Besieged Gaza Strip running short of bread and drinking water

By Euronews correspondent Nebal Hajjo, Gaza Strip.

Published on 26/10/2023 - 06:54

Bakeries in Gaza are running out of bread, drinking water is being rationed and power outages are leaving people without charged phones, making it difficult to connect with friends and relatives.

The Israel military's aerial assault and the government's total blockade of the Gaza Strip is stripping Palestinians of even basic needs.

''We are putting a complete siege on Gaza. No electricity, no food, no water, no gas – it’s all closed,” Israeli Defence Minister Yoav Gallant said soon after the deadly Hamas attack on Israel on 7 October.

Israel's war with the militant group has upended the lives of more than two million people, and killed almost 6,500 civilians, according to Palestinian authorities.

This week, Tel Aviv allowed 54 trucks carrying UN supplies of water, food and medicine to enter Gaza from Egypt through the Rafah border crossing.

The UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, told a peace summit in Cairo that what has been delivered is not enough.

''The people of Gaza need a commitment for much, much more – a continuous delivery of aid to Gaza at the scale that is needed,'' Guterres said.

Call for humanitarian ceasefire

He called for a humanitarian ceasefire to rescue Gaza from what he described as a ''godawful nightmare''.

In the Jan Younis refugee camp, people wait in long queues to buy bread. Some of the people living there are displaced from northern Gaza.

One of them, Ibrahim Sorour, said about 80 people are living inside one house.

He desribed the difficulties he has encountered buying bread.

''Every day I come from 4am and wait five hours until I get my share of bread. Every day I hear news of bombing next to bakeries, in the streets, or even in ordinary homes and this makes me afraid to go out.

''From my house, even if  there is no bombing, I leave the house at dawn before daylight, and then I hear the sound of reconnaissance planes that are always flying above us. For me, I feel more afraid of this sound that makes me feel that I am always under surveillance. This is real horror, but there is no alternative. We need food and bread,'' he said.

Many Palestinians who followed Israel's orders to evacuate northern Gaza and move south left behind all of their belongings.

''We fled from our homes and did not take anything with us,'' Shifa Tabsh said.

''The next day we learned that our house had been destroyed, and now we have absolutely nothing. No shelter, no mattresses, no pillows, nothing.''

With fuel banned from entering Gaza, there are frequent power outages; drinking water is being rationed.

Saeb Laqan, from the Khan Younis Municipality Water Department, said the Gaza Strip residents are facing a humanitarian catastrophe.

''There is no water to pump into pipes, neither through wells nor distribution at all. We have zero fuel stocks, and there is also no electricity. Therefore we are facing a humanitarian catastrophe if the world and everyone does not intervene,'' he said.

ZIONIST LOGIC

Objective international media reports serve Hamas — Israel's former PM

Yair Lapid, who served as the premier in the Israeli coalition government, has called on international media not to present stories from both sides of Tel Aviv's Gaza attacks


REUTERS

Yair Lapid, leader of Yesh Atid party, delivers a statement in Jerusalem / Photo: Reuters
Former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid has accused international media outlets of displaying bias in their reporting on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, favouring the Palestinian group Hamas over Israel.

“If the international media is objective and shows both sides, it serves Hamas,” Lapid said Sunday.

“My argument is that the media cannot just claim to bring both sides of the story. If you do that, you are only bringing one — Hamas’s side,” he said, noting “it is an insult to the victims, including the Palestinians.”

“It is an insult to the core idea of journalism,” Lapid added.


Noting that he worked as a journalist for 31 years, Lapid said “I have no problem with criticism of Israel. But when you know that one side lies and one side makes every effort to verify the facts, the least we can expect is that you don't give a never-ending platform to the lies.”

Israel launched a relentless bombardment campaign against Gaza following a surprise attack by the Palestinian group Hamas on October 7, putting the enclave’s residents under total siege and a blockade of food, fuel and medical supplies.

Nearly 7,200 people have been killed in the conflict, including at least 5,791 Palestinians and 1,400 Israelis.

Did Europe fail Palestinians by isolating Hamas?


By Mared Gwyn Jones

Published on 18/10/2023 

When Hamas won the Palestinian legislative elections in January 2006, Europe had a problem.

The Palestinian democracy it had helped build after the 1993 Oslo Accords delivered a result it was deeply uncomfortable with - electoral victory for a group it considered terrorists.

The West immediately boycotted the democratically elected Hamas-led government until it agreed to recognise Israel and renounce violence. Hamas refused and went on to take control of the Gaza strip in 2007.

The European Union has since been one of the biggest donors of critical aid to Palestinians in Gaza and the occupied West Bank, propping up the local economy and preventing its people from plunging into poverty.

But the EU has done this while maintaining a strict policy of 'no contact' with Hamas, refusing to engage with the militant group and channelling aid to Gaza through United Nations (UN) agencies and other organisations it considers outside Hamas’ orbit in order to side-step the government.

In its latest decision in a botched response to the war, the European Commission on Saturday tripled its humanitarian support for Palestinians to €75 million euros. Meanwhile, it is “reviewing” approximately €396 million in unspent development aid to ensure no EU money has inadvertently come into contact with Hamas.

Euronews spoke to two experts deeply divided on the EU’s decision to isolate Hamas, and its impact on the bloc’s diplomatic leverage in the region.
EU aid a "lifeline" for Palestinians

For Dr Matthew Levitt, director of the Reinhard programme on counterterrorism and intelligence at the Washington Institute, the West’s boycott of Hamas was the only viable response to the group’s electoral victory.

"People have the right to vote for whoever they want, but it comes with consequences," Dr Levitt told Euronews.

"Hamas was never part of the solution. We must also remember that the EU and its allies did maintain lines of communication with Hamas leaders after they won the 2006 elections, but it was important for the West at that time to establish how it dealt with terrorists," he added.

The EU and its Western allies’ continued provision of aid was - and still is - a lifeline for vulnerable Palestinians, providing for their essential basic needs, Dr Levitt said.

The EU contributes at least €82 million to UNRWA, the UN agency providing essential services to Palestinian refugees, every year, and in 2022 alone invested €145.35 million in development aid to pay the salaries and pensions of Palestinian civil servants, invest in hospitals and support vulnerable households.

Palestinians collect food provided by the UN agency for Palestinian refugees (UNRWA) in Gaza City, May 2021

John Minchillo/Copyright 2021 The AP. All rights reserved.

