US House Speaker Johnson heckled and booed at Columbia, centre of Gaza protests
New York/Los Angeles Reuters Columbia University students heckled House Speaker Mike Johnson on Wednesday as he visited the flashpoint of nationwide student demonstrations over the Israeli war in Gaza, even as the New York school agreed to 48 more hours of negotiations to end a protest encampment. Johnson’s visit, which he said was meant to […]
Israel says Rafah assault looms; massive Gaza airstrikes end weeks of relative calm
Cairo, Egypt/Jerusalem Reuters Israeli warplanes pounded the northern Gaza strip for a second day on Wednesday in a fierce assault that has shattered weeks of comparative calm, and Israel said it was moving forward with plans for an all-out assault on Rafah in the south. After an abrupt Israeli pullback at the start of this […]
Biden signs Ukraine aid, TikTok ban package after Republican battle
Washington DC, US Reuters President Joe Biden signed a hard-fought bill into law on Wednesday that provides billions of dollars of new US aid to Ukraine for its war with Russia, notching a rare bipartisan victory for the President as he seeks reelection and ending months of wrangling with Republicans in Congress. “It gives vital […]
Russian air strike took out TV tower in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, Zelenskiy says
Kharkiv, Ukraine Reuters A Russian missile strike that broke in half a 240-metre television tower in Kharkiv on Monday is part of a deliberate effort by Moscow to make Ukraine’s second largest city uninhabitable, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said. Dramatic footage obtained by Reuters showed the main mast of the television tower breaking off and falling […]
US House passes $US95 billion Ukraine, Israel aid package, sends to Senate
Washington DC, US Reuters The US House of Representatives on Saturday with broad bipartisan support passed a $US95 billion legislative package providing security assistance to Ukraine, Israel and Taiwan, over bitter objections from Republican hardliners. The legislation now proceeds to the Democratic-majority Senate, which passed a similar measure more than two months ago. US leaders […]
US will not take part in any Israeli retaliatory action against Iran
Jerusalem/Dubai, United Arab Emirates/Washington DC, US Reuters President Joe Biden warned Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the US will not take part in a counter-offensive against Iran, an option that Netanyahu’s war cabinet favors after a mass drone and missile attack on Israeli territory, according to officials. The threat of open warfare erupting between the arch […]
Iran launches retaliatory attack on Israel with hundreds of drones, missiles
Jerusalem/Dubai, United Arab Emirates Reuters Iran launched explosive drones and fired missiles at Israel late on Saturday in its first direct attack on Israeli territory, a retaliatory strike that raised the threat of a wider regional conflict, as the US pledged “ironclad” backing for Israel. Sirens wailed and Reuters journalists in Israel heard distant heavy […]
Arizona’s top court revives 19th century abortion ban
Reuters Arizona’s top court on Tuesday revived a ban on nearly all abortions under a law from 1864, a half century before statehood and women’s suffrage, further restricting reproductive rights in a state where terminating a pregnancy was already barred at 15 weeks of gestation. The Arizona Supreme Court ruled four-to-two in favour of an […]
Conservative Christians praise Trump’s anti-abortion record but say he’s stopped short of the goal
United States AP For conservative, anti-abortion Christians, former President Donald Trump delivered in four years what no other Republican before him had been able to do: A conservative majority US Supreme Court that would go on to overturn Roe v Wade, a Holy Grail of the movement. With abortion rights now controlled by each state, rather than […]
Thousands of Israelis rally for hostages, marking six months of war
Jerusalem Reuters Thousands of protesters rallied in Jerusalem on Sunday demanding the release of around 130 hostages still held in Gaza after six months of Israel’s war against Hamas. Hamas gunmen burst into Israel on 7th October, killed 1,200 people in their homes, on army bases, along roads and at an outdoor rave, and inflicting […]