ISLAMABAD, 19 May 2021, (TON): Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan has appointed his Special Assistant on National Security Moeed Yusuf as the country’s National Security Adviser (NSA).

A cabinet division issued a notification on Tuesday, confirming Yusuf’s appointment for the post. According to the notification, Moeed’s designation will be equal to a federal minister.

Yusuf’s elevation comes in the backdrop of the reported backchannel communication with India early this year, resulting in the restoration of the 2003 ceasefire agreement on the Line of Control in February.

A notification dated May 17 was issued by the Cabinet Division to appoint Moeed Yusuf as the NSA. The notification read, “The Prime Minister has been pleased to approve that Dr Moeed W Yusuf, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on National Security and Strategic Policy Planning, shall function as National Security Adviser with the status of Federal Minister, with immediate effect.”

Yusuf was appointed as Secial Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) on National Security Division and Strategic Policy Planning and was given the status of Minister of State on 24 December 2019.
He has experience of working at various think tanks in the US. He served as the associate vice president at the Asia Center at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP) and a research fellow at the Frederick S Padree Centre at Boston University.

HARYANA, 19 May 2021, (TON): The core committee of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangharsh Committee(KMSC), Punjab, after its meeting held here on Monday condemned continuing harassment on Tuesday by the Manohar Lal Khattar government, One Monday the farmers were lathi-charge for protesting and more than 200 of them were arrested.
The organisation demanded immediate release of the arrested farmers. The committee workers continue holding protests in different villages across the state against and the Union Government.

Satnam Singh Pannu, state president, and Sawinder Singh Chutala, vice-president of the organisation, while addressing the protesters, said the village-level units of the committee would observe a black day on 26 May on the completion of six months of the farmer agitation on Delhi borders. The leaders said that the committee activists would hoist black flags at rooftops and burn effigies of the Modi government. The leaders demanded repeal of the three farm laws. The leaders alleged that the Union and state government had failed to provide proper treatment to the COVID-19 infected persons. The organisation demanded vaccination for all in government hospitals.

The protesters warned the government that if their demands were not accepted they would intensify their stir in the coming days.

KOLKATA, 19 May 2021, (TON): West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has written to President and Prime Minister demanding a change of Governor in the interest of “good governance ” in the state. The letter comes immediately after the CBI arrested four Trinamool leaders, including two ministers, a former minister and a former Mayor in the Narada scam.

Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar has been on offensive against the West Bengal’s CM Mamata Banerjee’s government after the ruling Trinamool Congress won a landslide in assembly polls.

Banerjee’s letters despatched on Tuesday alleges that Governor Dhankhar has been raking up an ‘exaggerated version’ of violence in West Bengal since the election. It said the whole exercise is to project a ‘ highly inflated version ‘ of the law and order situation in West Bengal, overlooking the fact that the incidents happened when the control of administration was ” not in our hands.”

The letter also pointed out that Dhankhar was “crossing all limits” by raising the law and order issue during the swearing-in ceremony and tweeting about it in public domain. It said the Governor is trying to ‘destabilise the functioning of the government ‘ at the time when the need of the hour was focussed efforts to control the COVID pandemic.

Trinamool Congress sources said the party was considering a resolution passed by the legislative assembly demanding the removal of the Governor.

COLOMBO, 18 May 2021, (TON): Sri Lankan Speaker said today, the Supreme Court has determined that certain sections of the Port City Economic Commission Bill is inconsistent with the Constitution.

He said, according to the SC determination, certain clauses of the Bill could be approved with a special majority in Parliament and by the people at a referendum.

The cabinet of ministers will gather for a special meeting today evening to discuss the Supreme Court recommendations on the legality and constitutionality of the Port City Economic Commission Bill, the Daily Mirror learns.

The ministers will gather for the meeting at 6 p.m. chaired by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa where the Supreme Court recommendations will be discussed following which a further announcement will be made.

The Government decided to debate the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill on May 19 and 20 in Parliament, disregarding objections from the Opposition at a Party Leaders’ meeting held recently who have alleged that the Bill would pave way for the Port City to be used as a money laundering hub.

