Day: October 23, 2023

Arshad Sharif, a strident critic of Pakistan’s powerful military establishment and supporter of former premier Imran Khan, died when Kenyan police opened fire on his car at a roadblock outside the capital Nairobi in October last year.   

Javeria Siddique, one of Sharif’s two wives, told AFP in Islamabad last week that she was filing a lawsuit.   

Her lawyer confirmed it had been lodged at Kenya’s High Court on Monday, a year to the day since the late-night killing.    

“Yes. The case has been filed,” lawyer Ochiel Dudley told AFP in Nairobi, adding that they were waiting for a case number and further instructions from the court.   

“It has been a year that I have been fighting for justice,” Siddique said.   

“The Kenyan police admitted that they killed my husband but never apologized.”   

Last year, Kenyan officials said it was a case of mistaken identity and officers believed they were firing on a stolen vehicle involved in an abduction.   

Siddique, however, alleges her husband was killed in a “targeted attack.”  

“I have written to the Kenyan president and foreign minister but they were not even kind enough to say sorry,” she added.  

Sharif fled Pakistan in August last year, days after interviewing a senior opposition politician who said junior officers in Pakistan’s military should disobey orders that went against “the will of the majority.”  

Tens of thousands of mourners attended Sharif’s funeral at Islamabad’s main mosque.    

‘Financial and emotional losses’

Pakistan has been ruled by the military for several decades of its 75-year history and criticism of the security establishment has long been seen as a red line.   

Pakistan’s top court has taken note of the murder but the case is still pending.   

In December, a factfinding team of Pakistani intelligence officials submitted a report to the Supreme Court calling the incident a “planned, targeted assassination” that purportedly involved “transnational characters.”  

Press freedom campaign groups have called for those responsible to face justice.    

Pakistan is ranked 150 out of 180 countries in a press freedom index compiled by Reporters without Borders, with journalists facing censorship and intimidation.   

“Throughout the past year, I have endured financial and emotional losses and have even been subjected to character assassination,” Siddique said.   

Police in Kenya are often accused by rights groups of using excessive force and carrying out unlawful killings.   

Last year, President William Ruto disbanded a feared 20-year-old police unit accused of extrajudicial killings and the government has said it is embarking on reforms of the security sector. 

Sahra Wagenknecht, a firebrand MP from far-left Die Linke party and a stalwart of opposition politics since the fall of the Berlin Wall, said she was starting a new political association named after herself.   

The Alliance Sahra Wagenknecht (BSW), which includes nine other deputies, would be leaving the Linke to focus on forming its own party by early next year, she told reporters.   

“The way things are going can’t continue,” Wagenknecht, 54, told a packed news conference.   

“Otherwise we probably wouldn’t recognize our country in 10 years,” she said, denouncing “unchecked migration” which she blamed for exacerbating “the problems in our schools, above all in poor neighborhoods.”  

Wagenknecht said her new political outfit would also mark a sharp departure “from the blind, haphazard eco-activism that makes people’s lives even more expensive without doing anything to help the climate.”  

The Linke, which has its roots in both East German communism and the West German labor movement, has long been riven by strife and the defection of Wagenknecht’s team could eventually sound its death knell.   

But political analysts focused primarily on BSW’s potential threat to the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has surged in strength on migration fears and is polling at around 22 percent, ahead of all three parties in Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s ruling coalition.   

A survey by the independent INSA opinion research institute published on Sunday by daily newspaper Bild showed that 27 percent of German voters said they could back the new far-left party.    

“The name Wagenknecht is attractive. Polls show it,” Der Spiegel  journalist Mathieu von Rohr said on Monday.   

“There could be a gap in the market for her mix of anti-Americanism, Putin apologism, socialism, migration scepticism as well as openness to conspiracy theories.”   

Wagenknecht as a fixture on political chat shows has frequently blamed the West and NATO for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine while stirring doubts about government measures to control the spread of the coronavirus during the pandemic.   

With two east German states going to the polls next year, where the AfD is expected to perform well, analysts said Wagenknecht’s new party could fracture the vote, making it more difficult for mainstream democratic parties to form a government.  

Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen will take over Ellemann-Jensen’s posts.  

“I am taking this decision because it is the right thing for the Liberal Party,” Ellemann-Jensen said.

Elleman-Jensen was on a months-long sick leave following a medical exam earlier this year.

Support for the Liberal Party has fallen dramatically and Denmark’s coalition government holds only a narrow majority in the 179-member parliament.

However, political analyst Jarl Cordua, told Reuters about Lunds Poulsen, “There is greater confidence that he can stabilize the party and this stability will likely extend into the government.”

 Olaf Sholz sees clearly Putin’s double game in the Gaza War 2023, and he is enraged by his hypocrisy. 

Quote: “Olaf Scholz, chancellor of Germany, has expressed his indignation and called utter shamelessness the claims of Valdimir Putin, that the war in the Middle East may lead to casualties among civilians.” 

“You watch the casualties among civilians and non-civilians in your own war against Ukraine!” That what his face conveys.

 Olaf Sholz sees clearly Putin’s double game in the Gaza War 2023, and he is enraged by his hypocrisy. 

