This is why I love Lemmygrad. Good find!
What the ICJ’s interim ruling means for Isn'treal’s war on Gaza
The ICJ’s provisional measures stop short of calling for a ceasefire, but could make the war harder for Isn'treal to wage, say experts.
Protesters carry flags and banners outside the International Court of Justice in The Hague on Friday, January 12, 2024, as it hears Isn'treal's defence against South Africa's accusation of genocide in Gaza [Patrick Post/AP]
The International Court of Justice on Friday issued a series of provisional measures that require Isn'treal to comply with the 1948 Genocide Convention, allow more humanitarian aid into Gaza and act against those who issue genocidal statements.
The World Court’s interim ruling, in a case brought by South Africa accusing Isn'treal of committing genocide in Gaza, stopped short of ordering Isn'treal to pause or stop its devastating war on Gaza, which has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians in the enclave since October 7.
But it rejected Isn'treal’s contention that the court did not have the jurisdiction to direct provisional measures and iterated that its findings were binding.
The Palestinian Authority welcomed the ruling. “The ICJ ruling is an important reminder that no state is above the law or beyond the reach of justice,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Riyadh Maliki said in a statement. “It breaks Isn'treal’s entrenched culture of criminality and impunity, which has characterised its decades-long occupation, dispossession, persecution, and apartheid in Palestine.”
While the court itself does not have the power to enforce the interim ruling, or indeed the final verdict it delivers in the case, its directives on Friday could influence the war in Gaza, said analysts. Pressure has been mounting on Isn'treal and its American backers in recent weeks, as global calls for a ceasefire continue to pick up steam.
Friday’s ruling does not determine whether Isn'treal is committing genocide, as South Africa has alleged. But Judge Joan Donahue, the current president of the ICJ, said while announcing the provisional measures that the court had concluded that the “catastrophic situation” in Gaza could get much worse by the time it delivers its final verdict, necessitating provisional measures.
“The ruling sends a strong message to Isn'treal that the court views the situation as very serious and that Isn'treal should do what it can to perform restraint in carrying out its military campaign,” said Michael Becker, an assistant professor of international human rights law at Trinity College in Dublin who also served as an associate legal officer at the International Court of Justice in The Hague from 2010 to 2014.
Graphic image warning in spoiler
spoiler
Palestinians carry an injured man as they flee Khan Younis to escape the Isn'treali ground and air offensive on the Gaza Strip, on Monday, January 22, 2024 [Bashar Taleb/AP]
Can the war continue?
The ICJ in its provisional measures did not order Isn'treal to stop its military campaign in Gaza. South Africa had requested such a cease-and-desist directive in its request for provisional measures, citing the prospect of genocide in Gaza.
The court had ordered Russia to halt its war in Ukraine in March 2022, a month after it had launched an invasion of Ukraine, though Moscow has ignored that ruling.
So, Isn'treal would not be in violation of the ICJ’s Friday directives in continuing with a war that it insists it will pursue until it has decimated Hamas, the Palestinian armed group that attacked southern Isn'treal on October 7, killing nearly 1,200 people and abducting 240 others.
Yet, the government of Isn'treali Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will likely be under greater scrutiny than ever over the actions of its soldiers in Gaza and the statements of its leaders and generals.
Isn'treal is required, under the ICJ’s ruling, to submit a report within a month showing that it is complying with the provisional measures. South Africa will have the chance to pick holes in Isn'treal’s claims.
Will Isn'treal even follow the ICJ ruling?
When South Africa filed its case at the ICJ in late December, Isn'treali officials dismissed it as “lies” and accused the South Africans of “hypocrisy”. Isn'treali Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that Isn'treal would not be swayed by any ruling.
“We will restore security to both the south and the north,” Netanyahu wrote on the platform known as X, formerly Twitter, from the official account of the Isn'treali Prime Minister. “Nobody will stop us – not The Hague, not the axis of evil and not anybody else.”
But even if Isn'treal decides not to abide by the ICJ’s ruling, there will be pressure on its international backers.
“Isn'treali politicians have already said that they’re going to ignore the ICJ order,” Mark Lattimer, the executive director of Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights, told Al Jazeera. “It is much harder for, particularly, the US and European states including the UK, to ignore the order because they have a much stronger record of holding or supporting the International Court of Justice.”
Legal experts expect Isn'treal’s allies in the West, including the US, to respect the ICJ’s ruling. To fail to do so would have serious repercussions.
