Will Ferrell brings Christmas to Asda with a remastered version of his classic 2003 Elf performance, while Lidl’s deadpan teddy bear encourages us all to think about what truly matters this Christmas and donate toys to children in need.
It’s that time of year again, and as the Christmas commercials begin to air, Asda has landed a big Hollywood star for their festive offering.
Will Ferrell plays Buddy the Elf, a trial day in the store in the run-up to Christmas, using classic footage from the 2003 film.
The 90-second commercial features Buddy dodging trolley disasters, gobbling pigs in blankets, and singing over the store tannoy system, with plenty of nods to the original film.
Image:The first mince pie of the season. Pic: Asda
Despite decorating the supermarket in fairly lights, renaming the self-checkout “elf-checkout” and falling into a Christmas tree, Buddy gets the job.
The ad ends with the tag line, “Have your Elf a Merry Christmas”.
If you’re wondering, Farrell didn’t actually prance his way around the store in real life – instead a process called rotoscoping was used to take Buddy out of the original film and place him into newly filmed scenes in the supermarket.
The advert was shot by multi-award-winning director Danny Kleinman who has designed every
title sequence for the James Bond movies since GoldenEye in 1995, except for Quantum of Solace.
He’s also directed music videos for stars including Madonna, Fleetwood Mac, and Adam Ant.
Asda’s advert premieres on Friday 4 November at 8.45pm on ITV during Coronation Street and has already been released online.
Image:An expression-less bear who delivers a message about what is actually important at Christmas. Pic: Lidl
Lidl will also be premiering their Xmas advert in the same break, featuring a deadpan teddy bear who becomes an unlikely global celebrity.
Refreshingly, the supermarket won’t be selling the Lidl Bear in their stores, instead using it as the inspiration for their Christmas charitable drive – Lidl Bear’s Toy Bank – which encourages customers to donate unwrapped toys and games which will be given to children across the UK through the Neighbourly community network.
Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s too will be squeezing into the same Coronation Street slot, with This Morning presenter Alison Hammond starring as a medieval countess who doesn’t like Christmas puddings.
And M&S reunites comedians Dawn French and Jennifer Saunders, playing Fairy and her new pal Duckie in their advert, which reimagines the fairy at the top of the Christmas tree.
The long-awaited John Lewis Christmas advert – which has become something of a national obsession in recent years – is expected to come out next week, although formal timings are yet to be released.
Moscow-installed authorities in occupied Khersonappear to have backtracked shortly after declaring a “round-the-clock curfew” as a Ukrainian counteroffensive nears the southern city.
“In the city of Kherson there are absolutely no restrictions that would limit the life of the city,” Kirill Stremousov, the Russia-backed deputy governor of the Kherson region, said on Telegram.
Stremousov’s remarks came about an hour after he posted a video announcing the curfew on the same channel.
A doctor in the roomdescribed his injuries as being hit “on the right thigh [with] two bullets” and “on the left thigh two bullets,” adding that his “left tibia was fractured.”
In an address to the nation, former Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan revealed details of his attack after being shot during a rally.
Mr Khan claimed he was shot four times during a protest march in Pakistan on Thursday, with two bullets striking each of his legs.
A doctor in the room described his injuries as being hit “on the right thigh [with] two bullets” and “on the left thigh two bullets,” adding that his “left tibia was fractured.”
The doctor said there was a fracture on Mr Khan’s right leg and near the main artery there were some bullet fragments.
“If it was hit there, there would have been a lot of bleeding,” he said.
“We took these four bullet fragments out but they did not touch any major structures.”
He added: “Once I recover, I will once again come onto the streets.”
Mr Khan said two shooters tried to assassinate him and they killed one person and injured 11 others.
He said three people had devised the plan to assassinate him, but gave no names and provided no evidence for his allegations.
The former prime minister gave an interview to Sky News two hours before he was shot in which he said he was hopeful there would not be violence during his march across the country.
Asked if the prospect of violence worried him, he said: “I’ve been on the road for six months now, what I’ve seen I’m confident that I will be able to direct it through elections. I will be able to direct this through elections and bring about a change. But the other possibility is, you would not want it to go the other way.”
Footage from the scene captured what local media is citing as the gunman, who appeared to escape as members of the public tried to take the weapon off him.
Police are questioning the alleged attacker, who appeared in a video saying he carried out the shooting and acted alone.
Image:Local media is citing the man pictured (C) as the suspected gunman
The cricketing hero-turned-politician – who has been calling for new elections since he was ousted from power in April – has been delivering impassioned speeches at gatherings across the country.
He was six days into a march from Lahore to Islamabad in his push for radical change when the shooting took place.
Following the shooting, Mr Khan’s supporters staged nationwide protests, blocking key roads in major cities and sometimes clashing with police.
His party has called for the protests to continue until its demand for political change in Pakistan is met.
South Korea scrambled 80 military aircraft, including advanced F-35 fighter jets, after detecting 180 North Korean warplanes flying within North Korean territory – the nuclear-armed country’s latest defiant show of military strength.
The Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS) of South Korea said on Friday that North Korean warplanes were detected in various areas inland as well as along the country’s eastern and western coasts, but they did not fly particularly close to the inter-Korean border.
None of those planes breached the South Korean military’s virtual “tactical action” line, which is designated to be located 20-50km (12-31 miles) north of the two countries’ land and sea boundaries. The action line is for monitoring purposes to give the South enough time to respond to provocations or attacks.
The South scrambled 80 of its warplanes, including an unspecified number of F35 fighters, but there were no immediate reports of incidents involving the two air forces.
The JCS said South Korean forces were “maintaining a firm readiness posture for further provocations” and monitoring the situation in coordination with the United States.
Al Jazeera’s Rob McBride, reporting from the South Korean capital, Seoul, said some of the North Korean aircraft movements had been close enough to the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) that separates the two Koreas to trigger the scrambling of South Korean jets in response.
“The South Korean military has announced that during the day – from late morning local time through to mid-afternoon here – they have been detecting flight by around 180 military aircraft of different types in North Korea – right across the breadth of the North Korean part of the peninsula,” he said.
The Korean People’s Army Air Force holding a military drill in an undisclosed location in this photo released in 2013 by North Korea’s official Korean Central News Agency [File: KCNA/AFP]
Months of tension between North Korea and allies South Korea and the USappears to be reaching a new level as Pyongyang moves to demonstrate its opposition to ongoing military exercises south of its borders, while also showcasing its new military firepower.
‘Uncontrollable phase’
North Korea had warned Seoul and Washington that their decision this week to hold the “Vigilant Storm” joint military air drills would receive a response.
When South Korea and the US announced on Thursday they were extending the Vigilant Storm exercises by a day in response to North Korea’s earlier missile launches, an official in Pyongyang warned that the situation had entered a dangerous phase.
“It is a very dangerous and false choice,” Pak Jong-chon, secretary of the Central Committee of North Korea’s ruling Workers’ Party, said of the decision to extend the drills.
“The irresponsible decision of the US and South Korea is shoving the present situation, caused by provocative military acts of the allied forces, to an uncontrollable phase,” he said, according to South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency.
The Vigilant Storm drills – which began on Monday and are now scheduled to end on Saturday – involve some 240 fighter jets and other military aircraft conducting about 1,600 joint missions. The air drills followed after the South Korean military wrapped up the 12-day Hoguk 22 field exercises, in which an undisclosed number of US military personnel had participated.
North Korea is vehemently opposed to such training exercises, saying the military drills are preparing for an eventual attack on its territory.
In a visit described as “highly choreographed” amid the tension on the Korean Peninsula, South Korea’s Minister of Defence Lee Jong-sup toured a US airbase on Thursday with US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Yonhap reported.
Austin and South Korea’s Defence Minister Lee Jong-sup talk in front of a B-1 bomber during a visit to Andrews Air Force Base on November 3, 2022 [Mandel Ngan/Pool via AP]
The tour by the defence chiefs of the US Air Force’s Joint Base Andrews in Maryland, which is home to nuclear-capable B-1B and B-52 bombers, was an opportunity to “highlight America’s military might amid evolving North Korean threats”, Yonhap reported.
During the visit, the US defence secretary “underscored Washington’s ‘ironclad’ security commitment to the defence of the South”, Yonhap said.
Turkey’s president has said that he and Putin agreed that Russian grains sent under the Black Sea export deal should go to poor African countries for free.
“In my phone call with Vladimir Putin, he said ‘Let’s send this grain to countries such as Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan for free’ – and we agreed,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech to businesspeople in Istanbul.
His remarks on Friday came two days after Moscow resumed its participation in the UN and Turkish-brokered grain agreement, ending four days of non-cooperation that still saw exports continue from Ukrainian ports.
Putin has said that even if Russia withdraws from the deal again, it will substitute the entire volume of grain destined for the “poorest countries” for free from its own stocks.
Pope Francis told an interfaith summit that religion should never be used to justify violence and urged faith leaders to oppose war leaders’ “childish” whims.
Speaking at an East-West dialogue conference in Bahrain, the head of the Catholic Church warned that the world was on the “brink of a delicate precipice” and warned of a new race to rearm that was redesigning Cold War-era spheres of influence.
Apparently referring to Ukraine, Francis condemned a situation where “a few potentates are caught up in a resolute struggle for partisan interests, reviving obsolete rhetoric, redesigning spheres of influence and opposing blocs”.
“We appear to be witnessing a dramatic and childlike scenario: In the garden of humanity, instead of cultivating our surroundings, we are playing instead with fire, missiles and bombs, weapons that bring sorrow and death, covering our common home with ashes and hatred,” he said.
The Russian Orthodox Church, which sent an envoy to the conference, has strongly supported the Kremlin in its war and justified it on religious grounds.
A 24-hour curfew has been imposed in the Russian-controlled city of Kherson, a local Moscow-installed official has said.
Kirill Stremousov, the Russia-backed deputy governor of the Kherson region, said in a video message posted on Telegram that the measure was necessary “in order to defend our city of Kherson” from what he referred to as “terrorist attacks”.
Stremousov repeated earlier calls for civilians to leave Kherson city, saying that columns of Ukrainian vehicles had been spotted on areas of the frontline and that an attack was possible.
Ukrainian forces have in recent weeks drawn closer to the city, the only regional capital to fall to Moscow since it launched its invasion on February 24.
Analysts believe that the European Union’s solidarity and commitment to Kyiv will be tested this winter, and that the US midterm elections may also have an impact.
Since Russian troops entered Ukraine in late February, European leaders have presented a united front against President Vladimir Putin.
But more than 250 days later, as winter sets in and inflation rises, their resolve stands to be tested as public anxiety over the effects of a prolonged wA van drives past a crater in the road caused by a missile raid, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in the eastern Donbas region of Bakhmut
At the same time, analysts warn a potential victory of critical voices in next week’s American midterm elections could fracture the West’s staunch support for Kyiv.
A van drives past a crater in the road caused by a missile raid, as Russia’s invasion of Ukraine continues, in the eastern Donbas region of Bakhmut [Clodagh Kilcoyne/Reuters]
Moscow has weaponised its energy resources, on which Europe’s heavily relies.
As they attempt to wean off Russian gas, European nations are rushing to find alternatives and energy-savings strategies.
Germany postponed the closure of its power plants, the Czech government swapped old lightbulbs in its offices to less-consuming LED sources.
Italians have lowered thermostats to 19 Celsius (66 Fahrenheit) and were advised to cook pasta at a lower heat.
Louis Vuitton’s parent company, LVMH, said lights at its stores would be turned off earlier, a move followed by Valentino and other luxury brands.
European countries have also reached, and exceeded, a November target to fill at least 80 percent of natural gas storages.
Yet the cold months ahead could offer the right conditions for Putin to indirectly foment unrest and test Europe’s support for Ukraine.
In September, the Russian leader threatened to deprive the European Union of energy, saying at an energy forum in Vladivostok: “We will not supply anything at all if it contradicts our interests, in this case, economic [interests]. No gas, no coal, no oil, nothing.”
Despite storage levels, Europe still needs the steady, even if fractioned, flow of natural gas from Russia running through pipelines beneath Ukraine, Rafael Loss, an EU security expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations, told Al Jazeera.
“If these are disrupted, for example through sabotage, energy rationing with significant consequences for households and industries could become necessary,” Loss said.
Next year’s winter is expected to be even tougher as new supplies from North America, the Gulf and Norway cannot fully compensate Russian imports and are slow to come online.
