United News of Bangladesh

When abuses were reported in recent weeks in Mali — fake graves designed to discredit French forces; a massacre of some 300 people, mostly civilians — all evidence pointed to the shadowy mercenaries of Russia's Wagner Group. Even before these feared professional soldiers joined the assault on Ukraine, Russia had deployed them to under-the-radar military operations across at least half a dozen African countries. Their aim: to further President Vladimir Putin's global ambitions, and to undermine democracy. The Wagner Group passes itself off as a private military contractor and the Kremlin denies any connection to it or even, sometimes, that it exists. But Wagner's commitment to Russian interests has become apparent in Ukraine, where its fighters, seen wearing the group's chilling white skull emblem, are among the Russian forces currently attacking eastern Ukraine. In sub-Saharan Africa, Wagner has gained substantial footholds for Russia in Central African Republic, Sudan and Mali. Wagner's role in those countries goes way beyond the cover story of merely providing a security service, experts say. "They essentially run the Central African Republic," and are a growing force in Mali, Gen. Stephen Townsend, the commander of U.S. armed forces in Africa, told a Senate hearing last month. The United States identifies Wagner’s financer as Yevgeny Prigozhin, an oligarch who is close to the Russian president and sometimes is called “Putin’s chef" for his flashy restaurants favored by the Russian leader. He was charged by the U.S. government with trying to influence the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and the Wagner Group is the subject of U.S. and European Union sanctions. Russia's game plan for Africa, where it has applied its influence as far north as Libya and as far south as Mozambique, is straightforward in some ways, say analysts. It seeks alliances with regimes or juntas shunned by the West or facing insurgencies and internal challenges to their rule. The African leaders get recognition from the Kremlin and military muscle from Wagner. They pay for it by giving Russia prime access to their oil, gas, gold, diamonds and valuable minerals. Russia also gains positions on a strategically important continent. But there's another objective of Russia's “hybrid war” in Africa, said Joseph Siegle, director of research at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. Siegle said Russia is also waging an ideological battle, using Wagner as a “coercive tool" to undermine Western ideas of democracy and turn countries toward Moscow. Putin wants to challenge the international democratic order “because Russia can't compete very well in that order,” Siegle said. “If democracy is held up as the ultimate aspirational governance model, then that is constraining for Russia," Siegle said. Rather, Wagner promotes Russian interests with soldiers and guns, but also through propaganda and disinformation, as Prigozhin has done for Putin before. READ: Ukrainian counterattacks slowing Russian offensive in east In Central African Republic, Wagner fighters ride around the capital Bangui in unmarked military vehicles and guard the country's gold and diamond mines. They have helped to hold off armed rebel groups and to keep President Faustin-Archange Touadera in power, but their reach goes much further. Russian national Valery Zakharov is Touadera's national security advisor but also a “key figure” in Wagner's command structure, according to European Union documents accusing the mercenary group of serious human rights violations. A statue erected last year in Bangui depicts Russian soldiers standing side by side to protect a woman and her children. Russia is cast as the country's savior and pro-Russia marches have been held in support of the war in Ukraine and to criticize former security partner France — though several protesters said they are paid. “A Central African adage says that when someone helps you, you have to reciprocate. This is why we have mobilized as one to support Russia,” said Didacien Kossimatchi, an official in Touadera's political party. “Russia has absolved us of the unacceptable domination of the West." Kossimatchi said Russia was “acting in self-defense” in Ukraine. Such support from African countries is a strategic success for Russia. When the United Nations voted on a resolution condemning the invasion of Ukraine, 17 of the 35 countries that abstained from the vote — nearly half — were African. Several other African nations did not register a vote. “Africa is fast becoming crucial to Putin’s efforts to dilute the influence of the United States and its international alliances,” said a report in March by the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change, a non-profit set up by the former British prime minister. Russia's strategy in Africa comes at a minimal cost economically and politically. Analysts estimate Wagner operates with only a few hundred to 2,000 mercenaries in a country. Many are ex-Russian military intelligence, Siegle said, but because it's a private force the Kremlin can deny responsibility for Wagner's actions. The real price is paid by ordinary people. The people of Central African Republic aren't more secure, said Pauline Bax, Africa Program deputy director of the International Crisis Group think tank. “In fact, there’s more violence and intimidation,” she said. France, the U.S. and human rights groups have accused Wagner mercenaries of extra-judicial killings of civilians in Central African Republic. A U.N. panel of experts said private military groups and "particularly the Wagner Group” have violently harassed people and committed rape and sexual violence. They are just the latest accusations of serious abuses by the group. Central African Republic in 2021 acknowledged serious human rights violations by Russians, which forced Russian ambassador Vladimir Titorenko to leave his post. The Wagner