World

DHAKA — The Bangladeshi student group leading demonstrations that have spiralled into deadly violence suspended protests on Monday for 48 hours, with its leader saying they had not wanted reform “at the expense of so much blood”.

What began as demonstrations against politicised admission quotas for sought-after government jobs snowballed into some of the worst unrest of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s tenure.

A curfew has been imposed and soldiers are patrolling cities across the South Asian country, while a nationwide internet blackout since Thursday has drastically restricted the flow of information.

The streets of the capital Dhaka remained largely quiet on Monday, and the army chief said the law and order situation had been brought “under control” since the military was deployed.

Nahid Islam, leader of the main protest organiser Students Against Discrimination, told AFP that “We are suspending the shutdown protests for 48 hours”.

Nahid said he was hospitalised after being beaten by people he claimed were undercover police.

“We demand that during this period the government withdraws the curfew, restores the Internet and stops targeting the student protesters.”

On Sunday, the Supreme Court pared back the number of reserved jobs for specific groups, including the descendants of “freedom fighters” from Bangladesh’s 1971 liberation war against Pakistan.

“We started this movement for reforming the quota,” Nahid said.

“But we did not want quota reform at the expense of so much blood, so much killing, so much damage to life and property.”

At least 163 people have died in clashes, including several police officers, according to an AFP count of victims reported by police and hospitals.

Sporadic violence continued Monday, with four people brought to the Dhaka Medical College Hospital with bullet injuries, an AFP reporter at the scene saw, but the flow of casualties was much lower than on previous days.

Government officials have repeatedly blamed the protesters and opposition for the unrest.

Dhaka Metropolitan Police spokesman Faruk Hossain told AFP that “at least 532” people had been arrested in the capital since protests began, including some leaders of the opposition Bangladesh National Party.

Ali Riaz, a professor of politics and leading Bangladesh expert at Illinois State University, described the violence as “the worst massacre by any regime since independence”.

“The atrocities committed in the past days show that the regime is entirely dependent on brute force and has no regard for the lives of the people,” he told AFP.

“These indiscriminate killings cannot be washed by a court ruling or a government announcement.”

Diplomatic questions 

Bangladeshi Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus urged “world leaders and the United Nations to do everything within their powers to end the violence” in a statement.

The respected 83-year-old economist is credited with lifting millions out of poverty with his pioneering microfinance bank but earned the enmity of Hasina, who has accused him of “sucking blood” from the poor.

“Young people are being killed at random every day,” Yunus told AFP. “Hospitals do not reveal the number of wounded and dead.”

Diplomats in Dhaka questioned Bangladeshi authorities’ deadly response to the protests.

Foreign Minister Hasan Mahmud summoned ambassadors for a briefing on Sunday and showed them a 15-minute video that sources said focused on damage caused by protesters.

US Ambassador Peter Haas told Mahmud he was presenting a one-sided version of events, according to a senior diplomatic official.

“I am surprised you did not show the footage of police firing at unarmed protesters,” the source quoted Haas as telling the minister.

A US embassy official speaking on condition of anonymity confirmed the ambassador’s comments.

The diplomatic source added that Mahmud did not respond to a question from a UN representative about the alleged use of UN-marked armoured personnel carriers and helicopters to suppress the protests.

Bangladesh is a major contributor to UN peacekeeping operations around the world — earning significant revenues from its efforts — and has UN-marked equipment in its military inventories.

‘Sheikh Hasina 

never flees’ 

With around 18 million young people in Bangladesh out of work, according to government figures, the quota scheme’s reintroduction deeply upset graduates facing an acute jobs crisis.

The supreme court curtailed the number of reserved jobs from 56 per cent of all positions to seven per cent, mostly for the children and grandchildren of “freedom fighters” from the 1971 war.

While 93 per cent of jobs will be awarded on merit, the decision fell short of protesters’ demands to scrap the “freedom fighter” category altogether.

REHOBOTH BEACH, United States — Joe Biden on Sunday dropped out of the US presidential election and endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as the Democratic Party's new nominee, in a stunning move that upends the 2024 race for the White House.

