From The Alpha and the Omega - Chapter Eight
by Jim A. Cornwell, Copyright © 1995, all rights reserved
"KING OF THE SOUTH 2022 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER"

    This file is attached to http://www.mazzaroth.com/ChapterEight/BeastThatCameOutOfTheSea.htm from “Beast That Came Out Of The Sea” - Chapter Eight by Jim A. Cornwell, Copyright © 1995, all rights reserved.
    This link will take you back to Astronomical Events To Appear Between 2014 Through 2017 A.D. or return to King Of The South 2022 September-October

KING OF THE SOUTH 2022 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER
    So as 2020 has passed do we know who the "King of the South in 2020" is?
    The phrase “king of the South” is found in the Bible in only one location — Daniel 11, which is also the chapter containing the most detailed prophecy in the Bible.    The first mention of this ruler is found in verse 5, where we find that “the king of the South shall become strong” and that “His dominion shall be a great dominion.”    Who was this king?    Who will he be in the “time of the end” spoken of in verse 40?    To answer these questions, we need a little background information.    One of the first considerations is the setting of this prophecy.    Daniel received the message in “the third year of Cyrus king of Persia,” which was 537 or 536 B.C. according to The Expositor’s Bible Commentary (Daniel 10:1).    The prophecy of Daniel 11 begins with verses 2-4, which describe what would happen in the Persian and Greek Empires after Daniel was given this vision, and continues through “the time of the end” (verse 40).
    The Persian Empire refers to any of a series of imperial dynasties that were centred in Persia/Iran from the 6th century B.C. Achaemenid Empire era to the 20th century AD in the Qajar dynasty era.    Know that Ancient Persia is modern Iran.
    Achaemenid Empire (550–330 BC) also called the First Persian Empire, in Western Asia founded by Cyrus the Great.    It ranges from the Balkans and Eastern Europe proper in the west to the Indus Valley in the east, it was larger than any previous empire in history, incorporating various peoples of different origins and faiths, it is notable for its successful model of a centralised, bureaucratic administration (through satraps under the King of Kings), for building infrastructure such as road systems and a postal system, the use of an official language across its territories, and the development of civil services and a large professional army.    The empire's successes inspired similar systems in later empires.
    By the 7th century BC, the Persians had settled in the south-western portion of the Iranian Plateau in the region of Persis, which came to be their heartland.    From this region, Cyrus the Great advanced to defeat the Medes, Lydia, and the Neo-Babylonian Empire, establishing the Achaemenid Empire.    Alexander the Great, an avid admirer of Cyrus the Great, conquered most of the empire by 330 BC.    Upon Alexander's death, most of the empire's former territory came under the rule of the Ptolemaic Kingdom and Seleucid Empire, in addition to other minor territories which gained independence at that time.    The Iranian elites of the central plateau reclaimed power by the second century B.C. under the Parthian Empire.
    The Achaemenid Empire is noted in Western history as the antagonist of the Greek city-states during the Greco-Persian Wars and for the emancipation of the Jewish exiles in Babylon.    The historical mark of the empire went far beyond its territorial and military influences and included cultural, social, technological and religious influences as well.
    Despite the lasting conflict between the two states, many Athenians adopted Achaemenid customs in their daily lives in a reciprocal cultural exchange, some being employed by or allied to the Persian kings.    The impact of Cyrus's edict is mentioned in Judeo-Christian texts, and the empire was instrumental in the spread of Zoroastrianism as far east as China.    The empire also set the tone for the politics, heritage and history of Iran (also officially known as Persia).    The image below shows you the area for the "King of the South."
       
    So based on the above information I would acknowledge that the "King of the South" will come out of that area.
    As you may have noted that in 2019 I claimed that individual will be: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
    The reason was his image of the pentagram a Satanic symbol which is at the top of Erdogan’s Tek Devlet (One State) monument in Turkey, which is a pentagram, a satanic symbol, and believed in beheading, and Shriah Will Rise Again, religious education, Koranic courses, Arabic and Ottoman lessons, Islamization of all schools, sharia education and finally compulsory worship services in all schools
   
    Could Recep Tayyip Erdogan be the upcoming antichrist and may fit the description and then may not be the final antichrist.    The Bible tells us there are “many antichrists” (1 John 2:18); many believe there will be the single antichrist, and we are rapidly approaching the end of time as we know it, before the great tribulation begins.
    All of the antichrists have the same modus operandi (mode of operation).
    As Erdogan has tried to be a force in the South and has shown hints of hypocrisy along the way, and August 2014, he has steadily become dictatorial, and enacted laws to give him excessive powers.
    “And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom, but he shall come in peaceably and obtain the kingdom by flatteries” Daniel 11:21.
    The Bible, in a number of instances, refers to the antichrist as the “Assyrian.”    A good part of Turkey was included in the Assyrian Empire, which also persecuted God’s people.
    “Therefore, thus saith the Lord God of hosts, Oh My people who dwell in Zion, be not afraid of the Assyrian; he shall smite you with a rod and shall lift up his staff against you, after the manner of Egypt.    For yet a little while and the indignation shall cease and My anger in their destruction” Isaiah 10:24-25.
    “And this man shall be the peace, when the Assyrian shall come into our land and when he shall tread in our palaces; then shall we raise against him seven shepherds and eight principal men” Micah 5:5.
    Erdogan announced, “The Al-Aqsa Mosque is the honor of 1.7 billion Muslims, not just Palestinians, and the Muslim world cannot wait to remain indifferent to the restrictions imposed on the Al-Aqsa Mosque,” which is situated on the historical Jewish Temple Mount.
    Erdogan’s real crimes are buying the Russian S-400 missile system for Turkey, refusing to accept US support for America’s Kurdish YPG allies and allowing Islamist fighters to pour over Turkey’s border into Syria along with a load of weapons, mortars and missiles.    Erdogan said Turkey will work with the Syrian people directly to help achieve peace in the war-torn country.    He went on to clarify this does not mean he is willing to work with the Syrian government.
    “Russia takes the necessary measures against a (possible) threat by Syrian regime in Idlib, and as Turkey, we are taking all kind of measures against radical groups in Idlib,” stated President Erdogan.    “We are also taking joint action with Russia if it is necessary.”    His remarks come almost a month after Turkish and Russian forces announced a demilitarized zone in the Idlib province.
    In December, President Donald Trump’s called Tayyip Erdogan that he was pulling U.S. troops from Syria has stunned Turkey and left it scrambling to respond to the changing battlefield on its southern border, and delivered a standard warning to the Turkish president over his plan to attack U.S.-backed Kurdish forces in northeast Syria, in the course of the conversation Trump reshaped U.S. policy in the Middle East, abandoning a quarter of Syrian territory and handing Ankara the job of finishing off Islamic State in Syria.
    As many promote what Daniel 11:40-45 claims it represents the Northern King’s Conquests. [AS SEEN IN THE VERSES ABOVE THAT THE EVENTS ARE LOOKING AS IF RUSSIA - KING OF THE NORTH AND THE MIDEAST NATIONS - KING OF THE SOUTH ARE GOING TO BECOME ENTWINED INTO THE PROPHECY ABOVE IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE AND THE KING OF THE WEST WILL AGAIN WILL INVOLVE ITSELF SO LETS SEE HOW IT UNFOLDS AND ALSO SINCE THE EUPHARATES RIVER HAS DRIED UP ENGAGING THE KINGS OF THE EAST TO GET INVOLVED.].
    The following image below is seen at http://www.mazzaroth.com/ChapterSix/Psalm83.htm so you can tell by the verses above who are the countries today.
    So lets see what will happen in 2022 regarding the King of the South:

2022 NOVEMBER-DECEMBER


11/1/2022 What Russia’s suspension of grain deal could mean - Initiative was rare example of cooperation between warring nations by Cara Anna and Courtney Bonnell, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Panama flagged cargo ship Lady Zehma anchors in the Marmara Sea in Istanbul, Turkey, on Sept. 2. Russia has suspended
its part of the deal allowing Ukraine to ship grain from its Black Sea ports safely amid a monthslong war. KHALIL HAMRA/AP FILE
    NAIROBI, Kenya – Russia has suspended its part of a U.N.-brokered deal allowing Ukraine to export grain safely from its Black Sea ports during a monthslong war, saying it was not going to allow ships to travel.
    Ukraine said a dozen ships had sailed Monday after initially reporting that more than 200 vessels, many loaded and ready to travel, were stuck after Russia’s weekend announcement. Later in the day, Russia’s Defense Ministry said ship traffic was suspended, calling the movement “unacceptable” after Moscow alleged a Ukrainian drone attack against its Black Sea fleet.
    Such exports are crucial: Ukraine and Russia are key global suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other food to countries in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia where many are already struggling with hunger.
    Here is what Russia’s decision could mean for a world increasingly worried about food security and high food prices:
    What has the deal achieved?
    The grain initiative has been a rare example of cooperation between Ukraine and Russia since Russia’s invasion in February. Brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, it has allowed more than 9 million tons of grain in 397 ships to safely leave Ukrainian ports.
    The grain agreement has brought down global food prices about 15% from their peak in March, according to the U.N., and the U.N. secretary-general had urged Russia and Ukraine to renew the deal when it expires Nov. 19.
    Following Russia’s announcement, wheat futures prices jumped 5% on Monday in Chicago.    With global markets tight, poorer countries will have to pay more to import grain, said Joseph Glauber, senior research fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington.
    Before the grain deal was brokered, the U.S. and Europe accused Russia of starving vulnerable parts of the world by denying exports. Since the deal, Russian President Vladimir Putin has alleged that most of the exported grain was going to Europe instead of the world’s hungriest nations.
    U.N. humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths said 23% of the total cargo exported from Ukraine under the grain deal has gone to lower-or-lower-middle-income countries and 49% of all wheat shipments have gone to such nations.
    Ukraine has said more than 5 million tons have been exported to African and Asian nations, with 190,000 tons of wheat sent to countries that are getting relief from the U.N. World Food Program.
    What about ships that recently left Ukraine?
    A ship carrying 30,000 tons of wheat for Ethiopia under that program sailed Monday, Ukraine said, one of a dozen ships with more than 354,000 tons of agricultural products that Ukraine said left port after the U.N. and Turkey agreed on the traffic of ships through the humanitarian corridor.    Ethiopia, along with neighboring Somalia and Kenya, is badly affected by the region’s worst drought in decades.
    Russia’s U.N. ambassador, Vassily Nebenzia, said at an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council called Monday by Moscow that “the Black Sea remains an area of hostilities” and “we cannot allow an unimpeded passage of vessels without our inspection.”
    Nebenzia said Russia opposed the decision by the U.N., Ukraine and Turkey to allow ships to pass without Russian inspection.    Moscow would soon reveal measures to control what was allowed “without our consent,” he added.
    William Osnato, a senior research analyst with agriculture data and analytics company Gro Intelligence, said ship tracking maps don’t show any vessels heading toward Odesa.
    What happens now?
    Russia has offered to supply up to 500,000 tons of grain “to the poorest countries free of charge in the next four months.”
    The Russian Defense Ministry stressed that Russia is not withdrawing but suspending the grain agreement.     While sanctions on Russia don’t affect its grain exports and a parallel wartime deal was meant to clear the way for Moscow’s food and fertilizer shipments, some businesses have been wary.
    Developing nations will have to find new grain suppliers and pay more from countries such as the U.S., Argentina and Australia, where dry conditions or rain are posing problems, said Glauber, a former chief economist at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.    But high prices mean producers will plant more, and those that are not typically big wheat exporters, like Brazil and India, have increased shipments.    “What the world needs are some really big crops,” he said, and with Ukraine having accounted for 10% of world wheat exports, “that’s a big hole” to fill.
    What else affects food supply?
    Peter Meyer, head of grain and oilseed analytics at S& P Global Platts, said he doubts that Russia’s decision will have a lasting impact on the price and supply of corn and grain.
    Commodity traders were skeptical that the deal would last, he said, one reason that corn prices have gone up, not down, since the arrangement was reached in July.
    Grain markets also are focused on other issues, Meyer said, including low water levels in the Mississippi River that slow the export of U.S. farm products, a disappointing corn crop in the American West and the threat of a U.S. rail strike.
    But in parts of the African continent, where prices have remained high, concerns are rising again.
    “This will send another mini shockwave through the markets, and I think it will lift prices for a while,” said Shaun Ferris, a Kenya-based adviser on agriculture and markets for Catholic Relief Services, a partner in World Food Program distributions.    “This will mean that prices in East Africa, at record highs, are not going to come down anytime soon.”
    After four failed rainy seasons in the Horn of Africa, millions of people are hungry and millions of livestock that are a critical source of food and wealth are dying.    Ferris said he’s spoken with companies that are sending hundreds of tons of processed feeds to northern Kenya to keep animals alive.
    The latest setback in Ukrainian exports is another layer of stress, he said.
    In poorer North African and Middle Eastern countries where bread is a critical part of people’s diets, there may not be alternative staples like rice in Asia or sorghum elsewhere in Africa, Glauber said.    That raises the specter of turmoil in places where bread prices fueled the Arab Spring uprisings.
    In Egypt, the world’s largest wheat importer, President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi personally visited wheat farms when the harvest started this spring. But an economic crunch has made it more difficult to buy imported wheat, as Egypt’s currency has reached an all-time low against the U.S. dollar.
    “The wheat’s out there, but it’s just going to come at a high price,” Glauber said.

11/2/2022 Netanyahu appears to hold edge in Israeli election - Getting majority could depend on Arab voters by Josef Federman, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Supporters of Benjamin Netanyahu celebrate the first exit poll results for Israel’s
election at the Likud party headquarters in Jerusalem on Wednesday. TSAFRIR ABAYOV/AP
    JERUSALEM – Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared to hold a narrow lead early Wednesday in Israeli elections, according to exit polls, potentially paving the way for a return to power thanks to a boost from an extreme right-wing ally known for inflammatory anti-Arab comments.
    The exit polls were preliminary, and final results could change as votes were tallied overnight.    However, they pointed to a continued rightward shift in the Israeli electorate, further dimming hopes for peace with the Palestinians and setting the stage for possible conflict with the Biden administration and Israel’s supporters in the U.S.
    Tuesday’s election was Israel’s fifth in less than four years, with all of them focused largely on Netanyahu’s fitness to govern.    On trial for a slew of corruption charges, Netanyahu is seen by supporters as the victim of a witch hunt and vilified by opponents as a crook and threat to democracy.
    The vote, like past elections, was extremely tight. The exit polls on Israel’s three major television stations all predicted that Netanyahu and his hard-line allies would capture 61 or 62 seats in parliament, giving him the majority in the 120-seat parliament needed to govern.
    But the polls showed a small Arab party close to crossing the threshold required to enter parliament – a development that could erase his slim majority.
    The vast majority of votes were expected to be counted sometime early Wednesday.
    If Netanyahu’s allies emerge victorious, it could still take weeks of negotiations for a coalition government to be formed.    Continued deadlock and a new round of elections are also a possibility.
    In comments to reporters late Tuesday, Netanyahu stopped short of declaring victory.    “It can flip. We don’t know,” he said.    “We’re alive and kicking, possibly before a great victory, but we have to wait until the morning.”
    Perhaps fearing that Arab voters would deny him victory, Netanyahu tweeted allegations of violence and vote tampering at Arab polling stations. He provided no evidence, and the country’s nonpartisan Central Elections Committee dismissed the “baseless rumors.”
    Arabs make up some 20% of Israel’s population and have been a key factor in blocking Netanyahu in recent elections. But this time around their vote was split among three different factions, each of which was at risk of falling below the threshold, which would mean those votes were wasted.
    Netanyahu was Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, governing for 12 consecutive years – and 15 years altogether – before he was ousted last year by a diverse coalition led by the centrist Yair Lapid.
    But the coalition that Lapid cobbled together, which included the first Arab party ever to join a government, was ravaged by infighting and collapsed after just one year in power.    Those parties were poised to capture just 54 seats, according to the polls.    Lapid, addressing supporters early Wednesday, insisted that the race was not decided.
    “Until the last envelope is counted, nothing is over and nothing is final,” he said.
    The night’s strongest showing was by far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Religious Zionism, which emerged as the third-largest party. At an all-male campaign gathering in Jerusalem, religious men wearing Jewish skullcaps and waving Israeli flags danced in celebration.
    Ben-Gvir is a disciple of a racist rabbi, Meir Kahane, who was banned from parliament and whose Kach party was branded a terrorist group by the United States before he was assassinated in New York in 1990.
    Kahane’s agenda called for banning intermarriage between Arabs and Jews, stripping Arabs of Israeli citizenship and expelling large numbers of Palestinians.
    But while Kahane was seen as a pariah, Ben-Gvir is one of Israel’s most popular politicians, thanks to his frequent media appearances, cheerful demeanor, knack for deflecting criticism and calls for a harder line against Palestinians at a time of heavy fighting in the occupied West Bank.    Young ultra-Orthodox men are among his strongest supporters.
    Ben-Gvir lives in the hard-line West Bank settlement of Kiryat Arba and is a strong proponent of settlement construction. He has described Arab colleagues in parliament as “terrorists,” called for deporting those who are “disloyal” and recently brandished a handgun in a tense Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem as he called on police to shoot Palestinian stone-throwers.
    At the celebration, Ben-Gvir’s supporters chanted “Death to terrorists.”
    “We want to make a total separation between those who are loyal to the state of Israel – and we don’t have any problem with them – and those who undermine our dear country,” he said.
    Muhammad Shtayyeh, the Palestinian prime minister, said the rise of Israel’s far right was “a natural result of the growing manifestations of extremism and racism in Israeli society.”
    If the Netanyahu alliance ends up controlling a majority, Ben-Gvir and his party leader, Bezalel Smotrich, are sure to drive a hard bargain.    Ben-Gvir has said he will demand the Cabinet post overseeing Israel’s police force.
    The pair have also said they will seek legal reforms aimed at weakening the independence of the judiciary and giving parliament power to override court decisions they don’t like.    That could clear the way for the dismissal of criminal charges against Netanyahu.    Smotrich and other members of the party have also made repeated anti-LGBTQ comments.
    Such positions could put a future Netanyahu government on a collision course with the Biden administration, which supports a two-state solution with the Palestinians.    It could also alienate Israeli allies in the U.S., particularly the predominantly liberal Jewish American community.
    “Ben-Gvir is one of the most radical politicians in Israeli history.    If he comes with so much political power, this will pose a major headache for Mr. Netanyahu,” said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, an independent think tank.    He said Netanyahu, if asked to form the next government, might try to seek other potential coalition partners instead.    With Netanyahu’s opponents vowing never to sit in a government with him, that could be a difficult task.
    In Israel, voters vote for parties, not individual politicians.    No party has ever won a majority on its own, and coalition-building is necessary to govern.    Netanyahu’s Likud Party was projected to be the largest, with some 31 seats in parliament, followed by Lapid’s Yesh Atid, with 22 to 24 seats.
    Lapid was the mastermind of the coalition that turned Netanyahu into the opposition leader.
    The coalition was made up of nationalists who oppose Palestinian statehood, dovish parties that seek a peace agreement and – for the first time in the country’s history – a small Arab Islamist party.    The groups were united over their distaste for Netanyahu.
    But that coalition collapsed this spring because of infighting.
Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid, a former author and broadcaster who became premier as part of a power-sharing
agreement, has portrayed himself as an honest and scandal-free change from the polarizing Netanyahu. ARIEL SCHALIT/AP

[IT LOOKS LIKE THAT ISRAEL WILL BE CHANGED BACK TO BE IN CONTROL IN A TIME THAT I FIND THAT ISRAEL WILL BE IN CONTROL BY A PARTY TO DEAL WITH THE ONSLAUGHT THAT WILL COME FROM THE UNITED NATIONS POLICIES TO PUSH ITS POLICIES TO CHANGE ISRAEL TO ITS OPINION AND THIS IS A FUTURE BATTLE PROPHESIED BY JEREMIAH AND TO ME ALL THE PIECES ARE FALLING IN PLACE AS WE WILL SEE IN THE NEAR FUTURE.].
11/2/2022 Israel’s Political Right Projected To Win In Latest Election by OAN Newsroom
Former Israeli Prime Minister and Likud party leader Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at an election-night event on
November 1, 2022 in Jerusalem, Israel. Exit polls showed Netanyahu holding a narrow lead late on Election Day,
the country’s fifth in four years that will name a new Knesset, the 120-seat parliament. (Photo by Amir Levy/Getty Images)
    Former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could be reclaiming his old office.
    On Tuesday, Israel held its fifth parliamentary election in four years.    Exit polls showed that Netanyahu’s right-wing alliance could shatter the eight-party coalition that is currently in power.    If the current tally is representative of incoming ballots, the right could secure 72 spots in the 120 seat Knesset.
    “Should final results match those of exit polls, I will establish a national government that will take care of all of Israel’s citizens, without an exception, all of them,” Netanyahu said.
    The final results of the election are expected to be announced on Friday.
    Israel’s right wing has run on a platform of national security and election integrity.

11/3/2022 As Netanyahu nears victory, trouble may lie ahead - Israel election counting of ballots 90% complete by Josef Federman, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Benjamin Netanyahu addresses supporters, flanked by his wife Sara, at campaign headquarters in Jerusalem
early Wednesday after the end of voting for national elections. RONALDO SCHEMIDT/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
    JERUSALEM – After four inconclusive elections, it looks like the fifth time finally worked for Benjamin Netanyahu.
    Israel’s longtime former prime minister and current opposition leader appears to have engineered a surprising victory in the country’s fifth national vote since 2019, thanks to help from an extremist far-right party.    This alliance could have profound implications, though – potentially ending his legal troubles at home while antagonizing friends abroad.
    With nearly 90% of the ballots counted Wednesday, all signs pointed to a victory by Netanyahu and his religious and nationalist allies.    The count, including 450,000 absentee ballots, was expected to be completed Thursday.
Tuesday’s election, like the previous four, was seen largely as a referendum on Netanyahu’s fitness to rule while facing corruption charges.    And once again, opinion polls had been forecasting a continuation of the deadlock that has paralyzed the political system for the past 3½ years.
    But Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister who has gained a reputation as a political mastermind during a total of 15 years in office, appears to have outsmarted his opponents with a disciplined campaign.
    Israeli media portrayed Netanyahu as the winner on Wednesday, though he had yet to declare victory and his main rival, acting Prime Minister Yair Lapid, did not concede as vote counting continued.
    Israelis vote for parties, not individual candidates, and coalition-building is needed to secure a governing majority in parliament.
    According to official results from Israel’s Central Election Committee, the popular vote was almost evenly divided between parties loyal to Netanyahu and those who backed Lapid.
    But Netanyahu, who has been opposition leader for a year and a half, worked diligently to shore up his bloc of allies with a series of cooperation deals and mergers to ensure that no votes were lost.    His ultra-Orthodox religious allies, who joined him in the opposition, worked hard to ensure heavy turnout.
    Politicians on Israel’s left, in contrast, were riven by infighting, leaving one or two small parties below the threshold required to enter parliament.    That means that all of their votes are lost.    As a result, Netanyahu is expected to control as many as 65 seats in the 120seat parliament.
    “Netanyahu took charge of his bloc and designed a political architecture that had no leakages, that ensured that 100% of the vote contributed to victory, where the other camp was to some extent in disarray,” said Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank.
    Netanyahu also tapped into the rising popularity of Religious Zionism, an extremist right-wing party whose leaders are openly anti-Arab and oppose LGBTQ rights.
    Once seen as a fringe phenomenon, the party emerged as the third-largest in parliament, thanks in large part to the popularity of lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir.
    This alliance could turn out to be a mixed blessing for Netanyahu.
    If he succeeds in putting together a governing coalition in the coming weeks, Religious Zionism members, along with members of Netanyahu’s own Likud party, have made no secret they will seek radical reforms in the country’s legal system to benefit Netanyahu.
    Simcha Rothman, a member of Religious Zionism, said the country’s attorney general should worry about her job.    Others seek control over judicial appointments and want to pass legislation that would allow parliament to overturn unfavorable court decisions.
    Ben-Gvir has said he would even press for legislation that would grant immunity and dismiss the charges against Netanyahu, who is accused of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in a series of scandals.
    “If the right-wing bloc keeps its advantage in the final tally, Netanyahu will be able to form his dream government,” wrote Matti Tuchfeld, a commentator in the conservative Israel Hayom newspaper.    “Most importantly perhaps: none of the lawmakers … will oppose any steps to change the justice system, including steps relating to Netanyahu’s trial.”
    While this could benefit Netanyahu at home, it could also cause some serious troubles for him on the international stage.
    Ben-Gvir is a disciple of the racist rabbi, Meir Kahane, whose views against Arabs were considered so repugnant he was banned from the Knesset in the 1980s and whose Kach party was branded a terrorist group by the U.S. Kahane was assassinated by an Arab assailant in the U.S. in 1990.
    Ben-Gvir, a lawyer who has spent his career defending Jewish extremists accused of violence against Palestinians, has turned himself into one of Israel’s most popular politicians, thanks to his frequent media appearances, cheerful demeanor, and orchestrated stunts.
    He has branded Arab lawmakers “terrorists” and called for their deportation, and recently brandished a handgun in a tense Palestinian neighborhood of Jerusalem as he urged police to shoot Palestinian stone-throwers.
    Trying to capitalize on a recent spike in West Bank violence, he and his allies hope to grant immunity to Israeli soldiers who shoot at Palestinians and want to impose the death penalty on Palestinians convicted of attacking Jews.    Ben-Gvir has said he will seek the Cabinet post putting him in charge of the national police force.
    During the campaign, he railed against Lapid for allowing an Arab party to be part of the outgoing government.    His campaign slogan, referring to Arabs, called for showing Israel’s enemies “who owns the house.”
    While such views have endeared him to his religious and nationalist supporters, they risk creating headaches for Netanyahu, who promotes himself as a global statesman.
    U.S. President Joe Biden, who has had a hot-and-cold relationship with Netanyahu, is a supporter of Palestinian independence.    He is unlikely to take kindly to the combative Ben-Gvir and his colleagues.
    Likewise, American Jews, who tend to be politically liberal, could also have a hard time backing a government in which Ben-Gvir plays a prominent role.
    At a meeting last week with American Jewish leaders, Israel’s figurehead president, Isaac Herzog, asked the audience to “respect each other’s democracies.”
    Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel group in Washington, called the results “deeply troubling.”
Benjamin Netanyahu addresses supporters at campaign headquarters in Jerusalem early on Wednesday
after the end of voting for national elections. MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
[NETANYAHU BEWARE OF BIDEN WHO WILL STILL BE IN U.S. POWER UNTIL 2022 AND IS A U.N. GLOBALIST PUSH FOR YOUR FUTURE THREATS THAT COULD BRING THE WORLD AGAINST YOU.].

11/4/2022 Netanyahu set to return to power in Israel after win - Comeback ends gridlock but reinforces divisions by Josef Federman, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Final results showed former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s Likud Party and its ultranationalist
and religious partners capturing a solid majority in Israel’s parliament. OREN ZIV/AP FILE
    JERUSALEM – Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday appeared set to return to power as head of Israel’s most right-wing government ever after winning this week’s national election, with the current caretaker prime minister conceding defeat.
    Final results showed Netanyahu’s Likud Party and its ultranationalist and religious partners capturing a solid majority in Israel’s Knesset, or parliament.    The strong showing promised to end the political gridlock that has paralyzed Israel for the past three and a half years.    But the planned agenda of the new government expected to take office – including an overhaul of the country’s legal system and a tough line against the Palestinians – promises to further polarize a deeply divided nation and risks antagonizing Israel’s closest allies abroad.
    Israel on Tuesday held its fifth election since 2019 in a race, like the previous four, that was widely seen as a referendum on Netanyahu’s fitness to rule as he faces corruption charges.    While the previous races ended in deadlock, Netanyahu managed a disciplined campaign that gave him the edge over a divided and disorganized opposition.
    The acting prime minister, Yair Lapid, conceded defeat and called Netanyahu to congratulate him shortly before the final results were released.    Lapid said he had instructed his staff to prepare an organized transition of power.
    “The state of Israel comes before any political consideration,” Lapid said.    “I wish Netanyahu success, for the sake of the people of Israel and the state of Israel.”
    There was no immediate comment from Netanyahu.
    According to the unofficial final results, Netanyahu and his ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox allies captured 64 seats in Israel’s 120-seat Knesset.    His opponents in the outgoing coalition, led by Lapid, won 51 seats, with the remainder held by a small unaffiliated Arab faction.    Netanyahu still has to conduct negotiations with his partners, but is expected to form a coalition in the coming weeks.
    The election focused heavily on the values that are meant to define the state: Jewish or democratic.    In the end, voters favored their Jewish identity.
    Netanyahu’s main governing partner is expected to be Religious Zionism, a far-right party whose main candidate, Itamar Ben-Gvir has built a career on confrontations with Palestinians and espouses anti-Arab views that were once largely confined to an extremist fringe.
    The party will be the third-largest in parliament.
    Ben-Gvir says he wants to end Palestinian autonomy in parts of the occupied West Bank and maintain Israel’s occupation over the Palestinians, now in its 56th year, indefinitely.    Until recently, he hung a photo in his home of a Jewish militant who murdered 29 Palestinian worshippers in a 1994 mosque shooting in the West Bank.
    Ben-Gvir has labeled Arab lawmakers “terrorists” and called for their deportation.    The far-right lawmaker, who recently brandished a pistol while visiting a tense Palestinian neighborhood in east Jerusalem, wants to be put in charge of the country’s police force.
    The party’s leader, Bezalel Smotrich, a fellow West Bank settler who has made anti-Arab remarks, has his sights set on the Defense Ministry.    That would make him the overseer of the military and Israel’s West Bank military occupation.
    Party officials favor aggressive settlement construction in the West Bank.    They also have made repeated anti-LGBTQ comments.
    These positions have threatened to antagonize American Jews, who are overwhelmingly liberal, and put Israel’s next government on a collision course with the Biden administration.
    The White House on Thursday said it was looking forward to working with Israel on “our shared histories and values.”
    But in a separate comment, State Department spokesman Ned Price said the U.S. hopes Israel “will continue to share the values of an open, democratic society, including tolerance and respect for all in civil society, particularly for minority groups.”    He also reiterated support for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians – an idea with little, if any, support among the incoming government.
    Italy’s new far-right premier, Giorgia Meloni, congratulated Netanyahu on Twitter.    “Ready to strengthen our friendship and our bilateral relations, to better face our common challenges,” she wrote.
    Hungary’s nationalist prime minister, Viktor Orban, also congratulated Netanyahu, calling him “a friend of Hungary.”
    As the votes were being counted, Israeli-Palestinian violence was flaring, with at least four Palestinians killed in separate incidents, and an Israeli police officer wounded lightly in a stabbing in Jerusalem’s Old City.
    Ben-Gvir used the incidents to promise a tougher approach to Palestinian attackers once he enters government.
    “The time has come to restore security to the streets,” he tweeted.    “The time has come for a terrorist who goes out to carry out an attack to be taken out!”
    While Religious Zionism could cause Netanyahu headaches abroad, it could bring him relief at home.
    The party has promised to enact changes to Israeli law that could halt Netanyahu’s corruption trial and make the charges disappear.    Along with other nationalist allies, they also want to weaken the independence of the judiciary and concentrate more power in the hands of lawmakers.    Netanyahu says the trial is a witch hunt against him orchestrated by a hostile media and a biased judicial system.
    Netanyahu remains a deeply polarizing figure in Israel.    If his coalition takes power and pushes forward with its war on the justice system, these divisions are likely to deepen.
    Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving leader, was ousted in 2021 after 12 consecutive years in power by an ideologically-diverse coalition.    The coalition collapsed in the spring over infighting.
    The strong showing by Likud and its allies reflected a decades-long shift to the right by the Israeli electorate.
    Both Likud and Religious Zionism tapped into fears over Palestinian violence in the West Bank, accused Lapid of being weak and demonized his government for being the first to include an Arab party in a coalition.
    Israel’s dovish left wing, meanwhile, had an abysmal showing in the election.    The Labor party, which was a dominant force in Israeli politics for decades and supports Palestinian statehood, squeaked into parliament with the minimum four seats.    The anti-occupation Meretz was banished into political exile for the first time since it was founded three decades ago.
    “This is a disaster for Meretz, a disaster for the country and yes, a disaster for me,” Meretz’s distraught leader, Zehava Galon, said in a video.
Israeli far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben-Gvir has built a career on confrontations with Palestinians
and espouses anti-Arab views that were once largely confined to an extremist fringe. OREN ZIV/AP FILE

11/4/2022 Ethiopia: Gov got ‘100%’ in Tigray accord - Peace deal reached in 2-year conflict by Cara Anna, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ethiopia’s warring sides have agreed to a permanent cessation of hostilities
in a conflict believed to have killed hundreds of thousands. AP
    NAIROBI, Kenya – Officials close to peace talks aimed at ending Ethiopia’s deadly two-year war confirmed the full text of the signed accord on Thursday, but a key question remains: What led Tigray regional leaders to agree to terms that include rapid disarmament and full federal government control?
    A day after the warring sides signed a “permanent cessation of hostilities” in a war that is believed to have killed hundreds of thousands of people, none of the negotiators were talking about how they arrived at it.
    The complete agreement has not been made public, but the officials confirmed that a copy obtained by The Associated Press was the final document.    They spoke on condition of anonymity because they weren’t authorized to discuss it publicly.
    At Wednesday’s signing, the lead negotiator for Tigray described it as containing “painful concessions.”
    One of the pact’s priorities is to swiftly disarm Tigray forces of heavy weapons, and take away their “light weapons” within 30 days. Senior commanders on both sides are to meet within five days.
    Ethiopian security forces will take full control of “all federal facilities, installations, and major infrastructure … within the Tigray region,” and an interim regional administration will be established after dialogue between the parties, the accord says.    The terrorist designation for the Tigray People’s Liberation Front party will be lifted.
    If implemented, the agreement should mark an end to the devastating conflict in Africa’s second-most populous country.    Millions of people have been displaced and many left near famine under a blockade of the Tigray region of more than 5 million people.    Abuses have been documented on all sides.
    Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed asserted that his government received everything it asked for in the peace talks.
    “During the negotiation in South Africa, Ethiopia’s peace proposal has been accepted 100%,” and the government is ready to “open our hearts” for peace to prevail, Abiy said in a speech.    He added that the issue of contested areas, seen as one of the most difficult, will be resolved only through the law of the land and negotiations.
    Neither Ethiopian government nor Tigray negotiators responded to questions.
    As part of the full agreement, both sides agreed not to make any unilateral statement that would undermine it.    The deal also calls for the immediate “cessation of all forms of hostile propaganda, rhetoric and hate speech.”    The conflict has been marked by language that U.S. special envoy Mike Hammer, who helped with the peace talks, has described as having “a high level of toxicity.”
    “The human cost of this conflict has been devastating.    I urge all Ethiopians to seize this opportunity for peace,” U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told reporters Thursday, one of many messages from observers expressing cautious hope.
    Enormous challenges lie ahead.    The opaque and repressive government of neighboring Eritrea, whose forces have fought alongside Ethiopian ones, has not commented, and it was not clear whether Eritrean forces had begun to withdraw.    The agreement says Ethiopian forces will be deployed along the borders and “ensure that there will be no provocation or incursion from either side of the border.”
    Mustafa Yusuf Ali, an analyst with the Horn International Institute for Strategic Studies, said trust-building will be crucial.    The agreement “needs to be coordinated, it needs to be systematic, and above all it needs to be sequenced so that the Tigrayans are not left to their devices after handing in all their weapons then suddenly they are attacked by the center,” he said.
    The agreement sets deadlines for disarmament but little else, although it says Ethiopia’s government will “expedite the provision of humanitarian aid” and “expedite and coordinate the restoration of essential services in the Tigray region within agreed time frames.”
    The United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross said they had not yet resumed the delivery of humanitarian aid to Tigray, whose communication, transportation and banking links have been largely severed since fighting began.    Some basic medicines have run out.
    “It’s not surprising that it may take a little bit of time to get the word out to the competent authorities in the field.    We are in touch with them and trying to get that unimpeded access as soon as possible,” the spokesman for the U.N. secretary-general, Stephane Dujarric, told reporters.
    A humanitarian worker in Tigray’s second-largest town, Shire, said there had been no sounds of gunfire over the past few days but people and vehicles were still blocked from moving freely.    It was also quiet in the town of Axum, another humanitarian worker said.    Both spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
    Residents of the Tigray regional capital, Mekele, nervously waited for next steps.
    Asked about the peace agreement, resident Gidey Tsadik replied, “It’s good.    Everyone is happy.    However, it’s not known when exactly we will have that peace.”
    Tedros Hiwot said residents hadn’t heard when basic services will resume.

