BURLINGTON, USA: Vigils for three college students of Palestinian descent who were shot in Vermont over the weekend prompted calls for authorities to recognize the violence as a hate crime, and for unity among the Jewish and Arab communities.
Jason J. Eaton, 48, was arrested and held without bail on three counts of attempted murder. A not guilty plea was entered on his behalf on Monday.
The US Department of Justice, along with Vermont authorities, are still investigating whether Saturday’s gunfire on a Burlington street was a hate crime amid an increase in threats against Jewish, Muslim and Arab communities across the US since the Israel-Hamas war began, Attorney General Merrick Garland said. “There is understandable fear in communities across the country,” he said.
One vigil was held Monday night at Brown University in Rhode Island, where one of the victims, Hisham Awartani, is a student. Participants shouted at school president Christina Paxson as she addressed the crowd, demanding that Brown divest from investments that support Israel, according to media reports.
Robert Leikend, New England regional director for the American Jewish Committee, called for unity and finding common ground between the Jewish and Arab communities, saying in a statement Monday night that “hate should not beget more hate.”
He said a vigil after Eaton’s arrest “featured anti-Israel and antisemitic statements from some participants.” He didn’t name the location.
“The anger is understandable. The finger-pointing is not,” he said.
The vigil at Brown was closed to media. NBC News reported that Awartani said in a statement read by a professor that as much as he appreciates the love and support of the community, “I am but one casualty in a much wider conflict.”
The statement read, “Had I been shot in the West Bank, where I grew up, the medical services which saved my life here would have likely been withheld by the Israeli army. The soldier who would have shot me would go home and never be convicted.”
Awartani, Kinnan Abdalhamid and Tahseen Ali Ahmad, all age 20, were spending their Thanksgiving break in Burlington, and were out for a walk while visiting one of the victims’ relatives when they were confronted by a white man with a handgun, police said. The victims were speaking in a mix of English and Arabic and two of them were also wearing the black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh scarves when they were shot, Police Chief Jon Murad said.
Abdalhamid told police he ran away, jumped a fence, and hid behind a house. He eventually knocked on another door, begging the woman who answered to call 911. At that point, he sat down, felt pain, and saw blood, according to an affidavit.
Two of the students were struck in their torsos, while one was hit in the lower body, Murad said. All three were being treated at the University of Vermont Medical Center, and one faces a long recovery because of a spinal injury, a family member said.
One of the students has been released from the hospital, according to media reports.
“I’ve been with them almost constantly since Saturday evening. I’ve been listening to them talk to one another and try to process the events, and I’m blown away by their resilience, by their good humor in the face of these difficult times,” said Rich Price, Awartani’s uncle.
The three have been friends since first grade at Ramallah Friends School, a private school in the West Bank, and all are “remarkable, distinguished students,” said Rania Ma’ayeh, head of the school.
Awartani is studying mathematics and archaeology at Brown; Abdalhamid is a pre-med student at Haverford College in Pennsylvania; and Ali Ahmad is studying mathematics and IT at Trinity College in Connecticut, Ma’ayeh said. Awartani and Abdalhamid are US citizens while Ali Ahmad is studying on a student visa, Ma’ayeh said.
Abdalhamid’s uncle Radi Tamimi, said at a news conference Monday his nephew grew up in the West Bank and “we always thought that that could be more of a risk in terms of his safety and sending him here would be a right decision.
“We feel somehow betrayed in that decision here and we’re just trying to come to terms with everything,” he said.
Eaton moved to Burlington over the summer from Syracuse, New York, and legally purchased the gun used in the shooting, Murad told reporters. According to a police affidavit, federal agents found the gun in Eaton’s apartment on Sunday. Eaton came to the door holding his hands, palms up, and told the officers he’d been waiting for them.
Eaton’s mother, Mary Reed, told the Daily Beast that Eaton, who had held various jobs as a farmer, ski instructor and researcher, had struggled with mental health issues, including depression. But she said he was in “such a good mood” when she saw him on Thanksgiving.
Syracuse police said Eaton’s name appeared in 37 police reports from 2007 until 2021, but never as a suspect. The cases ranged from domestic violence to larceny, and Eaton was listed as either a complainant or victim in 21 reports, according to Lt. Matthew Malinowski, the department’s public information officer.
