The Daily Insight

21/12/2023

UN calls for immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Biden warns Israel is losing support

The United Nations on Tuesday demanded an immediate humanitarian ceasefire in the Gaza Strip as U.S. President Joe Biden warned Israel it was losing international support because of its "indiscriminate" bombing of civilians in its war against Hamas militants.

After dire warnings by U.N. officials about a deepening humanitarian crisis in Gaza, the 193-member U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for a ceasefire with 153 countries voting in favour and 23 abstaining. The U.S. and Israel, which argue a ceasefire only benefits Hamas, voted against the measure along with eight other countries.

The resolution is not binding but carries political weight, reflecting a global view on the war. The United States vetoed a similar call in the 15-member Security Council last week.

The Palestinian Authority welcomed the resolution and urged countries to pressure Israel to adopt the ceasefire. A Hamas official in exile, Izzat El-Reshiq, in a statement on Telegram echoed that reaction, saying Israel should "stop its aggression, genocide, and ethnic cleansing against our people."

Before the resolution passed, Biden said Israel now has support from "most of the world" including the U.S. and European Union. "But they're starting to lose that support by indiscriminate bombing that takes place," he told a campaign donor event in Washington.

Israel's assault on Gaza to root out Hamas has killed at least 18,205 Palestinians and wounded nearly 50,000 since Oct. 7, according to the Gaza health ministry.

Israel launched its onslaught after a cross-border raid by Hamas fighters who killed 1,200 people and took 240 hostage in southern Israel on Oct. 7. Israel on Tuesday declared 19 of 134 people still in captivity in Gaza dead in absentia after the bodies of two hostages were recovered.

In Khan Younis, southern Gaza's main city, residents said on Tuesday Israeli tank shelling was now focused on the city centre. One said tanks were operating in the street where the house of Yahya Al-Sinwar, Hamas' leader in Gaza, is located.

After nightfall, Israeli air strikes on Khan Younis in southern Gaza Strip killed 11 Palestinians, including two children, health officials said.

An older Palestinian, Tawfik Abu Breika, earlier said his residential block in Khan Younis was hit without warning by an Israeli air strike that brought down several buildings and caused casualties.

"The world’s conscience is dead, no humanity or any kind of morals," Breika told Reuters as neighbours sifted through rubble. "This is the third month that we are facing death and destruction."

Further south in Rafah, which borders Egypt, health officials said an Israeli air strike on houses overnight killed 22 people, including children. Civil emergency workers were searching for more victims under the rubble.

Residents said the shelling of Rafah, where the Israeli army this month ordered people to head for their safety, was some of the heaviest in days.

"At night we can’t sleep because of the bombing, and in the morning, we tour the streets looking for food for the children. There is no food," said Abu Khalil, 40, a father of six.

21/12/2023

By Aljazeera

Israeli forces kill unarmed Palestinian man in occupied West Bank
Abdullah Sami Qalalweh, 26, was shot and killed near the town of Huwara, south of Nablus, officials said.

Israeli forces have shot dead an unarmed Palestinian man in the West Bank, the Palestinian health ministry said, in what the Israeli army described as an “attack” on soldiers at a military outpost.

Abdullah Sami Qalalweh, 26 was killed on Friday evening by “Israeli occupation bullets near the town of Huwara, south of Nablus”, the Palestinian ministry said in a statement.
The official Palestinian news agency WAFA quoted Ahmad Jibril, a spokesperson for the Palestinian Red Crescent, as saying the victim died just minutes after being critically injured by Israeli forces.

Qalalweh’s death brings the toll of Palestinians killed by Israeli forces so far this year to 36, including eight children and an elderly woman, WAFA reported. Six Israeli civilians, including a child, and one Ukrainian civilian have been killed over the same period in the occupied Palestinian territories.

The Israeli army said its forces had “shot live fire into the air” after a suspect “walked towards a military outpost adjacent” to an army base in the Huwara area. It said Qalalweh “attempted to attack one of the soldiers” and that “another soldier who was at the spot fired toward the suspect and hit him”.

Earlier on Friday, the United Nations Human Rights chief Volker Turk called on Israel “to ensure that all operations of its security forces in the occupied West Bank including East Jerusalem, are carried out with full respect for international human rights law”.

He stressed adherence to “the rules regulating the use of force in law enforcement operations”, according to a statement from his office.