group has responded with a charm offensive — creating films designed to please the public, sponsoring beauty pageants and distributing educational materials that promote Russia’s involvement in Africa. Russian is now being taught in universities. Russia has taken its Central African Republic blueprint to Mali and elsewhere in Africa. In Mali, there has been an “uprooting of democracy,” said Aanu Adeoye, an analyst on Russia-Africa affairs at the London-based Chatham House think tank. Following coups in 2020 and last year, France is withdrawing troops from its former colony that had been helping fight Islamic extremists since 2013. Wagner moved in, striking a security deal with Mali's new military junta, which then expelled the French ambassador and banned French TV stations. Tensions with the West have escalated. So has the violence. Last month, Mali's army and foreign soldiers who witnesses suspected were Russian killed an estimated 300 men in the rural town of Moura. Some of those killed were suspected extremists but most were civilians, Human Rights Watch said, calling it a “deliberate slaughter of people in custody." This week, when French forces handed over control of the Gossi military base, suspected Wagner agents hurriedly buried several bodies nearby and a Russian social media campaign blamed France for the graves. The French military, however, had used aerial surveillance after their withdrawal to show the creation of the sandy graves. Both atrocities bear the hallmarks of Wagner mercenaries and Russia's foreign policy brand under Putin, say several analysts. "They have no concerns about minor things like democracy and human rights,” said Chatham House's Adeoye.

The Japanese Coast Guard said Sunday that rescue helicopters found seven of the 26 people from a tour boat missing in the frigid waters of northern Japan since the day before, but their conditions are unknown. Rescuers found four people near the tip of Shiretoko Peninsula earlier Sunday and then three more people in the same area a few hours later, but the coast guard said it could not confirm whether they were rescued alive. NHK public television said they were unconscious. The coast guard said all seven people were found in the same area near the tip of the peninsula north of where the boat sent a distress call on Saturday. The location is known as a difficult place to maneuver boats because of its rocky coastline. The same tour boat had an accident there last year. Footage on NHK showed one of the rescued people arriving on a helicopter and being transferred to an ambulance on a stretcher, while rescuers held up blue plastic shields for privacy. The boat carrying 24 passengers, including two children, and two crew members had gone missing after sending a distress call, saying it took on water and was beginning to sink. Sunday’s rescue came after nearly 19 hours of intense search involving six patrol boats, several aircraft and divers. The coast guard said the search continued through the night. The 19-ton Kazu 1 made an emergency call in the early afternoon on Saturday, saying the ship’s bow had flooded and it was beginning to sink and tilt while traveling off the western coast of Shiretoko Peninsula on the northern island of Hokkaido, the coast guard said. The tour boat has since lost contact, according to the coast guard. Nineteen people are still missing. Average April sea temperatures in Shiretoko National Park are just above freezing. An official for the vessel’s operator, Shiretoko Pleasure Cruise, said he could not comment because he had to respond to calls from worried families of the passengers. READ: Tour boat with 26 missing in north Japan after distress call Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was attending a two-day summit in Kumamoto in southern Japan, canceled his program for the second day and returned to Tokyo. He told reporters in the early hours of Sunday that he instructed officials “to do everything they can for the rescue.” The cause of the accident is still under investigation, but experts suspect the boat ran aground and was damaged in rough seas in an area known for strong currents and a rocky coastline. High waves and strong winds were observed in the area around noon, according to a local fisheries cooperative. Japanese media reports said fishing boats had returned to port before noon because of the bad weather. NHK said there was a warning for high waves of up to 3 meters (9 feet). A tour boat crew belonging to another operator told NHK that he warned of rough seas when he spotted the Kazu 1 crew and told them not to go. He said the same boat went aground last year and suffered a crack on its bow. The coast guard confirmed that the same boat went aground in the area last June, though nobody was injured in that accident. Yoshihiko Yamada, a Tokai University marine science professor, said the boat was likely to have run aground after it was tossed around in high waves and damaged, flooded and probably sank. A tour boat of that size usually does not carry a life boat, and passengers possibly could not escape a rapidly sinking vessel with its windows likely closed to shield them from strong winds. In an interview with TBS television, Yamada said there was also a slight possibility the boat could have been hit by a whale. The cold temperature and strong wind could cause hypothermia and put the passengers in severe conditions for survival, according to Jun Abe, vice chairman of the Society of Water Rescue and Survival Research. “It’s a very severe condition especially when they are wet,” Abe told TBS. According to the operator’s website, the tour takes around three hours and offers scenic views of the western coast of the peninsula and includes potential sightings of animals such as whales, dolphins and brown bears. The national park is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and is famous as the southernmost region to see drifting sea ice.

