‘They can kill us’: Fear and Sikh resilience in Canada city amid India spat
Surrey, British Columbia – On a Saturday afternoon in a Sikh temple in Surrey, Canada, boys and men with determined faces wield swords and sticks at each other in an ancient martial art called gatka. “We are a rebellious community,” Gurkeerat Singh, a farmer, electrician, photographer and spokesperson for the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Temple, tells me. Surrey is about a 45-minute train ride outside of Vancouver. The city of half a million people is home to the second-largest Sikh population in the country. Today, as the first snow of the season melts in puddles outside the building, there’s a small but encouraging crowd watching the gatka tournament inside. “From a young age, we teach our children to be armed and learn how to defend themselves,” says Gurkeerat. That need for the community to defend itself no longer feels like a hypothetical scenario in this fast-paced suburban city, which has the slogan: “The future lives here”. Not since the assassination of Sikh separatist Hardeep Singh Nijjar in Surrey in June. “The game has completely changed,” says 42-year-old Moninder Singh, a spokesperson for the British Columbia Gurdwaras Council. “Now, it’s no longer, you live to fight another day but you don’t know if you’ll live, the way they’re operating. Hardeep’s assassination, although not a surprise, was still unprecedented.” “They” refers to the Indian government and “you” to the Sikh community in Surrey, which is at the eye of a major diplomatic and political storm that has engulfed relations between Ottawa and New Delhi relations. The gates of Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara [Amy Fallon/Al Jazeera] Nijjar, the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurudwara president who came to Canada as a refugee in 1997 from Punjab in northwest India, was driving out of the temple’s parking lot in his pick-up when he was shot dead by two masked assailants on June 18 – Father’s Day. Many in the community believe the killers were local gangsters, hired by the Indian state. They felt vindicated when Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced to Parliament in September that there was credible evidence that India had a hand in the killing of Nijjar. It set off a diplomatic war: Each country expelled diplomats from the other, trade talks stalled and even visa services were temporarily affected. At the heart of the accusation against India lies its effort to crush a separatist Sikh movement that Nijjar advocated for vocally. For the past four decades, many Sikhs in communities around the world have been demanding that an independent Sikh state, known as Khalistan, be carved out for them in Punjab. India designated Nijjar and other pro-Khalistan leaders of the Sikh diaspora, such as New York-based Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, as “terrorists” – a charge they and their supporters deny. And in November, federal prosecutors in the United States indicted an Indian hitman on charges of working with Indian government intelligence in a bid to kill Pannun, lending further credence to concerns that New Delhi was deploying kill squads for targeted assassinations abroad. The Indian government has insisted that such acts are not a part of its policy and said it is investigating the US allegations regarding the plot against Pannun. Six months after the murder of 45-year-old Nijjar, a married plumber and father of two, several Sikh leaders in Surrey say they have received threats on social media. Some have been alerted to threats by Canadian officials. But many in the community say that whatever happens, they will not be silenced or defeated. A banner with the image of Sikh leader Hardeep Singh Nijjar at the Guru Nanak Sikh Gurdwara Temple, the site of his June 2023 killing, in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada September 20, 2023 [Chris Helgren/Reuters] ‘Blown up in their face’ Today, Surrey is home to about 154,000 followers of the Sikh faith, 170,000 Christians and about 30,000 Hindus. A hub for students, immigrants and others looking for cheaper housing, it is a city of shopping complexes, with many boasting Indian restaurants with names like Happy Singh Sweet Treats. Further down the highway in Delta, a city that borders Surrey, there is a plaza called Little India. Unveiled as a cultural precinct for the South Asian community in 2016, it features boutiques like The Turban Villa, which sells stitched turbans and accessories and provides services “for any type of turban tying for marriages, parties” as well as bridal shops such as Sleek Bazar. There are also insurance and immigration agents, fabric stores and chai sellers. The area is a microcosm of the Sikh community’s growing stature in Canada’s public life. There are about 770,000 Sikhs in the country – the largest population outside of India – making up 2.1 percent of the population. Many families moved to Canada in the 1980s amid a harsh crackdown by Indian security agencies in Punjab against perceived supporters of the Khalistan movement, which