Category: International

Iran is approaching weekend talks with the United States over its nuclear programme warily, with little confidence in progress and deep suspicions over US intentions, Iranian officials told Reuters on Tuesday.

The talks were announced on Monday by US President Donald Trump, who has repeatedly threatened Washington’s old foe Iran with military action if it does not agree to a deal since he returned to the White House in January.

Trump has said the talks on Saturday in Oman will be direct but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi repeated on Tuesday Tehran’s position that they should be indirect, citing what he called US pressure and threats.

“Indirect negotiations can guarantee a genuine and effective dialogue,” he told Iranian state news agency IRNA.

Araqchi said the talks would be led by him and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, mediated by Oman’s Foreign Minister Badr al-Busaidi.

A source briefed on US planning for the talks confirmed that Witkoff would lead the US delegation and that the discussions would be broad in the search for a nuclear deal and would not be technical in nature.

“This is still coming together,” the source told Reuters.

Tehran would want to see concrete gestures from the United States before any face-to-face talks between Iranian and US officials, Iranian and regional sources said.

“The Iranians told us that direct talks are possible but there has to be a goodwill gesture. Lift some sanctions or unfreeze some money,” a regional diplomat said.

Russia backs either direct or indirect talks between Iran and the US as a chance to de-escalate tensions, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday, adding: “We know that certain contacts, direct and indirect, are planned in Oman.”

Russia’s lower house of parliament also ratified on Tuesday a 20-year strategic partnership with Iran, a sign of the deepening military ties between the two countries.

Efforts to settle a dispute over Iran’s nuclear programme, which it says is purely for civilian use but which Western countries see as a precursor to an atomic bomb, have ebbed and flowed for more than 20 years without resolution.

Trump tore up a 2015 deal between Iran and six world powers – the US, Russia, China, France, Britain and Germany – during his first term of office in 2017 and talks since then have stalled.

China will firmly implement retaliatory measures to protect its rights and interests if the United States intensifies its tariff actions, the nation’s Ministry of Commerce stated on Tuesday.

A spokesperson for the ministry made these remarks following the US’s warning of a potential 50% tariff increase on Chinese imports, a move that China strongly opposes.

The US so-called “reciprocal tariffs” against China are groundless and a typical practice of unilateral bullying, the spokesperson said.

The spokesperson noted that the countermeasures China has adopted are entirely legitimate actions aimed at protecting its sovereignty, security, and development interests, as well as maintaining a normal international trade order.

The US tariff escalation threat against China compounds its mistake and further exposes its nature of blackmail, which China will never accept, said the spokesperson.

“China will fight till the end if the US side is bent on going down the wrong path,” the spokesperson noted.

China reiterates that there is no winner in a trade war and protectionism leads nowhere, said the spokesperson, adding that pressuring and threatening is not the right way to engage with the country.

China urges the United States to immediately correct its wrongdoings, cancel all unilateral tariff measures against China, stop its economic and trade suppression, and settle differences with China properly through equal-footed dialogue on the basis of mutual respect, the spokesperson said.

This week’s astronomical forecasts released by the Emirates Astronomy Society have anticipated Eid ul Adha, one of the most auspicious festivals in the Islamic calendar, to fall on Friday, June 6.

Moon which marks the beginning of the month of Dhu al Hijjah, the final month in the Islamic lunar calendar, is expected to be visible on May 27. This makes May 28 the first day of the month, reported Gulf News.

Chairman of the Emirates Astronomy Society, Ibrahim Al Jarwan made the announcement.

Moreover, he noted that the crescent will appear at 07:02am UAE time on May 27 and will remain visible for approximately 38 minutes after sunset, allowing for its likely sighting that evening.

If the astronomical forecast hold, the Day of Arafah, a day of fasting and reflection observed on the 9th of Dhu al Hijjah, will fall on Thursday, June 5. This will be then followed by Eid ul Adha on Friday, June 6.

The break for Arafah Day and Eid ul Adha spans from the 9th to the 12th of Dhu al Hijjah (Islamic year 1445 AH) in line with the UAE’s public holiday calendar. This will be equivalent to four days of public holidays.

However, if Eid ul Adha indeed falls on a Friday, UAE residents are expected to enjoy an extended break, with Thursday and Friday declared as official holidays and Saturday and Sunday as part of the regular weekend.

This will result in a four-day weekend across the country.

It is also important to note that as with all Islamic holidays, the exact date of Eid ul Adha is subject to the official moon sighting, which may shift the date by a day.

