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      Your Monday Briefing: North Korea’s Growing Outbreak

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      Plus India bans most wheat exports and South Korea amends surgery laws.Good morning. North Korea’s outbreak grows, India bans most wheat exports and South Korea amends its surgery laws.Kim Jong-un, North Korea’s leader, chided health officials for “incompetence” at a Saturday meeting, according to state media.Korean Central News Agency, via Associated PressNorth Korea’s outbreak growsState media reported 21 new deaths and a huge jump in suspected coronavirus cases on Saturday, as North Korea struggled to contain its first reported outbreak.State media said an additional 174,400 people had symptoms, like a fever, that could be caused by Covid-19 — a tenfold jump from the 18,000 such cases reported on Friday. North Korea has reported a total of 524,400 people with Covid-like symptoms since late last month.“North Korea is reporting only ‘people with fever’ because it does not have enough test kits,” an expert said. Covid may not be causing all those fevers, he said, but the number of asymptomatic cases is likely much higher than the official count.Vaccines: North Koreans are unvaccinated, though some elites may have received shots. International health organizations and the South Korean government have said that they were ready to ship vaccines, therapeutics and other aid.In other developments:The Covid-19 death toll in the U.S. is nearing one million. The nation wants to move on, but many of the loved ones left behind are grieving alone.If the U.S. had the same Covid death rate as Australia, about 900,000 lives would have been saved, our Sydney bureau chief writes in an analysis.Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern of New Zealand tested positive and has moderate symptoms.Thanks to its focus on subsidizing its farmers, India has about 10 percent of the world’s grain reserves.Amit Dave/ReutersIndia bans most wheat exportsAdding to concerns of global food insecurity, the world’s second-largest wheat producer has banned most exports of the grain. India’s commerce ministry said that a sudden price spike had threatened the country’s food security.The move, an apparent about-face, could compound a worldwide shortfall and exacerbate a dire forecast for global hunger. In April, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told President Biden that India was ready to supply the world with its reserves.Background: The war has interrupted wheat production in Ukraine and Russia, and blockades in the Black Sea have disrupted transport of the grain. And climate change poses a dire threat. Agricultural experts said that India’s ongoing heat wave could affect the harvest this year. Torrential rains brought on poor harvests in China, while drought in other countries further snarled supplies.Iran: Protests driven by rising food prices spread to at least six provinces on Friday. A hospital near Seoul voluntarily put cameras in its operating rooms in 2020.Chang W. Lee/The New York TimesSouth Korea’s surgery surveillanceSouth Korea has become one of the first countries to require cameras in operating rooms that handle patients under general anesthesia, a measure meant to restore faith in the medical system.For years, hospitals have fielded complaints about doctors turning patients over to unsupervised assistants who perform “ghost surgeries.” About five patients have died from such surgeries in the past eight years, a patient advocate said.According to patient advocates, surgeons deputize nurses to perform operations, thereby packing in more procedures and maximizing profits. They argue that cameras will protect patients and offer medical malpractice victims evidence to use in court.But ethicists and medical officials across the world have cautioned that surveilling surgeons may hurt morale, violate patient privacy and make physicians less likely to take risks to save lives.Background: The surreptitious surgeries began occurring at plastic surgery clinics in the 2010s, after South Korea started promoting medical tourism, according to legal experts. They spread to spinal hospitals, experts said, which mostly perform relatively uncomplicated procedures in high demand among the country’s aging population. THE LATEST NEWSAsia and the PacificMost of the victims were assembly line workers, local officials said.Sajjad Hussain/Agence France-Presse — Getty ImagesAt least 27 people were killed after a fire swept through a