Dec 18 2023

Six In The Morning Monday 18 December 2023

Gazans trapped in church fear being shot, says relative

18th December 2023, 07:13 PST

By Oliver Slow BBC News

Civilians trapped in a church in Gaza City are living in an “unreal” sense of fear, a relative of one of those confined there has said.

Fifi Saba, whose sister is trapped inside the Holy Family Church, said people were scared to move out of fear of being shot.

Two women were killed inside the church by sniper fire on Saturday, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said.

Israel’s army said it was reviewing the incident.

Ms Saba, a Catholic from Gaza who now lives in the US, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that she was worried about her sister, her brother-in-law and their two children aged 9 and 12, who were trapped there.

Jimmy Lai trial: heavy security presence as landmark national security case begins in Hong Kong

Media mogul and pro-democracy activist accused of conspiring to collude with foreign forces and faces life in prison

The media mogul and pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai has gone on trial at a heavily guarded Hong Kong court on national security charges that could lead to life imprisonment.

Lai’s trial, expected to last months, is one of the most high-profile prosecutions in the Hong Kong government’s crackdown on opposition, and has been widely condemned by rights groups and other governments.

The 76-year-old pro-democracy activist and founder of the now-closed Apple Daily newspaper has been accused of conspiring to collude with foreign forces to endanger national security under sweeping legislation Beijing imposed on Hong Kong in 2020 and of conspiring to publish seditious material.

Navalny court hearing postponed amid fears over whereabouts

Russian authorities have put on hold two hearings for jailed opposition politician Alexei Navalny. A United Nations rights expert earlier expressed concern about the dissident’s “enforced disappearance.”

Russian court filings showed that two court hearings for opposition politician Alexei Navalny, scheduled for Monday, have been postponed until January.

The Kremlin critic’s allies say his lawyers have not seen him since December 6 and have expressed concern over the lack of information about where he is.

What do we know about Navalny’s whereabouts?

Navalny’s spokesperson Kira Yarmysh wrote on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, that it was the 13th day without news since Navalny’s lawyers last had access to him.

Lawyers for Navalny’s Anti-Corruption Foundation filed requests with more than 200 detention centers over the weekend, Yarmysh said, but they were still awaiting responses.

Gaza journalists both witnesses and victims of war

Journalists in the Gaza Strip are paying a heavy price to cover the war between Israel and Hamas, with scores already killed and injured.

Those surviving face constant danger from the relentless Israeli bombardment of the Palestinian territory, as well as grappling with communications difficulties, concern for their families and shortages of basic goods.

“Our work is to document the war, to let the world know what is happening,” Gazan journalist Hind Khoudary told AFP.

But they know it comes at a cost. On Friday, Al Jazeera cameraman Samer Abu Daqqa became the latest fatality — killed while reporting in southern Gaza.

More journalists have been killed in the Gaza war over such a short period than in any other conflict in at least 30 years, said media watchdog Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

FG, firms ‘trade’ jobs as illegal expatriates take over economy

By Gloria Nwafor 
18 December 2023

Blatant abuse of expatriate quota (EQ) rule by foreign companies, the rising number of undocumented foreign workers and the underhand dealings of local capitalists in expatriate recruitment are driving Nigeria deeper into the unemployment crisis.

As bad as the situation is, relevant government agencies who should have brought the culprits to book are actively aiding the abuses or looking the other way.

The federal government, on its part, is profiteering from rising EQ even as its revenue from the source doubled the target for the year as far back as October. The accrued revenue (N1.2 billion) may be insignificant, but stakeholders suggest that when government agencies begin to use the figures as bragging rights, Nigerians have reasons to be worried.

Amal Clooney is representing over 400 plaintiffs in lawsuit seeking ‘accountability for genocide against Yazidis’

By Sabrina Souza and Zoe Sottile, CNN
 
More than 400 Yazidi-Americans represented by renowned human rights attorney Amal Clooney filed a lawsuit in New York Thursday, alleging French conglomerate Lafarge SA conspired to provide material and funds to support ISIS terrorist campaigns against the ethnic minority.
 
