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Indian actor Manoj Kumar, known for his roles in Hindi-language films with patriotic themes, died on Friday aged 87.The death of the man dubbed “Bharat” Kumar — a reference to the ancient Sanskrit word for India steeped in Hindu religious symbolism — sparked tributes from across the country.Kumar, who was also a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s governing Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), died in Mumbai due to heart-related complications.  Modi led the condolences, calling Kumar an “icon” of Indian cinema, saying that his works “ignited a spirit of national pride and will continue to inspire generations”.Throughout his career, Kumar was known for acting — and at times directing — films that had a focus on unity and national pride.Born Harikrishan Goswami, he renamed himself in Bollywood tradition — taking on the name Manoj Kumar.He was the recipient of several national awards, including the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, India’s highest honour for cinema.Kumar made his debut in Indian cinema in the late 1950s.He went on to star in several films, many with patriotic themes, including “Upkar” (1967),  “Purab Aur Pachhim” (1970) and “Kranti” (1981).

The head of Myanmar’s junta was due to discuss the response to his country’s devastating earthquake at a regional summit in Bangkok on Friday after the death toll passed 3,000.Min Aung Hlaing will join a BIMSTEC gathering — representing the seven littoral nations of the Bay of Bengal — where he will raise the emergency response to last Friday’s 7.7-magnitude quake.The junta chief arrived at Bangkok’s plush Shangri-La hotel, the summit venue, amid tight security, AFP journalists saw.Many nations have sent aid and teams of rescue workers to Myanmar since the quake but heavily damaged infrastructure and patchy communications — as well as a rumbling civil war — have hampered efforts.Myanmar has been engulfed in a brutal multi-sided conflict since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.Following reports of sporadic clashes even after Friday’s quake, the junta joined its opponents on Wednesday in calling a temporary halt to hostilities to allow relief to be delivered.UN chief Antonio Guterres, speaking in New York, called for the Myanmar truce to “quickly lead to a beginning of a serious political dialogue and the release of political prisoners.”AFP journalists saw hectic scenes on Thursday in the city of Sagaing — less than 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the epicentre — as hundreds of desperate people scrambled for emergency supplies distributed by civilian volunteers.Roads leading to the city were packed with traffic, many of the vehicles part of aid convoys organised by civilian volunteers and adorned with banners saying where they had been sent from across Myanmar.- Situation ‘devastating’ -Destruction in Sagaing is widespread, with 80 percent of buildings damaged, half severely, UNDP resident representative for Myanmar Titon Mitra told AFP.Food markets are unusable and hospitals are overwhelmed by patients and structurally unsound, he said, with patients being treated outdoors in heat of 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).”We have seen children, pregnant women, injured people there. There’s not enough medical supplies,” he said.”If you look at the overall impacted area, there’s possibly three million-plus that may have been affected.”Residents say they still face a lack of help nearly a week after the quake.”We have a well for drinking water but we have no fuel for the water pump,” Aye Thikar told AFP.”We also don’t know how long we will be without electricity,” she said.The 63-year-old nun has been helping distribute relief funds to those left without basic amenities.But many people are still in need of mosquito nets and blankets, and are forced to sleep outside by the tremors that either destroyed their homes or severely damaged them.”People passing by on the road have generously donated water and food to us. We rely solely on their kindness,” she said.- Eyes on summit -While Sagaing residents scrabbled for handouts of water and instant noodles, Min Aung Hlaing prepared to sit down for a gala dinner with fellow leaders at the $400-a-night Shangri-La hotel.The leaders of the seven-member BIMSTEC grouping — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand — will discuss trade, security and other issues, as Asia reels from US President Donald Trump’s swingeing new raft of tariffs.Host country Thailand has also proposed that the leaders issue a joint statement on the impact of the disaster when they meet on Friday.Opposition groups and rights organisations have fiercely criticised Thailand’s decision to host Min Aung Hlaing, accusing him of war crimes in Myanmar’s brutal conflict.His attendance at the summit represents a diplomatic win for Myanmar’s isolated government as it breaks with a regional policy of not inviting junta leaders to major events.Thai foreign ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura defended the decision, saying that the kingdom had a “responsibility” as summit host to invite all BIMSTEC leaders.Min Aung Hlaing’s arrival in the Thai capital came as a junta spokesperson said on Thursday that 3,085 deaths from the quake had been confirmed, with 341 people still missing and 4,715 injured.Bangkok, hundreds of kilometres from the quake’s epicentre, also suffered isolated damage.The city’s death toll has risen to 22, with over 70 still unaccounted for at the site of a building collapse.A 30-storey skyscraper under construction was reduced to rubble in a matter of seconds when the tremors hit, trapping dozens of workers.Rescuers are still scouring the immense pile of debris but the likelihood of finding more survivors is diminishing.burs-pdw/pbt/des/jhb

