Foreign News

Trump fires at least a dozen government watchdogs

Published

1 year ago

2025/01/26

Priyan

The Trump administration has fired at least a dozen federal watchdogs late on Friday evening, a possibly illegal move that could face court challenges.

Speaking from the Senate floor on Saturday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer described the watchdog firings as a “chilling purge”. “These firings are Donald Trump’s way of telling us he is terrified of accountability and is hostile to facts and to transparency,” said Schumer, a Democrat from New York.

The White House has not confirmed the firings and did not respond to the BBC’s request for comment.

Affected inspectors general were sent emails from the director of presidential personnel overnight on Friday telling them that “due to changing priorities, your position as inspector general… is terminated, effective immediately”, according to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.

The group of dismissed watchdogs includes the inspector general for the Department of Health and Human Services, and the inspector general of the Small Business Administration, CBS said.

There were competing lists of fired watchdogs circulating, according to the New York Times. Watchdogs at the departments of agriculture, commerce, defence, education, housing and urban development, interior, labor, transportation and veterans affairs, as well as the Environmental Protection Agency were all reportedly considered.

It is unclear whom the Trump administration might pick to fill the newly vacant positions.

Congress created inspectors general in the wake of the Watergate scandal, as part of a wave of reforms intended to curb corruption, waste and fraud. The independent watchdogs – who work within federal agencies but are not controlled by the head of those agencies – are meant to serve as a guard against mismanagement and abuse of power.

Though they are presidential appointees, they are expected to be nonpartisan.

The firings may be in breach of a law that requires the White House to give Congress 30-day notice and case-specific information before dismissing a federal inspector general.

Hannibal Ware, the inspector general of the Small Business Administration and head of a council of the watchdog across agencies sent a letter to Sergio Gor, the head of the White House Office of Presidential Personnel suggesting the dismissals were invalid.

“I recommend that you reach out to White House your intended course of action,” Ware wrote. “At this point, we do not believe the actions taken are legally sufficient to dismiss presidentially appointed, Senate-confirmed inspectors general.”

In a separate statement released on Saturday afternoon, Ware wrote that dismissals “inconsistent with the law” were a grave threat to to the independence of inspectors general.

“IGs [inspectors general] are not immune from removal,” he wrote. “However, the law must be followed to protect independent government oversight for America.”

Democrats were quick to criticise the president for the move.

Schumer said the move was a “preview of the lawless approach” Trump and his administration were taking.

Gerry Connolly, a Virginia Democrat and ranking member of the House Oversight Committee, called the firings a “Friday night coup” and an “attack on transparency and accountability”.

He and 20 other Democratic members of congress wrote a letter directly to President Trump which expressed “grave concern” for the dismissals and urged him to reconsider.

“Your actions violate the law, attack our democracy, and undermine the safety of the American people,” the representatives wrote, a group that included Jamie Raskin of Maryland, Zoe Lofgren of California, and Rosa DeLauro of Connecticut.

Some Republican lawmakers, including Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Senator Susan Collins of Maine also expressed concern over the purge.

“I don’t understand why one would fire individuals whose mission it is to root out waste, fraud and abuse,” Collins said at the Capitol on Saturday. “I don’t understand it.”

[BBC]

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Foreign News

How photography helped the British empire classify India

Published

15 hours ago

2026/02/21

Priyan

Female dancers or nautch girls, early 20th Century. The photograph was taken by Edward Taurines, one of the first European photographers with a studio in Bombay (now Mumbai) which specialised in photographs showcasing the city for a Western audience. [BBC]

In the second half of the 19th Century, photography became one of the British Empire’s most persuasive instruments for knowing – and classifying – India.

A new exhibition – called Typecasting: Photographing the Peoples of India, 1855-1920, and organised by DAG, the Delhi-based art gallery – brings together nearly 200 rare photographs from a period when the camera was deployed to classify communities, fix identities and make India’s complex social differences legible to the colonial government.

