Archaeologists uncover new evidence of Merlin legend in Scotland

3rd September

By Ross Hunter@_Ross_Hunter

Multimedia Journalist


Archaeologists have unearthed new evidence about the legend of Merlin in Scotland 

(Image: GUARD Archaeology)

ARCHAEOLOGISTS have shed new light on the legend of Merlin and the magician's Scottish connections.

The village of Drumelzier in the Borders has long been associated with Merlin.

According to Vita Merlini Sylvestris (the Life of Merlin of the Forest) — a medieval manuscript held by the British Library — Merlin was reportedly imprisoned there and buried on the banks of the Tweed in the 7th century.

In 2022, a team of volunteers drawn from across Scotland and led by GUARD Archaeology set out to investigate the archaeological roots of this local legend.

Now, the results of the work have been published with experts revealing that there may indeed be some truth to the reports of Merlin's death in Scotland.

More insight has been gained into Merlin's life in Scotland (Image: GUARD Archaeology)

A geophysics survey revealed that there is an archaeological feature resembling a grave near to the reputed location of Merlin’s Grave at Drumelzier.

An excavation of Tinnis Fort, which overlooks Merlin’s Grave, also found that this prominent hillfort was occupied around the late 6th and early 7th centuries AD, precisely when the story was set.

Archaeologists said the fort has the hallmarks of a lordly stronghold of the time.

READ MORE: Scottish city named among world's most 'underrated' to live

"The Drumelzier legend contains pre-Christian customs, ancient Cumbric names and was associated with local sites where archaeology now shows could credibly have given rise to the story," said GUARD Archaeology CEO Ronan Toolis, who led the project.

"Given how many hillforts there are in this neck of the woods, almost all of which are much earlier Iron Age settlements, it seems to be a remarkable coincidence that the one hillfort associated with this local legend, dates to exactly the same time as the story is set, especially when hillforts of the post-Roman period are quite rare.

"The new archaeological evidence does not prove that the local story was true but instead demonstrates that the legend likely originated in Drumelzier itself, rather than being brought here by a wandering medieval storyteller who roped in various random sites in the vicinity.

"Perhaps it originated as a folk memory, to be embellished over the centuries before it spread far and wide and changed out of almost all recognition.

"Unlike the classic depiction of Merlin as the wise and respected adviser to King Arthur, the Drumelzier legend paints a much darker picture.

"That of a rather pitiful fellow prone to uttering nonsensical riddles and bewildering prophecies, and kept prisoner by an obscure petty tyrant of a forgotten kingdom, before dying a gruesome death, the victim of royal intrigue."

READ MORE: First Buchanan clan chief in centuries marks Hollywood film premiere

An excavation of the Thirlestane Barrows across the other side of the Tweed also discovered that sometime between the late 3rd and late 6th centuries AD a square barrow was raised over the graves of two individuals of exceptional elite status.

While a scatter of Late Mesolithic/early Neolithic flint blade fragments was recovered from the summit of Tinnis, giving a faint trace of the first groups of humans ever to climb the prominent hill.


Toolis added: "Whether it was stories that clung to these Bronze Age round barrows at Thirlestane, these monuments evidently had some meaning in the landscape for the square barrow to be sited so close after an intervening two millennia.

"We should not forget that the people of ancient Tweeddale were aware of the history beneath their feet and the people that came before and it was through local folklore that stories about their past were passed on."

RACIST TROPE

CNN fact-checks JD Vance’s claims about immigrants eating pets

CNN

Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance has promoted false claims that Haitian migrants in Ohio are killing and eating family pets. CNN’s Tom Foreman checks the facts, and CNN's Abby Phillip discusses with her panel. #CNN #news 

Trudeau faces internal discontent as key meeting with party MPs begins

ByAnirudh Bhattacharyya
Sep 10, 2024 

On Monday, Liberal Party MP Alexandra Mendes told reporters that the feedback she has received from her constituents is that the PM “needs to go”

Toronto: As a key meeting with party MPs kicks off on Tuesday, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is contending with signs of dissatisfaction within his caucus.

Justin Trudeau, Prime Minister of Canada, speaks onstage during the premiere of ‘Nutcrackers’ during the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival at Roy Thomson Hall, on September 05, in Toronto, Ontario. (AFP)

On Monday, Liberal Party MP Alexandra Mendes told reporters that the feedback she has received from her constituents is that the PM “needs to go.”
Share your thoughts about Hindustan Times and unveil a surprise! Submit Feedback!

While she praised Trudeau’s track record as PM, she told the French-language network Radio-Canada, “I didn’t hear it from two, three people. I heard it from dozens and dozens of people. He’s no longer the right leader.”

Earlier, New Brunswick MP Wayne Long has called from him to resign from the post before the next Federal election, which is scheduled for October 2025.

The possibility of earlier elections has also grown more distinct with the New Democratic Party (NDP) withdrawing from the ‘supply-and-confidence agreement’ with the ruling party that it had entered into in March 2022. With 154 seats in the 338-member House of Commons, the Liberals are back to minority status.

Among the highlights of the caucus retreat in the resort town of Nanaimo in British Columbia will be the formal announcement that former Governor of the Bank of England, and earlier the Bank of Canada, Mark Carney, will enter the Government as a special advisor on economic issues.

In a release issued on Monday, Trudeau said, “Mark’s unique ideas and perspectives will play a vital role in shaping the next steps in our plan to continue to grow our economy and strengthen the middle class, and to urgently seize new opportunities for Canadian jobs and prosperity in a fast-changing world.”

In the recent past, Indo-Canadian MPs George Chahal from Alberta and Chandra Arya from Ontario have expressed concern over the direction of the party while continuing to proffer support to Trudeau.

Those concerns expressed by MPs are driven by worries about their own survival in the next election since the Liberals have trailed their rival Conservatives by between 15 and 20 points in opinion polls taken over the past year, placing the latter in majority territory.

Palestinian football team eye World Cup and homecoming

Matt Pearson

DW

The Palestinian men's football team are closer to World Cup qualification than they have ever been. But with all that is happening in their homeland, the chance to play back where they belong also means plenty.

Rami Hamadeh has done what many of the world's best goalkeepers have failed to do — keeping Tottenham Hotspur star Son Heung-min off the scoresheet. But a few days before helping his Palestinian team secure a crucial and historic, 0-0 draw in South Korea last Thursday, Hamadeh had been training on his own in Jerusalem while looking for a new club against the bloody backdrop of the Israel-Hamas war.

"It is difficult," he told DW "The war is the worst thing in the world. Everyone, everywhere wants to live in peace. I don't want to see my people die like this, children, women, men. It's not easy to see what we see every day.