“Use of fi****ms is allowed only as a last resort, when there is an imminent threat to life or serious injury.”

The recent surge in killings by Israeli forces comes as part of intensified nightly raids, particularly in the northern occupied cities of Jenin and Nablus, under the banner of crushing limited Palestinian armed resistance.

Civilians confronting Israeli forces during raids and innocent bystanders have been killed, as well as Palestinian fighters in targeted assassinations and during armed clashes.

28/11/2023

There's a new major superpower rising in Europe!
Story by Zeleb.es
©Provided by The Daily Digest

Poland is rising in power
The European continent has been dominated by superpowers like France, Germany, and the United Kingdom for decades. But there is a new power rising in Europe and it might not be the country you expect.

An often overlooked country
Poland is a country that's often overlooked in the grand scheme of power politics of the continent but this Eastern European nation has been on the rise for the last three decades and some experts believe that Warsaw could be the capital of the region's next major superpower.

Drastic changes
Life in Poland has changed drastically ever since the country gained independence after the fall of the Soviet Union. Understanding what life was like for Polish people living at the time is hard to know but The Telegraph’s Daniel Johson provided a good overview in May 2023.

Poland in 1989
“When I visited Poland as the Telegraph’s Eastern Europe correspondent in 1989, its cities were drab, decayed, and ringed by hideous communist-era buildings. Shops were barren, expectations were low and life was hard,” Johnson wrote, adding that Poland was much different today.|

The vanguard of liberty
“Yet nowhere else in the Soviet empire did people's power prevail so triumphantly as in Poland,” Johnson added.” The land of lost causes became the vanguard of liberty—and prosperity.”

A strong economy
Poland’s economy emerged strongly from the Covid-19 Pandemic according to the data from the London School of Economics but that really shouldn’t have been a big surprise since the country has been on a growth trajectory for the better half of thirty years.

28 years of growth
Prior to the pandemic, the Polish economy had been growing unwaveringly for 28 years, something an October 2019 Financial Times article noted when presenting data on the country’s financial situation in the wake of The Law and Justice Party’s reelection.

Successful transition
“Poland is the poster child for a successful transition,” said Beata Javorcik, the Chief Economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, at the time.

“Joining the club of rich countries”
Javorcik added that within 30 years Poland had transitioned from a country that suffered shortages in nearly every sector to one that was “joining the club of rich countries,” and Poland has gotten so wealthy it's now expected to overtake Britain’s economy by 2030.

Overtaking Britain
Using data from the World Bank, Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer forecasted that with its 3.6% average annual growth, Poland would pass Britain by the end of the decade as Sky News reported in February 2023. But what has Poland done with its new wealth?

Poland’s changing leadership role
One of the big changes taking place in Poland has been its transforming leadership role on the continent, with officials in the country taking on a strong position against Russia after Vladimir Putin ordered the invasion of Ukraine.

Hitting Russia where it hurts
“Poland led the lobbying effort to impose tough sanctions against Russia and to back Ukraine with strong political, economic, and military assistance,” wrote Politico’s Arndt Freytag Von Loringhoven, adding that the country’s done a lot more to help than most.

Ukraine’s best European ally
Poland has been the main conduit of aid to Ukraine according to Loringhoven and also gave 300 of their own tanks to their embattled neighbor. Polish officials were some of the first to travel to Kyiv and the country has taken in thousands of Ukrainian refugees

Changing geopolitics
The changing geopolitical situation coupled with the realities of Russian imperial aims changed Polish security and has led the country’s leaders to proclaim a new era in its military history where the nation needed to be able to stand up for itself alone.

Poland wants to build a powerful army
“The Polish army must be so powerful that it does not have to fight due to its strength alone,” former Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on the eve of Poland’s independence day according to a separate Politico report on the nature of the country’s military power.

Big targets for 2035
The war in Ukraine prompted Poland to increase its military with a target size of 300,000 by 2035 compared to Germany’s 170,000, Politico reported. Polish forces stood around 150,000 soldiers at the time of the report with a 30,000-strong territorial defense force.

America’s most important European partner
All of Poland’s military changes have made the country increasingly important to their American allies with one U.S. Army official in Europe telling Politico: “Poland has become our most important partner in continental Europe.” But what comes next?