Putin hopes that Ukrainian refugees will flood neighbouring countriesto escape what is going to be an extremely cold winter in the war-torn country, Loss said
Since mid-October, Russia has renewed its war effort, barraging Ukraine with waves of air raids and damaging 30 percent of its energy facilities.
“If Russia succeeds in fomenting social unrest through the energy war, a migration crisis and its disinformation campaign … these could translate in the European support diminishing, which is Russia’s goal,” Loss said, adding though that so far, backing Ukraine remains a priority across the bloc.
Former Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi sounded the alarm in September.
“The increasing cost of energy threatens the economic recovery, limits families purchasing power, damages our industries’ production capacities and can wear down our countries’ commitment towards Ukraine,” he said at the UN General Assembly in September.
As European governments pledge more military and financial aid to Ukraine while their citizens’ savings vanish in the face of life’s spiralling costs, anger is growing.
On Monday, inflation peaked to a new record, reaching 10.7 percent. In October last year it was 4.1 percent.
In the past two weeks, protests have erupted from France to Romania, with workers demanding better salaries to keep pace with rising costs.
In Germany, demonstrators urged their government for a U-turn in fiscal policy as the costs of fuel and food become unaffordable for many.
The worst may be yet to come.
“We expect unrest to grow as inflation is projected to stay high” said Capucine May, a Europe analyst at Verisk Maplecroft.
Her risk intelligence company reported in September that civil unrest was growing in 101 countries, due to rising living costs.
But while discontent simmers in countries supporting Ukraine, aid for Kyiv “is not currently a primary driver of unrest”, said May.
Even so, support for further aid for Ukraine is fragile, said Niklas Balbon, a research associate at the Global Public Policy Institute (GPPi).
“Unless European governments effectively tackle war-induced inflation and socioeconomic hardship, public opposition to further assisting Ukraine is likely to increase,” Balbon wrote for the Carnegie Europe think-thank.
In this handout photo released by Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, (right), and then-British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss pose for a photo prior to their talks in Moscow, Russia, Thursday, February 10, 2022 [Russian Foreign Ministry Press Service via AP]
In recent weeks, Europe has witnessed the dizzying effects of economic volatility.
Liz Truss’s government in the United Kingdom lasted for 44 days – the shortest cabinet in British history – after her disastrous budget plans roiled financial markets and plunged the British pound to a record low.
And in the EU, cracks among the public are emerging.
An October report from IFOP, an international pollster, shows that French public support for anti-Russia sanctions dropped to 67 percent in October from 71 percent in March, while in Germany, it lowered to 66 percent from 80.
In Italy, a recent survey conducted by the IPSOS pollster suggests that support for Ukraine has decreased to 43 percent to 57 percent.
While Nathalie Tocci, the director of the Rome-based think-tank Institute of International Affairs (IAI), believes that a sense of war fatigue is exacerbated by the economic crisis, the trend is inconsequential in policy terms.
“There could be a reduction in military support, but even then the real country making the difference is the US, not the Europeans,” she said.
The US has so far promised 27.6 billion euro ($27bn) in military aid to Ukraine. By comparison, the pledges of UK, Germany and Poland – the three-largest military donors after the US – combined together reach 6.76, four times lower than Washington.
Tocci argued that looking ahead, the results of the midterm elections for the US Congress on November 8, could affect the EU’s approach towards Ukraine.
While the race for the Senate is tight, the Republican Party is heavily favoured to win at the House of Representatives.
If such a scenario materialises, the Republicans would have enough power to make it harder for President Joe Biden’s administration to pass additional military or financial aid for Ukraine. This is because Congress must approve federal budgets, which support for Ukraine.
“They wouldn’t take so much issue with Ukraine, but rather make everything impossible for the Biden administration, including delaying aid for Ukraine,” Tocci said, noting that Republicans projected to win the House include supporters of former President Donald Trump, whose aim is to undermine the Biden agenda as ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
A Eurasia Group report in October found strong support among Democrat and Republican voters for the current US approach to Ukraine. However, Kevin McCarthy, the highest-ranking Republican poised to lead the House has suggested a policy change could emerge.
“I think people are going to be sitting in a recession and they’re not going to write a blank cheque to Ukraine,” he said.
If US support for Kyiv diminishes, Tocci said, Ukraine’s fight against Russia could stall within a few months.
US weaponry and financial aid has been vital for Ukraine’s counteroffensive, which has allowed Kyiv to recapture large swaths.
In case of a standstill, “a realpolitik mode of thinking among Europeans would prevail with them favouring to stabilise things as they are, because they wouldn’t be able to make the difference,” Tocci said.
The UN General Assemblyvotes 185-2 to condemn the US embargo on Cuba, marking the 30th time the UN has condemned the decades-old US policy.
The United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) has strongly condemned the United States embargo on Cuba, which Havana has demanded be lifted amid the Caribbean island’s economic crisis.
On Thursday, 185 countries overwhelmingly supported a non-binding resolution condemning the embargo, with the United States and Israel voting against and Brazil and Ukraine abstaining.
It was the UN’s 30th vote condemning the US policy, which has been in place for decades.
“The United States opposes this resolution, but we stand with the Cuban people and will continue to seek ways to provide meaningful support to them,” US Political Coordinator, John Kelley, told the UNGA on Thursday.
“If the United States government was really interested in the welfare, human rights and self-determination of Cubans, it could lift the blockade,” countered Yuri Gala, Cuba’s deputy representative at the UN.
The US imposed the embargo in 1960, following the Cuban revolution led by Fidel Castro and the nationalisation of properties belonging to US citizens and corporations.
Two years later the measure – which prohibits trade between the two countries, among other restrictions – was strengthened.
US President Barack Obama took considerable steps to ease tensions with Cuba during his time in office, including formally restoring US-Cuba relations and making a “historic” visit to Havana in 2016.
That year, the US also abstained for the first time during a UN vote condemning the embargo.
Former US President Donald Trump, however, scrapped such efforts and took a more hardline approach, stepping up sanctions and rolling back steps towards normalisation.
Current President Joe Biden’s administration has not deviated substantially from Trump’s policies but has taken a handful of steps to relax restrictions on remittances and flights to Cuba.
Tensions between Havana and Washington also have escalated over issues such as migration, security, and regional relations in recent months.
Ahead of Thursday’s UN vote, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused the Biden administration of continuing down a path of “maximum pressure”. Rodriguez said that during Biden’s 14 months in office, the embargo had cost the Cuban economy about $6.35bn.
US representatives countered that economic penalties were a response to human rights abuses by the Cuban government, which cracked down on protests in July 2021 demanding political freedom and better economic conditions.
Cuba has sanctioned nearly 400 people for participation in the protests, giving many lengthy prison sentences.
Havana has pushed back against criticism of its human rights record. “Cuba does not need lessons on democracy and human rights, much less from the United States,” Gala said on Thursday.
Some 55 percent of eligible Palestinian voters in Israel participated in parliamentary elections.
Omayya Jabareen spent the morning of the Israeli elections preparing traditional zaatar pastries for breakfast.
Surrounded by family and friends in her home on the winding slopes of Umm al-Fahm – one of the largest Palestinian towns in Israel – the 51-year-old said she does not believe in voting in Israeli elections.
“I’ve never voted, and I didn’t vote this time,” she told Al Jazeera from her home earlier in the week, as the country voted for parliament on Tuesday. “Arab members of the Knesset [the Israeli parliament] are merely a cosmetic face for Israeli dominance and racism.”
The problems faced by the majority of the 1.8 million Palestinians inside Israel, she said, such as crime and overcrowding, are “a result of systematic policies practised against us by the state of Israel. They will remain as long as it remains in existence.”
Whether for political reasons, or a mere lack of interest, Jabareen was one of many Palestinians in Israel who chose not to vote in this year’s elections, which are Israel’s fifth in under four years due to a protracted political crisis since 2019.
The final results came in on Thursday, with former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the Likud – Israel’s largest party – set to return after being unseated in 2021 after 12 years in power.
This year, Netanyahu ran alongside far-right controversial figures who openly call for violence against Palestinians, including Itamar Ben-Gvir – notorious for his harassment of families in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah and leading raids into the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound.
“I feel bad about the results,” said Kamila Tayyoun, a media officer for the Palestinian political bloc led by Ayman Odeh. The alliance, which ran in the elections and won five seats, is made up of the Arab Movement for Change party and the Democratic Front for Peace and Equality, known in Hebrew as the Hadash-Ta’al list.
A Netanyahu government, Tayyoun told Al Jazeera, “Will be very bad on the Palestinian level,” describing it as “racist” and “having a campaign by political parties largely built on the hatred and demonisation of Arabs”.
“The situation is not comforting,” added Tayyoun, who hails from Shaab on the outskirts of Akka (Acre) in the north.
Omayya Jabareen says Palestinian members in the Knesset are just a ‘cosmetic face for “Israeli racism’ [Zena Al Tahhan/Al Jazeera]
A breakdown of Palestinian voter turnout
Voter turnout among Palestinians in Israel has historically ranged between 40-50 percent, and the majority of those who vote do so for parties led by Arab politicians.
In Tuesday’s election, Palestinian voter turnout stood at approximately 55 percent, which, according to analysts, was higher than what was expected, but represented a drop from previous years when Arab parties ran together under the Joint List alliance.
“The Arab lists were divided and ran separately. Campaigning and competition over the last few days before elections, and the fear of Ben-Gvir and his party, increased the level of voting, but not by a high degree,” Saeed Zidani, a political analyst from the town of Tamra on the northwestern outskirts of Haifa, told Al Jazeera.
This year, three Palestinian blocs ran for elections, with two passing the national electoral threshold of 3.25 percent, equivalent to four seats in Israel’s 120-member Knesset. The parties running had to obtain about 157,000 votes to get the four seats.
In terms of the number of votes, Mansour Abbas’s United Arab List (UAL), which was criticised for joining former Prime Minister Naftali Bennett’s coalition government last year, garnered the most with 190,000 votes. The majority of those votes came from Palestinian Bedouins living in the Naqab (Negev) desert.
“The UAL got the most votes but it lost the most in terms of the influence it was hoping to have,” said Zidani. “Neither Netanyahu nor the other camp needs it any more. Netanyahu can form a government without it, and the opposition cannot form a government neither with it nor without it.”
The third Palestinian slate that ran, Tajamu (also known as Balad in Hebrew), did enjoy increased support and popularity this election, but did not translate that to seats.
The party leader, Sami Abu Shehadeh, who hails from al-Lydd (Lod), had a key role in connecting with the Palestinian street during the May 2021 Palestinian uprising inside Israel, during which widespread confrontations broke out with Israeli forces as a result of forced displacement in the occupied East Jerusalem neighbourhood of Sheikh Jarrah and a war on the besieged Gaza Strip.
“The Tajamu party gathered their strength and there was increased popular regard for them among Palestinians in this election, despite their loss,” Zidani said, noting that they had needed only 18,000 more votes to pass the national election threshold.
Do Palestinians believe in the Knesset?
Jewish Israeli turnout is believed to have surpassed 70 percent, a significant gap in comparison with Palestinian voter turnout.
Zidani noted that Palestinians have no problem voting – in municipal elections, turnout is regularly higher than 90 percent – but the feeling is different when it comes to the parliament, and turnout is always much lower.
Palestinians make up about 20 percent of the population in Israel and carry Israeli passports. They became an involuntary minority during the violent ethnic cleansing of Palestine from 1947 to 1949 to create a “Jewish state”.
The policies practised against them, described as “discriminatory” by human rights groups, have led to Palestinian areas in Israel suffering from a myriad number of problems, such as restrictions on land ownership, high crime rates, and home demolitions.
Umm al-Fahm, which lies in the northern Triangle area, is the third largest concentration of Palestinians inside Israel – home to 60,000 residents – after Nazareth city in the north, and Rahat city in the Naqab.
It is known for being the home of the now-outlawed northern branch of the Islamic Movement, which split in 1996 from the southern branch – now the UAL – over the decision to participate in Israeli elections.
Considerably less than half of the almost 40,000 eligible voters in Umm al-Fahm participated in elections on Tuesday, according to the results, with participation at the lowest of the three largest Palestinian areas.
Ahmad Khalifa is the head of the popular committee in Umm al-Fahm, and a member of Abnaa el-Balad’s political office – another Palestinian party that boycotted the elections.
