Pentagon chief tells Israel of need to coordinate humanitarian, military Gaza operations

Israeli soldiers operate atop a tank near the Israel-Gaza border, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas, as seen from Israel, May 21, 2024. (Reuters)
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Updated 23 May 2024
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Pentagon chief tells Israel of need to coordinate humanitarian, military Gaza operations

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin told his Israeli counterpart Yoav Gallant in a call on Wednesday of the need for an effective mechanism to coordinate humanitarian and military operations in Gaza, the Pentagon said.


Despite economic contraction, Trump insists US will have ‘greatest boom in history’

Updated 59 min 19 sec ago
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Despite economic contraction, Trump insists US will have ‘greatest boom in history’

  • Economy was down in first three months of the year as Trump began his plans for sweeping tariffs

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump insisted Friday that his policies will bring a boom in the US economy even as he acknowledged the possibility of a recession.
The US economy, the world’s largest, unexpectedly contracted in the first three months of the year as Trump began his plans for sweeping tariffs.
“This is a transition period. I think we’re going to do fantastically,” Trump told NBC News show “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker.”
Pressed on whether the United States could dip into recession, Trump said, “Anything can happen.”
“But I think we’re going to have the greatest economy in the history of our country. I think we’re going have the greatest economic boom in history,” Trump said in excerpts of the interview, which will be aired in full on Sunday.
Financial markets have been in tumult since Trump took office and moved to revamp the global economic order with a return to sweeping tariffs on imports.
Share prices rose on Friday, however, after a solid jobs report in the United States.
 

 

 


NYPD shared a Palestinian protester’s info with ICE. Now it’s evidence in her deportation case

Updated 03 May 2025
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NYPD shared a Palestinian protester’s info with ICE. Now it’s evidence in her deportation case

  • Leqaa Kordia, whose mother is an American citizen, was arrested at a protest outside Columbia University on March 13
  • New York City law generally prohibits police from sharing information about arrests with federal immigration officials

NEW YORK: New York City’s police department provided federal immigration authorities with an internal record about a Palestinian woman who they arrested at a protest, which the Trump administration is now using as evidence in its bid to deport her, according to court documents obtained by The Associated Press.
The report — shared by the NYPD in March — includes a summary of information in the department’s files about Leqaa Kordia, a New Jersey resident who was arrested at a protest outside Columbia University last spring. It lists her home address, date of birth and an officer’s two-sentence account of the arrest.
Its distribution to federal authorities offers a glimpse into behind-the-scenes cooperation between the NYPD and the Trump administration, and raises questions about the city’s compliance with sanctuary laws that prohibit police from assisting with immigration enforcement efforts.
Kordia, 32, was among the earliest people jailed in President Donald Trump’s crackdown on noncitizens who participated in pro-Palestinian demonstrations.
She was detained during a voluntary check-in with immigration officials in Newark, New Jersey, on March 13, then flown to an immigration jail in Texas. Her arrest was announced by the US Department of Homeland Security the next day in a statement that cited an expired visa and her role in “pro-Hamas protests.”
It remains unclear how immigration authorities were able to learn about Kordia’s presence at the protest near Columbia last April.
At the demonstration, police cited Kordia with disorderly conduct. But the charge was dismissed weeks later and the case sealed.
City law generally prohibits police from sharing information about arrests with federal immigration officials, although there are exceptions for criminal investigations.
On March 14, an NYPD officer generated a four-page report on Kordia and shared it with Homeland Security Investigations, a division of US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement.
In an emailed statement, an NYPD spokesperson said the department “received a request from a federal agency related to a criminal investigation and shared relevant information in accordance with our sanctuary city policies.”
“The NYPD does not participate in programs that are designed for visa revocation or any civil immigration matter,” the statement added.
The department declined to say what the investigation entailed.
Inquiries to the DHS and ICE were not returned.
Legal experts and civil liberties advocates said the document reflected a worrisome level of information-sharing between the city and the federal government, which has conflated criticism of Israel with support for Hamas, a US-designated terror group.
“The intention of the sanctuary laws is to protect against this kind of collusion and pretextual information sharing,” said Meghna Philip, the director of special litigation at the Legal Aid Society.
“It seems to be a clear violation of the law,” Philip added, “and raises questions about what guardrails, if any, the NYPD has around sharing information with a federal government that is seeking to criminalize speech.”
A low-profile protester
Kordia grew up in Jerusalem and the West Bank, and moved to New Jersey in 2016 with her mother, an American citizen. She studied English at a local exchange program, but let her student visa expire because she believed her application for permanent residency was sufficient to remain in the country legally, according to her attorneys.
Kordia’s case stood out among those ensnared by Trump’s crackdown. She was not an outspoken activist and had not publicly criticized Israel, either in social media posts or newspaper op-eds. She maintained no social media presence and did not appear on any of the public lists maintained by pro-Israel groups that seek to identify people who participate in pro-Palestinian demonstrations. Her name was not mentioned in news reports about the demonstrations.
While the Trump administration identified her as a Columbia student, she has never been affiliated with the university and was not enrolled in any college when she joined a protest in 2024 outside Columbia. Her attorneys said she was peacefully voicing her dissent against Israel’s military campaign in Gaza, which they said has killed over 100 of her relatives.
A spokesperson for the NYPD declined to say when they were first approached by federal authorities or whether the March 14 report was the first time they had shared information about Kordia’s arrest record.
Surveillance and interrogations
Beginning in early March, attorneys for Kordia say federal agents began interrogating members of her family and her neighbors. They also subpoenaed records from her MoneyGram account and “established a trace on her WhatsApp messaging account,” her attorneys said in a court filing.
“The investigation revealed nothing except that Ms. Kordia sent a single payment to a Palestinian family member in 2022, which itself is protected First Amendment” rights, the filing states.
At an April 3rd hearing, the federal government pointed to Kordia’s prior arrest for protesting as a reason she should not be released. An immigration judge found no evidence she had acted violently at the protest and agreed to grant Kordia a $20,000 bond, which her family paid.
The government has appealed that decision, keeping her detained for now.
In a petition seeking her release, attorneys for Kordia, a devout Muslim, said she had been denied halal meals since arriving at the jail. As a result, she has lost 49 pounds (22 kilograms) and fainted in the shower, according to facility records shared with her attorneys.
“The government’s entire argument that Ms. Kordia is a danger to the United States rests on a single summons for her participation in a demonstration,” Arthur Ago, her attorney, said. “The only reason she’s confined right now is because of her political viewpoint.”
Mayoral cooperation
New York City Mayor Eric Adams has criticized the city’s sanctuary protections, while insisting his administration is “meticulously” following the law.
When asked by the AP last month if the NYPD could turn over information to its federal law enforcement partners about a summons issued to a protester, the mayor insisted no such request was ever made.
“We have no record that this happened,” Adams said. “When I inquired, they said we did not turn over anything and we don’t collaborate for civil enforcement. They said that over and over again.”
His office did not respond to inquiries Friday.


