Belgian police arrest three for plotting drone attack on prime minister
Evidence was found in a building a few hundred metres from Prime Minister Bart De Wever’s Antwerp residence. By News Agencies Published On 10 Oct 202510 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Belgian authorities say they have arrested three people in connection with a plot to attack Prime Minister Bart De Wever and other politicians using drone-mounted explosives. Federal prosecutor Ann Fransen announced the arrests on Thursday and said the group were under investigation for an “attempted terrorist murder and participation in the activities of a terrorist group”, according to Belgian public broadcaster RTBF. Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list “Certain elements indicate that the suspects intended to carry out a jihadist-inspired terrorist attack against political figures,” Fransen told reporters. “There are also indications that the suspects aimed to construct a drone to which a payload could be attached,” she added. Fransen did not name their intended targets, but social media posts from senior figures in De Wever’s government indicate that he was on the list. “The news of a planned attack targeting Prime Minister Bart De Wever is deeply shocking,” wrote Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot in a post on X. “I express my full support to the Prime Minister, his wife, and his family, as well as my gratitude to the security and justice services whose swift action prevented the worst.” Defence Minister Theo Francken shared a similar message on X. “Prime Minister, Bart, all our support for you and your family. Thanks to the security services. Never surrender,” he said. De Wever did not immediately comment on the case. Belgium’s Gazet van Antwerpen newspaper said explosives were found by police in an Antwerp building a few hundred metres from De Wever’s residence. Advertisement Evidence included an improvised explosive device still under construction, a bag of steel balls, and a 3D printer, the newspaper said. Police believe the group were trying to build a drone capable of carrying an explosive payload. Authorities did not release the names of the suspects but said they had been born in 2001, 2002, and 2007. One of the suspects has been released, according to Fransen, and two are due to appear before an investigating judge on Friday. Gazet van Antwerpen said De Wever has been the subject of previous threats. Earlier this year, a Belgian court convicted five people of making preparations to carry out an attack against him. Adblock test (Why?)
Complete list of Nobel Peace Prize winners (1901–2024)
The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize is scheduled to be announced on Friday, October 10, at 11:00 am local time in Oslo, Norway (09:00 GMT). The announcement comes from the Norwegian Nobel Institute on behalf of the all-Norwegian, five-member Nobel Committee, appointed by the Norwegian Parliament and responsible for selecting and presenting the laureates. Nominations for this year’s award closed on January 31, and the selection process remains shrouded in secrecy. A brief history of the Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes are named after Alfred Nobel (1833–1896), a Swedish chemist, engineer and industrialist best known for inventing dynamite, an explosive that transformed the modern world through advances in construction and mining, but which was also responsible for the deaths of tens of thousands of people in wars. Motivated by a desire to shape his legacy, Nobel left a multimillion-dollar fortune to fund annual prizes, awarded to those who “have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind” in the preceding year. A view of a bust of Alfred Nobel in the Nobel Forum in Stockholm, Sweden, on October 6, 2025 [Tom Little / Reuters] The first Nobel Prizes were awarded in 1901 for outstanding achievement in the fields of physics, chemistry, medicine, literature and peace. In 1968, Sweden’s central bank, Sveriges Riksbank, established the Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel, expanding the categories to six. So far this year, four Nobel Prizes have been announced. After the Peace Prize on October 10, the final award for economics will be revealed on October 13. Who can be nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize? The Nobel Peace Prize is meant to recognise individuals and organisations that have made exceptional efforts to promote peace, resolve conflicts and advance human rights. Advertisement The 2025 Nobel Peace Prize has 338 nominees, including 244 individuals and 94 organisations, up from 286 candidates in 2024. Nominations are kept confidential, and committee members are prohibited from discussing their decisions for 50 years. Only the nominators themselves may choose to disclose their submissions. While a person cannot nominate themselves, they may be nominated multiple times by others. This year, United States President Donald Trump has become a focus of Nobel Peace Prize nominations. Trump, who has said, “Everyone says I should get the Nobel Peace Prize,” has received several endorsements: Israel, Cambodia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Pakistan, even