International

Isreal vs Hamas war: ‘I’m disappointed in myself’, Biden apologises over Gaza death toll

Published

6 months ago

November 27, 2023

U.S. President Joe Biden

Isreal vs Hamas war: ‘I’m disappointed in myself’, Biden apologises over Gaza death toll

President Biden has apologized publicly to some prominent Muslim-American leaders for openly doubting the Palestinian death toll claimed by the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health.

The day after his Oct. 25 statements on alleged Gaza casualties roiled the Islamic community, Biden huddled with five Muslim American leaders, resolving to “do better.”

Biden listened to the leaders discuss persons they knew who were personally touched by the violence during the meeting, which was originally scheduled for 30 minutes but ended up lasting more than twice that long.

“I’m sorry. I’m disappointed in myself,” Biden told the group, the Washington Post reported.

A day before, during a press conference, the president openly questioned the accuracy of the casualty figures from Gaza, given Hamas’ terror track record.

“I have no notion that the Palestinians are telling the truth about how many people are killed,” Biden said.

“I’m sure innocents have been killed, and it’s a price of waging war,” he added.

More than 14,000 Palestinians in Gaza, including many women and children, have been killed in the conflict, according to data from the Hamas-controlled Ministry of Health.

The Muslim-American leaders who met with Biden urged him to show more empathy to the Palestinians. Biden reportedly hugged one of the participants at the end of the meeting.

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Biden has faced pressure from members of his own administration, including a group of 20 staffers this month who wanted to hear a strategy to curtail civilian deaths in Gaza, the outlet said.

Some prominent Democrats have publicly disparaged the president’s response to the war raging half a world away.

Biden has affirmed US support for Israel following the bloody Oct. 7 attack.

But he also has increasingly pushed for a pause in the fighting to allow humanitarian aid to flow into the beleaguered Gaza Strip and for hostages to get released.

“For weeks, I’ve been advocating to pause the fighting for two purposes: to increase the assistance getting into the Gaza civilians who need help and to facilitate [the] release of hostages,” Biden said Sunday.

“We know that innocent children in Gaza are suffering greatly as well,” the president said.

Hamas and Israel agreed to pause fighting for four days as a hostage-for-prisoner deal takes.

That pause began Friday, and Hamas has agreed to free roughly 50 hostages in return for the temporary peace and dozens of Palestinian prisoners.

The president has increasingly implored Israel to minimize civilian casualties as much as possible in its quest to uproot Hamas.

During a press conference Friday, Biden was asked about how some members of his own party want conditions placed on aid to the staunch US ally.

“Well, I think that’s a worthwhile thought, but I don’t think if I started off with that we’d ever gotten to where we are today,” Biden replied.

Isreal vs Hamas war: ‘I’m disappointed in myself’, Biden apologises over Gaza death toll

Related Topics:Biden Featured Gaza Hamas Isreal

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International

Man shoots stepmom trying to hug him during graduation ceremony

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2024

Trends Admin

Christian Bencomo

Man shoots stepmom trying to hug him during graduation ceremony

A woman has been shot by her stepson after she tried to hug him during a high school graduation ceremony.

The incident happened on Wednesday at Albuquerque in New Mexico, United States of America.

The man identified as Christian Bencomo, 21, is currently being held with no bail.

According to Fox News, Albuquerque Police Department (APD) said it received a call around 5 p.m. that shots were fired at the Albuquerque Convention Center.

The media outlet report that authorities said the woman was attending the Southwest Secondary Learning Center graduation for her son.

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Her stepson arrived and “as she started to hug him, he produced a handgun and shot her in the neck,” police said.

APD Communications Director, Gilbert Gallegos, told the media at the scene there was a lot of chaos at the time.

Gallegos said there were over 100 people at the charter school graduation ceremony at the time, adding that the woman was rushed to a hospital and is expected to survive.

Bencomo was held by bystanders until the police arrived, the APD said.

According to jail records at the Bernalillo County Metropolitan Detention Center, Bencomo has been charged with unlawful carrying of a weapon, aggravated assault with intent to commit a felony, aggravated battery with intent to cause great bodily harm to a family member and preventative detention

Man shoots stepmom trying to hug him during graduation ceremony

International

Binance runs into trouble in Canada, fined $4.38m

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2024

Trends Admin

Binance runs into trouble in Canada, fined $4.38m

Canada’s financial watchdog, the Financial Transactions and Reports Analysis Centre (FINTRAC), has imposed a $6 million fine on Binance, a prominent cryptocurrency platform, for breaching the nation’s laws on money laundering and terrorist financing.

