13/05/2025

TUESDAY | MAY 13, 2025

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India opens all airports JAMMU: India reopened 32 airports yesterday following a weekend ceasefire that ended the worst fighting with Pakistan since 1999. o Border situation calm

Texas push to tighten land laws sparks discrimination claims AUSTIN: A renewed push in Texas to ban non citizens from buying property is almost across the finish line, prompting protests by opponents who claim the measure are discriminatory. The legislation failed in 2023, but has gained new steam since President Donald Trump’s return to office on an anti-immigration and anti China agenda. The Texas Bill, SB 17, bans most non-citizens from countries deemed by the United States to be security threats from buying any property. That list includes China, Iran, North Korea and Russia, but an amendment allows Governor Greg Abbott the freedom to add other countries. State Representative Cole Hefner said the push “is about securing Texas land and natural resources ... (from) adversarial nations and oppressive regimes that wish to do us harm.” Hundreds of protesters on Saturday took to the streets in Austin, carrying posters reading “stop the hate” and “housing is a human right”. “If you make a law targeting certain people just because of their origin, their country where they come from, that’s racist. This is a racist Bill,” said Alice Yi, co-founder of Asian Texans for Justice. “This is our country too.” According to US Census data, Asians represented roughly 6% of the Texas population in 2023 – 1.7 million people out of 31.3 million – but were the fastest growing group in the state. “Not everybody is a spy, not everybody here is associated with ... the home country,” said Eileen Huang, 42, with the Texas Multicultural Advocacy Coalition. “A lot of people, they flee from the home country. Why? Because they don’t agree” with the country’s leadership, she added. Representative Gene Wu said exemptions for permanent residents did not go far enough. “They’ve accepted green card holders and citizens, but the problem is you cannot become a green card holder or a citizen if you do not have a way to show that you can live here permanently,” he said. SB 17 passed the House on Friday with several amendments and must now be passed again in the Senate. With mounting political and economic tensions between Washington and Beijing in recent years, similar bans targeting Chinese land ownership have popped up in other states. Texas itself passed a law in 2021 to ban companies from several nations, including China, from connecting to the power grid. The legislation was passed to block Chinese mogul Sun Guangxin from building a large wind farm in the state. – AFP Stolen Buddhist statue returned to Japan NAGASAKI: A 14th-century statue, stolen in October 2012 and taken to South Korea, was returned to a Japanese temple yesterday. The statue of the Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva, owned by Kannon Temple on Tsushima, a Nagasaki Prefecture island, was handed over in South Korea to representatives of the Japanese temple on Saturday. The artefact is designated as a cultural asset by the prefecture. The statue, which was airlifted to Fukuoka Prefecture on the southwestern main island of Kyushu and then transported to Tsushima by ferry, is expected to be stored at a museum after a ceremony at the temple. After the statue was stolen, the South Korean authorities arrested the thieves and confiscated it. In 2016, however, Buseoksa Temple in the country filed a lawsuit claiming that the statue had been plundered by Japanese pirates hundreds of years ago. In 2023, South Korea’s Supreme Court ruled favouring the Kannon Temple. – Bernama

The Airport Authority of India said the 32 – from Srinagar in Indian-administered Kashmir to Bhuj in the western state of Gujarat – were now available for civil operations “with immediate effect”. They were closed last week after fierce fighting erupted between India and Pakistan for four days. Leading Indian airline IndiGo said it would “progressively commence operations on the previously closed routes”. The truce was announced on Saturday, but both sides immediately accused the other of breaking it. However, both India and Pakistan said the border areas were calm yesterday. Pakistan had reopened its airspace on Saturday. There were no reports of explosions or projectiles overnight, after some initial ceasefire violations, with the Indian Army saying Sunday was the first peaceful night in recent days along the border, although some schools remain closed. Saturday’s ceasefire in the Himalayan region, announced by US President Donald Trump, followed four days of intense firing and diplomacy and pressure from Washington. India’s military sent a “hotline” message to Pakistan on Sunday about the previous day’s ceasefire violations, flagging New Delhi’s intent to respond to further such incidents, a top Indian army officer said. A spokesman for Pakistan’s military denied any violations. The arch rivals had targeted each other’s military installations with missiles and drones, killing dozens of civilians as relations turned sour after India blamed Pakistan for an attack that killed 26 tourists. Pakistan denies the accusations and has called for a neutral investigation. India said it launched strikes on nine ‘terrorist infrastructure’ sites in Pakistan and Pakistani Kashmir on Wednesday, but Labour leader Starmer announced he was ending an “experiment in open borders” that saw net migration rise to nearly one million people under the previous Conservative government, which lost last year’s election. The government’s Immigration White Paper policy document was to be presented to parliament later. Starmer said it would “finally take back control of our borders and close the book on a squalid chapter for our politics, our economy and our country”, recalling the pro-Brexit slogan at the height of the campaign to leave the European Union. Labour vowed in its general election manifesto last year to significantly reduce net migration, which stood at 728,000 in the 12 months to last June. He is under renewed pressure to tackle the issue following the anti-immigration Reform party’s win in recent local elections. They are riding high in the polls, as Labour struggles. Starmer told reporters during a press conference in Downing Street that it was his “promise” that migration will fall. Under the new plans, people will have to live

