World
Dutch 'adopt' fallen US soldiers to mark 80 years since liberation
![Dutch 'adopt' fallen US soldiers to mark 80 years since liberation Dutch 'adopt' fallen US soldiers to mark 80 years since liberation](https://static.euronews.com/articles/stories/08/72/42/48/1200x675_cmsv2_9cb0c657-76b8-56a1-a49d-6deddb3a068a-8724248.jpg)
The Netherlands is commemorating the 80th anniversary of the beginning of its liberation from Nazi Occupation with a concert at a burial ground for American and Allied troops.
The Netherlands is marking the 80th anniversary of the start of its liberation from Nazi Germany with a concert at a graveyard for the American soldiers who died during the fighting.
Near the Netherlands’ American Cemetery, just outside the village of Margraten, locals have vowed to never forget the American and Allied soldiers who gave their lives fighting Nazi Germany and helping to liberate the regions from Nazi occupation.
The hallowed burial ground in Margraten serves as the setting to commemorate their deaths — with hundreds of people choosing to “adopt” one of the 8,288 Americans buried there.
The act of remembrance started almost as soon as the war ended and continues to this day.
People who adopt a grave visit it regularly and leave flowers or reach out to the families of the dead in the US.
Watch more in the player above.
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World
Sri Lanka's opposition leader says the rich will pay more if he becomes president next week
COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) — Sri Lanka’s opposition leader contesting the presidential election next week said Thursday that if he comes to power he will renegotiate with the International Monetary Fund the 2022 economic reforms package to ensure that the rich pay more taxes and the poor see their conditions improve. The reforms were introduced after Sri Lanka defaulted on its foreign debt creating the worst economic crisis in its history.
Sajith Premadasa, the opposition leader in Parliament told The Associated Press in an interview that his party has already started discussions with the IMF to find ways to ease the tax burden on the people.
“We will be embarking on the third path, the middle path, the path is where wealth is created, the country grows and the wealth is equitably distributed,” Premadasa said.
He said there needs to be “fundamental changes” to the current agreement between the IMF and Sri Lanka’s government but those should be in a more “humanistic manner” to ensure that the burden on the people is lessened.
“And if there are burdens that have to be imposed, the super-rich and the rich have to disproportionately take a bigger share of the burden rather than the working men and women of Sri Lanka.”
Sri Lanka is in the middle of reforms and a debt restructuring program under an IMF agreement whereby taxes have been increased to boost state revenue. After the island nation defaulted on its foreign debt in 2022, borrowing was reduced and the printing of new currency notes was stopped by law.
Over 50 countries go to the polls in 2024
The opposition parties say however that many of the wealthy and those with connections with the authorities don’t pay their taxes and the burden is borne by the middle classes and the poor through income taxes and value-added tax on goods and services.
The presidential election on September 21 is seen as a referendum on the reforms initiated by President Ranil Wickremesinghe. They have improved key economic figures, but their effects have yet to reach many ordinary people.
Premadasa criticized Wickremesinghe’s economic policies saying that he is trying to find solutions through contraction. Premadasa said his policy is to “grow out of the problem” through an export-oriented, knowledge-based economy.
Premadasa, 57, is the son of a former president late Ranasinghe Premadasa who was assassinated by an ethnic Tamil separatist suicide bomber in 1993.
He also contested the presidential election in 2019 and lost to Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was forced to flee after two years amid angry protests against the country’s economic meltdown.
Unsustainable debt, a severe balance of payments crisis, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, and the government’s spending of scarce foreign reserves to prop up the country’s currency, the rupee, led to a severe shortage of foreign currency and essentials such as fuel, medicine, cooking gas and food in 2022.
It sparked riots, forcing Rajapaksa to flee the country and later resign. Sri Lanka’s parliament elected Wickremesinghe as president to cover Rajapaksa’s remaining time.
Wickremesinghe is also contesting the election and is seeking approval for his economic agenda, promising rapid growth with an ambitious target of making Sri Lanka a developed nation by the centenary of its independence in 2048.
Inflation dropped to 0.5% last month from 70% two years ago under Wickremesinghe’s administration. Interest rates have also come down, the rupee has rebounded, and foreign currency reserves have increased. Creditor countries such as India, Japan and France have agreed to defer debt repayments until 2028, giving the island nation space to rebuild its economy.
