Written by: Wasef Erekat / military expert and analyst
The direct cause of the outbreak of World War I was the assassination of Austria's Crown Prince Franz Ferdinand with his wife by a Serbian student named Gafer Yelo Princip on June 28, 1914 during their visit to Sarajevo. As for the secondary causes, they are represented by colonial rivalry and conflict over colonies and control of the seas between Germany and France. And Britain and the tense situation inside Europe because of disputes on the borders and nationalist tendencies demanding independence. The direct cause of World War II is Germany's invasion of Poland on September 1, 1939, in addition to Britain and France declaring war on Germany on September 3, 1939, following calls by German currents for revenge after the Versailles Treaty that took place after Germany's defeat in World War I in 1939. 1918. ‏
The Russian military operation against the current Ukraine is considered by America and European countries as the direct cause of a third world war or something similar to it, noting that this operation came as a result of American-European incitement of Ukraine to confront Russia and its failure to implement the (Normandy formula) Minsk Agreement 2014 and by turning their back on the demands Russia represented by security guarantees that include Ukraine’s neutrality and non-joining of NATO and the cessation of NATO’s expansion towards Russian lands and that the Ukrainian lands do not pose a threat to Russia. Exhausting the elements of its strength and the elements of its steadfastness within a comprehensive war, military, economic, media, cultural, social, and fighting until the last Ukrainian soldier with the aim of prolonging the process, so they seek Finland and Sweden to join NATO and continue to supply Ukraine with arms and combat equipment in addition to arming Poland and inciting it to control part of Western Ukraine, under the slogan of protection from Russian aggression, with the hope of the division of Ukraine. ‏
There are many reasons that lead to the expansion and continuation of the war, and some indications: the statements of the US Army Chief of Staff, Mark Milley, in a hearing before the Senate to approve the defense budget on Tuesday, May 5, that the United States army is on high alert and that the Russian attack on Ukraine "threatens Global security" and that there is no place for the second rank in the strategic competition between the US military and adversaries, as he said, we are witnessing the greatest challenge to our security and the security of Europe, and we are in confrontation with two global powers, China and Russia, as British Defense Minister Ben Wallace threatened Russia (in his response On Russian President Putin’s assertion of crushing Britain in ten minutes), saying whoever touches the lands, we will respond with a heavy blow, and stressed that the United Kingdom’s nuclear forces are at sea awaiting the moment of launch to destroy Russia and protect NATO, and before that the British Foreign Minister stated that her forces will officially enter Ukraine These statements coincide with the doubling of the blockade in all its forms on Russia (noting that Europe has also been affected by this blockade, and there is a European division over imposing sanctions on the energy sector) and the insistence on continuing to supply Ukraine with weapons, money and mercenaries
Possible war scenarios in light of the declared statements and positions:
The first scenario: Russia officially declaring war on Ukraine before the next Victory Day, May 9 (and this comes based on Russian intelligence information on American and European intentions and the extent of their direct and indirect interference in the war), allowing President Putin to announce general mobilization and call for reserves and recruitment, and this It means expanding the objectives of the military operation towards Mykolaiv, Odessa and the breakaway Transnistrian region of Moldava. Which raises the possibility of direct foreign military intervention. ‏
The second scenario: It is explained by the sudden announcement of the Belarusian maneuvers (although it comes in the context of responding to the Polish maneuvers, but it is another indication of escalation) that leads to Russia entering the war on the side of Russia. This also comes based on intelligence information about American and European intentions to intervene directly
The third scenario: With Western American support, the Polish army enters the western part of Ukraine under the pretext of protecting it from Russia. This possibility was mentioned by the Russian Director of Foreign Intelligence, Sergei Naryshkin, and attributed to a discussion that took place between Warsaw and Washington. This will lead to the participation of several parties in the war
The fourth scenario: Accusing Ukraine, with the support of America and the West, of Russia, of committing a "massacre" against civilians in the Izovstal factories in Mariupol (noting that Russia is working to get them out through safe passages), to confirm what Ukraine claims of previous massacres in Ukrainian cities and villages, especially in Bucha Which was visited by the Secretary-General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, while he was in Ukraine. The importance of this accusation lies in the presence of officers from NATO and perhaps Americans as well among the besieged groups in the factory tunnels and they want to hide the matter and save them, and use this accusation as a pretext for military intervention in its various forms.
The fifth scenario: It is explained by the West and America's focus on Russia's intention to use chemical weapons or genocide to justify its direct intervention in the war against Russia. America had used this accusation against the Syrian army as a prelude to attacking it. The American-Hollywood scenario is ready to be directed, especially since US Secretary of Defense Austin is at the forefront of those who said that the war in Ukraine is changing and the coming weeks will be decisive.
Scenario Six: Accusing Russian submarines of targeting global internet cables through which all information of the global financial system passes under the sea, as well as digital warfare and cyberspace extending from the land to the depths of the sea, leading to a clash and direct US-Western military intervention.
The seventh scenario: While all parties are keen to avoid any clash, the possibility of a development in the field situation as a result of America and Europe continuing to train the Ukrainians and provide them with weapons and lethal combat equipment and incite them to fight or provide them with sensitive intelligence information on Russian targets through satellites and turn it into a confrontation between Russian aviation, American or European aviation, or between submarines, remains in place
As for the type of war, this depends on the objectives of it, and is it in the context of deterring Russia or in the context of supporting Ukraine to regain its lands, or a rolling war according to field development, and who are the countries that will participate in it, for example, NATO countries with American support? It will be matched by China, North Korea and other countries? Will it be accompanied by land invasions and border crossings? The expectation is that it will be different from typical traditional wars by using modern technology, targeting communications, satellites, control and command centers, airports, vital and strategic points, and supply routes to countries, and paralyzing their defensive and offensive capabilities through the use of preemptive strikes through modern aircraft and advanced weapons such as long-range heavy artillery and missiles. Russian hypersonics such as the intercontinental "Sarmat" that weighs 200 tons and destroys countries the size of France or Texas, in addition to Russian nuclear-armed ballistic missiles that produce destructive radiation such as the recently announced "Poseidon" missile. In contrast, there are similar modern weapons and combat equipment. In the US Army and Western can also be used. ‏
Possible war scenarios correspond to a scenario of a possible breakthrough through Russia being satisfied with what it has achieved in paralyzing the capabilities of the Ukrainian army and military control over the regions of Donbas, Mariupol, Kherson, Crimea and the land corridor, and strengthening this presence and announcing their annexation to Russia on the day of the victory celebration on May 9. And this depends on the positions of America and Europe and their ability to influence, especially Macron _ Putin, Chinese President Ping _ Putin, taking into account the high cost paid by Russia and Ukraine, along with the world, behind this war, so the expectations are difficult, the calculations are complex, the ambitions are many, and the calculations of profit Losses, interests and seizing opportunities are wide and wide
And the answer remains in the custody of Putin and Biden??? ‏

Los Angeles - (AFP) - In the first three days following its release, the movie "Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness" topped the box office in North America, according to provisional figures published by the specialized "Experience Relationships" company.

