News in Brief

Date: 17 September 2022 - 21:29

News ID: ۱۰۶۹۸۲

YEREVAN (Dispatches) – U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi arrived in Armenia on Saturday with a Congressional delegation in continuation of Washington’s meddlesome policies. Ahead of the visit, Pelosi’s office claimed that the delegation’s visit is to “highlight the strong commitment of the United States to security, economic prosperity, and democratic governance in Armenia and the Caucasus region.” Speaker Pelosi is the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit Armenia since Secretary of State Hillary Clinton visited there in 2010 and 2012. The visit comes in a show of support for the country, which has been locked in a deadly fight with Azerbaijan. It is the speaker’s latest dramatic foreign trip following her contentious arrival in Taiwan last month. With the midterms approaching — and the possibility that she will lose the gavel if Republicans return to the majority — the belief in Washington is that Pelosi wants to cement her legacy as a so-called ‘champion of human rights’, not only in the United States but around the world.

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LONDON (Dispatches) – A British Muslim charity has broken the world record for the largest number of blood donations across six continents in only one day. The world-record effort was led in August by a social justice charity known as ‘Who Is Hussain’, which was trying to rally 50,000 blood donors across six continents. The #GlobalBloodHeroes campaign, supported by the National Health Service (NHS) Blood and Transplant, aims to raise awareness among ethnic minority communities, where blood donation rates are low. The charity also works with one of Britain’s oldest Muslim blood donation organizations known as ‘Imam Hussain Blood Donation Campaign.’ As part of the campaign, blood donation centers across the UK – and dozens of other centers in 27 countries including Argentina, Iraq, and Thailand – collected blood from more than 37,000 people. Donations began at a center in New Zealand and concluded in the United States.

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OTTAWA (Middle East Eye) – The human rights commission chief for Canada’s Alberta province has been forced to resign after a number of Canadian community organizations called for his removal due to Islamophobic comments he made. Collin May, a lawyer from Calgary, was originally appointed to a five-year term as the head of the province’s human rights commission. He served as a member since 2009. But earlier this week, the National Council of Canadian Muslims (NCCM) and nearly 30 other community groups sent a letter to Justice Minister Tyler Shandro calling for May’s resignation over Islamophobic comments he made in 2009. That year, in a book review, May said that Islam was “not a peaceful religion misused by radicals” and instead was “one of the most militaristic religions known to man”. In their letter, the NCCM and the other groups said May had agreed to a dialogue with the Muslim community, but later declined dates to meet and then also sent letters threatening to sue those criticizing him. “In a time where brazen attacks on Muslims in Alberta have been growing, specifically targeting Black Muslim women wearing hijab, Mr. May’s decision to threaten to sue his critics, while simultaneously suggesting outreach with Alberta’s Muslim communities, have been extraordinary and shocking,” the groups said.

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ANKARA (Al Jazeera) – Turkey condemned a move by the United States to fully lift its weapons embargo on the divided island of Cyprus starting in 2023, warning it could start an arms race. The foreign ministry said on Saturday the decision would “further strengthen the Greek Cypriot side’s intransigence and negatively affect efforts to resettle the Cyprus issue”. “It will lead to an arms race on the island, harming peace and stability in the eastern Mediterranean,” a ministry statement said, calling on the U.S. to reconsider and pursue a balanced policy towards the two sides. The Mediterranean island has been divided between the internationally recognized Republic of Cyprus and a breakaway state in the north set up after a Turkish invasion launched in 1974 in response to a coup sponsored by the military government then ruling Greece. The U.S. imposed the arms embargo on the whole of Cyprus in 1987 in the hope it could encourage its reunification.

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PORT AU PRINCE (AP) – Angry Haitians have protested the sharp increase in fuel prices once again, storming and looting public centers, attacking schools and government buildings across the country. Some protesters gathered in Port au Prince and nearby streets over the weekend, while others attacked the facilities of the United Nations World Food Program, where 1400 tons of food were stored. The WFP condemned the attack on its warehouse in the town of Gonaives, saying the stolen food was intended for school lunches and poor families in Haiti. Its local director, Jean-Martin Coeur, said that the incident cannot be simply passed over. Haitian protesters targeted the National Television building, the National Archives building, and some stores and shopping centers. The protests began when Haitian Prime Minister Ariel Henry announced last Sunday that the government is facing a cash shortage and can no longer pay fuel subsidies, and ,therefore, prices must rise. As a result, the price of diesel and kerosene is expected to double in the coming days, going up from 350 to 670 gourdes (US$3-5.7). Fuel importers in Haiti are having a hard time getting the subsidies that keep fuel prices low in the island nation because they are struggling to get dollars from the central bank, which is why fuel reserves in Haiti are running low.

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TOKYO (Reuters) – The Japan Meteorological Agency warned on Saturday of a large and powerful typhoon expected to reach landfall in the southern island of Kyushu on Sunday. The agency said it may issue a “special warning” for Kagoshima prefecture and the northern part of Kyushu, Japan’s southernmost main island, with the possibility of high waves and heavy rains in the regions. Typhoon Nanmadol, the 14th of the season, was near Japan’s southern Minami-Daito Island heading northwest at 20 km (12 miles) per hour on Saturday afternoon. The storm is forecast to curve east and pass over Tokyo on Tuesday before moving out to sea by Wednesday.