Istanbulspor vs Trabzonspor game suspended as Turkish football resumes
Istanbulspor players leave the field in protest after the referee does not call a penalty in the match against Trabzonspor. The president of a Turkish football team ordered his players to leave the field in protest of an officiating decision during a game on Tuesday, just over a week after a referee was punched in the face. Halil Umut Meler had been attacked on the pitch last week after a 1-1 draw in a Super Lig game between Caykur Rizespor and MKE Ankaragucu. Faruk Koca, who was president of Ankaragucu, resigned and was banned by the Turkish Football Federation for punching Meler. Top-flight action returned on Tuesday and this time a match between Istanbulspor and Trabzonspor was in the spotlight. Istanbulspor president Ecmel Faik Sarialioglu came to the field and ordered his players off in the 73rd minute. He was upset that the referee did not call a penalty before Nigerian striker Paul Onuachu scored to give Trabzonspor a 2-1 lead. Egyptian midfielder Trezeguet scored the opening goal for Trabzonspor in the 11th minute at Necmi Kadıoglu Stadium. Muammer Sarikaya levelled in the 39th minute before Onuachu made it 2-1 for Trabzon in the 68th minute. Despite attempts by Trabzonspor’s president Ertugrul Dogan and several Istanbulspor players to convince Sarıalioglu to resume the match, Istanbulspor abandoned the field. The game was then suspended. The Turkish Football Federation (TFF) will make a decision about the match. History of violence against referees Violence in football is common in Turkey despite efforts to clamp down on it although direct attacks on top-level referees are rare. TFF chief Mehmet Buyukeksi blamed last week’s attack on a culture of contempt towards referees. “Everyone who has targeted referees and encouraged them to commit crimes is complicit in this despicable attack,” he said. “The irresponsible statements of club presidents, managers, coaches and television commentators targeting referees have opened the way for this attack.” Pierluigi Collina, chairman of FIFA’s referees committee, said last week’s incident was horrific. “Neither the referee nor the man deserved to live the experience he lived yesterday in Ankara. He was doing his job when he was assaulted on the field of play at the end of a match he just officiated,” Collina said. Referees in Turkey are often criticised by club managers and presidents for their decisions. Adblock test (Why?)
Man City beat Urawa Red Diamonds to book Club World Cup final
European champions City beat Asian champions Urawa Red Diamonds 3-0 to set up a final against Brazil’s Fluminense. Manchester City have set up a Club World Cup final against Brazilian side Fluminense after cruising to a 3-0 win over Japan’s Urawa Red Diamonds despite their early struggles at the King Abdullah Sports City stadium in Jeddah. The European champions were frustrated by a well-organised Japanese side during the opening half but took the lead with an own goal by Marius Hoibraten in stoppage time on Tuesday night’s second semifinal. Mateo Kovacic made it 2-0 in the 52nd minute with his first goal since joining City from Chelsea and Bernardo Silva’s deflected shot a few minutes later meant City could play the rest of the game in cruise control. Pep Guardiola’s City, who had won only three of their previous eight games in all competitions, are looking to become the fourth English club to win the title after Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea. “The players know how important it is for the club,” Guardiola, who won the title twice with Barcelona and once with Bayern Munich, said. “To be in this final, you have to do incredible things, like win the Champions League. This may be the only time we play this in our lifetime. “We will try to win the title we don’t have to complete the circle.” City have suffered some domestic wobbles of late and have slipped off the pace in the Premier League in their quest for a fourth successive title. But even with Erling Haaland still missing and Guardiola shuffling his pack after Saturday’s 2-2 draw with Crystal Palace, they had far too much for the J1 League side. The #ClubWC Final is set. 🔒@ManCity | @FluminenseFC — FIFA World Cup (@FIFAWorldCup) December 19, 2023 Favourites for world title They will start as heavy favourites in Friday’s final against Copa Libertadores champions Fluminense who on Monday beat Egypt’s Al Ahly 2-0. Fluminense and Al Ahly presented a throwback look at a competition dominated for two decades by the wealthiest European clubs who have hired waves of global talent. A team of 11 South Americans, including nine Brazilians, started against 11 Africans, including nine from Egypt, for the Cairo club. Veteran Brazil internationals Marcelo – a five-time Champions League winner with Real Madrid – and Felipe Melo are being rewarded again for coming home from long careers in Europe to enjoy late-career blooms with the Copa Libertadores winner. Urawa Red Diamonds will face Al Ahly in the third-place playoff on Friday. Fluminense’s Marcelo, German Cano and Guga, from left, celebrate at the end of their semifinal win over Al Ahly FC at King Abdullah Sports City Stadium in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on Monday [Manu Fernandez/AP Photo] Adblock test (Why?)
