China accuses Taiwan of ‘hyping up’ military threat ahead of elections
Taiwan’s presidential and parliamentary polls on January 13 are expected to shape the island’s relations with Beijing. China has accused Taiwan of deliberately “hyping up” a military threat from Beijing for electoral gains ahead of the island’s January polls. “The Democratic Progressive Party [DPP] authorities are deliberately hyping up the so-called ‘military threat from the mainland’ and exaggerating tensions,” China’s Ministry of National Defense spokesperson Wu Qian said on Thursday. “This is entirely to seek electoral gain,” he added, accusing Taiwan of using a “familiar electoral playbook to stoke confrontation and manipulate the election”. On Thursday, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said it had detected 12 Chinese military aircraft flying over the Taiwan Strait, the sensitive median line separating Taiwan from China. China has been sending warplanes and vessels around Taiwan on a near-daily basis, with Taipei reporting an uptick in Beijing’s military activity in the Taiwan Strait before the January 13 elections. China claims democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory. The presidential and parliamentary elections are expected to shape the island’s relations with Beijing. One of the main themes in the run-up to the closely watched vote is how the presidential candidates will handle relations with China. The Chinese government dislikes the DPP candidate, current Vice President Lai Ching-te, believing he is a separatist and has rejected his calls for talks. Taiwanese officials have repeatedly raised concerns about election interference and misinformation as Beijing, in the past four years, has intensified military pressure to assert its sovereignty claim. During a televised policy presentation on Tuesday, Lai reiterated warnings of election interference by Beijing. “It is easier to buy or cheat than to rob,” Lai said, accusing the opposition Kuomintang (KMT) of “borrowing China’s power to gain ruling power”. KMT candidate Hou Yu-ih, who has promised to create closer ties to Beijing, has called the election a choice “between war and peace”. Hou Yu-ih, a candidate for Taiwan’s presidency, from the main opposition party KMT, in New Taipei City [Ann Wang/Reuters] Wu, the spokesperson, also said China’s People’s Liberation Army knew Taiwan’s military movements well. “We will, as always, take all necessary measures to resolutely defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity,” he added. Wu declined to comment on the Chinese balloons that Taiwan reported drifting across the strait’s median line, which previously served as an unofficial barrier between the two sides. Adblock test (Why?)
Keeping the hope for health alive
2023 was a year of milestones and challenges in global public health. In May, I declared an end to COVID-19 as a public health emergency of international concern. This marked a turning point for the world following three years of crisis, pain and loss for people everywhere. I am glad to see that life has returned to normal. WHO also announced the Mpox outbreak no longer represented a global health emergency. And we approved new vaccines for malaria, dengue and meningitis, diseases that threaten millions around the world, mainly the most vulnerable. Azerbaijan, Tajikistan and Belize were declared malaria-free, and a range of neglected tropical diseases were eliminated in multiple countries, including sleeping sickness in Ghana, trachoma in Benin, Mali and Iraq, and lymphatic filariasis in Bangladesh and Laos. The path to eradicating another vaccine-preventable disease – polio – has reached its last mile. Thirty more countries introduced the HPV vaccine as the world advances towards eliminating cervical cancer. The need to address the health impacts of the climate crisis were elevated to the highest political levels, with governments, scientists and advocates putting health, for the first time, prominently on the COP28 agenda, and issuing a global declaration on climate and health. Heads of state at the United Nations General Assembly committed to advancing universal health coverage, ending tuberculosis and protecting the world from future pandemics. Each of these achievements, and many more, demonstrated the power of science, solutions and solidarity to protect and promote health. But 2023 has also been a year of immense and avoidable suffering and threats to health. The barbaric attacks by Hamas on Israel on October 7 left around 1,200 people dead and more than 200 taken hostage. Reports of gender-based violence and mistreatment of hostages are deplorable. This was followed by the unleashing of a devastating attack on Gaza, which has killed more than 21,000 people – mainly women and children – and injured over 55,000. At the same time, hospitals and health workers have been repeatedly attacked, while relief efforts are not coming close to meeting the needs of people. As of December 22, only nine of 36 health facilities in Gaza were partially functional, with only four offering the most basic of services in the north. For this reason, we call again for an immediate ceasefire. War and armed hostilities, sadly, have plagued too many other locations around the world, including