Indian poet rejects US-backed award in solidarity with Palestinian children

Special Indian poet rejects US-backed award in solidarity with Palestinian children
Indian poet Jacinta Kerketta speaks during an event in New Delhi in July 2024. (Jacinta Kerketta/Twitter)
Short Url
Updated 03 October 2024
Follow

Indian poet rejects US-backed award in solidarity with Palestinian children

Indian poet rejects US-backed award in solidarity with Palestinian children
  • Jacinta Kerketta comes from the Indigenous community in Jharkhand state, eastern India
  • She was nominated to receive Room to Read Young Author Award for her children’s poetry

NEW DELHI: Indian poet Jacinta Kerketta has turned down a prestigious US-backed literary award, citing her solidarity with the Palestinian children and women in Gaza killed by Israel with American military support.

The Room to Read Young Author Award, co-sponsored by the US Agency for International Development and Room to Read India Trust, aims to promote children’s literacy.

Kerketta was selected to receive it next week for “Jirhul,” her latest children’s poetry collection.

“I declined this award because USAID (U.S. Aid for International Development) is associated with Room to Read India Trust,” she told Arab News on Wednesday.

“When I got information about the award for children’s literature, I felt that it was more important to speak for the children of Palestine than to receive an award.”

She also raised concerns over the links of the international nonprofit itself, as it has been collaborating with Boeing, which is a sponsor of some of its literacy programs in India.

“At the same time when children were being killed in Palestine, Room to Read India Trust was collaborating with Boeing Company ... a company that has had arms business with Israel for a long time,” Kerketta said.

“I rejected this award to show my solidarity with the children, women.”

Originally from Jharkhand state in eastern India, the poet is a member of the minority Adivasi community — India’s marginalized indigenous people who traditionally live in and around forest areas.

“Adivasi people are struggling for their survival along with saving nature. They’re always an advocate of human freedom,” she said.

“My community gives me the courage to show solidarity with those fighting for their freedom.”

More women and children have been killed by the Israeli military in Gaza over the past year than the equivalent period of any other conflict over the past two decades, according to new analysis by Oxfam.

Oxfam’s “conservative figures” earlier this week indicate that more than 6,000 Palestinian women and 11,000 children in Gaza have been killed by Israeli forces since October 2023. The numbers do not include at least 20,000 of those who are either unidentified or missing.

Earlier this year, a study published by the medical journal The Lancet estimated the true number of Palestinians killed by Israeli attacks in Gaza could be more than 186,000, taking into consideration also indirect deaths as a result of starvation, injury and lack of access to medical aid.

 


Thailand, Cambodia clash with jets and rockets in deadly border row

Thailand, Cambodia clash with jets and rockets in deadly border row
Updated 7 sec ago
Follow

Thailand, Cambodia clash with jets and rockets in deadly border row

Thailand, Cambodia clash with jets and rockets in deadly border row

PHANOM DONG RAK, Thailand: Thailand and Cambodia fought their bloodiest military clashes in more than a decade on Thursday, with at least 12 people killed as the two sides battled with tanks, artillery and ground forces over a disputed border zone.

The fighting marks a dramatic escalation in a long-running spat between the neighbors — both popular destinations for millions of foreign tourists — over an area known as the Emerald Triangle, where the borders of both countries and Laos meet.

The decades-old squabble flared into bloody clashes more than 15 years ago and again in May, when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a firefight.

In Thursday’s clashes, Cambodia fired rockets and artillery shells into Thailand and the Thai military scrambled F-16 jets to carry out air strikes.

The Thai public health ministry said one soldier and at least 11 civilians were killed, most of them in a rocket strike near a petrol station in Sisaket province.

Evacuees take shelter in a hall on the grounds of Surindra Rajabhat University, in the Thai border province of Surin on July 24, 2025, amid fighting between Thail and Cambodian forces on July 24, 2025 over a disputed border zone. (AFP)

Footage from the scene showed smoke pouring from a convenience store attached to the petrol station. Provincial officials said most of the dead were students who were inside the shop when the attack happened.

“I heard a loud noise three or four times, and when I looked over, there was a gigantic cloud of smoke,” Praphas Intaracheun, a 53-year-old gardener from Sisaket, told AFP.

