Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank have beaten to death a 20-year-old United States citizen, the victim’s family members and rights groups have said. Settlers attacked and killed Sayfollah Musallet in the town of Sinjil, north of Ramallah, on Friday, according to the Palestinian Health Ministry. Relatives of Musallet, who was from Tampa, Florida, were also quoted by The Washington Post as saying he was beaten to death by Israeli settlers.

“We are aware of reports of the death of a US citizen in the West Bank,” Reuters reported a State Department spokesperson as saying. The official declined to comment further “out of respect for the privacy of the family and loved ones” of the reported victim.

Muslat had travelled from his home in Florida to visit family in Palestine, his cousin Fatmah Muhammad said in a social media post.

Another Palestinian, identified by the Health Ministry as Mohammed Shalabi, was fatally shot by settlers during the attack.

Rights advocates have documented repeated instances where Israeli settlers in the West Bank ransack Palestinian neighbourhoods and towns, burning homes and vehicles in attacks sometimes described as pogroms.

The Israeli military often protects the settlers during their rampages and has shot Palestinians who show any resistance.

The United Nations and other prominent human rights organisations consider the Israeli settlements in the West Bank violations of international law, as part of a broader strategy to displace Palestinians.

While some Western countries like France and Australia have imposed sanctions on violent settlers, attacks have increased since the outbreak of Israel’s war in Gaza in October 2023.

When President Donald Trump took office earlier this year, his administration revoked sanctions on settlers imposed by his predecessor, Joe Biden.

Israeli forces have killed at least nine US citizens since 2022, including veteran Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh.

But none of the incidents have resulted in criminal charges.

The US provides billions of dollars to Israel every year. Advocates have accused successive US administrations of failing to protect American citizens from Israeli violence in the Middle East.

On Friday, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) called on Washington to ensure accountability for the killing of Musallet.

“Every other murder of an American citizen has gone unpunished by the American government, which is why the Israeli government keeps wantonly killing American Palestinians and, of course, other Palestinians,” CAIR deputy director Edward Ahmed Mitchell said in a statement.

He then pointed out that Trump has repeatedly promised to prioritise American interests, as typified by his campaign slogan “America First”.

“If President Trump will not even put America first when Israel murders American citizens, then this is truly an Israel First administration,” Mitchell said.

The Institute for Middle East Understanding (IMEU) also called for action from the US administration, noting that settlers are “lynching Palestinians more frequently – with full support from Israel’s army and government”.

“The US government has a legal and moral obligation to stop Israel’s racist violence against Palestinians. Instead, it’s still backing and funding it,” the group said in a statement.

The US Department of State did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment about the killing of Musallet.

The Palestinian group Hamas condemned the murder of Muslat, describing it as “barbaric”, and called on Palestinians across the West Bank to rise up to “confront the settlers and their terrorist attacks”.

Israel said it was “investigating” what happened in Sinjil, claiming that the violence started when Palestinians threw rocks at an Israeli vehicle.

“Shortly thereafter, violent clashes developed in the area between Palestinians and Israeli civilians, which included the destruction of Palestinian property, arson, physical confrontations, and stone-throwing,” the Israeli military said in a statement. Israeli investigations often lead to no charges or meaningful accountability for the abuses of Israeli officers and settlers.

As settler and military violence intensifies in the West Bank, Israel has killed at least 57,762 Palestinians in Gaza in a campaign that rights groups have described as a genocide.

A Supreme Court decision giving the Trump administration the greenlight to lay off tens of thousands of employees threatens to reshape the federal workforce amid a broader battle over whether the president has the power to do so. The Tuesday decision was the latest example of the court stepping in to stop a nationwide injunction – leaving President Trump free to conduct widespread layoffs even as the legal tussle continues.

While a patchwork of other injunctions leaves a few limited protections in place, employees at some 17 agencies impacted by the ruling are bracing for what President Trump in February called “a critical transformation of the Federal bureaucracy.”

The Trump administration was on the precipice of carrying out layoffs when the courts blocked the plan in May – agencies had been asked to submit their plans for Reductions in Force (RIFs) by April and were just waiting for administration approval. Some agencies have already said they plan to take swift action in the wake of the decision.