Sudan, Ukraine, Ethiopia and Myanmar, to name but a few. I saw first-hand the suffering of war-weary people in northwest Syria who, like communities I also visited in neighbouring Türkiye, were devastated by the terrible earthquake in February. Without peace, there is no health, and without health, there can be no peace. Insecurity, poverty and lack of access to clean water and hygiene fanned the spread of infectious diseases in many countries. The resurgence of cholera is especially concerning, with a record number of 40-plus outbreaks around the world. And in terms of emergency preparedness and response, gaps remain in the world’s readiness to prevent the next pandemic. But 2024 offers a unique opportunity to address these gaps. Governments are negotiating the first-ever global agreement to protect communities, countries and the world from the threat posed by pandemics. The Pandemic Accord is being designed to bridge the gaps in global collaboration, cooperation and equity. The accord, and plans to strengthen the International Health Regulations, represent monumental actions by governments to create a safer and healthier world. And as WHO closes out our 75th year as the “world’s” health organisation, I extend by my sincere gratitude to health workers, partners and WHO colleagues, on our shared journey to achieve Health for All. Lastly, during this holiday season, I am sure that everyone will join me in hoping that the New Year will bring peace, health and prosperity for all people around the world. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Nothing for me in Cameroon’: Waiting in Tunisia, one eye on Europe
Having lost everything and everyone precious to him, Joseph tries to hold things together, waiting to leave Africa. Joseph Afumbom is a big man who has faced unimaginable tragedy. The conflict in Cameroon between Anglophone separatists and the government killed the 27-year-old’s mother, father and siblings. It also took his home in Bamenda in the country’s northwest. “I was there when the war started. The war took everyone,” he said, “It was three years ago. My brothers and sisters are all gone.” With his home and family destroyed and no jobs available, Joseph felt he had no option but to gather his fiancee, Esther, and their three-year-old daughter and travel the 5,000km (more than 3,000 miles) overland to the Mediterranean coast. They arrived in Algeria, where they considered crossing into Tunisia and from there to Europe. However, both Joseph’s fiancee and daughter died in El Menia. “They are all gone because of the cold,” he says. “That was last month.” “I’m just trying to act normal, you know,” he tells Al Jazeera. “See, I’m smoking. I’m whiling away my thinking, trying to act like a normal person, but I’m not.” He paused, allowing his thoughts to drift back. “We had been together for years. My daughter was three. I called her ‘Little Joy’.” Eventually, Joseph crossed into Tunisia, making his way to the coastal city of Sfax before travelling by shared taxis to the capital, Tunis. He didn’t eat for two days. “There is nothing left for me in Cameroon,” he says. “I will continue to Europe if I have the opportunity.” This article is the third of a five-part series of portraits of refugees from different countries, with diverse backgrounds, bound by shared fears and hopes as they enter 2024. Read the first and second parts here. Adblock test (Why?)
Dozens killed as gas tanker explodes in Liberia
Some locals flocked to the scene and took the leaking gas from the tanker when it exploded. At least 40 people have died after a gas tanker exploded in northcentral Liberia, the country’s Chief Medical Officer Francis Kateh said on Wednesday. Late Tuesday, a fuel truck crashed in Totota, Lower Bong Country, about 130km (80 miles) from the capital, Monrovia – after exploding, the blast killed and injured many who had flocked to the scene. Kateh told local news on Wednesday that it was difficult to determine the number of victims because some had been reduced to ashes, but he estimates that 40 people were killed in the incident. “We have our team going from home to home to check those that are missing,” he told the French news agency AFP. Police had earlier put the death toll at 15 and said that at least 30 others were injured as locals gathered at the scene. “There were lots of people that got burned,” said Prince B Mulbah, deputy inspector-general for the Liberia National Police. According to United Nations figures, poor road safety and weak infrastructure have made sub-Saharan Africa the world’s deadliest region for crashes, with the fatality rate three times higher than the European average. After Tuesday’s crash, some locals took the leaking gas when the tanker exploded, another police officer, Malvin Sackor, said. He added that police were still gathering the total number of injured and killed. An eyewitness from Totota, Aaron Massaquoi, told AFP that “people climbed all on top of the truck taking the gas, while some of them had irons hitting the tanker for it to burst for them to get gas. “People were all around the truck and the driver of the truck told them that the gas that was spilling they could take that … but some people were even using screwdrivers to pit holes on the tank”. Adblock test (Why?)
