NewsBytes

Over half a century ago, 300-odd women from a village in Gujarat's Kutch rebuilt the bombed airstrip of the Bhuj IAF Station in just 72 hours during the Indo-Pak war, and those surviving among them say they are ready to perform similar duties for the country again if the need arises. Indian Army's 'Operation Sindoor' carried out recently against the terrorist camps in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) brought back the memories of this real-life war-drama that unfolded during the 1971 India-Pakistan war. Pakistani jets had bombed the Bhuj airstrip at that time, rendering it unusable. In order to make it operational again, it was required to be repaired and rebuilt urgently. Risking their lives, the women from Madhapar village in Kutch stepped in to carry out the task.  During his public event in Bhuj town on May 26, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met 13 of the surviving women, who are known as 'Virangana', and sought their blessings. He interacted with these septuagenarian women who had helped the Indian Army by rebuilding the airfield.  Madhapar village is nearly 5 km from Bhuj, the administrative headquarters of Kutch district that shares its border with Pakistan.

The Covid-19 pandemic, climate change and wars have combined to hamper global governments' plans to reduce tobacco use, derailing efforts to get an estimated 95 million people to stop smoking, a report endorsed by 57 campaign groups said.

Governments had planned to reduce smoking rates among people over 15 by 30% between 2010 and 2025 as part of an action plan tied to global sustainable development targets agreed in 2015. But the timeline to achieve the goal was extended an extra five years in 2024 as other priorities pushed countries to divert resources away from implementing a World Health Organisation treaty on tobacco control signed by 168 countries. "This ... delay represents an estimated 95 million additional tobacco users, who would otherwise have quit by 2025," said the report, submitted to the UN Economic and Social Council, which oversees global sustainable development. While governments have succeeded in reducing the number of smokers, the failure to hit the 30% reduction target means that 1,207,800,000 people are still smoking globally, instead of the target of 1,112,400,000, based on a Reuters calculation using smoking rates and population figures provided in the report.

China will resume Japanese seafood imports it banned in 2023 over worries about Japan's discharge of treated but slightly radioactive wastewater from the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant into the sea, a Japanese minister said. Agriculture Minister Shinjiro Koizumi said the agreement was reached after officials met in Beijing and the imports will resume once paperwork is complete. China said talks this week made “substantial progress,” but did not confirm an agreement with Japan on the issue that has been a significant political and diplomatic point of tension.  “Seafood is an important export item for Japan and a resumption of its export to China is a major milestone,” Koizumi said. Japan's Foreign Minister Takeshi Iwaya also welcomed the move, saying: “It will be a big first step that would help Japan and China to tackle a number of remaining issues between the two countries.”     But officials said China's ban on farm and fisheries products from 10 Japanese prefectures, including Fukushima, is still in place and that they will keep pushing toward their lifting.

Pakistan announced to upgrade its diplomatic ties with Afghanistan and appoint an ambassador to the country, a major indicator of improvement in ties between the two neighbours.  Pakistan had tacitly applauded the capture of Kabul by Taliban in 2021 with the hope that the regime would address its security concerns but it proved otherwise and cross border attacks by the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) militants increased manifolds. The ties plummeted as a result and Islamabad began accusing Kabul of providing sanctuaries to the TTP rebels while demanding action against them. The breakthrough in ties came through the trilateral mechanism of talks involving Afghanistan, China and Pakistan when the foreign ministers of the three nations met this month in Beijing. It is believed that China played a key role in sorting out differences between Pakistan and Afghanistan and the two agreed to upgrade diplomatic presence in their capitals. Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar made the formal announcement, saying that the Pakistan-Afghanistan relations are on a positive trajectory after his visit to Kabul on April 19.