Latest news with #CBCEnglish
USA Today
5 days ago
- General
- USA Today
At least 11 die in crowd chaos outside Indian\u00a0cricket\u00a0stadium
At least 11 die in crowd chaos outside Indian cricket stadium People outside without passes tried to push through gates. Images from the scene showed people climbing over others. Show Caption Hide Caption What's happening between India and Pakistan? The recent violence between India and Pakistan marks a major resurgence in the fight over the long-disputed region of Kashmir. CBC's Salimah Shivji breaks down what triggered the current conflict. CBC English BENGALURU, India – At least 11 people died on Wednesday in a crowd surge outside a cricket stadium in the Indian city of Bengaluru where fans were celebrating Royal Challengers Bengaluru's first Indian Premier League title win, authorities said. Thousands of people, some waving the home team's red flag, lined the streets around the Chinnaswamy Stadium as the team arrived in a bus in the evening, TV channels showed, with some climbing trees and the stadium wall for a better view. As the celebration proceeded, some people outside without passes tried to push through the gates, and there was further trouble between the perimeter and main arena, police said. Images from the scene showed people climbing over others. At least 11 people were killed and 47 were injured in the incident, Karnataka state chief minister Siddaramaiah, who uses only one name, told reporters. "At a time of celebration, this unfortunate event should not have happened. We are saddened by this. The fans that showed up were beyond our expectations," he said. One policeman carried an injured spectator to an ambulance, while people gathered around another lying seemingly unconscious on the ground. Visuals also showed some people receiving CPR. Uncontrollable crowd Police started caning people at one gate, leading to more chaos, said Mithun Singh, a software engineer among the crowd. Naseer Ahmed, political secretary for the Karnataka chief minister, told broadcaster NDTV the crowd became uncontrollable and authorities were unable to make proper arrangements. The team had given away free passes for the event through its website, but also warned that numbers would be limited. The Bengaluru metro stopped services near the stadium, where the ceremony continued despite the turmoil outside. India is familiar with crowd accidents, mainly at religious events. At least 30 people died at the Maha Kumbh Hindu festival in January as tens of millions gathered to dip in sacred waters. Bengaluru were celebrating beating Punjab Kings in the T20 tournament's final match in the 18th edition of the IPL, the world's richest cricket league.
USA Today
09-05-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Reduced to rubble: India strikes alleged headquarters of militant groups in Pakistan's heartland
Reduced to rubble: India strikes alleged headquarters of militant groups in Pakistan's heartland Show Caption Hide Caption What's happening between India and Pakistan? The recent violence between India and Pakistan marks a major resurgence in the fight over the long-disputed region of Kashmir. CBC's Salimah Shivji breaks down what triggered the current conflict. CBC English MURIDKE, Pakistan, May 7 (Reuters) - Video footage from the early hours of Wednesday shows a bright flash from the residential Islamic seminary outside Bahawalpur in central Pakistan as India attacked its neighbor in response to the killing of Indian tourists in Kashmir. The seminary was emptied of its students in recent days as speculation grew that would be targeted by India, but the family of Masood Azhar, founder of the Jaish-e-Mohammed Islamist militant group, was still there, according to the group. Ten of Azhar's relatives were among 13 people killed in the strike, including women and children, the Pakistani military said. Thousands of people turned out for their funerals at a sports stadium later in the day, shouting "Allah Akbar", or God is Great, and other religious chants. "(Indian Prime Minister Narendra) Modi's brutality has broken all norms," the group said in a statement. "The grief and shock are indescribable". It said that five of those killed were children and the others included Azhar's sister and her husband. It did not respond to a request for comment on why the family was still at the site. Azhar, who has not been seen for years, and his brother, Abdul Rauf Asghar, deputy head of the group, did not appear to have attended the funeral prayers. The road to the site was cordoned off after the strike. Pakistan says it 'reserves the right' to respond after India strikes India attacked Pakistan after last month's deadly Hindu tourist attack in Indian Kashmir. Pakistani officials say they "reserve the right" to respond. Further north, around half an hour after midnight, four Indian missiles hit a sprawling complex in Muridke over six minutes, a local government official said. The attack demolished a mosque and adjacent administration building and buried three people in the rubble. A sign outside describes the site as a government health and educational complex, but India says it is associated with militant group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT). Delhi and Washington blame LeT for the 2008 attack on the Indian city of Mumbai that killed more than 160 people. LeT, which has has denied responsibility for that attack, is banned. More: Why India attacked Pakistan, its neighbor and nuclear rival The attack left other buildings in the complex untouched. A local official said that normally there were up to 3,500 staff and students