"But we take our power, our positivity from those people that support us. We really play for these people who are under the war now, and I hope it will stop soon."
World Cup dream in sight

The Palestinians have a genuine chance to qualify for the World Cup in 2026, having made it to the third round of group stages in Asia, a result of the expansion of the tournament doubling Asia's quota. The Palestinians can qualify by finishing in the top two of a group that also includes Jordan, Iraq, Kuwait and Oman. Even the third and fourth-placed teams get another shot at qualifying and Hamadeh's saves in their toughest fixture was a strong start.

"Even if we only have a 0.001% chance, we will fight to be in the World Cup, because we are people who love to live the dream," the goalkeeper continued.

Though the Palestinians officially have five home matches in the group, they are currently playing those in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. That's despite an 11th-hour decision from football's world governing body, FIFA ,and the Asian Football Confederation (AFC), that they could play these qualifiers at home, for the first time in five years.

"I think in the future, it will be possible," said Hamadeh, with his team's next home match slated to be against Kuwait on October 15.

"The president of our federation, said next match is, Inshallah, to be in Palestine, our home. That make us even stronger, to play at home will be a great feeling for us. We take power from our fans and it will be full. But, most importantly, it's home and if you play at home, that's different."

Door open to homecoming

The logistical challenges of a homecoming would be huge, and potentially insurmountable, according to journalist Bassil Mikdadi, who runs the Football Palestine website. But the moral questions loom larger still. One of the most historic football stadiums in Gaza, the Yarmouk Stadium, was used as an internment camp by the Israeli Defense Force, as shown in harrowing images released last December. And the Palestinian Olympic Committee now estimate 400 sportspeople have been killed in the war.

While FIFA took some action on the issue of home matches, Gianni Infantino's organization have repeatedly kicked the can down the road, most recently on August 31, regarding the Palestine Football Association's (PFA) call for it to impose a ban Israel. Mikdadi finds this unacceptable.

"Israel had an illegal occupation of at the very least the West Bank and the Gaza Strip for coming up on 60 years now, and it hasn't cost them their FIFA membership. And given the well-documented atrocities that have been committed against the Palestinian people in Gaza, against footballers and against football institutions… It makes you think that letting the Palestinians play at home is a consolation prize."

In fact, in addition to Israel's internationally acknowledged borders, the country has been occupying the West Bank and the Golan Heights since 1967, with it also having settlements in both regions. Under international law, this is illegal. While Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, its forces have been operating in the enclave since the October 7 terrorist attacks by Islamist group Hamas.

Israel denies that it is illegally occupying any Palestinian territories. After the International Court of Justice issued an advisory ruling last July stating that Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories was illegal, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the ruling as a "decision of lies."

The comparison between Russia's war on Ukraine and the Israel-Hamas war is also considered to be flawed by many observers. While Ukraine didn't initially attack Russia, the latest Israel-Hamas war was sparked by the events of October 7, when Hamas militants led incursions into Israel, killing around 1,200 people, and taking some 250 hostages, mostly civilians.

FIFA decision due in October

The PFA had submitted a proposal to suspend Israel in May but, after initially promising action in July, and again in August, FIFA now say a decision will be made in October. Such delays meant Israel were able to compete in the football section of the Olympics while they are currently competing in the UEFA Nations League.

"FIFA has received the independent legal assessment of the Palestine Football Association's proposals against Israel," FIFA said. "This assessment will be sent to the FIFA Council to review in order that the subject can be discussed at its next meeting which will take place in October."

Israel has denied the PFA's accusations. Israel Football Association President Moshe Zuares called it a "cynical, political and hostile attempt by the Palestinian Association to harm Israeli football."

Messages from home

Given the circumstances, for this side to have come as far as they have in qualification is remarkable, said Mikdadi.

"I think it speaks to the character of the team, the mindset of the team, and also the quality and the individual professionalism of the players involved."

Hamadeh is a good example of this. While many of the Palestinian squad play abroad, particularly in Libya, a handful remain in their homeland. The goalkeeper is one of them. He has been without a club for a year and trains in a local gym with a goalkeeping coach, but is still able to perform at the highest level. He sees the qualifiers, and the chance of going to the World Cup in North America, as an opportunity to put himself in the shop window. But, more than that, he sees his team's performance as a rare ray of hope.

"I want to tell you how many messages came to me from Gaza, from Palestine," he said. "We make the people happy. We play for these people. What's happened in Palestine is something gross. It's not easy to live there. Now it's not easy to watch what happens there. So when those people who are inside the war watch us, it's really give us motivation to play. We play to make these people happy."

Edited by: Chuck Penfold

Matt Pearson Sports reporter and editor@thisismpearson

SpaceX launches daring mission with all-civilian crew for first private spacewalk

SpaceX's Polaris Dawn Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Launch Complex 39A of NASA's Kennedy Space Centre on Tuesday in Cape Canaveral, Florida. AFP

SpaceX launched its daring Polaris Dawn mission on Tuesday, a multiday orbital expedition carrying a four-member civilian crew for the first spacewalk by non-professional astronauts.

The crew, led by Shift4 Payments CEO Jared Iscaacman, is also aiming to fly deeper into space than any other manned mission in more than half a century, reaching a peak altitude of 870 miles (1,400 kilometres).

"Liftoff of Polaris Dawn!" SpaceX said on X, alongside a photo of the take-off.

The highlight of the mission will be the first spacewalk composed entirely of non-professionals, who are wearing sleek, newly developed SpaceX extravehicular activity (EVA) suits outfitted with heads-up displays, helmet cameras and an advanced joint mobility system.

Applause broke out across the mission control centre as the Dragon capsule separated successfully from the main engine and the first glimpses of Earth came into view.

"The Polaris Dawn crew is now in Zero-G!" SpaceX wrote on X minutes later, as the crew experienced their first taste of zero-gravity.

On the first day of their mission, the craft will travel so high that it will briefly enter the Van Allen radiation belt, a region teeming with high-energy charged particles that can pose health risks to humans over extended periods.

The mission was delayed several times, initially due to a technical issue with the launch tower and then because of weather constraints.

The Crew Dragon capsule will not dock with the International Space Station, which is why the weather had to be favourable during both the launch and splashdown phase, around six days after liftoff.

Two years' preparation

Isaacman has declined to reveal his total investment in the project, though reports suggest he paid around $200 million for the SpaceX Inspiration4 mission in September 2021, the first all-civilian orbital mission.

Rounding out the team are mission pilot Scott Poteet, a retired US Air Force lieutenant colonel; mission specialist Sarah Gillis, a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX; and mission specialist and medical officer Anna Menon, also a lead space operations engineer at SpaceX.

