Bethlehem - "Jerusalem" dot com - Today, Wednesday, a group of settlers stabbed a foreign solidarity activist with a knife , and uprooted more than 300 olive seedlings, east of Bethlehem.

According to local sources, the settlers attacked a group of citizens and foreign solidarity activists who volunteered to help harvest olives in the village of Kisan, where the foreign solidarity activist was stabbed in the back and broke her foot.

The sources added: "The settlers uprooted more than 300 olive seedlings, and sprayed the olive trees with incendiary chemical pesticides, as the land area is estimated at 90 dunums."

Written by: Brigadier General Ahmed Issa

While President Biden announced during his election campaign, as well as after his success in the elections and assuming the presidency in January 2021, that his approach to the Middle East will be different from that of President Trump, especially with regard to the Iranian nuclear file, the relationship with Saudi Arabia, the war on Yemen, and the deal of the century plan. However, the facts on the ground prove that the engines and goals that drive the Biden administration in everything related to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict and the approaches to addressing it are still the same engines and goals that prompted and moved President Trump to put forward the plan for the deal of the century, which means that the Palestinians are betting on their fairness on the part of the administration. The current US administrations or successive administrations in the foreseeable future are a waste of time and a misplaced effort.

It is true that Biden did not mention much of the deal of the century since he assumed the presidency, but on the other hand, there has been no change in the core issues it contained, especially with regard to Trump's recognition of Israeli sovereignty over East Jerusalem, in addition to that he did not change the arbitrary measures taken His predecessor had signed its decrees, and most importantly, he had confirmed during a press conference with the South Korean president held at the White House in May 2021 that "there is no peace in the Middle East without Israel's neighbors accepting its existence as an independent Jewish state."

This explains the Biden administration's interest in the Abraham Accords, known as the Convention on the Normalization of Arab-Israeli Relations, apart from the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, whose provisions stipulated Israel's complete withdrawal from the lands it occupied in 1967 and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital in return for the normalization of Arab and Islamic relations. With her, the six-party Negev summit, which included, in addition to the Israeli and American foreign ministers, the foreign ministers of Egypt, the Emirates, Bahrain and Morocco, was one of the clearest manifestations of this interest, especially since the capitals that have printed with Israel do not hide their recognition of the Jewishness of the state.

The aforementioned makes it legitimate to believe that there is an identification of appreciation between Washington and Tel Aviv, according to which the Palestinians and their leadership are the obstacle to accepting and accepting a solution that embodies the Israeli vision, especially after the Palestinians rejected (and well they did) Clinton's proposals, which were described as generous at the time. by American, Israeli, Palestinian and Arab parties, and it seems here that this appreciation has developed later into a decision, and then into a long-term plan of action intended to end the Palestinian monopoly on deciding their fate and gradually transfer this decision to the Arab capitals that revolve in the American orbit, whether those that have marked their relations with Tel Aviv, or that will be signed in the near future.

The important thing here is that the normalization train has started from its station and is still on its normal course, despite the departure of Trump and the arrival of Biden, and perhaps the most prominent difference between the approaches of the two administrations in this field is the place of the Middle East in the list of priorities of the administration.

As the Middle East region was the first stop on President Trump's first foreign trip that he visited, starting with Riyadh, where an Arab-Islamic-American summit was held in May 2016, as an American declaration to start implementing the plan to transfer the decision of the Palestinian fate to Arab capitals instead of Ramallah through The establishment of an Arab-American-Israeli NATO, however, it is clear that the Biden administration believes that restoring the relationship with Western Europe (NATO) and Asia or the (Quad) axis are priorities that precede the Middle East, according to Biden's strategy, which carried the slogan (America's return to leadership of the global system), which was The White House published it in March 2021, when London and Brussels were the capitals he visited on his first foreign trip, then Seoul, the capital of South Korea, was the second stop, and his visit to the Middle East was postponed more than once.

It is noteworthy here that the persistence of the internal Palestinian division, in addition to the decline in the status of the Palestinian national movement in the Palestinian society as shown by the results of the student, local and trade union elections, which doubles the burdens on the shoulders of future generations of the Palestinian people.

In the end, the share of what this article went to may be correct equal to its share of error, but whatever the share is, it is a possible scenario, so what are we to do?

Kiev - (AFP) - Russia announced Sunday that a drone attack on the headquarters of its Black Sea fleet in Sevastopol in the Crimea peninsula injured six people, prompting Moscow to declare a state of alert in the city.

And the Russian bombing continued on Ukrainian cities, especially in the south, in Mykolaiv, which witnessed the heaviest bombing since the beginning of the war , killing at least two people, according to local authorities.

On Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called on the residents of Donetsk to evacuate to avoid "Russian terrorism" and the bombing of this region in the east of the country, a large part of which Russia controls.

In a video recording, Zelensky said, "A government decision has been taken for a mandatory evacuation" of the area, saying that "at this stage of the war, terrorism is Russia's main weapon."

"This morning, Ukrainian nationalists decided to spoil the Russian Fleet Day," which Moscow celebrates on Sunday, Sebastopol Governor Mikhail Razvozgayev said in a message via Telegram.

He pointed out that a drone attack targeted the headquarters of the Russian Black Sea Fleet in Sebastopol on Sunday, wounding six people.

Razvozgaev said that all celebrations of the Russian Fleet Day were "cancelled for security reasons," calling on Sebastopol residents not to leave their homes "if possible."

Authorities declared a "yellow" (medium) terror attack alert level after the attack, according to photos released by the governor of Sebastopol showing smashed window panes on the ground.
The Ukrainian Navy considered that the Russians fabricated an excuse to cancel the planned celebrations in Sebastopol, for fear of a real attack.
"In fact (...) the Russians + invented an excuse to cancel the celebrations, so as not to humiliate themselves before the world because of their fear of the Ukrainian army," the Ukrainian Navy wrote on Facebook.

"The liberation of the occupied Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea will take place in another, more effective way," Sergey Prachuk, a spokesman for the regional administration in Odessa, said in a statement.

These developments came as Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Sunday, while attending a naval military parade in St. Petersburg (northwest), that the Russian fleet will receive "in the coming months" a new "Zircon" hypersonic cruise missile that "does not face any obstacles."

In southern Ukraine, the Mykolaiv authorities announced that the city was subjected Sunday to the "heaviest" Russian bombing since the start of the war in February, killing at least two people, according to the city's mayor, Oleksandr Senkevich.

This bombing killed the Ukrainian millionaire Oleksiy Vadatorsky, the owner of the main Ukrainian company for the distribution of grain, and his wife.

"He was one of the most important agricultural businessmen in the country, a major figure in the region and an important employer," Ukrainian presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said on Telegram, suggesting that the strike targeted them in particular.

Other strikes targeted the regions of Kharkiv (east) and Sumy (northeast).

The Mayor of Kharkiv, Igor Terekhov, announced that some buildings were damaged "in a series of explosions" in the city.
One person was killed and two injured in the Sumy region, which saw "more than 50 strikes" in the last 24 hours, according to Governor Dmytro Zhivitsky.

Pavlo Kirilenko, governor of the Donetsk region, where Moscow has focused most of its attacks, said three civilians were killed and eight wounded in the bombing on Saturday.

Bakhmut, one of the few cities still under Ukrainian control in the Donetsk region, has become the center of the Russian offensive in eastern Ukraine.

