High-flying tech hits potholes in India’s Silicon Valley

In India’s tech capital Bengaluru, the morning “rush hour” lasts so long it devours half the workday, throttling productivity in a city often viewed as the poster child of a booming economy.Entrepreneur RK Misra, co-founder of a multimillion-dollar start-up, avoids scheduling in-person meetings until nearly noon — then squeezes them in before gridlock returns.The “situation is pretty bad. And it hurts by not being able to plan your day”, Misra said, describing his gruelling 16-kilometre (nine mile) commute, which can take up to two hours at peak times.”It also discourages people from doing anything other than work, because there’s no work-life balance any more.”Bengaluru, home to nearly 12 million people and state capital of Karnataka, is the “Silicon Valley” of the world’s fifth biggest economy — hosting thousands of start-ups, outsourcing firms, and global tech giants from Google to Microsoft.Yet its flagship Outer Ring Road (ORR) business district is clogged with traffic, pocked with potholes, and often flooded during the monsoon. Water shortages plague the summer months.The roughly 20-kilometre (12-mile) ORR corridor, lined with swanky tech parks, hosts dozens of Fortune 500 offices, and more than a million employees.Frustration boiled over in September when Rajesh Yabaji, CEO of digital trucking logistics platform BlackBuck, announced he was moving his company out of ORR.Yabaji said he snapped after the “average commute for my colleagues shot up to 1.5+ hours (one way)”, he wrote on social media, adding that the roads were “full of potholes and dust, coupled with lowest intent to get them rectified”.- ‘Now or never’ -Pharma tycoon Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw, founder of Biocon, chimed in.”I had an overseas business visitor to Biocon Park who said; ‘Why are the roads so bad and why is there so much garbage around? Doesn’t the government want to support investment?” she wrote on social media.Bengaluru had the world’s third-slowest traffic in 2024, according to the TomTom Traffic Index — far worse than San Francisco or London.Manas Das, of the Outer Ring Road Companies Association, works with city authorities to resolve infrastructure woes for global tech companies.”Companies would like to get the basics right — and today those basics are getting compromised,” Das said.BS Prahallad, technical director of the government-backed Bengaluru Smart Infrastructure Limited, set up to manage major projects, said an average resident needed 90-100 minutes to cover 16 kilometres.”Something has to be done, now or never,” he told AFP.”The next step is, we will decay.”Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar wrote last month on X that “10000+ potholes” had been identified, with half fixed so far.”Instead of tearing Bengaluru down, let’s build it up — together,” he said.”The world sees India through Bengaluru, and we owe it to our city to rise united!”Borrowing a page from London’s playbook, authorities have also decided to split the municipal corporation into five smaller bodies and set up an overarching Greater Bengaluru Authority.Shivakumar said this move would “transform the way Bengaluru is planned and governed”.- ‘Choking on pollution’ -The southern Indian city was not always an overrun metropolis. Once part of the erstwhile princely state of Mysore, it was known as “garden city” or a “pensioner’s paradise”. India’s software boom kicked off in the 1990s, with outsourcing companies striking gold.Waves of investment since then from Silicon Valley companies and start-ups helped quadruple the state’s software exports from 2014 to 2024 to $46 billion.Venture capitalist TV Mohandas Pai, former chief financial officer of Indian IT giant Infosys, said the city’s infrastructure was “possibly three to five years behind”.Rapid expansion clogged waterways, cut trees, and filled wetlands, straining the infrastructure, ecologist Harini Nagendra said.”We have flooding because water has no place to go, drought because the water is not infiltrating into the ground,” she said.”People are choking on pollution, choking on the concrete — and all the dust that comes with the construction, traffic, smog, heatwaves,” she added.Nearly half the city depends on boreholes that run dry in summer, while the rest rely on costly water trucked in — a problem set to worsen with climate change, according to the Water, Environment, Land and Livelihoods (WELL) Labs research centre.Pai, 67, remains optimistic.  “The future is going to be bright, but there is going to be pain,” he said.  “We are suffering the pangs of growth because India knows how to handle poverty, not prosperity.”

