Justice Secretary Wanda Vazquez became Puerto Rico’s new governor Wednesday, just the second woman to hold the office, after weeks of political turmoil and hours after the island’s Supreme Court declared Pedro Pierluisi’s swearing-in a week ago unconstitutional. 

Accompanied by her husband, Judge Jorge Diaz, and her daughter, Vazquez took the oath of office in the early evening at the Surpeme Court before leaving without making any public comment. 

“Puerto Rico needs assurance and stability,” she said earlier in a statement. “Our actions will be aimed toward that end and it will always come first.” 

The high court’s unanimous decision, which could not be appealed, settled the dispute over who will lead the U.S. territory after its political establishment was knocked off balance by big street protests spawned by anger over corruption, mismanagement of funds and a leaked obscenity-laced chat that forced the previous governor and several top aides to resign.

But it was also expected to unleash a new wave of demonstrations because many Puerto Ricans have said they don’t want Vazquez as governor. 

“It is concluded that the swearing in as governor by Hon. Pedro R. Pierluisi Urrutia, named secretary of state in recess, is unconstitutional,” the court said in a brief statement. 

Pierluisi said that he had stepped forward to help islanders “in the best good faith and desire to contribute to the future of our homeland,” but that he would respect the court’s ruling. 

“I must step aside and support the Justice Secretary of Puerto Rico, the Honorable Wanda Vazquez Garced,” he said in a statement before she was sworn in. 

People began cheering in some parts of San Juan after the ruling was announced, and Puerto Ricans were expected to gather later outside the governor’s seaside mansion in the capital’s colonial district — some to celebrate the court’s decision and others to protest the incoming governor.

In the early afternoon, someone yelled through a loudspeaker near the residence: “Pierluisi out! The constitution of Puerto Rico should be respected!” 

“It was the correct decision,” said Xiomary Morales, a waitress and student who works a block away, adding that those in power “are used to doing what they want.”

Emotionally exhausted

Puerto Ricans are physically and emotionally exhausted and want an end to the political turmoil, she said. “They should just hold fresh elections, hit restart like a PlayStation game.”

But Tita Caraballo, a retired nurse from the inland eastern city of Gurabo, disagreed with the court. 

“I think they are playing with the people and, I don’t know, maybe they have someone they want and that is why they are doing this,” Caraballo said. 

Pierluisi was appointed secretary of state by then-Gov. Ricardo Rossello while legislators were in recess, and only the House approved his nomination. Pierluisi was then sworn in as governor Friday after Rossello formally resigned in response to the protests. 

Puerto Rico’s Senate sued to challenge Pierluisi’s legitimacy as governor, arguing that its approval was also necessary, and the Supreme Court decided in favor of the Senate. 

On Monday, the Senate decided not to hold a confirmation vote on Pierluisi. The body’s president, Thomas Rivera Schatz, said Pierluisi had only five of 15 required votes. The same day the Supreme court announced it would hear the case.

The Senate had also asked the court to declare unconstitutional a portion of a 2005 law saying a secretary of state need not be approved by both House and Senate if they have to step in as governor. Puerto Rico’s constitution says a secretary of state has to be approved by both chambers.

Law’s clause ruled unconstitutional

The court agreed that the law’s clause was unconstitutional. 

“Today this Tribunal speaks with a single voice, loud and clear,” Justice Roberto Feliberti Cintron said in his written opinion. “The constitutional norms do not allow for absurdities and legal technicalities to contravene our Democratic System of Government.” 

In a separate opinion, Justice Erick Kolthoff Caraballo said  Puerto Rico has suffered upheaval “like never in its modern history” and “the People need calm and security that things will soon return to order.” 

Rivera Schatz praised the court ruling in a triumphant statement. 

“With absolute LEGITIMACY, we will seek TRUE PEACE and STABILITY,” he said. 

