World News
London Copes with Deep Divisions after Attacks and Tower Fire
A message stands amongst floral tributes for the victims of the June 14 fire, believed to have killed some dozens of people at the 24-storey Grenfell Tower in west London, Tuesday, June 20, 2017. – Photo Matt Dunham
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LONDON – The cars still zip over London Bridge at their typical fast clip, drawing little obvious attention.
But some pedestrians walking the bridge over the River Thames each day say they find themselves glancing at the passing traffic and wondering: Is that the one? Is that the one that’s going to swerve my way? The one whose driver wants to kill me for reasons I’ll never quite grasp?
“Of course I do think about it every day,” said 55-year-old Phil Bradley, who notes with approval that police have installed extra barriers since the June 3 attack when three Islamic extremists slammed a van into pedestrians on the bridge then went on a stabbing rampage in nearby Borough Market, killing a total of eight people. “But you have to keep it in perspective.”
Londoners tend to take their city for granted – until something goes terribly wrong. When the great city is ticking along, its residents barely notice its unique cosmopolitan blend, its seemingly effortless mix of dozens of different cultures. But when the city’s multi-ethnic personality is under threat, as it is now, people are uneasy, but also proud and protective, determined not to change their routines or their outlook.
The city has endured three deadly Islamic extremist attacks in the last three months alone. And the pace of horrific events has quickened: In the last week, London’s worst fire in decades claimed at least 79 lives and a group of Muslims leaving prayers marking the holy month of Ramadan were intentionally run down by a man in a van.
The city – and the country – seem divided: Between rich and poor, Muslim and non-Muslim, between those who welcome outsiders and those who fear them. Signs of division are everywhere – the general election in early June did not produce a clear majority for any party, leaving the makeup of the next government unclear.
Still, London retains much of its imperial grace: The West End theaters are full, the pubs and restaurants are jammed with people enjoying the long lingering light of balmy summer nights. But Britain has suffered a traumatic year of political change and unrest since the momentous vote one year ago to leave the European Union.
It seems the veil of civility has been lifted, and what lies beneath is not pretty. Britain, which perceives itself as a beacon of stability, seems at time to be coming unstuck, increasingly vulnerable to conflicts that have their roots abroad but are being felt at home.
The attack this week on Muslim worshippers outside Finsbury Park Mosque marks a new and long-feared escalation – an out-and-out attempt to harm Muslims simply for their faith. It comes as security officials report a dramatic increase in hate crimes directed at Muslims.
The mosque attack, in which nine people were injured, has produced a paradoxical response. Muslim residents say they are more wary and nervous than ever, and at the same time heartened by the moral support they’ve received from wide segments of society since the attack.
Farhad Ahmad, an imam at the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community Center near the attack site, said Muslims in the neighborhood are living with more apprehension than ever before.
“The situation in the country, there is so much more division,” he said. “You see a change in the tide. The three attacks, Westminster, Manchester, London Bridge, and then this happened here as well. It seems it might be turning into a vicious cycle of revenge attacks. So we have that in the back of our minds.”
He said he thinks the assailant in Monday’s mosque attack believed Islam poses a danger because of the earlier violence by Islamic State-inspired extremists.
“If this person targeted Muslims thinking there is some problem with the teachings of Islam, then it means that there are people who think that on a larger scale as well,” he said. “So they need to be reached out to, otherwise the divide is going to get bigger and bigger and bigger.”
The deadly fire at the Grenfell Tower public-housing high-rise is not primarily about the gulf between Muslims and the rest of British society; it’s about class, the widening gap between those with plenty and those scratching to get by.
At least 79 people died, with dozens more injured and several hundred displaced after the fast-moving blaze destroyed the subsidized housing tower in the wealthy borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
In the hours after the June 14 tragedy, furious residents said they had complained about dangerous fire conditions for years. But the residents – mostly poor, mostly immigrants, many of them Muslims – got the cold shoulder from the politicians in charge of London’s wealthiest borough, a place where the scions of Middle Eastern potentates routinely fly in for a week of shopping in their private jets, a bright red Ferrari or orange Lamborghini in the cargo hold for their own version of rapid transit.
There is no pleasure in the “I told you so” of residents who predicted last year that only a catastrophic fire would focus attention on conditions there. Those who survived are now homeless, more dependent than ever on the government.