international rights groups condemned at the time. The Punjab police were accused by activists, and even the US Department of State, of carrying out extrajudicial killings. In June 1984, the Indian Army raided the Golden Temple in the Punjab city of Amritsar with tanks to drive out armed separatists, killing hundreds of people, including pilgrims. Four months later, then-Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was killed by two of her bodyguards. An anti-Sikh massacre followed in the streets of New Delhi and other parts of the country. Thousands of Sikhs were killed. Today, many see shades of a repeat of those attacks on Sikhs by Indian authorities – only this time, in Canada. “They’re very desperate right now to shut us out – and they’re willing to kill for it,” says Moninder, whose parents were born in India. “But it’s kind of blown up in their face. That’s the same tactic they used in Punjab, where they would kill and strike fear into villages and families … ‘Your child is next.’ “It didn’t really have the intended effect and I think that was apparent a week after Hardeep’s assassination, when about 30,000
300 Indians stuck in French airport for fourth day amid trafficking probe
Ten of the passengers apply for French asylum, as judges probe whether a criminal group is linked to trafficking. Hundreds of Indian nationals sequestered in a French airport are being questioned by authorities over concerns they could be victims of human trafficking. Four French judges are rushing to speak to the group of over 300 Indians who have been grounded at the Vatry airport, 150km (93 miles) east of Paris, since Thursday. Their charter plane, destined for the Central American nation of Nicaragua, was stopped at Vatry airport where it had landed to refuel after authorities received an anonymous tip that trafficking victims may be aboard. It had taken off from the United Arab Emirates’ Fujairah airport and was run by the Romania-based Legend Airlines. ‘Situation is urgent’ The sequestered passengers are to appear on Sunday before French judges, who will decide whether to keep them in the airport longer or send them on their way, according to the administration for the Marne region. “I don’t know if this has ever been done before in France,” Francois Procureur, lawyer and head of the Chalons-en-Champagne Bar Association, told local media on Saturday. The situation is urgent because “we cannot keep foreigners in a waiting area for more than 96 hours. Beyond that, it is the liberty and custody judge who must rule on their fate,” he said. If necessary, a specialised judge could prolong the passengers’ detention to eight days, followed by another eight days in exceptional circumstances. After initially being kept on the airport’s tarmac, passengers were moved into an airport waiting area terminal, where beds were installed for them to sleep in, France’s BFM TV broadcaster reported. Staff were also available to provide medical assistance to those in need, the media reported. Among the group are many children and 11 unaccompanied minors. Ten of the passengers have requested asylum, news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported, quoting a source close to the case. Patrick Jaloux, the head of civil protection in the Marne region, said the passengers were understandably “frustrated” after spending three nights in the airport. The Indian embassy in Paris said on Saturday that it was working for “a rapid resolution of the situation”, posting on X that “consular officials are on site”. Airline denies trafficking role Several of the detained travellers are suspected of having a different “role” in the journey than the other passengers. Two in particular are being looked into as part of a special investigation into suspected human trafficking by a criminal group, said the Paris prosecutor’s office The 15 crew members of the Legend Airlines charter flight were questioned and released, according to the airline lawyer, who denied the company had any possible role in trafficking. The airline has “has not committed any infraction”, said lawyer Liliana Bakayoko. Bakayoko added a “partner” company, which she did not name, was responsible for verifying the identification documents of each passenger. Nicaragua, where the flight was headed, has been designated by the US government as one of several countries deemed as failing to meet minimum standards for eliminating human trafficking. Nicaragua has also been used as a base by people fleeing poverty or conflict in the Caribbean as well as far-flung countries in Africa or Asia, because of relaxed or visa-free entry requirements for some countries. From there, the migrants travel north by bus with the help of smugglers. The influx of Indian migrants through Mexico has increased from fewer than 3,000 in 2022 to more than 11,000 from January to November this year, according to the Mexican immigration agency. Indian citizens were arrested 41,770 times entering the US illegally from Mexico in the US government’s budget year that ended September 30, more than double from 18,308 the previous year. Adblock test (Why?)
