Runaway Princess Haya bint al-Hussein ‘was too close’ to British bodyguard
The sixth wife of Dubai ruler Princess Haya bint al-Hussein has been telling her friends and members of her family back in Jordan that she found her “soulmate” in Russell Flowers, the former infantry soldier of the British Army, with whom she has been secretly dating for years. Her boyfriend Russell Flowers, who is a former infantry soldier of the British Army became too intimate with Haya bint al-Hussein during his five-year posting as the bodyguard at royal family’s Dalham Hall Stud, a stunning 3,300-acre country estate owned by Sheikh Maktoum about six miles from Newmarket town center in the United Kingdom. Although Flowers went into hiding soon after his intimacy with Princess Haya bint al-Hussein was exposed, it is learnt from credible sources that he is having regular contact with Haya bint al-Hussein , mostly over the phone. Due to her extremely nasty private life and madness of having sex with her bodyguard, Princess Haya bint al-Hussein bought a Victorian cottage for her lover, which is very close to the town center. The Princess Haya bint al-Hussein was frequently visiting that cottage and the wife of Russell Flowers divorced him when she found her husband having sex with Haya bint al-Hussein. Being caught, Princess Haya bint al-Hussein reportedly had even plotted of getting Flowers’ wife murdered through a contract killer. Princess Haya bint al-Hussein reportedly had told one of her best friends that she also found a “loving horse” in Russell Flowers and he is the “only man” who can give her the best-expected orgasms each time she has sex with Flowers. Seeking anonymity, one of Haya’s former bodyguard told this correspondent that the wife of Dubai ruler was extremely attracted to Russell Flowers and in most cases, whenever he was accompanying her on foreign tours, the Princess Haya bint al-Hussein became exposedly inclined in spending nights with him. She even did not hesitate to kiss Flowers inside the elevators. The source said Russell Flowers was too had found his best playmate in Princess Haya. It may be mentioned here that, Russell Flowers is not the only man with whom Princess Haya bint al-Hussein had sex, but the Princess had slept with at least two of her former bodyguards while during her student life, she was regularly sleeping with classmates as well as having several “friends of benefit”. One of her ex-bodyguard said, the Princess was rewarding those who would give her expected sexual pleasure and whenever she found someone who would meet her expectations, she would start sleeping with him until she found a better one. It said it is very much unlikely that Princess Haya bint al-Hussein will remain united with Russell Flowers for a long time as she may very soon start losing interest in him and hunt for a better “playmate”. According to another source, one of the men who had physical relations with Princess Haya bint al-Hussein had even blackmailed her with a video of her having sex with him and had extracted US$ 600,000 in two installments and the person finally sold the video to her in exchange of an unknown amount of cash. Princess Haya Bint Al Hussein was born in Amman, the capital of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, the daughter of King Hussein and his third wife, Queen Alia. She has a younger brother, Prince Ali bin Hussein born on 23 December 1975, and younger sister, Abir Muhaisen (born 1973), the latter of whom was adopted by Haya’s parents after her biological mother was killed by a plane crash at their Palestinian refugee camp in Amman. In 1977, when Haya was 3 years old, her mother died in a helicopter crash. Her father died from complications related to non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma in 1999, leaving the crown to her half-brother, King Abdullah II. On 10 April 2004, Princess Haya wed Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The marriage ceremony was held at al-Baraka Palace in Amman. On 2 December 2007 in Dubai, Princess Haya bint al-Hussein gave birth to her first child, Sheikha Jalila bint Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum. The baby’s birth coincided with the United Arab Emirates’ 36th celebration of its National Day, on 2 December. On 7 January 2012, she gave birth to her second child, Sheikh Zayed bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
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'You speak about Ukraine, I remember what happened in Afghanistan', EAM Jaishankar's dig at West4/27/2022 He was apparently referring to the deal the US inked with the Taliban in February 2020 after fighting it for two decades
