Baerbock visits Rwanda as Africa's first mRNA factory opens


Germany's foreign minister says Berlin will do its utmost to support vaccine production in Africa as German pharmaceutical company BioNTech opens a vaccine factory in Rwanda.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock with her Rwandan counterpart Vincent Biruta

Florian Gaertner/photothek/picture alliance



German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock says Africa will have the full support of Germany and the European Union when fighting future pandemics and other diseases.

Her words came as German pharmaceutical firm BioNTech prepared to open an mRNA vaccine plant to help supply the continent when future pandemics such as COVID-19 arise.
What the minister has said

"Diseases do not recognize national borders or continents — our solidarity must not either," the Green Party politician said as she departed for the trip.

"The path to a fair international health architecture is not a short-distance race, but a team marathon," said Baerbock.

"Team Europe supports the goal of Africa's own vaccine production — from concept to needle."

When the COVID-19 pandemic spread across the globe, Baerbock said, the world realized that "no one is safe until everyone is safe."

She said that, especially in Africa, too many people were defencelessly exposed to the virus at the beginning of the pandemic and "that we as the international community literally could not deliver."

"Fair and rapid access to life-saving vaccines must not depend on whether a child is born in Germany or Rwanda," Baerbock underlined.

Africa's first mRNA factory

Only one in 100 vaccine doses administered in Africa is currently produced on the continent — a figure that African leaders hope could be 60 times higher by 2040.

"This is definitely an ambitious goal," said DW correspondent Thomas Sparrow, who's accompanying the foreign minister on her trip to Rwanda.

"It's not only about being better prepared for a future pandemic — it's also about helping to deal with public health issues that are very significant for Africa, such as malaria or tuberculosis," said Sparrow.

The Mainz-based company BioNTech plans to make mRNA-based vaccines for the continent at its plant in the Rwandan capital, Kigali, starting next year.

It could also produce vaccines against malaria and tuberculosis. According to the WHO, 94% of the 249 million malaria cases in 2022 were registered in the continent.

The EU's Global Gateway project will help pay for the enhanced vaccine capacity with €1.2 billion ($1.3 billion) by 2027 — of which some €550 million will come from Germany

The same initiative also includes up to €300 billion of investment in the infrastructure of emerging and developing countries over the next few years.

Part of the aim is to secure more global influence for the EU, with the project intended to compete with China's "New Silk Road" project.
What else is planned for the visit?

Baerbock was also due to Rwandan Foreign Minister Vincent Biruta in Kigali, where the pair were to visit a memorial to the victims of the genocide against the Tutsi.

In 1994, Hutu majority militias murdered at least 800,000 members of the Tutsi minority in Rwanda.

Under current President Paul Kagame, Rwanda has become a leader within Africa in many areas, including the fight against corruption, with economic growth well above the continental average.

However, there are criticisms about the persecution of opposition figures and journalists who are critical of the government.

A deal with the United Kingdom for Rwanda to accept migrants who have reached Britain by irregular means is also controversial.

The UK Supreme Court struck down the plan, deeming the country too unsafe.

After arriving in Kigali, Baerbock rejected calls for asylum procedures to be outsourced from Europe.

Baerbock said she was "a bit surprised" that some German conservatives had suggested a similar asylum policy based on the British model.

rc/fb (dpa, AFP)

EU launches probe into Elon Musk's X platform

X, formerly Twitter, is suspected of having failed to counter illegal content and disinformation, an EU commissioner said about the infringement proceedings.

The European Union has launched "formal infringement proceedings" against social media firm X, formerly known as Twitter, Commissioner Thierry Breton said on Monday.

The EU suspects X of failing to counter illegal content and disinformation.

The bloc seeks to regulate big tech companies under new regulations in the Digital Markets Act (DMA), which entered into force in November 2022.

The DMA requires large online platforms and search engines to implement stronger measures to tackle illegal content and public security risks.

"We take any breach of our rules very seriously. And the evidence we currently have is enough to formally open a proceeding against X," said EU Commission Vice-President Margrethe Vestager.
EU takes on social media platforms

In October, Breton accused the firms, X, TikTok and Meta of not doing enough to counter the spread of disinformation following the Hamas' Islamist militant groups attack on Israel.