The start of Dhu al Hijjah would be delayed to May 29 if the crescent is not visible on May 27, making Eid ul Adha fall on Saturday, June 7 instead of Friday.

The public holiday would still span four days — from Saturday through Tuesday in that case too but would not align as neatly with the weekend.

Eid ul Adha, also known as the “Feast of Sacrifice,” commemorates the Qur’anic story of Prophet Ibrahim’s willingness to sacrifice his son in obedience to God, a test of faith that was divinely interrupted and replaced with a ram.

Additionally, the occasion is celebrated with prayers, family gatherings, and charitable acts, including the ritual sacrifice of livestock, with the meat distributed to relatives, friends, and the underprivileged.

TEXAS: Recent reports have revealed a wave of sudden visa cancellations of international students at prestigious universities in the United States, triggering significant anxiety among affected students.

Many of those impacted are Muslim and South Asian, particularly from Pakistan. Institutions like Harvard, Stanford, and the University of Texas in Austin have seen dozens of student visas revoked.

Other major universities, including the University of Michigan and multiple campuses of the University of California, such as Berkeley, San Diego, Irvine, Davis, and UCLA, are also affected.

At UCLA alone, six current students and six recent graduates have had their visas cancelled, while at UC Berkeley, one undergraduate, three graduate students, and two alumni were impacted.

At the University of Michigan, one student whose identity has not been disclosed has already left the country following the visa revocation, with the university pledging full support to ensure their academic progress continues.

The University of California has stated that it is closely monitoring the situation and offering legal and institutional support to those affected.

Harvard confirmed the revocation of visas for three current students and two recent graduates, while Stanford reported similar action against four students and two alumni.

In most cases, neither the universities nor the students were given prior notice, and the cancellations were discovered during routine checks of the Student and Exchange Visitor Information System (SEVIS).

While the US State Department and Department of Homeland Security have not officially commented on these actions, former Secretary of State Marco Rubio claimed that more than 300 international student visas have been cancelled nationwide.

He suggested that many of these students were involved in political activism, particularly pro-Palestinian demonstrations.

At UCLA, Chancellor Julio Frenk assured students that the university stands by its international community, supporting their rights to study, work, and live without fear. He acknowledged that the sudden nature of these cancellations has created immense uncertainty and distress.

Similarly, seven international students at Ohio State University have had their visas revoked, and four students at the University of Michigan were affected, one of whom had to leave the US upon the university’s advice. These revocations are believed to be part of a broader crackdown by the Trump administration targeting politically active international students.

University officials, human rights advocates, and student organisations have raised serious concerns about the lack of due process in these visa cancellations.

In many cases, visas were revoked without formal notification or any legal proceedings, undermining the principles of fair treatment and transparency.

International students, many of whom contribute significantly to academics, research, and campus life, are now facing a heightened sense of vulnerability.

This evolving situation demands that both the US government and academic institutions provide clarity and ensure a fair and transparent process for international students.

The current climate is sending a troubling message to the global academic community: that studying in the United States may no longer be as safe or welcoming, especially for those who choose to express their beliefs or engage in peaceful activism.

South Korea will hold a presidential election on June 3, the country’s acting president said Tuesday, after former leader Yoon Suk Yeol was removed from office over a disastrous declaration of martial law.

The democratic country has been effectively leaderless since December, when ex-president Yoon attempted to subvert civilian rule but was quickly impeached by lawmakers and suspended from office.

The country’s Constitutional Court last week upheld his impeachment, stripping him of the top job and triggering fresh elections, which must be held within 60 days.

The government has set June 3 as polling day, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo said Tuesday, adding that it would be declared a temporary public holiday to facilitate voting.

The date took into account “the need to ensure smooth election operations and allow sufficient time for political parties to prepare”, he said.

Han called on ministries and the National Election Commission to “make thorough preparations to ensure an election that is fairer and more transparent than ever, and one that can earn the trust of the people”.

The winner of the election will be inaugurated the following day, unlike a regular poll, where a president-elect has a two-month transition period.

For the time being, Prime Minister Han is running the government as acting president, a job he resumed recently after the Constitutional Court threw out his impeachment.

The official campaign period will run from May 12 until June 2.

Frontrunner Lee

The opposition leader, Lee Jae-myung, is the frontrunner to clinch the top job, with a 34% support rating, according to the latest Gallup poll.

His party already controls the National Assembly.

Lee narrowly lost to Yoon in the 2022 presidential election but staged a political comeback as leader of the main opposition, despite a career shadowed by legal troubles, including ongoing trials.

Sources told AFP on Tuesday that Lee was preparing to step down from leading the Democratic Party, which would allow him to compete freely for the party’s nomination.

