Deadly blast hits rally in Pakistani city of Quetta, officials say

Local media and a police official claim that at least 11 people were killed in an explosion at a rally held in Quetta, Pakistan, by the Balochistan National Party-Mengal (BNP-M).

Police are conducting an investigation into the explosion, police official Athar Rasheed told Reuters on Tuesday.

At least 29 people were hurt in the explosion in the western city, according to the English-language Dawn news site.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the deadly explosion.

Indonesia’s president to go ahead with China trip despite protests

After initially cancelling because of days of extensive protests against rising inequality, Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto has left for China, according to his presidential spokesperson, Prasetyo Hadi, in a statement.

Kim Jong Un, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and more than 25 leaders will attend the parade in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square on Wednesday to commemorate the anniversaries of Japan’s defeat in World War II.

According to his spokesman on Tuesday, Prabowo is scheduled to meet with Xi Jinping in China for lunch. On September 3, he will return home.

Rights groups claim that at least six people were killed and over 20 were missing in Indonesia as a result of widespread protests.

Following the fatal shooting of a motorcycle taxi driver who was hit by a police car during a demonstration in the capital, protests started in Jakarta last week.

A five-storey building has been set on fire near the police compound in the central Jakarta Kwitang neighborhood after protesters have attacked the police mobile brigade headquarters.

In the easternmost Papua region, Surabaya, Solo, Yogyakarta, Medan, Makassar, Manado, Bandung, and Manokwari have also been the sites of demonstrations in other cities across the nation.

Protesters also targeted other lawmakers’ homes as well as the finance minister’s home in Indonesia.

“A thorough and truthful investigation”

President Subianto promised on Friday to look into the death of Affan Kurniawan, a driver for a gig motorcycle, and he also expressed his “deepest condolences and sympathy” for the government.

He stated in a statement that “I have ordered that the incident last night be thoroughly and transparently investigated and that the officers involved be held accountable.

The country’s government cut financial incentives for lawmakers on Sunday to address the protestors’ economic concerns.

President Subianto stated, “The parliament leadership informed me that they would revoke several policies, including the cap on the amount of money that lawmakers can receive from abroad,” without mentioning which cap.

The president, however, attacked the protests over the country’s economic problems on Sunday, saying some of the actions at rallies in recent days constituted “terrorism” and treason.

“Respectful and protected should be the right to peaceful assembly. In a speech at the presidential palace in the capital’s Jakarta, he said, “We cannot deny that there are signs of actions against the law, even against the law, which lean toward treason and terrorism.”

After several politicians’ homes were razed as anti-government protests spread throughout Indonesia, defense minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin announced at a press conference on Sunday that the country would take strong measures against “rioters and looters.” In order to improve security, the country’s armed forces were also stationed in the capital.

Rights groups claim Prabowo’s olive branch from parliament did not go far enough, despite the recent decrease in the protest rallies and the military’s deployment on Monday as a show of force.

According to Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid, the president’s statement was insensitive to all the complaints and aspirations the people were voicing during the demonstrations.

Russia, China ink deal to build new gas pipeline as they deepen energy ties

During Russian President Vladimir Putin’s visit to China, Russia and China have come to terms with building a new gas pipeline, Gazprom reported, underscoring the strengthening of their economic and energy ties.

A “legally binding memorandum” had been signed to develop the pipeline, according to Alexei Miller, CEO of Gazprom, Russia’s largest energy company, on Tuesday.

An additional 50 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas could be transported by Mongolia’s Power of Siberia 2 each year from Russia’s Arctic Yamal fields to China.

Miller added that from now on, deliveries from eastern Siberia to China will increase to 44 bcm annually from 38 bcm.

The agreement would increase Beijing’s energy options while reducing its dependence on American-imported liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports.

Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, signs the first section of the pipeline during a ceremony held on September 1 in the village of Us Khatyn to officially begin the “Power of Siberia” pipeline.

Unprecedented ties, in your opinion.

Following high-profile meetings between President Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping, the Russian leader praised Beijing’s “unprecedented ties.”

For the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin, China, Xi also hosted dozens of world leaders, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The Chinese leader urged regional leaders to reject “Cold War mentality,” making explicit reference to the United States, by promoting the security bloc as an alternative to the Western-led international order.

Despite several rounds of discussions, Beijing and Washington have not yet reached a trade agreement.

US President Donald Trump stated in an interview with “Scott Jennings Radio Show” on Tuesday that he is “not concerned at all” about a growing US-to-Russia border.