Khalifa told Al Jazeera that he believed voter turnout among Palestinians, along with Netanyahu’s return, showed that many Palestinians believed that politics is more than just the parliament.
“Palestinians have understood that the Knesset is not the place we go to solve our larger problems, or where we go to build a national project, and it is not the place where you can prevent fascism or right-wing parties,” Khalifa said.
Khalifa added that, for Abnaa el-Balad, and for the Palestinians who think like them, the events of May 2021, cannot simply be pacified by participation in elections.
“Our political context goes against the project of cornering us into Israeli politics and into the Israeli public as citizens.
“The two-state solution has failed. Israel forced it to fail by increasing settlement building, by taking over Jerusalem, by preventing the return of refugees,” Khalifa continued.
Those who did vote in Umm al-Fahm are not necessarily opposed to Abnaa el-Balad’s reading of the situation – however, they feel that there may be some improvements in day-to-day life, as well as crime and overcrowding.
And on top of that, some feel that the representation of Palestinians in Israel’s highest legislative body is important.
“To me, it’s enough that our candidates … will merely bring up the issue of the Palestinian people and put forth Palestinian national and civil issues here,” Hussein Mustafa Mahameed, a dentist, said.
“[But] as Palestinians in this state, I believe to the utmost extent, that our civil problems will not be solved without solving the wider issue of the Palestinian people,” said Mahameed. “Any government that comes will fight the Palestinian people, and we are part of the Palestinian people.”
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 October, Canadaadded ten times the number of jobs expected, as the government set aside millions to assist low-income workers.
Official data show that the Canadian economy posted a bumper job gain in October, coming in 10 times higher than forecasts, with the jobless rate holding steady, with the big beat upping market calls for another oversized interest rate hike.
According to data released on Friday, the economy added a net 108,300 jobs last month, easily exceeding forecasts of 10,000 new jobs, while the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 5.2 percent. The entire blowout gain was in full-time work, and it was spread across both the goods and services sectors.
“It seems Bank of Canada Governor [Tiff] Macklem zigged when he should have zagged, judging by these numbers. They’re very strong. I’m surprised actually,” said Derek Holt, vice president of capital markets economics at Scotiabank.
While other data will be coming before the next Bank of Canada (BoC) rate meeting in December, the jobs surge suggests another 50 basis points increase may be coming, he added.
The BoC raised its policy rate by 50 basis points to 3.75 percent last week and said while more increases would still be needed, it was nearing the end of its tightening campaign.
The employment report bolstered money market bets of another outsized hike in December, with a nearly 70 percent chance of a 50-basis-point increase and the policy rate now seen peaking at 4.5 percent early next year.
The average hourly wage for permanent employees rose 5.5 percent in October on a year-over-year basis, up from 5.2 percent in September. Total employment edged just above May 2022 levels.
Canada’s core-age workers continued to lead gains. The core-age unemployment rate stands at 4.2 percent, slightly above July’s record low, but in a historically tight range last seen in the 1970s.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government on Thursday set out billions in new spending to support low-income workers among other things.
The Canadian dollar was trading 1.6 percent higher at 1.3525 to the greenback, or 73.94 US cents.
It’s sort of discombobulated because we’ve been just running 100 miles an hour.
It has calmed down a bit, but I would describe it as the calm before the storm – because of what we’ve seen in terms of the Bank of England‘s decision on lifting interest rates.
But inflation is going to peak, quite soon, and lower than perhaps expected.
They are also talking about a recession – a very long, potentially quite long recession – potentially the longest recession since records began.
So that’s all worrying for the government at a time when there is this black hole in the public finances, exacerbated by the decisions that Liz Truss took… and Jeremy Hunt, the new chancellor, has now reversed.
So Rishi Sunak and his chancellor have got a series of very difficult decisions to take on tax and spending.
How are you going to get that through the party? There are so many different views about what he should do.
Sir Graham Bradyappears to have confirmed Boris Johnson’s claim that he had enough MPs to challenge Rishi Sunak in the leadership election last month.
Mr Johnson dropped out of the Tory leadership race, claiming he had the necessary nominations but was unable to unite the party.
Sir Graham, chair of the Tory party’s 1922 Committee, told the BBC that “two candidates” had reached the threshold, and “one of them decided not to then submit his nomination.”
Sir Graham also spoke about his experiences meeting with former PMs Liz Truss and Mr Johnson at separate stages this year to tell them they no longer commanded majority support from their MPs.
“I was reaching for my phone when I got a message saying the prime minister had asked to see me,” the Altrincham and Sale West MP told BBC North West Tonight.
“When I went in to see her with her chief of staff Mark Fullbrook, she asked me the question – she said ‘it’s pretty bad, isn’t it?’ To which I replied ‘yes, it is pretty bad’”.
“She asked the second question, ‘do you think it’s retrievable?’. And I said ‘no, I don’t think it is’. And she replied that she didn’t either.”
He said Mr Johnson had insisted he was “still determined to go on”, but changed his mind overnight.
After Mr Sunak was made PM uncontested, Mr Johnson tweeted: “Congratulations to Rishi Sunak on this historic day, this is the moment for every Conservative to give our new PM their full and wholehearted support.”
The former premier offered his congratulations a day later than messages from outgoing PM Ms Truss and Mr Sunak’s fellow leadership hopeful,Penny Mordaunt
She was given the job back. That was already controversial.
There was a view amongst some that Rishi Sunak had done that in order to bring the right of the party, because Suella Braverman is considered a figurehead on the right, to bind the right of the party into his government, because he doesn’t want all these divisions.
But at the same time, there’s no sense that Rishi Sunakin the way that Boris Johnson stood firmly behind Priti Patel, who is the former home secretary, so there’s not a sense that Rishi Sunak is necessarily standing behind Suella Braverman.
And one source said to me, one ally of Rishi Sunak said to me this week, that actually there’s a view that perhaps the migrant crisis, the small boat crisis, is such an intractable, difficult problem.
Maybe he is happy for her to own that, to take responsibility for that problem.
And if she falls on her sword because of that problem, maybe for Rishi Sunak, that’s quite useful because he can say to the right of the party, Well, I gave her the opportunity.
Norma Girolami, of Highgate, north London, was last seen alive on August 19, 2021, the same day she visited Leigh-on-Sea, Essex. She took the train from Barking to the seaside town, returning to London later that day – and had not been heard from since.
Detectives looking into the murder of a 70-year-old woman have discovered her remains in a churchyard in north London, nearly 15 months after she went missing.
Norma Girolami, of Highgate, north London, was last seen alive on August 19, 2021, the same day she visited Leigh-on-Sea, Essex.
She travelled by train to the seaside town from Barking, returning to London later that same day – and had not been heard from since.
A murder investigation was launched in October last year.
On Friday, the Metropolitan Police said detectives investigating her murder recovered human remains at Friern Barnet Lane in North Finchley, Barnet, on Tuesday.
The remains have been formally identified as being that of Norma Girolami, the force said.
“Despite accepting that Norma was no longer alive, I know that her family are deeply affected by the news that her remains have been found. Our thoughts are very much with them,” she said.
“My team has spent more than a year searching for Norma and there is a sense of relief that we have found her remains which will undergo forensic examination in due course.
“Despite this discovery, I would still be very keen to hear from anyone who knew Norma, either in London or at Leigh-on-Sea who can provide information on anything that was happening in her life in August last year.
“I am also appealing for anyone who saw any activity around the churchyard in Friern Barnet Lane, N20, between August and October last year.”
She added: “Norma’s family and friends have endured a year of not knowing what had happened to her and our investigation remains ongoing. If you have any information, no matter how small a detail it may seem, please do get in touch.”
Rishi Sunak’s spokesperson saysclaims they are ditching the £20bn project are not accurate and the government hopes to get a deal over the line as soon as possible.
But the site’s future was cast into doubt overnight after reports claimed it was being reviewed ahead of the chancellor’s autumn statement in just under two weeks – with Treasury sources telling Sky News “all options are on the table” to fill the fiscal black hole in government finances.
Now, Rishi Sunak’s official spokesperson says the reports are “not accurate” and “our position remains the same”, adding negotiations are “ongoing and constructive”.
The £20bn Sizewell C project aims to generate enough low-carbon electricity to supply six million homes and help protect the UK from energy market volatility.
The plant is a joint endeavour with French energy giant EDF and is expected to take a decade to build.
While it has the backing of the Labour Party and unions, critics say the plans are too expensive and the new power source will take too long to come online.
An attack on Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan, whose supporters claim was an assassination attempt, has sparked international outrage.
Mr Khan, 70, is recovering in hospital after being shot in the leg during a protest march in Wazirabad, Pakistan’s north-east.
The attack on his convoy killed one person and injured at least ten others.
However, according to his team, Mr Khan is in stable condition and could be discharged in the coming days.
The attack on Mr Khan has electrified the country, which the cricketer-turned-politician led until April, when he was ousted by a parliamentary vote of no confidence.
Schools were closed in the capital, Islamabad, after his party – the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) – called for nationwide protests following Friday prayers. President Arif Alvi – a founding member of the PTI – called it a “heinous assassination attempt”.
Mr Khan’s political opponents have also been quick to condemn the attack, with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif ordering an immediate investigation.
Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken called for calm, saying: “Violence has no place in politics, and we call on all parties to refrain from violence, harassment and intimidation.”
Pakistan – which is reeling from an ongoing economic crisis and devastating floods – has a record of political violence, with former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto assassinated in 2007. Many evoked her killing in the wake of the attack on Mr Khan.
How the attack unfolded
Mr Khan – who has been fighting to return to office since he was ousted earlier this year – had been leading a “long march” of protests calling for early elections to facilitate his comeback.
By Thursday, his convoy had reached Wazirabad, where crowds had gathered to hear him speak.
He was stood on top of an open truck-bed surrounded by aides and his other party members when the shots rang out.
“It was so sudden that it took me a while to understand what was going on,” one party staffer, Mueezuddin, told the BBC.
However, from their vantage point they were able to pick out the attacker.
“We saw the attacker had emptied a whole magazine,” Mueezuddin said, “[and he had] loaded another magazine when he was grabbed by a boy from behind.”
Unverified videos on social media show an assailant in the crowd pointing his pistol at Mr Khan’s convoy before being overpowered by Mr Khan’s supporters.
Footage of the incident and witness accounts suggested a security guard was also seen firing from the container.
Mueezuddin said Mr Khan and those around him ducked quickly after the first shots, and when he was hit he remained calm while he was given first aid by his bodyguards.
He was then moved into a bulletproof car and rushed away to hospital in Lahore.
Immediately after the shooting, some of his allies told media that Mr Khan believed the current political leaders – including Prime Minister Sharif, the interior minister and a military general – were behind the attack.
One spokesman, Raoof Hasan, told the BBC’s Newshour programme the government was “attempting to eliminate [Imran Khan] physically”.
But in a press conference on Friday, Interior Minister Rana Sanaullah rejected the allegations, saying that the Punjab government was to blame for any security lapses in the state. “We see Imran Khan as a political opponent, not an enemy,” he added.
Mr Khan, who remains popular, has previously characterised his removal as prime minister as a political conspiracy and been loudly critical for months of the current government and military leaders. Courts have convicted him in recent corruption cases but he has disputed the verdicts as politically motivated.
Police on Tuesday night released a video confession of the man who they said had attempted to kill Mr Khan.
It’s unclear the conditions under which the interview was carried out. But, in response to police asking him why he had opened fire, he said: “He was misguiding the people. I wanted to kill him. I tried to kill him.”
The video has been dismissed by Mr Khan’s allies as a “cover-up”.
Fifa has written to all 32 teams competing at the World Cup telling them to “now focus on the football” following a controversial build-up.
Host Qatar has been criticised for its stance on same-sex relationships, its human rights record and its treatment of migrant workers.
The tournament starts on 20 November.
The letter urges that football should not be “dragged” into ideological or political “battles” and it should not be “handing out moral lessons”.
Peaceful protests have been planned by some players.
England’s Harry Kane and nine other captains of European teams will be wearing ‘One Love’ armbands.
‘Whatever we do, it won’t be enough’ – Jordan Henderson speaks to 5 Live Breakfast about Qatar World Cup concerns
Denmark will wear “toned-down” shirts to protest against Qatar, with kit provider Hummel saying it “does not wish to be visible” in a tournament it claims “has cost thousands of lives”.
