In a first, Mahatma Gandhi made a special appearance at the United Nations, sharing his message on education at the world organisation as it commemorated the International Day of Non-Violence on the occasion of the Indian leader’s birth anniversary.

A special life-size hologram of Gandhi was projected during a panel discussion organised on Friday by India’s Permanent Mission to the U.N. and UNESCO Mahatma Gandhi Institute of Education for Peace and Sustainable Development (MGIEP) at the U.N. headquarters here to commemorate the International Day of Non-Violence, marking Gandhi’s birth anniversary on October 2.

The International Day of Non-Violence is observed on October 2, the birthday of Gandhi. According to the General Assembly resolution of June 2007, which established the commemoration, the day is an occasion to "disseminate the message of non-violence, including through education and public awareness".

The resolution reaffirms "the universal relevance of the principle of non-violence" and the desire "to secure a culture of peace, tolerance, understanding and non-violence".

The panel discussion featured India’s Permanent Representative to the U.N. Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj, CEO of The King Center, Atlanta Bernice King and youth representative and digital education transformation champion Princess Hayu of Indonesia.

The discussion, moderated by UNESCO MGIEP Director Anantha Duraiappah, was focussed on ‘Education for Human Flourishing’.

It was part of the Ahinsa Lecture Series and kickstarted the 10-year celebration of UNESCO MGIEP. It was for the first time at the U.N. that a life-size hologram of Mahatma Gandhi led the panel discussion, a statement said.

A voice-over accompanying the Gandhi hologram shared the iconic leader’s thoughts on education.

“Literacy is not the end of education or even the beginning. By education, I mean an all-around drawing out of the best in the child and the man, body, mind and spirit. By spiritual training, I mean education of the heart,” the Gandhi hologram said.

Ahead of the panel discussion, a message by U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres was read out.

In his message, Mr. Guterres said Gandhi’s life and example reveal a timeless pathway to a more peaceful and tolerant world, as the U.N. chief called on the international community to walk this path together, in solidarity, as one human family.

Director of the Mahatma Gandhi Digital Museum in Hyderabad Birad Yajnik told the event’s audience that the hologram was the second edition of the Gandhi hologram in 4k.

He recalled that the making of the hologram was a process that started in 2018 when Ambassador Kamboj was in South Africa.

In 2019, in association with the MGIEP, a dialogue with a hologram of Gandhi was envisioned. Ananda and his team researched the collected works of Gandhi and his thoughts on education.

“At our end, digitally graphic files were further sculpted, merged with motion graphics to produce a high-definition hologram that narrated the script,” Mr. Yajnik said. Mr. Yajnik added that this version led the panel discussion at UNESCO in Paris and later in New Delhi.

“The future of this hologram is to enable it with AI (Artificial Intelligence) voice engine that can engage the people of the world. The message of Mahatma Gandhi is a message of peace and love, a message that the world desperately needs today. And this would be our small effort to bring it to the youth of the world through the language of technology,” Mr. Yajnik said.

Mr. Guterres said in his message that the International Day of Non-Violence celebrates not only Gandhi’s birthday, but the values he embodied that echo across the decades: peace, mutual respect and the essential dignity shared by every person.

“Sadly, our world is not living up to those values. We see this through growing conflicts and climate chaos. Poverty, hunger and deepening inequalities. Prejudice, racism and rising hate speech. And a morally bankrupt global financial system that entrenches poverty and stymies recovery for developing countries,” Mr. Guterres said.

The U.N. chief emphasised that the world can defeat these challenges by embracing Gandhi’s values and working across cultures and borders to build a better, more peaceful future for all.

“By investing in people’s health, education, decent jobs and social protection to prevent people from falling and catch them when they do. By ensuring access to financing and debt relief for all countries. By supporting developing countries as they build resilient infrastructure and protect populations from the impacts of climate change, while also accelerating the transition from planet-killing fossil fuels to renewable energy.”