Capturing this city will allow Russia to control a strategic highway that will give it access to Kramatorsk, the administrative capital of the Ukrainian part of the Donetsk region.
More than a third of the city's population, which had about 73,000 people before the war, fled.

On Friday, the bombing of a barracks containing captured Ukrainian soldiers in a Russian-occupied sector in the Donetsk region killed about fifty people, in what Zelensky described as a "deliberate Russian war crime."

Ukraine's presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak on Sunday questioned the Russians' account of a "strike" they accused the Ukrainian army of carrying out, writing on Twitter: "Strike? No, it's a terrorist attack. First, satellite images show that one building was damaged. Second, prisoners were brought to the site before the attack. Third, image analysis showed a thermal explosion from the inside.”

And the International Committee of the Red Cross announced Sunday that it had not yet obtained official permission from Moscow to visit the site in Sebastopol, and stressed that "it is necessary for the International Committee of the Red Cross to reach immediately" to the site and to the victims.
On Saturday evening, the Russian Defense Ministry announced that it had "officially invited" experts from the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross to visit the site "with the aim of conducting an objective investigation."

Since Friday, Ukraine has asked the Red Cross and the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission, which in May supervised negotiations with the Russians for the surrender of the defenders of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol (southeast), to go to Olenivka.
"When the defenders of Azovstal left, the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross acted as guarantors of the lives and health of our soldiers," Zelensky said Friday evening, calling on the United Nations and the Red Cross to "act."

And then, after long weeks of siege and resistance in the steel complex, about 2,500 Ukrainian fighters surrendered and Moscow announced that they would be imprisoned in Olynivka.

The Russian Investigative Committee announced that Olenivka was bombed on Friday, confirming that the Ukrainian forces "fired by themselves at the prison where the members of the Azov battalion were being held, using American missiles from the HIMARS system" and high-precision missile launchers provided by the United States.
Ukrainian intelligence said that the attack was "carried out by mercenaries from the Russian Wagner Group," whose members are accused of committing crimes in Syria and Africa in particular.

Ramallah - "Jerusalem" dot com - Today, Monday, the Israeli occupation authorities decided to release Salah Al-Khawaja (51 years), the father of the martyr Moataz Al-Khawaja , and to extend the detention of the brother of the martyr Muhammad for a week in the Ofer prison investigation.

Moataz Al-Khawaja (23 years old) was able to reach Tel Aviv after crossing the wall separating the village of Ni'lin , west of Ramallah, located on the border separating the West Bank and the territories occupied in 1948, and carried out a shooting attack at the occupation soldiers stationed near the apartheid wall. During which three Israelis were wounded of varying severity, while Al-Khawaja was killed by the Israeli occupation bullets.

Sheikh Salah Al-Khawaja is considered one of the men of reform in the region, and he was one of hundreds of Palestinian activists who were deported by Israel to Marj Al-Zuhur in southern Lebanon in the early 1990s.

Matanzas ( Cuba ), (AFP) - A fire that broke out Friday at an oil depot in Cuba is still out of control, while the authorities announced Monday that the fire had destroyed a third tank and threatened to engulf a fourth.

Cuban Firefighting Service official Alexandre Avalos Jorge told reporters that the four tanks, each with a capacity of 50 million liters and located in a storage base, were "compromised" as "a chain reaction took place".

The disaster began on Friday evening when a lightning strike hit one of the eight tanks in the warehouse located in Matanzas, 100 km east of Havana, which contained 26,000 cubic meters of crude oil, or about 50% of its maximum capacity.

The fire spread to a second tank containing 52,000 cubic meters of diesel fuel.

The second tank exploded at midnight on Sunday, despite the movement of the firefighting and assistance teams, forcing the firefighters to evacuate the site.

"What we feared happened," said the governor of the Matanzas region, Mario Sabines, Monday, in a video clip posted by the Cuban presidency's account on Twitter, referring to the fire and destruction of a third tank containing crude oil, before the fire spread to a fourth tank.

He pointed out that the situation is "very complicated" and the fire area is "very large."

He noted that rescue "teams" from Cuba, Mexico and Venezuela were moving in to spread the firefighting foam, which "may take some time".

According to the latest toll, a firefighter died, and the number of missing persons decreased from 16 to 14, while 22 people are still in hospital, five of whom are in critical condition.

Relatives of the missing met Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and received help from doctors and psychiatrists.

"My son did his duty and left," the mother of a 19-year-old firefighter who was in the depot Saturday morning when the first tank exploded told AFP.

On Sunday, four planes from Mexico and Venezuela landed at the airport in the coastal resort of Varadero, 40 km east of the city of Matanzas.

Ramallah - "Jerusalem" dot com - Prime Minister Muhammad Shtayyeh said that the Security Council will hold today, Monday, a special session on Palestine, adding, "We hope that the Council will rise to the level of the suffering of the Palestinian people and reach an implementable decision based on providing international protection." for our people.

At the beginning of the weekly session, today, Monday, Shtayyeh stressed that whoever defends Israel's aggression against our people is a partner in this aggression.

He pointed out that the session is dedicated to discussing the aggression on the Gaza Strip, its consequences, and the health and service needs of the sector, among others.

Shtayyeh also thanked the Arab Republic of Egypt for its efforts to spare the Palestinian blood in Gaza and stop the aggression against our people, and he saluted the steadfastness of the people of the Gaza Strip.

He said that this barbaric aggression against the Gaza Strip, accompanied by storming the Al-Aqsa Mosque and repeated invasions of Palestinian cities, is not only electoral propaganda in Israel, but it is a systematic act of aggression carried out by a hateful machine whose aim is to strike at our cohesion and sow despair in the hearts of our people, and strike at our national project of liberation and ending the occupation. But we will remain loyal to Palestine and to our liberation project on our land and our sanctities and the embodiment of our Palestinian state on the ground.

Ramallah - "Jerusalem" dot com - The Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs said today, Wednesday, that the Israeli occupation authorities are still using a policy of force and beating against young men during their arrest process, and are committing daily violations and methods of torture that are completely inconsistent with all international norms and covenants. It provides for the protection of human rights and respect for his freedoms.

The commission revealed, through its lawyer, Ahmed Siam, the testimonies of detainees who were beaten at the time of their arrest and interrogation.

Among them is the case of the prisoner, Jabr Ribhi Al-Badawi (18 years old) / Hebron, where a large force of the occupation arrested him at 3 am after they raided his house, searched him and turned his contents upside down, after which they took him to the "Etzion Investigation Center".

The authority added that the prisoner suffers from severe and unbearable pain, and the prison administration still refuses to transfer him to civil hospitals to monitor his health condition.

As for the case of the prisoner Majdi Abu Rahma (35 years old), the occupation forces arrested him after they raided his house and severely beat him with hands and feet and rifle butts all over his body, after which they took him to Ofer Prison, where he is still languishing.

It is noteworthy that the prisoner Abu Rahma is a former detainee who spent 5 years inside the occupation prisons. He is married and has 3 children.

London - (AFP) - Animal rights organization PETA announced Friday that it has filed a lawsuit against the British Ministry of Defense for refusing to test an artificial fur version of the famous royal guard hats made of bear hair.

Known as bearskins, these berets are reserved for members of the elite regiments of the army who wear them during the Changing of the Guard in front of Buckingham Palace, and have become one of the most recognizable symbols of the United Kingdom.

PETA has long pushed to stop the use of hats made from the hair of real Canadian black bears, and has designed replacement hats made of acrylic, produced by French company Ecopel.

