News of the World

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MIDDLE EASTERN NEWS

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Biden backs Israel in blaming Gaza hospital deaths on militant rocket

President Joe Biden delivered unequivocal US backing for Israel in person on Wednesday, supporting his ally’s stance that Palestinian militants were behind a deadly rocket strike on a Gaza hospital that has inflamed anger across the Middle East and beyond.

Arab countries blamed Israel, which has rained bombs on Gaza since the bloody October 7 attack by Hamas fighters, with protests in Muslim countries from Egypt to Pakistan after Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah vowed a “day of rage”.

But Biden, on a solidarity visit to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, voiced support for Israel’s position that a misfired Islamic Jihad rocket caused the deadly carnage at Gaza’s Christian-run Ahli Arab Hospital.

“I was deeply saddened and outraged by the explosion at the hospital in Gaza yesterday,” Biden said about the strike that killed 471 people according to Gaza’s Hamas-controlled health ministry.

“And, based on what I’ve seen, it appears as though it was done by the other team, not you,” said the US president, referring to the armed movements Hamas and Islamic Jihad, which Washington and other Western governments deem “terrorist” groups.

“But there’s a lot of people out there not sure, so we have to overcome a lot of things,” Biden added, as protests also erupted against Israel and the United States in the occupied West Bank and Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon.

Asked later by reporters what made him sure Israel was not responsible for the strike, Biden replied: “The data I was shown by my defence department.”

At a news conference later, Biden said: “Based on the information we have seen today it appears the result of an errant rocket fired by a terrorist group in Gaza.”

Israel Prepares Humanitarian Safe Zone in Gaza for Fleeing Civilians

After days of negotiations with Egypt, the U.S. and others to create a safe zone for fleeing Gazans, the Times of Israel reports the IDF decided to act.

The IDF says Palestinians should go to a humanitarian zone in the Al-Mawasi area, close to Khan Younis, where “international humanitarian aid will be provided as needed.”

It also renewed its calls on Palestinians in the northern part of the Gaza Strip to evacuate south, as the military has warned it will soon heavily target the area, the Times report sets out.

The military has published a map on social media of the safe zone.

EUROPEAN NEWS

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Three Airports and Versailles Palace Shut Down as Terror Fears Grip France

The Palace of Versailles was evacuated for security reasons on Wednesday for the third time since the weekend, the former royal chateau said in a post on X, formerly known as Twitter. It was among a spate of evacuations in the past five days around France, including three airports that were also forced to close for security checks.

The Chateau of Versailles apologized to visitors on X for being forced to clear out visitors from the sumptuous 17th-century palace “for security reasons.”

Three French airports in the cities of Lyon, Toulouse and Lille were also evacuated Wednesday following security alerts, police said, following emailed threats, without elaborating on the nature of the threats.

The evacuations were the latest in a series around France that included another popular tourist attraction, the Louvre Museum, following the killing of a teacher in the northern city of Arras on Friday. All the threats up to Wednesday proved false.

The Louvre Museum and the Chateau of Versailles were both evacuated Saturday, and the former royal palace was again evacuated Tuesday.

The prefecture for the Lyon region said Wednesday that the threat at the airport was a false alarm and reminded the public that communicating false information can lead to prison and a heavy fine.

Meanwhile, an abandoned piece of luggage briefly disrupted operations at the airport in the Riviera city of Nice, the airport said.

A high school in Arras, in northern France, was evacuated on Monday ahead of a moment of silence in schools around France, three days after the murder of a teacher at the Arras school allegedly carried out by a former student and suspected Islamist extremist.

Belgium and Sweden Call for Stronger Deportation Powers Following Suspected Islamist Terror Attack

Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Swedish premier Ulf Kristersson paid tribute to the two Swedes by placing wreaths and a Swedish football scarf and shirt at the site where they were killed.

