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Rishabh Pant hopes his side’s Test series in England can start to “make India happy again” after one of the world’s worst plane crashes left the country in mourning.A total of 279 people were killed when an Air India flight heading to London’s Gatwick Airport crashed shortly after take-off in Ahmedabad last Thursday.There was only one survivor out of 242 passengers and crew, with at least 38 people on the ground dying as well when the plane slammed into a residential area of the western city.The Indian team wore black armbands and observed a minute’s silence during an intra-squad warm-up match in Beckenham.And India vice-captain Pant hopes they can do something to raise national morale when the first Test of a five-match series starts at Headingley on Friday.”What happened with the aircraft, the whole of India was saddened by it,” Pant told a pre-match press conference on Wednesday.”The only thing for us is how can we make India happy again? The emotion is going to be high always because of what happened in the crash, but at the same time we are going to put our best foot forward for the country.”How we can make them happy is an added responsibility.”India have arrived in England without two star names in Virat Kohli and Rohit Sharma after both batsmen retired from Test cricket last month.Shubman Gill has succeeded Rohit as captain, with Pant saying Wednesday the new skipper would replace Kohli at number four in the batting order. “Obviously, it’s a new start for us,” said Pant. “Big people have left, definitely.”Yes, there will be a gap, but at the same time it’s an opportunity for us to build a new culture from here or take a culture forward from there.”The 27-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman added: “I think the idea is very simple: look to play positive, brave cricket, but at the same time, know you’ve got to respect the conditions.”

Mizan Hossain fell 10 metres (33-foot) from the top of a ship he was cutting up on Chittagong beach in Bangladesh — where the majority of the world’s maritime giants meet their end — when the vibrations shook him from the upper deck. He survived, but his back was crushed. “I can’t get up in the morning,” said the 31-year-old who has a wife, three children and his parents to support.”We eat one meal in two, and I see no way out of my situation,” said Hossain, his hands swollen below a deep scar on his right arm.The shipbreaking site where Hossain worked without a harness did not comply with international safety and environmental standards.Hossain has been cutting up ships on the sand without proper protection or insurance since he was a child, like many men in his village a few kilometres inland from the giant beached ships. One of his neighbours had his toes crushed in another yard shortly before AFP visited Chittagong in February.Shipbreaking yards employ 20,000 to 30,000 people directly or indirectly in the sprawling port on the Bay of Bengal. But the human and environmental cost of the industry is also immense, experts say.The Hong Kong Convention on the Recycling of Ships, which is meant to regulate one of the world’s most dangerous industries, is set to come into effect on June 26. But many question whether its rules on handling toxic waste and protecting workers are sufficient or if they will ever be properly implemented.Only seven out of Chittagong’s 30 yards meet the new rules about equipping workers with helmets, harnesses and other protection as well as protocols for decontaminating ships of asbestos and other pollutants and storing hazardous waste. – No official death tolls – Chittagong was the final destination of nearly a third of the 409 ships dismantled globally last year, according to the NGO coalition Shipbreaking Platform. Most of the others ended up in India, Pakistan, or Turkey. But Bangladesh — close to the Asian nerve centre of global maritime commerce — offers the best price for buying end-of-life ships due to its extremely low labour costs, with a minimum monthly wage of around $133 (115 euros).Chittagong’s 25-kilometre stretch of beach is the world’s biggest ship graveyard. Giant hulks of oil tankers or gas carriers lie in the mud under the scorching sun, an army of workers slowly dismembering them with oxyacetylene torches.”When I started (in the 2000s) it was extremely dangerous,” said Mohammad Ali, a thickset union leader who long worked without protection dismantling ships on the sand.”Accidents were frequent, and there were regular deaths and injuries.” He was left incapacitated for