Sarah George, state’s attorney, said that law enforcement officials do not yet have evidence to support a hate crime charge, which under Vermont law must be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. But, she said, “I do want to be clear that there is no question that this was a hateful act.”
Demonstrations have been widespread and tensions in the US have escalated as the death toll rises in the Israel-Hamas war. A fragile cease-fire between Israel and Hamas was set to continue for two more days past Monday as 11 more hostages were handed over to the Red Cross in Gaza under what was originally a four-day truce deal.
Authorities face calls to declare a hate crime in Vermont shooting of 3 men of Palestinian descent
https://arab.news/6spun
Authorities face calls to declare a hate crime in Vermont shooting of 3 men of Palestinian descent
- Jason J. Eaton, 48, was arrested and held without bail on three counts of attempted murder
- The US Department of Justice, along with Vermont authorities, are still investigating whether Saturday’s gunfire on a Burlington street was a hate crime
Man rescued from rubble in Myanmar’s capital but hope fading of finding more earthquake survivors
- The 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit midday Friday, toppling thousands of buildings, collapsing bridges and buckling roads
- Naing Lin Tun was pulled through a hole jackhammered through a floor from the rubble of the capital city hotel
BANGKOK: Rescue crews in Myanmar pulled a 26-year-old man out alive from the rubble of the capital city hotel where he worked early Wednesday, but most teams were finding only bodies five days after a massive earthquake hit the country.
After using an endoscopic camera to pinpoint Naing Lin Tun’s location in the rubble and confirm that he was alive, the man was gingerly pulled through a hole jackhammered through a floor and loaded on to a gurney nearly 108 hours after he was trapped in the hotel where he worked.
Shirtless and covered in dust, Naing Lin Tun appeared weak but conscious in a video released by the local fire department, as he was fitted with an IV drip and taken away. State-run MRTV reported that the rescue in the city of Naypyitaw was carried out by a Turkish and local team and took more than nine hours.
The 7.7 magnitude earthquake hit midday Friday, toppling thousands of buildings, collapsing bridges and buckling roads. So far, 2,719 people have been reported dead and another 4,521 injured but local reports suggest much higher figures.
The earthquake also rocked neighboring Thailand, causing the collapse of a high-rise building under construction in Bangkok. One body was removed from the rubble early Wednesday, raising the death total in Bangkok to 22 with 34 injured, primarily at the construction site.
Myanmar has been wracked by civil war and the earthquake is making a dire humanitarian crisis even worse, with more than 3 million people displaced from their homes and nearly 20 million in need even before it hit, according to the United Nations.
Countries have pledged millions in assistance to help Myanmar and humanitarian aid organizations with the monumental task ahead.
Australia on Wednesday said it was providing another $4.5 million, in addition to $1.25 million it had already committed, and had a rapid response team on the ground.
India has flown in aid and sent two Navy ships with supplies as well as providing some 200 rescue workers. Multiple other countries have sent teams, including 270 people from China, 212 from Russia and 122 from the United Arab Emirates.
A three-person team from the US Agency for International Development arrived Tuesday to determine how best to respond given limited US resources due to the slashing of the foreign aid budget and dismantling of the agency as an independent operation. Washington said on the weekend it would provide $2 million in emergency assistance.
Most of the details so far have come from Mandalay, Myanmar’s second-largest city, which was near the epicenter of the earthquake, and the capital Naypyitaw, about 270 kilometers (165 miles) north of Mandalay.
Many areas are without power, telephone or cell connections, and difficult to reach by road, but more reports are beginning to trickle in.
In Singu township, about 65 kilometers (40 miles) north of Mandalay, 27 gold miners were killed were killed in a cave-in, the independent Democratic Voice of Burma reported.
In the area of Inle Lake, northeast of the capital, many people died when homes built on wooden stilts in the water collapsed in the earthquake, the government’s official Global New Light of Myanmar reported without providing specific figures.
High waves cause damage on Sydney waterfront
- Several homes were evacuated at Botany Bay in Sydney’s south around midnight as waves surged across the coast
- Further north at Sydney’s premier Bondi Beach, the coast was lashed by a 5.5-meter swell, officials said
SYDNEY: Sydney beachfront properties were flooded and coastal infrastructure damaged after a large swell combined with a king tide to batter the Australian shore, officials said Thursday.
