Displaced Palestinian mother in Gaza gives birth to quadruplets
Iman al-Masry is simply exhausted after giving birth to quadruplets in a hospital in southern Gaza, miles away from her home in the north of the war-torn Palestinian territory. In mid-October, days into the Israel-Hamas war, the young woman fled her family home in Beit Hanoon on foot with her three other children seeking safety. They walked five kilometres (three miles) to the Jabalia refugee camp, looking for a means of transport that would take them to Deir el-Balah further south. Iman was six months pregnant and “the distance was too long”, she said. “It affected my pregnancy,” added the 28-year-old mother, who gave birth by c-section on December 18 to daughters Tia and Lynn and sons Yasser and Mohammed. But Iman was quickly asked to leave the hospital with the newborns – minus Mohammed who was too fragile to go with them – to make room for other patients of the war. Now, with Tia, Lynn and Yasser, they live in a cramped schoolroom turned shelter in Deir el-Balah along with around 50 other members of their extended family. “Mohammed weighs only one kilogramme [2.2 pounds]. He cannot survive,” she said of the child she left behind at a hospital in the Nuseirat refugee camp. Lying on a foam mattress in a schoolroom turned shelter for her and her extended family, Iman recounts her journey from hell. “When I left home, I had only some summer clothes for the children. I thought the war would last a week or two and that afterwards we would go back home,” she said. More than 11 weeks later, her hope of ever going back is shattered. The Gaza Strip, home to 2.4 million people, lies in ruins from the north to the south. According to UN estimates, the fighting has displaced 1.9 million Palestinians internally. The conflict erupted when Hamas gunmen attacked southern Israel, resulting in the deaths of about 1,139 people. Three of the al-Masry quadruplets – the fourth still being treated in hospital – belonging to Ammar and Iman al-Masry sleep as they shelter at a school in Deir el-Balah in the central Gaza Strip on December 27 [Mahmud Hams/AFP] Palestinian fighters also took around 250 hostages, 129 of whom remain in captivity, Israel says. Israel retaliated with a relentless bombardment and a siege of Gaza followed by a ground invasion from October 27. The campaign has killed at least 21,110 people, according to the latest toll issued by Gaza’s Ministry of Health, with about two-thirds of them women and children. ‘Helpless’ Like other mothers, Iman had hoped to follow tradition and celebrate the birth of her babies by “dousing them with rose water”, she said. But 10 days on, “we have not even been able to bathe them”, she said, because of the difficulty of finding clean water in the devastated territory, where there is a dire shortage of basic foodstuff, including milk, medicine and hygienic supplies such as diapers. “Normally, I would change babies’ diapers every two hours. But the situation is difficult and I must be thrifty,” she said, adding that the newborns get only a fresh diaper in the morning and another in the evening. Her husband Ammar al-Masry, 33, said he is devastated because he cannot provide for his family. “I feel helpless,” he said, surrounded by his six children in the foul-smelling schoolroom. “I fear for my children. I don’t know how to protect them,” he said, adding that he spends most of his days outdoors searching for food. “Tia [who has jaundice] must be breastfed and my wife needs nutritious food that contains protein. The children need milk and diapers. But I cannot get any of that.” Adblock test (Why?)