The quartet underwent more than two years of training in preparation for the landmark mission, logging hundreds of hours on simulators apart from skydiving, centrifuge training, scuba diving, and summiting an Ecuadoran volcano.

Polaris Dawn is set to be the first of three missions under the Polaris programme, a collaboration between Isaacman, the founder of tech company Shift4 Payments, and billionaire Elon Musk's SpaceX.

Also on their to-do list are testing laser-based satellite communication between the spacecraft and Starlink, SpaceX's more than 6,000-strong constellation of internet satellites, in a bid to boost space communication speeds, and conducting 36 scientific experiments.

Among these are tests with contact lenses embedded with microelectronics to continuously monitor changes in eye pressure and shape.

Agence France-Presse

SpaceX launches billionaire to carry out first private spacewalk

10 September 2024

Private Spaceflight. Picture: PA

Unlike his previous chartered flight, this time tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is sharing the cost with SpaceX.

A daredevil billionaire rocketed back into space on Tuesday, aiming to perform the first private spacewalk and venture further than anyone since Nasa’s Apollo Moon missions.

Unlike his previous chartered flight, this time tech entrepreneur Jared Isaacman is sharing the cost with SpaceX, including the development and testing of new spacesuits to see how they perform in the harsh vacuum.

Mr Isaacman launched from Cape Canaveral in Florida before dawn on board a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, along with a pair of SpaceX engineers and a former Air Force Thunderbirds pilot.

If all goes to plan, it will be the first time private citizens have carried out a spacewalk, although they will not venture away from the capsule.

Jared Isaacman refused to reveal how much he invested in the flight (John Raoux/AP)

Considered one of the riskiest parts of spaceflight, spacewalks have been the sole realm of professional astronauts since the former Soviet Union opened the hatch in 1965, closely followed by the US. Today, they are routinely done at the International Space Station.

The spacewalk is scheduled for late on Wednesday or Thursday, midway through the five-day flight.

But first the passengers are aiming way beyond the International Space Station – an altitude of 870 miles (1,400km), which would exceed the Earth-lapping record set during Nasa’s Project Gemini in 1966. Only the 24 Apollo astronauts who flew to the Moon have ventured further.

The plan is to spend 10 hours at that height – filled with extreme radiation and riddled with debris – before reducing the oval-shaped orbit by half.

Even at a lower 435 miles (700km), the orbit would eclipse the space station and even the Hubble Space Telescope, the highest shuttle astronauts flew.

All four will wear SpaceX’s spacewalking suits because the entire Dragon capsule will be depressurised for the two-hour spacewalk, exposing everyone to the dangerous environment.

Mr Isaacman and SpaceX’s Sarah Gillis will take turns briefly leaving the hatch. The will test their white and black-trimmed custom suits by twisting their bodies.

Both will always have a hand or foot touching the capsule or attached support structure that resembles the top of a swimming pool ladder. There will be no dangling at the end of their 12ft (3.6m) tethers and no jetpack showboating. Only Nasa’s suits at the space station are equipped with jetpacks, and they are for emergency use only.

Pilot Scott “Kidd” Poteet and SpaceX’s Anna Menon will monitor the spacewalk from inside. Like SpaceX’s previous astronaut flights, this one will end with a splashdown off the Florida coast.

At a pre-flight news conference, Mr Isaacman – chief executive and founder of credit card processing company Shift4 – refused to say how much he invested in the flight.

“Not a chance,” the 41-year-old said.

SpaceX teamed up with Mr Isaacman to pay for spacesuit development and associated costs, said William Gerstenmaier, a SpaceX vice president who once headed space mission operations for Nasa.

“We’re really starting to push the frontiers with the private sector,” he added.

It is the first of three trips that Mr Isaacman bought from Elon Musk two-and-a-half years ago, soon after returning from his first private SpaceX spaceflight in 2021.

Mr Isaacman bankrolled that tourist ride for an undisclosed sum, taking along contest winners and a childhood cancer survivor. The trip raised hundreds of millions for the St Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Spacesuit development took longer than anticipated, delaying this first so-called Polaris Dawn flight until now.

Training was extensive, with Mr Poteet saying it rivalled anything he experienced during his Air Force flying career.

As SpaceX astronaut trainers, Ms Gillis and Ms Menon helped Mr Isaacman and his previous team – as well as Nasa’s professional crews – to prepare for their flights.

I wasn’t alive when humans walked on the Moon. I’d certainly like my kids to see humans walking on the Moon and Mars, and venturing out and exploring our Solar System

Tech billionaire Jared Isaacman

Mr Isaacman said before lift-off: “I wasn’t alive when humans walked on the Moon. I’d certainly like my kids to see humans walking on the Moon and Mars, and venturing out and exploring our Solar System.”

Poor weather caused a two-week delay to the launch.

The crew needed favourable forecasts not only for lift-off, but for splashdown days later.

With limited supplies and no ability to reach the space station, they had no choice but to wait for conditions to improve.

By Press Association

K-pop fans in Havana -

 
Copyright © africanewsRamon Espinosa/Copyright 2024 

The AP. All rights reserved
By Rédaction Africanews

Even socialist Cuba, the birthplace of salsa and many other rhythms that conquered the world, has surrendered to the invasion of South Korean pop music.

Thirteen-thousand kilometres separate the Asian nation and the Caribbean island, as well as their completely different languages and cultures.

However, all of these differences vanish in a second for the young people who attended "discorea", a dancing place for K-pop enthusiasts.

Twenty-four-year-old Francisco Piedra, who adopted the artistic name 'Ken,' never misses an event and rehearses every day.

He aspires to be a K-pop choreographer.

"K-pop has given me happiness, it has given me a world where I can be myself. I can enjoy laughing, singing, dancing, and expressing myself as I really am,” he said.

Dedicated fans gather in the capital, Havana, almost every weekend to show their moves and exchange the latest gossip on their favourite K-pop artists.

Earlier this year, Cuba and South Korea re-established diplomatic relations that had been severed after the Cuban revolution in 1959.

However, K-Pop made its way to the island around four years ago when mobile internet service for cell phones finally became available.

The K-pop tribe, as they like to call themselves, uses their phones to stay updated on the latest K-pop songs and dance moves.

Tania Abreu is an electronic engineer by profession and the leader of the Macrocosmos cultural project specialising in this genre.

She said K-pop has become popular not only because of the quality of the music but also because the songs touch on social issues that are common in Cuba.

“When the kids found out that it is a beautiful music, very beautiful music, that has nice lyrics, they started to download them and identified with that world,” she said.

