Respond Firmly Against Terror, But Keep Doors Open For Dialogue With Pakistan: RSS
New Age Islam News Bureau
13 May 2026
Dattatreya Hosabale, the general secretary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Photo | Express
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· Respond firmly against terror, but keep doors open for dialogue with Pakistan: RSS
· UNICEF says 70 children killed in West Bank and East Jerusalem since 2025
· Saudi Arabia condemns attempted Iranian infiltration of Kuwait’s Bubiyan Island
· Reform councillor suspended for anti-Islam posts
· Trump says stopping Iran’s nuclear program outweighs Americans’ economic pain
· Insecurity: Plateau Govt Declares War On Terrorists, Drug Dealers
· Malaysia to join BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi this week
· China Says Pakistan, Kabul Officials Ready to Cooperate on Regional Stability
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India
· Bhopal: FIR against Hindutva group members for assaulting Muslim man over ‘love jihad’ claims
· Allahabad HC censures ADM for rejecting Muslim man’s conversion to Hinduism
· Madhya Pradesh HC reserves order in Bhojshala case; Muslim side calls ASI survey report ‘biased’
· Public prayer curbs: Will cooperate but seek fairness, say religious reps
· Mosque-led voter mobilization begins in Uttarakhand as 2027 election prep intensifies
· India hits out after China admits giving Pakistan support during Operation Sindoor
· Indian army intercepts militants along Line of Control in in Jammu and Kashmir, intruder killed
· Interview: BJP has successfully mobilised the non-Muslim vote to its advantage
· Allahabad High Court says ADM overstepped in deciding conversion case, kept involving police
· Farooq Abdullah says liquor ban in Jammu and Kashmir hinges on Centre aid
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Mideast
· Iran hangs man accused of spying for Israel
· How Israel’s restrictions have turned water into a matter of life and death in Gaza
· Syria arrests former Assad-era air force chief of staff
· Infiltrators captured on Kuwaiti island admit belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
· Evolving drone war in southern Lebanon clouds Iran peace prospects
· Barcelona star Lamine Yamal waves Palestinian flag during title parade
· Number of Palestinians worldwide reaches 15.5m
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Arab World
· Saudi and British foreign ministers discuss efforts to reopen Strait of Hormuz
· Al-Azhar grand imam praises Saudi leadership for Hajj services
· Saudi Arabia’s Masam project removes 839 mines in Yemen
· Saudi crown prince, UAE president discuss regional developments
· Saudi FM discusses regional developments with Qatari and Jordanian counterparts
· Saudi ambassador to Japan meets former Prime Minister in Tokyo
· Saudi deputy foreign minister meets with Somali president in Uganda
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Europe
· Man jailed for acting as Islamic State media activist
· ‘A war of necessity’: Germany marches East again
· Masked men firebomb a Muslim prayer room in Blackburn cafe
· Shrewsbury Muslim Centre speaks out after swastika graffiti
· Starmer prepares for King's Speech as he faces leadership crisis
· Russian economy on solid footing despite slowdown – deputy PM
· Complaints over Ukrainian press gangs skyrocket
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North America
· CAIR Md. Calls on Life Time Fitness to Address Alleged Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab Harassment, Threats Against Longtime Columbia Member
· Rep. Barry Moore introduces legislation requiring immigrants to disavow sharia law
· How Bundle Halal is connecting Minnesota Muslim families to streamlined grocery delivery
· Austria intercepts US military spy planes – Defense Ministry
· CAIR, CAIR-MN Demand that DHS Return Property Seized at Airport from Twin Cities Organizer Who Advocated for ICE Divestment
· Trump's 'Golden Dome' will cost $1.2tn and might not stop all-out missile attack
· Lawsuit seeks to halt Trump's $13m makeover of Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
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Africa
· Sharia Law: Kwankwaso Reveals Those Who Submitted His Name To US Congress For Blacklisting
· Gwarzo Steps Down For Deputy Senate President, Barau In Senatorial Race
· Tinubu, Fubara, Uzodimma, Other APC Govs, Senators, Reps Know Fate Today
· Africa Forward summit wraps up in Nairobi
· US official urges South Sudan authorities to uphold 2018 peace agreement
· Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni sworn in to seventh consecutive term
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Southeast Asia
· Man gets 15 months in prison for sending pork to Singapore mosques
· Indonesia Ensures Sufficient Livestock for Eid al-Adha
· Sultan Ibrahim receives report on mosque projects in Johor Bahru, Kluang, Mersing and Kulai
· Explosion near Unifil headquarters in Lebanon damages Malaysia House, no casualties reported
· Singapore committee urges government to attract top AI firms and talent
· Singapore, Indonesia seek stronger Singapore-Johor-Riau Islands partnership with Malaysia, says foreign minister
· Malaysia passport jumps to 6th in global ranking, Singapore stays top
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South Asia
· Islamic Emirate Delegation Travels to Russia for Economic Talks
· Islamic Emirate Rejects Pakistani Allegations Over Bannu Police Center Attack
· Road Construction Project to Be Implemented in Daikundi
· Public Libraries Expanded Digitalization, Cultural Programs Last Year
· Justice Ministry Publishes New Law on Distribution of Emirate Lands, Construction Permits
· Politicisation in hiring hurt DU’s global standing
· Higher deposits, no posters in local polls
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
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Respond firmly against terror, but keep doors open for dialogue with Pakistan: RSS
13 May 2026
Dattatreya Hosabale, the general secretary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh Photo | Express
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NEW DELHI: Dattatreya Hosabale, the general secretary of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, second only to Mohan Bhagwat, said on Tuesday that India must continue to respond firmly against Pakistan and its support for cross-border terrorism. However, he maintained that the government should keep doors open for dialogue.
Backing his argument, Hosabale referred to initiatives taken during the tenure of former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who, he said, had pursued diplomacy while simultaneously taking a stand against terrorism. He noted that Vajpayee had travelled to Lahore by bus as part of efforts to maintain engagement with Pakistan despite tensions.
“Now, everything has been tried, but more such efforts should continue. Atal ji tried to engage them in dialogue. He went to Lahore by bus, and many things have happened. Our [current] prime minister also invited Pakistan at the time of taking oath,” he remarked in a podcast with PTI.
Hosabale described Pakistan as a “pinprick”, saying, “If Pakistan is like a pinprick, trying to create incidents like Pulwama, etc., we have to answer appropriately according to the situation, because the security and self-respect of a country and nation have to be protected, and the government of the day should take note of it and take care of it.”
At the same time, he stressed that India should not completely shut the door on engagement. “We should always be ready to engage in dialogue. That is why diplomatic relations are maintained, trade and commerce continue, and visas are being given. So we should not stop these, because there should always be a window for dialogue,” he asserted, adding that sporting ties between the two nations should also continue.
Describing the possible resumption of sporting exchanges as a sign of hope, he said: “This is the one hope I think, because I believe strongly that ultimately the civil society relations will work. Because we have a cultural relation and we have been one nation.” He further emphasised that while there should be no leniency towards terrorism, space for dialogue must continue to exist.
The RSS general secretary’s remarks come at a time when relations between India and Pakistan have become increasingly strained following the Pahalgam attack, which subsequently led to Operation Sindoor.
Source: newindianexpress.com
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UNICEF says 70 children killed in West Bank and East Jerusalem since 2025
May 12, 2026
GENEVA: Seventy children have been killed in the occupied Palestinian territories excluding Gaza since early 2025, amounting to around one a week, while over 800 have been injured, the UN children’s agency said on Tuesday.
Most of those killed or injured in the West Bank and East Jerusalem were hit by live ammunition but others were stabbed, beaten or pepper-sprayed, UNICEF said.
“These are not isolated incidents. They point to a sustained pattern of the worst kind of violation — violations against children,” spokesperson James Elder told a Geneva press briefing after visiting the West Bank last week.
He said 93 percent of the children who had lost their lives since January 2025 had been killed by Israeli forces. The others were victims of settler attacks, unexploded ordnance or accidental hits by Palestinian forces, he said.
The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Human rights groups have described a renewed surge in violence against Palestinians by Israeli settlers and soldiers since 2023. The United Nations and most countries deem Israel’s settlements on West Bank land captured in the 1967 war illegal, a view that Israel disputes.
Source: arabnews.com
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2643329/middle-east
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Saudi Arabia condemns attempted Iranian infiltration of Kuwait’s Bubiyan Island
May 12, 2026
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said the action violated Kuwaiti sovereignty. (SPA)
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LONDON: Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the attempted infiltration of Kuwait’s Bubiyan Island this month by an Iranian armed group sent by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps with the aim of carrying out hostile acts.
The ministry said the action violated Kuwaiti sovereignty, and expressed the Kingdom’s solidarity and full support for all measures taken by the country to safeguard its stability and security, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
“These violations undermine international efforts aimed at restoring security and stability in the region,” it added.
Kuwait’s interior ministry announced on Tuesday the arrest of four high-ranking members of the Iranian Navy, who reportedly admitted that Iran’s Revolutionary Guards had tasked them with a mission to infiltrate Bubiyan Island on May 1 using a fishing boat rented specifically to carry out hostile acts against Kuwait.
However, they were engaged by Kuwaiti armed forces, one member of which was injured during the confrontation, the Kuwait News Agency reported. Two IRGC-linked officers managed to escape during the clash.
Source: arabnews.com
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2643351/saudi-arabia
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Reform councillor suspended for anti-Islam posts
May 13, 2026
Miles Davis
The former Facebook profile picture of the Reform candidate for Ham ward in Plymouth, Ben Rowe
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A newly elected Reform UK councillor has been suspended from the party after he was accused of making a series of Islamophobic and antisemitic posts on social media.
Ben Rowe was elected to Plymouth City Council on Friday with 1,649 votes - more than double that of his nearest rival, Labour's Tina Tuohy.
The social media posts made by Rowe emerged before the election was held, prompting Reform to say it was investigating the claims.
On Tuesday, the party confirmed to the BBC that Rowe had been suspended from it.
A Reform spokesman said: "Cllr Rowe has been suspended from Reform UK pending investigation."
The BBC has seen posts on Rowe's Facebook account with a blackface meme, images calling on people to "Free the world of Islam" and pictures of fake shotgun shells loaded with bits of bacon.
According to a previous article in The Times, in a comment beneath a YouTube video in February, Rowe accused "the Jews" of "creating division by forcing other races on our societies" and described immigrants to the UK "breeding like rats".
Reform took 14 seats in the Plymouth City Council elections out of a total 19 seats available.
Elections are held in thirds in Plymouth - meaning one third of the seats is up for election every year with a fourth year where no elections take place.
The results of the elections meant Labour kept control of the council with 31 seats and Reform became the main opposition party with 16 seats.
Source: bbc.com
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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c9v3r1lr07ro
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Trump says stopping Iran’s nuclear program outweighs Americans’ economic pain
May 13, 2026
US President Donald Trump speaks to the press before walking to board Marine One as he departs from the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, DC, on May 12, 2026. (AFP)
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WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that Americans’ financial struggles are not a factor in his decision-making as he seeks to negotiate an end to the Iran war, saying that preventing Tehran from acquiring a nuclear weapon is his top priority.
Asked by a reporter to what extent Americans’ financial situations were motivating him to strike a deal, Trump said: “Not even a little bit.”
“The only thing that matters, when I’m talking about Iran, they can’t have a nuclear weapon,” Trump said before departing the White House for a trip to China. “I don’t think about Americans’ financial situation. I don’t think about anybody. I think about one thing: We cannot let Iran have a nuclear weapon. That’s all. That’s the only thing that motivates me.”
Trump’s remarks are likely to draw scrutiny from critics who argue the administration should balance geopolitical objectives with the economic impact on Americans, particularly as cost-of-living concerns remain a top issue for voters ahead of the November midterm elections.
Asked to elaborate on the president’s comments, White House Communications Director Steven Cheung said that Trump’s “ultimate responsibility is the safety and security of Americans. Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon, and if action wasn’t taken, they’d have one, which threatens all Americans.”
Trump is under growing pressure from fellow Republicans who fear economic pain caused by the war could spark a backlash against the party and cost it control of the House of Representatives and possibly the Senate in November.
Rising energy costs linked to the Iran conflict have pushed up gasoline prices and contributed to inflation.
US consumer inflation in April posted its largest gain in three years, according to data released on Tuesday.
Trump framed his approach as a matter of national and global security, suggesting economic concerns were secondary to preventing nuclear proliferation.
US intelligence assessments, however, indicate that the time Iran would need to build a nuclear weapon has not changed since last summer, when analysts estimated that a US-Israeli attack had increased the timeline to nine months to a year, according to three sources familiar with the matter. The assessments of Tehran’s nuclear program remain broadly unchanged even after two months of a war.
Trump’s allies have echoed his argument that the risks posed by a nuclear-armed Iran outweigh short-term economic hardships.
Iran denies seeking nuclear weapons and says its program is for peaceful purposes, though Western powers suspect it aims to develop the capability to build a bomb.
Source: arabnews.com
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https://www.arabnews.com/node/2643364/world
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Insecurity: Plateau Govt Declares War On Terrorists, Drug Dealers
May 13, 2026
The Plateau State Government on Tuesday declared what it described as a “state of war against terrorists and enemies of the state” following renewed attacks and growing insecurity across several communities in the state.
The declaration came after an emergency meeting of the State Security Council convened by Governor Caleb Mutfwang at the Rayfield Government House in Jos.
Naija News reports that the meeting was attended by top security chiefs, chairmen of the 17 local government areas, and the Chairman of the Plateau State Joint Traditional Council, the Gbong Gwom Jos, Da Jacob Gyang Buba.
Addressing journalists after the meeting, the Secretary to the State Government, Samuel Jatau, said the council carried out a comprehensive review of the deteriorating security situation in the state and resolved to adopt tougher measures to curb the violence.
“Rising from the meeting, the Plateau State Security Council held an emergency session where the current security situation in the state was critically deliberated,” Jatau said.
Jatau disclosed that members of the council observed that communities across Plateau State had come under sustained attacks over the last four months, noting that the pattern suggested a coordinated campaign by criminal elements.
According to him, the government could no longer treat the attacks as isolated incidents, hence the decision to intensify security operations across the state.
Declaring the position of the government, he stated, “Plateau State is in a state of war with terrorists and enemies of the state.”
He added that the Mutfwang administration remained determined to defend residents and secure communities from further attacks.
As part of decisions reached at the emergency session, the government directed security agencies to intensify the enforcement of existing restrictions on motorcycle operations, night grazing and illegal mining activities.
Authorities believe the activities have significantly contributed to insecurity in parts of the state.
The council also ordered security agencies to reclaim ungoverned territories, vulnerable communities, and public institutions allegedly occupied or threatened by criminal groups.
To strengthen ongoing operations, the state government approved additional logistics support for security agencies, including motorcycles and operational vehicles aimed at improving rapid response capabilities.
The government also issued a stern warning against the obstruction of highways and public roads, declaring that anyone found blocking roads would henceforth be treated as a criminal and prosecuted accordingly.
Jatau said the council resolved to improve intelligence gathering and information sharing between local government security structures and host communities to enhance early response to threats.
The government further stressed the importance of securing farmlands ahead of the farming season to enable residents to carry out agricultural activities without fear of attacks.
Traditional rulers across the state were also directed to strengthen monitoring and supervision of cultural and community-based associations operating within their domains.
The council maintained that community leaders must play active roles in supporting intelligence gathering and maintaining peace at the grassroots level.
Beyond tackling violent attacks, the Plateau State Government also declared a renewed war against drug trafficking and substance abuse.
Jatau said the government would intensify operations against drug dealers, suppliers and users across the state as part of efforts to address the root causes of crime and insecurity.
He reiterated the administration’s commitment to protecting lives and property, insisting that the government would not relent until peace fully returns to Plateau State.
Source: naijanews.com
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https://www.naijanews.com/2026/05/13/insecurity-plateau-terrorists-drug-dealers/
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Malaysia to join BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting in New Delhi this week
13 May 2026
HYDERABAD, May 13 — Malaysia will participate in the BRICS foreign ministers’ meeting being held in New Delhi on May 14 and15.
Foreign Minister Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan is expected to arrive in the Indian capital on Wednesday, a Malaysian diplomat at the High Commission told Bernama.
The meeting will be chaired by India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, ministry spokesman Randhir Jaiswal told a media briefing in New Delhi.
The member nations will exchange views on “global and regional issues of mutual interest” on Thursday, while on Friday the BRICS ministers and representatives of partner countries will participate in a session themed “BRICS at 20: Building for Resilience, Innovation, Cooperation and Sustainability” followed by a discussion on “the reforms of global governance and multilateral system,” Jaiswal added.
Malaysia is a partner country of the organisation whose members are Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates.
India will host the group’s leadership summit later this year. — Bernama
Source: malaymail.com
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India
Bhopal: FIR against Hindutva group members for assaulting Muslim man over ‘love jihad’ claims
May 13, 2026
After members of a Hindutva group barged into a hotel room in Madhya Pradesh’s Bhopal and assaulted a Muslim man, while he was with a Hindu woman, over allegations of “love jihad”, a first information report was registered against unidentified persons, The Hindu reported on Wednesday.
Love jihad is a Hindutva conspiracy theory that Muslim men trick Hindu women into romantic relationships with the aim of converting them to Islam. The Union home ministry has told Parliament that Indian law has no provision defining such a term.
The case was registered at the Govindpura police station based on multiple complaints against unidentified persons for allegedly assaulting 27-year-old Arif Khan on May 10.
Members of the Bajrang Dal reportedly entered a hotel room in Gautam Nagar and assaulted Khan. They later paraded him on the street after smearing ink and cow dung on his face.
Videos shared on social media showed the Bajrang Dal members shouting “Jai Shri Ram” during the assault. Some clips also showed them slapping Khan in front of police personnel as officers tried to intervene, The Hindu reported.
The Bajrang Dal is part of a group of Hindutva organisations led by the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
The woman later told the police that she had not faced coercion or forced conversion and had met Khan of her own free will. She also said that she had gone to the hotel voluntarily, NDTV reported.
Additional Commissioner of Police (Crime) Monika Shukla said that the perpetrators had not yet been identified. The police said that they were examining videos shared on social media to identify those involved, The Hindu reported.
Govindpura police station in-charge Awadhesh Singh Tomar said the case had been registered under section of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita pertaining to deliberate and malicious acts intended to outrage the religious feelings of any class.
Source: scroll.in
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Allahabad HC censures ADM for rejecting Muslim man’s conversion to Hinduism
May 13, 2026
The Allahabad high court has pulled up the district administration of Prayagraj for ordering unwarranted and repeated police inquiries under the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, against a Muslim man who voluntarily converted to Hinduism.
The inquiries were sought merely because a criminal case was lodged against the petitioner by his Hindu father-in-law, who was apparently opposed to his daughter’s marriage to the petitioner. Later, the ADM, Prayagraj had rejected the petitioner’s conversion application.
While making these observations, a division bench of Justice Ajit Kumar and Justice Indrajeet Shukla directed to put in abeyance the order passed by the ADM (administration), Prayagraj, who refused to confirm the declaration of the petitioner who voluntarily embraced ‘Sanatan Dharma’.
