US opioid crisis: Hope for new approach as naloxone machines spread in 2023
Washington, DC – It was a hot summer day in July when Shekita McBroom received a phone call from a local hair salon. The stylist on the other end of the line urgently needed a resupply — not of hair dye or shampoo, but of the overdose-reversal drug naloxone. Commonly known by the brand name Narcan, naloxone is a life-saving medication, often taken as a nasal spray to counteract the symptoms of opioid consumption. That a hair salon had a backroom supply of the drug came as no surprise, though, to McBroom, a community advocate in Washington, DC, who campaigns to prevent overdoses. If anything, she would like to see naloxone available more widely — including through vending machines. “I try to connect people with more supply because they don’t always know where to find it,” she told Al Jazeera. But with vending machines, she sees a convenient solution: a quick and easy way to dispense emergency care at all hours of the day, in neighbourhoods where services might otherwise be limited. More and more communities in the United States are adopting that approach. In 2023, there has been a boom in vending machines dispensing overdose reversal drugs for free — as well as fentanyl testing strips, clean needles and other “harm reduction” items. Community advocate Shekita McBroom helps to connect people in the community with Narcan, in an effort to prevent overdoses [Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera] US ‘behind everyone’ in adopting method Washington, DC, was among several cities to launch a vending machine programme this year. It currently has seven vending machines overseen by two local community health organisations. Four of those machines, overseen by the Family and Medical Counseling Service Inc, dispensed 204 packages of Narcan from October to November. That meant, on an average day, about three boxes of Narcan, each containing two doses, made their way to those in need. “We’ve been surprised at the amount of activity that the machines actually can get,” said Angela Wood, the group’s chief operating officer. She pointed out that the vending machines do not require users to produce any personal information — or even interact with a real person, thereby reducing the potential for stigma. “It’s a way for people to gain access to these products in their own time, in their own way, without having to fully engage with a programme,” she told Al Jazeera. Chicago likewise introduced a pilot programme for naloxone vending machines in November, and New York City opened its first machine in Brooklyn in June. There were also advances on the state level. West Virginia, Wisconsin, Vermont, Missouri, Kansas and Connecticut all either unveiled or approved deployments of the vending machines this year. Even tribal governments have embraced the strategy. In April, the Pala Band of Mission Indians installed what it described as the first naloxone vending machine on tribal land in the US. Four months later, the Tulalip reservation in Washington state set up its own machine. The spread of the vending machines has been dramatic, according to Rebecca Stewart, an assistant professor at the Penn Center for Mental Health who studies substance abuse treatment. “They’re really popping up all over the country,” she said. The trend began in the US only five years ago, in 2017, with a vending machine programme in Nevada. But as Stewart pointed out, similar programmes had already existed for years in Europe, Australia and even Puerto Rico. “The United States is sort of behind everyone in this aspect,” she said. “In terms of harm reduction vending machines, these have been implemented for decades all over the world. And so these implementations in the United States are just beginning.” Four of the seven naloxone vending machines in Washington, DC, dispensed 204 packages of the medication over two months alone [Joseph Stepansky/Al Jazeera] Escaping the ‘moral hazard’ argument One of the biggest hurdles to adopting the vending machines has traditionally been public opinion. Stewart said many Americans — including politicians and policymakers — feared that the vending machines would encourage drug use by making the practice safer. She calls it the “moral hazard” argument. Even this year, officials echoed that line of thinking. Kentucky installed its first naloxone vending machine in 2022, but some local politicians remain opposed to their expansion into neighbouring counties. “You’re basically promoting and enabling the people that’s got the problem with the drugs instead of maybe trying to help them get off the drugs,” Nelson County Judge-Executive Tim Hutchins told the TV news station WHAS11 in February. Still, overdose deaths continue to rise in the US. Every year since 2021, more than 100,000 people have died from drug overdoses — double what was recorded in 2015. The majority of those overdose deaths have been linked to opioids, with experts blaming the emergence of synthetics like fentanyl for sending the death toll skyrocketing. Ryan Hampton, an activist and organiser who focuses on addiction, sees the increase in vending machines as evidence of the immediacy of the opioid crisis. He fears the US continues to overlook “harm reduction” strategies