Four people from India who are accused of killing a Sikh activist from British Columbia named Hardeep Singh Nijjar, will all be appearing in court on Tuesday.
Twenty-two-year-old Amandeep Singh appeared in a Surrey, B.C court last week through a video call for the first time, and the case has been moved to today.
Singh was accused of planning and carrying out a serious crime, and of working with others to do the same. This happened earlier this month while he was already in jail for different charges related to guns.
Karan Brar, Kamalpreet Singh and Karanpreet Singh were arrested in Edmonton and now they are going to court in Surrey. They are facing the same charges.
Nijjar played an important role in helping Sikhs living abroad vote for an independent Sikh state in India. He was shot and killed in the parking lot of the temple in Surrey where he was president in June 2023.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said that there is believable information connecting Nijjar‘s death to the Indian government, but India says they were not involved.
Author: Chris Kodo
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4 Indian nationals to appear in court after being accused of killing Sikh activist in British Columbia
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Ex-leader of South Africa Zuma disqualified from upcoming election
The previous president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, cannot run for a seat in Parliament in the upcoming election after he was convicted of a crime in the past. The highest court in the South Africa made a decision that will likely cause more arguments before an important vote in Africa’s most advanced economy. Former allies of Zuma are being challenged by his new political party.
The Constitutional Court decided that the rule in the constitution that stops people who have been given a prison sentence of more than 12 months from running for Parliament also applies to the 82-year-old former leader. Zuma was sent to jail for 15 months in 2021 because he didn’t want to answer questions at a trial about corruption in the government.
The court said that Zuma cannot be a lawmaker for five years after he finishes his sentence. They made this decision nine days before the May 29 election.
Zuma used to lead South Africa’s African National Congress party but was told to leave in 2017. He also quit as president in 2018 because people thought he was involved in corruption.
He came back to politics last year with a new party and started criticizing the ANC and President Cyril Ramaphosa again. Ramaphosa took over as the leader of the party and president after him.
Zuma’s new party said in a statement that they are not happy about the decision, but it has not made them feel discouraged. They also did not agree with the court’s decision and the judges who made it.
The upcoming election in South Africa is very important, possibly the most important in 30 years. The ANC, the ruling party since the end of apartheid in 1994, is facing a big challenge.
The ANC is having a hard time keeping its majority in parliament, and the election could make it form a government with other political parties. That would be the biggest change in the country’s politics since apartheid was ended and everyone was allowed to vote.
The court decision does not stop Zuma’s party, the MK Party, from participating in the election.
Zuma is on the party’s election posters and is the main person in its campaign. The group in charge of elections in South Africa said Zuma’s picture can stay on the party’s election clothing, but his name won’t be on the list of people they want to run for office.
In South Africa, people don’t choose their president directly. Instead, they vote for political parties. Those political groups will have seats in the government based on how many votes they received. Lawmakers choose the president based on which party has the most members. Since 1994, the ANC has always been in charge, but this time, if it doesn’t get more than 50% of the votes, it will need to work with other political parties to stay in power and reelect Ramaphosa for another term.
Zuma’s MK Party could take away more of the ANC’s votes and make it difficult for the ruling party to stay in power.
Zuma still has a lot of people who support him. The court’s decision has made things more tense politically, especially after some MK Party officials said they would not accept any decision that stops Zuma from running for office.
Ramaphosa told Radio 702 that he did not think the decision would make people angry, but he also said that if there was any chance of violence, the security forces are prepared.
Since 1994, South Africa has been having fair and peaceful elections.
Zuma was not allowed to run for Parliament at first. He won the case at the Electoral Court after challenging their decision. Monday’s decision changed the previous outcome and confirmed that he is disqualified.
Zuma led South Africa for almost 10 years from 2009-18, but he resigned because the ANC wanted him to. There were claims that the government was very corrupt. He was asked to speak at a formal investigation about the claims of corruption, but he said no. That caused him to be punished for disrespect.
The sentence showed that Zuma still has power in some areas of South Africa. This caused a week of stealing and fighting in two provinces. More than 350 people died, making it one of the worst times of violence in the country since the end of apartheid. Zuma got out of prison early because he was sick after only serving two months of his 15-month sentence.
Zuma has been accused of doing something wrong in a different case that is about things he did before he became president. He is supposed to go to court next April for those charges and has said he did not do it. -
Prince Harry’s request to add charges against Rupert Murdoch denied by London judge
Prince Harry sought to escalate his legal action against The Sun newspaper by implicating Rupert Murdoch and other leaders in the suppression and disposal of evidence pertaining to their unlawful conduct. However, a judge in London said he can’t do that.
Judge Timothy Fancourt made a decision in the High Court about one of Prince Harry’s privacy lawsuits against British tabloids. The ruling had some good and some bad parts for Prince Harry.
Fancourt said no to some changes Harry wanted to make, but he let the prince add more claims against journalists and private investigators who he says spied on him unfairly to get stories.
But Fancourt said accusations that Murdoch ignored wrongdoing did not add anything important to claims against News Group Newspapers, or NGN. The judge said that the claims already have people who are trusted by Murdoch, like his son James and Rebekah Brooks, who used to be an editor at News of the World and The Sun.
The judge said that Harry tried to blame other executives to promote a political agenda.
“The people in charge of the lawsuit want to target important issues or famous people for attention,” Fancourt wrote. The claimants’ team might want to blame the leader, but it won’t help in finding out what Ms. James Murdoch, and other important company leaders may have known and participated in the situation.
Brooks is the top boss of News UK, which is part of News Corp. They oversee The Sun and The Times newspapers, among others. James Murdoch quit his job at News Corp. In the year 2020.
Rupert Murdoch, who is 93 years old, was the top boss at News Corp. The person in charge of News International, now called News UK, was the parent company of NGN, which was in charge when News of the World closed down. Murdoch quit being in charge of Fox News and News Corp last autumn.
Both sides said they won in the decision before the trial next year, but Fancourt said it was a partial win with the defense getting an advantage on the issues they argued about.
The News Group said it was happy with the choice.
In 2011, the company said sorry to people whose voicemails were listened to by the News of the World. The newspaper shut down because of a scandal involving hacking into people’s phones. NGN stated that they have resolved 1,300 claims for their newspapers, even though The Sun has never admitted fault.
In March, there was a three-day hearing where people accused NGN of doing bad things, like actor Hugh Grant said The Sun listened to his phone calls, put bugs in his car, and broke into his home to spy on him.
After that, Grant said he agreed to take a lot of money to settle his lawsuit, even though he didn’t really want to.
Grant explained that he had to agree to a settlement because of a court rule that could have made him pay a lot of money for legal fees, even if he won the case in court. A court rule was trying to prevent the courts from getting too busy. It would have made Grant pay the legal fees for both sides if he won at trial but got less money than the settlement offer.
Lawyer David Sherborne thinks that Harry might have to reach an agreement for the same reason.
Harry has a similar lawsuit waiting to be heard against the owner of the Daily Mail.
He won his first trial case last year when Fancourt discovered that phone hacking was happening a lot at Mirror Group Newspapers. Besides the court decision, he resolved the remaining accusations, which also covered his lawyer’s expenses. -
King Salman of Saudi Arabia receives treatment for lung inflammation
King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud of Saudi Arabia is sick with a lung problem and is getting medical care. Because of this, the Crown Prince has put off his planned visit to Japan.
King Salman, who is 88 years old, has been diagnosed with an inflammation after having medical tests. He is getting treated with antibiotics in Jeddah, as reported by SPA on Sunday.
His son Mohammed bin Salman, who is the Crown Prince and the actual leader of Saudi Arabia, canceled his trip to Tokyo because of his father’s condition.
The Japanese Foreign Ministry said they will try to plan the trip for another time.
On Sunday, Prince bin Salman met with US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan in the eastern city of Dhahran, as reported by SPA.
At the meeting, they talked about what’s happening in nearby areas, like the fighting in Gaza. They also talked about how to make peace and find a solution where there are two separate states.
In 2020, King Salman had an operation to take out his gallbladder. He became the King of Saudi Arabia after King Abdullah died in 2015.
In 2017, he took away Mohammed bin Nayef’s job as crown prince and put his son in his place. -
Six people killed in a “foiled coup” in Congo – Army reports
Six people were killed and many were arrested after attacks on the home of a friend of President Felix Tshisekedi and the presidential palace in Congo. The military said it was a failed attempt to take over the government.
In December, Tshisekedi won the election again even though the opposition wanted a new vote because they thought the process wasn’t fair.
Six people were killed, including 3 attackers and their leader, Christian Malanga, who is against the current government. The army said they also arrested around 50 people involved in the attack.
Soldiers in military uniform fought with the guards of Vital Kamerhe, a lawmaker who is close to the president of Congo. Kamerhe’s spokesperson wrote on social media site X, saying that the guards stopped the intruders and made sure that the politician and his family were safe.
Two security guards were also murdered, Ekenge stated.
In the beginning, the news said the men with guns were from Congo’s army. Later, they said the men were connected to Malanga. He posted a video on Facebook from inside the president’s house, threatening Tshisekedi.
The army spokesman said Malanga was killed in a gunfight with the presidential guards.
Ekenge said on TV that the attempted government takeover was stopped by the Congolese military and police and everything is ok now. He also said that three Americans, including Malanga’s son, were involved in the plot.
The attack happened when Tshisekedi’s ruling party was already dealing with a crisis over a parliamentary election. This election was supposed to happen on Saturday but got postponed. -
Car rolls off ferry and into Nile River killing at least six Egyptian women
Six women from Egypt died on Tuesday when a car carrying around 24 people fell off a ferry into the Nile River near Cairo.
The crash in Monshat el-Kanater town in Giza province hurt nine passengers, the Health Ministry announced. Giza is one of three areas that make up the larger city of Cairo.
The government said six people with injuries were helped at the scene and three were taken to hospitals. It didn’t explain their injuries.
Giza’s governor, Ahmed Rashed, said that they found the microbus in the Nile and they are still trying to rescue people as of Tuesday afternoon.
It wasn’t clear why the accident happened right away.
According to the Akhbar newspaper, around 24 people, mostly women, were in the car going to work when the accident happened.
Ferry, train, and car crashes happen a lot in Egypt because things aren’t taken care of well and there aren’t many rules. In February, a boat with workers sank in the Nile in Giza, and at least 10 out of the 15 people on it died. -
London-Singapore flight had significant turbulence, resulting in one death and other injuries
One person died on a plane flying from London to Singapore after the plane hit really bumpy air. Singapore Airlines announced this on Tuesday. The plane had to land in Bangkok, and emergency workers came to help hurt passengers because of bad weather.
The Boeing 777-300ER plane landed in Bangkok at 3:45 pm with 211 passengers and 18 crew members on board. The airline shared this information on Facebook.
The hospital team from Samitivej Srinakarin Hospital, which is 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Suvarnabhumi Airport, came to help the injured passengers from Flight SQ321 from Heathrow. They took the injured passengers off the runway so they could get medical treatment. Videos on the LINE app from Suvarnabhumi Airport showed a line of ambulances heading to the location.
Singapore Airlines is very sorry for the family of the person who passed away. “We are helping the local government in Thailand with medical support and sending a team to Bangkok to help further if needed. ”
FlightRadar24 collected data and The Associated Press looked at it. They found that the Singapore Airlines flight was flying at 37,000 feet. Around 8 in the morning, the Boeing 777 quickly went down to 31,000 feet in about three minutes.
The airplane flew at a height of 31,000 feet for about 10 minutes, then quickly went down and landed in Bangkok in less than 30 minutes. -
War crimes prosecutor wants Netanyahu and other key figures from Israel and Hamas arrested
The top lawyer of the world’s main court for serious crimes wants to arrest the leaders of Israel and Hamas, including the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, for things they did during their seven-month war.
Netanyahu and his defense minister, Yoav Gallant, are not about to be arrested, but the International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor’s announcement showed that Israel is more isolated because of the war in Gaza.
The prosecutor in court, Karim Khan, said that Netanyahu, Gallant, and three Hamas leaders, Yehia Sinwar, Mohammed Deif, and Ismail Haniyeh, did very bad things in Gaza and Israel and broke the law.
Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders criticized the action as shameful and against Jewish people. US President Joe Biden also criticized the prosecutor and stood by Israel’s right to protect itself from Hamas.
Three judges will choose if they should give arrest warrants and let a case continue. The judges usually need two months to make these decisions.
Israel is not in the court, so Netanyahu and Gallant are not in trouble right now, even if they have arrest warrants. But if the Israeli leaders are at risk of being arrested, it might be hard for them to go to other countries.
Netanyahu said the prosecutor’s accusations against him were very bad and a big attack on the Israeli military and the whole country. He promised to continue Israel’s fight against Hamas.
President Biden said it was wrong for the prosecutor to try to arrest Netanyahu and Gallant for the war in Gaza. He also said that Israel and Hamas are not the same and should not be treated as equals.
Hamas also criticized the ICC prosecutor for asking to arrest its leaders, saying it treats the victim and the attacker the same.
Netanyahu is being strongly urged in his own country to end the war as soon as possible. Many Israelis are going to protests every week. They want the government to make a deal to bring back Israeli hostages held by Hamas. They are worried that there is not much time left.
Lately, two other members of his war Cabinet, Gallant and Benny Gantz, said they will quit if Netanyahu doesn’t explain his plan for Gaza after the war.
On Monday, many politicians supported Netanyahu and criticized the ICC prosecutor’s decision. The people who were there were the president of Israel, Isaac Herzog, and his two main political opponents, Gantz and opposition leader Yair Lapid.We don’t know how Khan’s decision will affect how people see Netanyahu. Netanyahu’s popularity has dropped during the war, but if there’s a chance he could be arrested, it might make people support him more. However, his opponents could also criticize him for causing a diplomatic disaster for the country.
Yuval Shany, who knows a lot about international law from Hebrew University and the Israel Democracy Institute, a think tank in Jerusalem, said it is very likely that Netanyahu’s reputation in other countries could get even worse.
Shany said that this will make Netanyahu unpopular, and it will be hard for him to travel to other countries. He said that even if the ICC does not give permission to arrest, other countries may be less willing to help.
The West thinks Hamas is a global terrorist organization. Both Sinwar and Deif are thought to be hiding in Gaza. Haniyeh, the leader of the Islamic militant group, lives in Qatar and often travels around the area. Qatar is not in the ICC like Israel.
The most recent fight between Israel and Hamas started on Oct 7, when fighters from Gaza went into Israel and killed around 1,200 people, mostly innocent people, and held 250 others captive.
