US contractors say live rounds are being shot at Gaza aid seekers
An Associated Press report reveals leaked footage from sites of the US and Israeli-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation. Two US security contractors say live rounds and stun grenades were used on Palestinians at the food distribution points run by unqualified and heavily armed guards.
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Al Jazeera
an hour ago
- Al Jazeera
Trump claims victory as he signs controversial budget and tax bill into law
Washington, DC – United States President Donald Trump has signed his signature tax and spending bill, capping a months-long push to codify his top policy priorities into law. The sweeping bill has prompted controversy among both Democrats and members of Trump's own Republican Party for its deep cuts to social safety programmes and the hefty sum its tax cuts and spending are expected to add to the national debt. Recent polls have also shown tanking public support for the legislation – which Trump calls the 'One Big Beautiful Bill' – as many of its provisions come to light. Still, Trump on Friday took nothing short of a victory lap, hosting a White House signing ceremony aligned with the Independence Day celebrations in Washington, DC. The address began with a flyover from a B-2 Spirit bomber, the same jet used in US strikes on Iran last month. 'The last two weeks, there has never been anything like it as far as winning, winning, winning,' Trump said from the White House balcony. 'I want to tell you that I've never seen people so happy in our country, because so many different groups of people are being taken care of.' He also took a moment to revisit his victory in the 2024 election and reiterate his belief that voters gave him an ironclad mandate to carry out his policy agenda. He signed the bill flanked by Republicans, including Speaker Mike Johnson and Representative Steve Scalise. 'The American people gave us a historic mandate in November,' Trump said. 'This is a triumph of democracy on the birthday of democracy.' Opponents, meanwhile, used the occasion to again condemn the bill, with the top Democrat in the Senate, Chuck Schumer, again saying that the sweeping legislation is 'betraying' US citizens. 'This bill isn't freedom. This bill isn't independence. This bill is betrayal,' Schumer wrote on the social media platform X. A months-long journey The legislation represents the most substantial salvo yet in Trump's policy blitz, in which he has mostly relied on more presidential orders than on congressional action. The passage of his mega-bill underscores the president's deep hold on the Republican Party, which has largely been remade in his likeness since his first term from 2017 to 2021. The party currently controls both chambers of Congress. The 'One Big Beautiful Bill' is set to add an estimated $3.3 trillion to the national debt, an increase that might once have been considered a sacrilege for the party's fiscal hawks. It also tightens eligibility for the low-income healthcare programme Medicaid and the food assistance programme SNAP, in a move that could hurt Republicans facing tough re-election campaigns. Still, in the end, only three Republicans in the Senate and two in the House were willing to break from Trump, in both cases leaving opponents just short of the votes needed to scuttle the bill. For their part, Democrats were unified in their opposition. In a last-ditch and largely symbolic effort on Thursday, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries embarked on a record-breaking speech to delay any voting on the bill. Over the next eight hours and 45 minutes, Jeffries condemned Republicans for rushing to meet Trump's July 4 deadline, accusing them of fast-tracking a bill that many conservatives had publicly voiced discomfort towards. 'We don't work for Donald Trump. We work for the American people,' he said at one point. 'That's why we're right here now, on the floor of the House of Representatives, standing up for the American people.' He maintained Republicans would be punished at the ballot box over the bill during the midterm elections in 2026. A wide-ranging bill The legislation covers a range of issues, from immigration to tax reforms. For example, it extends sweeping tax cuts passed in 2017 during Trump's first term, amounting to a total of $4.5 trillion in tax reductions. It also allows taxpayers to deduct income earned from tips and overtime, as well as interest paid on loans for buying cars made in the US, while raising exemptions on estate taxes. It also extends a child tax credit. The administration has hailed the cuts as a victory for working-class Americans, although several analyses have found that wealthier taxpayers are most likely to benefit. Gains for lower-income taxpayers are likely to be offset by healthcare and food assistance cuts, according to Yale University's Budget Lab. All told, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, about 11.8 million more Americans will be uninsured over the next 10 years due to the Medicaid cuts, with another 4.2 million to lose health insurance due to cuts to pandemic-era subsidies. The legislation also peels back green energy and electric vehicle tax incentives, part of Trump's wider push to pivot away from clean energy and towards the influential fossil fuel industry. It allocates $170bn for immigration and border enforcement funding, in what the American Immigration Council calls the 'largest investment in detention and deportation in US history'. Nonpartisan analysts have said the increase in the national debt from the spending has the potential to slow economic growth, raise borrowing costs and crowd out other government spending in the years ahead. But on Friday, Trump dismissed the criticism. 'They [Democrats] have developed a standard line: 'We can't let them get away with it. It's dangerous. Everybody's going to die,'' Trump said. 'It's actually just the opposite. Everybody's going to live.' 'After this kicks in, our country is going to be a rocket ship, economically.'