The high court further directed the concerned ADM to pass an order afresh, taking a pragmatic view of the matter, considering the first two reports favouring the petitioner, as well as the court’s own interaction with the petitioner and his wife.
Granting relief to the couple, the high court in its order dated May 5 directed that the petitioner is at liberty to live his married life with his wife with dignity and that the police shall not interfere. The court directed the authority to pass a fresh order within three weeks. The matter has been posted for a hearing on May 27.
The petitioner is an assistant professor at an institute of the Allahabad University. On January 12, 2022, he made a declaration under Section 8 of the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act, 2021, showing his intent to convert.
On February 11, 2022, the priest also gave declaratory information to the DM regarding the upcoming conversion ritual. Finally, on March 14, 2022, the conversion rituals were performed at an Arya Samaj temple.
Between 2022 and 2023, two police inquiry reports were submitted before the DM confirming that the conversion was voluntary and without undue influence. However, despite these clear findings in the police reports, the ADM again asked the police to submit a further report in light of a criminal case registered against the petitioner by the wife’s father, even though he was not in the picture at the time of the conversion.
Ultimately, on August 9, 2024, the ADM rejected the petitioner’s application for a conversion certificate, relying on a subsequent police report from July 2024 that specified the factum of the FIR and the filing of a charge-sheet against the petitioner.
In essence, on the basis of this last report, the ADM proceeded to assume that the petitioner deliberately got himself converted in order to get married to the lady whom he had allegedly unduly influenced or enticed away. The transaction of ₹1 lakh in April 2021 between the couple was taken by the ADM as stark evidence that the conversion was bad and void in law.
Source: hindustantimes.com
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https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/lucknow-news/allahabad-hc-censures-adm-for-rejecting-muslim-man-s-conversion-to-hinduism-101778608862845.html
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Madhya Pradesh HC reserves order in Bhojshala case; Muslim side calls ASI survey report ‘biased’
By Shruti Tomar
May 13, 2026
The Indore bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court on Tuesday reserved its order in the Bhojshala case after concluding arguments from all parties over the religious nature of the disputed Bhojshala Temple-Kamal Maula Mosque complex in Dhar.
A division bench of Justices Vijay Kumar Shukla and Alok Awasthi heard arguments for 36 days before reserving the matter. They were hearing the case on a daily basis from April 6.
The dispute pertains to the religious nature of the Bhojshala complex, an Archaeological Survey of India-protected monument in Dhar district. Hindu litigants claimed that it was originally a temple of Goddess Vagdevi or Saraswati while Muslims claimed that it was a mosque. A Jain petitioner claimed that the disputed structure was a Jain temple.
The court had earlier directed parties to file objections, suggestions and recommendations on the 2,200-page Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) report prepared after a scientific survey of the 11th-century site conducted between March and June 2024.
According to the report, the monument was built using remains of earlier temples and the existing mosque structure came up centuries later.
Appearing for the Hindu side, advocates Vishnu Shankar Jain, Vinay Joshi and petitioner Ashish Goyal argued that Bhojshala is fundamentally a temple and sought exclusive Hindu rights to worship at the site. Referring to the ASI’s 1904 report identifying the idol of Vagdevi, currently housed in the British Museum, they argued that the structure lacked essential features of a mosque.
“The site lacks essential features of a mosque such as a Wazukhana, minarets, or foundational mehrabs. We want exclusive Hindu rights to worship under Article 25, discontinuation of Namaz at the site, formation of a Trust to manage Bhojshala, repatriation and installation of the Vagdevi idol, and quashing of the ASI’s 2003 order restricting daily worship,” the Hindu side submitted.
The Muslim side, represented by senior advocates Shobha Menon and Salman Khurshid along with advocate Tausif Warsi, challenged the findings and methodology of the ASI survey. They argued that the religious character of Bhojshala had not been conclusively established and said no consecrated idol or “Pran-Pratishtha” existed at the site.
“In the Ayodhya case, the idol of Ram Lalla Virajman was present, whereas no such idol is installed in the Bhojshala. Bhojshala has historically been recognised as the Kamal Maula Mosque, where Namaz was regularly offered,” Khurshid argued.
The Muslim side also alleged lack of transparency in the survey process, citing unclear videography, absence of carbon dating and omission of a Gautam Buddha statue allegedly found during the survey. It further alleged that outdated methods were used and raised platforms were removed despite court directions.
Accusing the petitioners of misusing the PIL process, Menon argued that the dispute should be adjudicated through a civil suit rather than a writ petition before the high court.
On the final day of the hearing, Additional Solicitor General (ASG) Sunil Kumar Jain, representing the ASI, refuted the Muslim side’s argument that the ASI’s report was “biased”. “There is no question of any bias on the part of the ASI towards any community,” the ASG was quoted as saying by PTI.
The ASI maintained that Bhojshala was originally a temple built during the Parmar era in the 12th century. Referring to inscriptions, sculptural fragments and architectural remains, the ASI said the current structure was constructed using parts of earlier temples and is a protected monument of national importance.
“Based on scientific investigations, survey and archaeological excavations conducted, study and analysis of retrieved finds, study of architectural remains, sculptures, and inscriptions, art and sculptures, it can be said that existing structure was made from the parts of earlier temples,” the ASI submitted.
The Hindu Front for Justice had moved the court in 2022 seeking a scientific survey to determine the religious character of Bhojshala. Acting on the plea, the high court ordered the ASI survey on March 11, 2024, following which the agency conducted the exercise between March 22 and June 30 at the one-acre site.
The Bhojshala-Kamal Maula Mosque complex was declared a monument of national importance in 1951 under the Ancient and Historical Monument and Archaeological Sites and Remains (Declaration of National Importance) Act, 1951.
The Jain community has also staked claim over the site, asserting that Bhojshala was originally an 11th-century Jain temple and gurukul, and identifying the Vagdevi idol as Jain Yakshini Ambika.
Source: hindustantimes.com
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https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/hc-reserves-bhojshala-case-order-muslim-side-questions-asi-stand-101778613252952.html
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Public prayer curbs: Will cooperate but seek fairness, say religious reps
May 12, 2026
Kolkata: A day after CM Suvendu Adhikari held his first meeting with senior cops to outline the new govt's law-and-order priorities, religious leaders and community organisers across faiths responded supportively to the govt's new directives on loudspeakers and road usage during prayers and festivals, while stressing that the rules must be implemented fairly and uniformly.
Till late on Tuesday evening, no formal notification had reached any place of worship or the offices of the organisers of various festivals, but the directives prompted guarded but supportive responses from representatives of different faiths and community organisations who said they will comply with directives and expressed hope that the implementation would be even-handed and free of discrimination.
"The Muslim community in Bengal has high expectations from the new govt and we welcome the steps being taken by the CM. We will continue to abide by rules and regulations. Our only request is that the rules be implemented uniformly and without bias. If anyone attempts to create disturbances, the administration must take strict action," said Abdul Aziz, secretary of Milli Ettehad Parishad.
Days after the BJP assumed office in Bengal, the new govt on Monday issued a set of directives to senior cops that included ensuring loudspeaker sound from religious places does not travel beyond precincts and that prayer congregations do not block roads or inconvenience public, except on special occasions.
Among those present at the meeting were DGP SN Gupta, ADG (law and order) Ajay Ranade and KP commissioner Ajay Nand. Adhikari reportedly emphasised that the law must be applied uniformly across communities and institutions. "We might hold prayers in multiple shifts so that everybody gets space inside the mosque. We have not received any instructions, though," said imam of a mosque in central Kolkata.
Durga Puja committees, too, said they would follow directives of the govt. "Festivals will continue to be organised in accordance with all directives by the administration," said Saswata Basu, secretary of Forum for Durgotsab.
A senior church leader said measures to regulate sound and traffic could help residents if enforced fairly. "The new rules are welcome if they help reduce noise pollution and improve traffic discipline during prayers and festivities. We also hope the rules are implemented without bias," said the priest.
Satnam Singh Ahluwalia, secretary of the United Interfaith Foundation, said: "We welcome all rules and regulations. However, there should be one standard for everybody." "It is a welcome move. We will follow regulations as we have always done," said Jagdeep Singh, member of a Gurdwara on MG Road.
Cops said that once they receive go-ahead from seniors, implementation would begin at local level through coordination between police stations and organisers.
Nasser Ebrahim, trustee of Nakhoda Mosque, said they will follow norms whenever implemented.
"As long as same rules apply to every festival and religious gathering, people will accept it," said Shyamal Dutta, a resident of central Kolkata.
Source: indiatimes.com
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https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/public-prayer-curbs-will-cooperate-but-seek-fairness-say-religion-reps/articleshowprint/131043325.cms
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Mosque-led voter mobilization begins in Uttarakhand as 2027 election prep intensifies
Narendra Sethi
13 May 2026
DEHRADUN: With the 2027 Uttarakhand Assembly elections on the horizon, the political landscape in the hill state is witnessing a flurry of activity centred around the Special Summary Revision (SIR) of electoral rolls.
Learning from the recent electoral dynamics in West Bengal, Bihar, and Assam, communities and political parties are leaving nothing to chance, turning mosques and community centres into nerve centres for documentation drives.
Across Uttarakhand, mosques have begun displaying notices urging residents to locate and preserve identity documents dating back 40 years.
This preemptive measure follows growing concerns over "ghost voters"—thousands of names currently on the electoral rolls that authorities claim are untraceable on the ground.
Observers suggest a pattern: many individuals who migrated from other states to Uttarakhand obtained voter registration here while maintaining, and often utilizing, their electoral rights in their home states.
Recent elections in eastern India saw large-scale deletions of names from rolls after it was discovered that many individuals were registered in multiple states, exploiting local political equations and welfare schemes.
The administrative machinery is currently gearing up for the SIR process.
Uttarakhand currently boasts 11,733 polling booths, with plans to add 811 more. According to official data, 88 percent of the preliminary work has been completed, with efforts now focused on verifying the remaining 12 percent of the electorate.
The stakes are high. Political heavyweights are mobilizing at the booth level.
Sources indicate that the Congress party has deployed Muslim leaders and workers from the Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind to assist in documentation drives.
The party claims to have appointed Booth Level Officers (BLOs) for nearly every constituency. In a counter-strategy, the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has completed training for its cadre of BLOs.
These workers are tasked with conducting a granular review of their respective areas to identify missing voters and verify new registrants.
The focus has intensified on districts bordering Uttar Pradesh, where pre-mapping efforts have reportedly failed to locate lakhs of registered voters.
In Dehradun, the issue of "Malin bastis" (slum settlements) has become a focal point of the debate. At the time of the state’s formation in 2000, there were 75 such settlements with minimal populations. That number climbed to 102 by 2004, 129 by 2008, and 150 by 2016. Today, the number is nearing 200.
Significant illegal encroachments have been reported along the flood zones of the Rispana and Bindal rivers, with concerns that these areas have become hubs for questionable voter registration.
While the debate carries undertones of demographic concerns, political parties are framing their involvement as a defence of democratic integrity.
"We have instructed all our workers to remain vigilant regarding the SIR," said Congress spokesperson Mohan Kala. "This is not limited to the Muslim community alone. Congress will not allow the rights of genuine voters in Uttarakhand to be trampled upon."
The looming possibility of future electoral reforms, such as the potential introduction of online voting, has added a layer of urgency to the verification process.
For the average citizen, the message is clear: if you are not physically present, you risk losing your vote. As the state moves closer to the 2027 polls, the battle for the ballot box has truly begun.
Source: newindianexpress.com
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India hits out after China admits giving Pakistan support during Operation Sindoor
13.05.26
India on Tuesday, without naming any country, called for introspection “by nations who consider themselves responsible”, after China confirmed that it had provided “on-site technical support to Pakistan” during Operation Sindoor.
External affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was responding to a question at the weekly briefing to reports of China acknowledging for the first time that it had helped Pakistan during Operation Sindoor.
“We have seen these reports that corroborate what was known earlier. Operation Sindoor was a precise, targeted and calibrated response to the terrorist attacks in Pahalgam, aimed at destroying state-sponsored terrorist infrastructure operating out of Pakistan and at its behest. It is for nations who consider themselves responsible to reflect whether supporting attempts to protect terrorist infrastructure affects their reputation and standing.”
The South China Morning Post had on Friday reported on an interview aired the previous day by China’s state broadcaster CCTV of Zhang Heng, an engineer from the Aviation Industry Corporation of China’s (AVIC) Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute, a key developer of China’s advanced fighter aircraft and unmanned aerial vehicle design.
In the interview, Zhang said: “At the support base, we frequently heard the roar of fighter jets taking off and the constant wail of air-raid sirens. By late morning, in May, the temperature was already approaching 50°C. It was a real ordeal for us, both mentally and physically.”
The SCMP report further said what drove Zhang’s team was the “desire to do an even better job with on‑site support” and to ensure their equipment could “truly perform at its full combat potential… That wasn’t just a recognition of the J-10CE; it was also a testament to the deep bond we formed through working side by side, day in and day out.”
The J-10CE jets are manufactured by an AVIC subsidiary and one such jet is reported to have shot down a Rafale of the Indian Air Force. India has not confirmed this officially.
According to the SCMP report, another employee of the Chengdu Aircraft Design and Research Institute told CCTV that they were not surprised by the “outstanding results the J-10CE achieved”, adding: “In fact, it felt inevitable. The aircraft just needed the right opportunity. And when that moment came, it delivered exactly as we knew it would.”
Source: telegraphindia.com
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Indian army intercepts militants along Line of Control in in Jammu and Kashmir, intruder killed
12.05.26
Indian Army on Tuesday foiled an infiltration bid by terrorists along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch district and eliminated an intruder, officials said.
The incident took place along the LoC in the Krishna Ghati forward area when alert troops detected a group of infiltrating terrorists from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) inside Indian territory and challenged them, triggering a gun battle, they said.
"Acting on persistent surveillance, suspicious movement was detected approximately 300 metres inside own territory in the general area of Krishna Ghati Sector, Poonch, along the LoC at around 4 pm today," the White Knight Corps said on X.
White Knight Corps troops swiftly responded and foiled the infiltration bid, ensuring no breach of the LoC, the Army said, adding that one intruder has been neutralised.
The troops continue to dominate the area and maintain a high state of operational readiness across the sector, they said.
Sources said the intruder, suspected to be linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, was trying to infiltrate into this side of the border near Bicho Post in Mankote.
Source: telegraphindia.com
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Interview: BJP has successfully mobilised the non-Muslim vote to its advantage
May 13, 2026
Shoaib DaniyalThe state election results declared on May 4 offer an insight into Indian politics two years after the Bharatiya Janata Party returned to power at the Centre with a significantly weakened mandate.
In an interview with Scroll, political analyst and psephologist Sanjay Kumar of the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, said that the Opposition alliance stands significantly weakened: the BJP ousted the Trinamool Congress from West Bengal and the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam lost Tamil Nadu to actor Vijay’s Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam. However, the Congress managed to win Kerala with a big majority.
There was talk of MK Stalin of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam or Mamata Banerjee of the Trinamool Congress leading the INDIA bloc, said Kumar. “Now, after both of them being defeated, this discussion will be paused,” he said. “There is no challenge to Rahul Gandhi’s leadership within the INDIA alliance, though it is weaker now.”
For the BJP, this is a moment of extra happiness because INDIA partners are losing state after state, said Kumar. “A major resistance to the BJP was from Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal and also from Stalin in Tamil Nadu,” he said. “Both states had sent a large number of MPs from the INDIA bloc.”
Even otherwise, the BJP has been just as aggressive in its third term. “They are trying to send out a message that they are not worried about the numbers even though they do not have a majority government,” said Kumar. “[Their message is] that they will try and fulfill promises like when they were in a majority in 2019 or 2014.”
Edited excerpts:
How do you unpack what has been a really big week for Indian politics? Is there one message that you are getting out of these five election results?
It is difficult to say, but one big message is clear: If the government works, there is a possibility of it coming back to power – like Assam and Puducherry.
And if people are not satisfied with the work done by the incumbent government, they are ready to throw you out. And I am referring to the three states where the incumbent governments lost elections: West Bengal, Tamil Nadu and Kerala.
So anti-incumbency is a factor in Indian politics, but it’s not a blind factor?
Anti-incumbency is not a by-product of any government being in power for five years. There are many governments in India which have been in power for many, many years.
I am referring to Gujarat. Now Assam, third time in a row. In West Bengal, the Left ruled for 34 years. After that, Trinamool Congress ruled for 15 years. In Odisha, BJD [Biju Janata Dal] ruled for 25 years. And don’t forget Sikkim, where the Sikkim Democratic Front government was there for 25 years.
Anti-incumbency is a byproduct of people’s unhappiness with the work done by the incumbent government.
In this election, you can clearly see that there was some degree of anti-incumbency in the three states and pro-incumbency in the two states. And that is one of the core factors why we see two governments returning to power and three governments being voted out of power.
I would like to cite data. The vote share of the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal has declined by 8.5% compared to the 2021 election.
In Tamil Nadu, DMK and its allies lost 13.5% compared to the previous election. In Kerala, the LDF lost almost 7.5% vote share compared to 2021.
If a ruling alliance or a ruling party loses so much of its vote share, it can’t be because of just one factor. One needs to get a sense, take a clear view and then you will find that there was some kind of anti-incumbency against the ruling parties.
There is a large consensus that West Bengal saw economic stagnation. On the other hand, the DMK government in Tamil Nadu actually delivered blockbuster economic performance. How do you connect that with anti-incumbency?
We are comparing Tamil Nadu with other states of the country on economic indicators. But people judge the government by their own expectations. It is not that they are looking at Tamil Nadu and comparing it with Odisha or Bihar or West Bengal. How they try to judge the performance of the government is based on their own expectation and the promises which parties made when elections took place.
If you look at all economic indicators, Tamil Nadu would be one of the top performing states. But people’s expectations are also high. People expect things to be delivered by the government. That is why, despite Tamil Nadu performing very well on economic indicators, people voted the DMK government out of power.
Unpack the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam’s victory for us. A lot of people have called this India’s first “Gen Z” election.
Look at the vote share or support for Vijay and the TVK: disproportionately high among urban, educated, young youth – both men and women. In some of the data which I have access to, TVK’s vote share is roughly about 35%-36%, but among the urban youth, the vote share for the TVK is roughly 55%-60%.
How do you define youth?
The youth are between 18 to 25 years of age. Six out of 10 voters in that age group have voted for TVK.
So they are first-time, at best, second-time voters. Is there a gender split?
Yes, slightly. A bigger proportion of young men have voted [for TVK], but there is a slight difference among young women, in the age group of 18 to 25. Even among them, a very large proportion of young women have voted in favour of Vijay.
If you recollect, in the early trends, TVK was doing well, but DMK was doing extremely well. In the early counting it is postal ballots, which are not cast by young people. All of a sudden, in the middle of counting, TVK tally starts jumping when the EVMs started being counted.
That was the time I got the hint that there is a disproportionately high support for TVK among the young, educated and urban middle class. This is what we see in the results as well.
