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PTI Supporters of Turkey’s main opposition Republican People’s Party (CHP) listen to speeches by deposed leader Ozgur Ozel during a rally in Izmir, Turkey, on Tuesday. Riot police used water cannons on Tuesday to prevent people from gathering to hear a speech by the deposed leader. Ozel and the core leadership of the Republican People’s Party, or CHP, were removed from their posts on Thursday by a court order that many people consider to be politically motivated.

(AP)

SEOUL, May 26: South Korean retail tycoon Chung Yong-jin on Tuesday issued his second apology in two weeks as Starbucks’ local operation faces a backlash over a recent marketing campaign that was widely perceived as mocking victims of a bloody military crackdown on pro-democracy protesters in 1980.

Chung, chairman of Shinsegae Group, which owns a 67.5 per cent stake in Starbucks Korea, bowed three times during a televised statement as he pleaded for forgiveness from the families of democracy activists killed by the country’s former military dictatorship and from the broader public.

The coffee chain sparked public outrage when it attempted to promote a large size of tumbler it calls a “tank” by declar-ing May 18 to be “Tank Day”. That’s the anniversary of a democratic uprising in the southern city of Gwangju that was brutally suppressed by troops, tanks and helicopters, killing or injuring hundreds.

The campaign compounded outrage by using the slogan “Thwack it on the table!”, which many read as a reference to a notorious 1987 police statement that attempted to cover up the torture death of student activist Park Jong-chol. Police claimed that Park died suddenly after investigators “hit the desk with a thwack”.

The promotion was met with immediate outrage and within hours Shinsegae canceled it and fired the chief executive of Starbucks Korea. Police also opened an investigation based on complaints by families of people killed at Gwangju.

“I take it very seriously the fact that many people felt deep pain and anger because of Starbucks Korea’s inappropriate marketing campaign,” Chung said Tuesday.

He also asked people not to take out their frustration on staff at Starbucks shops, saying the responsibility lies with management. There were no immediate reports of major incidents at stores.

Chung issued his first apology on May 19, saying in a state-ment that the campaign caused “deep pain to the victims and bereaved families of the May 18 Democratisation Movement as well as to the public”.

Jeon Sangjin, a senior Shinsegae Group executive, said the company has yet to find conclusive evidence that Starbucks Korea marketing employees intended to mock the pro-democ-racy movement, an accusation the employees have denied. However, he said some employees refused to hand over their smartphones during a weeklong internal review.

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SHILLONG, May 26: Meghalaya’s ambitious push to strengthen its sporting infrastructure gathered momentum on Tuesday as the Committee on Government Assurances of the Meghalaya Legislative Assembly reviewed progress at three major projects, including the under-construction Mawkhannu Football Stadium, the indoor stadium at Umsawli and the Water Sports Centre at Umtham.

The inspection team, led by Committee Chairman Renikton Lyngdoh Tongkhar, visited the sites in East Khasi Hills and Ri-Bhoi districts to assess the pace of work and overall development of the facilities, which are expected to play a key role in boosting football and adventure sports in the state.

The biggest attraction remains the football-specific stadium at Mawkhannu in New Shillong. Once completed, the 40,000-capacity venue is expected to become one of the largest football stadiums in the country and a major landmark for the sport in the Northeast. Officials informed that the project, being implemented by KPC Projects Limited, is scheduled for completion by the latter part of 2028 in accordance with the tender agreement.

Members of the committee expressed satisfaction over the ongoing construction work and said the project reflects Meghalaya’s growing sporting ambitions. Tongkhar described the stadium as a matter of pride for the state and said the infrastructure being developed could significantly strengthen Meghalaya’s position as an emerging football hub in India. Apart from the football stadium, the committee also inspected the Water Sports Centre at Umtham in Ri-Bhoi district, where a dedicated canoe slalom course is being developed. Spread across 14 acres and estimated to cost around Rs 21 crore, the facility is expected to serve both as a national-level training centre and as a boost for adventure sports tourism in the state.

Umtham has steadily gained attention in recent years for activities such as river canoeing, kayaking and rafting, and the upcoming infrastructure is likely to further establish the area as a key destination for whitewater sports in the Northeast.

The delegation also reviewed the indoor sports infrastructure at Umsawli and noted the rapid pace of development in New Shillong, particularly in terms of connectivity and supporting infrastructure around the upcoming sports venues.