“By securing and upholding the rights and dignity of all people — especially the most vulnerable, and girls and women who are too often denied their basic rights. By taking concrete action for inclusion, recognising multicultural, multi-religious and multi-ethnic societies as a richness, not a threat,” he said.

The Gandhi hologram made three appearances during the panel discussion, showing him both sitting and standing as he spoke about the values of education.

“We assess the value of education in the same manner as we assess the value of land or shares in the stock market. We want to provide only such education as would enable the student to earn more.”

"We hardly give any thought to the improvement of the character of the educated. The schools and colleges are really a factory of turning out clerks for the government. On the contrary, real education consists in drawing the best out of yourself. What better book can there be than the book of humanity,” the Gandhi hologram said.

Education should provide access, equity, quality and affordability, Kamboj said, adding that it is very critical to provide holistic development as well as upliftment and dignity for every individual.

Stressing the importance of resilience, Ms. Kamboj said while education is imparted in schools and colleges, “I wonder how much we teach our children how to deal with the ups and downs.”

“That is also very critical…life doesn't always dish out the best moments, you have to learn to deal with the ups and downs and, therefore, I think education should also be transformative in the sense that you teach youngsters to be able to take setbacks as you also take your successes,” she said.  

 Kyiv, September 30

Russia pounded Ukrainian cities with missiles, rockets and suicide drones, with one strike reported to have killed 25 people, as it moved on Friday to annex Ukrainian territory into Russia and put it under the protection of Moscow’s nuclear umbrella, opening an internationally condemned phase of the seven-month war.

But even as it prepared to celebrate the incorporation of four occupied Ukrainian regions, the Kremlin was on the verge of another stinging battlefield loss.

Russian and Western analysts reported the imminent Ukrainian encirclement of the eastern city of Lyman. Retaking the city could open the path for Ukraine to push deep into one of the regions Russia is absorbing in a move widely condemned as illegal.

The salvos of Russian strikes reported in Ukrainian cities together amounted to the heaviest barrage that Russia has unleashed for weeks.

They followed analysts’ warnings that Russian President Vladimir Putin was likely to dip more heavily into his dwindling stocks of precision weapons and step up attacks as part of a strategy to escalate the war to an extent that would shatter Western support for Ukraine.

The Kremlin preceded its scheduled annexation ceremonies on Friday with another warning to Ukraine that it shouldn’t fight to take back the four regions.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Moscow would view a Ukrainian attack on the taken territory as an act of aggression against Russia itself.

The annexations are Russia’s attempt to set its gains in stone, at least on paper, and scare Ukraine and its Western backers with the prospect of an increasingly escalatory conflict unless they back down — which they show no signs of doing.

The Kremlin paved the way for the land-grabs with “referendums”, sometimes at gunpoint, that Ukraine and its Western backers universally dismissed as rigged shams.

“It looks quite pathetic. Ukrainians are doing something, taking steps in the real material world, while the Kremlin is building some kind of a virtual reality, incapable of responding in the real world,” former Kremlin speechwriter turned political analyst Abbas Gallyamov said.

“People understand that the politics is now on the battlefield,” he added. “What’s important is who advances and who retreats. In that sense, the Kremlin cannot offer anything comforting to the Russians.”            A recent Ukrainian counter-offensive backed by Western-supplied weapons has deprived Moscow of mastering its fate on the military fields of battle.

Its hold of the Luhansk region appears increasingly shaky, as Ukrainian forces make inroads there, with the pincer assault on Lyman. Ukraine also still has a large foothold in the neighbouring Donetsk region.

Luhansk and Donetsk – wrecked by fighting since separatists there declared independence in 2014 – form the wider Donbas region of eastern Ukraine that Putin has long vowed, but so far failed, to make completely Russian.

Peskov said that both Donetsk and Luhansk will be incorporated on Friday into Russia in their entirety.

All of Kherson and parts of Zaporizhzhia, two other regions being prepared for annexation, were newly occupied in the invasion’s opening phase.

