Will motion passed by UN Security Council on Gaza have any impact?
Resolution on aid has been watered down to avoid a US veto and omits call for an end to hostilities. The United Nations Security Council has passed a motion on the war on Gaza. It comes after two months of Israeli attacks that have killed more than 20,000 Palestinians. The resolution – weakened by pressure from the United States – calls for more aid but not for Israel to stop its bombardment. So, will it have any impact? Presenter: Dareen Abughaida Guests: Scott Lucas – professor of US and international relations at University College Dublin and founder and editor of online news site EA Worldview Dmitry Babich – political analyst at the InoSMI internet media project in Moscow Maleeha Lodhi – former Pakistan permanent representative and ambassador to the UN Adblock test (Why?)
Rebel attack in western Burundi kills at least 20
It is the second attack in two weeks by the RED-Tabara rebels, who have been largely inactive inside Burundi since 2021. Gunmen have killed at least 20 people and wounded nine others near Burundi’s western border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), an official has told reporters. Those killed in the Friday evening raid on the town of Vugizo included 12 children, two pregnant women and a police officer, government spokesperson Jérôme Niyonzima said on Saturday. The attack was claimed by the RED-Tabara rebel group, considered a “terrorist” group by the Burundian authorities. The attack targeted nine homes in the town, close to the Lake Tanganyika border with the DRC. At least nine others wounded in the attack have been hospitalised. The RED-Tabara rebel group, which has been battling Burundi’s government from bases in the eastern DRC since 2015, claimed on the social media platform X to have killed nine soldiers and one police officer. The group denied having targeted civilians. Local residents said they heard sounds of gunfire and explosions during the attack. Witnesses who spoke to the Associated Press said the rebels appeared to be wearing Burundian Army uniforms and civilians were “left to their own devices” after the military and police fled. “We realised they were attackers when they attacked the police position guarding the border,” said Priscille Kanyange, a farmer. “Many people here were injured by bullets [as they were] trying to flee.” Another farmer, Innocent Hajayandi, who witnessed the attack, said security forces fled, “leaving the residents to their own devices”. André Kabura, a grocery shop owner who was wounded in both legs in the gunfire, said the military and police were slow to regroup and fend off the attackers. Two military and security sources told the AFP news agency the attack targeted “a military position”. “The civilians were caught in the crossfire and were killed, and then the assailants retreated to DRC,” a senior military official told the AFP on condition of anonymity, confirming the toll of 20. The attack was the second in as many weeks inside Burundi by the rebels, who have not been active inside the country since September 2021, when they carried out a series of attacks, including on the Bujumbura airport. Since then, their activities have been taking place in the DRC’s South Kivu province. But on December 11, they exchanged fire with the military in northwestern Burundi. On Friday, Burundian President Évariste Ndayishimiye told army, police and intelligence officers to remain vigilant, warning that “the enemy never sleeps even if we have security”. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Pseudeo-legitimate’ travel agencies in Senegal offering ‘complete packages’ to get migrants to US border
“Pseudo-legitimate” travel agencies are emerging in Senegal and offering migrants a “complete package” to get to the United States‘ southern border, where millions have tried to get into the U.S. illegally, officials said this week. A Customs and Border Protection (CBP) official told Fox News that the agencies are emerging in cities like Dakar, Senegal’s capital, and offer free travel to Europe to Senegalese nationals. Those agencies offer visa-free travel to Europe, which then allows them to move from there to the Western Hemisphere, where they can travel to the U.S. and either try to get in at a port of entry using the CBP One app – where 1,600 are let in each day – or enter illegally between ports of entry in hope of being released into the U.S. with a court date in the distant future. MIGRANT CRISIS INCREASING STRAIN ON BORDER OFFICIALS, IMMIGRATION COURTS WITH MASSIVE NUMBERS “They sell complete packages to connect them to a smuggling organization that will then facilitate their movement up to the border,” the official said. CBP said it is working with partners throughout the hemisphere and across the globe to make sure they are encouraging people’s ability to access protections, while also taking action to prevent those seeking to exploit different travel mechanisms. The Senegalese travel agencies offer a glimpse of the global nature of the migrant crisis and how migrants from across the globe are being pulled to the U.S.