11/5/2022 Hundreds of animals die amid Kenya drought by Evelyne Musambi, ASSOCIATED PRESS
    NAIROBI, Kenya – Hundreds of animals, including elephants and endangered Grevy’s zebras, have died in Kenyan wildlife preserves during East Africa’s worst drought in decades, according to a report released Friday.
    The Kenya Wildlife Service and other bodies counted the deaths of 205 elephants, 512 wildebeests, 381 common zebras, 51 buffalo, 49 Grevy’s zebras and 12 giraffes in the past nine months, the report states.
    Parts of Kenya have experienced four consecutive seasons with inadequate rain in the past two years, with dire effects for people and animals, including livestock.    The worst-affected ecosystems are home to some of Kenya’s most-visited national parks, reserves and conservancies, including the Amboseli, Tsavo and Laikipia-Samburu areas, according to the report’s authors.
    They called for an urgent aerial census of wildlife in Amboseli to get a broader view of the drought’s impact on wild animals there.
    Other experts have recommended the immediate provision of water and salt licks in impacted regions.    Elephants, for example, drink more than 63 gallons of water per day, according to Jim Justus Nyamu, executive director of the Elephant Neighbors Center.
    For Grevy’s zebras, experts urge enhancing provisions of hay.

11/7/2022 Israel’s premier calls for unity after Netanyahu victory by Eleanor Reich, ASSOCIATED PRESS
“There is no ‘us and them,’ only us,” Yair Lapid said in his first public
comments since last week’s election. ARIEL SCHALIT/AP FILE
    JERUSALEM – Israel’s prime minister on Sunday issued a plea for national unity, days after he was defeated in national elections by the former premier, Benjamin Netanyahu, with the backing of a far-right ultranationalist party.
    In a memorial ceremony for the assassinated Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid warned of the deep divisions plaguing the country after the bitter campaign, Israel’s fifth election since 2019.
    He appeared to take aim at Religious Zionism, an extremist party whose leaders have made repeated anti-Arab, anti-LGBTQ comments.    Religious Zionism emerged as the third-largest party in Parliament and is expected to play a key role in in Netanyahu’s government.
    “There is no ‘us and them,’ only us,” Lapid said in his first public comments since last week’s election.    “An absolute majority of this country’s citizens believe in the rule of law, democratic values and mutual respect.”
    “The absolutely majority of Israelis want a Judaism that unites us, not a Judaism that is a political tool and certainly not a Judaism that is an endorsement of violence,” he added.
    Netanyahu’s Likud Party, along with Religious Zionism and a pair of ultra-Orthodox religious parties, captured a 64seat majority in the 120-seat Parliament in last Tuesday’s election.    They are expected to put together a new governing majority in the coming weeks.
    Lapid’s outgoing coalition, a diverse collection of parties that included the first-ever Arab party to be part of an Israeli government, won just 51 seats.
    The election, like the previous four, focused on Netanyahu’s fitness to rule while he faces corruption charges.
    Religious Zionism has promised to push through new reforms that could weaken Israel’s judicial branch, grant Netanyahu immunity and possibly make the criminal charges against him disappear.    Critics say this agenda would deal a tough blow to Israel’s democratic institutions.
    Religious Zionism also promotes a hard line against the Palestinians and Israel’s own Palestinian minority.
    “The absolute majority of Israel’s citizens are not willing to let hatred dictate their lives,” Lapid said during the ceremony at Israel’s national cemetery.    “We have to decide now, at this moment, where this country is going.”
    Netanyahu did not attend the ceremony.    But speaking later in Parliament, Netanyahu said that following the election, “it is time to get out of the trenches and know how to work together.”
    The leader of Religious Zionism, Bezalel Smotrich, complained that his voters have been unfairly “demonized” as supporting Rabin’s killing, an act he called “horrendous.”
    Smotrich’s running mate, Itamar Ben-Gvir, famously held up a hood ornament pulled off Rabin’s car weeks before the assassination.    “Just as we got to this emblem, we can get to Rabin,” Ben-Gvir, who is now up for a senior Cabinet post, said at the time.
    Rabin was killed on Nov. 4, 1995, by a Jewish extremist who opposed his peace efforts with the Palestinians.
[THE ARTICLE ABOVE SHOULD MAKE YOU AWARE THAT IT IS NOT ONLY THE UNITED STATES REPUBLICANS ARE BEING ATTACKED BY DEMOCRATS LEFTIST SOCIALIST COMMUNIST POLICIES ARE THE SAME THING HERE IN ISRAEL AND YOU CAN SEE THE PARTY OUT IS VERY ANGRY AND IT IS A WARNING TO THE U.S. THAT THE SAME MAY HAPPEN PUSHED BY THE U.N.- G-20 GLOBALIST SOCIALIST NEW ONE WORLD ORDER WILL RAISE ITS UGLY HEAD SOON AND THE WORLD WILL SOON KNOW WHAT IS COMING AS 2022 COMES TO AN END.].

11/7/2022 Fire, building collapse injures 20 people in Iraq’s capital by ASSOCIATED PRESS
Firefighters work to extinguish a building fire in Baghdad on Sunday. No information was immediately
available on the cause of the blaze. The civil defense announced late Sunday evening that the fire had been
fully extinguished and first responders were searching for missing people at the scene. HADI MIZBAN/AP
    BAGHDAD – More than two dozen people were injured, including the head of Iraq’s civil defense directorate, when a commercial building in the capital caught fire and then collapsed Sunday, authorities and the state news agency reported.
    The official Iraqi News Agency said the civil defense director, Maj. Gen. Kadhim Bohan, and some firefighters were among those injured when the burning building collapsed.
    No deaths were reported. No information was immediately available on the cause of the blaze.    Brig. Gen. Qusai Younis, director of civil defense for the Al-Rusafa district of Baghdad, told The Associated Press that at least 28 people had been injured.
    He said two of the three stories in the building, which contained warehouses storing flammable materials such as perfume, collapsed due to the fire.
    The civil defense announced late Sunday evening that the fire had been fully extinguished and first responders were searching for missing people at the scene.    On Oct. 29, a gas tanker exploded near a soccer field in northeastern Baghdad, killing at least nine people and injuring 10 others.    The explosion was found by an investigative committee to be an accident.

11/8/2022 Blaze roasts side of Dubai high-rise by Jon Gambrell, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Investigators examine fire damage Monday at the high-rise 8 Boulevard Walk in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. JON GAMBRELL/AP
    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A fire broke out early Monday at a 35-story high-rise in downtown Dubai near the world’s tallest building, racing up the side of the structure in the same way seen in other blazes fueled by flammable siding material.
    A resident at the 8 Boulevard Walk told The Associated Press that the high rise has cladding that officials planned to replace after a similar blaze tore through an iconic tower on New Year’s Eve in 2015.    However, that cladding was not replaced across the entire building, said the resident, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
    Emaar Properties, the giant state backed developer behind 8 Boulevard Walk and the nearby Burj Khalifa, which towers over the burned high-rise, did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did the city-state’s Dubai Media Office.     Dubai Civil Defense later said that all the building’s residents had been safely evacuated without injuries.
    Fire investigators could be seen by an AP journalist at the site, looking through balconies and pointing out damage from the blaze.    A letter sent by Emaar to tenants of the building said “a thorough investigation is underway” into the blaze and that residents cannot be let back in until authorities give the all clear.
    The fire raced up one side of the building, while other sides appeared untouched. The damage appeared particularly intense around the fourth floor.
    The blaze started around 2:30 a.m., with housekeepers and building guards racing through its floors to check apartments on each floor, the resident said.    Dubai Civil Defense said it “arrived at the scene five minutes after the operations room was alerted of the fire at 3:11 a.m.”
    While some types of cladding can be made with fire-resistant material, experts say those that have caught fire in Dubai and elsewhere weren’t designed to meet stricter safety standards and often were put onto buildings without any breaks to slow or halt a possible blaze.    That includes the 2017 Grenfell Fire in London that killed 72 people in the greatest loss of life in a fire on British soil since World War II.
    Regulations are now in place for new construction in Dubai regarding the cladding.    In 2017, a civil defense official said those with flammable cladding on their buildings would “have to change it” under normal maintenance schedules, but it remains unclear if that’s been enforced in this city-state, one of seven that make up the autocratic United Arab Emirates.
    On New Year’s Eve in 2015, a blaze raced through the Address Downtown, one of the most upscale hotels and residences in Dubai near the Burj Khalifa.    Some 15 people were injured in the fire and the evacuation.    Dubai police blamed exposed wiring for the blaze.
    In September of this year, Orient Insurance lost an appeal for a 1.25 billion dirham (more than $340 million) payout to Emaar over the fire after it tried to blame the developer.    The judgment said the building cladding might have contributed to the spread of the fire but was not the cause of it.
    Emaar stock rose slightly Monday to close at 6.23 dirhams ($1.70) a share on the Dubai Financial Market.

11/8/2022 Congo trains 3,000 army recruits amid tensions with Rwanda
    GOMA, Congo – More than 3,000 new military recruits began training Monday as the Congolese army steps up its fight against the M23 rebels that it alleges are backed by neighboring Rwanda.    The Rwandan government, which has denied supporting M23, said that a Congolese fighter plane had “violated Rwandan airspace” by landing briefly at Rubavu airport.    Congo later said that the unarmed aircraft had flown accidentally into Rwandan airspace.    Tensions have mounted as the M23 rebels have advanced in recent weeks.

11/8/2022 New round of peace talks held between Ethiopia, Tigray envoys
    NAIROBI, Kenya – A new round of talks began Monday between Ethiopia’s government and Tigray regional representatives to work out military and other details of last week’s signing of a “permanent” cessation of hostilities in a two-year conflict thought to have killed hundreds of thousands of people.    The meetings in Kenya involve the military commanders of both sides along with the leading political negotiators.    Issues to be discussed include the resumption of humanitarian aid access to Ethiopia’s northern Tigray region.

11/8/2022 Officials: US aid worker shot dead in Baghdad in rare attack - Wife and child in car with him were not hurt by Qassim Abdul-Zahra, ASSOCIATED PRESS
    BAGHDAD – Assailants fatally shot an American aid worker Monday in a rare killing of a foreigner in the Iraqi capital in recent years, two police officials said.
    The man was shot in his car as he entered the street where he lives in Baghdad’s central Karrada district on the east bank of the Tigris River but the reason for the killing was not immediately clear, they said.
    They said the man’s wife and child were in the car with him but were not hurt.
    The officials said as the man drove through his street, a car cut him off and assailants in another car shot him dead.    It was not immediately clear if the assailants were trying to kidnap the man, they said.
    State Department spokesman Ned Price told reporters the department is aware of the reports of the killing of a U.S. aid worker in Baghdad and is looking into them.    But, he said the department was not yet in a position to confirm the accounts of the death or that the person was a U.S. citizen.
    According to documents seen by The Associated Press, the man had been renting an apartment in Karrada’s Wahda area since May last year.
    No one immediately claimed responsibility for the killing.    U.S. Embassy officials when contacted by The Associated Press could not immediately provide any information about the case.
    Two security officials confirmed a U.S. citizen who worked for an international aid organization had been killed without giving his name. They said details were scarce but an investigation was underway.    The officials spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations.
    A medical worker at Sheikh Zayed Hospital, where the victim was taken, said he was dead on arrival.
    Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani said he would form a committee comprising the interior ministry and various security agencies to “investigate the circumstances of the killing of an American citizen in the capital.”
    The streets of the middle class, mixed Christian and Muslim neighborhood where the victim reportedly lived, were empty of residents but heavily patrolled by police Monday night.
    Such attacks against individuals in the Iraqi capital have been rare since the defeat of the Islamic State group in the country in 2017 but rockets are sometimes fired toward the U.S. Embassy.
    In the early years that followed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, such attacks were common.    In 2004, two Americans were kidnapped in Baghdad and extremists later released videos showing their beheading.
    The attack came after Iraq’s new Cabinet headed by Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani was given a vote of confidence by parliament in late October.    Al-Sudani was named by the Iran-backed Coordination Framework, composed largely of Shiite parties.
    Iraq held early elections more than a year ago in response to mass anti-government protests that began in October 2019 in Baghdad and across southern Iraq.    Protesters called for the overhaul of the political system established after the 2003 U.S.-led invasion.
    U.S.-led coalition forces recently ended their combat mission in Iraq but continue to play an advisory role to Iraqi forces in the fight against IS.

11/8/2022 Jerusalem publishes zoning for new US embassy in Jerusalem by LAHAV HARKOV – The Jerusalem Post
The US Embassy in Jerusalem© (photo credit: MARC ISRAEL SELLEM/THE JERUSALEM POST)
    The Jerusalem Municipality on Tuesday published the zoning description for a new US Embassy complex in the capital city.
    The embassy will be on Derech Hebron between Hanoch Albek Street and Daniel Yanovsky Street, an area known by its British Mandate-era name, “Camp Allenby.”
    The complex will include an embassy, offices, residences, parking and security structures.    The buildings can be no more than 10 stories high, and the wall surrounding the area will be 3.5 meters high.
Time to start planning the move
    Members of the public will have 60 days to submit their opposition to the plan to the municipality.
A worker hangs a road sign directing to the U.S. embassy, in the area of the U.S.
consulate in Jerusalem, May 7, 2018. (credit: REUTERS) © Provided by The Jerusalem Post
    A worker hangs a road sign directing to the U.S. embassy, in the area of the U.S. consulate in Jerusalem, May 7, 2018. (credit: REUTERS)
    Australia's reversal on Jerusalem as the Jewish state's capital 'viewed as a blow by the Israelis'     “After almost four years of hard work with the American Embassy in Jerusalem, we are pleased that the zoning plans were published this morning for the new Allenby complex,” Jerusalem Deputy Mayor Fleur Hassan-Nahoum said Tuesday.     “The US Embassy in such a central part of the city will upgrade the urban landscape of the neighborhood and connect it to all areas of the capital through the [Jerusalem] Light Rail network that will stop almost at its doors,” she said. “We hope that more countries will follow and move their embassies to our capital, Jerusalem.”     The US Embassy moved to Jerusalem in 2018, a few months after President Donald Trump recognized Israel’s capital.
    “We hope that more countries will follow, and move their embassies to our capital - Jerusalem.”
Deputy Mayor of Jerusalem Fleur Hassan-Nahoum
    The embassy has since operated out of the former US Consulate in Arnona, which was expanded to include more offices, and has a much larger “branch office” in the former site of the embassy in Tel Aviv.     The US also sold the palatial beachfront residence in Herzliya in which past ambassadors lived, reportedly to pro-Israel billionaire and Republican donor Sheldon Adelson.    The embassy found a residence for Ambassador Thomas Nides on Jerusalem’s Emek Refaim Street.    He previously lived in the Waldorf Astoria Hotel but was unable to host guests there.

11/8/2022 State Dept. Looking Into Reports Of U.S. Citizen Murder In Iraq by OAN Newsroom
People walk and shop at the Shorja market in the centre of Iraq’s capital Baghdad on
October 7, 2022. (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE / AFP) (Photo by AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images)
    The State Department investigating reports of an American aid worker killed in Baghdad, Iraq has identified the victim as Stephen Edward Troell.
    The American’s ID reportedly said he was an English teacher.    During his two years in Baghdad, Troell worked for a civil society organization that provided English classes for Iraqis.
    Iraqi police officials claimed the U.S. citizen was shot dead after being cut off by another car while driving through the central Karrada district and the other car opened fire.    Troell’s wife and child were with him but were not they harmed.
    The motive for the sudden shooting is still being investigated.    Iraqi Prime Minister Muhammad Shia al-Sudani made a statement on Monday.
    “The timing of the murder of an American citizen in Baghdad puts question marks,” al-Sudani said.
    He added to that sentiment that “security is a red line.”
    Reports also say that an attack on a foreign citizen in Baghdad is rare since ISIS was eradicated in 2017.
    No group has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

11/9/2022 Israel’s Netanyahu Inches Closer to Power With Victory Confirmed by Daniel Avis - (Bloomberg)
    Benjamin Netanyahu was officially confirmed as the victor in Israel’s elections, putting the former prime minister on track to form a right-wing coalition government that could complicate foreign relations.
    Netanyahu’s Likud party won the highest percentage of the vote on Nov. 1, Israel’s Central Election Committee said Wednesday.    That translates into 32 seats in the 120-member parliament, the Knesset.
    Incumbent Prime Minister Yair Lapid’s Yesh Atid party won 24 seats, while the far-right Religious Zionism coalition -- a likely partner in a government led by Netanyahu -- came third with 14 seats.
Netanyahu Is Set for Comeback in Israel With Far-Right Firebrand
Israel Heads to The Polls in Fifth Election in Four Years© Bloomberg
    Israel’s president is expected to ask Netanyahu to form a government in the next four weeks.    If no agreement is reached after this time, the president has the authority to grant him an additional 14 days to try and do so.
    Netanyahu, 73, is widely expected to partner with Religious Zionism and the country’s two ultra-Orthodox parties -- Shas and United Torah Judaism -- which won 11 and seven seats, respectively.
    The right-wing coalition gives Netanyahu, who was Israel’s longest-serving prime minister, the chance to return to office after less than 18 months in opposition.
New Mideast Risk Looms in Israel’s Right Turn: Balance of Power
    But he does this by choosing to lean on support from a number of once-fringe politicians whose stances on minority rights -- particularly Arab-Israeli and Palestinian rights -- have deepened domestic tensions and drawn rebuke from the US.
    Among them is Itamar Ben-Gvir, a 46-year-old lawyer who said before the vote that he wants to be public security minister -- a role that would give him oversight of the country’s police forces.

11/10/2022 Israel FM Gantz: Israel Capable Of Striking Iran by OAN Newsroom
Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, head of the new center-right “National Unity Party”
or Hamahane Hamamlachti in Hebrew, looks on after voting at a polling station in the
city of Rosh Haayin in central Israel on November 1, 2022. (Photo by JALAA MAREY/AFP via Getty Images)
    Israel says that they have a military operation in place to combat Iran.
    On Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz told reporters in a briefing that Israel has the capability to perform a military operation against Iran.
    During his campaign, soon-to-be Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, said his focus is Israel’s defense against the state sponsor of terror.
    Gantz also told reporters that the last time the nation was as prepared for military strikes against Iran was in 2012.

11/10/2022 Ancient comb found in Israel bears full sentence by Eleanor H. Reich, ASSOCIATED PRESS
An ivory comb bears an entire sentence in the Canaanite language, a 3,700-year-old inscription
encouraging people to rid themselves of lice. Dafna Gazit/Israel Antiquities Authority via AP
    JERUSALEM – Israeli archaeologists have found an ancient comb dating back some 3,700 years ago and bearing what is likely the oldest known full sentence in Canaanite alphabetical script, according to an article published Wednesday.
    The inscription encourages people to comb their hair and beards to rid themselves of lice.    The sentence contains 17 letters that read: 'May this tusk root out the lice of the hair and the beard.'
    Experts say the discovery shines new light on some of humanity’s earliest use of the Canaanite alphabet, invented around 1800 B.C. and the foundation of all successive alphabetic systems, such as Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, Latin and Cyrillic.
    The mundane topic indicates that people had trouble with lice in everyday life during the time – and archaeologists say they have even found microscopic evidence of head lice on the comb.
    The comb was first excavated in 2016 at Tel Lachish, an archaeological site in southern Israel, but it was only late last year when a professor at Israel’s Hebrew University noticed the tiny words inscribed on it.    Details of the find were published Wednesday in an article in the Jerusalem Journal of Archaeology.
    The lead researcher, Hebrew University archaeologist Yosef Garfinkel, told The Associated Press that while many artifacts bearing the Canaanite script have been found over the years, this is the first complete sentence to be discovered.
    Garfinkel said previous findings of just a few letters, maybe a word here and there, did not leave much room for further research on the lives of the Canaanites.
    'We didn’t have enough material,' he said.
    Canaanites spoke an ancient Semitic language – related to modern Hebrew, Arabic and Aramaic – and resided in the lands abutting the eastern Mediterranean.    They are believed to have developed the first known alphabetic system of writing.
    Finding a complete sentence would further indicate that Canaanites stood out among early civilizations in their use of the written word.
    'It shows that even in the most ancient phase there were full sentences,' Garfinkel said.
    He said experts dated the script to 1700 B.C. by comparing it to the archaic Canaanite alphabet previously found in Egypt’s Sinai desert, dating back to between 1900 B.C. and 1700 B.C.
    But the Tel Lachish comb was found in a much later archaeological context, and carbon dating failed to determine its exact age, the article notes.
    Austrian archaeologist Felix Höflmayer, an expert on the period who was not part of the publication, said this method of dating was not definitive.
    'There are just not enough securely dated early alphabetic inscriptions currently known,' he said.
    Nonetheless, he added the discovery was highly significant, and will help solidify Tel Lachish as a center of the early alphabet development.
    'Seventeen letters preserved on a single object is definitely remarkable,' Höflmayer said.

11/12/2022 Ethiopia: Military controls Tigray - Aid said to resume but confirmation lacking by ASSOCIATED PRESS
People walk toward a food distribution near the town of Agula in Ethiopia’s Tigray region last year.
The peace deal says Ethiopia will “expedite” both aid and services to the long cut-off Tigray region. BEN CURTIS/AP FILE
    NAIROBI, Kenya – Ethiopia’s lead negotiator in ongoing peace talks asserted Friday that 70% of the country’s northern Tigray region is now under military control and aid deliveries have resumed to the area, but there is no immediate confirmation from aid workers or Tigray spokesmen.
    National Security Adviser Redwan Hussein tweeted the information as the talks continued in neighboring Kenya, and as the United States applied pressure on Ethiopia’s government to swiftly deliver aid and basic services.
    The peace deal says Ethiopia will “expedite” both aid and services to the long cut-off Tigray region of more than 5 million people, where food and basic medical supplies have run low.
    Redwan said 35 trucks of food and three trucks of medicine have arrived in the northwestern town of Shire, which federal forces and their allies captured last month.    That was before last week’s “permanent cessation of hostilities” in a two-year conflict estimated to have killed hundreds of thousands of people.
    “Aid is flowing like no other times,” Redwan said, adding that services were being reconnected and flights allowed.
    The Tigray lead negotiator, Getachew Reda, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
    A lull in the fighting earlier this year allowed about 8,000 trucks of humanitarian aid into the region, according to the United Nations, whose experts have found that Ethiopia’s government used starvation as a tool of war.
    On Friday, spokespeople for the International Committee of the Red Cross and the U.N. humanitarian agency did not immediately confirm that aid trucks had arrived in Shire.
    A humanitarian official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media, said their organization had not started aid deliveries because they were still assessing the security of roads and waiting for clearances.
    The U.S. State Department’s Bureau of African Affairs again called for aid deliveries to Tigray and the neighboring regions of Afar and Amhara, which also were affected by the conflict.
    “Redwan Hussein said in Nairobi that by week’s end humanitarian aid would flow unhindered as agreed,” the bureau tweeted, adding that it was “waiting urgently for actions to respect and implement the agreement.”
    The current round of peace talks in Kenya also addresses the disarmament of Tigray fighters amid concerns that Tigrayans would be left vulnerable to forces from neighboring Eritrea, which has fought alongside Ethiopian forces and is neither part of the talks nor explicitly mentioned in the peace deal.
    The deal says Ethiopian forces will enter Tigray’s capital, Mekele, and take control of the region’s borders, airports, and highways.

11/12/2022 Netanyahu to form far-right coalition - Israel’s president gives ex-PM month for task by Isabel Debre, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Benjamin Netanyahu and his wife, Sara, react after the first exit poll results
for the Israeli election in Jerusalem on Nov. 2. TSAFRIR ABAYOV/AP FILE
    JERUSALEM – Israel’s president on Friday asked former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to form a new government, presenting the longtime leader currently standing trial on corruption charges with the chance to end years of political instability in Israel with his partners on the far right.
    The decision by President Isaac Herzog was announced by his office after he consulted with leaders of all of the parties elected to Israel’s parliament in last week’s national election.    He will formally present     Netanyahu with the task on Sunday and give him a month to cobble together a governing coalition with a majority in the 120-seat Knesset.
    Netanyahu had governed Israel for 12 successive years before being ousted by a broad but fragile coalition in 2021.    His comeback in last week’s election, the nation’s fifth vote in four years, seemed to ensure Israel would have a cohesive government with a comfortable majority for the first time since 2019.
    But it will be the most right-wing and religious government in Israel’s history, after Netanyahu forged an alliance with an ultranationalist party that has grabbed headlines for its anti- Arab sentiment and threats to overhaul the judicial system.
    One of Netanyahu’s coalition partners, far-right lawmaker Itamar Ben Gvir, has pledged to deport rival lawmakers, give soldiers more freedom to shoot Palestinians and end Palestinian autonomy in parts of the occupied West Bank.
    On Thursday, Ben Gvir paid a glowing tribute to the late racist rabbi Meir Kahane, whose Kach party was banned in Israel and outlawed as a terrorist organization in the United States. Ben Gvir’s possible appointment to a key ministry, such as public security, could inflame tensions with Israel’s Arab minority and escalate hostilities in volatile Jerusalem.
    Arab lawmaker Aida Touma-Sliman told The Associated Press that she expressed those fears to Herzog on Friday, saying the government’s potential inclusion of “people who were previously convicted of supporting terrorism … is keeping us awake at night.”
    Herzog said 64 members of the Knesset had recommended Netanyahu to be prime minister, giving him a clear majority in the parliament.    Those recommending Netanyahu included Ben Gvir’s Jewish Power party, the ultranationalist Religious Zionist party, the openly homophobic Noam faction, and other ultra-Orthodox parties.
    Like its previous repeated elections, Israel’s Nov. 1 vote was largely centered on Netanyahu’s fitness to rule.    He was indicted three years ago on charges of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in three long-running cases.
    His supporters view him as a champion of Israel’s nationalist right and a master statesman who is the victim of a witch hunt by political opponents in Israel’s judiciary, law enforcement and media.    Critics see him as a crook who threatens Israel’s democratic institutions by placing his legal woes above the national interest.
    Netanyahu has promised not use his authority to upend the judicial process.    But some of his political allies want to enact changes to Israeli law that could halt his corruption trial and make the charges disappear.

11/13/2022 Egypt takes step toward renewables - Nation installs solar panel farm in Aswan by Samy Magdy and Jack Jeffery, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Photovoltaic solar panels generate electricity at Benban Solar Park in Egypt.
The Arab world’s most populous country is moving to convert to renewable energy.
    BENBAN, Egypt – From a distance, the endless landscape of solar panels stretching toward the horizon can easily be mistaken for crops nearing harvest. But here in the desert in southern Egypt, workers have been cultivating another precious commodity: electricity.
    After the sun strikes the photovoltaic solar panels, a thermal charge generates electricity that runs to four government owned power stations distributing power across Egypt’s national grid.
    It’s part of the country’s push to increase renewable energy production.    With near-perpetual sunshine and windy Red Sea coastlines, experts say Egypt is well-positioned to go green.
    Yet it is also a developing country and like many others, faces obstacles in making the switch.    Much of its infrastructure depends on fossil fuels to power the nation of some 104 million people.
    The solar panel farm – Egypt’s flagships project named Benban, after a local village – puts it at the African continent’s forefront when it comes to renewable energy.
    Karim el-Gendy, an expert at Chatham House who specializes in urban sustainability and climate policy, says Egypt has failed to meet its goal of having 20% of its electricity sourced from renewables by 2022.    The current figure is now closer to 10%, according to the International Energy Agency.
    There’s less demand for solar energy, partly due to the influx of natural gas, thanks to new discoveries located in Egypt’s section of the Mediterranean Sea.
    “We have seen less interest in the past couple of years in integrated renewable energy projects in Egypt, both in terms of solar, in the south, and wind,” he said.
    As host of this year’s global climate summit, known as COP27 and now underway in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt has said it will pressure other nations to implement climate promises made at previous conferences.     Egypt is not bound by any carbon emissions cap, but it has vowed to mitigate and curb its emission rises across key polluting sectors, such as electricity and transport.     Its use of natural gas has also helped, allowing Egypt to move away from burning coal and oil, much dirtier industries – but, gas is still a fossil fuel.
    From Sharm el-Sheikh, President Joe Biden, who was attending the climate conference, said Friday that the United States, the European Union and Germany will provide a package of $500 million to finance and facilitate Egypt’s transition to clean energy – and accelerate the country’s ambitious goal of reaching producing 42% of electricity generated by renewable sources in 2030, five years earlier than previously planned.
    Biden also announced that they would work with Egypt to reduce green gas emissions through capturing “nearly 18.3 billion cubic yards of natural gas, which Egypt currently flares, vents or leaks from its oil and gas operations.”
    “Because of this cooperation, Egypt has elevated its climate ambition,” Biden said, referring to climate goals nations are required to submit to the United Nations in line with the Paris Agreement.
    The Egyptian government has revealed few details on how it will implement or finance the 2035 vision – or the revised 2030 plan the U.S. and Germany mentioned Friday in a joint statement with Egypt.    Foreign investment will likely play a big part, as countries in Europe look south for solar power.    The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has allotted $10 billion of funding for over 150 projects across Egypt, with Benban claimed as one of its major successes.
    The sprawling farm is designed to grow as demand for solar energy increases.
    Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Authority claims Benban has already reduced the country’s annual greenhouse emission output.
    But there is still a long way to go.    In 2020, renewables accounted for 6% of Egypt’s energy consumption, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, with petroleum products accounting for 36% and natural gas for 57%. Coal accounted for just 1%.
    Egypt may also have less of an incentive to invest in renewables as it grapples with domestic challenges, including an economic crisis brought on by the coronavirus pandemic, Russia’s war in Ukraine and a years-long government crackdown on dissent.    Last month, Cairo reached a preliminary deal with the International Monetary Fund that would allow access to a $3 billion loan.
    Effects of climate change are already being felt in the Nile River Delta, where rising seas have brought on creeping salt that eats away roots and cakes farms, devastating the livelihoods of Egyptian farmers.
    The Arab world’s most populous country accounts for only 0.6% of global carbon dioxide emissions.    But it faces high levels of urban pollution.    Most of the population lives in densely packed neighborhoods along the fertile banks of the Nile and its northern delta. Here, car fumes and mass transport running on diesel clog the streets.
    The country’s congested capital city of Cairo is the second top source of greenhouse gas emissions, after the giant offshore Zohr gas field, according to the Climate TRACE.
    Jefferey reported from Cairo.    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations.    See more about AP’s climate initiative here.    The AP is solely responsible for all content.
Engineers talk next to solar installation in Aswan, Egypt. PHOTOS BY AMR NABIL/AP

11/13/2022 African nations want funds to adapt to climate change by Wanjohi Kabukru, ASSOCIATED PRESS
An old hotel is submerged by rising water levels in Lake Baringo in Kampi ya Samaki, Kenya on July 20. BRIAN INGANGA/AP FILE
    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt – Battling droughts, sandstorms, floods, wildfires, coastal erosion, cyclones and other weather events exacerbated by climate change, the African continent needs to adapt, but it needs funds to do so, leaders and negotiators from the continent said at the U.N. climate summit.
    It’s one of the main priorities for the African Group of Negotiators at the summit, known as COP27, currently underway in Egypt. Ephraim Shitima, the group’s chair, said Africa is keen to see the outcomes of the negotiations translated into action for the continent where millions are facing climate-related disasters.
    Shitima said the summit “should provide solutions to the millions of people in the continent,” adding that Africa needs finance to adapt to extreme weather as well as “to facilitate just energy transition and boost renewable energy uptake.”
    A recent study released by the World Bank said that climate-related events will squeeze more than 132 million people into poverty worldwide with African countries losing between 10% and 15% of their GDP by 2050.
    Africa produces only 4% of the world’s planet-warming emissions despite making up 17% of the world’s population but is particularly vulnerable to climate change.
    Climate finance for adapting to climate-     Speakers at the Africa Pavilion at the conference mulled over how to close the gap between the continent’s financial needs on climate and what it actually receives, which is currently estimated by the African Development Bank to be between $160 billion and $340 billion by 2030.
    Earlier this week Antigua and Barbuda Prime Minister Gaston Browne called for the taxing of fossil fuel firms’ profits to support developing countries and small island states to adapt to climate change and move toward clean energy.
    “We know they make extortionate profits,” he said.    He added that countries would seek compensation for climate harms from major polluters, known as loss and damage in climate negotiations.
    “We see this loss and damage funding as a form of solidarity of nations standing with each other and as form of funding to countries that are in distress,” Brown said.
    Seychelles President Wavel Ramkalawan said leaders in the Alliance of Small Island States are also seeking new finance facilities for loss and damage.
    “We are definitely pushing for that,” Ramkalawan told The Associated Press.
    The Least Developing Countries group, which represents some 46 low-income nations, has also put money for adaptation and loss and damage among its top demands.
    “COP27 must keep adaptation at the center,” said Madeleine Sarr, the chair of the LDC group, adding that the nations “want to see how the shortfall in the $100 billion per year promise will be made up.”

