NETANYAHU ANNOUNCES PLANS TO ARM ISRAELIS AFTER JERUSALEM ATTACK

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has announced plans to make it easier for Israelis to get firearms amid escalating violence in the occupied Palestinian territory, a move seen as “collective punishment” and one that could further increase the violence.

Netanyahu announced the measure late on Saturday after convening a meeting of his security cabinet — filled with hardline politicians — over a pair of shootings that included an attack in occupied East Jerusalem.

Seven people were killed in the shooting outside the East Jerusalem synagogue on Friday.

The weekend shootings took place towards the end of a month of growing confrontation and follow an Israeli raid in the occupied West Bank city of Jenin that killed nine Palestinians and exchanges of fire between Israel and Gaza.

On Saturday, Netanyahu promised to expedite gun permits for Israeli citizens and to step up efforts to collect “illegal weapons”. He added that the homes of the suspected assailants would also be sealed immediately ahead of demolition “in order to exact an additional price from those who support terrorism”.

His office later said social security benefits for the families of attackers will also be cancelled.

In addition, it promised new steps to “strengthen” illegal Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank but gave no details.

UN SECURITY COUNCIL DOES NOT REFLECT TODAY'S REALITIES, IS PARALYSED: UNGA PRESIDENT

The UN Security Council does not reflect today's realities, is paralysed and unable to discharge its basic function of maintaining international peace and security when one of its permanent members has attacked its neighbour, UN General Assembly President Csaba Korosi has said.

“The Security Council which has been created back then” and given the primary responsibility of maintaining “international peace and security and preventing wars now is paralysed,” he told PTI ahead of his visit to India.

Korosi will arrive in India on Sunday on a three-day visit at the invitation of External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar. It is his first bilateral visit to any country since he assumed his role as President of the UN General Assembly in September 2022.

“The Security Council cannot discharge its basic function for a very simple reason. One of the permanent members of the Security Council attacked its neighbour. The Security Council should be the body to take action against the aggression. But because of the veto power, the Security Council cannot act,” he said, in a reference to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Korosi said this was a “very serious lesson learnt” for the future when talking about how to improve functioning of global organisations. He said that the issue of UNSC reform is both “burning” and “compelling” since the composition of the Security Council reflects “the outcome of the Second World War”.

POLICE UNIT DISBANDED AFTER DEATH OF BLACK MOTORIST FROM BRUTAL BEATING BY OFFICERS

Memphis (US) : The Memphis police chief disbanded the city’s so-called Scorpion unit on Saturday, citing a “cloud of dishonor” from newly released video that showed some of its officers beating Tyre Nichols to death after stopping the Blackmotorist.

Police director Cerelyn “CJ” Davis acted a day after the harrowing video emerged, saying she listened to Nichols’ relatives, community leaders and uninvolved officers in making the decision. Her announcement came as the nation and the city struggled to come to grips with the violence of the officers, who are also Black. The video renewed doubts about why fatal encounters with law enforcement keep happening despite repeated calls forchange.

Protesters marching though downtown Memphis cheered when they heard the unit had been dissolved. One protestor said over a bullhorn that “the unit that killed Tyre has been permanently disbanded. ” Referring to “the heinous actions of a few” that dishonored the unit, Davis contradicted an earlier statement that she would keep the unit. She said it was imperative that the department “take proactive steps in the healing process. ”“Itis in the best interest of all to permanently deactivate the Scorpion unit,” she said. She said the officers assigned to it agreed “unreservedly. ”

The unit is composed of three teams of about 30 officers whose stated aim is to target violent offenders in areas beset by high crime. It had been inactive since Nichols’ January 7 arrest.

PETROL, DIESEL PRICE HIKED BY UP TO PKR35 AS CURRENCY VALUE PLUMMETS

As Pakistan inches closer to an economic collapse, the Shehbaz Sharif government on Sunday added to the burden of its inflation-stricken citizens when it hiked petrol and diesel prices by PKR 35 a litre.

"We have decided to increase the price of petrol and diesel by Rs 35. The price of kerosene oil and light diesel oil has been increased by Rs18," said finance minister Ishaq Dar. Diesel will now cost Rs 262.80 per litre, petrol Rs 249.80 per litre, kerosene Rs 189.83 per litre, and light diesel Rs 187 per litre.

The decision comes ahead of a visit by an International Monetary Fund (IMF) team to discuss the stalled ninth review of the country's current funding programme.

Petrol stations across Pakistan are quickly running dry due to reduced supplies by oil marketing companies. Even Islamabad now regularly sees serpentine lines of vehicles at filling stations. The rise in oil prices has been accompanied by a skyrocketing increase in prices of basic as well as imported goods.

