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Third suspect arrested in Vienna in Taylor Swift terror plot
Deutsche Welle
09 Aug 2024, 18:03
Photo: Eva Manhart/APA/picture alliance
A third suspect has been arrested in Vienna over a plot to attack a Taylor Swift concert, Austria's interior minister said on Friday.
The announcement that another teenager was in custody came a day after two arrests had been made in connection with the threat that prompted organizers to cancel a trio of concerts planned for the Austrian capital.
The suspect allegedly swore allegiance to IS
Interior Minister Gerhard Karner said that the latest arrest concerned an 18-year-old. The main suspect was 19, and a 17-year-old has also been detained.
Karner said that the main suspect and the man arrested on Friday had sworn "oaths of allegiance" to the "Islamic State" (IS) terror group.
"He had been in contact with the main perpetrator, but is not directly connected to the attack plans," Karner told the Associated Press. "But, as was found out a few days ago, he took an oath of allegiance specifically to the IS on August 6."
The main perpetrator was also found to have researched bomb-making online and read materials relating to the al-Qaeda terrorist network.
Officials said he had confessed to planning the attack beginning in July and had wanted to "kill as many people as possible outside the concert venue" with explosives and knives.
UK will go ahead with Swift concerts
The cancellation of three shows for Swift's highly lucrative "Eras" tour prompted major disappointment in Vienna.
"I understand very well that those who wanted to experience the concert live are very sad," Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer told reporters Thursday.
"Moms and dads are looking after their daughters and sons, who were full of enthusiasm and anticipation for this concert. But it's also important that in such serious moments as now, it's inevitable that safety comes first."
London Mayor Sadiq Khan said that there is no plan to cancel Swift's upcoming concerts in the UK, though the country has not forgotten a 2017 attack on an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester that left 22 people dead.
Recent Swift concerts in Germany drew massive crowds but also saw the arrest of an alleged stalker of the US pop star.
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Firefighters respond to blaze at London's Somerset House
Firefighters on Saturday rushed to tackle a blaze at London's historic Somerset House on the River Thames.
"Fifteen fire engines and around 100 firefighters have now been sent in response to the fire at Somerset House," the London Fire Brigade said on X. "Crews are tackling a fire located in a part of the building's roof."
The London Fire Brigade said the historic building is closed as emergency crews deal with the blaze.
The cause of the fire is still unknown, according to London authorities. Smoke was seen rising from the cultural center at the heart of Britain's capital.
The Somerset House was previously a royal palace and now serves as a complex for various arts and education-related organizations.
The complex has been depicted in multiple James Bond films and is sometimes used to host concerts.
India protests: Doctors strike nationwide, disrupt services
Indian medical professionals on Saturday began a 24-hour shutdown of non-essential medical services across the country, as protests against the rape and murder of a fellow medic intensify.
The shutdown, which began at 6 a.m. (0030 GMT), will cut off access to elective medical procedures and out-patient consultations in the world's most populous nation, according to a statement by the Indian Medical Association (IMA).
Essential services would remain operational, the medical body said.
Doctors' association calls for shutdown of services
The protests were triggered by the rape and murder of a female medical trainee last week at the R G Kar government hospital in the eastern city of Kolkata.
"Doctors, especially women, are vulnerable to violence because of the nature of the profession. It is for authorities to provide for the safety of doctors inside hospitals and campuses. Both physical assaults and crimes are a result of indifference and insensitivity of the authorities concerned to the needs of doctors, nurses and other healthcare workers," IMA said in a statement on Friday.
Thousands march through cities to demand better safety
Thousands of people marched through various Indian cities Friday to ask for better security for doctors at work as well as demand accountability for the woman's killing.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee led a rally in the state's capital city, Kolkata, on Friday, after students, doctors and residents took to the streets on the eve of India's Independence Day.
Protests have generally been peaceful, but a mob on Wednesday night vandalized the hospital where the medic was killed, with protests having picked up more steam following the incident.
Demonstrators also gathered near Parliament in New Delhi, and people assembled in various other cities like Mumbai and Hyderabad.
Suvrankar Datta, a resident doctor at one of India's top government hospitals in New Delhi, said protests would continue and that hospital services could be hampered in the capital in the following days to come.
Medic had to work a 36-hour shift
The 31-year-old medic had settled down for a short nap after working for nearly 20 hours of a 36-hour shift before she was killed, local media reported. A police volunteer has been detained in connection with the crime.
