North Korea mobilises military for flood rescue
North Korea has deployed military helicopters to bring thousands of people stranded in a flood-hit zone to safety. The Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Monday that leader Kim Jong Un “personally guided” a military rescue – comprising 10 helicopters and naval lifeboats – shaking the hands of the pilots “one by one”. However, Kim also reprimanded officials for their failure to prepare and respond to the recent torrential rains despite previous orders to enhance the country’s measures against natural disasters, the state media outlet said. Last week, North Korea conducted a crisis response meeting to discuss strategies to mitigate the impact of natural disasters on agriculture. North Korea has been enduring record-breaking downpours. On one day in July, Kaesong City experienced an unprecedented 463mm (18.2 inches) of rain. South Korea’s meteorological administration said it was the highest volume of rainfall recorded in the North in 29 years. Natural disasters tend to have a greater impact on the isolated and impoverished North due to its weak infrastructure, while deforestation has left the country vulnerable to flooding. It has been working to try to prevent floods. The release of water from a dam near the border recently raised concern in Seoul. South Korea’s Ministry of Environment said in early July that North Korea had likely discharged water from the Hwanggang Dam near the inter-Korean border without prior notification, something they have not done in recent years. Relations between the two Koreas are at one of their lowest points in years. Pyongyang unilaterally cut off all official military and political communication links with Seoul in 2020 and blew up a disused inter-Korean liaison office on its side of the border. It has not been responding to inter-Korean hotline calls since April 2023. Adblock test (Why?)
UK’s finance chief accuses previous gov’t of multibillion-pound ‘cover up’
The United Kingdom’s new chancellor of the exchequer is accusing the previous government of covering up the dire state of the nation’s finances as she prepares to deliver a speech to Parliament that is widely expected to lay the groundwork for spending cuts and higher taxes. In extracts of her speech released late on Sunday, Rachel Reeves professed shock at the scale of the problems she discovered following a department-by-department review of public spending commissioned shortly after she took office three weeks ago. While the excerpts included no figures, Reeves is expected to outline a 20 billion-pound ($26bn) shortfall in public finances. “It is time to level with the public and tell them the truth,’’ Reeves will tell the House of Commons. “The previous government refused to take the difficult decisions. They covered up the true state of the public finances. And then they ran away.’’ Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s left-leaning Labour Party won a landslide election victory earlier this month, ending 14 years of Conservative Party rule. During the campaign, critics accused both parties of a “conspiracy of silence” over the scale of the financial challenges facing the next government. Labour pledged during the campaign that it would not raise taxes on “working people”, saying its policies would deliver faster economic growth and generate the additional revenue needed by the government. The Conservatives, meanwhile, promised further tax cuts in the autumn if they were returned to office. As proof that the previous government was not honest about the challenges facing the UK, Starmer’s office highlighted recent comments from former Treasury chief Jeremy Hunt confirming that he would not have been able to cut taxes this year if the Conservatives had been returned to power. Those comments came in an interview with the BBC in which Hunt also accused Labour of exaggerating the situation to justify raising taxes now that they have won the election. “The reason we’re getting all this spin about this terrible economic inheritance is because Labour wants to raise taxes,” Hunt said on July 21. “If they wanted to raise taxes, all the numbers were crystal clear before the election … They should have levelled with the British public.” The extracts of Reeves’s speech did not mention potential tax increases, though analysts speculate that any such measures will not be introduced until the government unveils its budget later this year. Instead, Reeves focused on efforts to rein in spending, saying a new office will immediately begin identifying “wasteful spending”. She also plans to stop non-essential spending on consultants and sell off surplus property. While Reeves has not yet published the details of her audit, Starmer’s office on Sunday released an overview of what it revealed. Those findings led the government to accuse the Conservatives of making significant funding commitments for this financial year “without knowing where the money would come from”. It argued that the military had been “hollowed out” at a time of increasing global threats and the National Health Service was “broken”, with some 7.6 million people waiting for care. And despite billions spent to house migrants and combat the criminal gangs ferrying migrants across the English Channel on dangerous inflatable boats, the number of people making the crossing is still rising, Starmer’s office said. Some 15,832 people have crossed the Channel on small boats already this year, 9 percent more than during the same period in 2023. “The assessment will show that the UK is broke and broken — revealing the mess that populist politics has made of the economy and public services,” Downing Street said in a statement. The quandary the government finds itself in should be no surprise, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, an independent think tank focused on Britain’s economic policies. At the start of the election campaign, the institute said the UK was in a “parlous fiscal position” and the new government would have to either raise taxes, cut spending or relax the rules on public borrowing. “For a party to enter office and then declare that things are ‘worse than expected’ would be fundamentally dishonest,” the IFS said on May 25. “The next government does not need to enter office to ‘open the books’. Those books are transparently published and available for all to inspect.” Adblock test (Why?)
