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sgardner35

Covering War at Home Costs a Yemeni His Life - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...e-costs-a-yemeni-his-life.html

shared by sgardner35 on 18 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • On Sunday, while on assignment for Voice of America, Mr. Mojalli traveled with colleagues outside the capital, Sana, to find witnesses to airstrikes that had killed at least 15 civilians last week. But when they arrived, warplanes with the Saudi-led military coalition began circling overhead, according to Abdulbari al-Sumaei, Mr. Mojalli’s driver.
  • A bomb landed near Mr. Mojalli, spraying shrapnel into his stomach, neck and face, Mr. Sumaei said.
  • y then, Mr. Mojalli was dead.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Nearly a year after the war began between Houthi rebels and forces allied with the government of President Abdu Rabbu Mansour Hadi, more than 80 percent of the country needs some form of humanitarian assistance, according to the United Nations.
  • At least eight journalists or news media workers were killed covering the conflict last year, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. As the war has become more treacherous, foreign news organizations have relied on local journalists.
  • Before that attack, he had become desensitized, he said. “I’ve been to dozens of bomb sites,” he wrote. “Every day, I wake up to hear that 10 people were killed last night, or 20, or 40. It almost stops feeling real.”
Megan Flanagan

King of Jordan says ISIS could be defeated 'fairly quickly' - CNNPolitics.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

politics US ISIS

shared by Megan Flanagan on 18 Jan 16 - No Cached
  • ISIS terrorists in Iraq and Syria can be defeated "fairly quickly,
  • the group could be taken off the battlefield soon.
  • mid-term is going to be the intelligence and security aspect. The long-term is the ideological one and the educational one.
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • have been working alongside dozens of other nations to take out ISIS fighters through airstrikes,
  • that the fight wouldn't necessarily yield an immediate victory
  • It may take time, but we have long memories, and our reach has no limit,
  • Not only inside Islam, as we as Muslims gain the supremacy against the crazies, the outlaws, of our religion, but also reaching out to other religions that Islam is not what they have seen being perpetuated by 0.1% of our religion
  • where we hold them accountable on whatever potential mischief may be found.
  • "As for the President, we're in contact all the time," Abdullah said. "I've heard this morning that there's a feeling that I've been snubbed, and that couldn't be further from the truth."
  • Obama and Abdullah have met often in the past to discuss issues like counter-terrorism and the war on ISIS,
  • ordan remains an important partner on really important issues like fighting ISIL
Javier E

Opinion | The India-Pakistan Conflict Was a Parade of Lies - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...india-pakistan-news.html

disinformation digital information culture india pakistan lies fact-checking propaganda war crisis politics history

shared by Javier E on 06 Mar 19 - No Cached
  • Social networks are now so deeply embedded into global culture that it feels irresponsible to think of them as some exogenous force. Instead, when it comes to misinformation, the internet is a mere cog in the larger machinery of deceit.
  • There are other important gears in that machine: politicians and celebrities; parts of the news media (especially television, where most people still get their news); and motivated actors of all sorts, from governments to scammers to multinational brands.
  • It is in the confluence of all these forces that you come upon the true nightmare: a society in which small and big lies pervade every discussion, across every medium; where deceit is assumed, trust is naïve, and a consensus view of reality begins to feel frighteningly anachronistic.
  • ...9 more annotations...
  • It’s easier to appreciate the simmering pot when you’re looking at it from the outside
  • India conducted airstrikes against Pakistan. After I learned about them, I tried to follow the currents of misinformation in the unfolding conflict between two nuclear-armed nations on the brink of hot war.
  • What I found was alarming; it should terrify the world, not just Indians and Pakistanis. Whether you got your news from outlets based in India or Pakistan during the conflict, you would have struggled to find your way through a miasma of lies. The lies flitted across all media: there was lying on Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp; there was lying on TV; there were lies from politicians; there were lies from citizens.
  • just about everyone, including many journalists, played fast and loose with facts. Many discussions were tinged with rumor and supposition. Pictures were doctored, doctored pictures were shared and aired, and real pictures were dismissed as doctored.
  • Many of the lies were directed and weren’t innocent slip-ups in the fog of war but efforts to discredit the enemy, to boost nationalistic pride, to shame anyone who failed to toe a jingoistic line. The lies fit a pattern, clamoring for war, and on both sides they suggested a society that had slipped the bonds of rationality and fallen completely to the post-fact order.
  • If you dive into the tireless fact-checking sites policing the region, you’ll find scores more lies from last week, some that flow across both sides of the conflict and many so intricate they defy easy explanation.
  • And you will be filled with a sense of despair.
  • The Indian government recently introduced a set of draconian digital restrictions meant, it says, to reduce misinformation. But when mendacity crosses all media and all social institutions, when it becomes embedded in the culture, focusing on digital platforms misses the point.
  • In India, Pakistan and everywhere else, addressing digital mendacity will require a complete social overhaul. “The battle is going to be long and difficult,” Govindraj Ethiraj, a journalist who runs the Indian fact-checking site Boom, told me. The information war is a forever war. We’re just getting started.
Javier E