Jacques Delors, founding father of EU’s single currency project, dies at 98
Delors had a high-profile political career in France, where he also served as finance minister under Francois Mitterrand. Jacques Delors, former European Commission chief and a founding father of the European Union’s (EU) historic single currency project, has died. He was 98. The French socialist and ardent advocate of post-war European integration died in his sleep at his Paris home on Wednesday, his family said. Delors served as president of the European Commission for three terms – longer than any other holder of the office – from January 1985 until the end of 1994. During Delors’s decade as the European Commission chief, the EU completed its integrated single market and agreed to introduce a single currency, the euro, and built a common foreign and security policy. The then-12-nation bloc also set the conditions on his watch for eventually admitting the former communist states of Central and Eastern Europe after the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Delors during a news conference in this 1994 photo [File: Nathalie Koulischer/Reuters] Delors also served as finance minister under French President Francois Mitterrand from 1981 to 1984. But he declined to run for the presidency in 1995 despite being overwhelmingly ahead in the polls, a decision he put down to “a desire for independence that was too great”. “I have no regrets,” he said about that decision later. “But I am not saying I was right.” The current French President Emmanuel Macron paid tribute to the former EU leader as an “inexhaustible architect of our Europe” and a fighter for human justice. Posting on X, formerly Twitter, Macron said “his commitment, his ideal and his rectitude will always inspire us”. He called Delors “a statesman with a French destiny”. Michel Barnier, the EU’s chief negotiator during the United Kingdom’s departure from the bloc, called Delors an inspiration and a reason to “believe in a ‘certain idea’ of politics, of France, and of Europe”. Delors’s time as the European Commission president was marked by clashes between federalists such as himself who believed in an “ever closer union”, and the UK’s then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, who firmly resisted any shift of power to Brussels. “Up Yours Delors”, read a famous 1990 front-page headline in The Sun newspaper which voiced its concerns about a single currency and increased powers for the European Parliament. Despite these challenges, he helped establish major tenets of the bloc’s integration, including the Schengen accords for travel and the Erasmus programme for student exchanges. He is survived by his daughter Martine Aubry, a French politician and mayor of Lille, who campaigned to be the socialist candidate for the French presidency in 2011, losing to Francois Hollande. Adblock test (Why?)
Indonesian students demand deportation of Rohingya refugees
NewsFeed Indonesian students are demanding Rohingya refugees from Myanmar be deported. A large crowd of students descended on a building being used as a refugee shelter. When police managed to restore order, the refugees, many in tears, were relocated by truck to an alternate location. A surge in arrivals of refugees to Indonesia from Myanmar has been met with hostility. Published On 27 Dec 202327 Dec 2023 Adblock test (Why?)
Israeli minister Gantz says situation on Lebanon border ‘demands change’
Comments from the Israeli war cabinet member are the latest to hint at the possibility of an escalation with Hezbollah. Senior Israeli minister Benny Gantz says the situation on the country’s border with Lebanon “must change”, hinting at the possibility of military escalation with the armed group Hezbollah. Gantz, a member of Israel’s emergency war cabinet, told reporters on Wednesday the chance of a diplomatic solution to exchanges between Israel and armed groups in southern Lebanon is fast running out. “The situation on Israel’s northern border demands change,” Gantz told a news conference. “The stopwatch for a diplomatic solution is running out, if the world and the Lebanese government don’t act in order to prevent the firing on Israel’s northern residents, and to distance Hezbollah from the border, the [Israeli military] will do it.” The remarks are the latest to raise concerns that Israel’s military campaign in Gaza could explode into a wider regional conflict, drawing in Iran-backed groups such as Hezbollah. Israel and Hezbollah, along with a handful of smaller armed groups that operate in southern Lebanon, have settled into a steady rhythm of tit-for-tat exchanges since the current round of fighting between Hamas and Israel started on October 7, when the group launched an attack on southern Israel that killed more than 1,100 people. Since then, Israel has been relentlessly bombing Gaza in a “genocidal” campaign, killing more than 21,000 people, most of them women and children, and displacing nearly its entire 2.3 million residents. The Israeli offensive in Gaza triggered tensions along the Israel-Lebanon border, as intermittent exchange of fire between Israeli forces and Hezbollah were reported in the deadliest clashes since the two sides fought a full-scale war in 2006. Tens of thousands of people in Israel and Lebanon have also been displaced, and more than 150 people, most of them Hezbollah fighters, killed on the Lebanese side since the exchanges began, according to a tally by the AFP news agency. The figure includes 20 civilians, including three journalists, the agency said. On Tuesday, a Hezbollah attack injured 11 people in northern Israel while an Israeli attack on Bint Jbeil killed three people, including one Hezbollah fighter. “Israeli warplanes are currently targeting towns that are even very far from the border,” Al Jazeera correspondent Ali Hashem reported from Bint Jbeil. “The fact is that this area is now becoming a complete warzone, it’s becoming very dangerous, very risky, to go around, with the fact that you’re always anticipating an Israeli drone,” he added. Thus far, however, such exchanges have stopped short of a more serious confrontation that would come with a steep cost for both sides, as well as civilian populations who live in communities near the Israel-Lebanon border. The limited nature of the fighting had eased initial concerns about a larger war. But in recent weeks, Israeli officials have suggested that they could take stronger actions against Hezbollah, even as Israel’s campaign in Gaza comes under growing scrutiny. Speaking on Wednesday on a tour near the border, Israel’s Foreign Minister Eli Cohen said Israel may target Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah, a move that would almost certainly spark a larger conflict with the formidable armed group with strong links to Iran. “We will operate to make the most of the diplomatic option,” Cohen said. “If it doesn’t work, all options are on the table.” Adblock test (Why?)