Shot in the eyes, victims of Bangladesh protest violence face dark future
Dhaka, Bangladesh — Within the sterile walls of the National Institute of Ophthalmology and Hospital (NIOH) in Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka, a sombre scene unfolds. Dozens of young men, their faces etched with worry and uncertainty, sit in silent anticipation. Some shield their injured eyes behind dark sunglasses. Others wear white bandages on one or both eyes. One question hangs in the air: Will these men ever see the world clearly again? They are victims of pellet injuries — both survivors and reminders of the deadly clashes between protesters seeking job quota reforms and the security forces of Bangladesh that engulfed the nation of 170 million people for nearly two weeks this month. Among them is Mohammad Anik, a 24-year-old salesperson from Madaripur – a central district some 150km (93 miles) away from Dhaka. “There is a less than 50 percent chance that he [Anik] will get his eyesight back,” said a duty doctor at NIOH who requested anonymity. “There were several injuries in his two eyes and we had tried our best.” Last Monday, Anik was heading home from work when he got caught in a street clash between protesters and police. Before he could figure out what was happening, a pellet struck his face. He fell to the ground, unconscious and exposed, until bystanders intervened and took him to the hospital. Now, he finds himself amid the dozens of young men at NIOH, their futures shrouded in darkness. Hundreds of patients of pellet guns injury The NIOH has treated nearly 500 patients in the last few days, hailing from various districts including Dhaka, all grappling with severe eye injuries. Hospital records reveal that at least 278 of these individuals also sustained wounds to other parts of their bodies. Mohammad Shamim, a 10-year-old who worked at a motorcycle workshop, sustained pellet injuries to both eyes during a clash between police and protesters last Friday in the Mirpur area of the capital. Doctors have said he will never fully recover his vision. “My son’s future looks grim. What am I going to do with him?” lamented his father, Mohammad Idris. NIOH’s director, Golam Mostafa, confirmed that shotgun pellets used during the anti-quota protests were the primary cause of the injuries. “In cases where the pellet embeds itself in the retina’s centre or is forcefully ejected upon impact, partial blindness becomes the tragic outcome,” he said. Researchers who looked at pellet injuries to protesters in Indian-administered Kashmir have previously found [PDF] that when fired at close range, the pellets lack sufficient time to disperse, resulting in a concentrated cluster that moves at incredibly high speeds. This concentrated force transforms the pellets into projectiles akin to handgun bullets, capable of piercing deep into soft tissues, particularly the eyes, causing extensive and irreversible damage. The devastating impact of pellet guns on eyesight hinges on the velocity and distance at which the pellets are fired, the study explained. The severity of these injuries has prompted international condemnation, with Amnesty International calling for a ban on their use for crowd control in Indian-administered Kashmir a few years ago. Violation of UN-issued guidance The United Nations has warned against using metal pellets, like those expelled from shotguns, in law enforcement, arguing that they are inherently inaccurate and often violate the principles of necessity and proportionality. Bangladeshi police and security forces however have resorted to using 12-gauge pump-action shotguns loaded with cartridges containing these very metal pellets, a number of security analysts told Al Jazeera after analysing several photos and footage. Al Jazeera telephoned and sent text messages to Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan and several top officials from the police forces but received no response. Salim Mahmud, secretary of information and research of the ruling Awami League party, told Al Jazeera that he had to “check with the police and paramilitary forces” whether “any lethal weapon” was used against the protesters. Meanwhile, the US-based Human Rights Watch has accused Bangladesh’s security forces of using excessive force during the protests. Their findings reveal the use of live ammunition, tear gas, stun grenades, rubber bullets, and