Al Jazeera
2 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Zohran Mamdani's New York primary win sparks the ire of Modi's supporters
If he wins the general election in November, Zohran Mamdani could become New York City's first South Asian mayor and the first of Indian origin. But the same identity that makes him a trailblazer in United States politics has also exposed him to public outcry in India and within its diaspora. Ever since Mamdani achieved a thumping win in the Democratic mayoral primary on June 24, his campaign has weathered a flood of vitriol – some of it coming from the Hindu right. Experts say the attacks are a reflection of the tensions that have arisen between supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and critics of the human rights abuses under his leadership, particularly against religious minorities. A number of those attacks have fixated on Mamdani's religion: The 33-year-old is Muslim. Some commenters have accused the mayoral hopeful of being a 'jihadi' and 'Islamist'. Others have called him anti-Hindu and anti-India. Kayla Bassett, the director of research at the Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), a Washington-based think tank, believes the attacks against Mamdani are a vehicle to attack the Muslim community more broadly. 'This isn't just about one individual,' she said. 'It's about promoting a narrative that casts Muslims as inherently suspect or un-American.' Backlash from Modi's party That narrative could potentially have consequences for Mamdani's campaign, as he works to increase his support among New York voters. Mamdani will face competition in November from more established names in politics. He is expected to face incumbent mayor Eric Adams in the final vote. His rival in the Democratic primary, former Governor Andrew Cuomo, has also not yet ruled out an independent run. The mayoral hopeful has vocally denounced human rights abuses, including in places like Gaza and India. That unabashed stance has not only earned him criticism from his rival candidates but also from overseas. Members of Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), for example, have been among the voices slamming Mamdani's remarks and questioning his fitness for the mayor's seat. BJP Member of Parliament Kangana Ranaut posted on social media, for example, that Mamdani 'sounds more Pakistani than Indian'. 'Whatever happened to his Hindu identity or bloodline,' she asked, pointing to the Hindu roots of his mother, director Mira Nair. 'Now he is ready to wipe out Hinduism.' Soon after Mamdani's primary win, a prominent pro-BJP news channel in India, Aaj Tak, also aired a segment claiming that he had received funding from organisations that promote an 'anti-India' agenda. It also warned of a growing Muslim population in New York City, an assertion it coupled with footage of women wearing hijabs. But some of the backlash has come from sources closer to home. A New Jersey-based group named Indian Americans for Cuomo spent $3,570 for a plane to fly a banner over New York City with the message: 'Save NYC from Global Intifada. Reject Mamdani.' A critic of human rights abuses Much of the pushback can be linked to Mamdani's vocal criticism of Hindu nationalism and Modi in particular. In 2020, Mamdani participated in a Times Square demonstration against a temple built on the site of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya that was destroyed by Hindu extremists in 1992. He called out the BJP's participation in and normalisation of that violence. 'I am here today to protest against the BJP government in India and the demolition of the Babri masjid,' he said. Then, in 2023, Mamdani read aloud notes from an imprisoned Indian activist ahead of Modi's visit to New York City. That activist, Umar Khalid, has been imprisoned since 2020 without trial on terrorism charges after making speeches criticising Modi's government. More recently, during a town hall for mayoral candidates in May, Mamdani was asked if he would meet with Modi if the prime minister were to visit the city again. Mamdani said he wouldn't. 'This is a war criminal,' he replied. Mamdani pointed to Modi's leadership in the Indian state of Gujarat during a period of religious riots in 2002. Modi has been criticised for turning a blind eye to the violence, which killed more than a thousand people, many of them Muslim. In the aftermath, Modi was denied a US visa for 'severe violations of religious freedom'. 'Narendra Modi helped to orchestrate what was a mass slaughter of Muslims in Gujarat, to the extent that we don't even believe that there are Gujarati Muslims any more,' Mamdani told the town hall. 