ReportWire

Tag: Bombings

  • Suspect arrested after fire damages historic Mississippi synagogue

    A person was taken into custody late Saturday after a fire ripped through a synagogue in Mississippi, heavily damaging the historic house of worship in what authorities say was an act of arson.

    No congregants were injured in the blaze, which broke out at the Beth Israel Congregation in Jackson, Mississippi shortly after 3 a.m. on Saturday, officials said. Photos showed the charred remains of an administrative office and synagogue library, where several Torahs were destroyed or damaged.

    Jackson Mayor John Horhn confirmed that a person was taken into custody following an investigation that also included the FBI and the Joint Terrorism Task Force.

    “Acts of antisemitism, racism, and religious hatred are attacks on Jackson as a whole and will be treated as acts of terror against residents’ safety and freedom to worship,” Horhn said in a statement.

    He did not provide the name of the suspect or the charges that the person is facing.

    The synagogue, the largest in Mississippi, was the site of a Ku Klux Klan bombing in 1967 — a response to the congregation’s role in civil rights activities, according to the Institute for Southern Jewish Life, which also houses its office in the building.

    “As Jackson’s only synagogue, Beth Israel is a beloved institution, and it is the fellowship of our neighbors and extended community that will see us through,” the institute said in a statement.

    The synagogue’s president, Zach Shemper, said the congregation was still assessing the damage and had received outreach from other houses of worship, according to Mississippi Today.

    One Torah that survived the Holocaust was not damaged in the fire, the outlet reported.

    Source link

  • Suspects plead not guilty in Southern California bombing plot

    LOS ANGELES — Three of the four suspects accused of plotting to bomb several Southern California business locations on New Year’s Eve have pleaded not guilty.

    Audrey Carroll, 30, and Zachary Page, 32, entered their pleas in federal court Monday. Tina Lai, 41, entered her plea in court a few days earlier. Their attorneys did not immediately respond to emailed requests for comment.

    The fourth person, Dante Anthony-Gaffield, 24, will enter his plea Jan. 20.

    The suspects, all from the Los Angeles area, were arrested Dec. 12 in the Mojave Desert east of Los Angeles as they were rehearsing their plot, First Assistant U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli said last month. Officials said they made the arrests before the suspects assembled a functional explosive device.

    Essayli said Carroll created a detailed plan to bomb five or more business locations owned by two companies across Southern California on New Year’s Eve described as “Amazon-type” logistical centers. He did not identify the alleged targets.

    A grand jury indicted the four on multiple counts of providing and attempting to provide material support to terrorists and possession of unregistered firearms. Carroll and Page were also indicted on one count of conspiracy to use a weapon of mass destruction.

    Officials said they are members of an offshoot of an anti-capitalist and anti-government group dubbed the Turtle Island Liberation Front. The group calls for decolonization, tribal sovereignty and “the working class to rise up and fight back against capitalism,” according to the criminal complaint.

    They also are members of what one of the defendants characterized as a “radical” faction of the group that communicated using a chat called “Order of the Black Lotus,” according to the indictment.

    The term “Turtle Island” is used by some Indigenous peoples to describe North America in a way that reflects its existence outside of the colonial boundaries put in place by the U.S. and Canada. It comes from Indigenous creation stories where the continent was formed on the back of a giant turtle.

    Two of the group’s members also had discussed plans for future attacks targeting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and vehicles with pipe bombs, according to the criminal complaint.

    Photos included in the court documents show the desert campsite where they were arrested with what investigators said were bomb-making materials strewn across plastic folding tables.

    Trial for Carroll, Page, and Lai is scheduled to begin Feb. 17. Anthony-Gaffield’s trial will be scheduled once he enters his plea.

    If convicted, Carroll and Page could face a maximum sentence of life in federal prison, and Anthony-Gaffield and Lai could face a maximum sentence of 25 years in federal prison.

    Source link

  • DC pipe bomb suspect says someone needed to ‘speak up’ about stolen election claims

    NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles!

    Federal prosecutors said Sunday the man accused of planting pipe bombs in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 5, 2021, told investigators he felt compelled to “speak up” for people who believed the 2020 election was stolen and said he targeted the two major political parties because they were in charge of the political system.

    Prosecutors detailed the allegations in a memo filed with the Justice Department, arguing that Brian J. Cole Jr., arrested earlier this month, should remain detained as the case moves forward.

    Cole was arrested in Woodbridge, Virginia, after investigators identified him as the suspect accused of placing pipe bombs near the Capitol complex and outside the Republican National Committee and Democratic National Committee headquarters, marking the first major break in a case that had gone cold for years.

    Sunday’s memo provides the most detailed government account to date, including statements prosecutors say Cole made to investigators. It also cites evidence such as bomb-making materials recovered from his home after his arrest, which officials say link him to the crime.

    EVIDENCE AGAINST J6 PIPE BOMB SUSPECT WAS JUST ‘SITTING THERE’ FOR YEARS, DOJ SAYS

    Brian J. Cole Jr., the DC pipe bomb suspect, made his first court appearance on Friday, Dec. 5, 2025. (Dana Verkouteren)

    Undetonated homemade bombs were discovered Jan. 6, though prosecutors said Cole denied his actions were connected to the events at the Capitol that day.

    Although he initially denied involvement, prosecutors allege Cole later confessed to placing the devices outside the RNC and DNC.

    Cole also allegedly said he was disillusioned by the election outcome and sympathetic to claims by President Donald Trump and some allies that it had been stolen.

    FBI RELEASES NEW SURVEILLANCE VIDEO OF SUSPECT WHO PLACED PIPE BOMBS NEAR DNC, RNC OFFICES IN DC

    Brian J. Cole Jr. smiling in an Instagram picture.

    The Department of Justice releases new photos of Brian J. Cole, who was arrested by the FBI for alleged involvement in the D.C. pipe bomb incident. (Department of Justice)

    “In the defendant’s view, if people ‘feel that, you know, something as important as voting in the federal election is being tampered with, is being, you know, being – you know, relegated null and void, then, like, someone needs to speak up, right? Someone up top. You know, just to, just to at the very least calm things down,’” prosecutors wrote.

    They added that when agents returned to questions about his motive, Cole explained that “something just snapped” after “watching everything, just everything getting worse.”

    DC pipe bomb suspect.

    The suspect is seen walking outside the Democratic National Committee headquarters moments before placing one of two pipe bombs discovered near party offices in Washington, D.C. (FBI)

    “The defendant wanted to do something ‘to the parties’ because ‘they were in charge,’” prosecutors wrote. “When asked why he placed the devices at the RNC and DNC, the defendant responded, ‘I really don’t like either party at this point.’”

    Prosecutors said Cole also told investigators the idea to use pipe bombs stemmed from his interest in the historical conflict in Northern Ireland.

    CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP

    Cole’s attorneys are expected to argue against his detention at a hearing scheduled for Tuesday in federal court in Washington.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

    Greg Wehner is a breaking news reporter for Fox News Digital.

    Story tips and ideas can be sent to Greg.Wehner@Fox.com and on Twitter @GregWehner.

    Source link

  • Myanmar declares a “zero tolerance” policy for cyberscams. But the fraud goes on

    It looked like a turning point in the global fight against scams. Myanmar’s military leadership, under growing international pressure, vowed to wipe out the industrial-scale cyberscam centers that have taken root in the country. They started by raiding and then bombing KK Park — a notorious compound that has become a symbol of impunity in the battle against one of the most lucrative criminal industries in the world.

    It’s too early to say whether KK Park will be abandoned, repurposed or rebuilt over time. But even if KK Park were to close, it’s just one of around 30 scam compounds along Myanmar’s border with Thailand — one indication that the crackdown may not turn out to be as deep or long-lasting as Myanmar’s military rulers would like it to appear.

    The Associated Press found that at least two scam compounds in the area continued to use Starlink to get online even after SpaceX announced it had cut off service. And there are other signs the scam industry is adapting fast: The physical damage to KK Park sent thousands of workers scattering to other scam companies in Myanmar and abroad, interviews with current and former scam center workers show. Telegram is popping with job ads for newly displaced workers. And work has continued uninterrupted at other scam centers in Myanmar, where people trafficked from around the world still wait to be rescued.

    “Even if you destroy buildings, if you haven’t arrested the heads of the transnational syndicates behind this, seized their wealth and put them in jail, it’s not a real crackdown yet,” said Jay Kritiya, the coordinator of the Civil Society Network for Human Trafficking Victim Assistance.

    Myanmar state media announced the raid on KK Park on Oct. 20, which was followed by a weekslong demolition campaign. In November, Myanmar’s military rulers pledged to “eradicate scam activities from their roots.” State media broadcast images of wreckage and soldiers standing with dozens of seized Starlink terminals. They then went after Shwe Kokko, another notorious compound that’s been in the crosshairs of U.S. authorities. SpaceX announced it cut off access to more than 2,500 Starlink units in Myanmar, where they have been widely used by scammers to get online. And Meta said this month it had taken down 2,000 Facebook accounts used by scammers in Myanmar.

    It looked as if growing American pressure on foreign scam centers through sanctions, prosecutions and a new, high-level Scam Center Strike Force, was having swift impact as Myanmar prepares for national elections, which have been widely criticized as a sham effort to legitimize the army’s 2021 seizure of power.

