Author: ALJAZEERA

Jakarta, Indonesia –  After spa therapist Murniyati survived COVID-19 on a sparse salary, she thought the worst was over. But after the Indonesian government’s announcement of a steep rise in taxes on entertainment services, she fears the salon where she works could be forced to close, leaving her unemployed. “My husband is just a taxi driver so our combined income is low. Our life, my life, depends on him and me,” she told Al Jazeera. Murniyati is just one of the countless workers across Indonesia who could be affected by the plans to apply a 40-75 percent tax rate to…

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NewsFeedThe US has warned of more strikes after bombing 85 alleged Iran-linked targets in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for an attack that killed American soldiers in Jordan amid Israel’s war on Gaza. Iraq says civilians are among the dead.Published On 4 Feb 20244 Feb 2024 Source link

The strikes have forced ships to change route, causing major disruptions in companies’ chains of production.Attacks on vessels by Yemen’s Houthi rebels in the Red Sea have disrupted international trade on the shortest shipping route between Europe and Asia. The strikes, which came in solidarity with Palestinians facing Israeli bombardments in Gaza, are targeting a route that accounts for about 15 percent of the world’s shipping traffic, forcing several shipping companies to reroute their vessels. The Houthi assaults have pushed several commercial vessels passing through the Suez Canal and the Bab al-Mandeb Strait to take an alternative and much longer…

The World Aquatics Championships in Doha features the highest number of athletes and countries in the event’s history, swimming’s governing body World Aquatics said. The event, which started on Friday, hosts more than 2,600 athletes from 201 countries competing across 75 medal events in six aquatic sports, with qualification spots for the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris up for grabs. “We are humbled that more athletes and more countries than ever before have opted to compete in these championships,” said Khaleel Al Jabir, the event’s director general. The championships continue until February 18 in different venues around the Qatari capital.…

The Houthi group in Yemen has again vowed that its attacks aimed at stopping Israel’s war on Gaza will not stop after the United States and the United Kingdom launched dozens of strikes overnight on Saturday. The latest strikes, backed by six other allies, come a day after the US launched dozens of strikes targeting armed groups in Iraq and Syria that Washington said were backed by Iran. The Houthis initially attacked only Israeli-linked ships in the Red Sea in solidarity with Palestinians, but expanded their attacks to include British and US ships after Washington and London launched strikes in…

On December 5, 2023, I joined fellow Jewish university students outside the United States Congress to protest against a resolution conflating criticism of Israel with anti-Semitism. Our calls to reject the resolution were not heard. Two weeks earlier, a hearing was held where our concerns were yet again ignored; only pro-Israeli witnesses were called to testify. To us, progressive Jews, it appears elected officials who proudly stood by former President Donald Trump after he refused to condemn neo-Nazis and dined with anti-Semites value our voices only when they can tokenise a select few to fulfil their political goals. Conflating anti-Semitism…

Philosopher and independent presidential candidate Cornel West says Israel and the US are ‘intertwined in genocide’.American voters feel “impotent and hopeless” as they approach an election where the main choices are a “neo-fascist Pied Piper” (Donald Trump) or “the war criminals of the Democratic Party”, argues independent presidential candidate Cornel West. West, one of the United States’s pre-eminent philosophers and justice activists, tells host Steve Clemons that President Joe Biden is enabling Israeli genocide and that Israel cannot be secure if “precious Jewish security and safety is predicated on the domination of precious Palestinians”. West argues that recent talk of…

Health officials say at least 92 people have been killed overnight by Israeli attacks, including on a kindergarten in Rafah.Here’s how things stand on Sunday, February 4, 2024: Humanitarian crisis in Gaza At least 92 people were killed overnight in the besieged strip’s southern city of Rafah, where displaced Palestinians have been sheltering, Gaza’s Health Ministry said. At least two children were killed in the attack as Israeli forces hit a kindergarten, the Palestinian Wafa news agency reported. Concerns over a potential Israeli ground incursion into Rafah have mounted in recent days, with hundreds of thousands of displaced seeking refuge…

The appointment comes a few hours after the resignation of Hafize Gaye Erkan citing a media scandal.President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has named the central bank’s Deputy Governor Fatih Karahan as its new head following the resignation of the chief, Hafize Gaye Erkan. The appointment of the former senior economist at the US online retail giant Amazon was announced in the Official Gazette early on Saturday, hours after Erkan said she was stepping down partly due to the need to protect her family amid a media scandal. Cabinet leaders quickly said the economic programme that had begun cooling inflation expectations after…