Category: General

A number of Israeli ministers and lawmakers joined a rally on Monday in support of settlement building in the occupied West Bank.

Far-right National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich and the head of the Shomron Regional Council, a body responsible for a block of settlements in the West Bank, Yossi Dagan took part in the rally along with 20 lawmakers of the 120-seat Knesset (Israel’s parliament).

Participants marched towards Mount Sbeih near Beita town, south of Nablus, where the illegal Evyatar outpost is established, according to an Anadolu reporter.

“We are here in order to say ‘the Jewish people are strong’,” Ben-Gvir said during the rally.

Last month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu postponed a decision on the fate of the illegal outpost until after the fasting month of Ramadan, which will end later this month.

The outpost was built by Israeli settlers in May 2021 near Nablus.

Monday’s rally was staged amid rising tension across the Palestinian territories after Israeli police last week forcibly removed worshippers from inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem.

Israeli and Palestinian estimates indicate that about 650,000 settlers are living in 164 settlements and 116 outposts in the West Bank, including in occupied East Jerusalem.

Under international law, all Jewish settlements in occupied territories are considered illegal.

Source: Anadolu Agency

New Delhi and Washington commenced a joint military air exercise in India on Monday.

According to the Indian Defense Ministry, Exercise Cope India 23 is being held at air force stations in Panagarh and Kalaikunda in the eastern state of West Bengal, and Agra in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh.

“The exercise aims to enhance mutual understanding between the two air forces and share their best practices,” it said.

The ministry also said the first phase of the exercise started on Monday and it will focus on “air mobility and will involve transport aircraft and special forces assets from both air forces.”

“Both sides will field the C-130J and C-17 aircraft, with the US Air Force operating an MC-130J as well,” the statement noted.

It also said the exercise includes the presence of Japanese Air Self-Defense Force aircrew, who participate in the military drill as observers.

Earlier in January, Japan and India conducted their first-ever joint air drills, which lasted for 11 days.

Japan is part of the US-led Quad, which also includes Australia and India, and is a loose security alliance, widely believed aimed at containing China’s expanding economic and security influence in the wider Asia-Pacific region.

In November last year, the 18th edition of Indo-the US joint training exercise ‘Yudh Abhyas 22’ was conducted in India’s Himalayan state of Uttarakhand – close to the China border.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Lasse Wellander, known for being the long-time guitarist for Swedish supergroup ABBA and recording some of the band’s most famous songs, has passed away after a battle with cancer at the age of 70.

The news was announced by Wellander’s family on his Facebook page on Sunday. “It is with indescribable sadness that we have to announce that our beloved Lasse has fallen asleep. Lasse recently fell ill in what turned out to be spread cancer and early on Good Friday he passed away, surrounded by his loved ones,” the message read.

“You were an amazing musician and humble as few, but above all you were a wonderful husband, father, brother, uncle and grandfather,” the letter added.

ABBA also released a statement on Instagram, writing that “Lasse was a dear friend, a fun guy and a superb guitarist. The importance of his creative input in the recording studio as well as his rock solid guitar work on stage was immense.”

“We mourn his tragic and premature death and remember the kind words, the sense of humor, the smiling face, the musical brilliance of the man who played such an integral role in the ABBA story,” the band said.

Wellander joined ABBA in 1975 and played lead guitar on 24 songs, including ‘Take a Chance on Me’, ‘Knowing Me, Knowing You’, ‘Voulez-Vous’ and ‘The Name of the Game’. He toured with the group for many years and continued playing with some of the members after the band split up in 1982. He also released several solo albums, mainly instrumental. In 2016, when ABBA decided to reunite, Wellander was also called back to help record the band’s ninth and final album ‘Voyage’, released in 2021.

He also helped create the soundtrack for the 2008 film adaptation of the long-running jukebox musical ‘Mamma Mia!’ as well as its sequel ‘Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again’. He received the Albin Hagström Memorial Award from The Royal Swedish Academy of Music in 2005 and in 2018 was honored with the Swedish Musicians Union’s Studioraven Award for his work as a session musician.

Source: Russia Today

An Israeli settler died Monday of wounds she sustained in a shooting attack in the occupied West Bank last week.

The death brought to three the number of Israelis killed in the attack that targeted an Israeli vehicle on Friday near Hamra settlement, northeast of the West Bank, the Israeli public broadcaster KAN reported.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack and the Israeli army has launched a manhunt for perpetrators.

Violence escalated across the Palestinian territories since last week when Israeli police forcibly removed worshippers from inside the Al-Aqsa Mosque complex in occupied East Jerusalem.

Nearly 100 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire since the start of this year, according to Palestinian figures. Seventeen Israelis have also been killed in separate attacks during the same period.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Firefighters are dealing with 41 active wildfires in the northern Spanish region of Asturias on Monday, just eight days after a fresh wave of fires devastated the region.

On Monday, President of Asturias Adrian Barbon told media that authorities will press charges against five individuals suspected of having caused some of the fires that began at the end of March.

He said police are also working on another line of investigation involving at least 10 suspects.

Barbon has called those responsible for starting the fires ‘terrorists’ and vowed they would face time in prison.

This fresh wave of fires is also believed to be the result of deliberate actions.

‘It’s clear that something has been organized and that they’re attacking strategic places to cause the most damage. They are burning forested area that is really valuable,’ said Oscar Rodriguez, head of the region’s emergency services on Monday.

He acknowledged several ‘hypotheses’ about who is behind the fires, which have scorched around 20,000 hectares (49,000 acres) so far, but said it is still too early to know.

The theories emerging about who is behind the mass environmental destruction are varied.

Some say it is farmers trying to make space for grazing, although many areas burned were not potential farmland. Others suggest it is firefighters who began a strike last Monday. Political motivations are another leading hypothesis, as are organized pyromaniacs.

