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Hamas said Saturday it was reviewing a new Israeli proposal for a cease-fire in Gaza, as Egypt intensified efforts to broker a deal to end the months-long war and stave off a planned Israeli ground offensive into the southern city of Rafah.

Senior Hamas official Khalil al-Hayya gave no details of Israel’s offer, but said it was in response to a Hamas proposal two weeks ago. Negotiations earlier this month centered on a six-week cease-fire proposal and the release of 40 civilian and sick hostages in exchange for freeing hundreds of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

A separate Hamas statement said leaders from the three main militant groups active in Gaza discussed attempts to end the war. It didn’t mention the Israeli proposal.

The statements came hours after an Egyptian delegation ended a visit to Israel where it discussed a “new vision” for a prolonged cease-fire in Gaza, according to an Egyptian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to freely discuss the developments.

It wasn’t immediately clear whether Israel’s proposal was directly related to the visit.

The discussions between Egyptian and Israeli officials focused on the first stage of a plan that would include a limited exchange of hostages held by Hamas for Palestinian prisoners, and the return of a significant number of displaced Palestinians to their homes in northern Gaza “with minimum restrictions,” the Egyptian official said.

Mediators are working on a compromise that will answer most of both parties’ main demands, which could pave the way to continued negotiations with the goal of a deal to end the war, the official said.

Hamas has said it won’t back down from demands for a permanent cease-fire and full withdrawal of Israeli troops. Israel has rejected both and said it will continue military operations until Hamas is defeated and that it will retain a security presence in Gaza.

There is growing international pressure for Hamas and Israel to reach a cease-fire deal and avert an Israeli attack on Rafah, where more than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million people have sought refuge.

Israel has insisted for months it plans a ground offensive into Rafah, on the border with Egypt, where it says many remaining Hamas militants remain, despite calls for restraint including from Israel’s staunchest ally, the United States.

Egypt has cautioned an offensive into Rafah could have “catastrophic consequences” on the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where famine is feared, and on regional peace and security.

The Israeli military has massed dozens of tanks and armored vehicles in southern Israel close to Rafah and hit locations in the city in near-daily airstrikes.

Early Saturday, an airstrike hit a house in Rafah’s Tel Sultan neighborhood, killing a man, his wife and their sons, ages 12, 10 and 8, according to records of the Abu Yousef al-Najjar hospital’s morgue. A neighbor’s 4-month-old girl was also killed.

Ahmed Omar rushed with other neighbors after the 1:30 a.m. strike to look for survivors, but said they only found bodies and body parts.

“It’s a tragedy,” he said.

An Israeli airstrike later Saturday on a building in Rafah killed seven people, including six members of the Ashour family, according to the morgue.

Five people were killed in the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza overnight when an Israeli strike hit a house, according to officials at the al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.

Elsewhere, Israeli forces shot and killed two Palestinian men at a checkpoint in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, the military said. It said the men had opened fire at troops stationed at Salem checkpoint near the city of Jenin.

Violence in the West Bank has flared since the war. The Ramallah-based Health Ministry says 491 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire.

Washington has been critical of Israeli policies in the West Bank. U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is expected in Israel on Tuesday, recently determined an army unit committed rights abuses there before the war in Gaza.

But Blinken said in an undated letter to U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson, obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, that he’s postponing a decision on blocking aid to the unit to give Israel more time to right the wrongdoing. Blinken stressed that overall U.S. military support for Israel’s defense wouldn’t be affected.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/israel-hamas-war-news-04-27-2024-7ea816cac94138492f7dddf2865c1d2f

Hamas has published a video showing the first proof of life of two more hostages being held in Gaza.

In undated footage filmed under duress, Omri Miran says he has been held for 202 days and Keith Siegel mentions this week’s Passover holiday, indicating the clips were filmed recently.

Both were captured when Hamas launched its deadly attacks on 7 October.

Responding to the video, their families said they would keep fighting for the men’s return.

They also urged the Israeli government to secure a new hostage release deal.

The new video comes as Hamas said it was studying Israel’s latest proposal for a truce. Media reports said mediator Egypt had sent a delegation to Israel to give fresh impetus to stalled negotiations.

Such a deal that included an agreement to free the remaining hostages could stop Israel’s planned ground assault in the southern city of Rafah, Israel’s foreign minister said on Saturday.

‘I thought just kill me quickly’: Gaza hostage’s 54 days in captivity
Mr Siegel, a US citizen, was kidnapped with his wife Aviva, though she was freed in November during a brief truce.

In a video statement Keith’s wife Aviva said: “Keith, I love you, we will fight until you return.” Earlier this month, she told the BBC how the couple had at one point been left in a tunnel by their captors as they were moved from place to place. At the time of the interview, she said she did not know if Keith was still alive.

His daughter Ilan said: “Seeing my father today only emphasises to all of us how much we must reach a deal as soon as possible and bring everyone home. I demand that the leaders of this country watch this video and see their father crying out for help.”

His other daughter Shir said: “If you watched the video, you saw that my father knows we are all coming to the rally every week and fighting for him and all the captives.”

Steven Spielberg is working with President Joe Biden’s re-election campaign to provide strategy for the Democratic National Convention, a source familiar with the matter confirmed to NBC News on Friday.

Spielberg, a longtime supporter of Biden, has already actively participated in meetings with convention organizers for the August event, the source said. He does not currently have plans to create a film portion for this summer’s events, according to the source, though he did produce a film for then-President Barack Obama’s campaign in 2008.

Puck first reported on Spielberg’s involvement.

The famed director previously appeared at a Biden campaign fundraiser in the Los Angeles area in December that included Barbra Streisand, director Rob Reiner, recording industry magnate David Geffen and others.

Spielberg’s friend and former DreamWorks business partner Jeffrey Katzenberg is also a co-chair of the Biden campaign. Katzenberg also hosted a fundraising meeting at his home during the campaign’s December push in the greater Los Angeles area.

The Biden campaign is separately in discussions with Obama about appearing alongside his former running mate at a Los Angeles fundraiser in mid-June, a source familiar with the matter told NBC News.

The fundraiser, first reported by Axios, is expected to feature Katzenberg and George Clooney as hosts, that source said.

Source: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/steven-spielberg-providing-strategy-biden-campaign-rcna149612

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Friday (Apr 26) that any decisions by the International Criminal Court, which is investigating Hamas’ Oct 7 attacks and Israel’s military assault on Gaza, would not affect Israel’s actions but would set a dangerous precedent.

This week, one presidential candidate has called the other a loser, made fun of him for selling Bibles, and even poked fun at his hair.

That kind of taunting is generally more within the purview of former President Donald J. Trump, whose insults are so voluminous and so often absurd that they have been cataloged by the hundreds. But lately, the barbs have been coming from President Biden, who once would only refer to Mr. Trump as “the former guy.”

Gone are the days of calling Mr. Trump “my predecessor.”

“We’ll never forget lying about Covid and telling the American people to inject bleach in their arms,” Mr. Biden said at a fund-raiser on Thursday evening, referring to Mr. Trump’s suggestion as president that Americans should try using disinfectant internally to combat the coronavirus.

“He injected it in his hair,” Mr. Biden said.

He is coming up with those lines himself: “This isn’t ‘S.N.L.,’” said James Singer, a spokesman and rapid response director for the Biden campaign, referring to “Saturday Night Live.” “We’re not writing jokes for him.”

The needling from Mr. Biden is designed to hit his opponent where it hurts, touching on everything from Mr. Trump’s hairstyle to his energy levels in court. Mr. Biden has also used policy arguments to get under Mr. Trump’s skin, mocking the former president’s track record on abortion, the coronavirus pandemic and the economy.

The president’s advisers say Mr. Trump’s legal problems have created an opening. As Mr. Trump faces felony charges that he falsified business records to pay off a porn actress ahead of the 2016 election, Mr. Biden and his aides have refrained from talking directly about the legal proceedings. Mr. Biden has made it a point to say he is too busy.

“I haven’t had a chance to watch the court proceedings because I’ve been campaigning,” Mr. Biden told a group of donors assembled at the actor Michael Douglas’s home in New York on Thursday.

But everyone in the Biden camp — from the president to the officials running his social media accounts — sees the moment as ripe for holding up a split screen between Mr. Trump’s current schedule and the president’s.

As Mr. Biden traveled aboard Air Force One to Florida this week, Andrew Bates, a White House spokesman, told reporters to keep their eyes peeled for updates.

“Nobody fall asleep while we talk, please,” Mr. Bates said, an unsubtle reference to reports that Mr. Trump had dozed off in court.

Jennifer Mercieca, an associate professor at Texas A&M University who studies political rhetoric, said that Mr. Trump has often won supporters with his ability to present himself as a strong, authoritative leader, and that he “always tries to define Biden as sleepy, as old, as senile, the opposite of the strong man.”

She said that Mr. Biden was trying to flip the narrative. At a campaign reception in Dallas last month, Mr. Biden told a group of donors a story about a “defeated-looking” man who had complained to the president about a “crushing debt.”

“And I had to look at him and say, ‘Donald, I’m sorry. I can’t help you,’” Mr. Biden said. “I thought about it, but I just couldn’t do it.”

Still, it remains to be seen if this new approach can change the minds that have already been made up.

The former president may be stuck in a courtroom, but according to recent polls, he is still leading in battleground states. (The Biden campaign equates the polls to ambient noise during a turbulent election season.)

Mr. Biden has also been making comments that draw unwelcome attention to his own tendency to misspeak, exaggerate his past or make public gaffes.

This week he repeated a debunked claim that he used to drive an 18-wheeler truck. On Wednesday, he seemed to read instructions from a teleprompter out loud to his audience, asking them to imagine what the Biden administration and its supporters could do with the next “four more years … pause.”

Mr. Biden also told two campaign audiences that after being shot down during World War II, his uncle might have been eaten by cannibals in Papua New Guinea, angering the island nation’s leaders at a time when the president has been courting them as part of his Indo-Pacific strategy.

But, because it is now April of an election year, the president’s advisers waste no time on explaining the boss’s mistakes, instead throwing them back on his opponent.

“The president had an emotional and, I think, a symbolic moment,” Karine Jean-Pierre, the White House press secretary, said by way of explaining the cannibals comment. She went on to castigate Mr. Trump for calling military veterans “suckers” and “losers.”

Mr. Biden’s advisers say that they are not just making fun of Mr. Trump for their own amusement — they want to highlight policy differences and draw a contrast between the two candidates.

During a campaign speech in Tampa, Fla., on Tuesday, Mr. Biden stayed focused on tying Mr. Trump to laws that have restricted access to abortion and reproductive health care, an issue that is galvanizing for Democrats even as the party remains divided over a range of other matters, from the war in Gaza to border policy.

Source: https://dnyuz.com/2024/04/26/biden-taunts-trump-calling-him-a-loser-trying-to-get-under-his-skin/

China must stop supporting Russia’s war in Ukraine if it wants to enjoy good relations with the West, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said on Thursday, warning Beijing in unusually harsh words it cannot have it both ways.

During a visit to Berlin, the chief of the Western military alliance said Beijing’s help was vital to Moscow’s war effort as it was propping up Russia’s war economy by sharing high-end technology like semiconductors.

“Last year, Russia imported 90% of its microelectronics from China, used to produce missiles, tanks and aircraft. China is also working to provide Russia with improved satellite capabilities and imaging,” Stoltenberg said.
“China says it wants good relations with the West. At the same time, Beijing continues to fuel the largest armed conflict in Europe since World War Two. They cannot have it both ways,” he warned.

Stoltenberg cautioned Western allies against becoming as dependent on China as they had been on Russia.
“In the past, we made the mistake of becoming dependent on Russian oil and gas,” he said.
“We must not repeat that mistake with China. Depending on its money, its raw materials, its technologies – dependencies make us vulnerable.”
China has strengthened trade and military ties with Russia in recent years as the United States and its allies imposed sanctions on both, but particularly Moscow for the invasion of Ukraine.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/china-must-stop-aiding-russia-if-it-seeks-good-relations-with-west-nato-says-2024-04-25/

The Supreme Court’s conservative justices signaled support on Thursday for U.S. presidents having some level of protection from criminal charges for certain acts taken in office as it tackled Donald Trump’s claim of immunity from prosecution for trying to undo his 2020 election loss.
During about 2-1/2 hours of arguments in the case, most of the justices seemed unlikely to embrace Trump’s most far-reaching argument that presidents have “absolute immunity” for official acts – an assertion that appeared to wilt under hypothetical questions involving selling nuclear secrets, taking a bribe or ordering a coup or political assassination.

But the conservative justices, who hold a 6-3 majority on the nation’s top judicial body, indicated concern about presidents lacking any degree of immunity, especially for less egregious acts. The contours of such a ruling, though, were not clear after arguments probing the extent of presidential powers.
Trump, seeking this year to regain the White House, appealed after lower courts rejected his request to be shielded from four election-related criminal charges on the grounds that he was serving as president when he took the actions that led to the indictment obtained by Special Counsel Jack Smith.

The Supreme Court’s eventual ruling may narrow the special counsel’s allegations against Trump, but it appeared that at least parts of the indictment would survive. The decision could further delay Trump’s trial, however, if the Supreme Court instructs lower courts to determine how to apply its newly formulated view of immunity. Smith attended the arguments.
Conservative Justice Samuel Alito said incumbent presidents who lose re-election would be in a “peculiarly precarious position” if they are vulnerable to vindictive prosecution by the next presidential administration.

“Will that not lead us into a cycle that destabilizes the functioning of our country as a democracy?” Alito asked Michael Dreeben, the lawyer representing Smith.
“We can look around the world and find countries where we have seen this process where the loser gets thrown in jail,” Alito added.
Conservative Chief Justice John Roberts signaled concern about abusive prosecutions of presidents, absent immunity.
“You know how easy it is in many cases for a prosecutor to get a grand jury to bring an indictment. And reliance on the good faith of the prosecutor may not be enough in some cases,” Roberts told Dreeben, while indicating he was not suggesting Trump’s indictment in this case was improper.
Trump, the Republican candidate challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 election in a rematch from four years ago, is the first former U.S. president to be criminally prosecuted.
He has pleaded not guilty in this case and in three other criminal cases, including an ongoing trial on New York state charges related to hush money paid to a porn star shortly before the 2016 U.S. election that made him president. Trump did not attend the arguments because he was in a Manhattan courtroom in the hush money case.
‘WHAT WAS THAT ABOUT?’
D. John Sauer, the lawyer arguing for Trump, said that without presidential immunity from criminal prosecution, “there can be no presidency as we know it.”
“For 234 years of American history, no president was ever prosecuted for his official acts,” Sauer added.
Liberal Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson pushed back on Sauer’s argument in a question about President Gerald Ford’s pardon of Richard Nixon following Nixon’s 1974 resignation amid the Watergate political scandal.
“If everybody thought that presidents couldn’t be prosecuted,” Jackson asked, “then what was that about?”

Sauer was sharply questioned by the court’s liberals as he advanced his sweeping theory that presidents enjoy “absolute immunity” for acts taken in their official capacity.
Jackson suggested such blanket immunity risked “turning the Oval Office into the seat of criminal activity in this country.”
In response questions by liberal Justice Elena Kagan, Sauer said that if structured as official acts a president could not be prosecuted for selling nuclear secrets to a foreign adversary, or even if he ordered the military to stage a coup in order to retain power, unless first impeached and removed from office by Congress.
“That sure sounds bad, doesn’t it?” Kagan responded.
BACK TO LOWER COURTS
The conservative justices appeared to favor returning the case to lower courts to perform more analysis. They asked questions about which of Trump’s actions cited by the prosecution were taken in an official capacity, as opposed to a private one – and if an official capacity, which of those acts may deserve some immunity.
Such a ruling could further delay Trump’s trial if lower courts must perform a rigorous probe.
The Supreme Court’s decision to put off hearing arguments over immunity until this month, months after lower courts acted, already postponed Trump’s trial, which had been scheduled for March. Legal experts have said a ruling would be needed by about June 1 for Trump’s trial to be held before the election.
If Trump regains the presidency, he could try to force an end to the prosecution or potentially pardon himself for any federal crimes.
On his way into court in New York on Thursday, Trump told reporters, “If you don’t have immunity, you’re not going to do anything. You’re just going to become a ceremonial president.”
The court already this year has handed Trump one major victory. On March 4, it overturned a judicial decision that had excluded him from Colorado’s ballot under a constitutional provision involving insurrection for inciting and supporting the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol by his supporters.
Not since its landmark Bush v. Gore decision, which handed the disputed 2000 U.S. election to Republican George W. Bush over Democrat Al Gore, has the court played such an integral role in a presidential race.
Trump took numerous steps to try to reverse his 2020 loss to Biden. His false claims of widespread voting fraud helped inspire the Capitol rampage on the day Congress met to certify Biden’s victory. His supporters attacked police and stormed the Capitol, sending lawmakers and others fleeing. Trump and his allies also devised a plan to use false electors from key states to thwart certification.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/us-supreme-court-weighs-trumps-bid-immunity-prosecution-2024-04-25/

Extreme rainfall across east Africa has led to dozens of deaths in recent weeks, with Burundi pleading for international aid while in Kenya, streets in the capital were turned into rivers.

