US says it conducted strikes against Houthi targets in Yemen’s capital
US strikes on Sanaa come amid recent series of attacks between the Yemeni rebel group and the Israeli military. The United States military says it has conducted air strikes against targets linked to the Houthi rebels in Yemen’s capital Sanaa, including a missile storage facility and a “command-and-control” site. US Central Command (CENTCOM), which oversees US Army operations in the Middle East, said on Saturday that the strikes aimed “to disrupt and degrade Houthi operations”. The Iran-allied group has previously launched attacks on US Navy and merchant vessels in the Red Sea, Bab al-Mandeb and Gulf of Aden, CENTCOM said in a social media post. The US strikes come amid an uptick in attacks between the Houthis and the Israeli military this week. Israel bombed several targets in Yemen on Thursday, including power stations near Sanaa. The Israeli bombardment, which killed at least nine people, followed a missile launch by the Houthis, formally known as Ansar Allah, towards Tel Aviv. CENTCOM Conducts Airstrikes Against Iran-Backed Houthi Missile Storage and Command/Control Facilities in Yemen TAMPA, Fla. – U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) forces conducted precision airstrikes against a missile storage facility and a command-and-control facility operated by… pic.twitter.com/YRWWQJIweP — U.S. Central Command (@CENTCOM) December 21, 2024 Advertisement In the latest incident, in the early hours of Saturday, the Houthis said they launched a ballistic missile at central Israel. The Israeli military said it had failed to intercept the projectile, which fell in the Tel Aviv-Jaffa area. Local emergency services said 16 people were “mildly injured” in the incident. The Houthis have been targeting Israel with drones and missiles to pressure the US ally to end its war in Gaza, where the US-backed Israeli military has killed more than 45,000 people. The Yemeni rebels also have been carrying out attacks on shipping lanes in and around the Red Sea as part of the same campaign, which they say is in support of Palestinians. For months, the US and the United Kingdom have been bombing Houthi targets in Yemen in response to the Red Sea assaults. The administration of US President Joe Biden has also imposed sanctions against the Houthis. On Thursday, Washington sanctioned the governor of the central bank in Houthi-controlled Sanaa and several Houthi officials and associated companies, accusing them of helping the group acquire “dual-use and weapons components”. Adblock test (Why?)
‘An ethical crisis of its own making’: Democrats blast Supreme Court ethics
A report from Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee has detailed new allegations about the “lavish gifts” justices on the United States Supreme Court received from donors. The 93-page report, released on Saturday, culminates a nearly 20-month investigation led by outgoing Senate Judiciary Chair Dick Durbin. It builds on previous reporting from the news outlet ProPublica that raised questions about potential conflicts of interest on the highest court in the land. The report, however, claims to have uncovered never-before-reported trips allegedly taken by Justice Clarence Thomas at the expense of real estate developer Harlan Crow, a prominent supporter of the Republican Party. While other justices are also named in the report, it singles out Thomas for particular censure. “The number, value, and extravagance of the gifts accepted by Justice Thomas have no comparison in modern American history,” the report reads. Justice Thomas has yet to respond publicly to the report’s allegations. Advertisement Prominent Senate Democrats like Durbin have long pushed for the Supreme Court to institute a watertight code of ethics to prevent conflicts of interest and ensure compliance with disclosure mandates. In their report, the Democrats slammed the Supreme Court’s chief justice, conservative John Roberts, for not taking more forceful steps to crack down on the apparent ethical lapses. “Chief Justice Roberts’s continued unwillingness to implement the only viable solution to the Court’s ethical crisis — an enforceable code of conduct — requires Congress to act to restore the public’s confidence in the highest court in the land,” the report said. It accused the court of failing to deal with “an ethical crisis of its own making”. In the wake of ProPublica’s investigation, Roberts did take steps to implement a Supreme Court code of ethics. The court never had such a code before. But critics pointed out that the new code, agreed to unanimously by the justices in November 2023, included no means of enforcing its tenets or investigating possible violations. That has led to further public outcry. The polling firm Gallup reported on December 17 that confidence in the US judicial system had sunk to a record low, making it an outlier from other relatively wealthy countries. Gallup found that 55 percent of residents of countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) expressed