03 World

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Excerpt from www.jpost.com

 

Students are facing unsafe conditions at the University of Pennsylvania because of hostility and escalations by anti-Israel encampment activists and the failure of the administration to address them, UPenn student Eyal Yakoby told The Jerusalem Post on Friday.

“I know I’m unsafe,” said Yakoby, a senior studying political science and Middle East studies. “I know that they plan to escalate.”

Yakoby published on social media on Monday what he claimed was an internal encampment document in which activists were advised to “be prepared to escalate your actions” and to build defenses and barricades. Fox News reported on Friday that they had obtained multiple activist guides such as Flood the Gates: Escalate and Do-It-Yourself Occupation Guide 2024 which explain how to create barriers and shields. Yakoby shared on X, formerly Twitter, on Monday that a protester had brought a slingshot and switchblade into the encampment.

“It has been frustrating to see the media report as though these encampments are peaceful,” said Yakoby. “How much more documentation and videos need to be released?”

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Excerpt from buenosairesherald.com

Power companies in the AGEERA electricity generators’ association have rejected Economy Minister Luis Caputo’s proposal to use bonds to pay power wholesaler CAMMESA’s debt of over US$1 billion.

On Wednesday, the Government formalized the regime to pay CAMMESA’s debt to generator companies via resolution 58/2024 of the Energy Secretariat, which was published in the Official Gazette.

The government’s proposal, conceived by Caputo, consists of paying the debt for energy subsidies — with a 50% write-off — via a dollar-denominated bond, the AE38. This would defer overdue payments from December and January. The debt totals AR$1,100 billion (US$1.2 billion at the official rate, US$1 billion at the MEP rate), the resolution says.

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Excerpt from abcnews.go.com

LONDON — The Bank of England maintained its key U.K. interest rate at a 16-year high of 5.25% though it gave a broad hint that a reduction could be on the cards as soon as June as inflation is forecast to fall below target.

In a statement Thursday, the bank’s nine-member Monetary Policy Committee voted 7-2 to keep rates unchanged, with the 2 dissenters backing a quarter-point reduction. Last time, only one member voted for a quarter-point cut.

Like the U.S. Federal Reserve last week, which also kept rates, on hold the majority on the panel wanted to see more evidence that inflation is under control.

The increase in the number of those backing a U.K. rate reduction is a clear indication that there is a shifting balance on the committee in favor of cuts.

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Excerpt from www.theguardian.com

Two top Israeli officials criticised US president Joe Biden on Thursday for threatening to stop certain arms supplies to Israel if it invades Rafah, reports Agence France-Presse (AFP).

“This is a difficult and very disappointing statement to hear from a president to whom we have been grateful since the beginning of the war,” Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Gilad Erdan, said on public radio in Israel’s first reaction to Biden’s warning.

Israel has defied international objections by sending in tanks and conducting “targeted raids” in the eastern areas of Rafah. It says Rafah is home to Hamas’s last remaining battalions but the city on the border with Egypt is also crammed with displaced Palestinian civilians.

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Excerpt from www.bbc.com

The incident comes after Israel targeted another of the broadcaster’s offices in Jerusalem on Sunday.

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Excerpt from www.nytimes.com

Tens of thousands of people have fled since an Israeli call this week to evacuate part of the southern Gazan city of Rafah, the United Nations said on Thursday, as Israeli airstrikes intensify and fears grow that an incursion by Israeli ground forces to take over a border crossing could lead to a full-scale invasion.

The mass flight from the east of the city, a major hub for people displaced from their homes along Gaza’s border with Egypt, is just the latest time that people have been forced to flee since Israel launched a war to dismantle Hamas, the armed group that led the deadly attack on Israel on Oct. 7.

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Excerpt from abcnews.go.com

SKOPJE, North Macedonia — The head of a center-right 22-party coalition that emerged victorious in North Macedonia’s parliamentary election has fallen just short of gaining a parliamentary majority, leaving it reliant on entering a partnership with another party to form a government.