as a tool to bring the death rate down. The term “harm reduction” is used broadly to describe methods that can help prevent overdoses or other knock-on effects of drug use, like disease transmission through needle sharing. “For too long, harm reduction has been a stigmatised strategy,” Hampton said. Instead, he explained that the US has invested more in a “prevention/interdiction” model that discourages drug use in the first place. The result, he added, has been few resources dedicated to stopping overdoses and other drug-related harms. “What is being invested by no means meets the demand for the services or the scale for what’s needed right now,” he said. “With the toxic drug supply that we’re faced with, harm reduction has to be a mechanism that we deploy in every setting that we can, whether that be in vending machines or community care settings.” For her part, Stewart has noticed a shift away from perceptions that naloxone is
Poland says Russian missile briefly entered its airspace
NATO chief Jens Stoltenberg says organisation is ‘monitoring the situation’ as Poland says it has confirmed incident. Polish military authorities have said that a Russian missile briefly passed through the country’s airspace before leaving, prompting concern from the country that borders Ukraine on the day Russia carried out attacks across several Ukrainian cities killing at least 30 people. Poland, a member of the NATO military alliance, says that the object entered from the direction of Ukraine on Friday morning, entering about 40 kilometers (24 miles) before leaving after about three minutes. “Everything indicates that a Russian missile intruded in Poland’s airspace,” said Poland’s defence chief, General Wieslaw Kukula. “It was monitored by us on radars and left the airspace. We have confirmation of this on radars and from [NATO] allies.” Russian officials have yet to comment on the incident, which comes at a time of high tensions between Russia and European nations located near Ukraine, which Russia invaded in February 2022. Spoke with President @AndrzejDuda about the missile incident in #Poland. #NATO stands in solidarity with our valued Ally, is monitoring the situation & we will remain in contact as the facts are established. NATO remains vigilant. — Jens Stoltenberg (@jensstoltenberg) December 29, 2023 Polish officials say they are working to further verify their findings and rule out the possibility of a technical malfunction. In a social media post on Friday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that the security alliance is monitoring the situation and communicating with Polish officials. “I spoke with President Andrzej Duda about the missile incident in Poland. NATO stands in solidarity with our valued ally, is monitoring the situation and we will remain in contact as the facts are established. NATO remains vigilant,” Stoltenberg said. Operational commander of the Polish army Maciej Klisz said that the country’s air defence network had been on high alert due to recent Russian missile and drone attacks in Ukraine and that fighter jets were sent to intercept the missile before it left Polish territory. The military also said that a ground search was being carried out in the area where the missile disappeared off the radar. The White House on Friday said that US President Joe Biden was closely following the development in Poland. White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan “expressed the United States’ solidarity with Poland, our close NATO ally” and pledged technical assistance as needed in a call with Polish Secretary of State Jacek Siewiera, according to a statement from the White House. The incident is not the first time that the war in Ukraine has threatened to spill over into Polish territory. In November 2022, an errant Ukrainian air defence missile killed two civilians when it landed in the border village of Przewodow. Poland’s newly elected Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who won the election with a bloc of pro-EU and pro-Ukraine parties that overthrew the country’s far-right government after eight years in power, has promised full support for Ukraine in its war against Russia. That war has ground on for nearly two years, with little end in sight as Ukraine fights to expel Russian forces that have established strong defences along the captured territory. While Ukraine still has substantial support from many Western governments, schisms have started to emerge over the provision of further military assistance, including in the US, which has provided more support than any other country. On Friday, the British defence ministry said that it would send 200 air defence missiles to Ukraine, which is currently under heavy bombardment from Russian forces. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Friday that he visited Avdiivka, an eastern town near the front line that has seen heavy fighting. “This is one of the most difficult areas of the front line,” he wrote on Telegram along with a video of him in front of a sign with the name of the town, giving medals to soldiers. “I thank all those who are at the first line [of fire] for their service, for this year during which the entire country survived thanks to its soldiers,” he said. Adblock test (Why?)
