North Korea ends all economic cooperation with South as ties hit new low
Relations have deteriorated as Pyongyang ramps up weapons development and Seoul bolsters ties with US, Japan. North Korea’s parliament has voted to abolish all economic cooperation agreements with South Korea as ties between the two neighbours sharply deteriorate. The latest decision comes after Pyongyang last month declared Seoul its main enemy, jettisoned agencies dedicated to reunification, and threatened to occupy the South during war. The Supreme People’s Assembly, which takes formal steps to adopt policy allegedly dictated by the ruling Workers’ Party, on Wednesday voted to scrap the law on inter-Korean economic cooperation, the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) reported on Thursday. Relations between the two Koreas have been in a deadlock, with key projects suspended for years, as Pyongyang ramps up its weapons development programmes and Seoul bolsters its military cooperation with the United States and Japan. The assembly also abolished laws on the operation of the Mount Kumgang tourism project, which offered tours and was a symbol of economic cooperation between the two sides that began in the early 2000s, drawing nearly two million South Korean visitors. The resort was built by South Korea’s Hyundai Asan. The project was suspended in 2008 when a South Korean tourist was shot dead by North Korean guards for straying into a restricted zone. The Mount Kumgang resort was once one of the two largest inter-Korean projects, along with the now-shuttered Kaesong industrial zone. During its peak, it housed the factories of 125 South Korean companies employing 55,000 North Korean workers. Seoul pulled out of the venture – launched in the wake of a 2000 inter-Korean summit – in 2016 in response to a nuclear test and missile launches by the North, saying Kaesong profits were helping fund the provocations. ‘Not rational’ North Korea last year ended a military pact signed in 2018 to de-escalate tensions near the military border which was drawn up under a truce ending the 1950-53 Korean War. South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol on Wednesday called Pyongyang’s move “an extraordinary change” but said it was hard to understand their logic. “What hasn’t changed is that the North has tried for more than 70 years to turn us into Communists, and while doing that, it realized its conventional weapons were insufficient so they went onto nuclear development to threaten us,” he said in an interview with state TV KBS. Yoon said he was still open to engaging the North and would provide aid if needed, but added that the North Korean leadership is “not a rational group”. After years of border closures because of the COVID-19 pandemic, restarting its lucrative tourism business would offer the North a means of generating hard cash, but could now violate international sanctions imposed on Pyongyang over its nuclear and ballistic weapons programmes. Adblock test (Why?)
First time world exceeds 1.5C warming limit over 12-month period
EU monitors report comes as NASA launches climate satellite to survey oceans and atmosphere in never-before-seen detail. For the first time on record, global warming has exceeded temperatures of 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) over a 12-month period, European climate monitors have said, in what scientists called a “warning to humanity”. The European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) reported the run of exceptional heat on Thursday, measuring temperatures between February 2023 to January 2024 to record the highest 12-month global temperature average on record. Storms, drought and fires lashed the planet as climate change, as well as the El Nino weather phenomenon that warms the surface waters in the eastern Pacific Ocean, made 2023 the planet’s hottest year in global records going back to 1850. The extremes have continued into 2024, C3S said, confirming the year-long warming of 1.52C above the 19th century benchmark. Scientists said, however, that the world has not yet permanently breached the crucial 1.5C warming threshold target outlined in the Paris climate agreement, which is measured over decades. In 2015, almost 200 governments signed the unprecedented Paris climate agreement to phase out fossil fuels in favour of renewable energy in the second half of the century. Last year, the United Nations said the world is not on track to meet the long-term goals of that deal, including capping global warming at 1.5C. Some scientists have said the Paris Agreement’s goal can no longer realistically be met, but are still urging governments to act faster to cut carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to limit overshooting the target. ‘Hottest January’ The world also experienced its hottest January on record, continuing a run of exceptional heat fuelled by climate change, C3S said. Last month surpassed the previous warmest January, which occurred in 2020, in C3S’s records going back to 1950. “Rapid reductions in greenhouse gas emissions are the only way to stop global temperatures increasing,” C3S Deputy Director Samantha Burgess said. NASA’s climate satellite On Thursday, US space agency NASA launched its newest satellite to survey the world’s oceans and atmosphere in never-before-seen detail. SpaceX launched the Pace satellite on its $948m mission, which will spend at least three years scanning the globe daily from 676km (420 miles) up. PACE – short for Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem – is the most advanced mission ever launched to study ocean biology. “It’s going to be an unprecedented view of our home planet,” said Project Scientist Jeremy Werdell. Current Earth-observing satellites can see in seven or eight colours, according to Werdell. Pace will see in 200 colours that will allow scientists to identify the types of algae in the sea and types of particles in the air. Scientists expect to start getting data in a month or two. The project is aimed at helping scientists improve hurricane and other severe weather forecasts, detail Earth’s changes as temperatures rise and better predict the spurt of harmful algae. Adblock test (Why?)
