The Memphis police chief disbanded the city's so-called Scorpion unit on Saturday, citing a “cloud of dishonor” from newly released video that showed some of its officers beating Tyre Nichols to death after stopping the Black motorist. Police Director Cerelyn “CJ” Davis acted a day after the harrowing video emerged, saying she listened to Nichols' relatives, community leaders and uninvolved officers in making the decision. Her announcement came as the nation and the city struggled to come to grips with the violence of the officers, who are also Black. The video renewed doubts about why fatal encounters with law enforcement keep happening despite repeated calls for change.Protestors marching though downtown Memphis cheered when they heard the unit had been dissolved. One protestor said over a bullhorn that “the unit that killed Tyre has been permanently disbanded.”Referring to “the heinous actions of a few” that dishonored the unit, Davis contradicted an earlier statement that she would keep the unit. She said it was imperative that the department “take proactive steps in the healing process.”“It is in the best interest of all to permanently deactivate the Scorpion unit,” she said in a statement. She said the officers currently assigned to it agreed “unreservedly.”The unit is composed of three teams of about 30 officers whose stated aim is to target violent offenders in areas beset by high crime. It had been inactive since Nichols' Jan. 7 arrest.Scorpion stands for Street Crimes Operations to Restore Peace In Our Neighborhoods.In an interview Friday with The Associated Press, Davis had said she would not shut down a unit if a few officers commit “some egregious act” and because she needed it to continue to work.“The whole idea that the Scorpion unit is a bad unit, I just have a problem with that,” Davis said then.Davis became the first Black female chief in Memphis one year after George Floyd was killed at the hands of Minneapolis police. At the time, she was chief in Durham, North Carolina, and had called for sweeping police reform.Ben Crump and Antonio Romanucci, lawyers for the Nichols family, said the move was “a decent and just decision.”“We must keep in mind that this is just the next step on this journey for justice and accountability, as clearly this misconduct is not restricted to these specialty units. It extends so much further,” they said.The five disgraced officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith — have been fired and charged with murder and other crimes in Nichols’ death, which came three days after the arrest. They face up to 60 years in prison if convicted of second-degree murder.The video images released Friday show police savagely beating the 29-year-old FedEx worker for three minutes while screaming profanities at him in an assault that the Nichols family legal team has likened to the infamous 1991 police beating of Los Angeles motorist Rodney King. Nichols calls out for his mother before his limp body is propped against a squad car and the officers exchange fist-bumps.The video also left many unanswered questions about the traffic stop and about other law enforcement officers who stood by as Nichols lay motionless on the pavement.“Nobody tried to stop anything. They have a duty to intervene, a duty to render care,” Brenda Goss Andrews, president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives, said in an interview after viewing the video.She also was struck by the immediate aggression from officers as soon as they got out of the car: “It just went to 100. ... This was never a matter of de-escalation,” Goss Andrews said, adding, “The young man never had a chance from the moment that he was stopped.”Davis has said other officers are under investigation, and Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner said two deputies were relieved of duty without pay while their conduct is investigated.Rodney Wells, Nichols’ stepfather, said the family would “continue to seek justice” and those who failed to render aid are “just as culpable as the officers who threw the blows.”A Memphis police spokeswoman declined to comment on the other officers' conduct.Cities nationwide had braced for demonstrations after the video emerged, but protests were scattered and nonviolent. Several dozen demonstrators in Memphis blocked the Interstate 55 bridge that carries traffic over the Mississippi River toward Arkansas. Protesters also blocked traffic in New York City, Los Angeles and Portland, Oregon.Blake Ballin, the lawyer for Mills, told AP in a statement Saturday that the videos “produced as many questions as they have answers.”Some of those will focus on what Mills “knew and what he was able to see” and whether his actions “crossed the lines that were crossed by other officers during this incident,” Ballin said.Davis acknowledged that the police department has a supervisor shortage and said the lack of a supervisor in the arrest was a “major problem.” City officials have pledged to provide more of them.It's not clear why the traffic stop happened in the first place. One officer can be heard on video saying that Nichols wouldn’t stop and then swerved as though he intended to hit the officer’s car. The officer says that when Nichols pulled up to a red light, the officers jumped out.But Davis said the department cannot substantiate the reason for the stop.“We don’t know what happened,” she said, adding, “All we know is the amount of force that was applied in this situation was over the top.”After the first officer roughly pulls Nichols out of the car, Nichols can be heard saying, “I didn't do anything,” as a group of officers begin to wrestle him to the ground.One is heard yelling, “Tase him! Tase him!”Nichols calmly says, “OK, I’m on the ground," and that he was just trying to go home. Moments later, he yells at them to “stop."Nichols is then seen running as an officer fires a Taser. The officers start chasing Nichols.Others are called, and a search ensues before Nichols is caught at another intersection. His mother’s home, where he lived, was only a few houses away, and his family said he was trying to get there.The officers beat him with a baton, and kick and punch him. The attack continues even after he collapses.It takes more than 20 minutes afterward before any sort of medical attention is provided.During the wait for an ambulance, officers joke and air grievances. They complain that a handheld radio was ruined, that someone lost a flashlight, that multiple officers were caught in the pepper spray used against Nichols.Throughout the videos, they make claims about Nichols’ behavior that are not supported by the footage or that the district attorney and other officials say did not happen. In one, an officer claims that during the initial traffic stop Nichols reached for the officer's gun and almost had his hand on the handle, something not shown in the video.After Nichols is in handcuffs and leaning against a police car, several officers say he must have been high. Later one says no drugs were found in Nichols' car, and another immediately counters that he must have ditched something while running away.During a speech Saturday in Harlem, the Rev. Al Sharpton said the beating was particularly egregious because the officers were Black, too.“Your Blackness will not stop us from fighting you. These five cops not only disgraced their names, they disgraced our race,” Sharpton said.

Protestors marching though downtown Memphis cheered when they heard the unit had been dissolved

Protesters march Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023, in Memphis, Tenn., over the death of Tyre Nichols, who died after being beaten by Memphis police