Six of the court’s nine judges were appointed by governors from the pro-statehood New Progressive Party, to which both Pierluisi and Rivera Schatz belong.

Vazquez, a 59-year-old former prosecutor, is to serve out the remainder of Rossello’s term, with the next election scheduled for 2020. 

New governor has limited experience

Vazquez became justice secretary in January 2017 and has limited experience leading government agencies. She previously worked as a district attorney for two decades at Puerto Rico’s justice department, handling domestic and sexual abuse cases, and in 2010 was appointed director of the Office for Women’s Rights.

Some critics say that as justice secretary that she was not aggressive enough in pursuing corruption investigations involving members of her New Progressive Party and that she did not prioritize gender violence cases.

William Gonzalez Roman, a retiree also from Gurabo, wasn’t bullish on the idea of Vazquez as governor. 

“We will see. You have to give everyone a chance, right?” Gonzalez said. “Let’s see what decisions (she makes), but I tell you that job is big with a lot of responsibility.” 

Last November, the Office of Government Ethics said it had received a complaint about possible ethical violations involving Vazquez, who was accused of intervening in a case involving a suspect charged with stealing government property at a home where Vazquez’s daughter lived.

Vazquez appeared in court to face charges including two violations of a government ethics law. In December a judge found there was no evidence to arrest her.

Weeks of protest

Rossello’s resignation followed nearly two weeks of protests after the public emergence of the chat in which he and 11 other men including government officials mocked women, gay people and victims of Hurricane Maria, among others. More than two dozen officials resigned in the wake of the leak, including former Secretary of State Luis Rivera Marin.

“NOW is when that detestable group from the chat that lied, mocked, machinated, conspired, violated the law and betrayed Puerto Rico is truly ended and will leave government,” Rivera Schatz, the Senate president, said Wednesday. 

…

China is the world’s second-largest economy, and its rapid growth is closing the gap with that of the United States, the globe’s leading economy. 
 
China’s Communist rulers began market reforms in 1978, shifting from a centrally planned economy to a more market-based economy. That unleashed an explosion of growth, with gross domestic product reportedly expanding at an average of nearly 10% for a number of years — the fastest sustained expansion by a major economy in history. The surge helped 850 million people lift themselves out of poverty, according to the World Bank.  
 
While China’s 1.4 billion people have made impressive economic and development gains, the country’s market reforms are judged “incomplete” by economists. Its income per person remains that of a developing nation, and less than one-quarter of the average for Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) nations.  
 
China’s rapid growth brought challenges, including income inequality between urban and rural areas, environmental problems such as air pollution, and external imbalances that spark friction with trading partners, including the United States. China also faces challenges related to an aging population.   
 
China’s government has set 6.5% annual expansion as its growth target. That would be very fast for most nations, but slow by recent Chinese standards.   
 
The International Monetary Fund predicts 6.2% economic growth for China in 2019. 

…

Ayaz Gul in Islamabad, Pakistan, contributed to this report.

As Kashmir remained locked down for a second straight day, India’s parliament approved scrapping the special status that gave Kashmir significant autonomy, and passed a bill to split the state. 

Plunged in a communications blackout and a virtual shutdown, it has been difficult to ascertain the reaction local residents to the radical steps.

Curfew-like restrictions continued on Tuesday. Troops patrolled deserted streets with barbed wire barricades in the capital, Srinagar, while the internet, mobile and landlines remained suspended to stem protests in the region wracked by a violent separatist struggle for three decades.   

The measures passed by an overwhelming majority in the lower house of parliament are being seen as a message that Prime Minister Narendra Modi will take a tough stance on Kashmir and with rival Pakistan, with whom India has a long-running dispute over control of the Himalayan region. 

After the vote, Modi called it a “momentous occasion in our parliamentary democracy.” In a tweet he said, “Together we are, together we shall rise, and together we will fulfill the dreams of 130 crore Indians!”