Kataib Hezbollah commanders killed by US drone strike in Baghdad
NewsFeed The US says it was behind a drone strike in Iraq’s capital Baghdad that killed two commanders of Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed militia group linked to the killing of three US troops last month. Published On 8 Feb 20248 Feb 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
South Korea loves pork and booze. It wants to be the next halal powerhouse
Seoul, South Korea – At the Malaysia International Halal Showcase last September, an unlikely sight caught the attention of many attendees. Nestled among the booths from Muslim-majority countries such as Indonesia and Kuwait, a kiosk representing pork-loving, hard-drinking South Korea beckoned visitors to check out halal products ranging from seaweed laver to sanitary pads. “The halal food market is a blue ocean with great potential for growth,” Lee Yong Jik, the head of the food export division at South Korea’s Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs, told Al Jazeera. After taking the worlds of film, TV and pop music by storm, South Korea is setting its sights on the global halal industry, which caters to the dietary rules and lifestyle requirements of some 1.8 billion Muslims around the world. Halal is not easily associated with traditionally homogenous South Korea, where the Muslim community is estimated to number fewer than 200,000 people, or less than 0.4 percent of the population. But surging demand for Korean cuisine and snacks in Southeast Asia, where Korean pop culture has a devoted and growing fanbase, has turned Korean exporters onto a potentially lucrative opportunity. Muslims’ spending on halal food alone reached $1.27 trillion in 2021 and is projected to reach $1.67 trillion by 2025, according to research firm DinarStandard. South Korea’s government has been keen to encourage businesses to capitalise on the trend, providing assistance ranging from food ingredient analysis to subsidies for certification fees and promotional events to connect buyers and suppliers. In 2015, then-President Park Geun-hye signed an agreement with the United Arab Emirates to promote businesses in new markets, including halal food. In Daegu, South Korea’s fourth-largest city, local authorities have spearheaded a “Halal Food Activation Project” aimed at increasing the number of halal-certified companies in the city tenfold and tripling exports to $200m by 2028. Daegu Mayor Hong Joon-pyo recently described the halal market as an opportunity that “cannot be ignored”. Korean food giants such as CJ CheilJedang have rolled out halal products for their Muslim customers [Ahn Young-joon/AP] Lotte Foods, CJ CheilJedang, Daesang and Nongshim are among the Korean food giants to have rolled out halal-certified products from kimchi to rice cakes. Last year, South Korea began exporting halal Korean native beef, known as hanwoo, for the first time after receiving the go-ahead from Islamic affairs officials in Malaysia. Samyang Foods, one of South Korea’s leading food manufacturers, exports halal products to 78 countries, including its wildly popular “Buldak Ramen” instant noodles. Samyang’s sales of halal products reached $200m in 2022, accounting for about 45 percent of total exports. Sales in 2023 were expected to reach about $270m. Samyang has “consistently recognised the importance of the Muslim market” and has been actively working to promote “K-food” globally, a company spokesperson told Al Jazeera. Apart from the food industry, players in the so-called “K-beauty” sector have also cashed in on the trend. Cosmetics manufacturer Cosmax, which has its headquarters in Seoul, has been producing halal products at its facilities in Indonesia since 2016. Despite the growing market, gaining halal certification can seem daunting for many businesses, especially smaller firms. “The first step is to determine if your product is halal and if it is, then assess whether you actually need halal certification,” Saifullah Jo, chairman of the Korea Halal Association (KOHAS), told Al Jazeera. A South Korean national who converted to Islam, Jo founded an Islamic consultancy firm for Korean companies and has translated a book about halal into Korean. “Just because a company requests certification, doesn’t mean we will grant it. Some people come to us seeking certification for things that may technically be certifiable but it’s not always practical,” said Jo, whose organisation is one of South Korea’s four halal certification bodies. “We need to consider the audience and the genuine necessity for certification.” KOHAS is one of South Korea’s four halal certification bodies [Raphael Rashid/Al Jazeera] While alcohol, blood, pork and animals not properly slaughtered in the name of God, and meat from animals that died before slaughter, are considered haram, or prohibited, even seemingly innocuous items like rice and mineral water can be candidates for halal certification. “The complexities arise in the production processes. For example, when rice is separated from husks in the milling process, the machinery involved may utilise lubrication and some oils may contain animal-derived ingredients,” Jo said. “This causes cross-contamination and presents a challenge for ensuring the final product is halal-compliant.” To make matters more complicated, Indonesia, home to the world’s largest Muslim population, last year announced that food companies would from October be required to obtain halal certification