Meanwhile, head of the energy research firm ITERH has called the theories that clean energy interests are behind the fires ‘fake news’ that aims to ‘discredit clean energy.’

What is for sure is that unseasonably hot and dry conditions have been gripping Asturias, and the rest of Spain, in recent days and weeks.

On Monday, Spain’s meteorological agency AEMET confirmed that March was the second hottest and driest of this century.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Buddhist spiritual leader Dalai Lama has apologized after a public uproar over a video that showed him asking a kid to ‘suck my tongue.’

‘His Holiness wishes to apologize to the boy and his family, as well as his many friends across the world, for the hurt his words may have caused,’ Dalai Lama said in an apology note on Monday, which his office shared on the official Twitter handle which enjoys the support of around 19 million followers.

‘His Holiness often teases people he meets in an innocent and playful way,” it added.

Tenzin Gyatso, 88, is the 14th Dalai Lama who left Tibet in the late 1950s and settled in a Dharamshala in India’s northern Himachal Pradesh province, where the incident was recorded in late February when the Dalai Lama is heard asking the kid to ‘suck my tongue’ and pointing to his tongue.

It said the kid ‘asked the Dalai Lama for a hug.’ He is seen kissing the lips of the kid.

The Dalai Lama, who enjoys a widespread fan following, partly because China sees him as a ‘separatist’, saw a huge social media outcry over the incident.

Robby Starbuck, a US-based director/producer, said: ‘The Dalai Lama asked a little boy to suck his tongue and not one mainstream news outlet is asking what the heck is going on here. This is pedophilic, abusive and totally sick.’

‘You didn’t just hug the boy though, you asked him to ‘suck your tongue.’ Why leave that bit out?’ Sameera Khan, one Twitter user, responded to the Dalai Lama’s statement.

The incident apparently happened at Tsuglagkhang monastery in late February when the Dalai Lama was interacting with around 120 students who had completed their skills training.

Source: Anadolu Agency

Today, Secretary Blinken made a determination that Evan Gershkovich is wrongfully detained by Russia.

Journalism is not a crime. We condemn the Kremlin’s continued repression of independent voices in Russia, and its ongoing war against the truth.

The U.S. government will provide all appropriate support to Mr. Gershkovich and his family. We call for the Russian Federation to immediately release Mr. Gershkovich.

We also call on Russia to release wrongfully detained U.S. citizen Paul Whelan.

Source: EMM/ U.S. DEPARTMENT of STATE

Russia claims a leak of classified Pentagon documents about the war in Ukraine reveal nothing new. That’s as questions remain about the authenticity of the files. The US could pull its support for Ukraine and leave Europe to face the conflict on its own. That’s the warning to the French president, from a republican senator. Entering choppy waters – tensions spike in the Pacific region as a US navy vessel sails through the South China Sea all while Beijing holds major drills all around Taiwan.

Source: Russia Today

Russia on Monday said the UK wants to turn Ukraine into ‘a scorched and deserted’ land by supplying Kyiv with shells containing depleted uranium.

‘Britain, supplying depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine, wants to turn its territory into a scorched and deserted land. They won’t speak Russian there, they won’t speak Ukrainian, there will be silence in general. As in Pripyat and Chernobyl,’ Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram.

The UK announced late March that it will supply Ukraine with depleted uranium ammunition.

The decision was met with fierce criticism from Russia as President Vladimir Putin said the country will respond, and later announced plans to station tactical nuclear weapons in neighboring Belarus.

Separately, the Foreign Ministry said the move was “further proof of London’s intention to aggravate the confrontation’ and contradicted the UK’s claim of being ‘committed to the post-conflict rebuilding’ of Ukraine.

The UK has defended sending depleted uranium ammunition to Ukraine, saying it is a ‘standard component,’ and accused Moscow of “deliberately trying to disinform.”

Source: Anadolu Agency

The Shiveluch volcano in the Russian Far East erupted on Tuesday morning local time, throwing a plume of ash up to 20km into the atmosphere. The Kamchatka authorities are monitoring the lava flow, while regional residents were told to stay inside and wear masks.

The eruption began around 1am and reached its maximum five hours later, according to local volcanologists. Plumes of hot ash rose into the sky, followed by rockfalls and lava flow from the mountain, which rises 2,500 meters above the Pacific Ocean.

Instruments and satellite surveillance on Tuesday morning confirmed the ash had reached up to 20km into the atmosphere. The event was registered by monitoring stations more than 100km away.

Scientists and local residents captured the stunning and ominous cloud rising above Shiveluch, and shared videos of a thick layer of ash covering vehicles and homes in nearby towns.

“Fortunately, the volcano did not begin erupting during the tourist season, when many irresponsible travelers ignore warnings and stray into the restricted area,” Danila Chebrov, director of the Kamchatka chapter of the federal geological service, said.

In Klyuchi, about 47km from Shiveluch, the skies turned black. Local schools switched to remote classes, and residents were told to stay home and wear a mask if they needed to go outside for any reason, due to the ashfall.

As lava descends from the volcano, it melts the snow on the slopes of Shiveluch, raising the risks of mudslides. The road along the Kamchatka River, connecting Klyuchi to Mayskoe and Kozyrevsk further inland, is being monitored ahead of any possible closures.

A red alert for air travel has been declared on the peninsula following the Shiveluch eruption. Air traffic was already being rerouted after Friday’s eruption at the Bezymianny volcano, further south, which resulted in a 12km ash plume. A 25km restricted area had been declared around both volcanoes in anticipation of the eruption at Shiveluch.

Shiveluch is one of Kamchatka’s largest volcanoes, and one of the most active on the planet.

Source: Russia Today