In the US, Arabs and Muslims are once again cast as suspect
For 80 days, Israel has been waging war on the Palestinians in Gaza with full diplomatic, economic and military support from the US government. The Israeli army has killed 21,000 people, carrying out what legal scholars agree amounts to a genocide and committing countless other war crimes and crimes against humanity. Yet, rising moral outrage in the United States and across the world is being met with dangerous smear campaigns that weaponise racism to silence the Palestinian freedom movement. Fuelled by and fuelling Islamophobia and anti-Palestinianism, extreme rhetoric has abetted unprecedented violations of Palestinian, Arab and Muslim American civil rights and even deadly violence against members of these communities. But the negative repercussions of this bigoted repression are not limited to Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims; rather they threaten fundamental moral and civic values that are the basis of democracy. Slander and witch hunts Over the past two and a half months, we have seen massive street demonstrations, open letters of condemnation, public resignations of officials, and other protest actions aimed at calling for a ceasefire, equal rights for Palestinians, and accountability for war crimes. But this mobilisation has been countered by attempts to portray the pro-Palestinian movement and any critique of Israel’s genocide as “anti-Semitic” and supportive of violence or terrorism. While these tactics are not new, this campaign has expanded in scale and scope to the point that it resembles a McCarthyist witch-hunt, relentlessly targeting Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Americans in particular, as well as allies who have stood against the US-funded violence and apartheid policies of Israel. Since October, thousands of individuals have fallen victim to this broad-brush smear campaign. On US university campuses, student activists have been disciplined by administrators, have had their student groups banned, have been doxxed on the internet, have had their faces and names plastered on billboards with false, defamatory captions, and have lost job offers. Others who oppose genocide have been pressured to stay silent, faced threats, encountered intimidation and harassment online and in the streets, and endured economic repercussions, including the loss of employment. But this persecution has not been limited to the private sector and online spaces; it has also extended into the halls of power. In November, a hearing was held in the US Congress in which “witnesses” falsely alleged that US-registered charities, including the ones I am the director of – American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) and Americans for Justice in Palestine Action (AJP Action) – are “providing support” to Palestinian resistance groups. These false allegations extended to the absurd claim that these organisations have called for a “genocide against Israel”. Members of Congress who have spoken out against Israel’s atrocities or who have simply met with their constituents as part of annual “Palestine Advocacy Days” were also named and shamed during the hearing. These malevolent “testimonies” seek to make our political contributions and voices toxic in the halls of power by spreading lies and pushing Islamophobic tropes that rely on decades of anti-Palestinian, anti-Arab and anti-Muslim biases. It is one thing to fight against slander and misinformation in the media, but it is another – and fundamentally more troubling – to be attacked with false accusations in Congress. That these testimonies containing false and bigoted claims were allowed to proceed shows the utter failure of our public institutions to protect Americans’ right to dissent at a time when our tax dollars are being used to support Israel’s genocide in Gaza. Islamophobia and violence These defamatory, suppressive tactics have dangerous consequences. They fuel hatred and encourage people to act upon it. According to the New York State Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Services, there has been a 417 percent increase in hate speech against Muslims since the war began. Civil rights groups like Palestine Legal and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) have also reported an unprecedented