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New Indian Express
an hour ago
- Politics
- New Indian Express
What the trial of Brazil's ex-President Bolsonaro is about, prompting Trump's intervention
RIO DE JANEIRO: Brazil's former President Jair Bolsonaro will wear an electronic ankle monitor on orders from the Supreme Court, where he is on trial for allegedly masterminding a coup plot to remain in office despite his defeat in the 2022 election. The case received renewed attention after President Donald Trump directly tied a 50% tariff on Brazilian imported goods to Bolsonaro's judicial situation, which Trump called a ' witch hunt.' The Supreme Court's order for Bolsonaro to wear an ankle monitor, among other restrictions, came after Federal Police and prosecutors said Bolsonaro is a flight risk. Authorities, listing multiple social media posts, also accused Bolsonaro of working with his son Eduardo to incite the US to interfere in the trial and impose sanctions against Brazilian officials. On Friday, the US State Department announced visa restrictions on Brazilian judicial officials, prompting President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva 's to condemn what he called the unacceptable interference of one country in another's justice system. Here's what you need to know about Bolsonaro's trial:
Al-Ahram Weekly
19 hours ago
- Business
- Al-Ahram Weekly
US, UK upgrade Egypt travel advisories in recognition of stability - Tourism
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tamim Khallaf welcomed on Friday the recent decisions by the United States and the United Kingdom to upgrade their travel advisories for Egypt to Level Two. In a statement, Khallaf noted that Egypt has been placed under the US State Department's Level Two: Exercise Increased Caution category, alongside countries such as France and Germany, describing the move as a "notable positive step." He also highlighted the updated UK travel advisory, which emphasized that nearly one million British citizens visit Egypt annually—a reflection, he said, of the country's stable and secure environment. Khallaf stressed that these updates are the result of extensive diplomatic efforts by Egypt's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and its embassies abroad to improve Egypt's international standing. Before the change, the US travel advisory had placed Egypt at Level Three: Reconsider Travel, urging Americans to avoid visiting due to safety concerns. The UK also maintained more restrictive guidance for certain areas, especially outside of major tourist zones. The revised travel guidance is expected to boost tourism flows and support Egypt's economy, strengthening its position as a leading global destination for historical and cultural tourism. Tourism remains a key source of foreign currency for Egypt. The government has launched a national strategy to develop the sector and attract 30 million visitors by 2028. In 2024, Egypt welcomed 15.7 million tourists, generating $14.1 billion in revenue, surpassing the previous record of 14.9 million tourists in 2023. Follow us on: Facebook Instagram Whatsapp Short link:
Express Tribune
21 hours ago
- Politics
- Express Tribune
US distances itself from Israeli attacks on Syria
The United States flag flies inside of Joint Task Force Guantanamo Camp VI at the U.S. Naval Base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba March 22, 2016. PHOTO:REUTERS Listen to article The United States said on Thursday it did not support recent Israeli strikes on Syria and had made clear its displeasure, while Syrian leader Ahmed al-Sharaa accused Israel of trying to fracture his country and promised to protect its Druze minority. On Wednesday, Israel launched airstrikes in Damascus, while also hitting government forces in the south, demanding they withdraw and saying that Israel aimed to protect Syrian Druze - part of a small but influential minority that also has followers in Lebanon and Israel. The airstrikes blew up part of Syria's defence ministry and hit near the presidential palace. On Thursday, the Syrian state news agency said Israel carried out an airstrike in the vicinity of Syria's Sweida, where scores of people have been killed in days of conflict pitting Druze fighters against government troops and Bedouin tribes. US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said the United States condemned violence in Syria and was actively engaging all constituencies there and called on the Syrian government to lead the path forward. Members of Syrian security forces stand on the side of a road in Sweida countryside, as vehicles transporting other Syrian security forces make their way out of the predominantly druze city of Sweida, Syria, July 16, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masr "Regarding Israel's intervention and activity is the United States did not support recent Israeli strikes," she said. "We are engaging diplomatically with Israel and Syria at the highest levels, both to address the present crisis and reach a lasting agreement between the two sovereign states." Bruce declined to say whether Washington supports Israel carrying out such military operations when it deems necessary. "I won't speak to future conversations or past ones. What we're dealing with now is this particular episode, what was required, and I think we've been very clear about our displeasure, certainly that the President has, and we've worked very quickly to have it stopped," Bruce said. The violence has underlined the challenges interim President Sharaa faces in stabilizing Syria and exerting centralised rule, despite his warming ties with the United States and his administration's evolving security contacts with Israel. Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said there had been an attempt to "sabotage the ceasefire that was achieved yesterday with the contributions of our country," and that Israel had shown once again that it did not want peace or stability in either Gaza or Syria. "Israel, using the Druze as an excuse, has expanded its banditry to Syria," he told reporters. Saudi Arabia, Jordan, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Turkey, Iraq, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Lebanon, and Egypt issued a joint statement reaffirming support for Syria's "security, unity, stability, and sovereignty", and rejecting all foreign interference in its affairs. Members of Syrian security forces stand on a road in Sweida countryside, as vehicles transporting other Syrian security forces make their way out of the predominantly druze city of Sweida, Syria, July 16, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri They also welcomed the agreement reached to end the crisis in Sweida and emphasized the necessity of its implementation to protect Syria and its unity. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said late on Wednesday the United States had engaged all parties and steps had been agreed to end a "troubling and horrifying situation". Overnight, government troops withdrew from Sweida. The government sent troops earlier this week to the predominantly Druze city to quell a round of fighting between the Bedouins and Druze, but the violence then grew until a ceasefire was declared. White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said the de-escalation of the conflict in Syria seemed to be continuing. "Syria agreed to draw back their troops that were in the area where that clash was ongoing and we continue to be very actively monitoring the situation," she said. Addressing Syrians on Thursday, Sharaa credited US, Arab and Turkish mediation for saving "the region from an uncertain fate", but accused Israel of seeking to "dismantle the unity of our people". He said Israel had "consistently targeted our stability and created discord among us since the fall of the former regime". The United Nations Security Council met on Thursday to discuss the Israeli strikes and Russia's UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said "external or internal players" could not be allowed to exploit a fragile situation in Syria by "fermenting ethnic and religious tension." Israel bombed Syria frequently under the rule of the ousted former president, Bashar al-Assad, and has struck the country repeatedly this year, describing its new leaders as barely disguised jihadists and saying it will not allow them to deploy forces in areas of southern Syria near its border. Sharaa, commander of an al-Qaeda faction before cutting ties with the group in 2016, said protecting Druze citizens and their rights was "our priority" and rejected any attempt to drag them into the hands of an "external party". Members of Syrian security forces stand on the side of a road in Sweida countryside, as vehicles transporting other Syrian security forces make their way out of the predominantly druze city of Sweida, Syria, July 16, 2025. REUTERS/Karam al-Masri He also vowed to hold to account those who committed violations against "our Druze people". The Syrian Network for Human Rights said it had documented 254 dead in four days of fighting, among them medical personnel, women and children. The network's head, Fadel Abdulghany, told Reuters the figure included cases of field executions by both sides, Syrians killed by Israeli strikes and others killed in clashes, but that it would take time to break down the figures for each category. One local journalist said he had counted more than 60 bodies in Sweida in south Syria on Thursday morning. Ryan Marouf of Suwayda24 told Reuters he had found a family of 12 people killed in one house, including women and an elderly man. A Sweida resident, who asked to be identified only by his first name, Amer, for fear of reprisals, shared a video, which Reuters was not able to independently verify, of his neighbours slain in their home. It showed a lifeless man in a chair, an elderly man with a gunshot wound to his right temple on the floor and a younger man, face down in a pool of blood. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel had established a policy demanding the demilitarisation of a swathe of territory near the border, stretching from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights to the Druze Mountain, east of Sweida. He reiterated Israel's policy to protect the Druze. Syria had sent "its army south of Damascus into an area that was supposed to remain demilitarized, and it began massacring Druze. This was something we could not accept in any way", he said, adding: "It is a ceasefire achieved through strength." In a worrying development, a military commander for the Bedouin said their fighters had launched a new offensive in Sweida province against Druze fighters and that the truce only there applied to government forces. The Bedouins, Sunni Muslim farmers who have long-standing frictions with the Druze, were seeking to free detained colleagues, he told Reuters. Amid reports of revenge attacks on Bedouin on Thursday, leading Druze Sheikh Hikmat al-Hajari called for peaceful Bedouin tribes to be respected and not harmed.