Devastating flooding has struck east Africa, with extreme rainfall wreaking havoc across several countries.

Recent weeks have seen dozens of deaths in the region related to torrential rainfall, which is set to peak in the coming days.

The situation has worsened so much that last week, Burundi – one of the world’s poorest countries – called for international help to try and grapple with the floods.

In Kenya’s capital, Nairobi, once busy streets were turned into rivers. 35 people have died since mid-March, according to the Kenya Red Cross Society.

The Nairobi River and the Athi River in Kenya have both burst their banks, leading to over 40,000 people having been displaced since March.

The most affected parts of Kenya are in Nairobi and Machakos County, which lies just east of the city.

While issues of extreme rainfall have been ongoing during this year’s March-to-May rainy season, they have taken a turn for the worse in recent days.

Edwin Sifuna, a member of the Kenyan senate, shared a video that shows an entire neighbourhood flooded.

He said: “The situation in Nairobi has escalated to extreme levels. The county government for all its efforts is clearly overwhelmed. We need all national emergency services mobilised to save lives.”

In the video, the water is almost up to the rooftops of some houses, while a group of Kenyans are seen to have sought refuge on top of one home.

Climate experts have linked the ongoing flooding across the region to the El Nino weather phenomenon.

Shocking pictures have emerged from Kenya, showing the severity of the developing situation.

Jean Marie Sabushimike, a geographer and disaster management expert who teaches at the University of Burundi, said: “It must be said directly that these floods are associated with climate changes that affect Burundi like other countries in the region.”

As well as climate change, the impact of the flooding is exacerbated by poor land-use, he added.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/devastating-flooding-in-east-africa-claims-dozens-of-lives160and-displaces-thousands-13122189

Rudy Giuliani, a former lawyer for Donald Trump, is among 18 people charged in Arizona with illegally seeking to claim the state’s 2020 electoral votes for the then-U.S. president, in an indictment that names Trump as an unindicted co-conspirator.
The indictment, reached on Tuesday and unsealed on Wednesday, stems from the attempt by Trump and his allies to pressure election officials in several states to overturn the presidential election won by Joe Biden, efforts for which Trump has been indicted in Georgia and in federal court.

The court papers list “a former U.S. president,” referring to Trump, as an unindicted co-conspirator.
The indictment in Maricopa County Superior Court names 11 defendants and redacts the names of seven others. Arizona Attorney General Kris Mayes said in a press release announcing the charges that those names would be made public after all of the defendants had been served with the indictment.
Giuliani is among those whose names are redacted, a spokesperson for him, Ted Goodman, confirmed, criticizing the prosecution of the former New York mayor as political.

Another defendant whose name was redacted is described in the indictment as chief of staff in 2020, the position Mark Meadows held in the Trump White House at that time.
Representatives for Meadows did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the indictment.
INDICTMENT FOLLOWS GEORGIA, FEDERAL CASES
Trump, Giuliani and Meadows are co-defendants in the Georgia case, where they are charged with a racketeering conspiracy to overturn Biden’s victory in that state. They have pleaded not guilty there. Trump has also pleaded not guilty in the federal election-subversion case in Washington.

Trump, a Republican, says all the cases are a political “witch hunt” to prevent him from defeating Democrat Biden in this year’s presidential rematch.
Another defendant whose name is redacted is Trump lawyer Christina Bobb, Trump spokesperson Steven Cheung confirmed, calling the Arizona indictment “another example of Democrats’ weaponization of the legal system.”
“Christina Bobb is a former Marine Corps officer, who served our nation and the President with distinction. The Democrat platform for 2024: if you can’t beat them, try to throw them in jail,” Cheung said.

Giuliani spokesperson Goodman also called the Arizona indictment an example of “the continued weaponization of our justice system,” saying it “should concern every American as it does permanent, irrevocable harm to the country.”
“Mayor Rudy Giuliani – one of the most effective prosecutors in American history who took down the Mafia, cleaned up the streets of New York and locked up corrupt public officials – is proud to stand up for the countless Americans who raised legitimate concerns surrounding the 2020 U.S. Presidential Election,” Goodman said.
The indictment alleges the defendants pressured the Maricopa Board of Supervisors, the Arizona Legislature and then-Governor Doug Ducey to change the election results.
FALSE ELECTORS SCHEME IN SEVERAL STATES
U.S. presidents are chosen by electors from each state, who cast votes in the Electoral College, where votes are allotted based on each state’s population.
In Arizona and almost all other states, the winner of the state’s popular vote receives all of that state’s electoral votes. To win the presidency a candidate needs 270 electoral votes – a majority of total 538.
Arizona has 11 electoral votes, and the 11 defendants named in the indictment would correspond to those people who purported to be electors for Trump.
Arizona is one of seven states where Biden won but Trump allies sought to award the electoral votes to Trump. Many of the races were close. Arizona was decided by little more than 10,000 votes or 0.3% of the ballots cast.
The charges include fraud, forgery and conspiracy, three classes of felony that with a conviction could have sentences ranging from 6 months to more than 12 years in prison.
Arizona is the fourth U.S. state where participants in the elector scheme have faced criminal charges.
Three people who held themselves out as Trump electors in Georgia were charged alongside Trump in the sweeping racketeering case brought by Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis.
Sixteen people who falsely claimed to be legitimate Trump electors in Michigan were indicted in July 2023 by state Attorney General Dana Nessel. Authorities in Nevada charged six people, including the state Republican chair, with taking part in the scheme.
The so-called fake elector plan also plays a prominent role in the federal case against Trump brought by Special Counsel Jack Smith, accusing the former president of a multi-part scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election. Trump will press his claim that he should be immune from those charges at the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/grand-jury-indicts-18-alleged-arizona-fake-elector-scheme-re-elect-trump-2024-04-24/

Pro-Palestinian students have set up tent encampments at more campuses across the U.S. to protest Israel’s incursion into Gaza, after mass arrests at similar demonstrations at a handful of mostly East Coast colleges in recent days.
The expanding protests include plans by a coalition of Jewish groups opposing Israel’s actions to close the Brooklyn street where U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer resides. That protest, on the second night of the week-long Jewish feast of Passover, is one of a dozen the coalition organized in cities around the country.

Since Friday, hundreds of students and others were arrested at Columbia, Yale, New York University and other schools.
Critics of the protests, including prominent Republican members of the U.S. Congress, have stepped up accusations of antisemitism and harassment by at least some protesters. Civil rights advocates, including the ACLU, have raised free speech concerns over the arrests.
Among the new encampments, students at the University of California, Berkeley – a school well known for its student activism during the 1960s – set up tents in solidarity with protesters at other schools.

Also in California, the campus of Cal Poly Humboldt, a public university in Arcata, was shut down after pro-Palestinian protesters occupied a campus building.
At the University of Minnesota campus in St. Paul, police cleared an encampment after the school asked them to take action, citing violations of university policy and trespassing law.
The new protests follow the arrest of more than 120 protesters on New York University’s campus late on Monday, a New York Police Department spokesperson said. Police said university authorities reached out for help, and protesters failed to clear by the deadline given by the university.

More than 100 students were arrested at Columbia last week, and the New York university canceled in-person classes on Monday in a bid to defuse tensions on campus and out of concern that Jewish students faced possible harassment.
On Tuesday, the school said classes for the rest of the year were hybrid – with students able to attend either online or in person.
Columbia administrators, along with state officials, some members of Congress, and the White House, have alleged that Jewish students have been subjected to antisemitism and harassment by some protesters.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/pro-palestinian-seders-planned-new-york-other-cities-college-campuses-simmer-2024-04-23/

Donald Trump is the first former US president to face a criminal trial, accused of falsifying business records to pay hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels to cover up their alleged affair in the run-up to the 2016 election.

A newspaper chief was Donald Trump’s “eyes and ears” and killed unfavourable stories about him in the run-up to the 2016 election, a court has heard.

Trump has made history as the first former US president to face a criminal trial.

He stands accused of paying hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels in an effort to cover up their alleged affair and falsifying business records in order to do so.

David Pecker, the former boss of publisher AMI, took the stand as the first witness in the trial, as he described participating in a “catch and kill” scheme with Trump and Trump’s lawyer Michael Cohen to bury unfavourable press coverage during the 2016 presidential campaign.

Manhattan’s criminal court also heard Mr Pecker, who signed a “non-prosecution” agreement with prosecutors after AMI admitted to making hush-money payments, describe his role as being the “eyes and ears” for Trump.

Mr Pecker said he would flag stories to Mr Cohen, who would check if they were true or not. This agreement was never put in writing but Mr Pecker divulged it to Dylan Howard, editor-in-chief of the National Enquirer, one of his publications.

Mr Pecker told the court of a meeting he attended in August 2015 with Trump, Mr Cohen, and Hope Hicks, the communications director for the former president.

‘I would be the eyes and ears’

He said: “At that meeting with Donald Trump, they asked me what can I do to help the campaign.

“I said what I would do is I would run or publish positive stories about Mr Trump, and I would publish negative stories about his opponents.

“I said that I would also be the eyes and ears.”

In particular, Mr Pecker said that he would notify Cohen if he heard any negative stories relating to Trump and alleged relations with any women “because Mr Trump was well known as the most eligible bachelor and dated the most beautiful women”.

He added: “It was clear that, based on my past experience, that when someone was running for public office like this, it is very common for these women to call up magazines like the National Enquirer to try to sell their stories.”

The court heard of one such example where Mr Pecker paid $30,000 (£24,000) to buy a story about Trump allegedly fathering an illegitimate baby with a maid.

Mr Pecker said: “I immediately called Michael Cohen and told him exactly what I was told.

“I gave the name of the housekeeper in the penthouse and asked him to verify it first with the Trump Organisation payroll.”

Buying off negative press

Mr Pecker bought the story but said investigators found the story to be untrue and says Cohen told him it was “absolutely not true”.

He added: “I made the decision to buy the story because it could have been embarrassing to the campaign and Mr Trump.”

Hanging over today’s proceedings were allegations that Trump violated a gag order in social media posts and on his campaign website.

The gag order restricted Trump’s public speech on jurors, potential witnesses and some others involved in the case.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/newspaper-chief-was-donald-trumps-eyes-and-ears-and-killed-unfavourable-stories-about-him-court-hears-13121683

The UK government will also provide Ukraine with its largest munitions package since the war against Russia started in February 2022.

Rishi Sunak is to announce a £500m military aid package to Ukraine in its war against Russia alongside the UK’s largest provision of munitions so far.

Some 400 vehicles, 60 boats, 1,600 strike and air defence missiles, and four million rounds of ammunition are included in the package.

The announcement comes during a downswing for Ukraine as Russian forces have been gaining the upper hand in recent weeks.

Moscow took the eastern Ukrainian town of Avdiivka on 17 February and has been progressing ever since, occupying other villages.

Last month, Russia launched an airstrike into Ukraine’s western region of Lviv, near Poland’s border, which saw one cruise missile briefly fly into Polish airspace, according to Warsaw.

The prime minister will travel to Poland on Tuesday to make the announcement, which takes the UK to £3bn in military aid to Ukraine this financial year.

Mr Sunak said: “Defending Ukraine against Russia’s brutal ambitions is vital for our security and for all of Europe. If Putin is allowed to succeed in this war of aggression, he will not stop at the Polish border.

“Ukraine’s armed forces continue to fight bravely, but they need our support – and they need it now.”

Defence Secretary Grant Shapps reiterated the UK was “the first” to provide NLAW anti-tank missiles, modern tanks and long-range missiles to Ukraine.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/rishi-sunak-announces-163500m-military-aid-package-to-ukraine-13121083

Thin with a boyish face and earrings in both ears, 23-year-old Isayah Turner does not look like a stereotypical Trump supporter, who tend to be middle aged or older.
Nevertheless, Turner drove two hours from his home outside Milwaukee on a recent Tuesday to see Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump at a rally in Green Bay, Wisconsin, one of a contingent of young voters there that some opinion polls suggest could be a growing and important demographic for Trump.

For Democratic incumbent Joe Biden, who overwhelmingly won the youth vote in 2020, an erosion of his support among young voters could potentially dampen his hopes of a second term.
Turner, who runs a dog breeding business with his mother, voted for Trump in 2020. He supports Trump’s pro-oil drilling stance, his opposition to gun control – Turner owns several firearms – and his pledge to crack down on illegal immigration.

“I cannot think of one thing that Trump did that upset me while he was in office. And now with Biden in office there are countless things I disagree with,” Turner told Reuters. “A lot of my friends are on the same page as me.”
A Reuters/Ipsos poll in March showed Americans age 18-29 favoring Biden over Trump by just 3 percentage points – 29% to 26% – with the rest favoring another candidate or unsure of who if anyone would get their vote.

“They’re more open to the way I think and more of my friends are becoming Republican,” she said.
‘MAKING ENDS MEET’
To be sure, a group of young people willing to brave inclement weather to see Trump are not a representative sample of the broader electorate, and polling this early in the cycle could prove off. Younger people vote less frequently than older Americans, making them especially difficult to predict.
Moreover, some opinion surveys indicate that Biden is holding on to his significant advantage with the youth.
An Economist/YouGov poll conducted last week showed 51% of voters under 30 picking Biden, versus 32% for Trump, while the Harvard Youth Poll, released Thursday, put Biden’s lead over Trump among likely young voters at 19 points.
“Donald Trump is not winning the youth vote,” John Della Volpe, director in charge of the Harvard poll, told Reuters.
The Biden campaign is not sitting still. In March it launched a $30 million ad buy across digital platforms and announced a project to reach students and recruit volunteers in high schools and on college campuses. It is working to inform younger people of the administration’s investments in green energy and efforts to protect abortion access.
“That’s why the campaign is working tirelessly to earn the votes of young voters — investing earlier than ever and leveraging every opportunity to connect with young voters,” said Eve Levenson, the campaign’s youth engagement director.
The latest Marist College poll was nevertheless a red flag for Biden. Conducted in March, it showed Trump 2 points ahead among Millennial and Gen-Z voters, with 61% of 18-29 year olds saying they disapprove of the job Biden is doing as president.
The Trump campaign sees young people as a demographic for potential gains in 2024, a campaign adviser told reporters last month. He said the economy and overseas conflicts — Trump often claims Russia’s attack on Ukraine would not have happened on his watch — were key topics to message about to this group.
“Like many Americans, young people can’t afford rent, gas, or groceries, and they’re struggling to buy a home because real wages have plummeted,” said Anna Kelly, a spokesperson for the Republican National Committee.
Kelly also pointed to a finding in the Harvard poll – that only 9% percent of young Americans think the U.S. is on the right track – as proof that some were turning to Trump.
Among young voters, Trump appears to be doing better with males. The Harvard poll put Biden’s lead among young men at just 6 percentage points, down 20 points from 4 years ago. Trump’s deficit with women was 33 points, largely unchanged.
Della Volpe says that gender gap likely reflects several factors. One is that young men feel they are losing the right to speak frankly due to progressive views they believe are imposed on them about political correctness and toxic masculinity. These concerns are reinforced by Trump and podcasters like Jordan Peterson, popular with young men.
Trump has attended several Ultimate Fighting Championship events this election cycle, which are favored by young men. He also showed up at a Philadelphia sneaker convention where he put his golden “Never Surrender High-Tops” up for sale.
It was the kind of campaign stop meant to resonate with voters like Turner, a sneaker aficionado who was wearing a $400 pair of Nikes when Reuters spent an afternoon with him at his dog business two days after the rally.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/chance-trump-youth-rally-see-him-answer-economic-woes-2024-04-21/

The Maldives’ ruling party is set to win a two-thirds majority in Sunday’s parliamentary election, local media said, a result likely to push the Indian Ocean island nation further towards China and away from its longtime ally India.
President Mohamed Muizzu’s People’s National Congress (PNC) is expected to win at least 62 of the 93 parliamentary seats, according to local media, while the main opposition Maldives Democratic Party (MDP) is projected to take 15 seats.

Beijing and New Delhi have both wooed the Maldives as they vie for influence in the Indo-Pacific region.
President Muizzu, elected last year, has pledged to end the country’s “India First” policy, putting relations with New Delhi under strain. His government has asked dozens of Indian military personnel to leave the country, a move critics say could accelerate the Maldives’ shift towards China.
Muizzu’s post as president is not affected by Sunday’s vote.

Ahead of the poll, the PNC had asked voters to elect a majority that would enable the president to swiftly fulfil his campaign pledges.
Opposition parties, who have criticised Muizzu’s government on areas including foreign policy and the economy, sought to hold his government accountable.
The PNC managed to grab key seats in former MDP strongholds including in the capital Male, Addu City and Kulhudhuffushi City in the north.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/maldives-votes-election-key-its-india-china-relations-2024-04-21/

The Manhattan trial of Donald Trump begins in earnest this week, but the verdict is already in: prosecutors and the judge are guilty of election interference.

I know that’s true because The New York Times said so.

Well, the Gray Lady didn’t put it exactly that way, but a Friday headline hinted at the injustice by declaring: “Trump on Trial vs. Biden on the Trail: An Unusual 2024 Stretch Begins.”