The steps fulfill a long-standing pledge of his Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party to end the constitutional provision that allowed Kashmir to have its own constitution and draft its own laws on all matters except foreign affairs, defense and communications. 

Kashmir also will be split into two federally administered territories, effectively tightening New Delhi’s grip on the region. One will comprise of the Muslim-majority Kashmir valley and Hindu-majority Jammu, and the second of Buddhist-majority Ladakh. All Indian laws will now apply in Kashmir. 

Barring the main opposition Congress Party and a handful of regional parties, the BJP has won wide support for overturning Kashmir’s autonomous status. 

Defending the radical moves, Home Minister Amit Shah told parliament the special status granted to Kashmir was responsible for fomenting terrorism in the region, and revoking it would break down the wall created with the rest of India. He said it did not mean that India had given up its claim to Pakistani Kashmir. 

The most significant difference now is that with Kashmir placed on par with the rest of the country, outsiders can buy land and live in the region, which was banned earlier. The government says this would open up the area to investment and spur development.

Divided support

But opinion remains sharply divided on whether these steps will help New Delhi meet its goal of integrating Kashmir with the rest of the country and ending an armed rebellion, or whether it will exacerbate tensions in the region where anti-Indian sentiment runs deep. 

Congress Party leader Shashi Tharoor warned that it would give a “fresh lease of life to terrorism” and would make Kashmir, where Muslim insurgents have been waging a separatist struggle, more vulnerable to militant groups like Islamic State.

Several political commentators say Kashmiris will view the steps as a ploy to take away their special “identity.” 

“India will now come across as the hard Indian state instead of the soft Indian state,” said independent political analyst Neerja Chowdhury, pointing out that previous governments had always tried a “carrot and stick” policy. She says the measure could deepen alienation among Kashmiris. 

In New Delhi, most newspapers carried banner headlines on what most hailed as a “bold” move, but also warned that it carried risks and said it was a politically and communally contentious step.

“India’s decision is sure to spark unrest in Kashmir, and especially in the Kashmir Valley, once the Indians end their lockdown there,” said Michael Kugelman, a Washington-based expert on South Asian affairs. He told VOA the move “could even spark a new phase of insurgency, that is if India gives insurgents enough space to operate.”

The word “historic” has reverberated in parliament during the two-day debate, but in different contexts. Ruling party benches have said they have corrected a “historic” injustice done to Kashmir, while the opposition Congress Party has slammed it as a “historic blunder.” 

The move has infuriated pro-India parties in Kashmir, who call it a betrayal of trust. Three Kashmiri political leaders under detention in a government guest house have warned the step will backfire and deepen anger among Kashmiris.

…

The Buddhist enclave of Ladakh cheered India’s move to break it away from Jammu and Kashmir state, a change that could spur tourism and help New Delhi counter China’s influence in the contested western Himalayas.

Beijing, though, criticized the announcement, made on Monday by the Indian government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi as part of a wider policy shift that also ended Jammu and Kashmir’s right to set its own laws. In a statement on Tuesday, China said the decision was unacceptable and undermined its territorial sovereignty.

Ladakh is an arid, mountainous area of around 59,146 square kilometers (22,836 square miles), much of it uninhabitable, that only has 274,000 residents. The rest of Jammu and Kashmir is roughly 163,090 square kilometres (62,969 square miles) with a population of some 12.2 million.

China and India still claim vast swaths of each other’s territory along their 3,500 km (2,173 mile) Himalayan border.

The Asian rivals had a two-month standoff at the Doklam plateau in another part of the remote Himalayan region in 2017.

“The fact that India took this move … can be seen as one way that India is trying to counter growing Chinese influence in the region,” said Sameer Patil, a Mumbai-based fellow in international security studies at the Gateway House think-tank.

In a statement, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China contests the inclusion of what it regards as its territory on the Indian side of the western section of the China-India border.

“India’s unilateral amendment to its domestic law, continues to damage China’s territorial sovereignty. This is unacceptable,” Hua said.

