Category: FOREIGN

Foreign Blogs is a network of global affairs blogs and a supplement to the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions program.

  • Asif Merchant pleads not guilty to US murder plot

    Asif Merchant pleads not guilty to US murder plot

    A Pakistani man with alleged ties to Iran pleaded not guilty Monday to plotting to assassinate a US official in retaliation for the American military killing of Revolutionary Guards commander Qassem Soleimani, prosecutors said Wednesday.

    Asif Raza Merchant, 46, allegedly sought to hire a hitman to assassinate a politician or a government official in the United States, the Justice Department and prosecutors said in a statement.

    A court document showed that Merchant pleaded not guilty to all counts, with a next hearing scheduled for November 6, 2024.

    Soleimani, the head of Iran’s foreign military operations, was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020. Iranian officials have repeatedly vowed to avenge his killing.

    “As these terrorism and murder for hire charges against Asif Merchant demonstrate, we will continue to hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against Americans,” US Attorney General Merrick Garland said previously.

    The intended victim was not identified but the Garland has previously said no evidence has emerged to link Merchant with the July 13 assassination attempt against former president Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

    FBI Director Christopher Wray has said the Pakistani national had “close ties to Iran” and that the alleged murder-for-hire plot was “straight out of the Iranian playbook.”

    Another FBI official said the assassins Merchant allegedly tried to hire were in fact undercover FBI agents.

    “After spending time in Iran, Merchant arrived in the United States from Pakistan and contacted a person he believed could assist him with the scheme to kill a politician or government official,” the Justice Department said in a statement.

    “That person reported Merchant’s conduct to law enforcement and became a confidential source.”

    Merchant was arrested on July 12 as he planned to leave the country.

    However, on September 12, he was charged by a US court.

    Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in August it had “not received any report on this from the American government.”

    “But it is clear that this method is contrary to the Iranian government’s policy of pursuing Soleimani’s killer,” the mission said in a statement carried by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

  • 10 killed, several injured in Iran bus crash: report

    10 killed, several injured in Iran bus crash: report

    At least 10 people were killed and dozens injured when a bus crashed in central Iran, official media reported on Tuesday.

    The bus overturned in Yazd province while travelling between the cities of Bushehr in southwestern Iran and Mashhad in the northeast, state television said.

    “The accident left 10 people dead and 41 injured, according to initial figures,” it said, without specifying the total number of passengers on board.

    Iran has a poor road safety record, with more than 20,000 deaths in accidents recorded in the year to March, according to the judiciary’s Legal Medicine Organisation cited by local media.

    Last month, a bus carrying Pakistani pilgrims crashed in central Iran, killing 28 people en route to Iraq for Chehlum, one of the most significant events in the Shia Muslim calendar.

    Days later, another bus crash killed three people and injured 48 others.

  • Aam Aadmi Party’s Atishi Singh set to become Delhi’s chief minister

    Aam Aadmi Party’s Atishi Singh set to become Delhi’s chief minister

    The Aam Aadmi Party has nominated Atishi Marlena Singh as their new Chief Minister of New Delhi following Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation.

    The announcement was made by party officials, according to Indian media reports.

    Kejriwal resigned from his position after a meeting with Lt. Governor VK Saxena, during which he suggested Atishi as the new Chief Minister.

    The nomination was then approved by all party members in the following meeting.

    Atishi Marlena has been a close aide of Arvind Kejriwal and has served in various significant roles within Delhi’s government, including in education, finance, revenue, and law.

    She holds degrees in History from Delhi University and Oxford University and is a Chevening scholar.

    Atishi has also won the Kalkaji constituency in the 2020 Delhi Assembly elections.

    Notably, Arvind Kejriwal, the former Chief Minister of New Delhi, was released on bail after six months in the liquor policy case, after which he announced his resignation.

    Atishi is scheduled to take the oath of office later today at approximately 4:30 PM.