within the country. In November, the South Korean and Indonesian governments reached an agreement to exempt agricultural and food products from certification in the Southeast Asian country so long as they have received the halal label from two of South Korea’s certifiers. While South Korea has made no secret of its ambitions to forge business connections with the Muslim world, social attitudes towards Muslim people and Islamic culture are often not so friendly. “Muslims in South Korea are viewed at best with apathy and, at worst, with fear,” Farrah Sheikh, an assistant professor at Keimyung University who specialises in Islam in South Korea, told Al Jazeera. Sheikh said some Koreans view halal products as a conduit for Islam to “invade” Korean society. In Daegu, where officials are aggressively pursuing the Muslim market, plans to construct a small mosque have encountered fierce opposition from residents and conservative Christian groups. In August last year, rapporteurs of the United Nations Human Rights Council expressed “serious concern” to the South Korean government over its alleged failure to address the campaign against the mosque, which included the display of pig heads outside the construction site and banners describing Islam as “an evil religion that kills people”. After the government began promoting the halal industry in 2015, several Christian groups began warning about the potential “Islamification” of South Korea, an alleged influx of Muslims and concerns about security
Amnesty calls for war crimes probe over Myanmar military bombing of church
The January attack in Sagaing killed 17 villagers, including two children, as they attended a Sunday service. Myanmar’s military should be investigated for war crimes over an air attack last month that killed 17 villagers, including two children, as they attended a Sunday church service, Amnesty International has said. Amnesty said photo and video analysis, as well as interviews with witnesses, indicated the Myanmar air force had dropped bombs on three locations near the St Peter Baptist Church in Kanan village on the morning of January 7. The village is in the Sagaing region, not far from Myanmar’s border with India. At least 20 people were injured. The damage is “consistent with air strikes”, the rights group said in a statement on Thursday. “The combined photo and video evidence indicates at least three impact locations, with craters consistent with aircraft bombs of approximately 250kg each.” The Myanmar military has previously denied responsibility for the attack, claiming no aircraft were operating in the area at the time. But Amnesty said a review of video taken during the strikes showed the “distinctive swept-wing silhouette of an A-5 fighter jet flying over the village”, noting that only the military flies the China-made aircraft. Moreover, satellite imagery from the Tada-U airbase near Mandalay showed active A-5 operations on the airfield while plane spotters had reported the takeoff, flight and landing of an A-5 consistent with that morning’s attack on Kanan. “The Myanmar military’s deadly attacks on civilians show no signs of stopping,” said Matt Wells, the director of Amnesty’s crisis response programme. “These attacks must be investigated as war crimes and the UN Security Council should refer the situation in Myanmar to the International Criminal Court (ICC). The perpetrators of these crimes under international law must be brought to justice.” The bombing caused widespread damage to buildings in the village [Courtesy of Amnesty International] Myanmar was plunged into crisis three years ago when the generals seized power from the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi triggering mass protests that evolved into armed resistance after the military responded with brutal force. At least 4,485 civilians have been killed since the coup, and violence has become increasingly widespread. Sagaing has been notorious for brutal assaults by the military, which has launched air attacks and burned villages as part of its long-held strategy known as “four cuts” that aims to separate its opponents from their potential civilian supporters. At the time of the church attack, Kanan village was under the control of a unit of the People’s Defence Force (PDF), an anti-coup armed group established by the National Unity Government of lawmakers removed in the coup and pro-democracy activists. ‘Toothless statements’ There are growing calls for the international community to do more to address the deteriorating situation in Myanmar where the United Nations estimates at least 2.6 million people have been forced from their homes by the fighting and millions are in need of humanitarian assistance. Although the United States and its allies have imposed some sanctions, the response has largely been left to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), a regional grouping that Myanmar joined in 1997. ASEAN agreed to the so-called Five Point Consensus to end the violence at an emergency meeting with Myanmar army chief Senior General Min Aung Hlaing in April 2021, but the military regime has ignored the agreement and the bloc has done little to make it comply. “The crisis in Myanmar is escalating rapidly and the Myanmar people urgently need support and protection from the UN Security Council,” Marzuki Darusman, a member of the Special Advisory Council on Myanmar (SAC-M) and former chair of the UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, said