Six nuclear scientists killed in Israeli attacks, Tasnim news agency reports
"Abdolhamid Minouchehr, Ahmadreza Zolfaghari, Amirhossein Feqhi, Motalleblizadeh, Mohammad Mehdi Tehranchi, and Fereydoun Abbasi were the nuclear scientists martyred" in Israel's attack, Tasnim reported.
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Arabian Post
4 days ago
- Arabian Post
Why Narendra Modi Can't Compromise On Market Access To Us On Agri, Dairy?
By Nitya Chakraborty The India-US trade war over Donald Trump's 50 per cent tariff on Indian exports to the USA with effect from August 27 this year has assumed a major political dimension linking the political future of both Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the United States President Donald Trump. For Narendra Modi, the outcome has also personal implications as the decision impacts the future of farmers as also dairy industry in his own state Gujarat. The trade disputes have always have got major political dimensions, but in the current India-US trade talks, five rounds of which have already taken place, the main focus has shifted to the US demand for market access to the Indian agriculture and dairy sectors. The US farmers bodies as also the companies which are involved in agri and dairy products are anxiously waiting as for the first time, the vast Indian market of 1.42 billion population will be opened up to them if Narendra Modi agrees to the Trump pressure in the final round of talks. Why the market access is crucial for the Republican President Donald Trump at the India-US trade talks? The farmers organisations are very powerful in shaping the direction of US politics and they have big political lobbies in the US Congress covering both Republicans and Democrats. The appeasement of the US farmers lobby is a distinct part of the Republicans who depend on the farmers votes in the elections, especially in the swing states. The midterm elections to the Congress and the Senate are due in November 2026. Both Republicans and Democrats are poised for a bitter battle in this crucial poll. The farmers, across the US, especially in the six swing states of the US, will be a determining factor in the 2026 polls. Trump is under tremendous pressure from the US farm lobby which is also a big contributor to the President's election campaign. Any compromise by Trump meaning denial by Narendra Modi of market access to vast agri and dairy sectors in India as also fisheries, will be used by the Democrats in the election campaign terming it as the let down of the farmers by President Trump. Trump can not afford this setback at this hour. That is why the US President is so angry with Prime Minister Narendra Modi since the Indian negotiators in the last round of trade talks in Washington firmly told the US side that no market access to Indian agriculture could be allowed. That is the reason Trump reacted in anger by saying that no further trade talks if tariff issues were not solved. The US team was scheduled to arrive in New Delhi for another round of talks on August 25 this year, but Trump's remarks have cast shadow on the certainty of the Sixth Round of India-US trade talks though till now, the Indian side has got no formal indication for cancellation of the visit. But the signal is clear. The additional 25 per cent tariff due to India's buying of Russian oil is going to take effect from August 27. Trump wants India to indicate two things-first no buying of Russian oil from now and granting market access to the US in Indian agriculture sector. Now for Prime Minister Narendra Modi, it is politically suicidal for him to agree to any of the Trump's two demands. The Russian oil tariff issue can be sorted out if there is a sort of agreement between Trump and Putin at the Alaska meeting on August 15. If the final understanding takes a few days more after August 15 following the possibility of a final meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, there is possibility of an escape route on additional 25 per cent tariff if an agreement is reached by the end of the month. But on market access in Indian agriculture issue, the US side is adamant at the directive of Trump. Trump may not agree to the total trade deal if India does not agree to granting US market access in agriculture and dairy industry. Right now as on August 13, two days before the Independence Day address of the Indian Prime Minister, indications are that Narendra Modi has decided to fight President Trump on the agriculture and dairy industry issue. On Thursday, Prime Minister was candid in declaring that he would not compromise farmer's interests and was even ready to pay a heavy personal price to protect the farmers. On Tuesday, the farmers organisations thanked the Prime Minister for his stand to protect the interests of the farmers. Prime Minister in his Independence Day address from Red Fort is expected to take this economic sovereignty and farmers interests issues to a high pitch and try to combat opposition challenge on SIR and Bihar polls. For Narendra Modi, there are some major political compulsions to project him as the protector of farmer's interests and defy Trump pressure on trade and tariff. The agriculture sector has 54.6 per cent of the total Indian workforce while the agriculture and allied activities account for 18.4 per cent of GVA at current prices during 2022-23. Similarly, the dairy market in India is most thriving and its business value in 2024 is estimated at Rs. 18.9 billion. The dairy industry employs eight crore people. Gujarat is the leader along with Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, All are BJP controlled states. As the topmost BJP leader and RSS man, Narendra Modi instinctively can not take any other position. He is getting full backing from the