Hopes rise for possible Gaza truce deal - CNA

JERUSALEM: Hopes rose on Monday (Apr 29) for a long-sought-after truce and hostage release deal after almost seven months of war in Gaza between Palestinian Hamas militants and Israel.

Washington's top diplomat said he was "hopeful" Hamas would accept the offer, which his British counterpart said could see the release of thousands of Palestinian prisoners.

After meeting in Cairo, the Hamas delegation left Egypt and returned to Qatar "to discuss the ideas and the proposal ... and we are keen to respond as quickly as possible", a Hamas source close to the talks told AFP on condition of anonymity.

According to Egyptian sources quoted by Al-Qahera News, a site also linked to Egyptian intelligence services, the Hamas delegation will "return with a written response to the truce proposal".

For months, meditators from Egypt, Qatar and the United States have been trying to broker a new agreement between the combatants. A one-week truce in November saw 80 Israeli hostages exchanged for 240 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

Diplomacy in the past few days appeared to suggest a new push to halt the fighting.

The war has brought Gaza to the brink of famine, United Nations and humanitarian aid groups say, while reducing much of the territory to rubble and raising fears of a wider regional conflict.

Salvaging belongings from the remains of a house in Gaza City, a bandage on his head, Ibrahim Juzar said a strike wounded his three girls and wife.

"My wife's chest has been fractured" and she has internal bleeding, he said.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told a World Economic Forum special meeting in Riyadh that the proposal before Hamas is "extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel".

He urged the Palestinian Militant group to "decide quickly", saying: "I'm hopeful that they will make the right decision."

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2024-04-30 02:09:47Z
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'We want them to be able to live independently': Why a Japanese non-profit is training Rohingya refugees - CNA

TOKYO: Bhasan Char, an island about 60 km from Bangladesh's mainland, is home to 35,000 Rohingyas fleeing persecution and violence in Myanmar.

The Bangladeshi government has been relocating them to the remote, cyclone-hit island from the town of Cox’s Bazar - one of the world’s largest refugee camps - since 2020.

The aim is to accommodate a total of 100,000 refugees in Bhasan Char, and they are getting help from Japanese non-profit group Nippon Foundation to do so.

The organisation will also help the refugees learn new skills. In December, it pledged US$3 million to that end. 

Young men will learn to maintain and repair motorcycles, while women will be taught handicrafts and how to use a sewing machine.

After making his first visit to the island this month, Nippon Foundation chairman Yohei Sasakawa announced another US$2 million in funding.

“One day, when they go back to their hometown, we want them to be able to live independently. For that, we want them to acquire skills and to have a dream,” he told CNA.

He added that they will learn how to fish in the sea, how to breed sheep and chickens, and perform marine and modern farming.

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2024-04-30 01:34:28Z
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US, Britain urge Hamas to accept Israeli truce proposal - The Straits Times

Palestinians gather on a beach as they collect aid airdropped by an airplane, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas. PHOTO: REUTERS

RIYADH - US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on April 29 urged Hamas to swiftly accept an Israeli proposal for a truce in the Gaza war and the release of Israeli hostages held by the Palestinian militant group.

Hamas negotiators were expected to meet Qatari and Egyptian mediators in Cairo on April 29 to deliver a response to the phased truce proposal which Israel presented at the weekend.

“Hamas has before it a proposal that is extraordinarily, extraordinarily generous on the part of Israel,” Blinken said at a meeting of the World Economic Forum in the Saudi capital Riyadh.

“The only thing standing between the people of Gaza and a ceasefire is Hamas. They have to decide and they have to decide quickly,” he said. “I’m hopeful that they will make the right decision.”

A source briefed on the talks said Israel’s proposal entailed a deal for the release of fewer than 40 of the roughly 130 hostages believed to be still held in Gaza in exchange for freeing Palestinians jailed in Israel.

A second phase of a truce would consist of a “period of sustained calm” - Israel’s compromise response to a Hamas demand for a permanent ceasefire.

A total of 253 hostages were seized in a Hamas attack on southern Israel on Oct 7 in which about 1,200 Israelis were also killed, according to Israeli counts.

A French diplomatic source said there was a convergence on the number of hostages released in return for Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, but that obstacles remained on the longer term nature of truce.

“We’re not far off from a deal, but that’s not the first time,” the source said.

Israel retaliated by imposing a total siege on Gaza and mounting an air and ground assault that has killed about 34,500 Palestinians, according to Gaza health authorities.

Palestinians are suffering from severe shortages of food, fuel and medicine in a humanitarian crisis brought on by the offensive that has demolished much of the territory.

Britain’s Foreign Secretary David Cameron, who was also in Riyadh for the WEF meeting, also described the Israeli proposal as “generous”.

It included a 40-day pause in fighting and the release of potentially thousands of Palestinian prisoners as well as Israeli hostages, he told a WEF audience.

“I hope Hamas do take this deal and frankly, all the pressure in the world and all the eyes in the world should be on them today saying ‘take that deal’,” Cameron said.

Cameron is among several foreign ministers in Riyadh, including from the US, France, Jordan and Egypt, as part of a diplomatic push to bring an end to the Gaza war.

