Aboriginal flag set to fly permanently on Sydney Harbour Bridge

A depiction of the Australian Aboriginal Flag is seen on a window sill in Sydney

Sat, June 18, 2022

SYDNEY (Reuters) - The Aboriginal flag will fly permanently on the Sydney Harbour Bridge as part of a "healing process" and reconciliation efforts with Australia's indigenous community, New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet said on Sunday.

The distinctive black, red and yellow flag will fly alongside the Australian flag and New South Wales state flag at the top of the landmark bridge.

The Aboriginal flag, recognised as an official flag of Australia since 1995, is flown from government buildings and embraced by sporting clubs and athletes of Aboriginal heritage.

The government of Australia's most populous state said it would spend $A25 million ($17 million) to permanently install a third flagpole on the bridge by the end of the year to fly the flag.

Perrottet said the move represented a continuation of "the healing process as part of the broader move towards reconciliation", efforts that seek to promote better ties between the wider Australian community and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

"It's an important decision that we've made, I think it brings unity to our country and it's a small price to pay for that unification," he told reporters in Sydney.

The federal government this year acquired copyright to the Aboriginal flag so it could be freely used, resolving a commercial dispute that had limited sporting teams and Aboriginal communities from reproducing the image.

The flag's colours represent the Aboriginal people and their spiritual connection to the land. It was first raised in 1971 at a land rights rally in the state of Victoria.

($1 = 1.4430 Australian dollars)

Amazon says it knows it could run out of available workers for its warehouses, according to leaked memo



A cart full of Amazon packagesCARLO ALLEGRI/Reuters

Gabrielle Bienasz
Fri, June 17, 2022

Recode reported on a leaked memo from Amazon raising the alarm about running out of workers from mid-2021.

A NYT story last year said Amazon executives were worried about this.

Amazon said in May it is overstaffed now, but attrition is likely still huge at the company, and a union push looms.

Amazon is going to have to do something to avoid potentially running out of workers, according to an internal memo from last year obtained by Recode.

A New York Times investigation from June 2021 found a turnover rate for hourly workers of about 150% each year and reported that Amazon executives were worried about running out of people to hire.

However, this newly leaked memo from that time period provided an in-depth look at Amazon's understanding of its own labor issues and how it might solve them. Insider did not independently verify the memo.

"If we continue business as usual, Amazon will deplete the available labor supply in the US network by 2024," the memo says, according to Recode.

The leaked document "reads like an attempted wake-up call," Recode added.

The memo reportedly says Amazon could use six methods for its warehouse workers, including raising wages or increasing reliance on robots, to fix the issue, but that the problem is coming at the company pretty quickly, especially in certain parts of the country.

Those areas include Phoenix, and the places in and around Memphis, Tennessee, and Wilmington, Delaware.



Another understaffed danger area, the memo said, is the "inland empire" region of California, where the company could potentially run out of interested workers by 2022 because of hiring competition from other logistics companies.

The memo said the models used for those labor predictions were 94% accurate when it came to figuring out where in the US the company would not have enough workers to meet June 2021 Amazon Prime Day-related demand, Recode noted.

The report goes through various solutions, Recode writes. If the company raised wages a dollar, it would see a corresponding increase in the number of people in its hiring pool of 7%, per the memo.

Its existing staff could work more or use a budding tool to transfer workers from warehouse to warehouse depending on demand. And the company could take into account the available labor pools for warehouses where the location is more flexible.

It's unclear how relevant this memo is to Amazon's current operations, especially given anxiety over a recession and overstaffing in retail after the omicron variant.

The company did dispute its relevance in a statement to Insider. "There are many draft documents written on many subjects across the company that are used to test assumptions and look at different possible scenarios, but aren't then escalated or used to make decisions. This was one of them," an Amazon spokesperson wrote via email.

"It doesn't represent the actual situation, and we are continuing to hire well in Phoenix, the Inland Empire, and across the country," the company added.

In mid-May, Amazon's Chief Financial Officer Brian Olsavsky said the company had "quickly transitioned from being understaffed to being overstaffed." He added that the issue would "dissipate."

On Thursday, as Recode noted, The Wall Street Journal reported that now-gone Amazon executive Dave Clark proposed that the company should cull its worker base through attrition.

Amazon workers have long reported tough conditions, and the company even aims to get rid of a certain number of workers a year, Insider has reported — which jibes, in some ways, of Jeff Bezos' management ethos, a New York Times investigation revealed.

The first Amazon warehouse in Staten Island, New York, unionized in April.

Why is Turkey Blocking Sweden & Finland from joining NATO? Erdogan, Kurds, Terrorism & the PKK