Under the rubble: The missing in Gaza
Every morning, 51-year-old Yasser Abu Shamala goes to the place where his family’s house once stood in Khan Younis in the southern Gaza Strip. He starts digging through the rubble with his bare hands, lifting pieces of concrete to try to find members of his family buried under the debris. Abu Shamala’s family house was bombed by Israeli forces on October 26, demolishing the building and killing his parents, brothers and cousins. The strike killed 22 people with many more trapped under the rubble. Abu Shamala’s family members are among the more than 7,000 people who are reported missing in Gaza, including 4,900 children and women. The missing are believed to be trapped under bombed buildings, according to Hamas officials in Gaza. Despite multiple failed attempts, Abu Shamala refuses to quit and has pledged to continue searching for his relatives and recover their bodies from under the ruins of the house. He hopes he can bury them in a cemetery with proper Islamic rituals. Israel has dropped thousands of bombs on Gaza since October 7, the day the war started with Hamas attacks on southern Israel. The war is believed to be one of the most destructive and fatal in recent times, having killed nearly 21,000 people in Gaza and 1,139 in Israel, wounding nearly 55,000 Palestinians and at least 8,730 in Israel, and destroying or damaging at least 60 percent of Gaza’s residential units. As the war continues, finding and rescuing those trapped under the rubble is becoming increasingly difficult. Adblock test (Why?)
‘Piles of body parts’: Gaza’s Maghazi residents find families ‘in pieces’
Deir el-Balah, Gaza Strip – It has been four days since Gaza’s smallest refugee camp was pounded in yet another series of Israeli air strikes, but Palestinians there are still digging up the bodies of their loved ones from under the rubble. The onslaught in central Gaza’s Maghazi late on Sunday killed at least 90 people, including children and many who were internally displaced. In one of the deadliest attacks on the Gaza Strip since Israel launched a war on the enclave on October 7, residents including Ashraf al-Haj Ahmed said the assault happened “suddenly” and without prior warning. “At around 11:30pm that night, we witnessed a series of large explosions that shook the entire camp,” al-Haj Ahmed told Al Jazeera. At least three homes were completely destroyed [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] His relative’s home was among those that were flattened to the ground. Al-Haj Ahmed recalled running towards it as soon as the bombardment woke him up, just a few blocks down. At the scene of the attack, he found a four-storey building destroyed “on top of those who were living in it”. “There must have been around 40 people, among them are the owners of the house, as well as displaced families who were taken in,” he said. At least three houses in the overcrowded camp were hit by Israeli air strikes. Officials in Gaza said seven families were among the casualties. While the official number of those who were killed stands at 90, residents of the camp near Deir el-Balah say in reality, the figure is much higher as entire residential blocks were wiped out. “In each home, there’s a minimum of 50 people,” another Maghazi resident told Al Jazeera. “A lot of them are displaced Palestinians from other parts of Gaza who were forced to flee their homes.” Israel’s attacks have not spared homes and shelters that displaced people have fled to [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] The camp normally houses 30,000 people, according to the UN refugee agency for Palestinians (UNRWA). But with the displacement of Palestinians fleeing Israel’s relentless bombardment in other parts of the enclave, the number of people there has risen to an estimated 100,000. “We pulled out so many body parts that we can’t even estimate the total number of deaths yet,” the second resident said. “They’re all in pieces, and we’re pulling them out with our bare hands,” he added. “We’ve now gathered at least two piles of body parts.” ‘Dark and painful night’ Israel’s attacks have not spared homes and shelters that people have fled to. Despite being on the southern side of the Strip, an area that Israeli forces deemed “safe” and ordered civilians from the north to flee ahead of their ground offensive, Maghazi has been subjected to intense artillery and air raids. It was also attacked last month when at least 50 Palestinians were killed. The vicinity of the camp was also subjected to intense Israeli shelling over the