In response to a question about Hua’s statement, Indian Foreign Ministry spokesman Raveesh Kumar said on Tuesday the Ladakh decision was an internal matter.

“India does not comment on the internal affairs of other countries and similarly expects other countries to do likewise,” said Kumar, without directly mentioning China.

Patil from Gateway House said monks he interviewed in Ladakh told him China-endorsed monks had been extending loans and donations to Buddhist monasteries in the area in an apparent bid to win influence.

Reuters was not able to contact any monks in Ladakh.

“Our Own Destiny”

By announcing it would turn Ladakh into its own administrative district, the Indian government fulfilled a decades-long demand from political leaders there.

Ladakh locals were tired of being hurt or ignored because of the many years of turmoil in the Kashmir Valley resulting from separatist militant activity and the Indian military’s moves to crush them.

Local politicians and analysts expect the change to bring Ladakh out of the shadow of Kashmir, which has long been a flashpoint with Pakistan. It could also help the area pocket more government funding as it seeks to build up its roads and facilities to lure tourists.

“We are very happy that we are separated from Kashmir. Now we can be the owners of our own destiny,” Tsering Samphel, a veteran politician from the Congress party in Ladakh, said on Tuesday. He added the area felt dwarfed by Jammu and Kashmir – which is a majority Muslim area – and that the regions had little in common culturally.

In Ladakh’s city of Leh on Monday, members of Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party danced in the streets and distributed sweets, Reuters partner ANI reported.

Ladakh will be governed by a centrally-appointed lieutenant governor, handing New Delhi stronger oversight over the area.

However, while Ladakh will become a Union Territory, it will not have its own legislature – a sore point for some locals.

“Hopefully we will be getting that also, slowly,” said Samphel, 71, adding that local politicians would put that demand to New Delhi.

Ladakh’s economy, traditionally dependent on farming, has benefited from tourists visiting ancient monasteries and trekking up mountain peaks.

P. C. Thakur, general manager of The Zen Ladakh hotel in Leh, hopes that dissociating from Jammu and Kashmir will further attract visitors. He expects the hotel’s occupancy to jump by up to 7 percentage points from an average of around 80-85% currently.

“Next year will be good,” he said.

…

Small-satellite launch firm Rocket Lab announced on Tuesday a plan to recover the core booster of its Electron rocket using a helicopter, a bold cost-saving concept that, if successful, would make it the second company after Elon Musk’s SpaceX to reuse an orbital-class rocket booster.

“Electron is going reusable,” Rocket Lab chief executive Peter Beck said during a presentation in Utah, showing an animation of the rocket sending a payload into a shallow orbit before speeding back through Earth’s atmosphere. “Launch frequency is the absolute key here.”

The Auckland, New Zealand-based company is one of a growing cadre of launch companies looking to slash the cost of sending shoebox-sized satellites to low Earth orbit, building smaller rockets and reinventing traditional production lines to meet a growing payload demand.

Electron, which has flown seven missions so far, can send up to 496 pounds (225 kg) into space for roughly $7 million.

Medium-class launchers such as Los Angeles-based Relativity Space can send up to 2,200 pounds (1,000 kg) into space for $10 million while Cedar Park, Texas-based firm Firefly can do it for $15 million.

Unlike SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, which reignites its engines to land steadily back on Earth “propulsively” after much larger missions costing around $62 million, Rocket Lab’s Electron will deploy a series of parachutes to slow its fall through what Beck called “the wall” – the violently fast and burning hot reentry process the booster endures shooting back through Earth’s atmosphere.

A helicopter will then hook the booster’s parachute in mid-air as it descends over the ocean and tow it back to a boat for recovery, Beck said.

“The grand goal here is, if we can capture the vehicle in wonderful condition, in theory we should be able to put it back on the pad, recharge the batteries up, and go again,” Beck said.