The Friday-to-Sunday revenue of $185 million was "Doctor Strange," the sequel to the adventures of the red-cloaked wizard, starring British actor Benedict Cumberbatch as the Marvel superhero. Thus, the film, which explores parallel worlds, left only crumbs of competing works.

And “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness” thus ranked second among the films that achieved the highest revenues immediately after its launch since the beginning of the pandemic, behind “Spider-Man: No Way Home”, which also chose parallel worlds and collected $ 260 million in 2021.

The success of "Doctor Strange" showed that the box office had turned the page on the pandemic and began to recover, as the film achieved nearly ten times more revenue than the same weekend last year.

And "Doctor Strange" moved away from the lead from the animated movie "The Bad Guys", which fell to second place with its outlaw animals that strive to be nice, as its revenues in three days did not exceed 9.8 million dollars.

And in third place is another animal, the blue hedgehog in the movie "Sonic the Hedgehog 2", whose income amounted to 6.2 million dollars.

The fourth place was also for animals, but from the world of magic, as it was occupied by the movie “Fantastic Beasts: The Secrets of Dumbledore”, which is a new part of the “Fantastic Beasts” series derived from the atmosphere of Harry Potter, collecting four million dollars.

And in fifth place, the movie “Everything Everywhere All at Once”, which also transports the viewer to the absurdity of parallel worlds, came with revenues of $ 3.3 million in its seventh week of showing.

Here are the remaining five films, in order:
6. "The Northman" ($2.8 million)
7. "The Lost City" ($2.5 million)
8. "The Incredible Wit of Massive Talent" ($1.5 million)
9. "Memory" ($1.2 million)
10. "Father Stow" ($800,000)

Las Vegas - (AFP) - From a biplane flying over South Africa, American star Tom Cruise Thursday revealed details of "Top Gun: Maverick", the sequel to the famous "Top Gun" movie in which the actor appeared in 1986.

The sequel to "Top Gun" again deals with the story of the American elite pilot, Maverick, who embodies Tom Cruise, nearly 30 years after the original film. The new version was originally scheduled to be released in 2020, but the date was postponed more than once due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Cruz, 59, explained the details of his film via video to the participants at the "Cinema Con" forum for cinema owners held in Las Vegas, and he addressed them from the air. The actor, known for his ability to perform a large number of stunts himself, appeared in the video inside a plane flying over South Africa.

"Hi everyone. Nice to meet you in person. Sorry for the noise," he said loudly, as the plane's engine roared and the wind whistled.
"As you can see, we're filming the final episode of Mission: Impossible," he joked.

"Tom does everything at top speed, all the time... and he can't be stopped," commented Top Gun primary and new producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who was also in the room in Las Vegas.

The plot and details of "Top Gun: Maverick" will remain under wraps until its official premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next month, but the film was met with an instant thumbs up on social media from journalists who attended the screening at the invitation of Paramount Studios.

The new part adopted the same recipe that made the original movie its great success, and consisted of an intense amount of action scenes that were filmed in real US Navy fighters. The film includes a large number of scenes that remind of the original tape.

Although 1986 director Tony Scott died in 2012, his successor, Joseph Kosinski, managed to find "a way to get Tom interested" after watching YouTube videos that Navy pilots shot in the air with GoPro cameras during their training flights.

"I showed it to Tom and he said 'It's available for free on the internet...'" Joseph Kosinski recounted. "And if we can't do a better job, no need to bother making it + so he agreed!"

With the help of Navy flight engineers, the film crew actually succeeded in placing no fewer than six cameras in the cockpits of the jets used for filming.

The original film was inspired by the elite pilot training program known as "Top Gun", which takes place at a military base in San Diego, California, which is now closed.
The former Top Gun was so successful that recruiting officers poured in applications for membership, from young men who wanted to follow in the footsteps of Maverick and his comrades.
The film crew did not receive "much support from the Navy" during the filming of the main film, according to Joseph Kosinski, but the matter was different for the film. "When we called the Navy, the doors opened wide, and we were told, 'Come and tell us what you need'," he said.

For example, the crew of the sequel was allowed access to the high-security China Lake Air Force Base in California's Mojave Desert, according to the director.
Top Gun: Maverick also saw the return of Val Kilmer, who in the original movie played rival Iceman. Kilmer had a very impressive appearance in the film, as the actor lost the ability to use his voice due to undergoing treatment for throat cancer.
Jerry Bruckheimer said that "Vall felt good" to be in the film. "The filming was very moving," he added.
The producer opined that Kilmer "continues to be a terrific actor, a terrific individual." Bruckheimer quoted Cruz as saying, "I wouldn't do this movie unless Val was in it."

Abu Dhabi - "Jerusalem" dot com - The month of Ramadan is the best month of the year, and it has many blessings, and in it the worshipers strive to obey God and worship Him in every possible way, and with the technological development that humanity is witnessing today, some forms of worship have also differed, including reading the Noble Qur’an Here, many Muslims are wondering about the ruling on reading the Qur’an from a phone.

Dr. Ahmed Mamdouh, Director of the Sharia Research Department and Secretary of Fatwa at Dar Al Iftaa, explained the ruling on reading the Qur’an from the phone in one of the videos via the Dar’s official YouTube channel, stressing that there is no objection to this matter and it is legally permissible.

The Secretary of the Fatwa pointed out that the reward in this case is one, and what some people think is that the reward for reading the Qur’an from the phone is less than reading from the Noble Qur’an is “wrong.”



And the Secretary of the Fatwa pointed out, during his talk about the ruling on reading the Qur’an from the phone, that the reward for reading from the phone or the Qur’an is the same, so the main goal is to recite the Qur’an and ponder the meanings of the noble verses, and as long as the primary goal of recitation is achieved, then the reward is also fully achieved.
In a related context, Dr. Muhammad Abd al-Samie, Secretary of the Fatwa at the Egyptian House of Iftaa, spoke about the ruling on reading the Qur’an from the phone, in his answer to a question received by the house, in a live broadcast on its page on the social networking platform “Facebook”, regarding whether ablution is necessary. It is obligatory for the servant when reading the Qur’an from the phone, as he confirmed at the time that ablution while reading from the phone is not obligatory.

