One-third of the Arab population lives under the poverty line.
A report by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Western Asia (ESCWA) said that poverty increased in the Arab countries to affect 130 million people.
Unemployment in the Arab region registered the highest rate in the world in 2022 at 12%.
One-third of Arab population lives in poverty: ESCWA (aa.com.tr)
On Friday January 13 a rally was held on the plaza outside the Rahat Community Center in the Negev to show solidarity with local Bedouins facing eviction from their campsites as part of the campaign to “Judaize” the southern semi-desert region.
During the rabble-rousing campaign that catapulted him to control of the Israel police, Itamar Ben Gvir of the ‘Jewish Power’ party asked: Whose home is this? He meant that the country belongs to Jews only. The demonstrators responded: This is the home of us all! This country belongs to all who live in it!
On the same day, as every Friday, a protest was held in solidarity with another community resisting eviction from their homes -– the Palestinian residents of Sheikh Jarrah in East Jerusalem.
Also facing imminent “Judaization” is the district of Masafer Yatta in the South Hebron Hills on the West Bank, comprising 13 Palestinian villages and about 1,000 residents. The Israeli army is taking their land for a new firing range. It was not feasible to hold a protest in an area so remote and under direct military occupation.
So the Nakba — the ‘ethnic cleansing’ of the indigenous population of Palestine by the Zionist movement and then by its state — continues.
The main march against the new government and in defense of civil rights and democracy took place in Tel Aviv this evening (Saturday January 14), starting with a rally on Habima Square. There have also been marches in Jerusalem and Haifa.
Here is the appeal issued by veteran peace activist Adam Keller to his fellow citizens:
“This government is bad for everyone. It appears to be headed towards an open dictatorship that will continue the oppression of the Palestinians, increase settlement construction, expose Palestinian residents to settler terrorism, and seek to expel them from their homes.
Some say this is not the time to talk about the occupation, because the government is also threatening the basic rights of Jewish Israelis. We say every time is a right time to talk about the occupation and now is the best time for it. For decades there was an attempt to ignore the occupation and exclude it from public debate. discussion. Now the oppression is seeping from the West Bank and threatens also the residents of Tel Aviv who thought themselves immune and averted their gaze from the oppression of the Palestinians! …
Knesset Member Zvika Fogel, also of ‘Jewish Power’, has called for opposition leaders to be arrested and charged with High Treason, which in Israeli law is subject to the death penalty (although as yet no one has been executed for the offense). These are the dark days in the history of Israel.
The hallmarks of Fascism are already visible: the attempt to take over the judiciary, calls to imprison opposition leaders and use police violence against pro-democracy demonstrators.
We call on citizens to take to the streets, to fight for democracy before it is too late!
We call on the police to remember they are supposed to serve the public, not Ben Gvir’s racist agenda. But whatever happens, whether there is police violence or not, we are coming! We are taking to the streets, we do not hesitate, we are not intimidated!
The program of this government amounts to a coup d’état – the crushing of the judiciary, making all officials totally subservient, suppression of the media. In face of this, it the right and duty of the people to revolt!
Citizens, don’t be intimidated by Netanyahu and Ben Gvir. This is the time to come out and be counted. This is no time to stay home, no time to say: ‘I have other plans for this evening, I will come next time.’ There might not be any next time.”
Latest Reports:
Mass anti-government rallies held in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Haifa despite pouring rain (Times of Israel).
80,000 Israelis protest in Tel Aviv, police turn protestors away (Jerusalem Post).
Who is behind the new far-right government?
According to Ha’aretz (Jan 15), the think tank that drafts laws for Israel’s far-right parties is the Kohelet Policy Forum, which is ‘active in promoting legislation to abolish [such welfare policies as] the minimum wage, public housing, and rent control as well as labor rights. The main funders of this ‘forum’ are two Jewish-American (not Israeli) multibillionaires, Jeffrey S. Yass and Arthur Dantchik, closely associated with the securities trading firm Susquehanna International Group. The same men fund American far-right think tanks like the Club for Growth, which opposes all corporate taxes and regulation. Such socioeconomic policies lack wide popular appeal — an ingredient supplied by alliances with racism and religious bigotry (which religion — Christian, Jewish, Moslem, Hindu, Buddhist — depends on local circumstances).
