The mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on US soil, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, and two of his accomplices have agreed to plead guilty, the Pentagon said in a statement.

They are held at the US military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The Pentagon said that the Convening Authority for Military Commissions, Susan Escallier, has entered into pretrial agreements with Khalid Shaikh Mohammad, Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin ‘Attash, and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al Hawsawi, three of the co-accused in the 9/11 case said the statement.

The official said that the specific terms and conditions of the pretrial agreements are not available to the public at this time.

The three accused, along with Ali Abdul Aziz Ali and Ramzi Bin al Shibh, were initially charged jointly and arraigned on June 5, 2008, and then were again charged jointly and arraigned a second time on May 5, 2012, in connection with their alleged roles in the September 11, 2001, attacks against the US, the Pentagon said.

US Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell condemned the plea deals. “The Biden-Harris Administration’s cowardice in the face of terror is a national disgrace. The plea deal with terrorists, including those behind the 9/11 attacks, is a revolting abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and provide justice” McConnell stated on X. AGENCIES

The Australian government has denounced Japan’s decision to expand its commercial whaling. 

Tanya Plibersek, Minister for the Environment and Water, on Thursday, condemned Japan’s move to add fin whales to its list of commercial whalers will target, Xinhua news agency reported.

“Australia is deeply disappointed by Japan’s decision to expand its commercial whaling program by adding fin whales,” she said in a statement.

Fin whales are the second-largest whale species in the world and are listed as vulnerable to extinction on the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List of Threatened Species.

Japan’s Fisheries Agency in May proposed expanding commercial whaling in the country’s territorial waters and exclusive economic zone to include fin whales. In June the agency announced that it has authorized the hunting of up to 59 fin whales in the North Pacific in 2024.

Plibersek said on Thursday that Australia is opposed to all commercial whaling and called for all countries to end the practice.

“Australia’s efforts through the International Whaling Commission have contributed to a whaling-free Southern Ocean and a decline in commercial whaling around the world. Australia will continue to advocate for the protection and conservation of whales and the health of our ocean for future generations,” she said. AGENCIES

The body of Fouad Shokor, Hezbollah’s top military commander who was killed in an Israeli strike on Tuesday, was found under the rubble in Dahie in Beirut’s southern suburbs, local media reported, citing sources close to Hezbollah.

An Israeli drone fired on Tuesday evening three missiles at a position near the Shura Council of Hezbollah, aiming to target Shokor, a senior military advisor to Hezbollah Secretary-General Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah. The attack on Dahie also killed five others and wounded around 74 people, Xinhua news agency reported.

Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati condemned the attack, saying Lebanon preserves its right to take all necessary measures to deter the aggression.

Tensions along the Lebanon-Israel border escalated on October 8, 2023, following a barrage of rockets launched by the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah toward Israel in solidarity with Hamas’ attack on Israel the day before. Israel then retaliated by firing heavy artillery toward southeastern Lebanon. AGENCIES

 Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said here on Thursday that women have played a pivotal role in socio-economic development and poverty reduction in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

Speaking at the opening ceremony of the Pinnacle Entrepreneur Forum & 2024 ASEAN Women Entrepreneurs’ Network Award held in Phnom Penh, Hun Manet said women are at the heart of families, the soul of communities, and the conscience of the nations, Xinhua news agency reported.

“Our region has become the fifth-largest economy in the world because ASEAN women have played a pivotal role, not just as the very bedrock of her communities and national economies, contributing to job creation, reducing poverty, and promoting inclusive economy, but also in economic integration through regional and international platforms driving growth and foster innovation across borders,” he said.

In ASEAN, about 9.8 per cent of the population, or over 60 million individuals, are female business owners, he said, adding that in Cambodia, female business owners account for around two-thirds of businesses.

“As women engage more actively in regional and international economic activities. They not only elevate their enterprises but also contribute to the overall economies, resilience and sustainability of their communities and nations,” Hun Manet said.

The Cambodian leader said despite their resilience and determination, women entrepreneurs face numerous challenges including limited access to finance, markets, networks and opportunities for growth and development.

“The ASEAN governments, including Cambodia, recognise the challenges faced by women entrepreneurs and understand the vital role they play in achieving gender equality and economic growth,” he said. “We are actively working towards overcoming these obstacles.”