Abdul Samie explained that ablution before reading the Qur’an came because holding the Holy Qur’an requires purity. As for the case of reading from the phone, the slave in that case does not harm the Holy Qur’an, so ablution is not necessary.

Jerusalem - At Faisal Al-Husseini Stadium, the Karmic derby between the Center and Al-Thaqafi broke out with a positive tie with two goals to each other, and at the American University Stadium, Al-Amari Center outperformed the Tubas youth 3/1, and with these results, the Tulkarem Center and Tubas left the professional league, after the result of the confrontations between the three teams was decided in favor of Al-Amari, who ensured his survival in the League of Lights.

The center was able to open the scoring in the 22nd minute, after an offensive sentence that Maestro Fadi Selim took advantage of inside the penalty area and put it in the net, and three minutes later, the center strengthened its lead with the second goal, through Jihad Al-Masry.

Al-Thaqafi was active in the middle of the second half, to be able to reduce the score with a header by Qais Taha, and Al-Anabi Al-Karmi equalized through Sameh Marabeh with a powerful shot into the net.

And with friendly fire, Al-Ammari advanced after a ball that was accidentally removed by a brigadier, which hit the net, and Ahmed Abdullah strengthened the result for Al-Ammari at the beginning of the second half, and Abu Mohsen responded by reducing the difference with the 74th minute.
Before the referee blew the whistle at the end of the match, Nimr Wassef shot the ball directly into the goal.

BEIJING (Xinhua) -- Chinese researchers recently developed a nanomaterial that targets the spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Delta and Omicron, to promote virus elimination.

The research results, published in the journal Nature Nanotechnology, revealed a two-dimensional, ultra-thin composite nanomaterial made of copper, indium, phosphorus and sulfur called "CIPS" as a new agent to combat SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Researchers from the Shenzhen Institute of Advanced Technology under the Chinese Academy of Sciences, the National Center for Nanoscience and Technology, the Institute of High Energy Physics under the academy, and the Kunming Institute of Zoology under the academy developed the nanomaterial and its anti-viral mechanism.

According to the study, CIPS shows a very strong ability to selectively bind to the receptor-binding domain of wild-type spike proteins of SARS-CoV-2 and its mutants, such as Delta and Omicron.

The test shows that the virus, when bound to CIPS, is rapidly eliminated by phagocytes of the host, indicating that CIPS can be used to capture the virus and facilitate its elimination by the host.

The test also shows that CIPS can prevent virus entry and infection in cells, organoids, and mice, and effectively relieve pneumonia in mice caused by SARS-CoV-2 infection.

The study demonstrates the potential of CIPS as a nanodrug for the safe and effective treatment of SARS-CoV-2 infection, and as a disinfection agent and surface coating material to reduce SARS-CoV-2 infection.

Berlin (dpa) - Russian natural gas shipments coming to Europe via the Nord Stream pipeline have stabilized at 40% of the line's operational capacity, while no quantities of gas have been pumped today from Germany to Poland via the Yamal-Europe pipeline.

Bloomberg news agency stated that the gas supplies coming to Germany through the Nord Stream line, the largest Russian gas transmission line to Europe today, will be about 30 gigawatts per hour, compared to 29.3 gigawatts per hour yesterday, according to the data of the transmission capacity reservation through the line.

The usual operating capacity of the line is estimated at 73 GWh.

At the same time, gas supplies from Germany to Poland via the Yamal-Europe pipeline fell to zero today, compared to 2.2 GWh yesterday.

It is expected that Russian gas exports through Ukrainian lines today will be 41.9 million cubic meters, compared to 42.2 million cubic meters yesterday.

Jerusalem "Al-Quds" dot com - Minister of Jerusalem Affairs Fadi Al-Hadmi said today, Sunday, that what happened in Al-Aqsa Mosque is a heinous, rejected and condemned act that requires an Arab and Islamic stand.

Al-Hadmi considered, in a press statement, the unprecedented raids, not only a blatant and explicit violation of the existing historical and legal status of the mosque, but also blew it up and harmed the feelings of Muslims all over the world.

Al-Hadmi condemned the occupation police attacks on worshipers, journalists, and mosque guards, and the arrest of a number of them.

He said, "This unprecedented violation of the sanctity of Al-Aqsa Mosque, coinciding with the approaching Israeli elections, highlights the ugly face of the Israeli government and right-wing parties."

He added, "What happened today is a continuation of a series of attacks that have not stopped on Al-Aqsa Mosque for a long time, whether by storms, excavations, arrests, deportations, and attempts to impose a new reality on the mosque."

Al-Hadmi added, "We salute the Jerusalemites' stand in the face of the blatant Israeli aggression, despite the occupation police's brutality and aggression."

The Minister of Jerusalem Affairs called on the international community to take immediate and urgent action to stop the Israeli aggression.

Al-Hadmi said, "We do not accept that Jerusalem, its sanctities, and its inhabitants be fuel for Israeli electoral propaganda in which the extreme right competes with those who are more right-wing."

