Modi vince le elezioni, ultra-ortodossi a favore liberazione ostaggi 🗞️ Rassegna del 05/06/2024

Israele

(REUTERS) Netanyahu's ultra-Orthodox coalition partners back Gaza hostage deal

• Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's biggest coalition partner said on Tuesday it would support a prospective deal to free hostages from Hamas captivity even if it entails an overhaul of Israel's Gaza war strategy.
• The statement by Shas, an ultra-Orthodox Jewish party that holds 11 of parliament's 120 seats, followed similar remarks on Monday by Yitzhak Goldknopf, leader of the second such party in the coalition, United Torah Judaism, which has seven seats.
• "Our position is that there is nothing greater than the value of life and the commandment to redeem captives, because their lives face a real and present danger," Goldknopf, Israel's housing minister, said in a statement.
• Similarly citing a religious obligation, Shas pledged "full support" to the proposal. It encouraged Netanyahu and his war cabinet to "withstand all pressures for the end of returning the hostages".
• The combined support of the two parties - which hold 18 of the 72 seats controlled by Netanyahu's expanded emergency government - could help offset opposition by far-right partners to a U.S.-backed proposal for winding down the Gaza war.

(REUTERS) Israel nears decision on Lebanon border offensive, military chief of staff says

• Military Chief of General Staff Herzi Halevi said on Tuesday that Israel was ready for a military offensive along the northern border with Lebanon and that it was nearing a decision point.
• "We are prepared, following extensive training, for an offensive in the north," he said in a recorded statement. "We are nearing a decision point."

(REUTERS) Biden says Netanyahu could be prolonging Gaza war for political aims

• U.S. President Joe Biden said Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu may be stalling on ending the war in Gaza for political reasons, according to an interview with Time magazine released on Tuesday.
• The comments in the May 28 interview were made a few days before Biden detailed a proposal for a ceasefire in Gaza, and as the Israeli prime minister struggles with deep political divisions at home.
• Asked whether he thought Netanyahu was prolonging the war for his own political reasons, Biden said: "There is every reason for people to draw that conclusion."
• Israeli government spokesperson David Mencer, asked about the interview, said it was "outside the diplomatic norms of every right-thinking country" for Biden to make such comments about Netanyahu.

Europa

Georgia: 

(REUTERS) Georgia to move ahead soon with bill curbing LGBT rights

• Georgia's parliament will shortly begin debating a wide-ranging "family values" bill that will include bans on "LGBT propaganda" and gender reassignment surgery, the speaker of parliament was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
• The first of three required readings of the bill would take place in the current spring session of parliament, the Interpress news service quoted the speaker, Shalva Papuashvili, as saying.
• The ruling Georgian Dream party announced the bill in March, drawing condemnation from LGBT activists and human rights groups.
• The debate on it will take place at a moment of high political tension in the South Caucasus country after weeks of huge protests against a bill on "foreign agents" that was finally signed into law this week.
• The proposed measures are likely to fuel European Union and U.S. concerns about Georgia's political direction, following their criticism of the foreign agent law that critics see as Russian-inspired and repressive.

Politica internazionale

Asia e Pacifico

India:

(REUTERS) India’s Modi set to win historic third term but with surprisingly slim majority

• Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi looked set on Tuesday to retain power at the head of a ruling coalition but his Hindu nationalist party lost its outright majority for the first time in a decade as voters defied predictions of another landslide.
• The outcome unnerved investors, with stocks falling steeply as emerging results showed that Modi would, for the first time since sweeping to power in 2014, depend on at least three disparate regional parties whose political loyalties have wavered over the years.
• This, analysts say, could introduce some uncertainty into policymaking in the world's most populous democracy after a decade in which Modi has ruled with a strong hand.
• Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) won a majority on its own in 2014, ending India's era of unstable coalition governments, and repeated the feat in 2019.
• Modi said people had placed their faith in the BJP-led coalition for a third time and it was historic, in his first comments since counting of votes began.
• Promising to work harder and take "big decisions", Modi listed electronics, semiconductors and defence manufacturing, renewables and the farm sectors as areas of special focus in his third term, without elaborating.

Corea del Sud:

(Associated Press) South Korea is suspending a military deal with North Korea after tensions over trash balloons

• South Korea on Tuesday took steps to suspend a contentious military agreement with North Korea and resume frontline military activities, as tensions between the rivals are rising over the North’s recent launch of trash-carrying balloons.
• North Korea didn’t immediately respond, but South Korea’s resumption of firing exercises or propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts will likely prompt North Korea to take similar or stronger steps along the rivals’ tense border.
• In the past week, North Korea has used balloons to drop manure, cigarette butts, scraps of cloth and waste paper on South Korea, prompting Seoul to vow “unbearable” retaliation. On Sunday, North Korea said it would halt its balloon campaign.
• On Tuesday, South Korea’s Cabinet Council and President Yoon Suk Yeol approved a proposal to suspend the 2018 inter-Korean agreement on lowering frontline military tensions. It will take effect once Seoul formally notifies the North.
• South Korean officials said the suspension of the 2018 deal would allow it to stage frontline military drills but didn’t publicly elaborate on other steps. Observers say South Korea was considering restarting frontline propaganda loudspeaker broadcasts, a Cold War-style psychological campaign that experts say has stung in rigidly controlled North Korea, whose 26 million people are mostly not allowed access to foreign news.The 2018 deal was already in limbo after the two Koreas took some steps in breach of it amid tensions over North Korea’s spy satellite launch last November.