commercial building in New Delhi. The city’s chief fire officer said that the city was seeing more fires during India’s heat wave.Most members of the Rajapaksa political dynasty are hiding out at a military base in Sri Lanka as a protest movement grows. Only the president is still clinging to power.Gender transition surgery is a campaign flashpoint in Australia that looks like something from an overseas culture war.The WarHere are live updates.Finland’s government and Sweden’s governing party confirmed that they would seek NATO membership on Sunday, another strategic setback for Russia.Ukrainian forces drove Russian troops farther from Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city, as thousands of residents return each day. Residents are also returning to Bucha, and Kyiv shortened its curfew.Russian bloggers are criticizing evidence of a military disaster on the Donets River, which is breaking through the Kremlin’s information bubble.Ukraine won the Eurovision Song Contest in a pop culture endorsement of solidarity.World NewsA memorial for the victims of the Buffalo shooting.Joshua Rashaad McFadden for The New York TimesA white gunman killed 10 people and injured three more — almost all Black — at a supermarket in upstate New York, one of the deadliest racist massacres in recent American history. Follow live updates here.Israeli police officers attacked mourners at the funeral procession of Shireen Abu Akleh, a slain Palestinian American journalist.The U.A.E. has a new leader, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan. His half brother Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed died on Friday, after leading the Persian Gulf country for 18 years.Somalia elected a new president, but the government holds little sway: Al Shabab militants collect taxes, decide court cases and control the streets.Lebanese voters cast ballots for a new Parliament on Sunday, their first chance to pass judgment on lawmakers since the economy fell apart.A Morning ReadKim Do-yoon, an internationally known tattoo artist, at his studio in Seoul. Chang W. Lee/The New York Times Tattooing without a medical license is illegal in South Korea, where decorative body art has long been associated with organized crime. But the law is crashing into rising international demand for what are known as “k-tattoos,” and the country’s tattoo artists argue that it’s time to end the stigma against their business.Lives lived: Katsumoto Saotome compiled six books of survivors’ recollections of the 1945 Tokyo firebombing and founded (without government support) a memorial museum. Saotome died at 90.ARTS AND IDEASThe future of paralysis?Sixteen years ago, Dennis DeGray’s mind was nearly severed from his body. He ran to take out the trash in a rainstorm, slipped, landed hard on his chin, and snapped his neck, paralyzing him from the collarbones down.For several years, he “simply laid there, watching the History Channel,” he said. But then he met Jaimie Henderson, a neurosurgeon at Stanford, who had been developing a brain-computer interface. Henderson asked DeGray if he wanted to fly a drone. DeGray decided to participate.Now, implants in his brain allow DeGray some control, even though he cannot move his hands. Just by imagining a gesture, he can move a computer cursor, operate robotic limbs, buy from Amazon and fly a drone — albeit only in a simulator, for now.There are obvious therapeutic applications. Interest from an increasing number of high-profile start-ups also suggests the possibility of a future in which neural interfaces enhance people’s innate abilities and grant them new ones — in addition to restoring those that have been lost.PLAY, WATCH, EATWhat to CookRyan Liebe for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Hadas Smirnoff.The secret to these chocolate chip cookies? Chill the dough for a day before you bake them.FitnessGetting back into running is easier than you think.What to WatchFour children develop unusual abilities in “The Innocents,” a wonderfully eerie Norwegian horror movie.Now Time to PlayPlay today’s Mini Crossword, and a clue: Clothing (four letters).Here are today’s Wordle and today’s Spelling Bee.You can find all our puzzles here.That’s it for today’s briefing. See you next time. — AmeliaP.S. Elisabeth Goodridge, The Times’s deputy travel editor, will study travel reporting in an era of climate change as a 2023 Nieman fellow at Harvard.The latest episode of “The Daily” is on America’s Covid death toll.You can reach Amelia and the team at briefing@nytimes.com. More

