Bloody diarrhea, jaundice, hepatitis: Thousands fall ill in war-ravaged Gaza amid spike in infectious diseases
By Nadeen Ebrahim, CNN
5 minute read
Published 9:53 AM EST, Tue December 12, 2023
Bloody diarrhea, jaundice, acute hepatitis and respiratory infections. These are just some of the diseases spreading in the Gaza Strip, where the World Health Organization (WHO) says the health system is “on its knees and collapsing.”
As the war between Israel and Hamas enters its third month, medics and aid groups are sounding alarm bells on the humanitarian situation in the besieged enclave – where the United Nations is worried that more people may end up dying of diseases than from bombs and missiles.
The coastal territory – which the Hamas militant group controls – has been under complete siege by Israel since the beginning of Israel’s war with Hamas, when the Palestinian group launched an October 7 attack on Israel, killing 1,200 people and kidnapping 240 others, according to Israeli authorities.
Mahsa Amini’s name is ‘secret code for freedom’ says mother as EU presents award
Family of 22-year-old blocked from coming to France from Iran to collect posthumous Sakharov prize
The European parliament has presented a rights prize posthumously to Mahsa Amini, whose death in Iranian custody prompted mass protests, as her mother hailed her daughter’s name as “a secret code for freedom”.
The award is the latest international recognition for the women challenging Iran’s religious government, after the jailed activist Narges Mohammadi was given the Nobel peace prize.
Amini’s mother, father and brother missed the ceremony at the parliament in the French city of Strasbourg after Iran’s authorities confiscated their passports and barred them from flying to collect the EU’s Sakharov prize.
Germany charges 27 suspects over Reichsbürger coup plot
German prosecutors have charged 27 suspects after carrying out raids against the far-right Reichsbürger movement last year
Authorities in the western city of Karlsruhe said they had charged 26 suspected members of a terrorist organization and a Russian female national accused of supporting it.
“The accused are strongly suspected of membership of a terrorist organisation as well as preparation of a treasonous undertaking,” the prosecutors said in a statement.
Food insecurity, the forgotten crisis of COP28
When it comes to climate change, the world’s food system is a double-edged sword. Food production is both one of the biggest emitters of global greenhouse gases and one of the sectors hardest hit by the effects of climate change. To reconcile these two issues, the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization on Sunday set out an unprecedented roadmap for solutions. But the topic rarely makes it to the negotiating table.
Besides limiting rising temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, safeguarding food security and ending hunger were key objectives of the Paris Climate Change Agreement back in 2015. But NGOs and scientists argue that food and agriculture aren’t addressed enough at the negotiating table of the annual UN climate change conference, COP.
So on December 10, during this year’s conference COP28, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) decided to put its foot down. It published a roadmap of actions governments could take to combat both food insecurity and climate change. The report, according to the FAO, comes at a “time of urgencies”.
The global food system is extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change, which have a significant impact on agriculture. Malnutrition has been on the rise for years, with 9% of the global population suffering from chronic hunger and a third from severe food insecurity, according to the FAO.
Ex-SDF members found guilty in high-profile sex assault case
By NOBUYUKI TAKIGUCHI/ Staff Writer
December 12, 2023 at 16:01 JST
The Fukushima District Court on Dec. 12 found three former Ground Self-Defense Force members guilty of sexually assaulting a former colleague in a highly charged case that shook up the Defense Ministry.
Presiding Judge Takaaki Miura sentenced the three–Shutaro Shibuya, 31, Akito Sekine, 29, and Yusuke Kimezawa, 29–to two years in prison and four years of probation for sexually assaulting Rina Gonoi, 24.
Prosecutors were seeking a sentence of two years in prison.
Republicans talk tough on aid despite Zelensky visit
Mike Johnson: the man Zelensky must win over
Bernd Debusmann Jr
Reporting from Capitol Hill
Among the most important stops that President Volodymyr Zelensky will make on this whirlwind visit to DC will be a meeting with Mike Johnson, the latest Speaker of the House of Representatives.
That discussion will occur shortly, and Zelensky may have his work cut out for him.
Johnson, who leads the House, is a major legislative gatekeeper. Even if the aid bill passed the Senate, it will need the approval of Johnson’s chamber to go to the president’s desk.
The Louisiana lawmaker said he believes further aid is important, but he and other Republicans want Democrats to yield on immigration policy in exchange for their support. Johnson’s immigration views are very strict, and Democrats have balked at his demands.
