#Ottawa’s sweeping border bill ‘an attack’ on asylum seekers’ #rights, says Amnesty International #Canada.

While the Canadian #government says its proposed Bill C-2 will improve the immigration and #asylum system, a human rights group is calling some of the measures “an attack” on refugees’ right to seek asylum.

Amnesty International Canada said in a press release Thursday that the bill, if passed, would make it “virtually impossible” for the Immigration and Refugee Board (IRB) to review refugee claims from most people entering Canada via the United States.

Moreover, Amnesty International Canada says the bill would prevent people who have been in Canada for more than a year from seeking refugee status. People facing harm, including persecution and torture, in their countries could be “unfairly denied” refugee protection by Canada, it added.

Ketty Nivyabandi, secretary general of Amnesty International Canada’s English-speaking section, said seeking asylum is a human right.

“With Bill C-2, the Canadian government threatens to chip away at that right, making it harder for people seeking safety and freedom to file an asylum claim and have it assessed fairly,” Nivyabandi said in a statement Thursday. ”This attack on the right to seek asylum will severely diminish Canada’s international standing when it comes to protecting human rights.”

Referring to the measures affecting immigrants and asylum seekers, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada said in a press release Tuesday that Bill C-2, or the Strong Borders Act, would address what it called growing migration pressures by making the immigration and asylum systems stronger, efficient and more flexible.

A separate news release Tuesday from Public Safety Canada said the changes will improve the “integrity and fairness of our immigration system while protecting Canadians’ privacy and Charter rights.” The federal government says it will also work with American border and law enforcement agencies to strengthen the border and combat organized crime.

In response to concerns from critics and advocacy groups about some of the rules, Immigration Minister Lena Metlege Diab said the border bill has safeguards upholding civil rights and due process, The Canadian Press reported Wednesday.

Affected asylum seekers would still have a chance to make their case through pre-removal risk assessments, she added.
Proposed measures ‘a step backwards’

Still, migration expert Anna Triandafyllidou says the bill’s proposed asylum measures would be “a step backwards.”

She’s concerned about a proposed ineligibility rule affecting people who first landed in Canada after June 24, 2020. If these people make asylum claims more than one year since their arrival, their claims would not be referred to the IRB, according to a background document from the federal government.

Triandafyllidou said the one-year cutoff date is “totally arbitrary” and may be against international law.

“So by creating this one-year rule, we throw out the window all these people that might face persecution,” she said in a video interview with CTVNews.ca on Thursday.

She gave an example of someone who comes from a country where identifying as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or questioning is illegal. If that individual later identifies as 2SLGBTQ+ and decides to file for asylum more than a year after landing in Canada, the person’s claim wouldn’t be heard by the refugee board under the proposed rule.

Asylum claimants who enter Canada from the United States along the land border and make a claim after 14 days would not be referred to the IRB as well, according to the government’s background document.

Canada’s current asylum system already has “good rules” that just need to be stronger and implemented more effectively, Triandafyllidou added.

“There is a concern of citizens and of the government that we have a big backlog of asylum applications and that our system needs to become more efficient and effective, but this will happen by strengthening our current system which is a good one,” she said.

“So instead of undoing our system to do away with the backlog, we need to provide more resources instead of border agents, more resources for our refugee board, so that they can truly distinguish the people who really need protection from the people who are abusing the system.”

With files from The Canadian Press

A US- and Israeli-backed group operating aid sites in Gaza pushed back the reopening of its facilities set for Thursday, as the Israeli army warned that roads leading to distribution centres were “considered combat zones”.

The White House said on Tuesday that South Korea’s election, which saw liberal party candidate Lee Jae-myung win the presidency, was fair, but it expressed concern about Chinese interference.

Zelenskyy calls Russia’s peace proposal an ‘ultimatum’ and he wants face-to-face talks with Putin

#Israel says rockets fired from Syria for the first time since Bashar Assad’s fall. #DAMASCUS, Syria — The Israeli army said two rockets were fired from Syria into open areas in the Israel-controlled Golan Heights on Tuesday, marking the first time a strike has been launched toward Israel from Syrian territory since the fall of former Syrian President Bashar Assad in December.

Syrian state media reported that Israel shelled the western countryside of Syria’s Daraa province after the rocket launch. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a U.K.-based war monitor, also reported Israeli airstrikes that caused “violent explosions” around the city of Quneitra and in the Daraa countryside.

A group calling itself the Mohammed Deif Brigades — named after a Hamas military leader killed by an Israeli strike in Gaza last year — claimed the attack in a post on Telegram. The group first surfaced on social media a few days before.

“Until now, it’s just a Telegram channel. It’s not known if it is a real group,” said Ahmed Aba Zeid, a Syrian researcher who has studied armed factions in southern Syria.