The fact that many of them are Muslims is a simple reflection of how people have long looked to London as a place to get a foothold and slowly build a better life. It’s a pattern dating back centuries – Jews fleeing pogroms came first, settling in neighborhoods now largely populated by Muslims from the Middle East and Africa – but rarely have the divisions and resentments seemed so deep.
Those living in Grenfell Tower had hopes but little political clout. The first victim of the blaze to be identified was Mohammad Alhajali, a 23-year-old refugee from Syria. His broken-hearted family said he had come to London out of a desire to make something of himself in a city where advancement was possible, where hard work could pay off.
Other victims likely have similar tales. But their remains were incinerated, making identification weeks or months away – or impossible.
Neighbor May Naroee, who left a piece of art and a message at a condolence wall, said it was easy for the borough council to ignore the safety complaints from tower residents.
“The council wrote them off as just a bunch of Muslims,” she said. “Are we not truly living in a state that is Third World if we’re living in Third World conditions? These people were sent to their death in the most expensive city in the world.”
Exit polls in France showed that Marine Le Pen’s right-wing National Rally (RN) party made huge gains to win the first round of election on Sunday. However, the final outcome will depend on how people trade votes in the days before next week’s run-off.
Exit polls from Ipsos, Ifop, OpinionWay, and Elabe showed that the RN got about 34% of the vote. This was a big loss for President Emmanuel Macron, who called the early election after his party lost badly in the European Parliament elections earlier this month.
The National Rally (RN) easily won more votes than its opponents on the left and center, including Macron’s Together group, whose bloc was predicted to get 20.5% to 23% of the vote. Exit polls showed that the New Popular Front (NFP), a hastily put together left-wing alliance, would get about 29% of the vote.
The results of the exit polls matched what people said in polls before the election, which made Le Pen’s fans very happy. But they didn’t say for sure if the anti-immigrant, anti-EU National Rally (RN) will be able to “cohabit” with the pro-EU Macron in a government after the runoff election next Sunday.
Voters in France Angry at Macron
Many French people have looked down on the National Rally (RN) for a long time, but now it is closer to power than it has ever been. A party known for racism and antisemitism has tried to clean up its image, and it has worked. Voters are angry at Macron, the high cost of living, and rising concerns about immigration.
Fans of Marine Le Pen waved French flags and sang the Marseillaise in the northern French district of Henin-Beaumont. The crowd cheered as Le Pen said, “The French have shown they are ready to turn the page on a power that is disrespectful and destructive.”
The National Rally’s chances of taking power next week will rest on what political deals its opponents make in the next few days. Right-wing and left-wing parties used to work together to keep the National Rally (RN) out of power, but the “republican front,” which refers to this group, is less stable than ever.
If no candidate gets 50% of the vote in the first round, the top two candidates and anyone else with 12.5% of the registered voters immediately move on to the second round. The district goes to the person who gets the most votes in the runoff.
France is likely to have a record number of three-way runoffs because so many people voted on Sunday. Experts say that these are much better for the National Rally (RN) than two-way games. Almost right away on Sunday night, the horse trade began.
Macron asked people to support candidates who are “clearly republican and democratic.” Based on what he has said recently, this would rule out candidates from the National Rally (RN) and the hard-left France Unbowed (LFI) party. Leaders on the far left and the center left both asked their third-placed candidates to drop out.
Minority government
Jean-Luc Melenchon, leader of France Unbowed, said, “Our rule is simple and clear: not a single more vote for the National Rally.” But the center-right Republicans party, which split before the vote when some of its members joined the RN, didn’t say anything.
The president of the RN party, Jordan Bardella, who is 28 years old, said he was ready to be prime minister if his party gets a majority of seats. He has said he won’t try to make a minority government, and neither Macron nor the communist NFP will work with him.
“I will be a “cohabitation” Prime Minister, respectful of the constitution and of the office of President of the Republic, but uncompromising about the policies we will implement,” he said.
A few thousand anti-RN protesters met in Paris’s Republique square on Sunday night for a rally of the leftist alliance. The mood was gloomy.
Niya Khaldi, a 33-year-old teacher, said that the RN’s good results made her feel “disgust, sadness, and fear.”
“This is not how I normally act,” she said. “I think I came to reassure myself, to not feel alone.”
Election Runoff
The result on Sunday didn’t have much of an effect on the market. In early Asia-Pacific trade, the euro gained about 0.23%. Fiona Cincotta, a senior markets expert at City Index in London, said she was glad the outcome “didn’t come as a surprise.”
