Kenya's Ruto urges accountability for world polluters


Issued on: 19/02/2023 -

Addis Ababa (AFP) – Kenyan President William Ruto called Sunday for rich countries to be held accountable for driving global warming and for a revamp of international financial institutions to better fight climate change.

Poorer nations, especially those in Africa, have been hit disproportionately hard by the fallout from climate change, which has aggravated droughts and flooding, despite being least responsible for carbon emissions.

In an interview on the sidelines of the African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa, where climate change is a major topic, Ruto said the time was ripe for a "paradigm shift".

"We are at a place where we have no options," he told AFP.

The situation "is not getting better unless something gives way and until we have an honest conversation", he said, urging richer countries and financial institutions to start treating Africa as "an asset" in climate talks.

"We want a system that is accountable, that holds the emitters who pollute the world to account. If it is not accountable, then it is corrupt," Ruto said, adding that Africa should not be treated as "beggars" in climate talks.

For years, African governments have been demanding that the world's top polluters pay for the harm their emissions have caused, known as "loss and damage".

The latest round of UN climate talks held in Egypt last year agreed on a fund to cover costs that developing countries face from climate-linked natural disasters and impacts like rising sea levels.

'Cannot be reckless'

But more must be done, including a plan to reduce planet-heating emissions from fossil fuels, said Ruto, who chairs the committee of African leaders on climate change.

"Continuing the impunity of turning on fossil fuel, turning on coal as is happening today puts the whole globe at risk," Ruto said.

"We cannot be that reckless. We cannot be indifferent."

The Kenyan leader said Africa must be treated as a key partner and that the global financial system must be overhauled if any results were to be achieved.

The devastating Horn of Africa drought could get even worse with a fifth consecutive failed rainy season, the UN's weather agency forecast © Yasuyoshi CHIBA / AFP

"Emitters and polluters get better rates for development than us... is it the case that those who have caused the least pollution are being punished?""

UN chief Antonio Guterres had said at the summit on Saturday that African nations were confronted with a "dysfunctional and unfair" global financial system that charged them "extortionate" interest rates.

Scientists warn that droughts, floods, storms and heat waves will only get stronger and more frequent due to global warming.

The Horn of Africa is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate change, and extreme weather events are occurring with increased frequency and intensity.

In Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, around 22 million people are at risk of hunger in areas gripped by the worst drought in four decades, according to UN estimates.

In the afflicted areas, inhabitants -- who eke out a living mainly from herding and subsistence farming -- are experiencing their fifth consecutive poor rainy season since the end of 2020.



"We haven't made our voice clear. We haven't spoken about this loud enough," Ruto said.

Among other issues, African leaders are meeting in Addis Ababa to address the record drought and to jumpstart a faltering free trade pact on the continent of 1.4 billion people.

Guterres also said Saturday that Africa faced "enormous tests... on virtually every front," and it was bearing the brunt of multiple crises it had no hand in generating.

"The brutal injustice of climate change is on full display with every flood, drought, famine and heatwave endured on this continent," he added.

© 2023 AFP

Disney faces dark legacy as it turns 100

Julia Hitz

DW
02/18/2023

February 18, 2023

In its centenary year, the Walt Disney Corporation must confront a legacy of racism and sexism in its films. Is casting an African American actor in "The Little Mermaid" a good start?

The American illustrator and visionary Walt Disney created unforgettable characters, from Mickey Mouse to Donald Duck.

The founding moment for Disney's entertainment empire was October 16, 1923, the day he sold 12 films, including "Alice's Wonderland," to the New York film distribution company M.J. Winkler.

The deal kicked off a century of blockbuster success for the Disney brand.

In that time, Disney has grown from a movie production company to a multimedial entertainment conglomerate with its own streaming platform and numerous subsidiary companies

To mark the anniversary, a live-action remake of the Disney classic "The Little Mermaid" will be released in cinemas on May 26, 2023. However, the road to the film's release has been bumpy.

Racism over casting decisions

In the original Disney animated movie fro 1989, the lead character, Ariel, the little mermaid, is thin with pale skin and a flowing red mane.

After a long dry spell for Disney, the film, whose story is based on the 1837 fairy tale of "The Little Mermaid" by Danish author Hans Christian Andersen, was a gold mine for the studio when it was released.

The original little mermaid from Disney had auburn hair

picture alliance/United Archives

It won Golden Globes, a Grammy and two Oscars for Best Score and Best Song with "Under the Sea," and prefaced a Disney boom in the 1990s with animated hits such as "Beauty and the Beast"(1991), "Aladdin"(1992), "The Lion King" (1994) and "Pocahontas"(1995).

In 2019, when Disney announced that African American actress and singer Halle Bailey would play Ariel, not everyone was happy about it.

Under the hashtag #notmymermaid, fans petitioned against the casting decision with racist insults. Many fans of the original Disney film could not imagine an actor in the role who did not look exactly like the animated Ariel of 1989.

Disney staunchly defended its decision to cast Bailey. In a Twitter statement via the Disney-owned cable network, Freeform, it wrote: "The original author of 'The Little Mermaid' was Danish. Ariel … is a mermaid … But for the sake of argument, let's say that Ariel, too, is Danish. Danish mermaids can be black because Danish *people* can be black."