Spanning 65 years, the exhibition maps an expansive human geography: from Lepcha and Bhutia communities in the north-east to Afridis in the north-west; from Todas in the Nilgiris to Parsi and Gujarati elites in western India.

It also turns its gaze to those assigned to the lower rungs of the colonial social order – dancing girls, agricultural labourers, barbers and snake charmers.

These images did not merely document India’s diversity; they actively shaped it, translating fluid, lived realities into apparently stable and knowable “types”.

Curated by historian Sudeshna Guha, the exhibition centres on folios from The People of India, the influential eight-volume photographic survey published between 1868 and 1875. From this core, it expands outward to include albumen and silver-gelatin prints by photographers such as Samuel Bourne, Lala Deen Dayal, John Burke and the studio Shepherd & Robertson – practitioners whose images helped define the visual language of that time.

“Taken together, this material tells the history of ethnographic photography and its effect on the British administration and the Indian population, in a project which in size and depth has never before been seen in India,” says Ashish Anand, CEO of DAG.

Here’s a selection of images from the exhibition:

DAG Five Indian women wearing saris stand outside a modest house in Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1890, balancing neatly stacked cow dung cakes on their heads while additional rounds lie arranged on the ground beside them. — Women carrying cow dung cakes, Bombay, 1890, by Edward Taurines. Here, the women are presented in service to the household, engaged in domestic tasks typically performed within the home – but repositioned outdoors for the camera.[BBC]

DAG An Indian woman in a sari poses for a photograph taken by Felix Morin, published in 1890. — Indian woman, photographed by Felix Morin, 1890. Women feature prominently in the photographs at the show. This carefully composed colonial-era portrait captures both the ethnographic gaze of the period and the formal elegance of early photography. [BBC]

DAG Four Afghan tribesmen, armed with guns and dressed in traditional attire, photographed in 1862. The group - Afridis from the Khyber Pass near Peshawar - stand posed before the camera. — This 1862 photograph – ‘Group of Afridis from the Khyber Pass’ taken by Charles Shepherd – shows men from a Pathan tribe the British described as “fiercely independent” found along the Afghan border.[BBC]

DAG A street barber trims a man’s hair in a small vacant space in India. Both wear traditional dress - a sarong-type dress. A turban lies near a man. The photograph was taken by an unidentified photographer. — *A street barber, by an unidentified photographer. Such images frequently captured street trades and everyday performances, turning ordinary labour into ethnographic subjects. [BBC]*

DAG Two high caste Hindu women in traditional saris pose on the steps of a house in Bombay in 1855 — William Johnson, a founding member of the Photographic Society of Bombay, published this image titled ‘Brahmani Ladies’ in the 1857 issue of The Indian Amateur’s Photographic Album. The accompanying text named the two women, describing them as young and intelligent, and noted that they were in Bombay – with their father’s encouragement and their husbands’ support – to study English at a mission school.[BBC]

DAG Five men of India's Parsee community, dressed in traditional attire and distinctive headgear, sit on chairs in a garden, with a colonial-style building rising behind them. — A group of Parsis, possibly photographed by William Johnson, sit before a colonial bungalow – asserting their distinct identity through clothing and bearing, while occupying a colonial architectural world. [BBC]

DAG Four men and women belonging to north eastern India's Bhutia community pose in their traditional attire in this picture taken in 1890. — A group of young Bhutias, 1890. The volume includes photographs of people from Sikkim, Bhutan and Tibet – regions beyond the British rule. The Lepchas, Bhutias and Tibetans were photographed by Benjamin Simpson. [BBC]

DAG Eight Indian musicians pose outside a cave in India's Maharashtra, holding their traditional drums and pipes in this undated photograph. — *Musicians at ancient Buddhist rock-cut shrines in Maharashtra, photographed by Charles Scott, undated.[BBC]*

DAG A husband, wife and daughter from India pose at an unidentified location in Singapore in the late 19th century, dressed in their traditional attire. — *An Indian family in Singapore, late 19th Century. Some images depict people from the Malay Peninsula, Singapore and Chittagong in Bangladesh.[BBC]*

**[BBC]**

Foreign News

Asos co-founder dies after Thailand apartment block fall

Published

1 day ago

2026/02/20

Priyan

Quentin Griffiths died in the Thai city of Pattaya [BBC]

A co-founder of online fashion giant Asos died after falling from a high-rise apartment block in Thailand, police have said.