Calling the situation “Unusual” is one way to describe the fact that the incumbent is free to use Air Force One to hit the swing states while the challenger is effectively strapped to a chair during a ginned-up criminal trial.

Among other and better word choices The Times could have used are “outrageous” and “corrupt.”

Those get to the heart of Democrats’ effort to rig the election in Biden’s favor by weaponizing law enforcement and the courts.

The aim is any or all of the following: tie Trump down, dirty him up, bankrupt him and lock him up.

The only thing they’ve failed at is knocking him off election ballots, and only because the Supreme Court said no dice.

Biden milked his advantage during his trip to Pennsylvania, where he was unsparing in his attacks on his incapacitated rival.

He visited his version of Abe Lincoln’s log cabin by going to his childhood hometown of Scranton where, The Times dutifully reported, he argued that “voters faced a choice on the economy between ‘Scranton values or Mar-a-Lago values.’ ”

Hollow pitch to voters
You have to wonder what the good people of Scranton really think of the Big Guy’s family values, and whether they approve of the millions in dirty money the Bidens got from China and other adversaries.

The Times didn’t ask.

In Philadelphia, the newspaper said the president used the endorsements of members of the Kennedy family to link the assassinations of President John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy to Trump’s vision of “anger, hate, revenge and retribution.”

That’s below the belt, but The Times didn’t scold Biden.

Imagine if Trump did that.

This is the stuff of banana republics, and it’s no longer over the horizon.

The kind of election meddling Americans associate with third-world kleptocracies is here and now.

With wars in Europe and the Mideast, the planet could use a stable, trusted democracy of the kind America used to have.

But the Trump cases prove we’ve entered a new, dark era where government power is openly abused for partisan purposes.

The Manhattan charges are so blatantly cooked up it’s hard to believe a trial is really happening.

In fact, until the indictment, I assumed the whole thing was an MSNBC fever dream that would never see the light of day.

Even after the charges were announced, I held out hope New York courts would be adults and blow the whistle.

After all, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg didn’t describe how he managed to turn a series of alleged bookkeeping misdemeanors in 2016 into alleged felonies now.

But hopes for a fairer court system disappeared when state Attorney General Letitia James got away with bringing her absurd civil case against the former president.

The fact that she had campaigned on a pledge to target Trump should have been enough to get the case thrown out.

Instead, she managed to steer it to a Gong Show judge who accepted her concocted claim of fraudulent damages, and gleefully added some of his own to raise the total to nearly $500 million — in a case where there were no victims!

Tish’s portfolio grab
While James lusted after which Trump properties she might seize first — maybe an office tower, maybe a golf course — a hint of sanity finally appeared when an appeals court reduced Trump’s bond from the full amount to $175 million.

Yet that sent James into a new jihad rage.

She’s now challenging the ability of the bond company to cover the $175 million and demanded a new insurer be found or default be declared so she could start seizing properties.

So at a time when New York is overrun with rampant violence that is chasing away taxpayers and businesses, two of its top prosecutors are chasing their white whale, who happens to be their party’s top opponent.

The judge in the Manhattan case is also suspect. Justice Juan M. Merchan, previously little known, is an instant celebrity on the left in part because his daughter is a Democratic activist who worked for California Rep. Adam Schiff, a Trump tormenter.

Like daughter, like father?

The obvious conflict of interest should have led Merchan to recuse himself, but he refused.

The media is fine with that because convicting Trump is more important than a fair trial and public trust in the courts.

None of this is especially new because we are in the eighth year of Dems going around voters to dirty up the opposition.

These are the only rules they abide by, while Republicans remain addicted to circular firing squads.

Although the left’s first big weaponization of politics, the 2016 phony Russia collusion story peddled by Hillary Clinton and amplified by The Times and other leftist outlets, failed to change the election, it sabotaged much of Trump’s term.

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe went on so long, and involved so many damaging leaks, that it helped Dems win the House in the 2018 midterms.

After getting the gavel, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Schiff drummed up a phony impeachment over a Trump phone call with the president of Ukraine, further weakening his quest for a second term.

Having proved effective, the harassment hasn’t stopped, as illustrated by the sham Manhattan trial.

Three prosecutors, plus the Federal Election Commission, rejected the case as too weak, including Bragg before he caved into leftist pressure to bring it.

Source: https://nypost.com/2024/04/20/opinion/joe-bidens-sham-of-a-campaign-continues-while-donald-trump-is-on-trial/

UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron says the funding is “a vital step forward”, but Russia claims the passage of the bill will “further ruin” Ukraine and result in more deaths.

The US House of Representatives has approved sending $60.8bn (£49bn) in foreign aid to Ukraine.

Democrats and Republicans joined together after months of deadlock over renewed American support to help Ukraine fend off Russia’s invasion.

Representatives could be seen waving small Ukrainian flags as it became clear the package was going to pass.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said he was “grateful” for the decision, which he said “keeps history on the right track”.

“Democracy and freedom will always have global significance and will never fail as long as America helps to protect it,” he said.

“The vital US aid bill passed today by the House will keep the war from expanding, save thousands and thousands of lives, and help both of our nations to become stronger.”

Representatives also approved bills to send foreign aid to Israel and provide humanitarian relief to Palestinians in Gaza, give security assistance to Taiwan and allies in the Indo-Pacific, and a measure containing several foreign policy proposals including a threat to ban Chinese-owned social media app TikTok.

The package will now go to the US Senate, where it is likely to be passed on Tuesday. President Joe Biden has then promised to sign it immediately.

“I urge the Senate to quickly send this package to my desk so that I can sign it into law and we can quickly send weapons and equipment to Ukraine to meet their urgent battlefield needs,” Mr Biden said.

Bill will ‘further ruin’ Ukraine, Russia warns

Moscow said the passage of the bill would “further ruin” Ukraine and result in more deaths.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told the TASS news agency a provision allowing Washington to confiscate seized Russian assets and transfer them to Ukraine for reconstruction would tarnish the image of the US.

‘Ukraine can and will win’

UK Foreign Secretary Lord Cameron said the funding was “a vital step forward”.

“If Putin ever doubted the West’s resolve to back Ukraine, this shows our collective will is undimmed,” he tweeted.

“With support, Ukraine can and will win.”

But Donald Trump ally Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican representative who has opposed helping Ukraine in its war against Russia, said “people have been too obsessed with voting for foreign wars and the war industry”.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/crucial-60-8bn-ukraine-aid-package-approved-by-us-house-of-representatives-after-months-of-deadlock-13119287

French authorities Friday (Apr 19) detained a man suspected of entering the Iranian consulate in Paris and falsely claiming to be armed with an explosive vest, police and prosecutors said.

No explosives or arms were found on the man or the premises after he surrendered to police following the incident.

The man, born in 1963 in Iran, had already been convicted for setting fire to tyres in front of the entrance of the Iranian embassy in Paris in 2023, the Paris prosecutor’s office said.

Police arrested the suspect, who has not been named when he exited of his own accord after appearing to have “threatened violent action” inside, it said. But “no explosive materials have been observed at this stage,” either on him, in his car or in the building.

According to a police source, who asked not to be named, he was wearing a vest with large pockets containing three fake grenades.

Police earlier told AFP that the consulate called in law enforcement after a witness saw “a man enter carrying a grenade or an explosive belt”.

An AFP journalist said the whole neighbourhood around the consulate in the capital’s 16th district had been closed off and a heavy police presence was in place.

Traffic was temporarily suspended on two metro lines that pass through stops close to the consulate, Paris transport company RATP said.

Iran’s embassy and consulate in the French capital share the same building but have two different entrances on separate streets.

The incident came with tensions running high in the Middle East and Israel launching an apparent strike on central Iran overnight.

There was however no suggestion of any link.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/iran-consulate-paris-man-threaten-blow-arrested-4278266

The Middle East is on the “precipice” of a broader war that can be averted with a two-state solution allowing Israel and Palestine to exist side-by-side with Jerusalem as a shared capital, United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the Security Council on Thursday.

However, that solution won’t come from immediate U.S. recognition of a Palestinian state after the U.S. vetoed in the Security Council a draft resolution to that effect Thursday.

Guterres’ comments came as Tehran warned it has the ability to strike Israeli nuclear sites if Israel targets Iran’s nuclear facilities.

Guterres said a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis is the basis of U.N. resolutions, international law and previous agreements. The current Israeli government, however, has shown little interest in relinquishing control of the occupied territories.

“One miscalculation, one miscommunication, one mistake, could lead to the unthinkable – a full-scale regional conflict that would be devastating for all involved and for the rest of the world,” he said.

Guterres called on Israel as the “occupying power” to protect the Palestinian population in the West Bank against violence and intimidation and to allow safe passage for humanitarian aid into Gaza.

“Let me be clear − the risks are spiraling on many fronts,” he said. “We have a shared responsibility to address those risks and pull the region back from the precipice.”

Netanyahu on strike:Israel says it will make its ‘own decisions’ on retaliation

Developments:

∎The European Council said new sanctions would be imposed on Iran’s drone and missile programs as punishment for the weekend’s attack on Israel.

∎ The U.S. and Israel were to hold a virtual meeting Thursday about Israeli’s planned military operation in Rafah, Reuters reported, citing a U.S. official it did not name. The U.S. and most of the world has been urging Israel to drop plans for an invasion of the southern Gaza city that has been overwhelmed by Palestinians fleeing fighting elsewhere in the enclave.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Israel would decide whether and how to respond to Iran’s major air assault earlier this week, brushing off calls for restraint from close allies.

Israel has vowed to respond to Iran’s unprecedented attack, leaving the region bracing for further escalation after months of fighting in Gaza. Israel’s allies have been urging Israel to hold back on any response to the attack that could spiral.

The diplomatic pressure came as Iran’s president warned that even the “tiniest” invasion of its territory would bring a “massive and harsh” response.

Over the weekend, Iran launched hundreds of missiles and drones at Israel after an apparent Israeli strike killed two Iranian generals. Israel and Iran have waged a long shadow war, but the strike was Iran’s first direct military attack on Israel. Israel says it and its partners intercepted nearly all the missiles and drones.

Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi warned Israel against any retaliation as he addressed an annual army parade, which was moved from its usual route and not broadcast live on state TV — possibly to avoid being targeted. In remarks carried by Iran’s official IRNA news agency, Raisi said the weekend attack was limited, and that if Iran had wanted to carry out a bigger attack, “nothing would remain from the Zionist regime.”

Regional tensions have increased since the start of the latest Israel-Hamas war on Oct. 7, when Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a cross-border attack that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. Israel responded with an offensive in Gaza that has caused widespread devastation and killed more than 33,800 people, according to local health officials.

Currently:

— Netanyahu brushes off calls for restraint as Iran warns against retaliation

— Lebanon says Israeli agents likely killed Hezbollah-linked currency exchanger

— EU leaders vow to impose tougher sanctions against Iran

— The G7 eyes targeted sanctions on Iran and a message of restraint

— US House’s Ukraine, Israel aid package gains Biden’s support. What’s inside the package?

U.S. AND 47 OTHER COUNTRIES CONDEMN IRANIAN ATTACK ON ISRAEL
UNITED NATIONS – The United States and 47 other countries issued a statement unequivocally condemning attacks on Israel by Iran “and its militant partners.”

The statement issued Wednesday night calls their “dangerous and destabilizing actions” an escalation “that poses a grave threat to international peace and security.”

The Iranian attack on Saturday marked the first time Tehran has launched a direct military assault on Israel. Israeli authorities said Iran lunched more than 300 drones and missiles, 99% of which were intercepted by air defenses in tandem with the U.S., Britain, France and Jordan.

The attack took place less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consulate building in Damascus.

The 48 mainly Western countries also condemned the fact that the ballistic and cruise missiles and attack drones “violated the airspace of several regional states, putting at risk the lives of innocent people in those countries, and appeared to traverse airspace near the holy sites in Jerusalem.”

The countries also condemned Iran’s seizure of a Portuguese-flagged commercial ship near the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday and called for the immediate release of the ship and its crew.

“We welcome the efforts to avert a further immediate escalation of violence in the region following the successful coordinated efforts to defend against Iran’s attack,” the statement said. “We call on all regional parties to take steps to avert further escalation of the situation.”

UNRWA HEAD SAYS ISRAEL IS TRYING TO END ITS OPERATIONS IN GAZA
UNITED NATIONS – The head of the U.N. agency helping Palestinian refugees is accusing Israel of trying to end its operations in Gaza and the West Bank.

Philippe Lazzarini is urging the U.N. Security Council to safeguard his agency’s critical role as the relief agency for Palestinians.

Lazzarini told the council Wednesday that Israel has banned the agency from delivering aid to Gaza. International experts have warned that faminine is imminent in the northern part of the territory.

Since the war began, Lazzarini said, 178 personnel from the agency known as UNRWA have been killed. More than 160 of the agency’s premises, which were mostly used to shelter Palestinians, have been damaged or destroyed, killing more than 400 people.

“We demand an independent investigation and accountability for the blatant disregard for the protected status of humanitarian workers, operations, and facilities under international law,” UNRWA’s commissioner general said.

Israel has alleged that 12 of UNRWA’s thousands of workers participated in the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war. Lazzarini pledged to implement recommendations and strengthen safeguards to ensure UNRWA’s neutrality.

QATAR SAYS IT’S RETHINKING ITS MEDIATOR ROLE
DOHA, Qatar — Qatar’s prime minister said Wednesday the country is reevaluating its role as a mediator between Israel and Hamas.

Qatar has been a key intermediary throughout the war in Gaza. It, along with the U.S. and Egypt, was instrumental in helping negotiate a brief halt to the fighting in November that led to the release of dozens of hostages.

Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdurrahman Al Thani said there had been an “abuse” of Qatar’s mediation for “narrow political interests.”

He did not name one side in his remarks. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has criticized Qatar and recently threatened to shutter Qatar-owned broadcaster Al Jazeera.

Top Hamas leaders live in exile in Qatar, which is seen as one of the only parties with influence over the militant group.

Al Thani said there were “limits” to the role of mediator and “to the ability to which we can contribute to these negotiations in a constructive manner.”

Mediators have been trying to push Hamas and Israel toward a cease-fire deal, but the sides remain far apart on key terms.

UN SECRETARY-GENERAL URGES `MAXIMUM RESTRAINT’
UNITED NATIONS — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres is reiterating his call for “maximum restraint” between Israel and Iran.

U.N. spokesman Stephane Dujarric told reporters Wednesday that rhetoric in the Middle East is becoming “increasingly dangerous.” Dujarric said the world and the region “cannot afford another open conflict.”

The comments follow the Israeli prime minister’s vow to respond to Tehran’s first direct attack against his country and the Iranian’s president’s warning of a massive response if Israel does.

UN SECURITY COUNCIL TO VOTE ON PALESTINIAN STATE
UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. Security Council is scheduled to vote this week on a resolution that would give a green light for a Palestinian state to join the United Nations as a full member, a move opposed by the United States.

The vote was scheduled for Friday afternoon. But Arab nations are pressing for a vote Thursday, when the council is holding a ministerial meeting on the Palestinian Authority’s request for full U.N. membership.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas delivered the application in 2011. That bid failed because the Palestinians did not get the required minimum support of nine of the Security Council’s 15 members.

In early April, after years of failed on-and-off peace talks, the Palestinians turned to the United Nations again to fulfill their dream of an independent state, sending a letter to the Security Council that was supported by 140 countries.

The United States, Israel’s closest ally, had promised to veto any resolution endorsing Palestinian membership.

U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood reiterated the longstanding position last week: “The issue of full Palestinian membership is a decision that should be negotiated between Israel and the Palestinians.”

Israel says such steps are an attempt to sidestep the negotiating process. Israel’s current right-wing government is dominated by hard-liners who oppose Palestinian statehood.

ISRAEL’S AIR FORCE REVIEWS ITS DEFENSE OF IRAN’S ATTACK
SDEROT, Israel — An Israeli military official says the air force is preparing for future attacks from Iran.

The official said Wednesday that the air force has been reviewing its successful defense against Iran’s missile attack over the weekend as it makes adjustments for potential additional fighting.

Israel has promised to respond against Iran, raising the possibility of a full-blown war, with Lebanon’s well-armed Hezbollah militant group almost certainly joining the fold.

Hezbollah, which has been locked in daily tit-for-tat fighting with Israel through the six-month Gaza war, is believed to have well over 100,000 rockets and missiles in its arsenal. Combined with Iran’s weapons, that could pose a major test for Israel’s air defense systems.

“We are preparing ourselves for the next time, debriefing the mission and seeing how could we prepare ourselves for the for the next attack,” said Brig. Gen. Doron Gavish, the former commander of Israel’s air defense who is now serving in reserves. He spoke to reporters at a military base in southern Israel.

Iran says its strike was a response to an alleged Israeli airstrike that killed two Iranian generals in Syria on April 1.

Israel says 99% of the more than 300 missiles and drones that Iran lauched were intercepted. It was assisted a coalition of international partners and the fact that Iran telegraphed its attack ahead of time.

ISRAEL SAYS IT ARRESTED AND KILLED MILITANTS IN BEIT HANOUN
JERUSALEM — The Israeli military said Wednesday that it arrested and killed militants in an operation in the northern Gaza town of Beit Hanoun over the past week.