as many have questioned his credentials. While many well-known figures have been nominated in the past but never received the Nobel Peace Prize, the names most frequently searched in the Nobel nomination database are Adolf Hitler, Mahatma Gandhi and Joseph Stalin. These individuals represent vastly different legacies: Hitler was nominated in 1939 as a satirical gesture, Gandhi was nominated multiple times between 1937 and 1948 but never awarded, and Stalin was nominated in 1945 and 1948 for his role in ending World War II. Who has received the Nobel Peace Prize? As of 2024, the Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded 105 times to 142 laureates – 111 individuals and 31 organisations. Among the individual recipients, 92 are men and 19 are women. The youngest laureate to date is Malala Yousafzai, who received the award at the age of 17 in 2014, while the oldest is Joseph Rotblat, honoured at 86 for his work against nuclear weapons. The International Committee of the Red Cross holds the record for the most Peace Prizes, having been recognised three times, followed by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), which has won twice. Geographically, Europe accounts for the largest share of laureates at 45 percent, followed by North America (20 percent), Asia (16 percent), Africa (9 percent) and South America (3 percent). In addition, United Nations organisations represent about 7 percent of all Nobel Peace Prize recipients. When was the Peace Prize not awarded? The Nobel Peace Prize has not been awarded every year. It was skipped on 19 occasions, specifically in 1914–1916, 1918, 1923, 1924, 1928, 1932, 1939–1943, 1948, 1955–1956, 1966–1967, and 1972, usually due to war or the absence of a suitable candidate. According to the statutes of the Nobel Foundation, if none of the candidates’ work is deemed significant enough, the prize may be withheld and the prize money carried forward to the next year. If it still cannot be awarded, the amount is transferred to the Foundation’s restricted funds. Advertisement One notable instance came in 1948, the year Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. Gandhi had been nominated several times – in 1937, 1938, 1939, 1947, and again in 1948 – for his nonviolent leadership of India’s freedom movement. In 1948, the Nobel Committee chose not to award the prize, citing “no suitable living candidate”, widely seen as an implicit tribute to him. Has anyone refused the award? The Nobel Peace Prize has only been refused on one occasion. In 1973, Vietnamese politician Le Duc Tho and US Secretary of State Henry Kissinger were awarded the prize for their efforts to end the Vietnam War. Tho declined the award, citing the ongoing conflict in Vietnam. The Vietnam War lasted from the late 1950s to 1975, ending with the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, and killed millions of people. Henry Kissinger, left, President Richard Nixon’s national security adviser, and Le Duc Tho, member of Hanoi’s politburo, are shown outside a suburban house at Gif-sur-Yvette in Paris on June 13, 1973 [Michel Lipchitz/AP Photo] Has the award ever been shared? Yes, very often. Out of the 105 awards presented so far: 71 prizes were given to a single laureate, 31 prizes were shared between two laureates, and 3 prizes were shared among three laureates. According to the Nobel Foundation’s statutes, a prize can be divided equally between two recipients or shared among up to three if their work is considered to merit the award jointly. The prize cannot be divided among more than three people. Who are all the winners of the Nobel Peace Prize? The table below lists all Nobel Peace Prize laureates from 1901 to 2024,
Palestinians in Gaza worry and wait for Israel to implement ceasefire
Deir el-Balah, Gaza – A cautious relief seems to hover over central Gaza’s Deir el-Balah as people stand outside their tents, talking to each other about the ceasefire that is set to come into force after approval by the Israeli cabinet. Some people are celebrating, while others are worrying that this respite will prove brief and incomplete, like past ceasefires that Israel violated. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list This ceasefire has been touted by United States President Donald Trump as a lasting solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict, and Israel has said it will cease bombing Gaza 24 hours after being approved by the Israeli cabinet, which is meeting on Thursday to discuss it. ‘I think he’ll go with it’ Nasser al-Qernawi, 62, sat cradling his radio on the bed in his family’s shelter, patched together from plastic sheeting and a bit of blue tarp. He has listened to it every day for the past two years, and seems almost in awe of the latest news he heard coming through it. “Yesterday the news was tough, in the morning. But now, it’s better,” he said. “I feel it’s closer, but he didn’t say the word ‘peace’, Netanyahu didn’t. The others said the word ‘peace’, but he didn’t. “So we’re still not sure what he’s thinking, but I think he’ll go with it… if Trump comes and he signs it, that’s it.” Many hopes seem to be riding on Trump, either due to confidence in the US president’s diplomatic skills or to a