The assassination that could've sparked World War III - The Washington Post - 0 views

www.washingtonpost.com/...-couldve-sparked-world-war-iii

assassination kennedy turning point

shared by Javier E on 23 Nov 18 - No Cached
  • Kennedy was in Springfield to campaign for Democrats running for House and Senate seats in the 1962 midterm elections. Before delivering a public speech at the Illinois State Fairgrounds, the president paid a private visit to Lincoln’s tomb. On his way to the tomb, an “employee of the Illinois Department of Public Safety” noticed two men along the president’s motorcade route with a rifle.
  • If Kennedy had been killed or wounded in Springfield, Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson and a core of advisers already leaning toward some type of airstrike or invasion of Cuba probably would have approved such an attack. An assassination attempt on a U.S. president amid an “eyeball to eyeball” confrontation with the Soviet Union would have led many officials to suspect Kremlin involvement. The Soviets had already been caught lying over the missiles in Cuba, and any Soviet denials regarding the attempted assassination of Kennedy would have been seen in the same light.
  • According to the Secret Service report, the alert public safety official “saw a rifle barrel with telescopic sight protruding from a second-story window. The local police took into custody and delivered to Special Agents of the Secret Service” two men who were brothers-in-law. The Secret Service noted that “a .22 caliber semi-automatic rifle and a full box of .22 long rifle ammunition was seized.” The men admitted “pointing the gun out the window on the parade route. However, they claimed that they had merely been testing the power of the telescopic sight to determine if it would be worthwhile to remove it in order to get a better look at the President when the motorcade returned.
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  • An enraged public and a core group of advisers predisposed to think the worst of Soviet intentions would have exerted enormous pressure upon Johnson to respond with force.
Javier E

Opinion | The Problem With U.S. Foreign Policy? The Urge to 'Do Something' - The New Yo... - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...trump-us-foreign-policy.html

foreign policy bias syria libya action 2nd order consequences history

shared by Javier E on 14 Apr 18 - No Cached
  • since entering office, Mr. Trump has reversed course. He evidently shares the assumption that America must do something in response to atrocities in Syria — a wholehearted embrace of the Washington bias toward action.
  • This bias toward action is one of the biggest problems in American foreign policy. It produces poorly thought-out interventions and, sometimes, disastrous long-term consequences, effects likely to be magnified in the era of Mr. Trump.
  • The concept of a bias for action originated in the business world, but psychological studies have shown a broad human tendency toward action over inaction.
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  • Researchers have found that World Cup goalkeepers, for example, are more likely to dive during a penalty kick, though they’d have a better chance of catching the ball by remaining in the center of the goal.
  • political scientists have also applied this concept to explain the decisions of leaders like George W. Bush, whose impetuous choices have been attributed by scholars to his “impatience for unnecessary delay.
  • Political pressure and criticism from opponents, combined with the news media’s habit of disparaging inaction, can render even the most cautious leaders vulnerable to pressure.
  • The American policymaking system reinforces this tendency.
  • America’s overwhelming military strength and the low cost of airstrikes only add to the notion that action is less costly than inaction.
  • Acting too quickly means that policymakers don’t have full information when making key decisions, and it prevents them from carefully considering the long-term consequences
  • it can be disastrous. Just look at the Obama administration’s 2011 decision to intervene in Libya.
  • Mr. Obama’s own reflections on Libya (as well as Iraq) and his criticisms of the bias for action in American foreign policymaking were ultimately behind his decision to resist pressure to strike Syria in 2013. Mr. Obama came to understand that poorly thought-out military interventions can be even costlier.
  • If Mr. Obama found it challenging to resist the bias for action in foreign policy, imagine how difficult it is for a president with questionable impulse control, a military-centric foreign policy and a fixation on media praise.
  • It takes a determined leader to resist the overwhelming pressure to “do something” in a crisis. Mr. Trump is not that leader.
Megan Flanagan