The announcement comes after Palestinians said troops conducted raids there and forced displaced people to leave their shelters.

The military said it was a “focused operation” meant to remove militants from a civilian area. It did not say how many people were killed or arrested.

It said it targeted two facilities used as schools after intelligence pointed to militants from Hamas and Islamic Jihad. The military said forces told civilians to leave the building before raiding it.

Palestinians had reported heavy bombardment of Beit Hanoun. Witnesses said many people had been interrogated and some adults were detained and taken to unknown locations.

Palestinians have said the forces have left the town. The military did not immediately respond to a request for comment on whether the operation was over.

It was the latest in a series of Israeli raids in northern Gaza.

Source: https://apnews.com/article/israel-iran-hamas-latest-04-17-2024-7e4ba24fbb150f020a2d240dad9d462f

Biden calls for higher taxes on the rich on visit to Pennsylvania hometown

Kicking off a three-day tour of the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Tuesday, Biden sought to draw a distinction between his working-class roots and Trump’s privileged upbringing and lifestyle at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

“When I look at the economy, I don’t look at it through the eyes of Mar-a-Lago. I look at it through the eyes of Scranton,” Biden said during a visit to a community centre in the city of Scranton.

Biden contrasted his plan for a 25 percent minimum tax rate for billionaires with Trump’s pledge to maintain the corporate tax rate at 21 percent after slashing it from 35 percent.

“A fair tax code is how we invest in the things that make this country strong,” Biden said. “Health care, education, defence and so much more.”

Biden said he had learned the ethic of hard work and a sense of fairness while growing up in Scranton, while Trump learned that “the best way to get rich is to inherit it”.

“If Trump’s stock in Truth Social, his company, drops any lower, he might do better under my tax plan than his,” Biden said, taking aim at the falling value of Trump’s social media platform.

Biden did not reference Trump’s historic hush-money trial in New York, which is keeping the Republican away from campaigning.

During his visit to Scranton, Biden also visited his childhood home and drove down an expressway named in his honour.

The US president will continue to Pittsburgh on Wednesday and Philadelphia on Thursday.

Pennsylvania, which has 19 Electoral College votes, is seen as crucial to Biden’s reelection prospects in November.

Biden won Pennsylvania by about 80,000 votes in 2020, flipping it back to the Democratic column after Trump took the state in 2016.

Trump, who was the first Republican to win Pennsylvania since 1988, prevailed over Hillary Clinton by fewer than 45,000 votes.

Source: https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2024/4/17/biden-calls-for-higher-taxes-on-the-rich-on-visit-to-pennsylvania-hometown

New Orleans-based photographer Bonnie Cash captured a photo of President Joe Biden holding a secret note while addressing the press for the first time since Iran’s April 13 attack on Israel, alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’a Al-Sudani at the Oval Office on Monday.

The partial photo of the note taken by Cash showed that there was specific instruction for the 81-year-old on when to pause and what to say at the press conference. According to a New York Post report, Biden looked at the note time to time while addressing the media at the Oval Office.

Al Sudani, who also addressed the media after Biden, did not rely on any notes or prompts and gave a brief set on remarks on the relations between the United States and Iraq.

“As you know, Iran launched an unprecedented aerial attack against Israel, and we mounted an unprecedented military effort to defend Israel,” President Biden said. “Together with our partners, we defeated that attack.”

The POTUS said that while the US is committed to defend Israel against any attack, it is also working “for a ceasefire that will bring the hostages home and prevent any conflict from spreading beyond what it already has.”

“We’re also committed to the security of our personnel and partners in the region, including Iraq. The partnership between Iraq and the United States is critical,” he added.

Al Sudani, on the other hand, refrained from making any specific reference to the conflict in the Middle East. Instead, he focused primarily on the relations between Iraq and the US.

Source: https://www.timesnownews.com/world/us/us-news/biden-was-advised-when-to-pause-for-iraq-pm-meeting-us-presidents-secret-notes-reveal-article-109325289

Israel’s war cabinet has met to discuss its response to Iran’s unprecedented drone and missile attack.

Israel did not make public whether a decision had been reached.

Its allies have strongly condemned Iran’s actions, but urged Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to show restraint.

While Iran has signalled it considers the matter closed, the Israeli military’s chief of staff said the attack would not go unanswered.

“Look, as we look forward, we weigh our steps, and this launch of so many missiles, cruise missiles, UAVs to the territory of the State of Israel will be met with a response,” Lt Gen Herzi Halevi said.

He did not specify a course of action, or give a timescale.

Former CIA head David Petraeus had told BBC Radio 4’s World Tonight programme that Washington does not want to risk the wellbeing of the global economy with any Israeli retaliation against Iran.

Gen Petraeus, who also commanded the international forces in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the Iranian attack was a “very big deal”, and that the West had to understand how significant this was for Israel.

“The challenge now, of course, is that there are somewhat different perspectives on what to do next. If for some reason the Brent crude prices spike, or if there is some kind of freedom of navigation issue in the Gulf. And there is already some concern over Iran taking an oil tanker the other day.”

Gen Petraeus, who is now retired now, said the debate inside the Israeli government was about how to formulate a response that would show Israeli deterrence without “ratcheting up the escalation any further”.

He added that Israel had a number of asymmetric options that could allow it to respond without increasing tension.

Lt Gen Halevi was speaking from Nevatim air base in southern Israel, which sustained damage in Saturday’s overnight attack but was said by Israel to be “still functioning”.

Tehran said the operation was retaliation for a 1 April strike on its consulate in Syria, which killed senior Iranian military commanders.

The Israeli military said more than 300 drones and missiles were launched at Israel. It said almost all were brought down by its forces, with support from the US, UK, France and other countries, before reaching their targets. No deaths were reported and Israel said the damage was limited.

World leaders have urged restraint amid concerns about a major escalation in tensions in the Middle East.

US President Joe Biden spoke to Mr Netanyahu following the launch of the Iranian attack and reaffirmed “America’s ironclad commitment to the security of Israel”.

But on Sunday the US told Israel it would not join in any counter-strike on Iran, according to a senior White House official.

“We’re committed to a ceasefire that will bring the hostages home and prevent the conflict spreading more than it already has,” Mr Biden said on Monday.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-68820959

“We were attacked last night from four corners of the Middle East with proxies shooting at us, firing ballistic missiles, drones and cruise missiles,” Isaac Herzog tells Sky News.

Iran’s attack on Israel was a “declaration of war”, Israel’s president has told Sky News.

Isaac Herzog said it was “about time the world faces this empire of evil in Tehran”.

World leaders need to “make it clear” to the Iranian regime that its behaviour is “unacceptable”, Mr Herzog added.

“We should be looking lucidly at the phenomena called Tehran and Iran.”

Israel has not sought war since its creation in 1948, the president insisted.

“We are peace seekers. We went to peace with our neighbours time and time again. Unfortunately, it all started on the 7th of October when a proxy of Iran, Hamas, led an unbelievably brutal massacre against Israeli citizens and the rest is history. We know it. So we should put it in perspective.”

Follow live updates after Iran’s attack on Israel

He described Iran’s launch of more than 300 drones and missiles towards Israel on Saturday as “just another example of how [Tehran] has operated for years and years”.

“We were attacked last night from four corners of the Middle East with proxies shooting at us, firing ballistic missiles, drones and cruise missiles,” he told Sky News’s Middle East correspondent, Alistair Bunkall.

“This is like a real war. I mean, this is a declaration of war,” he said, before adding that Israel would exercise restraint.

Asked whether he agreed with Western allies who are calling for calm, Mr Herzog said: “The last thing that Israel is seeking in this region since its creation is to go to war – we are seeking peace.”

But Tehran has been “spreading havoc, terror and instability all over the world, and especially in our region”, he said.

Iran has proxies all over the Middle East and terror cells all around the world, Mr Herzog went on.

Damascus strike ‘wasn’t in Iranian consulate’

Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) said its direct assault on Israel was in retaliation for an “attack on the consular section of the Iranian embassy in Damascus” on 1 April.

Two generals and seven members of the IRGC were killed in the strike, which Tehran blamed on Israel. Israel has not publicly commented.

Mr Herzog told Sky News the strike “wasn’t in the consulate” but in a “separate building nearby the consulate”.

He added that the most senior general assassinated had led operations from Lebanon and Syria.

There had been “terror attacks day in, day out, with the entire machine instructed from Tehran”, he said.

Mr Herzog said the “number one issue” for Israel was the release of hostages still being held in Gaza.

“We want them back as soon possible,” he said. “The entire world leadership is calling for that. But Hamas is adamantly refusing. Time and again. That’s the real situation at hand.”

Regarding aid deliveries to Gaza, he said: “We’ve opened up many crossings and passages. We’ve enabled an enormous amount of aid also to be parachuted down, and also coming from the sea and from terrestrial openings.”

Following last night’s attack, the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) said 99% of Iranian missiles and drones were intercepted.

Mr Herzog said he was “happy that we are part of an incredible coalition of nations that has been part and parcel in preventing most of these missiles and drones and weapons to come into Israel”.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/world-must-face-irans-evil-empire-israeli-president-says-13115263

Biden warns Netanyahu US will NOT support Israel’s counterattack on Iran amid fears of all-out war: President tells PM in late-night call ‘you got a win, take the win’ after IDF shot down ‘nearly all’ incoming drones and missiles

• President Biden has made it clear to Benjamin Netanyahu that US forces will not join offensive operations against Iran, according to reports
* The comments were made by Biden during a phone call between the two leaders after Iran unleashed a drone and missile attack on Israel
* Biden released a statement following the call between the two leaders saying it had reaffirmed America’s ‘ironclad commitment to the security of Israel’

President Joe Biden told Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that the US will not support any counterattack against Iran, sources have revealed.

Biden spoke with Netanyahu in a late-night phone call after Iran bombarded Israel with hundreds of missiles and drones on Saturday in response to a drone strike in Syria that killed 12 Iranians, including two top generals.

A senior White House official told Axios that Biden made it clear to Netanyahu that US forces would not participate in any further operations. Netanyahu said he understood.

Biden reportedly told the Israeli Prime Minister: ‘You got a win. Take the win’, amid fears amongst White House officials that an Iran attack will lead to a greater war in the region.

Officials told CNN that all in US forces managed to intercept more 70 drones and at least three ballistic missiles during the attack, but don’t have an appetite to take Iran head on.

Three senior administration officials have also told NBC News that Biden had privately expressed concern that Netanyahu is trying to pull the US into the conflict.

The White House believes the Israelis are not looking for a direct war with Iran but US officials can’t be certain, an official told the outlet.

Source: https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-13306161/Biden-warns-Netanyahu-NOT-support-Israels-counterattack-Iran-amid-fears-war-President-tells-PM-late-night-call-got-win-win-IDF-shot-nearly-incoming-drones-missiles.html

After reports surfaced of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards seizing an Israeli-linked cargo ship in the Strait of Hormuz on Saturday, government sources told CNN-News18 that there are 17 Indian nationals among the crew on board.

The sources further added that they are in contact with Iranian authorities through diplomatic channels, both in Tehran and New Delhi, to ensure the security, welfare, and early release of the Indian nationals.

Commandos from Iran’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard raided a ship near the Strait of Hormuz by helicopter as tensions between Iran and Israel grew following the latter’s alleged strike on the former’s consulate in the Syrian capital of Damascus earlier this month.

Sources also informed CNN-News18 that the ship, MSC Aries, was en route to the port of Nhava Sheva in Mumbai, India and the expected arrival was on the night of April 15.

In response to the attack, Israel issued a warning, stating that Iran would face “consequences” for escalating the conflict in the region.

“Iran will bear the consequences for choosing to escalate the situation any further,” stated Israel’s military spokesman Daniel Hagari in a video statement.

US vows ‘ironclad commitment’ to Israel

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said he spoke with his Israeli counterpart, Tzachi Hanegbi, regarding the issue and and reiterated the United States’ “ironclad commitment” to the country.

“This morning, I spoke with my Israeli counterpart, National Security Advisor Hanegbi, to discuss events in the Middle East. During the call, I reiterated the United States’ ironclad commitment to the security of Israel,” stated Sullivan in a social media post on X.

Source : https://www.news18.com/world/iranian-revolutionary-guards-raid-seize-vessel-headed-towards-india-near-strait-of-hormuz-8850434.html

Police say there is no continuing threat, adding that it was too early to determine the attacker’s motive.

Seven people are dead and others are in serious or critical condition after a stabbing rampage at a mall in Sydney, Australia, on Saturday, according to police. The attacker, who was shot by a lone officer, was among the dead, and a baby among those stabbed.

New South Wales Police Commissioner Anthony Cooke told a news conference that the attacker walked into the Westfield Bondi Junction mall at about 3:20 p.m. local time (1:20 a.m. ET) where he “caused harm” to about nine people “stabbing them with a weapon he was carrying.” The weapon “was most likely a knife,” he said.

A spokesperson for New South Wales Ambulance told NBC News that a 9-month-old baby was “transported to Sydney Children’s Hospital with a pediatric stab wound.”

Cooke said that an inspector near the scene was guided to the offender’s location by members of the public. As she pursued him from behind, Cooke said the offender turned and the officer shot him.

“She took the action, saving a range of people’s lives,” he added.

He said the offender’s motives were not clear, but he acted alone and that there was no continuing threat.

Speaking at the same news conference, NSW Ambulance Assistant Commissioner Brent Armitage said two other people had been transported to hospitals across Sydney. Their condition was not known.

Surveillance video showed a man running through the mall holding a long knife. Reports from local media described chaos, as some shoppers fled and others attempted to stop the man. Some shops reportedly pulled down their shutters, sequestering some people inside in order to keep them safe.

Hundreds of people were evacuated from the mall.

In a live interview with 9News Sydney, the local broadcaster, a man outside the mall said he helped a baby after a woman was stabbed. “The mum came over with the baby and threw it at me, with this hole in the baby, it looked pretty bad,” he said.

Roi Huberman, a sound engineer at ABC TV in Australia, told the network that he sheltered in a store during the incident.

“Suddenly we heard a shot or maybe two shots and we didn’t know what to do,” he said. “Then the very capable person in the store took us to the back where it can be locked.” She then locked the store and led them out through the back entrance.

Andrew Reid described helping some of the injured victims, including one woman who was “bleeding pretty badly.”

“That poor woman she there was a lot of blood,” Reid, who was shopping for a bed, told Sky News. “She lost a lot of blood and me and a couple of other bystanders helped with her.”

Australia’s Prime Minister Anthony Albanese called the attack “a horrific act of violence that indiscriminately targeted innocent people.”

In a news conference, he said the nation “offers our deepest condolences and sympathies to all those who are grieving for someone they have lost. And we send our strength to those who have been injured.”

King Charles III said he and Queen Camilla “were utterly shocked and horrified to hear of the tragic stabbing incident in Bondi.”

“Our hearts go out to the families and loved ones of those who have been so brutally killed during such a senseless attack,” he said in a statement. “While details of these shocking circumstances are still emerging, our thoughts are also with those who were involved in the response, and we give thanks for the bravery of the first responders and emergency services.”

Prince William and his wife Kate, the Princess of Wales, issued statement on X.

Source : https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/sydney-mall-shooting-australia-westfield-bondi-multiple-stabbings-rcna147686

Booms and air raid sirens sounded across Israel early Sunday after Iran launched hundreds of drones, ballistic missiles and cruise missiles in an unprecedented revenge mission that pushed the Middle East closer to a regionwide war. In Washington, President Joe Biden said U.S. forces helped Israel down “nearly all” the drones and missiles and pledged to convene allies to develop a unified response.

The attack, less than two weeks after a suspected Israeli strike in Syria that killed two Iranian generals in an Iranian consular building, marked the first time Iran has launched a direct military assault on Israel, despite decades of enmity dating back to the country’s 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Condemnation from the United Nations chief and others was swift, with France saying Iran “is risking a potential military escalation,” Britain calling the attack “reckless” and Germany saying Iran and its proxies “must stop it immediately.”

The Israeli military’s spokesman, Rear Adm. Daniel Hagari, said Iran fired scores of drones, cruise missiles and ballistic missiles — with the vast majority intercepted outside Israel’s borders. He said warplanes intercepted over 10 cruise missiles alone, also outside Israeli airspace.

Hagari said a handful of missiles landed in Israel. Rescuers said a 7-year-old girl in a Bedouin Arab town was seriously wounded in southern Israel, apparently in a missile strike, though they said police were still investigating the circumstances of her injuries. Hagari said a missile struck an army base, causing light damage but no injuries.

“A wide-scale attack by Iran is a major escalation,” he said. Asked whether Israel would respond, Hagari said only that the army “does and will do whatever is required to protect the security of the state of Israel.” He said the incident was not over, and dozens of Israeli warplanes remained in the skies.

Israel’s military said its Arrow system, which shoots down ballistic missiles outside the atmosphere, handled most interceptions and noted that “strategic partners” were involved.

“At my direction, to support the defense of Israel, the U.S. military moved aircraft and ballistic missile defense destroyers to the region over the course of the past week,” Biden said in a statement. “Thanks to these deployments and the extraordinary skill of our service members, we helped Israel take down nearly all of the incoming drones and missiles.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a separate statement that U.S. forces “intercepted dozens of missiles and UAVs en route to Israel, launched from Iran, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.”

Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke early Sunday, Israeli time, their governments said. Biden said in his statement that he reaffirmed “America’s ironclad commitment” to Israel’s security — a departure from his growing criticism of Israel’s conduct in its war on Hamas in Gaza.

Iran had vowed revenge since the April 1 airstrike in Syria, which Tehran accused Israel of being responsible for. Israel hasn’t commented on it.

Israel and Iran have been on a collision course throughout Israel’s six-month war against Hamas militants in Gaza. The war erupted after Hamas and Islamic Jihad, two militant groups backed by Iran, carried out a devastating cross-border attack on Oct. 7 that killed 1,200 people in Israel and kidnapped 250 others. An Israeli offensive in Gaza has caused widespread devastation and killed over 33,000 people, according to local health officials.

Almost immediately after the war erupted, Hezbollah, an Iranian-backed militant group in Lebanon, began attacking Israel’s northern border. The two sides have been involved in daily exchanges of fire, while Iranian-backed groups in Iraq, Syria and Yemen have launched rockets and missiles toward Israel.

In a statement carried late Saturday by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency, the country’s paramilitary Revolutionary Guard acknowledged launching “dozens of drones and missiles towards the occupied territories and positions of the Zionist regime.”

Source : https://apnews.com/article/strait-of-hormuz-vessel-33fcffde2d867380e98c89403776a8ac

The New York judge overseeing Donald Trump’s hush money criminal case rejected the former U.S. president’s bid to delay Monday’s scheduled trial on the ground that substantial pre-trial publicity would make the proceedings unfair.
Trump had sought an indefinite delay, saying media coverage was prejudiced against him, and finding an acceptable jury in Manhattan would be tough because the borough was “overwhelmingly biased” against him.

But in a decision on Friday, Justice Juan Merchan said an indefinite adjournment was “not tenable.”
Merchan also said Trump himself generated much of the publicity surrounding his legal troubles, including through “unrelenting media posts” attacking people he blamed for them.
“The situation defendant finds himself in now is not new to him and (is) at least in part, of his own doing,” Merchan wrote.
Prosecutors argued the publicity was not likely to drop, and it would be “perverse” to reward Trump with a delay based on media attention he courted.

They also said thorough questioning of prospective jurors would likely find enough who could decide the case fairly.
Trump is the Republican presidential candidate in an expected Nov. 5 election rematch against Democratic incumbent Joe Biden, who beat him in 2020.
Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign, said in an email: “President Trump and his legal team will continue fighting against this Biden Trial and all of the other Witch Hunts.”

Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/trumps-hush-money-trial-will-not-be-delayed-because-publicity-judge-rules-2024-04-12/

The White House said on Friday there is no reason for China to see a U.S. summit this week with Japan and the Philippines as a threat.
White House national security spokesperson John Kirby spoke after China complained to Japan and the Philippines about some of the rhetoric emerging from President Joe Biden’s summit talks with the leaders of Japan and the Philippines this week.
“These meetings were not about any one other nation. This was about deepening and revitalizing existing alliances and partnerships and strengthening some new ones,” Kirby told reporters.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/us-sees-no-reason-china-see-us-meetings-with-japan-philippines-threat-2024-04-12/

US President Joe Biden has said he expects Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” in response to an airstrike in Syria that killed a senior officer. Meanwhile, several countries have warned their citizens against travel to the region.

Israel remains braced for an attack from Iran as the US moves “additional assets” to the Middle East.

Joe Biden said he expects an attack “sooner, rather than later” and simply told Tehran “don’t”, with warnings growing of retaliation for the killing last week of a senior officer in Iran’s embassy in Syria.

The White House said the threat of an imminent attack on Israel is real and viable, while at least three other countries have updated their travel advice, including France, Russia and India.

As Mr Biden pledges the US is “devoted” to Israel’s defence, an official has told Sky News “additional assets” are being moved to the region to boost “deterrence efforts” and protect American forces.

According to Sky’s US partner NBC News, most of the assets involved are already deployed in the area and are just being moved around.

Sky’s US correspondent Mark Stone said no further details have been provided.

“I think the consensus among experts is that the Iranians will respond, but they will almost certainly respond against Israel directly rather than any American military in the region,” Stone added.

“Nevertheless, what that response will look like and what it will mean in terms of an Israeli response, we don’t know yet.”

Israel did not claim responsibility for the airstrike on 1 April that killed Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Zahedi, a senior commander in the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps’ overseas Quds Force.

But Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said Israel “must be punished and shall be” for an operation he said was equivalent to an attack on Iranian soil.

Six other officers were also killed as they attended a meeting in the Damascus embassy compound.

Iran has missiles capable of hitting Israel, which has in recent weeks bolstered its air defences.

The Israeli military has called back reservists in preparation for any escalation along its northern border, where it exchanges fire almost daily with Iran-backed militants Hezbollah.

While there have been no formal security instructions in Israel, some parents said their children have been told to take books home for the Passover school holidays in case of possible lesson disruptions.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/israel-braced-for-iranian-attack-as-us-moves-additional-assets-in-region-13113874

The leaders are expected to announce that their coast guards will hold a joint patrol in the Indo-Pacific this year, a follow-up on law enforcement drills carried out last year by the allies in waters near the disputed South China Sea

Russia fired more than 40 missiles and about 40 attack drones overnight as Moscow targeted energy infrastructure in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has fired veiled criticism at Kyiv’s Western allies as he calls for more support.

He suggested the West is “turning a blind eye” to what is happening in Ukraine after Russian forces launched strikes on five regions across Ukraine.

Zelensky said Russia fired more than 40 missiles and about 40 attack drones overnight, many of which hit energy infrastructure in Ukraine.

Posting on X, Zelensky said in full: “Overnight, Russia fired more than 40 missiles and about 40 drones at Ukraine.

“I thank everyone engaged in recovery efforts after the attack, as well as to every warrior of our air defense system who was on guard last night.

“Some missiles and ‘Shahed’ drones were successfully shot down. Unfortunately, only a part of them. Russian terrorists have once again targeted critical infrastructure.

“There was another heinous missile attack on Kharkiv and the Kharkiv region. They also targeted objects in Kyiv, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, and Odesa regions.

“All of our European neighbors and other partners see Ukraine’s critical need for air defense systems. Right now, with our ability to overcome Russian terror, the world can demonstrate that all terror is treated equally as a crime.

“However, if Russia is allowed to continue doing so, if Russian missiles and ‘Shahed’ drones continue to strike not only Ukraine but also the resolve of our allies, this will amount to a global license for terror.

“We need air defense systems and other defense assistance, not just turning a blind eye and having lengthy discussions.

“I am grateful to everyone in the world who truly supports Ukraine’s struggle for life. I thank every leader who will not remain silent, who will continue to support us and condemn Russian terror.”

Ukraine is concerned that it is lacking in terms of both ammunition and manpower.

Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/world/1887464/zelensky-ukraine-russia-war

Major U.S. airlines and aviation unions on Thursday urged the Biden administration to pause approvals of additional flights between China and the United States, citing ongoing “anti-competitive policies of the Chinese government.”
In February, the U.S. Transportation Department said Chinese passenger airlines could boost weekly round-trip U.S. flights to 50 starting on March 31, up from the current 35, about a third of pre-pandemic levels. U.S. carriers were authorized as well to fly 50 flights per week but are currently not using all those flights.
Airlines for America, a trade group whose members include American Airlines (AAL.O), opens new tab, Delta Air Lines (DAL.N), opens new tab and United Airlines (UAL.O), opens new tab, and unions in a letter to the Transportation and State departments cited the “advantage Chinese airlines receive by continuing to access Russian airspace, while U.S. carriers stopped flying through Russian airspace at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in March 2022.”
The letter, which was first reported by Reuters, was signed by the Air Line Pilots Association, Allied Pilots Association and Association of Flight Attendants. It called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to “pause additional passenger flights between the United States and the People’s Republic of China until U.S. workers and businesses are guaranteed equality of access in the marketplace, free from the existing harmful anti-competitive policies of the Chinese government.”
Flights between China and the United States – which were a point of contention during the COVID-19 pandemic – have emerged as a rare area of cooperation between the two super powers, but U.S. airlines have expressed concern about the rapid pace of increasing flights.
Airlines are worried the Biden administration could boost or even double to 100 the number of weekly flights permitted by Chinese carriers.
Separately, U.S. Representative Mike Gallagher, the chair of the House select committee on China, and the panel’s top Democrat, Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, urged the Biden administration in a separate letter Wednesday not to approve more flights until China abides “by its existing bilateral agreement, and passenger demand begins to recover.”
The lawmakers said Chinese carriers “operate air
routes at an anticompetitive commercial advantage that must not be allowed to increase without reciprocal parity in the number of U.S. carrier operated routes” to China. It added that “American passengers must not be exposed to unnecessary security risks by traversing Russian airspace.”

Source: https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-airlines-unions-urge-biden-not-approve-more-china-flights-2024-04-11/

U.S. President Joe Biden and Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida on Wednesday unveiled plans for military cooperation and projects ranging from missiles to moon landings, strengthening their alliance with an eye on countering China and Russia.
A joint news conference at the White House reflected the growing importance of Japan on the world stage and to the United States, as the two leaders weighed in on Gaza and Israel, Ukraine and Russia, North Korea and other world flashpoints.

Biden and Kishida brushed off a dispute over Nippon Steel’s offer for U.S. Steel, saying the issue was not a major factor in their discussions on a day of White House pomp and pageantry that culminated in a lavish state dinner.
“This is the most significant upgrade in our alliance since it was first established,” Biden said after about two hours of talks that focused on the restive Indo-Pacific region and China’s actions.

The United States and its allies, including Japan, have been bolstering their militaries to counter what they see as a growing threat from China in the South China Sea and the East China Sea, and to deter any attempt to seize Taiwan, a self-ruled Island that Beijing considers its own.
Kishida said the two leaders discussed tense relations between Taiwan and China, and pledged to uphold international order based on the rule of law. Chinese leader Xi Jinping recently said outside interference could not stop the island’s “family reunion” with mainland China.

“Unilateral attempts to change status quo by force or coercion is absolutely unacceptable, wherever it may be,” Kishida said. The U.S. and Japan will continue to respond to such actions, including challenges from China, he said.
“Regarding Russia’s aggression of Ukraine … Ukraine today may be East Asia tomorrow,” Kishida said.
Biden also vowed to keep open lines of communication with China and said the U.S.- Japan alliance was defensive in nature. He spoke to Chinese President Xi Jinping last week.
JOINT MILITARY STRUCTURE
The announcements from Biden and Kishida brought the two World War Two enemies into the closest collaboration they have had since they became allies decades ago.
Biden said their militaries will cooperate with a joint command structure and they will, together with Australia, develop a new air missile defense network. The two leaders also announced that Japanese astronauts will participate in NASA moon missions.
Overall, the U.S. and Japan have hammered out about 70 agreements on defense cooperation, including moves to upgrade the U.S. military command structure in Japan to make it better able to work with Japanese forces in a crisis.

Japan, often described as the U.S.’s most important Asian ally and its largest source of foreign direct investment, is taking on a stepped-up global role after a series of security law changes in the past decade that have transformed its pacifist constitution.
Kishida will address the U.S. Congress on Thursday and join Biden and Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for a meeting expected to focus on Beijing’s South China Sea incursions.
The meeting took place as China steps up pressure on the Philippines in the South China Sea over areas Beijing claims but that international law says belong to the Philippines.
China is attempting to isolate Japan and the Philippines, a U.S. official said. By meeting the leaders of those two nations this week in Washington, Biden is aiming to “flip the script and isolate China.”
Fitch cut its outlook on China’s sovereign credit rating to negative on Wednesday, citing risks to public finances as the economy faces increasing uncertainty in its shift to new growth models.
On Thursday, Biden will also hold a bilateral meeting with Marcos, whom he welcomed in Washington just last year, before the pair join Kishida for a trilateral summit.
The visit may give a political boost to Kishida, whose popularity has waned at home.
He is being greeted with great fanfare, with Japanese flags on display throughout Washington ahead of the glitzy state dinner where guests included former President Bill Clinton, former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, actor Robert De Niro, Amazon.com’s (AMZN.O), opens new tab Jeff Bezos and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden-welcomes-global-partner-japans-kishida-white-house-summit-2024-04-10/

US Ambassador Eric Garcetti praised India’s progress and developmental journey, and said that if people want to “see” and “feel the future”, they should come to the country.

US Ambassador to India, Eric Garcetti, has praised India’s developmental journey, saying that if anyone wants to “see the future”, they should come to the country. Speaking at an event, he also mentioned his “great privilege” of being future-ready because of his position as the leader of the United States’s mission.

“If you want to see the future, come to India. If you want to feel the future, come to India. If you want to work on the future, come to India. I have the great privilege of being able to do that every single day as the leader of the US Mission,” he said at an event in India.

US National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan also commended the country’s ties with India, saying the partnership has “gone to new heights”.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Sulivan said, “The partnership between the US and India, a country in BRICs, has gone to new heights with an engagement across technology and security and so many other dimensions.”

The relationship between the two countries has been under the scanner lately after US prosecutors charged an Indian national, namely Nikhil Gupta, in November last year in connection with his involvement in an alleged foiled plot to assassinate Khalistani terrorist Gurpatwant Singh Pannun on US soil.

America alleged that Nikhil Gupta was working with an Indian government employee and had agreed to pay an assassin $100,000 to kill Pannun, who lives in New York City.

Source: https://www.indiatoday.in/india/story/us-envoy-eric-garcetti-message-to-those-who-want-to-see-feel-future-come-to-india-2525365-2024-04-10

China Plays Tense Game of ‘Russian Roulette’ With U.S. Ally.

Chinese coast guard ships have slammed Philippine boats with water cannons, shattering a windshield and injuring Filipino crew

China is intensifying a dangerous game in the South China Sea, in ways that risk drawing the U.S. into its fight with the Philippines.

In early March, two Chinese coast guard ships slammed a Philippine boat with high-pressure blasts of water cannon, smashing its windshield and preventing it from delivering supplies to a military outpost.

Source: https://www.wsj.com/world/asia/china-plays-tense-game-of-russian-roulette-with-u-s-ally-580473a1

In an exclusive interview, the president of Ukraine talks about his outreach to Trump, stalled Ukraine aid and Russia’s growing influence in the U.S.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy of Ukraine warned in an interview that Russian influence had pierced the American political system and rejected the idea, backed by allies of Donald Trump, that Ukraine could swiftly end the war just by making massive territorial concessions.

But Zelenskyy said Tuesday that he had privately urged Trump through intermediaries to travel to Ukraine and that Trump had expressed interest but had not yet committed to making a trip. Zelenskyy said he was open to hearing Trump’s proposals for the war, while making clear he was highly skeptical.

“If the deal is that we just give up our territories, and that’s the idea behind it, then it’s a very primitive idea,” Zelenskyy said in an interview with Axel Springer media outlets. POLITICO is owned by Axel Springer.

Zelenskyy continued: “I need very strong arguments. I don’t need a fantastic idea, I need a real idea, because people’s lives are at stake.”

Any deal that merely gave up land to Russian President Vladimir Putin in exchange for an end to hostilities, Zelenskyy said, would just open the way for more Russian wars of conquest in the future. A negotiated peace, he said, had to leave the Russian despot “no room to carry out his plans.”

In the interview, Zelenskyy swerved at times between expressing impatience with Western allies that have not delivered military aid readily enough — he faulted Germany most explicitly — and admitting that Ukraine is under considerable pressure to show new progress in the war. The interview was conducted in a combination of English and Ukrainian, partially using translators.

Trump has been a consistent skeptic of the war effort and a critic of Zelenskyy, and he recently said he would encourage Russia to act with impunity against members of the NATO alliance who do not spend large sums of money on defense. President Joe Biden has attacked Trump in the campaign as a threat to world stability and a stooge of Putin and other foreign dictators.

Zelenskyy’s textured approach to Trump represents the latest effort by a major world leader to calibrate his handling of the former American president who is now the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee for the 2024 election. While disagreeing with Trump emphatically on war policy, Zelenskyy spoke respectfully about Trump as a leader with whom he is eager to build a constructive partnership.

Those comments came a day after David Cameron, the British foreign secretary and former U.K. prime minister, met with Trump at his Florida estate, in part to plead the case for supporting Ukraine despite having denounced Trump in the past as a bigot.

The fate of Ukraine may well hang in the balance in the U.S. election. And as a massive aid package languishes in the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, Zelenskyy predicted that Putin would demolish Ukrainian cities and butcher hundreds of thousands of people if the Russian military were to prevail in the war.

In recent weeks, two Republican lawmakers who support aiding Ukraine — Reps. Mike Turner of Ohio and Mike McCaul of Texas — have declared that pro-Russian propaganda has filtered into the thinking of some members of Congress.

Asked about that claim, Zelenskyy said it understated the problem of Russian influence in democracies like the United States.

“They have their lobbies everywhere: in the United States, in the EU countries, in Britain, in Latin America, in Africa,” Zelenskyy said of Russia. “When we talk about the Congress — do you notice how they work with society in the United States?”