But Dr Tamet Qarmout, head of public administration at the Doha Institute for Graduate Studies, who worked in Gaza for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), believes that EU aid has also perpetuated a state of Palestinian reliance while "relieving" Israel of its responsibilities.

"Palestinians have been drip-fed aid in order to survive, when what they need is an operation to survive. But no one has been willing to make that decision for them," he explained.

Dr Qarmout also believes that by isolating Hamas, Europe became even more beholden to Israeli interests, allowing Israel to continuously scupper the peace process.

"While generous donors have undoubtedly helped the Palestinian people, they have also paid the price of Israeli occupation, and this cynically and sadly sustains occupation," he added.

"UN agencies also became agents to Israel's security apparatus, but also came under immense pressure because Hamas opposed the arrangement," he said.

Dr Qarmout also told Euronews that because of UN aid workers' role in sustaining the western boycott of Hamas, they were eventually pressured "to share information with Hamas" on what came in and out of the Gaza strip, meaning aid became increasingly politicised.

"The key question Europe needed to ask itself at the time was how to effectively use aid to ensure both parties respected the peace process, on both sides. But the discussion was never opened in European politics, as if it were a taboo," he added.

Former European leaders, including former British premier Tony Blair, have in the past expressed regret at the decision to immediately boycott Hamas in 2007, saying the international community should have engaged the Islamist militants in dialogue.
Sabotage of aid 'possible'

But Dr Levitt says that the West had to establish clear red lines on Hamas.

He also believes that while the immediate priority for the EU right now should be to ensure essential humanitarian aid continues to reach Gaza, it is also right to investigate potential diversion of funds to Hamas.

"There have long been issues of aid to Palestinians being misdirected, in particular EU aid," Dr Levitt said. "The reality is that Hamas controls the Gaza strip, and so the assumption must be that some of the aid coming in is being misdirected. The ability to divert or skim off the top is real."

"There are very good reasons to reassess how aid is delivered, but not whether aid should be delivered," he added.

Members of the European Parliament have in recent years raised concerns about the possible diversion of European funds by Hamas. In a 2021 written question to the European Commission, Swedish MEP Charlie Weimers questioned whether EU funds in the value of €1.7 million to the Islamic University of Gaza (IUG) - which has close and well-documented links to Hamas - run counter to the bloc’s anti-terrorism commitments.

In her response, the then-European commissioner for education Mariya Gabriel said the Commission had cancelled grant agreements with IUG in 2021 after it refused to agree to a clause stipulating beneficiaries must ensure no link to persons on the EU’s list of restrictive measures.

Last week, the Israeli Defense Forces targeted the IUG with airstrikes, claiming it was being used as a "training camp" for Hamas militants.

But Dr Qarmout says that despite these claims, "no shred" of evidence or intelligence has been produced to demonstrate any claims that EU funds are being diverted by Hamas, whilst there is plenty of evidence of Israel targeting donor-funded projects in Palestinian territories.

A Palestinian boy takes shelter at UN school after his homes was destroyed by Israeli airstrikes during the 2021 11-day war

Khalil Hamra/Copyright 2021 The AP. All rights reserved.

An uptick in Israeli demolitions of Palestinian infrastructure, including EU-funded projects, was seen in 2021, prompting EU and UK representatives to visit affected communities in the West Bank.

In a 2021 statement, the European External Action Service (EEAS) said 150 donor-funded structures were destroyed by Israeli authorities that year, displacing 656 people, including 359 children, across the West Bank.

Israel has also targeted water wells and pipelines during conflicts, including the 2021 11-day war, despite many water projects being backed by foreign donors.

Although the EU has repeatedly condemned attacks by Israeli settlers against Palestinians as well as targeted bombardments of critical Palestinian infrastructure, it has never investigated how Israel could have intentionally undermined the EU's own development projects in the region.

On Monday, the European Commission announced it would step up its efforts to bring aid to Gaza by sending flights of UNESCO humanitarian supplies to Egypt, as international efforts to open humanitarian corridors continue.

OUCH!

OPINION FROM THE RIGHT
More than leadership or policy, it’s the Conservative temperament that’s putting off voters

ANDREW COYNE
PUBLISHED JULY 14, 2021

Conservative Leader Erin O'Toole attends a Stampede pancake breakfast in Calgary on July 10, 2021.

JEFF MCINTOSH/THE CANADIAN PRESS

The official line in Conservative circles is: Don’t panic. Campaigns matter, a week is a long time in politics, remember what happened to David Peterson, etc.

The unofficial line is: Panic. It isn’t just that the Liberals hold a substantial lead in public opinion (six recent polls put them between eight and 14 points ahead). It’s that the Tories have very little room to grow.

A new Abacus Data poll finds just 41 per cent of voters would even consider voting Conservative. That’s well behind the Liberals (56 per cent) of course, but it’s also behind the NDP (48 per cent). It’s barely ahead of the Greens (33 per cent).

How did it come to this, that the party of Confederation could have fallen into such odium that six in ten voters will not even consider voting for it?

Erin O’Toole needs to show he is a leader who can lead

The tendency will be to blame the leader, and certainly Erin O’Toole’s approval numbers must be dismaying to Conservative supporters. Just 14 per cent of respondents in the latest Nanos poll picked him as their preferred prime minister, versus 37 per cent for Justin Trudeau – and 18 per cent for Jagmeet Singh.


But the Conservatives’ woes did not begin with Mr. O’Toole’s leadership, and they will not end there. In six elections under the unified Conservative banner, the party has averaged just short of 35 per cent of the vote – four percentage points less, on average, than the old Progressive Conservative and Reform/Canadian Alliance parties used to get, between them, in the years when the movement was divided.

Of course, the Grits have fared even worse over the same period, averaging just 31 per cent of the vote since 2004. But Liberal weakness masks a more enduring strength: while the party has lost some support to the NDP, the Greens and the Bloc, it has a much bigger pool of progressive voters to fish from. With the right leader, it can still aspire to power. Whereas it’s not clear even a strong leader could save the Tories.

Some of that is explicable in terms of policy. On many of the most important issues of the day, Conservatives have either had nothing to say (hello, climate change) or have actively antagonized voters they might otherwise have reached (race, immigration, marriage equality).

More broadly, the party seems to have lost its nerve, unable even to advance traditional conservative policies – free markets, lower taxes, balanced budgets – with any vigour. The left has been right about more things than the right in recent years, but right or wrong it has been demonstrably more confident.