He was refueling at another petrol station around 300 meters (328 yards) from the one that was hit.

“I’m scared it might escalate during the night when you can’t see anything. I don’t even dare sleep,” he said.

Thailand said 35 people have been wounded, and accused Cambodia of targeting civilian buildings.

A 30-bed hospital in the town of Phanom Dong Rak in Surin province, just 15 kilometers (nine miles) from the border, was hit by shells which shattered windows and collapsed part of a roof.

The facility, which was also struck in the last major clashes between the two countries in 2011, was partially evacuated on Wednesday night as a precaution.

“We got a tip that there would be an attack from Cambodia,” a soldier stationed at the entrance told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity for security reasons.

“There is no telling when it will be safe enough for patients to return.”

Caption



Fighting was focused on six locations, the Thai army said, with ground troops and tanks battling Cambodian forces for control of territory.

Six Thai air force jets were deployed, hitting two “Cambodian military targets on the ground,” according to Thai military deputy spokesperson Ritcha Suksuwanon.

Cambodia has not yet commented on casualties on its side. Defense ministry spokeswoman Maly Socheata refused to answer when asked about the issue at a news conference.

AFP journalists met Cambodians fleeing their villages near the Thai border to escape the fighting.

“We dare not to stay, they were fighting so bad that my house was shaking,” Say Vuthy, 36, told AFP.

“We already dug a bunker but we dared not stay because we were scared that they will keep fighting at night.”

Both sides blame the other for starting the fighting, which erupted near two temples on the border.

At the request of Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, the UN Security Council will hold an emergency meeting on Friday to discuss the deadly clashes, diplomatic sources told AFP.

Thailand’s embassy in Phnom Penh urged its nationals to leave Cambodia “as soon as possible.”

Both the European Union and China, a close ally of Phnom Penh, said they were “deeply concerned” about the clashes, calling for dialogue.

The United States and France — Cambodia’s former colonial ruler — also called separately for an immediate halt to fighting and for talks to begin.



The violence came hours after Thailand expelled the Cambodian ambassador and recalled its own envoy after five members of a Thai military patrol were wounded by a land mine.

Cambodia downgraded ties to “the lowest level” on Thursday, pulling out all but one of its diplomats and expelling their Thai equivalents from Phnom Penh.

The border row also kicked off a domestic political crisis in Thailand, where Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra has been suspended from office pending an ethics probe over her conduct.

A diplomatic call between Paetongtarn and Hun Sen, Cambodia’s former longtime ruler and father of Hun Manet, was leaked from the Cambodian side, sparking a judicial investigation.

burs-pdw/sco/des/aks


80-year-old pro-Palestine protester in UK ‘traumatized’ after arrest

80-year-old pro-Palestine protester in UK ‘traumatized’ after arrest
Updated 25 July 2025
Follow

80-year-old pro-Palestine protester in UK ‘traumatized’ after arrest

80-year-old pro-Palestine protester in UK ‘traumatized’ after arrest
  • Police forcibly entered Marianne Sorrell’s house, seizing iPads, Palestinian flag, books and climate-related material
  • Sorrell held on suspicion of supporting Palestine Action, banned earlier this month under anti-terror laws

LONDON: Marianne Sorrell, an 80-year-old retired teacher from Wells, a city in southwestern England, said that her arrest earlier in July for holding a placard at a pro-Palestine rally has left her feeling “traumatized” and “sick.”

Police officers detained Sorrell for nearly 27 hours on July 12 after forcibly entering her house and seizing 19 items, including iPads, a Palestinian flag, books about Palestine, and materials related to Extinction Rebellion and climate change. She was held on suspicion of supporting Palestine Action, which the UK government banned earlier this month under anti-terrorism laws.

Sorrell told The Guardian newspaper: “At 80, to be treated like a dangerous terrorist is deeply shocking. I’ve been very traumatised by this. Every morning I wake up feeling sick, nauseous. (I have) had to take anti-sickness pills.”

She said a friend of hers, who went to feed her cats while she was in custody, saw a Geiger counter, which measures radiation, on the table while the police were searching the house.

“They’ve actually not taken anything that could be classed as illegal but it’s very confusing that they’re beginning to think anything connected to Palestine or support for Palestine is illegal in some way,” Sorrell said.