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      in World Politics

      India Looks to Finland for an Effective Educational Model

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      The Fair Observer website uses digital cookies so it can collect statistics on how many visitors come to the site, what content is viewed and for how long, and the general location of the computer network of the visitor. These statistics are collected and processed using the Google Analytics service. Fair Observer uses these aggregate statistics from website visits to help improve the content of the website and to provide regular reports to our current and future donors and funding organizations. The type of digital cookie information collected during your visit and any derived data cannot be used or combined with other information to personally identify you. Fair Observer does not use personal data collected from its website for advertising purposes or to market to you.As a convenience to you, Fair Observer provides buttons that link to popular social media sites, called social sharing buttons, to help you share Fair Observer content and your comments and opinions about it on these social media sites. These social sharing buttons are provided by and are part of these social media sites. They may collect and use personal data as described in their respective policies. Fair Observer does not receive personal data from your use of these social sharing buttons. It is not necessary that you use these buttons to read Fair Observer content or to share on social media. More

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      in World Politics

      India Must Contain Afghanistan-Pakistan to Survive

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      The Fair Observer website uses digital cookies so it can collect statistics on how many visitors come to the site, what content is viewed and for how long, and the general location of the computer network of the visitor. These statistics are collected and processed using the Google Analytics service. Fair Observer uses these aggregate statistics from website visits to help improve the content of the website and to provide regular reports to our current and future donors and funding organizations. The type of digital cookie information collected during your visit and any derived data cannot be used or combined with other information to personally identify you. Fair Observer does not use personal data collected from its website for advertising purposes or to market to you.As a convenience to you, Fair Observer provides buttons that link to popular social media sites, called social sharing buttons, to help you share Fair Observer content and your comments and opinions about it on these social media sites. These social sharing buttons are provided by and are part of these social media sites. They may collect and use personal data as described in their respective policies. Fair Observer does not receive personal data from your use of these social sharing buttons. It is not necessary that you use these buttons to read Fair Observer content or to share on social media. More

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      in World Politics

      Making Sense of the Indian Position on the Russia-Ukraine War

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      Fair Observer’s new feature FO° Insights makes sense of issues in the news. Last week, the former Agence France-Presse chief editor Florence Biedermann shared her views on the French presidential elections. The week before, former BBC Africa editor Martin Plaut explained the Tigray War in Ethiopia.

      This week, our founder, CEO and editor-in-chief explores why India is not lining up against Russia despite American pressure. He describes how historic ties, military equipment, geopolitical imperatives and a trust deficit between the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and the Democrats lie behind India’s foreign policy decision.

      Watch or read Atul Singh make sense of it all.

      [embedded content]

      Atul Singh on India’s Position on the Russia-Ukraine War

      In this episode, we have our editor-in-chief explain the reasons behind India’s position in this conflict.

      Why won’t India denounce Russia? 

      Atul Singh: History, military equipment and the China factor explain India’s reticence on Russia. 

      History: Even before India became independent, it was inclined to socialism. Post-independence, India became a de facto Cold War ally. It was of course non-aligned but we know where India stood. 

      MIlitary Equipment: Most of India’s military equipment comes from Russia and Russian equipment is cheaper. It can be modified as India wishes unlike western equipment, which is more advanced and more reliable but also more expensive. 

      China Factor: India has a long  and disputed border with China. Given the fact that India relies on Russian kit, if Russia was to turn against India, then the country would face catastrophic defeat.

      How does India rely on Russia? 

      Atul Singh: India relies on Russia for defense, energy and geopolitical reasons.  

      On defense, given the fact that an estimated 70% of Indian military kit is Russian, India needs spare parts — critical particularly in times of war. When it comes to new kit, Russia allows India to modify it the way India wants and that is a big advantage. Also, Russia allows the transfer of technology, which the US, other countries in Europe, including France, are reluctant to allow. 

      For energy, the option of cheap or cut-price oil allows India greater leverage in its negotiations with its Middle Eastern energy suppliers. 

      And when it comes to geopolitical needs, Russia has backed India on Kashmir consistently over many decades and India is unsure about Western backing on Kashmir. 

      Why is India distrustful of the US? 

      Atul Singh: Well, part of it is a legacy of the Cold War. India was very much on the Soviet side, even if it was a soft Soviet ally.  

      Then in 1971, the US backed a military dictatorship in Pakistan whilst India was trying to liberate Bangladesh. Remember, Pakistan was running a genocidal regime in Bangladesh and using rape as a weapon of war. India has not forgotten that. 

      In the 1980s, the US funded a jihad in Afghanistan. Some of that money was used to fuel insurgency in India and, 1989 onwards, in Kashmir, many of these jihadis created mayhem. 

      Recently the withdrawal from Afghanistan has upset India. India spent an arm and a leg supporting the US-backed administration in Kabul and India feels betrayed.  

      There’s also that tiny little matter of political discord. India believes it is given no credit for sending 50,000 tons of wheat to Afghanistan, even though the US pulled out of the country. Recently, the US raised issues of human rights in India, which did not go down well.