Hamas is classified as a terrorist organization by the EU, the US, Israel, Germany and several other countries.

In September, European Commission Vice President Vera Jourova said that X was the largest source of disinformation in the EU.

This is a developing story and will be updated.

sdi/fb (AFP, Reuters, dpa)

IRELAND
Irish PM Varadkar 'deeply concerned' by fire at asylum home

Police are investigating a "criminal damage incident by fire" at a site earmarked to house asylum-seekers. Prime Minister Leo Varadkar has condemned the act.

The Taoiseach said the violence had come from a minority of agitators in Ireland

Image: Johanna Geron/REUTERS

Police in the Republic of Ireland are investigating what they described as a "criminal damage incident by fire" that occurred Saturday night at a former hotel earmarked to house asylum-seekers in the village of Roscahill in western County Galway.

Irish Taoiseach (Prime Minister) Leo Varadkar on Sunday said he was "deeply concerned" about the incident.

Police said no one was in the facility when the blaze occurred. Ireland's RTE television broadcast video footage of flames partially destroying the Ross Lake House Hotel on Sunday.

The fire followed a rally at the site, with those present opposing government plans to house 70 asylum-seekers in the village.

In a statement, Prime Minister Varadkar said, "I am deeply concerned about recent reports of suspected criminal damage at a number of properties around the country, which have been earmarked for accommodating those seeking international protection here, including in County Galway last night."

Varadkar went on to say, "There is no justification for violence, arson or vandalism in our Republic. Ever."

Last month, the Irish capital Dublin was rocked by far-right rioting after three children were stabbed by an Algerian-born assailant

Brian Lawless/PA via AP/picture alliance

Housing crisis forces asylum-seekers to sleep in tents

Ireland, which is experiencing a housing crisis, has seen opposition to government policies designed to house a record number of foreign asylum-seekers of late, with largely peaceful protests being staged across the country in recent weeks.

The problem has become so acute that the agency responsible for housing asylum-seekers resorted to handing out tents to new arrivals last week.

Though Varadkar has sought to assure citizens that all of those seeking asylum in Ireland are thoroughly vetted and registered, the situation has remained tense.

Last month, the capital Dublin saw a night of massive rioting when far-right agitators torched and looted the city, destroying businesses and public property after the stabbing injury of three children outside an elementary school by a man Irish media had said was born in Algeria — although police did not confirm.

In an effort to convey the scope of the situation, Varadkar said, "Like much of the world, we are dealing with a major step-change in the numbers [of asylum-seekers] arriving here seeking protection. This is driven by war, poverty, climate change and human rights abuses in their home countries."

He added that the recent outbreak in violence across Ireland was to be blamed on "a very small minority," noting that, "The response from many communities has been incredible. We've seen people open their homes, schools, clubs and communities to help those most in need."

js/ab (AFP, Reuters)

Germany: Far-right AfD wins first city mayoral election

Tim Lochner saw off the CDU candidate to become the far-right Alternative for Germany's first city mayor. Under the German mayoral system, some large towns have city mayors.

A candidate from Germany's far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party won a city mayoral election for the first time on Sunday.

Tim Lochner was elected after winning the second round of voting in Pirna, a town in the eastern state of Saxony where the AfD has been notably strong.

Initial results showed that Lochner had won 38.5% of the vote, the city stated on its website.
Three-way fight

The far-right candidate beat out Kathrin Dollinger-Knuth (CDU), who came second with 31.4% of the vote, and Ralf Thiele, from the small Free Voters party, who got 30.1%.

Lochner, 53, is an independent but decided to stand under the far-right AfD banner for the vote.

In the first round Lochner secured a third of the vote, but was able to increase his share in the second round. The local Greens and Social Democrats dropped out after the first round and threw their support behind the CDU's Dollinger-Knuth.