===AUTHOR===

PARIS, May 26: Defending champion Coco Gauff began her French Open campaign in commanding fashion with a straight-sets victory over fellow American Taylor Townsend to storm into the second round at Roland Garros on Tuesday.

point opportunity and went on to dominate the remainder of the contest. The defending champion won 11 of the final 12 games, completely over-powering Townsend with her consistency and baseline control, especially in a one-sided second set where her opponent struggled to keep pace. Gauff will next face Egypt’s Mayar Sherif as she continues her bid to retain the French Open title.

The world No. 4 recovered from an early setback to register a 6-4, 6-0 win in just one hour and 20 minutes on Court Philippe-Chatrier, maintaining her perfect re-cord of reaching the second round in all seven of her French Open appearances.

Townsend made an ag-gressive start and broke Gauff in the opening game, threat-ening to take firm control of the first set. However, Gauff quickly regained momentum after surviving another break

In the men’s draw, Daniil Medvedev suffered yet an-other disappointing early exit at Roland Garros after losing to Australian wildcard Adam Walton in a dramatic five-set battle.

Walton defeated the for-mer US Open champion 6-2, 1-6, 6-1, 1-6, 6-4 to secure the biggest win of his career and his first victory over a top-10 player. (IANS)

===AUTHOR===
(IANS)

Iran condemns strikes as show of 'bad faith', warns of consequences

By AP

DUBAI, May 26: President Donald Trump insists a peace deal is close on the 88th day of the Iran war, but Iran on Tuesday denounced US airstrikes a day earlier as a sign of “bad faith and unreliability” as negotiations continue toward a possible deal to end the war.

The US military has characterised Monday’s strikes in southern Iran as defensive, saying targets included missile launch sites and boats placing mines, and said the US acted with “restraint” in light of the weeks-long ceasefire.

The strikes were done “to protect our troops from threats posed by Iranian forces,” but the military was “using restraint during the ongoing ceasefire,” Capt Tim Hawkins, the spokesman for the US military’s Central Command, said in a statement.

Iran’s foreign ministry called the strikes a cease-fire violation and warned that Washington would bear responsibility for “all consequences”, without details.

“The Islamic Republic of Iran will leave no act of aggression unanswered,” it added in a statement.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard on Tuesday said it had shot down and deterred drones and a fighter jet that entered its airspace, according to Iran’s official Mizan news agency, which did not specify when the incident occurred.

It wasn’t immediately clear what the developments would mean for negotiations. The strikes came after Iranian parliament speaker Mohammad Bagher Ghali-baf went to Qatar as part of the talks, which Trump said Monday were “proceeding nicely”.

The strikes were the lat-est flare-up in the fragile ceasefire that began April 7 and has largely held.

Negotiations centre in part on the Strait of Hor-muz, the crucial waterway off southern Iran through which a fifth of the world’s crude oil and natural gas passed before the war began with US-Israeli strikes in February. Tehran retaliated by effectively closing the strait, stranding hundreds of ships and shocking the global economy.

The strait has become a powerful lever for Tehran in talks, joining the long-run-ning issue of Iran’s nuclear programme and highly en-riched uranium. Iran in turn wants the US to lift its mili-tary blockade of Iranian ports that began on April 17.

The strait also is cause for growing concern as supplies of fertilizer are also badly af-fected for vulnerable global farmers.

“What we are witnessing today is not only a geopo-litical crisis, it is a systemic shock to the global agrifood system,” the director-general of the UN’s Food and Ag-riculture Organization, Qu Dongyu, said Tuesday.

Trump has introduced a new angle in negotiations for a deal on the war, saying any agreement to end the war should include a requirement for several additional coun-tries, including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan, to join the Abraham Accords, a series of US-brokered diplomatic, economic and security agree-ments aimed at normalising relations with Israel.

Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates became the first countries to join in 2020; Sudan, Morocco and Ka-zakhstan have followed. Egypt and Jordan already formally recognize Israel and have long-standing peace treaties. Turkey first recog-nised Israel in 1949.

Israel’s conduct against Palestinians, including in the war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has alien-ated Gulf Arab states and the wider Muslim world, but Trump has been keen to build on the Abraham Accords, forged during his first term. He even has suggested that Iran eventually could sign on.

Kyiv is warned to brace for possible major barrage

(AP)

KYIV, May 26: Russia fired more than 100 drones and two ballistic missiles at Ukraine overnight, the Ukrainian air force said Tuesday, as the country’s foreign ministry noted that Moscow’s recent threat to hit Kyiv especially hard from the air brought nothing new.