Filed under the Anti-Terrorism Act in the Eastern District of New York, Clooney and former diplomat Lee Wolosky aim “to hold Lafarge accountable for its admitted criminal conspiracy with ISIS and to obtain justice for the Yazidi people,” according to a news release from Amal Clooney Media.
 

Yazidis are a Kurdish-speaking ethnic and religious group with significant populations in Iraq and Syria. A 2021 UN investigation determined ISIS’s systematic persecution of the group, including forced conversion to Islam and the killing and enslavement of thousands of Yazidis, constitutes genocide.

Dec 18 2023

The Source – Fly Away (Revisited) [Classic Trance]

Dec 17 2023

Six In The Morning Sunday 17 December 2023

WHO says Al-Shifa ‘looked almost like a battlefield hospital’

 

Rajini Vaidyanathan

BBC News Channel

The World Health Organization’s Sean Casey has just returned from a visit to the Al-Shifa hospital in northern Gaza, where they’ve been delivering much needed medical supplies and equipment.

Speaking to me from Gaza on the BBC News Channel he painted a desperate picture of a hospital which is barely able to function.

Mr Casey said the hospital wards looked “almost like a battlefield hospital” with patients everywhere, and “blood all over the floors”.

He said the medical staff who remain at the hospital are “completely overwhelmed”, as they treat a range of the injured from children with open wounds, babies with jaundice, and a range of other injuries and ailments including blast injuries and fractures.

Summary

  1. Aid trucks entering Gaza from Egypt have been boarded and stripped of their supplies amid severe food shortages
  2. The UN Palestinian refugee agency says hungry people are helping themselves to food, making it almost impossible to distribute aid
  3. France’s foreign minister has called for an “immediate and durable” truce, saying “too many civilians are being killed”

‘Prison or bullet’: new Argentina government promises harsh response to protest

President Javier Milei and his allies are preparing new security guidelines in anticipation of protests against currency devaluation

Human rights activists in Argentina have expressed consternation over new security guidelines to crack down on an anticipated wave of protests after the incoming government of libertarian president Javier Milei devalued the country’s currency by more than 50%.

Protesting individuals and organizations will be identified with “video, digital or manual means” – and then billed for the cost of sending security forces to police their demonstrations, said Milei’s security minister, Patricia Bullrich, as she announced the new protocol on Thursday.

“The state is not going to pay for the use of the security forces; organizations that have legal status will have to pay or individuals will have to bear the cost,” Bullrich said.

Keeping Migrants at BayHow a Brutal Militia Became Europe’s New Henchmen

A Libyan militia belonging to the warlord Khalifa Haftar hunts down refugees in the Mediterranean and drags them to Libya. DER SPIEGEL reporting shows how Frontex and Maltese officials are involved.

By Mohannad al-Najjar, Mohammad Bassiki, Bashar Deeb, Klaas van Dijken, Alexander Epp, Maud Jullien, Steffen Lüdke, Jack Sapoch, Tomas Statius und Lina Verschwele

Even after several days at sea, everything still seemed to be just fine, says Bassel Nahas. Together with around a hundred other refugees, the Syrian had set out from the Libyan coast toward Europe. Nahas, a 36-year-old whose name has been changed for this article, was dreaming of starting a new life in the Netherlands, hoping to bring over his wife and two children later.

 

The boat, he relates over the phone, was making good progress in the calm seas. They passed several Greek islands, despite drones operated by the European border protection agency Frontex flying overhead. Their goal, the coast of Italy, wasn’t far off.

But on August 18, as the ship reached the zone within which Malta is responsible for search and rescue operations, he says, a ship flying the Libyan flag approached. The passengers on board the migrant vessel called out to the Libyan crew that they had women and children on board, says Nahas. “But they accused us of having weapons and drugs, and opened fire on our boat.”

 

Bundesliga fans protest against private equity investors

The decision by the German Football League to allow a private equity investor for the next two decades has sparked backlash from fans. In one incident, Hansa Rostock fans threw pyrotechnics, injuring police.