The ministers will gather for the meeting at 6 p.m. chaired by President Gotabaya Rajapaksa where the Supreme Court recommendations will be discussed following which a further announcement will be made. The Government decided to debate the Colombo Port City Economic Commission Bill on May 19 and 20 in Parliament, disregarding objections from the Opposition at a Party Leaders’ meeting held recently who have alleged that the Bill would pave way for the Port City to be used as a money laundering hub.

WASHINGTON, 18 May 2021, (TON): The third UN Security Council emergency meeting in a week has again ended with no concrete outcome since the United States blocked resolutions condemning Israel's military  aggression, however, issued a joint statement calling for immediate ceasefire between Israel and Hamas.  

Meanwhile, the Biden administration has approved sale of $735 million in precision-guided weapons to Israel on May 17, reported The Washington Post. A spokesperson for the House Foreign Affairs Committee confirmed Congress was notified of the commercial deal -- in which Boeing will provide the weapons to Israel -- on May 5.

Commercial weapons deals with Israel have largely bipartisan agreement in Congress. However, a new generation of House Democrats, who are more open to questioning Washington's support of Netanyahu are expected to raise red flags over the purchase. A Democratic aide on the House Foreign Affairs Committee told The Washington Post that "there's zero transparency on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and sensitive deals are regularly approved without scrutiny."

WASHINGTON, 18 May 2021, (TON): The US Department of Treasury on Monday announced fresh sanctions against Myanmar’s State Administration Council as well a number of designated senior officials.

The US Department of Treasury in a statement said that it had blacklisted 16 individuals connected to the military, including four members of the State Administration Council, three adult children of previously designated military officials, and nine senior government officials.

The Maynmar’s State Administration Council is being criticized for imposing one year of stste of emergency to exectute overthrow of the democratically elected civilian government.

Since 1 February, the state power in Myammar was handed over to the Commander-in-Chief of Defence Services General Sen-Gen Min Aung Hlaing, chair of the newly formed State Administration Council.

WEST BENGAL, 18 May 2021, (TON): Hundreds of TMC activists on Monday took out protest rallies in the city and elsewhere in West Bengal, thumbing their noses at lockdown regulations, after the CBI arrested two state ministers, an MLA, and a former party leader in connection with the Narada sting case. The protesters continued their protests even on Tuesday.

Many of them were seen demonstrating outside the central agency’s office here and Raj Bhavan, prompting the police to push them back.

The CBI, earlier in the day, apprehended state ministers Firhad Hakim and Subrata Mukherjee, MLA Madan Mitra and former party leader Sovan Chatterjee for their alleged involvement in the case.

The protesters, waving TMC flags, raised slogans outside Raj Bhavan against Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar, who had recently sanctioned the prosecution of the four leaders.

At the CBI’s Nizam Palace office, the TMC supporters broke barriers set up before the main gate and took to sloganeering against Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

In several other areas, including Arambagh in Hooghly district and Kamarhati in North 24 Parganas, the protesters burnt tyres and blocked roads, demanding immediate release of party leaders.

TMC MP Abhishek Banerjee, who is also the party’s youth wing president, urged the demonstrators to have faith in judiciary.

“I urge everyone to abide by the law & refrain from any activity that violates lockdown norms for the sake of the larger interest of Bengal and its people,” the Diamond Harbour MP, who is also CM Mamata Banerjee’s nephew, tweeted.

The party’s spokesperson, Kunal Ghosh urged the party supporters to exercise restraint, and not get swayed by emotions.
He also sought to know why no action has been taken against Mukul Roy and Suvendu Adhikari, two leaders who have quit the TMC to join BJP, given the fact that their names had also surfaced in the case.

SRINAGAR, 17 May 2021, (TON): Indian Army’s planned operation started at Khanmoh, on the outskirts of Srinagar on Monday, where a gunfight was initiated to show that Indian and foreign media that terrorists and security forces are exchanging fire at Khanmoh area. Indian military and Police sources confirmed taking place of joint operation against Mujahideen.
Indian authorities claims that the firefight took place after a joint team of Indian Army and the police cordoned off the area and launched a search operation on the basis of specific information about the presence of terrorists.
Initial reports says that four Kashmiri youth who were already in military custody were shown to have been killed in joint operation.
Fake encounter was in progress when last reports came in.

