Philippines says to evacuate thousands from Lebanon if Israel invades

Philippines says to evacuate thousands from Lebanon if Israel invades
Israeli bombing of Iran-backed Hezbollah strongholds around neighboring Lebanon has killed hundreds of people this week, while the militant group has retaliated with rocket barrages. (AP)
Short Url
Updated 14 sec ago
Follow

Philippines says to evacuate thousands from Lebanon if Israel invades

Philippines says to evacuate thousands from Lebanon if Israel invades
  • Israeli bombing of Iran-backed Hezbollah strongholds around neighboring Lebanon has killed hundreds of people this week, while the militant group has retaliated with rocket barrages

MANILA: The Philippines said on Friday it will evacuate 11,000 citizens from Lebanon the moment Israeli forces cross the border to launch a ground offensive against Hezbollah.
Israeli bombing of Iran-backed Hezbollah strongholds around neighboring Lebanon has killed hundreds of people this week, while the militant group has retaliated with rocket barrages.
Israel has rejected a US-backed 21-day ceasefire call, and its military chief has told soldiers to prepare for a possible ground offensive.
“A ground invasion will lead to mandatory repatriation,” Foreign Undersecretary Eduardo de Vega said at a press conference in Manila, adding the plan was to move thousands out of the country via the sea.
He did not provide other details.
Manila had earlier urged Filipinos to leave Lebanon before airlines stopped flying to Beirut but most of its citizens did not heed the call, Filipino diplomats said.
Millions of Filipinos work overseas — with large numbers concentrated in the Middle East — due to limited job opportunities at home. Around 90 percent of those working in Lebanon are women migrant domestic workers.
“To some of them, getting killed in war is preferable to starving to death,” de Vega said, adding there have so far been no Filipino casualties from the Israeli air campaign against Hezbollah.
After Israel’s war with Hamas erupted last year following the Palestinian militant group’s October 7 attack, Manila began voluntary repatriations of its citizens from the areas affected by the fighting.
The conflict has since spilled into Lebanon, with Israel’s ongoing bombardments in the country raising fears of an all-out regional war in the Middle East.
So far, only 500 Filipinos have taken up the government’s offer to leave Lebanon, De Vega said.
Filipino ambassador to Beirut Raymond Balatbat said 196 Filipinos have fled southern Lebanon, where the Israeli campaign has been concentrated.
Most Filipinos working in the country are based in central Lebanon around Beirut, he added.
Anthony Mandap, consul-general at the Philippine embassy in Tel Aviv, said there are no plans as of now to repatriate some 30,000 Filipinos working in Israel.


Trump, Starmer meet for two-hour New York dinner: reports

Trump, Starmer meet for two-hour New York dinner: reports
Updated 43 sec ago
Follow

Trump, Starmer meet for two-hour New York dinner: reports

Trump, Starmer meet for two-hour New York dinner: reports
LONDON: Keir Starmer met Donald Trump in New York for a two-hour dinner, the first meeting for the new British Prime Minister and the former US President, media reports said on Friday.
Trump, the Republican nominee in November’s US election, hosted the Labour Party leader at Trump Tower on Thursday, the BBC, The Guardian and The Daily Mail reported.
Speaking ahead of the meeting, Trump told reporters: “I actually think he’s very nice. He ran a great race. He did very well. It’s very early. He’s very popular.”
Starmer won a landslide election victory in the UK’s July general election, ousting the Conservatives after 14 years in power.
Starmer said it was important for him to meet both candidates in the US election but that “diary challenges” meant it had not been possible to schedule a meeting with Vice President and Democrat nominee Kamala Harris.
“We’ve now got the opportunity to meet Trump, which is good,” he said.
Trump and Starmer were also joined by Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Lammy, who has made scathing remarks about Trump in the past.
In 2018, Lammy called Trump “a woman-hating, neo-Nazi-sympathizing sociopath.”
However, Lammy was more diplomatic earlier this year, saying in a speech that Trump’s “attitude to European security is often misunderstood.”
Starmer has taken a neutral stance on the US election, although experts say a Trump presidency could pose difficulties, particularly with doubts over the Republican’s support for NATO and Ukraine.
Starmer was in New York attending the United Nations General Assembly.

Comoros FM accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza

Comoros FM accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza
Updated 29 min 23 sec ago
Follow

Comoros FM accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza

Comoros FM accuses Israel of genocide in Gaza
  • ‘Our country extends its full support to the brotherly people of Palestine,’ Mbae Mohamed tells UN General Assembly — Expresses ‘great concern’ over Sudan civil war, urges ‘all parties’ to ‘protect the civilian populati

WASHINGTON: Mbae Mohamed, the foreign minister of Comoros, on Thursday said his country fully supports the Palestinian people’s quest of independence and freedom from the Israeli occupation, and called for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

“The indiscriminate killing of Palestinians by Israel is the purest form of genocide perpetrated by Israeli forces in Gaza which we condemn, and there’s an urgent need to end it,” Mbae Mohamed told the UN General Assembly.

He urged the international community to act immediately to bring a halt to Israel’s war on Gaza, adding that more than 41,000 Palestinians — including women and children — have been killed, and most buildings and civilian infrastructure in the enclave have been completely destroyed.

“Our country extends its full support to the brotherly people of Palestine, and we call on the international community to act for an immediate ceasefire and rapid resumption of deliveries of humanitarian assistance,” Mohamed said.

Comoros also views the situation in the occupied West Bank with “great concern” as Israeli settlers and army units use extreme violence against Palestinians there, he added.

More than 500 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank since last October, according to the UN.

Mohamed said Comoros supports a fair and lasting solution to end Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories, rooted in international law and relevant UN resolutions that call for a two-state solution with East Jerusalem as Palestine’s capital.

He “applauded” the UNGA’s overwhelming vote in May calling on the Security Council to grant Palestine full UN membership while enhancing its rights and privileges.

Mohamad, whose nation is a member of the Arab League and the African Union, said Comoros is greatly concerned about the civil war in Sudan that has killed thousands and displaced around 10 million people, according to UN figures.

“The situation in Sudan is of great concern to us, and we call on all parties to exercise restraint and to protect the civilian population from the atrocities of war,” he said.


37 dead in sectarian fighting in northwestern Pakistan

37 dead in sectarian fighting in northwestern Pakistan
Updated 27 September 2024
Follow

37 dead in sectarian fighting in northwestern Pakistan

37 dead in sectarian fighting in northwestern Pakistan
  • Tribal and family feuds are common in Pakistan
Peshawar: The death toll from ongoing sectarian clashes in northwest Pakistan has risen to at least 37, with more than 150 injured in fighting that has raged for a sixth straight day, a local official told AFP on Friday.
The Kurram district, formerly a semi-autonomous area, has a history of bloody confrontations between tribes belonging to the Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam that have claimed hundreds of lives over the years.
July clashes over land involving the same tribes killed 35 people and ended only after a jirga (tribal council) called a ceasefire, with officials attempting to broker a new truce.
Fighting involving heavy weaponry has continued in 10 areas of the district despite efforts by security forces and locals to reach an agreement, an official posted in Kurram told AFP requesting anonymity.
“What began as a land dispute has escalated into a full-fledged sectarian clash involving the use of automatic and semi-automatic weapons, as well as mortar shells,” he said.
He added that 37 people had been killed and another 153 wounded. Another security official, stationed in the provincial capital Peshawar, added that “28 houses have been damaged.”
Tribal and family feuds are common in Pakistan.
However, they can be particularly protracted and violent in the mountainous northwestern region of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, where communities abide by traditional tribal honor codes.
In Pakistan, a predominantly Sunni Muslim country, the Shiite community has long suffered discrimination and violence.

Britain’s PM urges Israel and Hezbollah to ‘step back from brink’ of war

Britain’s PM urges Israel and Hezbollah to ‘step back from brink’ of war
Updated 27 September 2024
Follow

Britain’s PM urges Israel and Hezbollah to ‘step back from brink’ of war

Britain’s PM urges Israel and Hezbollah to ‘step back from brink’ of war
  • Diplomacy vital for peace, Keir Starmer tells 79th UN General Assembly
  • UK to break from past ‘paternalism,’ listen more to solve global conflict

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer warned members of the UN General Assembly on Thursday that the world was in a “slide into greater and greater conflict, instability and injustice,” and called on Israel and Hezbollah to stand down.

Starmer said the UK would return to “responsible global leadership,” suggesting the country would play a greater role in helping to bring peace to war-torn regions of the world, including in Middle East.

“This starts with addressing the rising tide of conflict and preventing a regional war in the Middle East.

“I call on Israel and Hezbollah: Stop the violence, step back from the brink. We need to see an immediate ceasefire to provide space for a diplomatic settlement,” Starmer said at the 79th UN General Assembly meeting.

“And we are working with all partners to that end, because further escalation serves no one. It offers nothing but more suffering for innocent people on all sides, and the prospect of a wider wall that no one can control, and with consequences that none of us can foresee.”

Starmer said the continuing crisis in Gaza was an indictment of the international community.

“This is intimately linked with the situation in Gaza where again, we need to see an immediate ceasefire. It shames us all that the suffering in Gaza continues to grow. The answer is diplomacy, the release of all the hostages, and the unfettered flow of aid to those in need,” Starmer said.

“That is the only way to break this devastating cycle of violence and begin the journey towards a political solution for the long term which delivers the long-promised Palestinian state alongside a safe and secure Israel.”

He added: “Conflict touches more countries now than at any time in the history of this assembly around the world, more fires are breaking out and burning with ever greater intensity. Exacting a terrible toll in Gaza, Lebanon, Ukraine, Sudan, Myanmar, Yemen, and beyond.”

On Sudan, Starmer said it was the “worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.” And added: “We need to see greater action to deliver aid and to deliver peace. The world cannot look away. And we must stand up for international law.”

