Month: March 2023

Migrants caught crossing anywhere along the 3,145 mile (5,060km) border can now be sent back.

Large numbers of unsanctioned crossings have been recorded via Roxham Road at the US-Canada border.

The new accord closes a loophole that allowed migrants to claim asylum at such unofficial ports of entry.

The announcement came as President Joe Biden visited Ottawa, Canada, to discuss a series of economic, trade and immigration issues with his Canadian counterpart, Justin Trudeau.

The deal is part of efforts to limit an influx of migrants at Roxham Road, an unofficial crossing between New York state and the province of Quebec.

A record number of migrants – some 40,000 – crossed into Canada last year, the vast majority of which entered at Roxham Road.

As part of the pact, Canada will also create a new refugee programme for 15,000 migrants fleeing persecution and violence in South and Central America, the prime minister’s office (PMO) said.

The original 2004 agreement, the Safe Third Country Act (STCA), requires migrants to make an asylum claim in the first “safe” country they reach, whether it is the US or Canada.

It allowed either nation to turn migrants away at official points of entry – but not at unofficial crossing points, like Roxham Road.

The new deal extends the agreement along the entire border, including internal waterways, the prime minister’s office said in a statement.

The new deal has been criticised by refugee advocates as ineffective to ending the irregular crossing of migrants into Canada.

It is not going to stop people, Abdulla Daoud, executive director at The Refugee Centre in Montreal, told the BBC on Friday, adding he is concerned it could incentivise human smuggling.

Speaking about the new refugee programme, he said: “The numbers are too low. We had 40,000 cross just in the past year – 15,000 is a low number and just from one part of the world, the Western hemisphere.”

The US side has also seen a rise in migrant crossings into Canada.

Mr Biden’s administration has also proposed to crack down on asylum seekers at the US southern border with Mexico by making it harder for migrants to claim asylum once Covid border controls lift in May. The proposal has met backlash from human rights groups.

While in Canada, the president spoke of the importance of the deep economic ties and the defence alliances between the two nations, as well as their joint support for Ukraine.

The two leaders pledged to stand together against authoritarian regimes – in part by reducing dependence on China for semiconductors and the critical minerals need to make batteries and electric cars.

Also discussed was the ongoing instability in Haiti, where the economy is in crisis and gang violence and kidnappings have risen sharply.

The US has pushed Canada to lead an international force to support security forces in the Caribbean country.

On Friday, however, both Mr Biden and Mr Trudeau said they did not believe intervention was the way forward at the moment.

“The biggest thing we can do, and it’s going to take time, is to increase the prospect of the police department in Haiti having the capacity to deal with the problems,” Mr Biden said at a joint press conference.

He added the instability “is a real, genuine concern”, as ongoing gang violence could leave a large number of Haitians displaced.

The two countries also announced they will lead a new “global coalition” on the opioid crisis. It will look to tackle the issue of drug trafficking not only in North America, but across the world.

With additional reporting from Eloise Alana in Montreal and Jessica Murphy in Toronto.

On Friday, India’s parliament stripped Mr Gandhi of his MP status a day after he was sentenced to two years in prison in a defamation case.

He was convicted by the court for 2019 comments about PM Narendra Modi’s surname at an election rally.

The governing BJP says his expulsion conformed with parliamentary rules.

A 2013 Supreme Court order says that a lawmaker convicted in a crime and sentenced to two or more years in jail stands disqualified from the parliament with immediate effect.

Speaking at a news briefing on Saturday, Mr Gandhi said: “It makes me no difference if I’m disqualified… Disqualify me for life…. I will keep going, I will not stop.”

Although India’s opposition parties don’t always agree on political issues, many of them have supported Mr Gandhi over his disqualification. On Friday, 14 parties approached the Supreme Court, alleging that the federal government was misusing investigative agencies to target BJP’s opponents.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge alleged that the action against Mr Gandhi was a consequence of his demand for a parliamentary investigation to probe allegations against the Adani Group.

The huge conglomerate was accused of decades of “brazen” stock manipulation and accounting fraud by US-based short-seller Hindenburg Research earlier this year. The Adani Group has denied allegations of financial fraud.

“My job as I see it is to defend the democratic nature of this country,” Mr Gandhi said after his disqualification.