Rome - (AFP) - The European "Eurovision" singing competition was often affected by geopolitical tensions in the "old continent", and the 2022 session does not deviate from this rule, as Russia was excluded from participating, while expectations showed that the song nominated by Ukraine is the most Good luck to win.
Ukraine will be represented by the Kalush Orchestra in the competition, whose finals will be held on May 14 in Turin, Italy, and its singers will perform the rap song "Stefania".
Traditional Ukrainian music appears in this song addressed to the mother, and among the sentences it includes, "I will always find my way home even if all the roads are destroyed."
Two weeks before this entitlement, Eurovision World.com, which collects the most prominent betting sites on the Internet, reported that Ukraine's winning rate of the title is 42 percent, and it is next far ahead of the Italian duo Mahmoud and Blanco (14 percent) and Sweden's Cornelia Jacobs ( 10 percent).
The list of countries most likely to win includes Britain, Spain, Poland, Greece, Norway, the Netherlands and Australia, while France ranked thirteenth.
There is "nothing new" in the Ukraine war's extreme overshadowing of the contest, as historian Dean Voltek of the University of Vienna, who has published books on the geopolitics of the Eurovision contest, noted to AFP in a statement to AFP.
In 1975 Greece boycotted the pageant in protest of Turkey's invasion of Cyprus, and in 1992 it was overshadowed by the wars that followed the breakup of Yugoslavia. In 2004, Ukraine won the competition, and then the following year, after the "Orange Revolution", a very political song was nominated, which ended up being accepted for participation.
Last year, the European Radio and Television Union disqualified Belarus from the competition, citing its decision that the lyrics of its nominated song directly attack democratic opposition to pro-Russian President Alexander Lukashenko. The title was won by the Italian rock band "Moniskin".
Expectations indicate that Ukraine may get a large number of sympathy votes, but its victory is not guaranteed.
"Musically, the Ukrainian contribution is strong, but there is something else. The crowd will certainly show strong support for Ukraine, but that doesn't mean it will win. In 1993, Bosnia and Croatia were not very high," even though they were under fire from Serb forces, noted Dean Voltek.
The editor-in-chief of the Eurovision fan site in Serbia, Evrovizija.rs, Slobodan Todorovic, said that this competition should not be just a political arena. And he considered that "any victory for Ukraine [for political reasons] will cast a shadow over Eurovision and the values it advocates, that is, neutrality, independence from politics, respect and promotion of diversity."

France-Eurofans Secretary Benoit Blaschik noted that Ukrainians have a great deal of sympathy in Europe, but added, "Whatever happens, they have a good song, and every year Ukraine's avant-garde has a wide following."
There are "blocks" that distinguish viewers' voting on television. At the beginning of Eurovision, the French-speaking countries (France, Belgium, Switzerland and Luxembourg) would vote together and subsequently reap all or most of the prizes. Then the Scandinavian bloc appeared, whose voices were also unified, after which "sub-blocks" arose in central and eastern Europe. "But these blocks have never been decisive in choosing a winner," Dean Voltek reports.
The list of winners in the last twenty years shows that knowing the results in advance is not possible, as Turkey won the title in 2003, Ukraine in 2004, Russia in 2008, Azerbaijan in 2011 or Israel in 2018, excluding the strongest countries in the competition such as Ireland, Sweden, the Netherlands and Britain.
No less than 4,400 members of the General Organization of Eurovision Fans voted before the upcoming contest in Turin, and Ukraine finished only in eleventh place. The vote gave victory again to Sweden, ahead of Italy and Spain.
As for the Ukrainians affiliated with the organization, they gave the first place to Poland (the country that receives the most Ukrainian refugees), followed by Spain, France, Norway and Sweden.
Russian participants gave the maximum points (12 points) to fancy Russian Serbia, followed by Lithuania (which has a large Russian-speaking class), Spain and Latvia (also a former Soviet republic).
In any case, Ukraine does not need to win the contest to be a winner. Dean Voltek considered that "just being an actress on stage, being able for artists to leave their country, receiving a lot of support, in addition to excluding Russia, is already a victory for the Ukrainians."

Ramallah - "Jerusalem" dot com - Palestine Islamic Bank participated in the activities of the SIBOS Exhibition and Conference - 2022, which was held in the Dutch capital, Amsterdam, and was organized by the International Financial Telecommunications Association "SWIFT", which is a pioneering annual event in the global financial sector.

The bank was represented in the activities of the conference by the Assistant General Manager for Financial and Administrative Affairs, Rami Taha, and the Director of the Commercial Operations Unit, Adnan Al-Khafash, in addition to a group of leaders of financial institutions, specialists and experts around the world, where many issues were discussed, foremost of which was global financial stability and variables related to financial markets, in addition to To discuss other issues such as combating money laundering, new technologies in the field of financial technology, and the issuance of digital currencies by central banks around the world.
During the conference, the bank's representatives met with many leaders of financial institutions in the region and the world, with the aim of opening new horizons for cooperation with them and strengthening the bank's partnerships at the global level.

Commenting on the Bank's participation in the conference, the General Manager of Palestine Islamic Bank, Dr. Imad Al-Saadi, that it comes in line with the permanent directives of the bank's board of directors to strengthen partnerships at the international level, by participating in the most prominent events related to the financial and banking sector, and exchanging experiences and networking with financial institutions at the regional and global levels.
Al-Saadi added: “Participation in these international conferences and events keeps us always up to date with the latest developments related to the banking industry, especially in light of the great and rapid digital transformation that the bank attaches great importance to within its strategic plan, and it also contributes to supporting the bank’s efforts to achieve the highest possible quality of services.” banking for customers.
The annual SIBOS conference is concerned with discussing the challenges facing the growth of the banking and financial sector in the technical and legislative fields, as well as discussing the most important events that take place annually in the field of financial banking operations.

Jerusalem Hadith
The pressures exerted by the American administration and the occupying state on the Palestinian Authority to calm the situation in the West Bank are inappropriate pressures as long as the occupation violates the entire West Bank, including areas classified as “A” according to the Oslo Accords, which are subject to Palestinian security and civil control, in clear violation of the agreement despite its many disadvantages. Rather, the occupying state has transcended it and no longer recognizes it, but rather its interests from these agreements.

These American and Israeli pressures come in the wake of the occupation side's fear of a third Palestinian intifada on the way as a result of the occupation violations and the occupation military escalation, and the lack of any political horizon for a solution due to the Israeli rejection of peace and recognition of Palestinian national rights, foremost of which is the right of return, self-determination and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

It was more appropriate for the American administration to put pressure on the occupying state to stop its crimes against our people, which are war crimes in every sense of the word, and which the occupying state is carrying out before the eyes and ears of the United States, which it considers, according to its claims, to be self-defense, while they are crimes against a people under occupation .

The United States is also a partner of the occupying state in carrying out these crimes that shame humanity. It is the United States that provides the occupying state with all kinds of weapons that it uses against our people, and hardly a day passes without the martyrdom or wounding of many of our people at the hands of the occupation army. What the occupying state claims to be a moral army while it is immoral. The army that kills in cold blood children, women, the elderly, and journalists cannot be moral at all. Rather, it is an army of killing and extermination, and the world must bear its responsibility for the crimes of this army that receives orders from its government. Racism and the extreme right, led by Minister of War Gans, who claimed that he would be or work for the second Rabin.

The American administration can do a lot for our people to achieve their national rights, but it is with the occupying state heart and soul, as it and it are in a strategic alliance directed against our people and our Arab and Islamic nation.