Time of India
a day ago
- Time of India
Explained: How passport renewal became easier in America
TL;DR: The US has launched a fully digital passport renewal system — no paper, no post office, no queues. Nearly half of all renewals are now done online, with over 3 million American citizens already using it. Applicants can upload a photo from their phone, pay online, and receive a passport within weeks — sometimes even days. Approval ratings for the system are a staggering 94%, with most saying it boosted trust in government. The system was built after years of trial, error, and innovation inside the US State Department . Every decade or so, American citizens are reminded — often too late — that their passport has expired. The traditional process was a bureaucratic slog: filling out printed forms, fretting over passport photos, trekking to the post office, and waiting for weeks or even months. But now, in what seems like a miracle of modern governance, the US has pulled off the improbable: renewing a passport has become simple, fast, and completely digital. There's no paperwork, no queues, and no visits to government offices. Instead, a citizen sits at home, takes a digital photo, uploads it through a secure portal, pays online, and waits. In many cases, the new passport arrives in under two weeks. For a process once synonymous with red tape, this sudden efficiency feels almost surreal. The programme behind the transformation is called Online Passport Renewal (OPR), and it has become a quiet revolution inside the US State Department. Already, it handles nearly half of all renewals. More than 3 million American citizens have used it. And 94% of them gave it a positive review — a level of satisfaction rare for any public service. From crisis to code The success of the OPR system is even more impressive given the state of the passport bureaucracy just two years ago. By 2023, the system was buckling. A historic post-pandemic surge in international travel collided with staffing shortages, hiring freezes, and outdated systems. Over 25 million passports were being processed annually — a figure that had grown eightfold since the 1970s. Passport adjudicators were buried in backlogs. Boxes of forms spilled into office corridors. Some employees were instructed to move storage bins closer to their desks to shave off seconds of walking time. In the words of former Assistant Secretary for Consular Affairs Rena Bitter, 'Our only tool was elbow grease.' Online renewal had long been discussed, but Washington's track record on digital reform didn't inspire confidence. A pilot launched in 2022 failed miserably. Adjudicators who processed hundreds of paper applications daily were reduced to a handful using the new system. Some resorted to printing digital forms and rescanning them — a comical defeat of the very idea of digitisation. But the team behind the effort — led by Chief Information Officer Luis Coronado and longtime passport official Matt Pierce — refused to give up. In 2024, they started over. A careful reboot The second attempt took a very different path. Rather than go big immediately, the team rolled out a tightly controlled beta version, expanding access in phases and collecting feedback at every stage. They fixed bugs that could've caused chaos — like photo upload glitches that rejected valid images with no explanation. By September 2024, the revamped Online Passport Renewal system quietly went live for all eligible American citizens. The response was swift and overwhelmingly positive. One American citizen described completing the process in 15 minutes — far quicker than ordering dinner online. Even more remarkably, the passport arrived in just 10 days. The new system didn't just work; it worked better than anyone expected. Matt Pierce himself once helped an elderly applicant from Arkansas complete the process over the phone while boarding a cruise. It's the kind of dedication that came to define the programme. 'You will not meet a group of people more committed to public service,' said Bitter. FAQ Q. Who is eligible to renew online? Any American citizen with a passport issued in the last 15 years who meets renewal criteria. First-time applicants still need to go through traditional channels. Q. What documents are required? The current passport, a digital photo meeting official standards, a valid email address, and a credit or debit card for payment. Q. How long does it take? The official timeline is 4–6 weeks, but many American citizens have reported receiving their passports in as little as 10–14 days. Q. Can I take the photo myself? Yes — as long as the photo complies with the government's specifications for lighting, background, and composition. Q. Is the system available for Americans abroad? No. The online renewal system is currently only available to American citizens residing in the United States. Those abroad must apply through embassies or consulates. A rare tech triumph Government technology usually grabs headlines for its failures — crashed websites, endless delays, or bloated contracts. But this time, the US passport system did something rare: it delivered a product that works. There were no billion-dollar rollouts, no Silicon Valley consultants. Just a group of committed public servants fixing a problem that affected millions. The result? A passport system that finally feels like it belongs in the 21st century. And in a time when public trust in government is near historic lows, 86% of users said the new process improved their view of federal services. That's not just a logistical success — it's a political one. For once, American citizens can look at a piece of government software and feel something almost unheard of: satisfaction. And they only have to wait ten more years to use it again.