But state government officers who first began investigating the case have been accused of mishandling it. The case has been transferred to a federal agency.
Doctors have repeatedly cited threats to their lives while on the job, with many calling for measures like cameras on university campuses to ensure safety.
Protests have largely also focused on the big problem of sexual violence against women in the country — with female Indian social media users sharing harrowing stories about the many times they have felt unsafe.
Thailand: Former PM Thaksin Shinawatra receives royal pardon
Thailand's former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has received a royal pardon and his parole will end on Sunday, his lawyer Winyat Chartmontri said.
"Thaksin is among the prisoners that received the royal pardon" for prisoners in honor of King Maha Vajiralongkorn's birthday last month, Winyat said. "He will later receive a document from the prison saying he is a free man."
The move means Thaksin's parole, due to end at the end of the month, ends earlier than planned.
Thaksin set to walk free after daughter elected as premier
The announcement came a day after Thaksin's daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 37, was elected as Thailand's second female prime minister and the third Shinawatra to hold the office.
Paetongtarn was elected by nearly two-thirds of the members of the Thai parliament.
The vote for a new PM was prompted by a Constitutional Court ruling on Wednesday removing Thaksin ally Srettha Thavisin as prime minister for ethics violations.
Who is Thaksin Shinawatra and why is he so divisive?
Thaksin has been one of Thailand's most prominent politicians for decades as well as one of the most polarizing figures.
To the rural voters, Thaksin was the first leader to have paid attention to the needs of the millions living beyond Bangkok's bright lights.
But to many in the urban middle class and the royalist elite, Thaksin was a crony capitalist who plundered the economy.
He was in power from 2001 until 2006 when he was ousted in a military coup. He faced a series of corruption charges.
Thaksin then fled Thailand in 2008, claiming he would not get a fair trial, and spent 15 years in self-exile in Dubai.
But he returned to Bangkok for the first time in 15 years in August 2023, where he was greeted by family and supporters.
He was then quickly taken into custody and sentenced by the Supreme Court to eight years in prison on charges of graft and abuse of power. He was guilty of the charges in absentia during his exile.
His eight-year sentence was later commuted to a year by King Maha Vajiralongkorn in September last year.
How South China Sea tensions threaten global trade
Maritime trade is already under pressure from Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping. Now rising tensions between China and its neighbors have sparked security concerns over another critical trade route: the South China Sea.
The post-COVID era has been punishing for global trade. Lockdowns and factory closures sparked supply chain delays worldwide and helped fuel decades-high inflation.
The Suez Canal was closed for a week in 2021 after a container ship got stuck. Attacks on shipping by Yemen-based Houthis and Iran over the past 10 months have forced a rerouting of container vessels from the Red Sea via Africa
And now China's military standoffs in the South China Sea could also impact the smooth flow of trade.
How important is the South China Sea for world trade?
Making up part of the western Pacific Ocean, the South China Sea sits between southern China, Taiwan, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia.
About a third of global maritime trade passes through the 3.5 million square kilometers (1.4 million square miles) seaway annually, according to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).
Around 40% of petroleum products traded globally are delivered via the sea every year.
In 2016, an estimated $3.6 trillion (€3.29 trillion) worth of goods and commodities traveled the seaway, according to the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS). Another estimate put the figure as high as $5.3 trillion.
Researchers at Duke University in North Carolina calculated that total trade through both the South China Sea and the East China Sea — which lies between China, the two Koreas, and Japan — is worth $7.4 trillion per year.
Tens of thousands of cargo vessels move through the South China Sea every year, carrying around 40% of China's, a third of India's, and 20% of Japan's trade with the rest of the world, according to CSIS data.
Out of all of Asia, the three countries' economic security is most closely tied to the smooth running of the waterway. The South China Sea is a vital crossroads for both intra-Asian trade as well as for commerce with the rest of the world, especially Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
What makes the South China Sea such a controversial issue?
Beijing claims almost all of the South China Sea as its own, angering its neighbors who say China's territorial ambitions cut into their exclusive economic zones. China ignored a 2016 ruling by an international arbitration court in The Hague, Netherlands, that Beijing has no legal or historical basis for its expansive claims under international law.
