Harris vows to 'protect Israel' but pledges to get Gaza truce deal 'done'

At the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Palestinian supporters were denied the opportunity to speak about the impact of Israel’s war on Gaza, even as pro-Israel speakers were featured.


AP

Harris delivered a pledge to secure Israel, bring the hostages home from Gaza and end the war in the besieged Palestinian enclave. / Photo: AP

Vice President Kamala Harris formally accepted the Democratic nomination for president with a rousing call to end the Israeli war in Gaza.

The speech laid out some broad policy principles, foreign and domestic, but left unsaid specific details which in weeks to come she could be pressured to provide.

After days of protests from Palestinian supporters who were disappointed at not getting a speaking spot at the convention, Harris delivered a pledge to secure Israel, bring the hostages home from Gaza and end the war in the besieged Palestinian enclave.

"Now is the time to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done," she said to cheers.

"And let me be clear, I will always stand up for Israel's right to defend itself and I will always ensure Israel can defend itself."

"What has happened in Gaza over the past 10 months is devastating. So many innocent lives lost, desperate hungry people fleeing for safety over and over again. The scale of suffering is heartbreaking," she said.

"President Biden and I are working to end this war such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends and the Palestinian people can realise their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination."

Harris strikes balance on Gaza at DNC, in her most extended remarks on war

The Democratic presidential nominee said she would “always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself,” but also directly addressed the suffering in Gaza.


By Andrew Jeong and Yasmeen Abutaleb

WASHINGTON POST
August 23, 2024 

Vice President Kamala Harris made some of her most direct and extended remarks yet on the war in the Gaza Strip as she accepted her party’s presidential nomination Thursday night, addressing an issue that has divided Democrats and drawn thousands of protesters to the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.

Offering a forceful defense of Israel and its right to protect itself, she said she was working round-the-clock with President Joe Biden to reach a cease-fire deal in Gaza that would involve the release of American and Israeli hostages still being held by the militant group Hamas.

“Because now is the time to get a hostage deal and a cease-fire deal done,” she told a packed Chicago United Center.

As Harris described a postwar future in which Palestinians can “realize their right to dignity, security, freedom and self-determination,” the crowd erupted with one of the loudest cheers of the night.

Harris has expressed support for Israel’s right to defend itself before, but she has generally spoken more forcefully than Biden about the plight of Palestinians, tens of thousands of whom have been killed in a months-long Israeli military operation that has plunged Gaza into a humanitarian crisis. She has also held Israel more directly responsible for the high civilian death toll in Gaza and slow pace of humanitarian aid.

The careful comments in her acceptance speech Thursday — emphasizing Israel’s right to defend itself but also directly addressing the suffering in Gaza, including starvation — highlight the delicate balance she must navigate in the final two months before Election Day.

She must maintain support among pro-Israel Democrats, but also try to win back significant numbers of Arab Americans, Muslims and other pro-Palestinian activists who have said they are open to her but waiting to see whether she is willing to diverge from Biden’s stance on the war.

If elected president, Harris said she would continue Washington’s support for Israel’s right to defend itself, “because the people of Israel must never again face the horror that a terrorist organization called Hamas caused” on Oct. 7, when Hamas militants launched a cross-border attack on Israel, killing about 1,200 people and taking roughly 250 hostages, about 70 of whom are believed to still be alive in captivity.

On the previous night at the convention, the parents of Hersh Goldberg-Polin, an American taken hostage by Hamas, shared their son’s story. They were greeted by chants of “Bring them home!” And as they spoke, images of the eight American hostages believed to still be held captive in Gaza appeared behind them.

Democratic leaders had been bracing for massive pro-Palestinian demonstrations outside the convention this week, fearing they could recall the protests of 1968. And while the Israel-Gaza war ultimately did not dominate the event, it still loomed over the four-day convention.

Pro-Palestinian protesters have staged rallies in Chicago during this week’s convention. Thousands convened almost every day about a half-mile from Chicago’s United Center, and several speakers treaded carefully when addressing the war during each evening’s lineup.

Niha Masih and Kelsey Ables contributed to this report.