11/13/2022 Hundreds protest for climate at UN summit by Associated Press
Activists deploy banners as they protest at the COP27 climate conference
in Egypt’s Red Sea resort city on Saturday. JOSEPH EID/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt – Hundreds of activists called on industrialized nations to pay for the impact of climate change and to speed up the transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy on Saturday in the largest protest yet at the U.N. climate summit in Egypt.
    Protests have mostly been muted at the conference, known as COP27, which is taking place in the seaside resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.    Activists blamed high cost of travel, accommodation and restrictions in the isolated city for limiting numbers of demonstrators.
    The protesters marched through the conference’s “Blue Zone,” which is considered a U.N. territory and ruled by international law.    They chanted, sang, and danced in an area not far from where climate talks and negotiations are taking place. The protests came at the end of the first week of the two-week summit, when typically protest action at climate summits is at its biggest.
    “Pay for loss and damage now,” said Friday Nbani, a Nigerian environmental activist who was leading a group of African protesters.    Many protesters, alongside several vulnerable countries, have called for ‘loss and damage’ payments, or financing to help pay for climate-related harms, to be central to negotiations.    “Africa is crying, and its people are dying,” Nbani said.
    Protesters also called for drastic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions being pumped into the atmosphere.    Emissions continue to rise but scientists say the amount of heat-trapping gases need to be almost halved by 2030 to meet the temperature-limiting goals of the Paris climate accord.
    Activists chanted “keep it in the ground” in reference to their rejection of the continued extraction of fossil fuels.
    On Friday, some activists heckled U.S. President Joe Biden’s speech and raised an orange banner that read, “People vs. Fuels” before being removed.    One of the activists, Jacob Johns, had his access to the conference revoked as a result.
    “It’s just a great way to silence Indigenous voices nationally and globally,” said Johns, a member of the Akimelo’otham and Hopi nations in the United States.

11/14/2022 Bomb rocks avenue in heart of Istanbul by Zeynep Bilginsoy, ASSOCIATED PRESS
People leave the area after an explosion on Istanbul’s popular Istiklal Avenue on Sunday. CAN OZER/AP
    ISTANBUL – A bomb rocked a bustling pedestrian avenue in the heart of Istanbul on Sunday, killing six people, wounding several dozen and leaving panicked people to flee the fiery blast or huddle in cafes and shops.
    Emergency vehicles rushed to the scene on Istiklal Avenue, a popular thoroughfare lined with shops and restaurants that leads to the iconic Taksim Square.    In one video posted online, a loud bang could be heard and a flash seen as pedestrians turned and ran away.
    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the blast a “treacherous attack” and said its perpetrators would be punished.    He did not say who was behind the attack but said it had the “smell of terror” without offering details and also adding that was not certain yet.
    Sunday’s explosion was a shocking reminder of the anxiety and safety concerns that stalked the Turkish population during years when such attacks were common.    The country was hit by a string of deadly bombings between 2015 and 2017, some by the Islamic State group, others by Kurdish militants who seek increased autonomy or independence.
    In recent years, Erdogan has led a broad crackdown on the militants as well as on Kurdish lawmakers and activists.    Amid skyrocketing inflation and other economic troubles, Erdogan’s anti-terrorism campaign is a key rallying point for him ahead of presidential and parliamentary elections next year.
    Erdogan, who left Sunday for the Group of 20 summit in Indonesia, said six people were killed.    Vice President Fuat Oktay put the wounded toll to 81, with two in serious condition, and also said it appeared to be a terrorist attack.
    Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag told pro-government broadcaster A Haber that investigators were focusing on a woman who sat on a bench by the scene of the blast for about 40 minutes.    The explosion took place just minutes after she left.    He said her identity was not yet clear, nor was it clear what group might be behind the attack.
    A manager of a restaurant near where the bomb went off said he heard the explosion and saw people running.    The dozens of customers inside his restaurant, including women and children, panicked and screamed.
    The manager, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the situation, said he closed his restaurant’s shutters, fearing there might be another explosion, and tried to calm the customers down.    After about 15 to 25 minutes inside, he saw police on the avenue and organized the customers and his staff to leave in small groups.
    Numerous foreign governments offered their condolences, including neighboring Greece with which relations are tense.    Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said he was “shocked and saddened by the news of the heinous attack.”
    Following the attacks between 2015 and 2017 that left more than 500 civilians and security personnel dead, Turkey launched cross-border military operations into Syria and northern Iraq against Kurdish militants, while also cracking down on Kurdish politicians, journalists and activists at home.
    While the Kurdish militants, known as the PKK, are considered a terrorist organization by Turkey, the United States and the European Union, critics say Erdogan has also used broad terror laws to stifle free speech.
    Most recently, Turkey enacted a controversial “disinformation law” that carries a prison sentence of up to three years for social media users who disseminate false information about domestic or international security, public order or health.    Critics have said the wording of the article is so vague, it can be used to stamp out dissent.
    Police on Sunday said they had identified 25 social media users who shared “provocative content” that could fall afoul of that law.
    In another example of the country’s restrictions on the press, Turkey’s media watchdog also imposed temporary limits on reporting on Sunday’s explosion – a move that bans the use of close-up videos and photos of the blast and its aftermath.    The Supreme Council of Radio and Television has imposed similar bans in the past, following attacks and accidents.
    Access to Twitter and other social media sites was also restricted.
    French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday noted that the Istanbul attack came exactly seven years after Islamic State extremists killed 130 people at Paris cafes, the Bataclan theater and France’s national stadium.
    “On such a symbolic day for our nation, as we are thinking of the victims who fell Nov. 13, 2015, the Turkish people were hit by an attack on their heart, Istanbul,” Macron said.    “To the Turks: We share your pain.    We stand at your side in the fight against terrorism.”

11/14/2022 UN probes Egypt police misconduct claims at summit by ASSOCIATED PRESS
Egypt’s hosting of the international climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh has
trained a spotlight on its human rights record. PETER DEJONG/AP
    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt – The United Nations says it is investigating allegations of misconduct by Egyptian police officers providing security at this year’s international climate talks.
    This follows claims that attendees of events at the German pavilion for the COP27 summit were photographed and filmed after Germany hosted an event there with the sister of a jailed Egyptian pro-democracy activist, Alaa Abdel Fattah, who also holds U.K. citizenship.
    In a statement Sunday, the U.N. climate office confirmed that some of the security officers working in the part of the venue designated as United Nations territory come from the host country, Egypt.
    This was due to the “scale and complexity of providing security at a large scale event” such as the COP27 climate talks, the global body said.    It added that their work takes place “under the direction of the operations of the U.N. Department for Safety and Security (UN DSS).”
    “The security officers provided for this COP by the host country are from the national police,” it said.    “They are here to assist in fortifying the venue and ensuring the safety and security of all participants.”
    “UN DSS has been made aware of allegations of the Code of Conduct violations and is investigating these reports,” the climate office told The AP.
    Germany’s Foreign Ministry said Saturday that it was in contact with Egyptian authorities about the incidents at its pavilion.
    “We expect all participants in the U.N. climate conference to be able to work and negotiate under safe conditions,” it said in a statement.    “This is not just true for the German but for all delegations, as well as representatives of civil society and the media.”
    Egyptian officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
    Egypt’s hosting of the international summit has trained a spotlight on its human rights record.
    The government has engaged in a widespread crackdown on dissent in recent years, detaining some 60,000 people, many without trial, according to a 2019 tally by Human Rights Watch.
    Under President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, authorities have also intimidated and barred independent media and local organizations from operating.    A prominent imprisoned activist, Alaa Abdel-Fattah, started a hunger and water strike on the first day of the conference to call attention to pressure for his own and other prisoners’ release.
    Abdel-Fattah rose to fame during the 2011 pro-democracy uprisings that spread through the Middle East, and in Egypt he amplified calls for an end to police brutality.    He has spent a total of nine years behind bars and is currently serving a 5-year sentence for re-sharing a Facebook post about the death of another detainee.
    On Sunday, Abdel-Fattah’s lawyer Khaled Ali said in a social media post that he had not been allowed to visit the activist that afternoon, despite having obtained permission from the country’s public prosecutor. He said he would return on Monday morning.    The family say they have not received proof that he is still alive since he stopped drinking water on Nov. 6, and have not received any communications from him since Oct. 31, when he announced his hunger and water strike.

11/15/2022 Turkey holds Syrian bombing suspect by Mehmet Guzel and Suzan Fraser, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Turkish flags line Istiklal Avenue in Istanbul on Monday, one day after a
bomb killed six people in the shopping district. YASIN AKGUL/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
    ISTANBUL – Turkish police said Monday they have detained a Syrian woman with suspected links to Kurdish militants and that she confessed to planting a bomb that exploded on a bustling pedestrian avenue in Istanbul, killing six people and wounding several dozen others.    Kurdish militants strongly denied any links to the bombing.     Sunday’s explosion hit Istiklal Avenue, a popular thoroughfare lined with shops and restaurants that leads to Taksim Square.
    Minister Suleyman Soylu announced early Monday.    Police later identified the suspect as Ahlam Albashir, a Syrian citizen.     The Istanbul Police Department said videos from around 1,200 security cameras were reviewed and raids were carried out at 21 locations.    At least 46 other people were detained for questioning.
    The bomber fled in a taxi after leaving TNT-type explosives on the crowded avenue, police said.
    Sunday’s explosion was a shocking reminder of the anxiety that gripped Turkey when such attacks were common.    The country was hit by a string of deadly bombings between 2015 and 2017, some by the Islamic State group, others by Kurdish militants who seek increased autonomy or independence.
    Police said the suspect told them during her interrogation that she had been trained as a “special intelligence officer” by the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, as well as the Syrian Kurdish group the Democratic Union Party and its armed wing.    She entered Turkey illegally through the Syrian border town of Afrin, police said.
    The Kurdistan Workers Party denied involvement, saying it did not target civilians.    In Syria, the main Kurdish militia group, People’s Defense Units, denied any links to the suspect.    The group maintained that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was trying to gather international support for his plans to launch a new incursion into northern Syria ahead of next year’s elections.
    Soylu said the suspect would have fled to neighboring Greece if she hadn’t been detained.
    Earlier, Soylu said security forces believe that instructions for the attack came from Kobani, the majority Kurdish city in northern Syria that borders Turkey.    He said the attack would be avenged.
    “We know what message those who carried out this action want to give us.    We got this message,” Soylu said.     “Don’t worry, we will pay them back heavily.”
    Soylu also blamed the United States, claiming that a condolence message from the White House was akin to “a killer being first to show up at a crime scene.”    Turkey has been infuriated by U.S. support for Syrian Kurdish groups.
    In its message, the White House said it strongly condemned the “act of violence” in Istanbul, adding:     “We stand shoulder-to-shoulder with our NATO ally (Turkey) in countering terrorism.”
    Istanbul Gov. Ali Yerlikaya said 57 of the 81 people hospitalized in the attack had been discharged.    Six of the wounded were in intensive care.

11/16/2022 Israel swears in new parliament, most right-wing in its history
    JERUSALEM – After nearly four years of political deadlock and five elections, Israel swore in the most rightwing parliament in its history on Tuesday.    Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu is working to cobble together a far-right and religious coalition in the 120-seat parliament.    The surging popularity of a right-wing alliance once on the fringes of Israeli society helped propel Netanyahu’s comeback even as he stands trial on corruption charges.    He has vowed to act more aggressively against Palestinian attackers.
[AS THE SIX SEALS HAVE BEEN OPENED AND COMPLETED THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISSAC AND JACOB IS PUTTING THINGS IN PLACE FOR THE COMING END OF THE OPENING OF THE 6 SEALS OF THE REVELATION AND THE SEVENTH SEAL IS OPENED IN HEAVEN TO LEAD TO THE OPENING OF THE SIX TRUMPETS TO DO THIS TO "THOSE WHO DWELL ON THE EARTH" AND THEN THE SEVENTH TRUMPET WILL OPEN THE SIX VIALS AS THEY ARE LINEAR NOT AS MANY BELIEVE OCCUR ALL AT THE SAME TIME.].

11/18/2022 EU shakes up climate talks - Offer of climate disaster fund surprises summit by Seth Borenstein, Samy Magdy and Frank Jordans, ASSOCIATED PRESS
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres speaks as Sameh Shoukry, president of the COP27
climate summit, stands at right, during the summit Thursday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. PETER DEJONG/AP
    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt – Climate talks appeared stalled late-night Thursday on major issues going into the final day, but possibilities for a deal were buoyed by an unexpected proposal by the European Union on two of the thorniest issues, tying compensation for climate disasters to tougher emissions cuts.
    Minutes after the United Nations summit’s chairman warned delegates that “we are not where we need to be in order to close this conference with tangible and robust outcomes,” the EU’s top climate official made a surprise offer.    To applause, he proposed a two-pronged approach that would create a pot of money for poor countries and push for steeper cuts of heat-trapping emissions by all countries, as well as the phasing down of all fossil fuels, including natural gas and oil.
    The issues of compensation and pollution- cutting “are two sides of the same coin as far as the European Union is concerned,” said European Union Executive Vice President Frans Timmermans, making clear that the 27-nation bloc won’t offer more money unless there are concessions on emissions targets.
    “If we do not perform enough on mitigation, there is no money on Earth enough to address the consequences of the climate crisis,” Timmermans told The Associated Press.    “The amounts of losses and damages will be such that we could never repair them.”
    “So we absolutely need high ambition on mitigation if we want to have a fighting chance also to help the most vulnerable and face these challenges,” he added.
    Vulnerable nations called for a deal to be sealed before the end of the talks.
    “This is a historic opportunity that can’t be lost and that must be seized now,” Maldives Environment Minister Aminath Shauna said.
    Poorer countries that bear the brunt of climate change, from rising sea levels to extreme flooding, stepped up the urgency, accusing richer polluters of stalling and said they cannot wait another year for the creation of a fund to pay for damages.
    Before Timmermans sprung the two-page proposal, special teams of ministers said they made progress on major issues, including loss and damage.
    But the mood was somewhat grim. United Nations climate chief Simon Stiell urged negotiators to get cracking.
    “There is an outcome where we all come out of this having done our jobs and with something that protects our planet,” Stiell said.    “Let’s do that.”
    Then Timmermans came out with his proposals and negotiators, including U.S. Special Envoy John Kerry, dashed about trying to figure out what to do next.
    Problems quickly popped up. China, which had been quiet during much of the talks, insisted that the 2015 Paris Agreement should not be changed and money for the new fund should come from developed countries, not them.
    Saudi Arabia also said it was important “to not go beyond what we have” in the Paris pact and was reluctant to pony up to a compensation fund.
    Asked to comment on the EU proposal, Kerry said he hadn’t had a chance to read it yet.
    “We’ll take a look at it,” he told The AP.    “You know, we’ll see.”
    Egypt’s leadership of the summit, called COP27, came under criticism earlier Thursday presenting what some negotiators described as a 20-page “laundry list” of wide-reaching ideas.
    “It is evidently clear that at this late stage of the COP27 process, there are still a number of issues where progress remains lacking,” Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, the president of the summit, said late Thursday.
    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who had flown in for the final stage of negotiations, warned of a “breakdown in trust between North and South, and between developed and emerging economies.”
    “The world is watching and has a simple message: stand and deliver,” he told leaders, adding that there was “no time for finger pointing.”
    Negotiators were surprised by several ideas in the Egyptian draft that they said were never discussed at the two-week talks.
    Among them was a call for developed countries to achieve “net-negative carbon emissions by 2030” – a far tougher target than any major nation has so far committed to and which would be very hard to achieve.    The EU and U.S., for example, have said they aim to reach net zero emissions by 2050, China by 2060.
    The head of the European Parliament Bas Eickhout said it was “too broad, too many topics, too vague language and too many items, which I don’t think have to be in a cover decision.”
    The conference is supposed to end Friday, but past gatherings have been extended to reach a deal.
    Longtime negotiations analyst Alden Meyer of E3G said that unlike in previous years, the president of the conference delayed putting together special teams of ministers to push through solutions on big issues, except loss and damage, and that’s putting everything behind.
    There were at least half a dozen instances where nations were “taking negotiations hostage” by taking hardline, seemingly inflexible stances, Meyer said.    The biggest was on the compensation fund for climate disasters, known as “loss and damage” in negotiators’ parlance.
    The United States has resisted any fund that would suggest liability and compensation – let alone reparations – for decades of greenhouse gas emissions by industrialized nations.
    European countries have backed calls by island nations for a “mosaic” of financial arrangements drawing on public and private sources of money.
    But there are big differences over who should pay.
    German officials said the money should not come only from the industrialized nations, but also major emerging economies whose greenhouse gas emissions have increased sharply in recent decades.
    Heavy polluters China and India, however, argue they should not have to contribute because they are still officially considered developing nations.
    The issue of loss and damage is one of three financial aid pots discussed.
    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations.    The AP is solely responsible for all content.

11/18/2022 Israel, Turkey leaders talk to improve ties by Tia Goldenberg, ASSOCIATED PRESS
    TEL AVIV, Israel – Turkey’s president and Israel’s likely next prime minister said Thursday in a phone call that they would work to continue to improve ties between their countries.     Relations between former allies Turkey and Israel became icy under former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s term in office. He is now expected to return to power soon as head of Israel’s most right-wing government ever.
    Relations were already on the mend under outgoing Prime Minister Yair Lapid, who met with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in New York in September, the first meeting between the countries’ leaders in 14 years.
    Erdogan had shown a willingness for warmer ties since Netanyahu was ousted after 12 consecutive years in power last year.     Thursday’s call signaled that the ties could continue to improve under Netanyahu.
    Over years of strained relations, Erdogan has been a vocal critic of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians.    Israel, in turn, has objected to Turkey’s embrace of Gaza’s militant Hamas rulers.

11/18/2022 Africa CDC chief urges more COVID-19 testing as cases rise
    The head of Africa’s top public health institute is urging authorities across the continent to step up COVID-19 testing amid a rise in new cases in some countries.    The continent of 1.3 billion people saw a 37% rise in new cases over the past week, Ahmed Ogwell, acting director of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Thursday.    Over the last four weeks there’s been an 11% rise in new cases, he said.    Vaccination rates in Africa continue to be low, largely because of short supplies and also because of hesitancy among some.

11/19/2022 Iranians protest at funeral for child killed - Authorities limit access to media by ASSOCIATED PRESS
Iranians mourn in front of the coffins of people killed in a shooting attack, during their funeral in the
city of Izeh in Iran's Khuzestan province, on Friday. In some of the worst violence since the protests erupted,
assailants on motorbikes shot dead seven people, including a woman and two children aged nine and 13, at a
central market of Izeh on Wednesday evening, state media said. ALIREZA MOHAMMADI/ISNA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – A large anti-government protest erupted in Iran on Friday at the funeral of a child killed in a shooting that his mother blamed on security forces.    It’s the latest in a wave of demonstrations that have flared across the country over the past two months.
    Videos circulating on social media showed hundreds of protesters at the funeral for 9-year-old Kian Pirfalak in the southwestern city of Izeh. Protests also erupted in the eastern city of Zahedan, which has seen the deadliest violence since the nationwide demonstrations began.
    The protests first erupted after the Sept. 16 death of a 22-year-old woman who was being held by the country’s morality police.    They rapidly escalated into calls for the overthrow of Iran’s ruling clerics and an end to the theocracy established after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
    Authorities have heavily restricted media access and periodically shut down the internet as they struggle to contain the biggest challenge to their leadership in more than a decade.
    State-run media in Iran reported that seven people were killed and several wounded, including security forces, in a shooting in Izeh on Wednesday. Authorities blamed the attack on “terrorists” without providing further details.
    Among the victims was Pirfalak.    His mother, Zeinab Molaei, said security forces stopped the family in their car and told them to drive away for their own safety because of a nearby protest.    When they turned around, the security forces opened fire on the vehicle, she said, according to the semiofficial Fars news agency.
    State media had initially said a young girl was killed, but later amended those reports.    Fars said 11 people have been arrested in connection to the shooting in Izeh, which Iranian officials say is under investigation.
    Dozens of protesters had gathered in different parts of Izeh around the time of the attack, chanting anti-government slogans and hurling rocks at police, who fired tear gas to disperse them, state-run media reported at the time.
    Protesters also torched a Shiite religious seminary in Izeh.
    Violence has erupted around some of the protests as security forces have clamped down on dissent.    Iran has also seen a number of recent attacks blamed on separatists and religious extremists, including a shooting at a major Shiite shrine last month that killed over a dozen people and was claimed by the Islamic State group.
    At least 388 people have been killed and more than 16,000 arrested, according to Human Rights Activists in Iran, a group monitoring the unrest.    It says at least 53 members of the security forces have been killed.

11/20/2022 Talks yield deal on disaster fund - Victory for poor nations hit by climate change by Seth Borenstein, Samy Magdy and Frank Jordans, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Sameh Shoukry, president of the COP27 climate summit, speaks at the summit Saturday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. Negotiators say they
have struck a potential breakthrough deal on the thorniest issue of United Nations climate talks: the creation of a fund for
compensating poor nations that are victims of extreme weather worsened by rich countries’ carbon pollution. Peter Dejong/AP
    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt – Negotiators say they have struck a potential breakthrough deal on the thorniest issue of United Nations climate talks in Egypt: the creation of a fund for compensating poor nations that are victims of extreme weather worsened by rich countries’ carbon pollution.
    Several Cabinet ministers from across the globe told The Associated Press that agreement was reached on a fund for what negotiators call loss and damage.    It’s a big win for poorer nations which have long called for cash – sometimes viewed as reparations – because they are often the victims of climate disasters despite having contributed little to the pollution that heats up the globe.
    'This is how a 30-year-old journey of ours has finally, we hope, found fruition today,' said Pakistan Climate Minister Sherry Rehman, who often took the lead for the world’s poorest nations.    One-third of her nation was submerged this summer by a devastating flood and she and other officials used the motto: 'What went on in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan.'
    If an agreement is accepted it still needs to be approved in a unanimous decision later Saturday.    But other parts of a deal, outlined in a package of proposals put out earlier in the day by the Egyptian chairs of the talks, are still being hammered out as negotiators head into what they hope is their final session.
    There was strong concern among both developed and developing countries about proposals on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, known as mitigation.    Officials said the language put forward by Egypt backtracked on some of the commitments made in Glasgow aimed at keeping alive the target of limiting global warming to 2.7degrees Fahrenheit since preindustrial times.    The world has already warmed 2 degrees Fahrenheit since the mid-19th century.
    Some of the Egyptian language on mitigation seemingly reverted to the 2015 Paris agreement, which was before scientists knew how crucial the 2.7-degree threshold was and heavily mentioned a weaker 3.6degrees Fahrenheit goal, which is why scientists and Europeans are afraid of backtracking, said climate scientist Maarten van Aalst of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.
    Ireland’s Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan said: 'We need to get a deal on 1.5degrees (Celsius).    We need strong wording on mitigation and that’s what we’re going to push.'
    Still, the attention centered around the compensation fund, which has also been called a justice issue.
    'There is an agreement on loss and damage,' Maldives Environment Minister Aminath Shauna told the AP early Saturday afternoon after a meeting with other delegations.    'That means for countries like ours we will have the mosaic of solutions that we have been advocating for.'
    New Zealand Climate Minister James Shaw said both the poor countries that would get the money and the rich ones that would give it are on board with the proposed deal.
    It’s a reflection of what can be done when the poorest nations remain unified, said Alex Scott, a climate diplomacy expert at the think tank E3G.
    'I think this is huge to have governments coming together to actually work out at least the first step of ... how to deal with the issue of loss and damage,' Scott said.    But like all climate financials, it is one thing to create a fund, it’s another to get money flowing in and out, she said.    The developed world still has not kept its 2009 pledge to spend $100billion a year in other climate aid – designed to help poor nations develop green energy and adapt to future warming.
    'The draft decision on loss and damage finance offers hope to the vulnerable people that they will get help to recover from climate disasters and rebuild their lives,' said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International.
    The Chinese lead negotiator would not comment on a possible deal.    The U.S. negotiations office, where special envoy John Kerry is sick with COVID-19, also declined to comment.    China and the U.S. are the two biggest carbon polluters.    European negotiators said they were ready to back the deal but declined to say so publicly until the entire package was approved.
    The Egyptian presidency, which had been under criticism by all sides, proposed a new loss and damage deal Saturday afternoon and within a couple hours an agreement was struck.    But Norway’s climate and environment minister, Espen Barth Eide, said it was not so much the Egyptians but countries working together.
    According to the latest draft, the fund would initially draw on contributions from developed countries and other private and public sources such as international financial institutions.    While major emerging economies such as China would not initially be required to contribute, that option remains on the table and will be negotiated over the coming years.    This is a key demand by the European Union and the United States, who argue that China and other large polluters currently classified as developing countries have the financial clout and responsibility to pay their way.
    The planned fund would be largely aimed at the most vulnerable nations, though there would be room for middle-income countries that are severely battered by climate disasters to get aid.
    An overarching decision that sums up the outcomes of the climate talks doesn’t include India’s call to phase down oil and natural gas, in addition to last year’s agreement to wean the world from 'unabated' coal.
    Several rich and developing nations called Saturday for a last-minute push to step up emissions cuts, warning that the outcome barely builds on what was agreed in Glasgow last year.
    Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations.    The AP is solely responsible for all content.

11/20/2022 Compensation fund approved at UN climate talks - But larger fight over emission reductions remains by Seth Borenstein, Samy Magdy and Frank Jordans, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Activists hold signs at the COP27 U.N. Climate Summit on Saturday in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. NARIMAN EL-MOFTY/AP
    SHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt – Negotiators early Sunday approved a historic deal that would create a fund for compensating poor nations that are victims of extreme weather worsened by rich countries’ carbon pollution, but an overall larger agreement still was up in the air because of a fight over emission reduction efforts.    After the decision on the fund was approved, talks were put on hold for 30 minutes so delegates could read texts of other measures they were to vote on.
    The decision establishes a fund for what negotiators call loss and damage. It is a big win for poorer nations which have long called for cash – sometimes viewed as reparations – because they are often the victims of climate worsened floods, droughts, heat waves, famines and storms despite having contributed little to the pollution that heats up the globe.
    It is also long been called an issue of climate justice.
    “This is how a 30-year-old journey of ours has finally, we hope, found fruition today,” said Pakistan Climate Minister Sherry Rehman, who often took the lead for the world’s poorest nations.    One third of her nation was submerged this summer by a devastating flood and she and other officials used the motto: “What went on in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan.”
    Maldives Environment Minister Aminath Shauna told The AP Saturday “that means for countries like ours we will have the mosaic of solutions that we have been advocating for.”
    Outside experts hailed the decision as historic.
    “This loss and damage fund will be a lifeline for poor families whose houses are destroyed, farmers whose fields are ruined, and islanders forced from their ancestral homes,” said Ani Dasgupta, president of the environmental think tank World Resources Institute, minutes after the early morning approval.    “This positive outcome from COP27 is an important step toward rebuilding trust with vulnerable countries.”
    It’s a reflection of what can be done when the poorest nations remain unified, said Alex Scott, a climate diplomacy expert at the think tank E3G.
    “I think this is huge to have governments coming together to actually work out at least the first step of … how to deal with the issue of loss and damage,” Scott said.    But like all climate financials, it is one thing to create a fund, it’s another to get money flowing in and out, she said.    The developed world still has not kept its 2009 pledge to spend $100 billion a year in other climate aid – designed to help poor nations develop green energy and adapt to future warming.
    The agreement “offers hope to the vulnerable people that they will get help to recover from climate disasters and rebuild their lives,” said Harjeet Singh, head of global political strategy at Climate Action Network International.
    “Loss and damage is a way of both recognizing past harm and compensating for that past harm,” said Dartmouth climate scientist Justin Mankin, who calculated dollar amounts for each country’s warming.    “These harms are scientifically identifiable.”
    “In many ways we’re talking about reparations,” said University of Maryland environmental health and justice professor Sacoby Wilson.    “It’s an appropriate term to use” he said, because the rich northern countries got the benefits of fossil fuels, while the poorer global south gets the damage in floods, droughts, climate refugees and hunger.
    The Egyptian presidency, which had been under criticism by all sides, proposed a new loss and damage deal Saturday afternoon and within a couple hours an agreement was struck, but Norway’s negotiator said it was not so much the Egyptians but countries working together.
    Germany climate envoy Jennifer Morgan and Chilean Environment Minister Maisa Rojas, who shepherded the deal on to the agenda and to the finish line, hugged each other after passage, posed for a photo and said “yeah, we made it!”
    According to the agreement, the fund would initially draw on contributions from developed countries and other private and public sources such as international financial institutions.    While major emerging economies such as China would not initially be required to contribute, that option remains on the table and will be negotiated over the coming years.
    This is a key demand by the European Union and the United States, who argue that China and other large polluters currently classified as developing countries have the financial clout and responsibility to pay their way.
    The fund would be largely aimed at the most vulnerable nations, though there would be room for middle-income countries that are severely battered by climate disasters to get aid.
    Bleary-eyed rumpled delegations began to fill the plenary room 4 a.m. local time Sunday without seeing the overarching cover decision.
    Going into the final session, battle lines were drawn over India’s request to change last year’s agreement that called for a phase down of “unabated coal” to include a phase down of oil and natural gas, two other fossil fuels that produce heat-trapping gases.    While European nations and others keep pushing for that language, Saudi Arabia, Russia and Nigeria have been insistent on keeping it out.,br>     “We are extremely on overtime. There were some good spirits earlier today.    I think more people are more frustrated about the lack of progress,” Norwegian climate change minister Espen Barth Eide told The Associated Press.    He said it came down to getting tougher on fossil fuel emissions and retaining the goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times as was agreed in last year’s climate summit in Glasgow.
    “Some of us are trying to say that we actually have to keep global warming under 1.5 degrees and that requires some action.    We have to reduce our use of fossil fuels, for instance,” Eide said.    “But there’s a very strong fossil fuel lobby … trying to block any language that we produce.    So that’s quite clear.”
    There was strong concern among both developed and developing countries about proposals on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, known as mitigation.    Officials said the language put forward by Egypt backtracked on some of the commitments made at last year’s U.N. climate conference in Glasgow aimed at keeping alive the target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) since pre-industrial times.    The world has already warmed 1.1 degrees Celsius (2 degrees Fahrenheit) since the mid-19th century.
    Some of the Egyptian language on mitigation seemingly reverted to the 2015 Paris agreement, which was before scientists knew how crucial the 1.5-degree threshold was and heavily mentioned a weaker 2-degree Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) goal, which is why scientists and Europeans are afraid of backtracking, said climate scientist Maarten van Aalst of the Red Cross Red Crescent Climate Centre.
    Ireland’s Minister for the Environment Eamon Ryan said: “We need to get a deal on 1.5 degrees.    We need strong wording on mitigation and that’s what we’re going to push.”

11/21/2022 Secy Of State Blinken Attends USMNT’s Opening Game Of 2022 World Cup In Qatar by OAN Newsroom
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken waves before boarding his plane at Ciampino Airport in Rome
to travel to Bari, Italy, on June 28, 2021, as part of Blinken’s week long trip in Europe.
(Photo by Andrew Harnik / POOL / AFP) (Photo by ANDREW HARNIK/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
    Secretary of State Antony Blinken watched the United States’ Men’s National Soccer Team’s first game in the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.
    Blinken as one of the estimated 43,000 fans in attendance at Ahmad Bin Ali Stadium in Al-Rayyan, where the U.S. played against Wales.    The game resulted in a one-to-one draw.
    “One of the things that we do is we engage in what we call sports diplomacy,” Blinken said.    “We use sports as a way of connecting people, connecting people to our country.”
    Others in attendance were Mexican Foreign Secretary Marcelo Ebrard, Canadian Development Minister Harjit Sajjan, and Hasan Al Thaw Adi, head of the committee that organized the World Cup in Qatar.
    While in Qatar, the Secretary of State is also slated to hold talks with Qatari officials. That includes the nation’s foreign minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani.
    Before attending the game, Blinken stopped by an event involving local students. There, he spoke about soccer’s unifying power.
    “I’m a lifelong lover of football, a great mediocre player, but a lover of the sport,” Blinken said.    “And the thing that’s so powerful about it is everywhere that I go in the world, I find other people who love the game, and they love to play it.    They love to watch it enough to argue about it.    They love to support a team with all the joy and heartbreak that that brings.    But it’s an incredibly powerful way of bringing people together.”
    Qatar is under heavy criticism for a wide range of human rights abuses in the lead-up to the World Cup.    The U.S. team is next scheduled to play England on Friday.

