Gaza ceasefire talks stall as Israel and Hamas dig in | Israel War on Gaza News

Revived talks on a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas appear to be making little progress, with the two sides showing few signs that they are ready to compromise on their demands.

Israeli objections to the return of displaced residents to their homes in Gaza is a key issue holding up the negotiations, Qatari officials said on Wednesday. Meanwhile, Hamas said that it will not budge on its conditions to release captives it holds in the besieged and bombarded territory.

Alongside the United States and Egypt, Qatar has been running behind-the-scenes talks in a bid to secure a truce and the release of Israeli captives in exchange for Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails after nearly six months of war.

“The return of the IDPs [internally displaced people] to their homes, which the Israelis didn’t agree to yet … is the main point we are stuck on,” Qatar’s Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani told a news conference in Doha.

Another outstanding issue is the number of Palestinian prisoners to be released by Israel in exchange for each hostage freed by Hamas, Sheikh Mohammed said, noting however that he believed this “can be bridged”.

However, Hamas’s senior political leader Ismail Haniyeh said on Wednesday that his movement will stick to its conditions for a ceasefire in Gaza. The Palestinian group insists that an Israeli military withdrawal must happen before it releases the remaining captives taken in its assault on southern Israel on October 7.

“We are committed to our demands: the permanent ceasefire, comprehensive and complete withdrawal of the enemy out of the Gaza Strip, the return of all displaced people to their homes, allowing all aid needed for our people in Gaza, rebuilding the Strip, lifting the blockade and achieving an honourable prisoner exchange deal,” Haniyeh said in a televised speech marking al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day.

Israel has said it is interested only in a temporary truce to free the captives, while Hamas has said it will let them go only as part of a deal to permanently end the war.

Sticking points

Sheikh Mohammed said the major sticking points remained the same as those that stymied a deal during negotiations in Paris in February.

Talks were set to resume in Cairo last Sunday, Egyptian TV channel Al-Qahera reported, two days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu gave approval for fresh negotiations.

Israel and Hamas have traded blame for the failure in achieving a deal.

In recorded comments shown at a Hezbollah meeting on Wednesday, Haniyeh said Israel “continues to procrastinate stubbornly, and does not respond to our fair demands for an end to the war and aggression”.

The day before, Netanyahu’s office claimed, after an Israeli negotiating team had returned from another round of discussions in Cairo, that Hamas has hardened its stance.

“In the framework of the talks, under useful Egyptian mediation, the mediators formulated an updated proposal for Hamas,” the premier’s office said.

However, senior Hamas official Basem Naim said on Tuesday that the group had not been sent any new proposals.

No effect

The US said on Wednesday that it did not expect the Israeli strike that killed seven World Central Kitchen workers in Gaza to affect ceasefire talks.

“The ceasefire and hostage negotiations are ongoing,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters in a briefing. “I wouldn’t anticipate any particular impact on those discussions as a result of the strike yesterday.”

He said the incident was not a standalone in the conflict, in which too many aid workers have been killed. “It’s not the first time that this has happened and so yes, we’re frustrated by this,” Kirby said.

United Nations spokesperson Stephane Dujarric on Wednesday said the intergovernmental organisation had suspended movements at night in Gaza for at least 48 hours to evaluate security issues following the incident.

The UN’s World Food Programme is continuing operations during the day, including daily efforts to send convoys to the north of Gaza “where people are dying,” Dujarric said.

“As famine closes in we need humanitarian staff and supplies to be able to move freely and safely across the Gaza Strip,” he told reporters.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Al Jazeera condemns new Israeli law, rejects Netanyahu’s ‘lies’ | Freedom of the Press News

Media network denounces Israeli prime minister’s ‘slanderous accusations’, says they incite against the safety of its journalists around the world.

Al Jazeera has condemned a new Israeli law that could shut down its operations in Israel and said “lies” spread by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu incited against the safety of the media network’s journalists worldwide.

As Israel’s war on Gaza nears the six-month mark, the Israeli parliament, or Knesset, on Monday overwhelmingly backed legislation which allows the government to order the closure of foreign networks operating in Israel and confiscate their equipment if it is believed its content posed “harm to the state’s security”.

After the vote, Netanyahu said on X he intended to take immediate action to stop Al Jazeera’s activities in Israel, accusing the network of “actively” participating in Hamas’s October 7 attack and inciting against Israeli soldiers.

Al Jazeera Media Network denounced Netanyahu’s “frantic campaign” as nothing but “dangerous” and “ludicrous” lies.

“Netanyahu could not find any justifications to offer the world for his ongoing attacks on Al Jazeera and press freedom except to present new lies and inflammatory slanders against the Network and the rights of its employees.”

In its statement, the Qatar-based news organisation also accused Netanyahu of “inflammatory slanders against the network and the rights of its employees”.

“Al Jazeera reiterates that such slanderous accusations will not deter us from continuing our bold and professional coverage, and reserves the right to pursue every legal step,” it said, adding that it held the Israeli prime minister responsible for the safety of its staff and premises around the world “following his incitement and this false accusation in a disgraceful manner”.

The network also said the law, which Israel has been pushing since the beginning of its nearly six-month war on Gaza, was “part of a series of systematic Israeli attacks to silence Al Jazeera”.

It cited the 2022 killing of correspondent Shireen Abu Akleh while she was covering an Israeli military raid in the occupied West Bank town of Jenin and the killing of its journalists Samer Abudaqa and Hamza Dahdouh during the war in Gaza, as well the “deliberate targeting of a number of Al Jazeera journalists and their family members, and the arrest and intimidation of its correspondents in the field”.