The company praised Bailey's outstanding talents and suggested that not being able to get past the fact that she "doesn't look like the cartoon one” is racist.

The debate about the Little Mermaid who was Black

03:36

Is racism a thing of the past at Disney?

The Disney movie "Dumbo" in 1941: A group of crows sit on a branch, one of them smokes a cigar. They laugh, dance, sing and make fun of Dumbo, who sits nearby, offended.

The leader of the crows is Jim Crow. This was the stage name of 19th century comedian Thomas D. Rice, who rose to fame performing blackface in his minstrel show. Jim Crow also refers to the name of the segregation laws in the South of the US.

Disney now realizes that this scene in the 1941 film classic was offensive, as it was reminiscent of racist minstrel shows in which white performers with blackened faces and tattered clothing imitated and mocked enslaved Africans on the plantations of the southern states. The film includes other cynical portrayals of Black people in the US that trivialize the history of slavery.

These days, Disney has addressed the problem by issuing warnings before older movies, including "Dumbo," "Peter Pan" and "Aristocats."

They include the words: "This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures. These stereotypes were wrong then and are wrong now."

Such insertions are intended to stimulate discussions that will help create an inclusive future free of discrimination, the group says. But is a notice at the beginning of a film enough?

Halle Bailey stars in the 2023 version of 'The Little Mermaid'

Richard Shotwell/picture alliance

Cultural appropriation then and now

Cultural appropriation is when components of one culture, such as intellectual property, cultural expressions, artifacts, history or types of knowledge are used by members of another culture, especially for capital gain.

Disney's filmography includes several examples where elements of a particular culture have been taken and altered for entertainment purposes. For example, the film "Pocahontas" has little in common with the original story: Disney turned a 10-year-old girl into an attractive, lightly dressed woman who falls in love with John Smith, an English adventurer and colonialist.

Disney has acknowledged these mistakes over time. The corporation is now increasingly trying to tell authentic stories and to talk and collaborate with people from other cultures. Disney founded the "Stories Matter" platform to discuss its new approach to filmmaking, but also its past mistakes.

'Dumbo' perpetuated the racism of the Jim Crow era

Mary Evans Picture Library/picture alliance

Disney films and the sexism accusation

Many Disney classics are also problematic from a feminist point of view. Ariel in particular does not come off well in this regard, as she throws herself into the arms of a prince she hardly knows — barely escaping her strict, patriarchal father. She gives up not only her origins, but her voice for the prince.

But in recent years, Disney has changed this, too.

Its new heroines have been allowed to experience their adventures without an ultimate goal of finding a prince, such as in the movie "Moana," or challenge traditional notions of romantic love, as in "Frozen."

Since the 2010s, there have also been homosexual characters, as in "Strange World" from 2022, which features a gay romance, even if it was criticized by some in the LGTBQ+ community.

The problems of society as a whole, such as racism, sexism and homophobia, can only be tackled by first telling more diverse stories.

How Disney has reworked the story of Ariel, the little mermaid, with this in mind remains unclear until the premiere in May.

This article was translated from the German.

Tunisia expels European Trade Union chief for 'interference'

Esther Lynch, who is Irish, has been expelled from Tunisia for participating in a protest organized by the country's trade union.

Tunisia on Saturday expelled the head of the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC) for taking part in a protest organized by the country's labor union.

The protest was organized by the powerful Tunisian General Labor Union or UGTT.

President Kais Saied declared Esther Lynch, who is Irish, persona non grata and ordered her to leave the country within 24 hours.

The government said Lynch's participation in the protest and remarks she made there amounted to a "blatant interference in Tunisian affairs."
Thousands protest against Saied

Thousands of people protested Saturday across several cities in Tunisia against Saied's policies, including accusing him of trying to stifle union rights.

The protests marked an escalation in the union's confrontation with Saied and follow criticisms of the recent arrests of anti-government figures including a senior UGTT official.

The UN Human Rights Office has called for the immediate release of all detainees as well.

Lynch spoke at one of the largest demonstrations in Tunisia's southern city of Sfax, telling crowds, "We say to governments: hands off our trade unions, free our leaders."

She delivered the remarks with the help of an interpreter and said that the government must "sit down and negotiate with the UGTT for a solution."

In Sfax, protesters carried national flags and banners with slogans including "Stop the attack on union freedoms" and "Cowardly Saied, the union is not afraid."

The protests come as the Tunisian president grows increasingly authoritarian, having curbed the independence of the judiciary and weakened parliament's powers.

Tunisians, once proud of their relative prosperity, are worried about the faltering economy. The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has frozen an agreement to help the government get loans to pay public sector salaries.

The UGTT has warned people about painful austerity measures as Tunisia talks out a bailout loan with the IMF. People at the protests on Saturday chanted slogans like "Tunisia is not for sale!"

rm/sms (Reuters, AFP)

Luxury sector eyes reopening of China

A man walks past a luxury store at a financial district in Beijing on Apr 14, 2022. 

(Photo: AFP/Jade Gao)

19 Feb 2023

PARIS: After a year of record sales and profits despite slowing global growth the luxury sector is looking to the reopening of China to deliver further expansion in 2023.

The world's largest luxury group LVMH posted a 23 per cent jump in sales to a record of €79 billion (US$86 billion) in 2022 and saw profits climb 17 per cent to €14 billion.