But professionals have been complaining of high taxes and all especially the poor have been affected by high living costs.
Premadasa is one of the three leading candidates, from a total of 38, and is supported by many ethnic and religious minority groups.
Premadasa said that he would prosecute those in the Rajapaksa administration who ordered cremating the dead bodies of Muslim COVID-19 victims, ignoring their religious sentiments at the height of the pandemic and pay compensation to their families.
Authorities then had mandated cremation of the COVID-19 victims citing health and soil experts who had cautioned that the deadly virus could contaminate ground water.
Premadasa however called it a “racist policy.”
Premadasa also said that he would allow maximum devolution of power to the ethnic Tamil majority in the northern and eastern provinces, a long-standing demand from the community. He also promised to call an international donor conference to help rebuild areas affected by a 26-year separatist civil war in those provinces.
The war killed at least 100,000 people.
Premadasa also said he would bring closure to the issue of forcible disappearances and those who went missing in action.
World
Harris' support for Palestinian state rewards terrorism, experts warn
![Harris' support for Palestinian state rewards terrorism, experts warn Harris' support for Palestinian state rewards terrorism, experts warn](https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/09/Natanyahu-Harris-Abbas.jpg)
JERUSALEM — Vice President Harris’ endorsement of a Palestinian state during and prior to her debate with former President Trump would further destabilize the Middle East and bring about additional terrorism, according to Israeli and American experts.
During Tuesday’s presidential debate on ABC, the Democrat presidential candidate reiterated her support for a two-state solution: “I will always give Israel the ability to defend itself, in particular as it relates … to Iran and any threat that Iran and its proxies pose to Israel. But we must have a two-state solution where we can rebuild Gaza, where the Palestinians have security, self-determination and the dignity they so rightly deserve.”
The two-state solution means an independent Palestinian state on Israel’s borders that encompasses the West Bank territory (known in Israel by its biblical name of Judea and Samaria) and the Gaza Strip. Biden faced intense criticism in February for ignoring the outbreak of Palestinian terrorism in Judea and Samaria while singling out Israeli residents of the region for sanctions.
WITNESS TO TERRORISM: HOW HAMAS RADICALIZED PALESTINIANS FOR THEIR GENOCIDAL ATTACK ON ISRAEL
Vice President Harris speaks during the presidential debate in Philadelphia on Sept. 10, 2024. (Doug Mills/New York Times/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Trump’s former ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, told Fox News Digital, “After Oct. 7th, the two-state became a dead letter. A Palestinian state between Israel and Jordan will destabilize both countries and bring only additional terror and misery.”
Friedman, who authored the new book, “One Jewish State: The Last, Best Hope to Resolve the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict,” added, “Vice President Harris should stop parroting failed theories and trying to force a square peg into a round hole. She should empower Israel to reach a just and workable solution on its own and not interfere in matters where she is neither competent nor well-informed.”
In early September, Friedman blasted Biden on Fox News’ “Your World” for creating rifts within Israeli society.
![Kamala Harris Benjamin Netanyahu](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/07/1200/675/netanyahu-harris.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Vice President Harris at the White House on July 25, 2024. (Amos Ben-Gershom (GPO)/Handout/Anadolu/via Getty Images)
Jonathan Conricus, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies who served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for 24 years as a combat commander and spokesperson, told Fox News Digital, “The so-called two-state solution may have been possible to implement 31 years ago, but four straight Palestinian rejections of Israeli peace offers have made it clear that the current Palestinian leadership does not aspire to end the conflict and achieve peace. Palestinian rejectionism has also eroded the political support for the peace process in Israel, since it has become abundantly clear that the Palestinian leadership does not seek peace.”
EXTREMISTS RISE IN NEW PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY GOVERNMENT AS BIDEN THREATENS ISRAEL OVER GAZA WAR
![A home destroyed during conflict.](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/10/1200/675/GettyImages-1753508944.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
This image shows the remains of a home in Kibbutz Nir Oz, Israel. (Kobi Wolf/Bloomberg via Getty Images/File)
According to Conricus, “Polling of the Palestinian population in Gaza and Palestinian Authority-controlled areas shows clear popular Palestinian support for Hamas, signaling that the Palestinian population supports the genocidal vision of annihilating Israel through jihad, as demonstrated by Hamas on Oct. 7. Global leaders would do well to listen to the two parties to the conflict to understand how the situation has changed and adapt diplomatic solutions to current possibilities. And whatever the outcome of the Oct. 7 war that Hamas waged against Israel, giving Hamas the ultimate prize of statehood would be devastating for regional stability and peace and for American global standing. Terror must not be awarded with statehood.”