HUBRIS  AS CENSORSHIP

Nancy Pelosi defends exclusion of Palestinian American speaker at Democratic Convention

‘We don't have every nationality in our country speak at a convention,’ former House speaker says

Rabia İclal Turan |23.08.2024 -



WASHINGTON

Former US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Thursday defended the Democratic Party’s decision to ​​refuse a speaking slot to a Palestinian American speaker at the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Chicago, Illinois.

“We don't have every nationality in our country speak at a convention. We have every cause that we want to be represented, or people representing those causes, but they had plenty of opportunity to express what you just expressed,” Pelosi said in response to a reporter’s question about her party’s refusal to allow a Palestinian American speaker on the convention’s main stage.

“There were several people who spoke at this convention. One of them was the head of the United Auto Workers, a great and respected labor leader in our country. His union is calling, even today, for a cease-fire (in Gaza),” she said during a press briefing by the State Department’s Foreign Press Center in Chicago.

“Alexandria (Ocasio-Cortez), one of our members, known as AOC, a very respected member of Congress advocating for what you advocated, she could have spoken in her remarks about this.

“(Senator) Bernie Sanders, he wanted all of this. He could have spoken for this,” she added.

The “Uncommitted” delegates at DNC have been advocating for their party to include a Palestinian American speaker on the main stage to address Israel’s ongoing war in Gaza.

The Uncommitted Movement reportedly proposed several Palestinian American speakers for the convention at Chicago’s United Center, including Georgia State Representative Ruwa Romman.

However, on Wednesday evening, the DNC reaffirmed its decision not to include a Palestinian American speaker, sparking a sit-in protest outside the United Center, with the Uncommitted hoping to pressure the DNC to reconsider its decision.

On the other hand, the DNC allowed the parents of an Israeli American hostage, Hersh Goldberg-Polin, to speak on the main stage Wednesday evening.

The Uncommitted Movement has been campaigning across various states in the US, encouraging Democratic voters to select “uncommitted” on their ballots in the primary elections as a way to voice their disapproval of the Biden-Harris administration's policy on Gaza.

The campaign reported that approximately 800,000 voters nationwide have cast "uncommitted" votes.

More than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed during Israel's war in Gaza, the vast majority being women and children. Vast tracts of the coastal territory have been completely leveled amid relentless Israeli bombardment that has reduced entire neighborhoods to rubble.

Gazans continue to face acute shortages of food, water and medicine due to Israeli restrictions on the entry of humanitarian assistance as well as a significant curtailment of movement for aid convoys once they enter the Strip.

A total of 1,139 people were killed in the cross-border attack led by the Palestinian group Hamas on Oct. 7 last year, which precipitated the current war.

Countering the DNC: A Vigil for Gaza

by Robert Koehler

 August 23, 2024
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Photo by Steel Brooks.

The Democratic National Convention was happening here in Chicago — my city — and I sat frozen at my desk, staring at my computer. Earlier in my life, yeah, I’d have gone down to the United Center, linked arms with the sane and outraged, joined the cry: Stop funding genocide!

Instead, here I was, gawking at the event’s opening ceremony of day two: A pastor delivers a public prayer, at one point saying we should treat all humans “as sacred creations of the Almighty.” Huh? Is he serious? Does he really mean this? The word “sacredness” has been let loose; joined by “God.” Someone sings the National Anthem. The delegates recite the good ol’ Pledge of Allegiance, their hands ceremoniously pressed against their hearts. Then “God bless America” fills the hall.

The message I hear, quietly hovering behind the words, is this: Democrats are as patriotic as Republicans! Democrats are as religious as Republicans! We can put on a good show too — our clichés are fantastic.

Ceremony can matter, but when it’s basically just a curtain hiding reality . . . God help us all. I felt squeezed by fury and frustration. Oh, the platitudes of peace. I shut off my computer and decided, I’m gonna do it. Earlier I had received an email from the American Friends Service Committee, inviting me to an interfaith “Remember Gaza” vigil, happening that night at Montrose Harbor, a few miles from where I live.

Suddenly I felt called to be there, at this “interfaith vigil to honor those who have been killed in the genocide in Gaza, to highlight the urgent need for a permanent ceasefire and an end to U.S. weapons sales to Israel.”

