‘Still no endgame’ as Blinken concludes latest Middle East tour: Analysts
As the United States’ top diplomat concludes his fourth tour of the Middle East since the war in Gaza began, foreign policy analysts are questioning whether the visit was an act of diplomacy — or an exercise in “damage control”. On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken travelled from Israel to the West Bank and then Bahrain. The stops were part of a tour that included visits to Turkey, Greece, Jordan, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia, with a final stop in Egypt on Thursday. Much of the attention was on the US’s continued support of Israel, as it continues its months-long military campaign in Gaza. An estimated 23,357 Palestinians have died in that offensive, amid mounting concerns over human rights violations. At a Tel Aviv news conference on Tuesday, Blinken ran through oft-repeated themes: that the administration of US President Joe Biden “continues to stand” with Israel but that civilian casualties in Gaza remain “far too high”. Analysts described the latest tour as an attempt at “face-saving”, as Blinken sought to walk a fine line between exerting influence over Israel and failing to publicly exercise any real leverage. “We want this war to end as soon as possible,” Blinken told reporters on Tuesday. But three months into the war, an “endgame” remains elusive, said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, the director of research for Israel-Palestine at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN). “There’s still no plan,” he told Al Jazeera. He cast doubt on Israel’s stated mission of eliminating the Palestinian group Hamas as part of the war. “Israelis are still living in fantasyland, in that they think they can accomplish the impossible, and the Americans are still in fantasyland [thinking] that they can bring Israelis around to something that’s acceptable to the world,” Omer-Man explained. Critics warned that the US and Israel are also articulating different visions for the path forward after the war. On his visit to Tel Aviv, for example, Blinken called on Israel to accept a two-state solution for Palestine, something he again discussed with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday. But Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected any moves towards a two-state solution and has said Israel will maintain security control over Gaza for an indefinite period after the war. Two far-right Israeli officials — Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir and Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich — have also voiced a desire for the “voluntary migration” of Palestinians out of Gaza, something critics have interpreted as a push for ethnic cleansing in the enclave. The latest rhetoric underscored the “yawning gap” between Washington’s vision for a post-war Gaza and what Israel’s government is willing to accept, according to Joshua Landis, the director of the Center of Middle East Studies at the University of Oklahoma. “Netanyahu, who has said numerous times that America is easy to manipulate and who has done end runs around one president after the next, is doing an end run around Biden,” Landis told Al Jazeera. “He’s getting all the arms he wants, and he’s continuing to do this massive damage in Gaza, and he’s not moderating his government officials, who are constantly spouting out this hate messaging, which is embarrassing America in front of the world,” he said. ‘Preempt’ ICJ hearings Still, Blinken sought to claim some victories during the trip. He announced, for instance, that US and Israeli officials had agreed on a plan for a United Nations assessment mission in northern Gaza to “determine what needs to be done to allow displaced Palestinians to return safely to homes in the north”. That announcement came before the World Health Organization (WHO) cancelled its latest aid mission to northern Gaza, saying Israeli approval and security assurances had not been granted. Blinken also hailed Israel’s announcement that it would begin to shift some troops out of Gaza, describing it as a transition to a “lower-intensity phase” in the enclave. On Monday, in interviews with the New York Times and Wall Street Journal, Israeli military spokesman Daniel Hagari said his country would move from the “intense-manoeuvring phase of the war” to “types of special operations”, in an effort to reduce civilian casualties. However, intense fighting would continue in the centre and south of Gaza. Hours later, speaking at a campaign event in South Carolina, Biden said in unscripted remarks that he had been “quietly working with the Israeli government to get them to reduce and significantly get out of Gaza”. But far from acquiescing to US pressure, DAWN’s Omer-Man said talk of a strategic shift was more likely a response to South Africa’s proceedings against Israel at the UN’s International Court of Justice (ICJ). South Africa has accused Israel of genocide in Gaza