Channel president says change aims to put network in ‘better position’ for the 2024 US elections, The Hill reports.
Washington, DC – MSNBC has cancelled Mehdi Hasan’s weekend TV programme, sparking anger from many Palestinian rights supporters who consider the progressive host a rare critic of Israeli policies on United States cable news.
The decision, first reported by the news website Semafor on Thursday, came amid what advocates describe as a crackdown on criticism against Israel in the media, at universities and in the arts. The country is currently conducting a military offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 15,000 Palestinians, prompting human rights concerns.
Left-wing Congressman Ro Khanna said cancelling the show during the conflict is “bad optics” for the network.
“As a strong supporter of free speech, MSNBC owes the public an explanation for this decision,” Khanna wrote in a social media post. “Why would they choose to do this now?”
Semafor reported that Hasan’s show will be replaced by extending news anchor Ayman Mohyeldin’s self-titled programme to two hours. Mohyeldin, who is Arab American, is also a critic of the Israeli government.
Hasan will be retained by the network as an on-screen analyst, US media outlets indicated.
In a note to staff quoted by the publication The Hill, MSNBC President Rashida Jones said the reshuffle aims to “better position” the network as it heads into the 2024 US elections. MSNBC did not immediately respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment.
Palestinian American human rights lawyer Noura Erakat called the programme “more needed than ever”.
“He should be amplified, not shut down,” Erakat wrote in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
MSNBC cancels Mehdi Hasan’s show@msnbc make this make sense. @mehdirhasan’s program has felt like an oasis on air and more needed than ever. His program w Mark Regev was a whole class on journalistic method. He should be amplified,not shut down. https://t.co/r5Saq1ssdm#Gaza
A persistent interviewer known for confronting guests about false claims and past statements, Hasan previously worked as an Al Jazeera host. He also was a senior columnist at The Intercept, a news website.
This month on his programme, he deployed his trademark interviewing style to question Israeli government adviser Mark Regev about false claims promoted by Israeli officials. In one example, Hasan pointed to an instance in which a calendar in a Gaza hospital was presented as a list of Hamas operatives.
“We shouldn’t blindly believe anything Hamas says. But why should we believe what your government says, either?” Hasan asked.
After a lengthy back-and-forth, Regev acknowledged that Israel may have committed “mistakes” in putting out such information.
Author Sarah Kendzior pointed to that segment as she questioned MSNBC’s decision to nix Hasan’s show.
“They canceled Mehdi Hasan for interviews like this — evidence-based and willing to challenge power — and it is doubtful he will be the only journalist pushed out for daring to practice journalism,” she wrote in a social media post.
On Thursday, US journalist David Sirota noted that Hasan has reported critically on both Republicans and Democrats.
“Canceling him is another step in the deliberate homogenization of news content into pure red-vs-blue infotainment,” Sirota wrote on X.
There is a history of US journalists being penalised for their criticism of Israel. In 2018, CNN sacked Marc Lamont Hill as a contributor over a speech at a United Nations meeting in support of Palestinian rights. Hill now hosts the programme UpFront on Al Jazeera.
In 2021, The Associated Press news agency also fired a young reporter over social media posts in support of Palestinian rights.
Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of OPEC+ agreed to voluntary output cuts for th first quarter of 2024.
OPEC+ producers have agreed to voluntary oil output cuts for the first quarter next year in an attempt to boost the market, but crude prices fell after the move.
Saudi Arabia, Russia and other members of OPEC+, who pump more than 40 percent of the world’s oil, met online on Thursday and issued a statement summarising countries’ voluntary cut announcements.
OPEC+ also invited Brazil to become a member of the group. The country’s energy minister said it hoped to join in January.
Oil prices fell after rising by more than 1 percent earlier in the session after OPEC+ producers agreed to the cuts. Benchmark Brent crude for February futures were over 2 percent lower at just under $81 a barrel at 18:36 GMT.