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Saudi ties

Blinken reiterated that the US, Israel’s main diplomatic supporter and weapons supplier, could not back an Israeli ground assault on Rafah if there was no plan to ensure that civilians would not be harmed.

Blinken met with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on, where they discussed the urgent need to reduce tensions in the region, the US Department of State said in a statement.

More than a million displaced Gaza residents are crammed into Rafah, the enclave’s southernmost city, having sought refuge there from Israeli bombardments. Israel says the last Hamas fighters are holed up there and it will open an offensive to root them out soon.

Blinken also said the US and Saudi Arabia had done “intense work together” over the past few months towards a normalisation accord between the kingdom and Israel. That goal has been disrupted by the Gaza war.

“To move forward with normalisation, two things will be required: calm in Gaza and a credible pathway to a Palestinian state,” he said.

In return for normalisation, Arab states are pushing for Israel to accept a pathway to Palestinian statehood on land it captured in the 1967 Middle East war - something Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has repeatedly rejected.

Saudi Arabia’s foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan bin Abdullah also said on April 29 that an accord between Washington and Riyadh over normalisation was “very, very close”. REUTERS

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• HAMAS
• Israel-Palestine
• Israel
• Palestine
• Wars and conflicts
• WORLD ECONOMIC FORUM 2024

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2024-04-29 14:52:05Z
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Southeast Asia heat shuts schools, boosts power demand, as Myanmar hits 48 degrees - South China Morning Post

The Philippines announced it will halt in-person classes at public schools, while Thai power demand rose to a record, as the heatwave gripping southern Asia continued to take its toll.

The temperature in metropolitan Manila soared to 38.8 degrees Celsius (101.8 degrees Fahrenheit) on Saturday, according to the nation’s weather forecaster. That beat the previous all-time high recorded in May 1915, ABS-CBN News reported. The Department of Education responded to the sweltering weather, and a Jeepney transport strike across the country, by closing public schools on Monday and Tuesday.

In Thailand, power demand reached a record 36,356 megawatts late on Saturday, the Ministry of Energy said. The country’s northern and northeastern regions are expected to be the hottest, with a high of 44 degrees recorded in some areas on Sunday.

Power lines suspended above a street during high temperatures in Bangkok. Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy has been bracing for hotter-than-normal days due to the El Nino weather pattern that’s forecast to last until June. Photographer: Bloomberg

Bangkok issued extreme heat warnings last week as its index rose to “very dangerous” levels. About 30 people have died due to the high temperatures this year in Thailand, compared with 37 heat-linked fatalities in all of 2023, according to government data.

Myanmar recorded its hottest ever April temperature, authorities said on Monday.

The mercury hit 48.2 degrees in the town of Chauk in central Myanmar’s Magway region on Sunday, according to a statement from the country’s weather office, the highest temperature seen anywhere in Myanmar in April since records began 56 years ago.

A woman walks with a cold drink under an umbrella along a street on a hot day in Yangon. Myanmar recorded its hottest ever April temperature of 48.2 degrees Celsius. Photo: AFP

A Bangladeshi court ordered a nationwide shutdown of schools on Monday, the day after the government sent millions of children back to class despite searing temperatures.

Bangladesh follows the Sunday-Thursday Islamic work week. The order directs schools to remain closed for an estimated 32 million students until the coming Sunday.

The government had imposed a weeklong national school closure beginning April 21 as the heatwave persisted, but lifted the order over the weekend.

Classes had resumed in Dhaka on Sunday, with anxious relatives accompanying their children to the school gates.

Average temperatures in the capital Dhaka over the past week have been 4–5 degrees higher than the 30-year average for the same period.

Earlier this month, the United Nations Children’s Fund warned that more than 243 million children across East Asia and the Pacific are at risk of heat-related illnesses and death, as the region braces for an unusually hot summer.

A man showers with a hosepipe during hot weather in Manila on Sunday. The Philippines will suspend in-person classes in all public schools for two days due to extreme heat. Photo: AFP

The prolonged heatwave already forced the Philippines to close some schools earlier this month, prompting a return to remote learning that became the norm during Covid, while the government urged people to save electricity as power plants were forced to shut down.

A provincial government in the main Luzon island will implement a four-day work week through July to mitigate the impact of high temperatures on its employees and the public.

The nation’s heat index, which measures the temperature felt by individuals as it takes humidity into account, is forecast to reach as high as 46 degrees on Monday in Manila, the weather agency said.

Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse

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Woman dies 1½ months after food poisoning at popular Taipei eatery, raising death toll to 4 - The Straits Times

The number of fatalities involved in the Polam Kopitiam food poisoning outbreak rose to four. PHOTO: POLAM KOPITIAM

Another person has died of suspected food poisoning on April 29 after reportedly dining at a Malaysian vegetarian restaurant in Taipei, the capital of Taiwan, local media reported.

This brings the number of fatalities involved in the Polam Kopitiam food poisoning outbreak to four, Taiwan’s Deputy Minister of Health and Welfare Victor Wang confirmed on April 29.

According to Focus Taiwan, the death of a 40-year-old woman on April 29 was the second such death in three days. Another person had died of multiple organ failure on April 27. 

