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Democrats barely passed a bill to increase security at the US Capitol

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A $1.9 billion emergency funding bill to boost security at the US Capitol in the wake of the January 6 insurrection barely passed the House on Thursday. The measure, which would also provide additional personal security for lawmakers facing an <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/21/lawmakers-security-jan-6-threats-490165">intensifying wave</a> of threats and harassment in Washington and their home districts, received no Republican support, and exposed fissures within the Democratic Party over the issue of increasing funding for any police force.
The bill ultimately passed on Thursday, following last-minute negotiations led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, with 213 votes for the bill and 212 against.
Every voting Republican voted no on the bill, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/capitol-security-vote-democrats-spending-bill/2021/05/20/299b7af2-b972-11eb-96b9-e949d5397de9_story.html">claiming</a> that it was too much money and that there was no guarantee it would be properly spent enhancing security. Those votes followed recent statements <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/house/554834-gop-efforts-to-downplay-danger-of-capitol-riot-increase?rl=1">downplaying or outright fabricating</a> facts about the violence that transpired at the Capitol on January 6.
More strikingly, Democrats were not unified among themselves. Left-wing members of the House, including the members of the so-called <a href="https://www.vox.com/2019/7/17/20696474/squad-congresswomen-trump-pressley-aoc-omar-tlaib">Squad</a>, broke from the party out of what could be loosely described as a defund-the-police rationale.
Democratic Reps. Cori Bush (MO), Ilhan Omar (MN), and Ayanna Pressley (MA) voted against the legislation; Reps. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (NY), Jamaal Bowman (NY), and Rashida Tlaib (MI), voted present, which means they officially took no position.
The defection is a sign of fissures within the party over how to think about police reform and the use of force, a policy domain that has been a source of intense national debate since the protests that swept the nation last year following George Floyd’s death at the hands of Minneapolis police.
It also appears to be a carefully aimed warning shot by the Squad, illustrating that, when they’re unified, they have the ability to torpedo Democratic legislation. The Democratic party relies on a narrow majority in the House to pass every one of its bills.
Bush, Omar, and Pressley released a joint statement saying the package “pours $1.9 billion into increased police surveillance and force without addressing the underlying threats of organized and violent white supremacy, radicalization, and disinformation that led to this attack will not prevent it from happening again.”
Bowman <a href="https://www.cbs58.com/news/house-to-vote-on-19-billion-capitol-security-bill-after-january-6-insurrection">told reporters</a> he voted present because “there are some things about the bill that I support, like making sure our custodial staff and our cleaners have the resources they need to respond and deal with this trauma, but there are other parts of it that I don’t support, like adding more funding to police budgets.”
While Democrats have been unified on most major legislation during the opening months of the Biden administration, that unity may not hold as more complicated and polarizing policy issues come up for debate, and throw some Democratic bills into jeopardy.
Meanwhile, Republicans’ unified opposition to a nominally pro-law enforcement bill may signal — once again — a challenge to President Joe Biden’s vision of being able to unify Congress around shared values.
<h2>January 6 and its aftermath raised serious security questions</h2>
The violence and security breaches by pro-Trump rioters seeking to shut down the certification of the 2020 election results on January 6 have raised big questions about what security should look like at the US Capitol going forward.
