
LA curfew to continue for ‘couple more days'
LOS ANGELES: A nightly curfew in Los Angeles will continue for "a couple more days," Mayor Karen Bass said, the ninth day of protests that have seen US President Donald Trump launch a military-backed crackdown. Demonstrators began protesting on June 6 against immigration raids launched by the Trump administration to round up undocumented migrants in the heavily Latino city in Democrat-led California.
Bass issued an overnight curfew on June 10 on the downtown area at the heart of the protests to stop incidents of vandalism and looting. On Sunday she said she is hoping that the number of people behind the violent incidents "will taper off". "So I know the curfew will be on for at least a couple more days," she said in a televised interview with local news channel KTLA, adding that she cannot predict how many more days exactly. "We don't know how many raids are going to happen, we don't know what the character of the raids will be, and every time that happens it really generates a lot of anger in the city," she said. — AFP

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UN: GAZANS DESERVE FOOD, NOT DEATH
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Friday that a US-backed aid operation in Gaza is 'inherently unsafe,' giving a blunt assessment: 'It is killing people.' He also said UN-led humanitarian efforts are being 'strangled,' aid workers themselves are starving and Israel — as the occupying power — is required to agree to and facilitate aid deliveries into and throughout the Palestinian enclave. 'People are being killed simply trying to feed themselves and their families. The search for food must never be a death sentence,' Guterres told reporters. Meanwhile, Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday rejected a report that the country's military commanders ordered their soldiers to fire at Palestinians seeking humanitarian aid in Gaza. Left-leaning daily Haaretz earlier quoted unnamed soldiers as saying commanders ordered troops to shoot at crowds near aid distribution centres to disperse them even when they posed no threat. 'The State of Israel absolutely rejects the contemptible blood libels that have been published in the Haaretz newspaper,' Netanyahu said in a joint statement with Defence Minister Israel Katz. Meanwhile, Gaza's civil defence agency said that Israeli forces killed at least 62 people on Friday, including 10 who were waiting for aid in the war-ravaged Palestinian territory. The reported killing of people seeking aid marks the latest in a string of deadly incidents near aid sites in Gaza, where a US- and Israeli-backed foundation has largely replaced established humanitarian organisations. Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said that 62 Palestinians had been killed on Friday by Israeli strikes or fire across the Palestinian territory. When asked for comment, the Israeli military said it was looking into the incidents and denied its troops fired in one of the locations in central Gaza where rescuers said one aid seeker was killed. Bassal said that six people were killed in southern Gaza near one of the distribution sites operated by the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation (GHF) and one more in a separate incident in the centre of the territory, where the army denied shooting 'at all'. Another three people were killed by a strike while waiting for aid southwest of Gaza City, Bassal said. — Reuters/AFP


Observer
5 hours ago
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Israeli forces kill 23 Gazans
Gaza: Gaza's civil defence agency said Israeli forces killed at least 23 people in the war-stricken territory on Saturday, including at least three children who died when a house was struck. "At least 23 dead and dozens of wounded were taken (to hospitals) after Israeli firing and raids" across Gaza, civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said. Among the casualties were three children who were killed in an air strike on a home in Jabalia, northern Gaza. AFP video footage from Gaza City showed relatives weeping over the bodies of children killed in nearby Jabalia. Bassal said the children were among 21 people killed in six air strikes by drones and planes across the territory. He said two other people were killed by Israeli fire while waiting for food aid in the Netzarim zone in central Gaza. The Israeli military did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Israeli restrictions on media in the Gaza Strip and difficulties in accessing some areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by rescuers and witnesses. Israel launched its offensive in Gaza in October 2023 in response to a deadly attack on Israel by Palestinian militant group Hamas. After claiming victory in a 12-day war against Iran that ended with a ceasefire on June 24, the Israeli military said it would refocus on its offensive in Gaza, where Palestinians still hold Israeli hostages. Hamas's 2023 attack resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on Israeli official figures. Israel's retaliatory military campaign has killed at least 56,412 people, also mostly civilians, according to Gaza's health ministry. The United Nations considers these figures to be reliable. At least 81 people have been killed in Israeli attacks in the Gaza Strip in the last 24 hours, the territory's health ministry said on Saturday. The agency, which is controlled by Hamas, said a further 422 Palestinians were injured in the fresh attacks. The latest figures bring the death toll since the start of the war to 56,412. The ministry does not distinguish between civilians and combatants and its figures cannot be independently verified. They are based on the number of dead brought by relatives to hospitals, which are now operating under severe restrictions. Meanwhile, Yemen's Iran-backed Ansar Allah said they fired a ballistic missile towards Israel on Saturday, in response to Israel's conduct towards Palestinians during the Gaza war. In Israel, warning sirens sounded in several areas, before the army announced the "missile was most likely successfully intercepted". It was the first missile launch against Israel announced by the group since the June 24 ceasefire between Israel and Iran which followed their 12-day war. — Agencies