A tour boat with 26 people aboard was missing in rough and cold waters off northern Japan on Saturday after issuing a distress call and reporting to be sinking, the coast guard said. No survivors have been found after more than seven hours of an intense search involving six patrol boats and four aircraft. The 19-ton Kazu 1 made an emergency call in early afternoon, saying the ship’s bow had flooded and was beginning to sink and tilt while it was traveling off the western coast of Shiretoko Peninsula in the northern island of Hokkaido, the coast guard said. Also read: UN says boat capsizes off Libya, 35 dead or presumed dead The tour boat has since lost contact, according to the coast guard. It said the boat was carrying 24 passengers, including two children, and two crew. Average April sea temperatures in Shiretoko National Park are just above freezing. An official of the vessel's operator, Shiretoko Pleasure Cruise, said he could not comment as he had to respond to calls from worried families of the passengers. Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, who was attending a two-day water summit in Kumamoto in southern Japan, was canceling his program for Sunday and was set to return to Tokyo to deal with the missing boat, the NHK public broadcaster reported. High waves and strong winds were observed in the area around noon, according to a local fisheries cooperative. Japanese media reports said fishing boats had returned to port before noon because of the bad weather. Also read: At least 7 killed after boat capsizes in Ghana NHK said there was a warning for high waves of up to 3 meters (9 feet) high. According to the operator's website, the tour takes about three hours and offers a scenic view of the western coast of the peninsula, including the nature and animals such as whales, dolphins and the brown bear. The national park is listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site and is famous as the southernmost region to see drifting sea ice.

Militants in Afghanistan fired heavy weapons across the border into a Pakistani military outpost overnight, killing three personnel, the army said Saturday, in the latest violence to rattle the volatile region. A firefight ensued with the militants firing toward the army post in Pakistan's rugged North Waziristan region, and several were killed, the statement said. There was no immediate way to independently confirm details of the attack. It comes as Afghanistan is reeling from a series of explosions in recent days, including the bombing of a mosque in northern Kunduz province on Friday that killed 33 people, including several students of an adjacent religious school or madrassa. Also read: Pakistan warns neighbor Afghanistan not to shelter militants That includes an attack Thursday on the Abdul Rahim Shaheed school in Kabul that killed seven children. It re-opened on Saturday, with children remembering their fallen classmates with roses. The striking increase in attacks in Afghanistan — as well as in neighboring Pakistan — highlights the growing security challenge facing Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, who swept to power last August in the closing days of the chaotic withdrawal of American and NATO troops ending their 20-year war. Even as their harsh religiously motivated edicts, which seemed reminiscent of their late 1990s rule, drew harsh criticism, their seemingly heavy-handed approach to security brought early expectations of improved safety. However a vicious Islamic State affiliate known as the Islamic State in Khorasn Province, or IS-K — which claimed the recent spate of attacks in Afghanistan as well as a growing number in neighboring Pakistan — is proving an intractable challenge. IS-K took responsibility for a series of attacks across Afghanistan on Thursday, most of which targeted the country's minority Shiites who the radical Sunni Muslim group revile as heretics. Also read: Pakistan to work with Afghanistan, other neighbors to combat terrorism: army chief Still, the IS-K, which is an enemy of Afghanistan's Taliban rulers, is not the only militant organization in Afghanistan contributing to the security dilemma facing Kabul's religiously driven government. The violent Pakistani Taliban, known as the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan or (TTP) — which the United Nations says numbers around 10,000 in Afghanistan — has stepped up its assault on Pakistan's military outposts from its Afghan hideouts. Even the upstart IS-K has taken responsibility for some of the attacks targeting Pakistani military personnel, damaging relations between the two countries. Afghanistan's Taliban rulers have promised no militant group would use its soil as a base to attack another country, but Kabul has yet to arrest or hand over any TTP leaders in Afghanistan to Pakistan. Other militant groups also operating in Afghanistan include China's militant Uighurs of East Turkistan Movement, which seeks independence for northwest China, and the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Some of the groups are loosely allied to the IS-K , while others act more independently, but on Saturday Pakistan's military statement warned Afghanistan's Taliban rulers to do more. “Pakistan strongly condemns the use of Afghan soil by terrorists for activities against Pakistan and expects that the Afghan Government will not allow conduct of such activities, in future,” said the Pakistan military statement. After seven of its troops were killed in an ambush earlier this month, Pakistan on April 16 retaliated with bombing raids inside Afghanistan that locals in Afghanistan's eastern Khost province said killed dozens of refugees. The United Nations Education Fund (UNICEF) confirmed 20 children were killed in the strikes in Afghanistan's border provinces of Khost and Kunar. At the Abdul Rahim Shaheed School, which was among the IS-K targets in the Thursday attacks, school principal Ghulam Haider Husseini handed roses to each student as they arrived. He also gave students a pen saying “it is our pen who will bring about a change in this situation.”

Beijing is on alert after 10 middle school students tested positive for COVID-19 on Friday, in what city officials said was an initial round of testing. City officials suspended classes in the school for a week following the positive test results. The Chinese capital also reported four other confirmed cases on Friday that were counted separately. Mainland China reported 24,326 new community-transmitted infections on Saturday, with the vast majority of them asymptomatic cases in Shanghai, where enforcement of a strict “zero-COVID” strategy has drawn global attention. China has doubled down on the approach even in face of the highly transmissible omicron variant. The zero-COVID policy warded off many deaths and widespread outbreaks when faced with less transmissible variants through mass testing and strict lockdowns where people could not leave their homes. READ: It’s not over: COVID-19 cases are on the rise again in US But recent developments in Shanghai have led some to question whether the strategy is worth the tradeoffs. Many residents in the city have struggled to get adequate food supplies during a lockdown this month, while some were also unable to get drugs or medical attention. Some elderly people died after an outbreak at an hospital led medical staff to be quarantined. The country is now facing its worst outbreak since the beginning of the pandemic in the central city of Wuhan. Local media reported that in Beijing’s Chaoyang district, the government ordered the suspension of in-person after-school activities and classes. The city government is now conducting a round of mass testing to look for more cases. In Shanghai, city officials reported 12 new deaths Saturday, all elderly patients with underlying illnesses.

