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Biden hits back at Trump’s ‘dangerous’ claim hush-money trial was rigged

alasan bae — Sat, 01 Jun 2024 03:58:15 +0000

Biden hits back at Trump’s ‘dangerous’ claim hush-money trial was riggedUS president says it is ‘reckless’ and ‘irresponsible’ for Republicans to malign integrity of America’s justice system

Joe Biden warned on Friday that it was reckless and “dangerous” for anyone to claim Donald Trump’s criminal conviction was the result of a rigged trial, as the former president hit out at the verdict against him and Republicans maligned the integrity of America’s justice system.

Donald Trump hit out furiously on Friday morning at the new status of “felon” conferred on him by a New York jury, whose guilty verdict made him the first former US president ever to become a convicted criminal.

On Friday afternoon, Biden began a White House talk about the war in Gaza with remarks on criticism from Trump and the right wing about the historic trial that had concluded in New York the day before.

The US president said: “It is reckless, it is dangerous, it is irresponsible for anyone to say this was rigged, just because they don’t like the verdict. The US justice system has endured for nearly 250 years and is literally a cornerstone of America.”

He added that the system and the justice it produced should be respected.

“And we should never allow anyone to tear it down, simple as that, that’s America,” Biden said.

The war of words came a day after Trump was found guilty of all 34 charges he had faced. On Friday morning, the ex-president painted himself as a victim of injustice in a rambling and often incoherent appearance at Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan, at which he labelled his opponents “fascists” and blamed his legal plight on Joe Biden.

Trump was unanimously convicted by a jury of falsifying business records in a criminal hush-money scheme to influence the outcome of the 2016 election.

Speaking at Trump Tower in Manhattan to cheers from his supporters, Trump set the tone immediately by declaring himself innocent and revisiting populist election-campaign warnings.

He said: “If they can do this to me, they can do this to anyone.”

The event had been billed as a press conference, but Trump took no questions.

Instead, he lapsed into a 30-odd-minute monologue that hammered on familiar, inflammatory themes. He criticized the trial and peppered the speech with falsehoods and conspiracy theories that threatened bad things to come if he were not returned to the White House this November, including anti-immigrant rhetoric.

Meanwhile, his legal team had already embarked on a counter-offensive to the criminal conviction, aimed at overturning Thursday’s verdict.

With the 2024 presidential election campaign propelled deep into uncharted territory, Todd Blanche, Trump’s attorney, went on national television to make a spirited though measured defense of his client, vowing to lodge an appeal.

The jury found that Trump falsified documents related to hush money paid to Stormy Daniels, shortly before the 2016 presidential election, to silence her story that she slept with him earlier in his marriage to Melania Trump.

Appearing on NBC, Blanche insisted Trump’s defense had not been given “a fair shake” during the trial.

“We’re going to appeal and we’re going to win on appeal,” Blanche told NBC Today’s Savannah Guthrie. “That’s the goal. The goal is … to appeal quickly and hopefully be vindicated quickly.”

Trump now faces the prospect of rewriting the record books further, if he were to be sent to jail when the judge, Juan Merchan, sentences him on 11 July, four days before the Republican national convention in Milwaukee, where Trump is scheduled to be officially anointed as the party’s presidential nominee for this November’s election.

Some analysts predict that the prospect of a custodial sentence has risen because of Trump’s repeated breaking of gag orders during the six-week trial and his condemnation of Merchant as “corrupt and conflicted” after Thursday’s verdict.

But Blanche played down that possibility, pointing to Trump’s advanced age and his previous lack of a criminal record.

The Manhattan district attorney, Alvin Bragg, who led the case against Trump and also was attacked by the former president, has yet to announce whether he will request a prison sentence.

Trump pointedly linked his prosecution and the verdict with Biden, whom he labelled “the Manchurian candidate” and “the worst president in our history”, as well as “stupid” and “dishonest”.

“They are in total conjunction with the White House, the DoJ, just so you understand, this is all done by Biden and his people,” he said, referring to the legal team that led the prosecution and presumably Merchan, whom he called — among other things — “a tyrant”.

The president’s re-election campaign team had commented on Thursday. Michael Tyler, the Biden campaign communications director, said: “No one is above the law. Donald Trump has always mistakenly believed he would never face consequences for breaking the law for his own personal gain.”

Jadon Sancho’s redemption arc leads to shot at glory under Wembley arch

alasan bae — Fri, 31 May 2024 03:36:37 +0000

Borussia Dortmund are reaping the rewards of renewing relationship with their big-name loanee by reaching the Champions League final

Borussia Dortmund’s legends team made a trip to Glasgow last Sunday to play their Celtic counterparts, raising funds for the Scottish champions’ foundation. Maybe Dortmund fans do not need any prodding towards nostalgic sentiments at the moment, as their team prepare to return to Wembley for a Champions League final 11 years on from their last one. Same stage, same place.

Nevertheless, there was plenty to comfort those wanting to relive the Jürgen Klopp glory years. Six of the players involved at Wembley in 2013 — Roman Weidenfeller, Lukasz Piszczek, Jakub Blaszczykowski, Marcel Schmelzer, Kevin Grosskreutz, and Oliver Kirch — played at Celtic Park, a welcome chime of past glories before the push to create a new landmark against Real Madrid, going one better than back then.

The way these names trip off the tongue and the images they conjure (along with Marco Reus, playing his last game for the club in this final) is a stark reminder of where this BVB generation is, though.

They do not feel like a particularly historic Dortmund vintage. It has been a season of largely uneven performances, scruffy tactics and serial underachievement as they struggled to get over the last-day heartbreak of relinquishing the Bundesliga title to Bayern Munich last year.

There are names — Emre Can, Marcel Sabitzer, Julian Brandt and more — and a coach in Edin Terzic who represents Dortmund through and through, heart and soul. But even if BVB triumph on Saturday this will not go down as one of the club’s all-time great teams. More of a Liverpool 2005, full of curios and surprises, rather than Ottmar Hitzfeld’s personality-heavy Dortmund of 1997, a collection of born winners.

Perhaps the most telling sign of Dortmund’s state of flux is that one of those most likely to recommend himself for future legend status besides Reus and Mats Hummels is a loan player. Jadon Sancho’s return to Signal Iduna Park in January was a clear product of the club’s bind, as well as the player’s. After a clear lack of transfer strategy over years rather than months, Sancho’s temporary return from Manchester United was not so much a precise plan, but two parties badly in need of a boost and a feeling of we were great together before, so why not again?

Even if the sporting fit was questionable, the will for it to work on both sides has always been clear, from the just-before-midnight fitness check the club staged for him before the re-signing in early January (“this must be the latest medical ever,” Sancho said to the club staff, apologetically) to Terzic’s booming greeting for him from a first-floor window on his first morning in at the Brackel training ground.

If ever there was a place to nurse the winger back to his best, this was it. Sancho is home, as he puts it. He is not like other loan players. Children on matchdays wear shirts with his new No 10 on the back and the FanWelt sells scarves including an image of his face.

The response of the club’s X account to England’s Euro 2024 squad announcement was typical, his omission met with the bulging eyes emoji coupled with a photo of Sancho. He would not receive this warmth or loyalty at any other club and it seems it is reciprocal.

The 24-year-old has been everything back in Dortmund Erik ten Hag appeared to suggest he wasn’t: humble, hard-working and engaged. Not that this version of Sancho is unfamiliar in Germany. Not only was he incredibly productive in his first spell but he knew when to knuckle down, arguably because the club always employed a fine balance between carrot and stick.