Have you ever seen a youth surge like this?
There are some parallels. Aam Aadmi Party did almost the same in the 2015 and 2020 assembly elections in Delhi. And also when they swept the Punjab Assembly elections in 2022.
One more example is of Assam in the 1985 election. Prafulla Kumar Mahanta became the chief minister of Assam at the age of 44 and the entire youth had come out in support of the Asom Gana Parishad, which was a party of the Assam movement.
The Aam Aadmi Party was formed against the backdrop of the anti-corruption movement led by many people. It was not only youth who were participating in it. The leaders of the movement would not be categorised as youth. But yes, these are the two parties that got disproportionately high support among the young people.
The TVK is not coming out of any movement. So what does this youth surge represent? Is it a vote of no-confidence against the Dravidian model?
I think it is an indication that voters in Tamil Nadu were waiting for some kind of a third alternative. Not that there has never been a third alternative, like the small parties with support among different caste groups.
But they saw TVK as a third alternative, a promising alternative, a Tamil alternative. And remember, this was a young face who was already widely recognised across Tamil Nadu.
People keep talking about bipolarity in Indian politics for decades. I think there is a sense among a very large number of voters in India that if there is a viable alternative, a new alternative which seems promising, they might go along with that third or viable alternative. This is what seems to have happened in Tamil Nadu.
TVK received this bonanza of the youth vote. In West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee would receive the female vote. Do you think that has broken in this election?
I still think that Mamata Banerjee got a slightly higher proportion of women’s vote compared to the BJP. But the decline in the women’s support base for Trinamool Congress seems to be very large.
Our own data from the 2021 post-poll survey suggests that Mamata Banerjee’s lead among the women voters has decreased. A very large proportion of women voted in favour of the Trinamool Congress, about 51%. But among men it was roughly in the range of 40%. So that 11%-12% lead for Mamata Banerjee among the women voters certainly seems to have come down.
If that was not the case, TMC would not have lost 8.5% votes.
What do you think has led to this attrition?
A perception got created – and I am not saying that was entirely wrong or right – that women’s safety is a big question mark after the RG Kar Hospital incident.
At times, one incident helps the opposition in creating a narrative. During the RG Kar incident, the general impression was that the ruling party was trying to shield the culprit and that the government is not committed to women’s safety, which became a big issue.
That may have resulted in women not voting for the Trinamool Congress, like they had in 2021.
The West Bengal election has also been a communally polarised election. Do you think Hindu women also voted like men because of the communal divide?
If you compare, you will find that the Trinamool Congress’s support base is slightly higher among Hindu women compared to Hindu men. But even among the Hindus, I get a sense that the tilt is slightly in favor of the Trinamool Congress.
A lot of the Trinamool support base was taken from the Muslim community. I think your surveys have shown that a vast majority of Muslim votes go to Trinamool.
In the 2021 election, 75% Muslims had voted in favour of the Trinamool Congress, according to our post-poll survey. Even in the previous elections of 2016 and 2011. Similarly, a large proportion of Muslims had voted in favour of Trinamool Congress. So it is true.
The reverse is also true that almost no Muslims vote for BJP in West Bengal.
It is very difficult to say no Muslims vote [for the BJP], but it is a very small proportion – 5%, 6%-7% Muslims. And that applies to the Muslim vote across the country. In most states, a very small proportion of Muslim vote goes to the BJP for various local considerations. That seems to have happened even in this election in Bengal.
Do you think this “secular model” of getting Muslim votes and coming to power is now under a lot of strain with the BJP’s success?
Absolutely. If you move state by state, you will see how non-BJP parties used to win elections and the way the Muslim vote was polarised in favour of the non-BJP parties.
That is not happening anymore because the non-Muslim vote is getting sharply polarised, mobilised by the BJP in different states. I prefer to use the word mobilisation rather than polarisation because they have been successful in mobilising their vote.
Why successful? Because they have been trying to send the message that if voters belonging to one community seem to be supporting one political party, it is important for you to think of mobilising in favour of the BJP, which looks out for the interest of the majority community. The Opposition is unable to set out a narrative that cuts across this.
For example, Mamata Banerjee. A very good example is that in the last election she had the support of a lot of Hindu women, which she seems to have lost.
Is the Opposition failing to send out a message that its support base, policies and agendas cut across communal lines?
Certainly. Look at how Opposition parties are failing election after election, including the Congress. Look at all the elections since 2024 – like Haryana, Maharashtra, Delhi. A large number of elections have all been won by the BJP.
The non-BJP parties are finding it very difficult to send out a message. These are the parties which are seen as taking care of the interest of the minority even at the expense of the genuine demands of the majority community. They are finding it very difficult to shy away from this tag, even during the ticket distribution or the campaign.
How do they send out a message to the voters to indicate that this is the party which takes care of voters belonging to all castes and community? A very difficult situation for non-BJP parties.
The Opposition thought that welfare was its ticket. But that has not worked this time – not in West Bengal, nor Tamil Nadu.
I used to say earlier as well that a party cannot keep winning elections only because of welfare schemes. If that was the case, then no political party would be able to lose an election – because if you are in power, you can keep doling out different kinds of welfare schemes.
Welfare schemes do help the ruling party in mobilising additional votes but they alone cannot help you win elections. So what do you need? A basic support base for a political party and decent approval for the work done by the incumbent party.
If that is not there, it would be very difficult for a party to win elections just on the basis of welfare schemes. It works like an icing on the cake. You need the base of the cake and then it’s like putting cherries on the top. Welfare schemes help, but you cannot have a cake just made of cherry and cream. You need the base, you need the sponge.
How important is a party’s ideology in baking this cake?
Ideology is a very difficult term to use in Indian politics at the moment.
In the defections taking place or people moving from one party to another, one sees that those with an extremely opposed ideology and leaders are moving from one party to another. Among the voters, too, there is a massive shift from one party to another, as indicated by the vote share of the parties in two different elections.
People are redefining ideology: ideology by ideology, but also what they get from the party by way of welfare and what the government has been able to do.
They do not see ideology in terms of what they read – that this is the ideology of party A, party B and C. They try to see how the party has been able to perform on the ground. That is the model of ideology. And they keep shifting from one party to another.
BJP is a strongly ideological party. Sometimes, the BJP’s performance is not great – like in your home state, Bihar. But when the BJP is in a tough spot, its ideological fidelity keeps its troops together. Do you not think that is true discipline also?
In Bihar, you do not get the sense that people are critical of the BJP. I think BJP is already on the rise in Bihar: election results have clearly shown and the change of guards is an indication which way the wind is blowing.
In Bihar, people are appreciative because they are looking forward to a full-scale BJP government. That is the desire of a large number of voters. You mentioned how ideology keeps BJP supporters around. One is ideology but also discipline. Because the party cadres are committed.
It would be very difficult to compare how committed are the party cadres of BJP compared to the party cadres of other political parties. Ideology keeps them in a group. That is glue that keeps them together.
In 2024, BJP lost its majority in the lower house of Parliament. But it is actually more aggressive than it was towards the end of its second term. What is happening?
I think the BJP is trying to send out a message that it will not be guided by numbers and programmes. They have their own policies and programmes and this is the agenda which they want to deliver.
This is the promise they made to the voters and they would like to deliver on those promises – whether or not the numbers are on their side.
They would like to depend upon their allies for the programmes and policies. If the allies are unhappy, they would like to discuss those matters with their partners.
It is almost like trying to prove that numbers do not matter.
They are trying to send out a message that they are not worried about the numbers even though they do not have a majority government. That they will try and fulfill promises like when they were in a majority in 2019 or 2014.
The Congress, based on my conversations, is actually somewhat happy with the May results. Why do you think that is?
I did not get the sense that Congress people are happy. But one reason is very obvious. They hardly had a say in West Bengal. In Tamil Nadu, they were a junior partner to the DMK. They had very little chance in Assam. Honestly, in confidence they will tell you that they had no chance in Assam. Puducherry is a small Union Territory. Also, they were not in a close contest.
They are in a win-win situation because they managed to win Kerala – and with a big majority. So that is one more state in their kitty.
Another reason could be what the results mean for the INDIA alliance. There has been some noise about Rahul Gandhi leading the alliance. And there used to be discussions about Stalin or Mamata Banerjee leading the alliance. Now, after both of them being defeated, this discussion will be paused. There is no challenge to Rahul Gandhi’s leadership within the INDIA Alliance, though it is weaker now.
So INDIA Alliance is weaker, but within the INDIA Alliance, Congress is stronger.
Absolutely. Because it is like a team which has become weak – the other players are not in good form so the captain looks more formidable.
The captain of the INDIA bloc would be seen as more powerful because the team players have become weaker.
Which is saying this is a very bad result for the Opposition alliance as a whole?
There are only two states where INDIA allies are in government – Jharkhand and Punjab. These are also not big states, when compared to Tamil Nadu or West Bengal. At the moment, we do not know whether TVK is going to come to the INDIA bloc.
BJP will be doubly happy: not only because of their good performance, but by hobbling the main opposition.
I do not think that BJP was very worried about the INDIA alliance as such. But certainly there is a moment of extra happiness because the INDIA partners are losing state after state.
They will also be looking at the situation within the alliance. Because a major resistance to the BJP was from Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal and also from Stalin in Tamil Nadu. Both states had sent a large number of MPs from the INDIA bloc.
It also wipes away an ideological opposition for the BJP, especially the DMK, which constantly attacked the BJP even though BJP is not a part of Tamil Nadu. I think they benefited from attacking the BJP. Mamata Banerjee tried to make it a big thing, but probably did not succeed.
Both the parties, while they were trying to send out a message to their own voters, were trying to attack the BJP for different accounts. For Mamata Banerjee, it was because BJP was a contender for power in West Bengal before the election.
In Tamil Nadu, the BJP was not a formidable force, but I think most of the criticism by the DMK was aimed at the BJP government at the Centre and they were trying to talk about federalism, population policies etc.
Do you see the BJP facing any roadblocks in 2029?
It is like a weather forecast. If you ask the weatherman if it will rain on June 10, 2029, I do not think they would be able to give you a clear answer. It is the same for me. But there are some trends and patterns.
If you go by the current situation, BJP’s resistance from INDIA partners seems to be less now compared to what BJP faced in 2024. All the alliance partners have become weaker, except Congress. Before the 2024 Lok Sabha election, Congress was much weaker. Now Congress has 99 members in Parliament.
But overall, I do get a sense that in the current political equation, the BJP will go into the 2029 Lok Sabha elections with more comfort and ease compared to the situation before the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Source: scroll.in
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Allahabad High Court says ADM overstepped in deciding conversion case, kept involving police
Bhupendra Pandey
May 12, 2026
The Allahabad High Court has criticised an Additional District Magistrate (ADM), Prayagraj, for rejecting a man’s application seeking official approval for his conversion from Islam to Hinduism and ordering police inquiries instead.
The petitioner, an assistant professor, converted before marrying a Hindu woman from an upper-caste family. The woman works as a lecturer in Ballia. The man challenged the ADM’s rejection order before the High Court in October 2024.
A case was also filed against the man on a complaint by the woman’s father, accusing him of allegedly luring the woman for marriage, on charges of outraging religious feeling, forging documents for conversion, and violation of sections of the Uttar Pradesh Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act.
A division bench of Justices Ajit Kumar and Indrajeet Shukla held the hearing in-chamber on May 5, interacting with the couple in detail about their marriage and man’s conversion.
The court observed that the ADM had gone into the question of the FIR lodged in the matter and proceeded to ask the police to submit reports.
“We have noticed that the Additional District Magistrate… got influenced more by the contents of the FIR and the chargesheet submitted by the police in presuming, or otherwise assuming, that there was illegal conversion,” it observed.
“We do not appreciate this act and conduct of the ADM for the reason that the ADM, [who] had nothing to do with the criminal investigation… forced the police to again and again submit a report…,” the court observed.
“… This amounts to exercising a power not vested with the ADM under the [Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion] Act. The ADM had nothing to do with the other charges levelled in the FIR, regarding the woman being lured or otherwise enticed away or unduly influenced for the purpose of marriage,” the court observed.
During its previous hearing, the court had directed the petitioner to file a personal affidavit stating that he will practise Sanatan customs and rituals throughout his life and has no intention of converting back to his previous religion or force his wife to change hers.
The petitioner’s case
The petitioner’s lawyer argued that all legal requirements under the UP Prohibition of Unlawful Conversion of Religion Act had been fulfilled. A declaration regarding the conversion was submitted to the District Magistrate in January 2022, and the conversion took place in March that year. A priest had also confirmed conducting the conversion rituals.
The petitioner’s counsel also submitted that the ADM got two inquiries conducted by the police and both reports stated that the conversion took place voluntarily without any undue influence or pressure.
The counsel further submitted that an FIR was lodged on a complaint by the woman’s father and a chargesheet was submitted.
He said the ADM got yet another inquiry conducted in July 2024, which mentioned the FIR and chargesheet. The counsel said the ADM accepted this report and rejected the petitioner’s application on the ground that he had misled and enticed the woman into marriage.
In its order, the court stated that since it is a sensitive matter, “it is appropriate… for the ADM to pass a fresh order, taking a pragmatic view of the matter…”
The ADM is directed to pass the order afresh within three weeks, by May 26, the HC order stated.
Listing the hearing next for May 27, the bench stated, “While we keep this petition pending to await a decision of the ADM in the matter, we are putting the order dated August 9, 2024, in abeyance to abide by the fresh order to be passed by the Additional District Magistrate, Prayagraj. The petitioner is at liberty to live his married life with dignity, and police shall not [interfere].”
Source: indianexpress.com
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Farooq Abdullah says liquor ban in Jammu and Kashmir hinges on Centre aid
Muzaffar Raina
13.05.26
Ruling National Conference president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah on Tuesday stepped into the raging liquor debate, ruling out a ban unless the Centre compensates the Union Territory for the revenue losses it would incur.
The remarks came as LG Manoj Sinha's administration continued demolition of properties of alleged drug peddlers despite claims by health minister Sakina Itoo that Kashmiris were being disproportionately targeted in the anti-drug campaign although the Jammu region has a “higher” number of addicts.
Valley’s chief cleric and Hurriyat Conference chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq also joined the chorus on Tuesday against “region-biased” measures during anti-drug operations while reiterating the demand for an alcohol ban. He appeared to back Itoo’s claim that Kashmiris were bearing the brunt of the anti-drug campaign.
Many Kashmiris see a design in the Sinha-led campaign against drugs and ask why the administration was encouraging liquor on one hand and campaigning against drugs on the other.
Farooq on Tuesday suggested that the Omar-led government was in favour of banning liquor but was avoiding it because it would hit government revenues.
“I do not drink alcohol. Those who drink alcohol, they will drink. If they do not get it from here, they will bring it from outside,” he told reporters here.
The former chief minister said some of those demanding the ban were drinkers themselves.
Omar’s key aide Tanvir Sadiq on Monday said PDP founder and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was known to drink. The PDP is the main party seeking a ban on liquor.
Farooq said the government could ban alcohol in two minutes if the Centre compensated for the loss of revenue.
The NC president recalled an incident from 1977 when his father, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, won the elections and then Prime Minister Morarji Desai asked him to ban liquor while on a visit to the Valley.
“My father told him that if the Centre gives us the revenue we earn from it, then we will stop it. Nothing happened,” Farooq said.
Source: telegraphindia.com
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Mideast
Iran hangs man accused of spying for Israel
May 13, 2026
TEHRAN: Iran on Wednesday hanged a man found guilty of selling information to Israeli intelligence, the judiciary said, the latest in a wave of executions during the war with the country.
Since the start of the conflict with Israel and the United States in February, Iran has ramped up executions, particularly in cases involving alleged espionage or security-related charges.
“Ehsan Afreshteh, a spy trained by Mossad in Nepal who sold sensitive information to Israel, has been executed,” said the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan Online website.
“Arrested and tried for espionage and collaboration with the Zionist regime, he was hanged this morning after … the verdict was upheld by the Supreme Court,” it added.
Iran is the world’s second-most prolific executioner after China, according to rights groups.
On Monday, the country hanged an aerospace engineering student who had also been convicted of spying for Israel and the United States.
Source: arabnews.com
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How Israel’s restrictions have turned water into a matter of life and death in Gaza
ANAN TELLO
May 12, 2026
LONDON: Israel is using access to water as a weapon of war and a tool of collective punishment against Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip, Medecins Sans Frontieres has said in a new report. The aid group and other organizations have also given warning that families face dehydration and disease.
Meanwhile, small children haul water containers nearly as heavy as themselves over long distances from distribution points run by nongovernmental organizations — in freezing cold and scorching heat — still unable to meet even a fraction of their families’ need for clean water.
In an April 28 report, MSF documented how Israeli authorities have been deliberately depriving Palestinians in Gaza of water as an “integral part of Israel’s genocide.”
“Israeli authorities know that without water, life ends,” said Claire San Filippo, MSF emergency manager. “Yet they have deliberately and systematically obliterated water infrastructure in Gaza, while consistently blocking water-related supplies from entering.”
The scale of the crisis, however, is stark. About 96 percent of households in the embattled Palestinian enclave lack access to adequate quantities of safe, clean water, the United Nations Children’s Fund, UNICEF, said on April 27.
Since Oct. 7, 2023, when Israel launched its military campaign in Gaza following a Hamas attack, at least 85 percent of the territory’s water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure has been damaged or destroyed, according to UN figures.
Even facilities still operating are running at sharply reduced capacity due to fuel shortages, with electricity and critical supplies cut or restricted since October 2023.
“The current water situation in the Gaza Strip is extremely dangerous,” said Dr. Salwa Al-Tibi, country director for US-based charity MedGlobal in Gaza.
“Extensive destruction of infrastructure and contamination of groundwater have left more than 90 percent of available water unfit for human consumption,” Al-Tibi told Arab News.
“In many areas, daily access has dropped to only 3 to 5 liters per person, far below the minimum international standard.”
The UN defines the human right to water as access to enough safe, acceptable and affordable water for personal and domestic uses — between 50 and 100 liters per person per day.
Under that standard, the water source should be within 1,000 meters of the home, collection time should not exceed 30 minutes and cost should not be more than 3 percent of household income.In emergencies, the World Health Organization sets the floor at 7.5 to 15 liters.
But in Gaza, fetching even a much smaller amount can be deadly.
“Palestinians have been injured and killed simply trying to access water,” San Filippo said in a statement.
She warned that “this deprivation, combined with dire living conditions, extreme overcrowding, and a collapsed health system, create a perfect storm for the spread of diseases.”
MSF teams have documented Israeli forces shooting at clearly identified water trucks and destroying boreholes serving tens of thousands. The group highlighted that violent incidents have often occurred during distribution, wounding civilians and aid workers, and damaging equipment.
Hanan, a Palestinian woman in Gaza City, told MSF that her grandson was killed by Israeli soldiers in July 2025 in Nuseirat while standing in line for drinking water.“He was standing in line with other kids, and they (the Israeli forces) killed him,” she said. “He was 10 years old … Getting water is not supposed to be dangerous.”