The company's chief executive, Bernard Arnault, wants to continue along that path in 2023, "at the risk of becoming boring".

LVMH's rivals also managed blistering growth in sales and profits last year.

Sales at Hermes jumped 29 per cent to €11.6 billion and profits soared 38 per cent to a record €3.4 billion.

Kering, despite a tough time for its flagship brand Gucci, still managed a 15 per cent increase in sales to €20 billion, while profits rose 14 per cent to €3.6 billion.

Ferrari also saw sales race to a new record of €5 billion, delivering 13,221 vehicles last year.

The 2022 results were barely dented by the disruption in China linked to end of its coronavirus-related travel restrictions and their progressive lifting at the end of the year, with LVMH calling the month of December an "air pocket".

Only Hermes escaped unscathed.

"There was no drop in traffic in our stores," said Hermes chief executive Axel Dumas.

The company's sales rose 30.7 per cent in its Asia-Pacific region excluding Japan.

Related:

Luxury sector impatient for return of Chinese tourists

China's luxury shoppers free to travel, but many buy locally


The gradual reopening of China - which abandoned the last of the travel restrictions of its zero-COVID policy on Jan 8 - should help its economy expand by 5.2 per cent in 2023, according to the International Monetary Fund's latest forecast

With the restrictions having restrained consumption, the reopening of the Chinese economy is being looked at as a growth opportunity for 2023.

Analysts at UBS say 2023 will be the "year of the Chinese consumer", noting that the pandemic restrictions pushed down the share of Chinese consumers in global luxury spending to 17 per cent last year, compared with 33 per cent before the pandemic.

"VOLCANO READY TO EXPLODE"

"The Chinese clientele is much more important than it was in 2019," LVMH's financial director Jean-Jacques Guiony told journalists.

Guiony does not expect Chinese tourists to return to Europe, where they traditionally spent heavily on luxury goods, before next year.

Instead, luxury groups are focusing on Chinese consumers at home

LVMH's Arnault said it was no secret that China needs growth and that the government would likely take steps to facilitate economic expansion as the country reopens.

"If that is indeed the case - and it began in the month of January - we have every reason to be confident, even optimistic about the Chinese market," he said at the presentation of LVMH's 2022 results.

China is a "volcano ready to explode", said Arnaud Cadart at asset manager Flornoy Ferri.

"There is an incredible amount of savings that has been built up, an incredible reserve in the hands of the well-off class which wants to purchase luxury goods," he added.

Cadart estimated the luxury market in China could jump by 30 per cent this year.

Kering's chief executive Francois-Henri Pinault visited China at the end of January and said he was amazed by the people thronging stores "like the virus had never been in China".

"This is a good sign," said Pinault, who also welcomed moves by Chinese authorities to boost domestic consumption.

Source: AFP/lk

Concerns and impatience over mining the world's seabeds

Issued on: 19/02/2023 

United Nations (United States) (AFP) – The prospect of large-scale mining to extract valuable minerals from the depths of the Pacific Ocean, once a distant vision, has grown more real, raising alarms among the oceans' most fervent defenders.

"I think this is a real and imminent risk," Emma Wilson of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, an umbrella organization of environmental groups and scientific bodies, told AFP.

"There are plenty of stakeholders that are flagging the significant environmental risks."

And the long-awaited treaty to protect the high seas, even if it is adopted in negotiations resuming on Monday, is unlikely to alleviate risks anytime soon: it will not take effect immediately and will have to come to terms with the International Seabed Authority (ISA).

That agency, established under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea, has 167 member states.

It has authority over the ocean floors outside of member states' Exclusive Economic Zones (which extend up to 200 nautical miles, or 370 kilometers, from coastlines).

But conservation groups say the ISA has two glaringly contradictory missions: protecting the sea floors under the high seas while organizing the activities of industries eager to mine untapped resources on the ocean floor.

For now, some 30 research centers and enterprises have been approved to explore -- but not exploit -- limited areas.

Mining activities are not supposed to begin before negotiators adopt a mining code, already under discussion for nearly a decade.

Making waves

But the small Pacific island nation of Nauru, impatient with the plodding pace of progress, made waves in June 2021 by invoking a clause allowing it to demand relevant rules be adopted within two years.

World map showing areas of seabed mining exploration licenses issued by the International Seabed Authority 

© Jonathan WALTER / AFP

Once that deadline is reached, the government could request a mining contract for Nori (Nauru Ocean Resources), a subsidiary of Canada's The Metals Company.

Nauru has offered what it called a "good faith" promise to hold off until after an ISA assembly in July, in hopes it will adopt a mining code.

"The only thing we need is rules and regulations in place so that people are all responsible actors," Nauru's ambassador to the ISA Margo Deiye told AFP.

But it is "very unlikely" that a code will be agreed by July, said Pradeep Singh, a sea law expert at the Research Institute for Sustainability, in Potsdam, Germany.

"There's just too many items on the list that still need to be resolved," he told AFP. Those items, he said, include the highly contentious issue of how profits from undersea mining would be shared, and how environmental impacts should be measured.

NGOs thus fear that Nori could obtain a mining contract without the protections provided by a mining code.

Conservation groups complain that ISA procedures are "obscure" and its leadership is "pro-extraction."

The agency's secretary-general, Michael Lodge, insists that those accusations have "absolutely no substance whatsoever."