shotgun pellets to disperse demonstrators. Amnesty International has also raised similar concerns. Those who sustained eye injuries during the recent anti-quota protests, along with their families, claim that the police used indiscriminate force, firing at them without restraint. Rakibul Ahsan from the southern district of Barisal was part of the protests. A fourth-year statistics student at BM College, Ahsan was on the streets with his classmates last Tuesday when he was shot in both eyes. Doctors have not assured him of a full recovery. “We were protesting for a legitimate cause and were shot at for it. There is no justice here,” Ahsan lamented. Sumon Mia, a mason from Madaripur who shared a hospital ward with salesman Anik, was also struck by a pellet in his right eye. But unlike Ahsan, and like Anik, he was not involved in the agitation against the government — he was simply heading home from work. Despite a surgery, doctors couldn’t save that eye — his vision is lost. “My brother wasn’t involved in any protests. Why was he shot? Who will be held accountable for this?” his sister, Lipi Akter, asked. Adblock test (Why?)
CBI files chargesheet against Arvind Kejriwal, others in Excise policy case
Delhi High Court reserved the order on Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s plea challenging his arrest by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) in connection with the Excise policy case.
Delhi IAS Coaching Incident: MCD begins ‘bulldozer action’ to demolish illegal structures of institutes, 5 more arrested
MCD initiated ‘bulldozer action’ to remove illegal encroachments in the Old Rajendra Nagar area, Delhi on Monday.
?Is Vijay Mallya’s ‘Sky Mansion’ in Bengaluru costlier than Mukesh Ambani’s Antilia?
Sprawled over 40,000 sq. ft across two levels with a helipad on the top, the penthouse is surrounded by an open deck that offers a 360-degree viewing platform.
Weather Update: Yellow alert for heavy rain issued for Mumbai, Himachal Pradesh and others; check IMD forecast here
The monsoon is active throughout the country, with some states experiencing more rain than usual while others receive less.
Ghaziabad schools shut for 5 days from today due to…
To ensure the smooth conduct of the Kanwar Yatra, the movement of small and light vehicles has been entirely banned.
Delhi excise policy cases: SC to hear AAP leader Manish Sisodia’s bail pleas today
Supreme Court had on July 16 agreed to hear the pleas and sought responses from CBI and ED.
GOP Senate candidate in PA tours natural gas plant as VP Harris pivots from anti-fracking comments
The shake-up at the top of the ticket made political waves down-ballot when President Biden suspended his re-election campaign and endorsed Vice President Harris to run his office last Sunday. On Friday, U.S. Senate candidate Dave McCormick toured a natural gas plant in Warren, Pennsylvania, to contrast his “all of the above energy” goals with Harris’ resurfaced comments from her 2020 campaign that she would ban fracking. McCormick was quick to pivot to Harris this past week as he vies for Sen. Bob Casey’s seat, considered one of the most likely pickups for Republicans to regain control of the chamber. McCormick released an ad Tuesday clipping Harris’ most liberal comments with Casey’s endorsement, calling Harris “the most liberal presidential nominee in U.S. history.” The McCormick campaign points to Casey endorsing Harris as proof that he is “deeply out of step with the needs of Pennsylvanians.” A 60-second version of the ad will air Monday during the Olympics in the Scranton-Wilkes Barre and Pittsburgh markets. HARRIS’ FAVORABILITY SEES DRAMATIC SPIKE AFTER BIDEN DROPS OUT: POLL Former President Trump and McCormick, who have both committed to unleashing American energy as pillars of their campaigns, latched onto comments made by then-presidential candidate Harris, including at a CNN town hall in 2019: “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” Reacting to Harris’ resurfaced comments at a rally in North Carolina on Wednesday, Trump said, “She wants no fracking.” Harris and her campaign have since walked back those now-viral comments about fracking. “Trump’s false claims about fracking bans are an obvious attempt to distract from his own plans to enrich oil and gas executives at the expense of the middle class,” a spokesperson for the Harris campaign shared in a statement with Fox