Mass funeral for Kenya school fire victims
A mass funeral has been held for the 21 children who were killed in a boarding school fire in central Kenya earlier this month. Each small coffin was topped with a photograph, with most of the boys killed aged between nine and 13. Published On 26 Sep 202426 Sep 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 944
As the war enters its 944th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Thursday, September 26, 2024. Fighting At least two people were killed and 19 injured in a Russian-guided bomb attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk, regional governor Vadym Filashkin said. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its forces had captured the Ukrainian villages of Hostre and Hryhorivka in the eastern Donetsk region, not far from the town of Vuhledar, a longtime Ukrainian stronghold that had a population of 14,000 before the war. The General Staff of Ukraine’s armed forces, in a late evening report, said there had been eight armed clashes in the Vuhledar area. Filashkin, the governor for the region, said Russian reconnaissance groups were in Vuhledar, but its forces had not captured the town. The Ukrainian air force said it shot down 28 out of 32 Russian drones and four out of eight missiles during an overnight attack. Four of the missiles targeted the southern region of Odesa, its regional governor, Oleh Kiper, said. One hit an open area causing a fire, while two trucks were also damaged. No casualties were reported. Politics and diplomacy Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged world leaders at the UN General Assembly to stand with his country and back a “real, just peace” more than two and a half years since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Zelenskyy singled out China and Brazil for promoting what he called “half-hearted settlement plans”, accusing them of playing to their own interests “at Ukraine’s expense”. Zelenskyy’s plans for peace require Russia to withdraw from the Ukrainian territory it has occupied and justice for war crimes. US President Joe Biden said the United States would announce initiatives to accelerate support for Ukraine and help the country rebuild from the damage of Russia’s invasion. Biden and Zelenskyy are due to meet at the White House later on Thursday. Making his first speech at the UNGA, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said 600,000 Russian soldiers had been “killed or wounded” in its invasion of Ukraine, and questioned how Russia could “show its face” at the UN after treating its own citizens “as bits of meat to fling into the grinder”. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov warned that “forcing” Russia into peace would be a “fatal mistake”. He was responding to Zelenskyy’s comments on Tuesday that Russia needed to be forced into a peace settlement. Peskov reiterated that Russia would only talk peace on the condition that its “stability is ensured and the objectives of the special military operation are fulfilled”, referring to the war using Moscow’s official language. Former US President Donald Trump, who is campaigning for another term in November, said Ukraine should have made concessions to Russian President Vladimir Putin instead of going to war when it was invaded by its neighbour. The Republican presidential candidate claimed at a rally in North Carolina that even “the worst deal would’ve been better than what we have now”. Weapons Putin lowered the threshold for a Russian nuclear response saying Moscow would consider any attack by a non-nuclear country supported by a nuclear power as a joint attack by both. Putin did not directly refer to Ukraine, which is urging its Western allies to allow it to use their conventional long-range weapons to attack military targets deep inside Russia. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced $375m in new military aid for Ukraine including HIMARS rocket launchers, Javelin missiles and light tactical vehicles. Blinken said the weapons would be deployed as quickly as possible. The Biden administration is also expected to notify Congress on Thursday of its intent to spend $5.5bn in additional military assistance to Ukraine in the coming months. IEMZ Kupol, a subsidiary of Russian state-owned arms company Almaz-Antey, has established a weapons programme in China to develop and produce long-range attack drones for use in the war against Ukraine, according to the Reuters news agency, which cited two sources from a European intelligence agency and project documents. China’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs told Reuters it was not aware of such a project, adding that Beijing had strict control measures on the export of drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Kupol, Almaz-Antey and the Russian Defence Ministry did not respond to the news agency’s requests for comment. Adblock test (Why?)
New York Mayor Eric Adams indicted amid corruption probe
BREAKINGBREAKING, Retired police captain becomes first sitting mayor of New York to face federal charges. New York Mayor Eric Adams has been indicted following a federal corruption investigation, the New York Times has reported. The indictment against Adams, one of the most powerful city leaders on the planet, is sealed and it is unclear what charges he will face, the Times reported on Wednesday, citing people with knowledge of the matter. The investigation has focused in part on whether Adams, a retired police captain, and his campaign conspired with Turkey to receive illegal foreign donations, the Times said. In a statement, Adams denied wrongdoing. “I always knew that If I stood my ground for New Yorkers that I would be a target – and a target I became. If I am charged, I am innocent and I will fight this with every ounce of my strength and spirit,” he said. Adblock test (Why?)
