Gaza protests: All the latest updates

Gaza protests: All the latest updates

News Unknown   10:57

Israeli forces shoot dead seven Palestinians and wound hundreds more as protests near Gaza border continue.

or a second week, thousands of Palestinians are protesting along the eastern borders of the Gaza Strip, as part of the Great March of Return movement.

Israeli forces have killed 26 Palestinians during the past week, including 17 on the first Friday of protest, and wounded more than 1,600 others.

Here are all the latest updates on Friday's protests:

Yahya Sinwar: Gaza will 'stand tall' in the face of the occupation

• Yahya Sinwar, the leader of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, has made a rare public appearance at a protest near the city of Khan Younis.
• Freed in a 2011 prisoner swap with Israel after more than 20 years in jail, Sinwar told the crowd that Gaza would "stand tall" in the face of Israeli occupation.
• "The plot of starvation and siege have failed to incite the Palestinian people against the resistance [Hamas].
• "Gaza will not starve and will not abandon its national objective.
• "Our people came out to tell the world that Gaza is free and that we will stand tall and resist the Israeli occupation."

Local media: Seven killed by Israeli forces

The Palestinian Safa Press Agency is reporting that the death toll has risen to seven, with Sidqi Abu Outewi, a 45-year-old from Nuseirat, and Mohammed Hajj Saleh, a 33-year-old from Rafah, joining the growing list of fatalities.

Fifth Palestinian killed, health ministry says

• The Palestinian ministry of health says the death toll has risen to five, with 20-year-old Ibrahim Al-Ourr killed.

Palestinian Ministry of Health: 780 wounded

• Health officials in Gaza said that at least 780 protesters have been wounded, including seven women and 31 children.

Fourth Palestinian killed, health ministry says

• The Palestinian ministry of health said that a 16-year-old boy has been killed by Israeli forces.
• The teenager, Hussein Madi, was dead on arrival after he was taken to Gaza City's Shifa Hospital, the ministry added.

Journalist: 28 wounded protesters in intensive care unit

• Hosam Salem, a photographer at the scene in the southern Gaza Strip, told Al Jazeera that there are currently 28 protesters in the intensive care unit at the Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis.
• Salem witnessed his colleague Yaser Murtaja, a 30-year-old journalist with a local media outlet, drop to the ground after he was shot by Israeli forces in the stomach.
• "Yaser was filming with his camera next to me when we heard the sound of gunfire," Salem said. "He just fell on the ground and said, 'I've been shot, I've been shot'."
• "He needed eight units of blood," Salem continued. "The hospital moved him from the operations room to the ICU where his situation remains critical."
• Another journalist, Ibrahim Zanoun, was shot in the arm while covering the protests in Jabaliya, nothern Gaza.

Health officials: Two killed, 250 injured

• The Palestinian Ministry of Health says protester Majdi Ramadan Shbat has been killed east of Gaza City by Israeli forces.
• The number of those wounded has risen to at least 250, according to the ministry.
• Shbat's death brings the total number of protesters killed on Friday to three, after Thaer Rab'a, who was shot by Israeli forces during the March 30 demonstrations, succumbed to his wounds earlier in the day.

Protesters 'defiant' amid growing tension

A Palestinian woman and man stand behind burning tyres in Khuza'a near the border in southern Gaza Strip [Hosam Salem/Al Jazeera]

continue at Al jazeera news

Barack Obama 'furious' with Donald Trump over wiretapping claims, ex-President's aides report

Barack Obama 'furious' with Donald Trump over wiretapping claims, ex-President's aides report

News Unknown   12:11

The former president is said to be 'livid' about the accusations

Barack Obama is reportedly "furious" about Donald Trump's allegation that he ordered the placing of wiretaps in Trump Tower ahead of the presidential election.
The former US leader was said to be "livid" after his successor accused him of being a "bad, or sick, guy", while failing to provide any evidence his Democratic predecessor had ordered a surveillance operation.
While Mr Obama has kept a relatively low profile since leaving office, aides told The Wall Street Journal  that Mr Trump's accusation - which he made without producing any evidence to back up his claim - has crossed a boundary because it questioned the former leader's integrity and that of the office of president