11/23/2022 Turkey hints new Syria offensive - Russia urges restraint to prevent escalation by Suzan Fraser, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Syrian Kurds attend a funeral of people killed in Turkish airstrikes in the village
of Al Malikiyah, northern Syria, on Monday. PHOTOS BY BADERKHAN AHMAD/AP
    ANKARA, Turkey – Turkey’s president again hinted at a possible new ground offensive in Syria against Kurdish militants on Tuesday, as Syrian forces denounced new airstrikes and Russia urged restraint and called on Ankara to avoid an escalation.
    Russian presidential envoy in Syria Alexander Lavrentyev said that Turkey should “show a certain restraint” in order to prevent an escalation in Syria, where tensions heightened over the weekend after Turkish airstrikes killed and wounded a number of Syrian soldiers.
    Lavrentyev – whose country is a strong ally of the Syrian government – expressed hope that “it will be possible to convince our Turkish partners to refrain from excessive use of force on Syrian territory.”
    Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces later said fresh Turkish airstrikes on Tuesday struck a base the group shares with the U.S.-led coalition in the fight against the Islamic State group. The base is just outside the town of Qamishli, 30 miles from the Turkish border.    Two SDF fighters were killed and three were wounded, the group said.
    Turkey carried out airstrikes on suspected Kurdish militant targets in northern Syria and Iraq over the weekend, in retaliation for a deadly Nov. 13 bombing in Istanbul that Ankara blames on the militant groups.    The groups have denied involvement in the bombing.
    The airstrikes also hit several Syrian army positions in three provinces along the border with Turkey, and killed and wounded a number of Syrian soldiers, Syrian officials said.
    “We will, of course, call on our Turkish colleagues to show a certain restraint in order to prevent an escalation of tension, and an escalation of tension not only in the north, but also in the entire territory of Syria,” Lavrentyev was quoted as saying by the Russian state news agencies in the Kazakh capital, Astana, ahead of talks on Syria.
    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey’s actions would not be limited to aerial strikes, suggesting a possible new incursion – a position he reiterated on Tuesday.
    “We have been on top of the terrorists for the past few days with our planes, artillery and drones,” Erdogan said.    “As soon as possible, we will root out all of them together with our tanks and soldiers.”
    Erdogan continued: “From now on, there is only one measure for us.    There is only one border.    (And that is) the safety of our own country, our own citizens.    It is our most legitimate right to go where this security is ensured.”
    Turkey has launched three major incursions into northern Syria since 2016 and already controls some Syrian territory in the north.
    Following the weekend’s airstrikes from Turkey, suspected Kurdish militants in Syria fired rockets Monday across the border into Turkey, killing at least two people and wounding 10 others, according to Turkish officials.    Three more rockets were fired on Tuesday, but caused no damage or injuries, the state-run Anadolu Agency reported.
    While Kurdish-led forces in Syria have not claimed responsibility for the attacks, the SDF on Monday vowed to respond to Turkish airstrikes “effectively and efficiently at the right time and place.”
    The Turkish warplanes attacked bases of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and the Syrian People’s Protection Units, or YPG on Saturday night and on Sunday.    Turkish officials claimed that 89 targets were destroyed and many militants were killed.
    A Syria war monitoring group said 35 people were killed in Turkish airstrikes over the weekend – 18 Kurdish fighters, 16 Syrian government soldiers and a journalist.
    Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Tuesday that Moscow views Turkey’s security concerns “with understanding and respect” but also urges Ankara to “refrain from steps that could lead to a serious destabilization of the situation in general.”
    “It can come back as a boomerang,” Peskov said.
    Also Tuesday, German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser reiterated during a joint news conference with her Turkish counterpart that Berlin stands with Turkey in the fight against terrorism, but said Turkey’s response to attacks must be “proportionate” and mindful of civilian populations.
    Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu, however, defended Turkey’s actions.
    “They want to establish a terror state around us; we cannot allow that.    It is our duty to protect our borders and our nation,” he said.
    Turkey’s defense minister meanwhile, renewed a call for the United States and other nations not to back the Syrian Kurdish militia group, YPG, which Turkey regards as an extension of the PKK.
The airstrikes, which Turkey said were aimed at Kurdish militants whom Ankara
blamed for a deadly bombing in Istanbul, also struck Syrian army positions.

11/24/2022 Twin blasts shake Jerusalem - Attacks kill Canadian-Israeli teen, injure 18 others by Alon Bernstein and Tia Goldenberg, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Mourners attend the funeral of Aryeh Schupak, 15, a dual Israeli-Canadian citizen who was
killed in an explosion near a bus stop in Jerusalem on Wednesday. MAYA ALLERUZZO/AP
    JERUSALEM – Two blasts went off near bus stops in Jerusalem at the height of morning rush hour on Wednesday, killing a Canadian-Israeli teenager and injuring at least 18, in what police said were attacks by Palestinians.
    The first explosion occurred near a typically crowded bus stop on the edge of the city.    The second went off about half an hour later in Ramot, a settlement in the city’s north.    Police said one person died from their wounds and at least three were seriously wounded in the blasts.
    The victim was identified as Aryeh Schupak, 15, who was heading to a Jewish seminary when the blast went off, according to a notice announcing his death.    Schupak was also a Canadian citizen, according to Canada’s Ambassador to Israel Lisa Stadelbauer.
    Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been surging for months, amid nightly Israeli raids in the occupied West Bank prompted by a spate of deadly attacks against Israelis that killed 19 people in the spring.
    There has also been an uptick in recent weeks in Palestinian attacks.    Israeli troops shot dead two Palestinians after what Israel said was an armed attack in the occupied West Bank.
    The violence occurred hours after Palestinian militants stormed a West Bank hospital and carried out an Israeli citizen seeking treatment there after a car accident, according to the young man’s father. That incident could further ratchet up tensions.
    Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid said Israel would track down the attackers.
    “They can run, they can hide – it won’t help them,” he said in a statement.    “We will punish them to the fullest extent of the law.”
    The developments took place as former Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is holding coalition talks after national elections and is likely to return to power as head of what’s expected to be Israel’s most right-wing government ever.
    Itamar Ben-Gvir, an extremist lawmaker who has called for the death penalty for Palestinian attackers and who is set to become the minister in charge of police under Netanyahu, said the attack meant Israel needed to take a tougher stance on Palestinian violence.
    “We must exact a price from terror,” he said at the scene of the first explosion.    “We must return to be in control of Israel, to restore deterrence against terror.”
    Police, who were searching for the suspected attackers, said their initial findings showed that shrapnel-laden explosive devices were placed at the two sites. The police said it deployed additional officers to the city in the aftermath of the blasts.
    The twin blasts occurred amid the buzz of rush hour traffic and police briefly closed part of a main highway leading out of the city, where the first explosion went off.    Video from shortly after the initial blast showed debris strewn along the sidewalk as the wail of ambulances blared.    A bus in Ramot was pocked with what looked like shrapnel marks.
    “It was a crazy explosion,” Yosef Haim Gabay, a medic who was at the scene when the first blast occurred, told Israeli Army Radio.    “I saw people with wounds bleeding all over the place.”
    While Palestinians have carried out stabbings, car rammings and shootings in recent years, bombing attacks have become rare since the end of a Palestinian uprising nearly two decades ago.
    The U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem condemned the violence, as did EU Ambassador to Israel Dimiter Tzantchev.
    The Islamic militant Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip and once carried out suicide bombings against Israelis, praised the perpetrators of the attacks, calling it a heroic operation, but stopped short of claiming responsibility.
    “The occupation is reaping the price of its crimes and aggression against our people,” Hamas spokesman Abd al-Latif al-Qanua said.
    Israel said that in response to the blasts, it was closing two West Bank crossings to Palestinians near the West Bank city of Jenin, a militant stronghold.
    In Jenin late Tuesday, militants entered a hospital and removed the Israeli teen wounded in a car accident.    The young man, 17, was from Israel’s Druze minority.    His father, who was in the hospital room with him, said the militants disconnected him from hospital equipment and took him while still alive.    The Israeli military said the young man was already dead when he was taken.
    “It was something horrendous. It was something that was inhumane,” Husam Ferro, the teen’s father, told Israeli news site YNet.    “He was still alive and they took him in front of my eyes and I couldn’t do anything.”
    A Druze community leader told YNet talks were underway on the body’s return to the family.    Palestinian militants have in the past carried out kidnappings to seek concessions from Israel.
    More than 130 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2006. The Israeli army says killed have been militants.    But stone throwing youths protesting Israeli army incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
    At least eight Israelis have been killed in the most recent wave of Palestinian attacks.

11/24/2022 Erdogan vows Syria ground invasion - Leader of Kurdish forces says group ready to fight by Hogir Al Abdo and Abby Sewell, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Smoke rises from an oil depot struck by Turkey near the town of Qamishli, Syria, Wednesday. Turkey’s
president says he will carry out a land invasion into Kurdish areas of northern Syria. BADERKHAN AHMAD/AP
    QAMISHLI, Syria – Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan vowed Wednesday to order a land invasion of northern Syria targeting Kurdish groups, amid yearslong border violence and repeated Turkish incursions.
    Turkey has launched a barrage of airstrikes on suspected militant targets in northern Syria and Iraq in recent days, in retaliation for a deadly Nov. 13 bombing in Istanbul that Ankara blames on the Kurdish groups.
    The groups have denied involvement in the bombing, and say Turkish strikes have killed civilians and threatened the fight against the Islamic State group.
    Ankara’s allies, particularly Russia, have attempted to avert a ground incursion, but Erdogan said Wednesday in a speech to his ruling party’s legislators in Ankara that the air operations are “just the beginning” and that Turkey is determined to “close down all of our southern borders … with a security strip that will prevent the possibility of attacks on our country.”
    Turkey has carried out a series of incursions into Syria since 2016 and already controls parts of northern Syria.    Erdogan said the new military offensive, planned to take place “at the most convenient time for us” would target the regions of Tel Rifaat, Manbij and Kobani, which is also known by its Arabic name Ayn Al Arab.
    “The day is near when those concrete tunnels which the terrorists use for safety will become their graves,” he said.
    The commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria, meanwhile, said his group is prepared to repel a ground invasion by Turkey.
    SDF head Mazloum Abdi said his group has been preparing for another such attack since Turkey launched a ground offensive in the area in 2019 and “we believe that we have reached a level where we can foil any new attack.    At least the Turks will not be able to occupy more of our areas and there will be a great battle.”
    He added, “If Turkey attacks any region, the war will spread to all regions … and everyone will be hurt by that.”
    Following the weekend’s airstrikes, Turkish officials said that suspected Kurdish militants fired rockets Monday across the Syrian border into Turkey, killing at least two people and wounding 10 others.
    Abdi denied that SDF had struck inside Turkish territory.     Russian presidential envoy in Syria Alexander Lavrentyev said that Turkey should “show a certain restraint” in order to prevent an escalation in Syria and expressed hope that “it will be possible to convince our Turkish partners to refrain from excessive use of force on Syrian territory.”
    Mazloum called on Moscow and Damascus, as well as on the U.S.-led coalition fighting against the Islamic State group in Syria, to take a stronger stance to prevent a Turkish ground invasion, warning that such an action could harm attempts to combat a resurgence of IS.
    “We can say that our work against IS with the international coalition has stopped, because we are preoccupied with the Turkish attacks,” he said.    “Our coordination and work with the Russians on the ground has also been affected by the Turkish attacks.”
    Late Wednesday, Turkish airstrikes also hit near the al-Hol camp in Hassakeh province where tens of thousands of wives, widows, and children of Islamic State group militants are held.    SDF forces and a camp official said the strikes appeared to target security forces in charge of keeping the crime ridden camp secure.
    Sheikhmous Ahmad, a Kurdish official overseeing camps for displaced people in northeast Syria, said that some detainees tried to escape.
    “The security forces currently have Al-Hol camp under control, but that could change if these attacks continued and the detainees could disperse in the area,” Ahmad told the AP.    “This would also threaten international security, not just our own.”
    A U.S. Central Command spokesperson said that one of the Turkish strikes on Tuesday had hit within 300 meters of US personnel, adding, “These strikes continue to put U.S. forces at risk.”    He declined to say where the site that had been struck was.
    The Turkish airstrikes, which have killed a number of Syrian army soldiers operating in the same area as the SDF forces, have also threatened to upset a nascent rapprochement between Damascus and Ankara.    The two have been on opposing sides in Syria’s civil war but in recent months have launched low-level talks.

11/26/2022 US official urges ‘de-escalation’ as Turkey strikes - Country targets rebels in Syria after fatal bombing by Bassem Mroue, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A Turkey-backed Syrian fighter mans a position on the outskirts of Kuljibrin, Syria, facing positions of a Kurdish-controlled
area, on Friday. Turkey this week launched a wave of airstrikes on suspected Kurdish rebels. BAKR ALKASEM/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
    BEIRUT – A U.S. official in Syria on Friday called for an “immediate de-escalation” following days of deadly airstrikes and shelling along the Syria-Turkey border, saying the actions destabilize the region and undermine the fight against the Islamic State group.
    Turkey this week launched a wave of airstrikes on suspected Kurdish rebels hiding in neighboring Syria and Iraq, in retaliation for a deadly Nov. 13 bombing in Istanbul that Ankara blames on the Kurdish groups.
    The groups have denied involvement in the bombing and say the Turkish strikes have killed civilians and threatened the anti-IS fight.
    The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, said that 67 civilians, gunmen and soldiers, have been killed in Turkish attacks in northern Syria since the airstrikes began.
    Nikolas Granger, the U.S. senior representative to northeastern Syria, said Washington “strongly opposes military action that further destabilizes the lives of communities and families in Syria and we want immediate de-escalation.”
    The developments are “unacceptably dangerous and we are deeply concerned,” said Granger, who is currently in Syria, and added that the strikes also endanger U.S. military personnel there.
    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened a new land invasion of northern Syria targeting Kurdish groups.    On Friday, he said Turkey would continue its “struggle against all kinds of terror inside and outside our borders.”
    Turkey and the United States both consider the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, a terror group for the decades long insurgency and attacks the group has staged within Turkey’s borders.
    But they disagree on the status of the main Kurdish militia in Syria, the People’s Protection Units, or YPG. The Syrian Kurdish group has been a key U.S. ally in the fight against IS.
    Turkey has carried out three major incursions into northern Syria since 2016 and its forces still control part of the country.
    Kurdish officials in Syria have been warning that any new Turkish incursion would disrupt the fight against IS, which still has sleeper cells and has carried out deadly attacks in recent months against the Syrian Kurdish-led opposition forces as well as Syrian government forces.
    “We take these threats seriously and prepare to confront any ground attacks,” Siamand Ali, a spokesman for the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces told The Associated Press.

11/26/2022 Congo on edge to see if cease-fire happens - Rebel group not included in talks by Justin Kabumba, ASSOCIATED PRESS
    GOMA, Congo – Civilians in mineral rich eastern Congo edgily waited to see whether a cease-fire to end the latest round of fighting between government forces and a shadowy rebel group would come into effect as planned Friday evening.
    Congo’s president and neighboring Rwanda’s foreign minister were among the leaders who helped engineer the cease-fire at a summit this week in Angola.
    The cease in hostilities is meant to be followed by a withdrawal of fighters from the M23 rebel group from the major towns they have seized in recent months – Bunagana, Rutshuru and Kiwanja.
    While M23 was not formally a party to the talks in Angola, it has said it will accept the cease-fire.    But it also says it doesn’t trust the Congolese government to honor the deal and end hostilities.
    “Otherwise, the M23 reserves itself the full right to defend itself and to protect the civilian populations against any violations of the agreed cease-fire,” said M23 chairman Bertrand Bisimwa.
    The group was warned that if it did not abide, the East African Community regional force would use force to make them do so.
    On Friday, Kenyan troops patrolled in the streets of Goma, the region’s largest city.    Fighting between rebels and the Congolese military in recent weeks has caused people to flee their homes and abandon their fields.    At a displacement camp in Kanyaruchinya, many longed to go home but remained fearful.
    The Congolese government accuses Rwanda of backing the rebels, which Rwanda has denied.
    “If the government has agreed with Rwanda that the M23 should return home, we are happy,” said Nsambimana Ashiwe, 64.    “Because we also want to return home to cultivate our fields and keep our cows, sheep and goats because we are here and we are hungry.    We are suffering a lot.”
    The M23 rose to prominence a decade ago when its fighters seized Goma, the largest city in Congo’s east, which sits along the border with Rwanda.    After a peace agreement, many of M23’s fighters were integrated into the national military.
    Then the group reemerged last November, saying the government had failed to live up to its promises under the peace deal. By June, M23 had seized the strategic town of Bunagana near the border with Uganda.
    M23 has been a sticking point in deteriorating relations between Congo and Rwanda.    Many of the rebel fighters are Congolese ethnic Tutsis and Rwanda’s president is of Rwandan Tutsi descent.
    When formed more than a decade ago, M23 was fighting to protect the rights of Congo’s ethnic Tutsis.    But many speculate that they just want control of eastern Congo because of its mineral wealth.

11/27/2022 Ble Goude returns to Ivory Coast after 11 years in exile by Toussaint N'Gotta, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ivorian politician Charles Ble Goude, a key figure in post-electoral violence 11 years ago, addresses supporters on Saturday. SIA KAMBOU/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
    ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast – Former Youth Minister Charles Ble Goude, who was acquitted of crimes at the International Criminal Court, returned home Saturday to Ivory Coast after more than a decade of exile.
    He arrived in Abidjan on a commercial flight around 1 p.m. and made no comment at the airport, which was heavily guarded by police.    However, he later greeted supporters in Yopougon, where he promised them there would be a meeting in the coming weeks.
    “It is time to tell the truth,” Ble Goude said.    “Eleven years of lies, and only an hour-long press conference to restore the truth.    Ivory Coast needs those who tell the truth.    It does not need liars.”
    Ble Goude was the leader of the Young Patriots, a pro-government youth organization seen by many as a militia, and youth minister under Former President Laurent Gbagbo.
    More than 3,000 people were killed in violence that erupted after Gbagbo refused to accept defeat by his rival in the 2010 election, current Ivory Coast President Alassane Ouattara.
    Ble Goude was ultimately cleared in 2019 at the International Criminal Court, along with Gbagbo, of responsibility for crimes including murder, rape and persecution following the disputed election.
    Judges halted the trial before defense lawyers had even presented evidence, saying prosecutors failed to prove their case, and appeals judges upheld the acquittal.
    Gbagbo returned to Ivory Coast last year and while some had feared his return could set off new unrest, Gbagbo was received by Ouattara himself and has mostly maintained a low profile.
    Human rights groups say the Young Patriots created a climate of terror, erecting barricades and checkpoints where they attempted to identify “enemies of Ivory Coast” – meaning supporters of Ouattara. Because Ouattara is from northern Ivory Coast and one side of his family has roots in Burkina Faso, anyone having a northern name, as well as immigrants from neighboring nations, became targets.
    Until Gbagbo was forced from power in April 2011, Ble Goude held regular rallies where he used increasingly xenophobic rhetoric, which many believe incited his supporters to violence – claims that he has denied.
    “Can you show me a single video, or a single audio, where I asked the youth of Ivory Coast to hurt foreigners?” Ble Goude told The Associated Press in 2012 from an undisclosed location.    “These are vulgar lies that I deny.    It’s not true.”
    Ble Goude was later arrested in 2013 in Ghana after nearly two years in hiding, and then was extradited to the ICC.    After his acquittal, he sought financial compensation, saying that he was “the victim of a wrongful prosecution amounting to a grave and manifest miscarriage of justice.”    ICC judges rejected the claim earlier this year.

11/27/2022 Syrian Kurds halt ops versus IS by ASSOCIATED PRESS
    BEIRUT – The commander of the main U.S.-backed Kurdish-led force in Syria said Saturday they have halted operations against the Islamic State group due to Turkish attacks on northern Syria over the past week.
    Mazloum Abdi of the Syrian Democratic Forces told reporters that after nearly a week of Turkish airstrikes on northern Syria, Ankara is now preparing for a ground offensive.    He said Turkey- backed opposition fighters are getting ready to take part in the operations.    Abdi added that Turkish strikes over the past week have caused severe damage to the region’s infrastructure.
    Abdi said Turkey is taking advantage of the deadly Nov. 13 bombing in Istanbul that Ankara blames on Kurdish groups. Kurdish organizations have denied any involvement in the Istanbul attack that killed six and wounded dozens.
    Over the past week, Turkey launched a wave of airstrikes on suspected Kurdish rebels hiding in neighboring Syria and Iraq in retaliation for the Istanbul attack.
    “The forces that work symbolically with the international coalition in the fight against Daesh are now targets for the Turkish state and therefore (military) operations have stopped,” Abdi said, using an Arabic acronym of the Islamic State group.    “Anti-Daesh operations have stopped.”
    His comments came hours after the U.S. military said two rockets targeted U.S.-led coalition forces at bases in the Syrian town of Shaddadeh.

11/27/2022 Energy-rich Qatar faces fast-rising climate risks - One of world’s hottest nations is a big polluter by Suman Naishadham, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Demand for fossil fuels has brought immense wealth to Qatar, but in the coming decades
it could also make one of the world’s hottest places unlivable. HASSAN AMMAR/AP
    AL RAYYAN, Qatar – At a suburban park near Doha, the capital city of Qatar, cool air from vents in the ground blasted joggers on a November day that reached almost 32 degrees Celsius (90 degrees Fahrenheit).
    The small park with air-conditioned paths is an apt illustration of World Cup host Qatar’s answers, so far, to the rising temperatures its people face. The wealthy Gulf Arab nation has been able to pay for extreme adaptive measures like this thanks to the natural gas it exports to the world.
    A small peninsula that juts out into the Persian Gulf, Qatar sits in a region that, outside the Arctic, is warming faster than anyplace else on earth.     “It’s already bad.    And it’s getting worse,” said Jos Lelieveld, an atmospheric chemist at Germany’s Max Planck Institute.    Part of the reason is the warming waters of the Persian Gulf, a shallow, narrow sea that contributes to stifling humidity in Qatar during some months.
    “It’s a pretty difficult environment.    It’s quite hostile,” said Karim Elgendy, an associate fellow at the London-based Chatham House think tank. Without its ability to pay for imported food, heavy air-conditioning and desalinated ocean water, he said, the contemporary country couldn’t exist.
    Already, Qatar has faced a significant rise in temperatures compared to preindustrial times.    Scientists and others concerned about climate change are trying to keep the Earth as a whole from warming by more than 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) on average because research shows it will be profoundly disruptive, making many people homeless, inundating coastlines and destroying ecosystems.
    “Qatar has an enormous amount to lose in terms of the effects of climate change,” said Mohammed Ayoub, a professor at the Environment and Energy Research Institute at Qatar’s Hamad bin Khalifa University.    It is one of the world’s hottest countries and will experience even more heat extremes, floods, droughts and sand and dust storms.
Climate pledges
    If Qatar is one of the world’s wealthiest nations per capita, it is also one of the most polluting per person.    Around this country slightly smaller than the U.S. state of Connecticut, large SUVs are a common sight, filled with cheap gasoline.
    Air-conditioning blasts the insides of buildings year-round.    Even the country’s drinking water is energy intensive, with nearly all of it coming from desalination plants that burn fossil fuel for the force needed to press ocean water through tiny filters to make it consumable.
    In recent years, Qatar has inched forward making climate pledges.    At the 2015 Paris climate talks, it did not commit to reducing emissions, but set a goal six years later to cut emissions 25% by 2030.    One way would be to use carbon capture and storage at gas production facilities, a much-discussed technology that has yet to be deployed at scale.
    Recently, the country also connected a solar power plant to its electric grid that could power 10% of the nation’s energy needs at full capacity.
    In Doha, there is a new metro system, more green spaces and parks, and the upscale Msheireb district which was designed to take advantage of natural wind flows.
    But it’s not clear that Qatar can reach its reduction goal in seven years.    At the recent U.N. climate conference in Egypt, Qatar’s environment minister Sheikh Faleh bin Nasser bin Ahmed bin Ali Al Thani said the country was “working to translate these ambitions to facts.”
    The ministry of environment and climate change did not respond to multiple requests from The Associated Press for comment on its emissions reduction plan.
    In the past, it has said that one key effort will be to diversify Qatar’s economy.
    Many observers say hosting the World Cup is part of branching out from oil and gas to become an entertainment and events destination.
    But to hold the event, Qatar built enormous amounts of infrastructure over a 12-year period – with a massive carbon footprint, despite its claims otherwise.
    “They can’t diversify without spending money,” said Elgendy.    “And that money will come from oil and gas.    It’s a bit of a conundrum.”
Global demand for gas
    Qatari officials and some academics argue that exporting liquefied natural gas to the world can help the transition to clean energy because the fossil fuel is less polluting than oil and coal.    That view is increasingly unsupported by science as the extent of leaks from natural gas infrastructure becomes clear.    Leaking natural gas is far more harmful for the climate than carbon dioxide, ton for ton.
    Earlier this year, state-owned gas giant Qatar Energy joined an industry-led pledge to reduce nearly all methane emissions from operations by 2030.    Methane is the principal constituent of natural gas.
    But a real turn away from fossil fuels has yet to begin here.
    After Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Europe’s race to replace gas from that country left Qatar – among the world’s top natural gas producers and exporters – in pole position to benefit.
    Qatar inked new deals with several energy companies, including a recent 27-year agreement to provide liquefied natural gas to Chinese oil and gas company Sinopec.
    “Since the war in Ukraine, everyone is talking to the Qataris now to see if they can get that gas,” Elgendy said.

11/28/2022 Abuses cited in Tigray after truce - Region remains cut off from rest of Ethiopia by Rodney Muhumuza, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Negotiators for Ethiopia and Tigray sign documents during peace talks in
South Africa on Nov. 2. Tigray is still embattled following the truce. Themba Hadebe/AP file
    KAMPALA, Uganda – Allies of Ethiopia’s federal military are looting property and carrying out mass detentions in Tigray, according to eyewitnesses and aid workers.
    The accounts raise fresh concern about alleged atrocities more than three weeks after the warring parties signed a truce that diplomats and others hoped would bring an end to suffering in the embattled region that’s home to more than 5million people.
    Tigray is still largely cut off from the rest of Ethiopia, although aid deliveries into the region resumed after the Nov. 2 cease-fire deal signed in South Africa.    There’s limited or no access into the region for human rights researchers, making it difficult for journalists and others to obtain information from Tigray as Ethiopian forces continue to assert control of the region.
    Eritrean troops and forces from the neighboring Ethiopian region of Amhara – who have been fighting on the side of Ethiopia’s federal military in the Tigray conflict – have looted businesses, private properties, vehicles and health clinics in Shire, a northwestern town that was captured from Tigray forces last month, two aid workers there told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because of safety concerns.
    Several young people have been kidnapped by Eritrean troops in Shire, the aid workers said.    One said he saw 'more than 300' youths being rounded up by Ethiopian federal troops in several waves of mass detentions after the capture of Shire, home to a large number of internally displaced people.
    'There are different detention centers around the town,' said the aid worker, who also noted that Ethiopian federal troops were arresting people believed to be 'associated' with the Tigray People’s Liberation Front, or TPLF, the political party whose leaders led the war against the federal government.
    Civilians accused of aiding Tigray forces are being detained in the southern town of Alamata, according to a resident who said     Amhara forces had arrested several of his friends.    A former regional official said Amhara forces are also carrying out 'mass' arrests in the town of Korem, around 12 miles north of Alamata, and in surrounding areas.
    Both the Alamata resident and the former regional official, like some others who spoke to AP, requested anonymity because of safety concerns as well as fear of reprisals.
    The continuing presence of Eritrean troops in Tigray remains a sore point in the ongoing peace process, and the U.S. has called for their withdrawal from the region.    The military spokesman and government communications minister in Ethiopia didn’t respond to a request for comment.    Eritrea’s embassy in Ethiopia also didn’t respond.
    Eritrea, which shares a border with Tigray, was not mentioned in the text of the cease-fire deal.    The absence of Eritrea from cease-fire negotiations had raised questions about whether that country’s repressive government, which has long considered Tigray authorities a threat, would respect the agreement.
    A subsequent implementation accord, signed by military commanders in Kenya, states that the Tigray forces will disband their heavy weapons 'concurrently with the withdrawal of foreign and non-(federal) forces from the region.'
    Yet aid officials, diplomats and others inside Tigray say Eritrean forces are still active in several areas of Tigray, hurting the peace process.    Eritrean troops have been blamed for some of the conflict’s worst abuses, including gang rapes.
    Tigrai Television, a regional broadcaster based in the Tigrayan capital of Mekele, reported on Nov. 19 that Eritrean soldiers killed 63 civilians, including 10 children, in an area called Egela in central Tigray.    That report cited witnesses including one who said affected communities were being prevented from burying their dead.
    Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken discussed the importance of implementing the peace deal, 'including the withdrawal of all foreign forces and the concurrent disarmament of the Tigray forces,' in a phone call Monday, according to State Department spokesman Ned Price.
    Four youths were killed by Eritrean forces in the northwestern Tigray town of Axum on Nov. 17, a humanitarian worker told the AP.    'The killings have not stopped despite the peace deal … and it is being carried out in Axum exclusively by Eritrean forces,' the humanitarian worker said.
    Tigray’s communication bureau last week said Eritrea’s military 'continues committing horrific atrocities in Tigray.'    That statement charged that Eritrean President Isaias Afwerki 'is bringing more units into Tigray though (he is) expected to withdraw his troops' following the cease-fire deal.
    The brutal fighting, which spilled into the Amhara and Afar regions as Tigray forces pressed toward the federal capital last year, was renewed in August in Tigray after months of lull.
    Tigray is in the grip of a dire humanitarian crisis after two years of restrictions on aid.    These restrictions prompted a U.N. panel of experts to conclude Ethiopia’s government probably used 'starvation as a method of warfare' against the region.    Ethiopian authorities have long denied targeting civilians in Tigray, saying their goal is to apprehend the region’s rebellious leaders.
    Despite the African Union-led cease-fire, basic services such as phone, electricity and banking are still switched off in most parts of Tigray.    The U.S. estimates hundreds of thousands of people could have been killed in the war marked by abuses on all sides.
    The cease-fire deal requires federal authorities to facilitate 'unhindered humanitarian access' to Tigray.     The World Food Program said Friday it had sent 96 trucks of food and fuel to Tigray since the agreement although access to parts of central and eastern Tigray remains 'constrained.'
    Unhindered access into Tigray has not yet been granted despite the number of trucks going into the region, with several restrictions remaining in place, an aid worker said Friday.    There are limits on the amount of cash humanitarian organizations can take into Tigray, while checkpoints and military commanders impede the movements of aid workers within the region, the aid worker said.

11/28/2022 Yemen signs $1B economic aid deal - Half of population on brink of famine by ASSOCIATED PRESS
Yemen signed a deal with the Arab Monetary Fund on Sunday, paving the way for the
Saudi-backed administration to receive $1 billion in economic aid. HAMMADI ISSA/AP
    CAIRO – Yemen’s internationally recognized government signed a deal with the Arab Monetary Fund on Sunday, state media said, paving the way for the Saudi-backed administration to receive $1 billion of economic aid.
    The Abu Dhabi-based fund, a sub-organization of the 22-member Arab League, will pay out the $1 billion program from 2022 to 2025.
    The economic deal aims to help the Yemeni government establish monetary and fiscal stability through wide-ranging economic reforms, Saba news agency said.
    Yemen’s civil war, which is entering its eighth year, has decimated the country’s economy and pushed half of the population to the brink of famine.    More than 150,000 people have been killed in the conflict, including over 14,500 civilians.
    On average food is 60% more expensive than it was last year, largely due to the war in Ukraine that has cut off the country’s critical wheat imports from Eastern Europe.
    The conflict began in 2014 when the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels seized the capital of Sanaa, along with much of northern Yemen, forcing the government into exile.    A Saudi Arabia-led coalition, including the United Arab Emirates, intervened in 2015 to try to restore the internationally recognized government’s power.    The country’s central bank has since been divided between the warring sides.
    The Aden branch of Yemen’s central bank falls under the control of Saudi coalition forces.
    In recent years, the Aden branch has helped fuel inflation by printing new banknotes to pay off its debts and cover public sector salaries.    Aden-printed notes are not excepted in Houthi-controlled areas, whose central bank operates from Sanaa.
    Sunday’s deal was signed by the governor of the Aden branch of Yemen’s central bank, Ahmed al-Maabqi, in the presence of Saudi Arabia’s Finance Minister, Mohammed Al-Jadaan.
    In a statement issued by the Houthi’s Finance Ministry following the signing, the rebel group denounced the agreement and said the fund will only “serve the countries of aggression, not Yemeni society.”
    The Saudis have invested billions of dollars in propping up Yemen’s internationally recognized government over the years, with the Kingdom having previously pledged $3 billion in April to help its war-battered economy.

11/28/2022 Al-Shabab extremist group attacks hotel in Somali capital by Omar Faruk, ASSOCIATED PRESS
    MOGADISHU, Somalia – Somali security forces were attempting to flush out armed assailants from a hotel in the Somali capital, a police spokesman said Sunday, after the extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility for the attack.    There has been no immediate word of any casualties.
    Al-Shabab said in a broadcast on its own radio frequency Sunday that its fighters attacked the hotel Villa Rose, which has a restaurant popular with government and security officials.
    Scores of people were rescued from the hotel and security forces have launched an operation to remove the assailants, police spokesman Sadik Dodishe told state media.
    Abdi Hassan, a government worker who lives near the hotel, told The Associated Press that he believes several government officials were inside the hotel when the attack started.    Some were seen jumping the perimeter wall to safety while others were rescued, he said.
    The hotel isn’t far from the presidential palace in central Mogadishu, where a blast was heard, followed by gunfire.
    Such militant attacks are common in Mogadishu and other parts of the Horn of Africa nation.
    The latest attack comes amid a new, high-profile offensive by the Somali government against al-Shabab, which still controls large parts of central and southern Somalia.
    Extremist fighters loyal to the group have responded by killing prominent clan leaders in an apparent effort to dissuade support for the government offensive, and attacks on public places frequented by government officials and others persist.
    Hotels and restaurants are frequently targeted, as are military bases for government troops and foreign peacekeepers.
    Last month at least 120 people were killed in two car bombings at a busy junction in Mogadishu. Al-Shabab, which doesn’t usually claim responsibility when its assaults result in a high civilian death toll, carried out that attack, the deadliest since a similar attack at the same spot killed more than 500 five years ago.
    Al-Shabab opposes Somalia’s federal government, which is backed by African Union peacekeepers, and seeks to take power and enforce a strict version of Sharia law.
    The United States has described al-Shabab as one of al-Qaida’s deadliest organizations and targeted it with scores of airstrikes in recent years.