    Myanmar has said the demolition at KK Park — and raids at additional scam sites — are meant to ensure that criminal activity never returns. This month the government created a high-level task force to enact what it calls a “zero tolerance” policy against scams. The state-run Global New Light of Myanmar on Dec. 15 devoted five full pages to coverage of a press conference showcasing what it described as the government’s aggressive efforts to stop fraud, and characterized cyberscams as the work of foreign criminal networks that have taken root in lawless borderlands controlled by insurgents.

    Government officials said that by Dec. 13, 413 buildings in KK Park had been “demolished” and the remaining 222 would be cleared as well. Detailed visual analysis of the first wave of demolition, which the government says is complete, shows that 31 structures were flattened. At least 78 more were partially damaged, according to the Center for Information Resilience (CIR), a London-based nonprofit focused on exposing human rights violations.

    More than half the buildings were damaged by heavy machinery, which often left roofs, ceilings and layers between floors intact, said Guy Fusfus, an investigator at Myanmar Witness, a CIR project. “There may be an intention to reconstruct and reuse these buildings,” he said in an email.

    New satellite imagery shows that most buildings in KK Park appeared wholly or partially intact on Dec. 4, even as demolition had spread to other sections of the compound. Once home to thousands of workers, many victims of human trafficking, the streets of KK Park appeared empty. Where all those people went — and what that portends for the future of a criminal industry the FBI says cost Americans more than $16 billion last year — remain open questions.

    “This isn’t just breaking windows and moving on. You can’t come in and restart operations here at the same scale as before,” said Eric Heintz, a global analyst at the International Justice Mission, a Washington, D.C.-based NGO, who reviewed satellite images of the damage. “But we don’t know if that activity is just going to be displaced to other locations.”

    Myanmar’s track record of lasting enforcement is poor. Raids in response to Chinese pressure earlier this year failed to contain the growth of scam compounds, according to C4ADS, a U.S.-based nonprofit that takes a data-driven approach to conflict analysis. Over 7,000 scam center workers were released as part of that purge, according to the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime, but the scams kept on running.

    C4ADS examined satellite imagery of 21 known scam compounds in Myawaddy Township and found that 14 of them — including KK Park — had shown construction or expansion since January. Some solar panels also appeared — a step toward energy independence that could blunt the impact of crackdowns from neighboring Thailand, which has occasionally cut off power.

    “This continued growth of scam compounds is emblematic of the junta’s inability to rein in the industry within Myanmar,” said Michael Di Girolamo, a C4ADS analyst focused on cybercrime.

    Analysts say that some of the same people who led the raid on KK Park have profited from scams over the years. KK Park, like most scam compounds along the Thai border, operates under the protection of the Karen Border Guard Force — also known as the Karen National Army — an armed militia made up of ethnic Karen people who live in eastern Myanmar that is affiliated with the Myanmar military, according to U.S. and European government sanctions notices.

    Jason Tower, a senior expert at the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, said the action at KK Park was a way for Myanmar’s military leadership to relieve pressure, primarily from the U.S. and China, and continue to host highly lucrative criminal activity. “There’s no real political will to crack down,” he said.

    A month after KK Park was raided, another scam center fell, far from the glare of government propaganda. On Nov. 21, forces of the Karen National Union, a rebel group opposed to Myanmar’s military leadership, stormed a scam compound called Shunda Park in an area controlled by a pro-government militia.

    “This looks much more like a real crackdown on crime,” Tower said.

    While Myanmar state television broadcast images of a steamroller crushing rows of scammers’ computers, the Karen National Union gathered 604 mobile phones, bank cards, computers and other evidence from Shunda and handed them over to Thai authorities for investigation.

    “The Myanmar military just destroys everything,” KNU spokesperson Padoh Saw Taw Nee told AP. “It’s clear they don’t want people to know who is controlling it.”

    Requests for comment to a Myanmar military government spokesman went unanswered. But the Global New Light of Myanmar called claims that evidence was being destroyed “astonishing.” All evidence was properly collected, the paper said, and would be “released as appropriate in future public statements.”

    Since the raid on KK Park, the Thai military said around 1,500 people who worked there have made it out through official channels in Thailand — a fraction of the total workforce, estimated to be in the tens of thousands.

    The whereabouts of the rest are unknown. Some followed company bosses to other locations, four workers who fled KK Park told AP. They spoke on condition of anonymity, fearing for their safety.

    One Filipino worker said he and 20 others who jumped the fence at KK Park were picked up by government-allied forces and made it to Thailand. But five Ethiopians on his team stayed behind. “They wanted to go to another company,” he explained. He said he overheard his boss, who was Chinese, talk about relocating the operation to Cambodia.

    Another Filipina worker said her company relocated dozens of staff, computers and Wi-Fi equipment to a nearby compound called Huanya, to get the business targeting older American men with a gold investment scam back up and running as quickly as possible.

    Telegram is awash with recruitment offers for displaced workers. One company seeking staff to target U.S. “clients” appeared to offer the option of working remotely from the town of Myawaddy. “No daily attendance or registration required,” the notice read.

    A company seeking staff for “finding and chatting” with cryptocurrency clients said it would arrange direct flights from Yangon in Myanmar to Phnom Penh, Cambodia’s capital, for those with passports and “safe transportation by car” for those without. “Come quickly,” the announcement urged.

    More than 200 African workers from KK Park went to the nearby Apollo scam compound, according to a foreign woman trapped there.

    Another 100 or so moved to a compound known as Hengsheng Park 4, according to an employee who says his bosses won’t let him leave even if he pays a ransom. He said KK workers stayed for a week and then moved on. “I heard that most of them went to Cambodia, Mauritius and Africa,” he said.

    He said his company still uses Starlink to get online — three units stopped working after SpaceX announced the ban, but a fourth still functions.

    Starlink is also still up and running at the Deko Park compound, 35 miles (56 kilometers) south of KK Park, according to a worker trapped there.

    The Associated Press is withholding the names of all three for safety reasons. AP asked SpaceX for comment and provided the locations of both compounds, but the company did not reply.

    The Myanmar government’s pledges to wipe out scams haven’t helped the man at Deko Park, whose legs bloomed with bruises from a beating, photos show. He sends pleas almost daily: “Is there any latest news?” he wrote in a recent text message to a woman who is trying to help him escape. “I really want to go.”

    —

    This story is part of an ongoing collaboration between The Associated Press and FRONTLINE (PBS) that includes an upcoming documentary.

    —-

    Associated Press reporter Huizhong Wu contributed from Bangkok, Thailand.

    —-

    Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips/.

    Source link

  • 70 years after first sabotage of a US airliner, the 44 killed finally being honored

    LONGMONT, Colo. — The windows shook as dynamite aboard an airplane exploded over Conrad Hopp’s family farm in northern Colorado 70 years ago.

    Hopp, then 18 years old, saw a ball of fire streaking across the night sky and rushed with his brother toward where the burning wreckage came down, dodging objects that turned out to be the bodies of victims of the first confirmed case of sabotage against a commercial U.S. airliner.

    Hundreds of miles away, Marian Poeppelmeyer’s mother, pregnant with her, was at home in Pennsylvania when she learned her husband was among the 44 people killed in the bombing. She ran upstairs and held her oldest daughter tightly and screamed, Poeppelmeyer said, recounting a story told by her mother soon before she died.

    Hopp and Poeppelmeyer, who recently forged a friendship out of their shared trauma, plan to be together as the first memorial to those who died is dedicated Saturday, the 70th anniversary of the bombing.

    Until now, the fate of the victims has been overshadowed by the dramatic details of the bombing, the glaring absence of a federal law against attacking a plane and the meticulous investigation into what happened.

    “We’ve had 70 years without having any respect at all for the victims who were lost,” Hopp said. “So it’s really nice to have this attention now.”

    The United Airlines flight took off a few minutes late after a layover in Denver on its way to Portland. Oregon. Most of the passengers were from somewhere else, said Michael Hesse, the president of the Denver Police Museum who spearheaded the effort to create a memorial at the air traffic control tower of the city’s former airport, which is now part of a brew pub.

    That’s part of the reason no memorial was ever built before, Hesse suggested. The granite slab with victims’ names listed within the outline of a plane will also include the seals of local and federal law enforcement agencies who responded to the bombing.

    A separate memorial at the crash site, where homes are now being built, is also in the works.

    The blast, a wake-up call to the danger posed to the emerging airline industry, wasn’t terrorism but the result of a personal grudge. Jack Gilbert Graham confessed to putting 25 sticks of dynamite attached to a timer into the luggage of his mother, who had put him in an orphanage as a boy. He bought a travel life insurance policy in her name, apparently at a vending machine at the airport, said historian Jeremy Morton, who developed an exhibit on the bombing at the History Colorado Center.

    Graham planned to cover his tracks by having the plane explode over the mountains in Wyoming, making it difficult to investigate the crash, Morton said. But the flight’s delay caused the plane to explode over beet fields north of the city, allowing investigators to piece together the wreckage and interview eyewitnesses.

