BOSTON: After weeks of fear and bewilderment about the drones buzzing over parts of New York and New Jersey, elected officials are urging action to identify and stop the mysterious flights.
“There’s a lot of us who are pretty frustrated right now,” Rep. Jim Himes, D-Connecticut, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, said on “Fox News Sunday.”
“’We don’t know’ is not a good enough answer,” he said.
National security officials have said the drones don’t appear to be a sign of foreign interference or a public safety threat. But because they can’t say with certainty who is responsible for the sudden swarms of drones over parts of New Jersey, New York and other eastern parts of the US — or how they can be stopped — has led leaders of both political parties to demand better technology and powers to deal with the drones.
Sen. Chuck Schumer called Sunday for the US Department of Homeland Security to deploy better drone-tracking technology to identify the drones and their operators.
“New Yorkers have tremendous questions about it,” Schumer, the Senate Majority leader, told reporters about the drone sightings. “We are going to get the answers for them.”
The federal government did little to answer those questions in its own media briefings Sunday morning. “There’s no question that people are seeing drones,” US Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. “But I want to assure the American public that we are on it. We are working in close coordination with state and local authorities.”
Some of the drones reported above parts of New York and New Jersey have turned out to be “manned aircraft that are commonly mistaken for drones,” Mayorkas said. “We know of no foreign involvement with respect to the sightings in the Northeast. And we are vigilant in investigating this matter.”
Last year, federal aviation rules began requiring certain drones to broadcast their remote identification, including the location of their operators. It’s not clear whether that information has been used to determine who is behind the drones plaguing locations over New York and New Jersey. Mayorkas’ office didn’t respond to questions about whether they’ve been able to identify drones using this capability.
Schumer wants the federal government to use a recently declassified radio wave technology in New York and New Jersey. The radio wave detector can be attached to a drone or airplane and can determine whether another flying object is a bird or a drone, read its electronic registration, and follow it back to its landing place. Schumer said state and local authorities do not have the authority to track drones.
On Sunday, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said federal officials were sending a drone detection system to the state.
“This system will support state and federal law enforcement in their investigations,” Hochul said in a statement. The governor did not immediately provide additional details, including where the system will be deployed.
Dozens of mysterious nighttime flights started last month over parts of New Jersey, raising concerns among residents and officials. Part of the worry stems from the flying objects initially being spotted near the Picatinny Arsenal, a US military research and manufacturing facility and over President-elect Donald Trump’s golf course in Bedminster. Drones are legal in New Jersey for recreational and commercial use, but they are subject to local and Federal Aviation Administration regulations and flight restrictions. Operators must be FAA certified.
Drones are now being reported all along the northern East Coast, with suspicious sightings in Connecticut, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and Virginia, according to news reports.
Some US political leaders, including Trump, have called for much stronger action against these drones, including shooting them down.
Certain agencies within the Department of Homeland Security have the power to “incapacitate” drones, Mayorkas said Sunday. “But we need those authorities expanded,” he said.
A bill before the US Senate would enhance some federal agencies’ authority and give new abilities to local and state agencies to track drones. It would also start a pilot program allowing states and local authorities to disrupt, disable or seize a drone without prior consent of the operator.
“What the drone issue points out are gaps in our agencies, gaps in our authorities between the Department of Homeland Security, local law enforcement, the Defense Department.,” said Rep. Mike Waltz, R-Fla., Trump’s pick to be his national security adviser, speaking on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “Americans are finding it hard to believe we can’t figure out where these are coming from.’’
US agencies should use advanced technology to identify mysterious drones, Schumer says
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US agencies should use advanced technology to identify mysterious drones, Schumer says
- The radio wave detector can be attached to a drone or airplane and can determine whether another flying object is a bird or a drone, read its electronic registration, and follow it back to its landing place
German Chancellor Scholz to ask parliament to clear way for new elections
- Lost confidence vote opens path to snap elections
- Scholz hopes to be acting chancellor until new government formed
BERLIN: Chancellor Olaf Scholz will call on Germany’s parliament on Monday to declare it has no confidence in him, taking the first formal step toward securing early elections following his government’s collapse.
The departure last month of the neoliberal Free Democrats from the three-way coalition left Scholz’s Social Democrats and the Greens governing without a parliamentary majority just when Germany faces its deepest economic crisis in a generation.
Rules drawn up to prevent the series of short-lived and unstable governments that played an important role in helping the Nazis rise to power in the 1930s mean that the path to new elections is long and largely controlled by the chancellor.