Trump says Afghan man shot two soldiers near White House

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that an Afghan man who fled the Taliban was the suspect in the shooting of two National Guard soldiers near the White House, calling it an “act of terror.”The announcement in a brief video message signaled the intertwining of three politically explosive issues -– Trump’s controversial use of the military at home, immigration, and the legacy of the US war in Afghanistan.The incident, which left two Guard members critically wounded, was “an act of evil, an act of hatred and an act of terror,” Trump said. “It was a crime against our entire nation.”He confirmed that the man taken into custody after the daylight shooting two blocks from the White House was “a foreigner who entered our country from Afghanistan.”The suspect had arrived in the United States in 2021 “on those infamous flights,” Trump said, referring to the evacuations of Afghans fleeing as the Taliban took over the country in the wake of the US retreat after 20 years of war.The shocking attack, carried out next to a metro station at a time when the streets and offices of downtown Washington were bustling, also puts a new focus on Trump’s controversial militarization of an anti-crime push around the country.Trump has deployed troops to several cities, all run by Democrats, including Washington, Los Angeles and Memphis. The deployments have prompted multiple law suits and protests from local officials who accuse the Republican of seeking authoritarian powers.Trump’s statement also indicated that his equally controversial drive to root out migrants in the country illegally — the core of his domestic agenda — will get new impetus.”We must now reexamine every single alien who has entered our country from Afghanistan” under former president Joe Biden, said Trump.”We must take all necessary measures to ensure the removal of any alien from any country who does not belong here, or add benefit to our country if they can’t love our country, we don’t want them.”Soon after Trump’s address, US Citizenship and Immigration Services, the federal agency overseeing lawful immigration, took action. “Effective immediately, processing of all immigration requests relating to Afghan nationals is stopped indefinitely pending further review of security and vetting protocols,” the agency wrote in a post to social media late Wednesday.- ‘Ambushed’ -Jeffery Carroll, assistant chief of the Washington police, said the gunman “ambushed” his victims.He “came around the corner, raised his arm with a firearm and discharged at the National Guard members.”FBI Director Kash Patel said the two Guards members were in “critical condition.”Trump earlier said on social media the suspect was “also severely wounded, but regardless, will pay a very steep price.”An AFP reporter near the scene heard several loud pops and saw people running.Dozens of bystanders were caught up in the chaos.”We heard gunshots. We were waiting at the traffic light and there were several shots,” said Angela Perry, 42, who was driving home with her two children. “You could see National Guard running toward the metro with their weapons drawn.”Soon after the shootings, security agents flooded the area. Officers carrying rifles stood guard behind yellow tape at the perimeter as a helicopter circled overhead.An AFP reporter saw emergency crews running toward the metro with a wheeled stretcher and shortly after emerging with a casualty wearing camouflage who was loaded into an ambulance.– Safety and vetting –AfghanEvac, a group that helped resettle Afghans in the US after Washington’s withdrawal, said they undergo “some of the most extensive security vetting” of any migrants.”This individual’s isolated and violent act should not be used as an excuse to define or diminish an entire community,” said its president, Shawn VanDriver.Washington’s government buildings are heavily guarded, but the city isn’t immune to serious street crime.Trump made it a showcase for his decision to deploy National Guard soldiers — in camouflage and occasionally carrying rifles.In the wake of Wednesday’s shooting, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth announced 500 more troops would deploy to Washington, adding up to 2,500.Last Thursday a federal judge ruled Trump’s deployment of National Guard troops in the US capital was unlawful.

