03/09/2024

TUESDAY | SEP 3, 2024

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Mexico Congress to debate controversial judicial reform MEXICO CITY: Mexico’s Lower House of Congress is slated to open debate today on a controversial judicial reform and is expected to pass the legislation later in the week, said Ricardo Monreal, the ruling party leader in the chamber. The judicial overhaul, proposed by outgoing president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador and backed by incoming president Claudia Sheinbaum, has sparked a strike by judicial workers, strained relations with the United States and spooked foreign investors. The backbone of the constitutional reform would see more than 7,000 judges and magistrates elected by popular vote. It would reduce the number of judges on the Supreme Court from 11 to nine, and shorten their terms from 15 to 12 years. It would also create a new body to supervise judges. Supporters of the reform say it is necessary to address Mexico’s high level of impunity for violent crimes. Monreal said on Sunday that lawmakers would debate and vote on the reform today and tomorrow and then send the legislation to the Senate. The ruling Morena party and its allies hold a two-thirds super majority in the lower house and are only one seat short in the Senate. On Sunday, university students and judicial workers protested in front of the Senate headquarters in opposition to the measures. Obrador says the reforms are necessary because the judicial system is “not at the service of the people” and instead “responds to the interests of organised crime”. But experts say that much of this impunity is driven by prosecutors, police and state-level attorney-general offices, who have limited resources and whose offices are often plagued with corruption. These entities would not be affected by the judicial reform. The unions representing judicial workers say the proposed changes would trample on labour rights and that the popular election of judges risks allowing special interests to seize control of the judiciary. – Reuters SYDNEY: A beluga whale that was suspected of spying for Russia after being discovered in Norwegian waters five years ago has been found dead, according to the non-profit organisation that had been monitoring the whale. The body of Hvaldimir – a combination of the Norwegian word for whale and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin – was spotted floating in the sea by a father and son fishing in southern Norway over the weekend, Norwegian public broadcaster NRK reported. “Hvaldimir was not just a beluga whale; he was a beacon of hope, a symbol of connection, and a reminder of the deep bond between humans and the natural world,” the Marine Mind NGO said on social media. Hvaldimir was wearing a harness with what appeared to be a mount for a small camera when he was first found in 2019 near the island of Ingoya in Norway’s north, around 300km from the Russian maritime border. The harness was stamped with “Equipment St Petersburg” in English. The whale was interested in people and responded to hand signals, leading Norway’s domestic intelligence agency to presume he had been held in captivity as part of a research programme before crossing into Norwegian waters. Marine biologist Sebastian Strand, who worked with Marine Mind, said: “It’s absolutely horrible. He was apparently in good condition as of (Friday), so we just have to figure out what might have happened here.” He said no major external injuries were visible on the animal and it was not immediately clear what caused the death. – Reuters ‘Spy whale’ found dead near Norway

A Palestinian takes cover during an Israeli strike on a school in Zeitoun district on the outskirts of Gaza City on Sunday. – AFPPIC

Israelis go on strike for Gaza truce after hostage deaths

countries of imposing unfair restrictions on its media abroad, including bans on some state backed news outlets. Putin told the Mongolian newspaper that Russian journalists face “direct censorship” in almost all Western countries. “The only thing our media do is to convincingly convey the Russian point of view on modern problems and processes taking place in the world,” Putin said. In May, Russian lawmakers passed a Bill giving prosecutors powers to shut foreign media bureaus if a Western country has been “unfriendly” to Russian media. – Reuters Louise Wateridge, spokeswoman for the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, said 87,000 children received a first dose of the polio vaccine on Sunday in central Gaza. UNRWA chief Philippe Lazzarini called the inoculation campaign a “race against time to reach just over 600,000 children” in the war-torn territory of 2.4 million people. “For this to work, parties to the conflict must respect the temporary area pauses,” he said. – AFP Yair Keshet, uncle of hostage Yarden Bibas, said during Sunday’s protest in Tel Aviv that the government needed to “stop everything and to make a deal”, which campaigners say is the best option to ensure the return of the remaining captives. On the ground in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, civil defence rescuers said an Israeli strike on Sunday killed 11 people at a school where Israel’s military said a Hamas command centre was based. The fighting continued yesterday, coinciding with the second day of localised “humanitarian pauses” to facilitate a vaccination drive. A correspondent reported some air strikes overnight, and the civil defence agency said artillery shelling and gunfire rocked Gaza City, where two people were killed when a missile hit a residential block.

and the heads of what it said were key military industrial firms, over what it described as Washington’s Russophobic stance. They also follow years of the Kremlin’s suppression of independent media and Moscow’s swift blocking of dissenting voices in Russian-language media outlets at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Putin said that in Russia, media are free. “The only requirement for them is compliance with Russian legislation. Foreign correspondents accredited in our country should understand this,” he said. Russia has frequently accused Western Several major cities across Israel joined the strike, closing schools and municipal services for several hours. Ben Gurion international airport near Tel Aviv was operating “as usual”, said a spokeswoman, but takeoffs were halted for two hours. In Jerusalem and some other cities, life appeared to go on as usual. Some private companies, like public transport providers, partially suspended operations in support of the strike. The strike followed a day of mass protests on Sunday that saw tens of thousands on the streets of Tel Aviv and elsewhere, part of a series of anti-government rallies during the war. Yesterday, protesters again blocked roads in Tel Aviv. Histadrut chief Arnon Bar-David said he wanted to “stop the abandonment of the hostages”, adding that “only our intervention can shake those who need to be shaken”, an apparent reference to top Israeli decision makers who have opposed a truce or stalled in months of negotiations. Out of 251 hostages seized on Oct 7, only eight have been rescued alive by Israeli forces but scores were released during a one-week truce in November – the only one so far. Mediation efforts led by the United States, Qatar and Egypt since then have repeatedly stalled.

MELBOURNE: The West is openly persecuting Russian journalists, President Vladimir Putin said in remarks published yesterday, days after Moscow banned dozens of US journalists from entering the country. “In order to hide from inconvenient facts, from truthful information, the West, which considers itself the standard of freedom, has launched an open persecution against Russian correspondents,” Putin told the Mongolian newspaper Onoodor . His remarks come after Moscow said on Wednesday it was banning entry to Russia for 92 US citizens, including journalists, lawyers, TEL AVIV: Strike action brought parts of Israel to a halt yesterday in a bid to raise pressure on the government to secure the release of the remaining hostages in Gaza, after the military recovered the bodies of six captives. Relatives and demonstrators have accused Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government of not doing enough to bring the hostages back alive, and during mass rallies on Sunday called for a truce deal to help free dozens who remain captive. The military said on Sunday the bodies of six hostages had been recovered from a tunnel in the southern Gaza Strip, prompting outpourings of grief and fury. The Israeli Health Ministry said post mortem examinations showed the six had been “murdered ... with several close-range gunshots” shortly before they were found by troops. The Histadrut trade union called a nationwide strike “for the return” of the remaining 97 hostages. o Action disrupts municipal services, flights and buses

Putin accuses West of persecuting Russian journos