Russian navy parade canceled for ‘security reasons’

Updated 2 min 55 sec ago

July 27, 2025 10:09

Russian navy parade canceled for ‘security reasons’

Updated 2 min 55 sec ago

July 27, 2025 10:09

MOSCOW: Russia said on Sunday a major annual navy parade had been canceled for “security reasons,” without specifying the threat or concern.
“It has to do with the general situation. Security reasons are of utmost importance,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, quoted by Russian news agencies.
The parade was meant to be the highlight of Russia’s Navy Day, which falls on the last Sunday of July each year and honors the country’s sailors.
But local authorities in the coastal city of Saint Petersburg, where the warships and submarines were scheduled to pass, said on Friday the parade had been canceled without giving a reason.
Russian President Vladimir Putin — who re-established Navy Day in 2017, nearly four decades after it was canceled in Soviet times — did not show up in person this year for the first time.
Instead, he appeared in a video message hailing the “bravery” and “heroism” of Russia’s sailors participating in the offensive in Ukraine.
Russia, which launched its military operation on Ukraine in February 2022 with daily bombardments of its neighbor, has faced retaliatory Ukrainian drone strikes on its territory in recent months.
The Russian defense ministry said on Sunday that 100 Ukrainian drones were downed overnight.
At least 10 of them were intercepted not far from Saint Petersburg and a woman was wounded, the governor for the northwestern Leningrad region, Aleksandr Drozdenko, said on Telegram.
That drone assault also disrupted operations at Saint Petersburg’s Pulkovo airport, delaying dozens of flights, the facility’s authorities said.

Questions swell in Eswatini over five men deported from US

Updated 1 sec ago

July 27, 2025 09:53

Questions swell in Eswatini over five men deported from US

Updated 1 sec ago

July 27, 2025 09:53

MBABANE: In the small African kingdom of Eswatini, the arrival of five men deported from the United States under Washington’s aggressive anti-immigrant measures has sparked a rare wave of public dissent.
The five, nationals of Vietnam, Laos, Yemen, Cuba and Jamaica, were flown to Eswatini’s administrative capital of Mbabane on July 16 on a US military plane and incarcerated after US authorities labelled them “criminal illegal aliens.”
The US Department of Homeland Security said the men were convicted of violent crimes “so uniquely barbaric that their home countries refused to take them back.”
The government of Eswatini, formerly known as Swaziland, has confirmed their presence.
But spokesman Thabile Mdluli said they would not stay permanently, and “will be repatriated in due course to their different countries.”
That assurance, though, has not quelled a tide of questions and concerns that has risen within the kingdom about the operation.
Civic and rights groups are wondering whether further deportees from the United States will arrive, and what rights the five men detained have.
Public outrage at the lack of transparency led to 150 women protesting outside the US embassy in Mbabane on Friday.
The protest, organized by the Eswatini Women’s Movement, demanded the prisoners be returned to the United States and queried the legal basis Eswatini relied on to accept them.
The five men are being held in the Matsapha Correctional Center, 30 kilometers (20 miles) south of Mbabane.
The facility, notorious for holding political prisoners and overcrowding, has been undergoing renovations and expansions since 2018, reportedly funded by the United States as part of a program covering all 14 of the country’s penal centers.

Sources within the penitentiary administration said the men were being held in solitary confinement in a high-security section of the facility, with their requests to make phone calls being denied.
The sources said the men have access to medical care and the same meals as the thousand other inmates, as well as a toilet, shower and television in their cells.
Prime Minister Russell Dlamini has dismissed calls by lawmakers and from other quarters for the secrecy surrounding the agreement with Washington to be lifted.
“Not every decision or agreement is supposed to be publicly shared,” he said.
Eswatini is the second African country to receive such deportees from the United States, after South Sudan earlier this month accepted eight individuals.
The situation has sparked concerns about the potential implications for Eswatini, a country already grappling with its own challenges under the absolute monarchy of King Mswati III.
The 57-year-old ruler has been criticized for his lavish lifestyle and has faced accusations of human rights violations.
US President Donald Trump has used the threat of high tariffs against other countries, such as Colombia, to coerce them to take in people deported from America.
Eswatini is currently facing a baseline US tariff of 10 percent — less than the 30 percent levelled at neighboring South Africa — which the government has said will negatively impact the economy.
Trump has directed federal agencies to work hard on his campaign promise to expel millions of undocumented migrants from the United States.
His government has turned to so-called third-country deportations in cases where the home nations of some of those targeted for removal refuse to accept them.
Rights experts have warned the US deportations risk breaking international law by sending people to nations where they face the risk of torture, abduction and other abuses.