and requested a provisional injunction that would, in theory, order Israel to stop its operations. Preliminary hearings are set to take place on Thursday and Friday. Israel’s rhetoric about shifting tactics is “absolutely designed so they can tell the ICJ that any interim measures are not relevant any more because major military operations have ended”, Omer-Man explained. “I think a big part of this is the US and Israel trying to preempt [the ICJ hearings] in some way.” For his part, speaking in Tel Aviv, Blinken dismissed the charge of genocide as “meritless”. Israel-Lebanon ‘escalatory trend’ Blinken’s latest trip through the Middle East has also coincided with increased fighting along Israel’s northern border with Lebanon, where there have been a string of high-profile assassinations in recent days. Those include the killing of Hamas deputy leader Saleh al-Arouri in Beirut, which Israel has yet to claim or deny, as well as the killing of Hezbollah commander Wissam Hassan al-Tawil on Monday. Randa Slim, a senior fellow at the Washington-based Middle East Institute, described the killings as part of an “escalatory trend” fuelled by Israeli officials pledging to “change the status quo” in the Hezbollah stronghold of southern Lebanon. Hezbollah is an Iran-backed movement, and fighting along the Lebanon-Israel border has fuelled fears of a wider regional conflict erupting, with Iran and
UN Security Council demands Houthis stop Red Sea shipping attacks
Resolution backed by 11 members also calls for the immediate release of the seized Galaxy Leader’s multinational crew. The UN Security Council has passed a resolution demanding Yemen’s Houthis end attacks on ships in the Red Sea and free the Japanese-operated Galaxy Leader that was seized last year. Eleven members of the council voted on Wednesday for the measure calling on the Iran-aligned Houthis to “immediately cease all attacks, which impede global commerce and navigational rights and freedoms as well as regional peace”. Four members – Algeria, China, Mozambique and Russia – abstained. None voted against. As permanent members of the council, China and Russia have vetoes but chose not to use them. “The world’s message to the Houthis today was clear: Cease these attacks immediately,” Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States’ ambassador to the United Nations, said in a statement after the vote. The US sponsored the resolution alongside Japan. “With this resolution, the Council has lived up to its responsibility to help ensure the free flow of lawful transit through the Red Sea continues unimpeded,” Thomas-Greenfield added. The US says the Iran-backed Houthis have carried out 26 attacks on commercial ships in the Red Sea since commandeering the Galaxy Leader and its 25-strong multinational crew on November 19. The Houthis claim they are targeting Israeli-linked or Israel-bound vessels in protest against the ongoing war on Gaza, but many of the ships have had no discernible link with the country, and many lines have begun to avoid the area altogether. The key provision of the resolution noted the right of United Nations member states, in accordance with international law, “to defend their vessels from attack, including those that undermine navigational rights and freedoms”. The provision amounts to an implicit endorsement of Operation Prosperity Guardian, a US-led multinational naval task force, including the United Kingdom and Norway, that was established in December to defend commercial shipping from Houthi attacks. Norway has one of the world’s largest merchant shipping fleets, and its vessels have been targeted by the Houthis. Earlier on Wednesday, the US military said that it had shot down 21 Houthi missiles and drones that were part of a “complex attack” on southern Red Sea shipping lanes. The UK, which worked with the US to thwart the Houthi attack, said it was the largest in the area so far. The US accuses Iran of providing critical support for the Houthi attacks, including advanced missiles and drones, in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. Tehran denies the allegations. Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, the head of Yemen’s Houthi supreme revolutionary committee in Yemen, dismissed the UN resolution as a “political game” and claimed the US was the one violating international law. The Red Sea links the Middle East and Asia to Europe via the Suez Canal and its narrow Bab al-Mandeb Strait. Nearly 10 percent of all oil trade and an estimated $1 trillion in goods pass through the strait every year. At the time of its hijack, the Galaxy Leader – although ultimately owned by a firm linked to an Israeli businessman – was being operated by a Japanese shipping line with a crew from Bulgaria, Mexico, the Philippines, Romania and Ukraine. The Houthis have been engaged in a civil war with Yemen’s internationally recognised government since 2014. Adblock test (Why?)
Some companies want to bet on US elections. Not everyone agrees.