Capitol Police were <a href="https://www.vox.com/22218446/capitol-police-mob-trump-storming-washington-dc">unprepared for and slow to react to</a> thousands of demonstrators — some of whom were armed — who stormed the Capitol, destroyed property, chanted death threats, searched the halls for lawmakers, and successfully shut down the certification of the election results. Some <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/11/us/politics/capitol-riot-police-officer-injuries.html">140 officers were injured</a> and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/who-died-in-capitol-building-attack.html">several people died</a>. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/capitol-insurrection-could-have-been-deadlier-experts-say-2021-1">Experts say</a> things could’ve gone far worse, had lawmakers not narrowly avoided the mob in a few close encounters.
The crisis in turn has precipitated massive scrutiny of the Capitol Police and created a morale problem in its ranks, which appears to have <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/21/politics/capitol-police-officers-left-force-january-insurrection/index.html">caused an uptick in resignations and retirements</a> among rank-and-file officers.
In spite of this, Republican leaders in both the House and the Senate have <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/5/16/22438835/gop-whitewash-capitol-attack-january-6-commission-mccarthy">downplayed</a> the threat that Capitol Police faced on January 6. This has served to both exonerate supporters of former President Donald Trump for their role in the violence on that day, and also underpinned arguments for maintaining the security status quo at the Capitol.
At a hearing on Wednesday, one Republican from Georgia <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/18/clyde-tourist-capitol-riot-photos/">said</a> last week that some of the people who broke into the Capitol on January 6 were behaving as if on “a normal tourist visit” to Washington. Another likened the rioters to a “<a href="https://apnews.com/article/donald-trump-capitol-siege-government-and-politics-f4a96296f56e1896220050618d59ea74">mob of misfits</a>.” And appearing on a Fox News program on Wednesday, Wisconsin Sen. Ron Johnson called the incursion a “<a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/554548-ron-johnson-jan-6-capitol-riot-was-largely-peaceful-not-an-insurrection">peaceful protest</a>.”
A majority of Republicans also opposed the formation of an independent commission tasked with investigating the events of the day. While <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/21/republican-leaders-claim-that-jan-6-commission-bill-would-not-allow-gop-staff-hires/">35 House Republicans</a> broke ranks with their party on Wednesday to support the investigation, top Republicans, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/18/politics/kevin-mccarthy-opposes-1-6-commission/index.html">opposed such an inquiry</a>.
This disregard for the perils that Congress members faced on January 6 comes as threats and harassment against lawmakers have been increasing. Members of Congress <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/21/lawmakers-security-jan-6-threats-490165">report</a> that they’re increasingly being confronted in stores and while traveling, receiving threats to their families, and having private details of their lives posted online. Compared to last year, threats against federal lawmakers have <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/07/threats-against-members-of-congress-have-more-than-doubled-this-year.html">more than doubled</a> so far this year.
The nearly $2 billion bill passed Thursday is meant to address a wide variety of issues, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/20/house-congress-capitol-security-489792">including</a>: back pay for overtime hours, hazard pay and retention bonuses; better equipment and training; a “new quick-reaction team that would essentially create a standing force of the D.C. National Guard,” <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/20/house-congress-capitol-security-489792">according to Politico</a>; fortifying the Capitol complex with movable fencing, surveillance equipment, and reinforced windows and doors; and extra security for lawmakers who have been threatened and typically are not eligible for publicly funded security.
<h2>The Squad is averse to increased police funding without reform</h2>
