According to Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, the previous administration of Prime Minister Imran Khan was accused of taking the “wrong approach” toward the armed group Pakistan Taliban (Tahreek-e-Taliban, or TTP).
In an interview with Al Jazeera on Tuesday, Zardari said, “Its policy of appeasement towards the Taliban has created problems for the people of Pakistan.” He added that his government has abandoned the previous strategy.
“We recently had a national security meeting of the top political and military leadership our country where it was decided that we would not tolerate terrorist groups and anybody who violates the law in Pakistan,” the foreign minister said.
Pakistan has seen rise in attacks by the Pakistan Taliban after the armed group unilaterally ended an Afghan Taliban-brokered ceasefire agreement in November.
The Pakistani Taliban, which claims to have thousands of fighters and supporters, shares some ideological affinity with the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan but it comprises of mostly local fighters.
Islamabad repeatedly accuses the Taliban government in Afghanistan of sheltering Pakistan Taliban leadership on Afghan soil – an allegation denied by Kabul.
“We recently had a national security meeting of the top political and military leadership our country where it was decided that we would not tolerate terrorist groups and anybody who violates the law in Pakistan,” the foreign minister said.
Pakistan has seen rise in attacks by the Pakistan Taliban after the armed group unilaterally ended an Afghan Taliban-brokered ceasefire agreement in November.
The Pakistani Taliban, which claims to have thousands of fighters and supporters, shares some ideological affinity with the Taliban in neighbouring Afghanistan but it comprises of mostly local fighters.
Islamabad repeatedly accuses the Taliban government in Afghanistan of sheltering Pakistan Taliban leadership on Afghan soil – an allegation denied by Kabul.
Pakistan Taliban threat
Earlier in January, Pakistan Taliban warned the country’s main ruling parties of “concrete action” against their top leadership in the government for “declaring war” against it.
A statement released by the Pakistan Taliban in first week of January explicitly named Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Zardari.
Former Prime Minister Imran Khan’s government was against taking military action against the Pakistan Taliban before using consuming other options.
Earlier in January he blamed the government of his successor, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, for making “dangerously irresponsible” statements against the Afghan Taliban authorities and causing strains in bilateral ties rather than seeking cooperation over the Pakistan Taliban threat
The Pakistani foreign minister also reiterated on the need to engage with Afghanistan’s Taliban rulers despite the group’s hardline policies vis-a-vis women. Last month, the Taliban banned women from universities. Shortly after the group also banned women from working in NGOs.
Some aid groups have resumed operations after women healthworkers were allowed to work.
“The solution is to engage the Afghan government and try to convince them to live up to their promises to the international community whether it is to do with women’s rights or the issue of terrorism,” Zardari told Al Jazeera.
In the interview with Al Jazeera, foreign minister Zardari also confirmed that he has not recalled the Pakistani ambassador in Afghanistan back home after an attack on its mission in Kabul last month.
“He was due back for some briefings and dialogues. I hope we will have the security necessary to send him soon,” he said.
Some of the thousands of people accused of storming government buildings in an effort to overturn the results of the October election, which former President Jair Bolsonaro lost, have received their first charges from Brazil’s prosecutor-general.
The 39 defendants accused of ransacking Congress were also asked to have 40 million reals ($7.7 million) in assets frozen as a preventive measure and to be imprisoned, according to the prosecutors in the recently established group to combat anti-democratic acts.
The defendants have been charged with armed criminal association, violent attempt to subvert the democratic state of law, staging a coup and damage to public property, the prosecutor general’s office said in a written statement. Their identities have not yet been released.
More than 1,000 people were arrested on the day of the January 8 riot, which bore strong similarities to the January 6, 2021 riots at the US Congress by mobs who wanted to overturn former President Donald Trump’s loss in the November 2020 election.
Rioters who stormed through the Brazilian Congress, presidential palace and Supreme Court in the capital, Brasilia, sought to have the armed forces intervene and overturn Bolsonaro’s loss to President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva.
The rioters “attempted, with the use of violence and serious threat, to abolish the democratic rule of law, preventing or restricting the exercise of constitutional powers”, according to an excerpt of charges included in a statement. “The ultimate objective of the attack … was the installation of an alternative government regime.”
The attackers were not charged with “terrorism” because under Brazilian law such a charge must involve xenophobia or prejudice based on race, ethnicity or religion.
The prosecutor-general’s office sent its charges to the Supreme Court after the Senate’s president, Rodrigo Pacheco, last week provided a list of people accused of rampaging through Congress. Additional rioters are expected to be charged.
Second Brazilian arrested for anti-Lula bomb plot
On Tuesday, Brazilian police said they arrested a second suspect in a truck bomb attempt that failed just a week before Silva’s inauguration.
The first suspect was arrested on Christmas Eve after the driver of the truck found the device near the airport in the capital Brasilia, where the inauguration happened a week later.
Police said there had been a failed attempt to activate the device.
The first suspect, identified as George Washington de Oliveira Sousa, is a Bolsonaro supporter and told police he wanted to “prevent the establishment of communism in Brazil” under Lula, police said.
An alleged accomplice, Alan Diego dos Santos Rodrigues, 32, has been wanted ever since and handed himself over to police on Tuesday in the state of Mato Grosso.
Meanwhile, Lula has removed 40 troops guarding the presidential residence after expressing distrust in the military for failing to act against demonstrators who ransacked the government buildings.
Most of the troops guarding the Alvorada Palace, as the residence is called, are from the army, but some are also members of the Navy, Air Force and a militarised police force.
Last week, Lula told reporters that security force members were complicit in letting the mob storm the main buildings that form the seat of power in Brasilia.
Antonio Guterres, the head of the UN, criticised “Big Oil” and cautioned that nations are not limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees.
He continued by saying that efforts to address global issues are being undermined by geopolitical division.
In his remarks on Wednesday at the World Economic Forum (WEF) gathering in Davos,UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres described the state of the world as “sorry.”
According to Guterres, a number of problems are “piling up like cars in a chain reaction crash,” including climate change and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
The UN chief claimed that efforts to address issues like skyrocketing inflation and supply-chain disruptions brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic are being undermined by growing geopolitical division. Developing countries are being “pounded” by high debt levels, he continued.
Guterres said the world is “looking into the eye of a Category 5 hurricane.”
“Our world is being plagued by a perfect storm on a number of fronts,” he added.
We are facing the gravest levels of geopolitical division and mistrust in generations.
At Davos, I urged leaders to bridge divides and restore cooperation to advance peace, sustainable development and human rights.
Guterres speaks on climate change, takes aim at ‘Big Oil’
Guterres called climate change an “existential challenge” for humanity. He added that the commitment to limit the Earth’s temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius “is nearly going up in smoke,” referring to the target set by the Paris Agreement in 2015.
He said that the “battle is being lost” and that every week brings “a new climate horror.”
Guterres also criticized oil firms for promoting skepticism on climate change, referring to a recent study that found scientists at US oil and gas giant ExxonMobil made predictions with “shocking accuracy” several decades ago at a time when the company publicly doubted global warming.
“We learned last week that certain fossil fuel producers were fully aware in the 1970s that their core product was baking our planet,” he said in his speech. “Some in Big Oil peddled the big lie.”
“Just like the tobacco industry, they rode rough-shod over their own science,” Guterres said. “And like the tobacco industry, those responsible must be held to account.”
ExxonMobil is the target of a number of lawsuits in the United States.
The Khyber Pakhtunkhwa legislature was dissolved after Punjab as part of the effort by the former prime minister Imran Khan to force early general elections.
Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s provincial assembly has been dissolved for the second time in less than a week as Imran Khan, the former prime minister, pushes for early national elections.
Haji Ghulam Ali, the governor of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, formally dissolved the provincial assembly on Wednesday by signing a letter.
He was responding to a request made by Mahmood Khan, the provincial chief minister and a prominent figure in Khan’s Pakistan Tahreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party.
On Saturday, the assembly in Pakistan’s most populous province, Punjab, was dissolved following an order by PTI chief Khan, who since his removal as prime minister last April, has been demanding immediate polls, otherwise scheduled in October this year.
Pakistan’s constitution says new elections must be held within three months of the dissolution of a provincial legislature if the house fails in setting up an interim government.
The South Asian nation historically conducts federal and provincial elections simultaneously, but the constitution allows for separate poll dates as well.
Khan’s PTI hopes the dissolution of two of the country’s four assemblies will force Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif’s government to announce immediate general elections.
“We will return with two-thirds majority not just in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa but all of Pakistan, and form a government on the basis of our performance,” provincial chief minister Khan said in a video message on Tuesday after he wrote to the governor to dissolve the assembly.
PTI leader Musarrat Jamshed Cheema told Al Jazeera it is imperative that the government thinks beyond its “self-interests” and goes into early elections.
“You will have more than 70 percent of Pakistan contesting the provincial elections after the dissolution of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab assemblies. Why are they reluctant to hold general elections? Not only will the delay damage them politically, it is harming Pakistan’s situation as well,” she said.
Saif Ali Khan, lawyer and former adviser to Mahmood Khan, said the PTI decided to dissolve the assemblies to push the country into general elections.
“The ruling alliance is still trying to sabotage our efforts as they do not want to hold early elections. We will fight all their tactics on political and legal forums,” he told Al Jazeera.
Lahore-based political analyst Benazir Shah said Imran Khan, by pushing for immediate polls, is trying to take advantage of his rising popularity among the people.
“If Khan can form governments in both the provinces, and Punjab in particular, he will get a huge advantage in the next general election,” she told Al Jazeera.
Shah said the ruling alliance does not have many options to manoeuvre the political crisis and could be forced to play on Khan’s terms.
“In the next three months, they would have to hurriedly put together an election campaign, mobilise their voters and craft an effective election narrative to counter Khan. None of this will be easy for the ruling coalition’s parties, which have recently taken back-to-back electoral losses and are seen as being hand-in-glove with the military,” she said.
PTI’s lawyer Khan said the ruling alliance does not have the moral credibility to lead the country, which is already facing a dire economic crisis, made worse by last year’s catastrophic floods.
“If you’re driving a bus and see the driver as incompetent, you do not wait for the bus to crash or get into an accident. You try and change the driver at the earliest. This is what we want for Pakistan,” he told Al Jazeera.
Sergey Lavrov, the foreign minister of Russia, has praised Moscow and Beijing’s joint military exercises as a step toward solidifying their newly formed strategic alliance.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday in Moscow, Lavrov also charged that the West was looking for opportunities to enrage China on a variety of topics, including the status of Tibet and Taiwan.
He claimed that because China is far more powerful than the United States, Washington is compelled to “mobilize” the West to support its anti-Beijing agenda.
As the war in Ukraine rages, China and Russia have put aside decades of mutual distrust and stepped up military exercises to align their foreign policies.
They signed a “no limits” partnership last February, days before Moscow sent its armed forces into Ukraine and their economic links have boomed as Russia’s connections with the West have shrivelled.
However, Beijing is treading carefully.
President Vladimir Putin has publicly acknowledged that his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, has “concerns” over Russia’s actions in Ukraine.
Lavrov warned that Russia’s showdown with the West over Ukraine was part of a global policy shift that will evolve over a long period.
“The process of forming a multipolar world order will be long; it will take an epoch,” he said. “And we are in the middle of that process now.”
He cited Western efforts to hamper the widening cooperation between Russia and China, maintaining they would not success.
Russia’s relations with the West “will never be the same”, he said, as he accused the West of failing to observe signed agreements with Moscow.
“Never again there will be a situation when you lie, sign documents and then refuse to fulfil them,” he said.
Last month, the Chinese and Russian navies held joint drills in the East China Sea.
According to China’s Eastern Theater Command of the People’s Liberation Army, the exercises were designed to demonstrate “the determination and capability of the two sides to jointly respond to maritime security threats”.
Meanwhile, Russia and China are also said to be “sharing a toolkit” of approaches and strategies to undermine NATO, according to Julianne Smith, US ambassador to NATO.
“Those two are increasingly sharing a toolkit that should concern the NATO alliance, Smith told the Financial Times in an article published in December.
“There’s just no question that the [People’s Republic of China] and Russia are both working to divide … the transatlantic partners. And we are now very aware, we all have a deeper appreciation of those efforts and are intent on addressing them,” Smith said in an interview.
NATO in June listed China among its strategic challenges for the first time, saying Beijing’s ambitions and “coercive policies” undermined the Western military bloc’s “interests, security and values”.
Lavrov compares West’s approach to Hitler’s ‘final solution’
Elsewhere in his speech on Wednesday, Lavrov said the US had assembled a coalition of European countries to solve “the Russian question” using Ukraine as a proxy, in the same way Adolf Hitler had sought a “final solution” to eradicate Europe’s Jews.
“Just as Hitler wanted a ‘final solution’ to the Jewish question, now, if you read Western politicians … they clearly say Russia must suffer a strategic defeat,” he said.
Al Jazeera’s Ali Hashem, reporting from Moscow, said Lavrov’s news conference was an attempt to contextualise the war into the “Russian-Western confrontation”.
Much has been written about the changing role of the United States as a global power. President Joe Biden and his administration have made repeated statements about reclaiming the US position as leader of the “free world” and promoter of democracy. This has come amid growing authoritarian trends across the globe, in part due to the increased influence of countries like Russia and China.
But one facet of American foreign policy and grand strategy seems to remain unaffected by this renewed effort to promote democracy: the US approach towards the Arab world.
The Biden administration seems to be just as lukewarm about democracy in the region as its predecessors. Although it has emphasised the importance of democracy to its foreign policy, it has essentially refused to hold human rights violators in the Middle East accountable – even when this affects American citizens.
Moreover, on the question of Palestine, another issue of importance to Arab nations which is directly related to democracy, the Biden administration has not changed track either. It continues to back the Israeli government, its occupation and apartheid, and its regional policies which undermine local democratic movements. Worse still, despite being critical of the Trump administration, Biden appears to be an enthusiastic supporter of its disastrous concessions to Israel.
The US embassy in Jerusalem remains and will continue to expand on stolen Palestinian land. The statements of “deep concern” over each new display of Israeli fascism at this point do nothing more than evoke expected derision. Most importantly, the US continues to push for an expansion of the Abraham Accords, despite the fact that it is perfectly clear they are nothing more than an authoritarian alliance.
The Middle Eastern exception to the American democracy-promotion strategy remains, and there seems to be little appetite among American decision-makers to apply the same ideas of sustainable global order to this troubled region.