When he returned, the BVB management decided they would deal with him with kid gloves rather than an iron fist. Whether it was for six months or eventually for longer, the affection for Sancho at the club has been evident in the patience they have shown him with Terzic, his biggest champion, taking the reins.

He and the club knew that piecing a player and a person in a fragile state back together would take time. For him, forgetting the details of contracts, burned bridges or the context of permanent or temporary was important. Finding his happy self in his happy place was all that mattered.

There has been reward of sorts. What Dortmund and Sancho could be together was clear in the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain, by some distance his best performance since coming back.

Everyone wants to believe in the redemption arc and on that night at Signal Iduna Park he was sensational, underlining his elite incision, sense of mischief and that he is more than capable of putting up a good level of defensive effort for the team when required. To see Sancho dare to play like Sancho was pure joy.

Those watching from a distance took it as clear evidence that Sancho Is Back, the player of three years ago. The truth is a little more nuanced. He has been many things since he has been back: motivated, flawed, applied, vulnerable. What he has not been is consistent. The numbers of that first spell speak for themselves: 137 games, 50 goals, 64 assists; phenomenal statistics that would have been hard to match even had he not returned lacking confidence and match sharpness, shortcomings evident in his second Dortmund spell.

He is more than aware of that, confessing after scoring against PSV Eindhoven in the last 16 in March: “I can understand that the fans expect a lot of me. I do as well.”

A few days before Sancho reminded the world of his ability against the French champions, Terzic talked of Sancho needing time to get back to the level he reached before. His display in the return at the Parc des Princes was more indicative of his output back at Dortmund: willing, committed, with plenty of moments of promise and slivers of his immense talent, but still a distance from his best.

But this is Wembley and Sancho is a big-time player who shows up at big-time moments, as that night against PSG reminded us. Twelve miles east of where he made his first big step into the game when moving from south London to board at Harefield in Watford’s academy at the age of 11, he gets to take a shot at glory that seemed beyond improbable at Christmas and to play himself into Dortmund immortality.

‘He is a legend’: Real Madrid voices on Toni Kroos before his final club game

alasan bae — Thu, 30 May 2024 03:13:04 +0000

Champions League final will be midfielder’s last in all white before he bows out at Euro 2024

Carlo Ancelotti: His decision to go is the decision of a great, a decision of character. We are saying farewell to a footballing great who we have been lucky to have here. He is a great midfielder with huge quality and fantastic character, with little ego, who always played for the team; very altruistic. We have been lucky to have him for 10 years. Toni could close his career with a Champions League and at an individual level he deserves it. But his career doesn’t need another Champions League. He has been a fantastic player for 10 years, he had made history with Real Madrid and in world football.

Eduardo Camavinga: Toni doesn’t say much but when he does, he kills you. I like that about him.

Vinícius Júnior: If you said I could win this final, win the Copa América and Toni would win the Ballon d’Or, I would sign up for that right now. It’s his last year, we won’t see him play again and it’s a pity. We understand his decision and he understands that we’re all sad about it. We are all saying we have to play [this final] for Toni because it’s his last game. He’s an even better person than the player he is. He has been important not just for the club but, above all, for the young players who have turned up here. All of us had seen Toni on the telly and to get to see him every day was special. Toni makes it easier for everyone. He controls the game, always. When there’s pressure, you know if you give the ball to him he’s not going to lose it. He deserves the farewell he got, all the people who were there for him at the Bernabéu, and now we have to do this for him.

Jude Bellingham: It’s not about replacing Kroos directly, it is about looking at what he gives us and finding ways that as a team we can plug that hole. His is a role that’s unique. Toni Kroos is a one-of-a-kind player. He can do things no one else in world football can do.

Dani Carvajal: I would give him a 10 out of 10. No player would ever speak badly of Toni. Everyone has seen his level and it’s been so consistent too. In the dressing room, he is a fantastic person, he has a fantastic family and he deserves all the good things that happen to him.

Joselu: He has treated me like a brother. He embraced me when I came, welcomed me, he has been very good with me this year. The little German I speak, I have been lucky enough that has helped me communicate with him. As a player, I hardly need to say anything: everyone has seen him. He should have won two or three Ballons d’Or. In his position there is no player like him.

Fede Valverde: I was surprised. I expected Toni to be around for many more years. But him retiring when he did speaks to the great player he is. There are few players who choose to retire in moments of glory. Anything I say about Toni will always fall short. Playing with him was a dream come true. Off the pitch he is even better. As a person he is incredible. I would love to wear the No 8. I have spoken to him about him. Numbers don’t mean much to me, what matters is that it comes from him, that he wore it, and that he said he wants me to wear it. That’s unique for me, very emotional. I appreciate that he did it privately, that he spoke to me alone. That shows what a great person he is.

Luca Modric: I would give the Ballon d’Or to a Madrid player. The favourites are Vinícius, Bellingham and Kroos. Because of our relationship, how close we are and how long we have been together, I would like it to be Toni. When a player goes, it’s always a pity. Especially a player like Toni. I have been with him at Madrid for 10 years and he’s one of the players I have most enjoyed playing with in my career. It’s sad but it’s his decision and, talking to him, he’s very calm, at peace with his decision. It’s a pity people aren’t going to enjoy his football any more because, for sure, he could have given more. But you have to respect his decision.

Antonio Rüdiger: I met him in the national team but we hadn’t been that close. Quite honestly, I had a different perception of him, but when I arrived here I came to know the real Toni Kroos. A great guy who loves his family, who I respect a lot. I see him and I see an example to follow, because the way he treats his family I haven’t seen in any other footballer. I don’t need to talk about Kroos the footballer because in Germany he is without doubt the best we have had and he is a legend at Real Madrid.

‘Hong Kong 47’ trial: first verdicts due after national security crackdown

alasan bae — Thu, 30 May 2024 01:50:00 +0000

‘Hong Kong 47’ trial: first verdicts due after national security crackdownSixteen of the 47 pro-democracy campaigners have denied charges of subversion for organising pre-election primaries in landmark caseJudges in Hong Kong are set to start delivering verdicts on Thursday in the territory’s largest national security prosecution yet, with 16 of the “Hong Kong 47” pro-democracy campaigners awaiting their fate in a landmark case.

The 16 have pleaded not guilty to charges of subversion for organising pre-election primaries, and are among the cohort who were detained in mass dawn raids by national security police in January 2021.

Charges of “conspiracy to subvert state power” were eventually laid against them, under the national security law which had been introduced seven months earlier.

The remaining 31 who pleaded guilty are still awaiting the outcomes of their cases. The judges had decided to complete the trial of the others before moving on to sentencing.

The 10-month trial finished in December, more than 1,000 days after the cohort had first been arrested. Beginning Thursday, judges are expected to spend at least two days delivering their verdicts against the 16 defendants, including one organiser of the primaries and 15 candidates.

Most of the 47 had been denied bail, including Jimmy Sham, who was labelled a “determined and resolute young man” for continuing to insist on the five demands of the pro-democracy protesters, and 65-year-old former legislator Claudia Mo, whose WhatsApp messages with western journalists in the preceding years had been cited as evidence she was a national security risk.

The prosecution of the Hong Kong 47 has been extensively criticised by foreign governments, human rights groups and the defendants’ lawyers. The arrests themselves were criticised as politically motivated. Others accused Hong Kong of denying procedural fairness with a judge-only trial, and hearing dates that stretched out over the course of months with repeated delays.