And we saw when President Biden visited the region, he did not offer anything new in order to achieve peace, security and stability in the region. On the contrary, he provided more support and assistance to the occupying state, and the Palestinian side sold nothing but promises that were not and will not be implemented, but rather to give time to the occupying state. To complete its plans to liquidate the cause of our people, and that the steadfastness of our people and the continuation of its national march and its defense of its land and sanctities will not make it surrender or raise the white flag. .

Baghdad - (dpa) - An Iraqi official confirmed that wheat produced locally during the current agricultural season does not meet Iraq's needs, and that it needs to import three million tons to meet the requirements of internal consumption.

Muhammad Hanoun, director of the General Company for Grain Trade, said in a statement to the government newspaper, "Al-Sabah", published in its issue issued today, Wednesday, that "the quantities of wheat expected to be marketed for the current season, which amount to two million tons, are not sufficient to meet the requirements of the ration card, and Iraq needs to import three million tons to plug."

He added that the Ministry of Commerce "is continuing wheat marketing operations in the central and southern governorates of the country, as well as marketing the quantities produced in the Kurdistan region, which have exceeded 300,000 tons so far."

Hanoun stressed that "the approval of the Food Security Law will provide the Ministry with allocations to import three million tons of wheat," pointing out that "food security needs to provide more than five million and 600 thousand tons to ensure that 12 meals are prepared within one year in the ration card."

He revealed "Iraq's need for 460,000 tons of wheat per month for distribution among citizens."

The Iraqi parliament is studying these days a draft law for emergency support for food security and development at a value of 25 trillion Iraqi dinars, after the delay in forming the new Iraqi government after the parliamentary elections that took place last October and thus the inability of the current caretaker government to develop a draft for the federal general budget for the fiscal year. 2022.

According to Iraqi reports, the government has achieved significant financial savings due to the rise in crude oil prices in the global market due to the Russian-Ukrainian war. It is expected that the reserves of the Central Bank of Iraq by the end of this year to 90 billion dollars.

Beirut - (AFP) - Caretaker Health Minister Firas Abyad warned Wednesday of an "accelerating" spread of cholera in Lebanon , weeks after the first infection was recorded in the country since 1993.

Since the sixth of this month, Lebanon has recorded 169 confirmed injuries, eighty of which were during the past 48 hours, in addition to five deaths.

"There is an accelerating spread of the epidemic in Lebanon," Abyad said during a press conference, explaining that "the vast majority of patients are still displaced" Syrians, but "we have begun to notice an increase in cases among Lebanese citizens."

The authorities estimate that there are more than 1.5 million Syrian refugees on their lands, most of whom reside in random camps, especially in the north and east of the country.

He explained that the "contaminated water" used by the population is one of the "basic reasons" behind the transmission of the infection, in addition to the consumption of contaminated vegetables, pointing out that it was found that "contaminated water with proven infection was used for irrigation."

The cholera outbreak in Lebanon comes after infections were recorded in neighboring Syria, and at a time when the country is witnessing a prolonged economic collapse, which has negatively affected the ability of public utilities to provide basic services such as water, electricity and hospitalization.

Cholera usually appears in residential areas that suffer from scarcity of drinking water or the absence of sewage networks. It is often caused by eating contaminated food or water, and leads to diarrhea and vomiting.

The majority of injuries were recorded in Lebanon among Syrian refugees residing in random camps, which lack the most basic services such as clean water and sanitation networks.

Abyad warned of the repercussions of long-hour power outages on the work of water pumping stations and sewage treatment networks, noting that the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) provided 100,000 liters of diesel fuel to operate the stations in northern Lebanon and in the Bekaa region (east).

Since September, neighboring Syria has witnessed an outbreak of cholera in several governorates, for the first time since 2009. The ongoing conflict since 2011 has damaged about two-thirds of the water treatment plants, half of the pumping stations and a third of the water tanks, according to the United Nations.

The disease affects between 1.3 million and four million people in the world annually, and leads to the death of between 21 thousand and 143 thousand people.

Sunday... and every Sunday
Normalization of the occupation or normalization with the occupation
Or end the occupation!
Written by: Attorney Ziyad Abu Ziyad

On this day last week, the Israelis were celebrating what they call Al-Quds Day, and we called it the occupation and usurpation of Jerusalem.

Some were betting on an escalation coming from the nozzles of rocket launchers in Gaza, a victory for Jerusalem and Al-Aqsa, and voices were warning against being drawn into Israeli provocations and entering into a destructive war that would be a disaster for both sides, and more so for our people in the Gaza Strip.

