Sayidina

LOKASI

  • Hundreds gather on Seattle beach to remember American activist killed by Israeli military

    Hundreds of people turned out at a beach in Washington for an evening vigil remembering Aysenur Ezgi Eygi. (AP)

    SEATTLE — For her 26th birthday in July, human rights activist Aysenur Ezgi Eygi gathered friends for a bonfire at one of her favorite places, a sandy beach in Seattle where green-and-white ferries cruise across the dark, flat water and osprey fish overhead.

    On Wednesday night, hundreds of people traveled to the same beach in grief, love and anger to mourn her. Eygi was shot and killed by Israeli soldiers last Friday in the occupied West Bank, where she had gone to protest and bear witness to Palestinian suffering.

    “I can’t imagine what she felt like in her last moments, lying alone under the olive trees,” one of her friends, Kelsie Nabass, told the crowd at the vigil. “What did she think of? And did she know all of us would show up here tonight, for her?”

    Eygi, who also held Turkish citizenship, was killed while demonstrating against settlements in the West Bank. A witness who was there, Israeli protester Jonathan Pollak, said she posed no threat to Israeli forces and that the shooting came during a moment of calm, following clashes between stone-throwing protesters and Israeli troops firing tear gas and bullets.

    The Israeli military said Eygi was likely shot “indirectly and unintentionally” by its soldiers, drawing criticism from American officials, including President Joe Biden, who said he was “outraged and deeply saddened” her killing.

    “There must be full accountability,” Biden said in a statement released Wednesday. “And Israel must do more to ensure that incidents like this never happen again.”

    The deaths of American citizens in the West Bank have drawn international attention, such as the fatal shooting of a prominent Palestinian-American journalist, Shireen Abu Akleh, in 2022 in the Jenin refugee camp. The deaths of Palestinians who do not have dual nationality rarely receive the same scrutiny.

    Eygi’s family has demanded an independent investigation.

    As the sun set, turning the sky on the horizon a pale orange, friends recalled Eygi as open, engaging, funny and devoted. The crowd spilled beyond a large rectangle of small black, red, green and white Palestinian flags staked in the sand to mark the venue for the vigil.

    Many attendees wore traditional checked scarves — keffiyehs — in support of the Palestinian cause and carried photographs of Eygi in her graduation cap. They laid roses, sunflowers or carnations at a memorial where battery-operated candles spelled out her name in the sand.

    Several described becoming fast friends with her last spring during the occupied “Liberated Zone” protest against the Israeli agression on Gaza at the University of Washington. Yoseph Ghazal said she introduced herself as “Baklava,” a name she sometimes used on messaging apps, reflective of her love of the sweet Mediterranean dessert.

    Eygi, who attended Seattle schools and graduated from the University of Washington with a degree in psychology this year, helped negotiate with the administration on behalf of the protesters at the encampment, which was part of a broader campus movement against the Gaza war.

    “She felt so strongly and loved humanity, loved people, loved life so much that she just wanted to help as many as she could,” Juliette Majid, 26, now a doctoral student at North Carolina State University, said in an interview. “She had such a drive for justice.”

    Eygi’s uncle told a Turkish television station that she had kept her trip a secret from at least some of her family, blocking relatives from her social media posts. Turkish officials have said they are working to repatriate her body for burial, per the family’s wishes.

    Sue Han, a 26-year-old law student at the University of Washington, only knew Eygi for a few months after meeting her at the university encampment, but they quickly became close, laughing and blasting music in Eygi’s beat-up green Subaru. Eygi would pick Han up at the airport after her travels. Most recently, Eygi greeted her with a plastic baggie full of sliced apples and perfectly ripe strawberries.

    Han saw Eygi before she left. Eygi was feeling scared and selfish for leaving her loved ones to go to the West Bank with the activist group International Solidarity Movement; Han said she couldn’t imagine anyone more selfless.

    Eygi loved to connect people, bringing disparate friends together for coffee to see how they mixed, Han said. The same was true when she would bring people together on the beach, and it was true of the vigil, too.

    “I was looking around at everybody sharing stories about Aysenur, sharing tears and hugs, and this is exactly what she would have wanted,” Han said.