months after being hit on the head by a piece of metal. “When there’s an accident, you’re either dead or disabled,” the 48-year-old said. At least 470 workers have been killed and 512 seriously injured in the shipbreaking yards of Bangladesh, India and Pakistan since 2009, according to the Shipbreaking Platform NGO. No official death toll is kept in Chittagong. But between 10 and 22 workers a year died in its yards between 2018 and 2022, according to a count kept by Mohamed Ali Sahin, founder of a workers’ support centre.There have been improvements in recent years, he said, especially after Dhaka ratified the Hong Kong Convention in 2023, Sahin said.But seven workers still died last year and major progress is needed, he said. The industry is further accused of causing major environmental damage, particularly to mangroves, with oil and heavy metals escaping into the sea from the beach. Asbestos — which is not illegal in Bangladesh — is also dumped in open-air landfills. Shipbreaking is also to blame for abnormally high levels of arsenic and other metalloids in the region’s soil, rice and vegetables, according to a 2024 study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials.- ‘Responsibility should be shared’ – PHP, the most modern yard in the region, is one of few in Chittagong that meets the new standards.Criticism of pollution and working conditions in Bangladesh yards annoys its managing director Mohammed Zahirul Islam. “Just because we’re South Asian, with dark skin, are we not capable of excelling in a field?” he told AFP.”Ships are built in developed countries… then used by Europeans and Westerners for 20 or 30 years, and we get them (at the end) for four months. “But everything is our fault,” he said as workers in helmets, their faces shielded by plastic visors to protect them from metal shards, dismantled a Japanese gas carrier on a concrete platform near the shore.”There should be a shared responsibility for everyone involved in this whole cycle,” he added.His yard has modern cranes and even flower beds, but workers are not masked as they are in Europe to protect them from inhaling metal dust and fumes.But modernising yards to meet the new standards is costly, with PHP spending $10 million to up its game. With the sector in crisis, with half as many ships sent for scrap since the pandemic — and Bangladesh hit by instability after the tumultuous ousting of premier Sheikh Hasina in August — investors are reluctant, said John Alonso of the International Maritime Organization (IMO).Chittagong still has no facility to treat or store hazardous materials taken from ships. PHP encases the asbestos it extracts in cement and stores it on-site in a dedicated room. “I think we have about six to seven years of storage capacity,” said its expert Liton Mamudzer. But NGOs like Shipbreaking Platform and Robin des Bois are sceptical about how feasible this is, with some ships containing scores of tonnes of asbestos. And Walton Pantland, of the global union federation IndustriALL, questioned whether the Hong Kong standards will be maintained once yards get their certification, with inspections left to local officials. Indeed six workers were killed in September in an explosion at SN Corporation’s Chittagong yard, which was compliant with the convention. Shipbreaking Platform said it was symptomatic of a lack of adequate “regulation, supervision and worker protections” in Bangladesh, even with the Hong Kong rules. – ‘Toxic’ Trojan horse -The NGO’s director Ingvild Jenssen said shipowners were using the Hong Kong Convention to bypass the Basel Convention, which bans OECD countries from exporting toxic waste to developing nations. She accused them of using it to offload toxic ships cheaply at South Asian yards without fear of prosecution, using a flag of convenience or intermediaries.In contrast, European shipowners are required to dismantle ships based on the continent, or flying a European flag, under the much stricter Ship Recycling Regulation (SRR). At the Belgian shipbreaking yard Galloo near the Ghent-Terneuzen canal, demolition chief Peter Wyntin told AFP how ships are broken down into “50 different kinds of materials” to be recycled.Everything is mechanised, with only five or six workers wearing helmets, visors and masks to filter the air, doing the actual breaking amid mountains of scrap metal.A wind turbine supplies electricity, and a net collects anything that falls in the canal. Galloo also sank 10 million euros into water treatment, using activated carbon and bacterial filters.But Wyntin said it is a struggle to survive with several European yards forced to shut as Turkish ones with EU certification take much of the business. While shipbreakers in the EU have “25,000 pages of legislation to comply with”, he argued, those in Aliaga on the western coast of Turkey have only 25 pages of rules to respect to be “third-country compliant under SRR”.Wyntin is deeply worried the Hong Kong Convention will further undermine standards and European yards with them. “You can certify yards in Turkey or Asia, but it still involves beaching,” where ships are dismantled directly on the shore. “And beaching is a process we would never accept in Europe,” he insisted.