Memphis police disband unit that fatally beat Tyre Nichols

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak fired the chairman of the governing Conservative Party on Sunday for a “serious breach” of ethics rules in failing to come clean about a tax dispute. Sunak had faced days of pressure to sack Nadhim Zahawi amid allegations he settled a multimillion-dollar unpaid tax bill while he was in charge of the country’s Treasury.The prime minister acted after a standards probe found Zahawi had breached the ministerial code of conduct. It said he had failed to disclose details of his dispute with tax authorities and the fact that he had paid a penalty.In a letter to Zahawi, Sunak said he had been forced to act to keep his promise that his government “would have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.”Zahawi had acknowledged the tax dispute but argued his error was “careless and not deliberate.”In his response to Sunak, Zahawi pledged to support the prime minister as a backbench lawmaker and made no reference to the ethics inquiry. He attacked the media — which first revealed his whopping tax bill, reported at almost 5 million pounds ($6.2 million) — and claimed some reporting did not reflect “legitimate scrutiny of public officials.”Zahawi headed the U.K. Treasury from July to September 2022 in the final months of Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s tenure, and was appointed Conservative Party chairman when Sunak took office in October.Sunak has vowed to restore order and integrity to government after three years of turmoil under predecessors Johnson – brought down by ethics scandals – and Liz Truss, who quit within weeks after her policies rocked the U.K. economy.Last week he asked the government's standards adviser, Laurie Magnus, to investigate Zahawi's tax affairs and said he would wait for the results before acting.In a report released Sunday, Magnus found Zahawi had shown “insufficient regard” for the requirement “to be honest, open and an exemplary leader through his own behavior” in public life.The investigation into Zahawi by HMRC, the U.K’s tax office, centered around the sale of some 27 million pounds ($33.4 million) in shares in YouGov, an opinion polling firm he co-founded. The probe began in April 2021, but Zahawi did not declare it when he was appointed Chancellor of the Exchequer more than a year later.The Magnus report found there should have been an understanding from the outset that the matter was serious. It said this was not reflected in public statements given by Zahawi, until he confirmed on Jan. 21 that a settlement had been reached.Zahawi said Sunday it had been “the privilege of my life” to serve in government. The 55-year-old, who came to Britain as a child refugee from Iraq, was vaccines minister in the first year of the coronavirus pandemic, and later served a nine-month stint as education minister.The Zahawi episode was a test of the authority of Sunak, who is grappling with a staggering economy and a deeply divided Conservative Party. Standards inquiries are also underway into Johnson — over claims he secured a loan with the help of a Conservative donor who was later appointed chairman of the BBC — and Deputy Prime Minister Dominic Raab, who faces allegations he bullied staff.The stories are fuel for opponents who accuse Sunak — a former investment banker who is married to the daughter of an Indian billionaire — of leading a government of the wealthy that is out of touch with the struggles of ordinary people.Last year, it was revealed that his wife Akshata Murthy didn’t pay U.K. tax on her overseas income, including 11.5 million pounds a year in dividends from Infosys, the Indian IT company founded by her father. The practice was legal, but it looked insensitive at best at a time when Sunak — who was then the U.K. Treasury chief — was raising taxes for millions of Britons.Housing Secretary Michael Gove said Sunak had shown integrity in waiting for the facts before firing Zahawi.“The electorate will have a chance to pass judgment," he told Times Radio. "I hope and believe that by the time of the next general election, people will have seen that Rishi Sunak is someone who is deeply moral, deeply public spirited, and committed, above all, to public service.”

Sunak had faced days of pressure to sack Nadhim Zahawi amid allegations he settled a multimillion-dollar unpaid tax bill while he was in charge

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has fired the chairman of his ruling Conservative Party chairman over a “serious breach” of the ministerial code

UK leader fires party chairman over tax bill allegations

An unarmed Black man dies after a videotaped beating by police. The officers involved are fired. After a thorough review of the evidence, criminal charges are swiftly filed against the offending officers. Investigation, accountability and charges.This is often the most Black citizens can hope for as the deaths continue. Nationwide, police have killed roughly three people per day consistently since 2020, according to academics and advocates for police reform who track such deaths.Tyre Nichols' fatal encounter with police officers in Memphis, Tennessee, recorded in video made public Friday night, is a glaring reminder that efforts to reform policing have failed to prevent more flashpoints in an intractable epidemic of brutality.Nearly 32 years ago, Rodney King’s savage beating by police in Los Angeles prompted heartfelt calls for change. They've been repeated in a ceaseless rhythm ever since, punctuated by the deaths of Amadou Diallo in New York, Oscar Grant in Oakland, California, Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri, and so many others.George Floyd's murder in Minneapolis in 2020 was so agonizing to watch, it summoned a national reckoning that featured federal legislation proposed in his name and shows of solidarity by corporations and sports leagues. All fell short of the shift in law enforcement culture Black people in America have called for — a culture that promotes freedom from fear, trust in police and mutual respect.“We need public safety, right? We need law enforcement to combat pervasive crime,” said Jason Turner, senior pastor of Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Memphis. “Also, we don’t want the people who are sworn to protect and serve us brutalizing us for a simple traffic stop, or any offense.”The five Black officers are now fired and charged with murder and other crimes in the Jan. 10 death of Nichols, a 29-year-old skateboarder, FedEx worker and father to a 4-year-old boy.From police brass and the district attorney’s office to the White House, officials said Nichols’ killing points to a need for bolder reforms that go beyond simply diversifying the ranks, changing use-of-force rules and encouraging citizens to file complaints."The world is watching us," Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy said. "If there is any silver lining to be drawn from this very dark cloud, it’s that perhaps this incident can open a broader conversation about the need for police reform.”President Joe Biden joined national civil rights leaders in similar calls to action.“To deliver real change, we must have accountability when law enforcement officers violate their oaths, and we need to build lasting trust between law enforcement, the vast majority of whom wear the badge honorably, and the communities they are sworn to serve and protect,” the president said.But Memphis, whose 628,000 residents celebrate barbecue and blues music and lament being the place where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, has seen this before. The city took steps advocates called for in a “Reimagine Policing” initiative in 2021, and mirrored a set of policy changes reformers want all departments to implement immediately, known as “8 Can’t Wait.”De-escalation training is now required. Officers are told to limit uses of force, exhaust all alternatives before resorting to deadly force and report all uses of force. Tennessee also took action: State law now requires officers to intervene to stop abuse and report excessive force by their colleagues.Showing unusual transparency for a police department, the MPD now publishes accountability reports that include the race of people subjected to use of force each year. They show Black men and women were overwhelmingly targeted for rougher treatment in 2019, 2020 and 2021. They were subject to nearly 86% of the recorded uses of guns, batons, pepper spray, physical beatings and other force in 2021, the total nearly doubling that year to 1,700 cases.Seven uses of force by Memphis police ended in death during these three years.“I don’t know how much more cumulative Black death our community should have to pay to convince elected officials that the policing system isn’t broken — it’s working exactly as it was designed to, at the expense of Black life,” said Ash-Lee Woodard Henderson, co-executive director of the Highlander Research and Education Center, a Tennessee-based civil rights leadership training school.The Nichols case — just one of the brutality cases to make national news this month — exposes an uncomfortable truth: More than two years since the deaths of Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Rayshard Brooks touched off protests, policing reforms have not significantly reduced such killings.States approved nearly 300 police reform bills after Floyd’s murder, creating civilian oversight of police, more anti-bias training, stricter use-of-force limits and alternatives to arrests in cases involving people with mental illnesses, according to a recent analysis by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism at the University of Maryland.Despite calls to “defund the police," an Associated Press review of police funding nationwide found only modest cuts, driven largely by shrinking revenue related to the coronavirus pandemic. Budgets increased and more officers were hired for some large departments, including New York City’s.Still stuck in Congress is the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act, which would prohibit racial profiling, ban chokeholds and no-knock warrants, limit the transfer of military equipment to police departments, and make it easier to bring charges against offending officers. Biden said he told Nichols' mother that he would be “making a case” to Congress to pass the Floyd Act “to get this under control.”The Rev. Al Sharpton said his eulogy at Nichols’ funeral on Wednesday will include a call for new laws. NAACP President Derrick Johnson also took Congress to task.“By failing to write a piece of legislation, you’re writing another obituary,” Johnson said. “Tell us what you’re going to do to honor Tyre Nichols. … We can name all the victims of police violence, but we can’t name a single law you have passed to address it.”Advocates want state and federal legislation because local changes vary widely in scope and effect and can be undone by a single election after years of grassroots activism. But some say strict regulations are just the start — and the video of Nichols’ agony proves it.“Changing a rule doesn’t change a behavior,” said Katie Ryan, chief of staff for Campaign Zero, a group of academics, policing experts and activists working to end police violence. “The culture of a police department has to shift into actually implementing the policies, not just saying there’s a rule in place.”The five officers charged — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith — were part of the so-called Scorpion unit. Scorpion stands for Street Crimes Operations to Restore Peace in our Neighborhoods.The Memphis police chief, Cerelyn “CJ" Davis, disbanded the unit on Saturday.“It is in the best interest of all to permanently deactivate the Scorpion unit," she said in a statement.Prior to the move by Davis, Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland said it was clear that the officers involved in the attack on Nichols violated the department's policies and training.“I want to assure you we are doing everything we can to prevent this from happening again," Strickland said in a statement. “We are initiating an outside, independent review of the training, policies and operations of our specialized units."The Memphis police union extended condolences to Nichols' family, saying it “is committed to the administration of justice and NEVER condones the mistreatment of ANY citizen nor ANY abuse of power.” The statement also expressed faith that the justice system would reveal “the totality of circumstances” in the case.Patrick Yoes, national president of the Fraternal Order of Police, pushed back against the conclusion that policing must change. This was not “legitimate police work or a traffic stop gone wrong,” Yoes said. “This is a criminal assault under the pretext of law.”Protesters turned out again Friday night after the city released the video footage. Turner, the Memphis pastor, called the images “further proof that our city’s and our nation’s criminal justice systems are in dire need of change.”“It’s not like we’re short on concrete, reasonable recommendations,” said the Rev. Earle Fisher, senior pastor of the Abyssinian Baptist Church. “What we’re short on is the political will and the commitment to making the structural changes.”