He noted that contracts are awarded by the ISA's Council, not its secretariat.

"This is the only industry...that has been fully regulated before it starts," he said, adding that the reason there is no undersea mining "anywhere in the world right now is because of the existence of the ISA."

Target: 2024

Regardless, The Metals Company is making preparations.

Graphics showing the area of seabed mining exploration licenses 

© Jonathan WALTER / AFP

"We'll be ready, and aim to be in production by the end of 2024," chief executive Gerard Barron told AFP.

He said the company plans to collect 1.3 million tons of material in its first year and up to 12 million tons by 2028, all "with the lightest set of impacts."

Barron said tons of polymetallic nodules (rich in minerals such as manganese, nickel, cobalt, copper and rare earths), which had settled to the ocean floor over the centuries, could easily be scraped up.

This would occur in the so-called Clipperton Fracture Zone, where Nori in late 2022 conducted "historic" tests at a depth of four kilometers (2.4 miles).

But Jessica Battle of the WWF conservation group said it is not that simple. Companies might, for example, suck up matter several yards (meters) down, not just from the seabed surface.

"It's a real problem to open up a new extractive frontier in a place where you know so little, with no regulations," she told AFP. "It will be a disaster."

Scientists and advocacy groups say mining could destroy habitats and species, some of them still unknown but possibly crucial to food chains; could disturb the ocean's capacity to absorb human-emitted carbon dioxide; and could generate noises that might disrupt whales' ability to communicate.
Moratorium calls

"The deep ocean is the least known part of the ocean," said deep-sea biologist Lisa Levin of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. "So change might take place without anybody ever seeing it."

She has signed a petition calling for a moratorium on mining. Some companies and about a dozen countries support such a call, including France and Chile.

With its slogan, "A battery in a rock," The Metals Company emphasizes the world's need for metals used in electric-vehicle batteries; Nauru makes the same case.

But while island nations are among the first to feel the impact of global warming, Nauru says it can't wait forever for the funds rich countries have promised to help it adapt to those impacts.

"We're tired of waiting," said Deiye, the Nauru ambassador.

And Lodge says people should keep the anti-extraction arguments in perspective.

Of the 54 percent of seabeds under ISA jurisdiction, he said, "less than half a percent is under exploration... and of that half a percent, less than one percent is likely ever to be exploited."

© 2023 AFP

Iran freedom struggle stars at Berlin film fest

Issued on: 19/02/2023 - 04:34Modified: 19/02/2023 - 04:31
3 min

Berlin (AFP) – The Berlin film festival, long a champion of Iran's embattled independent directors, is spotlighting its citizens' fight for basic rights with a series of screenings, events and a red-carpet protest.

French-Iranian actor Golshifteh Farahani, who is serving on the jury for the top prizes with president Kristen Stewart, said as the festival kicked off Thursday that cinema was a crucial fuel for the freedom movement.

"In a country like Iran that is a dictatorship, art is not only an intellectual or philosophical thing, it's essential, it's like oxygen," she said.

Farahani made her name in Iranian movies and became an international star in productions such as Jim Jarmusch's "Paterson" opposite Adam Driver.

She and Stewart joined the red-carpet demonstration for women's rights in Iran on Saturday with festival chief Mariette Rissenbeek, who told AFP the Berlinale stood with Iranian directors who "weren't allowed to travel to the festival".

'Change something with cinema'

The Berlinale, Europe's first major cinema showcase of the year, has awarded its Golden Bear top prize to many of the leading lights of Iranian cinema including Asghar Farhadi ("A Separation"), Jafar Panahi ("Taxi") and Mohammad Rasoulof ("There Is No Evil").

Iran, rocked by months of anti-government rallies, this month released Panahi and Rasoulof from prison along with several dozen other well-known detainees in an apparent attempt to appease critics.

This year, the festival is showing several documentaries, including Steffi Niederzoll's "Seven Winters in Tehran" and "My Worst Enemy" by Mehran Tamadon, which expose the brutal conditions in Iran's jails as well as rampant executions.

Iran this month released Jafar Panahi and Mohammad Rasoulof from prison along with several dozen other well-known detainees © - / FAMILY HANDOUT/AFP

Niederzoll's harrowing film, which includes material smuggled out of Iran, tells the story of Reyhaneh Jabbari, who was hanged in 2014 at the age of 26 for killing a former intelligence officer she maintained had tried to rape her.

Featuring wrenching interviews with her family, who agitated for her freedom and appealed for mercy to the murdered man's son, the film recounts how an international campaign for Jabbari's life arose.

Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who won the best actress award at Cannes last year, narrates the film with letters, journals and text messages Jabbari wrote from jail, where she became a role model for many fellow prisoners.

"We hope that, hand in hand, we can change something with cinema," Amir Ebrahimi told AFP.

"My Worst Enemy" also examines state interrogations, as director Tamadon invites members of Paris's large Iranian exile community to question him using pressure techniques they themselves experienced in custody.

Half expose, half group therapy session, the film asks whether anyone can become an instrument of state oppression, given the chance.

Amir Ebrahimi appears as one of the interrogators and reveals that she was sexually assaulted while in custody by a female doctor during a purported medical exam.

"I couldn't walk for three days," she says.
'Shine a light'

Tamadon told AFP it was "time to forget that the Islamic republic will reform itself".