Behind the News

Do Sweden & Finland support Terrorism? That’s what they’re being accused of by Turkey’s President Erdogan. Turkey says it’s going to block the Scandinavian countries from joining NATO because it believes they support a group known as the PKK, the Kurdistan Workers Party. 0:00 Why is Erdogan & Turkey blocking NATO? 0:32 Who are the Kurds? 1:15 Why isn't Kurdistan a Country? 2:09 History of Kurds in Turkey 2:45 Turkification of Kurds 3:30 What is the PKK & who is Abdullah Ocalan? 5:25 Do Sweden & Finland Support Terrorism? 6:35 Erdogan & Terrorism in Turkey 7:50 Kurds in Syria Fighting ISIS 8:15 The SDF, the YPG & the PKK 8:40 Mazloum Abdi / Ferhat Abdi Sahin 9:23 Trade Bans & Turkey Moving into Syria 9:50 Turkey & NATO So, who exactly are the Kurds? What's behind this tension with the Turkish government? And what does any of this have to do with Scandinavian countries on the opposite side of the continent? Kurds are one of the world’s biggest ethnic groups that don’t have their own home country, with the majority living in a region known as Kurdistan. For centuries, the Ottoman empire spanned multiple continents and was home to a range of ethnic groups, like the Kurds. When it fell after WW1, new borders were drawn up. Kurdish people continued to live in the region but were now split across multiple countries where they have often been on the receiving end of brutal and violent repression and persecution. So, what happened to the millions of Kurds that found themselves in this newly created Republic of Turkey? Turkish leaders were worried about the idea of minority ethnic groups rising up and pushing for independence, something the Ottoman Empire had seen a lot of during the Balkan Wars and WW1. So, a decision was made to erase the languages and cultures of minority groups from public life. What followed were uprisings in the 1920s and 30s by Kurdish people who wanted more rights, recognition and independence. Many Kurds were forced from their homes, Kurdish names and traditional clothes were banned and the Kurdish language was restricted. The government even went as far as denying the existence of the Kurdish ethnic identity instead using the term “Mountain Turks.” In 1978, Abdullah Öcalan formed the PKK, a communist group that called for an independent Kurdish state within Turkey. In 1984 the PKK went to war with the Turkish government, which resulted in the deaths of more than 40,000 people. There have been many examples of the PKK attacking civilians and committing terrorist acts and by the early 2000s most western countries had labelled the PKK a terrorist organisation. The reason why Turkey thinks Sweden and Finland support terrorism, is that both have a long history of taking in Kurdish asylum seekers and refugees, particularly political refugees. Erdogan says a number of these Kurds are terrorists and he’s even accused some politicians of being terrorists too. The Turkish government says it’s provided Sweden and Finland with a list of terrorists that it wants sent back to Turkey, but so far it seems that both Sweden and Finland don’t agree with the charges or are willing to send anyone over. A big reason why, is the fact that Turkey and Sweden and Finland have very different ideas of what a terrorist actually is. For years, the Turkish government has been criticised by human rights groups for using terrorism accusations as a way of silencing critics. In 2022, Reporters Without Borders ranked Turkey 149th in the world for press freedom. The Turkish government says it has to take a more extreme approach towards national security because it faces more threats than any of its European allies. Over the past decade, a number of western countries, including Sweden and Finland, have supported a Kurdish-led alliance in Syria that have been helping in the fight against ISIS. The Turkish government says the SDF alliance is dominated by a terrorist group known as the YPG, which it says is Syrian version of the PKK. In 2019, Erdogan even publicly accused the Mazloum Abdi (Ferhat Abdi Şahin), Commander of the SDF, of being a terrorist, with close ties to Abdullah Ocalan. Most western countries only recognise the PKK, and not the YPG, as a terrorist organisation. The reason why Sweden and Finland are being called out is because they’re the ones applying for NATO, which puts Turkey in a strong bargaining position because every single member of NATO needs to approve before anyone new can be added. The Turkish government says it does want Sweden and Finland to join NATO, but it won’t allow them to join a security organisation while they support groups that Turkey says threaten its own security. Turkey is hoping it can use this opportunity to get some big concessions, like some of the trade bans being lifted and getting help in shutting down what it believes to be threats in other countries.

Kurds in Sweden on edge as Turkey presses government to ditch them in exchange for NATO membership

As Sweden’s government survived a non-confidence vote today, its fate was tied to Kurdish lawmaker and former guerrilla Amineh Kakabaveh.

An image of Nesrin Abdullah, Ann Linde and Amineh Kakabaveh that prompted a reaction from Turkish officials. - TWITTER

Amberin Zaman
@amberinzaman

June 6, 2022

STOCKHOLM & UPPSALA, Sweden — Sweden’s bid to join the NATO alliance following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Turkey’s threats to block it have thrust this Nordic nation’s Kurdish minority center stage in a Netflix style drama that is rocking the government of Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson and prompting anguished debate over Swedish identity.

On June 7, Andersson and her minority government of Social Democrats faced a no-confidence vote in parliament over the Justice Minister’s failure to curb record levels of gang violence, pushed by a right-wing opposition that smells blood ahead of nationwide elections in September. Its fate seemingly hinged on the decision of Amineh Kakabaveh, an ethnic Kurdish lawmaker and former guerrilla whose swing vote has allowed the government to pass key legislation, notably the budget. Kakabaveh, an independent, lent that support on the condition that the Social Democrats grant their own to the Kurdish-led autonomous administration in northeast Syria.

Turkey deems the body a threat to its own national security. It cites the fact that many of its top cadres were previously active in the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), the armed group that has been fighting the Turkish army since 1984 for Kurdish self-rule. Turkey is now threatening to launch a fresh military offensive against the US-backed Syrian Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG), who led the fight against the Islamic State (IS), on similar grounds.

The controversial deal sealed between the Social Democrats and Kakabaveh in November last year infuriated Turkey and bolstered its demands that Sweden end its alleged support for Kurdish “terrorists” as a pre-condition for greenlighting Sweden’s accession to NATO. Turkey’s ambassador to Sweden suggested that Kakabaveh, who makes no secret of her sympathy for the PKK, should be extradited to Turkey before discovering she was a Kurd from Iran, not Turkey.