The court system — already under strain after the arrest of thousands during the 2019 protests — appeared to struggle with such a large group of accused.The pre-election primaries were held on 11 and 12 July 2020, organised by legal scholar and activist Benny Tai. Tai was also an organiser of the 2014 “umbrella movement” protests, for which he served four months of a 16-month prison sentence.

Days prior, Hong Kong minister Erick Tsang warned in an interview that the primaries could violate the national security law (NSL), which had been active for a bit more than a week.

The informal primaries went ahead, as they had done in previous years for both sides of politics, and more than 600,000 residents took part in what many observers characterised as a protest vote against the Hong Kong government. More than six months later, the organisers, candidates, and workers involved were arrested, with most later released. A senior police official told media the plans of the organisers amounted to subversion.

The Hong Kong government crackdown has left the city with essentially no active political opposition. Scores have been arrested or jailed, others scared into silence. Many have fled overseas, including some who were facing charges. The Hong Kong government has issued large bounties for several “fugitives”, leading several countries hosting exiled Hongkongers to tear up their bilateral extradition agreements.

Michael Mo, a former district councillor and academic now based overseas, said on X on the eve of the hearing that organising an unofficial primary has never been, and should never be, considered subversion. “For people like us, who are living in exile, we should make those who stifled the city’s freedom pay their price.”

In March, the government introduced another national security law, known as Article 23. The law does not supersede the existing NSL, but fulfils a long-held constitutional obligation for the territory to enact its own legislation.

This week saw the first arrests under the new law, of six people accused of publishing messages with seditious intent ahead of “an upcoming sensitive date”, according to police.

Spying, hacking and intimidation: Israel’s nine-year ‘war’ on the ICC exposed

alasan bae — Tue, 28 May 2024 02:39:54 +0000

When the chief prosecutor of the international criminal court (ICC) announced he was seeking arrest warrants against Israeli and Hamas leaders, he issued a cryptic warning: “I insist that all attempts to impede, intimidate or improperly influence the officials of this court must cease immediately.”

Karim Khan did not provide specific details of attempts to interfere in the ICC’s work, but he noted a clause in the court’s foundational treaty that made any such interference a criminal offence. If the conduct continued, he added, “my office will not hesitate to act”.

The prosecutor did not say who had attempted to intervene in the administration of justice, or how exactly they had done so.

Now, an investigation by the Guardian and the Israeli-based magazines +972 and Local Call can reveal how Israel has run an almost decade-long secret “war” against the court. The country deployed its intelligence agencies to surveil, hack, pressure, smear and allegedly threaten senior ICC staff in an effort to derail the court’s inquiries.

Israeli intelligence captured the communications of numerous ICC officials, including Khan and his predecessor as prosecutor, Fatou Bensouda, intercepting phone calls, messages, emails and documents.

The surveillance was ongoing in recent months, providing Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, with advance knowledge of the prosecutor’s intentions. A recent intercepted communication suggested that Khan wanted to issue arrest warrants against Israelis but was under “tremendous pressure from the United States”, according to a source familiar with its contents.

Bensouda, who as chief prosecutor opened the ICC’s investigation in 2021, paving the way for last week’s announcement, was also spied on and allegedly threatened.

Netanyahu has taken a close interest in the intelligence operations against the ICC, and was described by one intelligence source as being “obsessed” with intercepts about the case. Overseen by his national security advisers, the efforts involved the domestic spy agency, the Shin Bet, as well as the military’s intelligence directorate, Aman, and cyber-intelligence division, Unit 8200. Intelligence gleaned from intercepts was, sources said, disseminated to government ministries of justice, foreign affairs and strategic affairs.

A covert operation against Bensouda, revealed on Tuesday by the Guardian, was run personally by Netanyahu’s close ally Yossi Cohen, who was at the time the director of Israel’s foreign intelligence agency, the Mossad. At one stage, the spy chief even enlisted the help of the then president of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Joseph Kabila.

Details of Israel’s nine-year campaign to thwart the ICC’s inquiry have been uncovered by the Guardian, an Israeli-Palestinian publication +972 Magazine and Local Call, a Hebrew-language outlet.

The joint investigation draws on interviews with more than two dozen current and former Israeli intelligence officers and government officials, senior ICC figures, diplomats and lawyers familiar with the ICC case and Israel’s efforts to undermine it.

Contacted by the Guardian, a spokesperson for the ICC said it was aware of “proactive intelligence-gathering activities being undertaken by a number of national agencies hostile towards the court”. They said the ICC was continually implementing countermeasures against such activity, and that “none of the recent attacks against it by national intelligence agencies” had penetrated the court’s core evidence holdings, which had remained secure.

A spokesperson for Israel’s prime minister’s office said: “The questions forwarded to us are replete with many false and unfounded allegations meant to hurt the state of Israel.” A military spokesperson added: “The IDF [Israel Defense Forces] did not and does not conduct surveillance or other intelligence operations against the ICC.”

Since it was established in 2002, the ICC has served as a permanent court of last resort for the prosecution of individuals accused of some of the world’s worst atrocities. It has charged the former Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, the late Libyan president Muammar Gaddafi and most recently, the Russian president, Vladimir Putin.

Khan’s decision to seek warrants against Netanyahu and his defence minister, Yoav Gallant, along with Hamas leaders implicated in the 7 October attack, marks the first time an ICC prosecutor has sought arrest warrants against the leader of a close western ally.

The allegations of war crimes and crimes against humanity that Khan has levelled against Netanyahu and Gallant all relate to Israel’s eight-month war in Gaza, which according to the territory’s health authority has killed more than 35,000 people.

But the ICC case has been a decade in the making, inching forward amid rising alarm among Israeli officials at the possibility of arrest warrants, which would prevent those accused from travelling to any of the court’s 124 member states for fear of arrest.

It is this spectre of prosecutions in The Hague that one former Israeli intelligence official said had led the “entire military and political establishment” to regard the counteroffensive against the ICC “as a war that had to be waged, and one that Israel needed to be defended against. It was described in military terms.”

That “war” commenced in January 2015, when it was confirmed that Palestine would join the court after it was recognised as a state by the UN general assembly. Its accession was condemned by Israeli officials as a form of “diplomatic terrorism”.

One former defence official familiar with Israel’s counter-ICC effort said joining the court had been “perceived as the crossing of a red line” and “perhaps the most aggressive” diplomatic move taken by the Palestinian Authority, which governs the West Bank. “To be recognised as a state in the UN is nice,” they added. “But the ICC is a mechanism with teeth.”A person with direct knowledge of Israel’s preparation for the back-channel meetings said officials in the justice ministry were furnished with intelligence that had been gleaned from Israeli surveillance intercepts before delegations arrived at The Hague. “The lawyers who dealt with the issue at the justice ministry had a big thirst for intelligence information,” they said.

For the Israelis, the back-channel meetings, while sensitive, presented a unique opportunity to directly present legal arguments challenging the prosecutor’s jurisdiction over the Palestinian territories.

They also sought to convince the prosecutor that, despite the Israeli military’s highly questionable record of investigating wrongdoing in its ranks, it had robust procedures for holding its armed forces to account.

This was a critical issue for Israel. A core ICC principle, known as complementarity, prevents the prosecutor from investigating or trying individuals if they are the subject of credible state-level investigations or criminal proceedings.

Israeli surveillance operatives were asked to find out which specific incidents might form part of a future ICC prosecution, multiple sources said, in order to enable Israeli investigative bodies to “open investigations retroactively” in the same cases.

