Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
The Transport Department announced today (May 11) that, upon completion of the system maintenance, the HKeToll website (www.hketoll.gov.hk), mobile app and electronic notification services have resumed normal operation at around 4am.
The system will process toll transactions recorded during the maintenance period and gradually restore sending electronic notifications to users. Motorists should pay the tolls charged based on their actual time of passing through the tunnel. Users may also log in to their account for transaction details.
For enquiries, please call the 24-hour service hotline at 3853 7333.
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) — Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi on Saturday expressed hope that India and Pakistan will maintain calm and exercise restraint, properly resolve differences through dialogue and consultation, and avoid escalating the situation.
In a telephone conversation with National Security Adviser to the Indian Prime Minister Ajit Doval, Wang Yi, who is also a member of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee and director of the Office of the Foreign Affairs Commission of the CPC Central Committee, said China supports and hopes that India and Pakistan can reach a comprehensive and lasting ceasefire through consultations, which meets the fundamental interests of the two countries and the common aspirations of the international community.
The head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry also said that China condemns the terrorist attack in the city of Pahalgam and opposes terrorism in any form.
Noting that the current international situation is volatile and turbulent, Wang Yi noted that peace and stability in Asia did not come easy and deserves careful treatment, adding that India and Pakistan are inseparable neighbors, both of them are neighbors of China.
A. Doval, for his part, said the Pahalgam attack had resulted in a large number of casualties on the Indian side, saying India needed to take counter-terrorism action.
War is not India’s choice and is not in the interests of either side, he said, adding that both India and Pakistan remain committed to the ceasefire and look forward to an early restoration of peace and stability in the region. -0-
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
ISLAMABAD/NEW DELHI, May 10 (Xinhua) — Pakistan and India on Saturday announced a ceasefire agreement.
The statement came after four days of mutual exchanges of military strikes.
Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Saturday that the two countries had agreed to a ceasefire with immediate effect.
“Pakistan remains committed to peace and security in the region without compromising its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added.
I. Dar said that after the recent escalation and military actions on both sides, several countries including the US, Turkey and Saudi Arabia have maintained contacts with Pakistan.
Diplomatic efforts continued throughout the day, after which a ceasefire agreement was reached, he added.
Meanwhile, Indian Foreign Minister Vikram Misri on Saturday said the two countries had agreed to observe the ceasefire and stop military operations on their borders and the Line of Control.
“The Director General of Military Operations of Pakistan contacted his Indian counterpart at 3:35 pm local time today. During the talks, the two sides agreed to completely cease all forms of hostilities – on land, in the air and at sea – from 5 pm local time today. Relevant orders have already been issued to both sides to implement this agreement,” Misri said at a briefing in New Delhi.
According to V. Misri, the directors general of military operations of the two countries will hold another conversation on May 12 at 12:00 local time. –0–
One person has died and another has serious injuries following a two-vehicle collision in Hastings overnight.
Emergency services were called to the crash on Southampton Street West, near the intersection with King Street South, about 12.20am.
Sadly, one of the drivers died at the scene, while the other was transported to hospital in a serious condition. There were no other occupants in either car.
Police are providing support to the next of kin.
The Serious Crash Unit has carried out a scene examination and enquiries into the cause of the crash are ongoing.
Minister for Mental Health and Associate Minister of Health Matt Doocey will travel to Australia on 12 May to attend Digital Health Festival 2025 in Melbourne. He will head a delegation of 23 New Zealand companies and organisations, to highlight the leading role New Zealand is playing in the digital transformation of healthcare.
“New Zealand has a proud history of innovation in healthcare. I am delighted to support the innovative, forward-thinking Kiwi companies at this year’s Digital Health Festival and showcase some of New Zealand’s world-class healthtech solutions,” Mr Doocey says.
While at the event, Mr Doocey will deliver a keynote speech on New Zealand’s innovative approach to healthcare and take part in a panel discussion on ‘Enhancing the Future of Patient Care – Innovation from the Edge’. He will also work directly with New Zealand companies to open doors to more opportunities for New Zealand businesses in Australia and globally.
“Healthtech is one of New Zealand’s largest and fastest-growing tech subsectors, employing over 10,500 people globally. International collaboration is key to driving much-needed innovation in the industry and events such as this provide an excellent platform for fostering partnerships,” Mr Doocey says.
Digital Health Festival 2025 will run from 13-14 May, bringing together over 8,000 influential leaders and innovators to connect and share the latest developments in healthcare. A New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) hosted pavilion will be the focal point of New Zealand’s presence at the event.
Mr Doocey leaves for Melbourne on Monday 12th May and will conclude his visit on Thursday 15 May.
Cordons are in place following a serious incident in Napier overnight.
Police were called to Alexander Avenue in Onekawa about 3.10am.
Cordons are in place at the intersections of Hitchings Avenue and Alexander Avenue, Dinwiddie Avenue and Wallis Place, and Alexander Avenue, near Dinwiddie Avenue.
A scene examination is under way this morning and cordons are expected to remain in place through the day.
At this early stage, Police are unable to comment further.
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) — Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Russia has further strengthened the China-Russia comprehensive strategic partnership of coordination in the new era, set a benchmark for the world’s joint efforts to safeguard the post-war international order, and promoted the transition to a multipolar world and the reconstruction of the international political architecture, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday.
At the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping paid a state visit to Russia from May 7 to 10 and took part in celebrations marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union’s victory in the Great Patriotic War.
As Wang Yi, who is also a member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, noted during a briefing for journalists, Xi Jinping’s visit is of great historical significance.
The head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry pointed out that during the visit, Xi Jinping and V. Putin spent almost 10 hours in-depth communication on issues of mutual interest. The most important political outcome of the visit was the signing by the heads of the two states of a joint statement on further deepening Chinese-Russian relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction in the new era, Wang Yi stated.
The parties agreed to continue to expand cooperation and strengthen the foundation of trade, economic and energy cooperation, Wang Yi continued, adding that the parties signed an updated version of the investment protection agreement, thereby giving a powerful response to the regressive trend of protectionism.
Speaking about the crisis in Ukraine, Xi Jinping noted that China welcomes all efforts to promote peace and considers it necessary to take into account the legitimate security interests of all countries and eliminate the root causes of the crisis.
Xi Jinping’s presence at the Victory Day celebration on May 9 once again demonstrated China’s desire to work with other countries to promote a correct view of the history of World War II and jointly uphold the post-war international order, the head of the Chinese Foreign Ministry noted.
Xi Jinping said that in the face of a volatile and turbulent international situation, China and Russia should firmly uphold the international system with the UN at its core and the international order based on international law.
Wang Yi noted that the return of Taiwan to China is the result of the victory in World War II and an important integral part of the post-war international order.
No matter how the situation on Taiwan develops and no matter what problems external forces create, the historical trend of China’s inevitable and inevitable reunification is unstoppable, Xi Jinping pointed out.
During his visit, the Chinese leader also held extensive contacts with politicians from various countries who attended the celebrations, as well as bilateral meetings with a number of national leaders from three continents, reaching broad consensus on firm mutual support, upholding multilateralism and opposing power politics and bullying.
During his meeting with Myanmar leader Min Aung Hlaing, Xi Jinping stressed that China supports Myanmar in following a development path suited to its national conditions, safeguarding its sovereignty, independence, territorial integrity and national stability, and confidently advancing its domestic political agenda.
During separate meetings with Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, Xi Jinping noted that Latin American and Caribbean states are sovereign and independent nations, not someone’s “backyard.”
M. Diaz-Canel and N. Maduro praised Xi Jinping’s vision of building a community with a shared future for humanity, as well as the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative and the Global Civilization Initiative. They expressed their readiness to work with China to counter unilateralism and protectionism.
During meetings with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico, Xi Jinping stressed that China and the EU should firmly adhere to multilateralism, jointly oppose unilateral bullying, safeguard the achievements of economic globalization, and uphold the global free trade system and the international economic and trade order. –0–
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) — China hopes and supports an early ceasefire between Pakistan and India and is willing to continue to play a constructive role in this regard, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Saturday.
Wang Yi, also a member of the Politburo of the CPC Central Committee, made these statements during a telephone conversation with Pakistan’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar, which took place at the initiative of the Pakistani side.
China, being a common neighbour of Pakistan and India, is concerned about the escalation of conflict between the two countries, a Chinese diplomat said.
Wang Yi said China believes that Pakistan will respond to the current situation with composure and make a decision based on its fundamental and long-term interests.
I. Dar, for his part, stressed that Pakistan wants to achieve a ceasefire with India, but at the same time will not relax its vigilance and will respond to any actions that violate the sovereignty and territorial integrity of the country.
Noting that Pakistan has been at the forefront of the international fight against terrorism, Wang also expressed China’s support for its continuous and resolute counter-terrorism efforts. –0–
India and Pakistan have seen the scenario play out before: a terror attack in which Indians are killed leads to a succession of escalatory tit-fot-tat measures that put South Asia on the brink of all-out war. And then there is a de-escalation.
The broad contours of that pattern have played out in the most recent crisis, with the latest step being the announcement of a ceasefire on May 10, 2025.
But in another important way, the flare-up – which began on April 22 with a deadly attack in Indian-controlled Kashmir, in which 26 people were killed – represents significant departures from the past. It involved direct missile exchanges targeting sites inside both territories and the use of advanced missile systems and drones by the two nuclear rivals for the first time.
These changes have coincided with domestic political shifts in both countries. The pro-Hindu nationalism of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has heightened communal tensions in the country. Meanwhile Pakistan’s powerful army chief, Gen. Syed Asim Munir, has embraced the “two-nation theory,” which holds that Pakistan is a homeland for the subcontinent’s Muslims and India for Hindus.
This religious framing was even seen in the naming of the two countries’ military operations. For India, it is “Operation Sindoor” – a reference to the red vermilion used by married Hindu women, and a provocative nod to the widows of the Kashmir attack. Pakistan called its counter-operation “Bunyan-un-Marsoos” – an Arabic phrase from the Quran meaning “a solid structure.”
The role of Washington
The India-Pakistan rivalry has cost tens of thousands of lives across multiple wars in 1947-48, 1965 and 1971. But since the late 1990s, whenever India and Pakistan approached the brink of war, a familiar de-escalation playbook unfolded: intense diplomacy, often led by the United States, would help defuse tensions.
In 1999, President Bill Clinton’s direct mediation ended the Kargil conflict – a limited war triggered by Pakistani forces crossing the Line of Control into Indian-administered Kashmir – by pressing Pakistan for a withdrawal.
Similarly, after the 2001 attack inside the Indian Parliament by terrorists allegedly linked to Pakistan-based groups Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, U.S. Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage engaged in intense shuttle diplomacy between Islamabad and New Delhi, averting war.
And after the 2008 Mumbai attacks, which saw 166 people killed by terrorists linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba, rapid and high-level American diplomatic involvement helped restrain India’s response and reduced the risk of an escalating conflict.
As recently as 2019, during the Balakot crisis – which followed a suicide bombing in Pulwama, Kashmir, that killed 40 Indian security personnel – it was American diplomatic pressure that helped contain hostilities. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo later wrote in his memoirs, “I do not think the world properly knows just how close the India-Pakistan rivalry came to spilling over into a nuclear conflagration in February 2019.”
A diplomatic void?
Washington as peacemaker made sense: It had influence and a vested interest.
During the Cold War, the U.S. formed a close alliance with Pakistan to counter India’s links with the Soviet Union. And after the 9/11 terror attacks, the U.S. poured tens of billions of dollars in military assistance into Pakistan as a frontline partner in the “war on terror.”
Simultaneously, beginning in the early 2000s, the U.S. began cultivating India as a strategic partner.
A stable Pakistan was a crucial partner in the U.S. war in Afghanistan; a friendly India was a strategic counterbalance to China. And this gave the U.S. both the motivation and credibility to act as an effective mediator during moments of India-Pakistan crisis.
Today, however, America’s diplomatic attention has shifted significantly away from South Asia. The process began with the end of the Cold War, but accelerated dramatically after the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. More recently, the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East have consumed Washington’s diplomatic efforts.
Since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025, the U.S. has not appointed an ambassador in New Delhi or Islamabad, nor confirmed an assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asian Affairs – factors that must have hampered any mediating role for the United States.
And while Trump said the May 10 ceasefire followed a “long night of talks mediated by the United States,” statements from India and Pakistan appeared to downplay U.S. involvement, focusing instead on the direct bilateral nature of negotiations.
Should it transpire that Washington’s role as a mediator between Pakistan and India has been diminished, it is not immediately obvious who, if anyone, will fill the void. China, which has been trying to cultivate a role of mediator elsewhere, is not seen as a neutral mediator due to its close alliance with Pakistan and past border conflicts with India. Other regional powers like Iran and Saudi Arabia tried to step in during the latest crisis, but both lack the power clout of the U.S. or China.
This absence of external mediation is not, of course, a problem in itself. Historically, foreign interference – particularly U.S. support for Pakistan during the Cold War – often complicated dynamics in South Asia by creating military imbalances and reinforcing hardline positions. But the past has shown external pressure – especially from Washington – can be effective.
Breaking the norms
The recent escalation unfolded against the backdrop of another dynamic: the erosion of international norms since the end of the Cold War and accelerating after 2001.
More recently, Israel’s operations in Gaza, Lebanon and Syria have drawn widespread criticism for violations of international humanitarian law – but have resulted in limited consequences.
In short, geopolitical norms have been ebbed away and military actions that were once deemed red lines are crossed with little accountability.
For India and Pakistan, this environment creates both opportunity and risk. Both can point to behaviors elsewhere to justify assertive actions that they have undertaken that, in previous years, would have been deemed a step too far – such as attacks on places of worship and sovereignty violations.
Multi-domain warfare
But what truly distinguished the latest crisis from those of the past is, I believe, its multi-domain nature. The conflict is no longer confined to conventional military exchanges along the line of control – as it was for the first five decades of the Kashmir question.
Both countries largely respected the line of control as a de facto boundary for military operations until the 2019 crisis. Since then, there has been a dangerous progression: first to cross-border airstrikes into each other’s territories, and now to a conflict that spans conventional military, cyber and information spheres simultaneously.
Reports indicate Chinese-made Pakistani J-10 fighter jets shot down multiple Indian aircraft, including advanced French Rafale jets. This confrontation between Chinese and Western weapons represents not just a bilateral conflict but a proxy test of rival global military technologies – adding another layer of great-power competition to the crisis.
In addition, the use of loitering drones designed to attack radar systems represents a significant escalation in the technological sophistication of cross-border attacks compared to years past.
The conflict has also expanded dramatically into the cyber domain. Pakistani hackers, claiming to be the “Pakistan Cyber Force,” report breaching several Indian defense institutions, potentially compromising personnel data and login credentials.
Simultaneously, social media and a new right-wing media in India have become a critical battlefront. Ultranationalist voices in India incited violence against Muslims and Kashmiris; in Pakistan, anti-India rhetoric similarly intensified online.
Cooler voices prevailing … for now
These shifts have created multiple escalation pathways that traditional crisis management approaches weren’t designed to address.
Particularly concerning is the nuclear dimension. Pakistan’s nuclear doctrine is that it will use nuclear weapons if its existence is threatened, and it has developed short-range tactical nuclear weapons intended to counter Indian conventional advantages. Meanwhile, India has informally dialed back its historic no-first-use stance, creating ambiguity about its operational doctrine.
Thankfully, as the ceasefire announcement indicates, mediating voices appear to have prevailed this time around. But eroding norms, diminished great power diplomacy and the advent of multi-domain warfare, I argue, made this latest flare-up a dangerous turning point.
What happens next will tell us much about how nuclear rivals manage, or fail to manage, the spiral of conflict in this dangerous new landscape.
Farah N. Jan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
Xinhua | 11.05. 2025
Keywords: Pakistani security establishment, ceasefire, urgent, Pakistan, violated, India, agreement, is a violation recently, Pakistani security establishment, sources described, line of control, Indian forces, two countries, Saturday, agreements, resorted to
ISLAMABAD, May 10 (Xinhua) — Indian forces on Saturday resorted to unprovoked firing along the Line of Control in what Pakistani security sources described as a violation of the recently announced ceasefire agreement between the two countries. -0-
Source: Xinhua
Breaking: India violated ceasefire deal with Pakistan: Pakistani security establishment Breaking: India violated ceasefire deal with Pakistan: Pakistani security establishment
he Secretary-General welcomes the ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan as a positive step toward ending current hostilities and easing tensions. He hopes the agreement will contribute to lasting peace and foster an environment conducive to addressing broader, longstanding issues between the two countries.
The United Nations stands ready to support efforts aimed at promoting peace and stability in the region.
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The Secretary-General welcomes the ceasefire agreement between India and Pakistan as a positive step toward ending current hostilities and easing tensions. He hopes the agreement will contribute to lasting peace and foster an environment conducive to addressing broader, longstanding issues between the two countries.
The United Nations stands ready to support efforts aimed at promoting peace and stability in the region.
NEW DELHI, May 10 (Xinhua) — Indian Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri announced on Saturday that New Delhi and Islamabad have agreed to observe the ceasefire and stop all military actions. -0-
Source: Xinhua
Breaking: India, Pakistan agree to observe ceasefire Breaking: India, Pakistan agree to observe ceasefire
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
Xinhua | 10. 05. 2025
Keywords: ceasefire, pakistan, force, immediate, india, agreed, entry, urgently, territorial integrity, its sovereignty, damage, saturday, region, prime minister, peace, minister
ISLAMABAD, May 10 (Xinhua) — Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar said on Saturday that Pakistan and India have agreed to a ceasefire with immediate effect.
“Pakistan has consistently strived for peace and security in the region without compromising its sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added. –0–
Source: Xinhua
Breaking News: Pakistan and India agree to ceasefire with immediate effect Breaking News: Pakistan and India agree to ceasefire with immediate effect
NERMEEN SHAIKH:We begin today’s show looking at Israel’s ongoing targeting of Palestinian journalists. A recent report by the Costs of War Project at Brown University described the war in Gaza as the “worst ever conflict for reporters” in history.
By one count, Israel has killed 214 Palestinian journalists in Gaza over the past 18 months, including two journalists killed on Wednesday — Yahya Subaih and Nour El-Din Abdo. Yahya Subaih died just hours after his wife gave birth to their first child.
Meanwhile, new details have emerged about the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, the renowned Palestinian American Al Jazeera journalist who was fatally shot by an Israeli soldier three years ago on 11 May 2022.
She was killed while covering an Israeli army assault on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. Shireen and another reporter were against a stone wall, wearing blue helmets and blue flak jackets clearly emblazoned with the word “Press”.
Shireen was shot in the head. She was known throughout the Arab world for her decades of tireless reporting on Palestine.
AMY GOODMAN: Israel initially claimed she had been shot by Palestinian militants, but later acknowledged she was most likely shot by an Israeli soldier. But Israel has never identified the soldier who fired the fatal shot, or allowed the soldier to be questioned by US investigators.
But a new documentary just released by Zeteo has identified and named the Israeli soldier for the first time. Below is the trailer to the documentary Who Killed Shireen?
DION NISSENBAUM: That soldier looked down his scope and could see the blue vest and that it said “press.”
ISRAELI SOLDIER: That’s what I think, yes.
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: US personnel have never had access to those who are believed to have committed those shootings.
DION NISSENBAUM: No one has been held to account. Justice has not been served.
FATIMA ABDULKARIM: She is the first American Palestinian journalist who has been killed by Israeli forces.
DION NISSENBAUM: I want to know: Who killed Shireen?
CONOR POWELL: Are we going to find the shooter?
DION NISSENBAUM: He’s got a phone call set up with this Israeli soldier that was there that day.
CONOR POWELL: We just have to go over to Israel.
DION NISSENBAUM: Did you ever talk to the guy who fired those shots?
ISRAELI SOLDIER: Of course. I know him personally. The US should have actually come forward and actually pressed the fact that an American citizen was killed intentionally by IDF.
FATIMA ABDULKARIM: The drones are still ongoing, the explosions going off.
CONOR POWELL: Holy [bleep]! We’ve got a name.
DION NISSENBAUM: But here’s the twist.
Who Shot Shireen Abu Akleh? Video: Zeteo/Democracy Now!
NERMEEN SHAIKH:The trailer for the new Zeteo documentary Who Killed Shireen? The film identifies the Israeli soldier who allegedly killed Shireen Abu Akleh as Alon Scagio, who would later be killed during an Israeli military operation last June in Jenin, the same city where Shireen was fatally shot.
AMY GOODMAN:We’re joined right now by four guests, including two members of Shireen Abu Akleh’s family: her brother Anton, or Tony, and her niece Lina. They’re both in North Bergen, New Jersey. We’re also joined by Mehdi Hasan, the founder and editor-in-chief of Zeteo, and by Dion Nissenbaum, the executive producer of Who Killed Shireen?, the correspondent on the documentary, longtime Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent based in Jerusalem and other cities, a former foreign correspondent. He was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
We welcome you all toDemocracy Now!Dion, we’re going to begin with you. This is the third anniversary, May 11th exactly, of the death of Shireen Abu Akleh. Talk about your revelation, what you exposed in this documentary.
