‘The Fat One’ sings: Spain’s Christmas lottery rolls out millions in prizes
Known as ‘El Gordo’, the world’s richest lottery is set to pay out close to $3bn in prizes. People across Spain have been tuning in to watch the televised draw of the Christmas lottery known as “El Gordo” (‘The Fat One’), as pupils from Madrid’s San Ildefonso school began singing out the prize-winning numbers. A total of 2.6 billion euros ($2.86bn) in prizes will be distributed this year, most in small amounts, as Friday’s announcements were sung out, as is the tradition. Most people buy fractions of full tickets, with the most common purchase a 20-euro ($22) share, offering a top prize of 400,000 euros ($440,000). The two-centuries-old tradition kicks off the festive season and is televised from Madrid’s Teatro Real opera house, with tens of thousands of people tuning in to radio stations and watching online. Purchasing and sharing tickets in the run-up to Christmas is a much-loved tradition among families and friends, and is celebrated in bars, sports clubs and on the streets. Children at the school in the Spanish capital pick the numbers from among 100,000 small wooden balls drawn from two large golden rolling drums, showing the ticket numbers and their corresponding prizes. They sing out both figures, that cadence well-known across the country. The event lasts approximately three and half hours as ticket holders wait in anticipation for the jackpot known as “El Gordo” to be called out. People in costumes wait before the start of the draw of Spain’s traditional Christmas lottery ‘El Gordo’, at Teatro Real, Madrid, Spain, on December 22, 2023 [Susana Vera/ Reuters] While other lotteries may have bigger individual top prizes, El Gordo, held each year on December 22, is ranked as the world’s richest for the total prize money involved. Spain established its national lottery as a charity in 1763 during the reign of King Carlos III. Its objective later became to shore up state coffers. The December 22 lottery began in 1812 and children have been singing the prizes since the beginning. Adblock test (Why?)
Turkey carries out mass detention of ISIL suspects
Ankara has stepped up operations against armed groups since early October. Turkey has arrested hundreds of people suspected of having links to ISIS (ISIL). The roundup was carried out in operations across 32 provinces, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya said on Friday. Ankara has ramped up operations against the armed group and Kurdish groups during the war in Gaza and after a bomb exploded near government buildings at the start of October. The majority of the suspects were arrested in Ankara, Istanbul and Izmir, the country’s three biggest cities, Yerlikaya said on the social messaging platform X. The nationalities of the detainees have not been revealed. The operation was carried out simultaneously across the country, said the minister, who shared footage that showed police entering apartments and buildings and dragging suspects into vehicles. 32 İlde DEAŞ Terör Örgütüne yönelik eş zamanlı olarak düzenlenen “KAHRAMANLAR-34” Operasyonlarında 3⃣0⃣4⃣ şahıs yakalandı❗ Aziz Milletimizin huzuru, birlik ve beraberliği için teröristlerin hiçbirine göz açtırmayacağız. Güvenlik güçlerimizin üstün gayretleriyle mücadelemize… pic.twitter.com/WKlpZVGMeN — Ali Yerlikaya (@AliYerlikaya) December 22, 2023 ISIL originated in the aftermath of the US invasion of Iraq in 2003. It was forged from an alliance between an al-Qaeda offshoot and elements of Iraq’s defeated Baath Party. At its peak in 2014, its fighters controlled one-third of Iraq and Syria. But the group lost its grip on the territory after campaigns by US-backed forces in Syria and Iraq as well as Syrian forces backed by Iran, Russia and various paramilitaries. Although beaten back, some ISIL fighters remain in hiding, mostly in remote areas of Syria and Iraq, from which they continue to carry out attacks. Turkey continues to be targeted and has been hit by a string of deadly bombings since 2015. One attack in Istanbul on January 1, 2017, killed 39 people in a nightclub. Ankara has ramped up its crackdown against people in the country with possible links to ISIL ever since. It is assumed that the latest detentions may have been made with one eye on the coming New Year’s celebrations. In May, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced that the country’s intelligence forces had killed the suspected leader of ISIL, Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurashi. “This individual was neutralised as part of an operation by the Turkish national intelligence organisation in Syria,” Erdogan said. “We will continue our struggle with terrorist organisations without any discrimination.” In recent weeks, Turkish authorities have also carried out operations against the outlawed Kurdistan Worker’s Party, or PKK, which Ankara considers a terrorist organisation. The Kurdish fighters claimed responsibility for detonating a bomb near Turkish government buildings in Ankara on October 1. “For the peace and unity of our people, we will not allow any terrorists to open their eyes,” Yerlikaya said on Friday. “We will continue our battle with the intense efforts of our security forces.” Adblock test (Why?)
