Banning Diplomacy: Israel’s Ban On Guterres And The Future Of Middle East Peace – OpEd

 October 13, 2024

By Debashis Chakrabarti

In an extraordinary diplomatic move, Israel has declared United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres “persona non grata,” effectively banning him from entering the country.

The decision comes amid escalating violence in the Middle East, with tensions flaring between Israel, Hamas, Hezbollah, and Iran. By blocking Guterres, Israel has intensified an already precarious situation, raising questions about its relationship with the UN, the role of diplomacy in conflict resolution, and the broader implications for peace efforts in the region.

Why Did Israel Ban the UN Chief?

The immediate trigger for the ban was Guterres’ speech to the UN Security Council in which he called for de-escalation in the region, condemning violence on all sides without directly naming Iran for its missile strikes on Israel. For Israel, this neutrality was seen as unacceptable. Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz accused Guterres of failing to condemn Iran—viewed by Israel as the orchestrator behind the recent violence, with its backing of Hamas and Hezbollah.

The broader context of this decision is Israel’s long-standing dissatisfaction with what it perceives as the UN’s bias against it. Israel has often accused the UN of disproportionately focusing on Palestinian rights and overlooking the threats posed by groups like Hamas and Hezbollah. Guterres’ recent statements aimed at balancing calls for peace with critiques of all parties involved were perceived by Israel as insufficient in recognizing its security concerns, especially in light of the deadly Hamas attacks on October 7, which resulted in over 1,200 Israeli casualties.

A First in Diplomacy?

This unprecedented ban marks the first time a sitting UN Secretary-General has been barred from a member state. While tensions between Israel and the UN have persisted for decades, no previous Secretary-General has been excluded in this way. The UN Charter, under Article 100, mandates the neutrality of the Secretary-General, stating that member states must respect the international nature of the office and refrain from interfering with its work. By banning Guterres, Israel has breached a fundamental norm of international diplomacy, raising serious questions about the future of Israel-UN relations.

Historically, the UN has played a pivotal role in mediating conflicts, particularly in volatile regions like the Middle East. Previous Secretaries-General, such as Dag Hammarskjöld during the 1956 Suez Crisis or Kofi Annan during the Second Intifada, have navigated extremely tense situations without being barred from key member states. Israel’s move to declare Guterres “persona non grata” undermines the very principles of diplomacy and multilateral engagement that the UN represents.

Israel’s Friction with the UN

The ban on Guterres is not an isolated incident but part of a long history of strained relations between Israel and the UN. Despite the UN’s instrumental role in the creation of Israel in 1948, relations soured as the Arab-Israeli conflict intensified. Over the years, numerous UN resolutions have condemned Israeli settlement activity, the occupation of Palestinian territories, and violations of international law, which Israeli leaders have long viewed as unfair and biased.

A major point of contention has been the UN’s approach to Israel regarding the Israel-Palestine conflict. In particular, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) has drawn significant criticism from Israel, which argues that the agency exacerbates the Palestinian refugee crisis and encourages anti-Israel sentiment. More broadly, Israel has often pointed to the UN’s inability to effectively address the threats posed by militant groups like Hamas and Hezbollah, which receive significant backing from Iran.

The current crisis has only deepened these tensions. Israel sees itself as facing an existential threat from Iran’s influence in the region, especially with Tehran’s support of groups like Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon. The failure of the international community, particularly the UN, to decisively condemn Iran’s role has exacerbated Israel’s frustrations.

Guterres’ Call for Peace: A ‘Sickening Cycle of Escalation’

In reaction to the ban, Guterres reaffirmed his condemnation of violence from all parties and urged an immediate ceasefire to halt the “sickening cycle of escalation” in the region. His statements underscore the worsening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, where Israeli airstrikes have resulted in thousands of deaths, including a substantial number of civilians. Guterres has consistently emphasized the need to protect civilian lives, asserting that both sides bear a responsibility to uphold international humanitarian law.

Guterres’ balanced approach—condemning Hamas’ actions while also criticizing Israel’s military response—reflects the UN’s longstanding position on the conflict. However, this neutrality is precisely what Israel finds problematic. At a time when Israeli leaders are facing unprecedented security threats, they expect unequivocal support from the international community, particularly in their fight against groups like Hamas and Hezbollah.

International Reaction and Diplomatic Fallout

Israel’s decision to ban Guterres has sparked significant international concern. Several members of the UN Security Council, including European powers like France and the UK, expressed dismay over Israel’s actions. In a rare moment of consensus, the Council issued a statement reaffirming their support for Guterres and condemning the decision to bar him. While the United States, a key ally of Israel, stopped short of outright condemnation, it described the ban as “unhelpful” and urged Israel to engage diplomatically with the UN.

Regional powers like Egypt and Jordan, both of which have played critical roles in past peace negotiations, also voiced concern that Israel’s ban on Guterres could derail future mediation efforts. These countries have a vested interest in stabilizing the region, and any move that undermines diplomatic channels is viewed as a setback.

Within Israel, the ban has polarized public opinion. While many Israelis support their government’s hardline stance against what they see as UN bias, others fear that cutting off diplomatic engagement with the international community could isolate Israel at a time when it needs allies the most.

A Dangerous Precedent for Diplomacy

Israel’s ban on Guterres could set a dangerous precedent for international diplomacy. The role of the UN Secretary-General is to act as a neutral mediator in global conflicts, and by denying him access, Israel risks further eroding the authority of multilateral institutions. At a time when the Middle East is already engulfed in violence, sidelining diplomacy threatens to worsen an already catastrophic situation.

