NUKE THE WHALES

Fox hosts triggered by Whole Foods choosing not to sell lobsters and protect the last 340 of a rare whale

Sarah K. Burris
November 27, 2022


Whole Foods has recently decided not to sell lobster from Maine after two sustainability organizations threatened to withdraw their endorsements of the U.S. lobster fishing industry.

Marine Stewardship Council and Seafood Watch are concerned about the impact the fishing gear is having on the rare North Atlantic right whales. There are only 340 of that species of whales left in the world. Whole Foods said that they are monitoring the situation and “committed to working with suppliers, fisheries, and environmental advocacy groups as it develops.”

The Fox network, however, is furious that they can no longer buy their lobster at Whole Foods.

One of the hosts said that he didn't care about lobsters because he is a "carnivore."

The host noted that it's never happened that one of the whales has been killed as a result of lobster fishing in Maine. Because it's nothing more than a "risk," she said that she didn't understand why it mattered. Others will likely sell the Maine lobsters and Caribbean lobsters are still an option as well.

In fact, the New England Aquarium was able to observe a female North Atlantic right whale tangled in fishing lines.

The same aquarium also explained that due to climate change, the whales are moving to different areas in migration, which is why it has become a new problem. They are looking for solutions, a Canadian report explained.

Still, the fact that the Fox host couldn't get them at Whole Foods seemed to be her biggest concern.

"Ugg, I'll take the risk," sneered Sunday stand-in host Lisa Booth.

"HelloFresh, the meal kit company, was among numerous retailers to pledge to stop selling lobster in September after California-based Seafood Watch placed American and Canadian lobster fisheries on its 'red list' of seafoods to avoid," reported the AP.

See the video below:

Lobster freakoutwww.youtube.com

The Simpsons - Nuke The Whales - YouTube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5_Sem03i4Q

0:12

Web2020-04-12 · From season 08 episode 07, Lisa's Date With Destiny.Subscribe for more!

• Author: Simpsons Clips

• Vi

UPDATED

Hong Kong protesters call for 'freedom' as anger against China's Xi Jinping spreads

Dake Kang

Nov 29 2022

Chinese police order people to delete content following Covid protests

an hour ago

Barely a month after granting himself new powers as China’s potential leader for life, Xi Jinping is facing a wave of public anger of the kind not seen for decades, sparked by his “zero-Covid” strategy that will soon enter its fourth year.

But it's “unimaginable” the government will back down given it has invested so much political capital in the policy, observers say.

Demonstrators poured into the streets over the weekend in cities including Shanghai and Beijing, criticising the policy, confronting police – and even calling for Xi to step down.

Meanwhile on Monday, demonstrators gathered in the semi-autonomous southern city of Hong Kong, where the pro-democracy movement was all but snuffed out by a harsh crackdown following months-long demonstrations that began in 2019.

Students at the Chinese University of Hong Kong chanted, “Freedom! Freedom!” in their native Cantonese, as well as “We don’t want revolution, we want reform!” in the Mandarin spoken in mainland China. Floral tributes were laid in the Central district that had been the epicentre of previous protests.

The widespread demonstrations are unprecedented since the army crushed the 1989 student-led pro-democracy movement centred on Beijing’s Tiananmen Square.

Most protesters focused their anger on restrictions that can confine families to their homes for months and have been criticised as neither scientific nor effective. Some complained the system is failing to respond to their needs.

NG HAN GUAN/AP
Protesters hold up blank papers and hold flowers and candles as they march in protest in Beijing.

The cries for the resignation of Xi and the end of the Communist Party that has ruled China for 73 years could be deemed sedition, which is punishable by prison.

In response, police in Shanghai used pepper spray to drive away demonstrators, and dozens were detained in police sweeps and taken away in police vans and buses. China’s vast internal security apparatus is also famed for identifying people it considers troublemakers and picking them up later when few are watching.

The possibility of more protests is unclear. Government censors scrubbed the internet of videos and messages supporting them. And analysts say unless divisions emerge, the Communist Party should be able to contain the dissent.