The leaders of the rival Koreas exchanged letters expressing hope for improved bilateral relations, which plummeted in the past three years amid a freeze in nuclear negotiations and North Korea’s accelerating weapons development.  North Korea’s state media said leader Kim Jong Un on Wednesday received a personal letter from outgoing South Korean President Moon Jae-in and replied on Thursday with his own letter appreciating Moon’s peace efforts during his term. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency said Friday their exchange of letters showed their “deep trust.” Moon in his letter to Kim acknowledged setbacks in inter-Korean relations but insisted that their aspirational vows for peace during their summits in 2018 and an accompanying military agreement aimed at defusing border area clashes remain relevant as a foundation for future cooperation. Moon also expressed hope for a resumption of nuclear talks between Washington and Pyongyang and for Kim to pursue cooperation with Seoul’s next government led by conservative President-elect Yoon Suk Yeol, Moon’s spokesperson Park Kyung-mee said. Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have risen since a series of North Korean weapons tests this year, including its first flight-test of an intercontinental ballistic missile since 2017 in March, reviving the nuclear brinkmanship aimed at forcing the U.S. to accept it as a nuclear power and to remove crippling sanctions. Also Read: North Korea tests new weapon bolstering nuclear capability South Korea’s military has also detected signs that North Korea is rebuilding tunnels at a nuclear testing ground it partially dismantled weeks before Kim’s first meeting with then-President Donald Trump in June 2018, a possible indicator that the country is preparing to resume nuclear explosive tests. Staking his single presidential term on inter-Korean rapprochement, Moon met Kim three times in 2018 and lobbied hard to help set up Kim’s meetings with Trump. But the diplomacy never recovered from the collapse of the second Kim-Trump meeting in 2019 in Vietnam, where the Americans rejected North Korea’s demands for major sanctions relief in exchange for dismantling an aging nuclear facility, which would have amounted to a partial surrender of its nuclear capabilities. Kim has since vowed to bolster his nuclear deterrent to counter “gangster-like” U.S. pressure and sped up his weapons development despite limited resources and pandemic-related difficulties. North Korea also severed all cooperation with Moon’s government while expressing anger over the continuation of U.S.-South Korea military exercises, which were curtailed in recent years to promote diplomacy with the North, and Seoul’s inability to wrest concessions from Washington on its behalf. KCNA said Moon wrote in his letter to Kim that he will continue to support efforts for Korean reunification based on their joint declarations for inter-Korean peace issued after their meetings in 2018. Kim and Moon shared views that “inter-Korean relations would improve and develop as desired and anticipated by the (Korean) nation if the (North and the South) make tireless efforts with hope,” KCNA said. South Korea’s next leader could take a harder line toward Pyongyang. Yoon, who takes office May 10, has rejected pursuing “talks for talks’ sake” with North Korea and vowed to bolster Seoul’s alliance with Washington and resume their full-scale military exercises to counter the North’s nuclear threat. Analysts say North Korea is also likely to escalate its weapons demonstrations in coming weeks or months to force a reaction from the Biden administration, which has been focused on Russia’s war on Ukraine and a rivalry with China. Also Read: North Korea fires ballistic missile in extension of testing The administration’s actions on North Korea have so far been limited to largely symbolic sanctions imposed over a series of missile tests this year and offers of open-ended talks that were quickly turned down by Pyongyang’s leadership. There are views in Seoul that Washington is slipping back to the Obama administration’s “strategic patience” policy of ignoring North Korea until it demonstrates seriousness about denuclearization, although that approach was criticized for neglecting a gathering nuclear threat. Biden’s special envoy for North Korea, Sung Kim, traveled to Seoul this week for meetings with senior South Korean officials and said they agreed on the need for a strong response to counter North Korea’s “destabilizing behavior.” After maintaining a conciliatory tone for years, Moon’s government objected more strongly to North Korea’s weapons tests this year, criticizing Kim’s government for ending its self-imposed suspension of long-range missile testing and urging a return to diplomacy. Seoul has also accused North Korea of destroying South Korean-owned facilities at the North’s Diamond Mountain resort where they ran tours together until 2008. Kim in 2019 called the South Korean facilities there “shabby” and ordered them destroyed, though the work was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic.    

India has condemned a prominent US lawmaker's visit to Pakistan-administered Kashmir. US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar is currently on a four-day tour of neighbouring Pakistan. She has already called on Pakistan Premier Shahbaz Sharif and his predecessor Imran Khan. But her visit to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir has irked India. "If such a politician wishes to practice her narrow-minded politics at home that may be her business, but violating our territorial integrity in its pursuit makes this ours," Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi told the media in Delhi on Thursday. Read: FM questions quality of US HR report on Bangladesh Kashmir has for long been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan, with both staking claim to the disputed territory. Both the countries have fought at least three major wars over the disputed territory in the past 70 years. The 39-year-old lawmaker represents Minnesota in the US House of Representatives.