US strikes Yemen after missiles launched on warship - CNNPolitics.com - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

US yemen strikes warship

shared by Megan Flanagan on 13 Oct 16 - No Cached
  • American destroyer struck three sites in Yemen on Thursday
  • USS Mason
  • a minority Shia group that has taken control of swathes of Yemen, including the capital, Sanaa
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  • two missiles were launched within 60 minutes of each other, but in both incidents they missed the ship and landed in the water.
  • US warship was conducting routine operations in international waters off the Yemen coast when it was targeted Wednesday,
  • Pentagon said its destroyer USS Nitze launched Tomahawk cruise missiles targeting the coastal radar sites controlled by the Houthi group in "self defense."
  • all three targets were destroyed
  • strikes were in remote areas with little risk of civilian casualties or collateral damage
  • Those who threaten our forces should know that US commanders retain the right to defend their ships, and we will respond to this threat at the appropriate time and in the appropriate manner,"
  • "there is no truth to these allegations"
  • the accusations were aimed at covering up a "heinous" Saudi-led coalition airstrike on a funeral service Saturday in Sanaa
  • increased pressure over its support of the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen,
  • Hadi himself is believed to be in exile in Saudi Arabia, as are several senior members of his administration.
  • "The United States, United Kingdom, and other governments should immediately suspend arms sales to Saudi Arabia."
  • calling the attack an "apparent war crime.
  • could further drag the US into the war in Yemen and contribute to the worsening humanitarian crisis.
  • . The crisis quickly escalated into a war that allowed al Qaeda and ISIS -- other enemies of the Houthis -- to thrive amid the chaos
  • conflict has killed about 10,000 Yemenis and left millions in need of aid
anniina03

Rebel-held Syria braces for coronavirus 'tsunami' -- without soap, running water or the... - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

crisis culture history

shared by anniina03 on 26 Mar 20 - No Cached
  • There is no running water, soap is expensive and hand sanitizer is an unaffordable luxury. She cannot even imagine what social distancing for her family of 16 would look like in the three tents they share in a makeshift camp near the Turkish-Syrian border.
  • COVID-19 is heading toward the war-ravaged province like a "slow moving tsunami," the World Health Organization says, and could claim tens of thousands of lives. 
  • Idlib's population of 3 million, already buckling under extreme shortages of medicine, is considered to be one of the world's most defenseless against the virus.Medical facilities in Idlib have been decimated in targeted airstrikes over the years. Doctors are already overstretched and hospital beds are in short supply.
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  • The humanitarian crisis could culminate in an unparalleled health crisis when COVID-19 reaches Syria's northwest
  • The Early Warning and Alert Response Network (EWARN), the only disease surveillance group operating in this part of Syria, says that between 40 and 70% of the population could get infected, based on global transmission rates.
  • In all of opposition-held Syria, only one doctor and one device can carry out tests for the virus.
  • "The delay in supplying test kits to northwest Syria does not imply any favoring of one side of the conflict over the other, as some may choose to interpret it," Brennan says."We are busting our guts to make sure everything is ready,"
  • Even in government-controlled parts of Syria, capacity for testing remains low. The country has reported only five confirmed cases, but experts expect a bigger spread.
  • All of Syria is considered by the WHO to be a very high risk country in the event of the pandemic's outbreak.  It has the largest population of internally displaced people in the world and its war has dealt a major blow to its health sector.
maxwellokolo

US troops patrol Turkey-Syria border after airstrikes - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

shared by maxwellokolo on 30 Apr 17 - No Cached
  • maxwellokolo on 30 Apr 17
     
    The People's Protection Units (YPG) and the Peshmerga in Iraq -- both Kurdish groups -- said at least 25 of their fighters had been killed in the strikes on Tuesday. Ankara denies deliberately targeting them.
ethanshilling

Israel's Shadow War With Iran Moves Out to Sea - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...israel-iran-shadow-war.html