“That means defending the institutions of this country, that means defending the voice of the poor people of this country, that means telling the people of this country the truth about people like Mr Adani, who are basically exploiting the relationship they have with the prime minister,” he said.

“I was disqualified because Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scared of my next speech on Adani… I can see it in his eyes.”

Mr Gandhi’s supporters say his disqualification is a sign that India’s democratic system is weakening, and more protests against the government are planned in the coming days.

He will not be allowed to take part in national elections due next year, unless his sentence is suspended or he is acquitted in the case.

The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, said the decision to disqualify Mr Gandhi was in accordance with parliamentary laws, and criticised his party for questioning the verdict.

Federal Labour Minister Bhupender Yadav said Mr Gandhi had insulted members of the caste grouping known as Other Backward Classes (OBC) under which the name “Modi” falls.

“Insulting any surname is not freedom of speech,” he said.

But some experts have questioned the severity of Mr Gandhi’s sentence.

Joyojeet Pal, an associate professor of information at the University of Michigan, said that it was “highly unusual” for a first-time offender like Mr Gandhi to be given the maximum possible punishment of two years’ imprisonment.

“Both low-level politicians and parliamentarians in India are known to engage in extreme speech on social media and in their public meetings. A conviction of this scale, with the consequence of removing the primary challenger to Modi, is practically unheard of,” Prof Pal added.

More people are thought to be trapped under the rubble of destroyed buildings.

The twisters caused devastation in several rural towns, where trees and power lines were torn down and tens of thousands of power outages were reported.

Several other southern states are also braced for powerful storms.

Hail the size of golf balls and heavy rainfall were reported in several areas of the state.

Residents of Rolling Fork, a small town town in western Mississippi, said that a tornado blew the windows out of the back of their homes. The damage in the area is reported to be particularly bad.

Local resident Brandy Showah told CNN: “I’ve never seen anything like this… This was a very great small town, and now it’s gone.”

Cornel Knight told the Associated Press that he, his wife and their three-year-old daughter were at a relative’s home in Rolling Fork and that it was “eerily quiet” just before the tornado struck. He said the sky was dark but “you could see the direction from every transformer that blew”.

He said the tornado struck another relative’s house, where a wall collapsed and trapped several people inside.

Other people were trapped in piles of rubble, while some law enforcement units are unaccounted for in the county of Sharkey.

Sam Emmerson from the School of Meteorology at the University of Oklahoma said that the “extremely high-calibre” tornado lofted debris above 30,000ft (9144m).

One local weather forecaster, concerned at the strength of a tornado about to hit the town of Amery, momentarily paused his TV forecast to offer a prayer for the residents of the town.

Mississippi’s governor, Tate Reeves, said on Twitter that search and rescue teams were providing medical support to those affected.

“Many in the MS [Mississippi] Delta need your prayer and God’s protection tonight. Watch weather reports and stay cautious through the night, Mississippi!”, Mr Reeves wrote.

King Charles has honoured scores of royal aides and military personnel for the roles they played during the period of national mourning.

Angela Kelly, the Queen’s dresser, has also received recognition.

Queen Elizabeth II, Britain’s longest-serving monarch, died at Balmoral in September last year, aged 96.

In some of the most poignant moments of the late Queen’s funeral, eight Grenadier Guards in uniform carried her coffin, draped in the Royal Standard, into London’s Westminster Abbey and her final resting place at St George’s Chapel in Windsor.

Millions of people around the world watched as Lance Sergeant Alex Turner, Lance Corporal Tony Flynn, Lance Sergeant Elias Orlowski, Guardsman Fletcher Cox, Guardsman James Patterson, Lance Sergeant Ryan Griffiths, Guardsman Luke Simpson, and Guardsman David Sanderson carried out their duty.

Notably they carried the lead-lined coffin with the Imperial State Crown, sceptre and orb on top up the steep steps of the chapel in Windsor Castle’s grounds.

Conservative MP Tom Hunt said at the time: “I can’t imagine how hard and emotionally challenging it must have been to have carried her late Majesty’s coffin just once.

“With billions watching, they’ve done her late Majesty and the country proud.”

The soldiers, from the 1st Battalion Grenadier Guards, have been recognised with the Royal Victorian Medal (Silver).

