Why is Benjamin Netanyahu lashing out at Egypt, Jordan and Qatar?
The Israeli prime minister has criticised regional players since start of the war on Gaza. Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza in early October, its relations with countries in the region have come under increasing strain. Israel has accused Egypt of blocking aid deliveries to Gaza and criticised Qatar’s role in mediating the release of Israeli captives. Israel also says it might not renew a long-standing water agreement with Jordan because Amman has denounced its military offensive in Gaza. Is Benjamin Netanyahu criticising Cairo, Doha and Amman for political gain, as he faces calls to step down as Israel’s prime minister? And how will his condemnation of these countries affect ongoing negotiations towards a ceasefire? Presenter: Nastasya Tay Guests: H A Hellyer – Senior associate fellow of the Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies Sultan Barakat – Professor of public policy at Hamad Bin Khalifa University in Doha, Qatar Akiva Eldar – Israeli political analyst, journalist and author Adblock test (Why?)
Why, as a Palestinian American journalist, I had to leave the news industry
I was listening to a lecture at my local mosque when it suddenly felt like the imam was speaking directly to me. He was interpreting a few verses from the Quran. As he approached the sixth verse in the chapter and began to explain its meaning, my heart began to beat fast. “O believers, if an evildoer brings you any news, verify it so you do not harm people unknowingly, becoming regretful for what you have done,” he translated. I felt validated. God is telling us to fact-check. To avoid spreading rumours or misinformation. To question the source of information and to minimise harm. This was a command that I was following on an almost daily basis. I struggled to see how I was making a difference sometimes as a journalist, but in that moment, my faith reassured me that my efforts, no matter how small, were seen and rewarded by God Himself. I had read the Quran a few times in Arabic, but I was delving into the English translation for the first time. I was getting closer to my religion and God as I grew further away from my career. I constantly reminded myself that my purpose in journalism is to share factual and important information and to put my best work forward. I hoped one day I would be a correspondent for a US media outlet and get sent to the Middle East to report instead of one of the white journalists I usually saw on television. This was a lofty goal for someone who grew up in Dearborn, Michigan, the city with one of the largest Arab populations in the United States. Despite being surrounded by people like me, I felt isolated when I chose to study journalism, as the majority of my peers had gone into engineering and medicine. I lived in a city where there was a deep mistrust of the news media because of years of inaccurate or faulty coverage of the Middle East and Muslim and Arab communities in the US. Most of the time, we would only see ourselves in the news portrayed in a negative light or accused of “terrorism”. The Arab families I grew up with did not tune into local news because the news did not serve them. Most families moved to Dearborn to be near fresh pita and packed mosques, where you can take your time learning English because you can get by with just your mother tongue. My dad moved our family to Dearborn in 2000, and after the 9/11 attacks, it became a permanent stay. A man who lived in multiple countries and couldn’t sit still in one place, all of a sudden held his family closer and refused to move. He mentally built thick gates around the city that were rarely ever crossed. I was only two years old, so I can’t tell you about any immediate effects of 9/11 that I experienced. But I can tell you that I grew up in a household that never travelled unless it was to Jordan and Palestine. While some families went up to Mackinac Island during the summers, I never set foot there until I was 21. As a family, we visited the two closest Great Lakes, but never made the two-and-a-half-hour journey to Lake Michigan because it was passing through too many white Republican counties where my dad didn’t feel he could protect us against any possible hate speech or discrimination, especially since my mother and I wear hijabs. I grew up angry at my community for being so insular, but I later understood the decisions my parents’ generation made. Their fears were partly fuelled by US media coverage of the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and other post-9/11 policies like the demonisation of Muslims under the guise of “anti-terrorism” operations. I wanted to become a journalist to correct the narrative. I wanted to accurately tell stories and hold people in power accountable. I was taught in college that journalism can change policies, expose government secrets and lies and absolve the wrongfully convicted. It drew me in. I wanted to redirect that power to myself and the communities I belong to who had been vilified by the news industry and the government for decades. I fell in love with storytelling and reported for the campus paper while studying, and interned at multiple outlets in Michigan. I even had an opportunity to spend two weeks interning at the New York Times. My mom was sharing my stories on social media, my