      This is where the left-leaning Democrat government lacks the trust of the right-leaning BJP. There’s a huge trust deficit with the BJP government, which believes that the Democrats are plotting an orange revolution to unseat them just as they did in Ukraine. 

      Embed from Getty Images

      What is the China Factor? 

      Atul Singh: India and China share over 3,000 kilometers of border. And this border is not defined. There was a war in 1962 and there was a clash in 2020. 

      Should China launch a full-scale invasion and should Russia back China even if covertly, India would face catastrophic defeat. So, India wants Russia to play the role of an honest broker. 

      And good ties with Russia are an insurance against defeat vis à vis China. 

      What is India’s best case scenario? 

      Atul Singh: India’s best case scenario is a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine and the end of sanctions. Remember, India imports military kit both from Ukraine and Russia, so this war is causing havoc with its supplies. 

      Also remember India gets its investment from the US. India exports to the US, especially IT services and India sends students by the thousands to the US. India is deeply integrated into the US economic system.

      Unique Insights from 2,500+ Contributors in 90+ Countries

      This transcript has been lightly edited for clarity.

      The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy. More

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      in UK Politics

      Indian slums ‘covered up with white cloth’ during Boris Johnson’s visit

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      Large white sheets appear to have been used to cover up the view of slum housing along the route taken by Boris Johnson during his visit to Gujarat, India on Thursday.A number of videos and images posted on social media by local journalists appear to show white sheets lining the roadside near the former home of Mahatma Gandhi in Ahmedabad, which was visited by the UK prime minister on the first day of his India tour.Later that day and other images showed the sheets being taken down from their large metal frames, once again revealing the view of informal settlements behind. There is no official confirmation that the Gujarat government, led by prime minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), made these arrangements for Mr Johnson’s visit, and both state and city officials The Independent spoke to said they were not aware of any plan to cover up the view of slums.One video, shared online by filmmaker Vinod Kapri and purportedly recorded on Thursday in Ahmedabad, shows white cloth blocking the view on the side of the road as normal traffic continues in the busy city.Addressing Mr Modi, who hails from Gujarat and has increasingly offered the state as a stop-over for visiting foreign dignitaries in recent years, Kapri wrote: “You were the Chief Minister of Gujarat for 12 years. For 8 years you are the Prime Minister of the country @narendramodi.. Still, what is it that you are ashamed to show @BorisJohnson ?” One later video, posted on Thursday evening by a journalist named Umashankar Singh who works with news channel NDTV, shows the white sheets being taken down from their scaffolding, revealing shacks and parked scooters behind.“Curtains come off as Johnson leaves,” he wrote on Twitter on Thursday after the British prime minister had left for Delhi for his talks with Mr Modi on Friday. Mr Johnson had landed in India’s western province of Gujarat at 10.30am local time on Thursday and was received by chief minister Bhupendra Patel. His itinerary in Ahmedabad included the visit to the famous Sabarmati Ashram, the old home of Mahatma Gandhi, where he posed sitting with Gandhi’s famous charkha (spinning wheel). In his opening remarks to Mr Modi during his ceremonial reception in Delhi on Friday morning, Mr Johnson commented on how much he had enjoyed the “fantastic welcome” in Gujarat and said he “wouldn’t necessarily get that… everywhere in the world”. Mr Johnson’s visit to India came amid calls for his resignation back home, after he was fined by the police for breaching his own Covid lockdown rules against social gatherings. This isn’t the first time steps have been taken to hide parts of the view during a visit by a foreign dignitary to Ahmedabad. When then-US president Donald Trump visited Gujarat in early 2020 for a stadium event alongside Mr Modi dubbed the “Namaste Trump” rally, Ahmedabad’s municipal corporation built a four-foot-high wall to hide a stretch of slums on the American leader’s route through the city. Mr Johnson’s own India visit had already been mired in controversy after he visited a JCB factory, one day after the same company’s equipment was used to demolish houses of mostly poor Muslims in the North Delhi locality of Jahangirpur, an area hit with back to back incidents of religious violence over the last weekend. More

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      in World Politics

      Making Sense of India’s Newfound Love for Russian Oil

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      India’s love affair with Russia began a long time ago. India won its independence from the UK in 1947. Jawaharlal Nehru, its first prime minister, was a self-declared socialist who drew inspiration from the Soviet Union. In the decades after independence, India swerved increasingly to the left. As a result, New Delhi developed extremely close relations with Moscow.

