Month: July 2022

Cabinet spokesperson Bandula Gunawardena told reporters on Tuesday that Mr Rajapaksa was not in hiding but the date of his return was not known.

The former leader fled Sri Lanka after mass unrest over an economic crisis.

Many protesters say he mishandled the nation’s finances, leading to soaring prices of essential goods.

Mr Rajapaksa left Sri Lanka on 13 July for the Maldives, before making his way to Singapore on 14 July.

He submitted his resignation shortly after his arrival, which was formally accepted by the Sri Lankan cabinet on 15 July.

The former president travelled with his wife and two bodyguards. He no longer has legal immunity as a head of state.

Singapore says the ousted president did not ask for political asylum when he arrived.

Mr Rajapaksa had been initially granted a 14-day visa for his stay in Singapore. But that has now been extended another 14 days, Singapore local media reported on Wednesday.

Speculation has since swirled about his possible plans, with some suggesting he might move to the United Arab Emirates.

However Bloomberg quoted an unnamed Sri Lankan official as saying Mr Rajapaksa was keen to return to Colombo.

Then on Tuesday Mr Gunawardena told reporters, “To my knowledge he is expected to come back”.

Sri Lankans blame Mr Rajapaksa’s administration for their worst economic crisis in decades.

They have been struggling with months of daily power cuts and shortages of basics like fuel, food and medicines.

Mr Rajapaksa has been replaced as president by his close ally Ranil Wickremesinghe – he was voted in by lawmakers last week but is deeply unpopular among Sri Lankans.

Zsuzsa Hegedus, who has known the nationalist Mr Orban for 20 years, described the speech as a “pure Nazi text”, according to Hungarian media.

The International Auschwitz Committee of Holocaust survivors called the speech “stupid and dangerous”.

Mr Orban’s spokesman said the media had misrepresented the comments.

The speech took place on Saturday in a region of Romania which has a large Hungarian community.

In it, Mr Orban said European peoples should be free to mix with one another, but that mixing with non-Europeans created a “mixed-race world”.

“We are willing to mix with one another, but we do not want to become peoples of mixed race,” he said.

Mr Orban’s anti-migration views are well known, but for Ms Hegedus Saturday’s speech crossed a line.

“I don’t know how you didn’t notice that the speech you delivered is a purely Nazi diatribe worthy of Joseph Goebbels,” she wrote in her resignation letter, according to the Hungarian hvg.hu news website.

Goebbels was the head of Adolf Hitler’s propaganda ministry.

Hungary’s largest Jewish group also condemned the speech and called for a meeting with Mr Orban.

Mr Orban’s remarks on race have been bitterly criticised by some in Hungary, and equally vehemently defended by others.

“Only one race inhabits this earth, Homo Sapiens. And it is unique and undivided,” chief rabbi Robert Fröhlich commented.

Opposition politicians, decisively defeated by Mr Orban’s Fidesz party in the April elections, said his remarks were “beyond the pale… unworthy of a European statesman”.

Government spokesman Zoltan Kovacs tried to dampen the growing chorus of condemnation, arguing that the prime minister had been outspoken on the topics of immigration and assimilation for years.

In the government flagship daily, Magyar Nemzet, an article praised Mr Orban for defending the idea of nationhood against a drive to mix all nations “into a grey, indistinguishable mass”.

At best, Mr Orban appears confused, sometimes speaking of the Hungarians as “the most mixed society”, at other times, appearing to suggest he believes in ethnic purity.

Zsuzsa Hegedus’s resignation is unlikely to have further repercussions in Hungary. Party discipline is tight, and resignations almost unheard of.

Responding by letter to his longstanding adviser, Mr Orban defended his words.

“You know better than anyone that in Hungary my government follows a zero-tolerance policy on both anti-Semitism and racism,” he wrote.

His spokesman, Zoltan Kovacs, said the mainstream media was “hyperventilating about a couple of tough lines about immigration and assimilation”, but had stayed silent on the main points of the speech.

Mr Orban also spoke about the war in Ukraine, arguing that the West’s support of the country had failed, sanctions against Russia were not working, and that a negotiated peace deal should be the priority.

Despite receiving large amounts of EU funds, the Hungarian government led by Mr Orban frequently clashes with the EU over rule-of-law issues such as press freedom and migration.

Hungary’s prime minister has in the past been on good terms with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, and is the only EU leader to openly criticise Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Federal prosecutors have reportedly asked witnesses directly about the actions of the former US president.