DION NISSENBAUM: Well, there were two things that were very important for the documentary. The first thing was we wanted to find the soldier who killed Shireen. It had been one of the most closely guarded secrets in Israel. US officials said that if they wanted to determine if there was a crime here, if there was a human rights violation, they needed to talk to this soldier to find out what he was thinking when he shot her.
And we set out to find him. And we did. We did what the US government never did. And it turned out he had been killed, so we were never able to answer that question — what he was thinking.
But the other revelation that I think is as significant in this documentary is that the initial US assessment of her shooting was that that soldier intentionally shot her and that he could tell that she was wearing a blue flak jacket with “Press” across it.
That assessment was essentially overruled by the Biden administration, which came out and said exactly the opposite. That’s a fairly startling revelation, that the Biden administration and the Israeli government essentially were doing everything they could to cover up what happened that day to Shireen Abu Akleh.
‘Who Killed Shireen?’ Zeteo premiered an explosive investigative documentary that reveals the identity of the soldier who shot Shireen Abu Akleh.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, let’s go to a clip from the documentary Who Killed Shireen?, in which Dion Nissenbaum, our guest, speaks with former State Department official Andrew Miller. He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs in 2022 when Shireen was killed.
ANDREW MILLER: It’s nearly 100 percent certain that an Israeli soldier, likely a sniper, fired the shot that killed or the shots that killed Shireen Abu Akleh. Based on all the information we have, it is not credible to suggest that there were targets either in front of or behind Shireen Abu Akleh.
The fact that the official Israeli position remains that this was a case of crossfire, the entire episode was a mistake, as opposed to potentially a mistaken identification or the deliberate targeting of this individual, points to, I think, a broader policy of seeking to manage the narrative.
DION NISSENBAUM: And did the Israelis ever make the soldier available to the US to talk about it?
ANDREW MILLER: No. And the Israelis were not willing to present the person for even informal questioning.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: That was State Department official — former State Department official Andrew Miller, speaking in the Zeteo documentary Who Killed Shireen? He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs in 2022 when Shireen was killed.
I want to go to Shireen’s family, whom we have as guests, Anton Abu Akleh and Lina, who are joining us from New Jersey. You both watched the film for the first time last night when it premiered here in New York City. Lina, if you could begin by responding to the revelations in the film?
LINA ABU AKLEH: Hi, Amy. Hi. Thank you for having us.
Honestly, we always welcome and we appreciate journalists who try to uncover the killing of Shireen, but also who shed light on her legacy. And the documentary that was released by Zeteo and by Dion, it really revealed findings that we didn’t know before, but we’ve always known that it was an Israeli soldier who killed Shireen. And we know how the US administration failed our family, failed a US citizen and failed a journalist, really.
And that should be a scandal in and of itself.
But most importantly, for us as a family, it’s not just about one soldier. It’s about the entire chain of command. It’s not just the person who pulled the trigger, but who ordered the killing, and the military commanders, the elected officials.
So, really, it’s the entire chain of command that needs to be held to account for the killing of a journalist who was in a clear press vest, press gear, marked as a journalist.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Anton, if you could respond? Shireen, of course, was your younger sister. What was your response watching the documentary last night?
ANTON ABU AKLEH: It’s very painful to look at all these scenes again, but I really extend my appreciation to Zeteo and all those who supported and worked on this documentary, which was very revealing, many things we didn’t know. The cover-up by the Biden administration, this thing was new to us.
He promised. First statements came out from the White House and from the State Department stressed on the importance of holding those responsible accountable. And apparently, in one of the interviews heard in this documentary, he never raised — President Biden never raised this issue with Bennett, at that time the prime minister.
So, that’s shocking to us to know it was a total cover-up, contradictory to what they promised us. And that’s — like Lina just said, it’s a betrayal, not only to the family, not only to Shireen, but the whole American nation.
AMY GOODMAN: Mehdi Hasan, you’ve backed this documentary. It’s the first big documentary Zeteo is putting out. It’s also the first anniversary of the founding of Zeteo. Can you talk about the proof that you feel is here in the documentary that Alon Scagio, this — and explain who he is and the unit he was a part of? Dion, it’s quite something when you go to his grave. But how you can absolutely be sure this is the man?
MEHDI HASAN:So, Amy, Nermeen, thanks for having us here. I’ve been on this show many times. I just want to say, great to be here on set with both of you. Thank you for what you do.
This is actually our second documentary, but it is our biggest so far, because the revelations in this film that Dion and the team put out are huge in many ways — identifying the soldier, as you mentioned, Alon Scagio, identifying the Biden cover-up, which we just heard Tony Abu Akleh point out. People didn’t realise just how big that cover-up was.
Remember, Joe Biden was the man who said, “If you harm an American, we will respond.” And what is very clear in the case of Shireen Abu Akleh, an American citizen who spent a lot of her life in New Jersey, they did not respond.
In terms of the soldier itself, when Dion came to me and said, “We want to make this film. It’ll be almost like a true crime documentary. We’re going to go out and find out who did it” — because we all — everyone followed the story. You guys covered it in 2022. It was a huge story in the world.
But three years later, to not even know the name of the shooter — and I was, “Well, will we be able to find this out? It’s one of Israel’s most closely guarded secrets.” And yet, Dion and his team were able to do the reporting that got inside of Duvdevan, this elite special forces unit in Israel.
It literally means “the cherry on top.” That’s how proud they are of their eliteness. And yet, no matter how elite you are, Israel’s way of fighting wars means you kill innocent people.
And what comes out in the film from interviews, not just with a soldier, an Israeli soldier, who speaks in the film and talks about how, “Hey, if you see a camera, you take the shot,” but also speaking to Chris Van Hollen, United States Senator from Maryland, who’s been one of the few Democratic voices critical of Biden in the Senate, who says there’s been no change in Israel’s rules of engagement over the years.
And therefore, it was so important on multiple levels to do this film, to identify the shooter, because, of course, as you pointed out in your news headlines, Amy, they just killed a hundred Palestinians yesterday.
So this is not some old story from history where this happened in 2022 and we’re going back. Everything that happened since, you could argue, flows from that — the Americans who have been killed, the journalists who have been killed in Gaza, Palestinians, the sense of impunity that Israel has and Israel’s soldiers have.
There are reports that Israeli soldiers are saying to Palestinians, “Hey, Trump has our back. Hey, the US government has our back.” And it wasn’t just Trump. It was Joe Biden, too.
And that was why it was so important to make this film, to identify the shooter, to call out Israel’s practices when it comes to journalists, and to call out the US role.
AMY GOODMAN: I just want to go to Dion, for people who aren’t familiar with the progression of what the Biden administration said, the serious cover-up not only by Israel, but of its main military weapons supplier and supporter of its war on Gaza, and that is Joe Biden, from the beginning.
First Israel said it was a Palestinian militant. At that point, what did President Biden say?
DION NISSENBAUM: So, at the very beginning, they said that they wanted the shooter to be prosecuted. They used that word at the State Department and said, “This person who killed an American journalist should be prosecuted.” But when it started to become clear that it was probably an Israeli soldier, their tone shifted, and it became talking about vague calls for accountability or changes to the rules of engagement, which never actually happened.
So, you got to a point where the Israeli government admitted it was likely them, the US government called for them to change the rules of engagement, and the Israeli government said no. And we have this interview in the film with Senator Chris Van Hollen, who says that, essentially, Israel was giving the middle finger to the US government on this.
And we have seen, since that time, more Americans being killed in the West Bank, dozens and dozens and dozens of journalists being killed, with no accountability. And we would like to see that change.
This is a trajectory that you’re seeing. You know, the blue vest no longer provides any protection for journalists in Israel. The Israeli military itself has said that wearing a blue vest with “Press” on it does not necessarily mean that you are a journalist.
They are saying that terrorists wear blue vests, too. So, if you are a journalist operating in the West Bank now, you have to assume that the Israeli military could target you.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, let’s go to another clip from the film Who Killed Shireen?, which features Ali Samoudi, Shireen Abu Akleh’s producer, who was with Shireen when she was killed, and was himself shot and injured. In the clip, he speaks to the journalist Fatima AbdulKarim.
FATIMA ABDULKARIM: We are set up here now, even though we were supposed to meet at the location where you got injured and Shireen got killed.
ALI SAMOUDI: [translated] We are five minutes from the location in Maidan al-Awdah. But you could lose your soul in the five minutes it would take us to reach it. You could be hit by army bullets. They could arrest you.
So it is essentially impossible to get there. I believe the big disaster which prevented the occupation from being punished and repeating these crimes is the neglect and indifference by many of the institutions, especially American ones, which continue to defend the occupation.
FATIMA ABDULKARIM: [translated] We’re now approaching the third anniversary of Shireen’s death. How did that affect you?
ALI SAMOUDI: [translated] During that period, the occupation was making preparations for a dangerous scenario in the Jenin refugee camp. And for this reason, they didn’t want witnesses.
They opened fire on us in order to terroriSe us enough that we wouldn’t go back to the camp. And in that sense, they partially succeeded.
Since then, we have been overcome by fear. From the moment Shireen was killed, I said and continue to say and will continue to say that this bullet was meant to prevent the Palestinian media from the documentation and exposure of the occupation’s crimes.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: That was Ali Samoudi, Shireen Abu Akleh’s producer, who was with Shireen when she was killed, and was himself shot and injured.
We should note, Ali Samoudi was just detained by Israeli forces in late April. The Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti recently wrote, “Ali Samoudi was beaten so bad by Israeli soldiers he was immediately hospitalised. This man has been one of the few journalists that continues reporting on Israeli military abuses north of the West Bank despite the continued risk on his life,” Mariam Barghouti wrote.
The Committee to Protect Journalists spoke to the journalist’s son, Mohammed Al Samoudi, who told CPJ, quote, “My father suffers from several illnesses, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and a stomach ulcer . . . He needs a diabetes injection every two days and a specific diet. It appears he was subjected to assault and medical neglect at the interrogation center . . .
“Our lawyer told us he was transferred to an Israeli hospital after a major setback in his health. We don’t know where he is being held, interrogated, or even the hospital to which he was taken. My father has been forcibly disappeared,” he said.
So, Dion Nissenbaum, if you could give us the latest? You spoke to Ali Samoudi for the documentary, and now he’s been detained.
DION NISSENBAUM: Yeah. His words were prophetic, right? He talks about this was an attempt to silence journalists. And my colleague Fatima says the same thing, that these are ongoing, progressive efforts to silence Palestinian journalists.