“If materials were transferred to the ICC, we had to understand exactly what they were, to ensure that the IDF investigated them independently and sufficiently so that they could claim complementarity,” one source explained.

Israel’s back-channel meetings with the ICC ended in December 2019, when Bensouda, announcing the end of her preliminary examination, said she believed there was a “reasonable basis” to conclude that Israel and Palestinian armed groups had both committed war crimes in the occupied territories.

‘Putin’s patience snapped’: Insiders marvel at Russia’s military purge

alasan bae — Mon, 27 May 2024 04:06:17 +0000

Under new defence minister Andrei Belousov, FSB is tackling corruption aggressively with serious implications for UkraineIn the weeks since Vladimir Putin sacked his longtime defence minister Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s FSB security service has pursued a series of high-level corruption cases against a deputy minister and department heads in what many insiders are now calling a purge in the defence ministry.

Andrei Belousov, the technocrat economist appointed to replace Shoigu, has a mandate to reduce corruption in the defence ministry and streamline military production for a long war against Ukraine that could largely be decided by industrial output.

But former defence and Kremlin officials, ex-officers and foreign observers have said it was likely the exit of Shoigu and loss of his protection that has allowed the FSB, the Russian security department responsible for internal investigations, to take down powerful officials in a power struggle that could have knock-on effects for how Russia fights the war in Ukraine.

“The FSB finally got their teeth in the defence ministry and general staff,” said Capt John Foreman, the UK’s former defence attache to Moscow, who said he believed the arrests could continue after “Putin’s patience had finally snapped”.

“Shoigu and Gerasimov provided a buffer, but now Putin decided he had to do something,” he said. “Shoigu kept the FSB largely away from the ministry throughout his tenure, there were very few arrests. Once the FSB has their teeth in you, who knows how far they will go.”

Throughout the war in Ukraine, Shoigu and Gerasimov have come under fire from pro-war advocates for the military’s setbacks and their failure to eradicate pervasive corruption within the armed forces. Last summer, this dissatisfaction reached its peak when Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of the Wagner paramilitary group, initiated an unsuccessful rebellion against the military’s leaders.

Interagency rivalries run deep in Russia, and Shoigu’s ouster may have given investigators in the FSB and investigative committee an opportunity to dust off criminal cases against the top brass in an effort to seek promotions and praise.

“It’s the dream of any investigator to put a real live deputy minister of defence in prison, it’s cool, it’s the dream of a lifetime,” said one former Kremlin official. “You get new epaulettes for that, a promotion, some kind of award. You can earn a reputation for that.”

In the case of high-level prosecutions, the official said, Putin would probably be informed before an arrest was sought. But, the official added, he said it was unlikely the corruption cases were being initiated by the Kremlin itself.

In the span of a month, four top defence officials were arrested on corruption charges, marking the most significant crackdown in the defence ministry in years. The purge began on 23 April with the shock arrest of the veteran deputy defence minister Timur Ivanov for suspected bribe-taking.

Addressing the recent series of arrests, the Kremlin on Thursday denied any suggestion of a crackdown within the defence ministry.

“The fight against corruption is consistent work,” the Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday. “It is not a campaign, it is constantly ongoing work.”

Ivanov was a long-term confidant and protege of Sergei Shoigu. His detention is believed to have laid the groundwork for Shoigu’s dismissal, who was subsequently replaced as defence minister by Belousov.

In the weeks that followed, additional high-ranking officials were detained. These included Yuri Kuznetsov, the head of the ministry’s personnel department, and Vadim Shamarin, the head of the communications department of the Russian general staff. Hours after Shamarin’s arrest on Thursday, Russia’s investigative committee also reported detaining another defence ministry official — Vladimir Verteletsky, who headed a division in the state defence procurement department of the ministry.

While the Kremlin announced earlier this month that Russia’s top general, Valery Gerasimov, the chief of the general staff, would retain his position, the arrest of Shamarin, a direct deputy of Gerasimov, could weaken the general’s standing within the military hierarchy.

“The probability of Gerasimov’s dismissal has gone up. I would sell my shares in him right now,” said Foreman.

A former defence official said the arrests showed that the balance of power had swung in favour of Russia’s security services, while its military appears in disarray.

“The FSB’s department of counterintelligence operations (1st division) is becoming increasingly powerful. They currently hold all the cards and are tightening the screws,” said the official, who worked closely with Ivanov and Shoigu.

“It is not that Belousov’s arrival led to the purges, but the departure of Shoigu and his strongmen resource that enabled the arrest,” the official continued. “Shoigu in the end was a silovik [member of the security elite] and had their backing.”

Russian prosecutors have also gone after a senior general best known for his criticism of Shoigu and Gerasimov.

Maj Gen Ivan Popov, who commanded the 58th Combined Arms force, said last summer that he had been fired after he brought up problems on the battlefield, including the lack of counter-battery fire, and deaths and injuries the army was suffering from Ukrainian attacks. Popov, who Russian media said stood accused of stealing 100m roubles (£868,569) of metal, was arrested on Tuesday and placed in a pre-detention facility.

Gleb Irisov, a former Russian air force lieutenant who left the military in 2020, said he had spoken with an FSB source before the arrests who told him that the purge in the defence ministry would be prompted mainly by its failures in Ukraine.

“Under Sergei Shoigu, the defence ministry became heavily influenced by his personal network,” said Irisov. “From senior commanders to lower staff, key positions were filled with Shoigu’s picks — friends or friends of friends. He even created numerous deputy positions specifically for his allies.”

Those have included a reported mistress of Sergei Shoigu’s who headed companies that earned millions of pounds from contracts with the defence ministry.

Irisov said he regularly discovered substandard equipment in the military, including lightbulbs that melted at supersonic speeds while flying Russia’s modern Su-35 air-defence fighter, as well as shoddy trucks and air defence systems unable to shoot down modern drones. He said in part their deficiencies were the result of corruption under Shoigu.

China announces ‘punishment’ drills around Taiwan after inauguration of new president

alasan bae — Thu, 23 May 2024 03:47:31 +0000

Taiwan’s military said its forces were on alert and it was confident it could protect the island in response to the actions of the PLA

China has announced the immediate start of two days of military drills surrounding Taiwan, as “punishment” for what it called the “separatist acts” of holding an election and inaugurating a new president.

In response, Taiwan said sea, air and ground forces had been put on alert, and accused China of “irrational provocation and disruption of regional peace and stability”.

The drills are the first substantive response from China to the inauguration of Lai Ching-te as Taiwan’s fifth president on Monday, after winning the democratic election in January. Both Lai and his predecessor, Tsai Ing-wen are from the pro-sovereignty Democratic Progressive party (DPP), which Beijing considers to be separatists.

Chinese state media reported on Thursday morning that the drills, code-named Joint Sword-2024A, would involve units from the army, navy, air force and rocket force, operating in the Taiwan Strait, to the north, south and east of the main island. Units will also operate around the islands of Kinmen, Matsu, Wuqiu, and Dongyin, which are all close to the Chinese mainland.

Analysts said the name of the exercise, suffixed “2024A” suggested more drills targeting Taiwan could be expected this year.

Taiwan's President Lai Ching-te delivers a speech during his inauguration ceremony in Taipei, Taiwan. On Tuesday China responded to the speech, warning of undefined reprisals

China warns of reprisals against Taiwan after president’s inauguration speech

A spokesperson for the People’s Liberation Army (PLA), Li Xi, said the drills would “serve as a strong punishment for the separatist acts of ‘Taiwan independence’ forces and a stern warning against the interference and provocation by external forces”, state media agency Xinhua reported.