Without any Republican support, Democrats were able to pass the spending package, but just barely. Pelosi and other top Dems had to scramble to try to assuage the Squad’s concerns about the bill, which included, <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/05/20/house-congress-capitol-security-489792">according to Politico</a>, considerations about allocating more money to a Capitol Police force in which some officers indirectly contributed to the day’s violence through lax enforcement.
“I am tired of the fact that any time where there is a failure in our system of policing, the first response is for us to give them more money, rather than investigate the failings and hold those responsible accountable,” Omar, who voted against the bill, <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/05/20/squad-capitol-police-funding-pressley-aoc-omar/">told The Intercept</a>. “I’ll continue to fight for structural change that actually centers people’s safety and humanity. That applies to us here in the Capitol, as well as my constituents in Minneapolis.”
The <a href="https://theintercept.com/2021/05/20/squad-capitol-police-funding-pressley-aoc-omar/">joint statement</a> from Omar, Bush, and Pressley expressed a broader set of concerns with the bill. Here’s a key passage:
<blockquote>
Increasing law enforcement funds does not inherently protect or safeguard the Capitol Hill or surrounding D.C. community. In fact, this bill is being passed before we have any real investigation into the events of January 6th and the failures involved because Republicans have steadfastly obstructed the creation of a January 6th commission.
The bill also does far too little to address the unspeakable trauma of the countless officers, staff, and support workers who were on site that day – dedicating fifty times more money to the creation of a ‘quick reaction force’ than it does to counseling. We cannot support this increased funding while many of our communities continue to face police brutality while marching in the streets, and while questions about the disparate response between insurrectionists and those protesting in defense of Black lives go unanswered.
</blockquote>
Ultimately, Pelosi’s Democratic caucus emerged with the bill they wanted because three members of the Squad decided to vote “present” rather than oppose it.
But the entire episode showed the progressive wing of House Democrats flexing its muscle as a voting bloc, and likely foreshadows future legislative battles to come, whether on issues tied to criminal justice or other major points of policy disagreement.
Pelosi’s 11th-hour negotiations to save the bill also suggest that, with a narrow majority in the House, Democratic Party leadership cannot afford to alienate its most progressive members on any must-pass legislation — potentially offering those farther-left members more leverage on their own priorities.
And while Biden and Democratic House leadership seem to have been able to satisfy the Squad on Biden’s <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2021/3/10/22320350/biden-sign-stimulus-bill-covid-19">coronavirus relief bill</a> and the administration’s <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aoc-praised-vision-joe-bide-infrastructure-plan-should-be-bigger-2021-4">opening gambit on a massive infrastructure bill</a>, some rifts between the establishment and the Squad may have further-reaching consequences. For example, in light of Israel’s airstrikes on Gaza, some members of the Squad <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/g5gqzq/aoc-and-the-squad-are-trying-to-block-the-us-from-selling-bombs-to-israel">introduced an unprecedented resolution</a> to block Biden’s $735 million arms sale to Israel this week; Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced a similar proposal <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/05/20/sen-bernie-sanders-introduce-resolution-disapproval-735-million-us-arms-sale-israel/">in the Senate</a>.
While these resolutions are unlikely to get traction, they can embolden others in the party to break from Biden — <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/israel-arms-sale-biden-democrats/2021/05/19/edc11814-b8d8-11eb-a5fe-bb49dc89a248_story.html">as some briefly seemed to do</a> on the weapons sale — and serve as symbols of how the small left-wing bloc in Congress could become a thorn in the side of party leadership in the coming months and years.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.vox.com/2021/5/22/22448803/capitol-police-security-january-6-bill">https://www.vox.com/2021/5/22/22448803/capitol-police-security-january-6-bill</a>