  • More than 95,000 Japanese aged over 100, most of them women

    More than 95,000 Japanese aged over 100, most of them women

    The number of people in Japan aged 100 or older has hit a record high of more than 95,000 — almost 90 percent of them women — government data showed Tuesday.

    The figures further highlight the slow-burning demographic crisis gripping the world’s fourth-biggest economy as its population ages and shrinks.

    As of September 1, Japan had 95,119 centenarians, up 2,980 year-on-year, with 83,958 of them women and 11,161 men, the health ministry said in a statement.

    On Sunday, separate government data showed that the number of people over the age of 65 hit a record high of 36.25 million, accounting for 29.3 percent of Japan’s population.

    The proportion puts Japan at the top of a list of 200 countries and regions with a population of over 100,000 people, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said.

    Japan is currently home to the world’s oldest living person, Tomiko Itooka, who was born on May 23, 1908 and is 116 years old, according to the US-based Gerontology Research Group.

    The previous record-holder, Maria Branyas Morera, died last month in Spain at the age of 117.

    Itooka lives in a nursing home in Ashiya, Hyogo prefecture in western Japan, the ministry said.

    She often says “thank you” to the nursing home staff and expresses nostalgia about her hometown, the ministry said.

    “I have no idea at all about what’s the secret of my long life,” Japan’s oldest man, Kiyotaka Mizuno, who is 110, told local media.

    Mizuno, who lives in Iwata, Shizuoka prefecture in central Japan with his family, gets up at 6:30 am every morning and eats three meals a day — without being picky about his food.

    His hobby is listening to live sports, including sumo wrestling, the ministry said.

    Japan is facing a steadily worsening population crisis, as its expanding elderly population leads to soaring medical and welfare costs, with a shrinking labour force to pay for it.

    The country’s overall population is 124 million, after declining by 595,000 in the previous,  according to previous government data.

    The government has attempted to slow the decline and ageing of its population without meaningful success, while gradually extending the retirement age — with 65 becoming the rule for all employers from fiscal 2025.

  • Zimbabwe to slaughter 200 elephants amid food shortages

    Zimbabwe to slaughter 200 elephants amid food shortages

    Zimbabwe will cull 200 elephants as it faces an unprecedented drought that has led to food shortages while also tackling a ballooning population of the animals, the country’s wildlife authority said Friday.

    The country has “more elephants than it needed”, Zimbabwe’s environment minister said in parliament on Wednesday, adding that the government had instructed the Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Authority (ZimParks) to begin the culling process.

    The 200 elephants will be hunted in areas where they have clashed with humans, including Hwange, home of Zimbabwe’s largest natural reserve, ZimParks Director General Fulton Mangwanya told AFP.

    Zimbabwe is home to an estimated 100,000 elephants and has the second-biggest elephant population in the world after Botswana. Thanks to conservation efforts, Hwange is home to 65,000 of them, more than four times its capacity, according to ZimParks. Zimbabwe last culled elephants in 1988.

    Neighbouring Namibia has already killed 160 in a cull of more than 700 elephants to cope with its worst drought in decades.

    Zimbabwe and Namibia are among a swathe of countries in southern Africa that have declared a state of emergency because of drought.

    However, the move to hunt the animals for food was not welcomed across the board.

    “[The] Government must have more sustainable eco-friendly methods to dealing with drought without affecting tourism,” said Farai Maguwu, director of the nonprofit Centre for Natural Resource Governance. “They risk turning away tourists on ethical grounds. The elephants are more profitable alive than dead.”

    He added, “We have shown that we are poor custodians of natural resources, and our appetite for ill-gotten wealth knows no bounds, so this must be stopped because it is unethical.”

    On the other hand, Chris Brown, a conservationist and CEO of the Namibian Chamber of Environment, said that “elephants have a devastating effect on habitat if they are allowed to increase continually, exponentially”.