confidence in their courts, as a median. In the US, however, that number was only 35 percent. Advertisement Saturday’s report is likely to contribute to that scepticism. The report itself acknowledges the crisis of public faith. “The public is now far more aware of the extent of the largesse certain justices have received and how these justices and their billionaire benefactors continue to act with impunity,” it said. The report specifies that “justices appointed by presidents of both parties” have engaged in ethically dubious behaviour. It criticises left-leaning Justice Sonia Sotomayor for initially failing to disclose travel and lodging from the University of Rhode Island while on a book tour. However, the report reserves some of its most scathing criticism for Justice Thomas and his conservative colleagues, Samuel Alito and the late Antonin Scalia. Many of the incidents have been detailed elsewhere before. For instance, the report points out that Justice Thomas has failed to recuse himself in cases where his wife, conservative activist Ginni Thomas, had a stake in the outcome. The report asserts that this constitutes a violation of federal law. ProPublica had previously chronicled Thomas’s trips on board Crow’s yacht and private jet, potentially worth thousands of dollars. But Saturday’s report also highlights two newly-revealed trips in October 2021 to Saranac, New York, and to New York City. In previous public statements, Thomas has maintained he “always sought to comply with the disclosure guidelines”. He has also characterised his outings with Crow as “family trips” made with some of his “dearest friends”. Advertisement Another friend of Justice Thomas, lawyer Mark Paoletta, responded to the Democrats’ report on social media. He accused Democratic Senators of “smearing” Justice Thomas and attacking the court, which currently has a six-to-three conservative supermajority. “This entire investigation was never about ‘ethics’ but about trying to undermine the Supreme Court,” Paoletta wrote. “The Left has invented recusal standards to attack the Justices [and] try to force them off cases. It has not worked.” Earlier this year, in June, Republican senators blocked a Democrat-led bill designed to create an enforcement mechanism for ethics violations on the court, called the Supreme Court Ethics, Recusal and Transparency Act. But Republicans like Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina questioned the bill’s constitutionality and called it an overreach. In January, Republicans are set to hold a majority in the Senate, which is currently led by Democrats. Once they do, they will have control of both chambers of Congress. Adblock test (Why?)
Pakistan jails 25 Imran Khan supporters over attacks on military sites
Military court convicts civilians involved in 2023 unrest, with rights groups slamming ruling as ‘intimidation tactic’. Pakistan has jailed 25 civilians over attacks on military facilities that followed the arrest of former Prime Minister Imran Khan in 2023. The military’s public relations wing confirmed the ruling on Saturday, stating that a military court had handed down sentences of between two and 10 years of “rigorous imprisonment”, with 14 facing a decade behind bars. The statement did not specify the charges, but referred to acts committed by Khan’s supporters, who stormed military premises and torched a general’s house during the unrest in May 2023, as “political terrorism”. It said the ruling was “a stark reminder … to never take law in [one’s] own hands”. The military said others charged over the violence, which killed at least eight people, were being tried in anti-terrorism courts and justice would only be fully served when the “mastermind and planners” were punished. Amnesty International called the ruling “an intimidation tactic, designed to crack down on dissent”. Politically motivated Former cricket star Khan served as prime minister from 2018 to 2022, when he was removed by parliament in a no-confidence vote, blaming the then-head of the powerful military establishment for his downfall. Advertisement The 72-year-old was imprisoned for days in May 2023, then again three months later and has remained in jail since, facing a parade of court cases he claims are politically motivated. Meanwhile, his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party was hit by a sweeping crackdown, with thousands of grassroots supporters and senior officials arrested. Khan was barred from running in elections in February of this year, which were marred by rigging allegations. PTI defied the crackdown to win more seats than any other party but was shut out of power by a coalition of parties considered more amenable to military influence. Last month, protests and unrest gripped the capital Islamabad again as thousands of PTI supporters attempted to occupy a public square on the doorstep of parliament. Saturday’s ruling came days after Khan was indicted by an anti-terrorism court on charges of inciting attacks against the military. Adblock test (Why?)
