geneva_convenience

CAIRO, Aug 15 (Reuters) - A Hamas guard who killed an Israeli hostage acted "in revenge" and against instructions after he heard news that his two children had been killed in an Israeli strike, a spokesperson for the group's armed wing said on Thursday.

"The (Hamas) soldier assigned as a guard acted in a retaliatory manner, against instructions, after he received information that his two children were martyred in one of the massacres conducted by the enemy," Abu Ubaida said on Telegram.

"The incident doesn't represent our ethics and the instructions of our religion in dealing with captives. We will reinforce the instructions," he added.

CHICAGO — Leaders of four Muslim organizations say they’re expecting upwards of 100,000 demonstrators to take part in a number of protests during the Democratic National Convention.

Their push is to get President Biden to arrange a permanent ceasefire and work toward a Palestinian state before he leaves office.

“The president has failed once again to really bring peace and ceasefire. He was able to send quite a bit of weapons to Israel, 2,000 pounds of bombs, but he could not send crates of food and medicine,” said Oussama Jammal with the US Council of Muslim Organizations.

In the UK, Islamophobia is so bipartisan, so normalised, that BBC reporters refer to anti-Muslim pogromists as 'pro-British protesters'

Imagine this scene, if you can. For several days, violent mobs have massed in the centre of British cities and clashed with police in an attempt to reach synagogues to attack them. Draped in England flags and Union Jacks, and armed with cricket bats and metal rods, the trouble-makers have dismantled garden walls to throw bricks.

Gangs have swept through residential areas where Jews are known to live, smashing windows and trying to break down doors. The rioters attacked and torched a hotel identified as housing Jewish asylum seekers, an act that could have burned alive the occupants.

For days, the media and politicians have chiefly referred to these events as far-right "thuggery" and spoken of the need to restore law and order.

In the midst of all this, a young Jewish MP is invited onto a major morning TV show to talk about the unfolding events. When she argues that these attacks need to be clearly identified as racist and antisemitic, one of the show's presenters barracks and ridicules her. Close by, two white men, a former cabinet minister and an executive at one of the UK’s largest newspapers, are seen openly laughing at her.

Oh, and if this isn't all getting too fanciful, the TV presenter who mocks the young MP is the husband of the home secretary responsible for policing these events.

The scenario is so hideously outrageous no one can conceive of it. But it is exactly what took place last week - except that the mob wasn't targeting Jews, but Muslims; the young MP was not Jewish but Zarah Sultana, the country's most high-profile Muslim MP; and her demand was not that the violence be identified as antisemitic but as Islamophobic.

To understand the rise of Donald Trump, you don’t need to go to a diner in the Midwest or read “Hillbilly Elegy,” J.D. Vance’s memoir.

You just need to know these basic facts: In 1980, white people accounted for about 80 percent of the U.S. population.In 2024, white people account for about 58 percent of the U.S. population.

Trump appeals to white people gripped by demographic hysteria. Especially older white people who grew up when white people represented a much larger share of the population. They fear becoming a minority. Every component of the Trump-Republican agenda flows from these demographic fears.

The simple truth is that Trump is a racist, and it is his shamelessness about his racism that appeals to white people. He says what they wish they could get away with saying. They forgive his criminal behavior, his lies, his egomaniacal behavior, and his other flaws because of his racism, not in spite of it. They don’t care that his economic policies will benefit billionaires and not them, just so long as he makes sure minorities have it worse than them.

Vance followed up “Hillbilly Elegy,” his supposed paean to the working class, by becoming a puppet of right-wing billionaire Peter Thiel, who bankrolled his Senate campaign in Ohio. Trump no doubt chose Vance to be his running mate at least in part to get more money from billionaires for his campaign.

The United States has announced that Netzah Yehuda, a controversial Israeli battalion notorious among Palestinians for repressive activities in the occupied West Bank, is eligible for US military assistance.

In 2022, soldiers from the unit handcuffed, blindfolded and gagged elderly US citizen Omar Assad and left him to die in a cold car park.

Under federal regulations known as the Leahy Law, the US is required to cut off assistance to military units involved in gross violations of human rights, but critics say that the US has long failed to apply the rule to Israel.

On July 25, after a couple of months of debate, the Wikipedia entry "Allegations of genocide in the 2023 Israeli attack on Gaza" was changed to "Gaza genocide." This was done despite the fact that the International Court of Justice in the Hague has not made an official ruling on the matter, in the wake of South Africa's petition to the court alleging that Israel is committing or facilitating genocide in Gaza.

The Los Angeles-based Jewish Journal, which followed the Wikipedia discussion and vote, wrote that the editors who voted on this change claimed to be relying on an academic consensus based on statements of experts on genocide, human rights, human rights law and Holocaust historians.

U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria have come under repeated attack in recent weeks, including a rocket attack on al-Asad Air Base in Iraq on Monday that reportedly injured five U.S. military personnel and contractors. The renewed strikes, which began in July, mark a resumption of a low-level war between America and Iran’s proxies in the Middle East that had ebbed earlier this year.

U.S. and allied forces have been attacked more than 170 times during the Gaza war: 102 times in Syria, 70 in Iraq, and once in Jordan. The latter assault, in January, ignited a round of escalatory U.S. counterattacks against Iranian-allied targets that led Iran to rein in its proxies. As Israel has widened the Gaza war in recent weeks, with more provocative attacks in Lebanon, Iran, and Yemen, Iran’s partners have resumed attacks on U.S. outposts across the region.

Four people were shot dead during the protests on July 16, allegedly by police.

The number of casualties has been on the rise since demonstrations first started, with more than 50 people killed since June, according to the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights. A Kenyan protester

A contentious finance bill aimed to raise $2.7bn triggered many Kenyans.

At the height of it, demonstrators stormed parliament and burned part of it after MPs passed the controversial bill on June 25. Several people were killed that day – one right outside Parliament.

Since then, the protests have become a weekly affair.

President Ruto eventually succumbed to pressure and returned the bill to Parliament for further amendments. He has yielded to some demands made by Kenyans.

He fired cabinet secretaries but then reappointed half the cabinet – individuals some Kenyans rejected because they want the president to select technocrats with integrity, not political cronies. Ruto’s reappointments triggered more anger.