    “They really damage ecosystems and habitats, and they have a huge impact on other species which are less iconic and therefore matter less in the eyes of the eurocentric, urban armchair conservation people,” he said. “Those species matter as much as elephants. “

  • Sweden offers immigrants $34,000 to leave country

    Sweden offers immigrants $34,000 to leave country

    Sweden plans to boost payments to up to $34,000 to immigrants who leave the nation that has been a haven for the war-weary and persecuted, the right-wing government said on Thursday.

    The Scandinavian country was for decades seen as a “humanitarian sup­erpower” but, over the years, has struggled to integrate many of its newcomers. Immigrants who voluntarily return to their countries of origin from 2026 would be eligible to receive up to 350,000 Swedish kronor, the government, which is prop­ped up by the anti-immigration Swe­d­en Democrats, told a press conference.

    “We are in the midst of a paradigm shift in our migration policy,” Migration Minister Johan Forssell told reporters as the government presented its latest move to crack down on migration.

    Currently, immigrants can receive up to 10,000 kronor per adult and 5,000 kronor per child, with a cap of 40,000 kronor per family. Immigr­ants groups could not immediately be reached for comment on the change.

    “The grant has been around since 1984, but it is relatively unknown, it is small and relatively few people use it,” Ludvig Aspling of the Sweden Democrats told reporters.

    Forssell said only one person had accepted the offer last year. Aspling added that if more people were aware of the grant and its size was increased, more would likely take the money and leave.

    He said the incentive would most likely appeal to the several hundred thousand migrants who were either long-term unemployed, jobless or whose incomes were so low they needed state benefits to make ends meet. “That’s the group we think would be interested,” Aspling said.

    A government-appointed probe last month advised the government against significantly hiking the amount of the grant, saying the expected effectiveness did not justify the potential costs.

    The Nordic nation has struggled for years to integrate immigrants, and the head of the inquiry, Joakim Ruist, said that a sizeable financial inc­rease would send a signal that mig­rants were undesirable, further hampering integration efforts. Other European cou­ntries also offer grants as an ince­ntive for migrants to return home.

    Denmark pays more than $15,000 per person, compared to around $1,400 in Norway, $2,800 in France and $2,000 in Germany.

    Sweden’s Prime Min­i­ster Ulf Kris­t­e­r­sson came to power in 2022 with a minority government propped up by the Sweden Democrats, vowing to get tough on immigration and crime. The Sweden Democrats emerged as the second-largest party. Sweden has offered generous foreign development aid since the 1970s and has taken in large numbers of migrants since the 1990s.

  • Trump rules out holding another TV debate with Harris

    Trump rules out holding another TV debate with Harris

    Donald Trump on Thursday announced he will not participate in another televised debate with his Democratic rival Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of November´s presidential election.

    “There will be no third debate!,” the Republican candidate wrote on his Truth Social platform, including in his tally the earlier debate with US President Joe Biden in June and his Tuesday showdown with Harris.

    The Democratic candidate put Trump on the defensive in their ABC News-hosted clash, watched by 67 million people. Almost immediately, her campaign called for a second showdown in October.

    The day after the debate, Trump said he “would do NBC and would do Fox, too.” However, his latest statement, issued in his characteristic mix of all-caps segments and insults, made clear he has bowed out — while claiming that Harris is just desperate for a second chance.

    “Polls clearly show that I won the Debate against Comrade Kamala Harris, the Democrats’ Radical Left Candidate, on Tuesday night, and she immediately called for a Second Debate,” he wrote in his post.

    “When a prizefighter loses a fight, the first words out of his mouth are, ‘I WANT A REMATCH,’” he said.

    A CNN snap poll of viewers said Harris performed better than Trump by 63% to 37, while a YouGov poll said Harris laid out a clearer plan by 43 to 32%.

    A debate between the vice presidential running mates, Democratic Minnesota Governor Tim Walz and Republican Senator J.D. Vance, from Ohio, is currently set to be hosted by CBS News on October 1.

  • Swiss model murdered, pureed in blender by husband

    Swiss model murdered, pureed in blender by husband

    A former model and finalist in the Miss Switzerland beauty pageant was murdered and ‘pureed’ in a blender by her husband, Sky News has reported.