The speakers would be Jewish, Muslim, Christian, as well as people who had lost loved ones in Gaza. And it would be taking place in the wake of the Biden administration’s latest approval of $20 billion in arms sales to Israel — you know, the reality the DNC event was hiding behind its curtain of faith and patriotism.

I had to do something besides sit in my study and stew. Attending a vigil on Lake Michigan at least seemed doable. Would it “solve” anything? Uh . . . maybe not, but I had to make my opposition to my country’s policy physically apparent, or so I heard my conscience scream from some deep inner place. The tricky part about this is that I’m an old klutz, with achy legs and a disintegrating ability to retain balance. Simply heading off to a lakefront vigil ain’t what it used to be.

I brought my cane and drove to Montrose Harbor. Fortunately, I left an hour early, just in case I ran into unexpected difficulties, which happened immediately. I’d forgotten how complex the area was and wound up parking . . . uh, nowhere near the actual site of the vigil. The park area was full of people: several volleyball games going on, families simply enjoying themselves. Music was playing. But nothing looked like a vigil in the process of organizing itself. I started fearing that the event had been canceled. I asked the hostess at a lakefront restaurant if she knew where the vigil was and she had no idea what I was talking about. Oh-oh . . .

By then I had been hobbling around for a mile or so, which (I hate to say it) is a lot more walking than I normally do. I felt exhausted. Grudgingly, I decided to leave — and then I saw a woman holding a Palestinian flag, directing traffic. Big wow. This was it! The vigil is about 500 yards from here, she told me, down a curving walkway. I kept hobbling. A short while later, a caring couple who were heading to the vigil stopped their car and gave me a ride the rest of the way.

Oh my God, I had made it. Things were just about to start. There may have been as many as 200 people sitting along the concrete steps facing the beach. The sun was setting, the sky was a beautiful reddish blue, the dark waves swooshed into shore.

“Our souls are tired,” a speaker lamented, and another speaker reminded us that the ground we were sitting on, this very moment, had been Hopi, Ojibway, Potawatomi homeland . . . forcibly taken through genocide. “Think of the many untold stories of genocide that happened right here on this land.”

That set the tone — for the poetry and grief and mourning, mixed with the sunset and the waves.

One speaker declared: “Kamala Harris and Tim Walz, we call upon you to remember the people of Gaza! Our country has the power to be a leader of peace. We want to vote for candidates that are pro-peace. Please give us that choice.”

In a different context, such words might seem trivial, easily shrugged off. But in that moment, they seemed not only deeply felt but real — as real as the wind that swept across the beach and stirred the waves.

A day later — what? I know that such words amount to virtually nothing by themselves. They only resonate when they are spoken in a context of commitment, plans and action, a la the civil rights movement. For now, as the DNC continues, I hear them not simply as a cry of hope but as an emerging certainty, the struggle for which will not stop.

Robert Koehler is a Chicago award-winning journalist and editor.

 

American Interventionist Foreign Policy: One and a Quarter Century of Failure

by F. Andrew Wolf, Jr. Posted onAugust 23, 2024

When Theodore Roosevelt succeeded William McKinley as president in 1901, he realized the US was no longer just a continental republic; with the Spanish-American War of 1898, America now claimed Guam, Puerto Rico and the Philippines as territories, Cuba a protectorate and annexed Hawaii.

Roosevelt “believed it was the burden of ‘civilized’ nations to uplift ‘uncivilized’ nations,” says Michael Patrick Cullinane. He believed U.S. interests were global interests, and that it was actually good for “civilized” nations to intervene in other countries’ affairs.

Moreover, the 26th president made sure the U.S. played a larger role in international affairs by extending the Monroe doctrine through the Roosevelt Corollary – the United States, henceforth, would protect countries in the Americas from recolonization by European powers, and would intervene militarily if  necessary to do so. It was a foreign policy he described as “speak softly and carry a big stick.” US presidents since Roosevelt have pursued his “big stick” foreign policy agenda.

In the slightly less than a hundred years from 1898 to 1994, the U.S. government (directly or indirectly) has intervened successfully to change governments in Latin America, alone, at least 41 times. That amounts to once every 28 months for an entire century. Overall, while the United States engaged in 46 military interventions from 1948–1991, from 1992–2017 that number increased fourfold to 188.

