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US officials who resigned over Biden’s Gaza policy form new lobby group

US officials who resigned over Biden’s Gaza policy form new lobby group
More than 42,000 people have been killed in Israel’s relentless retaliatory offensive of the densely-populated Gaza Strip. (Reuters)
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Updated 32 sec ago
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US officials who resigned over Biden’s Gaza policy form new lobby group

US officials who resigned over Biden’s Gaza policy form new lobby group
  • New political action committee to advocate for a revamp of Washington’s long-standing stance on the Israeli and Palestinian conflict
Updated 32 sec ago
Reuters
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WASHINGTON: Two US officials who resigned last year in protest over President Joe Biden’s policy on the Gaza war have launched a lobbying organization and a political action committee to advocate for a revamp of Washington’s long-standing stance on the Israeli and Palestinian conflict.
Josh Paul, a former State Department official and Tariq Habash, who used to work as a policy adviser at the US Department of Education, said the American public is no longer in favor of unconditionally sending US weapons to Israel but that elected officials have lagged behind.
Their PAC, called “A New Policy,” would support candidates whose position on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict center on aligning US policies with human rights and equality and would ensure US arms transfers to all countries in the Middle East including Israel comply with both US and international law.
Washington’s unwavering support for Israel’s military operations in Gaza and more recently in Lebanon has emerged as a key reason for why Muslim and Arab voters, who resoundingly had backed Biden in 2020, may withhold their votes from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris in the upcoming election.
“American voters are clear: they do not want to be complicit in this humanitarian catastrophe and a majority want an end to the transfer of lethal weapons that are used to kill Palestinian civilians,” Habbash said.
Many Muslims and Arabs in the US have urged Biden to call for a permanent ceasefire. Harris faces Republican former President Donald Trump on Nov. 5 in what polls show to be a tight presidential race.
The US is Israel’s largest weapons supplier and has provided it with billions of dollars in military aid since Oct. 7, when Palestinian Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 250 others, according to Israeli tallies.
Israel’s relentless retaliatory offensive of the densely-populated Gaza Strip, which was home to 2.3 million people, has reduced the enclave to a wasteland, with hundreds of thousands of people repeatedly displaced. More than 42,000 people have been killed, according to Palestinian health officials.

Topics: Israeli war on Gaza US Joe Biden Gaza Israel

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Nigeria fuel tanker explosion kills almost 100: police

Nigeria fuel tanker explosion kills almost 100: police
Updated 9 sec ago
AFP
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Nigeria fuel tanker explosion kills almost 100: police

Nigeria fuel tanker explosion kills almost 100: police
Updated 9 sec ago
AFP

KANO: A fuel tanker explosion in northern Nigeria has killed at least 94 people and left 50 injured, police said on Wednesday.
Many of the victims had been trying to collect fuel spilt on the road after the tanker crashed in northern Jigawa state late on Tuesday, police spokesman Lawan Shiisu Adam told AFP.
The tanker had veered to avoid colliding with a truck in the town of Majia, he said.
“We have so far confirmed 94 people dead and around 50 injured,” he said, warning the death toll could rise.
Following the crash, residents crowded around the vehicle, collecting fuel that had spilled on the road and in drains, Adam said.
He said the residents had “overwhelmed” officers trying to stop them.
The Nigerian Medical Association has urged doctors to rush to nearby emergency rooms to help with the influx of patients.
Fuel tanker explosions are common in Africa’s most populous nation, where roads can be poorly maintained and residents often look to siphon off fuel following accidents.

Topics: Nigeria fuel fuel tanker explosion

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Indian airplane forced to divert after latest bomb hoax

Indian airplane forced to divert after latest bomb hoax
Updated 9 min 53 sec ago
AFP
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Indian airplane forced to divert after latest bomb hoax

Indian airplane forced to divert after latest bomb hoax
  • The Akasa Air flight was flying from India’s capital New Delhi to the southern city of Bengaluru
  • The aircraft received ‘a security alert’ and the flight was ordered to return as a ‘precaution’
Updated 9 min 53 sec ago
AFP

BENGALURU, India: An Indian passenger aircraft was diverted on Wednesday after the latest in a string of hoax bomb threats made to airline companies involving the country.
The Akasa Air flight, which was flying from India’s capital New Delhi to the southern city of Bengaluru, “received a security alert” and the flight was ordered to return as a “precaution.”
Akasa Air said emergency response teams were monitoring the situation and that the captain had followed “all required emergency procedures for a safe landing in Delhi.”
The flight had 184 people on board, including three infants, the airline said.
There was no immediate response from India’s civil aviation authorities.
Local media and airlines have reported at least six other such threats this week.
Singapore scrambled fighter jets on Tuesday to escort an Air India Express plane after an email warning about a possible bomb on board, the city-state’s defense minister said.
Two F-15 jets were deployed to escort the aircraft “away from populated areas” before it landed safely at Changi Airport late on Tuesday.
Air India also said on Tuesday one of its planes from New Delhi to Chicago had to make an emergency landing in Canada because of “a security threat posted online.” That flight also landed safely.
Similar hoaxes were received this week by India’s low-cost operator IndiGo regarding two flights that were to take off, to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and to Muscat in Oman, according to Indian media.

