NEW DELHI, 24 October 2021, (TON): An organisation Sikhs for Justice (SFJ) has released a new map of India showing not just Punjab but Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and several districts of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh as part of Khalistan.

The Sikhs for Justice is a US-based organisation that supports the secession of Punjab from India for the creation of Khalistan.

It was founded and primarily headed by lawyer Gurpatwant Singh Pannun. It was banned in India in 2019 as an unlawful association. The ban came after it started campaigns for a Punjab independence referendum in 2019 to carve out a separate Khalistan.

The organisation has been fighting a long peaceful legal battle against the Indian government and politicians involved in the 1984 deadly operation against Sikhs since 2011. The Sikhs For Justice had filed criminal and human rights cases in the US courts against prominent leaders of the Congress Party (involved in Golden Temple Massacre).

RIYADH, 24 October 2021, (TON): King Salman received a telephone call from the UN secretary general Antonio Guterres.

During the call, Guterres welcomed the Saudi Green and Middle East Green initiatives, and praised initiatives announced by Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the Saudi Green Initiative forum held in Riyadh.

Guterres said he considered the initiatives a major step in protecting the environment and facing the challenges of climate change.

The king thanked the secretary general and praised UN efforts in confronting climate change, and steps taken by the organization to reduce the phenomenon’s environmental and economic effects.

PARIS, 24 October 2021, (TON): The United States and three European powers agreed in consultations in Paris on the need for Iran to return quickly to talks amid growing alarm over a delay.

State Department spokesman Ned Price said “Rob Malley, the US envoy on Iran, spoke with his counterparts from Britain, France and Germany on how diplomacy “continues to provide the most effective pathway” on Iran.”

Price told reporters in Washington “we are united in the belief that negotiations should resume in Vienna as soon as possible and that they should resume precisely where they left off after the sixth round.”

The 2015 agreement between Iran and world powers to find a long-term solution to the now two-decade-old crisis over its controversial nuclear programme has been moribund since former US president Donald Trump walked out of the deal in May 2018.

His successor Joe Biden has said he is ready to re-enter the agreement, so long as Iran meets key preconditions including full compliance with the deal whose terms it has repeatedly violated by ramping up nuclear activities since Trump walked out.

But the Vienna-based talks through intermediaries made little headway, before being interrupted by the election of hardliner Ebrahim Raisi as Iran s president and suspended for the last four months.

BRUSSELS, 24 October 2021, (TON): The European Union joins the United Nations Security Council in deploring the recent threats of violence against the personnel of the United Nations Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI), the Independent High Electoral Commission (IHEC) and against others, following the publication of preliminary elections results in Iraq earlier this month.

Such violent manifestations have no place in a democracy. The EU recalls that voting on election day was largely peaceful, orderly and well-organised, and voters were able to freely express their will, as assessed by the EU Election Observation Mission, which the EU deployed in the country for the first time ever, upon a request from Iraqi authorities.

Any elections-related appeal or complaint should be addressed through existing legal procedures. It is crucial that all parties use these legal means to address any grievances they may have over the outcome of the polls.

KHARTOM, 24 October 2021, (TON): Mass protests in Sudan show strong support for a civilian-led democracy, but analysts warn street demonstrations may have little impact on powerful factions pushing a return to military rule.

Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim — an ex-rebel leader from Darfur, who joined the government after a landmark 2020 peace deal — took part in Friday prayers at the pro-military sit-in© ASHRAF SHAZLY Finance Minister Gibril Ibrahim — an ex-rebel leader from Darfur, who joined the government after a landmark 2020 peace deal — took part in Friday prayers at the pro-military sit-in

Under a 2019 power-sharing deal after the ouster of long-time dictator Omar al-Bashir, Sudan is ruled by a sovereign council of civilian and military representatives tasked with overseeing a transition to a full civilian government.

But cracks in the leadership are growing wider.

On Thursday, tens of thousands of Sudanese marched in several cities to back the full transfer of power to civilians, and to counter a rival days-long sit-in outside the presidential palace in the capital Khartoum demanding a return to “military rule”.

Map of Sudan locating the capital Khartoum© Sophie RAMIS Map of Sudan locating the capital Khartoum

WASHINGTON, 24 October 2021, (TON): Multilateralism, with the United Nations at its core, is the most effective way to contribute to global peace, security, human rights and prosperity. It is a pillar of the European Union’s external action. In a rapidly evolving world, a strong and dynamic partnership between the EU and the UN is more important than ever and it needs to deliver.

Together, we must respond to global crises, threats and challenges that cannot be addressed by any country alone, be it climate change, supporting countries to recover, but also to “build back better”. Side-by-side, we champion the protection of the universality and indivisibility of human rights, the fundamental values of democracy and the rule of law.