Jodie Ginsberg, the chief executive officer of The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), said the passing of the law was “an incredibly worrying move”.

“It’s another example of the tightening of the free press and the stranglehold the Israeli government would like to exercise,” Ginsberg told Al Jazeera.

“We’ve seen this kind of language before from Netanyahu and Israeli officials in which they try to paint journalists as terrorists, as criminals,” Ginsberg said, commenting on the prime minister’s remarks. “This is nothing new.”

The CPJ says it has documented the killing of at least 95 journalists since the start of the war.

White House spokesperson Karine Jean-Pierre said an Israeli move to shut down Al Jazeera would be “concerning”.

“The United States supports the critically important work journalists around the world and that includes those who are reporting in the conflict in Gaza,” Jean-Pierre told reporters.

The law was passed as Netanyahu faces massive demonstrations against his handling of the war on Gaza and the security failures which did not detect the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel. At least 1,139 people were killed in those attacks and about 250 captives were taken to Gaza, according to Israeli authorities.

Israel’s war on Gaza has killed at least 32,916 people, mostly children and women, according to health officials in the besieged territory.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Fitch Ratings upgrades Qatar to third-highest on back of gas expansion | Oil and Gas News

Revenues from Qatar’s LNG fields will provide budget surpluses until the 2030s, Fitch said.

Fitch Ratings has upgraded Qatar to AA, its third-highest rating, on the back of revenues expected from its expanded gas fields, the agency has said.

Revenues from Qatar’s liquified natural gas (LNG) fields will ensure that the country posts budget surpluses until the 2030s, Fitch said in a release on Wednesday outlining the rating rationale.

The upgrade from AA- “reflects Fitch’s greater confidence that debt to GDP will remain in line with or below the ‘AA’ peer median after falling sharply in recent years,” the agency said.

Fitch expects Qatar’s debt-to-GDP ratio to fall to about 47 percent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2024 and 45 percent in 2025, from a peak of 85 percent in 2020.

Qatar is already one of the richest countries in the world and boasts one of the highest ratios of GDP per capita. The added revenue boost will ensure that its external balance sheet will strengthen from an already strong level, Fitch said.

However, Fitch warned that the continuing war in Gaza posed a risk to Qatar’s rating even though it had so far not been directly affected. Should a sharp escalation in regional tensions lead to capital flight from banks, for instance, or cause prolonged disruptions of Qatar’s hydrocarbon and transport sectors, that would affect the latest rating, Fitch said.

Qatar is one of the biggest exporters of LNG along with the United States, Australia and Russia. Asian countries led by China, Japan and South Korea have been the main market for Qatari gas, but demand has also grown from European countries since Russia’s war on Ukraine threw supplies into doubt.

Qatar Energy plans to expand LNG production capacity at North Field from 77 million tonnes per year (mtpa) to 110 mtpa by end-2025, 126 mtpa by end-2027 and announced a further expansion to 142 mtpa by end-2030.

The North Field is part of the world’s largest gas field, which Qatar shares with Iran, which calls its share South Pars.

Competition for LNG has ramped up since the start of the war in Ukraine, with Europe, in particular, requiring a large quantity to help replace Russian pipeline gas that used to make up almost 40 percent of the continent’s imports.

However, after a decade of meteoric price rise, gas prices dropped earlier this year to nearly all-time lows after adjusting for inflation. Despite that drop, all leading gas producers, including the US, Australia and Russia, want to increase output betting on further demand growth.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Preview: Qatar MotoGP – three key talking points for the 2024 season | Motorsports News

Motorcyling’s premier competition returns to action this weekend as Qatar turns host for the season-opening MotoGP race on Sunday.

The Lusail International Circuit will host an 11-lap sprint race on Saturday and the main 22-lap race on Sunday, with Francesco Bagnaia favourite to clinch his third successive title in the competition’s 75th year.

Bagnaia and his Ducati Lenovo outfit will be the team to beat once again in a season that features 21 rounds, finishing in Valencia, Spain on November 17.

This year’s race will mark Qatar’s 21st MotoGP event as it joined the Grand Prix calendar in 2004.

Here are three major offseason talking points ahead of the all-important Round 1 at Lusail International Circuit:

1. Can Yamaha return to winning ways in 2024?

Winless in 2023, Monster Energy Yamaha have worked hard in the offseason to narrow the gap with the dominant Ducati machinery.

This season could be a make-or-break year for the famous Yamaha brand with the team assembling two of the most gifted riders to supercharge their 2024 campaign: Fabio Quartararo and Yamaha newcomer Alex Rins.

Quartararo, who became France’s first-ever premier-class world champion in 2021, endured a brutal 2023 season, finishing the campaign winless. It was the first time Yamaha failed to win a single Grand Prix since 2003.

Rins’s season was derailed by injury – but not before the Spaniard pulled off an on-track miracle for his underpowered LCR Honda team bike, securing the Japanese manufacturers’ only 2023 victory at the US MotoGP in Texas.

Monster Energy Yamaha were the last team to beat Ducati for a MotoGP world championship during Quatararo’s iconic 2021 title run.

In 2024 pre-season testing in Qatar and Malaysia, there have been positive signs for Yamaha – but so far they still lack the raw, one-lap pace of the Ducati.

During the Qatar Grand Prix, Quartararo and Rins will likely rely on Yamaha’s nimbler handling and braking advantages around the Lusail circuit to challenge the more powerful Ducati bikes. Yamaha is the most successful manufacturer at the Qatar Grand Prix, with 10 MotoGP victories.