Beyond Maghazi: What controversial weapons has Israel used in Gaza war?
An Israeli official on Thursday acknowledged that the country’s military had used inappropriate munitions during an attack on the Maghazi refugee camp that killed at least 90 people earlier this week. The official said that Israel’s military would investigate what happened. But while little is known about the specific munitions used in Maghazi, this is far from the first time that Israel’s army has faced criticism over the alleged or confirmed use of controversial weapons in its war on Gaza. Israel has said its goal is to “completely eliminate” Hamas, which attacked southern Israel on October 7, but the reality on the ground has been the elimination of generations of Palestinians and their entire neighbourhoods. Israel’s war has killed more than 21,300 Palestinians, including at least 8,200 children, in Gaza. Another 7,000 people are missing, presumably buried under the rubble of the 313,000-plus homes that have collapsed from Israeli warfare. Al Jazeera looks at some of the weapons that have been used in Israel’s “indiscriminate” bombardment of the Gaza Strip: Dumb bombs The term ‘dumb bombs’ refers to munitions that are not guided, but are free to fall and destroy wherever they land. Earlier this month, CNN reported that nearly half of the Israeli munitions used on Gaza have been “dumb bombs”, citing research by the United States Office of the Director of National Intelligence. Somewhere between 40-45 percent of the munitions Israel has dropped on Gaza have been unguided, but these munitions are less accurate and carry a greater risk of inflicting civilian casualties. Marc Garlasco, a former war crimes investigator for the United Nations, called the US intelligence assessment “shocking”. “The revelation [that] almost half of all bombs dropped on Gaza by Israel are unguided dumb bombs completely undercuts their claim of minimising civilian harm,” Garlasco wrote on social media. Other reports have said Israel has regularly used powerful bombs in the densely populated Strip, despite the increased risk of civilian casualties. Bunker buster bombs Generously provided to Israel for its war on Gaza by its friend the United States, BLU-109 bombs are designed to penetrate hardened structures before exploding. The bombs can carry a warhead weighing more than 900kg (1984 pounds) and have previously been used by the US in conflicts including the war in Afghanistan. “Many people are now questioning in Congress whether continuing to give these “bunker bombs” is a good idea and also calling for more transparency,” Al Jazeera’s Heidi Zhou-Castro said. This level of weaponry has been used by the US before, but mainly in open areas. To do so in a densely populated area can only lead to one thing – high casualties. US arms to Israel since the start of the war have also included 15,000 bombs and 57,000 (155mm) artillery shells. And there’s more: 5,000 unguided MK-82 bombs, more than 5,400 MK-84 bombs, and about 1,000 GBU-39 small-diameter bombs. JDAMs There are also about 3,000 Joint Direct Attack Munitions or JDAMs – a guidance kit that uses GPS to turn unguided bombs into precision-guided munitions, effectively making the dumb bombs “smart”. However, their effectiveness depends on the quality of intelligence received. “If the intelligence is faulty, even the most accurate weapon will hit the wrong target,” Elijah Magnier, a military analyst covering conflicts in the Middle East, told Al Jazeera. An Amnesty International investigation released earlier this month found that the Israeli military used US-made JDAMs to bomb two homes in Gaza in October, killing 43 members of two families. In other cases, weapon functionality is also crucial, as technical malfunctions can cause smart bombs to miss their targets, and human error during the targeting process can lead to the misidentification of marks. “In various conflicts, there have been reports of secondary strikes occurring shortly after an initial strike, hitting rescue workers and civilians rushing to help the wounded, significantly increasing civilian casualties,” Magnier said. Earlier in the war Israel used smart bombs in Gaza as part of a broader military strategy “aimed at accurately targeting militant infrastructure to achieve military objectives” Magnier said, but “with no attempt to limit civilian casualties and infrastructure damage”. “The effectiveness of these weapons in achieving