It’s unclear whether the Kremlin will declare all, or just part, of that occupied territory as Russia’s. Peskov wouldn’t say in a call on Friday with reporters

In the Zaporizhzhia region’s capital, anti-aircraft missiles that Russia has repurposed as ground-attack weapons rained down on Friday on people who were waiting in cars to cross into Russian-occupied territory so they could bring family members back across the front lines, the deputy head of Ukraine’s presidential office, Kyrylo Tymoshenko, said.

The general prosecutor’s office said 25 people were killed and 50 wounded.

The strike left deep impact craters and sent shrapnel tearing through the humanitarian convoy’s lined-up vehicles, killing their passengers. Nearby buildings were demolished. Trash bags, blankets and, for one victim, a blood-soaked towel, were used to cover bodies.

Russian-installed officials in Zaporizhzhia blamed Ukrainian forces for the strike, but provided no evidence.

Russian strikes were also reported in the city of Dnipro.

The regional governor, Valentyn Reznichenko, said at least one person was killed and five others were wounded by Russian Iskander missiles that slammed into a transportation company, destroying buses, and that also damaged high-rise buildings.

Ukraine’s air force said the southern cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa were also targeted again with Iranian-supplied suicide drones that Russia has increasingly deployed in recent weeks, seemingly to avoid losing more pilots who don’t have control of Ukraine’s skies.

Putin was expected to give a major speech at the Kremlin ceremony to fold Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia into Russia.

The Kremlin planned for the region’s pro-Moscow administrators to sign annexation treaties in the ornate St. George’s Hall of the palace in Moscow that is Putin’s seat of power.

Ukraine’s air force said the southern cities of Mykolaiv and Odesa were also targeted again with Iranian-supplied suicide drones that Russia has increasingly deployed in recent weeks, seemingly to avoid losing more pilots who don’t have control of Ukraine’s skies.

Putin was expected to give a major speech at the Kremlin ceremony to fold Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia into Russia.

The Kremlin planned for the region’s pro-Moscow administrators to sign annexation treaties in the ornate St. George’s Hall of the palace in Moscow that is Putin’s seat of power.

With Ukraine vowing to take back all occupied territory and Russia pledging to defend its gains, and threatening nuclear-weapon use to do so, the two nations are on an increasingly escalatory collision course.

That was underscored by the fighting for the city of Lyman, some 160 kilometres (100 miles) southeast of Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city.

A key node for Russian military operations in the contested Donbas region, Lyman is a sought-after prize in the Ukrainian counteroffensive that has had spectacular success since its launch in late August.

Retaking the city could allow Kyiv to push into deeper into Russian-occupied Luhansk province, which would be a stinging blow for Moscow after its stage-managed “referendum” there.

The Washington-based Institute for the Study of War said the city’s fall to Ukrainian forces “is imminent” unless Russia can ward off the collapse with speedy reinforcements, which appeared “highly unlikely.” AP

 

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif on Friday said the audio leak of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf chief Imran Khan has debunked the narrative that he was ousted from power through foreign conspiracy, noting that the former premier’s “detestable face” was revealed to the entire nation.

A leaked audio tape purportedly of Pakistan’s former prime minister Khan has surfaced in which he is talking about how to exploit the controversial cypher from the Pakistani envoy to Washington to portray his ouster in a no-confidence vote in the National Assembly in April as a conspiracy

The clip making rounds on social media features a conversation between Khan and his then principal secretary Azam Khan about a cypher sent by Pakistan’s Ambassador in Washington Asad Majeed about his meeting with a US official.

US Assistant Secretary of State for Central and South Asia Donald Lu was the central figure in Khan’s claims about a US-backed regime-change conspiracy.

He accused Lu of threatening Pakistan’s former ambassador to the US, Asad Majeed, that a failure to remove Khan through a no-confidence vote would herald “consequences” for Pakistan and vice versa.

