US should end weapon supplies to Israel over Gaza war, says top Democrat senator

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen is part of a group of seven senators who this week sent to a letter to Biden urging an end to US weapon deliveries to Tel Aviv. (Reuters/File Photo)
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen is part of a group of seven senators who this week sent to a letter to Biden urging an end to US weapon deliveries to Tel Aviv. (Reuters/File Photo)
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Updated 16 March 2024
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US should end weapon supplies to Israel over Gaza war, says top Democrat senator

US should end weapon supplies to Israel over Gaza war, says top Democrat senator
  • Chris Van Hollen and 6 other senators pen letter urging Biden to ‘use all levers’ to pressure Netanyahu
  • Restricting military aid could force Tel Aviv to change course and avoid Rafah attack, letter says

LONDON: A top Democrat senator in the US has called on President Joe Biden to “use all levers” at his disposal in pressuring Israel to change its war strategy, The Guardian reported.

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen is part of a group of seven senators who this week sent to a letter to Biden urging an end to US weapon deliveries to Tel Aviv.

The US must stop providing military aid to Israel until it ends any restrictions on the flow of aid into Gaza, Van Hollen said.

In an interview on Friday, the senator urged Biden to “push harder and use all the levers of US policy to ensure people don’t die of starvation.”

Van Hollen’s co-signed letter to the president accused Israel of violating the Foreign Assistance Act, which prohibits the transfer of weapons to any power that restricts the supply of US humanitarian aid.

Israel had reportedly sent a written commitment, via Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, that it would operate in line with the US act in prosecuting its war on Hamas.

The senators’ letter follows mounting controversy over Washington’s “contradictory” role in the conflict, with the US arming Israel, while also attempting to address the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza.

Anger over the US response to the Israel-Hamas war has opened rifts in the Democratic party, but also between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Israeli leader is “openly defying” Biden’s repeated appeals to limit civilian casualties in Gaza and work toward the establishment of an independent Palestinian state, Van Hollen said.

He added: “Prime Minister Netanyahu has been an obstacle to the president’s efforts to at least create some light at the end of this very dark tunnel.”

Biden, over recent weeks, has escalated his rhetoric toward Netanyahu’s government, accusing the Israeli leader of damaging his country’s standing in the world.

However, he has also rebuffed appeals from within his own party to use essential military aid to Israel as a bargaining chip to control the consequences of the war.

The US administration has turned to air and sea deliveries of aid to address what the UN has called “catastrophic levels of deprivation and starvation” in Gaza.

But critics warn that truck deliveries by road into the enclave remain the only viable method of easing the humanitarian crisis.

Van Hollen said: “The very fact that the US is airlifting humanitarian supplies and is now going to be opening a temporary port is a symptom of the larger problem, which is (that) the Netanyahu government has restricted the amount of aid coming into Gaza and the safe distribution of aid.”

Israel has denied impeding the flow of aid by road into the enclave.

However, UN statistics show that about 500 trucks per day arrived into Gaza daily before the outbreak of the war, compared with an average of about 200 now.

The US senator said he had inspected the border situation himself during a visit to Rafah in January, describing the Israeli-led security checks as “cumbersome.”

Van Hollen added: “You witnessed these very, very long lines of trucks trying to get in through Rafah and through the Kerem Shalom crossing, and quite an inspection review, including arbitrary denials of humanitarian aid being delivered into Gaza.

“For example, we visited a warehouse in Rafah that was filled with goods that had been rejected at the inspection sites. The rejected goods included things like maternity kits, water purification systems.”

The senator also highlighted the killing of aid workers responsible for distributing aid.

Widespread famine in Gaza will be “almost inevitable” without action, the UN has warned.

In the senators’ letter to Biden, Van Hollen and his colleagues urged the president to “make it clear to the Netanyahu government that failure to immediately and dramatically expand humanitarian access, and facilitate safe aid deliveries throughout Gaza will lead to serious consequences, as specified under existing US law.”

The US leader has warned Israel would breach a “red line” if it moves ahead with plans to attack Rafah, where almost half Gaza’s population are gathered.

Biden’s comments have set up a potential face-off with Netanyahu, in what would present “one of those moments where the Biden administration is going to have to decide whether it’s going to back up the president’s strong words with the leverage that it has,” Van Hollen said.


First flight with Israelis evacuated from Amsterdam lands in Tel Aviv

First flight with Israelis evacuated from Amsterdam lands in Tel Aviv
Updated 57 min 40 sec ago
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First flight with Israelis evacuated from Amsterdam lands in Tel Aviv

First flight with Israelis evacuated from Amsterdam lands in Tel Aviv
  • The plane that arrived in Tel Aviv had passengers evacuated from Amsterdam

TEL AVIV: The first flight carrying Israelis evacuated from Amsterdam after violent clashes following a football match there landed on Friday at Ben Gurion International Airport, the Israel Airports Authority said.
“The plane that arrived in Tel Aviv now has passengers evacuated from Amsterdam,” Liza Dvir, spokeswoman for the airport authority told AFP.