-Mexico border. Beyond countries in the Western Hemisphere, U.S authorities have encountered migrants from over 150 countries coming to the border hoping to be processed and released into the interior. Meanwhile, the traffic at the border is not slowing down. On Friday CBP announced that there were 242,418 migrant encounters at the southern border in November, including migrant encounters at ports of entry and illegal immigrant encounters by Border Patrol between ports of entry. That is the highest November on record and the third-highest month of the crisis so far. NOVEMBER SAW NEARLY QUARTER OF A MILLION MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS AMID NEW BORDER SURGE Announcing the November numbers, acting CBP Commissioner Troy Miller said that the agency is facing a “serious challenge” and that it and federal partners need more resources from Congress as requested in the supplemental funding request. Meanwhile, new data released this week from the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) at Syracuse University showed that the immigration court backlog now stands at over three million. Sources have also told Fox News that Border Patrol has released more than 386,000 illegal immigrants into the U.S. with Notices to Appear since October. MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS AT BORDER SOAR PAST THE 200K MARK IN DECEMBER, WITH OVER A WEEK STILL TO GO Republicans have criticized the administration for releasing migrants into the interior and have called for greater restrictions on asylum and the use of humanitarian parole by the administration. The administration has said it is dealing with a hemisphere-wide crisis and needs more funding and comprehensive immigration reform to reduce backlogs and fix a “broken” system. There are ongoing negotiations in Washington about the Biden administration’s request for supplemental funding – including $14 billion for border funding. But Republicans have demanded more asylum restrictions, something that some Democrats have called on the Biden administration to reject. While there had been hope of securing a deal before the end of the year, lawmakers have said this week that there won’t be a deal until January at the earliest. Fox News’ Griff Jenkins contributed to this report.
China considers revising gaming rules after tech giants lose billions
Draft document outlining restrictions caused major stir as tech stocks tumbled, sent investors into a panic. Chinese authorities have said they may revise newly drafted online gaming rules shortly after the planned restrictions caused major tech companies to lose billions of dollars. State broadcaster CCTV reported on Saturday that the authorities have heard the “concerns and opinions raised by all parties”, adding that “the State Press and Publication Administration will study them carefully and further revise and improve them”, referring to the media regulator. The authorities released a draft on Friday with a wide range of rules and regulations aimed at curbing online spending and rewards in video games. Its impact was immediate, dealing a massive blow to the world’s biggest games market. Investors went into a tailspin, leading to as much as $80bn in market value being wiped off from China’s two biggest companies, industry leader Tencent Holdings and Netease. According to the new rules, online games would be banned from giving players rewards if they log in every day, if they spend on a game for the first time, or if they spend several times on a game consecutively. All are common incentive mechanisms in online games. CCTV reported that regulators may now change the wording of sections of the draft rules that limit the ability to encourage daily logins and wallet top-ups. China has become increasingly tough on video games over the years. Its first major move against the gaming sector came in 2021, when Beijing set strict playtime limits for under-18s and suspended approvals of new video games for about eight months, citing gaming addiction concerns. As a result of the crackdown, 2021 and 2022 were the most difficult years on record for the Chinese gaming industry as total revenue shrank for the first time. China revised its position last year and started approving new games again, but regulators have continued to set their sights on curbing the time children play in-game and the amount of money they spend. As part of Friday’s draft, which signifies the strictest limits yet, games are also banned from offering probability-based draw features to minors, and from enabling the auction of virtual gaming items. The new rules reflected Beijing’s concerns about user data, requiring game publishers to store their servers within China. The draft comes as China’s video game market has returned to growth this year as domestic revenue rose 13 percent to 303 billion yuan ($42.6bn), according to the industry association CGIGC. Due to the sheer size and impact of Chinese gaming giants, the global video games market could also be affected in the long run. Several United States and European video games developers saw shares take a hit after Friday’s announcement, but the losses were small when compared with Tencent’s 16 percent tumble. Friday’s news wiped about $54bn off the company’s share value, according to Bloomberg News. The administration is seeking public comment on the rules by January 22. [embedded content] Adblock test (Why?)
