WASHINGTON, Aug 11 — President Donald Trump yesterday again extended a waiver that allows foreign ships to carry oil and other commodities between US ports, as the war on Iran continues to disrupt energy flows and elevate costs.

The 90-day extension of relief from the Jones Act — which requires cargo between US ports to move on US vessels — comes shortly before an earlier waiver was due to expire in mid-August.

But the scope covered is narrower this time, focusing more on the transport of energy, a White House official confirmed yesterday.

“Today, the Trump Administration issued a 90-day extension to the Jones Act waiver to ensure our military and key industries maintain uninterrupted access to critical resources,” said White House spokeswoman Taylor Rogers.

“Data shows the waiver has driven a significant increase in domestic deliveries of essential products such as gasoline, diesel, and jet fuel,” she added.

The relief this time also calls for reviews on the availability of US vessels before determining if the waiver applies to individual voyages.

The Cato Institute’s Colin Grabow and Scott Lincicome estimate that more than 54 million barrels of energy products have moved between US ports on over 200 voyages since March, when an earlier waiver was introduced.

“The waiver has unleashed domestic commerce that the Jones Act previously prevented,” Grabow and Lincicome said.

“In most cases, these voyages took place on vessels with no connection to US adversaries like China and supplied American companies with American energy products that would’ve otherwise been imported at a much higher cost,” they added.

Oil prices have surged after US and Israeli strikes targeting Iran from late February sparked a war that has since engulfed the Middle East.

Tehran retaliated by virtually closing off the Strait of Hormuz, a critical waterway for global energy transit.

Gasoline prices in the United States have since jumped, straining household budgets as the key midterm elections draw close.

Under the 1920 Jones Act, cargo moved by water between US ports has to be transported on vessels that are US-built, US-owned and registered under the US flag. The aim was to promote American shipbuilding.

The Trump administration in March granted a 60-day waiver to temporarily lift this requirement, and extended relief in late April as economic fallout from the conflict persisted.

For now, negotiations on ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz have stalled. — AFP

MOSCOW, Aug 11 — Russia’s Supreme Court yesterday barred the country’s only anti-war party, Yabloko, from contesting September’s parliamentary elections.

The court thereby upheld a suit brought by a pro-Kremlin nationalist party, stripping voters opposed to the four-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine of their last option on the ballot.

“The claims seeking to annul the registration of the federal list of candidates for the State Duma of the ninth convocation, nominated by the Yabloko political party, were granted,” judge Vyacheslav Kirillov said.

With most of President Vladimir Putin’s opponents jailed, exiled or dead, Yabloko is the only liberal party still operating in Russia.

The party has received the backing of several exiled opposition figures, including Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny. Both are listed as “extremists” in Russia.

‘Stop deaths’ 

About a hundred supporters, mostly young people, gathered outside the courthouse, chanting “Shame! Shame!” after the ruling was delivered.

Addressing them after the hearing, Yabloko leader Nikolay Rybakov said the party would appeal the decision.

“We have a long way ahead and we have a big and important task: to stop deaths and bring the peace back,” he said.

“Everything we do should be dedicated to that,” Rybakov added.

Yabloko supporter Yevgenia, 22, told AFP before the decision that she would vote for the party to show the government that “we are not satisfied with the current state of affairs in the world”.

“We would really like to reach some kind of peaceful agreement so that this special military operation can finally come to an end,” she added, using Russia’s official term for the offensive.

With Ukrainian retaliatory strikes on refineries and e-commerce warehouses disrupting ordinary Russian life ever more, Yabloko is seeking to capitalise on its peace agenda, particularly among young voters.

It is also seeking to tap into widespread anger at internet shutdowns introduced by authorities to counter Ukrainian drone attacks.

Party under pressure 

In recent years, Yabloko’s members have come under increasing scrutiny for their opposition to the fighting. In an interview with AFP over the weekend, Rybakov said around 40 party activists were facing prosecution.

The party’s deputy leader Maxim Kruglov was jailed for seven years in June over social media posts he made critical of the conflict, while authorities arrested the head of the party’s Pskov branch — Lev Shlosberg — last year.

Rybakov was himself fined in December for publishing a photo of Navalny on social media — an act that has barred him from running in the September vote.

A poll conducted earlier this year showed Yabloko (“apple” in Russian) at just three percent support — short of the five-percent threshold needed to enter Russia’s lower house.

Founded in 1993 by a group of pro-Western public officials, Yabloko enjoyed relative success in the years following the post-Soviet collapse.

Since 2003, however, it has failed to win seats in the State Duma as the Kremlin tightened its control over elections, with the pro-Putin United Russia party winning every parliamentary vote since.

Efforts to end the Ukraine war through diplomacy have so far failed, with Putin pushing hardline territorial demands to end the fighting and ruling out talks with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Independent polls show most Russians favour peace negotiations with Kyiv. — AFP

NEW YORK, Aug 11 — A US judge threw out a case against Indian billionaire industrialist Gautam Adani yesterday after the Trump administration decided to drop the fraud and bribery allegations against him.

Court filings showed Brooklyn federal judge Nicholas Garaufis formally rubber-stamped a May request by prosecutors to throw out the 2024 allegations that Adani participated in a US$265 million (RM1.08 billion) scheme to bribe Indian officials for lucrative solar energy supply contracts.

US media had reported that Adani’s attorney Robert Giuffra, who is also Donald Trump’s personal lawyer, told Justice Department officials in April that if charges were dropped, the magnate would be willing to invest US$10 billion in the American economy.

The judge in the case had previously asked if the reported investment pledge was a factor in the US government’s decision to drop the case, a rare move in the federal legal system, but ultimately concluded it was not part of prosecutorial decision-making.

Garaufis was, however, scornful of the way in which Trump-appointed Deputy Associate Attorney General Trent McCotter went about having the case dismissed.

“The fact that McCotter came to this decision largely in collaboration with defence counsel, and seemingly without input from the FBI and SEC agents who investigated the alleged misconduct, or (prosecutors) who brought the case, appears to be highly unusual,” he wrote.

The Adani Group is one of India’s largest business empires, operating businesses ranging from ports and power plants to cement factories and media houses.

Adani, one of India’s richest men and a vocal backer of Trump on social media, has been rocked in recent years by corporate fraud allegations and a stock crash.

Adani is a close ally of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and hails from the leader’s home state of Gujarat.

“I welcome the US court’s decision with humility and deep respect for the judicial process,” Adani wrote on social media.

“Throughout this challenging period, our faith in truth, fairness and the rule of law remained unwavering.” — AFP

WASHINGTON, Aug 11 —  US President Donald Trump signed an executive order yesterday pushing for a rethink of school vaccine mandates and repeating calls for the measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR) vaccine to be separated into three individual shots.

Many medical experts cast the push as scientifically baseless and potentially damaging to public health.

Curbing vaccines has been a key priority for Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr, who founded an anti-vaccine nonprofit and has long promoted a disproven link between immunization and autism.

The federal government does not have direct control over several areas covered by the order. States, for example, have the authority to require vaccinations for students to attend school.

On these points Trump's move is more of a suggestion than an order.

"States and territories are advised to review" the Trump administration's recommendations on "immunisation requirements for contexts such as school enrollment and attendance," the order states.

In another section, it says the US Health and Human Services department will form a task force to offer the MMR shot as individual vaccines "by working with the private sector and other countries as appropriate, while guaranteeing continued availability of combination vaccines and those vaccines recommended for shared clinical decision-making."

New York City's health commissioner, Alister Martin, said the order was based "in politics and conspiracy theories."

"Fortunately, vaccination recommendations are not set by the president, nor should they be," Martin said in a statement.

"Cities and states can set their own recommendations and requirements, and many, including New York City, have moved away from the federal government's recommendations as they've become politicized and unscientific."

Years of clinical evidence support the safety of a combined MMR vaccine.

Public health experts have long advised that the combined shot offers children more protection faster, and also decreases the logistical hurdles for parents who may struggle to make multiple appointments.

Yet during the Oval Office signing, Trump made a series of incendiary and unsupported statements countering that advice.

In a call with reporters, Andrew Racine, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), estimated it would take more than a decade to develop approved separated vaccines in the US.

"We're advising that you continue to give children a vaccine that has decades of safety data," added Aaron M. Milstone, a member of the AAP Committee on Infectious Diseases.

Worst measles outbreak in decades 

Senator Bill Cassidy, a doctor whose deciding vote confirmed Kennedy's controversial appointment as health chief, posted on X that the president's initiative would only serve to "increase hesitancy and make children less safe."

"This executive order is wrong. The President does not have the expertise to make these changes. Vaccines are overwhelmingly safe. Vaccines are effective. Vaccines DO NOT cause autism," Cassidy said.

The Trump administration's push to overhaul vaccine policy comes as its efforts to implement major changes were blocked by a federal court earlier this year, pending further court proceedings.

The judge's stay preventing the overhaul sided with major medical organizations, which asserted that the Trump administration's actions to push the changes through were unlawful.

The president's latest order arrives just as children across the country are readying to return to school, and as the US suffers its worst measles outbreak in 35 years.

Trump's health secretary Kennedy is accused of contributing significantly to the crisis by spreading anti-vaccine sentiment and fueling fears of well-studied and proven immunizations.

Polling indicates that most Americans still support vaccination, and in recent months both Kennedy and Trump had backed off anti-vaccination rhetoric which could spell negative repercussions in November's midterm vote.

But yesterday's efforts show the issue remains a core component of their health policy agenda, as both men remain committed to the false notion that vaccines can cause autism.

Such a potential link has been debunked by years of research. — AFP

WASHINGTON, Aug 11 — US President Donald Trump said yesterday he would seek conflict compensation from Iran as part of any peace negotiations, citing attacks and killings stretching back decades allegedly backed or perpetrated by Tehran.

Negotiations on ending the war and reopening the Strait of Hormuz have stalled, and his new demands risk putting a quick agreement further out of reach.

Trump's announcement was a direct response to Iran's insistence that US payment of war reparations are a pre-condition to any resolution of the ongoing hostilities.

"I am likewise demanding compensation from Iran," he said, noting that his demand included not only damages arising from the current war, but also Iranian attacks on US targets going back more than two decades as well as payments to the families of Iranian protestors killed by authorities over the past 50 years.

In a later post, Trump also said that the Islamic republic should be responsible for deaths and damage it caused in Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Gaza.

In what has become a regular pattern, Trump last week threatened to hit Iran "very hard", potentially with attacks against civilian infrastructure, only to pull back, hinting a peace deal was near.

Trump this weekend said he was "low-keying" his approach to the conflict, suggesting that he was prepared to let economic pressure mount in place of further military strikes.

Digital media outlet Axios said that the US president did not express any frustration with Iran's delaying an agreement to open the Strait of Hormuz in their interview with him published Sunday.

Tehran has demanded that the US first end its blockade of Iranian ports and lift sanctions on its oil industry.

As negotiations have floundered, the strait's blockage by Iran has sent fuel prices soaring and rattled the world economy, putting pressure on Trump ahead of midterm elections in November.

In his post, Trump referenced the bombing of the USS Cole in 2000, which he has previously said Iran was "probably involved" in.

Yesterday he said his various demands for compensations would be put "firmly into any, and all, future negotiations" with Iran. — AFP

POZOS DE GAMBOA (Mexico), Aug 10 — Horrific drug violence plagued the Mexican state of Zacatecas for years, until relative calm set in. Then one morning in July this small town woke up to find five bodies dangling from a bridge — a grim calling card that showed the bloodshed never really left.

These days in Pozos de Gamboa, a Zacatecas town of 5,000 that is known for growing beans, people are terrified. No one goes out after dark and no one talks about that morning when the bodies showed up.

Zacatecas is key to the drug trade because it links central Mexico with the north and west of the country and features routes that are key to smuggling cocaine and drugs north to the hungry consumer market in the United States.

The state of 1.6 million people had become painfully used to narcotics-related violence as rival gangs fought each other, with bodies turning up almost on a daily basis and people going missing right and left.

Then things calmed down, a lot. Killings in Zacatecas fell from around 1,300 in 2022 to 144 in 2025, according to government figures. The government has attributed the decline to better coordination between state and federal law enforcement officials.

The calm spell ended shockingly on July 18 with the spectacle of the bodies hanging from the bridge. The victims included a former mayor, civil servants and business people from other parts of the state. Five other bodies were found elsewhere in town that same day.

Mexico’s two largest drug cartels — Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa — have been fighting to control Zacatecas because of its strategic value in the US-bound drug trade.