Monster Energy Yamaha last won the Qatar MotoGP in 2021.

Fabio Quartararo (left) and Alex Rins at the 2024 Monster Energy Yamaha M1 bike launch at Gerno di Lesmo, Italy on February 3, 2024 [Courtesy of Monster Energy Yamaha Factory Team]

2. Can anyone stop the MotoGP world champion?

Just as he did last year, world champion Francesco Bagnaia heads into a new MotoGP season as the clear title favourite on the back of his 2022 and 2023 world riders’ championships.

Two weeks ago, Bagnaia’s GP24 Ducati was the class of the field in Qatar pre-season testing with the Italian smashing the one-lap record at Lusail.

Now 27, Bagnaia is entering the prime of his career on a spectacular Ducati machine – a frightening proposition for his fellow competitors heading into the 2024 season.

But he won’t have the riders’ championship all his own way.

His Lenovo Ducati teammate, Enea Bastianini, put an injury-ridden 2023 season behind him to record the second-fastest time in Qatar pre-season testing and is primed for a breakout season.

The 2023 MotoGP runner-up Jorge Martin is also riding the same technical specification Ducati as Bagnaia at the satellite Pramac Racing team. Last season, the Spaniard relentlessly battled Bagnaia right through to a final race title showdown in one of the closest MotoGP rider championships ever.

If last season was any guide, then the 2024 MotoGP campaign might turn out to be one of the most competitive title fights in recent history with several highly-talented riders entering the championship mix.

2023 MotoGP World Champion rider Francesco Bagnaia of the Ducati Lenovo Team celebrates after the Valencia Motorcycle Grand Prix, the last race of the season, at the Ricardo Tormo circuit near Valencia, Spain [File: Alberto Saiz/AP]

3. Will Marc Marquez’s bold team switch win him a seventh World MotoGP title in 2024?

He’s the man everyone is talking about ahead of the Qatar MotoGP season opener.

In a sensational move, six-time MotoGP world champion Marc Marquez left huge dollars on the table at the Repsol Honda factory team – the only outfit he had ever rode for in the premier class – to ride with his brother Alex at Gresini Ducati.

Marquez struggled in 2023 – crashing his Honda frequently, failing to record a single race victory and finishing a career-low 14th position in the riders’ championship.

The legendary Spaniard last won the MotoGP riders’ title in 2019 – but since then, it’s all been downhill for Marquez with multiple serious injuries and an underperforming Honda bike resulting in just six, top-three finishes in the past four seasons.

Now 31, and with a clear realisation that the Ducati – any Ducati – is the dominant race machine, Marquez was simply running out of time with Honda to mount a 7th MotoGP title charge.

Marquez showed glimpses of talent in pre-season testing on the Gresini Ducati – but some critics believe he is struggling to master the vastly different technical set-up of the new Italian bike.

Others speculate that the manically competitive Marquez was “foxing” in the pre-season and contend that the Spanish superstar will immediately challenge for race victories.

Exactly how Marquez performs in Qatar on March 9-10 will hold early clues as to his chances of pulling off a surprise world riders’ championship title in 2024.

Gresini Racing’s Spanish rider Marc Marquez steers his bike on the second day of the MotoGP pre-season testing at the Lusail International Circuit in Lusail [Karim Jaafar/AFP]

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Gaza ceasefire talks fail to make breakthrough with Ramadan approaching | Israel War on Gaza News

Three days of negotiations end at an impasse, as Hamas and Israel insist the other give in to their demands.

Three days of negotiations with Hamas over a ceasefire in Gaza have failed to achieve a breakthrough, less than a week before the start of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan – the informal deadline for a deal.

The United States, Qatar and Egypt have spent weeks trying to broker an agreement in which Hamas would release Israeli captives in return for a six-week ceasefire, the release of some Palestinian prisoners and more aid to Gaza.

Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut said on Tuesday that the latest round of talks in Cairo, Egypt, has “ended with a standstill” and that it was unclear what would happen next.

“The Israelis say they are waiting for Hamas’s response, while Hamas says they are awaiting for Israel’s response,” she said, reporting from occupied East Jerusalem

“Mediators in the middle are trying to bridge these gaps trying to find a solution between both sides, but it seems that there are sticking points that just can’t seem to be resolved.”

Hamas has refused to release all of the estimated 100 hostages it holds, and the remains of about 30 more, unless Israel ends its offensive, withdraws from Gaza and releases a large number of Palestinian prisoners, including fighters serving life sentences.

Senior Hamas official Osama Hamdan said on Tuesday that his group wants a permanent ceasefire, rather than a six-week pause, and a “complete withdrawal” of Israeli forces.

“The security and safety of our people will be achieved only by a permanent ceasefire, the end of the aggression and the withdrawal from every inch of the Gaza Strip,” Hamdan told reporters in Beirut.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has publicly rejected those demands and repeatedly pledged to continue the war until Hamas is dismantled and all the captives are returned. Israel did not send a delegation to the latest round of talks.

Meanwhile, Israel wants Hamas to hand over a list of captives who are alive, as well as the captive-to-prisoner ratio it seeks in any release deal.

Senior Hamas leader Bassem Naim told the AFP news agency on Monday that the group did not know “who among [the captives] are alive or dead, killed because of strikes or hunger”, and that the captives were being held by numerous groups in multiple places.

“So there are two completely different perspectives and two different sticking points here on what the other side is not willing to compromise on,” Salhut said.

At US-Qatar Strategic Dialogue talks on Tuesday, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Hamas to accept the ceasefire plan.