deep distrust in the motivations and actions of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “I have doubts about this, about 90 percent, because Netanyahu is a dirty traitor,” Khamis Othman, who has been displaced from Bureij camp, told Al Jazeera. Advertisement “He just thinks this is a winning card for executing his missions. The [Israelis could] take what is theirs and attack us again.” In January, Hamas had released 33 Israeli and five Thai nationals who were held captive in Gaza as part of a ceasefire deal. However, Israel unilaterally violated the ceasefire in mid-March, resuming its genocidal war on Gaza. “If they truly cared about their captives,” Othman exclaimed, “they wouldn’t have attacked them along with the resistance fighters.” Khamis Othman, 42, in Deir el-Balah, Gaza, on October 9, 2025 [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] Regardless, he seems at least willing to wait and see what happens next: “From what we last heard, they’re saying Friday is when it happens, so hopefully, on Friday, it’ll start.” ‘We can’t go back home’ Ilham al-Zaanin (Umm Mahdi), 60, has been displaced with her five children and 10 grandchildren since the war began, and has mixed feelings about this announcement. On the one hand, she told Al Jazeera, she is filled with relief that the bloodshed may now stop, yet on the other hand, she is mourning the fact that they cannot go back home. Umm Mahdi and her family are from Beit Hanoon in the northernmost governorate of Gaza, a zone that will remain occupied by the Israeli army during the first phase of the ceasefire, so the family will be displaced, and she doesn’t know for how long. “We went back to our house in Beit Hanoon during the [January] truce,” Umm Mahdi said. “Our home was gone, though, everything was gone. So we came back here and are staying with my husband’s family. “Everything is destruction, loss … God compensate and help everyone; everyone has their own affliction … honestly, we’re hurting,” she said sadly. The hurt is afflicting all generations in Gaza, her cousin Itidal al-Zaanin (Umm Mohammad) said, pointing to her grandchildren whose future, she fears, is already lost. “My son’s children, instead of dreaming of what they want to be when they grow up or playing with toys, they’re walking around with knives, carrying heavy water jugs over long distances to sell. “Some days they come and tell me and their mother about the human remains they see flung around after attacks … ‘Grandma we found them in pieces,’ they would tell me,” Umm Mohammad shook her head. “Tomorrow we’ll be shocked by the real numbers of the martyrs and the wounded and the missing, those under the rubble,” Umm Mahdi said. “Over these two years, I’ve seen everything imaginable, everything painful. We saw slaughter, death, trucks full of dead people, animal carts.” Advertisement To trust or to doubt? Everyone who spoke to Al Jazeera expressed happiness and relief that, at the very least, the bloodshed would stop and some people would have an opportunity to return to their homes, or what remains of them. Othman is going to wait and see. “You hear it so often … there’s been an accomplishment, then it fails … optimism is something that sits in the shadows,” he said. Itidal al-Zaanin (Umm Mohammad), in Deir el-Balah on October 9, 2025 [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] Umm Mahdi is also waiting to see: “[Israel] cannot be trusted. You see, in Lebanon, they bomb them every day. We hope that the mediators will intervene to preserve our safety. Even in the best-case scenario, Umm Mohammad isn’t sure anything will be the same again. “My sisters lost their children, and our homes were destroyed. Our lives and our whole future have been lost. There’s no true joy in our hearts, but at least the bloodshed stopped,” she said. “We’ve been begging Arab nations, foreign countries and Muslims who share our faith for two years, but no one cared about us or our children, children who saw bodies torn apart near Al-Aqsa Hospital, and who saw children like them, martyrs.” Al-Qernawi held on to his optimism about as tightly as he held his radio, which has kept him company in more ways than one through two years of genocide. “People come to listen with me sometimes, my daughters, or our neighbours,” he said. “God willing, people will go back to their homes. God willing, the war is over,” al-Qernawi insisted. “The
US federal court to weigh Trump’s deployment of National Guard to Chicago
