Author: ALJAZEERA

Colombian President Gustavo Petro, a staunch critic of Israel’s war in Gaza, says the Israeli government is ‘genocidal’.Colombian President Gustavo Petro has announced plans to cut diplomatic ties with Israel over its war in the Gaza Strip, which human rights advocates and other experts have warned could amount to genocide. Speaking to a crowd marking International Workers’ Day in Bogota on Wednesday, Petro said countries cannot be passive in the face of the crisis unfolding in Gaza. “Here in front of you, the government of change, of the president of the republic, announces that tomorrow we will break diplomatic relations…

The United States House of Representatives has overwhelmingly passed a bill that would expand the federal definition of anti-Semitism, despite opposition from civil liberties groups. The bill passed the House on Wednesday by a margin of 320 to 91, and it is largely seen as a reaction to the ongoing antiwar protests unfolding on US university campuses. It now goes to the Senate for consideration. If the bill were to become law, it would codify a definition of anti-Semitism created by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) in Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. That is a…

US central bank keeps benchmark rate at 5.25-5.50% after series of economic reports undercut hopes of easing inflation.The US Federal Reserve has held interest rates at a 23-year high amid stubborn cost-of-living increases. The central bank on Wednesday kept the benchmark lending rate at 5.25-5.50 percent after a series of economic reports indicated that inflation was easing at a slower pace than hoped. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said inflation was “still too high” and rate cuts would not be on the cards until he had “greater confidence” that price growth was falling towards the 2 percent target. “It is likely…

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The sun was casting shadows onto the green grass of Dunn Meadow at Indiana University Bloomington, as a line of police carrying batons and shields moved forward. Across from the police stood a daisy chain of protesters, their arms linked in front of a newly established pro-Palestine encampment. The cluster of tents resembled dozens of other encampments set up at universities across the United States in recent weeks, as demonstrations against Israel’s war in Gaza reached a fever pitch. College campuses in the US have long been bastions of academic freedom and political protest, and Indiana University was no exception.…

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken has urged Israeli officials to improve the facilitation of humanitarian aid supplies to Gaza amid warnings from the United Nations and aid agencies of a looming famine in parts of the war-ravaged Palestinian territory. Blinken on Wednesday travelled to Kerem Shalom, an Israeli entry point into Gaza about 3km (2 miles) from the southern city of Rafah that is known to Palestinians as Karem Abu Salem. The top United States diplomat also visited Israel’s main port, Ashdod, highlighting “progress” made in recent weeks on humanitarian access, but stressed once again that more needs to…

Demonstrations against Israel’s war on Gaza have continued to rage at universities across the United States, in a night capped by mass arrests in New York and an attack by counter-protesters in California. In New York, the NYPD said it had arrested 282 people at Columbia University and the City College of New York into Tuesday night into Wednesday morning. That came as police cleared students who had occupied Columbia University Hamilton Hall since April 30. The building had been dubbed building “Mandela Hall” when students took similar action in support of South African liberation in 1985. This time around,…

Authorities deployed more than 40,000 police officers across the city after banning protests in Taksim Square.Police in Istanbul have used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse protesters who tried to break through a barricade to reach the city’s Taksim Square in defiance of a ban on May Day rallies. Turkish Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said 210 people were arrested on Wednesday. More than 40,000 police were deployed across the city, blocking even small side streets with metal barriers after President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on the eve of May Day that the annual protests would not be allowed to…

NewsFeedVideo captured the first moments that a five-year-old boy from war-torn northwest Syria was able to hear for the first time, after a charity-funded operation in Turkey.Published On 1 May 20241 May 2024 Source link

The Israeli army is reinforcing its positions within the Gaza Strip, ostensibly before a long-telegraphed assault on Rafah and the Hamas brigades it says are present there. Rafah’s population has swollen after hundreds of thousands of desperate families fleeing from the rest of Gaza sought what shelter they could from Israel’s relentless attacks. The southern city has not been spared Israeli attacks from the air as Israel has threatened for weeks to invade it by land, spurring international concerns about the potential impact on Palestinian civilians there. Under pressure from its allies in the United States and the West as…