Trump and the return of the National ‘Emergy’
In October 2018, a “migrant caravan” bound for the United States set out on foot from Honduras. The group was comprised of refuge seekers of all ages fleeing contexts of acute violence and poverty – a regional reality shaped by decades of punitive foreign policy machinations by none other than the US itself. Then-president Donald Trump, never one to pass up an opportunity for overzealous xenophobic spectacle, took to Twitter to broadcast a “National Emergy” [sic], warning that “criminals and unknown Middle Easterners are mixed in” with the caravan. In preparation for the pedestrian assault on the country, Trump ordered 5,200 active-duty US military troops to be deployed to the southern border along with helicopters, heaps of razor wire, and other “emergy” equipment. Obviously, the US lived to tell the tale – although the same cannot be said for the thousands of refuge seekers who have died over the years while attempting to reach perceived safety in the country. Now, as Trump gears up for his second round as commander in chief of the nation, we’re in for another round of the anti-migrant “emergy”, as well, which the president-elect has taken the liberty of preemptively declaring. Advertisement After campaigning on a pledge to perpetrate the “largest deportation operation” in US history, Trump in November confirmed he was “prepared” to declare a national emergency and to utilise the US military to expel millions of undocumented immigrants from the country. The deployment of the armed forces in this particular task naturally leaves no room for doubt that this is, well, war – never mind Trump’s marketed image as a leader who is somehow antiwar. Not that the US war on asylum seekers is anything new. Nor, of course, is it a war that is waged solely by Trumpites and members of the Republican party. Outgoing US President Joe Biden, for his part, did a fine job on the battlefield, overseeing more than 142,000 deportations in fiscal year 2023 alone. Then there was that decision by the Biden administration to waive a whole bunch of federal laws and regulations in order to expand Trump’s beloved border wall, in contravention of Biden’s own promises. Rather than do all the dirty work himself, Biden increasingly enlisted the help of the Mexican government, already an established collaborator in making life hell for the US-bound have-nots of the world. And the more the US forced Mexico to crack down on migration, the more existentially perilous it became for people on the move – and the more profitable for extortion-addicted Mexican authorities and organised crime outfits alike. After all, “border security” is big business on both sides of the border. And on the US side, it’s an entirely bipartisan affair that only becomes more transparently nefariously bonkers when Trump is at the helm; recall, for example, the man’s reported vision in 2019 of a US-Mexico frontier that included a “water-filled trench, stocked with snakes or alligators” and a wall with “spikes on top that could pierce human flesh”. And while the alligators have yet to pan out, it seems that dying in a fire in a Mexican migrant detention centre or succumbing to dehydration and heatstroke in the desert is probably horrifyingly painful enough. Advertisement Meanwhile, the Trumpian fantasy according to which Biden recklessly presided over a free-for-all open-border policy will now only provide additional fuel for Trump’s renewed war effort on the southern border. Like Trump, Biden imposed his own de facto asylum bans that violated both US and international law – and, as Trump launches the second instalment of his quest to “make American great again”, you can bet the human right to asylum is going to come under progressively deranged fire. And yet National Emergy 2.0 is not just a war on refuge seekers. Paradoxically, it’s also a war on the US itself, which cannot exist in its current form without the assistance of mass undocumented labour – the very folks Trump is threatening with the “largest deportation operation” in US history. As per a report by the US Chamber of Commerce, the United States is suffering from a pronounced labour shortage: “If every unemployed person in the country found a job, we would still have millions of open jobs.” In May 2024, a CNBC analysis found that “immigrant workers are helping boost the US labor market,” making up a record 18.6 percent of the workforce in 2023. The analysis continued: “As Americans age out of the labor force and birth rates remain low, economists and the Federal Reserve are touting the importance of immigrant workers for overall future economic growth.” But why should Trump think about future, um, “emergies” when he can focus instead on propagating such preposterous falsehoods as that Haitian immigrants in Ohio are eating pets? Advertisement To be sure, there are plenty of things in America that objectively qualify as a national emergency, among them the regularity of school shootings and other deadly gun violence. Institutionalised racism also comes to mind, as does the homelessness epidemic and a predatory healthcare industry that is lethal in its own right. But the whole point of a “National Emergy” is to distract from actual problems by replacing reason with paranoid absurdity. And as Trump rallies the troops for the impending surge in his favourite war, it’s only logical that logic, too, will be a casualty. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Adblock test (Why?)