Israel has rejected suggestions it is trying to force Palestinians out of Gaza as Arab leaders and aid officials warn its intensifying ground offensive could leave civilians with few other options.
Some of the heaviest close-quarters fighting in more than two months of conflict took place over the weekend, as the Israel Defense Forces tried to consolidate control of urban centres in northern Gaza and pursued Hamas leaders in the heart of the biggest city in the south, Khan Younis.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, claimed dozens of Hamas fighters had surrendered, calling it the beginning of the end for the militant group that has controlled Gaza since 2007. Hamas called the claim “false and baseless”.
Last year, a liberal constitution to replace the Pinochet-era one was rejected. Now a referendum will be held on a new draft that curbs abortion rights and enshrines Catholic morality. Here, five women reflect on 2019’s protests and the struggle for equality
Chile will vote this week on whether to finally replace the country’s dictatorship-era constitution. But for campaigners seeking equal rights for women and Indigenous peoples, the new draft constitution is a big disappointment.
The referendum, which will be held on 17 December, is the latest stage in a four-year political saga. An agreement to vote on a replacement for the dictatorship-era constitution during Gen Augusto Pinochet’s rule was first reached in 2019 after the country’s worst unrest in decades led to at least 30 people being killed, scores blinded by shotgun pellets, teargas canisters and non-lethal ammunition fired by police, and thousands more injured.
Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny declared missing days after Putin announces presidential bid
Alexei Navany has not been seen since last Tuesday, three days before Vladimir Putin announced he would run for a fifth presidential term in Russia
His lawyers said they have not been able to contact him since last Tuesday and that his whereabouts are now unknown.
COP28 draft deal fails to include fossil fuel ‘phaseout’
The UAE has presented a watered-down draft deal that merely called for reducing fossil fuel consumption. A coalition of over 100 countries had wanted a complete phaseout.
The hosts of the COP28 summit in Dubai presented a draft deal on Monday that stopped short of calling for the complete “phaseout” of carbon-emitting fossil fuels — the main drivers of climate change — that many countries have been demanding.
The draft deal proposed options that would reduce the production and consumption of coal, oil and natural gas.
At the same time, the writers of the draft put forward by the United Arab Emirates, which holds the COP28 presidency, had removed any mention of a “phaseout” that had been included in a previous draft.
Top court in India upholds government move to revoke Kashmir’s autonomy
India’s top court on Monday upheld a move by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government to revoke the limited autonomy of Muslim-majority Kashmir, where an insurgency has raged for decades, and ordered elections within a year.
The 2019 declaration was “a culmination of the process of integration and as such is a valid exercise of power”, the Supreme Court said in its verdict.
The move was accompanied by the imposition of direct rule from New Delhi, mass arrests, a total lockdown and communication blackout that ran for months as India bolstered its armed forces in the region to contain protests.
Modi’s muscular policy has been deeply controversial in Kashmir, but was widely celebrated across India, with the insurgency that claimed tens of thousands of lives over decades largely quietened.
Javier Milei: New president tells Argentina ‘shock treatment’ looms
By Sean Seddon in London & Katy Watson in São PauloBBC News
Argentina’s new far-right president has vowed to deliver economic “shock treatment” in his first speech after formally taking office.
Javier Milei warned Argentines “there is no money” and recommitted to a programme of harsh austerity measures.
The populist outsider won a surprise election victory in November with radical pledges to overhaul the South American nation’s ailing economy.
Mr Milei’s inauguration was held in Buenos Aires on Sunday.
In a day of pomp and ceremony, the 53-year-old capped his extraordinary rise to power with a speech which left Argentines in no doubt he intends to embark on an economic path unlike any previous president.
Chances shrinking of new ceasefire, Qatar says, as Israel steps up assault
Gaza death toll now reportedly about 18,000
The Gaza health ministry – which is run by Hamas – has reportedly said about 18,000 Palestinians have now been killed in Gaza since the war started on 7 October.
Al Jazeera quotes spokesman Ashraf al-Qudra as saying at least 49,500 others have been injured.
He told the outlet that 297 people had been killed and more than 550 injured over the last 24 hours.
Hamas is a proscribed terror organisation in many countries, including the UK and US. But the UN considers the figures provided by its health ministry to be trustworthy.