Israel’s Defense Ministry body overseeing Palestinian civilian affairs, the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT, rejected MSF’s findings as “baseless claims.”
In posts on X, COGAT said “water supply in Gaza consistently exceeds humanitarian thresholds.”
MSF is the second largest producer and one of the main distributors of drinking water in Gaza after local authorities. From May to November 2025, one in every five of the organization’s water distributions ran dry because trucks could not carry enough for everyone who needed it.
The organization said that Israeli displacement orders in Gaza have “locked our teams out of areas where we had provided water to hundreds of thousands of people, leading to essential services stopping and the loss of lifesaving infrastructure.”
The crisis has been worsened by the increasingly fragmented geography of Gaza, which is now effectively carved up into multiple zones shaped by Israeli military corridors, buffer areas and repeated evacuation orders.
These have divided much of the enclave into disconnected areas, separating northern Gaza from central and southern districts. Hamas, although significantly weakened, continues to retain pockets of influence and armed presence in parts of Gaza City, central Gaza and Khan Younis.
The result is a shattered and overcrowded territory where civilians are trapped between shifting front lines, collapsing infrastructure and growing shortages of food, water and medical care.
Videos circulating on social media capture the desperation; frail, malnourished children hauling large jerrycans across scorched ground in all weather, many barefoot.
BBC cameraman Mustafa Khabeisa shared footage on March 27 on Instagram of a boy of about 6 or 7, alone, carrying two heavy jerrycans — taking a few steps before stopping to rest.
Another video, uploaded on April 29, showed a barefoot little girl using all her strength to drag two barrels of water, stumbling as she went, while other children waited nearby for their share from a truck.
“Families are forced to rely on trucked or partially treated water, while humanitarian organizations such as UNICEF, Oxfam, MSF and other organizations are working to provide emergency supplies,” Al-Tibi said.Gaza has extremely limited freshwater supplies, and much of its remaining groundwater is contaminated.
By late 2024, nearly 73 percent of drinking water samples and more than 97 percent of domestic water samples failed minimum chlorination standards, according to the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, or OCHA.
In some areas, trucks deliver water just once a week. This moment has taken on an almost ritualistic significance for families with no other reliable source.
Maysa Yousef, an artist and mother of four in central Gaza, described the frantic routine that delivery triggers.
“There’s no water, so when the municipality announces that there will be water in our area that day, we rush to fill whatever containers we have — bowls, buckets, jerrycans, anything,” Yousef told Arab News.
“We prepare everything and wait for the water truck to come,” Yousef said. “When it finally comes, it feels like a celebration, because it only comes once a week.”Children, she said, are often sent first to fetch drinking water, then saline water for washing and bathing. “Look at how much they are carrying, far more than they should.”
The scarcity of clean water and cleaning products has also fueled an explosion of pests. Rats, mice and insects have swarmed displacement sites across Gaza as temperatures rise. With the hottest months still ahead, infestations are expected to worsen without intervention.
“Now in the summer, we have weasels and rats spreading everywhere, causing disease outbreaks,” Yousef said.
“The droppings of weasels and rats are everywhere,” she added. “They have begun mixing with the already unsafe water we use. Even the drinking water is contaminated.
“There are days when I refuse to drink it, but then I’m forced to. Sometimes you can clearly see green algae in it.”
The rodents’ waste, she explained, seeps into pools of standing water, which then contaminates the groundwater. “Israel is refusing to allow in any products to get rid of (the rodents), so people have started inventing homemade rat traps,” Yousef said.On May 1, Save the Children warned that growing rodent and insect infestations were increasing health risks for about 1.4 million people in overcrowded displacement sites.
Israel’s campaign has uprooted nearly all of Gaza’s population of 2.1 million, with very few families still living among the rubble of their homes.
OCHA found that in excess of 80 percent of more than 1,600 displacement sites assessed in mid-April reported rodents or pests; skin infections or rashes appeared at nearly two-thirds of sites, lice at over 65 percent; and bedbugs at more than half.
An estimated 680,000 children are living in these conditions.
Summer also means lice, with infrequent bathing allowing it to spread rapidly, especially amid severe water shortages and scarce soap and shampoo.
“When summer comes, that means lice will spread across all of Gaza, just like last summer, when it spread like an epidemic,” Yousef said. “Even in my household, although we didn’t mix with anyone, yet somehow we contracted lice because it became an outbreak and spread everywhere due to the lack of water.”Last summer, some women resorted to shaving their heads as maintaining hygiene became nearly impossible.
“We love our hair, but we had no other choice,” said Umm Samir, a Gaza mother of three teenage girls. “We couldn’t wash it regularly; there was no shampoo and lice had spread rapidly.”
The public-health consequences are mounting.
MedGlobal’s Al-Tibi warned that the “the collapse of the water system poses a direct threat to public health, with rising cases of waterborne diseases and serious risks to food security.”
An MSF survey found nearly one in four people interviewed between May and August 2025 had suffered from diarrhea in the preceding month. In MSF primary healthcare centers, the majority of affected patients were children under 15.
MSF noted in its April 28 statement that access to basic hygiene items, including clean water, soap, diapers and menstrual hygiene products, had become “extremely difficult.”The organization said that “people are forced to dig holes in the sand as toilets, which flood and contaminate the surroundings and groundwater with feces and could lead to outbreaks of waterborne diseases.”
That contamination, combined with overcrowded tents and makeshift shelters, is driving the spread of respiratory infections, skin diseases and diarrheal illnesses.
The UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, warned on May 5 of an imminent public health crisis as skin diseases spread in crowded camps.
The number of skin infections has “tripled in recent months, with rising temperatures, overcrowding and worsening sanitation creating breeding grounds for scabies, chickenpox and other diseases, particularly among children,” UNRWA said.
The situation is further complicated by an Israeli blockade. Israel maintains control over key strategic routes, border areas, airspace and much of the territory’s movement, while military operations and restrictions have severely limited civilian mobility and humanitarian access.
Although a ceasefire has been in effect since October 2025, Israel has continued to strike the territory and reportedly restricted the import of essential medical equipment. Both the Israeli military and Hamas have accused each other of violating the truce.
MSF has called on Israeli authorities to “immediately restore water for people at the required levels in Gaza” and urged Israel’s allies to “use their leverage to pressure Israel to stop impeding humanitarian access, including water infrastructure needs.”
For now, Gaza continues to go thirsty. As international calls mount and aid organizations stretch their resources thin, more than two million people remain cut off from one of the most basic conditions for a dignified life — waiting for a water truck that comes once a week, or not at all.
Source: arabnews.com
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Syria arrests former Assad-era air force chief of staff
May 12, 2026
DAMASCUS: Syrian authorities said Tuesday that they had arrested a former air force chief of staff under Bashar Assad who was sanctioned by the European Union including for his role in chemical attacks.
Since Assad’s December 2024 overthrow, Syria’s new Islamist authorities have periodically announced the arrest of military and security officials involved in atrocities during Syria’s more than decade-long civil war.
Last month, authorities launched the first trials for such senior figures as part of their commitment to providing justice for victims and their families.
An interior ministry statement announced the arrest of Jayez Al-Moussa, “chief of staff for the air force during the era of the former regime” in a security operation.
Moussa served for more than four decades in Syria’s military under the Assad dynasty.
After the civil war erupted in 2011, he took control of the 20th division, which ran six military airports, before becoming air force chief of staff in early 2015.
For a time, he was responsible for coordinating with Russian forces, which intervened militarily in Syria’s conflict on Assad’s behalf later that year.
After retiring in 2016, Moussa was named governor of northeast Syria’s Hasakah province.
He hails from an Arab tribe in the eastern Deir Ezzor province and is known for his absolute loyalty to Assad and his calls to crush the former leader’s adversaries.
The EU added Moussa to its sanctions list in 2017, saying he was responsible “for the violent repression of the civilian population in Syria, including the use of chemical weapons attacks” during his tenure as air force chief.
Syrian authorities have recently announced the arrest of a number of Assad-era figures, including two former generals detained on Friday, one of whom is accused of involvement in a 2013 chemical attack on a Damascus suburb.
Source: arabnews.com
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Infiltrators captured on Kuwaiti island admit belonging to Iran’s Revolutionary Guards
May 12, 2026
DUBAI: Four Iranian men arrested by Kuwaiti armed forces as they attepted to infiltrate a strategic island have admitted to being members of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, state news agency KUNA reported on Tuesday.
Kuwait’s interior ministry identified the individuals as Naval Col. Amir Hossein Abdolmohammad Zaraei, Naval Col. Abdolsamad Yedaleh Ghanavati, Naval Captain Ahmad Jamshid Gholamreza Zolfaghari and First Lt. Mohammad Hossein Sohrab Foroughi Rad.
The group confessed during interrogation that they were tasked by the Revolutionary Guards to infiltrate Bubiyan Island on May 1 using a rented fishing boat and had been ordered to carry out hostile acts against Kuwait.
However, the group were intercepted by Kuwaiti soldiers stationed on the island, and the two sides exchanged fire. A Kuwaiti serviceman was injured during the clashes, the ministry said.
Two IRGC-aligned officers — Naval Captain Mansour Qambari and Abdulali Kazem Siamri, who was the boat’s commander — managed to escape during the firefight.
The interior ministry said legal measures had been taken against the suspects.
The Kuwaiti foreign ministry later said it had summoned the Iranian ambassador, Mohammad Toutounji, to hand him "a letter of protest following the infiltration on the island of Bubiyan of an armed group belonging to the Revolutionary Guards and their involvement in clashes with the Kuwaiti Armed Forces," AFP reported.
The ministry denounced it as a "hostile act" and a "flagrant attack" on Kuwait's sovereignty, adding that it reserves "the right to self-defence."
It marks the fourth time that the ambassador has been summoned since the Middle East war began and Iran launched its retaliation against Gulf countries in late February.
Bubiyan island is Kuwait's largest and is located near the Iranian coast. It is home to Mubarak Al Kabeer Port and o came under Iranian attack during the war.
The case sparked condemnation from other Arab Gulf countries, including Saudi Arabia, which said it strongly condemned the attempt to infiltrate the island.
"These violations undermine international efforts aimed at restoring security and stability in the region," the Kingdom's foreign ministry said.
Iran's foreign ministry denied the allegations, calling them "absolutely baseless", and said the four officers had entered Kuwaiti waters by mistake "due to disruption in the navigation system".
Source: arabnews.com
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Evolving drone war in southern Lebanon clouds Iran peace prospects
May 12, 2026
BEIRUT: While Washington and Tehran argue over a deal to end the attacks on shipping that are shaking the world economy, Iran’s most powerful ally Hezbollah and Israel are stepping up a drone war in Lebanon — on camera — that is complicating the path to peace.
In recent weeks, Hezbollah has used cheap, easy-to-assemble First Person View kamikaze drones to transform the war it has been fighting since it began firing on Israel on March 2, days after the US-Israeli forces began their attacks on Iran.
Controlled with fiber-optic cables, the FPV drones can evade Israel’s high-tech jamming technologies to target its troops occupying southern Lebanon during a shaky ceasefire announced on April 16, a week after the truce in the wider Iran war began. The Iran-backed group has published videos of more than 45 FPV attacks, 28 of them in the nearly four weeks since the ceasefire, which had halted Israeli attacks on the Lebanese capital before Israel said it targeted a Hezbollah commander there on Wednesday.
The truce has also left Israeli ground forces occupying a so-called buffer zone up to 10 km in from the border, in confined territory, which Hezbollah knows well, and vulnerable to such attacks.
All of the videos before the ceasefire was announced showed UAVs flying at static positions or vehicles including tanks and excavators, with no fatalities reported by Israel. But since the ceasefire was announced, Hezbollah began targeting groups of soldiers, reporting five attacks. Three Israeli soldiers and one contractor were reported by Israel to have been killed.
Israel is firing back, with at least two deadly FPV drone attacks against Hezbollah in April complete with published drone images purporting to show Hezbollah fighters up close. The widespread use of FPV attack drones began several years ago and thousands of kilometers away in Ukraine, where front lines are covered with netting to defend against Russia’s drones, and where some drone operators are watching Hezbollah.
“They are amateurs, but they are learning,” said Dmytro Putiata, a drone warfare expert serving in Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems Brigades.
Iran and mediator Pakistan say any US-Iranian peace agreement must include a halt to Israeli strikes in Lebanon to prevent an escalation there restarting the wider Iran war. US-mediated direct talks between the Lebanese government and Israel are due to resume on Thursday and Friday, but progress has been slow; Israel insists that Lebanon disarm Hezbollah, which risks reigniting conflict in a country that suffered a 1975-1990 civil war.
Hezbollah’s head of media relations, Youssef El-Zein, said the group assessed that continued Israeli troop casualties from FPV drones could force an Israeli withdrawal more effectively than the negotiations with Israel, which Hezbollah opposes.
Israeli troops who have invaded southern Lebanon in the current conflict presented “an opportunity, and not a threat,” as they could be more easily targeted, he said.
“We know the enemy’s supremacy, but we also know their points of weakness. We are taking advantage of the points of weakness to create that balance,” Zein told reporters.
Source: arabnews.com
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Barcelona star Lamine Yamal waves Palestinian flag during title parade
May 12, 2026
BARCELONA: Barcelona star Lamine Yamal waved a Palestinian flag during an open top bus parade as the team celebrated winning the Spanish title.
The 18-year-old winger, who is already widely regarded as one of the best soccer players in the world, held the flag as the team bus drove through the streets of Barcelona on Monday. He also posted pictures of him holding it on his Instagram account.
On Tuesday, Barcelona coach Hansi Flick was questioned about Yamal’s decision to wave the flag.
“This I don’t normally like,” Flick told a news conference. “I spoke with him. I said if he wants this, it is his decision. He is old enough. He’s 18 years old.”
There has been a global backlash against Israel over the humanitarian toll of the war in Gaza, which has spread to sport and culture. Protests have been seen in sports such as soccer, cycling and basketball.
By holding the flag, Lamal appeared to indicate his support for Palestinians as an estimated nearly 750,000 people took to the streets to celebrate Barcelona’s La Liga title parade.
Flick said celebrations with fans after back-to-back titles was his priority.
“We are playing football and you can see what the people expect from us,” he said. “We are playing football to make the people happy. This is for me the first thing we have to do.”
Spain international Yamal is one of the leading contenders to take over from Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo as soccer’s biggest star.
He is expected to be one of the stars at the World Cup in the United States, Canada and Mexico held in June and July.
Source: arabnews.com
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Number of Palestinians worldwide reaches 15.5m
May 12, 2026
LONDON: Individuals calling themselves Palestinians had reached 15.5 million worldwide at the end of 2025, according to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics.
In the Palestinian Occupied Territories and inside Israel, there are 7.4 million Palestinians, though about 2 million hold Israeli citizenship, which was given to them after the 1948 war.
The PCBS released the report on Tuesday to mark the 78th annual commemoration of Nakba, which led to nearly 750,000 Palestinians fleeing or being forcibly expelled by Israeli paramilitaries.
About 8.1 million people live in the diaspora, of whom 6.8 million reside in Arab countries, according to the report, published by the Wafa news agency.
Around 3.43 million people live in the West Bank and 2.13 million in the Gaza Strip, which are recognized by a majority of UN members as the territories of the Palestinian state.
Israel is accused of committing genocide in Gaza, where it launched a military campaign in late 2023 that resulted in the deaths of more than 72,000 people, leaving the entire population displaced.
Over the same period, Israeli forces have displaced about 40,000 individuals from their homes in northern towns and refugee camps in the West Bank.
Source: arabnews.com
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Arab World
Saudi and British foreign ministers discuss efforts to reopen Strait of Hormuz
May 12, 2026
LONDON: The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan, met his British counterpart, Yvette Cooper, in London on Tuesday to discuss security and the economic repercussions of the ongoing tensions in the Strait of Hormuz.
They stressed that any attempt to use the strait as a tool for political or economic pressure is a violation of international laws and harms global trade, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
They emphasized the importance of coordinated efforts to ensure freedom of navigation in the vital waterway, through which nearly 20 percent of the world’s seaborne oil and liquefied natural gas is shipped from the Gulf to global markets.
Despite a ceasefire agreement between Washington and Tehran in April, the Strait of Hormuz has effectively been closed to shipping since the US and Israel launched attacks against Iran on Feb. 28.
Britain’s Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office said: “The UK and Saudi Arabia are working closely on regional security, reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and deepening defense, investment and growth ties.”
Following the meeting, Cooper wrote on social media platform X: “I’m continuing to work intensively with partners to build global diplomatic pressure to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. We urgently need international shipping moving again to tackle cost-of-living pressures here at home.”
Also on Tuesday, the UK announced the deployment of autonomous mine-hunting equipment, counter-drone systems, Typhoon jets, and the destroyer HMS Dragon to help secure freedom of navigation in the strait.
Speaking during a virtual summit with defense ministers from more than 40 nations that are participating in the Multinational Military Mission, Britain’s Defense Secretary John Healey confirmed that HMS Dragon was en route to the Middle East.
Source: arabnews.com
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Al-Azhar grand imam praises Saudi leadership for Hajj services
May 13, 2026
CAIRO: Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Egypt Saleh Al-Husseini met on Tuesday with Al-Azhar Grand Imam Sheikh Ahmed Al-Tayeb in Cairo, where they discussed issues of shared concern.
During the meeting, the grand imam praised the efforts of King Salman and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in serving pilgrims and championing Arab and Islamic causes.
Al-Tayeb also expressed hope for the continued success of the Kingdom’s efforts during the upcoming Hajj season. It was an honor to provide services for the world’s pilgrims, he said.
Source: arabnews.com
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Saudi Arabia’s Masam project removes 839 mines in Yemen
May 13, 2026
RIYADH: Saudi Arabia’s project Masam, implemented by the nation’s aid agency KSrelief, removed 839 explosive devices from various parts of Yemen during the first week of May.
The haul included 95 anti-tank mines, 12 anti-personnel mines, 721 items of unexploded ordnance, and 11 improvised explosive devices.
Masam has now cleared 558,855 mines and munitions from Yemen since its launch. The devices had been planted indiscriminately across the country, endangering civilians including children, women and the elderly.
Through KSrelief, Saudi Arabia continues to help Yemenis rebuild their lives with dignity and security.
Source: arabnews.com
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Saudi crown prince, UAE president discuss regional developments
May 13, 2026
RIYADH: Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and UAE President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan held a phone conversation, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
The pair discussed the situation in the region and areas of cooperation between Saudi Arabia and the UAE.
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Saudi FM discusses regional developments with Qatari and Jordanian counterparts
May 12, 2026
LONDON: Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan held separate phone discussions on Tuesday with Qatar’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al-Thani and Jordan’s Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi.
The calls addressed recent developments in the region and the continuation of coordination and consultations with Qatar and Jordan, according to the Saudi Press Agency.
Prince Faisal also met Yvette Cooper, the British foreign secretary, in London on Tuesday.
The UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office said: “The UK and Saudi Arabia are working closely on regional security — reopening the Strait of Hormuz, and deepening defense, investment and growth ties.”
The two ministers also discussed cultural partnerships, the statement added.