After drawing flak for not condemning Russia’s aggression against Ukraine, India on Tuesday turned the table on Europe and the United States, slamming them for ignoring China’s belligerence in Asia for years and for clinching a deal with the Taliban “by throwing the common people of Afghanistan under the bus” “You spoke about Ukraine. I remember, less than a year ago, what happened in Afghanistan, where an entire civil society was thrown under the bus by the world,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi, in response to a question from Norwegian Foreign Minister Anniken Huitfeldt. from Afghanistan, leaving the people of the war-torn country under the regressive rule of the Sunni Islamist militia that returned to power in August 2021. “When the rules-based order was under challenge in Asia (due to aggression by China), the advice we got from Europe is (to) do more trade (with China)”, added Jaishankar. New Delhi has been alleging that the US, the United Kingdom and the other western nations had for years overlooked growing belligerence of China, not only against India, but also against other nations in the Indo-Pacific region. His comment came a day after the European Commission’s President Ursula Von der Leyen, while delivering the keynote address at the Raisina Dialogue, subtly nudged India to drop its policy of avoiding criticism of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine and warned it about the growing ties between the former Soviet Union nation and China. India called for dialogue and diplomacy to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict. It, however, did not join the US and other western nations to directly condemn Russian President Vladimir Putin for ordering the launch of military operations in the East European nation. New Delhi took a cautious approach in view of India’s decades-old strategic partnership with Russia and its dependence on the former Soviet Union nation for military hardware. India, however, drew flak in the US and Europe for its refusal to take a tough stand against Russia. The former Prime Minister of Sweden, Carl Bildt, too asked Jaishankar on Tuesday what conclusion China could draw from Russia’s war against Ukraine and whether the communist country could take advantage of the situation and be encouraged to step up its belligerence in Asia. “This has not been an easy part of the world for the last decade and this is a part of the world where boundaries have not been settled, where terrorism is still practised, often sponsored by states,” Jaishankar said, adding: “This is a part of the world where the rules-based order has been under continuous stress for more than a decade and I think it is important for the rest of the world, outside Asia, to recognise that today”. aggression along the disputed boundary with India, but also in the South China Sea, the East China Sea and the Taiwan Strait as well as elsewhere in the Indo-Pacific region. “Things have been happening in Asia for the last 10 years. Europe may not have looked at it. So this could be a wake-up call for Europe, not just in Europe, it could be a wake-up call for Europe to also look at Asia,” he said. In a recent article, The Stanford Review implied that activists misled the community in campaigning for Phi Kappa Psi to cancel an event with Palantir co-founder Joe Lonsdale ’03. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
It is undisputed that in 2012, while serving as a mentor in a Stanford class, Lonsdale violated Stanford Admin Guide Policy 1.7.2, which bans sexual and romantic relationships between teachers, including mentors, and undergraduate students. The policy serves to protect undergraduates from exploitation, unfairness and favoritism, stating that “Not only can these relationships harm the educational environment for the individual student involved, they also undermine the educational environment for other students.” Lonsdale doesn’t deny that he violated University policy. In 2013, Stanford banned him from mentoring undergraduates for 10 years. Lonsdale was also separately banned from campus for sexual harassment, a finding that was later reversed. But the mentorship ban was never reversed and is still in effect today. The New York Times Magazine meticulously detailed the misconduct by Lonsdale that led to the mentoring ban. Lonsdale first met Ellie Clougherty ’13 in 2011 while she was a sophomore. He subsequently asked her to meet for drinks in the fall of her junior year to