Experts say he is now “highly likely” to win.

“With the election date so soon, it’s hard to expect a presidential candidate from an impeached party to be elected president,” said Lee Jun-han, a politics professor at Incheon National University.

“The current polling shows Lee Jae-myung has high approval ratings, and he is very likely to win it, as it seems he doesn’t have a proper challenger.”

In distinct second place is Labour Minister Kim Moon-soo.

Polling around nine per cent, he leads a pack of challengers from Yoon’s People Power Party, which also includes former party chief Han Dong-hoon.

Millions of Koreans watched the Constitutional Court hand down its verdict live on television last Friday, stripping Yoon of office.

Yoon sent armed soldiers to parliament in a bid to prevent lawmakers from voting down his decree, which the court said amounted to deploying troops for “political purposes”.

He is the second South Korean leader to be impeached by the court after Park Geun-hye in 2017.

South Korea has spent the four months since the martial law declaration without an effective head of state.

The leadership vacuum coincided with a series of crises and headwinds, including an aviation disaster and the deadliest wildfires in the country’s history.

Last week, South Korea was slammed with 26% tariffs on exports to its key ally, the United States, after President Donald Trump unveiled global, so-called reciprocal levies.

Yoon also faces a separate criminal trial on charges of insurrection over the martial law bid.

BEIJING: China has strongly rejected a fresh US threat to impose higher tariffs on its goods, calling the move a serious mistake and warning that it will respond with firm countermeasures as trade tensions between the two sides continue to escalate.

Beijing’s strong response comes as US President Donald Trump threatened fresh levies of 50 percent on imports from the world’s second-largest economy.

“The US threat to escalate tariffs against China is a mistake on top of a mistake, which once again exposes the US’s blackmailing nature,” a ministry spokesperson said.

“China will never accept this,” they added.

“If the US insists on going its own way, China will fight it to the end,” the spokesperson warned.

“If the US escalates its tariff measures, China will resolutely take countermeasures to safeguard its own rights and interests,” they stated.

Trump upended the world economy last week with sweeping tariffs that have raised fears of a global recession and triggered criticism even from within his own Republican Party.

As the trade war escalates, Beijing – Washington’s major economic rival – unveiled its own 34 percent duties on US goods, to come into effect on Thursday.

China’s commerce ministry also on Tuesday reiterated that it sought “dialogue” with the United States, and that there were “no winners in a trade war”.

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations World Food Programme has warned that the United States’ decision to cut emergency food aid to 14 countries could amount to a death sentence for millions of people facing extreme hunger.

The World Food Programme (WFP), which was already grappling with a 40 percent drop in funding for this year, said it had been advised of the new American aid halt to 14 countries.

In comments on X, the agency did not name these countries.

“If implemented, this could amount to a death sentence for millions of people facing extreme hunger and starvation,” the agency said.

The WFP is not the only UN body hit by US funding cuts, as the United States under President Donald Trump turns sharply inward and stops trying to help other countries around the world as part of an isolationist agenda.

The Trump administration told the UN Population Fund, an agency dedicated to promoting sexual and reproductive health, that it was ending two programmes, the organisation told AFP on Monday.

One of the programmes was for Afghanistan, while the other involved Syria.

Other countries besides the United States have also announced funding cuts in recent months, causing alarm among NGOs and international organisations.

The Trump administration has largely gutted USAID, the main US humanitarian assistance organisation. It previously had a yearly budget of $42.8 billion, which was 42 percent of all aid money disbursed around the world.

TOKYO: A medical helicopter crashed into the sea off southwestern Japan killing three of the six people on board, the coast guard said on Monday. 

The medical helicopter took off from Tsushima Island in the Nagasaki region and was headed to a hospital in Fukuoka city on Sunday afternoon. 

The hospital’s head, Ryuji Tominaga, told the reporters that the crash was “utterly heartbreaking” .

A few hours after losing communication, the six passengers were found by a patrol ship along with the helicopter.

A few hours after losing communication, the six passengers were found by a patrol ship along with the helicopter.

The 86-year-old patient, her 68-year-old family member and a 34-year-old doctor were unresponsive and later confirmed dead, the Japan’s coast guard said.

The other three people, found holding on to the helicopter, were conscious, it added.

An official from the helicopter operator said on Monday that the pilot and mechanic on board were both experienced and that the weather did not appear to be a problem for the flight.

The national Maritime Safety Committee will carry out investigations, he added.

According to the Asahi Shimbun daily, a helicopter operated by the same company crashed into farmland in the Fukuoka region, killing two people on board, in July last year.