- Illegal dumps -Turkish health and safety officials reported eight deaths since 2020 at shipbreaking yards in Aliaga, near Izmir, which specialises in dismantling cruise ships. “If we have a fatality, work inspectors arrive immediately and we risk being shut down,” Wyntin told AFP.In April, Galloo lost a bid to recycle a 13,000-tonne Italian ferry, with 400 tonnes of asbestos, to a Turkish yard, Wyntin said.Yet in May, the local council in Aliaga said “hazardous waste was stored in an environmentally harmful manner, sometimes just covered with soil.” “It’s estimated that 15,000 tons of hazardous waste are scattered in the region, endangering human and environmental health due to illegal storage methods,” it said on X, posting photos of illegal dumps. In Bangladesh, Human Rights Watch and the Shipbreaking Platform have reported that “toxic materials from ships, including asbestos” are sometimes “resold on the second-hand market”. In Chittagong everything gets recycled.On the road along the beach, shops overflow with furniture, toilets, generators and staircases taken straight from the hulks pulled up on the beach a few metres away.Not far away, Rekha Akter mourned her husband, one of those who died in the explosion at SN Corporation’s yard in September. A safety supervisor, his lungs were burned in the blast.Without his salary, she fears that she and their two young children are “condemned to live in poverty. It’s our fate,” said the young widow.

A ban on smartphones in schools issued by Taliban authorities in southern Afghanistan came into force, students and teachers confirmed to AFP on Wednesday, over concerns of “focus” and “Islamic law”.The directive by the provincial Education Department in Kandahar applies to students, teachers and administrative staff in schools and religious schools.”This decision has been made to ensure educational discipline, focus”, the statement said, adding that it was taken from a “sharia perspective” and that smartphones contribute to “the destruction of the future generation”.The policy, which has already taken effect in schools across the province, has divided opinion among teachers and students. “We did not bring smart phones with us to school today”, Saeed Ahmad, a 22-year-old teacher, told AFP. “I think this is a good decision so that there is more focus on studies,” he added.Mohammad Anwar, an 11th grader, said “the teachers are saying if anyone is seen bringing a phone, they will start searching the students.”Another 12th-grade student, refusing to give his name, said the ban would hinder learning in a country where girls are barred from secondary school and university as part of restrictions the UN has dubbed “gender apartheid”.”When the teacher writes a lesson on the board, I often take a picture so I could write it down later. Now I can’t. This decision will negatively affect our studies.”- ‘Complete ban’ -The ban has also taken root in religious schools known as madrassas. “Now there’s a complete ban. No one brings smartphones anymore,” Mohammad, 19 years old madrassa student said.A number of countries have in recent years moved to restrict mobile phones from classrooms such as France, Denmark and Brazil.The Taliban authorities have already introduced a ban on images of living beings in media, with multiple provinces announcing restrictions and some Taliban officials refusing to be photographed or filmed.The Taliban’s Supreme Leader Hibatullah Akhundzada called last week on officials and scholars to reduce their use of smartphones.”This is the order of the leaders, and we must accept it,” a 28-year-old security forces member told AFP without giving his name as he was not authorized to speak to the media.”I have now found a brick phone … I used WhatsApp on my smartphone sometimes, but now I don’t use it anymore,” he added.Some Taliban officials in Kandahar have started sharing their numbers for brick phones and switching off online messaging apps.   