number of anti-Palestinian and anti-Muslim attacks and discriminatory incident complaints over the past two months. They have seen a more than 200 percent increase compared with the previous year, and this is likely an undercount. There have been not only verbal attacks and harassment but deadly physical violence, as well. On October 14, Wadea al-Fayoume, a six-year-old Palestinian American child, was stabbed 26 times with a military knife by a man who was shouting, “You Muslims must die”; his mother was stabbed a dozen times but survived. On November 25, three Palestinian students were shot for speaking Arabic and wearing keffiyehs; all three sustained injuries from gunshot wounds, and one is now paralysed from the chest down. A member of our own staff, Neveen Ayesh, was shot at in her car and her home was broken into on November 11. Apart from inciting violence and intimidation against Palestinian, Arab and Muslim Americans, the smear campaigns are reinvigorating the post-9/11 atmosphere of suspicion, mass surveillance and collective victimisation. For decades, we have worked to expose the racism and double standards of successive presidential administrations and their anti-Muslim policies – from the watch lists and entrapment schemes, to the registries and bans. We have demonstrated the waste of millions of taxpayer funds for programmes and initiatives that have targeted and deeply traumatised our communities, but produced no results in “improving national security”. We have fought to ensure that no community is disproportionately policed and surveilled, no matter what they look like or where they come from. As pro-Israel groups wage a defamation war on our communities in order to obfuscate and distract public attention from Israel’s crimes in Gaza, we risk losing that progress towards an inclusive, anti-racist democracy, as slander and lies overcome truth. That is why we call on media outlets, politicians, and progressive leaders to be vigilant about anti-Arab and anti-Muslim tropes that imagine our communities as extensions of governments or political groups in the Middle East, portray us as inherently suspect, and thereby endanger us. There are three important ways to counter this smear campaign. First, we must recognise the long history of anti-Arab and anti-Muslim racism
New York Times sues OpenAI, Microsoft for infringing copyrighted works
The New York Times has sued OpenAI and Microsoft over copyright infringement, seeking to end the companies’ practice of using its stories to train chatbots. The newspaper filed a lawsuit in the United States federal court in Manhattan on Wednesday, alleging the companies’ powerful artificial intelligence (AI) models used millions of its articles for training without permission and saying that copyright infringements at the paper alone could be worth billions. The Times said OpenAI and Microsoft are advancing their technology through the “unlawful use of The Times’s work to create artificial intelligence products that compete with it” and “threatens The Times’s ability to provide that service”. Through their AI chatbots, the companies “seek to free-ride on The Times’s massive investment in its journalism by using it to build substitutive products without permission or payment”, the lawsuit said. The Times, one of the most respected news organisations in the United States, is seeking damages as well as an order that the companies stop using its content – and destroy data already harvested. While no sum is specifically requested, the Times alleged that the infringement could have cost “billions of dollars in statutory and actual damages”. Confrontational approach With the suit, The New York Times chose a more confrontational approach to the sudden rise of AI chatbots, in contrast to other media groups, such as Germany’s Axel Springer or The Associated Press, which have struck content deals with OpenAI. Microsoft, the world’s second biggest company by market capitalisation, is a major investor in OpenAI and swiftly implemented the powers of AI in its own products after the release of ChatGPT last year. The AI models that power ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot (formerly Bing) were trained for years on content available on the internet under the assumption that it was fair to be used without need for compensation. But