Pricing for the new route is undetermined, though. Russia’s efforts to offset the decline of its European gas market, while China seeks discounts, are being met separately, according to Miller, who stated that negotiations on costs would be handled.

According to Michal Meidan, head of China Energy Research at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies, “Announcements about Power of Siberia 2 are a huge turning point in the geopolitics of energy.” The message is that China no longer cares about what the West thinks or even pretends to be complicit in US sanctions. Additionally, it is not by itself.

boosting economic ties

Russia’s sanctioned Arctic LNG 2 project has already sent liquefied natural gas to China, indicating that it is ready to defy Western pressure.

Moscow and Beijing’s trade increased to $ 240 billion in 2023, underlining their growing partnership since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

No details were provided, but officials from the Kremlin claimed that during Putin’s ongoing visit, 22 agreements, including one involving a strategic cooperation agreement between China National Petroleum Corporation and Gazprom, had been signed.

US appeals court allows Trump to peel back $20bn in clean energy grants

A federal appeals court has ruled that President Donald Trump’s administration can move forward with ending more than $ 16 billion in federal grants to climate change organizations.

The District of Columbia’s US Appeals Court overturned a lower court’s decision on Tuesday, with a 2 to 1 majority, to reverse the grant’s revoked status.

Judge Neomi Rao, a Trump appointee, wrote for the majority, claiming that the lower court was unable to render a decision in the matter.

Instead, she claimed that the Court of Federal Claims, which weighs contractual and monetary disputes, should have been in the hands of.

Rao wrote that “district courts have no jurisdiction to hear allegations that the federal government arbitrarily or with impunity terminated a grant agreement.” “Claims of arbitrary grant termination are primarily contractual,” says the statement.

She continued, district courts should concentrate on settling legal disputes or constitutional issues.

Judge Gregory Katsas, a fellow Trump appointee on the bench, joined Rao in making her choice.

Former US President Barack Obama appointed Cornelia Pillard as the only dissentioning judge on the appeals court.

She claimed that the Trump administration’s opposition to green-energy initiatives was reflected in the federal grant rollback as a political move.

Pillard also pointed out that the Inflation Reduction Act, a law passed by Congress in 2022 that included the single largest investment in climate change initiatives in US history, contained federal funding.

According to Pillard, the Trump administration made the decision to revoke federal grants “without giving any court any compelling evidence or coherent justification for its interference with plaintiffs’ money and its sabotage of Congress’s laws.”

The Inflation Reduction Act, a landmark piece of legislation passed under former President Joe Biden, was the continuation of a lawsuit brought by five of the eight nonprofits on Tuesday.

The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, a program to fund “green bank” projects designed to build clean-energy infrastructure, reduce air pollution, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, had designated that money.

The funding was kept at Citibank, a well-known US financial institution, in advance of their distribution.

However, Lee Zeldin, Trump’s choice to lead the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), publicly denounced the funds as a source of government waste in a video released on social media in February.

The Biden EPA reportedly parked roughly $20 billion of your tax dollars at an outside financial institution, Zeldin said. Just eight organizations were given the authority to distribute your money to NGOs and other organizations at their discretion, according to the statement.

He continued, “The days of recklessly handing over large sums of money to far-left activist groups in the name of climate justice and climate equity are over.”

The Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund’s disbursement was halted by Zeldin by the EPA’s inspector general by March, and the funds had already been withdrawn.

One of the five organizations fighting for access to their roughly $16 million investment has been The Climate United Fund.

The Justice Climate Fund, Power Forward Communities, Inclusiv, and the Coalition for Green Capital are other plaintiffs.

The Climate United Fund reiterated in a statement that the Trump administration “broke the law” by recovering the funds following Tuesday’s ruling.

Our company’s CEO, Beth Bafford, stated, “While we are depressed by the panel’s decision, we stand firm on the merits of our case: EPA unlawfully froze and terminated funds that were legally obligated and disbursed.”

She continued, “Our road is not over now,” adding.

A lower-court decision from Obama appointee Judge Tanya Chutkan was overturned by Tuesday’s appeals court decision.

She requested Citibank’s release of the $20 billion in the form of a preliminary injunction against Zeldin’s decision on April 15. This injunction prevents Trump’s EPA from recouping the funds.

She argued that the EPA “gave no legal justification for the termination” and that the EPA’s choice to axe the funds posed a threat to the authority of Congress to make spending decisions.