Landlord imprisoned for decades in hate-crime attack on Palestinian American family has died

Updated 27 July 2025

July 27, 2025 07:27

Landlord imprisoned for decades in hate-crime attack on Palestinian American family has died

He was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges in the death of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of the boy’s mother, Hanan Shaheen
The 73-year-old Czuba targeted them in October 2023 because of their Islamic faith

Updated 27 July 2025

July 27, 2025 07:27

JOLIET: A landlord sentenced to decades in prison after he killed a Palestinian American boy and wounded his mother has died.
Three months ago, Joseph Czuba was sentenced to 53 years behind bars for the attack. He was found guilty in February of murder, attempted murder and hate-crime charges in the death of 6-year-old Wadee Alfayoumi and the wounding of the boy’s mother, Hanan Shaheen.
The 73-year-old Czuba targeted them in October 2023 because of their Islamic faith and as a response to the war between Israel and Hamas, which started days earlier.
Czuba died Thursday in the custody of the Illinois Department of Corrections, according to a statement from the Will County Sheriff’s Office.
Ahmed Rehab, the executive director of Council on American-Islamic Relations’ Chicago office, said in a statement on Saturday that “this depraved killer has died, but the hate is still alive and well.”
Evidence at trial included harrowing testimony from Shaheen and her frantic 911 call, along with bloody crime scene photos and police video. Jurors deliberated less than 90 minutes before handing in a verdict.
The family had been renting rooms in Czuba’s home in Plainfield, about 40 miles (64 kilometers) from Chicago when the attack happened.
Central to prosecutors’ case was harrowing testimony from the boy’s mother, who said Czuba attacked her before moving on to her son, insisting they had to leave because they were Muslim. Prosecutors also played the 911 call and showed police footage. Czuba’s wife, Mary, whom he has since divorced, also testified for the prosecution, saying he had become agitated about the Israel-Hamas war, which had erupted days earlier.
Police said Czuba pulled a knife from a holder on a belt and stabbed the boy 26 times, leaving the knife in the child’s body. Some of the bloody crime scene photos were so explicit that the judge agreed to turn television screens showing them away from the audience, which included Wadee’s relatives.
The attack renewed fears of anti-Muslim discrimination and hit particularly hard in Plainfield and surrounding suburbs, which have a large and established Palestinian community. Wadee’s funeral drew large crowds, and Plainfield officials have dedicated a park playground in his honor.

Philippine troops kill 7 communist rebels in latest flare up of decades-long insurgency

Updated 27 July 2025

July 27, 2025 07:22

Philippine troops kill 7 communist rebels in latest flare up of decades-long insurgency

Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said last week that less than 900 rebels remain, mostly in eastern rural regions, from the estimated 25,000 insurgent force at the peak of the 56 year insurgency

Updated 27 July 2025

July 27, 2025 07:22

MANILA: Philippine troops killed seven communist guerrillas in an offensive Sunday in a central province and were pursuing several others in the latest flare-up of the decades-long insurgency that the military says is on the brink of collapse.
Army forces killed two New People’s Army guerrillas in a clash last week in Masbate province and then caught up with the fleeing insurgents early Sunday in the hinterlands of Uson town, where they killed seven of them in a 30-minute gunbattle, Maj. Frank Roldan of the army’s 9th Infantry Division said.
Seven assault rifles and two grenade launchers were recovered by troops at the scene of the battle. At least eight rebels managed to flee in different directions and were being pursued, Roldan said.
“We’re in the final push,” Roldan told The Associated Press by telephone, saying about 50 armed guerrillas remain in the island province, a poverty-stricken agricultural region of more than 900,000 people.
Armed Forces of the Philippines chief Gen. Romeo Brawner Jr. said last week that less than 900 rebels remain, mostly in eastern rural regions, from the estimated 25,000 insurgent force at the peak of the 56-year insurgency, one of Asia’s longest-running rebellions.
Saddled by battle defeats, surrenders and factionalism, the guerrilla forces “are on the brink of collapse,” said Brig. Gen. Medel Aguilar, deputy commander of the military’s Civil Relations Service.
Peace talks brokered by Norway collapsed under previous President Rodrigo Duterte after both sides accused the other of continuing deadly attacks despite the negotiations.