Topics: aviation India

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Five years after losing special status, Kashmir gets a largely powerless government

Five years after losing special status, Kashmir gets a largely powerless government
Updated 15 min 20 sec ago
AP
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Five years after losing special status, Kashmir gets a largely powerless government

Five years after losing special status, Kashmir gets a largely powerless government
  • The region has been on edge since 2019, with civil liberties curbed and media freedoms restricted
  • There will be a limited transfer of power from New Delhi that will remain Kashmir’s main legislator
Updated 15 min 20 sec ago
AP

SRINAGAR: Leaders of Indian-administered Kashmir’s biggest political party were sworn into office Wednesday to run a largely powerless government after the first local election since India stripped the disputed region of its special status five years ago.
National Conference leader Omar Abdullah will be the region’s chief minister after his party won the most seats in the three-phased election. It has support from India’s main opposition Congress party, although Congress decided not to be a part of the new government for now.
The vote was Kashmir’s first in a decade and the first since Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government scrapped the Muslim-majority region’s long-held semi-autonomy in 2019. The National Conference staunchly opposed the move, and its victory is seen as a referendum against the Modi government’s changes.
Lt. Gov. Manoj Sinha, New Delhi’s top administrator in Kashmir, administered the oaths of office to Abdullah and the five members of his council of ministers in a ceremony under tight security at a lakeside venue in the region’s main city of Srinagar. Some of India’s top opposition leaders, including Rahul Gandhi of the Congress party, attended.
However, there will be a limited transfer of power from New Delhi to the local government as Kashmir will remain a “union territory” — directly controlled by the federal government — with India’s Parliament as its main legislator. Kashmir’s statehood would have to be restored for the new government to have powers similar to other states of India.
India and Pakistan each administer a part of Kashmir, but both claim the territory in its entirety. The nuclear-armed rivals have fought two of their three wars over the territory since they gained independence from British colonial rule in 1947.
Kashmir’s last assembly election in 2014 brought to power Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, or BJP, the first time ruled in a coalition with the local Peoples Democratic Party. The government collapsed in 2018, after the BJP withdrew from the coalition and New Delhi took the region under its direct control.
A year later, the federal government downgraded and divided the former state into two centrally governed union territories, Ladakh and Jammu-Kashmir. The move — which largely resonated in India and among Modi supporters — was mostly opposed in Kashmir as an assault on its identity and autonomy amid fears that it would pave the way for demographic changes in the region.
The region has since been on edge with civil liberties curbed and media freedoms restricted.
Like on election days, authorities on Wednesday limited access of foreign media to the oath ceremony and denied press credentials to most journalists working with international media, including The Associated Press, without citing any reason.
In the recently concluded election, the National Conference won 42 seats, mainly from the Kashmir Valley, the heartland of the anti-India rebellion, while the BJP secured 29 seats, all from the Hindu-dominated areas of Jammu. The Congress succeeded in six constituencies.
Militants in the Indian-administered portion of Kashmir have been fighting New Delhi’s rule since 1989. Many Muslim Kashmiris support the rebels’ goal of uniting the territory, either under Pakistani rule or as an independent country.
India insists the Kashmir militancy is Pakistan-sponsored. Pakistan denies the charge, and many Kashmiris consider it a legitimate freedom struggle. Tens of thousands of civilians, rebels and government forces have been killed in the conflict.
Experts say the new government, stripped of all the essential powers, would face a daunting task to fulfil its election promises against huge public expectations to resist the 2019 changes and the federal government’s tight control.
Praveen Donthi, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group, said the region’s political vacuum of the last few years will not vanish with the polls alone.
“The Modi government should build on it by restoring full statehood and empowering the government,” said Donthi. “Otherwise, it will intensify disaffection and is a set up for failure.”
Modi and his powerful home minister, Amit Shah, have repeatedly stated that the region’s statehood will be restored after the election, without specifying a timeline. However, they vowed to block any move aimed at undoing the 2019 changes but promised to help in the region’s economic development.
For the new chief minister, meanwhile, it’s going to be a tightrope walk.
“As a pro-India politician at the helm of this powerless administration, Omar Abdullah knows his limitations,” Donthi said. “He would be looking at his job as a buffer to moderate the worst instincts of New Delhi, but he would be clutching at straws.”

