Israeli military says it intercepted missile from Yemen toward Israel
The IDF also said sirens were activated in several areas in Israel.
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Reuters
37 minutes ago
- Reuters
Estonia shows off prison cells awaiting Swedish inmates
TARTU, Estonia, July 30 (Reuters) - Estonia showed off some of the many empty cells in its Tartus prison on Wednesday as officials outlined how they would implement a proposed agreement for Sweden to send up to 600 inmates to the facility from late next year. The inter-governmental deal, which has yet to be approved by either country's parliament, is one of many plans worldwide to tackle prison overcrowding - a critical challenge in a third of European countries according to a report published this month. With around 600 of 933 places in Tartu Prison vacant, officers showed journalists around the facility, completed in 2002, as part of efforts to promote the idea locally as well as to the public across the Baltic Sea in wealthier Sweden. Sweden will pay 8,500 euros a month per inmate in Estonia saving on the average 11,500 euros a month cost in Sweden. Estonia will make its own checks of prisoners selected to be sent to Tartu, and will have right to send prisoners back, said Rait Kuuse, head of Estonian Prison and Probation Service. "We don't take those who are organisers in organised crime networks, who adhere to radical extremism," he said. Some people in Tartu, Estonia's second biggest city after the capital Tallinn, believe the scheme will bring jobs and a boost for the economy while others fear a negative effect on the local community, he said. Certain prisoners would be excluded from transfer, Martin Gilla, Head of Office for International Affairs at Sweden's Prison and Probation Service told Reuters. "We will not send juveniles, we'll not send women. That's one thing that we have come up with. We will also not send people that have been convicted for the worst crimes as well and have high risks," he said. Estonia is one of the few European countries to have recorded a drop in its incarceration rate, which declined 12% last year from 2023, while Sweden, where gang-related violence has increased, recorded a 15.5% rise over the same period. The rate, published in the report by the continent's leading human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, records the number of prisoners per 100,000 inhabitants. Gilla said Sweden, which had a prison occupancy rate of 141% in May, was increasing capacity and has considered options such as prison barges, but that idea was eventually dropped. At Tartu, the prison interior was painted in bright yellow and violet, with wooden furniture and bunk beds. There were art and music rooms and Knuse said inmates would have access to tablets for videocalling their families at home. Issues still to be resolved include rehabilitation programmes, challenges related to visiting by family and friends, and assuring the right to exercise religion. The plans are among many such ideas in the region. Belgium and Norway have in the past hired prison places in the Netherlands, while Denmark signed a deal with Kosovo in May 2024, a move criticised by Danish human rights experts. Finland appointed a working group in November to look into the possibility of renting prison places abroad.
Daily Mail
an hour ago
- Daily Mail
Scots MP branded 'despicable' over sickening insult to Israeli hostages in Gaza
A Scottish MP has been condemned for 'despicable' comments justifying Hamas holding innocent Israelis hostage as it's 'the only bargaining power' the terror group has left. Angus MacDonald provoked outrage after claiming if the terror group released the hostages they seized in 2023 then Israel would 'obliterate' Palestine. The Liberal Democrats are now facing calls to suspend the MP for his 'vile moral bankruptcy' about the innocent victims of Hamas. Anti-Semitism campaigners joined political opponents in condemning the remarks, made in response to one of his constituents on social media site Facebook. Mr MacDonald, who represents Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire, last night refused to issue an apology to the families of innocent Israeli hostages and the Scottish Lib Dems defended the comments and claimed he was not justifying or defending hostage-taking. Sammy Stein, chairman of the Glasgow Friends of Israel group, said: 'I believe it is particularly despicable of Angus MacDonald MP to defend the right of Hamas, an internationally proscribed terrorist organisation, to kidnap and hold innocent Israelis, including women, kids, babies and the elderly, most of whom were kidnapped from their homes on October 7 MacDonald 'There is absolutely no doubt that if Hamas released the hostages, the fighting would stop. MacDonald is delusional if he believes that continuing to hold them would persuade Israel to agree to a ceasefire. 'As long as the fighting continues, more innocent civilians are likely to be killed. The reason Hamas is not releasing the hostages is that they want to see more civilians killed, thus provoking more criticism from the world against Israel. 'I would like to think that most reasonable and thoughtful people will see him for the fool he is.' Mr MacDonald, who was elected for the first time in last year's general election, had initially posted on Facebook about his support for the UK recognising Palestine as a separate state. When asked by one of his constituents, Facebook user Billy Rodgers, if he had written to Hamas to ask them to release the remaining hostages, Mr MacDonald replied: 'If they release the hostages then Israel will completely obliterate any of Palestine left, it's the only bargaining power they have left.' Mr Rodgers replied: 'So you support the use of hostages taking as a legitimate strategy. I know who I won't be voting for in the next election to serve as my local MP.' A spokesman for the Campaign Against Antisemitisim said: 'To refer to hostages as a 'bargaining chip' is vile moral bankruptcy. 'These are innocent human beings who were violently abducted amid the worst massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. They have been held in inhumane, terrifying conditions for nearly two years. 'Dehumanising them in this way not only erases their suffering but also plays directly into the hands of their captors, Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad. The Liberal Democrats must suspend Angus MacDonald pending a full investigation.' Jamie Halcro Johnston, Conservative MSP for the Highlands and Islands region, said: 'It is astonishing and deplorable that Angus MacDonald is apparently trying to justify Hamas terrorists continuing to hold innocent Israelis hostage nearly two years on from the barbaric October 7 attack. 'His comments are not just grossly offensive, they're naïve. 'We all want to see an end to the awful scenes in the Middle East, particularly the humanitarian crisis unfolding in Gaza - and the release of all remaining hostages would strengthen the hand of international leaders in pushing for a permanent ceasefire.' The comments remained on Facebook last night after Mr MacDonald and the Scottish Liberal Democrats were approached by the Mail about them and he was asked whether he would apologise to the families of Israeli hostages. A Scottish Liberal Democrat spokesman said: 'Angus wasn't defending or justifying hostage taking - he was describing the widely accepted view that Hamas is very regrettably using the hostages as leverage against Israel. 'Angus and the Scottish Liberal Democrats have been completely clear that Hamas should release the hostages immediately and unconditionally - and that there is no place for the terror group in the future of Gaza. 'Angus has used his position as an MP to campaign for the release of the hostages, and has made clear, on the parliamentary record, his disgust at Hamas's treatment of the hostages.'
