Kuwait's Civil Aviation Directorate General has suspended the provision of licences for the use of unmanned aircraft or drones.

This means that the order would limit drone permission to government entities alone until further notice, Al-Qabas newspaper reported.

The new rules are being put in place to avoid anarchy in the deployment of drones, whose impacts have become a menace to air traffic, it added./ gdnonline

The Public Authority for Food and Nutrition has ordered the withdrawal of Belgian origin Kinder products from Kuwaiti markets, as a precautionary measure, reports Al-Rai daily.

The authority’s decision came following alerts issued about the possibility of contamination of some Kinder brand products with salmonella bacteria and based on the latest developments published in the International Network of Food Safety Officials INFOSAN on April 9, 2022./AT

In Europe, leaders must rediscover their potential as positive thinkers and motivators instead of allowing Islamophobic tendencies to pop up

Living in a family is how our societies are intended to be built and enjoyed, at least for a vast majority of us. Thus said, any given society is made up of millions of individual families. The worst-case scenario is when a particular society refrains from having a constant influx of "new" families. In this case, a static society emerges in which at one point elderly citizens receive no pensions as younger (working) citizens decline in numbers. In many countries this is referred to as the contract between generations.

Under normal circumstances and over the decades in post-war Europe, the above became an accepted fact: Grown children move out from their parents' houses and set up their very own family, kids in tow.

Hence, it is disturbing to witness a certain rejection, a certain withdrawal from this way of life regarding "new" families originally hailing from abroad knocking at Europe’s doors. At stake: Why was the successful concept of family life apparently only reserved for home-grown men, women and children and unduly questioned regarding people born someplace else? When considering the growing resentment toward migration and refugees trying to reach Europe’s lands and shores, one feels inclined to label it Islamophobia 1.0 as it mostly targets innocent Muslim people.

Then and to make matters worse, even first, second and third generation migrants who immensely contributed to the welfare of the emerging economic European Union powerhouse and who by now are full-fledged local citizens benefiting from the same rights (and duties) as all other members of the population have become a target for hate-speech and often outright physical violence across the EU. In a nutshell: Islamophobia 2.0. has once again targeted Muslim people.

So how can this shocking development be stopped, or can it? Are European democracies no longer run by the standards and universal norms of a democratic way of living together? And above all else, where and how did it all start? Did no one see it coming?

More subtle attacks on democracy

As was reported in Daily Sabah on March 21, 2022, Presidential Communications Director Fahrettin Altun was quoted from his contribution to the Radio and Television Supreme Council (RTÜK) communications magazine as calling Islamophobia a "malicious seed” directly or indirectly planted in the minds of people by Western-based media organs, academics, think tanks and more. He further argued that, “The Orientalist perspective is a concept rooted in racism that aims to negatively impact the image and reputation of Muslims by systematically associating Islamic values with a sense of negativity.”

He then suggests that it is political leaders who have the power to stop this dangerous trend by saying, “Leaders wield the power to impact large segments of the society in constructive ways ... that there are currently very few leaders who ... embrace their own cultures to counter Islamophobia.”

Let us put the author’s analysis into the context of three related personal comments. First, a look at academic teaching. Second, is the European media overly racist? And third, can elected office holders really influence the free flow of news?

Vilfredo Pareto et. al.

Let us play devil’s advocate. In the mid-1980s, it was common in what was still West Germany to teach about Italian economist and sociologist Vilfredo Pareto during philosophy classes (contributor’s own experience). One of Pareto’s most controversial suggestions was to say democracy is an illusion in which ruling classes always emerged and enriched themselves. He called for a drastic reduction of the state and welcomed former Italian Prime Minister Benito Mussolini on the way to a minimal state. Now add 60-plus years: The professor, who in his youth had been associated with flirting with fascism himself, still kept his tenure at what was supposedly a rather “right-leaning public university.”

There are two options. One, discreetly allowing scholars who did not distance themselves from fascism and packaging it all as a lesson in democracy and free speech – should the authorities step in and fire him? Alternatively, should the university and education ministry defend free speech on all levels and sit idle?

What we have to consider in this context is whether to curtail freedom of expression and if deemed necessary, on which level? The question was as important back in the 1980s as it is today. How should society react when anti-democracy tendencies are openly promoted on the academic level?

'Whatever Turkey does is wrong'

Similar to our first case study, European media often uses the same “discreet” tactics by focusing anti-democracy stories on what are perceived as hate objects. Example no. 1: modern Turkey and ever more so its charismatic and trusted leader, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. By declaring whatever happens in Turkey as wrong or outright dangerous for the so-called Western way of life, many media organs create a climate of fear among their audiences geared at one single nation and its people.