Israeli Defense Minister Israel Katz said in a statement that Israel considers “the Syrian president directly responsible for every threat and firing toward the State of Israel” and warned of a “full response” to come “as soon as possible.”

Israel has been suspicious of the Islamist former insurgents who formed the new Syrian government, led by President Ahmad al-Sharaa, and has launched hundreds of airstrikes on Syria and seized a U.N.-patrolled buffer zone on Syrian territory since Assad’s fall.

Syria’s foreign ministry said in a statement carried by the state-run TV channel that it has “not yet verified the accuracy” of the reports of strikes launched from Syria toward Israel.

“We affirm that Syria has not and will not pose a threat to any party in the region,” the statement said. It condemned the Israeli shelling, which it said had resulted in “significant human and material losses.”

The U.S., which has warmed to al-Sharaa’s government and recently moved to lift some sanctions previously imposed on Syria, has pushed for Syria to normalize relations with Israel.

In a recent interview with the Jewish Journal, al-Sharaa said he wants to see a return to a 1974 ceasefire agreement between the two countries but stopped short of proposing immediate normalization, saying that “peace must be earned through mutual respect, not fear.”

Iranian official says U.S. nuclear proposal is ‘incoherent and disjointed,’ as sources warn talks momentum is collapsing.

A senior Iranian official told CNN the new nuclear deal proposal presented to Tehran in recent days is “incoherent and disjointed,” as sources familiar with the progress of the talks said the momentum behind negotiations to secure a new deal appears to be collapsing.

The private pessimism contrasts with U.S. President Donald Trump’s public optimism last week that the administration was “very close to a solution.”

CNN has also learned that the US has shifted position on the issue of uranium enrichment in the new proposal, in comparison to what officials had said publicly. It suggests the US could invest in Iran’s civilian nuclear power program and join a consortium that would oversee the enrichment of low-level uranium inside of Iran for an unspecified amount of time. That consortium is expected to include Middle Eastern nations and the UN’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency.

Previously, senior US officials have said no enrichment inside Iran could take place under a new deal, and top US officials demanded that Iran stop enrichment and only import the material – a suggestion Tehran firmly rejected. The prospect of allowing continued low-level enrichment in the country would likely enrage Iran hawks in the US and Israel and hearkens back to the 2015 nuclear deal, from which Trump withdrew.

However later Monday, Trump said that the Iran deal will not allow uranium enrichment.

“Under our potential Agreement — WE WILL NOT ALLOW ANY ENRICHMENT OF URANIUM,” the president wrote in a post on his Truth Social platform.

Iranian officials have repeatedly said that they are open to the idea of an enrichment consortium but have insisted Iran must be able to keep control of its own enrichment capabilities.

The senior Iranian official on Monday denounced the new proposal, saying that at “at first glance, is assessed as incoherent and disjointed, very unrealistic, and with excessive demands.”

They argued that the primary barrier to progress was the US’ inconsistency.

“The fact that the Americans constantly change their positions has so far been the main obstacle to the success of the talks and now makes the work more difficult than ever,” the official added.

The official also alleged the latest text directly contradicts prior understandings.

“The text is clearly in conflict with the latest agreement reached during the fifth round of negotiations,” the official stated. They reaffirmed Tehran’s uncompromising stance on a critical issue, saying, “Iran’s position on enrichment is firm and steadfast.”

Iran and the United States concluded a fifth round of high-stakes nuclear talks in Rome on May 23 amid growing skepticism in Tehran about the chances of a deal. After that round of talks, the two sides “agreed to meet again in the near future,” a US senior administration official said at the time.

Now, however, the next round of talks is very uncertain and may not happen at all, the sources familiar said.

#Russian forces have liberated Alekseyevka in the Sumy Region, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported.

"Units from the Battlegroup North liberated the locality of Alekseyevka in the Sumy Region as a result of determined military action," the ministry said.

Russia’s top brass put the total number of Ukrainian casualties in the special military operation zone over the past day at 1,440.

Namely, Ukraine sustained more than 200 casualties in the zone of responsibility of the Russian Battlegroup North, roughly 210 casualties in the zone controlled by Russia’s Battlegroup West, roughly 280 casualties from actions by Russia’s Battlegroup South, over 510 casualties in the zone of responsibility of the Battlegroup Center, roughly 155 casualties in the zone controlled by the Battlegroup East, and more than 85 casualties in the Battlegroup Dnepr’s zone of responsibility, the ministry specified.

Also, Russian forces downed seven JDAM glide bombs and 100 Ukrainian drones in the past 24 hours, according to the Defense Ministry.
Iskander missile strikes

The Russian military delivered an Iskander-M missile strike on a Ukrainian long-range drone launch site at the Chuguyev airfield in the Kharkov Region, Russia’s Defense Ministry reported.