Andersson, Sweden’s first female prime minister, had threatened to resign if the no-confidence motion went through, saying her opponents are acting recklessly at a time when the country is faced with major security challenges.

Kakabaveh stuck to her guns, saying she would not support the government on June 7 unless it reaffirms its backing for the Syrian Kurds. “Why, when the Kurds are attacked by DAESH, by Turkey, why should they not get support?” asked Kakabaveh in a June 6 interview with Al-Monitor, using the Arabic acronym for IS. “They fought for the whole world to be free from terrorism, from DAESH. If Sweden accepts Turkey’s demands, that means DAESH will be strong again,” she fumed.

Kakabaveh said the government delivered the assurances she was demanding just hours before the vote. She abstained. The government is holding steady — for now.

For many Swedes, caving to Ankara goes well beyond concerns about IS. For Europeans writ large, Sweden’s predicament speaks to Turkey’s ability as they see things to blackmail their governments into submission. Among the most striking examples of the horse-trading in play is the 2016 deal whereby Turkey agreed to not flood Europe with Syrian refugees in exchange for billions of euros in aid.

“Swedish foreign policy is driven by values and the self-perception of many Swedes is of a country that stands up for democracy and human rights,” noted Paul Levin, director of Stockholm University’s Institute for Turkish Studies. “The stark choice between principles and security that Ankara has placed Sweden before is arguably shocking to many here. There is little will to abandon Sweden’s traditional role on the world stage,” he told Al-Monitor.

Turkey has imposed similar conditions on Finland, but its real target is Sweden.

Jens Orback, a veteran Social Democrat and a former minister for Democracy, Integration and Gender Equality, recalled that Sweden is among a handful of EU countries that backs Turkey’s accession to the European bloc. “Sweden and the Social Democrats have been good friends of Turkey,” he told Al-Monitor.

Sweden became the first Scandinavian state to recognize the modern Turkish Republic in 1924 and signed a friendship treaty with Ankara the following year. A shared wariness of Russia dates back to 18th century when the Swedish King Charles XII fleeing the Tsarist army in the Great Northern War was offered sanctuary by the Turks in their Moldovan suzerainty, Bender. But the Ottomans then cut a deal with Catherine, the wife of the Russian emperor Peter the Great, who allegedly seduced the Turkish Grand Vizier in her imperial tent, leaving Charles out in the cold. The parallels with history are not lost on the Swedes. Who but Russia benefits most from Turkey’s current stance?

“[Recep Tayyip] Erdogan’s blockage of Finland and Sweden’s NATO application with flimsy arguments regarding Turkey’s security perceptions is essentially in the service of Putin’s aggressive stand against the West,” said Cengiz Candar, a senior associate research fellow at the Middle East and North Africa Program at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs and a regular contributor to Al-Monitor.

Candar dismissed the idea that had Turkey been accepted as a full EU member that it would have acted differently. “It has more to do with Erdogan’s ideology and Turkey’s autocratic regime,” he said.

Orback insists that Sweden will hold its ground. “We have human rights in our laws, freedom of press and protection of minorities. We should stick to those values.” As it happens, the same values are enshrined in NATO’s charter and Sweden’s job ought to be to see them upheld when it joins. “We are a party that is loyal to the decisions it takes,” Orback asserted.

But is it really? Will the proudly pacifist Swedes rediscover their Viking valor in the face of Turkish bullying?

The question is weighing ever more heavily and no more so than on the minds of Sweden’s estimated 150,000 Kurds. Kakabaveh insists that the government’s muted response to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s continued salvoes is a form of capitulation in and of itself. She’s never felt more vulnerable — or betrayed — she said.

Erdogan now wants Andersson to sack her defense minister, Peter Hultqvist, because he attended a 2014 gathering to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of the founding of the PKK.

“Is the YPG more dangerous than Vladimir Putin? Is NATO going to stick with authoritarians like Turkey at the expense of democracies like Finland and Sweden?” asked Kurdo Baksi, a nonpartisan Kurdish community leader and frequent commentator on Swedish television. “Erdogan is paralyzing NATO, European security,” he told Al-Monitor.

Ridvan Altun, a spokesman for the Democratic Kurdish Society Center, a group that embraces the ideology of imprisoned PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan, says pressure from the Swedish authorities has been growing for some time. “Turkey’s long arm and its policy of labeling those who do not conform to its views as terrorist is being felt here now,” Altun told Al-Monitor.

Altun said the squeeze began in 2018 when the government began to refuse to extend residency permits to like-minded Kurds and submit their files to Sweden’s national intelligence services. “We know of at least 57 such cases,” Altun said, citing figures garnered by Swedish radio. “My brother is among them.” The reason given by the authorities to deny his brother continued residency was that his wife, a Swedish national, “is active in [pro-PKK] politics.” In 2020, Zozan Buyuk, a Belgian Kurd married to a Swedish Kurd, was deported back to Belgium on similar grounds, triggering uproar in the Kurdish community.

“It is because of these concessions that Turkey feels entitled to make such brazen demands,” Altun said. “As a Kurd and as a Swedish citizen, I feel deeply worried.”

In fact, the moves against the PKK date back to 1984 when Sweden became the first country after Turkey to designate the group as a terrorist organization. The EU and the United States followed suit.

The conflict averse Swedes were horrified when two former PKK operatives were killed on their soil upon orders from Ocalan. This prompted another top PKK member to threaten the Social Democratic government of Sweden’s then prime minister, Olof Palme, who was assassinated by an unknown assailant in 1986. The PKK was counted among the suspects, though the theory has since been discredited.