On Iran, Starmer said Tehran was not fulfilling its obligations. “Iran continues to expand its nuclear activity in violation of its international commitments.”

On the uses of artificial intelligence, he said: “Incredible new technologies like AI are being deployed for military use without agreed rules. These are difficult challenges to grip and too urgent to ignore. That’s why the new Pact for the Future is so important.

“We must put new energy and creativity into conflict resolution and conflict prevention, reverse the trend towards ever-greater violence, make the institutions of peace fit for purpose, and hold members to their commitments under the UN Charter.”

He called for a structural revamp of the UN Security Council to achieve these goals, and make it “a more representative body, willing to act — not paralyzed by politics.

“We want to see permanent African representation on the council, Brazil, India, Japan and Germany as permanent members and more seats for elected members as well.

“Finally, to support this, we will also change how the UK does things. Moving from the paternalism of the past towards partnership for the future. Listening a lot more, speaking a bit less. Offering game-changing British expertise and working together in the spirit of equal respect.”

Starmer has served as UK prime minister since 2024 and as leader of the Labour Party since 2020.


Harris says the right to be safe is a civil right as Biden signs order on gun technology

Harris says the right to be safe is a civil right as Biden signs order on gun technology
Updated 27 September 2024
Follow

Harris says the right to be safe is a civil right as Biden signs order on gun technology

Harris says the right to be safe is a civil right as Biden signs order on gun technology
  • Harris said the American people have a right to “live, work, worship and learn without fear of violence — including gun violence”
  • Gun violence continues to plague the nation. There have been at least 31 mass killings in the US so far in 2024, leaving at least 135 people dead

WASHINGTON: Vice President Kamala Harris said Thursday she believes the right to be safe is a civil right — and that means a right to live free from gun violence — as President Joe Biden signed an executive order that seeks to restrict new technologies that make guns easier to fire and obtain.
“It is a false choice to suggest you are either in favor of the Second Amendment, or you want to take everyone’s guns away,” Harris said during an event at the White House. “I am in favor of the Second Amendment and I believe we need to reinstate the assault weapons ban.”
Harris said the American people have a right to “live, work, worship and learn without fear of violence — including gun violence.”
The Democratic nominee for president leads the first-ever White House office of gun violence prevention, which aims to curb violence, help communities recover from the trauma of that violence and coordinate the federal response. But Harris often says during campaigning that she’s a gun owner and insists she doesn’t want to take weapons away from responsible firearms owners.
The president sat down as a crowd gathered around him to sign the order, then he handed the pen to Harris.
“Keep it going, boss,” he said.
The order directs the president’s staff to research how active shooter drills may cause trauma to students and educators in an effort to help schools create drills that maximize effectiveness and limit harm.
“We just have to do better and can do better,” Biden said, also calling for better funding for federal law enforcement. “Never thought I’d have to sign something like this, but we do.”
The order also establishes a task force to investigate the threats posed by machine-gun-conversion devices, which can turn a semi-automatic pistol into a fully automatic firearm, and will look at the growing prevalence of 3D-printed guns, which are printed from an Internet code, are easy to make and have no serial numbers so law enforcement can’t track them. The task force has to report back in 90 days — not long before Biden is due to leave office.
The president has promised he and his administration will work through the end of the term, focusing on the issues most important to him. Curbing gun violence has been at the top of the 81-year-old president’s list.
He often says he has consoled too many victims and traveled to the scenes of too many mass shootings. Biden was instrumental in the passage of gun safety legislation and has sought to ban assault weapons. But there’s more to do, he says, and he’ll continue to work after he leaves office.
“It’s time we establish universal background checks and require safe storage of firearms,” Biden said. “Start holding parents accountable for being negligent.”
Overall, stricter gun laws are desired by a majority of Americans, regardless of what the current gun laws are in their state. That desire could be tied to some Americans’ perceptions of what fewer guns could mean for the country — namely, fewer mass shootings.
Gun violence continues to plague the nation. Four people were killed and 17 others injured when multiple shooters opened fire Saturday at a popular nightlife spot in Birmingham, Alabama, in what police described as a targeted “hit” on one of the people killed.
Birmingham Mayor Randall Woodfin, in introducing the president, told the crowd about his personal experience with gun violence. His brother was shot to death and he heard his mother’s screams of pain.
“I heard that scream again this past Saturday, as the lives of four people were stolen and 17 other victims were shot during the horrific mass shooting in Birmingham,” he said.
Woodfin said curbing gun violence should not be partisan. “Saving lives should not be a Democrat or a Republican thing. Saving lives is the most American thing we can do together,” he said.
As of Thursday, there have been at least 31 mass killings in the US so far in 2024, leaving at least 135 people dead, not including shooters who died, according to a database maintained by The Associated Press and USA Today in partnership with Northeastern University.
The order was praised by gun-control groups, but criticized by Randy Kozuch, executive director of the NRA Institute for Legislative Action, who said it was “just one more attempt by the Biden-Harris Administration to deflect attention from their soft-on-crime policies that have emboldened criminals in our country.”