israel war

shared by ethanshilling on 26 Mar 21 - No Cached
  • The sun was rising on the Mediterranean one recent morning when the crew of an Iranian cargo ship heard an explosion. The ship, the Shahr e Kord, was about 50 miles off the coast of Israel, and from the bridge they saw a plume of smoke rising from one of the hundreds of containers stacked on deck.
  • But the attack on the Shahr e Kord this month was just one of the latest salvos in a long-running covert conflict between Israel and Iran. An Israeli official said the attack was retaliation for an Iranian assault on an Israeli cargo ship last month.
  • The Israeli campaign, confirmed by American, Israeli and Iranian officials, has become a linchpin of Israel’s effort to curb Iran’s military influence in the Middle East and stymie Iranian efforts to circumvent American sanctions on its oil industry.
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  • “This is a full-fledged cold war that risks turning hot with a single mistake,” said Ali Vaez, Iran program director at the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based research organization. “We’re still in an escalatory spiral that risks getting out of control.”
  • Since 2019, Israeli commandos have attacked at least 10 ships carrying Iranian cargo, according to an American official and a former senior Israeli official. The real number of targeted ships may be higher than 20, according to an Iranian Oil Ministry official, an adviser to the ministry and an oil trader.
  • The extent of Iran’s retaliation is unclear. Most of the attacks are carried out clandestinely and with no public claims of responsibility.
  • The Israeli ship attacked last month was a car freighter, the Helios Ray, carrying several thousand German-made cars to China.
  • Several tankers were similarly attacked in the Red Sea last fall and winter, actions some officials attributed to the Houthis, an Iran-backed rebel movement in Yemen.
  • Iran has denied involvement in all of these attacks which, like the Israeli ones, appeared intended not to sink the ships but to send a message.
  • Israel has tried to counter Iran’s power play by launching regular airstrikes on Iranian shipments by land and air of arms and other cargo to Syria and Lebanon. Those attacks have made those routes riskier and shifted at least some of the weapons transit, and the conflict, to the sea, analysts said.
  • “Neither Israel nor Iran want to publicly take responsibility for the attacks because doing so would be an act of war with military consequences,” Hossein Dalirian, a military analyst affiliated with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, told The New York Times in a Clubhouse discussion on Thursday.
  • Analysts say that Iran wants to continue to needle Israel and to arm and support its Middle Eastern allies, both to surround Israel with well-armed proxies and to give Iran a stronger hand in any future nuclear negotiations.
  • The Israeli offensive against Iranian shipping has two goals, analysts and officials said. The first is to prevent Tehran from sending equipment to Lebanon to help Hezbollah build a precision missile program, which Israel considers a strategic threat.
  • The tankers targeted by Israel were carrying Iranian oil to Syria, contravening American sanctions and most likely worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
  • President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, also under sanctions, is in dire need of oil. Iran, its economy decimated by American sanctions, needs cash. Hezbollah has also been hit hard by the severe economic and political crisis in Lebanon and a cyberattack on its financial system.
  • The effectiveness of the Israeli campaign is unclear. Some of the targeted ships were forced to return to Iran without delivering their cargo, the American official said.
  • While the Israeli Navy can make its presence felt in the Mediterranean and Red Seas, it is less effective in waters closer to Iran. And that could make Israeli-owned ships more vulnerable to Iranian attacks as they pass Iran’s western shores on their way to ports in the Gulf, said Shaul Chorev, a retired Israeli admiral who now heads the Maritime Policy and Strategy Research Center at the University of Haifa.
martinelligi

Can The Afghan Army Hold Off The Taliban Without The U.S.? : NPR - 0 views

www.npr.org/...ff-the-taliban-without-the-u-s

war US

shared by martinelligi on 16 Apr 21 - No Cached
  • President Biden stood in the Roosevelt Room at the White House and declared the end of U.S. involvement in the war in Afghanistan. He spoke from the same spot where former President George W. Bush announced the beginning of the war 20 years ago with a bombing campaign.
  • The president said the U.S. will "keep providing assistance" to the Afghan security forces, and reposition counterterrorism forces "over the horizon," to make sure Afghanistan does not once again become a haven for terrorists planning to attack the U.S.
  • The Taliban have yet to break with al-Qaida, a condition of the U.S.-Taliban agreement in February 2020. U.S. officials in the Afghan city of Jalalabad told NPR two years ago that the Taliban continue to work with al-Qaida in eastern Afghanistan, while both U.S. and Afghan airstrikes have targeted al-Qaida militants in southeastern Helmand Province.
mattrenz16