Feted abroad, ignored at home: The story of Mami Wata’s voyage to Oscars
Lagos, Nigeria – On October 15, when C J Obasi heard that his film Mami Wata had been officially selected as Nigeria’s entry for the 2024 Oscars, he was elated. “It felt great. I think we definitely deserve it, and everyone worked so hard on this film and bled so much for it,” Obasi told Al Jazeera. “It’s always a big deal when you get what you deserve here. I never take it for granted just because I deserve it. I’m super grateful to the Nigerian Oscar selection committee.” Mami Wata, Obasi’s third feature-length film, is a black-and-white fantasy thriller inspired by the rich folklore of coastal West Africa. Shot in 2021 and released in January, it has a running time of 107 minutes. The title is a Nigerian pidgin reference to the mermaid or all-powerful water goddess believed to provide healing, wealth and protection to her worshippers. The film is also in Nigerian pidgin. Set in the fictional village of Iyi and shot in the Republic of Benin, Mami Wata is a truly West African affair. It is the story of two sisters, Prisca (played by Ivorian actress Evelyne Ily) and Zinwe (played by Nigerian actress Uzoamaka Aniunoh) who try to bring harmony back to their seaside village which is split between two groups: one that believes in their current leader, a messenger for the water goddess, and another that wants to establish a new system without the deity. Obasi says he began writing Mami Wata in March 2016 and over the next five years, wrote the story across 10 drafts. On the international scene, Mami Wata has already been a hit, screening in at least 15 festivals globally. In 2021, it made the final cut in the 78th Venice International Film Festival in 2021. In January 2023, Mami Wata had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and won the Special Jury Prize for Cinematography. The release has also come with critical acclaim internationally. Variety Magazine called the film “a stark black-and-white Oscar entry that weaves a bewitching fable with haunting images”. “This visually beautiful and charismatically acted film is a fierce expressionist reverie or parable of power, shot in a lustrous, high-contrast black and white,” wrote The Guardian in its review. Eventually, Mami Wata was submitted by Nigeria for the Academy Award for Best International Feature Film – the country’s third-ever entry. The road to the Oscars Lagos-based film critic Oris Aigbokhaevbolo says Mami Wata was the only choice for the 2024 Oscars. “It already has international exposure,” he said. “So part of the hard work has been done. Again, no other film in non-English from Nigeria fits the dimensions demanded by the Oscars. Mami Wata is just more thoughtfully done than its peers.” But the road to its selection as Nigeria’s entry for the Oscars was blighted by a lukewarm reception at home. On September 8, Mami Wata made its debut in Nigeria. According to What Kept Me Up, a Nigerian film blog, the premiere came at a time when there were no major competing films. However, during the opening weekend, it was difficult to watch the film due to inconsistency in showtimes at cinemas. Esther Nwajiaku, a Lagos-based content creator, said it took two trips to the cinema before she could watch the film. “The film showed for only two weeks, and with mostly ridiculous time slots,” she told Al Jazeera. “The best chance I got to see it was by 12pm on a Sunday at the FilmHouse cinema in Surulere. The first time I went with friends to see the film at the same cinema in Surulere, it didn’t show.” The average length of time that films spend in Nigerian cinemas is between four to six weeks, though some films stay up to eight weeks. But Mami Wata was reportedly pulled from cinemas after less than three weeks. Industry insiders say even before and during the short run, its local distributor, FilmOne, reportedly did very little marketing to promote the film. The typical rollout of press screenings, premiere, and other digital marketing push were visibly absent. “Right now, you find that the UK is doing a much better job in pushing the film than what played out back home,” said Jerry Chiemeke, a London-based lawyer and film critic who described the promotion as abysmally poor. “How do you put such a highly anticipated film in tight morning slots where viewership will be low, and even with those slots, people tried seeing the film and they were told that it’s “simply not showing”? he asked. FilmOne did not respond to Al Jazeera’s request for comment. Obasi declined to speak on screening issues the film encountered in Nigeria, saying he would do so at a later date when he is ready. “For now, I’m just enjoying the theatrical run across several territories around the world,” he says. A poster for Mami Wata [Courtesy of: Fiery Film Company] Nollywood’s genre dynamics Some critics say the case of Mami Wata’s botched showings in Nigeria reaffirms the popular notion that commercial films in Nollywood tend to overshadow the diversity offered by niche or arthouse filmmakers because the volume of promotion and distribution for the former vastly outstrips that for the latter. For Aigbokhaevbolo, arthouse films don’t stand a chance in Nigeria. “The care and thoughtful promotion they get in other climes are absent in Nigeria. The audience isn’t as developed,” he said. The data seems to support this: the highest-grossing films at the Nigerian box office are comedies. They are also often widely publicised and have an extended time in cinemas. Based on data from the Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN), five of the top earning Nigerian films of all time include Battle on Buka Street (2022), a comedy-drama that earned N655 million ($524,000), Omo Ghetto: The Saga (2020) earned N636 million ($508,800), The Wedding Party (2016) earned N452 million ($361,600), The Wedding Party 2 (2017) earned N433 million ($346,400), and Chief Daddy earned N387 million
Israel-Hamas war: List of key events, day 77