Some launch companies, such as Boeing-Lockheed venture United Launch Alliance which flies its Atlas V rocket, are skeptical of the economic case for reusing first-stage boosters propulsively, arguing that the fuel spent landing the rocket through the dense atmosphere and back on Earth would be better used to launch heavier payloads.

Beck said propulsive recoveries like SpaceX’s Falcon 9 “don’t scale well” with Electron’s smaller build, anyway. A spokeswoman would not say how much money Rocket Lab expects to save from its foray into hardware reusability, but said “cost reductions could flow from this in time.”

…

Advocacy groups sued the Trump administration on Tuesday in an effort to block a rule published last month that expands the number of migrants who can be subject to a sped-up deportation process without oversight by an immigration judge.

The rule, published in the Federal Register on July 23, broadened the practice of “expedited removal” to apply to anyone arrested anywhere nationwide who entered the United States illegally and cannot prove they have lived continuously in the country for at least two years.

Previously, only migrants caught within 100 miles of a U.S. border and who had been in the country for 14 days or less were subject to the fast-track process.

Under expedited removal, migrants are not entitled to a review of their cases in front of an immigration judge or access to an attorney.

The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., by the American Civil Liberties Union and the American Immigration Council on behalf of three immigration rights groups, claims the government did not go through the proper procedures in issuing the rule and says it violates due process and U.S. immigration laws.

The U.S. Department of Justice declined to comment on the filing.

President Donald Trump has struggled to stem an increase of mostly Central American families arriving at the U.S.-Mexico border, leading to overcrowded detention facilities and a political battle over immigration that is inflaming tensions in the country. 

In El Paso, Texas, last weekend a gunman killed 22 people after apparently posting an anti-immigrant manifesto online.

Nearly 300,000 of the approximately 11 million immigrants in the United States illegally could be quickly deported under the new rule, according to the nonpartisan Migration Policy Institute.

“Hundreds of thousands of people living anywhere in the U.S. are at risk of being separated from their families and expelled from the country without any recourse,” Anand Balakrishnan, an attorney with the ACLU’s Immigrants’ Rights Project, said in a statement.

The government has said increasing rapid deportations would free up detention space and ease strains on immigration courts, which face a backlog of more than 900,000 cases.

People in rapid deportation proceedings are detained for 11.4 days on average, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. People in regular proceedings are held for 51.5 days and are released into the United States for the months or years it takes to resolve their cases.

…

Tunisia’s biggest political party Ennahda named a candidate for presidential elections on Tuesday, the first time the moderate Islamist party has put up a nominee for the post since the country transitioned to democracy after the 2011 revolution.

Party vice president Abdel Fattah Mourou, 71, a lawyer, will run in elections due to be held two months early on Sept. 15 following the death of president Beji Caid Essebsi last month.

Liberal Prime Minister Youssef Chahed will also stand, his Tahaya Tounes party said last week, making him one of the likely frontrunners to succeed Essebsi.

Other candidates who have announced their intention to run include liberal former Prime Minister Mehdi Jomaa and Moncef Marzouki, who served as interim president for three years after autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali was toppled.

Essebsi was chosen in the first democratic presidential election in 2014.

One of Ennahda’s most moderate leaders, Mourou has long demanded reforms to the party to make it more open and to distance it from the Muslim Brotherhood in other Arab countries.

Critics say Mourou is two-faced, however, and holds contradictory positions on the role of the Islam in society.

“Mourou is a highly regarded figure in Tunisia, he is able to unite Tunisians and to find consensus between rivals. This is what Tunisia needs now,” Imed Khmiri, a senior Ennahda official, told Reuters.

Mourou is currently acting speaker of parliament after former speaker Mohamed Ennaceur became interim president.

Tunisia’s president mainly has authority over foreign and defense policy, governing alongside a prime minister chosen by parliament who has authority over domestic affairs.