Kristersson thanked De Croo for his support, while the Belgian premier vowed Sweden “can always count on us” during a press conference in front of the building where the attack happened.

The two leaders also urged coordinated migrant return policies in the European Union, as the bloc is currently working on an overhaul of Europe’s migration rules.

The attack brought greater urgency to the issue after it came to light that the gunman had applied for asylum in Belgium in 2019, but had been refused in 2020.

Authorities tried to track him down to issue him with a demand to leave but he could not be located.

“The European migration pact should stand for better border controls, but also for a coordinated European return policy,” De Croo said.

“We need to be able to protect our borders. We need to know who is in Sweden. Are they here legally or illegally? If they are not here in a legal way, they are obliged to leave the country. We need to protect our European borders,” Kristersson said.

The two men were joined by EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, who said Brussels wanted to bring in tougher rules on returns.

Jewish Synagogue in Berlin Firebombed with Molotov Cocktails

Assailants threw two Molotov cocktails early Wednesday at the synagogue in the center of the German capital, police said, as antisemitic incidents in the country have been rising following the violent escalation in the Middle East.

“Unknown persons threw two Molotov cocktails from the street,” the Kahal Adass Jisroel community wrote on X, formerly Twitter. Dozens of police officers were investigating in front of the synagogue in the city´s Mitte neighborhood, and the entire street next to the building was cordoned off and blocked for traffic.

Police said they were investigating “an attempted serious arson” in which two people approached the synagogue by foot at 3:45 a.m. and threw two Molotov cocktails, which burst on the sidewalk next to the building. The two people, their faces covered, ran away.

A couple of hours later, when police were already investigating the incident, a 30-year-old man approached the synagogue on a scooter, threw it aside and tried running toward the building. When police officers detained him, he resisted and shouted anti-Israeli slogans.

“We are all shocked by this terrorist attack,” Germany’s leading Jewish group, the Central Council of Jews said in a statement. “Above all, the families from the neighborhood around the synagogue are shocked and unsettled. Words become deeds. Hamas´ ideology of extermination against everything Jewish is also having an effect in Germany.”

The building complex of the Kahal Adass Jisroel community in the center of Berlin houses a synagogue, a kindergarten, a yeshiva school and a community center.

Police also said there were riots overnight between Muslim immigrants and police in the city’s Neukoelln and Kreuzberg neighborhoods and at Berlin’s landmark Brandenburg Gate in which several officers were injured.

Scholz, who was speaking to reporters during a trip to Egypt on Wednesday, said that Germany would not accept violent and antisemitic protests and that the protection of Jewish institutions would be further increased.

UK Section

Scottish Leader Humza Yousaf Promises ‘Sanctuary’ for Palestinians Fleeing From ‘Terrible Attacks’ in Gaza

Humza Yousaf, the leader of the locally devolved government in Scotland, said on Tuesday that his government would open the doors to Palestinians seeking asylum and demanded that the international community open their countries up to millions of Palestinians amid the war in Gaza that was sparked by the murderous terror attacks against Israel by the radical Islamist terror group Hamas.

In a video published on social media on Tuesday evening, Yousaf said: “There are currently one million displaced people in Gaza. Therefore, I am calling on the international community to commit to a worldwide refugee programme for the people of Gaza.”

Yousaf went on to demand that the UK government in Westminster “immediately begin work on the creation of a refugee resettlement scheme for those in Gaza who want to, and are able to, leave,” adding: “We are absolutely clear that the life of a Palestinian is equal to the life of an Israeli.”

The leftist politician said that his government would be willing to be the first country in the United Kingdom to “offer safety and sanctuary to those caught up in these terrible attacks.”

“Let me be clear,” Yousaf said. “Scotland is ready to play her part and our hospitals will treat the injured men, women and children of Gaza where we can.”

I guess this guy never read the declarations made by Kissinger not long ago.