The PKK’s admonishments together with the 2002 “honor” killing of a Turkish Kurd by her father for having a relationship with a Swedish man stained the Kurds’ reputation for many years, said Baksi the community leader. Kurdish kids joining criminal gangs didn’t help.

But the negative image was dramatically reversed when the women fighters of the YPG shot to global fame with their fearlessness in the battle against IS. Today, pro-PKK groups have more influence in Sweden than any other of their rivals, not least because they are the best organized.

Efforts championed by Kakabaveh, among others, to have the PKK delisted have failed so far. But the YPG continues to be held in the highest regard in Swedish officialdom.

Turkey’s claims that it has nothing against the Kurdish people and only targets “terrorists” ring hollow in Uppsala, a picturesque university town renowned for its splendid gothic cathedral and Europe’s most successful Kurdish soccer team, Dalkurd.

It was founded in 2004 by members of the Kurdish diaspora in Dalarna county — hence “Dal” — to keep their children off the streets. The club’s giddying rise fueled by feelings of Kurdish pride to the top tier of the Sweden’s premier league in 2017 awed the public. Hudqvist, the defense minister, is a big fan.

Its fortunes have since fluctuated, and Dalkurd slipped to the third division before clawing its way back up to the second tier this year. Finances remain a big problem and Turkish meddling is one of the causes. When the Chinese telecom giant Huawei offered to sponsor the team, Ankara threatened to ban sales of its products in Turkey, according to Dalkurd’s manager, Welat Kilincaslan.

The club was forced to change its corporate name to DK Elite AB after Turkish state lender Halkbank refused to transfer funds on behalf of Dalkurd’s chief sponsor, a telecom company called FASTLINK owned by Iraqi Kurdish businessman Kawa Junad. “The bank said it would not deal with an entity that has the word ‘Kurd’ in it,” Kilincaslan told Al-Monitor during a recent tour of the team’s headquarters at Uppsala stadium.

He added, “We steer clear of politics. Nobody is allowed to chant any political slogans in favor of that party or the other. Turkey’s hostility is incomprehensible to us.” All the more so because the Iraqi Kurdish government used to deposit its oil revenues in Halkbank’s coffers until the bank was tried in a US Federal Court for laundering billions of dollars in an oil for gold scheme on behalf of Iran.

Members of Dalkurd hold a Kurdish flag. (Courtesy of Dalkurd)

Despite Turkey’s best efforts, the Kurds command growing influence in Sweden where they account for over 1 percent of the total population of 10 million. There are currently six ethnic Kurdish members of parliament.

“In the old days, Turkey used to be hailed in Europe and the United States as the sole Muslim country that was pro secular, pro-Western and where women had more freedom than in any other. The Kurds have snatched that crown,” said Baksi. “Turkey is now seen as anti-Western and pro-DAESH,” he said.

Nesrin Abdullah, commander of the YPG’s all-female arm, is a frequent visitor to Stockholm where she enjoys hero status and is received by top officials. They include the foreign minister, Ann Linde, a long-time campaigner for minority rights. Photos showing Abdullah, Linde and Kakabaveh together in the Swedish parliament in May drove Ankara mad, leading Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu to blast her at a NATO gathering last month for her “so-called feminist policies.”

Turkey says no such visits can be repeated. All support for the YPG, which enjoys the protection of US forces in Syria, needs to end. The activities of PKK-leaning groups inside Sweden must be banned. Ankara also wants Sweden to extradite individuals, mainly Kurds and associates of Fethullah Gulen, the Sunni preacher accused of orchestrating the failed attempt to violently overthrow Erdogan in 2016.

Various versions of Turkey’s alleged wanted list are circulating in the media. One includes the name of a Kurdish author who died seven years ago.

“For extraditions, there must be solid evidence about offenses that are considered serious crimes according to Swedish law,” said Bitte Hammargren, an independent Turkey and Middle East analyst and a senior associate fellow of the Swedish Institute of International Affairs. “It seems that the names on Turkey’s list have been floating around for some years, and they are requests that have been turned down by the Swedish court system,” Hammargren told Al-Monitor.

Turkey’s claims that Sweden had provided $367 million in “terrorism financing” to the Syrian Kurds are “disinformation,” she said. The figure equals the total funds disbursed over the past five years for humanitarian aid and support to Syria’s neighbors hosting large refugee populations such as Turkey and Lebanon. Moreover, Sweden has never supplied arms to the YPG. All of the above was relayed by a Swedish delegation that traveled to Ankara last month to help defuse the crisis. It returned empty-handed.

Hopes that Washington would ride to Sweden’s rescue have also proved empty. “Sweden’s membership is not for the United States to deliver,” said a well-placed source speaking on condition of strict anonymity.

The reckoning in Stockholm is that the row will not be resolved in time for the NATO summit that is scheduled to be held in Madrid on June 30, and that while this is “deeply irritating, particularly for Washington, it won’t be the end of the world,” the source contended.

Turkey’s other demand — that Sweden scrap an arms embargo imposed by it and fellow EU member states in the wake of Turkey’s latest invasion of northeast Syria in October 2019 — can be more easily met.