Play Video 1:50

China eases some COVID-19 measures but affirms zero-tolerance strategy amid anti-lockdown protests

China's stringent measures were originally accepted for minimising deaths while other countries suffered devastating waves of infections, but that consensus has begun to fray in recent weeks.

While the ruling party says anti-coronavirus measures should be “targeted and precise” and cause the least possible disruption to people's lives, local officials are threatened with losing their jobs or other punishments if outbreaks occur. They have responded by imposing quarantines and other restrictions that protesters say exceed what the central government allows.

Xi's unelected government doesn't seem too concerned with the hardships brought by the policy. This spring, millions of Shanghai residents were placed under a strict lockdown that resulted in food shortages, restricted access to medical care and economic pain. Nevertheless, in October, the city's party secretary, a Xi loyalist, was appointed to the Communist Party's No. 2 position.

NG HAN GUAN/AP
Protesters hold candles as they march in Beijing on Sunday.

The party has long imposed surveillance and travel restrictions on minorities including Tibetans and Muslim groups such as Uyghurs, more than 1 million of whom have been detained in camps where they are forced to renounce their traditional culture and religion and swear fealty to Xi.

But this weekend's protests included many members of the educated urban middle class from the ethnic Han majority. The ruling party relies on that group to abide by an unwritten post-Tiananmen agreement to accept autocratic rule in exchange for a better quality of life.

Now, it appears that old arrangement has ended as the party enforces control at the expense of the economy, said Hung Ho-fung of Johns Hopkins University.

“The party and the people are trying to seek a new equilibrium,” he said. “There will be some instability in the process.”

To develop into something on the scale of the 1989 protests would require clear divisions within the leadership that could be leveraged for change, Hung said.

NG HAN GUAN/AP
Chinese policemen form a line to stop protesters marching in Beijing.

Xi all but eliminated such threats at an October party congress. He broke with tradition and awarded himself a third five-year term as party leader and packed the seven-member Politburo Standing Committee with loyalists. Two potential rivals were sent into retirement.

“Without the clear signal of party leader divisions ... I would expect this kind of protest might not last very long,” Hung said.

It's “unimaginable” that Xi would back down, and the party is experienced in handling protests, Hung said.

Video 0:58

China: Anti-Zero COVID Policy Protesters Clash With Police In Shanghai

China is now the only major country still trying to stop transmission of the virus that was first detected in the central city of Wuhan in late 2019.

The normally supportive head of the World Health Organisation has called “zero-Covid” unsustainable. Beijing dismissed his remarks as irresponsible, but public acceptance of the restrictions has worn thin.

People who are quarantined at home in some areas say they lack food and medicine. And the ruling party faced anger over the deaths of two children whose parents said antivirus controls hampered efforts to get emergency medical care.

Protests then erupted after a fire on Thursday killed at least 10 people in an apartment building in the city of Urumqi in the northwest, where some residents have been locked in their homes for four months. That prompted an outpouring of angry questions online about whether firefighters or people trying to escape were blocked by locked doors or other pandemic restrictions.


ANDY WONG/AP
Chinese President Xi Jinping. (File photo)

Yet Xi, an ardent nationalist, has politicised the issue to the point that exiting the zero-Covid policy could be seen as a loss to his reputation and authority.

Zero-Covid was “supposed to demonstrate the superiority of the ‘Chinese model’, but ended up demonstrating the risk that when authoritarian regimes make mistakes, those mistakes can be colossal”, said Andrew Nathan, a Chinese politics specialist at Columbia University. He edited The Tiananmen Papers, an insider account of the government's response to the 1989 protests.

“But I think the regime has backed itself into a corner and has no way to yield. It has lots of force, and if necessary, it will use it,” Nathan said. “If it could hold onto power in the face of the pro-democracy demonstrations of 1989, it can do so again now."

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/asia/300751324/hong-kong-protesters-call-for-freedom-as-anger-against-chinas-xi-jinping-spreads

NG HAN GUAN/AP
Protesters hold up blank papers and chant slogans as they march in Beijing.

China censors rare, nationwide protests over hardcore Covid-19 restrictions

Demonstrators holding up white pieces of paper during a protest in Beijing on Nov 27, 2022. 