EXPLAINER Houthi attacks are discouraging shipping through the Red Sea, as Gaza’s health system collapses – here are major update. Here’s how things stand on Friday, December 22, 2023: The latest developments Over two-thirds of all structures in northern Gaza have been destroyed since the war began, making the enclave look like a different colour and texture from space, reported the Associated Press news agency on Thursday, citing mapping experts based in the United States. Northern Gaza no longer has any functional hospitals, reported the World Health Organization on Thursday. Amid Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, Germany’s Hapag-Lloyd and Hong Kong’s OOCL have become the latest shipping companies to avoid the waters, according to their announcements on Thursday. On Thursday, Canada announced a temporary immigration visa for relatives of Canadian citizens and permanent residents affected by the Gaza war, but warned that leaving would be difficult and dependent on Israel’s approval. Israel’s army said on Thursday that it intercepted a barrage of rockets fired by Hamas’s armed wing, the Qassam Brigades. Human impact and fighting A total of 20,057 Palestinians have been killed and 53,320 injured by Israeli attacks on Gaza since October 7, according to Gaza’s health ministry. Israel targeted several areas across Gaza overnight, including Nuseirat and Deir el-Balah in the centre, as well as Khan Younis and Rafah in the south, according to Al Jazeera Arabic and the Wafa news agency. The proportion of households in Gaza affected by high levels of acute food insecurity is the largest ever recorded globally, says an Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) report published on Thursday. Additionally, Gaza’s entire 2.3 million population is at risk of famine. Israel’s war on Gaza has been the deadliest for modern day journalists, reported the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) on Thursday. CPJ has recorded 68 media worker killings in the region over the past 10 weeks. Diplomacy The United Nations Security Council has once again postponed voting on a resolution for the Israel-Gaza war. Sheikh Abdullah bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the foreign minster of the United Arab Emirates, one of the few Arab countries to have official diplomatic ties with Israel, met with Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary-General Hussein al-Sheikh on Thursday. The two discussed humanitarian aid for the enclave and Al Nahyan urged negotiations for a two-state solution, reported Reuters. Israel’s Eilat port has seen an 85 percent drop in activity since the Iran-backed Houthi group ramped up attacks on vessels in the Red Sea, the port’s chief executive said on Thursday. Adblock test (Why?)
Criminalisation of victims of male violence needs to end – everywhere
In the West, we are often told terrible stories about women in the Global South countries being subjected to male violence and then punished afresh by “community leaders” and the courts. Most feminists in Europe and the US, for example, would know that premarital sex is criminalised in Saudi Arabia and that hospitals and health centres are compelled to report the pregnancies of single women to police – including those resulting from rape. They would also know about “honour killings” of women and girls in countries like Albania and Kurdistan for breaking patriarchal rules, such as having sexual relationships outside of marriage. Some who decry such abuses and atrocities in the Global South, however, appear not to be aware that this type of sexist victim blaming is not confined to the Global South; it also happens in the Global North. So-called “honour killings” also happen in the UK, for example, within both conservative religious communities and secular ones. I have long been working to raise awareness on this issue and prevent it happening to women in my home country, the United Kingdom. In 1990, I co-founded Justice for Women in response to the harsh treatment meted out to women who defended themselves against rape or sexual violence – by the criminal justice system, the media, and wider society. I had seen several cases of men killing their wives for spurious reasons, and walking free from court. Excuses such as “She nagged me”, or “I found her in bed with another man” were accepted by judges and jurors as reasonable grounds for men to “snap” and kill women. Meanwhile, women who were driven to kill or maim their male partners after years of violence, often in fear for their lives or those of their children, were treated as cold-blooded murderers and punished as such by British courts, targeted by the media, and shunned by society. We have undoubtedly made some progress in shedding light on the issue in the past three decades, but the criminalisation of survivors of male violence in the UK, by the courts as well as society at large, is far from over. Today, at least 57 percent of women in prison in the UK are survivors of domestic abuse, and for many of them, this abuse is directly linked to the reason for their incarceration (while, in most cases, their abusers remain free). The true number is likely significantly higher because many choose not to disclose their victim status, even when it could help explain the motivations behind the crimes they are accused of. Despite this, criminal justice agencies rarely acknowledge that a woman has been a victim of male violence, and treat this as a mitigating factor, when prosecuting her for a related offence (including defending herself against the perpetrator). Examples of such re-victimisation and criminalisation of survivors of male violence by British courts are all around us. A film by the UK-based Centre for Women’s Justice (CWJ), titled Stop Criminalising Survivors, launched earlier this month tells the stories of five such women, convicted of offences ranging from perverting the course of justice to murder, all as a result of the abuse they endured at the hands of a male partner. CWJ hopes the film will help educate criminal justice agencies and women’s support services on the reasons female victims of male violence end up in prison. One of the women featured in the CWJ film is Farieissia Martin who, aged 22 and with two small children, killed her extremely violent partner, Kyle Farrell. Farrell had raped her repeatedly, and she had undergone several abortions as a result. Family and friends had regularly seen her face covered in bruises. The night she killed him, he had given her another beating, convincing Farieissia