirely through indigenous design and development,” the company said in a statement.

“The key purpose of this mission, which is also Agnikul’s first flight, is to serve as a test flight, to demonstrate the in-house and homegrown technologies, gather crucial flight data and ensure optimal functioning of systems for Agnikul’s orbital launch vehicle.”

It is powered by the only India-manufactured rocket engine to use both gas and liquid fuel.

“What Agnikul has achieved today, is nothing short of a historical milestone ... Agnibaan SOrTeD has got many firsts in its strides with being India’s first launch from a private launchpad, the first semi-cryogenic engine-powered rocket launch and the world’s first single-piece 3D-printed engine designed and built indigenously,” Lt. Gen. A.K. Bhatt, director-general of the Indian Space Association, told Arab News.

“This is a huge boost and a proud moment for India’s thriving private space industry and just a glimpse into what the future holds for us.”

India’s national space agency, the Indian Space Research Organisation, which has yet to fly a rocket with a similar engine, said Agnikul’s achievement was a “major milestone, as the first-ever controlled flight of a semi-cryogenic liquid engine realized through additive manufacturing.”

Agnikul, whose name is a combination of “fire” in Sanskrit (agni) and Hindi (kul) — was founded in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, in 2017.

The company has over 200 engineers and 45 scientists who previously worked at the ISRO and are associated with the National Centre for Combustion Research and Development at the Indian Institute of Technology-Madras.

India’s first privately developed rocket, from the company Skyroot, was flown from the ISRO’s launch site in 2022.

The ISRO’s chairman, Dr. S. Somanath, said the many firsts in Thursday’s launch “demonstrate the prowess of indigenous design and innovation” and motivate the agency to support startups and the private sector “to create a vibrant space ecosystem in the country.”

India has been establishing a significant presence in the global space industry over the past few years.

Having become the fourth nation to soft-land a spacecraft on the moon in August last year, it aims to put an astronaut on the lunar surface by 2040.

In September 2023, India launched its sun mission with the Aditya-L1 spacecraft, which in January reached Lagrange point — 1.5 million km from Earth — to observe the photosphere and chromosphere and study solar wind particles and magnetic fields.

To date, the US is the only other country to have explored the sun with the Parker Solar Probe launched in 2021.

ENDS

Topics: India

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EU states agree ‘prohibitive’ tariffs on Russia grain imports

Updated 30 May 2024
AFP
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EU states agree ‘prohibitive’ tariffs on Russia grain imports

  • The European Union has hit Russia with multiple rounds of sanctions
  • The latest measure will “tackle illegal Russian exports of stolen Ukraine grain into EU markets,” the EU’s trade commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, said
Updated 30 May 2024
AFP

BRUSSELS: EU states agreed on Thursday to impose “prohibitive” duties on grain imports from Russia in a bid to cut off revenues to Moscow for its war on Ukraine.
The European Union has hit Russia with multiple rounds of sanctions to inflict damage on Russia’s war chest following its all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
The latest measure will “tackle illegal Russian exports of stolen Ukraine grain into EU markets,” the EU’s trade commissioner, Valdis Dombrovskis, said on social media.
The tariffs will also be applied to products from Belarus, which served as a staging ground for Russia’s attack on Ukraine.
But the tariffs will not apply to Russian grain transiting through the EU to countries outside the bloc, to ensure that food supplies for elsewhere, notably Africa and Asia, are not impacted. Russian fertilizer supplies were not targeted.
The European Commission proposed the measure in March. Under World Trade Organization rules, virtually all Russian grain has until now been exempt from EU import duties.
From July 1, the EU will increase “duties on cereals, oilseeds and derived products from Russia and Belarus to a point that will in practice halt imports of these products,” the council representing the EU’s 27 member states said.
The EU set this at a level of either around 90 euros (around $97) per ton for most cereals, or 50 percent of the value for other products.
“These measures will therefore prevent the destabilization of the EU’s grain market (and) halt Russian exports of illegally appropriated grain produced in the territories of Ukraine,” said Vincent Van Peteghem, Belgian minister for finance.
“This is yet another way in which the EU is showing steady support to Ukraine,” he added.
Russian agricultural imports into the EU burgeoned in 2023.
Last year, Russia exported 4.2 million tons of cereals and related agricultural products to the EU worth 1.3 billion euros.
And Russian grain exports to the EU rose from 960,000 tons in 2022 to 1.5 million tons last year after a surge in Russian production.
Despite the figures, it comprises only a very small share of the EU’s supply of such products, around one percent of the European market.
In stark contrast, domestic suppliers provide 300 million tons annually.
The EU has approached punitive action against Russia’s agricultural or fertilizer sector with great caution, fearing any moves that could hurt the global cereal market as well as food security in Africa and Asia.
But Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky complained to EU leaders earlier this year, arguing it was unfair Russian grain maintained unrestricted access to their markets while Ukrainian imports faced limits.
Russia at the time warned against the tariffs. “Consumers in Europe would definitely suffer,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in March.

Topics: Russia-Ukraine Conflict EU grain sanctions

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Dome of Rock replica turns remote Sri Lankan town into tourist site

Updated 30 May 2024
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Dome of Rock replica turns remote Sri Lankan town into tourist site

  • It was inaugurated in Kattankudy, Eastern Province, in 2022
  • The site has since boosted local halal tourism businesses
Updated 30 May 2024
Mohammed Rasooldeen

KATTANKUDY: A bright gold dome mounted on an octagonal blue arcade looks like the Dome of the Rock, but the background is a modern tropical neighborhood in a coastal Sri Lankan town.

The building is a mosque modeled on the seventh-century shrine in the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound in East Jerusalem — the third holiest site in Islam, after the Grand Mosque in Makkah and the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah.

Built in Kattankudy, a township near the city of Batticaloa in Sri Lanka’s Eastern Province, the three-story replica was inaugurated in December 2022.

Muslims constitute about 10 percent of Sri Lanka’s 22 million population, which is predominantly Buddhist, but in Kattankudy and neighboring areas they are a majority.

“For Friday prayers, around 2,000 to 3,000 people would pray here, on the three stories, and outside also ... In Ramadan, (there is) also a big crowd,” Mahamood Lebbe Alim Mohamed Hizbullah, the mosque’s caretaker and former governor of the Eastern Province, told Arab News.

But the biggest crowds flock to the coastal town during weekends, he said, as the mosque has boosted local businesses offering halal food and accommodation.

Financed from donations, it is becoming a main tourism attraction for the region’s Muslims, most of whom may never be able to visit the original site in Palestine.

“The Muslim community, after the Easter attack, is finding it really difficult to travel,” Hizbullah said, referring to the deadly 2019 bombings on churches in Colombo.

While the attacks were claimed by Daesh militants, they prompted the Sri Lankan government to ramp up restrictions on the Muslim community.

No such restrictions are present in Kattankudy, where most of the establishments and properties are Muslim-run.

“This has become a tourist destination in the Eastern Province ... (Praying here) you feel so comfortable, and you feel you are in a different place,” said Abdul Rahman Mansoor, former deputy mayor of nearby Kalmunai city.

“People like me, we are not going to Palestine, we will not get the chance, but coming here ... gives us confidence and gives us hope.”

Topics: Sri Lanka Dome of Rock

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