Governments and banks once mocked Bitcoin. Now they want in on it
Bitcoin has proven to be one of the best-performing assets in modern history. The value of the cryptocurrency has increased some 1,000 times over the past decade, far outpacing US stocks and real estate. Buoyed by United States President-elect Donald Trump’s crypto-friendly stance, Bitcoin’s record rally hit a new high of $107,000 on Monday after the Republican reiterated his intention to create a Bitcoin strategic reserve. Bitcoin, the first decentralised digital currency, was invented by the pseudonymous figure Satoshi Nakamoto in the wake of the 2007-2008 global financial crisis. Nakamoto introduced the blockchain system – a digital ledger that stores transactions in a network of computers – to enable anyone to make financial transactions without the involvement of banks, financial firms or governments. Once widely derided as a speculative asset with no intrinsic value, Bitcoin is being taken increasingly seriously by governments, financial institutions and investors alike. Boaz Sobrado, a London-based fintech analyst, said Bitcoin has transformed from being a niche asset favoured by political dissidents and criminals carrying out Illicit transactions “to something that central banks have to keep in mind and consider”. Advertisement “The IMF has put very firm anti-crypto political guidelines into place when negotiating with countries that might require its own assistance. It’s gone from being an academic question to a practical, real one and one that central banks are taking very seriously now,” Sobrado told Al Jazeera. Bitcoin’s record rally hit a new high of $107,000 this month [Nicolas Tucat/AFP] In January, the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved Bitcoin ETFs (exchange-traded funds), allowing investors to have exposure to the asset on the stock exchange for the first time. In an October report, the US Department of the Treasury referred to Bitcoin as “digital gold”, noting its use as a store of value. A number of countries have made big bets on the cryptocurrency. El Salvador has accumulated some $600m worth of Bitcoin reserves and is one of just a handful of countries, along with the Central African Republic, that accepts the asset as legal tender. Other countries, including the US and the United Kingdom, have acquired large holdings of Bitcoin through the seizure of assets implicated in criminal activity. The US has seized at least 215,000 Bitcoins, valued at almost $21bn at current prices, since 2020, according to an analysis by crypto firm 21.co. With Trump returning to the White House, Bitcoin supporters are hopeful that cryptocurrencies will gain unprecedented legitimacy after years of government-led crackdowns on the sector. Despite once labelling Bitcoin “a scam”, Trump has emerged as arguably the world’s most powerful advocate for the asset. Donald Trump gives a keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2024 conference in Nashville, Tennessee [File: Jon Cherry/Getty Images/AFP] After pledging to make the US “crypto capital of the planet”, he has picked several high-profile crypto enthusiasts to join his incoming administration, including former PayPal Chief Operating Officer David Sacks as crypto tsar and Paul Atkins as SEC chair. Advertisement Trump’s pro-crypto stance has found allies in the US Congress, such as Senator Cynthia Lummis, a Republican from Wyoming, who earlier this year introduced the BITCOIN Act of 2024, which would include Bitcoin among reserve assets such as gold and oil as a long-term store of value. Under Lummis’s plans, the government would buy roughly 200,000 Bitcoins every year for five years, and then hold the assets for 20 years as a hedge against inflation. “If we did that with five percent of all the Bitcoin that will ever exist – which is roughly a million Bitcoin – we could cut our debt in half in 20 years,” Lummis said in a television interview with Fox Business. On Wall Street, derision and mockery have also given way to more positive appraisals. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, who once described Bitcoin as an “index of money laundering”, in January said the commodity was “no different than what gold represented for thousands of years” and an “asset class that protects you”. ‘Currency of resistance’ The key attribute of Bitcoin that makes it revolutionary is that it separates money from the state, according to Max Keiser, senior Bitcoin adviser to El Salvador President Nayib Bukele. “This is the first time in history that this has ever happened – money exists that has no central authority controlling it. This is what makes it unique, very powerful,” Keiser told Al Jazeera. “There’s now this growing feeling that the 21st century will be the century of Bitcoin.” Keiser spotted Bitcoin’s potential early on and advised people to buy it when its value was only $1 in 2011. That year, he and his wife, television presenter Stacy Herbert, called Bitcoin “the currency of resistance”, and predicted it would top $100,000. Advertisement One of the reasons Bitcoin has gained strength in value is the poor performance of economies such as Argentina, where inflation last year skyrocketed more than 200 percent, according to Gerald Celente, founder and director of the New York-based Trends Research Institute. “People were seeing their currencies being devalued… People were saying: ‘I’m losing all my money, what am I going to do?’ They can’t afford to buy gold, so they started buying whatever they could in cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin, so that kept it strong,” Celente told Al Jazeera. Since Trump’s election, Bitcoin’s price has risen by more than 50 percent and with an incoming pro-crypto administration, Celente predicts an even greater rally. “[The value] could go through the roof, but we don’t see [Bitcoin] going down much at all,” he said. Crypto supporters argue that Bitcoin’s winning advantage is that its global supply is capped at 21 million. Unlike central banks that can print money indefinitely, Bitcoin’s supply stays constant no matter the demand, which has helped boost its value against the dollar. Armando Pantoja, futurist and tech investor, believes that Bitcoin will appreciate in value “forever”, likening the purchase of the asset to buying real estate in Manhattan. “Bitcoin has value not because of the currency, but because of the technology
