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South Africa asks ICJ to order Israel to withdraw from Gaza’s Rafah

South Africa asks ICJ to order Israel to withdraw from Gaza’s Rafah

South Africa seeks new emergency measures over Israel’s latest offensive against the southern city in Gaza. South Africa has asked the International Court of Justice (ICJ) to order Israel to withdraw from Rafah as part of additional emergency measures over the war in Gaza, the United Nations’s top court said. In the ongoing case brought by South Africa, which accuses Israel of acts of genocide against Palestinians, the ICJ in January ordered Israel to refrain from any acts that could fall under the Genocide Convention and to ensure its troops commit no genocidal acts against Palestinians. Israel has repeatedly said it is acting in accordance with international law in Gaza, and has called South Africa’s genocide case baseless and accused Pretoria of acting as “the legal arm of Hamas”. In filings published on Friday, South Africa is seeking additional emergency measures in light of the continuing military action in Rafah, which it calls the “last refuge” for Palestinians in Gaza. The city in the south of Gaza is crammed with hundreds of thousands of displaced Palestinians living in dire conditions and there have been warnings that an Israeli ground offensive would trigger a humanitarian catastrophe for civilians. South Africa’s application said Israel’s operation against Rafah poses an “extreme risk” to “humanitarian supplies and basic services into Gaza, to the survival of the Palestinian medical system, and to the very survival of Palestinians in Gaza as a group,” the UN court said in a statement. “Those who have survived so far are facing imminent death now, and an order from the Court is needed to ensure their survival,” South Africa’s filing said. South Africa also asked the court to order that Israel allow unimpeded access to Gaza for UN officials, organisations providing humanitarian aid, and journalists and investigators. PRESS RELEASE: South Africa submits an urgent request for the indication of additional provisional measures and the modification of previous provisional measures indicated by the #ICJ in the case #SouthAfrica v. #Israel https://t.co/Xixh0GhDAz pic.twitter.com/minw5GvpMK — CIJ_ICJ (@CIJ_ICJ) May 10, 2024 Israel’s 401st Brigade entered the Rafah crossing on Tuesday morning, a day after the Palestinian group governing Gaza said it accepted an Egyptian-Qatari mediated ceasefire proposal. Israel, meanwhile, insisted the proposal did not meet its core demands. Tanks and planes pounded several areas and at least four houses in Rafah overnight, killing 20 Palestinians and wounding several others, according to Palestinian health officials. Some 110,000 Palestinians have fled Rafah in recent days, according to the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). The UN also noted that the Israeli army’s takeover of the Rafah border crossing has shut down the entry of aid into Gaza for the past three days. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said the Rafah offensive was needed to defeat Hamas. At least 34,943 people have been killed and 78,572 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The death toll in Israel from Hamas’s October 7 attacks stands at 1,139, with dozens of people still held captive in Gaza. South Africa brought a case against Israel to the ICJ in January, accusing the country of committing genocide against Palestinians in Gaza. The top UN court has ruled that there was a plausible risk of genocide in the enclave and ordered Israel to take a series of provisional measures, including preventing any genocidal acts from taking place. The court rejected a second South African application for emergency measures made in March over Israel’s threat to attack Rafah. The ICJ, also known as the World Court, generally rules within a few weeks on requests for emergency measures. It will likely take years before the court will rule on the merits of the case. While the ICJ’s rulings are binding and without appeal the court has no way to enforce them. Adblock test (Why?)

