A 1,500 year old Byzantine tomb complex is discovered in Syria
A contractor digging into the earth where the rubble of a destroyed house had been cleared away in northern Syria stumbled across a surprise: the remains of an underground Byzantine tomb complex believed to be more than 1,500 years old. (AP video shot by Omar Albam )
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Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Madleen route tracker: Greta Thunberg's aid boat to Gaza boarded by Israel
A flotilla carrying climate activist Greta Thunberg on a weeklong journey to Gaza has been boarded by Israeli military forces and transported to Israel. The 12-person Madleen vessel was intercepted off the coast of Gaza in the early hours of Monday, according to the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) that manages the boat. In a statement on social media, they said Israeli forces had 'rammed and boarded' the vessel. An hour earlier, they claimed they were 'drones overhead'. 'Quadcopters are surrounding the ship, spraying it with a white paint-like substance,' the FFC wrote on Telegram. 'Communications are jammed, and disturbing sounds are being played over the radio.' Israeli officials said the group would be taken to the port of Ashdod, from where they would return to their home countries. Israel Katz, the country's defence minister, said he had instructed the military to show the flotilla passengers videos of the 7 October massacres when they arrive in Israel. He claimed it was necessary for 'Greta and her fellow Hamas supporters to see exactly who the Hamas terrorist organisation they came to support and for whom they work is, what atrocities they committed against women, the elderly, and children, and against whom Israel is fighting to defend itself'. The FFC posted a video appearing to show the moment the ship was intercepted. They have since posted pre-recorded SOS videos from all 12 crew members calling for their respective governments to help secure their release. The Israeli foreign ministry also posted footage of the aftermath of the interception, including pictures of the military handing out food and water to the crew. The Madleen ship and its crew of 12 volunteers set off from Catania, Sicily on 1 June, carrying a nominal amount of humanitarian aid. The FFC said the trip was aimed at trying 'to break Israel's more than 17-year illegal and inhumane blockade of the Gaza Strip'. The ship's location was being monitored live by Forensic Architecture, using a Garmin live tracker on board, but that tracker has since been switched off. Named after Gaza's only female fisher, the vessel is carrying climate activist Greta Thunberg and French-Palestinian Member of European Parliament Rima Hassan, among others. Ms Thunberg shot to notoriety in 2018 when she decided to skip school as a 15-year-old in an attempt to persuade the Swedish parliament to take more action on climate change. Speaking aboard the Madleen, Ms Thunberg told Middle East Eye: 'We have promised ourselves and we have promised the Palestinian people to do everything we can. 'When our governments are failing us … then it falls on us to step up and be the adults in the room. 'We are just human beings, very concerned about what's happening, and do not accept what is going on.' The other activists on board the vessel are: Yasemin Acar (Germany), Baptiste Andre (France), Thiago Avila (Brazil), Omar Faiad (France), Pascal Maurieras (France) Yanis Mhamdi (France) Suayb Ordu (Turkiye), Sergio Toribio (Spain) Marco van Rennes (The Netherlands) and Reva Viard (France). The FFC said the boat intended to spend at least seven days travelling to Gaza to break the naval blockade that has been in place since 2007. There were concerns that the boat may be attacked. Last month, another vessel operated by the FFC, the Conscience, was reportedly bombed by drones off Malta en route to Gaza. Ms Thunberg said at the time that she planned to board the boat in Malta. The FFC accused Israel of carrying out the attacks. Israel did not respond to those accusations. On 3 June, the FFC said that an Israel-made Hellenic Coastguard drone (IAI Heron UAV) was seen hovering over the Madleen. In a statement shared on social media, the Freedom Flotilla Coalition (FFC) said: 'At 11:12pm CEST+1, 68km away from Greek territorial waters, a drone began to hover above the 'Madleen'. The drone is no longer there.'