The “first” Roosevelt era was the beginning of America’s orientation towards interventionism – it would influence America’s interventionist policies for the next one and a quarter century.

In more than 80 countries worldwide, the US manages over 750 military facilities. With such distribution of military capabilities, it has and continues to influence (if not actually intervene) in major and minor conflicts – most recently in Eastern Europe and the Middle East.

In May of this year, the Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal called for the US to assist the opposition in overthrowing the Iranian regime after the death in a helicopter crash of Iran’s President, Ebrahim Raisi.

And in the “breadbasket” of Europe, former Deputy Secretary of State (and “war hawk”) Victoria Nuland continued to agitate for greater belligerency – urging the White House to help Ukraine strike deep inside Russian territory. Given the recent incursion by Kiev into Russia’s Kursk region, Biden appears to have acquiesced to that view.

The US has since the second world war and especially after the fall of the Wall in ‘89, pursued foreign policy initiatives that foster calls for escalation, rather than diplomatic discourse, in potentially serious geopolitical situations.

In the late 1970s and ’80s, the U.S. funneled billions of dollars to Islamist extremists, including the Mujahideen Muslim guerrilla fighters that resisted the Soviet’s 10-year  invasion of Afghanistan in the 1980s. While those fighters eventually expelled Russian influence, they later fought each other for dominance. In the ensuing power struggle (using American weapons), a cadre of those rebels (including Osama Bin Laden) ultimately coalesced into the Taliban, al-Qaeda – and 911.

Since 9/11, America has expended over $8 trillion on wars with “enemies” and “friends” in the Middle East. Iraq, Syria, Libya and Yemen define the former – Israel, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Jordan the latter. And this while thousands of American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of civilians perish in America’s foreign policy interventions to “nation-build” and make the Middle East safe for democracy.

Yet, irrespective of America’s decades-long failed foreign policy initiatives in the region, there are those who remain sanguine about further meddling in the Middle East. America’s history in Iran is a prime example of what we should not have done in the past and should not do in the future.

In 1953, the U.S. CIA along with Britain’s MI6 engineered the overthrow of the democratically elected Iranian leader, Mohammad Mosaddegh. The latter had nationalist leanings and opposed British petroleum companies’ exclusive oil rights in the country. The West further feared (without substantiation) that Mosaddegh had Communist sympathies that might push him to support the Soviets. Following the coup, the U.S. installed Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi – a brutal dictator – loyal to the policies of the West.

Decades of the Shah’s repressive rule inspired hatred toward America that culminated in the 1979 Iran hostage crisis and the Iranian Revolution. The Shah was ousted and the government replaced with the theocratic Islamic Republic we have today.

And as we saw earlier, some want the U.S. to (once more) overthrow an Iranian government we were instrumental in bringing to power.

Former Congressman Ron Paul said it very well in 2008: Terrorists “don’t come here and attack us because we’re rich and we’re free. They come and they attack us because we’re over there.”

The wars in Iraq are quintessential examples of American foreign policy initiatives based on shortsighted aims of neoconservative ideology during the George W. Bush years. Personal enmity and faulty (or unpopular) intelligence resulted in thousands of Americans killed based on a false premise. There never were any weapons of mass destruction – just the hatred of an arrogant Iraqi leader and the questionable notion of nation-building in the Middle East.

Today, the wars continue. The US played an integral role in the events that led to the devastating war between Russia and Ukraine. Despite the fall of the Soviet Union in ‘89, NATO remained intact and expanded eastward. Soviet expert George Kennan, a key architect of US Cold War policy, warned such action would be “a tragic mistake” that would ultimately provoke “a bad reaction from Russia.”

For over a decade now, against the warnings of former ambassador to Russia and current CIA Director William Burns, the U.S. has openly advocated for Ukrainian entry into NATO, a hard “red line” for Russia.

Even though Western meddling in the affairs of Ukraine was anathema to the Russians, the U.S. helped engineer a coup to overthrow the democratically elected president of Ukraine, Viktor Yanukovych, in 2014. The latter had announced that he would sign an economic agreement with Russia instead of the E.U. This would eventually lead to the Ukraine-Russia war currently in its second year of hostilities.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has disclosed that in 2021 (one year before the Ukraine-Russia conflict began) Russia sent NATO a draft treaty regarding Ukraine. The terms required NATO to abandon any future plans of expansion as a precondition for Russia not invading Ukraine. The West refused. Only then did Russia invade. The invasion, while reprehensible, certainly was telegraphed by Moscow and with no less than due warning.

