Security Council to meet after UN top court’s Gaza ruling
ICJ said on Friday Israel must prevent genocidal acts in its war against Hamas in Gaza
Israeli air, ground military offensives have killed over 26,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7
Updated 27 January 2024
AFP
UNITED NATIONS, United States: UN Security Council will meet next week over the decision by the global body’s top court calling for Israel to prevent genocidal acts in Gaza, the council’s presidency announced Friday.
The Wednesday meeting was called for by Algeria, whose ministry of foreign affairs said it would give “binding effect to the pronouncement of the International Court of Justice on the provisional measures imposed on the Israeli occupation.”
The ICJ on Friday said Israel must prevent genocidal acts in its war with Hamas and allow aid into Gaza, but stopped short of calling for an end to the fighting.
The decision “gives the clear message that in order to do all the things that they are asking for, you need a ceasefire for it to happen,” Palestinian ambassador to the UN Riyad Mansour said.
“So fasten your seat belts,” he said, hinting that the Arab Group, represented on the council by Algeria, would push for one.
The Security Council, long divided on the Israeli-Palestinian issue, has only agreed to two resolutions since the October 7 Hamas attacks sparked the latest round of fighting.
In December, it demanded aid deliveries “at scale” to Gaza’s besieged population, while Israel’s ally the United States has kept out calls for a ceasefire despite international pressure.
The current fighting started with the unprecedented attack by Hamas that resulted in about 1,140 deaths in Israel, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally of official Israeli figures.
Militants also seized about 250 hostages and Israel says around 132 of them remain in Gaza, including the bodies of at least 28 dead captives.
Israel has vowed to crush Hamas and launched a military offensive that the health ministry in Gaza says has killed at least 26,083 people, about 70 percent of them women and children.
The ICJ, based in The Hague, while refraining from ordering an immediate halt to the almost four-month-old war, said Israel must do everything to “prevent the commission of all acts within the scope” of the 1948 UN Genocide Convention.
Harris widens lead over Trump with boost from women, Hispanics, Reuters/Ipsos poll finds
Harris leads Trump by 13 points among women and Hispanic voters, while Trump leads among white voters and men
73 percent of Democratic voters more excited after Harris entered race, replacing President Biden
Updated 30 August 2024
Reuters
WASHINGTON: Democrat Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump 45 percent to 41 percent in a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Thursday that showed the vice president sparking new enthusiasm among voters and shaking up the race ahead of the Nov. 5 election.
The 4 percentage point advantage among registered voters was wider than a 1 point lead Harris held over the former president in a late July Reuters/Ipsos poll. The new poll, which was conducted in the eight days ended Wednesday and had a 2 percentage point margin of error, showed Harris picking up support among women and Hispanics.
Harris led Trump by 49 percent to 36 percent — or 13 percentage points — among both women voters and Hispanic voters. Across four Reuters/Ipsos polls conducted in July, Harris had a 9 point lead among women and a 6 point lead among Hispanics.
Trump led among white voters and men, both by similar margins as in July, though his lead among voters without a college degree narrowed to 7 points in the latest survey, down from 14 points in July.
The findings illustrate how the US presidential race has been shaken up over the summer. President Joe Biden, 81, folded his flailing campaign on July 21 after a disastrous debate performance against Trump sparked widespread calls from his fellow Democrats to abandon his re-election bid.
Since then, Harris has gained ground against Trump in national polls and those in critical swing states. While national surveys including Reuters/Ipsos’ give important signals on the views of the electorate, the state-by-state results of the Electoral College determine the winner, with a handful of battleground states likely to be decisive.
Survey screen grab courtesy of IPSOS
In the seven states where the 2020 election was closest — Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Arizona, North Carolina, Michigan and Nevada — Trump had a 45 percent to 43 percent lead over Harris among registered voters in the poll.
A separate Bloomberg News/Morning Consult poll published later on Thursday showed that Harris was either leading or tied with Trump in each of those states.
That poll showed Harris led Trump by 2 percentage points among registered voters across the seven states and was ahead by 1 point — a statistical tie — among likely voters. The margin of error was 1 percentage point across the seven states.
“It’s obvious that running against Harris is more challenging for Trump given the shift in these numbers, but it’s certainly not insurmountable,” Matt Wolking, a Republican campaign strategist who worked on Trump’s 2020 campaign, said in response to the Reuters/Ipsos poll results.
