Connect with us

Published

on

US vice president Kamala Harris has said there must be an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza as she called on the Israeli government to do more to increase the flow of aid, with “no excuses”.

Ms Harris said a six-week ceasefire would get Israeli hostages out and get a significant amount of aid into the war-ravaged Palestinian territory.

Analysis – Why this week could be critical for Gaza as US vice president shifts tone

She said people were “starving” and Israel needed to increase the flow of life-saving assistance to ease what she described as “inhumane” conditions and a “humanitarian catastrophe”. Her comments are among the strongest by a senior US official over the crisis.

Middle East latest – Houthis vow to sink British ships

The vice president also said there is a “deal on the table” and Hamas “needs to agree to that”.

“Let’s get a ceasefire. Let’s reunite the hostages with their families. And let’s provide immediate relief to the people of Gaza,” she said.

More on Egypt

Although a Hamas delegation is in Egypt for the latest truce talks, Israel has reportedly boycotted them.

Israeli media says it is because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has not got an answer from Hamas on two questions – a list of hostages who are alive in Gaza and the number of Palestinian prisoners Hamas wants released in exchange for each hostage.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Gaza: Doctors set up clinics in streets

Ms Harris is on Tuesday due to meet top Israeli politician Benny Gantz, who will also have talks in Washington with US secretary of state Antony Blinken, national security adviser Jake Sullivan, and Republican and Democratic members of Congress.

Although Mr Gantz is in Mr Netanyahu’s war cabinet, he is also a centrist political rival and is thought to have been rebuked by the Israeli prime minister for those planned discussions in America.

An official from Mr Netanyahu’s Likud party said Mr Gantz’s visit was not authorised by the leader.

And the PM had a “tough talk” with Mr Gantz about the trip and told him the country has “just one prime minister”, according to the official.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and war cabinet minister Benny Gantz. File pic: Reuters
Image:
(L-R) Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and war cabinet member Benny Gantz. File pic: Reuters

Mr Gantz had told the PM of his intention to travel to the US and to co-ordinate messaging with him, added an official.

US efforts in the region have increasingly been hampered by Mr Netanyahu’s hardline cabinet, which ultra-nationalists dominate. Mr Gantz’s more moderate National Unity party sometimes acts as a counterweight to the PM’s far-right allies.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

US carries out first aid airdrop in Gaza

Read more:
Analysis – A fresh truce could be highly significant
Analysis – Airdrops illustrate just how much of a disaster Gaza is
Exclusive: The company making millions from Gaza misery

There are deep disagreements between Mr Netanyahu and US President Joe Biden over how to alleviate Palestinian suffering in Gaza and come up with a post-war vision for the enclave.

On Saturday, the US airdropped aid into Gaza after dozens of Palestinians rushing to grab food from trucks were killed last Thursday.

Speaking on Sunday in Selma, Alabama, Ms Harris said: “People in Gaza are starving. The conditions are inhumane and our common humanity compels us to act.

“The Israeli government must do more to significantly increase the flow of aid. No excuses.”

Click to subscribe to the Sky News Daily wherever you get your podcasts

A senior US official had said the path to a ceasefire was “straightforward and there’s a deal on the table”, with mediators returning to Egypt hoping to reach an agreement before Ramadan begins in a week.

The unidentified official spoke to the Reuters news agency ahead of the talks in Cairo, billed as the final hurdle to a six-week ceasefire.

Earlier on Sunday, the US said a deal had already been “more or less accepted” by Israel and was waiting for approval by Hamas militants.

But after the Hamas delegation arrived, a Palestinian official said the deal was “not yet there”. Hamas also reportedly wanted a permanent ceasefire to be part of any deal.

The war started after Hamas launched a cross-border attack on southern Israel on 7 October last year, killing 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking more than 250 others hostage.

Israel retaliated with strikes and a military ground assault in Gaza which have so far killed more than 30,000 people, around two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.

Around 80% of the population of 2.3 million have fled their homes, and UN agencies say hundreds of thousands are on the brink of famine.

More than 100 hostages in Gaza have been released.

Continue Reading

US

The protests at US universities are about much more than Gaza and Israel

Published

on

By

The protests at US universities are about much more than Gaza and Israel

On the grass outside the university library, it is as though it never happened. 