Gaza hospital director describes shortages and shooting
The manager at al-Awda Hospital in northern Gaza tells the BBC the building has been “under siege for five days”, meaning none of the 250 or so people inside are able to enter or leave.
Mohammed Salha describes an increasingly desperate situation – saying the facility only has enough fuel for four days, food for three days, and water for two days.
He says it’s impossible to get fuel refills, and that “we don’t know how to deal with this situation.” He says snipers have shot at a number of people in the hospital – two of whom were killed – without specifying who was behind the alleged shooting.
The BBC has approached the Israeli military for comment on this, and some separate accusations from the Palestine Red Crescent Society (PRCS) – which has detailed in a social media thread alleged attacks by Israeli troops on one of its ambulances and paramedics.
Iran stops Mahsa Amini’s family from travelling to receive human rights prize
Ban comes as jailed Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi begins new hunger strike before award ceremony
Iran has banned Mahsa Amini’s family from travelling to France to receive the EU’s top human rights prize on her behalf, as the family of the imprisoned Nobel peace prize winner Narges Mohammadi said she had begun a new hunger strike before Sunday’s award ceremony in Oslo.
In Mohammadi’s absence, her 17-year-old twin children, Ali and Kiana, will instead collect the award on her behalf, reading out a speech their mother smuggled out of her cell.
The two high-profile award ceremonies, taking place days apart in Norway and France, have recast a spotlight on the deep costs borne by those who battle for women’s rights in Iran.
Refugees on the Balkan RouteEurope’s Nameless Dead
They freeze to death in the forests and drown in the rivers: Many of the migrants who die on the Balkan route are never identified. Relatives are desperately searching for certainty – and some even have to pay bribes to get access to the morgues.
The news that Husam Bibars had been dreading reached him on the evening of September 24. Majd, his son, had gone missing, he learned. He also found out that the other Syrian refugees his son had been traveling with left the 27-year-old behind. Alone, in a forest. Somewhere in Bulgaria.
Bibars, 53, a deliberate man with graying hair, is talking about that day in a sparsely furnished apartment in the center of Nakskov, a small town in southern Denmark. He has piled up tangerines, bananas and apples on plates on the living room table. A photo of Majd is hanging above him on the white wall. It shows a young man in a shirt and vest with a neatly trimmed beard, the eyes reminiscent of his father’s.
‘Small minority’ of nations blocking progress on fossil fuels at COP28, says at-risk Vanuatu
A small minority of countries at UN climate talks are blocking a growing consensus to phase out fossil fuels, at-risk Vanuatu’s climate change minister told AFP on Sunday.
The COP28 meeting in Dubai is at a “critical stage“, said Ralph Regenvanu, whose low-lying Pacific nation faces a severe threat from rising sea levels and tropical cyclones.
“The majority here wants fossil-fuel language, language that takes us away from fossil fuels, that indicates a desire for us to move according to the science, according to the 1.5 degree target,” Regenvanu said in an interview.
“So that is the will of the majority. We need the small minority of countries that is blocking progress to shift the position, and that’s what we’re working on for the next couple of days.”
Negotiators from around the world are trying to strike an agreement aimed at keeping global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.
Hong Kong: Polls open in ‘patriots only’ council elections
Nearly all opposition and pro-democracy candidates have been barred from running in local elections after a Beijing-backed “national security” crackdown and turnout is expected to be low.
underway on Sunday, with the pro-China city government dismissing concerns of a potentially low turnout as many pro-democracy voters turning their backs on the polls.
Sunday’s candidates were required to seek nominations from three government-appointed committees, which effectively shut out all pro-democracy parties.
“It is the last piece of the puzzle for us to implement the principles of patriots governing Hong Kong,” Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing Chief Executive John Lee said while casting his ballot, referring to China’s ongoing efforts to weed out political opposition.
Philippines and China accuse each other of South China Sea collisions
Manila and Beijing have a long history of maritime incidents in the contested South China Sea.
The Philippines and China have traded accusations over a collision of their vessels near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea as tensions over claims in the vital waterway escalate.
The shoal is part of what are internationally known as the Spratly Islands.
China’s coastguard said in a statement on Sunday that two Philippine vessels, ignoring repeated warnings, had “illegally entered the waters adjacent to Ren’ai Reef in the Nansha Islands without the approval of the Chinese government”.