Since that time, Israel has been fighting hard to break up Hamas in Gaza. More than 35,000 Palestinians have died in the fighting, and at least half of them were women and children, as estimated by Gaza health officials.
The fighting in Gaza has caused a big problem for the people living there. About 80% of the population have had to leave their homes and many don’t have enough food to eat. The United Nations says this is a very serious situation.
When talking about what Israel is doing, Khan said that using hunger as a weapon of war, along with other attacks and punishments against the people of Gaza, is causing a lot of suffering that everyone can see.
The United Nations and other groups that help people in need have said many times that Israel is stopping aid from getting to people during the war. Israel says it’s not true. They say aid can go to Gaza and they blame the UN for not giving out aid.
Hamas did some bad things on Oct 7. Khan went to the region in December and saw the terrible effects of these attacks. He said the crimes were very wrong.
Hamas fighters killed many people at a dance party and also killed whole families in their homes. “Khan said that these actions require responsibility. ”
South Africa wants to put Israel on trial at the UN and is happy that Khan wants to arrest Israeli and Hamas leaders. “The same rules must be used for everyone to support the international rule of law,” said President Cyril Ramaphosa’s office.
The ICC started in 2002 as a court that prosecutes people who are responsible for very serious crimes like war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide, and aggression.
The UN General Assembly supported the ICC, but the court works on its own.
Many countries do not agree to let the court make decisions about war crimes, genocide and other crimes. They are Israel, the United States, Russia, and China.
The ICC agreed to let Palestine join in 2015, after Palestine agreed to follow the court’s rules in 2014.
In 2020, the United States President Donald Trump allowed punishments on the ICC prosecutor and another senior prosecutor related to travel and money. The ICC staff were investigating the United States. The soldiers from the United States and its friends may be accused of committing crimes during the war in Afghanistan. President Biden removed the penalties in 2021.
Last year, the court said that Russia’s President Putin is responsible for taking children from Ukraine, so they issued an arrest warrant for him. Russia answered by making its own request for arrest of Khan and ICC judges. -
Oklahoma and Kansas homes suffer damage from strong storms and tornadoes
Quick storms with strong winds, large hail, and possible tornadoes hit Oklahoma and Kansas. They blew the roofs off houses and blocked roads with fallen trees and power lines. In Houston, things are getting better after the bad storms last week.
About 20 homes were broken in western Oklahoma’s Custer County, and two people got hurt in Butler, the state emergency officials reported on Sunday. A nursing home in Hydro town was damaged.
Strong winds, faster than 60 mph, were seen in many places as the storms moved eastward from Sunday afternoon to the night. In the middle of Kansas, strong winds of 100 mph were reported at the airport in Salina, according to the National Weather Service.
Jacob Schwein from Russell, Kansas, said he saw a swirling cloud from a storm. The storm damaged his house and destroyed a garage where he kept his race car, trophies, and a lot of tools.
“I saw it when I left work,” Schwein said. “I saw it fall right over there on the next road. ”
Trucks flipped over in Newton and Sedgwick counties, the office said.
“Stay inside unless it’s really important. The city of Halstead said this because of the damage and stuff in the area. ”
The weather service said it got 13 reports of tornadoes on Sunday from Oklahoma, Kansas and Colorado.
There were no classes on Monday in some places because they were cleaning up after something. More bad weather is expected later today. The weather service said there could be bad storms in Colorado, Kansas, and Nebraska late Monday night and early Tuesday. The storms might create big hail, strong winds up to 75 mph (121 km/h), and possibly some tornadoes.
Some areas in Nebraska, Iowa, and Minnesota might flood because of heavy rain making rivers and creeks overflow, according to the weather service.
People in Houston who were affected by the bad storms last week got some good news. Officials said that most of the people who lost electricity and air conditioning in the hot and humid weather now have power again.
The storms on Thursday caused at least seven people to die and stopped most of Houston from moving. Strong storms and very strong winds hit the city with more than 2 million people. They destroyed buildings and other things, pulled trees out of the ground, and broke windows in tall buildings downtown.
Over 209,000 places in Texas still don’t have power, mainly in Houston. Over 2,400 customers in Louisiana still don’t have electricity. There were strong winds and a possible tornado in the area.
In a neighborhood in Houston, a lot of people who didn’t have electricity went to a place where they could get food, water, and ice. It was set up at a Boys & Girls Club. City and county buses were used as temporary places to stay cool.
“I have three daughters. Our house doesn’t have electricity, and I understand what you’re going through. We’re here to help you,” said Harris County Commissioner Lesley Briones in a video on X social platform.
The weather in Houston will be very hot and humid with sunny days. The temperature will be around 90 degrees this week and it might feel like 102 degrees because of the humidity. -
Judge in Trump’s hush money trial cleared courtroom of reporters
The judge in Donald Trump’s hush money trial told reporters to leave the courtroom on Monday and warned the defense’s witness that he could be kicked out of the trial for his behavior while testifying, according to a court transcript.
Judge Juan M. Merchan told Robert Costello, a person who used to work for the government as a lawyer, that his behavior was disrespectful at that moment.
Costello kept making comments and talking even after he was told to stop, which made Merchan really mad during his testimony. At one time, Costello said “jeez” when he was interrupted by an objection. He also said the whole exercise was “silly. ”
“I want to let you know that your behavior is disrespectful,” Merchan said when the press was not in the room, according to the conversation transcript. “If you keep looking at me in a mean way, I will make you leave. ”
Costello did not reply to a message asking for a comment on Monday night.
Merchan told Costello that I had to clear the courtroom because it was difficult for the court officers to do it and there was an argument between the press and their lawyers. “Sir, you’re being disrespectful at the moment. ”
When he started the press conference again, Costello kept talking and will talk more on Tuesday. The defense is trying to make Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, look less trustworthy.
Trump’s lawyers asked Merchan to end the case and dismiss the charges before the jury makes a decision, after the prosecutors finished presenting their evidence. He didn’t make a decision right away. It was the end of a long and intense day, and the main witness for the prosecution admitted to stealing a lot of money from Trump’s company.
After the jurors went home, lawyer Todd Blanche told the judge that the prosecutors did not show enough evidence for their case and it should be dismissed right away. Blanche begged the judge not to send the case to the jury based on Mr Cohen’s testimony.The judge didn’t seem to be convinced by the argument and asked the defense lawyer if they thought the person’s testimony was so unbelievable that the jury shouldn’t even consider it as a possibility.
“The judge said that you claimed his lies cannot be proven wrong. ” “Do you really believe he can trick 12 New Yorkers into believing this lie. ”
Cohen was the final witness for now for prosecutors. They are trying to show that Trump tried to hide bad stories about himself and then changed business records to hide it, to illegally affect the 2016 election. The defence says that Cohen is a liar who is obsessed with the media and wants to get revenge on Trump.
The defence asked Costello to testify because he was a critic of Cohen after they stopped working together.
Costello said he would help Cohen when the police searched his hotel, office, and house. Cohen had to decide if he would keep fighting the investigation or work with the police to get a lighter punishment.
Costello said that Cohen told him Trump didn’t know anything about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels.
“Michael Cohen said many times that President Trump didn’t know about the payments, that he did it by himself, and he said that many times,” Costello told the jurors.
Trump’s lawyer said they won’t bring in other people to testify after Costello, but they might still ask campaign-finance expert Bradley A Smith to testify a little bit. It’s not certain if Trump will testify, but it seems like he probably won’t.
Again in court for the fourth day, Cohen said on Monday that he took money from the Trump Organization because his holiday bonus was reduced from $150,000 to $50,000 in 2016.
Cohen said he spent $50,000 to a tech company to help make Trump look better in a poll on CNBC’s website about successful businessmen. Cohen gave the firm $20,000 in cash, and then asked Trump to give him back more money than that, keeping some for himself.
“Did you take things from the Trump Organization. “
“Yes, sir,” Cohen said. Cohen said he never gave the Trump Organization their money back. Cohen has never been accused of taking things from Trump’s company.
Cohen is an important witness, but he is also complicated. He said in court that he told a lot of lies in the past, and he said he did it to protect Trump. Cohen went to prison for admitting he did some bad things, like lying to Congress and a bank, and breaking campaign finance rules to pay hush money. He has earned a lot of money from writing harsh books about the ex-president, and he frequently criticizes the ex-president on social media using bad language.
But when Blanche asked him, Cohen stuck to his memory of talking with Trump about the $130,000 payment to keep Stormy Daniels quiet, which is the main focus of the case.
“Are you sure. ” Blanche asked Cohen if he remembered talking to Trump about the Daniels situation. It’s true, Cohen said.For over a month, people talked in court about sex, money, gossip, and how Trump’s company keeps records. Soon, a group of people will decide if Trump broke the law by lying about business records. This is the first time a former US president has been on trial for a crime.
The charges come from Trump Organization records that show payments to Cohen were labeled as legal expenses. Prosecutors say these were actually payments to reimburse Daniels for keeping quiet.
Trump says he did not do it. His lawyers claim that there was nothing illegal about the Daniels deal or how Cohen was paid.
“There is no crime,” Trump said to the reporters when he got to the courthouse on Monday. “We spent money on a lawyer. ” Do you know what it’s listed as. A cost for the law.
Trump’s friends, including some who were with him at the courthouse on Monday, were quick to use Cohen’s confession on the witness stand to their advantage. Kash Patel, who used to work for Trump, said that on Monday, for the first time in six weeks of the trial, they found a crime – Cohen stole money from the Trump Organization.
“We have someone who was hurt as well. ” Patel said the victim is Donald J Trump.
Blanche asked Cohen on Monday about his first denials that Trump knew about the Daniels payment. After The Wall Street Journal said in January 2018 that Cohen had paid the porn actor over a year ago, Cohen told people that Trump didn’t know about it.
He only changed his account after the federal authorities searched Cohen’s home, office, and other places related to him in April 2018. Four months later, Cohen admitted to breaking campaign finance laws and other crimes. He told the court that Trump had told him to make the payment to Daniels.
Cohen is usually known for getting angry easily, but he has been surprisingly calm when answering questions in court, even when the defense has been tough on him about his mistakes and the accusations in the case.
The lawyer for Manhattan District Attorney, Alvin Bragg, is likely to finish presenting evidence once Cohen is done speaking. But if Trump’s lawyers bring in their own witnesses, then the prosecutors could also call in more witnesses to respond. Judge Juan M Merchan said that because of other planned events, he thinks the closing arguments will happen on May 28, which is the Tuesday after Memorial Day.
Defense lawyers stated that they have not yet decided if Trump will testify or not. Trump did not answer the reporters’ questions about whether his lawyers told him not to testify. Defense lawyers usually don’t want their clients to testify in court because it can make things worse for them.
Trump’s lawyers might ask Bradley A Smith, a Republican law professor appointed by former President Bill Clinton to the Federal Election Commission, to argue against the prosecution’s claim that the hush money payments broke campaign finance laws. However, the judge has restricted what Smith can talk about. -
Judge in Trump’s hush money trial threatens to eject witness from court room
The judge in the trial of Donald Trump’s hush money case made the reporters leave the courtroom and warned the defense’s witness that he might be removed from the trial because of how he behaved while testifying. This information was recorded in a court transcript.
Judge Juan M. Merchan told Robert Costello, who used to be a federal prosecutor, that his behavior was disrespectful.
Costello annoyed Merchan multiple times during his testimony by whispering comments and talking after objections were made, which made it clear to the witnesses to stop speaking. Costello said “jeez” when he was interrupted by an objection. He also said the whole thing was “silly. ”
“I want to let you know that I think your behavior is disrespectful,” Merchan said during a private conversation when the press was not around. “If you keep staring at me, I will make you leave. ”
Costello did not respond to a message asking for a comment on Monday night.
I had to remove everyone from the courtroom, including the press and their lawyers, because it was hard to do and there were arguments. This is why I had to clear the courtroom in the first place. “Sir, you are being disrespectful with your behavior. ”
When he brought the machine back in, Costello kept talking and will continue on Tuesday. The defense is trying to make Trump’s ex-lawyer, Michael Cohen, seem less trustworthy.
Trump’s lawyers asked Merchan to end the case before the jury makes a decision and to dismiss the charges after the prosecutors finished presenting their evidence. He didn’t make a decision right away, the request came at the end of a long and intense day. The prosecution’s main witness also admitted to stealing a lot of money from Trump’s company.
After the jury went home, lawyer Todd Blanche told the judge that the prosecutors did not prove their case and it should be stopped right away. Blanche asked the judge to not let the jury decide the case based on Mr. Cohen’sThe judge did not seem to be affected by the argument and asked the defense lawyer if he believed that the person’s testimony should not be considered by the jury at all.
“The judge replied that you said his lies cannot be proven wrong. ” “Do you really believe he can trick 12 New Yorkers into believing this lie. ”
Cohen was the most recent person to testify for the prosecutors. They are trying to show that Trump tried to hide bad news about himself and lied about his business records to cover it up, in order to influence the 2016 election illegally. The defence has said that Cohen is focused on the media and is lying because he wants revenge against Trump.
The defence asked Costello to testify because he has been an enemy and critic of Cohen since their professional relationship ended in a big way.
Costello had said he would help Cohen after his place was searched, and Cohen had to decide if he would stand up to the investigation or work with the authorities to get a lighter punishment.
Costello said that Cohen told him Trump didn’t know about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels.
“Michael Cohen said many times that President Trump did not know about the payments, and that he did it by himself. He said this many times,” Costello told the jury.
Trump’s lawyer, Emil Bove, said to the judge that the defense will not bring in any more witnesses after Costello. However, they might bring in campaign-finance expert Bradley A Smith for some questioning. They have not said for sure if Trump will testify, but it seems very likely that he will decide not to go on the stand to defend himself.
Again in court for the fourth day, Cohen said on Monday that he took money from the Trump Organization because he got a holiday bonus of $50,000 instead of the usual $150,000 in 2016.
Cohen said he gave $50,000 to a tech company to make Trump look more popular in a CNBC poll about famous business people. Cohen said he only gave the company $20,000 in cash in a bag, but then he asked Trump to pay him back for the whole amount, keeping the extra money for himself.
“Did you take things from the Trump Organization. ”
“Yes, Mr” Cohen said he did not give money back to the Trump Organization. Cohen has never been accused of taking things from Trump’s company.
Cohen is an important witness, but he is also difficult to understand. He said in court that he has told a lot of lies in the past, and he says he did it to protect Trump. Cohen went to jail for admitting he lied to Congress and a bank, and broke campaign finance laws by paying hush money. He made a lot of money by writing mean books about the old president and posting rude stuff about him on social media.