Tarek Mansour spent several years working in finance at firms like Goldman Sachs and Citadel before launching the groundbreaking fintech startup Kalshi. Using his background in finance, he built the first regulated exchange, running what are called “event contracts” or ways to trade on current affairs like national elections. With the upcoming 2024 United States presidential election, increasingly razor-thin Republican control in the House of Representatives and the contentious GOP primaries, Kalshi and platforms like it – including PredictIt, Polymarket and Smarkets – are in the spotlight for allowing financial bets that critics worry could sway voters. Event contracts are comparable to trading on the stock market. Like the speculative nature of Kalshi’s offerings, its product is more closely aligned with commodity trading – hedging on the future price of oil, natural gas, wheat or coal. “We focus on events that are of economic and social value,” Mansour told Al Jazeera. Like trading on the stock market, a given company’s share price could rise and fall based on current events. For instance, if there is an escalation in COVID-19 cases, Moderna’s stock could be affected. But Kalshi allows consumers to trade event contracts on COVID-19 itself. Mansour says that trading on events in a speculative nature is comparable to insurance. There are also event contracts on Kalshi that allow users to wager on the likelihood of natural disasters. There are, for instance, two listings on its homepage for disasters hitting cities like Columbus in Ohio and Houston in Texas – the fourth-most-populous city in the US, which was decimated by Hurricane Harvey in 2017. Individual event contracts on Kalshi are less than a dollar but that can really vary across the sector. On Smarkets for example, as of January 9, the last traded minimum price on [US President] “Joe Biden to serve full term” was $1.05. Across the sector, there is nothing stopping users from buying a lot of that, much like they would for shares in a company. Proponents argue this is no different than insurance companies factoring in whether or not to provide flood insurance to a home. In the last year alone, several insurance companies including Farmers announced they will no longer offer flood insurance to Florida homeowners because of the increased risks of climate change. “There are all these commercial and financial risk management needs out there that financial markets over time accommodate,” said lawyer Robert Zwirb, who served as the counsel for two former chairpersons of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC). “Things that are considered revolutionary today, in 30 years won’t be,” Zwirb added. [Screen grab/Smarkets.com] Not everyone thinks predictive betting is a good thing, especially when it comes to elections. Ahead of the 2024 election cycle, there are serious concerns about the precedent it sets. Last year, Kalshi requested approval to trade contracts during elections. The backlash that followed was primarily from progressives. Several Democratic senators feel the same way. Senators Chris Van Hollen (Maryland), Jeff Merkley (Oregon) Sheldon Whitehouse (Rhode Island), Ed Markey (Massachussetts), Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts), and the late Dianne Feinstein (California) – all Democrats – called on the CFTC to reject Kalshi’s proposal. In an August release, the group of senators said: “There is no doubt that the mass commodification of our democratic process would raise widespread concerns about the integrity of our electoral process. Such an outcome is in clear conflict with the public interest and would undermine confidence in our political process – we urge the CFTC to deny Kalshi’s proposal.” ‘Financial incentive to voting’ “Electoral betting is really dangerous because it makes a huge financial incentive to voting,” said Sydney Bryant, the author of a piece calling out Kalshi last year for the Center for American Progress. While election betting is frowned upon in the US, it is allowed under specific circumstances. Companies like Kalshi have made efforts to move the goalposts. “This isn’t the Kentucky Derby. Our Democracy is not a stakes race,” Bryant added. Election betting is frowned upon in the US but is allowed under certain situations [Eduardo Munoz/Reuters] The CFTC shared those concerns and rejected Kalshi’s proposal in September. The agency said: “The contracts would have been cash-settled, binary contracts based on the question: Will <chamber of Congress> be controlled by <party> for <term>?” which is “contrary to the public interest”. There were more than 1,300 public comments on the matter. Many of them echoed the think tank and the group of progressive senators. Jennifer Venar, one of the public commenters, wrote: “Allowing bets to be placed on the outcome of elections is a truly horrendous idea. At best it further delegitimize[s] the voting process by making it a game and at worst, it encourages further tampering in elections. Please! Do no[t] do this.” Another commenter, named Ken Bell said: “This is absolutely insane. It would greatly contribute to the continued deterioration of our tenuously held democracy by encouraging and rewarding intervention in the political process for monetary gain.” In November, Kalshi filed a lawsuit challenging the agency’s decision. For now, Kalshi will not trade on individual congressional races, which can often come down to slim margins. “We are not looking through the small congressional elections; we are looking at who is going to