strategic objectives without causing disproportionate harm is impossible”, Magnier added. “The principle of distinction, a cornerstone of [international humanitarian] law, requires the invading Israeli army to always distinguish between combatants and military targets on the one hand, and civilians and civilian objects on the other and to target only the former.” White phosphorus Use of the colourless chemical weapon is restricted under international humanitarian law, with conditions that it must never be fired at, or in close proximity to, a populated civilian area or civilian infrastructure. However, evidence of its use by Israel in the war on Gaza was reported by Human Rights Watch (HRW) early in the conflict. Highly combustible, it can cause fires and smoke to spread quickly. “Airbursting white phosphorus spreads the substance over a wide area, depending on the altitude of the burst, and it exposes more civilians and infrastructures than a localised ground burst,” Ahmed Benchemsi, communications director for HRW’s Middle East and North Africa Division, told Al Jazeera. Last month a doctor from al-Shifa Hospital told the Toronto Star he had seen patients with deep wounds, with “third and fourth-degree burns, and the skin tissue is impregnated with black particles and most of the skin thickness and all the layers underneath are burned down to the bone”. Dr Ahmed Mokhallalati said these weren’t phosphorus burns, “but a combination of some kind of incendiary bomb wave and other components”, feeding into claims that Israel also uses war to test unknown weapons. But what makes white phosphorous even more dangerous, said Nada Majdalani, the Ramallah-based Palestine director for EcoPeace Middle East, is the presence of rain in the air. “As Gaza enters the rainy season, we expect the rain to fall as acid rain, contaminated with white phosphorus,” Majdalani said. People who use plastic sheets to collect rainwater to drink directly, amid a shortage of drinking water, could
Turkey arrests ISIL suspects as detention drive continues
The suspects were allegedly planning to carry out attacks on synagogues and churches. Turkey has announced it has detained dozens of people suspected of having ties to the ISIL (ISIS) armed group. At least 29 suspects were arrested in “Operation Heroes-37” on Friday, news agencies reported. The detentions come amid a drive by Turkey’s security forces ahead of New Year festivities, although some also view it as part of a political push ahead of local elections. Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on social media platform X that the detentions had thwarted planned attacks on churches and synagogues in Istanbul. DEAŞ Terör Örgütüne yönelik İstanbul merkezli 9️⃣ ilde düzenlenen “KAHRAMANLAR-37” Operasyonunda 2️⃣9️⃣ Şahıs Yakalandı❗️Terör Örgütleri ve onların İş Birlikçileriyle mücadelemiz kararlılıkla devam edecek❗️❌MİT Başkanlığı ile Emniyet Genel Müdürlüğü İstihbarat Başkanlığı ve… pic.twitter.com/xfu2gbrKT1 — Ali Yerlikaya (@AliYerlikaya) December 29, 2023 According to Turkish state news agency Anadolu, the suspects included three alleged senior ISIL fighters. It added that plans also included an attack on the Iraqi Embassy in Ankara. Despite the group having been largely defeated, some ISIL fighters remain in hiding in remote areas of Syria and Iraq, from which they continue to carry out attacks. Turkey continues to be targeted and has been hit by a string of deadly bombings. An attack in Istanbul on January 1, 2017 killed 39 people in a nightclub during New Year celebrations. [embedded content] The detentions come a week after police rounded up 304 suspected ISIL fighters in simultaneous raids across Turkey, in what is seen as a security sweep leading up to the New Year festivities. Turkish authorities have also ramped up operations against Kurdish fighters in recent weeks, after they detonated a bomb near government buildings in Ankara on October 1. “For the peace, unity and solidarity of our nation, we will not tolerate any terrorists,” Yerlikaya said on X. “We will continue our fight uninterruptedly with the superior efforts of our security forces.” However, there is also suspicion that the drive may also be influenced by upcoming local elections in March. Analysts say that President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is keen to win back control of Istanbul, Ankara and other major economic hubs that his AK Party has lost. Adblock test (Why?)
