Kuwait’s Interior Minister Faces Second Vote of Confidence

Kuwait’s Interior Minister Faces Second Vote of Confidence
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Kuwait’s Interior Minister Faces Second Vote of Confidence

Kuwait’s Interior Minister Faces Second Vote of Confidence

Kuwaiti Speaker Marzouq Ali al-Ghanim announced that 10 lawmakers submitted a request for a vote of confidence against Interior Minister Anas Saleh. The session also included another grilling motion against Minister of Education and Higher Education Saud al-Harbi.

This is the second grilling request in less than two weeks against Saleh, after the National Assembly discussed in its regular session another one submitted by MP Mohammed Hayef.

The Speaker clarified that the voting session on the two ministers' confidence motion will be held in a special session on September 10.

The National Assembly approved the request of the Prime Minister Sheikh Sabah Khaled al-Sabah to postpone his grilling by MPs Abdulkarim al-Kanderi and al-Humaidi al-Subaie.

The parliament approved 15 September as the date for the grilling.

The assembly began to discuss the questioning submitted by MP Muhammad Hayef against Saleh, who is also the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs.

MP Khalid al-Otaibi called upon the Interior Minister to resign, noting that over a thousand files are missing from the State Security, which may be related to the Malaysian Fund case.

Lawmaker Ali al-Deqbasi opposed the questioning, asserting that the Minister is paying the price for the bold measures he took.

In August, the parliament rejected a no-confidence vote against Saleh, after the motion was opposed by 35 MPs and supported by 13, of the total 48 lawmakers present during the session.

The vote came regarding the 2018 “leaked recordings” issue, which created a massive public uproar in the country after discovering that personal accounts of prominent public figures, among them lawmakers and journalists, were being monitored.

In addition, three lawmakers began a grilling against the Minister of Education and Minister of Higher Education.

Two grilling motions, one from MP al-Humaidi al-Subai and the other from MPs Khalil Abul and Ouda al-Ruwaiee were combined into one and the minister was answering them.

Subai accused Harbi of failing to abide by regulations of Council of Ministers and Civil Services Commission (CSC) regarding the priority of employment for Kuwaiti citizens. He also accused the Minister of failing to adopt proper decisions during the coronavirus pandemic crisis.

Abul and Ruwaiee claimed that Harbi stalled the implementation of online education, mismanagement, and undermining the private education system.

They also accused the minister of adopting decisions without considering quality criteria, delay in announcing scholarships, as well as failing to issue university degrees for stateless students despite completing their studies.



Stormy Weather Sweeps Away Tents Belonging to Displaced People in Gaza

Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Stormy Weather Sweeps Away Tents Belonging to Displaced People in Gaza

Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
Displaced Palestinians stand in front of tents along an inundated passage, following heavy rainfall north of Deir al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on November 24, 2024, amid the ongoing war between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

Weather is compounding the challenges facing displaced people in Gaza, where heavy rains and dropping temperatures are making tents and other temporary shelters uninhabitable.

Government officials in the Hamas-controlled coastal enclave said on Monday that nearly 10,000 tents had been swept away by flooding over the past two days, adding to their earlier warnings about the risks facing those sheltering in low-lying floodplains, including areas designated as humanitarian zones.

Um Mohammad Marouf, a mother who fled bombardments in northern Gaza and now is sheltering with her family in a Gaza City tent said the downpour had covered her children and left everyone wet and vulnerable.

“We have nothing to protect ourselves,” she said outside the United Nations-provided tent where she lives with 10 family members.

Marouf and others living in rows of cloth and nylon tents hung their drenched clothing on drying lines and re-erected their tarpaulin walls on Monday.

Officials from the Hamas-run government said that 81% of the 135,000 tents appeared unfit for shelter, based on recent assessments, and blamed Israel for preventing the entry of additional needed tents. They said many had been swept away by seawater or were inadequate to house displaced people as winter sets in.

The UNestimates that around 90% of Gaza's population of 2.3 million people have been displaced, often multiple times, and hundreds of thousands are living in squalid tent camps with little food, water or basic services. Israeli evacuation warnings now cover around 90% of the territory.

“The first rains of the winter season mean even more suffering. Around half a million people are at risk in areas of flooding. The situation will only get worse with every drop of rain, every bomb, every strike,” UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, wrote in a statement on X on Monday.