There is no exact number of people participating in this mostly youthful K-pop movement, but she said several thousand people are involved and are very visible in Havana and Santiago de Cuba.

Peaches from Japan's Fukushima region sold at Harrods

Agence France-Presse
September 10, 2024 

Before the 2011 nuclear meltdown, Fukushima prided itself as a 'fruit kingdom' (STR)

Peaches from Fukushima can now be bought at London's luxury department store Harrods in a Japanese push to ease fears about produce grown in the region hit by nuclear disaster.

A box of three large, juicy white peaches costs 80 pounds ($100) -- the first time the fruit is available at a shop in Europe, after sales at temporary events.

Before the 2011 atomic meltdown, Fukushima prided itself as a "fruit kingdom", famous in Japan for its delicious offerings, including peaches, grapes, pears and cherries.


But after an earthquake-triggered tsunami unleashed the worst nuclear disaster since Chernobyl, consumers feared eating them could harm their health and sales plunged.

Although the areas surrounding the stricken Fukushima Daiichi power station were evacuated over radiation fears, farms in the rest of the region were not contaminated.

And before being sent to stores, all farm and fishery products from the northeastern Japanese prefecture now undergoes strict radiation inspection.

Harrods began selling the peaches on Saturday, part of a reputation-building initiative by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), the operator of the Fukushima plant.

The company has previously staged campaigns in the United States, Thailand and other major economies to promote rice, farm products and seafood from Fukushima.

"The primary purpose of those activities is to erase fears in foreign markets of Fukushima produce," a TEPCO spokesman told AFP on Tuesday.

An association of Fukushima residents in London hailed the news as a "major step forward" in a Facebook post.

"Many people asked us at Japan festivals, 'where can we buy these?'" it said.

"Please enjoy the taste of these peaches that Fukushima proudly presents to the rest of the world."

'If we can't speak, why live?': BBC meets women after new Taliban law

Yogita Limaye
BBC News, Kabul

Women in Afghanistan have had their freedoms crushed bit by bit - most now cover themselves and few leave their faces visible

The daily English lessons that Shabana attends are the highlight of her day. Taking the bus in Kabul to the private course with her friends, chatting and laughing with them, learning something new for one hour each day - it’s a brief respite from the emptiness that has engulfed her life since the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

In another country, Shabana* would have been graduating from high school next year, pursuing her dream to get a business degree. In Afghanistan, she and all teenage girls have been barred from formal education for three years.

Now even the small joys that were making life bearable are fraught with fear after a new law was announced saying if a woman is outside her home, even her voice must not be heard.

“When we got out, we’re scared. When we’re on the bus, we’re scared. We don’t dare to take down our masks. We even avoid speaking among ourselves, thinking that if someone from the Taliban hears us they could stop and question us,” she says.

The BBC has been in Afghanistan, allowing rare access to the country's women and girls - as well as Taliban spokespeople - reacting to the new law, which was imposed by the Taliban’s supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada.

The law gives the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice Ministry – the Taliban’s morality police - sweeping powers to enforce a stringent code of conduct for Afghan citizens.

For women who have already had their freedoms crushed bit by bit by a relentless series of decrees, it delivers another blow.

“If we can’t speak, why even live? We’re like dead bodies moving around,” Shabana says.


Teenage girls are unable to attend school. The BBC is not showing their faces to protect their identities


“When I learnt about the new law, I decided not to attend the course any more. Because if I go out, I’ll end up speaking and then something bad might happen. Maybe I won’t return home safely. But then my mother encouraged me to continue.”

In the three years since the Taliban takeover, it's become clear that even if edicts aren’t strictly imposed, people start self-regulating out of fear. Women continue to be visible in small numbers on the streets of cities like Kabul, but nearly all of them now are covered from head to toe in loose black clothes or dark blue burqas, and most of them cover their faces with only their eyes visible, the impact of a decree announced last year.

“Every moment you feel like you’re in a prison. Even breathing has become difficult here," said Nausheen, an activist.

Until last year, whenever new restrictions were announced, she was among small groups of women who marched on the streets of Kabul and other cities, demanding their rights.


Now the Taliban have imposed a new rule, banning women from raising their voice in public

The hospital struggling to save its starving babies

What happened to the women who took on the Taliban?

The protests were violently cracked down on by the Taliban’s forces on multiple occasions, until they stopped altogether.

Nausheen was detained last year. “The Taliban dragged me into a vehicle saying ‘Why are you acting against us? This is an Islamic system.’ They took me to a dark, frightening place and held me there, using terrible language against me. They also beat me,” she says, breaking down into tears.

“When we were released from detention we were not the same people as before and that’s why we stopped protesting,” she adds. “I don’t want to be humiliated any more because I’m a woman. It is better to die than to live like this.”

Now Afghan women are showing their dissent by posting videos of themselves online, their faces covered, singing songs about freedom. “Let’s become one voice, let’s walk together holding hands and become free of this cruelty” are the lines of one such song.

Deputy Taliban spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat refused to be pictured with our reporter, because she is a woman



Taliban government deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat, who didn’t want to be pictured with a woman or sit directly opposite me, justified the new edict, which came accompanied with copious footnotes - references to religious texts.

“The law approved by the supreme leader is in accordance with Islamic Sharia law. Any religious scholar can check its references,” he says.

Shireen, a teacher, does not agree.

“This is their own interpretation of Sharia. Islam has given the right to both men and women to choose if they want to study and progress.

"If they say that women’s voices should not be heard, let’s go back to history. There are so many women in Islamic history who have spoken out.”

Getty Images
Women, seen here looking in a Kabul shop window, get fewer and fewer chances to meet

Shireen is part of a network of Afghan women running secret schools quietly rebelling against the restrictions. Already operating under a great deal of risk, often having to move the location of the school for safety, the new law has compounded her fears.

The danger of discovery is so great, she cannot speak to us at home, instead choosing a discreet location.

“Every morning I wake up asking God to make the day pass safely. When the new law came, I explained all its rules to my students and told them things would be more difficult. But I am so tired of all this, sometimes I just want to scream,” she says. “They don’t see women as human beings, just as tools whose only place is inside the home.”

Karina, a psychologist who consults with a network of secret schools, has previously told us that Afghan women are suffering from a ‘pandemic of suicidal thoughts’ because of the restrictions against them.

After the new law was announced she says she had a surge in calls asking for help. “A friend of mine messaged me to say this was her last message. She was thinking of ending her life. They feel all hope is gone and there is no point in continuing living,” she said. “And it’s becoming more and more difficult to counsel them.”