The ban also raises the question of how other countries might respond to UN criticism in future conflicts. If Israel can bar the UN’s top diplomat without consequence, what’s to stop other nations from doing the same? Such actions undermine the principles of international diplomacy, where dialogue, even amid disagreements, remains essential.

Diplomatic Isolation or Engagement?

Israel’s decision to ban António Guterres highlights the deepening rift between the country and the UN, but it also underscores a larger problem—the erosion of diplomacy in the face of escalating violence. By sidelining the UN’s top diplomat, Israel risks not only isolating itself but also weakening the very institutions that could help broker peace in the region.

At a moment when the Middle East is on the brink of wider conflict, diplomacy is needed more than ever. The “sickening cycle of escalation” that Guterres warned about cannot be stopped without dialogue. Israel’s ban, however, suggests that diplomacy may be becoming another casualty of this long-standing conflict.

United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres Photo Credit: UN

Debashis Chakrabarti

Debashis Chakrabarti is an international media scholar and social scientist, currently serving as the Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Politics and Media. With extensive experience spanning 35 years, he has held key academic positions, including Professor and Dean at Assam University, Silchar. Prior to academia, Chakrabarti excelled as a journalist with The Indian Express. He has conducted impactful research and teaching in renowned universities across the UK, Middle East, and Africa, demonstrating a commitment to advancing media scholarship and fostering global dialogue.

SUNDAY SERMON

An Armageddon War Leads To A Messianic Age – OpEd

 October 13, 2024 

By Rabbi Allen S. Maller

An apocalyptic war is a Biblical ‘end of war’ War that uses the word Armageddon from the Biblical Hebrew Har Meghiddo, meaning “Mountain of Megiddo”. Har Magedon, which is 80 miles north of Jerusalem, is the symbol of a major battle in which, when the need is greatest and the believers are most oppressed, God reveals His power to His distressed people; and their evil enemies are destroyed. The word Armageddon does not appear in the Hebrew Bible and appears only once in the Greek New Testament, in Revelation 16:16.

Many religious people now think that the road to Armageddon started with the Hamas October 7th 2023 massacre in Israel, when 3,000 terrorists burst across the border into Israel from the Gaza Strip by land, air and sea, killing some 1,200 people and seizing 251 hostages of all ages. Armageddon is a warning of humanity’s need to change to avoid Armageddon. 

Like Judaism and Christianity, Islam has a powerful eschatological strain. It anticipates the end to the world as we know it; a final Last Day confrontation between good and evil (Armageddon); after which, with God’s help, human life will be rewarded and transformed into the Messianic Age of peace and prosperity. 

As the Qur’an states: “Verily! Those who believe and those who are Jews, Christians, and Sabians, whoever believes in Allah and the Last Day, and do righteous good deeds, shall have their reward with their Lord, on them shall be no fear, nor shall they grieve.” (2:62 and 5:69) 

Notice that the Qur’an specifically stresses religious pluralism applies on God’s judgment day.  

As ibn Babuya writes in Thawab ul-A’mal, “The Apostle of God said: `There will come a time for my people when there will remain nothing of the Qur’an except its outward form, and nothing of Islam except its name, and they will call themselves by this name even though they are the people furthest from it.  “The mosques will be full of people but they will be empty of right guidance. The religious leaders (Fuqaha) of that day will be the most evil religious leaders under the heavens; sedition and dissension will go out from them and to them will it return.” 

This sounds, and indeed is, terrible. But, those who trust in God know that the night is coldest in the last hours before sunrise. Secularists believe that these apocalyptic visions of a future (Armageddon) are absurd, although many secularists themselves fervently believe that runaway genetic modification of food and/or extreme climate change is going to doom human civilization in future generations. 

The basic difference between the pessimistic, humanist secularists and the religious optimists is that those who believe in the God of Abraham also believe that God’s inspiration and guidance guarantees that the spiritual forces of good, will overcome all the world’s evils at the end of days; and  justice, peace and religious pluralism will prevail. Or as Prophet Micah envisions it: (4:1-5)

“In the end of days the mountain of the Lord’s Temple will be established  as the highest mountain; it will be exalted above the hills, and peoples will stream to it. Many (not all) nations will come and say, ‘Come, let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Temple of the God of Jacob. who will teach us his ways, so that we may walk in his paths.

“Torah will be broadcast from Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem. God will judge between many (not all) peoples and will settle disputes among powerful nations far and wide. They will beat their swords into ploughs, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not take up sword against nation, nor will they train for war any more.


“Everyone will sit under their own vine and under their own fig-tree, and no one will make them afraid, for the Lord Almighty has spoken. All the nations will walk in the name of their gods, and we (Jews) will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever and ever.”

Thus, the Hebrew Bible and the Qur’an’s final judgement is the self-destruction of violent, hate filled, religion twisted terrorism and narrow ‘my way or death’ philosophy (Armageddon); and the victory of kindness, love, democracy and religious pluralism. 

The Qur’an refers to Prophet Abraham as a community or a nation: “Abraham was a nation/community [Ummah]; dutiful to God, a monotheist [hanif], not one of the polytheists.” (16:120) If Prophet Abraham is an Ummah then fighting between the descendants of Prophets Ishmael and Isaac is a civil war and should always be avoided.