Addressing a ceremony after laying the foundation stone of the Bhara Kahu bypass in Islamabad, Prime Minister Sharif accused Khan of deceiving the nation by making false claims.

“Till when will [your] lies survive … I don’t think there can be a more heinous crime,” he said.

“Everything became clear after Wednesday’s audio leak,” Sharif said, adding that Khan’s “detestable face” had been revealed to the entire nation.

Sharif said he had not seen a “more irresponsible person and a bigger liar” than Khan during the “40 years that I spent under the leadership of my elder brother”.

Khan was ousted from power in April after losing a no-confidence vote in his leadership, which he alleged was part of a US-led conspiracy targeting him because of his independent foreign policy decisions on Russia, China and Afghanistan

Referring to the audio leak, Sharif accused his predecessor of asking his then-principal secretary to “hatch a conspiracy against Pakistan”.

“And Imran even conspired to divide the country’s institutions,” he alleged.

“There are no two ways about it. But the worst conspiracy against Pakistan was him defaming the country’s politicians by labelling them as traitors,” he lamented.

Sharif went on to add that Pakistan was “ashamed” because of Imran lying about a foreign conspiracy narrative to oust his government.

Sharif said Imran’s allegations were “the worst conspiracy against Pakistan”.

In the leaked audio, Khan is heard as saying: “We only have to play on this (cypher). We don’t have to name [any country]. We only have to play with this, that this date (of no-trust motion) was [decided] before (it was moved against him).” The second voice is apparently of Azam Khan who is heard as suggesting holding a meeting on the cypher.

“See, if you recall, in that the ambassador has written in the end to [send] a demarche. Even if the demarche is not to be sent, as I have thought a lot about it at night — you said they raised it — I thought about how to cover all this.

“Let’s hold a meeting with Shah Mahmood Qureshi (who was the foreign minister in Imran’s government) and the foreign secretary. Shah Mahmood Qureshi will read out that letter and whatever he reads out will be converted into a copy. I will then make minutes [out of it and say] that the foreign secretary has prepared this.

“But its (cypher’s) analysis will have to be conducted here. We will carry out the analysis and convert it into minutes as we want so that it becomes [part of] the official record,” says the former principal secretary.

The leak is the latest in the string of audio tapes of conversations recorded in the Prime Minister’s House.

On Friday, authorities completed debugging the Prime Minister’s House in the wake of recent explosive audio leaks of secret conversations.

 Washington, September 29

India strives to have a relationship with China that is built on mutual sensitivity, respect and interest, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has said as he asserted that the betterment and strengthening of the Indo-Pacific was a shared objective of New Delhi and Washington, amid Beijing's growing military muscle-flexing in the region.

China, which has territorial disputes with many countries in the strategic Indo-Pacific, has been opposing the US' proactive policy specifically in the disputed South China Sea. "We continue to strive for a relationship with China, but one that is built on mutual sensitivity, mutual respect and mutual interest," Jaishankar told Indian mediapersons as he concluded his four-day visit to Washington and held talks with top US officials, including Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defence Secretary Lloyd Austin.

 

 New Delhi, September 29

Unmoved by recent military and economic setbacks, Russia will formally annex four areas of Ukraine’s territory on Friday at a ceremony in Kremlin to be presided over by Vladimir Putin.

Putin’s spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the ceremony would take place at 3 pm (12:00 GMT) on Friday in the St George’s Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace “to sign agreements on the accession of new territories into the Russian Federation”. A celebratory concert on Red Square is also planned for Friday evening.

Agreements will be signed “with all four territories that held referendums and made corresponding requests to the Russian side”. Following the signing ceremonies, Putin will give a speech and meet with the administrators of the Ukrainian regions.

Russia-installed administrations in the four regions of southern and eastern Ukraine claimed the referendums have been recognised as valid in all four regions as the overall voter turnout has exceeded 50 per cent. The annexation is in addition to Russia’s annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014.