Indonesian police said Wednesday they had arrested three Australians who all face the death penalty for the murder of a compatriot on the resort island of Bali after a days long manhunt.Zivan Radmanovic, a 32-year-old Australian national, was shot dead in the attack on Saturday and a second man, 34-year-old Sanar Ghanim, was seriously wounded.Police had earlier said they were hunting for two men who burst into his villa in the tourist hub of Badung and at least one opened fire. “Three suspects have been arrested,” Bali police chief Daniel Adityajaya told reporters, adding that several pieces of evidence allegedly used to carry out the shooting were also recovered.He said the three suspects — all Australian men — were charged with multiple offences, including premeditated murder, which carries a maximum penalty of death, as well as murder and torture resulting in death, which carries a potential seven-year jail term.One of the suspects was detained at the international airport in the Indonesian capital Jakarta and flown back to Bali, in cooperation with immigration and national police officials, he said.”The other two already fled and were successfully returned because of the coordination between interpol countries in the Southeast Asia region,” he added, without specifying the countries involved.Bali police also showed on Wednesday several pieces of evidence to the media including a hammer, several pieces of clothing, and bullet casings.Witnesses, including Radmanovic’s wife, said the perpetrators who fled the scene after the attack were speaking in English with a thick Australian accent, according to a local police statement.The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said it was providing consular assistance to the family of Radmanovic and confirmed three Australians had been detained over the shooting.”DFAT is aware that three Australians have been detained and we are urgently seeking further information from local authorities,” a spokesperson told AFP in a statement.Gun crime on the island of Bali and wider Indonesia is rare, and the archipelago nation has strict laws for illegal gun possession.

Aynullah Rahimi’s family has for decades tended the old cemetery in Kabul reserved for non-Afghans, but since the country’s latest war ended and foreigners left in droves, he says few now enter the oasis of quiet in the capital.Dating back to the Anglo-Afghan wars of the 19th century, the small plot of land in the city centre has interred and memorialised foreign fighters, explorers and devotees of Afghanistan who have died in the country over some 180 years. In the two decades of war between Western forces and the Taliban that ended in 2021 with the latter’s victory, there were a handful of burials and memorials attended by ambassadors and dignitaries at the British Cemetery. But these days, Rahimi quietly tends to the garden of roses and apricot trees, the calls of caged partridges louder than the rumbling traffic beyond the high stone wall that secludes the cemetery. “Before the Taliban came to power, many foreigners used to come here to visit every week,” he told AFP. “No one visits here much now, only sometimes a few tourists,” he said. The paint on the walls — hung with commemorative plaques for the dead of NATO countries who fought the Taliban, as well as journalists who covered the conflict — has chipped and weathered since the Taliban takeover in 2021, when Western embassies emptied. Where Kabul was once teeming with Western soldiers, diplomats, journalists and humanitarians, their presence has thinned dramatically. Adventurers from around the world are increasingly travelling to the country, despite lingering security risks and Taliban-imposed restrictions primarily targeting Afghan women — including a general ban on women entering Kabul’s parks.For those who know what’s behind the wall marked only by a small sign reading “British Cemetery”, they can pause in the shade in one of the few green spaces in the city fully open to foreign women. “This is a historical place,” Rahimi said, noting he hasn’t had interference by the Taliban authorities. Those whose countrymen are memorialised there are welcome, he added — “it’s their graveyard”.- The Ritchies -The last time the cemetery was full of the living, Rahimi said, was the burial of the latest person to be interred there — Winifred Zoe Ritchie, who died in 2019 at the age of 99.Ritchie’s family brought her body from the United States to Afghanistan to be laid to rest next to her husband, Dwight, who was killed in a car crash in southern Afghanistan 40 years earlier.  The Ritchies had worked and lived in Afghanistan, one of their sons later following in their footsteps — cementing the family’s ties to a country far from their homeland.The couple’s daughter, Joanna Ginter, has memories of her family wandering through markets, flying kites and raising pigeons in Kabul years before the city was engulfed by the first of many conflicts that wracked the country for 40 years. Their mother’s burial “was the first time (we visited) since we were there for my dad’s funeral”, Ginter told AFP, having travelled back to Kabul with relatives.  “I was very happy to get to go there, even though it was for a funeral.” Her mother’s grave marker stands out in light marble among the headstones, wobbly letters next to a long cross — a rare sight in Afghanistan. Older gravestones of some of the more than 150 people buried there bear the scars of conflict, names pockmarked into near unrecognisability by weapon fire that breached the wall. Other than thieves who broke through a fence where the cemetery backs onto a hill dotted with Muslim graves — “our graveyard”, Rahimi calls it — the caretaker says he is left mostly alone to his watch. The 56-year-old grew up helping his uncle who raised him tend to the cemetery, taking over its care from his cousin who fled to Britain during the chaotic withdrawal of foreign forces as the Taliban marched into Kabul. He had in turn taken up the post from his father, who guarded the cemetery and dug some of its graves for around 30 years. “They also told me to go to England with them, but I refused and said I would stay here, and I have been here ever since,” Rahimi said, certain one of his sons would follow in his footsteps. 