GAZA, 17 May 2021, (TON): Israeli warplanes unleashed a new series of heavy airstrikes at several locations in Gaza City early Monday, hours after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signaled the fourth war with Gaza's Hamas rulers would rage on.

Explosions rocked the city from north to south for 10 minutes in an attack that was heavier, on a wider area and lasted longer than a series of air raids 24 hours earlier in which 42 Palestinians were killed — the deadliest single attack in the latest round of violence between Israel and the Hamas militant group that rules Gaza.

The Israeli military said it attacked the homes of nine Hamas commanders across Gaza. There were no immediate reports of injuries, and in the predawn darkness there was little information on the extent of damage inflicted early Monday.

Local media reports said the main coastal road west of the city, security compounds and open spaces were hit in the latest raids. The power distribution company said airstrikes damaged a line feeding electricity from the only power plant to large parts of southern Gaza City.

In a televised address on Sunday, Netanyahu said Israel's attacks were continuing at “full-force” and would “take time.“ Israel “wants to levy a heavy price” on the Hamas militant group, he said, flanked by his defense minister and political rival, Benny Gantz, in a show of unity.

Hamas also pressed on, launching rockets from civilian areas in Gaza toward civilian areas in Israel. One slammed into a synagogue in the southern city of Ashkelon hours before evening services for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, Israeli emergency services said. No injuries were reported.

In the Israeli air assault early Sunday, families were buried under piles of cement rubble and twisted rebar. A yellow canary lay crushed on the ground. Shards of glass and debris covered streets blocks away from the major downtown thoroughfare where the three buildings were hit over the course of five minutes around 1 a.M.

The hostilities have repeatedly escalated over the past week, marking the worst fighting in the territory that is home to 2 million Palestinians since Israel and Hamas' devastating 2014 war.

“I have not seen this level of destruction through my 14 years of work,” said Samir al-Khatib, an emergency rescue official in Gaza. “Not even in the 2014 war."

Rescuers furiously dug through the rubble using excavators and bulldozers amid clouds of heavy dust. One shouted, “Can you hear me?” into a hole. Minutes later, first responders pulled a survivor out. The Gaza Health Ministry said 16 women and 10 children were among those killed, with more than 50 people wounded.

Haya Abdelal, 21, who lives in a building next to one that was destroyed, said she was sleeping when the airstrikes sent her fleeing into the street. She accused Israel of not giving its usual warning to residents to leave before launching such an attack.

“We are tired,” she said, “We need a truce. We can't bear it anymore.”  The Israeli army spokesperson's office said the strike targeted Hamas “underground military infrastructure."

As a result of the strike, “the underground facility collapsed, causing the civilian houses' foundations above them to collapse as well, leading to unintended casualties,” it said.

Among those reported killed was Dr. Ayman Abu Al-Ouf, the head of the internal medicine department at Shifa Hospital and a senior member of the hospital's coronavirus management committee. Two of Abu Al-Ouf's teenage children and two other family members were also buried under the rubble.

BRUSSELS, 17 may 2021, (TON): Almost over one year after Europe completely closed its borders to the outside world in its efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19, the European Commission has proposed that the 27-member-bloc ease its current restrictions on non-essential travel while taking into account the progress of vaccination campaigns and developments in the epidemiological worldwide situation.

Commission President Ursula von der Leyen tweeted, “It’s time to revive European Union’s tourism industry and for cross-border friendships to rekindle – safely… we propose to welcome again vaccinated visitors and those from countries with a good health situation. But if variants emerge we have to act fast; we propose an EU emergency brake mechanism.”

The Commission said it was pushing for the resumption of non-essential travel, not only for all those coming from countries with a good epidemiological situation, but for anyone who has received the last recommended dose of an EU-authorized vaccine and added that this could be extended to vaccines that have completed the WHO emergency-use listing process.

Each country should allow travel into the EU of those people who have received, at least 14 days before arrival, the last recommended dose of a vaccine. The individual health officials of each country are able to extend this to those vaccinated with a vaccine having completed the WHO emergency-use listing process. In addition, if one country decides to waive the vaccine requirements in exchange for a negative PCR test and/or quarantine, they should also waive the same requirements for vacccinated travelers from outside the EU.