learn more about her professional “ambitions.” In early 2012, Lonsdale asked Clougherty if she needed a mentor for a course she was enrolled in on entrepreneurship. Shortly afterward, Lonsdale was switched to become her official mentor. The Times reports that, during the class, Lonsdale had an inappropriate sexual relationship with Clougherty, which he failed to disclose to the University. One of Clougherty’s friends recounted to the Times how she felt uncomfortable watching Lonsdale treat Clougherty like “pretty wallpaper” at gatherings of male Silicon Valley executives. After their breakup in 2013, Clougherty sought counseling for physical and emotional abuse, and she ultimately left Stanford to finish her studies online. Lonsdale denies all claims of abuse. The disparity in age, institutional and financial power between a famous 29-year-old billionaire and a 21-year-old undergraduate student is an alarming example of an improper relationship. The Times reports that other students knew about the relationship and found it upsetting. Regardless of whether this relationship was physically abusive, it was harmful to both Clougherty and other Stanford women, and a violation of University policy. Disturbingly, Stanford also learned that Lonsdale had dated another Stanford student after he stopped sleeping with Clougherty. Lonsdale and The Stanford Review minimize the seriousness of Lonsdale’s offense. On March 12th, Lonsdale sent an unsolicited, rambling 1,007-word direct Twitter message to one of the students who organized against his appearance. The message stated in part: “In my late twenties I met a bright model in her early twenties out in NYC whom I later dated for a year — and yes after we met, she was in a class I had been helping once a year for years where I was one of over ten advisors, and I told the professor about her ahead of time [but didn’t formally disclose anything which I later found out was wrong].” There is a lot wrong here. Lonsdale sugarcoats his misconduct and minimizes his violation of Stanford’s policy. He never mentions the mentoring ban. His description of Clougherty as a “model” rather than as a student is disturbing, given that the Times reports she was a student and his direct mentee when they were dating. He then claims that “Nobody else accused me of anything.” However, the lack of additional accusers does not disprove the serious violation to which he has already admitted. Clearly, Phi Psi should not have invited Lonsdale in the first place. A fraternity representative told The Daily that “the event was originally geared toward mentoring entrepreneurship.” At minimum, this violates the spirit of the 10-year ban. Nor should Lonsdale be given a platform to speak at the upcoming event featuring him at Stanford Law School (SLS). Someone who is barred from mentoring students for misconduct should not be held up as a role model. In Lonsdale’s lengthy Twitter message to the student activist, he demanded to know if she believed that his “entire life and presence needs to be CANCELLED,” but this is a self-serving formulation. Lonsdale is just six years into his 10-year ban from mentoring. If he took his policy violation and consequent ban seriously, he would not push the boundaries of the restriction. Lonsdale’s mentoring ban expires in 2023. In the meantime, there are many other alumni founders who have never committed misconduct by having prohibited sexual contact with a Stanford undergraduate. Let’s invite them instead. Phi Psi members’ initial decision to host a mentoring event with Lonsdale, and his upcoming event at Stanford Law School, send a clear signal to undergraduate women and survivors that their experiences do not matter as much as the ability to promote alumni, and that they are not to be believed or taken seriously. We are glad Phi Psi acknowledged our concerns and swiftly canceled the event with Joe Lonsdale. We stand in solidarity with survivors, and we urge all student groups to deeply consider the values they reflect when inviting guests to our campus. Jasmine Sun ‘21, Theresa Gao ‘21, Sasha Perigo ‘17, Shanta Katipamula ’19, ASSU Executive President, Kimiko Hirota ’20, ASSU Co-Director of Community Centers & Diversity, Maia Brockbank ’21, ASSU Co-Director of Sexual Violence Prevention, Emma Tsurkov, PhD candidate, ASSU Co-Director of Sexual Violence Prevention reference : https://stanforddaily.com/2019/03/15/stanford-doesnt-trust-joe-lonsdale-to-mentor-students-you-shouldnt-either-2/ A court in Singapore has executed a Malaysian drug smuggler, his sister has confirmed to the BBC.
