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Int'l Business Times
21 minutes ago
- Politics
- Int'l Business Times
Trump Says Would Bomb Iran Again If Nuclear Activities Start
US President Donald Trump said Friday he had saved Iran's Ayatollah Ali Khamenei from assassination and lashed out at the supreme leader for ingratitude, declaring he would order more bombing if the country tried to pursue nuclear weapons. In an extraordinary outburst on his Truth Social platform, Trump blasted Tehran for claiming to have won its war with Israel and said he was halting work on possible sanctions relief. Trump said the United States would bomb Iran again "without question" if the country was still able to enrich uranium to the grade required for nuclear weapons following US strikes. The US president accused the Iranian leader of ingratitude after Khamenei said in a defiant message that reports of damage to nuclear sites from the US bombings were exaggerated, and said Iran had beaten Israel and dealt Washington a "slap." "I knew EXACTLY where he was sheltered, and would not let Israel, or the U.S. Armed Forces, by far the Greatest and Most Powerful in the World, terminate his life," Trump posted. "I SAVED HIM FROM A VERY UGLY AND IGNOMINIOUS DEATH, and he does not have to say, 'THANK YOU, PRESIDENT TRUMP!'" Trump also said that he had been working in recent days on the possible removal of sanctions against Iran, one of Tehran's long-term demands. "But no, instead I get hit with a statement of anger, hatred, and disgust, and immediately dropped all work on sanction relief, and more," Trump added, exhorting Iran to return to the negotiating table. Iran has denied it is set to resume nuclear talks with the United States, after Trump said at a NATO summit in The Hague that negotiations were set to begin again next week. Its government on Friday rejected a request by Rafael Grossi, the director of the UN's International Atomic Energy Agency, to visit facilities bombed by Israel and the United States, saying it suggested "malign intent." Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi hit out at Grossi personally in a post on X for not speaking out against the air strikes, accusing him of an "astounding betrayal of his duties." Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff had expressed hope "for a comprehensive peace agreement." Asked earlier in a White House press conference whether he would consider fresh air strikes if last week's sorties were not successful in ending Iran's nuclear ambitions, Trump said: "Sure. Without question. Absolutely." Trump added that Khamenei and Iran "got beat to hell" in the hostilities involving the United States and Israel and that "it was a great time to end it." In the Truth Social post, the US president accused Khamenei of "blatantly and foolishly" saying Iran won the 12-day war with Israel, adding: "As a man of great faith, he is not supposed to lie." The war of words comes as a fragile ceasefire holds in the conflict, which erupted on June 13 when Israel launched a bombing campaign that it said aimed to stop its adversary from developing a nuclear weapon. "Israel acted at the last possible moment against an imminent threat against it, the region and the international community," Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar wrote Friday on X. "The international community now has an obligation to prevent, through any effective means, the world's most extreme regime from obtaining the most dangerous weapon." Speculation had swirled about the fate of Khamenei before his first appearance since the ceasefire -- a televised speech on Thursday. Khamenei hailed what he described as Iran's "victory" over Israel, vowing never to yield to US pressure. "The American president exaggerated events in unusual ways, and it turned out that he needed this exaggeration," Khamenei said, rejecting Trump's claims Iran's nuclear program had been set back by decades.
CNA
38 minutes ago
- Health
- CNA
WHO says all Covid-19 origin theories still open, after inconclusive study
GENEVA: All hypotheses on how the Covid-19 pandemic began remain open, the World Health Organization said on Friday (Jun 27), following an inconclusive four-year investigation that was hamstrung by crucial information being withheld. The global catastrophe killed an estimated 20 million people, according to the WHO, while shredding economies, crippling health systems and turning people's lives upside-down. The first cases were detected in Wuhan in China in late 2019, and understanding where the SARS-CoV-2 virus that causes Covid came from is key to preventing future pandemics. However, a lengthy investigation launched by the UN's health agency said that pending further data, the origin of Covid and how it first spread remains elusive. "As things stand, all hypotheses must remain on the table, including zoonotic spillover and lab leak," WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus told a press conference, referring to the two main hypotheses as to how the pandemic began. EXPERT INVESTIGATION An initial WHO-Chinese joint report in March 2021 concluded that the virus most likely jumped from bats to humans via an intermediate animal. It deemed a leak from Wuhan's virology laboratories, known for their research on coronaviruses, to be "extremely unlikely". However, that investigation faced harsh criticism for lacking transparency and access, and for not seriously evaluating the lab-leak theory. Tedros launched another investigation, setting up the Scientific Advisory Group for the Origins of Novel Pathogens (SAGO), comprising 27 international experts, in July 2021. Their 78-page report was published on Friday. It said the weight of available evidence suggests a spillover from animals, either directly from bats, or through an intermediate host. However, it could not conclude with certainty where and when this happened, nor whether the Wuhan wet market was where the virus first spilled over into humans. That said, the market "appears to be the location for amplification of infection in humans", leading to widespread transmission. "Evidence for widespread infections or cases in any other countries prior to December 2019 is lacking," it added. While spillover was the best supported theory on the evidence currently available, "until further requests for information are met, or more scientific data becomes available, the origins of SARS-CoV-2 and how it entered the human population will remain inconclusive," SAGO chair Marietjie Venter said at the press conference. Lab leak theories "could not be investigated or excluded", she said, because much of the needed information had not been made available. The experts requested unpublished information from other countries, notably Germany and the United States, but without success, she said. Earlier this week, one SAGO member resigned and three others asked for their names to be removed from the report. CRUCIAL QUESTION "Over the past five years, we have learned a lot about Covid-19 but there is one crucial question about the pandemic that we have not yet answered, how it started," Tedros said. "Despite our repeated requests, China has not provided hundreds of viral sequences from individuals with Covid-19 early in the pandemic, more detailed information on animals sold at markets in Wuhan, and information on work done and biosafety conditions at laboratories in Wuhan," he said. He said WHO has requested access to intelligence reports by governments around the world on the origins of Covid-19. US President Donald Trump's administration has officially embraced the lab leak theory. MORAL IMPERATIVE Tedros said finding out how Covid-19 started was a moral imperative for those who lost their lives in the pandemic and to prevent further outbreaks. He said the virus was continuing to evolve, take lives and leave people suffering with post-Covid conditions, or so-called long Covid. Tedros said the WHO is appealing to countries with information about the origins of Covid-19 to share information.