Australia’s squad have released a video urging Qatar to abolish its laws on same-sex relationships.
Paris, and other French cities, are refusing to screen matches in public areas, despite France being the defending champions.
The letter, signed by Fifa president Gianni Infantino and secretary general Fatma Samoura and seen by the BBC, reads: “We know football does not live in a vacuum and we are equally aware that there are many challenges and difficulties of a political nature all around the world.
“But please do not allow football to be dragged into every ideological or political battle that exists.
It adds: “At Fifa, we try to respect all opinions and beliefs, without handing out moral lessons to the rest of the world. No one people or culture or nation is “better” than any other. This principle is the very foundation stone of mutual respect and non-discrimination.
“And this is also one of the core values of football. So, please let’s all remember that and let football take centre stage.
“We have the unique occasion and opportunity to welcome and embrace everyone, regardless of origin, background, religion, gender, sexual orientation or nationality.”
MPs call on Southgate and Kane to act over Iran
The England team has been asked to consider making a “display or gesture of solidarity with Iranian women fighting for their civil liberties” when the two countries meet in their opening match at the World Cup on 21 November.
Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrats’ foreign affairs spokesperson, has written to coach Gareth Southgate and captain Harry Kane telling them such a move would be “hugely meaningful in raising awareness about the Iranian government’s condemnable actions”.
In a letter also signed by Lib Dems sport spokesman Jamie Stone and seen by the BBC, it states that such an action would also “likely be seen by those who are putting their lives on the line in protest, which could be invaluable”.
Protests and unrest in Iran have been sparked by the death on 16 September of Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who fell into a coma after being arrested by morality police in Tehran for allegedly violating Iran’s strict rules requiring women to cover their hair with a hijab, or headscarf.
There were reports that officers beat her head with a baton. The police said she suffered a heart attack.
Iranian football and sports personalities and human rights group Open Stadiums have previously requested that Fifa ban the Iranian national team.
The BBC has contacted the Football Association for comment.
We try to help as much as we can – Henderson
Speaking this week, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp said it was “not fair” to expect players to make political statements or protests at the tournament.
England midfielder Jordan Henderson said on BBC Radio 5 Live Breakfast: “A lot gets put on players on ‘should the World Cup be played there?’ and everything that goes with that, but the players don’t decide where the World Cup is played.
“Fifa decides that and that is a question for them to answer. For us as players we just play football and try to have a voice in certain ways to help as much as we can.”
He added: “We do little things like that to try and show people we are all one, we are all inclusive and that is why that campaign [Kane’s armband] was brought to light.
“If you do the right things, that is most important. Unless everyone is just notgoing to turn up, then no matter what people say it is never going to be enough.”
England’s Beth Mead said on Thursday it is “disappointing” the tournament is being held in Qatar. Mead, who is openly gay, does not think the Gulf state is the “right place” for the tournament to be staged.
A controversial build-up
Other off-the-field issues include Russia being banned by Fifa after the country’s invasion of Ukraine. In addition, the Ukrainian FA has called for Iran to be banned from the World Cup for “systematic human rights violations”. It believes a crackdown on protests in the country “may violate the principles and norms” of Fifa.
The World Cup has been moved to the northern hemisphere winter for the first time in its 92-year history. Qatar initially proposed to host the finals during the summer in air-conditioned enclosed stadiums, but the plan was rejected.
Qatar’s World Cup organisers state “everyone is welcome” to visit the country to watch the football, and that no-one will be discriminated against.
ll as an airport, roads and about 100 hotels. Qatar’s government says 30,000 foreign labourers have been hired just to build the stadiums, with most coming from Bangladesh, India, Nepal and the Philippines.
Human rights groups have complained about the treatment of foreign labourers in Qatar, and the number who have died there.
In February 2021, the Guardian said 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka had died in Qatar since it won its World Cup bid in 2010.
The number is based on figures provided by the countries’ embassies in Qatar.
However, the Qatar government said the total was misleading, because not all the deaths recorded were of people working on World Cup-related projects.
The government said its accident records showed that between 2014 and 2020, there were 37 deaths among labourers at World Cup stadium construction sites, only three of which were “work-related”.
BBC Arabic has gathered evidence which suggests Qatar’s government has under-reported deaths among foreign labourers.
England’s Football Association has backed calls for compensation to be awarded for “any injury or death related to any construction project” for the World Cup.
Yasmine Ahmed, UK director of Human Rights Watch, called the Fifa letter “nothing short of appalling”, while Amnesty International’s Felix Jakens told BBC Radio 5 Live: “There’s never been a right time to talk about human rights issues in Qatar as far as they [Fifa] are concerned.
“Now is the time to apply pressure on these issues. Once the World Cup rollsout of town, are we still going to be having conversations about Qatar? I don’t think we are.”
As part of National Grid’s efforts to avoid blackouts, households will be offered discounts on their electricity bills if they reduce peak-time use on a few days during the winter.
The network operator has released information about the scheme, which it claims could save households up to £100.
Between November and March, there will be 12 “test” days to see how customers respond.
However, only homes with smart meters will be able to participate.
Only 14 million, less than half, of households in England, Scotland and Wales, where the scheme is being tested, have a smart electricity meter installed.
Customers taking part will be given 24 hours’ notice of a “test” day where they will be asked to reduce their peak-time electricity use if they can during a one-hour period identified by National Grid, likely to be between 16:00 and 19:00.
That could include delaying use of a tumble-dryer or washing machine, or cooking dinner in the microwave rather than the oven.
National Grid said it will pay energy suppliers, which will be required to sign up to the scheme to operate it for customers for a smart meter, £3 for every kilowatt-hour during the test periods.
What is a smart meter?
Smart meters replace your existing gas and electricity meters and measure the energy you use at home. The big difference is that they send this information directly to your supplier over wireless networks in real-time.
Suppliers say that this means you pay only for what you use, so bills are more accurate than estimated ones. It also means you can monitor your usage more closely and adjust your habits if you’re looking to save money.
But if you live in an area with weak signal, your meters might struggle to communicate with your supplier effectively.
Individual suppliers will decide how much customers will receive and whether the money is taken off bills, credited to accounts, or if there’s an option to withdraw the cash.
National Grid is testing the idea, which it calls its “Demand Flexibility Service”, at scale for the first time, to establish a system that can serve as an “insurance policy” if it needs to ease demand on the grid this winter.
Households have been warned of power cuts lasting up to three hours at a time if gas supplies run extremely low, and National Grid is hoping the new scheme can, along with other measures, prevent that happening.
The electricity network operator said the service had been approved by the UK’s energy regulator Ofgem, which meant electricity suppliers and providers could sign up and then advertise the scheme to customers.
It is understood many of the UK’s larger energy firms are looking to take part in the trial, after being consulted in recent months on how it would work.
The scheme is also open to businesses which could, for example, change production schedules or switch to batteries or generators at peak times.
Jake Rigg, director of corporate affairs at National Grid ESO, said by signing up people could “back Britain” as well as saving money and reducing carbon emissions.
“It’s not a big thing or a difficult thing to do, just remembering to do it 12 times this winter and get that money back, when we are all really struggling with energy bills and the cost of living generally,” he told the BBC.
“We can all do our little bit, we can shift demand out of that peak and help maintain security of supply throughout the winter.”
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, The scheme only applies to homes with smart meters.
Octopus Energy has already announced it will participate. It operated a trial scheme with 100,000 customers earlier this year, offering a much smaller discount for people who shifted their energy use away from peak times.
It believes there will be more days on offer – 25 in total compared to 12 planned so far – for households to be given the chance to cut down on energy use as the UK goes through the winter.
National Grid said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had created “unprecedented turmoil and volatility” in the energy markets in recent months.
Gas flows from Russia to Europe have been disrupted since its invasion of Ukraine, leaving countries scrambling for alternative supplies, which could have a knock-on effect on Britain.
The UK is heavily reliant on gas to produce electricity, with gas-fired power stations generating more than 40% of the country’s electricity.
The UK also imports electricity from continental Europe.
National Grid’s central view remains that there will be enough energy to provide Britain with similar levels of electricity to previous winters.
It said its service is aiming to save two gigawatts of electricity, which is enough to power about one million homes.
The company has also put coal-fired power stations on standby in case they are required to boost energy generation.
Donald Trump has dropped one of his most powerful hints yet that he may run for President again.
Former US President George H.W. Bush told a crowd in Iowa that he will “very, very, very likely do it again” in 2024.
Mr Trump was speaking at the first of four rallies he will hold in the next five days to campaign for Republican candidates in next week’s midterm elections.
US Vice President Joe Biden is also touring the country to encourage people to vote.
On Thursday night, Mr Trump, a Republican, repeated his unfounded claim that he lost in 2020 because of widespread election fraud.
“I ran twice,” he said. “I won twice, and did much better the second time than I did the first, getting millions more votes in 2020 than I got in 2016.
“And now in order to make our country successful, and safe and glorious. I will very, very, very probably do it again.”
“Very soon,” he told the cheering crowd. “Get ready.”
Mr Trump did win the most votes ever – 72 million – for a sitting president in 2020, but still lost to the challenger, Mr Biden, a Democrat, who pulled in 81 million.
Mr Biden – who campaigned on Thursday in New Mexico and California – has reportedly been meeting senior advisers to plan his potential 2024 re-election campaign, setting up a possible rematch with Mr Trump.
For his part, Mr Trump has teased for months about a potential third campaign for the White House.
In October, he told a rally in Texas: “I will probably have to do it again.” In Pennsylvania in September, he said: “I may just have to do it again.”
Mr Trump’s former senior counsellor, Kellyanne Conway, said earlier on Thursday at an event in Washington DC that her former boss would “announce soon” about his possible presidential plans.
She said she gave Mr Trump credit for resisting the temptation to declare a White House run already this year, as it would have distracted from Republican candidates in the midterms.
If he does run in 2024, he may not go unchallenged within his party.
Potential Republican rivals include Mr Trump‘s former Vice-President Mike Pence and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, among others.
Jessica and her friends thought it was “maybe someone drunk or passed out” but not that there was “imminent danger or that lots of people were hurt”.
About 10 minutes later, she saw “CPR being performed” on people.
“There were maybe five or 10 people on the floor. And people were starting to crowd around.”
In the chaos, Jessica received alerts on her phone, but in Korean, so couldn’t understand what it was about.
Things “suddenly went full speed”, she says, into people being pulled onto the floor.
“And you can see people crying. My friend said she spotted someone who had left the toilet, in the group of people on the floor.”
“If she hadn’t had gone to the toilet, we would have been further along in the street, and could have been involved in the crush.”
Jessica feels authorities could have better anticipated crowds “because the streets are quite steep”.
Police chief Yoon Hee-keun says he feels a “heavy responsibility” following the disaster
As a “frequent concert and festival goer”, Jessica says she will be more cautious when attending big events in future.
“I think this has shown me not to take for granted some of the precautions that are in place,” she says.
“You just go out sometimes and you forget that things have to be prepared. And they’re done in the background, so you don’t really pay attention to it. But they are done for your safety,” she says.
“It’s definitely going to teach me to be more aware and vigilant, and maybe not so relaxed with such large crowds.”
But despite being caught up in a terrible tragedy, Jessica is not put off from going back.
“It happened at the end of my trip. So there aredefinitely lots of parts that I really enjoyed, and parts of the country that I think are really beautiful,” she adds.
Following the Chinese leader’s consolidation of power, the trip has sparked controversy in Germany and concern throughout Europe.
Mr Scholz mentioned “economic ties as equals, with reciprocity.”
President Xi stated that the two countries should collaborate during “times of change and turmoil.”
The chancellor’s visit – the first by a G7 leader since the coronavirus pandemic – follows an extraordinary and bitter row within the Berlin government.
It had emerged that a Chinese company was poised to buy a significant stake in a part of the port of Hamburg. No fewer than six government ministers reacted furiously.
The deal, they argued, would give China significant influence over critical German infrastructure. Germany’s security services also urged caution.
But the German chancellor appeared insistent the deal should go ahead. He reportedly pushed through an agreement, albeit one that limited the size and influence of the stake, reducing it to 24.9%.
No-one is quite sure why he seemed so determined. A former mayor of Hamburg, Mr Scholz remains close to the city authorities who argued that the deal represented vital investment.
But plenty of other commentators suspect an ulterior motive; that Olaf Scholz did not want to turn up in Beijing without a “gift” for Xi Jinping.