US President Donald Trump has slapped punishing new tariffs on imports of Chinese goods, deepening a trade war between the world’s two largest economies.Beijing has vowed countermeasures in response and warned the new tariffs will cripple global supply chains — and Washington’s own interests.AFP looks at how so-called “liberation day” tariffs — which bring levies on Chinese goods to 54 percent — will hit China:- Why is China so vulnerable? – China’s export-driven economy is particularly sensitive to vicissitudes in international trade.Trade between it and the United States, the world’s two largest economies, is vast.According to Beijing’s customs data, sales of Chinese goods to the United States last year totalled more than $500 billion — 16.4 percent of the country’s exports.US duties also threaten to harm China’s fragile economic recovery as it struggles with a long-running debt crisis in the property sector and persistently low consumption — a downturn Beijing had sought to slow with broad fiscal stimulus last year.But an intensified trade war will likely mean China cannot peg its hopes for strong economic growth this year on its exports, which reached record highs in 2024.”The US tariffs on Chinese imports announced so far this year could fully negate the lift from the fiscal stimulus measures announced so far,” Frederic Neumann, Chief Asia Economist at HSBC, told AFP.And while he said the impact on export competition may be slightly mitigated by the fact that all countries are hit by the levies, he stressed “the drag on Chinese growth is nevertheless significant”.- What impact will the new tariffs have? -The new tariffs slap 10 percent levies on imports from around the world.But China has long drawn Trump’s ire with a trade surplus with the United States that reached $295.4 billion last year, according to the US Commerce Department’s Bureau of Economic Analysis.The latest salvo adds 34 percent to a 20 percent rate imposed last month, bringing the total additional tariffs on imports from the Asian economic powerhouse imposed by the Trump administration to 54 percent.The tariffs come into effect in stages — a ten percentage point bump on Thursday, followed by the full levy on April 9. China is also under sector-specific tariffs on steel, aluminium and car imports. Analysts expect the new levies to take a significant chunk out of the country’s GDP, which Beijing’s leadership hope will grow five percent this year.Julian Evans-Pritchard, Head of China Economics at Capital Economics, said in a note he said he expected the economic hit to range from 0.5 percent to one percent of GDP.Likely to be hit hardest are China’s top exports to the United States — the country is the dominant supplier of goods from electronics and electrical machinery to textiles and clothing, according to the Peterson Institute of International Economics.But analysts also warn that because of the crucial role Chinese goods play in supplying US firms, the tariffs may also have major knock-on effects. “US imports from China are dominated by capital goods and industrial materials instead of consumer goods,” Gene Ma, Head of China Research at the Institute of International Finance, told AFP.”The tariff will hurt US manufacturers as well as consumers.””This trade war not only has a destructive impact on China but also on the global trade system,” Chen Wenling, Chief Economist at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges in Beijing, said.- How might Beijing respond? -Beijing has yet to specify what exactly its “countermeasures” will involve.But the retaliation could see Beijing hike pre-existing tariffs imposed in response to previous measures.”China’s countermeasures should be reasonable, beneficial and measured,” Mei Xinyu, an economist at the state-affiliated Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation in Beijing, told AFP.”They need to be strong and precise, while also avoiding turning the countermeasures into a decoupling of China and the United States,” Mei added.China last month slapped tariffs of 15 percent in imports of coal and liquefied natural gas from the United States. Crude oil, agricultural machinery, big-engined vehicles and pickup trucks also face 10 percent duties.Analysts say those moves are designed to hit Trump’s support base — those in America’s rural heartlands that voted him into office last year.Beijing has called for dialogue to resolve the dispute, but any deal will take time.”There are still chances for the two parties to resume talks in the following months,” Betty Wang at Oxford Economics told AFP.”But historical experience suggests that tariffs are typically quick to rise and slow to fall.”