REUTERS

SHANGHAI – China’s censors were working on Monday to extinguish signs of rare, social media-driven protests that flared across major cities over the weekend calling for political freedoms and an end to Covid-19 lockdowns.

Sunday saw people take to the streets in several major cities across China to call for an end to lockdowns and greater political freedoms, in a wave of nationwide protests not seen since pro-democracy rallies in 1989 were crushed.

A deadly fire last week in Urumqi, the capital of north-west China’s Xinjiang region, has become a catalyst for public anger, with many blaming Covid-19 lockdowns for hampering rescue efforts.

But they have also featured prominent calls for greater political freedoms – with some even demanding the resignation of China’s President Xi Jinping, recently re-appointed to an unprecedented third term as China’s leader.

Large crowds gathered on Sunday in the capital Beijing and Shanghai, where police clashed with protesters as they tried to stop groups from converging at Wulumuqi street, named after the Mandarin for Urumqi.

Crowds that gathered overnight – some of whom chanted “Xi Jinping, step down! CCP, step down!” – were dispersed by Sunday morning.

But in the afternoon, hundreds rallied in the same area with blank sheets of paper and flowers to hold what appeared to be a silent protest, an eyewitness told Agence France-Presse.

In the capital, at least 400 people gathered on the banks of a river for several hours, with some shouting: “We are all Xinjiang people! Go Chinese people!”

Reporters at the scene described the crowd singing the national anthem and listening to speeches, while on the other side of the canal bank, a line of police cars waited.

State censors appeared to have scrubbed Chinese social media of any news about the rallies, with the search terms “Liangma River”, “Urumqi Road” – sites of protests in Beijing and Shanghai – scrubbed of any references to the rallies on the Twitter-like Weibo platform.

Videos, including those showing university students singing in protest and rallies in other cities have also vanished from WeChat, replaced by notices saying the content was reported for “non-compliant or sensitive content”.

The Weibo search for the hashtag #A4 – a reference to the blank pieces of paper held up at rallies in a symbolic protest against censorship – also appeared to have been manipulated, showing only a handful of posts from the past day.

‘Boiling point’

China’s strict control of information and continued travel curbs tied to the zero-Covid policy make verifying numbers of protesters across the vast country challenging.

But such widespread rallies are exceptionally rare, with the authorities harshly clamping down on any and all opposition to the central government.

Protests also occurred on Sunday in Wuhan, the central city where Covid-19 first emerged, while there were reports of demonstrations in Guangzhou, Chengdu and Hong Kong.

Spreading through social media, they have been fuelled by frustration at the central government’s zero-Covid policy, which sees the authorities impose snap lockdowns, lengthy quarantines and mass testing campaigns over just a handful of cases.

State-run People’s Daily published a commentary on Monday morning warning against “paralysis” and “battle-weariness” in the fight against Covid-19 – but stopped far short of calling for an end to hardline policy.

“People have now reached a boiling point because there has been no clear direction to the path to end the zero-Covid policy,” Mr Alfred Wu Muluan, a Chinese politics expert at the National University of Singapore, said. “The party has underestimated the people’s anger.”

 AFP

MORE ON THIS TOPIC
Blank paper becomes symbol of defiance in protests against China’s Covid-19 curbs

There is a way to end China's Covid-19 nightmare; question is the price

China Covid-19 cases hit fresh record high after weekend of protests

China signals no change to zero-Covid-19 policy amid mass protests that challenge Xi

Videos Show CCP Forces Violently Crackdown on China Protests Against Xi

BY ANDREW STANTON 

NEWSWEEK

ON 11/27/22 

VIDEO 00:30 Protesters Clash With Security At Chinese iPhone Factory

Videos posted to social media show Chinese Communist Party (CCP) forces violently crack down on protests against Chinese President Xi Jinping's COVID-19 lockdowns.

Massive protests erupted across China in recent days following an apartment fire in Urumqi, the capital of the northwestern Xinjiang region, that resulted in the deaths of 10 people. Protesters are demanding Xi's resignation in a rare rebuke against his leadership, just weeks after he secured a historic third term.

The apartment fire triggered the protests after video posted to Chinese social media showing rescue efforts led some people to believe Xi's restrictive COVID-19 rules slowed the evacuation, resulting in unnecessary deaths.

