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Hundreds of Indian farmers gathered in New Delhi on Saturday (January 30) to begin a one-day hunger strike.
Authorities have blocked mobile internet services in several areas around the capital, after a week of violent clashes.
The farmers are angry about new agricultural laws that they say benefit large private food buyers at the expense of producers.
Earlier this week, a planned tractor parade on the Republic Day anniversary turned violent.
Iran on Saturday warned France to avoid “hasty and ill-considered positions,” after French President Emmanuel Macron was reported to say any new nuclear negotiations with Tehran would be “very strict,” and that only a very short time remains to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.
Macron told Saudi Arabia’s Al Arabiya TV in an interview that any talks should include the Saudis, a major regional foe of Iran. The French leader reportedly said it was important not to repeat the “mistake” of leaving other countries in the region out of the 2015 nuclear accord.
Police deployed a water cannon against protestors in Jerusalem on Saturday night, the first time the crowd-dispersal method has been used in a number of months at a demonstration against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Protesters had gathered on Saturday in the capital and at bridges and intersections around the country for the 32nd week of demonstrations over Netanyahu’s indictment on graft charges and handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Defense Minister Benny Gantz met with the head of the United States military’s Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie in Tel Aviv on Friday for the first time since the Pentagon announced that Israel was moving under CENTCOM’s purview.
Gantz lauded the shift saying it would “afford Israel opportunity to deepen cooperation with new regional partners and broaden operative horizons,” according to a statement from his office.
Dubai (AFP)
The UAE announced Saturday it is opening a path to citizenship for select foreigners, in a rare move for the Gulf where the status and its welfare benefits are jealously guarded.
Dubai ruler and United Arab Emirates (UAE) Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashed Al-Maktoum said “investors, specialised talents and professionals including scientists, doctors, engineers, artists, authors and their families” would be eligible for naturalisation under the new amendment.
“The UAE cabinet, local emiri courts and executive councils will nominate those eligible for the citizenship under clear criteria set for each category,” Sheikh Mohammed said.
Since Israel and the United Arab Emirates normalized ties in September, trade between the Jewish state and Dubai has reached 1 billion dirham ($272 million), the Dubai media office said Saturday.
No figure was provided for all trade between the two countries beyond Dubai.
The office said some two-thirds of the sum was exports, while a third was imports.
The Israeli army on Wednesday destroyed a natural reserve and uprooted at least 10,000 trees in a military campaign in the northern West Bank in a move that Palestinians termed a “crime”.
Moataz Bisharat, who is responsible for monitoring Israeli settlement activity in the Jordan Valley, told Anadolu Agency that the occupation army pushed military vehicles and dozens of soldiers into the Ainun area in Tubas city in the morning and destroyed a nature reserve built on an area of about 400 dunums (98 acres).
Iran said Thursday it plans to install 1,000 new centrifuges at the Natanz nuclear facility within three months and that its scientists had exceeded previous goals for uranium enrichment.
Behrouz Kamalvandi, a spokesperson for the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, made the announcement about the centrifuges while Parliament Speaker Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf visited the Fordo nuclear facility, an underground site near the city of Qom.