control the House or the Senate,” Mansour says. Slim margins a deciding vote Representative George Santos was recently expelled from the House [File: Amr Alfiky/Reuters] But a small congressional race could very well be the deciding factor for who controls the US House of Representatives. That’s thanks to several recent changes in the House, including the expulsion of controversial member George Santos amid a scathing ethics report that found several alleged campaign finance violations. Kevin McCarthy, who was removed as House speaker, announced he would also leave Congress, making Republicans’ already razor-thin majority that much more vulnerable. There were several congressional races in 2020 with very slim margins. Such races, argue experts including Tom Moore, a senior fellow at the Center For American Progress, have the power to
‘Threatened with rape’: Lama Khater recalls horrors while in Israeli jails
Hebron, occupied West Bank – Lama Khater sits quietly, ready to talk but seemingly exhausted. The mother of five’s face is pale and her lips dry, but an air of relief hangs around her. The 47-year-old had just been released from prison at the end of November, part of the sixth batch of Palestinian prisoners Israel released in exchange for Israeli captives released from Gaza by Hamas. Khater had been in prison for about a month, an exceptionally painful one, it seemed. She was one of hundreds of Palestinians who had been arrested after the October 7 attacks on Israel by Hamas and the ensuing Israeli assault on Gaza that has killed more than 23,000 Palestinians there to date. After Israeli forces stormed her home in Hebron and arrested her, she was shuttled from one detention centre to the other, unsure of what she was charged with or what would happen to her next. Dirty and cramped A writer and journalist who has covered crimes and violations committed by the Israeli occupation – and who has been in Israeli jails herself – Khater found herself subjected to pain and indignities all over again. She had been detained in the past for 13 months but said her detention after October 7 was “incomparable” to the previous jail time. Writer Lama Khater with four of her children, clockwise from left, Yaman, Osama, Bissan and Yahya [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera] “Handcuffed” with plastic zip ties that dug painfully into her wrists, Khater was thrown on the floor of the army jeep and taken to the Kiryat Arba settlement camp. She could not see the face of her husband Hazem al-Fakhouri or her five terrified children – Osama, 26, Bissan, 23, Yaman, 18, Izz al-Din, 15, and Yahya, 7 – as she was driven away. Her interrogation began in Kiryat Arba, and during the first session, the Israeli officers threatened her with rape, among other things, she said. “They threatened to kill me, my family, burn my house down,” Khater recalled. They also, she added, threatened to deport her to Gaza and more, telling her that she was a prisoner of war and they could do whatever they wanted. From there, Khater was moved for four days to Hasharon Prison, where she was held with five other Palestinian women in a tiny cell built for one prisoner and “extremely dirty”, she said. They did not have access to water to clean the cell either, she added, explaining that their water supply was cut off for eight hours a day. There was so little room that the six women had to take turns to sit and sleep. [embedded content] After Hasharon, she was moved to Damon Prison in northern Israel, where she was strip-searched and insulted. She also saw other prisoners being “badly beaten”. Missing her family, suffering in prison Sentenced to six months of administrative detention – which allows Israeli authorities to hold people indefinitely without charge – Khater resigned herself to her fate and wondered how her children and husband were doing without her. But then she met a woman from Hebron who had just been rounded up in the Israeli dragnets and the woman told her that her husband had also been arrested, taken from their home on November 8 two weeks after she had been taken and also held under administrative detention since. That meant that their five children were alone, probably even more worried and scared now that both their parents had been taken. Khater couldn’t help but wonder if the raid into their home frightened her children, especially seven-year-old Yahya. “A Shabak officer came to gloat at me, smiling and saying: ‘Your kids are now alone’,” Khater said. Twenty-three-year-old Bissan told Al Jazeera that she had to leave her job and become “both a mother and father” to her siblings because the three youngest are in school and need constant care and attention. Khater did not worry much about the Israeli officers’ threats; she was too happy to be going home [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera] She would take care of their food and clothing and tend to their emotional needs, she added. “Yahya used to ask me and my father about my mother – whether she was eating, if she was okay, and when she’s coming home,” Bissan said. The questions became even harder to answer when al-Fakhouri was also arrested, she said. During that time, Khater was shocked at the level of inhumane treatment the Damon guards meted out to the women. Sometimes they would use pepper spray point-blank against the women for any perceived slight. They would also put prisoners in solitary confinement, severely limit their access to food and canteens to buy necessities, and deny them sanitary pads, she said. Finally, she