More confident and … more cheerful. Beyond leadership or policy, the Conservative malaise seems even more to do with what I might call the party’s temperament: not just its image but its persona, the deeper qualities of disposition that are revealing of character. Something in the Conservative temperament has simply become repellent to a great many people.

If the besetting sin of Liberals is smarmy sanctimoniousness, the Conservative equivalent is a chippy defensiveness, an adolescent petulance, a conviction that the cards are perpetually stacked against them. Fair enough, up to a point: decades of what the late Richard Gwyn called “one-and-a-half party rule” have left their inevitable residue – a bureaucracy, a judiciary and a press gallery that are inclined to see the world, if not through Liberal glasses, then certainly through liberal ones.

Far worse, however, has been its toll on the Conservative psyche. The same fundamental insecurity that, in a Joe Clark or a Bob Stanfield, emerged as a kind of apologetic cough of deference to liberal elites, is also at work in today’s smirking Conservative populist. Though Canadian Conservatives have not gone so far down that road as their counterparts elsewhere – there is nothing to compare to the Republicans’ current mix of white nationalism, LOL-nothing-matters nihilism, and lunatic, QAnon-inspired conspiracy theories – they are too willing to nod in that direction.

Moreover, while the Liberals, as the party of power and therefore of cabinet posts, have always been able to recruit individuals with a record of accomplishment in other fields, the Conservatives tend to get stuck with the lifers, people who have never done anything but partisan politics and are motivated by nothing so much as hatred of the Grits. Which may explain why the party’s leading lights so often look and sound like campus Conservatives.

In sports it is often observed that a team might have the best players or the best strategy, but if it does not have a winning culture, that elusive gel of belief in itself, it is still doomed to defeat. Until the Conservatives develop that culture – until they acquire some self-respect, put a smile on their face, and act like grown-ups – they will be condemned to the same.

Too many LGBT people have heard ‘the words of rejection’ from Church of England

Gwyn Wright, PA
Mon, 6 February 2023 

Too many LGBT people have heard “the words of rejection” from the Church of England, the Archbishop of Canterbury has said.

Justin Welby made the remarks in his opening address to the General Synod 2023, the national assembly of the Church of England, which will debate its policy on blessings for same-sex couples.

The church’s recently announced policy of allowing blessing for same-sex couples but not their marriage in church buildings has caused controversy.


Mr Welby said: “Where people find it difficult to believe what Christians say about God’s great love for them because they have been excluded, or made to conceal their identity, or made to feel in some way less, they have not been spoken to in Christian.

“Along the way, too many people, especially around sexuality, have heard the words of rejection that human tongues create.”

Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby speaks during a Church of England press conference in January (PA)

He described the church as having a history of antisemitism, racism, slavery and “collusion with the evil structures of power – look at how we have and do treat those with different sexualities”.

The church’s desire for unity has often made casualties of “those who are different”, he said.

He added: “We have deep and passionately held differences but let us not fall into caricaturing those among us who don’t agree with us as those who are trying to construct their lives away from God. The evidence is far from that.”

The church does not exist to “avoid or endorse wokery” and should reject being dragged into culture wars, the Archbishop said.

Instead he urged Anglicans to unite and accept “the unity we desire is not one based around agreeing in everything”.

During his 15-minute address, he also said the NHS is “in crisis”, the education system “misses out on aspiration for the poorest” and “care systems and housing … do not reach those most desperately in need”.

Mr Welby also said the absence of ‘strong family life’ causes more children to suffer from mental health conditions and leads to ’emotional trauma’ in adults (PA)

His comments could be interpreted as thinly veiled criticisms of government policy.

Mr Welby also lamented the absence of “strong family life”, which he claims causes more children to suffer from mental health conditions and leads to “emotional trauma” in adults.

He added: “We live in a time of danger and crisis, the greatest since the terrors of World War Two, terrors worse now because of advanced technology.”

The Synod, at Church House in Westminster, London, will sit until Thursday.

Same-sex blessings will be debated on Wednesday afternoon. The issue is also expected to be raised in question-and-answer sessions on Monday afternoon and Tuesday morning.

The Synod will also debate safeguarding and the cost of living. Earlier on Monday, attendees were reminded the gathering is not a single-issue Synod.

Muslim leaders warn Archbishop over impact of same-sex blessings on schoolchildren

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/02/uk-muslim-leaders-warn-archbishop-over.html

Same-sex marriage row looms over Church of England synod

https://plawiuk.blogspot.com/2023/02/same-sex-marriage-row-looms-over-church.html

UK airline emissions on track to reach record high in 2024


Gwyn Topham

 Transport correspondent

THE GUARDIAN

Fri, 19 April 2024

Ryanair emitted 13.5% more CO2 in 2023 and easyJet was up by 4.8%.

Photograph: Neil Hall/EPA

Emissions from UK flights are rapidly returning to pre-pandemic levels, with CO2 pollution from aviation on track to reach a record high this year.

The increase means the sector may breach a key plank of the government’s Jet Zero strategy, which pledged to not surpass 2019 figures on the way to reaching net zero emissions from aviation by 2050.

Several airlines are already emitting more than ever before, according to analysis from the campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E) based on UK and EU carbon reporting and other flight data.

Related: Campaigners warn over failure to curb Europe’s ‘runaway’ transport emissions


It estimates that Ryanair emitted 13.5% more CO2 in 2023 than it did in 2019, with easyJet up by 4.8% and Jet2.com up by 26.3%. British Airways was still by far the UK’s most polluting airline, although its emissions remain 18% below 2019 levels.

Last year, 940,000 flights departed from UK airports, emitting a total of 32 mn tonnes of CO2, 89% of 2019 levels, according to T&E. It said there had been remarkable levels of growth in comparison to 2022 alone, with long-haul flight emissions 28% higher, and that the data suggested aviation emissions could reach a record high in 2024.

BA, Ryanair and easyJet have announced continued planned expansion of between 7% and 9% for 2024.

Although the newer planes with lower fuel consumption ordered by airlines such as Ryanair mean they have boasted of lower emissions for each passenger, the rapid growth in traffic means their overall pollution figures are growing inexorably.

As well as warning that the UK government’s Jet Zero roadmap towards more sustainable aviation risks going off course well before 2050, T&E urged policymakers to reconsider how airlines are taxed given the limitations of the emissions trading scheme (ETS).

The UK’s ETS only covers flights wholly within the UK, the European Economic Area and Switzerland. That means that long-haul flights in and out of the UK – accounting for the majority of emissions – escape without charge while domestic or European flights pay for each tonne of CO2.