Recent research by Monica Duffy Toft, professor of international politics at Tufts, is instructive. The US she finds, is indeed engaging in military interventions more often than previously, and for different reasons.

“The rate of interventions has accelerated over time, and since the end of the Cold War, we’ve been pursuing fewer and lower national interests,” says Toft.

Just since the year 2000, Toft’s 5-year research project documents 72 interventions. And in one region of the world, the Middle East and North Africa, the U.S. has been involved in 77 military interventions, mostly since the 1940s.

Toft likens the current state of U.S. foreign policy to a game of “whack-a-mole,” in which the U.S. sees issues popping up and has “only one way of dealing with them, which is the hammer” of military force.

The professor is clear in her assessment: Overreliance on destabilizing sanctions and military force rather than diplomacy, intelligence gathering, economic statecraft, and the powers of persuasion harms America’s reputation abroad, causing itself to be viewed as a threat – diminishing its influence in the process.

America’s current self-imposed role as the “world’s policeman” is a capitulation of US diplomatic leadership. But this is what happens when a great country like the United States allows decades of mediocre leadership to prevail. Political agendas produce foreign policy initiatives (Vietnam, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Ukraine) inconsistent with what is in the best interest of America.

US foreign policy should seek two objectives:

Keeping America safe and fostering America’s economic and political hegemony through strategic leadership rather than jeopardizing both by trying to be the “world’s policeman.”

Professor Toft declares against an isolationist position, but neither she says should America’s foreign policy default position be one of military intervention first.

A century of this has failed to produce a safer world for anyone – including America.

I am Director of The Fulcrum Institute, a new organization of current and former scholars in the Humanities, Foreign Affairs and Philosophy, Situated in Houston, Texas, USA. The “Institute”  focuses on the foreign policy initiatives of Europe as it relates to the economic and foreign policy initiatives of the US, UK, China and Russia. Our primary interest is in working towards an economic and political world in which more voices and fewer bombs are heard. (The website-URL will be live by late fall of 2024. The web address will be http://www.thefulcruminstitute.org.).

 

US Calls for Ceasefire But Keeps Supporting War

by Rep. John J. Duncan, Jr. Posted onAugust 23, 2024

On August 12, the US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, issued a press statement commemorating the anniversary of the adoption of the Geneva Conventions.

He said: “The 75th anniversary of the adoption of the 1949 Geneva Conventions is a fitting occasion to reaffirm our commitment to respecting international humanitarian law… We call on others to do the same.”

Except Israel.

Blinken added: “Faced with the horrible reality of war, parties to armed conflict must comply with international humanitarian law to mitigate many of war’s worst humanitarian consequences, support pathways to peace, and advance the protection of civilians and other victims.”

Except Israel.

Of course, Blinken did not add the words “except Israel” but he should have, considering what had happened just two days earlier.

On August 10, Israel dropped bombs on a school sheltering displaced Palestinians, killing over 100 and injuring hundreds more.

The New York Times reported that one witness “said he found a scene of carnage unlike any he had seen in the past 10 months of war: A prayer hall strewed with bodies and body parts over two floors.” Another witness said “the dead were all in pieces.”

CNN said there was “no advance warning of the attack” and reported that the director for ambulance and emergency services said, “All of these people who were targeted were civilians, unarmed children, the elderly, men and women.”

NBC News described the event as “one of the deadliest attacks in the 10-month war” and said the strikes hit the school “during dawn prayers.” The network reported, “The White House said it was deeply concerned.” Two days earlier, Secretary Blinken announced that the US was sending billions more to Israel in a new weapons package.

The Financial Times quoted a surgeon as saying, “This was a very bloody day,” and that he had performed several amputations including on at least four children.

War deaths in Gaza have now passed 40,000 with thousands more still buried under the rubble. At least two-thirds were women and children. Over 95 percent of the people in Palestine were not members of Hamas.

