Israel carries out wave of air attacks on south Lebanon
NewsFeed Video shows powerful explosions in southern Lebanon where the Israeli army says it carried out more than 15 air attacks against the armed group Hezbollah. Israel’s defence minister has said its military is moving its focus away from Gaza to Lebanon. Published On 11 Sep 202411 Sep 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Fact check: Trump-Harris presidential debate — truths and falsehoods
Democratic nominee Kamala Harris and her Republican rival Donald Trump met face to face for the first time in Tuesday’s presidential debate in Philadelphia. During the debate, they exchanged various accusations; here, we fact-check the candidates’ claims. Harris ‘wouldn’t even meet’ Netanyahu Trump: Harris “wouldn’t even meet with” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu “when he went to Congress to make a very important speech. She refused to be there because she was at a sorority party of hers.” Half true. This needs context. Harris did skip Netanyahu’s speech to a joint session of the US Congress on July 24. She was busy making a previously scheduled keynote speech to the Zeta Phi Beta sorority. However, Harris met Netanyahu face-to-face the following day. After that meeting, she doubled down on support for Israel, committing to its defence, but also referred to the growing death toll of the war in Gaza, in which more than 41,000 people have been killed, and said she would not stay silent. Harris, right, and Netanyahu arrive for a meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building [File: Julia Nikhinson/AP] Trump misleads about military equipment in Afghanistan Trump: The US “left $85bn worth of brand new, beautiful military equipment behind” in Afghanistan. False. The figure is far lower than Trump stated. When the Taliban toppled Afghanistan’s civilian government in 2021, it inherited military hardware the US gave to the government. However, an independent inspector general report told Congress that only about $7bn of US-funded equipment remained in the Taliban’s hands. According to the report, “The US military removed or destroyed nearly all major equipment used by US troops in Afghanistan throughout the drawdown period in 2021.” Families board a US Air Force plane during an evacuation at Kabul airport [File: Sgt Samuel Ruiz/US Marine Corps via AP] Haitian immigrants ‘are eating the cats’ Trump: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs, the people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating, they’re eating the pets of the people that live there.” False. A city spokesperson told PolitiFact that claims that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are stealing neighbours’ pets to eat are unfounded. A Springfield spokesperson said the city had no such reports, and police told a local news outlet the department had received no reports of pets being stolen and eaten. As many as 20,000 Haitian immigrants have come to Springfield. Since 2023, some Haitians have come to the US through the Department of Homeland Security’s humanitarian parole programme that lets people from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela and their immediate family members request to come to the US legally. They can be paroled into the US for up to two years. Additional ‘Trump sales tax’ of $4,000 Harris: “Economists have said that the Trump sales tax would actually result for middle-class families in about $4,000 more a year because of his policies and his ideas about what should be the backs of middle-class people paying for tax cuts for billionaires.” Half true. Trump has repeatedly proposed wide-ranging tariffs on foreign goods, including an across-the-board tariff of 10 percent to 20 percent and a 60 percent levy on goods from China. Although tariffs are imposed separately from the tax system, consumers would feel their effect much the same way as taxes. However, the specific dollar impact on consumers varies. Two estimates we found generally support Harris’s $4,000 figure; two show a smaller, though still significant, impact. Trump, on the screen at left, and Harris, right [Matt Rourke/AP] ‘Worst unemployment since the Great Depression’ Harris: “Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.” False. The unemployment rate spiked to a post-Great Depression record of 14.8 percent in April 2020 as the COVID pandemic escalated. Trump was in office then. But he didn’t “leave” Biden or Harris with a post-Great Depression record unemployment rate. By December 2020, the unemployment rate had fallen back to 6.4 percent, which was high for recent history but well below numerous spikes during recessions. Job creation ‘fraud’ Trump: “It was a fraud, just like their number of 818,000 jobs that they said they created turned out to be a fraud.” False. The federal agency that calculates how many people are working handed Democrats an unwelcome present during their August national