A total of 86.89 per cent of voters have casted their ballots in the Donetsk as of Monday night, 83.61 per cent in Lugansk, 63.58 per cent in Kherson Region and 66.43 per cent in Zaporozhye Region. The referendum votes took place over five days, from September 23 to 27, and an overwhelming number of voters casted their lot with Russia. The US and EU nations have condemned the referendum as a sham.

Finland bars Russian tourists

• The Finnish government says it will significantly limit passenger traffic from Russia, banning its citizens travelling with tourist visas from entering the country effective Friday
• The government justified its decision by saying that continued arrivals of Russian tourists in Finland is endangering the country’s international relations

 Kabul, September 30

An explosion at an education institute in the Afghan capital of Kabul killed 19 people and injured 29, police said on Friday, but there was no immediate claim of responsibility for the attack.

Many of those living in the western area where the blast occurred are Hazara, an ethnic minority targeted in past attacks launched by militant group Islamic State, among others.

"A blast took place inside an institute, the blast has (caused) casualties," Kabul police spokesperson Khalid Zadran told Reuters, without specifying a figure. Security officials had arrived in the area to investigate, he added.

A witness who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity said a suicide attacker had detonated explosives at an education centre.

Teenage students were among the 24 people killed in a 2020 attack claimed by Islamic State at an education centre in west Kabul.

Since taking over Afghanistan in August 2021, the Taliban have emphasised that they are securing the nation following decades of war, but recent months have seen a series of blasts at mosques and civilian areas.

 

 Washington, September 30

A presidential commission on Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders has unanimously approved a recommendation for the provision of stamping of H-1B visas inside the US, a move if accepted by President Joe Biden will come as a big relief to thousands of foreign professionals, particularly from India.

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ foreign workers in specialty occupations that require theoretical or technical expertise. Technology companies depend on it to hire tens of thousands of employees each year from countries like India and China.

As per the current mandatory practice, one needs to apply for a visa stamp at a US Consulate or Embassy abroad before one's H-1B status can be activated.

The move came from the President’s Advisory Commission on Asian-Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders during its meeting at the White House on Wednesday.

A large number of them either new or waiting for the renewal of H-1B visas are facing uncertainty due to long visa application appointments in countries like India where the current wait period is more than a year. A recommendation was moved by Indian-American Ajay Jain Bhutoria, a member of the commission.

“As part of our immigration process, H-1B visa holders are given the opportunity to work in the United States, live here and contribute to the growth of our economy, innovation and economic development,” Bhutoria told members of the commission during the meeting, which was telecast live by the White House.

H-1B visa holders, he told members of the commission, faced problems and many a time even forced family separation during the renewal or when they travel overseas.

 

 Islamabad, Sep 29 (PTI) In a big legal victory for the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party, its vice president Maryam Nawaz was on Thursday acquitted by a high court in a corruption case.

The Islamabad High Court (IHC) accepted her appeal and that of her husband Muhammad Safdar who had challenged their convictions by an anti-corruption court in the Avenfield property case in July 2018.

A two-judge bench comprising Justice Aamer Farooq and Justice Mohsin Akhtar Kayani hearing their appeals said the opinion of the investigating officer could not be considered as evidence.

“The joint investigation team did not present any facts, it just collected information,” Justice Kayani observed.

At the conclusion of the case, the bench held that the National Accountability Bureau (NAB), the prosecutor in the case, failed to establish the charges of corruption.

The Thursday’s verdict has paved way for Maryam to be eligible to contest elections.

Lawyer Mirza Moiz Baig said: “A person who has been convicted of a crime involving corruption or moral turpitude is disqualified from contesting elections unless a period of five years has lapsed since their release.” “While the Supreme Court has, in the case of Samiullah Baloch, held that a disqualification under Article 62(1)(f) continues for life, a disqualification under Article 63(1)(g) isn’t incurable,” he explained.

