Taliban say three civilians killed in Pakistan border clash
Pakistan and Afghanistan forces regularly exchange fire, often sparked by disagreements over construction near the Durand line, a frontier drawn by the British in 1896
Updated 13 August 2024
AFP
KABUL: Taliban authorities accused Pakistani forces on Tuesday of killing three civilians -- a woman and two children -- in clashes along their northern border.
The latest exchange of fire took place on Monday near the Torkham border crossing in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province, with each side accusing the other of sparking the clash.
Pakistan and Afghanistan forces regularly exchange fire, often sparked by disagreements over construction near the Durand line, a 2,400-kilometre (1,500-mile) frontier drawn by the British in 1896 and disputed by Kabul.
"Pakistani forces targeted civilian houses and killed a woman and two children," said interior ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani in a post on social media site X early Tuesday.
Enayatullah Khwarazmi, the spokesman for Afghanistan's defence ministry, told AFP, "The clash was started by the Pakistanis".
"When our forces were trying to build a post along the imaginary (Durand) line, the Pakistani soldiers fired at our forces and our forces retaliated, which led to a clash."
A border official on the Pakistan side at Torkham said three Pakistani soldiers were wounded in the exchange.
"Despite repeated warnings and objections from the Pakistani side, Afghan officials did not halt the construction, leading to escalating tensions," the officer told AFP.
Pakistan officials have not responded to accusations that three Afghan civilians were killed.
Border tensions between the two countries have steadily escalated since the Taliban government seized power in 2021, with Islamabad claiming militant groups are carrying out regular attacks from Afghanistan.
The Taliban government deny harbouring Pakistani militants, but are also infuriated by a fence Islamabad is erecting along the Durand line.
The Pakistan official added that heavy weapons had been used by both sides, and that the Torkham border crossing was closed.
Harris goes on offense against Trump in combative debate
Updated 43 min 13 sec ago
Reuters
PHILADELPHIA: Republican Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris clashed over abortion, the economy, immigration and Trump’s legal woes at their combative first presidential debate on Tuesday night, each seeking a campaign-altering moment in their closely fought election.
A former prosecutor, Harris, 59, appeared to get under the former president’s skin with a series of sharp attacks, prompting a visibly angry Trump to deliver a stream of falsehood-filled retorts.
At one point, she brought up Trump’s campaign rallies, goading him by saying that people often leave early “out of exhaustion and boredom.”
Trump, who has been frustrated by the size of Harris’ own crowds, said, “My rallies, we have the biggest rallies, the most incredible rallies in the history of politics.” He then pivoted to an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory claiming that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are “eating the pets” of residents.
“Talk about extreme,” Harris said, laughing. With eight weeks to go before the Nov. 5 election, and days until early voting starts in some states, the debate — the only one scheduled — presented both opportunities and risks for each candidate in front of a televised audience of tens of millions of voters.
Harris also criticized Trump over his criminal conviction for covering up hush money payments to a porn star as well as his other indictments and a civil judgment finding him liable for sexual assault. Trump has denied wrongdoing and again accused Harris and the Democrats of orchestrating all of the cases without evidence.
The candidates opened the debate by focusing on the economy, an issue that polls show favors Trump.
Harris attacked Trump’s intention to impose high tariffs on foreign goods — a proposal she has likened to a sales tax on the middle class — while touting her plan to offer tax benefits to families and small businesses.
“Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression,” Harris said, referring to his years as president from 2017-2021. Unemployment peaked at 14.8 percent in April 2020 and at 6.4 percent when he left office. It was far higher in the Great Depression.
Trump, 78, criticized Harris for the persistent inflation during the Biden administration’s term, though he overstated the level of price increases. He also pivoted quickly to his top issue, immigration, claiming again without evidence that immigrants from “insane asylums” are crossing the US southern border with Mexico.
Inflation, he said, “has been a disaster for people, for the middle class, for every class.”
The debate got under way at 9 p.m. ET (0100 GMT on Wednesday) with a surprise handshake between the two opponents, who had never met before. Harris approached Trump at his lectern, introducing herself by name, in what was the first handshake at a presidential debate since 2016.
