Habib Siddiqui

  A longstanding adviser to Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán who resigned last week has warned him that his far-right rhetoric could have tragic consequences. The Hungarian leader sparked a backlash at home and abroad with a recent speech in which he spoke out against “race mixing”. Soon after, Zsuzsa Hegedüs, a sociologist who has known Orbán for 20 years, handed in her resignation, criticising the prime minister for what she called a “pure Nazi” speech. “I am a Jew. And our generation’s job is to stop anything like this because we have seen what happened. Not just with Jews. In Rwanda as well. Ethnic hatred leads to genocide,” said Hegedüs in an interview with the  Observer . Orbán’s speech came at a showpiece annual gathering in Romania last weekend, which the Hungarian leader often uses to make important announcements. During his speech, he said mixing between Europeans was acceptable, but Europeans mixing with non-Europeans created “mixed race” people. “We are willin...

  The Iranian police have arrested the alleged leader and four other members of a spy network they suspect is affiliated to Israel’s secret services, Iranian law enforcement authorities have said. They did not give the nationality of those arrested but said on Thursday that they had received training for armed operations and sabotage. KEEP READING list of 3 items list 1 of 3 Iran says suspected Israel cell members planning attack arrested list 2 of 3 Iran says it has new ideas on nuclear deal after EU proposes text list 3 of 3 Unprecedented price hikes put the squeeze on Iranian tenants end of list “The arrested five members of this spy network were given various pledges from [Israel’s] Mossad, including financial promises, to gather information from important areas across the country,” the law enforcement intelligence organisation said in a statement reported by the semi-official ILNA news agency. In Israel, the Prime Minister’s Office, which oversees the foreign intelligence agen...

  Hatred of Jews, virulent antisemitism, is not a political, economic, social or anthropological belief grounded in facts. It is an entirely destructive ideology. Antisemitism is endemic in many populations. In fact it is congenital. Millions, perhaps billions of people are antisemites from birth, with no basis for being so other than, they are offspring of antisemites. The prejudice and discrimination against Jews is both as individuals and as a group. And people. And a religion. Both “Jews are bad” and the “worldwide Jewish conspiracy” have been and remain guiding lights of antisemites worldwide. In many societies, to this day, Jews are blamed for many of their ills. And remarkably for the inability of those societies to advance. That is even true among wide segments of US society. It is a glaring paradox given the immense contributions by Jews to society, science and business. The absurd belief of “worldwide Jewish conspiracy” endures to this day, in wide segments of many societ...

  A federal   US   judge on Friday issued a default judgement against   Libyan   commander Khalifa Haftar, finding him liable for war crimes against several Libyan families who have accused him of extrajudicial killings and torture. Judge Leonie Brinkema's judgement, which follows a  previous recommendation  from a magistrate judge last month, paves the way for the families in three separate civil suits to seek monetary compensation. Following Brinkema's decision, lawyers for Haftar confirmed that they would be withdrawing as the Libyan commander's counsel, leaving him without a lawyer going forward. 'This is the culmination of years of work with Libyan victims against what the war criminal Haftar has done for so many years in Libya' - Esam Omeish, Libyan American Alliance Sitting anxiously in the courtroom in Alexandria, Virginia, the Libyan family members and advocates working on the case quietly burst into joy as soon as they heard Brinkema's decisi...

  The latest monetary policy was declared yesterday, while the previous one was in July 2020. In my immediate reaction I want to question why monetary policies should come about on a yearly basis. It is not a budget which, under constitutional limitations, has to take place on a yearly basis. The monetary policy does not need to have such a requirement. Moreover, money variables deal with some volatility, so it is proper for it to be half-yearly. If that is done, there will be no need to issue periodic circulars which are on an ad-hoc basis. Coming back to the monetary policy, it starts with a GDP growth of 6.1 per cent and inflation rate of 5.56 per cent. Some other macro variables including foreign exchange reserves also look good. But question arises on the growth rate and inflation. If you deconstruct the growth, it is difficult to see the sectors from which it comes from. The Covid-19 pandemic has dealt a severe blow. Even then the agriculture sector and some select large indu...

  A Chattogram court today (July 27, 2022) sentenced former Teknaf Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Pradeep Kumar Das to 20 years in prison and his wife Chumki Karan to 21 years in jail in a corruption case filed by the Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC). Chattogram Divisional Special Judge Munshi Abdul Majid passed the order this afternoon. The court has also instructed concerned authorities to confiscate all assets owned by the couple. OC Pradeep and his wife were present in the court during the verdict. They were sent to jail afterwards. Photo: Collected OC Pradeep had been awarded death penalty on January 31 for the brutal murder of former army officer Maj (retd) Sinha Rashed Khan in Cox’s Bazar.

During a House Intelligence Committee hearing on foreign spyware Wednesday, one company dominated discussion: NSO Group.  The controversial Israeli spyware company is best known for Pegasus, a spyware capable of  discreetly extracting  messages, contacts, photos, and videos from a target’s phone without ever even needing to click a link. Pegasus has been used by client governments from Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates to Mexico and Rwanda to infect the phones of dissidents, journalists, human rights organizations, and even U.S. officials.  Carine Kanimba, the daughter of arrested Rwandan dissident Paul Rusesabagina,  testified  about her experience as a victim of Pegasus even after seeking refuge with her family in Texas; “It is horrifying to me that they knew everything I was doing, precisely where I was, who I was speaking with, my private thoughts and actions, at any moment they desired,” she told the committee.  Shane Huntley, the Senior Direc...