Category: World

Brajkishore Gupta was fired without notice for calling Indian Muslims ‘coronavirus spreaders’ and hailing the Delhi riots as ‘divine justice’ in his Facebook posts, the Gulf News reported.

PTI

An Indian working in a mining company in the UAE has become the latest expatriate to have lost his job for “Islamophobic” social media posts, a media report said on May 18.

Brajkishore Gupta was fired without notice for calling Indian Muslims ‘coronavirus spreaders’ and hailing the Delhi riots as ‘divine justice’ in his Facebook posts, the Gulf News reported.

Mr. Gupta, who is from Chapra, Bihar, was employed by Stevin Rock, a mining company headquartered in Ras Al Khaimah city.

“This isolated incident involving a junior employee was investigated and dealt with immediately, resulting in the termination without notice of this person’s employment with Stevin Rock,” said the company’s business development and exploration manager Jean-Francois Milian.

“Our company policy supports the direction of the UAE government in promoting tolerance and equality and strongly renouncing racism and discrimination and we have sent communications to all of our employees irrespective of their religious or ethnic background reminding them that any such behaviour is unacceptable and will lead to immediate dismissal,” Mr. Milian was quoted as saying in the report.

Three Indians based in the UAE were either fired or suspended from their jobs for islamophobic posts on social media early this month.

On April 20, India’s ambassador to the UAE Pavan Kapoor had warned Indian expatriates against such behaviour.

“India and UAE share the value of non-discrimination on any grounds. Discrimination is against our moral fabric and the Rule of law. Indian nationals in the UAE should always remember this,” he said in a tweet.

Last month, Sharjah-based businessman Sohan Roy had to apologise for “unintentionally hurting religious sentiments” through his poem, which alluded to a Muslim religious group.

In March, chef Trilok Singh was fired from a restaurant in Dubai for an online threat against a student in Delhi over her views on the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

The last time Japan suffered recession was in the second half of 2015.

Reuters

Japan’s economy slipped into recession for the first time in 4-1/2 years, GDP data showed on Monday, putting the nation on course for its deepest postwar slump as the coronavirus crisis takes a heavy toll on businesses and consumers.

The world’s third-largest economy shrank for the second consecutive quarter in the three months to March, intensifying the challenge for policymakers battling a once-in-a-century pandemic that has already caused widespread disruptions.

Gross domestic product (GDP) contracted an annualised 3.4% in the first quarter as private consumption, capital expenditure and exports fell, preliminary official data showed, following a revised 7.3 decline in the October-December period, meeting the technical definition of a recession.

The median market forecast was for a 4.6% contraction in the first quarter.

The last time Japan suffered recession was in the second half of 2015.

“It’s near certainty the economy suffered an even deeper decline in the current quarter,” said Yuichi Kodama, chief economist at Meiji Yasuda Research Institute. “Japan has entered a full-blow recession.”

The coronavirus, which first emerged in China late last year, has ravaged the global economy as many nations went into strict lockdowns to curb the outbreak that has so far killed over 3,10,000 people worldwide. The pandemic has been massively disruptive on supply chains and businesses, particularly in trade-reliant nations such as Japan.

Private consumption, which accounts for more than half of Japan’s $5 trillion economy, slipped 0.7%, versus a 1.6% drop expected by economists.

That marked the second straight quarter of decline, as households were hit by the double-whammy of the coronavirus and a sales tax hike to 10% from 8% in October last year.

The virus’ impact on corporate Japan has been telling, with the GDP data showing exports contracted sharply by 6% in the first quarter.

The shakout in global trade was highlighted in the recent March data, with Japan’s exports slumping the most in nearly four years due to plunging U.S.-bound shipments including cars.

Capital expenditure fell 0.5% in the fourth quarter, against a median forecast for a 1.5% drop and marked the second consecutive quarter of declines, the data showed.

Taken together, domestic demand knocked 0.7 percentage point off GDP growth, while external demand shed 0.2 point.

All of this has put a strain on labour market. The jobless rate in March rose to its highest in a year, while job availability slipped to a more than three-year low.

Deepening slump

Conditions are expected to have worsened in Japan in the current quarter after Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in April declared a nationwide state of emergency amid a rise in coronavirus infections.

The emergency, which urged citizens to stay home and many businesses to close, was lifted for most regions on Thursday, but remained in effect for some big cities including Tokyo.

Analysts polled by Reuters expect Japan’s economy to shrink an annualised 22.0% in the current quarter, which would be the biggest decline on record and underscores the collapse in activity that is expected to see the worst global slump since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The government has already announced a record $1.1 trillion stimulus package, and the Bank of Japan expanded stimulus for the second straight month in April. Abe has pledged a second supplementary budget later this month to fund fresh spending measures to cushion the economic blow from the outbreak.