In Defense of Democracy: Protests in Israel/Palestine – World Socialist Party US (wspus.org)
Wealth advisor Marlena Sonn worked for several members of the Getty family for eight years, advising them on socially responsible strategies for their investments. But she was troubled by the Getty family’s use of Nevada-based trusts and a Reno-based family office, to maintain the fiction that family members did not live in higher-tax California. When she suggested they pay their California tax obligations, she was fired. The full family gossip is well chronicled in The New Yorker piece.
Wealth advisors proclaim they are helping their clients obey the law. But they are actively writing new legislation and lobbying to have them installed. Last week investigative journalists in Florida uncovered how the Walton family, of Wal-Mart, hired tax lawyers and lobbyists to change Florida state family trust law to allow their trusts to exist for a thousand years and have less disclosure obligations. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis (R), after receiving contributions from Walton-backed intermediaries, dutifully signed the trust changes into law over the summer of 2022.
Nevada and South Dakota — now a global destination for billionaire dynasty trusts — are working together to become the “Delaware of the West,” attracting corporation formation and not levying corporate or income taxation. Nevada also extended its state rule against perpetuities so trusts can exist for 375 years and without the obligation to report beneficiaries. The state is working to keep information sealed about trusts, passing a law in 2009 to exempt trust company documents from public disclosure. They are possibly the only state that does not cooperate with the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) in sharing data, a vestige from the state’s secrecy around the gambling industry.
There are over a dozen states actively changing state laws to compete for global trust business.
Opinion | Hiding Wealth the Walton and Getty Family Way | Common Dreams
Manchester City topped Deloitte’s Football Money League for a second consecutive year. The Premier League accounted for more than half of the top 20 clubs. The top 20 clubs’ revenues rose to near pre-pandemic levels of 9.2 billion euros (£8.1 billion).
A 13 percent rise in City’s revenue to 731 million euros saw them retain top spot from European champions Real Madrid on 714 million euros.
Liverpool rose to third, their highest position in Money League history and above Manchester United for the first time, thanks to a run to the Champions League final, on 702 million euros.
United (689 million euros) were fourth ahead of Paris Saint-Germain and Bayern Munich (both 654 million euros). Barcelona, who topped the Money League two years ago, dropped to seventh (638 million euros) after crashing out of the Champions League at the group stage and suffering slower commercial growth than their competitors.
Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal make up the top 10.
“The Premier League’s financial superiority is unlikely to be challenged in the coming seasons,” said Sam Boor, director of Deloitte’s Sports Business Group. “It’s now likely a case of not if, but when, all 20 Premier League clubs will appear in the Money League top 30.”
Chelsea, Tottenham and Arsenal make up the top 10.
Man City top Premier League dominated Football Money League (france24.com)
Temperatures in Greenland are the warmest they have been in 1,000 years.
A study published in the scientific journal Nature on Wednesday found that temperatures have risen 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 20th-century average since 1995. The data shows that Greenland’s ice cores — samples taken from deep within ice sheets and glaciers — have warmed substantially.
The study’s lead author Maria Hoerhold, a glaciologist at the Alfred Wegener Institute in Germany. “We have now a clear signature of global warming.”
“We should be very concerned about North Greenland warming,” said Danish Meteorological Institute ice scientist Jason Box. “Because that region has a dozen sleeping giants in the form of wide tidewater glaciers and an ice stream.”
Greenland temperatures hottest in 1,000 years: Study | Climate Crisis News | Al Jazeera
Education Secretary Gillian Keegan claimed on BBC Breakfast that “almost every newly experienced teacher and 40% of experienced teachers will actually get pay rises up to 15.9%”.