Gaza, US universities and the reproduction of power
On the morning of December 10, I awoke to two messages. The first was from my father. He was asking me to write to the US Department of State to request the evacuation of my uncle and his family from Rafah, in southern Gaza, where they are “without any food, shelter or water and very terrified from the bombing all the time”. My aunt, my uncle’s wife, was killed by the Israelis in Gaza in 2014. Now, he and his children face the real possibility of joining her in death. The second was an email from a friend in a senior leadership role at one of the large, multilateral organisations. We attended the University of Pennsylvania together and she was dismayed by the capitulation of its current president, Liz Magill, to the right wing. But she felt, justifiably, that she was unable to speak out because of the oppressive environment at work, and in America in general. If Magill, a moderate who stood for very little, could not stand up to a clutch of rusty pitchforks, what hope was there for a woman of colour with Middle Eastern roots? Those two messages, coming so close together, neatly captured the various fronts of the war on Palestinian lives. ‘We believed what we wanted to believe’ I graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 2006 with a BA in political science. My experience of the school was mixed. Having resources – which Penn does – is a nice thing for lots of reasons. But having money may also indicate an excessive orientation around, and to, it. Back then, securing a well-paying job after college was the main thrum of undergraduate life. The internships with consulting and banking firms were highly prized and expected to lead to rich offers from those same firms in New York or London. Things don’t appear to have changed much: Penn ranked first, ahead of Princeton, Columbia, MIT and Harvard, in the 2024 Wall Street Journal/College Pulse Salary Impact study. Or, as the headline in the WSJ frames it, the school is first among “The Top US Colleges That Make Their Graduates Richer”. Which isn’t to say that Penn was an apolitical place; the accumulation of large amounts of money cannot possibly be apolitical. I recall an early conversation with a young woman who, upon learning I was from Palestine, responded with “there’s no such thing”. Separately, I remember being raged at by another undergraduate, in the context of my student activism, “if you don’t like it here you can go home, terrorist”. While I suspect that Penn’s focus on money may have been a major contributor to Magill’s ultimate undoing – her testimony at Congress has been cited as a reason for the withdrawal of a $100m donation – that is not the full story. My experience of Penn was representative of elite America’s pinched disdain for anything which threatens its conception of itself as meritocratic, deserving of exalted status and morally beyond reproach. It’s an essentially conservative posture, one that resists growth and defies all efforts at meaningful social education. I observed that posture later in life, as a graduate student at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. There, I met some of the high-achieving minds behind President George W Bush’s catastrophe in Iraq. I remember one conversation I had with a senior State Department official who now serves as ambassador to a large country in Asia. “Hans Blix,” I said, referring to the former head of the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission, “told you there were no weapons of mass destruction. Why did you go to war?” He explained, disarmingly, that “we believed what we wanted to believe”. In seven words, he captured the essence of a system that insulates its people from accountability, which today partially explains why my family in Gaza are left to die along with the rest of the Palestinians there. It explains President Joe Biden’s priggishness and the egg on his National Security Advisor’s long face. Reproducing power When I first learned of the hunt for large quarry at Penn and Harvard I shrugged. I regarded the topic as a sideshow; false moralism in an alternate universe meant to distract from the ongoing atrocities in Palestine. But now I think I was probably too dismissive of what was happening, and how it related in a direct, if multifaceted, way to the Israeli genocide in Gaza. The relationship between Capitol Hill, University City, where Penn rests, expansively, Cambridge and Rafah is correctly understood through the prism of power. The main role of elite higher education institutions in America is to reproduce power and the infrastructure which attends it. If society is an organism, the university is the clonal petri dish. But in nature, nothing is reproduced perfectly; evolution is an essential feature of every biological system. And evolution within the university leads to a divergence from the staunchly guarded power structures that define our existing political order. The grotesque threshing by the right wing, on television, in newspapers and through congressional inquiries, is animated by the awareness that young, educated people invariably think differently across generations. The assault on US universities is part of a larger effort to direct and control the evolution of thought in this society. In this context, values are relative and speech is only valuable insofar as it isn’t performed and lies dormant in the realm of abstract ideas, like “freedom” or “the arc of the moral universe”. Now Magill stands, unwillingly in all likelihood, as the lamb on the altar. Collateral damage in so many words. The people who demanded her resignation may not have been able to articulate their whole reason for wanting her ouster. But they demonstrate an innate understanding of the stakes: the capacity of the organism to reproduce itself is embedded within the university, more than anywhere else. What they fail to understand, however, is that like Daniel Dennett’s theory of the mind, independent thinking arises everywhere at once. Nothing