However, when Blanche questioned him, Cohen maintained that he remembered talking to Trump about the $130,000 payment to Stormy Daniels, which is the main focus of the case.
“Are you sure you remember. ” Blanche asked if Cohen remembered talking to Trump about the Daniels situation. “Definitely,” Cohen said.
More than four weeks of talking about sex, money, and Trump’s business records have been presented in court. Soon, the jury will decide if Trump is guilty of 34 counts of lying about his business records. This is the first time a former US president has faced a criminal trial.
The charges come from Trump Organization records that show payments to Cohen labeled as legal expenses. But prosecutors say these were actually reimbursements for hush money paid to Daniels.
Trump said he did not do it. His lawyers say that there was nothing illegal about the agreement with Daniels or how Cohen was given money.
“There is no crime,” Trump told the reporters when he got to the courthouse on Monday. “We had to spend money on a lawyer. ” Do you know what it is listed as. It is considered a legal cost.
Trump’s friends, including several who were with him at the courthouse on Monday, quickly took advantage of Cohen’s confession on the witness stand. Kash Patel, who used to work for Trump, told reporters that for the first time in six weeks of trial, they found a crime – Cohen took money from the Trump Organization.
“We have a person who was hurt. ” The person who was hurt is Donald J Trump,” Patel said.
Blanche asked Cohen on Monday about his first denials that Trump knew about the Daniels payment. After The Wall Street Journal said in January 2018 that Cohen had organized the payment to the porn actor over a year before that, Cohen told reporters, friends, and others that Trump didn’t know about the deal.
He didn’t change his story until the police looked through Cohen’s home, office, and other places in April 2018. Four months later, Cohen admitted to breaking campaign-finance laws and other crimes. He told the court that Trump had told him to arrange the payment to Daniels.
Cohen is usually angry, but he was mostly calm when the defence asked him tough questions about his wrongdoings in the case.
After Cohen finishes testifying, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office will probably finish presenting their case. But if Trump’s lawyers call their own witnesses, the prosecutors might get a chance to call more witnesses to respond. -
20 people dead in a central Gaza airstrike
A bomb from Israel hit central Gaza and killed 20 people, mostly women and children. There is a lot of fighting happening in the north of Gaza. Israel’s leaders are arguing about who should be in charge of Gaza after the war, which has been going on for eight months.
The Prime Minister is getting criticized by his own War Cabinet. His main rival, Benny Gantz, says he will quit the government if a plan isn’t made by June 8 that involves other countries in running Gaza after the war.
US national security adviser Jake Sullivan was supposed to talk to important Israeli leaders on Sunday about a big plan the US has. The plan is for Saudi Arabia to agree to Israel and help the Palestinian Authority rule Gaza. In return, the Palestinians would eventually be able to have their own country.
Netanyahu doesn’t want a Palestinian state and said no to the proposals. He wants Israel to have control over security in Gaza and work with Palestinians who are not part of Hamas or the Palestinian Authority.
Gantz quitting won’t make Netanyahu’s government fall apart, but it will make him depend more on far-right friends who want Palestinians to leave Gaza, have a strong military presence, and create more Jewish towns there.
While people are talking more about planning for after the war, the fighting is still going on and it doesn’t look like it will end anytime soon. Lately, Hamas has come together again in some areas in the north of Gaza that were hit hard by bombings at the beginning of the war. Israeli soldiers had also been in these areas.
An air attack in Nuseirat, a crowded Palestinian refugee camp in central Gaza that has been around since the 1948 Arab-Israeli war, killed 20 people. This included eight women and four children, as reported by the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in the nearby town of Deir al-Balah, where the bodies were taken.
A different attack on a street in Nuseirat caused the deaths of five more people, as reported by the Palestinian Red Crescent emergency service. In Deir al-Balah, a powerful attack caused the death of Zahed al-Houli, who was a high-ranking officer in the police force run by Hamas, and another man, as reported by Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital.
Palestinians are saying that there have been more airstrikes and intense fighting in the northern part of Gaza. Israel has been keeping this area cut off for a long time, and the World Food Program says there is a shortage of food.
The Civil Defense says that the attacks hit some houses near Kamal Adwan Hospital in the town of Beit Lahiya and at least 10 people were killed. The rescuers showed a video of them trying to save a woman stuck under collapsed buildings. There were loud explosions and smoke in the background.
In the nearby Jabliya refugee camp, people said there were many bombs and attacks with weapons.
Abdel-Kareem Radwan, a 48-year-old in Jabaliya, said that the situation is really hard. He said that the eastern side has turned into a place where Israeli fighter jets attack anything that moves.
Mahmoud Bassal, who speaks for the Civil Defense, said that rescuers found at least 150 bodies. More than half of them were women and children. This happened after Israel started a mission in Jabaliya last week. He said about 300 houses have been “completely ruined. ”
Israel attacked after Hamas attacked on Oct 7. The Palestinian fighters entered southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking around 250 as prisoners.
At least 35,000 Palestinians have died in the war, says Gaza’s Health Ministry. About 80% of the 23 million Palestinians have been forced to move within their area, sometimes more than once.
Israel says it tries not to hurt innocent people and says that Hamas is responsible for the high number of deaths and damage because they put their fighters, tunnels, and rocket launchers in crowded neighborhoods.
Netanyahu’s opponents, including many protesters, say that he is making the war last longer and refusing to agree to a ceasefire that would free hostages, because he wants to avoid being held accountable for the security mistakes that caused the attack.
Surveys say that Gantz, who is in the middle politically, would probably become the leader instead of Netanyahu if elections happen soon. This could lead to Netanyahu being charged for corruption he is accused of for a long time.
Netanyahu says he is not doing this for politics and wants to keep attacking until Hamas is stopped and the people being held captive in Gaza are released. He thinks it’s a waste of time to talk about what will happen after the war while Hamas is still fighting. The fighters have warned people not to work with Israel.
Netanyahu is being pressured by the United States, which is Israel’s closest friend. The United States has been giving important military help and support for the attack, but they are starting to get frustrated with how Israel is handling the war.
The US President Joe Biden’s team stopped a delivery of 3,500 big bombs to southern Gaza. They said they don’t want to give weapons for a big attack on the city of Rafah because they are worried about a big disaster for people living there.
Last week, Israel started a small military operation in Rafah. The government plans to go ahead with selling $1 billion worth of weapons, tank ammunition, vehicles and mortar rounds to Israel.
Sullivan is supposed to go to Israel after meeting with Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Saturday. The government is making a big plan for Saudi Arabia to accept Israel and work with other Arab countries to help Gaza. In return, they would get a defense agreement with the US and assistance in starting a civilian nuclear program.
US and Saudi officials say that the agreement needs Israel to agree to a realistic plan for a future Palestinian state, which Netanyahu has refused to do.
In Gantz’s statement, he said he wants to make friendly relationships with Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries. But he also said “we will not let anyone from another country, whether they are our friends or enemies, make us have a Palestinian state. “ -
Russia keeps advancing eastward after exchanging drone strikes with Ukraine
Russia said it stopped about 60 drones and missiles from coming into its land, while Ukraine said it destroyed more than 30 Russian drones. At least four people died in an attack near Kharkiv on Sunday as Russia continued its renewed attack in Ukraine’s northeast.
The Russian military said they destroyed 57 Ukrainian drones in the southern Krasnodar region.
The military said pieces of a drone hit an oil refinery in Slavyansk-on-Kuban, but it didn’t cause a fire or any damage. Astra news released videos that seemed to show a big blast at the refinery caused by a drone. The videos could not be checked by someone else to make sure they are real.
Ukrainian drones destroyed nine missiles and a drone over Russia-controlled Crimea, and cut off power in the city of Sevastopol.
Three more flying machines were destroyed over the Belgorod area, which is next to Ukraine. According to Gov Vyacheslav Gladkov, a drone fell and caught fire on a church roof, but no one got hurt.
The governor of Kherson, Vladimir Saldo, said that one person died and 16 were hurt when a Ukrainian drone hit a small bus on Sunday morning.
The Ukrainian air force stopped all 37 Russian drones that were flown into the country last night.
In the Kharkiv area, where Moscow recently started a new attack, the local governor. Oleh Syniehubov reported on Sunday morning that one person was killed and 11 were injured from the bombing the day before.
On Sunday, Syniehubov said that a Russian attack on the edge of the regional capital, Kharkiv, killed four people and injured 15.
Russia attacked in the Kharkiv area last week, making things even harder for Ukraine’s small army. They are still waiting for important weapons and ammo from their Western allies. Ukraine’s stretched thin military is trying to stop Russia on a new battlefront by using drones with bombs to destroy their military vehicles.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a visit to China that Russia’s attack in the Kharkiv region is meant to make a safe area, but they don’t want to take over the city. -
Trump is their candidate, and Jesus is their Saviour – Trump’s backers
Donald Trump is appealing more to Christians as he runs for president again. His support from evangelicals and other conservative Christians is still very strong.
Kimberly Vaughn from Florence, Ky said, “Trump believes in Jesus, and thinks America will fail without Jesus. ” She said this as she joined other people who also support the former president at a rally near Dayton, Ohio.
A lot of T-shirts and hats at the rally in March had religious messages on them, like “Jesus is my savior, Trump is my president” and “God, Guns & Trump. ” One man was wearing a shirt that said, “Make America Godly Again,” with a picture of Jesus and Trump.
A lot of people said in interviews that they thought Trump has the same Christian faith and values as them. Many people said they are against abortion and the rights of 2SLGBTQ+ community, especially when it comes to transgender people expressing themselves.
No one talked about Trump’s past actions or the criminal charges he’s facing now. This includes claims that he tried to keep secret payments to a porn star during his 2016 campaign. Fans believed that Trump stood for giving people another chance.
Many people see Trump as a supporter of Christianity and love for their country.
“I think he has faith in God, our military, and our country, America,” said Tammy Houston from New Lexington, Ohio.
Sherrie Cotterman from Sidney, Ohio said, “I prioritize my family and, in a bigger way, I prioritize America. ” “I would choose a president who openly admits he needs God’s strength more than his own, any day of the week. ”
In a lot of ways, this story is like ones we already know.
Approximately 80% of white evangelical Christians supported Trump in 2020, and a similar number supported him in 2016 according to two different surveys.
This campaign is new, but support for Trump has stayed strong. Even though there were other conservative Christian candidates to choose from, none of them had the legal problems and misconduct allegations that Trump has. In the Republican primary elections in Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, Trump got a lot of support from white evangelical voters. He received between 55 and 69 percent of their votes.
Trump criticized another politician, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for making strict rules about abortion. In the past, some people who speak for Trump have said he is supportive of the 2SLGBTQ+ community.
Trump was the only Republican running for election who had a lot of legal problems. He was accused of trying to overturn the 2020 election and also of falsifying business records to influence the 2016 election with hush money.
Trump was the only GOP candidate who had owned casinos and been divorced twice. He was also accused of sexual misconduct, and one of the accusations was confirmed by a court.
Most voters in the Republican primary chose Trump by a large majority.
This has made some conservative evangelicals very upset because they think Trump is pretending to be religious and only using the Bible and prayer for show. People think he doesn’t have strong beliefs and is dealing with serious accusations of bad behavior while using aggressive speech and wanting to have a lot of power.
Karen Swallow Prior, a Christian writer and expert on literature, has criticized other evangelicals for supporting Trump. She said that the support in 2024 is even stronger than before.
She said in the past that Trump supporters wanted to believe that he shared their Christian faith, but they weren’t sure.
“Now his followers think they are right,” she said. âEven though Trump is unsure about abortion and LGBTQ issues, people just pretend those things don’t exist and don’t talk about them. ”
At the Ohio rally, many people said they think Trump has changed his ways and started living like a Christian.
“We have all done wrong. ” Vaughn said that Jesus spent time with sinful people, so he will also spend time with Trump. “It’s not important where Trump started, but where he is going and what he is trying to do with our country. ”
The Ohio rally had a recording of the national anthem sung by people who were found guilty of crimes during the January 6th attack on the US Capitol. Trump called them “patriots”.
At the beginning of the rally, a group gave out papers encouraging people to trust Jesus for salvation and to support the J6 patriots.
Caleb Cinnamon, a 37-year-old man from Dayton, said he is a Christian and cares a lot about stopping abortion. He mentioned that Trump picked three people for the Supreme Court, and in 2022 they made a big decision to overturn a previous ruling that made abortion legal all over the country.
“Donald Trump is the first president to openly oppose abortion and take action to support his stance,” he said. “Republicans have been promising to make changes to abortion laws since the 1990s, but they haven’t followed through on their promises. ”
Jody Picagli from Englewood, Ohio, said that her beliefs as a Catholic and her thoughts on abortion are very important to her.
“I believe in the right to live,” she said. “That’s really important for me. ” Just being good and having good values. I think people’s sense of right and wrong is off track. “We need to bring religion and the church back here. ”
She said that because the US Supreme Court is letting each state decide on abortion laws, a future President Trump may not have much influence on those laws.
“But I know he won’t ever go to an abortion clinic and visit it, like our vice president did,” she said, referring to Kamala Harris visiting a Planned Parenthood clinic in Minnesota in March.
Christians who support Trump also mentioned . -
US information indicates death of American who disappeared in Syria in 2017
American officials have found strong evidence that a man from the US who went missing in Syria seven years ago has passed away, according to his daughter.
Maryam Kamalmaz talked to The Associated Press and said that she met with eight important American officials in Washington. They gave her a lot of information about her father, Majd, who is a therapist from Texas and is believed to be dead.
The officials said they were very confident about her father’s death. She asked if other detained Americans had been rescued in similar situations, and they said no.
“What else do I need. A lot of important people confirmed to us that he’s really gone. ” Maryam Kamalmaz said there was no way to avoid the truth.
She said the officials told her that they think her father died many years ago, at the beginning of his time in captivity. In 2020, she was told by officials that they thought he died from a heart problem in 2017, but the family still had hope and US officials kept looking for him.
She said that they didn’t confirm how trustworthy the information is until this meeting and the different levels of checking it had to go through.
She did not explain what she learned about being smart.
Representatives from the White House and the FBI, who look into kidnappings in other countries, did not respond right away to requests for comments on Saturday.
Majd Kamalmaz went missing in February 2017, when he was 59 years old, while he was traveling in Syria to see an old family member. The FBI said that he was stopped at a checkpoint in Syria and nobody has heard from him since.
Kamalmaz and other Americans have gone missing in Syria. One of them is Austin Tice, a journalist who disappeared in 2012 at a checkpoint near Damascus. Syria says they are not keeping any Americans as prisoners.
