mardi 15 novembre 2022

FIFA, UN bring football training to classrooms in Ivory Coast

 Ivory Coast is one of the three nations where a football training program piloted with the help of UNESCO.

Last week, elementary school students in Abidjan, the commercial city of Ivory Coast, took part in a FIFA program designed to increase participation in football and its positive impact on children's education.


FIFA's Football for Schools (F4S) programme was established in 2019 with trial programs in Puerto Rico and Lebanon, and Ivory Coast is the first country in West Africa and the sixth on the continent to participate.

Youngsters, coached by FIFA officials and outfitted in yellow bibs and white jerseys, worked on their passing and dribbling skills between rows of cones.


Manager of F4S in Abidjan, Fatimata Sow, claimed that playing football helped children overcome adversity, develop their leadership potential, and improve their interpersonal and communication skills.


The program is run in conjunction with UNESCO and aims to help educate about 700 million children by incorporating sports and learning.


Football and learning are brought together in these seminars. Antonio Buenano, an instructor with Football for Success, has said that each session teaches students about life as well as football and its technical aspects.


FIFA's website states that the organization will provide a one-time funding injection of $50,000 to each of the participating member associations. The number of participating member organizations is currently unknown.

Additionally, classroom supplies will be made available to schools.

SOURCE:NEWS AGENCIES

Ahead of World Cup 2022, we visit Diego Maradona’s neighbourhood

 Locals in his old stomping grounds often reminisce about him, remembering him as imperfect but fiery and a ball wizard.

As a Diego Maradona fan, you may have heard implausible tales about the Argentine legend.

One that you may partake in begins with an orange and a modest school with a beautiful courtyard full with flowering plants. Maradona received his early education in the slums of Villa Fiorito, a working-class suburb of Buenos Aires.

According to urban legend, on his way home from school, he kicked and played tricks with the orange he received for dessert as if it were a football, demonstrating his growing mastery of the object.


Christian Bustos, 44, a lifetime resident of Fiorito, remarked, "That's the famous story," as he stood at the school's entrance.

Maradona amazed his instructors with his football prowess even at a young age.


He left Villa Fiorito and the modest white home he and his parents and five siblings had occupied when he was a teenager. He moved to La Paternal, a suburb of Buenos Aires, where he played for the Argentina Juniors. From there, he made the switch to Boca Juniors, also in Buenos Aires, and shot to fame throughout the world.



Even though he has been dead for two years due to heart failure and pulmonary edema, the spirit of the tenacious, contentious, and revered celebrity still reverberates throughout Fiorito. The aging face of the town bears his likeness.

Artists have created murals of Maradona on buildings and stadiums. People passing by these photographs on their way to work had to endure seeing them on decaying walls and in front of a dirt field used by a local football team.


Bustos, who works at the Fiorito Cultural Centre, believes that "all of us in the community have some of Maradona in us." Those of us who were born in Fiorito know what it's like to challenge the establishment and win.


Since Maradona smashed that orange all over its streets, Fiorito has seen significant transformation. Lighting, plumbing, and other curb appeal enhancements are in place. The dirt field where Maradona sharpened his abilities is now surrounded by homes, and the street corner where neighbours used to throw their waste is now a grass-covered plaza.

A painting of a young Diego Maradona now hangs in the renovated courtyard of the school where he first encountered oranges.

Laura Fleitas, a 46-year-old teacher who has been at the school since 1998, reflected on the significance of the fact that it was Maradona's alma mater.


Both his grandma and his godmom were employees here. The grand chef in the family was his grandma. They had a lot of fame among the locals.


Claudio "Tati" Villarruel, now 48 years old, has also learned about Maradona's early days in the game through tales told to him by his father, who co-founded Estrellas Unidas, the Fiorito football team for whom Maradona once played. Estrellas Rojas was the original name for the area.


They started as a small group that met at people's homes, but eventually they built a clubhouse close to where Maradona resided to give themselves more legitimacy.

Villarruel's uncle, Osvaldo, recently recalled how, when Maradona was only five or six years old, he would actually dance around him and the other older boys with a football, much to their disgust. Villarruel, who grew up five blocks from Maradona's home house and is now the secretary general of Estrellas Unidas, joked that they would send him packing on some days.


On October 30, the club hosted a BBQ and celebration in honor of Maradona's birthday, gathering musicians, artists, relatives, and former teammates to the clubhouse, which was decked up in Maradona memorabilia.


The men of Maradona's generation embraced one another and reflected on the rapid passage of time since their own playing days. The crowd then flocked out onto the sidewalk to help unveil a new street sign honoring Maradona.


Many fans here admired not only Maradona's football prowess but also his boldness in the offseason. He railed against American imperialism and the Vatican's wealth while lamenting Argentina's worsening poverty.

Without Diego, Villarruel stated, "I couldn't fathom this World Cup because Diego gave it that quota of joy and pride."


With all the things he might be saying, we still miss him. Nothing was ever spoken without him saying it. What he went through with his addiction is irrelevant to us since he is not alone and, as he put it, "You can't stain the ball."