that if she didn’t do something, she was going to die at his hands. Having access to all this information, and knowing well that she acted in self-defence, the courts still convicted her of murder. Farieissia served seven years in prison before successfully appealing her conviction. The only reason she was able to overturn her conviction was that she was represented at appeal by feminist lawyers equipped with an in-depth understanding of the effects of domestic violence. These days feminists are routinely blamed for exaggerating male violence, making women “scared of men”, and causing them to limit their lives by taking precautions. Meanwhile, women are blamed for being raped (“she was drinking/flirting/wearing revealing clothing”) or suffering domestic abuse (“she wound him up/enjoyed the drama”). Girls are blamed, and shamed, for being abused into prostitution. This victim blaming, still prevalent in most societies, reaches its ultimate form when women are punished and sent to prison for being victimised or defending themselves against their abusers. When we are blamed for what men do to us, we get a double dose of punishment – while our male abusers are handed free rein. This happens routinely in the Global South, but it happens in the North too. Lesbians in South Africa experience horrors like “punishment rape” for daring to reject men, but so do women in the UK. It is true that women are killed in Iran for supposed missteps like speaking to a man outside the family, but so do women in the UK – one woman is killed by a man known to her every three days in England and Wales. Men’s violence towards women and girls is global, and wherever it occurs, the blame is often diverted onto the victims. It is crucial that we speak of the rapist more than we do of the raped, and of the batterer rather than the battered. Let’s place the blame firmly on the guilty, and ensure we never, ever, look to the actions of the victims in an attempt to justify such atrocities against women. Women should never be criminalised and punished, anywhere, for being subjected to male violence or defending themselves against it. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not
A Biden-Netanyahu rift? ‘Distraction’, Palestinian rights advocates say
Washington, DC – Rock-solid. Unwavering. Unshakeable. After months of describing his commitment to Israel in fervent terms, United States President Joe Biden shifted his rhetoric this month — and issued his most firmly worded criticism of the country since the start of the war in Gaza. At a December 12 fundraiser, Biden warned that Israel is losing international support because of its “indiscriminate bombing” in the Palestinian territory. Those two words launched hundreds of headlines. The “rifts” between Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had finally “spilled into public view”, CNN wrote. The Washington Post signalled the two leaders were headed for a “collision”. But Palestinian rights advocates have questioned how much of a “rift” exists — or whether Biden’s words were merely a means of allaying criticism without taking substantial action. Biden has faced intense scrutiny for his support of Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, which has killed more than 20,000 Palestinians since October 7. And the US remains one of the last countries in the world to oppose ending the war. The president’s statement on December 12, however, did not signal a shift in policy. Rather, his administration has reasserted that it will draw “no red lines” to restrict Israel’s actions or what it does with US military aid. Some advocates, therefore, argue that the reported disagreements between Biden and Netanyahu are inconsequential so long as the US continues to back Israel. “It doesn’t matter whether Biden and Bibi [Netanyahu] like each other or not because, at the end of the day, American money is still being transferred to fund the Israeli army. Weapons are still being sent with or without Congress’s approval,” said Laura Albast, a Palestinian American organiser in the Washington, DC, area. “Biden did not come out and call for a ceasefire.” Advocates denounce political ‘theatre’ Albast said the Biden administration is engaging in occasional criticism of Israel to address growing domestic concerns about the atrocities in Gaza. She noted that Biden’s popularity in the US has plunged during the war, particularly among young people. A Monmouth University poll this week showed Biden’s approval rating at a record low of 34 percent. Among voters under 34, that number tumbled to 23 percent. “They think that average voters in the United States are not critical thinkers, so they’re putting together this theatre,” Albast said. Hours after Biden made his comments about Israel’s “indiscriminate bombing” of Gaza, the US voted against a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. Days earlier, Washington had also vetoed a similar measure in the UN Security Council. Still, US officials have said on several occasions that they are raising concerns with their Israeli counterpart over civilian harm in Gaza. “It’s clear that the conflict will move and needs to move to a lower-intensity phase, and we expect to see and want to see a shift to more targeted operations,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Wednesday. But the bombing nevertheless appears to be intensifying despite Washington’s demand. More than 5,000 Palestinians have been killed since the fighting resumed on December 1 after a brief truce. An Israeli air strike hit an area near the Kuwaiti Hospital in Rafah in southern Gaza while Al Jazeera correspondent Hani Mahmoud was live on air. pic.twitter.com/LKszfK4pQK — Al Jazeera English (@AJEnglish) December 20, 2023 Amer Zahr, a Palestinian American comedian and activist, said Biden is trying to avoid responsibility for the carnage in Gaza, even as his administration seeks billions of dollars in additional assistance to Israel. He called reports of a feud between Biden and Netanyahu a “distraction”. “This is an attempt by the Biden administration to distance themselves from the genocidal policies of Netanyahu, which they have supported from the beginning,” Zahr told Al Jazeera. ‘Clown show of foreign policy’ Adam Shapiro, the director of advocacy