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“The current military exercise not only does not help peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait, but also highlights the hegemonic nature of the [Chinese Communist party],” Taiwan’s ministry of defence said.

Beijing claims Taiwan is a province of China, and has vowed to annex it, by force if necessary. Taiwan’s government and people overwhelmingly reject the prospect of CCP rule, and Taiwan’s leaders have vowed to increase deterrence measures and boost defences, while urging China to cease its threats and return to dialogue.

In recent years, China has heightened its pressure on Taiwan, with increased air force incursions into its air defence identification zone, economic coercion, and cognitive warfare, designed to convince Taiwan to accept a Chinese takeover without war.

Maps of the drill areas published on Thursday morning showed the drills operating in similar areas as in 2022, when China surrounded Taiwan with live-fire exercises in response to a visit to Taipei by the then US House speaker Nancy Pelosi. However, analysts noted the new addition of Taiwan’s offshore islands, suggesting the PLA was practising new strategies.

This year Kinmen and Matsu, islands close to the Chinese mainland, have been increasingly targeted by Chinese Coast Guard patrols.

After a fatal collision between an illegal Chinese fishing boat and a Taiwanese Coast Guard vessel near Kinmen in February, China responded with increased patrols and an explicit rejection of maritime borders which they had until then tacitly respected. Patrols through Kinmen’s restricted waters have since become more consistent, in what some analysts say is China’s strategy of shrinking Taiwan’s territorial space and normalising incursions.

The coast guard also appeared to be involved in drills on Thursday, with the Fujian branch announcing it was running law enforcement drills in the same areas.

Japan’s chief cabinet secretary, Yoshimasa Hayashi, said on Thursday his government would contact Beijing to “directly and clearly” communicate to Beijing the importance of maintaining peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait.

Japan has a strong relationship with Taiwan and is a close ally of the US. It has grown more vocal in its concerns about China’s actions in the Taiwan Strait, in part because of Japanese territory that is close to Taiwan. During the Pelosi drills, Tokyo lodged strong complaints with Beijing over the firing of PLA missiles across the island of Taiwan and into Japan’s exclusive economic zone.

Ebrahim Raisi was no moderate, but his death may mean Iran becomes even more hardline

alasan bae — Tue, 21 May 2024 02:56:41 +0000

Who will be the next president isn’t clear. But the regime is unlikely to extend its hand to anyone but ultra-loyalists The death of the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, in a helicopter crash on Sunday night immediately set off speculation about the succession of the next supreme leader. Raisi was widely considered to be a leading candidate to replace Ali Khamenei, who is in his mid-80s and reportedly in poor health. His departure from the pool of possible candidates has raised the question of whether this could be an opportunity for the Iranian regime to widen political participation in the country by reinstating moderates and reformist figures into some state functions. But this is unlikely. Over the past few years, the inner circle of the regime in Iran has been shrinking and will continue to do so. Raisi’s death pushes Iran even further in this direction. A prevailing myth about the ruling regime in Iran is that it harbours two competing political currents, hardliners and reformists, with one or the other prevailing at any given point. Hardliners are hardened Islamists who believe that Iran is a resistance force against a hegemonic west, while reformists are more pragmatic moderates who believe in some degree of engagement with the international order. The two currents do exist, but inhabit different places in the state system, with hardliners generally dominating reformists – and utilising them when necessary. At the highest levels, the Iranian regime is run by hardliners. Policy and strategy are made by the hardline supreme leader. The Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), the elite military entity executing Iranian foreign policy and military interventions across the Middle East and beyond, reports to him. There is no clear separation between clerical and military functions. Reformists have been permitted to inhabit the softer components of state bureaucracy in administrative rather than decision-making roles, but even this presence has dwindled over the years. If the hardliners judge that Iran would benefit from projecting a reformist image to the wider world, reformist figures are allowed to emerge in senior public roles. This is what happened with the election of Hassan Rouhani as president in 2013, coinciding with negotiations over the nuclear deal. Hardliners are able to steer the election process because no candidate is allowed to run in a presidential or parliamentary election without prior approval by the Guardian Council, which is appointed by the supreme leader. Raisi was no reformist; his overseeing of mass executions in the 1980s earned him the moniker “the butcher of Tehran”. The Guardian Council’s vetting process before his election in 2021 meant that he won the presidential election without facing a serious challenge. His selection after Rouhani came at a time when the US had withdrawn from the nuclear deal and the supreme leader no longer felt it necessary to project a softer image for Iran on the international stage. With Iran currently embroiled in a tense conflict with Israel, there is no desire in Iran to shift political direction. It is likely that whoever replaces Raisi in the next presidential election on 28 June will be another hardline figure close to the supreme leader. As Khamenei approached his 80s, he began shifting the Iranian regime to become increasingly insular. Khamenei is concerned about succession and wants to ensure that he is replaced by someone who will carry on the same policy and strategy. Every cycle of selecting members of the Assembly of Experts, the deliberative body that selects the supreme leader and over which Khamenei exerts significant influence, has brought in an increasingly hardening core of Khamenei loyalists. The US withdrawal from the nuclear deal in 2018 and its assassination of the IRGC senior commander Qasem Soleimani in 2020 only confirmed to Khamenei that the survival of the regime depended on weeding out divergence and on projecting an image of defiance to a west that cannot be trusted. This is why he tasked Raisi with crushing the Woman, Life, Freedom movement in 2022, and why in the last parliamentary elections in March 2024, hardliners won the majority of seats. The Iranian regime has gone too far towards tightening control and insularity to reverse tack. Any compromise risks showing the supreme leader as weak. With Israel continuing to expose Iran’s military vulnerabilities through its strategic attacks on Iranian proxies in Lebanon, Syria and Iraq, as well as through the symbolic attack on Isfahan last month, the regime in Iran is on high alert about infiltration. This is not the time for a hardline regime to soften its grip or extend its hands to anyone but ultra-loyalists. https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/3896 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/3895 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/3876 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/3905 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/3898 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/3897 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/3967 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/3966 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/3965 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/3970 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/3969 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/3968 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/4005 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/4004 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/3998 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/4018 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/4017 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/4013 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/4026 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/4025 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/4024 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/4029

https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/4028 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/4027 https://github.com/DevSamurai/discussions/discussions/4028 That said, the exact figure who will take the position is still unclear. Raisi’s elimination from the picture and increased regime insularity could boost Khamenei’s son Mojtaba’s chances of taking over. Some observers think that the Iranian regime shuns nepotism because it wants to distance itself from monarchism. But Raisi’s widow is the daughter of a member of the Assembly of Experts who is known for being a staunch Khamenei supporter (and also a possible supreme leader candidate), while Soleimani’s daughter Zeinab is married to the son of the chief of Hezbollah’s executive council, Hashem Safieddine; Safieddine is also the maternal cousin of Hezbollah’s secretary general, Hassan Nasrallah. If anything, the death of Raisi should serve to expedite a decision on succession in Iran. But it will not cause a change in political direction for the country, neither internationally nor domestically. With fewer people around to trust, the Iranian regime’s inner circle will continue to shrink, with the clerical and military elements of the regime fusing together more solidly than ever before.