He hailed the role of Western platforms such as the Berlinale to "shine a light on the violence perpetrated against the Iranian people".

"Iranians in Iran are exhausted -- this gives the energy and motivation to continue to hit the streets."

"We hope that, hand in hand, we can change something with cinema," Zar Amir Ebrahimi, who won the best actress award in Cannes last year, told AFP © Thomas SAMSON / AFP

Milad Alami's drama "Opponent" stars Payman Maadi from "A Separation", as a closeted gay man seeking asylum with his wife and two daughters in northern Sweden.

Alami, who himself moved from Iran to Sweden as a child, said he aimed with his second feature to explore how official repression penetrates even the most intimate relationships, including a marriage.

"There are walls between them (the couple) that created this feeling of not being able to talk to each other," he said in notes for the film.

The wife Maryam senses her husband's inner conflict even as he keeps it under wraps for fear of reprisal. "That's a big thing in Iran," Alami said.

For those who have left Iran, the struggle to find out who they really are begins anew, he said.

"When you come to another country, when freedom is there, how difficult is it to take it?"

© 2023 AFP

WAR CRIME

Israeli airstrikes hit Damascus, kill 15 people

IN UNPROVOKED ATTACK

At least 15 people have been killed, many others wounded and several residential buildings damaged in Israeli airstrikes on the Syrian capital Damascus.

ANF
DAMASCUS
Sunday, 19 Feb 2023, 09:23

An Israeli airstrike reportedly has killed up to 15 people in Kafr Sousa – a high-security area of the Syrian capital, Damascus.

Part of the area is home to senior security officials, security branches and intelligence headquarters and Iranian installations.

The strike, earlier on Sunday morning, damaged several buildings in the densely populated district close to Omayyad square in the heart of the capital, where multi-storey security buildings are located within residential areas.

Syrian state media quoted Syria’s defence ministry saying that the strike killed, in a preliminary toll, five people, among them a soldier, and injured 15 civilians, some in critical condition. However, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the strike, which hit close to an Iranian cultural centre, had killed 15 people, including civilians.

More than a dozen killed in Israel's

'deadliest attack' on Syrian capital

 Damascus

Issued on: 19/02/2023 

An Israeli air strike on Syria's capital Damascus killed 15 people early Sunday and badly damaged a building in a district home to several state security agencies, a war monitoring group said.

Civilians, including two women, were among those killed in "the deadliest Israeli attack in the Syrian capital" since the start of the civil war, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

The overnight strike cratered a road and wrecked the adjacent 10-storey building in the city's Kafr Sousa district, which is home to senior state officials and Syrian intelligence headquarters, said the Britain-based Observatory.

A woman was also killed in the capital's Mazraa district, possibly hit when Syrian anti-aircraft munitions crashed down from the night sky, said the Observatory.

It was not immediately clear who was the intended target of the strike, which AFP correspondents reported shook the city and left a gaping hole in the street, also blowing out windows of nearby buildings.

Other missiles overnight hit a warehouse used by pro-regime Iranian and Hezbollah fighters near Damascus, said the Observatory, which relies on a wide network of sources inside Syria.

Syria's defence ministry overnight confirmed the Kafr Sousa attack and gave an initial death toll of five, including one soldier, and 15 wounded civilians, some in critical condition.

Shortly after midnight "the Israeli enemy carried out an aerial aggression from the direction of the occupied Golan Heights targeting several areas in Damascus and its vicinity, including residential neighbourhoods", it said.

Syrian defence forces had "shot down several missiles", the ministry added in its statement.

Historic buildings near the medieval Damascus citadel were also "severely damaged", said the head of the Syrian antiquities department, Nazir Awad, who blamed "an Israeli missile".

An Israeli army spokesperson on Sunday said "Israel does not comment on reports in foreign media".

More than decade of war

Israel, during more than a decade of war in Syria, has carried out hundreds of air strikes against its neighbour, primarily targeting the country's army, Iranian forces and Hezbollah, allies of the Damascus regime.

Israel's military rarely comments on its operations in Syria, but regularly asserts that it will not let its arch enemy Iran extend its influence to Israel's borders.

"We will not allow Iran to obtain nuclear weapons and we will not allow it to entrench on our northern border," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at Sunday's cabinet meeting, but did not refer directly to the Damascus strike.

Late last year, the head of the Israel Defense Forces Operations Directorate, Major General Oded Basiuk, presenting an operational outlook for 2023, said the army "will not accept Hezbollah 2.0 in Syria".

In Tehran, foreign ministry spokesman Nasser Kanani on Sunday "strongly condemned the attacks of the Zionist regime against targets in Damascus and its suburbs, including against certain residential buildings".

The raids had left "a number of innocent Syrian citizens" dead and injured, he said.

The Palestinian militant groups Hamas and Islamic Jihad, based in the Gaza Strip, also denounced the strikes.

The Syrian conflict started in 2011 with the brutal repression of peaceful protests, and escalated to pull in multiple foreign powers and global jihadists.

Nearly half a million people have been killed, and the conflict has forced around half of the country's pre-war population from their homes.

The Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad receives military support from Russia as well as from Iran and Tehran-allied armed Shiite groups, including Lebanon's Hezbollah, which are declared enemies of Israel.

