JERUSALEM: Israeli Culture Minister Miri Regev on Sunday criticized the display of Palestinian flags during the Eurovision song contest finals in Tel Aviv, including by one of Madonna’s dancers.
“It was an error,” Regev, a right-wing minister known for provocative stances, told journalists before a cabinet meeting.
“Politics and a cultural event should not be mixed, with all due respect to Madonna.”
Regev criticized Israeli public broadcaster KAN for not having prevented the flags from being shown, though it was unclear what could have been done.
During Madonna’s performance at the Eurovision extravaganza, which began Saturday night and stretched into Sunday morning, two of her dancers could be seen side-by-side with Israeli and Palestinian flags on their backs.
The gesture was an apparent call for unity, but Eurovision organizers seek to keep all politics out of the event and the display of Palestinian flags inside Israel is deeply controversial.
Madonna had not commented on the flags.
Separately, Icelandic group Hatari displayed scarfs with Palestinian flags when results were being announced.
The European Broadcasting Union, which organizes the event, condemned both displays.
Referring to Madonna’s dancers, it said “this element of the performance was not part of the rehearsals.”
“The Eurovision Song Contest is a non-political event and Madonna had been made aware of this.”
Madonna resisted calls from pro-Palestinian activists to boycott the event over Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory.
In a statement before the finals, Madonna said: “I’ll never stop playing music to suit someone’s political agenda nor will I stop speaking out against violations of human rights wherever in the world they may be.”
Regev also criticized KAN for not having filmed any of its “postcards” of participating singers in the occupied West Bank.
Each singer was filmed in scenic areas of Israel and some of the footage was aired during the show.
Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War and it remains under occupation today.
Israeli settlements there are viewed as illegal under international law and are built on land the Palestinians see as part of their future state.
Israel won the right to host Eurovision thanks to last year’s victory by Israeli singer Netta Barzilai.
The Netherlands’ Duncan Laurence won this year’s Eurovision with his power ballad “Arcade.”
Palestinian flags at Eurovision irks Israel minister
Palestinian flags at Eurovision irks Israel minister
- Madonna resisted calls from pro-Palestinian activists to boycott the event over Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territory
- Israel occupied the West Bank in the 1967 Six-Day War and it remains under occupation today
Riots erupt in drought-stricken central Algeria over months of water shortages
- The region, located on a semi-arid high desert plateau increasingly plagued by extreme heat, gets its water from three dammed reservoirs that are shrinking as temperatures spike and less rain falls
TIARET, Algeria: Violent riots erupted in a drought-stricken Algerian desert city last weekend after months of water shortages left taps running dry and forced residents to queue to access water for their households.
In Tiaret — a central Algerian city of less than 200,000 located 155 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of Algiers — protesters wearing balaclavas set tires aflame and set up make-shift barricades blocking roads to protest their water being rationed, according to pictures and videos circulating on social media.
The unrest followed demands from President Abdelmajid Tebboune to rectify the suffering. At a council of ministers meeting last week, he implored his cabinet to implement “emergency measures” in Tiaret. Several government ministers were later sent to “ask for an apology from the population” and to promise that access to drinking water would be restored.
The rioting comes as Tebboune is expected to vie for a second term as president of the oil-rich nation — Africa’s largest by area. Northern Africa has been among the world’s worst-hit regions by climate change. A multi-year drought has drained critical reservoirs and reduced the amount of rainfall that has historically replenished them.
The region, located on a semi-arid high desert plateau increasingly plagued by extreme heat, gets its water from three dammed reservoirs that are shrinking as temperatures spike and less rain falls. The reservoirs have become less functional due to a “death of volume” and are reduced to 20 percent of their capacity, agricultural engineer Said Ouarad said.
The region’s groundwater aquifers have for years not been able to recharge due to an absence of rain, he added.
Algeria’s long-term solution would be to pipe water from larger dams further north and south from Tiaret and shift to alternative supplies, including desalination plants that the country has heavily invested in.
