The largest protests in Lebanon in 14 years have shut down the country as a revolt against a weak government, ailing services and a looming economic collapse continues to gain momentum. The demonstrations began last week amid anger over the government’s plan to impose new taxes, and have since widened into demands for resignations and a secular state
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Benny Gantz to be tasked with forming Israeli government
Ex-military chief expected to have 28 days to forge coalition and avoid third election in year
Israel’s president is expected to task the former military chief Benny Gantz with forming a government after Benjamin Netanyahu failed to do so following an inconclusive election last month.
Neither Gantz’s Blue and White coalition nor the incumbent prime minister’s Likud party came out with a clear win, and few expect the opposition leader to form a coalition through deals with disparate political parties with ease.
Continue reading...Mohamed Ali: Egyptian exile who sparked protests in shock at mass arrests
In interview in Spain, businessman says he is in fear of contract killing and that he has new plan to topple President Sisi
The Egyptian whistleblower who prompted rare street protests against President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi from exile in Spain has said he is in a “state of shock” and feels a deep sense of personal responsibility for those jailed for answering his call to demonstrate. But he insisted his fight to topple Sisi will enter a new phase, claiming many junior officers in the army support his call for an end to corruption.
In an interview with the Guardian in Barcelona, where he says he lives in fear of a contract killing, Mohamed Ali, called for the US Congress to investigate how decades of US economic and military aid amounting to more than $70bn had been spent by the Egyptian state. “Trump has let Sisi steal as much of America’s money as he wants,” Ali said. “It is like a comedy film.”
Continue reading...Turkey and Russia agree deal over buffer zone in northern Syria
Erdoğan hails agreement with Putin in which Kurdish fighters will be moved from border area
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, and his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, have agreed on the parameters of a proposed Turkish “safe zone” in Syria, a development that could bring an end to Ankara’s offensive against Kurdish forces over the border by severely curtailing their control of the area.
The two leaders were locked in marathon talks for more than six hours in the Russian Black Sea city of Sochi, emerging just two hours before a five-day ceasefire brokered by the US expired at 10pm local time.
Continue reading...Syrian residents pelt retreating US troops with food and insults
Angry scenes demonstrate sense of betrayal amid rushed US pullout as Trump says remaining force is to protect oil not Kurds
Pelted with fruit and hounded by insults, the American military’s exit from Syria was very different from its time on the ground. The remnants of the US presence in the north-east of the country made an ignominious departure on Monday, driving through towns that had welcomed them for the past four years.
The regional capital of Qamishli, a hub of cooperation between US officers and Kurdish officials throughout the war against Islamic State, was among the least hospitable spots on the road out. As US battle trucks, sporting large American flags, made their way through town and headed towards Iraq, groups of locals threw rotting fruit and vegetables at them, cursing soldiers that only two weeks ago many in the region had considered to be their protectors.
Continue reading...Benjamin Netanyahu tells Israeli president he cannot form government
Opposition leader Benny Gantz will have 28 days to build coalition or risk fresh election
Benjamin Netanyahu has informed Israel’s president he has been unable to form a coalition government after talks with his political rival Benny Gantz broke down.
In a video statement published on Monday evening – the day of his 70th birthday – Netanyahu said he and his Likud party had worked “incessantly” to forge a “broad national unity government” with Gantz’s Blue and White party, but ultimately failed.
Continue reading...US troops pelted with rotten fruit and stones as they leave Syria – video
People have thrown rotten fruit and stones at US troops as they left Syria in armed vehicles, with one man appearing to shout: ‘You liars!’
Donald Trump’s decision to suddenly withdraw US forces from Syria, which prompted an incursion by Turkish forces, has also created concern on what to do about accused Isis fighters and their families
Continue reading...Lebanon’s mass revolt against corruption and poverty continues
Dissent gains momentum with country’s largest protests since Cedar revolution of 2005
The largest protests in Lebanon in 14 years are set to shut down the country for a fifth day on Monday, as a revolt against a weak government, ailing services and a looming economic collapse continues to gain momentum.
Demonstrators took to the streets of most urban centres on Sunday to rail against officials who they say are preventing badly needed reforms that would cut into the pockets of the ruling class, and are instead trying to recoup state revenues by taxing the poor.
Continue reading...Kurdish fighters leave Syrian border town, giving Turkey control
Evacuation part of US-brokered ceasefire, as Nancy Pelosi leads congressional visit to region
Kurdish officials say their fighters have evacuated Ras al-Ayn, giving Turkey and its allies control of one of the border cities that has borne the brunt of fighting since Donald Trump’s decision to withdraw US troops from north-eastern Syria.
The Turkish defence ministry said a convoy of 86 vehicles left the city on Sunday afternoon carrying fighters from the Kurdish-dominated Syrian Democratic Front (SDF) and wounded civilians south to cities beyond the 20-mile buffer zone that Turkey is seeking to clear along its border with Syria.
Continue reading...Britain makes move to bring home Isis children stranded in Syria
Whitehall sources are working with local agencies to bring back minors born to Islamic State fighters
British officials have taken the first steps to repatriate children stranded in Syria by liaising directly with agencies on the ground to identify unaccompanied minors for “safe passage” back to the UK.
Whitehall sources have confirmed they are working with “various agencies” in north-east Syria – believed to include the International Committee of the Red Cross – to kickstart the process of transferring children of British parents linked to Islamic State back to the UK.