British Airways, whose emissions grew an estimated 25% in 2023, pays less under the ETS than easyJet or Ryanair, despite producing almost three times as much CO2 because of its long-haul network. Virgin Atlantic, which only flies to destinations outside Europe, paid nothing at all in ETS. Wizz Air paid £34.23 for each tonne of CO2 emitted, according to T&E.

BA would have paid another £350m annually under an ETS system that included long-haul flights, T&E added.

Ryanair itself has called for an overhaul of the system, demanding the extension of the UK and EU ETS to all flights. However, reform of the scheme to include long-haul flights has proved difficult in the past, with the US and China threatening to derail previous EU attempts to find a fairer global solution.

Future additional emissions from all flights will be liable for offsets under the Corsia system agreed by the UN body, the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), before the pandemic – but it is not mandatory worldwide until 2027 and campaigners fear the impact will be negligible due to the likely cost to airlines.

T&E has called for a kerosene tax. Matt Finch, the UK policy manager at T&E, said: “Some airlines had their most polluting year ever in 2023, and there is a good chance that many more will get that badge of dishonour in 2024.

“The UK government is apparently committed to charging polluters to help pay the clean-up costs they cause, but it is wilfully ignoring charging airlines, despite their growing climate impact. That’s the directly opposite approach they’re taking to the nation’s drivers at the petrol pump.”

The Department for Transport was approached for comment.

A BA spokesperson said: “As this report recognises, [our] emission levels are below where they were in 2019. We are proud of the 10% reduction in our carbon intensity we’ve delivered since 2019 and are working hard towards our target of net zero by 2050.”

UK bans any use of mobile phones while driving

Government updates law to ban drivers from using phone in any way, not just calling and texting


Gwyn Topham Transport correspondent
Sat 17 Oct 2020 

 

The government will close the legal loophole which currently only defines the offence as “interactive communication”. Photograph: Alex Segre/Alamy

Drivers who use hand-held phones in any way behind the wheel will face £200 fines and possible bans when changes in the law take account of smartphones.

While making calls or texting on a hand-held mobile while driving is already illegal, taking photos, scrolling through a playlist or even playing games on phones has not been outlawed until now – allowing drivers to escape charges when spotted with a phone.

The government will update the law to close the legal loophole, which currently defines the offence as only “interactive communication”.

Ban hands-free phones in cars after rise in road deaths, MPs suggest

Roads minister Baroness Vere said: “Our roads are some of the safest in the world, but we want to make sure they’re safer still by bringing the law into 21st century.

“That’s why we’re looking to strengthen the law to make using a hand-held phone while driving illegal in a wider range of circumstances. It’s distracting and dangerous, and for too long risky drivers have been able to escape punishment, but this update will mean those doing the wrong thing will face the full force of the law.”

The government said the change, due to come into law after a 12-week public consultation, would allow police to take immediate action if they saw a driver holding and using a phone at the wheel. The offence will incur a £200 fine and six points on the driver’s licence. An automatic ban is normally triggered when drivers accrue 12 points through offences.
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Motorists will still be able to use phones as devices to pay for goods or services at drive-through businesses such as takeaways.

A government spokeswoman said that motorists could still also use phones as satnavs, if not physically holding them. Drivers could still be prosecuted for driving without due care and attention if they try to type in directions at the wheel.

Chief constable Anthony Bangham, the lead for roads policing on the National Police Chiefs’ Council, said: “Using a mobile phone while driving is incredibly dangerous and being distracted at the wheel can change lives for ever. Police will take robust action against those using a hand-held mobile phone illegally, and proposals to make the law clearer are welcome.”

Motoring organisation the AA welcomed the tighter legislation. Jack Cousens, head of roads policy, said: “Drivers should be focused on the road ahead and not the tweet or email that has just pinged to their phone.”

But he added: “Closing the loopholes are one thing; getting more cops in cars to actually catch people in the act will help deter drivers further.”

The move may disappoint campaigners who called for ministers to go further and ban the use of hands-free functions while driving. Last year the Commons transport select committee recommended that the government consider outlawing the use of hands-free phones at the wheel, saying that they too posed a risk.

UK

Rail unions say government plans to limit strikes will ‘enrage’ members


Kwasi Kwarteng announces moves that oblige unions to ensure trains run before sustained industrial action

Mick Lynch of the RMT union said the government should be negotiating a settlement rather than making it harder to strike

Photograph: Henry Nicholls/Reuters


Gwyn Topham

Transport correspondent

THE GUARDIAN
@GwynTopham

Fri 23 Sep 2022 14.32 BST

Rail unions have said plans announced by the chancellor to limit the scope of strikes and pay negotiations will further “enrage” their members, before a period of sustained industrial action.

On Friday, Kwasi Kwarteng announced moves not only to ensure minimum service levels during transport strikes, obliging unions to ensure trains run, but also to legislate to require unions to put any pay offers from employers to a vote.

With strikes expected to halt most train services at the start of the Conservative conference at the beginning of October, the chancellor told the Commons that the disruption caused was unacceptable.

He said other European countries had minimum service levels to stop “militant trade unions”, and the UK government would do the same, “and go further”.

Kwarteng said: “We will legislate to require unions to put pay offers to a member vote to ensure strikes can only be called once negotiations have genuinely broken down.”

Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT union, said: “We already have the most severe anti-democratic trade union laws in western Europe and this latest threat will rightly enrage our members.

“The government should be working towards a negotiated settlement in the national rail dispute, not seeking to make it even harder to take effective strike action. Unions will not sit idly by or meekly accept any further obstacles on their members exercising the basic human right to withdraw their labour.”

Manuel Cortes, the general secretary of the TSSA union, which confirmed it would be joining the October rail strikes on Friday, said: “This new Tory proposal will serve only to elongate disputes and generate greater anger among union members. It will do precisely nothing to encourage employers to come to the negotiating table with realistic offers.”

Rail bosses have however expressed frustration that staff have not been able to vote on pay offers during negotiations.

Network Rail’s chief executive Andrew Haines – whose annual net pay on his £588,000 salary will increase by £20,000 due to another move announced by Kwarteng, to scrap the top rate of income tax – said: “Our latest offer – an 8% pay rise over two years with other benefits – is affordable from within our own budget, but the RMT refuses to allow its members to vote on it.