…

The European Union says its door remains open should British Prime Minister Boris Johnson want to discuss his country’s departure from the bloc but it insists that the Brexit divorce agreement cannot be renegotiated.

EU Commission spokeswoman Annika Breidthardt said Tuesday that the Brexit agreement “is the best possible deal” that Britain is going to get.

Johnson says he will take Britain out of the EU on Oct. 31 with or without a deal, raising fears of a damaging no-deal exit.

He says the backstop arrangement to keep goods flowing smoothly between EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland in the U.K. would bind his country to European trade rules and must be dropped from the Brexit agreement.

Breidthardt says Brussels is available should Britain “wish to hold talks and clarify its position in more detail.”

…

The scars from the nine bullets the gunman fired into Temel Atacocugu run down his left side like knotty rope. But it’s the recurring mental images from that day at the mosque that he often finds hardest to cope with: The gunman’s face. The puff of smoke from his gun. The worshippers falling as they clamored to escape.

After coming so close to dying nearly five months ago, Atacocugu feels he has been “reborn.” And this week he plans to express his gratitude to God for being given the chance for a new life when he participates in the hajj, the holy Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.

The 44-year-old kebab shop co-owner is among 200 survivors and victims’ relatives from the Christchurch mosque shootings who are traveling to Saudi Arabia as guests of King Salman. The king is paying for their airfare, accommodation and travel costs, a bill that will run well over $1 million. The group will also travel to holy sites in Medina.

Lives Forever Changed by Christchurch Shootings

On a small farm on the outskirts of Christchurch in New Zealand, Omar Nabi digs a small hole and sharpens a knife as he prepares to slaughter a sheep as a blessing to his father — a victim of the mass killings at the Al Noor mosque.

Hunched between his father’s collection of rusted cars, Nabi softly said a prayer and slit the animal’s neck, facing it towards Mecca. He removed the pelt and prepared the meat for cooking. Blood was pooled in a hole where he plans to plant a tree.

All able-bodied Muslims are required to perform the hajj once in their lifetime, with many saving for years to make the journey. The annual pilgrimage draws nearly 2 million Muslims from around the world to Mecca and sites around it to perform a series of ancient rites and prayers meant to cleanse the soul of past sins and bring people closer to God.

The Saudi ambassador to New Zealand, Abdulrahman Al Suhaibani, says King Salman was shocked by the March 15 attacks at two mosques in which an Australian white supremacist has been charged with killing 51 people.

The Christchurch shootings have been cited as inspiration by other white supremacists, most recently in an attack at a Walmart store in El Paso, Texas, that left at least 22 people dead.

Each year, the king invites several hundred people to perform the hajj as his own guests, often selecting those most touched by tragedy that year. Al Suhaibani said this is the first time the king has invited anyone from New Zealand on his annual program to help get people to the hajj who otherwise may struggle to make it.

Two weeks ago, the ambassador traveled to Christchurch to hand out the simple white garments the male pilgrims will wear. The terry cloth garments worn by men are meant to strip pilgrims down of adornment and symbolize equality of mankind before God.

“It’s a wonderful time and this is a golden chance for people to get spiritual elevation,” says Gamal Fouda, the imam at the Al Noor mosque, one of the two mosques that were attacked.

Fouda, who also survived the shootings, is travelling with the group as a spiritual leader. He says that while all Muslims want to do the hajj, many tend to delay their trips due to the expense, especially from distant New Zealand.

Fouda says the memories of the shooting remain fresh in everybody’s minds and his mosque hasn’t yet returned to normal.

“The most important thing is that the New Zealand community, including Muslims, they stood together against hate,” Fouda says. “And we are still saying that hate is not going to divide us. We will continue to love each other.”

New Zealand Announces Assault Weapons Ban in Wake of Christchurch Mass Shootings

Nearly one week after 50 Muslim worshippers in Christchurch, New Zealand were gunned down, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern imposed an immediate ban on all military-style semi-automatic and automatic assault rifles.