Tim Lochner has become the first AfD mayor of a German city

Sebastian Kahnert/dpa/picture alliance

Situated 30 kilometers (18.6 miles) southeast of Dresden on the edge of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains, Pirna has around 40,000 inhabitants. The town is known above all for its almost perfectly preserved old town.
Extremist organization

Sunday's result comes just days after the eastern state of Saxony's domestic intelligence agency deemed the AfD as a right-wing extremist party.

Pirna marks the first time the AfD has won a mayorship in a town. In August, Hannes Loth was elected as the first mayor of a municipality — Raguhn-Jeßnitz in the state of Saxony-Anhalt — but this was a region with just 9,000 inhabitants.

In June, the party won its first district council election, with candidate Robert Sesselmann in the Sonneberg district in Thuringia.

The far-right party has been on the rise in Germany with surveys showing around one in five voters saying they would vote AfD, making it the second most popular party after the CDU.

In the eastern German states, the share of voters willing to vote AfD stands at over 30% — ahead of all other parties — with three of those states scheduled to hold elections next year: Thuringia, Saxony and Brandenburg.

Earlier this month, Friedrich Merz, the leader of Germany's main opposition Christian Democrats (CDU), rowed back from comments suggesting his party was open to working with the AfD at the municipal level.

Drones help solve forest carbon capture riddle

Chiang Mai (Thailand) (AFP) – On a hillside overlooking cabbage fields outside the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai, a drone's rotors begin to whir, lifting it over a patch of forest.


Issued on: 18/12/2023 -

Drones are part of an increasingly sophisticated arsenal used by scientists to understand forests and their role in the battle against climate change

 © MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP

It moves back and forth atop the rich canopy, transmitting photos to be knitted into a 3D model that reveals the woodland's health and helps estimate how much carbon it can absorb.

Drones are part of an increasingly sophisticated arsenal used by scientists to understand forests and their role in the battle against climate change.

The basic premise is simple: woodlands suck in and store carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that is the largest contributor to climate change.

But how much they absorb is a complicated question.

A forest's size is a key part of the answer -- and deforestation has caused tree cover to fall 12 percent globally since 2000, according to Global Forest Watch.

But composition is also important: different species sequester carbon differently, and trees' age and size matter, too.

Researcher Stephen Elliott and his team use drone photos to make 3D models that reveal a woodland's health and help estimate how much carbon it can absorb 

© Manan VATSYAYANA / AFP

Knowing how much carbon forests store is crucial to understanding how quickly the world needs to cut emissions, and most current estimates mix high-level imagery from satellites with small, labour-intensive ground surveys.

"Normally, we would go into this forest, we would put in the pole, we would have our piece of string, five metres long. We would walk around in a circle, we would measure all the trees in a circle," explained Stephen Elliott, research director at Chiang Mai University's Forest Restoration Research Unit (FORRU).

But "if you've got 20 students stomping around with tape measures and poles... you're going to trash the understory," he said, referring to the layer of vegetation between the forest floor and the canopy.

That is where the drone comes in, he said, gesturing to the Phantom model hovering overhead.

"With this, you don't set foot in the forest."

'Every tree'

Three measurements are needed to estimate a tree's absorptive capacity: height, girth and wood density, which differs by species.

As an assistant looks through binoculars for birds that might collide with the drone, the machine flies a path plotted into a computer programme.

"We collect data or capture (images) every three seconds," explained Worayut Takaew, a FORRU field research officer and drone operator.

Drones offer a way to avoid labour-intensive ground surveys 

© MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP

"The overlapping images are then rendered into a 3D model that can be viewed from different angles."

The patch of woodland being surveyed is part of a decades-long project led by Elliott and his team that has reforested around 100 hectares by planting a handful of key species.

Their goal was not large-scale reforestation, but developing best practices: planting native species, encouraging the return of animals that bring in seeds from other species and working with local communities.

The drone's 3D model is a potent visual representation of their success, particularly compared to straggly untouched control plots nearby.

But it is also being developed as a way to avoid labour-intensive ground surveys.

"Once you've got the model, you can measure the height of every tree in the model. Not samples, every tree," said Elliott.

The machine flies a path plotted into a computer programme 

© MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP

A forest's carbon potential goes beyond its trees, though, with leaf litter and soil also serving as stores.