This is often the most Black citizens can hope for as the deaths continue

Members of the Memphis Police Department work a crime scene in Memphis

Tyre Nichols case revives calls for change in police culture

Former President Donald Trump is set to kick off his 2024 White House bid on Saturday with visits to a pair of early-voting states, his first campaign events since announcing his latest run more than two months ago. Trump will be the keynote speaker at the New Hampshire GOP’s annual meeting before traveling to Columbia, South Carolina, where he is set to introduce his state leadership team. New Hampshire and South Carolina hold two of the party’s first three nominating contests, giving them enormous power in selecting the nominee.Trump and his allies hope the events will offer a show of force behind the former president after a sluggish start to his campaign that left many questioning his commitment to running again. In recent weeks, his backers have reached out to political operatives and elected officials to secure support for Trump at a critical point when other Republicans are preparing their own expected challenges.“The gun is fired, and the campaign season has started," said Stephen Stepanek, outgoing chair of the New Hampshire Republican Party who served as co-chair of Trump's 2016 campaign in the state.While Trump remains the only declared 2024 presidential candidate, potential challengers, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, former Vice President Mike Pence and former South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley, who was Trump's ambassador to the United Nations, are expected to get their campaign underway in the coming months.In South Carolina, Gov. Henry McMaster, U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham and several members of the state's congressional delegation plan to attend Saturday's event at the Statehouse. But Trump's team has struggled to line up support from state lawmakers, even some who eagerly backed him during previous runs.Some have said that more than a year out from primary balloting is too early to make endorsements or that they' are waiting to see who else enters the race. Others have said it is time for the party to move past Trump to a new generation of leadership.Republican state Rep. RJ May, vice chair of South Carolina’s state House Freedom Caucus, said he wasn't going to attend Trump's event because he was focused on that group's legislative fight with the GOP caucus. He indicated that he was open to other candidates in the 2024 race.“I think we’re going to have a very strong slate of candidates here in South Carolina,” said May, who voted for Trump in 2016 and 2020. He added, “I would 100% take a Donald Trump over Joe Biden.”Dave Wilson, president of conservative Christian nonprofit Palmetto Family, said some conservative voters may have concerns about Trump's recent comments that Republicans who opposed abortion without exceptions had cost the party in the November elections.“It gives pause to some folks within the conservative ranks of the Republican Party as to whether or not we need the process to work itself out," said Wilson, whose group hosted Pence for a speech in 2021. He added: "You continue to have to earn your vote. Nothing is taken for granted.”Acknowledging that Trump “did some phenomenal things when he was president,” like securing a conservative U.S. Supreme Court majority, Wilson said South Carolina’s GOP voters may be seeking “a candidate who can be the standard-bearer not only for now but to build ongoing momentum across America for conservatism for the next few decades.”But Gerri McDaniel, who worked on Trump’s 2016 campaign and will be attending Saturday's event, rejected the idea that voters were ready to move on from the former president.“Some of the media keep saying he’s losing his support. No, he’s not," she said. “It’s only going to be greater than it was before because there are so many people who are angry about what’s happening in Washington.”The South Carolina event, at a government building, surrounded by elected officials, is in some ways off-brand for a former reality television star who typically favors big rallies and has tried to cultivate an outsider image. But the reality is that Trump is a former president who is seeking to reclaim the White House by contrasting his time in office with the current administration.Rallies are also expensive, and Trump, who is notoriously frugal, added new financial challenges when he deciding to begin his campaign in November — far earlier than many allies had urged. That leaves him subject to strict fundraising regulations and bars him from using his well-funded leadership PAC to pay for such events, which can cost several million dollars.Officials expect Trump to speak in the second-floor lobby of the Statehouse, an opulent ceremonial area between the House and Senate chambers.The venue has played host to some of South Carolina’s most notable political news moments, including Haley’s 2015 signing of a bill to remove the Confederate battle flag from the Statehouse grounds and McMaster's 2021 signing of legislation banning abortions in the state after around six weeks of pregnancy. The state Supreme Court recently ruled the abortion law unconstitutional, and McMaster has pledged to seek a rehearing.Trump's nascent campaign has already sparked controversy, most particularly when he had dinner with Holocaust-denying white nationalist Nick Fuentes and the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, who had made a series of antisemitic comments. Trump also was widely mocked for selling a series of digital trading cards that pictured him as a superhero, a cowboy and an astronaut, among others.At the same time, he is the subject of a series of criminal investigations, including one into the discovery of hundreds of documents with classified markings at his Florida club and whether he obstructed justice by refusing to return them, as well as state and federal examinations of his efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election, which he lost to Democrat Joe Biden.Still, Trump remains the only announced 2024 candidate, and early polling shows he's a favorite to win his party's nomination.Stepanek, who was required to remain neutral until his term as New Hampshire party chair ends at Saturday's party meeting, dismissed the significance of Trump's slow start, which campaign officials say accounts for time spent putting infrastructure in place for a national campaign.In New Hampshire, he said, “there's been a lot of anticipation, a lot of excitement" for Trump's reelection. He said Trump's most loyal supporters continue to stand behind him.“You have a lot of people who weren’t with him in ‘15, ’16, then became Trumpers, then became never-Trumpers,” Stepanek said. “But the people who supported him in New Hampshire, who propelled him to his win in 2016 in the New Hampshire primary, they're all still there, waiting for the president.”