Erdogan urges end of foreign support for Kurdish fighters in Syria
Turkish president compares Kurdish YPG fighters to ISIL and says neither group has a future in Syria. Turkiye expects foreign countries to withdraw support for Kurdish fighters in Syria after the toppling of Bashar al-Assad, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says, as Germany warns against an escalation in fighting with Kurdish forces. Speaking to reporters on a flight home from a summit in Egypt, Erdogan said there was no longer any reason for outsiders to back Kurdish fighters with the People’s Protection Units (YPG). His comments were released by his office on Friday. The YPG is the main force in a United States-backed alliance called the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northeastern Syria. Turkiye considers the YPG an extension of the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), which has long fought the Turkish state and is designated as a “terrorist” group by Ankara, Washington and the European Union. In his remarks, Erdogan compared YPG fighters to ISIL (ISIS), an armed group also known as Daesh, and said neither group has a future in Syria. SDF forces operating in the neighbourhood of Ghwayran in the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakah [File: AFP] “In the upcoming period, we do not believe that any power will continue to collaborate with terrorist organisations. The heads of terrorist organisations such as Daesh and PKK-YPG will be crushed in the shortest possible time.” Advertisement The US still has 2,000 soldiers on the ground in Syria working alongside the SDF. The alliance played a major role on the ground defeating ISIL forces in 2014-2017 with US air support and still guards ISIL fighters in prison camps. Ankara, alongside Syrian allies, has mounted several cross-border offensives against the SDF in northern Syria while repeatedly demanding that its NATO ally Washington halts support for the fighters. Hostilities have escalated since President al-Assad was toppled less than two weeks ago with Turkiye and Syrian groups it backs seizing the city of Manbij from the SDF on December 9, prompting the US to broker a fragile ceasefire. Erdogan told reporters that Turkiye wanted to see a new Syria in which all ethnic and religious groups can live in harmony. To achieve this, ISIL, “the PKK and its versions, which threaten the survival of Syria, need to be eradicated”, he said. Security for Kurds ‘essential’ Later on Friday, German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told her Turkish counterpart that security for the Kurdish people is critical for Syria. “Security, especially for Kurds, is essential for a free and secure future for Syria,” she told journalists after meeting Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan while warning of the dangers of any “escalation” with Kurdish forces in Syria. Baerbock also raised the alarm over new violence in northern Syria. “Thousands of Kurds from Manbij and other places are on the run in Syria or are afraid of fresh violence,” the German minister said. “I made it very, very clear today that our common security interests must not be jeopardised by an escalation with the Kurds in Syria.” Advertisement Fidan told Baerbock that it was essential for Kurdish groups including the PKK and YPG to lay down their arms and dissolve, Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs officials said. Meanwhile, a senior US diplomat said on Friday that Washington was urging a ceasefire between Turkish-backed forces and the SDF around the flashpoint Syrian city known as Kobane in Kurdish and Ain al-Arab in Arabic. “We are working energetically in discussions with Turkish authorities, also with the SDF. We think the best way ahead is for a ceasefire around Kobane,” Barbara Leaf, the top US diplomat for the Middle East, told reporters after her first visit to Damascus since the fall of al-Assad. Adblock test (Why?)
At least two dead as car slams into crowded Christmas market in Germany
At least two people are dead and as many as 68 injured after a car rammed into a crowded Christmas market in the city of Magdeburg, the capital of the central German state of Saxony-Anhalt. Officials on Friday night described the incident as an intentional attack and announced that the driver had been taken into custody at the scene. An investigation is under way. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz was among the many offering their condolences in the immediate aftermath of the incident. His office indicated that he would be visiting the scene on Saturday. “The reports from Magdeburg suggest something terrible has happened. My thoughts are with the victims and their families,” Scholz wrote on the social media platform X. “We stand by their side and by the side of the people of Magdeburg. My thanks go to the dedicated rescue workers in these anxious hours.” A police officer speaks with a man outside a cordoned-off area after a suspected attack in Magdeburg, Germany, on December 20 [Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo] The interior minister for Saxony-Anhalt, Tamara Zieschang, identified the suspect as a 50-year-old doctor from Saudi Arabia who arrived in Germany in 2006. He was previously unknown to security services. Advertisement Another state official, Premier Reiner Haseloff, told a local news outlets that one of the dead was a child and the other an adult. He added that he could not say whether there would be further