Several homes were evacuated at Botany Bay in Sydney’s south around midnight as waves surged across the coast, according to New South Wales State Emergency Service spokesman Andrew Edmunds.
Further north at Sydney’s premier Bondi Beach, the coast was lashed by a 5.5-meter (18-foot) swell, officials said.
Windows were shattered at Bondi Icebergs Swimming Club, a waterfront pool, gymnasium and restaurant complex. CCTV footage showed waves bursting through glass doors after 11 p.m. on Tuesday.
“It has just been devastating,” club general manager Bob Tate said. “I’ve been a member for 50 years at Bondi. I’ve never seen this sort of thing before. You know, the sheer magnitude of the level of water and the power of the water coming through must’ve just been horrendous.”
Tate added that on the pool deck around 15 glass panels were splintered, floors were damaged, and cupboards and firehoses were ripped off the walls. It was “quite extraordinary,” he said.
South of Botany Bay at Cronulla Beach, lifeguard Steve Winner said the beach, along with parts of the pavement behind it and electrical infrastructure, had been damaged by 4-meter (13-foot) waves.
Authorities warned on Thursday of further hazardous surf with the potential to cause coastal erosion and damage from the Illawarra region south of Sydney to the Hunter region north of Sydney.
Europe will respond proportionately to likely Trump tariffs, French industry minister says
“Europe has always been on the side of negotiation and calming things down, because trade wars, you know, only produce losers,” Ferracci told RMC radio.
US President Donald Trump will announce sweeping new reciprocal tariffs on global trading partners on Wednesday, raising concerns about price increases and likely prompting retaliation from other countries.
Trump to escalate global trade tensions with new reciprocal tariffs on US trading partners
- Details of Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ tariff plans still being formulated and closely held ahead of an announcement ceremony
- The new duties are due to take effect immediately after Trump announces them, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump was poised to impose sweeping new reciprocal tariffs on global trading partners on Wednesday, upending decades of rules-based trade, threatening cost increases and likely drawing retaliation from all sides.
Details of Trump’s “Liberation Day” tariff plans were still being formulated and closely held ahead of a White House Rose Garden announcement ceremony scheduled for 4 p.m. Eastern Time (2000 GMT).
The new duties are due to take effect immediately after Trump announces them, White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said on Tuesday, while a separate 25 percent global tariff on auto imports will take effect on April 3.
Trump for weeks has said his reciprocal tariff plans are a move to equalize generally lower US tariff rates with those charged by other countries and counteract their non-tariff barriers that disadvantage US exports. But the format of the duties was unclear amid reports that Trump was considering a 20 percent universal tariff.
A former Trump first-term trade official told Reuters that Trump was more likely to impose comprehensive tariff rates on individual countries at somewhat lower levels.
The former official added that the number of countries facing these duties would likely exceed the approximately 15 countries that Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had previously said the administration was focused on due to their high trade surpluses with the US
Bessent told Republican House of Representatives lawmakers on Tuesday that the reciprocal tariffs represent a “cap” of the highest US tariff level that countries will face and could go down if they meet the administration’s demands, according to Republican Representative Kevin Hern.
Ryan Majerus, a former Commerce Department official, said that a universal tariff would be easier to implement given a constrained timeline and may generate more revenue, but individual reciprocal tariffs would be more tailored to countries’ unfair trade practices.
“Either way, the impacts of today’s announcement will be significant across a wide range of industries,” said Majerus, a partner at the King and Spalding law firm.
Stacking tariffs
In just over 10 weeks since taking office, the Republican president has already imposed new 20 percent duties on all imports from China over fentanyl and fully restored 25 percent duties on steel and aluminum, extending these to nearly $150 billion worth of downstream products. A month-long reprieve for most Canadian and Mexican goods from his 25 percent fentanyl-related tariffs also are due to expire on Wednesday.
Administration officials have said that all of Trump’s tariffs, including prior rates, are stacking, so a Mexican-built car previously charged 2.5 percent to enter the US would be subject to both the fentanyl tariffs and the autos sectoral tariffs, for a 52.5 percent tariff rate – plus any reciprocal tariff Trump may impose on Mexican goods.
Growing uncertainty over the duties is eroding investor, consumer and business confidence in ways that could slow activity and drive up prices.