And I said in an article last Sunday that no one should be surprised if that day passed with restraint on the part of Gaza and the failure to ignite the fuse, and that wisdom necessitates that the resistance not dance to the rhythm of the Israelis’ drums and that it chooses the appropriate time that makes the Israelis dance to the rhythm of its own drums, and this What happened to the first apartment?
Today, a week later, we find ourselves in the same place. Today, the Israelis celebrate what they call Shavuot (a day that falls in the third month after the exodus of the Jews from Egypt and has several names, including the day of the wheat harvest and “the day of the revelation of the Torah,” although it is not mentioned in the Torah). Today, too, Jewish extremists are calling for intense mass storming of Al-Aqsa, provocative celebrations in its courtyards, and Jewish prayers in its vicinity. This is something that should not be allowed to happen and become a habit and tradition for them.
A week after the events of last Sunday, 29/5, one is still under the weight of the memories of the extreme brutal scenes that Jerusalem witnessed on that day, and the barbaric attacks that took place against Jerusalem’s girls, women, elders, young men, and children, provocations to citizens in general, and the desecration of the courtyards of Al-Aqsa Mosque by people who exploit religion for purposes. Colonial settlement that has nothing to do with religion.
Despite the fact that the people of Jerusalem, with all their components, responded to this provocative aggression with their bare chests and were subjected to beatings with police batons, gas and pepper bombs, and arrests, both females and males, while they confronted the mob of settlers and thousands of soldiers from the occupation police and security men, they succeeded in turning the day of the Israeli flags march in Jerusalem into a day The Palestinian flag carried by hundreds, if not thousands, starting with Salah al-Din Street, passing through the Gate of the Column and the alleys and markets of Jerusalem. They released the flag so that it fluttered over the Old City of Jerusalem on its steadfast people who broke the wall of fear and thwarted the euphoria of the victory of the racist settlers and thwarted their hopes. But the question that arises strongly is: Can the national issue be reduced to a march against a march, a flag against a flag, and will the settlers' marches in Jerusalem turn into a regular, recurring event? Or is it necessary to prevent this from happening and to deal with all subsidiary issues as elements that fall under the concept that there is an occupation and that all these detachments are the results of the occupation and that putting an end to them can only be achieved through ending the occupation.?
The problem is not only in raising the flag or not raising it, and it is not in the permissibility of Al-Aqsa without reluctance, or in the permissibility accompanied by reluctance, which is more like a usurped screaming and crying without responding to its cry. The problem is not that the entry is through the column, the tribes, or the Mughrabi gate. Also, the problem is not whether the Qatari bags came from Lod airport or the Rafah crossing! How, when and under what conditions.
The problem can be summed up in one word "occupation" and ending it can only be done by ending the occupation. Ending the occupation cannot take place as long as the current situation continues as if it is a way of life, and there are people who continue the occupation and glorify its praise, and others who sat on the fence watching what is happening as if nothing concerned them.
What worries me is that the current situation is rooted in the Palestinian subconscious and that people get used to living under the occupation as if it were a written fate, and this should be called "normalization of the occupation" and I do not mean normalization with the occupation, because there is a huge difference between the two. Because "normalization of the occupation" is, in my opinion, submissiveness and submission to it and acceptance of living under it and in accordance with its laws, while "normalization with the occupation" is arrogance and claiming that you can be a partner of the occupation and expect it to deal with you in the concept of partnership and equality on the ground of the de facto facts that it controls. .
It is not permissible for the leadership to turn into a routine management of daily affairs within the ceiling and standards of the occupation and in accordance with its dictates. And that its compass be what Beit El or the Coordinator's office in Tel Aviv can accept or not accept. It is not permissible for some of us to devote ourselves to collecting money and fattening the personal economic affairs at the expense of starving the country's economy, as if the current situation is a Friday of Mischieh that is about to end.
The image, and not necessarily all its details, is a shocking image that tries to hide its hideous face under a thick mask of pigments and homemade makeup far from Chanel, Giorgio, Estee Lauder, and even Christian Dior.
Our feelings have not yet been liberated from the effects of the trauma of those extremist attacks against us, insults, provocations, and the scenes that we lived through last Sunday, May 29, and which could be repeated today, tomorrow, and perhaps throughout this week, month, and year.
Today, Sunday 5/6, is the day of the setback of June 1967, and our falling under the Israeli occupation, which continued to encroach and persevere against us day after day and year after year until the so-called “peace process” made us lose all our prestige and dignity and opened the door wide to the perpetuation of the occupation, the legitimization of annexation, settlement, and the appropriation of land Show and human. Fifty-five years of our lives were spent witnessing the injustice and injustice of the occupation, the collapse of the national system and its consistency with the occupation, and the transformation of large parts of it into tools in the hands of the occupation. Fifty-five years during which we witnessed how the national project could be transformed into people’s projects, how the PLO was emptied of its content and its structures dismantled, how the dream of the state shrunk into authority, and how the authority shrank after its three authorities collapsed and merged with each other into a subcontractor to manage daily affairs and the rope is on the horizon. There may come a day when she will be told thank you, your turn is over!
We need a high-voltage electric shock, so that we may wake up from the reality to which we are accustomed and slept with the sound of its windmills. What is happening today on the 5th of June 2022, whether the occupation persists in its oppression and oppression, or the failure of the defaulters and the normalizers, or the normalization of Judaization and incursions into the greatest symbol of national and religious dignity, must cause the high-voltage electric shock that we desperately need before clinical death.
A questioner may ask: How? You have the answer, I don't. What is important is that you reject the "normalization of the occupation" and refuse to turn it into a state of mind that occupies your minds and souls.
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Translation by "Al-Quds" dot com - Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz justified, on Thursday, the failure of the security services of his forces to reach the martyr Uday Al-Tamimi before he carried out yesterday's operation, by saying that mistakes are possible.

In an Israeli specialized conference, Gantz referred to the vigilance of the security guards of the "Ma'ale Adumim" settlement, the speed of their response, and their killing of Tamimi.

Commenting on the accusations of failure of the security services, he said: "There is no doubt that we were trying to reach him, and we have excellent intelligence, but we needed to improve our information, which would have taken time.. There were many points of friction in recent days and there were security points and barriers scattered in the region." ... In the end someone can go through all these procedures and it can happen, and something like that can happen."

And he indicated that his forces were pursuing Tamimi until the last moments, noting that their mission was to preserve the lives of Israelis.

He pointed out that his forces focus their work in more than one area and not only by searching for Tamimi, saying: "We are working against the lions' den , and in the end we will be able to remove this infrastructure and end this phenomenon."

Gantz touched on the recent decline in attacks in Syria, and whether this was the result of Russian pressure, saying: "There was no Russian pressure to stop our attacks in Syria."

He added, "We move and work when needed, not according to other agendas."

Regarding Ukraine, the Israeli army minister said that his government has provided humanitarian aid and received refugees, and has other considerations, including that it has common borders with Syria, in reference to the Russian presence there.

He added, "We are ready to provide any necessary assistance, and we cannot include weapons in this story... Ukraine is supported by a lot of Western aid, and now realizes that it must first and foremost defend itself on its own."

Paris - (AFP) - Newly arrived Ukrainian refugee women in France are an "easy target" for prostitution networks and also for those seeking to shelter them with bad intentions, which raises great concern for the authorities and human rights bodies.

These incidents began in early March, when the first batch of displaced Ukrainians arrived in France. A man standing in front of a reception center newly opened by the non-governmental association "France Terre d'Azelle" (France Land of Refuge) in the north of Paris, caused great concern, after he offered me Two Ukrainian refugees to "work" for him.

The general director of the association, Delphine Royo, told AFP, "The man was luring Ukrainian women in line! And the police have tightened their control since that incident."

It was also recorded that there was a man who wanted to host refugee women, claiming that he represented an unknown association, in addition to the return of a number of refugee women to the association’s center “not reassured” after spending their first nights in one of the “solidarity hosting centers”, which are supposed to be charitable and highly reliable entities. to receive refugees in France.

All the parties supervising the Ukrainian exodus for weeks have paid great attention to the dangers faced by Ukrainian women, who together with their children represent 90% of the Ukrainian refugees.

Europol said at the end of March that these refugee women are vulnerable to "attraction of individual aggressors, opportunists posing as volunteers, and criminal networks specialized in human trafficking."