‘They kill over nothing’ 

Prosecutors opened a probe into the killings and the state government promised “an immediate and forceful response,” while noting that violence like this had been on the decline. It asked for help from the army and the National Guard to boost security in Zacatecas.

AFP visited Pozos de Gamboa and observed that on the road here from the state capital, also called Zacatecas, there were no roadblocks and just a few police patrol cars out and about.

One Pozos de Gamboa resident who declined to be named, fearing for his safety, described it as being like a ghost town — “as if no one ever lived here.”

“Here, you always used to see people,” this man said. But now, “at 9 in the evening there is no one out on the street.”

Indeed, in this town most people have lost a relative or an acquaintance — dead or missing — to all the drug violence.

When people go missing they are routinely killed, this man said. “They make it so the bodies do not smell.”

“They killed a brother of ours,” he added. “They kill over nothing at all.”

The bridge where the bodies were found last month had been used in the past as a spot for the drug cartels to leave these grim messages.

A woman who runs a food stall in the street said she saw the bodies hanging as early 4 am.

The image recalled the worst years of Mexico’s drug wars, when the government deployed federal forces in 2006 to fight the cartels and these crime gangs fought back, hanging bodies from bridges or dumping them elsewhere in public to intimidate rivals and the security forces.

The Pozos de Gamboa killings drew the attention of leftist President Claudia Sheinbaum’s government, which promised to arrest whoever was behind them.

She has deployed soldiers in violence-plagued states such as Sinaloa and Michoacan as she endures pressure from US President Donald Trump to intervene directly in Mexico against the cartels so as to keep drugs from crossing the border into the United States. — AFP

MANILA, Aug 10 — Floods, landslides and accidents driven by a nine-day downpour equivalent to more than a month’s worth of rain in some areas have killed at least 13 people in the northern Philippines, rescuers said today.

The rains, exacerbated by tropical storms, have led to school and government office closures across the main island of Luzon and flooding in the streets of Manila.

Four of the deaths occurred in the mountain resort of Baguio, as a rain-drenched mountainside collapsed on several houses, killing four residents, city disaster official Charles Carame told AFP.

Rescuers were digging through the rubble in search of at least six others who remained missing a day after the incident, he added.

State weather forecaster Dan Villamil said rains in the vacation spot four hours north of the capital were already 47 percent higher than normal for the whole month.

“The rainfall recorded for August 1-9 was highest in Baguio, with an accumulated 1,413.2 millimetres,” he said, adding the city’s typical downpour for the month was 963.2 millimetres.

Parts of Metro Manila had recorded rain equivalent to about 90 percent of a typical August, he added.

Landslides killed six other people elsewhere on Luzon, while another drowned, one was hit by a falling tree, and one was electrocuted, according to a civil defence office tally.

While heavy rain continued to fall early Monday evening, Public Works Secretary Vince Dizon told a news conference that floodwaters were receding.

“Our interventions are continuing, but we really need to fix the years and decades’ worth of faulty flood mitigation interventions,” Dizon told reporters, referencing a scandal over bogus flood-control projects that have cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

The Philippines is the first major landmass facing the Pacific cyclone belt, and the archipelago is hit by an average of 20 storms and typhoons each year, putting millions of people in disaster-prone areas in a state of constant poverty.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is making extreme weather more frequent, prolonged and intense. — AFP

JAKARTA, Aug 10 — A drag car veered out of control and crashed into spectators at a weekend race in Indonesia, killing eight people and injuring nine others, police said today.

The crash happened late yesterday during an organised drag car race in the city of Kotamobagu on Indonesia’s Sulawesi Island.

“Eight people have died, eight are in intensive care, and one person sustained minor injuries,” North Sulawesi police chief Roycke Harry Langie told reporters.

Police have questioned several witnesses including the driver, he said.

One witness, Areng Mokoginta, told reporters yesterday the accident happened when a race car skidded shortly after the start.

The car swerved out of control and ploughed into spectators at the race in Kotamobagu, which lies about 180 kilometres southwest of the North Sulawesi capital Manado, he said.

Fatal traffic accidents are common in the Southeast Asian nation of 280 million people, where road rules are routinely ignored and vehicles are often poorly maintained. — AFP

PARIS, Aug 10 — Regions home to around 900 million people experienced their hottest July on record in 2026, including in the Sahel, Central America, France and Spain, according to AFP analysis of Copernicus data.

Some 33 countries recorded their hottest July since records began, according to a detailed analysis of billions of data points from Copernicus's ERA5 climate model.

Some countries with well-resourced national weather agencies, including France and Spain, independently confirmed record-breaking conditions through analyses by Meteo-France and Spain's AEMET meteorological service.

However, many lower-income countries do not publish detailed climate data.

AFP therefore complemented the global picture by independently analysing data from the European Copernicus programme.

The dataset combines observations from satellites operated by multiple countries, weather stations on land, at sea and in the air, together with climate modelling. It provides hourly global coverage dating back to 1970.

Sahel more than 2 degrees Celsius above average 

Nearly 400 million of the roughly 900 million people residing in affected areas live in Africa, primarily within the Sahel region.

Ten countries in the semi-arid belt across western and northern Africa broke their monthly heat records for July, including Mauritania, Niger and Burkina Faso.

In eastern Africa, Sudan, Kenya and Ethiopia also broke records.

Temperature variations and anomalies in countries close to the equator are typically smaller than in temperate climates.

Yet countries such as Chad and Sudan recorded July temperatures more than 2 degrees Celsius above the 1981-2010 average.

Episodes of extreme heat have become almost 10 times more likely since 2015, scientists from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) network warned in January, attributing the rise to human-driven climate change.

Sahel countries are among the most vulnerable to rising temperatures, while many are already grappling with armed conflict, food insecurity and widespread poverty.

El Nino and food insecurity 

The naturally-occurring El Nino climate pattern, which began in June and is expected to peak later this year, has already amplified unprecedented temperatures across Central America and northern South America.

From Mexico to northern Brazil, stretching from the Pacific coast to the Guiana Highlands, approximately 110 million people experienced their hottest July on record.

El Salvador, Nicaragua and Honduras, located in the so-called "Dry Corridor", all set monthly temperature records in both June and July, heightening concerns over famine.

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) said last week that Central America is expected to be the region hardest hit in terms of the relative increase in food insecurity.

Including the Caribbean, the agency estimates that an additional 16 million people could face food insecurity by the end of 2027.

Europe in flames 

Nearly 120 million Europeans live in regions where July 2026 was the hottest ever recorded.

The records were concentrated in southern Britain, western France, and northern and eastern Spain.

In France, average temperatures were 3.8 degrees Celsius above the 1991-2020 normal -- a reference period already significantly warmer than the pre-industrial climate of 1850-1900.

France and Spain also registered record levels of drought, which fuelled devastating wildfires.

A megafire burned nearly 42,000 hectares and forced the evacuation of more than 220,000 people in France's Gironde department in late July.

At the same time, Spain's largest wildfire in recent history scorched almost 44,000 hectares in Avila province, near Madrid.

Other smaller and more scattered regions, home to a combined population of over 250 million, also experienced unprecedented July heat, including China's Sichuan province, US states Wyoming and Colorado and the Indonesian islands of Sumatra and Borneo. — AFP

LONDON, Aug 10 — Police has seized a limited-edition Ferrari worth £3.7 million (US$5 million) during a crackdown on antisocial driving in central London, PA Media/dpa reported.

The Metropolitan Police said 90 vehicles worth more than £8 million were seized during the operation, which targeted uninsured, antisocial, and dangerous driving in Kensington, Chelsea, and Hyde Park from Friday to Sunday.

The Ferrari Monza SP2 — one of only 499 made by the Italian company — had only been in the UK for a day, according to a Met statement.

Police said the driver, who had been in the car for less than half an hour when stopped, only had a provisional driving licence and no insurance.

One of the limited-edition vehicles sold at auction for almost US$5 million earlier this year.

Fifteen of the vehicles were seized under new powers allowing police to seize them rather than give a warning if they are involved in antisocial behaviour.

Special Chief Inspector Geoff Tatman, who led the operation, said: “We regularly hear from local people who are fed up with people driving cars dangerously in the area, or with modifications which make them a nuisance to those who live nearby.

“Through operations like this we’re arresting these drivers and seizing their cars so we can keep our roads safe and send clear message that we won’t put up with their reckless and dangerous behaviour.”

Vehicle stops also saw a man arrested on suspicion of handling stolen goods and money laundering after he was found with 19 bank cards in other people’s names and more than £2,500 in cash.

Another man stopped for driving without insurance was arrested on suspicion of possession with intent to supply drugs with one further arrest for using words and behaviour that would likely cause harassment, alarm, and distress, as well as another on suspicion of an immigration offence.

Police said the number and value of the vehicles seized was the highest in the five years of the operation. — Bernama-PA Media/dpa

SYDNEY, Aug 10 — Australia has suspended an air-traffic controller and a ground staff member involved in a near-miss at Sydney airport, after two such incidents there in less than two weeks, reported German Press Agency (dpa).

The latest incident occurred yesterday when a Jetstar aircraft and a Qatar Airways Boeing 777 came dangerously close while taxiing. The Jetstar pilot had to brake sharply to avoid a collision. One crew member was injured, according to broadcaster ABC, but no passengers were hurt.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) has opened an investigation. Its chief, Angus Mitchell, said the incident occurred at low speed but could have had serious consequences, the Sydney Morning Herald reported today.

The head of state-owned air traffic management provider Airservices Australia, Rob Sharp, was also called to account by Transport Minister Catherine King.

The incidents come amid rising air traffic and a shortage of air-traffic controllers. The staffing shortage has forced a reduction in the number of take-offs and landings at times to keep operations safe, causing delays.

Chris Minns, premier of Australia’s New South Wales state, warned that the problems could damage Sydney’s reputation as a business and tourism hub, but said safety must take priority over the frustration of passengers. — Bernama-dpa

HAT YAI, Aug 10 — A secondary school in southern Thailand with about 3,600 students has been forced to close for two days after a sacked foreign teacher allegedly posted gun-related images and threatening messages aimed at the school community.

Hatyaiwittayalai School in Songkhla province will keep its gates shut on Monday and Tuesday, with lessons moving online as a precaution, the Bangkok Post reported.

School director Thitiwit Meechooworapong announced the closure on Saturday night, saying it was intended to protect students, teachers and other employees.

The decision followed alleged threats by Pieter Johannes Dreyer, a former English-language teacher in the school’s English programme.

Police said Dreyer, a South African national, had already left Thailand. He departed through the Padang Besar border checkpoint in Sadao district on July 19 and had not returned, according to the Bangkok Post.

The school said his employment was terminated on July 24 for breach of contract.

Dreyer subsequently allegedly posted threatening material in a school LINE chat group with about 5,000 users, including photographs of himself firing a gun, images of school executives, messages and an audio clip.

He was also said to have criticised the school’s management.

Thitiwit said school administrators considered the material a threat to students, teachers and management and had filed a complaint with Hat Yai police.

Immigration authorities said Dreyer had since been blacklisted.

Police said Dreyer left Thailand on July 19, while the school said his employment was formally terminated five days later on July 24.

Hatyaiwittayalai, on Phetkasem Road in Hat Yai district, has about 250 teachers and staff in addition to its roughly 3,600 students.

NEW DELHI, Aug 10 — Indian students marched towards the state assembly in Jharkhand today, escalating protests over alleged irregularities in government recruitment examinations, with several students also on hunger strike.

Protests in Ranchi, capital of the eastern state home to more than 33 million people, began on July 29, days after a youth-led “cockroach” movement in New Delhi forced the resignation of the national education minister.

At least six protesters are on hunger strike, including student leader Devendra Nath Mahto, 33, who has been fasting for more than a week.

“We want the whole system to change,” Mahto said, as quoted by Indian media, demanding an end to the use of a private company that conducts tests for state civil service.

Today, hundreds of police guarded the assembly behind barbed-wire barricades, after repeated talks between the protesters and the state government failed to reach an agreement.

Large crowds of students chanting slogans marched towards the state assembly.

The protesters are demanding the cancellation of several examinations conducted by a private company on behalf of the state government, as well as an investigation by federal police into their conduct.

Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren has sought to defuse the protests by accepting some demands, while several members of the civil service body overseeing the examinations have stepped down.

“Every problem can be resolved through dialogue,” Soren said in a speech on Sunday.

The New Delhi protesters, organised by the online Cockroach Janta Party, rallied for 36 days over alleged failures in India’s examination system, before the then education minister Dharmendra Pradhan stepped down — giving the movement an unusual victory and turning examination integrity into a major political issue.

