France says Israel’s ‘persona non grata’ designation of UN chief ‘unjustified’

France says Israel’s ‘persona non grata’ designation of UN chief ‘unjustified’
UN Secretary General António Guterres looks on at a Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East at the United Nations headquarters on Oct. 2, 2024 in New York. (AFP)
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Updated 03 October 2024
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France says Israel’s ‘persona non grata’ designation of UN chief ‘unjustified’

France says Israel’s ‘persona non grata’ designation of UN chief ‘unjustified’
  • Paris said it had “full support for and confidence” in Guterres
  • The United Nations played “a fundamental role in the stability of the region“

PARIS: France on Thursday condemned Israel’s move to declare UN chief Antonio Guterres “persona non grata,” saying the decision was “unjustified.”

“France regrets the unjustified, serious and counter-productive decision taken by Israel to declare the secretary general of the United Nations, Mr.Antonio Guterres, persona non grata,” the French foreign ministry said in a statement.

Paris said it had “full support for and confidence” in Guterres, adding that the United Nations played “a fundamental role in the stability of the region.”

“France reiterates its commitment to the United Nations Charter, to international law and to the importance of respecting Security Council decisions in maintaining international peace and security,” the statement added.

On Wednesday, Israel declared Guterres “persona non grata,” accusing him of failing to specifically condemn Iran’s missile attack on Israel.

Israel has been a harsh critic of the UN, with ties between the state and the international body souring even more after the October 7 Hamas attacks.


Taiwan votes to decide whether to oust lawmakers from China-friendly party in closely watched poll

Taiwan votes to decide whether to oust lawmakers from China-friendly party in closely watched poll
Updated 17 sec ago
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Taiwan votes to decide whether to oust lawmakers from China-friendly party in closely watched poll

Taiwan votes to decide whether to oust lawmakers from China-friendly party in closely watched poll
  • The independence-leaning ruling Democratic Progressive Party won last year’s presidential election
  • But the China-friendly Nationalists and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party have enough seats to form a majority bloc
TAIPEI: Taiwanese were voting Saturday to determine whether to oust about one-fifth of their lawmakers, all from the opposition Nationalist Party, in elections that could potentially reshape the power balance in the self-ruled island’s legislature.
The independence-leaning ruling Democratic Progressive Party won last year’s presidential election, but the China-friendly Nationalists, also known as the KMT, and the smaller Taiwan People’s Party have enough seats to form a majority bloc.
Those who support removing the 24 lawmakers are angry that the KMT and its allies have blocked key legislation, especially the defense budget, and passed controversial changes that are seen as diminishing the power of the executive and favoring China, which considers the island its own territory.
The opposition parties’ actions sparked concerns among some Taiwanese about the island’s democratic integrity and its ability to deter Chinese military threats, leading to the recall campaigns. The scale of the recall elections is unprecedented, with another seven KMT lawmakers facing similar votes on Aug. 23.
But the KMT alleged the ruling party was resorting to political retaliation after it lost the legislative majority, saying the recalls were undermining and challenging Taiwan’s democratic system.
The KMT holds 52 seats, while the ruling DPP holds 51 seats. For the DPP to secure a legislative majority, at least six KMT lawmakers would need to be ousted, and the ruling party would need to win all by-elections, which would need to be held within three months following the announcement of results.
For the recall to pass, more than a quarter of eligible voters in the electoral district must vote in favor of the recall, and the total number of supporters must exceed those against.
If KMT loses its seats in the recall elections, the party can file new candidates for the by-elections and may be able to win back the seats.
Outside a Taipei polling station, voters old and young were waiting in line to cast their ballots. The poll will close at 4 p.m. local time, with results expected on Saturday night.
The elections have intensified tensions between those backing the status quo and those favoring improved ties with Beijing. Critics accuse China-friendly politicians of compromising Taiwan and take issue with their meetings with mainland Chinese politicians. But these Taiwanese politicians claim their connections are vital for dialogue given Beijing’s refusal to interact with the DPP.
When asked about the recall election, China’s Taiwan Affairs Office spokesperson Zhu Fenglian said in June that since the administration of Taiwan President Lai Ching-te came into power, it has sought to achieve “one-party dominance” and practiced “dictatorship” under the guise of “democracy,” state broadcaster CCTV reported. She was quoted as saying that Lai’s government has spared no effort in suppressing opposition parties and those who supported the development of cross-strait relations.
Taiwan’s mainland affairs council said Wednesday that the Chinese authorities and state media had tried to blatantly interfere with the vote.