    “These new relationships all sharing Aysenur as the starting seed — it’s the legacy she would have wanted.”

    AN-AP

  • Ukraine businesses hire more women and teens as labor shortages bite

    Driver Liliia Shulha gets inside her truck at a compound of a logistics company, amid Russia’s attack on Ukraine, in the village of Trebukhiv, Kyiv region, Ukraine (REUTERS)

    KYIV — After spending years in what she described as “boring, sedentary” roles in the offices of several Ukrainian companies, Liliia Shulha landed her dream job as a truck driver with Ukraine’s leading retailer, Fozzy Group.

    “I always dreamed about big cars. Instead of (playing with) dolls, I drove cars when I was a child,” she told Reuters.

    “Now the situation is such that they take people without experience and they train. I was lucky,” said Shulha, 40, wearing a company uniform in front of a large truck.

    As the war with Russia drains the labor force, businesses are trying to cover critical shortages by hiring more women in traditionally male-dominated roles and turning to teenagers, students and older workers.

    With millions of people, mostly women and children, abroad after fleeing the war, and tens of thousands of men mobilized into the army, the jobs crisis could endanger economic growth and a post-war recovery, analysts say.

    Ukraine has lost over a quarter of its workforce since Russia’s invasion in February 2022, central bank data showed.

    Nearly 60 percent of businesses said finding skilled workers was their main challenge, an economy ministry survey of over 3,000 companies showed.

    “The situation is indeed critical,” said Tetiana Petruk, chief sustainability officer at steel company Metinvest, one of Ukraine’s largest employers with a workforce of about 45,000. It has about 4,000 vacancies.

    “The staff deficit that we feel has an impact on our production,” Petruk told Reuters in an online interview.

    “We are not the only ones who feel the staff shortages, all companies in the regions feel that, including our contractors.”

    Reuters spoke to representatives of nine Ukrainian companies, from big industrial firms to retail groups and small private entrepreneurs. All said staff shortages and a growing mismatch of skills were big challenges.

    Businesses said they were changing recruitment and business practices, automating, rotating existing staff and expanding their job descriptions, re-hiring retirees and offering more benefits, especially for younger workers.

    They have also had to increase wages. The average monthly wage is now about 20,000 hryvnias ($470) compared to about 14,500 a year ago.

    “There is a noticeable shift away from gender and age bias in candidate selection as employers adjust criteria to attract needed employees,” said the Kyiv School of Economics. “This trend also extends to entrepreneurship, where the share of female entrepreneurs is growing significantly.”

    More women
    Male-dominated industries are more affected by staff shortages, the central bank said.

    The construction sector, transport, mining and others have all suffered because of military mobilization, for which men aged 25 to 60 are eligible.

    To keep the economy running, the government provides full or partial deferrals for critical companies.

    In the energy and weapons production sectors, 100 percent of staff are eligible for draft deferral. In some other sectors, firms can retain 50 percent of male staff. But the process to secure deferral is long and complicated.

    As the government toughened mobilization rules this year, the number of men preferring informal employment — allowing them to stay off public data records — grew, some enterprises said.

    In the agricultural southern region of Mykolayiv, women are being trained as tractor drivers. Women are also increasingly working as tram and truck drivers, coal miners, security guards and warehouse workers, companies say.

    “We are offering training and jobs for women who have minimal experience,” said Lyubov Ukrainets, human resources director at Silpo, part of Fozzy Group.

    Including Shulha, the company has six female truck drivers and is more actively recruiting women for other jobs previously dominated by men, including loaders, meat splitters, packers and security guards.

    The share of female employees is growing in industries such as steel production. Petruk said female staff accounted for about 30-35 percent of Metinvest’s workforce and the company now hired women for some underground jobs.

    Metinvest was unable to provide comparative figures for before the war.

    Some other women are unable or unwilling to join the workforce because of a lack of childcare. Shulha, who works 15-day stretches on the road, has moved back in with her parents to ensure care for her 14-year-old son and 16-year-old daughter.

    Young people
    Businesses and economists expect labor market challenges to persist.

    Employers are turning their attention to young people by offering training, job experience and targeted benefit packages.