If all Arabs and Jews can live up to the ideal that ‘the descendants of Abraham’s sons should never make war against each other’ is the will of God; we can help fulfill the 2700 year old vision of Prophet Isaiah: “In that day there will be a highway from Egypt to Assyria. The Assyrians will go to Egypt, and the Egyptians to Assyria. The Egyptians and Assyrians will worship together. On that day Israel  will join a three-party alliance with Egypt and Assyria, a blessing upon the heart. The LORD of Hosts will bless them saying, “Blessed be Egypt My people, Assyria My handiwork, and Israel My inheritance.” (Isaiah 19:23-5)

Although it might seem impossible now, I do believe that within a decade or two Muslims will visit Jerusalem and pray together with Jews as Prophet Isaiah states: “And the foreigners who join themselves to the (monotheistic one) Lord, to minister to him, to love the name of the Lord, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast to my covenant, these I will bring to my holy mountain (Zion), and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (Isaiah 56:6-7)

As the Qur’an states: “And We certainly sent Moses with Our signs, [saying], “Bring out your people from darkness into light, and remind them of the days of Allah .” Indeed, there are signs for everyone patient and grateful.” (14:5) and “Allah is an ally of those who believe. He brings them out from darkness into light.” (2:257) This Light that comes out of Darkness is not natural light. It is the light of religious enlightenment. There are lights coming out of the darkness. 

The Hamas controlled health ministry said that the death toll in Gaza since October 7 had passed 42, 000, ignoring the fact that the UN had reduced its Estimate of Women and Children Killed in Gaza by half, said the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. The UN Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) has also revised its child fatality figure from the Gaza war sharply downward, reporting 14,500+ deaths on May 6 but 7,797 on May 8. 

OCHA also revised downward its figure for female fatalities from more than 9,500 deaths to 4,959 deaths. The Gaza Ministry of Health admitted it did not have names for more than 10,000 of the individuals it claimed to be deceased.  Also an Associated Press analysis of Gaza’s Hamas-run health ministry data, has found that the death rate for women and children in October 2023, when the war began following Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, was above 60 percent. By April, 2024 it was below 40%. That is a 1/3 reduction in fatalities. 

As the Qur’an states: “Perhaps Allah will put, between you and those to whom you have been enemies among them, affection. And Allah is competent, and Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.”  (60:7) Then the words of the Qur’an will be full-filled “From the depths of Darkness into the Light; for Allah is very kind and merciful to you.” (57:9)

Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib says, “From the river to the sea is an aspirational call for freedom, human rights, and peaceful coexistence, not death, destruction, or hate.” I say make it truly aspirational by making it focus on both people first and the land second. From the river to the sea Palestinians and Israelis should be freed of hatred and suffering by ‘a two state for two peoples sharing of the land peacefully’ solution.

But the Hamas’ 2017 charter states that in principle, it “rejects any alternative to the full and complete liberation of Palestine, from the river to the sea.” Hamas opposes a two state solution, wants all the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the River Jordan, and violently opposed the Oslo peace accords negotiated by Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in the mid-1990s. If the war ends with Hamas weakened, and with a new Israeli government elected; there is the hope that the miracle of the Yom Kippur War may be repeated. 

On October 27, 1978, only five years after Egypt started the Yom Kippur War with a surprise  attack on Israel, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin were named winners of the Nobel Peace Prize for their progress toward achieving a Middle East accord. The Yom Kippur War was followed six years later by a Peace Treaty between Egypt and Israel. 

Could the same process follow the defeat of Hamas, and its opposition to a two state solution?  The only possible chance for avoiding more wars is the two state solution. To establish a Palestinian state alongside Israel. That will not be possible with the current leaders on either side. Extremists, both Israeli and Palestinian, will do all they can to sink the idea, as they have done since the 1990s. 

If  a year of war does not deliver enough shock to break deeply-held prejudices and to make the idea of two states viable, nothing will. And without a mutually-acceptable way of ending the conflict, more generations of Palestinians and Israelis will be sentenced to more wars.

Although it might seem impossible now, I do believe that within a decade or two Muslims will visit Jerusalem and pray together with Jews as Prophet Zechariah predicts: “Then everyone who survives from all the nations that came against Jerusalem shall go up year after year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to celebrate the Feast of Booths.” (Zechariah 14:16)

For more than eight decades political nationalist leaders in Israel and Palestine have failed to find a way to end the conflict between their two peoples. Perhaps it is time for religious leaders who understand the religious importance of repentance, humility, forgiveness, compromise and hope for peace in overcoming more than seven decades of pain and anger. 

As the Qur’an states: “Perhaps Allah will put, between you and those to whom you have been enemies among them, affection. And Allah is competent, and Allah is Forgiving and Merciful.”  (60:7) Then the words of the Qur’an will be full-filled “From the depths of Darkness into the Light; for Allah is very kind and merciful to you.” (Qur’an 57:9)

Thomas Friedman writes: “The only just and workable solution to this issue is two nation-states for two indigenous peoples. If you are for that, whatever your religion, nationality or politics, you’re part of the solution. If you are not for that, you’re part of the problem.”

Dr. Mohamed Chtatou, a Professor at a university in Rabat, Morocco writes: “After the current (Hamas-Israel) war, Israel’s ultra-nationalist coalition will undoubtedly be undermined by public opinion, and probably by a commission of inquiry. If the Palestinian Authority were to agree to take over Gaza – backed by the international reconstruction aid that would inevitably arrive – and if a centrist coalition government were to emerge in Israel, everything would once again be possible. Two difficult “ifs”? Perhaps, but there is no serious alternative.”  

Of course, any final deal must include the release of all the hostages (34-40 of whom are presumed dead) still held in Gaza.

As the Qur’an states: “‘Believers, be steadfast in the cause of God and bear witness with justice. Do not let your enmity for others turn you away from justice. Deal justly; that is nearest to being God-fearing.” (5:8)

As the Qur’an states: “Good and evil deeds are not equal. Repel evil with what is better; then you will see that one who was once your enemy has become your dearest friend…”  (41:34)

As the Qur’an states: “Good and evil deeds are not equal. Repel evil with what is better; then you will see that one who was once your enemy has become your dearest friend…”  (41:34)

Rabbi Allen S. Maller
Allen Maller retired in 2006 after 39 years as Rabbi of Temple Akiba in Culver City, Calif. He is the author of an introduction to Jewish mysticism. God. Sex and Kabbalah and editor of the Tikun series of High Holy Day prayerbooks.