The group met to discuss 2024 output amid forecasts the market faces a potential surplus and as a 1 million barrel per day (bpd) voluntary cut by Saudi Arabia was set to end next month.
The total curbs amount to 2.2 million bpd from eight producers, OPEC said in a statement. Included in this figure, is an extension of the Saudi and Russian voluntary cuts of 1.3 million bpd.
The 900,000 bpd of additional cuts pledged on Thursday includes 200,000 bpd of fuel export reductions from Russia, with the rest divided among six members.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said Russia’s voluntary cut would include crude and products.The UAE said it had agreed to cut output by 163,000 bpd while Iraq said it would cut an extra 220,000 bpd in the first quarter.
Saudi Arabia, Russia, the UAE, Iraq, Kuwait, Kazakhstan and Algeria were among producers who said cuts will be unwound gradually after the first quarter, market conditions permitting.
The Saudis have to earn nearly $86 per barrel to meet their planned spending goals, according to the latest estimate from the International Monetary Fund.
Riyadh is trying to fund an ambitious overhaul of the kingdom’s economy, reduce its dependence on oil and create jobs for a young population
While consumers in countries such as the United States have welcomed falling oil prices amid struggles with inflation, oil-producing countries who rely heavily on revenue from the energy sector have sought to arrest that downward momentum.
Reaching a consensus among OPEC+ members, however, has not been easy because they are faced with questions of how production cuts should be split among the group’s 23 member countries.
OPEC+ is expected to convene again in June, and Brazil, one of the world’s 10 largest producers, could be among them.
Mines and Energy Minister Alexandre Silveira said Brazil is eager to join the group although the nature of Brazil’s participation was not immediately clear.
“Considering that Brazil is a large oil producer and is driving oil production growth, it is important to have them on board, but it seems that they are not cutting production like Mexico, so [I] would conclude with: good for OPEC+, less relevant for oil market balances,” UBS analyst Giovanni Staunovo told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
A call to prayer is made from a destroyed mosque as a drone shot shows the ruins of the building and surroundings in Khan Younis. The video shows the scale of destruction caused by Israeli bombardment in response to the Oct 7 Hamas attack.
India name three skippers for eight-match multi-format tour of South Africa next month, with Rohit Sharma leading the two Tests, Suryakumar Yadav for the T20s and KL Rahul for the ODIs.
Skipper Rohit Sharma and star batter Virat Kohli will skip the white-ball leg of India’s upcoming tour of South Africa, the country’s cricket board has said.
Rohit and Kohli were part of the India team who lost to Australia in the final of the 50-overs home Cricket World Cup earlier this month.
In Rohit’s absence, Suryakumar Yadav will lead the side in the three-match T20 series beginning in Durban on December 10.
The tour is set to run until January 7, and includes three T20Is, three ODIs and two Tests.
Wicketkeeper-batsman KL Rahul will take charge for the three one-day internationals that follow before Rohit and Kohli return for the two-test series.
“Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli had requested the board for a break from the white-ball leg of the tour,” the Board of Control for Cricket in India said in a statement on Thursday.
India dropped middle-order batter Ajinkya Rahane while Cheteshwar Pujara could not force his way back in, with both seemingly at the end of their international careers.
Seamer Mohammed Shami was picked for the Tests in Centurion and Cape Town subject to him passing a fitness test.
MacGowan won fame for incorporating traditional Irish ballads into Britain’s punk scene in the 1980s and 90s.
Shane MacGowan, who galvanised Britain’s punk scene with his incorporation of Irish traditional ballads into that genre in the late 1980s, has died at 65.
MacGowan’s wife Victoria Mary Clarke released a statement announcing his death on Thursday, saying that The Pogues frontman, famous for haunting lyrics and his turbulent relationship with addiction, had died peacefully, surrounded by his loved ones.
