Middle East & North Africa

New Delhi, Mar 20 (PTI) The Congress on Wednesday attacked the government over a report on income and wealth inequalities in India over a century, alleging that "Narendra Modi's Billionaire Raj" is now more unequal than even the British Raj.

Party general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said that on March 18, leading global economists, including Thomas Piketty, published the report titled "Income and Wealth Inequality in India, 1922-2023: The Rise of the Billionaire Raj." with some extremely concerning findings.

18 March 2024; MEMO: Israel has lost its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip, a former Israeli military commander said yesterday.

“You can’t lie to many people for a long time,” Yitzhak Brick, a former major general, said in an article in Maariv newspaper, according to Anadolu.

“What is happening in the Gaza Strip and against Hezbollah in Lebanon will blow up in our faces sooner or later,” he warned.

18 March 2024; MEMO: Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor has documented the Israeli occupation’s “systematic” targeting of dozens of programmers and IT experts, alongside the destruction of their company headquarters as part of its genocide in the Gaza Strip.

18 March 2024; MEMO: Hamas is “part of the Palestinian national fabric” and China is keen on relations with it, Beijing’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs envoy, Wang Kejian, said yesterday.

This came during Kejian’s meeting with the head of Hamas’ Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in the presence of the Chinese Ambassador to Qatar, Cao Xiaolin, according to a statement by the movement.

Israeli National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir demanded that Jews storm Al-Aqsa Mosque in the last ten days of Ramadan, according to Israeli media reports.

Israel’s Channel 13 reported that “Ben-Gvir demanded abolishing the well-known policy in Israel and allowing Jews to storm Al-Aqsa Mosque during the last ten days of Ramadan.”

It revealed that security officials were informed of Ben-Gvir’s request before the Council of Ministers discuss this matter over the next two weeks.

19 March 2024; MEMO: A senior Palestinian police officer was killed by Israeli forces in the northern Gaza Strip yesterday, the Government Media Office said, Anadolu reported.

19 March 2024; MEMO: The leader of the opposition in Israel, Yair Lapid, yesterday called on the Knesset to vote in favour of withdrawing confidence from the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Lapid described Netanyahu’s government as “most insane government in the country’s history.”

19 March 2024; MEMO: The Algerian presidency yesterday said President Abdelmadjid Tebboune congratulated his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, on his re-election.

No further details were given on the matter.

The Russian Central Election Commission had announced yesterday that Putin won the presidential elections with 87.28 per cent of the votes after all ballots were counted.

19 March 2024; MEMO: Russian President Vladimir Putin and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman yesterday expressed their willingness to continue developing friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries and coordination in OPEC+.

19 March 2024; MEMO: In a first since 7 October, a Chinese Foreign Ministry envoy met with the head of Hamas’ Political Bureau, Ismail Haniyeh, in Qatar, Beijing said today.

In a brief statement, the Foreign Ministry said Ambassador Wang Kejian met with Haniyeh on Sunday and the pair “exchanged views on the Gaza conflict and other issues.”