While certain aspects of life in Fiorito have evolved, others have remained largely unchanged. The neighborhood where Maradona had resided now has a sewage system, whereas another nearby neighborhood does not. Fiorito's plight of abject poverty persists.

In the year since it was designated as a historical landmark by the Argentine government, Maradona's childhood home has become something of a shrine to the star. Even though the mansion is closed to the public and in ruin, devoted fans still lay flags and flowers in front of it. Maradona's mom reportedly gave the house to a lady she knew, and the lady's son currently resides there.


Bustos expresses regret that more has not been done to protect the home's historical value and other ties that Fiorito has to Maradona, which he feels may be an economic engine for residents.


Residents take great satisfaction in calling Maradona's old stomping grounds home, but he claims they are used to the constant stream of tourists and picture opportunities that bring them little actual progress.


We know because we experience it," Bustos remarked. So many times they've lied to us already. A lot of people, including Diego, have taken up his cause of standing up to the powerful, and I think this quote captures the spirit of that struggle.


Bustos's personal goal is to provide his neighborhood with more opportunities to express their creativity. He's been collaborating with neighborhood artists on murals to brighten up the neighborhood.


They painted murals on the sides of houses during the COVID-19 epidemic, some of which were memorials to those who had died. As he put it, "convirtiendo el dolor a color" (translating to "converting the anguish into something that is colourful") is the Spanish phrase he used.

Maradona has been gone from Fiorito for quite some time, but the bonds of friendship he established among the locals are unbreakable.


"I appreciated that he fought with everyone," Bustos remarked of him. And I suppose all of us from Fiorito have a little of that air of superiority. Not only Fiorito, but everyone, wanted some of Maradona. You're sad about the way things turned out. Even though many people said that he was free to do whatever he pleased, I don't believe he received the attention he needed.


Even though Maradona has left this world, his legacy lives on in the residents of Villa Fiorito. Gustavo Horacio Insaurralde, 39, sits at his desk in a building in town with a giant mural of Maradona seated on a pitch on its rear wall.


The man spends five days a week searching the streets of Buenos Aires collecting cardboard boxes and other recyclables to resell. Next to the Maradona picture, he keeps the big sacks containing his daily earnings. Bags of cardboard are "the bread I bring home for my family," he explained.

After thinking about the happiness Maradona brought to the world, Insaurralde made a profound observation. After his passing, he attempted to pay his respects by joining the crowds waiting to examine his body in Argentina's presidential palace, but scuffles between supporters and authorities prevented him from entering.

'Diego was a wizard,' Insaurralde said. Maybe he wasn't as great a person as we'd anticipated. There are things he did that get males in trouble, and you have to show them that those behaviors are counterproductive. True, he worked miracles with the ball, but that's not the point. In a dramatic gesture, he raised the jersey above his head.

SOURCE:NEWS AGENCIES & Aljazeera net

Population growth slows in India as world reaches eight billion

 The United Nations projects that India will overtake China as the most populated nation in the world in 2019.

While India was once a major contributor to the world's population boom, recent estimates suggest that the country's rate of growth has slowed significantly.



Low birthrates in the South Asian country have prompted at least one state to consider reevaluating its policy of discouraging couples from having more than two children.

The United Nations predicts that as of Tuesday, the world's population will have reached eight billion, with China and India together accounting for more than a third of that number. India has a population of 1.38 billion people, which is slightly less than China's estimated population of 1.4 billion, according to the World Bank.

The United Nations predicts that India will overtake China as the most populous nation by 2023.

But official data shows that India's yearly population growth has slowed to 1.2 percent since 2011, down from 1.7 percent in the prior decade.

Even more slowdown is to be anticipated. As reported in a government study published last month, India's total fertility rate (TFR) - children per woman - decreased to two in the latest assessment period, for 2019-2021, from 3.4 in 1992-1993.

The population can only sustain itself if the average is over 2.1 children.

The government suggests that the drop in reproduction rates may be attributable to the increased use of contraception and the increased education of females.


From 2015–16, the percentage of people who used any kind of family planning increased to 66.7 percent in 2019–2021.

United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) remarks shared with Reuters news agency showed that this trend boded well for the effectiveness of India's national population plans and health systems.

The United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA) said that while India should prioritize its young people, it should also prepare for a demographic shift that would need it to care for a larger share of its elderly population in the future.

This is an absolute necessity at this time.

Odisha is an eastern state where the TFR fell by 21% between 2008-2010 and 2019-2021; this may have been too rapid a decline from the government's perspective.

In a June note seen by Reuters, the state's Planning and Convergence Department said, "Odisha may need to relook at the policy framework that promotes a two-child norm." The regulations do not actively prevent you from having more than two children, but they also do not encourage you to have more than two children.

Assam, a state in the northeast, continues to buck the trend due to a TFR that is higher than the national average.

In January, the government instituted a policy that disqualified anyone with more than two children from holding public office or running for local or civic bodies.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told Reuters, "This is the need of the hour to have such a legislation in place."

However, the UNFPA noted that global experience indicates that such measures have only a modest impact on fertility.

Most of these programs "have had only a marginal impact on fertility, and in some cases have been counterproductive," the UN agency said.