    At the time, federal law outlawed attacks on trains and ships but not airplanes, leading Graham to be swiftly prosecuted in state court for a single count of premeditated murder for killing his mother, Daisie King. None of the others who died were named as victims.

    Congress outlawed attacks on airplanes shortly after Graham was convicted. Graham, who was married with two young children, was executed in January 1957.

    FBI records show Graham may not have been the first saboteur of an airliner: High explosives were strongly suspected in the 1933 crash of a United airliner over Indiana that killed seven people, but experts held out the possibility it was caused by exploding gas vapors.

    The FBI said its probe of the Colorado crash provided a template to guide future complex airline investigations, including the terrorist bombing of a Pan Am jumbo jet over Lockerbie, Scotland, in 1988. That attack, using a bomb hidden in a cassette recorder packed inside a checked suitcase, led to the strengthening of baggage screening procedures, said Jeff Davis, senior fellow at the Eno Center for Transportation.

    After the bombing, Hopp joined his family and his girlfriend — who would later become his wife — to help find and protect bodies from looters until others could take them to a makeshift morgue. Hopp’s father later broke down recounting what had happened and the family developed an unspoken agreement not to discuss the bombing. For years, Hopp said he woke up after having bad dreams about bodies.

    Poeppelmeyer was 42 when she first heard the story about how her mother reacted to her father’s death. Her mother’s second husband was jealous and forbid anyone from speaking about the father she was named after, Marion Pierce Hobgood, while she was growing up, she said. An intense period of emotional and spiritual healing after a series of hardships as an adult led her to want to learn more about her father and she eventually published a book, “Finding My Father,” in 2019 about her quest.

    She thought about reaching out to Hopp, believed to be one of the few remaining volunteers who helped recover bodies, but was reluctant because she did not want to force him to revisit that time. But she decided to contact him in 2022 after a mutual contact told her the crash site was being developed.

    After meeting Poeppelmeyer and hearing her story, Hopp said his focus began to shift from those who died to those left behind and still suffering because of the bombing. He called Poeppelmeyer “a blessing.”

    “There’s just a bond there, a beautiful bond because we have this shared story, the two sides of the coin,” she said.

    Each time they talk, Poeppelmeyer says Hopp will share more information about what happened. She recently learned that most of the bodies were found on the Hopp family’s farm, including one close to their house.

    She knows there were hundreds of people out helping after the crash. But she thinks it could have been Hopp who found her father after the crash.

    “I just like to think that perhaps he did,” she said.

    Source link

  • Defeating the Far-Right “Blob Man”

    The story of Eric Rudolph, the Atlanta Olympics bomber, offers lessons about the persistence of violent extremism, and how to combat it.

    John Archibald

    Source link

  • Israel, Hamas prepare for negotiations in Egypt

    Israel and Hamas are preparing for indirect negotiations in Egypt on Monday as hopes are rising for a possible ceasefire in Gaza. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a hostage release could be announced this week. Tuesday marks two years…

    By SAMY MAGDY and MELANIE LIDMAN – Associated Press

    Source link

  • Georgia judge to toss landmark racketeering charges against ‘Cop City’ protesters

    ATLANTA — A Georgia judge on Tuesday said he will toss the racketeering charges against all 61 defendants accused of a yearslong conspiracy to halt the construction of a police and firefighter training facility that critics pejoratively call “Cop City.”

    Fulton County Judge Kevin Farmer said he does not believe Republican Attorney General Chris Carr had the authority to secure the 2023 indictments under Georgia’s Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations law, or RICO. Experts believe it was the largest criminal racketeering case ever filed against protesters in U.S. history.

    Farmer said during a hearing that Carr needed Gov. Brian Kemp ‘s permission to pursue the case instead of the local district attorney. Prosecutors earlier conceded to the judge that they did not obtain any such order.

    “It would have been real easy to just ask the governor, ‘Let me do this, give me a letter,’” Farmer said. “The steps just weren’t followed.”

    Five of the 61 defendants were also indicted on charges of domestic terrorism and first-degree arson. Farmer said Carr also didn’t have the authority to pursue the arson charge, though he believes the domestic terrorism charge can stand.

    Farmer said he plans to file a formal order soon and is not sure whether he would quash the entire indictment or let the domestic terrorism charge stand, though he said he expects the prosecution to appeal regardless.

    Deputy Attorney General John Fowler told Farmer that he believes the judge’s decision is “wholly incorrect.”

    The long-brewing controversy over the training center erupted in January 2023 after state troopers who were part of a sweep of the South River Forest that killed an activist who authorities said had fired at them. Numerous protests ensued, with masked vandals sometimes attacking police vehicles and construction equipment to stall the project and intimidate contractors into backing out.

    The defendants faced a wide variety of allegations — everything from throwing Molotov cocktails at police officers, to supplying food to protesters who were camped in the woods and passing out fliers against a state trooper who had fatally shot the protester known as “Tortuguita.” Each defendant faced up to 20 years in prison on the RICO charge.

    Carr, who is running for governor, had pursued the case, with Kemp hailing it as an important step to combat “out-of-state radicals that threaten the safety of our citizens and law enforcement.”

    But critics had decried the indictment as a politically motivated, heavy-handed attempt to quash the movement.

    Emerging in the wake of the 2020 racial justice protests, the “Stop Cop City” movement gained nationwide recognition as it united anarchists, environmental activists and anti-police protesters against the sprawling training center, which was being built in a wooded area that was ultimately razed in DeKalb County.

    Activists argued that uprooting acres of trees for the facility would exacerbate environmental damage in a flood-prone, majority-Black area while serving as an expensive staging ground for militarized officers to be trained in quelling social movements.

    The training center, a priority of Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens, opened earlier this year, despite years of protests and millions in cost overruns, some of which was due to the damage protesters caused, and police officials’ needs to bolster 24/7 security around the facility.

    But over the past two years, the case had been bogged down in procedural issues, with none of the defendants going to trial. Farmer and the case’s previous judge, Fulton County Judge Kimberly Esmond Adams, had earlier been critical of prosecutors’ approach to the case, with Adams saying the prosecution had committed “gross negligence” by allowing privileged attorney-client emails to be included among a giant cache of evidence that was shared between investigators and dozens of defense attorneys.

    Prosecutors had repeatedly apologized for the delays and missteps, but lamented the difficulty of handling such a sprawling case, though Farmer pointed out that it was prosecutors who decided to bring this “61-person elephant” to court in the first place.

    Source link

  • False reports of explosives found in a car near a Trump rally spread online

    False reports of explosives found in a car near a Trump rally spread online

    NEW YORK (AP) — Law enforcement officials on Long Island worked quickly on Wednesday to publicly knock down social media posts falsely reporting that explosives had been found in a car near former President Donald Trump’s planned rally in New York.

    The false reports of an explosive began circulating hours before the Republican presidential nominee’s campaign event at Nassau Coliseum in Uniondale, just days after he was apparently the target of a second possible assassination attempt.

    Nassau County Police Commissioner Patrick Ryder said police questioned and detained a person who “may have been training a bomb detection dog,” near the site of the rally and “falsely reported explosives being found.”

    Lt. Scott Skrynecki, a spokesperson for the county police, said in follow-up messages that the person, who police have not yet identified, was a civilian and not a member of a law enforcement agency.

    He also said the person was not working at or affiliated with the event, which is expected to draw thousands of Trump supporters to the arena that was formerly the home of the NHL’s New York Islanders.

    The rally is Trump’s first on Long Island, a suburban area just east of New York City, since 2017.

    In 2020, President Joe Biden defeated Trump by a roughly 4% margin on Long Island, besting him in Nassau County by about 60,000 votes, though Trump carried neighboring Suffolk County by more than 200 votes.

    Earlier Wednesday, Skrynecki and other county officials responded swiftly to knock down the online line claims, which appear to have started with a post from a reporter citing unnamed sources in the local police department.

    The claims were then shared widely on X, formerly Twitter, by a number of prominent accounts, including that of the company’s owner, Elon Musk, which has nearly 200 million followers. Spokespersons for X didn’t immediately respond to an email seeking comment.

    “False,” Skrynecki texted the AP as the claims spread.

    “No. Ridiculous. Zero validity,” said Christopher Boyle, spokesperson for Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.

    Source link

  • Pakistan brings arrested nurse before cameras to answer questions about her alleged bombing attempt

    Pakistan brings arrested nurse before cameras to answer questions about her alleged bombing attempt

    QUETTA, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistani authorities brought a nurse they said was arrested over the weekend before state-run media on Wednesday to answer questions about her alleged suicide bombing attempt. The government-organized interview in Balochistan province was broadcast on national and local television channels.

    The southwestern Balochistan province has for years been the scene of a long-running insurgency, with several separatist groups staging attacks that target mainly security forces in their quest for independence. The province also has an array of militant groups that are active there.

    Pakistan’s government has also long battled militants and insurgents of various groups across the entire country — fighting that has killed hundreds, both civilians and members of the security forces.

    Authorities are likely eager to show that they are gaining the upper hand in the fight.

    In Wednesday’s interview in Quetta, the provincial capital of Baluchistan, the nurse identified herself as Adeela Baloch and said she had worked at a government hospital in the district of Turbat before she was “misguided by terrorists” and recruited to carry out a suicide attack.