Trump will be the keynote speaker at the New Hampshire GOP’s annual meeting before traveling to Columbia

Former President Donald Trump gestures as he announces he is running for president for the third time as he speaks at Mar-a-Lago

Trump kicking off 2024 run with stops in early-voting states

A 13-year-old Palestinian opened fire in east Jerusalem on Saturday, wounding two Israelis, officials said, a day after another attacker killed seven outside a synagogue in the deadliest attack in the city since 2008. The shooting in the Palestinian neighborhood of Silwan in east Jerusalem, near the historic Old City, wounded a father and son, ages 47 and 23, paramedics said. Both were fully conscious and in moderate to serious condition in the hospital, the medics added.As police rushed to the scene, two passers-by with licensed weapons shot and overpowered the 13-year-old attacker, police said. Police confiscated his handgun and took the wounded teen to a hospital. Video showed police escorting a wounded teen, wearing nothing but underwear, away from the scene and onto a stretcher, his hands cuffed behind his back. Authorities taped off the street, emergency vehicles and security forces swarmed the area and helicopters whirled overhead.“He waited to ambush civilians on the holy Sabbath day,” Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne told The Associated Press, adding that the teenager opened fire on a group of five civilians. Security footage showed the victims to be observant Jews, wearing skullcaps and tzitzit, or knotted ritual tassels.Saturday's events — on the eve of U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken's arrival in the region — raised the possibility of even greater conflagration in one of the bloodiest months in Israel and the occupied West Bank in several years. On Friday, a Palestinian gunman killed at least seven people, including a 70-year-old woman, in a Jewish settlement in east Jerusalem, an area captured by Israel in 1967 and later annexed in a move not internationally recognized.The attacks pose pivotal test for Israel’s new far-right government. Its firebrand minister of national security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, has presented himself as an enforcer of law and order and grabbed headlines for his promises to take even stronger action against the Palestinians.The Israeli army said it had deployed another battalion to the West Bank on Saturday, adding hundreds more troops to a presence already on heightened alert in the occupied territory.In the Jenin refugee camp, the site of a deadly Israeli military raid on Thursday that fueled the latest escalation, footage showed Palestinians dancing and cheering in celebration of the shooting on Saturday. Palestinian detainees who celebrated in prison after Friday's attack were placed in solitary confinement, the Israeli prison service said.Prime Minister Benjamin said he would convene his Security Cabinet later, after the Sabbath, which ends at sundown, to discuss a further response to the attack near the synagogue. Security forces launched a crackdown in east Jerusalem, fanning out into the neighborhood of the 21-year-old Palestinian gunman, who was shot and killed at the scene. Police arrested 42 of his family members and neighbors for questioning in the At-Tur neighborhood.Police Chief Kobi Shabtai permanently moved a force, similar to a S.W.A.T. team, in the city and beefed up forces, instructing police to work 12-hour shifts. He urged the public to call a hotline if they see anything suspicious.The earlier Friday attack came a day after an Israeli military raid killed nine Palestinians in the flashpoint Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank that prompted a rocket barrage from Gaza and retaliatory Israeli airstrikes.Although calm had appeared to take hold after the limited exchange of fire between Israel and Gaza militants, tensions were running high in Jerusalem and the West Bank.Thursday's raid, deadliest single incursion in the West Bank since 2002, followed a particularly bloody month that saw at least 30 Palestinians — militants and civilians — killed in in confrontations with Israelis in the West Bank, according to a tally by the AP.Last year, as the Israeli military intensified its arrest raids following a string of deadly Palestinian attacks within Israel, at least 150 Palestinians were killed in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem. It was the highest annual death toll for more than a decade and a half. Thirty people were killed in Palestinian attacks against Israelis last year.Israel says most of the dead were militants. But youths protesting the incursions and others not involved in the confrontations also have been killed.The Israeli military contends its raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart attacks. But Palestinians say they further entrench Israel’s 55-year, open-ended occupation of the West Bank, captured along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip in the 1967 Mideast war. The Palestinians demand east Jerusalem as the capital of a future independent state, and much of the world considers it illegally occupied. Israel claims as its united, sovereign capital.Home to the shrines of all three major monotheistic religions, the contested capital been the centerpiece of spiking tensions between Israelis and Palestinians for years.Both Palestinian attackers behind the shootings on Friday and Saturday came from east Jerusalem. Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem hold permanent residency status, allowing them to work and move freely throughout Israel, but they are not allowed to vote in national elections. Residency rights can be stripped if a Palestinian is found to live outside the city for an extended period or in certain security cases.Although their standard of living is generally better than in the West Bank and Gaza, Palestinian residents of the city receive a fraction of the services that Jewish residents do. They also complain of home demolitions and the near impossibility of obtaining Israeli building permits.

He waited to ambush civilians on the holy Sabbath day, Israeli police spokesman Dean Elsdunne told 

An Israeli policeman secures a shooting attack site in east Jerusalem, Saturday, Jan. 28, 2023. A Palestinian gunman opened fire in east Jerusalem on Saturday, wounding at least two people less than a day after another attacker killed seven outside a synagogue there in the deadliest attack in the city since 2008.

Palestinian teen wounds 2, day after 7 killed in Jerusalem

Petr Pavel, a retired army general, defeated populist billionaire Andrej Babis in a runoff vote Saturday to become the new Czech president. Pavel, 61, will succeed controversy-courting Milos Zeman in the largely ceremonial but prestigious post. With the ballots from 99.5% of polling stations counted by the Czech Statistics Office, Pavel had 58.2% of the vote compared with 42.8% for Babis.“We can have different views of a number of issues, but that doesn’t mean we’re enemies,” Pavel said in a message to voters who cast ballots for Babis after what was considered a nasty presidential campaign period. “We have to learn how to communicate with each other.”Babis conceded defeat and congratulated Pavel on his victory. He called on his supporters “to accept that I’ve lost and accept we have a new president.”Pavel, who ran as an independent, is a former chairman of NATO’s military committee, the alliance’s highest military body. He fully endorsed the Czech Republic's military and humanitarian support for Ukraine in its fight against Russia's invasion and stresses the importance of the country's membership in the European Union and NATO.The president picks the prime minister after a general election, one of the office’s key responsibilities, and appoints members of the central bank. The office-holder also selects Constitutional Court judges with the approval of Parliament’s upper house.Otherwise, the president has little executive power since Czechia is run by a government chosen and led by the prime minister.Losing the race to Pavel was another major defeat for Babis 68, a former prime minister. His centrist ANO (YES) movement ended up in opposition after losing the 2021 general election.Zeman, the outgoing president, had backed Babis, one of country’s richest people. The two men share euroskeptic views and the habit of using anti-migrant rhetoric.While Babis has been a divisive figure, he maintained his popular support with older voters. He accused Pavel, during a campaign marred by false accusations, of having been a KGB-trained communist spy. He provided no evidence for the claim, and went on to compare his opponent to Russian President Vladimir Putin.The Ukraine war was a core campaign issue. Babis presented himself as a peacemaker and labeled Pavel a warmonger due to his military past.In his most controversial statement, Babis said he wouldn’t send troops to Poland or the Baltics if the NATO allies were attacked. He later backtracked.Zeman, who took office in March 2013, was the country's first president elected by popular vote. His second and final five-year term expires in March. Lawmakers elected the previous two presidents, Vaclav Havel and Vaclav Klaus.Before the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Zeman divided the nation with his pro-Russia stance and support for closer ties with China.