And Kate Werner, a member of this association, told AFP that the Ministry of Defense "refuses to try" these hats, although it "undertook to do so on several occasions in recent years."

"We have been informed that PITA has filed a claim in this regard. We cannot comment specifically on an ongoing case," a Department of Defense spokesperson said.

The government announced months ago that there were "no plans" to replace the bears' hair hats, adding that an analysis of the artificial fur testing conducted by "Pita" showed that it "does not meet the necessary criteria" that allow it to be replaced by the current hats.

PETA rejected this conclusion, and Kate Werner said in this regard, "These hats are a symbol of the United Kingdom, but we want them to reflect the values and ethics of our society."

Current Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, himself a former military man, is an advocate of bear hair hats and, as MP, backed an amendment to allow them to continue.

However, a petition to replace it with faux fur, signed by more than 100,000 people, led to a debate in Parliament on the subject.
The Society wrote a letter to King Charles III, known for his positions in defense of nature, but has not yet received a response. Kate Werner said the king's support "could help a lot".

PETA also asked Charles to use a faux fur coat for his coronation in May.

Governorates - "Jerusalem" dot com - The Israeli occupation forces launched, at dawn and Monday morning, a massive campaign of arrests and raids in separate areas of the West Bank and occupied Jerusalem.

According to prisoners’ affairs institutions, these forces arrested no less than 21 citizens from camps, villages, neighborhoods, and towns in separate areas.

In Ramallah, the editor, Youssef Hosheh, was arrested from Birzeit, Ahmed Al-Hajj, Fouad Abu Samra, Hassan Matar, Qusay Rabie, Abdo Tabaq, Amin Hamdan, Mujahid Al-Shahem, Saif Rasem, Omar Zahran, and all of them from Deir Abu Mishaal.

In Bethlehem, the boy Ahmed Raed Taqatqa, the boy Saif Ayman Taqatqa, Muhammad Mahmoud Taqatqa, and Ahmed Nabil Thawabteh, all from the town of Beit Fajjar, were arrested.

In Jerusalem, Abdullah Al-Tamimi was arrested from Al-Ram, Hussein Attia, Saif Al-Qasim from Al-Jadira, and Muhammad Al-Khatib from Hazma.

Hassan Al-Zaghal and Samed Ghanem were arrested from Jenin, and Yazan Al-Khabas from Asira Al-Shamaliya in Nablus.

Nablus - "Jerusalem" dot com - Imad Saadeh - The Human Rights and Democracy Media Center (Shams) said that the main cause of poverty in the occupied Palestinian territories is the continuation of the Israeli occupation , and the inability of the Palestinian people to determine their own destiny, and to exploit their natural resources, especially in the designated lands (C), which led to the dependence of the Palestinian economy on the Israeli economy.

In a statement on the occasion of the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty , "Shams" explained that the occupation forces have deliberately, throughout the years of occupation, annexed the Palestinian economy to the Israeli economy as a follower of it, so that the West Bank and Gaza Strip have turned into a market for Israeli products and a source of cheap labor, and the occupied territories have become It is the second most important importer of Israeli goods after the United States of America.

He added: "The occupation policy prevented the establishment of an advanced industrial base in the Palestinian territories, and led to the distortion of the Palestinian economy, which consists mostly of small enterprises of a family and local nature."

Israel continues its destructive policy of the Palestinian economy. Beyond that, the occupying state has continued to control Palestinian commercial transactions by continuing to control the crossings and borders and restricting the movement of Palestinians between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which obstructs geographical and economic contiguity between the areas of the Palestinian National Authority.

Shams called on the United Nations and the international community to put pressure on the occupying power to lift the blockade on the Gaza Strip, which has been imposed since 2007 until now, which has led to an increase in poverty, unemployment, destitution and food insecurity, reaching unprecedented levels among Palestinian citizens.

He pointed out that the occupation imposed a naval blockade on the Strip, through which it prevented fishermen from exceeding the fishing areas stipulated in the Oslo Accords, which exceed 22 nautical miles, and strengthened their pursuit and violation of their freedom to work within the area designated for fishing.

He also pointed out that unemployment in the Gaza Strip is still very high, as the unemployment rate reached 47% in the Gaza Strip compared to 14% in the West Bank. As for gender, the unemployment rate for males in Palestine reached 21% compared to 41% for females.

The number of the unemployed reached 378 thousand in the first quarter of the year 2022; By 244 thousand in the Gaza Strip and about 134 thousand in the West Bank, while poverty rates were less than 30% now exceeded by more than 60%, and the rate of food insecurity reached 79% among the population of 2.048 million people.

"Shams" stressed that the absence of a Palestinian development strategy will keep the Palestinian economy hostage to the Israeli economy, while the development process will remain stagnant, and this would increase the number of the poor.

He said: "In order to achieve comprehensive development and reach a Palestinian development model, it is necessary to address the various distortions that resulted from the occupation in the structure of the Palestinian economy, and to address the determinants and obstacles to development in general and the obstacles to human development in particular, and to identify the sectors that must be focused on in advance to know Which one should bear the burden of development so that a Palestinian development model can be found based on the pioneering sectors.”

He added: "Defining the realistic goals of the Palestinian economy by increasing the national income growth rate and achieving justice in distribution, reducing the level of unemployment by creating new job opportunities, improving the balance of payments and increasing the percentage of self-financing within the public budget."

The Center called on the Palestinian government, in order to combat poverty and reduce unemployment among youth and graduates, to provide the necessary infrastructure to facilitate the process of developing economic sectors, and to pay more attention to the countryside in general and the agricultural sector in particular.

He also demanded that it pay attention to the industrial sector through the use of the industrialization strategy for the sake of industrialization, and pay attention to the education and vocational training sector, taking into account the rationing of education, and pay attention to the culture and media sector because of its great impact in changing the prevailing awareness pattern, and preparing the general climate for the development process, and focusing and attention on establishing Chain projects rather than creating scattered projects.

Beijing - (AFP) - Leaked documents attributed to the Chinese police, including thousands of photos of detainees, including women, minors and the elderly, shed light on the situation of Uighur Muslims in Xinjiang.

These documents were published by a group of 14 international media outlets, including the French newspaper "Le Monde", at a time when the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Michelle Bachelet, begins a highly anticipated visit to this large region located in northwest China.

An anonymous source sent the documents to German researcher Adrian Zenz, who in 2018 was the first to accuse the Chinese regime of detaining more than a million Uyghurs in "political re-education centers."

Beijing has always denied the presence of this number of people in the centers, denouncing what it considers the "lie of the century" and asserting that these camps are in fact "vocational training centers" aimed at combating religious extremism, after a series of bloody attacks in the region.

However, the documents published on Tuesday show that the presence of "trainees" in these centers is not voluntary. Zenz told the BBC that the documents "destroy Chinese propaganda".

The documents include more than 2,800 identity photos of detainees, including Zeytungul Ablehit, a 17-year-old who was arrested for listening to forbidden speech, and Bilal Qasim, 16, who was apparently convicted of having relations with other prisoners.

The oldest on the list is a woman who looks thin and confused in the photo, Anihan Hamet, who was 73 years old when she was arrested.

Another image appears to show police training with guards wielding batons trying to control a person in chains.

Written documents prove the idea of organized repression from the head of the Chinese state.

A letter attributed to the Minister in Charge of Police Affairs, Zhao Kitje, in 2018 said that President Xi Jinping had ordered the expansion of detention centers.

Zhao said that at least two million residents of southern Xinjiang may be "seriously affected by the penetration of extremist ideology."