11/28/2022 Iraqi PM: Probe recovers part of $2.5B in corruption scheme by ASSOCIATED PRESS
    BAGHDAD – Iraq’s government said on Sunday it will recover part of nearly $2.5 billion in funds embezzled from the country’s tax authority in a massive scheme involving a network of businesses and officials.
    Approximately 182billion Iraqi dinars, or $125 million, of the stolen sum will be recovered through the seizure of properties and assets belonging to a well-connected businessman complicit in the corruption scheme, Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani’s office said in a statement.
    The amount retrieved was disbursed to Noor Zuhair Jassim, a businessman who was arrested in connection to the scheme along with officials from the government tax authority for withdrawing funds from a tax deposit account between September 2021 to August 2022.
    Al-Sudani stressed the ongoing investigation would not spare anyone involved in the scheme, and the government is working to recover the full amount stolen.
    Jassim confessed to holding the embezzled sum, the statement added. Al-Sudani also said the investigation was ongoing and had identified other individuals involved.    Jassim was arrested in late October at Baghdad International Airport. He was named as the CEO of two of five shell companies through which the funds were stolen.
    According to an internal audit seen by The Associated Press, Jassim obtained over $1 billion from the account.
    Officials say it’s unlikely that an embezzlement scheme of this scale could unfold without the knowledge of higher- ups.     Political factions in Iraq have long jockeyed for control of ministries and other government bodies, which they use to provide jobs and other favors to their supporters.
    A number of factions are linked to different government bodies implicated in the tax scheme.
    The current government only came together in late October, more than a year after early elections.

11/29/2022 Niece of supreme leader asks world to cut ties with Iran
    BAGHDAD – The niece of Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei is calling on people to pressure their governments to cut ties with Tehran over its violent suppression of anti-government protests.    In a video posted online by her brother, Farideh Moradkhani urged “Mu” to support Iranian protesters.    The video was shared online this week after Moradkhani’s reported arrest on Nov. 23, according to U.S.-based rights monitor HRANA.    Moradkhani is a longtime activist whose late father was an opposition figure.

11/30/2022 5 Palestinians killed by Israeli fire in occupied West Bank by Ilan Ben Zion, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Palestinian protesters hurl rocks amid clashes with Israeli security forces Tuesday
in a village north of Hebron in the occupied West Bank. MOSAB SHAWER/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
    JERUSALEM – Israeli troops shot and killed a Palestinian man during an operation Tuesday evening in the occupied West Bank, raising to five the number of Palestinians killed in less than 24 hours of fighting.    A female Israeli soldier was seriously wounded in a car ramming.
    It was one of the bloodiest days in months of violence in the West Bank and east Jerusalem and came during a recent spurt of fighting in the wake of a Jerusalem bombing that killed two Israelis last week.
    The army said it shot the Palestinian man in the town of al-Mughayir as he tried to hurl a firebomb toward them.    It said a crowd of Palestinians was throwing stones at soldiers who were delivering orders to demolish illegally built buildings.    The town is located in an area of the West Bank that is under full Israeli control, where Palestinians say it is nearly impossible to receive building permits.
    Amateur video taken from the scene showed a group of youths running away from the sound of gunfire.    One of them then stumbled to the ground, before his friends picked him up and evacuated him.    Local officials identified him as Raed Naasan, 21, and said that he had been set to soon join the Palestinian police force.
    Earlier on Tuesday, a Palestinian man rammed his car into a female Israeli soldier in what the army said was an intentional attack, seriously injuring her, before he was shot dead.
    Security camera footage showed the vehicle turning around and slowing in front of the woman, before accelerating and running her over. She was thrown into the air as the driver sped away.
    Police chased the driver and shot him.    The man, identified as Rani Abu Ali, 45, from the West Bank town of Beitunia, was pronounced dead at a Jerusalem hospital.    The violence began overnight near the city of Hebron.
    The Israeli army said clashes erupted after two army vehicles got stuck due to mechanical issues.    It said soldiers opened fire after Palestinians hurled rocks and explosives and Palestinian gunmen also opened fire.
    The Palestinian Health Ministry said Mufid Khalil, 44, was killed and at least eight other people were wounded by Israeli fire.
    In a separate incident, two brothers were killed by Israeli fire during clashes with troops near the village of Kafr Ein, west of Ramallah in the northern West Bank, early Tuesday. The Palestinian news agency Wafa identified them as Jawad and Dhafr Rimawi, ages 22 and 21.
    The Israeli military said troops operating in the village came under attack from suspects throwing rocks and firebombs, and soldiers responded with live fire.
    Tensions between Israelis and Palestinians have been surging for months amid nightly Israeli raids in the West Bank, prompted by a spate of deadly attacks against Israelis that killed 19 people in the spring.
    More than 140 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, making it the deadliest year since 2006.    The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants.    But stone-throwing youths protesting Israeli army incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
    At least 31 people have died in Arab attacks in Israel and the occupied West Bank since the beginning of the year, according to the Israeli prime minister’s office.
    In a new report, the army described a fragile situation in the West Bank as a new, hard-line Israeli government prepares to take office.    The army said it has mobilized thousands of troops and arrested some 2,500 Palestinians and confiscated around 250 weapons since March.
    Israel captured the West Bank in the 1967 Mideast war, along with east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip.    The Palestinians seek those territories for their hoped-for independent state.
An Israeli soldier works at the scene where a Palestinian man rammed his car into an Israeli soldier, seriously
injuring her, before he was shot dead by Israeli police in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday. OREN BEN HAKOON/AP

11/30/2022 Turkish strikes are harming counter-IS operations, US and Kurds say by Abby Sewell, ASSOCIATED PRESS
    BEIRUT – U.S. and Kurdish military officials said Tuesday that Turkish airstrikes and a threatened ground invasion in northern Syria are impacting their joint operations against the Islamic State extremist group.
    Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces in northeast Syria, told reporters that the group’s joint counter-IS operations alongside the U.S.-led international coalition have been “temporarily paused” because of the recent Turkish airstrikes, and that gains made in the fight against the extremist group to date may be “threatened.”
    Also on Tuesday, Pentagon spokesman Air Force Gen. Patrick Ryder told reporters that the U.S. has cut back on the number of “partnered patrols” it is carrying out alongside the SDF.
    “They have reduced the number of patrols that they’re doing, and so that therefore necessitates us to reduce the patrols,” he said.
    However, he added, “We’ve not redeployed any of our folks.    We continue to stay very focused on countering the ISIS threat.”     On Saturday, the U.S. military said two rockets targeted U.S.-led coalition forces at bases in the northeastern Syrian town of Shaddadeh resulting in no “injuries or damage to the base or coalition property.”
    Mazloum added that statements by Turkish officials as well as intelligence reports indicated Ankara is preparing for a ground invasion and urged the U.S. and other allies to take a stronger stance against such a move.
    Turkey has launched a barrage of airstrikes on suspected militant targets in northern Syria and Iraq in recent days, in retaliation for a deadly Nov. 13 bombing in Istanbul that Ankara blames on the Kurdish groups.    Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also threatened a ground incursion, without specifying when it would be launched.
    Turkey has carried out a series of incursions into Syria since 2016 and already controls parts of northern Syria.

12/1/2022 Islamic State group says leader al-Qurayshi was killed in battle by Bassem Mroue, ASSOCIATED PRESS
The Islamic State group has been trying to rise again with its sleeper cells
carrying out deadly attacks in Iraq and Syria. HUSSEIN MALLA/AP FILE
    BEIRUT – The leader of the Islamic State group, Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, was killed in battle recently, the group’s spokesman said in audio released Wednesday. He gave no further details.
    Al-Qurayshi is the second IS leader to be killed this year at a time when the extremist group has been trying to rise again with its sleeper cells carrying out deadly attacks in Iraq and Syria.    Its affiliate in Afghanistan also claimed attacks that killed dozens in recent months.
    The U.S. military said al-Qurayshi was killed in mid-October adding that the operation was conducted by Syrian rebels in Syria’s southern province of Daraa.
    It was not clear why the announcement was made on Wednesday, more than a month after al-Qurayshi was killed.
    “ISIS remains a threat to the region,” the U.S. Central Command said.    “CENTCOM and our partners remain focused on the enduring defeat of ISIS.”
    The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor, reported in mid-October, that Syrian rebels who had earlier reconciled with the government killed a group of IS fighters in the southern village of Jassem in Daraa province.
    They included a commander identified as an Iraqi citizen along with a Lebanese fighter and others, the observatory said, adding that one of the IS fighters detonated an explosive belt he was wearing during the clash.
    Little had been known about al-Qurayshi, who took over the group’s leadership following the death of his predecessor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, in a U.S. raid in February in northwest Syria.
    None of the al-Qurayshis are believed to be related.    Al-Qurayshi is not their real name but comes from Quraish, the name of the tribe to which Islam’s Prophet Muhammad belonged.    IS claims its leaders hail from this tribe and “al-Qurayshi” serves as part of an IS leader’s nom de guerre.
    The death marked a blow to the group that was defeated in Iraq in 2017 and in Syria two years later.    The announcement by IS spokesman Abu Omar al-Muhajer came at a time when IS has been trying to carry out deadly attacks in parts of Syria and Iraq the extremists once declared a caliphate.
    “He died fighting the enemies of God killing some of them before being killed like a man on the battlefield,” al-Muhajer said.
    Al-Muhajer said Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi was named as the group’s new leader.
    “He is one of the veteran warriors and one of the loyal sons of the Islamic State,” al-Muhajer said.    Little is also known about Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi.
    Asked in Washington about al-Qurayshi’s death, the spokesman for the U.S. National Security Council, John Kirby, said: “We certainly welcome the news of the death of another ISIS leader.    I don’t have any additional operational details to provide at this time.”
    Al-Qurayshi is the third leader to be killed since founder Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi was hunted down by the Americans in a raid in northwest in October 2019.
    No one claimed responsibility for the killing.
    On Wednesday, a bomb blast hit a religious school in northern Afghanistan killing at least 10 students, a Taliban official said.    There was no immediate claim of responsibility but the Afghan affiliate of IS has been waging a campaign of violence that escalated since the Taliban took power in August 2021.
    Last month, IS militants attacked an Iraqi army position in the northwestern governorate of Kirkuk, killing four soldiers.
    The Islamic State group broke away from al-Qaida about a decade ago and ended up controlling large parts of northern and eastern Syria as well as northern and western Iraq.    In 2014, the extremists declared their so-called caliphate, attracting supporters from around the world.
    In March 2019, U.S.-backed Syrian fighters captured the last sliver of land the extremists once held in Syria’s eastern province of Deir el-Zour that borders Iraq.    Since then, IS fighters have been carrying out sporadic attacks.

12/2/2022 Egyptians want return of Rosetta stone - British Museum wary of returning popular piece by Jack B. Jeffery, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Thousands of Egyptians are demanding that the British Museum return the Rosetta stone.
The bilingual carvings on the stone proved to be the breakthrough in the decipherment of ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics
after being unearthed by colonialists in Egypt in 1799. The British Museum via AP
    CAIRO – The debate over who owns ancient artifacts has been an increasing challenge to museums across Europe and America, and the spotlight has fallen on the most visited piece in the British Museum: The Rosetta stone.
    The inscriptions on the dark gray granite slab became the seminal breakthrough in deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics after it was taken from Egypt by forces of the British empire in 1801.
    Now, as Britain’s largest museum marks the 200-year anniversary of the decipherment of hieroglyphics, thousands of Egyptians are demanding the stone’s return.
    'The British Museum’s holding of the stone is a symbol of Western cultural violence against Egypt,' said Monica Hanna, dean at the Arab Academy for Science, Technology & Maritime Transport, and organizer of one of two petitions calling for the stone’s return.
    The acquisition of the Rosetta Stone was tied up in the imperial battles between Britain and France.    After Napoleon Bonaparte’s military occupation of Egypt, French scientists uncovered the stone in 1799 in the northern town of Rashid, known by the French as Rosetta.    When British forces defeated the French in Egypt, the stone and over a dozen other antiquities were handed over to the British under the terms of an 1801 surrender deal between the generals of the two sides.
    It has remained in the British Museum since.
    Hanna’s petition, with 4,200 signatures, says the stone was seized illegally and constitutes a 'spoil of war.'    The claim is echoed in a near identical petition by Zahi Hawass, Egypt’s former minister for antiquities affairs, which has more than 100,000 signatures.    Hawass argues that Egypt had no say in the 1801 agreement.
    The British Museum refutes this. In a statement, the Museum said the 1801 treaty includes the signature of a representative of Egypt.    It refers to an Ottoman admiral who fought alongside the British against the French.    The Ottoman sultan in Istanbul was nominally the ruler of Egypt at the time of Napoleon’s invasion.
    The Museum also said Egypt’s government has not submitted a request for its return.    It added that there are 28 known copies of the same engraved decree and 21 of them remain in Egypt.
    The contention over the original stone copy stems from its unrivaled significance to Egyptology.    Carved in the 2nd century B.C., the slab contains three translations of a decree relating to a settlement between the then-ruling Ptolemies and a sect of Egyptian priests.    The first inscription is in classic hieroglyphics, the next is in a simplified hieroglyphic script known as Demotic, and the third is in Ancient Greek.
    Through knowledge of the latter, academics were able to decipher the hieroglyphic symbols, with French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion eventually cracking the language in 1822.
    'Scholars from the previous 18th century had been longing to find a bilingual text written in a known language,' said Ilona Regulski, the head of Egyptian Written Culture at the British Museum. Regulski is the lead curator of the museum’s winter exhibition, 'Hieroglyphs Unlocking Ancient Egypt,' celebrating the 200th anniversary of Champollion’s breakthrough.
    The stone is one of more than 100,000 Egyptian and Sudanese relics housed in the British Museum.    A large percentage were obtained during Britain’s colonial rule over the region from 1883 to 1953.
    It has grown increasingly common for museums and collectors to return artifacts to their country of origin, with new instances reported nearly monthly.    Often, it’s the result of a court ruling, while some cases are voluntary, symbolizing an act of atonement for historical wrongs.
    New York’s Metropolitan Museum returned 16 antiquities to Egypt in September after a U.S. investigation concluded they had been illegally trafficked.    On Monday, London’s Horniman Museum signed over 72 objects, including 12 Benin Bronzes, to Nigeria following a request from its government.
    Nicholas Donnell, a Boston-based attorney specializing in cases concerning art and artifacts, said no common international legal framework exists for such disputes.    Unless there is clear evidence an artifact was acquired illegally, repatriation is largely at the discretion of the museum.
    'Given the treaty and the timeframe, the Rosetta stone is a hard legal battle to win,' said Donnell.
    The British Museum has acknowledged that several repatriation requests have been made to it from various countries for artifacts, but it did not provide The Associated Press with any details on their status or number.    It also did not confirm whether it has ever repatriated an artifact from its collection.
    For Nigel Hetherington, an archaeologist and CEO of the online academic forum Past Preserves, the museum’s lack of transparency suggests other motives.
    'It’s about money, maintaining relevance and a fear that in returning certain items people will stop coming,' he said.
    Western museums have long pointed to superior facilities and larger crowd draws to justify their holding of world treasures.    Amid turmoil following the 2011 uprising that toppled autocrat Hosni Mubarak, Egypt saw an uptick in artifact smuggling, which cost the country an estimated $3billion between 2011 and 2013, according to the U.S.-based Antiquities Coalition.    In 2015, it was discovered that cleaners at Cairo’s Egyptian Museum had damaged the burial mask of Pharaoh Tutankhamun by attempting to re-attach the beard with super glue.
    But President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi’s government has since invested heavily in its antiquities.    Egypt has successfully reclaimed thousands of internationally smuggled artifacts and plans to open a newly built, state-of-the-art museum where tens of thousands of objects can be housed.    The Grand Egyptian Museum has been under construction for well over a decade and there have been repeated delays to its opening.
    Egypt’s plethora of ancient monuments, from the pyramids of Giza to the towering statues of Abu Simbel at the Sudanese border, are the magnet for a tourism industry that drew in $13 billion in 2021.

12/2/2022 South Africa leader under fire amid theft probe by Mogomotsi Magome, ASSOCIATED PRESS
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa has denied any wrongdoing, insisting that the
money was proceeds from the sale of animals at his farm. NARDUS ENGELBRECHT/AP FILE
    JOHANNESBURG – South African President Cyril Ramaphosa faced calls Thursday to step down after a parliamentary panel’s probe found he may have breached anti-corruption laws in connection with the alleged theft of a large amount of money from his Phala Phala game farm.
    The calls follow allegations by the country’s former head of intelligence, Arthur Fraser, that Ramaphosa tried to conceal the theft of a huge sum of cash stuffed into couches at his farm in 2020.    Fraser, an ally of the president’s political rival and predecessor, Jacob Zuma, accused Ramaphosa of money laundering and violating foreign currency control laws.
    In its report, the parliamentary panel raised questions about the source of the money and why it wasn’t disclosed to financial authorities, and cited a potential conflict between the president’s business and official interests.
    Ramaphosa has denied any wrongdoing, insisting that the money was proceeds from the sale of animals at his farm. But opposition parties and Ramaphosa’s detractors in the ruling African National Congress party have called for him to step down.
    The ANC’s national executive committee, the party’s highest decision-making body, is expected to meet Thursday evening to be briefed on the matter and possibly to determine Ramaphosa’s fate.    Ramaphosa is seeking reelection as party leader during the ANC’s upcoming conference.    That would enable him to run again for South Africa’s presidency in 2024.
    Lawmakers are expected to debate the report on Tuesday, and they will vote on whether further action should be taken, including whether to proceed with impeachment proceedings.    ANC lawmakers are a majority in Parliament and may push back against attempts to impeach their leader.
    “The president appreciates the enormity of this issue and what it means for the country and the stability of government,” Ramaphosa’s spokesperson Vincent Magwenya told reporters, "saying the president is still processing” the report.    “We are in an unprecedented and extraordinary moment as a constitutional democracy as a result of the report, and therefore whatever decision the president takes, it has to be informed by the best interest of the country.    That decision cannot be rushed,” Magwenya said.
    According to the parliamentary report, Ramaphosa claimed the stolen money amounted to $580,000, disputing the initial amount of $4 million that Fraser alleged was stolen.

12/2/2022 Militant killed in Syria was IS head - Attacking troops did not know he was the leader by Bassem Mroue, ASSOCIATED PRESS
    BEIRUT – When Syrian rebels attacked a hideout in mid-October in the southern Syrian village of Jassem, they had no idea that a militant commander who was killed in the operation was the leader of the Islamic State group.
    Syrian opposition activists and state media apparently did not know that the man killed was IS leader Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi and identified him as Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi.
    The operation lasted two days and started on Oct.14, the day after a bombing on a bus in a suburb of the capital Damascus. That attack killed 18 Syrian soldiers and wounded at least 27 others.
    Syrian state media at the time reported that authorities received information that IS members have hideouts in the northern neighborhoods of Jassem, about 37 miles south of Damascus.    In the operation, Syrian troops were joined with former rebels who had reconciled with the government in 2018 and were allowed to stay and keep their weapons in the southern province of Daraa.    State news agency SANA has said it was a joint operation against the suspected militant hideout.
    Amid the intensity of the fighting, an Iraqi IS commander known as Abu Abdul-Rahman al-Iraqi, made his family escape from the house where he was staying and once, they were out and he was totally surrounded, the Iraqi citizen detonated an explosive belt he was wearing, killing himself, according to Rami Abdurrahman who heads the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitor.
    In a nearby house, rebels surrounded and blew up the hideout of two other IS militants, a Lebanese and a Syrian, killing both of them, Abdurrahman said.
    According to Syria’s state news agency SANA, three rebels were killed and seven others were wounded in the battle in Jassem that lasted from the late hours of Oct. 14 until the next day.    During the fighting, Syrian troops imposed a curfew on the village, SANA said.
    The operation did not get much attention outside Syria at the time but on Wednesday, an IS spokesman released an audio saying that the group’s leader al-Qurayshi was killed in battle recently without giving further details.
    “We were taken by surprise that the man killed was the leader of Daesh,” said Ahmed al-Masalmeh, who used an Arabic acronym for the Islamic State group.    Al-Masalmeh is an opposition activist from Daraa who now lives in Jordan but remains in contact with rebels back home.    He added that the information they had at the time was that the man killed was Abu Abdul- Rahman al-Iraqi who was believed to be the IS commander in southern Syria.
    Al-Masalmeh said rebels in southern Syria had reliable information that a senior IS commander was based in the country’s south after another commander was killed in the summer in the region.
    Hours after IS made the announcement, the U.S. military said al-Qurayshi was killed in mid-October adding that the operation was conducted by Syrian rebels in Daraa.
    The latest killing shows that the three IS leaders, who were all Iraqis, were killed in Syria in recent years outside the areas the militant group once purported to rule.    Two were killed by the U.S. military in Syria’s rebel-held northwestern province of Idlib while the third was killed in southern Syria far from the former domains of the so-called caliphate.
    Little had been known about al-Qurayshi, who took over the group’s leadership following the death of his predecessor, Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi, in a U.S. raid in February in northwest Syria.    The group’s founder, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, was hunted down by the Americans in a raid in Idlib in October 2019.
    IS spokesman Abu Omar al-Muhajer said in the audio that Abu al-Hussein al-Husseini al-Qurayshi was named as the group’s new leader.

12/3/2022 US military halts patrols against Islamic State in Syria - Turkish ground invasion threats stymie missions by Lolita C. Baldor, ASSOCIATED PRESS
American soldiers patrol in Hassakeh, Syria, on Feb. 8. U.S. Central Command on Friday said American troops have paused
joint operations with the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces against Islamic State in Syria. BADERKHAN AHMAD/AP FILE
    WASHINGTON – U.S. forces have stopped joint military patrols in northern Syria to counter Islamic State extremists, as Turkish threats of a ground invasion stymie those missions with Kurdish forces.    Other more limited security patrols by U.S. and Kurdish troops, particularly around prisons, will begin again on Saturday, officials said.
    U.S. Central Command on Friday said American troops have paused all of the joint operations with the Kurdish led Syrian Democratic Forces against IS in Syria.    The Pentagon had said Thursday they were ongoing but reduced.
    “The SDF continues to conduct patrols and maintain security at the al-Hol displaced persons camp and the detention facilities, prisons,” said Army Col. Joe Buccino, the Central Command spokesman.
    “ISIS remains a threat to regional security and stability.    We remain committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS and look forward to the resumption of operations against ISIS in the future.”
    John Kirby, spokesman for the National Security Council, told reporters Friday that, as in the past, when there are Turkish operations in northern Syria, it has had an impact on the counter-ISIS operations as SDF forces concentrate on defending themselves in northern Syria.    The U.S. said the SDF’s decision to pause its missions against the Islamic State group triggered the U.S. decision to do so as well A Kurdish military official said the other partnered patrols will begin Saturday in the border area.    The U.S. said those patrols are not to counter the Islamic State militants.
    The Kurdish official, who was not authorized to provide an official statement and spoke on condition of anonymity, said a state of calm prevailed along the border area after U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin informed his Turkish counterpart Hulusi Akar on Wednesday that Washington strongly opposes Turkey’s launch of a military operation in northern Syria.
    Turkey has launched a barrage of airstrikes on suspected militant targets in northern Syria and Iraq in recent days, in retaliation for a deadly Nov. 13 bombing in Istanbul that Ankara blames on the Kurdish groups.    Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also threatened a ground incursion, without specifying when it would be launched.
    No U.S. forces or personnel have been hit by any of the strikes.    But on Nov. 26, the U.S. military said two rockets targeted U.S.-led coalition forces at bases in the northeastern Syrian town of Shaddadeh.    There were no injuries or damage to the base.     There are roughly 900 U.S. troops in Syria, including in the north and farther south and east.
    Earlier this week, Mazloum Abdi, the commander of the SDF, told reporters that counter-IS operations had been “temporarily paused” because of the recent Turkish airstrikes, and that gains made in the fight against the extremist group may be “threatened.”    But Ryder said the missions had been continuing, although they were more limited because of the SDF’s request.
    Austin spoke by phone with Turkish Minister of National Defense Akar on Wednesday, relaying the department’s strong opposition to any potential ground invasion in northern Syria, said Ryder.    He declined to detail Akar’s response to the U.S. concerns.
    “The focus here is, from the United States standpoint, on ensuring that terrorist organizations like ISIS cannot reconstitute,” Ryder told reporters Thursday. He said there has been progress on that since the group emerged in 2014 – which is when the extremists took over large swaths of Iraq and Syria.    “We don’t want to see that progress be wasted.”
    “ISIS remains a threat to regional security and stability.    We remain committed to the enduring defeat of ISIS and look forward to the resumption of operations against ISIS in the future.” Army Col. Joe Buccino
U.S. Central Command spokesman

12/4/2022 Palestinians decry killing caught on video - Israeli police say shooting justified by Aref Tuffaha and Fares Akram, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Palestinian mourners sit under posters showing Ammar Adili, who was shot and killed by an
Israeli border police officer on Friday, while receiving condolences in his home village of Osreen, south of the
West Bank city of Nablus. Palestinians pushed back Saturday against Israeli police claims that Adili
had attacked Israelis, including a border policeman, and that he was shot in self-defense. NASSER NASSER/AP
    HAWARA, West Bank – A makeshift sidewalk memorial with a Palestinian flag and a mourning notice paid tribute Saturday to a 22-year-old Palestinian whose death at the hands of an Israeli border police officer – four pistol shots from close range – was captured on widely shared amateur video.
    A day after the shooting in the occupied West Bank town of Hawara, Palestinians pushed back against Israeli police claims that Ammar Adili was shot in self-defense after he attacked Israelis, including a border policeman, and resisted arrest.
    They said the officer killed Adili without justification, and that Israeli security forces prevented Palestinian medics from trying to save the gravely wounded man as he lay on the sidewalk of a busy thoroughfare.
    The 38-second video begins with a tussle between the border police officer and three Palestinians, including Adili, on the sidewalk as traffic rushes by.    The officer pulls Adili away in a choke hold and they exchange blows after Adili frees himself.    He tries to grab the officer’s assault rifle, which drops to the ground behind the officer, out of Adili’s immediate reach.    The officer then pulls his pistol and fires four shots as an unarmed Adili drops to the ground.
    Immediately after Friday’s fatal shooting, police alleged that Adili had carried a knife and tried to attack two Israelis in a car, and then tried to break into the locked vehicle with a rock.    It said the driver shot and wounded Adili, who then charged a group of border policemen, stabbing one in the face, police said.    The border police officer tried to arrest Adili, who resisted and tried to grab the officer’s weapon, police said.    The officer who shot him was not hurt.
    Hawara mayor Moein Dmeidy and others on Saturday cited second-hand accounts that there had been an altercation between Adili and an Israeli motorist after a car accident, but Associated Press journalists were unable to find witnesses to the events that led up to the shooting.
    Dmeidy said the officer had no justification to kill Adili after he had already overpowered him.    Adili was “killed in cold blood,” said the mayor, who arrived at the scene moments after the shooting.    In a second video, Adili is seen moving and rolling over on the ground after being shot, and it’s not clear at what point he died.
    Dmeidy said a Palestinian ambulance arrived minutes after the shooting, but that security forces prevented the medics from administering aid.    Dmeidy said Israel has not handed over Adili’s body for burial.
    Tor Wennesland, the special U.N. envoy to the Middle East peace process, wrote on Twitter that he was “horrified” by the shooting and sent “heartfelt condolences to his bereaved family.”    He called for a thorough investigation and said those responsible must be held accountable.
    Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon accused the envoy of distorting reality.
    “This incident is a terror attack, in which an Israeli policeman was stabbed in his face and the life of another police officer was threatened and consequently he shot his assailant,” Nahshon wrote on Twitter.
    On Saturday, shops along Hawara’s main road were shuttered in protest over the shooting.
    A makeshift memorial marked the spot where Adili died, consisting of a Palestinian flag on a short pole and a death poster leaning against it.    The poster, with a photo of Adili, said the Fatah party of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas mourns its son “who was killed at the hands of the Zionist occupation.”
    The video of Adili’s final moments was a rare documentation of one of the increasingly common violent incidents involving Israeli security forces and Palestinians, including attackers.
    Meanwhile, Palestinian militants fired a rocket toward southern Israel from the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, the Israeli military said.    The rocket was not intercepted but apparently fell on open ground.    There were no reports of casualties and no Palestinian group claimed responsibility for the rocket fire.
    Rising Israeli-Palestinian tensions have made 2022 the deadliest year in the West Bank and east Jerusalem in the long-running conflict since 2006.
    More than 140 Palestinians have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting this year. The Israeli army says most of the Palestinians killed have been militants.    But stone-throwing youths protesting Israeli army incursions and others not involved in confrontations have also been killed.
    Friday’s deadly shooting came against the backdrop of months of Israeli arrest raids in the West Bank, prompted by a spate of Palestinian attacks against Israelis in the spring that killed 19 people.    The military says the raids are meant to dismantle militant networks and thwart future attacks, but the Palestinians say they entrench Israel’s open-ended occupation.

12/5/2022 9 dies in flooding in S. Africa - Members of Johannesburg church congregation swept away by Mogomotsi Magome, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Rescue workers search the waters of the Jukskei River in Johannesburg on Sunday. At least
nine people have died while eight others are still missing in South Africa after they were swept
away by a flash flood along the river in Johannesburg, rescue officials said Sunday. AP
    JOHANNESBURG – At least nine people died and eight others were missing in South Africa after a flash flood swept away members of a church congregation along the Jukskei River in Johannesburg, rescue officials said Sunday.
    The dead and missing were all part of the congregation, which was conducting religious rituals along the river on Saturday, officials said.
    Rescue workers reported finding the bodies of two victims that day and another seven bodies when the search and recovery mission resumed Sunday morning.
    The teams were interviewing people from the congregation to establish how many others were unaccounted for.
    Religious groups frequently gather along the Jukskei River, which runs past townships such as Alexandra in the east of Johannesburg, for baptisms and ritual cleansing.
    Johannesburg Emergency Services spokesman Robert Mulaudzi said Sunday that officials had warned residents about the dangers of conducting the rituals along the river.
    “We have been receiving a lot of rain on the city of Johannesburg in the last three months, and most of the river streams are now full.    Our residents, especially congregants who normally practice these kinds of rituals, will be tempted to go to these river streams,” Mulaudzi said during a news briefing.
    “Our message for them is to exercise caution as and when they conduct these rituals,” he added.

12/6/2022 Shipment of grain from Ukraine reaches east Africa amid drought
    NAIROBI, Kenya – The first shipment of grain as part of Ukraine’s initiative to supply countries in need arrived in Djibouti on Monday for delivery to neighboring Ethiopia amid the region’s worst drought in decades.    Ukraine has said it plans to send more than 60 ships to Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Congo, Kenya, Yemen and other countries as part of its “Grain from Ukraine” service.    Millions of people in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya are going hungry due to drought following the fifth straight failed rainy season.

[WELL AS YOU CAN SEE THAT JOE BIDEN HAD TO KISS THE CROWN PRINCE’ ASS TO GET OIL TO THE U.S. TO BRING PRICES DOWN IF YOU CAN CALL $2.99 A GALLON DOWN COMPARFED TO TRUMP’S $1.87 BEFORE THE ELECTIONS AND KHASHOGGI YOU WILL HAVE TO ROLL OVER IN YOUR GRAVE AND HAUNT BIDEN AND HE MIGHT SHAKE YOUR HAND ON HIS WAY TO HELL.]
12/7/2022 US court dismisses suit against Saudi prince in killing by Ellen Knickmeyer, ASSOCIATED PRESS
People hold posters of slain journalist Jamal Khashoggi near the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2020.
A team of Saudi officials killed Khashoggi inside the consulate in 2018. EMRAH GUREL/AP FILE
    WASHINGTON – A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, bowing to the Biden administration’s insistence that the prince was legally immune in the case.
    District of Columbia U.S. District Judge John D. Bates heeded the U.S. government’s motion to shield Prince Mohammed from the lawsuit despite what Bates called “credible allegations of his involvement in Khashoggi’s murder.”
    Saudi officials killed Khashoggi inside the Saudi consulate in Istanbul in 2018. Khashoggi, a columnist for The Washington Post, had written critically of the harsh ways of Prince Mohammed, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler.
    The U.S. intelligence community concluded the Saudi crown prince ordered the operation against Khashoggi.    The killing opened a rift between the Biden administration and Saudi Arabia that the administration has tried in recent months to close, as the U.S. unsuccessfully urged the kingdom to undo oil production cuts in a global market racked by the Ukraine war.
    Khashoggi had entered the Saudi consulate to obtain documents needed for his upcoming marriage. His fiancee, Hatice Cengiz, who had waited unknowingly outside the consulate as he was killed, and a rights group founded by Khashoggi before he died brought the lawsuit.    The lawsuit also named two top aides of the prince as accomplices.
    The Biden administration, invited but not ordered by the judge to offer an opinion on the matter, declared last month that Prince Mohammed’s standing as Saudi Arabia’s prime minister gave him sovereign immunity from the U.S. lawsuit.
    Saudi Arabia’s king, Salman, had named Prince Mohammed, his son, as prime minister weeks earlier.    It was a temporary exemption from the kingdom’s governing code, which makes the king prime minister.
    Khashoggi’s fiancee and his rights group argued the move was a maneuver to shield the prince from the U.S. court.
    Bates expressed “uneasiness” with the circumstances of Prince Mohammed’s new title, and wrote in Tuesday’s order that “there is a strong argument that plaintiffs’ claims against bin Salman and the other defendants are meritorious.”
    But the government’s finding that Prince Mohammed was immune left him no choice but to dismiss the prince as a plaintiff, the judge wrote.    He also dismissed the two other Saudi plaintiffs, saying the U.S. court lacked jurisdiction over them.
    The Biden administration argued longstanding legal precedent on immunity for heads of government from other nations’ courts, in some circumstances, demanded that the prince be shielded as prime minister, regardless of the prince only recently obtaining the title.
    The Biden administration already had spared Prince Mohammed from government penalties in the case, again citing sovereign immunity.