Russia on Monday urged foreign citizens, including members of diplomatic mis-sions, to leave the Ukrainian capital as quickly as possible and told residents to steer clear of military and govern-ment facilities. It said that “systemic strikes” on Kyiv were being prepared.

Russia has regularly bom-barded Kyiv, often causing

dozens of civilian casualties with every attack, since it launched an all-out invasion of neighbouring Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022.

Russia’s Foreign Minis-ter Sergey Lavrov told US Secretary of State Marco Rubio by phone Monday that the US should evacuate its diplomatic staff from Kyiv, a foreign ministry statement said.

Rubio didn’t say whether the US State Department would take that step, but expressed concern during a trip to India that the “ter-rible” war in Ukraine could escalate further.

The Trump administra-tion has tried for more than

a year to stop the war. But its efforts yielded no significant breakthrough and are now on ice as Washington focuses on the Iran war.

No diplomats say they are leaving Kyiv

There were no announce-ments of diplomatic depar-tures from Kyiv. The Europe-an Union, French and Polish delegations publicly said that they would not leave.

The European Union summoned Russia’s rep-resentative in Brussels to convey its concerns Tuesday, with European Commission spokesperson Anita Hipper accusing Russia of “trying to sow panic.”

SEOUL, May 26: North Korea launched a close-range ballistic missile and other weapons toward the sea on Tuesday, South Korea’s military said, days after the leaders of Russia and China voiced their opposition to Western pressures on North Korea.

The missile fired from Jongju, a city near the North’s west coast, flew about 80 kilometres, South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said. North Korea launched other kinds of projectiles, it said.

South Korean media, citing the military, reported that the other weapons systems mobilised included multiple rocket launch systems. The reports said that the simultaneous launches of different kinds of weapons were likely meant to test the ability to evade South Korean and US defences. (AP)

(AP)

BEIRUT, May 26: Israel’s military clashed with the Iranian-backed Hezbollah militant group Tuesday along a strategic river in Lebanon as Israeli troops tried to push farther north, just three days before Lebanese and Israeli military delegations are set to meet for direct talks in Washington.

A previously reached ceasefire appeared more nominal by the day, complicating efforts at a broader peace in the Iran war, as Tehran wants an end to the fighting to include Lebanon.

The Litani River has been a de facto boundary in Lebanon, with large areas to the south under Israeli military control despite the Washington-brokered ceasefire in place for over a month.

One Israeli strike kills 12, including several relatives

Tuesday’s intensified strikes and clashes came after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he had authorised more intensive strikes targeting Hezbollah across Lebanon.

Meanwhile, an Israeli security official said the military had called up an additional battalion to Lebanon, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.

Israel’s military said it struck more than 100 Hezbollah sites across southern Lebanon and the eastern Bekaa Valley area overnight, saying it targeted storage facilities, command centers and observation points used to attack Israeli troops and residents in northern Israel.

One strike hit the eastern village of Mashghara, killing 12 people including several members of a family, Lebanon’s state-run National News Agency said.

Israel in recent days has intensified strikes in Nabatieh city and province, just north of the river. On Tuesday it warned city residents to leave.

Hezbollah meanwhile said it launched several rocket, artillery and exploding drone attacks on Israeli troops and vehicles mobilising along the river toward the Nabatieh villages of Yohmor al-Shaqif and Zawtar al-Sharqieh.

Hezbollah’s Al-Manar TV said the militant group repelled attacks along the river banks.

Since the ceasefire, the Lebanese capital of Beirut has been spared from strikes, but Israel’s latest moves have caused fear.

Lebanon hopes for an agreement that sees Israeli withdrawal

The Lebanese government, which came to power on a platform of reform and disarming Hezbollah and other armed groups, hopes that the direct talks with Israel, opposed by Hezbollah, will lead to a permanent ceasefire and withdrawal of Israeli troops.

Israel says it will not withdraw until Hezbollah no longer poses a threat to residents of its northern towns.

Hezbollah has vowed to continue fighting until Israel stops its daily airstrikes and withdraws its troops from Lebanon.

In recent weeks, Hezbollah has boasted that it is using new fibre-optic drones that Israeli troops have struggled to intercept, hitting both Israeli forces and northern Israeli villages.

Israel has told people there not to gather in large numbers.