“Thank you for your presence in this world, you made it so very bright and you gave so much joy to so many people with your heart and soul and your music,” Clarke said in an Instagram post, also saying that MacGowan had gone to join “Jesus and Mary, and his beautiful mother Therese”.
Born in the British county of Kent to Irish parents on Christmas Day in 1957, MacGowan was shaped by summers in the Irish countryside and was known for his innovative use of Irish traditional themes in punk music.
He won fame for songs like A Pair of Brown Eyes and his bittersweet, expletive-strewn 1987 Christmas anthem Fairytale of New York, before being ejected from The Pogues in 1991 as he struggled with substance abuse that sometimes led to erratic behaviour.
“So many of his songs would be perfectly crafted poems, if that would not have deprived us of the opportunity to hear him sing them,” Irish President Michael Higgins, who is also a poet, said in a statement.
“His words have connected Irish people all over the globe to their culture and history, encompassing so many human emotions in the most poetic of ways.”
Other icons of Britain’s tempestuous punk scene, which raged against the UK’s Thatcherite turn in the late 1970s, also praised MacGowan as a visionary artist.
Joe Strummer, the punk singer-songwriter who led The Clash and later played with The Pogues and briefly replaced MacGowan, called him “one of the finest writers of the century”.
Shane MacGowan poses for photographers at an exhibition in London, England, on October 11, 2022 [File: Scott Garfitt/Invision via AP]
While MacGowan embodied the hard-charging image of Britain’s punk scene — with irreverent songs, missing teeth, and an ear that was allegedly bitten off at a Clash show — his lyrics were noted for their prose and affiliation with the downtrodden.
“He has a very natural, unadorned, crystalline way with language,” Australian punk singer Nick Cave said of MacGowan, a close friend. “There is a compassion in his words that is always tender, often brutal, and completely his own.”
The United Nation’s annual climate summit is under way in Dubai, with world leaders approving a climate disaster fund that will help vulnerable nations cope with the impact of drought, floods and rising seawater.
The agreement marked a “positive signal of momentum” at the start of the 2023 conference – known as COP28 – its host UAE’s Sultan al-Jaber said in the opening ceremony on Thursday.
Al-Jaber, who is the UAE’s minister of industry and also heads the national oil company, is chairing the summit for its 28th meeting. His leading role has drawn backlash from critics who believe his oil ties should disqualify him from the climate post.
In opening remarks, al-Jaber made the case that the world must “proactively engage” fossil fuel companies in phasing out emissions, pointing to progress by some national oil companies in adopting net-zero targets for 2050.
“I am grateful that they have stepped up to join this game-changing journey,” al-Jaber said in opening remarks. “But, I must say, it is not enough, and I know that they can do much more.”
The UN’s climate chief, Simon Stiell, gave a more stark assessment, saying there must be a “terminal decline” to the fossil fuel era if we want to stop “our own terminal decline”.
People stand for a moment of silence for victims in Gaza during the COP28 opening in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, November 30 [Amr Alfiky/Reuters]
Who is attending?
With more than 70,000 attendees, the two-week-long affair is billed as the largest-ever climate gathering.
Among tts expected attendees are dozens of world leaders, including the heads of state of France, Japan, the UK, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, and Brazil. Also represented are crowds of activists, lobbyists, and business leaders, including billionaire Bill Gates.
However, the presidents of the world’s two biggest polluters — the US and China — are not attending.
The summit comes at a pivotal time, with global emissions still climbing and 2023 projected to be the hottest year on record. Scientists warn the world must commit to accelerating climate action or risk the worst impacts of a warming planet.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said leaders should aim for a complete “phaseout” of fossil fuels, a proposal opposed by some powerful nations that has dogged past negotiations.
What are the goals?
On Thursday, nations formally approved the launch of a “loss and damage” fund to compensate climate-vulnerable countries after a year of hard-fought negotiations over how it would work.
