The 7.5-magnitude quake on Monday that rattled Ishikawa prefecture on the main island of Honshu triggered tsunami waves more than a metre high, sparked a major fire and tore apart roads.

The prefecture’s Noto peninsula was most severely hit, with several hundred buildings ravaged by fire and houses flattened in several towns, including Wajima and Suzu. Satellite before-and-after images released on Wednesday gave some idea of the scale of destruction.

The regional government announced Wednesday that 62 people had been confirmed dead and more than 300 injured, 20 of them seriously.

The toll was expected to climb as rescuers battled aftershocks and poor weather to comb through rubble.

More than 31,800 people were in shelters, the government said. Japanese media reports said tens of thousands of homes had been destroyed.

“More than 40 hours have passed since the disaster. We have received a lot of information about people in need of rescue and there are people waiting for help,” prime minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday after an emergency taskforce meeting.

“Rescue efforts are being made by the local authorities, police, firefighters and other operational units, while the number of personnel and rescue dogs is enhanced.

“However, we ask you to remain fully mindful that we are in a race against time and to continue to do your utmost to save lives, putting people’s lives first,” Kishida said.

The operation was given extra urgency as the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) issued a heavy rain warning in the area.

Courtesy: Daily Mirror

The 16-year-old girl was using a Virtual Reality (VR) headset in an immersive game when her avatar was allegedly assaulted by avatars representing several men, the Daily Mail reported.

While the victim did not experience physical harm, the emotional and psychological impact is being treated seriously by law enforcement, British officials said, as per the Daily Mail report.

UK Home Secretary James Cleverly has voiced support for the investigation, stressing the significance of the psychological trauma inflicted upon the girl and warning against underestimating the seriousness of such virtual acts.

“I know it is easy to dismiss this as being not real, but the whole point of these virtual environments is they are incredibly immersive,” he told LBC’s “Nick Ferrari at Breakfast” program.

“And we’re talking about a child here, and a child who has gone through sexual trauma. It had a very significant psychological effect, and we should be very, very careful about being dismissive of this,” he added.

Courtesy: India Today

We don’t know what will happen when they leave,” one of the refugees, who asked not to be named due to fear of reprisals in a nation that – like others in South Asia – does not recognize the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and Its 1967 Protocol, told EFE.

Fleeing repression in their native Myanmar – where in 2017 the authorities unleashed a wave of violence that has often been described as genocide against the ethnic Muslim minority -, Rohingya refugees have so far been supported by the UN agency in Sri Lanka.

“The UNHCR gave a monthly allowance to cover our food cost, accommodation, clothing, communication, transport, and other essential needs,” said the refugee during the protest in front of the UN body’s main office in Sri Lanka.

Shouting slogans such as “We want justice” and “No more refugee life,” the protesters underlined their fear that UNHCR’s departure will close the doors to a durable solution, such as repatriation or relocation in another country.

Abubakr, another demonstrator – who identifies with just his first name -, told EFE that they are demanding one of three solutions.

“One is to discuss with the Myanmar government and repatriate us, the other is for the Sri Lankan government to give us citizenship, and lastly to send us to a Western country so that we can start our lives there,” he said.

The 27-year-old stressed that he has been a refugee all his life, as his family fled Myanmar to neighboring Bangladesh in 1992.

A UNHCR official, who requested anonymity, confirmed to EFE that the office in Colombo was to be closed, but did not give a specific date. The decision has also been criticized by human rights experts.

“The UNHCR should have an exit plan. Right now, there’s no proper plan and no solution provided to the refugees,” human rights lawyer Suren D. Perera told EFE.

Bangladesh currently hosts nearly one million members of this Bengali speaking persecuted minority, while more Rohingyas continue to flee Myanmar as well as Bangladesh by sea in precarious boats.

In 2022, Sri Lanka rescued more than a hundred Rohingyas who were adrift on one of these boats, joining the nearly 800 refugees of different nationalities recognized by UNHCR in the island nation.

Courtesy: Colombo Gazette

Israeli media reports that there is a risk of attacks near the villages of Nahariya, Ako, Haifa, Tiberias, and Nazareth, which are close to Lebanon and Syria.

Due to this, the Sri Lankan Embassy in Israel informs the Sri Lankans living in the relevant areas to follow the safety instructions given and to keep essential items including medicine and food with them.

However, the Israeli government has directed security forces to the area and taken steps to strengthen security, the Embassy also said.

Meanwhile, the Israeli government has given 24 hours to the people living in the northern parts of the Gaza Strip to evacuate to the southern parts.