the lawsuit argued that the unlawful use of the Times’s work to build artificial intelligence products threatened its ability to provide quality journalism. “These tools were built with and continue to use independent journalism and content that is only available because we and our peers reported, edited and fact-checked it at high cost and with considerable expertise,” a spokesperson for the Times said. The Times said it reached out to Microsoft and OpenAI in April to raise concerns about the use of its intellectual property and reach a resolution on the issue. During the talks, the newspaper said it sought to “ensure it received fair value” for the use of its content, “facilitate the continuation of a healthy news ecosystem and help develop GenAI technology in a responsible way that benefits society and supports a well-informed public”. “These negotiations have not led to a resolution,” the lawsuit said. The lawsuit said that content generated by ChatGPT and Copilot closely mimicked New York Times style and the paper’s content was given a privileged status in perfecting the chatbot technology. It also said content that proved to be false was sourced incorrectly to The New York Times. Wave of lawsuits The newspaper joins a growing list of individuals and publishers trying to stop AI giants from using copyrighted material. Last year, Game of Thrones author George RR Martin and other bestselling fiction writers filed a class-action lawsuit against OpenAI, accusing the startup of violating their copyrights to fuel ChatGPT. In June, more than 4,000 writers signed a letter to the CEOs of OpenAI, Google, Microsoft, Meta and other AI developers, accusing them of exploitative practices in building chatbots that “mimic and regurgitate” their language, style and ideas. Universal and other music publishers have sued artificial intelligence company Anthropic in a US court for using copyrighted lyrics to train its AI systems and generate answers to user queries. US photo distributor Getty Images has accused Stability AI of profiting from its pictures and those of its partners to make visual AI that creates original images on simple demand. With lawsuits piling up, Microsoft and Google have announced they would provide legal protection for customers sued for copyright infringement over content generated by their AI. This month, European Union policymakers agreed on landmark legislation to regulate AI, which requires tech companies doing business in the EU to disclose data used to train AI systems and carry out testing of products – especially those used in high-risk applications, such as self-driving vehicles and healthcare. In October, US President Joe Biden issued an executive order focused on AI’s impact on national security and discrimination while China has rolled out regulations requiring AI to reflect “socialist core values”. Adblock test (Why?)
Top 10 men’s football moments of 2023
The FIFA World Cup in Qatar may have fallen in 2022, but 2023 went a long way towards matching last year for stories and events. Here are Al Jazeera’s top 10 football moments from the men’s game for this calendar year: 1. Manchester City win the Champions League Manchester City were finally crowned champions of Europe in June when they beat Inter Milan 1-0 in the Champions League final. It was the trophy that had eluded City and their esteemed manager, Pep Guardiola, in his time with the club. For the Spaniard, it was his third Champions League triumph after the two he claimed with Barcelona, but the wait to lead City to continental glory was becoming the elephant in the room. The win secured the domestic treble for City as they won the Premier League for a third consecutive year. It also opened the door for City to challenge in two more competitions – the UEFA Super Cup and the FIFA Club World Cup. 2. Osimhen leads Napoli to Serie A glory Victor Osimhen finished top scorer in Serie A to help Napoli to their first Serie A title since Diego Maradona graced the Italian top flight. The Nigerian striker netted 26 goals in a stellar season that alerted all of Europe’s top clubs. Napoli had to wait 33 years to lift La Scudetta once again, but thanks to Osimhen’s goals, they did it at a canter – finishing 16 points clear of Lazio. Napoli’s 2023 story was far from simple, though, as we’ll explore in a