Kaynat - a student midwife - is one of the few women in training

I asked Hamdullah Fitrat about the Taliban government’s responsibility towards women and girls in their country who are being driven into depression and suicidal thoughts because they’re banned from education.

“Our sisters' education is an important issue. We’re trying to resolve this issue which is the demand of a lot of our sisters,” the spokesman said.

But three years on, do they really expect people to believe them?

“We are awaiting a decision from our leadership. When it is made, we will all be told about it,” he replied.

From earlier meetings with Taliban officials, it has been evident for a while that there are divisions within the Taliban government on the issue of women’s education, with some wanting it to be restarted. But the Kandahar-based leadership has remained intransigent, and there has been no public breaking of ranks with the supreme leader’s diktats.

We have seen some evidence of the difference in views. Not far from Kabul, we were unexpectedly given access to a midwife training course regularly run by the Taliban’s public health ministry. It was under way when we visited, and because ours was a last-minute visit, we know it was not put on for us to see.

More than a dozen women in their 20s were attending the course being conducted by a senior female doctor. The course is a mix of theory and practical sessions.

The students couldn’t speak freely but many said they were happy to be able to do this work.

“My family feels so proud of me. I have left my children at home to come here, but they know I’m serving the country. This works gives me so much positive energy,” said Safia.

Many acknowledged their privilege, and some expressed fear about whether even this might be stopped eventually. The Taliban’s health ministry didn’t answer questions about how they would find students to do this course in the future, if girls were not receiving formal education after grade six.

Public health, security, arts and craft are among a handful of sectors where women have been able to continue working in parts of the country. But it isn’t a formal decree that gives them permission. It’s happening through a quiet understanding between ground-level Taliban officials, NGOs and other stakeholders involved.

The new law leaves even this informal system vulnerable to the scrutiny of the Taliban’s morality police.

About 10 women, all in their 20s, were involved in a lesson on how to handle a woman in labour

Sources in humanitarian agencies have told us they are grappling to understand how the law should be interpreted but they believe it will make operations more difficult.

The law was announced less than two months after the Taliban attended UN-led talks on engagement with Afghanistan for the first time – a meeting that Afghan civil society representatives and women’s rights activists had been kept out of, at the insistence of the Taliban.

It’s led many in the international community to question whether it was worth accepting the Taliban’s conditions for a meeting, and what the future of engagement with them might look like.

Reacting to the new law, the EU put out a sharply worded statement describing the restrictions as ‘systematic and systemic abuses… which may amount to gender persecution which is a crime against humanity’. It also said the decree creates ‘another self-imposed obstacle to normalised relations and recognition by the international community’.

“The values laid out in the law are accepted in Afghan society. There are no problems. We want the international community, especially the UN and others to respect Islamic laws, traditions and the values of Muslim societies,” Taliban deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said.

Less than two weeks ago the Taliban’s Vice and Virtue Ministry said it would no longer co-operate with the UN mission in Afghanistan because of its criticism of the law.

It’s evidence that relations which seemed to be progressing just two months ago, appear to have now hit a significant roadblock.

“I believe that when it comes to aid, the world should continue helping Afghanistan. But when it comes to talking to the Taliban, there should be a rule that in each discussion women must be present. And if that can’t happen, they [the international community] should stop talking to them,” psychologist Karina said.

“The world must care about what’s happening with Afghan women, because if it doesn’t this mentality could easily spread to them, to their homes.”


* The names of all women interviewed for this piece were changed for their safety

Additional reporting by Imogen Anderson and Sanjay Ganguly

Fukushima begins robotic removal of radioactive debris sample 13 years after nuclear disaster

Mission to retrieve debris resumes after delay, marking crucial step in decades-long cleanup process

Namita Singh

Related: Residents gradually return after Fukushima nuclear disaster

For free real time breaking news alerts sent straight to your inbox sign up to our breaking news emails

A robotic mission to retrieve a sample of melted radioactive debris from Fukushima Daiichi’s reactor resumed on Tuesday, marking a crucial step in the decades-long decommissioning process.

The “pilot extraction operation” has started, said Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) in a statement.

A 9.0 magnitude quake and tsunami ravaged parts of Japan’s northeastern coast on 11 March 2011, killing about 20,000 people. When the tsunami struck, three of the six reactors at the Fukushima plant were active, causing them to melt down. The resulting debris is extremely radioactive, requiring Tepco to create special robots that can withstand the high levels of radiation.

The extendable robot, nicknamed “telesco”, aims to collect a tiny fragment of the spent fuel debris, estimated to be around 880 tonnes, to inform future cleanup methods.

The operation, initially delayed due to a technical issue, involves inserting the robot into the damaged reactor to collect a sample using a device equipped with tongs.

The mission, resuming after three weeks, is expected to last around 14 days, with the robot operating remotely.

The mission to collect a sample from the plant was supposed to start on 22 August, but it was delayed after workers found that the pipes used to guide the robot were in the wrong order and couldn’t be fixed in time.

Telesco is designed to collect a piece of melted fuel from inside of the Unit 2 damaged reactor. It can extend up to 22m to reach the target area.

The mix-up, which Tepco called a “basic mistake”, triggered disappointment and raised concerns from officials and local residents. Industry minister Ken Saito ordered Tepco president Tomoaki Kobayakawa to conduct a thorough investigation of the cause and preventive steps before resuming the mission, stating, “we must ensure that such a basic mistake does not happen again”.

The pipes were brought into the reactor building in July, but nobody checked them until the problem was discovered. The president of the plant’s operator, Tepco, admitted that the mistake was due to a lack of attention and communication between workers.

The goal of the operation is to bring back less than 3g of fatally radioactive fuel that remain in three reactors.

Experts highlight the significance of this operation, as the retrieved sample will provide vital data for developing future decommissioning methods and necessary technology. “This sample will help us understand the condition of the melted fuel and how to remove it safely,” said a nuclear expert.

However, critics argue that the 30 to 40-year cleanup target set by the government and Tepco is unrealistic, with no specific plans for the full removal and storage of the melted fuel debris. “The lack of a clear plan and timeline raises concerns about the project’s feasibility,” said a local resident.

Additional reporting from agencies

No, Pakistan is not Israel’s doppelganger

The Grand Canyon-sized crater in Faisal Devji’s argument is one that anyone with any basic reading of South Asian history could point out to you — we were already here.

Ayesha Malik

Published September 10, 2024 

I started to read Faisal Devji’s 2013 book Muslim Zion in a cafe in Lahore where the Palestinian flag dominated one of the floor-to-ceiling windows. I would look up at it every now and then when I was most frustrated by Devji’s feeble arguments that Pakistan was the Israel of the Muslim world and the Indian subcontinent.