The Jharkhand protests echo those demands, reflecting wider frustration among young Indians who see government examinations as a key route to employment in a country where millions compete for limited public-sector jobs.

The New Delhi protests challenged Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, but the Jharkhand rallies are demanding change from the state government, which stands in opposition to the BJP. — AFP

SYDNEY, Aug 10 — A lifelike sex doll was briefly “mistaken” for a murder victim after it was found inside a suitcase dumped in rural Australia, police and local media said today.

Two men were driving through the Australian countryside on Sunday when they stumbled across an abandoned suitcase seemingly packed with human remains.

A strike force of homicide detectives and forensic experts was set up to solve what police initially treated as a murder.

But tests soon showed the suitcase was actually stuffed with a lifelike sex doll, public broadcaster ABC reported.

“They were mistaken for a human originally,” New South Wales Police Superintendent Linda Bradbury told reporters.

“They are very realistic in terms of looking like human remains.”

Police said “forensic examinations” had shown it was actually a “lifelike doll”, replete with clothes, hair and a nose piercing.

Further muddying the waters was the fact the doll “also had markings that resembled bruises and grazes”, police said in a statement.

“Investigations have concluded.” — AFP

BANGKOK, Aug 10 — Thai police intend to charge the owner of a Bangkok bar with six offences, including negligence, over a fire last month that killed 37 people, the lead investigator said today.

Suvicha Salaibatr, the owner of the popular Rong Beer Na Lad Phrao restaurant and bar, was among dozens of people hospitalised when a blaze engulfed his venue on the evening of July 12.

“We issued an arrest warrant last week against him on six charges” including negligence causing death, serious injury, harm and fire, as well as criminal mischief and running an entertainment venue without a licence, chief investigator Isara Na Phatthalung told AFP.

“He has left the intensive care unit but the doctor has not yet allowed police to read the charges to him,” Isara said, adding that police hoped to charge him as the sole suspect in the next few days.

If convicted, the bar owner faces up to 10 years in prison for the negligence charge alone.

Most of the victims died from smoke inhalation during the fire, which was caused by an electrical short circuit in the ceiling, police have said.

Thailand’s approach to health and safety regulations — particularly in bars and nightclubs — has long raised concerns.

A fire tore through Bangkok’s Santika club during New Year celebrations in 2009, killing 67 people and injuring more than 200. — AFP

JAKARTA, Aug 10 — Indonesia’s top Islamic clerical body has warned men not to wear “women’s clothing” for Independence Day festivities despite a long tradition of men in dresses playing football as part of the annual fun.

Amid a rising tide of anti-LGBTQ sentiment in the Muslim-majority South-east Asian nation, the influential Indonesian Ulema Council (MUI) said in a statement such behaviour was “haram” or forbidden.

The MUI said its intervention was “an effort to prevent the covert campaign of the Lesbian, Gay, Sodomy and Obscenity (LGSP) movement” — the acronym it promotes as an alternative to LGBT for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender.

Each year, Indonesians engage in games and parades to celebrate the nation’s declaration of independence on August 17, 1945 from centuries of colonisation.

Across the vast archipelago, citizens take part in tugs of war, sack races and cracker-eating contests, clamber up greased poles and attend colourful float parades.

In some communities, men put on dresses and hijabs to play football, a tradition widely seen as comical and not a statement on gender identity. Men sometimes also dress up to take part in independence parades.

But in last week’s statement, the MUI’s Fatwa Commission said “the rise of deviant actions such as male participants in women’s clothing... is considered to have led to violations of sharia and social norms”.

The warning also goes for women dressing as men.

It is not the first time the MUI has spoken out against cross dressing, but the latest warning follows a spate of physical attacks on gay people and a presidential regulation classifying “LGBTQ culture” as a security threat.

Dede Oetomo, founder of the GAYa Nusantara rights group, told AFP that men playing soccer or parading in what are traditionally women’s clothes “is a long-time custom and part of Independence Day celebrations in many communities.”

The MUI’s warning was part of a move to “Islamise” many aspects of daily life, he said, further marginalising trans women “who had been tolerated for many centuries in different parts of Indonesia”. — AFP

BANGKOK, Aug 10 — A former Thai MP has been arrested after allegedly forcing his way into a senior local government official’s office and shooting him dead in Nonthaburi this morning, days after the province was shaken by a deadly school massacre.

Chalong Riewraeng allegedly entered the office of Pol Col Thongchai Yenprasert, president of the Nonthaburi Provincial Administrative Organisation (PAO), in Muang district and fired several shots at him at about 11am, Bangkok Post reported.

Thongchai was given cardiopulmonary resuscitation at the scene before being rushed to Phranangklao Hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

Police said Chalong later telephoned Anchalee Paireerak, a television anchor with Naew Na, while she was in the middle of a ‘live’ broadcast and told her he had just fired about five shots at Thongchai, according to Bangkok Post.

Anchalee urged him to put down the weapon, remain calm and wait for police at the PAO offices while Naew Na staff contacted Rattanathibet police station.

During the call, Chalong allegedly told the anchor that he had decided to shoot Thongchai because the PAO president had refused to repay 11 million baht that Chalong claimed he was owed.

Police have not independently established the debt claim as the motive for the killing.

Chalong was arrested and taken to Rattanathibet police station.

He is a well-known political figure in Nonthaburi and previously served as an MP with the Thai Citizen Party before later joining Pheu Thai, according to Bangkok Post.

He contested the 2023 election under the Bhumjaithai Party banner but was defeated.

The killing comes just days after Nonthaburi was shaken by a mass shooting at Debsirin Nonthaburi School, where a 14-year-old student killed six people before turning the gun on himself.

Police said the teenager had earlier allegedly shot dead his grandparents at their home before travelling to the school.

The two shootings occurred about seven miles apart in Nonthaburi province, on the outskirts of Bangkok. Authorities have given no indication that the incidents are connected.

Friday’s school attack, Thailand’s worst mass killing in nearly four years, had already prompted heightened security in the province.

BANGKOK, Aug 10 — The father of the 14-year-old boy who carried out a deadly shooting at a school in Thailand has apologised to the victims and their families in his first public remarks since the attack.

Emerging from Plai Bang police station yesterday morning after being questioned by investigators, the father was surrounded by journalists and camera crews as he made his way towards a waiting car.

“I’m sorry,” he said, according to the Independent UK.

“I am deeply sorry to all the families.”

His brief statement came two days after his son opened fire at Debsirin Nonthaburi school, killing six people before turning the gun on himself.

Hours before the school attack, the teenager had allegedly shot dead his grandparents at their home, police said.

More than 20 people were injured in what was Thailand’s worst mass shooting since 2022. At least 14 remained in hospital, including seven in critical condition, according to the health ministry. Most of those wounded were aged between 12 and 14.

Police investigating the attack said the teenager had shown an interest in firearms well before the shooting.

“According to witness interviews, the perpetrator had begun showing interest in studying the use of firearms for some time, about one to two years,” Atthapol Anusit, deputy commissioner of the Provincial Police Region, said.

Police said the teenager had also watched violent material online.

“After examining the PC, it was found that the child had watched social media content involving violence,” Atthapol said.

Investigators said there was so far no evidence that the teenager had practised shooting.

Police have interviewed 17 witnesses and recovered a firearm, spent cartridge cases and a personal computer from the crime scenes. A knife was also found in the boy’s bag.

Authorities also disclosed that a teacher had confiscated a BB gun from the teenager after he brought it to school last year.

The boy had lived with his grandparents for about 12 years after his parents separated, Atthapol said.

The shooting has renewed debate over access to firearms in Thailand and raised questions over whether warning signs involving young people can be identified earlier.

Thailand’s education ministry said it would develop new school safety measures over the next three months, including mental health screenings and a system to refer at-risk people to specialists.

The measures are also expected to include emergency-response drills, efforts to tackle bullying and improved checks aimed at preventing prohibited items from being brought into schools.

Police investigations into how the teenager obtained the firearm and the circumstances leading up to the attack are continuing.

JAKARTA, Aug 10 — Authorities have warned of possible coastal flooding in six areas of Bali from August 11 to 17 as a full moon phenomenon is expected to trigger a rise in maximum sea levels around the island.

The Meteorology, Climatology, and Geophysics Agency (BMKG) Region III chief Cahyo Nugroho said the phenomenon is linked to the moon reaching perigee, its closest point to Earth, on August 10, followed by a new moon on August 13.

“Coastal flooding could potentially affect loading and unloading activities at ports, activities in coastal settlements, as well as salt farming and inland fisheries,” he said, according to Antara News Agency on Monday.

Cahyo said the six areas are the southern coasts of Jembrana and Tabanan regencies, the coasts of Badung, Gianyar and Denpasar, and the southern coast of Klungkung Regency. The timing and severity of peak tides vary by location, day, and hour. — Bernama

BEIJING, Aug 10 — Typhoon Dolphin brought heavy rain to eastern China today, causing hundreds of flight cancellations even as the storm weakened and some cities resumed public transport.

The weather system has lost power after making two landfalls along the coast of Zhejiang province tomorrow, with China’s National Meteorological Centre (NMC) issuing its least severe typhoon alert this morning.

However, the NMC warned that parts of east and central China would continue to receive heavy rain for the next day.

Authorities issued their most severe flash flood alert for parts of eastern and southern Zhejiang today, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Shanghai’s two main passenger airports saw 943 flights cancelled, the airport authority said in an online post.

Public transport services, including many local trains, have been suspended in the financial hub.

Zhejiang’s Ningbo international airport will resume flight operations from midday (0400 GMT) but warned that some journeys may still be delayed or cancelled since the effects of the typhoon have “not yet completely dissipated”.

Provincial capital Hangzhou resumed subway services this morning, after halting some train operations yesterday.

Northern China is also set for extreme weather this week, with five districts in Beijing issuing red alerts for heavy rain today, with some warning of landslide and flooding risks.

Typhoon Dolphin triggered a top-level alert over the weekend, prompting over 1,000 flight cancellations and tens of thousands of evacuations.

It came two weeks after Typhoon Noul struck southern Guangdong province, with authorities saying at the time that it was the strongest storm to hit China this year.

Extreme weather also wreaked havoc on southern and central China last month, with 39 people killed when Typhoon Maysak triggered devastating floods in the southern Guangxi region.

Maysak also caused thunderstorms and gale-force winds that killed 11 people and injured 331 in the central province of Hubei.

Scientists warn the intensity and frequency of extreme weather events will increase as the planet continues to heat up because of fossil fuel emissions.

China is the world’s biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, but it is also a global renewable energy powerhouse that aims to make its massive economy carbon-neutral by 2060. — AFP

LONDON, Aug 10 — British Prime Minister Andy Burnham has vowed to crack down on hard-to-cancel subscriptions and fake discounts as part of measures to tackle the cost-of-living crisis, Downing Street said yesterday.

The announcement came as the new Labour leader was set to return to work after a vacation and begin a tour of the country to talk to people about their financial pressures, his office said.

Burnham said in a statement that “people are sick and tired of rip-off discounts and subscription traps”, where subscriptions are hard to cancel or automatically renew at a higher cost.

He said his government would be “making it as easy to leave a subscription as it is to join”.

Currently British consumers are “spending an estimated £1.6 billion (RM8.82 billion) a year on (subscriptions) they don’t actually want”, Downing Street said.

New rules will come into force in January next year, it said, forcing businesses to give customers “clearer up-front information, regular reminders and a much easier exit to contracts”.

There will be a new 14-day cooling-off period to let consumers cancel after a trial or a long-term contract renews, the government announced, without describing how this would be implemented.

Burnham also promised to tackle “misleading claims to customers about discounts” based on inflated full-price figures.

After nearly a decade as a regional mayor in northern England, Burnham has stressed his desire to move politics outside Westminster.

The Mirror newspaper reported his “cost of living tour” this month would cover all the United Kingdom’s constituent regions and include places such as Port Talbot in Wales, an economically depressed former steelworking town.

“I’ll be asking one question: what would actually make your life better?”, Burnham told the left-wing newspaper.

Entering office, the prime minister promised to draw up a 10-year plan for the country.

His first announcements included a tax cut on energy bills inflated by the US-Iran war, a cap on bus ticket prices and cutting business rates for pubs.

Opposition politicians on the right and left have criticised the measures as not going far enough. — AFP

NICE, Aug 10 — French police have arrested four Spanish suspects after a luxury watch worth around US$300,000 (RM1.2 million) was snatched from a Brazilian tourist in the Riviera hotspot of Saint-Tropez, authorities said yesterday.