The encounter is particularly important for Harris, with opinion polls showing that more than a quarter of likely voters feel they do not know enough about her. Harris entered the race only seven weeks ago after President Joe Biden’s exit.
Harris delivered a lengthy attack on abortion limits, speaking passionately about women denied emergency care and victims of incest unable to terminate their pregnancies due to statewide bans that have proliferated since the US Supreme Court eliminated a nationwide right in 2022. Three Trump appointees were in the majority of that ruling.
She also claimed Trump would support a national ban, an assertion Trump called a lie.
Trump, who has sometimes struggled with messaging on abortion, claimed falsely that Harris and Democrats support infanticide, which — as moderator Linsey Davis noted — is illegal in every state.
“As I said, you’re going to hear a bunch of lies,” Harris said.
Harris also sought to tie Trump to Project 2025, a conservative policy blueprint that proposes expanding executive power, eliminating environmental regulations and making it illegal to ship abortion pills across state lines, among other right-wing goals.
Trump retorted that he has “nothing to do” with Project 2025, though some of his advisers were involved in its creation.
FIRST MEETING
Trump, who has spent weeks launching personal attacks on Harris that have included racist and sexist insults, largely avoided insults during the debate’s early moments. But he called her a “Marxist” as he grew increasingly agitated.
Trump’s advisers and fellow Republicans had urged him to focus on the high levels of inflation and immigration during Biden’s presidency, though both have dropped dramatically this year.
Presidential debates do not necessarily change voters’ minds, but they can transform the dynamics of a race. Biden’s poor performance against Trump in June led him to abandon his campaign on July 21.
In a contest that could again come down to tens of thousands of votes in a handful of states, even a small shift in public opinion could alter the outcome. The two candidates are effectively tied in the seven battleground states likely to decide the election, according to polling averages compiled by the New York Times.
The 90-minute debate, hosted by ABC News, was taking place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. As agreed by the campaigns, there was no live audience and candidates’ microphones were muted when it was not their turn to speak.
Harris spent days preparing in Pittsburgh, holding mock sessions on a stage with lights to recreate the debate environment.
Trump instead relied on informal chats with advisers, campaign appearances and media interviews to prepare, with former Democratic congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard — who had a memorably hostile exchange with Harris in a Democratic presidential debate in 2019 — offering advice.
On a call with reporters on Monday, Gabbard said Trump would treat Harris the same as any other opponent.
“President Trump respects women and doesn’t feel the need to be patronizing or to speak to women in any other way than he would speak to a man,” she said.
US government demands overhaul of Israeli conduct in West Bank after killing of US citizen
A surge in violent settler assaults on Palestinians in the West Bank has stirred anger among Western allies of Israel, including the United States, which has imposed sanctions on some Israelis involved in the hard-line settler movement
Updated 11 September 2024
Reuters
LONDON/JERUSALEM: US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin on Tuesday demanded an overhaul of Israeli military conduct in the occupied West Bank as they decried the fatal shooting of an American protester against settlement expansion, which Israel said was accidental.
Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, who is also a Turkish national, was shot dead last Friday at a protest march in Beita, a village near Nablus where Palestinians have been repeatedly attacked by far-right Jewish settlers.
Turkish-American woman Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, a graduate of the University of Washington, poses wearing her mortarboard and keffiyeh in a family photograph taken at the University of Washington's 2024 commencement ceremony, in Seattle, Washington, U.S, June 8, 2024. (REUTERS)
Israel’s military said on Tuesday that its initial inquiry found it was highly likely its troops had fired the shot that killed her but that her death was unintentional, and it voiced deep regret.
President Joe Biden later told reporters “it ricocheted off the ground” and a US official said that was the conclusion of the Israeli investigation, the results of which were presented to the United States on Tuesday.
HIGHLIGHTS
• Eygi's family demands independent US investigation
• Blinken and Austin call Eygi's killing unprovoked and unjustified
• Israeli military says gunfire aimed at another individual
Palestinian officials say that Eygi was struck in the head.