The Ukraine war was a core campaign issue. Babis presented himself as a peacemaker and labeled Pavel a warmonger due to his military past

Czech Republic's President elect Petr Pavel with his wife Eva greets his supporters after announcement of the preliminary results of the presidential runoff in Prague, Czech Republic

Retired Czech army general Pavel wins presidential election

Ukraine and its Western allies are engaged in “fast-track” talks on the possibility of equipping the invaded country with long-range missiles and military aircraft, a top Ukrainian presidential aide said Saturday. Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Ukraine’s supporters in the West “understand how the war is developing” and the need to supply planes capable of providing cover for the armored fighting vehicles that the United States and Germany pledged at the beginning of the month.However, in remarks to online video channel Freedom, Podolyak said that some of Ukraine's Western partners maintain a “conservative” attitude to arms deliveries, “due to fear of changes in the international architecture.” Russia and North Korea have accused the West of prolonging and taking a direct role in the war by sending Kyiv increasingly sophisticated weapons.“We need to work with this. We must show (our partners) the real picture of this war," Podolyak said, without naming specific countries. “We must speak reasonably and tell them, for example, ‘This and this will reduce fatalities, this will reduce the burden on infrastructure. This will reduce security threats to the European continent, this will keep the war localized.’ And we are doing it.”The U.S. and Germany agreed Wednesday to share advanced tanks with Ukraine along with the Bradley and Marder vehicles promised earlier, a decision that led to criticism not only from the Kremlin but from the prime minister of NATO and European Union member Hungary.Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban asserted Friday that Western countries providing weapons and money to assist Ukraine in its war with Russia have “drifted” into becoming active participants in the conflict. Orban has refused to send weapons to neighboring Ukraine and sought to block EU funds earmarked for military aid.The Ukrainian Foreign Ministry said it would summon Hungary's ambassador to complain about Orban's remarks. A ministry spokesperson, Oleg Nikolenko, said Orban told reporters that Ukraine was “a no-man’s land” and compared it to Afghanistan.“Such statements are completely unacceptable. Budapest continues on its course to deliberately destroy Ukrainian-Hungarian relations,” Nikolenko said in a Facebook post.President Joe Biden's announcement that the U.S. would send 31 M1 Abrams tanks to Ukraine reversed months of arguments by Washington that they were too difficult for Ukrainian troops to operate and maintain.The U.S. decision persuaded German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who had expressed concern about a unilateral action drawing Russia's wrath, to agree to send 14 Leopard 2 tanks from Germany's stocks and to allow European countries with tanks to send some of theirs.Western weapons have proven essential to Ukraine's defense while stoking ever-higher tensions with Moscow. Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that Ukrainian forces used U.S.-made HIMARS rockets to strike a hospital in the eastern Ukrainian town of Novoaidar, killing 14 people.Novoaidar is located in Luhansk province, which is almost entirely under the control of Russian forces or Russian-backed separatists. The Russian Defense Ministry alleged the hospital was deliberately targeted. Its claim of a strike in Novoaidar could not be immediately verified.Amid the news of the Western pledges of heavy tanks, Russia bombarded Ukraine with missiles, exploding drones and artillery shells this week. The attacks continued Saturday, when Russian missiles struck the city of Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk province.The missiles fell in a residential area, killing three civilians, wounding 14 and damaging four high-rise apartment buildings, a hotel and garages, Gov. Pavlo Kyrylenko said.“Kostyantynivka is a city relatively far from the front line, but still, it constantly suffers from enemy attacks. Everyone who remains in the city exposes themselves to mortal danger," Kyrylenko said. "The Russians target civilians because they are not able to fight the Ukrainian army.”In a separate Telegram post earlier Saturday, Kyrylenko reported that Russian attacks in the province killed four civilians in all and wounded seven others in 24 hours.Russian rockets hit a residential area the Donestsk town of Chasiv Yar on Friday night, killing of two people and wounding five more, the governor said. Photos attached to Kyrylenko’s post showed a three-story school building on fire.Donetsk province, where the territory is roughly split between Russian and Ukrainian control, has become the battle epicenter of the war as Moscow tries to jump-start a monthslong, grinding offensive to capture the city of Bakhmut.Chasiv Yar lies on a hill strategically located for the defense of Bakhmut, and has come under intensified Russian shelling. Capturing Bakhmut would allow Russian troops to disrupt Ukrainian supply lines and potentially pave the way for them to threaten Sloviansk and Kramatorsk, the largest remaining Ukrainian-held cities in the country’s east.Russian forces continued ground attacks around Bakhmut and Avdiivka, another Donetsk city to the south, while Ukrainian troops were on the offensive in southern and northeast Ukraine, the Ukrainian military said in a Saturday morning update.The General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces said that Russian troops “are defending themselves” near Lyman in Luhansk and Kharkiv provinces north of Donetsk, as well in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia provinces in the south.The fighting has largely been deadlocked over the past months, with winter conditions slowing down ground operations and neither side reporting significant progress.In the same update, the military reported that Russian forces launched 10 missile strikes, 26 air strikes and 81 shelling attacks on Ukrainian territory between Friday and Saturday mornings. The shelling killed two civilians in Kherson, another province that is partly Russian-occupied.Podolyak, the presidential adviser, said Ukraine needs supplies of Western long-range missiles “to drastically curtail the key tool of the Russian army” by destroying the warehouses where it stores cannon artillery used on the front line.

Novoaidar is located in Luhansk province, which is almost entirely under the control of Russian forces or Russian-backed separatists

Suffering from cancer, Gennadiy Shaposhnikov, 83, rests in his partially destroyed home which was hit by Russian shelling last fall in Kalynivske, Ukraine

Ukraine: 'Fast-track' talks underway for missiles, planes

As the "Avaz" portal unofficially finds out, the police in Sarajevo shed light on the kidnapping of convict Enis Rezaković from Sarajevo. Yesterday, Rezaković was released from Sarajevo Penitentiary, where he served his prison sentence.<h2>A woman was waiting for Rezaković in front of the prison</h2>After leaving the prison, a female R.E. was waiting for him, but the kidnappers were ahead of her.Enis did not go far, because he was immediately intercepted by Jasmin Rajković, aka "Deba", and forced to enter the Golf on the nearby parking lot.The woman started shouting, trying to stop the vehicle in which they were putting Enis, but the kidnappers chased her away with threats. She immediately alerted the police.<h2>Previously arrested for drugs</h2>The abduction was brought to light thanks to the successful cooperation between the MUP of SC, Sarajevo Penitentiary and Police Station Istočno Sarajevo.By the way, Enis Rezaković was previously detained for drugs.We would like to remind you that the police officers of the Criminal Police Sector of the SC MUP Police Directorate, while working on documenting and elucidating this criminal offense, came to know about four male persons who can be linked to the execution of this offense, and they were located in the area of Pale through operational work. In cooperation with police officers from Police Station East Sarajevo, persons: J.B. (1987), M.K (1990), A.S. (1976) and A.F. (1987) - all from Sarajevo, were deprived of their freedom. Around 11:50 PM, on January 26th, 2023. the police officers of the Criminal Police Sector of the SC Police Administration took over persons deprived of their liberty from the police officers of the Pale Police Department of the RS MUP due to the suspicion that they had committed a criminal offense under Article 180 of the Criminal Code of FBiH (Kidnapping).At the same time, police officers found E.R. who was heard as a witness.