was moved to Ofer Prison at the end of November, to wait in a cold cell for hours with neither food nor water until she was freed at dawn. Up to the very last minute, the officers and guards were threatening her. “They told me that any celebration is prohibited and that I was forbidden from receiving any well-wishers upon my release,” she said, adding that the Israeli officers also warned her not to publish on social media. Bissan, 23, had to leave her job and become ‘mother and father’ to her siblings [Mosab Shawer/Al Jazeera] “They said they would re-arrest me if their ‘rules’ were broken,” she said. But she was not so concerned, as she was filled with “joy and happiness” at the thought of seeing her children. “Everyone knows that the most difficult thing for a mother is being away from her children.” Like all the other prisoners freed in the deal, Khater felt happiness overshadowed by the massacres being committed against Palestinians in Gaza, she said. Since October 7, Israeli authorities have arrested nearly 6,000 people in the occupied West Bank while Israeli forces or settlers have killed more than 270 Palestinians during that time in individual attacks and near-nightly raids, which
WHO facing ‘near insurmountable challenges’ in Gaza aid delivery
The UN health agency has deplored the lack of access to Gaza for the delivery of much-needed humanitarian assistance, amid intense bombardment in the southern part of the besieged Palestinian enclave. “Delivering aid to Gaza continues to face near insurmountable challenges,” the World Health Organisation Director-General Tedros Ghebreyesus said during a news conference on Wednesday in Geneva. “We have the supplies, the teams and the plans in place. What we don’t have is access,” he said, stressing that the UN and its partners remained “completely ready” to deliver assistance to Gaza Palestinians. Israeli authorities have repeatedly refused to allow UN aid teams to deliver desperately needed humanitarian relief inside Gaza, effectively cutting off hospitals and residents from lifesaving medical supplies. “We call on Israel to approve requests from WHO and its partners to deliver humanitarian aid,” Ghebreyesus said. Israel’s Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories, or COGAT, has repeatedly blamed the world body for failing to deliver supplies at a fast enough pace. Moshe Tetro, head of COGAT, on Wednesday denied any bottlenecks on the Israeli end preventing aid from reaching the enclave. “The problem lies with the international organisations processing and receiving the aid,” he said, according to The Times of Israel. Richard Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the Occupied Palestinian Territory, claimed instead that the UN has been operating within a “shrinking humanitarian space”. “There should be more avenues to get into Gaza, but also to work within Gaza,” he said, adding that humanitarian corridors were to be expected even in the absence of a ceasefire. The UN health agency said six humanitarian missions to northern Gaza – where the situation is most dire amid a total collapse of the healthcare system – have been cancelled since December 26 due to the lack of necessary permissions to proceed safely. “If you do not get a permission, you cannot move, and our requests were repeatedly rejected,” Peeperkorn said. Only about a third of Gaza’s hospitals are functioning totally or partially WHO officials on Tuesday voiced concern about the possible collapse of hospital provision in southern and central Gaza, as fighting intensifies and hundreds of medical staff and patients flee medical facilities. “The international community must not allow this to happen in the middle and southern areas,” Peeperkorn said. Three hospitals located near evacuation zones – European Gaza Hospital, Nasser Medical Complex and Al-Aqsa – are providing a lifeline to about two million people. On Wednesday, Al Jazeera correspondents reported explosions in front of the Al Aqsa Hospital in central Gaza. The area around the compound has come under intense fire in recent days. Sean Casey, WHO emergency medical teams coordinator in Gaza, warned on Tuesday that Gaza cannot afford to lose more medical infrastructure. “We cannot lose these health facilities. They absolutely must be protected. This is the last line of secondary and tertiary healthcare that Gaza has – from the north to the south, it’s been dropping, hospital after hospital,” he said. At least 23,357 people have been killed and more than 59,410 wounded in Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, according to Palestinian authorities. Significant damage has been inflicted upon critical infrastructure, including water purification systems. Maria Van Kerkhove, WHO’s infectious disease epidemiologist expert, said the organisation detected a number of indicators – including respiratory illnesses and diarrhoea – that point to the spread of infectious diseases in Gaza. “These are a manifestation of multiple diseases, but we can’t get to the bottom of it because we don’t have access to testing,” Van Kerkhove said. “By the time we identify the disease, it will be at a late stage,” she added. Adblock test (Why?)
Family of woman shot dead on Gaza ‘safe route’ calls for justice
NewsFeed The family of a Palestinian woman shot dead while fleeing on a designated ‘safe route’ in Gaza has told Al Jazeera they want help getting justice. Video shows Hala Khreis walking with her grandson, who was holding a white flag. Published On 10 Jan 202410 Jan 2024 Adblock test (Why?)