    She said she was arrested before she could carry out the attack.

    It was not clear if she spoke under duress. She did not name the group that had allegedly enlisted her or describe the target of the planned attack.

    The Associated Press could not independently confirm her identity or verify her claims. Officials contacted by the AP declined to provide details and only said she would not be prosecuted because she did not carry out the attack.

    Last month, the outlawed separatist Balochistan Liberation Army, said a woman was among a group of its fighters who had killed more than 50 people in the restive province.

    Earlier on Wednesday, a roadside bomb targeting police in Quetta wounded 12 people, according to local officials.

    Source link

  • 2 charged in plot to solicit attacks on minorities, officials and infrastructure on Telegram

    2 charged in plot to solicit attacks on minorities, officials and infrastructure on Telegram

    WASHINGTON — Two people who prosecutors say were motivated by white supremacist ideology have been arrested on charges that they used the social media messaging app Telegram to encourage hate crimes and acts of violence against minorities, government officials and critical infrastructure in the United States, the Justice Department said Monday.

    The defendants, identified as Dallas Erin Humber and Matthew Robert Allison, face 15 federal counts in the Eastern District of California, including charges that accuse them of soliciting hate crimes and the murder of federal officials, distributing bombmaking instructions and conspiring to provide material support to terrorists.

    Humber, 34, of Elk Grove, California, and Allison, 37, of Boise, Idaho were arrested Friday. Humber pleaded not guilty in a Sacramento courtroom Monday to the charges. Her attorney Noa Oren declined to comment on the case Monday afternoon after the arraignment.

    It was not immediately clear if Allison had an attorney who could speak on his behalf.

    The indictment accuses the two of leading Terrorgram, a network of channels and group chats on Telegram, and of soliciting followers to attack perceived enemies of white people, including government buildings and energy facilities and “high-value” targets such as politicians.

    “Today’s action makes clear that the department will hold perpetrators accountable, including those who hide behind computer screens, in seeking to carry out bias-motivated violence,” Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, the Justice Department’s top civil rights official, said at a news conference.

    Their exhortations to commit violence included statements such as “Take Action Now” and “Do your part,” and users who carried out acts to further white supremacism were told they could become known as “Saints,” prosecutors said.

    Justice Department officials say the pair used the app to transmit bomb-making instructions and to distribute a list of potential targets for assassination — including a federal judge, a senator and a former U.S. attorney — and to celebrate acts or plots from active Terrorgram users.

    Those include the stabbing last month of five people outside a mosque in Turkey and the July arrest of an 18-year-old accused of planning to attack an electrical substation to advance white supremacist views. In the Turkey attack, for instance, prosecutors say the culprit on the morning of the stabbing posted in a group chat: “Come see how much humans I can cleanse.”

    A 24-minute documentary that the two had produced, “White Terror,” documented and praised some 105 acts of white supremacist violence between 1968 and 2021, according to the indictment.

    “The risk and danger they present is extremely serious,” said Assistant Attorney General Matthew Olsen, the Justice Department’s top national security official. He added: “Their reach is as far as the internet because of the platform they’ve created.”

    Telegram is a messaging app that allows for one-on-one conversations, group chats and large “channels” that let people broadcast messages to subscribers. Though broadly used as a messaging tool around the world, Telegram has also drawn scrutiny, including a finding from French investigators that the app has been used by Islamic extremists and drug traffickers.

    Telegram’s founder and CEO, Pavel Durov, was detained by French authorities last month on charges of allowing the platform’s use for criminal activity. Durov responded to the charges with a post last week saying he shouldn’t have been targeted personally and by promising to step up efforts to fight criminality on the app.

    He wrote that while Telegram is not “some sort of anarchic paradise,” surging numbers of users have “caused growing pains that made it easier for criminals to abuse our platform.”

    ___

    Associated Press reporter Trân Nguyễn contributed from Sacramento, California.

    Source link

  • Poland marks the 85th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion at the start of World War II

    Poland marks the 85th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion at the start of World War II

    WARSAW, Poland — Poland’s leaders stressed the need for a strong defense in the face of war in neighboring Ukraine and redress as they led solemn ceremonies early Sunday to mark the 85th anniversary of German Nazi forces invading and bombing Polish territory at the start of World War II.

    Sirens wailed and a memorial bell tolled as President Andrzej Duda and deputy ambassador of Germany, Robert Rohde, attended an observance in the town of Wielun, the first civilian target of German bombing in the small hours of Sept. 1, 1939. Some 1,200 people were killed in the attack which witnesses say began at 4:40 a.m.

    “We can say that we have forgiven even though we remember, even though the pain is persisting and even though there are still tens of thousands of those who have been directly hurt by the Germans,” Duda said. He also called on Berlin to make amends.

    Meanwhile, at a monument on the Baltic Sea’s Westerplatte peninsula, where a military outpost was shelled by a German warship just minutes after Wielun was attacked, Prime Minister Donald Tusk and Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz laid wreaths and attended a memorial roll call for fallen soldiers. At the time, the outpost’s outnumbered troops fought for seven days before surrendering to the Germans, becoming a symbol of heroism and patriotism.

    Tusk said war was present again in the region as the Russian invasion of Ukarine, which began in 2022, grinds on.

    He said, in a clear reference to Germany, it wasn’t enough to speak about “reconciliation” or to “bend your head in a sense of guilt,” adding that the best sign of lessons learned from the past is “the readiness to organize the entire western world, Europe and NATO for the defense against aggression that we are witnessing today in the battlefields of Ukraine.”

    “Today we will not say ‘Neven Again.’ Today we must say ‘Never Again Alone’,” the prime minister said.

    Tusk also said Poland was building “the most modern army in Europe, one of the strongest in Europe” to actively contribute to the unity and strength of the NATO defense alliance and the European continent and “to defend our civilization” and “never again expose our homeland to any risks.”

    In more than five years of World War II and brutal German occupation, Poland lost 6 million citizens or a sixth of its population, of which 3 million were Jewish. The country also suffered huge losses to its infrastructure, industry and agriculture.

    Poland’s previous right-wing government demanded $1.3 trillion in damages from Germany. Tusk’s current Cabinet has toned the demand down to some form of compensation that could serve to strengthen the ties between the two neighbors. Germany insists the matter is closed as it had paid damages to the Moscow-led East Bloc after the war. Warsaw says it did not get any share of it.

    Addressing attendees at the Wielun observance, the Polish president said: “Forgiveness and the admission of guilt is one thing, but compensation for the damage caused is another thing. And this issue has not been settled yet.”

    Source link

  • ‘We were expendable’: Downwinders from world’s 1st atomic test are on a mission to tell their story

    ‘We were expendable’: Downwinders from world’s 1st atomic test are on a mission to tell their story

    LOS ALAMOS, N.M. — It was the summer of 1945 when the United States dropped atomic bombs on Japan, killing thousands of people as waves of destructive energy obliterated two cites. It was a decisive move that helped bring about the end of World War II, but survivors and the generations that followed were left to grapple with sickness from radiation exposure.

    At the time, U.S. President Harry Truman called it “the greatest scientific gamble in history,” saying the rain of ruin from the air would usher in a new concept of force and power. What he didn’t mention was that the federal government had already tested this new force on U.S. soil.

    Just weeks earlier in southern New Mexico, the early morning sky erupted with an incredible flash of light. Windows rattled hundreds of miles away and a trail of fallout stretched to the East Coast.

    Ash from the Trinity Test rained down for days. Children played in it, thinking it was snow. It covered fresh laundry that was hanging out to dry. It contaminated crops, singed livestock and found its way into cisterns used for drinking water.

    The story of New Mexico’s downwinders — the survivors of the world’s first atomic blast and those who helped mine the uranium needed for the nation’s arsenal — is little known. But that’s changing as the documentary “First We Bombed New Mexico” racks up awards from film festivals across the United States.

    It’s now screening in the northern New Mexico community of Los Alamos as part of the Oppenheimer Film Festival. It marks a rare chance for the once secret city that has long celebrated the scientific discoveries of J. Robert Oppenheimer — the father of the atomic bomb — to contemplate another more painful piece of the nation’s nuclear legacy.

    The film, directed and produced by Lois Lipman, highlights the displacement of Hispanic ranching families when the Manhattan Project took over the Pajarito Plateau in the early 1940s, the lives forever altered in the Tularosa Basin where the bomb was detonated and the Native American miners who were never warned about the health risks of working in the uranium industry.

    Their heart-wrenching stories woven together with the testimony of professors and doctors spurred tears in Los Alamos, as they have in Austin, Texas, Annapolis, Maryland, and every other city where the film has been screened.

    Andi Kron, a long-time Los Alamos resident, was in awe of the cinematography but also horrified as she learned more.

    “Just unbelievable,” she said, noting that even people who have been involved in studying different aspects of the Trinity Test decades later remain unaware of the downwinders’ plight.

    Lipman and others hope to distribute the documentary more widely as part of an awareness campaign as downwinders push for the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act to be reauthorized and expanded to include more people who have been exposed by nuclear weapons work carried out by the federal government.