This does not go unnoticed in the Arab world itself. Rulers now fully understand the limitations of heavily relying on their partnership with the US. In Washington, there was much consternation and rending of garments when Saudi Arabia demonstrated alignment with China on a variety of policy issues. Israeli politicians have also expressed their interest in better relations with Moscow, in spite of American kowtowing on the issue of Palestine.
Citizens of the region are also aware of the failed American strategy and blatant hypocrisy. They do not believe that the US is a bulwark against authoritarian forces. That much is apparent from the results of the eighth Arab Opinion Index conducted by the Arab Center Washington DC in 14 Arab countries.
According to the survey report, released earlier this month, the percentage of Arabs who think democracy is the best system of governance for their countries has grown from 67 percent in 2011 to 72 percent in 2022. But that does not mean that they see a role for the US in helping the region achieve democratic development.
Some 78 percent consider the US the biggest source of threat and instability in the region. By contrast, 57 percent think of Iran in these terms and 57 percent of Russia. This is despite the Iranian-backed crackdown on the Tishreen Revolution in Iraq in 2019-20 and its destabilising role across the region and the Russian bombardment of civilians in Syria over the past seven years.
American policymakers should consider what these numbers imply. The US’s reputation is so bad and so synonymous with hypocrisy that Arab respondents view actors like Iran and Russia as less threatening. But what is worse, perhaps, is how these views have become cemented across generations of Arab citizens.
Those who witnessed or participated in the Arab Spring have internalised disappointment with the American position, which was pro-democracy in rhetoric only and in reality, was supportive of authoritarianism.
Now a new generation of Arabs, who have demonstrated their own capacity for political mobilisation, is adopting the same views. The US has maintained policies that are hostile to pro-democracy forces in the region, whether in supporting regimes that facilitate repression transnationally or backing Israeli oppression of the Palestinians.
The Arab world continues to be rife with conflict, Arab regimes are largely failing to provide basic services and guarantee rights, and Arab citizens understandably see no benefit to American leadership on the world stage. Such widespread attitudes may not only undermine American interests in the region, but also pose a risk to the broader international system.
As American legitimacy deteriorates, this leaves a vacuum for other powers – such as Russia and China – to advance their interests and their anti-democracy ideologies, both in the Arab world and across the globe. Moreover, the prospect of democracy becomes less attractive to nations when the primary advocate for such an idea worldwide, the US, is seen as hypocritical. And as democracy recedes, this bodes poorly for the level of violence, conflict, and instability we will see in the future.
The last 12 years of authoritarian diffusion, refugees, and sectarian conflict should have taught us that instability in the Arab world can reverberate across the globe. But the American establishment has continued to wash its hands clean of its role in the Middle East while trying to stabilise it on shaky premises – by enabling authoritarian regimes and practices and maintaining the status quo in the region’s worsening conflicts.
The results of the Arab Opinion Index should be a red flag for Washington: There must be no Middle Eastern exception to US policies on global security and prosperity.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
The main labour union in South Korea was raided by the country’s spy agency, which claimed the operation was part of a probe to see if any members had ties to North Korea.
The Korean Confederation of Trade Unions (KCTU) office in central Seoul was raided by the National Intelligence Service and the police on Wednesday.
According to the spy agency, some of its members may have had “ties with North Korea.” In the southwest of the city, the offices of the Korean Health and Medical Workers’ Union, which is affiliated with the KCTU, were also searched.
“We and the national police agency have been carrying out our own investigation into the suspects’ alleged ties with North Korea for several years,” an official from the spy agency told the Agence France-Presse news agency.
“Based on the evidence obtained in the process, we judged that a compulsory investigation was necessary, and we went ahead with the raid after the court issued a search and seizure warrant,” the source said.
South Korea remains officially at war with North Korea, and under a controversial and archaic National Security Act, possession of publications or other materials produced in the North can be a criminal offence. Local media reported that the raids were prompted by alleged violations of the security act.
The KCTU called the raid “barbaric”, accusing Seoul’s conservative government of “conniving” to target the labour organisation.
As one of South Korea’s largest union umbrella groups, the KCTU was linked to a recent strike by truck drivers whose union falls under the KCTU.
President Yoon Suk-yeol last month ordered striking drivers in the fuel and steel sectors back to work, threatening jail time or fines if they did not comply.
South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported that union officials had physically prevented the authorities from entering the KCTU head office, demanding that the raid and any seizure of property be conducted in the presence of a lawyer. A scuffle reportedly broke out between the police and union officials during the confrontation, Yonhap report.
The National Security Act, which dates back to 1948, prohibits citizens from accessing most North Korean-produced content, including its official Rodong Sinmun newspaper. The law has been widely criticised, including by the United Nations, which says it is a “seriously problematic” challenge to freedom of expression in South Korea.
Thousands of people, including union activists, were imprisoned under the law by the military governments that ruled South Korea for decades until the early 1990s. The act was often used to accuse people of engaging in pro-Pyongyang activities or spying for the North.
Human rights organisations have pleaded with Sri Lanka to free a well-known student activist who was detained five months ago during anti-government demonstrations brought on by the nation’s worst economic crisis.
Wasantha Mudalige, who is being held under a strict anti-terrorism law without being charged, was brought before a magistrate in Colombo on Tuesday, who ordered his remand until January 31.
Seven human rights groups, including Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch, said under the powerful Prevention of Terrorism Act, which has been used since 1979, courts routinely deny bail if it is opposed by the attorney general.
Mudalige is the convener of the Inter-University Students’ Federation and was involved in months of anti-government demonstrations last year. The protesters demanded wide-ranging reforms to resolve the economic crisis that caused severe shortages of essential goods, fuel and medicine.
The protests culminated in the flight and resignation of then-President Gotabaya Rajapaksa after thousands of people stormed his residence in July.
His successor, Ranil Wickremesinghe, initiated talks with the International Monetary Fund for a bailout package that is contingent on reforms and debt restructuring. Wickremesinghe’s government also gave sweeping powers to the authorities to crack down on the protests, arresting many activists.
Rights groups say the military has sought to curtail protests through intimidation, surveillance and arbitrary arrests since Wickremesinghe took office in July.
Many of those arrested have been released on bail, but the rights groups say authorities have used extraordinary powers to keep Mudalige in detention without producing any evidence of his “involvement in terrorism”.
The groups said in a statement on Monday that for much of the time, Mudalige has been held in “solitary confinement and poor conditions, which can violate the prohibition on torture or other ill-treatment under international human rights law”.
A protester holds a placard demanding the release of student leader Wasantha Mudalige outside a magistrate’s court in Colombo [Eranga Jayawardena/AP Photo]
Mudalige was also arrested and jailed for more than three months in 2021 after protesting for the right to free education.
For months, opposition legislators, rights and student activists have been demanding the release of Mudalige and an end to the government crackdown on demonstrations linked to the economic crisis.
The rights groups also urged the government to repeal the anti-terror law, which allows for up to a year of detention without charge on the orders of the defence minister, a position currently held by Wickremesinghe.
In March, the government introduced some reforms to the anti-terror law. However, opposition and rights groups called them cosmetic and said the law still allows the detention of suspects without warrants and the use of confessions obtained through torture.
Critics say the law, introduced during the country’s civil war in 1979, has been widely abused, causing a large number of innocent people to spend years in prison without trial.
Wickremesinghe was elected by parliament to complete Rajapaksa’s term, which ends in 2024. He is unpopular because he is supported by legislators who are still backed by the Rajapaksa family, which ruled Sri Lanka for most of the past two decades.
Many also accuse Wickremesinghe of protecting the Rajapaksas, who are widely blamed for corruption and misrule that led to the crisis.
Sri Lanka is effectively bankrupt and has suspended repayment of nearly $7bn in foreign debt due this year pending the outcome of talks with the IMF. The country’s total foreign debt exceeds $51bn, of which $28bn has to be repaid by 2027.
Alvin Chau, the leader of the illegal gambling industry in Macau, was found guilty on more than 100 counts and given an 18-year prison term.
The 48-year-old was found guilty in a case involving illegal bets totaling HK$823.7 billion ($105 billion; £85.7 billion).
Chau, a well-known and colourful figure in the neighbourhood casino business, had refuted the accusations.
Only one Chinese city—Macau, a former Portuguese colony—allows casino gambling.
Chau was the chairman and founder of Suncity Group. It was Macau’s biggest operator of junkets, or organised trips for wealthy gamblers to casinos.
It arranged for high rollers from mainland China to travel to Macau and gamble in the city’s casinos, and offered loans to them. It also collected debts for casinos, and operated VIP rooms across Macau’s casinos.
The businessman, nicknamed “Junket King,” resigned in December 2021, days after his arrest.
Prosecutors had accused Chau of creating and leading a criminal syndicate that had facilitated undeclared bets. They said that as a result the government lost more than HK$8.26 billion in tax income.
The court ruled in favour of the prosecutors for most of the charges, but acquitted Chau of money laundering. The high-profile case also involves 20 other defendants.
The gambling industry has been hit hard by coronavirus restrictions as well as a crackdown by the Chinese government’s on money being moved out of the mainland.
In September, a court in the eastern Chinese city of Wenzhou jailed more than 30 people for cross-border gambling in connection with Chau’s case.
Suncity shut all of its VIP rooms after Chau’s arrest. But even before that the number of junkets in Macau had been on constant decline. There are now only 36 junket operators left, down from 100 in 2019, according to official figures.
For one of its private jets, Netflix is hiring a flight attendant, with the chosen candidate earning up to $385,000 (£313,538) annually.
The world’s largest streaming service claims to be looking for candidates with “outstanding customer service skills, independent judgement, and discretion.”
The ability to “operate with little direction and a lot of self-motivation” should also be a requirement.
Following a decline in subscribers, Netflix cut hundreds of jobs the previous year.
“The overall market range for this role is typically $60,000 – $385,000. This market range is based on total compensation (vs only base salary), which is in line with our compensation philosophy,” Netflix said in a job listing on its website.
The company also said it determines an employee’s salary by considering “compensation factors” such as their background, experience and skills.
The role – based in San Jose, California – requires travel in and beyond the US.
“The Netflix Aviation department provides exceptional, safe, confidential air transportation,” it said.
The advert added that the team “helps Netflix reach the world more efficiently and effectively so the company can continue to create joy around the world.”
The attendant’s duties on a “Super Midsize Jet” will include inspecting emergency equipment in the cockpit, cabin and gallery before takeoff.
They will also have to be able to lift items as heavy as 13.6kg (30lb) when loading and stocking planes.
The average salary for flight attendants in the US is just over $62,000 a year, according to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
When contacted by the BBC, a Netflix spokesperson said the company “will not be commenting” on the details of how it calculates the salary of its flight attendants.
On Thursday the company is scheduled to announce its earnings for the last three months of 2022.
Last year Netflix said it had added 2.4 million households to its subscriber base in the three months to the end of September, reversing a decline in subscriber numbers.
Earlier in the year the company revealed its first fall in paying customers in more than a decade after raising prices in key markets.
Hit shows, including Stranger Things and Monster: The Jeffrey Dahmer Story helped attract viewers back to the service.
In 1944, Randon decided to become a nun, and she credited her longevity to her hard work and concern for others.
French nun Lucile Randon, the world’s oldest person, passed away at the age of 118.
At the nursing home where she resided, Randon passed away on Tuesday while sleeping. When she became a nun in 1944, she adopted the name Sister Andre.
There is a lot of sadness, but she wanted to go with her dear brother. According to David Tavella, spokesman for the Sainte-Catherine-Laboure nursing home in the southern French town of Toulon, “For her, it’s a liberation.”
Randon was born on February 11, 1904, and was the world’s oldest living person according to the Gerontology Research Group’s (GRG) World Supercentenarian Rankings List.
Long recognised as the oldest person in Europe, she became the world’s oldest following the death of Japan’s Kane Tanaka at 119 last year. Guinness World Records officially acknowledged her status in April 2022.
Randon was born in the year New York opened its first subway, and World War I was still a decade away.
She grew up in a Protestant family as the only girl among three brothers, living in the southern town of Ales, France.
One of her fondest memories was the return of two of her brothers at the end of the war in 1918, she told AFP in an interview on her 116th birthday.
“It was rare, in families, there were usually two dead rather than two alive. They both came back,” she said.
Randon worked as a governess in Paris — a period she once called the happiest time of her life — for the children of wealthy families.
She became a Catholic and was baptised at the age of 26.
Driven by a desire to “go further”, she joined the Daughters of Charity order of nuns when she was 41.
Sister Andre was then assigned to a hospital in Vichy, France, where she worked for 31 years.
In later life, she moved to Toulon along the Mediterranean coast.
Her days in the nursing home were punctuated by prayer, mealtimes and visits from residents and hospice workers.
She also received a steady flow of letters, almost all of which she responded to.
In 2021, she survived a bout of COVID-19.
‘Work kept me alive’
Randon told reporters last year that her work and caring for others had kept her spry.
“People say that work kills, for me work kept me alive, I kept working until I was 108,” she told reporters in April last year in the tearoom of the home.
Although she was blind and needed a wheelchair, she used to care for other elderly people much younger than herself.
“People should help each other and love each other instead of hating. If we shared all that, things would be a lot better,” she said at the same meeting with journalists.
It is likely that France’s new oldest person is now 112-year-old Marie-Rose Tessier, a woman from Vendee, longevity expert Laurent Toussaint told AFP.
But Toussaint warned that it was always possible an even older person had not yet made themselves known.
Jeanne Calment, who died in 1997 at the age of 122 in Arles, southern France, holds the record for the oldest confirmed age reached by any human.
Porn actor Ron Jeremy is mentally incompetent to stand trial on dozens of rape and sexual assault counts involving 21 women, a US judge has ruled.
Jeremy, 69, pleaded not guilty in August 2021 to more than 30 counts of sexual assault, including 12 of rape, in the Los Angeles area over a 23-year period.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ronald S Harris said the decision was made as the actor was in a state of “incurable neurocognitive decline” from which he is unlikely to recover.
The actor was among the biggest names in the adult film industry, appearing in more than 2,000 movies starting in the 1970s.
Jeremy has been in prison since his arrest in June 2020 and did not attend the hearing. Prosecutors asked that he be periodically re-evaluated.
The actor is accused of assaulting 21 women who ranged in age from 15 to 51 between the 1990s and 2019.
Attorney Stuart Goldfarb, who represents Jeremy, had told the court in March 2022 that his client had been unable to recognise him when he visited him in a holding cell before a court hearing.
Actor could be moved into state hospital
A hearing on placing the actor, whose legal name is Ronald Hyatt, in a state hospital will be held next month.