While I can hardly claim to have come to the book unbiased (I did not of course believe Pakistan to be a Muslim Israel), I did think that Devji’s book would have at least left me a little perplexed at some of the similarities between Pakistan and Israel or persuaded me somewhat that it wasn’t so clearcut.

Unfortunately, Devji writes as well as he thinks, which is to say not very well at all, and so neither of those things happened.

‘Muslim Zion’

The notion that Pakistan was a ‘Muslim Zion’ was popularised by Devji and is premised on the argument that Pakistan and Israel share a braided history — that they both sought to create a promised land based on religion in a strange neighbourhood surrounded by foes. Most recently, in the Munk Debate for 2024, guffawing British critic Douglas Murray also proposed a likeness between Pakistan and Israel, arguing that anti-Zionism is anti-Semitism as nobody would dare suggest that Pakistan be abolished or that it has no right to be a state. According to Devji, “Pakistan and Israel both emerged from situations in which minority populations dispersed across vast subcontinents sought to escape the majorities whose persecution they rightly or wrongly feared”.

The Grand Canyon-sized crater in Devji’s argument is one that anyone with any basic reading of South Asian history could point out to you — we were already here.

Zafrulla Khan, Pakistan’s finest diplomat, and international lawyer, pointed out the fallacies of this argument to the UN General Assembly when analogies were made between the Jews in Palestine and the Muslims in India. He highlighted that Muslims were an integral part of the population. In contrast, European Jews had been artificially shipped into Palestine — a foreign country they had no ties to — to facilitate the ethnic cleansing of the local Arab population.

Gandhi supported this argument when he said that the “Muslim population is a population of converts … all descendants of Indian-born people”. We were indigenous to the land, a land we sought to partition to escape a British Raj giving way to a Hindu Raj, which we cleft with the assent of both.

Pakistan had become independent with the consent of the Hindu majority, hard-won but won in the end, negotiated without bloodshed, and it had only been formed in areas where Muslims were in the majority, with the maharajas, nawabs, and nizams of every princely state choosing which country to join — Kashmir remaining a notable exception to this. Pakistan’s consistent position even in 1948 was that if the Palestinians were to consent to partition, they would also vote in favour of the plan to part the territory. But Palestinians refused to consent on the basis that the Jews had been in a minority everywhere except in Jaffa, one out of 14 subdistricts at the time and had been settled into the land to drive them out of it.

Devji’s argument that Indian Muslims came to Pakistan from great distances, “to become the Ashkenazis of their new homeland”, is incredibly disingenuous, and should by that token also apply to Hindus and Sikhs who moved to India. What is axed from Devji’s narrative is that Partition gave every family the choice to leave or to stay, a choice open to all, and availed by many.

The decision to move was never to be conquerors in a country they’d just liberated.
A crumbling analogy

They say that in the slippery slope of analogies, you must never ski right to the bottom. Unfortunately, Devji slaloms exactly there and then stays for an uncomfortably long time. The threads he attempts to weave together to create his frayed tapestry of an argument include that Urdu was made the language of Pakistan despite it not being any of its people’s mother tongue which is akin to Hebrew being chosen as Israel’s national language — that is, it being an attempt to unify a nation and create a new nationality which wasn’t there.

While this argument can be debated in its own right, it seems to ignore entirely Devji’s main thesis. For if Pakistan really was the Muslim Zion with no historical connection to the land, premised on religion as a unifying basis, wouldn’t we have picked Arabic as our national language?

Perhaps an indication of how weak Devji’s arguments are is the fact that he deems it worth pointing out very early in his book that Jinnah’s library contained ‘more books on the problems of European Jewry than on any Muslim people or country’ and he also highlights repeatedly that the Muslim League’s acolytes frequently compared themselves to the minorities in Europe and the Jews scattered around the world. The fly in the milk of this argument is that minorities fighting for their right to a homeland are bound to highlight the plight of other persecuted minorities.

Indeed, the Muslim League seems to have mentioned the partition of Ireland far more when discussing how to make a nation out of a multitude of scattered Muslims. Also, despite these comparisons between the Muslims in India to the Jews in Europe, Pakistan consistently took a strong stance in favour of Palestine at the United Nations and constantly rebuffed Israel’s attempts to get Pakistan to recognise it as a state.

I was most incredulous with Devji’s argument though when he started to explore a strange point unique in its ridiculousness. He argues that Jinnah was the “Satan of the Pakistan movement” [I am quoting this verbatim], pointing out that Congress had ‘always seen Jinnah as being possessed of demonic qualities’. He comments on his ‘satanic solitude’, his ‘dangerously demonic style’, and his ‘satanic character’ which ‘made him quite different from and indeed more devilish than the Devil himself.’

The smoking gun for this is apparently supplied by virtue of Jinnah’s arrogance as well as a speech in which Jinnah said that he “would be the ally of even the Devil if need be in the interest of Muslims”. Further proof is found, as per Devji, in the fact that Allama Iqbal had already made satan a heroic figure in his popular poetry which apparently represented “a new kind of political ideal for a free-floating and self-possessed nation that rejected its grounding in nature or history”.

I have no idea what this means or what Devji is trying to say. He apparently is unfamiliar with the fact that many strands of Islamic thought believe that satan himself will be forgiven on the last day, but a theological debate is unnecessary. I did wonder what the editors at Harvard University Press were doing when they reviewed these histrionics. Would they have been as open to declarations that Churchill, Roosevelt, or Gandhi were satanic figures? How did this make it through a simple peer review?
Uncomfortable parallels

It is all the more annoying then, that some uncomfortable parallels do exist between Israel and Pakistan, though they are not found in Devji’s inelegant prose. Rephael Stern has written about how Israel, shortly after becoming a state in 1948, transplanted Pakistani law into its books to expropriate Palestinian property similar to the way Pakistan had to take over non-Muslim property left behind following Partition. Israeli legal advisers had urged the use of Pakistani laws as ‘first-rate international precedent’ which was used by their Transfer Committee in the 1950s with one adviser stating that the ‘birth pangs’ of both countries were the same.

While the laws were transplanted, they were meant to address very different issues. Pakistan had initially saved the properties of evacuating non-Muslims so that they could be returned to them, believing that ‘evacuees’ would return after the violence wrought by Partition subsided. But after realising that we had nowhere to home the swathes of Muslims entering the country after the slicing of the subcontinent, the Pakistani state had given their property over to the Muslims arriving from India. While initially, the law claimed that any leaving Hindus or Sikhs could return to the country and reclaim their property, given how cash-strapped and resource-ridden we were, Pakistan quickly took that property over and gave it instead to Muslim arrivals.