The Swedish Inspectorate of Strategic Products that vets applications for arms sales insists that there “is no arms embargo" on Turkey and that Sweden examines applications based on their individual merits. “This may be interpreted that some sales are up for grabs — I guess primarily material that is not directly lethal,” Hammargren speculated. Either way, Sweden’s previous weapons sales to Turkey are “peanuts” compared to what it wants from the United States after it imposed sanctions on Ankara chiefly over its acquisition of Russian S-400 missiles.

“My guess is that the government will try to offer some compromises,” Levin concurred.

“There may be some other moderate concessions as well. The PKK has long been listed as a terrorist group in Sweden, so to offer to be more vigilant in pursuing them and not allowing them to operate on Swedish soil would not really be 'caving in.' But anything that could be construed as selling out our principles I would guess is off-limits,” Levin said.

Before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the idea that Sweden would end 200 years of determined neutrality after losing large chunks of territory to Russia in the Napoleonic wars would have been laughed off as a fantasy. Therefore, the idea that it would make some concessions to Ankara for the sake of its own security cannot be entirely dismissed.

Jenny White, a Stockholm-based anthropologist and expert on Turkey, says Sweden is gripped by fear. “Crank radios and iodine pills sold out across the country. The government began rehabilitating its network of bomb shelters.”

“The daily visual diet of destruction and violence coming out of Ukraine and Russia’s belligerence to other countries on or near its borders has convinced the population and the politicians to seek safety and protection by bigger powers,” White told Al-Monitor.

“There was anxiety about the period between seeking NATO admission and receiving it — that Russia would take advantage of that period to attack Gotland, the Swedish island in the Baltic Sea that would be a strategic prize for Russia. It never occurred to anyone that the danger would be enhanced by another NATO member, Turkey,” White added. “Turkey is seen as an unreliable, authoritarian land that has no respect for and doesn’t understand countries like Sweden because it doesn’t share their values.”

Not all Swedes feel the same way. Adam Mohammed, an ethnic Somali worker at the Chinese-owned Swedish car manufacturer Volvo, accused his government of “hiding behind America’s skirts” and said Sweden should not join NATO. Erdogan, his fellow Muslim, was right in expecting Sweden’s support against “Kurdish terrorists,” he told Al-Monitor. “NATO is supposed to be family. Then why is one member, America, supporting terrorists against another member, Turkey?” he asked. “And why are we?”

Editor's note: June 7, 2022. This article was updated after its initial publication to reflect the result of the no-confidence vote in the Swedish parliament.

Palestinian Authority calls on Israel to hand over gun used in Abu Akleh killing

A Palestinian probe has concluded that Abu Akleh was killed using a Ruger Mini-14, a semi-automatic weapon

A mural, part of an art exhibit honouring slain Al-Jazeera journalist Shireen Abu Akleh, at the spot where she was killed on 11 May

 (AFP/File photo)

By MEE and agencies
Published date: 19 June 2022

The Palestinian Authority on Sunday called on Israel to hand over the gun that allegedly fired the shot which killed Al Jazeera reporter Shireen Abu Akleh.

Abu Akleh was shot and killed on 11 May while covering an Israeli army operation in the Jenin refugee camp in the occupied West Bank.

A Palestinian probe said that an Israeli soldier fatally shot the veteran Palestinian-American reporter, echoing findings by Al Jazeera and several other major news organisations, including witness accounts from journalists who were at the scene.

Israel has asked the Palestinian Authority to provide the bullet extracted from her body so Israel can conduct its own ballistic investigation. Israel has offered to do so with Palestinian and American representatives present.

"We have refused to hand over the bullet to them, and we even demand that they hand over the weapon that murdered Shireen Abu Akleh," Palestinian prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said at a ceremony in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Sunday to mark 40 days since her death.

Israel's army has said that it has not concluded whether Abu Akleh - who was wearing a bullet-proof vest marked "Press" when she was shot - was killed by one of its troops or stray Palestinian gunfire.

The army has maintained that no Israeli soldier fired at Abu Akleh knowing she was a journalist.

The Palestinian probe concluded that Abu Akleh was killed using a Ruger Mini-14, a semi-automatic weapon.

Israel's army has said its investigation into her killing has centred on one soldier who fired near the area where Abu Akleh was killed.

Abu Akleh's brother Anton told the Ramallah ceremony - where photos of the reporter were displayed - that the family was "only seeking justice for Shireen".

Israel's army has said it has not yet concluded whether one of its soldiers will face criminal charges over Abu Akleh's killing.

But the army's top lawyer has said such charges would be unlikely given the circumstances surrounding her killing that, according to the military, amounted to active combat.

SEE

LA REVUE GAUCHE - Left Comment: Search results for Shireen Abu Akleh 

Hamas resist against Zionist settlement expansion: Statement

TEHRAN, Jun. 19 (MNA) – The Palestinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) has announced the movement will resist settlement expansion to preserve the identity of Bayt al-Maqdis (Al-Quds).

In a statement on Sunday, Hamas denounced a new Zionist settlement plan in occupied Palestine aimed at segregating the al-Masarah neighborhood from Bab al-Amoud and the rest of the neighborhoods of the holy city.

The move is in line with Judaism and blatant aggression against Bayt al-Maqdis and holy Islamic and Christian sites, the statement reads.

Hamas urged all the Palestinians and Palestinian groups to use all their capabilities to counter the New Zionist Judaisation plot in the Islamic sites.

Earlier, Head of Hamas' Political Bureau Ismail Haniyeh praised the Islamic Republic of Iran for its firm commitment to supporting the Palestinian Resistance and the stability of its nation.