Cambodia’s female tuk-tuk drivers fight prejudice on road to equality
Every day Roeung Sorphy deftly weaves through the streets of Siem Reap, zigzagging past cars, motorbikes and the occasional stray dog as she shepherds tourists to Cambodia’s famous Angkor Wat temple complex. But on the road to joining the small number of women tuk-tuk drivers in the country, the 37-year-old has to dodge not only other road users but also a barrage of taunts, misogyny and prejudice. Cambodia has taken legal and practical steps towards gender equality, but it remains a conservative, patriarchal society. Women are expected to run the home and family rather than seek paid work. It was tough when Roeung Sorphy, who goes by the nickname Sopy, first took to the streets. “At first, they [male drivers] looked down on me … They said we women should stay at home and clean dishes,” she said, describing how she was verbally harassed and assaulted when competing for fares. “But we keep persevering,” she said after she finished cleaning her tuk-tuk, lovingly decorating it with blooming white lotuses. Sopy got her start after borrowing $3,000 to buy her tuk-tuk, and has now been driving through the shaded roads of Angkor Park for more than three years. “We cannot just rely on husbands,” she said, urging more women to join the profession. “We will be strong like men,” said Sopy, whose husband is also a tuk-tuk driver. She charges about $15 per passenger for a tour around Angkor, a sprawling UNESCO World Heritage site. After years, her male colleagues have finally accepted her. “We have won their hearts, they’ve stopped discriminating against us. They think we are the same.” “I love the job. I think all women can do it.” Adblock test (Why?)
Colorado’s top court finds Donald Trump ineligible for US presidency
Colorado’s Supreme Court has ruled former United States President Donald Trump is ineligible to run for the White House because of his role in the 2021 assault on the Capitol by his supporters and should be removed from the state’s primary ballot. While the ruling only applies to Colorado, it marks the first time in US history that Section 3 of the 14th Amendment, which bars from public office anyone who “engaged in insurrection”, has been used to disqualify a presidential candidate and comes as courts in other states consider similar legal actions. “A majority of the court holds that President Trump is disqualified from holding the office of President under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution,” the Colorado high court wrote in its four-three majority decision. “Because he is disqualified, it would be a wrongful act under the Election Code for the Colorado Secretary of State to list him as a candidate on the presidential primary ballot. “We do not reach these conclusions lightly,” they added. The decision – which Trump’s campaign said it would appeal – drew immediate condemnation from Republicans. The one-time property tycoon and reality TV star faces a raft of court cases, from criminal charges over alleged efforts to overturn the 2020 election, to mishandling classified documents, hush money payments in the 2016 election and fraud in his business practices. Trump has claimed he is the victim of political persecution. “We are mindful of the magnitude and weight of the questions now before us,” the Colorado justices said. “We are likewise mindful of our solemn duty to apply the law, without fear or favor, and without being swayed by public reaction to the decisions that the law mandates we reach.” A lower court earlier found that while Trump incited an insurrection, for his role in the January 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, he could not be barred from the ballot because it was unclear that the 14th