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Hindustan Times
40 minutes ago
- Hindustan Times
Nuclear nightmares are back
The survivors of the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki have had to live through several stages of trauma. First came the horrors of August 6th and August 9th 1945: the blinding flash, the ferocious force, the flesh-melting heat; plus the black rain, the flattened buildings, the charred corpses. 'It was a real hell,' recalls Tanaka Shigemitsu, who was just four years old in Nagasaki when the bomb dropped there. Then came decades of quiet suffering, as radiation ate away at victims' bodies and stigma at their souls. Finally there have been the frustrations of recent years, as the hope of a world without nuclear weapons has receded ever farther into the distance. This year's anniversaries, the 80th, come at an especially worrying time. As recently as 2009, nuclear weapons seemed increasingly anachronistic. Barack Obama, then America's newly elected president, spoke seriously of a nuclear-free world. Instead, the world has entered what strategists call a 'third nuclear age', messier and more combustible than ever before. 'The danger of nuclear weapons being used has never been as imminent at any time during the past 80 years,' laments Mr Tanaka, the co-chair of Nihon Hidankyo, an association of hibakusha, as the atomic-bomb survivors are known in Japan. Read our original reporting on the atomic bombings in Archive 1945 Russia's threats to use nuclear weapons in Ukraine helped usher in this new era, but the underlying developments are deeper. The arms-control architecture of the cold war has broken down. The New START treaty, the last remaining pact between America and Russia limiting nuclear arms, is due to expire next year. Existing nuclear states are building up and modernising arsenals. America's nuclear umbrella, which offers assurances of protection to vulnerable allies, is fraying, prompting discussions about nuclear armament in countries such as Poland, Saudi Arabia and South Korea. Even in Japan, talk of acquiring a bomb is no longer beyond the pale. Around the world, the 'nuclear taboo', the shared moral revulsion that has helped control the use of nuclear weapons, seems to be weakening. Threats have become ever more overt. Just last week, as hibakusha prepared for ceremonies in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, America's president and the deputy head of Russia's Security Council traded nuclear barbs on social media in the manner of internet trolls. The dawn of this new nuclear age is not for lack of effort on the part of the hibakusha. Achieving political miracles was always an unfair burden to place upon them, but for decades survivors like Mr Tanaka have been telling their stories across Japan and around the world, hoping to bring about disarmament. Nihon Hidankyo received last year's Nobel peace prize for 'demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again'; hibakusha have also been central to the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons, a network that won the peace prize in 2017 for pushing the United Nations to adopt a treaty barring the development, acquisition, stockpiling or use of nuclear weapons. Unsurprisingly, none of the world's nuclear states has signed up. For the Japanese government, the new nuclear age heightens a long-standing tension. Japan believes it has a special responsibility, as the only country to have been attacked with nuclear weapons, to advocate for disarmament. But it also depends on nuclear deterrence to ensure its security in a dangerous neighbourhood, facing three nuclear-armed states: China, Russia and North Korea. At a ceremony in Hiroshima on August 6th, Ishiba Shigeru, the prime minister, promised to 'work with all our might' to realise a 'world without nuclear weapons'. Much to the chagrin of the hibakusha, Japan has also refused to sign the new UN treaty. Yet the hibakusha will not be around to speak out much longer. 'We are approaching an era when hibakusha are no longer with us,' notes Suzuki Shiro, Nagasaki's mayor. Efforts are under way in Hiroshima and Nagasaki to keep their memories alive for future generations. Both cities have been training scores of 'atomic-bomb legacy successors'—memory keepers tasked with inheriting a specific hibakusha story. But fewer than 100,000 officially recognised hibakusha are now alive, down from a peak of nearly 400,000. Many of those still around were quite young at the time, like Mr Tanaka: the average age of the remaining survivors is 86. It is no coincidence that a new nuclear era is dawning just as the hibakusha' s voices are growing quieter. Subscribers to The Economist can sign up to our Opinion newsletter, which brings together the best of our leaders, columns, guest essays and reader correspondence.