Today, Bayt al-Maqdis is facing two big and important scenes because it is in its most difficult and dangerous situation and Israel is trying to Judaize and eradicate Palestinian people from this sacred place, he said, adding that occupiers are trying to gradually take control of Al-Aqsa Mosque and impose a division in it.

Stating that the Palestinian people have stood against conspiracies orchestrated by Zionists and settlers to occupy the courtyard of Bab al-Amoud in the occupied lands and territories, Haniyeh said that the Palestinian people will never give up on the battle of will and identity and in defense of Al-Aqsa Mosque and Al-Quds.

AMK/Al-Alam6230553

JUST LIKE ISRAEL PRACTICES

Bulldozers: How a machine has become a vehicle of injustice in India

By Geeta Pandey
BBC News, Delhi
June 20,2022

The home of political activist Javed Mohammad was turned into rubble on the orders of the government

Bulldozers, invented 100 years ago, have been used across the world to build homes, offices, roads and other infrastructures.

But in recent years, many say, they have become a weapon in the hands of India's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government to destroy homes and livelihoods of the minority Muslim community.

And nowhere are these excavators more visible than in the politically crucial Uttar Pradesh state.

Their latest outing was on Sunday when authorities in the city of Prayagraj (formerly Allahabad) tore down the home of political activist Javed Mohammad, alleging that it had been illegally built - a claim his family denied.

Critics said the real reason behind the demolition had nothing to do with the alleged illegality of the building and that he was being punished for being a vocal critic of the government.

A day before the demolitions, police had arrested him, accusing him of being the "mastermind" behind violent protests in the city by Muslims against controversial remarks about the Prophet Muhammad by Nupur Sharma, a former BJP spokesperson. Ms Sharma was earlier suspended from the party, but the protesters were demanding her arrest.

BJP leaders have defended their actions, saying "nothing is done against the law".

But the demolitions - which have drawn some comparison with Israel's use of heavy machinery in the Palestinian territories - have been criticised in India and made headlines globally, with critics saying there is "only the thinnest veneer of legality covering this official action" and that they "are bulldozing over the very spirit of the law".

In a rare move, former judges and eminent lawyers wrote a letter to the country's chief justice saying the use of bulldozers was "an unacceptable subversion of the rule of law" and urged the court to act against the "violence and repression against Muslim citizens".


BJP HINDU NATIONALIST; Yogi Adityanath's supporters came 

to his election rallies with toy bulldozers

In a strongly-worded column in the Indian Express newspaper, former federal minister Kapil Sibal wrote that "a bulldozer has no relevance to illegal structures, but has relevance to who I am and what I stand for".

"It has relevance to what I say in public. It has relevance to my beliefs, my community, my being, my religion. It has relevance to my voice of dissent. When a bulldozer razes my home to the ground, it seeks to demolish not just the structure I built, but my courage to speak up."

The use of bulldozers has also been challenged in the Supreme Court and the top court has said "their use had to be in accordance with law and could not be retaliatory".

This flagging of the menace the bulldozers have become hasn't come too soon.
India home demolitions: 'You broke a family'

Who is Nupur Sharma?

Earlier this year, a curious sight greeted me when I was covering the assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh as Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath made a bid for re-election. (He won the polls and is now serving his second term.)

At a roadshow, a group of supporters had brought little yellow toy bulldozers.

Waving the plastic excavators in the air, they danced before television cameras, singing "woh bulldozerwala baba phir se aayega (that bulldozer baba will return)".

"Bulldozer baba" was a name given to Mr Adityanath by the local press, but it stuck after his main rival Akhilesh Yadav used it at a rally.

Mr Yadav had used it derisively, but senior journalist Sharat Pradhan says "the BJP has turned it to their advantage because it adds to his strongman image".

In many towns, he said, bulldozers were parked at Mr Adityanath's election rallies and after he won, the machines were paraded before the state assembly building in celebration.


Critics say bulldozers are being used to terrorise Muslim citizens

Senior journalist Alok Joshi says Mr Adityanath first ordered the use of bulldozers punitively two years ago against notorious criminal Vikas Dubey, who was accused of killing eight policemen, and gangster-politician Mukhtar Ansari.

Videos of demolitions of their properties were replayed on national television and won the government some admiration from citizens "for taking a firm stand against criminals".

"But it has now been increasingly used as a tactic to intimidate the opposition and government's critics, especially Muslims," Mr Joshi says.

Before the demolitions in Saharanpur and Prayagraj, Mr Adityanath presided over a meeting where he said that bulldozers would continue to crush "criminals and mafia".

Mr Pradhan says that from "a symbol of firm administration", the government has now turned bulldozers into "a potent weapon, overriding the law of the land and using it to cement its hate politics against Muslims".

"This is how a local tough behaves. It's like saying, 'You throw a stone at me, I will demolish your home. I will teach a lesson to your entire family.'

"But the law of the land does not allow you to run a bulldozer on anyone's property. If a family member commits a murder, can you hang an entire family for that? But this is a government acting as a prosecutor, judge, jury and executioner," he adds.

The use of bulldozers may have resulted in a global outcry but, Mr Joshi says, it has brought immense political mileage to Mr Adityanath and even won approval from Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

During a visit to the state last December, Mr Modi said, "When the bulldozer runs over the mafia… it runs over the illegal building, but the person who is nurturing it [also] feels the pain."