Bundesliga and Bundesliga 2 fans across the country protested on Friday and Saturday against the German Football League’s (DFL) decision to seek to bring in a strategic partner.

On December 11, 24 of 36 teams between the two divisions voted in favor of a plan to secure private equity investment in return for a share of TV rights over the next two decades.

Fans from all 36 teams announced they would remain silent for the first 12 minutes of their matches across the weekend, with multiple matches interrupted by further protests.

Women’s rights take centre stage in DR Congo election

Ahead of Monday’s election in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), women’s faces can be seen everywhere, pinned up on electoral posters throughout the country. During his five-year term, President Félix Tshisekedi demonstrated a commitment to women’s rights and better female representation in politics, but there is still a long way to go.

Days out from the DRC‘s presidential election, campaign clips play constantly on state broadcaster Congolese National Radio and Television (RTNC). One of the advertisements, from the campaign of President Félix Tshisekedi, known colloquially as “Fatshi béton”, highlights one of his flagship policies: free maternity care.

Since being implemented in September 2023, the measure is gradually taking effect in public hospitals and health centres. At the Kinshasa General Hospital (still informally known as “Mama Yemo Hospital”, after the mother of ousted President Mobutu), Julie is receiving postnatal care after giving birth to her daughter, Yumi.

“This is my third child. I had a C-section. For the first two, I gave birth elsewhere and paid 40,000 Congolese francs, then 65,000 for the second (€14 and €22.60 at current exchange rates),” says Julie. “I am satisfied with the free maternity care because, this time, if I was made to pay for the C-section, I would have died. I couldn’t have afforded the operation (one million Congolese francs, or €340).”

Putin warns of problems with neighboring Finland after West ‘dragged it into NATO’

By Yulia Kesaieva, Darya Tarasova, Benjamin Brown and Amarachi Orie, CNN
 2 minute read
Published 7:44 AM EST, Sun December 17, 2023

Russian President Vladimir Putin has warned there will be “problems” with neighboring Finland after it joined the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) earlier this year.

Finland’s ascension to NATO marked a major shift in the security landscape in northern Europe, and added some 1,300 kilometers (830 miles) to the alliance’s frontier with Russia.

It was also a blow for President Putin, who has long warned against NATO expansion.

Dec 17 2023

Late Night Music:Paul Oakenfold – Essential Mix [1999-01-17] BBC RADio 1

Dec 16 2023

Six In The Morning Saturday 16 December 2023

Hostages were holding white cloth on stick when Israeli forces shot them, army says

Funeral of killed hostage held in southern Israel

Mourners have gathered for the funeral of Samer Talalka, 22, one of the three hostages who were mistakenly killed by Israeli military yesterday, having been held by Hamas in Gaza

The IDF said the three men were mis-identified as a “threat”. They were fired upon while shirtless and holding a white cloth on a stick.

Talalka was buried in Hura village in southern Israel this afternoon.

Reports say dozens killed in north Gaza and many trapped under rubble

Palestinian media reports say dozens of people have been killed in Israeli air strikes in Jabalia in northern Gaza, with many civilians said to be trapped under rubble there.

Palestinian Wafa news agency said at least three dozen people had been killed in strikes on three houses in the Jabalia refugee camp.

The Israeli military said its aircraft targeted a building in Jabalia after militants were identified on the roof and its forces came under fire.

Jacob Zuma withdraws support for ANC in run-up to 2024 South African election

Former president criticises party he led, citing ‘death of democratically elected structures’

The former South African president Jacob Zuma, who was forced out of office over corruption allegations, has said he will not vote for the ruling African National Congress party (ANC) in the 2024 national elections.

Zuma, 81, criticised the president and ANC leader, Cyril Ramaphosa. The ANC, which led the decades-old struggle against apartheid, is fast losing support. Zuma said he would vote for a small radical leftwing party and would refuse to campaign for the ANC.

Iran executes man after Israel espionage conviction

The unidentified man was said to be working for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency. According to media reports, Tehran carried out the execution after the alleged spy passed on confidential documents.

Authorities in Iran have executed an unidentified man who was allegedly acting as a spy for Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency, Iranian media reported on Saturday.