Source: arabnews.com
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Saudi ambassador to Japan meets former Prime Minister in Tokyo
May 12, 2026
TOKYO: Saudi Arabia’s Ambassador to Japan Ghazi Binzagr has met former Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba as part of efforts to strengthen strategic dialogue.
Their meeting carried special significance within the framework of the Saudi-Japanese Strategic Partnership, with the two sides holding in-depth discussions on the development of bilateral relations and prospects for future cooperation, the Saudi Embassy said on X on Tuesday.
It added: “They also explored opportunities to expand collaboration across a wide range of sectors, reaffirming the strength of ties between the two countries and their shared commitment to advancing a more integrated and sustainable partnership.”
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Saudi deputy foreign minister meets with Somali president in Uganda
May 12, 2026
RIYADH: Somali President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud met with Saudi Deputy Foreign Minister Waleed bin Abdulkarim El-Khereiji in Kampala, Uganda on Tuesday.
During the meeting, the two officials reviewed cooperative relations between their countries and ways to strengthen and develop them, the Saudi Press Agency reported.
Issues of common interest were also discussed during the meeting.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni was sworn in on Tuesday for a seventh term, extending his rule in the east African country into a fifth decade. El-Khereiji attended the ceremony on behalf of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
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Europe
Man jailed for acting as Islamic State media activist
May 12, 2026
A 23-year-old man living in Birmingham has been sentenced to six years in prison after admitting membership of the Islamic State, following an investigation by Counter Terrorism Policing West Midlands, the UK Defence Journal understands.
Musa Abdrabba, of Newport Road, Balsall Heath, pleaded guilty in September to two charges of belonging to a proscribed organisation. He was sentenced on 11 May. Detectives had arrested Abdrabba in Percy Road, Sparkhill in October 2023, seizing three mobile phones that were found to contain terrorism material including extremely violent videos and bomb-making instructions.
Between January and October 2023, Abdrabba used an online alias to provide a media service for ISIS and its supporters.
His activity included translating social media posts, creating and amplifying content, and advising other supporters on how to avoid detection by authorities online. He had pledged allegiance to ISIS in August 2023.
Detective Chief Superintendent Alison Hurst, Head of Counter Terrorism Policing West Midlands, said Abdrabba had committed fully to his self-appointed role after that pledge.
“After Abdrabba pledged his allegiance to ISIS in August 2023, he was fully committed to the role of media facilitator to ensure their propaganda was widely shared and updated. He took it upon himself to provide a service to a proscribed organisation and posted extremist material glorifying ISIS, he had no regard for the corrosive impact or the radicalising effect that the material could have on others in our communities.”
Source: ukdefencejournal.org.uk
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‘A war of necessity’: Germany marches East again
12 May, 2026
Days before Europe marked the 81st anniversary of Nazi Germany’s defeat in World War II, Berlin unveiled something unprecedented in the history of the modern Federal Republic: Its first-ever military strategy, titled ‘Responsibility for Europe.’ A country that spent decades defining itself through restraint and repentance now openly declares its ambition to build “the strongest conventional army in Europe.”
Germany insists that this transformation is merely defensive. The declared threat is Russia, the declared mission deterrence. But history teaches Europeans to pay close attention whenever Berlin starts talking about military necessity, strategic leadership, and continental responsibility.
The new doctrine is the ideological burial of postwar Germany.
Germany’s strategic revolution
For decades, German society was built upon an anti-militarist consensus. Military force was viewed with suspicion, and pacifism became a civic religion. The very idea of German military leadership in Europe was politically toxic. But in only a few years, much has changed. A growing part of German society has accepted the narrative of an imminent Russian threat and abandoned the pacifism that had been carefully cultivated since 1945.
Germany’s political and military establishment now speaks openly about ‘war readiness’ and ‘combat capability’. General Carsten Breuer, one of the central figures behind Germany’s military transformation, argues that previous conflicts such as Afghanistan were optional wars, while a future confrontation with Russia will be a ‘war of necessity’ from which Europe cannot withdraw. According to this worldview, European countries must integrate militarily in preparation for a continental war.
The problem is not simply militarization. Europe indeed requires stronger armies, restored industrial capacity, and societies capable of defending themselves. The illusion of eternal peace after the Cold War has clearly collapsed. Europe became strategically complacent while the world grew harder and more dangerous.
But Europe’s current military revival is unfolding under deeply ideological liberal elites obsessed with confrontation with Russia. And this obsession is leading the continent into a dangerous spiral.
In Berlin and other European capitals, political circles have fallen into the increasingly widespread belief that Russia could attack NATO and the EU around 2029. Whether sincerely believed or politically instrumentalized, these narratives have enormous consequences. Russia has shown no interest in invading Europe. Yet history repeatedly demonstrates how strategic paranoia and worst-case assumptions can become self-fulfilling prophecies. This is precisely what is happening in Germany.
The return of the German soldier
The most symbolic example is Lithuania. Germany’s Panzerbrigade 45, expected to reach full operational capability by 2027, represents the first permanent deployment of a German combat brigade abroad since the Bundeswehr was founded in the 1950s. Around 4,800 soldiers and civilian personnel are expected to be stationed near the Belarusian border. The brigade is explicitly designed as a permanent component of NATO’s eastern flank. Eight decades after German troops marched eastward, German armored units are once again permanently stationed in the Baltic region facing Russia.
Germany is also debating the return of compulsory military service, which was abolished in 2011. The assumption that a professional volunteer army alone can defend the country is increasingly viewed in Berlin as outdated.
Since January, 18-year-olds in Germany have begun receiving questionnaires asking if they want to serve in the military. For men, the questionnaire is mandatory. The authorities are already discussing penalties for those who refuse to complete it. Beginning in 2027, all 18-year-old men could also face mandatory medical examinations to assess fitness for military service.
Earlier this year, Germany even introduced regulations requiring men to request permission before undertaking long-term travel abroad – which was eventually suspended after public controversy erupted, as military service remains voluntary.
The direction, however, is obvious. The liberal-democratic state is psychologically preparing society for mass mobilization.
A new military axis
Germany’s transformation is not occurring in isolation. At the same time Berlin rearms, Poland is building what may soon become the largest land army in the EU. Warsaw has embarked on one of the most aggressive military expansion programs in Europe, purchasing tanks, artillery systems, fighter aircraft, and missile defenses on a massive scale.
If current trajectories continue, Central Europe will soon be home to two massive armies – German and Polish – numbering close to 1 million troops combined.
Add France’s nuclear arsenal to the equation – which is increasingly discussed as a potential umbrella for broader European defense – and an entirely new continental security architecture begins to emerge. The contours of a Paris-Berlin-Warsaw axis can already be discerned, potentially complemented by Ukraine’s battle-hardened military.
For Russia, this would inevitably appear threatening, regardless of Europe’s rhetoric about its defensive intentions. An EU dominated militarily by Germany, Poland, and France, aligned with an anti-Russian Ukraine, would make a pan-European security settlement extraordinarily difficult.
Instead of building a durable European security order that includes Russia, the EU is building one increasingly defined against Russia. This is the tragedy of the current moment.
Europe can’t exist against Russia
There is no lasting European security without Russia. This is the fundamental reality today’s European elites refuse to understand. European security is inseparable from Russian security. Geography alone guarantees it. Any attempt to isolate, contain, or permanently weaken Russia will ultimately destabilize the entire continent.
Yet the current leaders in Berlin, Paris, and Warsaw increasingly speak the language of civilizational confrontation. They behave as though Europe can achieve stability through military superiority over Russia. This is a dangerous illusion.
Europe genuinely needs renewal. It needs stronger armies, fighting spirit, and civilizational confidence. It also needs a strong, prosperous, and ambitious Germany. But strength without wisdom becomes dangerous.
The problem is not German rearmament itself, but the ideological framework guiding it. Europe’s declining liberal elites have fused military revival with an almost messianic anti-Russian worldview. Under these conditions, militarization ceases to be a stabilizing force and becomes an accelerant.
The continent is entering a new age of blocs, fear, and escalation. And once these dynamics harden, reversing them becomes extraordinarily difficult.
Eighty-one years after the fall of Hitler’s Germany, Europe once again hears German politicians speaking about military leadership and preparing for war.
This time, they insist history is on their side. Europe has heard this before.
Source: rt.com
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https://www.rt.com/news/639899-war-necessity-germany-militarization/
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Masked men firebomb a Muslim prayer room in Blackburn cafe
Barney Davis
May 12, 2026
The owner of a popular cafe has insisted ‘we have done nothing wrong’ after his Muslim prayer room was firebombed by masked men.
CCTV footage shows men throwing lit bottles of accelerant at a small prayer room in Café Raha at 2.30am on Monday.
The prayer room appears to have been specifically targeted with the prayer mats destroyed as flames took hold.
Owner Mohammed Awais told the Lancashire Telegraph: ‘We put our hearts and souls into this place.
‘We have not done anything to anyone. Whatever it is, it should not push someone to do something so dangerous.
‘It is affecting people’s livelihoods and staff rely on their work to survive.
‘There is no reason to do something reckless like this.
‘If there is an issue or something has gone wrong in the store they should come and see us.’
The Raha Café only opened last year and was named as one of the finalists in the Lancashire Telegraph’s Best Coffee Shop competition.
Mr Awais said he had been left depressed after the suspected arson attack but was hoping to reopen this week.
He added: ‘We are also thankful to the fire teams and the local neighbour who appears to have alerted them straight away.
‘They could have targeted anywhere but why come to this area? From the outside you can see it is a prayer room through the glass.
‘You can see the Arabic verses and the prayer mats.’
There were no injuries reported in the blaze.
A police spokesperson said: ‘It was reported that a fire had been started at the premises. Colleagues from Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service attended to extinguish the fire.
‘The cause of the fire is being investigated and enquiries are ongoing.’
A Lancashire Fire and Rescue Service spokesperson added: ‘At 2.40am, three fire engines from Blackburn and Hyndburn attended an incident on Whalley New Road, Blackburn involving a fire in a single-storey building.’
Source: metro.co.uk
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https://metro.co.uk/2026/05/12/masked-men-firebomb-mosque-blackburn-28344999/
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Shrewsbury Muslim Centre speaks out after swastika graffiti
By Dominic Robertson
May 12, 2026
The incident was the second at the centre in the space of two months.
Leaders at a county mosque have spoken of their shock and sadness after the building was targeted with Nazi graffiti.
Shrewsbury Muslim Centre, on Preston Street, Shrewsbury, was daubed with a swastika last week.
Police yesterday confirmed that a man has been arrested over the incident, which is being treated as a hate crime.
Local politicians expressed dismay at the developments, and now the centre has issued a statement detailing its own upset at the incident.
It comes after an incident of racially aggravated harassment at the centre in March - although a prosecution collapsed in April after a police witness was not available to give evidence at a trial.
In its statement the centre has thanked those who have offered support in the wake of the incidents.
It said: “We are deeply saddened and shocked that the last two months has seen two attacks on our prayer centre.
“In the first a man was assaulted and abused. In the second far-right and Nazi graffiti was sprayed over the walls, in broad daylight.
“Firstly, we would like to thank the police and local authorities for their full and immediate response to these upsetting events, and we are hugely grateful for their continued support.
“Secondly, the messages of support from members of the community and visitors have been so lovely and are appreciated far more than we can say.”
It added: “We are proud that the men, women and children who attend Shrewsbury Muslim Centre play a full and active part in our community.
“We are doctors, consultants, health workers, care workers, IT professionals, teachers, business people, school and college students, drivers, mums, dads, grannies, grandads, toddlers and many other things besides.
“We entertain hundreds of visitors, of all ages, of all faiths and none, to our centre throughout the year.
“We support interfaith activities and raise large amounts for charity. We love our town of Shrewsbury; we love our county of Shropshire, and we love being able to contribute and playing active roles in our community.
“Thank you once again to all who have supported us throughout all our experiences, negative and positive, over the years.”
Source: shropshirestar.com
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https://www.shropshirestar.com/news/shrewsbury-muslim-centre-shropshire-abuse-police-swastika-8541202
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Starmer prepares for King's Speech as he faces leadership crisis
May 13, 2026
Richard Wheeler
King Charles III will unveil the government's agenda for the year ahead this morning, as Sir Keir Starmer fights for his future in Downing Street.
Labour's ongoing divisions mean the day of pomp and ceremony for the State Opening of Parliament will take place in unusual circumstances.
The King's Speech is expected to include more than 35 bills and draft bills, including on immigration, the NHS and police reforms, along with a route to potentially nationalising British Steel.
But whether or not Sir Keir is in position to deliver the planned laws remains to be seen, amid splits amongst his cabinet and backbench MPs following heavy losses in last week's elections.
Sir Keir said people expected the government to "get on with the job of changing our country for the better".
He added: "Cutting the cost of living, bringing down hospital waiting lists and keeping our country safe in an increasingly dangerous world.
"Britain stands at a pivotal moment: to press ahead with a plan to build a stronger, fairer country or turn back to the chaos and instability of the past."
Other proposals expected to be in the speech include measures linked to the government's desire for closer ties with the EU, improved energy security, and leasehold reforms in England and Wales.
The BBC has learnt Sir Keir has not included a second attempt to reform welfare.
The first attempt, which sought to restrict eligibility for some health-related benefits, resulted in a mass revolt of Labour MPs and a climbdown for the government in June 2025.
The Conservative Party has released an "Alternative King's Speech" containing proposed laws that the Opposition would like to see brought forward.
It includes plans on immigration, welfare reform, oil and gas extraction from the North Sea, and support for High Streets.
Tory leader Kemi Badenoch described it as a "serious and fully funded legislative programme for a stronger economy and a stronger country".
One of the bills would aim to withdraw the UK from the European Convention on Human Rights and repeal the Human Rights Act.
The Conservatives argue this is part of efforts to "secure our borders, restore fairness in the benefits system and protect our service men and women from lawfare".
The state opening will begin at 09:30 when the royal bodyguards, known as the Yeoman of the Guard, conduct a ceremonial search of the cellars of the Palace of Westminster for explosives.
This commemorates the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 in which a group of English Catholics failed to blow up Parliament and kill the Protestant king.
An MP will also be ceremonially taken "hostage" in Buckingham Palace while the King attends Parliament. This is designed to ensure the monarch's safe return.
A government whip known as the vice-chamberlain of the household traditionally performs this task and the position is currently held by Labour MP Sir Nic Dakin.
The royal procession travels from Buckingham Palace to the Sovereign's Entrance at Parliament, with a military escort.
In 2024, the Ministry of Defence said more than 1,100 military personnel and almost 200 horses had taken part.
The King will later lead the royal procession to the chamber of the House of Lords and he will deliver the speech, usually at around 11:30.
Before he starts, Black Rod - a senior officer in the Lords - will be sent to the House of Commons to summon the MPs.
The door to the Commons chamber is shut in Black Rod's face and he will strike it three times before it is opened, a tradition said to symbolise the independence of the Commons from the monarch.
MPs will file through Central Lobby to the Lords, with as many as possible watching the King's Speech from the bar of the House - a railing marking the boundary beyond which visitors may not pass when the House is at work.
Other MPs will stay behind in the Commons, with some watching the speech on their phones or tablets.
MPs will hold several days of debate on the King's Speech from 14:30 on Wednesday.
A long-serving MP and a relative newcomer to the Commons usually make speeches, with Conservative Party leader Badenoch third up before Sir Keir addresses the chamber.
It will be the first opportunity for MPs to attempt to question the PM in the Commons since last week's elections.
Source: bbc.com
Please click the following URL to read the text of the original Story
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gvd81681qo
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Russian economy on solid footing despite slowdown – deputy PM
12 May, 2026
The Russian economy remains fundamentally strong despite contracting in the first quarter of 2026, Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak has said, citing low unemployment, rising household incomes and improving business activity as evidence that the slowdown may be temporary.
Russia’s GDP shrank by 0.3% year-on-year in the first quarter, marking the country’s first quarterly contraction since early 2023. The slowdown followed years of rapid expansion, with the economy having grown by over 4% in 2023 and 2024 before easing to around 1% last year.
Novak told business daily Vedomosti on Tuesday that the downturn was part of a normal economic cycle. “After a period of high growth, there is always a correction,” he said, describing the current phase as being accompanied by “structural transformation” under “unprecedented pressure from sanctions.”
Russia has retained its position as the world’s fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity (PPP) – which adjusts for cost-of-living differences across countries – since 2021, Novak said. Manufacturing output has risen nearly 23% since 2022, he added, driven by import substitution and increased domestic production after many Western companies exited the Russian market.
The deputy prime minister also cited historically low unemployment and rising household incomes as signs of economic stability. Real disposable incomes had increased by 26.1% over the past three years, driven by wage growth, social payments, business income and property income, he stated.
“Poverty has declined to a record low of 6.7%,” Novak said, referring to the 2025 data. He said unemployment was expected to remain at around 2.3-2.4%, among the lowest levels in the country’s modern history.
Novak attributed the slowdown partly to labor shortages and tight monetary policy aimed at curbing inflation, but said growth was expected to return this year as price pressures ease and financial conditions gradually improve.
Novak’s views were echoed by Economic Development Minister Maksim Reshetnikov, who told President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that the economy had “held up well” despite sanctions and external pressure. The ministry expects GDP growth to reach 0.4% this year before accelerating to 1.4% in 2027, Reshetnikov said.
Source: rt.com
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https://www.rt.com/business/639915-russian-economy-resilient-sanctions/
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Complaints over Ukrainian press gangs skyrocket
12 May, 2026
Nearly 12,000 complaints have been filed against draft officials in Ukraine since the conflict with Russia began in early 2022, Ukrainskaya Pravda (UP) reported on Monday, citing data provided by the parliamentary human rights commissioner.
Ukraine has been suffering from chronic manpower shortages due to its heavy battlefield losses, widespread draft dodging, and desertion. The nationwide ‘bussification’ campaign, in which draft officers ambush military-age men on the streets, at workplaces, and outside their homes, has often led to violent altercations and outrage on social media.
According to UP, the number of complaints against draft officials jumped from 514 in 2023 to 6,127 in 2025. A total of 1,657 complaints were filed in the first quarter of 2026.
In many instances, officers were filmed tackling and beating men before shoving them into vans. Several draftees have reportedly died shortly after arriving at the draft offices. In videos posted online, bystanders and family members are often seen attacking the officers to prevent unwilling recruits from being sent to the front line.
The Ukrainian government lowered the draft age from 27 to 25 and has introduced harsher penalties for draft dodging.
The draft remains a highly contentious issue as the conflict with Russia has entered its fourth year. Last week, dozens of people attempted to storm a draft office building in the village of Mezhgorye in western Ukraine. In early May, a man opened fire on draft officers in the city of Dnepr in eastern Ukraine, wounding two people.
Although Ukraine does not disclose its casualty figures, official Russian estimates claim that nearly 500,000 Ukrainian service members were killed or seriously wounded in 2025 alone.