A Hong Kong, l’attente angoissante devant le brasier

Des habitants de Hong Kong attendent anxieusement des nouvelles de leurs proches dans un abri provisoire jeudi matin, alors que l’un des incendies les plus meurtriers de l’histoire du territoire ravage toujours un vaste complexe résidentiel en rénovation.”C’est vraiment terrifiant”, constate Veezy Chan, un habitant des environs de 25 ans, disant avoir regardé le feu …

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Trump dénonce un “acte de terreur” et l’immigration après les tirs contre deux militaires

Donald Trump a dénoncé mercredi un “acte de terreur” et promis de renforcer ses politiques anti-immigration après des tirs visant à Washington deux militaires de la Garde nationale, qui sont toujours dans un état critique, selon les autorités.Dans une allocution vidéo solennelle, le président américain a également confirmé que le suspect arrêté est un homme venu d’Afghanistan en 2021.”Le suspect arrêté est un étranger qui est entré dans notre pays en provenance d’Afghanistan” et qui “a été amené ici par le gouvernement Biden en septembre 2021”, a dit le président américain, depuis la Floride où il passe la fête de Thanksgiving.Le président républicain a dit que son gouvernement devait maintenant “réexaminer” tous les individus venus d’Afghanistan aux Etats-Unis quand son prédécesseur démocrate Joe Biden était au pouvoir.Donald Trump s’est livré à une véhémente diatribe contre l’immigration, qualifiée de “plus grande menace pour la sécurité nationale”, en reprochant à son prédécesseur d’avoir laissé entrer des “millions” d’étrangers aux Etats-Unis.Les tirs sont survenus dans l’après-midi de mercredi en plein centre de la capitale américaine, investie depuis août par des centaines de ces militaires de réserve pour y mener des patrouilles à pied, à la demande de Donald Trump et contre l’avis des autorités locales démocrates.Les deux militaires touchés sont “grièvement blessés” et le tireur présumé est lui aussi “sévèrement blessé”, avait écrit plus tôt le président sur son réseau Truth Social, qualifiant l’auteur d'”animal” qui “paierait très cher” son acte.- “Tirs ciblés” -Il s’agit de la pire attaque commise contre la Garde nationale depuis son déploiement ces derniers mois dans des villes démocrates.Vers 14H15 heure de Washington, “un suspect est arrivé à l’angle de la rue, a soulevé son arme à feu et a tiré vers des gardes nationaux” en patrouille, a déclaré lors d’une conférence de presse Jeffery Carroll, un responsable de la police de Washington, parlant d’un “tireur solitaire.”D’autres gardes nationaux “sont parvenus” à le “maîtriser pour l’arrêter”, a-t-il ajouté.”Les tirs étaient ciblés”, a déclaré Muriel Bowser, la maire démocrate de Washington, lors de la même conférence de presse.Les deux militaires sont dans un “état critique”, a insisté devant les caméras Kash Patel, le directeur du FBI, alors que la confusion a un temps régné sur leur sort.Patrick Morrisey, le gouverneur de la Virginie-Occidentale d’où les deux victimes sont originaires, avait annoncé sur X qu’elles avaient succombé à leurs blessures avant de se rétracter.La police de Washington a par ailleurs fait savoir qu’elle n’avait pour l’instant “connaissance d’aucun mobile”.La Maison Blanche a accusé elle l’opposition démocrate d’avoir “diabolisé” les soldats en critiquant leur déploiement et en accusant Donald Trump d’outrepasser ses pouvoirs.Sur les lieux des tirs, dans un quartier de bureaux à deux rues de la Maison Blanche, des journalistes de l’AFP ont vu une personne vêtue d’un uniforme militaire être évacuée sur un brancard.- “L’histoire en direct” -Mohammed Elkattabi venait juste de visiter la Maison Blanche en famille quand il a “vu plein de flics et de voitures de police passer à toute vitesse.” “On a vu deux civières”, a-t-il raconté à l’AFP.Son fils de six ans, a-t-il précisé, “apprend l’histoire à l’école et il a maintenant pu voir l’histoire en direct”, dans un pays marqué par les violences politiques et les crimes par armes à feu.Les tirs sont survenus dans un climat politique très tendu aux Etats-Unis, secoués début septembre par l’assassinat de Charlie Kirk, un jeune influenceur ultra conservateur allié du président, lui-même victime d’une tentative d’assassinat pendant la campagne présidentielle de 2024.Ces derniers mois, le président a envoyé la Garde nationale à Los Angeles et Washington, contre l’avis des autorités locales démocrates, disant ces renforts nécessaires pour lutter contre la criminalité et l’immigration illégale.Le ministre de la Défense Pete Hegseth a annoncé mercredi l’envoi de 500 militaires supplémentaires à Washington, ce qui doit porter leur nombre à plus de 2.500.La municipalité a saisi la justice pour demander le retrait de la Garde nationale et les tribunaux lui ont donné raison la semaine dernière.