      Only after 1991, when the Soviet Union collapsed, did New Delhi’s ties with Moscow weaken. In recent years, India has strengthened its relationship with the US. Both democracies find China a common threat. Furthermore, American investment has flowed into India while Indian students have flocked to the US. Indian politicians, movie stars and cricketers use American social media platforms such as Twitter and YouTube to campaign. Therefore, India’s neutrality on the Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused much heartburn in Washington.

      The recent visit of Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and Defense Minister Rajnath Singh to the US did not go particularly well. The Secretary of State Antony Blinken spoke about “monitoring some recent concerning developments in India, including a rise in human rights abuses by some government, police, and prison officials.” Blinken’s comment is less about human rights abuses and more about the US disapproval of India’s Ukraine policy and its purchase of Russian oil. So, why is New Delhi risking its relations with Washington and buying Russian oil?

      Embed from Getty Images

      Cheap Oil Option to Counter Inflation

      The Russian invasion of Ukraine has spiked global food, fertilizer and oil prices. The average monthly Brent crude oil price in December 2021 was $74.17. In March 2022, this had risen to $117.25. For an energy importer like India, this has spelled disaster. Inflation has shot up and the Reserve Bank of India has cut projected growth rates for the country. As a result, Russia’s offer of cut-price oil has become attractive to India.

      Given high prices, India is not alone in buying cheap Russian oil. Hungarian, Bulgarian and Greek refineries continue to buy Russian oil as do many others. The Indian press reports that  New Delhi “could be buying Russia’s flagship Urals grade at discounts of as much as $35 a barrel on prices before the war.” This is a very steep discount that offsets American and Western sanctions. With a per capita GDP that was only $1927.71 in 2020 and an unemployment crisis in the country, India cannot afford to forego the option of cheap oil.

      The option of buying Russian oil is also important for another reason. India sources its oil from many countries with Russia providing a tiny fraction of its energy needs. Iraq supplies 23% of India’s oil, Saudi Arabia 18% and the United Arab Emirates 11%. In 2022, exports from the US are likely to increase and meet 8% of India’s oil needs. Crucially though, India’s purchase of Russian oil gives it more leverage against other sellers. As Jaishankar rightly pointed out, India’s “total purchases for the month would be less than what Europe does in an afternoon.” Therefore, the US fixation with Indian oil purchases from Russia seems shortsighted and misguided.

      Embed from Getty Images

      A History of Romance, A Marriage of Geopolitical Realities

      As has been said by many foreign policy experts, India has shared a close strategic relationship with Russia for many decades. Once India chose socialism, the then Soviet Union traded preferentially with India. Moscow also provided and continues to provide the bulk of India’s defense needs. Even today, an estimated 70% of India’s defense equipment comes from Russia. Perhaps even more importantly, Moscow has shared nuclear, missile and space technology with New Delhi, enabling India to emerge as a major power.

      In 1971, the Soviet Union and India signed an important treaty. Later that year, Moscow backed New Delhi while Washington backed Islamabad. India was a democracy that reluctantly went to war to liberate Bangladesh. In the run up to the conflict, Pakistan’s military dictatorship was conducting genocide and using rape as a weapon of war against poor Bengalis in what was then known as East Pakistan. Russia has consistently backed India on Kashmir. In contrast, the US has regularly chided India for human rights abuses in Kashmir and taken a pro-Pakistan stance.

      Unique Insights from 2,500+ Contributors in 90+ Countries

      Even as ties with the US have improved, relations with Russia have remained important. In 2021, Russian President Vladimir Putin flew to New Delhi to meet Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. After the visit, retired Indian diplomat Ashok Sajjanhar concluded that Putin’s brief India trip had “reinvigorated a time-tested partnership.” Both countries signed many agreements, paying considerable attention to trade and investment relations. Traditional areas like nuclear energy, space and defense also got attention. Here, in the words of Sajjanhar “the most important decision was to commence manufacture of more than 700,000 assault AK-203 rifles with transfer of technology under the ‘Make in India’ program.”