“If legislators follow the path I am recommending, I will suggest to the President that he dissolve parliament,” Scholz told reporters on Wednesday after requesting the motion.
President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has said he will act accordingly after Monday’s vote and agreed with parliamentary parties on Feb. 23 as the date for early elections.
Assuming the no-confidence vote passes, Scholz and his ministers will remain in office in an acting capacity until a new government is formed, which could take months if coalition negotiations prove lengthy.
Scholz has outlined a list of measures that could pass with opposition support during that period, including 11 billion euros ($11.55 billion) of tax cuts and an increase in child benefits already agreed on by former coalition partners.
Measures to better protect the Constitutional Court from the machinations of a future populist or anti-democratic government, to cut energy prices and to extend a popular subsidised transport ticket are also under discussion.
The outcome of the vote is not certain, with Scholz’s SPD likely to vote that they have confidence in their Chancellor, while opposition conservatives, far ahead in the polls, and the Free Democrats expected not to.
The far-right Alternative for Germany, with whom all other parties refuse to work, could surprise legislators by voting that they do have confidence in Scholz.
If both the SPD and the Greens also back Scholz, that would leave him in the awkward position of remaining in office with the support of a party that he rejects as anti-democratic. In that case, most observers expect he would resign, which itself would trigger elections.
To avoid that scenario, many legislators expect the Greens to abstain from the vote.
UN launches fresh attempt to resolve Libya’s election impasse
- The new committee of Libyan experts will look for ways to overcome outstanding issues in electoral laws, the UN mission’s (UNSMIL) acting head, Stephanie Koury says
The United Nations will convene a technical committee of Libyan experts in an attempt to resolve contentious issues and put the country on the path to long-awaited national elections, the acting head of the UN mission in Libya (UNSMIL) said on Sunday.
A political process to resolve more than a decade of conflict in Libya has been stalled since an election scheduled for December 2021 collapsed amid disputes over the eligibility of the main candidates.
The new committee of Libyan experts will look for ways to overcome outstanding issues in electoral laws, the UN mission’s (UNSMIL) acting head, Stephanie Koury, said in a video statement.
They will also look for options to “reach elections in the shortest possible time including with proposed guarantees, assurances and a timeframe,” she added.
A Government of National Unity (GNU) under Prime Minister Abdulhamid Al-Dbeibah was installed through a UN-backed process in 2021 but the parliament no longer recognizes its legitimacy. Dbeibah has vowed not to cede power to a new government without national elections.
Libya has had little peace since a 2011 NATO-backed uprising, and it split in 2014 between eastern and western factions, with rival administrations governing in each area.
While all major political players in the country have repeatedly called for elections, many Libyans have voiced skepticism that they genuinely seek a vote that could push most of them from positions of authority.
“UNSMIL will also continue to work to help advance the unification of military and security institutions and, with partners, advancing national reconciliation,” Koury said.
Moscow says ‘part’ of its diplomatic personnel in Syria evacuated by plane
- His fall from power was a serious setback for Moscow, which was along with Iran the main ally of the former Syrian president and which had intervened militarily in Syria since 2015
MOSCOW: Russia’s foreign ministry said it has evacuated some of its diplomatic staff from Syria Sunday, a week after the fall of Bashar Assad.
“On December 15, the withdrawal of part of the personnel of the Russian (diplomatic) representation in Damascus was carried out by a special flight of the Russian Air Force from the Hmeimim air base” in Syria, the ministry’s crisis situations department said on Telegram.
The ministry said the flight arrived at an airport near Moscow, without specifying how many people were aboard.
The flight also carried members from the diplomatic missions of Belarus, North Korea and Abkhazia, a Moscow-backed separatist region of Georgia, the department said.
“The Russian embassy in Damascus continues to function,” said the press release published on Telegram.
Following an 11-day offensive, a rebel coalition dominated by Islamist group Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) overthrew Assad, who fled to Russia along with his family.
His fall from power was a serious setback for Moscow, which was along with Iran the main ally of the former Syrian president and which had intervened militarily in Syria since 2015.
The fate of Russia’s two military bases in Syria — the Tartus naval base and the Hmeimim military airfield — is now uncertain.
The sites are key to Russia maintaining its influence in the Middle East, in the Mediterranean basin and as far as Africa.
On Wednesday, a Kremlin spokesperson said Moscow was in contact with the new authorities in Syria regarding the bases’ future.
Britain has had ‘diplomatic contact’ with Syria’s HTS group
- “HTS remains a proscribed organization, but we can have diplomatic contact and so we do have diplomatic contact as you would expect,” Lammy said
LONDON: Britain has had diplomatic contact with the Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham (HTS) group that swept Syrian President Bashar Assad from power last week, British foreign minister David Lammy said on Sunday.