San Francisco Chronicle
3 hours ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
Protests intensify in Los Angeles after Trump deploys hundreds of National Guard troops
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tensions in Los Angeles escalated Sunday as thousands of protesters took to the streets in response to President Donald Trump's extraordinary deployment of the National Guard, blocking off a major freeway and setting self-driving cars on fire as law enforcement used tear gas, rubber bullets and flash bangs to control the crowd. Many protesters dispersed as evening fell and police declared an unlawful assembly, a precursor to officers moving in and making arrests of people who don't leave. Some of those remaining threw objects at police from behind a makeshift barrier that spanned the width of a street and others hurled chunks of concrete, rocks, electric scooters and fireworks at California Highway Patrol officers and their vehicles parked on the closed southbound 101 Freeway. Officers ran under an overpass to take cover. Sunday's protests in Los Angeles, a sprawling city of 4 million people, were centered in several blocks of downtown. It was the third and most intense day of demonstrations against Trump's immigration crackdown in the region, as the arrival of around 300 Guard troops spurred anger and fear among many residents. The Guard was deployed specifically to protect federal buildings, including the downtown detention center where protesters concentrated. Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said officers were 'overwhelmed' by the remaining protesters. He said they included regular agitators who show up at demonstrations to cause trouble. Several dozen people were arrested throughout the weekend of protest. One was detained Sunday for throwing a Molotov cocktail at police, and another for ramming a motorcycle into a line of officers. Trump responded to McDonnell on Truth Social, telling him to arrest protesters in face masks. Clashes escalate as National Guard troops arrive Starting in the morning, the troops stood shoulder to shoulder, carrying long guns and riot shields as protesters shouted 'shame' and 'go home." After some closely approached the guard members, another set of uniformed officers advanced on the group, shooting smoke-filled canisters into the street. Minutes later, the Los Angeles Police Department fired rounds of crowd-control munitions to disperse the protesters, who they said were assembled unlawfully. Much of the group then moved to block traffic on the 101 freeway until state patrol officers cleared them from the roadway by late afternoon. Nearby, at least four self-driving Waymo cars were set on fire, sending large plumes of black smoke into the sky and exploding intermittently as the electric vehicles burned. By evening, police had issued an unlawful assembly order shutting down several blocks of downtown Los Angeles. Flash bangs echoed out every few seconds into the evening. Governor says Guard not needed Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom requested Trump remove the guard members in a letter Sunday afternoon, calling their deployment a 'serious breach of state sovereignty.' He was in Los Angeles meeting with local law enforcement and officials. The deployment appeared to be the first time in decades that a state's national guard was activated without a request from its governor, a significant escalation against those who have sought to hinder the administration's mass deportation efforts. Newsom and Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass blamed the increasingly aggressive protests on Trump's decision to deploy the Guard, calling it a move designed to enflame tensions. They've both urged protesters to remain peaceful. 'What we're seeing in Los Angeles is chaos that is provoked by the administration," she said in an afternoon press conference. 'This is about another agenda, this isn't about public safety.' But McDonnell, the LAPD chief, said the protests were following a similar pattern for episodes of civil unrest, with things ramping up in the second and third days. He pushed back against claims by the Trump administration that the LAPD had failed to help federal authorities when protests broke out Friday after a series of immigration raids. His department responded as quickly as it could, and had not been notified in advance of the raids and therefore was not pre-positioned for protests, he said. Newsom, meanwhile, has repeatedly said that California authorities had the situation under control. He mocked Trump for posting a congratulatory message to the Guard on social media before troops had even arrived in Los Angeles, and said on MSNBC that Trump never floated deploying the Guard during a Friday phone call. He called Trump a 'stone cold liar.' The admonishments did not deter the administration. 'It's a bald-faced lie for Newsom to claim there was no problem in Los Angeles before President Trump got involved,' White House spokesperson Abigail Jackson said in a statement. Deployment follows days of protest The arrival of the National Guard followed two days of protests that began Friday in downtown Los Angeles before spreading on Saturday to Paramount, a heavily Latino city south of the city, and neighboring Compton. Federal agents arrested immigrants in LA's fashion district, in a Home Depot parking lot and at several other locations on Friday. The next day, they were staging at a Department of Homeland Security office near another Home Depot in Paramount, which drew out protesters who suspected another raid. Federal authorities later said there was no enforcement activity at that Home Depot. The weeklong tally of immigrant arrests in the LA area climbed above 100, federal authorities said. Many more were arrested while protesting, including a prominent union leader who was accused of impeding law enforcement. The protests did not reach the size of past demonstrations that brought the National Guard to Los Angeles, including the Watts and Rodney King riots, and the 2020 protests against police violence, in which Newsom requested the assistance of federal troops. The last time the National Guard was activated without a governor's permission was in 1965, when President Lyndon B. Johnson sent troops to protect a civil rights march in Alabama, according to the Brennan Center for Justice. Trump says there will be 'very strong law and order' In a directive Saturday, Trump invoked a legal provision allowing him to deploy federal service members when there is 'a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government of the United States.' He said he had authorized the deployment of 2,000 members of the National Guard. Trump told reporters as he prepared to board Air Force One in Morristown, New Jersey, Sunday that there were 'violent people' in Los Angeles 'and they're not gonna get away with it.' Asked if he planned to send U.S. troops to Los Angeles, Trump replied: 'We're gonna have troops everywhere. We're not going to let this happen to our country.' He didn't elaborate. About 500 Marines stationed at Twentynine Palms, about 125 miles (200 kilometers) east of Los Angeles were in a 'prepared to deploy status' Sunday afternoon, according to the U.S. Northern Command.
Washington Post
4 hours ago
- Washington Post
Contractor in Syria uncovers a surprise beneath the rubble: an ancient tomb complex
MARAAT AL-NUMAN, Syria — A contractor digging into the earth where the rubble of a destroyed house had been cleared away in northern Syria stumbled across a surprise: the remains of an underground Byzantine tomb complex believed to be more than 1,500 years old. The discovery emerged last month in the town of Maarat al-Numan in Idlib province , which is strategically located on the route between the cities of Aleppo and Damascus. The community became a touchpoint in the nearly 14-year Syrian civil war that ended with the fall of former President Bashar Assad in a lightning rebel offensive in December.