Mr Goldfarb said in an email: “When he was arrested two years ago I said he would be found innocent of all charges.
“Two years have passed and with the additional discovery I received I believed he would have been found innocent. It is unfortunate due to mental condition he will not go to trial and have the opportunity to clear his name.”
Image:Ron Jeremy, who was one of the best known porn actors in the 1970s and 80s, pictured in 2006. Pic: AP
The alleged offences took place at nightclubs and bars in theLos Angeles area, during a photo shoot, and at Jeremy’s home, the district attorney’s office said.
The charges stemmed from a district attorney’s task force set up to investigate entertainment industry sexual misconduct after reports about Harvey Weinstein in 2017 and the #metoo movement.
Jeremy was among very few men charged in the task force’s work, along with Weinstein himself, who was convicted of rape and sexual assault in December.
In August 2020, Jeremy wrote on Twitter: “I can’t wait to prove my innocence in court! Thank you to everyone for all the support.”
In an effort to solve the “deliberate, intentional, and horrific” murders of six people at a home in the state’s Central Valley, law enforcement officials in California have pledged a $10,000 reward and requested the public’s assistance.
According to Tulare County Sheriff Mike Boudreaux, the family was the target of an investigation into a gang or drug cartel. The same home had recently been the subject of a search warrant by deputies for drugs.
Among the dead in the 3:30am (11:30 GMT) shooting on Monday were a 17-year-old and her 10-month-old son.
Boudreaux said the teenager was fleeing the violence when the killers caught up to her outside the home in Goshen, a central California community of about 3,000 residents in the agricultural San Joaquin Valley, and shot the young mother and her child “assassination-style”.
“We believe the 17-year-old girl and her infant were actually running from scene. The shooters stood over top of that 17-year-old mother and fired rounds into her head,” Boudreaux said. “It was deliberate, intentional and horrific.”
The other four victims were aged between 19 and 72 years, including a grandmother who was shot as she slept. Their autopsies are expected to be completed later in the week.
Authorities had previously listed the teen’s age as 16 and the infant’s six months but said they had received updated information.
Sheriff’s deputies responding to reports of gunshots at the home in Goshen, a small farming town roughly 350km (220 miles) southeast of San Francisco, found multiple victims both inside and in the street. Three people survived and will be interviewed by authorities. They include a man who hid in the home as the killings happened.
“It’s shocking for the nation, shocking to our county, shocking to our state, and I have to tell you I’m receiving phone calls from across the country,” Boudreaux said.
Police were searching for at least two suspects, Boudreaux said, adding they had not yet been identified. The $10,000 reward was being offered by law enforcement agencies for information that moved the investigation forward.
“I am not eliminating that possibility,” the sheriff said. “These people were clearly shot in the head and they were also shot in places where the shooter would know that a quick death would occur … This is also similar to high-ranking gang affiliation and the style of executions that they commit.”
Law enforcement is familiar with the home, the sheriff said, citing gang activity there that “has routinely occurred in the past” without giving any specifics. He added that not everyone who was shot was a drug dealer or gang member — and said among the victims believed to be innocent are the teen, her grandmother, and of course, the baby.
The sheriff’s department on Tuesday identified the victims as Rosa Parraz, 72; Eladio Parraz, Jr, 52; Jennifer Analla, 49; Marcos Parraz, 19; Alissa Parraz, 16; and Nycholas Parraz, 10 months.
The European-designed Taipan helicopters in Australia’s fleet are being replaced by the Black Hawks ten years early.
A decade earlier than expected, Australia has announced that it will replace its fleet of Taipan military helicopters with 40 Black Hawk helicopters from the United States, at an estimated cost of 2.8 billion Australian dollars ($1.97 billion).
Defence Minister Richard Marles announced on Wednesday that Australia’s fleet of MRH-90 Taipan helicopters, which have been beset for years by expensive maintenance problems, will be replaced by UH-60M Black Hawks from US manufacturer Lockheed Martin Corp.
“We’ve just not got the flying hours out of the Taipan that we would need,” Marles told ABC News. “We’re confident that we can get that from the Black Hawks. It’s a platform we’re familiar with.”
The French government has a significant stake in Airbus – the European aerospace company that manufactures the Taipans – and Paris had been urging Australia to keep its 40-strong fleet.
Marles said he had spoken with his French counterpart several times and was confident the US helicopter deal “won’t interrupt” the renewed relationship with France.
In a statement, Airbus said it “acknowledges” the decision and that Australia remained a key market for the company.
Royal Australian Navy aircrew from the 808 Squadron beside their MRH90 Taipan helicopter in Wollongong, Australia in November 2021. Australia will ditch its fleet of European-designed Taipans and instead buy US Black Hawks [File: Kylie Gibson/ADF via AP]
Dropping the Taipans comes as relations between Paris and Canberra had warmed following Australia’s decision in 2021 to ditch French-made submarines for nuclear subs to be built by the United States and the United Kingdom.
The shock move by Australia’s then-conservative government to abruptly rip up the 90-billion-dollar ($62bn) agreement with France for the provision of submarines sparked a bitter diplomatic dispute and relations plummeted.
At the height of the controversy, French President Emmanuel Macron accused Australia’s then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison of lying about the deal, and Paris recalled its ambassador from Canberra.
Marles said he was confident that the helicopter deal would not damage relations with France, which had been somewhat repaired since the submarine row.
The acquisition of Black Hawks comes as Australia moves to boost defence spending amid China stepping up its presence in the Indo-Pacific region.
Australian Major General Jeremy King said the Black Hawks would meet the country’s strategic needs.
“This acquisition will mean we can continue to defend Australia and respond in times of need in a safe and effective way for years to come,” King told ABC News.
On January 11, the Russian defence ministry announced that Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov is now heading the Russian forces fighting in Ukraine. General Sergei Surovikin who had been appointed to the same position just three months earlier was demoted to Gerasimov’s deputy. The reshuffle sparked speculations about frustration in the Kremlin with the lack of progress on the battlefield.
Ironically enough, Surovikin had been recognised by Russian and Ukrainian combatants alike as one of the more competent of Moscow’s commanders. He considered holding on to the isolated city of Kherson as a lost cause and managed to persuade President Vladimir Putin to allow him to abandon it. This is despite the fact that the president wanted the city to remain under Russian control. Even though a withdrawal under fire is a difficult operation to conduct, Surovikin managed it neatly and with limited casualties.
At another flashpoint – the city of Bakhmut, where severe fighting was going on – Surovikin concentrated on consolidation. He established the so-called “Surovikin lines” of defence to the south and prepared the ground for the influx of mobilised reservists expected before an offensive this year. He also oversaw the ruthless bombardments of Ukraine’s energy and water infrastructure, as much a political as economic campaign, intended to demoralise the population, force a diversion of resources and perhaps drive more refugees into Europe.
Indeed, he appeared relatively competent. It was not enough for Putin, though. Surovikin’s cautious approach was not bringing victory on the battlefield, nor were the Ukrainians losing their will to resist.
The last straw seems to have been the Ukrainian missile attack on a barracks outside Makiivka on New Year’s Day, in which hundreds of Russian reservists may have been killed. It was hardly Surovikin’s direct responsibility, rather it was more a symptom of incompetence on the part of a Russian officer corps that cannot come to terms with the range and precision of Ukrainian artillery.
Nonetheless, Putin wanted a scapegoat, and Surovikin was it. In many ways, this episode illustrates the degree to which Russian warfighting is being defined and distorted by politics.
Putin’s whole political system is deliberately competitive and even cannibalistic. Individuals and institutions are encouraged to clash, because this allows Putin to exercise the role of the “great decider”. Everyone has to seek his favour and he can pick and choose whom to reward, and whom to punish, to maintain his power.
What may work in politics, though, is proving much more dysfunctional when translated to the battlefield. Surovikin was given the title of joint forces commander, but Putin never gave him the necessary political backing to allow him to wield all the disparate elements under his command as one unified force. In particular, he had no control over the personal troops of Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov and, above all, the Wagner mercenary army under businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin.
This undermined any chances of Surovikin being able to make gains on the battlefield. For this, he had to pay the price, because a second aspect of Putinism which has proven so problematic is an emphasis on the “heroic leader” able instantly to turn a problem into a triumph. Encouraged by his entourage of cronies and yes-men, Putin seems to have convinced himself that he is such an instantly transformative leader. That is deeply questionable, as whatever goes right is presented as his achievement, but whatever goes wrong is blamed on the failures of his underlings.
The more stress Putin is under, the more unrealistic his expectations are. Last week, for example, loyal industry minister Denis Manturov was publicly upbraided for delays in the domestic production of aircraft. As Manturov tried to explain the formidable practical challenges, especially now that Russia is sanctioned and denied Western technology and investment and cannot buy some parts from Ukraine, Putin cut him off: “Don’t you understand the circumstances we live in? It needs to be done in a month, no later.”
Likewise, Putin – who has no meaningful military experience and little sense of the complexities of modern warfare – appears to have had unrealistic expectations of Surovikin. His answer, as usual, is not to recognise the scale of the challenge, but to blame the man on the spot. While Surovikin remains in place, he is now just one of three field commanders under their new joint commander: General Gerasimov.
Although the official line is that this was not a demotion of Surovikin, simply a recognition that the growing scale of the role required a more senior commander, the irony is that this is in effect a demotion not just for him but also for Gerasimov. It is very unusual for a chief of the General Staff to step into a field role and this also places him in an unenviable position.
It has long been clear that the Russians plan to launch new offensives early this year, using 150,000 mobilised reservists who have been preparing behind the lines. This is a substantial force, but given that the Ukrainians have also been regrouping, armed with new supplies of Western weapons, the odds of the Russians being able to make lasting and substantial gains are low.
Gerasimov’s career now presumably depends on not failing to meet Putin’s high hopes, so his temptation may be to escalate. Although there are periodic fears that Russia may use tactical nuclear weapons, this is still extremely unlikely. It is more credible that Moscow will try to pressure Belarus’s President Alexander Lukashenko to join the war or that Russia’s forces will be expanded further through a new wave of mobilisations or else with conscripts.
These are essentially political decisions above Gerasimov’s pay grade, though. Lukashenko is clearly very reluctant to be directly involved. As for a new mobilisation or deploying conscripts – who have, up to now, largely not fought, these measures would be extremely unpopular at home. Although Putin is overseeing a creeping militarisation of Russian society and economy, he is also clearly aware of the potential risks to a regime whose legitimacy is on the decline. Indeed, part of the reason behind demoting Surovikin was to try and use him as a scapegoat for recent reversals.
Likewise, although Gerasimov’s appointment was also heralded as a way of improving coordination, unless Putin is willing to lay down the law with Kadyrov or Prigozhin, nothing will change in the field. Prigozhin has already made his contempt for Gerasimov clear, with no pushback from the Kremlin.
Thus, Gerasimov is the latest and highest-profile officer to be given a task he cannot achieve unless Putin is willing to take a political risk and provide him with the necessary support. So long as the ageing Russian leader is unwilling to back his generals, it is hard to see how Gerasimov can succeed. Yet he is the senior officer in the Russian military – and Surovikin was his most likely successor. If and when he also fails, it will be all the harder for people not to pin the ultimate responsibility on the commander-in-chief,Vladimir Putin.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
In the late 1980s and early 1990s she was a judge in Ethiopia’s high court. Later, she founded the Ethiopian Women Lawyers Association to help women in need of legal advice.
One of the most famous cases in which she was involved was made into a movie, with Hollywood star Angelina Jolie serving as executive producer.
She has been replaced as Supreme Court president by Tewodros Mihret, a legal academic, whose appointment was approved by the country’s lower house of parliament on Tuesday.
Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, a Nigerian who in 2021 became the first African and woman to lead theWorld Trade Organization, has defended her work vehemently at a time when international organizations are facing criticism.
She said “If you’re looking for a place where multilateralism is working despite the tensions, it’s the WTO.”
In recent decades, the WTO has worked to lower trade barriers around the world during a period that has been referred to as globalisation. But with protectionism gaining popularity in recent years, that strategy appears to be in jeopardy.
Furthermore, tensions over Ukraine and other issues pose a threat to multilateral cooperation.
But Ms Okonjo-Iweala sees her work as vital in maintaining the global system from which people, particularly those in the developing world, can benefit.
Talking to the BBC’s Stephen Sackur, she cited a number of deals that have improved access to agricultural produce, as examples of the continued effectiveness of the WTO. She also said the organisation was vital in brokering an agreement that allowed for humanitarian access to global food supplies, despite the war in Ukraine.
She added that she was determined to show that the WTO was relevant for all people.
Since being released from a Russian penal colony, Brittney Griner has made her first public appearance.
The American basketball star and her wife Cherelle were spotted posing for photos at a rally in downtown Phoenix, Arizona, honouring Martin Luther King Jr. Day.
Before being released in a prisoner exchange, 32-year-old Mrs. Griner spent nearly ten months in custody on drug-related charges.
She expressed her joy at returning home to the local media.
An All-Star centre with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medallist, Mrs Griner was arrested in Russia in February – days before Russia invaded Ukraine – after authorities at a Moscow airport found cannabis oil in her luggage.
She was later convicted of smuggling and possessing narcotics and sentenced to nine years in a penal colony.
Her case drew international attention, with high-profile figures like former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and NBA star Lebron James calling on the White House to secure her release.
In December, the Kremlin traded Mrs Griner for arms dealer Viktor Bout, convicted in 2011 of conspiring to kill Americans. The deal did not include Paul Whelan, another American who has been sentenced to 16 years on espionage charges.
She flew back home to her native Texas on 9 December, a moment described by Phoenix Mercury President Vince Kozar as “a really special moment”.
“She was so excited and we were so excited for just that moment, we had gotten past any of the fear or sadness or anything else that came along with it,” Mr Kozar told the ABC-15 news outlet.
Interpol has issued a “red notice” for foreign nations to arrest a military officer accused of plotting to overthrow the government in The Gambia last month, according to local officials.
The “red notice” issued to Lamin Jadama, a low-ranking Gambian officer, means that eight officers have now been identified as suspects in the alleged coup plot.
According to Gambian officials, he is a fugitive from justice, and anyone caught assisting or conspiring with him will face legal consequences.
Seven of the accused have been arrested, including the alleged ringleader, Lance Corporal Sana Fadera.
They appeared in the High Court in the capital, Banjul, on charges of treason and conspiracy to commit felony.
Two civilians and a police officer were also in court on charges of treason and concealment of treason.
The accused were expected to file a plea, but this did not happen.
