A giant explosion in central Paris on Wednesday, potentially caused by a gas leak, left 37 injured in a street near the historic Latin Quarter. The blast led to the collapse of the facade of a famous design school. Subsequently, 70 fire trucks and 270 firefighters battled the blaze to douse the fire. Four people injured in the incident are reportedly critical, while two others are said to be missing.
Indian PM Narendra Modi met Micron CEO Sanjay Mehrotra and invited his company to boost semiconductor manufacturing in India. Modi also had a meeting with H. Lawrence Culp, Jr. the CEO of General Electric (GE), and discussed GE’s greater technology collaboration to promote manufacturing in India. Additionally, on the second day of his visit to the US, the Indian PM met Applied Materials President and CEO Gary E. Dickerson in Washington, and invited his company to contribute to strengthening the semiconductor ecosystem in India.
According to ex-PM Imran Khan, Pakistan was engaged in developing a peace initiative with India, aiming to establish a resolution framework for the Kashmir issue. As part of this proposed plan, New Delhi would have announced a comprehensive roadmap, while Islamabad would have extended an invitation for the Indian Prime Minister to visit Pakistan in 2019. “India was supposed to give some concession, give some sort of a roadmap to Kashmir, and I was going to then host Prime Minister [Narendra] Modi in Pakistan […] But it never materialised. So, it never went further than that. That’s how it was,” Khan said in an interview with US-based think tank the Atlantic Council.
According to the World Economic Forum’s annual Gender Gap Report 2023, India is ranked 127 out of 146 nations in terms of gender parity, an improvement of eight positions compared to previous year’s ranking, indicating a partial return towards its 2020 parity level. The report stated that the country had achieved parity in enrollment across all levels of education. In the report, it was observed that India had closed 64.3% of the total gender gap. However, it also emphasised that India has only attained 36.7% parity in economic participation and opportunity.
On Wednesday, leaders at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in London pledged several billion dollars in non-military aid to rehabilitate the country’s war-ravaged infrastructure, combat corruption, and help pave the way for the country’s accession to the EU. They also urged private-sector firms to invest and help restore Ukraine’s economy. Delegates from more than 60 nations attended the conference, which served as a fundraising event and a statement to Russia that Ukraine’s Western allies are committed to the cause.
UN Special Rapporteur on the human rights situation in Myanmar, Thomas Andrews, said that ASEAN must refuse to engage with Myanmar’s military leadership due to its lack of progress in implementing the proposed five-point peace plan. “It is time to consider alternative options to break what has become a deadly stalemate. ASEAN must consider measures to impose accountability on the junta for its grave human rights violations and blatant disregard for implementation of the Five-Point Consensus,” Andrews told a press conference in Jakarta.
Japanese PM Fumio Kishida on Wednesday announced plans to attend the NATO summit in Lithuania next month. He also stressed on the need to develop a “constructive and stable” relationship with China, alongside cooperating with the US. The goal is “to raise Japan’s presence in the international society,” and “defend the peace of our country and the people’s lives,” he said.