Later in the summit attendees are due to review and calibrate the implementation of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’s (UNFCC’s) terms, Paris Agreement, and Kyoto Protocol, a binding treaty agreed in 1997 for industrialised nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
This year, UNFCC members will also face their first Global Stocktake (GST) – a scorecard analysing countries’ progress towards the Paris Agreement – so they can adapt their next climate action plans which are due in 2025.
At the same time, host UAE aims to marshal an agreement on the tripling of renewable energy and doubling the annual rate of energy efficiency improvements by 2030.
Rallying a common position on these points will be challenging, as COP requires all nations – whether dependent on oil, sinking beneath rising seas or locked in geopolitical rivalry – to act unanimously.
Questions about the UAE’s role
The UAE sees itself as a bridge between the rich developed nations most responsible for historic emissions and the rest of the world, which has contributed less to global warming but suffers its worst consequences.
But the decision for it to host has attracted a firestorm of criticism, particularly as the man appointed to steer the talks, al-Jaber, is also head of UAE state oil giant ADNOC.
Al-Jaber, who also chairs a clean energy company, has defended his record, and strenuously denied this week that he used the COP presidency to pursue new fossil fuel deals after allegations reported by the BBC.
On Thursday, al-Jaber said the “role of fossil fuels” must be considered in any deal at the climate talks, saying “it is essential that no issue is left off the table”.
“We are at war. Not an operation, not a round [of fighting], at war,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu declared to his fellow Israelis on October 7, following a surprise attack by the Palestinian armed group Hamas that killed an estimated 1,200 people in Israel.
Within hours, the United States, Israel’s closest ally, condemned the attacks as “unconscionable”. President Joe Biden affirmed, “Israel has the right to defend itself,” echoing sentiments from Israel’s allies worldwide.
Over the next seven weeks, Israel went on to drop more than 40,000 tonnes of explosives on Gaza, killing more than 15,000 people, including at least 6,150 children, and levelled entire neighbourhoods.
Following several failed resolutions at the United Nations and a flurry of diplomatic efforts, a four-day Gaza truce, agreed upon by Hamas and Israel, finally took effect on November 24 and was later extended for an additional three days.
[Al Jazeera]
As the war continues on the ground, a parallel battle is being waged through the exchange of words on the world stage.
To understand how language is shaping the current war, Al Jazeera examined all the speeches and statements given by 118 United Nations member states at all the UN Security Council (UNSC) and General Assembly (UNGA) sessions between October 7 and November 15.
In addition to the UN statements, we analysed hundreds of speeches and statements given by the leaders of Israel and Palestine, five permanent members of the UNSC — the US, UK, France, China and Russia, as well as eight regional players, namely Egypt, Iran, Jordan, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Syria and Turkey.
Pause vs ceasefire – who said what?
Many countries have called for an immediate and comprehensive ceasefire, ending all hostilities, while Israel’s allies have only called for a pause in fighting.
Those avoiding the call for a “ceasefire” echo Israel’s sentiment that Hamas should not be given any respite in fighting and the war should only end after the armed group’s complete destruction. Many of these countries have called for peace or political resolution, but have fallen short of using the term “ceasefire”.
A ceasefire is largely defined as a “cessation of all acts of violence against the civilian population”.
While there is no universal definition of what a ceasefire entails, it typically includes a formal agreement to end the fighting and lays out a political process to de-escalate the conflict, such as withdrawing weapons or repositioning forces.
A humanitarian pause, on the other hand, is defined as a “temporary cessation of hostilities purely for humanitarian purposes”.
A pause or truce is a temporary halt to fighting for an agreed-upon period.
Our analysis found that the majority of countries (55 percent) specifically called for a “ceasefire” in Gaza while 23 percent of nations underscored the importance of a temporary halt in hostilities. The remaining 22 percent did not explicitly endorse either option.
[Al Jazeera]
The majority of countries calling for a pause are European states as well as the US and Canada.
