Before the war in the Middle East began, there were 30,000 Thais working on Israeli farms. That was the official registered number, to which several thousand more had to be added by the illegal migrants who were arriving from mid

While the mediation for a new ceasefire suffered a serious blow this Saturday, the Israeli Air Force hit the southern Gaza Strip in its offensive against Hamas in what could be the beginning of preparation for a ground operation in Khan Younis .

After failing to extend this Friday the truce that began a week earlier, the efforts of Egypt, Qatar and the United States have entered a complex labyrinth due to the discrepancies between Israel and the fundamentalist group regarding the new lists of kidnapped people to be released.

“As a result of the stalemate in the negotiations and following the instructions of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of Mossad, David Barnea, ordered his team in Doha to return to Israel,” said the statement from the Israeli secret service.. After thanking the head of the CIA, the minister in charge of Intelligence in Egypt and the Qatari prime minister for their mediation that achieved the release of 84 Israeli children and women and 24 foreigners in the last week, Israel accused Hamas of ” to have failed to fulfill their part of the agreement which included the release of all children and women according to a list sent to and approved by Hamas.

Yahia Sinwar's group accuses Israel of failing to extend the pause and denounces that “it had already decided to resume the war”. One of the Islamist leaders, Saleh Al Arouri, warned in Al Jazeera that the “Zionist prisoners” will not be released without the release of Palestinian prisoners and a definitive ceasefire.. However, like the truce itself, the blockade to resume it is not definitive either.

While Hamas resumed firing projectiles at the Tel Aviv area at night (most were intercepted and four fell into the sea), signals are accumulating for an upcoming military incursion into the south of the Gaza Strip: intense attacks air strikes, approved operational plans, a call for evacuation to more southern areas and a warning from the US that the offensive to end Hamas cannot and should not be as long as Israel wants.

The resumption of the Israeli offensive has caused the death of almost 200 people, according to the Ministry of Health of the Hamas Government. Many in Khan Younis displaced from northern Gaza following offensive. Like Yamen, who asks: “Where will I go after Deir Al-Balah, after Khan Yunis? I don't know where I will take my wife and six children.”. Also to Reuters, Palestinian Samira tells that Friday night was “horror” due to the bombings. “It was one of the worst nights we've had in the last six weeks since we got here. We are very afraid that they will enter Khan Yunis,” he admitted.

The unrest in Gaza towards Israel is widespread due to the number of deaths and houses destroyed in the massive retaliation after the Hamas attacks on October 7. At the same time, more and more Gazans dare to publicly accuse Hamas and the countries that support it for the dramatic situation.. After denouncing “a massacre against innocent civilians and children” in an interview with Al Jazeera, a Palestinian was interrupted when he added: “God will settle scores with Qatar and Turkey!” This is not the first time that the Qatari network has silenced live voices against the group that has controlled the Palestinian enclave since 2007.

“We are acting in places we have not been before. “We are going to completely put an end to Hamas,” declared Defense Minister Yoav Gallant, after the Army reported that it had attacked “400 terrorist targets” and denounced with images the presence of Grad rockets and missiles hidden under UNRWA boxes ( the UN agency for Palestinian refugees) in a residence.

International agencies in Gaza demand a ceasefire while denouncing the decrease in humanitarian aid compared to the 200 trucks of food, water and medicine, four of fuel and another four of gas that entered daily during the truce.. After not doing so on Friday, assistance returned this Saturday with 50 assistance trucks and another two with fuel.

It was a demand from the US, which also asks Israel that the offensive in the South be carried out differently from that in the North, with more selective attacks and with fewer displaced people.. Hence perhaps the Army is not asking these days for a generalized transfer as it did before and during the land incursion into the north of the Strip but rather with maps indicating districts to be evacuated in an area where 1.7 million of the 2.2 million live. million inhabitants of the Strip.

Regarding a new ceasefire, Israel demands from Hamas the last batch of the agreed category of kidnapped people (16 women and children). This event and the projectiles minutes before and after 7:00 a.m. on Friday led Israel to resume the attacks. Hamas, which accused Israel of not accepting its lists with the aim of resuming “aggressions”, asks to move on to the next phase and negotiate the release of those over 65 years of age (it is believed that there are 13).

Faced with growing internal pressure to promote new agreements that return more citizens home – reflected in a massive demonstration this Saturday afternoon in Tel Aviv – Gallant is convinced that military pressure led and will lead Hamas to relax its positions on the kidnapped people.

Having already achieved “victory” on the first day of the war by surprising, killing and terrorizing the Israelis in his attack 57 days ago, Sinwar knows that only a truce can prevent or, at least postpone, the dismantling of his group to armed and control level of Gaza. The key to this is the one that locks the 137 kidnapped people.