This Indian historian fights the far-right, one makeup video at a time

This Indian historian fights the far-right, one makeup video at a time

Ghaziabad, India – It is close to midnight. Ruchika Sharma sits in her makeshift studio at her home in Ghaziabad, a city just outside India’s capital, New Delhi, a small mic hooked to her shirt. The 33-year-old historian and former professor is getting ready for her latest YouTube video show. The recording hours are odd, but it is a considered decision. There is little ambient noise at this time, she reasons. For an independent creator like Sharma, a studio with fancy audio setups and soundproofing is beyond reach – especially since she knows that each video she puts out makes it harder for her to land a job. Sharma looks at a phone that doubles as a teleprompter. Another phone serves as her recording rig. On two small wooden racks hung on the cream-coloured wall behind Sharma, sit a dozen history books. Also on the wall are a picture of Indian revolutionary icon Bhagat Singh, who was hanged by the British colonial regime in 1931, and a copy of the 17th-century painting of the Sasanian king Khosrow Parviz’s first sight of his Christian wife Shirin, bathing in a pool. On her wooden table, alongside tripods and ring lights is an eclectic mix of cosmetic products: brushes, mascara, concealer, powder puff, and, most important of all, eyeshadow. She hits the record button. Sharma starts with an introduction to Nalanda, a sixth-century Buddhist university in northern India that was home to nine million manuscripts and was burned down in a major fire in the 12th century. A widely held belief – promoted by sections of India’s Hindu right, amplified by a government-run modern-day version of Nalanda University, and referenced in multiple news articles – suggests that Nalanda was destroyed by a Muslim general named Bakhtiyar Khilji. [embedded content] Sharma calls this one of the “biggest myths of Indian history” before citing a slew of historical sources that she says buttress her assertion. These sources, which she says are often cited by those who paint Khilji as Nalanda’s villain, don’t actually refer to the university at all, she points out. Instead, she says, the sources suggest Khilji attacked another Buddhist university, where many people were killed in his attack. Midway through the narration, she picks up a bottle of concealer and applies it under her eyes. She drops a sarcastic joke – telling her viewers that she is citing the very same sources that WhatsApp forwards pushing dubious or fake history tend to quote. A sponge comes out to blend with the skin tone, and soon, a lilac eyeshadow is in place. At a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government and its Hindu nationalist allies face allegations of rewriting history, turning the past into a political battleground for the future, these unconventional history lessons, laced with makeup and satire, are Sharma’s attempt at setting the record straight. With more than 200 YouTube videos in just over two years, the historian is building a growing audience: Her YouTube channel, Eyeshadow & Etihaas, has nearly 20,000 subscribers, while on X, where she amplifies the arguments she makes in her videos, she has 30,000 followers. But perhaps the biggest testament to her mounting influence lies in the threats and abuse she routinely receives for her videos. They’re a badge of honour she shrugs off, but would rather not have to wear. “I often get such death threats. Rape remarks keep coming,” she says. “They no longer work on me.” A spread of makeup palettes, brushes and mascara in front of Sharma, which she uses during her recording [Md Meharban/Al Jazeera] Eyeshadow and history Sharma grew up surrounded by history, in a family shaped – like millions of others – by India’s modern tumult. A grandchild of partition refugees, Sharma spent her childhood in Mehrauli, New Delhi’s oldest surviving inhabited area. After India’s cleavage at independence in 1947, her grandparents, both Punjabis from present-day Pakistan, found sanctuary in the neighbourhood and bought land on which they built a home. She thinks of the stories of partition she heard from them as her first brush with history. From her terrace, she would watch Qutb Minar, a five-story red and buff sandstone tower built in the 12th and 13th centuries by Muslim rulers that is as much a landmark of New Delhi as the Eiffel Tower is of Paris. “I have a strong emotional connection with it. I think that monument is beautiful,” Sharma says. When she was 13, her parents decided they needed more space and moved out of the family house to Ghaziabad, a neighbouring district of Delhi, where she lives with her elder sister and her 61-year-old mother, a retired government official who worked at Indian Oil, a government oil and gas corporation. Sharma lost her father to cancer in 2017. Sharma says she was always interested in eye makeup. She would wear kohl in high school. She began using lip gloss in college, and during her PhD in 2020, she started applying eye makeup and lipstick to cope with an abusive relationship. “I was in a physically and mentally abusive relationship for 10 years, battling PTSD [post-traumatic stress disorder], and scary thoughts of self-harm. I was in therapy for it,” she explains. Sharma saw an eyeshadow YouTube video that caught her attention. “Watching eyeshadow videos, seeing the colours arranged in palettes, and putting them on my eyelids was incredibly therapeutic for me. It would calm me down,” remarked Sharma. She was teaching in a college at the time and would buy eyeshadow palettes, though her mother disapproved of it. “I’ve never worn makeup in my life, even to parties or weddings. I don’t like her makeup and clothing style. I’m conservative and religious, and I come from a different generation and period,” said her mother, who requested anonymity. Her mother’s other concern was that Sharma was spending too much money on expensive eyeshadow palettes. As with makeup, Sharma’s academic pursuit of history was not something her parents supported initially. Sharma was in eighth