So far they have chosen not to open a formal criminal investigation into Mr Trump himself over his alleged role.

Rioters stormed the US Capitol on 6 January 2021 in an effort to overturn the president’s election defeat.

Mr Trump has publicly praised those who attacked the building, but denies any personal wrongdoing.

The Justice Department already has a criminal investigation into what happened on 6 January. The reports that witnesses are being questioned about Mr Trump’s role does not mean that federal prosecutors will decide to pursue criminal charges against him.

The investigation is separate to the high-profile, televised Congressional hearings that have taken place over the past few weeks on the same subject – which Mr Trump has characterised as a political witch hunt.

According to a report in the Washington Post, federal prosecutors questioned witnesses before a grand jury about their conversations with Mr Trump and his inner circle in the months leading up to the 6 January riot.

The witnesses were reportedly asked about instructions given by Mr Trump in connection to any attempts to prevent President Joe Biden’s election victory from being certified by Congress.

Some of those questioned included senior members of former Vice President Mike Pence’s staff, multiple US outlets report.

Until now the Justice Department has refused to say whether or not it would weigh charges against Mr Trump for any alleged role in trying to overturn his defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

When the department’s top official, Attorney General Merrick Garland, was asked on Tuesday whether he was concerned about indicting a former president – he simply responded that he intends to hold “everyone” accountable.

Federal officials would prosecute anyone “criminally responsible for interfering with the peaceful transfer of power from one administration to another,” Mr Garland told NBC News.

The Justice Department’s probe into what happened on 6 January 2021, he said, is the “most wide-ranging investigation its history”.

Any decision by federal prosecutors to bring charges against a former president – and potential candidate in the 2024 election – would have significant constitutional and political consequences.

In addition to federal prosecutors, a powerful US congressional committee has also been holding its own separate investigation into the armed storming of the Capitol building.

The congressional committee, made up of five Democrats and two Republicans, called dozens of witnesses last week in an attempt to build a case that Mr Trump launched an illegal bid to overturn his defeat by Mr Biden in the 2020 presidential election – culminating in the riot.

Some of the most explosive testimony delivered at the televised hearings came from Cassidy Hutchinson, a former top aide to White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

Appearing as a surprise witness during the sixth hearings, Ms Hutchinson said Mr Trump personally knew that members of the crowd at his morning rally near the White House were armed because they were being turned away by Secret Service officers.

“I don’t [expletive] care that they have weapons. They’re not here to hurt me,” Ms Hutchinson said she heard the president say. “Let my people in. They can march to the Capitol from here.”

Her testimony offered the committee something they had been seeking to establish from the very beginning of proceedings – that Mr Trump allegedly knew there was a very real threat of violence and did nothing to stop it.

Its panel of senators has suggested there might be enough evidence to bring criminal charges against Mr Trump, but it does not itself have the power to do that.

Any suggestion that the Justice Department could be looking into the former president’s personal role is therefore significant.

Staff at schools, nurseries and waste and recycling centres throughout the country took part in the strike ballot.

It was the largest strike ballot among council workers in more than a decade, the Unison union said.

Nine local authority branches exceeded the required 50% turnout threshold required by the Trade Union Act.

Unison said it intended to shut schools across Scotland when children return after the school summer break in August.

The unions also said strike action could leave waste “piling up in the streets” if workers did not get a pay increase of more than the “miserly” 2% that was currently being offered.

Unison’s Johanna Baxter said: “Cosla leaders meet on Friday and must put an improved offer on the table if we are to avoid large-scale disruption to council services across Scotland.

“Council workers south of the border yesterday were offered a flat rate uplift of £1925, which for those on the lowest pay equates to a 10.5% increase. You have to wonder why council workers north of the border have only been offered a measly 2% increase when the cost of living continues to spiral.

“Unison have been calling for a flat rate payment to help those on lower incomes. Most council workers earn less than £25k per year.”

The Unison, Unite and GMB unions had urged members to vote to strike after Finance Minister Kate Forbes refused an offer of “last-ditch talks”.

The unions said they had called for a summit with Ms Forbes and First Minister Nicola Sturgeon in a bid to avoid strike action.

Ms Forbes wrote to Unison last month and said “it would not be appropriate to interfere in these negotiations, given their devolved nature” and “respectfully declined” a meeting proposed by Cosla, the local authority body.