UK court delays leave sexual violence victims experiencing suicidal thoughts and PTSD: new report

Reza Hossaini | Newcastle Law School, GB

OCTOBER 12, 2024

The charity Victim Support’ released a report on Thursday revealing that prolonged delays in the UK court system are leading to severe mental health impacts on survivors of sexual violence. These impacts include post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), suicidal thoughts, and even a suicide attempt.

The report focused on victims of sexual violence whose cases have reached court. It surveyed 40 victim-survivors of sexual violence and specialists and analyzed 38 cases that went through the courts between March and October 2023. It found that in half of the cases, courts waited more than three years after the victim reported the crime to the police to hold the first court date. During these extended delays, many survivors were left without updates, some going months without any communication, adding to the trauma of the initial assault. Crucially, the delays do not end with the first court date. Victim Support found that nearly half (47 percent) of the cases were adjourned, often repeatedly, with little or no explanation given to survivors. These adjournments, often happening at the last minute, left survivors in a perpetual state of anxiety. For some, the impact on their mental health was so severe that they had suicidal thoughts. The report detailed how one young person tried to take their own life as a result of the trauma of going to court.

According to the report, victims also endured re-traumatization during cross-examination. Three-quarters (73 percent) of victims were subjected to questions rooted in rape myths. For example, many were asked what they did to prevent the crime or were accused of seeking revenge. Kate, a victim-survivor of sexual assault, said, “She [defence barrister] was implying a lot of the time that I had made it up … and she asked me what I was wearing and that really didn’t sit right with me because I don’t think it’s about that at all.” Victim Support is calling for an end to these practices that perpetuate harmful stereotypes.

Victim Support CEO Katie Kempen said the report’s findings should act as a wake-up call to the criminal justice system. She stated:

Victim-survivors who go to court are left dealing not only with the impact of the crime, but also their experience of the criminal justice system. The process is re-traumatising people and profoundly damaging their mental health – many regret that they ever reported the crime to the police. This research must be a catalyst for change – victim-survivors are paying way too high a price for justice.

The government has also pledged action to reduce court delays and waiting time. Victims Minister Alex Davies-Jones said that “reducing waiting times for victims is a priority for me and this Government, which is why we have committed to fast-tracking rape cases through the justice system stating that the government is exploring ways to fast-track rape cases.” However, for many victim-survivors, this may come too late. Ellie, another victim-survivor of sexual violence, reflected, “In my mind, it doesn’t make sense that this man wouldn’t have done this to someone else over those five years … if this whole process had happened faster, it could have prevented more victims.”

Thousands of migrants in legal limbo as Canada changes course on immigration, India hit

Changes to Canadian immigration law will make it more difficult for international students to gain permanent residency. But Canada’s economy is now creating fewer jobs, and unemployment, at over 6 per cent, remains stubbornly high. It is even higher for temporary residents, at 14 per cent

Matina Stevis-Gridneff

 Brampton, Ontario

 Published 13.10.24


Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi welcomes Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau upon his arrival at Bharat Mandapam convention center for the G20 Summit, in New Delhi, India, Saturday, Sept. 9, 2023.Reuters

A late-night Uber ride from Toronto’s Pearson Airport into the city usually guarantees a good fare for the driver.

But not for Sachindeep Singh on the evening of September 19.

A few kilometres into the ride, his Uber app stopped working.

Singh’s work permit had expired at midnight and, like Canada, Uber was putting him on notice.

Singh, 23, arrived in Canada as an international student in 2019. His immigration status permitted him to work and offered a path to permanent residence, an approach labelled “study-work-stay” on the Canadian government’s immigration website.


But after inviting millions of newcomers to Canada in recent years to help lift the economy, the government has reversed course amid growing concerns that immigrants are contributing to the country’s deepening challenges around housing, healthcare and other issues.


A series of measures unveiled this year, focused on Canada’s vast temporary residence programme, has imposed barriers that have left hundreds of thousands of migrants like Singh in legal limbo.


Shifting sands


The international student programme that Singh followed has made one route to the Canadian dream of permanent residency, through education, appealing for hundreds of thousands of young people — many of them from India.


International students, who after graduating are eligible for work permits to continue living legally in Canada, represent one major category of temporary residents. Another group is made up of workers who come at the invitation of specific employers, while the smallest cohort are migrants seeking asylum.


The temporary residence programme was ramped up after the coronavirus pandemic, as Canada’s economy struggled to fill a labour shortage.


As a result, nearly three million people living in Canada have some type of temporary immigration status, with 2.2 million arriving in just the past two years, according to government statistics. Temporary residents represent 6.8 per cent of the country’s total population of 41.3 million, up from 3.5 per cent in 2022.


Changes to Canadian immigration law will make it more difficult for international students to gain permanent residency. But Canada’s economy is now creating fewer jobs, and unemployment, at over 6 per cent, remains stubbornly high. It is even higher for temporary residents, at 14 per cent.


Many Canadian cities face a housing affordability crisis, and several provinces have overstretched healthcare systems.


Critics say the large number of temporary residents make these problems worse, and the public mood towards immigrants has soured.


In response, Marc Miller, the country’s immigration minister, has announced a series of cuts to immigration quotas since the start of this year, including lowering the number of student visas issued and capping the number of temporary foreign workers that a company can employ.


As part of the government’s efforts to rein in the temporary residence programme, expiring or expired work permits for many immigrants — like Singh — may not be renewed.