And we don’t know where Ali is. He has not actually been charged with anything yet. He is one of the most respected journalists in the West Bank. And we are just seeing this progression going on.
AMY GOODMAN: So, the latest we know is he was supposed to have a hearing, and that hearing has now been delayed to May 13th, Ali Samoudi?
DION NISSENBAUM: That’s right. And he has yet to be charged, so . . .
AMY GOODMAN:I want to go back to Lina Abu Akleh, who’s in New Jersey, where Shireen grew up. Lina, you were listed on Time magazine’s 100 emerging leaders for publicly demanding scrutiny of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, the horror.
And again, our condolences on the death of your aunt, on the killing of your aunt, and also to Anton, Shireen’s brother. Lina, you’ve also, of course, spoken to Ali Samoudi. This continues now. He’s in detention — his son says, “just disappeared”.
What are you demanding right now? We have a new administration. We’ve moved from the Biden administration to the Trump administration. And are you in touch with them? Are they speaking to you?
LINA ABU AKLEH: Well, our demands haven’t changed. From day one, we’re calling for the US administration to complete its investigation, or for the FBI to continue its investigation, and to finally release — to finally hold someone to account.
And we have enough evidence that could have been — that the administration could have used to expedite this case. But, unfortunately, this new administration, as well, no one has spoken to us. We haven’t been in touch with anyone, and it’s just been radio silence since.
For us, as I said, our demands have never changed. It’s been always to hold the entire system to account, the entire chain of command, the military, for the killing of an American citizen, a journalist, a Palestinian, Palestinian American journalist.
As we’ve been talking, targeting journalists isn’t happening just by shooting at them or killing them. There’s so many different forms of targeting journalists, especially in Gaza and the West Bank and Jerusalem.
So, for us, it’s really important as a family that we don’t see other families experience what we are going through, for this — for impunity, for Israel’s impunity, to end, because, at the end of the day, accountability is the only way to put an end to this impunity.
AMY GOODMAN: I am horrified to ask this question to Shireen’s family members, to Lina, to Tony, Shireen’s brother, but the revelation in the film — we were all there last night at its premiere in New York — that the Israeli soldiers are using a photograph of Shireen’s face for target practice. Tony Abu Akleh, if you could respond?
ANTON ABU AKLEH: You know, there is no words to describe our sorrow and pain hearing this. But, you know, I would just want to know why. Why would they do this thing? What did Shireen do to them for them to use her as a target practice? You know, this is absolutely barbaric act, unjustified. Unjustified.
And we really hope that this US administration will be able to put an end to all this impunity they are enjoying. If they didn’t enjoy all this impunity, they wouldn’t have been doing this. Practising on a journalist? Why? You know, you can practice on anything, but on a journalist?
This shows that this targeting of more journalists, whether in Gaza, in Palestine, it’s systematic. It’s been planned for. And they’ve been targeting and shutting off those voices, those reports, from reaching anywhere in the world.
NERMEEN SHAIKH:And, Anton, if you could say — you know, you mentioned last night, as well, Shireen was, in fact, extremely cautious as a journalist. If you could elaborate on that? What precisely —
ANTON ABU AKLEH: Absolutely. Absolutely. Shireen was very careful. Every time she’s in the field, she would take her time to put on the gear, the required helmet, the vest with “press” written on it, before going there. She also tried to identify herself as a journalist, whether to the Israelis or to the Palestinians, so she’s not attacked.
And she always went by the book, followed the rules, how to act, how to be careful, how to speak to those people involved, so she can protect herself. But, unfortunately, he was — this soldier, as stated in the documentary, targeted Shireen just because she’s Shireen and she’s a journalist. That’s it. There is no other explanation.
Sixteen bullets were fired on Shireen. Not even her helmet, nor the vest she was wearing, were able to protect her, unfortunately.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Mehdi Hasan, you wanted to respond.
MEHDI HASAN: So, Tony asks, “Why? Why would you do this? Why would you target not just a journalist in the field, but then use her face for target practice?” — as Dion and his team reveal in the film. And there is, unfortunately, a very simple answer to that question, which is that the Israeli military — and not just the Israeli military, but many people in our world today — have dehumanised Palestinians.
There is the removal of humanity from the people you are oppressing, occupying, subjugating and killing. It doesn’t matter if you’re an American citizen. It doesn’t matter if you have a press jacket on. It only matters that you are Palestinian in the sniper’s sights.
And that is how they have managed to pull of the killing of so many journalists, so many children. The first documentary we commissioned last year was called Israel’s Real Extremism, and it was about the Israeli soldiers who go into Gaza and make TikTok videos wearing Palestinian women’s underwear, playing with Palestinian children’s toys. It is the ultimate form of dehumanisation, the idea that these people don’t count, their lives have no value.
And what’s so tragic and shocking — and the film exposes this — is that Joe Biden — forget the Israeli military — Joe Biden also joined in that dehumanisation. Do you remember at the start of this conflict when he comes out and he says, “Well, I’m not sure I believe the Palestinian death toll numbers,” when he puts out a statement at the hundred days after October 7th and doesn’t mention Palestinian casualties.
And that has been the fundamental problem. This was the great comforter-in-chief. Joe Biden was supposed to be the empath. And yet, as Tony points out, what was so shocking in the film is he didn’t even raise Shireen’s case with Naftali Bennett, the prime minister of Israel at the time.
Again, would he have done that if it was an American journalist in Moscow? We know that’s not the case. We know when American journalists, especially white American journalists, are taken elsewhere in the world, the government gives a damn. And yet, in the case of Shireen, the only explanation is because she was a Palestinian American journalist.
AMY GOODMAN:You know, in the United States, the US government is responsible for American citizens, which Biden pointed out at the beginning, when he thought it was a Palestinian militant who had killed her. But, Lina, you yourself are a journalist. And I’m thinking I want to hear your response to using her face, because, of course, that is not just the face of Shireen, but I think it’s the face of journalism.
And it’s not just American journalism, of course. I mean, in fact, she’s known to hundreds of millions of people around world as the face and voice of Al Jazeera Arabic. She spoke in Arabic. She was known as that to the rest of the world. But to see that and that revealed in this documentary?
LINA ABU AKLEH: Yeah, it was horrifying, actually. And it just goes on to show how the Israeli military is built. It’s barbarism. It’s the character of revenge, of hate. And that is part of the entire system. And as Mehdi and as my father just mentioned, this is all about dehumanizing Palestinians, regardless if they’re journalists, if they’re doctors, they’re officials. For them, they simply don’t care about Palestinian lives.
And for us, Shireen will always be the voice of Palestine. And she continues to be remembered for the legacy that she left behind. And she continues to live through so many, so many journalists, who have picked up the microphone, who have picked up the camera, just because of Shireen.
So, regardless of how the Israeli military continues to dehumanise journalists and how the US fails to protect Palestinian American journalists, we will continue to push forward to continue to highlight the life and the legacy that Shireen left behind.
NERMEEN SHAIKH:Well, let’s turn to Shireen Abu Akleh in her own words. This is an excerpt from the Al Jazeera English documentary The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh.
SHIREEN ABU AKLEH: [translated] Sometimes the Israeli army doesn’t want you there, so they target you, even if they later say it was an accident. They might say, “We saw some young men around you.” So they target you on purpose, as a way of scaring you off because they don’t want you there.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, that was Shireen in her own words in an Al Jazeera documentary. So, Lina, I know you have to go soon, but if you could just tell us: What do you want people to know about Shireen, as an aunt, a sister and a journalist?
LINA ABU AKLEH: Yes, so, we know Shireen as the journalist, but behind the camera, she was one of the most empathetic people. She was very sincere. And something not a lot of people know, but she was a very funny person. She had a very unique sense of humor, that she lit up every room she entered. She cared about everyone and anyone. She enjoyed life.
Shireen, at the end of the day, loved life. She had plans. She had dreams that she still wanted to achieve. But her life was cut short by that small bullet, which would change our lives entirely.
But at the end of the day, Shireen was a professional journalist who always advocated for truth, for justice. And at the end of the day, all she wanted to do was humanise Palestinians and talk about the struggles of living under occupation. But at the same time, she wanted to celebrate their achievements.
She shed light on all the happy moments, all the accomplishments of the Palestinian people. And this is something that really touched millions of Palestinians, of Arabs around the world. She was able to enter the hearts of the people through the small camera lens. And until this day, she continues to be remembered for that.
AMY GOODMAN: Before we go, we’re going to keep you on, Mehdi, to talk about other issues during the Trump administration, but how can people access Who Killed Shireen?
MEHDI HASAN: So, it’s available online at WhoKilledShireen.com, is where you can go to watch it. We are releasing the film right now only to paid subscribers. We hope to change that in the forthcoming days.
People often say to me, “How can you put it behind a paywall?” Journalism — a free press isn’t free, sadly. We have to fund films like this. Dion came to us because a lot of other people didn’t want to fund a topic like this, didn’t want to fund an investigation like this.
So, we’re proud to be able to fund such documentaries, but we also need support from our contributors, our subscribers and the viewers. But it’s an important film, and I hope as many people will watch it as possible, WhoKilledShireen.com.
AMY GOODMAN:We want to thank Lina, the niece of Shireen Abu Akleh, and Anton, Tony, the older brother of Shireen Abu Akleh, for joining us from New Jersey. Together, we saw the documentary last night, Who Killed Shireen? And we want to thank Dion Nissenbaum, who is the filmmaker, the correspondent on this film, formerly a correspondent with The Wall Street Journal. The founder of Zeteo, on this first anniversary of Zeteo, is Mehdi Hasan.
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The South African government has called for a de-escalation in the brewing tensions between India and Pakistan.
This according to Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Ronald Lamola, who delivered remarks at the Solidarity Conference on Women, Peace and Security held in Tshwane, on Friday.
The India-Pakistan tensions – which have seen both sides launching attacks – stems from a terrorist attack, which killed some 26 people in an India-controlled part of Kashmir, last month.
“The South African government expresses concern over the escalating tensions between India and Pakistan. We call for de-escalation and restraint.
“All efforts should be taken to protect civilians and civilian infrastructure while ensuring that there are concerted efforts from both parties to negotiate a peaceful settlement to the rising conflict,” Lamola said.
On the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Lamola said the war has “become a flashpoint of global tensions”, with economic consequences that reach beyond Europe’s borders.
“This includes disruptions to global food supply chains and energy markets. South Africa has always contended that once a ceasefire is in place, everything must be discussed and that we need to continue to call for a ceasefire… that peace must be found on the negotiation table by both parties with the help of the international communities,” he said.