last week. Abu Rami Abu al-Ais is among those who have been sheltering in Maghazi ever since he left his home in the al-Zahra neighbourhood. He said Sunday’s attack was not the first time he and his family members had been hit. “We had a home in al-Zahra, which came under attack. After coming here, the house we were staying in was bombed again,” al-Ais, whose daughter is badly injured, told Al Jazeera. More than 21,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7 [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] He echoed al-Haj Ahmed’s experience and said there had been “no warnings whatsoever” prior to the strikes. Al-Ais said in previous assaults on the enclave, Israeli forces would sometimes warn residents of a building to evacuate a few minutes before an attack, either by throwing leaflets or via speakerphones. But during this offensive, there had been no such warnings. “The rockets fall on the heads of innocent people sleeping in their homes,” he said. “They [Israel] want to commit a complete genocide.” Al-Ais said people are still collecting the remains of their friends, neighbours and relatives with their bare hands. “We found the remains of women and children who were blown up. Their body parts have been scattered over a span of about three blocks,” due to the intensity of the strikes, al-Ais said. “It was a very dark and painful night for Maghazi,” he recalled. “The widespread and sheer destruction is indescribable.” Residents of Maghazi refugee camp have called for an urgent ceasefire [Abdelhakim Abu Riash/Al Jazeera] Infrastructure, such as roads leading to the camp, were also destroyed. Al-Ais said there are no excavators that can help speed up the process of recovering people from under the blocks of concrete. The lack of much-needed fuel to operate bulldozers and vehicles means that – just like civil defence teams in Gaza – residents are digging with only their bare hands to try and pull out as many victims from under the rubble as they can. Israel has blocked the entry of fuel since it imposed a total siege on the already blockaded Strip at the start of the war, and has only allowed a very small amount of aid in through the Rafah border crossing. “We don’t need food, we don’t need water, we don’t need coffins,” al-Ais said. “What we need is a ceasefire and for this war to end.” Al-Haj Ahmed, agreed. “Shame on the Arab world. We don’t just need aid, we need you here personally. Come and stand with your brothers,” he said. Attacks on refugee camps and civilian infrastructure have become common since October 7. The Jabalia refugee camp in northern Gaza has been targeted several times, resulting in the deaths of hundreds of Palestinians. Civilian infrastructure – including schools, hospitals, ambulance vehicles, and places of worship – has also been subjected to bombardment. More than 21,000 Palestinians have been killed since October 7, while nearly 1.9 million – more than 80 percent of the 2.3 million people who live in Gaza – have been displaced. Adblock
No safe place for Palestinians in Gaza as Israel widens offensive
As the Israeli military pounded central and southern Gaza by land, sea and air, Palestinian authorities reported scores of casualties and the United Nations health agency said thousands of people were trying to flee the widening offensive. Residents in the central Gaza Strip said that with nightfall, Israeli tank shelling intensified on Wednesday east of the already overcrowded Bureij, Maghazi and Nuseirat refugee camps where tanks have been trying to force their way through. Israeli army spokesperson Daniel Hagari said that additional reinforcements have been sent into the southern part of the Palestinian territory on the outskirts of Khan Younis. Israeli forces were pressing on with their operations in the northern part of the enclave, leaving hundreds of thousands of fleeing Palestinians with no safe place left to shelter. The World Health Organization (WHO) said its staff had seen thousands of people fleeing heavy strikes in Khan Younis on foot, on donkeys or in cars. Makeshift shelters were being built along the road. “WHO is extremely concerned this fresh displacement of people will further strain health facilities in the south, which are already struggling to meet the population’s immense needs,” said Rik Peeperkorn, WHO representative for the occupied Palestinian territories. “This forced mass movement of people will also lead to more overcrowding, increased risk of infectious diseases and make it even harder to deliver humanitarian aid.” Adblock test (Why?)