“Le Pen had a slightly smaller margin than some of the polls had pointed to, which may have helped the euro a little bit higher on the open,” she noted. “Now everyone is waiting for July 7 to see if the second round supports a clear majority or not. So it does feel like we’re on the edge of something.”
Some pollsters thought the RN would win the most seats in the National Assembly, but Elabe was the only one who thought the party would win all 289 seats in the run-off. Seat projections made after the first round of voting are often very wrong, and this race is no exception.
On Sunday night, Reuters reported there were no final results for the whole country yet, but they were due in the next few hours. In France, exit polls have usually been very accurate.
Voter turnout was high compared to previous parliamentary elections. This shows how passionate people are about politics after Macron made the shocking and politically risky decision to call a vote in parliament.
Mathieu Gallard, research head at Ipsos France, said that at 1500 GMT, nearly 60% of voters had turned out, up from 39.42% two years earlier. This was the highest comparable turnout since the 1986 legislative vote. It wasn’t clear when the official number of people who voted would be changed.
(CTN News) – Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States, Masood Khan, has urged Washington to provide Pakistan with sophisticated small arms and communication equipment to ensure the success of Operation Azm-e-Istehkam, a newly approved counter-terrorism initiative in the country.
The federal government recently approved the reinvigorated national counter-terrorism drive, which comprises three components: doctrinal, societal, and operational.
Ambassador Khan noted that work on the first two phases has already begun, with the third phase set to be implemented soon.
Addressing US policymakers, scholars, and corporate leaders at the Wilson Center in Washington, Khan emphasized the importance of strong security links, enhanced intelligence cooperation, and the resumption of sales of advanced military platforms between Pakistan and the US.
He argued that this is crucial for regional security and countering the rising tide of terrorism, which also threatens the interests of the US and its allies.
“Pakistan has launched Azm-i-Istehkam […] to oppose and dismantle terrorist networks. For that, we need sophisticated small arms and communication equipment,” said Ambassador Khan.
Pakistan–United States relations
The ambassador observed that the prospects of Pakistan-United States relations were bright, stating that the two countries “share values, our security and economic interests are interwoven, and it is the aspiration of our two peoples that strengthens our ties.”
He invited US investors and businesses to explore Pakistan’s potential in terms of demographic dividend, technological advancements, and market opportunities.
Khan also suggested that the US should consider Pakistan as a partner in its diplomatic efforts in Kabul and collaborate on counterterrorism and the rights of women and girls in Afghanistan.
He stressed that the bilateral relationship should be based on ground realities and not be hindered by a few issues.
“We should not base our engagement on the incongruity of expectations.
Our ties should be anchored in ground realities, even as we aim for stronger security and economic partnerships. Secondly, one or two issues should not hold the entire relationship hostage,” said the ambassador.
China has reassured Taiwanese citizens that they can visit the mainland “without the slightest worry”, despite Taiwan raising its travel alert to the second-highest level in response to Beijing’s new judicial guidelines targeting supporters of Taiwanese independence.
Last week, China published guidelines that could impose the death penalty for “particularly serious” cases involving “diehard” advocates of Taiwanese independence.
In response, Taiwan’s government urged the public to avoid “unnecessary travel” to mainland China and Hong Kong, and raised its travel warning to the “orange” level.
However, Zhu Fenglian, a spokeswoman for a Chinese body overseeing Taiwan affairs, stated that the new directives are “aimed solely at the very small number of supporters of ‘Taiwan independence’, who are engaged in malicious acts and utterances”.
She emphasized that “the vast majority of Taiwan compatriots involved in cross-strait exchanges and cooperation do not need to have the slightest worry when they come to or leave mainland China”.
“They can arrive in high spirits and leave fully satisfied with their stay,” Zhu added.
What’s Behind The China-Taiwan Tensions?
The tensions stem from the longstanding dispute over Taiwan’s status. Mainland China claims Taiwan as part of its territory and has refused to rule out using force to bring the democratic island under its control, while Taiwan sees itself as a sovereign state.
Beijing has not conducted top-level communications with Taipei since 2016, when the Democratic Progressive Party’s Tsai Ing-wen became Taiwan’s leader. China has since branded her successor, President Lai Ching-te, a “dangerous separatist”.
“The DPP authorities have fabricated excuses to deceive the people on the island and incite confrontation and opposition,” Zhu said in her statement.
Despite the political tensions, many Taiwanese continue to travel to mainland China for work, study, or business.
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