“The death sentence was carried out this morning against a spy of the Zionist regime in Zahedan prison” in the southeastern province of Sistan-Baluchistan, the Iranian judiciary’s Mizan news agency reported.

It said he had been convicted of “intelligence cooperation and espionage for the benefit of the hostile Zionist regime,” using the Iranian government’s term for Israel.

Passing on documents to Mossad

The man was also found guilty of “collecting and providing classified information to the Mossad spy service with the aim of disrupting public order,” Mizan added.

Global shipping firms avoid routes in the Red Sea as attacks increase

Two major freight firms including MSC Mediterranean Shipping Co, the world’s biggest container shipping line, on Saturday said they would avoid the Suez Canal as Houthi militants in Yemen stepped up their assaults on commercial vessels in the Red Sea.

Yemen‘s Iranian-backed Houthi movement has been attacking vessels in response to the Gaza war on a route that allows East-West trade, and especially oil, to use the Suez Canal to save the time and expense of circumnavigating Africa. War risk insurance premiums have risen as a result.

The Liberian-flagged MSC Palatium III was attacked on Friday with a drone in the Bab al-Mandab Strait off Yemen at the southern end of the Red Sea, according to the Houthis.

No injuries were reported, but the vessel suffered some fire damage and was taken out of service, MSC said in a statement. Another Liberian-flagged vessel, Hapag Lloyd’s Al Jasrah, was hit by a missile, the U.S. military said.

Think tank fellow: Consider redeploying U.S. tactical nukes to South Korea

By YOSHIHIRO MAKINO/ Senior Staff Writer

December 16, 2023 at 10:30 JST

 

The United States should keep enhancing its nuclear deterrent in South Korea until North Korea gives up on its nuclear weapons program, a South Korean think tank researcher said.

Cha Du-hyeogn, a principal fellow at the Seoul-based Asan Institute for Policy Studies, said in an interview with The Asahi Shimbun that North Korea is increasingly and aggressively developing missiles and nuclear weapons.

He said he was engaged in a joint report with a U.S. research center that calls on the United States to offer a stronger assurance of its nuclear umbrella for Seoul.

 

Al Jazeera journalist Samer Abudaqa laid to rest in southern Gaza

Family, friends, colleagues attend funeral of cameraman who was killed in Israeli drone attack in Khan Younis.

Al Jazeera journalist Samer Abudaqa has been laid to rest in southern Gaza, with dozens of mourners, including journalists, paying their respects to the cameraman killed in an Israeli drone attack.

The funeral was held on Saturday in the city of Khan Younis. Abudaqa’s family, friends and colleagues bid a tearful farewell as his body was lowered into the ground.

Abudaqa, a cameraman for Al Jazeera Arabic in Gaza, was hit in an Israeli drone attack while reporting at Farhana school in Khan Younis. His colleague, Al Jazeera Arabic correspondent Wael Dahdouh, who lost his wife, son, daughter and grandson in a previous Israeli bombing, was wounded.

Dec 15 2023

Six In The Morning Friday 15 December 2023

Ukraine confident it will secure €50bn in EU aid despite Orbán veto

Kyiv hopeful ‘all necessary legal procedures’ will be completed at EU summit in January

Ukraine has expressed confidence it will receive a €50bn aid package from the EU, despite Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, vetoing the funding at a crucial summit in Brussels.

In a statement, the foreign ministry in Kyiv shrugged off Orbán’s blocking tactics. It said it expected “all necessary legal procedures” to be completed at an EU summit in January, with the aid delivered “as soon as possible”.

“This is a clear signal that the financial support of Ukraine from the EU will continue,” it said. It added that the cash would be used to “modernise” the state and speed up its integration into the EU bloc.

Yemen: Maersk halts Red Sea shipping after another attack

Maersk has paused Red Sea container shipments after two incidents in as many days, the first involving one of its vessels. Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels have intensified attacks on ships in the area in recent weeks.

Danish shipping giant A.P. Moller-Maersk said on Friday that it was pausing container shipments through the Red Sea off the coast of Yemen until further notice.