    Over the past 10 years, Lipman has followed Tularosa Basin Downwinders Consortium co-founder Tina Cordova as she has appeared before Congress, held countless town halls and shared meals and prayers with community members.

    Lipman expressed her frustrations during the premiere in Los Alamos, noting that despite testimony about the injustices that followed the Trinity Test, the federal government has yet to acknowledge its failures in recognizing the damage that was done nearly 80 years ago.

    As the film notes, there were about a half-million people — mostly Hispanics and Native Americans — living within a 150-mile (241.4-kilometer) radius of the blast. The area was neither remote nor unpopulated, despite government claims that no lived there and no one was harmed.

    In the film, Cordova — a cancer survivor herself — tells community members that they will not be martyrs anymore. Her family is among many from Tularosa and Carrizozo who have had mothers, fathers, siblings and children die from cancer.

    “They counted on us to be unsophisticated, uneducated and unable to speak up for ourselves. We’re not those people any more,” Cordova said. “I’m not that person. You’re not those people.”

    The U.S. Senate passed a bill earlier this year that would finally recognize downwinders in New Mexico and in several other states where nuclear defense work has resulted in contamination and exposure. However, the bipartisan measure stalled in the U.S. House over concerns by some Republican lawmakers about cost.

    Cordova and others turned out Wednesday in Las Cruces to demonstrate as U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson visited New Mexico to campaign for Republican congressional candidate Yvette Herrell. The downwinders have vowed to make it a campaign issue in the must-win district as well as in the dozens of other Republican districts around the U.S. that would benefit from an expansion of RECA.

    At the film festival, Cordova told the audience that people for too long have been living separate lives, a poignant statement particularly for Los Alamos where science can sometimes be compartmentalized as experts work on solving specific aspects of bigger problems.

    “There are no boundaries. We are not separate people. We all live in this state together and I would like to think that because of that we consider each other to be neighbors, friends, we’re relatives with some of you,” she said, thanking them for being there to hear another side of the story.

    “We should be standing together for what is right,” she said, prompting applause.

    The audience included workers from Los Alamos National Laboratory, county officials and a state senator.

    Bernice Gutierrez was born in Carrizozo several days before the bomb was detonated. She had no words to describe how important she believes it is for the people in Los Alamos to learn about the downwinders.

    “I think a lot of people were surprised,” she said after the first screening. “They don’t know the history.”

    The Trinity Site was on a short list for possible locations for testing the bomb. The others included two sites in California, one in Texas and another in Colorado. The flat, arid nature of the White Sands Missile Range won out, with scientists initially thinking that predictable winds would limit the spread of radiation.

    That ended up not being the case as erratic weather often accompanies New Mexico’s summer rainy season. Aside from shifting winds, rain the night after meant fresh fallout likely found its way into the rainwater that was captured by residents’ cisterns, according to a 2010 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC also noted that another path of exposure involved dairy cows and goats, which residents depended on for sustenance.

    New modeling used by a team of researchers led by Princeton University showed in 2023 that nuclear explosions carried out in New Mexico and Nevada between 1945 and 1962 led to widespread radioactive contamination. The team reported that the world’s first atomic detonation made a significant contribution to exposure in New Mexico and eventually reached 46 states, as well as Canada and Mexico.

    Cordova said the federal government didn’t warn residents before or after the detonation and continued for decades to minimize it because “we didn’t matter, we were expendable.”

    “There’s no excuse for it,” she said.

    Source link

  • Today in History: Aug. 6, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima

    Today in History: Aug. 6, the atomic bombing of Hiroshima

    Today is Tuesday, Aug. 6, the 219th day of 2024. There are 147 days left in the year.

    Today in history:

    On Aug. 6, 1945, during World War II, the U.S. B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, resulting in an estimated 140,000 deaths.

    Also on this date:

    In 1806, Emperor Francis II abdicated, marking the end of the Holy Roman Empire after nearly a thousand years.

    In 1825, Upper Peru became the autonomous republic of Bolivia.

    In 1890, at Auburn Prison in Auburn, New York, William Kemmler became the first person to be executed via electric chair.

    In 1926, Gertrude Ederle became the first woman to swim across the English Channel.

    In 1942, Queen Wilhemina of the Netherlands became the first reigning queen to address a joint session of Congress, telling lawmakers that despite Nazi occupation, her people’s motto remained, “No surrender.”

    In 1945, during World War II, the U.S. B-29 Superfortress Enola Gay dropped an atomic bomb code-named “Little Boy” on Hiroshima, Japan, resulting in an estimated 140,000 deaths.

    In 1962, Jamaica gained independence from the United Kingdom after 300 years of British rule.

    In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act, prohibiting racial discrimination in voting.

    In 1991, the World Wide Web made its public debut as a means of accessing webpages over the Internet.

    In 2011, insurgents shot down a U.S. military helicopter during fighting in eastern Afghanistan, killing 30 Americans, most of them belonging to the same elite Navy commando unit that had slain Osama bin Laden; seven Afghan commandos also died.

    Today’s Birthdays: Children’s performer Ella Jenkins is 100. Actor-director Peter Bonerz is 86. Actor Louise Sorel is 84. Actors Michael Anderson Jr. and Ray Buktenica are 81. Actor Dorian Harewood is 74. Actor Catherine Hicks is 73. Singer Pat MacDonald (Timbuk 3) is 72. Actor Stepfanie Kramer is 68. Actor Faith Prince is 67. R&B singer Randy DeBarge is 66. Actor Leland Orser is 64. Actor Michelle Yeoh is 62. Country singers Patsy and Peggy Lynn are 60. Basketball Hall of Famer David Robinson and actor Jeremy Ratchford are 59. Actor Benito Martinez and country singer Lisa Stewart are 56. Movie writer-director M. Night Shyamalan is 54. Actor Merrin Dungey is 53. Singer Geri Halliwell Horner and actor Jason O’Mara are 52. Actor Vera Farmiga is 51. Actor Ever Carradine is 50. Actors Soleil Moon Frye and Melissa George are 48. Rock singer Travis “Travie” McCoy and actor Leslie Odom Jr. are 43. Actor Romola Garai is 42. U.S. Olympic and WNBA basketball star A’ja Wilson is 28.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

    By The Associated Press

    Source link

  • Nigerian leader calls for end to hardship protests

    Nigerian leader calls for end to hardship protests

    ABUJA, Nigeria — Nigeria’s leader on Sunday called for an end to mass protests over economic hardship, saying the rallies have turned violent and blaming “a few with a political agenda” for driving them. The protests, however, continued for a fourth day in a few places, including in the economic hub of Lagos.

    The protests, which began Thursday, have been accompanied by reports of looting and vandalism, as well as accusations that security forces have used excessive force. Amnesty International has reported the deaths of nine protesters in clashes with police, while another four were killed by a bomb. The Nigerian police denied the Amnesty report.

    “I have heard you loud and clear,” President Bola Tinubu said in his first public remarks on the demonstrations. “I understand the pain and frustration that drive these protests, and I want to assure you that our government is committed to listening and addressing the concerns of our citizens.”

    But, he said, “a few with a clear political agenda to tear this nation apart” would be resisted by security forces.

    Tinubu’s remarks were criticized by some who said he failed to address the issues that caused the protests. It was a “missed opportunity” in which the Nigerian leader “shied away from the underlying issues and provided no roadmap or clear targets for tackling them,” the Lagos-based SBM Intelligence research firm said in its assessment.

    The protests reflect frustration with the worst cost-of-living crisis in a generation and accusations of misgovernment and corruption in Africa’s most populous country, a top oil producer where public officials’ huge earnings contrast with high poverty and hunger levels.

    Tinubu’s aides have said the protests are politically motivated. His election last year was disputed by the opposition, after he won with 37% of the vote, the smallest margin of any Nigerian president ever. The election also recorded the lowest turnout since 1999, when the country returned to democracy.

    The protesters have also been inspired by other young people in Kenya who held rallies last month to oppose a planned tax hike.

    The Nigerian leader said that his government “will not stand idly” and allow the looting reported in the past days to continue.

    “Under the circumstances, I hereby enjoin protesters and the organizers to suspend any further protest and create room for dialogue,” he said.

    The military has also threatened to intervene to quell violence.

    Tinubu defended the audacious reforms that were supposed to save the government money and shore up dwindling foreign investment, but whose immediate impact has added to hardships.

    The reforms, including the suspension of decades-old gas subsidies and currency devaluation, have had a knock-on effect on the price of just about everything else because they’ve been poorly implemented, analysts say.

    “The economy is recovering; please, don’t shut out its oxygen,” Tinubu said.

    In a region that has witnessed rampant military coups off the back of popular discontent with democratically elected governments, the Nigerian leader warned the protests could also threaten the country’s democracy.

    “Forward ever, backward never!” he said.

    Source link

  • Today in History: May 24, first night game in Major League Baseball

    Today in History: May 24, first night game in Major League Baseball

    The Associated Press

    Today is Friday, May 24, the 145th day of 2024. There are 221 days left in the year.

    Today’s Highlight in History:

    On May 24, 1935, the first Major League Baseball game to be played at night took place at Cincinnati’s Crosley Field as the Reds beat the Philadelphia Phillies, 2-1.