Uyghurs make up most of Xinjiang's 26 million people.

In a speech in 2017, the region's governor, Chen Guangwu, ordered guards to shoot people trying to escape and to "closely watch believers".
Beijing flatly rejected Adrian Zenz's conclusions.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said on Tuesday that the documents were nothing but "a recent model put forward by anti-China forces to discredit Xinjiang" and "spread lies and rumors."

Berlin, (AFP) - Leipzig hopes to continue its march towards winning the first title in its history in the German Football Cup competition, when Onion meets Berlin on Wednesday in the semi-finals, while the semi-finals open on Tuesday with a second-class Hamburg match with Freiburg.
And after the exit of Bayern Munich, Borussia Dortmund, the defending champion, and Bayer Leverkusen, Leipzig appears to be the most prominent candidate to win its first title in the cup, after losing last year’s final against Dortmund 1-4 and 2019 against the Bavarian giants, 0-3.

Of the three candidates, only Hamburg has won the cup three times, but the last crown for the club, which now plays in the second division, dates back to 1987.
Leipzig, who is ecstatic by qualifying for the semi-finals of the European League competition at the expense of Italian Atalanta, enters the confrontation with Union Berlin, with a record without loss in its last 14 matches in various competitions (10 wins against 4 draws), specifically since its loss against Bayern Munich 2-3 in the twenty-first stage. On the fifth of last February.
The only loss was for the companions of French international striker Christopher Nkunku in 2022.
It will not be an easy task for Leipzig against Union Berlin, who will play the quarter-finals for the first time in more than 20 years, specifically the 2000-2001 season, when they lost the final against Schalke 04-2.
Leipzig coach Domenico Tedesco warned his players against haste and overconfidence, and said, "We should not lose our patience." Tedesco said that American midfielder Tyler Adams will join the list of absentees, along with Danish striker Youssef Poulsen and Malian midfielder Amadou Haidara, due to injury.

In the second match, Freiburg is looking forward to crowning its impressive performances this season, as it competes for one of the cards that qualify for the three continental competitions: the Champions League, the European League “Europa League” and the Conference League.
Freiburg ranks fifth in the Bundesliga with 51 points, one behind Bayer Leverkusen IV and three behind Leipzig III.

On the other hand, Hamburg coach Tim Walter confirmed that his team could achieve a surprise against Freiburg. He said in a press statement on Monday, "The competitor is playing in a higher league and is on his way to play in the Champions League. Formally, we are the ones who challenge him."

Istanbul (AFP) - The Turkish authorities announced on Tuesday the arrest of more than 500 people suspected of having links to the preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom the Turkish authorities accuse of the July 2016 coup attempt.

Turkish Interior Minister Suleiman Soylu said, "704 arrest warrants have been issued and 543 people have been arrested."

The arrests, which were carried out in 59 of the 81 Turkish provinces, targeted the financial structure of the preacher Fethullah Gulen's movement.

Those arrested on Tuesday are accused of receiving or redistributing money sent from abroad by supporters of the 81-year-old preacher Gulen, who resides in the United States, beyond the reach of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The preacher Gulen remained an ally of Erdogan for a long time until 2013 with the publication of audio recordings accusing the Turkish president of corruption.

Since the coup attempt in 2016, the Turkish authorities have arrested more than 300,000 people, including police, judiciary, army and intellectuals.

Turkey is asking Sweden and Finland to hand over Gulen movement members who live on their lands, as a condition for the Turkish Parliament's approval of the two countries' accession to NATO.

Gaza - "Jerusalem" dot com - Two young men died, yesterday evening, Sunday, as a result of being drowned off the coast of Greece , while trying to immigrate to Europe .

According to family sources in Gaza, they were informed of the death of the young man, "Khaled Shurrab" and "Mustafa Al-Samary", both of whom are from Khan Yunis, in the south of the Strip.

During the past years, many Palestinian youths lost their lives in the same way that hundreds of Palestinian, Syrian and other immigrants lost their lives, as a result of illegal immigration.

Washington (AFP) - A Washington court on Friday ordered the Marine Corps command to allow Sikh recruits to keep their beards and turbans, rejecting the Army's special forces argument that exceptions based on religion harm their cohesion.

The US Army, Navy, Air Force and Border Patrol allow Sikhs to join their ranks while respecting the rules of their religion, which forbid men to cut their hair or beards and require them to wear turbans.

But the US Marine Corps refused to grant three Sikhs who passed their draft tests last year exceptions to grow their beards and wear turbans during the 13-week basic training period, although the three could do so at other times.

The leadership justified its position that the recruits need to be "stripped of their individuality" for any framework of "psychological change" towards common sacrifice, according to the case documents.

But the three-judge Court of Appeals in Washington disputed that, saying the Marines had presented no evidence that beards and turbans affected safety or physically impeded training.

The court indicated that the Marine leadership exempted its men who suffer from skin diseases from shaving, and for women to make hairstyles and tattoos in which they are "a substantial expression of individual identity."

The decision, written by Judge Patricia Millet, added that the beard provisions date back to 1976, and from the American Revolution until the modern era, the Marines, some of whom had thick hair, did not raise any problem in this regard.

The court issued a preliminary injunction allowing two of the recruits, Milab Singh Chahal and Jaskirat Singh, to begin training while maintaining their religious appearances, while the case is fully heard by a district court.

The Court of Appeal upheld the case of the third plaintiff, Akash Singh, but pointed out that he was late for enrolment.

Giselle Clapper, a lawyer with the Sikh advocacy group The Sikh Alliance, applauded the decision, saying it meant that "faithful Sikhs who are called to serve our country can now also do so in the Marines."

Gaza - Ahmed Al-Masharawi - The Israeli aircraft targeted the grassy Al-Mamoura stadium in the center of the Gaza Strip , which serves a number of purposes. Sports competitions.

The Assistant Secretary-General of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, Abd al-Salam Haniyeh, on Friday, denounced the Israeli bombing of the stadium, and demanded a clear position to protect athletes and sports facilities, and to impose sanctions on the occupation that did not abide by any agreements and commitments not to target and harm Palestinian sports, stressing that the occupation continues to bomb stadiums. , and the two sports facilities.

The Football Association condemned the targeting of the stadium, and appealed to sports institutions to enable the Palestinian player to exercise his right to play football, run competitions, move between the governorates of the country, and protect sports facilities.

Preparing for tournaments

On the other hand, the Football Association in Gaza called on the third-division clubs and Al-Baraem clubs to prepare appropriately and prepare for the start of their tournaments to come out with a strong tournament with technical performance and a high level of greatness, similar to the rest of the other divisions, and stressed the need for these teams to be fully prepared technically and administratively in order to reach a competition characteristic.

The Football Association in the Gaza Strip had launched the first and first division leagues, which reached the ninth round, as well as the second division, which concluded in the Gaza and North branches, and will conclude this week in the central and southern branches.

The Football Association said that the start of the third division league for the two branches will be on Friday 9/12/2022, the start of the return stage of the second division league for the two branches will be on Friday 9/12/2022, and the start of the return stage of the Premier and First Division League on Friday 23/12/ 2022.

The Competitions Committee of the Football Association determined the winter registration period for clubs of the second and third degrees during the period from 11/15/2022/ to 1/12/2022, and the winter registration period for clubs of the first and first divisions during the period from 11/20/2022 to 12/5.