Chinese authorities, however, maintained people inside the high-rise were able to go downstairs and escape the building, but their defense has done little to quell discontent among citizens, who still believe the zero-COVID policy prevented residents from fleeing the blaze.

Above, protesters march along a street in Beijing on November 28. Videos posted to social media show Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities clash with protesters who are demanding President Xi Jinping's resignation and a change in the dynamic Zero-COVID policy following a deadly apartment fire.

NOEL CELIS/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES

China implemented the policy to prevent widespread infection within its borders. Nearly three years after the first COVID-19 case was discovered in Wuhan, the CCP says its restrictions prevented a global economic downturn and millions of virus-fueled deaths.

Chinese protesters, however, are illustrating the growing discontent with the rules despite recent clashes with CCP police. Videos emerged on social media on Sunday showing authorities crack down on protesters, with scenes at times turning violent.

"Peaceful Anti Chinese Communist Party Government protests in Shanghai for the second day in a row," tweeted @_Inty_, a Twitter account that frequently tweets about Chinese current affairs. "The CCP began to violently crackdown the Chinese protesters."

NPR journalist Rob Schmitz tweeted a video showing police clearing protesters from the streets of Shanghai.



"It'll be interesting to see how the Chinese government responds in the coming days to crowds of Chinese calling for Xi Jinping and the CCP to step down," he tweeted.

Shows of political defiance are rare in China. Although authorities say they allow free expression, human rights experts have long raised concerns that the CCP stifles dissent among its citizens.

Human Rights Watch researcher Yaqiu Wang tweeted Saturday that the protests are "painful to watch, knowing what is going to happen to those who chanted and knowing the level of control the CCP has over the Chinese society."

Wang's tweet was in response to a video that showed protesters chant, "Down with the party! Down with Xi Jinping!" Other videos posted to Twitter depicted the protesters shouting "End the lockdown."

Xi Under Pressure

Before the protests began, Xi was already facing some political strife after thousands of employees resigned from Foxconn's flagship factory in central China where iPhones are produced.

Workers clashed with riot police, who were wearing hazmat suits, over living conditions inside a strict COVID-19 bubble. Videos showed hundreds of workers storm out of their dormitory building where they were met with a police response.

The protests are the most direct challenge yet to the zero-COVID policy. China has maintained that it has had few infections—and fewer deaths—in the past two years. However, the protests also come as cases are rising throughout the country. From October 26 to November 26, cases increased more than 490 percent, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

Xi also continues facing a strained relationship with other global super powers. He has become perhaps Russian President Vladimir Putin's most powerful global ally amid the otherwise-condemned invasion of Ukraine, and tensions with Taiwan have strained in recent months as island leaders rebuke Chinese leadership.

Newsweek reached out to the Chinese government for comment.

China: Two European journalists arrested while covering protests against Covid-19 curbs

One of them, a BBC journalist, was allegedly assaulted by the police in Shanghai.

Scroll Staff

Demonstrators show blank papers in Shanghai on Sunday as a way to protest against the coronavirus curbs in China. | Hector Retamal/ AFP

Two European journalists, who were covering the protests in China against the strict coronavirus measures, were arrested on Sunday.

BBC journalist Ed Lawrence was arrested in Shanghai and was allegedly beaten up by the police, the British public broadcaster said in a statement.

“The BBC is extremely concerned about the treatment of our journalist Ed Lawrence, who was arrested and handcuffed while covering the protests in Shanghai,” the broadcaster said.

The second arrested journalist is Michael Peuker, the correspondent for Radio Télévision Suisse, the French-language branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation. Both journalists have been released.

The protests had broken out in several Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Beijing and Wuhan, after 10 persons were killed in a fire at a high-rise building in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region, on November 24.

The protestors have claimed that the victims could not escape as the building was partially locked down. However, city officials denied the claims and instead blamed the residents for being “too weak” to rescue themselves.

The BBC said on Sunday that it was worrying that Lawrence was attacked while he was doing his job. The statement also said the Chinese authorities did not offer any explanation, just claimed that Lawrence was arrested “for his own good” in case he got infected with Covid-19 from the crowd.