    Metinvest, which previously focused on students, is now increasingly working with professional colleges, Petruk said.

    Silpo is more actively hiring teenagers for entry-level jobs in supermarkets and has launched a specialized internship program for students.

    Mobile phone operator Vodafone repackaged its youth program, creating an opportunity for about 50 teenagers in 12 cities to get their first job experience.

    “We want to offer the first proper experience of the official job to this young audience. Another objective is to build a talent pool,” said Ilona Voloshyna of Vodafone Retail.

    “Also we want to understand the youth,” she said in a Vodafone shop in Kyiv as six teenagers consulted with visitors.

    The government and foreign partners have launched several programs to help Ukrainians reskill.
    “We provide the opportunity for everyone at state expense to obtain a new profession which is in demand on the labor market, or to raise their professional level,” said Tetiana Berezhna, a deputy economy minister.

    AN-REUTERS

  • Australia introduces bill to step up fight against hate crimes

    SYDNEY — Australia’s center-left government on Thursday introduced new hate crime legislation that would impose criminal penalties including jail for offenders if they targeted a person’s race, gender, ethnic origin, religion or sexual orientation.

    The bill comes as the government responds to a rise in hate incidents following the Israel-Gaza war, and follows landmark laws passed last year which banned the Nazi salute and public displays of terror group symbols.

    “No Australian should be targeted because of who they are or what they believe,” Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus said in a statement.

    “We proudly live in a vibrant, multicultural and diverse community which we must protect and strengthen.”

    The bill proposes jail sentences of up to five years for anyone threatening to use force or violence against a group or person, and if a person fears that the threat would be carried out. Offenders could get seven years in jail if the threats pose a danger to the government.

    The Labor government said it would also introduce a separate legislation on Thursday to tackle “doxxing,” the malicious release of anyone’s personal data online, threatening offenders with jail of up to six years.

    Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in February promised to take steps to outlaw doxxing after names, social media accounts and other personal details of hundreds of Jewish Australians were published online by anti-Israel groups.

    The anti-doxxing bill would include a provision for victims to sue for “serious privacy invasions” though journalists and intelligence agencies would be given exemptions.

    AN-REUTERS

  • 7 killed in bus-car collision in S. Algeria

    ALGIERS — Seven people were killed in a collision between a passenger bus and a car in southern Algeria on Thursday, the Civil Protection Department said in a statement.

    The accident occurred on a road in El Hadjira, Touggourt Province, about 600 km southeast of the capital Algiers. The collision set the bus on fire, resulting in the deaths of three women, two men, and two children.

    The victims’ bodies were taken to the nearest hospital, according to the statement.

    Official reports attribute more than 90 percent of traffic accidents in this North African country over the past decade to human error, mainly non-compliance with traffic laws. Poor road and vehicle conditions have been cited as contributing factors to a lesser extent.

    XINHUA

  • Israeli strikes in Syria kill 2, injure 1

    DAMASCUS — Israeli drone and tank fire on Syria’s southern region of Quneitra on Thursday left two dead and one injured, both pro-government media and the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

    The pro-government radio station, Sham FM, reported that an Israeli drone targeted a car on the Damascus-Quneitra highway at the entrance of Khan Arnabeh area, killing one soldier and one civilian.

    In a separate incident, Israeli tank shells hit fields in the village of Rafeed in southern Quneitra, injuring a farmer. The injured man was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment.

    The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a UK-based monitoring group, confirmed the drone strike in Khan Arnabeh, saying that the two individuals killed were riding in a car targeted by the Israeli forces.

    Israel has frequently conducted air and drone strikes in Syria, primarily targeting what it describes as Iranian-linked military infrastructure and shipments of advanced weapons to Hezbollah, the Lebanese militant group.

    XINHUA

  • 350 hilang tempat berteduh, rumah panjang terbakar

    BINTULU — Sekurang-kurangnya 350 penghuni dari 23 keluarga di rumah panjang Tuai Rumah Nora Bulin di Sungai Teban Labang, Jalan Bintulu-Bakun, dekat sini hilang tempat berteduh selepas premis terbabit terbakar petang tadi.