"As a result of a pinpoint missile strike, six drone launchers, eight motor vehicles and some 30 kamikaze drones prepared for launch by Ukrainian nationalists were destroyed," the ministry said.

In another Iskander-M missile strike, Russia targeted Ukrainian mobile drone launch and control sites near the locality of Krolevets in the Sumy Region, the ministry added. "As a result of a missile strike, two motor cars carrying mobile drone launch and control stations and troops were struck. Also, objective control recorded a fire at unmanned [aerial] vehicles prepared for launch as their payload detonated," the ministry concluded.

At least 31 Palestinians are killed while heading to a Gaza aid hub, officials and witnesses say.

#RAFAH, #Gaza Strip — At least 31 people were killed and over 150 were wounded on Sunday while on their way to receive food in the Gaza Strip, according to health officials and multiple witnesses. The witnesses said Israeli forces fired on crowds around a kilometre (1,000 yards) from an aid site run by an Israeli-backed foundation.

The army in a brief statement said it was “currently unaware of injuries caused by (Israeli military) fire within the humanitarian aid distribution site. The matter is still under review.”

The foundation — promoted by Israel and the United States — said in a statement it delivered aid “without incident” early Sunday. It has denied previous accounts of chaos and gunfire around its sites, which are in Israeli military zones where independent access is limited.

Gaza’s Health Ministry said 31 people were killed and 170 others were wounded.

“Aid distribution has become a death trap,” the head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees, Philippe Lazzarini, said in a statement.
A new aid system marred by chaos

The Gaza Humanitarian Foundation ’s aid distribution has been marred by chaos in its first week of operations, and multiple witnesses have said Israeli troops fired on crowds near its delivery sites. Before Sunday, 17 people were killed while trying to reach the hubs, according to Zaher al-Waheidi, head of the Health Ministry’s records department.

The foundation says the private security contractors guarding its sites have not fired on the crowds. Israel’s military has acknowledged firing warning shots on previous occasions.

The foundation said in a statement it distributed 16 truckloads of aid early Sunday “without incident,” and dismissed what it described as “false reporting about deaths, mass injuries and chaos.”
‘The scene was horrible’

Thousands of people headed toward the distribution site in southern Gaza hours before dawn. As they approached, Israeli forces ordered them to disperse and come back later, witnesses said. When the crowds reached the Flag Roundabout, around one kilometre (half a mile) away, at around 3 a.m., Israeli forces opened fire, the witnesses said.

“There was fire from all directions, from naval warships, from tanks and drones,” said Amr Abu Teiba, who was in the crowd.

He said he saw at least 10 bodies with gunshot wounds and several other wounded people, including women. People used carts to ferry the dead and wounded to a field hospital. “The scene was horrible,” he said.

Most people were shot “in the upper part of their bodies, including the head, neck and chest,” said Dr. Marwan al-Hams, a health ministry official at Nasser Hospital, where many of the wounded were transferred after being brought to the field hospital run by the Red Cross.

He said 24 people were being treated in Nasser Hospital’s intensive care unit. A colleague, surgeon Khaled al-Ser, later said 150 wounded people had arrived, along with 28 bodies.

Ibrahim Abu Saoud, another witness, said the military fired from about 300 metres (yards) away.

Abu Saoud said he saw many people with gunshot wounds, including a young man who he said died at the scene. “We weren’t able to help him,” he said.

Mohammed Abu Teaima, 33, said he saw Israeli forces open fire and kill his cousin and a woman as they headed toward the distribution site. He said his cousin was shot in his chest and his brother-in-law was among the wounded.

“They opened heavy fire directly toward us,” he said.

An AP reporter arrived at the field hospital at around 6 a.m. and saw dozens of wounded, including women and children. The reporter also saw crowds of people returning from the distribution point. Some carried boxes of aid but most appeared to be empty-handed.

Officials at the field hospital said at least 21 people were killed and another 175 were wounded, without saying who opened fire on them. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to reporters.

Gaza’s Health Ministry provided the same toll and later updated it.
The UN says new aid system violates humanitarian principles

Israel and the U.S. say the new system is aimed at preventing Hamas from siphoning off assistance. Israel has not provided any evidence of systematic diversion, and the UN denies it has occurred.

UN agencies and major aid groups have refused to work with the new system, saying it violates humanitarian principles because it allows Israel to control who receives aid and forces people to relocate to distribution sites, risking yet more mass displacement in the coastal territory.

“It’s essentially engineered scarcity,” Jonathan Whittall, interim head in Gaza of the UN humanitarian office, said last week.

