Taliban attacks kill 4 police in southern province
Taliban attacked security posts in the Zabul capital of Qalat
The attack also left seven rebels dead and five others wounded
Updated 15 August 2018
AP
KABUL, Afghanistan: An official says Taliban attacks have killed four police in southern Zabul province.
Provincial police chief Mustafa Mayar says the Taliban attacked security posts in the Zabul capital of Qalat early Wednesday, killing the four and wounding three other officers.
He says the gunbattle lasted several hours during which the Taliban used artillery and heavy guns. The attack also left seven rebels dead and five others wounded.
Pro-Palestinian protesters occupy parts of Brooklyn Museum
Some arrests were made after protesters skirmished with police inside and outside the building
One of those arrested was a man who reportedly spray-painted an outdoor sculpture
Updated 6 sec ago
Reuters
NEW YORK: Pro-Palestinian protesters took over parts of the Brooklyn Museum on Friday, hanging a banner above the main entrance, occupying much of the lobby and scuffling with police, witnesses said.
Some arrests were made but a New York Police Department spokesperson said it would be hours before officials had an accurate count. The art museum in the New York City borough of Brooklyn said it closed an hour early due to the disruption.
One of the arrests was of a man who spray-painted an outdoor sculpture, Reuters witnessed. Skirmishes between police and protesters took place inside and outside the building.
“There was damage to existing and newly installed artwork on our plaza,” a museum spokesperson said in an email. “Protesters entered the building, and our public safety staff were physically and verbally harassed.
“Out of a concern for the building, our collections, and our staff, the decision was made to close the building an hour early,” and the public was asked to vacate peacefully, the statement said.
NYPD officers arrest a pro Palestinian demonstrator during a protest outside the Brooklyn Museum in Brooklyn, New York on May 31, 2024. (AFP)
Hundreds of demonstrators were marching through Brooklyn when some of them rushed the entrance, according to the Reuters witness. Security guards prevented many from entering but some managed to get inside.
A banner was hung from atop the neoclassical facade proclaiming, “Free Palestine, Divest From Genocide.”
A pro-Palestinian organization named Within Our Lifetime urged demonstrators to “flood Brooklyn Museum for Gaza.” It said activists occupied the museum to compel it to disclose any Israel-related investments and to divest any such funding.
Demonstrations against Israel’s prosecution of the war in Gaza have continued in the United States, largely on university campuses.
The war began when Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, killing 1,200 people and abducting 253 others, of whom nearly 130 are believed to remain in captivity in Gaza, according to Israeli tallies.
Palestinian health authorities estimate more than 36,280 people have been killed in Gaza since Israel responded, and the United Nations says over a million people face “catastrophic” levels of hunger as famine takes hold in parts of the enclave.
Trump tries to move past his guilty verdict by attacking the criminal justice system
Updated 8 min 1 sec ago
AP
NEW YORK: Donald Trump sought to move past his historic criminal conviction on Friday and build momentum for his bid to return to the White House with fierce attacks on the judge who oversaw the case, the prosecution’s star witness and the criminal justice system as a whole.
Speaking from his namesake tower in Manhattan in a symbolic return to the campaign trail, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee delivered a message aimed squarely at his most loyal supporters. Defiant as ever, he insisted without evidence that the verdict was “rigged” and driven by politics.
“We’re going to fight,” Trump said from the atrium of Trump Tower, where he descended a golden escalator to announce his 2016 campaign nine years ago next month. The machinations during the final, dramatic weeks of that campaign ultimately led to the charges that made Trump the first former president and presumptive presidential nominee of a major party to be convicted of a crime, exposing him to potential prison time.
While the guilty verdict has energized Trump’s base, fueling millions of dollars in new campaign contributions, it’s unclear how the conviction and his rambling response will resonate with the kinds of voters who are likely to decide what is expected to be an extremely close November election. They include suburban women, independents, and voters turned off by both candidates.
Speaking before dozens of reporters and cameras that carried his remarks live, Trump cast himself as a martyr, suggesting that if this could happen to him, “They can do this to anyone.”
“I’m willing to do whatever I have to do to save our country and save our Constitution. I don’t mind,” he said, as he traded the aging lower Manhattan courthouse where he spent much of the last two months for a backdrop of American flags, rose marble and brass.
“It’s a very unpleasant thing, to be honest,” he added. “But it’s a great, great honor.”