Israel studied these laws to expropriate the property of the 700,000 Palestinians they had ethnically cleansed from the land during the nakba of 1948 but took it further. The Pakistani law didn’t apply to movable property, while Israel’s did, allowing them to seize money from the bank accounts of Palestinians.

The critical point of departure between the purpose of these transplanted laws was that Israel used Pakistani laws against the Palestinian people with the aim to dispossess them and settle their own. Ironically, India was to later study Israel’s laws (not knowing they were based on Pakistani laws) to similarly provide homes for those who had fled to India during Partition.

While the same laws were imposed, the aims were very different — India and Pakistan intended to house those who had fled to their countries after a consensual Partition, whereas Israel enacted those laws to exile Palestinians from their homes and ensure they could never return.
Parting of the people

Liberal wisdom dictates that states created for a religious minority are a bad idea, with the prime reason for this being that no state based on religion can ever then protect its religious minorities. But I disagree.

Out of the many reasons for which states may be formed, along political, ethnic, or cultural lines, religion is as good a reason as any to forge a homeland. Our faith is the best explanation we have for the tragedy that is life. It seems only natural that we should choose to build our nations along the tenets of our shared belief. I have no issue with a Muslim or Jewish state, and in fact, the Jewish desire for their own country is one I have utmost sympathy for. But a nation cannot be trojan horsed into the international community through the displacement and dispossession of another people.

Over the years, the map of Palestine has turned into a photo negative of itself with settlers claiming nativity taking over the land, ink blot by ink blot, while the Arab world remains imperial petrol stations looking on. I do wonder though whether now the Partition of the Indian subcontinent could offer a useful parallel for Palestine. Jinnah, while a former ambassador for Hindu-Muslim unity, seems to have come to the anguished conclusion that Pakistan was an unfortunate necessity as both peoples were too different to live together.

The poet, W. H. Auden, mocked Cyril Radcliffe’s role in light of this when he arrived in India in 1947:

Unbiased at least he was when he arrived on his mission,

Having never set eyes on this land he was called to Partition

Between two peoples fanatically at odds,

With their different diets and incompatible gods.

When asked whether he believed the difference between Bengali Hindus and Muslims to be greater than that between Muslim Pathans and Sindhis, Jinnah argued that ‘the fundamentals’ were common to all Muslims as they believed in one God, equality of man, and human brotherhood.

The core basis upon which Jinnah believed Hindus and Muslims were antithetical was the fact that Hinduism distinguished due to caste which is the foundation of its religious and social system, whereas Islam was based on equality of man. He was supported in this view by other Hindus, including Rao Bahadar M. C. Rajah, a leader of the ‘Untouchables’, who said: “I admire Mr Jinnah and feel grateful to him because, in advocating the cause of the Muslims, he is championing the claims of all classes who stand the danger of being crushed under the steam roller of a [caste-] Hindu majority.”

Jinnah intended for Pakistan to be based on the principles of Islam — of equality of man, and freedom for minorities. Pakistan is currently falling far short of that. It should not be inconceivable, in such an Islamic state, to have a Hindu, Jewish or Christian President, who espouses those same values. Just like a Jewish or Christian state could have a Muslim president who shares their values, which Abrahamic faiths largely do.

It was the continued discussion of a one- or two-state solution for Palestine and Israel which brought me to that café clutching Muslim Zion. Unlike Auden’s poem about the Indian subcontinent, Israelis and Palestinians don’t have different diets nor incompatible gods, yet they remain fanatically at odds. While many decry a two-state solution as something Israel would never allow, leading to the Israeli taunt that one ‘might as well call for a Palestinian state on the moon’, a one-state solution among these warring peoples seems all the more difficult to achieve.

Edward Said believed that both Palestinians and Jews had the right to live in Zion and were ‘condemned to live there together’. But I wonder then whether perhaps the Solomonic model of our Partition should be followed, with Palestine instead becoming our doppelgänger. Two states, side by side, independent, free, and equal sovereigns.

After all, is it not itself the worst form of idolatry, for two monotheistic faiths to fight over the holy land?

Header illustration by Abro/ EOS

US plans talks on economy with Bangladesh leader Muhammad Yunus: Financial Times

A delegation of treasury, state and trade officials, is expected to discuss Bangladesh's fiscal and monetary policy and also the health of its financial system

Reuters Published 10.09.24

Muhammad YunusFile

The United States is set to launch economic talks this week with Bangladesh's interim government, including its leader, Muhammad Yunus, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday.

The government led by the Nobel Peace laureate was sworn in last month with the aim of holding elections in the South Asian nation after the ouster of prime minister Sheikh Hasina following deadly protests against quotas for government jobs.

"The United States is optimistic that, by implementing needed reforms, Bangladesh can address its economic vulnerabilities and build a foundation for continued growth and increased prosperity," Brent Neiman, assistant U.S. Treasury secretary for international finance, told the newspaper.

A delegation of treasury, state and trade officials, is expected to discuss Bangladesh's fiscal and monetary policy and also the health of its financial system, the paper said.

The talks will be held on Saturday and Sunday in the capital, Dhaka, it added.

Officials in Bangladesh's finance ministry and Yunus' office said they were not aware of the visit.

Bangladesh's $450-billion economy has slowed sharply since the Russia-Ukraine war pushed up prices of fuel and food imports, forcing it to turn to the International Monetary Fund last year for a $4.7-billion bailout.

Superbug threat

Editorial Published

 September 10, 2024 

THE global superbug crisis — the rise of bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics — is a ticking time bomb. A recent investigation by The Bureau of Investigative Journalism reveals the devastating impact it can have, with studies highlighting a potential death toll of 10m people annually by 2050.

Pakistan is particularly vulnerable to the rise of drug-resistant bacteria, partly due to the widespread and unregulated use of antibiotics. Antibiotics are often sold over the counter without a prescription, allowing people to self-medicate without understanding the consequences.

Even when administered by healthcare professionals, antibiotics are sometimes prescribed without proper diagnostics, such as blood tests to determine whether the infection is bacterial. In many cases, doctors prescribe antibiotics for viral infections — where they are completely ineffective — further fuelling the rise of antibiotic resistance.

In Pakistan, where healthcare systems are strained, the surge in superbugs poses a significant threat. Patients infected with drug-resistant bacteria require more extensive and expensive treatments, placing an additional burden on an already overburdened healthcare system.

Addressing this crisis requires urgent action from multiple fronts. Public awareness campaigns are critical in educating people about the dangers of antibiotic misuse. Many individuals are unaware that taking the drugs for viral infections, like the flu, is not only ineffective but harmful, contributing to resistance. Campaigns should promote the importance of completing prescribed antibiotic courses to prevent the survival of partially resistant bacteria. There should be stricter regulations on the sale and prescription of antibiotics.