Russia, he said, had succeeded in warping “the information field of the world.” Without naming names, Zelenskyy claimed that American citizens were effectively doing Russia’s work within the U.S. media.

Source: https://www.politico.com/news/2024/04/09/zelenskyy-invites-trump-ukraine-russia-00151310

A New York state appellate judge on Monday denied Donald Trump’s bid to delay his April 15 criminal trial on charges stemming from hush money paid to a porn star while the former U.S. president seeks to move the case out of Manhattan.
Associate Justice Lizbeth Gonzalez issued her decision shortly after a half-hour hearing at the Appellate Division in Manhattan, a mid-level state appeals court.
Emil Bove, a lawyer for Trump, said during the hearing that his client was seeking to stay the case pending the application to move the trial on the charges brought by Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg.

A lawyer from Bragg’s office, Steven Wu, countered that Trump waited too long to object to being tried in Manhattan, where he once lived. The charges were brought in April 2023.
Trump, the Republican candidate challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. election, has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records.
Bove did not specify where Trump’s team would like the trial to be held. Bove said a survey taken by Trump’s legal team of residents in heavily Democratic Manhattan, one of New York City’s five boroughs, found that 61% of respondents thought Trump was guilty, and 70% had a negative opinion of him.

“There is real potential prejudice here to moving forward,” Bove said. “Jury selection cannot proceed in a fair manner starting next week in this county.”
Wu said biased jurors can be weeded out during the jury selection process, and that Trump cannot cite media attention as a reason to move the trial.
“He himself has been responsible for stoking that publicity,” Wu said.
A criminal trial would be the first for a former U.S. president.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/legal/trump-files-appeal-hush-money-criminal-case-week-before-trial-2024-04-08/

Former U.S. President Donald Trump said it would be “my great honor” to go to jail for violating a gag order imposed by the judge who will hear his upcoming trial on charges stemming from a hush-money payment to a porn star.
“If this Partisan Hack wants to put me in the ‘clink’ for speaking the open and obvious TRUTH, I will gladly become a Modern Day Nelson Mandela – It will be my GREAT HONOR,” Trump posted on Saturday on his Truth Social platform.

Trump was referring to Justice Juan Merchan, who will preside over his trial in New York state court in Manhattan on criminal charges of covering up a $130,000 payment before the 2016 election to porn star Stormy Daniels to buy her silence about an alleged sexual encounter.
The trial begins on April 15.
The Republican, who is challenging Democratic President Joe Biden in the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, has pleaded not guilty to 34 counts of falsifying business records and denies an encounter with Daniels, whose real name is Stephanie Clifford.

Merchan on April 1 expanded an existing gag order that had barred Trump from publicly commenting about witnesses and court staff to make clear it also applies to family members. He did so after Trump disparaged Merchan’s daughter.
The looming hush-money trial is one of four criminal cases Trump is confronting ahead of the U.S. election. It could be the only one to reach trial before the election. He has pleaded not guilty to all and called them politically motivated.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-it-would-be-great-honor-go-jail-violating-gag-order-2024-04-07/

Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant says troops had been pulled out to prepare for future missions, including in Gaza’s southern city of Rafah.

Israel has withdrawn almost all of its troops from southern Gaza.

Only one brigade remains in Khan Younis and is tasked with securing the Netzarim corridor that divides the Gaza Strip, according to The Times of Israel.

The move came six months since Hamas launched the October 7 attacks on Israel, which left more than 1,100 people dead.

It was the trigger for Israel’s ongoing military action in Gaza, which has resulted in the deaths of more than 33,000 Palestinians, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health authority.

The withdrawal of troops is linked to ongoing negotiations with Hamas over Israeli hostages and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is “desperate” for a ceasefire deal, a senior source in the Israeli government told Sky’s Middle East correspondent Alistair Bunkall.

The killings of seven aid workers in Gaza in an Israeli airstrike “changed everything”, the source added.

Israel’s defence minister Yoav Gallant said troops had been pulled out of Gaza on Sunday to prepare for future missions, including in the enclave’s southern city of Rafah.

“We saw examples of such missions in the Shifa operation, and also of their coming mission in the Rafah area,” Mr Gallant said at a meeting with military officials, according to a statement from his office.

Israel had planned a ground invasion of the southern city of Rafah, claiming it is a hive of Hamas’s remaining strongholds. More than half of Gaza’s 2.3 million population are taking refuge in the city.

Following the withdrawal of the troops, Israeli government spokesperson Avi Hyman told Sky News Mr Netanyahu would “absolutely” go ahead with a ground invasion of Rafah.

“If we don’t go ahead with Rafah, we lose the war,” he said.

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/israel-withdraws-almost-all-troops-from-southern-gaza-as-iran-says-no-israeli-embassy-is-safe-13110075

A state of emergency has been imposed in a Russian city due to nuclear contamination.

The Russian authorities have not explained what is causing the alarming radiation in Khabarovsk.

A mystery radiation source was today ‘removed and placed in a protective container’ and ‘transported to a radioactive waste storage facility’ in the city, the largest in Russia’s far east and close to the border with China.

Yet a state of emergency is to remain for at least three more days in the Industrialny district of the city, as law enforcement agencies examine the origin of the leak.

It appears to have taken a week for the authorities to act.

A man wearing a nuclear protective mask is seen in darkness with a radiation reader that quickly rises as he walks over a ‘waste dump’.

His reader sounded an alarm at 0.45 microsieverts and the highest reading visible on screen is 5.99.

Yet on the video the man says there was a reading of 20, enough potentially to increase cancer risk, damage DNA, cause foetal damage, and threaten the health of children.

Astonishingly, the potentially lethal radiation leak in Khabarovsk was known for around one week before action was taken on it, or the public alerted, say reports.

A ‘boy’ who made an initial reading on 28 March had reported it to the Russian special services, yet it was only today that a state of emergency was called.

Andrey Kolchin, head civil defence in the city, said: ‘A source of increased radiation levels was discovered….the area was cordoned.

‘It was decided to introduce a state of emergency in Khabarovsk to carry out work faster.’

The authorities insisted there was no threat to life.

‘The radiation source was removed and placed in a protective container, transported to a radioactive waste storage facility,’ said a source at Radon nuclear agency.

Source : https://metro.co.uk/2024/04/05/mystery-nuclear-leak-sparks-state-emergency-russian-city-20593791

While the Israeli ambassador walked out of the plenary session in protest at the end of her speech, India was among 13 countries which abstained from voting for the resolution.

The United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) adopted a resolution on Friday, calling for Israel to be held accountable for possible war crimes and crimes against humanity in the Gaza Strip at the end of the 55th Council session.

While the Israeli ambassador walked out of the plenary session in protest at the end of her speech at the UN, India was among 13 countries which abstained from voting for the resolution. Other countries which abstained were Albania, Benin, Cemeroon, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, France, Geogia, Japan, Lithuania, Montenegro, Netherlands and Romania.

“Draft resolution A/HRC/55/L.30 on the Human rights situation in the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and the obligation to ensure accountability and justice was ADOPTED,” tweeted United Nations Human Rights Council.

In the resolution adopted on Friday, the UN condemned Israel for the war in Gaza but made no mention of Hamas or its crimes on October 7. The resolution equates the abductees with detainees suspected of terrorist activity, news agency ANI reported.

Furthermore, “the resolution provided legitimacy for Palestinian ‘resistance’ to the ‘occupation,’ calls for an arms embargo on Israel, and blatantly disregards the supply of weapons to Hamas by Iran and its allies”.

The resolution was passed with 28 of the council’s 47 member states voting in favour, six opposed and 13 abstaining. The United States voted against the anti-Israeli resolution, as did Germany, Argentina, Paraguay, Bulgaria and Malawi.

“There are 47 member states in the United Nations Human Rights Council, according to geographic distribution. Currently, its members include Malaysia, Kuwait, Qatar, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Algeria, South Africa, Somalia, Cuba, together with the United States, Germany, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Belgium, Romania, Georgia, Bulgaria among other states,” the Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in its press release.

Source : https://www.livemint.com/news/world/unhrc-adopts-resolution-over-gaza-israel-war-india-among-13-countries-to-abstain-11712329524074.html

‘… as populations in India, South Korea, and the United States head to the polls, we are likely to see Chinese cyber and influence actors … work toward targeting these elections,’ the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC) said in its report.

New York: China is likely to deploy Artificial Intelligence-generated content via social media to sway public opinion to boost its geopolitical interests during elections in countries like India, South Korea and the US, tech giant Microsoft has warned.

Voting for 543 Lok Sabha seats in India will take place between April 19 and June 4, spread across seven phases.

South Koreans will go to the polls in a general election on April 10 while the US will hold the Presidential election on November 5.

“With major elections taking place around the world this year, particularly in India, South Korea and the United States, we assess that China will, at a minimum, create and amplify AI-generated content to benefit its interests,” Clint Watts, General Manager, Microsoft Threat Analysis Center, said in a blog post.

Despite the chances of such content in affecting election results remaining low, China’s increasing experimentation in augmenting memes, videos, and audio will likely continue – and may prove more effective down the line, he said.

China will do it along with North Korea, he wrote.

These are among the Microsoft Threat Intelligence insights in the latest East Asia report published on Wednesday by the Microsoft Threat Analysis Center (MTAC).

China is using fake social media accounts to poll voters on what divides them most to sow division and possibly influence the outcome of the US presidential election in its favour.

Source : https://www.deccanherald.com/world/china-may-misuse-ai-to-target-elections-in-india-us-to-boost-geopolitical-interests-microsoft-2967744

The US is on high alert and actively preparing for a “significant” attack that could come as soon as within the next week by Iran targeting Israeli or American assets in the region in response to Monday’s Israeli strike in Damascus that killed top Iranian commanders, a senior administration official tells CNN.

Senior US officials currently believe that an attack by Iran is “inevitable” – a view shared by their Israeli counterparts, that official said. The two governments are furiously working to get in position ahead of what is to come, as they anticipate that Iran’s attack could unfold in a number of different ways – and that both US and Israeli assets and personnel are at risk of being targeted.

A forthcoming Iranian attack was a major topic of discussion on President Joe Biden’s phone call with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday.

As of Friday, the two governments did not know when or how Iran planned to strike back, the official said.

A direct strike on Israel by Iran is one of the worst-case scenarios that the Biden administration is bracing for, as it would guarantee rapid escalation of an already tumultuous situation in the Middle East. Such a strike could lead to the Israel-Hamas war broadening into a wider, regional conflict – something Biden has long sought to avoid.

It has been two months since Iranian proxies attacked US forces in Iraq and Syria, a period of relative stability after months of drone, rocket and missile launches targeting US facilities. The lone exception came on Tuesday, when US forces shot down a drone near al-Tanf garrison in Syria. The drone attack, which the Defense Department said was carried out by Iranian proxies, came after the Israeli strike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus.

“We asses that al-Tanf was not the target of the drone,” a defense official said Tuesday. “Since we were unable to immediately determine the target and out of safety for US and coalition partners, the drone was shot down.”

The incident came after the Israeli airstrike on the Iranian embassy in Damascus on Monday, though an Israel Defense Forces spokesman told CNN that their intelligence showed the building was not a consulate and is instead “a military building of Quds forces disguised as a civilian building.”

Israel has carried out numerous strikes on Iran-backed targets in Syria, often targeting weapons shipments intended for Hezbollah, a powerful Iranian proxy in Lebanon. But the targeting of the embassy itself marks a significant escalation, since embassies are considered the sovereign territory of the nations they represent.

Iran vowed to take revenge after Israel’s airstrike on Iran’s embassy complex in Syria, which killed at least seven officials. Mohammed Reza Zahedi, a top commander in Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards (IRGC), and senior commander Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi were among those killed, according to Iran’s Foreign Ministry.

At least six Syrian citizens were also killed, Iranian state television reported on Tuesday.

Zahedi, a former commander of the IRGC’s ground forces, air force, and the deputy commander of its operations, is the most high-profile Iranian target killed since then-US President Donald Trump ordered the assassination of IRGC Gen. Qassem Soleimani in Baghdad in 2020.

The US was quick to inform Iran that the Biden administration was not involved and had no advance knowledge of Monday’s strike on the embassy and has warned Iran against coming after American assets.

“The United States had no involvement in the strike and we did not know about it ahead of time,” a National Security Council spokesperson told CNN earlier this week.

The US has warned Iran not to use the Israeli strike in Damascus as “a pretext to attack US personnel and facilities,” a State Department spokesperson told CNN Friday.

The warning was sent in response to a message from Iran, the spokesperson said. Iran’s message to the US blamed the US for the Damascus attack, a senior administration official said, though it was not clear what, if anything else, Iran conveyed to the US in that initial message.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/04/05/politics/us-israel-iran-retaliation-strike/index.html

A rare earthquake rocked the New York City area Friday morning, swaying buildings and sending terrified residents into the streets — the strongest temblor to strike near the Big Apple in 140 years.

City officials quickly warned people of the danger of potential aftershocks — which began in the early afternoon in New Jersey, a report said.

The preliminary 4.8-magnitude earthquake struck near Lebanon, NJ, around 10:23 a.m. and was potentially felt by more than 42 million people, according to the US Geological Survey.

“I was doing my morning reporting, and this safe in my office, that’s a ton, starts shaking. The whole room is shaking,” said Monique Horton, who works at the Balmain store on Madison Avenue in Manhattan. “I was just freaked out. Scary, really scary. I’m a New Yorker, my whole life, 36 years, never seen anything like it.”

At the United Nations in Midtown Manhattan, a Security Council address on the Israel-Gaza conflict was interrupted as cameras began shuddering.

The Federal Aviation Administration told airlines to expect flight delays in and out of the Big Apple because of the quake. Some flights bound for New York had already diverted to other airports, according to FlightAware.

The US Geological Survey logged 160,000 reports on its website from panicked residents in the quake’s aftermath – a potential new record, officials said.

“This is one of the largest earthquakes on the East Coast in the last century,” New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said.

The last time an earthquake with a magnitude close to 5 struck near New York City was back in 1884, the USGS said. That quake appeared to have been centered in Brooklyn.

A stronger 5.8 quake was felt in the city in 2011, although that started in Virginia.

Friday’s temblor was the strongest to hit New Jersey in 240 years, according to the Fox Forecast Center.

USGS officials said at least two aftershocks had been recorded by Friday afternoon.

Both Hochul and Mayor Eric Adams said there were no initial reports of injuries or damage from Friday’s quake, however it later emerged that the walls of a gym at a Brooklyn middle school suffered several cracks.

Engineers with the city Department of Buildings were dispatched to J.H.S. 218 James P. Sinnott in East New York, where they ordered the gymnasium shut down until repairs are made, though the rest of the school can remain open, the agency said.

It was determined the bricks that make up the gym’s masonry walls could potentially break loose due to the cracks, according to the DOB. No other structural issues were found in the school.

Meanwhile, Hochul and Adams warned New Yorkers to be wary of the possible aftershocks.

“We are always concerned about aftershocks after an earthquake but New Yorkers should go about their normal day,” Hizzoner said.

“Earthquakes don’t happen every day in New York, so this can be extremely traumatic. I encourage New Yorkers to check on their loved ones to make sure that they are fine.”

City and state officials said there were no reported infrastructure issues as a result of the quake, noting that all major bridges and tunnels had been inspected.

Source: https://nypost.com/2024/04/05/us-news/earthquake-rocks-nyc-tri-state-area/

President Joe Biden threatened on Thursday to condition support for Israel’s offensive in Gaza on it taking concrete steps to protect aid workers and civilians, seeking for the first time to leverage U.S. aid to influence Israeli military behavior.
Biden’s warning, relayed in a call with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday, followed a deadly Israeli attack on World Central Kitchen aid workers that spurred new calls from Biden’s fellow Democrats to place conditions on U.S. aid to Israel. Israel said the attack was a mistake.

The U.S. president, a lifelong supporter of Israel, has resisted pressure to withhold aid or halt the shipment of weapons to the country. His warning marked the first time he has threatened to potentially condition aid, a development that could change the dynamic of the nearly six-month-old war.
Biden “made clear the need for Israel to announce and implement a series of specific, concrete, and measurable steps to address civilian harm, humanitarian suffering, and the safety of aid workers,” the White House said of the leaders’ phone call. It said the call lasted about 30 minutes.

Israel war cabinet member Benny Gantz called for national elections in September on Wednesday (Apr 3) as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government faces pressure at home and abroad over the war in Gaza.

“We must agree on a date for elections in September, towards a year to the war if you will,” Gantz said in a televised briefing. “Setting such a date will allow us to continue the military effort while signalling to the citizens of Israel that we will soon renew their trust in us.”

Thousands of Israelis have taken to the streets in recent days demanding new elections. Many have criticised Netanyahu and expressed anger at his government’s handling of the 134 Israeli hostages still held in Gaza six months into the war.

Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, has repeatedly ruled out early elections, which opinion polls suggest he would lose, saying that to go to the polls in the middle of a war would only reward Hamas, the Islamist movement that ruled Gaza.

His Likud party on Wednesday said Gantz must “stop engaging in petty politics” during the war. “Elections now will bring about paralysis, division, harm to the fighting in Rafah and a fatal blow to the chances of a hostage deal,” Likud said.

