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Selasa, 30 April 2024

Columbia student protesters hunker down as more unrest rocks US campuses - CNA

At Columbia, demonstrators vowed to remain until their demands are met, including that the school divest all financial holdings linked to Israel.

The university has rejected the demand, with president Minouche Shafik saying talks with students had collapsed.

"Students occupying the building face expulsion," Columbia's Office of Public Affairs said in a statement, adding that the protesters were provided "the opportunity to leave peacefully" but instead declined and escalated the situation.

The university outlined in a press update on Tuesday that those in the encampments and Hamilton Hall "number in the dozens", while nearly 37,000 attend Columbia.

On Tuesday evening, police could be seen outside the university, according to footage on CNN.

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2024-04-30 19:36:00Z
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Judge fines Trump US$9000 for gag order violations, threatens jail - CNA

NEW YORK: The judge overseeing Donald Trump's criminal hush money trial fined the former US president US$9,000 for contempt of court on Tuesday (Apr 30) and said he would consider jailing him if he continued to violate a gag order.

In a written order, Justice Juan Merchan said the fine may not be enough to serve as a deterrent for the wealthy businessman-turned-politician and lamented he did not have the authority to impose a higher penalty.

"Defendant is hereby warned that the Court will not tolerate willful violations of its lawful orders and that if necessary and appropriate under the circumstances, it will impose an incarceratory punishment," Merchan wrote.

Merchan had imposed the gag order to prevent Trump from criticizing witnesses and others involved in the case.

The judge fined Trump US$1,000 for each of nine online statements that he said violated his order not to criticize witnesses or other participants in the trial. Prosecutors had flagged 10 posts as possible violations.

The posts, made between Apr 10 and Apr 17, included an article calling his former lawyer Michael Cohen a "serial liar". Cohen is expected to be a prominent witness in the trial.

Another post quoted a Fox News pundit who claimed "undercover liberal activists" were trying to sneak onto the jury. Merchan rejected Trump's argument that he could not be held liable for "reposts" of material he did not write himself.

Merchan will consider whether to impose further penalties for other statements at a hearing on Thursday.

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2024-04-30 14:47:00Z
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Which parts of Asia are suffering from record temperatures and how long will the heat last? - The Straits Times

Asia is warming faster than the global average, according to the World Meteorological Organisation, a UN agency. PHOTO: REUTERS

BANGKOK – Large swaths of Asia are sweltering through a heatwave that has topped temperature records from Myanmar to the Philippines and forced millions of children to stay home from school.

Here are some questions and answers about the extreme heat, which scientists warn will become more frequent and intense because of human-induced climate change.

Where is affected?

The heat has hit much of South Asia and South-east Asia, with record temperatures in Myanmar’s Chauk and the Philippine capital Manila in recent days.

The Thai authorities have issued warnings about “severe conditions”, while the authorities in Cambodia, Myanmar, Vietnam, India and Bangladesh all forecast temperatures above 40 deg C.

The Philippines and Bangladesh have both suspended in-person classes, while India is reviewing whether heat has affected turnout in national elections.

Even northern Japan has been affected: temperatures in Japan’s Sapporo in April passed 25 deg C at the earliest point of any year on record.

What is causing the heat?

The months preceding the region’s monsoon, or rainy season, are usually hot, but temperatures in 2024 are well above average in many countries.

Experts say climate change is causing more frequent heatwaves that are more intense and last longer.

Asia is also warming faster than the global average, according to the World Meteorological Organisation, a UN agency.

And the El Nino weather phenomenon is playing a role in 2024, said Dr Milton Speer, a meteorologist and visiting research fellow at the University of Technology Sydney.

“The lack of cloud in El Nino means that temperatures are likely to be higher on average,” he told AFP.

Sea surface temperatures in the region are currently several degrees Celsius above normal, “which helps keep the temperatures higher than average inland overnight”.

“So daytime temperatures start climbing from a higher base.”

There are other factors at play too, including deforestation that reduces shade and increases dry surface area, and the urban heat island effect, where concrete, glass and steel structures absorb rather than reflect heat.

Who is affected?

Extreme heat disproportionately affects children, the elderly and those living in poverty.

Children, older people and those with pre-existing conditions or disabilities can overheat more quickly.

Those living in poverty also often lack cooling solutions at home or are forced to work in conditions without adequate heat protection.

The UN children’s agency Unicef warned this month that 243 million children across the Pacific and East Asia are at risk from heatwaves.