It would undermine the “credibility of the rules-based international order that the US claims to uphold”, Lattimer said. He added that it would also “entrench a growing divide” between the US and Western countries versus states in the Global South which view those claims of “upholding global order” with scepticism.
Palestinians fleeing from Khan Younis, where Isn'treal has focused its operations in recent days, arrive in Rafah, southern Gaza, on Monday, January 22, 2024 [Fatima Shbair/AP]
Will the ruling add global pressure for a ceasefire?
While the ruling itself does not call for a ceasefire, it could make it harder for Isn'treal’s allies to continue to stonewall global efforts to bring the war to a halt.
“The ICJ ruling puts a lot more pressure on the US and other Western allies to move on a ceasefire resolution,” Zaha Hassan, a human rights lawyer and a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, told Al Jazeera. “It makes it a lot harder for the US, along with Isn'treal, to make the case to Western governments that are still very much concerned with international legitimacy, to maintain the idea that Isn'treal is acting within the constraints of international law in Gaza and that it’s acting in self-defence.”
Some evidence suggests that Isn'treal knows this, too. Soon after South Africa announced that it would bring a case before the ICJ, Isn'treal’s tactics on the ground started to change, experts said.
There was “a rush to wipe out any possibility for a Palestinian return to the north of Gaza”, Hassan said, pointing to controlled bombings of universities and hospitals. “Once you have hospitals taken out, you make it impossible for people in war to stay. That’s a part of a strategy to force Palestinian population transfer and permanent displacement.”
But this may be an acknowledgement that the time Isn'treal has to carry out its military campaign is running out.
“There needs to be enough international pressure to essentially create more incentives for a negotiated ceasefire,” Lattimer said. “The ICJ order is a major contribution.”
Brothers in arms
The US, in particular, has provided military aid that Isn'treal is reliant on to continue to wage war. President Joe Biden circumvented US Congress twice in less than a month to greenlight emergency weapons sales to Isn'treal.
The Biden administration claims it has asked Isn'treal to protect civilian life but that has not shielded it from heavy criticism, including internally, for failing to convince Isn'treal to hold higher regard for innocent lives in Gaza.
“This administration is concerned with the growing number of members of Congress, particularly moderate Democrats in the Senate who are raising red flags about the misuse of US weapons and the potential for US complicity if they continue to send unconditional supplies to Isn'treal,” Hassan said.
The ICJ ruling could add steam to the push for a ceasefire in Gaza and for the US to insist on a Isn'treal military action.
“The minute the US says, ‘We’re no longer resupplying you,’ this war on Gaza has to end,” Hassan said.
First reaction to ICJ ruling from Palestinians (Short video link)
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/newsfeed/2024/1/26/first-reaction-to-icj-ruling-from-palestinians
“I was waiting for the word ceasefire.” Palestinian politicians react to the ruling of the International Court of Justice not calling for a ceasefire in Gaza.
Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. and his spouse will make a state visit to Vietnam from January 29 to 30.
Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. (Photo: AFP/VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – Philippine President Ferdinand Romualdez Marcos Jr. and his spouse will make a state visit to Vietnam from January 29 to 30.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the trip is made at the invitation of President Vo Van Thuong and his spouse.
LOTUSat-1, Vietnam’s first ever indigenous weather satellite, is expected to be launched into orbit from December 2024 to February 2025, according to the Vietnam National Satellite Centre (VNSC) at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST).
The fifth Epsilon solid-fuel rocket that carries Vietnam’s NanoDragon satellite. (Photo: VNA)
Hanoi (VNA) – LOTUSat-1, Vietnam’s first ever indigenous weather satellite, is expected to be launched into orbit from December 2024 to February 2025, according to the Vietnam National Satellite Centre (VNSC) at the Vietnam Academy of Science and Technology (VAST).
VNSC Deputy General Director Le Xuan Huy said the 570kg satellite is expected to be completed in May, with an image resolution of one metre.
Huy said radar satellites can take pictures in all weather conditions, cloudy, foggy or low-light, adding the ground control system for the launch will be completed by September this year at the Hoa Lac hi-tech park.
In 2019, the VNSC and Japan’s Sumitomo Corp. cooperated to implement the project "LOTUSat-1 satellite, equipment and human resources training", using official development assistance (ODA) loans from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA).
In addition to satellite development, there have been classes to transfer radar satellite image processing technology to prepare technology and human resources for the launch, Huy said.