But in the meantime, officials are trying to import water from nearby sources. Cosider, the public company responsible for the region’s water infrastructure, hopes to finish new pipelines by July to bring groundwater to Tiaret from wells 20 miles (32 kilometers) away. Until then, the company is trucking large cisterns of water into the city, a company official not authorized to speak on the matter told The Associated Press.
“Tiaret and three surrounding municipalities have suffered from this water shortage for months,” he said. “A calm has returned but the situation remains tense.”
News about the tensions has spread on social media but garnered little news coverage in Algeria, where many papers and television stations rely on advertising revenue from the state. Press freedom in the country has increasingly been curtailed and in recent years journalists have been imprisoned.
Tunisia to receive 450 mn euros in European loans, grants
- A loan of 45 million euros will be granted to finance the ELMED electricity linkage project between Tunisia and Italy
TUNIS: The European Investment Bank on Tuesday announced grants and loans worth 450 million euros ($480 million) for crisis-hit Tunisia to support small and medium-sized enterprises and infrastructure projects.
The EIB, the European Union’s investment arm, said it was providing “new financial support” to Tunisia, targeting “high-impact projects for the population and the country’s economic and social development.”
The financing will be formalized during the Tunisia Investment Forum to be held on Wednesday and Thursday in Tunis, the bank said in a statement.
The forum will be attended by the EIB’s new vice president in charge of financing in the Maghreb region, Ioannis Tsakiris.
The funding “will play a crucial role in the creation of jobs, stimulating innovation and promoting balanced development to benefit all Tunisians,” Tsakiris said in the statement.
The financing includes a line of credit worth 170 million euros for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, “which make up 90 percent of the country’s businesses and employ 60 percent of the workforce,” according to the bank.
It will also provide 210 million euros to develop the “strategic” route between Tunisia’s second city of Sfax on its eastern coast and the remote, underserved Kasserine area in the west.
A loan of 45 million euros will be granted to finance the ELMED electricity linkage project between Tunisia and Italy.
Tunisia has faced mounting financial woes, with debt levels at 80 percent of its GDP and unemployment and poverty on the rise.
The crisis has been compounded by the power grab staged by President Kais Saied since July 2021.
Negotiations with the International Monetary Fund for a $2 billion loan have stalled since then, with Saied rejecting reforms demanded by the body.
The crisis has driven thousands of Tunisians to attempt perilous Mediterranean boat crossings in the hope of finding better lives in Europe.
Parts of Sudan are in famine, extent unclear, US envoy says
NAIROBI: Parts of Sudan are in famine, a top US diplomat said on Tuesday, adding that the extent of extreme hunger remained unclear nearly 14 months into a war between the army and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces.
“I think we know we are in famine,” Tom Perriello, the US special envoy to Sudan, said in an interview. “I think the question is how much famine, how much of the country, and for how long.”
No formal declaration of famine has been made in Sudan.
Famines are determined using a complex set of technical criteria, known as the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, an initiative of UN agencies, regional bodies and aid groups. They include extreme levels of malnutrition and mortality.
UN agencies warned at the end of May that Sudan was at “imminent risk of famine,” with about 18 million people acutely hungry, including 3.6 million children who were severely malnourished.
In an assessment in March, the IPC said nearly 5 million people in Sudan were one step away from famine.
Reuters has reported on how the war has driven some people to eat soil and leaves to survive.
Israel pursues Hezbollah deep into Lebanon with strikes near Syrian border
- Incident leaves three Hezbollah men dead in Hermel
- Israeli drone kills public sector employee ensuring water supply to Naqoura area
BEIRUT: On Tuesday an Israeli combat drone targeted a motorcycle in the town of Naqoura in southern Lebanon, killing its rider.
It was later revealed that the victim, identified as Saleh Ahmed Mehdi, an employee of the South Lebanon Water Establishment whose daily task is to ensure the continuous water supply to the area, was a civilian and not affiliated with Hezbollah.
The Naqoura attack came hours after Israeli warplanes targeted the Hawsh Al-Sayyid Ali area in the Hermel district of northeastern Lebanon on the border with Syria. This area is near the Al-Qusayr in Syria, where six airstrikes destroyed a convoy of fuel tankers and a facility, both belonging to Hezbollah.