Pressure on Netanyahu amid row over Israel’s plan for ‘day after’ Gaza war
As Israeli military pounds Gaza and conducts raids in occupied West Bank, Hamas says no deal on captives until ‘aggression’ stops. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faces growing pressure from his right-wing coalition government amid sharp disagreements over the current Israeli-Palestinian conflict, which is nearing its 90th day with no end in sight to the war or a deal for a pause in hostilities. Netanyahu cancelled a meeting of Israel’s war cabinet on Thursday night that was meant to discuss the plan for the “day after” the war after fierce opposition to the meeting from far-right members of the coalition. National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir of the ultranationalist Jewish Power party said the subject was outside of the war cabinet’s mandate. Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionist party announced it was holding its own meeting in protest over his exclusion from the discussion. Ben-Gvir and Smotrich are in the larger security cabinet but are not part of the war cabinet, whose main members are Netanyahu, Defence Minister Yoav Gallant and opposition leader Benny Gantz. “[Smotrich] didn’t want that discussion [on the day after] to take place,” Al Jazeera’s Alan Fisher, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem, said on Friday. “He is very much against the Palestinian Authority [PA] having any rule in Gaza post the war.” Under such pressure, Netanyahu decided the war cabinet would not discuss the issue, which will now be taken up by the security cabinet on Tuesday. The United States has suggested the PA should rule over Gaza after Israel achieves its stated goal of eliminating Hamas, whose October 7 assault on southern Israel triggered the war. “Netanyahu cancelled the war cabinet, worried it would fracture his coalition, fracture his government and put his position as prime minister at risk,” Fisher said. The war cabinet was also meant to “discuss a deal with Hamas – negotiated by the Americans, the Qataris and the Egyptians – about exchanging captives for Palestinian prisoners being held in Israeli jails”, our correspondent added. [embedded content] ‘Between a rock and a hard place’ Ahmed Helal, the Middle East and North Africa director at Global Counsel, told Al Jazeera the cancellation of the war cabinet meeting had been a “long time coming” as the military establishment and political elite have grown further apart. “The military elite has grown increasingly uncomfortable over the past 10 years, and they’re not pacifists by any means – they are not doves. But they understand what is strategically important for Israel, and they have been pushing against the overly militarist ambitions of the civilian government,” Helal said. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is scheduled to make another trip to the Middle East next week to discuss the Gaza war, in which the Israeli military has killed more than 21,000 people in Gaza alone. The revised death toll from Hamas’s attack on Israel stands at 1,139. The top US diplomat is likely to face regional Arab allies increasingly pushing for a ceasefire, Natali Tocci, director of the Italian think tank Istituto Affari Internazionali, told Al Jazeera. “At the moment, we don’t see the US actually putting pressure on Israel for a ceasefire,” Tocci said. “However, as that Egyptian role is actually increasing … in calling for a ceasefire, Blinken will basically find himself in between a rock and a hard place.” Egypt, which borders the Gaza Strip, has taken more of a leading role in pushing for a ceasefire, including introducing a plan to end the fighting. It includes captive and prisoner exchanges between Israel and Hamas. Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said on Thursday that the group will not release more Israeli captives without a “complete and full ceasing of aggressive activities against our people through negotiations that are aligned with our people’s interest”. A Hamas delegation is to visit Cairo on Friday to consider the Egyptian plan to end the war, the Agence France-Presse news agency reported, citing a Hamas official. Adblock test (Why?)