In the words of UN Secretary-General António Guterres, “we are at an inflection point in history”. The world hasenormously changed since the UN was founded 76 years ago. As a matter of effectiveness and legitimacy, the UN has to be fully equipped to tackle increasingly complex global challenges and respond to the growing demands of citizens around the world.

The UN Secretary-General’s report on Our Common Agenda (link is external) represents a timely opportunity to transform the UN system and gear it towards these objectives.

The EU will therefore continue to engage as a propeller of positive change, at a time where the decisions we take will determine “a breakthrough or a break-down” for the international system.

ISTANBUL, 24 October 2021, (TON): Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday that he had told his foreign ministry to expel the ambassadors of the United States and nine other Western countries for demanding the release of philanthropist Osman Kavala.

Seven of the ambassadors represent Turkey’s NATO allies and the expulsions, if carried out, would open the deepest rift with the West in Erdogan’s 19 years in power.

Kavala, a contributor to numerous civil society groups, has been in prison for four years, charged with financing nationwide protests in 2013 and with involvement in a failed coup in 2016. He has remained in detention while his latest trial continues, and denies the charges.

In a joint statement on Oct. 18, the ambassadors of Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, New Zealand and the United States called for a just and speedy resolution to Kavala’s case, and for his “urgent release.”

They were summoned by the foreign ministry, which called the statement irresponsible.

“I gave the necessary order to our foreign minister and said what must be done: These 10 ambassadors must be declared persona non grata (undesirable) at once. You will sort it out immediately,” Erdogan said in a speech in the northwestern city of Eskisehir.

CAIRO, 24 October 2021, (TON): Egyptian Minister of Industry and Trade Nevin Gamea met Qatar’s ambassador to Cairo, Salem Mubarak Al-Shafi, on Friday to discuss ways to further develop economic, trade and investment relations between the two countries after a four-year hiatus ended earlier this year.

According to a statement by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, Gamea said that both countries are intensifying efforts achieve further rapprochement at a political and economic level. She noted the importance of translating goodwill into concrete cooperation.

She pointed to the importance of building on the “solid ground” laid by President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi and Prince Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani by enhancing trade and developing joint investment.

The minister urged the importance of an Egyptian-Qatari trade committee to follow up on all bilateral cooperation projects.

Gamea also stressed the importance of the two countries working at a ministerial level, and invited the Qatari minister of trade to visit Cairo.

Al-Shafi said that Egypt offers “strategic depth” to the region, noting the desire of both countries to begin a new phase of bilateral cooperation.

WASHINGTON, 24 October 2021, (TON): The US says more than 1.7 million migrants were detained along its border with Mexico in the past 12 months - the highest number ever recorded.

More than one million of them were expelled to Mexico or their native countries, according to data from US Customs and Border Protection.

Agents apprehended people from more than 160 countries.

President Joe Biden's popularity in opinion polls has been sinking, partly as a result of his immigration policy.

Just 35% of Americans said they approved of his handling of the issue, in an Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research survey earlier this month.

Mr Biden promised a more humane immigration policy than his predecessor Donald Trump, but the US-Mexico border has been engulfed in crisis for much of the Democrat's nine-month-old presidency.

The detention numbers for the 2021 fiscal year, which ended in September, are the highest since 2000. That year, more than 1.6 million migrants were held at the US-Mexico border. But the number has not reached 1.7 million since US authorities first began tracking such entries in the 1960s.

KABUL, 24 October 2021, (TON): UN agencies are preparing to launch a polio vaccination campaign for all children under 5 in Afghanistan, a country where the potentially crippling disease persists despite a more than three-decade-long campaign that has nearly eradicated it worldwide.

Vaccine doses will begin to be administered in Afghanistan on November 8 for the first time in three years, now that the country’s new Taliban government has granted approval.

“This is a huge development that now we can go all across Afghanistan and deliver the vaccine house to house,” Dr. Hamid Jafari, the World Health Organization’s director of polio eradication for the Eastern Mediterranean region, told media.

Jafari described the upcoming campaign as “a real combination of excitement and extreme fear — excitement because it looks like a real opportunity to eradicate wild polio virus finally.” Warning that the virus might still be “lurking in some hard-to-reach populations,” he said it’s critical that the WHO “maintain this momentum to vaccinate our children so that the virus has nowhere to go.” “Both Afghanistan and Pakistan really actually need to switch gears,” Jafari declared.

Polio’s presence in Afghanistan and in neighboring Pakistan, where a UN polio vaccination effort begins in December, means the disease can still spread globally.

Rotary International, which coordinates a global polio eradication program, predicts “hundreds of thousands of children could be paralyzed” if polio is not eliminated within 10 years. The WHO announced the vaccination campaign, five days before the observance of World Polio Day, part of Rotary International’s Global Polio Eradication Initiative (GPEI).