Hindustan Times
a day ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Foreign secretary Misri provided TRF dossier to US and UN 1267 Committee
A month after the massacre of 26 Hindus at Baisaran, Pahalgam, on April 22, India provided dossier on The Resistance Front (TRF) to the Trump administration in Washington and the 1267 Sanctions Committee in New York, which ultimately paved the way for the front of Pakistani Lashkar-e-Tayyeba (LeT) group to be designated as a global terror group by the US State Department. People protest against the Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people on April 22.(File) India was informed of the TRF designation as a global terror outfit four days before the formal notification on Thursday. The global terror tag on the TRF by the Trump administration demonstrates continuing convergence on the counter terrorism agenda between India and the US. Also, this is a message to Pakistan that the Trump administration will give them no quarter on terrorism no matter the much-celebrated lunch between Field Marshal Hafiz Asim Munir and President Donald Trump. While foreign secretary Vikram Misri handed over the TRF dossier to the US State Department during his visit to Washington on May 27-29, a similar dossier was also handed over to the UN 1267 Committee in New York for special designation of the group. The TRF, led by Sheikh Sajjad Gul aka Sajjad Ahmed Sheikh, the Kashmiri face of LeT specifically chosen by the ISI, has been involved in a series of terror attacks, including targeted killings, in 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024 in central and south Kashmir. It has staged grenade attacks in Central Kashmir (2023), an ambush on JKP in Bijbehara area of Anantnag in 2023, Gagangir, Z-Morh tunnel attack and Ganderbal attack in 2024, apart from the Pahalgam massacre. Sajjad Gul is currently based in Rawalpindi and is involved in radicalisation, recruitment, planning and execution of terror attacks in J&K. His brother Parvez Ahmed Sheikh (an ex-doctor in SMHS Hospital, Srinagar) was a terrorist in the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s. Parvez went to Saudi Arabia with his family and then moved to Pakistan. He is involved in terror funding and hawala activities with Indian fugitives based in the Gulf Countries. Sajjad Gul, 50, who was designated as a terrorist under UAPA in 2022, belongs to the HMT area of Srinagar. He completed his basic education in Srinagar and then pursued an MBA in Bengaluru. He then pursued a laboratory technician course in Kerala and returned to Srinagar to set up a diagnostic lab and at the same time started providing support to LeT. He was arrested by the Special Cell of Delhi Police from Nizamuddin Railway Station, and five kilograms of RDX were recovered from him. He was involved in reconnaissance of targets and conspiring to engineer bomb blasts in Delhi. Gul and his two associates were sentenced to 10 years' imprisonment on August 7, 2003. Following the completion of his sentence and release from prison, Sajjad escaped to Pakistan in 2017 along with his family. It was the ISI that chose Sajjad as head of TRF in 2019 to front-end for LeT and project that terrorism was home-bred in Jammu and Kashmir. The ISI strategised the move in the aftermath of the Pulwama bombing in February 2019, when Pakistan came under adverse notice of the world for sponsoring and harbouring terrorists and terror groups. While TRF is designed to project that terror in Kashmir is an indigenous movement, the fact is that it is a demon child of ISI-LeT.