RSS. The US has not only been demanding low tariffs on certain farm products such as corn, soybeans, apples, cotton, almonds and ethanol, but also pitching for allowing entry of its genetically modified produce like maize, soy, canola and cotton into the Indian market. India can not agree to this absurd US demands at the cost of the Indian farmers. The US farmers are highly subsidized by the government. There is a continuous fighting between the farmers of USA and European Union on the extent of subsidy. The EU nations are also known for giving high subsidy to their farmers. New Delhi has traditionally kept agriculture out of Free Trade Agreements with other nations. Granting market access to the US could force India to extend similar concessions to other trading partners. The average Indian farm comprises just 1.08 hectares, compared to 187 hectares in the US. In dairy, the average herd size in India is two to three animals per farmer, compared to hundreds in the US. This difference makes it difficult for small Indian farmers to compete with their US counterparts. The Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI) has cautioned that permanent reduction of agricultural tariffs in the India-US free trade agreement could result in subsidised US grains overwhelming Indian markets during global price downturns. Past evidence shows that global grain prices plummeted between 2014 and 2016, with wheat prices falling under $160 per tonne, devastating African farmers. Food security is a major concern in a highly populated country like India. Indian leaders can not opt for a policy which will allow the market to be dominated by the others having no interest in the well being of the Indian farmers. Latest figures indicate Indian exports to USA in 2024 totalled US$ 78 billion. Out of this total, 55 per cent , will be impacted by the Trump tariff of 25 per cent now and 50 per cent from August 27 if there is no India-US understanding. The labour intensive sectors like textiles, apparels, gems and jewellery are the areas which have been impacted most.. Already, one lakh gem jewellery workers have been affected in Surat, the apparels and textile owners fear the adverse impact affecting lakhs of workers since the US is the prime destination of exports for their products. This is a serious situation at a time when the employment situation in the country is already precarious. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has to take all the factors into account. If the US does not continue the trade talks further and India has to pay the additional tariff of 50 per cent from August 27, the adverse impact on Indian economy will be felt immediately and it will intensify. PM has to work out an alternative based on hard analysis of the global trade potentialities. For India, this crisis due to Trump's tariff can be turned into an opportunity to rebuild India. On the basis of strategic independence without depending heavily on any nation. Whether the BJP Prime Minister will take the bait, that is the million dollar question. (IPA Service)
Gulf Today
6 days ago
- Gulf Today
Trump deploys National Guard in Washington to reduce crime
President Donald Trump said on Monday that he's deploying the National Guard across Washington and taking over the city's police department in the hopes of reducing crime, even as the city's mayor has noted that crime is falling in the nation's capital. The Republican president, who said he was formally declaring a public safety emergency, compared crime in the American capital with that in other major cities, saying Washington performs poorly on safety relative to the capitals of Iraq, Brazil and Colombia, among others. Trump also said at his news briefing that his administration has started removing homeless encampments 'from all over our parks, our beautiful, beautiful parks.' 'We're getting rid of the slums, too,' Trump said, adding that the US would not lose its cities and that Washington was just a start. US Attorney General Pam Bondi will be taking over responsibility for Washington's metro police department, he said, while also complaining about potholes and graffiti in the city and calling them 'embarrassing.' For Trump, the effort to take over public safety in Washington reflects a next step in his law enforcement agenda after his aggressive push to stop illegal border crossings. But the move involves at least 500 federal law enforcement officials as well as the National Guard, raising fundamental questions about how an increasingly emboldened federal government will interact with its state and local counterparts. The president has used his social media and White House megaphones to message that his administration is tough on crime, yet his ability to shape policy might be limited outside of Washington, which has a unique status as a congressionally established federal district. Nor is it clear how his push would address the root causes of homelessness and crime. Trump said he is invoking Section 740 of the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to deploy members of the National Guard. About 500 federal law enforcement officers are being tasked with deploying throughout the nation's capital as part of the Trump administration's effort to combat crime, a person familiar with the matter told reporters on Monday. More than 100 FBI agents and about 40 agents with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are among federal law enforcement personnel being assigned to patrols in Washington, the person briefed on the plans said. The Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Marshals Service are also contributing officers. The person was not authorised to publicly discuss personnel matters and spoke to the AP on the condition of anonymity. The Justice Department didn't immediately have a comment Monday morning. Mayor Muriel Bowser, a Democrat, questioned the effectiveness of using the Guard to enforce city laws and said the federal government could be far more helpful by funding more prosecutors or filling the 15 vacancies on the DC Superior Court, some of which have been open for years. Bowser cannot activate the National Guard herself, but she can submit a request to the Pentagon. 