It said the Unaizah Mae 1 “made an unprofessional and dangerous sudden turn, intentionally ramming into China Coast Guard vessel 21556”. It said the Philippine side bore full responsibility.
Spokesperson Gan Yu also called on the Philippines to stop its “provocative acts”, saying Beijing would continue to carry out “law-enforcement activities” in its waters.
The aerial bombing campaign by Israel in Gaza is the most indiscriminate in terms of civilian casualties in recent years, a study published by an Israeli newspaper has found.
The analysis by Haaretz came as Israeli forces fought to consolidate their control of northern Gaza on Saturday, bombing the Shejaiya district of Gaza City, while also conducting airstrikes on Rafah, a town on the southern border with Egypt where the Israeli army has told people in Gaza to take shelter.
The full death toll from the past 24 hours was unclear but the main hospital in central Gaza, at Deir al-Balah, reported it received 71 bodies, and 62 bodies were taken to Nasser hospital in the main southern city of Khan Younis, according to the Hamas-run health ministry.
Guatemala: Arevalo calls bid to annul victory ‘perverse’
President-elect Bernardo Arevalo says a move by prosecutors to invalidate his election victory is an “attempted coup.” He has faced a slew of legal challenges since qualifying for an August runoff that he won.
Guatemala’s President-elect Bernardo Arevalo on Friday slammed a bid by the prosecutor’s office to invalidate his win in an August runoff election, calling allegations of irregularities “absurd, ridiculous and perverse.”
The Central American country’s electoral court also called the results “unchangeable.”
The investigations brought against Arevalo by the attorney general’s office are widely seen in Guatemala as an alarmed reaction by the country’s political establishment elite to his pledges to combat corruption in the country.
Iran bans Mahsa Amini’s family from travelling to accept EU’s Sakharov human rights prize
The family of Mahsa Amini, the Iranian Kurdish woman who died in custody, have been banned from travelling to France to collect a top rights prize awarded posthumously, their lawyer said Saturday.
Amini died aged 22 on September 16, 2022, while being held by Iran‘s religious police for allegedly breaching the Islamic republic’s strict dress code for women.
Her family and supporters say she was killed. Iranian authorities claim she died in custody from a previously undisclosed medical condition.
In October, the European Union awarded its top rights honour, the Sakharov Prize, to her and the global movement her death triggered.
On Saturday her family’s lawyer in France, Chirinne Ardakani, told AFP that Amini’s parents and brother had been “prohibited from boarding the flight that was to take them to France for the presentation of the Sakharov Prize”.
Top members of LDP’s largest faction caught up in funds scandal
THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
December 9, 2023 at 14:30 JST
The fund-raising scandal that has engulfed the largest faction of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party led to speculation Hirokazu Matsuno will have to resign as chief Cabinet secretary.
Fresh revelations suggested the scandal could have major ramifications for unpopular Prime Minister Fumio Kishida as he tries to contain the crisis.
The faction once headed by former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stands accused of financial mismanagement through annual fund-raising parties it held for which faction members were allocated quotas of tickets to sell.
Laura Kuenssberg: Ukraine in ‘mortal danger’ without aid, Olena Zelenska warns
By Laura KuenssbergBBC News in Kyiv
Olena Zelenska has warned that Ukrainians are in “mortal danger” of being left to die if Western countries don’t continue their financial support.
Ukraine’s first lady spoke to Sunday with Laura Kuenssberg a day after Republican senators in the US blocked a key aid bill.
It would have provided more than $60bn (£47.8bn) worth of support to Ukraine.
Speaking hours after a Russian missile attack, she said: “If the world gets tired, they will simply let us die.”
Once, This Was Iraqi Farmland. Now It’s Controlled by an Iran-Linked Militia.
Iran-backed forces are assembling drones and retrofitting rockets in the territory of an American ally. They are used in attacks on U.S. outposts in Iraq and Syria.
Just south of Baghdad, the urban sprawl gives way to glimpses of green, with lush date palm groves bordering the Euphrates River. But few risk spending much time there. Not even the Iraqi military or government officials venture without permission.
A farmer, Ali Hussein, who once lived on that land, said, “We do not dare to even ask if we can go there.”
That’s because this stretch of Iraq — more than twice the size of San Francisco — is controlled by an Iraqi militia linked to Iran and designated a terrorist group by the United States. Militia members man checkpoints around the borders. And though sovereign Iraqi territory, the area, known as Jurf al-Nasr, functions as a “forward operating base for Iran,” according to one of the dozens of Western and Iraqi intelligence and military officers, diplomats and others interviewed for this article.