The watch, valued by its owner at US$300,000, was stolen on Friday but was later recovered and will be returned to him, the gendarmerie in the Var region said.

The suspects allegedly fled by car after the theft and were later arrested in the nearby town of Cogolin.

According to regional daily Nice-Matin, police caught them after a chase through the winding roads around the Gulf of Saint-Tropez.

Saint-Tropez, a magnet for celebrities, millionaires and luxury tourism, sees organised gangs descend every summer to target expensive watches and jewellery.

Around 15 luxury watches have been reported stolen in the Saint-Tropez area since the start of the season, according to the gendarmerie. — AFP

KATHMANDU, Aug 10 — Rescuers in Nepal have retrieved the bodies of five mountaineers, including three foreigners, killed in an avalanche near the Chinese border last year, officials said yesterday.

The avalanche hit the climbers on the lower flanks of the 5,630m Yalung Ri peak, near Nepal’s border with Tibet, in November 2025.

“All five bodies were retrieved this morning by helicopter and our rescue team,” Phurba Tenjing Sherpa, director of expedition company Dreamers Destination, told AFP.

The foreigners were an Italian-Canadian, a German and an Italian, he said. The bodies of all five climbers, including two Nepalis, were spotted on Saturday.

Sherpa said his team, along with other expedition companies, had carried out a search in the area after the avalanche swept the climbers away.

“Due to thick snow, we could not find the bodies, so we postponed the search... It was possible to find the bodies now, because the snow melted this time,” he said.

Senior local police officer Manoj Kumar Lama said the bodies would be brought to Kathmandu as soon as the weather was clear.

Home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest, Nepal welcomes thousands of climbers and trekkers every year.

According to the Himalayan Database, an expedition archive, more than 1,000 people have died on peaks since 1950, with avalanches killing almost a third of them. — AFP

DUBLIN, Aug 10 — An Irish court yesterday charged alleged cartel boss Daniel Kinahan with directing a criminal organisation and remanded him in custody after his extradition from Dubai on a government jet.

The 49-year-old Irishman appeared in court after being flown back yesterday evening from Dubai on the basis of an arrest warrant issued by Ireland.

He is alleged to be one of the leaders of a transnational group, known as the Kinahan Organised Crime Group (KOCG) or the Kinahan cartel.

The Irish government jet reportedly carrying Kinahan landed at Casement Aerodrome, a military air base west of Dublin at about 6.30pm (1730 GMT) as a helicopter circled overhead, an AFP video journalist saw.

Shortly afterwards a high-speed convoy of cars with blacked-out windows sped out of the gates, sirens blaring, watched by a crowd of people on the roadside.

Irish police later said in a statement they had arrested and charged a man in his late 40s over “serious organised crime offences” without naming Kinahan.

Irish police chief Justin Kelly said “this arrest shows our determination, along with our international policing partners including Dubai Police, to target transnational organised crime groups”.

‘High-profile’ suspect

Kinahan appeared shortly afterwards at the Special Criminal Court in Dublin, where he was charged with directing an organised crime organisation and remanded in custody until a hearing on October 5.

He was told the charge is that he directed the activities of a criminal organisation between October 2015 and April 2017.

Wearing a tracksuit bottom and a hoodie and glasses, Kinahan, flanked by plain-clothes police, appeared composed, reported the Irish Mirror.

The Special Criminal Court where Kinahan was taken is used for criminal cases involving terrorism and organised crime offences.

Trials there have three judges and no jury.

In a joint statement yesterday, UAE and Irish justice ministers called Kinahan “one of the most high-profile individuals sought for prosecution in connection with transnational organised crime”.

‘Sends clear message’ 

Irish Justice Minister Jim O’Callaghan said on X the extradition “sends a clear message that suspected perpetrators of serious and organised crime will find no safe haven from justice”.

He hailed it as a “landmark of judicial cooperation with Dubai”.

Irish Foreign Minister Helen McEntee called this “the culmination of years of determined work” by Irish police and successive governments.

Kinahan had lost a final appeal against extradition from the UAE, where he had been living openly for around a decade before his arrest.

He is be held in the high-security Portlaoise Prison in central Ireland, which houses some of the country’s most notorious prisoners.

Kinahan moved to the UAE from Spain around 2016 after the murder of one of his associates and an attempt on his life at a boxing weigh-in at a Dublin hotel.

He also had ties to a now-defunct boxing management company that represented boxers including Tyson Fury and Carl Frampton.

Kinahan is the second person allegedly linked to the same criminal organisation to be extradited from Dubai.

Sean McGovern, described by a judge as “senior lieutenant in the cartel”, was extradited after his arrest there in 2024.

In June, McGovern was sentenced to 24 years in prison in Ireland after pleading guilty to directing organised crime and attempted murder. — AFP

MUMBAI, Aug 10 — India’s aviation ministry said yesterday that an Air India pilot whose flight plunged dramatically in turbulence injuring 17 passengers and crew is undergoing a “confirmatory” psychoactive drug test.

The Airbus A320, carrying 137 passengers and eight crew, lost around 300 feet (91m) on August 4 while flying from Phuket in Thailand to New Delhi, before stabilising and landing safely, the civil aviation ministry said.

Eight passengers and four cabin crew members were admitted to hospitals after landing in the Indian capital, whose conditions were described as “stable”, after which both pilots were given a standard “psychoactive substance screening test”, the statement read.

“The screening test in respect of the Pilot-in-Command (PIC) indicated a result requiring confirmatory testing,” it said.

“Samples have accordingly been sent to the designated laboratory for confirmatory analysis, and the final report is awaited.”

The ministry said the flight has been classified as a “Serious Incident”, and that India’s Aircraft Accident Investigation Bureau (AAIB) has launched an investigation.

Both pilots have been removed from the flying roster pending outcomes of investigation.

“Further action, as appropriate, will be taken based on the outcome of the investigation and confirmatory test results,” it added.

Videos of the incident’s aftermath showed cabin baggage strewn across the aisle. Some of those injured were taken to hospital on stretchers.

Air India, in a statement earlier yesterday, confirmed that a “post-flight screening test” had been conducted on the flight’s pilots, but it said the results had not been shared with the company.

The incident is the latest in a series of setbacks for the Indian carrier, which appointed a new executive on Wednesday.

Since taking over Air India in 2022, India’s Tata Group has embarked on an ambitious overhaul, ordering hundreds of aircraft and upgrading its ageing fleet.

While the airline has managed to modernise operations and integrate the group’s aviation businesses, it has faced persistent headwinds including aircraft delivery delays and airspace closures caused by the 2025 India-Pakistan conflict.

But the biggest blow to the airline’s image came in June 2025, when Air India Flight 171 — a London-bound Boeing 787 Dreamliner — crashed shortly after take-off from Ahmedabad, killing all but one of the 242 people on board and 19 people on the ground.

The carrier has now turned to former Ethiopian Airlines chief Tewolde Gebremariam, widely seen as an industry veteran capable of righting the ship, as its new CEO as it seeks to execute a turnaround. — AFP

TEHRAN, Aug 10 — Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian recently met with supreme leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei, who has not appeared in public since assuming the post early in the Middle East war, Khamenei’s office said yesterday.

“Dr Masoud Pezeshkian met Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei and spoke with him at the start of his third year in the presidency,” the supreme leader’s office said in a statement, without indicating the date of the meeting.

Pezeshkian, who took office in July 2024, had said in early May that he met with Khamenei, also without specifying the date, but the supreme leader’s office did not issue any statements at the time.

The president had said on Wednesday that communication with Khamenei was “very difficult at the moment”, and speculation has swirled about the supreme leader’s health after he was reportedly wounded in strikes that killed his father.

Khamenei’s office said the two “discussed in detail the country’s issues and problems”, including the “current military situation and future prospects”.

Iran had been engaged in negotiations with Washington on ending the war launched by the US and Israel in February, but a preliminary deal fell apart, and its top diplomat has said talks are now limited to exchanging messages through mediators.

Yesterday, Tasnim news agency cited a general in the Revolutionary Guards as saying that images showing Khamenei among the people and during meetings would be “published in the future”, without offering a timeline. — AFP

TEHRAN, Aug 10 — Iran’s Revolutionary Guards insisted yesterday that they would not reopen the Strait of Hormuz until the United States complied with a list of demands, including paying compensation for war damage.

Iran’s effective blockade of the crucial energy conduit has rattled allies, roiled markets and driven up prices, but US President Donald Trump said yesterday that he was “low-keying it” in his approach to Tehran, suggesting he believed he could wait them out economically.

Tehran insists on retaining control of the Hormuz after the war and wants to charge tolls for passage, repeatedly striking ships it accuses of attempting to circumvent its preferred route.

Attacks in the waterway, which was free to transit before the war, led to the collapse of an April ceasefire, and mediators have urged both sides to return to the terms of a subsequent June memorandum that set out a path for peace talks.

Iran’s Supreme National Security Council laid out on Saturday a list of conditions for reopening the strait, including an end to the war on all fronts, the lifting of a US counterblockade of Iranian ports, the end of sanctions, the release of frozen assets and compensation for wartime damage, the Tasnim news agency reported.

Those conditions echoed the terms of the June agreement, which included a provision to create a US$300 billion (RM1.2 trillion) reconstruction fund for Iran.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said yesterday that their strategy was to maintain their blockade “until the enemy accepts all our conditions... the strait is now actually a theatre of war for us and not just a waterway”.

The closure of Hormuz has driven up prices for American voters, creating a political headache for Trump as November’s midterm elections near, but the US leader was optimistic in a conversation with Axios yesterday.

“We are low-keying it,” Trump said of his approach in an interview.

“We are only semi-negotiating with them,” was quoted as saying. “We are just watching Iran with its huge inflation and the fact they have no money.”

“It will work out,” he added. “It’s like a chess game.”

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi had said earlier yesterday that Tehran was only “exchanging messages” with the US via intermediaries.

Hormuz strikes

Traffic through Hormuz has dropped significantly amid the ongoing attacks, with at least one tanker struck on Saturday, according to the UAE.

Oman’s foreign ministry condemned the repeated attacks, without naming Iran.

The June memorandum had said Tehran and Muscat would hash out future arrangements for administering the strait in discussion with other Gulf countries and “in line with the applicable international law”, which generally forbids tolling in such waterways.

Oman said “negotiations regarding navigation arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz are proceeding”, and warned against any actions that might jeopardise the progress.

Araghchi said that discussions with Oman on management of the strait were “approaching the final stages”.

Houthi attacks

As Iran throttles traffic in Hormuz, its Houthi allies in Yemen have declared a parallel maritime blockade on Saudi ports in the Red Sea, the oil-exporting giant’s only other maritime route.

The Houthis announced yesterday that they had struck a Saudi oil facility on the country’s Red Sea coast, after the Gulf kingdom said it had extinguished a fire at the site.

Saudi Arabia has long propped up Yemen’s internationally recognised government in its war against the Houthis, which was paused by an UN-backed 2022 accord that has appeared to break down since the rebels declared their blockade last month.

A medical source in government-held Mokha said three civilians and eight military personnel were killed and a further 32 people wounded yesterday, with all the civilian casualties resulting from Houthi strikes on the Yemeni city’s port.

Houthi military spokesman Yahya Saree said the group had targeted “Saudi enemy” troops and equipment in the area with missiles and drones.

Security pact

The Middle East war has proven an unprecedented challenge to Saudi Arabia’s carefully cultivated reputation for stability and security, as well as its ambitious plans to diversify its economy away from reliance on petroleum.

On Friday, the kingdom signed a joint defence agreement with Turkey and Pakistan, including a Nato-style clause that considers any attack on one country as an attack on all.

Turkey’s foreign minister said on Saturday he expected Egypt to also join the pact, calling the country a “natural partner on all issues”.

“We already act toward one another as if we were alliance members,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview.

Fidan maintained the agreement was not aimed at any specific country, and Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Friday that it was “intended to strengthen collective deterrence”. — AFP

JERUSALEM, Aug 10 — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu yesterday rejected a US-led Gaza plan endorsed by Hamas, putting distance between himself and President Donald Trump as he tries to shore up his base ahead of close elections.

After more than a week of gradually escalating criticism of the plan, and despite receiving assurances that Israel would not need to start withdrawing in Gaza immediately, Netanyahu explicitly opposed the deal following pushback from his right-wing allies.

