Year: 2024

TUNIS: Tunisia’s first presidential hopeful, an unknown 59-year-old laborer, submitted his official candidacy on Monday, kicking off the race for a presidential election set to take place on October 6.
Fethi Krimi submitted his application at the ISIE electoral authority in the capital Tunis, according to local reports and photos posted on social media.

On Monday, Israeli military police detained Israeli soldiers who were suspected of raping a Palestinian prisoner at the notorious Sde Teiman prison in southern Israel.

Israeli media reported that the Palestinian prisoner was transferred from Sde Teiman to a hospital with an injury to his anus that was so severe he could not walk.

When the Israeli military police went to Sde Teiman to detain soldiers suspected of forcibly sodomizing the Palestinian man, they were met with resistance. A security source told Haaretz that Israeli soldiers at the facility refused to leave and barricaded themselves in. They also reportedly used pepper spray on the military police.

The police ended up detaining nine out of 10 of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) soldiers suspected of abusing the Palestinian detainee. The arrest of the suspected rapists sparked protests from far-right Israeli activists.

Members of the Israeli Knesset joined protesters as they stormed Sede Teiman, including Zvi Sukkot of the Religious Zionism party. At least one member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition was spotted among the protesters, Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu, a member of the Jewish Power party. Later in the day, protesters tried to storm Beit Lid, the base where the Israeli soldiers are being held.

Israeli Minister of National Security Itamar Ben Gvir, leader of the Jewish Power party, praised the detained Israeli soldiers, calling them the “best heroes” and denouncing their arrest as “shameful.”

According to The Telegraph, Ben Gvir said the Israeli security establishment should support the soldiers and “learn from the prison service: light treatment of terrorists is over. Soldiers need to have our full support.”

Israeli whistleblowers have detailed widespread abuse and torture at the Sde Teiman prison, which holds Palestinians detained from Gaza. The New York Times reported last month that Palestinians who made it out of the facility said they were subject to sexual torture.

Younis al-Hamlawi, a senior nurse who was detained by Israeli forces in Gaza after he left Al-Shifa Hospital over allegations that he was tied to Hamas, told the Times that Israeli soldiers penetrated his rectum with a metal stick, causing him to bleed and leaving him in “unbearable pain.”

The Times report said a leaked report from the UN “cited a 41-year-old detainee who said that interrogators ‘made me sit on something like a hot metal stick and it felt like fire,’ and also said that another detainee ‘died after they put the electric stick up’ his anus.”

Israeli military carries out more attacks across the strip, killing at least 33 Palestinians amid mass displacements.

David Popovici stormed to Olympic gold in the men’s 200m freestyle, while Mollie O’Callaghan won women’s swimming event.

Japan wins skateboarding and gymnastics gold, Canada achieves a judo first, Great Britain wins mountain bike thriller.

The EU on Friday announced it was transferring about $1.6 billion in frozen Russian Central Bank assets to Ukraine for the purchase of weapons.

The step is the first time the EU has dipped into the frozen Russian assets to fund the proxy war and marks a significant escalation of the Western economic campaign against Moscow.

The transfer came after the EU agreed to provide Ukraine with about $3.2 billion per year using the profits made by the Russian assets. The EU has also agreed to a US-proposed plan to loan $50 billion to Ukraine and pay it back using frozen Russian funds, but it’s unclear when that will go through.

According to Euro News, 90% of the $1.6 billion will go toward weapons, and 10% will be spent on humanitarian aid. But the money is being wired directly into the Ukrainian government’s budget, and it’s unclear if there’s any real oversight.

Russia has vowed that it will respond to the EU or any Western country stealing its Central Bank assets. Western banks have warned against the plan to send Russian assets to Ukraine as they fear it will open them up to legal action if they’re involved in any of the transfers.

Ukrainian Justice Minister Denys Maliuska previously called the EU’s plan to provide the $3.2 billion each year “almost nothing” and demanded that Kyiv receive the approximately $300 billion in Russian Central Bank assets that are held by Western countries.

Israel will be looking to retaliate, but it will want to avoid a major escalation, experts say.

A rise in counterfeit versions of sought-after weight loss drug has led to a series of hospitalisations.

In a surprise move, Carlos Sainz, a three-time Grand Prix winner with Ferrari, signed a two-year deal with Williams.

The Pentagon announced on Friday that it was providing Ukraine with a new weapons package worth $1.7 billion, which includes munitions for air defense systems, ammunition for HIMARS rocket systems, artillery shells, and other types of equipment.

The package includes $1.5 billion that’s being provided through the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI). The USAI allows the US to purchase weapons for Ukraine, which means it could take months or years before the equipment is delivered.

The other $200 million uses the Presidential Drawdown Authority, which allows President Biden to ship weapons to Ukraine directly from Pentagon stockpiles. The announcement came a few days after the Pentagon said it found an “accounting error” that overvalued previous weapons sent to Ukraine, freeing up another $2 billion to spend on the proxy war.

The new US military aid comes as Russian forces are making steady gains in the east and are closing in on the Donestk city of Pokrovsk.

According to the Pentagon, the new weapons package includes:

Munitions for National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS)

Short- and medium-range air defense munitions

RIM-7 missiles for air defense

Electronic Warfare equipment

Ammunition for High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS)

155mm and 105mm artillery rounds

120mm mortar rounds

Precision aerial munitions

Tube-Launched, Optically-Tracked, Wire-Guided (TOW) missiles

Javelin and AT-4 anti-armor systems

Small arms

Explosives material and demolitions equipment and munitions

Secure communications systems

Commercial satellite imagery services

Spare parts, maintenance and sustainment support, and other ancillary equipment

The Pentagon also released a fact sheet on Monday that said the Biden administration has pledged more than $55.4 billion in military equipment for Ukraine since Russia launched its invasion in February 2022.