These risks increase at the first station that the refugees reach, such as the Polish or Romanian borders, but they continue until they reach France, where “no case of trafficking has been proven” at this stage, according to what Elizabeth Maron-Broux, Secretary General of the “Meprov” ministerial mission in charge of combating, confirms. Trafficking in Human Beings.

"On the other hand, social service workers record doubts and alerts that are the subjects of reports, so we are in the prevention phase," she says, adding, "We know the details of these risks because we experienced them previously during the migration crisis that took place in 2015, when many Nigerian minors were recruited into networks." prostitution.

Maron-Broux believes that Ukrainian women represent "easy prey", especially since trafficking networks in Eastern Europe are already active.
And she confirms that what worries the French authorities in particular is "the risks of trafficking emanating from individuals who host women and exploit their vulnerability, which represents the greatest danger as a result of this crisis."

Some of the hosting offers are deeply resented by the associations. An employee responsible for checking thousands of offers in one of the associations, who refused to reveal her name, says that some offers "indicate, for example, that the host party receives only a young Ukrainian woman without children, while other offers explicitly indicate that they are directed to a woman + blonde with blue eyes + for example."
The "France Terre d'Azil" association has begun to implement control measures, by asking the host, for example, to check its criminal record, or to visit the hosting places and make sure that a "social follow-up" is conducted in them.
Delphine Royo says, "We explain to them very well that it is not related to hosting in return for providing certain services. Because trafficking is not limited to sexual goals, but can happen to women with the aim of getting them to do housework or take care of children throughout the day."
Celine Schmidt, a spokesperson for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees in France, says that refugee women should "never give their identity papers" and should "beware of unbelievably tempting offers," calling for "tightening" monitoring mechanisms in order to "check" everything. Offers with good intentions.
The Ukrainian community is also mobilizing to support often stressed Ukrainian women. "We accompany them to inspect the apartment and talk to those responsible for receiving them... as we try to reduce the risks," said Nadya Mihal, head of the Association of Ukrainian Women in France, adding, "We focus on families or women, and if the person involved is a refugee man, we do not provide assistance."
Royo says that all these efforts are not able to solve the whole situation because revealing the problems that are happening behind closed doors is a difficult process.

Ramallah - “Jerusalem” dot com - The Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics said that the monitored commodity exports during the month of March of this year decreased by 6% compared to the previous month, while it increased by 2% compared to the month of March of 2021, and its value reached 116.6 million US dollars.

Exports to Israel decreased during March of 2022 by 6% compared to the previous month, and exports to Israel accounted for 85% of the total value of exports for March of 2022, and exports to the rest of the world decreased by 2% compared to the previous month.

Imports increased during March of 2022 by 21% compared to the previous month, and by 41% compared to March of 2021, with a value of $712.2 million.

Imports from Israel also increased during the month of March of 2022 by 14% compared to the previous month, and imports from it constituted 53% of the total value of imports for the month of March of 2022.

Imports from the rest of the world increased by 30% compared to the previous month.

The trade balance, which represents the difference between exports and imports, recorded an increase in the deficit value by 28% during March of 2022 compared to the previous month. It also increased by 52% compared to March of 2021, as the deficit amounted to $595.6 million. .

Ramallah - "Jerusalem" dot com - The General Union of Palestinian Teachers in Ramallah announced the open strike, starting tomorrow, Tuesday.

The General Union of Teachers stated, in a statement issued today, Monday, that the strike will be open, with no going out in schools in the West Bank and Jerusalem, the Education Directorates and the Ministry of Education building, starting tomorrow until a new statement is issued by the Union.

He said, "The Teachers' Union followed up with all parties the implementation of the agreement regarding the Teachers' Union, and we communicated with everyone, and we shouldered the burden of the national position, proud of that. An initiative was presented through the People's Organizations Commission, and it contained several items, but the government's speech was not comprehensive of these items, and it touched on the issue of the Civil Service Law without mentioning it." It mentions the participation of trade unions and the federation in its drafting, and it did not address the preservation of the financial impact of the remaining agreements and percentages.

The federation added, "In light of the confusion of the educational scene with all its components, principals, teachers, and directorates of education, and students are affected by everything that is happening. It is a matter of national and trade union responsibility. We are heading to this step and we are all in pain because we know the size of the general loss as a result of this step, but we are forced to do so in order to implement our agreement and save students and our educational system.

Cotonou (AFP) - French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday accused Russia of being "one of the last imperialist colonial powers" after it launched a "war to seize territory" in Ukraine.

He declared during a press conference with his Beninese counterpart, Patrice Talon, in Cotonou, "Russia launched an attack on Ukraine. It is a war to seize lands that we thought Europe got rid of. It is a war from the beginning of the twentieth century until the nineteenth century. I am speaking from a continent (Africa) that suffered from colonialism." ".

"Russia is one of the last forces of imperialist colonialism" with its decision to "invade a neighboring country to defend its interests there," he said.
For the French president, who is on an African tour alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, "Russia has started a new kind of global hybrid war."

He added, "I have decided that the media, energy and food are military tools in the service of an imperialist war against Ukraine," stressing that he wants to "call today's events by their names."

According to him, the Russians are the ones who create "imbalances despite all the diplomatic tours and disinformation they spread around the world," and that Russia is "one of the countries that uses propaganda tools the most forcefully," especially through "Russia Today" and "Sputnik."

He also denounced Moscow's "blackmail" in the matter of food "because it was they who prevented the export of grain from Ukraine" and also in the energy field with the Europeans.

"I think it is wise for the Europeans not to expose themselves to these strategies because they are one of the elements of this hybrid war," he added.

Macron sharply criticized Moscow on Tuesday during his visit to Cameroon, saying he wanted to "expose a lot of lies".
At the same time, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in Uganda that Russia is not responsible for the "energy and food crises," denouncing the "loud campaign on this issue."

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) - Ndumeso Gamede lost his father and then his mother the following year to HIV, just as the disease deprived many South Africans of their loved ones for the same reason in the mid-2000s.

Since that stage, medicines and treatments have contributed to controlling the crisis, but the results of this "generation of the dead" still exist.

Gamideh, 28, who became a rapper and had to raise his younger siblings since he was thirteen, points to pictures of his parents hanging on a dimly lit wall in his garage in the poor town of Vsloros, about thirty kilometers from Johannesburg.

"They were both HIV-positive, and their deaths had an almost devastating effect on me," he tells AFP, lamenting that he had "no one" to guide and advise him when he was a teenager.