“It is on Hamas to make decisions about whether it is prepared to engage in that ceasefire,” the top US diplomat said as he met Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani in Washington, DC, in the US.

“Qatar, the United States and our partners will be always persistent to make sure that this deal happens,” said Al Thani, standing next to Blinken.

With the latest round of discussions having come to an end, Hamas has presented a proposal that mediators will discuss with Israel in the coming days, two Egyptian officials said, according to The Associated Press news agency.

At least 1,139 people were killed and about 250 captives were taken in Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel on October 7. More than 100 captives were released during a weeklong ceasefire in November.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive on Gaza has killed more than 30,000 people, mostly women and children, according to Gaza’s Health Ministry.

The nearly five months of fighting have left much of Gaza in ruins and created a worsening humanitarian catastrophe, with many, especially in the devastated northern region, scrambling for food to survive.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

‘No justification for Gaza carnage’: Nigeria Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar | Politics

Doha, Qatar — Israel must stop its war on Gaza, and the world needs to drop its “double standards” over the killings in the besieged enclave, Nigeria’s Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar told Al Jazeera.

Tuggar was visiting Qatar as part of a delegation led by Nigerian President Bola Ahmed Tinubu. Nigeria and Qatar signed a series of memorandums of understanding and discussed potential collaboration in sectors such as energy, trade, labour, agriculture and more.

The visit came at a time when Nigeria faces mounting economic and social challenges with armed attacks proliferating and an inflation rate at 30 percent.

Yet Nigeria, with a population of more than 200 million people and Africa’s largest economy, is also eyeing a greater role in regional and global affairs.

Tinubu leads the 15-member Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) established in 1975. The bloc faces an uncertain future with Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso announcing in late January they are quitting the regional grouping.

Al Jazeera sat down with Tuggar in Doha to learn more about what the government has in store for Africa’s largest economy.

Al Jazeera: Over the past week, there have been many meetings between Qatari and Nigerian officials. What are some of the key agreements and partnerships that have been made?

Yusuf Tuggar: Qatar has this Arabic concept of the word “irth” which is legacy, or inheritance. Nigeria is here to forge a common irth, legacy, inheritance with Qatar. They’re both major gas producers and if they work closely together, they can establish or expand further their market share.

We have cargo planes that go to Nigeria and come back empty. They take electronics and all sorts of other stuff from Qatar to Nigeria. They can be filled with agricultural produce because we have 12 huge river basin development authorities that we invested in during the oil boom in the 1970s, with dams ready for irrigation. Nigeria produces a lot of pineapple, a lot of mangoes that can be readily exported to Qatar.

There are so many opportunities. We want to see some of the big players here going to Nigeria and doing business. We’ve already signed several MOUs (memorandums of understanding). Even today, we signed MOUs on labour because we have huge human resources that Qatar can put to good use that we can apply to the medical sector and several others. The sky’s the limit.

And then of course, Qatar is also strong in services, airports. We have so many airports that are in existence that are underutilised that can be turned readily into cargo airports. We’ve got ports, we need more ports to be developed.

Al Jazeera: What are some of the upcoming gas projects?

Tuggar: There are several ongoing gas projects in Nigeria that we hope Qatar can invest in. We have so many opportunities for floating LNG projects. We’ve got an LNG plant that has run out of gas that is right next to us in Equatorial Guinea. All it needs is a pipeline, to pipe Nigerian gas to Equatorial Guinea and Bob’s your uncle. This is something that Qatar can take advantage of.

We have a Nigeria-Morocco gas pipeline that is in the making to supply 15 African countries with gas and it can go on to Europe. I know Europe is looking to phase out gas but let’s work with the reality. The reality right now is that gas is still in demand.

We have a trans-Saharan gas pipeline. The leg of the pipeline within Nigeria has gone very far, it’s almost completed and it’s supposed to deliver gas all the way to Algeria. And you throw in Algerian gas and it can go all the way into Europe. These are all projects that are ongoing that Qatar can be a part of when it comes to gas.

But we’re not just looking at gas, we’re looking at agriculture, the health sector. All the relevant ministers are here; we’re looking at metals refining for rare earths; Nigeria is rich in lithium. This is something that can be taken advantage of.

Al Jazeera: Regarding the biggest conflict in the world right now, in Gaza more than 30,000 people have been killed. What are your thoughts on this?

Tuggar: There is no justification for the carnage that is going on in Gaza. It has to stop. There is no justification for the complete disregard for the proportionality of force that is being meted out on innocent civilians, on kids on children, on babies on women.

Nigeria has been consistent with its support for a two-state solution. The state of Palestine has every right to exist as an independent sovereign nation, the same way that Israel has a right to exist as an independent sovereign nation.

But this carnage is completely out of hand and totally unacceptable. There is no way to explain the double standards; it has to stop.

Al Jazeera: Regarding the war in Ukraine, the US and EU have been pressuring other countries to join in on sanctions against Russia. Nigeria has maintained a neutral, non-aligned stance. How difficult or easy has it been to maintain this stance?

Tuggar: [The non-aligned stance] has been the policy of the state of Nigeria since its inception, since it was created in 1960. Nigeria was part of the non-aligned movement and has remained so and at the moment we’re currently practicing what is now referred to as strategic autonomy.

We get along with all countries, and we’re not the only country that has that policy. Nigeria has always been an independent sovereign nation. So we are not compelled to follow any other country’s lead. We do what is right for our people, what’s in the interest of our people.