Turning to the Israel-Hamas conflict currently playing itself out in Gaza, Lamola said the war “poses a grave threat not only to local peace, but also to the broader regional stability”.
“It is a conflict that reverberates across international diplomatic corridors. It’s a conflict that is unfolding in the full glare of the world.
“South Africa’s decision to bring a case against Israel to the International Court of Justice was not taken lightly. It was grounded in the belief that pursuing justice is never without cost, that truth often challenges entrenched power and that moral leadership requires the courage to confront global injustice,” he said.
The Minister reiterated the South African government’s foreign policy grounded in elements including non-alignment, respect for international law, commitment to multilateralism, diplomacy and peaceful negotiations.
“In summary, we are anti-war. We are a peace-loving nation. These values are rooted in our own history of struggle against injustice and reflect our aspirations to contribute to a fairer and more peaceful international order.
“In a polarised world, South Africa has maintained open diplomatic channels. South Africa has long supported the peace process that aligns with its foreign policy principles of promoting peace, stability and development on the continent with a vision to build a better South Africa and better world,” Lamola said. – SAnews.gov.za
Sapporo’s YouTube advertising campaigns during Q1 2025 (January to March) reveal a strategic, nuanced approach to engage diverse consumers through culturally resonant themes and meticulously crafted messaging. By incorporating Showa-era nostalgia, Hokkaido’s regional identity, and genuine interpersonal connections, these campaigns reflected an understanding of varied consumption occasions and aimed to integrate into daily life, strengthening consumer relationships, reveals Global Ads Platform of GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
Sagar Kishor, Ads Analyst at GlobalData, comments: “Sapporo’s advertising connects by tapping into values, memories, and lifestyles with a mix of emotional and product-centric approaches. Sapporo offers the shared joy through Sapporo Classic, creating a sense of connection and belonging, while Yebisu beer’s connection with good times and quality ingredients highlights its unique appeal. By offering products that range from premium beers for sophisticated palates to convenient chu-hi mixes for at-home enjoyment, Sapporo aims to cater to diverse consumer preferences and drinking occasions.”
Below are the key focus areas of Sapporo’s advertisements, revealed by GlobalData’s Global Ads Platform:
Premium and Value Blend: Sapporo Gold Star’s advertising emphasizes a “best of both worlds” proposition. This approach positions the beverage as possessing desirable premium taste characteristics while maintaining an accessible price point, thereby appealing to value-conscious consumers seeking a balance between quality and affordability.
Cherished Social Bonds: Yebisu campaigns, exemplified by “Beginning Time” and “Good Faces,” underscore the significance of strong friendships and supportive relationships. By focusing on shared celebrations and heartfelt connections, these advertisements cultivate positive social experiences through the depiction of authentic and emotionally resonant moments.
Nostalgic Local Pride: Sapporo Hyosai 1984 evokes comforting Showa-era nostalgia, and Sapporo Classic honors Hokkaido’s heritage. This dual strategy resonates with consumers through familiar sentiments and regional identity, fostering connections with those who appreciate local traditions and memories.
Authentic Flavor Intensity: Sapporo’s “Ume Tsubushi” and “Koime Lemon Sour” offer robust, genuine flavors akin to those of Izakayas. These initiatives are designed to reach consumers who favor pronounced and distinct tastes, emphasizing a significant and immersive drinking experience rooted in traditional Japanese palates.
Customizable Consumption: The advertising for “Koime Lemon/Grapefruit Sour” focuses on the ease of home mixing. By highlighting the adjustable strength and rich flavors, these campaigns empower consumers to tailor their beverage to their individual preferences, blending convenience with personalized enjoyment.
NERMEEN SHAIKH:We begin today’s show looking at Israel’s ongoing targeting of Palestinian journalists. A recent report by the Costs of War Project at Brown University described the war in Gaza as the “worst ever conflict for reporters” in history.
By one count, Israel has killed 214 Palestinian journalists in Gaza over the past 18 months, including two journalists killed on Wednesday — Yahya Subaih and Nour El-Din Abdo. Yahya Subaih died just hours after his wife gave birth to their first child.
Meanwhile, new details have emerged about the killing of Shireen Abu Akleh, the renowned Palestinian American Al Jazeera journalist who was fatally shot by an Israeli soldier three years ago on 11 May 2022.
She was killed while covering an Israeli army assault on the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank. Shireen and another reporter were against a stone wall, wearing blue helmets and blue flak jackets clearly emblazoned with the word “Press”.
Shireen was shot in the head. She was known throughout the Arab world for her decades of tireless reporting on Palestine.
AMY GOODMAN: Israel initially claimed she had been shot by Palestinian militants, but later acknowledged she was most likely shot by an Israeli soldier. But Israel has never identified the soldier who fired the fatal shot, or allowed the soldier to be questioned by US investigators.
But a new documentary just released by Zeteo has identified and named the Israeli soldier for the first time. This is the trailer to the documentary Who Killed Shireen?
DION NISSENBAUM: That soldier looked down his scope and could see the blue vest and that it said “press.”
ISRAELI SOLDIER: That’s what I think, yes.
SEN. CHRIS VAN HOLLEN: US personnel have never had access to those who are believed to have committed those shootings.
DION NISSENBAUM: No one has been held to account. Justice has not been served.
FATIMA ABDULKARIM: She is the first American Palestinian journalist who has been killed by Israeli forces.
DION NISSENBAUM: I want to know: Who killed Shireen?
CONOR POWELL: Are we going to find the shooter?
DION NISSENBAUM: He’s got a phone call set up with this Israeli soldier that was there that day.
CONOR POWELL: We just have to go over to Israel.
DION NISSENBAUM: Did you ever talk to the guy who fired those shots?
ISRAELI SOLDIER: Of course. I know him personally. The US should have actually come forward and actually pressed the fact that an American citizen was killed intentionally by IDF.
FATIMA ABDULKARIM: The drones are still ongoing, the explosions going off.
CONOR POWELL: Holy [bleep]! We’ve got a name.
DION NISSENBAUM: But here’s the twist.
NERMEEN SHAIKH:The trailer for the new Zeteo documentary Who Killed Shireen? The film identifies the Israeli soldier who allegedly killed Shireen Abu Akleh as Alon Scagio, who would later be killed during an Israeli military operation last June in Jenin, the same city where Shireen was fatally shot.
AMY GOODMAN:We’re joined right now by four guests, including two members of Shireen Abu Akleh’s family: her brother Anton, or Tony, and her niece Lina. They’re both in North Bergen, New Jersey. We’re also joined by Mehdi Hasan, the founder and editor-in-chief of Zeteo, and by Dion Nissenbaum, the executive producer of Who Killed Shireen?, the correspondent on the documentary, longtime Wall Street Journal foreign correspondent based in Jerusalem and other cities, a former foreign correspondent. He was twice nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.
We welcome you all toDemocracy Now!Dion, we’re going to begin with you. This is the third anniversary, May 11th exactly, of the death of Shireen Abu Akleh. Talk about your revelation, what you exposed in this documentary.
DION NISSENBAUM: Well, there were two things that were very important for the documentary. The first thing was we wanted to find the soldier who killed Shireen. It had been one of the most closely guarded secrets in Israel. US officials said that if they wanted to determine if there was a crime here, if there was a human rights violation, they needed to talk to this soldier to find out what he was thinking when he shot her.
And we set out to find him. And we did. We did what the US government never did. And it turned out he had been killed, so we were never able to answer that question — what he was thinking.
But the other revelation that I think is as significant in this documentary is that the initial US assessment of her shooting was that that soldier intentionally shot her and that he could tell that she was wearing a blue flak jacket with “Press” across it.
That assessment was essentially overruled by the Biden administration, which came out and said exactly the opposite. That’s a fairly startling revelation, that the Biden administration and the Israeli government essentially were doing everything they could to cover up what happened that day to Shireen Abu Akleh.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, let’s go to a clip from the documentary Who Killed Shireen?, in which Dion Nissenbaum, our guest, speaks with former State Department official Andrew Miller. He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs in 2022 when Shireen was killed.
ANDREW MILLER: It’s nearly 100 percent certain that an Israeli soldier, likely a sniper, fired the shot that killed or the shots that killed Shireen Abu Akleh. Based on all the information we have, it is not credible to suggest that there were targets either in front of or behind Shireen Abu Akleh.
The fact that the official Israeli position remains that this was a case of crossfire, the entire episode was a mistake, as opposed to potentially a mistaken identification or the deliberate targeting of this individual, points to, I think, a broader policy of seeking to manage the narrative.
DION NISSENBAUM: And did the Israelis ever make the soldier available to the US to talk about it?
ANDREW MILLER: No. And the Israelis were not willing to present the person for even informal questioning.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: That was State Department official — former State Department official Andrew Miller, speaking in the Zeteo documentary Who Killed Shireen? He was Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Israeli-Palestinian Affairs in 2022 when Shireen was killed.
I want to go to Shireen’s family, whom we have as guests, Anton Abu Akleh and Lina, who are joining us from New Jersey. You both watched the film for the first time last night when it premiered here in New York City. Lina, if you could begin by responding to the revelations in the film?
LINA ABU AKLEH: Hi, Amy. Hi. Thank you for having us.
Honestly, we always welcome and we appreciate journalists who try to uncover the killing of Shireen, but also who shed light on her legacy. And the documentary that was released by Zeteo and by Dion, it really revealed findings that we didn’t know before, but we’ve always known that it was an Israeli soldier who killed Shireen. And we know how the US administration failed our family, failed a US citizen and failed a journalist, really.
And that should be a scandal in and of itself.
But most importantly, for us as a family, it’s not just about one soldier. It’s about the entire chain of command. It’s not just the person who pulled the trigger, but who ordered the killing, and the military commanders, the elected officials.
So, really, it’s the entire chain of command that needs to be held to account for the killing of a journalist who was in a clear press vest, press gear, marked as a journalist.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: And, Anton, if you could respond? Shireen, of course, was your younger sister. What was your response watching the documentary last night?
ANTON ABU AKLEH: It’s very painful to look at all these scenes again, but I really extend my appreciation to Zeteo and all those who supported and worked on this documentary, which was very revealing, many things we didn’t know. The cover-up by the Biden administration, this thing was new to us.
He promised. First statements came out from the White House and from the State Department stressed on the importance of holding those responsible accountable. And apparently, in one of the interviews heard in this documentary, he never raised — President Biden never raised this issue with Bennett, at that time the prime minister.
So, that’s shocking to us to know it was a total cover-up, contradictory to what they promised us. And that’s — like Lina just said, it’s a betrayal, not only to the family, not only to Shireen, but the whole American nation.