12/7/2022 Turkey tells Finland to end arms embargo by ASSOCIATED PRESS
    ANKARA, Turkey – Finland must publicly declare that it’s lifting an arms embargo on Turkey to win Ankara’s approval for its membership to NATO, the Turkish foreign minister said Tuesday.
    Mevlut Cavusoglu made the comments ahead of a visit by Finland’s defense minister, Antti Kaikkonen, who will be discussing his nation’s bid to join the military alliance with his Turkish counterpart, Hulusi Akar, on Thursday.
    “The Finnish defense minister’s visit to Turkey is important because we have not yet heard a statement from Finland saying they’ve lifted their arms embargo against us,” Cavusoglu told reporters.    “We’re expecting such a statement from there.”
    Sweden and Finland abandoned their longstanding policies of military nonalignment and applied for membership in the alliance after Russian forces invaded Ukraine in February.
    But NATO member Turkey has been holding up Sweden and Finland’s bids to join the military alliance, accusing the two of ignoring threats to Turkey from Kurdish militants and other groups it considers terrorists.

12/7/2022 Xi Jinping Arrived In Saudi Arabia To Deepen Ties With Arab World by OAN Newsroom
Chinese President Xi Jinping, right, shakes hands with Prince Faisal bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz,
Governor of Riyadh, after his arrival in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, Wednesday, Dec. 7, 2022. (Saudi Press Agency via AP)
    China and Saudi Arabia are looking to deepen their relations by discussing oil trading.
    Chinese President Xi Jinping arrived in Saudi Arabia on Wednesday evening for a summit with leaders of Arab states.    This meeting posed a foreign policy challenge for the United States.
    Xi arrived in Riyadh.    There, he was greeted by Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan al Saud and the head of the kingdom’s sovereign-wealth fund Yasir Al-Rumayyan.    The last visit Xi paid to the area was four years ago.    At that time he gave $23 billion in loans because he wanted Beijing to become the “keeper of peace and stability in the Middle East.”
    Reports claim that Russia, Saudi Arabia and potentially China may be advancing a new initiative to trade oil for gold and national currencies instead of the U.S. dollar.
    On Thursday, Xi will meet with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed and his father King Salman to discuss mutual relations before attending a large gathering composed of Gulf and Arab leaders.
    This comes amid tensions between Saudi Arabia and the Biden administration due to the Ukraine War, oil price cap and the warming Saudi-Russian ties.

12/8/2022 South Africa paroles convicted killer of anti-apartheid icon
    JOHANNESBURG – The convicted killer of South African anti-apartheid leader Chris Hani has been released from prison in the capital Pretoria after serving more than 28 years for the 1993 murder.    Janusz Walus, 69, was placed on parole effective Wednesday after he was discharged from the prison’s hospital wing, according to Justice and Correctional Services Minister Ronald Lamola.    Hani was killed during a volatile period ahead of South Africa’s transition from white minority rule to democracy.

12/9/2022 Malaria deaths spike in pandemic by Maria Cheng, ASSOCIATED PRESS
    The coronavirus pandemic interrupted efforts to control malaria, resulting in 63,000 additional deaths and 13 million more infections globally over two years, according to a report from the World Health Organization published Thursday.
    Cases of the parasitic disease went up in 2020 and continued to climb in 2021, though at a slower pace, the United Nations health agency said Thursday.    About 95% of the world’s 247million malaria infections and 619,000 deaths last year were in Africa.
    “We were off track before the pandemic, and the pandemic has now made things worse,” said Abdisalan Noor, a senior official in WHO’s malaria department.
    Noor said he expected the wider rollout of the world’s first authorized malaria vaccine next year to have a “considerable impact” on reducing the number of severe illnesses and deaths if enough children get immunized, adding that more than 20 countries have applied to vaccines alliance Gavi for help in securing the shot.    Still, the vaccine is only about 30% effective and requires four doses.
    Officials also raised concerns about a new invasive mosquito species that thrives in cities, is resistant to many pesticides and could undo years of progress against malaria.    The invasive species is likely responsible for a recent spike in parts of the horn of Africa, Noor said.

12/10/2022 China’s Xi vows to buy more Mideast oil - Pledge comes as US focus in region wanes by Jon Gambrell, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, right, greets Chinese President Xi Jinping during the
Gulf Cooperation Council Summit in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on Friday. SAUDI PRESS AGENCY VIA AP
    DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – Chinese leader Xi Jinping vowed on Friday to import more oil and natural gas from energy-rich Gulf Arab states while not interfering in their affairs, likely seeking to cast Beijing in a more favorable light than Washington as America’s attention in the region wanes.
    Xi also urged the Arab countries to conduct energy sales in the Chinese yuan, potentially divorcing the U.S. dollar from transactions in a region where the United States still stations thousands of troops across a network of local bases as a hedge against Iran.
    China’s hands-off approach could appeal to leaders such as Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who stands ready to rule the oil-rich kingdom for possibly decades, even after facing widespread international criticism over the killing of Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the still-raging war in Yemen.
    During Xi’s visit to Saudi Arabia this week, the prince himself welcomed him to a meeting of the clubby Gulf Cooperation Council, and later to a wider summit of Mideast leaders.
    “Standing at the crossroads of history, we must renew the tradition of friendship between China and the GCC,” Xi said.
    Xi’s visit comes as China relies on the Gulf Arab states, particularly Saudi Arabia, for billions of dollars in crude oil imports to power his country’s economy as it tries to slowly ease out of its strict anti-coronavirus policy.    Xi faced protests at home just before his arrival in Riyadh that represent the most-serious challenge to his rule after being awarded a third five-year term as the Communist party leader.
    “The kingdom believes that hydrocarbon energy sources will remain an important resource to meet the needs of the world for the coming decades,” Prince Mohammed said.
    Brent crude traded Friday around $76 a barrel – down from highs of $122 in June.    Higher prices could see the prince’s dreams of a $500 billion futuristic city of Neom on the Red Sea to overhaul the Saudi economy come true.    But rising costs at the pump months earlier further alienated the administration of President Joe Biden from Riyadh – something the prince likely kept in mind during Xi’s visit.
    Xi praised the GCC countries – Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates – as they “actively sought political solutions to regional hotspots” and invited their astronauts to China’s new Tiangong space station.
    Xi also said China plans to build a joint China-GCC Nuclear Security Demonstration Center that will train 300 personnel on nuclear safety and technology.    Already, the UAE has the Barakah Nuclear Power Plant, built with South Korea under a strict agreement that it will not enrich uranium – a possible pathway to a nuclear weapon.
    But perhaps most importantly for the Gulf states, Xi stressed his nation will keep being a major buyer of their oil.
    “China will continue to import a large amount of crude oil from the GCC countries, expand imports of liquefied natural gas, strengthen the engineering services in oil and gas upstream development and the cooperation in storage, transportation and refining,” Xi said.
    He also called on the GCC to use yuan to settle transactions.
    The Israeli-Palestinian conflict came up as Xi spoke with the Arab leaders, especially Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.    Xi said China remains committed to an independent Palestinian state based on the 1967 boundaries of Israel.
    “The Palestine issue is vital to the peace and stability in the Middle East,” Xi said.    “The historical injustice suffered by the Palestinian people cannot continue indefinitely.    The legitimate national interests cannot be traded.    The demand for an independent state cannot be vetoed.”
    Xi also called for nations to “strengthen exchanges among civilizations.”
    However, Xi made no mention his nation’s harsh policies toward Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities.
[CHINA IS NOT GETTING OIL FROM SAUDI ARABIA BUT FROM OPEC+ AND IT WAS INTERESTING THAT CHINA IS HELPING THE OTHER NATIONS TO USE NUCLEAR POWER AND SELL THEIR OIL AND GUESS WHERE JOE BIDEN IS GETTING OIL FROM NOW IT IS OPEC+ WITH CHINA'S INFLUENCE.]

12/10/2022 China and the Gulf: A big message for the US – analysis - Story by SETH J. FRANTZMAN – The Jerusalem Post
    A major series of meetings led by China’s leader Xi Jinping in Saudi Arabia with leaders of Gulf Cooperation Council countries could have huge ramifications for the Gulf and are symbolic of larger shifts globally.    America has wanted its partners in the region to remain distant from the large and powerful East Asian country challenging US hegemony.
Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with Saudi Arabia© (photo credit: DAMIR SAGOLJ/ REUTERS)
    This is particularly an issue in US-Saudi Arabia relations as some voices in the US have become increasingly critical of Riyadh.     Saudi Arabia has responded by conducting its own independent foreign policy.
    This is similar in some ways to Turkey, once a key US ally that now works with Russia and seeks to be both anti-Western part of NATO.
    Riyadh’s choices are in a larger spotlight these days.    Prior to the US election, the Biden administration was frustrated about oil production cuts.    The large visit by China is another big symbolic message to the US and the West in general.
    Saudi Arabia has also been more open to Russia and, like many countries in Asia and the global South, the Gulf has not been as tough on Russia over the Ukraine invasion.    That doesn’t mean that the Saudis have not been helpful – they were involved in helping get British detainees out of Russia after British citizens were captured by Russia while volunteering in Ukraine.
Chinese President Xi Jinping claps after his speech as China's new Politburo Standing Committee members meet the press at the Great Hall
of the People in Beijing, China October 25, 2017. (credit: REUTERS/JASON LEE) © Provided by The Jerusalem Post
    Chinese President Xi Jinping claps after his speech as China's new Politburo Standing Committee members meet the press at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, China October 25, 2017. (credit: REUTERS/JASON LEE)
    There is also a new dispute over whether Riyadh helped mediate the release of US Women's NBA basketball player Brittney Griner.    The White House has said that Saudi Arabia did not mediate, according to Reuters, but The Wall Street Journal has reported that the UAE and Saudi leaders played a role.
    The story out of the Gulf this weekend is that China wants to work with Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries on a number of issues, which could include security, energy and infrastructure.
    “The agreement comes during Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to the kingdom, and amid frayed ties between the United States and both countries [China and Saudi Arabia] over oil production, human rights abuses and other issues,” CNN noted.    "The nearly 4,000-word joint statement was published by the official Saudi Press Agency (SPA), and expressed agreement on a swathe of wide-ranging global issues, including energy, security, Iran’s nuclear program, the crisis in Yemen and Russia’s war on Ukraine."
    Could China cooperate with the Gulf countries?
    According to various reports, China could cooperate with Gulf countries on nuclear energy and space; a deal with China’s mega multinational technology company Huawei was signed.    This is a “new era,” one report said – and there are going to be so many potential partnerships that it seems impossible to count them all.
    Related video: 'A new era': China's Xi hails Saudi Arabia visit with new political and trade deals (Dailymotion)
    Media in the Gulf was gushing over the visit.    Al-Arabiya noted that “Arab countries seek to improve cooperation with China and look forward to a new phase of the partnership, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said on Friday at the China-Arab summit.”    The report cited the crown prince saying at the summit that “the kingdom is working on enhancing cooperation [with China] to serve international stability.”
    Riyadh is indicating it doesn’t want to be pressured by Washington to choose between the US and China.
    “Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said on Friday that the kingdom does not believe in polarization or choosing between one partner and another,” Al-Arabiya reported.    The Gulf Cooperation Council has said it will remain a stable and reliable energy supplier to the world.    This came during the Chinese visit, which also shows how the GCC would like to be seen by both the East and the West.
    The National in the UAE said that “the GCC states and China have agreed on a four-year joint plan of action to enhance their strategic partnership, according to a statement released on Friday” that discussed the inaugural China-GCC summit.
    “The participants agreed to strengthen cooperation on economic recovery after the Covid-19 pandemic and ensure flexibility on supply chains, food security and green energy as well as space and health,” the report said.
Ruffle feathers
    The China visit is sure to ruffle feathers in the US and provide more grist for the mill in terms of the critique pattern that underpins how some in Washington now see the Saudis.    This is a kind of feedback loop or confirmation bias of a self-fulfilling prophecy.
    The more voices in Washington have called to redefine ties with Saudi Arabia – or even portray it as an adversary – the more Riyadh pays attention and considers its other options, such as holding meetings with countries like China, which then serve as more “evidence” for why it isn’t the same historical partner that it has been for the US, leading to another flood of critique.
    In the end, there are a number of issues that bring the US and Saudi Arabia together regarding certain interests, but there are issues that divide them as well.    And it’s not just about Riyadh's ties to Washington.    The UAE and Qatar are both close partners of the US but they also have different agendas in the region.    Qatar is hosting the World Cup and hopes to use that to showcase its importance; it is doing some influence peddling.
    The US has been close to the Saudis for many decades; they were key partners in the Cold War.    However, after the Gulf War against Saddam’s invasion of Kuwait in August 1990, US-Saudi ties became more complex.    Osama Bin Laden was from Saudi Arabia and the threat of extremism grew.    US bases became controversial.    After 9/11, the Saudis also faced their own local threats at home.
    In addition, countries like the UAE decided to confront the Muslim Brotherhood and this tied into UAE and Saudi Arabia being key allies of the Sisi government in Egypt.
    Riyadh was also concerned about the US approach to the Iran deal.    This has also been linked to the long-term trajectory that led to the Abraham Accords.    There was also the Gulf crisis in 2017 when Saudi Arabia and the UAE broke relations with Qatar for several years.    This has led to unprecedented shifts in Washington and discussions about the Gulf as well as the politicization of these ties and increased partisanship in the way some officials see the region.
    As Washington shifts from the global war on terror to confronting its major adversaries China and Russia, any flirtation between US partners and Beijing is seen as very problematic.    This is how the China-Saudi meetings will be seen in the West.
    The West is now working more closely on defense and security programs.    Whether that relates to which countries get F-35s or advanced drones – or partnerships such as the UK, Italy and Japan developing a new fighter jet; or the US, UK and Australia in partnership on AUKUS – the Chinese work in the Gulf will be seen as problematic.
    This will cement Western internal ties and its ties to countries like Japan and South Korea.    It could also strengthen US ties with India and India’s ties to Israel and the UAE.    However, New Delhi has also been reluctant to critique Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, an issue that has bothered the US.
    Now, Washington is seeing how countries are willing to move toward embracing China or talking to Russia – and historical US partners from Riyadh to Ankara are all making the same choices.    This could have long-term effects for the Middle East as well as China’s initiatives, such as what it calls the “Belt and Road,” a massive infrastructure and regional connectivity project, as well as China’s new deals with Iran and its work in Africa.
    China cannot compete with US technology and systems such as air defenses.    The Gulf will hedge on these issues, and America will have to decide whether meetings with China are a redline, or whether this is just how the new world order will look.

12/11/2022 2 Yemeni soldiers escorting UN convoy killed by Ahmed Al-Haj, ASSOCIATED PRESS
    SANAA, Yemen – Two soldiers from Yemen’s pro-government forces were killed in an armed ambush on a United Nations convoy in eastern Yemen, the U.N. said Saturday.
    According to a statement from the U.N.’s International Office of Migration spokeswoman, the two soldiers were killed while escorting a convoy traveling west from Seiyun to Marib.    No IOM staff, who were on an unspecified humanitarian mission, were injured in the attack, it said.    No further details about the Friday incident were given.
    A tribal leader from the area and a U.N. official told The Associated Press that the ambush took place near the town of Al-Abr, in Yemen’s eastern Hadramout province.    Both spoke on condition of anonymity out of fear of reprisals.
    In a separate statement issued on Friday by Lt. Gen. Saleh Mohammed Timis of Yemen’s Special Tasks Battalion – an official branch of the Saudi backed army – the two men were identified as Salem Saeed Qarwan and Salem Mubarak Al-Bahri.
    The attackers have not been identified.

12/11/2022 EXPLAINER - WHAT’S AT STAKE IN SYRIA ESCALATION - Turkey has warned of incursion to target Kurds by Bassem Mroue and Suzan Fraser, ASSOCIATED PRESS
American soldiers patrol in Hassakeh, Syria, on Feb. 8. The U.S. maintains a
small military presence in northern Syria. BADERKHAN AHMAD/AP FILE
    BEIRUT – After weeks of deadly Turkish airstrikes in northern Syria, Kurdish forces and international players are trying to gauge whether Ankara’s threats of a ground invasion are serious.
    Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has repeatedly warned of a new land incursion to drive Kurdish groups away from the Turkish-Syrian border, following a deadly Nov. 13 bombing in Istanbul.    Turkish authorities blamed the attack on the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party, or PKK, and on the Syria-based People’s Protection Units, or YPG.    Both have denied involvement.     On Nov. 20, Ankara launched a barrage of airstrikes, killing dozens, including civilians as well as Kurdish fighters and Syrian government troops.    Human Rights Watch has warned that the strikes are exacerbating a humanitarian crisis by disrupting power, fuel and aid.
    In the most recent development, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin flew to Turkey last week for talks on the situation in Syria.
    Here’s a look at what various foreign powers and groups embroiled in the Syria conflict stand to gain or lose:
What Turkey wants
    Turkey sees the Kurdish forces along its border with Syria as a threat and has launched three major military incursions since 2016, taking control of large swaths of territory.
    Erdogan hopes to relocate many of the 3.6 million Syrian refugees in Turkey to northern Syria and has begun building housing units there.    The plan could address growing anti-refugee sentiment in Turkey and bolster Erdogan’s support ahead of next year’s elections, while diluting historically Kurdish-majority areas by resettling non-Kurdish Syrian refugees there.
    Erdogan has also touted plans to create a 19-mile security corridor in areas currently under Kurdish control.    A planned Turkish invasion earlier this year was halted amid opposition by the U.S. and Russia.
The Kurdish response
    Kurdish groups are pressing the U.S. and Russia, both of which have military posts in northern Syria, to once again prevent Turkey from carrying out its threats.
    The Kurds are worried that the West will stand aside this time to appease Ankara in exchange for approval of Sweden and Finland joining NATO.
    “This silence toward Turkey’s brutality will encourage Turkey to carry out a ground operation,” said Badran Jia Kurd, deputy co-chair of the Autonomous Administration of North and East Syria.
    Kurdish groups, which fought against the Islamic State group alongside a U.S.-led coalition and now guard thousands of captured IS fighters and family members, warn that a Turkish escalation would threaten efforts to stamp out the extremist group.
    In recent weeks, officials from the U.S. and the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces said they had stopped or scaled back joint patrols against IS because of the airstrikes, although patrols have since resumed.
The role of Syrian insurgents
    The so-called Syrian National Army, a coalition of Turkey-backed Syrian opposition groups with tens of thousands of fighters, would likely provide foot soldiers for any future ground offensive.    In previous incursions, including the 2018 offensive on the town of Afrin, the SNA was accused of committing atrocities against Kurds and displacing tens of thousands from their homes.
    Several officials from the SNA did not respond to calls and text messages from The Associated Press.    One official who answered said they were ordered by Turkish authorities not to speak about plans for a new incursion.
The Syrian government’s stance
    The Syrian government has opposed past Turkish incursions but also sees the SDF as a secessionist force and a Trojan horse for the U.S., which has imposed paralyzing sanctions on the government of Bashar Assad.
    Damascus and Ankara have recently been moving to improve relations after 11 years of tension triggered by Turkey’s backing of opposition fighters in Syria’s civil war.    Damascus has kept relatively quiet about the killing of Syrian soldiers in the recent Turkish strikes.
Will the US get involved?
    The United States maintains a small military presence in northern Syria, where its strong backing of the SDF has infuriated Turkey.
    However, the U.S. at first said little publicly about the Turkish airstrikes, speaking more forcefully only after they hit dangerously close to U.S. troops and led to anti-IS patrols being temporarily halted.    U.S. Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin has voiced “strong opposition” to a new offensive.
    Asked if the U.S. had any assurances for Kurds worried that the U.S. might abandon them to coax a NATO deal out of Turkey, a senior U.S. official who spoke on condition of anonymity said only that there had been no changes to U.S. policy in the region.
Will Russia broker a deal?
    Russia is the Syrian government’s closest ally.    Its involvement in Syria’s conflict helped turn the tide in favor of Assad.    Although Turkey and Russia support rival sides in the conflict, the two have coordinated closely in Syria’s north.    In recent months, Russia has pushed for a reconciliation between Damascus and Ankara.    Moscow has voiced concerns over Turkey’s recent military actions in northern Syria and has attempted to broker a deal.    According to Lebanon based Al-Mayadeen TV, the chief of Russian forces in Syria, Lt. Gen. Alexander Chaiko, recently suggested to SDF commander Mazloum Abdi that Syrian government forces should deploy in a security strip along the border with Turkey to avoid a Turkish incursion.
Iran’s interests
    Iran, a key ally of the Assad government, strongly opposed Turkish plans for a land offensive earlier this year but hasn’t commented publicly on the possible new incursion.
    Tehran also has a sizable Kurdish minority and has battled a low-level separatist insurgency for decades.
    Iran has seen sustained protests and a deadly crackdown by security forces since the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, a Kurdish woman, in the custody of the country’s morality police in mid-September.
    Iran has blamed much of the unrest on Kurdish opposition groups exiled in neighboring Iraq, charges those groups deny, and has carried out strikes against them.

12/12/2022 Gaza authorities discover over 60 Roman era graves in ancient site
    GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip – Hamas authorities in Gaza on Sunday announced the discovery of over 60 tombs in an ancient burial site dating back to the Roman era.    Work crews have been excavating the site since it was discovered last January during preparations for an Egyptian-funded housing project.    Hiyam al-Bitar, a researcher from the Hamas-run Ministry of Antiquities and Tourism, said a total of 63 graves have been identified and that a set of bones and artifacts from one tomb was dated back to the second century.

12/13/2022 Syrians face dire winter if aid is cut, UN chief warns by Edith M. Lederer, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in the report to the U.N. Security Council obtained
Monday by The Associated Press that cross-border aid to northwest Syria remains “an indispensable part”
of humanitarian operations to reach all people in need. PAUL CHIASSON/THE CANADIAN PRESS VIA AP
    UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. chief warned in a new report that the already dire humanitarian situation in Syria is worsening and if aid deliveries from Turkey to the rebel-held northwest aren’t renewed next month millions of Syrians may not survive the winter.
    Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said in the report to the U.N. Security Council obtained Monday by The Associated Press that cross-border aid to the northwest remains “an indispensable part” of humanitarian operations to reach all people in need.
    Deliveries across conflict lines within the country, which Syria’s close ally Russia has pressed for, have increased but Guterres said they cannot substitute for “the size or scope of the massive cross-border United Nations operation.”
    Russia has also pushed for early recovery projects in Syria and Guterres said at least 374 have taken place throughout the country since January, directly benefitting over 665,000 people, but he said “further expansion” is needed.
    The council asked for a report from the secretary-general on Syria’s humanitarian needs in the July resolution that extended the delivery of food, medicine and other desperately need aid through the Bab al-Hawa crossing from Turkey to northwest Idlib for six months until Jan. 10.
    Russia has sought to reduce cross border aid, with the aim of eliminating it.
    In July 2020, China and Russia vetoed a U.N. resolution that would have maintained two border crossing points from Turkey for humanitarian aid to northwest Idlib.    Days later, the delivery of aid was reduced to just the Bab al-Hawa crossing for a year as they demanded.
    In July 2021, Russia pressed for a further reduction, finally agreeing to a six-month extension with another six months contingent on a report from the secretary-general on progress in crossline deliveries.    But in July this year, Russia insisted on U.N. authorization for just six months.
    Strongly appealing for Bab al-Hawa to remain open for U.N. assistance, Guterres warned that “a halt to cross-border deliveries in the midst of winter months would risk leaving millions of Syrians without the aid needed to endure harsh weather conditions.”
    He said cross-border aid “remains a lifeline for millions of people” and Security Council renewal of the resolution authorizing continued deliveries is not only “critical” but “a moral and humanitarian imperative.”
    According to his report, 7.5 million people live in areas not under Syrian government control, mainly across the north with a small number in Rukban in the southeast, and 6.8 million of them need humanitarian assistance due to hostilities and widespread displacement.
    More broadly, Guterres said, “after 11 years of conflict, the country still has the largest number of internally displaced people in the world, drives one of the world’s largest refugee crises, and the humanitarian situation continues to deteriorate.”    The already dire situation is compounded by cholera spreading across the country, the COVID-19 pandemic, a worsening economy and climate and other human-caused shocks, he said.
    “As a result of these challenges, in 2023, 15.3 million people, out of a total population of 22.1 million, are estimated to require humanitarian assistance, compared to 14.6 million people in 2022,” the secretary-general said.    “This is the highest level of people in need since the start of the conflict” in 2011.
    Data on humanitarian needs collected by the U.N. and its partners from over 34,000 households in July and August found that 85% of households were completely unable or insufficiently able to meet their basic needs, an increase from 75% in 2021, according to the report.
    The report also cited a 48% increase in severe acute malnutrition among children aged 6 months to 5 years in 2022 compared to 2021.    At least 25% of children under the age of five in some districts are stunted and at risk of irreversible damage to their physical and cognitive development as well as “repeated infection, developmental delay, disabilities and death,” it said.
    Secretary-General Guterres said winter weather is expected to worsen the situation for millions of Syrians, and among the most vulnerable are those in the northwest who rely on cross-border aid deliveries and face declining humanitarian conditions due to ongoing hostilities and “a deepening economic crisis.”
    “Today, in the northwest, 4.1 million people, 80% of them women and children, out of a population of 4.6 million, are estimated to need humanitarian assistance to meet their most basic needs,” he said.

12/14/2022 No impeachment for Ramaphosa - South Africa’s parliament votes against procedure by Mogomotsi Magome, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Expelled African National Congress member Carl Niehaus, second from right,
protests Tuesday in Cape Town, South Africa. NARDUS ENGELBRECHT/AP
    JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s parliament voted against starting impeachment proceedings against President Cyril Ramaphosa over a report that says he held undeclared foreign currency at his farm in 2020.
    The lawmakers voted 214 to 148 against the move to impeach Ramaphosa.    The ruling African National Congress party, which holds a majority in the parliament, largely stood with Ramaphosa, preventing the motion from getting the two-thirds vote needed to proceed with impeachment.
    Four ANC members of parliament, however, showed their opposition to Ramaphosa by voting in favor of impeachment and a few more did not show up for the vote.
    The crucial vote came after a damning parliamentary report alleged that Ramaphosa illegally hid at least $580,000 in cash in a sofa at his Phala Phala game ranch.    It said he did not report the theft of the money to the police in order to avoid questions over how he got the foreign currency and why he had not declared it to authorities.
    The report has brought Ramaphosa’s opponents – opposition parties and even rivals within his ANC party – to call for him to step down.
    At least four ANC lawmakers broke ranks with the party line and voted along with the opposition parties in favor of the impeachment process, including Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, currently a minister in Ramaphosa’s Cabinet and high-ranking ANC leader.
    Dlamini-Zuma lost against Ramaphosa for the ANC presidency at its last national conference in 2017.
    Other notable figures who voted in favor of Ramaphosa’s impeachment were Supra Mahumapelo and Mosebenzi Zwane, known rivals of Ramaphosa and allies of former President Jacob Zuma, indicating the extent of divisions within the ANC.
    During the Tuesday seating.    ANC lawmakers argued that the panel that drafted the report did not present enough evidence to warrant the impeachment of Ramaphosa.    They said that other law enforcement agencies are still probing the matter.
    They also cited Ramaphosa’s application for a judicial review of the report, saying parliament should await the outcome of that process before proceeding with any move against the president.
    The parliamentary vote comes in a week where Ramaphosa will also be fighting for his political life as he seeks to be re-elected the leader of the ANC at its national conference starting in Johannesburg on Friday.
    The conference will also elect members of the party’s National Executive Committee, which is the party’s highest decision-making body.
    Ramaphosa must be reelected as the ANC leader in order to stand for reelection to a second term as South Africa’s president in 2024.
    Ramaphosa is expected to be reelected as the ANC leader but he will be weakened by the scandal, analysts say.
    “The Phala Phala scandal has tainted Ramaphosa’s anti-corruption credentials and re-election campaign,” said Aleix Montana, analyst at Verisk Maplecroft.    “But there is no viable alternative candidate in the ANC who can secure the political survival of the party.”

12/15/2022 Biden tells African leaders US is ‘all in’ - $55B in investments ‘just the beginning’ by Aamer Madhani and Colleen Long, ASSOCIATED PRESS
President Joe Biden toasts Wednesday with Senegalese President Macky Sall in the East Room
of the White House in Washington during the U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit dinner. SUSAN WALSH/AP
    WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden told dozens of African leaders gathered in Washington that the United States is “all in on Africa’s future,” laying out billions in promised government funding and private investment Wednesday to help the growing continent in health, infrastructure, business and technology.
    “The U.S. is committed to supporting every aspect of Africa’s growth,” Biden told the leaders and others in a big conference hall, presenting his vision at the three-day U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit of how the U.S. can be a critical catalyst.
    Biden, who is pitching the U.S. as a reliable partner to promote democratic elections and push critical health and energy growth, told the crowd the $55 billion in committed investments over the next three years – announced on Monday – was “just the beginning.”
    He announced more than $15 billion in private trade and investment commitments and partnerships.
    “There’s so much more we can do together and that we will do together,” Biden said.
    The president after his speech spent some time with leaders, including Moroccan Prime Minister Aziz Akhannouch, watching Morocco’s World Cup match with France. Morocco lost but made history as the first African team to advance to the tournament’s semifinal round.
    The United States has fallen well behind China in investment in sub-Saharan Africa, which has become a key battleground in an increasingly fraught competition between the major powers.    The White House insists this week’s gathering is more a listening session with African leaders than an effort to counter Beijing’s influence, but the president’s central foreign policy tenet looms over all: America is in an era-defining battle to prove democracies can out-deliver autocracies.
    That message was clear in Wednesday’s events.    In his speech, Biden spoke of how the U.S. would help in modernizing technology across the continent, providing clean energy, moving women’s equality forward through business opportunities, bringing clean drinking water to communities and better funding health care.    First lady Jill Biden’s office also laid out $300 million for cancer prevention, screening, treatment and research in Africa.
    On Wednesday Biden also held a smaller meeting at the White House with the leaders of the Democratic Republic of Congo, Gabon, Liberia, Madagascar, Nigeria and Sierra Leone.    Thursday is to be dedicated to high-level discussions among leaders; Biden will open the day with a session on partnering with the African Union’s strategic vision for the continent.
    The president and first lady were hosting a White House dinner for all the leaders and their spouses Wednesday night. Gladys     Knight and the St. Augustine Gospel Choir of Washington, D.C., were to perform, and the food done by Mashama Bailey, the executive chef of The Grey, a Southern cooking spot in Savannah, Georgia.    The summit is the largest international gathering in Washington since before the start of the pandemic.    Roads all around the city center were blocked off, and motorcades zoomed by gridlocked traffic elsewhere, ferrying some of the 49 invited heads of state and other leaders.
    Many leaders of the continent’s 54 nations often feel they’ve been given short shrift by leading economies.    But the continent remains crucial to global powers because of its rapidly growing population, significant natural resources and sizable voting bloc in the United Nations.    Africa also remains of great strategic importance as the U.S. recalibrates its foreign policy with greater focus on China – the nation the Biden administration sees as the United States’ most significant economic and military adversary.
    But Biden invited several leaders who have questionable records on human rights, and democracy loomed large. Equatorial Guinea was invited despite the State Department stating “serious doubts” about last month’s election in the tiny Central African nation.    Opposition parties “made credible allegations of significant election-related irregularities, including documented instances of fraud, intimidation, and coercion,” according to the department.    Election officials reported that President Teodoro Obiang’s ruling party won nearly 95% of the vote.
    Zimbabwe, which has faced years of U.S. and Western sanctions, also was invited.
    Tunisian President Kais Saied, who has been criticized by the United States for democratic backsliding, used an appearance before reporters with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday to offer a stout defense of actions he has taken, including suspending the parliament and firing judges.
    “The country was on the brink of civil war all over the country, so I had no other alternative but to save the Tunisian nation from undertaking any nasty action,” Saied said.
    Biden made no mention of China in his remarks, and White House officials rejected the notion that the summit was in part about countering China’s influence.
    National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said the administration is “refusing to put a gun” to Africa’s head and make it choose between U.S. and China.    At the same time, he said “there’s nothing inconsistent about calling a fact a fact and shedding light on what is increasingly obvious to our African partners about China’s malign influence on the continent.”
    Still, the summit-related activity got a rise out of China. Foreign Ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin said the U.S. should “respect the will of the African people and take concrete actions to help Africa’s development, instead of unremittingly smearing and attacking other countries.”
    Wang said at a briefing Wednesday that it is the “common responsibility of the international community to support Africa’s development.”    But he added: “Africa is not an arena for great power confrontation or a target for arbitrary pressure by certain countries or individuals.”
    Rwandan President Paul Kagame also bristled at the idea of his country and others on the continent getting caught between the U.S. and China.    “I don’t think we need to be bullied into making choices between U.S. and China,” Kagame said during an event on the summit’s sideline hosted by the news organization Semafor.
    Biden has promised U.S. support for a permanent Group of 20 seat for the African Union, and the appointment of a special representative to implement summit commitments.
    In addition to China, talks also spotlighted what the U.S. has sees as malevolent Russian action on the continent.
    The administration argued in its sub-Saharan strategy published earlier this year that Russia, the preeminent arms dealer in Africa, views the continent as a permissive environment for Kremlin connected oligarchs and private military companies to focus on fomenting instability for their own strategic and financial benefit.
    During an appearance with Blinken on Wednesday, Ghanaian President Nana Akufo-Addo expressed alarm about the presence of mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner Group in Burkina Faso directly north of Ghana.
    “Today, Russian mercenaries are on our northern border,” said Akufo-Addo, adding that he believed Burkinabe authorities had given the Wagner Group control of a mine for payment and that the country’s prime minister had recently visited Moscow.
    “The U.S. is committed to supporting every aspect of Africa’s growth.”
President Joe Biden
At the three-day U.S.-Africa Leaders Summit