Bud Championship

The Competitions Committee of the Football Association, in agreement with the Technical Committee, announced the launch date for the Al-Baraem Championship for those born in 2009 and above for five-a-side football, and the committee set Friday, corresponding to 11/11/2022, as the date for the start of the tournament, in which 30 clubs participate. The committee is scheduled to announce the details and conditions of the tournament early next week and distribute it to the participating clubs.

Course of trainers

The Palestinian coach, Abd al-Rahman Rasmi Mahmoud, concluded his participation in the first-level coaches’ course held in the Qatari capital, Doha, which included distinguished technical and administrative aspects. Coach Mahmoud, the Palestinian Football Association, to the audience, praising this distinguished participation.

أدت الامطار التي هطلت خلال الايام الماضية الى كارثة اجتماعية وسكانية ومعيشية في قطاع غزة، وقد انهارت عدة مبان وتشردت مئات العائلات، وتعطلت كل سبل الحياة من كل النواحي، وكانت المشاهد مؤلمة للغاية.

وقطاع غزة الذي يحاصره الاحتلال ويشكل معاناة كبيرة له، جاءت هذه الفيضانات لتزيد الآلام والضيق وهذه المعاناة.

ان الحديث عن هذه المعاناة، ليس كافيا ولا مقيدا ولا بد ان تتحرك السلطة، والمجتمع الدولي وكل الذين يتحدثون عن حقوق الانسان لتقديم ما يمكن من الدعم والمساندة وتقليص حجم هذه المعاناة، في أسرع ما يمكن من الوقت لأن المشكلة الحالية قد تزداد خاصة وان هطول الامطار لا يزال أمرا متوقعا والمصائب والمعاناة مرشحة أيضا للتزايد.

مشاعرنا معكم يا أهلنا في غزة الصامدة الصابرة ودعواتنا من الاعماق بالفرج السريع وانتهاء هذه المحنة ..!!

الحكومات مختلفة .. والاحتلال واحد !!
الانتخابات في اسرائيل ميزة ايجابية بالنسبة لهم، وتكرارها يدل على عمق الانقسامات داخل المجتمع اليهودي والتنازع على السلطة، والنفوذ، ولكنها بالنسبة لنا شيء واحد لم يعد يختلف كثيرا بعد ان كان له سابقا الدور المؤثر مع وجود احزاب لليسار واليمين والمعتدل والمتطرف وأصبح اليوم بين التطرف والاشد تطرفا ولم يعد لليسار او الاعتدال اي دور في الحياة السياسية الاسرائيلية.

وبالنسبة لنا ولقضيتنا، لم يعد هناك الا صوت التطرف والتجاهل الكامل لحقوقنا، سواء أكان رئيس الوزراء نتانياهو او غانتس او غيرهما وقد غاب الحديث عن أية حلول سلمية وفي الاجتماعات الحزبية التي سبقت الانتخابات كانت القضايا الداخلية هي الاهم والاكثر معالجة، وهم يتسابقون للحديث عن التوسع الاستيطاني وتهويد القدس وآخر هذه الاجراءات تخصيص نحو 28 مليون شيكل للتهويد في احدى ضواحي عاصمتنا الموعودة.
يجب على القيادات الفلسطينية ان تدرك ذلك وان تعي هذه الحقيقة وتتخذ الاجراءات المناسبة واللازمة لمواجهة هذا الوضع لا ان تظل في غيبوبة كاملة ونوم أهل الكهف..!!

Written by: Attorney Ibrahim Shaaban
A great day for Jerusalem, splendid and joyful, a shining day for international law, for international justice and the principles of right and fairness, and a simple but important victory for the Palestinian Jerusalemite cause, when the Australian Foreign Minister in the new Labor government announced the cancellation of the Australian acceptance and recognition of western Jerusalem as the capital of the Israeli entity that was taken by the old government in In 2018, I followed Donald Trump in his move to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.
Note with me that the Australian Foreign Minister refused to recognize West Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, and a fortiori that she refuses to recognize East Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. Likewise, it refuses to recognize West and East Jerusalem combined as the capital of the Israeli entity. That is, it rejects all forms of Israeli annexation of Palestinian Jerusalem.
This Australian position on the new Labor government, following its recent elections, deserves praise and commendation, because it has returned to the international fold that rejects the annexation of Jerusalem and considering it its capital. During the previous period, Australia was within the camp opposed to the Palestinian cause, and was heavily biased towards the West and Israel. Rather, it intervened a lot to protect and support the Israeli position in international political and legal forums, and it constantly voted in favor of the Israeli position. Rather, it submitted an explanatory memorandum to the International Court of Justice, biased towards Israel, in the issue of the wall before the International Court of Justice, despite its lack of relevance. Therefore, the Israeli government's position was not hostile towards them, as much as it was calm, demanding patience, containment, and explanation and clarification of the Australian position.
Of course, on this occasion, the Israeli trumpets returned, and we are at the height of the electoral period, to repeat that broken, worn out cylinder, claiming that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of Israel for more than three thousand years, and the complete freedom of every country to choose its capital, and it is not allowed to interfere in the internal affairs of any country. It is sad that the reports of Arab satellite stations, including Al-Jazeera, in their urgent comment on the Australian news, made a mistake, intentionally or unintentionally, when they indicated that more than 115 countries recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, but did not transfer their embassy to it, and this is completely wrong and did not happen at all, these countries No more than nine countries only. The source of their news is not known, and they must investigate accuracy.
In any case, it seems that the Israeli government has forgotten Partition Resolution No. 181, which has not fallen despite the passage of more than seven and a half decades since its issuance, and which was the reason for its existence, and which one of its parts was to allocate a special status for Jerusalem in its western and eastern parts, and it is still legally considered the correct legal perception To solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rather, this decision, which was later called internationalization, specified the parts of the Holy City by name, namely: Abu Dis, Al-Eizariya, Al-Tur, Al-Isawiya, Silwan, Sur Baher, Umm Tuba, Lifta, Deir Yassin, Ain Karem, Al-Malha, Sharafat, Beit Safafa, Ramat Rachel and Shuafat, in addition to the cities of Bethlehem, Beit Jala and Beit Sahour. . All of this was ignored in 1949, when Ben-Gurion's government decided to take only West Jerusalem, not East, as its capital, and the Knesset approved that decision.
And if the Israeli government has forgotten the partition decision, then it is better for it to remember that package of UN resolutions issued by the General Assembly and the Security Council after the 1967 war, the most prominent of which was General Assembly Resolution No. 2253 and Security Council Resolution No. 252, not Resolution 242, and resolutions followed after that. They affirmed their refusal to seize land through military conquest, and considered all administrative and legislative measures taken by Israel to be null and void and do not change the legal status of Jerusalem.
Even after Donald Trump's clumsy decisions regarding Jerusalem and its recognition as the capital of Israel and the transfer of the Israeli embassy to it, the United Nations General Assembly adopted a resolution by an overwhelming majority of 128 countries against nine peripheral countries, with thirty-five countries abstaining from voting, in which it supported its previous decisions on the issue of Jerusalem, which they rejected and did not It recognizes the Israeli procedures and considers them null and void and the inadmissibility of acquiring the lands of others by force.
The problem with these UN resolutions is that they are without claws and are limited to legal distancing and punishment, even if they are not recognized by Netanyahu, Lapid or Gantz, but the western, eastern, northern and southern world still adopt them in international relations because they are consistent with international law despite their partial injustice to the Palestinians. Hence, these countries, led by the Vatican, did not agree with Trump's move and did not support it for a long time, despite its orbit in the United States of America. However, very few countries followed the American path, such as Australia, Guatemala and Honduras. But the truth is higher and higher than that of Australia 2022 retreating from its steps in 2018. Perhaps Britain, Liz Terrace, will learn a lesson and learn from what happened in Australia, and not drift behind its tyrannical Zionism. Whoever sows the wind reaps the storm. And for the United States to return to its senses and reverse its misguided steps.
If we leave aside international legitimacy, and examine the saying that Jerusalem has been the eternal capital of Israel for three thousand years. We will find that, at least by their confession and the explicit recognition of their book, that Palestine was under Arab Islamic rule for a thousand and four hundred and odd years, to prove the falsity of this claim. Then did ancient times know the concept of the capital with all its modern administrative, legislative and ministerial components, so that Jerusalem would be their eternal capital? And was Jerusalem the capital of the state of “Judea” or the capital of the state of “Samaria”? How long did each of these two states last, if they were true? And what happened to this capital during the days of captivity and exile, as they say, two thousand years ago? So the existence of the capital in the central, legal, administrative, materialistic concept does not exist, and what is available is emotional feelings and mere sensations that do not build a right or a law. It is as if the Muslim's religious emotional feelings towards Mecca and Medina give me a sovereign right over them, or the Christian's feelings towards Jerusalem and Bethlehem give him a sovereign right over them.
As for the concept of a state’s freedom to choose its capital wherever it wants on its territory, it is a correct concept if it takes place on the lands of that state. As for it being established on the lands of others, by means of plundering and ignoring international decisions regarding it, it is not permissible at all. And the truest description of it is that it is a word of truth intended to be false. That is why all countries kept their embassies in Tel Aviv for seven decades and still are, and the eastern and western churches rejected this Israeli position.
Neither internationalization nor partition removed Jerusalem from Palestinian sovereignty, neither the truce nor the cease-fire stopped Palestinian sovereignty, nor did the aggression, invasion, occupation, or annexation by the Knesset bear fruit because it is illegitimate and forbidden. A Palestinian from the day of Yabous, Salem and Omar bin Al-Khattab, and ending with Bani Othman. Zahrat al-Madaen will remain the eternal capital of Palestine.