dad was reading my bylines and asking further reporting questions, and my brothers and sister would call me with “exclusive tips” about incidents that happened in the halls of their school. I saved hard copies of all my stories printed in newspapers. In 2021, I landed my first full-time job after college at a local paper in Texas where I was the only Muslim and only Palestinian in the newsroom. I pumped out about 400 stories in a year on breaking news and trending topics. Among them was one story that I hesitated to pitch, and later regretted ever writing. It was a news piece covering a local protest against an evangelical church raising money for Israel. I took my own photos of the event, interviewed multiple protesters, most of whom were Palestinian, and included as much context as I could while staying concise. The story went through multiple editors in the newsroom before it was published. Usually, I got to look at the edits that were made, but this time I saw them after publication. Instead of highlighting protesters’ concerns and informing readers of the conditions of Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, the article mischaracterised the demonstration as just “another protest” that happens every year at this event. Several paragraphs were cut and the headline was changed to a more attractive line that called the fundraiser for another country just an “annual event”. The article quoted the church’s founder and the keynote speaker for the
Three US service members killed in Jordan drone attack, Biden says
DEVELOPING STORYDEVELOPING STORY, The US military says three killed, at least 25 others injured in the attack on US forces in northeastern Jordan. Three US service members have been killed and “many” others wounded during an unmanned aerial drone attack on US forces stationed in northeastern Jordan near the Syrian border, President Joe Biden has said, blaming Iran-backed groups for the attack. The United States military said in a statement that at least 25 people were injured. “While we are still gathering the facts of this attack, we know it was carried out by radical Iran-backed militant groups operating in Syria and Iraq,” Biden said in a statement on Sunday. Biden said the US “will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner [of] our choosing.” At least 34 personnel were being evaluated for possible traumatic brain injury, a US official told Reuters, speaking on condition of anonymity. Two different officials said some wounded US forces were medically evacuated from the base for further treatment. Jordanian state television quoted Muhannad Mubaidin, a spokesperson for Jordan’s government, as saying the attack happened outside of the kingdom across the border in Syria. The Islamic Resistance in Iraq, an umbrella group of hardline Iran-backed militant groups, claimed attacks on three bases, including one on the Jordan-Syria border. The deaths are the first fatalities of US troops in the Middle East since Israel’s war on Gaza began on October 7. The attack comes amid soaring tensions in the region, where Israel continues its war on Gaza in response to an attack by the Palestinian group Hamas in southern Israel that killed at least 1,139 people, according to Israeli authorities. Israel’s subsequent assault on Gaza has killed more than 26,400 people, according to Palestinian officials in the besieged territory. ‘We are now in a regional war’ Fears have grown about the possibility of a regional conflagration amid attacks from Yemen’s Houthi rebels on Red Sea shipping and near-daily rounds of cross-border fire between Israel and the Lebanese armed group Hezbollah. In recent weeks, Iran-backed armed groups have intensified their attacks on US military bases in Iraq and neighbouring Syria in response to the Israeli military campaign in the Gaza Strip. Reporting from Tehran, Al Jazeera’s Resul Serdar said there have been more than 100 attacks on US bases in the Middle East since Israel launched its assault on Gaza. “Iran’s position so far … has been quite clear. They say that these attacks are not conducted and planned by Iran. They say that Iran has allies across the region. However, these allies also make decisions based on their own decisions,” he said. “Iranians do not want a regional escalation. The Iranian officials know a direct military confrontation with Israel also means a war with the US which could be a deadly one for Iran. “So, Iran so far has avoided direct military confrontation with Israel and it has instead asked its allies to act. Iran’s response has been through its allies like Yemen’s Houthis, Hezbollah in southern Lebanon and many other groups in Syria and Iraq.” But Colin Clark, senior research fellow at the Soufan Group told Al Jazeera that these attacks have proved that “we are now in a regional war.” “There is no denying that. US troops have been killed and the US will respond forcefully whether that is in Iran proper or against the Iranian proxies in the various countries where they operate,” he said. “Iran can choose to distance itself as much as it wants but it funds, trains and equips these groups….The Biden administration will be under immense pressure to show the US is not going to sit back and watch its troops being killed by these Iranian-backed groups,” he added. “The question now becomes what shape this response will take.” Adblock test (Why?)