So these too are collected for analysis, which Elliott says shows their reforested plots store carbon at levels close to undamaged woodland nearby.
'More and more precise'

But for all its bird's-eye insights, the drone has one major limitation: it cannot see below the canopy.

For that, researchers need technology like LiDAR -- high-resolution, remote-sensing equipment that effectively scans the whole forest.

"You can go inside the forest... and really reconstruct the shape and the size of each tree," explained Emmanuel Paradis, a researcher at France's National Research Institute for Sustainable Development.

Woodlands suck in and store carbon dioxide, the greenhouse gas that is the largest contributor to climate change © MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP

He is leading a multi-year project to build the most accurate analysis yet of how much carbon Thailand's forests can store.

It will survey five different types of forests, including some of FORRU's plots, using drone-mounted LiDAR and advanced analysis of the microbes and fungi in soil that sustain trees.

"The aim is to estimate at the country level... how much carbon can be stored by one hectare anywhere in Thailand," he said.

The stakes are high at a time of fierce debate about whether existing estimates of the world's forest carbon capacity are right.

The stakes are high at a time of fierce debate about whether existing estimates of the world's forest carbon capacity are right 

© MANAN VATSYAYANA / AFP

"Many people, and I'm a bit of this opinion, think that these estimates are not accurate enough," Paradis said.

"Estimations which are too optimistic can give too much hope and too much optimism on the possibilities of forests to store carbon," he warned.

The urgency of the question is driving fast developments, including the launch next year of the European Space Agency's Biomass satellite, designed to monitor forest carbon stocks.

"The technology is evolving, the satellites are more and more precise... and the statistical technologies are more and more precise," said Paradis.

© 2023 AFP

Jeff Bezos's Blue Origin headed back into space after accident

Washington (AFP) – The American company Blue Origin plans to launch its rocket Big Shepard Monday for the first time since an accident more than a year ago, as the firm founded by billionaire Jeff Bezos heads back into space.


Issued on: 18/12/2023 - 

A Blue Origin rocket takes off in Texas in March 2022 

© Patrick T. FALLON / AFP/File


The launch window from the pad in west Texas opens at 8:30 am local time (14H30 GMT), said Blue Origin, which plans to live stream the event.

This mission known as NS-24 will not carry a crew but rather equipment for scientific experiments, more than half of which Blue Origin has developed in conjunction with NASA.

In the accident in September 2022, the rocket booster stage crashed to the ground, although the capsule part of the spacecraft came down safely with parachutes. There was no crew aboard.

The accident prompted a probe by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which concluded in September 2023 with the finding that the accident was caused by a higher-than-planned temperature of the rocket's engine.

The FAA instructed Blue Origin to make changes to be allowed to resume launches, in particular regarding the design of certain engine parts.

The FAA confirmed Sunday it has approved Blue Origin's application to fly again.

Blue Origin uses its rocket called New Shepard for space tourism flights from Texas.

It has now taken 31 people for short rides into space, including Bezos himself.

The spacecraft is composed of a booster stage and, at the top, a capsule carrying the payload.

In the failed mission known as NS-23, the capsule's automatic ejection system activated, so it floated to the ground safely.

The main stage of the rocket was destroyed when it crashed to the ground, rather than land vertically in a controlled fashion to be reused, as Blue Origin usually does.

Blue Origin is competing in the space tourism market with Virgin Galactic, founded by British billionaire Richard Branson.

But Blue Origin is also developing a heavy rocket called New Glenn, with the maiden flight planned for next year.

That craft, which measures 98 meters (320 feet) high, is designed to take a payload of as much as 45 metric tons into low earth orbit, whereas New Shepard goes to a much lower altitude.

© 2023 AFP

Israel faces mounting outrage over Gaza war

Gaza Strip (Palestinian Territories) (AFP) – Israel faced mounting international pressure Monday over the rising civilian death toll and destruction of hospitals in Gaza, as it pressed on with its war against Hamas militants in the besieged Palestinian territory.