deaths as a result of the suspected attack. “That is speculation now. Every human life that has fallen victim to this attack is a terrible tragedy and one human life too many,” Haseloff told reporters. He said that officials currently believe the suspect in custody was the sole perpetrator behind the car ramming. “As things stand, he is a lone perpetrator, so that as far as we know, there is no further danger to the city,” Haseloff told reporters. Among the injured, 15 were identified as being in critical condition, according to the city government’s website. Another 37 people had injuries of medium severity and 16 were lightly injured. Local media reports indicate the car involved was seen driving at high speeds before striking the crowd at about 7pm local time (18:00 GMT). A police officer blocks a road near the scene of a suspected attack on a Christmas market in Magdeburg, Germany, on December 20 [Ebrahim Noroozi/AP Photo] Christmas markets are a tradition dating back to the Middle Ages in German-speaking parts of Europe. In Magdeburg, a city of about 240,000 residents, the market was set up in a town square, with stalls selling regional food and drink. “It’s a terrible tragedy. This is a catastrophe for the city of Magdeburg and for the state, and for German generally as well,” Haseloff said. “It is really one of the worst things one can imagine, particularly in connection with what a Christmas market should bring.” Advertisement Al Jazeera correspondent Dominic Kane, who was headed to the scene of Friday’s suspected attack, said the Christmas market would have been especially crowded when the car struck. “ It’s the last Friday before Christmas. It’s the tradition all over Germany that Christmas markets are places that people go to, especially on Friday night,” Kane said. “And then think about the physical geography of the market concerned, where it is. It’s not that far from the town… not that far from the river Elbe, in quite a picturesque city actually. So there will have been lots of reasons for people to be in the centre of the city at the time.” Kane added that the suspect’s reported use of a rental car would provide investigators an avenue to learn more about his actions in the lead-up to the attack. “Obviously, there will be a record of when the car was picked up, where it was picked up and what documentation was used to get the car in the first place. These are all lines of inquiry,” Kane said. Friday night’s suspected attack comes eight years after a similar car ramming in the German capital of Berlin on December 19, 2016. In that case, a Tunisian suspect, 24-year-old Anis Amri, intentionally drove a truck into a Christmas market in a major public square, Breitscheidplatz. Twelve people were killed in that attack and as many as 56 were wounded. Amri was eventually killed in a shootout in Milan, after fleeing to Italy. Raphael Bossong, a senior associate at the German Institute for International and Security Affairs, speculated that the two incidents will likely be seen as related, though it is too early to speculate. “ Unfortunately, this is a very sad anniversary, and I’m sure the perpetrator chose this thing for that purpose, to bring up this memory,” Bossong told Al Jazeera shortly after the news broke. He added that Friday’s suspected attack was likely to have political repercussions in Germany, which is slated to hold federal elections in February 2025. Advertisement “We are entering an election period, and the German debate is already very polarised around these issues of migration,” Bossong explained. “I’m sure this will only add fuel to the fire, as sad as it is.” In particular, security arrangements – both at the market and in the country as a whole – are likely to come under scrutiny. “All Christmas markets and all these facilities in general now are supposed to be cordoned off against traffic, in the sense that since no car and no lorry could drive into them,” Bossong told Al Jazeera. “Probably the authorities will have to do some explaining.” Already, the billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk – an increasingly prominent figure on the far right – has used the attack to call for Chancellor Scholz’s resignation. “Scholz should resign immediately,” he wrote in a comment on his social media platform X. “Incompetent fool.” Earlier in the day, Musk had announced he would back the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party in Germany’s upcoming elections. “Only the AfD can save Germany,” he posted, signalling
Starbucks workers’ union goes on strike in US cities
Some members of the workers’ union representing more than 10,000 baristas at Starbucks in the United States have begun a five-day strike at stores in Los Angeles, Chicago and Seattle, citing unresolved issues over wages, staffing and schedules. The strike, which started on Friday, is the latest in a series of labour actions in the US that have picked up pace across service industries following a period when workers of automotive, aerospace and rail manufacturers won substantial concessions from employers. The Starbucks Workers United Union, which represents employees at 525 stores across the US, said late on Thursday that walkouts would escalate daily and could reach “hundreds of stores” nationwide by Christmas Eve. “It’s estimated that 10 stores out of 10,000 company-operated stores did not open today,” Starbucks said, adding that there was no significant impact on store operations on Friday. About 20 people joined a picket line at a Starbucks location on Chicago’s north side, buffeted by snow and wind, but cheering in response to the honking horns of passing cars. Advertisement A few confused customers tried to walk into the closed store before strikers began chanting, but union member Shep Searl said the reaction had been mostly positive. Searl said 100 percent of the unionised workers at the Starbucks location in Chicago’s Edgewater neighbourhood were participating