Should governments and authorities ban those media houses and require the journalists to be fired? Or should they once more sit idly by and watch?

Can, and should, elected leaders stem the tide?

Yes, there were and are ill-fated tendencies in some European academic circles promoting openly anti-Islam, anti-multicultural values and concepts. Likewise, misinformation about Turkey, in particular, as a leading Islamic democracy, is pushed for by many media houses in Europe. And granted, right-wing think tanks argue that the concept of integration is outdated and that Western societies can only survive by sticking to their own religious and cultural beliefs. Even some conservative political parties argue the same points (elections to the federal parliament in Germany in 2021 are a case in point).

And if reading between the lines of Altun is allowed, this is the point in time where governments and elected office holders on all levels must come forward and figuratively as well as literally speaking, go live. They can address their voters by going public exactly in those media houses normally declaring Islam a threat. They can meet and talk with influencers and stakeholders. They can promote free speech without tolerating hate speech. A climate must be created in which tolerance and solidarity flourish and not “we are against the other.”

Leaders must rediscover their potential as positive thinkers and motivators instead of allowing far right and xenophobic tendencies to pop up. They must understand that there are “open” signs of racism and “discreet or camouflaged” signs in the name of freedom of expression. Both are dangerous for a harmonious way of living with each other and not just next to each other.

It would be nice if our societies and democracies could do it by themselves. At least in the medium-term, politicians and other well-intended personalities must roll up their sleeves and come to the rescue of our very democracies. It is five minutes to 12.

Ending by returning to our opening paragraphs, let the European family system be rejuvenated. This should include people from all four corners of the world who either out of desperation or out of free will decide to come to us no matter their personal preferences or religious beliefs, no matter what color, age or gender./DS

---------------------------

BY KLAUS JURGENS

Political analyst, journalist based in London

Italy announced on Monday a deal for more natural gas imports across a Mediterranean pipeline from energy heavyweight Algeria, in the latest push by a European Union nation to reduce dependence on Russian energy following its invasion of Ukraine.

Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi announced the deal in the Algerian capital after meeting with President Abdelmadjid Tebboune.

Draghi told reporters that an agreement to intensify bilateral cooperation in the energy sector along with the deal to export more gas to Italy “is a significant response to the strategic goal” of quickly replacing Russian energy.

“Others will follow,” the premier said.

Russia is Italy’s biggest natural gas supplier, representing 40% of total imports, followed by Algeria, which provides some 21 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas via the Trans-Mediterranean pipeline.

The new deal between Italian energy giant Eni and Algeria’s state hydrocarbons firm Sonatrach would add up to 9 bcm of gas from Algeria by 2023-24, just eclipsing Russia’s current 29 bcm a year. Eni said that the increased flows will start in the fall in a statement.

Europe is trying to cut its reliance on Russian natural gas imports quickly, with leaders recognizing that their payments help fund Moscow’s war. At the same time, there is concern Russia might turn off the taps in reprisal for sanctions, a threat that would have devastating effects on the European economy. Natural gas is used to generate electricity, heat and cool homes, and the power industry.

“Immediately after the invasion of Ukraine, I announced that Italy would organize quickly to reduce its dependence on Russian gas,” Draghi said.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has already sought to have gas payments be made in rubles in an apparent bid to shore up the currency. A loophole allows countries to pay a designated Russian bank in dollars and euros as set out in contracts.

The tiny Baltic state of Lithuania, a former Soviet republic, recently cut itself off entirely from Russian gas imports, the first of the European Union’s 27 nations using Russian gas to break its energy dependence on Moscow.

Lithuania has been planning that move for years, and the task is more difficult for economic powers like Germany and Italy, which have gotten most of their natural gas from Russia.

The EU plans to reduce Russian gas imports by two-thirds by the end of the year and eliminate them before 2030 through steps like conservation, wind and solar development, and alternative sources.

The 27-nation bloc has reached a deal with the United States to receive more boatloads of liquefied natural gas, or LNG.

Germany, which gets about 40% of its gas from Russia, has announced plans to quickly build two LNG terminals and reached an agreement with Qatar for LNG supplies.

Poland is expanding an LNG terminal to receive deliveries from Qatar, the U.S., Norway and others. It has reduced dependence on Russian oil through contracts with Saudi Arabia, the U.S. and Norway.

Germany and Italy also are pushing for more renewable energy.

The deal between Italy and Algeria is the first concrete result of missions by Italy’s foreign minister to energy-producing nations to secure alternate sources, also including Azerbaijan, Qatar, Congo, Angola and Mozambique.