Issued on: 18/12/2023 

The Hamas-run health ministry said an Israeli strike hit Nasser hospital, killing one person and injuring seven others

 © STRINGER / AFP

The United Nations Security Council was set to vote Monday on a new resolution calling for an "urgent and sustainable cessation of hostilities" in Gaza.

The deadliest ever Gaza war began with unprecedented attacks by Hamas on October 7, when the group killed 1,139 people, mostly civilians, and abducted around 250, according to updated Israeli figures.

The health ministry in the Hamas-run territory says more than 18,800 people, mostly women and children, have been killed in Israel's campaign in Gaza. It said dozens were killed in Israeli strikes on Sunday.

Following months of fierce bombardment and fighting, most of Gaza's population has also been displaced and people are grappling with shortages of fuel, food, water and medicine.

Fewer than one-third of Gaza's hospitals are partly functioning, according to the UN, with the World Health Organization denouncing on Sunday the impact of Israeli operations on two hospitals in the north of the territory.
Netanyahu said Israel would 'fight until the end' © Menahem KAHANA / POOL/AFP

WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said the agency was "appalled by the effective destruction" of the Kamal Adwan hospital, where Israeli forces carried out a multi-day operation against Hamas.

Outside the hospital courtyard, which showed tank and bulldozer tracks, Abu Mohammed, who came to look for his son, stood crying.

"I don't know how I will find him," he said, pointing to the debris.

The Israeli army pulled out of the hospital on Sunday after an operation lasting several days, claiming it had been used as a command and control centre by Hamas.

Israel said that before entering the hospital it had negotiated safe passage for the evacuation of most of the people inside.

Fighting in Gaza © Simon MALFATTO, Sylvie HUSSON / AFP

The WHO also said Israeli bombing had reduced the emergency department at the Al-Shifa hospital to "a bloodbath".

The Hamas-run health ministry said an Israeli strike on Sunday hit Nasser Hospital in southern Gaza's main city of Khan Yunis, killing one person and injuring seven others.

And the ministry said Israeli forces had stormed Al Awda hospital in northern Gaza on Sunday and detained medical staff following several days of siege and bombing.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu again vowed to "fight until the end" on Sunday, promising to achieve the aims of eliminating Hamas, freeing all hostages and ensuring that Gaza will never again become "a centre for terrorism".

Near Gaza's northern border crossing at the Israeli city of Erez, the Israeli army said it had uncovered the biggest Hamas tunnel so far.

An AFP photographer reported that the tunnel was large enough for small vehicles to use.
The large tunnel was displayed by the Israeli army during a media tour © JACK GUEZ / AFP

Israel said the tunnel cost millions of dollars and took years to construct, featuring rails, electricity, drainage and a communications network.

The Israeli army said five soldiers were killed on Sunday, bringing the death toll to 126 in the Gaza Strip since ground operations began in late October.
Calls for truce

The Israeli government has come under growing pressure from the international community to pause the fighting and do more to protect civilians.

The United Nations estimates that 1.9 million Gazans -- around 80 percent -- have been displaced by the war.

"I would not be surprised if people start dying of hunger, or a combination of hunger, disease, weak immunity," said Philippe Lazzarini, head of the United Nations agency for Palestinian refugees.
This picture taken during a media tour organised by the Israeli military shows damage to the Erez border crossing between southern Israel and the Gaza Strip after the attack by Hamas on October 7, 2023 © JACK GUEZ / AFP

Gazans have also faced repeated communications outages but on Sunday Gaza's main telecoms firm said mobile and internet service had been gradually restored.

French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna was in Israel on Sunday, where she called for an "immediate and durable" truce.

France separately condemned an Israel bombardment that killed one of its foreign ministry officials in Gaza.

Qatar, which helped mediate a truce last month that saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 jailed Palestinians, said there were "ongoing diplomatic efforts to renew the humanitarian pause".

But Hamas said on Telegram it was "against any negotiations for the exchange of prisoners until the aggression against our people ceases completely".

US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Kuwait on Monday as part of a regional trip that will include stops in Israel and Qatar, which brokered a previous ceasefire deal.
'Daily humiliation'

Israel is also facing calls from the families of hostages, to either slow, suspend or end the military campaign.