The ban, which Prime Minister Ardern announced Thursday in Wellington, includes high-capacity magazines, which can hold multiple rounds of ammunition, and accessories that can convert ordinary rifles into fast-acting assault rifles.

Atacocugu says he was feeling good on March 15 when he entered the Al Noor mosque for Friday prayers after finishing a final session with an acupuncturist, who was treating him for a sports injury.

When he saw the gunman walk into the mosque, he thought at first he was a police officer because of his paramilitary clothing. Then the man started shooting and Atacocugu found himself looking right at him as he fired a bullet into Atacocugu’s mouth, shattering his jaw.

“And then I said, ‘Oh my God, I am dying.’ When I see he’s shooting, when I see the smoke, I said, ‘Yeah, I’m dying.’ That’s the first thought,” Atacocugu says.

After falling to the floor, his left arm ended up protecting his vital organs as the gunman continued firing bullets into him.

Recovering at the Christchurch Hospital after the shooting, Atacocugu couldn’t eat for a week and couldn’t walk for three weeks. But after several surgeries, he’s now able to walk unassisted and get some use from his left hand. He has more surgeries ahead and is being helped in Saudi Arabia by his 21-year-old nephew, who is traveling with him.

Another of those traveling to the hajj is 33-year-old Aya Al-Umari, whose brother Hussein, 35, was among those killed at the Al Noor mosque.

“We had a very typical sibling relationship,” she says. “So you have your nagging elder brother, nagging little sister. But at the end of the day you love each other, even though you don’t verbally say it. But you just telepathically know that.”

She says witnesses and video taken by the gunman indicate her brother stood up to the attacker, allowing others to escape.

“So he fought to the very last minute,” she says. “And this is Hussein, in his nature. He’s always the type of person who would want to see if there is danger, he’d face it, he wouldn’t escape from it.”

When visiting Mecca, Al-Umari says, she’ll pray for her parents and herself to have the patience to cope with the loss of Hussein. She also plans to pray for the other families from her mosque who lost loved ones. And she says she feels her brother will be with her in Saudi Arabia.

“I will carry his presence with me the whole time when I’m in Mecca,” Al-Umari says. “He is with us every day. But in the journey, I will feel like he will accompany me.”

Al-Umari says she wants to return to the hajj another year.

“I will do my level best to make sure I fulfill my duty first, and then I will do it on his behalf next time,” she says.

The hajj is one of the five pillars of Islam. During the five-day pilgrimage, Muslims circle Islam’s most sacred site, the cube-shaped Kaaba, and take part in rituals intended to bring about greater humility and unity.

Fouda, the imam, says that while he has been to Mecca before, he has never been there during the hajj, so it will be a special journey for him as well.

“I will pray for God to forgive my sins, because every human is sinful,” he says.

“And I will also pray for the peace of the world. Peace for the people of Christchurch. Peace for the people of New Zealand. And peace for the whole world,” he says. “We ask God that we find a better world than we live in, rather than spreading hate.”

…

Pakistan began a special joint session of its parliament Tuesday to discuss a possible response a day after rival India revoked the special status for Kashmir, the disputed Himalayan region both the countries claim in its entirety.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan plans to address the lawmakers to explain his government’s future plan of action.

India added a special provision to its constitution in 1949 providing autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir, allowing the region to have its own constitution, a separate flag and independence over all matters except foreign affairs, defense and communications.  India’s Hindu nationalist-led government scrapped the constitutional provision on Monday.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has long campaigned for ending the special status granted to Kashmir, saying it hampered development and encouraged youth there to join insurgents fighting Indian rule.

Pakistan swiftly condemned and rejected Monday’s announcements by India as “illegal steps.”

“No unilateral step by the government of India can change this disputed status, as enshrined in the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions. Nor will this ever be acceptable to the people of Jammu & Kashmir and Pakistan,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

The country’s top military commanders held a special meeting Tuesday to review the security situation in the wake of India’s controversial move.