Instead, the case was postponed as the state did not file its indictment and two of the accused soldiers did not have legal representation
Justice Basiru Mahoney ordered the state to file the indictment by 23 January. He also ordered the two unrepresented soldiers to get lawyers or for the state to provide them with legal aid.
His tweet has become legendary in Silicon Valley, as it showed the sheer power that 140 characters on Twitter can have.
Legal experts said they believe it will be a difficult case for Mr Musk to win, and that the fine he paid to the SEC will be used against him in the case. However jury trials in cases of fraud are notoriously difficult to predict.
Mr Musk had wanted the trial to be moved to Texas, arguing a fair jury would not be possible to find in San Francisco.
84% of the nearly 10 million new voters who have signed up to cast ballots on February 25 are under the age of 34.
Nigerians are rushing to pick up their voting cards in preparation for the presidential election that will take place next month, where three candidates are vying to succeed President Muhammadu Buhari.
A crucial voting bloc of nearly 10 million newly registered voters, 84 percent of whom are under the age of 34, will cast ballots on February 25. However, the INEC, also known as the Independent National Electoral Commission, asserted that 1.12 million of those fresh registrations were invalid.
The election in the most populous nation in Africa is expected to be a unique occasion.
For the first time since the end of military dictatorship in 1999, a third-party candidate is presenting a real challenge to the dominance of the ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the main opposition People’s Democratic Party (PDP).
With Nigeria struggling with growing insecurity, high living costs and increasing poverty, many young voters say they are keener now to have a say about their future leader.
Over the weekend, crowds gathered at Lagos schools where election officials called out names, checked off lists and handed out a coveted ID, the biometric Permanent Voting Card or PVC.
Some would-be voters were successful, but others were frustrated to be told to come back.
“They told me my PVC is not ready. They have to go back to Abuja,” said Chuks David, a software developer in Lagos’s Surulere area.
“We need to get things right, and that is why I am taking the time and the stress to get my PVC.”
Last week, INEC extended the deadline for PVC collection by eight days. In some states, 100,000 cards were collected in just five days, it said.
Picking up her card in Lagos state’s Alimosho district, first-time voter Gbemisola Akindola said she hadn’t seen the need for change in 2019. But she is determined to have her say this year.
“Right now something is very very clear: that it’s time we transition to the younger generation ruling us. And that’s why, if I don’t do it now, when would I do it?”
Nigeria’s elections in the past have been marred by logistical delays, violence and claims of fraud and vote buying.
In 2019, INEC was forced to postpone the election by a week just hours before voting was scheduled to start because of difficulty getting material to polling stations.
Election officials say 2023’s ballot will be more transparent after the introduction of the electronic transfer of results and a biometric voter identification technology known as BVAS at the voting stations to stop fraud.
“This instilled confidence in our people,” Adenike Tadese, INEC head of voter education in Lagos, told AFP.
“I want to believe that is why our people are trooping out en masse to ensure that they come out to collect this Permanent Voting Card.”
Whoever wins the presidency faces a host of challenges from tackling insecurity across the country to reviving an economy hit hard by the financial fallout from Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Security forces are fighting a 13-year-old war against armed groups in the country’s northeast and bandit militias in the northwest while facing separatist tensions in the country’s southeast.
Gunmen have repeatedly targeted local INEC offices in the southeast, burning voting materials in attacks often blamed on the Indigenous People of Biafra or IPOB separatist movement.
INEC warned earlier this month that the election risked postponement or disruption if security was not tackled. The government says measures are in place to guarantee the vote.
Buhari’s APC has fielded Bola Tinubu, 70, a former governor known as the “Godfather of Lagos” for his political clout, who will benefit from the ruling party’s national network.
PDP’s Atiku Abubakar, 76, is a former vice president and wealthy businessman who is on his sixth bid for the presidency.
Former Anambra state Governor Peter Obi, 61 and a member of the Labour Party, has appealed to younger voters with a message that he is different from his old-guard rivals and wants to bring real change to Nigeria.
Voter turnout is often low in Nigeria – it was just 33 percent in 2019 – and many younger people often say they feel little enthusiasm for candidates.
But two years ago, mass protests over police brutality spiralled into rallies demanding better governance known as the #EndSARS movement, a reference to the SARS police unit that was later disbanded.
Those protests were violently dispersed by security forces, but some of those involved in #EndSARS said the younger generation would be looking to the 2023 ballot box to make their demands.
“It’s important that I play my part, and pick up my PVC,” said Opeoluwa Adekoya, 27, in Surulere district.
“If things don’t work out in Nigeria, yes, the government is to blame, but I have my responsibility.”
In October, government troops and militias from affiliated clans reclaimed the basefrom al-Shabab.
At least seven soldiers, including the base commander, were killed when fighters from the al-Shabab group stormed a military base in central Somalia that the government had taken back from them last year, according to an officer.
According to Captain Aden Nur, a military officer in a nearby town, attackers from the al-Qaeda affiliate drove a suicide car bomb into the base in the village of Hawadley on Tuesday before opening fire.
“We repelled al-Shabab [but] lost seven soldiers, including our commander,” Nur told Reuters.
Al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack in a statement, saying it had killed “many apostate soldiers and their commander”.
The base is located about 60km (35 miles) north of the capital, Mogadishu, and was wrested from al-Shabab’s control inOctober by government forces and allied clan militias.
The operation was part of a broader government offensive, which began in August and has made significant gains. On Monday, the government announced it had captured Harardhere, an al-Shabab stronghold on the Indian Ocean coast that it had held for a decade.
As pressure on al-Shabab has grown, its fighters have struck back. They have stepped up gun and bomb attacks on the military and civilians, including in areas where they have retreated.
The group has been fighting since 2007 to topple Somalia’s central government and impose its strict interpretation of Islamic law.
In some regions, residents said al-Shabab’s tactics – including torching houses, destroying wells and killing civilians, combined with demands for taxes during the worst drought in 40 years – has pushed locals to form paramilitary groups to fight alongside the government.
But in other towns and villages, al-Shabab’s courts are gaining widespread acceptance as constitutional courts struggle with backlogs and a perception of being corrupt.
The conflict has contributed to a food crisis in Somalia. More than 200,000 Somalis are suffering from catastrophic food shortages, and some parts of central Somalia are on the brink of famine.
Fighting has not worsened despite a six-month UN-mediated truce coming to an end in October, raising the possibility that it might be extended again.
According to the UN special envoy for Yemen, as regional and international diplomatic efforts to end the eight-year conflict in the country increase, the chances of a new cease-fire in Yemen have increased.
More than three months after the initial cease-fire agreement expired, Hans Grundberg stated at a UN Security Council briefing on Monday that there had been “a potential step change” in the conflict’s trajectory, despite the fact that the situation remained “complex and fluid”.
In order to bring peace to the most impoverished country in the Arab world, Grundberg, a Swedish diplomat who has held his position since 2021, urged the warring parties to work toward “a shared vision” with practical steps.
A UN-backed truce initially took effect in April 2022 and raised hopes for a longer pause in fighting, but it ended on October 2 after just six months, after the Houthi rebels, who control the capital, Sanaa, and much of northern Yemen, refused to agree to a further extension.
Along with a stop to the fighting, last year’s truce deal allowed some fuel shipments into Houthi-held Hodeidah port and commercial flights from Sanaa, but it did not lift a partial Houthi blockade on the central city of Taiz, a primary goal for the government.
Despite the absence of a truce extension, fighting has not escalated.
“The overall military situation in Yemen has remained stable,” Grundberg told the UNSC. “There has been no major escalation nor changes in the disposition on the front lines.”
“However we continue to see some military activity in particular along the front lines … these military activities have regrettably, also resulted in civilian casualties.”
The UN is now pushing for an extended and broader deal encompassing a mechanism to pay public sector wages.
The Iran-allied Houthis and the Saudi-backed Yemeni government disagree on who should be paid however, with the government saying that payments should only be made to those in Houthi-controlled areas serving as civil servants before the Houthi takeover. The Houthis want the payments to be made according to the payrolls they have updated.
The Houthis seized Sanaa and much of northern Yemen in 2014, eventually forcing the government into exile.
The war has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of people over the past eight years [File: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters]
A Saudi-led coalition, including the United Arab Emirates, militarily intervened in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognised government to power, launching an air strike campaign.
More than 150,000 people have been killed, including 14,500 civilians.
No ‘piecemeal approach’
Grundberg, speaking from Sanaa where he is meeting the Houthi leadership, thanked Saudi Arabia and Oman for their diplomacy and said discussions in the past month have developed “options for mutually acceptable solutions to outstanding issues”.
However, he advised against a “piecemeal approach” focused on individual needs, saying talks on short-term steps should be part of a broader approach towards a sustainable resolution of a multifaceted conflict in which several parties are vying for power.
The UN envoy said “escalatory political and economic measures” could reignite violence.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths, who was Grundberg’s predecessor as envoy to Yemen, was also present at the meeting, and echoed his successor, saying the new year “brings a genuine opportunity to move the political process forward”.
But Griffiths said he feared 2023 would be “another extremely difficult year” with an estimated 21.6 million Yemenis needing humanitarian assistance “as the country’s economy continues to weaken and basic services hang by an ever-thinning thread”.
Griffiths called on the international community to support the UN’s humanitarian appeal and to redouble efforts to boost Yemen’s economy.
The head of the Houthi Supreme Political Council, Mahdi al-Mashat, said in remarks on Houthi-run media on Monday that talks with an Omani negotiating team were positive and, departing from past rhetoric, stressed the movement’s desire for regional stability.
In order to “secure internal approvals” from the financial sector,the Ministry of Finance on Monday extended the registration deadline for its domestic debt exchange to January 31, 2023.
Educationist and economist Professor Stephen Adei has recommended to the government that the threshold for pensioners who might be impacted by the ongoing domestic debt exchange programme be revised.
Adei contends that doing this will guarantee that those who are weak and have unstable finances are exempt from the programme.
In order to “secure internal approvals” from the financial industry, the Ministry of Finance on Monday extended the registration deadline for its domestic debt exchange to January 31, 2023.
Speaking to an Accra-based media house on Monday (16 January), Adei warned that the country risks losing some lives in the coming weeks if government fails to review the threshold for pensioners.
“The pensioners – my colleagues – it is because when we got our lump sum, our life investments, we invested it into government’s bonds, so that is what is now at stake…” he said.
“… There must be a threshold, so that, there is a certain minimum, other than that, some of my colleagues will physically die in a [few] weeks, so it is a very serious matter.”
Poor communication
The economist wants the government to step up efforts in educating Ghanaians on which category of persons are likely to be affected by the debt exchange programme.
“So much is being said without people understanding it, we are talking about young people like you who are yet to go for pension and have invested in the bonds for their future, communication has been terribly bad,” he said.
Exempt pensioners
Meanwhile, Professor Lord Mensah, an associate professor at the University of Ghana Business School, has advised the government to exempt pensioners from its Domestic Debt Exchange Programme.
Mensah argues that the quantum of bonds held bypensioners is insignificant, and so offering them an exemption is not only right but will not make a significant difference to the government’s attempts to raise revenue.
Speaking in an interview with Asaase radio, Mensah said: “I will prefer we exempt pensioners and the disabled, because usually these are people [of whom] you know very well that generating economic activities around themselves will be very low.
“So, I will plead with the government: I don’t think the quantum of bonds that they are holding within the entire debt structure will be so much,” he said. “I don’t think they will exceed GHC3 billion.”
According to WPBF-TV, the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office on Monday verified that every victim in the early-evening shooting in Fort Pierce was an adult.
At 5:20 pm (22:20 GMT), while more than 1,000 people were attending the MLK Car Show and Family Fun Day at Ilous Ellis Park, a shooting took place.
“Multiple people were shot; it sounds like, from our initial investigation here on scene, there was a disagreement of some sort between two parties, and unfortunately, they chose to resolve that with guns,” St. Lucie County Chief Deputy Brian Hester said.
Police added that four people, including a child, sustained non-life-threatening injuries.
“It was mass chaos, as you can imagine, when shots rang out,” Hester said. “There were a 1,000-plus people here at the event, and as the shots rang out, people were just running in all directions.”
Martin Luther King Jr Day is a federal holiday in the United States that takes place on the third Monday in January. It honours the life and legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Video obtained by the station showed people ducking, running and hiding behind cars, including a woman running to safety while holding a baby.
“It’s really sad in a celebration of someone who represented peace and equality that a disagreement results in a use of guns and violence to solve that disagreement, and that’s what’s really sad to me about what happened here,” Hester said.
There were 648 mass shootings reported in the country last year, according to the US-based Gun Violence Archive.
In June last year, US President Joe Biden signed the first major federal gun reform in three decades, a bipartisan compromise that came in light of numerous mass shooting in the country.
It strengthened background checks, funded laws to remove firearms from people considered to be a threat and closed a loophole that allowed some people accused of domestic abuse to own guns.
Since last year, 200 children have died in Indonesia from acute kidney injury, and The Gambia and Uzbekistan have both reported numerous cases of acute kidney injury linked to cough syrup.
In an Indonesian court that has begun hearing their class-action lawsuit against governmental organizations and pharmaceutical companies, the families of Indonesian children who died after ingesting tainted cough syrup have demanded compensation.
Authorities in Indonesia reported that two hazardous ingredients, ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol, which are present in some syrup-based paracetamol medications, have been linked to 200 pediatric acute kidney injury deaths since last year.
In response to the deaths and injuries of the children, 25 families have filed lawsuits against the Indonesian health and finance ministries, the nation’s drugs regulator, and at least eight pharmaceutical firms.
Al Jazeera’s Jessica Washington, reporting from Jakarta, said the 25 families are suing 11 parties, including Indonesia’s ministry of health, the country’s food and drug agency, as well as pharmaceutical manufacturing companies and suppliers.
“Today they are calling for accountability for what happened to their children,” Washington said, adding that the families are seeking compensation for the children who died and those left with debilitating injuries.
“A very difficult day for these families as they have to reflect on what happened to their children after they consumed cough syrup that was contaminated with ethylene glycol and diethylene glycol, substances typically found in a manufacturing capacity in paints and dyes that can only be consumed safely in very small doses,” Washington said.
The two ingredients are used in antifreeze, brake fluids and other industrial applications, but also as a cheaper alternative in some pharmaceutical products to glycerine, a solvent or thickening agent in many cough syrups. The substances can also be toxic and can lead to acute kidney injury.
Solihah, 36, who was at the court in the Indonesian capital Jakarta on Tuesday, said her 3-year-old daughter was diagnosed with an acute kidney injury after consuming a syrup medication and died a few days later. She said she wanted the government to be held accountable.