We get along famously with both of them [the US and Russia]. They also don’t have a problem with us being autonomous, being an independent country, with the freedom to maintain relations with all nations.

Al Jazeera: Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have announced they’re leaving ECOWAS. Is there maybe a need to reinvent ECOWAS in any way?

Tuggar: No, there isn’t. There’s a process [for leaving] and it takes about a year. It’s one thing to pronounce that you’ve left, it’s another to really disengage from ECOWAS itself because every citizen of ECOWAS carries a passport. (An ECOWAS passport guarantees visa-free travel within the bloc). We’re waiting to see if they’re even going to print the passports which is going to cost millions of dollars.

We’re talking about 30 percent of, let’s say, Cote d’Ivoire, coming from Burkina Faso, and Mali, which means they would need new residencies or they will have to leave Cote d’Ivoire and the same thing with Nigeriens in Nigeria, in several other places. So it’s not as simple as it’s made out to be. The process of them leaving takes a lot more than just a simple pronouncement and there are certain procedures that have to be followed.

ECOWAS has shown clearly that there’s no bellicosity towards those countries because sanctions were removed out of humanitarian considerations. Fasting during Ramadan is coming up, and President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, as the Chairman of ECOWAS, heads of state and government pushed for the removal of sanctions. The ECOWAS leaders endorsed it and the sanctions have been removed, borders have been opened.

There’s no compulsion in the membership of ECOWAS, it’s up to the regimes in those countries to make a decision. ECOWAS is a union of a community of people and the emphasis is on the community, on the people, on the citizens.

Al Jazeera: In Nigeria, between 40 and 45 percent of the population lives below the poverty line. How does the government plan for economic growth and to address the issue of poverty?

Tuggar: We’re talking about 300,000 training centres across the country. We’re talking vast exponential job creation through ICT, information technology that is happening. we’re talking about providing fast-speed internet to the youth. We’re talking about business process outsourcing.

So these are all a lot of the opportunities but even before that, there’s a social investment programme that is ongoing, that provides directly to the poorest section of Nigeria because we can’t wait until the jobs are created. There’s a direct government intervention that has been going on so these are some of the measures that are being taken towards addressing this.

Al Jazeera: The country is seeing an exodus of youth going abroad for opportunities. What would be the consequences for Nigeria to seeing all this youth leave?

Tuggar: We have what we refer to as the 4Ds in my Ministry of Foreign Affairs – That’s democracy development, demography and diaspora. And the fourth D, the diaspora, is where we look to engage other countries that are in demand of our human resources, get them to invest in certain sectors so that we will be able to train enough skilled workers for both ourselves and the country that is demanding for that.

So doctors, nurses, and at the moment you actually even have Nigeria supplying software engineers to places like Lithuania.

We need to do it in a structured way. We’re not saying that Nigerians cannot go abroad to work. By all means they should. But at the same time, for every nurse that goes abroad, we want to be able to create many more in Nigeria that would cater for our needs. We need to partner with countries that are prepared to invest in those sectors.

Al Jazeera: We’re seeing unprecedented inflation; Nigerians are struggling with the costs. The prices of food and transport have more than tripled since President Tinubu took over and removed the fuel subsidy, even though he promised to ease an already bad situation. What are your thoughts on this? Has he failed to deliver on his promise one year in?

Tuggar: He certainly hasn’t. This is something that was anticipated. This is one of the consequences and, unfortunately, we are feeling it even more because we delayed for so many years, subsidy removal.

This is a sort of bitter pill that Nigeria has to take but there are other measures that are being taken to serve as palliatives for the situation that we’re facing.

You have to bear in mind also that Nigeria is not the only country that is facing these economic challenges; it’s almost global. Inflation is something that a lot of countries are facing, but we have to bite the bullet and do what is right now, for the future.

We’re continuing to supplement and things are getting better. Our crude oil production has gone up, so has our gas production through LNG. We’re going to be feeling the effects of a spike in foreign exchange earnings, which would serve to ameliorate the situation and we’re plugging all the leakages in our economy.

Al Jazeera: There’s also been a surge in kidnappings across the country as well. Does the government bear any responsibility for this?

Tuggar: The government is always there to tackle the challenges.

At the same time, there are so many measures being taken to address these through the three different tiers of government. Because you have to bear in mind also that the responsibility is not simply on the federal government, the government at the centre.

Nigeria’s constitution prescribes rules for the three tiers. So you’ve got the federal government headed by Mr President, you’ve got state governments headed by governors and then you’ve got local government. We have 774 local government areas that are under state governments and they need to be working so that responsibility for them to work and work efficiently rests squarely on the state governors and the state governments.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

‘In Gaza, football is the only escape’: Palestine star Mahmoud Wadi on war | Football

On October 7, Palestinian footballer Mahmoud Wadi was recovering from an injury in Egypt when Israel launched its war on Gaza, following the Hamas attacks on southern Israel.

The 29-year-old, from Khan Younis in southern Gaza, has spent the past five months desperately seeking news about the safety of his friends and family in the besieged enclave while travelling with the Palestinian national team.

He has lived through three Israeli military assaults on Gaza – in 2008, 2012 and 2014 – and says he remembers spending every night wondering if he would make it to dawn.

Wadi, who now lives in Cairo and plays for Arab Contractors in the Egyptian Premier League, was part of Palestine’s squad for the AFC Asian Cup 2023 in Qatar, where the team recorded a historic second-round finish.

The al-Fidayi (as the Palestinian team is known to its fans) received passionate support from the crowds of people from various countries, religions and age groups, who turned up in their tens of thousands to support the Palestinian team before their round-of-16 elimination by hosts and eventual champions Qatar.