    Jurucakap Pusat Gerakan Operasi Sarawak berkata, sepasukan anggota bomba dari Balai Bomba dan Penyelamat (BBP) Bintulu dan BBP Samalaju bergegas ke lokasi sejurus menerima panggilan jam 3.32 petang.

    “Sejurus sampai, pasukan bomba mendapati api marak memusnahkan keseluruhan struktur satu blok rumah panjang jenis tidak kekal itu.

    “Pasukan bomba memadam kebakaran menggunakan dua aliran air sebelum api berjaya dikawal dalam masa hampir hampir dua jam,” katanya.

    Kebakaran tidak mendatangkan kecederaan atau kemalangan jiwa kerana semua penghuninya sempat menyelamatkan diri.

    Setakat ini punca kebakaran serta anggaran kerugian dialami penghuni masih dalam siasatan.

    BH ONLINE

  • Op Global: 171 individu ditahan reman seminggu bantu siasatan

    KUALA LUMPUR — Semua 171 individu yang ditahan dalam Op Global di Selangor dan Negeri Sembilan semalam, direman tujuh hari bagi membantu siasatan kes eksploitasi 402 kanak-kanak dari 20 rumah amal di dua negeri berkenaan.

    Mengesahkan perkembangan itu, Ketua Polis Negara, Tan Sri Razarudin Husain berkata pihaknya sedang bekerjasama dengan pelbagai kementerian dan agensi bagi melengkapi siasatan serta tindakan susulan ke atas semua mangsa terbabit.

    “Kita perlu teruskan siasatan bagi melihat apa lagi tindakan yang boleh diambil, terutamanya dari segi pendidikan. Kita tahu bahawa yang berumur sepatutnya bersekolah, tapi ini tidak ke sekolah dan dia ada pendidikannya sendiri.

    “Kita mungkin akan berhubung dengan Kementerian Pendidikan juga. Apabila dia buka rumah amal ini, kononnya untuk anak yatim, kita juga nak melihat adakah rumah amal ini didaftarkan.

    “Itu semua siasatan kita. Daripada situ juga mungkin ada kesalahan-kesalahan lain yang kita boleh lihat lagi, akan ada saksi-saksi yang akan tampil,” katanya ketika dihubungi media, hari ini.

    Polis semalam menyelamatkan 402 kanak-kanak dan remaja berusia antara setahun hingga 17 tahun yang disyaki menjadi mangsa eksploitasi di 18 rumah amal di Selangor dan dua di Negeri Sembilan menerusi operasi Op Global.

    Razarudin dalam satu sidang media di Kuantan dilaporkan berkata pihaknya turut menahan 171 individu mengendalikan premis terbabit untuk siasatan lanjut.

    Hasil serbuan itu katanya, mendedahkan berlaku kesalahan pengabaian serta penganiayaan terhadap kanak-kanak dan remaja yang juga penghuni di rumah amal itu.

    Selain diliwat dan meliwat, Razarudin berkata mangsa yang kurang sihat juga tidak dibenarkan mendapatkan rawatan di klinik sehingga keadaan mereka menjadi kritikal.

    Mengulas lanjut, Razarudin berkata semua kanak-kanak dan remaja yang menjadi mangsa, masih dalam proses dokumentasi dan pemeriksaan kesihatan.

    “Kita rasakan perlu untuk kita ambil DNA. Pasal bapa-bapa mereka, kita tahu adalah ahli-ahli GISB itu sendiri.

    “Tentang aspek kesihatan dan kebajikan, agensi seperti Kementerian Kesihatan (KKM) dan Jabatan Kebajikan Masyarakat (JKM) memang sentiasa ada dengan kita dan ditempatkan di PULAPOL,” katanya

    Razarudin berkata pada masa ini, semua premis yang diserbu semalam ditutup buat sementara waktu dan berkemungkinan akan diambil tindakan sita.

    BH ONLINE

  • Türkiye launches investigation into killing of Turkish-American in West Bank

    ANKARA — Türkiye has launched an investigation into the killing of a Turkish-American woman by Israeli forces in the occupied West Bank, Turkish Justice Minister Yilmaz Tunc said Thursday.