in a statement on Wednesday following a closed-door session of the council. Before the meeting, nine members of the 15-member council issued a statement calling on the military to end its attacks on civilians and civilian infrastructure and free all political prisoners, including Aung San Suu Kyi. “It is simply not good enough for the Security Council to issue toothless statements and defer to an even more toothless ASEAN. The junta must face justice for its deplorable acts,” Darusman added. Attacks on religious buildings are war crimes under international law [Courtesy of Amnesty International] Fellow SAC-M member Chris Sedoti said the Security Council should have referred Myanmar to the ICC long ago. “If it can’t, or won’t, then others must act to finally bring the perpetrators of grave international crimes in Myanmar to justice through the ICC or a special tribunal,” said Sedoti, who was also part of the fact-finding mission. In 2018, the mission called for the investigation and prosecution of Min Aung Hlaing and his top military leaders for genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes over its treatment of several ethnic and religious minorities in Rakhine, Kachin and Shan states, including the mostly Muslim Rohingya. The SAC-M was set up after the coup by a group of international independent experts to support the people of Myanmar in their fight for justice and accountability. Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 715
As the war enters its 715th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Thursday, February 8, 2024. Fighting At least five people were killed and 50 injured, after Russia fired a wave of missiles and Shahed-type drones at six regions of Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv. The Ukrainian military said it intercepted 44 of the 64 drones and missiles that Russia launched. About 20,000 homes were left without power in Kyiv. Moscow claimed it was targeting Ukrainian weapons factories. A preliminary assessment of the Russian attacks concluded that two of the five missiles that targeted Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine were made in North Korea, said Serhii Bolvinov, head of the National Police’s investigation unit in the region. Russia said its air defence systems intercepted two separate Ukrainian air attacks, destroying 12 rockets and drones over the southwestern region of Belgorod. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said two people were injured. The United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine said civilian casualties in the war have begun mounting again after falling last year. Last month, it documented 158 civilian deaths and 483 wounded, up 37 percent from last November. So far, the conflict has killed more than 10,000 civilians and wounded nearly 20,000 others, according to the UN. Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, visited the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine. He welcomed the reduction in shelling around Zaporizhzhia but said security remained fragile. Politics and diplomacy Sweden dropped its investigation into the 2022 explosions that crippled the Nord Stream gas pipelines transporting Russian gas to Germany beneath the Baltic Sea. Russia, Ukraine and Western countries have blamed each other for the incident. Sweden said it had passed the evidence it had gathered to Germany. An amended bill to lower the age of the military draft and make service harder to avoid passed its first reading in Ukraine’s parliament. Further revisions are expected and it is not expected to become law for weeks. Swiss Foreign Minister Ignazio Cassis said he hoped China would “give us a hand” in Ukraine peace talks it agreed to host after a request from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine has said it invited Chinese President Xi Jinping to participate in the summit of world leaders. A date and venue have yet to be set. Russian courts jailed two Russians in separate cases for treason over their support for Ukraine, according to state-run news agencies. After a brief discussion, the upper house of Russia’s parliament unanimously backed a bill allowing the authorities to confiscate money, valuables and other assets from people convicted of spreading “deliberately false information” about the country’s military. The Ukrainian Olympic Committee asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to investigate the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes in the Paris Olympics following alleged breaches of neutrality. The Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin had granted an interview to right-wing US television host Tucker Carlson who used to work for Fox News. Weapons Zelenskyy urged Ukraine’s Western allies to speed up and increase their delivery of artillery shells as he offered his condolences to the families of the victims of Wednesday’s Russian attack. Zelenskyy earlier met visiting European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell to discuss weapons deliveries and other aid. Borell said the EU needed to provide Ukraine with “whatever it takes” to defeat Russia. US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said the United States “can and will” deliver further military aid to Ukraine, as NATO chief Jen Stoltenberg stressed such support was “vital”. The two men made the comments after a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels. Adblock test (Why?)