    On this date:

    In 1844, Samuel F.B. Morse transmitted the message “What hath God wrought” from Washington to Baltimore as he formally opened America’s first telegraph line.

    In 1937, in a set of rulings, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of the Social Security Act of 1935.

    In 1941, the German battleship Bismarck sank the British battle cruiser HMS Hood in the North Atlantic, killing all but three of the 1,418 men on board.

    In 1961, a group of Freedom Riders was arrested after arriving at a bus terminal in Jackson, Mississippi, charged with breaching the peace for entering white-designated areas. (They ended up serving 60 days in jail.)

    In 1962, astronaut Scott Carpenter became the second American to orbit the Earth as he flew aboard Aurora 7.

    In 1974, American jazz composer and bandleader Duke Ellington, 75, died in New York.

    In 1976, Britain and France opened trans-Atlantic Concorde supersonic transport service to Washington.

    In 1980, Iran rejected a call by the World Court in The Hague to release the American hostages.

    In 1994, four Islamic fundamentalists convicted of bombing New York’s World Trade Center in 1993 were each sentenced to 240 years in prison.

    In 1995, former British Prime Minister Harold Wilson died in London at age 79.

    In 2006, “An Inconvenient Truth,” a documentary about former Vice President Al Gore’s campaign against global warming, went into limited release.

    In 2011, Oprah Winfrey taped the final episode of her long-running talk show.

    In 2017, Ariana Grande suspended her Dangerous Woman world tour and canceled several European shows due to the deadly bombing at her concert in Manchester, England, two days earlier.

    In 2018, Jerry Maren, the last surviving Munchkin from the 1939 film “The Wizard of Oz,” died at a San Diego nursing home; he was 99.

    In 2022, an 18-year-old gunman opened fire at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, killing 19 children and two teachers. The gunman, Salvador Ramos, a former student at the school, was also killed. It was the deadliest shooting at a U.S. grade school since the attack in Sandy Hook, Connecticut, almost a decade earlier.

    In 2023, Tina Turner died at age 83. She teamed with husband Ike Turner for a dynamic run of hit records and live shows and survived her horrifying marriage to triumph in middle age with the chart-topping “What’s Love Got to Do With It.”

    Today’s Birthdays: Actor-comedian-impressionist Stanley Baxter is 98. Jazz musician Archie Shepp is 87. Comedian Tommy Chong is 86. Singer Bob Dylan is 83. Actor Gary Burghoff is 81. Singer Patti LaBelle is 80. Actor Priscilla Presley is 79. Country singer Mike Reid is 77. Actor Jim Broadbent is 75. Actor Alfred Molina is 71. Singer Rosanne Cash is 69. Actor Cliff Parisi is 64. Actor Kristin Scott Thomas is 64. Actor John C. Reilly is 59. Actors Dana Ashbrook and Eric Close are 57. Actor Carl Payne and rock musician Rich Robinson are 55. Former MLB pitcher Bartolo Colon is 51. Actor Dash Mihok is 50. Actor Bryan Greenberg is 46. Actors Owen Benjamin and Billy L. Sullivan are 44. Actor-rapper Jerod Mixon (aka Big Tyme) is 43. Musician Cody Hanson (Hinder) is 42. Dancer-choreographer-singer Mark Ballas is 38. Country singer Billy Gilman is 36. Rapper/producer G-Eazy and actor Brianne Howey are 35. Actor Cayden Boyd is 30.

    Copyright 2024 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.

    By The Associated Press

    Source link

  • Live updates: Israel-Hamas war, Rafah crossing, bombings, Gaza ceasefire deal

    Live updates: Israel-Hamas war, Rafah crossing, bombings, Gaza ceasefire deal

    Hamas representative Osama Hamdan speaks during a news conference in Beirut, Lebanon, on May 7. Mohamed Azakir/Reuters

    A senior representative of Hamas says the proposed deal it agreed to includes the “withdrawal of the occupation from the Gaza Strip.”

    Osama Hamdan, a member of Hamas’ political bureau, told a news conference in Beirut that the proposed deal would secure “the main issues of the demands of our people and our resistance in stopping the aggression permanently, the withdrawal of the occupation from the entire Gaza Strip, the free return of the displaced, relief, reconstruction, ending the siege, and achieving a real and serious exchange deal.”

    Hamdan said the proposed deal’s three phases would be continuously implemented, claiming that Israel wanted “to complete one stage, in which it would achieve the release of its prisoners held by the resistance, and then resume its aggression against the Gaza Strip.”

    Referring to Egypt and Qatar, Hamdan said “the mediator brothers, if their proposal is approved…will have a role in completing all stages of the agreement, and putting pressure on the occupation to adhere to its provisions and implement them.”

    Israel has said there are significant gaps between what Hamas has agreed to and what was on the table in previous rounds of negotiations. In a statement Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Hamas proposal “was designed to torpedo the entry of our forces into Rafah. That did not happen.”

    Netanyahu said that “as the war cabinet unanimously determined, the Hamas proposal was very far from Israel’s core demands.”

    The White House said Tuesday that a close reading of Israel and Hamas’ separate negotiating positions on a hostage deal indicates the two sides should be able to strike an agreement.

    National security spokesman John Kirby’s comment was a fresh sign of optimism about the state of hostage talks after they appeared to stall Monday. CIA Director Bill Burns was in Cairo Tuesday for continued discussions.

    Source link

  • US paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says

    US paused bomb shipment to Israel to signal concerns over Rafah invasion, official says

    WASHINGTON — The U.S. paused a shipment of bombs to Israel last week over concerns that Israel was approaching a decision on launching a full-scale assault on the southern Gaza city of Rafah against the wishes of the U.S., a senior administration official said Tuesday.

    The shipment was supposed to consist of 1,800 2,000-pound bombs and 1,700 500-pound bombs, according to the official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive matter, with the focus of U.S. concern being the larger explosives and how they could be used in a dense urban setting. More than 1 million civilians are sheltering in Rafah after evacuating other parts of Gaza amid Israel’s war on Hamas, which came after the militant group’s deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

    President Joe Biden’s administration in April began reviewing future transfers of military assistance to Israel as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government appeared to move closer toward an invasion of Rafah, despite months of opposition from the White House. The official said the decision to pause the shipment was made last week and no final decision had been made yet on whether to proceed with the shipment at a later date.

    The State Department is separately considering whether to approve the continued transfer of Joint Direct Attack Munition kits, which place precision guidance systems onto bombs, to Israel, but the review didn’t pertain to imminent shipments.

    Source link

  • China blasts US military aid to Taiwan, says island entering a ‘dangerous situation’

    China blasts US military aid to Taiwan, says island entering a ‘dangerous situation’

    BEIJING — China on Wednesday blasted the latest package of U.S. military assistance to Taiwan on Wednesday, saying that such funding was pushing the self-governing island republic into a “dangerous situation.”

    The U.S. Senate late Tuesday passed $95 billion in war aid to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan after months of delays and contentious debate over how involved the United States should be in foreign wars. The package included $8 billion for Taiwan, meant to counter the threat of invasion by China, which claims the entire island as its own territory and has threatened to take it by force if necessary.

    The mainland’s Taiwan Affairs Office said the aid “seriously violates” U.S. commitments to China and “sends a wrong signal to the Taiwan independence separatist forces.”

    Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian added that Taiwan’s ruling pro-independence Democratic Progressive Party, which won a third four-year presidential term in January, is willing to “become a pawn for external forces to use Taiwan to contain China, bringing Taiwan into a dangerous situation.”

    On Tuesday, Taiwan’s President-elect Lai Ching-te told a visiting U.S. Congressional delegation that the aid package would “strengthen the deterrence against authoritarianism in the West Pacific ally chain” and “help ensure peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait and also boost confidence in the region.”

    The package has had broad congressional support since Biden first requested the money last summer. But congressional leaders had to navigate strong opposition from a growing number of conservatives who question U.S. involvement in foreign wars and argue that Congress should be focused instead on the surge of migration at the U.S.-Mexico border.

    The package covers a wide range of parts and services aimed at maintaining and and upgrading Taiwan’s military hardware. Separately, Taiwan has signed billions in contracts with the U.S. for latest-generation F-16V fighter jets, M1 Abrams main battle tanks and the HIMARS rocket system, which the U.S. has also supplied to Ukraine.

    Taiwan has also been expanding its own defense industry, building submarines and trainer jets. Next month, it plans to commission its third and fourth domestically designed and built stealth corvettes to counter the Chinese navy as ptensions art of a strategy of asymmetrical warfare, in which a smaller force counters its larger opponent by using cutting edge or nonconventional tactics and weaponry.

    China launches daily incursions into waters and airspace around Taiwan by navy ships and warplanes. It has also sought to pick away Taiwan’s few remaining formal diplomatic partners.

    However, only two People’s Liberation Army Air Force planes and seven navy vessels were found operating in areas around Taiwan between Tuesday afternoon and Wednesday morning, possibly as a result of heavy rainstorms and low visibility overnight along the island’s west coast facing China.

    At times of heightened tensions, China has launched dozens of such missions over a 24 hour period, many of them crossing the center line in the Taiwan Strait dividing the sides or entering Taiwan’s air defense identification zone.