Palestinians detained by Israel in Gaza blindfolded, stripped to underwear
Hamas slams treatment of about 100 detainees as act of revenge and crime against defenceless civilians.
By Al Jazeera Staff
Published On 8 Dec 20238 Dec 2023
At least 100 Palestinian men detained by Israeli forces have been stripped to their underwear, blindfolded and made to kneel on a street in northern Gaza, according to images and videos widely circulated on social media and confirmed by the Israeli army.
The men were shown with their heads bowed as they were guarded by Israeli troops in the undated video that first surfaced on Thursday, which has drawn condemnation.
Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, said on Friday that the images echoed the history of the region, where stripped men are taken to unknown locations.
Bodies also piling up in morgues across continent as countries accused of failing to meet human rights obligations
Refugees and migrants are being buried in unmarked graves across the European Union at a scale that is unprecedented outside of war.
The Guardian can reveal that at least 1,015 men, women and children who died at the borders of Europe in the past decade were buried before they were identified.
They lie in stark, often blank graves along the borders – rough white stones overgrown with weeds in Sidiro cemetery in Greece; crude wooden crosses on Lampedusa in Italy; in northern France faceless slabs marked simply “Monsieur X”; in Poland and Croatia plaques reading “NN” for name unknown.
On the Spanish island of Gran Canaria, one grave states: “Migrant boat number 4. 25/09/2022.”
IOC allows Russian athletes to take part in 2024 Olympics
Olympic officials approved Russian and Belarusian athletes to compete neutrally in the Paris Olympics.
Russian and Belarusian athletes who qualify will be able to participate in the 2024 Olympics in Paris, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) said on Friday.
The athletes will only be allowed to participate in the event as neutrals. They cannot display any flags, emblems or anthems during their participation.
“The Executive Board (EB) of the IOC has decided that Individual Neutral Athletes (AINs) who have qualified through the existing qualification systems of the International Federations (IFs) on the field of play will be declared eligible to compete at the Olympic Games Paris 2024,” the Olympic body said in a statement.
UN slams COP28 ‘posturing’ as negotiators spar over ending fossil fuels
Countries at the COP28 climate talks need to stop posturing, aim high and agree on a way to end the “fossil fuel era as we know it”, UN climate chief Simon Stiell said on Wednesday, as tension over the future of coal, oil and gas came to the fore.
The UN climate chief was speaking as the two-week conference approaches its midpoint when attention turns to behind-the-scenes negotiations, following the opening flurry of announcements.
“All governments must give their negotiators clear marching orders. We need highest ambition, not point-scoring or lowest common denominator politics,” Stiell told a news conference.
COP28’s host country, the United Arab Emirates, said more than $83 billion had been mobilised during the first five days of the event.
US climate envoy John Kerry said it had been “a pretty damn good week” so far, but that the pace of emissions cutting had to be accelerated.
Top gov’t spokesman allegedly received ¥10 mil in kickbacks: source
Chief Cabinet Secretary Hirokazu Matsuno, Japan’s top government spokesman, is accused of failing to report more than 10 million yen in income raised through events hosted by his party faction, a source close to the matter said Friday.
Matsuno belongs to the ruling Liberal Democratic Party’s largest faction, formerly headed by slain Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, which has been suspected to have pooled funds amounting to over 100 million yen without reporting the revenue in political funding statements.
After the allegations emerged, Matsuno, one of the most influential ministers within Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s Cabinet, said he has no intention to resign when speaking at a regular Friday press conference.
MLK house: Bystanders prevent attempt to burn down Dr King’s birth home
By Sam CabralBBC News
Alert bystanders stopped a woman as she attempted to set fire to the birth home of Martin Luther King Jr in Atlanta, Georgia, police say.
Officials said the prompt action “saved an important part of American history”.
The accused is in custody and faces charges of arson for allegedly pouring petrol onto the property.
The two-storey house where Dr King spent the first 12 years of his life is a federal landmark.
Its interior was acquired by the National Park Service in 2018 and has been closed to the public since last month for repairs and renovations.
Officers responded to the vandalism in progress in the city’s Auburn Avenue Historic District about 17:45 local time (22:45 GMT) on Thursday, Atlanta police said in a news release.
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