12/16/2022 Overall peace just beyond reach - As Tigray region calms, Ethiopia sees growing conflict in Oromia by Cara Anna, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed speaks at a campaign rally in 2021. The nation’s Oromia region appears increasingly
unstable amid ongoing conflicts between members of the Amhara and Oromo communities. Mulugeta Ayene/AP File
    NAIROBI, Kenya – As one deadly conflict in Ethiopia begins to calm, another is growing, challenging a government that’s eager to persuade the international community to lift sanctions and revive what was once one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies.
    Even as Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed attends the U.S.-Africa summit this week to promote last month’s peace agreement between his government and authorities from the country’s Tigray region, the larger region of Oromia appears increasingly unstable.
    Africa’s second most populous country, with 120 million people, is again wrestling with deadly tensions between ethnic groups and their armed allies. Both the Oromo and Amhara ethnic groups, the country’s largest, allege killings and blame the other.    With telecommunications often cut and residents often fearing retaliation if they speak out, the death toll in the violence in Oromia is unknown.
    Speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity out of fears for their safety, several residents of Oromia described deadly attacks in recent weeks.
    One witness in the region’s Kiramu district said his father and cousin were among at least 34 people killed since Nov. 24.    He blamed soldiers under the control of the Oromia regional government, saying he saw their uniforms.
    'It all started with a confrontation between a single local militia and members of the Oromia special forces,' he said.    'The special forces killed the militia who was a member of the Amhara community, and then a week-long killing followed.'    He estimated that hundreds of people have since fled the area.
    An ethnic Oromo resident of Kiramu, however, accused an Amhara armed group known as the Fano of attacking and killing civilians and said he had seen more than a dozen bodies and buried four of them on Nov. 29.
    'This militia group is killing our people, burning villages and looting everything we own,' Dhugassa Feyissa told the AP.    'They shoot at anyone they find … be it public servants, police officers or teachers.'
    The Oromo and Amara have lived together for years, he said, but they had never seen fighting like this before.
    The deputy administrator of the Gidda Ayanna district, which also has seen some of Oromia’s worst violence in recent weeks, also blamed the Amhara Fano fighters.
    'Civilians in our area are being killed, displaced and looted.    This group is heavily armed, so it is no match for farmers who are defenseless,' Getahun Tolera said, noting that his district now hosts some 31,000 people who fled nearby districts.    'We are still going house-to-house and discovering bodies.'
    Ethiopian federal government officials declined to comment on the killings in Oromia and have not yet openly spoken about them.    The prime minister last week said only that some 'enemies with extreme views' were trying to destabilize the country, without giving details.
    Ethiopian security forces, Oromo insurgents and Amhara militia are all battling each other in Oromia, Ethiopia’s largest region, said William Davison, an analyst with the International Crisis Group.
    'Amid an intensifying government struggle against the rebels, all three have targeted civilians, particularly ethnic Amhara, which has led to an increase in violence by Amhara militia claiming to be defending their communities,' he said.
    As Ethiopian federal security forces battle the Oromo Liberation Army, which the government has called a terrorist group, Oromo and Amhara residents and their armed allies also fight each other over grievances old and new.
    Amhara settlers first moved en masse to Oromia in the 1980s during a famine in northern Ethiopia.    They lived peacefully there until the past three years.    The OLA split from an Oromo political organization and reportedly began targeting Amhara, at times as revenge for its losses to government forces.
    Amhara militia reportedly began targeting Oromos, and regional security forces became involved.
    Oromos are Ethiopia’s largest ethnic group, followed by the Amhara, who have dominated the country’s politics for generations.    Many Oromos were jubilant when Abiy, who identifies as Oromo, became prime minister in 2018. But that excitement has changed to frustration with the growing violence.
    Rallies protesting the killings have been held in some communities in recent days. Last week, the government-appointed Ethiopian Human Rights Commission said 'hundreds' of people had been killed in a 'gruesome manner' in the past four months across 10 zones in the Oromia region, and it confirmed the presence of government forces, Amhara militia and the OLA in areas where repeated killings occur.
    'The deliberate attacks against civilians in these areas are made based on ethnicity and political views … with the assertion that one supports one group over the other,' the commission said, urging the federal government to take urgent action.
    Opposition parties also are speaking up.    The Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Party, All Ethiopia Unity Party and Enat Party called for more security for the affected communities, and a senior Ethiopian official from the opposition National Movement of Amhara asked the federal government to intervene.
    'The totality of us have become a country that shows no strong aversion to a continued bloodshed of innocents, wherever it may happen,' Belete Molla said in a Facebook post earlier this month.
    Another prominent political figure, Oromo opposition politician Jawar Mohammed, earlier this month asserted that at least 350 people had been killed and over 400,000 displaced 'just in the last 48 hours' in the Kiramu, Horo Guduru, Kuyu and Wara Jarso areas of Oromia.
    'The government needs to quit pretending as if nothing is happening,' Jawar said in a Facebook post.    'The conflict is fast becoming a communal war involving civilians.    If not contained soon, it will likely spread to other parts of the two regional states and beyond.'

12/17/2022 UN envoy: Election needed for Libya by Edith M. Lederer, ASSOCIATED PRESS
    UNITED NATIONS – The U.N. special envoy for Libya warned Friday that signs of partition are already evident in the troubled North African nation and urged influential nations to pressure Libya’s rival leaders to urgently finalize the constitutional basis for elections.
    The first anniversary of the vote’s postponement is coming up later in December, said Abdoulaye Bathily, who stressed that if there is no resolution, an alternative way should be found to hold elections.
    Oil-rich Libya plunged into chaos after a NATO-backed uprising toppled and killed longtime dictator Moammar Gadhafi in 2011. In the chaos that followed, the county split into two rival administrations, each backed by different rogue militias and foreign governments.
    Bathily told the U.N. Security Council that the continuing disagreement between the two rivals – specifically, the speaker of Libya’s east-based parliament, Aguila Saleh, and Khaled al-Mashri, the president of the High Council of State based in the country’s west, in the capital of Tripoli – on a limited number of provisions in the constitution “can no longer serve as a justification to hold an entire country hostage.”
    If the two institutions can’t reach agreement swiftly, Bathily said, “an alternative mechanism,” can and should be used “to alleviate the sufferings caused by outdated and open-ended interim political arrangements.”    He did not elaborate on what that mechanism could be.
    Bathily also said the Security Council needs “to think creatively about ways to ensure that free, fair, transparent and simultaneous presidential and parliamentary elections are organized and held under a single, unified and neutral administration, and that those who wish to run as candidates resign from their current functions to create a level playing field.”
    Libya’s latest political crisis stems from the failure to hold elections on Dec. 24, 2021, and the refusal of Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah – who led a transitional government in Tripoli – to step down.
    Subsequently, Libya’s east-based parliament, which argues that Dbeibah’s mandate ended on Dec. 24, appointed a rival prime minister, Fathi Bashagha, who has for months unsuccessfully sought to install his government in Tripoli.
    The presidential vote was postponed over disputes between rival factions on laws governing the elections and controversial presidential hopefuls.    The Tripoli-based council insists on banning military personnel as well as dual citizens from running for the country’s top post.
    That is apparently directed at east backed military leader Khalifa Hifter, a divisive commander and U.S. citizen who had announced his candidacy for the canceled December election.
    Bathily said individuals and entities that “prevent or undermine the holding of elections” must be held accountable, stressing that “this applies to acts committed before, during and after the election.”
    He warned that the unresolved political crisis in Libya “impacts people’s wellbeing, compromises their security, and threatens their very existence.”
    Signs of Libya’s partition, Bathily said, are ample – including two parallel governments in the east and west, separate security operations, a divided central bank, and growing discontent throughout the country “over the unequal allocation of the huge revenues of oil and gas of the country.”
    The protracted political crisis “also carries a serious risk of further dividing the country and its institutions,” he added.
    Bathily told the council that Saleh and al-Mashri had earlier agreed to meet under U.N. auspices in the city of Zintan on Dec. 4 to try and find a way out of the crisis but regrettably, the meeting was postponed “due to unforeseen logistical reasons as well as emerging political obstacles.”
    He said the U.N. is working to identify a new date and location for the meeting.
    U.S. deputy ambassador Robert Wood said Libya’s political transition “remains stuck.”

12/18/2022 Tunisia’s parliament vote sees low turnout by Bouazza Ben Bouazza and Barbara Surk, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A man pulls a wheelbarrow through a damaged street in La Marsa outside
Tunis, the capital of Tunisia, on Wednesday. HASSENE DRIDI/AP
    TUNIS, Tunisia – Tunisians on Saturday voted to elect a new parliament, to the backdrop of a soaring cost-of-living crisis and concerns of democracy backsliding in the North African country – the cradle of Arab Spring protests a decade ago.
    Opposition parties – including the Salvation Front coalition that the popular Ennahda party is part of – boycotted the polls because they say the vote is part of President Kais Saied’s efforts to consolidate power.    The decision to boycott will likely lead to the next legislature being subservient to the president, whom critics accuse of authoritarian drift.     After the polls closed, the voter turnout appeared lower than in previous legislative elections in 2014 and 2019.    Associated Press reporters observed deserted polling stations during Saturday’s balloting - although they also saw people queuing outside several polling places around the capital, Tunis.
    Farouk Bouaskar, president of Tunisia’s Election Authority, said Saturday night that the turnout was astonishingly low and stood at 8.8 percent.    Of 9 million registered voters, only some 800,000 cast ballots, Bouaskar said.
    “It’s really a stretch to call what occurred today an election,” said Saida Ounissi, a former member of the parliament that the president dissolved in March after years of political deadlock and economic stagnation.
    Ounissi, who also served as minister and was elected in two previous elections to the legislature on the Ennahda party list, acknowledged that she was “a bit bitter” at the political situation as the country faced an unprecedent financial crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic and the fallout from the war in Ukraine.
    “People were very angry at the parliament because of the deteriorating economy that is due to various crisis, and the president capitalized on that anger to crush the parliament, stifle democracy and seize more power,” Ounissi said.
    Parliament last met in July 2021.    Since then, Saied, who was elected in 2019 and still enjoys the backing of more than half of the electorate, has also curbed the independence of the judiciary and weakened parliament’s powers.
    In a referendum in July, Tunisians approved a constitution that hands broad executive powers to the president.    Saied, who spearheaded the project and wrote the text himself, made full use of the mandate in September, changing the electoral law to diminish the role of political parties.
    The new law reduces the number of member of the lower house of parliament from 217 to 161, who are now to be elected directly instead of via a party list.    And lawmakers who “do not fulfil their roles” can be removed if 10% of their constituents lodge a formal request.
    Critics say the electoral law reforms have hit women particularly hard.    Only 127 women are among the 1,055 candidates running in Saturday’s election.
    Saied’s critics accuse him of endangering the democratic process. But many others believe that scrapping the party lists puts individuals ahead of political parties and will improve elected officials’ accountability.    They are exasperated with political elites, welcome their increasingly autocratic president’s political reforms and see the vote for a new parliament as a chance to solve their dire economic crisis.
    Saied and his wife, Ichraf Chebil, cast their ballots in Ennasr, an upscale suburb north of Tunis on Saturday morning.    He called on citizens to vote “with your hearts and your consciousness to reclaim your legitimate rights to justice and freedom.”    He also warned against supporting those he claimed had abused power and “depleted the country of valuable resources after bribing people to elect them under the old electoral law.”
    The Tunisian government is deeply indebted and chronically short of funds to pay for badly needed food and energy. Food prices have soared over the past months and shortages of basic staples like sugar, vegetable oil, rice, milk and even bottled water have threatened to turn simmering discontent into turmoil.
    Many believe their country’s decade old democratic revolution has failed, a decade after Tunisia was the only nation to emerge from the Arab Spring protests with a democratic government.
Saied

12/18/2022 IMF approves deal with Egypt for $3 billion support package
    CAIRO – The International Monetary Fund has approved a deal that will provide a $3 billion support package to cash-strapped Egypt over a period of almost four years, with the agreement expected to draw in an additional $14 billion in financing for the Middle East country.    The deal announced Friday is expected to cover a period of 46 months and will give the Egyptian government immediate access to about $347 million, which will help the nation bolster its balance of payments and budget, the IMF said.

12/19/2022 Syrian Kurds risk lives to get to Europe - Economic pain, Turkish strikes cited as reasons by Kareem Chehayeb and Hogir Al Abdo, ASSOCIATED PRESS
A growing number of Syrian Kurds are making the journey to Europe on a circuitous course that includes
travel by car and plane across Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, then finally by boat to Spain. AP
    QAMISHLI, Syria – Baran Mesko had been hiding with other migrants for weeks in the coastal Algerian city of Oran, awaiting a chance to take a boat across the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.
    Days before the 38-year-old Syrian Kurd was to begin the journey, he received news that a smuggler boat carrying some of his friends had sunk soon after leaving the Algerian coast.    Most of its passengers had drowned.
    It came as a shock, after spending weeks to get to Algeria from Syria and then waiting for a month for a smuggler to put him on the boat.
    But having poured thousands of dollars into the journey, and with his wife and 4- and 3-year-old daughters counting on him to secure a life safe from conflict, the engineer-turned-citizen journalist boarded a small fishing boat with a dozen other men and took a group selfie to send to their families before they went offline.
    After a 12-hour overnight journey, Mesko made his way to Almería, Spain, on Oct. 15, and then flew to Germany four days later, where he is now an asylum seeker in a migrant settlement near Bielefeld.    He’s still getting used to the cold weather, and is using a translation app on his phone to help him get around while learning German.    He said he’s hopeful his papers will be settled soon so his family can join him.
    At least 246 migrants have gone missing while trying to cross the western Mediterranean into Europe in 2022, the International Organization for Migration says.    In the past few years, thousands more have perished making the dangerous sea voyage.
    Mesko is among a growing number of Syrian Kurds making the journey to Europe on a winding course that includes travel by car and plane across Lebanon, Egypt, Libya, Algeria, then finally by boat to Spain.
    They say they are opting for this circuitous route because they fear detention by Turkish forces or Turkish backed militants in Syria if they try to sneak into Turkey, the most direct path to Europe.
    According to data from the European Union border agency Frontex, at least 591 Syrians have crossed the Mediterranean from Algeria and Morocco to Spain in 2022, six times more than last year’s total.
    A Kurdish Syrian smuggler in Algeria said dozens of Kurds from Syria arrive in the Algerian coastal city of Oran each week for the sea journey.
    “I’ve never had numbers this high before,” the smuggler told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of arrest by Algerian authorities.
    Years of conflict and economic turmoil have left their mark on Syria’s northern areas, home to some 3 million people under de facto Kurdish control.    The region has been targeted by Islamic State group militants, Turkish forces and Syrian opposition groups from the country’s northwestern rebel-held enclave.    Climate change and worsening poverty spurred a cholera outbreak in recent months.
    Like Mesko, many of the migrants come from the Syrian city of Kobani, which made headlines seven years ago when Kurdish fighters withstood a brutal siege by the Islamic State militant group.
    The town was left in ruins, and since then, “not much has happened” to try to rebuild, said Joseph Daher, a professor at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, adding that most development funding went to cities further east.
    Recent events in northeastern Syria have given its residents an additional incentive to leave.
    Turkey stepped up attacks on Kurdish areas in Syria after a bombing in Istanbul in November killed six people and wounded over 80 others.    Ankara blames the outlawed Kurdish Workers’ Party and the U.S.-backed Kurdish militia, the People’s Protection Unit in Syria. Both have denied responsibility.
    Since then, Turkish airstrikes have pounded areas across northeastern Syria, including Kobani, further battering its already pulverized infrastructure, and Ankara has vowed a ground invasion.
    Bozan Shahin, an engineer from Kobani, recalled a Turkish airstrike last month.
    “I saw my mother trembling in fear and holding my 4-year-old sister to keep her calm,” Shahin said.
    He now wants to join the flow of Kurds headed from Syria to Europe.
    “I have some friends who found a way to get to Lebanon through a smuggler and go somewhere through Libya,” he said.    “I’m not familiar with all the details, but I’m trying to see how I can take that journey safely.”
    The operation, which takes weeks and costs thousands of dollars, is run by a smuggler network that bribes Syrian soldiers to get people through checkpoints where they could be detained for draft-dodging or anti-government activism, then across the porous border into Lebanon, the migrants and smugglers said.
    There, the migrants typically stay in crowded apartments in Beirut for about a week while awaiting expedited passports from the Syrian Embassy by way of a smuggler’s middleman.
    With passports in hand, they fly to Egypt, where Syrians can enter visa free, then take another flight to Benghazi in war-torn Libya before embarking on the journey to Algeria through another network of smugglers.
    “We went in vans and jeeps and they took us across Libya through Tripoli and the coastal road and we would switch cars every 500 kilometers or so,” Mesko said.
    During the journey across the desert, they had to cross checkpoints run by Libya’s mosaic of armed groups.
    “Some of the guards at checkpoints treated us horribly when they knew we were Syrian, taking our money and phones, or making us stand outside in the heat for hours,” he said.
    An armed group kidnapped the group of migrants who left before his and demanded $36,000 for their release, Mesko said.
    By the time they reached the Algerian city of Oran, Mesko was relieved to take refuge in an apartment run by the smugglers.    While they waited for weeks, he and the other migrants spent most of their time indoors.
    “We couldn’t move freely around Oran, because security forces are all over and we did not cross into the country legally,” Mesko said.    “There were also gangs in the city or even on the coast who would try to mug migrants and take their money.”
    Human rights groups have accused the Algerian authorities of arresting migrants, and in some cases expelling them across land borders.    According to the U.N. refugee agency, Algeria expelled over 13,000 migrants to neighboring Niger to its south in the first half of 2021.
    Despite his relief at arriving safely in Germany with a chance to bring his wife and girls there, Mesko feels remorse for leaving Kobani.
    “I was always opposed to the idea of migrating or even being displaced,” he said.    “Whenever we had to move to another area because of the war, we’d come back to Kobani once we could.”
    Mesko spends much of his time at asylum interviews and court hearings, but says he’s in good spirits knowing he’s started a process he only dreamed of months ago. He hopes to be granted asylum status soon, so his wife and daughters can reunite with him in Europe.
    “Syria has become an epicenter of war, corruption and terrorism,” he said.    “We lived this way for 10 years, and I don’t want my children to live through these experiences, and see all the atrocities.”
Baran Mesko takes a selfie in a fishing boat with a dozen other Kurdish Syrian
migrants before leaving to Spain from Oran, Algeria, on Oct. 15. BARAN MESKO/AP

12/19/2022 Tunisian president is urged to resign by Bouazza Ben Bouazza, ASSOCIATED PRESS
    TUNIS, Tunisia – Tunisian opposition figures called Sunday for the president’s resignation after disastrous parliamentary elections in which less than 9% of voters cast ballots.
    The mass voter disavowal was a dramatic development for the country that was the birthplace of the Arab Spring uprisings against autocratic leaders a decade ago – and the only one to emerge from that upheaval with a democratic political system.
    The elections Saturday was meant to replace and reshape a legislature that President Kais Saied dissolved last year.    It was one of several moves he has made to consolidate his power and tackle Tunisia’s protracted economic and social crisis.
    The election results are expected in the coming days.
    Many opposition parties boycotted the vote, and many voters stayed away, too.
    According to provisional figures announced by the president of the electoral commission, Farouk Bouaskar, around 800,000 voters took part in the elections out of approximately 9 million registered.
    Opposition politician Ahmed Nejib Chebbi called the unprecedented low turnout “a real earthquake that will have serious consequences.”
    Chebbi heads the Salvation Front coalition formed by five opposition parties, which held the largest number of lawmakers in the dissolved parliament.

12/19/2022 Iraqi officials: Explosion kills 9 policemen by Salar Salim, ASSOCIATED PRESS
    IRBIL, Iraq – An explosive device went off in northern Iraq on Sunday, killing at least nine members of the Iraqi federal police force who were on patrol, Iraqi security officials said.
    Among the fatalities was an officer with the rank of major, according to a tweet from a military spokesman, Yahya Rasool. No one immediately claimed responsibility for the attack in the village of Ali al-Sultan in the Riyadh district of the province of Kirkuk.
    Rasool added that Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia al-Sudani had been briefed about the attack.    An investigation was underway.
    Two Iraqi security officials said nine were killed and clarified that the explosive device was a bomb.    They said three other officers were wounded in altercations with militants that broke out after the explosion, without elaborating.
    The two officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media.
    On Wednesday, three Iraqi soldiers were killed when a bomb exploded during a security operation in the Tarmiyah district, north of Baghdad.

12/20/2022 Shine like 9th candle against the darkness of antisemitism - Anyone can change the world by sharing their light by Luke Berryman, The Ninth Candle
The Hanukkah menorah has nine candles. The ninth, the 'shamash,' is used
to light the other candles, to bring light to others. Alex Wong/Getty Images
    Each winter, Jewish people around the world celebrate Hanukkah, the 'Festival of Lights.'    The celebrations include lighting eight candles on a special menorah.    These candles represent the miracle of one day’s worth of oil burning for eight during the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem more than 2,000 years ago.
    Look at the Hanukkah menorah, though, and you’ll see nine candles.    Eight of them are sacred, so they can’t be used to light the temple, the home or each other.    That’s where the ninth candle comes in.    It’s called the 'shamash,' which means servant. It isn’t sacred, and its sole purpose is to light the other candles.
    This year more than ever, the shamash is a potent reminder that everyone has the power to change the world for the better.
    The United States is experiencing an unprecedented surge in antisemitism.    Ye, the rapper formerly known as Kanye West, has said that he likes Hitler and loves Nazis; Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., has abused the memory of the Holocaust; and former President Donald Trump has dined with Nick Fuentes, a notorious white supremacist and conspiracy theorist.
    Interwoven with headline events like these are countless others that impacted local communities without making national news.
Irresistible forbidden fruit
    There’s an adage that can help us to understand why this surge is happening: The medium is the message.
    According to this adage, when your phone goes off, it doesn’t matter whether it’s telling you about a celeb who has said something antisemitic or about a celeb who has condemned antisemitism.    What matters is simply that it’s going off – again.    Clawing your attention away from the world and toward the little glowing screen that’s always within arm’s reach.
    And it’s not just our phones.    From targeted ads to 24/7 work culture, the competition for our attention is brutal and nonstop.    Under such conditions, some people will inevitably see offensive content as a way of getting attention – a shortcut to going viral.
    Just by virtue of being so gratuitously offensive, antisemitism is transforming into an irresistible forbidden fruit.    Every comparison of COVID-19 mandates to the Holocaust, and every appeal for impartiality when teaching kids about Nazism, is proof of this.
    But there are darker ingredients than attention-seeking in the antisemitic surge.    Society’s contempt for truth is leading more and more Americans to believe more and more conspiracy theories.    This has allowed violence to overshadow life in the United States, from the U.S. Capitol riots to the 'Unite the Right' rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.
    Antisemitism thrives in this environment because it’s the ultimate conspiracy theory.    It offers one simple explanation for everything that’s wrong with the world, its long history gives it a semblance of credibility that other conspiracies don’t have, and it has a salacious underbelly that conspiracy theorists can’t resist.
    The shamash candle shows us how we can break this spell.
    By bringing light to the other candles on the Hanukkah menorah, it empowers them to end darkness and to fulfill their potential.
Critical skill for the 21st century
    Fear, hate and ignorance have always been associated with darkness, and knowledge with light.    That’s why the 18th century Age of Reason – which gave birth to modern democracy, concepts such as religious tolerance and personal liberty, and philosophers like Adam Smith and Immanuel Kant – is also known as the Enlightenment.    To know something is to see the facts and truth about it clearly.
    In 2020, I founded a nonprofit organization to improve Holocaust education in the United States.    It’s called The Ninth Candle, after the shamash. We work to spread knowledge by bringing inquiry-based learning into classrooms all around the country.    This method teaches kids to identify historical documents, to analyze them and to think critically about them, and to assemble their findings into coherent historical narratives that cast light on how and why the Holocaust happened at the time and in the place that it did.
    Knowing history in this way enables them to tell what feels true from what actually is true – a critical skill for the 21st century.
    Hanukkah this year is from sundown Sunday through sundown Dec.26.    Maybe you’ll see a menorah in a window somewhere in your neighborhood. Let it be a chance to reflect on how anyone can change the world by sharing light.
    Luke Berryman is the founder and CEO of The Ninth Candle, a nonprofit organization whose mission is to end antisemitism by sharing knowledge.

12/20/2022 17 former IS members get death sentences in Libya - They were convicted of taking part in killings by Rami Musa, ASSOCIATED PRESS
    BENGHAZI, Libya – A Libyan court sentenced 17 former members of the Islamic State group to death, a statement from the country’s Tripoli-based top prosecutor said on Monday.
    The death sentences were given out to those convicted of participating in the killing of 53 people in the western city of Sabratha and destruction of public property, according to the statement. Another 16 militants were given prison sentences, two of them for life.    The court did not specify when the sentences would be carried out.
    Libya remains split between two rival administrations after years of civil war.    The divide between authorities in the capital of Tripoli and eastern Libya has led to widespread lawlessness.    Militia groups have also accumulated vast wealth and power from kidnappings and their control over the country’s lucrative human trafficking trade.
    The extremist group expanded their reach in Libya after the 2011 uprising that toppled and later killed longtime ruler Moammar Gadhafi.    IS militants first seized Darna in 2014 and then later Sirte and areas surrounding the city of Sabratha.
    However, unlike Syria and Iraq, IS was unable to profit from chaos and take large swathes of Libya.    Instead, the group was limited to only administrative pockets dotted across the oil-rich North African country, unable to gain supremacy over Libya’s numerous well-armed militia forces tightly bound by tribal loyalties.
    Several IS training camps were located outside Sabratha.    In early 2016, some 700 of its fighters, most of who were Tunisian, were based in the area.    In March 2016, affiliates of the group briefly took over the city’s security headquarters and beheaded 12 Libyan security officials before using the headless corpses to block nearby roads.
    Sirte’s central Martyrs’ Square was transformed by IS into a stage for public extrajudicial killings – including beheadings by a sword – for a wide variety of offenses.
    In April 2016, near the height of its power, the Libyan branch of the militant group had recruited around 6,000 fighters, U.S. military experts estimated.
    IS was driven from its main stronghold, the coastal city of Sirte, in late 2016 and fled inland.    However, the militants maintain a limited presence in small pockets of the country.
    In February 2016, the United States carried out an airstrike on an IS training camp near Sabratha, killing at least 40.

12/22/2022 Netanyahu says he’s formed new coalition - Israeli leader will head right-wing government by Josef Federman, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu will preside over a coalition dominated by far-right and ultra-Orthodox partners pushing
for dramatic changes that could raise the risk of conflict with the Palestinians. MENAHEM KAHANA/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
    JERUSALEM – Designated Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced late Wednesday that he has successfully formed a new coalition, setting the stage for him to return to power as head of the most right-wing Israeli government ever.
    Netanyahu made the announcement in a phone call to President Isaac Herzog moments before a midnight deadline.    His Likud Party released a brief video clip of the smiling Netanyahu and a recording of the conversation.
    “I wanted to announce to you that thanks to the amazing public support we received in the elections, I have succeeded in forming a government that will take care of all the citizens of Israel,” Netanyahu said.
    The move came after weeks of surprisingly difficult negotiations with his partners – who still have need to finalize their power-sharing deals with Netanyahu’s Likud Party.    Nonetheless, Netanyahu said he intends to complete the process “as soon as possible next week.”    A date for its swearing-in wasn’t immediately announced.    Even if he is successful, Netanyahu faces a difficult task ahead.    He will preside over a coalition dominated by farright and ultra-Orthodox partners pushing for dramatic changes that could alienate large swaths of the Israeli public, raise the risk of conflict with the Palestinians and put Israel on a collision course with some of its closest supporters, including the United States and the Jewish American community.
    Netanyahu already has reached agreements with some of the most controversial figures in Israeli politics.
    Itamar Ben-Gvir, who once was convicted of incitement to racism and supporting a terrorist organization, has been appointed security minister – a new position that will place him in charge of the national police force.
    His running mate, Bezalel Smotrich, a West Bank settler leader who believes Israel should annex the occupied territory, is set to receive widespread authority over West Bank settlement construction, in addition to serving as finance minister.
    Another ally, Avi Maoz, head of a small religious, anti-LGBTQ faction, has been placed in control of parts of the country’s national education system. Maoz, who is openly hostile to the liberal streams of Judaism popular in the U.S., also has been appointed a deputy minister in charge of “Jewish identity.”
    In the Nov. 1 election, Netanyahu and his allies captured a majority of 64 seats in the 120-member Knesset, and he vowed to quickly put together a coalition.    But that process turned out to be more complicated than anticipated, in part because his ultra-Orthodox and far-right partners demanded firm guarantees on the scope of their powers.
    Before the government is sworn in, Netanyahu will try to push through a series of laws needed to expand Ben-Gvir’s authority over the police and to create a new ministerial position granting Smotrich powers in the West Bank that in the past were held by the defense minister.
    The parliament will also try to approve legislation to allow Aryeh Deri, a veteran politician who once served a prison sentence in a bribery case, to serve as a government minister while he is on probation for another conviction earlier this year on tax offenses.
    The ultra-Orthodox, meanwhile, are seeking increases in subsidies for their autonomous education system, which has drawn heavy criticism for focusing on religious studies while providing its students few skills for the employment world.
    Likud lawmakers have been competing for a shrinking collection of assignments after Netanyahu gave away many plumb jobs to his governing partners.
    Netanyahu, who himself is on trial for alleged corruption, is eager to return to office after spending the past year and a half as opposition leader.    He and his partners are expected to push through a series of laws shaking up the country’s judiciary and potentially clearing Netanyahu of any charges.
    Netanyahu has claimed he is a victim of overzealous police, prosecutors and judges.    But critics say the plans, including an expected proposal that would allow parliament to overturn Supreme Court decisions, will destroy the country’s democratic institutions and system of checks and balances.
    Netanyahu has sought to portray himself as the responsible adult in the emerging government, saying in interviews that he will set policies.    But his partners are likely to test his limits at every chance.
    Ben-Gvir, for instance, who is known his anti-Arab rhetoric and provocative stunts such as brandishing a pistol in a tense Palestinian neighborhood, has called for loosening the rules of engagement allowing security forces to shoot at suspected Palestinian assailants.    He also wants to grant soldiers immunity from prosecution in such cases.
    He also wants to ease restrictions on Jewish visits to Jerusalem’s most sensitive holy site – a hilltop compound revered by Jews and Muslims. Even the smallest changes at the site have in the past sparked violent clashes, and Ben-Gvir’s plans already have drawn warnings from the Hamas militant group in the Gaza Strip.
    Smotrich’s plans to expand West Bank settlement construction and legalize dozens of illegally built outposts could also raise tensions with the Palestinians and the international community.    His partners’ animosity toward the Reform and Conservative streams of Judaism have rankled Jewish American groups.
    At home, Netanyahu’s expected concessions to the ultra-Orthodox and plans to overhaul the country’s legal system could infuriate many in the country’s secular middle class.    Dozens of executives from the powerful high-tech sector last week signed a petition warning that the proposals could drive away investors, and protests against the incoming coalition have already begun.
    The U.S. and European Union have both said they will judge the new government by its policies, not its personalities.    But in a recent speech, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken made clear he expects it to uphold “shared values” and not take actions that could preclude the establishment of a Palestinian state.
    Yohanan Plesner, a former Knesset member who is now president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank, said he expects to see a stable coalition take power in the coming days.
    “It’s in the interest of all members of the new coalition to form this government,” he said.    “All of them have a lot to gain and much to lose if it’s not formed.”

12/24/2022 Christmas in Zimbabwe not so bright this year - High food prices, loss of electricity plague country by Farai Mutsaka, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Children study by candlelight at their home in Harare. Zimbabwe is coping
with widespread power outages and the world’s highest food inflation. AP
    HARARE, Zimbabwe – To brighten the festive season, the mayor of Zimbabwe’s capital, Harare, recently switched-on Christmas lights in the city center. But for many, the event was just a reminder of two things they crave but can’t get: electricity and a happy holiday spirit.
    Not even Mayor Jacob Mafume seemed confident that the capital city will see a sparkling Christmas.
    “We do hope the electricity will remain during the time of the festive season,” he said at the lighting ceremony, which in past years has been marked by a cheery atmosphere.    “At least today we have it (power) and we hope that as we go forward the lights will not go out.”
    With the threat from COVID-19 receding, Zimbabwe has loosened restrictions on travel and gatherings.    But a buoyant holiday mood is not lifting the country, which is also coping with the world’s highest food inflation.
    Globally, food prices have spiked as a result of the war in Ukraine and Zimbabweans are hard hit.    The southern African nation of 15 million people has the world’s highest food inflation, at 321%, according to a World Bank food security update in December.
    Zimbabweans traditionally use the end-of-year holidays to travel to rural areas to spend time with their families but this year inflation is making the trek home a challenge.
    Paidamoyo Gutsai, a motor mechanic, said that for the past two years he failed to go to his rural home in the eastern food Manicaland province due to COVID- 19 restrictions.
    “This year it’s worse.    Although I am allowed to travel and even hold a gathering, in reality, I can’t because I don’t have the money,” said the 41-year-old father of three, scanning the prices of food items in a supermarket.    He steered clear of shelves with Christmas trees, decorations and lights.    Even if he could afford to buy twinkling lights, they require electricity and most households only get power between 11p.m. and 4 a.m.    It would be akin to throwing money down the drain, he said.
    Street vendors selling Christmas trees and decorations say customers are few.
    “Sometimes I just sell a single Christmas tree a day.    That money is just for bus fare to go back home,” said Eunice Pfavi, a vendor.    “I can’t even save for my own Christmas treat.    Just affording for the day feels like an achievement.”
    The high food prices are forcing many to put aside Christmas shopping in order to focus on immediate needs.
    “Spending is subdued.    We are not recording a boom as should be the case during the festive period,” said Denford Mutashu, president of the Confederation of Zimbabwe Retailers.    Spending in November fell by about 30%, he said.
    Inflation, global supply chain bottlenecks, currency instability and rising fuel and food prices are “weighing heavily on consumer purchasing power,” said Fitch Solutions, the local subsidiary of the New York-based economic research firm.    “Rising consumer price inflation has been the biggest threat to consumer expenditure in 2022, eroding buying power and diverting spending from discretionary items.”