Group of Seven leaders on Tuesday vowed greater support for Ukraine but stopped short of joint condemnation of Russia for its growing attacks, at a summit missing Donald Trump.The US president had been due to speak at the G7 summit with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, with whom he has had a volatile relationship, but flew back Monday over the Israel-Iran conflict.Zelensky met the remaining leaders at a remote lodge in the Canadian Rockies hours after Russia hit Kyiv with one of the worst bombardments since it invaded in February 2022, killing at least 10 people in the capital.Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney welcomed Zelensky and announced Can$2 billion ($1.47bn) of military support, including drones and helicopters, for Ukraine.But the G7 summit stopped short of issuing a joint statement, unlike in past years under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden when the club of major industrial democracies denounced Russian “aggression.”A Canadian official, backtracking on an earlier account of the United States trying to water down a proposed statement, said there was never an attempt to issue one due to Trump’s continued hopes of mediating with Russian President Vladimir Putin.”It was clear that it would not have been feasible to find detailed language that all G7 partners could agree to in that context,” the official said on condition of anonymity.Carney dismissed suggestions of friction, saying that all G7 leaders agreed to be “resolute in exploring all options to maximize pressure on Russia, including financial sanctions.”But he admitted that some G7 leaders “would say above and beyond” what was in the chair’s summary he issued instead of a formal statement signed by all leaders.G7 leaders, however, managed unity Monday on a joint statement on the Iran conflict that backed Israel but also called broadly for de-escalation, despite Trump contemplating greater US military involvement.- US waits on pressure -Carney earlier joined Britain in tightening sanctions on Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of ships used to circumvent international sanctions on its oil sales.”These sanctions strike right at the heart of Putin’s war machine, choking off his ability to continue his barbaric war in Ukraine,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement.US lawmakers have drafted a package of new sanctions on Russia but Trump has been hesitant to give his support and isolate Putin, to whom he spoke by telephone on the eve of the G7 summit.Trump infamously berated Zelensky in the Oval Office on February 28, saying he was ungrateful for US aid, but has since voiced disappointment that Putin has rebuffed a US proposal for at least a temporary ceasefire.Zelensky told Carney the latest Russian attack showed the need for allies’ support and pressure on Moscow — while making clear that he still backed Trump-led calls for negotiations.”It’s important for our soldiers to be strong in the battlefield, to stay strong until Russia will be ready for the peace negotiations,” said Zelensky, who cut short meetings in Canada scheduled after the summit.French President Emmanuel Macron accused his Russian counterpart of exploiting global focus on the Middle East to carry out the deadly attack.”It shows the complete cynicism of President Putin,” Macron told reporters at the summit.In Washington, the State Department also condemned the Russian strikes and offered condolences to the victims’ families.- Tough trade talks -The G7 — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — was holding its first summit since the re-election of Trump, who openly questions longstanding US alliances.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remained to represent the United States at the summit, where discussions have also concentrated on Trump’s attempts to radically overhaul the world’s trading system.Trump has vowed to slap sweeping tariffs on friends and foes alike on July 9, although he has postponed them once.The US president, speaking to reporters on his way back from the summit, complained that the European Union was not yet offering a “fair deal” on trade.”We’re either going to make a good deal or they’ll just pay whatever we say they will pay,” he said.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she still hoped for a negotiated solution and talks were “intense and demanding.”Trump’s negotiators have already sealed a deal with Britain and, outside of the G7, reached an agreement to lower tariffs with rival China.