The UN system has struggled to bring in aid after Israel slightly eased its nearly three-month blockade of the territory last month. The groups say Israeli restrictions, the breakdown of law and order and widespread looting make it extremely difficult to deliver aid to Gaza’s roughly two million Palestinians.

Experts have warned that the territory is at risk of famine if more aid is not brought in.

The war began when Hamas-led militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and abducting 251. They are still holding 58 hostages, around a third believed to be alive, after most of the rest were released in ceasefire agreements or other deals.

Israel’s military campaign has killed over 54,000 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not say how many of the dead were civilians or combatants. The offensive has destroyed vast areas, displaced around 90 per cent of the population and left people almost completely reliant on international aid.

The latest efforts at ceasefire talks appeared to stumble Saturday when Hamas said it had sought amendments to a U.S. ceasefire proposal that Israel had approved, and the U.S. envoy called that “unacceptable.”

Hungry #Palestinians in Gaza block and offload dozens of UN food trucks.

TEL AVIV, Israel — Palestinians in the Gaza Strip blocked and offloaded dozens of food trucks, the UN World Food Program said Saturday, as desperation mounts following Israel’s monthslong blockade while talks of a ceasefire inch forward.

The WFP said 77 trucks carrying aid, mostly flour, were stopped by hungry people who took the food before the trucks could reach their destination.

The nearly three-month Israeli blockade on Gaza has pushed the population of over 2 million to the brink of famine. While pressure slightly eased in recent days as Israel allowed some aid to enter, aid organizations say far from enough food is getting in.

Hamas on Friday said it was reviewing a U.S. proposal for a temporary ceasefire, which Israeli officials have approved. U.S. President Donald Trump said negotiators were nearing a deal.

A ceasefire would pause the fighting for 60 days, release some of the 58 hostages still held in Gaza in exchange for Palestinian prisoners and much-needed food aid and other assistance, according to Hamas and Egyptian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.

The WFP said the fear of starvation in Gaza is high despite the aid that’s entering now. “We need to flood communities with food for the next few days to calm anxieties and rebuild the trust with communities that more food is coming,” it said in a statement — adding that it has over 140,000 metric tons of food — enough to feed Gazans for two months — ready to be brought in.

A witness in the southern city of Khan Younis told The Associated Press the UN convoy was stopped at a makeshift roadblock and offloaded by desperate civilians in their thousands. Most people carried bags of flour. He said at one point a forklift was used to offload pallets. The witness spoke on condition of anonymity because of fear of reprisal.

The United Nations said earlier this month that Israeli authorities have forced them to use unsecured routes within areas controlled by Israel’s military in the eastern areas of Rafah and Khan Younis, where armed gangs are active and trucks were stopped.

Israel’s military didn’t immediately respond to questions.
Attacks, gangs and lack of protection hamper UN distribution

An internal document shared with aid groups about security incidents, seen by the AP, said there were four incidents of facilities being looted in three days at the end of May, not including Saturday’s.

The UN says it has been unable to get enough aid in because of fighting. On Friday, UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said it only picked up five truckloads of cargo from the Palestinian side of the Kerem Shalom crossing, and the other 60 trucks had to return due to intense hostilities.

A new U.S- and Israeli-backed foundation started operations in Gaza this week, distributing food at several sites in a chaotic rollout.

Israel says the Gaza Humanitarian Foundation eventually will replace the aid operation that the UN and others have carried out during nearly 20 months of war. It says the new mechanism is necessary, accusing Hamas of siphoning off large amounts of aid. The UN denies that significant diversion takes place.

The GHF works with armed contractors, which it says are needed to distribute food safely. Aid groups have accused the foundation of militarizing aid.
Israeli strikes kill at least 60

Israel continued its military campaign across Gaza, saying it struck dozens of targets over the past day. Gaza’s Health Ministry said at least 60 people were killed by Israeli strikes in the past 24 hours.

The ministry said three people were killed by Israeli gunfire early Saturday in Rafah. Three others were killed — parents and a child — when their car was struck in Gaza City. An Israeli strike hit another car in Gaza City, killing four. And an Israeli strike hit a tent sheltering displaced people in Khan Younis, killing six, said Weam Fares, a spokesperson for Nasser Hospital.

The war began when Hamas attacked Israel on October 7, 2023, killing around 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and taking 250 hostages. Of those taken captive, 58 remain in Gaza. Israel believes 35 are dead and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said there are “doubts” about the fate of several others.

Israeli strikes have killed more than 54,000 Gaza residents, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between civilians and combatants in its tally.

Magdy reported from Cairo

The US Supreme Court on Friday gave the Trump administration the green light to revoke - for now - the legal status of hundreds of thousands of migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela.