bannork

The Trump administration announced it is issuing sanctions Wednesday against an independent investigator tasked with probing human rights abuses in the Palestinian territories, the latest effort by the United States to punish critics of Israel's 21-month war in Gaza.

The State Department's decision to sanction Francesca Albanese, the U.N. special rapporteur for the West Bank and Gaza, comes after a recent U.S. pressure campaign to force the international body to remove her from her post failed.

Albanese, a human rights lawyer, has been vocal about what she has described as the “genocide” that Israel is waging against Palestinians in Gaza. 

US issues sanctions against UN investigator probing abuses in Gaza

everal Israeli nationals were thrown out of a restaurant in southern Spain, according to a video circulating on social media on Wednesday.

In the video, a man, reportedly the restaurant manager, tells a group of eight Israelis to leave his establishment and refuses to serve them. 

“You’re killing Palestine. Go eat in Gaza,” the manager of Mimassa, in Vigo, tells the group.

'You’re killing Palestine, go eat in Gaza': Spanish restaurant manager kicks out group of Israelis

“Gaza remains the main obstacle to a regional peace deal,” Saudi journalist-researcher Abdulaziz Alkhamis told The Jerusalem Post after a rare Knesset conference this week.

The words were as direct as the setting was unusual: a Saudi voice, joined by a Syrian peace activist, urging Israeli lawmakers to seize a moment that will not last.

Alkhamis, who has been involved in discreet discussions about Gaza’s future and Saudi-Israeli normalization, said the war in the Gaza Strip must end “with a full solution that involves the entire region, including Iran and Turkey.”

Israel must act now and end Gaza war or lose Arab support for peace

A senior Israeli official has issued a less-than-optimistic assessment of the permanency of any ceasefire in Gaza.

Speaking in Washington on condition of anonymity, the senior official said that a 60-day ceasefire "might" be possible within "a week, two weeks - not a day".

But on the chances of the ceasefire lasting beyond 60 days, the official said: "We will begin negotiations on a permanent settlement. ''But we achieve it? It's questionable, but Hamas will not be there."

Gaza permanent ceasefire 'questionable', says senior Israeli official

Russia has massively stepped up its drone production, sparking fears it could soon launch 1,000-a-night attacks on Ukraine.

The alarm came as Kremlin troops launched a record 728 drones and 13 missiles across Western Ukraine overnight - beating its 550-strong onslaught just days ago.

. A senior Ukrainian defence source in Kyiv told the Daily Mirror exclusively: “Intelligence suggests Russia is increasing its drone production and this is a huge concern. We need defensive systems and greater supplies of offensive missiles to push back Russian troops in depth, behind their lines and targeting their logistics.

Fears Russia could deploy 1,000 killer drone waves on Ukraine

On the same day that a Russian minister was found dead hours after being sacked, a second man in the same department dropped dead.

Deputy head of Russia’s Federal Road Agency’s Property Management Department, Andrey Korneichuk, reportedly stood up and collapsed in his office.

The sudden death has raised eyebrows, given that his boss, Transportation Minister Roman Starovoit, was found dead with gunshot wounds on the same day.

Mystery as two Putin allies die on same day

2 hours ago, Srikcir said:

Incorrect.

"Thai punters can go to casinos, with an entry fee of 5,000 baht and proof of at least 50 million baht in bank deposits ($1.47 million), effectively blocking large swathes of the population, where per capita gross domestic product is about $7,300." Thai cabinet approves draft law for casinos, with limits for local gamblers,  March 27, 2025 https://www.reuters.com/

If I remember correctly the figure of how much Thai punters would need to have to enter the casinos was temporary, and could have been altered once the bill became law. That was one of the criticisms of the bill at the time.

Intense negotiations are taking place in Qatar in parallel with key talks in Washington between US President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Two sources with direct knowledge of the negotiations have told Sky News that disagreement between Israel and Hamas remains on the status and presence of the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) inside Gaza.

The two sides have bridged significant differences on several other issues, including the process of delivering humanitarian aid and Hamas's demand that the US guarantees to ensure Israel doesn't unilaterally resume the war when the ceasefire expires in 60 days.

Only one issue still to be resolved in push for Israel-Hamas ceasefire, Sky News understands

Israeli settler violence blocks land in occupied West Bank

Settler attacks are a frequent occurrence in the occupied West Bank, preventing many Palestinians from accessing their lands.

When a DW team travelled to the town of Sinjil to cover a protest by residents, they themselves, along with protesters, came under attack. 

Israeli settler violence blocks land in occupied West Bank | Watch

19 hours ago, bannork said:

 

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has ordered preparations for a huge camp to house 600,000 displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza, Israeli media reported on Monday.

 

Katz said the move was intended to weaken the power of the Palestinian militant group Hamas over the population in the sealed-off coastal territory.

 

The minister said plans were being developed for a "humanitarian city" on the ruins of Rafah, which has been largely destroyed in the ongoing war.

 

Reports: Israel planning camp to house 600,000 Palestinians in Gaza

 

MOD EDIT: Dishonest editing of the quotes has been removed and original put in their place @bannork

According to an article from the BBC below, Katz  said he hoped construction of the camp could begin during a potential 60 day ceasefire currently being negotiated between Israel and Hamas.

However, Michael Sfard, a Israeli human rights lawyer condemned it as nothing less than an "operational plan for a crime against humanity".

"It is all about population transfer to the southern tip of the Gaza Strip in preparation for deportation outside the strip," Michael Sfard told the Guardian newspaper.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8rp31lk7mzo

El Salvador has informed the United Nations that it holds no legal responsibility for the more than 200 Venezuelan men whom President Donald Trump ordered to be sent to its maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) prison earlier this year — a claim that directly contradicts repeated assertions from the Trump administration.

Lawyers representing the Venezuelan detainees presented a document Monday, showing that El Salvador had informed the UN it does not hold legal authority over the men.

In March, following Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, these Venezuelan nationals were removed from the United States without due process and placed in El Salvador’s CECOT. The administration justified its action by maintaining that they are legally bound by Salvadoran authority.

Trump admin 'exposed as liars' after El Salvador makes major admission to United Nations

Israeli Defence Minister Israel Katz has ordered preparations for a huge camp to house 600,000 displaced Palestinians in southern Gaza, Israeli media reported on Monday.

Katz said the move was intended to weaken the power of the Palestinian militant group Hamas over the population in the sealed-off coastal territory.

The minister said plans were being developed for a "humanitarian city" on the ruins of Rafah, which has been largely destroyed in the ongoing war.

Reports: Israel planning camp to house 600,000 Palestinians in Gaza

MOD EDIT: Dishonest editing of the quotes has been removed and original put in their place @bannork

Ali Awad is tired. The 27-year-old resident of Tuba, one of the dozen or so villages that make up Masafer Yatta in the arid south Hebron hills of the occupied West Bank, had been up all night watching as a masked Israeli settler on horseback circled his family home.

“When we saw the masked settler, we knew he wanted violence,” said Awad, his eyes bloodshot.

They were lucky this time: the settler disappeared into the darkness before police could show up.

Palestinians fear razing of villages in West Bank, as settlers circle their homes

In May, Microsoft admitted that it supplied technologies to the Israeli Ministry of Defence, which critics say essentially paint Microsoft as a war profiteer.

A new report from UN Special Rapporteur Francesca Albanese doubles down on this claim.

Commissioned by the UN Human Rights Council, Albanese asserts that Microsoft and other big tech firms continue to expand their cloud infrastructure into the Israeli military complex, profiting to the tune of billions as thousands of innocent Gazan civilians suffer and are displaced. 

A UN Human Rights Council report lists Microsoft among big tech companies that "profit" from Gaza genocide

The full report can be read here.

The number of malnourished children in the Gaza strip is rising at an alarming rate.

According to the United Nations, over 5,000 children were admitted for treatment for acute malnutrition in May alone, a near 50 per cent increase from April.

Displacement orders and bombardments in the Palestinian enclave from Israel have damaged health centres, water and sanitation, hampering efforts to treat those with malnutrition.

‘It’s a war crime’: Babies dying amid lack of milk in Gaza | Watch

An Israeli reservist with three tours of duty under his belt speaks out about his deployment in Gaza.

'Some Israeli commanders can decide to do war crimes' | Watch

Today, in the Vladivostok area, a Russian main gas pipeline exploded, and a water pipeline was also destroyed. These facilities supplied the 155th Brigade of the Russian army, RBC-Ukraine reports, referring to sources in Ukraine's Defense Intelligence.

In particular, in the Russian Far East, as a result of an explosion and subsequent fire, branches of the Vladivostok main gas pipeline running along the coast of the Sea of Japan were destroyed.

According to sources in Ukrainian Intelligence, the gas pipeline supplies gas to a number of Russian military facilities located along the coast of the Sea of Japan. 

Explosions near Vladivostok cut gas and water to Russia's 155th Brigade – sources

The US government is pouring millions of dollars into a deadly militarised initiative to distribute aid in Gaza without internal oversight, The Observer has found.

In the almost six weeks since a private aid operation called the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) launched, the opaque effort to replace UN operations in Gaza, rather than work alongside them, has been at the centre of controversy.

Israeli soldiers and armed American contractors have been accused of shooting at crowds of starving people surging towards their distribution centres.

US funding for demilitarised Gaza aid distribution dodges scrutiny

Israel has continued to launch waves of airstrikes in Gaza, hours after Hamas said it was ready to start talks “immediately” on a US-sponsored proposal for a 60-day ceasefire.

The announcement by the militant Islamist organisation increased hopes that a deal may be done within days to pause the killing in Gaza and possibly end the near 21-month conflict.

Saturday was relatively “calmer” after days of intense bombardment, aid officials and residents in Gaza said, although 24 Palestinians were killed, including 10 people seeking humanitarian aid, according to hospital officials.

Israel continues airstrikes on Gaza after Hamas says it is ready for ceasefire talks

15 hours ago, KhunLA said:

I get called a right winger all the time, because I like Trump.  Not his policies, just that he pissed everyone else off.   I don't think I'm neither, left nor right, and think socialism & democracy can co-exist.

 

Apparently I'm a very slight right leaning liberal, since believing in free market, and less social programs for employable people.

 

https://aseannow.com/topic/1334208-where-do-you-place-yourself-politically/page/2/#findComment-19108512

 

You're a double negative man-  I don't think I'm neither  but as you admit you tilt a little to the right.

However nobody doesn't know why you like a man who riles everyone up, I'm guessing he's a bit of a laugh..... for five minutes.