“We do not consider this a credible explanation,” it added.

Lawrence, a senior journalist and camera operator for the BBC’s China Bureau, had been tweeting about the protest on Sunday afternoon. The journalist said that he had seen three protestors being arrested of which two had fought with the police.

Following his arrest and release, Lawrence also said that the police arrested one Chinese citizen who was trying to stop the officials from beating him up.

Meanwhile, Radio Télévision Suisse’s Peuker was arrested after a live broadcast. He knew that he was going to be arrested.

“The tension is at its height here,” he had said during his broadcast. “Proof of this is that I am now surrounded by three police officers, I will be taken on board after this duplex at the police station.”

The correspondent and his cameraman were taken into custody after Peuker went off air. The Swiss broadcaster said that the two were released after minutes of negotiation.

Zero-Covid policy

Several cities across China have imposed lockdowns and other restrictions to curb the spread of the infection, under zero-Covid policy.

Through the “zero-Covid” strategy, China aims to isolate every patient and eliminate the virus entirely to prevent overwhelming healthcare systems. Some of the norms under the policy were relaxed in November. However, the policy, which has been described as unsustainable by the World Health Organization, is seemingly being implemented again.

On Saturday, China had registered a record 39,791 Covid-19 cases, Reuters reported, citing the country’s National Health Commission. Out of these, 3,709 cases were symptomatic infections, whereas 36,082 were asymptomatic.

One person died due to the disease, taking the total number of fatalities to 5,233.

The country had reported its first Covid-related death in six months on November 20.

Royal Mail workers and university lecturers continue industrial action

25 November 2022, 

Royal Mail strike. Picture: PA

Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and University and College Union (UCU) walked out on Thursday for 48 hours.

Royal Mail workers and university lecturers will continue with a strike on Friday in long running disputes over pay, pensions, jobs and conditions.

Members of the Communication Workers Union (CWU) and University and College Union (UCU) walked out on Thursday for 48 hours, with more action planned in the coming weeks.

Picket lines were again mounted outside universities and Royal Mail centres across the country on Black Friday- one of the busiest shopping days of the year.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said 70,000 university staff were on strike on Thursday, adding: “They will no longer accept falling pay, pension cuts, brutal workloads and gig-economy working conditions. If vice-chancellors doubted the determination of university staff to save our sector then today has been a rude awakening for them.

‘We have been overwhelmed by the support of thousands of students who have joined us on the picket lines. They recognise that vice-chancellors are wrecking the sector for staff and students alike and are determined to stand with us and fix it.

‘Our members deserve a proper pay rise and the money is there to deliver it. Vice-chancellors now need to urgently address the concerns of staff otherwise our 70,000 members will escalate this dispute into next year”

University employers said they were taking steps to mitigate any disruption adding that the union was seeking an “unrealistic” 13.6% pay rise which would cost institutions around £1.5 billion.

Unions say the dispute will carry on ‘until Royal Mail sees some sense’ (Yui Mok/PA)

The CWU has rejected Royal Mail’s final offer and is pressing ahead with more strikes, including today and on Christmas Eve.

A CWU spokesperson said: “Millions of customers and thousands of small businesses rely on the quality services Royal Mail workers provide at Christmas.

“But Royal Mail bosses are ignoring those responsibilities and ploughing ahead with plans that would wreck the livelihoods of their entire workforce.

“We call on the government, media and all small businesses to demand that Royal Mail takes a mature approach to this dispute.

“Thousands of workers aren’t striking at Christmas for fun – they want to reach an agreement.

“But they won’t be walked all over and have their lives ruined by the reckless, careless behaviour of the employer.

“Until Royal Mail sees some sense, this dispute will carry on.”

Responding to CWU claims about how postal workers were being treated, a Royal Mail spokesperson said: “We have a zero tolerance to any form of bullying or harassment.

“Over the last four months we have witnessed some awful behaviours on the picket line, including allegations of racist and sexist behaviour.

“In each instance we have taken swift action to appropriately discipline the individuals involved.

“We encourage anyone with concerns to come forward – we have a confidential whistleblowing process in place and will support any colleague who comes forward.”