Following the prime minister's remarks, bulldozers have been used in the aftermath of religious violence earlier in the year in the state of Madhya Pradesh and in the capital, Delhi, disproportionately targeting Muslims by destroying their homes, shops and small businesses.

"No court order says that demolish someone's home, even if they have committed a crime and even after they have been convicted. So when the authorities send a bulldozer, it basically carries a political message - anyone who protests against us will be bulldozed," Mr Joshi says.



Media caption,
Watch: Indian officials demolish houses of Muslims after protests

 

India in deeper crisis over Prophet Muhammad row

How Islamophobia is hurting India's foreign policy

Sri Lanka troops open fire as protest over fuel turns to riot

Police say four civilians and three soldiers were wounded when shots were fired during unrest sparked by the economic crisis.

A soldier guards a fuel pump after a filling station ran out of petrol in Kandy, Sri Lanka, on Friday, June 17, 2022 [

Buddhika Weerasinghe/Bloomberg]

Published On 19 Jun 2022

Sri Lanka’s military opened fire to contain rioting at a fuel station as unprecedented queues for petrol and diesel were seen across the bankrupt country, officials said.

Troops fired live rounds in Visuvamadu, 365k (227 miles) north of Colombo, on Saturday night after a pump ran out of petrol and a protest by angry motorists escalated and led to a clash with troops, police said.

KEEP READINGlist of 4 itemslist 1 of 4
Sri Lanka tells civil servants work from home amid fuel shortagelist 2 of 4
Photos: Crisis-hit Sri Lankans seek passport to a better lifelist 3 of 4
Crisis-hit Sri Lanka allows gov’t workers 4-day week to grow foodlist 4 of 4
Electricity cuts hit Sri Lanka as key union goes on strikeend of list

“A group of 20 to 30 people pelted stones and damaged an army truck,” army spokesman Nilantha Premaratne told AFP news agency on Sunday

Police said four civilians and three soldiers were wounded when the army opened fire, marking the first time that the military has used gunfire to quell unrest linked to the worsening economic crisis.

A woman moves a gas tank as she stands in line to buy another tank in Colombo

 [File: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters]

Sri Lanka is suffering its worst economic crisis since independence, with the country unable to find dollars to import essentials, including food, fuel and medicines.

Many of the country’s 22 million people have to queue up at petrol stations for hours and have been enduring long power cuts for months, all of which has contributed to months of protests, sometimes violent, with demonstrators calling on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down.

Sri Lanka has deployed armed police and troops to guard fuel stations and a motorist was shot dead by police in April in the central town of Rambukkana when a clash erupted over the distribution of rationed petrol and diesel.

Police said clashes involving motorists erupted at three locations over the weekend. At least six police officers were wounded in one clash while seven motorists were arrested.
Dire situation

Earlier this week, Sri Lanka’s government approved a four-day work week for public sector workers to help them cope with the chronic fuel shortage and to encourage them to grow food.

The United Nations has outlined a plan to raise $47m to provide assistance over the next four months to 1.7 million Sri Lankans worst hit by the crisis.

As many as five million people in the country could be directly affected by food shortages in the coming months, according to Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s office.

The World Food Programme (WFP) said it began distributing food vouchers to about 2,000 pregnant women in Colombo’s “underserved” areas as part of “life-saving assistance” on Thursday.

New York Pushes to Get Fired Workers Vaccinated, Rehired

June 19, 2022
Associated Press

A pharmacy in New York City offers vaccines for COVID-19 and other diseases, Dec. 6, 2021.

NEW YORK —

New York City is making a push to give city workers fired earlier this year for not getting the COVID-19 vaccine a chance to get their old jobs back — if they get fully vaccinated.

In February, Mayor Eric Adams fired more than 1,400 workers who failed to comply with the vaccine mandate put in place by his predecessor, Bill de Blasio.

Just short of 600 unvaccinated non-Department of Education workers are receiving a letter with details, and DOE employees are expected to receive a letter later in the summer, a city spokesperson said, adding that 97% of workers are vaccinated and that the goal has always been "vaccination rather than termination."

The development was first reported by the New York Post.

It wasn't clear how many workers would be affected and a timeline for returning to work was not disclosed.

The mandate required vaccinations as a workplace safety rule. In March, Adams was the target of criticism for exempting athletes and performers not based in New York City from the city's vaccine mandate, while keeping the rule in place for private and public workers.

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M

Zekelman fined US$975,000 for illegal donations to Trump-aligned group

Barry Zekelman, owner of Z Modular, speaks about the construction of modular units for a new residence building going up on campus at St. Clair College on Thursday, Nov. 12, 2020. Zekelman has been fined for a donation to a Trump-aligned group.

Doug Schmidt - Windsor Star

Local steel billionaire Barry Zekelman has been fined US$975,000 (C$1.2 million) in the U.S. for illegal contributions made in 2018 to a political action committee set up to assist candidates “who support the agenda of the Trump-Pence administration.”

It’s the third-largest penalty ever levied by the U.S. Federal Election Commission, according to Washington, D.C.-based Campaign Legal Center. A government watchdog group, it filed the complaint three years ago under a law prohibiting a “foreign national” from making direct or indirect contributions in a U.S. election

While three contributions totalling US$1.75 million (C$2.2 million) were deemed illegal, the FEC, in a “conciliation agreement” made public on Friday, also concluded the federal regulatory agency that enforces U.S. campaign finance law “did not find that the violation was knowing or willful.”

