Israel passes law legalizing thousands of settlement homes
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel’s parliament on Monday passed a contentious law meant to retroactively legalize thousands of West Bank settlement homes built unlawfully on private Palestinian land, a step that is expected to trigger international outrage and a flurry of lawsuits against the measure.
The explosive law is the latest in a series of pro-settler steps taken by Israel’s hard-line government since the election of Donald Trump as U.S. president. He is seen as more sympathetic to Israel’s settlement policies than his fiercely critical predecessor, and the Israeli government has approved plans to build thousands of new homes on occupied territory since Trump took office.
“We are voting tonight on our right to the land,” Cabinet minister Ofir Akunis said during a stormy debate ahead of the vote. “We are voting tonight on the connection between the Jewish people and its land. This whole land is ours. All of it.”
Critics say the legislation enshrines into law the theft of Palestinian land, and it is expected to be challenged in Israel’s Supreme Court. According to the law, Palestinian landowners would be compensated either with money or alternative land, even if they did not agree to give up their property.
The vote passed 60-52 in Israel’s 120-member Knesset following a raucous debate in which opposition lawmakers shouted from their seats at governing coalition lawmakers speaking in favor of the vote from the dais. Some legislators supportive of the law took pictures of the plenum during the vote while some spectators in visitors’ seats raised black cloth in apparent protest.
Meteor lights up sky in several states
GREEN BAY, Wis. (AP) — A meteor over Lake Michigan lit up the sky Monday morning across several states in the Midwest.
Dashcam video from police cruisers in Wisconsin and Illinois captured the fireball streaking through the dark sky about 1:30 a.m. In addition to Illinois and Wisconsin, the American Meteor Society lists sightings in Indiana, Michigan and other states as well.
Meteorologist Jeff Last of the National Weather Service’s office in Green Bay, Wisconsin, says the meteor was accompanied by a sonic boom that shook houses in the region.
Last says radar shows the meteor passing over Lake Michigan, but he said it’s not clear if it landed in the water or if it broke up in the sky.
Trump: Allow those into US who ‘want to love our country’
MACDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump vowed Monday to allow only people who “want to love our country” into the United States, defending his immigration and refugee restrictions as he made his first visit to the headquarters for U.S. Central Command.
Trump reaffirmed his support for NATO before military leaders and troops and laced his speech with references to homeland security amid a court battle over his travel ban on people from seven majority-Muslim countries. He did not directly mention the case now before a federal appeals court after a lower court temporarily suspended the ban.
“We need strong programs” so that “people that love us and want to love our country and will end up loving our country are allowed in” and those who “want to destroy us and destroy our country” are kept out, Trump said.
“Freedom, security and justice will prevail,” Trump added. “We will defeat radical Islamic terrorism and we will not allow it to take root in our country. We’re not going to allow it.”
Trump touched upon various alliances in his remarks, noting, “we strongly support NATO.”
Syrian rebels and insurgents battle in split over peace push
BEIRUT (AP) — Syria’s ragtag rebel groups and insurgents trying to oust President Bashar Assad have turned their guns on each other in some of the worst infighting yet, with al-Qaida-linked fighters battling other factions in a split between supporters and opponents of the Russian-led push for a new peace process for the war-torn country.
The clashes — mainly in opposition-held areas in northern Syria — have led to the formation of two new coalitions but have also raised the specter of more fractures among rebel factions, already struggling to recover from their December loss of the eastern half of the city of Aleppo to Assad’s forces.
At the root of the infighting is a call that came at the end of the peace talks last month in the Kazakh capital of Astana. Russia, Turkey and Iran — sponsors of the gathering — urged Syria’s rebels to dissociate themselves from al-Qaida’s affiliate in Syria, now known as the Fatah al-Sham Front.
The Astana meeting was designed to pave the way for political talks to be held in Geneva in late February but it also marked a new push in efforts to resolve Syria’s conflict, with Russia and Iran, Assad’s main supporters, and Turkey, the rebels’ chief backer, pledging to put their influence behind the truce. The United States, busy with the presidential transition, played no significant role in Astana.
The Fatah al-Sham Front, previously called the Nusra Front, has been excluded from all negotiations and cease-fires, along with the Islamic State group — both considered by the international community to be terrorist organizations.
Tech cos. take stand against travel ban, risking backlash
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Through a Super Bowl ad, public statements and court filings, Silicon Valley’s biggest companies are taking a strong stand against President Donald Trump’s travel ban, saying high tech needs immigrants’ creativity and energy to stay competitive.
Although the companies are risking a backlash from customers who side with Trump, they say the pushback is necessary for an industry dependent on thousands of highly skilled foreign workers.
About 58 percent of the engineers and other high-skill employees in Silicon Valley were born outside the U.S., according to the Silicon Valley Leadership Group, an industry trade group.
“Immigration and innovation go hand in hand,” said Carl Guardino, the group’s CEO. “This cuts so deeply into the bone and marrow of what fuels the innovation economy that very few CEOs feel the luxury of sitting on the sidelines. So people are going to stand up and speak up.”
The tech industry contends there aren’t enough Americans with the specialized skills these companies need. Though critics contend that companies favor immigrants because they can pay them less, tech companies argue that the ban would pressure them to move some operations abroad.
Romania PM: I may fire justice minister over graft decree
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania’s prime minister said Monday he may fire the justice minister for mishandling a contentious decree that has sparked the country’s largest anti-government protests since communism ended.
Premier Sorin Grindeanu said the emergency decree to decriminalize some official misconduct approved by his cabinet last week had “led to division” among Romanians. Grindeanu suggested Justice Minister Florin Iordache may lose his job over the move within days.
Although the government repealed the measure Sunday, the unrest its move sparked continued Monday. Thousands of people gathered outside the government offices for the seventh consecutive evening, yelling “Resignation!” and waving Romanian flags.
Elsewhere, hundreds of government supporters gathering outside the presidential palace in the Romanian capital blaming President Klaus Iohannis for the crisis. The president has strongly opposed the ordinance.
Anti-government protester Sebastian Moruga, a Bucharest resident who worked in England for 12 years, said he wanted change.