This comes a day after one of its ships suffered a near-miss, and as another vessel belonging to Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd sustained damage but no injuries on Friday.

“Following the near-miss incident involving Maersk Gibraltar yesterday and yet another attack on a container vessel today, we have instructed all Maersk vessels in the area bound to pass through the Bab al-Mandeb Strait to pause their journey until further notice,” the company said in a statement.

The mystery of the missing binder: How a collection of raw Russian intelligence disappeared under Trump

A binder containing highly classified information related to Russian election interference went missing at the end of Donald Trump’s presidency, raising alarms among intelligence officials that some of the most closely guarded national security secrets from the US and its allies could be exposed, sources familiar with the matter told CNN.

Its disappearance, which has not been previously reported, was so concerning that intelligence officials briefed Senate Intelligence Committee leaders last year about the missing materials and the government’s efforts to retrieve them, the sources said.

In the two-plus years since Trump left office, the missing intelligence does not appear to have been found.

Afghanistan: Taliban sends abused women to prison – UN

By Nicholas Yong BBC News

The Taliban government in Afghanistan is putting women abuse survivors in prison and claiming it is for their protection, according to a UN report.


The UN said the practice harms the survivors’ mental and physical health.
There are also no more state-sponsored women’s shelters as the Taliban government sees no need for such centres, the report noted.
The Taliban’s suppression of women’s rights in Afghanistan is one of the harshest in the world.

The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan’s (UNAMA) said that gender-based violence against Afghan women and girls was known to be high even before the Taliban took over Afghanistan.

Kishida’s gamble to oust powerful LDP faction may plague gov’t

By Tomoyuki Tachikawa

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s gamble to replace all ministers from the largest faction within his ruling Liberal Democratic Party over a political fundraising scandal could make it more difficult for him to manage the government.

Kishida aimed to end political distrust by excluding lawmakers belonging to the faction, previously led by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, but opposition from the biggest intraparty group has intensified, which could prevent him from achieving key policies.

Criticism of Kishida’s leadership over the latest scandal has also been mounting, prompting more politicians within the LDP to keep their distance from the administration as speculation has been rife that he would be compelled to resign around the spring.

Police officer stoned to death after rescuing FGM survivors in Kenya

Activists see the killing as a setback in the efforts to eliminate the practice, despite it being illegal in the east African country

Efforts to eradicate female genital mutilation in Kenya have suffered a setback after a police officer was killed in a confrontation with a gang of youths.

Activists and local leaders condemned the murder, calling it a backward step in the fight to eradicate the practice in the country. Police in Elgeyo Marakwet county, in the Rift Valley region, had taken a group of girls who had been forced to undergo the illegal procedure to hospital when a mob of young men stormed a police station and stoned Cpl Mushote Boma to death.

“They are told the cut makes women more mature and avoid promiscuity. They are also told that they will lose any respect within the community by marrying an uncut woman. That is why they will kill anyone, including a policeman, who interferes with the cut,” Mwebia said.

Dec 15 2023

The Orange Clown Say’s

Dec 14 2023

Six In The Morning Thursday 14 December 2023

 

Looking into the eyes of an orphan in Gaza

By Clarissa Ward, Brent Swails, Scott McWhinnie and Rachel Clarke, CNN
 6 minute read
Updated 11:12 AM EST, Thu December 14, 2023

20-month-old Amir Taha lies silently on the bed – his fluffy hair sticking up, his baby soft skin violated by a raw, jagged wound across his forehead. Purple bruises swell around one of his big brown eyes.

He’s an orphan now, his aunt says, with his parents and two of his siblings killed in an Israeli strike – one attack in the devastating war on Hamas in Gaza that Israel launched after militants carried out murderous cross-border raids targeting Israeli civilians on October 7.

Amir’s loss adds to the overwhelming human toll in the tiny territory of Gaza where more than 18,000 people have been killed, according to the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza.