Amendment was intended to cover the presidency. Noah Bookbinder of the campaign group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, which brought the original case along with a group of Colorado voters, welcomed Tuesday’s higher court ruling. The court’s decision is “not only historic and justified, but is necessary to protect the future of democracy in our country”, he said in a statement. “Our Constitution clearly states that those who violate their oath by attacking our democracy are barred from serving in government.” Swift appeal expected The Colorado court placed its ruling on hold until January 4 or until the US Supreme Court rules on the case. State officials say the issue must be settled by January 5, the deadline for the state to print its presidential primary ballots. The Republican primary is due to take place in March. Trump campaign spokesman Steven Cheung said they would “swiftly file an appeal” to the Supreme Court, which has the final say on constitutional matters. Cheung claimed Colorado’s “all-Democrat appointed” panel was doing the bidding of a “[George] Soros-funded, left-wing group’s scheme to interfere in an election on behalf of Crooked [President] Joe Biden”. The Supreme Court at the federal level has a six-three conservative majority and includes three judges Trump appointed when he was president. Trump, who is the frontrunner for the Republican nomination, faces dozens of lawsuits under Section 3, which was designed to keep former Confederates from returning to government after the Civil War. It bars from office anyone who swore an oath to “support” the Constitution and then “engaged in insurrection or rebellion” against it, and has been used only a handful of times since the decade after the Civil War. “I think it may embolden other state courts or secretaries to act now that the bandage has been ripped off,” Derek Muller, a Notre Dame law professor who has closely followed the cases, told the Associated Press news agency after Tuesday’s ruling. “This is a major threat to Trump’s candidacy.” The Colorado court decision brought swift rebukes from senior Republicans, including Trump’s one-time rival for the 2016 nomination, Senator Marco Rubio. “The US has put sanctions on other countries for doing exactly what the Colorado Supreme Court has done today,” he wrote on social media. The Colorado ruling stands in contrast with the Minnesota Supreme Court, which last month decided that the state party can put anyone it wants on its primary ballot. It dismissed a Section 3 lawsuit but said the plaintiffs could try again during the general election. In another 14th Amendment case, a Michigan judge ruled that Congress, not the judiciary, should decide whether Trump can stay on the ballot in a ruling that is being appealed. (Al Jazeera) The liberal group behind those cases, Free Speech For People, has also filed a lawsuit in Oregon seeking to remove Trump from the ballot there. Both groups are financed by liberal donors who also support President Biden, who is set to run for a second term in office. Trump has blamed the president for the lawsuits against him. Biden has no role in them. Three Colorado Supreme Court justices dissented in Tuesday’s ruling. One of the dissenting justices, Carlos Samour, said in a lengthy opinion that a lawsuit was not a fair mechanism for determining Trump’s eligibility for the ballot because it deprived him of his right to due process, noting that a jury had not convicted him of insurrection. “Even if we are convinced that a candidate committed horrible acts in the past – dare I say, engaged in insurrection – there must be procedural due process before we can declare that individual disqualified from holding public office,” Samour said. Adblock test (Why?)