In 2020, during the end of Donald Trump’s time as president, important officials went to Damascus to have a big meeting to try and get the Americans released. The meeting didn’t go well. The Syrians didn’t show any proof that the person is alive and made demands that US officials thought were not reasonable. US officials are still working to bring Tice back home. -
Little aircraft crashes not far from Toronto
A little plane crashed with two people on it, northeast of Toronto on Saturday morning.
Durham Regional Police were called to Port Perry in Scugog, Ontario at around 10:30am. The people on the plane were able to get out with only minor injuries, the police said.
Video from the place got by CTV News Toronto shows the plane landed in a field and looked like it broke the front of the plane.
Police say that Transport Canada has been told about the crash and will be in charge of finding out what happened.This news story is still being updated. Come back later for more information.
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Pipeline company in British Columbia claims that its “haulers” are not trucks for tax purposes
A contractor working on the Coastal GasLink pipeline wanted to get $333,000 in tax rebates, but they were denied. They bought some equipment and said it wasn’t trucks, but the court decided that it was similar enough to trucks.
Ledcor Pipeline Limited is the main company building the part of the Coastal GasLink pipeline that will carry natural gas from northern BC to an export terminal in Kitimat.
The company said it should have gotten more than $333,000 in PST rebates for 11 pieces of equipment it called “haulers. ”
The B.C government said yes to giving back more than $2.2 million for equipment the company bought for the project. But they said no to giving back money for 11 items that the company asked about.
The province said that the machines are either trucks or vehicles that are “like trucks,” and these types of machines cannot get PST rebates. These rules are supposed to encourage investment in infrastructure after COVID-19.
Earlier this week, a judge named Warren B. made a decision in the BC Supreme Court. Milman agreed with the province, saying that the things in question are most likely trucks and cannot get the rebates.
‘Haulers’ are trucks or other vehicles used for transporting goods.
LPL took their case to court because the Ministry of Finance said no to their request for a rebate for the haulers. The company told the court that the ministry was mistaken to call the equipment “vehicles” because they were never used on public roads and were not allowed to be used on them.
The company used the provincial Motor Vehicle Act’s definition of “vehicles” to back up its argument. The definition says that a vehicle is something that can transport or move a person or thing on a road.
LPL argued that if the only requirement for a vehicle is that it can be used to transport something on a road, even things like toy cars, wagons, or refrigerators could be seen as vehicles.
Milman agreed that “may” was unclear in the Motor Vehicle Act, but the judge still made a difference between LPL’s truck drivers and the less common items.
The judge decided that when deciding if something is a vehicle, the important questions are whether it was made to carry things or people, and whether it can be used that way on a road.
“In the disputed items situation, the answer to both questions is definitely ‘yes’,” according to Milman’s decision.
“They have wheels, axles, tires, a frame, a driver’s seat, a container for carrying things, a door at the back, brakes, and parts to turn them. ” They are used to move things from one place to another. Toys and refrigerators are not the same in this way.
‘Almost definitely’ trucks
Some vehicles can get money back from the government, but trucks can’t. The company said their trucks should count as vehicles, not trucks.
The company said the vehicles were more like bulldozers, excavators, forklifts, or paving machines, which can get rebates in BC’s program.
Milman still wasn’t sure.
The judge threw out LPL’s case because the rebate program rules say it only applies to trucks and vehicles used for transporting things.
The decision says we just need to look at the plain meaning of the words used, and we don’t need any special tools to understand it. “If the items in question are not really trucks, then they are definitely similar to trucks in some way, in my opinion. “ -
Thousands without power after the devastating Houston storm
The Houston area is trying to clean up and restore power to many people after dangerous storms. At least seven people have died. It’s also very hot and there is a warning about smog which could make people sick.
The weatherman from the US National Weather Service said that it will be very hot over the next few days, with temperatures reaching 32C and feeling even hotter, possibly up to 38C.
“We think the heat will get stronger gradually. ” Chenard said that the heat risk will go up from Tuesday to Friday.
The heat index tells us how hot it feels when you take into account both the temperature and the humidity.
“The Houston weather service warned not to work too hard during the cleanup. ”
On top of the hot weather, Houston might have bad air quality this weekend.
There could be a lot of rain in eastern Louisiana and central Alabama on Saturday, and some areas in Louisiana might flood.
The Houston Health Department will give out 400 free portable air conditioners to older people, people with disabilities and those who take care of disabled children to help them stay cool in the hot weather.
Five places where people can go to cool off were opened – four in Houston and one in Kingwood.
Hundreds of thousands of people still don’t have electricity.
The big storms on Thursday caused a lot of damage in Houston and made it hard for people to go about their normal business. Strong storms with lots of wind and rain made a big mess in the city. A brick building got badly damaged and there is a lot of broken trees, trash and glass on the streets. A tornado also landed near the northwest Houston area called Cypress.
By midday on Saturday, over half a million homes and businesses in Texas still didn’t have power, according to PowerOutage.us. In Louisiana, 21,000 more customers didn’t have electricity because of strong winds and a possible tornado.
CenterPoint Energy has sent 1,000 workers to the area and needs 5,000 more. They say it will take a few days or more to fix the power in some places. Customers should check if their homes can be safely connected again.
“Bad weather could have damaged CenterPoint Energy’s electric system and customer-owned equipment like the weatherhead, which brings power into homes. ”
Customers need to have a trained electrician fix the problem before we can turn the electricity back on, CenterPoint said.
Power companies are facing a big problem when transmission towers are broken and power lines are down. This is because it affects both the big power lines and the smaller ones that deliver power to homes and businesses. Alexandria von Meier, who knows a lot about energy, says this is not something that happens often. Von Meier said that it is more common for the distribution system to be damaged.
How fast the repairs are done will depend on a few things like how long it takes to check the damage, getting new equipment, road access problems, and workers available. -
Trump endorsed by NRA and promises to uphold gun rights
Ex-president Trump told people with guns to vote next time there is an election. He said this to a big group of National Rifle Association members in Texas, where they said they support him for president again.
“We need to make sure that people who own guns are voting,” Trump said a day after campaigning in Minnesota during his criminal hush money trial. “I believe you are a group of rebels. ” “But let’s break the rules and vote this time. ”
Trump said that in the upcoming election, the Second Amendment, which is about the right to own guns, is very important. He claimed that if Democratic President Joe Biden is re-elected, he will take away people’s guns for sure. Joe has been trying to take guns away from law-abiding people for 40 years.
The Biden administration is trying to stop gun violence. They made a new rule to close a loophole that lets unlicensed dealers sell many guns without doing background checks.
Trump promised to keep supporting the Second Amendment, saying it’s in danger. He also said he’s the best friend of people who own guns while the US has more deaths from mass shootings than ever before. 42 mass killings happened last year, and 217 people died. It was one of the deadliest years ever.
Biden criticized the likely Republican candidate for president. He said Trump made inappropriate comments after a school shooting in Iowa. Trump said the incident was really bad, but then he said we need to move on from it. We need to keep going.
On Friday in Minnesota, Trump said, “You know, it’s really surprising. ” People who own guns and use them legally really like guns, but they don’t usually vote. But we still need their votes. There’s no one else to vote for because the Democrats want to ban guns and they will ban guns.
Trump criticized Robert F Kennedy Jr during his speech, calling him “radical left” and “a disaster,” and mentioning that Kennedy had labeled the NRA as a “terror group. ”
“Don’t worry about it. ” “Don’t throw away your vote,” he said. “He said you’re a bad group, but I say you’re very important to America. ” (Kennedy later said in a Fox News interview that he didn’t remember his 2018 tweet. ) “He said he doesn’t think they are a terror group and he supports the Second Amendment. ”
Trump said he will talk at the Libertarian Party’s meeting next week and will ask its members to vote for him.
“He said we need to join them. ” “We need to win that 3% because we can’t risk Joe Biden winning. ”
On Saturday, Trump’s campaign and the Republican National Committee said they made a new group called “Gun Owners for Trump. ” It’s for people who support gun rights and work with guns.
Biden wants to reduce gun violence a lot, so he made a special office to help with that. Kamala Harris is in charge of it. Biden wants Congress to make a law to ban assault weapons, which is something Democrats were scared to do in the past.
Harris said that Donald Trump is supporting the gun lobby and making the problem of gun-related deaths among children and teens worse. She and Biden will work to keep Americans safe from guns, while Trump will prioritize the interests of the gun lobby over the safety of our kids and communities.
When Trump was in charge, he promised to make gun laws tougher at times. After a shooting at a high school in Parkland, Florida, where 17 people were killed and 17 others were injured, Trump promised survivors and their families that he would be very strict about checking people’s backgrounds before they can buy guns. He said he would stand up to the NRA (National Rifle Association), but later he changed his mind, saying that there wasn’t much support from other politicians for his idea.
Major organizations that support gun safety and have approved of Biden were going to protest close to the convention center in Dallas, where the gun lobby’s yearly meeting was taking place.
Trump has a lot of supporters in Texas, but the Democrats there believe they can win a Senate seat in November. US Rep Colin Allred is leading a campaign to try and beat Republican Ted Cruz. No Democrat has been elected to an important state job in Texas for 30 years, making it the longest streak in the country. -
Two remains found inside an upside-down plane in Alaska Lake
Alaska State Troopers said on Saturday that they found the bodies of two men inside a plane that had crashed and landed upside down in a lake.
The troopers were told on Friday about a plane that was upside down in Six Mile Lake near the town of Nondalton. Nondalton is about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage.
Dave Hedgers, 58, and Aaron Fryer, 45, were found dead in the plane by a dive team, troopers reported online. No cities or towns were given.
The bodies will be taken to the State Medical Examiner’s office in Anchorage.
The National Transportation Safety Board said on a social media site that they will look into the crash of a Taylorcraft BC-12 plane near Nondalton. -
Biden should undergo drug test before first presidential debate – Trump
US forme president, Donald Trump has asked for Joe Biden to take a drug test before the two presidential debates they both plan to be in.
The former president talked about the current president’s speech and said that he was “high as a kite” and should be drug tested.
“I just want to argue with this guy, and I’m going to ask for a drug test too,” Trump said to Republicans at a GOP dinner in St. Paul, Minnesota
“Yes, I am. No, I’m not; I swear. He shouldn’t enter like the Secretary of State, in my opinion. The presumed Republican candidate for president said, “He was high as a kite.”
“We will ask for a drug test,” Trump said again, but he didn’t say if he would take one too.
The Biden campaign did not quickly answer The Post’s request for a comment. Biden, who is 81 years old, spoke loudly and quickly during his long speech.
“Representative” Greg Murphy, a Republican from North Carolina and co-chair of the GOP Doctors Caucus, claimed that Biden must have taken something to be so energetic during his speech.
Trump, who is 77 years old, has asked before for Biden to take a drug test.
In 2020, he said Biden’s debate performances were not always good, and he wanted Biden to take a drug test before their debates for the 2020 election.
Neither person running for president in 2020 got tested for drugs before their two debates.
Trump and Biden have agreed to have a debate on June 27 and Sept 10.
“They will be fair, I think they will be fair enough,” Trump said on Friday about the networks hosting the debates. -
Conditions for the Slovak prime minister are stable
The man who attempted to murder Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico has been instructed to remain in custody.The Prime Minister is in serious but stable condition after being shot several times.
The prosecutors asked the court to keep the suspect in jail because they were afraid he might run away or commit more crimes.
The police were told not to share the man’s name or other information about the case. Some news reports say he is a 71-year-old retired person who liked to write poems and may have worked as a security guard at a mall in the southwest.
The government officials provided information that was the same as that description. They said the person who did it was not part of any political groups, but the attack was still influenced by politics.
The courthouse in Pezinok, a small town near the capital city of Bratislava, had police officers with helmets and masks and they were carrying guns. Reporters were not allowed to go inside, and they had to stay outside behind a gate.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico is in serious but stable condition after an attempted assassination. The person accused of the attack is appearing in court for the first time.
Fico had a surgery on Friday to remove dead tissue from his gunshot wounds. The doctors are hopeful for his recovery, but he’s still not well enough to go to a hospital in the capital city, Bratislava. Government ministers gave this information outside University FD Roosevelt Hospital in Banska Bystrica, where Fico was brought by a helicopter after the shooting.
“Good things have happened in Banska Bystrica recently because of the doctors, nurses, and staff at the Roosevelt Hospital,” said Defense Minister Robert Kalinak.
Fico, who is 59 years old, was assaulted while he was saying hello to his supporters after a meeting with the government on Wednesday in the town of Handlova, which used to be a coal mining town. The person was grabbed and taken down to the ground, then taken away by the police.
Slovak state media said the man accused of trying to kill Fico appeared in court and Fico’s health update was given at the same time.
The prosecutors wanted the court to keep the suspect in custody in Slovakia.
The police were asked not to tell the public about the man or share other information about the case. Some news reports say he was a 71-year-old retiree who liked to write poetry and possibly worked as a security guard at a mall in the southwest of the country, but this has not been confirmed.
The government told information that was the same as that description. They said the person who did it doesn’t belong to any political groups, but the attack itself was done for political reasons.
The building where trials happen in Pezinok, a small town near Bratislava, had police officers wearing masks and holding guns to protect it. Reporters couldn’t go in and had to stay outside behind a gate.
The police took the suspect to his home in Levice and took away a computer and some papers. This was reported by Markiza, a TV station in Slovakia. The police didn’t say anything.
The police have not said much about the case, so it’s not clear how the suspect got the gun.
In Slovakia, it’s hard to own a gun. People need a good reason and have to take a test.
As a result, Slovakia has very few people owning guns compared to other countries in Europe. According to a group that studies laws in the European Union, this country is ranked 23rd out of 27. The rate of people who own guns is 65 out of 100.
Leaders from around the world have criticized the attack and are standing by Fico and Slovakia.
Fico is a controversial person in Slovakia and other places. Last year, when he came back to power, he had a plan that was in favor of Russia and against America. This made other European Union and NATO members concerned that he might change his country’s support towards Western countries, especially when it comes to Ukraine.
When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, Slovakia was strongly supporting Ukraine. However, when Fico became prime minister for the fourth time, he stopped sending weapons to Ukraine.
Fico’s government has tried to change public broadcasting. Critics say this would give the government complete control of public TV and radio. This, along with his plans to change the rules to remove a special anti-corruption prosecutor, have made people concerned that Fico will take Slovakia in a more controlling direction.
Many people have come together many times in the city and all over the country of 54 million people to show they are against his rules.
Last month, Fico said on Facebook that he thinks the country’s growing tension could cause politicians to get killed, and he thinks the media is making the tension worse.