Jeffrey Sachs is a world-renowned economist and foreign policy expert and holds the highest rank awarded by Columbia University. He is a Jew and a fierce critic of this war.

He said during Judge Napolitano’s August 13th podcast that Israel is now a “completely lawless country.” He said Israel is “doing whatever it can to provoke” war in the Middle East and “this is not what the American people want.”

He added that “Netanyahu and his party want no Palestinian state and this means no peace.” He said this is what the Israel Lobby wants.

Netanyahu received 50 standing ovations when he spoke to the Congress on July 24. None of these members would have applauded the killing of thousands of children in any other country. In fact, they would have been rushing to condemn it.

Professor Sachs has said in many interviews that the US is “complicit in the genocide” that is still going on in Gaza. He says this war would not last one more day without US support.

I believe God will punish the members of Hamas who did horrible things to Jewish people last October 7. But I also believe that God loves the innocent people of Palestine, too, especially the little children.

Psalm 147 says: “The Lord builds up Jerusalem, He gathers together the outcasts of Israel. He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.” There are certainly no more outcast people in Israel today than those living at the brink of starvation in Gaza.

The Bible also instructs us, in both the Old Testament and the New Testament, to “seek peace and pursue it.”

A few weeks ago the US supported a UN resolution calling for an immediate ceasefire. Netanyahu has ignored this because he either wants to kill all the Palestinian people or at least ethnically cleanse them out of Israel.

We are $35 trillion in debt. We are spending money we do not have to support this war. Almost every member of Congress is scared to death that the Israel Lobby will spend millions against them if they speak out against Netanyahu. I guess, unfortunately, that this war will continue.

Reprinted with author’s permission from The Knoxville Focus.

John James Duncan Jr. is an American politician who served as the U.S. representative for Tennessee’s 2nd congressional district from 1988 to 2019. A lawyer, former judge, and former long serving member of the Army National Guard, he is a member of the Republican Party.

PAKISTAN

Who is Orya Maqbool Jan, the YouTuber arrested in Lahore?

HT News Desk
Aug 23, 2024 


A playwright, poet, columnist, and former civil servant, Jan has over one million subscribers on his YouTube channel.


Former bureaucrat and YouTuber, Orya Maqbool Jan, who is critical of the Pakistan Army, has been arrested for allegedly inciting religious hatred and defaming institutions, particularly the military.

Former bureaucrat and YouTuber, Orya Maqbool Jan, who is critical of the Pakistan Army has been arrested for allegedly inciting religious hatred and defaming institutions. (Facebook/Orya Maqbool Jan)

Jan, 72, was placed under the custody of the Federal Investigation Agency’s (FIA) cybercrime wing for four days on August 22, following a raid on his residence in Lahore.
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A playwright, poet, columnist, and former civil servant, Jan has over one million subscribers on his YouTube channel. He was previously detained by intelligence agencies for several days due to his outspoken criticism of the military's political role and his support for the imprisoned former prime minister Imran Khan.

Former Punjab provincial minister Mehmood-ur-Rasheed suggested Jan as a candidate for Punjab caretaker chief minister with Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf in 2018. However, this proposal sparked significant criticism on social media due to Jan’s controversial reputation.

PTI spokesperson Fawad Chaudhry had confirmed the consideration but later retracted it, leading to Jan being dropped from the list. Jan's visa application to Norway was rejected that year because of his critical remarks about the Ahmadiyya and Jewish communities.

During his tenure as deputy commissioner in Balochistan, Jan was recognised for his positive portrayal of the Taliban. In 2019, Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) imposed a 30-day ban on Jan's show “Harf-i-Raaz” on Neo TV due to rule violations.

He was accused of making derogatory remarks about Pakhtuns and interviewed a spokesperson for the Afghan Taliban, discussing their views on Pakistan’s domestic and foreign policies.

Why is Orya Maqbool Jan in controversy?


Jan’s lawyer, Mian Ali Ashfaq argued that his client had not insulted anyone and claimed that the charges against him are “false and baseless,” reported Dawn.

Jan is alleged to have made remarks in a social posts related to the Mubarak Sani case. On February 6, Supreme Court bench led by Chief Justice of Pakistan Qazi Faez Isa overturned Mubarak Sani's conviction, which had been based on the Punjab Holy Quran (Printing and Recording) (Amendment) Act of 2019.