There are 129 hostages still in Gaza, Israel says, and relatives again rallied in Tel Aviv to call for a deal to bring them home after the army admitted to mistakenly killing three of the captives in Gaza.

Relatives and friends, including the father Avi (2nd-R), mourn at the funeral of Alon Shamriz, one of three hostages mistakenly killed by Israeli forces in Gaza 

© Oren ZIV / AFP

One hostage already freed, German-Israeli Raz Ben-Ami, 57, spoke of the "daily humiliation, mental, physical", she endured, including having one meal a day and no access to proper toilets.

The conflict in Gaza has also seen violence spiral in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The Palestinian health ministry said Israeli forces killed five Palestinians on Sunday morning at a West Bank refugee camp.

Israel's army said air strikes had targeted militants who had endangered soldiers.

Health officials say more than 290 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli forces or settlers in the West Bank since the war erupted.
Syria strikes

Israel carried out air strikes near Damascus on Sunday, wounding two Syrian soldiers, the Syrian defence ministry said.

Israeli forces and Iran-backed Hezbollah militants are exchanging regular fire across Israel's northern border with Lebanon.

Yemen's Iran-backed Huthi rebels, saying they want to pressure Israel, have launched attacks on passing vessels in the vital Red Sea shipping zone, forcing major companies to redirect vessels.

© 2023 AFP

'Financially solid': Hamas revenues set to withstand war with Israel

Paris (AFP) – Hamas has been the focus of a relentless Israeli onslaught in Gaza but with resilient and diverse finances, it is expected to have a significant war chest at its disposal as the conflict drags on.


Issued on: 18/12/2023 - 

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to annihilate Hamas after the militants' unprecedented October 7 attacks

 © GIL COHEN-MAGEN / AFP

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to annihilate the Palestinian Islamist movement behind the October 7 attack -- the deadliest in the country's history.

The gunmen killed 1,139 people -- most of them civilians -- according to Israel, and took an estimated 250 hostages back to Gaza, where 129 are still believed to be held.

Over the past two months 18,800 people -- mostly women and children -- have been killed by Israeli bombardments in the Gaza Strip, according to authorities in the Hamas-ruled Palestinian territory.

But as Israel pursues its military objective, undermining Hamas's revenue streams will also prove a formidable task.

"Hamas is financially solid," Jessica Davis, president of the Canadian group Insight Threat Intelligence, told AFP.

"In the last decade, if not longer, they have been creating a resilient finance network," she said, explaining the group had set up investments and sources of income in many countries without being disrupted.

These sources include "small businesses and real estate" in countries such as Turkey, Sudan and Algeria, she added.

Hamas also relies on an informal network of donations.

It has become "very good at developing and operating a very complex system of money changers", said Yitzhak Gal, an Israeli expert on the Palestinian economy, explaining the exchanges run through Turkey, the UAE, Europe and the United States.

The number of donors has not necessarily decreased since October 7.

"Despite its atrocities, Hamas seems to have gained support amongst certain population segments internationally as a perceived resistance vanguard," Lucas Webber, co-founder of the specialist website Militant Wire, explained.
'Who will live and who will die'

For years, the group's major backer has been Tehran.

Estimates put Iran's annual contribution at between $70 million and $100 million, through a diverse range of sources that includes payments in cryptocurrency, suitcases of cash and transfers via foreign banks and the informal "hawala" system.

According to Gal, Iranian aid in the form of military equipment was smuggled in years past from Egypt via tunnels dug between Gaza and the Sinai desert, which are now blocked.

Following Hamas' 2006 election victory, and its seizure of power the following year after clashes with rivals, the distinction between money intended for the territory's now 2.4 million inhabitants and the group's own finances has blurred.

"Anything coming in goes into Hamas and they decide who will live and who will die," Gal said.

Of the Gaza Strip's $2.5 billion budget, $1.1 billion comes from the Palestinian Authority, with Israel's agreement, said Gal, who is a specialist at the Mitvim think tank.

The international community funds UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestinian refugees.

Qatar pays the salaries of civil servants, such as doctors and teachers, and gives $100 per month to the territory's 100,000 poorest families -- totalling $1.49 billion in payments between 2012 and 2021, according to Doha.

- 'One big refugee camp' –

In 2021, the gas-rich emirate, which hosts the Hamas political bureau in its capital with the blessing of the United States, pledged $360 million in annual funding to the coastal Palestinian territory.

Doha has denied providing financial aid to Hamas.

"Without exception, all of Qatar's aid is fully coordinated with Israel, the US government and the United Nations," a Qatari official told AFP.

"All goods such as food, medicine and fuel pass directly through Israel before entering Gaza," they added.

Last week, Qatar's lead hostage negotiator and diplomat, Abdulaziz Al-Khulaifi, indicated that the Gulf emirate's funding for Gaza would continue.

In October, Washington imposed sanctions on 10 "key members of Hamas", and the West is considering coercive measures. But cutting off Hamas completely will likely be impossible.

"The prospect of a long term complete destruction of Hamas finances is not realistic," Davis said.

"You can disrupt it, you can take out key players, you can minimise sources of funds, but the network, the infrastructure will always be there and if the group still has supporters, they can be leverage to help them," she added.

Gal explained Hamas' future finances would be linked to how the future of Gaza, a tiny territory wedged between Egypt, Israel and the Mediterranean is resolved.

"When the war stops and normal life resumes, the question will be: will this whole financing system resume or change?" he said.

"Gaza is now one big refugee camp. Who will be in charge of providing food, water and shelters to these refugees, Hamas or another organisation, another mechanism?"

© 2023 AFP

CRIMINAL CAPITALI$M
Vietnam property developer faces trial over $12.5 bn bond fraud

Hanoi (AFP) – The chairwoman of major property developer Van Thinh Phat will go on trial in Vietnam, accused with accomplices of embezzling $12.5 billion from a bank "for personal purposes", the official government website said.


Issued on: 18/12/2023 -

Truong My Lan will be tried at the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court, accused with dozens of accomplices of embezzling $125 billion from a bank 

© HOANG DINH NAM / AFP/File

Truong My Lan will be tried at the Ho Chi Minh City People's Court, the website reported Sunday, without specifying when the trial would start.

She will be prosecuted for embezzlement, bribery, and violating banking regulations.

Lan is accused of setting up fake loan applications to withdraw money from Saigon Commercial Bank, where she held more than 90 percent of the bank's shares, according to the government website.

"From February 9, 2018 to October 7, 2022, Truong My Lan gave orders to set up 916 fake loan applications, appropriating more than 304 trillion dong ($12.5 billion) from SCB," it said.

Eighty-five others, including a former official at the State Bank of Vietnam who is accused of accepting $5.2 million in bribes, will also face trial at the court in Ho Chi Minh City.

Founded in 1992, Van Thinh Phat owns high-end hotels, restaurants and luxury apartments, and has also invested in financial services.

The value of Lan's alleged asset appropriation is equivalent to around three percent of Vietnam's total GDP for 2022.

Vietnam has seen a sweeping government crackdown on corrupt officials and members of the country's business elite in recent years.

The sweep has been driven by powerful Communist Party Secretary General Nguyen Phu Trong, who last month demanded the purge press ahead "faster and in a more efficient manner".

More than 3,500 people have been indicted across more than 1,300 graft cases since 2021.

In November, prosecutors announced charges against Truong Quy Thanh, the head of Tan Hiep Phat Group -- which makes some of the country's most popular soft drinks -- for appropriating $31.5 million along with his two daughters.

Do Anh Dung, chairman of property developer Tan Hoang Minh Group, is to be prosecuted for illegally acquiring $355 million in a bond sale to more than 6,500 investors.

© 2023 AFP

 RUSSIA
Navalny 'disappearance' alarms UN expert

Geneva (AFP) – A United Nations rights expert said Monday that the "enforced disappearance" of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny was alarming, demanding that Moscow immediately release him.


Issued on: 18/12/2023 - 

Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny appears by video link from his prison in a Moscow court last year 

© Alexander NEMENOV / AFP


The Kremlin critic's lawyers have been prevented from meeting him since December 6, and he did not appear for a scheduled court hearing last Friday.