The US is no country for old men
Shortly prior to his death from prostate cancer in August of this year at the age of 72, my father emerged from a state of muteness to recite, with a burst of energy, the 1927 poem, Sailing to Byzantium, by William Butler Yeats, which begins: “That is no country for old men.” My mother, my uncle, and I were present for the impromptu performance, which took place in my father’s bed in Washington, DC, where he had commenced in-home hospice care after the chemotherapy treatments that had been forced upon him by profit-oriented doctors had accelerated his demise. This was but one of many poems my father had memorised as a young man intent on honing his intellectual credentials; my mother and uncle – who in their youth had also fallen under the influence of my dad’s cerebral pursuits – joined in on the lines they remembered. Having completed his vehement recitation, my father resumed his generally mute state, which was thereafter punctuated only by intermittent outbursts about wanting to die. I have no way of knowing what was going through my dad’s mind during that final poetic eruption, but the first line of the Yeats poem did seem to be a fitting commentary on the country in which we found ourselves – the one where we had all been born and the one my parents and I had spent years avoiding. My mom and dad had only relatively recently returned to reside in the homeland after nearly eight years in Barcelona; I had flown into Washington in August from Turkey, which was one of my regular stops in a 20-year self-imposed exile. Indeed, my father’s final months had merely confirmed that the US is “no country for old men”. Counterproductive chemotherapy treatments were but one of the ways he had been milked for all he was worth, before being turned over as prey to the lucrative realm of funeral and cremation services. For example, for a one-month prescription of the prostate cancer drug Xtandi, a medication developed with none other than US taxpayer money, my father had been charged $14,579.01 – ie, more than many people in the United States earn in several months. For folks lacking the means to pursue healthcare and other basic needs, US capitalism can be deadly, too. And while US society specialises in oppressing a wide range of demographics – minus, of course, the elite minority that thrives on acute inequality – the treatment of the elderly is particularly cynical. Having outlived their labour-based exploitability as cogs in the capitalist machine, older people become decaying objects from which profit must continue to be extracted until the very last minute. According to the results of a West Health-Gallup survey published in 2022, approximately one in four Americans aged 65 and older and three in 10 Americans between the ages of 50 and 64 said they had sacrificed basic needs, such as food, to pay for healthcare. The study found that older women and Black Americans were disproportionately affected and that punitive health care costs constituted a significant source of stress in the daily lives of older Americans, with stress naturally only exacerbating existing medical issues. Add vampire-like insurance companies to the mix, and the panorama becomes ever more morbid. The prohibitive fees associated with many programmes – coupled with insurance outfits’ frequent refusal to cover lifesaving treatments – means that life itself continues to be a privilege and not a right in the United States. Then there’s the $34bn assisted-living industry, which a recent Washington Post investigation revealed to be plagued by wanton neglect despite charging an average of $6,000 a month per resident. Since 2018, the Post reported, more than 2,000 residents have wandered off unnoticed from such facilities, and nearly 100 of them have died after doing so. So much for “assisted living”. To be sure, the loneliness and isolation that so often attends old age in the US does nothing to increase life expectancy; nor does the unique stigma that US “culture” attaches to ageing. As the American Psychological Association (APA) has noted, institutionalised ageism in the United States entails a “host of negative effects, for people’s physical and mental wellbeing and society as a whole”. Granted, loneliness and isolation are often lifelong afflictions for inhabitants of the so-called “land of the free”, where the collective mental wellbeing is hardly helped by a dog-eat-dog insistence on individual success at the expense of communal and family bonds and the conversion of human beings into consumerist automatons. And the cutthroat, transactional nature of existence in the US culminates, appropriately, with elderly bodies being put up for grabs by pharmaceutical companies, nursing homes, and the corporate racket known as the US healthcare system. That said, the US is, in fact, a fine country for some old men – such as former warmongering diplomat Henry Kissinger, who perished at home in Connecticut in November at the ripe old age of 100 after spending a good part of his life causing the deaths of countless people worldwide. Not long after my father’s death in August, I fell into conversation with a Bolivian man in his 50s who had resided in Washington for more than two decades and who expanded on the “no country” theme. He planned to stick it out for another 10 to 15 years before returning to his home city of Cochabamba, he told me, because he couldn’t afford to be old in the US. And while the US may be “no country for old men”, it’s not much of a country for anyone else, either. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Adblock test (Why?)