'When I tell someone that I am, it's a shock to them that that's even the case.' Barriers of class and religion It's that 'fearless' and consistent criticism of Modi that has made Mamdani the target of outrage from the Hindu right, according to Rohit Chopra, a communications professor at Santa Clara University. 'Among the Hindu right, there is a project of the political management of the memory of 2002. There's this silence around Modi being denied a visa to enter the US,' said Chopra. The professor also said class fragmentation among Hindu Americans may also fuel scepticism towards Mamdani. Hindu Americans are a relatively privileged minority in terms of socioeconomic status: The Pew Research Center estimates that 44 percent Asian American Hindus enjoy a family income of more than $150,000, and six in 10 have obtained postgraduate degrees. That relative prosperity, Chopra said, can translate into social barriers. 'They don't necessarily even identify with other Hindu Americans who may come from very different kinds of class backgrounds – people who might be working as cab drivers, or dishwashers, or other blue-collar jobs,' he explained. Meanwhile, Suchitra Vijayan, a New York City-based writer and the founder of the digital magazine Polis Project, has noticed that many lines of attack against Mamdani centre on his identity. 'Mamdani is an elected leader who is unabashedly Muslim,' she said. She pointed out that other Muslim politicians, including US Congress members Rashida Tlaib and Ilhan Omar, have sparked similar backlash for reproaching Modi over the Gujarat violence. But Mamdani's family ties to the region make the scrutiny all the more intense. 'In Mamdani's case, he's Muslim, he's African, but also his father is of Gujarati descent and has openly spoken about the pogrom in Gujarat,' Vijayan said. A 'seismic' victory Despite the online backlash, experts and local organisers believe Mamdani's campaign can mobilise Indian American voters and other members of the South Asian diaspora who traditionally lean Democratic. The Pew Research Center estimates that there are 710,000 Indians and Indian Americans living in the New York City area, the most of any metropolitan centre in the US. Preliminary results from June's mayoral primary show that Mamdani scored big in neighbourhoods with strong Asian populations, like Little Bangladesh, Jackson Heights and Parkchester. A final tally of the ranked-choice ballots was released earlier this week, on July 1, showing Mamdani trounced his closest rival, Cuomo, 56 percent to 44. 'I've heard his win described as 'seismic',' said Arvind Rajagopal, a professor of media studies at New York University. 'He can speak not only Spanish but Hindi, Urdu, and passable Bangla. A candidate with this level of depth and breadth is rare in recent times.' Rajagopal added that Mamdani's decision to own his Muslim identity became an asset for him on the campaign trail, particularly in the current political climate. With President Donald Trump in office for a second term, many voters are bracing for the anti-Muslim rhetoric and policies that accompanied his first four years in the White House. Back then, Trump called for a 'total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States', saying they represented an 'influx of hatred' and 'danger'. 'The moment of Trump is something that Mamdani answers perfectly,' Rajagopal said. He called Mamdani's success 'a big reality check for the Hindu right'. Whatever backlash Mamdani is facing from Hindu groups, Jagpreet Singh is sceptical about its influence over New York City. 'I can assure you – it's not coming from within the city,' said Singh, the political director of DRUM Beats, a sister organisation to the social justice organisation Desis Rising Up and Moving. That group was among the first in the city to endorse Mamdani's candidacy for mayor. Since early in his campaign, Singh pointed out that Mamdani has reached out to Hindu working-class communities 'in an authentic way'. This included visiting the Durga Temple and Nepalese Cultural Center in Ridgewood and speaking at events in the Guyanese and Trinidadian Hindu communities, Singh pointed out. During his time as a state assembly member, Mamdani also pushed for legislation that would recognise Diwali – the Hindu festival of lights – as a state holiday. At a Diwali celebration last year, Singh said Mamdani 'took part in lighting of the diyas, spoke on stage, and talked about his mother's background as being somebody who is of Hindu faith'. To Singh, the message was clear. South Asian groups in New York City, including Hindu Americans, 'have adopted him as their own'.