Following its special meeting Tuesday the Pakistani army said in a statement that Islamabad had never recognized the provisions New Delhi revoked because they were part of what the statement said was India’s “sham” efforts to legalize its “occupation” of Kashmir.

“[The] Pakistan army firmly stands by the Kashmiris in their just struggle to the very end. We are prepared and shall go to any extent to fulfill our obligations in this regard,” the statement quoted the army chief, General Qamar Javed Bajwa, as saying.

Anti-India protests also erupted Tuesday in cities across the Islamabad-administered one-third of Kashmir and in several major Pakistani cities.

American envoy arrives in Pakistan

Meanwhile, a senior American diplomat arrived in Islamabad Tuesday for pre-scheduled bilateral meetings.  Pakistani officials said the latest developments in Kashmir were likely to figure high in the talks with Alice Wells, the U.S. principal deputy assistant secretary of state in charge of South and Central Asian affairs.

Ahead of Monday’s announcements, the Indian government deployed tens of thousands of additional troops in Kashmir, arrested local political leaders, including former chief ministers, imposed a security lockdown and cut off all telecommunications as well as cable television networks to deter agitation.

In its immediate reaction on Monday, the United States said it was “closely” following developments in Kashmir.  U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres Monday urged India and Pakistan to “exercise restraint” following India’s announcement.

“We are concerned about reports of detentions and urge respect for individual rights and discussion with those in affected communities, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Morgan Ortagus said in a statement.  She called on “all parties to maintain peace and stability along the Line of Control [the de facto Kashmir border].”

India’s move could fuel separatist violence

Critics warn the move will likely exacerbate ongoing bloody rebellion in Kashmir and deteriorate military tensions between India and Pakistan, both armed with nuclear weapons, who have already fought two wars over the divided region.

The Muslim insurgency and the ensuing Indian security crackdown are estimated to have killed 70,000 people in Kashmir over the past three decades. New Delhi has consistently accused Islamabad, particularly the country’s powerful military, of being behind the militancy.

Pakistan rejects the charges and maintains it only provides diplomatic and moral support to the separatists. End.

…

Aid groups have slammed the Saudi-led coalition for its closure of the airport in Yemen’s capital, saying it’s prevented thousands of sick civilians from traveling abroad for urgent medical treatment.

The Norwegian Refugee Council and CARE say the Sanaa airport’s three-year closure has amounted to a “death sentence” for many sick Yemenis.

They appealed late Monday on Yemen’s warring parties to come to an agreement to reopen the airport for commercial flights to “alleviate humanitarian suffering caused by the closure.”

The Saudi-led coalition, backing Yemen’s internationally recognized government, has been at war with the rebels, known as Houthis, since 2015, and has imposed a blockade on ports that supply Houthi-controlled areas.
 
Mohammed Abdi, the NRC’s director in Yemen, says there’s “no justification” for standing in the way of life-saving treatment.

…

China has issued a dire warning to demonstrators who have brought Hong Kong to a standstill after more than two months of heated protests.

Yang Guang, the spokesman for the Chinese government’s Hong Kong and Macao affairs office, told reporters during a briefing in Beijing Tuesday it is “only a matter of time” before the leaders of the massive protests face punishment.  

Several weeks of massive street demonstrations have pushed the Asian financial hub into its worst political crisis since Britain handed over control to China in 1997. 

The demonstrations began in June with angry residents protesting against an extradition bill that would have allowed people to be sent to mainland China for trial. The bill has since been suspended, but the demonstrations have continued and have since evolved into calls for greater democracy.

Yang said a small group of criminals have pushed Hong Kong into “a dangerous abyss,” and warned the group not to “misjudge the situation and mistake our restraint for weakness.”  He also warned that “those who play with fire will perish by it.”

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