Draghi was traveling with Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio, Energy Transition Minister, Roberto Cingolani, and the CEO of Italian energy company Eni, Claudio Descalzi.

Eni announced a significant oil and gas discovery in Algeria last month and said it would work with Algerian partner Sonatrach to fast-track its development for the third quarter of this year. Eni has operated in Algeria for more than 40 years.

‘Lot of questions’

Draghi arrived in Algeria weeks after Di Maio made the same trip, during which he confirmed that Italy was “committed to increasing energy supplies, notably in gas,” including from Algeria, which he said had “always been a reliable supplier.”

Algeria’s Sonatrach said at the time that it was prepared to increase deliveries, notably via the Trans-Mediterranean pipeline linking Algeria to Italy.

Its CEO Toufik Hakkar said Europe is the “natural market of choice” for Algerian gas, which accounts for about 11% of Europe’s gas imports.

But he said any boost to exports would depend on first satisfying Algeria’s ever-growing domestic needs.

Sonatrach and Eni jointly operate the Trans-Mediterranean pipeline, which has a capacity of some 32 bcm per year.

Aydın Çalık, an energy analyst at the Middle East Economic Survey (MEES), said Monday’s deal implied additional exports that would push the limits of the Trans-Mediterranean pipeline.

“That’s assuming Algeria actually has the capacity to supply more, given its other commitments,” he told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “There are lots of questions.”

Former Algerian energy minister Abdelmajid Attar previously told AFP that “Algeria exports a maximum of 22 bcm (per year) via the Trans-Mediterranean pipeline,” leaving some 10 billion in spare capacity.

Attar, also a former CEO of Sonatrach, said that Algeria’s liquefaction facilities, which allow gas to be exported by ship, are “only being used at 50%-60%of capacity.”

He noted that in the short term, Algeria could boost its gas exports to the EU by at most 3 bcm per year, meaning “it can’t make up for a fall in Russian gas supplies on its own.”

However, “within four of five years, Algeria could send bigger quantities” to Italy, he added.

Algeria expects to invest some $40 billion in gas and oil exploration, production and refining between 2022 and 2026.

Draghi said last week that Italy would “follow the decisions of the European Union” on new sanctions against Russia, including a possible gas embargo.

His visit also follows a spike in tensions between Algeria and Spain, another major gas importer, after Madrid dropped a decades-long policy of neutrality over Western Sahara and backed an autonomy plan put forward by Algeria’s arch-rival Morocco.

Sonatrach warned earlier this month it could increase the price of its gas sales to Spain, which make up more than 40% of the country’s imports./agencies

More than 30 people were killed in attacks by suspected extremist forces on Sunday and Monday in northeast DR Congo's troubled Ituri province, the local Red Cross said.

Rebels from the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), one of the most notorious armed groups, "attacked the population" in two villages around Komanda, 75 kilometers (45 miles) south of provincial capital Bunia, said David Beiza, head of the Red Cross in Ituri's Irumu territory.

As well as attacking the villages of Mangusu, where 17 civilians died, and Shauri Moya, where nine were killed, the assailants also targeted a bridge over the Ituri River, killing four more, Beiza said.

The Kivu Security Tracker (KST), a respected monitor, reported later on Twitter, "at least 18 civilians were killed in Mangusu village ... on Monday," adding that "the ADF is suspected."

The monitoring group didn't mention any toll figure for Shauri Moya village. "Since yesterday, we have heard light and heavy gunfire coming from Mangusu and Shauri Moya," confirmed Daniel Herabo, a local civil society leader.

According to Herabo, the rebels first entered Shauri Moya on Sunday and then Mangusu on Monday morning.

"There, the bodies of some of the 17 victims were tied up, others had their throats slit and others had been shot dead," said Herabo, who has not visited the villages, but relied on colleagues in the area.

He said fighting between the ADF and the FARDC (DRC armed forces) was continuing on Monday afternoon.

The ADF rebels, who are presented by the Daesh group as its central African affiliate, have meted out extreme violence against civilians – often with machetes and other bladed weapons.

The villages attacked are just 12 kilometers from Drakpa town where 14 civilians, including seven children, were killed in a camp for displaced people days earlier.

Ituri and the neighboring North Kivu province are currently under an official state of siege, declared last May.

Under it, civilian leaders have been replaced by military or police officers, with the declared aim of boosting a crackdown on armed groups. That measure has so far failed to bring peace to the region.

In late November, Ugandan troops joined DR Congo's army in an operation against the ADF, following bomb attacks in the Ugandan capital Kampala that were blamed on the group.