“The Supreme Court decision has allowed us to commence, and that’s what we’re doing,” State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce told reporters Thursday.

“It will happen quickly. This is not going to be an extended wait for people who are listening and watching in this building or fellow Americans at home and around the world. This will happen quickly. We understand that there has been a delay, not to our interests but because of the courts.”

On Friday, the department said it would lay off more than 1,300 employees, including 1,107 civil servants and 246 foreign service officers who currently have domestic assignments in the United States. And others among the 17 agencies have already given signals as to the extent of their planned cuts. Health and Human Services, which already announced plans to cut 10,000 employees of the 82,000 on payroll at the start of the administration.

Agencies like the Environmental Protection Agency, the Social Security Agency, Veterans Affairs and more are impacted by the ruling. The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), the largest federal government union, described the news as devastating for government services as it is for employees’ careers.

“There is a lot of legitimate concern among our members not just for their own jobs, but for the Americans who rely on the services they provide — from small businesses, veterans, and Social Security recipients to everyday American consumers,” AFGE president Everett Kelley

“It’s a life-altering decision for tens of thousands of American families. Federal employees across the country will sit at their dinner tables tonight with their layoff notice next to a pile of bills, knowing the Supreme Court’s action just changed their lives forever, and they’re wondering what they’re going to do next to make ends meet. They didn’t ask for this – all they wanted to do was serve their country.”

The Supreme Court’s decision only weighed the injunction lifted by a lower court judge, not the underlying layoff authority or plans themselves. “The content of the [Agency RIF and Reorganization Plans] thus remains squarely at issue in this case,” U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston wrote in a Thursday order granting further discovery in the case.

The dissent from Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson, however, faulted her colleagues for giving the go ahead on a plan that may later be determined to be unlawful.

“That temporary, practical, harm-reducing preservation of the status quo was no match for this Court’s demonstrated enthusiasm for greenlighting this President’s legally dubious actions in an emergency posture,” she wrote.

The decision will allow “all the harmful upheaval that edict entails, while the lower courts evaluate its lawfulness. In my view, this was the wrong decision at the wrong moment, especially given what little this Court knows about what is actually happening on the ground,” she argued.

Unions too had argued there would be “no way to unscramble that egg.”

The ruling comes after the Supreme Court in a case dealing with Trump’s effort to end birthright citizenship placed limits on the extent lower courts can use nationwide injunctions – a massive win for the Trump administration amid complaints about district court judges blocking their policies.

Agencies are in many cases still waiting to hear back from the Office of Management and Budget and the Office of Personnel Management on their plans, but a joint memo from the agencies suggested speed is the goal.

Agencies were directed to seek a waiver to shorten the notification window for employees, giving workers as little as 30 days notice that they will lose their jobs, rather than the traditional 60 days. Once those plans are revealed, the specifics could also be challeneged as well as the process for rolling them out. RIF plans in some cases can require congressional or union notification.

Lawmakers in regions with large numbers of federal employees also said they plan to be engaged on any efforts for sweeping layoffs.

“The Court’s decision to allow this damage to be done before ruling on the merits shows how detached they are from the reality of the moment,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.)

“Make no mistake, the Trump Administration’s plan isn’t about efficiency, it’s about rigging the government to only benefit the wealthy and powerful special interests. We are not done fighting in Congress, in the courts, and in our communities to defend the dedicated public servants who go to work on behalf of the American people day in and day out.”

The planned RIFs follow a number of other moves from Trump to shrink the scope of the federal government. Shortly after taking office, departments across government dismissed employees still in their probationary period – a time frame that can last a year or two depending on the role and that can also be reactivated by a promotion. That too left the government dismissing thousands of federal workers who also saw their efforts to fight their dismissal hamstrung at different turns.

A challenge at the Merit Systems Protection Board (MSPB) lost the backing of the Office of the Special Counsel (OSC) after Trump fired former President Biden’s five-year appointee to the role, Hampton Dellinger.