India’s Modi rejects calls to restore Kashmir’s partial autonomy

India’s Modi rejects calls to restore Kashmir’s partial autonomy
Updated 08 November 2024
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India’s Modi rejects calls to restore Kashmir’s partial autonomy

India’s Modi rejects calls to restore Kashmir’s partial autonomy
  • Modi revoked partial autonomy in 2019 and split the state into the two federally administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh 
  • Jammu and Kashmir held its first local election in a decade this year, newly-elected lawmakers passed resolution this week seeking restoration

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi strongly backed his government’s contentious 2019 decision to revoke the partial autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, days after the territory’s newly elected lawmakers sought its restoration.
“Only the constitution of Babasaheb Ambedkar will operate in Kashmir... No power in the world can restore Article 370 (partial autonomy) in Kashmir,” Modi said, referring to one of the founding fathers of the Indian constitution.
Modi was speaking at a state election rally in the western state of Maharashtra, where Ambedkar was from.
Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government revoked partial autonomy in 2019 and split the state into the two federally administered territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh — a move that was opposed by many political groups in the Himalayan region.
Jammu and Kashmir held its first local election in a decade in September and October and the newly-elected lawmakers passed a resolution this week seeking the restoration.
Jammu and Kashmir’s ruling National Conference party had promised in its election manifesto that it would restore the partial autonomy, although the power to do so lies with Modi’s federal government.
Jammu and Kashmir’s new lawmakers can legislate on local issues like other Indian states, except matters regarding public order and policing. They will also need the approval of the federally-appointed administrator on all policy decisions that have financial implications.
Under the system of partial autonomy, Kashmir had its own constitution and the freedom to make laws on all issues except foreign affairs, defense and communications.
The troubled region, where separatist militants have fought security forces since 1989, is India’s only Muslim-majority territory.
It has been at the center of a territorial dispute with Pakistan since the neighbors gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Kashmir is claimed in full but ruled in part by both India and Pakistan, which have fought two of their three wars over the region.


Kyiv says Russia has returned bodies of 563 soldiers

Kyiv says Russia has returned bodies of 563 soldiers
Updated 08 November 2024
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Kyiv says Russia has returned bodies of 563 soldiers

Kyiv says Russia has returned bodies of 563 soldiers
  • The exchange of prisoners and bodies of killed military personnel remains one of the few areas of cooperation
  • The announcement represents one of the largest repatriations of killed Ukrainian servicemen

KYIV: Ukraine said on Friday it had received the bodies of 563 soldiers from Russian authorities, mainly troops that had died in combat in the eastern Donetsk region.
The exchange of prisoners and bodies of killed military personnel remains one of the few areas of cooperation between Moscow and Kyiv since Russia invaded in 2022.
“The bodies of 563 fallen Ukrainian defenders were returned to Ukraine,” the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement on social media.
The announcement represents one of the largest repatriations of killed Ukrainian servicemen since the beginning of the war.
The statement said that 320 of the remains were returned from the Donetsk region and that 89 of the soldiers had been killed near Bakhmut, a town captured by Russia in May last year after a costly battle.
Another 154 of the bodies were returned from morgues inside Russia, the statement added.
Neither Russia nor Ukraine publicly disclose how many military personnel have been killed fighting.


Russia sentences soldiers who massacred Ukraine family to life in prison

Russia sentences soldiers who massacred Ukraine family to life in prison
Updated 08 November 2024
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Russia sentences soldiers who massacred Ukraine family to life in prison

Russia sentences soldiers who massacred Ukraine family to life in prison
  • The court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced the two men to life in prison for mass murder “motivated by political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred“
  • The incident triggered uproar in Ukraine

MOSCOW: A Russian court sentenced two soldiers to life in prison for the massacre of a family of nine people in their home in occupied Ukraine, state media reported on Friday.
Russian prosecutors said in October 2023, the two Russian soldiers, Anton Sopov and Stanislav Rau, entered the home of the Kapkanets family in the city of Volnovakha with guns equipped with silencers.
They then shot all nine family members who lived there, including two children aged five and nine.
The southern district military court in Rostov-on-Don sentenced the two men to life in prison for mass murder “motivated by political, ideological, racial, national or religious hatred,” the state-run TASS news agency reported, citing an unnamed law enforcement source.
The incident triggered uproar in Ukraine.
Kyiv alleged at the time that the Russian soldiers had murdered the family in their sleep after they refused to move out of their home to allow Russian soldiers to live there.
“The occupiers killed the Kapkanets family, who were celebrating a birthday and refused to give up their home,” Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said a day after the murder.
Russian forces seized the city of Volnovakha in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region at the start of their full-scale military offensive.
It was virtually destroyed by Russian artillery strikes.
Russian soldiers have been accused of multiple instances of killing civilians in Ukrainian towns and cities they have occupied since February 2022.
Moscow has always denied targeting civilians and tried to claim reports of atrocities at places like Bucha were fake, despite widespread evidence from multiple independent sources.
The arrest and sentencing in this case is a rare example of Russia admitting to a crime committed by its troops in Ukraine.
State media did not say what prosecutors determined the reason for the attack was.
TASS suggested it could have been a “domestic dispute,” while both the independent Radio Free Europe and Kommersant business outlets said it could have been linked to a dispute over obtaining vodka.
The trial was held in secret.
The independent Radio Free Europe outlet reported the Rau, 28, and Sopov, 21 were mercenaries for the Wagner paramilitary before joining Russia’s official army.
They had both received state awards a few months before the mass murder, it said.