AMY GOODMAN: Mehdi Hasan, you’ve backed this documentary. It’s the first big documentary Zeteo is putting out. It’s also the first anniversary of the founding of Zeteo. Can you talk about the proof that you feel is here in the documentary that Alon Scagio, this — and explain who he is and the unit he was a part of? Dion, it’s quite something when you go to his grave. But how you can absolutely be sure this is the man?
MEHDI HASAN:So, Amy, Nermeen, thanks for having us here. I’ve been on this show many times. I just want to say, great to be here on set with both of you. Thank you for what you do.
This is actually our second documentary, but it is our biggest so far, because the revelations in this film that Dion and the team put out are huge in many ways — identifying the soldier, as you mentioned, Alon Scagio, identifying the Biden cover-up, which we just heard Tony Abu Akleh point out. People didn’t realise just how big that cover-up was.
Remember, Joe Biden was the man who said, “If you harm an American, we will respond.” And what is very clear in the case of Shireen Abu Akleh, an American citizen who spent a lot of her life in New Jersey, they did not respond.
In terms of the soldier itself, when Dion came to me and said, “We want to make this film. It’ll be almost like a true crime documentary. We’re going to go out and find out who did it” — because we all — everyone followed the story. You guys covered it in 2022. It was a huge story in the world.
But three years later, to not even know the name of the shooter — and I was, “Well, will we be able to find this out? It’s one of Israel’s most closely guarded secrets.” And yet, Dion and his team were able to do the reporting that got inside of Duvdevan, this elite special forces unit in Israel.
It literally means “the cherry on top.” That’s how proud they are of their eliteness. And yet, no matter how elite you are, Israel’s way of fighting wars means you kill innocent people.
And what comes out in the film from interviews, not just with a soldier, an Israeli soldier, who speaks in the film and talks about how, “Hey, if you see a camera, you take the shot,” but also speaking to Chris Van Hollen, United States Senator from Maryland, who’s been one of the few Democratic voices critical of Biden in the Senate, who says there’s been no change in Israel’s rules of engagement over the years.
And therefore, it was so important on multiple levels to do this film, to identify the shooter, because, of course, as you pointed out in your news headlines, Amy, they just killed a hundred Palestinians yesterday.
So this is not some old story from history where this happened in 2022 and we’re going back. Everything that happened since, you could argue, flows from that — the Americans who have been killed, the journalists who have been killed in Gaza, Palestinians, the sense of impunity that Israel has and Israel’s soldiers have.
There are reports that Israeli soldiers are saying to Palestinians, “Hey, Trump has our back. Hey, the US government has our back.” And it wasn’t just Trump. It was Joe Biden, too.
And that was why it was so important to make this film, to identify the shooter, to call out Israel’s practices when it comes to journalists, and to call out the US role.
AMY GOODMAN: I just want to go to Dion, for people who aren’t familiar with the progression of what the Biden administration said, the serious cover-up not only by Israel, but of its main military weapons supplier and supporter of its war on Gaza, and that is Joe Biden, from the beginning.
First Israel said it was a Palestinian militant. At that point, what did President Biden say?
DION NISSENBAUM: So, at the very beginning, they said that they wanted the shooter to be prosecuted. They used that word at the State Department and said, “This person who killed an American journalist should be prosecuted.” But when it started to become clear that it was probably an Israeli soldier, their tone shifted, and it became talking about vague calls for accountability or changes to the rules of engagement, which never actually happened.
So, you got to a point where the Israeli government admitted it was likely them, the US government called for them to change the rules of engagement, and the Israeli government said no. And we have this interview in the film with Senator Chris Van Hollen, who says that, essentially, Israel was giving the middle finger to the US government on this.
And we have seen, since that time, more Americans being killed in the West Bank, dozens and dozens and dozens of journalists being killed, with no accountability. And we would like to see that change.
This is a trajectory that you’re seeing. You know, the blue vest no longer provides any protection for journalists in Israel. The Israeli military itself has said that wearing a blue vest with “Press” on it does not necessarily mean that you are a journalist.
They are saying that terrorists wear blue vests, too. So, if you are a journalist operating in the West Bank now, you have to assume that the Israeli military could target you.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Well, let’s go to another clip from the film Who Killed Shireen?, which features Ali Samoudi, Shireen Abu Akleh’s producer, who was with Shireen when she was killed, and was himself shot and injured. In the clip, he speaks to the journalist Fatima AbdulKarim.
FATIMA ABDULKARIM: We are set up here now, even though we were supposed to meet at the location where you got injured and Shireen got killed.
ALI SAMOUDI: [translated] We are five minutes from the location in Maidan al-Awdah. But you could lose your soul in the five minutes it would take us to reach it. You could be hit by army bullets. They could arrest you.
So it is essentially impossible to get there. I believe the big disaster which prevented the occupation from being punished and repeating these crimes is the neglect and indifference by many of the institutions, especially American ones, which continue to defend the occupation.
FATIMA ABDULKARIM: [translated] We’re now approaching the third anniversary of Shireen’s death. How did that affect you?
ALI SAMOUDI: [translated] During that period, the occupation was making preparations for a dangerous scenario in the Jenin refugee camp. And for this reason, they didn’t want witnesses.
They opened fire on us in order to terroriSe us enough that we wouldn’t go back to the camp. And in that sense, they partially succeeded.
Since then, we have been overcome by fear. From the moment Shireen was killed, I said and continue to say and will continue to say that this bullet was meant to prevent the Palestinian media from the documentation and exposure of the occupation’s crimes.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: That was Ali Samoudi, Shireen Abu Akleh’s producer, who was with Shireen when she was killed, and was himself shot and injured.
We should note, Ali Samoudi was just detained by Israeli forces in late April. The Palestinian journalist Mariam Barghouti recently wrote, “Ali Samoudi was beaten so bad by Israeli soldiers he was immediately hospitalised. This man has been one of the few journalists that continues reporting on Israeli military abuses north of the West Bank despite the continued risk on his life,” Mariam Barghouti wrote.
The Committee to Protect Journalists spoke to the journalist’s son, Mohammed Al Samoudi, who told CPJ, quote, “My father suffers from several illnesses, including diabetes, high blood pressure, and a stomach ulcer . . . He needs a diabetes injection every two days and a specific diet. It appears he was subjected to assault and medical neglect at the interrogation center . . .
“Our lawyer told us he was transferred to an Israeli hospital after a major setback in his health. We don’t know where he is being held, interrogated, or even the hospital to which he was taken. My father has been forcibly disappeared,” he said.
So, Dion Nissenbaum, if you could give us the latest? You spoke to Ali Samoudi for the documentary, and now he’s been detained.
DION NISSENBAUM: Yeah. His words were prophetic, right? He talks about this was an attempt to silence journalists. And my colleague Fatima says the same thing, that these are ongoing, progressive efforts to silence Palestinian journalists.
And we don’t know where Ali is. He has not actually been charged with anything yet. He is one of the most respected journalists in the West Bank. And we are just seeing this progression going on.
AMY GOODMAN: So, the latest we know is he was supposed to have a hearing, and that hearing has now been delayed to May 13th, Ali Samoudi?
DION NISSENBAUM: That’s right. And he has yet to be charged, so . . .
AMY GOODMAN:I want to go back to Lina Abu Akleh, who’s in New Jersey, where Shireen grew up. Lina, you were listed on Time magazine’s 100 emerging leaders for publicly demanding scrutiny of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians, the horror.
And again, our condolences on the death of your aunt, on the killing of your aunt, and also to Anton, Shireen’s brother. Lina, you’ve also, of course, spoken to Ali Samoudi. This continues now. He’s in detention — his son says, “just disappeared”.
What are you demanding right now? We have a new administration. We’ve moved from the Biden administration to the Trump administration. And are you in touch with them? Are they speaking to you?
LINA ABU AKLEH: Well, our demands haven’t changed. From day one, we’re calling for the US administration to complete its investigation, or for the FBI to continue its investigation, and to finally release — to finally hold someone to account.
And we have enough evidence that could have been — that the administration could have used to expedite this case. But, unfortunately, this new administration, as well, no one has spoken to us. We haven’t been in touch with anyone, and it’s just been radio silence since.
For us, as I said, our demands have never changed. It’s been always to hold the entire system to account, the entire chain of command, the military, for the killing of an American citizen, a journalist, a Palestinian, Palestinian American journalist.
As we’ve been talking, targeting journalists isn’t happening just by shooting at them or killing them. There’s so many different forms of targeting journalists, especially in Gaza and the West Bank and Jerusalem.
So, for us, it’s really important as a family that we don’t see other families experience what we are going through, for this — for impunity, for Israel’s impunity, to end, because, at the end of the day, accountability is the only way to put an end to this impunity.
AMY GOODMAN: I am horrified to ask this question to Shireen’s family members, to Lina, to Tony, Shireen’s brother, but the revelation in the film — we were all there last night at its premiere in New York — that the Israeli soldiers are using a photograph of Shireen’s face for target practice. Tony Abu Akleh, if you could respond?
ANTON ABU AKLEH: You know, there is no words to describe our sorrow and pain hearing this. But, you know, I would just want to know why. Why would they do this thing? What did Shireen do to them for them to use her as a target practice? You know, this is absolutely barbaric act, unjustified. Unjustified.
And we really hope that this US administration will be able to put an end to all this impunity they are enjoying. If they didn’t enjoy all this impunity, they wouldn’t have been doing this. Practising on a journalist? Why? You know, you can practice on anything, but on a journalist?
This shows that this targeting of more journalists, whether in Gaza, in Palestine, it’s systematic. It’s been planned for. And they’ve been targeting and shutting off those voices, those reports, from reaching anywhere in the world.
NERMEEN SHAIKH:And, Anton, if you could say — you know, you mentioned last night, as well, Shireen was, in fact, extremely cautious as a journalist. If you could elaborate on that? What precisely —
ANTON ABU AKLEH: Absolutely. Absolutely. Shireen was very careful. Every time she’s in the field, she would take her time to put on the gear, the required helmet, the vest with “press” written on it, before going there. She also tried to identify herself as a journalist, whether to the Israelis or to the Palestinians, so she’s not attacked.
And she always went by the book, followed the rules, how to act, how to be careful, how to speak to those people involved, so she can protect herself. But, unfortunately, he was — this soldier, as stated in the documentary, targeted Shireen just because she’s Shireen and she’s a journalist. That’s it. There is no other explanation.
Sixteen bullets were fired on Shireen. Not even her helmet, nor the vest she was wearing, were able to protect her, unfortunately.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: Mehdi Hasan, you wanted to respond.
MEHDI HASAN: So, Tony asks, “Why? Why would you do this? Why would you target not just a journalist in the field, but then use her face for target practice?” — as Dion and his team reveal in the film. And there is, unfortunately, a very simple answer to that question, which is that the Israeli military — and not just the Israeli military, but many people in our world today — have dehumanised Palestinians.
There is the removal of humanity from the people you are oppressing, occupying, subjugating and killing. It doesn’t matter if you’re an American citizen. It doesn’t matter if you have a press jacket on. It only matters that you are Palestinian in the sniper’s sights.
And that is how they have managed to pull of the killing of so many journalists, so many children. The first documentary we commissioned last year was called Israel’s Real Extremism, and it was about the Israeli soldiers who go into Gaza and make TikTok videos wearing Palestinian women’s underwear, playing with Palestinian children’s toys. It is the ultimate form of dehumanisation, the idea that these people don’t count, their lives have no value.
And what’s so tragic and shocking — and the film exposes this — is that Joe Biden — forget the Israeli military — Joe Biden also joined in that dehumanisation. Do you remember at the start of this conflict when he comes out and he says, “Well, I’m not sure I believe the Palestinian death toll numbers,” when he puts out a statement at the hundred days after October 7th and doesn’t mention Palestinian casualties.
And that has been the fundamental problem. This was the great comforter-in-chief. Joe Biden was supposed to be the empath. And yet, as Tony points out, what was so shocking in the film is he didn’t even raise Shireen’s case with Naftali Bennett, the prime minister of Israel at the time.
Again, would he have done that if it was an American journalist in Moscow? We know that’s not the case. We know when American journalists, especially white American journalists, are taken elsewhere in the world, the government gives a damn. And yet, in the case of Shireen, the only explanation is because she was a Palestinian American journalist.
AMY GOODMAN:You know, in the United States, the US government is responsible for American citizens, which Biden pointed out at the beginning, when he thought it was a Palestinian militant who had killed her. But, Lina, you yourself are a journalist. And I’m thinking I want to hear your response to using her face, because, of course, that is not just the face of Shireen, but I think it’s the face of journalism.
And it’s not just American journalism, of course. I mean, in fact, she’s known to hundreds of millions of people around world as the face and voice of Al Jazeera Arabic. She spoke in Arabic. She was known as that to the rest of the world. But to see that and that revealed in this documentary?
LINA ABU AKLEH: Yeah, it was horrifying, actually. And it just goes on to show how the Israeli military is built. It’s barbarism. It’s the character of revenge, of hate. And that is part of the entire system. And as Mehdi and as my father just mentioned, this is all about dehumanizing Palestinians, regardless if they’re journalists, if they’re doctors, they’re officials. For them, they simply don’t care about Palestinian lives.
And for us, Shireen will always be the voice of Palestine. And she continues to be remembered for the legacy that she left behind. And she continues to live through so many, so many journalists, who have picked up the microphone, who have picked up the camera, just because of Shireen.
So, regardless of how the Israeli military continues to dehumanise journalists and how the US fails to protect Palestinian American journalists, we will continue to push forward to continue to highlight the life and the legacy that Shireen left behind.
NERMEEN SHAIKH:Well, let’s turn to Shireen Abu Akleh in her own words. This is an excerpt from the Al Jazeera English documentary The Killing of Shireen Abu Akleh.
SHIREEN ABU AKLEH: [translated] Sometimes the Israeli army doesn’t want you there, so they target you, even if they later say it was an accident. They might say, “We saw some young men around you.” So they target you on purpose, as a way of scaring you off because they don’t want you there.
NERMEEN SHAIKH: So, that was Shireen in her own words in an Al Jazeera documentary. So, Lina, I know you have to go soon, but if you could just tell us: What do you want people to know about Shireen, as an aunt, a sister and a journalist?
LINA ABU AKLEH: Yes, so, we know Shireen as the journalist, but behind the camera, she was one of the most empathetic people. She was very sincere. And something not a lot of people know, but she was a very funny person. She had a very unique sense of humor, that she lit up every room she entered. She cared about everyone and anyone. She enjoyed life.
Shireen, at the end of the day, loved life. She had plans. She had dreams that she still wanted to achieve. But her life was cut short by that small bullet, which would change our lives entirely.
But at the end of the day, Shireen was a professional journalist who always advocated for truth, for justice. And at the end of the day, all she wanted to do was humanise Palestinians and talk about the struggles of living under occupation. But at the same time, she wanted to celebrate their achievements.
She shed light on all the happy moments, all the accomplishments of the Palestinian people. And this is something that really touched millions of Palestinians, of Arabs around the world. She was able to enter the hearts of the people through the small camera lens. And until this day, she continues to be remembered for that.
AMY GOODMAN: Before we go, we’re going to keep you on, Mehdi, to talk about other issues during the Trump administration, but how can people access Who Killed Shireen?
MEHDI HASAN: So, it’s available online at WhoKilledShireen.com, is where you can go to watch it. We are releasing the film right now only to paid subscribers. We hope to change that in the forthcoming days.
People often say to me, “How can you put it behind a paywall?” Journalism — a free press isn’t free, sadly. We have to fund films like this. Dion came to us because a lot of other people didn’t want to fund a topic like this, didn’t want to fund an investigation like this.
So, we’re proud to be able to fund such documentaries, but we also need support from our contributors, our subscribers and the viewers. But it’s an important film, and I hope as many people will watch it as possible, WhoKilledShireen.com.
AMY GOODMAN:We want to thank Lina, the niece of Shireen Abu Akleh, and Anton, Tony, the older brother of Shireen Abu Akleh, for joining us from New Jersey. Together, we saw the documentary last night, Who Killed Shireen? And we want to thank Dion Nissenbaum, who is the filmmaker, the correspondent on this film, formerly a correspondent with The Wall Street Journal. The founder of Zeteo, on this first anniversary of Zeteo, is Mehdi Hasan.
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) — China’s revised Marriage Registration Regulations took effect Saturday, simplifying paperwork and giving couples more flexibility.
Under the new provisions, couples will no longer need to register their relationship at their place of residence or registration, which for many years was necessary to submit marriage applications.
Now, to formalize their relationship, couples from mainland China will only need identification cards and a signed statement saying they are not currently married to anyone and have no blood relatives within three generations to the other party.
In addition, under the new provisions, couples will be able to register their marriage at any relevant authority throughout the country, regardless of where their families are registered.
The Ministry of Civil Affairs said the change also applies to couples where one of the prospective spouses is a mainland Chinese resident and the other is a foreign national, a resident of the Hong Kong and Macao Special Administrative Regions, Taiwan, or a Chinese expatriate.
Currently, couples can marry, divorce or apply for re-issuance of marriage certificates at any authorized registration authority, regardless of the place of registration of the family of one of the spouses in the mainland part of the country.
The revised provisions are part of China’s efforts to streamline government services and ease the burden on those who live and work far from their place of residence.
According to official data, 1.81 million marriages were registered in China in the first quarter of this year, down 8 percent from a year earlier.
In 2023, the country saw an increase in registered marriages after nine consecutive years of decline. However, in 2024, the downward trend resumed, with registrations falling to their lowest level since 1980. -0-
Leo, 69, formerly Cardinal Robert Prevost, is originally from Chicago, and has spent most of his career as a missionary in Peru.
He became a cardinal only in 2023 and has become the first-ever US pope.
PCC general secretary Reverend James Bhagwan said he was not a Vatican insider, but there had been talk of cardinals feeling that the new pope should be a “middle-of-the-road person”.
Reverend Bhagwan said there had been prayers for God’s wisdom to guide the decisions made at the Conclave.
“I think if we look at where the decisions perhaps were made or based on, there had been a lot of talk that the cardinals going into Conclave had felt that a new pope would need to be someone who could take forward the legacy of Pope Francis, reaching out to those in the margins, but also be a sort of a middle-of-the-road person,” he said.
Hopes for climate response Reverend Bhagwan said the Pacific hoped that Pope Leo carried on the late Pope Francis’s connection to the climate change response.
He said Pope Francis released his “laudate deum” exhortation on the climate shortly before the United Nations climate summit in Dubai last year.
“The focus on care for creation, the focus for ending fossil fuels and climate justice, the focus on people from the margins — I think that’s important for the Pacific people at this time.
“I know that the Catholic Church in the Pacific has been focused on on its synodal process, and so he spoke about synodality as well.
“I know that there were hopes for an Oceania synod, just as Pope Francis held a synod of the Amazon. And I think that is still something that’s in the hearts of many of our Catholic leaders and Catholic members.
“We hope that this will be an opportunity to still bring that focus to the Pacific.”
He said they were confident Pope Leo would pick up many of the issues Francis was well known for, like speaking up for climate change, human trafficking and the plight of refugees; and within the church, a different way of meeting and talking with one another — known as synodality — which is an ongoing process.
“I think any pope needs to be able to challenge things that are happening around the world, especially if it is affecting the lives of people, where the poor are getting poorer and the rich are getting richer.”
Pope Leo appeared to be a very calm person, he added.
This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Home and Youth Affairs Bureau and Family Council holds “Love Across Generations” Family Fun Day Themed “Love Across Generations”, the Family Council’s publicity campaign this year focuses on “Fostering Stable Family Relationships for Building Good Family Virtues and Cultures”. The campaign promotes positive family culture and values in the community and fosters family building, family education and family values. The event featured guests and artists sharing insights on family bonding, interactive games to promote family core values, as well as performances, attracting over 200 citizens.
In his speech, the Deputy Secretary for Home and Youth Affairs (Home Affairs), Mr Paul Wong, expressed hope that the Family Fun Day would further promote family core values to the public, and encourage participants to value family as well as build and pass down good family culture and virtues. He highlighted that the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government attaches great importance to the healthy development of families in Hong Kong. The HYAB and the Family Council launched the Hong Kong Excellent Family Awards in late April to promote good family core values to the public. The awards aim to promote the passing down of good family traditions and virtues to the community and the younger generations by recognising families that show mutual respect, care, love and support for one another. He called for the public to actively participate in the event to share family stories, thereby cultivating a caring and positive social atmosphere.
Speaking at the event, the Chairperson of the Family Council, Ms Melissa Pang, said that in tandem with the Hong Kong Excellent Family Awards, the Family Council will collaborate with RTHK to produce a radio programme, inviting various guests or experts to share tips on maintaining strong family relationships and practicing positive family values and traditional virtues in daily life. The Family Council will continue its promotional efforts in advocating a culture of loving families.
The United Nations proclaimed May 15 of every year as International Day of Families to promote awareness of issues relating to families in the international community.
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Hospital Authority discovers suspected contamination in a batch of flocked swabs The HA conducted repeated testing on 100 samples from the same Lot of flocked swabs, ultimately identifying 18 samples that showed weak positive results for COVID-19.