President Joe Biden, responding to the verdict at the White House, said Trump “was given every opportunity to defend himself” and blasted his rhetoric.
“It’s reckless, it’s dangerous, it’s irresponsible for anyone to say this is rigged just because they don’t like the verdict,” Biden said.
Trump has made his legal woes the centerpiece of his campaign message as he has argued, without evidence, that Biden orchestrated the four indictments against him to hobble his campaign. The hush money case was filed by local prosecutors in Manhattan who don’t work for the Justice Department or any White House office.
A Manhattan jury on Thursday found Trump guilty of 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election through a hush money payment to a porn actor who said the two had sex.
Despite the historic ruling, a convicted Trump sounded much the same as a pre-convicted Trump, as he delivered what amounted to a truncated version of his usual rally speech. He argued the verdict was illegitimate and driven by politics and sought to downplay the facts underlying the case. He said he would appeal.
“It’s not hush money. It’s a nondisclosure agreement,” he said. “Totally legal, totally common.”
When Trump emerged from the courtroom immediately after the verdict Thursday, he had appeared tense and deeply angry, his words pointed and clipped. But by Friday, he seemed more relaxed — if a little congested — especially as he moved on to other topics. He did not take questions from reporters, marching off as supporters assembled in the lobby cheered.
His lawyer, Todd Blanche, who was with him at Trump Tower but didn’t speak, said in an interview later Friday that he had been “shocked” by how well Trump took the verdict.
“He’s not happy about it, but there’s no defendant in the history of our justice system who’s happy about a conviction the day after,” he said. “But I think he knows there’s a lot of fight left and there’s a lot of opportunity to fix this and that’s what we’re going to try to do.”
Trump has portrayed himself as a passionate supporter of law enforcement and has even talked favorably of officers handling suspects roughly. But he has spent the last two years attacking parts of the criminal justice system as it applies to him and raising questions about the honesty and motives of agents and prosecutors.
In his disjointed remarks, Trump attacked Biden’s immigration and tax policies before pivoting to his case, growling that he was threatened with jail time if he violated a gag order. He cast intricate parts of the case and trial proceedings as unfair, making false statements and misrepresentations as he went.
Trump said he had wanted to testify in his trial, a right that he opted not to exercise. Doing so would have allowed prosecutors to cross-examine him under oath. He raised the specter on Friday of being charged with perjury for a verbal misstep, saying, “The theory is you never testify because as soon as you testify — anybody, if it were George Washington — don’t testify because they’ll get you on something that you said slightly wrong.”
Testing the limits of the gag order that continues to prohibit him from publicly critiquing witnesses including Michael Cohen, Trump called his former fixer, the star prosecution witness in the case, “a sleazebag,” without referencing him by name.
He also blasted the judge in the case, saying his side’s chief witness had been “literally crucified by this man who looks like an angel, but he’s really a devil.”
He also circled back to some of the same authoritarian themes he has repeatedly focused on in speeches and rallies, painting the US under Biden as a “corrupt” and “fascist” nation.
His son Eric Trump and daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, joined him, but his wife, Melania Trump, who has been publicly silent since the verdict, was not seen.
Outside, on Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue, supporters gathered across the street flew a giant red “TRUMP OR DEATH” sign that flapped in front of a high-end boutique. A small group of protesters held signs saying “Guilty” and “Justice matters.”
Trump’s campaign announced Friday evening it had raised $52.8 million in the 24 hours after the verdict. The campaign said one-third of those donors had not previously given to him.
Trump and his campaign had been preparing for a guilty verdict for days, even as they held out hope for a hung jury. On Tuesday, Trump railed that not even Mother Teresa, the nun and saint, could beat the charges, which he repeatedly labeled as “rigged.”
His top aides on Wednesday released a memo in which they insisted a verdict would have no impact on the election, whether Trump was convicted or acquitted.
The news nonetheless landed with a jolt. Trump listened as the jury delivered a guilty verdict on every count. Trump sat stone-faced while the verdict was read.
His campaign fired off a flurry of fundraising appeals, and GOP allies rallied to his side. One text message called him a “political prisoner,” even though he hasn’t yet found out if he will be sentenced to prison. The campaign also began selling black “Make America Great Again” caps, instead of the usual red, to reflect a “dark day in history.”
Aides reported an immediate rush of contributions so intense that WinRed, the platform the campaign uses for fundraising, crashed.