ASEAN groups Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. AGENCIES

 Chile’s government downgraded its economic growth forecast for 2024 from 2.7 per cent to 2.6 per cent, and lowered its inflation forecast for the year to 3.7 per cent, the Finance Ministry has said.

Finance Minister Mario Marcel and other ministry officials presented on Wednesday the latest figures to parliament in a Public Finance Report for the second quarter of 2024.

Economic activity “contracted slightly” in the second quarter but “will resume growth” in the third quarter, Xinhua news agency reported, citing the ministry’s macroeconomic coordinator, Andres Sansone.

“Given a somewhat worse performance than expected in the non-mining sectors in the second quarter, the non-mining GDP (gross domestic product) is being reviewed,” he said.

The government slightly upgraded its 2025 growth forecast to 2.6 per cent.

Regarding inflation in 2025, officials revised their figure upwards, from 3.4 per cent to 4.4 per cent, due to higher electricity rates in the first half of the year.

Chile’s economy grew 1.1 per cent in May year on year, below the expectations of the domestic financial market, the central bank reported at the beginning of this month. AGENCIES

 India on Thursday summoned the Sri Lankan Acting High Commissioner in New Delhi to the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to register a strong protest over the death of an Indian fisherman during a collision between a Sri Lankan naval vessel and an Indian fishing boat five nautical miles north of Katchatheevu Island, earlier in the day. 

Out of the four Indian fishermen who were on board the vessel, one lost his life and another is missing. Two of the fishermen have been rescued and brought ashore to Kankesanthurai. A search is ongoing for the missing Indian fisherman.

The MEA said that the Indian Consulate officials in Jaffna have been instructed to “immediately rush” to Kankesanthurai and extend all possible assistance to the fishermen and their families.

“The Sri Lankan Acting High Commissioner in New Delhi was called in today morning to the Ministry of External Affairs and a strong protest was registered over the incident. We expressed our shock and anguish at the unfortunate loss of life. Our High Commissioner in Colombo will also be raising the matter with the Sri Lankan government later today,” the MEA stated.

The ministry added that the Indian government has always emphasised the need to deal with issues pertaining to fishermen in a humane and humanitarian manner.

“Existing understandings between the two governments in that regard must be strictly observed. Utmost efforts should be made to ensure that there is no recurrence or resort to the use of force.

“Government attaches the highest priority to the safety and security of Indian fishermen. Issues relating to Indian fishermen have been raised regularly at the highest levels with the Sri Lankan leadership,” it added. AGENCIES

Delta Air Lines CEO Ed Bastian said the massive IT outage, earlier this month, cost the company $500 million.

He said the figure included not just lost revenue but “the tens of millions of dollars per day in compensation and hotels” in five days, Xinhua news agency reported.

The airline cancelled over 5,000 flights amid the outage through July 25, which was sparked by a botched CrowdStrike software update and took thousands of Microsoft systems around the world offline.

The meltdown was rare for Delta. Its slower recovery from the outage than other airlines prompted an investigation by the US Department of Transportation.

After the outage, Delta’s platforms that match flight crews to planes couldn’t keep up with the changes, leading to further disruptions, according to the company.

Bastian told CNBC on Wednesday that the carrier would seek damages from the disruptions, adding, “We have no choice.”

CrowdStrike has so far made no offers to help Delta financially, Bastian said.

A CrowdStrike spokesperson said in a statement that the company had “no knowledge of a lawsuit and had no further comment.” Microsoft didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment, CNBC reported.

“We have to protect our shareholders. We have to protect our customers, our employees, for the damage, not just to the cost of it, but to the brand, the reputational damage,” Bastian was quoted as saying in the report. AGENCIES

 Calling the twin strikes by Israel killing senior leaders of Hamas and Hezbollah during a 24-hour period a “dangerous escalation”, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called for an international diplomatic push to prevent a broader regional conflict.

“The international community must work together to urgently prevent any actions that could push the entire Middle East over the edge, with a devastating impact on civilians,” the UN chief’s Spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said on Wednesday.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh was killed in an audacious strike inside Iran on Wednesday during his visit for the swearing-in of newly-elected Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, according to Hamas.

A short while earlier, Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr was killed in an air strike in Beirut.