moment. Napoli’s Victor Osimhen was Serie A’s leading scorer as Napoli won the title [File: Alberto Lingria/Reuters] 3. Messi wins eighth Ballon d’Or Lionel Messi was also on the move in 2023 as the former Barcelona star swapped Paris for Miami. The Argentinean’s time at Paris St Germain didn’t quite go to plan, but a glamorous move to David Beckham’s Inter Miami is expected to help sprinkle some glitz on Major League Soccer in the United States. It has hardly been a barren couple of years for Messi. After Argentina’s World Cup win at Qatar in 2022, the forward was handed his eighth Ballon d’Or. He claimed his first in 2009 as his incredible club career began. The latest, though, must have been the sweetest award for Messi, who was rewarded for finally joining some of the game’s greats in holding aloft the World Cup. 4. Ronaldo moves to Saudi Arabia Cristiano Ronaldo ended his European love affair when he switched Manchester for Saudi Arabia. From Sporting Lisbon to United, Real Madrid, Juventus and Old Trafford again, Ronaldo decided to take up the challenge of the Saudi Pro League with Al Nassr. The Portuguese had been linked to a host of Europe’s top clubs when his exit from United became apparent after his 2022 reveal-all TV interview with Piers Morgan. The transfer was made on the first day of the year, and it opened the door for a number of top names to follow suit. You can read all about Ronaldo’s move and more in our Top 10 transfers of 2023 review. History in the making. This is a signing that will not only inspire our club to achieve even greater success but inspire our league, our nation and future generations, boys and girls to be the best version of themselves. Welcome @Cristiano to your new home @AlNassrFC pic.twitter.com/oan7nu8NWC — AlNassr FC (@AlNassrFC_EN) December 30, 2022 5. Napoli’s smile is turned upside down Having claimed the Serie A title, manager Luciano Spalletti immediately left Napoli to take time out of the game. The 64-year-old, who said he was tired, was replaced by Rudi Garcia – but he lasted only 16 games before being sacked. Walter Mazzarri took charge with the title defence in tatters, both on and off the field, given rumours of unrest – most especially for their prized-asset Osimhen, who deleted a series of social media posts venting his frustration at the club. Matters weren’t helped by a controversial post by the club themselves seemingly mocking a penalty miss by Osimhen. Although it was quickly removed, the player’s agent was quick to express his disappointment at what he described as disrespect for his client, and legal action was even threatened. Perhaps Spalletti saw a storm brewing on the horizon. 6. Manchester City win the Club World Cup A quadruple already in the bag, Manchester City headed to Saudi Arabia last week as heavy favourites for the FIFA Club World Cup. A 2-0 semifinal win against Japan’s Uwara Reds appeared a stroll in the park, but that was nothing compared with the final. Guardiola’s side secured a fifth trophy in 2023 with a 4-0 hammering of Brazil’s Fluminense. The scoreline didn’t flatter City in any way whatsoever in what was a complete mismatch. The Premier League and FA Cup in England were followed by the Champions League and the Super Cup in Europe. Now the Club World Cup. Not only Manchester, England and Europe are blue – the world is now too. Manchester City’s Kyle Walker celebrates with the trophy after winning the Club World Cup final on December 22, 2023 [Amr Abdallah Dalsh/Reuters] 7. Europe’s elite face twofold threat to dominance Europe’s top clubs were pushed into reverse in 2021 when fan outrage forced nine of the 12 founding clubs to pull out of a proposed European Super League. It appeared to kill off any threat to the dominance that Europe’s governing body, UEFA, held over club competitions on the continent. The Super Cup and the Champions League seemed safe. But this past year, a threat came from outside the continent with so many of the world’s top stars following Cristiano Ronaldo to the Saudi Pro League, which has established itself as a serious rival to the elite level that Europe’s top leagues monopolised for so long. A further threat to UEFA emerged late in the year when in December the European Court of Justice ruled that UEFA and
Who are the Israeli refuseniks picking jail over the Gaza war?