“If my daughter had not consumed the drug, maybe she would still be here,” she said, her voice breaking with emotion.
“I hope all parties involved are held responsible for the conditions of the children who died and are still sick.”
Representatives of the finance ministry and five pharmaceutical companies named in the lawsuit did not respond to requests for comment. Another three companies could not be reached. The country’s drugs regulator said it would respect the ongoing legal process, while the health ministry declined to comment.
Authorities in Indonesia have banned a number of cough syrups and mounted legal action against several pharmaceutical companies whose products allegedly contained the dangerous ingredients.
In October, the World Health Organization said the deaths of dozens of children in The Gambia from kidney injuries may be linked to contaminated cough and cold syrups made by an Indian drug manufacturer.
Indian health authorities said later that they had halted all production of New Delhi-based Maiden Pharmaceuticals after a WHO report that its cough and cold syrups exported to The Gambia may be linked to the deaths of children.
In December, India again launched an investigation into the death of 18 children in Uzbekistan after they consumed an Indian-manufactured cough syrup. India’s health ministry said the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO)– – the country’s drug regulatory authority – was communicating with its counterpart in Uzbekistan over the incident.
Following a courtside incident,the Australian Open tennis tournament has banned the use of the Russian and Belarusian flags. The flags could initially be brought into Melbourne Park by spectators as long as they didn’t cause “disruption.”
But on Tuesday, after spectators waved a Russian flag during a match between Russian Kamilla Rakhimova and Ukrainian Kateryna Baindl, the organisers changed their minds.
The prohibition is in effect right away.
“We will continue to work with the players and our fans to ensure the best possible environment to enjoy the tennis,” Tennis Australia said in a statement.
Ukrainian fans say they called police and security to the first-round match on Monday, claiming Russian supporters were “taunting” Baindl.
“This is profoundly unsafe, the war is ongoing,” one fan told local newspaper The Age. “It’s a small court, and the guys were up close and personal with the players, so there was a sense of intimidation.”
But one of the Russian men involved told The Age his group had simply been cheering their countrywoman on.
He said: “People can view that as being obnoxious, but we were just being your normal supporters. There was no ridiculing or disrespect.”
Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia and New Zealand had earlier called on Tennis Australia to take action.
Russian and Belarusian athletes have not been able to play under their countries’ flags in several sports, including tennis, since the invasion of Ukraine began in February last year.
While players from the two countries are competing under a neutral white flag during the Australian Open, they were banned from playing at Wimbledon altogether in 2022.
Organisers were subsequently fined, and the tournament was stripped of its ranking points by the Association of Tennis Professionals and Women’s Tennis Association. The WTA said equal opportunities for players to compete as individuals had to be protected.
The Victorian state government on Tuesday said Tennis Australia had made the right decision.
“Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is abhorrent,” acting premier Jancinta Allan said. “It breaches international human rights obligations. It’s been enabled and supported by Belarus.
“[This] sends a very, very clear message that human rights are important, whether it’s in sport, or more broadly in our community.”
The ban comes after Ukrainian tennis player Marta Kostyuk said she would not shake hands with opponents fromRussia and Belarus who she believes have not done enough to condemn the invasion.
Downing Street’s unprecedented action will prevent the new law, which lowers the legal age at which someone can apply to change their gender to 16, from becoming a part of the statutes.
Nicola Sturgeon has referred to the UK government’s unprecedented intervention as a “full-frontal attack” on the Scottish parliament for blocking Scotland’s gender reform bill.
If Downing Street thinks a piece of legislation will have a negative effect on UK-wide law, it has the authority to prevent it from receiving Royal Assent from Holyrood, the last step in any new bill.
Scotland Secretary Alister Jack has confirmed he will lay a section 35 order at Westminster tomorrow to prevent the legislation being sent to the King for Royal Assent.
In a statement, he said: “I have not taken this decision lightly.”
In the 25 years since devolution, no British government has taken this step – until now.
In a tweet posted in response to Mr Jack’s announcement, the first minister said: “This is a full-frontal attack on our democratically-elected Scottish parliament and its ability to make its own decisions on devolved matters.
“The Scottish government will defend the legislation and stand up for Scotland’s parliament.
“If this Westminster veto succeeds, it will be first of many.”
The Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill was passed by a majority of MSPs last month, with MsSturgeon hailing at as a “historic day for equality”.
The new legislation would lower the age people can apply to change their gender to 16, remove the need for a medical diagnosis of gender dysphoria for a gender recognition certificate (GRC), and reduce the time an applicant needs to live in their acquired gender.
But while the bill has been welcomed by equality campaigners, UK ministers fear it may lead to gender tourism and that people who change gender in Scotland would have a different legal gender when they are in the rest of the UK.
Critics of the legislation are also concerned organisations offering single-sex spaces would have to adopt different policies.
Announcing the move the block the gender reform bill, Mr Jack said: “I have decided to make an order under section 35 of the Scotland Act 1998, preventing the Scottish parliament’s Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Bill from proceeding to Royal Assent.
“After thorough and careful consideration of all the relevant advice and the policy implications, I am concerned that this legislation would have an adverse impact on the operation of Great Britain-wide equalities legislation.
“Transgender people who are going through the process to change their legal sex deserve our respect, support and understanding. My decision today is about the legislation’s consequences for the operation of GB-wide equalities protections and other reserved matters.
“I have not taken this decision lightly.
“The bill would have a significant impact on, amongst other things, GB-wide equalities matters in Scotland, England and Wales. I have concluded, therefore, that this is the necessary and correct course of action.
“If the Scottish government chooses to bring an amended Bill back for reconsideration in the Scottish parliament, I hope we can work together to find a constructive way forward that both respects devolution and the operation of UK parliament legislation.
“I have written today to the first minister and the Scottish parliament’s presiding officer informing them of my decision.”
Earlier today, Ms Sturgeon said “it would be an outrage” if the UK government were to block the bill.
In a briefing on NHS pressures, she accused UK ministers of “using trans people as a political weapon”.
“In my view there are no grounds to challenge this legislation,” she told reporters.
“It is within the competence of the Scottish parliament, it doesn’t affect the operation of the Equality Act and it was passed by an overwhelming majority of the Scottish parliament after very lengthy and very intense scrutiny by MSPs of all parties represented in the parliament.
“So if there is a decision to challenge, in my view, it will be quite simply a political decision and I think it will be using trans people – already one of the most vulnerable, stigmatised groups in our society – as a political weapon.
“And I think that will be unconscionable and indefensible and really quite disgraceful.”
The first minister said the move to block the legislation would create a “very, very slippery slope indeed”, adding that it could “normalise” and “embolden” the UK government to do the same in other areas.
“I think it is that serious. I think the import and significance of this would go beyond the particular subject matter of the legislation”, she added.
Ms Sturgeon said the Scottish government would “robustly and rigorously and with a very, very high degree of confidence” defend the bill.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has previously said it was “completely reasonable”for the UK government to consider blocking the reforms.
At the weekend, Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer voiced his concerns with the legislation, saying 16 was too young for such a decision to be made.
The bill was backed by the Scottish Labour Party, with the exception of two MSPs who resigned their frontbench positions to vote against it.
Power outages have become common in South Africa over the last decade as state utility Eskom struggles.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosawill not attend the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos due to the country’s ongoing energy crisis, his spokesman announced on Sunday.
Power outages have worsened since Tuesday, when the country’s struggling state utility Eskom announced that it would implement its worst-ever outages until further notice.
Over the last decade, power outages have become a major source of public dissatisfaction with the ruling African National Congress (ANC) and a drag on economic growth in Africa’s most industrialized nation.
“Currently the President is convening a meeting with leaders of political parties represented in parliament, NECCOM [National Energy Crisis Committee] and the Eskom board,” Vincent Magwenya, presidential spokesman said.
He added that further briefings with key stakeholders will take place in the coming week.
The beleaguered utility supplies the vast majority of South Africa’s electricity, relying mainly on an ageing fleet of coal-fired power stations that are unreliable and prone to faults.
Eskom has also had to deal with strikes by its workforce, including most recently in June after negotiations with trade unions including the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa broke down.
The loss-making utility, saddled with a huge debt pile approaching 400 billion rand ($25bn), is trying to contain costs as part of turnaround efforts under Chief Executive Andre de Ruyter.
Officials report that a bus and a truck collided in northern Senegal, resulting in at least 19 fatalities and 24 injuries.
According to Papa Ange Michel Diatta, a colonel with the national firefighting service, the incident happened early on Monday near Sakal in the Louga region.
According to the state-owned Le Soleil newspaper, the bus swerved to avoid hitting an animal and struck the truck on the Number 2 national road. It was further stated that the injured were taken to the local hospital, Amadou Sakhir Mbaye.
President Macky Sall sent “heartfelt condolences” to the families of those killed in the accident, adding that the incident shows “the need to strengthen road safety measures” in the West African country.
Encore un autre accident mortel sur nos routes à l’entrée de Ngeun Sarr. 19 vies humaines perdues et 24 blessés. Cela met en évidence la nécessité de renforcer les mesures de sécurité routière. Mes condoléances émues aux familles éplorées. Prompt rétablissement aux blessés.
The accident came just eight days after Senegal was plunged into mourning following the collision of two buses in the early morning of January 8 in the central region of Kaffrine, leaving 40 dead and more than 100 injured.
The government responded by banning night buses and outlawing the import of used tyres – the suspected cause of the accident.
It also announced that the speed of vehicles transporting goods and people would be limited to 90km/h (56mph).
In the northern province of Soum in Burkina Faso, gunmen reportedly kidnapped 50 women on January 12 and 13.
The women were abducted by armed men while collecting wild fruit west of the town of Aribinda, about 15 kilometres (9.32 miles) from the village of Liki.
“Searching has started with the aim of finding all these innocent victims safe and sound,” the government statement on Monday said.
According to local officials, the army and its civilian auxiliaries have carried out unsuccessful sweeps of the area.
One of the world’s poorest countries, Burkina Faso has been struggling to contain violent activity by armed groups with links to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) that spread from neighbouring Mali in 2015 despite costly international military efforts to contain it.
Thousands of civilians and members of the security forces have died and some two million people have been displaced, and forced to live in makeshift camps.
Last June, Mahamadou Issoufou – former president of Niger and a representative of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) – said authorities in the capital Ouagadougou control just 60 percent of the country.
Disgruntled army officers carried out two coups in 2022 in a show of anger at failures to roll back the conflict, with each military leader promising to prioritise security.
French diplomats have saidBurkina Faso has engaged the services of private Russian mercenary group, the Wagner Group, as part of efforts to tackle the conflict. Nana Akufo-Addo, president of neighbouring Ghana also alleged the same thing in December.
Campaigners will now have another chance to argue their case after the court last month affirmed the legality of the government’s plan to deport asylum seekers back to their home country.
The government’s plan to deport asylum seekers to Rwanda was found to be legal by the High Court last month, but it has now allowed an appeal against that decision.
The contentious policy was implemented by Boris Johnson, but his successors have continued to advance it as part of their plans to address small boat crossings in the English Channel.
Campaigners have argued in court that sending people to the country is “a cruel policy that will result in significant human suffering.”
But Home Secretary Suella Braverman said the government was “proud of the ground-breaking agreement”.
In December, Care4Calais, the Public and Commercial Services Union, Detention Action, and eight asylum seekers brought their case to the High Court, along with a second case from Asylum Aid.
Their lawyers argued the plans were unlawful and that Rwanda “tortures and murders those it considers to be its opponents”.
But representatives from the Home Office argued the agreement between the UK and the country provided assurances that everyone sent there would have a “safe and effective” refugee status determination procedure.
Lord Justice Lewis ruled the first people who were set to be sent to Rwanda had not had their circumstances “properly considered” by the then-home secretary Priti Patel.
As a result, their cases would be referred back to the current minister, Ms Braverman, “for her to consider afresh”.
However, while he said the home secretary should look at people’s “particular circumstances” before deporting them, he ruled the overall scheme was “consistent with the refugee convention” and therefore lawful.
After today’s ruling by Judges Clive Lewis and Jonathan Swift, the groups and asylum seekers will be able to take their cases to the Court of Appeal.
2:16
https://imasdk.googleapis.com/js/core/bridge3.551.0_en.html#goog_2054728585Play Video – Braverman defends Rwanda policySuella Braverman has stood by the Rwanda policy, brought in by her predecessor Priti Patel and then PM Boris Johnson.
The Rwanda scheme was announced by Mr Johnson last April, with the first flight set to take off two months later.
But the deportation was blocked by a last-minute ruling from the European Court of Human Rights, which imposed an injunction preventing any further flights until the conclusion of legal action.
Ms Braverman praised the initial ruling on the policy as lawful, saying the plan was a “humane” and “practical alternative” for those who come to the UK through “dangerous, illegal and unnecessary routes”.
But opposition parties deemed it “unworkable”, “unethical”, and “extremely expensive”.
Asked if the appeal was a setback for the government’s plans, Ms Braverman told reporters: “The government is clear that we support and are proud of theground-breaking agreement and partnership that we have struck with Rwanda so that we can deliver our plans to swiftly detain and remove those people who come here illegally to our country.”
Al Jazeera takes a look at this federal holiday and what it means in theUnited States.
As the United States celebrates Martin Luther King Jr Day on Monday, we take a look at the celebration and its origins:
Martin Luther King Jr Day is a federal holiday in the United States that takes place on the third Monday in January. It honours the life and legacy of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr.
Each year, the celebration takes place on the Monday closest to his birthday, which is on January 15. This year, it is being held on January 16.
Sunday would have been King’s 94th birthday. He was assassinated in 1968 at the age of 39 in Memphis, Tennessee.
In 1983, President Ronald Reagan signed the holiday into law, and it was first observed on January 20, 1986. The first time all states observed it was in 2000.
Reagan said the holiday was meant to remember King and “the just cause he stood for”. “America is a more democratic nation, a more just nation, a more peaceful nation because Martin Luther King Jr became her pre-eminent non-violent commander,” Reagan said in 1983.
According to the White House, only three people in the US have a holiday observed in their honour: Christopher Columbus, George Washington, and King.
Banks and stock markets are closed on Monday, and generally, public schools observe the federal holiday too.
Reagan, in a televised speech in 1987 beamed by cable and satellite to high school students across the US, said King was an inspiration to all Americans, no matter what their race. [Dennis Cook/AP]
What was King’s legacy?
King led a campaign of non-violent protests and civil disobedience in the struggle to end discrimination, including racial segregation, in the US in the 1950s and 1960s.