According to a Lebanese security source, the targeted area is “a link between the Lebanese Hermel area and the Syrian town of Al-Qusayr, which Hezbollah took control of during battles alongside the Syrian Army in 2013. The targeted area is more than 143 km from the southern Lebanese border and is known for smuggling operations between Lebanon and Syria.”
The Israeli airstrikes, carried out shortly after midnight on Monday, killed three Hezbollah members, who were officially mourned by the party without mentioning where they were killed, as is customary in all its obituary statements.
According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, several Syrians were also killed. A Hezbollah building was completely destroyed, and several individuals were injured.
Hezbollah mourned Bilal Wajih Alaa El-Din, born in 1984, from the town of Majdel Selm in southern Lebanon, Abbas Mohammed Nasser, born in 1979, from the town of Tayr Felsay in southern Lebanon, and Hadi Fouad Moussa, born in 1983, from the town of Shebaa in southern Lebanon.
Hezbollah responded to the airstrikes by launching 40 rockets from southern Lebanon toward the Galilee panhandle and Upper Galilee.
The party announced that it responded to the Bekaa airstrikes by “bombing the headquarters of the artillery regiment and the armored brigade of the Golan Division 210 in the Yarden barracks with dozens of Katyusha rockets.”
Israeli media reported that “firefighting teams are dealing with several fires ignited by rockets in southern Golan and Upper Galilee.”
Hezbollah continued its attacks in the morning by “bombarding an Israeli Army soldiers’ gathering near the Natu’a settlement with suitable weapons. The target was hit directly, resulting in casualties among its members, with some killed and others injured.”
The raids on the Hermel area were “in response to Hezbollah shooting down an Israeli drone in the Iqlim Al-Tuffah and Jabal Rihan on Monday,” according to an Israeli Army spokesperson.
Israel confirmed that a drone belonging to the Israeli Air Force was shot down in the skies of Lebanon. This is the fifth drone to be downed since the start of the war.
Residents of the Fnaidek area in Akkar, northern Lebanon, reported the fall of a rocket during Israeli raids. It is unclear whether the rocket was interceptive or dropped by Israeli aircraft. The explosion destroyed a building under construction and did not result in any human casualties.
Israeli Army spokesperson Avichay Adraee stated that the airstrikes were “in response to Hezbollah’s downing of an Israeli drone that was operating in Lebanese airspace yesterday.”
The raids targeted “a military complex belonging to Unit 4400, which enhances Hezbollah’s logistical capabilities and aims to transport weapons into Lebanon and within it.”
Gaza pier resumes operations after pause due to weather, US officials say
- The officials said the sea conditions had improved, allowing for aid to be brought to a marshalling area.
- The UN has not yet resumed transportation of the aid from the pier to UN World Food Programme warehouses
WASHINGTON: A floating US military pier off Gaza has resumed bringing humanitarian aid into the enclave after being suspended for two days because of rough seas due to weather, three US officials said on Tuesday.
After the pier was out of operation for 10 days for repairs, the US military briefly resumed offloading aid on Saturday, but bad sea conditions halted aid movement on Sunday and Monday.
The officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the sea conditions had improved, allowing for aid to be brought to a marshalling area.
The Pentagon on Monday sought to dispel what it said were false social media reports that Israel used the pier in a hostage rescue mission on Saturday. The UN said it would review security before resuming aid deliveries from the dock.
The UN has not yet resumed transportation of the aid from the pier to UN World Food Programme warehouses. WFP chief Cindy McCain said on Sunday that those warehouses were struck on Saturday and one person injured.
Aid began arriving via the US-built pier on May 17, and the UN said it transported 137 trucks of aid to warehouses, some 900 metric tons, before the US announced on May 28 that it had suspended operations so repairs could be made.
US President Joe Biden announced in March the plan to put the pier in place for aid deliveries as famine loomed in Gaza, a Hamas-run enclave of 2.3 million people, during the war between Israel and the Palestinian militants.