vox Democrats barely passed a bill to increase security at the US Capitol

A $1.9 billion emergency funding bill to boost security at the US Capitol in the wake of the January 6 insurrection barely passed the House...

Unmanned Supermarkets To The Rescue In Sweden's Rural Areas

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Unmanned Supermarkets To The Rescue In Sweden's Rural Areas" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-05/t9v9cg38_sweden-unmanned-supermarket-afp_625x300_23_May_21.jpg" title="Unmanned Supermarkets To The Rescue In Sweden's Rural Areas" /></div>
A new type of shop has sprung up in their wake: unmanned supermarkets in mobile containers.
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Enkoping, Sweden:
One after another, grocery stores are shutting down in rural Sweden, leaving villagers to travel miles to buy food. But a new type of shop has sprung up in their wake: unmanned supermarkets in mobile containers.
In Veckholm, a village of a few hundred people 80 kilometres (50 miles) from Stockholm, the last grocery store closed more than a decade ago. Then, a year-and-a-half ago, even the little convenience store at the only petrol station locked its doors.
Villagers were left with no choice but to travel a half-hour by car to the closest supermarket.
But in July 2020, an automated, unmanned grocery store came to town.
In a container dropped in the middle of a field, open 24 hours a day, the 20-square-metre (215-square-foot) supermarket sells hundreds of items -- and there's no cashier in sight.
"Since a while back, there has been nothing in this area and I think most of us living here have really missed that," said Giulia Ray, a beekeeper in Veckholm.
"It's so convenient to have this in the area," she told AFP, doing her own shopping and restocking the shop's shelves with her honey at the same time.
Shoppers unlock the supermarket's door with an app on their smartphone. 
"We come here three times a week and buy stuff we need," Lucas Edman, a technician working in the region for a few weeks, told AFP.
"It's a little bit more expensive but it's fine. It's a price I can pay to not go to another store."
He scanned his pizzas and soda on the app on his phone, which is linked to his bank account and a national identification system -- an added anti-theft security, according to the store.
And it's all done under the watchful eye of a single security camera.
Keeping costs down
In Sweden, the number of grocery stores -- everything from superstores to small convenience stores -- has dropped from 7,169 in 1996 to 5,180 in 2020, according to official statistics.
While the number of superstores has almost tripled in 24 years, many rural shops have closed down, often due, like elsewhere in Europe, to a lack of profitability.
Daniel Lundh, who co-founded the Lifvs, has opened almost 30 unmanned stores in rural Sweden and in urban areas with no shops in the past two years.
"To be able to keep low prices for the customer, we have to be able to control our operation costs. So that means controlling the rent -- that's why the stores are quite small -- but also controlling the staffing cost," Lundh said.
He plans to open his first unstaffed supermarkets outside Sweden early next year.
Domenica Gerlach, who manages the Veckholm store, only comes by once a week to receive deliveries. She also manages three other shops, all of them mobile containers.
Peter Book, the mayor of Enkoping, the municipality to which Veckholm belongs, has only good things to say about the three container stores that have opened in his patch. 
And he'd like to see more.
"It makes it easier to take a step to move there if you know you have this facility," he said.
Meeting place and 'salvation'
In Sweden, one of the most digitalised countries in the world, Lifvs, like its Swedish rivals AutoMat and 24Food which have also popped up in rural areas, benefits from a very wired population.
In 2019, 92 percent of Swedes had a smartphone.
Ironically, the unmanned shops -- plopped down in the middle of nowhere -- also play a role as a "meeting place" for locals.
"You come here, you get some gas and you go inside and get something, and maybe someone else is here and you can have a chat," Ray said.
Mayor Book echoed the notion, saying the stores make it possible to "connect society".
The pandemic has also proven the stores' usefulness, since no contact with other people inside the shop is necessary.
Because of Covid-19, only one person at a time is allowed inside the Veckholm store.
"My mother lives nearby as well and ... this has been a shop she could actually enter during all this time. She hasn't been (able to go) anywhere," Ray said of her 75-year-old mother.
"This has been a salvation for her."
(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/unmanned-supermarkets-to-the-rescue-in-swedens-rural-areas-2447615">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/unmanned-supermarkets-to-the-rescue-in-swedens-rural-areas-2447615</a>

news world Unmanned Supermarkets To The Rescue In Sweden's Rural Areas

A new type of shop has sprung up in their wake: unmanned supermarkets in mobile containers. Enkoping, Sweden: One after another, grocer...