Israel, Iran give different accounts of Lebanon conflict
NewsFeed Israel and Iran gave different accounts of the same conflict in Lebanon, using a UN Security Council meeting to shift blame. Published On 26 Sep 202426 Sep 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
French immigration rules to be reviewed as far right weaponises murder
‘If we have to change the rules, let’s change them,’ says conservative Interior Minister Bruno Retailleau. France’s interior minister has signalled he will push for tighter immigration policies as the far right seeks to use a gruesome murder to put pressure on the government. Addressing the arrest of a Moroccan man for the murder of a 19-year-old female student, Bruno Retailleau said on Wednesday that the “abominable crime” required not just rhetoric, but action, as far-right parties demanded when commenting on the case. “It is up to us, as public leaders, to refuse to accept the inevitable and to develop our legal arsenal, to protect the French,” Retailleau said. “If we have to change the rules, let’s change them.” The hardline rhetoric on migration is not new from Retailleau, a member of the conservative Republicans party who has previously advocated for stricter immigration rules and quicker deportations. Outgoing French Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin is applauded by newly-appointed Bruno Retailleau during a handover ceremony in Paris, September 23 [Stephanie Lecocq/Reuters] The suggestion is in line with the demands of the far-right National Rally (RN) party, which has threatened it could topple France’s fragile governing coalition if its immigration concerns are not addressed. “It’s time for this government to act: our compatriots are angry and will not be content with just words,” RN chief Jordan Bardella said of the murder of the student, identified only by her first name Philippine. Greens lawmaker Sandrine Rousseau pushed back against the anti-migrant rhetoric, warning that the far right was using the murder case to “spread its racist hatred”. Bungled deportation The unnamed suspect in the killing has been identified as a 22-year-old male Moroccan national. He was arrested on Tuesday in the Swiss canton of Geneva, according to the AFP news agency. According to the prosecutors, the suspect was convicted in 2021 of a rape committed in 2019, when he was a minor. The suspect had been due to be deported from France after serving time in jail for the crime, Le Monde newspaper reported. He was sent on June 20 to a detention centre for undocumented migrants pending his removal. However, a judge set him free on September 3, noting that the deportation process faced administrative delays, under the condition that he check in regularly with police. Three days later, the paperwork to deport him was completed, but the man had disappeared, they said. France routinely issues deportation orders, but only about 7 percent of them are enforced, compared with 30 percent across the European Union. Adblock test (Why?)
Israel has been bombing Gaza and Lebanon at the same time
NewsFeed Hundreds of Israeli air strikes hit areas across Lebanon this week but Israel’s attacks on Gaza haven’t stopped either. Published On 25 Sep 202425 Sep 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Israeli soldiers hide from Hezbollah rockets
NewsFeed Video shows Israeli soldiers lying on the ground and sheltering from Hezbollah rockets believed to be targeting a military base in northern Israel on Wednesday. Published On 25 Sep 202425 Sep 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Video shows huge explosion from Israeli strike south of Beirut
NewsFeed Surveillance video captured the massive explosion from an Israeli strike on a building in Lebanon’s Saadiyat, just south of the capital Beirut. Initial reports say Israel allegedly targeted a Hezbollah weapons warehouse. Published On 24 Sep 202424 Sep 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Blinken ignored US assessments that Israel blocked aid to Gaza: Report
Acknowledging Israel blocked US aid to Palestinians would have triggered a ban on arms transfers to Israel. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken ignored assessments by United States government agencies and officials indicating that Israel blocked US aid to Gaza earlier this year, a new report has revealed, with the top US diplomat presenting a different conclusion to Congress. Investigative news outlet ProPublica reported on Tuesday that the US Agency for International Development (USAID) told the State Department in a late April report that Israel was subjecting US humanitarian aid destined for Gaza to “arbitrary denial, restriction and impediments”. ProPublica said that officials in the State Department’s refugee bureau also found in April that “facts on the ground indicate US humanitarian assistance is being restricted”. But in May, Blinken delivered a State Department report to Congress with a different conclusion. “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance,” the State Department said in its May 10 assessment. The leaked memos would have had major implications on US policy had they been adopted by Blinken, including on US weapons shipments to Israel. That’s because US law bans security assistance to a country