Yemen warring parties commit to ceasefire, UN-led peace process, says envoy
Rival groups commit to new ceasefire and engage in UN-led peace process to end the nine-year war, says UN special envoy for Yemen. The warring sides in the long-running conflict in Yemen have committed to steps towards a ceasefire and engage in a United Nations-led peace process, according to the UN special envoy for Yemen. The announcement by Hans Grundberg on Saturday marks the latest step to end a nine-year war that has killed hundreds of thousands of people and triggered one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises. Following a series of meetings between the Saudi-backed Yemeni government and Iran-aligned Houthis in Saudi Arabia and Oman, a statement by Grundberg’s office said he “welcomes the parties’ commitment to a set of measures to implement a nationwide ceasefire, improve living conditions in Yemen, and engage in preparations for the resumption of an inclusive political process”. The envoy “will now engage with the parties to establish a roadmap under UN auspices that includes these commitments and supports their implementation”, the statement said. The plan, along with a ceasefire, will also include the two sides’ commitment to resume oil exports, pay all public sector salaries, open roads in Taiz and other parts of Yemen, and “further ease restrictions on Sanaa Airport and the Hodeidah port”, it added. Yemen has been gripped with conflict since the Houthis took control of capital Sanaa in 2014, triggering a Saudi-led military intervention in support of the government forces the following year. A UN-brokered ceasefire that took effect in April 2022 brought a sharp reduction in hostilities in the country of 30 million people. The truce expired in October last year, though fighting largely remains on hold. In September, Houthi officials visited Riyadh for the first time since the war broke out. That followed a first round of Omani-mediated consultations between Riyadh and Sanaa. The peace initiatives gained momentum after regional rivals Saudi Arabia and Iran agreed to re-establish ties in a deal brokered by China. The UN envoy’s announcement also came amid a flurry of Houthi attacks on key shipping lanes in the Red Sea in solidarity with the Palestinians under attack in the Gaza Strip for more than two months. Adblock test (Why?)
ICE nabs more than two dozen illegal immigrant sex predators, some with child sex offenses, in LA
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) this week arrested 26 illegal immigrant sex offenders in a two-day operation in California, while the U.S. continues to face an escalating migrant crisis, which has diverted resources to the border. The more than two dozen foreign nationals were arrested between Monday and Wednesday, and the operation focused on those identified as having criminal convictions for sex offenses. Those arrested included child sex predators, including a 40-year-old Mexican who had been convicted in California for felony lewd acts with a child, and continuous sexual abuse. ICE RAMPS UP STAFFING AT SOUTHERN BORDER TO AID CBP WITH NEW MIGRANT SURGE Agents also took into custody a 35-year-old Guatemalan convicted of felony child molestation and a 19-year-old Salvadoran convicted of felony sexual forcible oral copulation of a minor over 14 and battery by restraint. The operation was conducted by the Enforcement and Removal Operations (ERO) in Los Angeles. “The outcome of this operation exemplifies the professionalism, dedication and commitment of ERO Los Angeles officers to public safety,” Field Office Director Thomas Giles said in a statement. “Removing these individuals and the threats they represent from our communities is our mission, and we will continue to safely and effectively enforce the immigration laws of our nation.” The agency pointed to 46,496 illegal immigrants arrested by ERO in FY 22 with criminal convictions, including 8,164 sex and sexual assault offenses. Numbers for FY 23 have not yet been released. The Biden administration has drastically narrowed ICE enforcement, with agents now tasked with only going after illegal immigrants if they pose a risk to public safety or national security or if they are recent border crossers. MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS AT BORDER SOAR PAST THE 200K MARK IN DECEMBER The administration says it is narrowing priorities so that it can focus on the biggest threats to national security and public safety with its limited resources. However, there has also been a sharp drop in deportations under the administration, including of criminal illegal aliens. ICE agents are often blocked from doing their jobs by “sanctuary” jurisdictions, which often limit or outright bar local law enforcement cooperation with ICE. Meanwhile, Fox reported this week that ICE is sending resources, including ERO personnel to the border, to aid Customs and Border Protection (CBP) deal with the historic crisis at the southern border. Fox News Digital reported that ERO will provide 141 personnel to assist CBP with border operations. BIDEN ADMINISTRATION SENDING SURGE OF ICE SPECIAL AGENTS TO BORDER AMID INCREASE IN MIGRANT NUMBERS Those duties will include responding to questions regarding medical and transport issues, enrolling illegal immigrants into alternatives to detention (ATD) electronic monitoring and coordinating removals and the necessary travel documents. Meanwhile, the agency currently has 132 ICE Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents at the border, and that number will increase to 197. As part of a memo of understanding, the special agents will be assigned to duties that include hospital watch, transportation, law enforcement searches, security and welfare checks. ICE is a smaller agency than CBP, so moving significant numbers of staff to the border has the potential to impact ongoing operations.
