30/07/2025

WEDNESDAY | JULY 30, 2025

8

Storms batter northern China

Edinburgh university confronts slavery links LONDON: The University of Edinburgh benefited financially from transatlantic slavery and served as a haven for scholars developing racist theories in the 18th and 19th centuries, a review has found. The review, commissioned in 2021 and published on Sunday, found the university profited from slavery through individual donations to endowments that have funded bursaries, scholarships, chairs and fellowships. Donations were traced to profits made by individuals and industries involved in enslavement through the cultivation, production and sale of colonial commodities, such as tobacco, sugar and cotton. Edinburgh follows in the footsteps of other UK universities that have acknowledged historical ties to slavery in recent years, including the University of Glasgow, University of Bristol and University of Cambridge. Founded in 1583, Edinburgh holds 15 historic endowments linked to African enslavement and 12 tied to British colonialism in India, Singapore and South Africa. Some remain active, the review said. “We cannot have a selective memory about our past, focusing only on the historical achievements which make us feel proud,” the university’s principal Peter Mathieson said. “We are right to address its complexities too.” The report said that between 1750 and 1850 the university served as a “haven” for professors and alumni who promoted ideas of African inferiority and played an “outsized role” in developing racial pseudo-sciences that justified slavery and colonial expansion. Among the review’s recommendations were the creation of a research and community centre focused on racism, colonialism and anti-Black violence, and action to address under representation of Black staff and students, degree awarding disparities and support barriers for those facing racism. As well as universities, other major UK institutions, such as the Church of England and the Bank of England, have also started to recognise how they benefited from slavery’s injustices. – Reuters New Zealand tightens electoral laws WELLINGTON: The New Zealand government yesterday introduced a law that will prevent people from enrolling to vote on election day and bar prisoners from casting their ballot while in jail, in a move critics say could reduce voter participation. The proposed law, which passed its first of three readings in parliament yesterday, will allow people to enrol to vote only up to 13 days before an election. Potential voters now can enrol up to and on election day. The law will also ban all prisoners from voting and require voting to open 12 days ahead of the official election day. “This Bill overhauls a number of outdated and unsustainable electoral laws. The package of amendments will strengthen the system, helping to deliver timely election results, manage the costs, clarify rules and provide more efficient services to voters,” said Minister of Justice Paul Goldsmith, who proposed the Bill. However, a report by Attorney General Judith Collins concluded that the Bill “appears to be inconsistent” with the country’s Bill of Rights, including the right to freedom of expression and the right to vote. The changes are, in part, prompted by delays in results at the 2023 election, when it took nearly three weeks before an official result was released due to the high number of special votes. Special votes are cast by New Zealanders living or travelling overseas, voting outside their constituency or newly enrolled. – Reuters

MIYUN: Floods and landslides claimed more than 30 lives and forced authorities to evacuate tens of thousands as swathes of northern China were lashed by torrential downpours, state media said yesterday. Weather authorities have issued their sec ond-highest rainstorm warning for the capital Beijing, neighbouring Hebei and Tianjin, as well as 10 other provinces in northern, eastern and southern China, Xinhua news agency said. As of midnight Monday, “the latest round of heavy rainstorms has left 30 people dead in Beijing”, Xinhua said, citing the city’s munici pal flood control headquarters. Over 80,000 people have been evacuated in the Chinese capital alone, Beijing Daily said on social media. The death toll was highest in Miyun, a sub urban district northeast of the city centre, it said. “This time the rain was unusually heavy, it’s not normally like this,” said a resident of Miyun, surnamed Jiang, as water streamed down the road outside her house. “The road is full of water so people aren’t going to work,” she said. At a village called Xinanzhuang visited by AFP journalists, murky water submerged homes, cars and a road leading to a highway. A local man in his sixties said that he had never seen water levels so high. Nearby, spillways gushed with torrents of water leading out of the Miyun Reservoir, which authorities said has reached its highest levels since its construction in 1959. Also badly affected were Huairou district in the north of the city and Fangshan in the

o 80,000 evacuated in Beijing, more than 30 dead

all-out efforts to search and rescue missing persons ... and made every effort to reduce casualties”. The government has allocated 350 million yuan (RM207.6 million) for disaster relief in nine regions hit by heavy rains, state broad caster CCTV said yesterday. They include northern Beijing, Tianjin, Hebei, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Inner Mongolia, northeastern Jilin, eastern Shandong and southern Guangdong. A separate 200 million yuan has been set aside for the capital, the broadcaster said. In 2023, heavy rain killed over 80 people across northern and northeastern China, including at least 29 people in Hebei where severe flooding destroyed homes and crop fields. Some reports at the time suggested the province shouldered the burden of a govern ment decision to divert the deluge away from the capital. Natural disasters are common across China, particularly in the summer when some regions experience heavy rain while others bake in searing heat. – AFP

southwest, state media said. Dozens of roads have been closed and over 130 villages have lost electricity, Beijing Daily said. “Please pay attention to weather forecasts and warnings and do not go to risk areas unless necessary,” the outlet said. And in Hebei, which encircles the capital, a landslide in a village near the city of Chengde killed eight people, with four still missing, state broadcaster CCTV reported yesterday. Local authorities have issued flash flood warnings, with the city of Chengde and sur rounding areas under the highest alert, Hebei’s radio and television station said. President Xi Jinping urged authorities late on Monday to plan for worst-case scenarios and rush the relocation of residents of flood threatened areas. Beijing Daily said local officials had “made

Beijing residents pick their way near a damaged bridge in Huairou district on Monday. – REUTERSPIC

Kashmir attack gunmen shot dead NEW DELHI: Indian security forces have killed three Pakistani gunmen who were involved in an April attack on Hindu tourists in Kashmir that led to an intense military conflict between the two countries, Home Minister Amit Shah said yesterday. “Indian security agencies have detailed evidence of their involvement in the attack,” he said in a speech in the lower house of parliament. Investigators relied on eyewitness accounts and forensic evidence to establish that the rifles found on the men were the same that were used in the April attack, he said.

All those killed were listed as residents of India except one man from Nepal. Survivors said gunmen had separated the men from the women and children and ordered some of the men to recite the Muslim declaration of faith. India accused Pakistan of backing the attackers, a charge Islamabad denied, sparking an intense four-day conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals in May that killed more than 70 people on both sides. Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from British rule in 1947, and the neighbours, who both claim the region in full, have fought two wars and several conflicts over its control. – AFP

The heavily-armed men were killed in a military raid on Monday, more than three months after 26 people were gunned down in a popular resort town in Kashmir on April 22. “I want to tell the parliament (that) those who attacked in Baisaran were three terrorists and all three have been killed,” he said. Shah said all three were Pakistani nationals and identified two of them as members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist group based in Pakistan.

“It was confirmed that these three rifles were involved in killing of our innocent civilians,” said Shah. Monday’s raid took place in the mountains of Dachigam, around 30km from Srinagar, the army said in a statement. The attack in April saw gunmen burst out of forests near Pahalgam and rake crowds of visitors with automatic weapons.