https://arab.news/v88w4
WASHINGTON: The US State Department has approved the possible sale of shoulder-fired Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to the NATO military alliance’s support and procurement agency for an estimated cost of $780 million, the Pentagon said on Friday.
The prime contractors are Raytheon and Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon said in a statement.
US President Joe Biden on Thursday canceled another $4.5 billion in student debt for over 60,000 borrowers, bringing the number of public service workers who have had their student loans canceled to over 1 million.
In total, the Biden-Harris Administration has approved $175 billion in student debt relief for nearly 5 million borrowers through various actions, the White House said in a statement.
Republicans have described the Democratic president’s student loan forgiveness approach as an overreach of authority and an unfair benefit to college-educated borrowers while others receive no such relief.
Earlier this month, St. Louis-based US District Judge Matthew Schelp, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Biden administration from “mass canceling” student loans and forgiving principal or interest under the plan, pending the outcome of the state’s lawsuit.
DHAKA: A Bangladeshi court on Thursday issued an arrest warrant for exiled ex-leader Sheikh Hasina, who fled to India in August after she was toppled from power by a student-led revolution.
Prosecutor Mohammad Tajul Islam called it a “remarkable day,” while a relative of one of the hundreds who died in the uprising against her autocratic rule said they were “looking forward” to the trial.
Hasina’s 15-year rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents.
“The court has... ordered the arrest of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina, and to produce her in court on November 18,” Islam, chief prosecutor of Bangladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), told reporters.
“Sheikh Hasina was at the helm of those who committed massacres, killings and crimes against humanity in July to August,” Islam said.
The court also issued an arrest warrant for Obaidul Quader, the fugitive former general secretary of Hasina’s Awami League party, as well as 44 others, who were not named.
Dozens of Hasina’s allies were taken into custody after her regime collapsed, accused of culpability in a police crackdown that killed more than 700 people during the unrest that deposed her.
Former cabinet ministers and other senior members of her Awami League party have been arrested, and her government’s appointees were purged from courts and the central bank.
Hasina, however, has not been seen in public since fleeing Bangladesh by helicopter.
The 77-year-old’s last official whereabouts are a military air base near India’s capital New Delhi.
Her presence in India — her former biggest benefactor — has infuriated the new interim government in Bangladesh.
Dhaka has revoked her diplomatic passport, and the countries have a bilateral extradition treaty which would permit her return to face criminal trial.
A clause in the treaty, however, says extradition might be refused if the offense is of a “political character.”
Among those in court were family members of Sajib Sarkar, a medic killed in July during the protests against Hasina.
“We want the government to take the initiative to bring back the former prime minister as soon as possible and hold her accountable,” his sister, Sumaiya Sarkar, told AFP. “We are looking forward to a fair trial.”
The ICT is a deeply contentious war crimes court Hasina’s government set up in 2010 to probe atrocities during the 1971 independence war from Pakistan.
The United Nations and rights groups criticized its procedural shortcomings, and it became widely seen as a means for Hasina to eliminate political opponents.
Several cases accusing Hasina of orchestrating the “mass murder” of protesters are being probed by the court.
Hasina was replaced by Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus.
The 84-year-old microfinance pioneer is leading a temporary administration, to tackle what he has called the “extremely tough” challenge of restoring democratic institutions.
Yunus said he had inherited a “completely broken down” system of public administration and justice that needs a comprehensive overhaul to prevent a future return to autocracy.
BRUSSELS: The EU’s foreign policy chief on Thursday appeared to criticize the United States giving Israel one month to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza, saying that during that time, too many people would die.
“The US has been saying to Israel that they have to improve humanitarian support to Gaza, but they gave one month delay. One month delay at the current pace of people being killed. It’s too many people,” Josep Borrell told reporters ahead of a European Union leaders’ summit.
Israel must take steps over the next month to improve the humanitarian situation in Gaza or face potential restrictions on US military aid, US officials said on Tuesday, in the strongest such warning since Israel’s war with Hamas began a year ago.
Israel launched its operation on the Palestinian enclave a year ago, after the Oct. 7, 2023 attacks on Israeli towns by Hamas-led fighters who killed 1,200 people and captured 250 hostages.
After a year of Israeli assaults that have killed more than 42,000 Palestinians, hundreds of thousands of residents have come back to ruined northern areas. Israel sent troops back earlier this month to root out fighters it said were regrouping for more attacks. Hamas denies operating among civilians.
Borrell has been a critical voice in the EU regarding Israel’s ongoing operations. The bloc is divided on how to handle its response beyond urging for a ceasefire.
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said the bloc was not doing enough and he would continue to work with Spain to change the dynamics among the 27-nation bloc.
“Europe has not yet used every lever at its disposal to bring a ceasefire,” he said.
Speaking on arrival in Brussels German Chancellor Olaf Scholz underscored the differences in Europe saying that Israel’s security should not be compromised and appeared to take a swipe at French President Emmanuel Macron, who has called for countries to stop supplying offensive weapons that can be used by Israel in Gaza.
“All criteria must be respected, such as international law. When it comes to monetary aid, which must go to Gaza, it’s about preventing the war from escalating further,’ he said.
“However, it is clear that supporting Israel also means that we are constantly ensuring Israel’s defense capability, for example by supplying military goods or weapons.”
Paris: The speaker of the French Senate — the country’s second most senior figure under the constitution — said Thursday he was “astounded” by remarks attributed to Emmanuel Macron on Israel and accused the president of showing his “ignorance” of history.
Macron was quoted as saying in a cabinet meeting Tuesday that Israel “must not forget” it owed its existence to a United Nations resolution after its troops fired on UN peacekeepers in Lebanon.
The comment sparked a furious reaction from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, adding to growing tensions between France and Israel, and also troubled Jewish community figures within France.
“It first of all shows an ignorance of the history of the birth of the State of Israel,” Gerard Larcher, the right-wing speaker of the upper house, told Europe 1 radio.
“Questioning the existence of Israel touches on fundamental questions for me,” he said.
“I was astounded that these remarks could be made,” he added. The creation of Israel “did not come as a notarial act merely validated by the UN,” he argued.
Larcher would take over the presidency if centrist Macron was incapacitated or suddenly resigned. He is a senior figure in the right-wing Republicans (LR) party to which Prime Minister Michel Barnier also belongs.
“Mr Netanyahu must not forget that his country was created by a decision of the UN,” Macron told the weekly French cabinet meeting, referring to the resolution adopted in November 1947 by the United Nations General Assembly on the plan to partition Palestine into a Jewish state and an Arab state.
“Therefore this is not the time to disregard the decisions of the UN,” he added, as concern grows over Israeli fire on UNIFIL peacekeepers in southern Lebanon.
His comments from the closed door meeting at the Elysee Palace were quoted by two participants who spoke to AFP and asked not to be named.
In a blistering attack that is highly unusual from an establishment figure in France, Larcher questioned if Macron had taken account of the 1917 British Balfour Declaration, which supported the creation of a Jewish homeland, and even the Holocaust and its consequences.
Netanyahu has hit back at Macron’s comments, saying the country’s founding was achieved by the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, not a UN ruling.
He also said that among those who fought for Israel in 1948 were French Jews who had been sent to death camps after being rounded up by the collaborationist Vichy regime, which governed a large part of France during the Nazi occupation in World War II.
In an interview with France’s Le Figaro daily published Thursday, Netanyahu accused Macron of a “distressing distortion of history” and “disrespect.”