UK billionaire Jim Ratcliffe to buy 25 percent stake in Manchester United
Ratcliffe will also provide $300m for future investment into the struggling football club’s Old Trafford stadium. INEOS Chief Executive Jim Ratcliffe has become a minority shareholder in Manchester United, buying a 25 percent stake at a price of $33 per share, says the Premier League club. Ratcliffe, the chairman of the petrochemicals giant, and United entered an agreement on Sunday under which he will acquire 25 percent of the Class B shares held by the owners, the Glazer family, and up to 25 percent of the Class A shares. Ratcliffe will also provide $300m for future investment into the club’s Old Trafford stadium. “As part of the transaction, INEOS has accepted a request by the board to be delegated responsibility for the management of the club’s football operations. This will include all aspects of the men’s and women’s football operations and academies, alongside two seats on the Manchester United PLC board and the Manchester United Football Club boards,” said a club statement. Qatar’s Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani was also looking to buy the club but dropped out of the bidding process, saying he would not be raising his $6bn offer, leaving the British billionaire to strike a deal with the Glazer family. Ratcliffe, 71, said he wanted to see the struggling United “back where we belong, at the very top of English, European and world football”. He said he wanted to see the struggling 20-time English champions back on top of European football and committed himself for the long term. “As a local boy and a lifelong supporter of the club, I am very pleased that we have been able to agree a deal with the Manchester United board that delegates us management responsibility of the football operations of the club,” he said. “Whilst the commercial success of the club has ensured there have always been available funds to win trophies at the highest level, this potential has not been fully unlocked in recent times. “We will bring the global knowledge, expertise and talent from the wider INEOS Sport group to help drive further improvement at the club.” Sunday’s agreement ends more than 12 months of speculation over the ownership situation and heralds a new era at a club that has fallen well behind cross-town rivals Manchester City. Ratcliffe’s INEOS also owns French Ligue 1 club Nice, Swiss Super League side FC Lausanne-Sport, and works with Racing Club Abidjan of Ivory Coast Ligue One. It is also behind the Grenadiers, one of the world’s most successful cycling teams. Adblock test (Why?)
India suspends newly-elected wrestling body after top athletes protest
The suspension comes days after a new president replaced the old head who was charged with sexually harassing wrestlers. India’s Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports has suspended the newly-elected governing body of the scandal-hit wrestling federation, accusing it of ignoring rules by hastily announcing championships. The Wrestling Federation of India (WFI) has “been instructed to suspend all its activities until further orders”, the ministry said in a statement on Sunday. Following the suspension, the ministry asked the Indian Olympic Association (IOA) to create a temporary panel to govern the WFI, Indian media reports said. “Taking note of the compelling current situation arising out of the influence and control of the WFI’s former office bearers, serious concerns have arisen about the governance and integrity of the WFI,” said the letter, according to the reports. The suspension of WFI’s governing body comes days after Sanjay Singh was elected to replace his close ally Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, a parliamentarian charged with sexually harassing women wrestlers. Many of India’s top wrestlers had led a noisy sit-in protest in New Delhi earlier this year, demanding Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh’s removal after the allegations came to light in January. The accused 66-year-old member of parliament from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) denied all charges and claimed he was the victim of a conspiracy to force him out of parliament. A criminal case against him is ongoing and could see him sentenced to five years in prison if found guilty. Wrestling is hugely popular in rural northern India, and star athletes saw a wellspring of public support. Earlier this week, top female wrestler Sakshi Malik, also one of the accusers in the case against Brij Bhushan Sharan Singh, addressed an emotional news conference, announcing her decision to quit the sport over Sanjay Singh’s election. On Friday, Bajrang Punia, the first Indian wrestler to win four world championship medals, announced he will return his Padma Shri – India’s fourth highest civilian award – in protest over the election. The new president defeated Anita Sheoran, who won a gold medal at the 2010 Commonwealth Games and supported the campaign by athletes against his predecessor. She is also a witness in the case. The WFI election was supposed to have ended the federation’s suspension by United World Wrestling, the international governing body, but that is now unlikely with the government’s order. Sanjay Singh won the ballot on Thursday, and shortly after, he met with the former head before announcing that the national junior wrestling championships would be held before the end of the year. “The actions smack of complete arbitrariness on the part of the new president,” the statement by the Sports Ministry said, adding that the new board “appears to be in complete control of former office bearers”. Adblock test (Why?)