Two Southwest flight attendants hurt after jet dives to avoid mid-air collision

Two Southwest flight attendants hurt after jet dives to avoid mid-air collision
Updated 26 July 2025
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Two Southwest flight attendants hurt after jet dives to avoid mid-air collision

Two Southwest flight attendants hurt after jet dives to avoid mid-air collision
  • Southwest Flight 1496 sharply descended nearly 500 feet, according to flight tracking websites
  • The incident appeared to be the fourth involving military aircraft since March

WASHINGTON: Two flight attendants on a Southwest Airlines flight departing Burbank, California, were injured on Friday after pilots took evasive action to dodge another aircraft on takeoff, the airline said.

Southwest Flight 1496 sharply descended nearly 500 feet, according to flight tracking websites, marking the second time in a week that a US commercial jet was forced to make abrupt flight maneuvers to avoid a potential mid-air collision.

The incident also appeared to be the fourth involving military aircraft since March.

The airline and the Federal Aviation Administration said the Southwest pilots took action after receiving cockpit alerts of other aircraft traffic being dangerously close. The Southwest Boeing 737 continued on to Las Vegas, where it landed uneventfully.

Flight-tracking service Flightradar24 identified the other aircraft as a Hawker Hunter fighter jet – British-built aircraft – that crossed in front of the Southwest flight.

The planes came within 7.82km of each other laterally and 107m vertically. The US Air Force and Defense Department did not immediately respond to inquiries regarding the military jet’s presence near Burbank.

The FAA was investigating.

Two flight attendants were treated for injuries, the airline said, without providing detail.

No injuries were immediately reported by passengers, according to Southwest. But one passenger told Fox News Digital the sharp descent stirred panic onboard.

“It was terrifying. We really thought we were plummeting to a plane crash,” Caitlin Burdi said in an on-camera interview. After the incident, “the pilot came on (the intercom), and he told us we almost collided with another plane.”

According to a statement from Southwest, the incident began when its crew responded to “two onboard traffic alerts” while taking off from the Hollywood Burbank Airport north of Los Angeles, “requiring them to climb and descend to comply with the alerts.”

Three earlier close calls

In a separate incident one week ago, a SkyWest Airlines jet operating as a Delta Connection flight from Minneapolis reported taking evasive action to avoid a possible collision with a US Air Force bomber during a landing approach over North Dakota on July 18.

The FAA said on Monday it was investigating last Friday’s near-miss incident involving SkyWest Flight 3788, an Embraer ERJ-175 regional jet, which landed safely at Minot, North Dakota.

The Air Force confirmed a B-52 jet bomber assigned to Minot Air Force Base had conducted a ceremonial flyover of the North Dakota State Fair last Friday around the time of the SkyWest incident.

The Air Force said the bomber cockpit crew was in contact with local air traffic control before, during and after the flyover, and that the Minot International Airport control tower “did not advise of the inbound commercial aircraft” as the B-52 was departing the area.

The FAA has said that air traffic services were provided by the Minot air traffic control tower, which is run by a private company and not FAA employees.

The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA are investigating a March 28 close call involving a Delta Airbus A319 jet and a group of Air Force jets near Reagan Washington National Airport. The four Air Force T-38 Talons were heading to nearby Arlington National Cemetery for a flyover at the time.

There has been intense focus on military traffic near civilian airplanes since an Army helicopter collided with an American Airlines regional jet on January 29 near Reagan National, killing 67 people.

In early May, the FAA barred Army helicopter flights around the Pentagon after another near miss.


Democrats and advocates criticize Trump’s executive order on homelessness

Democrats and advocates criticize Trump’s executive order on homelessness
Updated 26 July 2025
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Democrats and advocates criticize Trump’s executive order on homelessness

Democrats and advocates criticize Trump’s executive order on homelessness
  • Many of the concepts in Trump's order have been tried in Democrat-led cities in California to get people off the streets and into treatment
  • What's problematic in the new order is forcibly locking people up, which is not the right approach to dealing with homelessness, say advocates

SAN FRANCISCO, California: Leading Democrats and advocates for homeless people are criticizing an executive order President Donald Trump signed this week aimed at removing people from the streets, possibly by committing them for mental health or drug treatment without their consent.

Trump directed some of his Cabinet heads to prioritize funding to cities that crack down on open drug use and street camping, with the goal of making people feel safer. It’s not compassionate to do nothing, the order states.

“Shifting these individuals into long-term institutional settings for humane treatment is the most proven way to restore public order,” the order reads.