Ghamidih, who escaped drugs and crime, says music saved him.

South Africa still has one of the highest rates in the world of people living with HIV, whose global day falls on December 1, as they amount to 13.7 percent of the total population, but more than 5.4 million are among About 8.2 million infected people are taking antiretrovirals, which has greatly reduced the death rate.

"The number of children orphaned by AIDS has decreased" as a result of taking antiretrovirals, says Agnes Mokoto, who runs a program for the NGO Networking HIV in Cape Town.

The Joint United Nations Program on HIV notes that the number of these children decreased from 1.9 million in 2009 to 960 thousand in 2021. The gap in the age pyramid caused by the spread of the virus led to the formation of a generation of deceased, especially young parents. .

“In the difficult days of the turn of the millennium, people were dying en masse, creating an army of orphans,” says Dr Linda-Gail Becker of the Desmond Tutu HIV Foundation.

Ndomeso's parents died some 15 years ago, during the most difficult period of the crisis. At that point, the virus experienced rapid spread because the country's then-president, Thabo Mbeki, did not acknowledge the existence of the crisis, which led to a delay in the widespread distribution of antiretroviral drugs.

A Harvard University study stated that more than 330,000 people died as a result of mismanagement practiced by Mbeki and the Minister of Health at the time, who was dubbed "Doctor Beetroot" because she recommended the use of boiled lemon as a treatment.

And Vice President David Mabuza notes that the South African government, despite the progress made, "remains concerned about the high rates of infection," especially "among adolescent girls and young women."

Sex with older men called "Sugar Daddy" is a major reason for this prevalence, in addition to the very high unemployment rate (33.9%).

These women often do not receive "adequate healthcare" due to the stigma attached to the virus, says Sipongil Tshabalala, director of the Treatment Action Campaign, pointing to nurses blaming young women for asking for condoms or wanting to be tested.

The Gamedeh brothers lived in seclusion because AIDS is a taboo or embarrassing topic in South Africa. When both parents died, their mother's family abandoned them. "They didn't want to know what we needed," says Ghamidih.

The brothers' neighbors provided food for them, while Ndumeso found work in a fast food restaurant, but his salary was "not enough" to support the family. His two younger brothers, one of whom is a drug addict, live in shacks nearby.

His parents did not receive appropriate treatment due to the stigma either. Their infection with the virus should have been hidden. "If they had received proper treatment, one of them would have survived," Ghamidih said.

On the other hand, other AIDS orphans must fight to obtain official papers.

Nonhlanhla Mazalini, who runs a shelter in west Johannesburg, says she takes care of "21 undocumented HIV-positive young men and women" because they have been abandoned by their large families.

"The shelter houses a blind young man who we took in when he was two years old. He is now 24, he has no job and he cannot claim social assistance because he does not have official papers," she added.

Ndumeso had just become a father, with a gray cradle near his bed and a foam mattress on the floor.

On his computer, he proudly shows AFP his latest video.

He is currently looking for a job, but the matter is complicated because he does not have any academic degree. If AIDS had not killed his father, he would have had "opportunities," he says.

"Life wouldn't have been like this," he concludes.

BEIJING (AFP) - Initial signs showed life was returning to normal in the Chinese capital Thursday after authorities abruptly reversed a hardline Covid policy that has dealt a blow to the world's second-largest economy and sparked rare protests.

On Wednesday, the Chinese National Health Commission announced the easing of restrictions imposed within the framework of the nationwide zero Covid policy, reducing the scope of mandatory examinations, allowing some people who were confirmed to be infected with the epidemic to isolate themselves in their homes, and putting an end to large-scale closure measures.

In a significant softening of President Xi Jinping's policy in dealing with the epidemic, the country's top health authority said the shift in tactics was aimed at helping the country "keep pace with changes".

In the capital, where the high number of injuries forced many to stay in their homes and kept businesses and schools closed, traffic returned to about half its usual intensity Thursday, according to what an AFP journalist reported.

Under the new rules, the frequency and scope of PCR tests, which have long been part of daily life, have been reduced.

But while the number of testing sites around Beijing has been reduced, those that do remain busy as many workplaces still require employees to produce negative tests.

Chen Min, 28, told AFP, "I submitted to be tested after someone in my office tested positive. I hope the infection was not transmitted to me."

Others stated that they came to undergo the examination due to their work in the hospitality sector, where the examinations are still compulsory.

Jang Lan, who works in delivering orders from restaurants, stated that he had to undergo the examination because "the company requested it" to avoid transmitting infection to customers.

In a nearby shopping centre, businesses were open but crowds were few, as guards confirmed visitors' health data, although a negative test result was no longer a requirement for entry.

"It's very quiet. I think people are still afraid to go out," said a Starbucks manager.

China is currently preparing for a wave of infections that is expected to follow the easing of restrictions, as a previous estimate indicated that more than a million people could die from the virus.

At a clinic for patients with fever in the Chaoyang district of Beijing, an AFP reporter saw people lined up around the building.

In another part of the capital, AFP saw customers flocking to a local pharmacy to buy cold and fever medicine.

"We have run out of this type of medicine. We don't even have any vitamin C anymore," said Sun Qing, an employee.

She added that people have been buying these drugs for days in preparation for the easing of restrictions.

"Unfortunately, some people bought much more than they needed. It could last for a year!" she said.

Meanwhile, hundreds of netizens in China honored the memory of the "martyr" doctor Li Wenliang who was the first to report the Covid outbreak.

Lee was among a group of doctors in Wuhan who warned on social media about the spread of a new epidemic similar to "SARS" in December 2019, because the police stopped him at that time on charges of spreading "rumors".

He later died of the coronavirus, remaining a symbol of frustration with the government's suppression of independent voices.

Almost three years after his death, his Weibo account received hundreds of comments after officials announced Wednesday the easing of Covid restrictions.

One of the commentators described him as "the brave man who turned into a hero without prior intent ... and a martyr."

Another wrote, "Whistleblowers are always worth remembering... I look forward to a more transparent society."

While some paid tribute to Lee's bravery, others took the occasion to express their displeasure with the tightening Covid rules and their concern over the sudden change in government policy.

“I don’t know if you will be disappointed” with the government’s change of policy, someone wrote, “but as a PCR worker, I am exhausted chasing after positive cases. There are so many samples to deal with and endless information to go into the system amidst a high tide of general complaints.

Another said, "It's over, my friend! I was worried about the epidemic and you are on your death bed... Finally, spring has come!"

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.