Gantz, a former army general, joined Netanyahu’s government in the early days of the war as a gesture of political unity during the crisis. Polls suggest his party would come top in any election and he would be favourite to take over as premier.

NETANYAHU PLEDGED TO BRING HOSTAGES HOME
Netanyahu has pledged to bring the hostages home, as well as destroy Hamas, though it is unclear how Israel would be able to do so and experts doubt that is even possible. Israel’s unrelenting air, ground and sea assault has killed more than 32,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities, and led to a humanitarian catastrophe.

Source: https://www.channelnewsasia.com/world/israel-war-minister-gantz-calls-sept-elections-amid-gaza-assault-4240951

NATO foreign ministers meet on Thursday to celebrate the 75th anniversary of their alliance, having agreed to start planning for a greater role in coordinating military aid to Ukraine.
On the second day of a meeting in Brussels, the ministers will mark the signing in Washington on April 4, 1949, of the North Atlantic Treaty that established the transatlantic political and military alliance.
“As we face a more dangerous world, the bond between Europe and North America has never been more important,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Wednesday.

NATO began with 12 members from North America and Europe, founded in response to growing fears that the Soviet Union posed a military threat to European democracies.
At its heart is the concept of collective defence, the idea that an attack on one member is considered an attack on all, giving U.S. military protection to Western Europe.
Seventy-five years later, NATO has 32 members and has retaken a central role in world affairs, after Russia’s war in Ukraine prompted European governments to view Moscow once more as a major security threat.

NATO’s two newest members, Finland and Sweden, joined in direct response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
“Democratic nations, free people chose to join (NATO) unlike how Russia expands by annexation or illegal aggression,” Finnish Foreign Minister Elina Valtonen told reporters.
Russia said on Wednesday that NATO had returned to a Cold War mindset. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters NATO had no place in the “multipolar world” Moscow says it seeks to build to end U.S. dominance.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/ministers-mark-75-years-nato-discuss-more-support-ukraine-2024-04-03/

The US country-turned-pop singer is the only musician to have earned more than $1bn from her songs and performances alone, Forbes says.

Taylor Swift has made it on to a list of the world’s billionaires, according to Forbes, as her Eras Tour spanning 152 shows and five continents generated more than $1bn (£800m) in revenue.

The 34-year-old superstar, who stole the show at this year’s Grammy Awards by winning album of the year for the fourth time, is now said to have accumulated a fortune of $1.1bn (£874m).

According to Forbes, the estimated figure is based on the value of Swift’s music, earnings from her world tour and her real estate portfolio.

The US country-turned-pop singer is the only musician to have earned so much money from her songs and performances alone, Forbes adds.

Swift, whose relationship with NFL player Travis Kelce, 34, has gained her – and American football – even more publicity, is one of the 265 people to have joined the 2,781-strong list of billionaires over the past year.

The list has never been longer than this year’s, Forbes reports, with the total wealth of those on it amounting to an eye-watering $14.2tn (£11.3tn).

The richest new person on the list is ION tycoon Andrea Pignataro, 53, from Italy, who is now worth $27.5bn (£21.8bn).

Source: https://news.sky.com/story/taylor-swift-now-a-billionaire-as-worlds-wealthiest-revealed-in-2024-forbes-list-13106631

The move came after Israeli lawmakers passed a new law that allows the government to temporarily shutter foreign media outlets deemed to be a risk to national security.

Israeli lawmakers passed a law on Monday allowing the government to temporarily shutter foreign media outlets that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has determined undermine the country’s national security, and the Israeli leader said he would use the new law to block Al Jazeera broadcasts and activities in Israel.

Mr. Netanyahu’s government has had a tense relationship with Al Jazeera for years, but the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7 escalated tensions. Mr. Netanyahu has called Al Jazeera a “Hamas mouthpiece.”

On Monday, the prime minister said it was time for the Qatar-based network, one of the most widely viewed sources of television news in the Arab world, to stop broadcasting in Israel, although he did not specify when that would happen.

“The terrorist channel Al Jazeera will no longer broadcast from Israel. I intend to act immediately in accordance with the new law to stop the channel’s activity,” Mr. Netanyahu posted on X, while recovering from hernia surgery.

Al Jazeera called Netanyahu’s comments “lies that incite against the safety of our journalists around the world.”

“The network stresses that this latest measure comes as part of a series of systematic Israeli attacks to silence Al Jazeera,” it said in a statement, adding that the new law would not “deter us from continuing our bold and professional coverage.”

Under the new law, if the prime minister deems a foreign media outlet to “concretely undermine” Israel’s national security, the government can temporarily close its offices, confiscate its equipment, remove it from Israeli cable and satellite television providers, and block access to any of the channel’s online platforms hosted on servers in Israel or owned by Israeli entities.

The Committee to Protect Journalists, an independent, nonprofit organization that promotes press freedoms around the world, criticized the new law, saying that it “contributes to a climate of self-censorship and hostility toward the press.”

White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, asked about the law during a news briefing in Washington, said that “a move like this is concerning.”

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2024/04/01/world/middleeast/al-jazeera-israel-netanyahu.html

The Kremlin on Monday dismissed a report that Russian military intelligence may be behind the mysterious “Havana syndrome” ailment that has afflicted U.S. diplomats and spies globally.
Insider, a Russia-focused investigative media group based in Riga, Latvia reported, opens new tab that members of a Russian military intelligence (GRU) unit known as 29155 had been placed at the scene of reported health incidents involving U.S. personnel.

Tens of thousands of Israelis demonstrated Saturday night in front of the military’s headquarters in Tel Aviv, in the biggest protest against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu since the terrorist attack of Oct. 7.

• During the demonstration, a group of roughly 20 hostage families called on Netanyahu to resign. They say that for his own political reasons, he isn’t pushing hard enough for a deal with Hamas.

Why it matters: The protests, which many political observers thought would happen months ago, could signal a turning point for the Israeli public.

The big picture: Netanyahu and his government faced only limited protests at home over the past five months, compared to mass demonstrations before the war.

• The vast majority of Israelis have felt political demonstrations weren’t appropriate while hundreds of thousands of Israeli soldiers, many of them reservists, were fighting in Gaza or stationed on high alert along Israel’s borders.

Saturday’s eruption was driven by three key groups — all of whom think Netanyahu’s decisions are driven mainly by political survival:

1. Families of hostages in Gaza.
2. The anti-Netanyahu protest movement, which was very active before the war and now is resurfacing.
3. Many Israelis are angry at Netanyahu over attempts to bypass an Israeli Supreme Court ruling Thursday that ultra-orthodox men can no longer be exempt from military service.

Behind the scenes: Netanyahu has rejected requests by the director of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, and other Israeli negotiators to give them more leeway so they can get a hostage deal with the Hamas captors.

• Several members of the Israeli war cabinet also pushed Netanyahu to show more flexibility. But he accused them of being soft and not knowing how to negotiate with Hamas.
• During a security cabinet meeting on Thursday, most of the ministers from Netanyahu’s own party said there’s a need to make more compromises to get a deal. Netanyahu rejected their proposals.

Between the lines: A development that helped turn the tide was a New York Times interview with a former hostage who was abducted from her home on Oct. 7, and was released last November.

• Amit Soussana told The Times, in a story published Tuesday, that she was sexually assaulted at gunpoint by a Hamas militant who was guarding her while she was in captivity in Gaza.
• Two days later, another female hostage, Moran Stela Yanai, suggested in an interview with Israel’s most-watched investigative television show, “Uvda,” that she was molested by her male captors.
• Yanai shocked many Israelis when she said that not even one minister in the government had visited her or called her after she was released.

• But the Hamas attack — the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust — eroded Netanyahu’s political situation even more.
• While a majority of Israelis support the war, recent polls show they also want Netanyahu to resign and call for new elections once the war winds down.

Source: https://www.axios.com/2024/03/31/netanyahu-critics-mobilize-in-israel

Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree setting out the routine spring conscription campaign, calling up 150,000 citizens for statutory military service, a document posted on the Kremlin’s website showed on Sunday.
All men in Russia are required to do a year-long military service, or equivalent training during higher education, from the age of 18.
In July Russia’s lower house of parliament voted to raise the maximum age at which men can be conscripted to 30 from 27. The new legislation came into effect on Jan. 1, 2024.

Compulsory military service has long been a sensitive issue in Russia, where many men go to great lengths to avoid being handed conscription papers during the twice-yearly call-up periods.
Conscripts cannot legally be deployed to fight outside Russia and were exempted from a limited mobilisation in 2022 that gathered at least 300,000 men with previous military training to fight in Ukraine – although some conscripts were sent to the front in error.

Donald Trump posted a video to his Truth Social account showing a pickup truck whose tailgate featured a photoshopped image of a tied-up President Joe Biden being hauled away.

The truck in question can be seen driving in what looks like a caravan of Trump-themed trucks.

Above the video, Trump posted, “3/28/24 | LONG ISLAND, NEW YORK…” and the post is labeled as “viral.”

On X, formerly Twitter, right-wing watchdog group Patriot Takes posted about the Truth Social video.

Another X user posted what looked like a different truck sporting the same image.

Journalist Sandi Bachom posted,”The guy that drove that truck sent the video to me, Dan Scavino tweeted it. I filmed it at the Kathy Griffin protest.”

Trump was recently criticized for saying, “if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath,” in a rally speech, causing some pundits to fear he would promote violence if he lost to Biden in November.

Trump diputed this claim, saying he was talking about the auto industry, not the country as a whole. The May 18 remarks from his rally were: “We’re gonna put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not gonna be able to sell those guys if I get elected. Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath for the whole — that’s gonna be the least of it, it’s gonna be a bloodbath for the country, that’ll be the least of it.”

Source : https://www.mediaite.com/trump/trump-shares-image-of-biden-tied-up-in-the-back-of-maga-pickup-truck

If the tragic events that pulled the US into World War 2 were to repeat themselves today, NATO would not be obliged to enact Article 5.

Experts have warned that Vladimir Putin could use a NATO loophole to attack the US and not trigger Article 5.

On Sunday, December 7, 1941, the course of World War 2 changed forever when Japan launched a surprise attack on the American naval base at Pearl Harbor in Honolulu, Hawaii.

Consequently, it led then-president Franklin D. Roosevelt to join the Allies and declare war on the Axis – a move that would eventually lead to the use of nuclear weapons to force Japan into surrender.

However, experts warn that if Vladimir Putin did the same thing today, the members of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation would not be obligated to rise to the Aloha State’s defence.

David Santoro, president of the Pacific Forum think tank in Honolulu, said: “It’s the weirdest thing. People tend to assume Hawaii is part of the US and therefore it’s covered by NATO.

“The argument for not including Hawaii is simply that it’s not part of North America.”

The clue is in the alliance’s name – the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation.

Hawaii is, of course, in the Pacific, and unlike California, Colorado, or Alaska, the 50th state is not part of the continental US that reaches the North Atlantic Ocean on its eastern shores.

And while Article 5 of the treaty provides for collective self-defence in the event of a military attack on any member state, Article 6 limits the geographic scope of that.

It reads: “An armed attack on one or more of the Parties is deemed to include an armed attack on the territory of any of the Parties in Europe or North America.”

However, such an attack would likely trigger Article 4.

A US State Department spokesperson confirmed to CNN that Hawaii is not covered by Article 5, but said Article 4, which says members will consult when “the territorial integrity, political independence or security” of any member is threatened, should cover any situation that could affect the 50th state.

NATO has not responded to a request for comment.

John Hemmings, senior director of the Indo-Pacific Foreign and Security Policy Program at the Pacific Forum, says Hawaii’s exclusion from NATO removes “an element of deterrence” from those who threaten the Western way of life.

He said: “For Americans, there is a direct link between this state and our involvement in the Second World War and ultimately our help in contributing to the victory over the Axis (the alliance of Nazi Germany, Japan and Italy).”

Source: https://www.express.co.uk/news/us/1883251/vladimir-putin-nato-loophole-article-5-russia

Guyana President Irfaan Ali while discussing Guyana’s recently found offshore oilfields had an argument with BBC’s Stephen Sackur, who hosts the interview programme HARDTalk, over climate change.

Irfaan Ali did not approve when journalist Sackur questioned him regarding Guyana’s plans to drill oil from its recently discovered oil reserves. “Over the next decade or two, it’s expected that there will be 150 billion dollars worth of oil and gas extracted off your coast. It’s an extraordinary figure. But in practical terms, that means two billion tons of carbon emissions will come from your seabed and be released into the atmosphere,” Sackur said.

President Ali immediately interjected and said: “Let me stop you right there! Did you know that Guyana has a forest that is the size of England and Scotland combined, a forest that stores 19.5 gigatons of carbon, that we have kept alive”.

He then peppered Sackur with many counterpoints. Sackur tried to counter by asking if protecting Guyana’s forests gave him the right to release carbon in the atmosphere.

This visibly enraged Ali, who said in response: “Does that give you the right to lecture us on climate change? I’m going to lecture you on climate change. We have kept this forest alive that you enjoy that the world enjoys, that you don’t pay us for, that you don’t value. Guess what? We have the lowest deforestation rate in the world! Guess what? Even with the greatest exploration of oil and gas we will still be net zero”.

“This is the hypocrisy that exists in the world. The world in the last 50 years has lost 65 percent of its biodiversity. We have kept ours,” he further added.

The enraged Guyanese President then asked Sackur if he was “in the pockets of those who destroy the environment through the Industrial Revolution”.

Source: https://www.news18.com/world/im-not-finished-yet-guyana-president-shuts-bbc-interviewer-down-on-climate-change-video-goes-viral-8833504.html

An American YouTube star has been kidnapped in Haiti by one of the gangs that have become its de facto rulers, as he was attempting to interview the nation’s most notorious gang leader.

Addison Pierre Maalouf, known online as YourFellowArab or just “Arab,” traveled from his home in Atlanta to interview Jimmy “Barbecue” Chérizier, the leader of the notorious G9 Family and Allies gang that has seized control of the government, according to Haiti 24.net.

But just 24 hours after he arrived in the country, Maalouf and a Haitian colleague were taken by members of the 400 Mawozo gang on March 14.

He is being held for a $600,000 ransom, and even though $40,000 has already been paid, the kidnappers are continuing to demand a large sum of money to secure Maalouf’s release, the Haitian outlet reports.

As news of the YouTube star’s disappearance spread online Thursday, fellow streamer Lalem confirmed that his friend had been taken hostage.

“Tried keeping it private for two weeks, but it’s getting out everywhere now,” Lalem posted on X.

“Yes, Arab has been kidnapped in Haiti and we’re working on getting him out,” he said, vowing, “he’ll be out soon.”

Lalem also shared the last video that Maalouf posted online, showing him at a hotel in Haiti telling his viewers about the dangers of being in the country.

In the video, Maalouf said he and his crew intended to travel to the capital city of Port-au-Prince, but had to wait until the early morning hours so they could arrive in the sunlight.

He also notes that Port-au-Prince is “completely run by gangs” and even though they had secured safe passage, “all it takes is one stupid gang member holding an AK-47 for one thing to go wrong.”

Maalouf had earlier posted on March 10 that he was “going on another one of those trips.”

“If I die, thanks for watching what I’ve put out,” he posted on X.

“If I live, all glory to God.”

By Friday, another YouTuber, Miles “Lord Miles” Routledge, claimed he spoke directly with Maalouf using his kidnappers’ phone.

Routledge said Maalouf arrived in the country with “fixer” Sean Roubens Jean Sacra to film the ongoing riots in Haiti, and was kidnapped just 24 hours after he arrived.

“Arab has been kept in a cage in a place on the eastern outskirts of the capital, Port-au-Prince,” Routledge wrote.

“His location is known.”

He claimed there was an attempt to pay the ransom, “but it went wrong and truthfully everyone was out of their depths to help Arab.”

Routledge, a Brit, then went on to criticize the US government and the State Department for failing to secure the Georgian’s release.

He said they were “very hands off on helping, even though Arab is a US citizen.”

Source: https://nypost.com/2024/03/29/world-news/american-youtube-star-kidnapped-in-haiti/

NATO faces a “pre-war era” in which “literally any scenario is possible” given the potential for aggression from Russia, according to Poland’s prime minister, the latest evidence that allies see a growing likelihood of major conflict.

“Literally any scenario is possible,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk told a group of journalists in a newly-published interview. “I know it sounds devastating, especially to people of the younger generation, but we have to mentally get used to a new era. We are in a pre-war era. I don’t exaggerate. This is becoming more and more apparent every day.”

Tusk is the second senior politician from a NATO member-state to suggest that the alliance faces “a pre-war world,” as British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps likewise put it in a January speech. His urgent appeal adds a center-left voice to a chorus of Russia hawks typically populated by more conservative perspectives or the Baltic state leaders who feel acutely their vulnerability to Russia.

“But I would dare to say that it is only now, in the midst of this great war, that it has dawned on all NATO leaders and senior military leaders that all this may actually be needed very soon, that there is a real threat, a real military task, and that we must behave and act in such a way that this machinery, when it is needed, is ready,” Estonian Ambassador Jüri Luik, the Baltic ally’s envoy to NATO, told an Estonian outlet in an interview published Friday. “It seems to me that this final realization has come only after the aggression began.”