SOURCE:NEWS AGENCIES

Two get death in Pakistan for attack targeting Chinese engineers

 In July of 2021, a bus full of Chinese and Pakistani engineers working on a hydroelectric project was ambushed.

The two men were found guilty in a special anti-terrorism court in Pakistan and sentenced to death for their roles in a suicide assault last year that killed 13 people, including nine Chinese engineers working on a hydropower project.


In the attack in July of 2021, more than twenty individuals were hurt and four Pakistani nationals were murdered after their bus plummeted into a ravine after an explosion.

The workmen were on their way to the Dasu Hydropower Project in Upper Kohistan, which is located in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province of Pakistan's northwest.

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), popularly known as the Pakistani Taliban, was blamed for the attack by Pakistan's former foreign minister, Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

Qureshi has also claimed that Afghans were responsible for planning the attack.

Khyber Pakhtunkhwa provincial police stated in a news statement on Monday that the court handed down its judgement last week, convicting Muhammad Hasnain and Muhammed Ayaz and sentenced them to death on 13 charges.

On Monday, police authorities held a press conference in the city of Abbottabad and said that four persons who had been charged in the case had been exonerated owing to a lack of evidence. Four other potential attackers, they said, may have taken sanctuary in Afghanistan.

Pakistan's foreign ministry released a statement on Monday saying the verdict proved Pakistan's "abiding commitment to counterterrorism."

Chinese officials "are dedicated to ensuring the safety and security of Chinese personnel, projects, and institutions in Pakistan," the statement read.

Beijing has not commented on the ruling as of yet.

The Chinese government strongly denounced the incident and called on Pakistan to investigate and protect Chinese citizens in the South Asian country.

As part of its expansive Belt and Road Initiative spanning Central and South Asia, China has committed more than $60 billion on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project.

More than four hundred and fifty Chinese engineers were working on the Dasu Hydropower Project last year, according to a police officer who helped investigate the suicide assault from the previous year and who spoke with Al Jazeera.


In China's largest province of Balochistan, where a separatist movement has been going on for decades, there has been an increase in attacks on Chinese nationals and their installations in recent years.

Earlier this year, in April, a suicide bomber struck a university in Karachi, the largest city in Pakistan, killing three Chinese professors and their Pakistani driver. The Baloch insurgents have taken credit for the attack.

SOURCE:NEWS AGENCIES

Thousands displaced as M23 rebels near key DRC city of Goma

 As many have been forced to flee their homes in the dangerous east of the nation as a result of fighting between the M23 and the DRC army, a humanitarian disaster is emerging.

An army spokesperson said that combat between government forces and the M23 rebel group had pushed closer to the strategic city of Goma, displacing thousands of residents in the volatile eastern area of the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Since the group started their new onslaught on October 20, there has been a relative week of peace in North Kivu province, but fighting has resumed as of Friday.




On Monday, a spokesperson for the North-Kivu army, Guillaume Ndjike, reported that fighting had broken out near the villages of Kibumba, Rugari, and Tongo.

During their initial major uprising in 2012, the M23 briefly seized control of the city of Goma, located approximately 20 kilometers (12 miles) to the south of Kibumba. Ndjike told Reuters, "They are assaulting but we are controlling them and taking steps to push them back."

The army has withdrawn and people are fleeing in large numbers, according to an unnamed Tongo local who spoke with us over the phone. A similar image was drawn by a Kibumba eyewitness.

After more than a day of fierce combat, on Tuesday, Al Jazeera's Malcolm Webb reported from Kibati village, around 15 kilometers (9 miles) from Goma, that the Congolese government troops had initially thwarted M23's onslaught on the town of Kibumba.

As a result, a humanitarian crisis is brewing in the region, where displaced individuals are staying in temporary camps and expressing concern about a lack of food.


Meanwhile, community leaders on the opposite side of the front line told Webb and colleagues that 60,000 people are trapped behind the front line in M23 rebel territory and that they want a humanitarian corridor to be built so that they may evacuate that region before the violence gets closer to them.


The last several days have seen a mass exodus to Kibati, with hundreds of people making the journey.


Since last month, Kibati has established three camps for those who have been relocated within the country. A Reuters journalist has heard that some people have sought shelter in homes that have been left vacant by people who have relocated further south.

Ndazimana Kasigwa, 25, from Rugari, stated, "I left my wife and children behind, I didn't even take clothing."

The UN estimates that at least 188,000 people have been displaced in North Kivu since October 20.

Since being driven into neighboring Rwanda and Uganda in 2013, the M23 has launched a significant resurgence this year in the eastern DRC.

New violence has displaced tens of thousands and strained relations between the DRC and Rwanda, which Kinshasa claims is supporting the Tutsi-led militia. Rwanda insists it is innocent.

According to human rights organizations and military sources, the M23 employs drone monitoring. The United Nations has also reported that the group makes use of modern weaponry, and all signs point to Rwanda supporting the M23.

Military officials in Congo have denied the M23's claims that they are collaborating with other armed factions in the conflict.

President Felix Tshisekedi's call for more than 3,000 more soldiers in the Congo led to the start of training this month.

Efforts are being made at the regional level to defuse tensions between the two countries and put a stop to the fighting taking place along their common border.