He said Trump needs to stay as focused as possible in his campaign “so he’s not scaring” away voters who were leaning his way because they didn’t like Biden.
Since formally accepting the Democratic nomination last week, Harris has embarked on a tour of battleground states including Georgia, where Biden had been hemorrhaging support before he ended his campaign.
Rising enthusiasm
Some 73 percent of Democratic registered voters in the Reuters/Ipsos poll said they were more excited about voting in November after Harris entered the race. And while a March Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 61 percent respondents who intended to vote for Biden were doing so mainly to stop Trump, 52 percent of Harris voters in the August poll were voting to support her as a candidate rather than primarily to oppose Trump.
“We see it in this poll that people are more motivated about the future than the past,” said Aimee Allison, founder of She the People, a liberal group that aims to grow the numbers of women of color in elected office. “They see Kamala Harris as the future, and Republicans see this election as just about Trump. Voters are more likely to be engaged when given the option of ‘more than’ beating Trump.”
But Trump voters also voiced enthusiasm about their candidate, with 64 percent saying their choice was more motivated by backing Trump than opposing Harris.
Voters picked Trump as having a better approach to managing the US economy, 45 percent to 36 percent, a wider margin than Trump had in another Reuters/Ipsos poll this week.
Harris, by contrast, had a 47 percent to 31 percent advantage on abortion policy. The issue is salient for Democrats after the conservative US Supreme Court in 2022 struck down women’s national right to abortion. Trump nominated three conservative justices to the court during his 2017-2021 presidency. Some 41 percent of voters in the poll — and 70 percent of Democrats — said they were worried the next president might sign a national ban on abortions.
The latest poll’s survey period partially overlapped with the Aug. 19-22 Democratic National Convention in Chicago where Harris formally accepted her party’s nomination, and it remains to be seen whether the same level of enthusiasm for Harris will continue.
The poll was conducted nationally and gathered responses from 4,253 US adults, including 3,562 registered voters.
Independent candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who suspended his campaign on Aug. 23 while the poll was still being conducted, had the support of 6 percent of voters in the survey.
Serbia announces $3 billion deal to buy 12 French warplanes, in a shift away from Russia
Macron hails deal as “historic and important” and part of a strategy to bring Serbia closer to the European Union
Russia has been a traditional supplier of military aircraft to Serbia, which has refused to join international sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine
Updated 30 August 2024
AP
BELGRADE, Serbia: Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic on Thursday announced a $3 billion deal to buy 12 French warplanes, in a move that shifts his country away from its dependence on Russian arms.
The announcement about the Rafale multi-purpose fighter jets was made during a joint news conference in Belgrade with French President Emmanuel Macron during a two-day visit to Serbia as part of what French officials have called a strategy of bringing Serbia closer to the European Union.
Macron called called the deal “historic and important,” and said it demonstrated Serbia’s “strategic courage.”
“The European Union needs a strong and democratic Serbia at its side and Serbia needs a strong, sovereign Europe to defend its interests,” Macron said. ″Serbia’s place is in the EU, and it has a role to play to be an example for all the region.”
French President Emmanuel Macron, left, reviews the honor guard along with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic during a welcoming ceremony in Belgrade, Serbia, on Aug. 29, 2024. (AP)
Serbia is formally seeking European Union membership, but under Vucic’s increasingly autocratic rule it has made little progress in the fields of rule of law and democratic reforms, which are the main preconditions for membership in the 27-nation bloc.
Selling Rafales to Russian ally Serbia, which has occasionally expressed an aggressive stance toward its Balkan neighbors, has raised some concerns, one of which is how France plans to prevent sophisticated Rafale technology from being shared with Russia.
Asked about whether the warplane deal includes restrictions on Serbia’s sharing of Rafale technology to its ally Russia, or the use of the military hardware in the Balkan region, Macron said the deal included ″full guarantees like any defense agreement,” without elaborating.
Russia has been a traditional supplier of military aircraft to Serbia, which has refused to join international sanctions against Moscow for its invasion of Ukraine.
Vucic described the purchase of the Rafale jets as a “big” development. “It will contribute considerably to improving operational capabilities of our army, a completely different approach and we are happy to become part of the Rafale club,” Vucic said.