for Israel-Palestine at Democracy for the Arab World Now (DAWN), said the Biden administration was fully committed to the Israeli war in Gaza since its earliest days. But as the “horrific” reality of the Israeli offensive becomes more apparent, the Biden administration does not know how to disengage from it, he added. “It’s a ship without any kind of direction at this point. It’s like a drowning man, in a way, who’s just flailing,” Shapiro said. “That’s how I interpret all these random statements that come out from the administration. Meanwhile, the reality continues: Israel does what it wants. The weapons continue to flow.” Since the war broke out on October 7, some points of contention have emerged between the Israeli and US governments. They have, for example, articulated different visions for post-war Gaza. The US wants the Palestinian Authority to eventually govern the territory, but Israel wants Gaza to remain under its security control. Disagreements about the future, however, have not shaken Washington’s support for the ongoing war, the scale and intensity of which puts Palestinians at “risk of genocide“, according to UN experts. US officials, including Biden, have also emphasised the need for a two-state solution to the conflict, putting them again at odds with Netanyahu’s government, which opposes the establishment of a Palestinian state. But on Tuesday, the US was one of four countries, along with Israel, to vote against a UN General Assembly resolution reasserting Palestinians’ right to self-determination. The measure was backed by 172 other nations. To Zahr, the vote is yet another example of how US policy remains behind Israel even when Biden’s rhetoric appears to diverge from that of Israeli leaders. “How can you dare to say that you want to be an honest broker, that you want to create ‘peace’ between Palestinians and Israelis when you say you believe in the right to self-determination of one party and not the right to self-determination of the other?” Zahr said. “This is a clown show of foreign policy.” Shapiro, meanwhile, said the Biden administration was committing “unforced errors”. Its position towards the bloodshed in Gaza undermines its credibility and the principles it claims
Sanctions threat looms over Bangladesh’s garment sector ahead of elections
Dhaka, Bangladesh — Weeks after turbulent wage-hike protests and subsequent factory closures, Bangladesh’s ready-made garment (RMG) industry, a key revenue earner for the nation, is dealing with a new phase of anxiety: “possible” economic sanctions by the country’s Western partners. The United States and European Union collectively account for more than 80 percent of Bangladesh’s multibillion-dollar apparel sales, and any sanction on the RMG industry would put a severe dent in its already beleaguered economy, said analysts. The threat of sanctions from the US arose once Dhaka announced January 7 for national elections in what is likely to be another seemingly one-sided vote. Those concerns were further boosted in early December when a key garment supplier to the US was warned of sanctions in a letter of credit (LC) from a foreign garment buyer. An LC is issued by financial institutions or similar parties to guarantee payment to sellers of goods and services after appropriate documentations are presented. It essentially helps in avoiding risk by having intermediate buyer and seller banks that ensure proper payment. According to the LC, a copy of which was obtained by Al Jazeera, the Western buyer stated: “We will not process transactions involving any country, region or party sanctioned by the UN, US, EU, UK. We are not liable for any delay, non-performance or/ disclosure of information for sanction-based causes.” Should the clause kick in, the garment manufacturer in Bangladesh would likely incur massive losses as the buyer wouldn’t be liable to make any payment for the orders placed with that apparel producer. Both industry leaders and government officials have dismissed the threat as a “rumour” and “antigovernment” propaganda and say no such economic sanction can be imposed, especially on the garment sector, as it is a fully compliant industry and abides by all the international labour laws. Faruqe Hassan, President of Bangladesh Garments Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) said that the LC came from a particular buyer, and was not a statutory order or notice by “any specific country or countries”. “From BGMEA, we have already contacted the buyer and the issue was sorted out. It was just a cautionary clause inserted by the bank who prepared the LC on behalf of the buyers,” Hassan told Al Jazeera, “It doesn’t mean that any country is planning to impose some sanctions on our industry.” Behind the uneasiness BGMEA President Faruque Hassan said manufacturers are concerned about the potential of economic sanctions [Faisal Mahmud/Al Jazeera] Hassan however admitted that many factory owners had expressed their concerns in a recent BGMEA meeting over that LC clause and the “ongoing political turmoil of Bangladesh has given birth to all sorts of speculations”. Bangladesh’s national election is due in less than three weeks but several political unrests have disrupted the country’s business and economy. Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the main opposition party, has boycotted the election amidst concerns of severe poll rigging. That sets up the elections as a repeat of one-sided polls held in 2014, in which Sheikh Hasina-led Awami League won 153 out of 300 parliamentary seats uncontested. BNP says no free and fair election is possible under a partisan government and gave an example of the 2018 poll, in which it took part. Independent observers termed it a severely “rigged” election which saw Awami League securing 288 out of 300 seats, a result that The Washington Post said could only be expected in a country like North Korea. For the last few months, opposition parties have been staging protests on the streets to press home the demand of installing a neutral election-time caretaker government. The government has, since late October, used brute force and court cases to suppress the protests. In November alone, more than 10,000 BNP leaders and activists were thrown in jail. None have received bail so