‘The revolution will continue’: Syrian protesters vow ahead of 2024
Sweida, Syria – On Friday, people carried red flowers, flags and banners as they headed towards Freedom Square in the city centre to take part in a demonstration filled with songs and chants calling for the overthrow of the Syrian regime. “The revolution will continue and we will keep taking to the streets to achieve our demands,” Lubna al-Basit, 30, declared resolutely to Al Jazeera. It was the 130th such demonstration since they began taking place on a daily basis in August. This time, there was a particularly festive feel in anticipation of the New Year in the air. Worsening living conditions and lack of public services have sparked protests in regime-held areas over the past few years of the civil war, but they have not been this sustained and populous before. This time, the slogans shouted are more reminiscent of 2011 when protests were met with brutal repression by the security forces. The year 2023, which was kicked off with the earthquake disaster in Turkey and Syria, has borne witness to several important international and local developments for Syria. The Maland Mosque dome in Idlib fell to the ground when the February 6 earthquake destroyed the structure beneath it [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera] Since the start of this year, the Syrian pound has halved in value against the dollar. Before the war it traded at 47 Syrian pounds to the dollar; at the start of 2023, it was around 6,500 Syrian dollars. Now, having been devalued halfway through the year by the Central Bank, it is trading at just over 13,000 to the dollar. Public services and living conditions have gone “from bad to worse”, al-Basit said. She placed the blame firmly on the “bankruptcy” of the Syrian regime and its inability to provide anything better for its people. “These demonstrations will continue in 2024 because there is no seriousness in resolving the Syrian issue.” Normalisation and precautions A few months before the protests in Sweida began last summer, the Arab League took the decision to bring Syria back into the fold. However, this normalisation of relations with the Syrian regime did not put a stop to the illegal trading of the highly addictive drug, Captagon, which is exported from Syria to the Gulf countries and around the world, as clashes continue on the southern border between the Jordanian army and Syrian drug smugglers. People collect belongings after their house was bombed by Russian warplanes in the village of Jaftlik Haj Hammoud, north of Jisr al-Shughur [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera] Al-Basit and other activists participating in the protests in Sweida last Friday said they were not surprised. “The Syrian crisis is fundamental to the Arab world and must be resolved because the danger of [President] Bashar is crossing the borders,” al-Basit said. Even with the normalisation of relations between Syria and other Arab nations, activists remain hopeful that the regime can still be held to account, for example via the international court of justice proceedings against Syria for violations of the Convention against Torture. Furthermore, the arrest warrant issued by France this year against President Bashar al-Assad for his role in the chemical massacre of 2013 has brought hope to some people. Radwan al-Atrash, the director of the Syrian Centre for Community Development, told Al Jazeera that peaceful demonstrators across Syria support all accountability efforts. “[These are] all positive factors in finding a solution to the Syrian crisis.” Despite continued bombing of northwestern areas in Syria, scouts gather in downtown Idlib to show support for Gaza [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera] Although the bombing and targeting of civilian areas and gatherings has not stopped in northwestern Syria, action by Syrian organisations to support Gaza has continued. “Standing with peoples exposed to injustice” is what has motivated the continued protests despite the danger, al-Atrash said. Millions in danger “The international community must realise that the lives of millions of Syrians are in danger,” Mounir Mustafa, deputy director of the Syrian Civil Defense (White Helmets), told Al Jazeera. In August, the White Helmets held an event in Idlib to commemorate the 10th anniversary of a chemical weapons massacre of 1,000 people in villages in Ghouta, southern Syria, by the regime. Members of the Syria Civil Defence (White Helmets) commemorate more than 1,000 victims of a 2013 chemical weapons massacre by the regime in southern Syria [Al Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera] This