That has raised both eyebrows and concerns.
Reuters
We will seek co-operation where it lies in our mutual interest, but we will not ignore controversies… When I travel to Beijing as German chancellor, I do so also as a European
As has the chancellor’s decision to take with him a delegation of German business executives. That was standard practice for his predecessor, Angela Merkel, who pursued a policy of “Change through Trade”, believing that economic ties could influence political relations with countries like China and Russia.
The chancellor’s visit comes hard on the heels of the National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, at which President Xi tightened his grip on power and raised concerns in the West about his intentions towards Taiwan.
“The signal that’s being sent is that we want to extend and intensify our economic co-operation – that must be questioned,” says Felix Banazsak, a politician from the Green Party, a partner in Mr Scholz’s coalition government.
The Greens have long sought a tougher line on China. Just a few days ago the party’s foreign minister, Annalena Baerbock, sternly and publicly reminded him that his government came to power promising to readjust its China strategy.
Mr Banazsak says his country must learn from its previous dependence on Russian energy: “We must make ourselves as independent as possible from individual states, particularly if these are states which do not share our values.”
But Olaf Scholz will be painfully aware of the complexity and depth of his country’s ties with China, which remains Germany’s largest trading partner, although Germany imports more than it exports.
More than a million German jobs depend on that relationship. Take as an example car giant Daimler, which sells more than a third of its vehicles in China.
IMAGE SOURCE,GETTY IMAGES Image caption, German company Daimler is expanding its resources in China
In the first half of this year, German businesses invested more in China than ever before. Chemical company BASF has just opened a new plant in south China and expects to invest €10bn (£8.6bn; $9.9bn) in the site by the end of this decade.
On the eve of the visit, the head of the German Automotive Industry Association pointed to Germany’s reliance on China for raw materials and warned that “de-coupling” would be an economic and geo-strategic mistake.
Her counterpart at the Association of Small and Medium Businesses also advised against a sudden change in course, saying “the advice can only be not to smash any Chinese porcelain now”.
Chancellor Scholz is spending less than 12 hours in Beijing. His aim, he said ahead of his journey, was to find out how much co-operation was still possible – because “the world needs China” in the fight against the global pandemic and climate change.
“If China is changing, then our approach to China must change,” he said.
Many in Berlin and beyond will be looking for evidence of that Mr Scholz’s response to a shifting China may yet come to be the defining test of his chancellorship.
Scholz trip ruffles feathers in Europe
Germany is the EU’s most powerful economy and arguably most influential member, so what it says and does matters.
I once suggested former Angela Merkel could be viewed at times like a European Donald Trump for the way she tended to put Germany first.
Wider EU concerns were ignored in favour of lucrative German energy and trade contracts with Russia and China. She demanded EU austerity measures for Mediterranean member states during the eurozone crisis to protect German taxpayers from incurring shared debt.
Olaf Scholz is Mrs Merkel’s successor in far more than just name, in the minds of many EU leaders.
His massive aid package to help German businesses with high energy prices is viewed as giving them an unfair competitive advantage on the European single market.
And his trip to China, announced but not co-ordinated with others in the EU, has ruffled feathers Europe-wide. France’s Emmanuel Macron recently warned Mr Scholz he risked becoming isolated.
As Europe, and Germany first and foremost, weans itself off its dependency on Russian gas, the question is this: Is Berlin, blinded by the prospect of business deals, binding itself too close to China?
French President Emmanuel Macron has been pushing for years for the EU to become less beholden to Beijing. Critics accused him of protectionism.
But after global supply-chain breakdowns during the Covid-19 pandemic, the “weaponisation” of energy imports/exports after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Donald Trump’s presidency, it became clear Europe should no longer rely so heavily on the US in terms of security.
With Mr Macron’s insistence on the continent becoming more cohesive and self-reliant, diversifying its trade partners began to seem sensible to Brussels. Olaf Scholz is viewed as worryingly out of step.
As Lapid concedes defeat, former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to form a government and seal a dramatic return to power.
A coalition led by right-wing former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has won a majority of Knesset seats, allowing the controversial figure to return to power.
According to the final election results announced on Thursday, Netanyahu and his ultranationalist allies – many of whom were considered outside the pale in Israeli politics only a few years ago – won 64 seats in the 120-seat parliament, with 32 of those seats going to Netanyahu’s party, Likud.
On Wednesday, when roughly 85 percent of the votes had been counted, Netanyahu had told supporters that they were “on the brink of a very big victory”, and promised to form a “stable, national government”.
His opponents in the current coalition, led by Yair Lapid, the centrist current prime minister, won 51 seats, with the remainder held by a small unaffiliated Arab party.
Lapid congratulated Netanyahu and instructed his staff to prepare an organised transition of power, his office said on Thursday.
“The State of Israel comes before any political consideration,” Lapid said. “I wish Netanyahu success, for the sake of the people of Israel and the State of Israel.”
The results mean that Netanyahu, who is on trial for corruption, will be invited by Israeli President Isaac Herzog to form a government, a process that is likely to begin next week.
Netanyahu will have 28 days to form what is expected to be the most right-wing Israeli government in history.
His coalition partners, the Religious Zionism party, won 14 seats.
The party’s leaders will now attempt to translate that strong showing into senior government posts for its members, including positions responsible for security.
Ben-Gvir was also previously convicted of racist incitement and had a picture in his office of Baruch Goldstein, an Israeli-American who killed 29 Palestinians in the Ibrahimi Mosque massacre in Hebron in 1994.
However, Netanyahu,who was prime minister for 12 years between 2009 and 2021, owes the Religious Zionism party for its support, after he was abandoned by former allies, such as Naftali Bennett.
Bennett, a fellow right winger who was once seen as Netanyahu’s protege, formed a coalition with politicians from across the Israeli spectrum, as well as a party representing Palestinians in Israel, to keep Netanyahu out of power in March 2021.
That alliance, centred on opposition to Netanyahu, proved impossible to keep together, and eventually broke down in June, prompting the latest elections, Israel’s fifth since 2019, which were held on Monday.
The victory represents a reversal of fortunes for Netanyahu, who was also prime minister between 1996 and 1999.
One of the main reasons for the opposition to him was his legal troubles – he faces corruption and fraud charges, allegations he denies.
The Religious Zionism party has said that, if it comes into government, it will work to remove the offence of “fraud and breach of trust”, which is among the crimes Netanyahu has been charged with.
While it is unclear whether this could then retroactively be applied to Netanyahu’s own trial, the plans indicate an upcoming battle withIsrael’s judiciary, which has been increasingly painted as an enemy by Netanyahu’s bloc.
“The nuclear war cannot be won and it should never be fought. And we stick strongly to thisstatement,” Moscow’s ambassador to the UK, Andrey Kelin, told Sky News.
The Russian ambassador to the UK has claimed Britain played a role in an attack on its warships – warning the country is “too deep” in the Ukraine war.
In an interview with Sky’s Mark Austin, diplomat Andrei Kelin claimed he had ‘proof’ that UK special forces were involved in a Ukrainian drone assault on Russia’s Black Sea fleet in Crimea and had handed evidence to the British ambassador.
Asked to provide evidence of Russia’s claims, Mr Kelin said: “We perfectly know about [the] participation of British specialists in [the] training, preparation and execution of violence against the Russian infrastructure and the Russian fleet in the Black Sea. We know that it has been done.”
Image:Russia’s ambassador to the UK, Andrei Kelin
Pressed to give evidence to the public on Moscow’s accusation the attack on the Russian fleet in the Black Sea was carried out under the guidance and leadership of British Navy specialists, Mr Kelin said it had been handed to the British ambassador and added that “it will become public pretty soon,” perhaps today, perhaps tomorrow.
He added: “It is dangerous because it escalates the situation. It can bring us up to the line of I would say no return, return is always possible. But anyway, we should avoid escalation.
“And this is a warning actually that Britain is too deep in this conflict. It means the situation is becoming more and more dangerous.”
The UK government has said such claims are false and are designed to distract from Russia’s military failures in Ukraine.
A spokesperson said: “In recent days, Russia has made a range of allegations against the UK, clearly designed to distract attention from Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine; Russia’s losses on the battlefield and its bombing of civilian populations and energy infrastructure without any regard for international law and the loss of innocent life.
“We do not plan to give a running commentary on these allegations; it is no secret that the United Kingdom has taken a public lead in our support to Ukraine – this has been enduring since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014.”
Moscow has cast Britain as a particularly insidious Western foil to Russia. President Vladimir Putin has said the UK is plotting to destroy Russia and carve up its vast natural resources.
Image: A Russian Yars intercontinental ballistic missile launched during nuclear exercises
Ambassador denies Moscow would use nuclear weapons
Speaking after Russia accused the West of “encouraging provocations with weapons of mass destruction”, Mr Kelin denied Moscow would use nuclear weapons in Ukraine.
Mr Kelin said: “The nuclear war cannot be won and it should never be fought. And we stick strongly to this statement.”
Image: A Russian Tu-95MS strategic bomber landing during exercises held by the country’s strategic nuclear forces
Asked if Moscow could use a tactical nuclear weapon in the conflict, Mr Kelin replied: “No. The world has every assurance that Russia is not going to use [a] tactical nuclear weapon in [the] Ukrainian conflict.”
Moscow has been ramping up its nuclear rhetoric since it invaded Ukraine, most recently by accusing Kyiv of planning to use a “dirty bomb,” though it did not offer evidence. Kyiv has denied it has any such plan.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said it feared the five declared nuclear powers were teetering “on the brink of a direct armed conflict”.
It added: “We are strongly convinced that in the current complicated and turbulent situation, caused by irresponsible and impudent actions aimed at undermining our national security, the most immediate task is to avoid any military clash of nuclear powers.”
Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama has accused the British government of “discriminating” against Albanians after a top UK official singled out the nationality for its role in illegal migration to the country.
Small-boat crossings of the English Channel from mainland Europe have become a political headache for UK ministers, who promised that Brexit would lead to tighter immigration controls.
Official statistics in the UK have said that Albanians are now the largest single group making small-boat crossings of the Channel.
‘Targeting Albanians’
In a series of messages posted on his personal Twitter account on Wednesday, Rama said UK officials have been actively “discriminating” against Albanians.
“Targeting Albanians (as some shamefully did when fighting for Brexit) as the cause of Britain’s crime and border problems makes for easy rhetoric but ignores hard fact,” Rama tweeted.
“Albanians in the UK work hard and pay tax. UK should fight the crime gangs of all nationalities and stop discriminating … to excuse policy failures,” he added.
Britain’s Home Secretary Suella Braverman was recently criticised for her choice of language during a heated Commons debate, when she alleged that there is an “invasion” of England by migrants.
Braverman has also pointed the finger at Albanian asylum seekers, saying that many Albanian adult maleswho seek asylum in the UK have posed as children, a practice she intended to “clamp down” on.
Albanian arrivals
British MPs were told recently that 12,000 Albanians had arrived in the country after crossing the Channel so far this year, compared with only 50 in 2020.
The number of migrant arrivals have reached record levels, causing delays in asylum applications and increasing costs in terms of housing and other social services.
Albanian organised crime gang groups are believed to be among the main players in smuggling migrants across the Channel to Britain from northern Europe.
Earlier this week, British and Belgian law enforcement officers said they had arrested three people suspected of being part of an Albanian people-smuggling ring.
A teenager from Turkeyplunged to her death while she was outside taking selfies on a rooftop.
Melike Gun Kanavuzlar died after falling off the top of a four-storey building, as she attempted to grab the phone she dropped during a selfie.
She was on a building in a town called Ortaca in Mugla Province, Western Turkey, on October 12, when she lost her balance and fell four stories onto the pavement below.
The distressing 11-second clip, captured via security cameras on neighboring buildings, starts off with a bystander strollingthe sidewalk outside the building.
All of a sudden, they venture out from under the building’s awning and Kanavuzlar’s body hits the concrete next to them with a sickening thud.
The teen was subsequently rushed to a state hospital in critical condition, before being transferred to an Intensive Care Unit in the city of Mugla in southwestern Turkey, Newsflash reported.
She hung on for 18 days before succumbing to her injuries.
Party official, has confirmed that the former prime minister was shot in the leg but is not in danger.
After shots were fired at a rally in Gujranwala, Pakistan’s former prime minister, Imran Khan, was hit in the leg.
Azhar Mashwani, a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf official, confirmed to Al Jazeera that Khan was shot in the leg but was not in danger.