The rampant over-the-counter availability of antibiotics must be curbed to prevent further misuse. Additionally, healthcare providers need to be trained in responsible antibiotic prescribing practices. Doctors must avoid prescribing the drugs unless there is clear evidence of a bacterial infection.

By addressing the misuse of antibiotics and promoting responsible prescribing practices, Pakistan can take crucial steps to mitigate the threat of drug-resistant bacteria. A coordinated effort involving public awareness, regulatory action and healthcare reform is essential to avert a looming public health disaster.

Published in Dawn, September 10th, 2024

Morobo County launches drive to tame deforestation


Cyclists transporting wood from the forest in Western Equatoria.

 Photo by Ollivier Girard/CIFOR.

September 10, 2024

Authorities in Morobo County of Central Equatoria State have launched a fight against deforestation particularly in the SPLAM-IO dominated areas.

New County Commissioner Charles Data launched the campaign on September 4, following the massive harvesting of logs and timber and charcoal burning over one year in Panyume Payam for sale in Uganda.

Alarmed local residents petition the Commissioner to take action in mid-August.

The Morobo County Executive Director, Bosco Daniel Wani, said most of those involved in the logging and burning of charcoal operated in the SPLM-IO dominated Panyume.

“Panyume to the border is controlled by the IO forces who consider themselves independent. When we tell them not to cut the trees, they say the government does not give them food and they were not on salaries,” he said.

The Koboko District (Uganda) Border Customs Manager, Simon Mwesigwa, said they received legitimate documents for the movement of the items and urged the Morobo County authorities to be cautious in dealing with the situation, given the complexity in the political matrix.

“We say, give us a list of people who are taking logs and charcoal. We have been receiving legitimate documents they use to export the logs and charcoal, so I want to request the honorable commissioner to give us guidance because we don’t want to cause diplomatic issues that Uganda is denying entry to goods from South Sudan,” he said.

Data said several unsuccessful attempts had been made to conserve the trees, but that the issue had been forwarded to the office of the State Governor.

Morobo County has been restive in the recent past. Early this year, three youth were arrested and detained by suspected IO generals for allegedly objecting to the cutting of the trees.

Efforts to reach the SPLM-IO officials in Panyume for comment were unsuccessful.

EU weighs blocking Slovakia funds for democratic backsliding

The European Commission is also exploring the option of clawing back all or part of the €2.7 billion in Covid grants Slovakia has received as part of the EU’s pandemic rescue spending

Populist Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico’s decision to abolish the special prosecutor’s office that oversaw some corruption cases involving EU funds has drawn scrutiny from Brussels © Photo credit: AFP

The European Union is working on a proposal to censure Slovakia over the erosion of democratic norms in a move that could result in the bloc withholding funds earmarked for Bratislava.

The European Commission, the bloc’s executive arm, has prepared a decision to trigger the procedure over the increasingly populist Prime Minister Robert Fico’s decision to abolish the special prosecutor’s office that oversaw some corruption cases involving EU funds, according to people familiar with the matter.

The process is in an initial phase and would require the approval of Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

Commission Spokesman Balazs Ujvari said in an emailed statement that the executive arm is analyzing the reform to Slovakia’s criminal code and that “there is currently no decision taken or awaiting political approval” with regards to freezing funds. A spokesperson from Slovakia’s foreign ministry said in an emailed statement that the commission hasn’t “formally or informally signaled” that it would take such action.

About 80% of all public investments in Slovakia are financed by EU funds. Any potential issues with funding would represent a serious blow to this EU and eurozone member state, which is already facing challenges with excessive deficit in public finances.
Conditionality mechanism

One of the proposals would see the commission use its so-called conditionality mechanism — which allows the EU to freeze funding when it sees its money at risk — to withhold some of the €12.8 billion ($14.2 billion) in cohesion funds allocated to Slovakia in the bloc’s budget, said the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

The commission is also exploring the option of clawing back all or part of the €2.7 billion in Covid grants Slovakia has received as part of the EU’s pandemic rescue spending, one of the people said. The special prosecutor’s office was a condition included in doling out those funds.

“The commission is currently in the process of analysing the potential implications of amendments to the Slovak criminal code” related to the conditions set out for the country to receive recovery fund grants, according to the commission spokesman, Ujvari. “The commission will finalize its assessment in a timely manner.”

Since Fico returned to power in October, he has drawn scrutiny from Brussels given his move to overhaul the criminal code and ditch a special prosecutor’s office that focused on high-profile graft cases, including some that targeted his allies.

Fico was shot in an assassination attempt in May. Once he recovered, he blamed a hostile atmosphere fueled by the press and the opposition for the attack. He then overhauled the public media, putting broadcasters under government control.

Slovakia would become the second country subject to the EU’s conditionality mechanism after the bloc froze €6.3 billion of Hungary’s cohesion funds over Budapest’s breaches to the rule of law.

Source: Bloomberg

VIDEO: Al-Mawasi camp after Israeli barbaric attack

TEHRAN, Sep. 10 (MNA) – Footage shows the al-Mawasi camp in southern Gaza after a fresh Israeli attack that resulted in the martyrdom and injury of at least 100 people.

'Ugly crimes': Israeli air strikes kill 40 Palestinians in Gaza 'safe zone'

The camp, located in a designated humanitarian zone, was home to displaced civilians seeking refuge from the brutal Israeli onslaught.



At least 40 Palestinians were killed and several others injured in Israeli airstrikes on a tent encampment in Khan Younis in southern Gaza.

Eyewitnesses said Israel struck the Al Mawasi area, a designated humanitarian zone, with at least three missiles in early Tuesday.

At least 20 tents where the displaced Palestinians are staying caught on fire. The missiles also caused deep craters.

A Gaza civil emergency official said teams are still removing the dead and wounded from the area.

The official said they have been struggling to search for victims who might have been buried.



Civil emergency teams are still removing the dead and wounded from the area. / Photo: AA

While the Israeli army claimed that it struck Hamas fighters "who were operating within a command-and-control center embedded inside the humanitarian area in Khan Younis," Hamas denied the allegations, saying this is "a clear lie that aims to justify these ugly crimes".

Israel’s ongoing war on Gaza – now nearly a year old – has killed around 41,100 Palestinians, mostly women and children, and injured nearly 94,800 others, according to local health authorities.

A continuing blockade of the enclave has led to severe shortages of food, clean water and medicine, leaving much of the region in ruins.

Israel faces accusations of genocide at the International Court of Justice for its actions in Gaza.