NEW DELHI: Indian police on Monday arrested the co-founder of a top fact-checking website who has been a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government, his colleague said.
Mohammed Zubair was arrested in Delhi after being called in for questioning in an earlier case, said Pratik Sinha, who runs the Alt-News website together with Zubair.
Sinha said in a post on Twitter that his colleague was arrested illegally and without warning and was being held by police in Delhi.
Zubair has been one of the fiercest critics of Modi’s ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and has frequently called out hate speech by Hindu fringe groups on the Internet.
He has faced several legal cases over the years which his supporters dismiss as politically motivated attempts to silence a critic.
Some local media reports linked Zubair’s arrest Monday to the recent controversy over incendiary remarks about Prophet Muhammad made by a BJP spokesperson, which sparked widespread global protests and outrage from the Islamic world.
Many Hindu nationalists in the last few weeks have drawn attention to past comments on social media made by Zubair and other Modi critics and demanded that he be prosecuted for hurting their religious feelings.
Most government critics however see Zubair’s arrest as part of a crackdown on free-speech and rights activists that India has seen since Modi’s ascent to power in May 2014.
On Saturday, police detained activist Teesta Setalvad who hails from Modi’s western home state of Gujarat. Setalvad has been campaigning to have Modi declared complicit in deadly sectarian riots 20 years ago.
Protests were held in several Indian cities on Monday with rights activists and free-speech organizations demanding Setalvad’s release and describing her detention as “politics of vengeance.”
Delhi police arrest Muslim journalist over Twitter post
https://arab.news/rj3kk
Delhi police arrest Muslim journalist over Twitter post
- Mohammed Zubair, co-founder of top fact-checking website, is a vocal critic of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government
- He has faced several legal cases over the years which his supporters dismiss as politically motivated attempts to silence a critic
EU proposes suspending a duty-free sugar import scheme
- The IPR scheme allows companies to import sugar at zero duty and without limits
- White sugar imports under the IPR totalled 155,000 tons in 2024/25, up 5 percent year-on-year
PARIS: The European Commission proposed suspending a scheme allowing some duty-free sugar imports into the bloc, aiming to ease pressure on European producers facing falling prices and increased competition.
“I will propose a temporary suspension of the sugar inward processing regime to ease pressures on sugar producers,” European Commissioner for Agriculture and Food Christophe Hansen said on X late on Monday.
The IPR scheme allows companies to import sugar at zero duty and without limits, provided the sugar is refined or processed into food products and then re-exported outside the European Union.
Raw sugar imported into the EU under the IPR in the 2024/25 marketing year totalled 587,000 metric tons, up 19 percent on the previous year, of which 95 percent came from Brazil, European Commission data showed.
White sugar imports under the IPR totalled 155,000 tons in 2024/25, up 5 percent year-on-year, of which 43 percent came from Brazil, followed by Morocco, Egypt and Ukraine, the data showed.
European sugar beet producers have raised concerns about unfair competition and the potential impact of a trade deal with the Mercosur bloc of South American countries which includes a larger sugar quota.
Producers say imports have contributed to a supply glut that led EU sugar prices to slump to their lowest in at least three years.
The European sugar beet growers lobby CIBE expressed strong support for the decision, calling it timely and necessary.
“It will provide the right signal and some relief on a very depressed EU sugar market,” the group said on X.