Khan, who has been leading a protest march to the capital, Islamabad, demanding snap elections, was taken to a hospital in Lahore.
The identity of the shooter who opened fire at a container truck carrying Khan was not immediately clear. No group has claimedresponsibility for the attack.
Washington and Seoul will extend the Vigilant Storm air drills that prompted North Korea to issue a warning.
In response to North Korea‘s latest missile launch, including a suspected intercontinental ballistic missile, South Korea and the United States have agreed to extend their largest-ever military air drills (ICBM).
Hundreds of South Korean and US warplanes, including F-35 stealth fighters, have been staging round-the-clock simulated missions as part of one of the largest air exercises in history.
In a statement on Thursday, the South Korean military said the US had agreed to extend the Vigilant Storm air exercises – which were due to end on Friday – owing to North Korea’s “recent provocations”.
Chairman of South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff Kim Seung-kyum and the head of US Forces Korea Paul LaCamera held a virtual meeting and reaffirmed their commitment to “a stronger combined defence posture”, according to the statement.
The Vigilant Storm drills – which began on Monday – involved some 240 fighter jets and other aircraft conducting about 1,600 joint missions. The air drills followed just days after the South Korean military wrapped up their 12-day Hoguk 22 field exercises, and in which an undisclosed number of US troops had participated.
North Korean has condemned joint military drills between the US and South Korea as a rehearsal for invasion and had warned of “powerful follow-up measures” should air warfare exercises go ahead.
On Thursday, North Korea launched three ballistic missiles, including a suspected ICBM. The launch followed after Wednesday’s firing of 20 missiles, the most in a single day by North Korea, including one that landed off South Korea’s coast for the first time.
Seoul responded by sending fighter jets to fire air-to-ground missiles into water north of its border.
Alongside its missile launches, Pyongyang has adopted an escalatory nuclear doctrine that authorises preemptive nuclear attacks over a variety of loosely defined crisis situations.
South Korea and the US condemned Thursday’s launches, with Washington urging all nations to enforce sanctions on North Korea for violating United Nations Security Council resolutions that bar missiles and nuclear tests.
Ned Price, a spokesman for the US State Department, said North Korea had demonstrated that it was a threat to “its neighbours, the region, international peace and security, and the global non-proliferation regime”.
South Korean Vice Foreign Minister Cho Hyun-dong and US Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman strongly condemned North Korea’s series of missile launches as “deplorable, immoral” during a phone call on Thursday, Seoul’s foreign ministry said.
US President Joe Biden and his national security team was “assessing the situation,” National Security Council spokeswoman Adrienne Watson said in a statement, which added that the United States would take “all necessary measures” to ensure security.
In brief comments to reporters a few minutes later, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said, “North Korea’s repeated missile launches are an outrage and absolutely cannot be forgiven”.
Kishida called for greater trilateral security cooperation between the US, Japan and South Korea.
Nuclear talks between the US and North Korea broke down in early 2019 over disagreements over denuclearisation steps and have remained stalled since.
North Korea has so far ignored Biden’s calls for open-ended discussions, insisting that Washington should first discard its “hostile” policy, a term it mainly uses to describe sanctions and the joint US-South Korea military exercises.
The most important safeguard against major glacier retreat would be to drastically reduce carbon emissions globally.
According to a UNESCO report, some of the world’s most famous glaciers, including those in the Dolomites in Italy, the Yosemite and Yellowstone parks in the United States, and Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, will vanish by 2050 due to global warming, regardless of the temperature rise scenario.
According to UNESCO, which monitors 18,600 glaciers across 50 World Heritage Sites, one-third of those are expected to disappear by 2050.
While the rest can be saved by keeping global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) relative to pre-industrial levels, in a business-as-usual emissions scenario, about 50 percent of these World Heritage glaciers could almost entirely disappear by 2100.
The study “shows these glaciers have been retreating at an accelerated rate since 2000 due to CO2 emissions, which are warming temperatures”, UNESCO said.
World Heritage glaciers, as defined by UNESCO, represent about 10 percent of the world’s glacier areas and include some of the world’s best-known ones, whose loss is highly visible as they are focal points for global tourism.
Inevitable shrinking
The report’s lead author, Tales Carvalho, said World Heritage glaciers lose on average some 58 billion tonnes of ice every year – equivalent to the annual volume of water used in France and Spain together – and contribute to almost 5 percent of global observed sea level rise.
Carvalho said the most important protective measure to prevent major glacier retreat worldwide would be drastically reducing carbon emissions.
UNESCOrecommends that given the inevitable further shrinking of many of these glaciers in the near future, local authorities should make glaciers a focus of policy by improving monitoring and research and by implementing disaster risk-reduction measures.
“As glacier lakes fill up, they can burst and can cause catastrophic floods downstream,” Carvalho noted.
Countries have pledged to keep global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels – a goal the world is set to miss on current emission trends.
“This report is a call to action,” said UNESCO head Audrey Azoulay in advance of the COP27 climate summit in Egypt starting on Monday.
“Only a rapid reduction in our CO2 emissions levels can save glaciers and the exceptional biodiversity that depends on them. COP27 will have a crucial role to help find solutions to this issue.”
Disclaimer: A number of claims and counterclaims are being made on the Ukraine-Russia conflict on the ground and online. While WION takes utmost care to accurately report this developing news story, we cannot independently verify the authenticity of all statements, photos and videos.
Is Russian President Vladimir Putinseriously unwell? In the past few months, several claims and counterclaims have been made over the alleged deteriorating health of Putin.
Now, a recent report suggests that the Russian president is apparently battling Parkinson’s disease and pancreatic cancer. Citing leaked Kremlin documents, the British tabloid newspaper The Sun reported that Putin is currently under medication.
The report, which has also been published by several media outlets, states that the Russian president is “regularly stuffed with all kinds of heavy steroids” in order to ease his battle with his disease.
The report also attached videos and photos of the 70-year-old Russian leader, who has been routinely seen twitching and unsteady during several public appearances.
Putin’s health has been a matter of speculation, especially, during the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, which led to massive food and fuel crisis across the world.
The Sun claimed it has seen emails from a Russian intelligence source, which can reveal that Putin is suffering from both early-stage Parkinson’s besides pancreatic cancer. The report also mentioned that the cancer is now spreading to other parts of his body.
The bombshell email from an insider claimed: “I can confirm he has been diagnosed with early stage Parkinson’s disease, but it’s already progressing.
The source said that “this fact will be denied in every possible way and hidden.”
It further added: “Putin is regularly stuffed with all kinds of heavy steroids and innovative painkilling injections to stop the spread of pancreatic cancer he was recently diagnosed with.”
“It not only causes a lot of pain, Putin has a state of puffiness of the face and other side effects – including memory lapses. In his close circle, there are rumours that in addition to pancreatic cancer, which is gradually spreading, Putin also has prostate cancer,” the intelligence source added.
Videos released by 🇷🇺 Government news show what could be track marks, from IVs, on the hand of Putin.
For the same event, the Kremlin released two videos: One with tons of watermarks (making the hand harder to see), the other without any shot of his hand. pic.twitter.com/a1mfs6hOud
These reports emerged after some pictures went viral on social media platforms recently showing the Russian leader’s hand with track marks from possible IV treatment.
Recently, reports also claimed that Putin’s relatives were concerned about his “coughing fits, constant nausea and a lack of appetite”. This happened after he underwent an undisclosed medical examination.
Saifullah Paracha was released recently after 19 years in Guantanamo Bay for no crime. He won’t even get an apology.
I find it infuriating when a scarred life is reduced to a quirky curiosity.
That is what has happened to Saifullah Paracha, a 75-year-old Pakistani entrepreneur who was finally released in late October from the United States-run dungeons in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.
In reporting on Paracha’s belated liberation, several news organisations noted that he was the oldest captive there without, of course, admitting that, like so many others, he should not have spent a moment in jail given his US captors never came even remotely close to finding him guilty of a crime.
Paracha was locked up for 19 years at what one New York Times correspondent called a “seafront compound“. Sounds almost like a sun-kissed tourist resort rather than a brutish, remote prison featuring barbed wire fencing, guard dogs and armed US soldiers manning lookout posts.
In any event, that Paracha was an anomaly at Guantanamo Bay – where most of the other captives were much younger men – is what made him newsworthy.
Not the fact that Paracha wasted nearly two decades of his life in a dungeon as part of a covert, worldwide abduction racket. Nor the fact that Paracha was never charged by his American abductors and jailers during his long imprisonment.
But journalists, ultimately, aren’t the villains here.
The responsibility for this horror is shared by a succession of unrepentant US presidents who will likely never experience even a minute measure of regret or discomfort for what they did to an ageing, frail man and his family.
Paracha was “accused” of being an al-Qaeda sympathiser and “suspected” of bankrolling the group. That sentence, which quotes the BBC, contains two of the three most popular weasel words governments use to “link” – that’s the third – anyone to terrorism without proof.
In July 2003, a suspicious FBI lured Paracha to Thailand where they abducted him and flew him – bound, shackled and hooded – to Afghanistan, in an obscene affront to international law.
While being held incommunicado at a US military prison at Bagram, Paracha suffered the first of a series of heart attacks. Fourteen months later, he was taken – bound, shackled and hooded again – to Guantanamo Bay where, without a scintilla of evidence that he helped finance or promote al-Qaeda’s interests, he remained until a few days ago.
In 2005, Paracha’s son, Uzair, who was living in New York, was convicted and sentenced to 30 years in prison for allegedly “providing material support to terrorism”. Thirteen years later, in 2018, a US federal court judge ordered his release after exculpatory information was discovered that raised doubts about his conviction.
Justice Sydney Stein said he was granting Uzair a new trial because permitting the original judgement to stand would be “a manifest injustice”. Two years later, prosecutors dropped the case against Uzair.
The Paracha family has indeed been the victim of a “manifest injustice”, perpetrated by powerful men who, today, are being rehabilitated and feted as “elder statesmen”.
American presidents are not only immune to accountability; they are also immune to shame.
I doubt that George W Bush, Barack Obama and Donald Trump remember who Paracha is or care a whit about his fate since one of the principal qualifications to become commander-in-chief is to be prepared to deploy American force to harm and kill people in defence of the “national interest”.
In particular, the conduct of that smug liberal darling, Obama, in connection with Paracha’s ordeal is shameful.
A “task force” established on inauguration day by the then-new president reported to him in 2010 that there was “no evidence” to justify laying charges against some of the Guantanamo “detainees” but added that they were “too dangerous” to be set free. In April 2013 it emerged that Paracha was one of 71 captives who were innocent.
Still, politics trumped integrity. And Obama allowed a sick, honest man to remain captive rather than release him into the care of his loving family in Pakistan.
What makes Paracha’s lengthy incarceration in America’s gulag all the more egregious is that the businessman had lived and worked in the US since the 1970s and throughout his inhumane odyssey professed not only his innocence but love and gratitude for his adopted country.
None of that history mattered.
The US – spurred on by revenge-thirsty columnists who told Iraqis to “suck on this” – was hunting “terrorists” in Kabul, Baghdad and beyond.
Paracha was merely disposable, forgettable fodder to be used to show how ruthless both Republicans and Democrats could be in shielding their “homeland” from future attacks.
The rule of law didn’t matter. International law didn’t matter. The US Constitution’s rights and guarantees didn’t matter. Fairness didn’t matter. Due process didn’t matter.
And of course, Saifullah Paracha didn’t matter.
The prime years of his life didn’t matter. He was a nobody. Not a husband. Not a father. Not a brother. Not a son. Just another Muslim that a sham, illegal apparatus run by soldiers at the behest of presidents got what he deserved.
But what Paracha and his family deserve, at the very least, is an apology. That won’t happen. It should, but it won’t. Presidents don’t apologise to men like Saifullah Paracha. It would be beneath them and the office of the presidency to apologise. They’re important. He’s not.
But a recent photo of Paracha reveals that, through it all, he held tight to his humanity and perhaps his sense of humour. Arms crossed, wearing a white t-shirt and a wry smile, he sits at a table in a McDonald’s restaurant in Karachi.
I supposethat after this burst of attention, Paracha will slip back into anonymity and try, as best he can, to recover and enjoy the sunset of his life. He will do that in the quiet knowledge that he is a better man than the preening presidents who will always carry the blot of the indecency they visited on a decent human being.