“The decision by unions to strike again serves only to prolong disruption for passengers, undermine the railway’s recovery from the pandemic and ensure railway staff forgo even more of their pay unnecessarily.”

Grandmothers feel their grandkids’ emotions when looking at photos of them

DECEMBER 4, 2021
by Study Finds

ATLANTA — Grandmothers feel the same emotions their grandkids are feeling when they look at pictures of them, according to a recent study. Scientists reveal that if a grandchild is smiling in an image, grannies feel their joy. But if the youngster is crying, they share their pain and distress.

The groundbreaking study is the first to examine the brain function of grandmothers. The part of the brain associated with emotional empathy “lights up” when they look at images of their grandkids, anthropologists at Emory University found.

Fifty healthy, “high-functioning” grandmothers who took part in the study answered questions about their experiences in grandparenthood. Questions included how much time they spend with their grandkids, what they do with them, and how much love they feel towards them. They also underwent MRI scans as they viewed pictures of their grandchild, a child they had never met, the same-sex parent of their grandchild, and an unknown adult.

The scans showed the grandmothers had more brain activity in areas associated with empathy and movement when they looked at their own grandchildren, compared with when they looked at the other images. Grandmothers showed more emotional empathy and motivation when they looked at their grandkids than fathers did when they looked at their children in an earlier study. Those who showed more cognitive empathy were more likely to want to be more involved in caring for their grandchild.

“What really jumps out in the data is the activation in areas of the brain associated with emotional empathy. That suggests that grandmothers are geared toward feeling what their grandchildren are feeling when they interact with them. If their grandchild is smiling, they’re feeling the child’s joy. And if their grandchild is crying, they’re feeling the child’s pain and distress,” explains study lead author James Rilling, a professor in Emory’s Department of Anthropology and Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, in a statement. “Young children have likely evolved traits to be able to manipulate not just the maternal brain, but the grand maternal brain. An adult child doesn’t have the same cute ‘factor,’ so they may not elicit the same emotional response.”

More research needed in the study of grandmothers’ brains

Researchers have rarely studied older people’s brains beyond the realms of aging and dementia research, and grandmothers’ interactions with their grandkids had not been studied before. Scientists believe women live long past menopause because it helps their children and grandchildren.

A study of the Hadza people in Tanzania found foraging by grandmothers helps their grandchildren grow up more healthily. Another study of traditional communities showed the presence of grandmothers cut their daughters’ interbirth intervals and helped their daughters have more children. In more modern societies, evidence is growing that grandmothers help their grandchildren, making the little ones brainier, more sociable, and healthier.

“Evidence is emerging in neuroscience for a global, parental caregiving system in the brain. We wanted to see how grandmothers might fit into that pattern,” says Rilling. “We often assume that fathers are the most important caregivers next to mothers, but that’s not always true. In some cases, grandmothers are the primary helper. ​​Our results add to the evidence that there does seem to be a global parenting caregiving system in the brain, and that grandmothers’ responses to their grandchildren map onto it.”

Rilling adds that the research was fun and gave him a better sense of the rewards and challenges of being a grandma. The main difficulty many grandmothers face is trying not to interfere when they disagree with the parents about how the grandkids should be raised and what values should be installed into them.

“Many of them also said how nice it is to not be under as much time and financial pressure as they were when raising their children. They get to enjoy the experience of being a grandmother much more than they did being parents,” says Rilling.

The findings open the door to many more questions. Rilling notes he now wants to study grandfathers’ brains and look into how grandparents’ brains may differ across cultures.

“We’re highlighting the brain functions of grandmothers that may play an important role in our social lives and development. It’s an important aspect of the human experience that has been largely left out of the field of neuroscience,” says co-author Minwoo Lee, a PhD candidate in Emory’s Department of Anthropology.

The study is published in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.

South West News Service writer Gwyn Wright contributed to this report.

Aviation sector to more than double profits in 2023: IATA

Aviation sector's income to exceed $800B level this year, for 1st time since 2019, International Air Transport Association expects

Gokhan Ergocun |05.06.2023 - 

ISTANBUL

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) on Monday announced its forecast that the aviation sector's net profits will reach $9.8 billion in 2023, more than twice last year's figure of $4.7 billion.

In 2023, some 4.35 billion people are expected to travel by air, which is close to 2019 figures, the IATA said during its annual meeting in Istanbul.

This year, the air cargo volume is also expected to reach 57.8 million tons, while in 2019, the amount of air cargo was 61.5 million tons.

The overall income of the sector is forecasted to reach $803 billion, an annual rise of 9.7%, exceeding the $800-billion level for the first time since 2019.

The sector's expenditures will reach $781 billion this year, the association also predicted.

Willie Walsh, the director general of the association, said the aviation sector's costs eased partially, thanks to fuel prices, although still high but moderate.

The sector's return to net profitability is seen as a great success, even with a 1.2% net profit margin, he noted.

He added that operating with profitability in a period of economic uncertainty seems to be an important success, as the net profit increase came after the biggest loss of $183.3 billion in aviation history in the period 2020-2022.

The IATA also said the current inflation, the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war, supply chain issues, and regulator costs are risks for the sector in the upcoming period.

International air fares likely to keep rising, says aviation group

Passengers can expect to pay more as carriers turn to ‘greener’ fuel to meet emissions targets, warns Iata

Gwyn Topham 

Transport correspondent
THE GUARDIAN

Tue 6 Jun 2023 

International air fares are likely to keep climbing from their current highs over the next 10-15 years, with the cost of sustainable fuels expected to drive up ticket prices, according to the global airlines body Iata.

Extraordinary demand for travel since the Covid pandemic has led to steep fare rises on many routes, and Iata said consumers could expect to pay more as airlines increase the usage of scarce “greener” jet fuels in response to government mandates to cut aviation’s carbon emissions.


Willie Walsh, the director general of Iata and former chief executive of British Airways, said: “We’re going to require more and more SAF [sustainable aviation fuel], and that means more and more expense.”

While Walsh said that some economists believed sustainable fuels could eventually become cheaper than kerosene, he added: “I see certainty in the next 10-15 years that we’re looking at a significant increase in fuel costs. Unless there’s some compensating reduction in other costs – and I don’t see that – then people have to expect that there will be an increase in in average fares as we go forward.”

He added: “It will mean higher fares, because sustainable aviation fuel is more expensive than your traditional jet kerosene. And as we transition to net zero, it is going to cost some money.”