She was detained at the end of a one-hour demonstration in Wells by the group Defend Our Juries in support of Palestine. Her friend Trisha Fine, 75, also from Wells and a retired teacher, was arrested and held by the police for nearly 27 hours. At the Cardiff rally, 11 others were arrested. Police questioned Sorrel and Fine about their awareness of Palestine Action’s support for violence and whether they were prepared to engage in it themselves.

The women have been released on bail until October and are prohibited from contacting each other or spending any nights away from their homes.

Fine told The Guardian: “Am I a 75-year-old terrorist? I don’t think so. It’s completely out of order. You just wonder what the hell is happening with this country and this government.”

Sorrell said: “I just feel if I’m put in prison for this, and even if I die in prison for this, I can’t think of a better thing to die for really than for the justice of the people who’ve been persecuted now for almost my lifetime.”

Palestine Action was banned in July after activists broke into a Royal Air Force base at Brize Norton on June 20, causing an estimated £7 million ($9.38 million) of damage to military aircraft.

Membership of or direct support for Palestine Action now carries a prison term of up to 14 years. Displaying the group’s name on clothing could lead to a six-month jail sentence.


Minnesota man sentenced to 59 years for crash that killed 5 young women

Minnesota man sentenced to 59 years for crash that killed 5 young women
Updated 24 July 2025
Follow

Minnesota man sentenced to 59 years for crash that killed 5 young women

Minnesota man sentenced to 59 years for crash that killed 5 young women
  • Derrick Thompson admitted his guilt for the first time and begged for forgiveness at an emotional sentencing hearing
  • Relatives and friends of the victims offered no forgiveness at the hearing

MINNEAPOLIS, USA: A Minnesota man was sentenced to nearly 59 years Thursday for causing a crash that killed five young women who were out making preparations for a friend’s wedding.

Derrick Thompson admitted his guilt for the first time and begged for forgiveness at an emotional sentencing hearing. He said he was sorry for what he did and “there is not a day I don’t ask God why he didn’t take me instead and let your beautiful angels still be here,” the Minnesota Star Tribune reported.

But relatives and friends of the victims offered no forgiveness at the hearing. Instead, they attacked Thompson for waiting until his sentencing to admit his crimes and putting their families through two criminal trials.

A state court jury convicted the 29-year-old from the Minneapolis suburb of Brooklyn Park of third-degree murder and vehicular homicide for the June 2023 crash that killed Salma Abdikadir, Siham Adam, Sabiriin Ali, Sahra Gesaade and Sagal Hersi. His defense claimed during the trial that Thompson was not the driver of an SUV that ran a red light and plowed into a Honda Civic.

The victims, between 17 and 20 years old, were on their way home from preparations for a friend’s wedding. Their deaths sparked sorrow and outrage in Minnesota’s sizable Somali American community.

“I hope reality suffocates you for the rest of your life,” said Sundus Odhowa, Siham Adam’s older sister. ”You should never know freedom again. You should never know peace.”

Authorities say Thompson was driving a rented Cadillac Escalade SUV at more than 100 mph (160 kph) down a freeway in Minneapolis before exiting, blowing through the red light and smashing into the sedan in which the young women were riding.

Minnesota inmates typically serve two-thirds of their sentences in prison and one-third on supervised release. With credit for 767 days of time already served, Thompson could go free in about 37 years. Thompson, who already had a felony record, was convicted separately in November on federal drug and firearms charges. He’s still awaiting sentencing on those counts.

Thompson is the son of a former Democratic state representative from St. Paul who was sharply critical of police during his one term in office.


British medics say Gaza is ‘televised genocide’ and ‘unlike anything’ seen in war zones

British medics say Gaza is ‘televised genocide’ and ‘unlike anything’ seen in war zones
Updated 24 July 2025
Follow

British medics say Gaza is ‘televised genocide’ and ‘unlike anything’ seen in war zones

British medics say Gaza is ‘televised genocide’ and ‘unlike anything’ seen in war zones
  • Medical volunteers have been working tirelessly despite limited supplies, and have witnessed “very obvious ... malnourishment in the community”
  • Dr. Tom Potokar says he lost 11 kg during his recent trip to Gaza, despite bringing food with him, while his Palestinian medical colleagues appeared increasingly fatalistic

LONDON: British healthcare workers volunteering to treat patients in the Gaza Strip report witnessing harrowing injuries, including severe burns and shrapnel wounds as well as cases of extreme starvation due to Israeli attacks and restrictions on aid.