The Biden administration has called for “humanitarian pauses” in the war while firmly rejecting demands for a ceasefire, at least until Israel achieves its stated goal of eliminating Hamas.
The majority calling for a ceasefire are those in the Global South, with the exception of a handful of European states, most notably France, Ireland, Russia and Spain.
France has urged setting up a humanitarian truce which could lead eventually to a ceasefire.
For Palestinians in Gaza like Tala Herzallah, a 21-year-old student at the Islamic University of Gaza, the role of the international community and organisations like the UN in helping end the war has been close to “zero”.
“All international laws are being violated, and no one says anything. It’s all just ink on paper,” she told Al Jazeera.
People are being bombed in hospitals, in schools. But all they do is condemn. Our blood is cheap
by Tala Herzallah – student in Gaza
Moreover, like many Palestinians, Herzallah stressed that the conflict with Israel extends far beyond the tragic events of October 7.
“We (Gaza) have been under siege for more than 16 years, with pain, poverty and unemployment. Bombed every now and then.”
Deir el-Balah, central Gaza Strip – As the sounds of war quietened with the advent of the first truce between Israel and Hamas since October 7, the markets in the Gaza Strip have been flooded with shoppers, desperate to buy food supplies and winter clothes.
But the cost of these products has skyrocketed, particularly for basic foodstuffs, sparking anger and resentment among shoppers who blame shopkeepers and stallholders for high prices.
Imm Abdullah, who was displaced from her home in the Nassr neighbourhood in Gaza City a month ago after Israel ordered people in northern Gaza to move south, has been staying at one of the United Nations-run schools in Deir el-Balah with her 12 children and grandchildren. She said conditions in the school have become desperate, with no water and barely any provisions.
“When the Israelis threw leaflets down at us, I left with my family wearing just my prayer clothes,” she said. “At the school, we barely get food assistance. The other day we got a can of tuna. How am I supposed to sustain my family with that?”
Prices of basic food products in Gaza have soared since the start of the war [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Imm Abdullah had come to the town’s market to try to buy food and some warmer clothes for herself and her grandchildren, as the weather had turned cold. But after visiting different stalls to look for basic food products, her exasperation bubbled over.
“I don’t believe the merchants when they say the prices are out of their control,” she said. “They can regulate prices and be considerate of the fact that we are going through exceptional times, which is not something they should take advantage of.”
She rattled off a list of products that are now unaffordable: Bottled water, which used to be 2 shekels ($0.50), is now 4 or 5 shekels ($0.80-$1). A carton of eggs is 45 shekels ($12). A kilo of salt, which used to be 1 shekel is now 12 ($3.20), while sugar is 25 shekels ($6.70).
“It’s so unfair,” Imm Abdullah said. “I can’t take it any more and some days I go sit by the sea and weep because I don’t know how to feed or sustain my family. Sometimes I wish we had stayed in our home and got bombed instead of going through this.”
Billions lost due to blockade
According to the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics, the poverty rate in the Gaza Strip has reached 53 percent, with one-third (33.7 percent) of Gaza residents living in extreme poverty.
Approximately 64 percent of households in Gaza are without enough food, and unemployment is at 47 percent – one of the highest rates in the world.
According to Elhasan Bakr, an economic analyst based in Gaza, the price distortion has led to inflation of between 300 and 2,000 percent for various products.
Even before October 7, a 17-year Israeli blockade on the coastal enclave had resulted in the loss of $35bn to the Palestinian economy.
“The latest Israeli aggression has been another nail in the coffin of Gaza’s economy,” Bakr told Al Jazeera. “The direct loss to the private sector has surpassed $3bn, while the indirect losses are more than $1.5bn.”
Elhasan Bakr, an economic analyst from the Gaza Strip [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
The agricultural sector, he added, has suffered a direct loss of $300m.
“This includes the uprooting and bulldozing of fruitful trees in the agricultural lands in the north and east near the Israeli fence, which means that it will be another few years before farmers can reap what they sow,” he explained.