Ukraine picks new Christmas date in break with Russian tradition
For the first time in a century, Ukraine will celebrate the holiday on December 25 rather than January 7. Ukraine will formally mark Christmas Day on December 25 this year, in a symbolic shift away from Russia, which celebrates the holiday on January 7. It will be the first time in more than a century that Ukraine observes the date in line with the Gregorian calendar, along with most of the world’s Christians. Ukraine’s government passed legislation in July making the date change, in what was viewed as a snub to Russia and the Russian Orthodox Church, which follows the Roman-era Julian calendar for religious occasions. The law signed by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that Ukrainians wanted to “live their own life with their own traditions and holidays”. It allows them to “abandon the Russian heritage of imposing Christmas celebrations on January 7”, it added. Christianity is the largest religion in Ukraine, with the Russian Orthodox Church historically dominating religious life. Battle over heritage Ukraine’s date change is part of a series of moves since Russia’s invasion to dispel any traces of the Russian and Soviet empires, such as renaming streets and removing monuments. A Christmas tree stands next to the grave of a Ukrainian soldier at Lychakiv cemetery, in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv [Yuriy Dyachyshyn/AFP] The Orthodox Church of Ukraine, a newly created independent church that held its first service in 2019, has also changed its Christmas date to December 25. It formally broke away from the Russian Orthodox Church over Moscow’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and its support for separatists in eastern Ukraine. The political rift has seen priests and even entire parishes swap from one church to another, with the new Orthodox Church of Ukraine growing fast and taking over several Russia-linked church buildings in moves supported by the government. The historically Russia-linked Ukrainian Orthodox Church, meanwhile, is keeping the January 7 Christmas date. This church claims to have cut ties with Russia because of the war but many Ukrainians view this with scepticism. The country’s third Orthodox denomination, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, will also hold Christmas services on December 25. Ukraine had been under Moscow’s spiritual leadership since the 17th century at the latest. Under the Soviet Union and its profession of atheism, Christmas traditions such as trees and gifts were shifted to New Year’s Eve, which became the main holiday and still is for many families. Ukrainian Christmas traditions include a dinner on Christmas Eve with 12 meatless dishes, including a sweet grain pudding called kutya, and people decorate homes with elaborate sheaves of wheat called didukhy. In some areas, children go from house to house singing carols called kolyadky and performing nativity scenes. Children sing carols during a Christmas Eve performance in Lviv, Ukraine [Gleb Garanich/Reuters] Adblock test (Why?)
Muted Christmas as Palestinian Christians mourn for Gaza
In a traditional season of merriment, many Palestinian Christians – in Bethlehem and beyond – are gripped with helplessness, pain and worry amid Israel’s brutal war on Gaza. Some are mourning, lobbying for the war to end, scrambling to get relatives to safety or seeking comfort in the Christmas message of hope. In the occupied West Bank, Suzan Sahori, executive director of Bethlehem Fair Trade Artisans, an organisation selling crafts, will pray for peace and justice. She’s grateful she’s safe – but wonders if that could change. She’s also angry. “The joy in my heart is stolen,” she said. “I’m saying, ‘God, how are you allowing all these children to die?’ … I’m mad at God; I hope He forgives me.” In better times, she finds the Christmas spirit in the Bethlehem area unmatched: It’s in songs cascading into streets bedecked with lights, markets displaying decorations, and the enthusiasm of children, families and tourists snapping photos with towering Christmas trees. Now, it’s all quieter, sombre. Tree lighting ceremonies she attended last year have been scrapped. The heads of churches in Jerusalem have urged congregations to forgo “any unnecessarily festive activities”. They encouraged priests and the faithful to focus on Christmas’s spiritual meaning and called for “fervent prayers for a just and lasting peace for our beloved Holy Land”. More than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israel’s ongoing offensive in Gaza, launched after Hamas’s October 7 attack that left nearly 1,200 people dead and Hamas taking more than 200 others captive. Days before Christmas, the Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem said two Christian women at a church compound in Gaza were killed by Israeli sniper fire. The Israeli military said troops were targeting Hamas fighters in the area. It said it was investigating the incident. There are 50,000 Christian Palestinians estimated to reside in the West Bank and Jerusalem, according to the US State Department’s international religious freedom report for 2022. Approximately 1,300 Christians lived in Gaza, it said. Some Christians are also citizens of Israel. Many Palestinian Christians live in diaspora communities. In Bethlehem, the Reverend Munther Isaac, pastor of the Evangelical Lutheran Christmas Church, said tears flow during Sunday services. Many are anxious; some have packed up and left. Isaac was part of a group who travelled to Washington to advocate for a ceasefire. “A comprehensive and just peace is the only hope for Palestinians and Israelis alike,” said a letter signed by several Christian pastoral leaders in Bethlehem. Addressed to President Joe Biden, it asked him to help stop the war. The signatories said they lamented all deaths, Palestinian and Israeli. “We want a constant and comprehensive ceasefire. Enough death. Enough destruction. … This is our call and prayer this Christmas.” Israel, whose forces have faced accusations by some of using excessive force, says it aims to destroy Hamas and accuses it of endangering civilians. Israel and its US ally are also increasingly facing international alarm over the scope of deaths, destruction and displacement in Gaza. Among those killed in Gaza, more than 80 percent are civilians, according to Palestinian authorities. Isaac’s church is displaying a nativity scene where a baby Jesus figure, wrapped in a black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh, is lying in the rubble. Making the display was an emotional and spiritual experience, he said. “We see Jesus in every child that’s killed, and we see God’s identifying with us in our suffering.” Adblock test (Why?)
