geneva_convenience

Taliban's acting deputy foreign minister urged his senior leadership to establish schools for Afghan girls, in one of the sharpest public condemnations of a policy that has contributed to the authorities' worldwide isolation.

Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanekzai stated in a speech over the weekend that limits on girls and women's education were incompatible with Islamic Shariah law, requesting that "leaders of the Islamic Emirate to open the doors of education," according to Tolo, a local broadcaster.

He asserted that injustice was being done against "twenty million people, out of a forty million people population," and noted that "in the time of the Prophet Muhammad (Peace Be Upon Him), the doors of knowledge were open to both men and women."

The statements were among the harshest public criticisms of the school closures by a Taliban official in recent years. Taliban insiders and diplomats have previously told Reuters that the supreme spiritual leader Hibatullah Akhundzada imposed the closures despite internal dissent.

Elon Musk’s “department of government efficiency” (Doge) program was sued within minutes of Donald Trump being sworn in.

The 30-page lawsuit, obtained by The Washington Post, challenges the legality of the government advisory committee Trump claims he has created, by alleging it violates federal transparency rules on disclosure, hiring and other practices.

The public interest law firm National Security Counselors says in the claim that Musk’s efficiency panel meets the bar to be considered a “federal advisory committee”, a class of legal entity regulated to ensure the government receives transparent and balanced advice, but fails to have “fairly balanced” representation, keep records of its meetings and be open to public scrutiny, as required by law.

“All meetings of Doge, including those conducted through an electronic medium, must be open to the public”, the lawsuit states.

The anticipated legal challenges of the legitimacy of Doge have also been expected, including by Musk, who argues his opponents in government have used “lawfare” tactics to stymie him and his companies.

The first act of the 119th Congress of the United States was to pass a bill that would require federal immigration enforcement to detain and potentially deport any unauthorized immigrant accused of minor crimes including petty theft or shoplifting.

The bill, which is to be passed on 20 January, is a meaningful departure from current policy, which requires not one but two or more convictions – not accusations – of crimes of moral turpitude to trigger deportation proceedings. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (Ice) estimates that it would cost $29.6bn to implement, requiring an additional 110,000 detention beds and 10,000 detention and removal personnel.

This bill is widely recognized as a step toward Donald Trump’s promise of mass deportations under the leadership of border czar Tom Homan, one disparaged by the Democratic party as being inhumane.

Yet, even as Democratic party leadership has decried this mass deportation plan and even as the bill maligns Democrats as victimizing Americans through its policy of “open borders,” 48 Democratic members of Congress voted for this GOP-backed bill. The bill is on the verge of passing in the Senate, as 10 Democrats joined Republicans in clearing the way for its final approval.

London's Metropolitan Police (Met) chief, Mark Rowley, has said that his force imposed unprecedented restrictions on a major pro-Palestine rally in London on Saturday that led to 77 arrests.

Pro-Israel groups, chief rabbi Ephraim Mirvis, MPs and peers had reportedly urged Met commissioner Rowley to reroute the protest. Last week, the police took the unusual step of announcing an alternative route for the march, beginning at Russell Square. However, the Met later backed down and agreed to a "static protest" at Whitehall.

The day after the rally, on Sunday, Rowley gave a speech at an event held by the pro-Israel Board of Deputies of British Jews, where he said that "the powers to condition protests are quite limited – we’ve used conditions on the protests more than we ever have done before in terms of times, constraints, routes".

Israeli settlers, accompanied by Israeli occupation forces, stormed multiple Palestinian towns in the occupied West Bank on Sunday evening, expressing outrage over a Gaza ceasefire deal widely perceived as a defeat for the Israeli entity.

The settlers targeted Palestinian vehicles and blocked key roads in areas including Turmus Ayya, ‘Atara, Ein Siniya, Ein Ayoub, Qalqilya, and Jaba’.

In Sinjil, WAFA news agency reported that two Palestinian homes and four vehicles were set on fire. Social media footage captured settlers throwing stones and Molotov cocktails during their attacks.

WASHINGTON, Jan 20 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden issued pre-emptive pardons on Monday for people Republican successor Donald Trump has targeted for retaliation, including former Republican lawmaker Liz Cheney, former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley and former White House chief medical advisor Anthony Fauci.

The pardon covers all lawmakers, including Cheney, who served on the congressional select committee that investigated the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol by Trump supporters, as well as police officers who testified before it.

Trump, who will return to the presidency later Monday, has repeatedly called for the prosecution of his perceived enemies since winning the White House in November.

Joe Biden has admitted that Israel has committed war crimes. That comes in a new interview for MSNBC, which should be treated for what it is: a confession, specifically a confession of complicity in genocide.

Why is Joe Biden, the 46th president of the United States, on the very eve of his presidency ending, publicly declaring that he had told the leader of a foreign state he has armed to the teeth for 15 months, to stop “carpet bombing” civilians at the beginning of an incessant genocidal onslaught? After all, Article 51 of the Geneva Conventions is very clear that carpet bombing civilian areas is a war crime.

He thinks this clip will lead historians to believe that actually he did remonstrate with Benjamin Netanyahu - that he did implore him to stop unleashing barbaric indiscriminate firepower against the innocent people of Gaza.

Well, this interview should be treated simply as an incriminating confession. If Joe Biden ever ended up at the International Criminal Court, this clip alone would be sufficient to find him guilty of complicity in grave war crimes.

Because it proves that Joe Biden knew exactly what the Israeli state was doing right from the start. Now Israel has been the biggest recipient of military aid of any foreign state in the post-war era, but in the year following 7th October 2023, that surged to nearly $18bn.

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A Palestinian teenager was shot and killed during an Israeli raid on the town of Sebastia, northwest of Nablus in the occupied West Bank, Wafa news agency reported.

The Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) said a 15-year-old was shot in the chest with live bullets during the Israeli raid.

He was rushed to a nearby hospital, where he was later confirmed dead by the Palestinian health ministry.