Courtesy: Colombo Page

U.S. President Joe Biden said consultations were under way with regional governments on the humanitarian crisis in Gaza as trapped Palestinians endured a power blackout and shortages of food and water amid fierce Israeli bombing.

Israel has vowed to annihilate Hamas for the attack a week ago in which its fighters killed 1,300 Israelis, mainly civilians, and seized scores of hostages.

Israel has since put the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, home to 2.3 million Palestinians, under a total siege and bombarded it with unprecedented air strikes. Gaza authorities say 1,900 people have died.

More than one million residents of northern Gaza on Friday received 24 hours notice from Israel to flee south before an expected ground offensive. Hamas vowed to fight to the last drop of blood and told residents to stay.

Israeli military spokesperson Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari said tank-backed troops had mounted raids to hit Palestinian rocket crews and gather information on the location of hostages, the first official account of ground troops in Gaza since the crisis began.

“We are striking our enemies with unprecedented might,” Netanyahu said in a rare statement televised on Friday after the Jewish Sabbath began. “I emphasise that this is only the beginning.”

Tens of thousands of Palestinians were estimated to have headed south from northern Gaza following the Israeli order, according to the United Nations, which said more than 400,000 Palestinians had been internally displaced due to hostilities prior to the directive.

Many others, however, said they would stay. “Death is better than leaving,” said Mohammad, 20, outside a building smashed by an Israeli air strike near the centre of Gaza.

Mosques broadcast the message: “Hold on to your homes. Hold on to your land.”

The United Nations and other organisations warned of a disaster if so many people were forced to flee, and said the siege should be lifted to let in aid.

“We need immediate humanitarian access throughout Gaza, so that we can get fuel, food and water to everyone in need. Even wars have rules,” U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres said on Friday.

Biden, in a speech at a Philadelphia shipping terminal, said addressing the humanitarian crisis was a top priority.

U.S. teams in the region, he said, were working with Israel, Egypt, Jordan, other Arab governments and the United Nations.

“The overwhelming majority of Palestinians had nothing to do with Hamas and Hamas’ appalling attacks,” he said. “And they’re suffering as a result as well.”

U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said it was impossible for Gazans to heed Israel’s order to move south without “devastating humanitarian consequences”, prompting a rebuke from Israel that the U.N. should condemn Hamas and support Israel’s right to self-defence.

“The noose around the civilian population in Gaza is tightening. How are 1.1 million people supposed to move across a densely populated war zone in less than 24 hours?” U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths wrote on social media.

‘DISTANCE YOURSELVES FROM HAMAS’

Mahmoud Abbas, president of Hamas rival Palestinian Authority, told U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken in Jordan that the forced displacement would constitute a repeat of 1948, when hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were driven from what is now Israel. Most Gazans are descendants of such refugees.

Gaza is one of the most crowded places on earth, and for now there is no way out. In addition to Israel’s blockade, Egypt has resisted calls to open its border with Gaza.

U.S. Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin on Friday met Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant. Austin said military aid was flowing into Israel but that this was the time for resolve and not revenge.

“The path will be long, but ultimately I promise you we will win,” Gallant said.

Blinken met King Abdullah in Jordan on Friday as well as Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority exercises limited self-rule in the Israeli-occupied West Bank but lost control of Gaza to Hamas in 2007. Blinken later flew to Qatar, a U.S. ally with influence among Islamist groups.

In the West Bank, demonstrators supporting Gaza fought gun battles with Israeli security forces. Palestinian officials said 16 people were shot dead.

There have also been fears of hostilities spreading, including to Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where clashes this week have already been the deadliest since 2006.

Reuters video journalist Issam Abdallah was killed on Friday while working in southern Lebanon by missiles fired from the direction of Israel, according to another Reuters videographer on the scene. Six other journalists were injured.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najob Mikati and a Hezbollah lawmaker blamed the incident on Israel.

Israel’s U.N. envoy said it would investigate what had happened in the area following the journalist’s death.

“We always try to mitigate and avoid civilian casualties. Obviously, we would never want to hit or kill or shoot any journalist that is doing its job,” Gilad Erdan said.

Source: Reuters

It appeared to be the militant group’s first official announcement on his fate since Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan said in April that Turkish intelligence forces had killed him in Syria.

Erdogan said the Turkish national intelligence organization had pursued Quraishi for a long time.

Quraishi was killed during a gun battle with Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), the main Islamist group that holds sway in the last opposition bastion in northwest Syria, the spokesman said.