“Immigration, writ large, has been, in part, responsible for preventing us from going into a recession,” Miller told the news media last month. “But I think it’s safe to admit that we have allowed certain aspects of this to get overheated, and probably for too long.”


The government is expected to impose further restrictions next month.


With one in five Canadians born overseas, the country has long been open to immigrants. Conservative and Liberal governments have historically promoted immigration policies meant to bolster the ranks of workers and increase the population.


But that is now shifting. Most Canadians, polls show, believe the country has taken in too many newcomers in too short a period. An August poll, for example, showed that two-thirds of Canadians feel the current immigration policy is letting too many people in.


Many immigrants, however, argue they are unfairly being targeted, saying they were invited to Canada only to face the prospect of having to leave if their work permits are not renewed.


The debate over Canada’s immigration policy has echoes of far more polarised arguments in the US and Europe.


The overwhelming majority of Canada’s immigrants arrived legally, and, despite the recent change of sentiment, political discourse remains broadly civil.


Some experts argue that stresses on the housing market or healthcare reflect chronic underinvestment by the government, rather than the consequences of high immigration rates.


Still, the tension between the influx of immigrants and the economic problems can be seen playing out in places like Brampton, a city near Toronto where many Indian students and temporary workers have settled.


Gurpartap Singh Toor, a local councillor for Brampton and the broader region of Peel, arrived in Canada in 2011 as a migrant. He said the large numbers of newcomers had stretched resources.


The health infrastructure in Brampton — one hospital and a smaller medical centre — is insufficient for the population of around 700,000, Toor said.


Housing availability and costs, he said, have been worsening, partly because unscrupulous landlords rent out small properties to multiple students, charging them hundreds of dollars each and pricing out local families.


The Bank of Canada has said that in parts of Canada popular with temporary residents there is less rental housing and it is more expensive than in regions with a small number of such residents.


But the bank has blamed onerous government regulations, as well as a lack of construction labour, for the low availability of housing.


Study, work, limbo


Canada says it will take a more flexible approach to immigration, allowing people in when they are needed and closing the door when they’re not.


“I’ve said it before and I’m going to state it again: The temporary foreign worker programme is an accordion,” the employment minister, Randy Boissonnault, said at a recent news conference.


“It’s meant to flex with the economy,” he added. “When we have a high number of vacancies we can bring in more people and, as the economy tightens, we close the accordion and we make it harder for people to come in.”


Singh, like others whose work permits have expired, faces dwindling options.


Singh and his family in India spent 40,000 Canadian dollars, or $30,000, on office management and hospitality degrees at a Canadian college, believing it would secure him a stable footing in his adopted country.


He could go back to a Canadian college and pay the higher tuition fees for international students in exchange for being allowed to work and keep seeking permanent residency.


Or he could apply for a visitor’s visa, though it would not give him the legal right to work. He could go back to India, his least appealing possibility, given the years and the money he has invested in Canada.


The limbo facing many temporary residents whose permits have expired, or soon will, is pushing some into harmful or illegal paths, said Gurpreet Malhotra, the chief executive at Indus Community Services.


Some, he said, end up staying illegally and working as cleaners, in warehouses or restaurant kitchens, for a fraction of the minimum wage. A desperate need for money also makes them vulnerable to being recruited by criminal groups, he said.


New York Times News Service

Colombia guerilla group urges delegations not to attend COP16 in Cali

By AFP

October 12, 2024

Colombian army vehicles and troops have been patrolling the streets of Cali to bolster security for COP16 - Copyright AFP/File JOAQUIN SARMIENTO

A Colombian guerilla group on Saturday urged delegations not to attend the COP16 biodiversity summit beginning in the southwestern city of Cali on October 21, after Bogota launched a military offensive against the rebels.

“Faced with the war with which (the authorities) responded to our desire for peace for COP16, we invite delegates from the national and international community to refrain from attending this event,” the Central General Staff (EMC) group said in a post on social media platform X.

Around 12,000 people, including representatives from some 200 countries, are expected to be at the UN-led conference.

The EMC’s message comes in the wake of a military raid that wounded around 17 people in the village of El Plateado in the Cauca department, where the armed group is active.

A dissident faction of the disbanded FARC guerilla group, the EMC has already threatened the summit, saying in July that it “will fail even if they militarize the city with gringos (Americans).”

Colombian army vehicles and troops have been patrolling the streets of Cali — the closest city to EMC-dominated territory — in a bid to bolster security for COP16, which runs until November 1.

Some 3,500 EMC members are estimated to be active and are involved in the drug trade and illegal mining, as well as fighting both the military and groups competing for trafficking routes and territory.

COP16, which takes place weeks before the COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan’s capital Baku, will assess whether rich countries are making good on their promises to stump up $30 billion a year to help the developing world save its ecosystems.

Mexico Federal Judges Group Votes to End Strike, Keep Protesting

By Jose OrozcoOctober 12, 2024 

(Bloomberg) -- A Mexican federal judges association voted to end a nearly two-month strike, resuming activities on Oct. 16, as it continues to protest against former President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s judicial reform.

Members of JUFED, as the group is known, voted 684 to 572 to return to work but maintain some protest actions, according to a statement dated Friday. The group said formal talks were needed where concrete actions can be taken on its demands.

The reform calls for around half of Mexico’s judges — including those on the Supreme Court — to run for election in June 2025, with the rest in 2027. Critics including the US, investors and companies say the popular election of judges will erode checks on the ruling Morena party’s power and undermine democracy.