Airline costs have been driven up significantly as oil prices soared after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as well as higher labour costs. Walsh also pointed to constrained capacity due to a lack of spare parts, which have left some airlines unable to operate their full fleets.

Despite the much higher fares passengers are having to pay on many routes this summer, Iata said its analysis showed fares worldwide were still around 2019 levels in real terms at the start of 2023, having lagged behind inflation over the course of the pandemic.

Last year, Ryanair said the era of ultra-cheap flying was over. The coming impact of SAFs was suggested in a recent update of the UK’s sustainable aviation roadmap to net zero by 2050, which relies largely on offsetting and SAFs and replacing fleets with more fuel-efficient aircraft to slash net emissions.

It projected that fewer people would fly in coming decades as a result of being priced out – a “demand reduction impact” that would account for about 14% of the required cuts to hit the target.

However, airlines are reporting rising custom despite higher prices.

The president of Emirates airline, Sir Tim Clark, said the “eye-opening” demand for air travel, even in premium cabins at high fares, defied economic wisdom. He added: “In winter last year, for every seat we sold another five people wanted it … We could have put it out to auction if we’d wanted to.skip past 

“People who used to fly at the old fare levels are piling in at the new fare levels. It just doesn’t seem to make sense in the way we used to understand it. All I know is that we’re moving – so we’ll take it.”

Clark, whose airline was a notable opponent of the capacity cuts imposed at London Heathrow last summer, warned the British government it needed to do more to support international aviation.

Clark said: “The UK needs all the help it can get. If it’s going to work with Brexit, and you’ve said yah-boo Europe, it’s not where we need to be, we need to be in China, India, Australia, America, then you’ve got to move people and goods to those places. So [airline capacity] is vital. If that is lost on the government of the UK, they will pay the price.”

Ambulance driver killed while aiding Palestinians injured in attack by Israeli settlers in the West Bank

Mia Alberti, Abeer Salman, Eyad Kourdi and Tim Lister, CNN
Sat, April 20, 2024 a

An ambulance driver from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society was killed while transporting Palestinians injured in an attack by settlers in the West Bank on Saturday, the Palestinian Ministry of Health said.

The 50-year-old driver, Mohammed Awad Allah Mohammed Musa, was killed when the ambulance was hit by gunfire, the Palestinian Red Crescent Society (PRCS) told CNN. Israeli settlers fired the shots, it said.

In a separate incident the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) detained another ambulance crew at the entrance of the Thabet Thabet hospital in Tulkarm, West Bank, the PRCS reported.

In pictures shared by the organization, the ambulance crew is seen siting inside an IDF vehicle while surrounded by IDF soldiers. PRCS says the crew was detained and interrogated while trying to carry out “humanitarian work.”

CNN has reached out to the IDF for comment.

IDF soldiers detain an ambulance crew at the entrance of the Thabet Thabet hospital in Tulkarm, West Bank. The ambulance crew is seen siting inside an IDF vehicle while surrounded by soldiers. - Palestinian Red Crescent Society

Earlier on Saturday, the IDF said security forces had killed “10 terrorists” in an ongoing operation at the Nur Shams refugee camp, just East of Tulkarm, in the occupied West Bank.

It said in a statement that “IDF and Israel Border Police forces are continuing extensive counterterrorism activity in the area of Nur Shams. Thus far, the security forces eliminated 10 terrorists during encounters, apprehended eight wanted suspects, exposed explosive devices and routes, and conducted searches in structures.”

It said eight IDF soldiers and one Border Force officer were lightly or moderately injured.

The Palestinian Ministry of Health condemned both the detention of the ambulance crew and “the deliberate killing of an ambulance driver…on Saturday evening, while he was performing his humanitarian duty in transporting (people with) injuries from settler gunfire near the town of Al-Sawiya, south of Nablus.”

The ministry said in a statement that it “urgently calls on international health organizations, human rights institutions, and the International Committee of the Red Cross to urgently act to curb the escalating practices of the occupation and settlers against treatment centers and medical crews, and to allow them to perform their humanitarian duty.”

“The targeting of medics, ambulances, treatment centers, medical staff, obstructing their movement, and preventing them from reaching the wounded, constitutes a blatant and clear violation of international humanitarian law and international norms and treaties,” the ministry said.

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More than 14 Palestinians killed as violence flares in West Bank

Ali Sawafta and Nidal al-Mughrabi
Updated Sat, April 20, 2024 
   

NUR SHAMS, West Bank (Reuters) -Israeli forces killed 14 Palestinians during a raid in the occupied West Bank on Saturday, while an ambulance driver was killed as he went to pick up wounded from a separate attack by violent Jewish settlers, Palestinian authorities said.

Israeli forces began an extended raid in the early hours of Friday in the Nur Shams area, near the flashpoint Palestinian city of Tulkarm and were still exchanging fire with armed fighters well into Saturday.


Israeli military vehicles massed and bursts of gunfire were heard, while at least three drones were seen hovering above Nur Shams, an area housing refugees and their descendants from the 1948 war that accompanied the creation of the state of Israel.

The Tulkarm Brigades, which groups forces from numerous Palestinian factions, said its fighters exchanged fire with Israeli forces on Saturday.

The West Bank, a kidney shaped area about 100 km (60 miles) long and 50 km wide that has been at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since it was seized by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war.

The Gaza war has overshadowed continuing violence in the territory, including regular army raids on militant groups, rampages by Jewish settlers in Palestinian villages, and street attacks by Palestinians on Israelis.

Thousands of Palestinians have been arrested and hundreds killed during regular operations by Israeli army and police since the start of the Gaza war, most members of armed groups, but also stone-throwing youths and uninvolved civilians.

On Saturday, Palestinian health authorities said at least 14 Palestinians, two of whom were identified by Palestinian sources and officials as a gunman and a 16 year-old boy, were killed during the raid, one of the heaviest casualty totals in the West Bank in months. Another man was killed on Friday.

The Israeli military said a number of militants were killed or arrested during the raid, and at least four soldiers were wounded in exchanges of fire.

In a separate incident, the Palestinian health ministry said a 50-year-old ambulance driver was killed by Israeli gunfire near the village of Al-Sawiya, south of the city of Nablus, as he was making his way to transport people injured during the attack on the village.

It was not immediately clear whether he was shot by settlers. There was no immediate comment from the military.

GAZA STRIKES CONTINUE

In Gaza, where fighting has continued despite the withdrawal of most of Israel's combat forces earlier this month from southern areas, the death toll passed 34,000, Palestinian health authorities said on Saturday.