"I am greatly concerned that the Russian authorities will not disclose Mr. Navalny's whereabouts and well-being for such a prolonged period of time which amounts to enforced disappearance," said Mariana Katzarova, the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights in Russia.

Navalny, 47 -- who has been a thorn in the side of Russian leader Vladimir Putin -- was jailed for 19 years on extremism charges in 2021 after surviving a poisoning assassination attempt.

Katzarova said she had raised her concerns with the Russian authorities after Navalny's team were told on Friday that he had been removed from the Vladimir region near Moscow on December 11 and taken to an undisclosed location.

Navalny's family and lawyers had sent letters to all penal colonies trying to identify his whereabouts, she said.

"They have received initial information that he might be at an Omsk penal colony, but that information was later rejected," Katzarova said in a statement.

A court earlier this year ruled that Navalny be moved to a harsher prison.

Katzarova said the extremism charges he was convicted of were "baseless" and warned that detainees face high risks of serious rights violations during transportation.

The independent expert, who was appointed by the UN Human Rights Council but who does not speak on behalf of the UN, insisted that "the term 'extremism' has no basis in international law".

"When it triggers criminal liability it constitutes a violation of human rights."

Her statement slammed "the unrelenting criminal persecution of Mr. Navalny", which had been "widely condemned internationally, indicating blatant abuse of the court system for political purposes."

She said three of Navalny's lawyers were arrested in October, also on extremism charges, and now risked lengthy imprisonment themselves.

"I call on Russian authorities to abide by their international human rights obligations," Katzarova said.

"Mr. Navalny and all those arbitrarily detained should be released immediately and provided remedies and reparations for all the harm suffered."

© 2023 AFP

Iranian Nobel laureate to face new trial: family

Paris (AFP) – Jailed Iranian Nobel Peace laureate Narges Mohammadi this week faces a new trial and risks being transferred out of Tehran to a new prison to serve an eventual sentence, her family said on Monday.


Issued on: 18/12/2023

Mohammadi has spent much of the last two decades in and out of jail

 © Javad Parsa / NTB/AFP

The trial, which gets underway on Tuesday at a Tehran revolutionary court, is the first against Mohammadi since her family accepted the 2023 prize on her behalf in Oslo on December 10.

The charges were not immediately clear but are believed to be related to her activities behind bars in Tehran's Evin prison where she has defiantly campaigned against Iran's Islamic authorities and the mandatory hijab for women.

"The first trial of Narges Mohammadi after receiving the Nobel Peace Prize will be held at 10:00 am (0630 GMT) on December 19 in Branch 26 of the revolutionary court," the family said in a statement.

It added that if convicted in this particular case, she risked being told to serve her sentence in a prison outside the Iranian capital.

"It was announced that, due to political and security issues, the execution of the sentence would take place outside Tehran," the family said, adding that the request for this had come from the intelligence ministry.

Mohammadi, 51, has spent much of the past two decades in and out of jail. She began serving her most recent sentence in November 2021.

The family said this will be the third trial Mohammadi has faced related to her activities in prison.

In the two previous cases, she was sentenced to 27 months in prison and four months of street sweeping and social work.

During the past two decades, Mohammadi has been arrested 13 times, and sentenced five times to a total of 31 years in prison and 154 lashes.

Mohammadi's twins picked up the prize on her behalf

 © Fredrik Varfjell / NTB/AFP

The family confirmed that Mohammadi -- who has not seen her Paris-based husband and children for several years -- remains deprived of the right to make phone calls.

She has not spoken to her twin 17-year-old children -- who accepted the Nobel prize on her behalf -- for almost two years.

But until now she had been able to speak to certain family members inside Iran, ensuring her messages could rapidly reach the outside world via her social media accounts.

"Since November 29, prison authorities have also informed her of the termination of telephone calls and visits," the family said.

In her Nobel acceptance speech read by her children, Mohammadi denounced a "tyrannical and anti-women religious" government in Iran, predicting that Iranians would "dismantle obstruction and despotism through their persistence".

© 2023 AFP