Police Quickly Clear Pro-Palestinian Encampment Set up outside Los Angeles City Hall

A Palestinian man walks across the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip on June 3, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A Palestinian man walks across the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip on June 3, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
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Police Quickly Clear Pro-Palestinian Encampment Set up outside Los Angeles City Hall

A Palestinian man walks across the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip on June 3, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)
A Palestinian man walks across the rubble of destroyed buildings in the Jabalia refugee camp, in the northern Gaza Strip on June 3, 2024, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. (AFP)

An attempt by pro-Palestinian protesters to establish an encampment in front of Los Angeles City Hall was short-lived.

Protesters set up about 20 tents on sidewalks outside the downtown building Monday afternoon and the police department posted on social media site X that it was monitoring a “non-permitted demonstration.”

Officers moved in early Tuesday and cleared away the encampment without making any arrests, KABC-TV reported. The area was quiet during the morning rush hour.

In Pennsylvania, pro-Palestinian protesters left the University of Pittsburgh’s Cathedral of Learning early Tuesday after several demonstrators clashed with police. Some protesters wrestled officers over control of metal barriers and taunted them with derisive chants, and officers were seen throwing some protesters to the ground.

The conflict marked the second straight night of demonstrations. Most protesters had left the area by 2 a.m. Tuesday, after Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey and his representatives met with encampment members. No arrests were made during Monday night’s confrontations.

More than 3,000 people had been arrested on US campuses before summer break began last month, including protesters at the University of California's Los Angeles, San Diego and Irvine campuses.

The latest Israel-Hamas war began when Hamas and other militants stormed into southern Israel on Oct. 7, killing around 1,200 people and taking an additional 250 hostage.  

Palestinian militants still hold about 100 captives while Israeli bombardments and ground operations in Gaza have killed more than 36,000 Palestinians, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry, which does not distinguish between combatants and civilians.



NATO Command in Germany to Assist Ukraine Is up and Running, Says Rutte

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte holds a press conference, ahead of a meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels, Belgium October 16, 2024. (Reuters)
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte holds a press conference, ahead of a meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels, Belgium October 16, 2024. (Reuters)
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NATO Command in Germany to Assist Ukraine Is up and Running, Says Rutte

NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte holds a press conference, ahead of a meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels, Belgium October 16, 2024. (Reuters)
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte holds a press conference, ahead of a meeting of NATO Defense Ministers in Brussels, Belgium October 16, 2024. (Reuters)

A new NATO command in the German city of Wiesbaden has taken up its work to coordinate Western military aid for Ukraine, the alliance's Secretary-General Mark Rutte said on Wednesday.

The command takes over coordination of the aid from the United States, in a move widely seen as aiming to safeguard the support mechanism against NATO sceptic US President-elect Donald Trump.

"The NATO command in Wiesbaden for security assistance and training for Ukraine is now up and running", Rutte told reporters at NATO's headquarters in Brussels.

Trump, who will take office in January, has said he wants to end the war in Ukraine swiftly without elaborating how he aims to do so. He has long criticized the scale of US financial and military aid to Ukraine.

The headquarters of NATO's new Ukraine mission, dubbed NATO Security Assistance and Training for Ukraine (NSATU), is located at Clay Barracks, a US base in the German town of Wiesbaden.

The US-led Ramstein group of around 50 nations, an ad hoc coalition named after a US air base in Germany where it first met, has coordinated Western military supplies to Kyiv since 2022.

It will continue to exist as a political forum as NSATU assumes the military implementation of decisions taken there.

Diplomats, however, acknowledge that the handover to NATO may have a limited effect given that the United States under Trump could still deal a major setback to Ukraine by slashing its support, as it is the alliance's dominant power and provides the majority of arms to Kyiv.

NSATU is set to have around 700 personnel, including troops stationed at NATO's military headquarters SHAPE in Belgium and at logistics hubs in Poland and Romania.

Russia has condemned increases in Western military aid to Ukraine as risking a wider war.