He pushed for social and economic improvements for African Americans while also fighting for legal equality.
“King was a critical force in bringing the anti-Black, racist struggles facing Black Americans to the communities, living rooms and dinner tables of white Americans who had long had the privilege of overlooking and denying its existence,” journalist Jenn M Jackson wrote for Al Jazeera in 2021. “He did this while sacrificing his own safety and the safety of his family.”
Speaking about his legacy, Taylor Branch, his biographer, told Al Jazeera in 2018: “We were on the mission to redeem America from the triple scourge of racial bigotry, of war and poverty for a largely invisible minority, [and] to have that ambition is just stunning.”
Race was at the heart of this struggle, but the impact was also economic. Black people earned far less than white people, and King wanted to highlight that.
His long-term goal, according to Branch, was to launch a Poor People’s Campaign, a multiracial effort to eradicate poverty.
King led a non-violent movement. His strong beliefs in civil rights and non-violence also made him a fierce opponent of America’s participation in the Vietnam War.
King’s ideas and work made him increasingly unpopular during his lifetime. In 1966, 63 percent of Americans had an unfavourable view of King, up from 37 percent in 1963, according to a Gallup poll. Today, he is one of the most respected people in the country.
How is the US marking the holiday this year?
The King Center in Atlanta, led by his daughter Bernice King, launched its slate of Martin Luther King Jr Day events on Thursday with youth and adult summits to educate the public on ways to transform unjust systems in the US.
In Boston, civic organisations unveiled a 22-foot (6.7-metre) bronze statue honouring King and his wife, Coretta Scott King.
According to local media reports, the sculptor Han Willis Thomas found inspiration in a photograph of the civil rights leaders embracing after King learned that he won the 1964 Nobel Peace Prize.
President Joe Biden became the first sitting US president to speak at a Sunday service in the civil rights leader’s church in Atlanta. During his speech, he asked Americans to look at King’s life for lessons on extremism and injustice.
Biden speaks at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, where King was pastor, during a service honouring the civil rights leader on January 15, 2023 [Carolyn Kaster/AP]
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The coroner of Chamonix has launched an investigation into the death and mandated a postmortem.
According to French police, a high mountain search and rescue unit in Chamonix received word of the incident at around 5 o’clock and immediately dispatched rescuers and a doctor by helicopter.
Colonel Bertrand Host of the mountain rescue team reported that despite their best efforts, they were unable to save the woman.
“When we arrived we had to rescue this person but she was in a bad situation and we evacuated her from the valley,” he said. “She was taken charge by rescuers and two dogs but we didn’t manage to revive her.”
The coroner of Chamonix has opened an inquiry into the woman’s death and ordered a postmortem.
Colonel Host said deaths on the Mont Blanc massif are not rare, with about 80 people losing their lives each year.
The local public prosecutor’s office said the woman and her partner had been with a high mountain guide and were going up the Col du Tour Noir when the avalanche happened.
The office confirmed there was an avalanche warning risk of three – on a scale of five – in place on Saturday.
A spokesperson for the Foreign Office said: “We are providing assistance to the family of a British woman who died in France.”
At 4,810m (15,781ft) Mont Blanc is western Europe’s highest mountain and attracts around 20,000 skiers and hikers every year.
More rain is expected in the Philippines as 83,000 people take shelter in evacuation centers.
Authorities in the Philippines reported at least 27 storm related fatalities this month, and weather forecasters warned that the Southeast Asian nation would continue to experience heavy rains.
Since the Christmas weekend, the southern and central islands of the country have experienced heavy rains and flooding, forcing hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes.
According to a report released on Sunday by the civil defence office, at least three storms have killed 27 people nationwide since the year’s beginning.
Eleven people were reported injured and three are missing.
State weather forecaster PAGASA warned on Sunday of heavy rains over the Bicol Peninsula and Quezon province in the southern tip of the main island of Luzon.
“Under these conditions, flooding and rain-induced landslides are likely in areas that are highly… susceptible to these hazards,” PAGASA said in an advisory.
More than 83,000 people are sheltering in evacuation centres, according to the civil defence office, and more than 1,200 houses have been damaged by floodwaters and heavy rains.
The Philippines is ranked among the most vulnerable nations to the impacts of climate change, and scientists have warned that storms are becoming more powerful as the world gets warmer.
The Italian actress Gina Lollobrigida passed away at the age of 95, according to the ANSA news agency.
She played opposite Hollywood stars like Humphrey Bogart, Rock Hudson, Burt Lancaster, Tony Curtis, and Frank Sinatra during the 1950s and the beginning of the 1960s, making her one of the most prominent European actresses of the era.
Lollobrigida left the movie industry and later worked as a photographer and sculptor.
The US Nimitz aircraft carrier group also conducted “maritime strike training” in the disputed waterway when the drills took place.
According to state media, theChinese navy has conducted a number of “confrontational drills” in the South China Sea since an American aircraft carrier group started to operate in the disputed waterway.
A statement from the People’s Liberation Army revealed that, the Shandong aircraft carrier group of the Chinese navy engaged in “realistic combat-oriented confrontational exercises” in the South China Sea on Sunday (PLA).
J-15 fighter jets took off from Shandong during the exercises, which mimicked attacks by hostile aircraft, according to a statement released by the PLA on Saturday, as reported by the Global Times.
During the drills, which simulated hostile aircraft attacks, J-15 fighter jets took off from the Shandong and carried out interception training, the PLA’s statement on Saturday said, according to the Global Times.
The carrier group also practised attack and defence on the surface, in the air and underwater, it added.
The report came after the US navy said on Friday that its Nimitz carrier strike group was carrying out exercises in the South China Sea as part of its “routine operations in the Indo-Pacific”.
Beijing claims almost the entirety of the strategic South China Sea and has established military outposts on artificial islands it has built there.
Taiwan, Vietnam, Malaysia, Brunei and the Philippines also have claims to the resource-rich waters.
Washington calls Beijing’s claims to the waterway “unlawful” and regularly sends warships through the area in what it calls “freedom of navigation” exercises.
In a statement on Friday, the US navy said the Nimitz carrier strike group — comprised of a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, a guided-missile cruiser and three guided-missile destroyers — conducted “maritime strike training” as well as “anti-submarine operations” in the South China Sea.
The carrier strike group also carried out “integrated multi-domain and joint training between surface and air elements, and flight operations with fixed and rotary wing aircraft”, the navy said.
A US defence official meanwhile told the CNN broadcaster that two Chinese ships tailed the Nimitz aircraft carrier group.
The Chinese military will monitor “potentially provocative moves on China’s doorstep and the foreign forces would serve as practice partners that contribute to the PLA’s combat readiness,” the tabloid cited analysts as saying.
In December, the US military said a Chinese J-11 fighter jet intercepted one of its surveillance planes over the South China Sea, flying within six metres (20 feet) of the RC-135 aircraft and performing an “unsafe” manoeuvre. The Chinese defence ministry dismissed the US claims as “slander” and “hype”, saying it was the American pilot that had engaged in “dangerous” flying.
And in November, the Chinese navy said it drove away a US naval ship that “illegally intruded” into waters near the Spratly Islands in the South China Sea.
The encounter came days after US Vice President Kamala Harris visited the Philippines and called for freedom of navigation and overflight in the South China Sea, and pledged to launch an international campaign against “irresponsible behaviour” in the disputed waterway.
David Carrick, also known as “B*d Dave” to his workmates, appeared Monday at London’s Southwark Crown Court and entered guilty pleas. He worked for the parliamentary and diplomatic command of the Met Police.
A serving member of the Metropolitan Police has admitted guilt to a number of sexual offenses, including 24 counts of rape.
PC David Carrick, also known as “B*d Dave” to his coworkers, entered guilty pleas on Monday at London’s Southwark Crown Court.
The 48-year-old was accused of 49 offenses committed over an 18-year period against 12 women.
They included the rape of nine different women, but some of the charges are multiple incident counts, meaning they relate to more than 80 sexual offences, including at least 48 rapes.
Carrick served with the army before he joined the Met Police in August 2001 and worked with the force’s parliamentary and diplomatic command from 2009.
The armed officer’s role included policing parliamentary, government and diplomatic premises.
He was only suspended after a second rape complaint was made against him in October 2021.
Carrick met some of his victims through online dating sites, such as Tinder and Badoo, or on social occasions – and used his position as a police officer to gain their trust.
He admitted raping women on multiple occasions over months or years, with many of those attacks involving violence that would have left them physically injured.
Officer whipped and urinated on victims
Some victims were locked in a small cupboard under the stairs in his Hertfordshire home for hours without food or forced to clean his house naked.
Carrick whipped one woman with a belt, urinated on some of his victims, and told them when they could eat and sleep.
He called women “fat and lazy” or his “slave” as he controlled them financially, isolated them from friends and family, and forbade them from speaking with other men or even their own children.
Carrick denied a further count of rape relating to a 13th woman, whose allegation triggered the investigation, and the Crown Prosecution Service decided it was not in the public interest to proceed to trial on the charge.
The court heard that over drinks in a pub in September 2020, Carrick told her he was a firearms officer nicknamed “B*****d Dave”, showed her his warrant card and boasted of meeting famous people, including then-prime minister Boris Johnson, in the course of his work.
Victims ‘intimidated and humiliated’
Detective Chief Inspector Iain Moor, the senior investigating officer, said Carrick “thrived on humiliating his victims and cleverly used his professional position to intimate there was no point in them trying to seek help because they would never be believed”.
“The coercive nature of his offending undermined his victims in the most destructive way,” he added.
Mr Moor described the false imprisonment charges as “shocking”, adding: “Carrick forced his victim into a small under-stairs cupboard at his home address where they stayed intimidated and humiliated until he chose when they could come out. I have seen bigger dog crates.
“It is unbelievable to think these offences could have been committed by a serving police officer.
“The offending was absolutely abhorrent and I’m disgusted by it. I have a lot of pride and respect in the police service and I’m proud to be a policeman.”
Met Police knew of previous allegations
Following his guilty pleas, the Met Police confirmed Carrick “had come to the attention of the Met and other forces on nine occasions prior to October 2021” but had not been charged over those allegations against him.
They included allegations of rape, domestic violence, and harassment between 2000 and 2021.
Carrick, from Stevenage in Hertfordshire, was also the subject of five complaints from the public while serving with the Met Police, the force said.
The Met said Carrick was vetted in 2001 and again in 2017, and passed on both occasions.
Met Police ‘truly sorry’
Assistant Commissioner Barbara Gray, the Met’s lead for professionalism, said Carrick’s offending was “unprecedented in policing” and apologised to his victims for failing to remove him from the force.
“We should have spotted his pattern of abusive behaviour and because we didn’t, we missed opportunities to remove him from the organisation,” she said.
“We are truly sorry that being able to continue to use his role as a police officer may have prolonged the suffering of his victims.”
Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani says foreign forces are still needed in a training capacity to combat ISIL(ISIL) in his first interview as an Iraqi leader.
Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani defended the presence of US troops in his country in his first interview since taking office in October, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The stance runs counter to that of several Iran-aligned groups that comprise the Shia-dominated Coordination Framework, the political bloc that nominated the prime minister last year. Al-Sudani was later appointed by President Abdul Latif Rashid, whose election ended a year-long political impasse fueled by scholar and political leader Muqtada al-Sadr.
In the interview published on Sunday, al-Sudani did not give a timeline for US and NATO forces – who are currently serving in a training capacity – to leave Iraq, despite calls from some political allies for a full withdrawal.
“We think that we need the foreign forces,” al-Sudani said. “Elimination of ISIS needs some more time.”
The US invaded Iraq in 2003 amid its global “war on terror”, with troop numbers reaching a peak of about 170,000 soldiers in 2007 before forces were withdrawn in 2011. They were redeployed to Iraq in 2014 in response to the rise of ISIL (ISIS), as the armed group overran a large swath of territory across Iraq and Syria.
However, combat operations largely fizzled in the wake of ISIL’s territorial defeat in 2019. Two years later, Washington officially ended the US-led combat mission in Iraq and transitioned to an advisory role assisting Iraqi forces. The US currently has about 2,000 troops stationed in the country, with NATO housing several hundred troops there, all in non-combat roles.
Meanwhile, rocket attacks launched by Iran-aligned armed groups on bases housing foreign troops and other foreign installations have remained relatively frequent.
In the interview published on Sunday, al-Sudani said there was no intention to resume foreign combat operations in the country, but noted foreign forces provide important logistical support in combatting ISIL pockets in Syria.
“Inside Iraq we do not need combat forces,” he told the newspaper. “If there is a threat for Iraq, it is the penetration of the [ISIL] cells through Syria,” he said.
His statements underlined the difficult tack the prime minister has sought in his dealings with the US and with Iran, which, beyond having substantial sway in domestic Iraqi politics, is also a key provider of natural gas and electricity to the country. The prime minister hailed Iran and Iraq’s close economic and security ties during a visit to Tehran in November.
He told the Wall Street Journal that he would like Iraq to have similar relations with Washington to those enjoyed by Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf oil and gas producers, adding that he planned to send a high-level delegation to Washington for talks with US officials next month in hopes of an eventual meeting with US President Joe Biden.
“I don’t see this as an impossible matter, to see Iraq have a good relationship with Iran and the US,” al-Sudani said.
Prominent human rights experts urge countries to take action against companies helping Myanmar’s military produce weapons used in abuses.
Companies in the United States, Europe and Asia have been helping Myanmar’s military manufacture weapons used in human rights abuses, according to three former United Nations experts.
Companies from 13 countries – including France, Germany, China, India, Russia, Singapore and the United States – have been providing supplies that are “critical” to the production of weapons in Myanmar, the Special Advisory Council on Myanmar (SAC-M) said in a report released on Monday.
This support includes licenses, raw materials, software, parts and components, the experts said.
As a result, the Myanmar military, which has launched a bloody crackdown on its opposition after seizing power in a coup in February 2021, has become largely self-sufficient in manufacturing a range of weapons, they said. Produced in factories known as KaPaSa and run by the military’s Directorate of Defence Industries (DDI), these weapons include guns, ammunition and landmines and are primarily being used to quash resistance to the coup, the SAC-M said.
“Foreign companies are enabling the Myanmar military – one of the world’s worst human rights abusers – to produce many of the weapons it uses to commit daily atrocities against the Myanmar people,” the SAC-M’s Yanghee Lee, a former UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, said in a statement.
“Foreign companies and their home states have moral and legal responsibilities to ensure their products are not facilitating human rights violations against civilians in Myanmar,” Lee said. “Failing to do so makes them complicit in the Myanmar military’s barbaric crimes.”