Court rules Pennsylvania borough ordinance cracking down on lawn signs is unconstitutional

Court rules Pennsylvania borough ordinance cracking down on lawn signs is unconstitutional

A federal appeals court panel has found that a small Pennsylvania town’s ordinance designed to cut down on lawn signs is unconstitutional, saying that its resulting limitations on political lawn signs violates the free speech rights of residents. The decision Thursday by a three-judge panel of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a lower court ruling against Camp Hill Borough, a town of about 8,000 residents just outside the state capital of Harrisburg. In the 11-page decision, Judge Stephanos Bibas rejected the borough’s arguments that its 2021 ordinance only regulated the “time, place and manner” of signs. Rather, the ordinance discriminates between types of content, is overly broad and lacks a compelling enough reason to encroach on free speech rights, Bibas wrote. PENNSYLVANIA HOUSE PASSES BILL AIMED AT REGULATING SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORMS’ INTERACTIONS WITH UNDERAGE USERS As proof of the ordinance’s regulation of content, the borough sought to impose stricter limits on noncommercial signs, such as political signs, than commercial or holiday signs, Bibas wrote. Bibas wrote that Camp Hill’s interests in imposing the limits on signs — traffic safety and aesthetics — are legitimate, but not compelling enough to limit free speech. “While trying to preserve aesthetics and promote traffic safety, Camp Hill stitched together a crazy quilt of a sign ordinance,” Bibas wrote. “Because it discriminates against some messages, the ordinance is unconstitutional on its face.” Under the ordinance, residents could not put up more than two so-called “personal expression” signs for more than 60 days before an event, in this case, an election. They could not be lit up, taller than 6 feet or remain more than 30 days after the event. The Camp Hill Borough Republican Association and two residents sued in 2022. One resident had been told by the borough code enforcement officer that her three lawn signs — one each for Republican gubernatorial nominee Doug Mastriano, U.S. Senate nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz and U.S. Rep. Scott Perry — were too many. The other resident was told in August that her signs for Oz and Mastriano couldn’t be up more than 60 days before the Nov. 8 general election. Paul Lewis, chair of the Camp Hill Borough Republican Association, called it a “powerful decision.” “I’m glad that now two different federal courts have been on the side of the constitution and freedom of speech and freedom of expression,” Lewis said in an interview Friday. “Regardless of your political leanings, this is something that benefits you, regardless of which party you stand for and support.” In a statement, the borough said it was disappointed with the decision “and is concerned with the potential sprawling impact it may have on the ability of the borough and other municipalities to meaningfully regulate signs in pursuit of traffic safety and aesthetics.” A borough official said Friday that officials hadn’t decided whether to appeal.

Kansas bill cracking down on foreign land ownership vetoed by Democratic governor

Kansas bill cracking down on foreign land ownership vetoed by Democratic governor