The nation’s major globe-trotting manufacturers weren’t spared the pandemic’s sweeping impact either.

Toyota Motor Corp on Friday said it would reduce vehicle production in Japan by 122,000 units in June, as a lack of demand for new cars due to the coronavirus prompts the automaker to keep its plants running on limited operations. The automaker is bracing for an 80% drop in full-year operating profit, its lowest in nine years.

Among those on the list to be deported, the maximum 76 are from Haryana, followed by 56 from Punjab; 12 from Gujarat; five from Uttar Pradesh; four from Maharashtra ; two each from Kerala, Telengana and Tamil Nadu; and one each from Andhra Pradesh and Goa.

PTI

The United States this week will deport 161 Indian nationals, most of whom had entered the country from its southern border with Mexico and have exhausted all legal options.

A special chartered flight will take them to Punjab’s Amritsar.

Among those on the list to be deported, the maximum 76 are from Haryana, followed by 56 from Punjab; 12 from Gujarat; five from Uttar Pradesh; four from Maharashtra ; two each from Kerala, Telengana and Tamil Nadu; and each from Andhra Pradesh and Goa.

According to Satnam Singh Chahal, executive director, North American Punjabi Association (NAPA), they are from among the 1,739 Indians languishing in 95 jails across the US.

They were arrested by the Immigration and Customs Enforcement or ICE while trying to enter the United States illegally.

According to an ICE report, the US deported 611 Indian nationals in 2018, which rose over two-and-a-half times to 1,616 in 2019.

NAPA said among the 161 to be deported to India, three are women.

The youngest of them are two 19-year-old youths from Haryana.

The fate of the remaining Indians languishing in the US jails is still unknown, Mr. Chahal said.

Though there is no data to show from which Indian states those languishing in the US jails came, most of them are believed to be from North India.

Most detainees had asked for an asylum, claiming that they experienced violence or persecution in their home country.

Over the past a few years, US judges did not buy their argument and dismissed their applications.

Mr. Chahal, who has been working among them for years, alleged that there is a nexus of human traffickers and officials in north India, especially Punjab, who encourage young people to leave their homes and illegally enter the US.

These middlemen and agents charge Rs 35-50 lakh from each individual.

In a statement, Mr. Chahal urged the Punjab government and the Centre to take action against illegal agents.

The Trump’s reaction came after Mr. Obama on Saturday criticised the US authorities’ response to the coronavirus outbreak.

PTI

U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday called his predecessor Barak Obama a ‘grossly incompetent president’

The Trump’s reaction came after Mr. Obama on Saturday criticised the US authorities’ response to the coronavirus outbreak.

He (Obama) was an incompetent president. That’s all I can say. Grossly incompetent, Trump told reporters at the White House on his arrival from Camp David.

Trump was responding to a question on the virtual commencement address by Obama a day earlier.

In his address to college graduates, Mr. Obama had said that the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed the American leadership.

More than anything, this pandemic has fully, finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they’re doing, Obama said without naming officials.

A lot of them aren’t even pretending to be in charge, he added.

There was no immediate response from the office of the former president on the remarks made by Mr. Trump.

Alvi also promulgated an order to form a caretaker govt.

PTI

Pakistan President Arif Alvi has promulgated an order to form a caretaker government as well as to conduct elections in Gilgit-Baltistan province, a move strongly opposed by India.

The presidential promulgation came days after the Pakistan Supreme Court on April 30 allowed the federal government to amend a 2018 administrative order to conduct general elections in the region.

The Gilgit-Baltistan Order of 2018 provided for administrative changes, including authorising the Prime Minister of Pakistan to legislate on an array of subjects.

India has conveyed its strong protest to Islamabad for its efforts to bring “material change” to territories under its “illegal and forcible” occupation after the apex court allowed holding of elections in Gilgit-Baltistan.

Earlier this month, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) in Delhi said a demarche was issued to a senior Pakistani diplomat lodging a strong protest over the court ruling and clearly conveying that the entire union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, including the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan, are an integral part of India.

The Gilgit-Baltistan Assembly will complete its five-year tenure on June 24.

Reuters

The number of confirmed cases in the mainland now stands at 82,947 and the death toll at 4,634.

Mainland China reported five new confirmed COVID-19 cases for May 16, down from eight the previous day, the National Health Commission (NHC) said in a statement on Sunday.

Two of the five confirmed cases were so-called imported infections, while three were locally transmitted in the northeastern Chinese city of Jilin.

The number of confirmed cases in the mainland now stands at 82,947 and the death toll at 4,634. China does not include people who have been tested and found to be asymptomatic carriers in its tally of confirmed cases.

The three domestically-transmitted cases are related to a district in Jilin city called Fengman, which has been classified by Chinese officials as a high-risk area for COVID-19.

