Aman Sandhu checked store after store for a handgun in Canada's British Columbia, hoping to make a purchase before a freeze on sales takes effect, but struggled to find one in stock.

"I'm concerned that if I don't buy one now, I may never have the choice again," Sandhu, a member of the Dawson Creek Sportsman's Club, told AFP.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau's proposed freeze on pistol sales - which he announced in the wake of a series of high-profile mass shootings in the United States - has pushed some Canadians to rush out to gun stores while they still can.

While Sandhu is keen to buy a pistol, he is also wary of becoming mired in new rules that include hefty penalties for even minor lapses.

"Jeez, if I slip up, I could screw up the rest of my firearms ownership," he said, describing a handful of long guns in his collection.

Several gun stores in British Columbia province saw lines out the door within hours of the liberal leader's declaration on Monday (May 30). Other shops across Canada said that they sold out within days.

"Sales have been brisk," said Jen Lavigne, co-owner of That Hunting Store in a strip mall on the outskirts of the capital Ottawa, nestled between a barbershop, a Chinese buffet restaurant and a conservative lawmaker's constituency office.

"We sold 100 handguns, or almost our entire stock, in the last three days, since the prime minister announced the freeze," she said, showing off her nearly empty handgun cabinet.

"PANIC"

At DoubleTap Sports in Toronto, a similar scene unfolded. Owner Josko Kovic said that the government announcement "created a panic, and people are now rushing out to buy handguns".

"Almost all stores are sold out, including me," he said.

According to government estimates, there are more than 1 million handguns in Canada, which has a population of 38 million people. About 2,500 stores sell pistols in the country.

At present, a person must have a restricted firearms licence in order to purchase a handgun. Most also require a special permit to transport them from any location to another, and they must be in secured cases.

Shooting ranges are about the only places where they can be legally fired.

The new regulations, unveiled after mass shootings killed 21 people at an elementary school in Texas and 10 at a supermarket in New York state, would prohibit the purchase, sale, transfer and importation of handguns.

They are expected to come into force in the fall, along with a border crackdown on weapons smuggling from the United States.

"We are capping the number of handguns in this country," Trudeau said on Monday, citing "a level of gun violence in our communities that is unacceptable".

"CATCH-22"

Almost two-thirds of gun crimes in Canadian cities over the past decade involved handguns, according to government data.

At That Hunting Store, a man picking up a new handgun for competition, who identified himself as David, lamented the new restrictions on top of already cumbersome rules that drag out purchases.

"It's ridiculous," he said. "It takes two months just to get a licence with all the background checks."

Gun shop owners interviewed by AFP unanimously decried the freeze, which must still be passed by parliament.

"This measure is only going to hurt legal gun owners," Lavigne said, adding: "It's not going to reduce any of the crime because the bad guys don't follow the rules."

Darryl Tomlinson, owner of Canadian Gun Guys in Winnipeg, said that he worries for the future of his store and shooting range, as well as the social network of members.

"This handgun measure is going to take away livelihoods and break up communities," he said.

"It's a Catch-22. We're busy now, but I fear we're going to be put out of business in the fall," Tomlinson said of the week's sales boom.

Source: AFP 

Calls for an environmentally conscious form of Islam are growing as climate change poses enormous ecological challenges.

Following the publication of an alarming report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Indonesia is once again at the center of the global climate debate. As the world’s largest exporter of coal and palm oil, the country has a major impact on the global climate crisis. Yet the island state itself is increasingly affected by extreme weather events. In 2019, a severe drought led to widespread forest fires. In 2020, the country experienced massive flooding due to the heaviest rainfall in decades.

With a population of over 270 million, Indonesia faces enormous social and environmental challenges, and some experts see religion as a ray of hope. As the country with the largest Muslim population in the world, calls for an environmentally conscious Islam are growing in Indonesia. “There is no doubt that the new Islamic environmental awareness is strengthening the entire ecological movement in Indonesia,” Fachruddin Mangunjaya, chairman of the Center for Islamic Studies at the National University in Jakarta, told DW.

A country in an environmental dilemma

Indonesia, with its more than 17,000 islands, is in a quandary. In addition to waste disposal, the two major climate sins of the country — coal-fired power and deforestation — repeatedly make the country’s headlines. Indonesia is not only the world’s export champion for thermal coal, but also the largest producer of palm oil, which leads to the deforestation of large areas of forest every year. Coal and palm oil form the backbone of the Indonesian economy, which cannot grow without reliable energy and the export of palm oil.

On the other hand, this economic model harms the very people it is supposed to serve: Indonesians. Greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and deforestation are having a significant impact on the health and livelihoods of the rural population. As a result of climate change, many of Indonesia’s remote and poor provinces suffer regular droughts, exacerbating poverty in the country.

Green Islam creates hope

Islam, to which almost 87 per cent of the population in Indonesia feels affiliated, could provide a way out of the dilemma. “The protection of nature and the environment is one of the commandments of Islam. Therefore, the use of clean energy is also ethically and morally important for Muslims,” Indonesian anthropologist Ibnu Fikri told DW. Together with his colleague Freek Colombijn from the Free University in Amsterdam, he has been researching the topic of “Green Islam” in Indonesia – an interaction between humans and the environment inspired by Islamic ideas and teachings.