But “newly experienced teachers”, is not an official category applied to staff.
The pay band for qualified teachers in England with the least experience is M1. They will see their pay go up 15.9% as they move up to the next band M2 in 2022-23 (outside London) which you would expect to happen to almost all of them after the first year. This figure combines the STRB’s pay rise and also pay progression components.
This specific group of teachers who made up around 5% of teachers in England in 2022-23.
The education secretary went on to talk about experienced teachers. She said 40% of them would be getting “up to 15.9%”, but in fact, none of them will be getting that much – they will be getting 9% or 10% if they move up a pay band this year.
Previously to justify government assertions that teachers are well-paid, Keegan said “My cousin’s just started teaching and she’s on £28,000. She lives in Knowsley… it’s a good career, it’s probably in the top 10% of earners in some parts of the country.”
To be in the top 10% of earners across the country, a full-time employee would have to earn a monthly salary of at least £5,090. This would be more than £61,000 a year. It means that 90% of full-time employees across the country earn less than this amount.
The starting salary mentioned in the interview – £28,000 – is roughly half of that figure. The average classroom teacher salary of about £39,000 would also be a long way short of the top 10%.
There is no area in England in which the minimum salary to get you into the top 10% of earners is less than £53,840. The salary that would get you into the top 10% in Knowsley is not known. But figures show that you needed to earn £43,050 to even get into the top 20% in Knowsley in 2022.
Will some teachers receive a 15.9% pay rise? – BBC News
Are teachers in the top 10% of earners in some areas? – BBC News
In the early 2000s, the UK government was warned that the country risked becoming the continent’s “dumping ground” for dangerous cladding and insulation products. At the time, civil servants were working on plans to harmonise fire standards with the rest of the European Union – but this harmonisation never happened. Corporate lobbyists had argued against it, claiming there would be “economic consequences” if their members were unable to sell their combustible building products freely. As standards were tightened in much of Europe, the UK would not update its outdated guidance for the next 17 years.
The result was gaps in the regulation, which the free market was more than efficient enough to find and exploit. “The evolution of fire regulation will put [highly combustible cladding] out of the market in the coming months,” wrote a senior figure at cladding firm Arconic in 2009. “For the moment, even if we know that [the material] has a bad behaviour exposed to fire, we can still work with national regulations who are not as restrictive.”
One such market was the UK, which Arconic targeted with its violently combustible panels, knowing that their marginally lower cost would make them attractive. The panels were fitted on hundreds of tall buildings around the country. One was Grenfell Tower. Make no mistake: the lines between economic deregulation and the Grenfell Tower fire are clear.
The government is now preparing to sweep away thousands of EU rules of the statue book in a single stroke. Former business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg gleefully tweeted his approval this month of “igniting the deregulatory bonfire”.
Margaret Thatcher’s government stripped away hundreds of prescriptive rules for the construction sector in the 1980s, in the name of freeing industry to innovate and experts have warned of disaster. This included the end of London-specific rules which had prevented the use of combustible materials on the walls of tall buildings. Such red tape was for a prior era: now the market would be able to make its own decisions about what was and wasn’t safe.
The priority given to deregulation continued throughout the New Labour era and was turbocharged in 2012, with Conservative prime minister David Cameron pledging to “kill health and safety culture”. He introduced a “one in, one out” rule to reduce the regulatory “burden” on the private sector. This was described as an “effective moratorium” on new fire safety rules by a former civil servant at the Grenfell inquiry.
In 2013, when an inquest into six deaths in a 2009 fire at Lakanal House in south London revealed that combustible external panels had helped the blaze spread, the necessary steps to prevent a repeat did not happen. The coroner had told the government to review the relevant rules “with particular regard” to the risk of external fire spread. But this was not done. Asked why, civil servants repeatedly cited deregulatory pressures and a lack of interest in new regulations from the ministers they reported to.