Indian police said on Thursday they had arrested a US tourist who sneaked onto a highly restricted island carrying a coconut and a can of Diet Coke to a tribe untouched by the modern world.Mykhailo Viktorovych Polyakov, 24, set foot on the restricted territory of North Sentinel — part of India’s Andaman Islands — in a bid to meet the Sentinelese people, who are believed to number only around 150.All outsiders, Indians and foreigners alike, are banned from travelling within five kilometres (three miles) of the island to protect the Indigenous people from outside diseases and to preserve their way of life.”The American citizen was presented before the local court after his arrest and is now on a three-day remand for further interrogation,” Andaman and Nicobar Islands police chief HGS Dhaliwal told AFP.Satellite photographs show a coral reef-fringed island — stretching to some 10 kilometres (six miles) at its widest point — with thick forest and white sand beaches.The Sentinelese last made international headlines in 2018 after they killed John Allen Chau, 27, an American missionary who landed illegally on their beach.Chau’s body was not recovered and there were no investigations over his death because of the Indian law prohibiting anyone from going to the island.India sees the wider Andaman and Nicobar Islands as strategically sited on key global shipping lanes. They are closer to Myanmar than mainland India.New Delhi plans to invest at least $9 billion to expand naval and air bases, troop accommodations, the port and the main city in the region.- Bow and arrows -Dhaliwal said Polyakov kept blowing a whistle off the shore of North Sentinel Island for about an hour to attract the tribe’s attention before he went ashore.”He landed briefly for about five minutes, left the offerings on the shore, collected sand samples, and recorded a video before returning to his boat,” Dhaliwal said.”A review of his GoPro camera footage showed his entry and landing into the restricted North Sentinel Island.”Police said Polyakov was arrested late on Monday, about two days after he went ashore, and had visited the region twice in recent months.He first used an inflatable kayak in October 2024 but was stopped by hotel staff, police said on Thursday. Polyakov made another unsuccessful attempt during a visit in January 2025.This time Polyakov used another inflatable boat with a motor to travel the roughly 35 kilometres (22 miles) of open sea from the main archipelago.The Sentinelese, whose language and customs remain a mystery to outsiders, shun all contact and have a record of hostility to anyone who tries to get close.A photograph issued by the Indian Coast Guard and Survival International two decades ago showed a Sentinelese man aiming a bow and arrow at a passing helicopter.Indian authorities have prosecuted any locals who have aided attempts to enter the island and are trying to identify anyone who may have helped Polyakov.The Andamans are also home to the 400-strong Jarawa tribe, who activists say are also threatened by contact from outsiders. Tourists have previously bribed local officials in a bid to spend time with the Jarawa.

A 21-year-old shopkeeper with little money of her own, Ei Hay Mar Hlaing has delivered more help to victims at the epicentre of Myanmar’s devastating earthquake than most national or international aid organisations.When she saw the carnage the 7.7-magnitude tremor had inflicted on the city of Sagaing in central Myanmar, she decided to act. “Myself and my friends gathered our pocket money and asked for donations,” she told AFP at her impromptu distribution site Thursday. “We can’t afford much because we are youths. We donated with what we had. If anyone can afford it, I would like to request them to help.”They loaded a truck with drinking water, instant noodles, energy drinks and electrolytes, plus first-aid kits, and headed to the disaster zone from their homes in Monywa, about 110 kilometres (63 miles) away. In matching white helmets, she and around eight of her friends handed out supplies in a field next to a school in Sagaing.Scores of would-be recipients whose homes have been destroyed or made uninhabitable packed tightly together, hoping to secure a share of the goods. Lwin Myint, 56, was looking for help for her family of six. “I came here to see if