far. Khondokar Golam Moazzem, research director of Bangladeshi think tank Center for Policy Dialogue (CPD) told Al Jazeera that the current political upheaval has obviously played its role in propagating the widespread notion that Bangladesh’s RMG industry might face an economic sanction. The United States has already taken a tough stance with a new visa policy for Bangladesh in September in which it said it would impose a visa sanction on “individuals undermining the democratic election process in Bangladesh”. The warning note in the LC also came at a time of severe unrest in the RMG sector over minimum wage hikes in which four workers died. Bangladesh has witnessed severe unrest over wage issues for garment workers [Faisal Mahmud/Al Jazeera] It also coincided with the introduction by the US, Bangladesh’s single largest garment buyer, of the Presidential Memorandum on Advancing Worker Empowerment, Rights, and High Labor Standards Globally. The memorandum is the Biden administration’s effort “to pursue a whole-of-government approach to advancing worker empowerment and organizing, workers’ rights, and labor standards globally”. While introducing the bill, the US Secretary of State specifically mentioned a firebrand garment labour activist in Bangladesh and said: “We want to be there for people like Kalpona Akter, a Bangladeshi garment worker and activist, who says that she is alive today because the US embassy advocated on her behalf.” After the new US bill, the Ministry of Commerce in Bangladesh received a letter from the Bangladesh embassy in Washington, DC in which the embassy speculated that “Bangladesh could be among the countries targeted by the new US Memorandum”. Al Jazeera has seen the letter and Commerce Secretary Tapan Kanti Ghosh acknowledged its receipt and told Al Jazeera that the Bangladesh government had already informed the US about the recent steps they had taken to protect labour rights in Bangladesh. “We are very serious about labour rights and we are the signatory of all the ILO conventions.” How serious are the sanction concerns? Labour rights activist Kalpona Akter says anger is still bubbling in the sector [Faisal Mahmud/Al Jazeera] Germany-based Bangladeshi financial analyst Zia Hassan told Al Jazeera that the prospect of US sanctions on Bangladesh’s garment industry cannot be ruled out. “Historical
US, China top military officials hold first talks in more than a year
General Charles Q Brown, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, stresses need for dialogue to avoid miscalculations in talks with PLA’s General Liu Zhenli. The top military officer from the United States has held a virtual meeting with his Chinese counterpart, the Pentagon said, in the first such conversation in more than a year. Beijing stopped such high-level talks after then-US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi visited self-ruled Taiwan in August 2022. The two countries’ leaders finally agreed to resume them when they met last month. US Air Force General Charles Q Brown, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and General Liu Zhenli of China’s People’s Liberation Army (PLA) touched on “a number of global and regional security issues” during their online discussion, Brown’s office said in a statement. Liu is the chief of the Joint Staff Department of the Central Military Commission (CMC), the military body responsible for China’s combat operations and planning. Brown “discussed the importance of working together to responsibly manage competition, avoid miscalculations and maintain open and direct lines of communication,” spokesman Captain Jereal Dorsey said in a statement. “General Brown reiterated the importance of the People’s Liberation Army engaging in substantive dialogue to reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings.” Brown said last month he had sent an introductory letter to Liu saying he was open to meeting. Liu said the key for the US and China to develop a healthy, stable and sustainable military-to-military relationship was for the US to have a “correct understanding of China”, according to a Chinese defence ministry statement that was released late on Thursday. US officials have cautioned that even with some restoration of military communications, it was likely to take some time to develop a functional dialogue between the two sides who remain at odds over a range of issues from Taiwan to the South China Sea and trade. China claims Taiwan as its own territory and has said it is willing to use force in order to achieve its aims. US President Joe Biden met his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping in California in November with the two men agreeing to restore military-to-military communications as part of an effort to ease tensions. Liu has emerged as the top contender to replace China’s national defence minister, General Li Shangfu, who was dismissed in October [File: Florence Lo/Pool via Reuters] Pentagon spokesman Major General Pat Ryder described Thursday’s call between Brown and Liu as a “positive development”, saying that the two sides were working to implement what had been announced by Xi and Biden. “When you have two large militaries, it’s imperative that we keep lines of communication open in order to prevent miscalculation,” Ryder said. During the talks, Liu also asked for the US to respect China’s territorial sovereignty, and expansive maritime rights and interests in the South China Sea. China claims almost the entire sea under its so-called nine-dash line and has ignored a 2016 arbitral ruling that found it was without legal merit. Tensions have risen this year, particularly with the Philippines, which has accused the Chinese coast guard and other Chinese vessels of dangerous actions at Second Thomas Shoal and Scarborough Shoal. Liu has emerged as the top contender to replace China’s national defence minister, General Li Shangfu, who was fired in October two months after disappearing from public view. Li was placed under US sanctions in 2018 and had snubbed Washington’s efforts to resume contact. While high-level military-to-military ties between the US and China had been cut off, other top US officials were still in communication with Beijing, and lower-level military talks continued. Adblock test (Why?)