The government had also contracted a fire research body to monitor real-world fires of “special interest” – those which suggested there may be a need to reform the building regulations. Except, they weren’t allowed to conclude this. In October 2012, the government inserted a clause into the BRE’s contract which said the reports should “not contain any policy recommendations” or recommend changes to official guidance.
“This came after the general move towards deregulation, so regulation was not welcome,” said the scientist who led this work when asked why.
Deregulation continues to be one of the government’s driving ambitions. The consequences will be seen and felt in the years to come.
In the early 2000s, the UK government was warned that the country risked becoming the continent’s “dumping ground” for dangerous cladding and insulation products. At the time, civil servants were working on plans to harmonise fire standards with the rest of the European Union – but this harmonisation never happened. Corporate lobbyists had argued against it, claiming there would be “economic consequences” if their members were unable to sell their combustible building products freely. As standards were tightened in much of Europe, the UK would not update its outdated guidance for the next 17 years.
The result was gaps in the regulation, which the free market was more than efficient enough to find and exploit. “The evolution of fire regulation will put [highly combustible cladding] out of the market in the coming months,” wrote a senior figure at cladding firm Arconic in 2009. “For the moment, even if we know that [the material] has a bad behaviour exposed to fire, we can still work with national regulations who are not as restrictive.”
One such market was the UK, which Arconic targeted with its violently combustible panels, knowing that their marginally lower cost would make them attractive. The panels were fitted on hundreds of tall buildings around the country. One was Grenfell Tower. Make no mistake: the lines between economic deregulation and the Grenfell Tower fire are clear.
The government is now preparing to sweep away thousands of EU rules of the statue book in a single stroke. Former business secretary, Jacob Rees-Mogg gleefully tweeted his approval this month of “igniting the deregulatory bonfire”.
Margaret Thatcher’s government stripped away hundreds of prescriptive rules for the construction sector in the 1980s, in the name of freeing industry to innovate and experts have warned of disaster. This included the end of London-specific rules which had prevented the use of combustible materials on the walls of tall buildings. Such red tape was for a prior era: now the market would be able to make its own decisions about what was and wasn’t safe.
The priority given to deregulation continued throughout the New Labour era and was turbocharged in 2012, with Conservative prime minister David Cameron pledging to “kill health and safety culture”. He introduced a “one in, one out” rule to reduce the regulatory “burden” on the private sector. This was described as an “effective moratorium” on new fire safety rules by a former civil servant at the Grenfell inquiry.
In 2013, when an inquest into six deaths in a 2009 fire at Lakanal House in south London revealed that combustible external panels had helped the blaze spread, the necessary steps to prevent a repeat did not happen. The coroner had told the government to review the relevant rules “with particular regard” to the risk of external fire spread. But this was not done. Asked why, civil servants repeatedly cited deregulatory pressures and a lack of interest in new regulations from the ministers they reported to.
The government had also contracted a fire research body to monitor real-world fires of “special interest” – those which suggested there may be a need to reform the building regulations. Except, they weren’t allowed to conclude this. In October 2012, the government inserted a clause into the BRE’s contract which said the reports should “not contain any policy recommendations” or recommend changes to official guidance.
“This came after the general move towards deregulation, so regulation was not welcome,” said the scientist who led this work when asked why.
Deregulation continues to be one of the government’s driving ambitions. The consequences will be seen and felt in the years to come.
12,000 people die from Chagas every year. It kills more people in Latin America than any other parasitic disease, including malaria.
6 to 7 million people around the world who are infected with the parasite, Trypanosoma cruzi, that causes the life-threatening disease.
Chagas, named after Carlos Ribeiro Justiniano Chagas, a Brazilian physician and researcher who discovered the disease in 1909, is endemic in 21 countries in Latin America, and also present in North America, Europe, Japan and Australia. It is included on the World Health Organization’s list of neglected tropical diseases; the aim is to achieve elimination of Chagas by 2030.
Chagas is most commonly transmitted by contact with the faeces of blood-sucking insects, known as kissing bugs, that are infected with the parasite. These bugs live in the walls of poorly built homes in rural or suburban areas. The insect bites the skin, then defecates close by. The parasites enter the body when the person instinctively smears the faeces or urine into the bite, the eyes or the mouth.