The flocked swabs were procured from a local supplier and delivered to the hospitals under the Kowloon West Cluster (KWC), including Caritas Medical Centre, Kwai Chung Hospital, North Lantau Hospital, PMH and Yan Chai Hospital (YCH) from January to the end of April this year. Since the flocked swabs were sealed in packaging, the HA’s microbiology experts, after analysing the test results, estimate that the flocked swabs were contaminated before delivery to the hospitals.Issued at HKT 13:36
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
SLW to attend APEC Ministerial Meeting in Korea During his visit, Mr Sun will also meet with senior officials responsible for manpower and labour issues from APEC member economy governments, including Korea.
Mr Sun will return to Hong Kong on May 13. In his absence, the Under Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Ho Kai-ming, will be the Acting Secretary for Labour and Welfare. Issued at HKT 12:00
Source: Hong Kong Government special administrative region
Below are the remarks by the Secretary for Labour and Welfare, Mr Chris Sun, on the closure of Ocean Empire Food Shop at a media session after attending a radio programme today morning (May 10):
Reporter: What is the Labour Department’s current plan of action regarding the unpaid wages and severance payment owed to former employees of Ocean Empire Food Shop? What steps are the Labour Department taking to ensure these contributions are recovered and paid to the workers? The second question is, what steps are the Government taking to strengthen employment protection and prevent similar situations to recur in future? Thank you.
Secretary for Labour and Welfare: Right now our top priority is to help the 100 or so workers, local or imported, to get what they should get under the law, i.e. their unpaid salaries, unpaid leave as well as severance payment. We are helping them to apply for support under the Protection of Wages on Insolvency Fund against insolvency and wage default. It takes a bit of time, but they don’t have to worry. Right now, under the Fund, be it unpaid salaries, unpaid leave as well as severance payment, there is a well-established mechanism for them to get back money that is owed to them. We are working closely with the employers because with their help, it could speed up the whole process. In Hong Kong we have very elaborated labour laws providing much needed and necessary protection for our workers, and such protection applies to both local and imported workers.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the remarks.)
Owned lab in Everett, WA that billed Medicare $8.7 million for COVID tests that were never legitimately ordered or performed
Seattle – An Indian national indicted for health care fraud will make his initial appearance today in U.S. District Court in Seattle, announced Acting U.S. Attorney Teal Luthy Miller. Mohammed Asif, 34, was arrested on April 10, 2025, at Chicago O’Hare International Airport while attempting to board an international flight. Asif is charged with health care fraud and conspiracy to commit health care fraud in connection with the operation of American Labworks LLC, a diagnostic testing laboratory in Everett, Washington. The indictment alleges that Asif conspired with others to bill Medicare for COVID-19 tests and other respiratory illness tests that had not been ordered or performed.
“Medicare provides critical funding for senior citizens’ health care needs, which makes this type of fraud all the more reprehensible,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Miller. “This case stands as an example of how federal law enforcement is working diligently to protect those critical tax dollars from fraud schemes.”
According to the indictment and an earlier-filed criminal complaint, the Washington Secretary of State has American Labworks being formed in October 2021 and dissolved in March 2025. Washington Department of Health records indicate that its license as a Medical Test Site expired in December 2023. Asif is listed in filings with the state and with Medicare as the owner and director of American Labworks.
Claims data from April 2024 to December 2024 show that American Labworks billed Medicare more than $8.7 million for laboratory testing services, including for COVID-19 testing. Medicare paid out over $1.1 million to the lab.
Between June 2024 and March 2025, Medicare received more than 200 complaints from enrollees and others about American Labworks. Many of these complainants reported that Medicare was billed for testing that was never received. For example, one Medicare enrollee noted that Medicare paid American Labworks $545 for COVID-19 tests in August 2023 and March 2024. But the beneficiary had never had any COVID-19 tests on those dates. Multiple Medicare beneficiaries said they too had seen bills for tests that never occurred. Physicians who had allegedly ordered the tests said they had not sent patients to American Labworks, and many patients said they had never heard of the referring physician listed in the records.
In some instances, the billing records indicated a beneficiary’s testing date of service occurred after other records indicated the beneficiary was dead. And in other instances, the physician who allegedly referred the patient for testing was dead at the time of the date of service.
Financial records indicate Mohammed Asif received multiple checks and made withdrawals from the American Labworks bank account, which he controlled. In May 2024, he withdrew $260,000 from the American Labworks checking account. Soon after that Asif, who had been in the U.S. on a student visa, retuned to India. He came back to the U.S. in March 2025 as investigators were unraveling the fraud. Prosecutors and special agents with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG) and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) moved quickly to draft the criminal complaint and take Asif into custody. A grand jury then returned the indictment of Asif on April 23.
Asif is alleged to have conspired with other people to accomplish the fraud. Those coconspirators are not named in the criminal complaint or indictment. The government’s investigation is ongoing.
“By all appearances, there is nothing legitimate about Mr. Asif’s company.” said W. Mike Herrington, Special Agent in Charge of the FBI’s Seattle field office. “Mr. Asif, along with his co-conspirators, used this apparently illegitimate company to fraudulently bill Medicare almost $9 million for tests that were never done. When we receive allegations such as these, the FBI and our partners will aggressively investigate potential fraud against the US taxpayer.”
“Through this scheme to fraudulently bill Medicare for laboratory testing services never furnished, the defendant diverted taxpayer money that was meant to pay for legitimate medical services,” said Acting Special Agent in Charge Robb Breeden of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office of Inspector General (HHS-OIG). “HHS-OIG will continue to work with our law enforcement partners to hold accountable those who exploit federal health care programs for their own personal gain.”
Health care fraud and conspiracy to commit health care fraud are punishable by up to ten years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000.
The charges contained in the indictment are only allegations. A person is presumed innocent unless and until he or she is proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law.
The case is being investigated by HHS-OIG and the FBI.
The case is being prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Philip Kopczynski.
IMO, this sounds like an expression of sorrow and regret about the conflict, and about the evils it is feeding and fostering. Regardless, the institute has described that comment by Davis as antisemitic.
“‘You cannot claim to champion social cohesion while minimising or rationalising antisemitic hate,’ the institute said. ‘Social trust depends on moral consistency, especially from those in leadership. Peter Davis’s actions erode that trust.’”
For the record, Davis wasn’t rationalising or minimising antisemitic hate. His comments look far more like a legitimate observation that the longer the need for a political-diplomatic solution is violently resisted, the worse things will be for everyone — including Jewish citizens, via the stoking of antisemitism.
The basic point at issue here is that criticisms of the actions of the Israeli government do not equate to a racist hostility to the Jewish people. (Similarly, the criticisms of Donald Trump’s actions cannot be minimised or rationalised as due to anti-Americanism.)
Appalled by Netanyahu actions Many Jewish people in fact, also feel appalled by the actions of the Netanyahu government, which repeatedly violate international law.
In the light of the extreme acts of violence being inflicted daily by the IDF on the people of Gaza, the upsurge in hateful graffiti by neo-Nazi opportunists while still being vile, is hardly surprising.
Around the world, the security of innocent Israeli citizens is being recklessly endangered by the ultra-violent actions of their own government.
If you want to protect your citizens from an existing fire, it’s best not to toss gasoline on the flames.
To repeat: the vast majority of the current criticisms of the Israeli state have nothing whatsoever to do with antisemitism. At a time when Israel is killing scores of innocent Palestinians on a nightly basis with systematic air strikes and the shelling of civilian neighbourhoods, when it is weaponising access to humanitarian aid as an apparent tool of ethnic cleansing, when it is executing medical staff and assassinating journalists, when it is killing thousands of children and starving the survivors . . . antisemitism is not the reason why most people oppose these evils. Common humanity demands it.
Ironically, the press release by the NZ Israel Institute concludes with these words: “There must be zero tolerance for hate in any form.” Too bad the institute seems to have such a limited capacity for self-reflection.
Footnote One: For the best part of 80 years, the world has felt sympathy to Jews in recognition of the Holocaust. The genocide now being committed in Gaza by the Netanyahu government cannot help but reduce public support for Israel.
It also cannot help but erode the status of the Holocaust as a unique expression of human evil.
One would have hoped the NZ Israel Institute might acknowledge the self-defeating nature of the Netanyahu government policies — if only because, on a daily basis, the state of Israel is abetting its enemies, and alienating its friends.
Footnote Two: As yet, the so-called Free Speech Union has not come out to support the free speech rights of Peter Davis, and to rebuke the NZ Israel Institute for trying to muzzle them.
Colour me not surprised.
This is a section of Gordon Campbell’s Scoop column published yesterday under the subheading “Pot Calls Out Kettle”; the main portion of the column about the new Pope is here. Republished by Asia Pacific Report with permission.
Source: People’s Republic of China in Russian – People’s Republic of China in Russian –
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
BEIJING, May 10 (Xinhua) — China urges India and Pakistan to act in the interests of peace and stability and maintain composure and restraint, a Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson said Saturday when asked to comment on the escalating tensions between the two countries.
Pakistan reportedly claimed that India had struck the Nur Khan airbase and other targets in the early hours of May 10. Pakistan, in turn, announced a retaliatory strike and launched an operation called Banyan-ul-Marsoos.
The Chinese side has been closely monitoring the developments in the situation between India and Pakistan and is deeply concerned about the escalation. China urges both sides to act in the interests of peace and stability, maintain composure and restraint, return to the track of political settlement through peaceful means, and refrain from any actions that may further escalate tensions, the Chinese diplomat said.
“This is in line with the fundamental interests of India and Pakistan, will benefit stability and peace in the region, and is in line with the common expectations of the international community. China is willing to continue to play a constructive role in this direction,” the Chinese Foreign Ministry added. -0-
Source: People’s Republic of China – State Council News
ISLAMABAD, May 10 (Xinhua) — Pakistan Air Force (PAF) on Saturday destroyed an S-400 air defense missile system (SAM) in Adampur, located in Jalandhar district of Punjab state, India, the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) of the Pakistan Armed Forces said in a statement.
It is noted that the strike was carried out by hypersonic missiles launched from a JF-17 fighter, and high-precision munitions neutralized advanced air defense systems.
The S-400 system is considered one of the most modern air defense systems in India’s arsenal. Its cost is estimated at approximately $1.5 billion, the report says.
Military analysts told Xinhua that the downing of the S-400 could have significant implications for India’s air defence in the region.
According to ISPR, the strike was carried out as part of Pakistan’s major military operation Banyan-ul-Marsoos (Lead-Covered Wall), launched in response to ongoing Indian provocations. –0–