‘No safe place’: Jenin’s Freedom Theatre raided, daubed with Star of David
The Freedom Theatre in Jenin, a popular symbol of peace and hope in the occupied West Bank, has been raided, vandalised and painted with Israeli religious and political symbols. In a film screening room inside the theatre, the Star of David has been daubed on the wall with spray paint while graffiti also depicting the Star of David and a menorah (a Hanukkah candle holder) has been scrawled on the outside wall. The Israeli military raid on the theatre took place on the night of December 12 and the early hours of December 13. Its two directors were arrested that night and the next morning. One of them, Ahmed Tobasi, was released after 14 hours, but the other, Mostafa Sheta, remains in detention. He is believed to have been taken to the Megiddo military prison in northern Israel, Tobasi said. Inside the cinema screening room at the Freedom Theatre, a Star of David has been spray-painted onto the screen and wall [Courtesy of Freedom Theatre] This is not the first time the community landmark has come under attack. The theatre has stood as a symbol of hope for residents of Jenin ever since it was first founded as the Stone Theatre in 1987 after the first Intifada by Arna Mer-Khamis, an Israeli peace activist who died in 1995. Mer-Khamis was a lifelong supporter of the rights of Palestinians, especially children. With her theatre, she hoped to offer children a space for healing and to empower women through the theatre and arts. The first building housing the theatre was destroyed in 2002 by Israeli forces during the second Intifada. In 2006, Juliano Mer-Khamis, Arna’s son by her Palestinian Christian husband, Saliba Khamis, reopened the theatre on a new site in Jenin, and it doubled as a community centre. Not everyone was a fan, however. In 2009, an unidentified person threw two Molotov cocktails at the theatre while it was empty. Juliano was shot dead by a masked attacker in Jenin in 2011 at the age of 52. His killing was never solved. One of the ransacked offices of the Freedom Theatre in Jenin [Courtesy of Freedom Theatre] Since the start of Israel’s war on Gaza on October 7, tensions have mounted in the West Bank with regular and often brutal raids carried out by Israeli forces and strict curfews placed on Palestinian residents. Armed settlers and soldiers have blocked roads with trenches and frequently fired shots at anyone stepping outside their homes. About 58 Palestinians, including children, have been killed during 15 military incursions on the camp and the city. ‘No questions – they just took me’ During all this, the Freedom Theatre kept going – until Tuesday night last week. It particularly offered a space for children to heal from trauma through activities led by the theatre’s workers. The theatre raid was part of a military operation in Jenin by Israeli forces that began on December 12 and lasted for three days. During that time, 500 Palestinians were arrested and 100 continue to be detained, said Tobasi, who himself was held in poor conditions. Furniture in offices at the Freedom Theatre was overturned during the raid [Courtesy of Freedom Theatre] “How can we continue existing this way?” Tobasi, 39, asked. It was not the first time he had been detained. He spent four years in Israeli prisons after he was captured during a 2002 siege of Jenin. Born and raised in the Jenin refugee camp, Tobasi has been coming to the theatre since he was a child. He was part of the first group of children who participated in the Stone Theatre’s activities. Last Wednesday about 11am, however, Israeli forces broke down the front door of his home in Jenin and arrested him along with his brother. He told Al Jazeera how he was handcuffed and blindfolded before soldiers kicked him in the head and stomach. He was then taken to the Al-Jalama checkpoint, north of Jenin, where he was held in the cold, rain and mud for about 14 hours before being released. Mostafa Sheta, 43, one of the directors of the Freedom Theatre, was arrested after the raid on the theatre. He is still missing and is believed to have been taken to the Megiddo military prison in northern Israel [Mauricio Morales/Al Jazeera] “They did not tell me why they were there,” he said. “They did not tell me if I was wanted for any crime. No questions asked. They just took me.” Tobasi had recently returned to the occupied West Bank from France, where he was on tour with a theatre company. His family sent him photos and videos of the continuous raids that began after the start of the war on Gaza on October 7 and, he said, he