Nick Hollamby, a 56-year-old CWU area representative, said he was on a London picket line because management had put forward proposals that were “totally unacceptable”, adding that he understood the public’s frustration at the strikes falling over Black Friday and the run-up to Christmas.

Lloyd Harris, CWU branch secretary for Mount Pleasant Delivery Office in London, said: “At the moment, Royal Mail are trying to drive our terms and conditions down, they are trying to get this work done on the cheap.”

By Press Association

UK 

Army would step in to help NHS during winter of strikes under contingency plans

28 November 2022, 03:34

Soldiers on parade. Picture: PA

Health and defence officials are drawing up a strategy to tackle a possible wave of industrial action in the health service.

Armed forces personnel could drive ambulances and stand in for frontline hospital roles under emergency plans to deal with a possible winter of strikes.

Health and defence officials are drawing up a contingency strategy as ambulance drivers and paramedics consider joining nurses on the picket lines in the coming months.

As first reported by the Times, the Government could utilise the military aid to the civil authorities protocol (Maca) to keep key services in the NHS running during major walkouts.

Maca was used during the coronavirus pandemic to help struggling health staff with vaccines, testing and the delivery of protective equipment.

No formal request for help has been made by the Department of Health and Social Care to the Ministry of Defence.

A Government spokeswoman said: “We are working with the NHS on a range of options to manage disruption to health and care services during industrial action.

“Hospitals will do everything they can to ensure patients and the public are kept safe, however planned appointments may need to be cancelled and emergency care prioritised to those in need of urgent care only.”

The prospect of strikes being called off ahead of Christmas appeared bleak, as Transport Secretary Mark Harper said public sector pay rises in line with soaring inflation are “unaffordable”.

The Cabinet minister said there “simply isn’t the money” to meet the demands of workers preparing to take industrial action but hinted at progress in talks over rail strikes.

Mr Harper indicated a change in the mandate for negotiations and said pay rises could come if rail workers accept reforms, after holding “positive” talks with Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union general secretary Mick Lynch.

Nurses are set to stage their first UK-wide strike action next month, as they join transport and postal workers on the picket lines in disputes over pay and conditions.

Ambulances (Steve Parsons/PA)

Mr Harper told Sky’s Sophy Ridge On Sunday programme: “Inflation-matching or inflation-busting pay rises are unaffordable.

“I think we want to try and give all the workers in the public sector who work very hard decent pay rises, but they can’t be inflation-busting pay rises.

“There simply isn’t the money to pay for those given the context, we haven’t seen those in the private sector either, the private sector pay rises have generally been settled below the level of inflation, which I accept is difficult for people.”

He told the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg that rail bosses “will have the ability to reach a deal”, when pressed about whether they have the mandate to properly negotiate with the RMT.

“But we have to be able to have that reform package negotiated, because it’s only that that throws up the savings,” Mr Harper said.

“I do not have a bottomless pit of taxpayers’ money to throw at this problem.”

Royal College of Nursing (RCN) members in England, Wales and Northern Ireland will walk out on December 15 and 20 if the dispute is not resolved.

Health Secretary Steve Barclay has urged the nursing union to “come back to the table” for talks but he is declining to discuss pay, instead wanting to talk about conditions such as pension arrangements, holidays, rosters and the availability of free coffee.

RCN general secretary Pat Cullen wrote to Mr Barclay telling him it is “negotiations or nothing”.

By Press Association

Poles vent anger at leader over his policies, ideas on women

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA

WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Protesters gathered Monday at the home of Poland’s ruling party leader to vent anger at what they regard as an erosion of women’s rights under his conservative government and a recent remark about women using alcohol.

The protesters who gathered outside Jaroslaw Kaczynski’s house spoke out against a near total ban on abortion pushed by his Law and Justice party that took effect last year, as well as policies that discourage in-vitro fertilization procedures.

Women’s Strike, a prominent women’s rights movement, called people to the streets only after Kaczynski earlier this month blamed Poland’s low birthrate partly on young women drinking too much alcohol.

Other demonstrations were taking place in a handful of Polish cities.

While the alcohol comment angered many at the time, the outrage appeared to have subsided as the protest was much smaller than some of the Women’s Strike-led demonstrations of the past year, some of which were huge.