Iran summons Russia’s envoy again over islands dispute
This is the second time the Russian envoy to Tehran is being summoned over the same issue. Tehran, Iran – Iran has once more summoned the Russian envoy to Tehran after Moscow signed another joint statement with Arab nations calling for negotiations over three disputed islands that the United Arab Emirates claims as its own. The Russian envoy was summoned to the Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs to receive Tehran’s “strong protest” over the statement, the state-run IRNA news website said late on Saturday. At the Foreign Ministry, the Russian envoy was reportedly told that respect for the territorial integrity of nations is a fundamental tenet in relations between any two countries. IRNA also said the official was told the three disputed islands “forever belong to Iran” which renders any outside claims unacceptable. The islands in the strategic Strait of Hormuz, namely the Greater Tunb, Lesser Tunb and Abu Musa, have been governed by Iran since 1971 when its navy took control of them after British troops withdrew from what is today the UAE. The UAE claims them as part of its territory as well and has recently received increasing support on them from Russia and China, which Tehran also counts among its allies. Iran had summoned the Chinese envoy to Tehran over a similar joint statement with Arab nations of the region in December 2022 and had also summoned the Russian ambassador in July over an almost identical joint statement. Russia’s joint statement this week, signed during the sixth edition of the Russian-Arab Cooperation Forum in Morocco, supported “peaceful solutions and initiatives aiming to resolve the conflict through bilateral negotiations or the International Court of Justice, according to international law and the UN Charter”. The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Nasser Kanaani, had condemned it earlier this week, and Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian raised the issue with his Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, who had led the delegation to Morocco. The Iranian Foreign Ministry said Lavrov told Amirabdollahian that Russia has always respected Iran’s territorial integrity and “this official policy by Moscow must never be doubted”. Maybe Russia should talk to Japan? The joint statement also irked some Iranian lawmakers, who took to social media to try to make it clear that the issue is non-negotiable. Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf, Iran’s parliament speaker, wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, that increasingly warming ties with Russia are based on mutual respect and any claims that threaten Iran’s territorial integrity will be met with a “serious response”. “Russia must be careful about the West taking advantage of its mistakes,” he wrote. Ghalibaf also pointed out that Iran has not remained idle on the islands, and has been undertaking a variety of efforts to populate and develop them. He promised that the parliament would legally back efforts to develop the islands. Other lawmakers had harsher words for both Moscow and Abu Dhabi. “It looks like the language of kindness must change, at least with the UAE,” Hadi Beiginejad wrote on X. Another MP, Ebrahim Rezaei, said “if they suggest negotiations, then we also invite the Russians to negotiate with Japan over the Kuril Islands”, in reference to a dispute over four islands between Russia and Japan. [embedded content] Adblock test (Why?)