Before Fico came back into power last year, many of his friends in politics and business were being looked into by the police, and many of them have been accused of crimes.
His plan to change the penal system would get rid of the special prosecutor who handles organized crime, corruption, and extremism cases. -
Canada’s Information Commissioner Warns of Critical $700K Funding Shortfall
Caroline Maynard, Canada’s Information Commissioner, recently sounded the alarm in Parliament, highlighting a pressing concern: her office faces a staggering $700,000 funding deficit. This shortfall, amounting to five percent of her office’s budget, poses a severe threat to investigating complaints regarding government transparency and accountability.
Maynard, addressing Parliament’s standing committee on access to information, privacy, and ethics, emphasized the dire consequences of this funding gap. She expressed concern that delays in processing complaints and accessing government information could significantly hamper her office’s efficacy, particularly during a time of heightened scrutiny on access to information systems.
The commissioner attributed this “unacceptable predicament” to funding calculations by Canada’s Treasury Board Secretariat. In a letter dated May 14, Maynard underscored the gravity of the situation, stressing that even a minor reduction in personnel could strain operational capacity significantly.
As the guardian of Canada’s freedom of information laws, Maynard plays a vital role in upholding transparency standards. However, the current funding crisis raises questions about the government’s commitment to this essential mandate. Critics argue that underfunding the Information Commissioner’s office fosters a culture of secrecy within government institutions, undermining the effectiveness of access to information laws.
Matt Malone, a legal expert and advocate for transparency, warned that inadequate funding could render access to information laws toothless. He emphasized the need for an independent funding model to ensure the Information Commissioner’s autonomy in holding the government accountable.
While the Treasury Board Secretariat defends its funding formula, stating an increase in the Information Commissioner‘s budget for the upcoming fiscal year, Maynard and advocates like Malone continue to push for reforms. Maynard advocates for a more independent funding model that would insulate her office from government control, ensuring its ability to fulfill its critical mandate without hindrance.
The ongoing funding crisis underscores broader challenges in maintaining transparency and public trust in government institutions, signaling a pivotal moment for Canada’s access to information framework.
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Man accused of attacking actor Steve Buscemi at random in New York
The police arrested a suspect in the random attack on actor Steve Buscemi in New York City on Friday.
The actor from “Boardwalk Empire” and “Fargo”, who is 66 years old, was walking in midtown Manhattan on May 8 when a stranger hit him in the face, according to the city police. He was brought to a hospital because his left eye was bruised, swollen, and bleeding, but other than that he was fine, his spokesperson said.
The police arrested someone for the attack, but they haven’t said who it is or what they’re being charged with yet.
On Tuesday, they said they found the person who hit Buscemi. He is a 50-year-old man who might not have a home. They also showed pictures of him to the public. The police did not say right away on Friday if the person they arrested was the same man they had identified earlier in the week.
Buscemi’s publicist didn’t call back right away. In the past, they said the actor was “a victim of a random act of violence in the city” and that he was okay.
In March, Michael Stuhlbarg, who acted with Buscemi in “Boardwalk Empire,” got hit in the back of his neck with a rock while walking in Central Park in Manhattan. Stuhlbarg ran after the person who attacked him. The person was caught by the police outside the park. -
New American pier being crossed by trucks into Gaza
On Friday, trucks carrying crucial aid for Gaza entered the area for the first time through a recently opened US port. This happened after Israel’s restrictions and fighting made it hard to bring food and other things to the people there.
The delivery is the first one in a plan that American military officials think could increase to 150 truckloads every day. At the same time, Israel continues to attack the southern city of Rafah in its seven-month fight against Hamas. At the White House, a person named John Kirby said that the initial delivery of aid included more than 300 pallets, which were given to the UN to distribute.
Kirby said the US has received signs that some of the help was already going to Gaza.
The US, UN, and aid groups are saying that the floating pier project is not enough to replace bringing in food, water, and fuel to Gaza by land. Before the fighting started, over 500 trucks came into the Palestinian area every day.
The operation might not be successful because there is a risk of attack by militants, there are many logistical problems, and there isn’t enough fuel for the aid trucks because of the Israeli blockade of Gaza. Attackers killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 250 others in southern Israel. The attacks by Israel have killed over 35,000 people in Gaza, according to local health officials. Many others have also been killed in the West Bank.
Help organizations are saying they don’t have enough food in the southern part of Gaza, and the UN World Food Program says there is already a famine in the northern part of Gaza.
Soldiers finished putting in the floating platform on Thursday, and the US military’s Central Command said the first aid went into Gaza at 9 am Friday. It was reported that no American soldiers landed during the operation.
The Pentagon said there will be no extra supplies in the distribution process. The US wants the United Nations, using the World Food Program, to be responsible for the aid after it leaves the pier. This will involve making sure that empty trucks arrive and get registered, overseeing the transfer of goods from the floating dock to the trucks, sending the trucks to different warehouses in Gaza, and giving the supplies to aid groups for delivery.
On Friday evening, the WFP announced that supplies brought to the pier were taken to their storage in Deir al-Balah and are now ready to be picked up and given out.
The UK sent aid to Gaza in the first shipment, which included 8,400 kits to make temporary shelters using plastic sheets. It said that more help is coming soon, including 2,000 shelter kits, 900 tents, five forklift trucks, and 9,200 hygiene kits.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said this is the result of a huge effort from many countries working together. “We understand that traveling by sea is not the only solution. ” We want more land routes to open, like the Rafah crossing, so we can get more aid to people who really need it.
The UN agency that helps with humanitarian aid said it’s good to start the operation, but it can’t replace delivering aid by land.
Jens Laerke, who speaks for the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, said that everyone involved in the operation agrees that any help for Gaza is good, no matter how it gets there. He said this to reporters in Geneva on Friday. Helping people in Gaza should not rely on a faraway floating platform.
Anastasia Moran, who works for the International Rescue Committee, says that the pier is taking attention away from the growing humanitarian crisis.
In the last few months, the maritime route has been using a lot of time, energy, and resources. This is happening at a time when aid has not been increased. “Now that the sea route is open and working well, the land crossings are closed. ”
Between May 6 and May 15, 154 trucks brought food and 156 trucks brought flour into Gaza from Israel. This happened while Israel was attacking Rafah. Farhan Haq, a UN spokesperson, shared this information on Friday. This week, Haq said that hardly any fuel is making its way through.
Israel is worried that Hamas will use fuel in the war, but it says it is not stopping any humanitarian aid from coming in. It says the UN is responsible for the slow distribution of goods in Gaza. Israel has opened two crossings to send aid to the north of the territory, because the US asked them to.
Hamas attacks at Kerem Shalom crossing have caused problems with delivering goods. The UN says that it has been difficult to deliver aid because of fighting, Israeli firing, and bad security conditions. Israeli people have also had angry protests that stopped aid from being delivered.
Israel took control of the Rafah border crossing near the Egyptian border to fight against Hamas. This has led to concerns about the safety of civilians and has also blocked the main way for aid to enter the Gaza Strip.
US President Joe Biden said to start building the pier, which will probably cost $320 million. The aid will be brought by boats to a port made by Israelis near Gaza City. The US has worked closely with Israel to keep ships and workers on the beach safe.
Last month, people were worried about the safety of aid workers after an Israeli attack killed seven workers from World Central Kitchen. Their trip had been planned out. -
Five people including mayoral candidate shot and killed during a southern Mexico campaign event
A mayoral hopeful and five additional individuals were fatally shot during a rally in the turbulent state of Chiapas, Mexico.
The police said a little girl and mayoral candidate Lucero Lopez Maza were among the six people who were shot and killed on Thursday night. Two more people got hurt, said.
Prosecutors said that there was a fight between armed regular people at a political event.
It was not clear if Lopez Maza was the intended person in the attack, because shootings happen a lot in that area.
The shooting happened at a crossroads in a small town called La Concordia, Chiapas. It’s about 80 miles (125 km) from the border with Guatemala.
The area close to the border of Guatemala is a big route for smuggling drugs and people, and two big drug groups in Mexico are fighting to control that area.
On Sunday, 11 people died in a shooting in a village near La Concordia, Chiapas. The killers killed a whole family and set their bodies on fire.
On Friday, the Roman Catholic Church said that people from a group selling drugs had murdered some people in Chicomuselo because the people living there didn’t want to leave their homes or work for the group.
According to the statement by the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Cristobal de las Casas, some people didn’t want to leave their homes even though criminal gangs were being violent and threatening them to join their group.
The church said that in Chiapas there is a lot of fighting over land and some criminal groups want to keep mining there, which is causing a lot of violence.
It didn’t say which mines the cartels were trying to control, but the accusation is not surprising or unusual in areas of Mexico where cartels are in charge. In 2013, officials in the western state of Michoacan admitted that the Knights Templar cartel had gained control of iron ore mining in the state. They said selling ore to China was one of the cartel’s main ways of making money.
The increase in violence in Chiapas made President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador feel bad when he visited the border state on Friday to meet with Guatemalan President Bernardo Arevalo.
As always, Lopez Obrador doesn’t want to deal with the drug gangs and downplays the issue of violence.
“Some people say Chiapas is in a lot of trouble, but I disagree. The problem is here in this area, and we are going to fix it,” the president said during a press conference in Tapachula, Chiapas.
The killings on Thursday showed that there has been a lot of violence leading up to the July 2 elections in Mexico. About 20 candidates have been killed so far in 2024.
On Friday, the old ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party said that two of the five dismembered bodies found on a street in Acapulco belonged to a candidate for a town council seat in the nearby town of Coyuca de Benitez and his wife.
“We want fairness for this terrible crime,” the group said about the killing of Anibal Zuniga and his wife, Rubi Bravo.
Once again, Lopez Obrador tried to make the violence seem less important and said that people who talk about the killings are just trying to make his government look bad.
“Thankfully, there have been fewer attacks than in previous elections, but there is a lot of sensationalism nowadays. It’s really sad that there are people trying to make money from the deaths and suffering of others,” he said. “This is a time when predators are taking advantage. “ -
US issues global notice over potential violence against LGBTQ2S+ group
The US State Department issued a warning about possible attacks on LGBTQ2S+ people and events by terrorist groups. The warning applies to all countries.
The government says Americans living abroad should be extra careful because of the possibility of terrorist attacks or violence against them.
The warning comes two weeks before LGBTQ2S+ Pride Month starts in the United States.
The US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, said that people in the LGBTQ2S+ community still deal with unfair treatment and prejudice. -
Iran detains 260 individuals for promoting “satanism and nudity”
The Iranian police has arrested over 260 individuals, including three Europeans, for allegedly spreading satanism, as reported by the state-run IRNA news agency on Friday.
The report mentioned that the suspects were caught on Thursday night in Shahryar County, west of Tehran, for promoting satanism and nudity. It did not give any more details.
It’s not clear how so many people were arrested in one night. We don’t know if the suspects were all together in one place like a party, or something else.
In Iran, it is against the law to see men and women who are not related together, and it is considered a sin under Islamic law.
IRNA’s report said that 146 men and 115 women were arrested, along with three people from Europe. It did not say which European countries they were from. IRNA reported that the suspects were caught in a bad and inappropriate situation with satanic symbols on their clothes and bodies.
Symbols like these are often seen in piercings, earrings, or tattoos, but they are not allowed in Iran. The report said the police took drugs and alcohol from the people they arrested.
Sometimes, the government in Iran arrests people who go to parties with both men and women and if they are caught drinking alcohol.
It is against the law for Muslims to drink alcohol, and men and women who are not related cannot mix or dance together in public. -
Prime minister of Slovakia had more surgery, still serious condition – Deputy PM
The Prime Minister of Slovakia, Robert Fico, had another surgery after being shot on Wednesday. He is still in serious condition, according to the country’s deputy prime minister and defense minister.
Fico, who is 59 years old, was attacked while he was saying hello to his supporters after a meeting with the government in the town of Handlova, which used to be a coal mining town. A person who is believed to have attacked someone has been taken into custody by the police.
Miriam Lapunikova, who is in charge of the hospital where Fico is being treated, said that Fico had a special X-ray and is now awake and in stable condition in the ICU. She said he was in really bad shape.
She said the surgery took out dead tissues that were still in Fico’s body.
“I believe we will need a few more days to know for sure which way things are going,” said Robert Kaliniak, the defence minister and deputy prime minister, to the reporters at the hospital.
Still, Kaliniak said that the government is still working.
“The government departments are doing all their jobs, nothing is stopped or paused, the country keeps moving forward,” he told the news. “The condition of the state and the patient is okay and not changing. ”
Fico has been a controversial figure in Slovakia and other places for a long time. Last year, when he came back into power, he supported Russia and opposed America. This made European Union and NATO members worried that he would stop following the pro-Western path for his country, especially concerning Ukraine.
Earlier on Friday, the man who tried to kill Fico was taken home by the police. The local news said it was part of a search for proof.
Markiza, a TV station from Slovakia, aired a video of the suspect being taken to his home in Levice on Friday morning. They also said that the police took a computer and some papers. The police did not say anything.
The police have been told not to share the suspect’s name or any other information about the case with the public. The person who is suspected of a crime will have their case looked at again in court on Saturday at the Specialized Criminal Court in Pezinok, Slovakia, which is near the capital city of Bratislava.
Unconfirmed news says he was a 71-year-old retired person who liked to write poems and might have worked as a security guard at a mall in the southwest of the country.
Government officials on Thursday provided information that was consistent with that description. They said the suspect wasn’t part of any political groups, but the attack was driven by political reasons.
Slovakia’s president wants to have a meeting with all the leaders of the political parties next Tuesday. President Zuzana Caputova, who is leaving her job soon, and the next president, Peter Pellegrini, made a plan to lessen problems between people in the country.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, Slovakia supported Ukraine strongly. But when Fico became prime minister again for the fourth time, he stopped sending weapons to Ukraine.
Fico’s government has tried to change public broadcasting. Critics say this would let the government have complete control of public TV and radio. This, along with his plans to change the law to get rid of a special prosecutor who investigates corruption, has made some people concerned that Fico will make Slovakia more like a dictatorship.
Many people have gathered in the capital and across the country of 5. 4 million people to protest against his decisions.
Last month, Fico said on Facebook that he thought the increasing tensions in the country could cause politicians to be killed, and he said the media was making the tensions worse.
Before Fico came back into power last year, many of his friends in politics and business were being looked into by the police, and many of them have been accused of crimes.