Ship Owner Says Suez Canal Was At Fault Over Ever Given Grounding: Lawyer

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="Ship Owner Says Suez Canal Was At Fault Over Ever Given Grounding: Lawyer" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-03/hqq9b4j8_ever-given-ship-reuters-650_625x300_29_March_21.jpg" title="Ship Owner Says Suez Canal Was At Fault Over Ever Given Grounding: Lawyer" /></div>
Suez Canal owner has said that the canal authority was at fault over its grounding. (File)
</div>
The owner of a container ship that blocked the Suez Canal in March says the canal authority was at fault over its grounding as it disputes the vessel's detention and a compensation claim, a lawyer representing the owner said on Saturday.
The Ever Given, one of the world's largest container ships, became jammed across the canal in high winds on March 23, and remained grounded for six days, blocking traffic in both directions and disrupting global trade.
The vessel has since been held in a lake between two stretches of the canal as the Suez Canal Authority (SCA) pursues a $916.5 million claim against Japanese owner Shoei Kisen.
An appeals chamber at Ismailia Economic Court held hearings on Saturday over the ship's detention, which the SCA is seeking to uphold following an appeal by the owner, as well as the SCA's financial claim.
Lawyers representing Shoei Kisen argued that the SCA had been at fault for allowing the ship to enter the waterway amid bad weather, Ahmed Abu Ali, a member of the legal team, told Reuters, adding that the authority failed to prove any fault by the ship.
Recordings from the ship that were presented to the court showed disagreements between SCA pilots and its control centre over whether it should enter the canal, Abu Ali said.
Lawyers for Shoei Kisen said the ship should have been accompanied by at least two tug boats suitable for the ship's size "but this didn't happen", he added.
The SCA did not immediately respond to requests for comment, but it has publicly denied being at fault.
Lawyers for Shoei Kisen also argued that the Ever Given's detention was legally flawed and that the work to release the ship was not "a salvage (operation) in the proper legal sense", meaning the SCA could not seek compensation for such an operation, Abu Ali said.
"This was one of the duties of the authority according to the traffic contract," he said.
Shoei Kisen is claiming $100,000 in initial compensation for losses related to its detention, he said.
The court was expected to issue a decision on the case on Sunday, lawyers and witnesses said.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ever-given-ship-owner-says-suez-canal-was-at-fault-over-ever-given-grounding-lawyer-2447590">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ever-given-ship-owner-says-suez-canal-was-at-fault-over-ever-given-grounding-lawyer-2447590</a>

news world Ship Owner Says Suez Canal Was At Fault Over Ever Given Grounding: Lawyer

Suez Canal owner has said that the canal authority was at fault over its grounding. (File) The owner of a container ship that blocked th...

"Never Wanted To Harm Diana": UK Journalist Bashir's Apology To William, Harry

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="'Never Wanted To Harm Diana': UK Journalist Bashir's Apology To William, Harry" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-05/og84urvg_martin-bashir-afp_625x300_15_May_21.jpg" title="'Never Wanted To Harm Diana': UK Journalist Bashir's Apology To William, Harry" /></div>
Martin Bashir apoligised to Princes Harry and William on Sunday.
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London, United Kingdom:
Martin Bashir, the BBC journalist who tricked princess Diana into giving an explosive interview, on Sunday apologised to Princes William and Harry but said claims linking his actions to her death were "unreasonable".
A report by retired senior judge John Dyson published on Thursday found that Bashir commissioned faked bank statements that falsely suggested some of Diana's closest aides were being paid by the security services to keep tabs on her.
Bashir, 58, then showed them to Diana's brother Charles Spencer in a succesful bid to convince him to arrange a meeting between himself and Diana and earn her trust.
Bashir told the Sunday Times he was "deeply sorry" to Diana's sons Prince William and Prince Harry.
"I never wanted to harm Diana in any way and I don't believe we did," he told the paper.
But William said Bashir's actions and the interview had made "a major contribution" to the demise of his parents' relationship and "contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation" in her final years.
In his own release, Harry said that the deceptive practices had played a part in his mother's death.
"The ripple effect of a culture of exploitation and unethical practices ultimately took her life," he said.
Diana died in a Paris car crash in 1997, aged 36.
Bashir disputed the accusations, saying "I don't feel I can be held responsible for many of the other things that were going on in her life, and the complex issues surrounding those decisions.
"The suggestion I am singularly responsible I think is unreasonable and unfair," he told the paper.
He argued that the 1995 interview had been conducted on Diana's terms, and that they remained firm friends after it aired to an audience of 22.8 million people.
"My family and I loved her," he said, revealing that Diana had visited Bashir's wife and newborn child in hospital and that the princess threw a birthday party for his eldest child at Kensington Palace.
Bashir has said that he regretted showing Diana's brother forged documents, but that it had "no bearing" on the revelations aired during the interview.
In it, Diana famously said "there were three people" in her marriage -- her, Charles and his long-time mistress and now wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles -- and also admitted adultery.
Bashir was little-known at the time but went on to have a high-profile career on US television networks, and interviewed stars such as Michael Jackson.
The pop singer's family also blame Bashir for his death, saying the fallout from the interview led to him to increasingly depend on drugs.
Bashir worked for the BBC as religion editor until he stepped down just last week, citing ill health, hours before Dyson's report was submitted to BBC bosses.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ex-bbc-journalist-martin-bashirs-apology-to-william-harry-over-diana-interview-never-wanted-to-harm-diana-2447575">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ex-bbc-journalist-martin-bashirs-apology-to-william-harry-over-diana-interview-never-wanted-to-harm-diana-2447575</a>