Uhuru Kenyatta, the former president of Kenya, was in the Democratic Republic of the Congo this week before peace negotiations with armed groups took place, and he claimed that meetings in Nairobi will be held by the end of the month.

After meeting with a variety of parties on Monday, he made the following statement: "We have not come here with a prescription but rather with the concept of listening to our brothers and sisters and hope to be able to make a contribution towards achieving permanent peace."

Congolese and Rwandan officials had previously met in Luanda for mediated discussions, which were attended by Angolan President Joao Lourenco, who also traveled to both countries over the weekend.

Umaro Sissoco Embalo, President of Guinea-Bissau and Chair of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), has also visited Kinshasa and Kigali.

Bertrand Bisimwa, one of the M23's top brass, has publicly accused the DRC army of beginning the conflict that his organization is currently engaged in.

He told Reuters over the phone, "They're not accepting responsibility for their idea."

SOURCE:NEWS AGENCIES

Zakhiku: The ancient city in Iraq revealed by severe drought

This year, the remains of a city that had been drowned in the Tigris River began to surface.

Water levels have dropped, riverbeds have dried out, and glaciers have melted, revealing artifacts such as sunken ships, ruins of an ancient city, and human remains. This is an installment from the miniseries "Climate artifacts," which tells the stories of the people, places, and things that have been unearthed as a result of climate change.



Approximately 3,800 years ago, merchants in the city of Zakhiku awaited the arrival of wooden beams from the highlands of northern and eastern Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq, Kuwait, and portions of Turkey, Iran, and Syria). When the logs finally made it to Zakhiku, they were gathered up and placed in warehouses.

Metal and mineral traders would travel by donkey or camel from the same mountainous regions in what is now Turkey and Iran to Zakhiku. They would travel in large groups, called caravans, to increase their odds of survival against bandits along the treacherous route. After making a profit at Zakhiku, traders would go over the Tigris to reach the frontier.

The Old Babylonian Empire, which controlled Mesopotamia from the 19th to the 15th century BC, established Zakhiku in 1800 B.C. Zakhiku was founded on the area's water and land to take advantage of a thriving commerce route in the Near East, which included the modern-day Middle East, Turkey, and Egypt.

For 600 years until an earthquake destroyed it, the trade station flourished into a major commercial center for the surrounding area.

In the 1980s, as part of the Mosul Dam project, built by the late Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, the whole town of Zakhiku was flooded and drowned. As the largest and most significant water reservoir in Iraq, it was once known as Saddam Dam.

Farmers in the southern governorates of Iraq, where summer temperatures often exceed 50 degrees Celsius (122 degrees Fahrenheit), have been forced to leave their withering crops due to severe drought since 2019. Iraq is one of the most climate-vulnerable countries in the world. The dam was opened in December of last year in order to irrigate farms.


Earlier this year, Zakhiku in Iraq's Kurdish area formed as a result of falling water levels. After a preliminary excavation in 2018 revealed a palace, a team of local and German archaeologists sprang into action to excavate the site, uncovering new details about the city.


The locals "have become aware of Zakhiku with the latest excavation; they visit the site... it was reported on the local media... Peter Pfälzner, a German archaeologist from the University of Tübingen, argues that the locals' pride in their heritage grows as they learn more about the site's history at Kemune.

As the Hittites, an Indo-European people from Anatolia (modern-day Turkey), conquered Mesopotamia around 1,500 B.C., they also brought down the Old Babylonian city of Zakhiku and its empire.

The Hittites eventually left Zakhiku and returned to their homelands in the north, allowing the Mittani Empire to take control.

Pfälzner, who revealed his excavation discoveries with Al Jazeera, explains that "it was the opportunity the Mittani Empire had to fill this vacuum" created by the Hittites' decline.

Little is known about the people who lived in Zakhiku or the population during the empire's peak, and few sites have been uncovered with layers or buildings that may be assigned to this empire. Under its new imperial masters, however, the city flourished.

The bulk of the empire's subjects were Hurrians, who, like the inhabitants of northern Mesopotamia, had made their homes in what is now Syria and northern Iraq and spoke a language with the same name.

Archaeologists have discovered mud-brick buildings from the Mittani era, including a palace for the local ruler, city fortifications to fend off invaders, and a massive public storehouse for trade goods and harvests.

The local king's friendly relationship with the emperor appears to be the driving force behind all of this. Pfälzner claims that Zakhiku, whose capital was located in what is now northeastern Syria, was a vassal state of the larger empire.

The king's palace was more impressive than the homes because it had thicker walls, larger rooms, and pavements made of baked, not just dried, mud bricks sealed with bitumen, formed from oil, for waterproofing.

With so little known about Mittani culture due to the scarcity of surviving artifacts from the empire, the excavation is fertile ground for the discovery of new information. Pfälzner argues that the significance of Zakhiku lies in the fact that it provides a glimpse into what a city in the Mittani Empire may have looked like.

SOURCE:NEWS AGENCIES

Indonesia’s Widodo calls on G20 to work to ‘end the war’

 When opening a major international gathering in Bali, Indonesia's president appeared to make a reference to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

Russia's invasion of Ukraine has fueled geopolitical tension and prompted a global increase in food and energy prices, and Indonesian President Joko Widodo has launched the G20 conference in Bali by calling for the world to "stop the conflict" and overcome "wide divisions."

