Israel gives OK to law that strips citizenship from Arab attackers
JERUSALEM — Israel’s parliament on Wednesday overwhelmingly approved a law to strip Arabs convicted in nationalistic attacks of their Israeli citizenship or residency and deport them if they have accepted stipends from the Palestinian Authority.
The decision, which could affect hundreds of Palestinian citizens and residents of Israel, was condemned as racist by Arab lawmakers as well as Palestinian officials in the occupied West Bank.
The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority has long provided stipends to the families of Palestinians killed or imprisoned for attacks on Israelis. Prisoners are widely seen as heroes in Palestinian society, and the PA considers these payments as a form of welfare to needy families. But Israel says they reward violence and serve as an incentive for others to carry out attacks.
Roughly 4,700 Palestinians are imprisoned by Israel for alleged security offenses, according to Israeli rights group HaMoked. Of those, roughly 360 are Israeli citizens or residents of east Jerusalem, which was captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and subsequently annexed.
Though Israel considers all of Jerusalem to be its undivided capital, its annexation of the eastern part of the city is not internationally recognized. Most Palestinians in Jerusalem have Israeli residency rights, which allow them to work and travel freely and provide access to Israeli social services, but not full citizenship, which would allow them to vote.
In Wednesday’s vote, parliament voted 94-10 in favor of the law, which gives authorities the right to strip people of their citizenship or residency and deport them to either the neighboring West Bank or Gaza Strip.
The Palestinian Authority has limited autonomy in parts of the West Bank, where Israel wields overall control. The Gaza Strip, meanwhile, is controlled by the Hamas militant group and largely closed by an Israeli-Egyptian blockade.
“It is inconceivable that Israeli citizens and residents who have not only betrayed the state and Israeli society, but have also agreed to receive payment from the PA as wages for committing the act of terrorism and continue to benefit from it — will continue to hold Israeli citizenship or residency status,” says an explanatory note to the bill.
A portion of the main freeway that runs through the southern Arizona desert and links the state’s two largest cities remained closed outside Tucson Wednesday morning, a day after a deadly crash caused a hazardous material leak and forced evacuations.
Residents within a halfmile of the crash on Interstate 10 near downtown Tucson were ordered to leave, and those within 3 miles were told to shelter in place after liquid nitric acid was determined to be leaking from a truck pulling a box trailer, the Arizona Department of Public Safety said.
A 1-mile shelter-in-place order was lifted Tuesday night but reinstated early Wednesday morning, saying more nitric acid was released as crews tried to remove the load and later expanded the perimeter.
The driver of the truck was killed, the department said, but few other details were released.
Nitric acid is used in making ammonium nitrate for
Hazardous spill:
fertilizers and in the manufacture of plastics and dyes.
China balloon: China said Wednesday it will take measures against U.S. entities related to the downing of a suspected Chinese spy balloon this month off the coast of South Carolina.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin gave no details and did not identify the targets of the measures.
China says the balloon was an unmanned weather airship accidentally blown off course, and accuses the U.S. of overreacting in bringing it down with a missile fired from an F-22 fighter jet.
After initially expressing regret over the balloon’s entry into U.S. airspace, China has returned spying accusations against Washington, alongside its threats of retaliation.
“China firmly opposes this and will take countermeasures in accordance with the law against the relevant U.S. entities that undermine China’s sovereignty and security,” Wang said Wednesday, adding that China will “resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and its legitimate rights and interests.”
Scottish leader quitting:
Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon said Wednesday that she plans to step down after more than eight years in office, amid criticism of her drive to expand transgender rights and her strategy for achieving independence from the United Kingdom.
Sturgeon made the surprise announcement in Edinburgh, saying the decision wasn’t a response to the “latest period of pressure.”
Sturgeon, 52, has led Scotland since 2014, when Scots voted to remain part of the United Kingdom. While the referendum was billed as a once-in-a-generation decision on independence, Sturgeon and her Scottish National Party have pushed for a new vote, arguing that Britain’s departure from the European Union had changed the ground rules.
The U.K. government has refused to allow a second referendum.
Trump lawsuit: Former President Donald Trump missed a chance to use his DNA to try to prove he didn’t rape a longtime magazine columnist, a federal judge said Wednesday.
Judge Lewis Kaplan rejected the offer by Trump’s legal team to provide a DNA sample to rebut claims E. Jean Carroll first made in a 2019 book.
Kaplan said that lawyers for Trump and Carroll had over three years to make DNA an issue in the case and that both chose not to do so.
He said it would almost surely delay the trial scheduled to start April 25 to reopen the DNA issue four months after the deadline passed to litigate concerns over trial evidence and just weeks before trial.
Carroll’s lawyers have sought Trump’s DNA sample for three years to compare it with stains found on the dress Carroll wore the day she says Trump raped her in an upscale Manhattan department store dressing room in late 1995 or early 1996. Trump has denied knowing Carroll.
Opioid antidote: The overdose-reversing drug naloxone should be made available over the counter to aid the national response to the opioid crisis, U.S. health advisers said Wednesday.
The expert panel to the Food and Drug Administration voted unanimously in favor of the switch after a day of presentations centered on whether untrained users would be able to safely and effectively use the nasal spray in emergency situations.
The FDA will make a final decision on the drug in coming weeks.
The potential move represents the latest government effort to increase use of a medication that has been a key tool in the battle against the U.S. overdose epidemic that kills more than 100,000 people annually.