    38-year-old Kristina Joksimovic was found dead in her home in February this year.

    Main suspect, Thomas, had an appeal for release from custody, which was denied by the Federal Court on Wednesday, after which he reportedly confessed to killing his wife, Kristina. 41-year-old Thomas had two children with the victim.

    Sky News quotead a local news outlet that reported Thomas had admitted to the killing during a crime reconstruction in March and defended himself by claiming that it was done in self-defence after she attacked him with a knife.

    The report highlighted that the ruling from the court suggested Kristina was strangled to death. The autopsy report submitted in the court said that her body was dismembered in a laundry room with a jigsaw, knife and garden shears. Her body parts were then chopped up with a hand blender, “pureed” and dissolved in a chemical solution.

    Her husband was arrested the day after Kristina’s body was found. He initially told the investigating team that he had found her dead and dismembered her body in their laundry room in panic.

    The remains were reportedly found by a “third party”.

    Kristina was crowned Miss Northwest Switzerland and, in 2007, became a finalist for Miss Switzerland.

    She later became a catwalk coach and mentored models.

  • Namibia to slaughter wild animals to combat drought

    Namibia to slaughter wild animals to combat drought

    The African country of Namibia has decided to slaughter more than 700 wild animals, including elephants and zebras, and distribute the meat to the public as it faces the worst drought in 100 years.

    The Ministry of Environment, Forests, and Tourism has announced that more than 700 wild animals will be slaughtered, and their meat will be distributed to the affected people. Blue wildebeest and 300 zebras are included, and they will be hunted from other areas, including national parks.

    The program aims to help mitigate the effects of drought in southwest African countries.

    The Namibian government has been in a state of emergency since May due to drought. Half of Namibia’s population is undernourished due to drought.

  • Pakistani man with ties to Iran charged in ‘plot to kill US official’

    Pakistani man with ties to Iran charged in ‘plot to kill US official’

    A Pakistani man with ties to Iran has been charged for allegedly plotting to kill a US official in retaliation for the assassination of Revolutionary Guards comm­ander Qassem Solei­mani, prosecutors said on Wednesday.

    Asif Raza Merchant, 46, allegedly sought to hire a hitman to assassinate a politician or a US government official in the United States, the Justice Department and prosecutors said in a statement.

    “As these terrorism and murder for hire charges against Asif Merchant demonstrate, we will continue to hold accountable those who would seek to carry out Iran’s lethal plotting against Americans,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said.

    Soleimani was killed in a US drone strike in Baghdad in January 2020.

    “As alleged, Merchant orchestrated a plot to assassinate US politicians and government officials. Today’s indictment is a message to terrorists here and abroad,” US Attorney Breon Peace added.

    The intended victim was not identified, but the attorney general has previously said no evidence has emerged to link Merchant with the July 13 murder attempt against former president Donald Trump in Butler, Pennsylvania.

    FBI Director Christo­pher Wray has said the Pakistani national had “close ties to Iran” and that the alleged murder-for-hire plot was “straight out of the Iranian playbook”. Another FBI official said the assassins Merchant allegedly tried to hire were undercover FBI agents.

    “After spending time in Iran, Merchant arrived in the US from Pakistan and contacted a person he believed could assist him with the scheme to kill a politician or government official,” the Justice Department said.

    “That person reported Merchant’s conduct to law enforcement and became a confidential source.”

    Merchant was arrested on July 12 as he planned to leave the country.

    Iran’s mission to the United Nations said in August it had “not received any report on this from the American government”.

    “But it is clear that this method is contrary to the Iranian government’s policy of pursuing Soleimani’s killer,” the mission said in a statement carried by Iran’s official IRNA news agency.

    In 2022, the US charged a Revolutionary Guards member with plotting to assassinate former US National Security Adviser John Bolton. The Justice Department said Shahram Poursafi, who remains at large, had offered to pay an individual in the United States $300,000 to kill Bolton.