“HTS remains a proscribed organization, but we can have diplomatic contact and so we do have diplomatic contact as you would expect,” Lammy told broadcasters.
“Using all the channels that we have available, and those are diplomatic and, of course, intelligence-led channels, we seek to deal with HTS where we have to.”
On Saturday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the United States has had direct contact with HTS.
Israel will close its Ireland embassy over Gaza tensions as Palestinian death toll nears 45,000
- Israeli forces continued Sunday to pound Gaza, including the largely isolated north, as the Palestinian death toll in the war approached 45,000
- Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris said the decision was deeply regrettable
DEIR AL-BALAH, Gaza Strip: Israel said Sunday it will close its embassy in Ireland as relations deteriorated over the war in Gaza, where Palestinian medical officials said new Israeli airstrikes killed over 46 people including several children.
The decision to close the embassy came in response to what Israel’s foreign minister has described as Ireland’s “extreme anti-Israel policies.” In May, Israel recalled its ambassador to Dublin after Ireland announced, along with Norway, Spain and Slovenia, it would recognize a Palestinian state.
The Irish Cabinet last week decided to formally intervene in South Africa’s case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, which accuses Israel of committing genocide in Gaza. Israel denies it.
“We are concerned that a very narrow interpretation of what constitutes genocide leads to a culture of impunity in which the protection of civilians is minimized,” said Ireland’s foreign affairs minister, Micheal Martin.
Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar’s statement on the embassy closure said “Ireland has crossed every red line in its relations with Israel.”
Irish Prime Minister Simon Harris called the decision to close the embassy “deeply regrettable.” He added on X: “I utterly reject the assertion that Ireland is anti-Israel. Ireland is pro-peace, pro-human rights and pro-international law.”
Israeli strikes in Gaza kill a journalist and children
Israeli forces continued Sunday to pound Gaza, including the largely isolated north, as the Palestinian death toll in the war approached 45,000.
A large explosion lit up the southern Gaza skyline on Sunday night. An Israeli airstrike hit a school and killed at least 16 people in the southern city of Khan Younis, according to Nasser Hospital, where the bodies were taken. There was no immediate Israeli military statement.
In the north, an airstrike hit the Khalil Aweida school in the town of Beit Hanoun and killed at least 15 people, according to nearby Kamal Adwan Hospital where casualties were taken. The dead included two parents and their daughter and a father and his son, the hospital said.
And in Gaza City, at least 17 people including six women and five children were killed in three airstrikes that hit houses sheltering displaced people, according to Al-Ahli Baptist Hospital.
“We woke up to the strike. I woke up with the rubble on top of me,” said a bandaged Yahia Al-Yazji, who grieved for his wife and daughter. “I found my wife with her head and skull visible, and my daughter’s intestines were gone. My wife was three months pregnant.” His hand rested on a body wrapped in a blanket on the floor.
Israel’s military in a statement said it struck a “terrorist cell” in Gaza City and a “terrorist meeting point” in the Beit Hanoun area.
Another Israeli airstrike killed a Palestinian journalist working for Al Jazeera, Ahmed Al-Lawh, in central Gaza, a hospital and the Qatari-based TV station said.
The strike hit a point for Gaza’s civil defense agency in the urban Nuseirat refugee camp, Al-Awda Hospital said. Also killed were three civil defense workers including the local head of the agency, according to Al-Aqsa Martyrs hospital. The civil defense is Gaza’s main rescue agency and operates under the Hamas-run government.
One of the bodies was covered with an orange work jacket marked “ambulance” in English.
“We, the civil defense, are carrying out humanitarian work like in any country in the world. Why are we being targeted?” said colleague Kerem Al Dalou.
Israel’s military said it struck a militant command center embedded in the civil defense offices.
The war in Gaza began after Hamas and other militants from Gaza stormed southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking well over 200 hostage.
Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed almost 45,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry. The ministry’s count does not distinguish between combatants and civilians, but it says over half of the dead have been women and children.
Most of Gaza’s population of over 2 million has been displaced, often multiple times. The hospitals that are still functioning say they lack medicines, fuel and other basic supplies, while aid groups warn of widespread hunger.
The head of the World Food Program, Cindy McCain, told CBS on Sunday that the UN agency was able to get just two trucks of supplies into Gaza in November, citing insecurity there.
“We need a ceasefire, and we need it now,” she said. “We can no longer sit by and just allow these people to starve to death.”
