BANTENG MERAH 19

At least 10 Palestinians, including two Islamic Jihad commanders, were killed Wednesday in a major IDF operation in the West Bank that also left more than 100 injured, Palestinian officials said. In an unusual daytime raid, Israeli military forces entered Nablus in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said. The Islamic Jihad militant group said two of its commanders were killed in ensuing clashes. The Lion’s Den militant group also confirmed its members were involved in the fighting, but did not say if any of their members were killed. The Israel Defense Forces said only that “security forces are currently operating in the city of Nablus” and said more details would follow. The IDF usually waits until an operation finishes before releasing a full statement. Israel Army Radio reported that the raid was to stop an “imminent attack.” IDF raids into the West Bank usually occur overnight; the last time the military conducted a daylight operation, they said it was becau...

Amnesty International has accused Peruvian authorities of acting with “a marked racist bias” in its crackdown on protests that have roiled the country since December, saying “populations that have historically been discriminated against” are being targeted, according to a report released on Thursday. Drawing on data from the Peruvian Ombudsman’s Office, Amnesty says it “found that the number of possible arbitrary deaths due to state repression” were “disproportionately concentrated in regions with largely Indigenous populations.” Amnesty also says that areas with majority indigenous populations have accounted for the majority of deaths since the protests began. “While the regions with majority Indigenous populations represent only 13% of Peru’s total population, they account for 80% of the total deaths registered since the crisis began,” Amnesty wrote. The Ministry of Defense declined to comment on the report, telling CNN that there is an ongoing investigation being carried out by the ...

Nicola Sturgeon, the figurehead of the faltering Scottish independence movement, dramatically announced on Wednesday that she would resign after eight years as Scotland’s first minister. The Scottish National Party leader made the announcement at a press conference in Edinburgh. She will stay in office until a new SNP leader is appointed. Sturgeon said she knows the “time is now” for her to stand down, adding that it is “right for me, for my party and for the country.” “First, though I know it will be tempting to see it as such, this decision is not a reaction to short-term pressures,” said Sturgeon, who has been facing increasing tensions with the UK government in London over Scottish independence, as well as Westminster’s decision to block a Scottish law intended to allow trans people in Scotland to change their legal gender without a medical diagnosis. “This decision comes from a deeper and longer term assessment.” She added that she could no longer give her full energy to the job, ...

China has expressed its “strong dissatisfaction and protest” against the United States’ decision to shoot down its high-altitude balloon, accusing it of “overreacting” and “seriously violating international practice.” US military fighter jets on Saturday shot down the balloon over the Atlantic Ocean in a mission President Joe Biden hailed as a success. The United States believes the balloon was involved in espionage, but China has refuted this, insisting it was a civilian research vessel blown off course. Shortly after the downing of the balloon, China’s Foreign Ministry issued a statement on Sunday morning local time expressing its “strong dissatisfaction and protest against the US’s use of force to attack a civilian unmanned aircraft.” “The Chinese side has repeatedly informed the US side after verification that the airship is for civilian use and entered the US due to force majeure – it was completely an accident,” the Foreign Ministry said. “Force Majeure” is a legal term which mea...