In the next two months, Trump is set to have his first debate with Biden, announce a running mate and formally accept his party’s nomination at the Republican National Convention. But before he goes to Milwaukee for the RNC, Trump will have to return to court on July 11 for sentencing. He could face penalties ranging from a fine or probation up to prison time.
Russia and Ukraine exchange POWs for the first time in months. Bodies of fallen are also swapped
The exchange of the 150 POWs in all was the fourth swap this year and the 52nd since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022
Ukraine has gotten back a total of 3,210 members of the Ukrainian military and civilians since the outbreak of the war
Updated 17 min 22 sec ago
AP
SUMY REGION, Ukraine: Ukraine and Russia exchanged prisoners of war on Friday, each sending back 75 POWs in the first such swap in the past three months, officials said. A few hours earlier and at the same location, the two sides also handed over bodies of their fallen soldiers.
The Ukrainian POWs, including four civilians, were returned on several buses that drove into the northern Sumy region. As they disembarked, they shouted joyfully and called their families to tell them they were home. Some knelt and kissed the ground while many wrapped themselves in yellow-blue flags and hugged one another, breaking into tears. Many appeared emaciated and poorly dressed.
The exchange of the 150 POWs in all was the fourth swap this year and the 52nd since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. The United Arab Emirates said it helped negotiate this latest exchange.
The two sides have traded blame for what they say is a slowdown in the swaps.
Ukraine has in the past urged Russia to swap “all for all” and rallies calling for the release of POWs take place across Ukraine weekly. A Ukrainian official at the headquarters coordinating the exchanges, Vitalii Matviienko said that “Ukraine is always ready.”
Tatyana Moskalkova, Russia’s human rights ombudsperson, said earlier this week that Kyiv was making “new artificial demands,” without elaborating.
Among those who were returned home to Ukraine on Friday was Roman Onyschuk, an IT worker who joined Ukrainian forces as a volunteer at the start of the Russian invasion. He was captured in March 2022 in the Kharkiv region.
“I just want to hear my wife’s voice, my son’s voice. I missed his three birthdays,” he said. In the more than 800 days he spent in captivity, he never communicated with his family and he doesn’t know what city they are in now, he said.
“It’s a little bit overwhelming,” Onyschuk added.
With the exchanges, including Friday’s, Ukraine has gotten back a total of 3,210 members of the Ukrainian military and civilians since the outbreak of the war, according to Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for Treatment of POWs.
Neither Ukraine nor Russia disclose how many POWs there are in all.
Dmytro Kantypenko was captured on Snake Island in the Black Sea in the first days of the war. He was among those freed Friday and said he called his mother to tell her he was back in Ukraine.
“I’ll be home soon,” he said, wiping away his tears. He learned that his wife had fled to Lithuania with their son.
The Russians woke him up in the middle of the night without any explanation, he said, giving him a short time to change his clothes before they were on their way. Kantypenko said they were tortured with electroshock shortly before the exchange, and his fellow POWs standing beside him confirmed that.
According to UN reports, the majority of Ukrainian POWs are subject to routine medical neglect, severe and systematic mistreatment, and even torture while in detention. There have also been isolated reports of abuse of Russian soldiers, mostly during capture or transit to internment sites.
At least one-third of Ukrainians who returned home suffered “injuries, severe illnesses, and disabilities,” according to the Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of POWs. Among those returned Friday were 19 Ukrainian fighters from Snake island, 14 people captured at Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, and 10 fighters from the city of Mariupol that was captured by Russia.
A Ukrainian serviceman hugs his comrade after returning from captivity during POWs exchange in Sumy region, Ukraine, on May 31, 2024. (AP)
Five women were among the returned Ukrainians, including Nataliia Manuilova, who was a cook in the Azov regiment and spent more than two years in captivity. The Russians took her from her home in Mariupol, pulling a bag over her head and tying her hands, she recounted.
“I hate them. They took away two years of my beautiful life,” she said, hugging her son on Friday. “I can’t believe he’s grown up like this.”
The POWs traveled through small villages before reaching Sumy, from where they were taken to hospitals for two weeks of rehabilitation. The buses moved past green fields with newly dug defense lines preparing for Russian attacks in the area following Moscow’s offensive in the neighboring Kharkiv region.
Ukrainians with blue and yellow flags took to the streets and loudly welcomed the POWs home.
