Day: April 8, 2024

‘I will never join the army’: ultra-Orthodox Jews vow…  inkl

Israel and Hamas both dampened hopes on Monday of a speedy breakthrough in Cairo talks towards a Gaza truce and hostage release deal after Egyptian state-linked media had reported “significant progress”.

As the Gaza war raged on into a seventh month, Israel is under growing international pressure to agree to a ceasefire, including from its top ally and arms supplier the United States.

War on Gaza: Why Israel is not held accountable for sexual violence  Middle East Eye

Far-right partners pressure Netanyahu not to end Gaza war  Yahoo! Voices

Damascus — Iran’s foreign minister inaugurated the country’s new consulate in Damascus on Monday, a week after a deadly strike blamed on Israel destroyed the former premises, sending regional tensions skyrocketing. 

Tehran, a key Damascus ally, has vowed to avenge last Monday’s airstrike on the Iranian embassy’s consular section that killed seven Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) members, including two generals. 

The strike came against the backdrop of the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas, which began with the Iran-backed Palestinian militant group’s unprecedented October 7 attack on Israel. 

Damascus and Tehran blame Israel for last Monday’s raid, but it has not commented. 

Iranian Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian inaugurated the new consular section in a Damascus building in the presence of his Syrian counterpart Faisal Mekdad, whom he also met earlier Monday, state news agency SANA said. 

An AFP correspondent at the inauguration said the new consulate was not far from the premises destroyed by the strike in the upscale Mazzeh area, which also houses other foreign embassies and U.N. offices. 

Amir-Abdollahian was also set to meet President Bashar al-Assad, and Syria’s pro-government newspaper Al-Watan said his talks in Damascus would be “mainly focused” on repercussions of last week’s strike. 

Iran’s foreign minister began a regional tour Sunday in Oman, long a mediator between Tehran and the West, where Muscat’s foreign minister called for de-escalation. 

An adviser to Iran’s supreme leader warned on Sunday that Israeli embassies were “no longer safe” after the Damascus attack. 

Analysts saw the raid as an escalation of Israel’s campaign against Iran and its regional proxies that runs the risk of triggering a wider war beyond the Israel-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip. 

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights war monitor said 16 people were killed in the consulate strike: eight Iranians, five Syrians, one member of Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group and two civilians. 

Among the dead were generals Mohammad Reza Zahedi and Mohammad Hadi Haji Rahimi, both senior commanders in the Quds Force, the IRGC’s foreign operations arm. 

Israel has launched hundreds of airstrikes in Syria since civil war broke out 13 years ago, targeting Iran-backed forces including Hezbollah as well as Syrian army positions and weapons depots. 

It rarely comments on individual strikes, but Israel’s raids have increased since the Gaza war began. 

Tehran backs Palestinian militants Hamas but has denied any direct involvement in the group’s October 7 attack, which sparked massive Israeli retaliation in Gaza.

SAO PAULO — Brazil’s Supreme Court unanimously voted Monday that the armed forces have no constitutional power to intervene in disputes between government branches, a largely symbolic decision aimed at bolstering democracy after years of increasing threat of military intervention.  

The court’s decision came in response to an argument that right-wing former President Jair Bolsonaro and his allies deployed in recent years. They have claimed that Article 142 of Brazil’s Constitution affords the military so-called “moderating power” between the executive, legislative and judicial branches.  

Bolsonaro presented this interpretation in an April 2020 meeting with his ministers, telling them that any of the three powers can request the armed forces take action to restore order in Brazil. In the years since, posters invoking Article 142 became a fixture at rallies calling for military takeover – and culminated in an uprising by Bolsonaro supporters seeking to summon the military to oust his successor from power.  

All of the 11 justices — including both justices appointed by Bolsonaro — rejected that thesis.  

While the constitution empowers the military to protect the nation from threats and guarantee constitutional powers, “that does not comport with any interpretation that allows the use of the armed forces for the defense of one power against the other,” the case’s rapporteur, Justice Luiz Fux, wrote in his vote.  

Article 142’s vague wording had allowed room for some interpretation — although the one espoused by Brazil’s far right was “absolutely crazy,” said João Gabriel Pontes, a constitutional lawyer at Daniel Sarmento e Ademar Borges in Rio de Janeiro.  

“This is not a Supreme Court ruling that will safeguard Brazilian democracy from new attacks,” Pontes said by phone. “However, it sends an important message to society that a military intervention has no constitutional basis.”  

The constitution dates from 1988, three years after the country cast off its 21-year military dictatorship.  