All judges are committed to “the defense of our human rights, separation of powers and the strengthening of the rule of law,” JUFED’s national directors said in the Oct. 11 statement. The group called on Mexico’s Supreme Court to protect “fundamental rights” when it rules on the judicial reform.

The judicial system’s resumption of activities remains in doubt, however, because the vast majority of its employees appeared likely to maintain the strike, the Reforma newspaper reported. Jorge Alejandro Perez Luna, a spokesman for workers in 32 judicial circuits, said on Friday that the suspension of activities would continue, according to Reforma.

Mexico’s judicial council, which administers the system, on Wednesday rejected appeals against the reform and ordered the delivery of judge lists to the Senate in order to call the 2025 elections, Reforma reported separately.

Congress passed the judicial overhaul last month. President Claudia Sheinbaum has said that nothing can stop the overhaul because it was a decision the people of Mexico made by voting for her.

--With assistance from Alex Vasquez.

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.

Pope urged at LGBTQ meeting to reverse church ban on gender-affirming care

Pope Francis poses for a photo with Michael Sennett, Cynthia Herrick, Nicole Santamaria, Francis DeBernardo, Matthew Myers, Michael Sennett, Laurie Dever, Deacon Raymond Dever, Robert Shine and Brian Flanagan during his meeting with transgender Catholics and supporters at the Vatican, Italy, Oct 12, 2024.

PHOTO: New Ways Ministry/Handout via Reuters

PUBLISHED ON October 12, 2024 


VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis faced calls to overturn the Catholic Church's ban on gender-affirming care for transgender people on Saturday (Oct 12) when he held talks with LGBTQ activists at the Vatican.

The 80-minute meeting, held privately at the guesthouse where the pope lives, included a Catholic sister who works with LGBTQ people, a member of the transgender community, and a US medical doctor who helps run a clinic providing gender-affirming hormonal care for adults.

"I really wanted to share with Pope Francis about the joy that I have being a transgender Catholic person," Michael Sennett, who took part in the meeting, told Reuters.

Sennett, a transgender man from Boston, said he told the pontiff about "the joy that I get from hormone replacement therapy and the surgeries that I've had that make me feel comfortable in my body".

The unusual encounter was not listed on the Vatican's official agenda of the pope's meetings for the day.

The meeting with around a dozen LGBT activists comes six months after the Vatican's doctrinal office firmly rejected gender-affirming care, saying it "risks threatening the unique dignity the person has received from the moment of conception".


LGBTQ groups sharply criticised the Vatican document and said the doctrinal office did not seek input from transgender people about their experiences before rejecting gender-affirming care.

"We expressed that as the church makes policies in this area that it's very important to speak with transgender individuals," said Cynthia Herrick, an endocrinologist at a St. Louis, Missouri, clinic who took part in the papal meeting.

"The pope was very receptive," said Herrick. "He listened very empathetically. He also shared that he always wants to focus on the person, the well-being of the person."

Francis, who is 87, has been credited with leading the Catholic Church into taking a more welcoming approach towards the LGBTQ community, and has allowed priests to bless same-sex couples on a case-by-case basis.

But earlier this year he also used a highly derogatory Italian term about LGBTQ people, for which the Vatican apologised on his behalf.

New Ways Ministry, a US-based advocacy group for LGBTQ Catholics, organised Saturday's event.

"The message really is that we need to listen to the experiences of transgender people," said Sister Jeannine Gramick, the group's co-founder, who asked Francis for the encounter. The meeting "means that the church is coming along, the church is joining the modern era," she said.

Gramick's work with LGBTQ Catholics has attracted the ire of Vatican and US Catholic officials for decades, including Pope Benedict XVI. But she has developed a correspondence with Francis, who first welcomed her for a meeting at the Vatican last year.

The Vatican's press office did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Saturday's meeting.

In Hiroshima, Nobel Prize brings survivors hope, sense of duty

October 12, 2024
By Reuters

 Kazumi Matsui, right, mayor of Hiroshima, bows at Hiroshima Memorial Cenotaph at the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Park in Hiroshima, western Japan, 
HIROSHIMA, Japan —

Almost eight decades after an atomic bomb devastated her hometown of Hiroshima, Teruko Yahata carries the scar on her forehead from when she was knocked over by the force of the blast.

The U.S. bombs that laid waste to Hiroshima on the morning of August 6, 1945, and to Nagasaki three days later, changed the course of history and left Yahata and other survivors with deep scars and a sense of responsibility toward disarmament.

The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday to the Nihon Hidankyo group of atomic bomb survivors, for its work warning of the dangers of nuclear arms, has given survivors hope and highlighted their work still ahead, Yahata and others said.

"It felt as if a light suddenly shone through. I felt like I could see the light," the 87-year-old said on Saturday, describing her reaction to hearing about the award.

This 1945 photo shows a view of the devastation after the atom bomb was dropped in Hiroshima, Japan.

"This feels like the first step, the beginning of a movement toward nuclear abolition," she told Reuters at the site of the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum.

She was just 8 years old and in the back garden of her home when the bomb hit. Although her house was 2.5 kilometers from the hypocenter, the blast was strong enough to throw her several meters back into her house, she said.

Seventy-nine years later, and a day after the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the survivors the prize, a long line formed outside the museum, with dozens of foreign and Japanese visitors queuing up to get in.

A bridge leading into the memorial park was decorated with a yellow sheet and other handmade signs against nuclear weapons. Campaigners gathered signatures for nuclear abolition from those passing by.

Nihon Hidankyo, formed in 1956, has provided thousands of witness accounts, issued resolutions and public appeals, sent delegations to the U.N. and peace conferences, and collected signatures advocating nuclear disarmament.

Yahata, who is not a Nihon Hidankyo member, said it was that drive to gather signatures that finally paid off after bearing little fruit for most of a century.