The Guardian
an hour ago
- The Guardian
Trump backs Israel and rebukes Starmer over Palestinian state recognition
Donald Trump has doubled down on his backing for Israel after having appeared to give a green light to the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, to recognize a Palestinian state. Amid signs of mounting opposition among his Maga base to Israel's military operation in Gaza, Trump criticized Starmer's plan to grant recognition as 'rewarding Hamas' even after having not taken issue with it when the pair met in Scotland this week. Talking to journalists on board Air Force One on his return to Washington, Trump said the US was 'not in that camp', referring to Starmer's pledge, which followed a similar declaration by Emmanuel Macron, the French president, days earlier that France would formally recognize Palestinian statehood. 'We never did discuss it,' Trump said, in reference to Starmer's announcement. He added: 'You're rewarding Hamas if you do that. I don't think they should be rewarded.' His comments were in line with the US state department, whose spokesperson, Tammy Bruce, called the recognition decision 'a slap in the face' to victims of Hamas's deadly 7 October 2023 attack on Israel, which triggered the current war. But they contrasted with his restrained stance when he and Starmer met at Turnberry in Scotland on Monday, after the UK premier said Britain would give recognition by September unless Israel met certain conditions, including allowing for a ceasefire in Gaza and allowing UN food aid to enter the territory to feed its population. 'I'm not going to take a position, I don't mind him taking a position,' Trump told reporters when asked if he objected to Starmer's move. The US president's response to Starmer seemed markedly softer than his riposte after Macron's statehood announcement last week, which angered Israel and its supporters. 'What he says doesn't matter,' Trump told reporters at the White House. 'He's a very good guy. I like him, but that statement doesn't carry weight.' The initial softer public posture toward Starmer came as Trump publicly contradicted Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, over conditions in Gaza, which numerous international aid agencies have described as famine. Netanyahu had said that, in contrast to the aid group assessments and searing images of hungry children, no one was starving in Gaza. Asked if he agreed, Trump said: 'Based on television, I would say 'not particularly', because those children look pretty hungry to me. There's real starvation, you can't fake that.' Some of Trump's most prominent supporters have become increasingly vocal in their criticism of Israel's conduct, amid polling evidence that Americans generally are losing sympathy for a country that has traditionally been viewed as one of the US's closest allies. Steve Bannon, Trump's former adviser and still one of his leading cheerleaders with his War Room podcast, told Politico that the president's condemnation of the food situation in Gaza would hasten Israel's loss of support among his base. 'It seems that for the under-30-year-old Maga base, Israel has almost no support, and Netanyahu's attempt to save himself politically by dragging America in deeper to another Middle East war has turned off a large swath of older Maga diehards,' Bannon said. 'Now President Trump's public repudiation of one of the central tenets of [Netanyahu's] Gaza strategy – 'starving' Palestinians – will only hasten a collapse of support.' Another Trump supporter, the far-right Georgia representative Marjorie Taylor Greene, became the latest – and perhaps most surprising – public figure to label Israel's actions in Gaza 'genocide'. 'It's the most truthful and easiest thing to say that Oct 7th in Israel was horrific and all hostages must be returned, but so is the genocide, humanitarian crisis, and starvation happening in Gaza,' she posted on X. The comments came as a new Gallup poll showed support among Americans for Israel's actions in Gaza down to 32%, the lowest since the organization began asking the question in November 2023 – a month after the murderous Hamas raid that killed 1,200 mostly Israeli civilians and led to another 250 to be taken hostage. Israel's military response has led to around 60,000 Palestinians being killed, according to the Gaza health ministry. While Gallup's poll showed support for Israel's offensive still high, at 71%, among Republicans, Thom Tillis, a GOP senator for North Carolina who plans to step down at the next election, said Gaza could be a political problem for Trump, the Hill reported. 'I think that the American people at the end of the day are a kind people. They don't like seeing suffering, nor do I think the president does,' Tillis said. 'If you see starvation, you try to fix it.' Mike Huckabee, the US ambassador to Israel, told Fox News that Trump's backing for Netanyahu remained unshaken. 'Let me assure you that there is no break between the prime minister of Israel and the president,' he told Fox News. 'Their relationship, I think, [is] stronger than it's ever been, and I think the relationship between the U.S. and Israel is as strong as it's ever been.'
