LONDON (Middle East Eye) – The Federation of Student Islamic Societies (Fosis), the national body for Muslim students in Britain, has threatened to launch a disaffiliation campaign against the National Union of Students (NUS) after the NUS suspended its president-elect, Shaima Dallali. Earlier this year, Jewish students accused Dallali of anti-Semitism and homophobia over old tweets she posted. Dallali denied the claims and welcomed the QC-led investigation into her actions. But following a leaked report that the NUS had suspended an elected president for the first time in its one-hundred-year history, Fosis said it would urge its members to launch disaffiliation campaigns across the UK against the national body. In a statement, Fosis said the NUS had a track record of failing to help Muslim students acting in elected positions within the organization and student unions across the country. “For many years, Fosis has dealt with troubling cases of Islamophobia experienced by Islamic Societies, Muslim sabbatical officers and the wider Muslim student community in both Higher and Further Education,” Fosis said in a statement. “This active targeting of Muslim students through a systematic pattern of over-scrutiny, bad faith allegations and subjugation to a disproportionate level of disciplinaries using Islamophobic tropes reflects prejudice and endemic bigotry that spans the entire educational journey of Muslim students.”

 

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MOGADISHU (Al Jazeera) – Al-Shabab militants have killed at least 18 civilians and destroyed trucks laden with food aid in an overnight attack in Somalia’s central region. The armed group launched the attack in the Hiran area in the semi-autonomous state of Hirshabelle in central Somalia. The trucks were transporting food supplies from Baladweyne city to Mahas town, residents said on Saturday. “Al-Shabab killed 18 civilians and burnt … several trucks of relief food heading to Mahas town last night,” said Farah Aden, a local elder. State news agency Sonna reported that al-Shabab militants set fire to the trucks and “killed most of the people on board the vehicles”. Aden said armed residents chased the attackers from the area last week but the government did not send troops to help prevent them from returning. “Al-Shabab is doing all these things in order to make us surrender. But we shall never surrender to al-Shabab as long as there is soul in us. Government forces have not reached the scene yet,” Aden said.

 

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MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Eight migrants died and 37 were rescued as they tried to cross the rain-swollen Rio Grande River into the United States near Eagle Pass, Texas, U.S. customs officials say. Border patrol agents, along with local fire and police agencies, were searching for possible additional victims a day after the incident, said Customs and Border Protection spokesman Rick Pauza. A total of 53 migrants were taken into custody by U.S. border patrol agents on Thursday, including the 37 rescued from the river, Pauza said. Mexican government authorities arrested 39 people. The Rio Grande swelled in recent days due to unusually heavy rains that flooded the streets of Piedras Negras, Mexico.

 

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COLOMBO (AFP) – Sri Lanka’s deposed President Gotabaya Rajapaksa has returned to the country from self-imposed exile and is now facing arrest warrants. Rajapaksa fled the island nation in July after months of popular protests against the economic and living conditions in Sri Lanka, which eventually led to a massive influx of people to his official residence. The 73-year-old announced his resignation from Singapore and spent weeks under virtual house arrest in a Bangkok hotel after being asked by the city authorities not to leave the hotel for his personal safety. Rajapaksa then lobbied his successor to allow him to return to the country. Leaders of the protest campaign that brought down his government said Rajapaksa, who has lost his presidential immunity since leaving power, should now be brought to justice. “Gotabaya returned because no country is willing to accept him, he has no place to hide,” Joseph Stalin, the leader of a teachers’ trade union that helped mobilize demonstrators, told AFP. “He should be arrested immediately for causing such misery for the 22 million people of Sri Lanka. He should be prosecuted for his crimes.”

  

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ISLAMABAD (AP) — Pakistan appealed Saturday to the international community for an “immense humanitarian response” to unprecedented flooding that has left at least 1,265 people dead. The request came even as planes carried supplies to the impoverished country across a humanitarian air bridge. Federal planning minister Ahsan Iqbal called for an “immense humanitarian response for 33 million people” affected by monsoon rains that triggered devastating floods. International attention to Pakistan’s plight has increased as the number of fatalities and homeless have risen. According to initial government estimates, the rain and flooding have caused $10 billion in damage. “The scale of devastation is massive and requires an immense humanitarian response for 33 million people. For this I appeal to my fellow Pakistanis, Pakistan expatriates and the international community to help Pakistan in this hour of need,” he said at a news conference. Multiple officials and experts have blamed the unusual monsoon rains and flooding on climate change, including UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who earlier this week called on the world to stop “sleepwalking” through the deadly crisis. He will visit Pakistan on Sept. 9 to tour flood-hit areas and meet with officials.

 

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UNITED NATIONS (AP) – Russia’s UN ambassador says it’s “alarming” that less than three weeks before the annual meeting of world leaders at the UN General Assembly not a single member of the 56-member Russian advance team and delegation headed by Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has received a U.S. entry visa. Vassily Nebenzia said in a letter to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres obtained Friday night by The Associated Press that “this is even more alarming since for the last several months the authorities of the United States have been constantly refusing to grant entry visas to a number of Russian delegates assigned to take part in the official United Nations events.” The Russian ambassador stressed that the United States, as the host country of the United Nations, is legally required to issue visas, adding that application to attend the high-level UN meetings starting Sept. 19 had been submitted to the U.S. Embassy in Moscow. Nebenzia asked Guterres “to once again emphasize to the authorities of the United States that they must promptly issue requested visas for all Russian delegates and accompanying persons,” including journalists covering Lavrov’s visit.