Eygi’s family called Israel’s preliminary inquiry “wholly inadequate” and demanded an independent US investigation.
Hamid Ali, Eygi’s partner, in response to Biden’s comments, said her death “was no accident and her killers must be held accountable.”
“The White House has not spoken with us. For four days, we have waited for President Biden to pick up the phone and do the right thing,” Ali said.
Blinken and Austin, in their strongest comments to date criticizing the security forces of Washington’s closest Middle East ally, described Eygi’s killing as “unprovoked and unjustified.” They separately said said Washington would insist to the Israeli government that it makes changes to how its forces operated in the West Bank.
“No one should be shot and killed for attending a protest. No one should have to put their life at risk just for freely expressing their views,” Blinken told reporters in London.
“In our judgment, Israeli security forces need to make some fundamental changes in the way that they operate in the West Bank, including changes to their rules of engagement.
“Now we have the second American citizen killed at the hands of Israeli security forces. It’s not acceptable,” Blinken said.
An Israeli government spokesperson declined to comment on Blinken’s remarks.
Austin spoke to Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, the Pentagon said late on Tuesday, adding he expressed “grave concern for the IDF’s responsibility for the unprovoked and unjustified death” of Eygi. He also urged Gallant “to reexamine the IDF’s rules of engagement while operating in the West Bank,” according to the Pentagon.
Opinion
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The Israeli military earlier said an investigation by the Military Police Criminal Investigation Division was under way and its findings would be submitted for higher-level review once completed.
“We’re going to be watching that very, very closely,” White House national security spokesperson John Kirby told reporters, saying a criminal probe was an unusual step by Israel’s military.
“We’re going to want to see where it goes now in terms of the criminal investigation and what they find, and if and how anyone is held accountable,” Kirby added.
PRELIMINARY INQUIRY
In a statement, the Israeli military said its commanders had conducted an initial investigation into the incident and found that the gunfire was not aimed at her but another individual it called “the key instigator of the riot.”
“The incident took place during a violent riot in which dozens of Palestinian suspects burned tires and hurled rocks toward security forces at the Beita Junction,” it said.
Israel has sent a request to Palestinian authorities to carry out an autopsy, it said.
“We are deeply offended by the suggestion that her killing by a trained sniper was in any way unintentional,” Eygi’s family said in a statement. A surge in violent settler assaults on Palestinians in the West Bank has stirred anger among Western allies of Israel, including the United States, which has imposed sanctions on some Israelis involved in the hard-line settler movement. Tensions have been heightened amid Israel’s war against Hamas militants in Gaza.
Palestinians have held weekly protests in Beita since 2020 over the expansion of nearby Evyatar, a settler outpost. Ultra-nationalist members of Israel’s ruling coalition have acted to legalize previously unauthorized outposts like Evyatar, a move Washington says threatens the stability of the West Bank and undercuts efforts toward a two-state solution to the conflict.
Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, an area Palestinians want as the core of a future independent state.
Israel has built a thickening array of settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes that assertion, citing historical and biblical ties to the territory.
Muslim advocacy group files civil rights complaint against University of Georgia
Updated 11 September 2024
Reuters
WASHINGTON: The Council on American Islamic Relations advocacy group said on Tuesday it filed a civil rights complaint on behalf of some students at the University of Georgia alleging differential treatment of people of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim descent.
The complaint alleges the University of Georgia’s actions violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which bars federal funds recipients from allowing discrimination based on race, religion and national origin. It was filed with the US Education Department and urges a federal probe into the university.
The council said pro-Palestinian students have been the target of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab, and Islamophobic harassment since Israel’s war in Gaza began, adding the university did not do enough to prevent the harassment or remedy its effects.
The university said it supports free speech and does not discriminate based on race or religion while also enforcing its rules and holding accountable those who violate policies.
There have been numerous protests in the United States, including on college campuses, against US support for Israel’s war in Gaza, with some turning violent.
There has also been antisemitic and Islamophobic rhetoric in some protests and counter protests. Human rights advocates have warned about rising antisemitism, Islamophobia and anti-Arab hate.