"It's this amount of sadness and joy that led them to this peace prize. I think it's something very meaningful," she said.

Nihon Hidankyo's co-chair, Toshiyuki Mimaki, said he felt the award meant more responsibility, adding that most atomic bomb survivors were more than 85 years old.

"Rather than feeling purely happy, I feel like I have more responsibility now," he told Reuters, sitting in a Hidankyo office in Hiroshima in front of a map showing the impact of the bomb on the city.

In rural areas the group is on the verge of falling apart, the 82-year-old said. "The big challenge now is what to do going forward."

For Japan's atom bomb survivors, Nobel & reckoning: Nihon Hidankyo plea to abolish nuclear weapons

The group was honoured by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for “demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again”

Hannah Beech, Hisako Ueno, Kiuko Notoya

 Published 13.10.24

People take pictures of the preserved Atomic Bomb Dome in Hiroshima on Saturday, a day after the Nihon Hidankyo won the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize.Reuters

Cities blasted to rubble. Burned bodies and flayed flesh. Invisible waves of radiation coursing through the air. And the indelible image of a mushroom cloud.


The atomic bombs dropped by the United States on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki showed the world what an apocalypse looks like. Tens of thousands of people died in the immediate aftermath.

But some emerged from the devastation. Struggling with survivors’ guilt and sick with illnesses caused by the radiation, they were shunned for years as living reminders of the human capacity to engineer horror.

On Friday, Nihon Hidankyo, a collective of Japanese atomic bomb survivors, was awarded the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize for its decades-long campaign to rid the world of nuclear weapons.

The group was honoured by the Norwegian Nobel Committee for “demonstrating through witness testimony that nuclear weapons must never be used again”.


The survivors of the bombings — more than 100,000 are still living — “help us to describe the indescribable, to think the unthinkable, and to somehow grasp the incomprehensible pain and suffering caused by nuclear weapons,” Jorgen Watne Frydnes, the committee chairman, said.


The Nobel committee noted that although nuclear weapons have not been used since the Japanese cities were attacked by American bombers in August 1945, nuclear powers are modernising their arsenals and other countries are trying to join the nuclear club.


The committee did not name any specific nations. But President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia has threatened to use tactical nuclear weapons in Ukraine. And concerns are growing about nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and Asia.


“At this moment in human history, it is worth reminding ourselves that nuclear weapons are the most destructive weapons the world has ever seen,” the committee said.


Other Nobel laureates have been awarded the Peace Prize for their campaigns against nuclear weapons, including the chemist turned activist Linus Pauling in 1962 and the International Atomic Energy Agency in 2005.


It was nearly 80 years ago, on August 6 and 9, 1945, that American B-29 bombers dropped two atomic weapons, code-named Little Boy and Fat Man, on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Nobel committee said that about 120,000 people were killed by the detonations. A similar number died from burns, injuries and radiation-induced diseases in the months and years that followed.


That first and only use of nuclear weapons was followed by the end of World War II, but also by a nuclear weapons arms race. In the deserts of China and Algeria and on the atolls of the South Pacific, nuclear powers tested increasingly more powerful weapons that spewed harmful radiation.


Today, nine countries are considered nuclear powers: the United States, Russia, France, China, Britain, Pakistan, India, Israel and North Korea. There are nearly 13,000 weapons in the global nuclear stockpile, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.


In Japan, the payloads dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki echoed far beyond the ruined cities. A once martial Japan blossomed into a culture that has dedicated itself, even in its Constitution, to peace. Japanese children flashed peace signs for photos and Olympic ceremonies in Japan featured white doves. But many Japanese felt more comfortable averting their gaze from the hibakusha, or “the people affected by bombs”, as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki survivors are known.


For many in Japan — and in the US — the hibakusha represented something that they didn’t want to see.When Terumi Tanaka, a representative of Nihon Hidankyo, visited the United Nations in 1976, he was shocked to discover that, at the time, the ruination caused by the atomic bombs was not that well known. The United Nations had drastically downplayed the death toll.


Some Japanese feared that radiation-induced diseases were contagious, and hibakusha worried about their marriage and career prospects. Sunao Tsuboi, the onetime chairman of Nihon Hidankyo who was a little over a kilometre from the centre of the Hiroshima blast when it went off, recalled that he and his fiancée took sleeping pills in a suicide pact after being told by her parents that they could not wed because he was a hibakusha. (They survived and married, and Tsuboi met President Barack Obama when he visited Hiroshima in 2016.)


“Starting with the inhumane acts of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, we were oppressed by the United States and abandoned by the Japanese government for a long time,” Sueichi Kido, the secretary-general of Nihon Hidankyo and a survivor of the Nagasaki bomb, told NHK, the Japanese broadcaster, on Friday.


When Nihon Hidankyo formed in 1956, its founding declaration described the stigma of outliving nuclear annihilation. “We have survived until now in silence, with our heads down,” the statement said.


In the years after the war, the hibakusha were living evidence of the fact that the US, which occupied Japan after World War II and imposed upon the nation a Constitution that renounced war, had caused the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.


The hibakusha were also a counternarrative to a Japan that was developing into a high-tech economic giant fuelled, in some cases, by nuclear power. The 2011 earthquake and tsunami, which led to a meltdown at a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, once again forced a national moment of reflection. Since the nuclear accident, most of Japan’s nuclear reactors remain shuttered.


These days, the hibakusha, whose largest grouping is Nihon Hidankyo, are celebrated for their continued campaign against nuclear weapons despite the obstacles. Many have dedicated their lives to recounting their stories of loss and pain, in an effort to ensure that the world comprehends the profound terror that a nuclear war could bring.