Will Poland rise even higher soon?
With a strong economic base to draw from and an increasingly sophisticated modern army, Poland has become one of Europe’s most promising new superpowers. Having flexed its diplomatic muscles over Ukraine, we might see Poland rising even higher soon.

A new party in power
On October 15th, the citizens of Poland elected a new government into power, one that promised to reverse the country's democratic backsliding after eight years of the country's conservative and nationalist Law and Justice Party the Associated Press reported.

"Important implications for the future of Europe"
"The recent Polish elections have reshaped the nation’s political trajectory, with important implications for the future of Europe," wrote Robert Benson of the Center for American Progress. But what exactly will that trajectory be?

There’s no stopping the Polish now
As Europe’s traditional power players start to recede from centerstage, will Poland fill the role once held by Germany, France, or Britain? Or will the country’s leaders chart their own course inside of the European Union? Only time will tell but there’s little stopping Poland’s rise now.

19/10/2023

PREMIUM TIMES

‘I don’t want my legs to be cut off, please help me’ Mr Ibu cries out'
“Just see me, if they cut off my leg, where do I go from here? Please pray for me, talk to God almighty, and I don't want my legs to be cut off…”

By Onu Stephen.........

Nollywood actor and comedian John Okafor, best known as Mr Ibu, is currently bedridden.

In a viral Instagram video on Wednesday, the comic actor solicited the prayers and financial assistance of his fans.

The comic actor said he has been hospitalised for two weeks because of “a strange and dangerous illness”.

The 62-year-old actor, who also celebrated his birthday on his sickbed, said his doctors have recommended the amputation of his legs.

John Okafor on Instagram: “Dear Good people of Nigerian, we are counting on your support at these point we need it the most Access Bank 1685687982 John Ikechukwu Okafor”
instagram.com
In the video, Mr Ibu, who lay on the hospital bed in the company of his wife and daughter, said, “ As I speak to you, I am still lying down in the hospital; the medical director of this hospital said that the best solution is that, in case his new idea didn’t work, the best idea is to cut off my leg.

“Just see me, if they cut off my leg, where do I go from here? Please pray for me, talk to God Almighty, and I don’t want my legs to be cut off. Thank you so much. God bless you.”

His daughter Jasmine Okafor, in a post on Instagram, confirmed that her father has been in the health facility for two weeks.
Ibu’s daughter called on individuals and organisations to come to the actor’s aid so he could be flown abroad for treatment.

She said, “As a family, we want to appeal that at this point, people should come to Daddy’s aid and rescue; for the past two weeks, Daddy has been very down, so we took him to the hospital. I have been sorting the bills, thinking I can do it alone. We have been doing everything humanly possible; as a family, we felt it was something we could do on our own for him to be fine, but he is not getting any better. “He is not getting better; some days, it seems as if he is getting better; some days, it seems like it is getting worse. We are at one of the best private medical facilities in Lagos, and they want to refer us to another hospital because he is not getting better here.”

History
It is not the first time the actor has fallen sick. In March 2022, Mr Ibu was hospitalised at Zenith Medical and Kidney Centre Abuja.

He told PREMIUM TIMES at the time that he fell ill after he was poisoned twice by his ‘village people’ during one of his numerous trips to his country home in Nkanu West, Enugu State.

Also, in 2020, Mr Ibu claimed his relatives paid his domestic staff to poison him because of his successful career.

In an interview with Nigezitv, Mr Ibu recounted how he was kidnapped and poisoned at an event in Nnewi. He also noted that his protruding stomach was a result of the poison.

Mr Ibu made his name as a slapstick comedian whose acting is often characterised by stupidity.
READ MORE... https://www.premiumtimesng.com/news/top-news/634943-i-dont-want-my-legs-to-be-cut-off-please-help-me-mr-ibu-cries-out.html

18/10/2023

Hope he's got a good lawyer

10/09/2023

FORMER PRESIDENT LUNGU FORCED OUT OF THE COPPERBELT BY ZAMBIA POLICE

By Lovemore Sondashi (DIAMOND MEDIA)

Zambia's former sixth President Edgar Chagwa Lungu was on Saturday morning forced out of the Copperbelt Province after the Zambia Police Service in Ndola canceled a thanksgiving service

18/04/2023

Malaysia faces pension crisis after $33bn in pandemic withdrawals

Many Malaysians dipped into their pension during pandemic, but 81 percent of contributors face poverty in retirement.