“We are talking about a total paralysis of economic activity in Gaza. There are 65,000 economic facilities – ranging from the agricultural to the service industries – in the private sector which have been either destroyed or stopped working because of the war. This has resulted in a huge loss of jobs, which in turn leads to a complete lack of food security.”
Furthermore, the small amount of aid that has been allowed by Israel to enter Gaza is insufficient to cover the needs of the almost one million displaced people staying at UN schools for even one day.
“From October 22 to November 12 – in those 20 days – fewer than 1,100 trucks entered the Gaza Strip,” Bakr said. “Fewer than 400 of these trucks carried food products. Barely 10 percent of Gaza’s food sector needs are met. This is nowhere near enough, especially when you consider the fact that, before October 7, at least 500 trucks used to enter the Strip on a daily basis.”
The Gaza Strip, he added, would need 1,000 to 1,500 trucks a day to deliver the needs of the population of 2.3 million.
Mohammed Yasser Abu Amra (left) receives money from a shopper in the Deir el-Balah market [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
‘We had to walk past dead bodies to shop’
In the Deir el-Balah market, Mohammed Yasser Abu Amra stands over the bags of spices and grains that he sells each day that the truce lasts.
“The war has affected everything, from delivery costs to supplies,” the 28-year-old said. “Whatever I have now, once that is finished I won’t have the money to buy the same products because it’ll be more expensive, so that leaves me no choice but to raise prices to break even.”
The main reason for the price rises, he said, is the closure of the border crossings, which has led to wholesale merchants selling products to shopkeepers at much higher prices.
“Lentils used to be 2 shekels ($0.50) per kilo and we would sell it for 3 ($0.80),” Abu Amra said. “Now we buy it for 8 shekels ($2) and sell it for 10 ($2.60).”
A bag of fava beans used to be 70 shekels ($18) and is now priced at 150 shekels ($40), he added, while previously a bag of cornflour would be 90 shekels ($19) but is now 120 shekels ($32). Abu Amra’s neighbour, also a shopkeeper, lost his home and warehouse in an Israeli attack, resulting in the loss of $8,000 worth of produce.
Another shopper, Imm Watan Muheisan, said loudly – to the chagrin of nearby shopkeepers – that the current prices are “insane”.
“If you have 1,000 shekels ($270), you can only buy a handful of food items,” she snapped. “One kilo of potatoes is now 25 shekels ($6.70), it used to be three kilos for 5 shekels ($1.70).”
The mother of seven, who fled her home in the Shati (Beach) refugee camp east of Gaza City four weeks ago, is sheltering at the Deir el-Balah UN school for girls where, she said, she and her family are barely surviving.
“We walked here and had to pass by the dead bodies on the street,” she said. “We used to wear our best clothes to market… we’re not here to beg.”
Imm Watan Muheisan called the current prices of food products ‘insane’ [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
Black market prices take over
Ahmad Abulnaja, an 18-year-old shopkeeper, began selling clothes with his older cousin Ali at the beginning of the war. He agreed that wholesale merchants are behind the increase in prices.
“A tracksuit used to sell for 20 to 25 shekels ($5.30 – $6.70) but now it’s 45 ($12),” he said. “That is, the merchant I get my supplies from has raised the price because the supply is dwindling.”
Price hikes are more pronounced on food products rather than clothes, but the demand for clothes is also high as displaced people try to buy warm clothes with winter setting in. were forced to flee their homes in northern Gaza without bringing their possessions.
Abulnaja’s cousin, Ali, said he believed the informal prices will be around for a long time because the scale of destruction in Gaza is so immense and the demand for products shows no sign of abating.
“It’ll be a while before we have a solution,” he said. “Even if more products enter the Gaza Strip, there’s nothing to stop one merchant from selling a product at the price he sets, especially since northern Gaza is cut off from the rest of the Strip.”