The kidnappers waited for Enis in front of the prison

Details of the abduction of a convict in front of Sarajevo Penitentiary: "Deba" forced him into a Golf

Bakir's wife, Sebija Izetbegović, director of the Clinical Center of the University of Sarajevo and representative of the SDA in the Sarajevo Canton Assembly, sent her statement to the Office for Combating Corruption and Quality Management of the SC about the conflict of interest, "Avaz" learns. As a reminder, the new Law on Prevention and Suppression of Corruption in Sarajevo Canton, which entered into force on January 1st, 2023, prohibits the performance of multiple functions at the same time.<h2>New law</h2>With the enforcement of the new law, one person will not be able to be both a representative in the cantonal assembly and a director of an institution, because these are dual functions, as is the case with Izetbegović, who holds the position of director and representative.Since the beginning of the year, the office has received many such applications, and those who are in a potential conflict of interest have been given a 30-day deadline to make a statement. Just a few days before that deadline, Izetbegović sent hers to the Office headed by Erduan Kafedžić.As they said earlier from the Office, they will first ask for a statement from the persons they found to be in conflict of interest, and then they will be relieved of their duties within the legal term.

And the sanctions, if a person disobeys this law, are more than clear. Fines range from 2,000 to 10,000 KM. This kind of sanction also threatens the director of KCUS, who, right before the end of the deadline, sent her statement.- In the event that the holder of a public office does not resign, the Office will fine him/her in the amount of 2,000 to 10,000 KM, which is prescribed in Article 65 of the Law – they concluded from the Office.<h2>Not the founder</h2>Nevertheless, Sebija believes that she is not in a conflict of interest, which is why she said earlier in a statement that she is not leaving KCUS because of her position as a representative in the SC Assembly.- Sarajevo Canton is not the founder or co-founder of KCUS with more than 50 percent of the total capital, and it is quite clear that I am not in a conflict of interest. Also, I emphasize that I do not receive financial resources as a representative in the Sarajevo Canton Assembly. Immediately after assuming the mandate, I signed to renounce the lump sum. I have no right to waive the obligation to represent those who elected me, especially taking into account the support of the voters and the fact that in the current convocation of the SC Assembly I am the representative with the most votes - stated Izetbegović.If the holder of a public office does not resign or otherwise resign from one or more incompatible functions within 30 days, the Office delivers a decision on the existence of a conflict of interest to the institution, company, foundation or association in which the holder performs an incompatible function.

Sanctions for performing a dual function range from 2,000 to 10,000 KM

Sebija is afraid of the punishment

Prosecutors in Massachusetts are basing their murder case against a man whose wife is presumed dead but whose body has not been found in large part on a series of gruesome internet searches he made around the time of her disappearance. Scouring data on personal electronic devices is a common strategy in criminal cases, but experts warn that incriminating searches are not enough alone to build a solid case.“It would be very challenging to try and base a criminal investigation on just what somebody searched for on the internet,” said Jennifer Lynch, the surveillance litigation director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a San Francisco-based nonprofit that defends digital civil liberties.Brian Walshe used Google to look up ways to dismember and dispose of a body, including “how long before a body starts to smell,” “hacksaw best tool to dismember,” and “10 ways to dispose of a dead body if you really need to,” a prosecutor said when Walshe was arraigned Jan. 18 in connection with the presumed death of Ana Walshe.<h2>We carefully review each request</h2>Not guilty pleas were entered on Brian Walshe's behalf.Ana Walshe, a mother of three, was reportedly last seen leaving the family's home in Cohasset, south of Boston, in the early morning hours of Jan. 1. She was her way to the airport for a flight to Washington, where she worked for a real estate company, authorities said. She was reported missing by her employer Jan. 4.In the Walshe case, the defense will likely bring in its own expert to attack the reliability of the search evidence at trial, which could be years away, said Rachel Fiset, a Los Angeles-based defense attorney.But the whole of the evidence may be too much to overcome.“I am having a hard time, other than the fact that there is no body, seeing how Brian Walshe will defend this case,” unless he claims self-defense or insanity, Fiset said. “These searches are really bad, really damning.”Lynch warned about intrusive searches of what is essentially free speech. Just because someone searches for something potentially illegal online, it is not evidence that they intend to commit a crime, she said.“We all need to worry about the police having access to our search queries because they reveal so much private information about us," Lynch said. "So many of our search queries are just idle curiosity.”Google did not respond to an emailed request for comment. The tech giant publishes regular transparency reports in which it discloses the number of requests made by governments for user information and the number of accounts subject to those requests.For the six-month period from July to December 2021, the most recent period for which the information is available, Google received nearly 47,000 requests for information in the U.S., and in 84% of those, some data was produced.“Government agencies from around the world ask Google to disclose user information,” the company said on its website. “We carefully review each request to make sure it satisfies applicable laws. If a request asks for too much information, we try to narrow it, and in some cases we object to producing any information at all.”There is legal precedent in Massachusetts of securing a murder conviction even when the victim's remains are never found, and the internet searches could help overcome the lack of a body, Northeastern University School of Law professor Daniel Medwed said.A Quincy man was convicted in 2002 of killing his wife, whose body was never found after she was last seen leaving her construction job Sept. 27, 1998.“It’s an obstacle, but it’s not insurmountable” Medwed said. “In any no-body case, there is going to be doubt, so all of the circumstantial evidence has to be air tight."<h2>Walshe’s attorney has not commented</h2>In Brian Walshe's case, there is evidence in his search history of marital discord — he also looked up divorce terms. Medwed said prosecutors have additional evidence of Brian Walshe's trips to home improvement stores for cleaning supplies the day after Ana Walshe was last seen, as well as blood and DNA evidence that was found on some of Ana Walshe's personal belongings recovered from a trash facility.“You add all that together and you create narrative,” Medwed said.Walshe’s attorney has not commented on the specifics of the evidence but has said that her client has cooperated with investigators.“I am not going to comment on the evidence, first because I am going to try this case in the court and not in the media,” attorney Tracy Miner said in a statement on the day of Walshe’s arraignment.

Brian Walshe used Google to look up ways to dismember and dispose of a body

Brian Walshe listens during his arraignment Wednesday, Jan. 18

Internet evidence key, but not enough in no-body murder case

Haris Ihtijarević, the owner of the company "Gliese 581g", which lost the license for "McDonald's" in Bosnia and Herzegovina, is currently one of the most wanted persons in the country, given that he has ruined many people and business partners, and with his arrogance and wastefulness caused hundreds of workers to lose their jobs! <h2>Five restaurants</h2>After losing their license at the end of last year, we remind you, the owners of "McDonald's" in BiH closed five restaurants, three in Sarajevo and two in Mostar.As confirmed to us, Ihtijarević, after the affair and the revelation of numerous irregularities, he has been completely silent, and he does not even contact his closest associates and friends.As we were told unofficially, he has already started selling the property he has in Bosnia and Herzegovina. These are apartments in "Bosmal" and the center of Sarajevo, as well as property in Visoko, where he is from.Ihtijarević, against whom numerous criminal charges have been filed in the last few days, from employees, debtors, banks he worked with, decided to sell the parking space in Marindvor. This space was bought by a company from Sarajevo, although it is questionable how he used the state land for private purposes, which is now the subject of investigation by authorities.<h2>Apartments in Vienna</h2>We learn that he also has apartments in Vienna, Slovenia, Montenegro... It is believed that he is selling property in Sarajevo in order to leave BiH as soon as possible and avoid facing the judicial authorities in BiH, as well as the partners he cheated.At least three criminal reports have already been filed against him to the SC Prosecutor's Office.<h2>He defrauded "Avaz" </h2>Ihtijarević, we remind you, also defrauded the company "Avaz". As a tenant of the space for "McDonald's" in Nedžarići, he stole water from "Avaz" because he was illegally connected. He did this for 12 years, causing great financial damage to "Avaz" in the amount of more than 400,000 KM.For this reason, the management of "Avaz" submitted a criminal complaint to the SC Prosecutor's Office through a lawyer.