Dozens of flights to and from Indonesia’s resort island of Bali were cancelled on Wednesday, according to authorities and the island’s airport, after a volcano in the archipelago’s east erupted, shooting an ash tower 10 kilometres into the sky.Mount Lewotobi Laki-Laki, a 1,584-metre (5,197-foot) volcano on the tourist island of Flores, erupted on Tuesday, with authorities raising its alert status to the highest level of a four-tiered system.”Due to volcano activity of Lewatobi Laki-Laki in East Nusa Tenggara, several flights at I Gusti Ngurah Rai Airport are cancelled,” airport operator Angkasa Pura Indonesia told AFP in a statement.The flights cancelled included Jetstar and Virgin Australia flights to cities across Australia, with Air India, Air New Zealand, Singapore’s Tigerair and China’s Juneyao Airlines also cancelling flights “due to volcano”, Bali’s international airport website said.Jetstar confirmed cancellations to and from Bali in a statement on its website Wednesday, adding that some afternoon flights would be delayed until ash cleared.”Forecasts show the ash cloud is expected to clear by later tonight. As a result, this afternoon’s flights will be delayed to operate later this evening,” it said.Several domestic AirAsia flights leaving for popular tourist hotspot Labuan Bajo on Flores were also cancelled.A Bali airport customer service agent told AFP the aviation hub was still operating normally despite the cancelled flights.”It depends on the route and also the airline,” the agent, who declined to give her name, said.- Ongoing tremors -Volcanic ash rained down on several villages around Lewotobi Laki-Laki and forced the evacuation of at least one village late Tuesday, the country’s disaster mitigation agency said.It added tremors were still being detected, which indicated ongoing volcanic activity.The geology agency said residents and tourists should avoid carrying out any activities within at least seven kilometres of the volcano’s crater.It warned of the possibility of hazardous lahar floods –- a type of mud or debris flow of volcanic materials –- if heavy rain occurs, particularly for communities near rivers. There were no immediate reports of damages or casualties.In November, the volcano erupted multiple times, killing nine people, cancelling scores of international flights to the tourist island of Bali, and forcing thousands to evacuate.Laki-Laki, which means “man” in Indonesian, is twinned with a calmer volcano peak named after the Indonesian word for “woman”.Indonesia, a vast archipelago nation, experiences frequent seismic and volcanic activity due to its position on the Pacific “Ring of Fire.”

Since the United States accused Vietnam of being a hub for counterfeit goods, Tran Le Chi has found it increasingly hard to track down her favourite fake Chanel T-shirts, Gucci sunglasses and Louis Vuitton handbags.As Vietnam’s government tries to head off President Donald Trump’s threatened 46 percent tariff, it has launched a crackdown on fake products — in part to show responsiveness to US concerns.Now there are streets filled with shuttered shops in Hanoi and rows of closed stalls at Saigon Square shopping mall, a major clothing market in Ho Chi Minh City — the kind of places Chi used to go to buy her latest gear.”The clothes help me look trendy,” Chi told AFP. “Why would I care if they are fake or not?”Chi — a betting agent for an illegal game known as lo-de, where punters predict the last two lotto numbers of the standard daily draw — said she had never paid more than $40 per “designer” item.”Only the super-rich people can afford the real ones,” she added. “They’re not for people like us.”Communist-run Vietnam is a manufacturing powerhouse that produces clothing and footwear for international brands, with the United States its number-one export market in the first five months of 2025.But it also has a thriving market for counterfeit goods.In a report published by the US Trade Representative in January, Saigon Square shopping mall was flagged as a major market for the sale of fake luxury items including handbags, wallets, jewellery and watches.The report noted government efforts to stamp out the trade, but said “low penalties have had little deterrent effect” and “counterfeit products remain rampant”.Shop owner Hoa, a pseudonym to protect her identity, said almost all of the fake Nike, Lacoste and North Face products she sells in her shop in Hanoi’s old quarter are from China — but tagged with a “Made in Vietnam” label to make them seem authentic.She insists that all her customers know what they’re getting.”My clients are those who cannot afford authentic products,” Hoa said. “I’ve never cheated anyone.” – Rolex watches, Marshall speakers -Hanoi and Washington are in the thick of trade talks, with Vietnam doing everything it can to avoid the crushing 46 percent tariff that could come into force in early July.Vietnam’s trade ministry ordered authorities in April to tighten control over the origin of goods after the Trump administration accused the country of facilitating Chinese exports to the United States and allowing Beijing to get around tariffs.The public security ministry also said there would be a three-month-long crackdown — until mid-August — on counterfeit goods.Nguyen Thanh Nam, deputy head of the agency for domestic market surveillance and development, said last week that in the first five months of the year, more than 7,000 cases of counterfeit products worth more than $8 million had been discovered. He added that 1,000 