He wants to change the penal system by getting rid of the special prosecutor who deals with organized crime, corruption and extremism. -
3 Gaza hostages killed during music festival discovered dead by Israeli forces
The Israeli army said on Friday that they found the bodies of three Israeli hostages in Gaza who were taken by Hamas during an attack on October 7th. One of the hostages was Shani Louk, who was a German-Israeli.
A picture of 22-year-old Shani’s bent body in the back of a pickup truck traveled all around the world. It showed how many people were hurt in the militants’ attack on communities in southern Israel. The military found out that the other two bodies were a 28-year-old woman named Amit Buskila and a 56-year-old man named Itzhak Gelerenter.
Three people were killed by Hamas at a music festival near the Gaza border. Daniel Hagari spoke at a press meeting.
Israeli Leader Benjamin Netanyahu called the deaths “very sad,” and said, “We will bring back all of our people who were taken, both those who are still alive and those who have died. ”
The military found the bodies overnight, but they didn’t say where. They also didn’t give any details about it. Israel is working in the southern city of Rafah in the Gaza Strip because they believe there are hostages there.
Hamas militants attacked and killed about 1,200 people, most of them were innocent civilians. They also kidnapped around 250 other people in the Oct 7 incident. About half of the hostages have been released. Many of them were exchanged for Palestinian prisoners during a cease-fire in November.
Israel says about 100 people are still being held hostage in Gaza, along with the bodies of about 30 others. The fighting between Israel and Gaza has caused the deaths of over 35,000 Palestinians, as reported by health officials in Gaza.
Netanyahu promised to get rid of Hamas and bring back all the hostages, but he hasn’t done much yet. He is feeling pressure to quit, and the US has said it may reduce its help because of the bad situation for people in Gaza.
Israelis are split into two groups: one wants the government to stop the war and release the hostages, while the other thinks the hostages are a sad consequence of getting rid of Hamas. Negotiations with Qatar, the United States, and Egypt have not been very successful. -
US doctors stranded in Gaza demand assistance from US government to get home
Dr Ahlia Kattan should be home in California with her three kids now. Instead, she is spending all her time at Gaza’s European Hospital on the outskirts of Rafah.
Kattan is a doctor who specializes in helping people who are very sick and need special care. He is one of at least 22 American doctors who are stuck in Gaza because the Israeli military closed the border to Egypt. Rafah was the only way for foreign aid workers to go in and out of Gaza.
My kids have been texting me today saying that you said you would be home on Tuesday, Kattan told the media. The WHO is working to find a safe way for us to leave. It’s not going to happen.
The crossing is not open because the army took control of it last week. Israeli and Egyptian officials have not been able to agree on reopening it. They are blaming each other for keeping it closed. At the moment, many foreign doctors are trapped in Gaza, and others can’t get in because the situation in the area is getting worse for people needing help.
FAJR Scientific, a non-profit organization in the United States, brought Kattan and 16 other doctors to Gaza. Now, they are asking the US government to help the team safely leave Gaza. They were supposed to leave on Monday.
“I am asking the US government to work together with the WHO to bring home US citizens who are stuck in a war zone as soon as possible,” said Mosab Nasser, the leader of the organization, who is also in Gaza.
At least one person on the team needs to be taken out for medical reasons, he said. 17 medics, such as 12 Americans, 3 people from the UK, 1 from Oman, and 1 from Egypt.
Kattan and her husband, who is a doctor, came to Gaza over two weeks ago because they saw the people suffering on TV and wanted to help.
We knew that people needed doctors to put them to sleep for surgery, especially women and children. “We knew we had something valuable to offer,” said Kattan.
The FAJR Scientific team made videos about their experiences and the conditions they face in the European Hospital. They only shared these videos with the media.
In a video, Laura Swoboda, a nurse who is an expert in treating wounds, talks about hearing the sound of drones flying above. “Some people think we are safe, but war is still happening. There is always a possibility that violence could start again,” she said.
The hospital is not the only place where you can find dangerous conditions.
We didn’t know how bad things were here. We couldn’t use soap to clean our hands before dealing with wounds that had maggots. Swoboda said they didn’t have sanitizer wipes to clean the tables after each patient.
Many people kept coming in one after another. We don’t have any more gauze to clean the cuts and scrapes. We don’t have any advanced dressings left, and we used up all of our cleaners. We are using whatever we can find right now.
This is what “clean” looks like in Gaza, says Kattan in a video showing an operating room with plastic overalls scattered on the operating table.
Before a surgery to fix the amputations of someone who lost all four limbs, Kattan talks about the lack of pain relief medicine. She picked up a bottle of Propofol and said the medics brought it with them from the US.
FAJR Scientific works with WHO. FAJR Scientific says WHO is trying to organize a rescue.
Another medical team from Palestine American Medical Association is currently working at the European Hospital. Out of the 19 people on the PAMA medical team, 10 are from the United States.
The volunteers on the FAJR Scientific mission knew it was risky to travel to a war zone, but they never thought they would get stuck in Gaza.
Now, she is struggling because she wants to go back home to her kids, but she also feels guilty for wanting to leave Gaza while the Israeli military might attack more and there might be a higher demand for medical help.
I miss my kids and waking up in the morning and realizing they are not next to me. The tough part is knowing that I will get to leave at some point. I get to go home and feel safe. “I know my kids are safe,” she said.
I have made a lot of friends here who are the same age as me and have kids my age. They don’t have things like security and basic needs.
After watching the hospital in southern Gaza struggle for over two weeks, Kattan said that she and her coworkers just want to leave Gaza if other doctors can take their place.
We are parents who want to be at home with our families, and children, we are doctors here, and we have friends and we can’t leave them. -
2 minors suffer injuries after 75 rockets detected originating from Lebanon – Israel’s military
During the ongoing war in Gaza, Israel’s military said about 75 rockets were fired from Lebanon into Israel on Friday, and many of them were stopped.
Israeli emergency services said two men got hurt a little in the Galilee area. They were taken to the hospital.
The Israeli army said that on Friday, soldiers saw a Hezbollah launcher in Yaroun that was ready to launch rockets at Israel.
A little while later, an IDF fighter jet attacked and destroyed the launcher, stopping many launches,” the military said.However, an Israeli airstrikes killed two boys in the town of Al-Najariya in southern Lebanon on Friday, according to Lebanon’s official National News Agency (NNA).
The two Syrian siblings, Ossama and Hani Al-Khalid, succumbed to their injuries from the air raid, NNA said.
Meanwhile, the Israeli military says the airstrikes targeted Hezbollah infrastructure in Al-Najariya that “posed a threat to Israeli aircraft,” accusing the group of operating in civilian areas and endangering lives.
Around the same time, Hezbollah announced the death of one of its members, 62-year-old Hussein Khidr Mahdi, in the same area on Friday.
It is unclear if he was killed in the same airstrikes.
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LIVE: Parliamentary proceedings of friday, 17th May, 2024
The Rt. Hon. Alban S. K. Bagbin has summoned Parliament, pursuant to Article 112(3) of the Constitution and Order 53 (1 & 2) of the Standing Orders of Parliament, to sit on Friday, 17th May, 2024 at 10 O’clock in the forenoon at Parliament House, Accra.
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Israeli strikes on Gaza have killed at least 31 people
In the past day, Israeli attacks in Gaza have killed 31 people and hurt 56, as reported by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
More than 35,300 people have been killed and 79,261 have been injured in the Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7. The ministry does not mention the number of people who are believed to be missing in Gaza since October 7.
Earlier on Friday morning, people who work to keep others safe and local reporters said that attacks from Israel in the area had caused the deaths of at least 10 people and injured others.
A bombing in the Jabalya refugee camp in northern Gaza killed at least six people. Civil defense officials came and helped evacuate the injured. Fighting has been very heavy in the Jabalya district in northern Gaza lately. A lot of people were hurt and some people died at a hospital in northern Gaza after Israel bombed the area.
People in Jabalya heard continuous gunfire throughout the night from Thursday to Friday.
Salama Maroof, who leads the government media office in Gaza, said on Thursday that the Israeli military had entered Jabalya and blocked off Beit Hanoun in the northeast.
In another attack at the Nuseirat refugee camp in central Gaza, Israeli warplanes bombed the Al-Jaouni School, where displaced people were staying, killing at least four people. Local reporters saw the bodies being brought to the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Hospital in Deir Al-Balah. -
US military begins using floating pier to transport aid to Gaza
Trucks bringing help to Gaza are now coming ashore after arriving through a pier made by the US military. This information comes from the US Central Command.
On Thursday, a pier was built on a beach in Gaza. It will help bring aid from different countries to the area, where most border crossings are closed and a severe humanitarian crisis is happening.
According to CENTCOM, no US soldiers went on land in Gaza.
We want to bring 500 tons of help to Gaza every day through the pier, according to Adm. Brad Cooper is the leader of CENTCOM. This means they want to send about 90 trucks full of help every day, and they hope to increase it to 150 trucks a day.
A ship will bring aid to the pier on Friday. A UN official told the media that it’s not clear if they have started unloading the aid yet. The help will go to the top part of Gaza one day and to the bottom part on the next.
The maritime path is very important right now because the Rafah border to Gaza has been closed for over a week, stopping aid from getting in. That crossing was the only way for people to travel between Gaza and Egypt. Israel controls all the other border points in the area. -
US and South Korea practise fighter jets after North Korea test missiles
North Korea shot what seem like short-range missiles towards its east coast on Friday, according to South Korea’s military. This happened the day after South Korea and the US flew strong fighter jets together in a drill that North Korea sees as a big security danger.
South Korea’s military leaders said that North Korea launched weapons from its east coast Wonsan region. The weapons traveled about 300 kilometers (185 miles) before landing in the waters between Korea and Japan. Japan’s top government spokesperson, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said that a missile from North Korea landed in an area outside of Japan’s exclusive economic zone.
South Korea’s military said the missile launches are a clear threat to peace in the area. South Korea will be ready to defend against any attacks from North Korea, with help from the United States.
North Korea has been testing more weapons recently to make its weapons stronger and more up-to-date. Talks with the United States and South Korea have not been successful. Last week, the leader of North Korea, Kim Jong Un, watched a new rocket launch system being tested. This information was reported by North Korea’s state media.
North Korea says it had to make its nuclear and missile programs stronger because of the threats from the US. North Korea says the US and South Korea are doing more military training, which they think is getting ready for an invasion. Foreign experts believe that North Korea uses its rivals’ military drills as an excuse to build more weapons. They think this will help North Korea have more power in future talks with the US.
On Thursday, two South Korean planes and two US planes practiced flying together over the middle of South Korea. North Korea is very concerned about the advanced US weapons being sent to their area. AircraftReportedly, a US F-22 was sent to South Korea for the first time in seven months.
North Korea’s official news agency said on Friday that the US sending F-22s for training with South Korea is more evidence of the US being hostile and wanting to use force against North Korea. KCNA says that South Korea’s military is making tensions worse to support their master’s plan to fight against North Korea.
It said that the F-22s flying over will make a bad situation worse for the US, but it didn’t say what North Korea will do about it.
On Friday, Kim’s sister Kim Yo Jong said that North Korea’s recent weapons tests are part of the country’s plan to build up their weapons over the next five years, which started in 2021. She said the new weapons are made to attack Seoul, the capital of South Korea. She also said the tests were not meant to show off weapons North Korea wants to sell to Russia.
“We openly admit that we will use these weapons to stop Seoul from coming up with unnecessary ideas,” stated Kim Yo Jong in a message reported by KCNA. -
Man suspected of setting synagogue on fire shot and killed by French police
The French police shot and killed a man who had a knife and a metal bar. He is suspected of starting a fire at a synagogue in the city of Rouen. This is the latest in a series of antisemitic acts happening in France during the Israel-Hamas war.
The fire department was told about a fire at the synagogue on Friday morning. The police officers found a man on the roof of a building holding a metal bar and a kitchen knife. There was smoke coming from the synagogue’s windows, according to Rouen prosecutor Frederic Teillet at a short press conference.
He said the man yelled mean things and threw a metal bar at the police. Then he jumped off the roof and ran at one of the officers with his knife up.
The police officer shot the man five times, hitting him four times and causing deadly injuries, according to the prosecutor. He said the police are trying to make sure who the man really is. The prosecutor did not answer any questions.
Minister Gerald Darmanin wrote on a social media site that the man clearly wanted to set fire to the city’s synagogue.
He praised the officers for their quick action and bravery.
People in France are getting more and more upset and angry about the fighting between Israel and Hamas. Hate crimes against Jews and Muslims have increased in the country with the most Jewish and Muslim people in western Europe.
The mayor of Rouen, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, said that it is believed that a man climbed onto a trash container and threw a homemade explosive into the synagogue, which started a fire and caused a lot of damage.
“When the Jewish community is hurt, it hurts all of us. It hurts France and it hurts all the people who live here,” he said.
“It scares the entire country,” he said.
The Prime Minister of France, Gabriel Attal, said that there has been a big increase in antisemitic acts in France after the Oct 7 attack by Hamas on Israel. And this is still happening this year.
Officials recorded 366 incidents of antisemitism in the first three months of 2024, which is a 300% increase from the same time last year, according to Attal. There were over 1,200 antisemitic acts in the last three months of 2023, which was three times more than in all of 2022.
“He said there is a lot of hate spreading. “ -
Kim Jong Un’s sibling disputes North Korea has given Russia armaments
Kim Jong Un’s powerful sister said again on Friday that North Korea has not sent any weapons to Russia. She called it ridiculous that people are speculating about weapons deals between North Korea and Russia.
The US and South Korea believe that North Korea is giving weapons to Russia for their war in Ukraine in exchange for advanced military technology and economic help. North Korea and Russia have said that it is not true many times.
Experts from other countries think that North Korea did some tests with artillery and short-range missiles recently to show off the weapons they want to sell to Russia.
Kim Yo Jong said that she doesn’t think it’s necessary to assess or interpret the North Korean-Russian dealings because she thinks it’s very ridiculous and doesn’t make sense.
“We don’t want to share our military technology with any other country or make it available to the public,” she said in a message reported by the state media.
She said North Korea tested weapons as part of their plan to build up their military over the next five years. She said the new weapons are made to attack Seoul, the capital of South Korea.
“We’re not hiding the fact that we will use these weapons to stop Seoul from having any unnecessary thoughts,” said Kim Yo Jong.
Last year, South Korean Defense Minister Shin Wonsik said North Korea sent about 7,000 containers of weapons and military gear to Russia. In response, Shin said that North Korea got more than 9,000 Russian containers that probably had aid inside.
In January, a spokesperson for the US National Security Council, John Kirby, said that missiles from North Korea were used in an attack on Ukraine. At that time, officials in Ukraine said they found a missile in the northeastern Kharkiv region and believed it came from North Korea.