There is also the issue of the lack of compensation for businesses, the economic analyst, Elhasan Bakr, said. He pointed to the fact that in the aftermath of previous Israeli wars on the enclave, donor aid has centred on rebuilding housing units, rather than supporting the economy.
According to UN estimates, the last four Israeli offensives on the Strip between 2009 and 2021 caused damage estimated at $5bn, but none of the damage in the 2014 and 2021 wars had been repaired.
Ali Abulnaja sells clothes in a stall in the Deir el-Balah marketplace [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera]
“We are talking about the devastation of the basic infrastructure which would need months to rebuild, from roads to communications towers to electricity installations and sanitary extensions,” Bakr said.
But until then, the Palestinian economy will not recover unless there is a huge international effort in aid, and poverty and unemployment levels will reach new record highs.
“Gaza at its present stage is unliveable,” Bakr said, adding that more than 300,000 people have lost their homes.
“We need a minimum of five years just to go back to where we were before the war started.”
The United States Department of Justice has announced charges against an Indian man accusing him of working for the Indian government to carry out the planned assassination of a Sikh separatist leader in New York.
The formal allegations on Wednesday, linking the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the attempted killing of US citizen Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, follow drips of leaks to newspapers referring to the case.
The suggestions from US officials that India might have been involved in an attempt at an extrajudicial killing on the soil of a friendly nation come six months after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused New Delhi of involvement in the assassination of another Sikh separatist leader, Hardeep Singh Nijjar, near Vancouver.
Here is all you need to know about the latest allegations.
What does the US indictment say?
The US Justice Department announced murder-for-hire and conspiracy charges against Indian national Nikhil Gupta, 52. Gupta is believed to be a resident of India.
Federal prosecutors describe Gupta as an associate of an Indian government agency employee identified only as “CC-1”. The employee, CC-1, has previously described himself as a senior field officer who works with security management and intelligence. CC-1, according to the indictment, previously worked with the Central Reserve Police Force, a leading Indian government paramilitary force.
The indictment alleges that CC-1 directed the murder plan from India and recruited Gupta around May 2023 to coordinate it.
CC-1 directed Gupta to contact a criminal associate to execute the murder. Gupta contacted someone he believed to be a criminal associate. But in reality, according to the Justice Department, the person Gupta hired was — unknown to him — a source working confidentially for US law enforcement. This source in turn connected him to a “hitman” who was actually an undercover law enforcement officer, working for the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).
Gupta agreed to pay the hitman $100,000 for the job, paying him an advance of $15,000 in cash in Manhattan around June 9.
Gupta was arrested and jailed by Czech authorities on June 30 and is awaiting extradition. If convicted, he can face a maximum sentence of 20 years. The federal district court will determine the sentence.
Justice Department Announces Charges in Connection with Foiled Plot to Assassinate U.S. Citizen in New York City
— National Security Division, U.S. Dept of Justice (@DOJNatSec) November 29, 2023
What has the Indian government said?
India’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Thursday said it was “contrary to government policy” to pursue extraterritorial assassinations.
On Wednesday, the Indian government said it would formally investigate the concerns and take necessary action on the findings of a panel set up on November 18. Bagchi did not elaborate on this investigation.
“We will continue to expect accountability from the government of India based on the results of their investigations,” said Adrienne Watson, spokesperson for the White House National Security Council.
Who is Pannun?
This indictment comes a week after reports first emerged that US authorities had thwarted a plot to kill a Sikh separatist leader in the US on November 22. This leader was identified as Gurpatwant Singh Pannun.
Pannun is an immigration lawyer and a dual citizen of the US and Canada. He is known for his social media advocacy through videos described as threatening towards Indian leaders or the government.
He has been charged with terrorism and conspiracy in India for being part of the movement that advocates for a separatist Sikh state. New Delhi listed him as an “individual terrorist” in 2020. In January 2021, during the farmers’ protest, India’s counterterrorism agency registered a case against him for inciting violence.