Death of president in helicopter crash comes as Iran already faces huge challenges

alasan bae — Mon, 20 May 2024 11:08:38 +0000

Iran faces western opposition over its nuclear programme, a dire economy and tense relations with other Middle Eastern states

Death of president in helicopter crash comes as Iran already faces huge challengesPatrick WintourDiplomatic editorIran faces western opposition over its nuclear programme, a dire economy and tense relations with other Middle Eastern states

Live updates: Iranian president and foreign minister die in helicopter crashMon 20 May 2024 07.39 BSTShareThe death of the Iranian president, Ebrahim Raisi, in a helicopter crash comes at a time when the country, faced by unprecedented external challenges, was already bracing itself for a change in regime with the expected demise in the next few years of its 85-year-old supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.

In the country’s hydra-headed leadership where power is spread in often opaque ways between clerics, politicians and army, it is the supreme leader, and not the president, that is ultimately decisive.

Indeed, in some ways the posts of president, and prime minister – originally based on a model of the French constitution – became overwhelmed in the drafting of Iran’s constitution in 1979, leading to advocates of a more powerful presidency to claim the role was being subsumed in a form of autocracy created in the name of religion.

The presidency, however loyal to the supreme leader – and Raisi was considered very loyal to Khamenei – is often cast in the role as a useful scapegoat helping the supreme leader to avoid criticism. That certainly became the fate of Raisi’s predecessor, Hassan Rouhani, who became a punchbag for decisions taken elsewhere.

In recent months Raisi, elected president in 2021 but in practice handpicked by the supreme leader, had been mentioned as a possible successor to Khamenei. His death instead clears a thorny path for Khamenei’s son, Mojtaba Khamenei.

The choice is made by an 88-strong “assembly of experts”, and Raisi’s departure certainly increases the chances of a hereditary succession in Iran, something many clerics oppose as alien to Iran’s revolutionary principles.

The Guardian view on the women of Iran: still resisting repressionRead moreRaisi’s death will add to the sense of a country already in political transition. A new hardline parliament was only just elected on 1 March in which turnout for some of the elections fell below 10%, and was overall presented as reaching a nationwide turnout of only 41% – a record low.

Reformist or moderate politicians were either disqualified or soundly beaten, leaving a new and, as yet, untested division in parliament between traditional hardliners and an ultra-conservative group known as Paydari or the Steadfastness Front.

The effective exclusion of reformists from political participation in parliament for the first time since 1979 adds to the sense of a country in uncharted waters.

The cumulative disruption also comes at a time when Iran can ill afford such uncertainty as it faces western challenges over its nuclear programme, a dire economy and tense relations with other Middle Eastern states, especially with regard to relations with Israel and the US.

The loss of Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, the foreign affairs minister, in the helicopter crash only adds to a sense of instability for a country that prided itself on control and predictability. His most likely successor is his deputy, Ali Bagheri, but hardliners may regard him as too willing to negotiate with the west over Iran’s nuclear programme.

Although Iran has not lost a president in office since the revolution in 1979, the country has a clear formal system for succession in which the first vice-president – currently Mohammad Mokhber – takes charge. Few regard Mokhber, a banker and former deputy governor of the Khuzestan province, as presidential material. A new president should be elected within 50 days, giving the supreme leader and his entourage relatively little time to select someone that will not only become president at such a critical time, but also will be in a strong position succeed Khamenei himself.

The immediate challenge of any new leader will be to control not just internal dissent, but the factional demands within the country to take a tougher line with the west and draw closer to Russia and China.

The perennial challenge to Iran remains relations with Israel, which reached a new pitch of danger in April when the two countries exchanged fire, sparked by an Israeli attack on the Iranian consulate in Damascus, and more broadly by Iran’s support for proxy groups willing to fight Israel, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

But any new president will have to make big decisions over Iran’s nuclear programme.

On 9 May, Kamal Kharrazi, the supreme leader’s foreign policy advisor and former Iranian foreign minister, said Iran would consider a doctrinal shift to nuclear deterrence if Israel attacked what Iran said were civilian nuclear sites.

Rafael Grossi, the head of the UN nuclear inspectorate the IAEA, warned Iran to end the loose talk about developing a nuclear weapon, saying it was disturbing.

Opponents of the regime, still powerful through civil resistance, will not mourn Raisi’s death due to his role in repressing the “woman, life, freedom” protests.

Older Iranians revile Raisi for his role as deputy prosecutor in Tehran in 1988 when, at the age of 28, he played a prominent role in a movement that killed as many as 30,000 political prisoners, mostly members of the People’s Mujahedin Organisation in Iran (MEK).

In 2019 he was chosen as head of the judiciary by Khamenei, a role he used to increase state hostage-taking and continue domestic repression through revolutionary courts.

Israel recovers bodies of three hostages taken by Hamas, including Shani Louk

alasan bae — Sat, 18 May 2024 03:19:28 +0000

Israel recovers bodies of three hostages taken by Hamas, including Shani LoukBodies of Amit Buskila and Itzhak Gelerenter also recovered from Gaza as Israel says 129 hostages remain in captivityThe bodies of three hostages kidnapped by Hamas, including the German-Israeli Shani Louk, have been retrieved from Gaza by the Israeli military, it announced.

The other two hostages were identified as Amit Buskila, 28, and Itzhak Gelerenter, 56, according to the military spokesperson Rear Adm Daniel Hagari, who said the three victims were taken to Gaza after being killed by Hamas at the Nova music festival.

Footage of what appeared to be the body of Louk, 22, on the back of a pickup truck on the streets of Gaza was one of the first images to surface after 7 October, as the scale of the horror of the attacks became clear.

The young woman was initially believed to have been kidnapped alive during Hamas’s assault in Re’im. However, on 30 October, Louk’s sister Adi confirmed Shani had died, probably during the attack, after the discovery of human remains that suggested fatal injuries.

The Israeli military did not give immediate details on where the bodies were found.

Louk’s father, Nissim, said: “The news is hard, no father thought that a 22-year-old girl would disappear from her life, but we knew she was murdered and we waited for our dear soldiers who were looking for her to find her.”

Buskila was a fashion stylist. She was kidnapped from the Nova music festival as she was trying to hide between cars. When she was captured, she was on the phone with her uncle, who heard her pleading with her attackers. She told him: “I love you”, before a series of gunshots interrupted the phone call.

Gelerenter reached the party just a couple of hours before the attack began at about 6.30am on 7 October with two friends, who were killed. A few days later, the family was notified by the IDF that his phone was located in Gaza, leading the military to believe he was taken hostage.

Israel’s prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, released a statement on X saying: “The heart breaks for such a big loss”.

“My wife Sarah and I are hurting with the families. All our hearts are with them at their time of heavy grief. We will return all of our hostages, living and dead. I congratulate our brave forces that in a determined action returned Israel’s sons and daughters home,” he said.

The Hostages and Missing Families Forum, established by the families of the hostages, said in a statement they “bow their heads in deep sorrow and with broken hearts. May their memories be a blessing.”

Last week, Hamas said in a statement that the British-Israeli hostage Nadav Popplewell had died of wounds he sustained in an Israeli airstrike more than a month ago.

A video previously released by Hamas’s armed wing, the Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades, showed Popplewell displaying visible signs of physical abuse. Hamas provided no evidence for the claim.

Popplewell and his mother, Channah Peri, 79, were abducted on 7 October from their residence in Nirim kibbutz, while his older brother, Roi, died in the assault. Peri was freed on 24 November.