Israel-Palestinian Hostilities: Live Updates - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...israel-gaza-news

shared by mattrenz16 on 13 May 21 - No Cached
  • Clashes between Arab and Jewish mobs on the streets of Israeli cities gave way to warnings from Israeli leaders that the decades-old conflict could be careening toward a civil war. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the scenes of arson and violence as “anarchy” and appealed for an end to “lynchings.”
  • Israel carried out more airstrikes against Hamas targets in Gaza, where the death toll rose on Thursday to 83 people since the fighting began early this week, according to the Gaza health ministry. Palestinian militants fired volleys of rockets that reached far into Israel, where seven have died.
  • Palestinian leaders, however, said the talk of civil war was a distraction from what they see as the true cause of the unrest — police brutality against Palestinian protesters and provocative actions by right-wing Israeli settler groups.
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  • “The police shot an Arab demonstrators in Lod,” said Ahmed Tibi, the leader of the Ta’al party and a member of Israel’s Parliament, referring to the mixed Arab-Jewish city in Israel where some of the worst clashes occurred. “We don’t want bloodshed. We want to protest.”
  • In one seaside suburb south of Tel Aviv, dozens of Jewish extremists took turns beating and kicking a man presumed to be Arab, even as he lay motionless on the ground. To the north, in another coastal town, an Arab mob beat a man they thought was Jewish with sticks and rocks, leaving him in a critical condition. Nearby, an Arab mob nearly stabbed to death a man believed to be Jewish.
  • It is the first intense round of fighting since Israel normalized relations with several Arab countries, including the United Arab Emirates, a long-fought prize and a delicate balancing act.
  • The Aqsa raid might have been the spark for the current round of hostilities, but the fuel was years of anger from Israel’s Arab minority, who make up about 20 percent of the population. They have full citizenship, but rights advocates say they are victims of dozens of discriminatory regulations.
saberal

World leaders urge peace amid ongoing Israeli-Palestinian conflict | Fox News - 0 views

www.foxnews.com/...g-israeli-palestinian-conflict

US politics

shared by saberal on 02 Jun 21 - No Cached
  • The United Nations Middle East Envoy, Tor Wennesland, told the Security Council that it is "the most serious escalation between Israel and Palestinian militants in years" and warned on Twitter that "we're escalating towards a full scale war."
  • "I think Israel has an extra burden in trying to do everything it possibly can to avoid civilian casualties even as it is rightfully responding in defense of its people," Blinken said Wednesday. 
  • Israel responded with a barrage of airstrikes, taking out Hamas’ Gaza City commander, Bassem Issa, as well as several other senior Hamas militants. 
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  • Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deployed Border Police forces Wednesday, saying that Israel will "stop the anarchy and restore governance to the cities of Israel, with an iron fist if needed, with all forces needed and all authorities required."
saberal

Opinion | Biden's First 100 Days Would Make Trump Jealous - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...biden-100-days-trump.html

Biden Trump Politics

shared by saberal on 30 Apr 21 - No Cached
  • Joe Biden’s inauguration, with its camp authoritarian light displays and general atmosphere of praetorian menace, was exactly the sort of swearing-in that his predecessor might have relished
  • Between announcing that the remaining 2,500 American troops would return from Afghanistan by Sept. 11, he has carried out airstrikes in Syria, spoken equivocally about our shameful adventures in Yemen and largely ignored the genocide being carried out in the Tigray region of Ethiopia.
  • This month he briefly committed his administration to maintaining Mr. Trump’s parsimonious annual cap on the number of refugees the United States will accept (though in response to criticism the White House now claims that it will reconsider the issue next month).
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  • Mr. Biden’s suggestion, made during his primary campaign, that entering the United States illegally should no longer be treated as a criminal offense, his promise to end construction of the border wall and his pledge that not a single deportation would take place during his first hundred days in office — ’tis gone, and all is gray.
  • A sort of blithe tactlessness persists. “Did you ever five years ago think every second or third ad out of five or six would be biracial couples?” is not a question one can readily imagine being asked by any American politician of standing other than Mr. Trump — or his successor, who in fact posed it to CNN’s viewers in February.
  • The United States may be on the verge of returning to the Obama administration’s nuclear weapons accord with Iran, but when it comes to North Korea, the nation is also, in the words of Lloyd Austin, Mr. Biden’s secretary of defense, “ready to fight tonight,” presumably with fire and fury.
  • Even in the area of economics, where it might have been supposed by both supporters and critics during the presidential campaign that Mr. Biden would adopt a more progressive agenda, he has differed from the bipartisan center-right economic consensus along curiously familiar lines. In addition to keeping Mr. Trump’s moratorium on evictions in place, for example, he has continued with the suspension of interest on student loan debt and the collection of monthly payments.
  • Despite occasional rhetorical sops to organized labor that have become a mainstay of populist conservative rhetoric, Mr. Trump was arguably the least union-friendly president since Ronald Reagan, whereas Mr. Biden has restored some collective bargaining rights by executive order.
  • Why is Mr. Biden having more success carrying out some of his predecessor’s policies? Certainly Mr. Trump’s fabled étourderie and his inability to staff a cabinet with qualified officials sympathetic to what was ostensibly his agenda are a part of the story. A more interesting question, though, is where the indignation from would-be opponents of moderate protectionism and realism in foreign policy has gone. Would Mr. Biden’s broken promises regarding deportations be less excusable if he, too, were in the habit of calling immigrants revolting names?
anonymous