Former Nepal cricket captain Lamichhane sentenced to eight years for rape
Lamichhane, convicted of raping a woman in a Kathmandu hotel in 2022, will fight the ruling in a higher court. A court in Nepal has sentenced the country’s highest-profile cricketer Sandeep Lamichhane to eight years in prison after he was convicted of raping an 18-year-old woman. The former captain’s lawyer said he would launch a higher court appeal against the jail term. Lamichhane, 23, has been the face of cricket in Nepal and the only player from the Himalayan country to take part in prominent Twenty20 leagues in India, Australia, Pakistan and the West Indies. The leg-spinner’s onfield success had boosted the sport’s profile in the Himalayan republic. In 2022, he was accused of raping a young woman in a Kathmandu hotel and taken into custody after police issued an arrest warrant for him. He was later freed on bail and returned to the squad to compete in international tournaments. Lamichhane was found guilty of rape last month after a repeatedly delayed trial. His lawyer said before the sentencing that Lamichhane would appeal against his conviction. Kathmandu district court official Chandra Prasad Panthi said Lamichhane should also pay about $3,770 as a fine and compensation to the victim. “We are not convinced about the decision of the court … The court has whimsically declared Sandeep to be a convict. Sandeep will go to the higher court for justice,” lawyer Saroj Ghimire told Reuters news agency on Wednesday. Lamichhane, who is not in custody, was not in court for the sentencing and has consistently denied the charge against him and enjoyed strong public support despite the accusation. When authorities issued an arrest warrant, Lamichhane initially failed to return from Jamaica, where he was playing in the Caribbean Premier League. The leg-spinner was suspended as Nepal’s captain but was free to continue his sporting career. This allowed him to remain on the national team, including for the World Cup qualifiers and the 2023 Asia Cup. Hundreds of cheering cricket fans welcomed him when he first returned to the field in February last year. But his continued playing career has also sparked anger and caused numerous Nepalis to disavow the team. Scotland’s cricketers refused to shake hands with him after their matches during an international tournament in Dubai. Adblock test (Why?)
Al-Shabab captures UN helicopter with 6 aid workers in central Somalia
BREAKINGBREAKING, This is a breaking news story, more details to follow. A helicopter belonging to the United Nations mission in Somalia has been captured by al-Shabab after accidentally landing on Wednesday afternoon in territory held by the armed group, according to multiple local reports. At least six aid workers who were on the plane are now being held by the al-Qaeda-linked armed group which has wreaked violence in the Horn of Africa for decades. The helicopter landed close to Gaboon village in the Galgaduud region due to a technical glitch, according to a UN memo seen by Al Jazeera. A UN official in Mogadishu also confirmed the incident to Al Jazeera. According to the memo, there were nine passengers on the plane including military personnel and a third-party contractor. Six of them were reportedly taken by the group while 2 passengers escaped and remain at large. “All UN flights have been temporarily suspended in the vicinity until further notice,” part of the memo read. Other details including the nationality of those on board, remain unclear. The Somali government is also yet to comment on the reports. More to come… Adblock test (Why?)