fake Rolex watches had been seized from Saigon Square shopping mall.Mounds of vitamins, cosmetics and sweets — seemingly also counterfeits — have appeared at waste grounds outside cities including Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City and Danang, while fake electronics including Marshall speakers and smartwatches have been confiscated. Police have not specified the origin of the goods, but Vietnam was Southeast Asia’s biggest buyer of Chinese products in 2024, with a bill of $161.9 billion.Nguyen Khac Giang, visiting fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said that although there were other aims of the drive, including improving Vietnam’s business environment and formalising the retail sector, “the campaign plays a role in Vietnam’s strategy to appease the US”.”The effort partly reflects Vietnam’s intent to show responsiveness to US concerns,” he said.But for Hoa, her livelihood is on the line. Her shop has been closed for almost two weeks and she has no idea how to restart the business.”I have sold these sorts of clothes for a decade and experienced no problem at all. Now they crack down on us, it’s hard to figure out how I continue,” she said.

Group of Seven leaders minus President Donald Trump on Tuesday vowed greater support for Ukraine, as the United States blocked a joint call to pressure Russia, which is ramping up attacks on its neighbor.The US president had been due to meet at the G7 summit with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky, with whom he has had a volatile relationship, but flew back Monday over the Israel-Iran conflict.Zelensky met the remaining leaders at a remote lodge in the Canadian Rockies hours after Russia hit Kyiv with one of the worst bombardments since it invaded in February 2022, killing at least 10 people in the capital.Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney welcomed Zelensky and announced Can$2 billion ($1.47bn) of military support, including drones and helicopters, for Ukraine.But the Group of Seven summit was unable to issue a joint statement on Ukraine as “the Americans wanted to water it down,” a Canadian official said on condition of anonymity.The United States objected to some language, saying it wanted to preserve its role as a mediator with President Vladimir Putin, the official said.Carney dismissed suggestions of friction, saying that all G7 leaders agreed to be “resolute in exploring all options to maximize pressure on Russia, including financial sanctions.”But he admitted that some G7 leaders “would say above and beyond” what was in the chair’s summary that he issued to wrap up the talks in place of a formal statement signed by all leaders.G7 leaders, however, managed unity Monday on a joint statement on the Iran conflict that backed Israel but also called broadly for de-escalation, despite Trump contemplating greater US military involvement.- US waits on pressure -Carney earlier joined Britain in tightening sanctions on Russia’s so-called shadow fleet of ships used to circumvent international sanctions on its oil sales.”These sanctions strike right at the heart of Putin’s war machine, choking off his ability to continue his barbaric war in Ukraine,” Prime Minister Keir Starmer said in a statement.US lawmakers have drafted a package of new sanctions on Russia but Trump has been hesitant to give his support and isolate Putin, to whom he spoke by telephone on the eve of the G7 summit.Trump infamously berated Zelensky in the Oval Office on February 28, saying he was ungrateful for US aid, but has since voiced disappointment that Putin has rebuffed a US proposal for at least a temporary ceasefire.Zelensky, his voice choked with emotion, told Carney the latest Russian attack was a “big tragedy” and showed the need for allies’ support — while making clear that he still backed Trump-led calls for negotiations.”It’s important for our soldiers to be strong in the battlefield, to stay strong until Russia will be ready for the peace negotiations,” Zelensky said.”We are ready for the peace negotiation — unconditional ceasefire. For this we need pressure.”French President Emmanuel Macron accused his Russian counterpart of exploiting global focus on the Middle East to carry out the deadly attack.”It shows the complete cynicism of President Putin,” Macron told reporters at the summit.In Washington, the State Department also condemned the Russian strikes and offered condolences to the victims’ families.- Tough trade talks -The G7 — Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States — was holding its first summit since the re-election of Trump, who openly questions longstanding US alliances.Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent remained to represent the United States at the summit, where discussions have also concentrated on Trump’s attempts to radically overhaul the world’s trading system.Trump has vowed to slap sweeping tariffs on friends and foes alike on July 9, although he has postponed them once.The US president, speaking to reporters on his way back from the summit, complained that the European Union was not yet offering a “fair deal” on trade.”We’re either going to make a good deal or they’ll just pay whatever we say they will pay,” he said.European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said she still hoped for a negotiated solution and talks were “intense and demanding.”Trump’s negotiators have already sealed a deal with Britain and, outside of the G7, reached an agreement to lower tariffs with rival China.