Earlier in the day and at the same location, Ukraine and Russia also swapped bodies of their fallen soldiers — Ukraine returned 212 bodies and Russia 45.
Bohdan Okhrimenko, another official at the Ukrainian POWs offices, explained the sharp difference in numbers. “This time, the negotiators agreed to bring back more of our heroes,” he said.
The warring sides only meet when they swap their dead and POWs, which require considerable preparation and diplomacy.
Vitalii Matviienko, another Ukrainian official from the POW headquarters, said there were days when the exchanges didn’t happen because the Russian side would change their mind at the last minute.
Since the outbreak of the war, Ukraine got back nearly 3,000 bodies, mostly of servicemen, according to Ukraine’s missing persons office. About 1,300 of them have been identified.
Sometimes it takes weeks before the bodies are identified and returned to their families for burial.
“They haven’t returned home alive, but their memory allows us to continue fighting,” said Okhrimenko. “And it gives their families a possibility for proper burial”.
US Congress invites Israel’s Netanyahu to address lawmakers
Updated 16 min 45 sec ago
AFP
WASHINGTON: Democratic and Republican leaders in the US Congress have invited Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver an address to lawmakers, House Speaker Mike Johnson said Friday.
The four party leaders in the House and Senate asked Netanyahu to speak before a joint meeting of Congress at a date yet to be arranged, although US media reported that it is expected to take place just before or soon after the August recess.
“We join the state of Israel in your struggle against terror, especially as Hamas continues to hold American and Israeli citizens captive and its leaders jeopardize regional stability,” said the letter, which Johnson made public.
“For this reason, on behalf of the bipartisan leadership of the United States House of Representatives and the United States Senate, we would like to invite you to address a Joint Meeting of Congress.”
A visit from Netanyahu could be an awkward affair for Democratic Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who called in March for Israel to hold new elections in a rare example of strident criticism from a senior American official of Israel’s handling of the war in Gaza.
The rebuke from Schumer, the highest-ranking elected Jewish American in history, came amid increased pressure from President Joe Biden over the mounting death toll in the conflict, sparked by the October 7 attacks by Hamas militants.
In a sign of the worsening ties between Washington and the Netanyahu government, Schumer said the Israeli leader was one of four “major obstacles” to peace, alongside Hamas, Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and radical right-wing Israelis.
Although Schumer signed the invitation, a visit by Netanyahu would not be welcomed by figures on the left of the Democratic Party who have condemned the right-wing leader over his handling of the military response.
Hostilities began when Hamas militants attacked Israel, resulting in about 1,189 deaths, mostly civilians, according to an AFP count based on official figures.
More than 36,280 Palestinians, mostly civilians, have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the war broke out, according to data provided by the health ministry of Hamas-run Gaza.
According to the Israeli military, 294 soldiers have been killed in the military campaign since the start of the ground offensive on October 27.
“The existential challenges we face, including the growing partnership between Iran, Russia, and China, threaten the security, peace, and prosperity of our countries and of free people around the world,” the leaders wrote to Netanyahu.
“To build on our enduring relationship and to highlight America’s solidarity with Israel, we invite you to share the Israeli government’s vision for defending democracy, combatting terror, and establishing a just and lasting peace in the region.”
UK ambassador to Mexico sacked after pointing gun at employee, Financial Times reports
Jon Benjamin is no longer listed as ambassador on his LinkedIn page
Updated 31 May 2024
Reuters
MEXICO CITY: The British ambassador to Mexico was fired after allegedly pointing a gun at a local embassy employee, an incident that was captured on video and circulated on social media, the Financial Times reported on Friday.
Ambassador Jon Benjamin was traveling through two Mexican states known for their heavy cartel presence when he picked up a gun and pointed it at an employee inside the vehicle they were traveling in, the outlet reported, citing the video and people familiar with the matter.
The episode occurred in April, the sources told the Financial Times, and Benjamin was fired soon after. Benjamin’s LinkedIn page says his term as ambassador ended in May, and a biography on the UK government website says he “was UK Ambassador to Mexico between 2021 and 2024.”
He did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the embassy.
A video of what appears to be the incident in question was first published on X earlier this week from an anonymous, recently created account with the username @subdiplomatic.
It shows a man purported to be Benjamin sitting beside the driver in a stationary SUV-type vehicle and turning, smiling, to point it at a person in the back seat. The video has not been verified by Reuters.