BJP’s national office bearers meeting concludes, briefings held on Ram temple, Lok Sabha elections
The BJP wrapped up a two-day meeting of national office-bearers, addressing crucial topics ranging from the upcoming Lok Sabha elections to the progress of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Border Patrol encountered 17 people on terror watch list at southern border in November
There were 17 encounters of people between ports of entry at the southern border on the FBI’s terror watch list in November, according to data released Friday by Customs and Border Protection (CBP) It brings the total of people encountered by the Border Patrol between ports of entry on the watch list to 30 for FY 24, which began in October. The watch list, now officially called the Terrorist Screening Dataset, is the U.S. database that contains information on terrorist identities and includes not only known or suspected terrorists but also affiliates of watch-listed individuals. MIGRANT CRISIS INCREASING STRAIN ON BORDER OFFICIALS, IMMIGRATION COURTS WITH MASSIVE NUMBERS FY 23 saw a record 169 terror watchlist encounters by Border Patrol between the ports of entry at the southern border, a number that exceeded not only fiscal year 2022’s record-setting total (98) but the last six fiscal years combined. The numbers at the ports themselves are significantly higher. There have been 49 encounters at ports at the north and southern borders so far this fiscal year, compared to 564 last year. “Encounters of watchlisted individuals at our borders are very uncommon, underscoring the critical work CBP Agents and Officers carry out every day on the frontlines,” the CBP website says. But the numbers between the ports raise concerns given that those who have dangerous criminal histories or ties may seek to enter the U.S. either as part of a group of migrants or evade Border Patrol as “gotaways.” NOVEMBER SAW NEARLY QUARTER OF A MILLION MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS AMID NEW BORDER SURGE The number of terror watchlist encounters drew more attention in the wake of the Hamas terror attack on Israel, with lawmakers expressing concern that terrorist fighters may seek to cross into the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security’s threat assessment, published in October, noted that agents have encountered a growing number on the watch list and warned that “terrorists and criminal actors may exploit the elevated flow and increasingly complex security environment to enter the United States.” “Individuals with terrorism connections are interested in using established travel routes and permissive environments to facilitate access to the United States,” the assessment also said. The numbers are only a small part of the 242,000+ migrants encountered at the southern border in November, which marked the highest November on record and the third-highest month on record. It comes as the Border Patrol has been dealing with increased numbers after a FY 23 that broke the record for encounters in a single fiscal year. Agents have been overwhelmed by a surge of migrants from across the globe in places like Lukeville, Arizona, and Eagle Pass, Texas. Monday saw a record 12,600 encounters, the highest recorded in a single day. Sources told Fox that December has already exceeded 200,000 encounters and could easily eclipse November’s numbers, given that agents are encountering 10,000+ a day. MIGRANT ENCOUNTERS AT BORDER SOAR PAST THE 200K MARK IN DECEMBER, WITH OVER A WEEK STILL TO GO Meanwhile, sources told Fox News this week that the Border Patrol has released more than 386,000 illegal immigrants into the U.S. with notices to appear. That does not include those released by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and does not include migrants paroled into the U.S. via the CBP One app at ports of entry. Meanwhile, border security measures and asylum limits are being debated in Washington as lawmakers seek to find agreement on the White House’s supplemental funding request, which includes $14 billion for border funding. Republicans have demanded greater limits on asylum and limits on the use of humanitarian parole. While lawmakers have expressed optimism on a potential agreement, it is not expected before January at the earliest. Fox News’ Bill Melugin contributed to this report.
‘COVID-19 JN.1 variant is spreading rapidly but…’: Former AIIMS chief Dr Randeep Guleria gives this advice; Watch
Dr. Randeep Guleria, former AIIMS Director and current medical education director of Medanta talked about the Covid JN.1 variant including its symptoms and severity, and also appealed to the people to remain alert.