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
EU Set to Open Doors to Imported Carbon Credits Under 2040 Goal
The European Union wants to allow limited imports of carbon credits under a planned 90% emissions reduction goal for the next decade, in a bid to reduce the costs of its ambitious green shift and get member states on board. The European Commission, the bloc's executive arm, is poised to propose that certain high-quality credits from a new United Nations-supervised mechanism can account for 3% of the pollution cut by 2040, according to a draft document seen by Bloomberg News.
The Hindu
an hour ago
- Health
- The Hindu
No time to rest: on India's ranking and the Sustainable Development Report
India has been ranked among the top 100 countries in the Sustainable Development Report for the first time since this data began to be published by the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) since 2016. The SDSN is an independent body under the aegis of the UN, whose publications are tracked by policymakers and governments. In 2016, India was ranked 110th out of 157 countries, making steady progress to reach 99 this year out of an expanded basket of 167 nations with better metrics and more granular comparisons. But it is no time to rest on this laurel. India must look at why this incline, by 11 points, was not achieved any sooner and the gaps to focus on. From a developmental perspective, the SDSN ranks India as having fared better in poverty reduction (SDG 1) even as India's poverty estimation continues to be mired in controversy due to a lack of publicly available consumption expenditure data since 2018 and the poverty line (Rangarajan line ~₹33/day rural, ₹47/day urban) not having been updated. Proxy data suggest a considerable poverty reduction, almost halving between 2012 (22% based on NSSO data) and 2023 (World Bank – 12%). But SDG 2 (zero hunger) has remained a cause for concern. It also reveals the wide disparity between income groups and rural and urban areas on access to a nutritious diet. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS) estimates that over a third of Indians (35.5%) were stunted (NFHS-5, 2019-21), only marginally better than 38.4% (NFHS-4, 2015-16). Similarly, wasting, which is low weight for height, reduced from 21.0% to 19.3%. Obesity in the working age population (15-49 years) has almost doubled between 2006 and 2021, and concentrated in wealthier urban areas. Electricity access (SDG 7) is another indicator where India has done well. While the country has achieved near universal household electrification in the past two decades, the quality of power and duration vary vastly based on regions and urban/rural fault lines. It is, however, laudable that India today ranks as the fourth largest renewables capacity deployer, mainly solar and wind. And while India has bettered its score in infrastructure provision (SDG 9), noteworthy additions being rapid mobile penetration and financial inclusion through UPI-linked digital payments gateways, COVID-19 revealed the stark difference between rural and urban Internet penetration, which must be addressed to achieve even higher educational outcomes (SDG 4). It is telling, however, that throughout the Modi years, India's performance in governance, the rule of law, press freedom and strong and independent institutions (SDG 16) has been lagging.
Business Recorder
an hour ago
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Iran says IAEA chief request to visit bombed sites suggests ‘malign intent'
TEHRAN: Iran on Friday rejected a request by UN nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi to visit facilities bombed by Israel and the United States, saying that it suggested 'malign intent'. International Atomic Energy Agency director general 'Grossi's insistence on visiting the bombed sites under the pretext of safeguards is meaningless and possibly even malign in intent,' Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said on X. 'Iran reserves the right to take any steps in defence of its interests, its people and its sovereignty.' Araghchi again hit out at Grossi personally for not speaking out against the Israeli and US strikes on Iran's nuclear facilities, describing it as an 'astounding betrayal of his duties'. UN nuclear chief urges 'more transparency' from Iran He charged that the IAEA chief had 'directly facilitated… the unlawful Israeli and US bombings' by 'obfuscating' Iran's efforts to allay the watchdog's concerns in a May 31 report that accused it of 'less than satisfactory' cooperation. That report led to the adoption of a censure motion by the IAEA board of governors that Iran says cleared the way for the 12-day war Israel launched on June 13. The minister's comments came after the Iranian parliament approved a bill suspending cooperation with the UN watchdog. Araghchi said the new relationship with the IAEA would continue 'until the safety and security of our nuclear activities can be guaranteed.' Grossi had called on Monday for IAEA inspectors to be granted access to Iran's nuclear facilities so that they could establish what had happened to its large stockpile of highly enriched uranium. Concerns have been raised in Israel and in Western countries fearful of Iran's ambitions over whether Iran was able to relocate its stockpile before the Israeli and US strikes.