The country is facing a 28% inflation rate and the breakdown of the supply chain may cause hyperinflation. This could be in addition to more imported inflation due to steep currency devaluation.

GERMAN CHANCELLOR SAYS HE WON'T SEND FIGHTER JETS TO UKRAINE

The German chancellor has ruled out sending fighter jets to Ukraine, just days after committing to supplying tanks.

In an interview with a German newspaper, Olaf Scholz warned against a bidding war for weapons.

But Ukraine has asked allied nations to create a "fighter jet coalition" to bolster their capabilities.

The US said it would discuss the idea of supplying jets "very carefully" with Kyiv on Thursday.

In an interview with Tagesspiegel, Mr Scholz said his focus was on the delivery of German-made Leopard 2 tanks.

"The fact we've only just made a decision [on sending tanks] and the next debate is firing up in Germany, that just seems frivolous", he said.

Ukraine's deputy foreign minister, Andrii Melnyk, has called for the creation of a "fighter jet coalition" that would provide Ukraine with US F-16s and F-35s, Eurofighters, Tornados, French Rafales and Swedish Gripen jets.

Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told Ukraine's Freedom Television Network they also needed missiles "to drastically reduce the Russian army's key weapon".

ERDOGAN SAYS TURKEY MAY BLOCK SWEDEN'S NATO MEMBERSHIP BID

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has suggested that Ankara may agree to Finland joining Nato, but not Sweden.

He criticised Sweden's refusal to extradite dozens of people allegedly tied to Kurdish militant groups and other critics of his government.

"If you absolutely want to join Nato, you will return these terrorists to us," said Mr Erdogan.

His comments come days after Turkey suspended talks to accept the two Nordic nations as members.

The move was prompted by a series of controversial protests in Stockholm, including one during which a copy of the Koran was burned.

Swedish officials have condemned the protests, but defended the country's free speech laws.

In response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Sweden and Finland applied to join Nato last year, ending decades of military non-alignment.

Their application must be unanimously approved by all current Nato members, but Turkey and Hungary have failed to ratify their bids.

In his speech, Mr Erdogan suggested Turkey might now "give a different response concerning Finland," adding that "Sweden will be shocked".

"We gave Sweden a list of 120 persons and told them to extradite those terrorists in their country," said Mr Erdogan. "If you don't extradite them, then sorry about that."

SUNAK FIRES PARTY CHAIRMAN ZAHAWI OVER TAX AFFAIRS

London : British PM Rishi Sunak fired the Conservative Party chair Nadhim Zahawi from government on Sunday after an investigation found he’d been insufficiently open about a tax probe which he settled while finance minister. In an embarrassing episode for Sunak, he initially stood by Zahawi before ordering an independent adviser to probe questions over his tax affairs after it emerged Zahawi had settled a probe by UK’s tax authority HMRC last year.

Zahawi has said the tax body ruled he had been “careless” with his declarations but hadn’t deliberately made an error to pay less tax. But Sunak’s independent adviser Laurie Magnus said that Zahawi did not declare that his tax affairs were being probed when he was briefly made finance minister last year, and failed to disclose details when Sunak appointed him to his current role.

“Following the completion of the independent adviser’s investigation, it is clear that there has been a serious breach of the ministerial code,” Sunak said in a letter to Zahawi. “As a result, I have informed you of my decision to remove you from your position in (the) government. ”The opposition Labour Party and some of Sunak’s own Conservative lawmakers had said Zahawi should have stood down earlier while Sunak waited for the findings of Magnus’ probe. “It’s vital that we now get answers to what Sunak knew,” Labour’s education spokesperson Bridget Phillipson said on Sunday.

MIKE POMPEO SLAMS GHANI IN HIS BOOK, CALLS HIM A FRAUD

Ashraf Ghani, the former Afghanistan President who fled the country when the Taliban seized power in Kabul, was “a total fraud” solely focused on his own desire to stay in power, and a big hurdle in any peace talks, former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has alleged.

In his book titled ‘Never Give an Inch: Fighting for the America I Love,’ Mr. Pompeo claims that both Mr. Ghani and Afghanistan’s former chief executive Abdullah Abdullah were involved in corruption at the highest levels that limited the U.S.’s ability to successfully exit the war-torn country in August 2021.

The U.S. completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan on August 31, ending its 20-year-old military presence in the war-torn country.

“As negotiations accelerated, Ghani was always a problem. I met scores of world leaders, and he was my least favourite. That’s saying a lot when you have Kim (Jong-un), Xi (Jinping), and (Vladimir) Putin in the mix. Yet Ghani was a total fraud who had wasted American lives and was focused solely on his own desire to stay in power,” Mr. Pompeo writes in his book that released last week.