Homelessness has become a bigger problem in recent years as the cost of housing increased, especially in states such as California where there aren’t enough homes to meet demand. At the same time, drug addiction and overdoses have soared with the availability of cheap and potent fentanyl.

The president’s order might be aimed at liberal cities such as San Francisco, Los Angeles and New York, which Trump views as too lax about conditions on their streets. But many of the concepts have already been proposed or tested in California, where Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic mayors have worked for years to get people off the streets and into treatment.

Last year, the US Supreme Court made it easier for cities to clear encampments even if the people living in them have nowhere else to go.

Still, advocates say Trump’s new order is vague, punitive and won’t effectively end homelessness.

Newsom has directed cities to clean up homeless encampments and he’s funneled more money into programs to treat addiction and mental health disorders.

His office said Friday that Trump’s order relies on harmful stereotypes and focuses more on “creating distracting headlines and settling old scores.”

“But, his imitation (even poorly executed) is the highest form of flattery,” spokesperson Tara Gallegos said in a statement, referring to the president calling for strategies already in use in California.

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has also emphasized the importance of clean and orderly streets in banning homeless people from living in RVs and urging people to accept the city’s offers of shelter. In Silicon Valley, San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan recently pushed a policy change that makes a person eligible for jail if they reject three offers of shelter.

Trump’s executive order tasks Attorney General Pam Bondi and the secretaries for health, housing and transportation to prioritize grants to states and local governments that enforce bans on open drug use and street camping.

Devon Kurtz, the public safety policy director at the Cicero Institute, a conservative policy group that has advocated for several of the provisions of the executive order, said the organization is “delighted” by the order.

He acknowledged that California has already been moving to ban encampments since the Supreme Court’s decision. But he said Trump’s order adds teeth to that shift, Kurtz said.

“It’s a clear message to these communities that were still sort of uncomfortable because it was such a big change in policy,” Kurtz said.

But Steve Berg, chief policy officer at the National Alliance to End Homelessness, called parts of the order vague. He said the US abandoned forced institutionalization decades ago because it was too expensive and raised moral and legal concerns.

“What is problematic about this executive order is not so much that law enforcement is involved — it’s what it calls on law enforcement to do, which is to forcibly lock people up,” Berg said. “That’s not the right approach to dealing with homelessness.”

The mayor of California’s most populous city, Los Angeles, is at odds with the Newsom and Trump administrations on homelessness. Mayor Karen Bass, a Democrat, opposes punishing sweeps and says the city has reduced street homelessness by working with homeless people to get them into shelter or housing.

“Moving people from one street to the next or from the street to jail and back again will not solve this problem,” she said in a statement.

 


Cambodia calls for ceasefire with Thailand after deadly clashes

Cambodia calls for ceasefire with Thailand after deadly clashes
Updated 26 July 2025
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Cambodia calls for ceasefire with Thailand after deadly clashes

Cambodia calls for ceasefire with Thailand after deadly clashes
  • More than 138,000 people have been evacuated from Thailand’s border regions, its health ministry said, reporting 15 fatalities — 14 civilians and a soldier — with a further 46 wounded, including 15 troops

UNITED NATIONS, United States: Cambodia wants an “immediate ceasefire” with Thailand, the country’s envoy to the United Nations said Friday, after the neighbors traded deadly strikes for a second day, with Bangkok also signaling an openness to talks.

A long-running border dispute erupted into intense fighting with jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops on Thursday, prompting the UN Security Council to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis Friday.

“Cambodia asked for an immediate ceasefire — unconditionally — and we also call for the peaceful solution of the dispute,” said Phnom Penh’s UN ambassador Chhea Keo following a closed meeting of the Council attended by Cambodia and Thailand.

A steady thump of artillery strikes could be heard from the Cambodian side of the border Friday, where the province of Oddar Meanchey reported one civilian — a 70-year-old man — had been killed and five more wounded.

More than 138,000 people have been evacuated from Thailand’s border regions, its health ministry said, reporting 15 fatalities — 14 civilians and a soldier — with a further 46 wounded, including 15 troops.

Fighting resumed in three areas around 4 am on Friday (2100 GMT Thursday), the Thai army said, with Cambodian forces firing heavy weapons, field artillery, and BM-21 rocket systems, and Thai troops responding “with appropriate supporting fire.”

Thai Foreign Ministry Spokesman Nikorndej Balankura told AFP that fighting had begun to ease off by Friday afternoon, however, adding that Bangkok was open to talks, possibly aided by Malaysia.