Sinwar is aware that this issue is very sensitive in Israeli society, which during the week of the truce caused two theoretically opposite effects.. On the one hand, the release of hostages increased the pressure to continue the ceasefire until everyone returned despite the fact that it was psychological torture for their families to wait every night for the Hamas lists.. On the other hand, the very harsh testimonies of children and women about the psychological and physical abuse suffered and the hostile attitude of the Gazans reinforced the desire to put an end to Hamas.. “If there is no calm (in Israel), then all our friends who were brutally murdered will have gone in vain,” young Ziv told Channel 12, who survived the attack in which her nephew and his partner were murdered while her boyfriend it was kidnapped.

Hours after the international LGBTI movement was banned in Russia, police have carried out several raids on gay clubs in Moscow. During the night from Friday to Saturday, according to local media, the agents went to at least four premises. One of them is the Mono bar on Pokrovsky Boulevard, perhaps the most famous gay nightclub in the city.. In all places, the police carried out raids under the pretext of searching for drugs. The common pattern is that they are all primarily gay clientele.

Last Thursday, the Supreme Court of Russia banned the LGTBi movement, which it considers “extremist”, a ruling that has unleashed a wave of indignation among sexual minorities and also in areas that have remained silent after the start of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.. Presenter Ksenia Sobchak posted a photo of herself with a badge with the gay flag: “This is the most repressive and cruel law in recent years,” she said on Instagram, a social network banned in Russia since the repression escalated in 2022.. Several public figures made similar gestures before and after Sobchak.

Russia prohibits both “homosexual propaganda and advertising” and “generating interest and encouraging joining the ranks” of this group. But by classifying the “international LGTBi movement” as “extremist” – which officially does not exist in Russia – the change already lies in the fact that fines are no longer at stake, but rather imprisonment.. The charge of “extremism” has already been used against Navalny Foundation activists, resulting in multiple arrest warrants.

SAUNA RAIDS

The agents arrived at the premises and asked those present for their identity documents.. According to the Telegram channel Ostorozhno Moskva, the police photographed the documents and then let the people who were in the clubs go after breaking into several saunas claiming to be looking for drugs.

“Everything is carried out under the excuse of a regular raid against drug trafficking.”. No irregularities were detected, but they spoiled the party,” says the channel, which denounces that in the sauna the agents behaved in a disrespectful manner, burst in, stopping the music and forced people to lie face down on the floor.. There were also foreign citizens at the party.

“This is a hackneyed scheme, this is how similar clubs in St. Petersburg were closed,” commented a witness quoted by the Sota channel.. People fear being identified, they stop coming, the site closes and thus saves the Government the trouble of closing it.

At a gay club in Moscow, the owner warned customers of the imminent visit of security forces. “In 20 minutes the dance floor began to empty,” witnesses told local media.. Representatives of the venue reported that a singer refused to perform there after what happened.

Russian President Vladimir Putin seems determined to turn his country into a moral reserve against what he considers Western relativism. Although he recently assured that homosexuals “are also part of society,” he criticized the obsession with the equality of sexual minorities.. Recently, Putin mocked these minorities by calling transgenders transformers and asserted that the West should not impose on Russia “its new trends, quite strange, in my opinion, such as the existence of dozens of genders and homosexual parades.”

Many homosexual activists and jurists have reacted these days by remembering that, according to the Constitution, Russia is a secular State. They accuse the Kremlin of wanting to “control” the consciences of Russians.

AGAINST THE PRIVATE SPHERE

Until now, the repression against gays was mainly in its political dimension. But the hardening of the focus is already beginning to be noticed even in areas that were overlooked, such as nightlife.. Moscow is not an isolated case. The St. Petersburg Central Station nightclub announced that it would close because the venue's owners refused to renew the lease contract with the club.. A court in Saint Petersburg fined a television channel for showing a video of singer Sergei Lazarev because in it they found “LGBTI propaganda” when two women appeared “interacting” with their hands. Justice represses, education instructs and healthcare will promote birth rates with new formulas. Next year, mandatory medical examination will be introduced at your workplace, and the program will include a study of the reproductive function of women and men. Deputy Prime Minister Tatiana Golikova recalled that President Putin declared 2024 as the year of the family and noted that healthcare must take care of “every family and every member of this family.” But in the meantime, some couples fear ending up in jail if they claim to be a family.

Boris Johnson will apologize for the mistakes made in the management of the coronavirus pandemic during his leadership of the British Government in the sworn statement he will give next week before the independent commission supervising the health crisis.. It will be a gesture of partial contrition that the former Conservative prime minister will compensate with a resounding defense of the success of the vaccination program and other “crucial decisions” taken in the fight to stop the spread of the virus and contain deaths.

From mea culpa to an unconditional approval of his work in controlling the situation will frame the position of the controversial and popular former deputy during his long-awaited appearance before the investigative panel, according to what his entourage has leaked to the media.. Johnson will take the stand on Wednesday and Thursday, during some 10 hours of questioning, with absolute determination to purge his reputation after the discredit of the covid parties in Downing Street and accusations of chaos, toxicity, ignorance, insecurity and other deficiencies in his exercise of power throughout the viral catastrophe pointed out by advisors, officials, scientists and former ministers.