It follows a string of tweets from Mr Trump over the weekend, that accused the then-President of wiretapping his New York office in 2016.
"Terrible!" he said. "Just found out that Obama had my 'wires tapped' in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!"
He added: "Is it legal for a sitting President to be 'wire tapping' a race for president prior to an election? Turned down by court earlier. A new low!"
Mr Obama's spokesman, Kevin Lewis, flatly denied the suggestion that anything underhand had taken place.
"A cardinal rule of the Obama administration was that no White House official ever interfered with any independent investigation led by the Department of Justice," he said.
"As part of that practice, neither President Obama nor any White House official ever ordered surveillance on any US citizen. Any suggestion otherwise is simply false."
Mr Trump flung another accusation at Obama earlier this week, tweeting: "122 vicious prisoners, released by the Obama Administration from [Guantanamo Bay], have returned to the battlefield. Just another terrible decision!"
That claim has been proven false. 113 of the so-called 'vicious prisoners' released from extrajudicial detention were set free by President George Bush, and only nine (or six per cent) by the Obama administration.
Mr Trump's camp was quick to fire back at claims these tweets were unbecoming. "Trump's people think Obama is at war with them," the media baron and Trump ally Christopher Ruddy told The WSJ.
"This president has been under siege since Day One from both the press and Obama loyalists and he’s reacting to it. I don’t think there’s any doubt that Obama loyalists inside the administration and outside are giving Donald Trump a lot of grief and a lot of problems."

UK economy being kept afloat by 'unsustainable' spending binge, Treasury watchdog warns

UK economy being kept afloat by 'unsustainable' spending binge, Treasury watchdog warns

News Unknown   11:52

'The savings ratio has fallen very substantially, back to the sort of level that we saw very early on in the financial crisis'



 
Britain’s economy is being kept afloat by an “unsustainable” spending binge last seen just before the crash, the Treasury watchdog has warned.
The independent Office of Budget Responsibility (OBR) highlighted the danger of the ‘savings ratio’ going “negative for the first time since the middle of 2008”.
It means people are spending beyond their means on credit cards and by dipping into their savings, to cope with an incomes squeeze.

The last time there was a negative ratio was in the early part of 2008 – which was followed by the financial crisis and the deepest recession since the Second World War.
At a post-Budget briefing, the OBR also highlighted the economic pain ahead with disposable income per person forecast to fall by 0.7 per cent in 2017.
That meant households were poised to go further into debt – a total set to reach 153 per cent of disposable income by 2022, up from 149 per cent on the OBR’s forecast in November.
Meanwhile, the Resolution Foundation think-tank said the average person would have £900 less in their pocket or purse in 2021 than was forecast a year ago.
On the plunging savings ratio, Sir Charles Bean, a member of the OBR’s budget responsibility committee, said: “The important thing is that that is not sustainable.”
He added: “The savings ratio has fallen very substantially, back to the sort of level that we saw very early on in the financial crisis.
“The financing of that has been partly by some consumers taking out more debt - we have seen credit relatively strong recently.
“Equally, there have been some households which have been running down their savings.”
Only higher productivity and wage growth – neither of which are anticipated – could allow the spending binge to be sustained, Sir Charles said.
The OBR also dismissed Theresa May’s lingering promise to reduce net migration to “tens of thousands” in the next five years, despite Brexit.
Around 525,000 foreign workers would account for the vast majority of the 700,000 predicted rise in employment to 2021-22, as “inward migrants are disproportionately of working age”.
And the watchdog warned the Government was “not on course” to meet its flagship target to balance the books as early as possible after 2020.
The Budget deficit was likely to be as high as one per cent in 2021-22, even before the impact of an ageing population and rising healthcare costs.
Although borrowing this year would be £16.7bn lower than originally forecast, at £51.7bn, this was largely due to one-off factors rather than an improved economic performance.
With no change in “long-term growth potential”, higher than expected growth in 2017 – at two per cent - simply meant lower growth in the years to follow, as “spare capacity is used up”.
On Brexit, the OBR said there was still no “meaningful basis” on which to judge the impact – despite the Prime Minister vowing to pull out of the EU’s single market and customs union.
But it did forecast “a lower trade intensity of UK economic activity” for the next decade, as Britain strove to negotiate new trading arrangements after withdrawal.

Budget 2017: Philip Hammond breaks Tory manifesto promise not to raise National Insurance contributions

Budget 2017: Philip Hammond breaks Tory manifesto promise not to raise National Insurance contributions

News Unknown   11:45

Chancellor hikes taxes for the self-employed


The Chancellor has broken the Conservatives’ manifesto pledge not to raise National Insurance contributions after increasing the headline rate of the tax for some workers in his Budget.
Independent white van traders and freelancers are likely to be worst hit by the policy, which will raise the tax rate twice in the next two years ahead of Brexit.
The 2015 Conservative election manifesto repeatedly pledged that “we will not raise VAT, National Insurance contributions or Income Tax” .
On another page the document stated that “we can commit to no increases in VAT, Income Tax or National Insurance. Tax rises on working people would harm our economy, reduce living standards and cost jobs”.
At the time Labour described the pledge as a “last-minute gimmick”.
In the Chancellor’s speech on Wednesday afternoon Mr Hammond however targeted self-employed workers with a hike in the rate of NI contributions. Self-employed workers will see their rate rise from 9 per cent to 10 per cent in 2018, with a further rise to 11 per cent in 2019