      Russia is also helping India indigenize its defense production of T-90 tanks and Su-30-MKI aircraft. Russia also supplies spares and helps upgrade MiG-29-K aircraft, Kamov-31, Mi-17 helicopters, MiG-29 aircraft and multiple rocket launcher BM-30 Smerch. Despite an ongoing war with Ukraine and severe sanctions, Russia is delivering the second regiment of S400 missile defense systems to India. 

      India is in a rough neighborhood with two nuclear-armed neighbors. Both Pakistan and China claim Indian territory. The specter of a two-front war is a real one for India. Therefore, good relations with Russia, its biggest defense equipment and technology supplier, are critically important. This is a key reason for New Delhi to take up Moscow’s offer of cheap oil.

      As an independent nation and a rising global power, India has to act in its strategic interest. At the moment, this is best served by buying cheap Russian oil.

      The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Fair Observer’s editorial policy. More

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      in UK Politics

      ‘Tone-deaf’ Boris Johnson visits JCB factory amid outcry in India over demolitions using company’s bulldozers

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      Boris Johnson’s visit to inaugurate a JCB factory during his two-day tour of India has been dubbed “tone deaf” amid the outcry over the destruction of mostly Muslim homes in the country using the company’s bulldozers.The British prime minister landed in India on Thursday, a day after municipal authorities in Delhi moved in with JCB bulldozers to raze homes and properties of mainly Muslim residents in an area of the capital where religious riots broke out over the weekend. The local authorities have denied that the demolitions were linked to the communal violence and said there was no discrimination involved in the drive, but the incident has led to an uproar and many observers noted the unfortunate timing of Mr Johnson’s JCB factory visit. Mr Johnson’s first stop in India was at the city of Ahmedabad in the western state of Gujarat, where he was taken to the Sabarmati Ashram, the former home of Mahatma Gandhi. He was photographed using Gandhi’s traditional charkha (spinning wheel). But it was the second stop on the trip — the inauguration of a new plant for the UK-based Joseph Cyril Bamford Excavators Limited (JCB) company — that drew attention to Mr Johnson’s visit from a number of agitated Indian commentators.Mr Johnson had boarded an Indian Air Force Chinook helicopter to visit JCB’s new factory in Vadodara, owned by major Tory donor Lord Bamford.Political commentators in India pointed out that bulldozers and diggers manufactured by the company, which also produces agricultural and construction equipment, were used to demolish houses during a high-profile incident in Jahangirpuri, in north Delhi, the day before. JCB logos featured prominently in photographs from Thursday of tearful residents scrambling to retrieve personal items among the debris of their homes. “What a bulldozer of an irony! British PM @BorisJohnson will inaugurate the JCB plant in Halol that will manufacture bulldozers on a day when Supreme Court is taking cognisance of the constitutional limits of the administration’s use of the machine. #jahagirpuri,” Sanjay Kapoor, editor of India’s Hardnews magazine wrote. “JCB’s website proudly notes that it is used for construction, agriculture, recycling and power generation. In India, it is being used to disposess the poor and inflict collective humiliation upon Muslims. Hope that friends in the UK will make hold their PM to account,” Alishan Jafri, a Muslim journalist in India who writes for The Wire, tweeted. “Seems like @BorisJohnson’s visit is now turning increasingly tone-deaf. Visiting a plant of the JCB company while its bulldozers are being used to illegally terrorise Muslims? Someone at @UKinIndia failed to do their job. Only way Johnson can salvage this trip is by speaking up,” Mohamed Zeeshan, a leading Muslim columnist in India, wrote. “As many such images emerged from Delhi, it is ironical that the UK PM ⁦⁦@BorisJohnson⁩ will inaugurate a JCB factory in Gujarat today,” wrote Danish Khan, another Indian journalist, sharing the image of the JCB bulldozer used in the demolitions in north Delhi.Amnesty India called his visit “not only ignorant but his silence on the incident is deafening”.The demolition drive by the North Delhi Municipal Corporation, which is under the control of the Hindu right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) led by Narendra Modi, carried on for some time on Wednesday morning despite a stay order issued by the country’s top court. Residents and rights activists alleged that the demolition drive was biased against Muslim residents, after officials stopped short of damaging a temple that was in the same lane as other structures which were said to be encroaching. During his visit to the JCB factory, Mr Johnson dismissed questions about authoritarianism in his host country and insisted that India “is democratic”. Nonetheless, Mr Johnson suggested he would raise with Mr Modi issues including restrictions on the press, the protection of minorities and the use of bulldozers to destroy mainly Muslim homes when asked by broadcasters during the visit to the JCB factory.He said: “We always raise the difficult issues, of course we do, but the fact is that India is a country of 1.35 billion people and it is democratic, it’s the world’s largest democracy.”Asked if it was an embarrassment for the prime minister that JCB should find itself involved in a court case on the day he visited its factory in Gujarat, Mr Johnson’s official spokesperson said: “It is a matter for the Indian authorities how any equipment is used.”The spokesperson denied that Mr Johnson had visited the JCB plant because the firm’s boss Lord Bamford is a major Tory donor.“No,” he said. “He chose to go to the JCB factory because it is a very good illustration of a UK business working with India and the Indian government to benefit both the UK and India.“The factory visited today is the sixth one they have opened here. They are one of the biggest producers in India of this sort of equipment.”The Jahangirpuri area witnessed violence on 16 and 18 April during Hindu festivals, when slogan-chanting saffron-clad men carried out a procession in the area where mostly Muslims reside and a scuffle ensued between groups of people.It follows a similar incident in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh, where the state government — also led by the BJP — openly said it was demolishing Muslim properties as punishment for the violence that marred a Hindu festival in the city of Khargone. According to news reports, the authorities there vowed to demolish at least 50 “illegal” structures of Muslims accused of pelting stones at the Ram Navami procession and said that the damage caused to public and private properties during the violence will be recovered from rioters.Mr Modi’s government has been repeatedly accused of emboldening hardline Hindu religious groups and in recent months several incidents of hate speech against Muslims have been reported at religious events. There have been clashes between the two communities during recent Hindu festivals in at least five Indian states.During his visit to Ahmedabad, Mr Johnson is also expected to meet billionaire Gautam Adani, a firm supporter of Mr Modi and fellow Gujarati, and to see the Gujarat International Finance Tec-City or GIFT City before flying to Delhi where he will meet the Indian prime minister. Downing Street says Mr Johnson’s focus will be on strengthening trade and defence ties between India and the UK, and that the prime minister will not “lecture” his host on any points of difference, including India’s ongoing neutral stance towards the conflict in Ukraine. More