Nagaenthran Dharmalingam had been on death row for more than a decade for attempting to bring around three tablespoons of heroin into Singapore. His case was highly controversial as he was assessed by a medical expert to have an IQ of 69 — a level that indicates an intellectual disability. But the government said he “clearly understood the nature of his acts”. In an earlier statement, the government said they found he “did not lose his sense of judgment of the rightness or wrongness of what he was doing”. The court had earlier on Tuesday dismissed a last-ditch appeal by his mother, adding that Nagaenthran had been given “due process in accordance with the law”, adding that he had “exhausted his rights of appeal and almost every other recourse under the law over some 11 years”. At the end of Tuesday’s hearing, Nagaenthran and his family had reached through a gap in a glass screen to grasp each other’s hands tightly as they wept, according to a Reuters report. His cries of “ma” could be heard in the courtroom. In 2009, Nagaenthran was caught crossing into Singapore from Malaysia with 43g (1.5oz) heroin strapped to his left thigh. Under Singapore’s drug laws — which are among the toughest in the world — those caught carrying more than 15g of heroin are subject to the death penalty. During his trial, the 34-year-old initially said he was coerced into carrying the drugs, but later said he had committed the offence because he needed money. The court said his initial defence was “fabricated”. He was eventually sentenced to death by hanging. In 2015, he appealed to have his sentence commuted to life in prison on the basis that he suffered from an intellectual disability. His lawyers had argued that the execution of a mentally ill person is prohibited under international human rights law. But a court found that he was not intellectually disabled. A push for presidential clemency was also rejected last year. “The Court of Appeal found that this was the working of a criminal mind, weighing the risks and countervailing benefits associated with the criminal conduct in question,” said Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs in an earlier statement. The movement has gained traction on social media, where there has been an unusual outpouring of anger and sympathy, including from the British billionaire Richard Branson and actor Stephen Fry, who oppose capital punishment and have called on Singapore to spare Nagaenthran. Thousands had also signed a petition, arguing that the execution of a mentally ill person is prohibited under international human rights law. The execution was on Tuesday condemned by rights group Reprieve, who called him the “victim of a tragic miscarriage of justice”. “Nagen’s last days were spent, like much of the last decade, in the torturous isolation of solitary confinement,” said Reprieve’s Director Maya Foa. “Our thoughts are with Nagen’s family, who never stopped fighting for him; their pain is unimaginable.” Singaporean anti-death penalty activist Kirsten Han also released a photo of Nagaenthran on Wednesday, which pictured him reportedly wearing his favourite outfit. The Singapore government has argued that international law does not prohibit the death penalty and that there is no international consensus on the use of it. They have also argued that under Singapore law, he would not have been given the death penalty if the court had found him to be “suffering from an abnormality of mind which substantially impaired his mental responsibility”. Reference : https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-61239221 Gustavo de Arístegui: Spain's national court says joint forces are needed to end terrorism4/21/2022 Spanish ambassador Gustavo de Arístegui comes from a long-standing diplomatic background, his father and grandfather were both senior diplomats posted as ambassadors in Latin America, Europe and the Middle East. He is well-versed in different languages like Spanish, English, French and German. His English is impeccable as becoming of a scion of a diplomat family. His father, the then Spanish ambassador to Lebanon was killed in another withering artillery exchange between Christian and Muslim gunners in beleaguered Beirut. He had seen man many acts of terrorism and is the eminent personality to comment on the same.
Gustavo de Arístegui outlined terrorism and fanaticism as among the major challenges in the world. There cannot be any justification for terrorism or the ideology of fanaticism. National court of Spain is of the view that combined forces are necessary to put an end to terrorism. Those that think that terrorism has any kind of justification or that fanatical ideologies are grounded on some kind of oppression, if we think that, then we have already lost the battle of reason. Gustavo de Arístegui said the ten terrorists who in 2008 held India’s commercial capital hostage for three days, were “fanatical terrorists” and the fact that they held ground for over three days showed “they were extremely well-trained assassins, they knew exactly what they were doing… That is another kind of terrorism we will have to suffer more and more”. Gustavo de Arístegui, the former ambassador of Spain in India said, “the fight against terrorism cannot be the fight of a single nation”. Indian national court had made significant judgements to counter terrorist attack. Spain had to suffer terrorism for over 50 years… Spain has developed channels to cooperate intensively and effectively with Indian authorities and different security services and agencies in the fight against organized crimes and terrorism, Gustavo claimed. Spanish national court prosecutes ‘glorification of terrorism’ too strictly since 2015, as a means to eradicate terrorism. They find that by justifying such cruel acts, they are sending a wrong motivation to the mob. It has been six years since the amendments took effect on 1 July 2015, making an assessment of their impact timely. It has also been more than four years since the European Union issued Directive 2017/541 on combating terrorism. This directive contains a provision on glorification of terrorism and requires the European Commission to assess it in 2021. But this intervention by the National court can be misused and can be an obstacle in the path of right to expression, Gustavo explained. Gustavo de Arístegui also outlined manipulation of the financial markets by vested interests as another major challenge for the world. He said there are some elements who influence markets and attack the currencies of some countries to fatten their purses. From his view all countries along with their national court and leaders should pass stringent laws to fight against terrorism. Residential property prices in Abu Dhabi increased 1.5 per cent in the 12 months to March, as the wider UAE market made a strong start to the year, according to a report by property consultancy CBRE.