Heightened disease control measures in the district include allowing only one person from a family to go out and purchase daily necessities each day, according to the district’s official post on WeChat.

Residents were advised not to leave the city and any who do need to leave must provide a negative test result taken within the previous 48 hours.

Jilin is the second largest city of Jilin province, which borders North Korea and Russia. It temporarily suspended passenger train services last Wednesday.

Fengman district said in a Wechat post on Sunday that it will tighten the lockdown by closing stores including department stores, house appliance stores and furniture stores but will keep supermarkets open to maintain supply to residents.

The number of China’s new asymptomatic cases of the coronavirus fell to 12 from 13, the NHC said.

Zhong Nanshan, the Chinese government’s senior medical adviser told CNN on Saturday that the danger of a second wave of infections is looming large.

“The majority of… Chinese at the moment are still susceptible to COVID-19 infection because (of) a lack of immunity,” Mr. Zhong said as quoted in the CNN report. “We are facing (a) big challenge, it’s not better than the foreign countries I think at the moment.”

Zhong acknowledged that the number of infections were initially under reported in Wuhan but said the government has learned lessons from the SARS epidemic 17 years ago and he thinks all the data will be correct since Jan. 23.

Our sun has gone into lockdown, which could cause freezing weather, earthquakes and famine, scientists say.

The sun is currently in a period of “solar minimum,” meaning activity on its surface has fallen dramatically.

Experts believe we are about to enter the deepest period of sunshine “recession” ever recorded as sunspots have virtually disappeared.

Astronomer Dr. Tony Phillips said: “Solar Minimum is underway and it’s a deep one.”

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zXdBcgVuCY0

“Sunspot counts suggest it is one of the deepest of the past century. The sun’s magnetic field has become weak, allowing extra cosmic rays into the solar system.”

“Excess cosmic rays pose a health hazard to astronauts and polar air travelers, affect the electro-chemistry of Earth’s upper atmosphere and may help trigger lightning.”null

NASA scientists fear it could be a repeat of the Dalton Minimum, which happened between 1790 and 1830 — leading to periods of brutal cold, crop loss, famine and powerful volcanic eruptions.

Temperatures plummeted by up to 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) over 20 years, devastating the world’s food production.

On April 10, 1815, the second-largest volcanic eruption in 2,000 years happened at Mount Tambora in Indonesia, killing at least 71,000 people.

It also led to the so-called Year Without a Summer in 1816 — also nicknamed “eighteen hundred and froze to death” — when there was snow in July.

So far this year, the sun has been “blank” with no sunspots 76 percent of the time, a rate surpassed only once before in the Space Age — last year, when it was 77 percent blank.

By Chris Pollard, The Sun

The case may also address how the tech giant uses its dominant search business to stifle competition.

AFP

U.S. federal and state antitrust enforcers are preparing a lawsuit against Google which could come this year, focusing on the tech giant’s dominance of online advertising, The Wall Street Journal reported Friday.

The report, citing anonymous sources, said the case may also address how Google uses its dominant search business to stifle competition.

The U.S. Justice Department and 50 attorneys general last year said they were looking into whether Google abused its power in the online ecosystem at the expense of rivals or consumers.

By doing so, the officials revived an antitrust probe closed in Washington several years earlier while EU and other authorities press their own cases against the California-based firm.

Last year, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, coordinating the states’ effort, said an investigation was underway “to determine the facts.”

Google said it was continuing discussions with authorities.

“We continue to engage with the ongoing investigations led by the Department of Justice and Attorney General Paxton, and we don’t have any updates or comments on speculation,” the company said in an email.

“Our focus is firmly on providing services that help consumers, support thousands of businesses, and enable increased choice and competition.”

Authorities have also begun looking at Facebook and other online platforms on issues of market dominance.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Friday that the move aims to prevent Huawei from making a run around existing U.S. sanctions.

AP

The U.S. government imposed new restrictions on Chinese tech giant Huawei on Friday, severely limiting its ability to use American technology to design and manufacture semiconductors produced for it abroad.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Friday that the move aims to prevent Huawei from making a run around existing U.S. sanctions.

There has been a very highly technical loophole through which Huawei has been able to in effect use U.S. technology,” Mr. Ross told Fox Business.

We never intended that loophole to be there.

Adam Segal, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the move “looks like a victory for the people who really want to drive the nail, or what they think will be the nail, in Huawei’s coffin.”

The new restrictions elicited an angry response from China, which threatened retaliation against U.S. companies.

Chip design and manufacturing equipment used in the world’s semiconductor plants is mostly U.S. made, so the new rule aims to impact multiple foreign producers that sell to Huawei and affiliates including HiSilicon, which makes chips used in supercomputers with scientific and military uses.

The Commerce Department said foreign foundries would be granted a 120-day grace period.