The tents have been removed. The pavements have been sprayed. The graffiti removed.

Order and control have been restored. The protest has been silenced. For now at least.

A few streets away, at the university police station, an officer calls the names of the students arrested the night before.

On the steps in front of him, the bedraggled are waiting.

Read more:
Why are university students protesting in the US?
Inside pro-Palestinian protest as police break up UCLA encampment

Pic: Reuters
Image:
Pic: Reuters

Police clash with pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the UCLA campus early on Thursday morning. Pic: AP
Image:
Police clash with pro-Palestinian demonstrators on the UCLA campus early on Thursday morning. Pic: AP

Students, charged and released with a date in court, are here now to collect their belongings. They’re missing bags, belts, shoes, all lost in the chaos of the night before.

More on California

From the very heart of the protest encampment, our cameras had captured the chaos.

Officers moving in. Tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse. Stun grenades to disorientate.

Police  detain a demonstrator, as they clear out the protest encampment in UCLA.
Pic: Reuters
Image:
Police detain a demonstrator, as they clear out the protest encampment in UCLA.
Pic: Reuters

They were scenes which have stirred an already fevered debate about Israel and Gaza, yes, but about much more too. About America, about policing, and about free speech too.

President Biden said yesterday: “Vandalism, trespassing, breaking windows, shutting down campuses, forcing the cancellation of classes and graduations – none of this is a peaceful protest.”

‘Wrong’ say the protesters. Their movement, they say, is the very essence of protest; of civil disobedience which is threaded through US college campus history.

Law enforcement official moves a tent at the protest encampment in support of Palestinians at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), as the conflict between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist group Hamas continues, in Los Angeles, California, U.S., May 2, 2024. REUTERS/Aude Guerrucci
Image:
Law enforcement official moves a tent at the protest encampment in support of Palestinians at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA)

Signs of the days-long protest on campus being gradually cleared.
Image:
Signs of the days-long protest on campus being gradually cleared.

They reject any notion that they are threatening or violent. Yet the deeply divisive history of the Israel-Palestine conflict ensures that the beholder will so often be offended by the actions of the other side.

It was the students perceived antisemitism through their pro-Palestinian slogans which had drawn a group of pro-Israel protesters to the encampment earlier in the week.

The chaos of that night was reflected in a statement by the university’s student radio station which has been covering every twist.

This embrace turned out to be a thread of history
Image:
This embrace turned out to be a thread of history

“Counter protestors used bear mace, professional-grade fireworks and clubs to brutalize hundreds of our peers, UCLA turned a blind eye. Police were not called until hours into the onslaught and stood aside for over an hour as counter-protestors enacted racial, physical and chemical violence,” the statement from the UCLA Radio Managerial team said.

Watching the clear-up after the nighttime police sweep of the protesters I spotted two people embracing. A young man and an older woman.

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

Professor recalls violent arrest at protest

It turned out to be a thread of history. One was a student who’d been arrested the night before.

The other was a student from a past time. Diane Salinger had been at New York’s Columbia University in 1968, at protests which now form a key chapter in American history.

Diane Salinger had been at New York’s Columbia University in 1968, at protests which now form a key chapter in American history
Image:
Diane Salinger had been at New York’s Columbia University in 1968, at protests which now form a key chapter in American history

“I’m so proud of these people here. I’m so proud,” she told me.

“You know the civil unrest of the students back in ’68 and it continued for several years, it actually changed the course of the Vietnam War and hopefully this is going to do the same thing.”

But then, back at the police station, a conversation that hints at the wider challenges for America.

Follow Sky News on WhatsApp
Follow Sky News on WhatsApp

Keep up with all the latest news from the UK and around the world by following Sky News

Tap here

‘Tom’ is a protester who wanted to remain anonymous – a graduate who feels politically deserted in his own country. For him, no government is better than any on offer.

'Tom' is a protester who wanted to remain anonymous - a graduate who feels politically deserted in his own country.
Image:
‘Tom’ is a protester who wanted to remain anonymous – a graduate who feels politically deserted in his own country.

“The problem with our system is that we can’t rely on the police, we can’t rely on the military to keep us safe.