“The Sheikh (Quraishi), may God have mercy on him, was killed after they (HTS) tried to take him captive. He clashed with them with his arms until he died of his wounds,” the spokesman said, accusing the rival Islamist group of acting as agents of Turkish intelligence.

Islamic State, a shadow of the organisation that once ruled a third of Iraq and Syria, gave no details about the new leader.

The movement reached its peak in 2014 when its then head, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, declared the territory it controlled a caliphate.

It was beaten back by adversaries in both countries including a U.S.-led coalition, and Baghdadi was killed during a U.S. military operation in Syria in 2019.

Abu Hussein al-Husseini al-Quraishi took over in November 2022 after his predecessor was killed, also in Syria.

Islamic State militants continue to wage insurgent attacks in both Syria and Iraq.

Its remaining thousands of militants have in recent years mostly hid out in remote hinterlands of both countries, though they are still capable of carrying out hit-and-run attacks.

The U.S.-led coalition alongside a Kurdish-led alliance known as the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) is still carrying out raids against Islamic State in Syria.

Courtesy: Reuters

“Pakistan would face a Sri Lanka-like situation,” he said adding “This is not a warning, it is my analysis; the people till now have remained peaceful at the party rallies and public gatherings with a hope that the elections would be held soon.

However, if they are denied their right to vote then they will come out onto the streets and no one would be able to control the situation,” the former Prime Minister said while addressing an interactive session with party workers through a video link.

He said till now the coalition government was running away from the elections, fearing that they would lose and Imran Khan will return to power. “While keeping in mind Pakistan’s precarious economic situation, till now I have taken party decisions that did not hurt our fragile economy, but if the elections were delayed the situation would get out of control,” he added.

On behalf of the nation, he urged all Supreme Court justices to put their differences behind them and unite for the sake of the country. “Pakistan was on the verge of collapse; if the country’s Constitution was breached, for which attempts were being made, there will be a law of jungle in the country. The nation was looking towards the Supreme Court for supremacy of the Constitution and the rule of the law in the country,” he said.

Khan also announced to stage rallies in Islamabad, Lahore, and Peshawar to mark Labour Day on Monday; “I would lead the rally in Lahore from Liberty Chowk to Nasir Bagh while PTI senior leaders Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Pervez Khattak would lead the rallies in Islamabad and Peshawar, respectively”. He said that on Monday they would show solidarity with the labour class and express their support for the supremacy of the Constitution and Pakistan. Thus, he urged people from all sections of society, especially the lawyers, to participate in the rally to express their demands for their rights.

Talking about the negotiation with the government over holding elections simultaneously in the country, the PTI chief cast doubts over the government’s sincerity. “We agreed to hold talks with the government on the Supreme Court’s request and we have to come to the negotiation table with full sincerity.”

However, he saw mala-fide intentions behind the government’s proposal to hold elections simultaneously after this year’s budget. He disclosed that on Tuesday (May 2), his team would attend the negotiations and if the government commits to dissolve the National and Provincial Assemblies by May 14 then they were ready to move forward and talk about ‘one election’ in the country.

However, he warned that they would not accept the government’s demand of dissolving the assemblies after the budget and then hold the elections.

He castigated the incumbent rulers for destroying state institutions with the sole aim of giving themselves NROs. “National Accountability Bureau (NAB) and Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) have been abandoned to destroy the accountability system in the country and subsequently, enabled them to close corruption cases against them. Now, police and other state institutions were being used to fabricate cases against their opponents.

The Elections Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which was responsible for holding free and fair elections in the country, has become a partner with the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM); it was acting on the instructions of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Maryum Nawaz and ‘Dirty Harry’,” he alleged.

He also castigated the government for undermining the people’s fundamental rights and violating the sanctity of their houses. “What happened at PTI President and former Punjab Chief Minister Chaudhry Pervez Elahi’s residence could never be imagined in any civilized society and democracy. Earlier, an attack was made on my life and my house. The PTI leaders, including Azam Swati, Shahbaz Gill, Ali Amin, and others, were arrested and tortured. Any of this could not be possible in a civilized society,” he lamented.

Courtesy: Business Recorder

World Bank Vice President for South Asia, Martin Raiser said that he had a productive meeting with State Minister of Finance Shehan Semasinghe in Washington.

Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe also attended the meeting.

“Glad to see progress on fiscal, financial and economic governance reforms. For full recovery, efforts need to go further and the World Bank Group will support with ideas and financing,” Raiser tweeted.

He said that increased transparency is key for reforms to succeed, including the critical social protection reform that aims to protect vulnerable people.

Raiser said that they also discussed development of renewable energy and digital economy, and supporting export-oriented small and medium businesses.