The court had said that the alleged offence was not criminalised until 2021, leading to the conviction being set aside and Sani’s immediate release.

This ruling sparked what was described by the government and legal community as a “malicious and slanderous campaign” against the Chief Justice, prompting the Supreme Court to issue a clarification.

Australia's new 'right to disconnect' law allows 'ignoring' bosses after work

The law, which passed in February, protects employees who refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact from their employers outside work hours


Similar laws giving employees a right to switch off their mobile devices are already in place in several countries in the EU. (Representative picture/Reuters)


Sydney,

Aug 23, 2024 09:31 IST
Posted By: Ashutosh Acharya

In Short'

Right to disconnect' law will be effective from Monday

Certain exceptions applied on law based on role and reason

Similar laws giving employees right to switch off devices already exist in EU


Australian employees will from Monday have the right to ignore their bosses outside working hours thanks to a new law which enshrines the "right to disconnect."

The law, which passed in February, protects employees who refuse to monitor, read or respond to contact from their employers outside work hours.

Similar laws giving employees a right to switch off their mobile devices are already in place in France, Germany and other countries in the European Union.

WORD OF THE DAY

Who are the docaits behind killing of 11 Pakistani policemen

The attack from a rocket-propelled grenade on a police party highlights the outreach of bandits from the lawless tribal lands.


Over the years, the police and other security forces have conducted raids to root out the bandits from the region [Reuters]

The killing of 11 policemen in a remote region of Pakistan in an attack that saw use of heavy weapons has put spotlight on the bandits, which operate in lawless tribal regions.

Gunmen armed with rocket-propelled grenades ambushed a police convoy in Rahim Yar Khan, a city in Punjab province.

A police force was on a patrol in a deserted are when it came under attack.

Generally, militants afiliated with the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) or separatist groups carry out such deadly hits.

But the recent deadly attack was carried out by bandits who operate from what’s known as the Kacha Area in Pakstan.
,,


It’s very difficult to counter them. They hide in marshy areas. Those are lowlying forested lands. And then they have M16 rifles and rockets left behind the Americans in Afghanistan


The bandits or dacoits operate in the riverine region which covers the borders of the Sindh, Balochistan and Punjab provinces.

Often wearing twirly moustaches and bushy beards, the dacoits roam around cities of Sindh on Honda 125 bikes, brandishing AK-47s that have been adorned with traditional Sindhi or Balochi artwork.

Over the years, the police and other security forces have conducted raids to root out the bandits from the region.

In June, President Asif Ali Zardari said the government was willing to rehabilitate members of organised criminal gangs in the Kacha area who were willing to surrender.

Earlier this month, three policemen were killed in a similar attack, and last month, four dacoits were killed in a police operation.

“It’s not easy. They would have snipers sitting on tree tops in camouflage taking aim at us,” says Raza, who had served in the areas where bandits operate.

Most of the bandits are Balochi tribesmen who have fought wars and battles for generations, he says.

“It’s complicated dynamic at play. These tribesmen have internal fueds. They kill each other and when police comes looking for them, they run and join the bandits in the Kacha area,” Raza told TRT World.

The bandits finance their operation with by kidnapping businessmen or their family members from urban areas.

“They kidnap hundreds of people for ransom every year,” says Raza. And when money is short they use timber, which is available in abundance in the Kacha area to buy weapons.

“They sell the timber in exchange for weapons that people from the border regions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bring to them in trucks,” says Raza.

The Forest Department manages millions of acres in the Kacha (dry) region, located on both sides of the Indus River, a transboundary river of Asia and a trans-Himalayan river of South and Central Asia.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is the Pakistani province that borders Afghanistan.
,,


They sell the timber in exchange for weapons that people from the border regions in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa bring to them in trucks


This area includes extensive tracts of uncultivated land called "Kacha," owned by numerous large landholders who are often influential politicians.

While the Kacha region is mostly arid throughout the year, it undergoes annual flooding during the flood season.

Despite these conditions, the land is highly valued for its fertility, attributed to the mineral deposits left by the river.


Smuggling is central to the survival on bandits, who number in the hundreds and openly show off their power in social media videos from time to time.