Al Jazeera
3 hours ago
- Al Jazeera
Hamas responds to US-backed Gaza ceasefire proposal in a ‘positive spirit'
Palestinian group Hamas says it has given a 'positive' response to a United States-brokered proposal for a Gaza ceasefire, raising hopes of a possible breakthrough in halting Israel's deadly offensive. US President Donald Trump earlier announced a 'final proposal' for a 60-day truce in the nearly 21-month-old war, stating he anticipated a reply from the parties in the coming hours. Hamas said late on Friday that the group had submitted its reply to Qatar and Egypt, who are mediating the talks. 'The movement [Hamas] has delivered its response to the brotherly mediators, which was characterised by a positive spirit. Hamas is fully prepared, with all seriousness, to immediately enter a new round of negotiations on the mechanism for implementing this framework,' a statement by the group said. Trump said earlier this week that Israel had accepted the main conditions of a proposed 60-day truce, during which time negotiations would aim to permanently end the war. But Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has yet to publicly endorse the plan. Netanyahu, who is wanted by the International Criminal Court (ICC) over alleged war crimes in Gaza, is expected to meet Trump in Washington on Monday. Details from the proposed deal According to a translated copy of the framework shared with Al Jazeera, the deal would include a 60-day truce, guaranteed by Trump, with a phased release of Israeli captives and increased humanitarian aid. The proposed exchange includes the release of 10 living and 18 deceased Israeli captives from the 'List of 58'. Releases would occur on days one, seven, 30, 50, and 60 – beginning with eight live captives on the first day. Under the plan, aid would flow into Gaza immediately following Hamas's approval, in quantities comparable to the January 2025 agreement. Distribution would be handled by agencies including the United Nations and the Palestine Red Crescent Society. As part of the proposed Gaza ceasefire framework, all Israeli military operations would stop once the agreement takes effect, Al Jazeera has learned. The deal includes a pause in military and surveillance flights over Gaza for 10 hours each day – or 12 hours on days when captives and prisoners are exchanged. Negotiations for a permanent ceasefire would begin on day one under the supervision of mediators. Talks would cover a full exchange of captives for Palestinian prisoners, Israeli troop withdrawal, future security arrangements, and 'day-after' plans for Gaza. 'Much-awaited response' Al Jazeera's Hani Mahmoud, reporting from Gaza City, said the Hamas response was 'much-awaited, much-anticipated', with anxious besieged Palestinians asking when it would come. 'We don't know whether this response … is going to bring an end to the ongoing killings … or the presence of the [Israeli] drones,' he said. Heavy shelling and gunfire continue near food distribution points, and uncertainty remains over whether serious negotiations will lead to relief. 'None of this is clear right now,' Mahmoud added, 'but at least it's a first step.' Trump, speaking early on Friday, said he expected clarity from Hamas 'over the next 24 hours'. He added, 'We hope it's going to happen. And we're looking forward to it happening sometime next week. We want to get the hostages out.' Israel pushing for side deal with Trump Despite Hamas's endorsement, the group has reportedly sought guarantees that the proposed truce would lead to a permanent end to Israel's war and prevent Tel Aviv from resuming attacks at will. According to two Israeli officials quoted by the Reuters news agency, details of the proposal are still under negotiation. Meanwhile, Israel is said to be pressing Trump for written assurances that it can resume operations if its key demands – Hamas disarmament and the exile of its leadership – are not met. Israeli broadcaster Channel 14, citing a senior political source, reported earlier this week that the deal includes a side letter from Trump granting Israel the authority to 'renew the fire' should Hamas fail to comply. The document would allow Israel to determine whether the terms had been fulfilled. Netanyahu has repeatedly insisted that any Palestinian resistance groups in Gaza must be dismantled as a precondition for peace – an issue that remains a major sticking point. A previous two-month truce ended when Israeli strikes killed more than 400 Palestinians on March 18 and led to what UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called 'the cruellest phase of a cruel war'. More than 6,000 Palestinians have been killed since Israel broke the truce. Overall, Israeli forces have killed at least 57,268 Palestinians and wounded more than 130,000 since October 7, 2023.