“Child exposure to heatwaves leads to heat stress,” said health specialist for Unicef’s regional East Asia and Pacific office Salwa Aleryani.

“Severe issues can develop, such as cardiovascular diseases, organ failure, muscle and nerve dysfunction,” she told AFP.

How have countries reacted?

The authorities in several countries asked citizens to stay at home. Hospitals in Nepal were put on standby, while Cambodian officials asked public schools to keep doors and windows open for ventilation.

Measures went further in Bangladesh and the Philippines, with schools closed for days.

But many children will not have cooler conditions at home, warned Ms Aleryani.

They may also be left unsupervised by parents who cannot afford to stay home from work, and risk serious interruptions to their education,

How long will the heat last?

The heat in Bangladesh is not expected to recede until May 2 at the earliest, and in Thailand, forecasters warned that annual rains may arrive in late May, several weeks later than normal.

Dr Speer said the overall warming trend will continue even when the region’s monsoon arrives to lower temperatures.

“Heatwaves will continue to happen more often because the oceans and atmosphere are gradually heating up due to global warming,” he said.

That in turn poses growing risks to crops and livestock, as well as humans whose jobs require them to work outdoors.

Adaptation will be crucial, including offering “sustainable neighbourhood structures with air-conditioning where people could go during the day and sleep at night”, Dr Speer said. AFP

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2024-04-30 08:46:00Z
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'Loneliness seems to hit the hardest': The defectors who struggle with life outside North Korea - CNA

AN ACADEMY JUST FOR DEFECTORS

These knowledge and experience gaps faced by North Koreans led another defector, Ms Nam Yeong Hwa, to run an academy just for them.

Ms Nam arrived in South Korea in 2003. She set up H Nuri Education Centre a decade later to train students in becoming certified accountants, then began taking in only North Koreans, who found it difficult to keep up with regular classes.

She said: “North Korean defectors often submit their resumes to various companies but give up because no matter how many resumes they submit, they can't get interviews or responses.

“As a result, there aren't many defectors who are employed and working. So I thought: ‘This must be what I need to do.’”

Defectors learned the Russian language back home and are not familiar with English, Ms Nam said. This makes learning how to use a computer keyboard difficult, and they end up repeating the same words frequently.

Variations in the Korean language following decades of separation compound the difficulties. They are often confused by “Konglish” – a combination of Korean and English that is commonly used in the South.

Such issues expose defectors to mockery and isolation even after they land a job.

“They often try to leave the company within three to six months,” Ms Nam noted.

“People might think their speech is a bit awkward, and when they ask questions, their colleagues often look at them like: ‘Why don't you even know that?’ It makes them feel like they can't fit in.”

Ms Heo Jin Hwa, a student at H Nuri Education Centre who defected from North Korea 12 years ago, said there was a “huge difference” between the reality of South Korea and what she imagined it to be.

“When North Koreans come here, we are adults, but we are like newborns,” she told CNA.

“If we can't communicate at all, we'll learn everything from the beginning. Lifestyle, culture, things like that.”

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2024-04-30 09:09:00Z
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Hopes rise for possible Gaza truce deal - CNA

JERUSALEM: Hopes rose on Monday (Apr 29) for a long-sought-after truce and hostage release deal after almost seven months of war in Gaza between Palestinian Hamas militants and Israel.

Washington's top diplomat said he was "hopeful" Hamas would accept the offer, which his British counterpart said could see the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

After meeting in Cairo, the Hamas delegation left Egypt and returned to Qatar "to discuss the ideas and the proposal ... and we are keen to respond as quickly as possible", a Hamas source close to the talks told AFP on condition of anonymity.

According to Egyptian sources quoted by Al-Qahera News, a site also linked to Egyptian intelligence services, the Hamas delegation will "return with a written response to the truce proposal".

For months, meditators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to broker a new agreement between the combatants. A one-week truce in November saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Diplomacy in the past few days appeared to suggest a new push to halt the fighting.

The war has brought Gaza to the brink of famine, United Nations and humanitarian aid groups say, while reducing much of the territory to rubble and raising fears of a wider regional conflict.

Salvaging belongings from the remains of a house in Gaza City, a bandage on his head, Ibrahim Juzar said a strike wounded his three girls and wife.

"My wife's chest has been fractured" and she has internal bleeding, he said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a World Economic Forum special meeting in Riyadh that the proposal before Hamas is "extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel".