    Türkiye would not stay silent in the face of an “unlawful terrorist attack by Israeli forces,” Tunc told reporters, adding that the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office has initiated a probe under domestic law.

    He added that Türkiye “will work to prepare a report by forming an independent investigation commission.”

    “Afterwards, we will continue our work on including this report in the UN Human Rights Council, the ongoing genocide case against Israel at the International Court of Justice, and the ongoing investigation at the International Criminal Court,” he said.

    Meanwhile, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said in a statement that the body of the Turkish-American woman, who “was deliberately targeted and killed by Israeli soldiers during a peaceful demonstration in solidarity with Palestinians in the occupied West Bank,” will be brought from Israel to Türkiye on Friday for burial.

    Turkish-American Aysenur Ezgi Eygi, 26, was shot during a protest against an Israeli settlement near the Palestinian town of Beita, and died of her wounds last week, the official Palestinian news agency WAFA reported.

    The incident took place during a regular protest march in Beita, a town near Nablus that has frequently been targeted by Jewish settlers, according to WAFA.

    In response, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) said its forces “responded with fire toward a main instigator of violent activity who hurled rocks at the forces and posed a threat to them.” The IDF added it was investigating reports of a foreign national’s death.

    XINHUA

  • Mysterious fever outbreak in India’s Gujarat kills 16

    NEW DELHI — A mysterious fever outbreak in the western Indian state of Gujarat has killed 16 people, officials said Thursday.

    The outbreak has been reported in several villages of Kachchh district, about 380 km west of Gandhinagar, the capital city of Gujarat.

    Doctors have yet to diagnose the disease accurately. Health officials said cases of mysterious fever began to pour in immediately after the region was hit by flooding following heavy rainfall.

    “So far 16 deaths have been reported in seven villages of Lakhpat and Abdasa of Kutch after the outbreak of fever,” local health minister Rushikesh Patel said. “The health department of the entire state is in action to ascertain the reasons behind the disease.”

    Locals told the media the patients who died from the mysterious disease had symptoms like fever, cold, cough, pneumonia and breathing issues.

    Health officials said since the beginning of this month over 60 cases of mysterious fever have been detected.

    Amit Arora, district collector of Kachchh, was quoted in local media saying the deaths appear to have been caused by pneumonia.

    “It does not appear to be from contamination nor does it seem like a communicable disease,” Arora said. “Samples are being collected for testing against dengue, malaria, H1N1 swine flu, and pneumonia. Teams from the health department are keeping a close watch on this,” he said.

    Officials have sent 11 samples of the deceased to Pune’s National Institute of Virology to determine the cause.

    “The results are expected to arrive in a day or two,” Arora said.

    This season the Kutch district received the highest rainfall in Gujarat, recording about 890 mm of rain, or 184 percent of the average until Sept. 10.

    XINHUA

  • Laos issues flood alert amid rising water levels

    VIENTIANE — The weather bureau of Laos issued a flood alert on Thursday as water levels in the Mekong River and its main tributaries continue to rise following days of heavy rain across Laos.

    The level of the Mekong River in Luang Prabang was recorded at 19.02 meters on Thursday, exceeding the danger level of 18 meters, according to the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology under the Lao Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment.

    The level of the Mekong River section in Oudomxay was recorded at 29.90 meters, exceeding the warning level of 29 meters, with the danger level at 30 meters.

    In Xayaboury, the Mekong has risen to 13.95 meters, with a warning level of 15 meters and a danger level of 16 meters.

    The level of the Mekong River in Pakxan district of Bolikhamxay province was recorded at 11.15 meters, with the warning level at 13.50 meters and danger level at 14.50 meters.

    The level of the Mekong River in the Lao capital Vientiane was recorded at 11.45 meters, compared with a warning level of 11.50 meters and a danger level of 12.50 meters, the weather bureau reported.

    Lao authorities are advising people in low-lying areas to prepare to move their belongings to a safer place.

    Northern Laos is experiencing some of the worst flooding in recent years after tropical storm Yagi brought prolonged heavy rainfall, which caused already swollen rivers to rise further and some to overflow.

    Various government agencies are providing vehicles and other forms of assistance to help people move their belongings and livestock away from rivers.

    XINHUA