in the strike and, according to the workers, they have been subject to numerous unfair labour practices including write-ups, “captive-audience” meetings and firings. (A captive-audience meeting is a mandatory meeting organised by a firm where employees are interested in unionising and where it brings in labour relations consultants to talk about the pros and cons of unionising.) The union members said they made about $21 an hour and added that this “would have been a great wage in 2013”. It is an inadequate wage, the baristas said, given inflation and the high cost of living in a large city, especially since they rarely got 40-hour work weeks. “We’re planning to escalate if we need to,” they said. Deadlock Negotiations between the company and Workers United began in April, based on an established framework agreed upon in February, which could also help resolve numerous pending legal disputes. Starbucks workers picket outside of a closed Starbucks on Friday in Burbank, California [Damian Dovarganes/AP Photo] The company said on Thursday it has held more than nine bargaining sessions with the union since April, and reached more than 30 agreements on “hundreds of topics”, including economic issues. Advertisement The firm, whose headquarters are in Seattle, said it was ready to continue negotiations, claiming the union delegates prematurely ended the bargaining session this week. The union, however, said in a Facebook post on Friday that Starbucks had yet to present a serious economic proposal with less than two weeks remaining until the year-end contract deadline. The workers’ group also snubbed an offer of no immediate wage hike and a guarantee of a 1.5 percent increase in future years. “Workers United proposals call for an immediate increase in the minimum wage of hourly partners by 64 percent, and by 77 percent over the life of a three-year contract. This is not sustainable,” Starbucks said on Friday. Hundreds of complaints have been filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), accusing Starbucks of unlawful labour practices such as firing union supporters and closing stores during labour campaigns. Starbucks has denied wrongdoing and said it respects the right of workers to choose whether to unionise. Last month, the NLRB said that Starbucks broke the law by telling workers at its flagship Seattle cafe that they would lose benefits if they joined a union. “It’s [the strike] taking place during one of the busiest times of the year for Starbucks, which could magnify its impact while bringing unwanted public scrutiny into the company’s labour practices,” Rachel Wolff, an analyst with market researcher Emarketer, said. The coffee chain is undergoing a turnaround under its newly-appointed boss Brian Niccol, who aims to restore “coffee house culture” by overhauling cafes and simplifying the menu, among other measures. Advertisement “Given how much Starbucks is already struggling to win over customers, it can ill afford any negative publicity – or impact to sales – that the strike could bring,” Wolff said. The union has called for support at the picket lines in the three cities starting at about 18:00 GMT, according to a post on X. The Starbucks workers’ strike comes in the same week as Amazon workers at seven US facilities walked off the job, on Thursday, during the holiday shopping rush. There were 33 work stoppages in 2023, the most since 2000, though far lower than in past decades, data from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics showed. Adblock test (Why?)
A ‘miracle’: Pakistani survivor of a deadly Mediterranean sea crossing
Islamabad, Pakistan – When Hassan Ali fell into the icy waters of the Mediterranean Sea, he thought of his two children – of their smiles, their hugs and his hopes for their future. Then he remembered the others from his small village in Pakistan’s Punjab province who had dreamed of making it to Europe and wondered if they, too, had spent their last moments in the pitch-black sea, thinking of home and the people they had left behind. “I’d heard about so many others,” says Hassan, speaking on a borrowed phone from Malakasa, a refugee camp near Athens. Unable to swim, he says he felt certain that he would drown. Then, he felt the rope – thrown from a merchant navy ship. “I held onto it with my life,” he says. Hassan was the first person pulled on board in the early hours of Saturday, December 14, near the Greek island of Crete. Many others would follow during the two-day rescue operation that involved nine vessels, including the Greek coastguard as well as merchant navy ships and helicopters. Advertisement But not everyone made it. Greek authorities confirmed at least five deaths and more than 200 survivors, following four separate rescue operations by the coastguard over the weekend, though the total number of missing people remains unclear. Three boats carrying migrants capsized between December 14 and 15, near the island of Gavdos, which is further south of Crete, and another boat capsized near the Peloponnese peninsula. Pakistan’s foreign ministry confirmed that the bodies of five Pakistani nationals were recovered, while at least 47 Pakistanis were rescued. The Pakistani embassy in Athens said that at least 35 Pakistani nationals remain missing. A view shows a capsized migrant boat off the island of Gavdos, Greece, on December 14, 2024 [Handout/Hellenic Navy via Reuters] ‘To live with dignity’ Hassan’s journey had started about three and a half months earlier when the 23-year-old left his wife and two toddler sons in their village near the major industrial city of Gujrat. The third of five siblings, he worked on construction sites as a steel fixer, earning 42,000 rupees ($150) per month, if he worked 10 to 12 hour days, seven days per week. But no matter how hard or long he worked, he struggled to stay afloat as prices kept rising. “My electricity bill would be anywhere between 15,000 ($54) and 18,000 rupees ($64) [per