news world "Never Wanted To Harm Diana": UK Journalist Bashir's Apology To William, Harry

Martin Bashir apoligised to Princes Harry and William on Sunday. London, United Kingdom: Martin Bashir, the BBC journalist who tricked ...

"Very Sorry...": Ex-BBC Chief Quits Top Job Over Diana Interview

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="'Very Sorry...': Ex-BBC Chief Quits Top Job Over Diana Interview" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2020-11/9da0bhh8_princess-diana-afp-650_625x300_19_November_20.jpg" title="'Very Sorry...': Ex-BBC Chief Quits Top Job Over Diana Interview" /></div>
Journalist Bashir tricked Diana into giving a 1995 BBC television interview.
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London, United Kingdom:
A former BBC chief who was criticised for his "woefully ineffective" probe into Martin Bashir's deception in securing a bombshell interview with Princess Diana on Saturday resigned as chair of Britain's National Gallery.
Journalist Bashir tricked Diana into giving a 1995 BBC television interview in which she lifted the lid on her troubled marriage to Prince Charles, an independent investigation concluded on Thursday.
Tony Hall, who had led an earlier investigation into the interview and was later named head of the BBC, said he had "today resigned as Chair of the National Gallery.
"As I said two days ago, I am very sorry for the events of 25 years ago and I believe leadership means taking responsibility," he said in a statement released by the world-renowned London gallery.
"I have always had a strong sense of public service and it is clear my continuing in the role would be a distraction to an institution I care deeply about".
Retired senior judge John Dyson said Bashir commissioned faked bank statements that falsely suggested some of Diana's closest aides were being paid by the security services to keep tabs on her.
Bashir then showed them to Diana's brother Charles Spencer, in a succesful bid to convince him to arrange a meeting between himself and Diana and earn her trust.
Questions have long been asked about how Bashir convinced Diana to talk on the BBC's flagship "Panorama" programme in November 1995, which was watched by a record 22.8 million people and won a string of television awards.
In it, she famously said "there were three people" in her marriage -- her, Charles and his long-time mistress and now wife, Camilla Parker-Bowles -- and also admitted adultery.
Bashir, now 58, was little-known at the time of the interview but went on to have a high-profile career on US television networks, and interviewed stars such as Michael Jackson.
- 'Woeful incompetence' -
He returned to work for the corporation as religion editor until he stepped down last week, citing ill health, just hours before Dyson's report was submitted to BBC bosses.
A 1996 internal inquiry by Hall cleared Bashir of wrong-doing, but Dyson called that probe "flawed and woefully ineffective".
In particular, it did not ask Diana's brother, Charles Spencer, for his version of events, Dyson said, lambasting it for failing to scrutinise Bashir's actions properly.
"If they had been able to test Mr Bashir's account by asking him to comment on Earl Spencer's detailed account, it is very unlikely that they would have believed him and concluded that he was an 'honest and an honourable man'," he wrote.
Hall admitted that the probe "fell well short of what was required", and said he was "wrong to give Martin Bashir the benefit of the doubt".
Diana's son Prince William said the interview had made "a major contribution" to the demise of his parents' relationship, while the BBC's "woeful incompetence" in uncovering the truth had "contributed significantly to her fear, paranoia and isolation" in her final years.
Diana died in a high-speed car crash while being chased by paparazzi photographers in 1997.
Hall took charge of the BBC in 2013, and stepped down last year.
 