“When we need to make our voices heard, we need to make them heard, and the only way to do that without being repressed is by keeping each other safe and I think that last night and the last few months have really exemplified that,” he told me.

These protests are about more than Gaza. They are aligning a spectrum of dissent.

Continue Reading

US

California boat captain jailed over fire that killed 34 people

Published

on

By

California boat captain jailed over fire that killed 34 people

A scuba dive boat captain has been jailed for four years for criminal negligence over a fire that killed 34 people.

Captain Jerry Boylan was also sentenced to three years supervised release by a federal judge in Los Angeles, California.

The blaze on the vessel named Conception in September 2019 was the deadliest maritime disaster in recent American history.

Boylan was found guilty of one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer last year.

Defendant, Conception's captain Jerry Boylan, right, arrives in federal court in Los Angeles, Wednesday, Oct. 25, 2023. Federal prosecutors are seeking justice for 34 people killed in a fire aboard a scuba dive boat called the Conception in 2019. The trial against Boylan began Tuesday with jury selection. Boylan has pleaded not guilty to one count of misconduct or neglect of ship officer. (AP Photo/Damian Dovarganes)
Image:
Captain Jerry Boylan. Pic: AP

The charge is a pre-Civil War statute, known colloquially as seaman’s manslaughter, and was designed to hold steamboat captains and crew responsible for maritime disasters.

In a sentencing memo, lawyers for Boylan – who is appealing – wrote: “While the loss of life here is staggering, there can be no dispute that Mr Boylan did not intend for anyone to die.

“Indeed, Mr Boylan lives with significant grief, remorse, and trauma as a result of the deaths of his passengers and crew.”

The Conception was anchored off Santa Cruz Island, 25 miles south of Santa Barbara, when it caught fire before dawn on the final day of a three-day voyage, sinking less than 30 metres from the shore.

Thirty-three passengers and a crew member died, trapped below deck.

Read more from Sky News:
Tourists, including 11 Britons, hurt in minibus crash
First wild animal seen using medicinal plant to treat wound

The victims included an environmental scientist, a Singaporean data scientist and a family of three sisters, their father and his wife.

Boylan jumped overboard, and four crew members who followed suit also survived.

FILE - The burned hull of the dive boat Conception is brought to the surface by a salvage team off Santa Cruz Island, Calif., on Sept. 12, 2019. A federal jury on Monday, Nov. 6, 2023, found scuba dive boat captain Jerry Boylan was criminally negligent in the deaths of 34 people killed in a fire aboard the vessel in 2019, the deadliest maritime disaster in recent U.S. history. (Brian van der Brug/Los Angeles Times via AP, File)
Image:
The burned hull of the dive boat. Pic: AP

Boylan initially faced 34 counts of seaman’s manslaughter, meaning he could have faced a total of 340 years behind bars.

His lawyers argued the deaths were the result of a single incident and not separate crimes, so prosecutors instead charged Boylan with only one count.

While the criminal case has concluded, there are several ongoing lawsuits.

Continue Reading

US

Woman wins $1m lottery jackpot twice in 10 weeks

Published

on

By

Woman wins m lottery jackpot twice in 10 weeks

A woman has won a $1m prize on the lottery for the second time in 10 weeks.

Massachusetts State Lottery revealed Christine Wilson was the lucky ticketholder who hit the jackpot twice.

Ms Wilson, of Attleborough, Massachusetts, won her most recent prize playing the “100X Cash” $10 instant ticket game.

Back in February, she claimed the first $1m (£796,000) prize in the “Lifetime Millions” $50 (£40) instant ticket game.

On both occasions, she opted to receive her prize in the form of a one-time payment of $650,000 (£518,000).

When she won her first prize, Ms Wilson said that she planned to use some of her winnings to buy a new car.

She plans to put this latest windfall into savings.

More on Massachusetts

Read more:
Winner of $1.3bn jackpot plans to use money to ‘find a good doctor’

Ms Wilson bought her most recent ticket at Family Food Mart in the US town of Mansfield and the shop will receive a $10,000 (£7,900) bonus for its sale of the ticket, according to the Massachusetts State Lottery.

She bought her first $1m winning ticket at Dubs’s Discount Liquors in the same town.

Continue Reading

Trending