The Chinese military has staged increasingly aggressive actions in the seaway recently, including clashes with Filipino ships, fueling fears of a full-scale conflict. The United States has repeatedly warned that it is obligated to defend the Philippines if the Filipino military were to be attacked, including in the South China Sea.
Vietnam filed a claim last month with the United Nations for an extended continental shelf beyond the current 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) in the seaway. The Philippines made a similar move in June.
China also regards Taiwan, which split with the mainland at the end of a civil war 75 years ago, as a renegade province with which it must eventually be reunified. Concerns that Beijing may use military force to bring the democratic island under its control have further raised tensions in the South China Sea.
Why is the South China Sea contested?
The South China Sea is estimated to hold about 5.38 trillion cubic meters (190 trillion cubic feet) of proven and probable natural gas and 11 billion barrels of oil reserves, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
The disputed waters also contain large deposits of rare-earth minerals crucial to China’s technological ambitions, including electric vehicle batteries and advanced electronics.
Some estimates suggest the Pacific Ocean contains a thousand times more rare-earth minerals than the currently known land reserves, more than half of which are controlled by China and are needed for the transition to cleaner energy.
Could the China and Middle East tensions converge?
Since late last year, global trade has been hurt by attacks by Iran-backed Houthi rebels in the Red Sea off Yemen. The Houthis ordered drone and missile strikes on commercial shipping in response to Israel's offensive against Hamas militants in Gaza.
The big shipping firms have diverted their vessels from the Red Sea route, which includes the Suez Canal. Instead, cargo ships traverse the Cape of Good Hope in southern Africa, adding around 10 days to the average journey from Asia to Europe. The move has spiked shipping costs due to higher insurance and diesel prices, which caused delays at container ports in Europe and Asia.
As the Israel-Hamas war threatens to spill over into the wider Middle East region, with Iran reported to be planning a direct attack on Israel any day, there are fears that Tehran could close another major chokepoint for trade, the Strait of Hormuz. The narrow waterway sits at the mouth of the Persian/Arabian Gulf and handles almost a third of the world's oil trade.
Iran has regularly targeted commercial vessels in the strait in recent years, and the West would consider any further attacks a major escalation. If shipping firms choose to avoid Hormuz, maritime trade could face additional delays and even higher costs.
If tensions between China and its neighbors deteriorate further, it could open a third front in the global shipping crisis. Maritime firms may look to avoid sections of the South China Sea. Subsequent hold-ups and price hikes could cause shortages of goods and commodities and cut vital revenue to key Asian ports, including those in Singapore, Malaysia, and Taiwan.
Where is the biggest chokepoint in the South China Sea?
While the main current tensions are between China, the Philippines, and Taiwan, the real threat to trade in the South China Sea could come in the Malacca Strait, which lies further south between Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore.
Last year, 23.7 million barrels of oil and petroleum products were moved through the strait per day, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). The figure was 13% higher than through the Strait of Hormuz.
The Malacca Strait is just 64 kilometers wide at its narrowest point and is already vulnerable to congestion and collisions. Over the years, the waterway has seen many incidents of robbery and piracy.
Some geopolitical and military experts have predicted that if China were to invade Taiwan, for example, the US and its allies could blockade the Malacca Strait, limiting Chinese access to oil as well as exports from Asia's largest economy.
Taylor Swift says she felt 'fear' over canceled Vienna shows
US pop star Taylor Swift expressed the cancellation of her Vienna show over a suspected suicide attack filled her with "fear" and "guilt."
This is the first time Swift has commented since reports of the suspected attack emerged two weeks ago.
What did the singer say?
"Having our Vienna shows cancelled was devastating. The reason for the cancellations filled me with a new sense of fear, and a tremendous amount of guilt because so many had planned on coming to those shows," the American singer said in a post on Instagram.
"All of my energy had to go toward helping to protect the nearly half a million people I had coming to see the shows in London," she added.
In her post, Swift also praised the efforts of the authorities who thwarted the planned attack.
"I was also so grateful to the authorities because thanks to them, we were grieving concerts and not lives. I was heartened by the love and unity I saw in the fans who banded together," she said.
Swift also clarified why she had remained silent about the cancellation of her show and the suspected attack.
"Let me be very clear: I am not going to speak about something publicly if I think doing so might provoke those who would want to harm the fans who come to my shows," Swift wrote.
What do we know about the now-foiled terror attack?