Treasury officials say 2.5 million people will be hit by £240 a year by the NICS class 4 change. The number of people seeing a NICS rise in April 2018 when it comes in will fall to 1.6 million because of the move to abolish class 2 NICS previously announced JIC.
He justified the policy on the basis that differences in benefits between employees and self-employed workers “have been very substantially reduced” in recent years.
A Labour spokesperson said: "It is clear the Tories have broken their manifesto promise in order to hit low and middle earners with the sole-trader tax while continuing with tax giveaways for the super rich and corporations."
A Government spokesperson tried to defend the policy by arguing that the Government remained committed to its manifesto pledges and that detail of the NICs rise had been set out in legislation after the election.
Speaking after the Budget announcement David Gauke, the chief secretary to the Treasury, defended the decision to break the manifesto promise.
“I think we have got a situation where we’ve closed the gap in terms of benefits entitlements, effectively eliminated it, that we have got a growing situation with the costs and the sense that if we don’t take action … we are placing an unfair burden on the 85 per cent of employees,” he told after BBC News.
“I think if you look at our record as a Government over the course of this period in time you’ll see it is a record where we are cutting direct taxes … that when it comes to those direct taxes we are not looking for more, but there is a very specific case and the more we look at this the more we can see there is a problem that is going to build up if we don’t take action on this.”

The Creepiest Abandoned Places on Earth

The Creepiest Abandoned Places on Earth

space Unknown   13:53

Bet, this time, you’re positive the exteriors for the 2nd season of the AHS: Asylum were filmed in this creepy place. Nope. Wrong again! Danvers State Hospital in Massachusetts has gone by many names; it’s been variously known as the Danvers Insane Asylum, State Lunatic Hospital, even Hell House on the Hill and other such lovely monikers. During its heyday in the 20s and 30s there were controversies over its given out the use of drugs, shock therapy and lobotomies – as a matter of fact, it may have been the birthplace of lobotomy. Eventually, Danvers transformed into unsanitary and equally dangerous place for both the patients and staff. And since its closure it has fallen into a state of despair and severe creepiness. Beware, as it’s one of the most violently haunted asylums in the world.

2. Hotel del Salto — San Antonio del Tequendama, Colombia

 No, it’s not the set of American Horror Story: Hotel, even though La Casa del Salto del Tequendama does have a past twisted enough to shoot a movie. It was built up in 1923 and named the Hotel del Santo in the 50s. Picturesque location alongside the Tequendama waterfalls in central Colombia attracted many travelers. A few decades later the level of river pollution caused the hotel’s abandonment. Recently it has been changed into a museum, though. And still, the creepiest part remains the same; many believe that this place is haunted since it was known during its prime time as a site for numerous suicide cases.

3. Pripyat, Ukraine

 

An abandoned city, located in northern Ukraine, once bustled with almost 500,000 residents is now a radioactive ghost town over-run by nature. In 1986, Pripyat became a ground zero for the deadliest nuclear disaster in history when an ‘accident’ destroyed a reactor and caused deadly radiation to spread throughout the city. The levels of radiation remain too high for people to live there again though it’s safe for tourist to visit. The city will stay abandoned forever, as that much radiation won’t vanish for hundreds of years
4. House of the Bulgarian Communist Party — Mount Buzludzha, Bulgaria
The Buzludzha monument or the ‘House-Monument of the Bulgarian Communist Party’ used to be a wonder back in the day. Opened in 1981, it served as a symbolic meeting point for the communist regime. But with the fall of the Soviet Union in less than a decade later it went into disrepair; now abandoned, this huge concrete building looks like an alien ship. The extreme location of this otherworldly monument, on Mount Buzludzha, puts it in the path of severe storms, ravaging winds and harsh winters. The outer windows were the first to go, escorted by the most of the metal-tiled roof, which is why the plans are being made to restore it.

5. Kolmanskop, Namibia

 
 Kolmanskop is one of the most famous haunting ghost towns in the world. It is located in the Namib Desert and was founded in the 1900s when first diamond was found in the sand. Within a few years, hundreds of German families set up homes here desperately seeking their fortune. Year by year it has been turning into bustling oasis which had to be abandoned to the wind and sand within just 50 years. Run-down buildings are falling apart, and their insides are filled with sand from the surrounding desert. The remains of Kolmanskop work as a magnet for ghost hunters, which is why De Beers Company set a museum to keep the town in somewhat decent shape and preserve the history of Kolmanskop.