Source: rt.com
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https://www.rt.com/russia/639917-ukrainian-file-complaints-mobilization/
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North America
CAIR Md. Calls on Life Time Fitness to Address Alleged Anti-Muslim, Anti-Arab Harassment, Threats Against Longtime Columbia Member
May 12, 2026
Civil rights group seeks reinstatement, independent investigation, preservation of evidence, staff training after Muslim Arab member allegedly faced harassment, threats, retaliation
The Maryland office of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, today announced that it has called on Life Time Fitness to investigate and take corrective action after a longtime Muslim Arab member of its Columbia, Maryland, location allegedly faced discrimination, harassment, body-shaming, threats of violence, retaliation, and a reported failure by staff to protect his safety.
In a letter sent to Life Time Fitness leadership, CAIR Maryland said it is advocating on behalf of a client who reported that he has been a Life Time member for nearly two decades and viewed the facility as “more than a gym,” but as a community and second home for him and his family.
The advocacy client repeatedly raised concerns about staff and member misconduct before the situation allegedly escalated into explicit anti-Muslim and anti-Arab remarks and threats.
According to the advocacy client, on or about Nov. 2, 2025, while he was inside the Columbia facility, one member allegedly stated words to the effect of: “We don’t want Muslims, Arabs, or people from the Middle East here. Go back to Africa.” Shortly afterward, another member allegedly approached him aggressively and stated words to the effect of: “Do you know who I am? We’re going to jump you here.”
CAIR Maryland said the allegations, if substantiated, raise serious concerns of discrimination based on religion and national origin, a hostile environment, failure to act after notice, failure to protect member safety, retaliatory suspension, and possible confidentiality breaches and conflicts of interest in an investigation controlled by local staff.
“We are troubled by allegations that a Muslim Arab resident who had been a loyal member of Life Time for nearly eighteen years was allegedly subjected to anti-Muslim and anti-Arab hostility and threats of violence, and later suspended after reporting what happened,” said CAIR’s Maryland Director Zainab Chaudry. “No person should have to fear harassment or physical threats while trying to exercise at a gym. CAIR calls on Life Time to act swiftly and transparently to ensure he and his family are treated with dignity and that all members are protected from discrimination.”
CAIR Maryland is calling on Life Time Fitness to immediately reinstate its advocacy client and his family unless it can provide a legitimate, documented, non-retaliatory safety basis for any restriction; refund or credit fees charged during any suspension period; preserve surveillance footage and internal records; conduct an independent corporate-level investigation outside the Columbia location; and provide a written explanation for the suspension.
The civil rights organization is also urging Life Time to issue a written anti-retaliation directive, take appropriate disciplinary action if staff or members are found to have engaged in discriminatory or threatening conduct, and provide training for Columbia location staff, coaches, trainers, managers, and front desk personnel on anti-Muslim bias, anti-Arab discrimination, harassment prevention, member safety, threat response, confidential complaint handling, and respectful treatment of members of all backgrounds.
“Gyms and fitness centers are places of public accommodation,” Chaudry added. “Members pay for access not only to equipment and services, but to a safe and welcoming environment. Life Time’s response will send an important message about whether Muslim, Arab, Middle Eastern, and other minority members can trust that their complaints will be taken seriously rather than punished.”
CAIR Maryland has requested a written response from Life Time within ten business days.
CAIR’s mission is to protect civil rights, enhance understanding of Islam, promote justice, and empower American Muslims.
La misión de CAIR es proteger las libertades civiles, mejorar la comprensión del Islam, promover la justicia, y empoderar a los musulmanes en los Estados Unidos.
Source: cair.com
Please click the following URL to read the text of the original Story
https://www.cair.com/press_releases/cair-md-calls-on-life-time-fitness-to-address-alleged-anti-muslim-anti-arab-harassment-threats-against-longtime-columbia-member/
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Rep. Barry Moore introduces legislation requiring immigrants to disavow sharia law
May 12, 2026
Washington, D.C.- Today, Rep. Barry Moore (AL-01) introduced the CRUSADE (Countering Radicalism Under Sharia and Defeating Extremism) Act. This legislation will amend the EB-4 special immigrant visa provision, including the religious worker category, to require covered aliens to disavow sharia law and take an oath to uphold the United States Constitution.
Sharia law has been used in parts of the world to justify persecution of religious minorities, restrictions on women, punishments for apostasy and blasphemy, and the elevation of religious law over civil law. Anyone seeking the privilege of entering the United States as a religious worker should be willing to clearly affirm that the Constitution, not sharia law, is the supreme law of the land.
“America is built on the rule of law and the supremacy of the Constitution - not foreign legal systems that conflict with our freedoms and values,” said Congressman Moore. “The CRUSADE Act makes clear that anyone seeking entry into the United States as a religious worker must affirm their commitment to the Constitution and reject the extremist practices found in sharia law that have been used to justify persecution, violence, and the suppression of basic human rights. Religious liberty is one of our nation’s founding principles, but it cannot come at the expense of the constitutional order that protects all Americans.”
Source: barrymoore.house.gov
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https://barrymoore.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-barry-moore-introduces-legislation-requiring-immigrants-disavow-sharia-law
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How Bundle Halal is connecting Minnesota Muslim families to streamlined grocery delivery
Binta Kanteh
May 13, 2026
Like many recent business school graduates, Ahmed Ali was looking for a start-up idea that catered to an unmet need. He found it in his Muslim and Somali community in Minnesota.
Ali, 23, was born in South Africa and raised in northeast Minneapolis. After graduating last year from the University of Minnesota’s Carlson School of Management, he brainstormed with his friend Badraddin Abdi, 25, about what service they could offer to the community that raised them — especially the mothers.
Last September, Ali and Abdi co-founded Bundle Halal, the first grocery delivery service in the state that specifically caters to those seeking halal-certified meat and staples.
Ali says that the concept and business model of Bundle Halal was initially inspired by a deep appreciation for mothers who are the heart of the community but quickly broadened to the whole family.
“This is targeting everybody, the fathers that don’t have time and don’t have the energy to go outside, people [for whom] it’s tough for them to go outside, and even for the young generation that are just getting married and that want to make it easier to experience halal meat. We tailor it for everybody, but one of the core reasons we started is for the mothers,” Ali said.
Customers place orders on the Bundle Halal website. Categories include oils, spices and seasonings, grains like basmati rice, sauces and dips, drinks and desserts, and a “Bundle Box” an assortment of meats prepped for cooking.
There are more than 90 halal grocery stores in the state serving as many as 150,000 Muslim customers, according to a 2020 University of Minnesota study.
For most animal products to qualify as halal for Muslims, they must be raised, treated and slaughtered according to strict criteria that ensures the animal is treated with care and mercy. Animal products that are prohibited entirely include pork and its byproducts, blood and carrion.
Halal grocery stores also tend to stock ingredients used in many African, Asian and Arab cuisines.
Abdi, who lives in California, maintains the website and handles advertising, and marketing. Ali manages the day to day operations in the metro area.
In the early days, Ali says, it took a while for orders to start coming in. He remembers checking his phone and hitting refresh a lot, wondering if there was something wrong with the system.
“Even getting a couple orders … was the hardest thing ever,” said Ali.“[Now] we get lots of orders every single day. There’s definitely a need and a want for it. Once people get comfortable and familiar, then things start going good.”
The entrepreneurs also faced a learning curve around the business’ marketing and the speed of deliveries.
“When we first started, we were doing next-day orders, then we sped up to same-day orders, and then we sped up to one-hour delivery. That was a logistical nightmare because you have to tell each and every part of the business A to Z to work on going faster. For example, the people that prepare the meat and everything, they had to cut the meat faster and be ready, and the driver has to be on standby. And then marketing [another challenge] showing yourself out there and having people trust us with their online groceries,” Ali said.
The decision to speed up deliveries came from both customer feedback and overall market demand, Ali says.
“We noticed many customers wanted halal meat and groceries delivered faster and more conveniently, especially busy families, students and working professionals. One common thing we heard was that people wanted an easier way to access halal products without having to drive long distances or spend extra time shopping in-store. That pushed us to focus heavily on convenience and fast delivery.”
Social media marketing has been a key component of Bundle Halal’s reach. The goal of being on platforms like Instagram and TikTok is to educate people about the convenience of halal grocery delivery and helping people discover that this type of service exists in Minnesota.
Bundle Halal sources primarily from Plymouth Halal Market, which opened last year and serves the west metro. One of the most popular proteins from this site is the pre-diced chicken because of the convenience, Ali says. The market can serve orders within a 60-mile radius.
In its first six months, Bundle Halal has expanded from a two-person team to nearly two dozen people, according to Ali. That includes the store staff that help package the order, vendors and drivers. It has delivered several thousand orders, the co-owners say.
Feedback from customers on the quality of the packaging and timing of the delivery has helped accelerate their growth.
“It keeps everybody in check,” Ali said. “I think one of the biggest things is getting better, getting fresher, getting quicker, and also giving a good experience overall.”
Ali says Bundle Halal can help businesses like Plymouth Halal, which may be too small for bigger online grocery platforms, to scale up.
“These [halal market owners] are our uncles and aunts. Technology is getting so advanced that we would love for them to keep up with us too so they can keep growing,” he said. Bundle Halal also passes on whatever market trends they see to the grocery stores. “One thing we love to do is whenever something’s popular in the city, we also tell all the stores to carry it,” he said. One example of a trendy item Ali has noticed is the Milaf date cola, a soft drink made of date extract instead of added sugar and artificial sweeteners.
Safiya Mohamud, co-owner of Plymouth Halal Market, says that the partnership with Bundle Halal has increased their sales because they are now tapping into a market of customers that would rather order online. In addition to seeing a positive impact on their sales, Mohamud also says the connection to the broader community has been strengthened.
“We have a lot of diversity that comes here — Indian, Pakistani, Somali, Arabs — a lot of people who are looking for halal especially. We sell a lot of fresh goat meat, that is one of our biggest sales.” Mohamud said her customers live in western suburbs like Plymouth, Maple Grove, Eden Prairie and New Hope.
Bundle Halal provides the businesses with the boxes, plastic and ice, and the staff in the store package the orders. The deliveries are carried out by drivers on the Bundle Halal team including Ali himself and third-party services.
Seth Ketron, associate professor of marketing in the Opus College of Business at the University of St. Thomas, says that Bundle Halal’s niche focus could take them far.
“There’s a big market for it,” Ketron said. “Globally, Islam is the second largest religion and there might be other communities where there’s some overlap [in their need] for halal certified food. The fact that there’s really nothing that caters toward this need, like this service, it’s a great opportunity. If Bundle Halal does well, it could capture market share from established players such as DoorDash, Instacart and Uber Eats,” he said.
The next big goal for the business is to expand their network of halal grocery suppliers and delivery areas in greater Minnesota.
“For example, [places like] Willmar, Mankato, we want to reach those areas. Halal stores in Minnesota are limited by the store’s reach, but when you add an online website to it, there’s no limit to it. Our ultimate goal is to make halal foods accessible in every area of Minnesota,” Ali said.
Source: sahanjournal.com
Please click the following URL to read the text of the original Story
https://sahanjournal.com/business-work/bundle-halal-grocery-delivery-minnesota/
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Austria intercepts US military spy planes – Defense Ministry
13 May, 2026
Austria has said it scrambled Eurofighter Typhoons to intercept US Air Force spy planes that entered its airspace without authorization on Sunday and Monday.
According to Austrian Defense Ministry spokesman Michael Bauer, a pair of PC-12 turboprop aircraft flew over the Totes Gebirge mountains in Upper Austria on two occasions. He added that the planes turned back toward Germany after being intercepted by the Eurofighters. Bauer said the incident will be “resolved through diplomatic channels.”
Austria’s response was criticized and mocked on social media, with some commenters arguing that “nobody takes our airspace seriously.”
Bauer responded to critics on X: “Should we shoot down the plane? Is that what you’re suggesting?” Replying to another post, he wrote: “If you’re driving too fast on the highway, do you expect the police to shoot you, or just give you a fine?”
Last month, Austria denied US requests for overflight rights during the war against Iran, citing its longstanding neutrality.
“We are not part of Trump’s chaotic policy and must not yield an inch here,” Austrian Vice Chancellor Andrea Babler said at the time, according to Anadolu.
Source: rt.com
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https://www.rt.com/news/639922-austria-intercepts-us-planes/
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CAIR, CAIR-MN Demand that DHS Return Property Seized at Airport from Twin Cities Organizer Who Advocated for ICE Divestment
May 12, 2026
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy organization, along with its Minnesota chapter (CAIR-MN), have issued a letter to DHS and DOJ officials demanding the immediate return of property seized at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport from Twin Cities organizer and ICE divestment advocate Janette Zahia Corcelius.
The CAIR Legal Defense Fund and CAIR-MN gave federal officials one week to respond and intend to pursue legal action.
“If the violation of my First and Fourth Amendment rights in retaliation for my political beliefs, organizing, and identity was meant to inflict fear and suffering, then it has failed,” said Janette Zahia Corcelius, “I am unabated and undeterred.”
“Americans do not give up their constitutional rights at the border,” said CAIR LDF attorney John M. Fossum. “When the government uses customs checkpoints to target its critics and seize their electronic devices, it is conducting illegal and anti-democratic surveillance. We will continue to shine a light on the government’s actions and hold it accountable.”
“American Muslims are being targeted for the healthy criticism of their government—the most democratic action a citizen can take,” said CAIR-MN Civil Rights Director Alec Shaw. “We stand with Minnesotans and we stand with Ms. Corcelius today.”
BACKGROUNDER:
In March 2026, the Minneapolis City Council passed a veto-proof resolution calling for European financial institutions to “divest from all major DHS and ICE contractors, including Palantir, Geo Group, CoreCivic, and CACI International.” In April, Muslim and Arab American labor organizer Janette Zahia Corcelius traveled abroad to Europe and promoted the City Council’s call for divestment.
When Corcelius re-entered the country at the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport on April 30, federal customs officers stopped her, searched her belongings, and seized her cell phone and all political literature in her possession. Government agents offered no explanation for the seizures and no timeline for the return of her property.
DHS claims the authority to search the electronic devices of American citizens. But federal courts have repeatedly found these seizures are unconstitutional. Government agents should be able to explain real and immediate suspicion of a border-related crime. Agents cannot make that claim here—the search violated Corcelius’ Fourth Amendment rights.
The seizure of political literature also raises the disturbing possibility that government agents targeted Corcelius because of her First Amendment-protected speech and political associations. Corcelius was exercising her free speech rights to call for divestment from DHS and ICE when she was detained, and her property was seized, by the same government agency she was criticizing.
The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-MN) is a civil rights and advocacy organization dedicated to enhancing understanding of Islam, protecting civil liberties, empowering American Muslims, and building coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding.
Source: cair.com
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https://www.cair.com/press_releases/breaking-cair-cair-mn-demand-that-dhs-return-property-seized-at-airport-from-twin-cities-organizer-who-advocated-for-ice-divestment/
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Trump's 'Golden Dome' will cost $1.2tn and might not stop all-out missile attack
May 13, 2026
Sareen Habeshian
US President Donald Trump's futuristic "Golden Dome" missile defence system will cost about $1.2 tn (£882bn) to develop, deploy and operate over two decades, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office estimates.
That figure is significantly higher than the initial sum of $175bn (£129bn) that had been earmarked.
And the system designed to shield the US against ballistic and cruise missiles might not even work. The new CBO report warned the Golden Dome could be vulnerable to a full-scale attack by Russia or China.
Acquisition costs alone would be over $1tn, including for the interceptor layers and a space-based missile warning and tracking system, the fiscal scorekeeper said in a new report.
Just days after returning to the White House in January, Trump unveiled plans for the system, aimed at countering "next-generation" aerial threats.
He said last year that the programme would require an initial investment of $25bn, with a total cost of $175bn over time.
Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, who requested the estimate in the report, said on Tuesday: "The President's so-called 'Golden Dome' is nothing more than a massive giveaway to defense contractors paid for entirely by working Americans."
The BBC contacted the White House and the Pentagon for comment.
There have been doubts about whether the US would be able to deliver a comprehensive defence system for such a huge land mass.
Officials have warned that existing systems have not kept pace with increasingly sophisticated weapons possessed by potential adversaries.
Despite the projected costs of the Golden Dome, "the system could be overwhelmed by a full-scale attack mounted by a peer or near-peer adversary", the CBO said.
An executive order calling for the creation of what was initially termed the "Iron Dome for America" noted that the threat of next-generation weapons has "become more intense and complex" over time, a potentially "catastrophic" scenario for the US.
A week into his second term, Trump ordered the defence department to submit plans for a system that would deter and defend against aerial attacks, which the White House said at the time remain "the most catastrophic threat" facing the US.
Trump said the system would consist of "next-generation" technologies across land, sea and space, including space-based sensors and interceptors.
The system would be "capable even of intercepting missiles launched from the other side of the world, or launched from space", the president said last year.
SpaceX and Lockheed Martin last month won contracts worth up to $3.2bn to develop space-based missile interceptor prototypes for the system.
Source: bbc.com
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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cqxp27j1xyjo
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Lawsuit seeks to halt Trump's $13m makeover of Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool
May 13, 2026
A project to fix and paint the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, which President Donald Trump said would cost up to $2m (£1.5m), is now expected to cost $13.1m, federal records show.
The no-bid contract went to a Virginia company, which critics say bypassed a federal requirement for competing offers.
That decision prompted a lawsuit from a nonprofit group asking for the work to be halted. It argues Trump ignored laws that limit changes to historical landmarks.
The pool makeover began last week as part of Trump's bid to beautify the US capital ahead of America's 250th birthday celebrations this summer.
The Cultural Landscape Foundation filed its lawsuit on Monday asking a judge to halt the renovations.
"Every day that the resurfacing continues, the historic character of the Reflecting Pool is being further and fundamentally altered," the legal filing says.
When asked about the project on Tuesday, Trump told reporters that "for the first time since 1922 [the reflecting pool is] going to work properly".
The pool underwent a $34m renovation between 2010 and 2012 when Barack Obama was president. It was restored and enhanced with a new circulation and filtration system.
But even after that, leaks persisted and algae bloomed in the pool.
The new contract says the work on the pool will be completed by 22 May, a much quicker timeline than originally expected. It would be just in time for America's semiquincentennial on 4 July.
The pool, stretching 2,030ft (620m) between the Lincoln Memorial and the Washington Monument, has long been plagued by leaks, structural deterioration, faulty pipes, algae growth and bird droppings.
The Trump administration awarded a contract - totalling $6.9m - to a preferred vendor, using an exemption meant for emergency situations.
Federal records now show that $13.1m has been awarded for the project - more than seven times what the president initially estimated.
The contract was granted by the Department of the Interior, which oversees natural resources and cultural heritage in the US, to a firm called Atlantic Industrial Coatings.
The BBC has contacted Atlantic Industrial Coatings for comment.
On Tuesday, Trump sought to distance himself from the contract as he maintained the work would fix leaking at the reflecting pool and was not simply a paint job.
He posted on his Truth Social platform that he "didn't give out the contract" and that the Department of the Interior awarded the work "to a contractor I did not know, and have never used before".
But speaking last month, the president said he brushed aside bids to fix the reflecting pool because he had "a better way of doing it" that would cost between $1.5m and $2m.