He’s a baby-faced 18-year-old with a heart full of idealism. When Tel Aviv teen Tal Mitnick refused to enlist in the Israeli army, he was put on trial: on Tuesday, he was taken to military prison to serve a 30-day sentence. Standing alone in a country on a determined war footing is an agonising decision. But, speaking at Tel Hashomer, a base near the Gaza fence in central Israel, Mitnick staunchly defended his decision. “I believe that slaughter cannot solve slaughter,” he said. “The criminal attack on Gaza won’t solve the atrocious slaughter that Hamas executed. Violence won’t solve violence. And that is why I refuse.” Tal Mitnick, an activist in the Mesarvot network showed up today at Tel Hashomer base and was sentenced to 30 days in military prison. Listen to what he had to say before he walked in. Support him and other refusniks: https://t.co/drRtLjk4U3 pic.twitter.com/zu1XZJqmhG — Mesarvot מסרבות (@Mesarvot_) December 26, 2023 The statement appeared on the X account of Mesarvot, a support network connecting refuseniks in a campaign against the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories. In an earlier interview posted on the account, Mitnick laid out his universalist stance on the conflict. The solution, he said, would not come from corrupt politicians in Israel or from Hamas. “It will come from us, the sons and daughters of the two nations,” he said. Friends came out in support of Mitnick, holding placards with phrases like: “You cannot build heaven with blood”, “An eye for an eye and we all go blind” and “There is no military solution.” Military service is mandatory for most Jewish Israelis, viewed as a rite of passage. In the country’s highly militarised society, so-called refuseniks risk being labelled traitors. Are refuseniks common? No. Generally speaking, refuseniks may end up serving repeated prison services, ordered to return to recruitment centres again and again. Some wind up doing months behind bars before they are eventually discharged. The Israeli military does have a conscientious objectors committee, but exemptions are usually only granted on religious grounds – the ultra-Orthodox Haredi Jews, for instance, are legally exempt. Refusing to serve as a matter of political principle is not considered a valid objection. An ultra-Orthodox Jewish man walks behind Israeli soldiers at the entrance to a military recruiting office in Jerusalem on July 4, 2012. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s largest coalition partner had issued a veiled threat to quit the government over a dispute on amending Israel’s compulsory draft policy, which grants exemptions to ultra-Orthodox men studying the Torah in religious colleges [File: Baz Ratner/Reuters] Earlier this year, Amnesty International released a report on Yuval Dag, a 20-year-old who had made his political objections clear before his summons. The army classified his refusal as disobedience and sentenced him to 20 days at Neve Tzedek military prison in Tel Aviv. The rights group named four other individuals – Einat Gerlitz, Nave Shabtay Levin, Evyatar Moshe Rubin and Shahar Schwartz – who were repeatedly detained in 2022. Conscientious objectors commonly serve five months or more in prison – a high price to pay for young people doing what they believe to be right. Many objectors come to their decision after participating in protest movements, whether on LGBTQ rights, climate change or Israel’s occupation, violence and discrimination against Palestinians — a system that many rights groups have compared with apartheid. Are there any famous refuseniks? In 2003, a group of Israeli Air Force pilots provoked national fury when they refused to take part in operations in the West Bank and Gaza. Submitting a letter to the media, they branded attacks on the territories as “illegal and immoral”. The case was noteworthy, involving elite army members like Brigadier General Yiftah Spector, considered a legend in the forces for his attack on Iraq’s nuclear reactor in 1982. The government accused the pilots of “pretentious snivelling”. That same year, the country’s elite commandoes also defied orders to carry out attacks on the occupied territories. Setting out their position in a letter, 15 reservists from the Sayeret Matkal unit, often compared with the British army’s SAS, said: “We will no longer corrupt the stamp of humanity in us through carrying out the missions of an occupation army. “In the past, we fought for a justified cause (but today), we have reached the boundary of oppressing another people.” In 2007, swimwear model Bar Refaeli married a friend to avoid military service, later telling the press that “celebrities have other needs”. Later, to avoid damage to the companies she worked for, she agreed to participate in an enlistment campaign. The case ignited a debate on how easy it is to dodge conscription. Hang on, wasn’t there dissent in army ranks this year? Yes, but it was not linked to the occupation. In early March, about 700 reservist soldiers – including some