In bid to counter China, US ramps up effort to boost military ties in Asia
On May 30, the United States accused China of intercepting one of its spy planes in an “unnecessarily aggressive manoeuvre” over the South China Sea. The American RC-135 plane, according to the US military, was conducting routine operations over the sensitive waterway when the Chinese fighter jet flew directly in front of its nose. A video shared by the US Indo-Pacific Command showed the cockpit of the RC-135 shaking in the wake of turbulence of the Chinese jet. Days later, on June 5, the US again accused China of carrying out what it said was an “unsafe” manoeuvre near one of its vessels. This time it was around a warship in the Taiwan Strait. The US Indo-Pacific Command again released a video of the incident, showing a Chinese navy vessel cutting sharply across the path of a US destroyer at a distance of some 137 metres (150 yards), forcing the latter to slow down to avoid a collision. Washington said the near misses showed China’s “growing aggressiveness”, but Beijing said the US was to blame, accusing its rival of deliberately “provoking risk” by sending aircraft and vessels for “close in reconnaissance” near its shores – moves it said posed a serious danger to its national security. The close calls evoked memories of a deadly incident on April 1, 2001, when a Chinese fighter jet and a US surveillance plane collided in the sky over the South China Sea. The impact caused the Chinese jet to crash and killed the pilot, while the US plane was forced to make an emergency landing in China’s Hainan. Beijing held the 24 American aircrew members for 11 days and only released them when Washington apologised for the incident. While the two countries were able to de-escalate tensions then, there are worries that a similar mishap today could widen into a bigger conflict due to the deterioration in relations between the rivals. The US views China as the biggest challenge to the Western-dominated international order, pointing to Beijing’s rapid military buildup – the biggest in peacetime history – as well as its claims over the self-governed island of Taiwan and in the East and South China Seas. The US military’s so-called “freedom of navigation exercises” in the contested waterways near China are part of a push by the administration of President Joe Biden to deepen and expand its diplomatic and military presence in the Asia Pacific. The campaign – which has accelerated over the past year – stretches from Japan to the Philippines and Australia, and from India to Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands. The “once in a generation effort,” as Gregory Poling, director of the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, puts it, involves the opening of new embassies in the region, deployment of troops and more advanced military assets, as well as obtaining access to sites in key areas facing the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait. For its part, China accuses the US of pursuing a policy of “containment, encirclement and suppression”, all aimed at holding back its economic development. And its leaders have pledged to resist. Chinese President Xi Jinping said the US campaign has “brought unprecedented severe challenges to our country’s development”, and in a speech in March called on his countrymen to “dare to fight”. His former Defence Minister Li Shangfu, during an address at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, condemned what he called Washington’s “Cold War mentality”, and said Beijing would not be intimidated and would “resolutely safeguard national sovereignty and territorial integrity, regardless of any cost”. Analysts say tensions will only heighten further as competition between China and the US – a contest about who gets to set the rules on the global stage – intensifies. While the superpower rivalry could bring benefits to countries in the Asia Pacific in the short term – particularly in the form of infrastructure loans and foreign direct investments – these nations could, in the future, find having to navigate between China and the US more challenging. “This is a competition over what the rules-based order looks like, at least in Asia,” Poling told Al Jazeera. “It’s about whether or not the existing global rules continue to apply to Asia or whether China gets to carve out a huge area of exemption in which its preferred rules predominate. “Clearly, the next couple of decades at least are going to be characterised by this growing competition. Unless China changes its strategy on this … then we’re going to see competition continue to heighten and tensions continue to heighten not just between the US and China, but also between China and most of its neighbours.” China’s rise Japan’s defeat in World War II ushered in an age of US dominance in Asia. But in recent decades, China’s growing military and economic might has brought an end to that uncontested primacy. Under Xi, who took office in 2012 championing what he calls the “Chinese dream of national rejuvenation”, a vision to restore China’s great-power status, Beijing has invested heavily in modernising its military. According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a London-based think tank, China has more than doubled its military spending over the past decade, with expenditure reaching $219bn in 2022 – although this is still less than a third of US spending during the same year. China has also embarked on a naval shipbuilding programme that has put more vessels to sea between 2014 and 2018 than the total number of ships in the German, Indian, Spanish and British navies combined. The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has since also commissioned guided missile cruisers as well as nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarines. In June 2022, it launched its third aircraft carrier, the Fujian. The PLA’s rocket force has also modernised its capabilities, including with the development of hypersonic missiles and anti-ship ballistic missiles. According to the US military, the PLA also plans to accelerate the expansion of its nuclear arsenal to as many as