“When we try to stop the smuggling, these tribesmen say ‘whatelse can we do to make a living?” says Raza.

SOURCE: TRT World

 

Murmansk under drone attack

Several drones have attacked targets in the far northern Russian region.

By

Atle Staalesen

     

August 21, 2024

Videos show a drone that reportedly fly over Vysokii, a small military town located next to the strategically important Olenya air base. The UAV is flying low and is met by massive air defence fire. Ultimately, it is hit and explodes in the air.

 

Russian air defense shoots down approaching drone. Screenshot of video

 

The governor of Murmansk on Wednesday afternoon informed about the attacks.

“On the territory of Murmansk Oblast an air threat from drones has been detected,” Andrei Chibis writes on his Telegram channel. “All security measures are being taken. I call on all northerners to be attentive and report on 112 about suspicious situations,” he adds.

Reportedly, the far northern region has over the past four days experienced several attacks.

The attacks could explain why the air space over the Kola Peninsula suddenly was closed on Monday 19th of August. Several aircraft, including an intercontinental flight, were redirected, air traffic data showed.

 

According to Violetta Grudina, a local opposition activist who now lives in exile, the latest drone flew from the south at 1300 meter altitude.

The video is filmed by a local eyewitness.

Reportedly, several companies in the area have over the past days repeatedly evacuated staff.

It is not the first time that the Olenya has been attacked. In late July, a Ukrainian drone managed to hit the airbase located as much as 1,800 km north of Ukrainian territory. The drone reportedly hit a long-range supersonic bomber-missile carrier TU-22M3. Olenya is base for many of the strategic bombers that Russia is using in its terror-bombing of Ukrainian towns and infrastructure. 

It was the first reported attack inside the Arctic Circle after Russia launched its full-scale war on Ukraine in February 2022.

 Drone attack on Kola Peninsula. Screenshot of video

 

 

 

A new underwater device has been tested to count king crab in the Barents Sea

King crab caught in the Barents Sea. Photo: Elizaveta Vereykina

The new method will help make the counting process more efficient and environmentally friendly, Norwegian researchers say.

By Elizaveta Vereykina
August 23, 2024

BARENTS OBSERVER


A self-propelled underwater vehicle called Triton has been used in Norway’s Porsangerfjord to count the number of king crabs in the area, the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research reports on its website. Getting the count right will be crucial later this year when the Norwegian government sets the annual quotas for fishermen.


Until now, Norwegian researchers have mostly used the traditional method, which involves a large research vessel cruising the Barents waters and lowering a video camera to the bottom of the sea. The researchers sit in the control room and count the crustaceans by hand. The researchers then pull some of the crabs up to examine them.

Self-propelled underwater vehicle Triton. Photo: Jörn Patrick Meyer /Norwegian Institute of Marine Research

As the Norwegian Institute of Marine Research reports, Triton, which takes three pictures per second, has advantages:

“Now we don’t have to pick up all the crabs, even though a few of them still will have to be caught to get information about gender and other things, - marine scientist Cecilie Broms is quoted as saying. - Triton takes pictures of the crabs as they live on the bottom, so we will gain better knowledge of their distribution. In addition, we know exactly how large the area the cameras cover is and can improve the calculations of how much crab there is in the area”.

Researcher Ann Merete Hjelset counting king crabs in the control room of a ship. 

Photo: Elizaveta Vereykina

The device is designed to reduce the cost and carbon footprint of crab counting in the future, the Institute reports. While a research vessel is monitoring crabs in one area, the sonar-equipped device could be doing the same a little further away, greatly expanding the area of crab counting.

King crab at the bottom of the Barents Sea. Photo: Elizaveta Vereykina



“And then the goal is for the autonomous vessels to go more and more by themselves”, says Cecilie Broms, “By using sonar, we also can now cover a larger area on the bottom”, Broms added.

The king crab is originally from the Pacific Ocean and was once introduced into the Barents waters of the Soviet Union in Arctic Russia. Since then the invasive species has spread to Norway’s Barents Sea and a multi-million dollar industry has sprung up around it.

The harbor in the Arctic town of Kirkenes, where thousands of king crabs are caught each autumn and winter. Photo: Henry Patton