Selling weapons to North Korea would break the rules of the United Nations, which Russia agreed to.
In May, the White House said that Russia was sending more refined petroleum to North Korea than the UN Security Council allows.
North Korea and Russia are becoming closer friends because they both have problems with the United States. North Korea is working on making nuclear weapons, and Russia is fighting a long war in Ukraine.
Since 2022, North Korea has been doing a lot of missile tests that make other countries worried. The US is doing more military practice with South Korea and Japan because of this. Experts from other countries believe that North Korea probably believes that having more weapons will give them more power in future talks with the United States. -
Air Force instructor killed as his ejection seat engaged on ground
An Air Force instructor has died when the ejection seat went off while the plane was on the ground at a military base in Texas, the Air Force reported on Tuesday.
The pilot was in a plane at an Air Force base in Texas when the seat suddenly moved on Monday. The pilot went to the hospital and passed away on Tuesday, according to the Air Force. The pilot’s name was not being released until their family was told.
The T-6A Texan II is a small two-seat airplane that is used to train Air Force, Navy and Marine Corps pilots. During a practice flight, a teacher can sit in the front or back seat. Both seats have Martin-Baker ejection seats that can be activated by pulling a handle on the seat.
In 2022, many Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps jets, including the T-6 fleet, were not allowed to fly because they found a problem with part of the ejection seat. The group of vehicles was checked and in some cases, the computer-aided dispatch systems were switched with new ones.
When you set it off, the cartridge explodes and starts throwing things out.
Ejection seats have been praised for rescuing pilots, but they have also not worked in some plane crashes. The crash of an F-16 that killed 1st Lt David Schmitz in June 2020 was partially caused by a failure of the ejection seat.
In 2018, four people on a B-1 bomber plane got a special award for flying well. They found out that one of the ejection seats wasn’t working while their plane was on fire. Instead of leaving the burning plane, all the crew chose to stay and land it, so they had the best chance of living. All the people on the ship made it out alive. -
Ex-Army Sergeant guilty of killing Black Lives Matter protestor pardoned by governor of Texas
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has decided to forgive a former US Army soldier who was convicted of shooting and killing someone during a protest in 2020. The protest was against police brutality and racism.
Abbott said Daniel Perry will be pardoned and allowed to have his guns back. This came after the Texas Board of Pardons and Paroles recommended it unanimously.
Perry was in prison for 25 years after being convicted of killing Garrett Foster in 2023. He was let out of prison shortly after receiving a pardon.
Perry, who is white, was driving for a ride-share company when his car came near a protest in Austin. The lawyers said he could have left the argument with Foster, who was a white Air Force veteran and didn’t use his gun according to witnesses.
A group of people found Perry guilty of killing someone, but Abbott said Perry was just protecting himself.
“Texas has a very strong law that allows people to defend themselves called ‘Stand Your Ground. ‘ It can’t be canceled by a jury or district attorney who has progressive beliefs,” Abbott mentioned.
Abbott, who is a Republican in his third term, usually only forgives small crimes. He chose not to forgive George Floyd for a drug arrest in 2004 after Floyd’s death. The killing of Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis in 2020 led to protests across the country.
Abbott told the board to look over Perry’s case after the trial. He said he would pardon Perry if the board recommended it. Under Texas law, the governor can’t forgive someone for a crime unless the board, who the governor chooses, suggests it.
Travis County District Attorney Jose Garza criticized the pardon, saying it makes a joke of our legal system.
“Garza said that the board and the governor are more focused on politics than justice. ” “They should feel bad about what they did. ” They are breaking the law and showing that in this state, some people are treated better than others.
Abbott asked for a new look at Perry’s case because Tucker Carlson asked him to on TV. Carlson wanted the governor to help after the sergeant was found guilty in April 2023. Perry was given a punishment because prosecutors said he was racist and might hurt someone again, based on what he posted on social media and sent in text messages.
The sergeant’s lawyers said that Foster did lift the rifle and Perry had to shoot him. Perry didn’t speak in court and the jury took two days to decide that he was guilty.
Perry’s lawyer, Clint Broden, said Perry was only protecting himself when he was facing a group of angry people and someone with a dangerous gun.
Broden said that the events in the case were very sad and unfortunately, Garrett Foster died. “Mister Perry and his family are thankful to the Board of Pardons and Parole for looking at their case carefully. They are also grateful that the State of Texas has laws to let people defend themselves. ”
Foster’s girlfriend, Whitney Mitchell, was with him when he was killed. She called the pardon a “lawless” act.The governor has disrespected the life of a murdered Texan and US Air Force veteran and questioned the jury’s fair decision by granting a pardon. Mitchell said that he declared that people in Texas who have different political views from him and those in power can be killed without any consequences.
The shooting caused a lot of arguing in 2020 during the protests after Floyd’s death. Three years later, Perry’s conviction made a lot of conservative people very angry.
Before the judge made a decision in the case, Carlson talked on TV about the shooting. He said it was self-defence and he also said some bad things about Abbott for not going on his show. The day after, Abbott said he thought Perry should not be punished and asked Texas’ parole board to quickly review the conviction.
Before Perry was punished by the court, it revealed many text messages and social media posts showing his unfriendly views towards Black Lives Matter protests. Perry made a comment on Facebook a month before the shooting. He said, “I am a racist because I do not agree with people acting like animals at the zoo. ”
Perry was in the Army for over ten years. During the trial, a psychologist said he thinks Perry has post-traumatic stress disorder because of his time in Afghanistan and being bullied as a kid. During the shooting, Perry was working at Fort Cavazos, which later became Fort Hood. It is about 70 miles north of Austin. -
Employee of US Interior Department becomes Biden’s first Jewish appointee to resign over Gaza war
On Wednesday, a staffer of the Interior Department quit their job because they are Jewish and don’t agree with the US helping Israel in the war in Gaza.
Lily Greenberg Call, who works for the Interior Department, said that President Joe Biden is using Jews as a reason for the US policy in the conflict.
Call had worked for the presidential campaigns of Biden and Vice President Harris. He was also an activist for Israel before joining the government.
She is one of at least five high-ranking staff members who have publicly resigned in protest of the Biden administration’s support for Israel’s war against Hamas. She is the second person appointed by the government to leave their job, after another person with Palestinian heritage quit in January.
Her letter said she was happy to join a government that she thought had the same ideas as her for the country. “But, I can’t continue to work for this administration with a clear conscience,” she wrote.
In a talk with The Associated Press, Call mentioned things that Biden said at a White House event and a Holocaust Memorial event in Washington. Biden said that if there was no Israel, no Jew would be safe and that the Hamas-led attacks were fueled by a long-standing goal to destroy the Jewish people.
“He is showing that Jews are the main people in charge of the American military. ” “That is very wrong,” she said, mentioning that her family members were killed by the government.
The attacks led by Hamas on October 7th killed around 1,200 people in Israel. Israel’s army fought against Hamas in Gaza and more than 35,000 people from Palestine died.
The Biden administration has asked Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government to aim more carefully at Hamas to protect civilians. It stopped sending bombs to Israel because it didn’t want them to be used in the southern Gaza city of Rafah.
“I believe the president needs to understand that there are people in his administration who think this war is very bad,” Call said about the war and US support for it. “For everyone, including Palestinians, Israelis, Jews, and Americans, and also for his chances of winning the election. “ -
Project to build pier in Gaza Strip completed – US military
The US military put in a floating pier for Gaza Strip on Thursday. They will start to bring in supplies to help the people there. Gaza has been in a lot of fighting for seven months.
Last night, the construction was finished to make a plan for getting supplies to Palestinians who are hungry. This plan was made more than two months ago by US President Joe Biden. But it’s been hard to send the supplies because Israel took control of the Rafah border crossing, where the supplies would go through.
The maritime route has a lot of difficulties with getting aid into Gaza like logistics, weather and security. It’s meant to help get more aid into Gaza, but it’s not as cheap or sustainable as delivering aid by land. The aid will be taken to a port made by the Israelis near Gaza City. Then, aid groups will give it out to the people.
Violent fighting between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian fighters in Rafah has forced about 600,000 people to leave their homes. This is about a quarter of the population of Gaza, according to the UN. An additional 100,000 people have left some areas in northern Gaza because the Israeli military has started fighting there again.
Pentagon officials said that the fighting in Gaza isn’t a problem for the new aid distribution area on the shore. But they also said that they will keep a close eye on the security situation and might have to temporarily stop the aid shipments by sea. The site was attacked with mortar fire while it was being built. Hamas has said they will attack any foreign forces that stay in the Gaza Strip.
Protecting the US military is very important. “In the past few weeks, the United States and Israel made a plan to protect all their people by working together,” said Navy Vice Adm. Brad Cooper is a leader in the US military’s Central Command. “We believe the security plan can keep everyone safe. ”
US soldiers arrived and stopped at the pier at 7:40 am on Thursday. They didn’t go into the Gaza Strip and won’t while they are at the pier.
“The trucks with help for people are going to start unloading in a few days,” the command said. “The United Nations will get help and make sure it goes to the people in Gaza. ”
The World Food Program will be the program of the United Nations that helps give aid to people, officials said.
Israel will be responsible for keeping the shore safe, and there are also two American warships in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, the USS Arleigh Burke and the USS Paul Ignatius. Both ships are powerful warships with many different weapons and abilities. They are used to keep American soldiers safe at sea and help their allies on the land.
Lieutenant Colonel Nadav Shoshani from the Israeli military said that a pier has been built and the ground has been made flat and roads have been made for trucks by the Israeli engineering units.
“We have been helping the US military with this project for months, doing everything we can to support and assist them,” Shoshani said. “It’s very important in what we do. ”
Aid organizations say they are running out of food and fuel in southern Gaza. This will make it hard for hospitals to keep running and for aid trucks to deliver supplies. The UN and others have been saying for weeks that if Israel attacks Rafah, it will make it really hard for aid workers to help people and there will be a lot of innocent people getting hurt.
Over 1.4 million Palestinians, which is half of the people in Gaza, are staying in Rafah because they ran away from Israel’s attacks in other places.
Last week, a big ship filled with 475 crates of food left Cyprus to meet a US military ship, the Roy P Benavidez, near Gaza. The supplies on the MV Sagamore were transferred onto the Benavidez. The Pentagon said that transferring the aid between ships was a way to prepare so that it could be delivered quickly once the pier and causeway were set up.
The pier and causeway were supposed to be put in place, but bad weather caused a two-week delay. The rough sea made it too risky for US and Israeli soldiers to protect the path to the shore, according to US officials.
Military leaders have stated that aid will be given out little by little at first to make sure everything goes smoothly. They will begin by sending about 90 truckloads of help every day by sea, and soon that will go up to about 150 a day. But organizations that help people say that sending food alone will not stop a severe hunger crisis in Gaza. Israel needs to do more to open up routes for supplies to reach the people in need.
Israeli officials are not letting aid come through land crossings, so the US-built pier and sea route is not needed, according to Scott Paul from Oxfam.
Biden told the military to make a pier near Gaza so they can bring food and help by sea. Food deliveries are stuck at border crossings because of Israeli restrictions and increasing fighting.
The new sea route will bring humanitarian aid to Cyprus. When it arrives at Larnaca port, the aid will be checked for safety. It is put on ships, usually commercial ones, and taken about 200 miles (320 kilometers) to a big pier in the ocean that the US military built near Gaza.
There are pallets there. -
Mahama will lead 2024 polls – Hopeson Adorye predicts
Hopeson Adorye, a member of the Movement for Change has predicted that flagbearer of the National Democratic Congress (NDC) John Dramani Mahama will come first in the December presidential elections.
He anticipated that, leader for Movement for Change, Alan Kyerematen will come in second, followed by the New Patriotic Party (NPP).
In an interview with Accra-based Okay FM, Mr. Adorye said while John Mahama will lead in the first round, his victory will not be decisive.
Instead, he foresees a run-off between Alan Kyerematen and John Mahama and he [Alan] will win the election to become the President of Ghana.
“On December 7, the NDC will take the lead. Alan will be second before the NPP gets the third position. John Mahama will not be able to make the 50 plus one mark, so there will be a run-off. When the run-off takes place, Alan will be President. Before the Ejisu Elections, Info Analytics brought the latest poll which put Alan at 7.5%. That should tell you that 2024 will not be a one-touch victory for the winner if we go by that,” he said.
Mr. Adorye also noted that, the Movement for Change has registered two million people who want to be members, indicating that the people of Ghana will consider their standard of living when voting in 2024
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Confusion at Ghana Gas over Yaw Dabo stadium deal
Some senior staff of Ghana National Gas Company have furiously rebelled against a decision by management to fully sponsor the construction of a mini-stadium for Dabo Soccer Academy.
Tension, according to reports, has been building between top management members and senior staff disgruntled about the deal, which would see the struggling state agency, dolling out huge sums of money to execute the project.
The unhappy staff of Ghana Gas say the entire deal, estimated at a whopping three million dollars, is shrouded in secrecy and accuse its promoters of circumventing laid down procedures, to support the comic actor.
The proposed mini-stadium expected to be constructed in the Ashanti Region would include a non-infill artificial grass and shock pads with 3000 seats for spectators.
“There are more qualified football academies in the country that are better placed to benefit from this deal than Dabo Academy.
“If management believes that sponsoring a football academy is the right thing to do at this time, then it must be done diligently.
“Right procedures should be followed,” one of the aggrieved workers told this reporter on strict condonation of anonymity.
Sources say a large group of irate workers reportedly reacted angrily at a recent meeting when the Dabo Academy sponsorship deal was tabled for discussion.
Faced with open rebellion among their own staff, key figures in the company, insist there are better ways to influence the situation than “abrogating the deal completely”.
Chief Executive of Ghana Gas, Ben K.D. Asante, according to reports, is in a fix contemplating on impressing upon the board to abandon the proposed deal.
“I remain firmly convinced that dialogue is the best way to go and everyone, including the board members together on this matter,” a senior staff familiar with the transaction told this reporter.
Founder of Dabo Soccer Academy, Yaw Dabo recently secured 16 plots of land in Yawbarima Krom in the Atwima Mponua District of the Ashanti Region for the construction of the mini-stadium, but work has since stalled due to financial constraints.
The actor recently revealed that the reason of establishing the academy is to support talented footballers who are less privileged.
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California college professor to stand trial over the death of pro-Israel protester last year
On Wednesday, a judge announced that a college professor from Southern California will stand trial for unintentionally causing the death of one person and injuring another during protests related to the Israel-Hamas conflict last year.The person who died was a Jewish counter-protester.