“Israel rejects the 15-point document,” Netanyahu said, referring to the plan Hamas agreed to in late July.

The Israeli military “will not carry out any withdrawal until Hamas is genuinely disarmed, and will continue to thwart threats against our forces and our citizens”, he told a cabinet meeting.

Netanyahu described Trump, who had hailed the Gaza deal as a milestone for peace, as “our greatest friend in the White House” — but quickly made clear he was willing to challenge him, saying Israel was raising its objections with the United States.

“They have ideas; some of them are acceptable to us and some are not, and we know how to stand our ground on these matters,” he said.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, is running even or trailing in some polls ahead of October 27 elections, the country’s first since the devastating October 7, 2023 attack by Hamas that sparked the Gaza war.

Polls show that the Gaza plan is unpopular with Netanyahu’s right-wing base, and far-right members of his cabinet have urged him to kill it.

‘Only way forward’

The head of Trump’s body implementing the plan, dubbed the Board of Peace, defended the plan as a way to prevent a repeat of October 7.

“The option we are offering today is the only way forward that ensures this tragedy does not happen again,” Nickolay Mladenov, the board’s high representative for Gaza, told Israel’s Channel 12 television.

He said he hoped for a “positive outcome” from follow-up discussions with Israel, and characterised the latest stage of the deal as a commitment involving the United States, Hamas and the Board of Peace — notably leaving out Israel.

Mladenov again promised that Israel would not face any obligations until Hamas gave up all its weapons, down to Kalashnikov rifles — but said Israel would eventually need to pull out.

Hamas, which publicly backed the plan days after selecting a new leader, Khalil al-Hayya, called on Washington to push Netanyahu.

“We expect the mediators and the American guarantor to pressure Netanyahu and his government to adhere to the roadmap, and not obstruct the process for internal political and electoral reasons,” Bassem Naim, a member of Hamas’s political bureau, told AFP.

Hamas in a statement said it was still committed to the plan.

Friction with Trump

Netanyahu until recently campaigned on the strength of his relationship with Trump, who has taken unprecedented steps to back Israel, including moving the US embassy to Jerusalem.

Trump joined Netanyahu in late February in launching a war against Iran, but the two diverged when Trump sought a ceasefire and subsequent settlement to the conflict as it sapped his popularity and sent oil prices soaring.

Netanyahu told his cabinet that “with an agreement or without an agreement, as long as I am prime minister, Iran will not have nuclear weapons”, a goal he has long alleged Tehran is pursuing.

Netanyahu last week also ordered fresh strikes on Lebanon in response to what Israel called a ceasefire violation by Iran-backed Hezbollah, just as Israel and Lebanon were holding US-mediated talks.

The Gaza plan was the latest stage in a US-brokered ceasefire announced in October that has reduced, but not ended, Israeli operations there.

Despite Netanyahu’s stance, Israel appears to have decreased operations in Gaza since the deal was announced, without halting them completely.

Israeli gunfire yesterday injured several people including a child who was taken to hospital in Khan Yunis, civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP.

Israeli operations in Gaza have killed 1,258 Palestinians since the ceasefire, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks during the same period. — AFP

KABUL, Aug 9 — In Afghanistan’s northeastern Badakhshan province, dozens of excavators operate day and night to extract gold from the mountains where villagers and their livestock once roamed.

Thousands of miners are deployed across the Shiwa area, about 50 kilometres northeast of the provincial capital Faizabad, extracting gold for investors nationwide.

Some residents in the area have profited from the gold rush, only to regret it later, such as farmer Muhammad Amin.

“Before, the river was deep, the water was clean,” said the 74-year-old from Pul-e-Ziri Ban valley.

Since mining got underway, “the water of the river is not drinkable; you can’t even wash your body with that water”, he told AFP.

With tears in his eyes, Amin said the grass along the riverbank “has all gone” and farming is no longer possible due to “the wind and dust”.

Now he can only feed up to 15 goats, compared with as many as 40 previously.

Amin said he was paid half the US$20,000 (RM81,800) for which he agreed to lease his land to a mining firm that failed to fulfil a promise to restore his fields after the work stopped.

The Taliban authorities have expanded the mining sector since returning to power five years ago, aiming to tap into Afghanistan’s vast underground resources to boost state coffers.

Abdul Mateen Rahimzai, head of Badakhshan’s mines department, said they have registered “almost 650 to 700 companies, and there are thousands of people working manually”.

The World Bank said hundreds of mining contracts have been signed since 2021, with “real growth averaging 25 to 30 per cent” annually according to a May report.

 ‘Better than anything else’ 

While mining has temporarily stopped in Amin’s village, not far from his home, in Gulak-Dara valley, dozens of diggers were carving into the mountainside.

With jobs scarce in Afghanistan, the area has drawn workers from across the country.

Mohammad Agha Khwaja Khail, from Kabul, has worked in mining for five years and earns 10,000 Afghanis (RM622) a month loading trucks.

“It’s better than anything else… There aren’t many jobs in Kabul,” said the 21-year-old, above the din of diggers.

Shafiullah Ehsas, a father-of-five, transported his excavator hundreds of kilometres from Jalalabad about three months ago.

“In Jalalabad, the gold (mining) work hasn’t started, and it was happening in Badakhshan, so we didn’t have any other option but to bring our machinery here,” said the 32-year-old, who earns 25,000 Afghanis per month.

The Ministry of Mines and Petroleum has sought to regulate the industry, with spokesman Hamayoun Afghan saying resources “used to be extracted erratically; it wasn’t done under supervision” by the previous government.

Gold mining has accelerated in the north, the ministry spokesman said, including in neighbouring Takhar province where an Afghan company was operating with Chinese partners.

Fabrizio Foschini, a researcher at the Afghanistan Analysts Network, said during earlier decades of war “mining mainly benefited insurgent groups, including the Taliban, and local strongmen with links to corrupt government officials”.

Mining firms are now taxed 20 grams of gold per hectare per month, or the equivalent in cash, no matter their profits.

This photograph taken on July 28, 2026 shows Afghan miners extracting gold at Gulak-Dara valley in Shiwa area of Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan province. In Afghanistan's northeastern Badakhshan province, dozens of excavators operate day and night to extract gold from the mountains where villagers and their livestock once roamed. — AFP pic

‘Reduced to ruins’ 

Mohammadullah Mubariz, the manager of a mining company with about a hundred labourers and 20 diggers, said the team can extract “200 to 300 grams of gold” in a week.

Despite this, he said the firm was operating at a loss because of start-up costs since April.

Rahimzai, head of the provincial mines department, said last year the government collected 112 kilograms of gold in Badakhshan. According to miners who spoke to AFP, their sale price per gram was around US$118.

Rahimzai said that last year, “most of the mines were not registered, and there was no system to collect the fees from them”.

He has also ordered the closure of around 225 sites that caused damage, including in the Shiwa area.

“There was a bridge there, there were shops, and there was a school. All of them were buried under floodwater, mud, and debris. The area has been completely reduced to ruins,” Rahimzai told AFP.

The provincial mining chief also pledged to tackle any corruption, and ensure the “mineral resources of Badakhshan will be utilised properly and for the benefit of the people”.

Some parts of the province remain untouched, including a few kilometres from Shiwa where herder Fazil hoped the miners would stay away.

“Because it’s a place for people, for picnics, for livestock to graze,” he told AFP, giving only his first name for security reasons.

The gold industry “doesn’t benefit the local communities here”, said the 45-year-old, who has brought his herd to the mountains each summer since childhood.

“It benefits only the powerful people.” — AFP

HONG KONG, Aug 9 — Hong Kong’s weather observatory posted a record high temperature of 36.9 degrees Celsius today as Typhoon Dolphin swept warm air over the city, the meterological service said.

The approaching storm has already triggered mass flight cancellations and evacuations along China’s east coast ahead of its landfall and fuelled intense heat in the region.

“The maximum temperature recorded at the observatory was 36.9 degrees, the highest ever recorded since 1884,” when records began, the Hong Kong Observatory said in the afternoon.

The previous record was set at 36.6 degrees on August 22, 2017, before Typhoon Hato hit the city.

Figures recorded at the observatory’s headquarters serve as one of the key references for Hong Kong, according to the weather service, although temperatures can vary significantly in the densely built Chinese finance hub.

Temperatures elsewhere in the city topped 39C.

The station in Sheung Shui, in the city’s north, recorded 39.8C, the highest temperature logged in Hong Kong since automatic weather stations were introduced in the 1980s, the Observatory said.

“With Tropical Cyclone Dolphin moving towards the vicinity of Zhejiang and moving inland, its outer subsiding air will persistently bring extremely hot weather to the territory today to Tuesday,” the forecaster said.

The Observatory issued a “Very Hot Weather Warning” on Sunday, advising citizens to drink water and avoid vigorous outdoor physical activities.

Typhoon Dolphin is approaching the Chinese mainland about 1,000 km (620 miles) northeast of Hong Kong.

It has triggered more than 1,000 flight cancellations, evacuations and a top-level alert from authorities as it approaches China’s densely populated east coast.

It is expected to make landfall late today or early tomorrow in Zhejiang or its neighbouring province of Fujian.

Scientists say human-driven climate change is making extreme heat events more frequent and more intense worldwide. — AFP

BANGKOK, Aug 9 — A 14-year-old boy who shot dead the grandparents who raised him before killing six others at his school in Thailand had watched violent videos online and once brought a BB gun to school, police said today.

The teenage assailant shot his grandparents, using his grandfather’s handgun, at their home north of Bangkok on Friday before going on a killing spree at his secondary school and ultimately turning the gun on himself, according to authorities.

A 12-year-old girl wounded in the school shooting died on Saturday, and five teachers and school staff were killed on Friday, police said.

Investigators interviewed 17 witnesses and were examining the boy’s computer and phone to determine the “real cause of the shooting”, Atthapol Anusit, a deputy police commander for the region surrounding the capital, told reporters on Sunday.

“We looked into his PC and found history that he watched violent videos on social media,” Atthapol said.

“From questioning the kids, we know that he brought a BB gun to school last year but a teacher seized it.”

Witnesses told police the boy had been interested in guns for a year or two, Atthapol said, adding that he had learned how to use one by watching content on social media.

The child had lived with his grandparents since he was two years old after his parents had separated, he added.

The boy’s father apologised “to society for what my son did” on Friday, according to local media.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has said the boy experienced school-related stress, and his dead grandmother was a former teacher who had been “quite strict on him about studying”.

Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the region, with around 10 million firearms estimated to be in circulation — roughly one for every seven inhabitants.

Since Friday’s mass shooting, officials have promised stricter gun laws, but previous pledges have failed to prevent repeated shootings. — AFP

SANAA, Aug 9 — Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels said on Sunday they had struck an oil facility on Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea coast after the Gulf kingdom said it had extinguished a fire at the site.

The group’s military spokesman Yahya Saree said the Houthis had “succeeded in targeting the Aramco refinery in Jizan with a drone, and the strike was precise”, adding the attack had been launched in response to Saudi drone incursions into northwest Yemen.

Aramco is Saudi Arabia’s state-owned oil company.

A 2022 truce in Yemen’s civil war, which Saudi Arabia entered more than a decade ago on the side of the internationally recognised government, appeared to have collapsed last month, with the Houthis announcing a maritime blockade of its northern neighbour and hitting Saudi tankers in the Red Sea.

The Houthis control vast swathes of Yemen, including the capital Sanaa and areas on the border with Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea provinces.

The Yemeni threat to shipping and Saudi oil facilities comes in parallel with Iran’s blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, which has become the central flashpoint between Tehran and Washington amid efforts to end the Middle East war begun by the US and Israel in February.

Earlier, Saudi Arabia’s energy ministry said civil response teams had brought under control a fire at Jizan refinery without giving the cause of the blaze.

The facility was also targeted by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in July.

“Saudi Aramco’s industrial security firefighting teams extinguished a fire that broke out at dawn today, Sunday, at one of the facilities belonging to the Saudi Aramco refinery in Jizan, without any injuries,” the ministry said. — AFP

JAKARTA, Aug 9 — Indonesian authorities have closed access to a national park on Java island as firefighters battle a wildfire that has raged for nearly a week.

The blaze has razed 176 hectares (435 acres) since breaking out on Monday in Bromo Tengger Semeru National Park, near the popular East Java tourist destination of Mount Bromo, a disaster official said.

Authorities barred visitors from entering the park late Saturday until further notice.

No injuries or property damage have been reported, said National Disaster Mitigation Agency spokesman Abdul Muhari.