‘Many more could die’: Urgent plea for Rohingya refugees trapped at sea
At least one passenger on a boat carrying 185 refugees has died, with dozens more in ‘critical condition’, warns UNHCR. Fears are growing for scores of Rohingya refugees believed to be stranded at sea in the Indian Ocean, after a boat they set off in from Bangladesh saw its engine fail. The group of some 185 Rohingya, mostly women and children, are in desperate need of rescue after falling into distress near the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) said on Saturday. The Rohingya were fleeing overcrowded refugee camps in Bangladesh, where they had taken shelter after escaping their homeland in Myanmar. More than 750,000 Rohingya were forced to flee Myanmar in 2017 after the military launched a crackdown on the Muslim minority, torching their homes and properties. The United States accused the military of committing genocide against the Rohingya people, while a genocide case against Myanmar is under way at the UN’s top court. The UN agency said at least one of the boat’s passengers had already died, with a dozen more in “critical condition”. “Many more could die under the watch of numerous coastal states without timely rescue and disembarkation to the nearest place of safety,” the UNHCR warned. “It is really a desperate situation.” Thousands of the mostly Muslim Rohingya, heavily persecuted in Myanmar, undertake risky sea journeys from their country and refugee camps in Bangladesh every year trying to reach Malaysia or Indonesia. More than 2,000 Rohingya are believed to have attempted the risky journey to Southeast Asian countries in 2022, according to UNHCR. Since last year, more than 570 people, including Rohingya refugees, have been reported dead or missing at sea in the region, it said. When it comes to the people currently adrift, the agency emphasised that “a bigger tragedy is preventable with timely efforts to save lives”. “This situation once again underlines the importance of all states in the region deploying their full search and rescue capacities to avoid human disasters happening at this scale.” Adblock test (Why?)
Israel-Hamas war: List of key events, day 79
Here’s how things stand on Sunday, December 24, 2023: The latest developments The United States said Iran launched a drone from its soil that struck a Liberia-flagged, Japanese-owned chemical tanker in the Indian Ocean. The US Central Command (CENTCOM) also said it downed several drones launched at vessels from Yemen by the Iran-aligned Houthi movement. The Houthis also fired two antiship ballistic missiles in the southern Red Sea, but no ships were hit. Pro-Palestinian marches continued in cities across the world, with some of the latest protests in Australia, Germany and Turkey. Heavy raids by the Israeli army continued in the occupied West Bank. A convoy led by bulldozers entered Tulkarem in the early hours of Sunday, and raids have also been reported in Bethlehem, the town of Beita just south of Nablus, and the towns of Sa’ir and Karma near Hebron. The representative for Hamas in Beirut, Osama Hamdan, said Israel has failed in its stated goal of “destroying” the group, and that it will have to stop the war if it wants the captives released. Human impact and fighting Thousands of Palestinians were again forced to flee their homes, this time after the Israeli military issued new evacuation orders in the central Gaza Strip. Since a United Nations Security Council resolution was passed on Friday without a clear call for a ceasefire, there has been a surge in aerial bombardments in central Gaza. Israeli air raids killed more than 400 people in Gaza in the past 48 hours. Gaza’s Government Media Office said more than 20,000 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli attacks since October 7. The death toll from Hamas’s attack on Israel stands at nearly 1,140, revised from 1,400. At least 101 journalists have been killed since October 7, according to the Government Media Office, which also said more than 50 media offices have been completely or partially destroyed by Israeli attacks. Al Jazeera Arabic’s cameraman Samer Abudaqa was among those killed in Israeli strikes. The Palestine Red Crescent Society said it continues to operate at its medical point in Jabalia, northern Gaza, despite incessant shelling of the area. UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also said on X: “As the conflict intensifies and the horror grows, we will continue to do our part. We will not give up.” Diplomacy Yoav Gallant and Benny Gantz, Israel’s current and former defence ministers, respectively, who, along with Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu make up the Israeli war cabinet, visited northern Gaza and promised that more attacks would be forthcoming despite international pressure for an immediate ceasefire. US President Joe Biden had a “private” phone conversation with Netanyahu. He told reporters after that he “did not ask for a ceasefire”. Agnes Callamard, secretary-general of Amnesty International, said the UNSC resolution for humanitarian relief would only result in a “drop in the ocean of suffering” in Gaza. She said the White House “holds the key” for putting an end to the carnage. During a meeting in Doha, Qatari Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi discussed the war in Gaza and called for an end to Israeli attacks. The head of Lebanon’s Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, is set to give his third speech since the start of the war in the coming days to mark the January 3 assassination of Iran’s top general, Qassem Soleimani, by the US. [embedded content] Adblock test (Why?)