Foreign News
Thousands take part in pro-Palestine protests across the world
Thousands of people have taken to the streets around the world to protest against the war in Gaza as Israel pledges to go forward with its offensive in Rafah in southern Gaza.
Waving pro-Palestinian flags and banners, thousands marched through the streets of Madrid, Spain to demand an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.
The crowd snaked through closed-off streets in the Spanish capital from Atocha train station to the central Plaza del Sol square behind a large banner that read: Freedom for Palestine. Many carried signs that read “Peace for Palestine” and “Don’t ignore Palestinian suffering”.
At least six ministers from Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez’s cabinet also took part in the demonstration, five from the left-wing Sumar party, his junior coalition partners, as well as Transport Minister Oscar Puente of the prime minister’s Socialist party.
“We need an immediate ceasefire, an end to the killing and attacks against innocents, we must achieve the release of all hostages,” Puente told reporters at the start of the march.
In the UK’s capital London, approximately 250,000 people took part in the protest demanding a ceasefire in Gaza, according to the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).
Reporting from London, Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett said that according to organisers the demonstration taking place in London is expected to be among the top three in terms of size since the start of the war in Gaza in October. “This could be an indication of the increasing concern about the situation in Gaza, on the cusp of Israel’s intended intensification of military operations in Rafah in the south. YouGov has issued a poll saying that two-thirds of people in the UK now support an immediate ceasefire,” Fawcett said.
Fawcett said that the main body of the march arrived outside the Israeli Embassy, where solidarity speeches and a static protest took place.
The organisers also timed the beginning of the march to ensure that an event at a nearby Jewish synagogue was over.
More than 1,500 police officers were on the streets in London to police the protest.
According to the Metropolitan Police, 12 people were arrested for placard-related offences, assaults on officers and refusal to remove face coverings. “Despite these arrests, the overwhelming majority who took part were peaceful and acted entirely with the law,” the police said in a statement on the social media platform X.
Pro-Israeli groups have attempted to paint the mass pro-Palestinian movement in the UK as anti-Semitic. The protest movement regards that as an attempt to whitewash Israel’s assault on Gaza, which has now killed almost 29,000 people.
Pro-Palestine protests also took place in Sweden and other countries, where people demanded that Israel stop its offensive on Rafah and called for a ceasefire.
Demonstrations in Israel
Protests also took place in Israel’s capital Tel Aviv and outside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s residence in West Jerusalem with demonstrators calling for a captive-prisoner exchange deal and immediate elections in the country.
The rallies took place in the wake of Netanyahu’s decision last week not to send an Israeli delegation to Cairo for further negotiations on a deal to release more than 100 captives still held in Gaza.
The Hostages and Missing Families Forum called the decision a “death sentence” for the remaining captives.
But in a news conference on Saturday, Netanyahu denounced the possibility of elections in Israel right now. He also said that Israel’s military “pressure is working” against Hamas, claiming the army has “reached areas in Gaza that the enemy never imagined”.
“Whoever is telling us not to operate in Rafah is telling us to lose an ear,” he added, saying that the Israeli army would attack Rafah – a city in southern Gaza that now hosts more than one million displaced Palestinians – even if a deal to release captives is reached with Hamas.
(Aljazeera)
At least three suspected rebel fighters and one Indian soldier have been killed in separate firefights in Indian administered Kashmir less than a week after Interior Minister Amit Shah visited the disputed territory.
The Indian army said on Saturday that Indian soldiers killed three fighters in a gun battle that began on Wednesday in a remote forest in Kishtwar in southern Kashmir.
Senior Indian army official Brigadier JBS Rathi said troops had displayed “great tactical acumen”.
“In the gun battle, three terrorists were neutralised,” he told reporters on Saturday in a commonly used term for rebels opposed to Indian rule in Kashmir.
Weapons and “war-like stores” were recovered from the site, the army’s White Knight Corps posted on social media platform X.
A soldier was killed in a separate incident late on Friday night in Sunderbani district along the Line of Control (LoC), the de facto border that cuts Indian-administered Kashmir into two.
The White Knight Corps said on X troops had “foiled an infiltration attempt” there.
Muslim-majority Kashmir has been divided between nuclear-armed rivals India and Pakistan since their independence in 1947, with both claiming the territory in full but governing only part of it.
India has an estimated 500,000 soldiers deployed in the territory after an armed uprising against Indian rule in the late 1980s.
Thousands of people, most of them Kashmir civilians, have been killed as rebel groups have fought Indian forces, seeking independence for Kashmir or its merger with Pakistan.
In 2019, a report by the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights accused India of human rights violations in Kashmir and called for a commission of inquiry into the allegations. The report came nearly a year after the then UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Husseincalled for an international investigation into abuses in the Muslim-majority region.
Last month, four police officers and two suspected rebels were killed in the region in a clash that also wounded several police officers.
The territory has simmered in anger since 2019 when Prime Minister Narendra Modi ended the region’s semi-autonomy and drastically curbed dissent, civil liberties and media freedoms while intensifying military operations.
Thousands of additional troops, including special forces, were deployed across southern mountainous areas last year following a series of deadly rebel attacks that killed more than 50 soldiers over three years.
India regularly blames Pakistan for pushing rebels across the LoC to launch attacks on Indian forces.
[Aljazeera]
Hundreds of flights have been cancelled and trains suspended as gales hit Beijing and northern China today [Saturday].
By 11:30 local time (03:30 GMT) today, 838 flights had been cancelled at the capital’s two major airports, according to the news agency Reuters.
Wind gusts of up to 93mph (150kph) – the strongest in the Chinese capital for more than half a century – are set to continue through the weekend, forcing the closure of attractions and historic sites.
Millions were urged to stay indoors on Friday, with some state media outlets warning that people weighing less than 50kg may be “easily blown away”.
Train services, including the airport’s express subway line and some high-speed rail lines, have been suspended.
Parks were also shut, with some old trees reinforced or trimmed in preparation – but almost 300 trees have already fallen over in the capital.
A number of vehicles were damaged, but no injuries were reported. In Beijing, most residents followed authorities’ advice to stay indoors after the city warned 22 million residents to avoid non-essential travel.
“Everyone in Beijing was really nervous about it. Today there are hardly any people out on the streets. However, it wasn’t as severe as I had imagined,” a local resident told Reuters.
Meanwhile, a businessman from the Zhejiang province, near Shanghai, had his flight home cancelled.
“Because of the severe winds, all flights scheduled for last night and today were cancelled. So I will probably rebook my flight in a couple of days. I’m now basically stranded in Beijing,” he said.
The strong winds are from a cold vortex system over Mongolia and are expected to last through the weekend.
Winds bringing sand and dust from Mongolia are routine in spring, but climate change can make storms stronger and more severe.
Beijing issued its first orange alert for strong winds in a decade, with the strongest winds expected to arrive on Saturday.
China measures wind speed on a scale that goes from one to 17. A level 11 wind, according to the China Meteorological Administration, can cause “serious damage”, while a level 12 wind brings “extreme destruction”.
The winds this weekend are expected to range from level 11 to 13, with conditions expected to ease by Sunday.
[BBC]
The US Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a Maryland man, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador’s notorious mega-jail.
The Trump administration had conceded that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported by accident, but appealed against a federal court’s order to return him to the US.
On Thursday, in a 9-0 ruling, the Supreme Court declined to block the lower court’s order.
The judge’s order “requires the Government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent”, the justices ruled.
(BBC)
Temporally pause rooftop solar during day time from 13th to 21st April -CEB
Three rebels, one Indian soldier killed in Kashmir gun battles
Hundreds of flights cancelled in China as strong winds hit capital
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