Tehran - (AFP) - Iranian authorities released on bail Sunday the famous Iranian actress Hengama Qadiani, according to two news agencies, more than a week after she was arrested after she supported the protest movement in the country.

Iran has been witnessing protests since the death of Iranian Kurdish Mahsa Amini, 22, on September 16, after she was arrested by the morality police in Tehran. The authorities consider these demonstrations "riots" incited by Western countries.

The official IRNA news agency reported that Qadiani's release came on Sunday "by order of the judiciary". Tasnim agency stated that the actress was released on bail.

Qadiani was arrested on November 20 after she incited and supported "riots" and contacted opposition media, according to IRNA.

The actress posted on her Instagram account a videotape filmed in a street in Tehran, in which she appears in front of the camera without speaking, and then turns around and ties her hair, similar to women heading to participate in demonstrations.

Qadiani, 52, won the Best Actress Award twice at the Fajr Film Festival in Tehran, in 2008 and 2012.

On Saturday, local media reported the release of the Iranian-Kurdish soccer player, Fawria Ghafouri, who was arrested Thursday on charges of spreading "propaganda" against the authorities. His wife denied via "Instagram" that the player had been released.

The authorities announced the arrest of thousands of people as part of these demonstrations, including personalities in cinema, politics and sports.

Ramallah - "Jerusalem" dot com - Graduate Walaa Idris passed the Israeli practice exam in Nutrition and Dietetics, to be the first graduate of Al-Quds University in the specialty to apply for this exam, which is expected to be taken by more Jerusalemite graduates who are in the fellowship stage.

The university president congratulated Prof. Dr. Imad Abu Kishk, the student Idris, for this result, which indicates another superiority of the health colleges, students and academics, and the College of Public Health in particular, as this success expresses the creative vision according to which the university operates, to create a research and innovation environment led by academic competencies and qualitative specializations that keep pace with development in the sector. medical and research in the world.

In turn, the Dean of the College of Public Health, Dr. Hazem Agha, "We at the college provide all support and assistance to graduates in coordination with the Medical Professions Licensing Department at the Ministry of Health and follow up on the requirements for applying to apply for practicing the profession, as well as facilitating the procedures for joining fellowships in hospitals, and assisting them in specialization support courses to qualify them to apply for the profession practice exam."

For her part, the student Idris indicated that passing the Israeli practice exam was not easy, but with the university’s support and facilitation of matters and conditions and their suitability, she was able to reach her goal and pass the exam, as the cooperation was great in terms of facilitating training matters and developing a good training plan, as she trained 700 hours in a number of Jerusalem hospitals Kalmtlaa and destinations.

Regarding the difficulties of the exam work stage, she noted, "The first difficulty was the emergence of the Corona pandemic, in addition to that I worked hard to organize my time between preparing for the exam and my studies in a master's degree in public health - the course of epidemiology at Al-Quds University, and the level of the exam was not easy, but I succeeded." In passing it through the preparatory course and the support of the College of Public Health with its deanship, which motivated me and cooperated with me to facilitate the procedures for progress and raise the chance of success.

She added, "My passing the exam to practice the profession is of great importance to me, since I live in Jerusalem, where I cannot get a good job without passing it, and therefore I was able to work in the Jerusalem Health Fund as I aspired."

It is noteworthy that passing the Israeli profession practice exam is of great importance in Jerusalem and at home, as a nutritionist cannot work and obtain a job without successfully passing the government exam, which is held twice a year after the graduate finishes the internship period.

Graduates of the medical faculties of Al-Quds University, who are students in Jerusalem and abroad, including the faculties of medicine, pharmacy, and nursing, obtain complete and almost perfect success rates in the Israeli profession practice exams annually, outperforming dozens of applicants from regional and international universities.

The President of the Palestinian Football Association, Lieutenant General Jibril Rajoub , confirmed that the next year, 2023, will witness a revolution in terms of development and building a unified administrative, financial and marketing policy in the federation.

This came during his presidency of the meeting of the Executive Office of the Union, which was held in the town of Al-Ram, north of occupied Jerusalem, in the presence of members from the northern and southern governorates and the diaspora.

Rajoub said that 3 important issues have been fixed, which is the role of the federation’s members in preserving it as a national umbrella for Palestinian sports, in addition to working to institutionalize the federation and its departments in line with the laws, regulations and regulations in force in the Asian and International Federations, taking into account the difficult circumstances and conditions that we are going through, and finally Translating the decisions and directives of the Executive Office into mechanisms and policies capable of achieving our sports goals with their national dimension and context, to bring about a sports development revolution.

The meeting included a discussion of the progress of affairs in the southern governorates and the diaspora, in addition to evaluating the implementation of the unified policy of the federation in terms of financial, administrative, technical and marketing aspects, the instructions of the International Federation regarding support programs, completing the formation of the permanent committees of the federation, the institutionalization of the federation’s work, the upcoming benefits of the national teams, local competitions, and the calendar for the stage return

New York (AFP) - American journalist E.J. Carroll, who accused Donald Trump of raping her in the 1990s, re-filed a civil lawsuit against the former US president Thursday, thanks to a new New York law protecting victims of sexual assault.

A double lawsuit for rape and defamation by Carroll, 78, against Trump, 76, has been filed in federal civil court in Manhattan since 2019, and each entered sworn testimony in October before a New York judge.