The report (PDF) drew on a range of sources, including interviews with people associated with the Myanmar military as well as leaked budget documents from the Ministry of Defence.
It found that high precision machines manufactured by companies based in Austria, Germany, Japan, Taiwan and the US are currently being used by the Myanmar military at its weapons factories. These automated tools have turning, milling and grinding functions and play a critical role in the manufacturing of weapons, the report said.
Software to operate these machines is being provided by companies based in France, Israel and Germany, it said.
Singapore, meanwhile, functions as a strategic transit point for potentially significant volumes of items, including certain raw materials, that feed the Myanmar military’s weapons production, and Taiwan is believed to serve as an important route for the military’s purchase of the high precision machines, the report said.
The military also regularly sends these machines from KaPaSa factories to Taiwan, where they are serviced by technicians associated with the European manufacturers of the machines, after which they are shipped back to Myanmar, it alleged.
Companies in China, such as the state-owned China North Industries Group Corporation Limited, are key to the import of raw materials used for arms production while firms in India are helping with the imports of parts and components such as optical sights fitted to small arms such as sniper rifles, the report found.
“States must investigate and, if necessary, initiate administrative or legal proceedings against companies whose products we have identified as enabling the DDI to produce weapons used by the Myanmar military in its indiscriminate attacks on civilians,” the SAC-M’s Chris Sidoti, a former member of the UN Independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar, said.
“Foreign companies that profit from the suffering of the Myanmar people must be held accountable,” he said.
The report also detailed instances of the military’s use of locally made weapons against Myanmar’s people, such as crackdowns on peaceful protests against the coup, and warned that companies involved in the provision or supply of essential products to the DDI may be found complicit in these and other atrocities committed by the country’s security forces.
“The Myanmar military has built a robust arms manufacturing industry that makes it largely self-sufficient in its ability to produce the small arms, light weapons and ammunition it uses to brutally suppress the Myanmar people,” said Marzuki Darusman of the SAC-M.
“However, the DDI’s reliance on external supplies to sustain its weapon production means it is still vulnerable to external pressure,” Darusman, a former chair of the UN independent international fact-finding mission on Myanmar, said.
Matteo Messina Denaro, a Cosa Nostra mafia leader in Sicily, has been linked to a string of murders.
The country’s most wanted mafia boss, who had been on the run for 30 years, has been apprehended by Italian police.
Prosecutors claim Matteo Messina Denaro is a Cosa Nostra mafia boss in Sicily.
Police made the arrest on Monday morning at a private hospital in the Sicilian capital Palermo, where the 60-year-old was receiving treatment for an undisclosed medical condition.
Messina Denaro has been sentenced in absentia to a life term for his role in the 1992 murders of anti-mafia prosecutors Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino.
He also faces a life sentence for his involvement in bomb attacks in Florence, Rome and Milan the following year, which killed 10 people.
Messina Denaro, who comes from the small southern town of Castelvetrano near Trapani, is accused by prosecutors of being solely or jointly responsible for several other murders in the 1990s.
In 1993, he helped organise the kidnapping of a 12-year-old boy, Giuseppe Di Matteo, in an attempt to dissuade his father from giving evidence against the mafia, prosecutors say. The boy was held in captivity for two years before he was strangled and his body dissolved in acid.
Police said in September last year that he was still able to issue commands relating to the way the mafia was run in the area around the western Sicilian city of Trapani, his regional stronghold, despite his long disappearance.
“The prevention [of] and fight against mafia crime … will continue to be an absolute priority of this government,” Meloni said in a post on Twitter.
The arrest Monday came 30 years and a day after the capture of convicted “boss of bosses” Salvatore “Toto” Riina, in a Palermo apartment after 23 years on the run.
As part of the nation’s war effort, the UK is expected to send Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine, according toPrime Minister Rishi Sunak.
The equipment and additional artillery systems would be sent, he assured Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a phone call on Saturday, according to No. 10.
According to Downing Street, the action demonstrates “the UK’s ambition to intensify support.”
14 tanks will be provided by the government to Ukraine.
Also anticipated is the delivery of about 30 AS90s, large self-propelled weapons.
President Zelensky has thanked the UK, saying that the decision to send the tanks “will not only strengthen us on the battlefield, but also send the right signal to other partners”.
He said the UK’s support was “always strong” and was “now impenetrable”.
No 10 said that during the call, Mr Sunak and Mr Zelensky also discussed also recent Ukrainian victories, as well as the “need to seize on this moment with an acceleration of global military and diplomatic support”.
The announcement came as a series of missile attacks were launched across Ukraine on Saturday, including in Kyiv, Kharkiv and Odesa.
At least 14 people were killed in a strike on an apartment block in the eastern city of Dnipro.
Mr Sunak said the Challengers, the British Army’s main battle tank, would help Kyiv’s forces “push Russian troops back”.
Built in the late 1990s, the Challenger tank is more than 20 years old, but it will be the most modern tank at Ukraine’s disposal. The tanks will provide Ukraine with better protection, and more accurate firepower.
The UK will begin training the Ukrainian Armed Forces to use the tanks and guns in the coming days.
While the donation alone is not considered a game-changer, it is hoped that the UK’s move will inspire other countries to donate more modern equipment to help Ukraine.
Chair of the Defence Select Committee Tobias Ellwood said he welcomed the UK “getting serious about the hardware it supplies Ukraine”, but that international assistance had been “far too slow”.
He told BBC Breakfast: “That’s exactly what Russia wants us to do – to remain hesitant.
“Unless we step forward and support Ukraine, Russia will not go away – and that will mean the bully has won.”
He stressed that he wanted to see an arms factory in Eastern Poland which would allow Ukraine to procure its own weapons for the long term.
As it stands, Poland has plans to send 14 of its German-made Leopard tanks.
But the tanks, which are in greater supply and used by a number of European armies, need approval from Germany to be exported to Ukraine.
Ukraine also has hopes that the US will supply some of its Abrams tanks, which use the same ammunition as the Leopard.
Earlier this month, Germany and the US agreed to join France in sending armoured fighting vehicles to Ukraine – a move seen as a significant boost to its military’s capability on the battlefield.
Shadow defence secretary John Healey said the government had “Labour’s fullest backing” for the decision to send the Challengers.
He said: “Modern tanks are crucial to Ukraine’s efforts to win its battle against Russian aggression.”
Responding to the news of the Challenger tanks, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said: “As we’ve said previously, weapons supplies are legitimate targets for Russian strikes.”
Image caption,Soledar has been devastated by Russia’s bombardment, as shown by this satellite image from Tuesday
Earlier on Saturday, Russia’s military announced it had captured the salt-mining town of Soledar after a long battle, calling it an “important” step for its offensive.
The victory would allow Russian troops to push on to the nearby city of Bakhmut, and cut off the Ukrainian forces there, a spokesman said.
Throughout his life, theBrazilian football star stood up to oppression, inspiring black people at home and abroad.
In the days after the death of football star Pelé, there was a global outpouring of grief and much reflection on his legacy. I, like millions of other fans across the world, was mourning. Although I had never met Pelé in person, it felt like I had lost an elder, who I was close to and deeply admired.
There was a lot of international media attention, a lot of obituaries, articles, interviews, reports acknowledging his iconic status and his sporting achievements. But there was one persistent line of commentary that irked me.
Sports observers and media outlets kept insisting that Pelé did not speak out against racism. Some would mention it in passing, others would dedicate whole segments to it, still others would bring up the inevitable comparison with American boxing star Muhammad Ali. This criticism was often levelled at Pelé while he was still alive, and he was not spared even in his death.
As an Afro-Brazilian, I feel this persistent scrutiny of what Pelé said or did not say is unfair, to say the least. The fact that he did not make certain statements does not mean he did not participate in the fight against racism.
Throughout his life and career, Pelé experienced racism and discrimination. He was keenly aware of racial inequalities and injustices, and he confronted them in a different way than some other Black sports stars who were his contemporaries.
Pelé was born just 52 years after Brazil abolished slavery in 1888, the last country in the Western hemisphere to do so. But growing up, he faced neither apartheid nor Jim Crow laws. Brazil at that time had made racism illegal and considered itself a “racial democracy”.
The idea that the country enjoyed racial harmony was put forward in the 1930s by Brazilian sociologist Gilberto Freyre. Himself a white wealthy man and a descendant of European colonisers, he claimed that Portuguese colonisation was somehow benign and that slavery was not as gruesome as in the United States and therefore, Brazil did not suffer from the same type of brutal structural racism.
This idea – or rather myth – was quite durable and even I was taught at school and university many decades later that Brazil somehow had exceptionally positive relations between the races thanks to supposed high rates of miscegenation.
That, of course, was and still is not the case. Brazil of the 1940s and 50s, when Pelé was growing up, was heavily racially divided. The elites were almost exclusively white, while the majority of the poor were Black, Indigenous, and mixed-race. Meanwhile, the government continued to encourage European immigration in order to boost the number of (the more “desirable”) whites in the country.
Brazilian football also suffered from racism. The sport had been brought into Brazil at the turn of the century by wealthy white men – like Oscar Cox and Charles Miller – who had studied in Europe. In the early days of Brazilian football, there were attempts to forbid Black people from playing in official matches and later, in the 1910s and 20s, some Afro-Brazilian players felt compelled to straighten their hair and put rice powder on their skin to hide their African features.
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Despite this reality, the myth of “racial democracy” persisted and ended up weakening anti-racist activism. Although at that time, Brazil had a Black emancipation movement, it was not as strong as the civil rights movement in the US or the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa.
The idea of “racial democracy” also instilled a culture of denial – that racism did not exist. This was reinforced by the media and the military dictatorship which came to power in Brazil in a 1964 coup.
Pelé was aware of these dynamics. He was playing a sport dominated by whites, faced media controlled by whites and a merciless dictatorship run by whites; he knew that being confrontational would not take him far. In fact, speaking out against those in power resulted in torture and death at that time.
As Brazilian historian Ynaê Lopes dos Santos has pointed out: “This stance that he took was very calculated, coming from a Black man who knew how to play the game of racism in Brazil. In this sense and many others, he is a winner. A Black man that became a Brazilian symbol, a country that in many moments projected itself as white. This is based on a very sophisticated assessment that he made on how Brazil works.”
Throughout his career, Pelé persistently experienced racism. He had a number of racist nicknames that football fans and the media would use and often heard monkey chants during matches.
But as he said in 2014 – in response to questions about racism in Brazilian football: “If I had to stop or shout every time I was racially abused since I started to play in Latin America, here in Brazil, in its interior, every game would have had to be stopped.”
And not being vocal did not mean he was not fighting or resisting. When he decided to end his career in the national team in 1971, he was punished for it, with two events meant to celebrate his successful career cancelled. When the Brazilian authorities tried to force him to come back and compete in the 1974 World Cup, he refused, despite the persistent pressure and threats.
So, Pelé fought racism and oppression through achievement, opening the door for other Black boys and girls to follow and inspiring Black Brazilians to dream big and defy discrimination.
It is not an easy choice to stay silent when you are racially abused. I know that all too well.
When I was in journalism school, a few professors picked me for an internship programme. They kept calling me “our project” as if I was a test subject and the reason they had picked me was to show that in our elite school, even young Black people could make it.
Later as an intern at a São Paulo public TV station, I had to endure in silence a supervisor making racist jokes, an anchor telling me that without my braids I looked like a “real human being” and a producer making monkey noises on my last day there.
I knew that if I had openly confronted all these racist individuals, my career would be jeopardised and the efforts of my family to support my education would be wasted.
Later in life, I would also be criticised for not being more vocal by white liberals who never experienced racism. But I knew that their demands for me to take a more activist position were really a way to weaponise my pain and tokenise me.
Still, my experiences of racism are probably just a fraction of what Pelé had to overcome in his life and career.
The fact that he did served as a major inspiration for my grandparents’ generation. His achievements also transcended the field of sports. After he retired from football, he became a successful businessman, acted in a Hollywood movie, was appointed a UNESCO goodwill ambassador, took the post of a minister of sport and was even knighted by British Queen Elizabeth II.
He demonstrated that anything was possible for a Black Brazilian man and that is why people called him “Rei Pelé” – King Pelé. I remember how when my grandparents would talk about him, the tone of their voices would change as if they were talking about their royalty, their Black king.
By the time I was growing up in the late 1980s and early 90s, more Black people had made it to positions of prominence, including people in my extended family. But racism, of course, persisted. Afro-Brazilians were still a rare sight in Brazilian media, most often appearing in slavery-themed soap operas or as minor characters, often mocked, in TV shows. So I would regularly switch to American shows and films, where Black actors like Philip Michael Thomas and Danny Glover had become my idols.
Pelé, nevertheless, remained a permanent fixture on Brazilian TV. He was one of the few Afro-Brazilians that I saw being respected when appearing or being mentioned. He motivated me to fight for my place in the media, a sphere which continues to be heavily dominated by white people.
Now after his death, the global mourning has made me realise how much Pelé also meant to other Black people across the world. “Africa has lost a great son,” Ivory Coast Consul Tibe bi Gole Blaise said while attending Pelé’s wake at Santos stadium.
Thus, I think the criticism thrown at Pelé and comparisons between him and Muhammad Ali are unfair. They degrade his contribution to the anti-racism struggle in Brazil and the world while presenting him as someone who neglected his race.
That is really not the case. Pelé fought racism and carried the weight of the struggle so the generations of Black people that came after him would find more doors open. His way of fighting racism should be respected, just as Muhammad Ali’s has been.
I am grateful to Pelé for what he did: donning the Brazilian football jersey and leading Brazil to the status of world power in football, breaking the glass ceiling, ripping the whitewashed image of Brazilian identity and paving the way for Afro-Brazilians to claim equality and respect in Brazilian sport and society at large. He truly played his “beautiful game” on and off the pitch.
DISCLAIMER: Independentghana.com will not be liable for any inaccuracies contained in this article. The views expressed in the article are solely those of the author’s, and do not reflect those of The Independent Ghana
The changes would, among other things, make it simpler for the parliament to overturn Supreme Court judgements.
The proposed changes by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were branded an assault on democracy by protesters.
It comes after the installation of the most pious and rigidly conservative government in Israeli history.
Local media reported that protests were also held in front of the prime minister’s home in Jerusalem and the northern city of Haifa.
One group of protesters clashed with police while attempting to block a major road, Ayalon highway, in Tel Aviv.
Critics say the reforms would cripple judicial independence, foster corruption, set back minority rights and deprive Israel’s court system of credibility.