    Source link

  • Kurdish People Fast Facts | CNN

    Kurdish People Fast Facts | CNN



    CNN
     — 

    Here’s a look at Kurdish people. Kurds do not have an official homeland or country. Most reside within countries in the Middle East including northern Iraq, eastern Turkey, western Iran and small portions of northern Syria and Armenia.

    Area: Roughly 74,000 sq mi

    Population: approximately 25-30 million (some Kurds reside outside of Kurdistan)

    Religion: Most are Sunni Muslims; some practice Sufism, a type of mystic Islam

    Kurds have never achieved nation-state status, making Kurdistan a non-governmental region and one of the largest stateless nations in the world.

    Portions of the region are recognized by two countries: Iran, where the province of Kordestan lies; and northern Iraq, site of the autonomous region known as Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) or Iraqi Kurdistan.

    Kurds were mostly nomadic until the end of World War I and the breakup of the Ottoman Empire.

    Kurds make up about 10% of the population in Syria, 19% of the population of Turkey, 15-20% of the population of Iraq and are one of the largest ethnic minorities in Iran.

    The Peshmerga is a more than 100,000-strong national military force which protects Iraqi Kurdistan, and includes female fighters.

    October 30, 1918 – (TURKEY) The Armistice of Mudros marks the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

    November 3, 1918 – (IRAQ) With the discovery of oil in the Kurdish province of Mosul, British forces occupy the region.

    August 10, 1920 – (TURKEY) The Treaty of Sèvres outlines the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, with Turkey renouncing rights over certain areas in Asia and North Africa. It calls for the recognition of new independent states, including an autonomous Kurdistan. It is never ratified.

    July 24, 1923 – (TURKEY) The Allies and the former Ottoman Empire sign and ratify the Treaty of Lausanne, which recognizes Turkey as an independent nation. In the final treaty marking the conclusion of World War I, the Allies drop demands for an autonomous Turkish Kurdistan. The Kurdish region is eventually divided among several countries.

    1923 – (IRAQ) Former Kurdish Governor Sheikh Mahmud Barzinji stages an uprising against British rule, declaring a Kurdish kingdom in Sulaimaniya in northern Iraq.

    1924 – (IRAQ) British Forces retake Sulaimaniya.

    1943-1945 – (IRAQ/IRAN) Mustafa Barzani leads an uprising, gaining control of areas of Erbil and Badinan. When the uprising is defeated, Barzani and his forces retreat to Kurdish areas in Iran and align with nationalist fighters under the leadership of Qazi Muhammad.

    January 1946 – (IRAN) The Kurdish Republic of Mahābād is established as a Kurdish state, with backing from the Soviet Union. The short-lived country encompasses the city of Mahābād in Iran, which is largely Kurdish and near the Iraq border. However, Soviets withdraw the same year and the Republic of Mahābād collapses.

    August 16, 1946 – (IRAQ) The Kurdish Democratic Party of Iraq (KDP) is established.

    1957 – (SYRIA) 250 Kurdish children die in an arson attack on a cinema. It is blamed on Arab nationalists.

    1958 – (SYRIA) The government formally bans all Kurdish-language publications.

    1958 – (IRAQ) After Iraq’s 1958 revolution, a new constitution is established, which declares Arabs and Kurds as “partners in this homeland.”

    1961 – (IRAQ) KDP begins a rebellion in northern Iraq. Within two weeks, the Iraqi government dissolves the Kurdish Democratic Party.

    March 1970 – (IRAQ) A peace agreement between Iraqi government and Kurds grants the Kurds autonomy. Kurdish is recognized as an official language, and an amendment to the constitution states: “the Iraqi people is made up of two nationalities: the Arab nationality and the Kurdish nationality.”

    March 6, 1975 – (ALGERIA) Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi of Iran sign a treaty. Iraq gives up claims to the Shatt-al-Arab waterway, while Iran agrees to end its support of the independence seeking Kurds.

    June 1975 – (IRAQ) Former KDP Leader Jalal Talabani, establishes the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). The following year, PUK takes up an armed campaign against the Iraqi government.

    1978 – (IRAQ) KDP and PUK forces clash, leaving many dead.

    1978 – (TURKEY) Abdullah Öcalan forms the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), a Kurdish separatist group.

    Late 1970s – (IRAQ) The Baath Party, under Hussein’s leadership, uproots Kurds from areas with Kurdish majorities, and settles southern-Iraqi Arabs into those regions. Into the 1980s, Kurds are forcibly removed from the Iranian border as Kurds are suspected of aiding Iranian forces during the Iran-Iraq War.

    1979 – (IRAQ) Mustafa Barzani dies in Washington, DC. His son, Massoud Barzani, is elected president of KDP following his death.

    1980 – (IRAQ) The Iran-Iraq War begins. Although the KDP forces work closely with Iran, the PUK does not.

    1983 – (IRAQ) PUK agrees to a ceasefire with Iraq and begins negotiations on Kurdish autonomy.

    August 1984 – (TURKEY) PKK launches a violent separatist campaign in Turkey, starting with killing two soldiers. The conflict eventually spreads to Iran, Iraq and Syria.

    1985 – (IRAQ) The ceasefire between Iraq and PUK breaks down.

    1986 – (IRAQ) After an Iranian-sponsored reconciliation, both KDP and PUK receive support from Tehran.

    1987 – (TURKEY) Turkey imposes a state of emergency in the southeastern region of the country in response to PKK attacks.

    February-August 1988 – (IRAQ) During Operation Anfal (“spoils” in Arabic), created to quell Kurdish resistance, the Iraqi military uses large quantities of chemical weapons on Kurdish civilians. Iraqi forces destroy more than 4,000 villages in Kurdistan. It is believed that some 100,000 Kurds were killed.

    March 16, 1988 – (IRAQ) Iraq uses poison gas against the Kurdish people in Halabja in northern Iraq. Thousands of people are believed to have died in the attack.

    1990-1991 – (IRAQ) The Gulf War begins when Hussein invades Kuwait, seeking its oil reserves. There is a mass exodus of Kurds out of Iraq as more than a million flee into Turkey and Iran.

    February 28, 1991 – (IRAQ) Hussein agrees to a ceasefire, ending the Gulf War.

    March 1991 – (IRAQ) Kurdish uprising begins, and in two weeks, the Kurdish militia gains control of Iraqi Kurdistan, including the oil-rich town of Kirkuk. After allied support to the Kurds is denied, Iraq crushes the uprising. Two million Kurds flee, but are forced to hide out in the mountains as Turkey closes its border.

    April 1991 – (IRAQ) A safe haven is established in Iraqi Kurdistan by the United States, the United Kingdom and France. Iraqi forces are barred from operating within the region, and Kurds begin autonomous rule, with KDP leading the north and PUK leading the south.

    1992 – (IRAQ) In an anti-PKK operation, 20,000 Turkish troops enter Kurdish safe havens in Iraq.

    1994-1998 – (IRAQ) PUK and KDP members engage in armed conflict, known as the Fratricide War, in Iraqi Kurdistan.

    1995 – (IRAQ) Approximately 35,000 Turkish troops launch an offensive against Kurds in northern Iraq.

    1996 – (IRAQ) Iraq launches attacks against Kurdish cities, including Erbil and Kirkuk.

    October 8, 1997 – (TURKEY) The United States lists PKK as a terrorist group.

    1998 – (IRAQ) The conflict between KDP and PUK ends, and a peace agreement is reached. This is brokered by the United States, and the accord is signed in Washington.

    1999 – (TURKEY) PKK leader Abdullah Öcalan is captured in Nairobi, Kenya, by Turkish officials.

    2002 – (TURKEY) Under pressure from the European Union, Turkey legalizes broadcasts and education in the Kurdish language. Turkish forces still combat PKK, including military incursions into northern Iraq.

    May 2002 – (TURKEY) The European Union designates the PKK as a terrorist organization.

    February 1, 2004 – (IRAQ) Two suicide bombs kill more than 50 people in Erbil. The targets are the headquarters of KDP and PUK, and several top Kurdish officials from both parties are killed.

    March 2004 – (SYRIA) Nine people are killed at a football (soccer) arena in Qamishli after clashes with riot police. Kurds demonstrate throughout the city, and unrest spreads to nearby towns in the following days, after security forces open fire at the funerals.

    June 2004 – (TURKEY) State TV broadcasts Kurdish-language programs for the first time.

    April 6-7, 2005 – (IRAQ) Kurdish leader Talabani is selected the country’s president by the transitional national assembly, and is sworn in the next day.

    July 2005 – (TURKEY) Six people die from a bomb planted on a train by a Kurdish guerrilla. Turkish officials blame the PKK.

    2005 – (IRAQ) The 2005 Iraqi constitution upholds Kurdish autonomy, and designates Kurdistan as an autonomous federal region.

    August-September 2006 – (TURKEY) A wave of bomb attacks target a resort area in Turkey, as well as Istanbul. Separatist group Kurdistan Freedom Falcons (TAC) claims responsibility for most of the attacks and threatens it will turn Turkey into “hell.”

    December 2007 – (TURKEY) Turkey launches attacks in Iraqi Kurdistan, targeting PKK outposts.