Green Islam is also receiving more attention in politics. President Joko Widodo’s government recently engaged with Islamic leaders and communities to set a goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2060. Holding onto that principle, last year, the Ministry of Environment and Forestry signed a partnership agreement with Nahdlatul Ulama (NU), the country’s largest Muslim organization, to improve environmental management and sustainable forestry.

‘Translate awareness into concrete action’

According to Fachruddin, however, that is not enough. The urgency for increased climate awareness has not yet reached the majority of the country’s rural population and clerics. A 2020 survey by the Katadata Insight Center shows that Indonesian citizens place the highest trust in information from religious clerics. As a result, Fachruddin’s institute in Jakarta is working specifically on building bridges between leaders in Muslim society and environmental scientists.

“It is important that Islamic clerics not only understand the religious teachings, but also their significance for climate protections, so they can translate their awareness into concrete action,” Fachruddin said. So far, he has trained about 1,000 Islamic clerics who practice environmental protection and provide education in various villages across the country — and the number is growing.

Boarding schools as the nucleus of climate activism

Young people in particular need to be reached and made aware of environmental protection. “We need to think more about our future so that our students can find answers to pressing environmental issues early on and get involved in their own communities,” Khatibul Umam, who runs an Islamic boarding school (Pesantren) on the island of Madura, told DW.

Islamic boarding schools are an important part of Indonesia’s education system. Umam’s boarding school alone has 11,000 students. The school has made the combination of Islam and environmental protection one of its core tasks by supporting several environmental protection projects such as reforestation, sustainable agriculture and recycling, all of which have regional roots and are inspired by Islam.

The limits of ‘green Islam’

Although the direction is clear, Umam also knows that Islamic environmental activism in Indonesia is still at the beginning. “The main challenge we face, not only in our schools but in society in general, is to try to make people understand why these projects are significant, not only to us, but to all levels of society and the future generations,” said Umam.

Finally, as anthropologist Ibnu Fikri admits, there is no one Islam in Indonesia. “Due to compulsory religion in Indonesia, there is a huge diversity of practitioners of Islam. For some, it’s part of their daily routine. Others feel they belong less and are Muslim because they have to choose a religion.”

Pluralism creates opportunities

Therefore, it is not only Islam and environmental protection that need to be reconciled in the long-term, but also different social groups. Many experts say that a comprehensive, whole-of-society approach is needed. Fachruddin sees Indonesia’s pluralism as a great opportunity. “We learn a lot from traditions from before Islam. Because of our democratic situation in Indonesia, we respect not only nature and the environment, but all people and their ideas.”

Ibnu Fikri also gained this impression in his fieldwork in Indonesian communities. He describes it as a “cultural environmental awareness,” an interplay of religion, traditions and local practices that encourages people to protect the environment. Even if there is a long way to go, Islam can still provide a strong source of inspiration for many./ DEUTSCHE WELLE

Two more PKK terrorists surrendered to Turkish security forces, the Interior Ministry announced Saturday.

In a statement, the ministry said the two fled the terrorist group following persuasion efforts by police and gendarmerie forces and eventually surrendered.

They joined the terrorist group in 2013 and 2015 and operated in both Syria and Iraq as well as in Iran.

With the latest additions, the number of terrorists who have laid down their arms through persuasion efforts in 2022 now rose to 41, it added.

Offenders linked to terrorist groups who surrender are eligible for possible sentence reductions under a repentance law.

According to Turkish officials, in recent years the PKK – battered and demoralized by Turkish security forces' successful operations – has been losing members and failing to attract new ones.

A significant number of suspected terrorists have begun to abandon the PKK and surrender, but many terrorists lack the courage to leave the terrorist group out of fear of severe punishment if caught.

Over the last four years, the number of PKK terrorists in Turkey has plunged by 83%.

The PKK's leadership is struggling to recruit both militants and higher ranks, according to reports. Additionally, many terrorists are reluctant to enter Turkey from Iraq to carry out attacks due to the high number of casualties.

In recent years, Turkey has stepped up domestic operations and efforts across its borders against the terrorist group and convinced a substantial number of members to abandon the PKK.

Protests by a group of families in front of the pro-PKK HDP headquarters in Diyarbakır demanding the return of their sons and daughters, who were recruited or kidnapped to fight for the terrorist group, have also helped increase the number of people surrendering./aa

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Friday disowned a lady alleging on the social media to be belonging to the Kuwaiti diplomatic corps and supporting the Trans people. The lady in question belongs neither to the diplomatic corps nor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kuwait, according to a press release from the MoFA. The diplomatic passport the lady holds is no longer valid; she got it when her father was working for a technical office of a government body affiliated to an embassy. The contract of the man was terminated and his diplomatic passport as well as those of his family were invalidated, the statement affirmed.(KUNA)

 Many areas in Kuwait witnessed tremors in the early hours of Saturday. Tremors lasted for a few seconds, according to the report published by the Seismological Center at Sultan Qaboos University earthquake at 5 Richter scale occurred. According to Meteorologist Adel Al-Saadoun

it is considered as light where intensity is considered.

