GUATEMALA CITY: President Donald Trump’s top diplomat and his main spokesperson on Wednesday walked back the idea that he wants the permanent relocation of Palestinians from Gaza, after American allies and even Republican lawmakers rebuffed his suggestion that the US take “ownership” of the territory.
Trump on Tuesday had called for “permanently” resettling Palestinians from war-torn Gaza and left open the door to deploying American troops there as part of a massive rebuilding operation. But Secretary of State Marco Rubio and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said he only sought to move the roughly 1.8 million Gazans temporarily to allow for reconstruction.
Even that proposal has drawn criticism from Palestinians, who are worried they may never be allowed back in if they flee, and from the Arab nations that Trump has called on to take them in.
Rubio, on his first foreign trip as secretary of state, described Trump’s proposal as a “very generous” offer to help with debris removal and reconstruction of the enclave following 15 months of fighting between Israel and Hamas.
“In the interim, obviously people are going to have to live somewhere while you’re rebuilding it,” Rubio said in a news conference in Guatemala City.
Leavitt said in a briefing with reporters in Washington that Gaza is “a demolition site” and referenced footage of the devastation.
“The president has made it clear that they need to be temporarily relocated out of Gaza,” she said, calling it currently “an uninhabitable place for human beings” and saying it would be “evil to suggest that people should live in such dire conditions.”
Their comments contradicted Trump, who said Tuesday night, “If we can get a beautiful area to resettle people, permanently, in nice homes where they can be happy and not be shot and not be killed and not be knifed to death like what’s happening in Gaza.” He added that he envisioned “long-term” US ownership of a redevelopment of the territory, which sits along the Mediterranean Sea.
Egypt, Jordan and other US allies in the Mideast have cautioned Trump that relocating Palestinians from Gaza would threaten Mideast stability, risk expanding the conflict and undermine a decades-long push by the US and its allies for a two-state solution.
Saudi Arabia’s foreign ministry issued a reaction to Trump, noting its long call for an independent Palestinian state was a “firm, steadfast and unwavering position.”
“The duty of the international community today is to work to alleviate the severe human suffering endured by the Palestinian people, who will remain committed to their land and will not budge from it,” the Saudi statement said.
Even Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican and a Trump ally, called it “problematic.”
“The idea of Americans going in on the ground in Gaza is a non starter for every senator,” the South Carolina lawmaker told reporters Wednesday. “So I would suggest we go back to what we’ve been trying to do which is destroy Hamas and find a way for the Arab world to take over Gaza and the West Bank, in a fashion that would lead to a Palestinian state that Israel can live with.”
Rubio insisted that Trump’s position “was not meant as a hostile move.”
“What he’s very generously has offered is the ability of the United States to go in and help with debris removal, help with munitions removal, help with reconstruction, the rebuilding homes and businesses and things of this nature so that then people can move back in,” Rubio said.
Still, the White House said Trump was ruling out sending US dollars to aid in the reconstruction of Gaza.
But Leavitt, like Trump, refused to rule out sending American troops into Gaza, saying of Trump, “he wants to preserve that leverage in negotiations.”
The Palestinians, Arab nations and others have rejected even a temporary relocation from Gaza, which would run counter to decades of US policy calling for the creation of a Palestinian state with no further displacement of Palestinians from Gaza or the West Bank.
The proposals also appear to trash months of negotiations by the Biden administration to draft a “day after” plan for the reconstruction and governance of Gaza. President Joe Biden had tried to lock in that plan — which calls for joint governance of the territory by the Palestinian Authority under UN stewardship and a multi-national peacekeeping force — before leaving office by inviting Trump’s main Mideast envoy into final talks over a Gaza ceasefire.
US officials now say Trump only wants to displace Palestinians from Gaza temporarily
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US officials now say Trump only wants to displace Palestinians from Gaza temporarily
- “In the interim, obviously people are going to have to live somewhere while you’re rebuilding it,” Rubio said
- “The president has made it clear that they need to be temporarily relocated out of Gaza,” Leavitt said, calling it currently “an uninhabitable place for human beings”
Chinese national arrested with surveillance device near Philippine election commission
- The espionage accusations come as the two countries confront each other over disputed territory in the South China Sea
- Two Chinese men detained in February were accused of using the same device while driving near sensitive government and military locations in Manila
The man was allegedly using an “IMSI catcher,” a device capable of mimicking a cell tower and snatching messages from the air in a one-to-three-kilometer (about 3,200-to-9,800-feet) radius.
Two Chinese men detained in February were accused of using the same device while driving near sensitive government and military locations in Manila.
National Bureau of Investigation spokesman Ferdinand Lavin told AFP the latest arrest was made Tuesday near the offices of the Philippine Commission on Elections (Comelec) after agents confirmed the IMSI was in operation.
“When we made the arrest, that was the third time he had come to Comelec,” Lavin said, adding other locations visited included the Philippine Supreme Court, Department of Justice and US Embassy.
The arrested man held a passport issued by Macau, Lavin said, while a hired Filipino driver who cooperated with the operation was not detained. Macau is ruled by China.
Calls to the Chinese Embassy in Manila and Comelec were not immediately returned.
Beijing this month made its own allegations of spying, saying it had “destroyed” an intelligence network set up by a Philippine espionage agency and arrested three Filipino spies.
The Philippines’ National Security Council (NSC) later said supposed confessions televised on Chinese state media appeared to have been “scripted, strongly suggesting that they were not made freely” and that a spy agency mentioned did not exist.
The espionage accusations come as the two countries confront each other over disputed territory in the South China Sea and as tensions rise over the Philippines’ security ties with ally the United States.
Last week, NSC Assistant Director General Jonathan Malaya told a Senate hearing that his agency believed Beijing was likely behind online attacks aimed at influencing the coming mid-term polls.
The Chinese Embassy strongly denied the allegation.
The Philippines’ May 12 elections will decide hundreds of seats in the House of Representatives and Senate as well as thousands of local positions.
NSC GROUPE
US Supreme Court to weigh case about public funds in religious schools
- Nearly all 50 states already allow charter schools, which are privately managed but publicly funded
- If the Supreme Court sides with the Catholic Church, taxpayer funding for religious education could see a huge uptick
WASHINGTON: The conservative US Supreme Court will weigh a case on Wednesday challenging the ban on using public money to fund religious charter schools.
Nearly all 50 states already allow charter schools, which are privately managed but publicly funded.
But the Catholic Church in Oklahoma is vying to open the nation’s first publicly funded religious charter school, Saint Isidore of Seville.
Named in homage to the patron saint of the Internet, a 7th century Spanish bishop, plaintiffs say the school would promote “parental choice, individual liberty, educational diversity, and student achievement.”
“Excluding religious groups from Oklahoma’s charter school program denies these opportunities and causes real harm,” plaintiffs add.
If the Supreme Court sides with the Catholic Church, taxpayer funding for religious education could see a huge uptick.
The separation between church and state is a bedrock principle of the US government, rooted in the First Amendment of the Constitution. The separation has been upheld in many Supreme Court decisions.
In the case before the court, the Oklahoma Supreme Court ruled that the creation of the school violates both US and state constitutions.
“A ruling for petitioners would eliminate the buffer this Court has long enforced between religious instruction and public schools, including in areas where charter schools are the only or default public school option,” the Oklahoma Attorney General has argued.
Six of nine judges on the conservative-majority Supreme Court have demonstrated support for extending religion into public spaces, particularly schools.
However, Justice Amy Coney Barrett has recused herself from this case, possibly because of connections to jurists advocating for the creation of contracted religious schools.
In 2022, the Supreme Court compelled the northeastern state of Maine to include religious schools in a system of public subsidies, saying their exclusion amounted to discrimination against religion.
The conservative majority also, in the same year, invalidated the dismissal of an American football coach in the Seattle area who prayed on the field.
The plaintiffs are represented by religious legal advocates Alliance Defending Freedom, who are expected to argue that the prohibition on funding schools will inhibit the First Amendment right to free worship.
Nationally, there were more than 3.7 million students enrolled in 8,150 charter schools during the 2022-2023 school year, according to the National Alliance for Public Charter Schools.
China’s Shenzhou-19 astronauts return to Earth
- The Shenzhou-19 crew had worked on the space station since October, where they carried out experiments and set a new record for the longest ever spacewalk
- A military band and crowds of flag-waving well-wishers bade farewell to the crew before they blasted off on a Long March-2F rocket
BEIJING: Three Chinese astronauts returned to Earth on Wednesday after six months on the country’s space station, state media footage showed, as Beijing advances toward its aim to become a major celestial power.
China has plowed billions of dollars into its space program in recent years in an effort to achieve what President Xi Jinping describes as the country’s “space dream.”
The world’s second-largest economy has bold plans to send a crewed mission to the Moon by the end of the decade and eventually build a base on the lunar surface.
Its latest launch last week ferried a trio of astronauts to the Tiangong space station, heralding the start of the Shenzhou-20 mission.
They have taken over from Shenzhou-19 crew Cai Xuzhe, Song Lingdong and Wang Haoze, whose landing capsule touched down in the northern Inner Mongolia region on Wednesday.
Xinhua state news agency said the group were in “good health” shortly after touching back down on Earth.
Pictures from state broadcaster CCTV showed the capsule, attached to a red-and-white striped parachute, descending through an azure sky before hitting the ground in a cloud of brown desert dust.
Teams of officials in white and orange jumpsuits then rushed to open the golden craft, and one planted a fluttering national flag into the sandy soil nearby.