A Kashmir resident inspecting his damaged house in Jura, Neelum Valley, on Sunday. – AFPPIC

This “radical package of reforms” would also target lower-skilled immigration, said Cooper. It will include new visa controls “lifting the threshold for skilled worker visas to reduce lower skilled migration”, she wrote in the Sunday Telegraph . Foreign workers will be required to have a degree to secure a job. Cooper also said she aimed to cut 50,000 lower-skilled worker visas this year. High-skilled individuals “who play by the rules and contribute to the economy”, such as nurses, doctors, engineers and AI leaders, would be fast-tracked under the new plans, according to Downing Street. “For years we have had a system that encourages businesses to bring in lower-paid workers, rather than invest in our young people,” Starmer will say. The government is also under pressure to stop the flow of migrants crossing the Channel from France to England on flimsy rubber dinghies. More than 36,800 made the journey last year, according to British government figures. According to the Missing Migrants Project, 84 people died attempting the crossing last year, including at least 14 children. Starmer’s government says it has deported more than 24,000 people with no right to be in the UK since last July’s election, the highest rate in eight years. – AFP had backed Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the April 22 attack, agreed, while calling for a special parliament session on the latest developments with Pakistan. “The government should also give its stand on the statements made by America on the Kashmir issue, as this is a bilateral issue,” Congress leader Sachin Pilot said in a post on X on Sunday. India and Pakistan both rule part of the Himalayan region of Kashmir, but claim it in full. India blames Pakistan for an insurgency in its part of Kashmir that began in 1989, but Pakistan says it provides only moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiri separatists. – AFP/Reuters

Islamabad has said those were civilian sites. While Islamabad has thanked Washington for facilitating the ceasefire and welcomed Trump’s offer to mediate in the Kashmir dispute, New Delhi has not commented on US involvement in the truce or talks at a neutral site. India, which says disputes with Pakistan have to be resolved directly by the neighbours, has in the past rejected the involvement of any third party. “Kashmir is a bilateral issue, not an international issue,” said Shilpak Ambule, its high commissioner in Singapore, told Bloomberg TV. “For us, the word mediation does not work with the Kashmir issue.” The main opposition Congress party, which

UK govt unveils flagship immigration plans LONDON: Prime Minister Keir Starmer vowed yesterday to “finally take back control” of Britain’s borders as his government unveiled policies designed to reduce immigration and fend off rising support for the hard right. in the UK for 10 years before qualifying for settlement and citizenship, up from five years. English language rules will also be strengthened, with all adult dependents required to demonstrate a basic understanding.

“When people come to our country, they should also commit to integration and to learning our language,” Starmer said. “Every area of the immigration system, including work, family and study, will be tightened up so we have more control,” he added, saying “enforcement will be tougher than ever”. Home Secretary Yvette Cooper, who will present the White Paper to parliament, said on Sunday the plans would include new powers to deport foreign criminals committing offences in the UK. Currently, the government is only informed of foreign nationals who receive prison sentences. Deportation arrangements generally focus on those sentenced to more than a year in prison. Under the new arrangements however, all foreign nationals convicted of offences will be flagged to the government, which will have wider removal powers, said the Home Ministry. “The system for returning foreign criminals has been far too weak for too long,”said Cooper. “We need much higher standards.”