The latest bloodshed in the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict was triggered last Oct. 7 when Palestinian Islamist group Hamas attacked Israel, killing 1,200 and taking about 250 hostages, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s subsequent assault on the Hamas-governed enclave has killed over 41,000 Palestinians, according to the local health ministry, while displacing nearly the entire population of 2.3 million, causing a hunger crisis and leading to genocide allegations at the World Court that Israel denies.
Modi’s top rival Rahul Gandhi denounces ‘ideological war’ in India
In Washington, Gandhi said India had a problem with participation of weaker castes, pointing in particular to Dalits — the once so-called “untouchables” in India’s caste system
Updated 11 September 2024
AFP
WASHINGTON: Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi on Tuesday denounced an “ideological war” in the South Asian country, ruled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Hindu nationalist party.
Rahul Gandhi said there were “two completely different visions” between his Congress party and Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as he spoke to the National Press Club in the US capital Washington.
“We believe in a plural vision, a vision where everybody has a right to thrive... an India where you’re not persecuted because of what religion you believe in, or what community you come from, or which language you speak,” he said.
Gandhi, 54, was appointed in June to lead India’s opposition in parliament, a key post that had been vacant for a decade.
He is the scion of a dynasty that dominated Indian politics for decades and is the son, grandson and great-grandson of former prime ministers, beginning with independence leader Jawaharlal Nehru.
His party’s result in the 2024 election — nearly doubling its parliamentary numbers — defied analyst expectations and forced Modi’s BJP to form a coalition to govern.
In Washington, Gandhi said India had a problem with participation of weaker castes, pointing in particular to Dalits — the once so-called “untouchables” in India’s caste system.
“So there is a very small percentage of India which is controlling the entire infrastructure,” Gandhi said.
He also criticized Modi’s handling of relations with China, with which India shares a 2,100 mile (3,500 kilometer) border that is a constant source of tension and occasional confrontation between the two nations.
“We’ve got Chinese troops occupying land the size of Delhi. I think that’s a disaster. I don’t think Mr.Modi’s handled China well at all,” he said.
Gandhi, on a multi-day visit to the United States mainly to engage with its large Indian diaspora, has also met with US lawmakers.
Internet suspended in parts of India’s Manipur as students clash with police
Manipur’s government is led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
Updated 11 September 2024
Reuters
GUWAHATI, India: Internet and mobile data services were suspended for five days and an indefinite curfew imposed in some parts of India’s northeastern state of Manipur on Tuesday after student protests over continuing ethnic strife turned violent.
After a brief lull, fighting broke out between the majority Meitei and minority Kuki communities on Sept. 1 and some attacks involved the use of drones to drop explosive devices, killing civilians. Police say they suspect that the drones were used by Kuki militants, a claim denied by Kuki groups.
Hundreds of Meitei students took to the streets on Monday to protest against the drone attacks, calling for a change in the leadership of the state’s “unified command” that oversees security.
Protesters threw stones and plastic bottles in front of the main gate of the state governor’s residence, police said in a statement. Police used tear gas and stun grenades to disperse the crowds and about 45 protesters suffered minor injuries, a police officer said.
As protests spilled over into Tuesday, the local government imposed a curfew in the Imphal Valley and surrounding districts and suspended Internet services in five valley districts.
Government and private colleges in the state, which borders Myanmar, will also be shut on Wednesday and Thursday, according to an order issued by the government.
Authorities shut down the Internet in Manipur last year, in one of India’s longest enforced outages.
In the Thoubal district on Monday, police said a large mob “overpowered personnel on duty,” snatched arms and fired at the police.
“We are using minimum force as a preventive measure to control the crowd,” a police official said, and added that the situation had been brought under control.
At least 225 people have died and some 60,000 have been displaced since fighting broke out last year between the Meitei and Kuki communities over the sharing of economic benefits and quotas in government jobs and education that are given to the tribal Kukis.
Manipur’s government is led by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Modi or the BJP have not commented on the latest violence in the state.