File photo showing a French Air Force Dassault Rafale fighter jet on flight. (Shutterstock)
Vucic dismissed any concerns among Western nations of the possibility that Serbia would transfer technology to Russia because of the Balkan country’s traditional close ties with Moscow.
“For the first time in history Serbia has Western jets,” Vucic said. “You wish to have Serbia as a partner and then you voice suspicions?”
The French maker of Rafale, Dassault Aviation, said in a statement that Serbia’s decision to buy the warplanes confirms “Rafale’s operational superiority and its proven excellence in serving the sovereign interests of a nation.”
Serbia had been considering the purchase of the new Rafale jets for more than two years, since neighboring Balkan rival Croatia purchased 12 used fighter jets of the same type for about 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion).
The acquisition allows Serbia to modernize its air force, which consists mainly of Soviet-made MiG-29 fighters and aging Yugoslav combat aircraft.
Kamala Harris says ceasefire and hostage release deal needed in Gaza
Updated 30 August 2024
Reuters
WASHINGTON: Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris told CNN on Thursday that a ceasefire and hostage release deal was needed in Gaza while she reiterated support for Israel and maintained her position that “too many innocent Palestinians have been killed.”
“Israel has a right to defend itself .. and how it does so matters. Far too many innocent Palestinians have been killed, and we have got to get a deal done,” Harris told CNN in an interview, without offering any change in the current status quo policy.
Afghan refugee accused in a case that shocked US Muslim community reaches plea agreement
Afghan refugee accused in a case that shocked US Muslim community reaches plea agreement
Updated 30 August 2024
AP
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico: An Afghan refugee who was convicted earlier this year of first-degree murder in one of three fatal shootings that shook Albuquerque’s Muslim community in the US has reached a plea agreement that could resolve criminal charges stemming from the other two killings.
Muhammad Syed’s attorneys confirmed Thursday that the agreement will be considered by a state district judge during a hearing Tuesday. Details of the agreement have not been made public.
Syed already faces life in prison for killing 41-year-old Aftab Hussein in July 2022. He was set to stand trial in the second case beginning Tuesday, but those proceedings were canceled amid the discussion about changing his plea.
The three ambush-style killings happened over the course of several days, leaving authorities scrambling to determine if race or religion might have been behind the crimes. It was not long before the investigation shifted away from possible hate crimes to what prosecutors described to jurors during the first trial as the “willful and very deliberate” actions of another member of the Muslim community.
Prosecutors described Syed as having a violent history. His public defenders had argued that previous allegations of domestic violence never resulted in convictions.
The first trial uncovered little about motive, leaving victims’ families hoping that the subsequent trials might shed more light on why the men were targeted.
The other victims included Muhammad Afzaal Hussain, a 27-year-old urban planner who was gunned down Aug. 1, 2022, while taking his evening walk, and Naeem Hussain, who was shot four days later as he sat in his vehicle outside a refugee resettlement agency on the city’s south side.
With the conviction in the case of Aftab Hussein, Syed must serve at least 30 years in prison before he is eligible for parole. His sentencing hearing has not been scheduled.
Shanshan, one of Japan’s strongest typhoons in decades, leaves heavy destruction in its wake
At least 5 people confirmed dead and over 80 injured on Kyushu island and millions of residents told to evacuate
Miyazaki city was hit hard, with heavy floods plus powerful winds knocking down trees, throwing cars from parking lots and shattering windows of some buildings
Updated 22 min 3 sec ago
AFP AP
OITA, Japan: One of Japan’s strongest typhoons in decades dumped torrential rain across southern regions on Thursday, leaving at least five people dead and injuring dozens, local media reported, as authorities warned millions to seek higher ground due to possible flooding and landslides.
Typhoon Shanshan packed gusts of up to 252 kilometers (157 miles) per hour as it smashed into Japan’s main southern island of Kyushu early Thursday, making it the most powerful storm this year and one of the strongest at landfall since 1960.
The storm then weakened, with maximum gusts of 162 kph at 5:00 p.m. (0800 GMT), the weather office said, but it was still dumping heavy rain across Kyushu and beyond as it moved slowly toward the main island of Honshu.
Five people have been found dead in the storm, Jiji Press reported, including a man whose two-story home collapsed in Tokushima Prefecture.
The storm ripped through downtown Miyazaki city on Kyushu, knocking down trees, throwing cars to the side in parking lots and shattering windows of some buildings. The prefectural disaster management task force said about 50 buildings were damaged. Miyazaki was littered with debris from nearly 200 damaged buildings.