When death metal becomes one of 84,000 ways to practise Buddhism
Taipei, Taiwan – In the past few years, many of Taiwan’s largest music festivals have seen the unlikely ensemble of a shaven Buddhist nun introducing a band of five black-clad musicians whose faces are smeared blood red. When the first riffs break through the sound system, their hard yet atmospheric music immediately sounds like death metal – an extreme sub-genre of heavy metal that emerged in the United States in the mid-1980s and is characterised by guttural vocals, abrupt tempo and relentless, discording guitar riffs. But the beastly growl of the band’s Canadian singer is not conveying the genre’s typical lyrics of sickness. He is actually chanting genuine Buddhist mantras, blessing everyone in the audience. Taiwan’s Dharma are probably the first band in the world to combine ancient Buddhist sutras in Sanskrit or Mandarin Chinese with the contemporary sound of death metal. Since their beginnings in 2018, they have stood out from thousands of other heavy metal bands around the world with their distinctive style, and have even had two Buddhist nuns, Master Song and Master Miao-ben join them on stage. Last month, the band played its first overseas show – at the International Indie Music Festival in Kerala – and is ready to bring Buddha’s message further afield after receiving offers of interest from North America and Europe. “We believe that in the 21st century, both heavy metal and ancient religions need to change,” said Jack Tung, Dharma’s founding member and drummer, a pivotal figure in Taipei’s underground music scene. Heavy with spiritual strokes Dharma is unique because the group subverts most people’s understanding of metal music and its fans – an obnoxious, loud genre for degenerates. Since the 1990s, heavy metal has been often associated with Satanism and delinquency – think of the second wave of Norwegian black metal, with bands like Mayhem, Emperor and Burzum, whose alienated teenage musicians shocked the world with their behaviour – from burning churches to murder – in the name of “musical authenticity”. A Dharma fan crowd-surfs in the lotus position [Courtesy of Joe Henley/Dharma] For heavy metal and its subgenres, these events constituted the climax of what British sociologist Stanley Cohen described as “moral panics” in his book Folk Devils and Moral Panics, a 1972 study on the then-emerging British subcultures of mods and rockers. Cohen argued that moral panics were characterised by an intense feeling of fear, largely exaggerated, about a specific subcultural group that a community perceives as tarnishing its core values. Thirty years later, with heavy metal and its derivatives underpinning music scenes in countries from Botswana to Egypt and Iraq, Dharma believes the genre’s globalised tropes can be changed into an effective vehicle for Buddhist teachings. Founding member Tung had his spiritual awakening back in 2000, when he was greatly surprised to hear the Lion’s Roar of Buddhism “as it was completely different from the Buddhist scriptures I had heard since childhood”, he told Al Jazeera. In the Mahayana school of Buddhism prevalent in East Asia, the “Lion’s Roar” is a metaphorical principle signifying the awe-inspiring power of Buddha and the Bodhisattvas when expounding the Dharma (which means, in a nutshell, the Buddha’s teachings and practice), bringing peace and auspiciousness. At the time, Tung was already a metalhead and a drummer and sensed a connection between the chanting style of the Lion’s Roar and the driving rhythms of a metal band. For him, death metal’s stereotypical imagery and lyrics were just an outlet to release emotions and a form of representation not dissimilar to the way Buddhism spread from India to China and other places using Buddha statues with angry features. “From my understanding, this angry appearance was used mainly to protect monks and believers, and we think that it is somewhat similar to how death metal musicians propose their messages,” said Tung. “We hope to use the tremendous energy of death metal music to increase the power of the spells and use music and costumes to manifest the anger or protection of Buddha and Bodhisattva. […] We have not changed the essence of Buddhist scripture mantras, but rather hope to strengthen them [with death metal].” A special kind of dedication It took Tung about a decade from conceiving Dharma’s concept to finding the right people to form his “enlightened” band because being a member also meant being highly involved with the teachings of Buddhism. In 2018, Tung recruited a former bandmate, guitarist Andy Lin, to start working on Dharma’s first songs, and in 2019, welcomed