that “prohibits or otherwise restricts, directly or indirectly, the transport or delivery of United States humanitarian assistance”. The US provides Israel with at least $3.8bn in military aid annually, and this year, Biden approved an additional $14bn in assistance to help fund the Israeli government’s Gaza war efforts. That support has drawn widespread condemnation and scrutiny as the Gaza war drags on. The State Department’s May report, which ultimately concluded that Israel was not blocking US aid to Gaza, at the same time outlined how Israeli officials had encouraged protests to block the assistance from reaching Palestinians. The document also said that Israel implemented “extensive bureaucratic delays” on the delivery of aid and launched military strikes on “coordinated humanitarian movements and deconflicted humanitarian sites”. The Israeli military has killed more than 41,000 Palestinians in Gaza while enforcing a strict siege on the territory that has brought its population to the verge of famine. At least 34 Palestinian children have died of malnutrition this year, according to the Gaza Government Media Office. In March, CIA Director Bill Burns recognised that Palestinians in Gaza are starving. “The reality is that there are children who are starving,” Burns told US senators during a briefing. “They’re malnourished as a result of the fact that humanitarian assistance can’t get to them.” Earlier this year, the White House acknowledged Israeli efforts to block US aid to Gaza, as well. Israeli Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich had publicly stated that he was blocking US-provided flour for Gaza, prompting a White House response. “I wish I could tell you that flour was moving in, but I can’t do that right now,” White House spokesperson John Kirby told reporters on February 15. ProPublica reported on Tuesday that US Ambassador to Israel Jack Lew urged Blinken to accept Israeli assurances that Israel was not blocking aid to Gaza. “No other nation has ever provided so much humanitarian assistance to their enemies,” Lew told subordinates, according to the report. The International Court of Justice has ruled that Gaza is under Israeli occupation. Under the Fourth Geneva Convention, an occupying power has the “duty of ensuring the food and medical supplies of the population” in the territory it occupies. Adblock test (Why?)
US charges suspected Trump gunman with attempted assassination
Ryan Routh was remanded in custody after being charged in a Florida court over incident on Florida golf course. Ryan Routh, the man accused of staking out former United States President Donald Trump’s Florida golf course with a rifle, has been indicted on a charge of attempted assassination of a political candidate. Routh, 58, was already facing two gun-related charges after he was found pointing a rifle through a fence at a West Palm Beach golf course in Florida while the Republican presidential candidate was playing a round. “The Justice Department will not tolerate violence that strikes at the heart of our democracy, and we will find and hold accountable those who perpetrate it. This must stop,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said in a statement. Routh has been remanded in custody ahead of his trial. The attempted assassination charge carries a maximum sentence of life in prison. Court documents showed that the case had been assigned to Judge Aileen Cannon, a Trump appointee who in July dismissed a criminal case accusing Trump of illegally keeping classified documents after leaving office. Routh has not yet entered a plea. His lawyers unsuccessfully sought to have him released on bond. Prosecutors have in recent days revealed evidence they said pointed towards a plan to kill Trump. They alleged that months before the incident, Routh dropped off a note to an unidentified person which appeared to have been premised on the idea that the assassination attempt would be unsuccessful. The note referred to his actions as a failed “assassination attempt on Donald Trump” and offered $150,000 for anyone who could “finish the job”. They said Routh spent a month in South Florida and mobile phone data showed him near the golf course and Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Estate. He was found with a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump had spoken or was expected to appear in August, September and October, according to court filings. A US Secret Service agent searching the golf course ahead of Trump opened fire after spotting the partially obscured face of a man and the gun poking through the fence, prosecutors said. The agent fired at Routh who fled. He was arrested within an hour on a Florida highway. Routh did not fire any rounds and did not have Trump in his line of sight, officials have said, but he left behind a digital camera, a backpack, a loaded SKS-style rifle with a scope and a plastic bag containing food. The arrest came two months after Trump was shot and wounded in the ear in an assassination attempt during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania. The Secret Service has acknowledged failings leading up to that shooting but has said that security worked as it should have to thwart a potential attack in Florida. Adblock test (Why?)