Paramilitary commander killed in Baghdad drone strike: Reports
Abu Baqir al-Saadi of the Iran-backed Kataib Hezbollah group has been killed in eastern Baghdad, officials say. A senior commander from Kataib Hezbollah, an Iran-backed armed group in Iraq that the Pentagon linked to an attack that killed three US troops, died in a drone strike on a vehicle in eastern Baghdad, according to security sources and media reports. One of the sources said three people were killed and that the vehicle targeted on Wednesday night was used by Iraq’s Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF), a state security agency composed of dozens of armed groups, many of them close to Iran. Two officials with Iran-backed armed groups in Iraq said that senior commander Abu Baqir al-Saadi was among those killed, the Associated Press news agency reported. Local outlet Sabereen News also reported al-Saadi had been killed in the blast. Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Baghdad, said that “several explosions” were heard across the Iraqi capital and that security sources said three people have been killed. Hashem said that the area where the attack took place, east of Baghdad, is “known to be a stronghold for armed factions”. Kataib Hezbollah fighters and commanders are part of the PMF, a coalition of mainly pro-Iran paramilitaries now integrated into Iraq’s regular security forces. Three United States troops were killed in January in a drone attack near the Jordan-Syria border that the Pentagon said bore the “footprints” of Kataib Hezbollah. The group then announced it was suspending military operations against US troops in the region. Iraq and Syria have witnessed near-daily tit-for-tat attacks between Iran-backed armed groups and US forces stationed in the region since the Israeli assault on Gaza began in October. There was no immediate comment from US officials on the blast. The US struck Iran-backed Iraqi groups in Iraq and Syria last weekend in what it said was the beginning of its response to the killing of the three US soldiers in a drone attack. In January, a US drone strike killed a senior militia commander in central Baghdad, an attack Washington said came in response to drone and rocket attacks on its forces. On Wednesday, Iraqi special forces were on high alert in Baghdad and further units were deployed inside the Green Zone housing international diplomatic missions including the US embassy, a security source said. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Reckless’: Proposed ban on US funding for UNRWA raises alarm
A United States security bill that would curtail funding to the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees is raising alarm, as rights advocates say a years-long effort to dismantle the agency is gaining steam amid Israel’s war on Gaza. The proposed $118bn legislation, a draft of which (PDF) was blocked in the US Senate on Wednesday, includes a provision prohibiting Washington from allocating any funds to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA). Seth Binder, advocacy director at the Middle East Democracy Center, said this would apply to humanitarian assistance included in the bill as well as any previously approved funds for UNRWA that have not yet been allocated, a sum totalling about $300,000. “It’s unclear … where and how this specific provision may become law, if it ever is able to,” Binder told Al Jazeera. “But it is concerning nonetheless just given recent developments.” UNRWA came under renewed scrutiny last month after the Israeli government accused around a dozen of the agency’s more than 13,000 Gaza employees of taking part in Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7, which killed a reported 1,139 people. UNRWA immediately sacked the employees in question and announced that it was opening a probe into the allegations, which it described as “shocking” and “serious”. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also has appointed an independent panel to investigate. Israel has yet to provide evidence to back up its allegations, but the US and several other countries quickly suspended funding to the agency as a result. UNRWA relies on government contributions to fund its operations in the occupied Palestinian territories, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. Against that backdrop, the Senate bill — which had the support of President Joe Biden — reflected growing bipartisan acceptance of what previously were Republican-driven attempts to curtail UNRWA, said Ethan Mayer-Rich at the Arab Center Washington DC. “We’re seeing a pretty quick departure from what used to be a split down party lines,” he told Al Jazeera. “It’s reckless, and ultimately I think history is going to see [the US] as being completely complicit in what is unquestionably an incredibly tragic and dire situation.” Mayer-Rich, the centre’s liaison for US government affairs, added that “the conversation in part is guided by the Biden administration”. “We’ve seen, at this point, an endorsement by the highest level of office that it’s OK for Democrats to call into question UNRWA’s mandate, to call into