Swift's shows in Vienna were canceled after authorities warned of a planned terror plot by sympathizers of the Islamic State armed group.
Three suspects have been detained by Austrian police over the alleged attack. The US said that it shared intelligence to assist in the probe.
A 19-year-old Austrian man is the main suspect who had allegedly confessed that he "intended to carry out an attack using explosives and knives," according to Austrian domestic intelligence agency (DSN) head Omar Haijawi-Pirchner.
The Vienna shows were part of the European leg of Swift's "Eras" which is the highest-grossing concert tour in history.
The Eras Tour concluded on Tuesday with five shows at London's Wembley Stadium.
'Bangladesh floods not due to release of water from Tripura dam'
Allaying concerns that the current flood situation in Bangladesh was caused by the release of waters from Tripura's Dumbur dam, India said on Thursday that this was not correct.
The Ministry of External Affairs said the catchment areas of Gumti River have witnessed the heaviest rains of this year and the flood in Bangladesh was 'primarily due to waters from these large catchments'.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs, 'We have seen concerns being expressed in Bangladesh that the current situation of flood in districts on the eastern borders of Bangladesh has been caused by the opening of the Dumbur dam upstream of the Gumti River in Tripura. This is factually not correct.'
'We would like to point out that the catchment areas of Gumti River that flows through India and Bangladesh have witnessed the heaviest rains of this year over the last few days.
The flood in Bangladesh is primarily due to waters from these large catchments downstream of the dam.'
Ministry of External Affairs said again, 'The Dumbur dam is located quite far from the border - over 120 Km upstream of Bangladesh. It is a low height (about 30m) dam that generates power that feeds into a grid from which Bangladesh also draws 40MW power from Tripura.
Along the about 120 Km river course we have three water level observation sites at Amarpur, Sonamura and Sonamura 2.
Heavy rainfall has been continuing since 21 August in the whole of Tripura and adjoining districts of Bangladesh. In the event of heavy inflow, automatic releases have been observed.
Amarpur station is part of a bilateral protocol under which we are transmitting real-time flood data to Bangladesh.
Data showing a rising trend has been supplied to Bangladesh up to 1500 hrs on 21 August 2024. At 1800 hrs, due to flooding, there was power outage leading to problems in communication. Still, we have tried to maintain communication through other means created for urgent transmission of data.
Floods on the common rivers between India and Bangladesh are a shared problem inflicting suffering to people on both sides and requires close cooperation towards resolving them.'
Finally, MEA said, 'As two countries sharing 54 common cross-border rivers, river water cooperation is an important part of our bilateral engagement. We remain committed to resolving issues and mutual concerns in water resources and river water management through bilateral consultations and technical discussions.'
Source: MEA, India
Event Dedicated to Russian Federation's National Flag Day celebration
A festive event dedicated to State Flag Day of the Russian Federation was organized by the Russian House in Bangladesh in cooperation with the Alumni and Friends Association of People’s Friendship University of Russia, headed by the Chairman of the organization, engineer Alamgir Jalil in Ishwardi on August 22, 2024.
In his opening speech the director of the Russian House in Dhaka Mr. P. Dvoychenkov said that on August 22, 1991, the tricolor Russian flag was officially raised over the White House in Moscow for the first time, replacing the red banner with a hammer and sickle as the national symbol.
By the Presidential Decree No. 1335 of August 20, 1994, 22 August became a national holiday—State Flag Day of the Russian Federation. The tricolor represents freedom, independence, and the continuity of Russia's heritage through generations.
He also reminded the audience that following Bangladesh’s independence, friendly relations with the Soviet Union were established on January 25, 1972. The Soviet Cultural Center, now the Russian House in Bangladesh was founded in 1974 to strengthen these ties. Since then, Bangladesh and Russia have maintained deep bilateral relations.
After the introductory remarks by the organizers and local officials, the participants watched a documentary biographical film titled "Peter I: The Last Tsar and the First Emperor," directed by Andrei Kravchuk.
The event featured a drawing competition of the Russian state flag, a quiz on the history and geography of Russia, and a concert program with performances of Russian songs. The active participants in the competitions were awarded gifts and commemorative souvenirs. School students expressed interest in pursuing higher education in Russia and participating in similar large-scale joint events.
Over 1,000 students from 40 public schools in the region participated in the celebration. Each participant received a tricolor flag of Russia, symbolizing the festivity.