Widodo, also known as Jokowi, recognized the sentiment on Tuesday by telling delegates that it was an honor for Indonesia to host the event.

Before the behind-closed-doors talks started, he stated, "I recognize we need great efforts to be able to sit together in this room."

In an apparent allusion to the conflict in Ukraine, Indonesia's president warned that the world could not afford to enter another cold war and urged G20 countries to cooperate to "stop the fight."

Being responsible necessitates not fostering situations where both parties lose; in this case, it also necessitates calling a ceasefire. He warned international leaders before the summit's opening session that if the war did not cease, progress would be difficult.

Russia is one of the world's twenty largest economies, which is represented by the Group of Twenty (G20), which consists of 19 nations and the European Union. It's home to more than 60% of the world's population and 80% of the global GDP.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, and Indonesia has been trying to be a peacemaker by hosting this meeting. Even though there have been requests inside the G20 for Russia to be excluded, Jokowi has visited both Kyiv and Moscow and extended an invitation to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Putin turned it down, therefore Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov is representing Russia in Bali.

Communication concerns

However, on Tuesday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy delivered a video speech to the meeting. Prior to the start of the summit, he made a direct reference to the "G19 summit," and then later in his remarks, he pleaded for calm.


Acording to a translation of his address into Ukrainian provided by the AFP news agency, Putin told the G20 leaders, "I am confident now is the time when the Russian destructive war must and can be ended." The number of lives it will save is in the thousands.

Those in power in the United States and Europe want the Group of Twenty to issue a statement condemning the eight-month-old invasion and any threats to use nuclear weapons.

Under the condition of anonymity, a senior US official told reporters, "I think you're going to see most members of the G20 make clear that they reject Russia's war in Ukraine."

As the official put it, "Russia's campaign of aggression is being criticized in the harshest possible terms," and many "view Russia's conflict in Ukraine as the root source of great economic and humanitarian hardship in the globe."

It's uncertain, though, if all G20 nations would agree to language that would so strongly denounce Putin's war.

Diplomatic sources told Reuters that Indonesia was pressing for a leaders' proclamation rather than a unified communiqué because of the difficulty of reaching consensus among all countries.

Considering that people everywhere are struggling with soaring prices and several nations are heading towards recession, the United States and its allies are hoping to find common cause with countries that are cautious about condemning Russia but are concerned about the economic impact of a protracted war.

Among the nations worst afflicted by food inflation are Argentina and Turkey, while India and South Africa have been largely silent about Russia's incursion.

China, under President Xi Jinping, has avoided reprimanding Moscow for the war, while making frequent calls for peace.

When Xi and US Vice President Joe Biden first met face to face, they talked about the dispute.

The three hours of conversations, which took place on a Monday in Bali, were described as honest.

There was "reiterated unanimity that a nuclear war should never be undertaken and can never be won," according to the White House. In addition, they "reiterated their firm rejection of any use or threat of use of nuclear weapons in Ukraine."

China is "very worried about the current situation in Ukraine," Xi reportedly told Vice President Biden, according to the official Chinese readout.

China has always advocated for peaceful resolutions and will do so going forward. We hope that peace talks between Russia and Ukraine can resume soon. We also look forward to serious talks between the United States, NATO, and the European Union and Russia," it said.

On his second trip abroad since the COVID-19 pandemic began, Xi has met with other G20 leaders like France's Emmanuel Macron and Australia's Anthony Albanese in bilateral settings.

SOURCE:NEWS AGENCIES

lundi 14 novembre 2022

UN agency for Palestinians needs $50-80m to ‘keep running’

 The United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) need a capital investment of $200m over the next three years to help recover depleted assets.

On Monday, the director of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees warned that the agency's "assets have become outmoded" and that it needed between $50 million and $80 million to keep services functioning until the end of the year.


From Amman, UNRWA Commissioner-General Philippe Lazzarini said the organization has endured "years of austerity" and requires a capital investment of $200m over the next three years to help recover depleted assets.

For more than 700,000 Palestinians who were forcibly evacuated from their homes by Zionist forces in 1948, the year the state of Israel was created, UNRWA was established to offer education, healthcare, food, and other services.

The oldest United Nations organization helps Palestinian refugees in the occupied West Bank, Gaza, Lebanon, Jordan, and Syria with things like education and healthcare.

There are now 5.7 million Palestinian refugees, including their children and grandchildren, but Lazzarini said UNRWA only helps the 550,000 in school and 2.8 million who have health benefits.

Lazzarini, speaking at a press conference in Amman, Jordan's capital, said that the agency's services are especially important because of the country's high poverty rates.

"Our judgment over the last several months is that we have poverty rates up to 80%, to 90%, which implies that the whole population relies on the lifeline UNRWA can offer for them," he continued, referring to areas such as Lebanon, Syria, and Gaza.

According to Lazzarini's comments to the press, the United States has contributed more than $340 million to the agency this year, making it the country's largest single donor.