NHK public television showed a swollen river in the popular hot spring town of Yufu in Oita prefecture, just north of Miyazaki, with muddy water splashing against a bridge.
More than 80 people were injured across Kyushu, mostly in Miyazaki and Kagoshima. Some were injured by being thrown to the ground by the storm on their way to shelters, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency said.
About 168,000 households were without power across Kyushu, most of them in Kagoshima prefecture, Kyushu Electric Power Co. said.
About 20,000 people took shelter at municipal community centers, school gymnasiums and other facilities across Kyushu, according to prefectural reports.
Ahead of the storm’s arrival, heavy rain triggered a landslide that buried a house in the central city of Gamagori, killing three residents and injuring two others, the city’s disaster management department said.
On the southern island of Amami, which Shanshan passed, one person was injured by being knocked down by a wind gust while riding a motorcycle, the fire agency said.
Weather and government officials are concerned about extensive damage as the storm slowly sweeps up the Japanese archipelago to the northeast over the next few days, threatening more floods and landslides.
In the Tokyo region, Shinkansen bullet trains connecting Tokyo and Osaka were suspended starting Thursday evening due to heavy rain in the central region. Bullet train service also was to be suspended in parts of the western and central regions on Friday.
Disaster Management Minister Yoshifumi Matsumura said Shanshan could cause “unprecedented” levels of violent winds, high waves, storm surges and heavy rain. At a task force meeting on Wednesday, he urged people, especially older adults, not to hesitate and take shelter whenever there is any safety concern.
Hundreds of domestic flights connecting southwestern cities and islands were canceled Thursday, and bullet trains and some local train services were suspended.
As the storm headed northeast, similar steps were taken in parts of the main island of Honshu that were experiencing heavy rain. Postal and delivery services were suspended in the Kyushu region, and supermarkets and other stores planned to close.
The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) warned that “the risk of a disaster due to heavy rain can rapidly escalate in western Japan as Friday approaches.”
Authorities issued their highest alert in several areas of the country, with more than five million people advised to evacuate, although it was unclear how many did.
Kunisaki city in the Oita region of Kyushu warned inhabitants to “evacuate to a safe place or higher place such as the second floor of your house” because of the risk of flooding.
Rains turned rivers into raging torrents while winds smashed windows and blew tiles off roofs. TV images showed flooded roads and power lines being repaired.
Some parts of Miyazaki prefecture saw record rains for August, with the town of Mizato recording a staggering 791.5 millimeters (31 inches) in 48 hours, the JMA said.
Worried student Aoi Nishimoto, 18, said he had called his family in Miyazaki to see if they were safe.
“Our home is fine, but there was a tornado in Miyazaki and power went out in some places,” he told AFP in Kyushu’s main city of Fukuoka.
“This year, I am away from my parents’ home for the first time. So it’s a bit scary being all alone,” fellow student Rio Ohtsuru, 19, told AFP.
“Maybe I will look for a flashlight in case of a power outage,” she said.
Kyushu’s utility operator said 187,010 houses were without power elsewhere on the island.
Shanshan comes in the wake of Typhoon Ampil, which dumped heavy rain that disrupted hundreds of flights and trains this month but caused only minor injuries and damage.
Typhoons in the region have been forming closer to coastlines, intensifying more rapidly and lasting longer over land due to climate change, according to a study released last month.
Another released by World Weather Attribution (WWA) on Thursday said that climate change turbocharged Typhoon Gaemi, which killed dozens of people across the Philippines, Taiwan and China this year.
In the city of Usa, retiree Fukashi Oishi looked forlornly at an old tree opposite his house that was already mature when he was a child but had snapped and fallen on the road.
“Oh, it’s so sad,” he told AFP.
Auto giant Toyota suspended production at all 14 of its factories in Japan.
Nissan and Honda also halted operations at their Kyushu plants, as did chipmakers including Tokyo Electron, reports said.
Kyushu is a hub for the semiconductor industry, with chip giant Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company opening a plant there in February.
Japan Airlines and ANA canceled more than 1,000 domestic flights and four international flights for Thursday and Friday, affecting more than 44,000 passengers.
Rail operators suspended most Shinkansen bullet trains between Kyushu’s Hakata and Tokyo, and said services would be disrupted elsewhere on Friday.