As we were told unofficially, Ihtijrević has already started selling the property he has in BiH

"Businessman" disappeared: Where is Ihtijarević hiding?

The body of a child found in Oklahoma earlier this month was positively identified as 4-year-old Athena Brownfield, who investigators said was beaten to death by a caregiver on Christmas. The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation announced on social media Thursday that the state’s chief medical examiner had made the identification.The girl was reported missing Jan. 10 when a postal carrier found her 5-year-old sister alone outside the home where she lived with Ivon Adams III and his wife, Alysia Adams. The couple had been caring for the sisters in Cyril, a city of around 800 people located about 70 miles (110 kilometers) southwest of Oklahoma City.Ivon Adams, 36, was arrested in Arizona on murder and child neglect charges and returned to Oklahoma.An affidavit for Ivon Adams’ arrest alleges he beat the girl to death the night of Dec. 25 and later buried her on property he and his wife once owned near the town of Rush Springs, where authorities found the child’s body. The document does not reveal why Ivon Adams was beating the girl.Alysia Adams, 31, is charged with two counts of child neglect in the case.The bureau said its agents recovered the girl’s body on Jan. 17 after police said the search had become a “recovery operation." The search included a helicopter, boats, all-terrain vehicles, a specially trained ground team and a review of surveillance video from around Cyril.The bureau said it would not have additional comment on the case due to a gag order filed in Caddo County District Court. The request for the order was filed in the case against Alysia Adams by her court-appointed attorney.

The Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation announced on social media Thursday that the state’s chief medical examiner had made the identification

This photo provided by Caddo County Sheriff's Office shows Alysia Adams. A 4-year-old Oklahoma girl was reported missing and Adams, her caretaker, alongside her husband Ivon Adams

Oklahoma investigators identify body as missing 4-year-old

Turkey summoned the Danish ambassador on Friday over reports that an anti-Islam activist would be allowed to burn the Quran during a series of protests in Copenhagen. Rasmus Paludan, a far-right activist who holds both Danish and Swedish citizenship, infuriated Turkey by staging a Quran-burning protest in Sweden on Jan. 21. He told Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet that he would replicate the protest in front of the Turkish Embassy in Copenhagen every Friday until Sweden is admitted into NATO. Reports said he would first burn the Quran outside a mosque in Copenhagen, then stage the same demonstration in front of the Turkish and Russian embassies.<h2>Denmark’s attitude is unacceptable</h2>Turkey’s state-run Anadolu Agency said the Danish ambassador was summoned to the Turkish Foreign Ministry where Turkish officials “strongly condemned the permission given to this provocative act which clearly constitutes a hate crime.”The ambassador was told that “Denmark’s attitude is unacceptable” and that Turkey expected that the permission be revoked, according to Anadolu.Paludan’s action last week caused a fury in Turkey, which criticized Swedish authorities for allowing the demonstration to take place outside the Turkish Embassy. Turkey’s president cast serious doubt on NATO’s expansion, warning Sweden not to expect support for its membership bid in the military alliance.Turkey also indefinitely postponed a key meeting in Brussels that would have discussed Sweden and Finland’s NATO membership, saying such a meeting would have been “meaningless.”<h2>His party received just 156 votes nationwide</h2>Sweden and Finland abandoned their long-standing policies of military nonalignment and applied for NATO membership after Russian forces launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24. NATO-member Turkey, which is pressing the two countries to crack down on Kurdish militants and other groups it considers terrorists, hasn’t yet endorsed their accession, which requires unanimous approval from all existing alliance members.A lawyer, Paludan established far-right parties in both Sweden and Denmark that have failed to win any seats in national, regional or municipal elections. In last year’s parliamentary election in Sweden, his party received just 156 votes nationwide.“This is Erdogan’s fault. Now that he doesn’t want to let Sweden into NATO, I have to teach him about freedom of speech until he does,” Paludan told Aftonbladet.

Paludan’s action last week caused a fury in Turkey, which criticized Swedish authorities for allowing the demonstration

An Imam recites from the Quran, Islam's holy book, during a demonstration outside the Swedish embassy in Ankara, Turkey

Turkey summons Danish envoy over Quran-burning protest

Britain’s Treasury chief said Friday that taming inflation is more important than cutting taxes, resisting calls from some in the governing Conservative Party for immediate tax breaks for businesses and voters. At a speech in London, Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt said “the best tax cut right now is a cut in inflation.”The U.K.’s annual inflation rate hit a four-decade high of 11.1% in October, fueling a cost-of-living crisis and a wave of strikes by workers seeking pay raises to keep pace with rising food and energy prices. It has since eased but still reached a painful 10.5% in December and is the highest since the 1980s.Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to halve the inflation rate from those levels by the end of the year.<h2>Hunt was appointed to steady the economy</h2>Hunt said he wanted Britain to be a low-tax economy but “with volatile markets and high inflation, sound money must come first” — a sign he won’t cut taxes when he makes his annual budget statement in March.The U.K. economy, like others around the world, has been rattled by pandemic restrictions and the shockwaves from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Britain also has suffered the self-inflicted damage of Liz Truss’ brief term as prime minister last year. She resigned in October after her plan for billions in unfunded tax cuts spooked financial markets, drove up the cost of borrowing and sent the pound plunging to a record low against the dollar.Hunt was appointed to steady the economy in the final days of Truss’ seven-week tenure and was kept on by her successor, Sunak.Inflation is higher than in the U.S. and the 20 nations that use the euro currency, with most forecasters expecting the U.K. economy to contract in the first half of 2023.In his speech at the headquarters of news agency Bloomberg, Hunt argued that changes to financial regulations and other rules, made possible by Brexit, will help boost the U.K.’s stubbornly low productivity rate.Three years after Britain formally left the European Union, and more than two years after the split became complete, the Conservative government is still struggling to deliver many of the economic benefits promised by pro-Brexit politicians.Most economists agree that Brexit has weighed down the economy by making it harder for U.K.-based businesses to trade with the 27-nation EU.Hunt said changes “necessitated, energized and made possible by Brexit” would help “make Britain the world’s next Silicon Valley,” a leader in digital technology, green energy and the life sciences.<h2>Critics said Hunt’s speech lacked specifics</h2>“We need to make Brexit a catalyst for the bold choices that will take advantage of the nimbleness and flexibilities that it makes possible,” he said, arguing that “Britain needs a more positive attitude to risk-taking” and is “too cautious compared to our U.S. friends.”Hunt said Britain will scrap Solvency II, an EU rule that sets out how much money insurers must hold in reserve. Hunt said easing the restriction could unlock up to 100 billion pounds ($124 billion) in investment over a decade for big infrastructure and clean energy projects.Critics said Hunt’s speech lacked specifics. Opposition Labour Party economy spokeswoman Rachel Reeves said the Conservatives, in power since 2010, “have no plan for now, and no plan for the future.”