National Guard troops have already arrived in the Chicago area, as President Trump condemns the city as a ‘hellhole’. United States President Donald Trump’s deployment of the National Guard in Illinois is slated to face legal scrutiny at a pivotal court hearing. On Thursday, US District Judge April Perry will hear arguments over a request to block the deployment of Illinois and Texas Guard members, a day after a small number of troops began protecting federal property in the Chicago area. Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list Illinois Governor JB Pritzker and local officials strongly oppose the use of the Guard. An “element” of the 200 Texas Guard troops that were sent to Illinois started working in the Chicago area on Wednesday, according to a US Northern Command spokesperson, who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity to discuss operational details not made public. The spokesperson did not say where specifically the troops were sent. The troops, along with about 300 from Illinois, arrived this week at a US Army Reserve Center in Elwood, southwest of Chicago. All 500 troops are under the Northern Command and have been activated for 60 days. The Guard members are in the city to protect US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) buildings and other federal facilities and law enforcement personnel, according to Northern Command. Chicago and Illinois on Monday filed a lawsuit to stop the deployments, calling them unnecessary and illegal. Trump, meanwhile, has portrayed Chicago as a lawless “hellhole” of crime, though statistics show a significant recent drop in crime. In a court filing in the lawsuit, the city and state say protests at a temporary ICE detention facility in the Chicago suburb of Broadview have “never come close to stopping federal immigration enforcement”. Advertisement “The President is using the Broadview protests as a pretext,” they wrote. “The impending federal troop deployment in Illinois is the latest episode in a broader campaign by the President’s administration to target jurisdictions the President dislikes.” The Republican president said Wednesday that Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson and Governor Pritzker, both Democrats, should be jailed for failing to protect federal agents during immigration enforcement crackdowns. Also Thursday, a panel of judges in the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals was scheduled to hear arguments over whether Trump had the authority to take control of 200 Oregon National Guard troops. The president had planned to deploy them in Portland, where there have been mostly small nightly protests outside an ICE building. State and city leaders insist troops are neither wanted nor needed there. US District Judge Karin J Immergut on Sunday granted Oregon and California a temporary restraining order blocking the deployment of Guard troops to Portland. Trump had mobilised California troops for Portland just hours after Immergut first blocked him from using Oregon’s Guard. The administration has yet to appeal that order to the 9th Circuit. Immergut, whom Trump appointed during his first term, rejected the president’s assertions that troops were needed to protect Portland and immigration facilities, saying “it had been months since there was any sustained level of violent or disruptive protest activity in the city”. The nearly 150-year-old Posse Comitatus Act limits the military’s role in enforcing domestic laws. However, Trump has said he would be willing to invoke the Insurrection Act, which allows a president to dispatch active duty military in states that are unable to put down an insurrection or are defying federal law. Trump previously sent troops to Los Angeles and Washington, and a small number this week began assisting law enforcement in Memphis, Tennessee. Those troops are part of the Memphis Safe Task Force, a collection of about a dozen federal law enforcement agencies ordered by Trump to fight crime in the city. In contrast to others, Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee supports using the Guard. Adblock test (Why?)
Thousands rally for Gaza in Islamabad after ceasefire agreement
NewsFeed Thousands of students rallied in Pakistan’s capital, Islamabad, after a Gaza ceasefire deal was announced, expressing solidarity with Palestinians and urging action to support those affected by the war. Published On 9 Oct 20259 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
France’s Macron to appoint new prime minister within 48 hours
The announcement came after last-ditch talks by outgoing premier Sebastien Lecornu failed to find a solution to crisis. French President Emmanuel Macron will name a new prime minister within the next 48 hours, his office has said, in the latest effort to chart a path out of the worst political crisis of his presidency. The announcement on Wednesday followed two days of last-ditch talks with party leaders by outgoing Prime Minister Sebastien Lecornu in a bid to break the country’s political deadlock, after his cabinet lineup, unveiled on Sunday, was rejected by allies and rivals alike. The Elysee presidential office said in a statement that Lecornu’s discussions with various parties had concluded that a majority of lawmakers were not in favour of parliament being dissolved for early elections, and that there was “a platform for stability” that could make it possible for a budget to be passed by the year’s end. “On this basis, the President of the Republic will appoint a Prime Minister within the next 48 hours,” said the statement. Macron thanked Lecornu for his work since Monday to resolve the crisis, the office said. Ahead of the announcement, it had been unclear whether Macron would opt to reappoint Lecornu or name a replacement, call snap elections or even resign himself. Escalating crisis In September, Macron tasked Lecornu – the fifth prime minister he has installed in less than two years – with forming a government after