Two water-bombing helicopters have been deployed to douse flames in areas difficult for firefighters to reach because of steep slopes and strong winds, he said in a statement Sunday.

“These conditions make air operations important to reach areas that cannot be accessed optimally by land,” the official said.

A blaze destroyed more than 500 hectares of land on Mount Bromo in 2023 when a couple lit a flare during a pre-wedding photo shoot.

Indonesia is projected to experience a more intense and prolonged dry season this year, raising the risk of wildfires and drought, partly due to the El Nino weather phenomenon, weather agency BMKG said.

More than 107,000 hectares of land burned in Indonesia in the first half of this year, over twice the area destroyed in wildfires in 2023.

El Nino is a naturally occurring climate phenomenon that brings worldwide changes in winds, air pressure and rainfall patterns.

It usually causes drier conditions in Southeast Asia and India. — AFP

DUBAI, Aug 9 — Iran has set a list of demands for reopening the Strait of Hormuz, including compensation for war damages, complicating efforts to restore passage through the waterway vital to the global economy.

Tehran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait since the United States and Israel struck Iran in late February, and wants to charge tolls for passage, attacking ships it accuses of attempting to circumvent its preferred route.

Continued attacks in the strait, which was free to transit before the war, led to the collapse of an April ceasefire, with mediators since urging both sides to return to the terms of a June memorandum.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said discussions with Oman over transit and management of the strait were “approaching the final stages”, but added that reopening Hormuz “is subject to other conditions and compensation for the violation” of the June agreement.

Security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr on Saturday laid out a list of demands for reopening the strait, including an end to the “war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Iraq”.

He also demanded the lifting of a parallel US naval blockade of Iran, the end of sanctions, the release of frozen assets and compensation for wartime damage, according to remarks reported by Tasnim news agency.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, meanwhile, said Hormuz’s reopening had “nothing to do with the negotiations between Iran and Oman”, adding that the “enemy is forced to accept Iran’s conditions for the opening of the strait”.

Repeated attacks 

The comments came as transit through Hormuz has dropped significantly, with Iran targeting ships it accuses of skirting its preferred route through Iranian waters.

The United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry on Saturday condemned what it called a “hostile Iranian attack that targeted a tanker belonging to ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) with a missile while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz, without causing casualties”.

Later on Saturday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said a ship was hit by a projectile off Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire that was extinguished but no casualties.

It was unclear whether they were referring to the same ship.

On Friday, ADNOC had put out a statement saying that since the start of the war, 15 of its vessels had been attacked in Hormuz, “including three vessels this week alone”.

Oman’s foreign ministry on Saturday condemned “repeated attacks on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz”, without naming Iran.

It also said that “ongoing negotiations regarding navigation arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz are proceeding in a positive and constructive atmosphere”, and urged against any actions that might jeopardise the progress.

The previous Iran-US deal – meant to serve as a jumping-off point for negotiations on a permanent settlement – had said Iran and Oman would hash out future arrangements for the strait in discussion with other Gulf countries and “in line with the applicable international law”.

International law generally forbids tolling in such waterways.

Security agreement 

Turkey’s foreign minister said Saturday he expected Egypt to join a joint defence agreement between Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Pakistan designed to stabilise the region, calling the country a “natural partner on all issues”.

“I believe that at the next stage Egypt will also be among us in the alliance. We already act toward one another as if we were alliance members,” Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said in an interview.

A drone struck US assets at an Egyptian port on the Mediterranean last month, marking the first drone attack on Egyptian territory since the outbreak of the Iran war.

Fidan said the agreement does not target a specific country.

“There is no common threat that we have put in writing,” he said, according to the news agency.

Pakistan’s foreign ministry said Friday the pact meant an attack on any member would be regarded as an attack on all, adding it was “intended to strengthen collective deterrence”. – AFP

SYDNEY, Aug 9 — Safety regulators launched an investigation on Sunday into a “near collision” between two passenger aircraft at Australia’s busiest airport that injured a crew member.

The incident, which involved a Jetstar pilot being forced to apply sudden brakes to avoid crashing into a Qatar Airways jet on Sunday morning, disrupted operations at Sydney Airport.

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) said a Jetstar Airbus A320 was taxiing for a flight to the Gold Coast on Sunday morning when its crew “observed a Qatar Airways Boeing 777, under tow from an aircraft tug, in close proximity on a crossing taxiway”.

“A cabin crew member aboard the [Jetstar] A320 was injured, and there was damage to the connection between the 777 nose gear and aircraft tug” as both planes stopped abruptly, the statement said.

Investigators are collecting data from both aircraft, air traffic control, and interviewing crew and tug operators to determine the cause of the near collision, the regulator said.

It called for witnesses at the airport to send in any video of the near collision.

Flights at Sydney Airport are experiencing delays after the incident, Airservices Australia said.

“Our aircraft was following instructions by Air Traffic Control when the pilots were forced to brake firmly after another aircraft came in close proximity,” said a Jetstar spokeswoman.

A Jetstar crew member moving through the cabin was injured when the plane abruptly stopped, and later treated by paramedics.

Qatar Airways did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

An official not authorised to speak publicly said early information suggested the tug pulling the Qatar plane did not follow air traffic control instructions. — AFP

BEIJING, Aug 9 — China’s densely populated eastern coast was preparing Sunday for the arrival of Typhoon Dolphin, which has triggered more than 1,000 flight cancellations, evacuations and a top-level alert from authorities.

Nearly 1,400 flights in and out of Shanghai’s two main passenger airports had been cancelled on Sunday, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Hangzhou’s airport in nearby Zhejiang province saw 270 inbound and outbound flights cancelled, the report said.

Typhoon Dolphin, which brought heavy rain and strong winds to Japan’s Okinawa in recent days, is expected to make landfall late Sunday or early Monday in Zhejiang or its neighbouring province of Fujian.

Seven people in Okinawa suffered minor injuries, including a man aged over 100 who was blown by gusts, fell on the ground and hit his head, according to the island’s government.

By Sunday afternoon, 5,290 households in Okinawa were without electricity, according to regional utility Okinawa Electric Power.

In Taiwan, dozens of ferry services were suspended and more than 180 flights were cancelled as the storm brought downpours and strong winds to the island’s north on Sunday.

China’s National Meteorological Centre (NMC) issued a red typhoon alert – its most severe warning – on Sunday morning, forecasting “extraordinary torrential rain” in some areas of central and eastern Zhejiang.

Heavy precipitation is also expected to fall in Shanghai and parts of Fujian, Anhui and Jiangsu provinces through Monday afternoon, the NMC said.

After Typhoon Dolphin makes landfall, it is expected to weaken while moving in a northwesterly direction over eastern China.

In Fujian, nearly 99,000 people had been relocated from “risky areas” on Saturday evening ahead of the storm’s arrival, state news agency Xinhua reported.

Services on more than 200 ferry routes were suspended in Zhejiang and Fujian, Xinhua said.

Work at offshore projects had been halted while 474 construction vessels had been called to port by Friday morning, Xinhua added.

Some train services in affected areas had also been suspended on Sunday to ensure passenger safety, state media reported.

Typhoon Dolphin’s arrival in China comes two weeks after Typhoon Noul lashed southern Guangdong province, declared by authorities at the time as the strongest to hit China this year.

Three people were killed and hundreds of homes were damaged by Typhoon Noul in the Philippines before reaching China. — AFP

WASHINGTON, Aug 9 — A growing grassroots backlash against surveillance cameras that scan vehicle number plates is spreading across the United States, with privacy activists organising online campaigns and some even vandalising the equipment.

The surveillance start-up Flock has installed more than 100,000 licence plate reader cameras across the country in just a few years, with police departments, homeowners’ associations and businesses using them to track vehicles and investigate crimes.

But opponents say the technology gives authorities an unprecedented window into the movements of ordinary Americans and risks undermining privacy and civil liberties.

At just 20, a self-styled vigilante known as Nomark has become one of the movement’s most visible figures, using his Instagram account, which has about 500,000 followers, to raise awareness about Flock cameras.

After disabling about 30 cameras near his home in the Minneapolis area, he told AFP: “I’m not really as scared anymore.”

The backlash has grown beyond individual activists, with online groups mapping camera locations, sharing ways to block their lenses and celebrating people arrested for destroying them.

The Facebook group DeFlock America has more than 600,000 members and is gaining thousands more each day.

Flock cameras differ from traditional surveillance systems because they do not record video, instead taking still images that capture a vehicle’s make, model, colour, licence plate and other features such as bumper stickers.

That information can be stored for up to a month and shared among subscribers, sometimes across state lines.

Opponents argue the system allows police to build detailed records of where law-abiding Americans travel without obtaining warrants.

Jon Bridges, a police official in Virginia’s state capital Richmond, said that for “practically any crime that has a connection with a vehicle or a vehicle involved, we will at least query the database to see if there’s anything there.”

His department has used Flock since 2023.

Bridges cited a domestic-related double homicide in May, when police used Flock data to identify a suspect who had fled in his pick-up truck and alert officers in a neighbouring county, who later arrested him.

Potential abuses

Critics fear the technology could also be misused by officers to track people without warrants.

A Washington Post investigation found at least 50 police officers had been accused of misusing the Flock system, most of them to monitor romantic partners or former partners.

US media have also reported cases involving officers using Flock to track women who had abortions, which are illegal in several US states, while others allegedly shared data with immigration agents.

Flock chief executive Garrett Langley has accused some opponents of being “terrorists”, adding to tensions surrounding the technology.

“There is really an incredible grassroots movement against Flock,” said Chad Marlow, senior policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, describing its growth as “stunning.”

The campaign has attracted support from both the political left and right, including libertarians.

Former Fox News host and conservative commentator Tucker Carlson has called the vandals “decent, patriotic Americans” who are simply “taking matters into their own hands.”

Across the country, local groups are also lobbying elected officials to end Flock contracts.

Steven Keener, a professor of criminology at Christopher Newport University in Virginia, said residents could meet city council members or mayors and push them to cancel agreements with the company.

Such campaigns have already produced results.

More than 70 municipalities, from Los Angeles to small towns in Virginia, have ended their association with Flock in recent months, according to an ACLU tally.

For Keener, the movement is notable because it has brought people together despite the country’s deep political divisions.

“Because decisions are at the local level, people realize that they can actually make a difference,” he told AFP. – AFP

TOKYO, Aug 9 — As Japan marks the anniversary of the 1945 atomic bombs, its leaders are pushing for a renewed debate on nuclear weapons in a challenge to the nation’s long-time pacifist stance.

Japan’s constitution renounces offensive military force, and successive governments have maintained a decades-old pledge not to possess nuclear weapons, produce them or permit their introduction into the country.

That commitment is now under pressure as East Asian neighbours – notably China – boost their military capabilities, while doubts persist about the reliability of Tokyo’s biggest security backer, the United States.

Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has refused to clarify whether she will maintain the stance known as the three non-nuclear principles, and Defence Minister Shinjiro Koizumi called last month for a “discussion without a taboo” on the subject.

In December, an unnamed senior administration official told local media in an off-the-record session suggesting that Japan should possess nuclear weapons.

The remark was widely reported by major Japanese outlets including national broadcaster NHK and Asahi Shimbun, sparking public criticism.

“If I look at it cynically, I can’t help but think that maybe she really wants to change” Japan’s anti-nuclear commitment, 82-year-old Satoshi Tanaka, a campaigner who survived the 1945 attack on Hiroshima, told AFP.

The country marked the 81st anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing on Thursday and will do the same on Sunday to commemorate the attack on Nagasaki.

The August 1945 assault by the United States killed more than 210,000 people, including many from the effects of radiation exposure.

It remains the only time that atomic weapons have been used in warfare, and was one of the last major acts of World War II.

‘New militarism’ 

The Takaichi administration is undertaking a major update of the national defence strategy this year in the face of China’s expanding military ambitions.

The prime minister has already lifted Japan’s self-imposed ban on weapons exports and expanded defence spending, while pushing to amend the constitution.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attends a memorial ceremony marking the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing at Hiroshima’s Peace Memorial Park on August 6, 2026. —

Those policies have drawn rebukes from China, which accuses Japan of “new militarism” and Takaichi of bending to the whims of the far right.

They have also unnerved survivors of the 1945 bombings, who have long helped shape Japan’s post-war pacifist political culture.

Tanaka, the Hiroshima survivor, expressed frustration that current political leaders like Takaichi are focusing on military capacity at the expense of diplomacy.

“There is so much talk about national security. What about building peace through diplomacy?” he said.