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
After winning the Brazilian election, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva will be re-elected President of Brazil in January, more than a decade after he last held the position. Despite his narrow victory, current President Jair Bolsonaro received more than 49 percent of the vote.
Lula, as he is known, will now attempt to roll back many of Bolsonaro’s right-wing policies – including the loosening of Brazil’s gun-control measures, which led to the number of guns in private hands doubling since 2018. But how easy will that be?
As anti-French sentiments rise in Bamako, Mali’s military government has been strengthening ties with Russia.
Mali’s economy minister, Alousseini Sanou, says the West African country expects Russia to send shipments of fuel, fertilizer, and food worth around $100 million in the coming weeks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed providing the supplies with his Malian counterpart in August, a sign of deepening ties as Mali’s relationship has soured with its longtime ally and former colonial ruler, France.
Speaking on national television from Moscow, Sanou said on Wednesday that Russia was going to send 60,000 tonnes of petroleum products, 30,000 tonnes of fertiliser and 25,000 tonnes of wheat.
Mali’s ruling military government came to power in a 2020 coup and has sparred repeatedly with neighbouring countries and Western powers over election delays, alleged army abuses and cooperation with Russian mercenaries in its fight against an uprising that has raged in Mali since 2012.
Fighters from the Wagner Group, a Kremlin-linked private military company, have been supporting the Malian army since late last year in its fight against groups linked to al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS).
In October, Putin told Mali’s interim president, Assimi Goita, that Moscow was committed to strengthening cooperation to help root out “terrorist groups” in Mali.
France intervened militarily in Mali in 2013, leading an effort to removearmed groups that had seized control of towns in northern Mali.
The departure of French troops in August raised new concerns about whether those fighters would regain territory as security responsibilities have now fallen on the Malian military and United Nations peacekeepers.
Officials say the accident in the Karaganda mine was caused by a sudden release of methane gas.
A sudden release of gas during the drilling of a drainage well led to the deaths of five workers” on Thursday in the Lenin coal mine belonging to ArcelorMittal, Ruslan Imankulov, a spokesman for the country’s emergency ministry, told the AFP news agency.
Imankulov added that “four people were hospitalised and 106 were evacuated”.
The mine is located in the town of Shakhtinsk in the resource-rich region of Karaganda, whose governor said the accident had been caused by an “explosion of methane” – a gas that, when combined with a certain amount of oxygen, can combust.
An investigation into potential violations of safety rules has been opened by a government commission.
In a statement, Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev offered his “condolences to the families and friends of the deceased workers”, and wished a “speedy recovery to the injured”.
Kazakhstan, a former Soviet republic and Central Asia’s leading economy, has significant deposits of oil, gas and coal, as well as uranium, manganese, iron and chromium.
Mining accidents are frequent in the countries of the former Soviet Union due to the dilapidation of facilities and a lax approach to safety.
Police in South Africaare investigating the discovery of at least 21 bodies of suspected illegal miners near an active mine in Krugersdorp, west of Johannesburg.
Police say 19 bodies were discovered on Wednesday afternoon, with two more discovered on Thursday morning. Police believe the bodies were moved to the location where they were discovered, which is a privately owned mine.
“We can confirm that this morning our search and rescue team went back to the scene and, as they were searching, they discovered two more bodies,” police spokeswoman Brenda Muridili said Thursday. “They retrieved them from an open (mine) shaft.”
The discovery is the latest in a series of incidents related to illegal mining in the Krugersdorp area. In July, eight female members of a film crew were raped and robbed at an abandoned mine in the area, where they were working on a music video shoot. The incident sparked violent protests against illegal miners in surrounding communities.
Last week, rape and robbery charges against 14 men, who are also suspected of being illegal miners, were withdrawn after police couldn’t link them to the rapes through DNA evidence. The men were among more than 80 people arrested during police raids on the abandoned mine where the rapes took place.
Illegal mining is rife in South Africa, with miners known locally as “zama zamas” searching for gold at the many disused and abandoned mines in and around the Johannesburg region. Krugersdorp is a mining town on the western edges of Johannesburg.
Illegal mining gangs, usually armed, are considered dangerous by the police and are known to fight violent turf battleswith rival groups. The trade is believed to be dominated by immigrants who enter illegally from neighboring countries Lesotho, Zimbabwe, and Mozambique.
The 14 men who had rape and robbery charges against them dropped are accused of being in South Africa illegally and have been charged with immigration offenses.
The Federal Reserve announced a 0.75 percentage point increase in its key interest rate, bringing it to its highest level since early 2008.
The bank believes that raising borrowing costs will cool the economy and reduce price inflation.
However, critics are concerned that the moves will precipitate a severe downturn.
The latest increase takes the bank’s benchmark lending rate to 3.75% – 4%, a range which is the highest since January 2008.
Many other countries are moving along with the US to raise borrowing costs, as they grapple with their own inflation problems.
In the UK, the Bank of England started raising rates last year but has so far opted for smaller hikes than the Fed. The Bank of England is expected to announce its own 0.75 percentage point hike on Thursday – the biggest such move since 1989.
The sharp rise in borrowing costs has already started to cool some parts of the economy, such as housing.
But economists say more economic slowdown is necessary if inflation is to return to the 2% level considered healthy.
“There is always the hope of painless, immaculate disinflation,” said economist Willem Buiter, a former member of the Monetary Policy Committee of the Bank of England who is now an independent economic advisor. “Unfortunately there are very few historical episodes that fit that picture”.
“This is not going to be a pleasant year,” he added.
Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell warned that rates were likely to move up again.
“We still have some ways to go and incoming data since our last meeting suggest that the ultimate level of interest rates will be higher than previously expected,” he said at a press conference following the announcement.
“We will stay the course until the job is done,” Mr Powell added.
Inflation – the rate at which prices rise – hit 8.2% in the US last month, continuing to fall after reaching 9.1% in June – the highest rate since 1981.
A decline in energy prices has helped ease the pressures, but the cost of groceries, medical bills, and many other items is still rising.
Two of the country’s largest pharmacies have agreed to pay more than $10 billion to settle thousands of lawsuits stemming from their roles in the US opioid crisis.
The proposed deals with CVS and Walgreens are the latest chapter in a long legal saga in which companies have been accused of contributing to the abuse of addictive painkillers.
Settlements with pharmaceutical companies and distributors have already brought in more than $30 billion.
The pharmacies deny any wrongdoing.
But they have lost some high-profile, smaller legal battles recently, with a judge ordering the two firms and Walmart to pay more than $650m (£567m) to two Ohio counties.
CVS chief executive Karen Lynch said on a call with analysts that the settlement was in the “best interests of all parties and helps put a decades-old issue behind us”.
Local governments, Native American tribes, and others behind the total of more than 3,000 lawsuits will now decide whether or not to accept the settlement. It would allow them to funnel money to help them address the local costs of a crisis that the US says has claimed more than 560,000 lives since 1999.
Lawyers for the plaintiffs that helped negotiate the deal called the proposal an “important step” to holding the pharmacies “accountable”.
“Once effectuated, these agreements will be the first resolutions reached with pharmacy chains and will equip communities across the country with the much-needed tools to fight back against this epidemic and bring about tangible, positive change,” the legal team said in a statement.
Since former US President Donald Trump declared the opioid epidemic a national emergency in 2017, the situation has worsened.
Overdoses involving opioids jumped 30% in 2020 and another 15% last year, with illegally manufactured fentanyl driving the recent crisis, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The situation has strained public resources, with the economic toll of the opioid crisis in 2020 alone mounting to $1.5tn, according to a congressional report last month.
Advocate, author, and recovering addict Ryan Hampton said many are ready for the years of legal fighting to an end, but that the settlements have fallen short of early hopes. He warned that policymakers will need to commit more resources if they hope to do more than make a dent in the crisis.
“It is my hope that these dollars are put to use immediately on the ground, 100% of them,” he said. “That’s my hope. My fear is that when the dollar is distributed… that yes, it’s nothing but it’s nowhere near enough.”
While the settlements often outline how the funds should be spent – sending funds to facilities that offer treatment programmes, for example – Mr Hampton said the jury is still out on the overall impact.
“They’re much needed but are we really just plugging a hole in the dam at this point?” he said. “We’re going to need massive federal investment that goes beyond litigation dollars if we’re going to get anywhere near preventing these tragic overdose deaths.”
In the lawsuits brought by local communities, Native American tribes, and other parties since 2017, the pharmacy chains were accused of ignoring red flags while handling prescriptions for the drugs.
CVS said it would pay about $5bn over 10 years to settle the claims, while Walgreens Boots Alliance has agreed to pay $5.7bn over 15 years.
Walmarthas also reached a $3.1bn deal, Reuters reported. Walmart declined to comment.
In response to the conflict in Ukraine, the United Kingdom has imposed sanctions on four Russian steel and petrochemical tycoons.
Alexander Abramov and Alexander Frolov were among those who received sanctions; according to the UK, they were known allies of the oligarch Roman Abramovich, who received sanctions of his own earlier this year.
“Today we are sanctioning an additional four oligarchs who rely on
Putin for their positions of authority and in turn fund his military machine,” Foreign Secretary James Cleverly said.
“By targeting these individuals, we are ramping up the economic pressure on Putin and will continue to do so until Ukraine prevails.”
Putin continues to rely on his cabal of selected elite to maintain control and fuel his illegal invasion of Ukraine.
We are sanctioning four oligarchs who rely on Putin for their positions of authority and wealth and in turn fund his military machine. https://t.co/HH5GIKePNy
White House spokesman, the US does not perceive any indications that Russia is getting ready to use nuclear weapons.
Spokesman John Kirby declared: “We have been clear from the beginning that Russia’s comments about the potential use of nuclear weapons are deeply concerning, and we take them seriously.”
“We continue to monitor this as best we can, and we see no indications that Russia is making preparations for such use.”
Kirby’s remarks came after the New York Times newspaper reported earlier on Wednesday that senior Russian military leaders had recently held discussions about when and how Moscow might deploy a tactical nuclear weapon in Ukraine, citing multiple unnamed US officials.
Russia says it is fully committed to preventing nuclear war, stating that avoiding conflict between the world’s nuclear powers is its first priority.
“We fully reaffirm our commitment to the joint statement of the five nuclear-weapon states leaders on the prevention of nuclear war and the avoidance of an arms race from January 3, 2022,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.
That statement by Russia, the United States, China, the United Kingdom, and France said they agreed “a nuclear war cannot be won”.
White House national security spokesman John Kirby says, the United States has information that suggests North Korea is clandestinely supplying Russia with a “significant” amount of artillery shells for use in Ukraine.
North Korea was trying to conceal the shipments by routing them through nations in the Middle East and North Africa, Kirby said in a virtual briefing.
“Our indications are that the DPRK is covertly supplying, and we are going to monitor to see whether the shipments are received,” Kirby said, referring to the country by the acronym of its official name, adding that the US would consult with the United Nations on accountability issues over the shipments.
“It is not an insignificant number of shells, but we don’t believe they are in such a quantity that they would change the momentum of the war,” he said.
North Korea said in September that it had never supplied weapons or ammunition to Russia and has no plans to do so.
President Vladimir Putin has threatened to walk away from the Ukraine grain deal again if Kyiv breaches the security guarantees that Moscowclaims it has provided.
“Russia retains the right to leave these agreements if these guarantees from Ukraine are violated,” Putin said in televised comments hours after Russia announced it was rejoining the deal.
Moscow said it had received assurances from Kyiv that it would not use the secure shipping corridor or its designated Ukrainian ports for attacks against Russia.
Putin affirmed the receipt of those commitments and said that if Russia withdrew once more because of Ukrainian breaches, it would substitute the entire volume of grain destined for the “poorest countries” for free from its own stocks.
But, in a nod to Turkey’s influence, as well as what he called its “neutrality” in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine, Putin added: “In any case, we will not in the future impede deliveries of grain from Ukrainian territory to the Turkish Republic.”
Warning: This story contains details of child sexual assault.
A culture of misogyny and predatory behavior, fuelled by poor vetting standards, is “prevalent” in police forces across England and Wales, according to a police watchdog.
Wednesday’s report by the HM Inspectorate of Constabulary comes more than a year after the March 2021 death of Sarah Everard, who was killed by Metropolitan Police officer Wayne Couzens.
He was last year jailed for life for the kidnapping, rape, and murder of the 33-year-old in a case that exposed the failings of the police force.