Togo nationals captured with Russian forces on Ukraine front; Moscow accused of trying to murder prominent blogger

Updated 03 May 2025
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Togo nationals captured with Russian forces on Ukraine front; Moscow accused of trying to murder prominent blogger

  • Most of the Togo nationals were recruited under alleged scholarships in Russia, says foreign ministry
  • Ukraine intel agency says woman arrested after failed hit on Internet personality Serhii Sternenko

LOME, Togo: People from the small west African nation Togo have been “captured and detained” by Ukrainian armed forces after taking part “in military operations alongside Russian armed forces,” Togolese authorities said Friday.
In a statement seen by AFP, Togo’s foreign ministry said that the “majority of compatriots, in particular young students, had left Togo under alleged scholarships offered by structures claiming to be based in Russia.”
The ministry called on citizens, “particularly young people who wish to pursue their studies abroad, to exercise utmost vigilance.”
It “urges them to verify the authenticity of scholarship offers before making any commitment, and to contact the relevant departments or any other ministry concerned... to obtain reliable and secure information before any departure abroad, particularly to Russia.”
In March, the Martin Luther King Movement (MMLK), Togo’s leading human rights organization, alerted the authorities to the case of a Togolese student captured on the battlefield and imprisoned in Ukraine.
“Having received his study visa at the Russian embassy in Cotonou, the compatriot left Togo for Russia on August 21, 2024,” MMLK said in a statement.
“Arriving in Russia, he was forced to join the army to go to the front in Ukraine. It was there that he was seriously wounded, captured and thrown in prison,” it said.
The press also reported in recent months several cases of African nationals, often students or former prisoners, notably from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and Benin, fighting with Russian forces on the Ukrainian front.

Prominent blogger targetted
In another development, Ukraine’s internal security agency, the SBU, on Friday accused Russian intelligence of orchestrating an attempt to assassinate a prominent Ukrainian blogger, accusing a 45-year-old woman of carrying out the failed hit.
The attempt to kill Internet personality Serhii Sternenko, who once led the local chapter of a right-wing group but is now better known in Ukraine for crowdfunding donations for military drones, took place on Thursday.
In a statement on Telegram, the SBU said the woman, whom it did not name, had fired several shots with a pistol, one of which hit Sternenko in the leg. The blogger said there was no danger to his life.
The woman’s lawyer said in court that she did not contest the facts of the case.

Ukrainian vlogger Serhii Sternenko. (X: @sternenko)

Russia’s FSB security service and its military intelligence agency did not immediately reply to requests for comment on the SBU’s allegations.
The SBU did not specify which of Russia’s several security services it believed to have recruited the woman, but said that they had last year told her to move into Sternenko’s apartment block in Kyiv, and to pick up a pistol from a dead drop.
The SBU said the woman’s handler told her on the morning of May 1 to kill Sternenko outside his apartment block.
The agency posted screenshots of what it said were messages between the woman and the handler and a video from a security camera showing the assassination attempt.
The accused’s lawyer said the contact had told the woman that Sternenko was working for Russia’s FSB.
The woman told the court that the contact, whose gender was not disclosed, had introduced themselves online as an SBU agent, and that she had initially feared them. Subsequently she had fallen in love with them despite never seeing their photo, she said.