The “Your Macedonia” coalition, led by the head of the VMRO-DPMNE party, Hristijan Mickoski, won just over 43% of the votes in Wednesday’s election, giving it 58 of the country’s 120 parliamentary seats, three fewer than an outright majority, official results showed. Mickoski was expected to begin seeking a governing partner as early as Thursday.

“Tonight we have a reason to celebrate, but starting from tomorrow, we have a job to do,” Mickoski, 46, said late Wednesday. “I’ll hold the first meeting in the morning where we will determine the principles for the composition of a government from which we will not deviate.”

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Excerpt from www.army-technology.com

As international tension reaches boiling point over Israel’s decision to go ahead with its offensive in Rafah, investigations have found that a specialist Israeli Defence Forces (IDF) unit has spent months targeting civilian housing across Gaza.

The 8219 Commando, an IDF combat engineering battalion, has demolished scores of housing, mosques and tunnels in the Palestinian territory, according to a recent report by Bellingcat.

Estimations show roughly 50% of Gaza’s buildings have been destroyed or damaged since Hamas’ 7 October attack and Israel’s subsequent bombardment. This includes more than 70,000 housing units, a key driver behind the displacement of 1.7 million Gazans.

IDF systematic attacks on civilian housing and infrastructure in Gaza are part of Israel’s controversial ‘buffer zone’ strategy: a 1km-wide ‘security belt’ of uninhabited land along the Israel-Palestine border.

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Excerpt from japantoday.com

The Japanese Defense Ministry is examining a video that purports to show a Maritime Self-Defense Force vessel in port, suspecting it may have been taken by an unauthorized drone, sources familiar with the matter said Wednesday.

The video, which was posted on a Chinese social media platform, stirred controversy earlier this year as it appears to provide a clear shot from above of the deck of the helicopter carrier Izumo. Defense Minister Minoru Kihara told reporters last month the ministry would investigate whether the imagery was fabricated or authentic.

According to the sources, the ensuing analysis led the ministry to believe the video was possibly taken from a drone that flew without permission above the vessel while it was anchored at an MSDF base in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo.

The video also showed what is believed to be buildings and facilities of the port in the city of Kanagawa Prefecture, which also hosts a U.S. naval base.

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Excerpt from www.cbsnews.com

Port Sudan, Sudan — A series of attacks by Sudanese paramilitary forces in the western region of Darfur raise the possibility of “genocide” against non-Arab ethnic communities, Human Rights Watch said Thursday. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), along with allied militias, have been widely accused of ethnic cleansing, crimes against humanity and war crimes in their war with Sudan’s regular army, which began in April 2023.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people, including up to 15,000 in the West Darfur town of El-Geneina, according to United Nations experts. The area is the focus of the 186-page HRW report “‘The Massalit Will Not Come Home’: Ethnic Cleansing and Crimes Against Humanity in El-Geneina, West Darfur, Sudan.”

It describes “an ethnic cleansing campaign against the ethnic Massalit and other non-Arab populations.”

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Excerpt from www.thesun.co.uk

A MORBIDLY obese monkey named Godzilla has died after eating himself to death despite shedding weight at a fat camp.

The macaque developed an insatiable appetite after well-wishing shoppers fed him junk food at a market in Bangkok, Thailand.

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Excerpt from www.express.co.uk

A Boeing 737 carrying 73 terrified passengers had a horrifying skid off the runway when its wing dangerously ignited within moments of take-off.

The shocking scenes unfolded at Blaise Diagne International Airport near Dakar, Senegal, when the aircraft’s left wing and engine suddenly burst into flames due to a hydraulic problem during acceleration.

Footage captured the chilling aftermath, showing a blanket of fire-suppressant foam engulfing the beleaguered Transair plane’s wing.

More gut-wrenching still are the images of the charred aircraft embedded in the dirt, with a gaping hole visible in the now foam-covered aflame left engine.