Royal Regiment of Scotland pallbearers who brought the Queen from Balmoral to her lying-in-state at St Giles’ Cathedral in Edinburgh received the same honour.

The Royal Air Force flight crew who transported the Queen’s coffin from Scotland to London, other coffin bearers, and senior government officials are also included in the Demise Honours list.The late Queen with Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour and the monarch’s dresser Angela Kelly (on right in black)

Ms Kelly, who worked for the Queen for more than 25 years, has been made a Commander of the Royal Victorian Order (RVO).

The pair are understood to have had a close relationship, and the Queen gave Ms Kelly permission to write a behind-the-scenes account of her years as her official dressmaker and friend.

Ms Kelly helped to keep the Queen’s style modern and relevant – the late monarch once wore a pair of glasses personalised with Swarovski crystals in the shape of the letter Q at a 2010 film screening in Canada.

During the height of the Covid pandemic, Ms Kelly is thought to have isolated with the Queen at Windsor Castle as part of a small group of royal household staff.

The late Queen’s page, Paul Whybrew, who appeared in the monarch’s 2012 London Olympics skit with James Bond actor Daniel Craig, was awarded Commander of the RVO.

Terence Pendry, who worked as the Queen’s stud groom and held the reins of her pony, Emma, as the funeral cortege travelled through Windsor, received the same honour.

Former ladies-in-waiting Philippa de Pass and Jennifer Gordon Lennox were made Dame Commanders of the RVO.

The RVO is bestowed by the King – and not on the advice of the prime minister – to people who have served the monarch and the Royal Family.

The honour was founded by Queen Victoria in 1896.

The order from the office of the lower house of the parliament comes a day after he was convicted by a local court verdict in Gujarat state.

Mr Gandhi was an MP from Wayanad in the southern state of Kerala.

He remains on bail for 30 days and has said he will appeal the verdict.

Mr Gandhi’s Congress party had termed the verdict “erroneous and unsustainable”.

On Friday, the Congress led opposition leaders in a protest march in the capital Delhi.

Visuals showed heavy security presence in the Vijay Chowk area outside the Parliament as the opposition leaders stepped out carrying a large banner that read “Democracy in danger”.

TV channels reported that a few lawmakers were detained as security personnel stopped them from leaving the area.

The protesting MPs had planned to march to Rashtrapati Bhavan, the official residence of President Droupadi Murmu.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge told the media that Mr Gandhi sought permission to speak in the Parliament on Friday but was denied.

“If things continues like this, autocracy and dictatorship will [soon] come in this country,” Mr Kharge said at the protest.

The Congress says it plans more protests against the government in the coming days.

Mr Gandhi was convicted on Thursday for his 2019 comments about Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s surname at an election rally.

A 2013 Supreme Court order says that a lawmaker convicted in a crime and sentenced to two or more years in jail stand disqualified from the parliament with immediate effect.

Mr Gandhi will not be allowed to contest elections until his sentence is suspended or he is acquitted in the case.

National elections are due in India next year.

The Congress party has said Mr Gandhi is being targeted for exposing the government’s “dark deeds”.

Senior party leader Jairam Ramesh called the court verdict a “very serious political issue” that could affect “the future of our democracy”.

“This is a great example of Modi government’s politics of vengeance, politics of threats, politics of intimidation and politics of harassment,” he said after a party meeting on Thursday.

Ministers of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), however, criticised Mr Gandhi and his party for questioning the verdict.

Federal labour minister Bhupender Yadav said Mr Gandhi had insulted members of the caste grouping known as Other Backward Classes (OBC) under which the name “Modi” falls.

“Insulting any surname is not freedom of speech,” he said.

But India’s former law minister Kapil Sibal, who quit the Congress party last year, called the court’s decision “bizarre”.

He also said Mr Gandhi’s comments were directed at “an individual” and not a community.

In his reaction to Thursday’s verdict, Mr Gandhi tweeted a quote by Mahatma Gandhi, “My religion is based on truth and non-violence. Truth is my God, non-violence the means to get it.”

Several opposition parties have come out in support of Mr Gandhi. On Friday, Congress was also among 14 parties who approached the Supreme Court, alleging that the federal government was misusing investigating agencies to target BJP’s opponents.