    2009 – (TURKEY) A policy called the Kurdish Initiative increases Kurdish language rights and reduces military presence in the mostly Kurdish southeast.

    September 2010 – (IRAN) A bomb detonates during a parade in Mahābād, leaving 12 dead and dozens injured. No group claims responsibility for the attack, but authorities blame Kurdish separatists. In 2014, authorities arrest members of Koumaleh, a Kurdish armed group, for the attack.

    April 2011 – (SYRIA) Syria grants citizenship to thousands in the Kurdish region. According to Human Rights Watch, an exceptional census stripped 20% of Kurdish Syrians of their citizenship in 1962.

    October 2011 – (SYRIA) Meshaal Tammo, a Syrian Kurdish activist, is assassinated. Many Kurds blame Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime for the assassination.

    October 19, 2011 – (TURKEY) Kurdish militants kill 24 Turkish troops near the Iraqi border, a PKK base area.

    June 2012 – (TURKEY) Turkish forces strike PKK rebel bases in Iraq after a PKK attack in southern Turkey kills eight Turkish soldiers.

    July 2012 – (SYRIA) Amid the country’s civil war, Syrian security forces retreat from several Kurdish towns in the northeastern part of the country.

    August 2012 – (TURKEY) Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan warns that any attempts by the PKK to launch cross-border attacks from Syria would be met by force; the Turkish Army then performs a large exercise less than a mile from border villages now controlled by the Syrian Kurdish group Democratic Union Party (PYD).

    December 2012 – (TURKEY) Erdogan announces the government has begun peace talks with the PKK.

    January 10, 2013 – (FRANCE) Three Kurdish women are found shot dead in Paris, one of whom was a founding member of the PKK.

    March 21, 2013 – (TURKEY) Imprisoned PKK founder Abdullah Ocalan calls for dialogue: a letter from him is read in the Turkish Parliament, “We for tens of years gave up our lives for this struggle, we paid a price. We have come to a point at which the guns must be silent and ideas must talk.”

    March 25, 2013 – (TURKEY) Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan and Iraqi Kurdistan Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani negotiate a framework deal that includes an outline for a direct pipeline export of oil and gas. The pipeline would have the Kurdish crude oil transported from the Kurdish Regional Government directly into Turkey, allowing the KRG to be a competitive supplier of oil to Turkey.

    June 2014 – (IRAQ) Refugees flee fighting and flood into Iraqi Kurdistan to the north as ISIS militants take over Mosul. Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) closes then reopens, with restrictions, border crossings used by those fleeing ISIS.

    June 23, 2014 – (IRAQ) Iraqi Kurdistan President Barzani says that “Iraq is obviously falling apart, and it’s obvious that the federal or central government has lost control over everything.”

    Early August 2014 – (IRAQ) Reportedly 40,000 Yazidi, a minority group of Kurdish descent, flee to a mountainous region in northwestern Iraq to escape ISIS, after the group storms Sinjar, a town near the Syrian border. Also, 100,000 Christians flee to Erbil, after Kurdish leadership there promises protection in the city.

    August 11, 2014 – (IRAQ) Kurdish fighters in Kurdistan, who are called Peshmerga, work with Iraqi armed forces to deliver aid to Yazidis stranded on Mount Sinjar after fleeing ISIS fighters.

    August 12, 2014 – (IRAQ) Some Yazidi tell CNN that PKK fighters control parts of the mountain, and have offered food and protection from ISIS.

    December 2, 2014 – (IRAQ) The government of Iraq and the government of Iraqi Kurdistan sign an agreement to share oil revenues and military resources. Iraq will now pay the salaries of Peshmerga fighters battling ISIS and act as an intermediary to deliver US weapons to Kurdish forces. The Kurdistan government will deliver more than half a million barrels of oil daily to the Iraqi government. Profits from the sale of the oil will be split between the two governments.

    January 26, 2015 – (SYRIA) After 112 days of fighting, the YPG, Kurdish fighters also known as the People’s Protection Units, take control of the city of Kobani from ISIS.

    March 21, 2015 – (TURKEY) In a letter read to thousands during a celebration in the city of Diyarbakir, imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan urges fighters under his command to lay down their arms, stop waging war against the Turkish state and join a “congress.”

    May 18, 2015 – (TURKEY) In the run-up to parliamentary elections on June 7, an explosion rocks the office of the Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) in Adana, in southeastern Turkey. Six people are injured.

    June 7, 2015 – (TURKEY) Three-year-old fledgling party Kurdish People’s Democratic Party (HDP) receives more than 13% of the vote, winning 80 seats in the 550-seat parliament.

    June 16, 2015 – (SYRIA) Kurdish forces in the Syrian town, Tal Abyad say they have defeated ISIS fighters and taken back the town on the Turkish border.

    June 23, 2015 – (SYRIA) Kurdish fighters announce that they have taken back the town of Ain Issa, located 30 miles north of the ISIS stronghold, Raqqa, a city proclaimed to be the capital of the caliphate. A military base near Ain Issa, which had been occupied by ISIS since last August, is abandoned by the terrorist group the night before the Kurdish forces seize the town.

    February 17, 2016 – (IRAQ) Turkish airstrikes target some of the PKK’s top figures in northern Iraq’s Haftanin region. Airstrikes come after a terrorist attack in Turkey kills 28, although no Kurdish group has claimed responsibility for those attacks.

    March 13, 2016 – (TURKEY) A car bomb attack kills at least 37 people in Ankara. The Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, or TAK – an offshoot of the Kurdish separatist group PKK – takes responsibility for the attack.

    March 17, 2016 – (SYRIA) Kurds declare that a swath of northeastern Syria is now a separate autonomous region under Kurdish control. The claim stirs up controversy, as Syrian and Turkish officials say it goes against the goal of creating a unified country after years of civil war.

    July 20, 2016 – (TURKEY) Following a failed coup attempt, President Erdogan declares a state of emergency. In the first three months, pro-Kurdish media outlets are shut down, and tens of thousands of civil servants with alleged PKK connections are dismissed or suspended. The purge includes ministers of parliament, military leaders, police, teachers and mayors, including in the Kurdish-majority city of Diyarbakir.

    September 25, 2017 – (IRAQ) Iraqi Kurds vote in favor of declaring independence from Iraq. More than 92% of the roughly 3 million people vote “yes” to independence.

    March 23, 2019 – (SYRIA) Kurdish forces announce they have captured the eastern Syrian pocket of Baghouz, the last populated area under ISIS rule.

    October 9, 2019 – (TURKEY/SYRIA) Turkey launches a military offensive into northeastern Syria, just days after US President Donald Trump’s administration announced that US troops would leave the border area. Erdogan’s “Operation Peace Spring” is an effort to drive away Kurdish forces from the border, and use the area to resettle around two million Syrian refugees. The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) who operate in the region are Kurdish-led, and still hold thousands of ISIS fighters captured in battle.

    October 17, 2019 – (TURKEY/SYRIA) US Vice President Mike Pence announces that he and Erdogan agreed to a ceasefire halting Turkey’s incursion into northern Syria. The Turkish government insists that the agreement is not a ceasefire, but only a “pause” on operations in the region.

    November 15, 2019 – (TURKEY/SYRIA) Turkey’s decision to launch a military operation targeting US-Kurdish partners in northern Syria and the Trump administration’s subsequent retreat allowed ISIS to rebuild itself and boosted its ability to launch attacks abroad, the Pentagon’s Inspector General says in an Operation Inherent Resolve quarterly report.

    March 24, 2020 – (SYRIA) The SDF releases a statement calling for a humanitarian truce in response to a United Nations appeal for a global ceasefire to combat the coronavirus.

    July 30, 2020 – (SYRIA) During a US Senate committee hearing, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirms the Trump administration’s support for the Delta Crescent Energy firm’s deal to develop and modernize oil fields in northeast Syria under control of the SDF. The following week, Syria’s foreign ministry calls the deal an attempt to “steal” the oil.

    February 8, 2021 – (SYRIA) Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby is questioned about the Delta Crescent Energy deal during a press conference. He says that the US Department of Defense under the Joe Biden administration is focused on fighting ISIS. It is not aiding a private company.

    January 20-26, 2022 – (SYRIA) ISIS lays siege to a prison in northeast Syria, in an attempt to break out thousands of the group’s members who were detained in 2019. In coordination with US-led coalition airstrikes, SDF regains control of the prison. This is believed to be the biggest coordinated attack by ISIS since the fall of the caliphate three years prior.

    September 16, 2022 – (IRAN) Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish Iranian woman, dies after being detained by “morality police” and taken to a “re-education center,” allegedly for not abiding by the country’s conservative dress code. Public anger over her death combines with a range of grievances against the Islamic Republic’s oppressive regime to fuel months of nationwide demonstrations, which continue despite law makers urging the country’s judiciary to “show no leniency” to protesters.

    November 12, 2022 – (IRAN) The Norway-based Iran Human Rights NGO (IHRNGO) group claims Iranian security forces have killed at least 326 people since nationwide protests erupted two months ago. Authorities have unleashed a deadly crackdown on demonstrators, with reports of forced detentions and physical abuse being used to target the country’s Kurdish minority group.

    Source link