In a conversation with Al Jazeera, Wadi opens up about the struggles of putting on his best performance on the field while the war rages at home.

Al Jazeera: Growing up in Gaza, what did football mean to you?

Wadi: Football is the only escape from war and the Israeli occupation. Young people and children turn to football as it offers distraction from the circumstances. Football makes them feel good. In Gaza, we love football. But the wars waged against us over the years, the harsh economic conditions and the siege that has completely closed Gaza and its people, preventing children from achieving their [footballing] dreams.

The Israeli occupation always places barriers and obstacles that prevent us from achieving that and, unfortunately, people leave Palestine. We are forced to look for options elsewhere.

Al Jazeera: Why did you leave Gaza and how difficult was that decision?

Wadi: To leave your country, your homeland, your family and your friends for a better future is not easy. It brings a constant feeling of alienation and loneliness. But we make sacrifices for our ambitions. We are people who love life, people who want to live like others and follow our dreams. The difficulty lies in the fact that you are leaving behind the people you love.

Now, I live abroad and my family is in Gaza exposed to the killing, destruction and displacement. I left Gaza, my family and friends to play football, but I live in fear and anxiety.

We do not leave Palestine because it is not a beautiful country. We love our land madly, but we have to search for a better life.

Al Jazeera: What are the struggles of being an international footballer for Palestine?

Wadi: In light of the Israeli occupation and its obstacles, it is not easy to be a footballer. It has a massive impact because you cannot gather players for football camps in Palestine.

Players from Gaza cannot enter the occupied West Bank, and vice versa. There are players outside Palestine who cannot enter, and so on. Despite the difficult circumstances, the Palestine national team gathers abroad from various places. We have players from the occupied West Bank, Gaza Strip, Palestine 48, from various Palestinian refugee camps in the occupied territories, and from the diaspora.

No team in the world can go through such conditions and participate in a prestigious regional championship [like we have]. This in itself is considered a great Palestinian achievement and source of pride.

We have always harboured dreams and ambitions but the occupation tries to crush our spirit. We rose from under the rubble of three wars in order to reach where we are now, and we hope to carry on this path. We derive our strength from our people’s courage and steadfastness.

Mahmoud Wadi, centre, trains with the Palestinian football team during the AFC Asian Cup 2023 in Doha, Qatar [Sorin Furcoi/Al Jazeera]

Al Jazeera: How difficult is it for you to communicate with friends and family back home?

Wadi: It is very difficult, especially when communication is cut off in Gaza. I have never left my phone since the start of the war. Be it in Egypt, while travelling with the team, or during our training sessions.

One morning, my brother disappeared. No one in my family knew anything due to a communication blackout. I felt very anxious during those 10 hours until I heard from him.

This is our situation: A constant feeling of anxiety and unimaginable conditions. It’s indescribable not knowing where your loved ones are, feeling helpless and unable to do anything. All you can do is pray. Every second of our lives is a test.

Al Jazeera: How do you feel after speaking to your family and friends in Gaza?

Wadi: They try to describe a small part of the reality they live through every day but it’s very difficult for them to convey their feelings. Words cannot describe the reality of the war. Our conversations are focused on the harsh and bitter conditions they face. But just like everyone else in Gaza, they remain brave.

Al Jazeera: What was it like to meet your family after two months?

Wadi: I met my mother, brothers, and their families in Egypt after more than 80 days of war. I had an image in my mind about the ugliness of the war, but when I looked at their weak faces, eyes, frail bodies, and white hair, it was far worse than anything I could imagine.

I have lived through three wars. It was scary spending nights waiting for bombs to drop and for the roof to crush me – but this war is not the same.

Al Jazeera: What is the last memory of Gaza in your mind?

Wadi: I remember the people, their affection, and their bonds of love. It feels great.

My last memory of Gaza was its sea, streets, buildings, and the electricity schedule – on for eight hours and off for the next eight.

Despite everything, Gaza was developing every day. Clean streets, beautiful facilities, restaurants, chalets on the sea – that’s the image of Gaza imprinted in my memory.

It deserved preservation of its sweetness and beauty. Despite the war, death and destruction, it is still beautiful and it will be more beautiful.

Just as we built it before, we will build it a second time, a third time and so on.

Al Jazeera: If you were able to go back to Gaza now, what would you do?

Wadi: I want to return to Gaza after the war ends and offer my condolences to the family of my best friend Hamed, who was martyred in this war. I want to see my brothers and their children, my friends, and I want to see Gaza and what happened to it after all this destruction.

I want to share with people a bit of their sorrow and memories of the war. I want to be a part of their suffering.

Al Jazeera: How did you feel when you saw the horrific video of Yarmouk Stadium being destroyed by Israeli forces?

Wadi: Yarmouk Stadium is not the only destroyed facility. There are thousands of mosques, churches, offices, hospitals, universities, and schools. Not even a tree or a stone has been spared.

I scored many goals in Yarmouk Stadium as hundreds of fans cheered. The image of the tank circling the stadium remains fresh in my memory. There are no words to describe its ugliness. But no matter how horrific these scenes are, they aren’t as horrific as the death of children and the images of them being blown into pieces that we see every day.

I can’t forget them for a single moment. They live within me.

Palestinian spectators watch the first leg of the Palestine Cup final football match between Gaza Strip’s Shejaia and Hebron’s Al-Ahly at Yarmouk Stadium in Gaza City, August 6, 2015 [File: Suhaib Salem/Reuters]

Al Jazeera: When you step on the football pitch, are you able to take your mind off the war in Gaza?