Despite winning the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for their efforts, they are debating whether to continue their national association as their members grow older.

As of March, Japan recognised just over 91,000 survivors of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki attacks, down from over 164,000 a decade ago. Their average age is 86.7.

‘It only worries me’

The focus has turned firmly towards the future of the non-nuclear principles, which date to 1967.

Takaichi’s supporters argue that the final clause needs to be changed to allow the United States to bring nuclear arms to Japan and ensure regional deterrence.

Hirofumi Yoshimura, head of the Japan Innovation Party, a coalition partner of Takaichi’s government, said the principle deserved discussion in the context of the US-Japan security alliance.

“Of course, we need to work toward building a world without nuclear arms,” Yoshimura told reporters on the anniversary of the Hiroshima bombing.

“But when considering how to ensure the effectiveness of extended nuclear deterrence within the framework of our alliance with the United States, I believe we should...continue to adhere to the principle of ‘neither possessing nor producing’ nuclear weapons,” he said.

“As for ‘not allowing them to be brought in,’ I do think there is some room for discussion on that point.”

A girl prays during mass at Urakami Cathedral in Nagasaki on August 9, 2026, marking the 81st anniversary of the atomic bombing. — JIJI Press/Japan OUT/ AFP pic

Critics argue that Takaichi’s hawkish approach to defence increase the danger for Japan.

After Takaichi attended the annual ceremony in Hiroshima on Thursday, she sat down for a televised meeting with survivors.

When pressed, Takaichi declined to offer clarity on whether she might change the country’s nuclear course.

“Our nation currently adheres to the ‘three non-nuclear principles,’” she said in response to a direct question from Tanaka, without discussing what she might do next.

“That,” Tanaka told AFP on Friday, “only explains the current situation. It says nothing about the future.

“It only worries me more. I am concerned.” – AFP

BANGKOK, Aug 9 — A 12-year-old girl wounded in a school shooting in Thailand died on Saturday, the health ministry said, bringing the death toll to eight, including the teen assailant’s grandparents killed in their home.

On Friday, 14-year-old boy shot his grandparents before going on a killing spree at his school north of Bangkok and ultimately turning the gun on himself, according to police.

The health ministry said Saturday that the 12-year-old girl, who had been treated at a nearby hospital, had died.

“Another person has passed away... a 12-year-old girl,” the ministry said in a statement.

The other victims included a maths teacher, a psychology teacher and other teaching staff, according to police.

More than 30 people were injured in the shooting, Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul said during a visit to the school.

Fourteen people remained in hospital as of Saturday evening, seven of them in critical condition.

Police are questioning more witnesses as part of their investigation, including the suspect’s parents.

Thailand has one of the highest rates of gun ownership in the region, with around 10 million firearms estimated to be in circulation — roughly one for every seven inhabitants.

Previous promises to tighten gun laws have failed to prevent repeated shootings.

In February, Thai police shot and arrested a teenager who opened fire at a school in southern Thailand, killing the principal and wounding two students.

The teenager had used a police officer’s weapon in the shooting.

In 2022, an ex-policeman armed with a gun and a knife stormed a nursery in northern Thailand and killed 24 children and 12 adults, in one of the country’s deadliest massacres. — AFP

DUBAI, Aug 9 — The UAE accused Iran on Saturday of targeting a tanker belonging to its state-owned oil company in the Strait of Hormuz, even as both Iran and Oman suggested talks on administering the vital waterway were progressing.

Iran has imposed an effective blockade of the strait and wants to charge users for passage, repeatedly attacking ships it accuses of attempting to circumvent its preferred route.

The US vehemently opposes any Iranian tolls in the strait, though a June deal struck by the warring parties does allow Tehran to hammer out arrangements for the “future administration” of Hormuz in conjunction with fellow coastal state Oman.

Continued attacks in the strait, which was free to transit before the war, led to the collapse of an April ceasefire, and mediators have since urged both sides to return to the terms of the June memorandum.

The United Arab Emirates’ foreign ministry on Saturday condemned what it called a “hostile Iranian attack that targeted a tanker belonging to ADNOC (Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) with a missile while it was transiting the Strait of Hormuz, without causing casualties”.

Later on Saturday, the United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations (UKMTO) said a ship was hit by a projectile off Oman in the Strait of Hormuz, causing a fire that was extinguished but no casualties. It was unclear whether they were referring to the same ship.

On Friday, ADNOC had put out a statement saying that since the start of the war, 15 of its vessels had been attacked in Hormuz, “including three vessels this week alone”.

Oman’s foreign ministry on Saturday condemned “repeated attacks on vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz”, without naming Iran.

It also said that “ongoing negotiations regarding navigation arrangements in the Strait of Hormuz are proceeding in a positive and constructive atmosphere”, and urged against any actions that might jeopardise the progress.

The previous Iran-US deal – meant to serve as a jumping-off point for negotiations on a permanent settlement – had said Iran and Oman would hash out future arrangements for the strait in discussion with other Gulf countries and “in line with the applicable international law”.

International law generally forbids tolling in such waterways.

Reopening uncertain 

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said that talks with Oman were “approaching the final stages”, but cautioned that “this is not a sign of the reopening of the Strait of Hormuz”.

“The reopening of the Strait of Hormuz is subject to other conditions and compensation for the violation of the memorandum of understanding by the United States,” he said, referencing the June deal.

Iranian security chief Mohammad Bagher Zolghadr on Saturday laid out a laundry list of preconditions for reopening the strait, including an end to the “war and aggression against Iran and its allies in Lebanon, Palestine, Yemen, and Iraq”.

He also demanded the lifting of a parallel US naval blockade of Iran, the end of sanctions, the release of frozen assets, and compensation for wartime damage, according to remarks reported by Tasnim news agency.

The Revolutionary Guards, the ideological arm of the Iranian military, underscored the point, saying Hormuz’s reopening had “nothing to do with the negotiations between Iran and Oman”, adding that the “enemy is forced to accept Iran’s conditions for the opening of the strait”.

Meanwhile, Israel’s public broadcaster reported that US Admiral Brad Cooper – head of US Central Command, which leads Middle East operations – paid quick visits to Gulf allies the UAE and Bahrain, as well as Israel.

Cooper reportedly met with Israeli military chief Eyal Zamir, Kan said, describing the visit as a “multi-front situation assessment”. – AFP

MADRID, Aug 9 — Spain on Saturday started border checks on travellers arriving from Italy, responding to similar measures Rome imposed following a massive migrant rush into the Spanish north African enclave of Ceuta.

“I don’t see a lot of the word ‘diplomacy’ used in these decisions, not by the Italian government, nor by the Spanish government,” said one 36-year-old Italian tourist, Maria Celeste Grillo, who had just flown into Madrid.

She said she had not seen any added checks as she stepped off the plane, but found their implementation “sad”.

Spain announced Friday it would proceed with the heightened controls, citing what it said was “persistent irregular migration pressure” facing Italy – deepening a tit-for-tat row between the EU partners and Nato allies.

Spain’s left-wing government has complained that Italy’s hard-right government on July 31 unfairly imposed one month of border checks on travellers from Spain – suspending the EU’s Schengen Area visa-free travel arrangements – because of the Ceuta influx.

More than 70,000 migrants crossed from Morocco into the enclave on July 30 and 31, though almost all returned to Morocco within 48 hours.

The inflow alarmed European nations, especially right-wing governments urging tougher rules on irregular migrants. However, rules for Ceuta mean migrants cannot travel onward to continental Europe without passing another layer of border checks.

The EU’s migration chief Magnus Brunner said he had been in contact with both the Spanish and Italian interior ministers on Saturday and that “both confirmed that the internal border controls are temporary.”

“I stressed the progress we’ve made on tackling illegal migration and that trust between member states is our most valuable currency,” Brunner posted on X.

He also said Spanish authorities had provided assurances the Ceuta events “will have no lasting effect on the Schengen area,” adding: “That is why there are signals from Italy that controls could be lifted soon.”

Spain’s interior ministry said the new checks on incoming travellers from Italy would apply until September 7. – AFP

WASHINGTON, Aug 9 — Former US president Joe Biden’s cancer has metastasized further, according to his son Hunter Biden, who shared the update in a recent interview with the BBC.

In May 2025, just four months after he left office as the oldest sitting president, the elder Biden revealed he had been diagnosed with an aggressive form of prostate cancer that had spread to his bones.

He subsequently began treatment, including radiation and hormone therapy, which the 83-year-old described as going “really well” last month, during an announcement of his upcoming memoir.

In a wide-ranging interview published late Friday with BBC Newsnight, Hunter Biden said his father’s disease has spread despite the treatment.

“The cancer has spread, is metastasized into his bones and further,” Biden said.

“It’s very painful, and it’s very debilitating in many respects, but he’s still out there. He’s still doing his thing...he so believes in this country.”

Hunter Biden appeared to get emotional at times during the interview while discussing his father’s health.

“It’s really, really hard, and it’s really sad to watch,” he added.

Despite persistent questions about his health as the oldest-ever US president, Biden, then aged 81, decided to run for a second term in 2024.

Following a disastrous debate performance against Donald Trump in June 2024 and a wave of pressure from Democrats, Biden withdrew from the presidential race.

Trump went on to beat Biden’s replacement candidate — then-vice president Kamala Harris. — AFP

MONTREAL, Aug 9— Faced with another summer when wildfires have scorched millions of hectares of land and blankets of smoke have disrupted daily life nationwide, Canada is trying to limit the annual devastation.

Yet, despite procuring new water bombers and deploying forest management strategies to protect populated areas, experts caution that intense wildfires will remain a fixture of Canadian life.

“We’re going to have to live with this,” said Normand Lacour, who spent decades at Quebec’s wildfire prevention and detection organization (SOPFEU).

Canada is home to about a quarter of Earth’s boreal forest area and average annual temperatures in the country are increasing roughly twice as fast as the global average.

That makes conditions in Canada particularly “conducive to intense and very extensive forest fires,” University of Ottawa geography professor Patricia DeRepentigny told AFP.

Canada’s last three wildfire seasons have been among the 10 worst on record, including the devastating summer of 2023 when 18 million hectares were torched, an area nearly as large as Syria.

This summer is not currently on track to approach that historic toll, with 4 million hectares burned so far, but the damage has been widespread.

In the western province of British Columbia, 15,000 people have been ordered to evacuate their homes, while residents of major eastern population centers like Toronto endured some of the world’s worst air quality last month.

Changing methods 

Canada’s emerging response is broad-based.

The federal government has invested C$317 million (RM930 million) over five years “to establish a new national aerial firefighting surge capacity,” Ottawa announced in May.

The money is being used to lease 10 aircraft capable of confronting wildfires, to be dispatched to provinces facing intensifying blazes.

Ottawa is also backing a CAD$150 million program that aims to clear flammable material such as vegetation from populated areas.

Provinces have also beefed up their firefighter capacity, including in Quebec where SOPFEU staffing levels are up 40 percent.

But, when it comes to protecting people from wildfires, “Canada is not in an excellent position,” said Ryan Ness, the director of adaptation research at the Canadian Climate Institute.

There are “too many communities that are in areas that are exposed to wildfires that continue to develop,” he told AFP.

Fire clouds 

Canada is also extremely vulnerable to “fire clouds,” or pyrocumulonimbus clouds, immense blazes that create their own wind and even lightning that can spark fresh fires.

The phenomenon, a consequence of the more frequent heat waves caused by climate change, was once rare in Canada, but that is changing.

Fire clouds were recorded 140 times in Canada in 2023, compared with once or twice a year historically, DeRepentigny said.

Fire clouds are unpredictable and can spread at staggering speeds. Battling them is a near-impossible challenge.

“There’s not much we can do when this happens, apart from pulling crews out of the field and repositioning them behind the fire,” said SOPFEU meteorologist Claudia Vaillancourt. —AFP

CALI (Colombia), Aug 8 — With a lucrative legal career and a variety of colorful business projects under his belt, Colombia’s incoming President Abelardo de la Espriella now has grand plans to crush armed insurgents, cozy up to the United States and overhaul the system.

The millionaire lawyer with a taste for spectacle took office yesterday after a campaign focused on anger and fears about security.

Following a legal career that saw him represent drug-trafficking paramilitaries, fraudsters and football stars, he has promised to restore order with an iron hand.

During the campaign, he leaned heavily into his self-proclaimed nickname “The Tiger,” sharing AI-generated images of himself as a fanged tiger and the only candidate willing to wage war on crime and insurgency.

In his inauguration speech he pledged that “in the age of the Tiger,” the state “will be forceful and decisive against crime.”