Russian President Vladimir Putin denies any intention to “fight NATO” in the event that the war in Ukraine ends with a Russian victory.

“The United States’s defense spending amounts to about 40% of the global figure, or more precisely, 39%, while Russia accounts for 3.5%,” Putin said Wednesday during a visit to a Russian air base. “Considering this difference, are we planning to fight NATO? This is nonsense. We are only defending our people on our historical territories. It is therefore complete nonsense when people say that we intend to attack Europe after Ukraine.”

Those statements are no consolation for Central and Eastern European leaders given that Putin and other Russian officials lied about their intent to attack Ukraine even in the weeks just prior to the full-scale invasion. And Baltic officials, especially, are conscious that Putin regards their countries as part of the historical Russian empire. The justification for the war in Ukraine, as Putin emphasized in June 2022, also “applies to Narva,” a city in Estonia where Tsar Peter the Great won a major battle in 1704.

“Then the question is, could NATO be challenged? … we’re more technologically advanced, we’re better prepared, we’re better trained, and all the other things,” Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis said Monday at the Hudson Institute. “But Russia is fighting an actual war right now, building up this army and expecting us to be, politically, not prepared — not militarily [unprepared], but politically.”

Tusk, likewise, emphasized that European leaders need to adopt a more hard-headed attitude.

“At the last European Council, I had an interesting discussion with the Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez,” Tusk said. “He asked us to stop using the word ‘war’ in statements. He argued that people do not want to be threatened in this way, that in Spain it sounds abstract. I replied that in my part of Europe, war is no longer an abstraction — and that our duty is not to discuss, but to act and prepare to defend ourselves.”

The Polish leader aired his warning while arguing that European allies must recognize the urgent need for major defense spending increases, on their own behalf and in direct support of Ukraine.

Source: https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/policy/foreign-policy/2945273/nato-allies-war-with-russia-soon/

FTX co-founder Sam Bankman-Fried will serve 25 years in prison after being convicted of defrauding his customers, investors, and lenders.

The man who presided over the largest crypto collapse in history received his sentence Thursday in a Manhattan federal court from US Judge Lewis Kaplan, who presided over Bankman-Fried’s trial last fall.

He faced up to 110 years. Prosecutors argued for a sentence of 40 to 50 years, while Bankman-Fried’s lawyers asked for six and a half years.

Sentences for white collar crimes have varied in recent years, from 150 years for Bernard Madoff to 11 years for Elizabeth Holmes.

The 32-year-old Bankman-Fried, in his final statement before the judge, said what happened at FTX “haunts me” and that “I made a lot of mistakes.”

As CEO, “I was responsible at the end of the day.”

Bankman-Fried’s defense lawyer tried to draw a distinction between his client and Madoff, who ran the largest Ponzi scheme in history.

“Madoff stole from Holocaust survivors,” his lawyer said. “That is not Sam. He did not want to personally inflict pain on anyone in any way. Sam was not a ruthless financial serial killer. He wasn’t predatory. He makes decisions with math in his head, not malice in his heart.”

Dozens of FTX victims, including those who said they lost their life’s savings due to the demise of the cryptocurrency exchange, submitted letters urging Kaplan to impose a harsh sentence.

The federal sentencing guidelines, while advisory rather than mandatory, suggest prison term enhancements that lengthen sentences as victims’ losses increase.

Kaplan had to weigh the billions that prosecutors say Bankman-Fried stole from FTX customers against claims made by FTX that those who were harmed may be fully repaid via FTX’s bankruptcy.

In January, lawyers for the defunct exchange told a Delaware bankruptcy court judge that a plan for FTX to repay customers and general unsecured creditors in full was “within reach.”

But the judge was not sympathetic to that claim, calling the assertion “misleading” and “speculative.”

Kaplan also had some strong words about Bankman-Fried before delivering his sentence, citing the “brazenness” of his actions, his “exceptional flexibility with the truth” and “his apparent lack of any remorse.”

“He knew it was wrong,” the judge added.

Rise and fall

The sentencing of Bankman-Fried completes a dramatic fall for a onetime billionaire who ran the world’s second-largest crypto exchange and was the face of a boom in digital assets during the early years of the pandemic.

His empire imploded in late 2022 as FTX filed for bankruptcy and he was arrested by authorities in the Bahamas.

The group, prosecutors claimed, allowed Bankman-Fried’s sister crypto trading firm Alameda Research “secret” backdoor access to FTX’s customer deposits, then spent the money on investments, loan repayments, political donations, and real estate.

“He spent his customers’ money, and he lied to them about it,” prosecutor Nicolas Roos said in the government’s closing argument.

The other three FTX executives — Alameda CEO Caroline Ellison, FTX co-founder Gary Wang, and FTX engineering director Nishad Singh — pleaded guilty to fraud charges and testified against Bankman-Fried under plea agreements with the government.

The World Court on Thursday unanimously ordered Israel, accused by South Africa of genocide in Gaza, to take all necessary and effective action to ensure basic food supplies to the enclave’s Palestinian population and halt spreading famine.
But Gaza’s Hamas rulers said a ceasefire was needed to halt the humanitarian crisis.
The order from the International Court of Justice came as Israeli forces and Palestinian fighters battled in close combat around Gaza’s Al Shifa Hospital, where the armed wings of Hamas and Islamic Jihad said they attacked Israeli soldiers and tanks with rockets and mortar fire.

Judges at the court said the people in the coastal enclave face worsening conditions.
“The court observes that Palestinians in Gaza are no longer facing only a risk of famine (…) but that famine is setting in,” the judges said in their order.
The new measures were requested by South Africa as part of its case that accuses Israel of state-led genocide in Gaza.
Senior Hamas official Basem Naim said the ruling did not go far enough and Israel must be ordered to end its military offensive to halt the suffering.

“We welcome any new demands to end this humanitarian tragedy in Gaza and especially in the northern Gaza Strip, but we hoped the court ordered a ceasefire as an absolute solution to all the miseries our people in Gaza are living through,” Naim told Reuters.
The U.N. Security Council voted on Tuesday to demand an immediate ceasefire and the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages. The United States abstained from, but did not veto, the vote.

There was no immediate comment from Israel’s Foreign Ministry on the World Court ruling. Israel has said it is making efforts to expand access for humanitarian groups to Gaza overland, through air drops and by ship.
Israeli leaders have said Hamas can end the war by surrendering, freeing all hostages it holds in Gaza and handing over for trial those involved in the Oct. 7 attack.
The Israeli army said it continued to operate around the Al Shifa Hospital complex in Gaza City after storming it more than a week ago. Its forces had killed around 200 gunmen since the start of the operation “while preventing harm to civilians, patients, medical teams, and medical equipment”, it said.

Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/middle-east/palestinian-fighters-battle-israeli-forces-around-gazas-al-shifa-hospital-2024-03-28/

The United Nations Security Council on Monday adopted a resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas, after the United States abstained from the vote — prompting Israel to cancel the visit of a high-level delegation to Washington.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had warned before the vote that the delegation’s visit would be pulled, if Washington did not veto the motion. The U.S. abstention signals a widening divide between the White House and Israel’s current government, the most right-wing in its history, nearly six months into its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Israel’s offensive into the Gaza enclave, which comes in response to the Oct. 7 Hamas terror attacks, has killed tens of thousands of people, according to Gaza’s Hamas-run Health Ministry.

“This is a clear retreat from the consistent position of the U.S. in the Security Council since the beginning of this war,” a statement from Netanyahu’s office said, adding that “this withdrawal hurts both the war effort and the effort to release the abductees.”

The U.S. denied that the abstention marked a shift in its policy. Some observers see it differently.

“It’s a breakthrough. An abstention from a UN Security Council permanent member is a yes vote, because it means they are not exercising their veto and basically agree with the text, even if they don’t want to say so,” Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington, told CNBC.

“The U.S. declining to protect Israel from a resolution it passionately objects to by not providing a veto is an extraordinary thing.”

The first of its kind passed since the onset of the war, the resolution called for an immediate cessation of hostilities between Israel and Palestinian militant group Hamas for two weeks, breaking a five-month impasse during which the U.S. vetoed three U.N. calls for a halt in fighting. The motion also called for the immediate and unconditional release of all hostages held by Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

State Department spokesman Matthew Miller said Washington’s reasons to not approve the measure included its lack of condemnation for the Hamas terror attack, which led to roughly 1,200 deaths in Israel and took around 240 more people hostage.

But, Miller added, “the reason we didn’t veto it is because there were also things in that resolution that were consistent with our long-term position, most importantly, that there should be a cease-fire and that there should be a release of hostages, which is what we understood also to be the government of Israel’s position. So it is a bit surprising and unfortunate that they are not going to apparently attend these meetings.”

‘The United States is losing patience’
The move follows condemnations of Netanyahu from a number of U.S. lawmakers — most notably, Senate majority leader Chuck Schumer, the highest-ranking Jewish member of Congress, who is known for steadfastly standing by Israel’s government over the years.

“In this case, the abstention is a very strong signal to Israel that the United States is losing patience,” Ibish said.

The canceled Israeli delegation’s visit to Washington was set to discuss Israel’s planned military operation in Rafah, the southernmost corner of Gaza, where more than a million displaced Palestinians are taking shelter and where Israel says the bulk of Hamas’ remaining fighters are located.

The Biden administration has warned against a Rafah operation, already frustrated by Israel’s hindering of aid deliveries into the besieged strip. At the start of the year, the U.N. warned that half a million Palestinians were facing famine.

For former Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami, the rift between the two longtime allies is a grave threat to Israel’s security — and the blame lies with Netanyahu.

Asked by CNBC’s Dan Murphy if the U.S. and Israel are now at a turning point in the war, Ben-Ami said:

“I think we definitely are. This is a crisis, [and] Americans are conveying the powerful message that they disagree on the way Israel is conducting the war, that they think this is the moment to move to a political process.”

He added, “The whole attitude of confronting Americans instead of serving with their interests, which are essentially Israel’s interests, is working against the nation’s security. Netanyahu has become a threat to Israel’s security by conducting war from the very first day. With him, political domestic consideration is more [important] than catering to the strategic interest of Israel.”

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/26/israel-gaza-us-abstention-on-un-cease-fire-vote-triggers-netanyahu-rage.html

Barack Obama spent several hours last Friday in the family dining room of the White House, visiting his former vice president, Joe Biden. The mood was cheerful as the pair exchanged jokes, and the meeting served as a small reunion of sorts for the two presidents’ respective staff – many of whom have known each other going back to the Obama White House.

Still, the occasion was hardly just two old friends catching up.

Obama has made clear to associates in recent months that he believes Biden’s intensifying re-match with Donald Trump in November will be incredibly close, and that the 2024 election marks an “all-hands-on-deck” moment, people familiar with his thinking told CNN. To that end, his return to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue last week was largely a working visit.

Biden and Obama, along with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, participated in an organizing call in the White House residence heralding the 14th anniversary of the Affordable Care Act. “We have the chance to do even more, but that only happens if we send Joe and Kamala back to the White House in November,” Obama said in the video. “So, we’ve got to keep working.”

Off camera, Obama told Biden that he thought the president’s State of the Union remarks earlier this month had been effective and were breaking through, according to people familiar with their conversation. Obama also emphasized to Biden how much he believes health care will be a politically potent and important issue in the upcoming election.

The campaign also recorded other content featuring the two presidents, sources said, that they plan to roll out in the coming weeks.

Obama and Biden speak with regularity, sources said, and the former president remains in direct contact with some top White House officials, including Biden’s chief of staff, Jeff Zients, who worked in the Obama administration.

The former president has lent an occasional hand to Biden since the current president’s reelection announcement last year, particularly through public fundraising appeals and in quiet conversations in hopes of allaying concern from some Democrats about Biden seeking a second term. His engagement with the Biden campaign is expected to intensify as the general election kicks into higher gear, and aides said he has already agreed to several campaign appearances before November as he works to help rebuild Biden’s winning coalition from 2020.

Obama’s biggest embrace of Biden’s reelection effort comes Thursday at a star-studded Manhattan fundraiser featuring Biden, Obama and former President Bill Clinton. The three presidents will sit for a rare conversation, moderated by Stephen Colbert.

It will hardly be a routine meeting of the Presidents Club, and when Clinton and Obama take the stage at Radio City Music Hall, their appearance will underscore the extraordinary moment in American history as a sitting president is locked in a bitter fight to keep his predecessor from returning to the White House.

“No one can speak to disillusioned Democrats better than President Obama,” a senior strategist who has worked closely with Obama and Biden told CNN, speaking on condition of anonymity to be candid about the campaign. “But there are limits to what Obama can do. The burden to win this race is still on President Biden.”

Attending the sold-out, high-dollar event Thursday night will be numerous celebrities and artists like Queen Latifah, Lizzo, Cynthia Erivo, Mindy Kaling, Ben Platt and Lea Michele, according to the campaign. The evening will be overseen by high-profile producers Jordan Roth and Alex Timbers, and tickets will range from $225 to $500,000.

Capitalizing the rare joint appearance of Biden and two of his predecessors, the campaign is offering some of the high-dollar guests the opportunity to get their photographs taken with all three presidents by famed photographer Annie Leibovitz.

As president, Biden has also been in frequent touch with Clinton, sources familiar say. Steve Ricchetti, a top Biden adviser who also worked in the Clinton White House, is also in regular touch with his former boss. Advice and consultation related to the 2024 election have been a part of all of those conversations, those people said.

Obama’s appeal and popularity as one of the best-known national Democrats has been undeniable. The campaign’s grassroots fundraising efforts featuring the former president have raised over $15 million so far this cycle, with a “Meet the Presidents” contest featuring Biden and Obama alone hauling in some $3 million, according to the campaign.

For the next seven months, a specific area of focus for Obama will be making fundraising appeals and helping to motivate young Americans, particularly Black and Latino voters, who are seen by campaign advisers as a weak spot for Biden’s candidacy.

Obama has no plans to hit the stump aggressively until the fall, when early voting begins, following a pattern he has adopted since leaving office. Saving the former president until the end of the race – at the time when voters are paying the most attention – is how Obama and his advisers believe he can be the most effective.

Source: https://edition.cnn.com/2024/03/27/politics/barack-obama-joe-biden-bill-clinton-donald-trump/index.html

China criticizes EAM Jaishankar’s support for Philippines in maritime dispute, asserts third parties have no right to interfere in territorial matters.

China criticizes EAM Jaishankar’s comments on India supporting the Philippines for upholding its national sovereignty. Responding to Jaishankar’s comments, China said, “Third parties have no right to interfere whatsoever. Respect China’s territorial sovereignty and maritime rights.”

Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Lin Jian told Reuters that, “Marintime disputes are issued between the countries concerned. Third parties have no right to interfere whatsoever. We urge relevant parties to dae squarely the facts and truths on the South China Sea issue, and respect China territorial sovereignity and marinetime rights and interest and the efforts of regional countires to keep the South China Sea peaceful and stable.”

Earlier on Tuesday, in a firm public assertion of India’s position on the South China Sea issue, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said India firmly supported the Philippines in upholding its national sovereignty as Manila and Beijing were currently involved in a raging maritime territorial dispute over the resource-rich region.

Philippines President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. conveyed his appreciation to India for its prompt and resolute response in aiding Filipino crew members of a merchant vessel targeted by Houthi insurgents in the Gulf of Aden earlier this month. The swift intervention by the Indian Navy’s medical team ensured the rescue and provision of essential medical attention to all crew members of MV Confidence after the vessel came under attack from a Houthi missile strike on March 6. Tragically, three crew members, among them two Filipinos, lost their lives in the incident. According to the Philippine News Agency, all surviving Filipino crew members have been safely repatriated.

Source: https://www.livemint.com/news/south-china-sea-issue-china-miffed-with-eam-jaishankars-comment-on-philippines-says-third-parties-have-no-right-11711510676959.html

The ship crashed into the Francis Scott Key Bridge and, according to reports, several vehicles and as many as 20 people were sent plunging into the river below.

The container ship that rammed a bridge in US’ Baltimore, causing it to collapse almost entirely and sending cars and people plunging into the river below, was manned entirely by a crew of Indians. This was confirmed by shipping company Maersk, which had chartered the Singapore-flagged container ship, named Dali.
According to a report by news agency AFP, several vehicles and nearly 20 people are believed to have fallen into the Patapsco River after the 300-metre-long vessel crashed into one of the legs of the bridge. The ship had a crew of 22 members, all of whom were Indian. Quoting the Synergy Marine Group, which manages the Dali, a report said all crew members had been accounted for and none of them were injured.

Footage showed lights going out on the ship just before it rammed a leg of the Francis Scott Key Bridge, a portion of which collapsed on the vessel itself.

Maryland’s governor said the ship, which was moving at a “rapid” eight knots (nine miles per hour), issued a Mayday call moments before it collided with the pillar of the bridge and that quick thinking by authorities after that allowed officials to stop vehicles from going onto the bridge.

“We’re thankful that between the Mayday and the collapse that we had officials who were able to begin to stop the flow of traffic,” Mr Moore said, according to AFP.

Source: https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/all-indian-crew-on-board-ship-that-collided-with-baltimore-bridge-5314989