The penalty, valued in Canadian dollars, translates to approximately $4.38 million USD.

In a recent statement, FINTRAC revealed that Binance failed to register as a foreign money services business and neglected to report large virtual currency transactions exceeding $10,000, as required by law.

Sarah Paquet, director and CEO of FINTRAC, emphasized the importance of upholding Canada’s anti-money laundering and anti-terrorist financing regulations to safeguard the nation’s economy and citizens.

Paquet affirmed FINTRAC’s commitment to assisting businesses in understanding and fulfilling their obligations under the law while maintaining a firm stance on enforcement when necessary.

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Binance, known as the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has faced regulatory scrutiny globally. Founder Changpeng Zhao recently received a four-month prison sentence in the United States for money laundering, unlicensed money transmission, and other violations related to transactions supporting terrorism, drug trafficking, and child exploitation.

In a separate case in the US, Binance agreed to a plea deal requiring the payment of over $4.3 billion in fines and restitution.

Additionally, the company is under investigation in Nigeria for alleged tax evasion, money laundering, and illicit foreign exchange rate manipulation.

Two senior Binance officials in Nigeria, Nadeem Anjarwalla and Tigran Gambaryan, faced charges related to these accusations, with Anjarwalla escaping custody in March after being arrested in February.

Binance runs into trouble in Canada, fined $4.38m

International

US says Israel may have breached international law with American weapons in Gaza

Published

2 days ago

May 11, 2024

Trends Admin

The US has grown increasingly concerned over mounting civilian deaths in Gaza

US says Israel may have breached international law with American weapons in Gaza

The US says Israel may have used American-supplied weapons in breach of international humanitarian law in some instances during the war in Gaza.

It is “reasonable to assess” that those arms have been used in ways “inconsistent” with Israel’s obligations, says the state department.

But it added that the US did not have complete information in its assessment and that shipments could continue.

The report was submitted to Congress on Friday after a delay.

The White House-ordered review looked into how the country, along with six others engaged in conflict, has used US-supplied arms since the start of last year.

While the report was a clear rebuke of some Israeli operations in Gaza, it stopped short of definitively saying that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) campaign had breached international law.

Israel had had to confront an “extraordinary military challenge” fighting Hamas in Gaza, it said.

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And it added that assurances it had received from Israel about adhering to the legal use of US weapons were “credible and reliable”.

The document also noted that because Hamas “uses civilian infrastructure for military purposes and civilians as human shields”, it was often “difficult to determine facts on the ground in an active war zone” of what are legitimate targets.

But it said that given Israel’s significant reliance on US-made weapons, they had probably been used “in instances inconsistent with its IHL [international humanitarian law] obligations or with established best practices for mitigating civilian harm”.

It added that “Israel has the knowledge, experience, and tools to implement best practices for mitigating civilian harm in its military operations”, but that “results on the ground, including high levels of civilian casualties, raise substantial questions as to whether the IDF is using them effectively in all cases”.

The report said the UN and humanitarian organisations had described Israeli efforts to mitigate civilian harm as “inconsistent, ineffective and inadequate”.

The state department found that Israel did not fully co-operate with US efforts to “maximise” humanitarian aid into Gaza in the initial months of the conflict. It said, however, that this situation had changed.

“We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting the transport or delivery of US humanitarian assistance,” the report said.

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One of the contributors to the report, David Satterfield, a former US ambassador to Turkey, told the BBC that the report was the first of its kind and that the US would continue to keep Israeli actions “under review”.

“This is a conflict quite unlike any that the world has seen,” he added. “We tried to take account of all those factors in coming up with a very frank, but also credible judgement.”

The report was finally released days after US President Joe Biden publicly threatened to withhold certain bombs and artillery shells from Israel if it went ahead with an assault on Rafah, the last stronghold of Hamas in Gaza that is packed with more than a million Palestinians.

Shortly before the report’s publication, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dismissed President Biden’s warnings that the operation in Rafah would cross a “red line” and vowed that Israel would “stand alone” if necessary.

More than 80,000 people have fled Rafah since Monday, the UN says, with Israeli tanks reportedly massed close to built-up areas amid constant bombardment.

Israeli troops took control and closed the Rafah crossing with Egypt at the start of their operation, while the UN said it was too dangerous for its staff and lorries to reach the reopened Kerem Shalom crossing with Israel.

Israel launched a military campaign in Gaza to destroy Hamas in response to the group’s attack on southern Israel on 7 October, during which about 1,200 people were killed and 252 others were taken hostage. More than 34,900 people have been killed in Gaza since then, according to the territory’s Hamas-run health ministry.