Topics: Jammu and Kashmir Kashmir elections Sri Nagar Srinagar

India issues flood warnings as rain pounds south

India issues flood warnings as rain pounds south
Updated 36 min 41 sec ago
AFP
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India issues flood warnings as rain pounds south

India issues flood warnings as rain pounds south
  • Heavy rain and strong winds have battered southern India since Tuesday
  • Deadly rain-related floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season
Updated 36 min 41 sec ago
AFP

BENGALURU, India: Intense rain lashed southern India on Wednesday, with weather officials issuing a red alert warning of flash floods and landslides.
India’s Meteorological Department warned of “heavy to very heavy” rainfall expected in parts of the southern state of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala.
Heavy rain and strong winds have battered southern India since Tuesday forcing many schools shut and disrupting train services.
In the city of Chennai, people used boats on the swamped streets with water in places higher than the engines of cars.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. K. Stalin said Wednesday that all relief work was being carried out “in full swing” and also announced free food at government-run restaurants.
Deadly rain-related floods and landslides are common across South Asia during the monsoon season, but experts say climate change is increasing their frequency and severity.
In southern tech hub Bengaluru, traffic crawled as several roads were submerged under water. The downpour also delayed cricket, stalling the first Test between India and New Zealand.

Topics: climate change weather India

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New Zealand exempts abuse victims from a forced two-year wait before they can seek divorce

New Zealand exempts abuse victims from a forced two-year wait before they can seek divorce
Updated 55 min 49 sec ago
AP
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New Zealand exempts abuse victims from a forced two-year wait before they can seek divorce

New Zealand exempts abuse victims from a forced two-year wait before they can seek divorce
  • The required cooling-off period before a couple in New Zealand can file for divorce is the longest among no-fault divorce laws in comparable countries
Updated 55 min 49 sec ago
AP

WELLINGTON: Victims of domestic violence in New Zealand will be allowed to cut ties to abusive spouses more quickly after lawmakers unanimously voted Wednesday to exempt them from a mandatory two-year separation period before divorce can be sought.
The required cooling-off period before a couple in New Zealand can file for divorce — during which they must also live apart — is the longest among no-fault divorce laws in comparable countries, including Australia, Britain, Canada and most states in the US.
Wednesday’s change means a victim of domestic violence can seek dissolution of their marriage or civil partnership as soon as a protection order against their spouse is granted. Lawmakers said in speeches at parliament in the capital, Wellington, that some survivors had told them the long reflection period made leaving an abusive relationship difficult and increased the chance they would return to a violent partner.
“Two years holds the tie. It binds the victim to their abuser,” said Deborah Russell, the lawmaker who sponsored the bill. “That should not be the case.”
All 123 members of parliament voted for the change, in a rare show of political unity.
Lawmakers cited New Zealand’s domestic violence figures, which are widely considered one of the country’s most entrenched and thorny social problems. Police figures for the year to June 2023 recorded more than 177,000 family harm investigations in the country of 5 million people, a 49 percent increase since 2017.
Some said more law changes were needed to ensure those leaving violent marriages were not rushed through property division or custody agreements while emotions were high. Others suggested more forms of evidence that abuse had taken place should be accepted. Currently a formal protection order must be granted before an expedited divorce is allowed.
New Zealand has permitted no-fault divorce, in which a couple need not state a reason for splitting, since 1980.
In neighboring Australia, a couple must separate for 12 months before divorcing but they can choose to remain under the same roof.
The UK introduced no-fault divorces in 2022, with a 20-week waiting period. Until then, couples had to cite a reason, including infidelity or abuse, to be granted a dissolution.
All 50 US states allow for no-fault divorce, with some requiring separation periods — most shorter than New Zealand’s. In recent years, conservative commentators and lawmakers in a handful of states have urged reversals of no-fault divorce laws.
Lawmakers credited three women, all survivors of abusive marriages, with prompting New Zealand’s shift.
Ashley Jones had approached her local MP, Chris Bishop, after leaving an abusive marriage in 2020 and later took a petition to parliament on the matter. It took more than 1,000 days after she left her husband for Jones to be granted a divorce, she said in 2023.
“We get a lot of grief in this place, probably sometimes fairly, about being fixated on things that don’t actually matter that much,” Bishop told parliament Wednesday. “But this matters, this legislation matters and this issue matters and today we’re doing something about it.”

Topics: New Zealand

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