Israeli forces kill two brothers along Gaza evacuation route
NewsFeed Two brothers were shot dead in front of their family on an evacuation route in Gaza as they were heeding Israeli instructions to flee their home in Khan Younis. The parents say they thought a white flag would keep them safe. Published On 28 Jan 202428 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Ukraine says it uncovers $40m arms corruption scheme
The Security Service of Ukraine says five charged over plot to embezzle funds earmarked to buy 100,000 mortar shells. Employees from a Ukrainian arms firm conspired with Ministry of Defence officials to embezzle almost $40m earmarked to buy 100,000 mortar shells for the war with Russia, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has reported. The SBU said late Saturday that five people have been charged, with one person detained while trying to cross the Ukrainian border. If found guilty, they face up to 12 years in prison. The announcement, which was confirmed by Ukraine’s Ministry of Defence, will have a deep impact on a country beleaguered by Russia’s nearly two-year-old invasion. The SBU said an investigation had “exposed officials of the Ministry of Defence and managers of arms supplier Lviv Arsenal, who stole nearly 1.5 billion hryvnias [$40m] in the purchase of shells.” “According to the investigation, former and current high-ranking officials of the Ministry of Defence and heads of affiliated companies are involved in the embezzlement,” the SBU said. The deal involved the purchase of 100,000 mortar shells for the military, with a contract secured in August 2022 and payment made in advance. But no arms were ever provided, the SBU statement said, with some funds then moved to other foreign accounts. Five people have been given “notices of suspicion” – the first stage in Ukrainian legal proceedings – both in the ministry and the arms supplier, according to the security service’s statement. One suspect, the SBU said, was detained while trying to cross the Ukrainian border. Officials accused of participating in the scheme include the current and former heads of the defence ministry’s Department of Military and Technical Policy, Development of Armaments and Military Equipment, as well as the head of Lviv Arsenal. According to Ukraine’s prosecutor general, the stolen funds have been seized and will be returned to the defence budget. Corruption within Kyiv’s military has been a thorny issue both as it tries to maintain wartime public morale and present its case to join the European Union. Last September, Defence Minister Oleksii Reznikov was dismissed amid various corruption cases. Russia strikes wide swathes of Ukraine The announcement came as Russia launched drone and missile attacks hitting both civilian and critical infrastructure across Ukraine, Kyiv’s Air Force said on Sunday. The Air Force said Moscow attacked the central Poltava region with two ballistic missiles fired from its Iskander ballistic missile system. It also launched three surface-to-air missiles over the Donetsk region in the east. In the southeast Zaporizhia region, Governor Yuri Malashko said an infrastructure site had been hit in a drone attack. Filip Pronin, governor of the Poltava region, wrote on Telegram that the attack there hit an industrial site in the city of Kremenchuk, igniting a fire. There were no preliminary reports of casualties, Kyiv said. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Thrown like animals’: Georgians identify victims in Stalin’s mass graves
Batumi, Georgia – Natalia Kuznetsova stares tight-lipped at the abandoned house her grandfather Hasan Dishli Oglu built in the 1930s. Her father was just a toddler in 1937 when Hasan, then 33, was arrested by the Soviet secret police. He was never heard from again. “When my father was dying, in his final days, he kept talking about my grandfather, asking why he was shot, where he was taken,” Natalia, 48, recounts. “‘I don’t know where Hasan is’, my father would say. ‘He was thrown somewhere like a dog.’” Scorched and deserted after a recent fire, the house is a forlorn structure standing in a large plot behind the family home in a village not far from the southwestern Black Sea port city of Batumi. For Natalia’s father, Iakob Kuznetsov, the house was a daily reminder of Hasan’s disappearance more than 80 years ago, and a symbol of intergenerational grief passed on to Natalia from his deathbed. Hasan was among the thousands of people