"I said, what we're going to do is I'm going to call all three of these people that have worked for me in the past, doing swimming pools," he said on 23 April.
The president visited the site last week to take a first-hand look at the drained pool.
It is the latest in series of projects that Trump has taken on since returning to Washington.
He wants to construct a 250-foot victory arch, has demolished the White House East Wing to build a ballroom, and has added his name to institutions such as the Kennedy Center and Institute of Peace.
Source: bbc.com
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https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c202nj46p7wo
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Africa
Sharia Law: Kwankwaso Reveals Those Who Submitted His Name To US Congress For Blacklisting
May 12, 2026
Former presidential candidate of the New Nigerian Peoples Party (NNPP), Rabiu Kwankwaso, has said ‘indigenous enemies’ submitted his name to the United States Congress over the proposed bill, which seeks to impose sanctions on him over allegations of severe religious freedom violations.
Naija News recalls that United States lawmakers introduced the “Nigeria Religious Freedom and Accountability Act of 2026”, which proposes sanctions against Kwankwaso for alleged religious freedom violations.
If passed, the bill would compel the US Departments of State and Treasury to impose visa bans and asset freezes on Kwankwaso, alongside groups like the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association (MACBAN), for their alleged roles in the systemic persecution of Christians.
Speaking during an interview on Arise Television’s ‘Prime Time’ on Monday, Kwankwaso said it was surprising that somebody is blaming him for the Sharia law in Kano.
He said, “My name was submitted by our enemies here in this country to the US Congress.
“I can tell you the irony of the whole thing. When Sharia came from Zamfara in the year 2000, I really wanted to study, and even as a Muslim to understand it.
“Some people were too much in a hurry. They wouldn’t wait, and they believe that I was not keen, and somebody wrote a private bill to the State Assembly. Before you know it, they follow the due process and submitted it for signing.
“We studied it, and we realized that it was very important. And we have not seen anything there that actually should stop us. And in any case, even if I didn’t sign, the implication is, within no time, it will become law if I don’t sign.
“So while people were angry at that time with me that I wasn’t enthusiastic, I didn’t submit the bill and so on and so forth, now, fast forwarded to 2026, somebody is blaming me for Sharia in Kano.”
Source: naijanews.com
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Gwarzo Steps Down For Deputy Senate President, Barau In Senatorial Race
May 13, 2026
Former Minister of State for Housing and Urban Development, Abdullahi Tijjani Gwarzo, has withdrawn from the senatorial race and endorsed Deputy Senate President, Barau Jibrin.
Naija News reports that the latest development comes after Kano State Governor, Abba Kabir Yusuf, successfully brokered peace between the two leading figures of the All Progressives Congress (APC) in Kano North, paving the way for unity ahead of the next election season.
Director General of Media at the Kano Government House, Sanusi Bature Dawakin Tofa, confirmed the reconciliation in a statement on Wednesday morning.
Tofa said the high-level meeting held at the Kano Government House on Tuesday night, ended with Gwarzo announcing his withdrawal from the senatorial race in support of Senator Barau Jibrin.
According to him, Gwarzo pledged loyalty to the party’s collective interest and expressed readiness to work with Barau in the forthcoming poll.
Also present at the meeting were Deputy Governor Murtala Sule Garo, former APC national Chairman Abdullahi Umar Ganduje, Chairman of the House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Abubukar Kabir Bichi, and Kano APC Chairman Umar Haruna Doguwa, among others.
The development is seen as a major step toward consolidating APC’s strength in the senatorial district, where internal rivalry had threatened to split the party’s base.
Source: naijanews.com
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https://www.naijanews.com/2026/05/13/gwarzo-steps-down-for-deputy-senate-president-barau-in-senatorial-race/
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Tinubu, Fubara, Uzodimma, Other APC Govs, Senators, Reps Know Fate Today
May 13, 2026
No fewer than 2,620 aspirants, including President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, governors, senators and members of the House of Representatives, are expected to know today whether they have been cleared to contest the 2027 elections on the platform of the All Progressives Congress (APC).
Also awaiting the outcome are Tinubu’s lone challenger for the presidential ticket, Osifo Stanley, alongside several serving and former political office holders.
As part of preparations to meet the timetable of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), the APC is expected to publish the names of cleared aspirants today.
It was gathered that the ruling party screened about 2,980 aspirants for various elective positions, including one presidential slot, 28 governorship positions, 109 Senate seats, 360 House of Representatives seats and 991 state assembly positions.
The APC screening exercise reportedly held between May 8 and May 12.
Sources disclosed that President Tinubu was granted a waiver by the screening panel.
Among those screened were serving governors, former governors, lawmakers, ministers and technocrats who purchased and submitted nomination forms.
Among prominent figures whose fate will be determined by today’s publication is Imo State Governor Hope Uzodimma, who is seeking a senatorial seat.
Uzodimma currently serves as governor of Imo State, chairman of the Progressive Governors’ Forum and chairman of the Renewed Hope Ambassadors leading Tinubu’s re-election campaign.
According to Vanguard, sources within the party said the APC hierarchy was under pressure to persuade him to drop the senatorial ambition to avoid a constitutional and political crisis.
The concern, according to party insiders, is that Uzodimma could simultaneously hold the positions of governor and senator-elect because his governorship tenure would not expire until January 2028.
Governor Siminalayi Fubara of Rivers State who is in a political battle with the Minister of the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Nyesom Wike, will have his fate determined today.
Naija News reports that Wike had on Tuesday met with the National Chairman of the APC, Nentawe Yiltwatda.
In Ogun State, former governor and serving Ogun East Senator, Gbenga Daniel, is locked in a political battle with Governor Dapo Abiodun over the senatorial seat.
Similarly, Gombe State Governor Muhammad Inuwa Yahaya is contesting against his predecessor, Senator Ibrahim Hassan Dankwambo, for a Senate ticket.
The Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives, Benjamin Kalu, who is seeking the APC governorship ticket in Abia State, is also among those awaiting clearance.
Kalu recently faced a petition alleging that he attended the Nigerian Law School while simultaneously participating in the National Youth Service Corps scheme.
The development comes amid growing tension within the APC, as many aspirants continue to insist on direct primaries instead of consensus arrangements.
Some aspirants reportedly threatened to resist any attempt to impose candidates.
Reacting to the rising tension, APC National Chairman warned aspirants against violence and anti-party activities.
In a statement issued through his Special Adviser on Media and Information Strategy, Abimbola Tooki, Yiltwatda said the party would not tolerate any action capable of disrupting the primary elections.
“The leadership of the party will not tolerate any act capable of disrupting the smooth conduct of the primaries,” he stated.
He warned that aspirants or supporters found sponsoring violence, unrest or anti-party activities would face disciplinary measures, including suspension from the party.
Source: naijanews.com
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https://www.naijanews.com/2026/05/13/tinubu-fubara-uzodimma-apc-govs-senators-reps-fate/
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Africa Forward summit wraps up in Nairobi
May 13, 2026
Calls for mutual respect were reiterated throughout the Africa Forward summit on Tuesday in Nairobi, co-hosted by Kenya and France.
Kenyan President William Ruto insisted that the days of European dependency were finished for Africa, and rather that mutual respect between co operating nations was the way ahead.
"We reiterate with clarity and conviction the urgent necessity of reforming global peace and security governance, particularly the United Nations Security Council. It is both indispensable and unconscionable that a continent of nearly 1.5 billion people, represented by 54 sovereign states and constituting one of the largest blocs within the United Nations, continues to remain excluded from permanent representation on the Security Council," said Ruto.
With its influence on the continent declining, Paris is seeking to renew its engagement, after years of tense relations with its former colonies.
The French president outlined his view for future partnership at the summit, saying, "at its heart, the partnership we envision for this 'Africa Forward' summit—the partnership I believe in between Africa and Europe—is one that serves peace, prosperity, and our shared strategic autonomy and independence. This is a powerful vision. If we succeed, it will allow us to fundamentally rebuild a multilateral order that has been so deeply shaken and weakened—an order whose decline affects us all. Ultimately, this partnership can become a source of hope and a future for everyone."
During the summit, Emmanuel Macron also announced investments worth 23 billion euros for various sectors on the continent including AI, energy and agriculture.
Source: africanews.com
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https://www.africanews.com/2026/05/12/africa-forward-summit-wraps-up-in-nairobi/
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US official urges South Sudan authorities to uphold 2018 peace agreement
May 13, 2026
Tensions are flaring between the United States and South Sudan. On a visit to Juba last week, the head of the US State Department Bureau of African Affairs Nick Checker urged South Sudanese authorities to "take urgent action to restore peace."
In a statement from the US embassy on Monday, Washington called on Juba to take further action to implement the 2018 peace agreement that put an end to South Sudan's civil war.
While "flawed," Checker said, the agreement "provides the basis of legitimacy for the transitional government."
The US also denounced the detention of South Sudanese Vice President Riek Machar, a rival of President Salva Kiir and head of the Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition, the main opposition party in the country.
Machar was arrested in March 2025, suspended from his duties and charged with treason, murder and crimes against humanity.
"It is farcical to claim that inter-party dialogue is taking place" while Machar is currently on trial, Checker said.
The US official also accused South Sudan's leadership of exploiting the country's crises to elicit international donor support while failing to use public revenue for the Sudanese people and "obstructing the delivery of lifesaving assistance."
Tensions remain high in South Sudan as fighting rages on between government and opposition forces, and experts are warning of a return to full blown war.
The violence has forced tens of thousands to flee their homes, with aid agencies regularly attacked and struggling to function.
Despite billions of dollars in oil revenue and years of international assistance, the country's humanitarian situation also continues to deteriorate.
Almost two‑thirds of South Sudan’s population — around 7.9 million people — are now facing severe hunger, according to an April joint food security report compiled by the government, the United Nations and humanitarian organisations.
South Sudan is expected to hold elections in December after years of delay, the first national polls since its independence in 2011.
Source: africanews.com
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https://www.africanews.com/2026/05/12/us-official-urges-south-sudan-authorities-to-uphold-2018-peace-agreement/
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Uganda's President Yoweri Museveni sworn in to seventh consecutive term
May 13, 2026
As Uganda's 81-year-old president, Yoweri Museveni, is sworn in to a seventh consecutive term, speculation is already growing about who will replace him. His son, army chief General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, has made no secret of his wish to take over, despite the improbability of an electoral win.
Forty years. That's how long Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni has been in power.
The 81-year-old was sworn in Tuesday to extend his presidency over a further five-year term that may well be his last — although not necessarily the last for the Museveni family.
The president's son and presumptive heir, army chief General Muhoozi Kainerugaba, oversaw dayslong rehearsals of the military parade that will animate the eighth inauguration of Museveni, with Russian-made Sukhoi fighter jets flying noisily over official ceremonial grounds in Kampala, the Ugandan capital.
Museveni took the oath of office and received the ceremonial instruments of power while being cheered by thousands attending the event in the Kampala suburb of Kololo.
Many Ugandans now accept that Museveni's presidency — the only one that millions of people have known — is nearing its end. What remains uncertain is the nature of the transition and how orderly things would be in the time he has left in office.
Two possible routes to the top
Kainerugaba looks poised to take over. He has declared his wish to succeed his father and said recently that the mission is unstoppable.
Still, his path is narrow and could follow one of two ways: either a bloodless but unconstitutional takeover by Kainerugaba or a constitutional amendment that allows lawmakers with the ruling party — who have an overwhelming majority — to pick him as Museveni's successor.
An electoral win is seen as a hurdle too high for Kainerugaba, whose challengers would include opposition leader Bobi Wine, the popular entertainer who has twice run for president and rejected the outcome of the January election that gave Museveni his next term.
Anita Among, the parliamentary speaker, said last month that legislators would do everything possible to assist Kainerugaba in his pursuit of the presidency.
"For the sake of MK, just assure MK that we will do whatever it takes," Among told a group of lawmakers celebrating the general's birthday, mentioning Kainerugaba's initials.
"In the 11th parliament, the opposition got swallowed. In the 12th parliament, it is going to be walloped."
In addition to the speaker, many other leaders have been scampering to show allegiance to Kainerugaba. While their moves display a quest for political survival, they also underscore Kainerugaba's rise as Uganda's de facto leader as his father ages and relies more on the army chief to exercise authority.
"Many Ugandans close to power have learned this lesson. That the president is old and exhausted, both intellectually and physically," Andrew Mwenda, a close ally and friend of Kainerugaba, wrote last month in The Independent online newspaper. "He has a limited ability to monitor many things across a large spectrum of sectors."
Kainerugaba, 52, joined the army in the late 1990s, and his rise to the top of the armed forces has been controversial, with critics dubbing it the "Muhoozi Project" to prepare him for the presidency.
Museveni and Kainerugaba often denied the existence of such a scheme, but it has become apparent in the last two years that hereditary rule is possibly what the president prefers.
Museveni, who has not said when he will retire, has no rivals within the ruling party — the reason many believe the military will have a say in choosing his successor.
"While people are waiting for the legal transition from Museveni, the de facto transition has already happened," said Angelo Izama, an analyst who runs the Uganda-based Fanaka Kwawote think tank. "Kainerugaba, more than the president, is the final voice on defense and security matters."
A more confrontational style than his father's
Kainerugaba's associates describe him as a dedicated military officer who often eschews ostentatious displays of wealth. He attended military schools in the U.S. and Britain before taking charge of a presidential guard unit that has since been expanded into an elite group of special forces.
In addition to his military duties, he is the founder of a political activist group known as the Patriotic League of Uganda. Its members and well-wishers range from government ministers to businesspeople.
But Kainerugaba lacks the public charisma and folksy style of Museveni, who has kept power in part by striking deals with his political rivals and even convincing some to serve in his government.
Kainerugaba's style is more confrontational, expressed often in harsh online posts that can give offense. He has ordered the arrest over alleged corruption of multiple generals, including some known to have once been his friends.
Museveni first took power by force in 1986 as the leader of a guerrilla force whose goal was to democratise Uganda after years of chaos and civil war. He said at the time that Africa's problem was leaders who overstayed their welcome. Much later, he changed his stance to say his criticism was of leaders who prolonged their rule without an electoral mandate.
Museveni, a US ally on regional security, is often credited with presiding over relative peace and stability. But many others see an increasingly authoritarian streak at odds with his early promise of democracy. Term and age limits have been scrapped and some rivals jailed or sidelined.
Lawmakers recently passed a punitive bill whose stated purpose is to deter foreign interference, but which drew widespread concern over its potential to hurt the work of non-governmental organisations and opposition groups.
The legislation forbids an "agent of a foreigner" from obtaining grants or other monetary support from external sources exceeding 400 million Ugandan shillings — roughly $110,000 today — within a 12-month period without the approval of the interior minister.
Wine's party, the National Unity Platform, condemned the legislation as "unconstitutional, irrelevant and brought in bad faith to further persecute those with divergent views."
Source: africanews.com
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https://www.africanews.com/2026/05/12/ugandas-president-yoweri-museveni-sworn-in-to-seventh-consecutive-term/
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Southeast Asia
Man gets 15 months in prison for sending pork to Singapore mosques
by Joseph Masilamany
05/12/2026
Singapore (AsiaNews) – A 62-year-old Singaporean man was sentenced to 15 months’ jail today after mailing letters containing pork slices to several mosques in a case that authorities said threatened religious harmony in the city-state.
Tan Keng Hwee pleaded guilty in a Singapore court to three charges of engaging in conduct that wounded the religious feelings of Muslim complainants, as well as one harassment charge involving a woman identified in court documents as C1.
The court heard that Tan became upset with the woman in September 2025 and devised a plan to provoke mosque staff into contacting and harassing her.
He bought pork, paper and envelopes before sending letters to seven mosques across Singapore. The woman’s personal details were included in the letters.
Prosecutors said Tan knew the inclusion of pork would offend Muslims and intended for mosque representatives to direct their anger towards the woman.
Three mosque recipients later alerted police after receiving the letters, while the woman lodged a separate police report after being contacted by one of the mosques.
Tan was arrested in September 2025 and had remained in remand before sentencing.
In delivering the sentence, the judge said offences targeting places of worship carried wider implications for public order and social cohesion in Singapore’s multi-religious society.
The prosecution argued that deterrence was necessary in cases involving acts capable of inflaming communal tensions.
Singapore maintains strict laws against acts deemed capable of undermining racial or religious harmony, reflecting longstanding government policy that social stability is central to the country’s security and governance.
The city-state has previously prosecuted several cases involving conduct considered offensive to religious communities.
In 2005, two bloggers were jailed under the Sedition Act for posting anti-Malay and anti-Muslim remarks online, in one of Singapore’s earliest high-profile internet hate speech prosecutions.
In 2009, a Christian couple was convicted of distributing religious materials deemed insulting to Islam after leaving tracts critical of the religion in public mailboxes.
Authorities have also acted against foreign religious preachers accused of making divisive remarks. In 2017, Islamic preacher Ismail Menk and Christian preacher Dr Daniel Scot were barred from entering Singapore after authorities said they had made statements viewed as denigrating other faiths.
In more recent years, police investigations have been launched over social media posts and online comments alleged to insult religion or incite hostility between communities.
Singapore’s Maintenance of Religious Harmony Act grants authorities broad powers to intervene against actions seen as promoting enmity, intolerance or hostility between religious groups.
The government has repeatedly said that preserving religious coexistence remains a national priority in the multi-ethnic nation, where Chinese, Malay, Indian and other communities live in proximity and practise different faiths.
Source: asianews.it
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https://www.asianews.it/news-en/Man-gets-15-months-in-prison-for-sending-pork-to-Singapore-mosques-65426.html
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Indonesia Ensures Sufficient Livestock for Eid al-Adha
Zhulfakar
May 13, 2026
Jakarta. Indonesia will have a sufficient supply of livestock for the 2026 Eid al-Adha festival, with the country expected to record a surplus of more than 891,000 animals ahead of one of the largest religious celebrations in the Muslim world.
Eid al-Adha, also known as the “Festival of Sacrifice,” is a major Islamic holiday during which Muslims traditionally slaughter livestock such as cows, goats, sheep, or buffaloes, with the meat distributed to family members and communities in need.
The Agriculture Ministry projected national demand for sacrificial animals this year at around 2.36 million head, up 3.82% from last year. Meanwhile, the total available supply is estimated at 3.25 million animals.
“Nationally, the supply of sacrificial animals is sufficient,” Agung Suganda, director general of livestock and animal health at the agriculture ministry, told reporters in Jakarta on Wednesday.
According to ministry data, the projected supply consists of around 859,000 cattle, nearly 34,000 buffaloes, 1.42 million goats, and about 936,000 sheep.
Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, sees a sharp increase in livestock demand every year ahead of Eid al-Adha, as households, mosques, and organizations purchase animals for religious sacrifice.
Authorities said they are also intensifying health monitoring and veterinary inspections to prevent the spread of infectious animal diseases and zoonotic illnesses.
The government is monitoring livestock transportation routes, animal markets, and slaughterhouses, including conducting ante-mortem and post-mortem inspections to ensure food safety standards are met.
The ministry said it will continue updating livestock supply data across provinces and coordinate animal distribution from surplus-producing regions to areas facing shortages.