question the necessity of its mission, which has long been a Republican-guided effort,” he said. “This is a message that will have a durable impact on the way that Democrats are talking about UNRWA and the necessary services it provides.” Palestinians walk amid the destruction from Israeli bombing in Gaza City on January 27 [Ali Jadallah/Anadolu Agency] ‘A huge hole’ Indeed, current attempts in the US to defund UNRWA come at a critical time. The agency is leading humanitarian aid efforts in Gaza, where Israel’s military bombardment has killed more than 27,708 Palestinians and caused wide-scale destruction since October 7. Palestinians in the besieged enclave also face dire food, water and medical shortages. The local healthcare system is near total collapse, and more than 1.7 million people have been internally displaced. Many families have sought shelter at UNRWA-run facilities. Since the Biden administration announced its UNRWA funding freeze in late January, top UN officials — as well as human rights advocates and humanitarian aid groups — have issued multiple pleas asking Washington to reconsider. The US previously provided $422m to the agency in 2023, making it UNRWA’s largest contributor. Those funds accounted for nearly 30 percent of UNRWA’s contributions last year, explained Bill Deere, director of the agency’s Washington representative office. “If this proposal were to become law, that’s a huge hole that would have to be filled,” Deere told Al Jazeera in an email, referring to the Senate bill. If this proposal were to become law that’s a huge hole that would have to be filled,” Deere told Al Jazeera in an email, referring to the Senate bill. The legislation, which included more than $14bn in additional US security assistance to Israel, had the backing of the White House, but it is unlikely to reach Biden’s desk to be signed into law, particularly after Wednesday’s setback in the Senate. Top Republicans have also said it will be “dead on arrival” if it reaches the House of Representatives, amid calls for stricter immigration measures. Still, Deere — who described the atmosphere in Washington as a “challenging policy environment” — said the bill “demonstrates that we need to keep discussing with lawmakers the fact that UNRWA and the UN have acted swiftly and decisively in the wake of the recent news”. He also warned that the agency “will have a very hard time operating beyond March 1st if donor states do not resume their support” and stressed that UNRWA operates beyond Gaza alone. “Hundreds of thousands of Palestine refugees in the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria and Jordan will lose access to primary healthcare, direct food support, rental assistance, and education,” Deere said. “Human decency aside, such an occurrence also poses a regional stability issue.” Reinvigorated pressure But despite those warnings, Republicans have seized on the accusations against UNRWA to reinvigorate a years-long effort to stymie the agency. “This is something that they’ve long been trying to do, and they’ve really seized the moment,” said Mayer-Rich. At least seven pieces of legislation aimed at defunding or disbanding UNRWA have been introduced by the Republicans in Congress since Israel’s allegations were made public, according to a tally by the Arab Center Washington DC. Republican legislators held a subcommittee hearing last week titled, “UNRWA Exposed: Examining the Agency’s Mission and Failures”. And a group of nearly two dozen Republican senators had called for legislation to include “an immediate and permanent prohibition” on US assistance to UNRWA. “The United States must permanently stop all contributions to UNRWA,” they said (PDF) on January 31. The push comes less than six years after former Republican President
Israeli bomb hits car near children in Rafah
NewsFeed Children’s chants at an entertainment event in Rafah turned to screams when an Israeli bomb struck a car just metres away. At least one person was killed in the strike near a camp for displaced people in southern Gaza. Published On 7 Feb 20247 Feb 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Photos: Qatar reach AFC Asian Cup final with 3-2 victory against Iran
From the first minute of a breathless match, Qatar and Iran went directly at each other when in possession and they delivered a treat to watch. Iran opened the scoring in the third minute with Sardar Azmoun producing a brilliant overhead kick, leaving the Qatari goalkeeper and the defence as spectators. Jassam Gaber got the equaliser on 17 minutes and Akram Afif gave Qatar a 2-1 lead minutes before half time, sending the home crowd into a frenzy. Iran’s Alireza Jahanbakhsh drew Iran level with a penalty after Qatar’s Ahmed Fathy was penalised for a handball. Local hero Almoez Ali restored Qatar’s lead on 82 minutes, setting up a breathless finale as Iran threw everything they had at Qatar. Iran struck the post and won a multitude of corners – with the goalkeeper sent forward in a desperate search for an equaliser – but Qatar held on to secure their passage to the final where they will meet Jordan. Adblock test (Why?)