In the libel case, author and former Elle columnist EJ Carroll filed a civil lawsuit against Donald Trump in November 2019. She accused him of defaming her because he called allegations of rape in a New York fitting room in 1995 or 1996 "a lie." Completed in June 2019.

The Republican president, who was in office at the time (2017-2021), replied that he had never met her and that she "didn't like him."

His lawyers claimed he was protected in 2019 thanks to his immunity as President of the United States.

As for the rape charges, Carol was unable to file a formal complaint in 2019 because the alleged facts were outdated.

But on November 24, a new New York state law went into effect that allows victims of sexual assault, for a year, to reactivate potential old complaints and file a civil suit.

The law firm "Kaplan Hecker & Fink", whose services Carroll used and the Manhattan federal judiciary, published several court documents Thursday accusing Trump of "rape" and requesting a civil trial in 2023 in order to obtain damages.

In the introduction to the complaint, which has become accepted today and lists all the facts, Donald Trump is accused of "27 years ago (...) he grabbed Jean Carroll in the luxury goods store Bergdorf Goodman on Fifth Avenue in New York, pinned her by his shoulder to the wall of a fitting room and raped her."

Carole remained silent for more than twenty years before telling her story in a book at the end of 2010 with the emergence of the #MeToo movement, which was launched in 2017 to reject violence against women.

"While I respect and admire people who speak out, this case unfortunately constitutes a perversion of the objective of the law, which creates a dangerous precedent and may delegitimize the testimonies of the real victims," Trump's lawyer, Alina Heba, told AFP on Thursday.

In October, the former president called the accusations "a hoax and a lie."

And this new defamation of Trump on October 12 on his website Truth Social, which mocks this alleged rape, also allows Carroll to re-move the defamation part of her legal case against Trump, who is accused this time as a private citizen without presidential immunity.

BEIJING, China (Xinhua) -- Industrial data results showed that China 's used car sector maintained its recovery momentum in July, with a slight increase in sales volume compared to June.

About 1.44 million used cars were traded in July, up 1.88 percent from June despite the relatively traditional off-season for business, according to the China Automobile Dealers Association.

The federation's data showed that used car sales recorded steady growth during the period from April to July.

In the first seven months of this year, about 9.03 million used cars were traded, down 8.74 percent year on year.

In order to facilitate the used car trade as part of the country's efforts to boost consumption, Chinese authorities have directed local governments to scrap policies that impede used car sales across different regions.

A survey of used car dealers showed that sales are likely to continue to rise in August as the effects of bad weather and the emergence of COVID-19 cases subside and related supportive policies come into effect.

Brussels - (AFP) - European Union leaders agreed Thursday night on a "road map" aimed at putting in place measures in the coming weeks to stop rising energy prices.

Although the European bloc wanted, after the arduous negotiations, to appear as a united front, many points still have to be settled, and the negotiations in the coming weeks will be difficult.

"We now have a very good road map," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, while European Council President Charles Michel spoke of "agreement on a package of measures" that must now be "dealt with carefully."

"Unity and solidarity prevail. An agreement to work on measures to contain energy prices for homes and businesses," Michel wrote on Twitter, without going into further details.

But German Chancellor Olaf Scholz made it clear that if the energy ministers could not agree on a final version, a new summit of heads of state would be needed.

According to French President Emmanuel Macron, the envisaged mechanisms could be implemented "at the end of October or the beginning of November." He said the leaders "sent a very clear signal to the markets about their determination and unity."

According to the conclusions issued at the end of the meeting, the heads of state and government ask the Commission to present them "urgently with concrete decisions" on a package of measures to curb volatile gas prices.

The twenty-seven countries agreed to promote joint gas purchases at the level of the European Union.

It also called on these countries to "accelerate their negotiations" with "reliable" producing countries such as Norway and the United States, in order to "take advantage of the economic weight" of the European Union.

European Union leaders meet Thursday and Friday in Brussels in an attempt to overcome their divisions and reach a common response to the huge rise in energy prices, against the backdrop of Franco-German tension.

The war in Ukraine and the sanctions imposed on Russia shocked the prices of oil, gas and electricity. But Europe has been moving slowly since February due to the sometimes conflicting interests of member states.

However, the situation requires swift action.

Belgian Prime Minister Alexandre de Croo confirmed this week that this summit is "the most important in a long time." He said that if this does not lead to a "clear political signal that we have the will to stop enduring high gas prices", then this will constitute a "failure for Europe".

Thousands of European companies fear for their survival due to competition from the United States and Asia, where prices have remained lower. In Germany and France, thousands of people demonstrated against the high cost of living.

A meeting was held between Macron and Scholz on Thursday afternoon to try to sort out their differences just before the start of the meeting.

Macron stressed upon his arrival in Brussels, "I always wish to preserve European unity and the friendship and alliance between Germany and France as well," stressing that "we have a lot of work ahead of us."

"Both of us work at the national level and I think it is always better to consult and coordinate," he added. "I have always considered it my duty to do everything so that we find paths of agreement between Germany and France, which would then make it possible to build European agreements," the French president added.

Several diplomats expected the discussions to be long between the leaders of states and governments.

Spain's Minister of Environmental Transition, Teresa Ribera, openly criticized the European Commission's work in an interview with Agence France-Presse. "The proposals are still a bit shy and we still lack concrete action on the majority of issues," she said.

She added, "A real effort was made a year ago (...) but it is very unfortunate to see how slow Europe's response to the challenge we face is."

During the recent Prague summit in early October, several leaders attacked the head of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Kuravici accused her of representing German interests.

Italian Mario Draghi said, according to statements reported to Agence France-Presse, that "seven months of delay is causing us a recession."

However, the President of the European Commission faces divisions among the twenty-seven countries that adopt a different mix of energy sources. Some depend on nuclear power and others on gas or even coal to produce electricity.

These countries are also divided over the issue of capping the price of gas used to produce electricity. Such a mechanism is applied in Spain and Portugal, where it has allowed prices to decline.

And calls for several countries such as France to expand this mechanism, "Iberian" to become at the level of the European Union.

However, Germany opposes this, in addition to several northern countries, including Denmark and the Netherlands, which are reticent about the authorities' interference in the markets. Berlin believes that lowering prices artificially harms the goal of saving energy and pushes for more consumption.

Scholz said Thursday that a cap on gas prices can only succeed through close cooperation with non-EU partners such as South Korea and Japan.

He added, speaking to parliamentarians before the start of the EU summit, that setting a price ceiling "carries the risk that producers will sell their gas elsewhere, and we Europeans will end up with less gas instead of more."

The summit draft results call on the Commission to prepare a proposal on this mechanism.

"The Iberian pattern deserves to be studied," von der Leyen said Wednesday. "Some questions remain, but I don't want to neglect any possibility."

"It is important to move forward more quickly on this front. We should not ask the Commission four times to get a proposal," Teresa Ribera stressed.

Von der Leyen detailed other proposals this week, including organizing gas purchases jointly, new rules in an effort to force gas sharing in Europe to help countries in difficulty, or reforming the gas market index (European Gas Exchange), which is used as a reference in transactions.

A European diplomat said, "There is progress, but without a major breakthrough. The priorities are different. Germany prefers security of supplies because it can afford high prices, but many countries cannot face the cost."

Tokyo - (AFP) - A number of scientists expressed their satisfaction Wednesday that the detailed results of a clinical study on a new drug confirmed its effectiveness in slowing the cognitive decline of patients with neurodegenerative Alzheimer's disease , but also pointed out that it may lead to negative effects.