rounded up by the Soviet secret police and accused of being “enemies of the state” in a campaign known as the Great Terror. Under the leadership of Joseph Stalin, mass executions of innocent citizens were committed across the Soviet Union in successive waves of repression, and vast numbers of people were deported or sent to prison camps. Many families of those executed never found out what happened to their loved ones. In Georgia, almost 15,000 people are believed to have been killed. In the absence of a committed national effort to investigate Soviet crimes and revisit official history, sociologists point to widespread amnesia, ambivalence and even denial among Georgians that such executions took place. Since Georgia’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Georgian-born Stalin has achieved mythic status in the imagination of many of his compatriots. He remains a powerful and divisive figure, remembered both as a brutal dictator, and as a national hero who led the USSR to victory over Nazi Germany. With Georgians still struggling to come to terms with their past, efforts to investigate Stalin’s Terror, and locate victims, are gathering momentum. Forensic experts, historians and the families of those who went missing are taking it upon themselves to heal a national trauma. Through detective work and public awareness raising, they are attempting to find and identify the victims of decades-old atrocities. Natalia Kuznetsova stands outside the family house that was built by her grandfather Hasan Dishli Oglu and that was destroyed in a fire [Iago Gogilashvili/Al Jazeera] Boxes of bones A musty smell emanates from a basement room at Tbilisi State Medical University. It is the smell of earth and of something else. Inside, Meri Gonashvili from the Georgian Association of Forensic Anthropology (GAFA) is dressed in black theatre scrubs and surgical gloves. “This is Georgia’s first forensic anthropology laboratory,” says the 35-year-old with pride. Dozens of boxes of human bones are stacked in rows against a wall, each labelled with a unique code. They are the source of the distinctive odour. Meri lifts a large cardboard box onto a foldaway table containing the bones of a single human skeleton. She removes fragments of skull from a brown paper bag, and begins to carefully reassemble the pieces with adhesive tape. The victim died from a single shot to the head, a perfect circular hole at the back of the skull marking the bullet’s entry, and a jagged cavity above the right eyebrow indicating its exit. “We see evidence of trauma,” the forensic anthropologist states matter-of-factly. “Especially occupying the occipital region and posterior aspect of the parietals.” For Meri, this medical lexicon helps serve as an emotional firewall against the tragedy of this person’s violent death at the hands of Soviet Georgia’s secret police. “It is impossible for such kind of tragic events that happened to your society not to affect you mentally,” admits Meri. “But you should bury this kind of emotional things with your mind and just keep working.” From another box Meri pulls out a series of artefacts found at gravesites. “This shoe is very common,” she says, turning a flattened galosh over in her hands, “and underneath is printed the stamp USSR in Cyrillic, and a number, 37. This could be the year of manufacture. Not the shoe size.” Meri Gonashvili holds up a galosh recovered from a mass grave in southwestern Georgia [Iago Gogilashvili/Al Jazeera] ‘We do it for the families’ In what became known as the Great Terror or Purge, Stalin authorised the arrests of anyone suspected of plotting against him, following the assassination of senior Bolshevik leader Sergei Kirov in 1936. Coordinated by the secret police, the NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs), what began with the targeting of high-ranking party officials quickly expanded to rounding up ordinary citizens. In the late 1930s, anyone suspected of counter-revolutionary thoughts or activities was targeted, from educated and respected village elders to clergy, writers, workers and peasants. Between 1937 and 1938, the NKVD executed an estimated 700,000 to 1.2 million Soviet citizens. GAFA’s laboratory contains the first victims to have been exhumed in Georgia – the skeletal remains of approximately 150 people – from a series of mass graves at a military base close to Batumi in the autonomous Adjara region. Meri is facing a task that could last a lifetime: Locating and identifying the thousands of Georgians tried and shot during this period. “Everybody just talks about DNA, DNA, but before DNA, we need laboratory work and forensic anthropological analysis,” she cautions. “If you incorrectly assemble one individual then you can send the wrong sample to the DNA lab.” Then, her composure breaks, and her voice trembles. “We do it for the families,” she says. “We owe it to these people, to the victims, to do everything in our capacity to return them back to their families.” [embedded content] Muslim victims In 2019, the Georgian Orthodox Church announced it had completed excavations of the first of Stalin’s victims in the country at a site locals had suspected
Climate activists throw soup at the Mona Lisa in Paris amid farm protests
In a video posted on social media, two women are seen throwing soup at the glass protecting Leonardo da Vinci’s piece. Two climate activists have thrown soup at the Mona Lisa at the Louvre Museum in Paris and shouted slogans advocating for a sustainable food system amid farmers’ protests demanding the government address low wages and other problems. The 16th-century painting by the Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci was not damaged. In a video posted on social media, two women with the words ‘Riposte Alimentaire’ (food response) written on their T-shirts can be seen throwing soup at the glass protecting one of the world’s most famous paintings and passing under a security barrier to get closer to the painting. “What’s the most important thing?” they shouted. “Art, or right to a healthy and sustainable food?” “Our farming system is sick. Our farmers are dying at work,” the added. The Louvre employees could then be seen putting black panels in front of the Mona Lisa and asking visitors to evacuate the room. This screen grab taken from footage shows the activists throwing soup [David Cantiniaux/AFPTV via AFP] ‘Civil resistance’ On its website, the “Food Riposte” group said the French government is breaking its climate commitments and called for the equivalent of France’s state-sponsored healthcare system to be put in place to give people better access to healthy food while providing farmers with a decent income. In a statement sent to the AFP news agency, they said the soup throwing marked the “start of a campaign of civil resistance with the clear demand… of the social security of sustainable food”. Angry French farmers have been using their tractors for days to set up road blockades and slow traffic across France to seek better remuneration for their produce, less red tape and protection against cheap imports. On Friday, the government announced a series of measures they said do not fully address their demands. Some farmers threatened to converge on Paris, starting Monday, to block the main roads leading to the capital. Adblock test (Why?)
England stun India in thrilling 28-run victory in first Test in Hyderabad
England beat India by 28 runs in the first Test in Hyderabad as Hartley takes seven wickets on debut. Ollie Pope and Tom Hartley scripted a remarkable turnaround for England to set up a thrilling 28-run win in the first Test match against India. England’s win at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Sunday was hailed as one of their “greatest ever” and gives them a 1-0 lead in the five-match series. India had looked to be in the box seat after taking a lead of 190 in their first innings, but Pope’s epic innings of 196 runs resuscitated England, who posted 420 all out in their second innings to roar back into the contest. That left the hosts needing 231 to win the match. But slow left-arm bowler Hartley’s 7-62 in his debut Test wrecked India, who were all out for 202 in an extended final session on the penultimate day. India captain Rohit Sharma’s 39 was the top score by an Indian batter in the second innings as the hosts lost 4-24 in a mid-innings collapse. Ravichandran Ashwin (28) and Srikar Bharat (28) added 57 runs for the eighth wicket to try to take the match into its final day, but that was not to be. The match went into the extra half hour of the day with both sides closing on victory and India trying to avoid only a fourth home defeat in 47 Tests. England captain Ben Stokes said he was “incredibly proud” of the performance. “Before the series started, we knew how much of a beast India are at home. But the way we responded to being so far behind, it was testament to everything we have said and lived and breathed over the last two years,” he told TNT Sports after the match. “We’ve got four Tests left. It’s about backing up this performance now. We know that India are going to come back hard at us. They are an incredibly tough team, but if we can keep standing up to them, it’s a good sign for us. “It’s very early days, we are very proud to be 1-0 up, but there is a long way to go.” GET IN! 