the divided French parliament toppled his predecessor, Francois Bayrou, over a much-maligned austerity budget intended to tackle a debt crisis. But despite Lecornu’s promises of a departure from Bayrou’s approach, his cabinet, unveiled on Sunday evening, immediately drew fierce criticism from both the right and left for containing many of the same faces from the previous administration. Advertisement Lecornu resigned the following day, making his 14-hour administration the shortest in modern French history, but then added to the confusion when he announced he would hold 48 hours of talks at Macron’s request to try to agree on a new cabinet. The move prompted renewed criticism of the increasingly isolated Macron, including from former premier Edouard Philippe, once a close ally of the president, who was one of many calling for presidential elections to resolve the crisis. ‘I tried everything’ Speaking to French TV earlier Wednesday, Lecornu said he had told Macron that the prospects of snap elections had diminished as there was a majority in the lower house opposed to the dissolution of parliament. “I tried everything,” he said of his efforts to find a deal to end the crisis. “This evening, my mission is finished.” He suggested that a more technocratic and less political administration could follow, saying that any new cabinet appointments should not harbour ambitions to stand in the next presidential elections. He also pushed back against calls for snap presidential polls ahead of the scheduled 2027 elections, saying it was “not the time to change the president”. “Let’s not make the French believe that it’s the president who votes the budget,” he said. The French parliament has been sharply divided since Macron, in response to surging gains by the far right, announced snap elections last year, resulting in a hung parliament. With no governing majority, the parliament has been unable to approve a crucial budget to tackle France’s growing debt crisis. Meanwhile, proposed spending cuts have prompted nationwide protests, while opposition parties – who are calling for early elections and are pledging to block any new cabinet – have seized momentum. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,323
Here are the key events from day 1,323 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Published On 9 Oct 20259 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Here is how things stand on Thursday, October 9, 2025: Fighting Three people were killed and one injured by Ukrainian shelling in Russia’s Belgorod region, the local governor said. The Russian Ministry of Defence said its forces had taken control of the settlement of Novohryhorivka in Ukraine’s Zaporizhia region. Russia’s air defence units destroyed 53 Ukrainian drones overnight, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported, citing Russian Defence Ministry data. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address that his country’s forces had killed thousands of Russian soldiers in the Dobropillia region of eastern Ukraine since August 21, when they launched a counteroffensive against Moscow’s occupying troops. Zelenskyy said this information was based on a report he had received from the Ukrainian army’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskii. Zelenskyy also said Ukraine’s attacks on Russia’s oil facilities had degraded them to an extent that the country was experiencing energy shortages. Russia, he claimed, had been forced to turn to its diesel reserves, which it had been saving for “a rainy day”. Ukrainian soldiers ride a military vehicle with Russian POWs in the truck bed, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, near the Russian border in the Sumy region, Ukraine, August 13, 2024 [Viacheslav Ratynskyi/Reuters] Regional security European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said recent drone incidents and other airspace violations show Europe is facing hybrid warfare to which it must respond with measures that go beyond traditional defences, speaking at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. Von der Leyen said it was clear Russia’s aim was to “sow division” and “weaken support for Ukraine”, and that Europe could “either shy away and watch Russian threats escalate, or meet them with unity, deterrence and resolve”. Russian President Vladimir Putin, however, has denied that Moscow was behind the recent drone incursions into the airspaces of multiple European nations. Advertisement Military aid Russia will respond harshly if the United States supplies Ukraine with Tomahawk missiles, Andrei Kartapolov, head of the Russian parliament’s defence committee, said, emphasising that “those who supply them and those who use them will have problems”. Diplomacy Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Ryabkov said the impetus to find a Ukrainian peace deal, which emerged after the summit between President Putin and US President Donald Trump in August, had proven to be exhausted. Ryabkov urged US leadership to take a “sober and responsible approach” to a possible transfer of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, saying such transactions could lead to a “qualitative change” in the situation. Adblock test (Why?)