Yemen: Saudi Arabia Proposes A Peace Deal, But Houthis Say It's Not Enough : NPR - 0 views

www.npr.org/...but-houthis-say-its-not-enough

shared by anonymous on 22 Mar 21 - No Cached
  • Saudi Arabia has proposed a peace deal to end the nearly six-year war in Yemen, if the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels agree.The Saudi proposal calls for a nationwide ceasefire and reopening the airport in the Yemeni capital, Sanaa.
  • "The initiative aims to end the human suffering of the brotherly Yemeni people, and affirms the Kingdom's support for efforts to reach a comprehensive political resolution," the Saudi Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
  • The war has been a quagmire for the Saudis and they are apparently looking for a way out.
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  • "We expected that Saudi Arabia would announce an end to the blockade of ports and airports and an initiative to allow in 14 ships that are held by the coalition," the Houthis' chief negotiator, Mohammed Abdulsalam,
  • The United States and the U.N. have been trying to end what they call the world's worst humanitarian disaster. President Biden has pledged to use diplomacy to end the war and to allow more refugees to come to the U.S.
  • In a briefing, U.N. spokesperson Farhan Haq said he welcomed the Saudi proposals, and that U.N. envoy Martin Griffiths has been working toward these goals. Asked about the Houthis' rejection of the Saudi offer, Haq said Griffiths would be in touch with all parties to discuss moving forward with Saudi Arabia's proposal.Peter Salisbury, senior Yemen analyst at the International Crisis Group, says the Saudi proposal is essentially a new take on an idea that was put forth a year ago.
  • Salisbury says he believes the Saudi proposal is likely aimed at pressuring the Houthis. For now, he predicts more talks, more air strikes, and more fighting on the ground
  • The conflict has become a proxy war between Saudi Arabia and Iran. Years of fighting have left 80% of Yemen's population reliant on aid and millions are on the brink of starvation.
  • The war in Yemen began in 2014, when Houthi militants supported by Iran overthrew the unpopular Saudi-backed government in Yemen's capital. A coalition of Gulf states — led by Saudi Arabia and with support from the U.S., France and the U.K. — responded with airstrikes, beginning in 2015.While the Biden administration has been critical of the way the Saudis have waged the war, it has also raised alarms about recent Houthi attacks against Saudi Arabia.
  • The State Department said that in a call with Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken "reiterated our commitment to supporting the defense of Saudi Arabia and strongly condemned recent attacks against Saudi territory from Iranian-aligned groups in the region."
  • The two officials reportedly expressed support for diplomatic efforts to end the conflict in Yemen, "starting with the need for all parties to commit to a ceasefire and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian aid."State Department deputy spokesperson Jalina Porter said the proposal is "one step in the right direction," calling on all of the parties to negotiate under the auspices of the U.N.
ethanshilling

Gaza Faces Humanitarian Catastrophe With Shortages of Water and Medicine - The New York... - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...aza-humanitarian-disaster.html