Fifa, Meta and Tesco ‘most linked’ to alleged corporate migrant worker abuse

Human rights report also identifies over 90 worker deaths in different sectors around the world in the past year mainly linked to health and safety breaches

At least 90 migrant workers were reported to have died from alleged corporate abuse or neglect in the past year, but the number of deaths not publicly reported is probably much higher, according to data from the Business & Human Rights Resource Centre (BHRRC), a non-government organisation.

“Migrant workers are subjected to a range of human rights abuses – often facilitated by government regulations and permitted to continue by multinationals at the top of supply chains, who are failing to monitor, investigate and remedy abuse sufficiently,” said Isobel Archer, senior migrant rights researcher at BHRRC.

 

Kosovo court upholds rebel commander’s war crimes conviction

Former Kosovo Liberation Army commander Salih Mustafa has failed in his appeal of a torture and murder conviction at the special tribunal in The Hague, but has seen his jail time reduced.

The Kosovo court in The Hague on Thursday rejected the appeal of former rebel commander Salih Mustafa, who in 2022 was found guilty of torture and murder in the tribunal’s landmark first conviction.

The court, known formally as the Kosovo Specialist Chambers, upheld Mustafa’s convictions for arbitrary detention, torture, and murder but reduced his sentence by four years, meaning he now has a jail term of 22 years.

During Kosovo’s 1998-99 conflict with Serbia, Mustafa, 51, then a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrilla commander, ran a makeshift torture center where fellow ethnic Albanians accused of spying for Serb forces were detained, beaten and tortured, with one detainee dying.

Panel urges Japan to prep for digital yen that coexists with cash

 

Japan should make preparations to issue a digital yen “without delay” and treat it as legal tender that would coexist with cash, a government panel of experts said.

The nine-member panel under the Finance Ministry said any central bank digital currency, or a digital yen, should be usable “by anyone, anytime and anywhere” and compatible with other private companies’ digital payment services.

Currently, Japan does not have specific plans to introduce a digital yen. However, the Bank of Japan has launched a pilot program to study the feasibility of implementing such a currency.

 

Russia-Ukraine war: Putin tells Russia his war objectives are unchanged

By George Wright, Vitaliy Shevchenko & Paul Kirby BBC News

Russian President Vladimir Putin has said peace with Ukraine will only take place “when we achieve our objectives”.

He was fielding questions from journalists and ordinary Russians in his first marathon news conference since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.

Much of the largely choreographed event focused on what he calls the “special military operation in Ukraine”.

He insisted the situation was improving throughout the front line.

The “direct line” programme, televised for more than four hours by most major channels, began with President Putin telling Russians: “The existence of our country without sovereignty is impossible. It will simply not exist.”

He added that Russia’s economy was strong for a time of war and the topic of conversation quickly moved to Ukraine.

Guyana, Venezuela, 11bn barrels of oil – and six centuries of colonial conflict

Maduro’s annexation threat is only the latest move on a chessboard stretching back to the 15th century. The outcome could reverberate throughout Latin America and the Caribbean

It is a precipitous moment for Venezuela and Guyana this week as they meet to address the longstanding dispute over the Essequibo region. Leaders from both nations have said they will come to the table with the Brazilian president Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the St Vincent and Grenadines prime minister Ralph Gonsalves, and the UN secretary general António Guterres.

In recent weeks, the two have seemed to be drawing closer to conflict. Venezuela has threatened to annex the densely forested Essequibo region, which constitutes two-thirds of Guyana’s territory, after holding a referendum to seek support. While the Venezuelan president Nicolás Maduro’s pseudo-referendum further exposed his disregard for international law, both countries are reenacting what was a colonial conflict between the British and the Spanish.

The prevailing western sentiment asserts that slavery, indentureship and colonialism are mere relics of the past, holding no sway over the future. Such a stance, characterised by intellectual laziness, belies the historical threads woven through the Caribbean islands – a constellation of minuscule paradises whose tumultuous pasts continue to reverberate.

Dec 14 2023

Late Night Music:NON STOP TECHNO RAVE RADIO 24/7 MIX

Dec 13 2023

Six In The Morning Wednesday 13 December 2023

COP28: Landmark summit takes direct aim at fossil fuels

13th December 2023, 08:01 PST

By Georgina RannardClimate reporter at COP28

Nations at the UN climate summit have for the first time taken explicit aim at the use of fossil fuels.