month],” he explains. “And groceries would cost nearly the same for my family, including my parents and two younger siblings.” Hassan often had to take small loans at the end of the month just to make ends meet and he always worried about what would happen if there was some kind of emergency, like an illness in the family. Advertisement “In Pakistan, it’s impossible to live with dignity on such earnings,” he says. It drove him to take desperate measures. “Nobody willingly risks their life like this,” he explains. Hassan first spoke to his wife, mother and older brother to suggest that he follow others in their village and attempt to reach Europe. His family agreed and decided to sell a small plot of land, along with Hassan’s mother’s jewellery, to help fund the journey. They raised nearly two million rupees ($7,100) to pay an “agent” who promised safe passage to Europe. The family had heard of people who left but never made it, but also of those who had safely reached Italy within just a few days of leaving Pakistan. Hassan felt a mixture of trepidation and excitement. Just a few weeks later, he said goodbye to his family and boarded a flight from Sialkot to Saudi Arabia. He spent two days there before flying to Dubai. From Dubai, he flew to Egypt and from there, he took his final flight to Benghazi in Libya. ‘Beaten ruthlessly’ In Libya, Hassan was told that he would be put on a boat that would take him to Italy, but instead, he was taken to a warehouse where more than 100 men were confined to a 6-metre x 6-metre (20-foot x 20-foot) room. Most of the men were from Pakistan. Many had been there for months. The smugglers took Hassan’s phone, passport and backpack with a few items of clothing inside, and the 50,000 rupees ($180) he carried with him. Hassan says guards from Libya and Sudan watched them at all times and warned them not to make any noise. Advertisement “We received a piece of bread daily,” he explains, adding: “The guards allowed us one five-minute bathroom break a day.” He describes how anyone who complained about the lack of food or asked to use the toilet or shower was beaten with steel rods and PVC pipes. “All we were able to do was to look at each other or whisper with each other a little. Anybody making a little bit of noise, the guards would pounce and just beat them ruthlessly,” he says. Sometimes, the men would beg to be sent back home. But that, too, would be met with violence. Then, at the beginning of December, the guards told the men that bad weather meant that instead of being sent to Italy, they would be heading for Greece. They were given 30 minutes to prepare to leave the room where they had been held for months. Their phones and passports were returned to them. Pakistani authorities say at least 47 nationals were rescued whereas at least four were identified among the dead [Handout/Hellenic Navy via Reuters] ‘Everyone began praying’ Hassan, who had never seen the sea before, was terrified. “I begged to be sent back to Pakistan, but they told us, ‘There is no going back. Either go forward or die’,” he says. More than 80 men were crammed on board a rickety wooden boat designed to carry no more than 40 passengers, Hassan explains. The sea was treacherous. Hassan describes how “stormy winds and huge waves” left the men “soaked and terrified”. “The engines broke down and everyone
Malaysia to resume search for missing Malaysian Airlines MH370
Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. Malaysia’s government has agreed in principle to resume the search for the wreckage of missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370, more than 10 years after it disappeared in one of the world’s greatest aviation mysteries, the country’s transport minister announced. Anthony Loke said on Friday that the proposal to search a new area in the southern Indian Ocean came from United States-based exploration company Ocean Infinity, which had also conducted the most recent search for the plane that ended in 2018. “The proposal for a search operation by Ocean Infinity is a solid one and deserves to be considered,” Loke told reporters. “Our responsibility and obligation and commitment is to the next of kin. We hope this time will be positive, that the wreckage will be found and give closure to the families.” Flight MH370, a Boeing 777 carrying 227 passengers and 12 crew, vanished en route from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014. Loke said Ocean Infinity would receive $70m if the wreckage found is substantive. Advertisement Malaysian investigators initially did not rule out the possibility that the aircraft had been deliberately taken off course. Investigators previously found that less than an hour into the overnight flight, its communications systems were turned off. Military radar then revealed the aircraft had turned back across Malaysia, skirted the island of Penang, and headed towards the northern tip of Sumatra. Some 26 countries joined the search and rescue mission that followed the disappearance, but could find nothing. Weeks later, the Malaysian government announced MH370 had flown until it ran out of fuel, ending its journey thousands of kilometres from Beijing in the depths of the southern Indian Ocean. Debris, some confirmed and believed to be from the aircraft, has washed up along the coast of Africa and on islands in the Indian Ocean. Relatives had been demanding compensation from Malaysia Airlines, Boeing, aircraft engine maker Rolls-Royce and the Allianz insurance group, among others. Malaysia engaged Ocean Infinity in 2018 to search in the southern Indian Ocean, offering to pay up to $70m if it found the plane, but it failed on two attempts. That followed an underwater search by Malaysia, Australia and China, which had 150 nationals on the flight, in a 120,000sq km (46,332sq mile) area of the southern Indian Ocean, based on data on automatic connections between an Inmarsat satellite and the plane. Adblock test (Why?)