China tries to ‘bury the memory’ and trauma of zero-COVID era
When Evelyn Ma’s two-year-old daughter had a persistently high fever and a bad cough earlier this month, she and her husband began to worry. The couple decided to take their daughter to a nearby children’s hospital in the city of Jinan. But as Ma walked through the doors with her daughter in her arms, she found a scene of chaos. “Doctors and nurses were rushing around everywhere between long lines of patients waiting their turn, and people were even sitting on the floor and against the walls,” Ma, who is 36 and works as a sales representative in China’s northeastern Shandong province, told Al Jazeera. China experienced a sharp rise in cases of influenza, pneumonia, RSV and common cold viruses, particularly among children, in early October. By the next month, the surge in the number of people seeking medical attention had put a strain on hospitals, especially those catering to children. “We arrived at the hospital in the early morning, but we didn’t get to see a doctor until the late afternoon, and I think that was only because my daughter’s symptoms were quite bad and my husband and I made a fuss,” Ma said. The rising infections and reports of undiagnosed pneumonia sparked concern that the world was on the cusp of another novel pandemic outbreak spreading from China, after COVID-19 also first appeared as undiagnosed pneumonia in the central city of Wuhan. But after requesting data from China, the World Health Organization (WHO) concluded there was no cause for alarm because the evidence suggested there was no new pathogen. The jump in cases, it appears, was more a reflection of the return of illnesses that had been suppressed by the country’s prolonged pandemic lockdowns. Ma’s daughter soon recovered, but the experience brought back upsetting memories. “Last time I was at the hospital was in late December last year, and I was also sitting in a crowded waiting room filled with coughing people,” she said. “Back then I was holding the hand of my grandmother who was very sick with COVID,” Ma said. The sudden U-turn on the zero-COVID policy followed a series of rare protests across the country [File: Thomas Peter/Reuters] Just a few weeks before that, the Chinese authorities had abandoned the strict COVID measures that were a pillar of the country’s so-called zero-COVID policy after protests in several Chinese cities against the continued enforcement of lockdowns. For three years until then, the zero-COVID policy had defined – and limited – Chinese people’s interactions with each other and the outside world in the name of combatting the pandemic. “So many people suffered under the zero-COVID policy, and so many people died when it ended,” Ma said. “Because of that, my family and I are traumatised to this day.” Mental health struggles Ma’s grandmother succumbed to COVID-19 in early January. At about the same time, 29-year-old translator Lily Wang from Shenzhen also lost her grandmother to the virus. She blames the authorities’ abrupt decision to abandon the zero-COVID policy for her death. “If they had just given us a warning or given us time to prepare, we might have been able to save her,” Wang told Al Jazeera. A wave of infections swept across China after the sudden end of the policy posing a particular hazard to elderly Chinese of whom only 40 percent had received a booster shot by December 2022. In the months that followed, upwards of almost two million more people died compared with the same period in previous years, according to a study by Hong Xiao and Joseph Unger of the Public Health Sciences Division at Seattle’s Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center that was published in August. While the death of Wang’s grandmother was traumatic for her whole family, the strict lockdowns of China’s cities, which became a recurring phenomenon throughout 2022, were traumatic for Wang personally. Her neighbourhood in the southern city of Shenzhen was repeatedly placed under total lockdown for months on end to quell flare-ups of COVID infections. “We were not allowed to go outside – not even to stretch our legs, do grocery shopping or take out the garbage,” she said. Regular and relentless testing was a key feature of the zero-COVID strategy [File: Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo] Wang was living alone in a small apartment at the time, and food supplies, provided by the authorities, were often late to arrive at her building. “I was hungry, lonely and trapped, and I started to suffer from panic attacks,” she added. As soon as the COVID policy ended, she moved out of the apartment and back home with her parents. “After zero-COVID, I just couldn’t stay in the apartment any more,” she said. “Even today, it is still difficult for me to be alone for more than a few days.” Ma from Jinan has also struggled to recover mentally. “I am much more concerned about the future than I was before 2022,” she said. During the lockdown of her family’s neighbourhood, they also experienced food supplies arriving late. “Now I get nervous when we don’t have much food left in the apartment, so I make sure that we have lots of meals available in