Wadi: The war affects my family, my friends, and my people.

My cousin was martyred. My best friend was martyred. My childhood memories were destroyed. The occupation has destroyed all lives in Gaza.

Even if someone survives this war, they won’t be able to live a normal life. There are no job opportunities, no education, no offices or markets in Gaza. They killed all life there. We cannot forget the suffering, but it can motivate us.

The ferocity can be seen in the [Palestinian] team on the pitch. It reflects the character of the Palestinian people. As players, we motivate ourselves to make people happy, even if it is for a single moment.

We derive our strength from the suffering and steadfastness of our people.

The interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

AI takes centre stage as Web Summit kicks off in Qatar | Technology News

Doha, Qatar – Under blocks of flashing lights, entrepreneurs, investors and business leaders converged in central Doha on Monday as Web Summit, one of the world’s biggest tech conferences, opened in Qatar’s capital.

The event, held in the Middle East for the first time, brings together participants from dozens of countries who, over four days, will be hoping to establish new connections, share insights and secure funds.

Kicking off proceedings, Qatari Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani announced that the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund would invest more than $1bn in international and regional venture capital funds.

Dubbed “Fund of Funds”, the programme aims to foster innovation by attracting top international venture capital funds and entrepreneurs both to Qatar and the wider Gulf region.

The commitment to boost the start-up sector builds on Qatar’s aspiration to be a regional IT hub.

With “entrepreneurship leadership across the Middle East”, Qatar is “the perfect backdrop for Web Summit with its commitments to technological advancement, and its vibrant community of thinkers and creators”, Al Thani said at the conference.

Qatar’s prime minister, Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman bin Jassim Al Thani, at Web Summit in Doha, Qatar [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera]

The topic of artificial intelligence (AI) headlines this year’s forum, which marks the largest gathering of international start-ups in the Middle East at a time when the region reels from the spillover of Israel’s war on Gaza.

Both are topics that Amjad Masad, founder of Replit, an online programming community, feels passionate about.

“I’m a technologist at heart,” the Jordanian-American CEO, who has a Palestinian refugee father, said at the summit.

“And I think technology can be used for a force of good, but the situation in Gaza has nothing to do with technology – you can’t eat AI,” he added to roaring applause.

Trevor Noah speaking at Web Summit in Doha, Qatar [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera]

The Web Summit’s headlining speaker on opening day was Trevor Noah, the former of the Emmy-winning programme The Daily Show.

What is perhaps less known about the South African comedian is his pile-high investments in the technology sector – and that he is the “Chief Questions Officer” at tech giant Microsoft.

Noah’s role involves hosting a multi-episode series in which he discusses with a guest how AI is being used to solve global issues.

“I’ve never stopped loving tech and I’ve never stopped trying to learn all the ways we can use it effectively,” Noah said at the summit.

“I think we often [say], ‘will tech replace us?’ Well, I think that means we have to have a very limited definition of what ‘us’ is,” he added. “Technology has always replaced what people have done or how people have done it. But the people have remained and so I think the larger question we have to ask ourselves is, how does AI redefine what humans need or want to do? I think that’s going to be the bigger question.”

Zeyed Genena attends Web Summit in Doha, Qatar [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera]

‘Globalisation bridge’

As more speakers took to the stage, entrepreneurs and investors from around the world began connecting at the sold-out event, with the flurry of QR code scans replacing the exchange of traditional business cards.

Indeed, Doha’s Exhibition and Convention Center is expected to transform into a hub of innovation and networking over the next three days.

Participants include the so-called “impact start-ups” that are focused on improving lives through tech advancement in healthcare and sustainable technologies.

Zeyad Genena, who works at the Canada-based energy company Hydro One, said he was keen to learn more about the AI.

“We are starting to incorporate [AI] a lot in our work and then on top of that, get[ting] to learn about different energy companies and how they’re going to transform,” Genena, who is among the crop of young professionals selected to take part in the summit as a scholar, told Al Jazeera.

Meanwhile, Heidi Rus, managing director at United States-based Everest said she hoped to secure funding for her firm’s water plant in Bangladesh.

Arezu Aghasey is scouting for new start-ups in the Middle East and North Africa region [Urooba Jamal/Al Jazeera]

Alex Chernenko, the CEO of Translit, a start-up focusing on AI-based translations, will be speaking on a number of panels this week about the future of translation and AI.

“I’ll be talking about how communication is going to change with the help of artificial intelligence … Language barrier[s] [are] a challenge that should be resolved,” Chernenko, who flew to the conference from Ireland, told Al Jazeera.

For Arezu Aghasey, attending this year’s Web Summit is something of a full-circle moment.

She last took part in the forum a decade ago as a scholar and is now at the conference in Doha to scout for start-ups to invest in, spearheading portfolio management at the venture capital firm Crea, from San Francisco in the United States.

“I’m focusing on finding startups [and] how I can take them from the MENA region, bring them to Silicon Valley, and vice versa,” Aghasey told Al Jazeera.

“So build a globalisation bridge.”

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Biden hopes for a ceasefire between Israel and Hamas in Gaza by Monday | Israel War on Gaza News

United States President Joe Biden has said that he hopes to have a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza by next Monday as negotiations to halt hostilities and secure the release of captives appeared to gather pace.

Biden’s comments in New York on Monday came as Israeli media reported that an Israeli military delegation had flown to Qatar for intensive talks.

The negotiations – mediated by Egypt, Qatar and the US – seek to secure a pause in fighting between Israel and Hamas to allow aid into Gaza, where the United Nations says some 2.3 million people are on the brink of famine.