He urged the Palestinian Militant group to "decide quickly", saying: "I'm hopeful that they will make the right decision."

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2024-04-30 02:09:47Z
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'We want them to be able to live independently': Why a Japanese non-profit is training Rohingya refugees - CNA

TOKYO: Bhasan Char, an island about 60 km from Bangladesh's mainland, is home to 35,000 Rohingyas fleeing persecution and violence in Myanmar.

The Bangladeshi government has been relocating them to the remote, cyclone-hit island from the town of Cox’s Bazar - one of the world’s largest refugee camps - since 2020.

The aim is to accommodate a total of 100,000 refugees in Bhasan Char, and they are getting help from Japanese non-profit group Nippon Foundation to do so.

The organisation will also help the refugees learn new skills. In December, it pledged US$3 million to that end.

Young men will learn to maintain and repair motorcycles, while women will be taught handicrafts and how to use a sewing machine.

After making his first visit to the island this month, Nippon Foundation chairman Yohei Sasakawa announced another US$2 million in funding.

“One day, when they go back to their hometown, we want them to be able to live independently. For that, we want them to acquire skills and to have a dream,” he told CNA.

He added that they will learn how to fish in the sea, how to breed sheep and chickens, and perform marine and modern farming.

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2024-04-30 01:34:28Z
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Senin, 29 April 2024

US, Britain urge Hamas to accept Israeli truce proposal - The Straits Times

Palestinians gather on a beach as they collect aid airdropped by an airplane, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. PHOTO: REUTERS

RIYADH - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on April 29 urged Hamas to swiftly accept an Israeli proposal for a truce in the Gaza war and the release of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian militant group.

Hamas negotiators were expected to meet Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo on April 29 to deliver a response to the phased truce proposal which Israel presented at the weekend.

“Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel,” Blinken said at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

“The only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. They have to decide and they have to decide quickly,” he said. “I’m hopeful that they will make the right decision.”

A source briefed on the talks said Israel’s proposal entailed a deal for the release of fewer than 40 of the roughly 130 hostages believed to be still held in Gaza in exchange for freeing Palestinians jailed in Israel.

A second phase of a truce would consist of a “period of sustained calm” - Israel’s compromise response to a Hamas demand for a permanent ceasefire.

A total of 253 hostages were seized in a Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct 7 in which about 1,200 Israelis were also killed, according to Israeli counts.

A French diplomatic source said there was a convergence on the number of hostages released in return for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, but that obstacles remained on the longer term nature of truce.

“We’re not far off from a deal, but that’s not the first time,” the source said.

Israel retaliated by imposing a total siege on Gaza and mounting an air and ground assault that has killed about 34,500 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

Palestinians are suffering from severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine in a humanitarian crisis brought on by the offensive that has demolished much of the territory.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who was also in Riyadh for the WEF meeting, also described the Israeli proposal as “generous”.

It included a 40-day pause in fighting and the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners as well as Israeli hostages, he told a WEF audience.

“I hope Hamas do take this deal and frankly, all the pressure in the world and all the eyes in the world should be on them today saying ‘take that deal’,” Cameron said.

Cameron is among several foreign ministers in Riyadh, including from the US, France, Jordan and Egypt, as part of a diplomatic push to bring an end to the Gaza war.

Saudi ties

Blinken reiterated that the US, Israel’s main diplomatic supporter and weapons supplier, could not back an Israeli ground assault on Rafah if there was no plan to ensure that civilians would not be harmed.

Blinken met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on, where they discussed the urgent need to reduce tensions in the region, the US Department of State said in a statement.

More than a million displaced Gaza residents are crammed into Rafah, the enclave’s southernmost city, having sought refuge there from Israeli bombardments. Israel says the last Hamas fighters are holed up there and it will open an offensive to root them out soon.

Blinken also said the US and Saudi Arabia had done “intense work together” over the past few months towards a normalisation accord between the kingdom and Israel. That goal has been disrupted by the Gaza war.

“To move forward with normalisation, two things will be required: calm in Gaza and a credible pathway to a Palestinian state,” he said.

In return for normalisation, Arab states are pushing for Israel to accept a pathway to Palestinian statehood on land it captured in the 1967 Middle East war - something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah also said on April 29 that an accord between Washington and Riyadh over normalisation was “very, very close”. REUTERS

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2024-04-29 14:52:05Z
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