The Nobel committee said that such witness accounts “have contributed greatly to the establishment of a nuclear taboo”.


But that taboo, said Frydnes, the Nobel committee chairman, “is under pressure”.


Henrik Urdal, the director of the Peace Research Institute Oslo, said in a statement that threats by both longtime nuclear powers and by newer actors show the crucial timing of the prize awarded to Nihon Hidankyo.


Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations (Nihon Hidankyo) co-chair Toshiyuki Mimaki, who survived the 1945 atomic bombing of Hiroshima, gestures as he speaks during an interview with Reuters on the following day of Nihon Hidankyo winning the 2024 Nobel Peace Prize, in Hiroshima, western Japan, October 12, 2024

.Reuters

“In an era where automated weapon systems and AI-driven warfare are emerging, their call for disarmament is not just historical, it is a critical message for our future,” Urdal said.


In awarding the peace prize to Nihon Hidankyo, the Nobel committee said that even though the hibakusha are growing old, a new generation of Japanese could campaign for nuclear disarmament.


But Japan’s neighbours include Russia and China.


Toshiyuki Mimaki, the chairman of Nihon Hidankyo, said on Friday that hisforemost wish was for the world to “please abolish nuclear weapons while we are alive”.


Mimaki is 82.


New York Times News Service

PRESS GANGED

Ukraine military recruiters raid bars, restaurants looking for men not registered for conscription

Country has intensified its mobilization drive this year as war with Russia drags on

The Associated Press · Posted: Oct 12, 2024

A sapper of the 93rd Kholodnyi Yar Separate Mechanized Brigade of the Ukrainian Armed Forces takes part in a training session near the front line in Donetsk region, Ukraine, on Thursday. (Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty/Serhii Nuzhnenko/Reuters)

Ukrainian military recruitment officers raided restaurants, bars and a concert hall in Kyiv, checking military registration documents and detaining men who were not in compliance, media and witnesses reported Saturday.

Officers descended on Kyiv's Palace of Sports venue after a concert Friday night by Ukrainian rock band Okean Elzy. Video footage aired by local media outlets appears to show officers stationed outside the doors of the concert hall intercepting men as they exit. In the footage, officers appear to be forcibly detaining some men.

Checks were also conducted at Goodwine, an upscale shopping centre, and Avalon, a popular restaurant.

It is unusual for such raids to take place in the capital, and reflects Ukraine's dire need for fresh recruits. All Ukrainian men aged 25-60 are eligible for conscription, and men aged 18-60 are not allowed to leave the country.

A 27-year-old man said he left the concert as the last song was playing after he was told about the recruitment officers. He said he saw soldiers and police talking to people but "didn't see anything super aggressive."
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He said men felt in danger of being drafted whenever they ventured outside.

"That inner state of always being in danger, it's back again," he told The Associated Press, only giving his first name for fear of retribution. He said his university draft waiver was taken away after Ukraine passed laws in April that both lowered draft-eligible age for men from 27 to 25 and did away with some draft exemptions.
WATCH | Thousands of men have fled Ukraine to avoid getting drafted:

Local reports said raids were also conducted in clubs and restaurants across other Ukrainian cities, including Kharkiv and Dnipro in eastern and central Ukraine.

Ukraine has intensified its mobilization drive this year. A new law came into effect this spring stipulating that those eligible for military service must input their information into an online system or face penalties.
Ukraine reports strikes on a Russian-run oil terminal

Meanwhile, Ukraine's military said on Saturday that it struck a Russian-controlled oil terminal in the partially occupied Luhansk region that provides fuel for Russia's war effort.

"Oil and oil products were stored at this base, which were supplied, in particular, for the needs of the Russian army," Ukraine's General Staff wrote on Telegram.

Russian state media reported that the terminal close to the city of Rovenky had come under attack from a Ukrainian drone and said there were no casualties and that the fire had been extinguished, but did not comment on the extent of any damage.

On Monday, Ukrainian forces said they struck a major oil terminal on the south coast of the Russia-occupied Crimea Peninsula.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, right, and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy shake hands before talks in Berlin on Friday. Kyiv has repeatedly asked its Western partners to allow it to use the long-range weapons they provide to hit targets on Russian soil. (Axel Schmidt/Reuters)

Both sides are facing the issue of how to sustain their costly war of attrition — a conflict that started with Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and that shows no signs of a resolution.

Ukraine's aim is to impair Russia's ability to support its front-line units, especially in the eastern Donetsk region where the main Russian battlefield effort is stretching weary Ukrainian forces.

Kyiv is still awaiting word from its Western partners on its repeated requests to use the long-range weapons they provide to hit targets on Russian soil.

CBC IN UKRAINEThese Ukrainian convicts say they'd rather fight than sit in prisonMeet a Ukrainian in Canada who fled the war — and a soldier who signed up on the 1st day

Meanwhile, Russia's Defence Ministry said 47 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted and destroyed by its air defence systems overnight into Saturday: 17 over the Krasnodar region, 16 over the Sea of Azov, 12 over the Kursk region and two over the Belgorod region, all of which border Ukraine.

Belgorod Gov. Vyacheslav Gladkov said Saturday that one person had been killed and 14 wounded in Ukrainian shelling and drone attacks over the previous 24 hours.

In Ukraine, the country's Air Force said air defences had shot down 24 of 28 drones launched overnight against Ukraine.

Zaporizhzhia regional Gov. Ivan Fedorov said two women were wounded Saturday in Russian attacks on the capital of the southern Ukrainian region, also called Zaporizhzhia.

A woman walks next to a house heavily damaged by a Russian airstrike in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on Saturday. (Reuters)