He said that the violence in Ukraine had cut into the cash the UN organization receives.

An Al Jazeera journalist, Youmna El Sayed, reported on Monday that the Refugee Popular Committee was demonstrating in front of the UNRWA offices in Gaza City. The demonstrators believed that the world community had ignored their misery.

The demonstrators want the United Nations to provide long-term support for UNRWA so that the agency may function independently of individual donor countries and specific financial programs. The Al Jazeera journalist reported that the protesters demanded an increase in services like food vouchers and humanitarian help in addition to the restoration of work prospects, which had sharply dropped off after 2007.


El Sayed further stated that until UN resolution 194 is implemented, which deals with the right of refugees to return to their country in present-day Israel, there are 1.3 million refugees in Gaza living below the poverty line who demand immediate help and expanded employment prospects.

Former UNRWA spokesperson Christopher Gunness recently told Al Jazeera that a committee of professionals and refugees had developed plans to address the agency's problems.

Gunness stated that the organization is advocating for "durable solutions," one of which is the local integration of the refugees into the communities where they already exist while preserving their full social, economic, and political rights.

Refugee resettlement in a third nation was also crucial to the long-term solution.

Gunness argued that refugees should be permitted to go to and settle in other nations.

Thirdly, allowing refugees the option to return home was proposed as a long-term fix.

Israel's persistent denial of Palestinians' right of return in violation of international law and of their obligations "has prolonged the refugee crisis," as Gunness put it.

Palestinians must be treated with respect as unique people with their own identities and futures.

"Until the 6 million refugees are rescued from exile, disposition, and statelessness, violence will persist in the Middle East."

SOURCE:NEWS AGENCIES

Amazon to lay off 10,000 people: Report

 According to The New York Times, the company's devices division, which includes the Alexa voice assistant, will bear the brunt of the layoffs, along with the retail and human resources departments.

According to The New York Times, which cites "people familiar with the subject," Amazon.com Inc. plans to fire off some 10,000 workers in corporate and technical roles beginning as soon as this week.



According to a report published on Monday, the e-commerce giant's devices section, which contains voice-assistant Alexa, as well as its retail division and human resources, could be hit hard by layoffs, with the overall number of layoffs still up in the air.

Amazon is debating whether or whether it should prioritize developing new features for the Alexa division, as the division's operational deficit for the year was above $5 billion.


A request for comment from Reuters was met with silence from the corporation.


According to the Times, the layoffs affect around 3% of the company's overall workforce. Amazon recently said it would halt all corporate recruiting for the foreseeable future.


In preparation for a possible economic collapse, Amazon is the latest US corporation to make significant cuts to its employment base. It's rare for the online retailer, which traditionally places a premium on stability over the holiday season, to make such a move, The New York Times reports, suggesting that the global economy is faltering. This is in stark contrast to a matter of months ago, when the corporation was struggling to retain talent in a competitive labor market and had more than increased the ceiling for the cash pay of its technical staff.


Earlier this week, Facebook's parent company, Meta Platforms, announced it will be laying off more than 11,000 people, or 13 percent of its staff, in an effort to reduce expenses. Twitter Inc., Microsoft Corp., and Snap Inc. are some of the other firms in the market.


Companies that hired heavily in response to the epidemic, when demand for everything from e-commerce to cloud services was at an all-time high, are now struggling due to slowing economic growth and the growing cost of labor and transportation.


Consumer demand has fallen as a result of rising prices and borrowing expenses, and as a result, many businesses are weighing whether or not to lay off employees.


The firm warned of low sales in the last three months of the year last month, when it posted lower-than-expected revenue for the quarter ending in September. This is the greatest shopping season in North America due to the Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas holidays. This month it said it will stop hiring for corporate positions for an indefinite amount of time.


Amazon stock has down around 40% so far this year, but it has recently recovered some of those losses and was trading down only 2% at its low.

SOURCE:NEWS AGENCIES

Haiti’s PM sacks top officials as political tensions rise

 In response to Canada's new penalties on the Haitian gang boss, Ariel Henry has fired many government officials and the commissioner.

In a new wave of political turmoil amid international sanctions, interim Prime Minister Ariel Henry of Haiti has dismissed the country's Justice and Interior Ministers, as well as its Government Commissioner.

Documents acquired by the Associated Press on Monday reveal that former Justice Minister Berto Dorce initially fired Government Commissioner Jacques Lafontant on Henry's orders before being ousted himself along with Interior Minister Liszt Quitel.




Henry did not provide an explanation for the dismissals, and his spokeswoman could not be reached for comment

Of July 2021, just than two weeks after the assassination of President Jovenel Moise, Henry assumed the additional role of interior minister in Haiti while continuing to serve as prime minister. Emmelie Prophete Milce is the fifth person to hold the position of justice minister in the previous two years.

Since Moise was murdered in Port-au-Prince on July 7 of last year, a political vacuum has existed, leading to an increase in crime and instability throughout the Caribbean nation.

An ongoing gang blockade of a major petrol terminal in the capital city has caused water and energy shortages, contributed to growing rates of hunger, and impeded local healthcare professionals' response to a fatal epidemic of cholera. The blockage began in September and has continued for weeks.