I can get some snacks and water,” she said. “Now, we do not have a place to live. “We haven’t received anything except some packets of rice and curry, and water as we queue. I want some rice and oil if possible.”Another woman walked away with two bottles of water and a few packs of instant noodles, looking slightly dazed. A tattooed pro-junta militiaman armed with an assault rifle paced between the queues of mostly women to maintain order. Over several days in the disaster zone, AFP journalists have not seen soldiers actively taking part in rescue or aid efforts, aside from one group putting up tents for the displaced around Mandalay Palace. International rescue teams -– many of them Chinese –- have been working at multiple disaster sites in Mandalay, but in neighbouring Sagaing, organisation logos are mostly remarkable by their absence.Instead, the road to the city was jammed with civilian aid convoys from neighbouring regions, draped with banners declaring the aid was sent to victims by their fellow Burmese. “Myanmar has been experiencing earthquakes, flood, fire and bombing. I am sad to see them,” said Ei Hay Mar Hlaing, wearing a T-shirt emblazoned with “Believe Yourself”. “I want everyone to be okay,” she said. “I want international communities to help us as much as they can.”At a World Food Programme site in the city -– the only international aid distribution AFP saw in Sagaing on Thursday — bags of rice, boxes of fortified biscuits and bottles of sunflower oil were being handed out. “The situation is really devastating” in Sagaing, said the UNDP’s Resident Representative for Myanmar Titon Mitra, estimating 80 percent of buildings had been damaged, “50 percent probably severely”.”The markets are inoperable, the hospitals are absolutely overwhelmed, the structural integrity of the hospital itself is now compromised, so everyone is outside.” The hospital’s medical director told Mitra he had received no international assistance. “This is a crisis on top of a crisis on top of a crisis. The economy had collapsed, people’s coping mechanisms had collapsed and on top of that, you have this earthquake. “So, the short answer is that needs are immense.”

Nepal’s capital was blanketed in acrid smog Thursday as wildfires across the country pushed air pollution levels to among the worst in the world.Experts say that widespread wildfires, fuelled by an exceptionally dry winter and stagnant atmospheric conditions, have caused the thick and throat-burning smog to cover the Kathmandu valley.Levels of PM2.5 pollutants — cancer-causing microparticles that enter the bloodstream through the lungs — registered above 178 micrograms per cubic metre on Thursday, according to Swiss monitoring firm IQAir.A reading above 15 in a 24-hour period is considered unhealthy by the World Health Organization (WHO), and IQAir ranked Kathmandu the world’s most polluted city. The Himalayan nation sees a spate of wildfires annually, usually beginning in March, but their number and intensity have worsened in recent years, with climate change leading to drier winters.”The prevailing dry conditions have significantly increased the frequency of forest fires across the country, further worsening air pollution,” Khushboo Sharma, an air pollution analyst at the Kathmandu-based International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development(ICIMOD) told AFP.”This year, precipitation was exceptionally low, with hardly any rainfall, leaving forests dry and more susceptible to fire,” she added. Sharma said that stagnant meteorological conditions are also causing pollution to accumulate over the valley.On social media, people complained of stinging eyes and itchiness because of the pollution. Low visibility caused by the smog also disrupted flights at Kathmandu airport, sparking long delays.”The mountain flights… as well as some other flights have been disturbed because of the pollution,” said Rinji Sherpa, the airport’s spokesman. The health ministry issued a notice Wednesday requesting Nepalis to “avoid unnecessary travel” and to wear a mask when outside.The government has also urged people to avoid construction and burning rubbish. The Air Quality Life Index, issued by the University of Chicago, estimated that in 2024 air pollution stripped 3.4 years off the life of an average Nepal resident.