convention in Chicago: a downward adjustment of the past year’s employment gains by 818,000 jobs. But Trump claimed the Biden-Harris administration was cooking the books, calling it “fraud” during the debate. However, economists across the ideological spectrum reject Trump’s claim. The process is an annual effort to fine-tune initial data that the agency acknowledges is imperfect. Abortion: Democrats support ‘execution after birth’ Trump: “They even have … he said, ‘The baby we will be born, and we will decide what to do with the baby.’” False. Former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam, a physician, never said he would sanction the “execution” of newborns. What he said during a radio interview is that in rare, late-pregnancy cases when fetuses are nonviable, doctors deliver the baby, keep it comfortable, resuscitate it if the mother wishes, and then have a “discussion” with the mother. The issue is that Northam declines to say what that discussion would entail. Trump puts words in the governor’s mouth, saying doctors would urge mothers to let them forcibly kill the newborn, which is a felony in Virginia punishable by a long prison sentence or death. Harris reacts during the debate with Trump [Brian Snyder/Reuters] ‘Climate change is a hoax’ Harris: “Well, the former president had said that climate change is a hoax. And what we know is that it is very real.” True. Trump has, on multiple occasions, called climate change and global warming a hoax in speeches, social media posts and interviews. The source of Harris’s claim that he called climate change “a hoax” was a tweet Trump posted on November 6, 2012. It said, “The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make US manufacturing non-competitive.” More than 97 percent of the world’s climate scientists and a majority of domestic and international scientific organisations agree
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 929
As the war enters its 929th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Wednesday, September 11, 2024. Fighting The Ukrainian Air Force said it shot down 20 of 25 Russia-launched drones overnight into Wednesday. Russia’s Ministry of Defence said its troops have pushed forward 1,000 square kilometres (390 square miles) into eastern Ukraine since early August, despite Ukraine’s offensive into western Russia. A Russian freight train derailed in the region of Belgorod near the Ukrainian border after “the intervention of non-authorised people”, Russia’s national rail operator said. No casualties were reported. Since the start of Russia’s invasion in 2022, its rail network – key to moving weapons and soldiers to the front lines – has suffered numerous sabotage attempts. Politics and diplomacy: United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy are travelling to Kyiv in a rare joint trip to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who has pressed for the West to send more weapons and lift restrictions on their use deeper into Russia. Blinken said the US is committed to providing Ukraine “what they need when they need it to be most effective in dealing with the Russian aggression”. Zelenskyy promised to forge a strong global response to any power supporting Russia’s war effort, saying, “We will do everything not just to defend our state and people, but to truly consolidate the world.” Former US President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris clashed over US policy on the war in Ukraine during their first presidential debate. Trump said he would press to “just get this war finished and get it done” if elected. Harris accused Trump of being willing to “give up” to pressure from Russian President Vladimir Putin, who she said would “eat you for lunch”. Weapons The US formally accused Iran of supplying ballistic missiles to Russia for use against Ukraine and piled more sanctions on the country, targeting ships and companies it claimed are linked to its weapons shipments. Britain, France and Germany announced they would sever aviation agreements with Iran and sanction its national air carrier over Tehran’s alleged supply of missiles to Russia. Iran denied it was sending missiles to Russia and promised to respond to the new sanctions. “This action of the three European countries is the continuation of the hostile policy of the West and economic terrorism against the people of Iran, which will face the appropriate and proportionate action of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said Nasser Kanaani, spokesman of Iran’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. US President Joe Biden, asked whether he would remove restrictions on Ukraine using long-range weapons deep inside Russia, said his administration is “working that out”. Ukraine blamed Russian air force commander Sergei Kobylash for ordering a July 8 strike against a children’s hospital in Kyiv that killed two people and destroyed much of the facility. Adblock test (Why?)