the freezer and the refrigerator in case something happens,” she explained. Hou Feng, a 31-year-old programmer from Shanghai, has also had trouble sleeping since the strict lockdown of Shanghai that took place from April until June 2022. “During that time, people in my building contacted the authorities to accuse each other of breaking the COVID rules,” Hou told Al Jazeera. Residents of Shanghai, China’s biggest city, were required to undergo constant COVID-19 testing, and it was obligatory to report to one of the city’s quarantine centres if the result was positive. Hou witnessed his screaming neighbour getting dragged out of her home by the authorities when she refused to leave of her own volition after testing positive. He still has nightmares about people in white hazmat suits breaking down his door and taking him away to a quarantine
Entire Gaza population facing hunger crisis, famine risk: UN-backed report
The proportion of households affected by acute food insecurity is largest ever recorded globally, the report says. The entire 2.3 million population of Gaza is facing crisis levels of hunger and the risk of famine is increasing each day, a United Nations-backed report says. The proportion of households in Gaza affected by high levels of acute food insecurity is the largest ever recorded globally, according to the report by the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) published on Thursday. The extent of hunger in Gaza has eclipsed even the near-famines in Afghanistan and Yemen of recent years, according to figures in the report. ‘Everybody in Gaza is hungry’ “It doesn’t get any worse,’’ the World Food Programme’s chief economist, Arif Husain, said. “I have never seen something at the scale that is happening in Gaza and at this speed – how quickly it has happened in just a matter of two months.” #GazaUrgent action is needed. Hostilities, including bombardment, ground operations & besiegement of the entire population have caused catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity. There is a risk of Famine. Read more ➡️https://t.co/b358hNlY4i pic.twitter.com/e9C155XqAP — The Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (@theIPCinfo) December 21, 2023 The report by 23 UN and nongovernmental agencies found that the entire population in Gaza is in a food crisis with 576,600 people at catastrophic – or starvation – levels. “It is a situation where pretty much everybody in Gaza is hungry,” Husain said. “People are very, very close to large outbreaks of disease because their immune systems have become so weak because they don’t have enough nourishment,” he said. International aid agencies say Gaza is suffering from shortages of food [Fatima Shbair/AP] The report said every single person in Gaza is expected to face high levels of acute food insecurity in the next six weeks. The 23 agencies forecast that in the “most likely scenario”, the entire population of the Gaza Strip would be at “crisis or worse” levels of hunger by February 7 after four months of war. Under the IPC’s five-phase food insecurity classification, crisis in phase three, emergency is phase four and catastrophe or famine is phase five. “This is the highest share of people facing high levels of acute food insecurity that the IPC initiative has ever classified for any given area or country,” the report said. The international humanitarian organisation CARE called the figures “alarming”. Risk of famine The humanitarian situation in Gaza has deteriorated rapidly since Israel began a major military operation on October 7 with heavy air strikes and a ground offensive laying waste to wide areas of the enclave. “There is a risk of famine, and it is increasing each day that the current situation of intense hostilities and restricted humanitarian access persists or worsens,” the IPC for Gaza said. The IPC sets the global standard for determining the severity of a food crisis using a complex set of technical criteria. The report warned that the risk of famine is “increasing each day”, blaming the hunger on insufficient aid entering Gaza. Trucks bringing aid from Egypt have delivered some food, water and medicine, but the UN says the quantity of food is just 10 percent of what is needed for the territory’s inhabitants, most of whom are displaced. Distribution of aid within Gaza has been hampered by military operations, inspections of aid demanded by Israel, communications blackouts and shortages of fuel. Some desperate Palestinians in Gaza have jumped onto aid trucks to try to grab scarce supplies of food and other goods. There have been reports of residents eating donkey meat and emaciated patients begging for food. Meanwhile, the death toll from Israel’s relentless bombardment of Gaza has surpassed 20,000, 70 percent of them women and children. About 1.9 million Gaza residents – more than 80 percent of the population – have been driven from their homes. More than a million are cramming UN shelters. The war has also pushed Gaza’s health sector into collapse. Only nine of its 36 health facilities are still partially functioning – and all are located in the south, the World Health Organization said on Thursday. Adblock test (Why?)