“We are ready, if Cambodia would like to settle this matter via diplomatic channels, bilaterally, or even through Malaysia, we are ready to do that. But so far we have not had any response,” Nikorndej told AFP, speaking before the UN meeting had been held.

Malaysia currently holds the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) regional bloc, of which Thailand and Cambodia are both members.

Earlier, acting Thai Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai had warned that if the situation escalated, “it could develop into war.”

“For now, it remains limited to clashes,” he told reporters in Bangkok.

Both sides blamed each other for firing first, while Thailand accused Cambodia of targeting civilian infrastructure, including a hospital hit by shells and a petrol station hit by at least one rocket.

At the UN, Cambodia’s envoy questioned Thailand’s assertion that his country, which is smaller and less militarily developed than its neighbor, had initiated the conflict.

“(The Security Council) called for both parties to (show) maximum restraint and resort to a diplomatic solution. That is what we are calling for as well,” said Chhea Keo.

None of the other attendees of the UNSC meeting spoke to reporters.

The fighting marks a dramatic escalation in a long-running dispute between the neighbors — both popular destinations for millions of foreign tourists — over their shared 800-kilometer (500-mile) border.

Dozens of kilometers in several areas are contested and fighting broke out between 2008 and 2011, leaving at least 28 people dead and tens of thousands displaced.

A UN court ruling in 2013 settled the matter for over a decade, but the current crisis erupted in May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a new clash.

Fighting on Thursday was focused on six locations, according to the Thai army, including around two ancient temples.

Ground troops backed up by tanks battled for control of territory, while Cambodia fired rockets and shells into Thailand and the Thais scrambled F-16 jets to hit military targets across the border.

In the Cambodian town of Samraong, 20 kilometers (12 miles) from the border, AFP journalists saw families speeding away in vehicles with their children and belongings as gunfire erupted.

“I live very close to the border. We are scared,” Pro Bak, 41, told AFP.

He was taking his wife and children to a Buddhist temple to seek refuge.

 

 


Ukraine facing fierce fighting around eastern city of Pokrovsk, Zelensky says

Ukraine facing fierce fighting around eastern city of Pokrovsk, Zelensky says
Updated 26 July 2025
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Ukraine facing fierce fighting around eastern city of Pokrovsk, Zelensky says

Ukraine facing fierce fighting around eastern city of Pokrovsk, Zelensky says
  • Russian forces have for months been trying to close in on Pokrovsk

President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Friday that Ukrainian forces were facing fierce fighting around the city of Pokrovsk in the east, a logistics hub near which Russia has been announcing the capture of villages on an almost daily basis.

Zelensky, speaking in his nightly video address, said Ukraine’s top commander, Oleksandr Syrskyi, told a meeting of senior officials that the situation around Pokrovsk was the current focal point of its attention in the war, which began when Russia invaded in February 2022.

“All operational directions were covered, with particular focus on Pokrovsk. It receives the most attention,” Zelensky said.

Ukrainian forces, he said, were also “continuing to act” in border areas in the northern Sumy region, where Russian troops have gained a foothold in recent weeks.

Syrskyi, in a separate report on the Telegram messaging app, described Pokrovsk and five other sectors as among the most difficult theaters along the 1,000-km (620-mile) front.

“The Russian Federation is paying the maximum price for attempting a ‘summer offensive,’” Syrskyi wrote.

Russian forces have for months been trying to close in on Pokrovsk, a road and rail hub whose pre-war population of about 60,000 has been all but evacuated.

Syrskyi in May reported that Kyiv’s troops had stabilized the situation around the town, also the site of the only colliery in Ukraine producing coking coal for the country’s steel industry.

Russia’s Defense Ministry on Thursday announced the capture of two villages on either side of Pokrovsk — Zvirove to the west and Novoekonomichne to the east. A third village near the city — Novotoretske — was declared by Moscow to be “liberated” earlier in the week.

Ukrainian officials have made no acknowledgement that the villages have changed hands. The General Staff of Ukraine’s military said in an evening report that two of them — Zvirove and Novoekonomichne — were in areas where Russian troops were trying to penetrate Ukrainian defenses.

In Sumy region, where Russian troops are trying to establish what Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin calls a “buffer zone,” the popular Ukrainian military blog DeepState said Kyiv’s forces had retaken a previously lost village.

DeepState, which relies on open source reports to track the presence of Russian forces, said Ukrainian troops had restored control over the village of Kindrativka. There was no official comment from either side.