The 81-year-old Biden stepped aside after weeks of pressure from Democrats following a disastrous debate performance, throwing the election battle against Republican Donald Trump into unprecedented turmoil.

"While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is in the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down and focus solely on fulfilling my duties as President for the remainder of my term," Biden said in a letter on X while recovering from COVID at his beach house in Delaware.

Biden said he would "speak to the nation later this week in more detail about my decision".

He later added that he was backing Harris — who is the first female, Black and South Asian vice president in US history, and will now be aiming to become its first female commander-in-chief.

"Today I want to offer my full support and endorsement for Kamala to be the nominee of our party this year," Biden said on X. "Democrats - it's time to come together and beat Trump. Let's do this."

Biden is the first president in US history to pull out so late in an election race, and the first to bow out because of concerns over his mental acuity and health.

Trump quickly reacted, saying Biden had not been “fit to run” or “fit to serve” as president.

Biden spent more than three weeks resisting calls to step down following the shock of the June 27 debate, at one point insisting that only the “Lord Almighty” could convince him to back out.

In a bid to show he was up to the job, he gave a number of interviews and what was billed as a “big boy” press conference in which he took numerous questions, but made further gaffes including calling Harris “Vice President Trump”.

A tide of voices within his own party calling on him to go, starting with donor and actor George Clooney and ending with former president Barack Obama, sealed his fate.

Chaotic period for US

The end finally came shortly after Biden had been diagnosed with Covid, forcing him off the campaign trail and into isolation in Rehoboth Beach.

Biden’s decision to pull out also caps a tense and chaotic period in the US election, with Trump having survived an assassination attempt at a campaign rally on July 13.

Biden joins a small club of US presidents who have decided to throw in the towel after just one term, with the last being Lyndon Johnson in 1968 — a year also marked by political turmoil and violence.

Johnson’s replacement as nominee, then-vice president Hubert Humphrey, went on to lose heavily to Richard Nixon.

But Democrats are counting on Harris to fare better, and hoping that she can prevent convicted felon Trump from making a sensational comeback to the Oval Office.

In recent weeks, the Biden campaign has reportedly been quietly carrying out a head-to-head survey of voters measuring how she matched up against Trump.

While Harris struggled to make an impact in her first years in the White House, she has emerged in the last year as a strong performer on the campaign trail on key messages such as abortion rights.

The former prosecutor has also made much of her life story as the first woman in US history to hold the vice presidency, as well as the first person of Black and South Asian origin.

Barring opposition from her party, Harris is now set to be nominated at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago on August 19 in what promises to be a dramatic moment — and a heartrending one for Biden.

Biden took office in January 2021 pledging to heal the “soul of America” after four turbulent years under Trump and the shock of the January 6, 2021 Capitol assault by his supporters.

Overcoming a reputation for verbal flubs, Obama’s former vice president pushed through a massive Covid recovery plan and a green industry scheme.

US allies welcomed his pledge that “America is back” following Trump’s trampling on international alliances, and his strong support for Ukraine as it battled Russia’s 2022 invasion.

But he faced criticism over the catastrophic US withdrawal from Afghanistan and inflation that meant overstretched Americans ignored otherwise positive economic numbers.

Behind it all were the ongoing concerns about his age with a series of senior moments, including tripping up the stairs to Air Force One and falling off his bike, contributing to the doddery image played up by Republicans.

SEOUL — South Korea will ramp up propaganda broadcasts to the North in response to Pyongyang sending more trash-carrying balloons across the border, Seoul's military said on Sunday.

The two Koreas have engaged in a tit-for-tat campaign, with the North sending nearly 2,000 trash-carrying balloons southwards since May, saying it is retaliation for propaganda balloons launched by South Korean activists.

In protest at a latest wave of North Korean balloons, the South Korean military said it was widening the scale of its frontline propoganda broadcasts.

"Effective from 13:00 [4:00 GMT] our military will conduct a full scale broadcasts along the borders as we have warned repeatedly," said a statement on Sunday from the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"The North is launching another batch of rubbish-carrying balloons," an earlier statement said, noting they were flying towards the northern part of Gyeonggi.