The head of Myanmar’s junta arrived in Bangkok on Thursday for a regional summit as the death toll from his country’s devastating earthquake passed 3,000.Min Aung Hlaing will join a BIMSTEC gathering — representing the seven littoral nations of the Bay of Bengal — where he will raise the response to Friday’s 7.7-magnitude quake. The junta chief arrived at Bangkok’s plush Shangri-La hotel, the venue for Friday’s summit, amid tight security, AFP journalists saw.Many nations have sent aid and teams of rescue workers to Myanmar since the quake but heavily damaged infrastructure and patchy communications — as well as a rumbling civil war — have hampered efforts.Myanmar has been engulfed in a brutal multi-sided conflict since 2021, when Min Aung Hlaing’s military wrested power from the civilian government of Aung San Suu Kyi.Following reports of sporadic clashes even after Friday’s quake, the junta joined its opponents on Wednesday in calling a temporary halt to hostilities to allow relief to be delivered.AFP journalists saw hectic scenes on Thursday in the city of Sagaing — less than 15 kilometres (nine miles) from the epicentre — as hundreds of desperate people scrambled for emergency supplies distributed by civilian volunteers.Roads leading to the city were packed with traffic, many of the vehicles part of aid convoys organised by civilian volunteers and adorned with banners saying where they had been sent from across Myanmar.- Situation ‘devastating’ -Destruction in Sagaing is widespread, with 80 percent of buildings damaged, 50 percent severely, UNDP resident representative for Myanmar Titon Mitra told AFP.”The situation is really devastating,” he said.Food markets are unusable and hospitals are overwhelmed by patients and structurally unsound, he said, with patients being treated outdoors in heat of 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit).”We have seen children, pregnant women, injured people there. There’s not enough medical supplies,” he said.”If you look at the overall impacted area, there’s possibly three million-plus that may have been affected.”Residents say they still face a lack of help nearly a week after the quake.”We have a well for drinking water but we have no fuel for the water pump,” Aye Thikar told AFP.”We also don’t know how long we will be without electricity,” she said.The 63-year-old nun has been helping distribute relief funds to those left without basic amenities.But many people are still in need of mosquito nets and blankets, and are forced to sleep outside by the tremors that either destroyed their homes or severely damaged them.”People passing by on the road have generously donated water and food to us. We rely solely on their kindness,” she said.- Eyes on summit -While Sagaing residents scrabbled for handouts of water and instant noodles, Min Aung Hlaing prepared to sit down for a gala dinner with fellow leaders at the $400-a-night Shangri-La hotel.The leaders of the seven-member BIMSTEC grouping — Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Myanmar, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Thailand — will discuss trade, security and other issues, as Asia reels from US President Donald Trump’s swingeing new raft of tariffs.Host country Thailand has also proposed that the leaders issue a joint statement on the impact of the disaster when they meet on Friday — a week from the day the quake struck.Opposition groups and rights organisations have fiercely criticised Thailand’s decision to host Min Aung Hlaing, accusing him of war crimes in Myanmar’s brutal conflict.His attendance at the summit represents a diplomatic win for Myanmar’s isolated government as it breaks with a regional policy of not inviting junta leaders to major events.Thai foreign ministry spokesman Nikorndej Balankura defended the decision, saying that the kingdom had a “responsibility” as summit host to invite all the BIMSTEC leaders.Min Aung Hlaing’s arrival in the Thai capital came as a junta spokesperson said on Thursday that 3,085 deaths from the quake had been confirmed, with 341 people still missing and 4,715 injured.Bangkok, hundreds of kilometres from the quake’s epicentre, also suffered isolated damage.The death toll in the city has risen to 22, with more than 70 still unaccounted for at the site of a building collapse.A 30-storey skyscraper — under construction at the time — was reduced to a pile of rubble in a matter of seconds when the tremors hit, trapping dozens of workers.Rescuers are still scouring the immense pile of debris but the likelihood of finding more survivors is diminishing.burs-pdw/pbt

India said Thursday it was “examining the implications” of sweeping US tariffs, saying it was eyeing “opportunities” after rival competitors were harder hit by US President Donald Trump’s hike in duties.New Delhi, which is in the process of negotiating the first tranche of a bilateral trade agreement with Washington, said it was pushing ahead with talks for a deal.India’s Department of Commerce said it is “carefully examining the implications of the various measures”, adding in a statement that it was “also studying the opportunities that may arise due to this new development”.Trump, speaking while unveiling the tariffs at the White House on Wednesday, said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was a “great friend” but that he had not been “treating us right”.An initial White House chart revealing the tariffs listed India at 26 percent, but a subsequent annex — cited by New Delhi — put duties at 27 percent.”Discussions are ongoing between Indian and US trade teams for the expeditious conclusion of a mutually beneficial, multi-sectoral Bilateral Trade Agreement,” the statement said.The commerce department added that talks “are focused on enabling both nations to grow trade, investments and technology transfers”.”We remain in touch with the Trump Administration on these issues and expect to take them forward in the coming days.”India’s pharmaceutical sector, which exported more than $8 billion of products to the United States in the 2024 fiscal year, emerged unscathed — with drugs exempt from its reciprocal tariff move.