Sam Sears, a 44-year-old paramedic, told the British tabloid Metro that the range of injuries he has seen at a humanitarian medical tent facility in Al-Mawasi, on the southern coast of Gaza, includes blast injuries, shrapnel wounds, gunshot wounds and polytrauma.

He is volunteering with the UK-Med charity as part of a team responding to starvation in Gaza, following the emergence of distressing images of malnourished Palestinians, including some infants, which have prompted widespread condemnation, including from the UK government.

“It’s unlike anything I’ve seen before,” Sears said.

“Especially like nothing I’ve seen in the UK, and I have worked in other areas like Sierra Leone for Ebola and Ukraine in the war, but this here is completely different. It’s like times ten here.

“We are struggling for food here at the moment, let alone (Palestinian) staff that are working with us who have had to manage this for the last 20 months.”

He said that medical volunteers have been working tirelessly despite limited supplies, including fuel, and it was “very obvious (that) we have got malnourishment in the community.”

“We can buy certain things from the market but it’s very scarce, it’s also costing quadruple or more than what it normally would. A kilogram of sugar at the minute is costing $130, so it’s just extortionate,” he said.

The UK-Med charity operates two field hospitals in Gaza, treating 500 people daily, and includes an operating theater for lifesaving surgical procedures.

“The ceasefire is needed, not just a pause but a permanent end to the hostilities,” Sears said. “The people in Gaza have suffered immensely, they have got nowhere to call home ... They are hungry, malnourished, the conflict needs to stop really.”

“The healthcare and aid needs to come in for the 2.1 million people who it’s needed for here,” he added.

Dr. Tom Potokar, a veteran British plastic surgeon who has volunteered in various Palestinian hospitals and has visited Gaza 16 times since 2018, said that the healthcare system is overwhelmed with severe burn victims from Israel’s military actions.

Dr. Potokar told the Telegraph newspaper that he had been operating on 10 to 12 patients suffering burns from blasts each day, with three-quarters of those cases being women or children. “That’s taking the top-10 priority, but there’s still plenty more behind that that needed operating,” he said.

He volunteered nearly two years ago during the initial six weeks after Israel began its attacks on the Gaza Strip in late 2023. He is the founder of the medical charity Interburns, established in 2006, which addresses the lack of burns expertise in poorer nations and war zones. When he arrived for the first time in Gaza in 2018, he discovered that there were only two fully qualified plastic surgeons, one of whom was partially retired.

His most recent visit, with the Ideals international aid charity, was in May and June, during which he witnessed terrible injuries from explosions.

“I saw many cases of bilateral or triple limb amputations, huge open wounds on the back, on the chest, with the lung exposed. Really horrendous blast injuries from shrapnel, and as I say, a lot of them combined with burns as well,” he said.

The most devastating cases involved children, with some cases sustaining about 90 percent burns.

“There’s nothing you can do. Even if there was not a conflict there, in that country, in that scenario, a 90 percent burn (case) when it’s almost all full thickness is not going to survive,” he said.

“But then you are talking about a nine-year-old and some end-of-life dignity, and unfortunately they don’t die in a couple of hours, it takes four or five days, so you see this patient every four or five days, knowing full well that there’s absolutely nothing you can do.”

Dr. Potokar described treating patients who are “skin and bone” due to Israeli aid restrictions leading to mass starvation in Gaza.

“Wounds are just stagnating because they are just not getting food.”

He said that he lost 11 kg during his recent trip, despite bringing food with him. His Palestinian medical colleagues appeared increasingly fatalistic, he said, as more than 100 human rights organizations warned this week that some staff members have become too weak to continue their work due to food shortages.

Dr. Potokar described Gaza as the “world’s first televised genocide” and said that there was a lack of response to end the war in the coastal enclave.

“We are putting plasters on a haemorrhaging aneurysm. The problem is the political initiative, the total lack of global, moral, ethical insight into this and desire to stop it,” he said.