"Please report them to the military or police and refrain from direct contact with the objects."

The latest batch of balloons comes three days after Seoul announced it had resumed loudspeaker propaganda broadcasts directed at North Korea and warned that it would broaden their scope if the North persisted in sending the trash.

In declaring the start of the full-scale propaganda broadcasts, Seoul warned the North Korean army will "bear the brunt of decisive damage from its tension raising acts committed in the border area".

"We gravely warn that all responsibility lies squarely with the North Korean regime."

The North's balloons have disrupted more than 100 flights carrying 10,000 passengers, a South Korean lawmaker said earlier this month.

In response, Seoul has fully suspended a tension-reducing military agreement and announced in June that it was resuming propaganda broadcasts along the border.

In addition to anti-Kim leaflets sent from the South, isolated North Korea is extremely sensitive about its people gaining access to South Korean pop culture products, with a recent South Korean government report pointing to a 2022 case where a man was executed for possession of content from the South.

The two Koreas remain technically at war because the 1950-53 conflict ended in an armistice, not a peace treaty.

The propaganda broadcasts — a tactic which dates back to the Korean War — infuriate Pyongyang, which previously threatened artillery strikes against Seoul's loudspeaker units.

Prior to the latest propaganda broadcasts, Seoul recently resumed live-fire drills on border islands and near the demilitarised zone that divides the Korean Peninsula.

PARIS - Airlines, banks, TV channels and financial institutions were thrown into turmoil on Friday by one of the biggest IT crashes in recent years, caused by an update to an antivirus program.

Air passengers crowded into airports to wait for news as dozens of flights were cancelled and operators struggled to keep services on track, after an update to a program operating on Microsoft Windows crashed the system.

Microsoft said the issue began at 1900 GMT on Thursday, affecting Windows users running cybersecurity software CrowdStrike Falcon.

CrowdStrike said it had rolled out a fix for the problem and the firm's boss, George Kurtz, told US news channel CNBC he wanted to "personally apologise to every organisation, every group and every person who has been impacted".

US President Joe Biden's team was talking to CrowdStrike and those affected by the glitch "and is standing by to provide assistance as needed", the White House said in a statement.

Reports from the Netherlands and Britain suggested health services may have been affected by the disruption, meaning the full impact might not yet be known.

Media companies were also struggling, with Britain's Sky News saying the glitch had ended its morning news broadcasts and Australia's ABC similarly reporting major difficulties.

Banks in Kenya and Ukraine reported issues with their digital services, supermarkets in Australia had problems with payments, mobile phone carriers were disrupted and customer services in a number of companies went down.

"The scale of this outage is unprecedented, and will no doubt go down in history," said Junade Ali of Britain's Institution of Engineering and Technology, adding that the last incident approaching the same scale was in 2017.

Experts suggested it could take days or weeks for systems to be patched up.

Shares in CrowdStrike slumped by nine percent in early trading in New York.

Flight chaos 

From Amsterdam to Zurich, Singapore to Hong Kong, airport operators flagged technical issues that were disrupting their services.

While some airports halted all flights, in others airline staff had to check-in passengers manually.

The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) initially ordered all flights grounded "regardless of destination", though airlines said they were re-establishing their services.

But AFP footage showed frustrated and stranded passengers in airports from Milwaukee Mitchell to New York LaGuardia.

"It's stressful. I've got family events going on this weekend. I don't know if I'm going to make it to them," said Jake Buettner, 46, trying to get to Florida from New York.

In Europe, major airports including Berlin, which had suspended all flights earlier on Friday, said departures and arrivals were gradually resuming.

But dozens of European flights were cancelled -- Turkish Airlines said it had pulled 84 flights and Italian officials confirmed around 80 departures had been cancelled.

Across Latin America, airports were asking passengers to arrive for flights hours earlier than usual.

Chinese state media, however, said Beijing's airports had not been affected.