“The Secretary-General believes that the attacks we have seen in South Beirut and Tehran represent a dangerous escalation at a moment in which all efforts should instead be leading to a ceasefire in Gaza, the release of all Israeli hostages, a massive increase of humanitarian aid for Palestinians in Gaza and a return to calm in Lebanon and across the Blue Line that separates Lebanon from Israel,” Dujarric said.

While Guterres has been calling for maximum restraint, it alone is not enough “at this extremely sensitive time” and he “urges all to vigorously work towards regional de-escalation”, the spokesperson added.

Iran’s UN Mission warned of an escalation, saying in an X post: “The response to an assassination will indeed be special operations — harder and intended to instill deep regret in the perpetrator.”

While Israel military confirmed it had taken out Shukr, Israel was silent on the killing of Haniyeh, a serious setback to ceasefire efforts in Gaza because the Qatar-based leader was a key negotiator with Israel for a ceasefire and the return of hostages taken by Hamas during the October 7 attack. AGENCIES

 The Chief of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, will give a public address today after the funeral of Hezbollah’s military chief Fuad Shukr, who was killed in an Israeli attack on Tuesday night.

The body of Shukr, who was also an advisor to Nasarullah, was found among the rubble in southern Beirut on Wednesday evening.

Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant has publicly said that Fuad Shukr had the blood of several Israelis on his hands and that the killing of Shukr was a message that Israel would reach out to its enemies anywhere in the world.

It may be recalled that Hezbollah has been continuously attacking Israel since October 8, especially in the Northern Territory of Israel. Israel has evacuated a large number of its population from its Northern Territory.

On July 27, 12 children were killed in a Hezbollah rocket strike on a soccer field in the Druze village of Majdal Shams in Golan Heights.

The killings of Fuad Shukr and Ismail Haniyeh are likely to accelerate the war against Israel in the days to come. AGENCIES

 India “will never be a formal ally or partner of the United States” as it is “also a great power” with “its own beliefs, its own interests” but the two can act as allies on the global stage, Deputy Secretary of State Kurt Campbell has declared.

Not being a formal ally “doesn’t mean that we cannot have the strongest possible relationships as allied nations on the global stage,” he said on Tuesday at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing in Washington

“I do believe that we bent India’s trajectory in ways that are consequential and very much in our interests,” he added.

He stressed that ties with India are “probably the most important relationship for the United States to get right”.

Campbell’s characterisation of India acting on its interests and having alliances to reach objectives without formal pacts reflects External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar’s foreign policy rubric of strategic autonomy.

He gave the assessments of ties with India during a committee hearing on strategic competition with China while replying to an interjection from Republican Senator James Risch, who said that front page pictures of Prime Minister Narendra Modi embracing Russia’s President Vladimir Putin during his recent Moscow visit were a “bitter pill to swallow”.

However, he did add that India is an “important actor. There’s no question about it” and acknowledged India’s and Russia’s “geographical location” and “historical connection”.

Campbell said, “I think we’re likely to hear news of India engaging more directly in Ukraine. I’m grateful for that. I think India wants to play a responsible role globally.”

“One of the hardest things to keep in mind is that India is also a great power and it has its own beliefs, its own interests,” he said.

“There are very few other countries in the world that have such an appeal to the Global South and their ability to engage there is unmatched and we are seeking to work with them,” he said of India’s strategic importance to the US in the context of China’s international diplomacy.

“You’ve got to take comfort in some of these things and recognise fundamentally, that in a number of things that we’re engaged in, India is an active and supportive partner,” he said.

On Washington’s cooperation with New Delhi, Campbell said, “We’ve supported them in intelligence and military along the Line of Actual Control (on the border with China and) in the Indian Ocean”.

Indian and Chinese troops are locked in a tense standoff along the Line of Actual Control with periodic clashes.

In the last major incident, about 20 Indian soldiers and several Chinese were killed in a confrontation in 2022 with makeshift weapons in an area where firearms are mutually banned.

On ties that bind at the level of people, Campbell spoke of the Indian diaspora in the US and the favourable sentiments in India towards the US.

There is a “wonderful diaspora in the United States that connects our two great countries”, he said.

“I believe that the vast majority of people in India want a better relationship with the United States,” he said. “They’re grateful for our bipartisan attention. They liked the work that we’ve done together in education and technology”. AGENCIES