GMB Scotland senior organiser Keir Greenaway said: “The 2% that’s already been massively rejected is a shameful proposal, it’s worth less than a tenner a week extra for those earning £25,000 or under, and it will turn a cost-of-living crisis into a catastrophe for many workers and their families.

“Two years ago, these workers were applauded on the doorstep by political leaders, but now they are being told to suffer massive real terms pay cuts ahead of a brutal winter with forecasts of double-digit inflation and energy bills over £3,000.

“Our members are angry and scared, and the prospect of tens of thousands of council workers falling into the growing ranks of the working poor is not something GMB is prepared to leave unchallenged.”

A Scottish government spokesman said: “Pay settlements for council workers – excluding teachers – are a matter for Cosla and are determined through negotiations at the Scottish Joint Committee (SJC).

“As it is not a member of the SJC, the Scottish government cannot directly intervene in pay negotiations, which are for the trade unions to negotiate with Cosla.

“The Scottish government urges all parties to continue dialogue and seek a resolution which avoids industrial action.”

Emergency alerts issued shortly after 06:00 local time (13:00 GMT) warned of “multiple shooting scenes” in downtown Langley, a city about 25 miles east of Vancouver.

Police confirmed a lone suspect had been shot dead on the scene.

He is believed to have been targeting homeless people in the area.

The suspect and his victims will not be publicly identified until police have notified next-of-kin.

Sergeant David Lee, a spokesman for the Integrated Homicide Investigation Team, said the series of incidents began at midnight and continued until early morning.

He said the attacker was an individual known to the police, but it was “too early” in the investigation to identify a motive.

Among the injured, a woman is in critical condition while a man sustained a serious injury to his leg. Both have been taken to Langley Memorial Hospital.

Earlier on Monday, police issued public service alerts to Langley residents – for only the second time ever – about “multiple reports of shots fired” in the city’s downtown area as well as its neighbouring township.

Homicide investigators were dispatched to the scene, and police were seen setting up a forensics tent near a white vehicle that had cardboard covering up its license plate.

An unmarked black SUV riddled with bullet holes was also spotted near the shooting site.

Police said the gunman also appeared to have fired into buildings that were closed and unoccupied at the time.

“We had a tragedy this morning in our neighbourhoods,” Mayor Val van den Broek said at a news conference.

She claimed the problem of homelessness was worse in British Columbia than other provinces, calling on elected officials at all levels to “do more” to address it.

Local homeless advocate Kim Snow told the Global News outlet that the victims were “suffering souls”.

“They are just people that need a place to live,” she said. “They need chances. They are not on the street by choice.”

The company says it now expects profits to fall by as much as 13% this year.

One expert told the BBC that Walmart’s unscheduled announcement “signals a warning bell for the retail sector”.

The firm’s stock market value slumped almost 10% in after-hours trade in New York, while shares in rival retailers Amazon and Target also fell sharply.

Walmart had previously said that it expected its full-year profit to fall by just 1% this year.

“The increasing levels of food and fuel inflation are affecting how customers spend,” its chief executive Doug McMillon said in a statement on Monday after US markets closed.

He added that the retailer planned to cut the prices of clothing as it was “anticipating more pressure on general merchandise in the back half” of this year.

As food and fuel prices rise, shoppers are having to spend more of their income on essentials and have cut back on other spending, Neil Saunders, managing director of retail at data analytics firm GlobalData, told the BBC.

Mr Saunders said Walmart’s warning suggests that many other retailers were also feeling the squeeze.

“Walmart has buying power like few others. That helps it mitigate against some inflation, but as today’s announcement shows, even the mightiest are not immune to rising costs,” he said.

Also on Monday, online retail giant Amazon raised the price of its Prime service for UK customers for the first time since 2014 because of “increased inflation and operating costs”. Prime offers unlimited delivery of products, and entertainment streaming services.

Prices in the US and UK are rising at their fastest rate in four decades, driven by higher petrol and food costs.

The Ukraine war and supply chain issues caused by the pandemic have driven up everyday costs for households and businesses.

In its last earnings announcement in May, Walmart said it had more than $60bn (£49.7bn) worth of stock and pledged “aggressive” price cuts on some items.

The company also trimmed its profit outlook for the first time. That led to its shares suffering their biggest one-day drop since 1987.

Walmart is scheduled to publish its second quarter earnings on 16 August.