Companies were left patching up their systems and trying to assess the damage, even as officials tried to tamp down panic by ruling out foul play.

"There is no evidence to suggest that this outage is the result of a cyberattack," France's cybersecurity agency ANSSI said.

German interior ministry spokesman Mehmet Ata blamed it on CrowdStrike's "faulty update".

CrowdStrike's Kurtz said in a statement his teams were "fully mobilised" to help affected customers and "a fix has been deployed".

But Professor Oli Buckley of Britain's Loughborough University was one of many experts who questioned the ease of rolling out a proper fix.

"While experienced users can implement the workaround, expecting millions to do so is impractical," he said.

Other experts said the incident should prompt a widespread reconsideration of how reliant societies are on single tech companies for such an array of services.

"We need to be aware that such software can be a common cause of failure for multiple systems at the same time," said Professor John McDermid from Britain's York University.

He said infrastructure should be designed "to be resilient against such common cause problems".

STRASBOURG, France — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Thursday won a second five-year term that she vowed would tackle the EU's challenges head-on, including bolstering its defence capability and strengthening Europe's industry.

The German ex-defence minister, who became the first woman leader of the European Commission in 2019, had presented herself as the best and most experienced captain to steer the commission.

Von der Leyen received votes backing her from 401 MEPs in the 720-seat chamber in the French city of Strasbourg — over the 361-vote majority she needed to remain head of the EU's executive body. 

There were 284 lawmakers who voted against in the secret ballot, held during the first parliamentary session since EU-wide elections in June.

An elated von der Leyen pumped fists in the air after parliament speaker Roberta Metsola announced the result.

She later said it was "a very emotional and special moment for me" and the result "sends a strong message of confidence".

Von der Leyen's first term was full of crises including the coronavirus pandemic and the outbreak of war in Ukraine.

"We have navigated the most troubled waters that our union has ever faced," she told reporters.

Von der Leyen however faces another difficult five years, with rising expectations that former US president Donald Trump will return to the White House after elections later this year.

And with conflicts in and near Europe, von der Leyen insisted on the need for a "strong Europe" during a "period of deep anxiety and uncertainty".

Other issues in her in-tray are the risk of a wider conflict in the Middle East and the EU's trade tensions with China.

Not a 'blank cheque' 

European leaders were quick to offer their congratulations.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, whose recent victory has many hoping for better EU-UK ties, said on X: "I look forward to working closely with you to reset the relationship between the UK and the European Union."

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk hailed the result, vowing she would deliver for Europe.

Von der Leyen's re-election was "a clear sign of our ability to act in the European Union, especially in difficult times," Scholz said.

"Times are hard, but with your courage and determination, I'm sure you'll do a great job. We will do, together," Tusk, an ex-top EU official, said.

Reaching this point had been rocky. The EU's 27 leaders fiercely debated her candidacy in June before putting von der Leyen's name forward as their continuity pick.

Von der Leyen belongs to the biggest political group in the parliament, the conservative European People's Party, which is in a centrist coalition with the Socialists and Democrats and the liberal Renew Europe groups.

She spent weeks seeking to convince different parties to give her support.

Despite the Socialists and Democrats group backing her, the group stressed it did not mean a "blank cheque".

"Our job begins now. We will continue working to put our social imprint in all EU policies for the next five years," the group's leader, Iratxe Garcia Perez, said in a statement.

Boosting competitivity

Von der Leyen vowed earlier on Thursday to boost Europe's competitiveness by ensuring major investment in key industries including defence. 

But she also insisted the EU would not deviate from ambitious climate goals that entail reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 90 percent by 2040.

She said she would create a new commissioner to tackle Europe's housing crisis, strengthen the EU's border agency Frontex, triple the number of border guards and reinforce the bloc's efforts against disinformation.

Her promises to better defend the EU's borders sought to satisfy her EPP allies but also the far-right ECR group dominated by Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's party.

Now von der Leyen will have to get to work choosing her next cabinet of commissioners to work on EU policy.

Once she has named her team, they, too, will have to face the parliament for confirmation hearings in the autumn.