top brass – resigned en masse during widespread protests over Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul. Critics accused him of curtailing Supreme Court powers to shield himself from corruption charges. People take part in a demonstration against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his nationalist coalition government’s judicial overhaul, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on July 22, 2023 [File: Corinna Kern/Reuters] Explaining his refusal to serve in the army, Dag said that reservists had resigned because they were afraid of living in a dictatorship. But, he pointed out, “We need to remember that in the occupied territories there has never been democracy. And the anti-democratic institution that rules there is the army.” Responding to rebellion in the ranks, Netanyahu said: “There’s no room for refusals.” Military service was, he said, “the first and most important foundation of our existence in our land …The refusals threaten the foundation of our existence.” Netantahu’s view is not unusual. Across the political spectrum, with the exception of some left-wing and Arab groups, parties condemn the refusal to serve for a number of reasons. Left wingers worry about polarisation, claiming that refusing to serve will encourage right-wing resistance to removing settlements. Right wingers
Chinese mourners are using AI to digitally resurrect the dead
NewsFeed A growing number of Chinese mourners are using AI to help them cope with their grief by generating digital replicas of their loved ones. Published On 27 Dec 202327 Dec 2023 Adblock test (Why?)
Russia accuses US of threatening global energy security
Russia has claimed that US sanctions levied against the Arctic LNG 2 project undermine global energy security. The Russian foreign ministry’s spokeswoman hit out on Wednesday at Washington’s “unacceptable” move to clamp down on the massive Arctic LNG 2. The sanctions are just the latest measure implemented as the West seeks to limit Moscow’s financial ability to wage war in Ukraine. The remarks came after Washington announced sanctions against the new liquefied natural gas plant that is under development on the Gydan Peninsula in the Arctic last month. “We consider such actions unacceptable, especially in relation to such large international commercial projects as Arctic LNG 2, which affect the energy balance of many states,” said foreign ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova. “The situation around Arctic LNG 2 once again confirms the destructive role for global economic security played by Washington, which speaks of the need to maintain this security but in fact, by pursuing its own selfish interests, tries to oust competitors and destroy global energy security.” Russia is the fourth-largest producer of sea-borne LNG behind the United States, Qatar and Australia. The Arctic LNG 2 project is a key element in Russia’s efforts to boost its share of the global market to a fifth by 2030-2035 from 8 percent now. However, the sanctions saw partners from China, Japan and France who hold a combined 40 percent of the project suspend participation last week. Project developer Novatek was also forced to declare force majeure over LNG supplies from the project, which was slated to start production in early 2024. Western countries, seeking to cripple Moscow’s military might, have imposed wide-ranging sanctions against Russian firms and individuals following the Kremlin’s decision to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February last year. However, Russia insists that Europe has been hit harder by the sanctions due to raised energy prices, while it has been successful in swiftly finding new markets in Asia. Almost all of Russia’s oil exports this year have been shipped to China and India, Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said on Wednesday. Wave of drones Russia hopes that the income from Asian energy customers can continue to help drive its invasion, as it eyes Ukraine’s struggle to access funds and weapons from Western partners. On Wednesday, Ukrainian authorities said two people were killed after Russian forces sent a wave of attack drones against the country in an overnight raid. The Ukrainian air force said that 32 of 46 Iranian-made drones deployed by Russia had been shot down. The air force said the military had destroyed drones over parts of central, southern and western Ukraine. Most of those that got through defences struck near the front line, mainly in the southern Kherson region. Oleh Kiper, the governor of Ukraine’s Odesa region, said that a 35-year-old man was killed by debris from a downed drone in a residential area. Another man died in the hospital from his injuries. Four others, including a 17-year-old boy, were injured, according to Kiper. More than 10,000 civilians have been killed in Ukraine since Russia’s full-scale invasion, with about half of recent deaths occurring far behind the front lines, according to the UN Human Rights Office. Adblock test (Why?)