Author: ALJAZEERA

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has told the United States’s top diplomat that Israel is determined to send troops into the southern Gaza city of Rafah, where some 1.5 million Palestinians are sheltering, and will do so without US backing if necessary. Following a meeting with visiting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday, Netanyahu said he told the US official there was no other way to defeat Hamas. “I told him that I hope we will do it with the support of the US, but if we have to – we will do it alone,” he said in…

blinking-dotLive updatesLive updates, After top US envoy Antony Blinken calls for restraint on Rafah invasion, PM Netanyahu says attack will go ahead ‘with or without US support’. Source link

Washington, DC – Describing the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza as a genocide, progressive Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has called on the United States to suspend weapons transfers to Israel. In an impassioned speech on the floor of the House of Representatives on Friday, Ocasio-Cortez condemned the Israeli blockade on Gaza, which the United Nations says has put the territory on the verge of famine. “This is a mass starvation of people, engineered and orchestrated following the killing of another 30,000, 70 percent of whom were women and children killed. There is hardly a single hospital left. And this was all accomplished,…

Former United States President Donald Trump has built a self-styled reputation as an ultra-wealthy businessman with a vast real-estate portfolio. But now, the properties and businesses emblazoned with his name face an unprecedented threat, following a ruling against him in a civil fraud case last month. On Monday, Trump faces a deadline to post his bond, after Judge Arthur Engoran ordered him to pay a total of $454m for inflating his wealth to fraudulently secure loans and business deals. If he fails to meet the cut-off date, New York Attorney General Letitia James could start to seize Trump’s assets, including…

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s announcement comes despite international pressure against Israel’s building of illegal settlements.Israel’s Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich has declared 800 hectares (1,977 acres) in the occupied West Bank as state land, in a move that will facilitate the use of the ground for settlement building. The announcement on Friday came as United States Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Israel for talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Smotrich underlined the government’s determination to press ahead with settlement building in the West Bank, despite growing international opposition. “While there are those in Israel and in the world who seek…

IMF says inflation has dropped from 70 percent, economy expanded in the second half of 2023.The economic situation in debt-stricken Sri Lanka has started to gradually improve following its worst economic crisis two years ago, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has said. Inflation has come down from a peak of 70 percent in 2022 to 5.9 percent last month and the country’s economy expanded in the second half of last year following a year and a half of contraction, the IMF said on Thursday. Sri Lanka’s year-on-year economic expansion in the third quarter of 2023 was 1.6 percent, and in…

The IOM believes the people were migrants who died in the process of being smuggled through the desert in Libya.The bodies of at least 65 people have been discovered in a mass grave in southwest Libya, the United Nations’ migration agency has said. In a statement on Friday, the International Organization for Migration (IOM) noted that the circumstances of the people’s deaths and nationalities was unknown “but it is believed that they died in the process of being smuggled through the desert”. The agency stressed that while Libyan authorities had launched an investigation into the deaths, it is important for…

Announcement comes after the Australian state of Victoria withdrew as host last year over cost concerns.Malaysia has turned down an offer to host the next Commonwealth Games, citing concerns about the cost of the quadrennial sporting event. Minister of Youth and Sports Hannah Yeoh said on Friday that the government made the decision after concluding that the Commonwealth Games Federation’s offer of 100 million pounds ($126.21m) in supporting funds would not cover the entire cost. “The government wants to focus on the development of sports as well as the welfare and well-being of the people,” Yeoh said in a statement.…

Washington, DC – The United States House of Representatives has approved a $1.2 trillion funding bill that would ban funding for the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA) amid the humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza. The measure, which passed in a 286 to 134 vote on Friday, would keep the government fully functioning in advance of a partial shutdown deadline. The proposed legislation now goes to the Senate, which must pass it by midnight on Friday, when several government agencies would start running out of money. President Joe Biden has promised to sign the bill into law immediately,…

Cordoba, Argentina – It takes only a brisk walk through Mercado Norte, a nearly century-old food market hall in this city, to discern that in this most carnivorous of countries, meat is the domain of men. Behind the glass counters of the carnicerias, or butcher shops, that make up most of the market’s food stalls, male butchers hold court, knives in hand, while women, if there are any to be seen, are relegated to the cash register. The gorily stained apron that hangs from her neck identifies Maru Diaz as the exception to the rule. On a recent Tuesday, Diaz…