Israeli strikes hit the southern city of Rafah, where over one million Palestinians are sheltering, as well as Al-Nuseirat in central Gaza, where at least five houses were destroyed, and the Al-Jabalia area in the north, health officials and Hamas media said.

In Rafah, a strike hit a house and killed a father, daughter and pregnant mother, Hamas and Palestinian media outlets said. Doctors at the Kuwaiti hospital were able to save the baby, medics said, making the baby the family's only surviving member.

Five other Palestinians were killed in a separate Israeli air strike on the city before midnight, health officials said.

The Israeli military said troops were carrying out raids in central Gaza, where they were engaged in close quarter combat with Palestinian fighters.

Overall, Israeli strikes in Gaza killed 37 Palestinians and wounded 68 over the past 24 hours, Palestinian health authorities said.

Rafah is the last Gaza area that Israeli ground forces have not entered in a more than six-month war aimed at eliminating the Islamist Hamas group that rules the enclave, following the Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7, that killed some 1,200 Israelis and foreigners.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has faced wide international opposition to the plan to attack Rafah, where the military says the last remaining organised brigades of Hamas are located and where the remaining 133 Israeli hostages are believed to be held.

(Nidal al-Mughrabi reported from Cairo, additional reporting by Maayan Lubell and James Mackenzie in Jerusalem, editing by Mark Heinrich, Frances Kerry, Mike Harrison, Sandra Maler and Cynthia Osterman)

Two Palestinians killed by Israeli troops in fresh West Bank violence

FRANCE 24
Sat, April 20, 2024



Israeli forces shot dead two Palestinians in the occupied West Bank on Sunday, the Palestinian news agency Wafa reported. The Israeli army said it had “neutralised” two assailants who had attempted to stab and shoot troops. The deadly incident comes after at least 14 people were killed during a multi-day Israeli raid further north in the West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday. Read our liveblog to follow today's developments in the Middle East.

Summary:

Israeli strikes on the southern Gaza city of Rafah overnight killed at least 13 people, including nine children, health officials said Sunday.


Israeli forces killed at least 14 Palestinians during a multi-day raid in the occupied West Bank, the Palestinian Red Crescent said on Saturday. An ambulance driver was also killed as he went to pick up wounded from a separate attack by Jewish settlers, the Palestinian health ministry said.


The US House of Representatives approved a $26 billion military aid package for Israel on Saturday that includes around $9 billion in humanitarian assistance for Gaza.


The US House of Representatives passed billions of dollars in new military aid to Israel which continues to prosecute its war against Hamas, despite growing international concern for the fate of civilians in Gaza.


(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)

US sanctions ally of Israeli minister, entities backing 'extremist' settlers

Simon Lewis
Updated Fri, April 19, 2024 

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The United States on Friday imposed sanctions on an ally of Israel's far-right national security minister and two entities that raised money for Israeli men accused of settler violence, the latest actions aimed against those Washington blames for an escalation of violence in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

The sanctions, in addition to those already imposed on five settlers and two unauthorized outposts already this year, are the latest sign of growing U.S. frustration with the policies of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The moves on Friday, which freeze any U.S. assets held by those targeted and generally bar Americans from dealing with them, hit two organizations that launched fundraising campaigns to support settlers accused of violence and targeted by previous sanctions, the Department of the Treasury said in a statement.

The Biden administration's moves against Israeli settlers have upset right-wing members of Netanyahu's governing coalition who support the expansion of Jewish settlements and ultimately the annexation of the West Bank, where Palestinians envisage a future state.

They come as the complex relationship between Washington and its ally Israel is tested by the war in Gaza and as the Biden administration urges Israel to show restraint in responding to retaliatory strikes by Iran.

Washington sanctioned Ben-Zion Gopstein, founder and leader of the right-wing group Lehava, which opposes Jewish assimilation with non-Jews and agitates against Arabs in the name of religion and national security. Gopstein has said Lehava has 5,000 members.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said members of the group had engaged in "destabilizing violence affecting the West Bank."

"Under Gopstein’s leadership, Lehava and its members have been involved in acts or threats of violence against Palestinians, often targeting sensitive or volatile areas," Miller said in a statement, warning of additional steps if Israel does not take measures to prevent extremist attacks amid an escalation of violence in the West Bank in recent days.

The European Union also said on Friday it had agreed to take sanctions against Lehava and other groups linked to violent settlers.

A spokesperson for Israel's embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Gopstein, the most prominent Israeli figure targeted by U.S. sanctions, is a close associate of and has family ties to National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir, who himself lives in a West Bank settlement.

Ben-Gvir, like Gopstein, was a disciple of the late Meir Kahane, an ultranationalist rabbi whose Kach movement was listed by Washington as a specially designated global terrorist organization.

Ben-Gvir on Friday slammed what he called harassment against Lehava and "our dear settlers who have never engaged in terrorism or hurt anyone," labeling the allegations against them a "blood libel" by Palestinian groups and anarchists.

"I call on Western countries to stop cooperating with these antisemites and end this campaign of persecution against the pioneering Zionist settlers," Ben-Gvir said in a statement released by his office.

CROWDFUNDING

Since the 1967 Middle East war, Israel has occupied the West Bank of the Jordan River, which Palestinians want as the core of an independent state. It has built Jewish settlements there that most countries deem illegal. Israel disputes this and cites historical and Biblical ties to the land.

The Biden administration in February said settlements were inconsistent with international law, signaling a return to long-standing U.S. policy on the issue that had been reversed by the previous administration of Donald Trump.

One entity targeted on Friday, Mount Hebron Fund, launched an online fundraising campaign that raised $140,000 for settler Yinon Levi, the Treasury said, after he was sanctioned on Feb. 1 for leading a group of settlers that assaulted Palestinian and Bedouin civilians, burned their fields and destroyed their property.

It said the second entity, Shlom Asiraich, raised $31,000 on a crowdfunding website for David Chai Chasdai, who the United States sanctioned for initiating and leading a riot that included setting vehicles and buildings on fire and causing damage to property in the Palestinian town of Huwara, resulting in the death of a Palestinian civilian.