LIVE: Trump says Israel, Hamas agree on ‘first phase’ of Gaza ceasefire
blinking-dotLive updatesLive updates, Gaza ceasefire breakthrough announced on third day of talks in Egypt’s Sharm el-Sheikh on US President Donald Trump’s 20-point peace proposal. Published On 9 Oct 20259 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,322
Here are the key events from day 1,322 of Russia’s war on Ukraine. Published On 8 Oct 20258 Oct 2025 Click here to share on social media share2 Share Here is how things stand on Wednesday, October 8, 2025: Fighting Russian President Vladimir Putin said his forces have captured almost 5,000 square kilometres (1,930sq miles) of Ukrainian territory so far this year, and Moscow retains the strategic initiative on the battlefield. Russian troops have captured the Ukrainian villages of Novovasylivka in the southeastern Zaporizhia region and Fedorivka in the eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s defence ministry said. Russian air defence units destroyed 184 Ukrainian drones in recent attacks, the RIA Novosti state-owned news agency reports. Russia’s air defence units also intercepted and destroyed a drone flying towards Moscow city, said Sergei Sobyanin, mayor of the Russian capital. Russia’s President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, right, as Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, centre, stands nearby during a visit to the Peter and Paul Cathedral in Saint Petersburg on October 7, 2025 [Mikhail Metzel/AFP] Ukraine’s Energy Minister Svitlana Hrynchuk said Russian air strikes have caused “significant” damage to Ukrainian gas production capacity due to the targeting of regional gas infrastructure and power transmission facilities in front-line regions. Hrynchuk said Ukraine wants to increase imports of natural gas by 30 percent after Russian attacks on its gas infrastructure, telling reporters she had discussed additional gas imports with Group of Seven (G7) member states. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of using oil tankers for intelligence gathering and sabotage operations, and he added that Ukraine was cooperating with its allies on the matter. Russia’s state nuclear energy company has claimed that a Ukrainian drone attempted to strike a nuclear plant in Russia’s Voronezh region bordering Ukraine, but the unmanned aerial vehicle crashed into a cooling tower and caused no damage at the site. Advertisement Military aid Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said Russia was waiting for clarity from the United States about the possible supply of Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine, saying such weapons could theoretically carry nuclear warheads and reiterated that Moscow would see the provision of such weapons as a serious escalation. The Kremlin also said it assumed for now that US President Donald Trump still sought a peace settlement in Ukraine. Peace talks Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke by phone with President Putin and said diplomatic initiatives need to gain momentum to achieve a just and lasting peace in the Russia-Ukraine war, Erdogan’s office said. The statement cited Erdogan as saying Turkiye will continue to work for peace and said bilateral relations and regional and global issues were also discussed with Putin. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni said she believed Trump had come to the conclusion that Russia was not interested in a peace deal with Ukraine, and that the only way forward was to apply pressure, continue to support Ukraine, and impose sanctions on Russia. Politics and diplomacy Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said it is not in Poland’s interest to hand over a Ukrainian man wanted by Germany for suspected involvement in explosions which damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines three years ago. Tusk said the problem with Nord Stream 2 was not that it was blown up but that it was built. He added that Russia built the pipelines “against the vital interests not only of our countries, but of all of Europe”. A Polish court ruled on Monday that the Ukrainian diver wanted by Germany over his alleged involvement in the explosions, which damaged the Nord Stream gas pipeline, must remain in custody for another 40 days, his lawyer said. European Union governments have agreed to impose limits on the travel of Russian diplomats within the bloc, the Financial Times reported. Economy Ukraine’s foreign currency reserves totalled $46.5bn as of October 1, the National Bank of Ukraine reported on its website. Adblock test (Why?)