Proposed restrictions in Kansas on the foreign ownership of land died Friday when the state’s Democratic governor vetoed a bill that top Republican lawmakers argued would protect military bases from Chinese spying. The Kansas House’s top GOP leader accused Gov. Laura Kelly of “apathy” toward serious national security threats from China and other nations declared by the U.S. government to be adversaries “of concern,” including Cuba, Iraq, North Korea and Venezuela. The bill would have prohibited more than 10% ownership by foreign nationals from those countries of any non-residential property within 100 miles of any military installation — or most of Kansas. A Kansas State University report last fall said Chinese ownership accounted for a single acre of privately owned Kansas agricultural land and all foreign individuals and companies owned 2.4% of the state’s 49 million acres of private agricultural land. The bill would have required the university to compile annual reports on all foreign real estate ownership, including non-agricultural business property. GOP LAWMAKERS HIT WITH ‘GUT PUNCH’ AS RED STATE’S DEM GOVERNOR EKES OUT WIN IN TRANSGENDER BILL BATTLE Kelly said in her veto message that while Kansas needs stronger protections against foreign adversaries, the bill was so “overly broad” that it could disrupt “legitimate investment and business relationships.” “I am not willing to sign a bill that has the potential to hurt the state’s future prosperity and economic development,” Kelly said in her veto message. Kansas exported $14.1 billion worth of products in 2023, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s International Trade Administration. China was its fourth-largest trading partner, with $848 million worth of exports, behind Mexico, Canada and Japan. But Kansas already limits corporate ownership of agricultural land. More than 20 other states restrict foreign land ownership, according to the National Agricultural Law Center. Early in 2023, before being shot down, a Chinese spy balloon floated across U.S. skies for several days, including over northeast Kansas, home to Fort Leavenworth, home to the U.S. Army’s college for training commanders. That intensified interest in restrictions on foreign land ownership in Kansas, though concerns existed already because of the construction of a national biosecurity lab near Kansas State University. Kansas House Majority Leader Chris Croft, a Kansas City-area Republican and retired Army officer who was among the most vocal supporters of the bill, said Kelly’s veto leaves its military bases and other critical infrastructure “wide open for adversarial foreign governments.” “The assets of this state are too important for us to sit on our hands and wait until it’s too late,” Croft said in a statement after the veto. Some conservative Republicans, including Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach, pushed for even stronger restrictions. Kobach backed a plan to ban all foreign ownership of more than 3 acres of land, with a new state board able to make exceptions. “Despite the governor’s apathy, we’ll continue to work to protect Kansas and its citizens from those foreign bad actors who wish to exploit land ownership loopholes,” House Speaker Dan Hawkins, a Wichita Republican said. A few Republicans in the state Senate balked at the restrictions, and the bill appeared to be just short of the two-thirds majority necessary to override a veto. The bill would have given affected foreign individuals and companies two years to divest themselves of their Kansas properties. Critics suggested attributed support for the bill to xenophobia. They suggested the main effect would be to force immigrants — including those fleeing repressive regimes — to sell their shops and restaurants. “To the extent that this bill affects anyone, it affects everyday people, those who are trying to live the American dream,” Democratic state Rep. Melissa Oropeza, of Kansas City, Kansas, said ahead of one vote on the bill.

Budget leaders reach deal with Youngkin on Virginia spending plan

Budget leaders reach deal with Youngkin on Virginia spending plan

Virginia budget negotiators and Gov. Glenn Youngkin have reached a compromise on the next two-year state spending plan that would include 3% raises for state employees and teachers while not raising taxes and risking a potential veto by Youngkin. House Appropriations Chairman Luke Torian confirmed Thursday that the General Assembly’s budget leaders have reached a deal with Youngkin that they hope lawmakers will approve during a special session scheduled to begin on Monday. Youngkin’s press secretary, Christian Martinez, said in a statement that Youngkin “looks forward to finishing the work to deliver on our collective priorities for all Virginians next week.” VIRGINIA FIRST LADY, AG TEAM WITH RECOVERING ADDICT TO LAUNCH INITIATIVES TARGETING STATE’S FENTANYL CRISIS Details of the new spending plan won’t be available to lawmakers or to the public until Saturday. Torian told the Richmond Times-Dispatch that the agreement includes additional state revenues to pay for Democratic spending priorities, including the raises for teachers and state employees, as well as money to restrain increases in tuition for state universities and colleges, help people with mental illness and pay for increased costs to Virginia’s Medicaid program. “All of our spending priorities are intact,” Torian said. The $188 billion budget will not expand Virginia’s sales tax to digital services. Youngkin had originally proposed the idea as part of a tax policy package that would have cut tax revenues by $1 billion and plug what the governor called the “big tech loophole” that exempts video streaming and audio services from the tax levied on goods. Democrats had rejected the governor’s proposals to cut income tax rates and raise the sales tax by almost a penny, but kept the expansion to digital services. Those tax provisions in the budget that lawmakers adopted on March 9 would have raised an additional $1 billion, but Youngkin said he would refuse to sign the budget, potentially leaving the state without money to operate on July 1 for the first time in Virginia history. The agreement also does not include a requirement by the Democratic-controlled assembly that Virginia rejoin the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multistate compact that seeks to reduce emissions of greenhouse gases that scientists say contribute to global warming and climate change. Youngkin pushed the State Air Pollution Control Board to withdraw the state from the compact because of concerns about the costs of surcharges on carbon pollution that consumers would pay in their electric bills. Torian said the proposed budget deal does not include electronic skill games. The VA Merchants and Amusement Coalition said hundreds of participating convenience stores will stop selling Virginia Lottery tickets until Youngkin and lawmakers “come to an agreement on a path forward for skill games.” The compromise reached on Thursday would still have to pass review by members of the House and Senate, with Democrats holding a slim majority in each chamber.