The region has been in the grip of armed groups for a quarter of a century, many of them a legacy of the Congo Wars of the 1990s and early 2000s.

Democratic Republic of Congo Prime Minister Jean-Michel Sama Lukonde is heading a ministerial delegation to visit the two provinces, which began in North Kivu capital Goma on Monday to take stock of the state of siege./AFP

In another incident of shooting in Los Angeles, two people were killed and five people were wounded and hospitalized, authorities said.

The gunfire erupted at about 4 p.m. Sunday on a residential block in the community of Willowbrook, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) south of downtown Los Angeles, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department said.

A 17-year-old boy and a man died at the scene, officials said. Sheriff's Lt. Vincent Ursini said the teenager was shot in the upper body at least once. The victims' identities were not immediately released.

No arrests have been made and a description of the shooter, or shooters, was not available.

Four male victims who were shot and wounded were taken to the hospital, one in critical condition and the three others with minor injuries, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.

Detectives later learned that a female victim who was shot and wounded drove herself to the hospital, the ABC 7 television newscast reported.

It was unclear what lead to the shooting. Investigators said at least two vehicles were seen in the area and that shots rang out from inside the vehicles, ABC 7 reported./AP

More than 10,000 civilians have died in the Russian siege of Mariupol, the mayor of the Ukrainian port city said Monday, stressing that the death toll could surpass 20,000, with corpses that were “carpeted through the streets.”

Speaking by phone Monday to The Associated Press (AP), Mayor Vadym Boychenko also said Russian forces brought mobile cremation equipment to the city to dispose of the bodies, and he accused Russian forces of refusing to allow humanitarian convoys into the city in an attempt to conceal the carnage.

The mayor's comments emerged as Russia claimed that it destroyed several Ukrainian air defense systems in what appeared to be a renewed push to gain air superiority and take out weapons Kyiv has described as crucial ahead of an expected broad new offensive in the east.

In one strike, Moscow said it hit four S-300 launchers near the central city of Dnipro that had been provided by a European country it did not name. Slovakia gave Ukraine just such a system last week but denied on Monday that it had been destroyed. Russia previously reported two strikes on similar systems in other places.

Moscow's initial invasion stalled on several fronts as it met stiff resistance from Ukrainian forces, who prevented the Russians from taking the capital and other cities. The failure to win full control of Ukraine’s skies has hampered Moscow’s ability to provide air cover for troops on the ground, limiting their advances and likely exposing them to greater losses.

With their offensive in many parts of the country thwarted, Russian forces have relied increasingly on bombarding cities — a strategy that has left many urban areas flattened and killed thousands of people. The war has also shattered Ukraine’s economy, with the World Bank estimating it will shrink by more than 45% this year.

Ukrainian authorities accuse Russian forces of committing atrocities, including a massacre in the town of Bucha, outside Kyiv, airstrikes on hospitals and a missile attack that killed at least 57 people last week at a train station.

In Bucha on Monday, the work of exhuming bodies from a mass grave in a churchyard resumed.

Galyna Feoktistova waited for hours in the cold and rain in hopes of identifying her 50-year-old son, who was shot and killed more than a month ago, but eventually she went home for some warmth. “He's still there,” her surviving son, Andriy, said.

Meanwhile, the U.N. children’s agency said that nearly two-thirds of all Ukrainian children have fled their homes in the six weeks since Russia’s invasion began, and the United Nations has verified that 142 children have been killed and 229 injured, though the actual numbers are likely much higher.

Elsewhere, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer said he met Monday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow for talks that were “very direct, open and tough.”

In a statement released by his office, Nehammer said his primary message to Putin was “that this war needs to end, because in war both sides can only lose.” Nehammer said he also raised the issue of war crimes committed by the Russian military and said those responsible “will be held to account.”

Austria is a member of the European Union and has backed the 27-nation bloc’s sanctions against Russia, though it so far has opposed cutting off deliveries of Russian gas. The country is militarily neutral and is not a member of NATO.

In other developments, the head of the separatist rebel government in Donetsk said Ukrainian forces have lost control of the port area of Mariupol.

“Regarding the port of Mariupol, it is now under our control,” Denis Pushilin, president of the Donetsk People’s Republic, told Russian state television, according to Russian news agencies. The claim could not immediately be confirmed.

Russia has appointed a seasoned general to lead its renewed push in the eastern Donbass region, where Moscow-backed separatists have been battling Ukrainian forces since 2014 and have declared independent states. Both sides are digging in for what could be a devastating war of attrition.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy pleaded for more Western aid, saying his forces need heavier firepower to resist the coming onslaught and push Russian forces back. Echoing his remarks in an AP interview, Zelenskyy said Sunday that the coming week could be crucial and that Western support — or the lack thereof — may prove decisive.

