Cambodian News

 Nineteen opposition members of parliament (MPs) were suspended from Rajya Sabha today for “unruly behaviour” while protesting against government over inflation in the House.

The suspension came a day after action was taken by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Prakash Birla against four Congress MPs for similar reason for the entire monsoon session ending on August 12.

The 19 suspended Rajya Sabha MPs including seven from Mamata Banerji’s Trinamul Congress (TMC) will be barred for a week to attend the monsoon session of Parliament, reports said.

“The decision to suspend opposition MPs from Rajya Sabha was taken with a heavy heart. They kept on ignoring the Chairman’s appeal,” said Piyush Goyal of ruling BJP.

After the suspension, TMC leader Derek, O’Brien told media, “This government has suspended democracy.”

The House was adjourned for one hour as the suspended MPs continued to protest the action taken against the opposition MPs.

This is for the first time in several years that action has been taken against so many parliamentarians. In January 2019, the then Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan suspended 45 members of the TDP and AIADMK for disrupting proceedings for days, reports added.

 A man appeared in court Wednesday after allegedly entering Windsor Castle grounds armed with a crossbow, declaring he

planned to kill Queen Elizabeth II.

The 20-year-old man, Jaswant Singh Chail, from Southampton in southern England, appeared at a London court, having been charged with treason earlier this month.

He appeared at Westminster Magistrates’ Court via video-link from Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital, confirming his name and location.

The prosecution told the court that Chail was held in the grounds of Windsor Castle, where the monarch was staying, early on Christmas Day last year.

Dressed in a hood and mask and carrying a loaded crossbow with the safety catch off, Chail came within line of sight of the Queen’s apartments,
prosecutor Kathryn Selby said.

Chail allegedly told a protection officer: “I am here to kill the Queen.”

The most serious charge he faces under the 180-year-old Treason Act is “intent… to injure the person of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, or to alarm her Majesty”.

In the last such case, Briton Marcus Sarjeant was jailed for five years in 1981 after pleading guilty to firing blank shots at the monarch when she was
on parade.

Chail is also charged with making a threat to kill and possession of an offensive weapon.

The unemployed former supermarket worker was not required to enter pleas.

– Not considered ‘terrorism’-

Chail was investigated by the Metropolitan Police’s Counter Terrorism Command, but his actions are not being treated as “terrorism”, the prosecutor
said.

Prosecutors said he had previously attempted to join the Ministry of Defence Police and the Grenadier Guards infantry regiment, to get closer to the royal family.

He allegedly planned an attack as revenge for the treatment of Indians and had sent out a video saying he would assassinate the Queen.

Chail will be held in custody until his next court appearance, at London’s Old Bailey, on September 14.

The incident happened as the Queen spent Christmas Day at the castle with her eldest son and heir, Prince Charles, and his wife Camilla.

Although the intruder was intercepted quickly, it recalled an earlier, more serious intrusion in 1982.

On that occasion, a man in his 30s entered the Queen’s private chambers at Buckingham Palace while she was in bed before police apprehended him.

In the summer of 2019, a man was arrested after climbing over the gates of Buckingham Palace.

In 2018, a homeless man scaled its walls and slept in the grounds before being caught.

 UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet is scheduled to visit Bangladesh from August 14 to 17.

“The government of Bangladesh warmly welcomes this first ever visit of any UN High Commissioner for Human Rights,” said a press release of foreign ministry here today.

Bangladesh has been closely working with the UN in the field of human rights and this visit would be an important occasion to highlight Bangladesh’s national perspective and the government’s sincere efforts to protect and promote human rights of the people, including updating domestic legal framework, creating awareness and sensitizing the implementing agencies, the release added.

This is indeed important that the national context, in particular the economic development amidst the pandemic and other evolving crises, the maintenance of peace and security of the people, and constraints like the Rohingya crisis and the adverse effect of climate change, are taken into due consideration in assessing the human rights situation of the country, according to the release.

The visiting UN high commissioner remains well aware of the plethora of achievements of Bangladesh in the human rights domain, including the treaty-body reporting as well as through other mechanisms, the released mentioned.

Apart from her meetings with the cabinet members, Bachelet will interact with the National Human Rights Commission, youth representatives, CSO leaders and the academia during her tour in Dhaka.

She would pay homage to Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on August 15 by placing a wreath at his portrait in front of Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in the city’s Dhanmondi-32 no road.

“Bangladesh strongly hoped that the Chief of UN human rights mechanism would witness by herself how the country is doing miracles to keep on track their development journey; integrating human rights into it,” the release said.

Despite the ongoing pandemic, it said, no one in the country has died of starvation while Bangladesh having 165 million populations has been able to provide almost a million homes to the homeless.

Over 10 million families are receiving basic food and essential supplies under its social security protection programme, the release said, adding indeed, Bangladesh is promoting basic human rights like right to food, right to accommodation, right to development etc. for the people.

Noting that no one is getting killed either in shopping malls, schools or worship places in Bangladesh, it said the top executive of the UN Human Rights Body will also have the opportunity to interact with the forcibly displaced Rohingya people during her trip to Cox’s Bazar, through which she would be equipped with concrete information to press hard the agenda for the repatriation of the Rohingya to the ancestral homeland in the Rakhine State of Myanmar.

The government of Bangladesh firmly believes that politicization of human rights agenda never helps in promoting and protecting human rights of the people; and therefore, sincere dialogue and cooperation is the pathway, it said, adding thus, Bangladesh strongly rejects some visible politically motivated efforts of some corners to mislead the people by showcasing the upcoming visit of the UN High Commissioner as an occasion to put undue pressure on the government.