East Timor turns out in force for mass with Pope Francis
Pope Francis has celebrated a mass for hundreds of thousands of faithful in East Timor, rallying nearly half the population of the world’s most Roman Catholic country outside the Vatican in stifling tropical heat. Pilgrims clamoured to catch a glimpse of the 87-year-old pontiff who appeared in good spirits on Tuesday, greeting him with a rapturous reception in a wide coastal area of the capital Dili. Approximately 600,000 people out of a population of 1.3 million attended the mass, the Vatican said in a statement, citing local authorities, in the biggest turnout for a papal event by population proportion outside the Holy See. “I am so happy for everyone in East Timor. Now I want to see Papa Francisco here and give my present to Papa Francisco. I am so emotional,” said Mary Michaela, 17, who attended the service. The mass was the main event of the third leg of Francis’s 12-day Asia Pacific tour, which has already taken in Indonesia and Papua New Guinea, and will conclude in Singapore. Francis used it to hail East Timor’s birthrate. “How wonderful that here in Timor-Leste there are so many children. We can see every corner of your land teeming with life,” he said. He then went off-script once the mass ended, turning to the country’s rising rate of crocodile attacks to seemingly make a point about imposing values on other nations. “Be careful, because I was told that crocodiles are coming to some beaches,” he told the crowd. “Be attentive to those crocodiles that want to change your culture, your history. And stay away from those crocodiles because they bite, and they bite a lot.” As night fell, the elderly pontiff toured the crowd in his popemobile as the crowd shouted, “Viva Papa Francesco!”. Many pilgrims had arrived hours before his address to get a prime spot, waiting in the heat. They held white-and-yellow Vatican umbrellas to protect themselves from the glaring sun, while firefighters sprayed devotees with water. Adblock test (Why?)
Thousands flee homes in Vietnam as Typhoon Yagi death toll climbs to 127
Fifty-four people are still missing, authorities say, as the typhoon threatens to bring destruction to the capital Hanoi. Tens of thousands of people have been forced to flee their homes as floods inundated northern Vietnam in the wake of Typhoon Yagi, while the death toll from Asia’s worst storm this year reached 127. Landslides and floods triggered by the typhoon have killed at least 127 people in northern Vietnam and 54 others were missing, the disaster management agency said on Tuesday in its latest update on the situation. Most of the victims were killed in landslides and flash floods, the agency said, adding that 764 people have been injured. The typhoon made landfall on Saturday on Vietnam’s northeastern coast, devastating a swath of industrial and residential areas. It had previously hit the Philippines and the southern Chinese island of Hainan. More than 59,000 people have been forced to evacuate their homes in Yen Bai province, local authorities said, after the floodwaters engulfed almost 18,000 homes. Floodwaters in the capital, Hanoi have reached levels not seen since 2008, state media reported, citing a senior local official, and forecasters have warned more is expected in the city’s historic centre. “I have to leave everything behind as the water is rising too fast,” said Nguyen Thi Tham, a 60-year-old resident living in the flood-prone area near the Red River in Hanoi, by phone. She had only been able to take her dog with her. She was among a number of people evacuated by boat to a safe shelter early on Tuesday. It was not immediately clear how many Hanoi residents needed to be evacuated. Several rivers in northern Vietnam have risen to alarming levels, leaving villages and residential areas inundated, according to the disaster agency and state media. A 30-year-old bridge over the Red River in the northern province of Phu Tho collapsed on Monday, leaving eight people missing. Authorities across the north on Tuesday subsequently banned or limited traffic on other bridges across the river, including Chuong Duong Bridge, one of the largest in Hanoi, according to state media reports. “Water levels on the Red River are rising rapidly,” the government said on Tuesday in a post on its Facebook account. Warning from loudspeakers Using loudspeakers that broadcast Communist propaganda in the past, officials warned residents of the capital’s riverside Long Bien district to be on alert for possible flooding, and to be ready to evacuate the area. Other northern areas, including the industrial hubs of Bac Giang and Thai Nguyen, were also facing severe flooding, state media reported. It was not immediately clear if Samsung Electronics and Apple supplier Foxconn, based in Thai Nguyen and Bac Giang, respectively, were affected. Evacuations were also taking place from flood-prone areas in Bac Giang province, the government said, where the typhoon and floods have caused damage estimated for now to be worth 300 billion dong ($12.1m). A man checks boats damaged after Super Typhoon Yagi hit Ha Long Bay, in Quang Ninh Province [Nhac Nguyen/AFP] More than 4,600 soldiers have been deployed in the province to support the evacuation and support flood victims. Vietnam’s foreign ministry asked China to notify it in advance of any release of dam water upstream. Lao Cai province has reported at least 19 people killed and 36 missing, mostly in landslides, according to the disaster management agency. The government has yet not provided estimates of the cost of the damage caused by the typhoon, but residents in the coastal cities of Haiphong and Quang Ninh, where the storm first hit Vietnam, said they “lost everything”. Floods have also inundated 162,828 hectares (402,357 acres) and 29,543 hectares (73,002 acres) of cash crops and damaged nearly 50,000 houses in northern Vietnam, according to the agency. Adblock test (Why?)
Ukraine blames Russian air force commander for children’s hospital attack
Russia’s Sergei Kobylash is named as a suspect in the July 8 attack on Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv. A Russian air force commander is suspected of ordering a deadly missile strike on a Ukrainian children’s hospital in July, according to Ukraine’s prosecutor general. The Russian commander directed forces to fire an air-launched cruise missile on the morning of the July 8 strike, Ukrainian Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin said at a news conference on Tuesday. In a post on Telegram, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) named the commander as Lieutenant General Sergei Kobylash. The attack on the Okhmatdyt Children’s Hospital in Kyiv killed two people and injured 16 while wrecking much of the facility, including collapsing the roof of its toxicology department, where children receive dialysis. After the attack, Kyiv Mayor Vitaliy Klitschko accused Russia of trying to wipe out Ukraine’s population. “Right now, the whole world can see how Russian missiles and kamikaze drones killed Ukrainian citizens in our peaceful city,” he said at the time. ‘Investigation continuing’ While Kostin did not directly identify the Russian commander suspected in the strike, the SBU named Kobylash, chief of Russia’s long-range aviation forces at the time of the attack. Kobylash is already wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for alleged war crimes, including ordering strikes on Ukraine’s energy systems. ICC Prosecutor Karim Khan, who also attended Tuesday’s news conference, did not single out Kobylash but joined Kostin in saying a Russian Kh-101 cruise missile was the likely projectile used in the hospital attack. “It does seem from a number of sources and the work that’s been done that a missile, a Kh-101 cruise missile, has been identified,” Khan said. “A number of factors have to be looked into further.” Kostin added: “We are continuing the investigation to find other people responsible for the strike on Okhmatdyt.” Russia denies committing war crimes in Ukraine and says it does not target civilians. It has dismissed ICC war crime arrest warrants as part of a biased Western campaign to discredit Russia. The ICC has issued arrest warrants for six Russian officials, including President Vladimir Putin. Adblock test (Why?)
One killed in Moscow as dozens of Ukrainian drones target Russia
Official says woman died when debris from destroyed drone hit an apartment block starting a fire. A woman has been killed in Moscow after the remnants of a downed Ukrainian drone hit the apartment block where she was living and started a fire, according to Russian officials. Moscow regional Governor Andrei Vorobyov said debris from the drone damaged at least two high-rise apartment buildings in the Ramenskoye district in the early hours of Tuesday, setting several flats on fire. City mayor Sergei Sobyanin said emergency teams had been sent to a number of locations across the region as well as to the area near the Zhukovo airport and around the Domodedovo district – the site of one of Moscow’s largest airports. More than 30 flights were suspended. Russia said its air defences shot down more than 70 Ukrainian drones during the night with at least 15 intercepted in and around Moscow. The Ramenskoye district, some 50km (31 miles) southeast of the Kremlin, has a population of about 250,000 people, according to official data. Russia’s SHOT and Baza Telegram channels, which are close to Russia’s security services, posted videos with flames billowing from a multistorey residential building, saying that five flats had been destroyed. In the region of Bryansk, which borders Ukraine, “59 enemy aircraft-type UAVs have been intercepted and destroyed”, Governor Aleksander Bogomaz said on Telegram. He described the attack as “massive” but said there were no casualties or damage. Two more Ukrainian drones were intercepted in the Tula region, south of Moscow, Russian official news agency TASS reported. More than two and a half years since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion, Ukraine has fast-tracked the development of its domestic drone industry to enable it to attack Russia’s energy, military and transport infrastructure. Ukraine did not comment on the attack, which came as air raid warnings sounded in Kyiv amid another Russian drone assault on the Ukrainian capital. Adblock test (Why?)
Israeli attack on Gaza displacement camp kills dozens
NewsFeed Israel’s military has bombed the al-Mawasi camp in southern Gaza near Khan Younis, killing more than 40 people as it continues its attacks on the territory. Israel’s army said it targeted a Hamas command centre. Published On 10 Sep 202410 Sep 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Jordan elections: How will electoral reforms impact the September 10 polls?