More recently, he released a threatening video warning people to stay away from Air India flights starting November 19. A plane from India’s national flag carrier was blown up midair by alleged Sikh separatists in 1985 while flying from Canada to India, killing more than 300 people.
On Wednesday, Pannun released a statement accusing Modi’s government of trying to kill him because he is organising a referendum among diaspora Sikhs on Khalistan, inviting the community worldwide to vote on whether Punjab should be independent. “If death is the cost for running the Khalistan Referendum, I am willing to pay that price,” he said.
“If Death Is The cost For Running the Khalistan Referendum, I Am Willing To Pay That Price”.
The assassination attempt on my life by India cannot deter me from organizing the voting for the independence referendum and I am moving forward with organizing the American Phase of… pic.twitter.com/5HjELsK53o
The Khalistan movement seeks to establish a separate Sikh state comprising Indian-held Punjab and other Punjabi-speaking regions in northern India. Khalistan is the name proposed for the state.
After gaining initial momentum in the 1970s, the movement died down in India after a brutal crackdown in the 1980s and 90s. However, the idea of a separate Sikh nation still enjoys some support among sections of Sikh diaspora communities, particularly in Canada, the US, the United Kingdom and Australia.
In recent months, prominent activists associated with the movement have died in Canada, the UK and Pakistan.
Is this connected to the Nijjar murder?
Sikh separatist leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar was shot outside a Sikh temple in Canada on June 18. He was also declared a terrorist by India three years ago.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau accused India of potential involvement in the killing of Nijjar, 45, sparking a diplomatic spat between Ottawa and New Delhi.
The indictment says that a day after Nijjar’s murder, Gupta told the undercover DEA agent that Nijjar was also a target, adding, “we have so many targets”.
Will the accusations affect India-US relations?
US President Joe Biden has already spoken to Modi about the allegations and top American diplomats and intelligence chiefs have discussed the case with their Indian counterparts.
The case in the US is expected to inject some tension into bilateral ties, but the fact that the Justice Department has not — so far at least — charged CC-1 or any other Indian government official will come as a relief to New Delhi.
The US views India as a vital bulwark in a coalition of democracies in the Indo-Pacific region that it hopes will allow it to challenge China’s rise.
Two gunmen were also killed by police shortly after opening fire on the crowd.
Three people have been killed and several wounded after two gunmen opened fire at a bus stop on the outskirts of Jerusalem, Israeli police said. The attackers were also killed.
Police said 16 people were injured in Thursday morning’s shooting. Emergency services evacuated eight of the more seriously wounded victims to nearby hospitals, the Israeli ambulance service said.
Police in West Jerusalem said the gunmen “arrived at the scene in a vehicle armed with firearms”, including an M16 and a pistol, and opened fire towards a crowd of civilians at the bus station.
The attackers, residents of East Jerusalem, were “subsequently neutralised by security forces and a nearby civilian”, police said.
Ammunition and weapons were found inside their car, they added.
Security camera footage aired by Israel’s Channel 12 television showed the moments of the attack. A white car is seen stopped beside a crowded bus stop. Two men then step out, guns drawn, and run at the crowd as people scatter. Shortly afterwards the attackers are gunned down.
The Magen David Adom emergency service said one of the victims was a 24-year-old woman. A 73-year-old man, who was in a critical condition, was pronounced dead at Shaare Zedek Medical Center. A third person also died of his wounds, Israeli media reported.
The ambulance service initially said that five of the wounded had serious injuries and two had moderate to light injuries.
The incident took place just as Israel and Hamas agreed to extend the truce for a seventh day, shortly before the agreement was set to expire.
Israel’s military said on Thursday that the temporary pause in fighting in the Gaza Strip will continue “in light of the mediators’ efforts to continue the process of releasing hostages, and subject to the terms of the agreement”.
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