The KFSD stated that there were no reports of damages from earthquake which occurred today morning, only reports were there to inquire about the earthquake./KT

Türkiye’s Foreign Ministry summoned Greece's ambassador to Ankara on Friday because of the PKK terror group demonstrations near the Turkish Embassy in Athens and his country's turning a blind eye to terror groups.

Christodoulos Lazaris was summoned to the Foreign Ministry building and was informed of Türkiye's views and reactions to the presence and activities of terror groups in Greece, according to diplomatic sources.

The Greek ambassador was also informed that terror organizations easily carry out propaganda, financing and recruitment activities in Greece and Greece's identity as a "safe haven" has increased in circles associated with terrorism.

Additionally, the Lavrio camp was shown to Lazaris as an example that terror groups threatening Türkiye's security benefit from all kinds of logistics and training opportunities.

Lazaris, who was also told that the Lavrion camp has become a hotbed for terrorism comparable to PKK camps in Iraq and Syria, was informed of Türkiye's reaction and views on the subject due to action that started from the camp and turned into an overt PKK demonstration around the Turkish Embassy in Athens.

During the meeting, concerns about the safety of Turkish representatives and citizens in Greece were also expressed, and the expectation of effective cooperation in the fight against terrorism was reiterated.

Türkiye also emphasized the necessity for Greece to fulfill its obligations arising from neighborly relations and international law in the fight against terrorism./aa

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday named six ways of exporting the grains from Ukraine and shared his view of the reasons for the potential global food crisis.

Speaking in an interview with Rossiya 24 TV channel, Putin called cries about Russia's responsibility for the growing problems in the global food market "another attempt to pin the blame on someone else."

"First, the situation with the global food market did not become worse yesterday or even with the launch of Russia's special military operation in Donbas, in Ukraine. The situation took a downturn in February 2020 during the efforts to counter the coronavirus pandemic when the global economy was down and had to be revived," he noted.

Putin recalled that back then, the US financial and economic authorities printed large amounts of money to support the population and certain businesses and economic sectors; in less than two years, the money supply in America grew by 38,6% or $5.9 trillion, which led to the inflation and increase in food prices.

"Apparently, the US financial authorities proceeded from the fact that dollar is an international currency and as it was before it would spread throughout the world economy and in the US it (printing large additional amounts of money) won't be noticeable," the president said.

However, it happened to be a mistake, as the US secretary of the treasury recently admitted, he continued.

The second reason, according to Putin, is the short-sighted energy policy of the European authorities, who tried to force the transition to green energy without having a proper preparation ground for that.

"Banks, being pressured, stopped giving credits (for development of traditional energy sectors). Insurance companies stopped insuring the relevant contracts. The local authorities stopped providing plots for the development of the (energy) industry and reduced the production of specialized transport. All this led to underinvestment in the global energy sector, and as a result – an increase in prices," Putin noted.

The refusal of the European authorities from long-term contracts on gas deliveries caused the rise in prices as well, and not only on the hydrocarbons but also for fertilizers, because part of them is produced using gas, and further -- to the increase in the food prices.

Finally, the US and EU imposed sanctions on the export of the Russian and Belarusian fertilizers, the US then lifted them, but the EU did not, Putin said.

Taking into account that Russia and Belarus have about 45% share of the global market of fertilizers, the news about their ban induced the spike in prices for the rest of the dressing and consequently in prices of food.

"One thing clings to another, and Russia has absolutely nothing to do with it. Our partners have made a lot of mistakes themselves, and now they are looking for someone to blame, and, of course, in this sense, Russia is the most convenient candidate for this," he said.

Six ways of grain exports from Ukraine

Putin called "a bluff" Ukraine's capabilities to provide to the global market enough grain to prevent the food crisis.

He cited the UN data, according to which approximately 800 million tons of grain and wheat are produced annually in the world.

Ukraine's export potential mounts to 20 million tons or 2,5% of that volume, but as of today, the country is only capable of exporting some five-six million tons, which is a very small amount.

Besides, Russia does not prevent export, and there are several ways to export grains, the Russian president noted.

"The first. Please, it is possible to export through ports that are under the control of Ukraine, primarily in the Black Sea basin -- Odesa and nearby ports. We didn't mine the approaches to the port – Ukraine mined it.

"The second. There is another possibility, the ports of the Sea of Azov -- Berdyansk, Mariupol. They are under our control, but we are ready to ensure trouble-free export, including the Ukrainian grain, through these ports.

"The third. It is possible to export grain from Ukraine through the Danube and through Romania.

"The fourth. It is possible through Hungary.

"The fifth. It is possible through Poland. Yes, there are certain technical problems there, because the railway is different, it is necessary to change the carts. But it's just a matter of a few hours, and that's it.

"And, finally, the simplest thing is the export through the territory of Belarus. The easiest and cheapest, because from there directly to the ports of the Baltic states, to the Baltic Sea and further -- to anywhere in the world.

"So there is no problem with the export of grain from Ukraine," he said./aa