In a sworn declaration, Zekelman, CEO and executive chairman of Zekelman Industries Inc., told the FEC that he had discussed potential contributions to America First with executives of Wheatland Tube, a Pennsylvania-based subsidiary, who report to him. The defendants argued they did not know that having Zekelman participate in such communications “could have any legal implications.”

According to The New York Times, Zekelman’s donations to America First Action, a so-called Super PAC, helped him secure an invitation to a private dinner with then-President Donald Trump and his son Donald Trump Jr. at which he lobbied for action on steel tariffs. It was reporting by The New York Times in 2019 on Zekelman’s role in the Super PAC donations that led to the election commission complaint being filed by Campaign Legal Center.

Zekelman’s private session with Trump at a Trump hotel, at which he pressed the U.S. president to use his executive power to curb foreign steel imports from Asia, came shortly after an initial contribution by Wheatland Tube of US$1 million to America First in April 2018. The Super PAC, formed by Trump campaign leaders, received further donations that year of US$250,000 in June and US$500,000 in October.

According to Campaign Legal Center, the Trump administration went on to rule in favour of Zekelman Industries and its claims made against foreign competitors. “Sales and profits subsequently surged at the privately held company,” said the group, whose motto is “advancing democracy through law.”

As part of the FEC-approved conciliation agreement released April 8, Zekelman, a foreign national, was found to have “participated in Wheatland Tube’s decision-making process in the making of the contributions.”

The decision released last week comes with a potential silver lining for Zekelman Industries. The respondents in the case agreed to make a request to America First Action to have its US$1.75 million in political contributions refunded to Wheatland Tube. That would more than make up the civil penalty of US$975,000 levied by the FEC.

An alternative, according to the agreement, would be a request that the Super PAC “disgorge the $1,750,000 in contributions to the U.S. Treasury.”

Contacted Monday, a spokeswoman for Zekelman told the Windsor Star neither he nor the company wished to comment on the matter.

According to the just-released Forbes list of 2022 billionaires , the Windsor-born and -raised Zekelman saw a huge gain this past year in his net financial wealth, from US$2.3 billion in 2021 to US$3.3 billion (C$4.2 billion) today. That 44-per cent hike put him in the 913th spot among the world’s 2,668 billionaires, according to Forbes, and placed him above Trump’s 2022 net worth of US$3 billion.

Zekelman, frequently in the news with wife Stephanie for their many local and international philanthropic activities, took over the helm at Atlas Tube in Harrow with his brothers following their father’s sudden passing in 1986. The company was sold to the Carlyle Group in 2006 for US$1.2 billion but then bought back by the family in 2011.

Zekelman Industries, with annual revenues of US$2.8 billion, is one of North America’s largest steel pipe and tube makers, with customers in industry, construction, infrastructure, energy, agriculture, national defence and transportation.

A controversial U.S. Supreme Court decision in 2010 — Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission — gave the green light to unlimited corporate, labour union and trust fund political donations, fuelling the rise of “Super PACs” producing giant pools of funds for campaigns through undisclosed means. A court majority said any such restrictions were prohibited under the free speech clause of the First Amendment, while opponents, including then-President Barack Obama, argued the decision gave excessive power to special interests with deep pockets.

dschmidt@postmedia.com
twitter.com/schmidtcity

Related
U.S. group files legal, ethics complaints over Zekelman’s Trump support
'Man of Steel' a pricey boat, but fit for a billionaire
Zekelman family donates $15M to Holocaust Memorial Center
Zekelman Tennis Facility open for play

Billionaire Barry Zekelman is one of the biggest backers of Trump’s push to protect American steel. And he’s Canadian.


Barry Zekelman, American Steel

2019-05-21
Source
The Globe and Mail

Zekelman is chief executive of Zekelman Industries , North America’s largest steel-tube manufacturer. According to records, the company now stands out as the biggest steel industry donor to Trump ’s affiliated political committees.

On days off, he likes to race his Ferrari 488 sports cars. Or he might climb aboard his Gulfstream IV jet to fly to the Bahamas to visit his 121-foot superyacht, which he named “Man of Steel” in a nod to his role as chief executive of Zekelman Industries, North America’s largest steel-tube manufacturer.

He called on well-placed connections, including a lawyer who had done work for him and had gone on to a senior position helping oversee trade policy in the Trump administration. He put his Washington-based lobbyist into action, and his company took a high-profile role with a trade group that was backing his cause. He funded his own advertising campaign to build public support for his efforts to protect makers of steel tube in the United States.

RICHEST PEOPLE
Canada’s Richest People: The Zekelman Family

By CB Staff

December 24, 2015

Zekelman Family
Net Worth:
$3.46 billion
(▲63.2% from 2017)

Rich 100 rank: #24
Change in rank from 2017: ▲21
Major company holdings: Atlas Tube
Location: Windsor, Ont. & Bloomfield Hills, Mich.

The Zekelman family runs the largest independent steel tube manufacturer in North America, and they want everyone to know it: Last year the clan changed the name of the company from JMC Steel Group to Zekelman Industries, Inc. The firm churns out more than 2.5 million tonnes of steel products each year—primarily pipes, large structural steel elements and electrical conduits used in construction. Recently, however, Barry Zekelman, the CEO and executive chairman of Zekelman Industries, also dabbled in biotech, co-financing a Boston cancer research startup called CureMeta. “It’s definitely a business venture, but if I never made a penny off it and cured cancer, I’d be ecstatic,” he told the Windsor Star in 2016.

Updated Thursday, November 9, 2017