Some people accuse Kaczynski, a 73-year-old bachelor, of being out of touch and not understanding all the reasons that make it difficult today for women to decide to have children.

Women’s Strike says there are many reasons for the country’s low birth rate, including Poland’s de facto prohibition of abortion, a lack of general access to sexual education and in vitro procedures, high inflation, a housing shortage and a lack of access to day care centers.

The protest was being held on a symbolic day: the 104th anniversary of women winning voting rights in Poland, among the world’s earliest.

Kaczynski said at a news conference ahead of the protest that he didn’t understand why the protesters chose to demonstrate in front of his home “since I have always been a supporter of full equality for women.”

Empty stations: Austria's rail strike blocks cross-European travel

Johannes Pleschberger in Vienna

Travellers at Vienna's central station as Austria's rail workers stage a strike. Reuters/Lisa Leutner

Austrian rail workers staged a one day strike on Monday, bringing to a standstill the nation's network, which is pivotal in cross-European travel. The country's stations - where usually a million passengers get on and off trains every day - were deserted.

Rail employees demanded a 12 percent pay-rise before negotiations with the employers broke down. Inflation in Austria stood at 11 percent in October - the highest peak in 70 years.

Experts predict that the median price of goods and services will further rise by 11.5 percent in November, after which a decrease is likely. Recently, state employees received a pay-rise of over 7 percent and metal worker unions got a similar one. If and when negotiations between rail workers and their employers resume is not clear yet.


Vienna's deserted 'Hauptbahnhof' station, one of Europe's main transportation hubs.

/Reuters/Lisa Leutner

In no other EU country are trains as pivotal as they are in Austria, both for travel within and through the country.

Lying at the heart of Europe it is also considered the continent's night train pioneer. But all connections between Bucharest, Brussels, Rome and Hamburg were blocked on Monday. And given the short notice of the strike, many international rail passengers have found their journeys disrupted.

Meanwhile heavy car traffic was made worse after environmental activists glued themselves to roads in the cities of Graz, Linz and Innsbruck on the same day. However, the congestion was eased by the fact that many people decided to work from their homes instead of commuting.

The rail strike is due to last until midnight (Monday), although disruption on international overnight trains in expected to continue until Tuesday.

Morocco fans show their love for Palestine at Qatar World Cup

Chants of 'Free Palestine' rang around the stadium during Morocco's win against Belgium on Sunday.

Palestinians were quick to congratulate the Morocco team on their historic win

 [Getty images]

The New Arab Staff
28 November, 2022

Moroccan fans sang and chanted in support of Palestine on Sunday during a famous World Cup win for the Atlas Lions over Belgium.

A huge Palestinian flag was unfurled in the second half in the Moroccan stand, as viewers tuned in from around the world to see the footballing upset unfold.

Despite the celebrations over their historic World Cup triumph over Belgium, ranked second in the world, Moroccan supporters were determined to keep Palestine in the limelight.

As the jubilant fans left the stadium, Moroccans partied on the streets of Qatar singing "We won't let anything happen to you Gaza, even though you're far away".

During a pre-World Cup friendly, Morocco beat Palestine 4-0 in the FIFA Arab Cup this year, which saw cordial and good-natured rapport between the two sets of fans.

After the Morocco win, Palestinians were quick to congratulate their North African cousins.

The popular shows of solidarity with the Palestinian cause during the World Cup highlight the widespread unease in Morocco with Rabat's decision to normalise diplomatic relations with Israel.

In a stunning revelation, Morocco's former prime minister said this week that signing the normalisation deal with Israel in 2020 was "painful" and he was "pressured" by higher authority.

After sealing the deal, the US recognised Morocco's sovereignty over the Western Sahara region, widely seen as a "reward" for normalisation.

Morocco's win over Belgium is the latest scalp of football giants claimed by Arab teams - widely viewed as underdogs in the tournament.

Saudi Arabia made history by beating Argentina - one of the favourites to lift the trophy - in their first game in the 2022 World Cup.

To keep the run going, Tunisia will have to pull off a miraculous victory over cup holders France on Wednesday.