Israel’s air force and Palestinian militants traded fire across the Gaza frontier early Thursday as clashes erupted again at Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site, worsening an escalation that has been eerily similar to the lead-up to last year’s Israel-Gaza war. The violence along the Gaza front, fueled by the unrest between Israeli police and Palestinians in Jerusalem, appears to be the heaviest-cross-border fighting since last year’s 11-day war and comes despite efforts to prevent a repeat. A rocket fired from Gaza this week shattered a months-long period of calm that followed the war. Palestinian militants fired two rockets toward Israel from the Gaza Strip late Wednesday and early Thursday, and Israeli aircraft hit militant targets in the seaside, Hamas-ruled enclave. One rocket landed in the southern Israeli city of Sderot, a frequent target, and another fell short and landed in Gaza, the Israeli military said. The launches set off air-raid sirens across parts of southern Israel, disrupting the quiet of the Passover holiday week. Early Thursday, Israeli warplanes conducted airstrikes in the central Gaza Strip, local media reported. Social media posts by activists showed smoke billowing in the air. The Israeli military said the airstrikes were aimed at a militant site and the entrance of a tunnel leading to an underground complex holding chemicals to make rockets. The military later said its planes attacked another Hamas compound after an anti-aircraft missile was fired from Gaza. It said the missile failed to hit its target and no injuries or damage were reported. The latest Israeli-Palestinian tensions boiled over after a series of deadly attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, which then sparked days-long, sometimes lethal, arrest raids by the military in a flashpoint West Bank city and spread into daily clashes in Jerusalem. This year, the Muslim holy month of Ramadan has coincided with Passover, a time of heightened religious observances and visits by large numbers of people to Jerusalem. Read: Sri Lanka police open fire at protesters; 1 dead, 13 injured Israeli police said dozens of masked protesters holed up in the Al-Aqsa Mosque early Thursday, sealed the doors and began throwing rocks and firecrackers. Police said they attempted to disperse the Palestinians using “riot dispersal means,” without elaborating, and that forces did not enter the mosque itself. A Palestinian official from the Waqf, which administers the site, said large numbers of police used stun grenades to clear out the site. He said police also fired stun grenades and rubber-coated bullets against Palestinians who had sealed themselves inside the mosque. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the incident with the media. The Palestinian Red Crescent said 20 people were injured, one critically. Similar clashes have taken place throughout the week, while fiercer ones broke out at the site earlier this month, wounding more than 150 Palestinians and three police officers. The Palestinians have accused Israeli police of using excessive force at the holy site, and Palestinian social media have been filled with videos showing Israeli forces striking what appear to be unarmed Palestinians, including women. Police say Palestinians instigate the violence and have released their own videos showing young Palestinian men throwing rocks and fireworks toward the security forces. Police say the Palestinians are desecrating their own shrine and putting others at risk. Jordan, which administers the Al-Aqsa Mosque, on Thursday held an emergency meeting of a regional committee over what it called “illegal Israeli policies and measures” in Jerusalem. The committee includes member countries who have recently normalized ties with Israel, including the United Arab Emirates. The country’s top diplomat, Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and Israeli Foreign Minister Yair Lapid spoke by phone Thursday. Al Nahyan called for stability according to the United Arab Emirates’ state-run WAM news agency. Read: Surprisingly low Shanghai COVID death count spurs questions A U.S. State Department delegation is also in the region in a bid to secure calm. The scenes of rocket fire and repeated violence in Jerusalem recall the run-up to last year’s war. Last year, the violence also spread to mixed Jewish-Arab cities, which hasn’t happened in the current wave of unrest. On Wednesday, hundreds of flag-waving Israeli ultra-nationalists marched toward predominantly Palestinian areas around Jerusalem’s Old City, a demonstration of Israeli control over the disputed city seen as a provocation by Palestinians. Last year’s war erupted during a similar march, when Gaza militants, declaring themselves the guardians of Jerusalem, fired a barrage of rockets toward the holy city. Those events, along with other developments, led to an 11-day war between Israel and Hamas that killed over 250 Palestinians and 14 