Courtesy: Colombo Gazette

The arrest of Jack Teixeira, 21, comes following a fast-moving search by the US government for the identity of the leaker who posted classified documents to a social media platform popular with video gamers.

Teixeira was arrested in Massachusetts without incident, Garland said, and will be arraigned in federal court there. “This investigation is ongoing. We will share more information at the appropriate time,” the attorney general said, declining to answer questions.

Teixeira will first appear in court on Friday in Boston, according to the US attorney’s office there.

The FBI said in a statement that it took Teixeira into custody “at a residence in North Dighton, Massachusetts, for his alleged involvement in leaking classified U.S. government and military documents.”

“The FBI is continuing to conduct authorized law enforcement activity at the residence,” the agency said. “Since late last week the FBI has aggressively pursued investigative leads, and today’s arrest exemplifies our continued commitment to identifying, pursuing, and holding accountable those who betray our country’s trust and put our national security at risk.”

The leaked documents posted to social media, some of which have been obtained by CNN, included detailed intelligence assessments of allies and adversaries alike, including on the state of the war in Ukraine and the challenges Kyiv and Moscow face as the war appears stuck in a stalemate.

Multiple US officials told CNN that Teixeira is believed to be the leader of the group where a trove of classified documents had been posted.

The search for the suspect began with thousands of people who had access to the documents, but investigators were able to quickly narrow the search to potential members of the chat group with evidence collected in the days immediately following the discovery of classified documents online by US officials.

While there’s a large number of people who had access to the documents, investigators were able to home in on a small number for closer scrutiny thanks to the forensic trail left by the person who posted the documents.

Teixeira was under surveillance for at least a couple of days prior to his arrest by the FBI on Thursday, according to a US government source familiar with the case.

Earlier Thursday, President Joe Biden appeared to suggest that the US government was close to identifying the leaker. Biden was then briefed on the arrest in between his speech to parliament and his departure for a banquet dinner in his honor at Dublin Castle, according to a US official. He was at the hotel for roughly 90 minutes in between the two events.

Biden has been regularly briefed on the investigation, officials said, as well as the efforts by his top officials to engage with allies who have been identified within, or unsettled by, the content of the leaked information, according to one of the officials. Behind the scenes, it has been a reality that has loomed over a deeply personal and important foreign trip for Biden, one official acknowledged.

Joined Air National Guard in 2019

The Air Force released service details for Teixeira, an Airman 1st Class.

Teixeira is an enlisted airman at the Massachusetts Air National Guard, according to details from his service record released by the Air Force Thursday. He joined the service in September 2019 and his official job is Cyber Transport Systems journeyman.

According to the Air Force, Cyber Transport Systems specialists are tasked with making sure the service’s “vast, global communications network” is “operating properly.”

On Wednesday, The Washington Post first reported that the person behind the leak worked on a military base and posted sensitive national security secrets in an online group of acquaintances.

The leaker was described in the Post story as a lonely young man and gun enthusiast who was part of a chatroom of about two dozen people on Discord – a social media platform popular with video gamers – that shared a love of guns and military gear, according to a friend of the alleged leaker the Post interviewed who was also part of the group.

Several former high school classmates of Teixeira’s told CNN Thursday that he had a fascination with the military, guns and war. He would sometimes wear camouflage to school, carried a “dictionary-sized book on guns,” and behaved in a way that made some fellow students feel uneasy.

“A lot of people were wary of him,” said Brooke Cleathero, who attended middle school and high school with Teixeira. “He was more of a loner, and having a fascination with war and guns made him off-putting to a lot of people.”

John Powell, who also attended middle school and high school with Teixeira, said he recalled him as a pleasant and quiet kid who was sometimes picked on. “He didn’t have many friends,” he said.

Teixeira grew up in the suburbs of Providence, Rhode Island, according to public records. He attended Dighton-Rehoboth High School where he graduated in 2020, according to the superintendent of the regional school district.

Powell recalled Teixeira occasionally toting around a textbook on military vehicles – tanks, planes and submarines – and having a fascination with anything “military related” from an early age.

“He was dead set on joining some branch of the military, even as a kid,” he said.

Other students, who asked not to be identified, said they detected a more menacing vibe from Teixeira, who some recalled making comments they perceived as racist or mumbling derogatory things about people under his breath.

One student recalled him showing up for school wearing a shirt with an AR-15 on it the day after a mass shooting in Las Vegas in 2017.

Teixeira didn’t behave in a manner that rose to the level where “people felt the need to report him,” another former classmate said, but “he made me nervous.”