The latest attack comes more than a month after an Israeli missile strike hit Damascus International Airport, killing four people, including two soldiers.

The January 2 strike hit positions of Hezbollah and pro-Iranian groups inside the airport and nearby, including a weapons warehouse, the Observatory said at the time.

The Damascus government is currently seeking to recover from the February 6 earthquake, which did not affect the capital but which killed more than 44,000 people across the country's north and southern Turkey.

(AFP)

Syrian state media reports deaths in Israeli missile strike

The overnight strike reportedly took place in a neighborhood in the Syrian capital, Damascus. There was no immediate comment from Israel.

Syrian state media agency SANA reported Sunday that five people, including a soldier, were killed and 15 others wounded in what it alleged was an Israeli missile strike in Damascus.

The agency cited a military source as saying that the alleged attack took place shortly after midnight and that Israel "carried out air aggression with waves of missiles," which came from the direction of the Golan Heights.

A number of civilian houses were destroyed and Syrian "air defenses intercepted the missiles and downed most of them," the military source was quoted as saying.

There has been no immediate response from the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), which The Times of Israel reports is "in line with its policy of not generally commenting on air raids" in Syria.

The UK-based war monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said that 15 people had been killed in strikes targeting sites in the Damascus neighborhood Kafr Sousa, which is linked to Iranian-backed militias and the Lebanese militant group Hezbollah. Hezbollah is designated a terrorist organization by the US and several other countries, including Germany.

The militant groups have been providing substantial military support to Syrian dictator Bashar Assad to help his regime in its fight against opposition groups.

Israel has in the past carried out strikes on targets in government-controlled parts of Syria, particularly ports and airports, in an apparent attempt to prevent arms shipments from Iran reaching militant groups backed by Tehran.

kb/nm (AP, AFP)

ZIONIST PARANOID JUSTIFICATION

Netanyahu: Israel actively thwarting ‘relentless’ Iranian attack plots

The Islamic Republic is not only attempting to attack Israel physically, but is also “trying to attack our national morale” and “undermine our unity as a people,” says the Israeli premier.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu leads the weekly Cabinet meeting in Jerusalem, Israel, Feb. 19, 2023.

(February 19, 2023 / JNS) Israel is ceaselessly confronting Iran’s nefarious activities, as the Islamic Republic’s attempts to attack the Jewish state are unending, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday.

Speaking at the weekly Cabinet meeting, Netanyahu said, “On the Iranian front, our efforts are unceasing for the simple reason that Iran’s acts of aggression are unceasing. Last week, Iran again attacked an oil tanker in the Persian Gulf and struck at the international freedom of navigation. Yesterday, Iran attacked an American base in Syria. Iran continues to send deadly weapons that attack masses of innocent civilians far from its borders.”

BBC Persian reported on Friday that an Israeli-linked oil tanker was targeted in the Persian Gulf by Iranian forces. The attack, which according to the report took place on February 10, targeted the Liberia-flagged Campo Square, whose owner is Zodiac Maritime, a shipping company led by Israeli billionaire Eyal Ofer.

Also on Friday, Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant told the annual Munich Security Conference that Tehran was currently engaged in negotiations to sell dozens of countries advanced weapons ahead of the upcoming expiration of a U.N. arms embargo on the Islamic Republic.

“Iran is no longer a ‘local supplier’ serving proxies in the Middle East. It is a ‘multinational corporation,’ a global exporter of advanced weapons,” said Gallant. “From Belarus in Eastern Europe to Venezuela in South America—we have seen Iran delivering UAVs with a range of up to 1,000 kilometers. In fact, Iran is currently holding discussions to sell advanced weapons … to no less than 50 different countries.”

Gallant called on world powers to take concrete steps to prevent the proliferation of Iranian arms once the U.N. arms embargo expires on Oct. 18 in accordance with the terms of the 2015 Iran nuclear deal—the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) from which the United States withdrew in May 2018.

Netanyahu on Sunday further emphasized Jerusalem’s commitment to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons and entrenching itself militarily along Israel’s northern border.

“We are doing—and will do—everything to defend our people, and we are responding forcefully to the attacks against us,” he said.

Overnight Saturday, at least five people were killed in an alleged Israeli airstrike on a target in Damascus, Syria. The strike targeted a building in the city’s Kafr Sousa neighborhood, and damaged several structures near a heavily guarded security complex linked to Iran.

The Israel Defense Forces did not comment on the report, in accordance with Jerusalem’s long standing policy regarding specific foreign operations.

Tehran’s attacks on Israel went beyond the purely military, said Netanyahu on Sunday.

“I would like to stress something else: Iran is not only trying to attack us physically. It is trying to attack our national morale. It is trying to undermine our unity as a people,” said Netanyahu.

“I heard the remarks by Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon. I heard [Hassan] Nasrallah’s remarks when he spoke about the demonstrations against the government and said with satisfaction that a civil war in Israel is approaching,” said Netanyahu. “Therefore, I say to Nasrallah: Don’t count on a civil war. It will not happen. It will not happen because we are indeed brothers. It will not happen because what Nasrallah does not understand is that we are a living democracy. In a democracy, there are differences of opinion and debates. Sometimes there is agreement and when it is necessary, there are decisions. There will be no civil war because we always remember that we have fought shoulder-to-shoulder to defend our state and build our land,” he added.