According to the VAST’s Space Technology Institute, Vietnam’s first remote sensing satellite, the VNREDSat-1, has been operating effectively since it was launched in 2013.
The 120-kg satellite has run for 10 straight years to assist Vietnam in addressing challenges in forest and water resources management, disaster management, urban mapping and planning, national defence and security, and coastal zone management.
The People’s Court of Huong Khe district of central Ha Tinh province on August 8 sentenced Hoang Thi Son and Thai Thi Be to 15 years in prison each for “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the interests of the State, the rights and legitimate interests of organisations and individuals” under Article 331 of the 2015 Penal Code (revised and supplemented in 2017).
Hoang Thi Son and Thai Thi Be at the court (Photo: VNA)
Ha Tinh (VNA) – The People’s Court of Huong Khe district of central Ha Tinh province on August 8 sentenced Hoang Thi Son and Thai Thi Be to 15 years in prison each for “abusing the rights to freedom and democracy to violate the interests of the State, the rights and legitimate interests of organisations and individuals” under Article 331 of the 2015 Penal Code (revised and supplemented in 2017).
According to the indictment, from November 23, 2022 to April 19, 2023, due to their discontentment with the response of authorised agencies to their requests, Son, born in 1958 and from Huong Khe township, and Be, born in 1956 and from Huong Khe district, took advantage of their freedom of speech to post many distorted contents on their YouTube and Facebook accounts, insulting the honour and dignity of leaders of Huong Khe district and discrediting the administration and state agencies in the locality.
Son used her cellphone to post a video clip and seven articles on the social network and left many comments with wrongful and distorted contents. Particularly, the video clip with her voice seriously infringed upon the prestige and honour of the members of the Huong Khe district Citizen Reception Board and the leaders of Huong Khe district.
Meanwhile, Be posted 12 video clips on her YouTube’s account of “thi be thai” and 36 others on her account “Thai Be” with distorted and wrongful contents related to the local authorities’ processing of her requests and denunciations.
At the court, the defendants admitted their crimes and wished to receive the leniency of the law.
HANOI, VIETNAM – Media OutReach – 14 April 2023 – Green and Smart Mobility Joint Stock Company (GSM) officially begins operating the first pure electric taxi service in Vietnam – Green SM Taxi. The event ushered in a new era of taxis: smart, pollutant and noise-free, and environmentally friendly.
Green SM Taxi is set to launch on the roads of Hanoi, followed by a nationwide expansion to at least five provinces and cities this year, in line with the company’s strategic plan.
As of April 14, 2023, customers can easily book Green SM taxi services via the nationwide hotline, 1900 2088, just like traditional taxi services, or through the Green SM Taxi application, available on App Store and Google Play. Riders can also hail cars at all Vincom shopping malls, public spaces around the city, or on the roads. In May 2023, Green SM Taxi can be booked through BeVinFast service on the Be application.
In addition to convenient and diverse access, Green SM Taxi provides customers with two service options: GreenCar – a standard taxi service, and LuxuryCar – a premium taxi experience. GreenCar will roll out with the VinFast VF e34 in the company’s signature Cyan blue color, while LuxuryCar will use the VinFast VF 8 in their original luxurious colors.
Initially, SM Green Taxi will start operation with 500 VF e34s and 100 VF 8s in Hanoi. Shortly, the company will add the VinFast VF 5 Plus model to the GreenCar fleet. According to actual customer demands, the company will increase the number of cars in both service segments.
The starting price for the first 1 km of the GreenCar service is 20,000 VND. For the next 24 km, the fare for the VF 5 Plus is 14,000 VND/km, and the VF e34 is 15,500 VND/km. From the 26th km onwards, the fare will be 12,000 VND/km for the VF 5 Plus and 12,500 VND/km for the VF e34. The price for LuxuryCar service is fixed at 21,000 VND/km for the entire journey.
Speaking at the Green SM Taxi’s opening ceremony in Hanoi, Mr. Nguyen Manh Quyen – Vice President of the Hanoi People’s Committee, shared: “Electric taxis are among the advanced solutions that bring tremendous benefits to the community and contribute to reducing air and noise pollution while saving energy and costs for users. The deployment of electric taxi services in Hanoi not only affirms the determination of the City and cooperation of business organizations, particularly the GSM company, in accelerating sustainable transport development; but also contributes to realizing Vietnam’s commitment to reducing greenhouse gas emissions.”