Observer
5 hours ago
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Rwanda, DR Congo sign peace deal in US
Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo signed a peace agreement on Friday in Washington to end fighting that has killed thousands, with the two countries pledging to pull back support for guerrillas — and President Donald Trump boasting of securing mineral wealth. "Today, the violence and destruction comes to an end, and the entire region begins a new chapter of hope and opportunity," Trump said as he welcomed the two nations' foreign ministers to the White House. "This is a wonderful day." The agreement comes after the M23, an ethnic Tutsi rebel force linked to Rwanda, sprinted across the mineral-rich east of the DRC this year, seizing vast territory including the key city of Goma. The deal — negotiated through Qatar since before Trump took office — does not explicitly address the gains of the M23 in the area torn by decades of on-off war but calls for Rwanda to end "defensive measures" it has taken. Rwanda has denied directly supporting the M23 but has demanded an end to another armed group, the Democratic Forces for the Liberation of Rwanda (FDLR), which was established by ethnic Hutus linked to the massacres of Tutsis in the 1994 Rwanda genocide. The agreement calls for the "neutralisation" of the FDLR, with Rwandan Foreign Minister Olivier Nduhungirehe saying the "irreversible and verifiable end to state support" to the Hutu militants should be the "first order of business." The process would be "accompanied by a lifting of Rwanda's defensive measures," Nduhungirehe said at a signing ceremony at the State Department. But he added: "We must acknowledge that there is a great deal of uncertainty in our region, and beyond because many previous agreements have not been implemented." His Congolese counterpart, Therese Kayikwamba Wagner, highlighted the agreement's call for respecting state sovereignty. "It offers a rare chance to turn the page, not just with words but with real change on the ground. Some wounds will heal, but they will never fully disappear," she said. The agreement also sets up a joint security coordination body to monitor progress and calls vaguely for a "regional economic integration framework" within three months. Trump has trumpeted the diplomacy that led to the deal, and started his White House event by bringing up a journalist who said he deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Speaking to reporters earlier on Friday, Trump said the United States will be able to secure "a lot of mineral rights from the Congo." The DRC has enormous mineral reserves that include lithium and cobalt, vital in electric vehicles and other advanced technologies, with US rival China now a key player in securing the resources. Trump said he had been unfamiliar with the conflict as he appeared to allude to the horrors of the 1994 Rwanda genocide, in which hundreds of thousands of people, mostly Tutsis, were killed in just 100 days. "I'm a little out of my league on that one because I didn't know too much about it. I knew one thing — they were going at it for many years with machetes," Trump said. The agreement drew wide but not universal praise. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called the deal "a significant step towards de-escalation, peace and stability" in the eastern DRC and the Great Lakes region. "I urge the parties to honour in full the commitments they have undertaken in the Peace Agreement... including the cessation of hostilities and all other agreed measures," Guterres said in a statement.