Time of India
4 hours ago
- Time of India
‘Activities alien to our identity': Spanish town bans Muslim festivities in public spaces; sparks outrage
Representative AI image A town in south-east Spain known as Jumilla in the Murcia region has imposed a ban on Muslims using public spaces, including civic centres and gyms, for celebrating religious festivals of Eid al-Fitr and Eid al-Adha, reports the Guardian. The ban, the first of its kind in Spain, was introduced by the conservative People's Party (PP) and approved with the abstention of the far-right Vox party, despite opposition from local left-wing groups. Jumilla, a town with a population of around 27,000, has approximately 7.5 percent of its residents originating from predominantly Muslim countries. 'Municipal sports facilities cannot be used for religious, cultural or social activities alien to our identity unless organised by the local authority,' the proposal stated. 'Thanks to Vox, the first measure to ban Islamic festivals in Spain's public spaces has been passed. Spain is and will be forever the land of Christian people,' the Vox party stated through a post on X. 'They're not going after other religions, they're going after ours,' Mounir Benjelloun Andaloussi Azhari, president of the Spanish federation of Islamic organisations, was quoted as saying by the El País newspaper. 'We're rather surprised by what's happening in Spain. For the first time in 30 years I feel afraid,' he added, noting that the proposal was 'Islamophobic and discriminatory.' Opposition leaders and legal experts have raised concerns that the decision may be unconstitutional. 'The PP violates the constitution and puts social cohesion as risk simply in the pursuit of power,' said Francisco Lucas, the socialist leader in Murcia, through a post on X. 'What do they mean by identity? And what about the centuries of Muslim legacy here?' said Juana Guardiola, a former socialist mayor from Jumilla, reports the Guardian. The decision to ban Muslims in Jumilla from using public facilities is likely to face legal challenges, as it appears to violate Article 16 of the Spanish constitution. This article guarantees 'freedom of ideology, religion and worship of individuals and communities is guaranteed, with no other restriction on their expression than may be necessary to maintain public order as protected by law.' The town was once part of the Roman Empire before coming under arab rule in the eighth century. Known as Yumil-la during that time, it remained predominantly Arab for several centuries until Christian forces led by Alfonso X of Castile seized Jumilla in the mid-13th century, reports the Guardian. The local Arab ruler initially negotiated the capitulations of Alcatraz, an agreement that allowed Alfonso to be the king on the condition that the rights of the existing population were upheld. However, soon after Alfonso's death, Castilian forces invaded Jumilla, bringing an end to Arab rule in the region.
India.com
4 hours ago
- India.com
Jaish back in action? Pakistan's Bahawalpur becomes terror hub again as JeM HQ being rebuilt, terrorist Masood Azhar calls for secret...
Pakistan's lies exposed, months after Operation Sindoor, Jaish-e-Mohammed chief Masood Azhar again spotted in Pakistan Terrorist group Jaish-e-Mohammed is becoming active again in Pakistan. After the Pahalgam attack, India launched 'Operation Sindoor' and destroyed the group's headquarters in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. But now, Jaish is trying to rebuild that base again. Group leader, Masood Azhar, has started an online campaign to raise money for this. Through a post on social media, the group asked people to donate secretly so no one knows how much money anyone gives. In the post, Masood Azhar said that through this campaign, parts of the land will turn into 'heaven,' damaged mosques will shine again, and joy will return. He also added that those who are waiting to join the path of 'jihad' will find new ways to do so. According to an NDTV investigation, Pakistan's military and intelligence agencies have begun rebuilding other terror facilities along the LoC. These include smaller, high-tech camps in forested areas, designed specifically to evade Indian surveillance, with masking against thermal, radar, and satellite detection. During Operation Sindoor, the Indian Army had destroyed Jaish-e-Mohammed's main base, the Subhan Allah Mosque in Bahawalpur, Pakistan. In this airstrike, many terrorists, including some family members of Jaish leader Masood Azhar, were killed. According to a report in The Print, the group has relaunched social media campaigns, recruitment drives via Telegram and WhatsApp, and posted audio messages of its chief Masood Azhar calling for revenge. One speech, attributed to Azhar, vowed to destroy the Ayodhya Ram Mandir. India destroyed Jaish's main headquarters Indian fighter jets carried out precise strikes on terrorist camps inside Pakistan without even crossing the border. They targeted training camps, launch pads, and headquarters of Jaish-e-Mohammed and Lashkar-e-Taiba. Under Operation Sindoor, India struck a total of nine terror bases in both Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoJK). The strike on Jaish's headquarters in Bahawalpur and Lashkar's base in Muridke, Punjab (Pakistan), was successful. These strikes were India's strong response to a terrorist attack in Pahalgam on April 22, where 26 people were killed. Since 1999, Bahawalpur has become the main base for Jaish-e-Mohammed. This happened after Masood Azhar was released in exchange for passengers of the hijacked IC-814 flight. Jaish has been involved in many deadly attacks in India, including: Parliament attack in 2021 Jammu and Kashmir Assembly attack in 2000 Pathankot airbase attack in 2016 xPulwama suicide bombing, where 40 CRPF soldiers were killed in 2019 Masood Azhar was declared a global terrorist, and he has not been seen in public since April 2019. Azhar started Jaish in January 2000 with help from Pakistan's ISI, Taliban leaders in Afghanistan, Osama bin Laden, and other radical groups in Pakistan. The Subhan Allah center in Bahawalpur was where Jaish trained its fighters and spread its radical ideology. Indian officials believe the Pulwama attack in 2019 was planned at this same camp.