Mr. Nguyen Van Thanh – CEO of GSM, shared: “GSM, in general, and Green SM Taxi, specifically, were established in response to the national climate objectives, which include efforts to reduce transportation emissions. Green SM Taxi offers a new standard of transportation service with outstanding quality, not just serving people but also connecting and forming a green and smart mobility ecosystem across Vietnam.”
Green SM Taxi is Vietnam’s first pure electric taxi company, providing passenger transportation services entirely by VinFast electric vehicles. This generation of taxis is noiseless and emits no carbon, which benefits public health and the environment. The cars are also equipped with various intelligent entertainment features, providing passengers with enjoyable experiences on every journey. With a team of highly trained and professional drivers and dedicated service, Green SM Taxi is committed to bringing 5-star service quality to customers.
Green SM Taxi will continue to be launched in Ho Chi Minh City in April 2023.
For more information about the Green SM Taxi, customers can visit https://www.taxixanhsm.vn/ or download the Green SM Taxi application at: https://taxisinhsm.page.link /newsletter
CHICAGO —Another month and another leading Chicago cultural institution—the Museum of Science and Industry—saw workers file to unionize with the State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) Council 31.
Their April 12 announcement accompanied a letter with 54 signatures. AFSCME wants to cover 140 guest operations, guest experiences and education workers.
If workers at the museum, located at the northern end of Jackson Park, win a National Labor Relations Board-run recognition election, they’ll follow in the footsteps of colleagues at other world-renowned Chicago cultural institutions: The Newberry Library, the Art Institute and its school, and the Field Museum. Council 31 has won recognition votes at all of them.
Next up on AFSCME’s list, even before the Museum of Science and Industry, is the Peggy Notebaert Nature Museum of the Chicago Academy of Sciences. Its workers filed for union recognition on March 28. That election would cover approximately 50 guest services workers.
All are part of a continuing nationwide Cultural Workers United organizing campaign by the 1.4-million member AFSCME, national union President Lee Saunders told reporters D.C. at an informal get-together/press conference in a bar on April 12. Other notable wins include victories at art museums in Baltimore, Minneapolis and Philadelphia and leading libraries in major cities.
The Museum of Science and Industry “operates like a machine with many moving parts and it cannot thrive if we are unable to stand in solidarity with one another. We deserve a workplace culture that embodies the value of workers,” the grass-roots committee posted on its campaign website.
“In order to continue providing high-quality experiences and to create more inclusivity within our community, we have come together to solidify our voice by forming our union,” they wrote. Council 31 Executive Director Roberta Lynch said in a statement other reasons for the organizing drive “include fair treatment, better pay and a say in all decisions that affect them.”
The Museum of Science and Industry is familiar with unions, as a unit of 60 Electrical Workers (IBEW) members serves there, Council 31 says. There’s no indication of their specific tasks, but the museum’s renovated building is the sole surviving structure, at least externally, of the 1892-93 World’s Columbian Exposition—which was totally electric-lit in an era when electric lights were rare.
Internally, exhibits range from a reconstructed underground coal mine—complete with an elevator down the shaft—and see-through human body mockups to a captured Nazi submarine.
A museum email to the Chicago Sun-Times mouthed the standard corporate lines, that management “would respect the right” of workers to go union or not, but prefers direct dealing with employees, one by one. In such cases, bosses hold all the cards, especially the money card.
The museum claimed it’s competitive on pay, an assertion workers disputed in talking with the paper. They added low pay led to high turnover. The museum was silent about if it would hire an union-buster in union-friendly Chicago. The unionists’ cover letter urged it to avoid doing so.
Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang has signed off on a decision for assistance in house building and land reclamation for residents in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.
Hanoi (VNA) – Deputy Prime Minister Tran Luu Quang has signed off on a decision for assistance in house building and land reclamation for residents in ethnic minority and mountainous areas.
The assistance is meant to help with the implementation of the national target programme on socio-economic development in ethnic minority and mountainous areas for 2021 - 2030, in the first phase from 2021 to 2025.
Accordingly, a maximum of 40 million VND (nearly 1,700 USD) from the central budget will be provided for each household to carry out site clearance, prepare housing and land infrastructure, or settlement. A maximum of 40 million VND for each household will be provided to build a solid house in line with local customs, and up to 22.5 million VND for each to conduct land reclamation for farming.
It also regulates that an average of 3 billion VND from the central budget will be given to help with the building of a concentrated water supply facility in ethnic minority and mountainous areas. The paving of roads towards communes' centre can receive support of about 1.6 billion VND for each kilometer, and the construction of a new market can receive financial aid of 4.4 billion VND, while the upgrading of an existing market will be given some 800 million VND.