Hezbollah chief Nasrallah on Thursday referred to the rift in Israeli society over the government’s planned judicial reforms, saying in a speech broadcast live on giant television screens in Beirut that the “foolish government in Israel is pushing for two major conflicts—an internal conflict within Israel and a conflict with the Palestinians that will expand to the region.

“We are hearing discourse from the entity’s president [Isaac Herzog] and former prime ministers [Yair] Lapid, [Naftali] Bennett, [Ehud] Olmert, [Ehud] Barak and former defense ministers and a general who talk about civil war and bloodshed and that there is no solution to the challenges posed by the new government,” the Lebanese terrorist leader said.

The Netanyahu government’s judicial reform plan includes changing the way judges are selected so that the Knesset members will have majority say on the Judicial Selection Committee; passing an “override clause,” a law that would give legislators the power to reverse, or “override,” the Supreme Court when it strikes down laws; abolishing the legal justification of “reasonableness” by which the court can cancel Knesset decisions; and empowering ministers to hire and fire their own legal advisers.

Netanyahu has described as “baseless” claims by critics that the proposals would mark the end of the country’s democracy, and vowed to implement the plan responsibly.

“At this opportunity, I am pleased to disappoint our enemies and also reassure our friends: Israel is, and will remain, a strong, vibrant and independent democracy,” the prime minister reiterated on Sunday.

“It is precisely against the backdrop of the expectations of our enemies, expectations of destruction and bloodshed, that talk of blood in the streets must stop. The flames need to be lowered. The mood needs to be calmed,” said Netanyahu, adding: “This is the clear call that I am making from here and I expect all public leaders to say these clear words. This is what the Israeli public expects of us and it is the clear message that we need to send to our enemies.”

Aid group issues urgent appeal for quake-hit Syria

Issued on: 19/02/2023

Al-Hammam Crossing (Syria) (AFP) – The group Doctors Without Borders called Sunday for the "urgent scaling up" of earthquake aid to northwest Syria as it delivered a convoy laden with emergency assistance.

Aid has been slow to reach Syria's rebel-held areas since the February 6 quake killed a combined total of more than 44,000 people across Turkey and Syria.

"An urgent increase in the volume of supplies is needed to match the scale of the humanitarian crisis," said the French aid group Doctors Without Borders (MSF).

It charged that supplies "currently fail to even match pre-earthquake volumes".

"Aid is trickling in in negligible amounts for the moment," said Hakim Khaldi, MSF's head of mission in Syria. "We emptied our emergency stocks in three days."

"According to UN data, five days after the earthquake, only 10 trucks had entered" rebel-held areas of Syria through the Bab al-Hawa crossing from Turkey, MSF said.

It added that "in the 10 days following the earthquake, the number of trucks that crossed the border into northwest Syria was lower than the average weekly number for 2022".

A convoy of 14 trucks laden with 1,269 tents and winter kits sent by MSF had arrived in Syria through the Al-Hammam crossing in the Afrin area on Sunday.

"The delivery was arranged outside of the United Nations cross-border humanitarian mechanism," the group said.

Activists and emergency teams in Syria's northwest have decried a slow UN response to the quake in rebel-held areas, contrasting it with the planeloads of aid that have been delivered to government-controlled airports.

Before the quake struck, almost all of the crucial humanitarian aid for the more than four million people living in rebel-controlled areas was being delivered through just one crossing, Bab al-Hawa.

The UN announced on Monday that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad had agreed to open two more border crossings from Turkey to northwest Syria to allow in aid.

Since the quake, the UN has sent more than 170 aid trucks to northwest Syria.

The conflict in Syria started in 2011 with the brutal repression of peaceful protests and escalated to pull in foreign powers and global jihadists.

Nearly half a million people have been killed, and the conflict has forced around half of the country's pre-war population from their homes.

© 2023 AFP

MSF aid convoy in relief of earthquake victims enters northwest Syria

A Médecins Sans Frontières convoy of 14 trucks, carrying aid from our hub in Dubai, entered northwestern Syria today, arriving from Türkiye through the Hammam border

 crossing point. 

Earthquakes in Türkiye and Syria: find out how we're responding

Press Release 19 February 2023

A Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) convoy of 14 trucks entered northwestern Syria today, arriving from Türkiye through the Hammam border crossing point. This first convoy carries 1,296 tents destined to families (of five people or more) left homeless by the earthquake and 1,296 winter kits to insulate the tents from the cold. Other MSF convoys are planned to follow quickly to deliver medical and non-medical equipment.

However, warns MSF, an urgent increase in the volume of supplies is needed to match the scale of the humanitarian crisis. In the ten days following the earthquake, the number of trucks that crossed the border into northwest Syria was lower than the average number for 2022. Present in the area for more than ten years, MSF teams have been able to immediately launch an emergency response.

We emptied our emergency stocks in three days, donating nearly 12 tons of surgical equipment, dressing and medicines to hospitals. 

HAKIM KHALDI, HEAD OF MISSION FOR MSF IN SYRIA.

“We emptied our emergency stocks in three days, donating nearly 12 tons of surgical equipment, dressing and medicines to hospitals,” says Hakim Khaldi, head of mission for MSF in Syria. “Our teams provided support to the health facilities in the area until they were exhausted.”