The Shenzhou-19 crew had worked on the space station since October, where they carried out experiments and set a new record for the longest ever spacewalk.
They were initially scheduled to return on Tuesday, but the mission was postponed due to bad weather at the landing site, according to Chinese authorities.
Wang, 35, was China’s only woman spaceflight engineer at the time of the launch, according to the Chinese Manned Space Agency (CMSA).
Commander Cai, a 48-year-old former air force pilot, previously served aboard Tiangong as part of the Shenzhou-14 mission in 2022.
Song, a 34-year-old onetime air force pilot, completed the group of spacefarers popularly dubbed “taikonauts” in China.
Last week, China saw off the Shenzhou-20 team in a feast of pomp and pageantry at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Base in the barren desert of northwestern Gansu province.
A military band and crowds of flag-waving well-wishers bade farewell to the crew before they blasted off on a Long March-2F rocket.
State media reported that they assumed control of the space station after a handover ceremony with its former occupants on Sunday.
The all-male Shenzhou-20 crew is headed by Chen Dong, 46, a former fighter pilot and veteran space explorer who in 2022 became the first Chinese astronaut to clock up more than 200 cumulative days in orbit.
The other two crew members — 40-year-old former air force pilot Chen Zhongrui, and 35-year-old former space technology engineer Wang Jie — are on their first space flight.
During their six-month stint, the crew will carry out experiments in physics and life sciences and install protective equipment against space debris.
For the first time, they will also bring aboard planarians, aquatic flatworms known for their regenerative abilities.
China’s space program is the third to put humans in orbit and has also landed robotic rovers on Mars and the Moon as it catches up with the two most established cosmic powers, the United States and Russia.
Tiangong — whose name means “celestial palace” in Chinese — is its tour de force.
China has never been involved in the International Space Station due to opposition from the United States.
Washington plans to return to the Moon in 2027, though the election of President Donald Trump brought uncertainty over the mission’s fate.
Cambodian court refuses bail for jailed environmental activists
- The activists from Mother Nature, one of Cambodia’s few environmental advocacy groups, denied charges of plotting against the state
- The five activists have been jailed in different prisons after their sentencing in July, but have launched appeals
PHNOM PENH: Cambodia’s top court on Wednesday denied bail to five environmentalists jailed for their activism, a family member said, in a case widely condemned by the UN and human rights campaigners.
The activists from Mother Nature, one of Cambodia’s few environmental advocacy groups, denied charges of plotting against the state, which they said were politically motivated.
The five activists were among 10 environmentalists sentenced to between six and eight years in jail last year.
Path Raksmey, 34, wife of activist Thun Ratha, said that she was disappointed with Wednesday’s ruling by the Supreme Court.
“I am very regretful that the court does not allow bail for them. They are the ones who protect the environment but they are locked in jail while people who have destroyed natural resources live happily,” said Path Raksmey.
“It is unjust for the five,” she said, adding that her husband remains “strong.”
The five activists have been jailed in different prisons after their sentencing in July, but have launched appeals.
The United Nations Human Rights Office said last year it was “gravely concerned by the conviction and harsh sentencing.”
The tussle over protecting or exploiting Cambodia’s natural resources has long been a contentious issue in the Southeast Asian nation, with environmentalists threatened, arrested and even killed in the past decade.
Cambodian journalist Chhoeung Chheung died in December after he was shot while investigating illegal logging in the country’s northwest.
Unchecked illicit logging has contributed to a sharp drop in Cambodia’s forest cover over the years, according to activists.
From 2002 to 2023, a third of Cambodia’s humid primary forests – some of the world’s most biodiverse and a key carbon sink – were lost, according to monitoring site Global Forest Watch.
Cambodia’s government has approved plans for a cement factory deep inside a protected wildlife sanctuary, according to an order seen by AFP on Tuesday.
Fire tears through hotel in Kolkata, killing at least 14 people
NEW DELHI: A fire tore through a hotel in the city of Kolkata in eastern India, killing at least 14 people, police said Wednesday.
Senior police officer Manoj Kumar Verma told reporters that the fire broke out Tuesday evening at the Rituraj Hotel in central Kolkata and was doused after an effort that took six fire engines. The cause of the fire was not immediately clear.
Photos and videos carried in Indian media showed people trying to escape through the windows and narrow ledges of the building.
Kolkata’s The Telegraph newspaper reported that at least one person died when he jumped off the terrace trying to escape.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi posted on X that he was “anguished” by the loss of lives in the fire.
Fires are common in India, where builders and residents often flout building laws and safety codes. Activists say builders often cut corners on safety to save costs and have accused civic authorities of negligence and apathy.
In 2022, at least 27 people were killed when a massive fire tore though a four-story commercial building in New Delhi.