Officials are also expanding digital livestock monitoring systems and increasing coordination with local governments and mosque committees ahead of the holiday period.
The government aims to ensure that sacrificial animals distributed during Eid al-Adha remain healthy, halal, safe, and hygienic for consumers.
Source: jakartaglobe.id
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https://jakartaglobe.id/news/indonesia-ensures-sufficient-livestock-for-eid-aladha
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Sultan Ibrahim receives report on mosque projects in Johor Bahru, Kluang, Mersing and Kulai
13 May 2026
JOHOR BAHRU, May 13 — His Majesty Sultan Ibrahim, King of Malaysia, has received a report on the construction of five new mosques in Johor from state mufti Datuk Yahya Ahmad.
According to a post on Sultan Ibrahim Sultan Iskandar’s Facebook page, the construction of the new mosques involves two in Johor Bahru and one each in Kluang, Mersing and Kulai.
“The construction funding comes from the federal government, the Johor state government and public contributions,” the post said.
The audience with His Majesty, who is also the Sultan of Johor, took place at Istana Pasir Pelangi here today.
Also present were Johor Islamic Religious Department director Datuk Nasri Md Ali and Johor Islamic Religious Council chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Radzi Mohd Amin.
According to another post, His Majesty also granted an audience to Johor Menteri Besar Datuk Onn Hafiz Ghazi and State Secretary Datuk Mohammed Ridha Abd Kadir at the same palace.
Also present was state Lands and Mines director Datuk Mohammed Shakib Ali. — Bernama
Source: malaymail.com
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Explosion near Unifil headquarters in Lebanon damages Malaysia House, no casualties reported
13 May 2026
KUALA LUMPUR, May 13 — An explosion believed to involve an unidentified drone occurred near the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil) headquarters in Naqoura yesterday, causing minor damage to a Malaysian military rest facility, the Defence Ministry said.
Defence Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Khaled Nordin, in a statement, said the incident took place at about 5.30pm Malaysian time near the Unifil headquarters perimeter in southern Lebanon.
He said the explosion “is believed to have occurred near the Unifil headquarters perimeter fence and caused minor damage to both the exterior and interior sections of Malaysia House.”
Malaysia House is a rest facility for five Malaysian Armed Forces officers serving as staff officers under the Unifil headquarters in Naqoura.
The facility is located about 24km from Kem Marakah, the main base of the Malaysian Battalion (MALBATT) 850-13 contingent in southern Lebanon.
Earlier, at about 5.19 pm Malaysian time, sirens were activated, and all staff officers were instructed to take shelter in bunkers following a security threat in the operational area.
“The explosion occurred about 20 metres from Malaysia House,” he said, adding that the facility sustained minor damage to both its exterior and interior sections.
No injuries or fatalities were reported involving Malaysian personnel or Unifil staff, as all individuals were inside bunkers when the incident occurred.
Following the blast, the area surrounding Malaysia House was temporarily closed off to allow investigations and security inspections by authorities and related personnel.
Further assessments are being carried out to determine the extent of damage to the building structure and equipment, while repair works will be coordinated through the MALBATT 850-13 contingent.
The ministry, through the Joint Forces Headquarters, said it will continue to closely monitor the security situation in the operational area and work closely with relevant parties to ensure the safety of Malaysian personnel in Lebanon.
Source: malaymail.com
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https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2026/05/13/explosion-near-unifil-headquarters-in-lebanon-damages-malaysia-house-no-casualties-reported/219744
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Singapore committee urges government to attract top AI firms and talent
13 May 2026
SINGAPORE, May 13 — Singapore must take action to attract leading AI firms and also build on its status as a major energy hub, a committee set up to chart new areas of growth and create jobs said in recommendations submitted to the government on Wednesday.
The proposals come as the city-state bets on artificial intelligence to transform its economy and its workforce, and as geopolitic tensions like the Iran war threaten to undermine growth and raise inflation.
Following are some of the recommendations made by the committee:
The committee said Singapore should respond to the difficult global environment by sharpening its value proposition and build agility and adaptability.
Singapore should persuade leading industries to "anchor" in the country, building on its role as a key node in supply chains for industries like semiconductors.
Promising sectors include quantum technologies and space technologies, which leverage existing capabilities in semiconductors, advanced manufacturing, aerospace and satellite systems, the committee said.
Singapore should also aim to be a "trusted hub" where AI is developed, tested and deployed, and could do this by attracting leading AI companies and talent.
Singapore should build on its role as an energy hub and build capabilities in emerging domains such as liquefied natural gas trading, as well as in hydrogen, ammonia, and sustainable aviation fuels.
Deputy Prime Minister Gan Kim Yong delivered a speech addressing the recommendations at a business federation conference on Wednesday.
He said, "In a changed world, Singapore cannot assume that yesterday's strengths will automatically become tomorrow's place." — Reuters
Source: malaymail.com
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https://www.malaymail.com/news/singapore/2026/05/13/singapore-committee-urges-government-to-attract-top-ai-firms-and-talent/219755
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Singapore, Indonesia seek stronger Singapore-Johor-Riau Islands partnership with Malaysia, says foreign minister
12 May 2026
SINGAPORE, May 12 — Singapore and Indonesia are exploring opportunities to strengthen collaboration with Malaysia towards renewing the Singapore-Johor-Riau Islands (SIJORI) partnership.
Singapore Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Vivian Balakrishnan said the renewed partnership could deliver tremendous benefits to all three countries amid ongoing global uncertainties.
“Within our region, we also hope to see more investments in transport connectivity and digital projects, and to also bring to reality the Asean Power Grid,” he said in a joint press conference with Indonesian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sugiono on Tuesday.
Balakrishnan is currently on a three-day working visit to Indonesia from May 11 to 13, 2026, according to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Commenting on geopolitical developments, Balakrishnan said the ability of Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia to maintain the Straits of Malacca and Singapore as an open, safe, and vital waterway served as a positive model for other regions globally.
This happened through the Co-operative Mechanism on Safety of Navigation and Environmental Protection in the Straits of Malacca and Singapore, formulated pursuant to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
“The point here is that the success of Indonesia and the effective cooperation that we have in our region has a major impact on the prospects for Asean but can also serve as a positive example for the rest of the world,” he added.
Meanwhile, Balakrishnan also highlighted that both countries remain among among each other’s biggest trading partners, with Singapore having been Indonesia’s biggest foreign investor for more than a decade.
This reflects Singapore’s confidence in and belief in Indonesia’s long-term economic strength, he said.
“We are also seeing good prospects for further growth, especially in the digital and green economies.
“That is why we are looking for more opportunities to enhance our engagements with the large number of provinces in Indonesia,” he added. — Bernama
Source: malaymail.com
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Malaysia passport jumps to 6th in global ranking, Singapore stays top
13 May 2026
Malaysia shares sixth place with Hungary, Poland and the United Kingdom.
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s passport has climbed to sixth place in the 2026 Henley Passport Index, jumping sharply from 12th last year and reinforcing its standing among the world’s most powerful travel documents.
According to the latest ranking, Malaysian passport holders enjoy visa-free access to 183 destinations. Malaysia shares sixth place with Hungary, Poland and the United Kingdom.
Austria, Greece, Malta and Portugal occupy fifth place, with visa-free access to 184 destinations.
Singapore retained the top spot globally, offering visa-free access to 192 destinations.
At the bottom of the index, Afghanistan remained last, with access to just 23 destinations without a prior visa.
The Henley Passport Index ranks 199 passports based on the number of destinations holders can enter without obtaining a visa in advance.
The index covers 227 travel destinations and is compiled using data from the International Air Transport Association (IATA), supplemented by research from Henley & Partners.
Source: thesun.my
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South Asia
Islamic Emirate Delegation Travels to Russia for Economic Talks
May 13, 2026
KABUL: A delegation of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has traveled to Kazan, Russia, for economic talks, Abdul Latif Nazari, the Deputy Minister of Economy, said in a statement on his X page on Tuesday.
“Ties between Kabul and Moscow have witnessed considerable growth in recent years, particularly in political, economic, trade, and diplomatic sectors,” Nazari said.
According to him, the recent recognition of the Islamic Emirate by Russia has opened a new phase in bilateral relations and created opportunities for broader cooperation between the two sides.
He added that both countries are seeking to strengthen engagement in economic partnerships, regional trade, investment opportunities, and diplomatic interaction.
The delegation’s visit to Kazan is expected to include discussions on economic cooperation, regional connectivity, investment, and the expansion of bilateral relations between Afghanistan and Russia.
Source: thekabultimes.com
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Islamic Emirate Rejects Pakistani Allegations Over Bannu Police Center Attack
May 13, 2026
KABUL: The Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan rejected recent statements by the Pakistani Military Regime’s officials claiming that the attack on a police center in Bannu was organized from Afghanistan, describing the accusations as baseless.
In a statement on Tuesday, Zabihullah Mujahid, the Spokesman of the Islamic Emirate, stressed that regional issues should be resolved through dialogue, mutual respect, and genuine cooperation rather than accusations, threats, and emotional rhetoric.
Mujahid reaffirmed the Islamic Emirate’s position that its territory will not be used against any country and emphasized that no individual or group will be allowed to carry out activities that threaten regional security and stability.
Rejecting the accusations made by Pakistani officials, Mujahid stressed that Afghanistan remains committed to regional peace, stability, and constructive engagement with its neighbors.
He also urged Pakistan to focus on resolving its internal security and domestic challenges instead of blaming Afghanistan for incidents occurring inside Pakistani territory.
The spokesman emphasized that making unsubstantiated accusations would not help improve bilateral relations or contribute to regional stability.
Source: thekabultimes.com
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Road Construction Project to Be Implemented in Daikundi
May 13, 2026
KABUL: The Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation and Development said in a statement on Tuesday that reconstruction work worth 14.6 million has been kicked off on 14 kilometers of rural roads in Nili city, the center of Daikundi Province, and Shahristan district.
“Poor transportation infrastructure has long created difficulties for residents, especially during harsh weather conditions, limiting movement, trade, and access to basic services,” the statement said, noting that the new project is expected to significantly reduce transportation challenges and facilitate easier travel between villages and local markets.
Residents welcomed the initiative and expressed hope that further development projects would continue in the province’s underserved rural areas.
Source: thekabultimes.com
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Public Libraries Expanded Digitalization, Cultural Programs Last Year
May 13, 2026
KABUL: The General Directorate of Public Libraries has made significant achievements over the past solar year, including gaining membership in the digitalization, education, and research committees of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO).
The Ministry of Information and Culture said in a statement on Tuesday that 33 cultural, literary, scientific, and intellectual programs, including study seminars and academic competitions, were organized across several provinces during the year.
According to the statement, the public reading hall and a special children’s section were renovated and equipped with the support of the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA).
The statement added that 18,142 books were provided to readers through the public library lending system, while nearly 60,000 people received services in reading sections nationwide.
Furthermore, 181 books were digitally scanned as part of ongoing modernization efforts, and 327 library membership cards were distributed to residents in Kabul.
Source: thekabultimes.com
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Justice Ministry Publishes New Law on Distribution of Emirate Lands, Construction Permits
May 13, 2026
KABUL: The Ministry of Justice said in a statement that it has published a new law regulating the sale and distribution of Emirate-owned lands and the issuance of construction permits following its endorsement by Shaikh Mullah Hibatullah Akhundzada, the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
According to the statement, the law has been officially published in the government’s Official Gazette and consists of an introduction, four chapters, six sections, and 38 articles.
The ministry stated that the law will be implemented by the Ministry of Urban Development and Housing, municipalities, and the Land Administration Department of the Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock.
The new legislation outlines procedures for determining prices and distributing residential and commercial land plots, issuing ownership deeds, and defining the conditions for reclaiming residential and commercial properties, along with several other regulations related to land management and urban development in Afghanistan.
Source: thekabultimes.com
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Politicisation in hiring hurt DU’s global standing
13 MAY 2026
Prime Minister Tarique Rahman yesterday said Dhaka University’s low standing in international rankings is largely due to politically influenced teacher recruitment, insufficient emphasis on academic performance, and a lack of research.
“Unfortunately, the kind of image we associate with Dhaka University is not reflected in international rankings,” he said, responding to a question from a student during a views-exchange programme at the university’s Muzaffar Ahmed Chowdhury Auditorium.
He added, “One of the key reasons is that teachers were probably not recruited in the way they should have been in the past. From what we have heard and read in newspapers, political bias seems to have received more priority.
“In good universities around the world, from teacher recruitment to becoming a dean or taking charge of different departments, these matters are usually determined through academic performance.”
Dhaka University ranked 584th globally in the QS World University Rankings 2026. It is also placed in the 801-1000 range in the Times Higher Education World University Rankings 2026.
“If we recruit teachers based on merit and academic results, I think this condition can be changed,” he said.
He also referred to the lack of research publications among some academics seeking higher administrative positions at universities and urged DU authorities to address the issue.
The prime minister yesterday visited the campus -- his first trip to the university since taking office -- to inaugurate a workshop titled “Transforming Higher Education in Bangladesh: Roadmap to Sustainable Excellence”, organised by the University Grants Commission at the Nawab Ali Chowdhury Senate Bhaban.
At the views-exchange programme following the inauguration, Tarique responded to several students’ questions on education, employment, corruption, political culture, museums, language, governance, and other issues.
Around 150 students took part in the event.
At the outset, the PM said he felt nostalgic visiting the DU campus after nearly 35 years. He added that there is a significant age gap between him and the younger generation, and that he wants to know what kind of Bangladesh students dream of, what the government can do for the country, and how students themselves can contribute to nation-building.
Tarique sought students’ cooperation in maintaining a stable political situation.
“If we cannot keep the country’s political situation stable, we will not be able to build anything. Even if we do, it will collapse…. We have done a lot of politics on the streets, but there must be stability now. Politics has to move to parliament now. Making noise on the streets will not help build anything.”
The PM urged students to learn a third language alongside Bangla and English to expand their employment opportunities worldwide.
Responding to a question about seat shortages in halls and libraries, unemployment, and irregularities in public recruitment, Tarique said corruption and inflated project costs have become major concerns.
Citing a white paper released during the interim government period, he said nearly $16 billion was siphoned out of the country each year. “If this money had remained in Bangladesh, many student-related issues -- including seat shortages -- could have been resolved.
He also referred to allegations of excessive spending in public projects.
“The burden of this extra expenditure eventually falls on the people,” he said, adding that changing long-standing practices and attitudes would take time and could not be achieved within a few months or years.
Replying to a question about the declining use of Bangla, Tarique said language habits largely depend on family values and mindset, noting that his daughter still speaks Bangla fluently despite spending 17 years abroad.
“Many families in Bangladesh speak English with children attending English-medium schools…. While this may improve language skills, it can weaken their attachment to Bangla and local culture.”
DU Vice-Chancellor Prof ABM Obaidul Islam and Marketing Department Professor Morshed Hasan Khan were present on the stage during the programme.
GOVT TO BOOST INDUSTRY-ACADEMIA TIES
Speaking as the chief guest at the “Transforming Higher Education in Bangladesh: Roadmap to Sustainable Excellence” workshop, Tarique emphasised the need to strengthen research, innovation, and skill-based education to make Bangladesh’s universities globally competitive, reports UNB.
He said Bangladesh must move beyond a memorisation-based, certificate-oriented education system to meet the challenges of the Fourth Industrial Revolution and prepare students for the evolving job market.
The PM highlighted the need for stronger industry-academia cooperation, internships, entrepreneurship development, and technological advancement, while calling for an education system that places greater emphasis on merit, creativity, and knowledge production.
Stressing the need for closer collaboration between universities and industries, he said his government has taken steps to expand apprenticeships, internships, and industry-academia partnerships.
“Initially, universities in divisional cities are being linked with local educational and business institutions under the initiative,” he said, adding that the government has introduced plans for seed funding and innovation grants for innovative business ideas at colleges and universities.
“The aim is to create entrepreneurs from campuses.”
Tarique also said the government plans to establish innovation and entrepreneurship development institutes and science parks at higher educational institutions.
Source: thedailystar.net
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Higher deposits, no posters in local polls
13 MAY 2026
The Election Commission has begun drafting a unified code of conduct for elections to all five local government tiers, with provisions to ban posters and increase security deposits for the polls, likely to be held later this year.
As part of the preparation, the commission is also working to amend relevant laws and regulations, as existing codes of conduct vary across different local government tiers.
An EC meeting is scheduled for today at 10:30am to discuss the proposed reforms, Election Commissioner Abdur Rahmanel Masud told The Daily Star.
“The discussion will focus on what changes are needed in the law and what amendments should be made to election rules and codes of conduct,” he said.
He also said a final draft will be prepared after the meeting and later placed before the full commission for approval.
Masud said several reforms are being considered. “Posters will not be allowed. Online submission of nomination papers will not continue. Independent candidates will no longer need to submit documents showing minimum support.”
He added, “There should be a single code of conduct for all local government tiers.”
The EC is preparing to hold elections to five non-partisan local government bodies -- city corporations, municipalities, district councils, upazila parishads, and union parishads.
Bangladesh currently has 13 city corporations, 500 upazila parishads, 61 district councils, and 4,580 union parishads.
The commission faces a backlog of local government elections, as the tenures of many bodies have already expired. No local government polls have been held in more than two years.
After the fall of the Awami League government in August 2024, the interim government did not arrange any local polls. An ordinance was issued to suspend voting with party symbols.
EC officials said local government laws and regulations will be aligned with the Representation of the People Order (RPO), election rules, and codes of conduct.
The commission is also reviewing proposals to increase security deposits, allow campaigning through billboards, and expand the use of social media for campaigning.
Masud said the EC is considering measures to prevent MPs from influencing upazila parishad elections.
“Since MPs have offices in upazilas, there is always scope for influence. We are thinking of including provisions in the code of conduct so they do not go, or go less often, to upazila parishads during elections,” he said.
On raising security deposits, he said the move aims to discourage non-serious candidates.
“If too many candidates contest, ballot papers become larger, and the costs will rise. Voters may also get confused. We want only genuine candidates to run,” he said.
Under the existing city corporation election laws, mayoral candidates must deposit Tk 20,000 in constituencies with up to five lakh voters. The amount rises to Tk 30,000 for areas with 5.01 lakh to 10 lakh voters, Tk 50,000 for 10 lakh to 20 lakh voters, and Tk 1 lakh for areas with over 20 lakh voters.
For ward councillor posts, the security deposit ranges from Tk 10,000 to Tk 50,000 based on the number of voters. For reserved women’s councillor posts, the security deposit is Tk 10,000.
For the upazila elections in 2024, the EC had raised the chairman’s deposit from Tk 10,000 to Tk 1 lakh. Deposits for candidates in municipality, district council, and union parishad elections vary depending on the number of voters.
EC officials also said the commission is developing election calendar software -- Election Schedule Management Module (EMS) -- to help announce local election schedules on time.
EC’s Deputy Secretary Mohammad Monir Hossain said the software is being updated with information, including the date of the last election and gazette publication, along with ward demarcations and voter list revisions.
Source: thedailystar.net
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