Quentin Griffiths has been named by Thai police as the man found dead on the ground in the eastern seaside city of Pattaya on 9 February.

A police investigator told the BBC Griffiths, a British passport holder, was by himself, his room was locked from the inside, and there was no trace of any break-ins at the time of the death. An autopsy did not reveal any evidence of foul play.

Griffiths co-founded Asos in 2000 and remained a significant shareholder after leaving the firm five years later.

City AM/Shutterstock A man in a blue pinstriped shirt smiles in a reflection in the mirror. — *Quentin Griffiths, pictured in 2008 [BBC]*

A Foreign Office spokesperson said: “We are supporting the family of a British national who has died in Thailand and are in contact with the local authorities.”

Police in Pattaya told the BBC Griffiths was found dead outside a luxury hotel where he had been staying in as a long-term resident in a suite on the 17th floor.

He was involved in two ongoing court cases that might have caused him stress, police also told the BBC.

Griffiths was separated from his second wife, a Thai national, and had reportedly been engaged in a legal dispute with her over a business they ran together, the BBC understands.

He co-founded Asos in London with Nick Robertson, Andrew Regan and Deborah Thorpe.

Its name originally stood for As Seen On Screen as it sold fashion inspired by clothing worn by TV and film stars.

It grew to become an online fashion marketplace stocking hundreds of brands as well as its own lines and at one time was valued at more than £6bn.

Its largest shareholders include Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen – who owns Danish clothing giant Bestseller and Mike Ashley, owner of Frasers Group.

[BBC]

Foreign News

Mystery donor gives Japanese city $3.6m in gold bars to fix water system

Published

2 days ago

2026/02/20

Priyan

Osaka authorities received 21kg of gold bullion from a mystery donor

A Japanese city has received a hefty donation to help fix its ageing water system: 21kg (46lb) in gold bars.

The gold bars, worth an estimated 560 million yen ($3.6m; £2.7m), were given last November by a donor who wished to remain anonymous, Osaka Mayor Hideyuki Yokoyama told a press conference on Thursday.

Home to nearly three million people, Osaka is a commercial hub located in the Japan’s Kansai region and the country’s third-largest city.

But like many Japanese cities, Osaka’s water and sewage pipes are ageing – a growing cause for safety concern.

Osaka recorded more than 90 cases of water pipe leaks under its roads in the 2024 fiscal year, according to the city’s waterworks bureau.

“Tackling ageing water pipes requires a huge investment. So I have nothing but appreciation,” Yokoyama told reporters on Thursday, in response to a question about the huge gold donation.

Yokoyama said the amount was “staggering” and he was “lost for words”.

The same mystery donor had previously given 500,000 yen in cash for municipal waterworks, he added.

The city’s waterworks bureau said in a statement on Thursday that it was grateful for the gold donation and would put it to good use – including tackling the deterioration of water pipes.

More than 20% of Japan’s water pipes have passed their legal service life of 40 years, according to local media.

Sinkholes have also become increasingly common in Japanese cities, many of which have ageing sewage pipeline infrastructure.

Last year, a massive sinkhole in Saitama Prefecture swallowed the cab of a truck, killing its driver. The sinkhole was believed to have been caused by a ruptured sewage pipe.

That incident prompted Japanese authorities to step up efforts to replace corroded pipes across the country. But budget issues have stalled the progress of such pipe renewal works.

[BBC]