About half of the approximately 250 people who were abducted on 7 October have since been freed, most in swaps for Israel-held Palestinian prisoners during a week-long ceasefire in November. According to Israeli authorities, 129 people remain in captivity and about 30 are confirmed dead.

Last week, Israeli officials told the Ynet news site that hostage and ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas had not completely broken down. Indirect talks would resume “if there are answers from Hamas that we can work with”, the officials said.

Hamas said efforts to find a deal on a truce were back at square one after Israel rejected a plan from international mediators, while the White House expressed its commitment to trying to keep the sides engaged “if only virtually”.

JCB built and supplied equipment to Russia months after saying exports had stopped

alasan bae — Wed, 15 May 2024 03:37:14 +0000

Exclusive: Russian customs records suggest firm owned by major Tory donor kept supplying machines after ‘voluntary pause’The British digger maker JCB, owned by the billionaire Bamford family, continued to build and supply equipment for the Russian market months after saying it had stopped exports because of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Guardian can reveal.

Russian customs records show that JCB, whose owners are major donors to the Conservative party, continued to make new products available for Russian dealers well after 2 March 2022, when the company publicly stated that it had “voluntarily paused exports” to Russia.

The data raises questions about the accuracy of JCB’s statements on its business in Russia and relationship with its biggest dealer there, Moscow-based Lonmadi, and that company’s former owner, UK-based JVM group.

JCB has repeatedly said that it stopped exporting products to Russia and JVM companies after 2 March 2022 — less than a week after Putin sent troops into Ukraine.

However, customs records collated by a trade data provider show the serial numbers of dozens of vehicles, worth millions of pounds, which appear to have been supplied to companies in Russia after that date.

When the Guardian presented a sample of those records to the Staffordshire-based manufacturer, it admitted that JVM continued to collect diggers from JCB’s factories for months after the voluntary pause, but said that was due to contractual obligations.

JCB also confirmed that the manufacturing of some of the equipment continued after that date.

JCB’s lawyers said: “Any collection of goods by a JVM company after 2 March 2022 was pursuant to contractual obligations already entered into and completed or substantially completed prior to that date.”

The company also denied any inconsistency or inaccuracy in its public statements.

JCB’s chair, Anthony Bamford, 78, is one of the UK Conservative party’s biggest donors and a close ally and financial backer of the former prime minister Boris Johnson.

Lord Bamford was made a Conservative peer in 2013, before retiring in March. The business was founded by Bamford’s father, Joseph Cyril Bamford, and according to the Sunday Times rich list the family is worthJCB, one of the biggest privately held businesses in the UK, has 22 factories around the world, including in India and China, and had a sizeable presence in Russia at the time of the invasion in February 2022.

The Bamford family’s business dealings have also come under scrutiny in recent months after the Guardian reported that Lord Bamford and his brother, Mark, could be hit with a bill for more than £500m to settle a long-running tax investigation by HM Revenue and Customs.

stoms records suggest firm owned by major Tory donor kept supplying machines after ‘voluntary pause’The British digger maker JCB, owned by the billionaire Bamford family, continued to build and supply equipment for the Russian market months after saying it had stopped exports because of Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, the Guardian can reveal.

JCB has repeatedly said that it stopped exporting products to Russia and JVM companies after 2 March 2022 — less than a week after Putin sent troops into Ukraine.

JCB also confirmed that the manufacturing of some of the equipment continued after that date.

The company also denied any inconsistency or inaccuracy in its public statements.

JCB’s chair, Anthony Bamford, 78, is one of the UK Conservative party’s biggest donors and a close ally and financial backer of the former prime minister Boris Johnson.

US will stop supplying some weapons to Israel if it invades Rafah, Biden warns

alasan bae — Thu, 09 May 2024 05:30:28 +0000

US president publicly warns that his administration will not provide the weapons for an offensive on Rafah

Joe Biden has issued a blunt warning to Israel that his administration will stop supplying bombs and artillery shells if its military pushes ahead with an offensive on the southern Gaza city of Rafah, in what could mark the start of a turning point in relations between the two countries.

The US president delivered the warning in a television interview in which he brushed aside Israeli and Republican complaints and made clear his administration would not provide the weapons for an offensive on Rafah, which the US, the UN and other aid agencies warn would trigger a humanitarian disaster.

“I made it clear that if they go into Rafah — they haven’t gone in Rafah yet — if they go into Rafah, I’m not supplying the weapons that have been used historically to deal with Rafah, to deal with the cities — that deal with that problem,” Biden told CNN.

The president was speaking after it was announced his administration had paused the delivery of 3,500 munitions, more than half them 2,000lb bombs, which can cause devastating damage and severe civilian casualties when dropped on densely populated areas.

“Civilians have been killed in Gaza as a consequence of those bombs and other ways in which they go after population centers,” Biden said.

Prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on a Rafah offensive to destroy what Israel says is the last stronghold of Hamas in Gaza, despite repeated US warnings about the humanitarian impact on more than 1 million Gazans sheltering in the city, has brought a simmering US-Israel rift to the surface.

Gilad Erdan, Israel’s ambassador to the UN, said he did not believe the US would stop supplying arms to Israel, but called Washington’s decision to hold up some weapons shipments “very disappointing”, even frustrating.

Joe Biden “can’t say he is our partner in the goal to destroy Hamas while on the other hand delay the means meant to destroy Hamas”, Erdan told Israel’s Channel 12 News.

The hold on the munitions delivery also drew a quick response from the Republican leadership.

“Israel faces an existential and multi-front threat … and daylight between the United States and Israel at this dangerous time risks emboldening Israel’s enemies and undermining the trust that other allies and partners have in the United States,” the House speaker, Mike Johnson, and Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, wrote in a letter to the president.

The White House decision drew support from progressive Democrats, including Senator Chris Van Hollen.

“We should use the tools available to us to enforce the president’s objectives and US policy,” Van Hollen said. “A partnership must be a two-way street, not a one-way blank cheque.”

Biden stressed the US would continue to supply ammunition for Israel’s main air defence system, Iron Dome, which performed well in the face of an Iranian missile and drone barrage last month, but he said Washington would not supply offensive weapons that would be used in an offensive the US believes will be disastrous.

“We’re going to continue to make sure Israel is secure in terms of Iron Dome and their ability to respond to attacks that came out of the Middle East recently,” he said. “But it’s just wrong. We’re not going to supply the weapons and artillery shells.”

US officials made clear that the pause would not be a one-off if the Rafah offensive went ahead: other arms deliveries that have already been approved could be delayed, and shipments waiting for approval could also face obstacles, such as a pending consignment of 6,500 joint direct attack munitions, or JDAMs, which convert freefall “dumb bombs” into precision-guided weapons.

A Guardian investigation this week found a US-made JDAM was used in a March airstrike in southern Lebanon that killed seven health workers. Analysis of debris found at the site of the attack revealed shrapnel from a 500lb (227kg) Israeli MPR bomb, as well as the parts of the JDAM that connect the munition to the guidance system and remnants of its motor.

The US administration has refused to use the phrase “red line” but has stressed that Biden was serious when he told Benjamin Netanyahu in a call on 4 April that an attack on Rafah would lead to a significant re-evaluation of the relationship.

The weapons — 1,800 2,000lb bombs and 1,700 500lb bombs — had long been seen by experts as the most likely to be targeted for any potential restrictions on arms supplies to Israel given how destructive they are in urban settings.