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      in US Politics

      Joe Biden vows to tackle ‘grave threat’ of untraceable ‘ghost guns’ – as it happened

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      Key events

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      5.11pm EDT

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      Closing summary

      3.06pm EDT

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      Biden announces ghost gun restrictions, seeks to end ‘terrible fellowship of loss’

      2.41pm EDT

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      Biden: Ghost guns pose ‘especially grave threat’

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      Modi call ‘constructive’, White House says, but no agreement over Russian oil

      11.56am EDT

      11:56

      Biden and Modi pledge collaboration over Ukraine

      10.25am EDT

      10:25

      Biden to announce restrictions on ‘ghost guns’

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      3.06pm EDT

      15:06

      Biden announces ghost gun restrictions, seeks to end ‘terrible fellowship of loss’

      Joe Biden said it was “basic common sense” to want untraceable, so-called ghost guns off the street, during a White House address to announce new firearms restrictions.
      In an event at the Rose Garden attended by numerous survivors and families of victims of gun violence, the president said he was clamping down on the kit-form guns to try to prevent others joining the “terrible fellowship of loss.”
      He also took a swipe at Republicans in Congress, and the gun rights lobby, including the national rifle association (NRA), that have opposed his efforts to enact reform.
      “The gun lobby tried to tie up the regulations and paperwork for a long, long time. The NRA called this rule I’m about to announce extreme,” Biden said. More