Man accused of attempting to assassinate Trump can represent himself at trial, judge says

Man accused of attempting to assassinate Trump can represent himself at trial, judge says
Updated 24 July 2025
Follow

Man accused of attempting to assassinate Trump can represent himself at trial, judge says

Man accused of attempting to assassinate Trump can represent himself at trial, judge says
  • Judge Aileen Cannon signed off on Ryan Routh’s request but said court-appointed attorneys need to remain as standby counsel
  • Routh said during the hearing that his attorneys were diligent, but they didn’t listen to him and were afraid of him

FLORIDA: A man charged with trying to assassinate President Donald Trump last year in South Florida can represent himself during his trial, a federal judge ruled Thursday.

US District Judge Aileen Cannon signed off on Ryan Routh’s request but said court-appointed attorneys need to remain as standby counsel. Earlier in the week, the federal public defenders had asked to be taken off the case, saying Routh had refused repeated attempts to meet with them.

Routh said during the hearing that his attorneys were diligent, but they didn’t listen to him and were afraid of him.

“How are they supposed to represent me and say I’m not a dangerous person when they don’t believe that?” Routh said.

Routh, 59, is scheduled to stand trial in September, a year after prosecutors say a US Secret Service agent thwarted his attempt to shoot Trump as he played golf. Routh has pleaded not guilty to charges of attempting to assassinate a major presidential candidate, assaulting a federal officer and several firearm violations.

Reiterating her message from a July 10 hearing, Cannon told Routh that she doesn’t intend to delay the Sept. 8 start date of his trial, even if she lets him represent himself. She also once again told Routh that she believes it’s a bad idea for Routh to represent himself.

Routh, who said he completed two years of college after earning his GED certificate, told Cannon that he understands the potential challenges and would be ready for trial.

Cannon said Thursday that she decided to hold the second hearing after receiving a June 29 letter from Routh that did not arrive at the courthouse until after that hearing. In that letter, Routh said he and his attorneys were “a million miles apart” and that they were refusing to answer his questions. He also wrote that he could be used in a prisoner exchange with Iran, China, North Korea or Russia.

“I could die being of some use and save all this court mess, but no one acts; perhaps you have the power to trade me away,” Routh wrote.

Cannon told Routh that she believed the federal public defenders assigned to Routh’s case were excellent attorneys.

“I find no basis to believe that there has been ineffective assistance of counsel,” Cannon said.

The judge also reminded Routh that she will not be able to assist Routh or provide legal advice during the trial.

Cannon also briefly addressed Routh’s suggestion of a prisoner exchange, saying, “I have no power or any opinion of anything you’ve written there.”

On Wednesday, the federal public defender’s office filed a motion for termination of appointment of counsel, saying “the attorney-client relationship is irreconcilably broken.” Attorneys said Routh has refused six attempts to meet with their team, including a scheduled in-person meeting Tuesday morning at the federal detention center in Miami.

“It is clear that Mr. Routh wishes to represent himself, and he is within his Constitutional rights to make such a demand,” the motion said.

Cannon denied their motion on Thursday, explaining that their office was in the best position to prevent delays to the trial.

The US Supreme Court has held that criminal defendants have a right to represent themselves in court proceedings, as long as they can show a judge they are competent to waive their right to be defended by an attorney.

Prosecutors have said Routh methodically plotted to kill Trump for weeks before aiming a rifle through the shrubbery as Trump played golf on Sept. 15 at his West Palm Beach country club. A Secret Service agent spotted Routh before Trump came into view. Officials said Routh aimed his rifle at the agent, who opened fire, causing Routh to drop his weapon and flee without firing a shot.

Law enforcement obtained help from a witness who prosecutors said informed officers that he saw a person fleeing. The witness was then flown in a police helicopter to a nearby interstate where Routh was arrested, and the witnesses confirmed it was the person he had seen, prosecutors have said.

Routh will have his first chance to represent himself on Friday during a scheduled hearing on whether certain evidence and testimony can be used at trial. His former attorneys are expected to be present as standby counsel.

In addition to the federal charges, Routh also has pleaded not guilty to state charges of terrorism and attempted murder.