people in Israel, causing extensive damage in Gaza. This year, Israeli police closed the main road leading to the Damascus Gate of the Old City and the heart of Muslim Quarter. After some pushing and shoving with police, the marchers rallied near the barricades, waving flags, singing and chanting. Israeli nationalists stage such marches to try to assert sovereignty over east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in 1967, along with the West Bank and Gaza, and annexed in a move not recognized internationally. The Palestinians seek an independent state in all three territories and consider east Jerusalem their capital. The hilltop shrine in the Old City is the emotional ground zero of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the center of previous rounds of violence. Known to Muslims as the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, it is the third holiest site in Islam. It is also the holiest site in Judaism, revered by Jews as the Temple Mount, the site of their biblical temples. Israel says it is maintaining a decades-old status quo at the site, which prevents Jews from praying there. But during the Passover holiday this year, visits by Jews have skyrocketed and in some cases Jews have been praying at the compound. Palestinians view the visits, under police escort, as a provocation and possible prelude to Israel taking over the site or partitioning it. For Palestinians, the mosque compound, administered by Muslim clerics, is also a rare place in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem where they have a measure of control. Palestinian militant groups in Gaza — the ruling Hamas and the smaller Islamic Jihad — have positioned themselves as defenders of the Jerusalem holy site. On Wednesday, Hamas said Israel would bear “full responsibility for the repercussions” if it allowed the marchers “to approach our holy sites.”

British Premier Boris Johnson on Thursday arrived in Prime Minister Narendra Modi's home state of Gujarat on a two-day India visit, a tour expected to give fresh impetus to the proposed bilateral free-trade agreement. "It’s fantastic to be in India, the world’s largest democracy," Johnson tweeted after his flight landed at the international airport in the city of Ahmedabad this morning. Also read: 10 killed in India road accident "I see vast possibilities for what our great nations can achieve together. Our powerhouse partnership is delivering jobs, growth and opportunity. I look forward to strengthening this partnership in the coming days," he wrote. From the airport, the British PM went to Mahatma Gandhi's Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad and tried his hand at spinning the charkha.  "It is an immense privilege to come to the Ashram of this extraordinary man, and to understand how he mobilised such simple principles of truth and non-violence to change the world for the better," he wrote in the visitor's book at the ashram. On Friday, Johnson is slated to meet PM Modi in Delhi where both the leaders are expected to discuss trade, defence and Indo-Pacific, among other issues. Also read: 14 arrested after communal violence in Indian capital Speaking to reporters on the plane on his way to India, the British PM said, "I have always been in favour of talented people coming to this country."  "We are short to the tune of hundreds of thousands of people in our economy and we need to have a progressive approach and we will," he added.

China’s credit card processor has refused to work with banks in Russia for fear of being targeted by sanctions over its war on Ukraine, cutting off a possible alternative after Visa and Mastercard stopped serving them, according to the Russian news outlet RBC. UnionPay’s decision affects Sberbank, Russia’s biggest commercial bank, and smaller institutions, RBC reported Wednesday. It cited five unidentified sources in large Russian banks. Also read: China looks to learn from Russian failures in Ukraine Mastercard and Visa suspended operations in Russia after the United States and other governments imposed trade and financial sanctions on President Vladimir Putin’s government for its attack on Ukraine. Sberbank and another institution, Tinkoff Bank, announced they were looking at switching to UnionPay, which is operated by Chinese state-owned banks. UnionPay is one of the biggest global payments processors but does almost all its business in China. American officials have warned that governments or companies that try to undermine sanctions will face consequences. RBC said UnionPay wanted to avoid such “secondary sanctions.” Also read: China renews calls for peace talks to end Russia-Ukraine war Chinese President Xi Jinping's government has called Russia its “most important strategic partner” and criticized sanctions on Moscow. But Chinese companies and banks appear to be complying with trade and financial restrictions. Other banks cited by RBC include Alfa Bank, VTB, Otkrytie and Promsvyazbank.