Superior Court Judge Ryan Wright decided that there is enough evidence to put Loay Abdelfattah Alnaji on trial, according to the Ventura County District Attorney’s Office.
Alnaji, who is 51 years old, is being accused of hitting Paul Kessler with a megaphone in November. This happened during an argument at an event that began as a demonstration supporting Palestine in Thousand Oaks, a suburb outside of Los Angeles.
Kessler, who is 69 years old, fell backwards and hit his head on the ground. He passed away at the hospital the following day.
Alnaji was accused of causing someone’s death and seriously injuring them. The district attorney’s office said he was charged with two serious crimes and that there were extra details in each case. If he is proven to have done all the bad things, he could go to jail for more than four years.
Alnaji paid $50,000 to get out of jail. Alnaji’s lawyer, Ron Bamieh, did not answer the email or phone call on Wednesday.
Alnaji, a computer science professor at Moorpark College, shared his support for Palestine on his Facebook page and other social media. Many of his posts were removed after Kessler’s death, as reported by the Los Angeles Times. -
8 people killed in northern Nigerian mosque attack
At least eight people were killed and 16 others were hurt when a man attacked a mosque with a homemade bomb in northern Nigeria’s Kano state. The bomb caused a fire, according to the police.
The suspect, a 38-year-old person who lives in the area, admitted that he attacked the mosque in a village called Gadan in Kano because he was angry about an ongoing dispute with his family. This is according to a statement from the police spokesman Abdullahi Haruna on Wednesday.
Eight people who were hurt passed away in a hospital later, Haruna said in an interview with local Channels Television on Thursday. Four kids were hurt in the church, but we don’t know if any of them died.
The event made people in Kano, the biggest state in northern Nigeria, very scared. This area has had fights related to religion in the past, which have sometimes turned into violence.
The suspect went into the mosque with a homemade bomb and set it off, said local police chief Umar Sanda. “It’s not related to terrorism. ”
The TV station showed a mosque in Gadan village, Kano state, where the walls and furniture were burnt. The mosque is an important place for Muslims to pray.
Local news also said that the people at the mosque were trapped inside, so it was hard for them to get out.
“A few kids ran away from the fire, trying to stay safe. ” “We had to pour water to put the fire out,” said Hussaini Adamu, who lives here, to TVC.
The police blocked off the area while the injured people were taken to a hospital in the main city of the state.
“The argument was about sharing inheritance. The person who started the fight claims that the people he thought cheated him were in the mosque at the time. He did it there so that people could hear him,” according to the police. -
Darren Dutchyshen, longtime TSN sportscaster passes away
Darren Dutchyshen’s family has sadly announced his death while he was with his closest loved ones.
The broadcaster was always present in Canadian sports media and was born in Regina. Darren Dutchyshen started working at TSN in 1995, hosting the weekend editions of SportsDesk. Over the next thirty years, he became popular for hosting late-night episodes of SportsCentre, the network’s main show.
“Darren is a funny and engaging person who was great at connecting with people on TV,” said Stewart Johnston, who works for Bell Media.
Johnston said he is a very important part of TSN for the last 30 years and a great teammate.
He was open about his prostate cancer and had to stop hosting SportsCentre in 2021.
A year later, he came back on the air and said that the cancer was still in his body. However, he said he felt like he had to work.
“I feel happiest right here,” he said.
“Jennifer Hedger said you are the best at this job in the country. ” “Not even close with a bullet. ”
“He continued to be funny right until the end, telling lots of jokes, most of which were good but all of them were not suitable for the situation. ”
The network wants to pay tribute to Dutchyshen in the next few days. They will ask his friends and colleagues to share stories about his personality and long career. -
Police break up pro-Palestinian camp at Chicago’s DePaul University
In Chicago, police initiated the removal of a pro-Palestinian camp from DePaul University on Thursday morning, in response to a directive from the school’s president that students would face arrest if they did not leave.
Police and workers wearing yellow vests removed tents and camping gear from the student camp, and there were yellow squares of dead or dying grass left behind. Front-loading machines were used to take out the camping gear.
Just opposite to where the camp was set up on the grassy area at DePaul’s campus called “The Quad,” a small group of protesters stood on the sidewalk in front of a gas station. They clapped their hands together while a leader spoke to them through a bullhorn.
Jon Hein, head of patrol for Chicago Police Department, said that all the protesters at the camp left the area on their own when the police came early Thursday.
“There were no fights and no one tried to stop us,” he said during a press conference. As we got closer, everyone chose to leave the place on their own.
Hein said that two young people, a man and a woman, were arrested outside the camp for blocking traffic.
The decision to empty the campus happened just a few days after the president of the school said that the safety of the public was in danger.
The university said on Saturday that they could not agree with the protestors, so it’s not clear what will happen to their camp on the Chicago campus. Most of DePaul’s graduation events will take place on the weekend of June 15-16.
DePaul’s President and Provost said they think students wanted to protest peacefully, but the way the protests were handled created safety problems for the community.
Manuel said in a statement sent on Thursday that they couldn’t resolve their differences with DePaul Divestment Coalition after 17 days of trying.
“Our public safety office and Chicago Police are now taking down the camp,” he said. “Everyone in the camp can leave without getting in trouble. ”
He said that since the camp started, the situation has been getting worse with fights and people who are not from our group making threats of violence.
Many college students across different campuses built camps to ask their schools to not be connected to Israel and the businesses that support it. They did this to show their opposition to Israel’s actions in the war with Hamas. The protests started as the schools were finishing their spring classes and are now having graduation ceremonies.
Some students and teachers were held by the police on Wednesday after they removed a camp and protesters supporting Palestine briefly took control of a lecture hall at the University of California, Irvine. The police came when protesters blocked the entrance to the building with a barrier and demanded the university stop investing in Israel. The police said that people were not allowed to gather, so they made them leave the building and arrested some of them.
There was a lot of tension at DePaul last weekend when people who disagreed with a protest showed up on campus in Lincoln Park. The police had to get involved.
The DePaul Divestment Coalition, made up of students, want the university to stop investing in Israel. They started camping out on April 30. The group said that university officials left the discussion and tried to make students sign an agreement. This was reported in a statement by a student on Saturday.
Henna Ayesh, a Palestinian student at DePaul and part of the Coalition, said she doesn’t want her tuition money to support her family’s pain.
DePaul is located in the northern part of the city. Police cleared out a camp at the University of Chicago last week.
The Associated Press found that there have been at least 77 times since April 18 when people were arrested at protests on college campuses across the US. A total of 2,900 people have been arrested at 58 different colleges and universities. The numbers are from information given by AP, universities, and law enforcement. -
Sino-Russian relations reaffirmed as Moscow intensifies its onslaught in Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin said thank you to China’s leader Xi Jinping for their ideas on how to stop the war in Ukraine. Ukraine and its Western supporters don’t agree with China’s ideas because they think they mostly support Russia’s ideas.
During their meeting, Putin and Xi strengthened their strong partnership and criticized US military alliances in Asia and the Pacific region. They are working closely together as both countries face tensions with the West.
Putin is visiting a close friend for two days while his country’s forces are attacking northeastern Ukraine. This is the biggest attack on the border since they invaded in February. 24, 2022 n On the 24th of January, 2022.
China says it is neutral in the conflict, but it supports Russia’s view that the West provoked Russia to attack Ukraine. China also provides Russia with important parts for making weapons.
A statement from Putin and Xi said they both think the Ukrainian crisis needs to be solved by getting rid of the things that caused it.
Russia has stated that they started the war because they felt threatened by Ukraine and its supporters, and they also wanted to get rid of what they believe are Nazis in Ukraine.
The Kremlin keeps saying Ukraine’s leaders are connected to Nazis, even though the country has a democratically elected Jewish president who lost family in the Holocaust. Many Ukrainians want to make their country more democratic, reduce corruption, and get closer to the West. But the Kremlin still accuses them of being linked to Nazism.
It wasn’t clear if the statement meant China was supporting Russia’s claim about Nazi influence in Ukraine.
But the statement also said that both sides agreed it’s important to teach people the right way to understand history, and to protect monuments that remember the fight against fascism. They also strongly condemn anyone who tries to glorify or bring back Nazi beliefs or militarism. This is similar to Russia’s belief that Western countries don’t give enough credit to the Red Army for defeating Nazi Germany.
In 2023, China suggested a plan for peace. The plan asked for fighting to stop and for Russia and Ukraine to have discussions. However, Ukraine and the West did not accept the plan because it did not ask Russia to leave the parts of Ukraine that it has taken over.
The visit was mainly a symbol of the partnership between two countries that both have issues in their relationships with the US and Europe.
“Both sides want to show that they are not going to stop supporting each other, even with the pressure they are getting from the US,” said Hoo Tiang Boon, a professor at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore who studies Chinese foreign policy.
Both leaders said they want the war in Ukraine to stop, but they didn’t suggest any new ideas during their public speeches on Thursday afternoon.
“China wants Europe to be peaceful and stable again. We will help make this happen,” Xi said while standing next to Putin.
He said the same thing as China did last year when it proposed a plan to stop the war in Ukraine.
Putin said he will tell the Chinese leader all about what’s happening in Ukraine. He also said he’s thankful for the Chinese government’s help in trying to solve the situation. He mentioned that they will talk more about foreign policy when they meet again on Thursday.
After Russia attacked Ukraine last week, the war has become very serious. Ukraine’s military is running low on weapons and is waiting for the United States to send them more anti-aircraft missiles and artillery shells.
China and Russia released a statement together. They criticized the US foreign policy and the alliances that the US has made. They said these alliances show a mindset like the Cold War.
“Both sides are very worried about how AUKUS could affect the stability of the Asia-Pacific region,” according to the statement. AUKUS stands for Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
China and Russia say the US is putting medium-range missiles in Asia-Pacific during joint exercises with other countries. They said the US actions in Asia were “shifting the power balance” and “putting all countries in the region at risk. ”
The meeting on Thursday showed that they are still good friends and have a strong relationship. They made this agreement in 2022, before Russia attacked Ukraine.
After that, Russia started relying more on China for its economy because Western sanctions stopped it from trading with many other countries. China traded a lot with Russia last year, which helped them deal with some of the negative effects of sanctions.
Moscow is sending most of its energy to China and getting high-tech parts for its military from Chinese companies to avoid sanctions from the West.
“I and President Putin both think we should work together to find ways our countries can benefit from each other, and become more connected. We should appreciate each other’s successes. ”
During their meeting, Xi said congratulations to Putin for being elected as leader for the fifth time and they both celebrated the 75 years of friendship between Soviet Union and China. The friendship started after a war in 1949. Putin had no real competition in the election for president, and, like Xi, hasn’t said who might take over after him.
On the day before the visit, Putin mentioned in an interview. -
‘Lone wolf’ charged with shooting prime minister – Slovak interior minister
On Thursday, the interior minister of Slovakia said that one person acted alone and has been charged for shooting and seriously injuring Prime Minister Robert Fico.
The small country in central Europe was shocked by the attempted murder, and its leaders are saying it was because the people are very divided and have extreme politics.
Interior Minister Matus Sutaj Estok said at a press conference that the man who was charged is not a member of any political groups.
Slovak leaders want everyone to stay calm after the Prime Minister was shot several times on Wednesday. It was a surprise because political violence rarely happens in the country, even though the politicians are very divided.
Fico is in serious but stable condition after being attacked. The attack shocked the small country and had an impact across Europe before the European elections.
They caught a suspect, and the Interior Minister said they think the attack on Fico was because of politics. Fico was at a government meeting in an old coal mining town when it happened.
The minister did not say why they did it. Many people in Slovakia and other countries disagree about Fico. When he came back into power last year with a message that supported Russia and went against America, it made other European Union members worried that he would stop supporting the West.
Someone tried to kill Fico on Wednesday. People in Slovakia are very divided right now and thousands of protestors are demonstrating in the capital and around the country to show they are against his policies. It comes before the June elections for the European Parliament.
Former President Zuzana Caputova, who had disagreements with Fico, said on Thursday that the leaders of the country’s political parties would get together to try to bring peace and stop any violence.
“We ask everyone to be responsible,” Caputova said at a press conference in Bratislava.
Caputova was talking with Peter Pellegrini, who is a friend of Fico and will be the next president of Slovakia. They both spoke together to try to calm down the angry political arguments in the country. They want people in Slovakia to stay united and not let politics divide them.
“This attempt to kill someone should be strongly condemned by everyone,” said Pellegrini. “I ask everyone in Slovakia to stop or lessen their European Parliament election campaigning, because campaigning leads to conflict, and we don’t need conflict right now in Slovakia. ”Fico’s new government, chosen last September, has stopped sending weapons to Ukraine. They also want to change the rules so that a special prosecutor who deals with corruption cases is no longer in charge, and they want to control the public TV and radio stations. People who disagree with him are concerned that he might take Slovakia, a country with 5. 4 million people that is in NATO, in a more controlling and dictatorial direction.
Zuzana Eliasova, who lives in Bratislava, said that the attack on Fico was a big surprise for the country. She also said it was an attack on democracy when political issues were already causing a lot of tension.
“I think many people and the whole society will think about their actions, because there has been a lot of division within society. “
Surgeons operated on Fico for five hours. At first, Fico was said to be in very bad condition. This is what the director of the F. DMiriam Lapunikova works at the Roosevelt Hospital in Banska Bystrica. He is getting special help in a special room.
Five gunshots were heard outside a cultural center in Handlova, a town about 85 miles northeast of the capital. Government officials confirmed this.
Slovakia’s leaders were going to meet in Bratislava to talk about the situation on Thursday. After that, they would have a government meeting.
Fico became the prime minister of Slovakia again last year, after already serving two times before. People often say he and his Smer party are left-leaning populists, but some people also compare him to right-wing politicians like Viktor Orbán, the prime minister of Hungary.
Fico’s return made some people worried that he and his party, which had a history of being involved in scandals, would take Slovakia in a direction different from the rest of Western countries. He said he would be strict on migration and non-governmental organizations and protested against LGBTQ2S+ rights.
Even though some people were unsure about Fico’s leadership, both his friends and enemies criticized the attack. On Wednesday, President Putin sent a message to President Caputova, saying he supports her and hopes the prime minister gets better soon.
“This terrible crime cannot be excused,” Putin said in a statement from the Kremlin. “I think Robert Fico is brave and determined. ” I really hope that his good traits will help him get through this tough situation.
The president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, also criticized the attack on the leader of a nearby country.
“He said we should do everything we can to stop violence from becoming normal in any country or situation. “