Greta Thunberg Arrested… Again

Greta Thunberg was detained in London on Tuesday alongside several others under the Public Order Act as they attempted to blockade a top hotel where oil executives were holding discussions. Police ordered the protesters to move out of the road and onto the pavement to maintain access, but the orders were not obeyed, reports the BBC.

In all, 21 people were arrested, including one for criminal damage. Police said they only arrested those who refused to clear the road.

The broadcaster reports Thunberg said at the rally prior to her arrest: “Behind these closed doors at the Oil and Money conference, spineless politicians are making deals and compromises with lobbyists from destructive industries – the fossil fuel industry…. That is why we have to take direct action to stop this and to kick oily money out of politics.”

The arrest is Thunberg’s second this year. As reported in July, the now-veteran — at 20 years of age — activist refused to leave the road outside an oil terminal in southern Sweden during a protest and had to be physically carried away by officers.

While Thunberg has been detained or otherwise removed at several protests in her career, the southern Sweden terminal protest was the first time she was prosecuted. Although she faced up to six years, the Swedish court in fact ordered her to pay a small fine.

CANADIAN NEWS

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Trudeau Laments ‘Very Scary Rise of Antisemitism’ in Canada Since Hamas Terrorist Attacks on Israel

There has been a marked rise in antisemitism in Canada following Palestinian Islamist group Hamas’ terror attacks on Israel, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau lamented Tuesday.

“Since this conflict broke out, there has been a very scary rise of antisemitism here at home,” far-left Trudeau said at a conference on fighting antisemitism, Reuters reports.

Even prior to the ongoing conflict, he said, there had been a “steady rise” in antisemitism.

Trudeau spoke just hours before an antisemitism conference in Ottawa was besieged by protesters.

Trudeau listed reports of a possible hate crime at a Jewish high school in Toronto last week, fears among some of visiting synagogues due to a possibility of being attacked, and heated online rhetoric, as examples of the rising antisemitism in Canada, the Reuters report sets out.

Police in Toronto, Canada’s largest city, said they arrested three men last Thursday after they made threats at the Community Hebrew Academy.

The Toronto Sun reports a man and two teenage boys face charges for allegedly threatening students at a private Jewish high school in North York around midday.

Police have increased patrols in Jewish cultural centers and synagogues as well as other places of worship.

ASIAN NEWS

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China Demands U.S. Colleges Be More Pro-Palestinian

China’s state-run Global Times on Monday took note of American universities supporting the terrorists of Hamas and insisted they should be even more supportive, which might be the most extravagant demand to come from the Chinese Communist Party since it drew a map that said the entire South China Sea, plus a good deal of India, belongs to Beijing.

The Global Times pushed Beijing’s phony moral equivalence line whereby the Chinese government pretends to be “neutral” and deplore all violence but actually supports the killers of Hamas and seeks to protect them from any Israeli military response.
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“Taking sides will not solve the puzzle. The top priority is to achieve a ceasefire, stop the conflict as soon as possible, abide by international humanitarian law, and fully guarantee the safety of civilians, before working toward a just and lasting settlement that shall respect the rights of both sides,” the Global Times huffed, in a piece that briefly mentioned the “Hamas attack” only to frown at the “intense backlash” against American university students and faculty who supported it.

The Chinese Communist newspaper frowned at a few prominent university donors and alumni speaking out against campus statements of support for Hamas, linking them to an alleged “concerning trend” where “expressing support for Israel is safe while being pro-Palestine has become a taboo.”

The communists were especially “concerned” about “billionaire hedge fund CEO Bill Ackman and several other business leaders” calling on Harvard to release the names of students who signed a letter “holding Israel responsible for the unfolding violence.”

“Showing sympathy to the Palestinian people or voicing that they have the right to resist can be labeled as supporting ‘terrorism’ and must face consequences. Take Ackman’s wording, he was basically saying – If you are anti-Israel, you can have freedom of speech, but at the cost of your future career on Wall Street,” the Global Times railed.