Malaysia's pension fund saw $33bn in emergency withdrawals during the COVID-19 pandemic [File: Lim Huey Teng/Reuters]

Many businesses in Malaysia suffered big losses during the country’s lockdowns.

In 2020, the administration of then-Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin made it easier for Malaysians facing financial constraints to dip into their retirement savings.

While Malaysians have long been allowed to make partial withdrawals from their compulsory retirement plans for certain reasons, including to cover education, health and housing costs, the changes provided the option of withdrawing funds to mitigate the hardship caused by the country’s lockdowns.

The first of four special withdrawal schemes, introduced in April 2020, allowed contributors to withdraw 500 ringgit ($113) a month for a period of 12 months. The most recent round, announced in March last year, capped withdrawals at 10,000 ringgit ($2,253).

“We really needed the funds at the time,” Selvendra Rao, a physiotherapist who runs the Wellborne Physio Centre in Petaling Jaya with his wife Prithylasmi, told Al Jazeera.

“We had to use our EPF funds because we were running out of savings at that point,” Selvendra, who withdrew the maximum 10,000 ringgit from the couple’s combined savings of 130,000 ringgit ($29,319), said they had no regrets because it was the only way to save their business.

While the withdrawals provided a lifeline to many Malaysians, they exacerbated a looming pension crisis in the Southeast Asian country, where low wages, high levels of debt and growing life expectancies leave millions of workers ill-prepared for retirement.

Last month, Malaysia’s central bank warned that the average Malaysian is at risk of running out of retirement savings 19 years before their death.

As of December, 51 percent of the 6.7 million EPF contributors under the age of 55 had savings of less than 10,000 ringgit, up from 4.7 million contributors with that amount of savings in April 2020, according to EPF data.
In response to a parliamentary question earlier this month, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim warned that 81 percent of EPF contributors will not have enough savings to live above the poverty line after their retirement.

In a written reply to Al Jazeera, the EPF, which operates under the purview of the Ministry of Finance, said the uptick in withdrawals would have long-term implications for contributors’ retirement.
“Based on Malaysians’ life expectancy, 10,000 ringgit only allows members to earn a retirement income of less than 42 ringgit ($9.50) per month for a period of 20 years,” a spokesperson said.

The spokesperson said, however, that the 145 billion ringgit withdrawn during the pandemic represented only a small fraction of the fund’s total assets.

“Nonetheless, the amount is still under control as it only represents 15 per cent of the total assets under management, which currently stands at 1 trillion ringgit [$225bn],” the spokesperson said.

Nungsari A Radhi, an economist and former MP, said allowing the withdrawal of EPF savings was a mistake that will leave pensioners facing a retirement crisis.

“After some 145 billion ringgit was withdrawn from the pension fund, what is on the horizon are retirees who will live in poverty if all they have is their EPF and this does not even include larger numbers of those without any pension funds,” he told Al Jazeera.
Read here; https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2023/4/18/malaysia-faces-pension-crisis-after-33bn-in-pandemic-withdrawals

18/04/2023

Europe must resist pressure to become ‘America’s followers,’ says Macron.

The ‘great risk’ Europe faces is getting ‘caught up in crises that are not ours,’ French president says in interview.

ABOARD COTAM UNITÉ (FRANCE’S AIR FORCE ONE) — Europe must reduce its dependency on the United States and avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over Taiwan, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview on his plane back from a three-day state visit to China.

Speaking with POLITICO and two French journalists after spending around six hours with Chinese President Xi Jinping during his trip, Macron emphasized his pet theory of “strategic autonomy” for Europe, presumably led by France, to become a “third superpower.”

He said “the great risk” Europe faces is that it “gets caught up in crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy,” while flying from Beijing to Guangzhou, in southern China, aboard COTAM Unité, France’s Air Force One.

Xi Jinping and the Chinese Communist Party have enthusiastically endorsed Macron’s concept of strategic autonomy and Chinese officials constantly refer to it in their dealings with European countries. Party leaders and theorists in Beijing are convinced the West is in decline and China is on the ascendant and that weakening the transatlantic relationship will help accelerate this trend.
Read here; https://www.politico.eu/article/emmanuel-macron-china-america-pressure-interview/

11/04/2023