“These types of enforcement actions against entities helping violent settlers evade U.S. sanctions are what give sanctions teeth," said Michael Schaeffer Omer-Man, director of research for Israel-Palestine at Democracy for the Arab World Now, a human rights group that has highlighted efforts by supporters to evade sanctions against settlers.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis; additional reporting by Henriette Chacar and David Ljunggren, editing by Susan Heavey, Chizu Nomiyama and Deepa Babington)



EU sanctions extremist Israeli settlers over violence in the West Bank

Mared Gwyn Jones

euronews
Fri, April 19, 2024

EU sanctions extremist Israeli settlers over violence in the West Bank


A  political agreement on the move emerged among the bloc's 27 member countries last month, but technical work has delayed its implementation, prompting many countries - such as France and Belgium - to unilaterally impose national sanctions.

Some 490,000 Israelis live in settlements in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, which are considered a breach of international law. Attacks on Palestinians in the occupied territory have surged since the outbreak of the war between Israel and Hamas last October, causing around 460 deaths, according to the Palestinian health ministry.

Four individuals and two entities responsible for settler violence will as of Friday be blacklisted under the EU's human rights sanctions regime, meaning they will be banned from travelling to the bloc and their financial assets frozen.

The sanctioned entities are Lehava, a far-wing Jewish supremacist organisation, and Hilltop Youth, whose activities were recently halted by the Israeli Defense Forces for multiple incidents of violence and abuses against Palestinian civilians.

Two leading figures of Hilltop Youth, Meir Ettinger and Elisha Yered, are also targeted.

The move comes amid escalating violence in the West Bank, where tensions have deepened since a 14-year-old boy from a settler family was killed last Saturday.

NGO Human Rights Watch says Israeli settlers are displacing Palestinian communities by destroying their homes, and are responsible for assaults, torture and sexual violence against Palestinians.

The EU's high representative for foreign policy, Josep Borrell, has previously said that settler violence is one of the biggest obstacles to future peace in the region since settlers oppose the two-state solution which would give statehood to Palestinians.

The bloc has also repeatedly censured Benjamin Netanyahu's government for backing projects aimed at expanding settlements in the West Bank and areas around Jerusalem, and called for such decisions to be reversed.

In January, several members of the Israeli government joined a far-right conference promoting the construction of Jewish settlements in both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

The formal approval of the sanctions also comes as the bloc carefully calibrates its stance on the Middle East conflict following a rapid escalation in tensions between Israel and Iran.

Since Iran launched an unprecedented aerial attack on Israeli territory last Saturday, EU leaders have doubled down on their stance of solidarity with Israel but also urged Netanyahu's cabinet to exercise restraint.

Some capitals, however, want Brussels to toughen its stance on Netanyahu. Spain and Ireland have led calls to review the bloc's trade deal with Israel - the Association Agreement - to exert pressure on its government to exercise restraint in its Gaza offensive.

On Friday, Belgium's deputy prime minister Petra De Sutter claimed Belgium would "take the lead" to "re-evaluate" the EU-Israel Association Agreement.

"We call for an EU-wide import duty on products coming from illegal Israeli settlements," De Sutter said.

A note drafted by the EEAS - the EU's diplomatic arm - last December urged the EU to "enforce continued, full and effective implementation of existing EU legislation and bilateral arrangements applicable to settlements products."

Under EU legislation, Israeli products made by settlers should be clearly labelled as such and subject to less preferential customs arrangements, but the rules are not strictly enforced.

Aftermath of an Israeli raid at Nur Shams camp

Welsh-Iraqi poet, filmmaker and artist Hanan Issa named National Poet of Wales

06 Jul 2022

Hanan Issa. Picture by Camera Sioned / Literature Wales

Hanan Issa has been named the next national poet of Wales by Literature Wales.

Hanan is a Welsh-Iraqi poet, filmmaker and artist whose recent works include her poetry collection My Body Can House Two Hearts and her contribution to Welsh (Plural): Essays on the Future of Wales and The Mab.

She co-founded the Cardiff open-mic night Where I’m Coming From and has worked with the Bush Theatre, Channel 4 and Ffilm Cymru / BBC Wales. She was also a member of the first cohort of writers who took part in Literature Wales’ Representing Wales programme in 2021.

Hanan Issa said: “Poetry exists in the bones of this country. I want people to recognise Wales as a country bursting with creativity: a land of poets and singers with so much to offer the arts.

“I’d like to continue the great work of my predecessors in promoting Wales, Welshness, and the Welsh language outside of its borders.

“More than anything, I want to capture the interest and inspiration of the public to see themselves in Welsh poetry and encourage a much more open sense of what Welshness is.”

‘Cultural ambassador’

Hanan Issa will take on the challenging and prestigious role of National Poet of Wales for the next three years (until 2025), representing and celebrating writing from Wales both at home and abroad.

Hanan will be the fifth poet to take on this role, following in the footsteps of Ifor ap Glyn, Gillian Clarke, Gwyn Thomas and Gwyneth Lewis. She was chosen as National Poet of Wales following a public call for nominations and an extensive selection process.

As National Poet of Wales, she will represent the diverse cultures and languages of Wales and act as an ambassador for the people of Wales, Literature Wales said.

She will address the most important issues of our time through poetry, take poetry to new audiences, and encourage others to use their creative voice to inspire positive change.

Dawn Bowden MS, Deputy Minister for Arts and Sport, and Chief Whip said: “I am delighted to welcome Hanan Issa to the role of National Poet of Wales.

“She will act as a cultural ambassador for Wales, and I look forward to hearing her verse and how she responds to events during her tenure.”

‘Outward looking’

Outgoing National Poet Ifor ap Glyn said of his successor: “Hanan is a thoughtful and engaged poet whose work I admire and she will bring a fresh voice to the national conversation. Croeso mawr i Hanan!”

On behalf of the selection panel, Ashok Ahir said: “The panel had to choose between a varied range of poetic styles and voices, and it was excellent to see the high level of talent working in Wales today.

“This is a hugely exciting appointment. Hanan’s is a cross-community voice that speaks to every part of the country. She will be a great ambassador for a culturally diverse and outward looking nation.”

Panellist Casia Wiliam, the former Bardd Plant Cymru (Welsh-language Children’s Poet Laureate) said: “This is a poet who writes widely, her words are like ribbons weaving languages and cultures together, she broadens the mind and sharpens the eyes.

“If you’re not already familiar with her work, go and look for it immediately. I can’t wait to see what Hanan will achieve in the role.”

Literature Wales said that they looked forward to working with Hanan during her tenure as National Poet of Wales 2022-25 as she makes the role her own.

“We’re excited to see how Hanan will reflect and contribute to our national conversation during her time as our National Poet,” they said.

More information about Hanan and the role of National Poet of Wales is available here.