Amman, Jordan – Citizens will vote in historic elections for the Parliament of Jordan’s 138-seat lower house on Tuesday. The parliamentary elections are the first since the 2022 constitutional amendments and the implementation of new laws governing elections and political parties aimed at democratisation and increasing the role of political parties in a country where tribal affiliations play a dominant political role. What are these laws? And will they make a difference in how Jordan is governed? Here’s what you need to know: When were the reforms approved? Jordan’s King Abdullah II formed the Royal Committee to Modernise the Political System in 2021. The committee’s recommendations were approved in March 2022. The new electoral law paved the way for a bigger role for political parties and also took measures to increase women’s representation in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Parliament. People directly elect representatives to the House every four years, but all 65 members of Parliament’s upper chamber are appointed by the king. Jordan’s King Abdullah II gives a speech in 2020 during the inauguration of the 19th Parliament’s non-ordinary session in Amman, Jordan [File: Yousef Allan/The Royal Hashemite Court/AP] What did they change? Candidates will compete in 18 local districts in an open-list proportional representation system (OLPR) – introduced in a 2016 reform – for 97 out of 138 parliamentary seats. The last parliamentary elections in 2020 divided voting into 23 electoral districts for 130 seats. An OLPR system allows voters to cast ballots for individual candidates on a party’s list. Seats reserved for women have increased to 18 from 15 in the past. The number of seats reserved for Christians has decreased from nine to seven since the last elections, and seats reserved for the Chechen and Circassian minorities have decreased from three to two. The key change will be that licenced political parties can now compete in a closed-list proportional representation system (CLPR) for the remaining 41 parliamentary seats allocated to the national district. In a CLPR system, voters can effectively only vote for a political party as a whole, not for an individual candidate. Why were reforms introduced? Jordan’s electoral system has been criticised by rights groups for favouring tribally affiliated independent candidates over political parties. Voting has also been stronger in rural and tribal areas, which the reform tried to address with its national district system. The reforms were an attempt to “de-tribalise Parliament” and “revamp political life in Jordan”, Merissa Khurma, director of the Middle East Program at the Wilson Center, told Al Jazeera. Turnout was just 29 percent in the November 2020 elections, down from 36 percent in 2016, a drop that Khaled Kalaldeh, the chief commissioner of the state-run Independent Election Commission at the time, attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. A man casts his ballot in the November 2020 elections in Jordan [Raad Adayleh/AP Photo] Sean Yom, an expert on Jordan at Temple University, thinks it is important to view these reforms in the context of economic and political crises unleashed by the Arab Spring. In addition, Jordan has suffered inefficiency, corruption and high unemployment – 21 percent in the first quarter of 2024 – that impact “almost all sectors of society, apart from a very narrow capitalist and political elite”, Yom said. Israel’s war on Gaza and regional tensions have also affected the tourism sector in Jordan, which amounts to around 14 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. The reforms signal an attempt by the state to show that it hears the public’s concerns and “that it does have a positive democratic vision for Jordan”, Yom said. He noted that the steps are also an attempt to show international allies – particularly the United States, the most important donor to Jordan – that it is “a liberal progressive state that is trying to make good on its promise to liberalise”. Who would they impact? Experts say it is unlikely that the reforms will create a completely new political landscape in these elections, but they could lead to incremental improvements. Khurma explained that Jordan does not have an open “political culture” yet, and many new political parties in these elections lack a clear programme. She said they will not greatly impact this election’s turnout, pointing out that it is still expected to be low. The elections come during the “highly tense political environment” created by Israel’s war on Gaza, she said, and Jordan is also in a “very challenging economic environment with very high unemployment”, issues that could dilute public interest in incremental changes to electoral laws. Jordan has attempted to walk a political tightrope during the war by maintaining diplomatic relations with Israel and even intervening in Iran’s retaliatory attack on Israel in April when Jordan shot down missiles as they flew over its territory. This stance has angered a significant portion of Jordan’s citizens, many of whom are descendants of the Palestinians forced out of their lands in both the Nakba and the 1967 war. The turnout among Jordanian citizens of Palestinian origin was particularly low in the 2020 elections, averaging just 10 percent in the country’s capital, Amman. Adblock test (Why?)
Filipino fugitive preacher appears in court after weeks on the run
NewsFeed Filipino preacher and self-proclaimed ‘son of God’ Apollo Quiboloy appeared in court after a weeks-long manhunt that ended with his arrest on sexual abuse and human trafficking charges. Published On 9 Sep 20249 Sep 2024 Adblock test (Why?)