Bolsonaro’s 2018 election in a sense marked the return of the armed forces to power. The former army captain who openly waxed nostalgic for the dictatorship era appointed high-ranking officers to his Cabinet and thousands of active-duty service members and reservists to civilian positions throughout his administration.  

For his 2022 reelection bid, he tapped a general as his running mate and tasked the military with auditing electronic voting machines whose reliability he cast doubt upon, without ever providing evidence. Following his defeat to leftist rival Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, his supporters set up camp outside military barracks for months to demand military intervention.  

Bolsonaro never conceded defeat nor asked them to demobilize, and on Jan. 8, 2023 they stormed the capital, Brasilia, invading and vandalizing the Supreme Court, Congress and the presidential palace.  

Federal Police later confiscated the cell phone of Bolsonaro’s aide-de-camp and found conversations between close advisers and military officials debating whether conditions and the constitution allowed for military intervention. The seizure was part of an investigation into whether the former president and top aides incited the uprising to restore him to power. He has denied any involvement.

Debate over the constitutional role of the armed forces reflects “the historic vice of an institution that never conformed to subordinating itself to civil order,” and the court’s vote reaffirms what is clear from any constitutional law textbook, said Conrado Hubner, a professor of constitutional law at the University of Sao Paulo.

“Nothing has the power to avoid a coup in the future. Nothing,” Hubner said. But the court’s position helps to combat justifications for a coup, he said.

Meantime, Lula has endeavored to stay on good terms with the military’s top brass. Last week, he forbade any official events observing the 60th anniversary of the date the military deposed the president and ushered in Brazil’s dictatorship, on March 31, 1964.

Virtually all historians characterize it as a coup. Others disagree, including Bolsonaro’s then-vice president, Gen. Hamilton Mourão, who wrote Sunday on X that the date represents the day “the nation saved itself from itself!” and that history cannot be rewritten.

In his vote, Justice Flávio Dino wrote that “echoes of that past stubbornly refuse to pass,” and that the court’s decision should be forwarded to Lula’s defense minister for dissemination to every military organization in the country.

Doing so “would aim to eradicate misinformation that has reached some members of the armed forces,” Dino wrote. “Any theories that go beyond or distort the true meaning of Article 142 of the federal constitution must be eliminated.” 

Организовал вечеринку глянцевый журнал “Пьемонт”, а само мероприятие прошло под названием “Нескорені” (‘непокоренные’ — укр.).

В среднем каждый участник вечеринки пожертвовал около 600 гривен — всего получилось 115 тысяч. За эти деньги купили семь дронов FlyFish-7.

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Правда, сумма собранных средств выглядит несоразмерной с масштабом мероприятия, которое проходило в одном из самых дорогих комплексов запада Украины Edem Resort &Spa. Участников вечера развлекали певцы Андрей Кише, Наталка Карпа и группа “Рандеву”. Ведущим вечера был шоумен Владимир Такудис. Гости были в дорогих нарядах и аксессуарах: например, женские сумки от 1 до 5 тысяч долларов.

Одна из владелиц журнала “Пьемонт” Марта Кавецка отказалась отвечать, сколько было потрачено на организацию вечера и на гонорары артистов. Поэтому журналисты позвонили в Edem Resort & Spa, представившись организаторами благотворительного аукциона, и спросили, сколько стоят их услуги.

“Нам рассказали, что аренда зала, в котором устроили благотворительный вечер 29 марта, стоит 7 тысяч долларов. Однако, если мероприятие является благотворительным, то его организаторам могут сделать скидку”, — пишет издание.

К слову, как отметили журналисты, за 7 тысяч долларов можно купить 17 дронов FlyFish-7.

Также в заведении рассказали, что звук и свет для организации концерта они не предоставляют, его нужно привозить и настраивать самостоятельно. В одной из львовских звукозаписывающих студий рассказали, что такая услуга стоит не менее 200 тысяч гривен, что равно стоимости 12 дронов FlyFish-7.

“Если оценить гонорар исполнителей Кише, Наталки Карпы и группы “Рандеву”, а также ведущего Владимира Такудиса в 200 тысяч гривен на всех, а стоимость фуршета — в 250 тысяч, то можно предположить, что на развлечения для элиты потратили сумму, за которую можно было купить не менее 60 FPV-дронов”, — резюмировали журналисты.

Video of Donald Trump supporters saying they’d vote for Putin go viral https://t.co/T0cuPbaBOm pic.twitter.com/nsqvP4CqXh

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) April 7, 2024

Video of Donald Trump supporters saying they’d vote for Putin go viral https://t.co/T0cuPbaBOm pic.twitter.com/nsqvP4CqXh

— Newsweek (@Newsweek) April 7, 2024