The former head of government will admit that he was “too complacent” and optimistic about the threat of the new coronavirus, which has disrupted the lives of almost seven million people worldwide.. Data from the Worldometer platform place the United Kingdom in an intermediate position in the Western ranking of deaths in absolute terms, but near the top in relative figures, with an average of 3,389 per million inhabitants, compared to 3,536 in the United States. United, the 3,205 in Italy, 2,606 in Spain or the 2,556 in France.

Johnson will defend the decision to impose confinement on March 23, 2020, several weeks late compared to other countries in the European Union and against the criteria accepted at the time or with the benefit of perspective from witnesses who have already testified. before the same commission. On the contrary, it will point to the national clinical picture, with high rates of obesity and cardiopulmonary diseases, among the factors that placed the United Kingdom at an apparent disadvantage compared to other countries.

The official investigation is revealing the poor opinion that some and others had of the prime minister, who resigned in July 2022 in the midst of an internal rebellion of distrust in his character and his government management.. Chief scientist Patrick Vallance observed that Johnson felt “overwhelmed” by scientific data, a senior civil servant denounced the “toxic” environment in Downing Street, then communications director Lee Cain admitted it was a “misguided crisis” for the “skills” of the premier and his always controversial strategic advisor, Dominic Cummings, described him as “a shopping cart” that alters course at every hallway crossing.

Johnson will try to put to rest the barrage of criticism by declaring that the tension between the different departments and ministries served as an incentive to work effectively and will justify the reported changes in strategy in the flow of data and scientific advice that he received every minute of the pandemic.

His circle also assures that he will downplay electronic messages in which he apparently mocks the critical situation.. “We risk confusing sarcasm or jokes with serious analysis,” The Times excerpts from the former president's written statement, more than 200 pages long.. He will deny, according to the same sources, that he ever told his Downing Street team a phrase that the covid victims do not forgive him for: “Let the corpses pile up high.”

A former Chilean army officer accused of torturing and murdering folk singer-songwriter Víctor Jara during the bloody 1973 coup in Chile was remanded in preventive detention after being extradited from the United States on Friday, according to the Chilean Judiciary.

Pedro Barrientos has been notified of the prosecution against him for his participation “as the author of the aggravated homicides and simple kidnappings” of Jara and the then director of prisons, Littré Quiroga, committed in September 1973.

Chilean judge Guillermo de la Barra notified Barrientos of the procedures issued in 2012, 2014 and 2016 by other Chilean judges, determining his preventive detention and leaving him incommunicado in military facilities “pending proceedings” to clarify his participation in the events.

In 2016, a US court found him guilty of charges of Jara's death and torture and demanded compensation.

Barrientos arrived in Chile on Friday afternoon guarded by US agents to comply with his extradition after more than three decades living in the United States.. His extradition request had been made in 2013, the Chilean Foreign Ministry reported.

Barrientos had been arrested in Florida at the beginning of October and also tried in the United States for providing false information in his US nationalization process, which led to the cancellation of his citizenship in July of this year and allowed his extradition.

“This is perhaps the last link that we had left in this case,” Nelson Caucoto, lawyer for the Jara family, in charge of the cases in Chile, explained to the Chilean media.. “We will have to see the final result with the Supreme Court ruling, but we are optimistic.”

Other people have already been convicted in the country for the murder of the singer-songwriter, five decades after his murder.

At the end of August, the Chilean Supreme Court firmly ratified the 25-year prison sentence against six former members of the army for the kidnapping and murder of Jara, and a seventh former soldier for cover-up.

“For us, the regrettable thing is that his life partner Joan Jara is not alive to see the outcome of this case and the final conviction of a crime that shocked our entire country and internationally because Víctor Jara has global recognition for the legacy he left, the Government's spokesperson, Camila Vallejo, told the press.

“Justice has indeed taken a while, but it is better late than never and it is good news that Barrientos is already in Chile and that we can see as soon as possible what really happened, their responsibilities and the respective sentences,” he added.

The murders of Jara and Littré Quiroga, director of prisons, occurred just a few days after Augusto Pinochet's military coup against the government of socialist president Salvador Allende, on September 11, 1973.

Jara was arrested at the university after the military coup and taken to the National Stadium, while Quiroga was arrested in his office and, after being tortured in a regiment, he was transferred to the sports venue.. The bodies of both were found near a cemetery in the Chilean capital along with two other people, according to the Court of Appeals.

The judicial investigations established that Jara's body had one bullet in the back of the head and another 43 in different parts of the body, in addition to 56 fractures, while Quiroga had 23 shots.. The bodies of both were dumped in a street far from the stadium, which immediately after the military coup was used as a detention facility.

Jara was one of the most popular folklorists, recognized for the protest song and favorable to Allende (1970-1973). He had studied law at the University of Chile, for which the Supreme Court awarded him the posthumous title of lawyer.

Barrientos' extradition occurs a few weeks after the death of the singer-songwriter's widow, who dedicated an important part of her life to seeking justice for the murder of her husband and requesting that Barrientos be extradited.