geneva_convenience

Police have arrested almost 500 people in London at what organisers hoped would be the biggest demonstration so far against a ban on the proscribed organisation Palestine Action.

Officers began arresting demonstrators at the silent vigil in support of the group, which has been classed by the UK government as a terror organisation since July this year.

The first arrest took place shortly after 1pm as the seated protesters took out pens and wrote signs showing support for Palestine Action. Dozens of police were lined up to begin arresting members of the group, who were sitting silently on the pavement in the square.

Police have arrested almost 500 people in London at what organisers hoped would be the biggest demonstration so far against a ban on the proscribed organisation Palestine Action.

Officers began arresting demonstrators at the silent vigil in support of the group, which has been classed by the UK government as a terror organisation since July this year.

The first arrest took place shortly after 1pm as the seated protesters took out pens and wrote signs showing support for Palestine Action.

Dozens of police were lined up to begin arresting members of the group, who were sitting silently on the pavement in the square.

Hamas issued a statement saying that the continued ‘Israeli’ attacks and horrific massacres in the Gaza Strip expose what it called the "lies" of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding a reduction in military operations against civilians.

The group stated that strikes and "brutal bombing" since this morning have resulted in the deaths of 70 people, including children and women.

Hamas described the violence as a "bloody escalation" that contradicts Netanyahu's claims.

A man attacked Jews in a Manchester synagogue on Yom Kippur in a despicable act of terror and hate. Yet within hours, much of the media coverage had shifted from reporting the crime to implicating Islam - and by extension British Muslims.

The Daily Mail arguably led the way, with its front page screaming: “He was an Islamic terrorist” - a predictable but telling framing. Other tabloids also branded the attack as terrorism, but none with the Mail’s intensity.

This followed a day of framing that transformed the action of a single individual into a reflection of a faith followed by more than two billion people globally.

Some would insist that the attacker, who was killed by police, was just as the Mail described him. But describing the perpetrator as “Islamic” is itself misleading. Extrajudicial killings and targeting of innocents are explicitly forbidden in Islamic teaching. Any journalist or headline writer should know this.

Yet there is now an increasing chasm between what is obvious or intelligible, and what is actually being delivered by Britain’s right-wing media outlets. It no longer matters whether the term “Islamic terrorist” is a misnomer; it functions as a licence for Islamophobia, conflating a criminal act with an entire religion.

Italian journalist Lorenzo Agostino has said he felt he was “in a really barbaric place” while being illegally detained by Israel in international waters after this week’s attack on the Global Sumud Flotilla vessels bound for Gaza.

Agostino said he and fellow passengers were kidnapped and subjected to “humiliating” conditions.

“They behaved like a terrorist group … We were left without fresh water for over two days. Overall, they took every opportunity to humiliate any of us,” Agostino told the Anadolu news agency.

He said they were subjected to blindfolding, tight handcuffs, inadequate clothing, and freezing temperatures in a highly air-conditioned van for hours.

Cracks seem to be appearing in the pan-European Future Combat Air System (FCAS) program, at the heart of which will be the crewed New Generation Fighter (NGF). Reports now suggest that Germany, one of the two major partners in FCAS, is looking at how it might separate itself from France, amid long-running misgivings over workshare arrangements in this vital program.

According to Politico, the German Ministry of Defense discussed the future of FCAS last week with Airbus, which leads the German side of the program. The article cited two unnamed people familiar with those discussions. Reportedly, German defense officials are unhappy with French demands to have a disproportionate share of the program and are now examining other options.

Environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg has told Swedish officials she is being subjected to harsh treatment in Israeli custody after her detention and removal from a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza, according to correspondence seen by the Guardian.

According to the correspondence, Israeli forces are also reported by another detainee to have taken photographs where Thunberg was allegedly forced to hold flags. The identity of the flags are unknown.

In an email sent by the Swedish foreign ministry to people close to Thunberg, and seen by the Guardian, an official who has visited the activist in prison said she claimed she was detained in a cell infested with bedbugs, with too little food and water.

Washington — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly approved military operations on two vessels early last month that were part of a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying aid and pro-Palestinian supporters, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Two American intelligence officials briefed on the matter told CBS News that Israeli forces on Sept. 8 and 9 launched drones from a submarine and dropped incendiary devices onto the boats that were moored outside the Tunisian port of Sidi Bou Said, causing a fire. The officials spoke under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on national security matters.

Washington — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu directly approved military operations on two vessels early last month that were part of a Gaza-bound flotilla carrying aid and pro-Palestinian supporters, including Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg.

Two American intelligence officials briefed on the matter told CBS News that Israeli forces on Sept. 8 and 9 launched drones from a submarine and dropped incendiary devices onto the boats that were moored outside the Tunisian port of Sidi Bou Said, causing a fire. The officials spoke under the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly on national security matters.

After Israel intensified bombing and expulsion orders in Gaza City, Palestinian cameraman Sami Dawoud packed up his belongings and moved south in search of safety.

He took shelter with his family in a tent in Deir al-Balah, in central Gaza, an area considered among the least dangerous in the famine-stricken Palestinian enclave.

But within a week, an Israeli fighter jet struck the area. A bomb hit Dawoud’s tent, killing him, his daughter, and several other Palestinians.

The push by top aides to President Trump to remove Nicolás Maduro as the leader of Venezuela has intensified in recent days, with administration officials discussing a broad campaign that would escalate military pressure to try to force him out, U.S. officials say.

It is being led by Marco Rubio, the secretary of state and national security adviser. Mr. Rubio argues that Mr. Maduro is an illegitimate leader who oversees the export of drugs to the United States, which he says poses an “imminent threat.”

An opposition movement whose figures have met with U.S. officials says it is communicating with Washington on plans to dismantle Nicolás Maduro’s “criminal structure.”