“They will know how hard it bites when it comes to defending the Colombian people,” he said from the military garrison in Cali, in front of hundreds of uniformed personnel, four tanks and two helicopters.

He swore to “rebuild the Republic” and defend democracy “by reason or by force.”

Jet-setter 

He didn’t always play the tough guy. He previously lived in Florence, Italy, where he dabbled in opera, travelled by private jet and promoted his rum, wine and fashion brand — “De la Espriella Style.”

He brought that flair, tailored clothing and a taste for provocation into public life.

The message resonated with almost half of voters. De la Espriella won the presidential runoff, albeit by less than a percentage point.

De la Espriella promised a sharp break with the outgoing leftist government in a hardline program of “all-out war” on armed groups, the construction of “mega-prisons,” a military alliance with Washington and Israel and a drastically reduced state.

“People who have created wealth during their lives should run the country,” he once told AFP unapologetically.

His rhetoric has often been incendiary. He once called for the Colombian left to be “gutted,” a comment he later withdrew.

His campaign was also briefly tripped up by court rulings banning his use of national symbols like Colombia’s football jersey — decisions that were later overturned.

Despite railing against what he describes as the failed political establishment, De la Espriella’s incoming cabinet features a familiar cast of right-wing politicians.

“The horrible night is over,” he stated days before his inauguration, in reference to four years of leftist rule.

He has leaned into a more conservative cultural message.

Once openly atheist, De la Espriella now says he lives by “Judeo-Christian principles” and calls for a “cultural counterrevolution” to return the country to God.

Supporters see a decisive leader prepared to confront Colombia’s entrenched violence.

Critics warn that his confrontational style — and admiration for figures such as US President Donald Trump, Argentina’s Javier Milei and El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele — could deepen divisions in a country where past polarisation has brought bloodshed.

Penchant for swearing 

Even his personal stories have stirred controversy. In one interview, he recalled tying fireworks to cats as a child, later insisting he was joking.

His hot temper, penchant for swearing and frequent references to his own genitals have done nothing to dent his popularity.

For his base, those rough edges are part of the appeal.

From a childhood he describes as carefree, “in the style of Tom Sawyer,” to a jet-set legal career and now the presidency, De la Espriella has built a narrative of success and self-reliance — one he argues Colombia should follow.

Now, the “Tiger” faces the challenge of governing a country as divided as the campaign that brought him to power. — AFP

GAZA CITY, Aug 8 — Hamas said today it remained ready to proceed with a US-backed Gaza peace plan and urged pressure on Israel, which insists it did not agree to the latest part of the deal.

Hamas informed US President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace that it stood by the latest stage of the plan, under which the militants would hand over weapons to a nascent Palestinian governing committee in the war-battered territory.

“Hamas and other factions have confirmed to mediators their readiness to begin implementing the agreement and move to the second phase, provided it receives Israeli approval and that Israel begins implementing the agreement,” a Hamas official told AFP.

“Hamas is urging the US administration to exert pressure on Israel to compel it to abide by the agreement and move to the second phase,” the official said on condition of anonymity.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who faces a tough reelection fight in October and wide opposition from his right-wing base to the Gaza deal, said on Tuesday that Israel had not agreed to the “draft” presented by the Board of Peace.

Trump last week had hailed as a breakthrough that Hamas had agreed to disarmament under the plan, with the Board of Peace saying Israel would in tandem carry out a phased withdrawal from much of Gaza.

Netanyahu met Monday with the Board of Peace’s high representative for Gaza, Nickolay Mladenov, who backtracked and said Israel would withdraw only after a full disarmament by Hamas.

Israel’s military also vowed to keep hitting Hamas, which carried out the deadliest attack ever against Israel on October 7, 2023.

But Israeli operations in Gaza, while ongoing, appear to have decreased in intensity in recent days. Today, the Nasser hospital in Khan Yunis reported three people injured by Israeli army gunfire.

Israeli operations in Gaza have killed 1,257 Palestinians since October last year, when the two sides agreed to a ceasefire backed by Trump, according to the territory’s health ministry, which operates under Hamas authority and whose figures are considered reliable by the United Nations.

The Israeli army has reported five deaths in its ranks during the same period. — AFP

KATHMANDU, Aug 8 — Rescuers in Nepal have found the bodies of five mountaineers, including three foreigners, killed in an avalanche last year near the Chinese border, a local government official said today.

“Five bodies, three foreigners and two Nepalis, who had been missing since last November, have been discovered,” said Biswash Karki, chairman of Gaurishankar Rural Municipality.

The foreigners were an Italian-Canadian, a German and an Italian, he told AFP.

The avalanche hit the climbers on the lower flanks of the 5,630-metre Yalung Ri peak, near Nepal’s border with Tibet.

Locals and rescuers discovered the bodies on Thursday, Karki said, adding that the local authority was working to recover them.

“Ever since they went missing, we had been deploying the army, police and local rescue teams to search for them, but thick snow had covered their bodies,” the official said.

Senior local police officer Manoj Kumar Lama said a rescue helicopter was sent to the area on Friday, but “due to bad weather, our team has not been able to reach the spot”.

“Our rescue team will airlift the bodies once the weather clears,” he told AFP.

Home to eight of the world’s 10 highest peaks, including Mount Everest, Nepal welcomes hundreds of climbers and trekkers every year.

According to the Himalayan Database, an expedition archive, more than 1,000 people have died on peaks since 1950, with avalanches killing almost a third of them. — AFP

WASHINGTON, Aug 8 — President Donald Trump’s former personal lawyer Todd Blanche was confirmed as US attorney general on Saturday after Senate Republicans shrugged off Democratic concerns over politicisation of the Justice Department.

Blanche, who has already been serving as the top US law enforcement officer in an acting capacity, represented Trump as his private attorney in several criminal trials before entering government. The Senate, which Republicans narrowly control, confirmed him by 50 votes to 49.

Trump, who has upended US political norms by seeking to bring nominally independent government agencies under his increasingly direct control, calls Blanche a “star.”

Democrats opposed Blanche from the beginning, accusing Trump of turning the Department of Justice into a political weapon.

“The attorney general is supposed to be the people’s lawyer,” Senator Dick Durbin, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said on Tuesday.

“Mr Blanche continues to operate as the president’s personal lawyer, treating the Justice Department like a law firm serving one client — the president.”

There were doubts over whether the White House could persuade a handful of Republican holdouts, without whom even the narrow confirmation would have been impossible.

The main sticking point was an attempt to establish a US$1.8 billion (RM7.4 billion) fund for what Trump calls victims of politicised prosecutions, likely including the rioters who stormed the US Capitol on January 6, 2021 in an attempted insurrection to prevent Joe Biden from being certified as president after his defeat of Trump in the 2020 election.

The other main issue was an extraordinary proposal granting immunity to Trump from tax audits.

‘Hush money’ 

Blanche ultimately defused the internal party opposition with a written order over the weekend scrapping the so-called political “anti-weaponization fund” and saying that the audit immunity agreement with Trump, his two eldest sons and the Trump Organization would only apply “retroactively” to past tax years and not future filings.

Blanche has been serving as acting attorney general since Trump fired Pam Bondi, another political loyalist, in April.

Since then, he has been closely tied to what Democrats dub a Trump “retribution” campaign against the 80-year-old president’s opponents.

Blanche has also come in for criticism from victims of Jeffrey Epstein over his handling of the release of investigative files about the convicted sex offender, a one-time close friend of Trump.

Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Blanche represented Trump in his New York trial over alleged “hush money” paid to porn star Stormy Daniels.

He was also on the legal defense team in two federal cases brought against Trump by special counsel Jack Smith — for allegedly mishandling classified documents after leaving the White House and for seeking to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Both cases were dropped after Trump won the 2024 presidential election. — AFP

THE HAGUE, Aug 8 — A fire broke out last night at a recycling plant near the port of Rotterdam, spewing thick smoke across the area before being brought under control in an all-night operation, authorities said.

The blaze prompted a large-scale emergency response involving fire units, a fireboat from the port and a drone used to identify hotspots, according to the public safety information service for the Rotterdam-Rijnmond region.

Traffic was cut on several key roads and via the Maastunnel linking the Dutch city's northern and southern districts, although the restrictions were being gradually lifted after the fire was wrestled under control early today.

The flames engulfed an estimated 50 to 100 tonnes of household and commercial waste, sending a foul-smelling smoke plume across the area. Residents were advised to stay indoors, close windows and doors and switch off ventilation systems.

Those warnings were lifted by this morning, but firefighters remained at the site extinguishing residual hotspots and separating out debris. — AFP

KYIV, Aug 8  — Russian strikes killed three people including a child in a district northeast of Ukraine’s capital, a regional military official said today, as Kyiv warned of incoming ballistic missiles.

Moscow has significantly upped its attacks on the Ukrainian capital in recent months, typically firing salvos of hard-to-intercept ballistic missiles in short blitzes.

Three people including a child were killed and three others were wounded in strikes on Brovary district northeast of Kyiv, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the regional military administration, wrote on Telegram.

Falling debris from the attacks damaged houses and vehicles and caused a fire in a non-residential building, he said.

Ukraine’s state emergency service shared photos of a destroyed building covered in flames, saying the attack in the village of Pukhivka destroyed a two-storey house and two cars and sparked a fire in a warehouse.

An AFP reporter in the capital heard a dozen explosions as Ukraine’s air force warned of the “threat of ballistic weapon use from the north”.

Four people were wounded from overnight attacks in the city, Kyiv’s military administration said on Telegram.

“An air raid alert has been declared in Kyiv due to the use of ballistic missiles,” it had said earlier, instructing residents to take shelter. — AFP

NEW DELHI, Aug 8 — Two weeks after youth-led protests forced India’s education minister to resign, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government is grappling with the fallout from one of its toughest political challenges in years.

Led by the online Cockroach Janta Party (CJP), the demonstrations spread from New Delhi to other cities, broadening from anger over exam irregularities into a wider movement over unemployment, opportunities for young people and what critics describe as Modi’s increasingly authoritarian rule.

While demonstrations are largely over after achieving key demands, AFP looks at what the protests revealed—and what could come next.

Modi under pressure 

The resignation of the education minister on July 25 marked a rare climbdown for a prime minister who has spent more than a decade cultivating an image of unwavering resolve.

The authorities have since attempted to woo the youth, and parliament has hiked penalties for leaking exam papers.

Police have withdrawn cases against protestors in several cities after criticism over the excessive use of force.

The protests also exposed a rapidly changing digital landscape, with protesters using social media to spread their message.

Modi, a keen user of X, has turned to Instagram—issuing his first vertical videos to tap into the youth medium of choice.

Surveillance crackdown 

The protests exposed how authorities are using AI-powered camera technology to monitor and identify demonstrators.

Many women say they have been receiving rape threats and abusive messages online after their videos during the demonstrations went viral.

Internet shutdown around the main protest site in New Delhi disrupted communication, forcing youngsters to find new ways to stay in touch.

India ranked second worldwide in internet shutdowns last year, according to Access Now monitor, including localised blackouts during protests, conflict and communal violence.

Issues beyond exams 

Exam leaks were the spark, but the anger quickly spread to deeper frustrations among young Indians over jobs, economic opportunities and a lack of faith in institutions.

For many protesters, the prospect of uncertain employment after years of study and highly competitive examinations has become a symbol of a wider struggle for economic security.

That gives the movement a potential staying power beyond the original dispute.

Even if the government addresses exam cheating, it cannot easily resolve the broader grievances that brought young people onto the streets.

‘Cockroach’ influence 

The protests have left behind a youth movement with millions of followers online, but that does not guarantee lasting political influence.

The CJP has said it will organise a “nationwide listening tour” to hear the concerns of young Indians, while continuing to back protests over exam irregularities.

Demonstrations are still taking place in the eastern state of Jharkhand, suggesting the anger that fuelled the protests that began in the capital has not disappeared.

CJP founder, Abhijeet Dipke, has called for “a public movement to restore trust and neutrality in public institutions”.

“The public has become very frustrated and tired of these things. That is why our movement got such massive support,” he said.

But “for now, the CJP will function as a pressure group”, Dipke added, rather than a political party.

Youth vote 

The protests could force India’s political parties to focus on the needs and demands of young voters.

Young Indians make up a huge potential electoral constituency, but turning protest energy into votes is another matter.

With nearly three years to go before the next national polls, both Modi’s ruling party and the opposition may try and harness the anger and frustration expressed by young people for electoral gain. — AFP