Canadian singer Joe Henley, a freelance writer and long-term Taiwan resident, on vocals. Prior to making his live debut, Henley spent months studying the sutras he would sing on stage under the guidance of Master Song, a devout Buddhist nun, until he entered the Three Jewels, becoming a Buddhist himself and receiving Song’s ultimate blessing to perform the sutras in public. Master Song, who due to health reasons can no longer perform on stage with Dharma, passed their duties to Master Miao-ben and discussed the issues extensively with Tung before endorsing the band. She hopes they may play a subtle role in spreading Buddhist beliefs among young people on the self-ruled island and beyond. “Through music, we hope to influence the younger generation, especially those who like different music genres, as we are born equal, and no one should be abandoned because of their preferences for any specific music style,” Master Song told Al Jazeera. “We believe that faith does not necessarily have to be Buddhism, Taoism, Christianity, Catholicism or Islam, as it can also be the sheer belief in goodness and love for the world.” Master Miao-ben and Joe Henley, right, on stage [Courtesy of Joe Henley/Dharma] Given the general reluctance of heavy metal fans to accept bands that deviate from metal’s well-defined style, Dharma’s successful reception in Taiwan came as a huge surprise to Henley. “It seems that from day one, and our very first show, opening for [Swedish black metal band] Marduk, we were welcomed with open
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 673
As the war enters its 673rd day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Thursday, December 28, 2023. Fighting Two people were killed and four others injured in the southern Odesa region after Russian forces sent dozens of attack drones over Ukraine in a nighttime air raid. The Ukraine air force said it shot down 32 of the 46 Iranian-made drones that Russia had launched with the others mostly hitting near the front line, mainly in the southern Kherson region. Regional Governor Oleksandr Prokudin said the attack on the Kherson region and its capital hit residential areas and a mall as well as striking the power grid, leaving about 70 percent of households in Kherson city without electricity. The Institute for the Study of War said that Russia’s claimed capture this week of Maryinka in eastern Ukraine would not provide it with a springboard for major battlefield gains. But it noted that “localised Russian offensive operations are still placing pressure on Ukrainian forces in many places along the front in eastern Ukraine”. Ukraine opened a war crimes investigation into the alleged execution by Russian forces of three Ukrainian prisoners of war earlier this month near the village of Robotyne in the southeastern Zaporizhia region, the general prosecutor’s office said. Politics and diplomacy India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar met Russian President Vladimir Putin, who said relations between the countries were progressing even amid turbulent times. Jaishankar, who is on a five-day visit to Moscow, also met his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, who said they discussed “the prospects for military-technical cooperation, including the joint production of modern types of weapons”. India’s Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, left, is on a five-day visit to Moscow [Alexander Nemenov/Pool via AP Photo] Russia condemned sanctions imposed by the United States against the Arctic LNG 2 project as an “unacceptable” move that would undermine global energy security. The sanctions are part of an attempt to limit Moscow’s financial ability to continue its war in Ukraine. Russia charged six Danes for joining the Russia-Ukraine war as “foreign mercenaries” on Ukraine’s side, the Russian embassy in Denmark said in a statement. The six face as many as 15 years in prison if they are found guilty. The embassy said 20 Danes had been identified as mercenaries and some had been killed. Weapons The US announced a $250m military aid package for Ukraine that officials say could be the last unless a $61b funding bill currently held up by Republicans in Congress is passed. The latest aid includes air defence munitions, additional ammunition for high-mobility artillery rocket systems, artillery ammunition, anti-armour munitions and more than 15 million rounds of ammunition. Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine’s minister of strategic industries, told a briefing that the defence sector would increase production of weapons and military equipment significantly next year and that output was three times higher in 2023 than in the previous year. Kamyshin said Ukraine was now producing six Bohdana self-propelled artillery units per month. Bohdanas are the only Ukrainian-made self-propelled gun using NATO-standard 155mm rounds instead of the 152mm rounds used by artillery based on Soviet technology. Russia warned Japan that its plan to provide Patriot air defence systems to Ukraine would have “grave consequences” for Russia-Japan ties. Sergei Chemezov, the head of the Rostec state defence company, said Russia would soon deploy its newest howitzers against Ukrainian forces. Chemezov told the RIA news agency that testing of the new Coalition-SV self-propelled artillery units had been completed and mass production was under way. Adblock test (Why?)