'I just think that's not the most efficient use of our Guard,' she said Sunday on MSNBC's 'The Weekend,' acknowledging it is 'the president's call about how to deploy the Guard.' Bowser was making her first public comments since Trump started posting about crime in Washington last week. She noted that violent crime in Washington has decreased since a rise in 2023. Trump's weekend posts depicted the district as 'one of the most dangerous cities anywhere in the World.' For Bowser, 'Any comparison to a war-torn country is hyperbolic and false.' Trump in a Sunday social media post had emphasised the removal of Washington's homeless population, though it was unclear where the thousands of people would go. 'The Homeless have to move out, IMMEDIATELY,' Trump wrote on Sunday. 'We will give you places to stay, but FAR from the Capital. The Criminals, you don't have to move out. We're going to put you in jail where you belong.' Associated Press
Gulf Today
6 days ago
- Gulf Today
The coming arms race on gerrymandering
'I just want to find 11,780 votes,' President Donald Trump told Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger during a recorded phone call two months after Trump lost the 2020 presidential election. Trump's goal was to retroactively inflate his Georgia vote total in order win a state he'd lost and tip the Electoral College his way — to cheat his way to reelection, in other words, according to the Tribune News Service. Raffensperger, to his eternal credit, refused that corrupt directive from a president of his own party. If only Republican state lawmakers in Texas, Missouri and other red states today had that kind principled dedication to the rules and norms of democracy. But alas. Trump is currently engaged in a similar vote-cheating scheme but on a much larger scale: In an effort to hold onto the GOP's slim congressional majority through next year's midterm elections, Trump is pressing Republican-led states across the country to redraw congressional district lines that were just decided after the 2020 census. And unlike Raffensperger, key Republicans from Austin to Jefferson City and beyond are responding not with principled refusal but with: Yes, sir. Trump isn't even pretending this is anything other than a calculated power grab. Because Trump easily won Texas last year, he told an interviewer this week, 'We are entitled to five more (congressional) seats' from that state. That's not how it works, of course, but whatever. Democratic governors of California, Illinois and other blue states are now contemplating responding by redrawing their own district lines to give Democrats more seats from their states next year. This is what a redistricting arms race looks like — and it promises to sow even more chaos into America's electoral politics than Trump already has. The chaos is most evident in Texas, which is on the verge of redrawing its districts on direct orders from Trump. Legislative Democrats responded by fleeing the state to prevent a vote. Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker has welcomed them to hunker down in his blue state like refugees from some third-world dictatorship. Texas Republicans are threatening them with expulsion or even arrest. Here in Missouri, Trump's call for corrupt redistricting was initially rejected by top Republicans as an invalid scrambling of the normal process. This page even lauded them for their adherence to principle— prematurely, as it turns out. Missouri Republicans who initially expressed reservations about the idea are now suggesting it's possible, even likely, that Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe will call a special session to do Trump's bidding. Kehoe hasn't yet committed to that, but he hasn't ruled it out, either. Where (or where?) are the Brad Raffenspergers in today's GOP? Ironically, there's at least one of them in Congress right now: Rep. Kevin Kiley, R-Calif., has introduced a bill to ban mid-decade redistricting across the country. His motives aren't purely principle, as it was clearly prompted by fears that California Gov. Gavin Newsom would carry out his threat to counter Texas' redistricting shenanigans in kind, potentially unseating California Republicans such as Kiley himself. Still, the legislation (which faces low odds of passage) would at least put the brakes on this runaway redistricting train. Is what Texas is doing and Missouri is contemplating even legal? Clearly it shouldn't be. One person, one vote is a bedrock principle of our democracy. Gerrymandering generally erodes that principle — and gerrymandering that's this blatant in its timing and stated motivation erodes it blatantly. But the US Supreme Court in a 2019 case (Rucho v. Common Cause) effectively punted on the issue, allowing that gerrymandering might be illegal but ruling that federal courts had no jurisdiction to decide the matter. But that doesn't prevent Congress from imposing controls over the process like the one Rep. Kiley envisions, keeping redistricting as the once-per-decade process it's always been. Better still would be reforms of the kind Common Cause and others have long envisioned (and that California, for one, has already enacted) taking redistricting out of the hands of politicians entirely and leaving it to independent entities using hard cold demographic data instead of partisan gamesmanship.