Earlier this month, Haitian authorities retook the Varreux port, prompting jubilation across the streets of Port-au-Prince on Saturday when petroleum stations reopened after being closed for two months.


The gas has been turned on!" People honked their horns and shouted, "There's gas now!" as motorcyclists zipped by. Davidson Jean-Pierre, 35, who runs a modest house-painting company, described today as "the day that life begins anew."


Around 400 trucks waited up at the terminal last week to refuel, and a highly armed police convoy drove them to petrol outlets in the city and beyond.


After days of battling with police who attempted to retake authority in the region, the formidable G9 gang alliance in Haiti, led by former police officer Jimmy Cherizier - known as "Barbecue" - declared that it was releasing the blockage, and the truck drivers arrived.

Canada added further restrictions against Cherizier on Monday, as part of a "sanctions regime" authorized by the United Nations Security Council last month, which specifically targeted him and other members of criminal gangs in Haiti.

There is "reason to believe" this person "has engaged in acts that threaten the peace, security, and stability of Haiti and has planned, directed, or committed acts that constitute serious human rights abuses," as stated by the Canadian government.

To paralyze and cripple criminal organizations, Canada implemented penalties, according to a statement.

Last week, Canada and the United States imposed sanctions on two Haitian government officials for their suspected connections to criminal organizations, even as they continued negotiations to set up a "non-UN, international security support mission" in the country.

The State Department announced on Monday that US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland would be holding a virtual meeting with leaders of Canada and the Caribbean Community (CARICOM) on Tuesday "to discuss Haiti."

The prime minister, Henry, had urged the international community in October to deploy a "specialized armed force" to put an end to the violence, and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had backed this request.

Some members of Haitian civil society, however, are opposed to outside interference. After Henry postponed last year's presidential and legislative elections indefinitely, many rights advocates questioned his legitimacy and blamed him for the political turmoil.

SOURCE:NEWS AGENCIES

US offers $10m for information on al-Shabab leaders, finances

 The United States is looking for any clues that might lead to the interruption of the Somalia-based group's financing as it steps up its attacks.

As the al-Qaeda-affiliated al-Shabab ramps up attacks on government forces and civilians in Somalia, the United States is offering a reward of up to $10 million for information that may help disrupt the group's financing.

On Monday, the US Department of State also announced that, as part of its Rewards for Justice initiative, it would double the previous prize for information on senior al-Shabab commanders to $10 million.




Thousands of individuals, including US nationals, have been killed in terrorist actions carried out by Al-Shabaab in Somalia, Kenya, and other nearby countries, the department said in a statement.

The State Department has called American citizen Jehad Mostafa a "leader of the foreign fighters and media wing" of al-Shabab and the "highest-ranking terrorist with US citizenship fighting overseas." Washington is looking for information on al-"emir," Shabab's Ahmed Diriye, his second-in-command, Mahad Karate, and Mostafa.

In 2020, an attack on a Kenyan military post claimed the lives of one American soldier and two contractors, and the State Department has since tied Diriye to the incident. There was a $6 million reward given through the Rewards for Justice program in the past for information leading to the capture of Diriye, also known as Abu Ubaidah.

Al-Shabab has stepped up its operations against Somalia in recent weeks, as it has battled government forces.

African Union peacekeeping troops pushed the group's militants out of Mogadishu in 2011, but they still hold sway over large swaths of rural Somalia.

Since May, when President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud took office, government soldiers and allied militias have achieved modest successes on the battlefield against al-Shabab, retaking territory long controlled by the group's members.

In retaliation, on October 29 the bloodiest explosions in the country in five years occurred when two cars bombed the Education Ministry in Mogadishu, killing at least 100 people.

At least five people were killed and eleven were injured in a suicide attack near a military training center in Mogadishu this month, also claimed by the organization.

Al-Shabab fighters were targeted in an airstrike ordered by the Somali government, and the United States military claimed last week that 17 of them were killed.

The United States military noted at the time that "Somalia is essential to the peace and security in all of East Africa." The United States Africa Command will keep providing its allies with the training, advice, and equipment they need to destroy al-Shabab.

The State Department announced on Monday that it was collecting intelligence in an effort to cut off the organization's funding sources. These sources include "local natural resources, financial contributions by donors,... international activity by front companies tied to al-Shabaab," as well as "criminal schemes involving its members and supporters."

Drought-stricken There has been a severe food scarcity in Somalia. The UN has issued a warning that this is the worst famine the nation has experienced in 50 years.

SOURCE:NEWS AGENCIES

Pakistan bans its official Oscar entry Joyland

The film is prohibited for having "very offensive material," despite widespread praise for its portrayal of a transgender couple's relationship.

The Pakistani government has banned the Oscar submission film Joyland on the grounds that it contains "very unpleasant content," sparking online discussion over the ethics of censorship.

The film, which depicts the romance between a man and a transgender woman, has received acclaim at festivals across the world, most recently at Cannes. There was supposed to be a November 18th release date in Pakistan.



In August, the picture was given the all-clear from both the provincial and national censor boards. Before a film may be shown in theaters, it must be approved by both federal and provincial censor boards.