The talks in Dubai came close to collapse but in a dramatic turn-around, nations agreed to “transition away” from coal, oil and gas.

But small islands hit hard by climate change protested, saying the deal was rushed through without them.

And it departed from earlier stronger language to “phase out fossil fuels”.

Many nations including the US, UK and European Union had pushed for a phase out from the opening of the talks.

Argentina’s new government devalues peso by more than 50%

Package of spending cuts introduced in attempt to tackle country’s worst economic crisis in decades

Argentina has devalued its currency, the peso, by more than 50% as part of a package of large-scale spending cuts intended to address the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.

The plans, introduced under the newly inaugurated administration of Javier Milei, include cutting energy subsidies and cancelling tenders for public works.

His economy minister, Luis Caputo, moved to weaken the official exchange rate to 800 pesos a dollar – it had been 366.5 – in a televised address after the local markets closed on Tuesday. He said the central bank would target a monthly devaluation of 2%.

Would Congo prosper if it dumped the dollar?

Next week, voters in Congo will decide whether President Felix Tshisekedi will serve a second term. Many voters want their leader to revive the DRC’s fragile economy by dumping the dollar.

Seated on a little chair in the popular Lumumba market, located in the Bandalugwa district of the Congolese capital, Kinshasa, trader Rosette Kungi mixes beans in a large green bucket next to her cardboard price signs that change every day.

In recent months, the Democratic Republic of Congo‘s local currency, the Franc Congolais, or Congolese franc (CDF), has been heavily devalued.

A year ago, the CDF was trading at around 2,000 to the dollar — now it is trading at around 2,700.

“Prices in Congolese francs are rising all the time,” Kungi lamented. “Today, $10 is worth 27,000, or even 28,000 CDF — and soon it will be 30,000.”

Tensions simmer in French schools as 12-year-old threatens teacher with knife

A 12-year-old schoolgirl threatened a teacher with a knife at a school in northern France on Wednesday, the latest in a growing number of incidents that have raised tensions in the French education system.

No-one was injured in the incident in the northwestern city of Rennes but prosecutors said that they have opened a criminal investigation.

“This morning, a pupil threatened a teacher with a knife during a lesson. The pupils, shocked, were immediately moved to safety,” the local education authority said in a statement.

Born in 2011, the schoolgirl “came to class armed with a large knife with the apparent intention of killing her English teacher,” said Rennes prosecutor Philippe Astruc.

“During the lesson, in class, she brandished the knife at the victim who fled running” before she was “disarmed by the staff of the establishment” of the Hautes Ourmes junior high school, he added.

Ex-SDF member says high-profile sex assault case fight was not a waste

A woman who was sexually assaulted while serving in Japan’s Ground Self-Defense Force said Wednesday that her fight to get justice was “not a waste,” a day after a court convicted three former members for sexual indecency.

“I spent two years of my life fighting against it,” Rina Gonoi, 24, said at a press conference at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan in Tokyo. Though she said it would have been better if she had not gone through the painful experience in the first place, her remarks suggested she feels it was worth the effort.

The high-profile case brought the culture of harassment in Japan’s armed forces to public attention after Gonoi made the rare move of coming forward to report the offenses.

Chinese influencer charged in Thailand for ‘breaking visa laws’ after video on women’s safety sparks backlash

By Heather Chen and Kocha Olarn, CNN
 6 minute read
Updated 3:48 AM EST, Wed December 13, 2023

Thai police are taking legal action against a Chinese social media influencer for allegedly flouting visa rules, days after she came under fire for a video she made that portrayed a popular Bangkok nightlife district as being unsafe for women.

Police Major General Phanthana Nutchanart, deputy chief of Thailand’s Immigration Bureau, told CNN that Ziyu Wang, a Chinese national who has been traveling around Thailand, was found to be selling goods online while on Thai soil – breaking visa laws.

The case comes at a tricky time for Thailand as it tries to woo back Chinese tourists after the Covid-19 pandemic.

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