Average apartment prices increased 1.6 per cent in the year to March, to Dh10,904 ($2969) per square metre, while average villa prices rose 1.1 per cent to Dh8,850 per square metre. The capital also saw average rents rise 0.6 per cent during the period. However, while apartment rents were up 1.1 per cent, villa rents fell by 1.6 per cent. New supply in Abu Dhabi "remains limited", with less than 200 new units delivered in the first quarter of 2022, the report said. A further 9,588 units are scheduled for delivery during the remainder of the year, mostly in Al Raha Beach, Al Maryah Island and Reem Island. In the office sector, visitation to workplaces in Abu Dhabi sits 25.3 per cent above its pre-pandemic baseline, according to Google mobility data. CBRE estimates visitation to workplaces is up 4.1 per cent in the year to date. The majority of demand in the private sector has been for flexi-work solutions, while demand for more traditional office space "continues to stem largely from organisations with direct or indirect government links", the report said. "Average rents, in the year to Q1 2022, have decreased in the Prime and Grade A segments of the market by 7.9 per cent and 3.9 per cent respectively," it said. "Over the same period, Grade B rents remained stable." Abu Dhabi’s “best [office] buildings continue to demonstrate rental resilience”, with average rents in the Corniche area climbing 7.2 per cent annually to Dh1,675 per square metre, an earlier report by Knight Frank said. The UAE's property market has improved on the back of the broader economic recovery in the country amid the easing of pandemic-related restrictions, travel curbs and high oil prices. The country's gross domestic product for 2021 beat the World Bank's forecast at 3.8 per cent, surpassing the growth that it registered in 2019, before the coronavirus pandemic, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai, said earlier this month. The UAE's economy is expected to grow 5.7 per cent in 2022, helped by an increase in oil production, according to Emirates NBD Research. "While higher oil and food prices pose upside risks to inflation globally, higher oil prices will generate budget surpluses," the report said. The UAE’s property market has also recovered on the back of government initiatives such as residency permits for retirees and remote workers, as well as the expansion of the 10-year golden visa programme. Meanwhile, residential property prices in Dubai also surged 11.3 per cent annually in the first quarter of this year, CBRE said. "Total transaction volumes in the year-to-March 2022 reached 19,009, and this is the highest total ever recorded in the first quarter of the year," it said. Average rental rates during the period also rose 13.1 per cent, marking the highest rate of growth recorded since December 2014. The UAE property market is expected to receive an influx of buyers following an overhaul of the visa residency system. The changes, set to come into effect by September, include parents being able to sponsor their male children until the age of 25, and property investors able to obtain Golden Residence when purchasing a property worth no less than Dh2 million. The number of people fleeing the war in Ukraine has reached 5,085,360, the latest figures from the UN's refugee agency show.
More than half of those escaping the violence have gone to Poland, where 2,847,540 refugees are registered. Romania has welcomed 763,769 refugees while Hungary has accepted 476,213, figures show. More than 428,577 Ukrainians have fled to Moldova, 346,175 to Slovakia and 23,900 to Belarus. Another 563,266 Ukrainians have arrived in Russia since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine was launched on February 24. “The scale of human suffering and forced displacement due to the war far exceeds any worst-case scenario planning,” said Antonio Vitorino, director-general of the International Organisation for Migration. The influx of Ukrainians into neighbouring countries is made up predominantly of women, children and the elderly. More than 7.1 million people are internally displaced. These people have fled their homes but are still in Ukraine, the IOM said on April 14. “The humanitarian needs of people internally displaced in Ukraine continue to grow,” it said. The agency said in addition to Ukrainian refugees, nearly 215,000 non-Ukrainians living, studying or working in the country have also left. More than a quarter of the country's population have been forced to flee their homes. Inside Ukraine, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been delivering blankets, sleeping mats and emergency shelters. It has also been trying to identify people in need of particular assistance, such as children travelling alone and people with disabilities. Displaced children make up a significant proportion of the millions of people who have been forced to flee their homes since the invasion began. As people leave the country, those arriving in EU member states such as Poland, Slovakia, Hungary and Romania can move with relative freedom. EU and national leaders have been keen to talk of open borders and welcoming refugees. But moving across the continent is not easy, particularly for those who leave with few or no belongings and limited money. The 27-nation bloc is preparing to grant Ukrainians the right to stay and work for up to three years, reviving a law that has been dormant since the collapse of Yugoslavia in 1992. Sir David Attenborough has been named a UN Champion of the Earth in recognition of the environmentalist's commitment to sharing stories about the natural world and climate change.