News. “The Biden-Harris Administration passed the largest ever climate change legislation and under their leadership, America now has the highest ever domestic energy production. This Administration created 300,000 energy jobs, while Trump lost nearly a million and his Project 2025 would undo the enormous progress we’ve made the past four years.” When asked by Fox News about Harris’ comments, McCormick pointed instead to the Biden-Harris administration’s record on energy, painting a conflicting view from the one presented by the Harris campaign. “In this crazy effort to eliminate fossil fuel consumption in our country with all the EPA regulations, the ban on fracking, the LNG pause and killing the Keystone pipeline, the Biden administration has put hundreds of billions of dollars of subsidies to transition to EVs and to solar panels,” McCormick said. “The majority of those solar panels and lithium batteries come from China, so in this crazy strategy of the radical environmental left, we’ve made ourselves more dependent on our greatest adversary. That’s the folly of the Biden administration’s energy policy: bad for security, bad for our economy and bad for the environment. We need pro-energy policies that open up the opportunity here in Pennsylvania.” In a Fox News exclusive, McCormick toured Bull Run Energy in Warren, Pennsylvania, on Friday. Co-founded by Justin Hansen and Sam Harvey, the duo oversees 19 employees, 1,400 oil wells and drill and frack five or six wells a year. Most of the oil they produce becomes products like lipstick and other lubricants and everyday products. “Our company is very small,” Harvey told Fox News Friday. “We have 21 total employees, including myself and Justin. All the shallow conventional operators in northwest Pennsylvania are small businesses, so this is not Big Oil. This is people trying to make a living. It’s a very marginal business. It’s hard to make a living doing this.” Harvey outlined the difficulty of a one-size-fits-all approach to energy regulation, advocating to scale restrictions to the size and operation of an oil or gas business. Under the Biden-Harris administration, he said the top-down approach hasn’t matched the reality on the ground. “Over the past three or four years, we’ve had a lot of regulations that have been rolling down from the federal government,” Harvey said. “They roll down to the state government, and then they’re just now starting to get implemented toward us. What we’re seeing is that a lot of these regulations are designed for Big Oil companies that are drilling unconventional, deep horizontal wells. It doesn’t seem like the folks who wrote the regulations in D.C. have ever come out and visited what these shallow, conventional operations are like. The language doesn’t even fit what we’re doing here.” McCormick told Fox News he visited Bull Run energy to do just that – see how small gas and oil operations are run so he’s equipped to legislate on Pennsylvania’s energy economy. “I want to make sure I understand all the issues associated with our energy economy,” McCormick said. “So that when I’m a senator, I can be a pro-energy senator that does all the things necessary to make sure our energy sector develops.” Earlier this year, McCormick unveiled his “Keystone Agenda,” which includes “unleashing Pennsylvania energy.” The policy platform lays out a plan to remove Biden-era restrictions on gas and oil projects, embrace “all of the above” energy production, and use America’s natural resources to build energy independence and national security. “We’re blessed in Pennsylvania with the fourth-largest natural gas reserves in the world,” McCormick added. “We just can’t get access to them, and we can’t get them into the hands of consumers around the United States and around the world. That’s the key. Pennsylvania’s senator should be fighting for those things. Bob Casey has been weak every step of the way and has been for more regulations and eventually the elimination of fossil fuels. That’s bad for Pennsylvanians and bad for America.” SOME SAN FRANCISCO DEMOCRATS AREN’T SOLD ON KAMALA HARRIS FOR PRESIDENT: ‘MIXED FEELINGS’ In response, the Casey campaign doubled down on the senator’s commitment to “responsible fracking” and his voting record against fracking bans. “David McCormick is grasping at straws because the people of Pennsylvania have figured out what he really is – a Connecticut