🦁 🏴 This team ❤️ One of our greatest ever wins 🙌 From a 190-run deficit, to victory! Match Centre: https://t.co/s4XwqqpNlL pic.twitter.com/45dw0Qiori — England Cricket (@englandcricket) January 28, 2024 ‘Stunning win’ Former England spinner Graeme Swann hailed the result as a “stunning win” for the visitors and termed Pope’s innings “magnificent.” A stunning win for England in Hyderabad. Magnificent from Ollie Pope and extraordinarily magical for Tommy Hartley. I’m thrilled to bits for the boys @englandcricket — Graeme Swann (@Swannyg66) January 28, 2024 Cricket writer Andy Zaltzman said it was one of England’s greatest Test wins, while former fast bowler Derek Pringle made a reference to England’s coach Brendon McCullum and said it “continues to defy convention.” Incredible victory by England in Hyderabad. No team visiting India has overcome such a big 1st inns deficit (190) to win. Bazball continues to defy convention….. — Derek Pringle (@derekpringle) January 28, 2024 Former England spinner Robert Croft said the hosts may be regretting the type of surface they produced at Hyderabad. “It will be interesting to see if India stick with pitches that turn this much as it brings spinners of all levels into the game,” he said in a post on X. The second match of the five-test series, in Visakhapatnam, begins on Friday. India remain without the services of Virat Kohli, who announced he would miss the first two Tests of the series due to personal reasons. Adblock test (Why?)
I dig up skeletons of Stalin’s victims to give families closure | Close Up
“When you open a gravesite, the bodies, how they are organised, they tell the stories by themselves… they can tell us about how they disappeared, how they were killed,” says forensic anthropologist Meri Gonashvili. Gonashvili is a woman on a mission. Through detective-like work, the young Georgian anthropologist at Tbilisi State Medical University is hoping to identify victims executed by the Soviet secret police during the Reign of Terror, also known as the Great Purge of 1936-1938. The totalitarian campaign led by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin targeted anyone accused of plotting against the state. Many ordinary citizens were exiled, imprisoned or executed.At least 700,000 are estimated to have been executed throughout the USSR including some 15,000 in Soviet Georgia. “For this regime, human life didn’t have any value,” says Meri as she reconstructs the skeleton of a victim shot in the head. Most families never knew what happened to their loved ones. But now, six mass graves containing the remains of people executed during Stalin’s Reign of Terror have been discovered in western Georgia. The families of the missing have teamed up with Gonashvili and other experts to find and identify the victims of Stalin’s ruthless operation. Will Meri be able to identify some of the victims who disappeared during Stalin’s Great Purge and reunite their remains with their living relatives? Watch Georgia’s Missing People by Robin Forestier-Walker to find out. Credits A film by: Robin Forestier-Walker Producer: Nino Shonia Cinematographer: Iago Gogilashvili Editors: Robin Forestier-Walker, Antonia Perello Sound Editor & Mixer: Linus Bergman Senior Editor: Donald Cameron Executive Producer: Tierney Bonini Special Thanks: Special Thanks: Rustavi 2, IDFI & SovLab Adblock test (Why?)
Denmark: The future of tech and mental health
Mindset visits Denmark, where innovative technologies such as AI and VR are being used for mental health. Denmark is one of the world’s most digitised societies. It’s also known as a hub of technological and medical innovation in Europe. The country is leading research and development in fields like virtual reality and artificial intelligence for mental health. But the rise of disruptive new technology comes with concerns around data privacy, displacement of mental health workers and diminishing human connection. In this episode, Mindset visits Denmark to explore how technology is providing new solutions to the mental health crisis. Adblock test (Why?)