“To be honest, whether we will be able to (survive) depends on this,” Zelenskyy said in a “60 Minutes” interview. “Unfortunately, I don’t have the confidence that we will be receiving everything we need." In a video address to South Korean lawmakers on Monday, he specifically requested equipment that can shoot down Russian missiles.

But those armaments could increasingly come under attack as Russia looks to shift the balance in the six-week war.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesperson Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said the military used cruise missiles to destroy the four launchers Sunday on the southern outskirts of Dnipro. He said the military also hit such systems in the Mykolaiv and Kharkiv regions.

The Russian claims could not be independently verified.

The Pentagon said it had seen no evidence to support Russia’s claims. A senior U.S. defense official said Russia did conduct an airstrike Sunday on the airport in Dnipro, destroying some equipment, but the official said the U.S. has seen no indication that an air-defense system was knocked out.

Lubica Janikova, a spokesperson for Slovakia's prime minister, denied Monday that the S-300 system it sent Ukraine had been destroyed. She said any other claim is not true.

Ukraine has specifically asked for more S-300s in recent months, though it already had a number of the Soviet-built systems and other long-range air-defense systems. It also has received batches of portable, shoulder-fired Western anti-aircraft weapons like Stingers, which are efficient against low-flying aircraft.

Questions remain about the ability of depleted and demoralized Russian forces to conquer much ground after their advance on Kyiv was repelled by determined Ukrainian defenders.

Britain’s Defense Ministry said Monday that Ukraine has already beaten back several assaults by Russian forces in the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions — which make up the Donbass — resulting in the destruction of Russian tanks, vehicles and artillery.

Western military analysts say Russia's assault increasingly is focusing on an arc of territory stretching from Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in the north, to Kherson in the south.

On Sunday, Russian forces shelled government-controlled Kharkiv and sent reinforcements toward Izyum to the southeast to try to break Ukraine's defenses, the Ukrainian military said.

A residential area in Kharkiv was struck by incoming fire on Monday afternoon. AP journalists saw firefighters putting out the fire and checking for victims following the attack, and saw that at least five people were killed, including a child.

Oleh Synyehubov, the regional governor of Kharkiv, said earlier Monday that Russian shelling had killed 11 people over the last 24 hours.

In Mariupol, Russia deployed Chechen fighters, reputed to be particularly fierce. Capturing the city on the Sea of Azov would give Russia a land bridge to the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia seized from Ukraine and annexed eight years ago.

Mariupol's residents have lacked food, water and electricity since Russian forces surrounded the city. Hundreds of thousands have fled, though Russian attacks have also frustrated evacuation missions.

Vladislav Usovich, an 18-year-old conscript serving in Russia-backed separatist forces, advanced slowly with other fighters through residential areas around a factory Sunday in Mariupol.

“I thought it would go better. I thought it would be faster. Everything is going slowly," he said. "The Ukrainians are prepared fighters. NATO trained them well.”/AP

Italian government forecasts showing a steady decline in education spending triggered an angry reaction on Monday from the country's trade unions, which threatened strikes and protests.

The government's multiyear economic planning document (DEF) published on Friday showed education expenditure projected to fall to 3.5% of the gross domestic product in 2025 from 4% in 2020.

The 2020 level was already well below the European Union average of around 5% of the GDP, Eurostat data shows.

The DEF projections "show grave short-sightedness that our country will pay heavily for in the future," said Rino Di Meglio, the head of the Gilda teachers union. "We will consult our members and organize protests over the next few days."

The Education Ministry was not immediately available to comment.

Italian students are among the worst performers in the European Union in mathematics, science and reading, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment tests overseen by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

The DEF linked the projected fall in education spending to Italy's falling birth rate. This was rejected by the unions who said the fall in school-age Italians was being compensated for by immigration.

"We expect no decline in the school population, we have just absorbed 10,000 Ukrainian children in our schools in the last few weeks, this is what we have to face," said Di Meglio.

The teachers' section of Italy's largest union confederation, the CGIL, said it was "madness" for the government to be projecting education cuts while increasing military spending, as Prime Minister Mario Draghi has pledged to do.

The unions accused the government of backtracking on the priorities Draghi set out when he stressed the importance of education in his maiden speech to parliament 14 months ago.

"After heaps of rhetoric, we're heading for spending cuts," said Francesco Sinopoli, head of the CGIL's teaching union.

"We are returning to an austerity scenario when we should be increasing investment. If this goes ahead we will take to the streets with every possible protest, including strikes."/Reuters