US military creates new military zone along border with Mexico

Updated 03 May 2025
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US military creates new military zone along border with Mexico

  • The US military said it had established the “Texas National Defense Area” in a 63-mile-long strip running east from the Texas-New Mexico border in El Paso

WASHINGTON: The US military has created a second military zone along the border with Mexico, adding an area in Texas where troops can temporarily detain migrants or trespassers to one designated in New Mexico last month.
President Donald Trump has launched an aggressive immigration enforcement campaign since taking office, increasing troops at the southern border and pledging to deport millions of immigrants in the United States illegally.
The Trump administration in April said it designated a 60-foot-wide, 170-mile-long (18 meter by 270 km) strip along the base of New Mexico as a “National Defense Area.”
Late on Thursday, the US military said it had established the “Texas National Defense Area” in a 63-mile-long strip running east from the Texas-New Mexico border in El Paso.
US Customs and Border Protection maintains jurisdiction over illegal border crossings in the area and troops would hand over migrants they detained to US Border Patrol or other civilian law enforcement, according to the Defense Department.
So far, 82 migrants have been charged for crossing into the New Mexico military zone, according to the state’s US Attorney’s Office. US troops have not detained any of them and they were dealt with by CBP officials.
The zone is intended to allow the Trump administration to use troops to detain migrants without invoking the 1807 Insurrection Act that empowers a president to deploy the US military to suppress events like civil disorder.
Around 11,900 troops are currently on the border. The number of migrants caught crossing illegally in March fell to the lowest level ever recorded, according to government data.
Texas Governor Gregg Abbott, a Republican, on Thursday posted pictures of razor wire barrier construction on the border, saying “Texas continues to work with the Trump Administration to stop illegal immigration.”
Since 2021 Abbott has deployed the state’s National Guard and police to border security.
New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham has opposed what she called a “deportation buffer zone” in her state.
In a March social media post the Democrat called it “a waste of resources and military personnel, especially when migrant crossings are at the lowest in decades.”


US hiring better than expected despite Trump uncertainty

Updated 03 May 2025
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US hiring better than expected despite Trump uncertainty

  • rump took to his Truth Social account after the data was published to talk up the “strong” employment figures

WASHINGTON: US hiring slowed less than expected in April while the jobless rate remained unchanged, according to government data published Friday, buoying investors navigating the early turbulent months of Donald Trump’s second presidency.
Since returning to office in January, Trump has looked to slash the number of federal employees and embarked on a trade war that many economists warn is likely to cool growth and push up inflation.
With Trump’s tariff plans still in their early stages, their effect has not yet filtered through into hiring: The world’s largest economy added 177,000 jobs last month, down slightly from a revised 185,000 in March, the Department of Labor said in a statement.
However, job creation was still well above the market consensus of 130,000, according to Briefing.com, and remained slightly above the average monthly gain over the past 12 months.
The unemployment rate stayed at 4.2 percent, in line with expectations.
US financial markets closed sharply higher on the news, with all three major Wall Street indices ending the day firmly in the green.
“Markets breathed a sigh of relief this morning,” Northlight Asset Management chief investment officer Chris Zaccarelli wrote in a note to clients.
“While recession fears are still simmering on the back burner, the buy-the-dip dynamic can continue — at least until the tariff pause runs out,” he said, referring to Trump’s recent decision to pause higher levies on dozens of trading partners until July to allow for trade talks.
Trump took to his Truth Social account after the data was published to talk up the “strong” employment figures.
“Just like I said, and we’re only in a TRANSITION STAGE, just getting started!!!” the US president wrote.
“NO INFLATION, THE FED SHOULD LOWER ITS RATE!!!” added Trump, who has been outspoken in his calls for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates.
The independent central bank has kept its key lending rate at between 4.25 and 4.50 percent for months, as it looks to bring inflation from its current elevated levels to its long-term target of two percent while keeping one eye firmly fixed on the unemployment rate.
Financial markets overwhelmingly expect the Fed to extend its rate cut pause next week, according to data from CME Group.


Sectors that saw job gains last month included health care, transportation and warehousing, financial activities, and social assistance, the Labor Department said.
But federal government employment declined by 9,000 in April, bringing the total decline in the number of government employees since January to 26,000.
The Trump administration is facing legal action after attempting to lay off tens of thousands of federal workers as part of an aggressive cost-cutting drive.
Average hourly earnings grew 0.2 percent to $36.06 in April, the Labor Department said Friday.
“There is nothing to complain about here,” High Frequency Economics chief economist Carl Weinberg wrote in a note to clients. “You cannot find any evidence of a nascent recession in these figures.”
While traders may breathe easier today, many analysts have stressed that it is still early days for the new administration, and warned they still expect tariffs to cool job creation in the future.
“It will be extraordinary if employment is unscathed this year by the jump in tariffs on imports, the drop in asset prices and the extreme economic policy uncertainty,” economists at Pantheon Macroeconomics wrote in an investor note published on Monday.
These factors are likely “causing many businesses to defer non-essential spending,” they added, noting that they had not yet seen any significant changes in the payroll data they track.