The full results of this advanced (Phase 3) clinical study of nearly 1,800 subjects followed over 18 months confirmed a 27 percent reduction in cognitive decline in patients treated with lecanemab, from the Japanese pharmaceutical group Esai. (Eisai) and the American "Biogen".

It was previously announced at the end of last September about this percentage, which is considered "statistically significant" according to the two groups.

But the full study, published Wednesday in the New England Journal of Medicine, also reported rates of side effects for licanimab, which are sometimes severe and significantly more frequent than the placebo group.

It was found that 17.3% of the patients who received "lecanimab" suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, while the rate was limited to 9% among those who took the placebo.

And 12.6 percent of people who received this experimental drug experienced cerebral edema, compared to just 1.7 percent in the placebo group.

However, the overall death rate was almost the same for the two groups of patients in the study (0.7 percent in those treated with licanimab, and 0.8 percent in those given placebo).

"This is the first drug that offers a real treatment option for people with Alzheimer's disease," said Bart de Strober, director of the Institute of Dementia Research at the British Institute.

"Although the clinical benefits appear to be somewhat limited, they are expected to become more pronounced if the drug is taken for a longer period," added the professor.

Alzheimer's patients suffer from plaques of a protein called amyloid that form around nerve cells and eventually destroy them. Two major proteins, tau and beta-amyloid, build up abnormally in the brain, causing its cells to die and shrink.

One of the most prominent consequences of this is memory loss and the inability to perform daily tasks. This disease is considered one of the most important public health problems, affecting more than 40 million people worldwide.

Licanimab targets deposits of the protein beta-amyloid but only in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, which may limit its use because the disease is often diagnosed late.

Another drug developed by Biogen called Aduhelm, which also targets amyloid plaques, raised a lot of hopes in 2021 by being the first drug approved in the United States against the disease since 2003.

But it also caused controversy, as the US Medicines Agency disagreed with the opinion of an expert panel that considered that the treatment had not been sufficiently proven effective during clinical trials. The agency later restricted its use to people with mild cases of the disease.

Seoul - (AFP) - On Friday, Seoul launched the first self-driving bus line on its roads, as part of an experiment that, according to the engineers who designed the bus, aims to make residents more confident in this type of vehicle.

"These vehicles will shape the future," said Jung Song-gyan, who is in charge of the autonomous vehicle division at the startup "42 Dot," which was acquired by the South Korean "Hyundai Group."

He pointed out in a statement to Agence France-Presse that the bus is somewhat similar to a "Lego game" because it is made of composite parts in order to reduce costs and make its manufacture an easy process.

He stated that the company's goal is to make this technology inexpensive, safer and can be adopted in a large number of types of vehicles, such as trucks.

For now, the new bus will autonomously drive a new 3.4-kilometer route around the center of the South Korean capital, under the supervision of a driver. It takes about 20 minutes to complete the track.

Residents can take the bus from one of the two stations designated for it, after reserving a seat through an application, for free.

Jeong Song-gyan explained that the bus relies on a camera and radar to run, not sensors that are expensive.
During the day of the launch of the bus line, a large number of passers-by seemed amazed by its design, while some of them stopped to take pictures of it and inspect it from the inside, and others started asking questions to the "42 Dot" employees who were present in the place.

"I feel like I'm inside a transport from the future," said Kim Ye Hye-ran, 68, after boarding the bus.

Gaza - "Jerusalem" dot com - The Association of Owners of Oil and Gas Companies in the Gaza Strip announced, on Tuesday, the suspension of protest measures for a week, regarding its refusal to receive quantities of Egyptian gas due to the decision to deduct 4 shekels from profit margins by the Ministry of Finance in the Strip.

According to a statement by the association, the suspension of this procedure came in order to open a channel of negotiation and dialogue with government agencies regarding a discount of 4 shekels for each gas cylinder of 12 kilos.

The Ministry of Finance denied that any new tax had been imposed.

Strasbourg - (AFP) - A 24-year-old Syrian man who suffers from mental illness stabbed his 57-year-old father to death on Saturday night in Metz, in eastern France , according to identical sources.

"A young man killed his father with a knife, in a somewhat heavy psychological context," the region's governor told AFP, referring to a "family tragedy."

For its part, the prosecution office in charge of the investigation stated that "a stabbing murder took place last night in Metz," explaining that "the investigations are still ongoing."

And police sources indicated that the man "killed his father with a knife" before his "brothers managed to control him."

The firefighters took care of the five brothers of the perpetrator because they were injured.
The perpetrator was placed in police custody, knowing that he suffers from schizophrenia.

A translation of "Jerusalem" dot com - The Israeli security and military analyst told the Hebrew newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth, Ron Ben-Yishai, that testing Israel's response to the operation that took place yesterday in Jerusalem is more difficult than ever, especially if it is proven that the perpetrator " Lone wolf", an attack that would have dire consequences.

Ben Yishai believes, in an analytical report published on the website of the Hebrew newspaper, that in the event that it is found that the perpetrator works as an activist in a "sleeper cell" serving the "Hamas" movement in the Gaza Strip, or from its leadership abroad, then the cabinet, which will convene, must Today, to consider imposing sanctions on "Hamas" in the Strip.

According to the Israeli shop close to the security services in Tel Aviv, if the operation was carried out individually, the security establishment has realized in recent years that it has little to do other than try to identify some Palestinians before carrying out the attacks because of posts on social networks or by using Other technological intelligence means.

Ben Yishai believed that Israel should immediately prevent further attacks, as well as reprisals by settlers, by saturating the area with military forces and police.

He said, "In the long run, the events in Jenin and Jerusalem have the potential to raise the level of extreme violence, which has been relatively contained in recent months, and which could have led to a real uprising involving crowds of Palestinians, involving Jewish extremists, and now the task will be The main force of the security forces is to prevent such an escalation."

He added, "Today, the Cabinet will convene with its new composition, in which there are not many people with experience, and it consists mainly of ministers with ultra-nationalist views, who can press for radical measures that may fan the flames more, rather than pacify the region, but not from It is expected that a major operation in the Palestinian cities or in the neighborhoods of East Jerusalem will yield important results, and it may only lead to an increase in the fire, and here we mention that in less than two months, the month of Ramadan will begin.

Ben Yishai suggested that Benjamin Netanyahu would come under pressure from the United States, Jordan, and Egypt, not to take drastic measures that would lead to an escalation of violence, especially in Jerusalem.

A press report revealed a big surprise about the possibility of Lionel Messi , the star of Paris Saint-Germain, returning to Barcelona in the future.

According to the newspaper "Sport", young coach Xavi Hernandez asked Juan Laporta, president of Barcelona, \u200b\u200bto return Messi to Barca after the end of his contract with Saint-Germain.

The 35-year-old's contract with the Parisian team expires in the summer of 2023, as Xavi wants to bring him in before the start of the 2023-2024 season.

Xavi believes that Messi's return will contribute to the revival of Barca on the sports and financial levels, as well as the ability of the flea to resolve the differences that arose between him and Barca earlier, to close his Catalan page in the best way before retiring.

The Argentine international left the Camp Nou stadium last year after his contract with Barcelona expired, to join Saint-Germain in a free transfer, after spending most of his career in the Blaugrana shirt.

Although Messi will be 36 years old next summer, Xavi still believes in the player's ability to provide the required addition with the Catalan team.