at the site, but almost everyone had been evacuated in recent days as they feared it would become a target. Hafiz Saeed, leader of LeT and its successor organizations, is in a Pakistani jail since being convicted in 2020, on terror financing charges. He says his network, which spans 300 seminaries and schools, hospitals, a publishing house and ambulance services, has no ties to militant groups. Delhi said it had conducted pinpoint strikes on the two headquarters of its militant adversaries, part of what it said were nine "terrorist camps" targeted. "Over the last three decades Pakistan has systematically built terror infrastructure," it said in a briefing on the attacks. Pakistan said India had hit six sites, killing 26 people and wounding 46, all "innocent civilians". Officials and experts said India's attack on its neighbor, its most significant in decades, fulfilled a long-cherished goal, but Islamabad warned that it would hit back. More: Kashmir conflict: A look at how India and Pakistan became nuclear powers The conflict between India and Pakistan has been confined in recent decades mostly to the disputed mountainous region of Kashmir. But the air strikes in the towns of Bahawalpur and Muridke were seen in Islamabad as a major escalation. India said seven of its targets were used by Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, both Islamist groups designated "terrorist" organisations by the U.N. Security Council. India launched the attacks in response to the killing of 26 people, mostly tourists in Indian Kashmir last month. Jaish says that it carries out educational and charity work in Pakistan and its militant activities are only in India. Delhi says that it runs training camps in Pakistan, as well as indoctrination schools, and that it launches militants into India. For decades Hindu-majority India has accused Pakistan of supporting Islamist militants in attacks on Indian interests, especially in Kashmir. Pakistan denies such support and in turn accuses India of supporting separatist rebels in Pakistan, which New Delhi denies. (Writing by Saeed Shah; editing by Philippa Fletcher)
USA Today
22-04-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Antisemitic incidents hit all-time high for 4th year in a row last year
Antisemitic incidents hit all-time high for 4th year in a row last year Annual report shows antisemitic incidents continue to increase since the Oct. 7 2023 attacks on Israel. Show Caption Hide Caption Gazans march in largest anti-Hamas protests since war with Israel began Thousands in the Gaza Strip marched in anti-Hamas demonstrations, the largest since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks triggered the ongoing war with Israel. CBC English Incidents of antisemitism across America continued to spike since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023 attack for a second year in a row, according to an annual report released by the Anti-Defamation League. Researchers at the ADL counted 9,354 incidents of antisemitic assault, harassment and vandalism across the country in 2024 — a 5% increase from 2023, which was also a record-breaking year. The number of incidents was the highest since the ADL started tracking antisemitism data in 1979. The 12-month total tally for 2024 averaged more than 25 incidents a day, more than one for every hour of the year. 'This horrifying level of antisemitism should never be accepted and yet, as our data shows, it has become a persistent and grim reality for American Jewish communities,' said Jonathan Greenblatt, the League's CEO. 'Jewish Americans continue to be harassed, assaulted and targeted for who they are on a daily basis and everywhere they go. But let's be clear: we will remain proud of our Jewish culture, religion and identities, and we will not be intimidated by bigots.' Israel main target of hate For the first time since researchers started collecting data, a majority of antisemitic incidents across America were directed at Israel last year, according to the ADL. The ADL report, released April 22, says 57% of antisemitic incidents in 2024 were related to Israel. Those incidents occurred in a year of escalating protests against the Israel-Hamas war and a mounting death toll in the Gaza Strip. According to the ADL, about half of more than 5,000 anti-Israel rallies included 'antisemitic speeches, chants, signs, and slogans.' From the report: 'Activity and rhetoric documented at these rallies included: justification or glorification of antisemitic violence, promotion of classic antisemitic tropes including blood libel, conspiracy theories and signage equating Judaism or Zionism with Nazism, celebration of the anniversary of Hamas's Oct. 7, 2023 terror attack in Israel, and unapologetic support for terrorism, designated terrorist organizations and their leaders.' The ADL updated their methodology in 2023 following the Oct. 7 attacks to include 'rallies that feature 'anti-Zionist chants and slogans.'" So, the post-2023 totals cannot be compared to the previous totals. Racist propaganda, targeting of Jewish institutions decrease In addition to the anti-Israel protests, the ADL also counted almost 1,000 incidents of white supremacist propaganda, most of it related to three extremist groups. Propaganda efforts actually decreased however from 2023 to 2024 by 17 percent. The overall number of incidents affecting Jewish institutions also dropped by 14 percent from 2023 to 2024, but remained historically high, according to the researchers. Assaults at Jewish institutions doubled from nine in 2023 to 20 in 2024, and vandalism at Jewish institutions also increased 39 percent.