Dellinger backed the MSPB challenge while he was fighting his own suit to keep his job, but the OSC reversed course once courts determined he could not stay in the job amid his own legal battle.

Like with the RIFs, there are some injunctions still in place that block some of the firings, but in other cases they’ve been permitted to proceed. Sen. Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.) criticized the latest plans for firings as part of a broader “witch hunt.”

“I will continue to fight against this President’s witch hunt targeting federal workers,” she wrote on X.

“When you attack civil servants, you attack the very people they serve – the American people.”

As Democratic mayoral nominee Zohran Mamdani charges into the general election, allies and opponents are mobilizing behind new super PACs—one to propel him to City Hall, the other to stop him from getting there—amid growing unease in the city’s business circles. A pro-Mamdani PAC named “OneNYC” was filed on Thursday, according to state campaign finance records. The independent expenditure lists Yasser Salem, a partner at the private investment group Hira Ventures, as its treasurer.

“Campaigning and mobilizing provides a massive platform to elevate community capabilities and culture, collectively and individually,” he wrote on X just days before the June 24 primary won by Mamdani. “After the primaries, we should reflect on this together and think hard on establishing and well-oiled machine/operation #nycmuslimvotesmatter.” Salem did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Mamdani’s campaign denied any previous knowledge of the PAC.

Mamdani, a democratic socialist Queens Assembly member, also benefits from the support of a separate PAC named “New Yorkers for Lower Costs” that formed during the primary. It raised over $1.3 million during the Democratic contest, state records indicate, and reportedly will continue operating during the general election.

At the same time, a group of business honchos dead-set on stopping Mamdani formed their own PAC — “New Yorkers for a Better Future Mayor 25” — on Tuesday, according to a Wall Street Journal report and state records. The group is reportedly planning to raise $20 million against Mamdani.

The PAC’s treasurer, Jeffrey Leb, is a managing partner at Capitol Consulting LLC, according to his LinkedIn page. Many in the city’s business community are alarmed by Mamdani’s mayoral bid, citing his plan to fund affordability initiatives by raising taxes on corporations and high earners—measures that would require approval from state lawmakers. He has proposed raising the state’s corporate tax rate from 7.25% to 11.50%, in line with New Jersey’s, and adding a flat 2% income tax increase for those earning over $1 million a year.

Mamdani, who has been meeting with business and real estate leaders worried about him becoming mayor, said on Thursday that while he holds firm in his beliefs, he has no intention of driving them out of the city.

“My vision of this city is not one where any business leader leaves this city, where any real estate developer feels as if they have no place in this city,” Mamdani said during an unrelated July 10 news conference. “It is a vision of this city where everyone stays, everyone thrives, and we actually make enough room for more to join us.”

However, the group has yet to pick a Mamdani challenger in a field that includes incumbent Mayor Eric Adams and possibly former Gov. Andrew Cuomo — who will both appear on the ballot as independents.

Adams and Cuomo are both calling on the other to drop out of the race, each believing they are the one best positioned to take on Mamdani in November. Each faces an uphill battle against Mamdani, who soundly defeated Cuomo by roughly 13% in the primary, after ranked-choice tabulations, and has been leading both by double digits in a string of recent polls.

During the primary, hedge fund manager and President Trump-ally Bill Ackman contributed half a million dollars to Fix the City, a super PAC that supported Cuomo in that race. Fix the City ended up spending over $22 million to flood the airwaves and line mailboxes with Mamdani attack ads — a massive expenditure that appeared to be in vain given Mamdani’s margin of victory.

Fix the City has reportedly continued to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars since the primary, aiming to back a candidate capable of defeating Mamdani in the general election. Ackman announced last week that he is switching to support Adams in the general election after determining the current mayor stands a better chance at overcoming Mamdani than the former governor.

The new PACs formed as establishment Democratic pols and groups have begun coalescing around Mamdani in recent days. Just this week, Mamdani was endorsed by U.S. Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-Manhattan/Bronx) and the Manhattan Democratic Party, both of whom backed Cuomo in the primary, as well as the United Federal of Teachers, which declined to back a candidate in the Democratic contest.