Under the new rules, foreign semiconductor makers must obtain a license from U.S. officials in order to ship to Huawei-designed semiconductors to the Chinese company that were produced using U.S. technology.

Last year, the Trump administration barred U.S. firms from using Huawei technology or providing technology to the Chinese firm without government approval, deeming it a national security risk.

The Commerce Department exempted a narrow list of products and services and has continuously extended that limited waiver, largely to lessen the impact on U.S. wireless carriers that use Huawei technology in their networks. This week, it added another 90 days.

The new restrictions are separate from those exemptions, but loopholes have allowed U.S. companies to continue to supply Huawei with chips made outside the U.S.

The Commerce Department said in a statement Friday that the new restrictions would narrowly and strategically” target Huawei’s acquisition of semiconductors that it designs built in overseas foundries that use U.S. software and technology.

Kevin Wolf, an attorney at Akin Gump who oversaw export administration at the Commerce Department during the Obama administration, noted the narrow scope of the rules.

If a foreign foundry makes a chip based on a Huawei design and U.S. equipment is used to make a chip then it’s controlled, but if a chip is not made from a Huawei design then it is not controlled, he said.

Huawei did not immediately respond to a request for comment. But China’s official Global Times newspaper threatened countermeasures on Friday.

It said Beijing that could include restrictions on U.S. companies including Qualcomm, Cisco and Apple. It also threatened to suspend purchases of Boeing aircraft.

Global Times noted that the new Commerce rules would block companies such as TSMC, a Taiwainese chip maker, from providing semiconductors to Huawei. TSMC announced plans this week to build a chip plant in Arizona.

It did not immediately respond to an Associated Press query on whether the new rules might alter those plans.

“It seems the U.S. is ratcheting up efforts to pinch China’s high-tech companies, the editorial read, calling it more than just an element of President Donald Trump’s re-election strategy. U.S. suppression has become the No. 1 challenge to China’s development.

Washington imposes additional punitive measures against Huawei.

AFP

U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday threatened to cut ties with China over its role in the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19), as the global death toll from the disease topped 3,00,000.

The Trump administration also said on Friday that it would restrict the ability of Chinese telecoms giant Huawei, which it considers a national security risk, to develop semiconductors abroad with U.S. technology. “This announcement cuts off Huawei’s efforts to undermine U.S. export controls,” the Commerce Department said in a statement. The department said it would “narrowly and strategically target Huawei’s acquisition of semiconductors that are the direct product of certain U.S. software and technology”.

Huawei has been under relentless pressure from the Washington, which has lobbied allies worldwide to avoid the company’s telecom gear over security concerns. Washington last year said it would blacklist Huawei from the U.S. market and from buying crucial American components, though it has extended a series of reprieves to allow U.S. businesses that work with Huawei time to adjust. On Friday it extended this reprieve by another 90 days.

Refugees at risk

Despite fears of a second wave of infections, national and local governments around the world are easing lockdown orders as they try to get stalled economies moving again. But there were warnings on Friday that some of the world’s poorest people remain the most vulnerable.

The nexus of poverty and risk was highlighted by the discovery of cases in the world’s biggest refugee camp, where upwards of a million Rohingya live in squalor. “We are looking at the very real prospect that thousands of people may die from COVID-19” in these camps, Save The Children’s Bangladesh health director Shamim Jahan said.

In the U.S., the man formerly charged with developing a vaccine told lawmakers the government in Washington has no “master plan” to fight the pandemic and is unprepared to distribute enough vaccines to immunise millions of Americans. “We don’t have a single point of leadership right now for this response,” said Rick Bright, who was removed from his job last month. The U.S. has registered almost 86,000 deaths linked to COVID-19 — the highest toll of any nation, with a third of all known global infections.

‘Very disappointed’

In an interview aired on Thursday, Mr. Trump again accused Beijing of concealing the true scale of the problem after the virus emerged in Wuhan late last year.

“I’m very disappointed in China. I will tell you that right now,” he said. Asked how the United States might choose to retaliate, Mr. Trump said: “We could cut off the whole relationship”.

The U.S. and China are the world’s two largest economies, doing hundreds of billions of dollars of mutually beneficial trade every year.

Nevertheless, the U.S. President is keen to make Beijing the bogeyman in an election year. New figures showed a further three million job losses, taking the newly unemployed to 36.5 million — more than 10% of the U.S. population.

Germany’s treasury is also expecting a big hole in its budget, with around €100 billion euros wiped off the tax take in 2020. Europe’s biggest economy has already slipped into a recession, with GDP expected to shrink by 6.3% this year — the biggest contraction since 1949.

Much of Europe appears to be over the worst, with more parts of the continent opening up. Austria and Germany were expected to open their border on Friday, while Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia were set to create their own “mini-Schengen on the Baltic”, allowing free movement among the three countries.