12/25/2022 Bethlehem rebounds from COVID-19 - Tourists’ return lifts Christmas spirits by Maya Alleruzzo and Jalal Bwaitel, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Clergymen and Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa enter the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed
to be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Saturday. MAJDI MOHAMMED/AP
    BETHLEHEM, West Bank – The biblical town of Bethlehem marked a merry Christmas on Saturday, with thousands of visitors descending upon the traditional birthplace of Jesus as it rebounds from the coronavirus pandemic.
    Tourism is the economic lifeblood of this town in the occupied West Bank, and for the past two years, the pandemic kept international visitors away.
    This year, visitors are back, hotels are full and shopkeepers have reported a brisk business in the runup to the holiday.     Although the numbers have not reached pre-pandemic levels, the return of tourists has palpably raised spirits in Bethlehem.
    “We are celebrating Christmas this year in a very much different way than last year,” Palestinian Tourism Minister Rula Maayah said.    “We’re celebrating Christmas with pilgrims coming from all over the world.”
    Throughout the day, hundreds of people strolled through Manger Square for Christmas Eve celebrations.
    Marching bands pounding on drums and playing bagpipes paraded through the area, and foreign tourists meandered about and snapped selfies with the town’s large Christmas tree behind them.
    Cool gray weather, along with an occasional rain shower, did little to dampen spirits, though many people headed indoors to shops and restaurants to warm up.    By nightfall, the crowds had thinned.
    Daisy Lucas, a 38-year-old Filipina who works in Israel, said it was a dream come true to mark the holiday in such an important place.
    “As a Christian walking in the places in the Bible, it’s so overwhelming,” she said.    “This is the birthplace of Jesus Christ. As a Christian, that’s one achievement that’s on my bucket list.”
    Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, arrived from Jerusalem through a checkpoint in Israel’s West Bank separation barrier.
    “We are living in very difficult challenges,” he said, noting the war in Ukraine and a recent wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence.    “But the message of Christmas is a message of peace.”
    “It’s possible to change things,” he added.    “We will be very clear in what we have to do and what we have to say in order to preserve the importance of unity and reconciliation among all.”
    Pizzaballa walked through Manger Square, waving to well-wishers before heading to the Church of the Nativity, built on the spot where Christians believe Jesus was born. Later, he was to celebrate Midnight Mass.
    Hundreds of millions of Christians were ushering in the holiday, wrapping up a tumultuous year characterized by conflict and violence in many parts of the world.
    In war-ravaged Ukraine, the glitzy lights normally spread over Kyiv’s Sophia Square were missing due to restrictions and power cuts.    Instead, a modest tree decorated with blue and yellow lights barely broke the gloom of the square.
    Mayor Vitali Klitschko has called it the “Tree of Invincibility.”
    In the United States, a winter storm battered much of the country, bringing blinding blizzards, freezing rain and bone-chilling temperatures that caused many holiday events to be canceled and created mayhem for travelers.
    But off the central coast of Florida, where temperatures dropped as low as 27 degrees, more than a hundred surfers dressed in Santa costumes braved the frigid waters of the Atlantic Ocean in the morning for an annual Christmas Eve Surfing Santas festival.
    NORAD, the U.S. military agency known for its playful tradition of tracking Santa Claus as he delivers presents on Christmas Eve, said it didn’t expect COVID-19 or the storms hitting North America to affect Saint Nick’s global travels.
    “I think Santa will be right at home with the Arctic weather that’s hitting into the lower 48,” said Lt. Gen. David Nahom, a NORAD official based in Anchorage, Alaska.
    In Mexico, tens of thousands of migrants who fled violence and poverty in their home countries are almost certain to spend Christmas in crowded shelters or on the streets of towns along the U.S. border, where organized crime routinely targets them.
Palestinian scouts march during a Christmas parade toward the Church of the Nativity, traditionally believed to
be the birthplace of Jesus Christ, in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Saturday. PHOTOS BY MAJDI MOHAMMED/AP

Latin Patriarch Pierbattista Pizzaballa, the top Roman Catholic clergyman in the Holy Land, performs
a ritual as he enters the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank town of Bethlehem on Saturday.

12/25/2022 Tourists returning to Bethlehem - Business rebounds from COVID despite fighting by Sam Mcneil, ASSOCIATED PRESS
An Ethiopian woman and her child visit the Church of the Nativity on Dec. 3 in the West Bank
town of Bethlehem. Business in Bethlehem is looking up this Christmas as the traditional
birthplace of Jesus recovers from the pandemic downturn. photos by Mahmoud Illean/AP
    BETHLEHEM, West Bank – Business is bouncing back in Bethlehem after two years in the doldrums during the coronavirus pandemic, lifting spirits in the traditional birthplace of Jesus ahead of the Christmas holiday.
    Streets are bustling with tour groups. Hotels are fully booked, and months of deadly Israeli-Palestinian fighting appears to be having little effect on the vital tourism industry.
    Elias Arja, head of the Bethlehem hotel association, said that tourists are hungry to visit the Holy Land’s religious sites after suffering through lockdowns and travel restrictions in recent years. He expects the rebound to continue into next year.
    'We expect that 2023 will be booming and business will be excellent because the whole world, and Christian religious tourists especially, they all want to return to the Holy Land,' said Arja, who owns the Bethlehem Hotel.
    On a recent day, dozens of groups from virtually every continent posed for selfies in front of the Church of the Nativity, built on the grotto where Christians believe Jesus was born.    A giant Christmas tree sparkled in the adjacent Manger Square, and tourists packed into shops to buy olive wood crosses and other souvenirs.
    Christmas is normally peak season for tourism in Bethlehem, located in the Israeli-occupied West Bank just a few miles southeast of Jerusalem.    In pre-pandemic times, thousands of pilgrims and tourists from around the world came to celebrate.
    But those numbers plummeted during the pandemic.    Although tourism hasn’t fully recovered, the hordes of visitors are a welcome improvement and encouraging sign.
    'The city became a city of ghosts,' said Saliba Nissan, standing next to a manger scene about 4 feet wide inside the Bethlehem New Store, the olive wood factory he co-owns with his brother.    The shop was filled with Americans on a bus tour.
    Since the Palestinians don’t have their own airport, most international visitors come via Israel.    The Israeli Tourism Ministry is expecting some 120,000 Christian tourists during the week of Christmas.
    That compares to its all-time high of about 150,000 visitors in 2019, but is far better than last year, when the country’s skies were closed to most international visitors.    As it has done in the past, the ministry plans to offer special shuttle buses between Jerusalem and Bethlehem on Christmas Eve to help visitors go back and forth.
    'God willing, we will go back this year to where things were before the coronavirus, and be even better,' said Bethlehem’s mayor, Hanna Hanania.
    He said about 15,000 people attended the recent lighting of Bethlehem’s Christmas tree, and that international delegations, artists and singers are all expected to participate in celebrations.
    'Recovery has begun significantly,' he said, though he said the recent violence, and Israel’s ongoing occupation of the West Bank, always have some influence on tourism.
    Israel captured the West Bank in 1967.    The internationally recognized Palestinian Authority has limited autonomy in parts of the territory, including Bethlehem.
    The Christmas season comes at the end of a bloody year in the Holy Land.    Some 150 Palestinians and 31 Israelis have been killed in Israeli-Palestinian fighting in the West Bank and east Jerusalem this year, according to official figures, making 2022 the deadliest year since 2006.    Israel says most of the Palestinians killed were militants, but stone-throwing youths and some people not involved in the violence have also been killed.
    Bassem Giacaman, the third-generation-owner of the Blessing Gift Shop, founded in 1925 by his grandfather, said the pandemic was far more devastating to his business than violence and political tensions.
    Covered in sawdust from carving olive-wood figurines, jewelry and religious symbols, he said it will take him years to recover.    He once had 10 people working for him.    Today, he employs half that number, sometimes less, depending on demand.
    'The political (situation) does affect, but nothing major,' Giacaman said.    'We’ve had it for 60-70 years, and it goes on for a month, then it stops, and tourists come back again.'

[AS YOU CAN SEE EVEN ISRAEL AS WAS THE U.S. AND THE REST OF THE WORLD WAS FORCE FED ANTICHRISTIAN AND ANTIJEWISH POLICIES AND ON ALL THEIR GOVERNMENTS AND THIS WILL BE A FORCE THAT WILL COME SOON FROM THE GOD OF ABRAHAM, ISSAC AND JACOB TO OPEN REVELATION SEALS VERY SOON SO PREPARE YOUR SOUL FROM THE ONCOMING EVENTS.]
12/26/2022 Netanyahu rebukes far-right ally - Anti-LGBTQ comments ‘unacceptable,’ PM says by Ilan Ben Zion, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is set to form the most ultranationalist and religious government in the
country’s history between his Likud movement and several openly anti-LGBTQ parties. ABIR SULTAN/POOL PHOTO VIA AP FILE
    JERUSALEM – Designated Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu issued a rare rebuke of his new coalition allies on Sunday for saying they would advance laws allowing discrimination against LGBTQ people, pledging there would be no harm to their rights by his upcoming government.
    Netanyahu is set to form the most ultranationalist and religious government in Israel’s history between his Likud movement and several openly anti-LGBTQ parties.    This has raised fears among Israel’s LGBTQ community that the new government, expected to take office in the coming week, will roll back gains they have made in recent years.
    Orit Struck, a Religious Zionist member of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, said her party seeks a change to the country’s anti-discrimination law that would include permitting people to avoid acts that go against their religious beliefs – including discriminating against LGBTQ people in hospitals.b     Struck said in an interview on Sunday with Kan public radio that “so long as there are enough other doctors to provide care,” religious healthcare providers should be able refuse to treat LGBTQ patients.
    Simcha Rotman, another member of the party, said that private business owners, such as hotel operators, should be allowed to refuse service to LGBTQ “if it harms their religious feelings.”
    Netanyahu issued a pair of statements repudiating Struck’s comments.
    Netanyahu said that Struck’s remarks “are unacceptable to me and to members of Likud,” and that the coalition agreement “does not allow discrimination against LGBTQ or harming their right to receive services like all other Israeli citizens.”
    As the controversy continued to rage, he later issued a second videotaped statement saying he “completely rejects” Struck’s remarks.
    “In the country that I will lead, there will be no situation where a person, whether he is LGBT, Arab or ultra-Orthodox or any other person, will enter a hotel and not receive service, enter a doctor and not receive service,” he said.
    The controversy came days after the Yediot Ahronot daily reported that another member of the Religious Zionism alliance, the far-right Noam faction, once compiled a list of LGBTQ journalists and claimed the “LGBT media” amounted to a lobby of “incomparable strength.”
    Sunday’s uproar prompted Israel’s president, Isaac Herzog, to express his own concerns.    The president is a largely figurehead position who is meant to serve as a moral compass and unifying force for the country.
    “A situation in which Israeli citizens feel threatened due to their identity or faith undermines the basic democratic and moral values of the State of Israel,” Herzog said.    “The racist statements heard in recent days against the LGBT community and in general against different sectors and publics - worry and disturb me a lot.”     It was the latest sign of trouble for Netanyahu’s emerging coalition, which is dominated by far-right and ultra-Orthodox partners pushing for dramatic changes that could alienate large swaths of the Israeli public, raise the risk of conflict with the Palestinians and put Israel on a collision course with some of its closest supporters, including the United States and the Jewish American community.
    The outgoing government took several small steps to advance LGBTQ rights, including rescinding a ban on blood donations by gay men, streamlining access to gender reassignment surgery and taking a clear stand against “conversion therapy,” the scientifically discredited practice of using therapy to “convert” LGBTQ people to heterosexuality or traditional gender expectations.
    The incoming government includes two ultra-Orthodox parties that do not allow female candidates, and Religious Zionism, an umbrella movement whose leaders are vocally homophobic.
    Members of the LGBTQ community serve openly in Israel’s military and parliament, and many popular artists and entertainers as well as several former government ministers are openly gay.    But leaders of the LGBTQ community say Israel has a long way to go to promote equality.
    Netanyahu and his religious and nationalist parties captured a majority of seats in the Knesset in Nov. 1 elections.    Last week, he said he had successfully formed a new coalition.    The government, however, has not yet been sworn into office, and Netanyahu and his partners are still finalizing their power-sharing agreements. Netanyahu served for 12 years as Israel’s prime minister before he was ousted from power last year.
Strook
[Orit Malka Strook is an Israeli far-right politician. She serves as a member of the Knesset for the Religious Zionist Party,
and served as member of the Knesset for Tkuma between 2013 and 2015, Born: March 15, 1960 (age 62), Jerusalem, Israel.]

12/27/2022 Israeli air force veterans wary of new government by ASSOCIATED PRESS
Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultra-Orthodox and far-right partners
captured a parliamentary majority in Nov. 1 elections. MAYA ALLERUZZO/AP FILE
    JERUSALEM – Over 1,000 senior Israeli air force veterans, including a former Israeli chief of staff, on Monday urged the country’s top legal officials to stand tough against the incoming government.
    In a letter to the chief of Israel’s Supreme Court and other top officials, they said the alliance of religious and ultranationalist parties threatens Israel’s future.    It was delivered days before the new government is to take office.
    “We come from all strata of society and from across the political spectrum,” the letter said.    “What we have in common today is the fear that the democratic state of Israel is in danger.”
    It called the legal officials “the final line of defense” and implored them to “do everything in your reach to stop the disaster that is affecting the country.”
    Among the nearly 1,200 signatories were Dan Halutz, who served as military chief from 2005-2007, Avihu Ben-Nun, a former commander of the air force and Amos Yadlin, a former head of military intelligence.    All three are former fighter pilots.
    Former Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his ultra-Orthodox and far-right partners captured a parliamentary majority in Nov. 1 elections.
    While they have not yet completed coalition negotiations, Netanyahu has reached a series of deals that would grant his far-right partners authority over the national police force and settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.
    They are promoting legislation to allow a politician who spent time in prison in a bribery case to serve as a Cabinet minister while on probation for a separate conviction on tax offenses.    They also are expected to promote a series of changes in the legal system that critics say will weaken the judiciary and potentially dismiss criminal charges against Netanyahu.
    On Sunday, Netanyahu rebuked an ally over anti-LGBTQ comments. He is expected to return to office as head of his new government on Thursday.
[IT NOT HARD TO SEE THE ISRAELI SAME COMPARISON OF THE ATTACKS ON NETANYAHUU AND AS WELL AS THEY ATTACK TRUMP IN THE U.S.A. IT IS NOT HARD TO KNOW THE SOCIALIST GLOBALIST NEW ONE WORLD ORDER IS RISING FAST FOR THE ONCOMING SPIRITUAL EVENTS WILL OCCUR SOON.].

12/29/2022 Israel coalition focuses on West Bank - Incoming government vows to annex territory by Ilan Ben Zion, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government is made up of ultra-Orthodox parties, a far-right ultranationalist religious
faction affiliated with the West Bank settler movement, and his Likud party. GIL COHEN-MAGEN/AFP VIA GETTY IMAGES
    JERUSALEM – Benjamin Netanyahu’s incoming hard-line Israeli government put West Bank settlement expansion at the top of its priority list on Wednesday, vowing to legalize dozens of illegally built outposts and annex the occupied territory as part of its coalition deal with ultranationalist allies.
    The coalition agreements, released a day before the government is to be sworn into office, also included language endorsing discrimination against LGBTQ people on religious grounds, contentious judicial reforms, as well as generous stipends for ultra-Orthodox men who prefer to study instead of work.
    The package laid the groundwork for what is expected to be a stormy beginning for the country’s most religious and right-wing government in history, potentially putting it at odds with large parts of the Israeli public, rankling Israel’s closest allies and escalating tensions with the Palestinians.
    “What worries me the most is that these agreements change the democratic structure of what we know of as the state of Israel,” said Tomer Naor, chief legal officer of the Movement for Quality Government in Israel, a watchdog group.    “One day we’ll all wake up and Netanyahu is not going to be prime minister, but some of these changes will be irreversible.”
    The guidelines were led by a commitment to “advance and develop settlement in all parts of the land of Israel,” including “Judea and Samaria,” the biblical names for the West Bank.
    Israel captured the West Bank in 1967 along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem – territory the Palestinians seek for a future state.    Israel has constructed dozens of Jewish settlements home to around 500,000 Israelis who live alongside around 2.5 million Palestinians.
    Most of the international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.    The United States already has warned the incoming government against taking steps that could further undermine hopes for an independent Palestinian state.
    In response to a request for comment, the Palestinian leadership emphasized that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict can be resolved only through the establishment of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital.
    Without a negotiated two-state solution, “there will be no peace, security or stability in the region,” said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a spokesman for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
    There was no immediate U.S. comment.
    Netanyahu, who served 12 years as prime minister, is returning to power after he was ousted from office last year.    His new government is made up of ultra-Orthodox parties, a far-right ultranationalist religious faction affiliated with the West Bank settler movement, and his Likud party.
    In the coalition agreement between Likud and its ally, the Religious Zionism party, Netanyahu pledged to legalize wildcat settlement outposts considered illegal even by the Israeli government.    He also promises to annex the West Bank “while choosing the timing and considering the national and international interests of the state of Israel.”
    Such a move would alienate much of the world, and give new fuel to critics who compare Israeli policies in the West Bank to apartheid South Africa.
    The deal also grants favors to Itamar Ben-Gvir, a far-right politician who will be in charge of the national police force as the newly created national security minister.
    It includes a commitment to expand and vastly increase government funding for the Israeli settlements in the divided West Bank city of Hebron, where a tiny ultranationalist Jewish community lives in heavily fortified neighborhoods amid tens of thousands of Palestinians.    Ben-Gvir lives in a nearby settlement.
    The agreement also includes a clause pledging to change the country’s antidiscrimination laws to allow businesses to refuse service to people “because of a religious belief.”
    The legislation drew outrage earlier this week when members of Ben-Gvir’s party said the law could be used to deny services to LGBTQ people.    Netanyahu has said he will not let the law pass, but nonetheless left the clause in the coalition agreement.
    Among its other changes is placing Bezalel Smotrich, a settler leader who heads Religious Zionism party, in a newly created ministerial post overseeing West Bank settlement policy.
    In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, Smotrich said there would be no “changing the political or legal status” of the West Bank, indicating that annexation would not immediately take place.
    But he leveled criticism at the “feckless military government” that controls key aspects of life for Israeli settlements – such as construction, expansion and infrastructure projects.    Smotrich, who will also be finance minister, is expected to push to expand construction and funding for settlements while stifling Palestinian development in the territory.
    Netanyahu and his allies also agreed to push through changes meant to overhaul the country’s legal system – specifically, a bill that would allow parliament to overturn Supreme Court decisions with a simple majority of 61 lawmakers.
    Critics say the law will undermine government checks and balances and erode a critical democratic institution.    They also say Netanyahu has a conflict of interest in pushing for the legal overhaul because he is currently on trial for corruption charges.
    “Since (the new government’s) intention is to weaken the Supreme Court, we’re not going to have the court as an institution that would help guard the principles of freedom and equality,” Yohanan Plesner, president of the Israel Democracy Institute, a Jerusalem think tank, told reporters.
    Two of Netanyahu’s key ministers – incoming interior minister Aryeh Deri and Ben-Gvir – have criminal records.    Deri, who served time in prison in 2002 for bribery, pleaded guilty to tax fraud earlier this year, and Netanyahu and his coalition passed a law this week to allow him to serve as a minister despite his conviction.    Ben-Gvir was convicted in 2009 of inciting racism and supporting a terrorist organization.
    Israel’s figurehead president, Isaac Herzog, on Wednesday expressed “deep concern” about the incoming government and its positions on LGBTQ rights, racism and the country’s Arab minority in a rare meeting with Ben-Gvir, one of the coalition’s most radical members.    Herzog urged Ben-Gvir to “calm the stormy winds.”
    The government platform also mentioned that the loosely defined rules governing holy sites, including Jerusalem’s flashpoint shrine known to Jews as the Temple Mount and to Muslims as the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, would remain the same.
    Ben-Gvir and other Religious Zionism politicians had called for the “status quo” to be changed to allow Jewish prayer at the site, a move that risked inflaming tensions with the Palestinians.    The status of the site is the emotional epicenter of the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.     In an interview with CNN published Wednesday, b>King Abdullah II of Jordan warned that his country would respond if Israel crossed red lines and tried to change the status of the sacred Jerusalem site, over which Jordan has custodianship.
    “If people want to get into a conflict with us, we’re quite prepared,” he said.

12/29/2022 Benjamin Netanyahu Making A Dramatic Return by OAN Annyatama Bhomik
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, leader of the Likud party, addresses supporters at the
party campaign headquarters in Jerusalem early on March 24, 2021, after the end of
voting in the fourth national election in two years. (Photo by EMMANUEL DUNAND/AFP via Getty Images)
    Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in Israel, as a new administration is sworn in.    Netanyahu is all set to begin his sixth term serving the 37th government as Prime Minister.    He is the longest-serving Prime Minister in the history of Israel.
    On Thursday, just after Israel’s Knesset passed a vote of confidence with 63 members in favor and 54 against the new government, the 73-years-old took the Oath of Office.    The government is expected to be the most far-right and religiously Conservative one that the nation has ever seen. Both ultra-Orthodox and Nationalist groups are part of his new right-wing coalition.
    Netanyahu also promised to “protect the quality of the environment in Israel, to improve the quality of life of the country’s residents and for Israel to participate in contributing to the global effort on climate and environmental issues,” and “strengthen the security forces, and provide support to the fighters and the police to fight terrorism and defeat it.”
    On Wednesday, Netanyahu tweeted “The government will promote and develop settlement in all parts of the Land of Israel — in the Galilee, the Negev, the Golan, Judea and Samaria.”
    Some of the most significant cabinet positions, including those for the ministers of foreign affairs, defense, and justice, will be filled by members of Netanyahu’s Likud Party.    The Shas Party’s leader Aryeh Deri will hold the positions of Minister of Health and Interior.
    The ultra-right wing of the new Israeli government has not received much attention from Biden administration officials.    Last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken stated that the U.S. “will engage with and judge our partners in Israel on the basis of the policies they pursue, not the personalities that happen to form the government.”
    Former Prime Minister Yair Lapid tweeted in advance of the parliamentary vote on the new government: “We pass on to you a state in excellent condition.    Try not to ruin it, we will be right back. The handover files are ready.”

12/30/2022 Netanyahu sworn in as Israeli premier - Hard-line coalition could alienate public and allies by Ilan Ben Zion, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Benjamin Netanyahu celebrates with other government members after being
sworn in as Israeli prime minister in Jerusalem Thursday. Amir Levy/Getty Images
    JERUSALEM – Benjamin Netanyahu was sworn into office Thursday, taking the helm of the most right-wing and religiously conservative government in Israel’s history and vowing to enact policies that could cause domestic and regional turmoil and alienate the country’s closest allies.
    Netanyahu took the oath of office moments after parliament passed a vote of confidence in his new government.    His return marks his sixth term in office, continuing his more than decadelong dominance over Israeli politics.
    His new government has pledged to prioritize settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank, extend massive subsidies to his ultra-Orthodox allies and push for sweeping reform of the judicial system that could endanger the country’s democratic institutions.    The plans have sparked an unprecedented uproar from across Israeli society, including the military, LGBTQ rights groups, the business community and others.
    Netanyahu is the country’s longest-serving prime minister, having held office from 2009 until 2021 and a stint in the 1990s.    He was ousted from office last year after four deadlocked elections by a coalition of eight parties solely united in their opposition to his rule.
    Despite his political comeback, he remains on trial for charges of fraud, breach of trust and accepting bribes in three corruption cases.    He denies all charges against him, saying he is the victim of a witch hunt orchestrated by a hostile media, police and prosecutors.
    The diverse yet fragile coalition that toppled Netanyahu collapsed in June, and Netanyahu and his ultranationalist and ultra-Orthodox allies secured a clear parliamentary majority in November’s election.
    'I hear the constant cries of the opposition about the end of the country and democracy,' said Netanyahu after taking the podium in parliament ahead of the government’s formal swearing-in on Thursday afternoon.    His speech was interrupted repeatedly by heckles and jeers from opposition leadership, who at times chanted 'weak.'
    'Opposition members: To lose in elections is not the end of democracy; this is the essence of democracy,' he said.
    Netanyahu heads a government made up of a hard-line religious ultranationalist party dominated by West Bank settlers, two ultra-Orthodox parties and his nationalist Likud party.
    His allies are pushing for dramatic changes that could alienate large swaths of the Israeli public, deepen the conflict with the Palestinians and put Israel on a collision course with some of its closest supporters, including the United States and the Jewish American community.
    Netanyahu’s government platform says that 'the Jewish people have exclusive and indisputable rights' over the entirety of Israel and the Palestinian territories and promises to advance settlement construction in the occupied West Bank.    That includes legalizing dozens of wildcat outposts and a commitment to annex the entire territory, a step that would draw heavy international opposition by destroying any remaining hopes for Palestinian statehood and add fuel to calls that Israel is an apartheid state if millions of Palestinians are not granted citizenship.
    Israel captured the West Bank in 1967 along with the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem – territories the Palestinians seek for a future state. Israel has constructed dozens of Jewish settlements that are home to around 500,000 Israelis who live alongside around 2.5million Palestinians.
    Most of the international community considers Israel’s West Bank settlements illegal and an obstacle to peace with the Palestinians.    The United States already has warned the incoming government against taking steps that could further undermine hopes for an independent Palestinian state.
    The White House National Security Council said on Thursday that it does not 'support policies that endanger the viability of a two-state solution or contradict our mutual interests and values.'
    'We support policies that advance Israel’s security and regional integration, support a two-state solution, and lead to equal measures of security, prosperity, and freedom for Israelis and Palestinians,' it added.
    The new government has also created concern among Israelis about the rollback of minority and LGBTQ rights.    Outside parliament, several thousand demonstrators waved Israeli and rainbow Pride flags.    'We don’t want fascists in the Knesset!' they chanted.
    Earlier this week, two members of the Religious Zionism party said they would advance an amendment to the country’s anti-discrimination law that would allow businesses and doctors to discriminate against the LGBTQ community on the basis of religious faith.
    Those remarks, along with the ruling coalition’s broadly anti-LGBTQ stance, have raised fears among LGBTQ people that the new administration would jeopardize their limited rights.    Netanyahu has tried to allay those concerns by pledging no harm to LGBTQ rights.
    Netanyahu loyalist Amir Ohana, who is openly gay, was voted in as speaker of parliament as his partner and their two children watched from the audience.    Onstage, he turned to them and promised the new government would respect everyone.    'This Knesset, under the leadership of this speaker, won’t hurt them or any child or any other family, period,' he said.
    Yair Lapid, the outgoing prime minister who will now reassume the title of opposition leader, told parliament that he was handing the new government 'a country in excellent condition, with a strong economy, with improved defensive abilities and strong deterrence, with one of the best international standings ever.'
    'Try not to destroy it. We’ll be back soon,' Lapid said.
    'Opposition members: To lose in elections is not the end of democracy; this is the essence of democracy.'
Benjamin Netanyahu
Israeli prime minister

12/30/2022 Troubles loom for Israel’s Netanyahu - New government’s agenda risks the ire of US, Palestinians, security chiefs and own party by Josef Federman, ASSOCIATED PRESS
Protesters wave flags and hold banners against Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government in Jerusalem on Thursday. BOTTOM: Netanyahu
speaks during a special session of the Knesset, Israel’s parliament, to approve and swear in the new right-wing government
in Jerusalem on Thursday. Netanyahu has returned to power as prime minister. PHOTOS BY ODED BALILTY AND AMIR COHEN/POOL PHOTO VIA AP
    JERUSALEM – After five elections that have paralyzed Israeli politics for nearly four years, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has finally returned to power with the government he has long coveted: a parliamentary majority of religious and far-right lawmakers who share his hard-line views toward the Palestinians and hostility toward Israel’s legal system.
    Yet Netanyahu’s joy may be short-lived.    Putting together his coalition proved to be surprisingly complicated, requiring nearly two months of painstaking negotiations and a series of legal maneuvers just to allow his partners to take office.    Among them: newly created Cabinet positions with widespread authority over security and a law allowing a politician on probation for a criminal conviction to be a government minister.
    Along the way, he was forced to make generous concessions to allies that include commitments to expanding West Bank settlements, proposals to allow discrimination against against LGBTQ people and boosting subsidies for ultra-Orthodox men to study instead of work.
    If these plans are carried out, they will alienate large portions of the Israeli public, raise the chances of conflict with the Palestinians, upset Israel’s powerful security establishment and put Israel on a collision course with some of its closest allies, including the U.S. government and the American Jewish community.    Even members of Netanyahu’s Likud Party are grumbling.
    Netanyahu has sought to play down concerns, saying that he will set policy – little comfort for his many critics who have bristled at his hard-line policies toward the Palestinians.    His ultranationalist partners will also have great leverage over him because they have promised to promote legislation that could dismiss criminal charges against him. They are sure to test his limits.
    Here is a closer look at some of the challenges awaiting the new government:
The United States
    The Biden administration has expressed unease over the more extreme politicians in the new government, but said it will judge it by policies, not personalities.
    Early indications do not bode well.    A day before taking office, Netanyahu’s government said West Bank settlement expansion would be a top priority.    It wants to legalize dozens of wildcat outposts and says that it plans to annex the occupied territory at an unspecified time.    The U.S. opposes settlements as obstacles to peace.    It also considers steps that marginalize the Palestinians, LGBTQ people and other minority groups as detrimental. Netanyahu has vowed to protect minority rights.    But if his coalition moves forward, there could be a crisis in relations with Israel’s closest ally.
    Leaders of the American Jewish community have also expressed concern over the incoming government and members’ hostility toward the liberal streams of Judaism popular in the U.S. Given American Jews’ predominantly liberal political views, these misgivings could have a ripple effect in Washington and further widen a partisan divide over support for Israel.
The Palestinians
    Many Palestinians have greeted the election of the new government with a shrug. With peace talks already on hold for over a decade, some don’t see how any government can make things worse.
    But that sense of resignation could turn to anger if the new government steps up settlement activities or annexes the West Bank, the heartland of their hoped-for state.
    Fighting in the West Bank, already at its highest levels in years, could escalate.    And if Netanyahu’s allies test the tense status quo in east Jerusalem – home to the city’s most important and sensitive holy site – violence could spread across Israel and into the Gaza Strip, as it did in 2021.    Gaza’s Hamas rulers have already warned of an “open confrontation” next year.
Jittery security chiefs
    The military, along with Israel’s police and myriad security agencies, command influence and respect in Israeli society. Netanyahu has historically worked well with his security chiefs.    But a pair of appointments have raised questions about that relationship.
    Netanyahu has placed a far-right provocateur who was once convicted of incitement and supporting a Jewish terrorist group in charge of the nation’s police force. He also passed legislation putting a firebrand West Bank settler in charge of settlement policy, including the power to appoint a top general responsible for policies toward the Palestinians.
    The impending changes prompted Israel’s outgoing army chief to contact Netanyahu and express concerns.    The army said the men agreed there would be no policy changes until the military presents its viewpoints.
    “The army must be kept out of the political discourse,” it said.
Domestic agenda
    Netanyahu and his allies have announced an ambitious agenda of social changes that are deeply unpopular with the secular middle class, according to a recent survey by the Israel Democracy Institute, an influential think tank.    They include plans to weaken the Supreme Court and increase already unpopular stipends for ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students who do not serve in the military or work.    A proposal endorsed by his allies would allow hospitals and businesses to discriminate against LGBTQ people.
    The judicial changes, headlined by a plan to give parliament the power to overturn Supreme Court decisions, could lead to the dismissal of corruption charges against Netanyahu.    These proposals have drawn conflict-of-interest allegations and raised concerns they will destroy country’s system of checks and balances.
    Protesters are already demonstrating in the streets against the incoming government.    Hundreds of members of Israel’s powerful high-tech sector, scores of retired fighter pilots and retired diplomats have all published letters against the new government.    These trends could all gain steam in the coming months.
Likud
    Netanyahu wields a firm grip on Likud – by far the largest party in parliament.    But several members are unhappy over his generous concessions to smaller parties that have left them without the high-powered Cabinet posts they coveted.    Some have even complained publicly.    There are no signs of a rebellion.    But if they remain unhappy, they could hinder his ability to pass his agenda in parliament.
Demonstrators protest Benjamin Netanyahu’s new government in Jerusalem on Thursday.
Netanyahu and his allies have announced an ambitious agenda of social changes
that are deeply unpopular with the secular middle class, according to a recent survey. ODED BALILTY/AP

Israel’s new Minister of National Security Itamar Ben-Gvir, right, speaks with Netanyahu,
as Israel’s right-wing government is sworn in Thursday in Jerusalem. AMIR COHEN/POOL PHOTO VIA AP

12/31/2022 Attack kills 10 in Syria; Kurdish forces arrest 52 militants
    BEIRUT – A rocket attack in Syria Friday targeted a bus with oil industry employees, killing at least 10, the government said.    To the north, Syrian Kurdish led forces announced they arrested 52 militants in an operation against the Islamic State group’s sleeper cells.    According to Syria’s petroleum ministry, the rocket struck in the Al-Taym gas field in Deir el-Zour province.    There was no immediate claim of responsibility, but the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, an opposition war monitoring group, said IS was behind the attack.

    This page created on 11/1/2022, and updated each month by 11/30/2022 and 12/31/2022.

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