The second-round negotiation between Bangladesh and United States over tariff issue ended on Friday at about 4:00pm in the US capital Washington DC keeping several issues unresolved. Washington wanted Dhaka to keep distance with companies under the sanctioned-hit list from the US while Dhaka sought necessary time to meet the US demands, said an official who attended the meeting.

Both the parties agreed to carry on negotiation to solve the unresolved issues, added the official. The second-round negotiation was convened following the US president Donald Trump’s announcement of imposition of 35 per cent tariff on Bangladeshi export goods from August 1.

Saima Wazed Putul, the World Health Organisation’s regional director for South-East Asia, has been placed on indefinite leave, four months after the Anti-Corruption Commission of Bangladesh filed two cases against her on charges of fraud, forgery and misuse of power, according to the Health Policy Watch. WHO director-general Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus announced the decision in a brief internal email, stating that Wazed would be on leave starting Friday (July 11).

He also said WHO assistant director-general Catharina Boehme would assume responsibility as officer-in-charge of the SEARO office in Wazed’s absence. Boehme is expected to arrive at the SEARO headquarters in New Delhi on Tuesday (July 15).

Saima Wazed, daughter of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina who fled the country last August after protests, took office as regional director in January 2024. The charges against Saima Wazed stem from her bid to be appointed regional director. Her campaign was shadowed by claim that her influential mother used her influence to ensure her daughter’s election.

According to the formal charges, she is alleged to have provided false information about her academic record during her campaign for regional director, violating Section 468 of the Bangladesh Penal Code (forgery for the purpose of cheating) and Section 471 (forging a document).

The ACC also alleged she misrepresented her qualifications by claiming an honorary role at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, which the university disputes, to secure her WHO position. Saima Wazed is also accused of having misused her power and influence to collect about $2.8 million from various banks for the Shuchona Foundation which she used to head.

The ACC case did not provide complete details on how the money was then used. Those charges include: allegations of fraud and misuse of power under Sections 420 (cheating and dishonestly inducing delivery of property), as well as Section 5(2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act of 1947. Since the charges were laid, Wazed has been unable to travel properly in the SEARO region as she faces arrest in Bangladesh, it said.

Bangladesh Nationalist Party acting chairman Tarique Rahman on Saturday questioned whether the attackers, clearly seen on video fatally assaulting a scrap trader in front of Mitford Hospital, have not yet been arrested due to the silent support or the interim government’s indirect indulgence.

‘In yesterday’s incident, we were very surprised to see clearly on the screen who were killing (the trader), but they have not yet been arrested. Should we assume that those trying to create mob violence and unrest are being secretly supported or pampered by the government or some officials in the administration?’ he said.

Tarique made the remarks while virtually exchanging views with the families of the 142 martyrs of the July mass uprising.

He said both BNP and its affiliated organisations have always demanded justice, no matter who commits the crime. ‘A wrongdoer is a wrongdoer. Justice must be served according to the law. No wrongdoer should have the identity of any political party.’

The BNP leader said people across the country are asking why the government authorities remain silent and why proper legal action is not being taken against those trying to create chaos.

‘Many incidents are happening in different places, and we are watching closely those who are trying to disrupt a peaceful environment,’ he said.

The Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal organised the event at a hotel in the capital to mark the first anniversary of the July-August mass uprising and to honour the memory of the brave martyrs of Chhatra Dal.

It was a deeply emotional occasion as the families of the fallen shared their sorrow and grief. They recalled their loved ones with heavy hearts.

Many also called for justice and demanded that those responsible for the killings be held to account.

Tarique urged the families of the martyrs to raise their voices loudly over the delays in the trials of those responsible for killing their loved ones.

He also warned them to be vigilant against those trying to create mobs to delay justice.

The BNP leader assured that if his party returns to power, it will prioritise ensuring the trials of those who killed innocent people during the mass uprising and democratic movement.

‘All I can say is that if BNP forms the government with the support of the people in the coming days, we will do our utmost to ensure justice for those who lost their lives defending the rights of the people,’ he said.