 
source <a href="https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ex-bbc-chief-tony-hall-quits-top-job-over-diana-interview-probe-2447572">https://www.ndtv.com/world-news/ex-bbc-chief-tony-hall-quits-top-job-over-diana-interview-probe-2447572</a>

news world "Very Sorry...": Ex-BBC Chief Quits Top Job Over Diana Interview

Journalist Bashir tricked Diana into giving a 1995 BBC television interview. London, United Kingdom: A former BBC chief who was critici...

UN Security Council Calls For "Full Adherence" To Gaza Ceasefire

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<div class="ins_instory_dv_cont"><img alt="UN Security Council Calls For 'Full Adherence' To Gaza Ceasefire" src="https://c.ndtvimg.com/2021-05/sfusdkts_gaza-afp_625x300_22_May_21.jpg" title="UN Security Council Calls For 'Full Adherence' To Gaza Ceasefire" /></div>
UN Security Council has called for adherence to the ceasefire in the Gaza conflict.
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United Nations, United States:
The UN Security Council on Saturday called for "full adherence to the ceasefire" in the conflict between Israel and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip in its first statement since violence erupted on May 10.
Security Council members also stressed "the immediate need for humanitarian assistance to the Palestinian civilian population, particularly in Gaza."
The statement received backing from the US delegation -- which had blocked earlier drafts -- only after the removal of a paragraph condemning the violence, a sensitive issue since it raised the question of blame.
An earlier draft said that "Security Council members condemned all acts of violence against civilians, including acts of terror, as well as acts of provocation, incitement and destruction."
That draft also "expressed concern about the tensions and violence in east Jerusalem, especially in and around the holy sites, and urged for the respect of the historic status quo at the holy sites."
In a statement Saturday, the Israeli Foreign Ministry thanked the United States "for its continued support for Israel and its right to defend its citizens," and it placed "full blame" for the recent violence on Hamas militants for firing thousands of rockets at Israel.
"We expect that the international community condemn and disarm Hamas, and ensure Gaza's rehabilitation while preventing the diversion of funds and weapons to terrorism," the statement said.
There was no immediate reaction from the Palestinian side.
The US delegation, always one of Israel's strongest supporters in the UN, had also rejected a French draft demanding an immediate end to hostilities and calling for the unimpeded distribution of humanitarian aid throughout Gaza.
The final statement, proposed by China, Norway and Tunisia, simply noted that the Council members "mourned the loss of civilian lives resulting from the violence."
It supported a call from Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for the international community to work with the UN to develop a "robust package of support for a swift, sustainable reconstruction and recovery."
The Council reiterated the importance of achieving a comprehensive peace based on the vision of a region where Israel and the Palestinians live side by side in peace with secure borders.
The statement also recognized "the important role Egypt (and) other regional countries" played in it, as well as the so-called Middle East Quartet, comprising the US, Russia, the European Union and the UN.
The devastating 11-day conflict claimed the lives of at least 248 Palestinians, including 66 children, while 12 people died in Israel, including one child.
The Security Council is scheduled to take up the Israeli-Palestinian conflict again Thursday during a regular monthly meeting scheduled before the conflict broke out.
A day after the ceasefire took hold Friday, ending deadly Israeli air strikes on the coastal enclave and the rocket fire out of it toward Israel, authorities were distributing supplies in Gaza, an AFP reporter said.
The UN said Saturday that at least 6,000 people had been made homeless in the territory controlled by the Islamic group Hamas.
 
 
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news world UN Security Council Calls For "Full Adherence" To Gaza Ceasefire

UN Security Council has called for adherence to the ceasefire in the Gaza conflict. United Nations, United States: The UN Security Coun...