India and Canada agreed Tuesday to return ambassadors to each other’s capitals, turning a page on a bitter spat over an assassination as Canada’s new leader welcomed counterpart Narendra Modi.Prime Minister Mark Carney, who took office in March, invited Modi to the Canadian Rockies as a guest at the summit of the Group of Seven major economies.Carney’s predecessor Justin Trudeau last year publicly accused India of involvement in the assassination of a Sikh separatist on Canadian soil and expelled the Indian ambassador, triggering a furious reciprocal response from India.Carney and Modi agreed that the two countries would name new high commissioners, as ambassadors are known between Commonwealth nations, in hopes of restoring normal operations for citizens and businesses.Carney said he hoped the meeting would “provide the necessary foundations to begin to rebuild the relationship, based on mutual respect, sovereignty, trust.””I would describe it as foundational — as a necessary first step, a frank, open exchange of views around law enforcement, transnational repression,” he told a news conference.He noted that India is invited each year to G7 summits of major industrial democracies, pointing to the size of its economy.The row had severely impeded diplomatic services between the two countries, which traded $9 billion in 2023 and have close cultural ties due to the vast Indian diaspora in Canada.Canada had to suspend in-person services at all missions in India outside its embassy in New Delhi.- Politically sensitive -Modi took a conciliatory tone as he met Carney at the mountain resort, saying that both Canada and India were “dedicated to democratic values.””The relationship between India and Canada is very important in many ways,” Modi said.He congratulated Carney on guiding his Liberal Party to an election victory and voiced confidence that going forward, “India and Canada will work together to make progress in many areas.”Sikh protesters rallied on the streets of Calgary, the closest large city to the summit, as many criticized Carney’s inclusion of Modi, who is accustomed to invitations to major international gatherings despite criticism of his Hindu nationalist government’s human rights record.The left-wing New Democratic Party, the fourth largest party in parliament which is not formally part of Carney’s government, denounced the invitation to Modi and pointed to allegations of Indian surveillance against its former leader Jagmeet Singh, who is Sikh.”Continuing to engage Modi’s government without accountability undermines all efforts to defend human rights, transparency, and the rule of law,” it said in a statement before the visit.Canada is home to the largest Sikh population outside India. With some two percent of Canadian population and clustered in suburban swing areas, the community has exerted growing political influence.Hardeep Singh Nijjar, a naturalized Canadian citizen who advocated for an independent Sikh state called Khalistan, was shot dead in the parking lot of a Sikh temple in British Columbia in 2023.Trudeau accused India of direct involvement. Canada has accused India of directing a broad campaign of intimidation against Sikh activists in the country.India denied involvement in the killing and said Canada should take more action against violent advocates for Khalistan, which has been reduced to a fringe movement inside India.Carney declined to say if he specifically mentioned Nijjar’s case in his talks with Modi, noting that it was the subject of ongoing litigation.The United States, which has a warm relationship with India, also accused an Indian agent of involvement in an unsuccessful plot against a Sikh separatist on US soil but addressed concerns more quietly than Trudeau.