Author: ALJAZEERA

Italy, Australia, US, Canada halt support after Israel accused UNRWA staff of involvement in Hamas’s October 7 attacks.Top Palestinian officials and Hamas have criticised the decision by some Western countries to suspend funding to the United Nations relief agency for Palestinians and called for an immediate reversal of the move that entails “great” risk. The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) earlier said it had opened an investigation into some employees that Israel alleges were involved in the October 7 attacks that triggered the current conflict. On Saturday, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) Secretary-General…

This is the second article in a two-part series about the alleged exploitation of Filipino migrant workers. Part one can be read here.  Hong Kong, China – It only took a few minutes of searching online for Divina*, a domestic worker in Hong Kong, to find a recruiter offering the tempting opportunity to work in Poland. Before long, Divina found herself attending a two-hour orientation session on the 17th floor of a building in the city’s bustling Mong Kok district. There, she listened as agents listed opportunities in workplaces ranging from hotels to a chicken processing plant and a car…

The trip was meant to be a homecoming: a chance for Tawfiq Ajaq, a 17-year-old born and raised in the United States, to connect with his Palestinian roots. Instead, his family’s ancestral village of al-Mazra’a ash-Sharqiya became his final resting place. On January 19, Palestinian officials say Ajaq was fatally shot after an off-duty Israeli police officer and an Israeli settler opened fire. Ajaq is one of the latest victims of the soaring violence perpetrated by Israeli security forces and settlers in the occupied West Bank, following a Hamas attack in southern Israel last year. His uncle Mohammad Abdeljabbar told…

This story was produced with support from the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network. Rohtak and New Delhi, India: Dhuli Chand was 102 years old on September 8, 2022, when he led a wedding procession in Rohtak, a district town in the north Indian state of Haryana. As is customary in north Indian weddings, he sat on a chariot in his wedding finery, wearing garlands of Indian rupee notes, while a band played celebratory music and family members and villagers accompanied him. But instead of a bride, Chand was on his way to meet government officials. Chand resorted to the antic…

Palestinians in Gaza say they are devastated by the International Court of Justice’s (ICJ) decision not to order Israel to cease its near-four-month bombardment and ground invasion of the strip during a case brought by South Africa accusing Israel of committing genocide. On Friday, the World Court issued a series of provisional measures requiring Israel to comply with the 1948 Genocide Convention, allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza and act against those who issue genocidal statements. But the court fell short of ordering an immediate ceasefire or insisting that Israel cease all military activity in the strip. Many in Gaza…

Taipei, Taiwan – Like many Hong Kongers, accountant Edelweiss Lam spent the last week watching the city’s stock market wipe out 14 months of gains as the Hang Seng Index fell below the psychological threshold of 15,000 points. It was not the first time Lam, who has been investing on and off in Hong Kong stocks since the late 1990s, had seen it happen. The index dropped below 15,000 points during SARS in 2003, the Global Financial Crisis in 2008, and zero-COVID lockdowns in 2022. But while ebbs and flows are part of the investment game, Lam said watching the…

This is the first article in a two-part series about alleged exploitation of Filipino migrant workers.  Hong Kong, China – The sizzling of chicken adobo – a sweet and savoury Filipino dish – fills the air of a high-rise apartment in Doha. It is Sunday, Andrea’s only day off, and she is preparing dinner before another long work week begins. After more than five years in the Qatari capital, Andrea* has long been tired of her sales job and living conditions in the city, where she shares a flat with three fellow Filipinos. So when a friend moved to Poland…

This story was produced with support from the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network. Hyderabad and New Delhi, India – Bismillah Bee can’t conceive of owning a car. The 67-year-old widow and 12 members of her family live in a cramped three-room house in an urban slum in Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state of Telangana. Since her rickshaw puller husband’s death two years ago of mouth cancer, Bee makes a living by peeling garlic for a local business. But an algorithmic system, which the Telangana government deploys to digitally profile its more than 30 million residents, tagged Bee’s husband…

NewsFeedMeet Lama Abu Jamous, a 9-year-old girl who has gathered a social following as an aspiring journalist covering Israel’s war on Gaza.Published On 25 Jan 202425 Jan 2024 Source link

Buenos Aires, Argentina – In the biggest show of resistance to date against far-right President Javier Milei, Argentinian workers have taken to the streets for a general strike, bringing swaths of downtown Buenos Aires to a standstill. It was an unprecedented mobilisation. Never before in modern Argentinian history has a mass strike been called less than seven weeks into a new presidency. But leaders from Argentina’s largest labour union say the nationwide protests reflect the urgency they feel as Milei pursues radical economic and political reforms he likens to “shock therapy”. Thousands of protesters swarmed the square in front of…