After eating char kway teow at the eatery in mid-March, the woman experienced nausea, vomiting and diarrhoea upon reaching home.

Mr Wang said the woman had been in the intensive care unit for more than a month as she faced organ failure and infections. She died of multiple organ failure at 3am on April 29.

China Press reported that 35 people have reported falling ill after dining at the eatery so far, including the four who died.

Two of them – one still undergoing liver transplant surgery and another in the hospital – are in severe condition, Mr Wang added.

In March, two men had died from suspected food poisoning after dining at the eatery.

A lethal toxin suspected to be behind the fatal food poisoning outbreak was found in the stool of the restaurant’s chef.

The toxin, bongkrekic acid, was detected in faecal samples collected from the Xinyi outlet’s chef on March 27, said Mr Wang in a Facebook post on April 6.

Earlier samples taken from his hands on March 24 also tested positive for the deadly toxin, which – even in a minute dose of 1mg – can kill a human being.

The same toxin was found in most of the sick diners, local media reported.

All Polam Kopitiam outlets were ordered to close during the ongoing investigations, though Mr Wang reiterated that the outbreak was confined to the Xinyi branch.

Although the restaurant passed a food safety inspection in 2022, Taipei health inspectors who visited the eatery after the outbreak found cockroach droppings on the premises, knives stored on the counter next to the sink, and a failure to provide employee health records, local media reported.

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• Food hygiene/safety
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• Malaysia

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Extreme weather events due to climate change threaten future of tourism in Australia - CNA

A report by the Centre for Integrated Sustainability Analysis in Australia found that the so-called Black Summer of bushfires, which started in 2019, wiped US$1.8 billion from tourism supply chains.

One of the authors of the report, Ms Vivienne Reiner, noted that education-related travel combined with personal travel is worth more exports than natural gas in Australia.

“If people start to think it’s dangerous to come to (Australia), that could really impact us,” she added.

9.3 MILLION VISITORS EXPECTED IN 2024

Tourism is a major export earner and employer, with one in eight Australian businesses related to the industry.

The country is expected to welcome 9.3 million international visitors this year, reaching 98 per cent of pre-pandemic levels, according to Tourism Research Australia’s latest forecasts released late last year. 

Australia also expects to surpass pre-pandemic levels next year and set a new record, with about 10.2 million international visitors predicted to travel there.

Ms Phillipa Harrison, managing director of government agency Tourism Australia, said that carbon emissions from travel are increasingly being discussed as the world reels from one natural disaster to another.

“Here, there (were) black summer bush fires, there (were) floods, there were cyclones,” she said during the agency’s annual Destination Australia conference held in March.

“There's also widespread bleaching on the (Great Barrier) Reef which is again happening right at the moment, and all of those have ensured that carbon and the impact of global warming is really poignant right now.”

Ms Harrison added that the country needs to ensure it is competitive in the right areas for economic growth, while protecting its potential for future generations of residents and visitors.

The fear is that news of fires and floods could have a negative impact on an industry that prides itself on selling its pristine environment to the world.

However, Australia’s Climate Council, which predicts many more intensive weather systems to come, believes it is not too late to counter the threat.

“We are a remarkable continent with amazing things that people experience, but protecting that industry, protecting the people and places we love – that is very much going to depend on the choices we make now and every ton of carbon pollution we leave in the ground,” said the council’s director of research Simon Bradshaw.

“That’s protecting tourism; it’s protecting everything we depend upon,” he added.

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Hamas says 'no major issues', as Gaza truce effort builds - CNA

"A COMPLETE FAILING"

However, the Axios news website, citing two Israeli officials, reported that Israel's latest proposal includes a willingness to discuss the "restoration of sustainable calm" in Gaza after hostages are released.

It is the first time that Israeli leaders have suggested they are open to discussing an end to the war, Axios said.

A Hamas source close to the negotiations had told AFP the group "is open to discussing the new proposal positively" and is "keen to reach an agreement that guarantees a permanent ceasefire, the free return of displaced people, an acceptable deal for (prisoner) exchange and ensuring an end to the siege" in Gaza.

As diplomatic efforts intensified, US President Joe Biden spoke with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by phone on Sunday and reviewed the ongoing talks, the White House said.

Countries hoping to broker a ceasefire are among those at a summit in Saudi Arabia, whose Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan said the international community has failed Gaza.

"The situation in Gaza obviously is a catastrophe by every measure – humanitarian, but also a complete failing of the existing political system to deal with that crisis," Prince Faisal told the World Economic Forum (WEF) special meeting in Riyadh.

He reiterated that only "a credible, irreversible path to a Palestinian state" will prevent the world from confronting "this same situation two, three, four years down the line".

Netanyahu's hard-right government rejects calls for a Palestinian state.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Palestinian Authority has partial administrative control in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, appealed at the WEF meeting for the United States to stop Israel from invading Rafah, which he said would be "the biggest disaster in the history of the Palestinian people".

Israel vows to go after Hamas battalions in the southern Gaza city on the border with Egypt, but the prospect has raised global alarm because much of Gaza's population has sought shelter there.

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