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has promised to halve the inflation rate from those levels by the end of the year

Britain's Chancellor Jeremy Hunt leaves 11 Downing Street to attend Parliament in London, Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022. Britain’s Treasury chief said Friday, Jan. 27, 2023,

UK Treasury chief: Tax cuts must wait for inflation to fall

The Philippine justice secretary said Friday that any investigation violating the country's sovereignty by the International Criminal Court into the widespread killings of suspects during an anti-drug crackdown under former President Rodrigo Duterte would be “totally unacceptable.” Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla spoke in reaction to a decision on Thursday by judges in The Hague-based court allowing Prosecutor Karim Khan to resume an investigation that was suspended in late 2021 after the Duterte government said it was already looking into the killings and argued that the ICC, a court of last resort, did not have jurisdiction.The ICC decision was welcomed by human rights groups and by relatives of mostly poor suspects killed in Duterte's police-enforced crackdown.“The various domestic initiatives and proceedings, assessed collectively, do not amount to tangible, concrete and progressive investigative steps in a way that would sufficiently mirror the court’s investigation,” a panel of ICC judges said in their ruling Thursday after examining information from the Philippine government and Khan, and weighing comments from victims.Remulla rejected any ICC investigation that violates the country’s sovereignty and the independence of its judicial system.“We are a fully functioning judicial system and I don’t see where they will come in, what role they will play, unless they want to take over our legal system or they want to take over our country,” Remulla said at a news conference. “I don’t see that happening.”The government is willing to talk with ICC investigators and provide details of the Philippine investigation into the drug deaths, “but to impose themselves on us, that’s totally unacceptable,” Remulla said, without elaborating.He said the government investigation into the killings has taken a long time because of the difficulty of gathering evidence and other problems.Randy delos Santos, whose 17-year-old nephew, Kian delos Santos, was shot to death by police in an anti-drug raid in August 2017, said the ICC decision revived hopes among still-grieving families that they could get justice and that powerful people behind the deaths could be held accountable.Many more relatives of slain suspects are willing to talk now and possibly testify before the ICC after the end of Duterte's six-year term last year, he said.“If they were afraid to talk before, they are now ready to relate what they know about the killings,” delos Santos, who now works for a Catholic church charity that helps families of slain suspects, said by telephone.In a rare conviction, a Philippine court found three policemen guilty of involvement in Kian delos Santos's death in a slum in suburban Caloocan city after rejecting their claim that he opened fire at them with a pistol, prompting them to fire back. A security camera and witness accounts indicated that the teenager was dragged into a dark alley and shot to death as he pleaded for his life.“The ICC investigation in the Philippines is the only credible avenue for justice for the victims and their families of Duterte’s murderous ‘war on drugs,’” said Phil Robertson, deputy Asia director of the group Human Rights Watch. “The ICC offers a path forward to fill the accountability vacuum.”The killings being investigated by the ICC took place from Nov. 1, 2011, to March 16, 2019, in southern Davao city where Duterte was mayor, and later across the Philippines after Duterte became president.Duterte and his top police officials have denied that they authorized law enforcers to conduct extrajudicial killings under the crackdown and said most of the victims were killed after violently resisting arrest. Duterte, however, openly threatened drug dealers with death during his presidency.In 2019, Duterte withdrew the Philippines from the ICC after the court launched a preliminary examination into the killings. Critics said then that Duterte wanted to evade accountability. The ICC prosecutor, however, said the court continues to have jurisdiction over alleged crimes while the Philippines was a member of the court.President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., who succeeded Duterte, has said he has no plan to bring the Philippines back into the ICC.

The ICC decision was welcomed by human rights groups and by relatives of mostly poor suspects killed in Duterte's police-enforced crackdown

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte gestures as addresses thousands of the country's municipal councilors during its 10th National Congress Wednesday, March 8,

Philippines: Unapproved probe into killings unacceptable

South Korea says it will continue to restrict the entry of short-term travelers from China through the end of February over concerns that the spread of COVID-19 in that country may worsen following the Lunar New Year’s holidays. South Korea in early January stopped issuing most short-term visas at its consulates in China, citing concerns about a virus surge in the country that abruptly eased coronavirus restrictions in December and the potential for new mutations.South Korea has also required all passengers from China, Hong Kong and Macao to submit proofs of negative tests taken with 48 hours before their arrival and put them through tests again once they arrive.The steps, which originally were imposed for the month of January, prompted China to retaliate by suspending South Korean short-term visa applications, raising concerns about disrupted business activities in a country that heavily depends on exports to China.Following a meeting on South Korea’s COVID-19 response on Friday, health authorities decided to extend the coronavirus measures on short-term travelers from China for another month. While there had been some indications COVID-19 outbreaks in major Chinese cities were slowing, South Korean officials remain concerned about a viral resurgence following the massive gatherings and cross-country travel during the Lunar New Year’s holidays that ended this week.South Korean officials during the meeting left open the possibility of easing the restrictions earlier if it becomes clearer that China’s COVID-19 situation is improving, the Ministry of Health and Welfare said in a statement.When asked about concerns that China may take further retaliatory steps toward South Korea over the extension of the virus measures, Seoul’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that it was closely communicating with Beijing and maintaining that all pandemic responses should be based “only on anti-virus reasons.”According to South Korea’s Disease Control and Prevention Agency, around 10% of the 6,900 short-term travelers from China who arrived in the country from Jan. 2 to Thursday tested positive after being tested at the airport.While allowing the extension of existing visas, South Korea has stopped issuing most short-term visas as its consulates in China, except for essential government, diplomatic and business activities and humanitarian reasons.

South Korea has also required all passengers from China, Hong Kong and Macao

Passengers coming from China pass by a COVID-19 testing center at the Incheon International Airport in Incheon, South Korea

Memphis police disband unit that fatally beat Tyre Nichols

UK leader fires party chairman over tax bill allegations

Tyre Nichols case revives calls for change in police culture

Trump kicking off 2024 run with stops in early-voting states

Palestinian teen wounds 2, day after 7 killed in Jerusalem

Retired Czech army general Pavel wins presidential election

Ukraine: 'Fast-track' talks underway for missiles, planes

Details of the abduction of a convict in front of Sarajevo Penitentiary: "Deba" forced him into a Golf

Sebija is afraid of the punishment

Internet evidence key, but not enough in no-body murder case

"Businessman" disappeared: Where is Ihtijarević hiding?

Oklahoma investigators identify body as missing 4-year-old

Turkey summons Danish envoy over Quran-burning protest

UK Treasury chief: Tax cuts must wait for inflation to fall

Philippines: Unapproved probe into killings unacceptable

South Korea extends restrictions on travelers from China

News

Memphis police disband unit that fatally beat Tyre Nichols

UK leader fires party chairman over tax bill allegations

Tyre Nichols case revives calls for change in police culture

Trump kicking off 2024 run with stops in early-voting states

Palestinian teen wounds 2, day after 7 killed in Jerusalem

Retired Czech army general Pavel wins presidential election

Ukraine: 'Fast-track' talks underway for missiles, planes

Details of the abduction of a convict in front of Sarajevo Penitentiary: "Deba" forced him into a Golf

Sebija is afraid of the punishment

Internet evidence key, but not enough in no-body murder case

"Businessman" disappeared: Where is Ihtijarević hiding?

Oklahoma investigators identify body as missing 4-year-old

Turkey summons Danish envoy over Quran-burning protest

UK Treasury chief: Tax cuts must wait for inflation to fall

Philippines: Unapproved probe into killings unacceptable

South Korea extends restrictions on travelers from China