year, the regime’s focus has been on the northwestern part of the country, where 1,232 attacks by the Syrian regime and its allies have been recorded this year. These have caused the deaths of 162 people and the wounding of 684 others, half of whom were women and children. Mustafa said he believes the regime is stepping up its attacks in direct response to the protests in Sweida. “It is using escalation as a means to tighten its grip on power and impose its presence as a capable actor,” he said, adding that the bombing had targeted vital facilities with internationally banned weapons. Mustafa described the consequences of continued bombing as “catastrophic” in light of the growing humanitarian disaster in the area, and the lack of funding for relief operations. Russian warplanes target the west of Idlib city [Ali Haj Suleiman/Al Jazeera] Heated fronts all over the map In his briefing to the Security Council On Thursday last week, UN Special Envoy to Syria Geir O Pedersen spoke about the fighting and attacks that other areas of Syria have also suffered in 2023. Most significant, he said, has been the intense Israeli bombing of Damascus and Aleppo airports since the start of the war on Gaza, which has impeded the movement of civilians and humanitarian operations by the United Nations. He said the battles in Deir ez-Zor between the Arab tribes and Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) at the end of August, as well as the continued SDF clashes with Turkey, represent an escalation of the deadly violence in Syria. “No one should delude themselves that this worrying new normal of ongoing
Russian poets given long jail terms for reciting verses against Ukraine war
Artyom Kamardin, 33, and Yegor Shtovba, 23, sentenced for ‘undermining national security’, ‘inciting hatred’. A court in Moscow has sentenced two Russian men to several years in prison for reciting poetry against the war in Ukraine during an anti-mobilisation protest last year as the Kremlin presses on with its crackdown on dissent. Artyom Kamardin, 33, was sentenced to seven years in jail on Thursday after being convicted of making calls “undermining national security” and “inciting hatred”. The charges were linked to him reading his anti-war poems at the rally in Moscow in September 2022. The Tverskoy District Court also sentenced Yegor Shtovba, 23, to a five and a half year term on the same charges, after he participated in the event and recited Kamardin’s verses. The demonstration last year was held days after President Vladimir Putin ordered the mobilisation of 300,000 reservists amid Russia’s military setbacks in Ukraine. The widely unpopular move prompted hundreds of thousands to flee the country to avoid being recruited into the military. Kamardin read out his poem, “Kill me, militia man!”, ending with the line, “Glory to Kievan Rus, Novorossiya – suck!” – using the historic terms for Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and a term from days of the Russian Empire that Moscow uses for the area of southeastern Ukraine it is trying to annex, respectively. Russian poet Artyom Kamardin stands inside the defendants’ glass cage as his sentence is read out in court, on December 28, 2023. He recited his poem, ‘Kill me, militia man!’ at an anti-war rally last year [Alexander Nemenov/ AFP] Days later, police stormed into the apartment Kamardin shared with his then-girlfriend, Alexandra Popova, and another activist. According to Amnesty International, Popova said police beat and violated Kamardin with a dumbbell before forcing Popova to watch a video of the act. She also claimed that police super-glued stickers to her face and threatened to rape her. A clip later circulated on Telegram of the bruised and battered Kamardin apologising for his words. Authorities in Russia have detained thousands of people under wartime censorship laws for their simple acts of protest against the offensive in Ukraine. Just before his sentencing, a smiling Kamardin recited a poem that refers to poetry as “gut-wrenching” and often disliked by “people accustomed to order”. Popova, now his wife, was escorted out of the courtroom by bailiffs after she shouted “Shame!” following the verdict. “It is a very harsh sentence. Seven years for poems, for a non-violent crime,” she told the AFP news agency, before being taken away by police officers. According to OVD-Info, a prominent rights group that monitors political arrests and provides legal aid, 19,834 Russians have been arrested between February 24, 2022, when Russia began its invasion, and late October 2023, for speaking out or demonstrating against the war. Adblock test (Why?)