Continue reading...‘We Syrians are being used as political tools… yet again’
Despite last week’s US-brokered truce, fighting continues on the Turkish-Syrian border
It’s an unusually hot autumn in the plains of southern Turkey, where in some places nothing but wire fencing is all that separates this country from the chaos that has engulfed Syria over the last eight years.
Cotton, pistachio and olive trees grow on both sides of the border. But plumes of black smoke are only rising above towns on the Syrian side.
Continue reading...Erdoğan threatens to ‘crush the heads’ of Kurdish fighters refusing to withdraw
Turkey-US deal asks Kurdish forces to vacate designated ‘safe zone’ in northern Syria during five-day ceasefire
Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, has said his country would “crush the heads” of Kurdish militants if they did not withdraw from a planned “safe zone” in northern Syria.
On Thursday following an intervention from the US, Turkey agreed to pause its military offensive in north-eastern Syria for five days while Kurdish fighters withdrew from the safe zone.
Continue reading...Archaeologists discover 30 ancient coffins in Luxor
Intricately carved coffins with mummies from 1000BC ‘biggest such find in over a century’
Egypt has revealed details of 30 ancient wooden coffins with mummies inside, which were discovered in the southern city of Luxor in the biggest find of its kind in more than a century.
A team of Egyptian archaeologists found a “distinctive group of 30 coloured wooden coffins for men, women and children” in a cache at Al-Asasif cemetery on Luxor’s west bank, the ministry of antiquities said in a statement on Saturday.
Continue reading...Belgium to evacuate Isis suspects from Syria detention camps
Other European states also preparing to repatriate citizens accused of Isis links via safe zone
Belgium and other European states are preparing to evacuate citizens accused of having links to Islamic State from detention camps in north-eastern Syria through a newly declared safe zone being carved out by Turkish forces along the border.
Belgian officials informed family members of detainees held in two camps on Friday that they would attempt to take advantage of a five-day ceasefire to retrieve nationals allegedly tied to the terror group. The Guardian has learned that other European states, including France and Germany, are also looking at ways to take advantage of the window declared by US vice-president Mike Pence on Thursday to repatriate women and children.
Continue reading...Fighting continues on Syria-Turkey border despite ceasefire
Artillery fire and ground clashes reported in violation of US-brokered five-day truce
Fighting is continuing on the border between Syria and Turkey in defiance of a supposed five-day ceasefire negotiated between the US and Turkey.
Intermittent artillery fire and ground clashes were heard in the border town of Ras al-Ayn on Friday morning, one of the two main targets of the nine-day-old Turkish offensive, as the Turkish military and Syrian rebel proxies struggled to wrest control of the town from the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF).
Continue reading...Violence flares in Lebanon as protesters tell their leaders to go
Dozens wounded or held as warnings over economy spark biggest protests in decade
Security forces fired teargas and chased down protesters in Beirut on Friday after tens of thousands of people across Lebanon marched to demand the demise of a political elite they accuse of looting the economy to the point of collapse.
Riot police in vehicles and on foot rounded up protesters, according to Reuters. They fired rubber bullets and teargas canisters, dispersing demonstrators in Beirut’s commercial district. Dozens of people were wounded and detained.
Continue reading...The future of burial: inside Jerusalem’s hi-tech underground necropolis
With a dire shortage of land for graves, the holy city is reviving an ancient custom of underground burial – with lift access, LED lighting and golf buggies
Cool air from deep inside the mountain lightly wafts through cavernous arched tunnels. Along the walls of the subterranean passages, rows of human-sized chambers have been dug into the rock. It is unmistakably a catacomb.
Yet this mass tomb is not a relic of the Roman empire. It was made with huge electric diggers, and the walls are lined with concrete. People will enter by lift, and those with limited mobility will be able to use a golf buggy to traverse the necropolis.
Continue reading...Pence and Erdoğan agree on ceasefire plan but Kurds reject ‘occupation’
- Mike Pence strikes deal with Turkish president in Ankara
- Agreement appears to cement key Turkish objectives
The Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has agreed with the US vice-president, Mike Pence, to suspend Ankara’s operation on Kurdish-led forces in north-east Syria for the next five days in order to allow Kurdish troops to withdraw, potentially halting the latest bloodshed in Syria’s long war.
Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) fighters would pull back from Turkey’s proposed 20-mile (32km) deep “safe zone” on its border, Pence told reporters in Ankara on Thursday evening after hours of meetings with Turkish officials.
Continue reading...What his letter to Erdoğan tells us about Donald Trump
US president’s letter to his Turkish counterpart is ‘the product of an amateur’, say critics
We now know – not that there was ever much doubt – that Donald Trump writes presidential letters like he talks – with a blustery mix of flattery and threats. His letter to the Turkish president, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has all the charm and elegance of an eviction notice from a slumlord, but on White House stationery.
Those who have observed him the longest say this is how he has always expressed himself. The most remarkable aspect of the Erdoğan letter is arguably that it shows the extent to which the distinctions between Trump’s personality and the remaining formal trappings of the presidency have crumbled away.
Continue reading...Saudi bus crash kills 35 foreign tourists near holy city of Medina
Arab and Asian visitors were on a bus when it collided with another heavy vehicle
Thirty-five foreign tourists were killed and four others injured when a bus collided with another heavy vehicle near the Muslim holy city of Medina, Saudi state media said on Thursday.
The accident on Wednesday involved a collision between “a private chartered bus ... with a heavy vehicle (loader)“ near the western Saudi Arabian city, a spokesman for Medina police said, according to the official Saudi Press Agency.
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