Muslims in India’s poll-bound Bihar battle ‘Bangladeshi infiltrator’ tag
Kishanganj/Katihar, India – More than a decade ago, when Mukhtar Alam* studied at a government school in Kishanganj, the only Muslim-majority district in eastern India’s Bihar state, he had Hindu friends. Alam was especially close to one of them. The two would do their studies and school projects together. Alam would avoid meat when they ate together so as not to make his vegetarian friend uncomfortable. But an incident two years ago created a rift in their friendship, which has not been bridged since. Addressing a rally in Kishanganj, Jitanram Manjhi, a former chief minister of Bihar and a prominent ally of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), said the Shershahbadi community of Muslims were “infiltrators” from Bangladesh, India’s neighbour in the east, where more than 91 percent of the population is Muslim and mainly speaks Bangla. The term Shershahbadi is derived from the historical Shershahbad region, which includes areas in the neighbouring West Bengal state. The name Shershahbad, in turn, is believed to be derived from Sher Shah Suri, an Afghan king who defeated the mighty Mughals and briefly ruled over the modern regions of Bihar and Bengal (including Bangladesh) in the 16th century. Shershahbadi Muslims hold placards that read ‘Long live Shershahbadi unity’ and ‘Hindus-Muslims are brothers’ at a rally in Kishanganj, Bihar [Shah Faisal/Al Jazeera] Unlike Hindi and its dialects, as well as Urdu, spoken widely across Bihar, the Shershahbadi Muslims speak a dialect of Bangla mixed with Urdu and Hindi words. They are often referred to as “Badia” (a likely short form of Shershahbadi) or “Bhatia”, which derives its origin from the local dialect “Bhato”, meaning going against the river’s stream, since the Shershahbadi Muslims are said to have migrated upstream of the Ganges River from Malda to Murshidabad in West Bengal state, and finally to the Seemanchal region in Bihar, India’s most impoverished state. Advertisement “We felt threatened [by Manjhi’s speech],” Alam, a Shershahbadi Muslim and graduate in business administration, told Al Jazeera. Refusing to stay silent, he posted his condemnation on Facebook. Within minutes, a comment in Hindi popped up under his post: “You people are Bangladeshi infiltrators.” It was his best friend. “Reading that comment sent a shiver down my spine,” recalled the 30-year-old Alam, sitting under the thatched roof of a primary school he runs. “The comment created a rift between us. We developed trust issues and lost our brotherhood, our friendship.” Alam is one of 1.3 million Shershahbadi Muslims in Bihar, according to a “caste census” published by the state government in 2023, and most of them live in Kishanganj and Katihar districts. As Bihar, India’s third-most populous state, heads towards crucial elections to its legislature that could impact national politics, it is these districts that have emerged as the focus of a high-pitched BJP campaign against supposed “Bangladeshi infiltrators”. Why Shershahbadi Muslims? As India celebrated its Independence Day on August 15 last month, Prime Minister Modi addressed the nation from the ramparts of the Mughal-era Red Fort in New Delhi, in which he announced the formation of a “high-powered demography mission” to find the infiltrators. “No country can hand itself over to infiltrators. No nation in the world does so – how then can we allow India to do so?” Modi said, without specifying who those infiltrators were. He added that through the mission, “the severe crisis now looming” over the country will be addressed in a “deliberate and time-bound manner”. His government has not yet provided details on the workings of the mission. Hindu right-wing groups in India often use the term “Bangladeshi infiltrator” to target Bangla-speaking Muslims mainly in the states of Bihar, West Bengal and Assam. In Assam, where Modi’s BJP has been in power since 2016, the state government has been running a campaign against Bangla-speaking Muslims, labelling them “outsiders” and accusing them of trying to alter the regional demography. Nearly a third of Assam’s population is Muslim – the highest among Indian states. Only the federally run territories of Indian-administered Kashmir in the north and the Lakshadweep islands in the Arabian Sea have a higher Muslim percentage than Assam. In Bihar, the Muslim population stands at 17 million, or nearly 17 percent of its total population of 104 million, according to India’s last census conducted in 2011. About 28.3 percent of those Muslims are concentrated in what is commonly referred to as Seemanchal (“frontier region” in Hindi), comprising Kishanganj, Katihar, Araria and Purnia districts. Katihar, Kishanganj and Purnia share their borders with West Bengal state, while the Bangladesh border is just a few kilometres from Seemanchal. Bihar will hold its state assembly election in two phases on November 6 and November 11, with the results to be announced on November 14. Advertisement The BJP has never formed a government on its own in the key northern state, ruling it for a good part of the past 20 years in coalition with a regional ally. Critics accuse it of now using the “Bangladeshi infiltrator” pitch in Seemanchal to polarise the region’s voters on religious and linguistic lines. In the last two years, Alam says his worries have increased manifold as Modi himself leads the BJP’s charge against his community. “Those indulging in vote bank politics have turned Purnia and Seemanchal into a hub of illegal infiltration, putting the security of this area at risk,” Modi had said last year while campaigning in Purnia for the general elections. He repeated his stance in the BJP’s election rallies in several districts of Bihar this year. “Today, a huge demographic crisis has happened in Seemanchal and across eastern India because of infiltrators,” Modi said in Purnia last week, promising to “throw every single infiltrator out”. That drive is already under way in other parts of India. ‘Demons have come from Bangladesh’ Authorities in several BJP-ruled states have been cracking down on allegedly “illegal” Bangladeshi nationals, with hundreds of Bengali-speaking people deported from Assam, Gujarat, Maharashtra and New Delhi – despite most of them holding valid documents