Schools but no books: Gaza’s children return to makeshift classrooms

With no backpack, books or uniform, 11-year-old Layan Haji navigates the ruins of Gaza City and heads to a makeshift classroom after two years of war halted her education.But the school is not what she is used to. Painted walls and students’ artwork no longer adorn the walls and hallways — instead, tents set up in a battered building serve as their temporary classrooms. “I walk for half an hour at least. The streets are devastated, full of ruins… It is difficult and sad,” Haji said, wearing a torn shirt and patched trousers.But “I am happy to return to my studies,” added the young girl, who already dreams of becoming a doctor.Haji is one of 900 students who are going to the Al-Louloua al-Qatami school, one of a number of these establishments that have opened their doors in a bid to allow children to resume their schooling for the first time since the Israel-Hamas war broke out.”We don’t have books or notebooks. The libraries are bombed and destroyed,” said Haji, who lives in a displacement camp in the Tal al-Hawa area in Gaza City.”There is nothing left,” she added.A month after a fragile ceasefire took effect, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) and Gaza’s education ministry announced that children had gradually begun returning to schools in areas not under Israeli military control.- ‘Heavy labour’ -Sixteen-year-old Said Sheldan said he was full of joy at being able to attend school now that the war has stopped.But “I don’t have books, notebooks, pens or a bag. There are no chairs, electricity or water — not even streets,” he said. But before going to the classroom, Sheldan has much more basic needs to attend to.”Every morning, I have to collect water and wait in line for bread,” said Sheldan, whose family has been displaced “10 times” and “no longer have a home”.Headmaster Iman al-Hinawi, 50, said the school hopes to provide books and other supplies soon and for free.But she warned that the war has forced Gaza’s children to perform “heavy labour” to support their families, especially in cases where the breadwinner has been killed.”They collect firewood, fetch water and stand in line for food” across the territory where the UN previously declared famine.AFP correspondents have witnessed scenes where countless children, clutching plastic buckets, dented pans or even just plates, cry and shout as they jostle through massive crowds to collect food for their families.In an effort to address the psychological distress the children have endured, Hinawi said the school has adopted new learning methods through playing.Young girls compete by dancing to solve math equations and other children act out comedic scenes to recite poems on the curriculum.But Faisal al-Qasas, in charge of the Al-Louloua al-Qatami school, said the children are constantly preoccupied by the queues for bread and water.The school, having launched two shifts for 900 children, now uses “extracurricular activities to address the students’ mental health” and help them resume their studies.- A critical moment -According to a UN assessment, 97 percent of Gaza’s schools sustained some level of damage, including from “direct hits”, with most of them needing full reconstruction or major rehabilitation.Israeli strikes have killed many Palestinians sheltering in schools, with Israel alleging that Hamas fighters hide in such establishments.With schools also serving as displacement shelters, UNRWA has recently opened “temporary learning spaces”.Last month, UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini said that more than 25,000 children have joined these new spaces, and some 300,000 would follow online classes.But that still falls short of the education ministry’s estimates of more than 758,000 students in the strip.In the Al-Mawasi area in southern Gaza, local initiatives, some of which receive international support, are hoping to bring children back to school.Qatar’s Education Above All Foundation has launched the “Rebuilding Hope for Gaza” programme, aimed at supporting more than 100,000 students.The programme includes distributing school supplies, ensuring access to the internet and electricity, and providing psychological support.But even with that support, one such school in the Al-Mawasi area can only offer four subjects: Arabic, English, maths and science. Hazem Abu Habib, from an initiative backed by the foundation, said “we aim to help as many students as possible resume their education, even if it’s just with basic courses”.Before the war, Gaza was “completely free of illiteracy”, he said.But now “education is facing its most critical period”.