But after a religious party leader filed a complaint, the federal censor board changed its mind and banned the film throughout "all of Pakistan."

A written complaint was received stating the picture "contains very unacceptable content which does not correspond with the social norms and moral standards of our society," according to the Friday notification.

A senator from the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) party, Mushtaq Ahmad Khan, tweeted his support for the ban, arguing that Pakistan, as an Islamic country, must uphold Islamic principles and standards.

Social media has become a battleground in the film's ongoing dispute, with the hashtags #ReleaseJoyland and #BanJoyland trending, respectively, for and against the much praised movie.

On social media, the film has received an avalanche of positive feedback from moviegoers and artists alike.

Author Fatima Bhutto praised Joyland on Twitter, writing that it is a "wonderful, honest, and clever film and it should humiliate the state that everyone all over the globe can watch it except those at home."


Joyland's censoring, in other words, makes no sense. In addition to its cultural wealth and, perhaps more crucially, its bravery, Pakistan is home to a thriving artistic community. A progressive nation-state would not stifle and threaten this kind of innovation, but rather celebrate and foster it.

The administration of Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has formed a committee of eight people to "consider on concerns" about the film on Monday in response to public pressure. The report from the committee is due on Tuesday.

According to Al Jazeera's reporting, the film's director, Saim Sadiq, was shocked by the government's decision.

The current scenario is highly perplexing. He explained to Al Jazeera that the board had issued a certificate earlier, but has now revoked it.

To put it simply, "We are using every democratic, diplomatic, and legal tools at our disposal to try to straighten this out, and we trust that better sense will prevail."

The film Joyland follows a young man as he falls in love with a transgender lady in the city of Lahore in the eastern Pakistani state of Punjab. It premiered at this year's Cannes Film Festival, where it won both the Jury Prize and the Queer Palm.

Sadiq earned the Young Cinema Award at Australia's Asia Pacific Screen Awards on the same day that it was banned in Pakistan, proving its international acclaim.

Malala Yousafzai, the youngest-ever recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, has joined the Joyland team as an executive producer to help promote the film ahead of the upcoming awards season.

Sadiq claims that there is no movie that can make everyone happy, and that those who don't like it may just choose not to see it.

"If you don't like a movie, you don't have to see it. Since no movie can ever suit everyone, he explained, "we don't need to obtain permission from 220 million individuals to distribute a film." This figure represents the whole population of the South Asian country.

SOURCE:NEWS AGENCIES

dimanche 13 novembre 2022

US not seeking conflict with China, Biden says after Xi talks

 During their summit in Bali, Indonesia, the White House said the two presidents talked about Taiwan, cooperation, competitiveness, and human rights.

After meeting with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping on the sidelines of the G20 conference in Bali, Indonesia, US Vice President Joe Biden emphasized that Washington is aiming to avoid violence or a cold war with Beijing.

Monday marked the first time the two presidents had met in person since Vice President Joe Biden assumed office the previous year. Separate statements from their offices stated they urged for collaboration to face world issues.




According to the White House, Vice President Joe Biden stressed the need of cooperation between the United States and China in tackling "transnational concerns," such as climate change, global financial stability (including debt relief), health security, and global food security.

"Two sides should cooperate with other nations to provide more hope to world peace, more trust in global stability, and stronger impetus to shared development," Xi was quoted as saying by the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua.

Tensions between the two nations have been high since top US politician Nancy Pelosi's visit to Taiwan earlier this year and Biden's promise to protect the self-ruled island, which Beijing claims as its own, in the event of an invasion by China.

With regards to Taiwan, "[Biden] explained in detail that our one China policy has not changed, the United States opposes any unilateral changes to the status quo by either side, and the world has an interest in the continuation of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait," the White House said.

According to the "one China policy," Taiwan is an integral component of China. United States officials call Taiwan a "key partner" in commerce and security despite the country's "unofficial" relations with Taiwan.

Biden told reporters on Monday that the United States does not believe China poses an immediate threat of invading Taiwan.

I strongly disagree that we need a new Cold War," Biden remarked. I've had several conversations with Xi Jinping. And we were really forthright and open with one another. As for a Chinese invasion of Taiwan, I don't see it happening anytime soon. And I made it clear that our policy in Taiwan has not changed at all.”

Relations between Beijing and Washington have worsened on a number of problems in recent years, including trade, human rights, claims in the South China Sea, and an ongoing US drive against expanding Chinese power in the Indo-Pacific, all of which are not related to Taiwan.

The White House reported on Monday that Vice President Joe Biden had voiced his displeasure with Chinese "practices in Xinjiang, Tibet, Hong Kong, and human rights more broadly" to President Xi Jinping.

The United States has accused China of committing genocide against its Muslim Uighur minority in Xinjiang, an accusation that Beijing has categorically rejected.

While outlining US defense and foreign policy plans, the White House and the Pentagon last month named Beijing as Washington's most significant strategic rival.

Biden told reporters on Monday, "We're going to compete hard, but I'm not seeking for war." "I intend to oversee this contest in an honorable fashion. Furthermore, it is my intention to see to it that all nations follow the agreed upon norms of international conduct.

SOURCE:NEWS AGENCIES