USA Today
10-04-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Senate confirms staunch pro-Israel conservative Mike Huckabee as Israel ambassador
Senate confirms staunch pro-Israel conservative Mike Huckabee as Israel ambassador The Senate backed Huckabee, largely along party lines, with Republicans all supporting President Donald Trump's nominee and every Democrat except Pennsylvania's John Fetterman voting against him. Show Caption Hide Caption Gazans march in largest anti-Hamas protests since war with Israel began Thousands in the Gaza Strip marched in anti-Hamas demonstrations, the largest since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks triggered the ongoing war with Israel. CBC English WASHINGTON – The U.S. Senate on Wednesday backed former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee to be ambassador to Israel, installing a staunch pro-Israel conservative in the high-profile post amid war in Gaza and relations complicated by U.S. tariffs. The Senate backed Huckabee by 53 to 46, largely along party lines, with Republicans all supporting President Donald Trump's nominee and every Democrat except Pennsylvania's John Fetterman voting against him. More: Donald Trump nominates Mike Huckabee to be US ambassador to Israel An evangelical Christian, Huckabee has been a vocal supporter of Israel throughout his political career and a longtime defender of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank. Critics said the former Republican presidential candidate was too partisan to represent the United States, given the sensitivity of negotiations to end the war in Gaza and avoid broader regional war. Huckabee's supporters said he knew Israel well, having visited more than 100 times, and was well-positioned to work closely with Trump to bring peace to a chaotic part of the world. "We urgently need a qualified ambassador in the region, and I have no doubt Mike Huckabee is that person," Republican Senator Jim Risch of Idaho, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said as he urged support for the nominee. Huckabee's pro-Israel stance Trump has pursued strongly pro-Israel policies as president and his choice of Huckabee as ambassador signaled that they would continue. Pro-Israel evangelicals are an important part of Trump's base and voted heavily in favor of him in the Nov. 5 election. "There's no such thing as an occupation," Huckabee said in a 2017 interview with CNN, in which he referred to the West Bank by its biblical names, Judea and Samaria. Most of the international community views as illegal the settlements on the West Bank land occupied by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war. During his first term, Trump moved the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem and sided with Israel on its claims over Palestinian territory in the West Bank. During his second, he has advocated taking a "hard stance" on Gaza, the Palestinian enclave for which he has proposed a U.S. takeover. The United States is Israel's closest ally and largest single trading partner. Netanyahu has visited Trump at the White House twice since Trump began his second term on January 20. He was there this week, seeking to limit the sting of tariffs imposed on Israel as part of the Republican president's sweeping tariff policy. Under the new policy, Israeli goods face a 17% U.S. tariff, despite the two countries signing a free trade agreement 40 years ago. Netanyahu pledged to eliminate Israel's trade surplus with the United States. But when asked if his administration planned to reduce tariffs on Israeli goods, Trump made no promises.
USA Today
04-04-2025
- Politics
- USA Today
Anti-Hamas protests erupt in Gaza. Where are our pro-Palestine 'allies' now?