The same student said she took his fascination with the military as a form of American nationalism, and was therefore surprised by the allegations against him. “I didn’t think he would be capable of doing something like this,” she said.

On Thursday, Biden said he was concerned about the fact the leaks happened, but not necessarily about their content.

“I’m not concerned about the leak. I’m concerned that it happened, but there’s nothing contemporaneous that I’m aware of that is of any consequence.”

Pentagon tightening access to classified intelligence

The Pentagon has begun to limit who across the government receives its highly classified daily intelligence briefs following the leak.

Some US officials who used to receive the briefing materials daily have stopped receiving them in recent days, sources familiar with the matter told CNN, as the Pentagon’s Joint Staff continues to whittle down its distribution lists.

The Joint Staff, which comprises the Defense Department’s most senior uniformed leadership that advises the president, began examining its distribution lists immediately after learning of the trove of leaked classified documents – many of which had markings indicating that they had been produced by the Joint Staff’s intelligence arm, known as the J2.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Thursday that he is directing the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security to review intelligence access, following the arrest of the Air National Guardsman.

“As Secretary of Defense, I will also not hesitate to take any additional measures necessary to safeguard our nation’s secrets,” Austin said. “Accordingly, I am directing the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security to conduct a review of our intelligence access, accountability and control procedures within the Department to inform our efforts to prevent this kind of incident from happening again.”

Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder confirmed Thursday that the Defense Department is taking steps to tighten the community of people who receive classified intelligence.

Ryder said the Pentagon continues “to review a variety of factors as it relates to safeguarding classified materials. This includes examining and updating distribution lists, assessing how and where intelligence products are shared, and a variety of other steps.”

Ryder also emphasized that there are already “stringent guidelines” in place to safeguard classified intelligence.

“This was a deliberate criminal act,” he said, “a violation of those guidelines.”

The criminal investigation is being led by the FBI’s Washington field office, including a team of counterintelligence investigators experienced in hunting leaks.

Those investigators are also working with Pentagon officials on the damage assessment, which would become part of the evidence to be used in any potential prosecution that results.

Source: CNN

-Agencies

Hindenburg Research, a US firm that makes money from short selling, published a blistering report accusing it of fraud.

India’s Adani Group has denounced Hindenburg’s allegations as “baseless” and “malicious,” and it is considering legal action.

But, the sharp sell-off in shares, which began Wednesday, accelerated Friday after US hedge fund billionaire Bill Ackman said he found the short seller’s report credible.

Hindenburg Research published an investigation on Adani’s conglomerate late on Tuesday, accusing it of “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades.” It said it had taken a short position in Adani Group companies, meaning it would benefit from a drop in their value.

Shares of those companies — some of which had surged over 500 percent in the last few years — plunged when India’s stock market opened Wednesday. The rout resumed Friday when trading resumed following a market holiday on Thursday.

Shares of Adani Transmission, Adani Total Gas and Adani Green Energy — three of the group’s seven listed companies were down 20 percent each on Friday, while shares of Adani Enterprises, the conglomerate’s flagship company, fell 18 percent.  Friday’s losses wiped out almost US$ 39 billion in market value.  According to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, Adani is still Asia’s richest man with a personal fortune worth US$ 113 billion, US$ 30 billion more than fellow Indian entrepreneur Mukesh Ambani. Friday’s losses will reduce that gap. Hindenburg said Thursday that it stood fully by its report and believed any legal action would be “meritless.”

“If Adani is serious, it should also file suit in the US where we operate. We have a long list of documents we would demand in a legal discovery process,” the short seller said in a post on Twitter.

Hindenburg isn’t the first research firm to express concern about the finances of Adani’s sprawling empire, which has borrowed US$ 30 billion to become established in industries ranging from logistics to mining, and is aggressively growing in diverse sectors such as media, data centers, airports and cement.

Ackman weighed into the debate on Twitter Thursday, saying he found the Hindenburg investigation “highly credible and extremely well researched.”
“We are not invested long or short in any of the Adani companies … nor have we done our own independent research,” Ackman added.

Hindenburg’s claims come at a sensitive time. Adani Enterprises is aiming to raise 200 billion rupees (US$ 2.5 billion) by issuing new shares this month. The offer will close on Tuesday.  A college dropout and a self-made industrialist, Adani is the world’s fourth richest man, ahead of Bill Gates and Warren Buffet. He is also seen as a close ally of India’s Prime Minister, Narendra Modi.

The 60-year old tycoon founded the Adani group over 30 years ago.

Courtesy: Daily Mirror