Police were criticised for neglecting to take any action after Couzens allegedly exposed himself in 2015 and was involved in another incident in 2002.
Sarah Everard [File: Metropolitan Police/AFP]
The interior minister at the time, Priti Patel, ordered the police watchdog to investigate misogynistic and predatory behaviour within forces.
In some of the most concerning cases Wednesday’s report cited, police officers who had been hired without thorough checks had gone on to sexually abuse children.
A force in Cheshire, for instance, failed to properly vet a candidate who was accused of rape.
In October 2017, months after Ian Naude had been hired, the then 30-year-old answered a call to a domestic abuse emergency where he ended up meeting a 13-year-old girl.
Three days later, while “her mother was out, he drove the child to a secluded country lane and raped her, filming the offense on his mobile phone” the report said.
“Over the last decade, there have been many warning signs that these systemsaren’t working well enough. Some police officers have used their unique position to commit appalling crimes, especially against women,” the report said.
Female officers were surveyed and the report found that an “alarming number” of women reported “appalling behavior by male colleagues”.
This included allegations of sexual harassment and “serious sexual assault”.
“We concluded that far too many women had, at some stage in their career, experienced unwanted sexual behavior towards them,” the report added.
The watchdog looked at 11,277 police officers and staff and examined 725 vetting files.
Inspectors called for minimum standards for pre-employment checks and for changes to the law dealing with police complaints and disciplinary procedures.
‘Too easy’
Lead inspector Matt Parr found that “it is too easy for the wrong people to both join and stay in the police” and that there were “significant questions” over the recruitment of “thousands” of officers.
While most police officers and staff meet the required standards of behaviour, the report found “systemic failings, missed opportunities, and a generally inadequate approach to setting and maintaining standards in the police service.
“It is too easy for the wrong people to both join and stay in the police. If the police are to rebuild public trust and protect their own female officers and staff vetting must be much more rigorous and sexual misconduct taken more seriously,” said Parr.
The London force tweeted in response that it would be “ruthless in ridding the Met of those who corrupt our integrity”.
Inspectors also found cases where incidents such as indecent exposure were dismissed as a “one-off” and where applicants with links to “extensive criminality” in their families had been hired.
The report said that “over the last three or four years, the number of people recruited over whom we would raise significant questions is certainly in the hundreds, if not low thousands”.
Patel’s successor Suella Braverman said the report shines a “stark light” on problems within the police, adding it was “unacceptable” that women “continue to experience misogynistic and sexist behaviour”.
Human rights organizations say that authorities are “harming hundreds of thousands… to advance a dubious government development agenda.”
According to Human Rights Watch, more than 200,000 Nigerians displaced by long-running violence are struggling for food and shelter after authorities in the northeast closed some of the camps they were living in and stopped aid.
Borno state, the epicenter of the Boko Haram conflict, announced in October 2021 that it would close all camps housing thousands of internally displaced people and return some of them to their communities. It cited increased security and the need to wean displaced people off humanitarian aid.
In a report released on Wednesday, Human Rights Watch said people removed from the camps were struggling to meet their most basic needs, including food and shelter, in the places where they had returned or resettled.
More than 140,000 people had been removed from eight camps in Borno while food aid to two more camps had been stopped as of August this year, Human Rights Watch said. Those two camps hold more than 74,000 people and will close this year.
“The Borno state government is harming hundreds of thousands of displaced people already living in precarious conditions to advance a dubious government development agenda to wean people off humanitarian aid,” Anietie Ewang, Nigeria researcher at Human Rights Watch, said in the report.
“By forcing people from camps without creating viable alternatives for support, the government is worsening their suffering and deepeningtheir vulnerability,” she said.
Borno state commissioner for information Babakura Abba Jato told Reuters he could not immediately comment on the report.
The state government says some areas formerly occupied by Boko Haram fighters are now safe for citizens to return to, and it has rebuilt some communities although aid groups say they remain vulnerable to attacks.
Some of the camps and settlements for displaced people have been hit by a cholera outbreak, and children have been the worst hit.
Last month, about 2,000 people started moving into a new residential complex in Ngarannam that had been rebuilt by the United Nations and the state government.
Ngarannam, 50km (31 miles) south of Borno’s capital, Maiduguri, was overrun by Boko Haram in 2015.
The African Union has announced that Ethiopia’s government and Tigrayan forces have formally agreed to end fighting following talks in South Africa.
The parties in the conflict in Ethiopia’s northern region of Tigray have agreed on a “permanent cessation of hostilities”, the African Union mediator said, just over a week after formal peace talks began in South Africa.
Former Nigerian President Olesegun Obasanjo, in the first briefing on the peace talks, also said Ethiopia’s government and Tigray authorities have agreed on “orderly, smooth and coordinated disarmament” along with “restoration of law and order,” “restoration of services” and “unhindered access to humanitarian supplies.”
The agreement marked a new “dawn” for Ethiopia, he said, speaking at a press conference.
The war, which broke out in November 2020, pits regional forces from Tigray against Ethiopia’s federal army and its allies, who include forces from other regions and from neighbouring Eritrea.
“It is now for all of us to honor this agreement,” said the lead negotiator for Ethiopia’s government, Redwan Hussein.
Tigray’s rebels hailed the deal and said they had made “concessions.”
“We are ready to implement and expedite this agreement,” said the head of their delegation, Getachew Reda.
“In order to address the pains of our people, we have made concessions because we have to build trust.”
“Ultimately, the fact that we have reached a point where we have now signed an agreement speaks volumes about the readiness on the part of the two sides to lay the past behind them to chart a new path of peace,” said Reda.
The conflict, which has at times spilled out of Tigray into the neighbouring regions of Amhara and Afar, has killed thousands of people, displaced millions from their homes and left hundreds of thousands on the brink of famine.
Urgent need for aid
Neither Eritrea nor regional forces allied with the Ethiopian army took part in the talks in South Africa and it was unclear whether they would abide by the agreement reached there.
Eritrean forces have been blamed for some of the conflict’s worst abuses, including gang rapes, and witnesses have described killings and lootings by Eritrean forces even during the peace talks.
Obasanjo, who has been leading the African Union’s mediation team, said the implementation of the agreement would be supervised and monitored by a high-level African Union panel. He praised the process as an African solution to an African problem and said the agreement would allow humanitarian supplies to Tigray to be restored.
A critical question is how soon aid can return to Tigray, whose communications and transport links have been largely severed since the conflict began. Doctors have described running out of basic medicines like vaccines, insulin, and therapeutic food while people die of easily preventable diseases and starvation.
United Nations human rights investigators have said the Ethiopian government was using “starvation of civilians” as a weapon of war.
“We’re back to 18th-century surgery,” a surgeon at the region’s flagship hospital, Fasika Amdeslasie, told health experts at an online event Wednesday. “It’s like an open-air prison.”
A humanitarian source said their organization could resume operations almost immediately if unfettered aid access to Tigray is granted.
“It entirely depends on what the government agrees to … If they genuinely give us access, we can start moving very quickly, in hours, not weeks,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorised to speak publicly.
Nadia Buari and her family celebrated Halloween in grand style, wearing costumes as part of the worldwide celebrations.
The actress her mother, and her siblings dressed up in scary outfits and masks to participate in the international celebration.
Nadia Buari donned a nurse-inspired outfit and smokey makeup for the Halloween occasion.
Hajia Buari, her mother, wore a blonde wig and a black gown. Her makeup was simple, with two scars on both sides of her cheeks.
Her bother, Jameel Buari, wore a black and white skeleton mask and didn’t have any unusual makeup on.
Also, Nadia Buari’s sister, who recently tied the knot, Samera Buari, stole the moment as her makeup and outfit truly represented the theme of the occasion.
Kasapreko Company Ltd,an indigenous beverage manufacturer, has announced that all categories of workers will receive double pay in November 2022.
The decision was informed by current economic uncertainties and price volatility in the country, which are affecting the well-being of staff, according to a memo from Kasapreko management to staff, contractors, and casual employees.
“In addition to other measures taken to cushion staff and their families in the face of these challenges, management is announcing the payment of Double Salary to all permanent, contract and casual employees in November, 2022.
“It is Management’s expectation that this payment would bring relief to all staff and their families as we all weather these challenges,” the memo signed by Managing Director, Richard Adjei, said.
The memo to staff has been trending on social media. Source: UGC. Source: UGC
Kasapreko is a leading manufacturer of alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages in the country and a member of the prestigious Ghana Club 100 Company.
President Ruto has dispatched over 900 military personnel to combat armed groups in eastern DRC.Kenyan President William Ruto has announced that his country will send over 900 military personnel to the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to join a new regional force tasked with attempting to defuse deadly tensions fueled by armed groups.
Ruto on Wednesday called the mission “necessary and urgent” for regional security and said he and the DRC’s president had agreed on how Kenyan forces would work with Congolese and other forces on disarming rebels and peacekeeping in the country’s troubled east.
The Kenyan forces will be based in Goma, eastern DRC’s largest city. The East African Community regional force, agreed upon by heads of state in June and led by a Kenyan commander, also has two battalions from Uganda, two from Burundi, and one from South Sudan.
Nairobi made its troop commitment a day after angry crowds set fire to United Nations vehicles in Goma as frustrations mount over the advance of M23 rebels and the deteriorating security situation in the eastern DRC.
Protesters have set fire to UN vehicles in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, after unconfirmed rumours spread about the UN’s MONUSCO force allegedly transporting rebel soldiers ⤵️ pic.twitter.com/6fYWxBhVZN
Violence by armed groups has led to a diplomatic crisis between the DRC and neighboring Rwanda. The DRC has accused Rwanda of supporting the rebels, which Rwanda denies. Meanwhile, it has accused the DRC of backing another rebel group hostile to Rwanda.
In October, Kinshasa expelled Rwanda’s ambassador to the DRC.
The UN vehicles were targeted in Goma over false rumors that the peacekeepingmission known as MONUSCO had transported rebels, adding to the dissatisfaction many people in eastern DRC have towards the troops.
“Because of these rebels, we have fled our homes in Rugari, Kibumba,” protester Kasereka Munyafura said, standing next to a truck on fire. “That is why we are angry, and we have just burnt the vehicles of MONUSCO because it makes us suffer.”
Earlier on Tuesday, the UN peacekeeping mission had announced a “strategic and tactical withdrawal” from embattled Rumangabo. The M23 rebels have been trying to advance on the town, where a military base is located.
The M23 rose to prominence more than a decade ago when its fighters seized Goma, which sits along the border with Rwanda. After a peace deal, many of the M23′s fighters were integrated into the national military.
The group took up arms again in November last year, saying the government had failed to live up to its promises. Over the weekend, the rebels doubled the territory they hold, seizing control of two major towns.
Nearly a third of Britons are going back to the office more because of the cost of living crisis, in a bid to save money on energy bills.
Some 71% of those now working from the office have noticed a change in the price of their energy bills, according to research from Brother (who surveyed 500 people).
Additional research from money.co.uk found monthly bills were the biggest financial concern for people in the UK – regardless of what salary they earned.
One in eight of those earning under £15,000 were concerned about having enough money for food.
Those earning about £55,000 were most worried about their mortgage payments.
What do you do if you cannot pay a bill?
James Andrews, a financial expert at Money.co.uk, says: “As ever more people are becoming concernedwith how they’re going to pay their bills every month, it’s important to know what steps you can take if you do find yourself unable to make a payment.
“Don’t ignore the problem. Being unable to pay a bill is stressful, but the problem can escalate if you don’t tackle it sooner rather than later. Rather than bury your head in the sand, make contact with the company that sent the bill – they’re likely to be more understanding if you’re upfront and honest about your circumstances.
“Prioritise housing and council tax. No one wants to miss a bill, but failing to keep up with your rent, mortgage or other debt payments secured on your home can see you evicted. That makes these bills a priority. Council tax is the only bill you can be imprisoned for failing to pay – so that’s another bill you need to pay attention to.
“Keep paying what you can, if you can. Even if you can’t pay off the entire bill, paying what you can demonstrates that you are committed to clearing the balance eventually. This will also reduce the amount you owe, and therefore mitigate any increases on the bill if interest builds on the outstanding balance.
“Get help. If you’re struggling to control your finances, there are several not-for-profit organisations that can consider your personal circumstances and offer you free, bespoke advice. StepChange, National Debtline, or CCCS are all dependable examples.”
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