Entombed under his hotel bed for five days in the debris, two things enabled teacher Tin Maung Htwe to survive Myanmar’s devastating earthquake: old school lessons and his own urine.The primary school headmaster was on a training course in Sagaing, the closest place to the epicentre, when the 7.7-magnitude earthquake struck.The 47-year-old remembered a decades-old school lesson to shelter under a bed if the world starts to shake. “As soon as I went under the bed, the whole hotel fell down and was blocked. All I could afford was to say ‘save me’,” he said. “I was shouting ‘save me, save me’.”The Swal Taw Nann guesthouse where he was staying was reduced to a pile of bricks and twisted metal strips, the broken shell of its top storey resting on the remains of those below, and Tin Maung Htwe in a ground floor room underneath it all. “I felt as though I was in hell,” he said weakly, an oxygen tube running to his nose and two intravenous drips into his reduced frame.”My body was burning hot and all I needed was water. I couldn’t get that water from anywhere.”So I have to refill the water my body needed with fluids coming out of my body.”– ‘I am free’ –The intensity of destruction in Sagaing, closer to the epicentre, is far higher than in neighbouring Mandalay, with a much greater proportion of its buildings reduced to piles of debris. Great gouges have been opened up in the main road towards it –- jamming traffic and hampering those trying to help the victims -– and the Ava bridge across the Irrawaddy linking the two cities is down, one end of six of its 10 spans resting in the placid waters. Residents said the Myanmar Red Cross were recovering bodies from the site and were not expecting to find anyone alive when they located him, and a Malaysian rescue team was called in to extract him. One of eight siblings, his sister Nan Yone, 50, was one of several of his relatives watching and waiting as they worked at the site. “I can’t describe it,” said Nan Yone of his rescue on Wednesday. “I was dancing, crying and beating my chest because I was so happy.”When he arrived at Sagaing’s main hospital he gave her a thumbs-up and told her: “Sister I am very good.””His will is very strong and I think that is why he survived,” she said on the day he was rescued.As she spoke nurses tended to her semi-conscious brother on a outdoor gurney, his head lolling occasionally from side to side. No one is being treated indoors at the facility, for fear of an aftershock wreaking more havoc.”I am glad I am free now,” Tin Maung Htwe told AFP.”I wouldn’t be able to do anything if I was dead. I didn’t die so now I can do whatever I wish.” He wants to go back to his work as a schoolteacher. But he added: “I am considering becoming a Buddhist monk.”

Sri Lankan animal rights activists marched on Thursday to protest the round-up of stray dogs a day ahead of a visit by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Authorities in Colombo and the Buddhist pilgrim city of Anuradhapura have reportedly deployed dog catchers to impound hounds ahead of Modi’s visit, which begins on Friday.Many of Colombo’s strays are beloved by their adopted neighbourhoods despite lacking formal owners — and are dubbed “community” canines rather than street dogs.Around a dozen protesters from the Rally for Animal Rights and Environment (RARE) waved placards outside President Anura Kumara Dissanayake’s office in Colombo after submitting a petition to India’s high commission. “Stop the cruel removal of our community dogs,” one placard read.Protesters said that many of the dogs in public parks had been vaccinated and neutered and were cared for by locals and animal welfare groups.”How can Sri Lanka promote tourism when we are a country known for animal cruelty?” another placard read.Protesters urged New Delhi’s intervention to “prevent the cruel and unnecessary removal of these dogs”, saying that the round-up of dogs would create “displacement, suffering, and potential harm”.Modi is set to receive an official welcome at Colombo’s Independence Square, where dog catchers are reported to have been busy in this week.He is also set to visit Anuradhapura, 200 kilometres (124 miles) north of the capital, to pay homage to a fig tree believed to have grown from a cutting from the tree under which the Buddha attained enlightenment more than 2,500 years ago.The tree is both an object of worship and a symbol of national sovereignty on the majority Buddhist island of 22 million people.