Preview: India vs Afghanistan – T20 cricket series
Who: India vs AfghanistanWhen: January 11, 14, 17Where: Mohali, Indore, Bengaluru India will rely on the services of their biggest batting stars Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli to lead them to victory in a home Twenty20 cricket series against Afghanistan as the 2007 champions build up to the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in June. However, Kohli will only play the second and third match as he sits out the first one due to “personal reasons,” Indias coach Rahul Dravid said. Sharma will captain the team in the three-match series starting on Thursday, less than two months after leading the cricket-mad nation’s unbeaten home run to the 50-over World Cup final, which they lost to Australia. Middle-order batter Suryakumar Yadav took over captaincy duties in both of India’s T20 series after the one-day international (ODI) World Cup, leading them to a 4-1 home win over Australia and a 1-1 draw in the three-match series away to South Africa, but Sharma will return to the helm after a long break from T20 internationals. Yadav is recovering from ankle surgery and will not be part of the squad, as well as India’s previous T20 captain Hardik Pandya, who continues his recovery from an injury he sustained during the World Cup. Both Sharma and Kohli last played a T20 international match in November 2022, when India lost to England in the semifinals of the T20 World Cup in Australia. Rashid Khan will not take part in the T20 series [File: Francis Mascarenhas/Reuters] Afghanistan will ‘struggle’ without Rashid Khan Meanwhile, Afghanistan will be without their biggest star, Rashid Khan, as he recovers from back surgery that has kept him from action since the World Cup in India. Afghanistan captain Ibrahim Zadran said Khan is “not totally fit” but is travelling with the team. Khan, 25, is one of the most successful Afghan players in T20 cricket. He has previously captained Afghanistan in T20 internationals and has featured in the Indian Premier League since 2017. “Without Rashid, we will struggle because his experience is crucial to all of us, but this is cricket and you need to be ready for any kind of situation,” Zadran added. Afghanistan put up an impressive show in the ODI World Cup, with victories over England, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and the Netherlands. Zadran, a 22-year-old opening batsman, said fans’ raised expectations will motivate the team to elevate their performance. “Not only Afghanistan people are expecting lots of things, but all around the people are expecting [a] lot of things from us nowadays because we played a wonderful World Cup,” he said. Zadran said the team hoped to “play positive cricket and show our skills on the field”. The T20 series opens in Mohali on January 11. The next match will be held in Indore on January 14 and the last one in Bengaluru on January 17. The series will be crucial for both teams as they build up to the 2024 T20 World Cup, which takes place in the West Indies and the United States in June. Head to head Both teams have previously met in five T20 internationals, with India winning four and one ending without a result. Squads India: Rohit Sharma (captain), Shubman Gill, Yashasvi Jaiswal, Virat Kohli, Tilak Varma, Rinku Singh, Jitesh Sharma (wicketkeeper), Sanju Samson (wk), Shivam Dube, Washington Sundar, Axar Patel, Ravi Bishnoi, Kuldeep Yadav, Arshdeep Singh, Avesh Khan, Mukesh Kumar Afghanistan: Ibrahim Zadran (captain), Hazratullah Zazai, Ikram Alikhil (wk), Najibullah Zadran, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Karim Janat, Mohammad Nabi, Rahmat Shah, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Fareed Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Mohammad Saleem, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Naveen-ul-Haq, Noor Ahmad, Qais Ahmad Adblock test (Why?)
Poland ex-minister on hunger strike as row between PM and president deepens
The former interior minister and his deputy were arrested at the Presidential Palace for abuse of power. Poland’s former Interior Minister Mariusz Kaminski says he has started a hunger strike as a “political prisoner”, a day after he was arrested and sent to prison on abuse of power charges. Kaminski made the announcement on Wednesday, following his arrest along with his deputy, Maciej Wasik, inside the Presidential Palace in Warsaw. “I declare that I treat my conviction … as an act of political revenge,” Kaminski said in the statement, read by his former deputy Blazej Pobozy at a news conference in front of the prime minister’s office. New Prime Minister Donald Tusk, of the Civic Platform party, has pledged to undo the policies of his predecessors – the government of the nationalist Law and Justice (PiS) party – and punish those accused of wrongdoing during their time in power. Kaminski and Wasik are members of PiS. “As a political prisoner, I started a hunger strike from the first day of my imprisonment,” Kaminski’s statement read. Deputy Justice Minister Maria Ejchart responded to the strike by saying the two former officials are not political prisoners and any prisoner has the right to refuse to eat and drink if they so choose. Police on Tuesday acted on a court order to take Kaminski and Wasik into custody, amid an ongoing dispute between the head of state and the new government. Hundreds of protesters gathered on Tuesday in front of the Presidential Palace in support of the PiS and in front of a police station where they were held. Polish President Andrzej Duda, meanwhile, said on Wednesday he was deeply shaken by the arrests and promised he would work to free them. Duda is closely aligned with PiS and has made clear that he will oppose Tusk’s agenda. Duda’s second and final term runs until mid-2025. However, Duda called for calm and said he would act legally and in line with the constitution. Tusk, a former European Council president, has said he plans to reposition Poland as a leader of the European Union and will remain a loyal ally of the United States and NATO, after eight years of of far-right nationalist rule. He has also pledged to win full Western support for Ukraine in its war against Russia and mediate past hurdles with the EU. Adblock test (Why?)