“Maryam Nawaz, unlike her father, was never declared to fall short of the requirements enshrined under Article 62(1)(f). To the contrary, the only bar to her contesting elections was her conviction in the Avenfield — properties in London — reference. With the conviction being overturned by the Islamabad High Court, Maryam Nawaz’s candidature for an election to the Parliament will no longer trigger Article 63(1)(g),” he added.

Maryam in a brief chat with the media outside the court said they had been “vindicated”.

As she talked to the media, she also spoke to her father Nawaz Sharif in London and also received another call from her uncle Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, who congratulated her on her acquittal.

The Prime Minister later in his reaction to the verdict said the “edifice of lies, slander and character assassination” had come crumbling down.

“Maryam’s acquittal in the Avenfield reference is a slap in the face of the so-called accountability system that was employed to target the Sharif family. My congratulations to Maryam beti (daughter) and Safdar,” he tweeted.

While Maryam and her husband were convicted along with PML-N supremo Nawaz Sharif, the elder Sharif was handed down 10 years in jail, Maryam sentenced to seven years in prison, and her husband was sentenced to one year in prison.

They had filed appeals against their conviction before the IHC in the second week of August 2018 and the court had on September 18 the same year suspended their sentences and released them on bail.

The elder Sharif’s appeal is still pending as has been living in London and failed to appear before the court despite being given several opportunities.

Overturning the conviction of his daughter, however, opens a window for him to come back and get his bail processed with the hope to get relief. PTI 

The bullish sentiment on India was on clear display, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said Tuesday after holding a meeting with business executives here.

US India Business Council (USIBC) president Atul Keshap thanked Jaishankar for sharing "such keen insights" with its members. "We all found it very useful and instructive," he said.

"The bullish sentiment on India was on clear display. Shared the conviction that stronger business links will further galvanize our relationship," Jaishankar said in a tweet after his meeting with the business executives and USIBC members.

"The bullish sentiment on India was on clear display. Shared the conviction that stronger business links will further galvanize our relationship," Jaishankar said in a tweet after his meeting with the business executives and USIBC members.

Earlier in the day, Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that the US is India's largest trading partner, with USD 157 billion last year in bilateral trade.

"We're India's largest source of foreign direct investment, with a diverse range of US companies investing USD 45 billion in India – Google, Microsoft, Whirlpool, Boeing, GE, and I could go on," he said.

"But we see more room to grow, and to do it in a way that creates jobs for workers in both of our countries. The US-India Commercial Dialogue, the US-India CEO Forum will give us more opportunities to do that in the months ahead," he noted.

 

 

External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar has met US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan at the White House and discussed ways to strengthen, deepen the India-US strategic partnership and advance a free and prosperous Indo-Pacific region.

Jaishankar, who is on a four-day official trip to Washington, also discussed Ukraine's conflict with Sullivan on Tuesday. "Met today with Indian External Affairs Minister @DrSJaishankar to discuss our shared efforts to deepen the US-India strategic partnership, mitigate the impacts of Russia's war in Ukraine, and advance a free, open, secure, and prosperous Indo-Pacific., Sullivan said in a tweet.

The US, India and several other world powers have been discussing the need to ensure a free, open and thriving Indo-Pacific in the backdrop of China's rising military manoeuvring in the region.

China claims nearly all of the disputed South China Sea, though Taiwan, the Philippines, Brunei, Malaysia and Vietnam all claim parts of it. Beijing has built artificial islands and military installations in the South China Sea.

Jaishankar said they discussed the Ukraine conflict and its repercussions, the Indo-Pacific situation, South Asia and the Gulf. Exchanged views on addressing the current global economic volatility, the minister said in a tweet.

Good to meet US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Jaishankar said. Earlier in the day, the minister met Foreign Minister Justin Tkatchenko of Papua New Guinea.

Spoke about our ongoing cooperation with the Pacific Islands. Discussed next steps for taking it forward in the coming days, he said.