Economists at the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta said a recent survey showed corporate financial chiefs expected tariffs to push their prices higher this year while cutting into hiring and growth.
Rattled investors have sold stocks aggressively for more than a month, wiping nearly $5 trillion off the value of US stocks since mid-February. Wall Street ended mixed on Tuesday with investors stuck in limbo awaiting details of Trump’s announcement on Wednesday.
Retaliatory measures
Trading partners from the European Union to Canada and Mexico have vowed to respond with retaliatory tariffs and other countermeasures, even as some have sought to negotiate with the White House.
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney and Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum spoke on Tuesday about Canada’s plan to “fight unjustified trade actions” by the US, Carney’s office said.
“With challenging times ahead, Prime Minister Carney and President Sheinbaum emphasized the importance of safeguarding North American competitiveness while respecting the sovereignty of each nation,” Carney’s office said in a statement.
US companies say a “Buy Canadian” movement is already making it harder for their products to reach that country’s shelves.
Trump has argued that American workers and manufacturers have been hurt for decades by free-trade deals that have lowered barriers to global commerce and fueled the growth of a $3 trillion US market for imported goods.
The explosion of imports has come with what Trump sees as a glaring downside: Massively imbalanced trade between the US and the world, with a goods trade deficit that exceeds $1.2 trillion.
Economists warn his remedy – hefty tariffs – would raise prices at home and abroad and hammer the global economy. A 20 percent tariff on top of those already imposed would cost the average US household at least $3,400, according to the Yale University Budget Lab.
US approves $5.58 billion F-16 fighter jet sale to Philippines
- News follows months of escalating confrontations between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea
- Manila and Washington have deepened their defense cooperation since President Ferdinand Marcos took office in 2022
WASHINGTON: The United States said Tuesday it has approved the possible sale of $5.58 billion in F-16 fighter jets to the Philippines, as Washington backs its ally in rising tensions over China.
The State Department said it was green-lighting a sale that includes 20 F-16 jets and related equipment to the Philippines, a treaty-bound ally of the United States.
The sale would “improve the security of a strategic partner that continues to be an important force for political stability, peace and economic progress in Southeast Asia,” a State Department statement said.
It would also boost “the Philippine Air Force’s ability to conduct maritime domain awareness” and “enhance its suppression of enemy air defenses,” the statement said.
The news follows months of escalating confrontations between the Philippines and China in the South China Sea, which Beijing claims almost in its entirety despite an international ruling that its assertion has no merit.
A State Department spokesperson said the deal would be final only after “a signed Letter of Offer and Acceptance” was received from the “purchasing partner.”
Philippine defense department spokesman Arsenio Andolong said he had “not received any official notice of such a decision.”
But the Philippines has publicly expressed interest in acquiring F-16s since at least the administration of former president Benigno Aquino which ended in 2016.
Manila and Washington have deepened their defense cooperation since President Ferdinand Marcos took office in 2022 and began pushing back on Beijing’s sweeping South China Sea claims.
In December, the Philippines angered China when it said it planned to acquire the US mid-range Typhon missile system in a push to secure its maritime interests.
Beijing warned such a purchase could spark a regional “arms race.”
President Donald Trump’s administration has sought to redirect US military efforts to Asia to face a rising China, especially as tensions rise over Taiwan, and to lessen involvement in Europe despite Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
On Tuesday, as Chinese ships and warplanes surrounded Taiwan in a simulated blockade, Philippines military chief General Romeo Brawner said his country would “inevitably” be involved should the self-ruled island be invaded.
“Start planning for actions in case there is an invasion of Taiwan,” he told troops in northern Luzon island, without naming the potential invader.
“Because if something happens to Taiwan, inevitably we will be involved.”
He also said that the bulk of this month’s joint US-Philippine “Balikatan,” or “shoulder to shoulder,” military exercises would be conducted in northern Luzon, the part of the Philippines nearest Taiwan.
“These are the areas where we perceive the possibility of an attack. I do not want to sound alarmist, but we have to prepare,” he added.
On a visit to Manila last week, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth vowed to “reestablish deterrence in the Indo-Pacific region” in light of “threats from the Communist Chinese.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio has also reiterated US defense commitments to the Philippines, a contrast to the Trump administration’s frequent talk of “freeloading” off the United States by allies in Europe.