DUSHANBE: Tajikistan has introduced 10-year prison sentence for those using electricity illegally as a decades-long energy crisis caused by water shortages worsens in the poor Central Asian country.

Tajikistan’s electricity consumption is limited for about six months per year due to its outdated energy infrastructure struggles to keep up with rising demand. 

The country’s energy and water resources ministry on Saturday announced measures to introduce “criminal liability for violations of regulations on the use of electricity”.

In a sign of how tightly the country controls the press and flow of information, it was only reported by independent media outlets on Monday.

Under the new rules, anybody found trying to disconnect or bypass an electricity meter will face up to 10 years in prison.

Ex-Soviet Tajikistan is ruled by President Emomali Rakhmon, a former state farm boss who has held power since 1992.

Justice Minister Rustam Shoemurod said earlier in April that those who alter meter readings or bypass them to avoid payments are “seriously damaging the country’s economic interests”.

A shortage of water needed to fuel hydroelectric plants, which generate about 95% of electricity output in Tajikistan, has led to years of regular power outages.

In March, Rakhmon said he was concerned about the irrational use of electricity in the Central Asian country, where the average salary is below $240.

He is pushing the colossal Rogun hydro power plant as a possible solution to the power crisis.

First envisioned in the 1970s under the Soviet Union, it was hit with setbacks due to the Soviet collapse and Tajik civil war in the 1990s.

Rakhmon’s plan, revived in the 2000s, has been beset by ballooning costs — estimated at more than $6 billion.

The Sahara Desert is one of the driest and most barren regions on Earth, extending across much of North Africa. It spans parts of 11 countries and covers an area roughly the size of China or the United States. But it has not always been so inhospitable.

During a period from about 14,500 to 5,000 years ago, it was a lush green savannah rich in bodies of water and teeming with life. And, according to DNA obtained from the remains of two individuals who lived about 7,000 years ago in what is now Libya, it was home to a mysterious lineage of people isolated from the outside world.

Researchers analysed the first genomes from people who lived in what is called the “Green Sahara.” They obtained DNA from the bones of two females buried at a rock shelter called Takarkori in remote southwestern Libya. They were naturally mummified, representing the oldest-known mummified human remains.

“At the time, Takarkori was a lush savannah with a nearby lake, unlike today’s arid desert landscape,” said archaeogeneticist Johannes Krause of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, one of the authors of the study published this week in the journal Nature.

The genomes reveal that the Takarkori individuals were part of a distinct and previously unidentified human lineage that lived separated from sub-Saharan and Eurasian populations for thousands of years.

“Intriguingly, the Takarkori people show no significant genetic influence from sub-Saharan populations to the south or Near Eastern and prehistoric European groups to the north. This suggests they remained genetically isolated despite practicing animal husbandry — a cultural innovation that originated outside Africa,” Krause said.

Archeological evidence indicates that these people were pastoralists, herding domesticated animals. Artifacts found at the site include tools made of stone, wood and animal bones, pottery, woven baskets and carved figurines.

The ancestry of the two Takarkori individuals was found to have derived from a North African lineage that separated from sub-Saharan populations around 50,000 years ago. That roughly coincides with when other human lineages spread beyond the continent and into the Middle East, Europe and Asia — becoming the ancestors of all people outside Africa.

“The Takarkori lineage likely represents a remnant of the genetic diversity present in northern Africa between 50,000 and 20,000 years ago,” Krause said.

“From 20,000 years ago onward, genetic evidence shows an influx of groups from the Eastern Mediterranean, followed by migrations from Iberia and Sicily around 8,000 years ago. However, for reasons still unknown, the Takarkori lineage persisted in isolation for much longer than expected. Since the Sahara only became habitable about 15,000 years ago, their original homeland remains uncertain,” Krause said.

Their lineage remained isolated throughout most of its existence before the Sahara again became uninhabitable. At the end of a warmer and wetter climate stage called the African Humid Period, the Sahara transformed into the world’s largest hot desert roughly around 3,000 BC.

Members of our species Homo sapiens who spread beyond Africa encountered and interbred with Neanderthal populations already present in parts of Eurasia, leaving a lasting genetic legacy in non-African populations today. But the Green Sahara people carried only trace amounts of Neanderthal DNA, illustrating that they had scant contact with outside populations.

Although the Takarkori population itself disappeared around 5,000 years ago when the African Humid Period ended and the desert returned, traces of their ancestry persist among various North African groups today, Krause said.

“Their genetic legacy offers a new perspective on the region’s deep history,” Krause said.