Topics: Philippines

DR Congo accord with M23: fragile step toward peace

Updated 27 July 2025

AFP

July 27, 2025 05:32

DR Congo accord with M23: fragile step toward peace

Eastern DRC, rich in resources and bordering Rwanda, has been riven by conflict for more than 30 years
The crisis intensified with the 2021 resurgence of the M23 group and came to a head in January and February as the group seized Goma and Bukavu

Updated 27 July 2025

AFP

July 27, 2025 05:32

KINSHASA: A recent ceasefire agreed between the Democratic Republic of Congo and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, set to take effect this week, ranks as a tentative step toward peace in the country’s conflict-wracked east.
Signed on July 19 in Doha, Qatar, the agreement saw the sides commit to a “permanent ceasefire” and “dialogue and negotiation” to facilitate the “voluntary” return of refugees and displaced persons.
But analysts cautioned the peace process in the mineral-rich region remains fragile and lacks sufficient international support.
Thousands of people have died in fighting over the key towns of Goma and Bukavu, with many thousands displaced and facing a serious humanitarian crisis.

Eastern DRC, rich in resources and bordering Rwanda, has been riven by conflict for more than 30 years.
The crisis intensified with the 2021 resurgence of the M23 group and came to a head in January and February as the group seized Goma and Bukavu, setting up parallel administrations in each.
Kinshasa had previously opposed direct dialogue with the M23. Diplomatic attempts to resolve the crisis, including mediation by Angola, failed.
However, the surprise intervention of Qatar succeeded in bringing together Presidents Felix Tshisekedi of the DRC and Paul Kagame of Rwanda in Doha in mid-March.
The pair committed to an immediate and unconditional ceasefire and “that’s when things really got moving,” said a Rwandan diplomatic source.
“This paved the way for negotiations at the technical level with a bilateral track between the DRC and Rwanda, and on the other side an internal track between the DRC and the M23,” the source said.
“Then the United States entered the fray and more or less took over the bilateral aspect.”

Seeking foreign support against M23’s rapid advances, Tshisekedi in early March discussed a mining agreement with the United States.
On June 28, the foreign ministers of the DRC and Rwanda signed a “peace agreement” in Washington.
On July 17, the DRC government signed an agreement with US group Kobold Metals, which committed to investing in the digitization of geological data and the development of a lithium mine in southeast DRC.
The Congolese president then resolved to hold direct talks with M23, having previously refused to do so, leading to the Doha agreement.

The Doha agreement calls for a roadmap for the “full restoration of authority” of the DRC government in the east of the country once a peace agreement is signed.
But a dispute soon arose, when DRC government spokesman Patrick Muyaya spoke of an “immediate withdrawal” of the M23, which has a political arm, the Congo River Alliance (AFC).
“Nowhere has it been mentioned that the AFC/M23 must leave liberated areas,” its spokesman, Lawrence Kanyuka, told AFP.
This verbal escalation “shows that there is the will on both sides to fight,” said Fred Bauma, executive director at the Congolese Ebuteli Institute.
Without outside pressure — particularly from the United States and Qatar, and to a lesser extent the European Union — it will be difficult to end the conflict solely through dialogue, said Bauma.
Reports by UN experts say Rwanda has sent troops to the DRC to support the M23 and has also provided the group with weapons and technology.
Kigali has always rejected those accusations, saying it is simply engaged in “defensive measures” against a Hutu armed group in eastern DRC, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR) — an armed group founded by former Hutu leaders of the 1994 Rwandan genocide of the Tutsi ethnic group.
The agreement has not yet put an end to the violence. Last Thursday saw at least 11 people killed in fighting between M23 and pro-Kinshasa groups, according to local sources. Both sides blamed the other.

Kinshasa and the M23 gave themselves until July 29 to implement the declaration with the deal setting an August 8 deadline for formal negotiations on a comprehensive peace accord, to be signed by August 17.
But analysts see these deadlines as short and it will be tough to meet them in the absence of “sufficiently strong American diplomatic pressure,” says Congolese political analyst Christian Moleka.
He says it could take “six to eight months, or even a year to see the M23 withdraw” completely from areas which it controls.

Topics: DRC

Six killed in stampede at temple in India’s Haridwar, ANI reports

Updated 9 min 56 sec ago

Reuters

July 27, 2025 08:34

Six killed in stampede at temple in India’s Haridwar, ANI reports

The injured have been taken to the local hospital

Updated 9 min 56 sec ago

Reuters

July 27, 2025 08:34

At least six people were killed in a stampede after a large crowd gathered at the Mansa Devi temple in the northern Indian city of Haridwar, ANI reported on Sunday, citing Garhwal Division Commissioner Vinay Shankar Pandey.
The chief minister of India’s northern state of Uttarakhand posted on X that local police and other rescue teams have reached the spot and are engaged in relief and rescue operations.
The injured have been taken to the local hospital, the ANI report added.
India has a history of crowd accidents. At least 30 people died at the Maha Kumbh Hindu festival in January as tens of millions gathered to dip in sacred waters. In June, at least 11 people died in crowd chaos outside an Indian cricket stadium.

Topics: India

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