“But we did not see any help from the outside. Aid is trickling in in negligible amounts for the moment.”

Our teams identified enormous unmet needs in terms of relief. Access to accommodation and decent hygiene conditions are far from being granted, especially as the 180 000 people newly displaced by the 6 February earthquake add to the two-million people displaced by 12 years of war and already living in precarious conditions.

The aid shipment being prepared for delivery. Dubai, February 2023.

AHMAD AMER/MSFSHARE


MSF is currently providing relief and medical support to people living in five reception centers in northern Idlib. A mobile team provides health care and we distributed tents, water, bread, blankets, mattresses, and fire extinguishers. Activities aimed at ensuring the continuity of access to health care for both victims of the earthquake and more generally are starting next week.

Humanitarian aid provided to the region through the cross-border mechanism has not even matched its pre-earthquake average volume yet. According to UN data, five days after the earthquake, only ten trucks had entered Syria through Bab al-Hawa, a UN-coordinated border crossing point for humanitarian aid from neighbouring Türkiye.

Fourteen MSF trucks loaded with tents and winter kits are crossing to northwest Syria, from Hamam crossing point in Türkiye. Türkiye, February 2023.

ABDULMONAM EASSA/MSFSHARE

As of 17 February, a total of 178 trucks loaded with aid provided by six UN agencies had crossed into northwest Syria through Bab Al-Hawa and Bab Al-Salama. In 2022, 7,566 trucks loaded with aid crossed from Türkiye into northwest Syria, which represents an average of 227 trucks for the same period of 11 days.

Furthermore, part of the 178 trucks that reached northwest Syria were not part of the earthquake response but rather already-planned deliveries. Even considering three days of border closure, the current volume of trucks is barely matching the humanitarian response before the disaster.
Fourteen MSF trucks loaded with tents and winter kits are crossing to northwest Syria, from Hamam crossing point in Türkiye. Türkiye, February 2023

ABDULMONAM EASSA/MSFSHARE


The border crossing of the MSF convoy was possible thanks to the support of Al Ameen, a Syrian NGO partnering with MSF. The delivery was arranged outside of the United Nations cross-border humanitarian mechanism coordinated by the WHO, which does not cover logistical equipment.

MSF calls for the immediate scaling up of the assistance for the people affected by the earthquake in northwest Syria, in order to address the new humanitarian needs adding to those already prevailing in the area.

In particular, priority should be given to supplying shelters and water and sanitation equipment, as well as the medical supplies necessary for post-operative care and to maintain continuity of care, amongst other items which are urgently needed.

MORE TORY THAN THE TORIES

'Labour has their finger on the pulse', says Andrew Castle as the party lead in polls for the sixth week in a row

19 February 2023
By Madeleine Wilson

Andrew Castle brands the Conservative Party "utterly inept at the moment", telling listeners he doesn't know how the party "will claw this back" before the next election.

Opening his show, Andrew Castle said: "This is an old-fashioned topic, isn't it? Labour vs the Conservatives - it looks like a 20 or 29 points difference in the polling at the moment.

"Labour almost certainly going to win the next election - everyone's talking about that.

"I don't know how to earth the Conservatives will claw this back they look utterly inept at the moment and out of ideas.

"By the time the next election comes along they're going to be some 14 or 15 years of being in control of things and people will ask themselves fairly simple questions prompted by those on any other side of the debate saying 'do you feel a better off...

"Do you feel safer on the streets are the streets that you feel less safe on patrolled by more or less police officers than when the Conservatives came in."

READ MORE: Jeremy Corbyn brands Starmer ban on him standing for Labour a 'flagrant attack' on democracy

Andrew continued: "I just see no answers from the Conservative Party and I'm beginning to see Labour as those with their finger on the pulse.

"Is that what they're showing to you?

"Keir Starmer goes to Ukraine, Jeremy Corbyn wouldn't have gone there I don't think, I think that's fair to say."

WAIT, WHAT?!

U.S. government asks court to let it face patent suit instead of Moderna over COVID-19 vaccine

Arbutus Biopharma and Genevant Sciences sued Moderna in 2022 alleging that the company used patented technologies to create its COVID-19 vaccine.

By Ben Whedon
Updated: February 17, 2023 -

The U.S. government has asked a court to allow it to shoulder the burdens of any legal liability in place of pharmaceutical company Moderna as a result of a patent infringement suit connected to the firm's development of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Specifically, the government is asking the court to "relieve Moderna of any liability for patent infringement resulting in performance of the ’-0100 contract and to transfer to the United States any liability for the manufacture or use of the inventions claimed in the patents-in-suit resulting from the authorized and consented acts," according to the Epoch Times.

Arbutus Biopharma and Genevant Sciences sued Moderna in 2022 alleging that the company used patented technologies to create its COVID-19 vaccine. The government does not assert that it may have committed the patent infringement, but rather that it should bear the legal responsibility of any alleged act of such that Moderna may have committed in the process of the vaccine's development.

A court previously rejected Moderna's move for dismissal on the grounds that the Court of Federal Claims should handle the case as federal law mandates in cases related to inventions for the government or with its authorization. The court had determined that there was insufficient material to determine that the development of the vaccine occurred for the government or with its authorization, the Times noted.

Ben Whedon is an editor and reporter for Just the News. Follow him on Twitter.