![Mahmoud Abbas, Shireen Abu Akleh, journalist, IDF, Palestinians](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2018/09/1200/675/mideast-palestinians-_jord.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
A Palestinian installs national flags above the poster of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank city of Nablus on Sept. 30, 2015. (AP Photo/Majdi Mohammed)
Joel Rubin, former deputy assistant secretary of state and Democrat strategist, told Fox News Digital, “The two-state solution is on life support right now, but just because this is a difficult moment to envision a peaceful endgame between Israel and the Palestinians that’s rooted in diplomatic compromise, that does not mean it should not be the goal. After all, Israel fought multiple existential wars with Egypt and then, only years after the Yom Kippur War, concluded a peace deal that has held and provided Israel with deep security along its southern border for more than four decades. That is what a two-state solution is all about: Ending the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians in a manner that provides stability and security for the long haul.”
NETANYAHU HITS BACK OVER GLOBAL PRESSURE TO MAKE CEASE-FIRE CONCESSSIONS, SAYS DEMANDS ARE ‘IMMORAL’, ‘INSANE’
![A Palestinian fighter from the armed wing of Hamas takes part in a military parade](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2024/06/1200/675/Palestinian-Hamas.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
A terrorist from Hamas takes part in a military parade. (Reuters/Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/File)
Rubin, who is a longtime Jewish community activist, added, “We have seen it achieved with Arab states. There is no reason that it can’t be done with the Palestinians as long as the political will is there, extremism is rooted out and security arrangements are solid. So, for Vice President Harris to make this a priority is an inherently pro-Israel position, one that seeks to provide Israel with the long-term security and stability that it still clearly does not have.”
In late August, Harris noted her endorsement of a Palestinian state in an interview with CNN. She said, “I remain committed since I’ve been on Oct. 8 to what we must do to work toward a two-state solution where Israel is secure and in equal measure the Palestinians have security and self-determination and dignity.”
ZIONISM EXPLAINED FROM ITS BIBLICAL ORIGINS TO THE REBIRTH OF THE STATE OF ISRAEL
The Harris campaign did not respond to multiple Fox News Digital press queries.
Harris and Biden have provided significant funding for the Palestinian Authority (PA), which is led by Mahmoud Abbas. The PA president is considered by some to be a moderate when compared to the Iranian regime-backed Hamas leadership. Abbas, however, supports stipends for convicted Palestinian terrorists and their families regarding the infamous “pay for slay” system that might mean the PA compensates Hamas terrorists.
![Palestinian funeral](https://a57.foxnews.com/static.foxnews.com/foxnews.com/content/uploads/2023/07/1200/675/GettyImages-1501995873-e1688561633308.jpg?ve=1&tl=1)
This image shows a funeral procession for Palestinian terrorists in Jenin in the occupied West Bank on July 5, 2023. (Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP via Getty Images)
Fox News Digital reported in November that many of the newly released convicted Palestinian terrorists who were part of a swap that secured the freedom of some Israeli and foreign hostages held by the terrorist movement Hamas could receive U.S. funds via the PA.
Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch, an Israeli-based organization researching Palestinian society, told Fox News Digital at the time, “The American and European funding boosts the Palestinian Authority budget by $600 million. The Palestinian Authority pays the salaries of imprisoned terrorists and the family members of the martyrs, and the amount comes to $300 million a year.”
Last month, Abbas, according to a translation by the Middle East Media Research Institute, told the Turkish Parliament that “America is the plague, and the plague is America” and “We implement Shari’a law: victory or martyrdom.”
The 88-year-old Abbas, who has clung to power since he took over the presidency of the PA in 2008, has been embroiled in antisemitism and Holocaust-distortion scandals over the years.
In 2022, Fox News Digital reported that Abbas delivered a tirade against Israel in Berlin, where the Holocaust – the mass extermination of European Jewry – was organized, claiming the Jewish state carried out “50 holocausts.”
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