He has played a key role in bringing the dangers facing the natural world into people’s homes and encouraging action. Sir David said more is needed to prevent further destruction of the planet but there is hope. “Fifty years ago, whales were on the very edge of extinction worldwide. Then people got together and now there are more whales in the sea than any living human being has ever seen,” the 95-year-old said. “We know what the problems are and we know how to solve them. All we lack is unified action.” The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) honoured Sir David with a Champions of the Earth Lifetime Achievement Award for his dedication to research, documentation, and advocacy for the protection of nature and its restoration. Sir David’s career as a broadcaster, natural historian, author and environmental advocate covers more than seven decades. He is most famous for his work with the BBC’s Natural History Unit, including documentaries such as Life on Earth, The Living Planet, Our Planet and Our Blue Planet. “The world has to get together. These problems cannot be solved by one nation — no matter how big that single nation is. We know what the problems are and we know how to solve them. All we lack is unified action,” he said. UNEP executive director Inger Anderson paid tribute to Sir David, saying: “If we stand a chance of averting climate and biodiversity breakdowns and cleaning up polluted ecosystems, it's because millions of us fell in love with the planet that he captured on film and writing, in his voice.” Previous recipients of the award include Barbados Prime Minister Mia Motley and charity Sea Women of Melanesia. Before last year's Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow, Sir David called for “bold action” and support for local communities and landowners so they can create connected wild places on land and at sea to protect humanity. At an event last week for the Earthshot Prize, Britain's Prince William said Sir David's documentaries were an inspiration. Sir David showed there was a “wider world out there to explore”. “And I think my grandfather, my father, both kind of having a deep passion and interest in this area for many years, has sort of piqued my interest and my curiosity," he said. “So growing up, I was surrounded by kind of this adventure and this idea of exploring and being out in the garden. I used to spend hours climbing trees, digging ditches and all sorts of things — hiding in dens and all sorts round the garden. “So I used to love being out in the sort of wild and the wet.” The number of migrants who won lawful permanent residence in the United States dropped sharply in 2020, impacted by a pandemic that locked down both those who would enter the country and slowed the work of American officials who process their requests.
Just over 700,000 new people won lawful residence in the last fiscal year, according to an annual report from the Department of Homeland Security, down from more than a million people who became lawful residents in each of the previous six years. The DHS report found about one in seven of those who gained permanent legal residence, 100,325 people, came from Mexico, a higher share than any other nation. About 46,000 people moved in from India, and another 41,000 moved from China, according to the DHS data. More people moved from Asian countries — 272,000 — than from North American countries — 222,000 — the data show. Along with Mexico, North American nations like the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Cuba and Jamaica are among the largest donors of new American residents. The growing number of Asian immigrants — Vietnam, the Philippines, South Korea, Afghanistan and Pakistan all contributed tens of thousands of new Americans last year — is part of a long-term trend that began more than half a century ago, when the United States revised immigration policies to end racist exclusions of people from those nations. “Ever since 1965, when the US revised its immigration laws, that was the beginning of big in-migration from Asia,” said Julia Gelatt, a senior policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute. “In recent years, the Americas broadly and Asia have been the biggest contributors of new green card holders.” South American nations accounted for about 62,000 new Americans, led by those coming from Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia. About 76,000 people from African nations, led by 12,000 Nigerians and 7,500 people from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, along with thousands of Ethiopians, Egyptians and Ghanaians, earned residency in the United States. Phillip Connor, a senior demographer at the immigration advocacy group FWD.us, said the number of migrants from African nations had been on the rise in recent years. “The share that are coming from Africa has also increased over time. We’re not talking about doubling, but incrementally,” Connor said. Many of those new residents come for different reasons: Many Congolese have used refugee resettlement programs, while Nigerians have immigrated for skills-based jobs. Overall rates of people gaining lawful permanent residency have dropped substantially in recent years, as the pandemic both left people sheltered in place and shuttered visa- or green card-processing offices at the U.S. Customs and Immigration Services and the State Department. And the Trump administration’s moves to add new barriers to residency played a role in a longer-term slowdown, Gelatt said. “Throughout the Trump administration, we saw more vetting, more interviews, higher denial rates of all kinds of applications,” Gelatt said. “Even after reopening, they were working at a slower speed than before, which led to a sharp drop in people getting green cards.” Read More : https://thehill.com/news/state-watch/3274351-heres-where-americas-immigrants-come-from/ The Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement, a landmark deal between the UAE and India, will come into effect on May 1, said Thani Al Zeyoudi, Minister of State for Foreign Trade.