israel gaza crisis

shared by ethanshilling on 18 May 21 - No Cached
  • Until Monday evening, the Al-Rimal health clinic in central Gaza City was a key cog in the Palestinian health system. Its eight doctors and 200 nurses administered hundreds of vaccinations, prescriptions, and screenings a day.
  • But then, on Monday night, an Israeli airstrike hit the street outside, sending shrapnel into the clinic, shattering windows, shredding doors, furniture and computers — and wrecking Gaza’s only coronavirus test laboratory.
  • Sewage systems have been destroyed, sending fetid wastewater into the streets of Gaza City. A critical desalination plant that helped provide fresh water to 250,000 people is offline, and water pipes serving at least 800,000 people have been damaged. Landfills are closed, with trash piling up.
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  • And dozens of schools have been either damaged or ordered to close, forcing some 600,000 students to miss classes on Monday.
  • President Biden added his voice to the growing chorus of international leaders calling for a cease-fire on Monday night, but there was little indication that an end to the hostilities was near on Tuesday morning.
  • “We have a bank of targets that is full, and we want to continue and to create pressure on Hamas,” he said. “This morning, the chief of staff gave us the plans for the next 24 hours, the targets. We will hit anyone who belongs to Hamas, from the first to the last.”
  • “We warn the enemy that if it did not stop that immediately, we would resume rocketing Tel Aviv,” the militant group’s spokesman Abu Ubaida said, according to Reuters.
  • More than 40,000 people have been forced into shelters and thousands more have sought refuge with friends or relatives, according to the U.N. humanitarian affairs office.
  • At least 10 people in Israel have been killed in rocket attacks, the Israeli authorities said.The death toll in Gaza itself has surpassed 200, including at least 61 children, according to the health authorities in the territory.
  • Palestinian activists across Israel took part in a general strike on Tuesday to protest Israel’s air campaign in Gaza and other measures targeting Palestinians.Even before the current conflict, Gaza was facing an economic crisis and political crisis.
  • Since 2007, Hamas has engaged in three major conflicts with Israel and several smaller skirmishes. After each eruption of violence, Gaza’s infrastructure was left in shambles.
  • By Monday, Israeli bombs had destroyed 132 residential buildings and damaged 316 housing units so badly that they were uninhabitable, according to Gaza’s housing ministry.
  • While Hamas fighters move through an extensive series of tunnels under Gaza, and as Israeli warplanes drop bombs aimed at destroying that network, it is the people caught between who suffer the most calamitous losses.
  • “Until a cease-fire is reached, all parties must agree to a ‘humanitarian pause,’” the office said in a statement. “These measures would allow humanitarian agencies to carry out relief operations, and people to purchase food and water and seek medical care.”
kaylynfreeman

Israel-Hamas Conflict: Live Updates - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...israel-palestine-gaza

politics

shared by kaylynfreeman on 20 May 21 - No Cached
  • The Israeli bombardment of Gaza and the barrage of rocket fire by Hamas into Israel eased overnight on Thursday as senior officials on both sides privately expressed optimism that a cease-fire agreement could come by the weekend, according to a senior Israeli official familiar with the negotiations.
  • President Biden spoke with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel on Wednesday, telling the Israeli leader that he “expected a significant de-escalation today on the path to a cease-fire,” administration officials said.
  • Germany’s foreign minister, Heiko Maas, met with Mr. Netanyahu on Thursday to press for peace.
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  • Hamas has launched more than 4,000 rockets at southern Israel — the vast majority shot down by Israeli defenses, falling short of their targets or landing in unpopulated areas. That steady onslaught appeared to slow overnight, with Israeli military officials recording 70 rockets between 7 p.m. and 7 a.m.
  • Israel has targeted around 1,000 sites in Gaza that it claims hold significant military value, according to Israeli military officials. However, the campaign has also caused widespread destruction of homes and critical infrastructure, displacing tens of thousands from their homes and causing dire shortages of water and medical supplies.
  • While fighting continued for an 11th day, it appeared to ease as the two sides indicated that they could soon reach an agreement.
  • Since the start of the conflict 11 days ago, Israeli airstrikes have killed more than 200 Palestinians, including over 60 children, according to the Gaza health ministry. The Israeli military said that more than 130 of those killed were combatants. Hamas rocket attacks have killed more than a dozen people in Israel, including two children, according to the Israeli authorities.
  • The shape of a possible cease-fire deal between Hamas and Israel started to come into clearer focus on Thursday, even as diplomats and Middle East experts cautioned that the last moments before any agreement are fraught with risk and uncertainty.
  • Under growing international pressure, Israel and Hamas are said to be edging toward a cease-fire that could end their deadliest conflict since a 2014 war. But the history of Israeli-Palestinian hostilities is littered with agreements that have failed to resolve the underlying disputes.
katherineharron

Syria-Turkey crisis: Putin now owns this mess - CNN - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