Quote: “Olaf Scholz, chancellor of Germany, has expressed his indignation and called utter shamelessness the claims of Valdimir Putin, that the war in the Middle East may lead to casualties among civilians.” 

“You watch the casualties among civilians and non-civilians in your own war against Ukraine!” That what his face conveys.

#DOJ DOJ #FBI FBI #CIA CIA #DIA DIA #ODNI ODNI https://t.co/PH3LtsdUTH #News #Times #NewsAndTimes #NT #TNT Putin Russia #Putin #Russia #GRU GRU #Israel Israelhttps://t.co/ZDiVRZki2k
5:50 AM 10/23/2023 – Selected Articles – The News And Times: Israel Under Attack
–
Scholz gets… pic.twitter.com/pbX9n6oUjH

— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) October 23, 2023

–

–

Putin the hypocrite – Google Search https://t.co/Wzjs0TOmpN pic.twitter.com/nGontEZoVs

— Michael Novakhov (@mikenov) October 23, 2023

–

Global shares hit seven-month lows on Monday as the risk of a wider conflict in the Middle East and the prospect of a long stretch of high interest rates soured sentiment at the start of a week full of mega-cap earnings and key data.

Bonds were also under pressure as U.S. 10-year Treasury yields hovered around 5.0%, pushing borrowing costs up across the globe and testing equity valuations.

Washington warned over the weekend of a significant risk to U.S. interests in the Middle East as ally Israel pounded Gaza and clashes on its border with Lebanon intensified.

The European Central Bank and Bank of Canada hold policy meetings this week and, while no hikes are expected, investors will be sensitive to guidance on futures moves.

The recent surge in bond yields has tightened monetary conditions without the central banks having to do anything, allowing the Federal Reserve to signal it will likely stay on hold at its policy meeting next week.

Indeed, futures imply around a 70% chance the Fed is done tightening for this cycle and are flirting with the chance of rate cuts from May next year.

The jump in the 10-year Treasury yield towards the 5% level has challenged equity valuations and dragged most major indices lower last week, while the VIX “fear index” of U.S. stock market volatility (.VIX) hit its highest since March.

The MSCI All-World index (.MIWD00000PUS) was last down 0.1%, at its lowest since late March, when turmoil that had gripped the global banking sector started to subside. In Europe, the STOXX 600 (.STOXX) was roughly flat, around last week’s seven-month lows.

“5% from an economic perspective is just another number. But as far as investors are concerned it resonates,” Daiwa Capital chief economist Chris Scicluna said.

“I don’t think it’s a tipping point, but it’s a reminder of the record tightening we’ve had and it’s a reminder, as far as the Fed is concerned, that they can’t be entirely sure quite how much of that tightening so far has already been transmitted to the real economy and how much more is to come,” he said.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan (.MIAPJ0000PUS) slipped 0.5% to its lowest in almost a year.

The yield on the benchmark U.S. 10-year note is heading for its biggest six-monthly gain since mid-1994, with a rise of 152 basis points since late April. It was last up 5 bps at 4.969%.

Mega caps Microsoft (MSFT.O), Alphabet (GOOGL.O), Amazon (AMZN.O) and Meta Platforms (META.O) all report earnings this week. IBM (IBM.N) and Intel (INTC.O) are also on the docket.

U.S. index futures , were last up 0.1%.

Profits should be supported by the strength of consumer demand with figures on U.S. gross domestic product this week expected to show annualised growth of a heady 4.2% in the third quarter, and nominal annualised growth possibly as high as 7%.

“At the same time, last quarter’s modest rise in hours worked points to a strong productivity gain and surge in corporate profits,” wrote JPMorgan chief economist Bruce Kasman in a note.

“As corporate and household income share the benefits of this nominal activity surge, the underlying resilience of the U.S. private sector is being reinforced.”

This U.S. outperformance has underpinned the dollar, though the threat of Japanese intervention has capped it at around 150.00 yen at least for the moment. The dollar was last trading at 149.93 yen , just below the recent peak of 150.16.

Yields in Japan were also on the rise on speculation the Bank of Japan was discussing a further tweak to its yield curve control policy, which might be announced at its policy meeting on Oct. 31.

The euro eased 0.1% to $1.0577 , while the Swiss franc held steady at 0.8928 per dollar, having benefited from safe-haven flows over the past couple of weeks.

The ECB meets later this week and is fully expected to leave interest rates unchanged at 4%. Investors will be looking for any kind of signal from ECB President Christine Lagarde about how the recent rise in global bond yields might affect the outlook for euro zone monetary policy.

“Given the further up-shift in yields we’ve had of late, the geopolitical events since the last meeting, I think we’ll want to wait and see what her tone is and whether she’s still got a tightening bias at the margin,” Daiwa’s Scicluna said.

Gold, which hit its highest since May last week thanks also to safe-haven inflows, eased 0.3% to $1,975 an ounce.

Oil prices gave back some ground in the absence of any imminent risk of disruption to supplies from the Middle East

Brent crude fell 1% to $91.28 a barrel, while U.S. crude eased 1.2% to $87.04.

Related Galleries: