Body of 6-year-old killed in ‘deliberate’ Israeli fire found after 12 days
Relatives find body of Hind Rajab who had begged rescuers to send help after being trapped by Israeli military fire. The body of a six-year-old Palestinian girl, missing for 12 days after an Israeli tank targeted their family car in Gaza, has been found along with the bodies of two medics dispatched to look for them. The Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) and the family of the girl, Hind Rajab, confirmed on Saturday that all seven people inside the car were killed, with the Palestinian relief organisation saying it lost crew members Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed al-Madhoun in the Israeli attack on civilians in Gaza City. Family members found Hind’s body along with those of her uncle and aunt and their three children near a roundabout in the city’s Tal al-Hawa suburb, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. Another of Hind’s uncles, Sameeh Hamadeh, said the car was peppered with bullet holes. “The occupation deliberately targeted the ambulance upon its arrival at the scene, where it was found just metres away from the vehicle containing the trapped child Hind,” said the PRCS statement. “Despite prior coordination to allow the ambulance to reach the location to rescue the child, Hind, the occupation deliberately targeted the Palestine Red Crescent ambulance crew.” 🚨 Urgent: The Palestine Red Crescent ambulance was discovered bombed the Tal al-Hawa area of #Gaza City, resulting in the killing of crew members Yusuf Zeino and Ahmed Al-Madhoun, who had been missing since a rescue mission for the child Hind Rajab 12 days ago.#NotATarget❌… pic.twitter.com/dCgfeevTd8 — PRCS (@PalestineRCS) February 10, 2024 Earlier this month, the PRCS published an audio file in which Hind could be heard pleading on the phone with a member of the rescue team. All members of her family are believed to have been killed before her, leaving her terrified in the car with the dead bodies of her loved ones. “I’m so scared, please come. Please call someone to come and take me,” she was heard crying desperately in the call that PRCS said lasted three hours in an effort to calm the frightened child. The Israeli army had earlier said it was not aware of the incident. The PRCS had started a count of the number of hours since it lost contact with Hind and the crew in trying to attract attention to the plight of Palestinian healthcare workers, who persist under constant attacks by the Israeli army. In an interview with Al Jazeera Arabic shortly after the family was targeted, Hind’s mother said she had managed to speak to her and an older cousin, 15-year-old Layan Hamadeh, who was with Hind in the car. “They are shooting at us. The tank is next to us,” Layan said in a recording released at the time. Then a barrage of shooting was heard, followed by screams, before the line cut out. The plight of Hind, revealed in the harrowing audio clips, underlined the impossible conditions for civilians in the face of Israel’s four-month assault on Gaza, which many governments have termed a “genocide”. Israel’s military has killed nearly 28,000 people – mostly women and children – since October 7 when Hamas fighters attacked Israel, killing more than 1,100 people and taking 253 captives, according to Israeli tallies. Adblock test (Why?)
‘These five years were about reform, perform and transform’: PM Modi on last day of budget session
The budget session of Parliament began on January 31 and was extended by a day till February 10. This is the last session of Lok Sabha before the general elections this year.
Crisis in the Northwest: Drugs leave rural areas to rot in the shadows, ‘like playing Whac-A-Mole’
This story is part of a series examining the drug and homeless crises plaguing Oregon. Read part one and part two. McMinnville, Ore. — Ramshackle RVs, nondescript sedans, shopping carts, bicycles, tents and tarps line a street on the edge of the city, bordered by an open field and, beyond that, the Yamhill River. A lonely dumpster, lid thrown open, sits amid piles of trash. Deputies recently responded to three overdoses at the camp in one day. Another overdose call sent them racing to a logging road in the Coast Range, a 35-minute drive from the sheriff’s office. Much too long for them to reach the person in time. “There’s nothing out there,” Yamhill County Sheriff Sam Elliott said. “They weren’t camping. They weren’t living up there. They just were up there specifically to smoke pills.” CRISIS IN THE NORTHWEST: ARE VOTERS ‘BEYOND A TURNING POINT’ AFTER DECADES OF PROGRESSIVE POLITICS? Homelessness and the fentanyl crisis have impacted every corner of Oregon, but many people living outside the Portland metropolitan area feel neglected by state policymakers. “It’s like playing Whac-A-Mole … with the number of challenges that counties are facing,” Association of Oregon Counties President Danielle Bethell said. From homelessness and addiction to affordability and a struggling workforce, she said rural communities have been “left out” of the conversation. Gov. Tina Kotek, a Democrat who took office in January 2023, has made revitalizing downtown Portland one of her top priorities. Her task force recently released 10 recommendations for cleaning up and restoring economic vitality to the city. They included declaring a fentanyl emergency, bolstering police, expanding homeless shelter capacity, clearing trash and graffiti and putting a three-year pause on new taxes in Portland, which Kotek said was the second-highest taxed city in the country, behind only New York City. Rose City leaders welcome the governor’s ideas. “Gov. Kotek knows what every governor has known before her — Portland is the economic center of our state,” Portland City Commissioner Dan Ryan said. “How Portland goes, goes the rest of the state.” And things have not been going well in either Portland or the state as a whole. “We have a crisis on our hands, and that’s easy to see,” Republican Rep. Lucetta Elmer said, whether you’re driving past the graffiti and tents in Portland and on I-5 or the zombie RVs in Yamhill County. Most counties vote conservatively, but are consistently outnumbered by urban liberals. Voters in 30 of the state’s 36 counties opposed an ultimately successful gun control measure deemed America’s “most extreme” by the NRA — and currently held up by constitutional challenges. A slimmer majority of counties opposed Measure 110 in 2020, the state’s landmark drug decriminalization law now on the verge of being undone. Only 29% of Oregonians polled by DHM Research last year said the state is headed in the right direction, a figure that dropped to 9% among Republicans. PORTLAND LEADERS FRUSTRATED, SAY CITY ALLOWED TO SET HARSHER RULES FOR CIGARETTES THAN FENTANYL: ‘IT’S INSANE’ “We have drugs that are just rampant, and we’re seeing public drug use daily,” Elmer said. “Extreme homelessness and garbage everywhere. It’s unsafe and it’s unsightly, but it’s also heartbreaking because literally, our fellow citizens are dying.” Kotek vowed to soften the urban rural divide in her inaugural address. In September, she signed a bill dedicating more than $26 million to expand shelter capacity in 26 rural counties. She also visited every Oregon county during her first year in office and said in an August press conference that “everyone cares about what’s happening in Portland.” “They know that the success of Portland is good for the entire economy of the state. It is our entry point for tourists,” she said. “So we believe that this focus allows us to make progress, and it’s going to benefit the entire metro area, the entire city, as well as the entire state.” Kotek’s office did not respond to a request for comment. Her critics have not been swayed. Elmer hosted a roundtable in December to hear from leaders in her district, which includes most of Yamhill County. Overwhelmingly, she said they told her they wanted to see Kotek’s 10-point plan go beyond Portland. “They want to see it get to all of Oregon,” she said. “They’re crying for that. We need to see that things are going to change.” And what works in Portland might not work in counties where cows outnumber people. “Commissioners are frustrated,” Bethell said. “We’re eagerly awaiting our turn to be at the table.” WATCH MORE FOX NEWS DIGITAL ORIGINALS HERE Sheriff Elliott grew up in Yamhill County and has worked in law enforcement there for more than two decades. Though hardly the most rural area in the state — some counties have less than one resident per square mile — it’s the kind of place where the nearest deputy could be one minute or one hour away from an emergency. A place with sprawling vineyards and vegetable fields, where the acronym BLM usually refers to land owned by the federal government and not a social justice movement. Dormant winter farmland flashed by as Elliott drove along Highway 18, broken up by the occasional lumber mill with logs stacked high and finished boards strapped to flatbeds. Drugs, mostly methamphetamine, have always been a problem, he said. Then deputies started to find people cutting up fentanyl pain patches and chewing them. Elliott recalled arresting a man who had a fentanyl pain patch stuck to his chest for driving under the influence. But that was nothing compared to what happened once the “blues” — counterfeit pills — showed up. The number of fentanyl pills seized by Oregon and Idaho police soared from about 100,000 in 2019, to more than 3.6 million last year, according to preliminary data from the High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area (HIDTA). Police who participate in the HIDTA reported finding more than 180 kg (nearly 400 lbs) of fentanyl powder in 2023. “Fentanyl has a nexus to
Abhishek Ghosalkar murder: Uddhav Thackeray calls for imposition of President’s rule, fresh polls in Maharashtra
The former chief minister also accused the state government of protecting mobsters.
Big blow to INDIA Bloc: Arvind Kejriwal says AAP to contest all Lok Sabha seats in Punjab
Arvind Kejriwal stated that his party will announce candidates for 13 Lok Sabha seats in Punjab and one Chandigarh parliamentary seat as he sought peoples’ blessing for the victory of his candidates.
Florida transgender activists stage die-in over rule prohibiting changes to gender on driver’s licenses
Transgender activists in Florida held die-in demonstrations at driver’s license offices across the Sunshine State in protest of a new rule to criminalize changing gender on a license to reflect a person’s gender identity. Dozens of people showed up Friday morning draped in transgender flags or orange road-safe vests and laid down in lobbies and offices in Miami, Orlando, Tampa, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, and Gainesville, according to videos posted to social media. The groups Prism, Youth Action Fund, Equality Florida, Hope CommUnity Center, GLSEN Central Florida and SPEKTRUM Health organized the protests. “Participants will stage die-ins to underscore the devastating consequences of efforts to erase the transgender community’s legal recognition,” Prism said in a press release. The activists staged the protests after a recent decision to bar transgender residents from being allowed to change the gender on their driver’s licenses or state identification. CAITLYN JENNER RIPS ‘NARCISSIST’ LIA THOMAS’ ATTEMPT TO OVERTURN POLICY ON TRANSGENDER ATHLETES Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles Deputy Executive Director Robert Kynoch wrote in a memo to county tax collectors that “misrepresenting one’s gender, understood as sex, on a driver’s license constitutes fraud” and people with licenses that misrepresent their biological gender could be subjected to “criminal and civil penalties, including cancelation, suspension, or revocation of his or her driver license.” Activists protesting at one DMV could be seen lining up against the wall holding cardboard headstones with various phrases, including “Killed by Ron DeSantis” and “Killed by the DMV,” according to The Advocate. The Florida Legislature is also considering the What Is A Woman Act, which would prohibit licenses from reflecting a gender that is not a person’s biological gender. CONSERVATIVE ACTIVIST’S CLASH WITH CRYING TRANSGENDER PERSON GOES VIRAL: ‘HE’S A HATEFUL CRIMINAL’ “The term ‘gender’… does not refer to a person’s internal sense of his or her gender role or identification, but has historically and commonly been understood as a synonym for ‘sex,’ which is determined by innate and immutable biological and genetic characteristics,” Kynoch wrote in his memo. Florida’s residents were previously allowed to submit a court order for a name change or a letter from a physician on gender transition treatment to have their gender changed on their license.
Israeli military kills 28 after Netanyahu signals Rafah invasion plan
At least 10 children among the dead as fears of an Israeli ground assault intensify in southern Gaza. The Israeli military has killed at least 28 Palestinians in strikes on Rafah immediately after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signalled that an invasion of the city in southern Gaza may be close. Three air raids on residential homes in the Rafah area killed at least 28 people overnight into Saturday, according to a health official and The Associated Press journalists who saw the bodies arriving at hospitals. As with many previous Israeli air raids, each attack reportedly killed multiple members of three families, including a total of 10 children, the youngest of whom was only three months old. This came hours after Netanyahu said he had ordered the military to plan for the evacuation of hundreds of thousands of forcibly displaced Palestinians from Rafah in preparation for a ground invasion to accompany the air attacks. Netanyahu did not provide details or a timeline, but his announcement only exacerbated widespread panic among over half of the Gaza Strip’s 2.3 million population who are now packed into Rafah. Many of them had been displaced several times before as a result of Israel’s war on Gaza. The Israeli leader has said clearing Rafah of the purported four Hamas battalions who are in the area would be necessary on his path to “total victory” over the group. Reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, Al Jazeera’s Rory Challands said, “At the same time, he said any massive army operation in Rafah can’t take place without the evacuation of civilians from the combat zone. He’s told the military and security establishment to come up with plans that do both.” “This is causing immense concern around the world. We’ve had the United States saying it can’t condone any operation there that doesn’t put in place a proper humanitarian plan. We’ve got the United Nations saying any forced displacement of the 1.4 million people there is out of line,” he said. Washington and other allies, as well as rights organisations, have warned Israel that invading Rafah would lead to “disaster” and the United Nations has continued to express concern over devastating consequences for civilians. “Where are they supposed to go? How are they supposed to stay safe?” asked the UN’s humanitarian affairs and relief chief Martin Griffiths on Saturday. Many of the well over 1 million people who make up Rafah’s population today have endured unthinkable suffering. Where are they supposed to go? How are they supposed to stay safe? pic.twitter.com/5dK4TB243S — Martin Griffiths (@UNReliefChief) February 9, 2024 Meanwhile, intense fighting continues to rage in areas across Gaza, with Khan Younis in the south still a main focus of Israeli ground and air attacks. The area’s largest medical facility, Nasser Hospital, is still under siege by Israeli forces who have killed dozens in the surrounding areas using among other things sniper fire and attack drones. About 300 overexerted medical personnel, 450 patients and some 10,000 displaced people are believed to be sheltering in the hospital, unable to leave because of Israeli fire and lack of safety elsewhere. Israel’s invasion of Gaza has killed at least about 28,000 Palestinians, most of them women and children, with thousands more missing, likely remaining under rubble. Adblock test (Why?)
Big election rallies in Indonesia on final day of campaign
Hundreds of thousands of supporters of presidential contenders pack rallies in capital Jakarta and other cities. Tens of thousands of supporters of Indonesia’s presidential candidates have poured onto its streets as they hold final campaigns before heading to the polls in the world’s biggest single-day election. The contenders to lead the world’s third-largest democracy are popular former governors, Ganjar Pranowo and Anies Baswedan, and ex-special forces commander Prabowo Subianto, who has soared in opinion polls with the tacit backing of the president, and with the incumbent’s son as his running mate. The elections on Wednesday will elect a new president and vice president, in addition to parliamentary and local representatives. Nearly 100,000 people filled capital Jakarta’s main stadium for a rally in support of frontrunner Subianto, while more than 80,000 turned out for rival Baswedan at another stadium in the megalopolis on Saturday. Subianto, the 72-year-old former military strongman and Indonesia’s current defence minister, is trying to reshape his reputation as a hardened army figure with a history of accusations of rights abuses. Subianto, who leads the right-wing Gerindra political party, is backed by a coalition of other parties and has selected controversial 36-year-old Gibran Rakambuming Raka as his running mate. Defence Minister and presidential candidate Prabowo Subianto [Antara Foto/Dhemas Reviyanto via Reuters] Thousands of Subianto’s supporters, clad in his signature light blue, gathered at a stadium in Jakarta. Subianto is running with 66-year-old Mahfud MD, the former coordinating minister for political, legal and security affairs, with the two men having pitched themselves as people of humble origins who understand the people of Indonesia. High-schooler Alfiatnan, 18, said she would vote for Subianto because this was his third attempt at the presidency. “I think there’s no harm [in] giving opportunity to someone who is trying. His optimistic spirit influenced me to choose him.” Also in the running is Baswedan, the former governor of Jakarta who is running as an independent candidate. The 54-year-old was educated in the United States, entered academia and later went into politics as education minister. He is running with 57-year-old Muhaimin Iskander, the leader of the National Awakening Party, the largest Muslim political party in Indonesia. Supporters of Baswedan filled an 82,000-capacity stadium in Jakarta for a grand final rally on Saturday, chanting Islamic prayers. Some stayed overnight to secure a spot to see the politician. Presidential candidate Anies Baswedan [Achmad Ibrahim/AP] The streets of Jakarta were brought to a standstill by hoards of scooters and cars heading to the back-to-back rallies. “We want to witness change,” said Endang Pujiati, a retired teacher who drove hours to attend Baswedan’s rally. “Anies is a trustworthy person, that’s why he could be a good leader.” A cooling-off period will begin from Sunday until election day, when contestants and their running mates will try to secure their succession to popular President Joko Widodo, who led Indonesia for two five-year terms and cannot run again. Voting is not compulsory but the country’s election commission said the turnout was 81 percent in 2019, and more than 204 million of Indonesia’s 270 million people are registered to vote. There are 18 national political parties across Indonesia, and 575 parliamentary seats can be taken by candidates. More than 20,000 legislative and administrative posts will also be contested by 259,000 candidates on Wednesday. If no candidate wins a majority, a run-off between the top two will be held in June. At stake is the leadership for the next five years of a mineral-rich Group of 20 economy of 270 million people positioning itself as a future destination for multinational firms in the electric vehicle supply chain. Adblock test (Why?)
What 100,000-year-old footprints in Morocco tell us about early humans
What can indentations in the ground from ages ago tell us about our early ancestors? A lot, it turns out. In January, an international team of scientists from Morocco, France, Germany and Spain published details of a fascinating discovery: a set of well-preserved human footprints believed to be 100,000 years old. The footprints are thought to be from a group of five individuals and were found on a rocky beach in a northern Moroccan town. The research, published in the science journal Nature, adds to a growing body of work that’s helping scientists piece together the evasive, true origins of the human race. But while their discovery is an archaeological feat, coastal erosion threatens the existence of these ancient tracks. Here’s what we know about this latest find and about other ancient human traces that scientists have discovered so far. A team of Moroccan and European scientists found a set of about 85 footprints made by five ancestors of human beings [Fadel Senna/AFP] What did scientists find in Morocco? In June 2022, archaeologist Mouncef Sedrati was leading field research focused on boulders close to the Moroccan shoreline in an area south of Tangier when his team stumbled on indentations in the ground at the city of Larache. On closer look, they discovered the indentations were footprints of varying sizes. To Sedrati, a coastal dynamics and marine geology expert at France’s University of Southern Brittany, it was an “exceptional” sight. “We weren’t 100 percent sure at first with the first print, but little by little, we found a second, third, then a very clear trackway and more and more,” Sedrati told Al Jazeera.”That’s when the doubt disappeared. The initial traces were left by healthy Homo [sapiens] on a sandy beach sediment around 100,000 years ago.” About 85 footprints were found in total, likely made by a group of five humans who were walking towards the water, using the site as a path. These are the first early human tracks to have been discovered in North Africa and the Southern Mediterranean. The arch of the indentations, rounded heels and the marks of short toes confirmed that they were tracks from Homo sapiens or modern humans like us. Their varying foot sizes suggested there were adults and children of different ages. The scientists, though, still do not know what the group was doing at the location. Were they trying to gather food from the sea? Or were they simply navigating through the area and came across the beach route by chance? Sedrati’s team studied sediment in the location and the footprints themselves to determine how long they might have been there. Optically stimulated luminescence dating, a research technique that helps archaeologists determine when the minerals or carbon surrounding discovered artefacts were last exposed to heat or sunlight, allowed the researchers to estimate how old the prints might be. They pegged the origins of the marks to the Late Pleistocene era, the period during which the last Ice Age happened. The preceding Middle to Late Pleistocene, encompassing the periods from 770,000 to 120,000 years ago, is broadly believed to be the age when ancient humans – separate from modern humans – roamed the earth. Using a drone to take 461 photographs of the prints, the team processed the images using specialised software and extracted 3D models to accurately measure the depression and width of each print, and to gauge the ages of the group’s members. The Larache footprints likely remained intact because of a combination of factors, the researchers wrote in the study, including their location, the soil type and the sea waves. The position of the beach on a rocky platform allowed the tides to bury the clay sediments forming the tracks, keeping them preserved until a recent erosion exposed them again. For Sedrati, who is of North African descent, the discovery is personal. “You can imagine how proud I am to lead the research team that made this discovery, even more so in a Moroccan city that is close to my heart,” he said, adding that he relished working with colleagues from other fields like geology to complete the study. But there’s more work for the team to do. Only part of the prints have been processed, and the team has questions. “What were the climatic and meteorological conditions of the time? Where was the coastline, the sea level?” Sedrati asked. Archaeologist Mouncef Sedrati examines a set of ancient footprints, believed to have been left by Homo sapiens more than 100,000 years ago, about 90km (55 miles) south of Tangier in northern Morocco [Fadel Senna/AFP] Where else have ancient human tracks been found? Finding footprints that are thousands of years old is rare but not unheard of. The oldest known human tracks were discovered in 1995. These were a set of three imprints belonging to a hypothetical “Eve” and called “Eve’s footprints”. They were discovered in Langebaan, a coastal town in South Africa’s West Cape province. “Eve” was thought to have lived about 117,000 years ago. David Roberts, who formed part of the team that discovered those prints, said at the time that they were likely made on a steep dune during a storm before dry sand filled the indentation and hardened. The prints measured 22cm (8.7 inches), about the same size as a modern woman wearing a US size 7.5. “Eve” was probably about 122cm (4ft) tall. In 2022, another team of researchers found two human tracks on the roof of a cave in the same area. They were not well-preserved. The sediment the imprints had been made in had eroded, but the outlines of the footprints were still visible. The distance between the two tracks – 49cm (19 inches), consistent with the distance between an average human’s legs while striding – suggested to the team that it was from one of our direct ancestors, rather than Hominini – another species of the modern human that is now extinct. Beyond the African continent, ancient tracks have also been discovered in the
SC takes cognisance of women inmates getting pregnant in West Bengal jails; seeks report
Agreeing to examine the matter, a bench of Justices Sanjay Kumar and Ahsanuddin Amanullah asked senior advocate Gaurav Agrawal to investigate the issue and submit a report.