It can be between 10 and 30 years before people develop symptoms so most are unaware they have Chagas, often called a “silent and silenced disease”. Some will never develop symptoms but up to a third suffer heart damage, which can lead to progressive heart failure or sudden death.
The global case detection rate is low (estimated to be about 10%), posing a substantial barrier to accessing treatment and care and in preventing transmission. Only 30% of people with the disease are diagnosed, with 75 million people at risk around the world.
Elvira Idalia Hernández Cuevas is president of the International Federation of Chagas patients, explained, “In Mexico, the authorities say that there aren’t many people affected by Chagas and that it’s under control, but that’s not the situation. Medical professionals don’t receive any training and mistake Chagas for other heart diseases. The majority don’t realise there is Chagas in Mexico.” The same is true in other countries, she adds.
Colin Forsyth, a research manager at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi), says Chagas is neglected partly because it is a disease that affects poor populations in rural areas. “The people affected just don’t have the power to influence healthcare policy.”
Chagas can be treated with two medicines, benznidazole and nifurtimox, both developed more than 50 years ago. They are more effective if given soon after infection. They can cure a baby. For adults, there is no guarantee but the medications can at least prevent or curb disease progression. In adults, the treatment, taken over two months, can produce severe side-effects.
Professor David Moore, a consultant at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases in London, says of the drugs: “They’re practically alchemy – they’re toxic, unpleasant, not particularly effective.”
There’s a desperate need for new drugs, he adds, but pharmaceutical companies won’t develop any because there’s no financially appealing market.
He says “Our main problem is that this isn’t a population that people are interested in. It’s a neglected tropical disease, even in places where it’s common.” He thinks the WHO target for elimination by 2030 is “a huge challenge”. “I can’t imagine that we’ll be remotely close by 2030. That seems highly unlikely.”
The forest carbon offsets approved by the world’s leading provider and used by big corporations who have told their consumers they can fly, buy new clothes or eat certain foods without making the climate crisis worse are largely worthless and could be making global warming worse. The findings pose serious questions for those companies that are depending on offsets as part of their net zero strategies.
Research into Verra, the world’s leading carbon standard for the rapidly growing $2bn (£1.6bn) voluntary offsets market, has found that, based on analysis of a significant percentage of the projects, more than 90% of their rainforest offset credits – among the most commonly used by companies – are likely to be “phantom credits” and do not represent genuine carbon reductions.
A nine-month investigation has been undertaken by the Guardian, the German weekly Die Zeit and SourceMaterial, a non-profit investigative journalism organisation is based on new analysis of scientific studies of Verra’s rainforest schemes. It draws on dozens of interviews and on-the-ground reporting with scientists, industry insiders and indigenous communities.
Verra operates a number of leading environmental standards for climate action and sustainable development, including its voluntary carbon standard (VCS) that has issued more than 1bn carbon credits. It approves three-quarters of all voluntary offsets. Its rainforest protection programme makes up 40% of the credits it approves and was launched before the Paris agreement with the aim of generating revenue for protecting ecosystems.
The investigation found that:
1.
Only a handful of Verra’s rainforest projects showed evidence of deforestation reductions, according to two studies, with further analysis indicating that 94% of the credits had no benefit to the climate.
2.
The threat to forests had been overstated by about 400% on average for Verra projects, according to analysis of a 2022 University of Cambridge study.
3.
Gucci, Salesforce, BHP, Shell, Easyjet, Leon and the band Pearl Jam were among dozens of companies and organisations that have bought rainforest offsets approved by Verra for environmental claims.
4.
Human rights issues are a serious concern in at least one of the offsetting projects. The Guardian visited a flagship project in Peru, and was shown videos that residents said showed their homes being cut down with chainsaws and ropes by park guards and police. They spoke of forced evictions and tensions with park authorities.