trump

shared by katherineharron on 20 Oct 19 - No Cached
  • Only a few hours later, airstrikes and artillery fire could be felt in northern Syria as the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces accused Ankara and its proxies of severe ceasefire violations.
  • The mood both in Washington and in the Middle East is that the ceasefire is not the real deal. It expires on Tuesday, October 22, the same day Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recip Tayyip Erdogan will meet in Sochi to discuss the future of Syria. It seems pretty clear: that's when the world will find out that the real deal will be for the future of this volatile region.
  • Russia immediately started negotiations with the Kurds and Moscow's main ally, the Assad government, quickly reaching a deal to allow the Syrian military into Kurdish-held areas where Damascus has not had a presence for years in order to stave off the Turkish-led offensive. Moscow also quickly deployed its own military as a buffer to keep the Turks and their forces apart from the Kurds and Syrian government troops.
  • ...7 more annotations...
  • The move caused a good deal of chest thumping among Putin's military: "When the Russian flag appears, combat stops -- neither Turks nor Kurds want to harm us, so fighting stops thanks to our work," a Russian army officer, Safar Safarov, was quoted as saying by Tass state news agency, as the country's military police units began patrolling Manbij.
  • With Russia's new role as the undisputed lead nation also come grave risks. The situation in northeastern Syria is more than volatile. The Turks have made clear they will not allow a Kurdish military presence near their border. But Ankara's ground force consists largely of Syrian rebel groups, many of them hardline Islamists whom the Kurds fear could unleash a campaign of ethnic cleansing against minorities in this diverse region.
  • The Kremlin is gravely concerned that Russians who fought with ISIS and other rebels groups could return to their homeland and cause instability there. From the moment Turkey launched its offensive in Northern Syria the Kremlin voiced extreme doubts about Turkey's ability to keep a lid on the thousands of ISIS prisoners and their relatives that the Kurds had been guarding.
  • "There are areas in northern Syria where ISIS militants are concentrated and until recently, they were guarded by the Kurdish military. The Turkish army entered these areas and the Kurds left... Now [ISIS fighters] can simply run away and I am not sure that the Turkish army can -- and how fast -- get this under control," Putin said last week at The Commonwealth of Independent States forum in Ashgabat.
  • But despite all the dangers facing Putin's high-stakes Syria gambit the Russian leader still seems to be in a position to possibly prevent the situation from blowing up even more than it already has.
  • Russia has a devastating track record in the Syrian conflict. Human rights groups have accused Moscow of committing war crimes in its campaign to support Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. The US says Moscow has systematically bombed civilian infrastructure, especially hospitals, and aided Assad in covering up alleged chemical weapons use by the Syrian military. Russian vehemently denies all these allegations.
  • And when the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Forces -- which were backed by the US and lost nearly 11,000 fighters in the war against ISIS -- found out they'd been dumped by Trump and left to be invaded by Erdogan's proxy force, they too went straight to the Russians because guess what: Moscow has been working with and talking to the SDF for years as well.
delgadool

Who was Qasem Soleimani, the Iranian commander killed by a US airstrike? - CNN - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

shared by delgadool on 14 Jan 20 - No Cached
  • "living martyr of the revolution.
  • He was head of the Revolutionary Guards' Quds Force, an elite unit that handles Iran's overseas operations -- and one deemed to be a foreign terrorist organization by the US
    • delgadool
      delgadool on 14 Jan 20
       
      why was he deemed a terrorist?
  • "responsible for the deaths of hundreds of American and coalition service members and the wounding of thousands more."
    • delgadool
      delgadool on 14 Jan 20
       
      what's the context? what happened?
Javier E

As Tensions With Iran Escalated, Trump Opted for Most Extreme Measure - The New York Times - 0 views

www.nytimes.com/...trump-suleimani.html

iran trump assassination crisis

shared by Javier E on 05 Jan 20 - No Cached
  • General Suleimani, who was considered the most important person in Iran after Ayatollah Khamenei, was a commanding general of a sovereign government. The last time the United States killed a major military leader in a foreign country was during World War II, when the American military shot down the plane carrying the Japanese admiral Isoroku Yamamoto.
  • Mr. Trump’s two predecessors — Presidents George W. Bush and Barack Obama — had rejected killing General Suleimani as too provocative.
  • . The Pentagon also tacked on the choice of targeting General Suleimani, mainly to make other options seem reasonable.
  • ...3 more annotations...
  • Mr. Trump, who aides said had on his mind the specter of the 2012 attacks on the American compound in Benghazi, Libya, became increasingly angry as he watched television images of pro-Iranian demonstrators storming the embassy. Aides said he worried that no response would look weak after repeated threats by the United States.
  • When Mr. Trump chose the option of killing General Suleimani, top military officials, flabbergasted, were immediately alarmed about the prospect of Iranian retaliatory strikes on American troops in the region. It is unclear if General Milley or Mr. Esper pushed back on the president’s decision.
  • The option that was eventually approved depended on who would greet General Suleimani at his expected arrival on Friday at Baghdad International Airport. If he was met by Iraqi government officials allied with Americans, one American official said, the strike would be called off. But the official said it was a “clean party,” meaning members of Kataib Hezbollah, including its leader, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Mr. Trump authorized the killing at about 5 p.m. on Thursday, officials said.
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