Photos: 2023 – a year in pictures
From the Israel-Hamas war to Russia’s grinding battles against Ukraine, 2023 has shown the dangers of armed conflicts breaking out into region-wide combat. It has revealed the human struggle – to protect loved ones, to navigate a warming planet, to escape strife and oppression, to survive nature’s capriciousness. Go through our gallery below to see some of the most powerful photographs defining the last 12 months. Adblock test (Why?)
US military launches robot spaceplane on seventh mission
The delayed launch on SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy rocket came two weeks after China launched its Shenlong space plane. The US military’s secretive X-37B robotic spaceplane has taken off from Florida on its seventh mission. The mission marks the first time the plane has been launched on a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket capable of delivering it into a higher orbit than ever before. The Falcon Heavy, made up of three rocket cores strapped together, roared off its launch pad from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Thursday in a spectacular nighttime lift-off that was streamed live. The US launch comes two weeks after China’s own robot spaceplane, known as the Shenlong, or Divine Dragon, was launched on its third mission into orbit since 2020, adding a new twist to the two countries’ growing rivalry in space. The Pentagon has disclosed few details about the X-37B mission, which is expected to last for years and is being conducted by the US Space Force under the military’s National Security Space Launch programme. The Boeing-built aircraft, which is about nine metres (29 feet) long and resembles a mini space shuttle, is unmanned and carries various experiments. Its first mission was in 2010, and the most recent in May 2020, with those flights confined to low-Earth orbit, at altitudes below 2,000km (1,200 miles). The Pentagon has not said how high the plane will fly during this mission, but in a statement last month, the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office said it would involve tests of “new orbital regimes, experimenting with future space domain awareness technologies”. The X-37B is also carrying out an experiment to study how plant seeds are affected by prolonged exposure to the harsh environment of radiation in space. China’s equally secretive Shenlong was launched on December 14 by a Long March 2F rocket. Space Force General B Chance Saltzman told reporters at an industry conference earlier this month that it was probably “no coincidence” that the launches had taken place so close together. “It’s no surprise that the Chinese are extremely interested in our spaceplane. We’re extremely interested in theirs,” Saltzman said, according to remarks published in Air & Space Forces Magazine, a US aerospace journal. “These are two of the most watched objects on orbit while they’re on orbit. It’s probably no coincidence that they’re trying to match us in timing and sequence of this,” he said. The planned duration of the latest X-37B mission has not been made public, but it will presumably run until June 2026 or later, given the prevailing pattern of successively longer flights. The last flight, the longest one yet, lasted for two and a half years before touching down on the runway at the Kennedy Space Center in November last year. Adblock test (Why?)
Elon Musk’s X loses court bid to block California content moderation law
US District Judge William Shubb rules that legislation’s disclosure rules are not ‘unjustified or unduly burdensome’. Elon Musk’s X has lost a bid to block a California law that forces social media companies to publicly reveal how they carry out content moderation on their platforms. X sued the state of California in September, arguing that the first-of-its-kind legislation violates the United States Constitution’s protections of freedom of speech. Under the measures signed into law last year by California Governor Gavin Newsom, social media firms are required to submit twice-yearly reports on how they tackle hate speech, misinformation and other objectionable content. US District Judge William Shubb on Thursday denied X’s motion to temporarily suspend the law, ruling that its disclosure obligations are “uncontroversial” and not “unjustified or unduly burdensome within the context of First Amendment law”. X’s lawsuit had argued that the law “compels companies to engage in speech against their will”, “impermissibly interferes” with a firm’s editorial judgement and pressures companies to remove “constitutionally-protected speech”. X, formerly Twitter, has seen an exodus of advertisers, including Apple, Disney, IBM and Lions Gate Entertainment, amid controversy over the levels of hate speech and misinformation on the platform and Musk’s own statements. The social media platform is also under scrutiny by the European Union, which has opened a probe into the company over suspected breaches of the bloc’s Digital Services Act (DSA) related to content about Hamas’s October 7 attacks on Israel. Adblock test (Why?)