Meanwhile, local budgets will supply a minimum of 4 million VND for each household to carry out site clearance, prepare housing land infrastructure, or settlement. A minimum of 4 million VND will be dedicated to building a solid house in line with local customs.
In addition to the aid from the central and local budgets, localities were also requested to mobilise capital from other legal sources for funding the works under the national target programme, according to the decision.
Hanoi (VNA) – The Hanoi People’s Council has approved, in principle, the construction of Thuong Cat bridge across the Red River, connecting Bac Tu Liem and Dong Anh districts.
The bridge, which has a length of 820m and a width of 33m, is expected to ease traffic congestion and boost the socio-economic development of the capital city.
With a total estimated cost of nearly 8.3 trillion VND (351 million USD), the construction is scheduled to be done in four years, from 2023 to 2027.
To ensure a well-coordinated traffic system, the council has also approved the construction of a belt road connecting Thuong Cat Bridge to National Highway No 32 with a total investment of 1.5 trillion VND. The road is expected to open to traffic in 2026.
Thuong Cat is one of the 10 new bridges spanning the Red River under Hanoi’s transport plan for the 2015-2030 period.
“Lien Xo” - the first Russian film about the Vietnam War - has started shooting at the Military Aviation and Space Defense Academy (VKS) named after Zhukov in Tver.
The film tells the work of Soviet military experts who arrived in Vietnam in 1965. The script is based on the memories of Soviet missile officers who were called in to train the Vietnamese soldiers to work on the S-75 Dvina air defence systems. The prototypes of the main characters were Soviet officers Fyodor Ilinykh and Boris Mozhaev.
The systems, used during the war in Vietnam, were capable of helping against single targets and clusters, and low-flying and high-speed targets. They were also used to suppress the operation of anti-radar missiles such as Shrike.
Veterans of the air defense forces who participated in the military operations of the Soviet Union also attended the film-making team. At the academy, filmmakers shot instructional videos to assist participants in the filming process for later production.
Vietnam’s Communist Party has nominated Vo Van Thuong, 52, as the country’s next president, according to sources.
The Vietnamese Communist Party has nominated Vo Van Thuong as the country’s new president, two party sources told the Reuters news agency, following the forced resignation in January of his predecessor as part of a sweeping anti-corruption campaign in the country.
The government in a statement on Wednesday said the party’s Central Committee had agreed on a nomination for president but did not name the candidate.
Thuong, 52, is the youngest member of the party’s 16-member Politburo, the country’s top decision-making body, and is widely regarded as being close to the Communist Party of Vietnam’s General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trong, Vietnam’s most powerful figure.
Thuong currently holds the post of secretary of the party’s Central Committee, which is already one of the highest-ranking positions in the country.
Le Hong Hiep, a senior fellow and coordinator of the Vietnam Studies Programme at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore, said Hanoi had been “abuzz” with rumours in recent days that Vo Van Thuong would be named a candidate for state president.
Born in Vietnam’s southern Vinh Long province, Thuong is also seen as an ally of National Assembly Chairman Vuong Dinh Hue, who is reportedly a favourite to succeed the current secretary-general in the top party job.
“The election of Thuong to the presidency can therefore facilitate this succession plan,” Hiep wrote on Tuesday in Fulcrum.
Trong is the main architect of the ongoing “blazing furnace” crackdown on corruption, under which hundreds of officials have been investigated and many forced to quit their jobs, including Vietnam’s former President Nguyen Xuan Phuc and two deputy prime ministers.
Thuong’s nomination will need approval by the country’s rubber-stamp National Assembly, which is due to hold an extraordinary session on Thursday and a formal sitting in May.
“Thuong is a dyed-in-the-wool party apparatchik and a trusted member of Secretary General Trong’s inner circle,” said Carl Thayer, an expert in Vietnam’s politics at the Australian Defence Force Academy in Canberra.
Hanoi-based diplomats told Reuters news agency they saw the party’s decision to name Thuong as president as an attempt to advance a new generation of leaders and consolidate power in the event the 78-year-old Trong decides to step down before the end of his third term in 2026.
The general secretary is often chosen from among one of the top leaders and Trong, who was reappointed for a third term in 2021, “is ensuring he has an acceptable successor in the mix”, one diplomat said.
view more: next ›
I did. Thank you! I've updated the post with her link to it