Banners referred to the new coalition led by Mr Netanyahu as a government of shame.
Image caption,Israeli security forces with left-wing protesters during the rallies in Tel Aviv
Among those opposed are Israel’s Supreme Court chief justice, Esther Hayat, and the country’s attorney-general.
The BBC’s Samantha Granville in Tel Aviv saw protesters draped in Israeli flags, carrying posters in Hebrew, and pictures of Mr Netanyahu with X’s over his mouth.
There was a group of young girls with red-painted hand prints over their mouths. They wanted to tell the government they won’t be quiet.
One woman, who asked not to use her name, said through her tears she was a second-generation Holocaust survivor.
“My parents immigrated from non-democratic regimes to live in a democracy,” she said. “They came from the totalitarian regime to live freely. So seeing that destroyed is heart-breaking.”
She and her friend said they expected Mr Netanyahu to try radical changes, but never thought they would come so fast.
These are the largest demonstrations since Mr Netanyahu’s new coalition government was sworn in, in December.
Opposition parties had called on Israelis to join the rallies to “save democracy” and in protest at the planned judicial overhaul.
Under the plans announced by Justice Minister Yariv Levin earlier this month, a simple majority in the Knesset (parliament) would have the power to effectively annul Supreme Court rulings. This could enable the government of the day to pass legislation without fear of it being struck down.
Critics fear the new government could use this to scrap Mr Netanyahu’s ongoing criminal trial, although the government has not said it would do that.
Mr Netanyahu is being tried on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust – something he strongly denies.
Image caption,A huge crowd gathered in Tel Aviv to protest at the judicial reforms to reduce Supreme Court powers
The reforms would also give politicians more influence over the appointment of judges, with most members of the selection committee coming from the ruling coalition.
If it passes into law, the plan could make it easier for the government to legislate in favour of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank without worrying about challenges in the Supreme Court.
Israel has previously highlighted the power of the court to rule against it, as a way of blunting international criticism of such moves.
British-American Influencer, Andrew Tate, had several high-end vehicles seized from his Bucharest home.
Last month, Mr. Tate and his brother Tristan were taken into custody as part of a probe into allegations of rape and human trafficking, both of which they deny.
According to Reuters, vehicles including a Rolls-Royce, BMW, and Mercedes-Benz were taken from the property on Saturday.
The attorney for Mr. Tate was unavailable to comment right away.
On Tuesday, Mr Tate lost a bid to end his detention in Romania after a court rejected his appeal and said he should remain in custody.
Mr Tate was seen carrying what appeared to be a copy of the Quran as he walked into Bucharest Appeal Court handcuffed to his brother.
After the arrests on 29 December, police said they had identified six people who were allegedly “sexually exploited” by what it called an “organised criminal group”.
Police alleged the victims were “recruited” by the British citizens, who they said misrepresented their intention to enter into a relationship with the victims – which they called “the loverboy method”.
They were later forced to perform in pornographic content under threat of violence, a statement alleged.
The Tates’ lawyer, Eugen Vidineac, has said his clients rejected all the allegations.
Born in the US before moving to the UK, Mr Tate went on to have a successful career as a kickboxer.
In 2016, he was removed fromBritish TV show Big Brother over a video which appeared to show him attacking a woman. He then set up a “webcam business”, which he described as “adult entertainment”.
He went on to gain global notoriety, with Twitter banning him for saying women should “bear responsibility” for being sexually assaulted. He has since been reinstated.
Mexico has implemented one of the strictest anti-tobacco laws in the world by outlawing smoking entirely in public areas.
The action, which was initially authorized in 2021, also forbids tobacco advertising.
Legislation banning smoking in public places has also been adopted in a number of other Latin American nations.
But in the Americas, Mexico is thought to have the most comprehensive and robust legal system.
It amounts to one of the most stringent anti-smoking laws in the world. Mexico’s existing 2008 law – which created smoke-free spaces in bars, restaurants and workplaces – is now extended to an outright ban in all public spaces. That includes parks, beaches, hotels, offices and restaurants.
There will also be a total ban on the advertising, promotion and sponsorship of tobacco products, meaning that cigarettes cannot even be on show inside shops.
Vapes and e-cigarettes are also subject to tighter new restrictions, particularly indoors.
The Pan American Health Organisation has welcomed the step and applauded the Mexican government for implementing the ban.
The organisation says that tobacco use is the single most preventable cause of death in the world, responsible for nearly a million deaths in the Americas each year, either through direct consumption or exposure to second-hand smoke.
However, some smokers are dismayed at the draconian nature of the new law.
Others have raised questions about the practicalities of enforcing the law.
With police corruption so rampant in Mexico, many fear that rather than issuing real fines or punishments for smoking in public, some officers will use it as a pretext for taking bribes.
In protest of President Kais Saied, thousands of Tunisians have taken to the streets as the political and economic situation in the nation worsens. In order to demand the overthrow of his government, a crowd gathered in Tunis’s capital.
Since Mr. Saied took office in 2021, the Tunisians who backed him have grown increasingly disenchanted with the state of the economy.
The demonstrations coincide with the exile of former dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali 12 years ago today.
Tunisia’s uprising is often held up as the sole success of the Arab Spring revolts across the region – but it has not led to stability, either economically or politically.
With debts piling up, the country has struggled to import basic goods, including staples such as coffee, milk and sugar.
The government has so far unable to secure an international bailout leading one protester to tell the AFP news agency “the coup has brought us famine and poverty”.
In Tunis’ central Habib Bourguiba Avenue, a traditional site for demonstrations, Said Anouar Ali, 34, said: “Tunisia is going through the most dangerous time in its history.
“Saied took control of all authorityand struck at democracy. The economy is collapsing. We will not be silent,” he added.
The protests in the capital were organised by two different opposition groups with a heavy police presence outside the Interior Ministry to prevent scuffles.
Separately, protesters also marched against Mr Saied’s seizure of near total power.
In 2021, the president sacked the prime minister, suspended parliament and pushed through a constitution enshrining his one-man rule.
The new constitution replaced one drafted soon after the Arab Spring in 2011, which saw Tunisia overthrow late dictator Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. It gave the head of state full executive control and supreme command of the army.
Mr Saied has justified his actions by saying he needed new powers to break a cycle of political paralysis and economic decay.
On Saturday, Russia launched a new wave of missile attacks across Ukraine, killing at least 20 people in a strike on an apartment building in the eastern city of Dnipro.
A number of other cities were also hit, including Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odesa.
After missiles struck power infrastructure in several cities, much of Ukraine is now in emergency mode.
Earlier, the UK announced that it would send Challenger 2 tanks to Ukraine to assist with defence.
The Challengers, the British army’s main battle tank, will help Kyiv’s forces “push Russian troops back,” according toUK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak.
Russia responded by saying that providing more weapons to Ukraine would lead to intensified Russian operations and more civilian casualties.
Later on Saturday – a day when Ukrainians celebrate the Old (or Orthodox) New Year – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russian attacks on civilian targets could be stopped only if Ukraine’s Western partners supplied necessary weapons.
“What is needed for this? Those weapons which are in the depots of our partners and which our soldiers are waiting for so much,” he said in his nightly video address, adding that his forces shot down more than 20 out of 30 Russian missiles fired at Ukraine.
Image caption,Rescue teams work in the rubble of the damaged residential building hit by shelling in Dnipro
The devastating strike in Dnipro hit the entrance of a nine-storey building, turning several floors into smouldering rubble, and leaving 73 injured, including 14 children, Ukrainian officials said, in what is likely to be the worst attack in months.
A sizeable crowd gathered to watch the rescue effort at the site of the strike, while others joined rescue workers in a desperate search for survivors. There were urgent calls, human chains of volunteers clearing rubble and torch beams piercing thick clouds of dust and smoke.
In his address, Mr Zelensky said debris clearance in Dnipro would continue all night: “We are fighting for every person, every life.” So far, 38 people have been rescued from the building, including six children, officials say.
There is no information yet on why the apartment block was the object of such devastation, as it is some distance from the nearest power facility.
On a day when Russia seemed intent, once again, on targeting Ukraine’s energy grid, this could have been one of the less accurate missiles in Russia’s arsenal, or something brought down by Ukraine’s air defences – although on the face of it, this seems a less likely explanation.
It has been two weeks since the last wave ofRussian attacks on Ukraine’s power grid. Mr Zelensky said that of the energy infrastructure facilities hit on Saturday that the most difficult situation was in the Kharkiv and Kyiv regions.
Ukrainian state energy company Ukrenergo earlier said round-the-clock consumption limits had been set for all regions until midnight local time.
Officials, in the West and in Ukraine, had begun to wonder if Russia’s “energy war” might be coming to an end, due to a possible shortage of suitable missiles and the evident fact the strategy has yet to break Ukraine’s spirit.
Saturday’s attacks suggest Moscow still thinks it is a tactic worth pursuing.
A drive-by shooting outside a church in theheart of London left a seven-year-old girl with potentially fatal wounds.
On Saturday afternoon, it was said that shots were fired from a moving vehicle at St. Aloysius Church in Euston while a memorial service was taking place there.
A 12-year-old girl and four women, ages 21, 41, 48, and 54, were also hurt, according to the Met Police.
According to the police, the 48-year-old may have permanent injuries.
The three other women’s injuries are not life-threatening and the 12-year-old girl has been treated for a minor leg injury, said the force.
The seven-year-old, who was taken to a central London hospital at about 14:05 GMT, “remains in hospital in a life-threatening condition.”
In a statement, the Met said an urgent investigation was under way and details of the incident were still emerging.
“At this early stage, there have been no arrests,” it said.
Supt Ed Wells said any shooting incident was “unacceptable, but for multiple people, including two children, to be injured in a shooting in the middle of a Saturday afternoon is shocking”.
Image caption,The shooting happened close to a church while a funeral was taking place, police say
“Our thoughts are with all the victims, but in particular with the seven-year-old girl. An investigation into this dreadful attack is already well under way,” he said.
“I can assure the communities of Camden and beyond that we will do everything we possibly can to identify and bring to justice those who were responsible.”
He added that there would be “an increased visible police presence in the area through the weekend and into the days ahead”.
Detectives have urged anyone with video footage or CCTV to contact the force.
Road closures were put in place and buses were diverted to allow investigation work to take place.
He confirmed the service was held for Sara Sanchez, 20, who had died from leukaemia, and her mother. They had died within a month of each other in November.
Father Trood said: “I was inside the church. I heard the bang and people ran back into the church. They knew something had happened outside.
“They were very scared, people sheltered in the church until the police said they can leave but some of them were so scared they had to wait a while to get their confidence back up to go outside.”
Image caption,A forensics officer works at the scene of the shooting
A resident on an estate near the church, who did not want to give her name, said: “I heard the gunshots.
“I was having a quiet day on my balcony and I heard this almighty bang and I thought this was not normal, and the next minute everyone was screaming and shouting.
“Neighbours came in and said there has been a shooting. What a terrible thing.”
Photographer Simon Lamrock said when he first arrived at the church, people had been evacuated through a side entrance.
“It’s a very busy area. All the local residents had come out to find out what was going on,” Mr Lamrock said.
“There was shock and surprise. That was the mood of people trying to work out what had happened.”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan described the shooting as “deeply distressing” and said he was in close contact with the Met Police.
Brazil’s Supreme Court has agreed to open an investigation into former President Jair Bolsonaro for allegedly encouraging anti-democratic protests that ended in the storming of government buildings by his supporters in the capital Brasilia.
Prosecutors will investigate Bolsonaro, who is in the United States, for possible “instigation and intellectual authorship of the anti-democratic acts that resulted in vandalism and violence in Brasilia last Sunday,” the top public prosecutor’s office said in a statement on Friday.
“Public figures who continue to cowardly conspire against democracy trying to establish a state of exception will be held accountable,” said Justice Alexandre de Moraes, who agreed on Friday to the request by federal prosecutors to launch the probe.
The Supreme Court had already ordered the arrest of Bolsonaro’s former justice minister, Anderson Torres, for allowing the protests to take place in the Brazilian capital after he assumed responsibility for Brasilia’s public security.
The federal district’s former governor and former military police chief are also targets of the Supreme Court investigation made public on Friday.
Both were removed from their positions when thousands of Bolsonaro supporters vandalised theSupreme Court, Congress and presidential palace last weekend, seeking to provoke chaos and a military coup that would remove President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva and restore the far-right Bolsonaro to power.
Having lost Brazil’s October election to Lula, Bolsonaro left Brazil for the US on the eve of the end of his term, avoiding passing the presidential sash to his leftist rival at his inauguration.
Torres, who like Bolsonaro is in Florida, has said he plans to return to Brazil to turn himself in. Bolsonaro said on social media he will move forward his return to Brazil.
Justice Minister Flavio Dino told a news conference he would wait until next week to re-evaluate Torres’s case, indicating a possible request for his extradition if the former minister does not turn himself in.
The arrest warrant against Torres was issued by de Moraes, who also removed Brasilia’s security chief from his post just hours after the rampage.
On Thursday, police found a draft decree in Torres’s house that appeared to be a proposal to interfere in the result of the election. Torres claimed the document was among others in a stack that was being thrown out. He said they were “leaked” to the Folha de S.Paulo newspaper in his absence to create a “false narrative”.
Dino said he has made no requests to the US regarding Bolsonaro.
The political party to which Bolsonaro belongs, the right-wing Liberal Party (PL), decided to beef up its team of lawyers in preparation for the defence of the former president, a party official told Reuters.
Also on Friday night, the popular social media accounts of several prominent right-wing figures were suspended in Brazil in response to a court order, which US journalist Glenn Greenwald obtained and detailed on a live social media broadcast.
The order, also issued by Justice de Moraes, was directed at six social media platforms and established a two-hour deadline to block the accounts or face fines.
The accounts belong to a digital influencer, a YouTuber recently elected federal legislator, a podcast host in the style of Joe Rogan and an evangelical pastor, among others.
Bolsonaro now faces several investigations for anti-democratic statements he made as president, including repeated claims the election system was open to fraud.
PL party leaders fear he will be held responsible for Sunday’s storming of government buildings. While they do not think he will face arrest, they fear he could be declared ineligible to run in the 2026 election, the party official said.
![More than 2,500 schools are unusable, according to UNICEF, as they have been destroyed, converted for military purposes, or used to shelter the displaced [File: Khaled Abdullah/Reuters]](https://www.aljazeera.com03/2015-04-07T000000Z_977788139_GF10000051524_RTRMADP_3_YEMEN-SECURITY.jpg?w=770&resize=770%2C513&quality=80)
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