Indeed, Bangladesh as a responsible and responsive member state of the UN looks forward to have a constructive dialogue with the High Commissioner for the promotion and protection of human rights, with a view to continue and further enhance ongoing close engagement and cooperation of the country with the UN body.

In fact, Bangladesh hopes to benefit from an objective appreciation of the High Commissioner regarding the achievements of the country, despite challenges.

 Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Moscow was ready to restart gas deliveries to Europe through an undamaged part of the Nord Stream pipeline, but that “the ball was in the EU’s court.”

“Russia is ready for the start of deliveries,” Putin told an energy forum in Moscow, referring to the part of the pipeline not affected by leaks.

“The ball is in the EU’s court. If they want to, then the taps can be turned on and that’s it.”

President Joe Biden has “no plans” to meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at a November G20 summit in Indonesia, US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said Sunday.

Biden “has no plans to meet with the crown prince at the G20 summit,” Sullivan told CNN, speaking as already stormy US-Saudi relations have been
further strained by Riyadh’s support for oil production cuts.

The planned cuts have infuriated Washington, with Biden warning on Tuesday of unspecified “consequences.”

The move last week by OPEC+ — composed of the Riyadh-led OPEC cartel and an additional group of 10 exporters headed by Russia — would reduce global output by up to two million barrels per day from November.

It could send energy prices soaring amid an energy crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine, and as inflation-weary American voters prepare to cast
ballots in midterm elections.

The White House has charged that OPEC+ was “aligning with Russia,” saying the cuts would boost Moscow’s revenue and undermine sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine.

Saudi officials have defended the move as motivated purely by economics, not politics.

Rishi Sunak will on Tuesday be installed as Britain’s third prime minister this year, replacing the humiliated Liz Truss after just seven weeks and inheriting a daunting array of problems.

Sunak became the ruling Conservatives’ new leader on Monday after rival contender Penny Mordaunt failed to secure enough nominations from Tory MPs, and Boris Johnson dramatically aborted a comeback bid.

The 42-year-old Hindu will be Britain’s first prime minister of colour and the youngest in more than two centuries.

Sunak will take power in a morning audience with King Charles III, who is anointing his first prime minister since ascending the throne just two days after his late mother Queen Elizabeth II appointed Truss.

The ceremony on September 6 was the last major public act of her record-breaking reign.

Truss will hold a final cabinet meeting before making a departing statement in Downing Street at around 10:15 am (0915 GMT), with Sunak expected to speak just over an hour later.

She leaves office as the shortest-serving premier in history, after a calamitous tax-slashing budget sparked economic and political turmoil.

The 47-year-old announced her resignation last Thursday, admitting she could not deliver her “mandate” from Conservative members — who had chosen her over Sunak in the summer.

He has now staged a stunning turnaround in political fortunes, and vows to do the same for Britain as it confronts decades-high inflation, surging borrowing costs and imminent recession.

Addressing the public on Monday, Sunak promised “stability and unity” as well as bringing “our party and our country together”.

– ‘Choices’ –

After delivering the now all-too-familiar new leader’s speech from the steps of Number 10 at around 11:35 am, Britain’s fifth prime minister in six years will start appointing his top team before facing his first session of “Prime Minister’s Questions” in parliament on Wednesday.

Finance minister Jeremy Hunt, appointed by Truss just 11 days ago in an ultimately futile bid to salvage her premiership, could remain in the role after stabilising the markets.

He endorsed Sunak on Sunday, writing in the Telegraph that he was a leader “willing to make the choices necessary for our long-term prosperity”.

After reversing almost all of Truss’s various tax cuts, Hunt has warned “difficult decisions” loom over public spending.

Whoever heads the Treasury is set to unveil the government’s much-anticipated medium-term fiscal plans on October 31, Halloween, alongside independent assessments.

Sunak must also decide whether to appoint to his cabinet senior MPs who did not support him, such as Mordaunt, in a bid to unify his fractured party.

One so-called big beast unlikely to get a seat around the table is his former boss Johnson, who was driven out in July partly thanks to Sunak’s resignation.

The pair met late Saturday, when Johnson reportedly urged him to form a power-sharing partnership.

The ex-leader had only secured the public backing of a few dozen Tory MPs, compared to well over 100 for Sunak, and the offer was rebuffed.

A day later, Johnson bowed to political reality and announced he would not move forward with his audacious comeback.

“You can’t govern effectively unless you have a united party in parliament,” he acknowledged.

– ‘No mandate’ –

Sunak, a wealthy descendant of immigrants from India and East Africa, is also facing calls for a general election after becoming the latest UK leader who lacks a direct mandate from the electorate.

Pollster Ipsos said Monday that 62 percent of voters want a vote by the end of the year.

“He has no mandate, no answers and no ideas,” Labour’s deputy leader Angela Rayner tweeted.

Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon, whose nationalist government wants to hold an independence referendum next year, echoed the comments — while recognising the significance of Britain getting its first leader of colour.

The next election is not due until January 2025 at the latest and opposition parties have no way to force one, unless dozens of Conservative MPs acquiesce.

That appears unlikely as a flurry of polls show Labour with its largest lead in decades.

YouGov modelling Monday showed Sunak faces an uphill battle to restore confidence in both the Tories and himself.

Weekend responses from 12,000 people found that Labour leader Keir Starmer was seen as the “best prime minister” in 389 constituencies, compared with Sunak’s 127.

Glenn Phillips smashed 104 and Trent Boult took four wickets as New Zealand swept past Sri Lanka by 65 runs on Saturday to put them in pole position to make the semi-finals at the Twenty20 World Cup.

New Zealand batted first and posted 167-7 with Phillips looking unstoppable, before Sri Lanka were all out for 102 in the final over, with Boult taking a career-best 4-13.