6. Sanzhi UFO Houses, Taiwan

 
 Other-worldly appearance and wacky architecture of these saucer-like houses made them widely known as Sanzhi UFO houses the mysterious “ruins of the future”. Sanzhi Pod City became abandoned two years after it was built. This resort complex was built in 1978 in Taiwan. In 2 years due to some investment issues and other financial losses, the project was abandoned and left to the mercy of time. Sanzhi Pod City managed to find its way onto various A-lists of eerie ghost towns though and even has been used by MTV as a filming location.

7. Red Sands Sea Forts, the United Kingdom

 
 These huge metal Maunsell gun towers were originally constructed in 1943 during the Second World War to protect Britain from the German Navy. The bizarre-looking concrete monsters are named after Guy Maunsell, the engineer that designed them. Some of the towers survived to this day after they were decommissioned and left abandoned in the 50s. A few of them are still standing out as sea, remarkable as ever. Even though their lives weren’t rather long, these forts are outstanding relics of 2WW architectural history.

8. Mirny Diamond Mine – Eastern Siberia, Russia

 The second largest excavated hole in the world- Mirny was made by Stalin, who desperately wanted a more independent economy for the USSR. It was the 1st and the largest diamond mine in the Soviet Union. The Mir mine also known as Mirny mine is now inactive after 44 years of surface operation. The mine is 1,722 ft deep and has a diameter of 3,900 ft. It started to develop in 1957. Climate conditions were extremely harsh to mine: 7 winter month of frozen ground vs. brief summer month of the slush-turned ground. And yet Mir mine was producing 10,000,000 carats of diamond/year in the 60s.

9. The Haunting New Bedford Orpheum -U.S.A.

 Not only is April 15, 1912, a significant day because of the Auditorium opening, but also it happened to be the day the Titanic sunk. It functioned as the Orpheum for 47 years. This once-mighty theatre space was used to entertain the immense audiences. Since the New Bedford Orpheum closed its doors in 1959, part of the building became a supermarket ant then a warehouse. Sadly today, it remains completely abandoned, and still it never fails to impress, though.

10. Underwater Lost City Shicheng, China

Fifty-seven years ago, the Xin’an River Hydropower Station trapped the 1,300-year-old Chinese city of Shicheng (Lions City) under water. It was named Lion City after 5 Lion Mountain risen largely behind it. It is truly an astonishing sight. The city stands preserved from destructive forces of erosion, like sun, wind and rain, beneath the Qiandao Lake, so it were almost untouched and managed to stay in pretty good condition. Archeologists call it a “virtual time capsule”, but if you wanna open it, you’ll have to get some scuba gear.

Brexit bill: House of Lords vote down calls for second referendum

Brexit bill: House of Lords vote down calls for second referendum

News Unknown   13:36

In an 'extremely rare move' the Liberal Democrats will now vote against the Brexit Bill at its third reading in the upper chamber


Peers in the House of Lords have voted down calls for a second referendum on the terms of the final Brexit deal by an overwhelming majority.
Rejecting the Liberal Democrat’s amendment to the Government’s Brexit Bill, peers voted against a second referendum by 336 votes to 131 – a majority of 205.
In what the party describes as an “extremely rare move” in the Lords, the Lib Dems will now vote against the Brexit Bill at the third reading later on Tuesday.
Dick Newby, the party’s leader in the upper chamber, said “it was only right that they [the people] are given a say on the final deal”.
He continued: “Today the Government have confirmed that the Brexit deal will be finalised behind closed doors in Westminster. This is not accountable, this is not democracy, and that is why the Liberal Democrats cannot support this Bill.
“Theresa May is driving Britain towards a hard Brexit which wasn’t on the ballot paper and which no one voted for.”
Labour's leader in the Lords, Baroness Smith of Basildon, said her party could not support the amendment and would abstain in the vote. She said there had been “no significant public demand for a second referendum” and no significant shift in public opinion about leaving the EU.
Lord Bridges, the Brexit minister, also dismissed the Lib Dem amendment as “misguided in practice and in principle”, adding it was abundantly clear that the referendum last year was a “once in a generation decision”.
He added: "There was nothing on the ballot and no suggestion from Parliament that there would have to be another referendum if the UK were to vote to leave."
It comes after the Archbishop of Canterbury warned that holding a second referendum on the final deal would add to the nation’s division and “deepen the bitterness” exposed by the EU referendum last year.
"I believe it would be both dangerous and unwise and wrong to reduce the substance of the terms on which we exit the European Union to the result of a binary yes-no choice taken last summer,” he added.