Anti-Hamas protests erupt in Gaza. Where are our pro-Palestine 'allies' now? | Opinion As someone who once tried to protest Hamas and ended up in their jails and torture chambers, I understand what this neglect feels like. We can't all be Mahmoud Khalil. Show Caption Hide Caption Gazans march in largest anti-Hamas protests since war with Israel began Thousands in the Gaza Strip marched in anti-Hamas demonstrations, the largest since the Oct. 7, 2023, attacks triggered the ongoing war with Israel. CBC English The anti-Hamas protests that erupted last week in the Gaza Strip are a testament to what many of us from Gaza have been saying for years: The people of this besieged enclave are exhausted by Hamas' rule and ready to break free from the terrorist group. Since Oct. 7, 2023, pundits, news outlets and social media accounts have been asking why Gazans have not protested Hamas during the ongoing war. The answer is painfully simple: How can people protest when they are being bombed, starved and displaced? When every act of defiance is met with brutal retaliation? Every Gazan family has suffered unbearable loss ‒ many have lost sons, daughters, entire lineages. They have been bombed, displaced and left to fend for survival with little to no resources. Despite this devastation, thousands took to the streets to protest. How Hamas punishes dissent: imprisonment, torture, execution What critics fail to understand is the brutal reality of life under Hamas' iron grip ‒ where dissent is met with imprisonment, torture or execution. They also fail to see Gazans as they truly are ‒ not as perpetrators, but as victims of both Hamas' oppression and the war that has ravaged us and our land for 18 months. Some observers ask: Why now? Where are the women? Imagine being a woman in Gaza, trying to make your voice heard in a Hamas-controlled, male-dominated society while simultaneously struggling to secure food and shelter for your family. Even then, the young men, the elderly and all those brave souls who have risked their lives to defy Hamas in the streets are carrying a message much greater than themselves. They are the voice of countless others who share their sentiment but fear the repercussions and consequences of speaking out. Opinion: I'm a Palestinian American. Trump's terrifying remarks on Gaza aren't just rhetoric to us. For three consecutive days, thousands of Gazans risked their lives to raise their voices against Hamas, yet their efforts have been overlooked by the so-called pro-Palestine movement in the West and by most of the news media as well. As someone who once tried to protest Hamas and ended up in their jails and torture chambers, I understand what this neglect feels like. I know the deep sense of betrayal that has touched every protester, the painful realization that they have been abandoned, left alone with no one willing to hear them. It's as if the world has resigned them to a fate of living under Hamas' rule, as if their suffering is too inconvenient and does not fit into the Western narrative of Palestine, which is why they have forsaken the actual people of Gaza, like me. Last week's protests were a watershed moment for Gazans, when so many in Gaza finally understood the true meaning of fake solidarity ‒ that to the Western "pro-Palestine" movement, Palestinians are not seen as real people with real struggles but as tools to be used in their ideological battles. Not only were the protests ignored by "allies" in the West, but so were the lives of the protesters and all they represent. 'Pro-Palestine' activists protest for Columbia student. Where are they for protester killed by Hamas? Hamas wasted no time in going after the leaders of the protests, threatening, torturing and even killing them. The family of Oday Nasser Al Rabay, 22, says the protester was tortured to death by Hamas simply for demanding a free Gaza ‒ free from Hamas and free from war. Where was the outrage from the "pro-Palestine movement" activists? Where were the protests in Western capitals for Oday? Nowhere. Because he did not fit into their ideological framework because his killing was not useful and too inconvenient to their narrative. Meanwhile, when a protester with a distinctly different profile ‒ Mahmoud Khalil, a former Columbia University graduate student ‒ finds himself detained in the United States, the pro-Palestinian activists who claim to advocate for the oppressed wasted no time in flooding Western streets with protests calling for his release. His arrest became an emblem of resistance, sparking global campaigns to bring him home. Opinion: Trump's arrest of pro-Palestinian protester Mahmoud Khalil will hurt Israel But what about the young Palestinian from Gaza who, without the protection of international institutions, was tortured to death for his dissent? Oday was left to rot in obscurity, his brutal murder by Hamas nothing more than an inconvenient fact for the same movement that fervently defended Mahmoud. This stark contrast is not only a failure of solidarity ‒ it's also an indictment of the hollow, opportunistic nature of the so-called pro-Palestine movement. Mahmoud, a student in the West, was elevated to the status of martyr. Oday, a young man from Gaza, was left to die at the hands of the very regime that Western allies refuse to confront. The hypocrisy is staggering. If the pro-Palestinian movement is unwilling to stand with the Palestinians in Gaza ‒ those who are risking everything to break free from the shackles of Hamas ‒ then what kind of movement is this? If the pro-Palestine movement cannot recognize the bravery, the sacrifices and the legitimate demands of those fighting to end the reign of terror in Gaza, to end this war and to rebuild their city free of Iranian influence, then it exposes itself as nothing more than a vehicle for political expediency. It is a movement that uses Palestinian lives when convenient and discards them when they are inconvenient. If this is the solidarity these "allies" offer, then it is an insult to the struggle for justice, an empty gesture that does nothing to advance the cause of true liberation. Hamza Howidy is a Gazan anti-Hamas advocate who helped lead the 2019 protests against Hamas in Gaza, for which he was jailed and tortured. Today he is a writer, speaker, human rights advocate and a member of the Realign For Palestine project at the Atlantic Council.