Saudi influencer shines spotlight on resilience, hard work of Filipino expats

Saudi influencer shines spotlight on resilience, hard work of Filipino expats
Updated 08 November 2024
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Saudi influencer shines spotlight on resilience, hard work of Filipino expats

Saudi influencer shines spotlight on resilience, hard work of Filipino expats
  • Riyadh-based health worker Ahmed Alruwaili has 1.7 million followers on Facebook
  • He shot to social media fame thanking Filipino frontliners during COVID-19 pandemic

MANILA: Dressed in a white thobe, a traditional headdress, and a blue jersey of the Philippine national basketball team, Saudi influencer Ahmed Alruwaili appears in a viral video, distributing small gifts and snacks to Filipinos in Riyadh as a way to thank them for their hard work.

In another clip, he visits an elementary school for Filipino children, sharing jokes and laughter with them. In yet another, he hands out portable electric fans to Filipino expats braving the scorching heat of the Saudi capital.

These videos are just a few among the hundreds of Alruwaili posts, in which he uses his social media platform to celebrate over 1 million Filipino expats living and working in Saudi Arabia. Through his content, he highlights their resilience, traditions, and sense of humor, reaching 1.7 million Facebook followers.

It all began about six years ago when he joined a group of Filipino baristas playing street basketball in the mornings. Initially reluctant, they soon welcomed him into their circle. After each game, they would share their breakfasts with him before heading off to work.

“They used to bring pancit in the morning, at 5 a.m. Pancit and pan de sal, Alicafe,” Alruwaili recalled, referring to traditional Filipino noodles, bread rolls, and the popular instant coffee.

“I know it’s really weird, but that’s how it all started. It’s all with basketball. And till today, I still play with the same people. I did not change, I’m still visiting them. I’m the one now to bring them the food.”

Over time, he developed a basic understanding of Filipino culture and Tagalog — a language he had slowly become familiar with also through his work in a healthcare facility, where he had met many Filipino colleagues.

During basketball games, his friends would often record videos of him, which quickly garnered considerable attention and views. Encouraged by this, Alruwaili began sharing content regularly. While his posts were initially comedic, everything changed with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as he witnessed the dedication and sacrifice of Filipino nurses working on the frontlines of the healthcare crisis.

Feeling the need to express recognition and gratitude, Alruwaili shifted the focus of his content. This became a turning point — one that would shape the direction of his online presence and influence in the years to come.

“It was purely comedy until the COVID time,” he said. “Working in a healthcare facility, I see the hard-working OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) here in Saudi. So, I thought I’d use it to give appreciation. Once I did that … it became different. All the things happened after that. This is how we started.”

In a video posted in March 2020, Alruwaili is seen buying flowers and food and distributing them to Filipino nurses at various locations in Riyadh.

“The reason why I made this is just to remind you about all the hard work that the nurses are doing all over the world, especially the OFW nurses against this coronavirus,” he says in the clip.

“We all need to pray and appreciate all the nurses for their hard work. The nurses now are the true heroes.”

The video received 3.5 million views. Another video, in which Alruwaili brings pillows, blankets, and food to pandemic-stranded Filipino workers waiting for their flights, has now reached 6 million views — and continues to grow.

Known as The Saudipinoy after the name of his Facebook account — with the word “Pinoy” meaning “Filipino” in Tagalog — the Saudi influencer has already visited the Philippines eight times since he started vlogging.

One of his most popular clips — which has 8 million views — was filmed on Siargao Island. It shows him conducting a social experiment, pretending that his motorcycle has run out of gas. The video captures how Filipinos would immediately offer help to a stranger in need.

Despite his social media fame, Alruwaili’s life remains centered around his full-time job in healthcare. Working as a medical professional, he devotes just one day a week to creating content.

“One day, I am just asleep … then the other day I will do the vlog, then I will prepare to go back to work. So, my life is really busy, I am really working hard to keep up with the vlog,” he said.

“(But) I am extremely happy with the impact (of what) I am doing.”

His social media work is appreciated not only by Filipinos, many of whom recognize him on the streets of Riyadh and approach him to thank him and hug him, but also by fellow Saudis.

“I want Saudis to notice the hard work of OFWs, and I want OFWs to know that Saudi people are nice,” he said.

“I am proud to be Saudi and representing Saudis. And, thank God, even big people here in Saudi … they said: ‘Keep going, you are representing the Saudi people and we are proud of you.’”