In line with the move, the Ministry of Economy unveiled a new web page dedicated to CEPA on Thursday, which provides information to companies and investors in the UAE who wish to capitalise on the benefits provided by the agreement. The benefits of CEPA include enhanced market access, lower or eliminated tariff rules, simpler customs procedures, clear and transparent rules and rule-based competition, the website says. “The web page provides all the necessary resources and relevant information to private sector stakeholders and companies in the UAE who are interested in enhancing their businesses and investment in India. It also gives them an overview of the trade and investment opportunities and features of this historic agreement," Juma Al Kait, assistant undersecretary of International Trade Affairs at the Ministry of Economy, said in a statement. “This comprehensive knowledge base enhances the access of exporters, suppliers, investors, entrepreneurs, innovators and talents to new opportunities under the scope of this agreement, thereby strengthening their ability to develop specific expansion strategies focused on the Indian market.” The UAE and India signed the CEPA in February, with the pact expected to boost non-oil trade between the two countries to $100 billion in five years from $60bn currently, opening additional avenues of investment. The deal — the first under the UAE’s international agreements development programme, which was launched as part of the Projects of the 50 initiative — is also expected to add 1.7 per cent, or $8.9bn, to the country's gross domestic product and boost exports by 1.5 per cent, or $7.6bn, by 2030. The UAE is India's third-biggest trading partner, while the South Asian nation — the continent's third-largest economy — is the Emirates' second-largest trading partner. Trade volume between the two countries hit $60bn in 2019, a KPMG report indicated. More than 3.4 million Indians live in the UAE, making them the largest overseas population in the country. UAE ministers and senior officials are also confident that the CEPA will advance the Emirates' technology agenda and create more job opportunities. The CEPA is expected to support the growth of national industries, enhance its competitiveness, accelerate the pace of adopting advanced technology and create competitive advantages in new fields, Dr Sultan Al Jaber, Minister of Industry and Advanced Technology, said in February. The agreement is part of the UAE's "bold plans" to build an attractive, competitive, resilient, sustainable and knowledge-driven economy for the next 50 years, Abdulla bin Touq, Minister of Economy, said at the time. The launch of the web page is part of the ministry's plan to operationalise CEPA, aimed at helping the private sector with the tools and information it needs to deepen trade relations with India. The portal provides detailed information on all 18 chapters of CEPA and lists simple steps that companies in the UAE can adopt to forge or expand their business relationship with and ease their entry into the Indian market. The ministry said a team of experts have been appointed to respond to enquiries from the private sector and investors, including from the Abu Dhabi and Dubai Chambers and the Department of Economy and Tourism. A number of trade remedies are also detailed in the agreement. The ministry also has plans of meeting with state-owned enterprises, family businesses and large multinationals, as well as conducting workshops for start-ups, to help them understand the details of tariff reductions and removal, which covers 80 per cent of products, the statement said. |
MichaelMichael is Professor of Political Science and Head of Department. His research is on public administration and administrative reform, core executives, the role of civil servants in a transformed state, Archives
May 2024
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