US officials insist that the pause is not because of legal concerns, but is a policy decision. There is nervousness in the administration about making legal judgments in case they are used against Israel in legal disputes before the international criminal court and the international court of justice.

However, the Guardian understands that conversations in recent months have focused on how the Israeli military’s use of certain munitions diverges from the Pentagon’s rules on the use of such weapons in heavily populated urban settings.

Israeli troops on Tuesday took control of the Palestinian side of the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, a vital lifeline that is now closed. Israeli officials said it was the first step towards a full-scale assault on Rafah city, an offensive Biden has been trying to head off.

Rafah’s mayor, Ahmed al-Sofi, warned that the southern city was “on the brink of a humanitarian catastrophe of unprecedented proportions” in an appeal to the international community on Wednesday. “The streets of the city echo with the cries of innocent lives lost, families torn apart, and homes reduced to rubble,” he said.

The highly significant US move on arms supplies comes amid mounting international pressure on Israel to pull back from a full-scale attack after its seizure on Tuesday of Rafah’s border crossing with Egypt, and criticism of Israel’s use of large aerial munitions in areas packed with civilians.

Austin’s comments confirmed earlier briefings by unnamed officials that the weapons shipment had been held up because of Israel’s threat of a full-scale offensive in Rafah.

”We are especially focused on the end use of the 2,000lb bombs and the impact they could have in dense urban settings as we have seen in other parts of Gaza. We have not made a final determination on how to proceed with this shipment,” one US official said.

A second US official, also speaking anonymously and quoted by the Washington Post, said the decision was a “shot across the bow” intended to convey to Israel the seriousness of US concerns about the Israeli offensive in Rafah.

An Israeli military spokesperson attempted to play down the shipment delay — saying that allies resolve any disagreements “behind closed doors”. However, the move appeared to mark a significant moment in US policy.

While the US, EU, UK and other countries have pursued an escalating sanctions campaign against extremist Israeli settlers and far-right organisations, against the background of the Gaza war and settler violence on the West Bank, US attention has moved recently to the Israel Defense Forces.

The weapons hold-up comes against the background of the expected delivery of a report by the US Department of State that examines whether Israel’s war conduct is credibly in compliance with assurances that American-supplied weapons will not be used in contravention of US and international humanitarian law.

The White House and Pentagon declined to comment.

Internally displaced Palestinians keep moving after Israeli evacuations orders in Rafah

Israeli forces on Tuesday seized the main border crossing between Gaza and Egypt in Rafah, cutting off a vital route for aid into the Palestinian territory. On Monday, the Israeli army had called on 100,000 people in eastern Rafah to evacuate.

Despite the assault in Rafah, the US has said it believes a revised Hamas ceasefire proposal may lead to a breakthrough as talks resume in Cairo. Israel had previously said the terms in the proposal had been softened, but the White House spokesperson John Kirby said the new text suggested the remaining gaps could “absolutely be closed”.

The CIA director, William Burns, is to travel to Israel on Wednesday to meet Netanyahu, a source said.

The delays to US arms shipments appeared to be the first since the Biden administration offered its full support to Israel after Hamas launched its 7 October attack, in which about 1,200 people were killed and about 250 others were abducted, of whom 133 are believed to still be in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.

Police shoot and kill Black US airman in Florida home

alasan bae — Thu, 09 May 2024 01:21:59 +0000

Police shoot and kill Black US airman in Florida home

Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, was at home in apartment when officers burst into wrong unit and shot him dead, family says

Deputies responding to a disturbance call at a Florida apartment complex burst into the wrong unit and fatally shot a Black US air force airman who was home alone when they saw he was armed with a gun, an attorney for the man’s family said Wednesday.

Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, who was based at the special operations wing at Hurlburt Field, was in his off-base apartment in Fort Walton Beach when the shooting happened on Friday.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said in a statement that Fortson was on a Facetime call with a woman at the time of the encounter.

According to Crump, the woman, whom Crump did not identify, said Fortson was alone in his apartment when he heard a knock at the door. He asked who was there but did not get a response. A few minutes later, Fortson heard a louder knock but did not see anyone when he looked through the peephole, Crump said, citing the woman’s account.

The woman said Fortson was concerned and went to retrieve his gun, which Crump said was legally owned.

As Fortson walked back through his living room, deputies burst through the door, saw that Fortson was armed and shot him six times, according to Crump’s statement. The woman said Fortson was on the ground, saying, “I can’t breathe,” after he was shot, Crump said.

Fortson died at a hospital, officials said. The deputy involved in the shooting was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

The woman said Fortson was not causing a disturbance during their Facetime call and believes that the deputies must have had the wrong apartment, Crump’s statement said.

“The circumstances surrounding Roger’s death raise serious questions that demand immediate answers from authorities, especially considering the alarming witness statement that the police entered the wrong apartment,” Crump said in the statement.

“We are calling for transparency in the investigation into Roger’s death and the immediate release of body cam video to the family,” Crump said. “His family and the public deserve to know what occurred in the moments leading up to this tragedy.”

Crump is a nationally known attorney based in Tallahassee, Florida. He has been involved in multiple high-profile law enforcement shooting cases involving Black people, including those of Ahmaud Arbery, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor, Tyre Nichols and George Floyd.

Crump and Fortson’s family plan to speak at a news conference in Fort Walton Beach on Thursday morning.

The Okaloosa county sheriff’s office said in a statement last week that a deputy responding to a call of a disturbance in progress at the apartment complex reacted in self-defense after encountering an armed man. The office did not offer details on what kind of disturbance deputies were responding to or who called them.

The sheriff’s office also declined to immediately identify the responding deputies or their races. The office did not respond to an email or phone message on Wednesday. Officials said earlier this week that the Florida department of law enforcement and the local state attorney’s office will investigate the shooting.

Police spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger told the Associated Press on Wednesday it is highly unlikely the agency would have any further comment until the investigation is complete.

Fortson was assigned to the 4th Special Operations Squadron as a special missions aviator, where one of his roles as a member of the squadron’s AC-130J Ghostrider aircrew was to load the gunship’s 30mm and 105mm cannons during missions.

The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to an email or voicemail seeking comment Wednesday by the Associated Press.

Fort Walton Beach is between Panama City Beach and Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle.

Senior Airman Roger Fortson, 23, who was based at the special operations wing at Hurlburt Field, was in his off-base apartment in Fort Walton Beach when the shooting happened on Friday.

Civil rights attorney Ben Crump said in a statement that Fortson was on a Facetime call with a woman at the time of the encounter.

The woman said Fortson was concerned and went to retrieve his gun, which Crump said was legally owned.

Fortson died at a hospital, officials said. The deputy involved in the shooting was placed on administrative leave pending an investigation.

The woman said Fortson was not causing a disturbance during their Facetime call and believes that the deputies must have had the wrong apartment, Crump’s statement said.

Crump and Fortson’s family plan to speak at a news conference in Fort Walton Beach on Thursday morning.

The sheriff’s office also declined to immediately identify the responding deputies or their races. The office did not respond to an email or phone message on Wednesday. Officials said earlier this week that the Florida department of law enforcement and the local state attorney’s office will investigate the shooting.

Police spokeswoman Gretl Plessinger told the Associated Press on Wednesday it is highly unlikely the agency would have any further comment until the investigation is complete.

The sheriff’s office did not immediately respond to an email or voicemail seeking comment Wednesday by the Associated Press.

Fort Walton Beach is between Panama City Beach and Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle.

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alasan bae — Thu, 09 May 2024 01:14:45 +0000

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