felt the urge to come back to his people and his theatre. Since he was released, he had had no news about Sheta, 43, until he spoke to another friend from the theatre, Ismael Hussam Ibrahim, who was arrested on December 12 and released on December 13. Ibrahim said Israeli soldiers forced their way into his home, handcuffed and blindfolded him, and seized his laptop. One of the soldiers asked him about the whereabouts of Tobasi, but he said nothing. Ibrahim, 25, said he was taken to another location where he was able to raise his blindfold, and he saw Sheta, also blindfolded and handcuffed, sitting in the cold and mud close to him. “They took pictures with me. I felt humiliated,” he told Al Jazeera. Another of the ransacked rooms inside the Freedom Theatre [Courtesy of Freedom Theatre] No safe space The raid and ransacking of the Jenin Theatre have come as a huge blow to the community and the people who work there who viewed it as a safe place. One of them is Ranin Odeh, 32, the child and youth programme coordinator, who leads activities for traumatised children at the theatre “I’m not well,” she told Al Jazeera. “The occupying army stormed the
France passes tough immigration bill amid Macron party rebellion
The new legislation includes amendments on residency and citizenship that won the approval of the far right. The French parliament has passed by a wide margin an immigration bill backed by President Emmanuel Macron after a rebellion within his party over the toughened-up legislation that had secured the endorsement of the far right. The bill had been significantly toughened since it was first introduced, with some on the left of Macron’s ruling Renaissance party accusing his government of caving in to Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally (RN) in an attempt to secure support. Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin, an ambitious 41-year-old who has spearheaded the legislation, expressed relief that the votes of his coalition and conservatives were enough to get the bill through parliament. Some 349 members voted in favour with 186 against. The upper house had passed the legislation already. “Today, strict measures are necessary,” Darmanin said afterwards. “It’s not by holding your nose in central Paris that you can fix the problems of the French in the rest of the country.” An earlier version of the bill was voted down without even being debated in the National Assembly, in a major blow to Macron. Pressure from the right saw the government agree to water down regulations on residency permits while delaying migrants’ access to welfare benefits – including for children and housing – by several years. The amendments also introduce migration quotas, make it harder for migrants’ children to become French, and say that dual nationals sentenced for serious crimes against the police could be stripped of their French nationality. Le Pen had said the RN would endorse the amended legislation – prompting embarrassment among more left-wing members of Macron’s party who find it unpalatable to vote in unison with the far right. In the end, 20 members of Renaissance voted against the bill, 17 abstained and 131 voted in favour. After the vote, Le Pen claimed an “ideological victory”. The French have long prided themselves on having one of the most generous welfare systems in the world, granting payments even to foreign residents, helping them pay rent or care for their children with means-tested monthly contributions of up to a few hundred euros. The far right and, more recently, conservatives, have argued these should be reserved for French people only. Macron had made the migration bill a key plank of his second mandate and might have had to shelve it without the compromise. Dozens of NGOs condemned the legislation ahead of the vote. It is “the most regressive bill of the past 40 years for the rights and living conditions of foreigners, including those who have long been in France”, about 50 groups, including the French Human Rights League, said in a joint statement. “With this text directly inspired by RN pamphlets against immigration, we are facing a shift in the history of the republic and its fundamental values,” said French Communist Party leader Fabien Roussel. Adblock test (Why?)
Women and children among dead in Israeli attacks in south Gaza
NewsFeed Dozens of people including women, children and a journalist have been reported killed in Israeli attacks on residential homes in Rafah in south Gaza, where Israel told people to flee to in recent weeks. Published On 20 Dec 202320 Dec 2023 Adblock test (Why?)
Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 665
As the war enters its 665th day, these are the main developments. Here is the situation on Wednesday, December 20, 2023. Fighting Ukraine’s military said Russia launched its fifth air attack this month on the capital, with air defence systems destroying all weapons on their approach to Kyiv. “According to preliminary information, there were no casualties or destruction in the capital,” Serhiy Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app. Russia’s Defence Ministry said it brought down a Ukrainian drone near the capital that led to restrictions on flights at Moscow’s main airports. No casualties were reported. Ukraine said its military was holding the line in the eastern Kharkiv region, despite being outgunned by Russian forces trying to take control of the town of Kupiansk. “The situation is complicated. We have to fight in conditions of superiority of the enemy both in weapons and in the number of personnel,” said Oleksandr Syrsky, the head of Ukraine’s ground forces. Russia’s Defence Ministry said it had repelled eight Ukrainian attacks around Kupiansk with artillery. Firefighters working at an apartment block in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine’s Donetsk after the building was hit by shelling [AFP] Politics and diplomacy Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the military had asked for the mobilisation of 500,000 more people in the fight to remove Russian forces from its territory and urged the United States and Kyiv’s other Western allies to maintain their support for his country. He said he also hoped prisoner swaps, which he said had been delayed as a result of unspecified “reasons” on the Russian side, would soon resume. The last exchange took place in early August. Russian President Vladimir Putin told defence and military chiefs that Moscow had the momentum in its war in Ukraine and was well-positioned to reach its goals, claiming that attempts to defeat it had failed. Putin also said Moscow was upgrading its nuclear arsenal and maintaining the military at its highest level of readiness. Italy’s cabinet passed a decree allowing it to supply “means, materials and equipment” to Ukraine in its fight against Russia until the end of 2024. Supplies will include not only weapons but also power generators and “everything needed to support military operations in defence of unarmed civilians”, a Defence Ministry statement said. Volker Turk, the United Nations’s human rights chief, said there were indications Russia had committed war crimes in Ukraine, including 142 cases of “summary executions” of civilians as well we enforced disappearances, torture and ill-treatment such as sexual violence against detainees. A court in Poland convicted 14 citizens of Russia, Belarus and Ukraine for being part of a spy ring preparing acts of sabotage on behalf of Moscow. They were given jail terms ranging from 13 months to six years. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told the media the military was asking for the mobilisation of 500,000 more troops [Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo] A former Russian soldier sought asylum in the Netherlands and said he wanted to testify at the International Criminal Court (ICC) about Russian war crimes he witnessed while fighting in Ukraine. A Dutch legal source told the Reuters news agency the man had been a member of Russian-backed separatist forces in eastern Ukraine since 2014 and had also worked as an instructor for the Wagner mercenary group there. Chuck Schumer, the majority leader in the US Senate, said the upper house aimed to pass an agreement to provide additional aid to Ukraine and bolster US border security as soon as it returns to Washington, DC in January after the Christmas and New Year holidays. Weapons Sergei Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister, said that since the country began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, it had increased production of tanks by 5.6 times, drones by 16.8 times and artillery shells by 17.5 times. Speaking during Putin’s meeting with military chiefs, Shoigu said Russian forces had also laid 7,000sq km (2,703 square miles) of minefields in Ukraine – some of them as much as 600 metres (1,969 feet) wide – along with 1.5 million anti-tank barriers and 2,000km (1,243 miles) of anti-tank ditches. Zelenskyy said Ukraine planned to manufacture some 1 million drones next year for use on the battlefield. Ukraine and Russia use drones to scope out enemy positions, drop explosives and launch attacks on the enemy. Russian President Vladimir Putin (left) and Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu talked optimistically about Moscow’s chances of achieving its goals in Ukraine [Mikhail Klimentyev/Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo via AP] The US charged Hossein Hatefi Ardakani, an Iranian, and Gary Lam, a Chinese national, with allegedly supplying dual-use US-manufactured microelectronics to Iran’s drone programme. “These very components have been found in use by Iran’s allies in current conflicts, including in Ukraine,” special agent Michael Krol said. Both men remain at large. The US Treasury Department, meanwhile, announced that it was imposing sanctions on a network of 10 Ardakani-linked entities as well as four individuals based in Iran, Malaysia, Hong Kong and Indonesia, for circumventing export bans to procure US components for Iranian-made attack drones. Adblock test (Why?)
Israel bombs charity building in Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp
NewsFeed This is the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on the Al Salam Charitable Society building in northern Gaza’s Jabalia refugee camp, which killed and injured dozens of Palestinians. Civilians are searching under the rubble for survivors. Published On 20 Dec 202320 Dec 2023 Adblock test (Why?)
Aerial video shows volcano erupting in Iceland
NewsFeed A volcano in Iceland has started erupting after weeks of earthquake activity that forced the evacuation of a nearby town as a precaution. Published On 19 Dec 202319 Dec 2023 Adblock test (Why?)