The proposed pause would also allow for the release of dozens of captives held by Hamas in return for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

Biden, when asked when he thought a ceasefire could begin, said he hoped for a truce to take effect within days.

“Well, I hope by the beginning of the weekend, by the end of the weekend,” he told reporters at an ice-cream shop in New York. “My national security adviser tells me that we’re close. We’re close. We’re not done yet. My hope is by next Monday we’ll have a ceasefire.”

The US has been stepping up pressure on Israel in recent days to agree on a truce soon in a bid to head off a threatened Israeli assault on Rafah, the city in southern Gaza where some 1.4 million people, many of them displaced by war, have sought safety.

Al Jazeera’s Patty Culhane, reporting from Washington, DC, said Biden’s comments could be read as a message to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

“He may be trying to push parties in the talks and laying a mark or two for Netanyahu that, come Monday, there needs to be a ceasefire. And if there isn’t, the president will have looked publicly embarrassed by him and that is not something that sits well with US presidents,” she said.

Biden’s comments could also be aimed at voters in the state of Michigan, which is due to hold its presidential primaries on Tuesday, said Culhane. Many Arab- and Muslim-American voters there have pledged to vote “uncommitted” on their ballots in protest of Biden’s support for Israel.

“The anger in Michigan is palpable,” said Culhane, noting that Biden’s own emissaries to the Arab and Muslim community say the president cannot win Michigan unless there is a major change in foreign policy.

“Biden won Michigan by more than 157,000 votes in the last election in 2020, and there are some 300,000 Arab and Muslim Americans in Michigan, not to mention young people of all races, all religions who are turning their backs on Biden. So they are very nervous,” she said.

Biden’s comments came a day after his National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said representatives from Israel, Egypt, Qatar and the US discussed the terms of a ceasefire deal in Paris over the weekend and had come to “an understanding” about the contours of such an agreement.

The talks in the French capital did not include representatives from Hamas.

The Reuters news agency, citing Egyptian security sources, said the Paris meeting would be followed by proximity talks involving delegates from Israel and Hamas, first in Qatar and later in Cairo.

Hamas has its political office in the Qatari capital, Doha.

In Qatar on Monday, the country’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met Hamas’s political leader Ismail Haniyeh and discussed efforts to reach an “immediate and durable ceasefire agreement in the Gaza Strip,” according to the Qatar News Agency.

Following the meeting, Haniyeh said Hamas welcomed mediators’ efforts to find an end to the war and accused Israel of stalling while the people of Gaza die under siege.

Israel, meanwhile, continues to maintain in public that it will not end the war until Hamas is eradicated and that its planned assault on Rafah would continue even if a ceasefire deal was reached.

Israel’s offensive on Gaza has killed 29,782 Palestinians since October 7, when Hamas launched surprise attacks inside southern Israel.

Some 1,139 people were killed in the Hamas offensive.

The armed group also took some 250 captives into Gaza.

More than 100 of the captives were released during a short-lived ceasefire in November, while some 132 remain in Gaza, according to Israeli officials.

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Taliban releases Austrian far-right activist held in Afghanistan | Politics News

Vienna says its national has arrived in Doha after mediation by the Qatari government helped secure his release.

The Taliban has released Herbert Fritz, an 84-year-old Austrian far-right nationalist, who was arrested in Afghanistan last May.

The Austrian government said in a statement on Sunday that Fritz arrived in Doha, Qatar earlier in the day after mediation by the Qatari government helped to secure his release.

Fritz was arrested last year after defying Austria’s long-standing warning against travel to Afghanistan, which in 2021 returned to the rule of the Taliban.

“I think it was bad luck but I want to visit again,” he told reporters on arrival in Doha, when asked about his ordeal.

“There were some nice people but there were some foolish people also, I’m sorry,” Fritz added, describing his captors.

After his arrest, Austria’s Der Standard newspaper said Fritz had gone to Afghanistan and reported positively on life there. He published an article titled “Vacations with the Taliban” via a far-right media outlet.

This helped fuel anti-immigration arguments that Afghanistan was a safe country to which refugees could return, the newspaper said.

The Taliban arrested him on suspicion of spying, and Austrian neo-Nazis made his case public via Telegram channels, Der Standard said.

Austria’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it had been working to secure Fritz’s release since May, and thanked Qatar and the European Union representation in Kabul for assisting its efforts to bring about his return to Austria.

A spokesperson for the Austrian ministry told the Associated Press news agency that Fritz had been held in a prison in Kabul.

Writing on X, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer thanked the Emir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and his team for their “strong support in releasing one of our citizens from prison in Afghanistan”.

“It is only due to our trusted collaboration that this Austrian citizen will be able to return home to his daughter and grandchildren,” Nehammer said.

Fritz was a founding member of the country’s National Democratic Party (NDP), an extreme right group banned in 1988, according to Der Standard and other media outlets.

Austria’s far-right Freedom Party, which has been leading in opinion polls ahead of parliamentary elections due later this year, had pressed for Fritz’s release. The party has said he was researching a book in Afghanistan.

Qatar’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs expressed gratitude on X for the “caretaker government in Afghanistan” for releasing the Austrian.

“The State of Qatar has proven, regionally and globally, that it is a trusted international partner in various important issues,” the ministry said. “It spares no effort in harnessing its energy and ability in the areas of mediation, preventive diplomacy, and settling disputes through peaceful means.”

Check out our Latest News and Follow us at Facebook

Original Source

Exit mobile version