The Israeli government is set to increase the number of work permits for West Bank Palestinians by 16,000 amid calls by Israeli officials to strengthen the ailing Palestinian Authority economy.
According to the Defense Ministry, the Israeli military body charged with handling Palestinian civilian affairs — known by its acronym COGAT — informed senior Palestinian officials on Wednesday of the intention to offer additional permits.
The plan was first announced by Regional Affairs Minister Issawi Frej, who said he had developed the initiative along with Housing Minister Ze’ev Elkin. But while the proposal was originally set to be approved by the government this past Sunday, it was subsequently delayed due to “technical issues” with the Defense Ministry, Frej’s office said.
Around 87,000 Palestinians work legally in Israel, according to official figures, and another 35,000 work in Israeli settlements in the West Bank. The vast majority work in agriculture and construction.
Most of the new permits — some 15,000 — will be issued specifically for construction workers, according to the proposal. Another 1,000 will be granted for Palestinians who work at hotels across Israel.
The government is scheduled to approve the plan next week, according to to both Frej and Defense Minister Benny Gantz’s office. Freij has pledged more such civilian-led economic programs could be en route.
Three Israeli filmmakers who were imprisoned in Nigeria for nearly three weeks landed back in Israel Thursday morning, after they were released two days earlier.
They had been arrested in a synagogue on July 9 by masked agents of Nigeria’s internal security agency, the Department of State Services, on suspicion of contact with Biafran separatists in the southeast of the country.
“I am very happy that Rudy, Andrew and David were freed from detention in Nigeria and returned to Israel this morning,” said Foreign Minister Yair Lapid in a statement released shortly after the three landed.
“My thanks to the staff of the Foreign Ministry, the Consular Department, and especially to the Nigerian authorities and the deputy ambassador in Nigeria, Yotam Kreiman, on their unceasing efforts to help secure their release,” he said.
Lapid stressed that Israel’s envoy had worked daily with the French and US embassies in the country on the issue, and noted that the local Chabad center provided the three men with kosher food.
One of the men entered Nigeria on a French passport, and the other two used their American passports.
Nigerian authorities released the trio from prison Tuesday evening and handed them over to US custody. American embassy staff then took them to the local Chabad center to spend the night.
The three were given their passports and phones just before their flight took off for Istanbul Wednesday night. Kreiman accompanied them from their release until they boarded their flight.
Rudy Rochman, a pro-Israel activist with almost 95,000 followers on Instagram, filmmaker Andrew Noam Leibman, and French-Israeli journalist Edouard David Benaym were in Nigeria to film “We Were Never Lost,” a documentary exploring Jewish communities in African countries such as Kenya, Madagascar, Uganda and Nigeria. They were focusing on the Igbo Jewish community in Nigeria.
The families of the three Israelis had said that local political elements had “twisted” the gifting of a Torah scroll to a local community to claim it constituted support for separatist political ambitions. The Torah scroll is currently with the local community.
The men landed in Nigeria on July 6. According to locals, the crew was detained at a synagogue during services in the Igbo village of Ogidi. The Igbo consider themselves a lost tribe of Israel. The filmmakers were aware of the political sensitivity surrounding the filming of the Igbo community, noting on their documentary’s Facebook page: “We do not take any position on political movements as we are not here as politicians nor as a part of any governmental delegations.”
The Israeli government is considering rejoining the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), from which it withdrew in 2019, the Axios news site reported Wednesday.
According to unnamed officials, Foreign Minister Yair Lapid asked his office to review the case several weeks ago and its International Organizations Department is expected to present a recommendation soon.
Israel left UNESCO, as did the United States during the Trump administration, over the international body’s alleged anti-Israel bias.
However, according to Axios, Lapid believes Israel’s withdrawal from the international forum only made foreign policy less effective.
Several weeks ago, the foreign minister received a phone call from Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, who urged him to rejoin the agency, sources told the site.
A Foreign Ministry spokesperson told Axios that Israel would coordinate any decision it makes regarding UNESCO with the US.
A Palestinian-led 2016 UNESCO resolution that ignored Jewish ties to the Temple Mount and the Western Wall caused then-education minister Naftali Bennett to cut ties between his office and the agency. Bennett is now Israel’s prime minister, after replacing Benjamin Netanyahu in June.
Foreign Minister Yair Lapid will be traveling to Morocco for an official visit on August 11-12, the Foreign Ministry told The Times of Israel Wednesday.
The trip will be the first for an Israeli foreign minister. Lapid will officially open up the Israeli diplomatic mission in the country.
The announcement came days after the first direct commercial flights between Israel and Morocco took off, seven months after the countries normalized diplomatic relations in a US-brokered deal.
While Jerusalem and Rabat did not in the past have full relations — with diplomatic offices in each other’s capitals instead of embassies — they maintained close official ties until Morocco suspended them with the outbreak of the Second Intifada in 2000.
An Israeli diplomatic source said Sunday that the ties with the North African kingdom “will turn into full diplomatic relations.”
Israel and Morocco renewed their ties late last year, amid a wave of normalization agreements between Jerusalem and Arab countries.
Earlier this month, Lapid invited his Moroccan counterpart, Nasser Bourita, to visit Israel.
“After my trip to Morocco, Minister Bourita will come visit Israel to open missions here,” Lapid said at a Yesh Atid faction meeting in the Knesset last week.
In late June, Lapid made a historic trip to the United Arab Emirates to open the Israeli embassy in Abu Dhabi and the consulate in Dubai.
Foreign Ministry Director-General Alon Ushpiz was in Morocco three weeks ago and delivered Lapid’s written invitation during his meeting with Bourita.
The Biden administration is considering ways to ensure U.S. commercial fishing industry is paid for any losses it incurs from the planned expansion of offshore wind power in the Atlantic Ocean, according to state and federal officials involved in the matter.
Discussions between state and federal officials, are aimed at addressing the top threat to President Joe Biden’s efforts to grow offshore wind – a centerpiece of his clean energy agenda to fight climate change.
Commercial fishing fleets have vehemently opposed offshore wind projects, labeling them a significant threat to catches of crucial stocks including scallops, clams, squid and lobsters, by interfering with navigation and altering ecosystems.
That opposition has contributed to delays in permitting the nation’s first commercial-scale projects and is among the reasons the U.S. has lagged Europe in offshore wind development. Minimizing those conflicts could speed the lengthy federal permitting process as Biden seeks to add 30 gigawatts of offshore wind to the nation’s waters in just nine years.
The U.S. commercial fishing industry provides over $170 billion in annual sales, to which offshore wind development represents a threat. Adding to the industry’s concerns is the overall lack of information regarding the environmental impacts of offshore wind farms in the U.S. In particular, the effects of wind farms on fish populations is not yet completely understood. Combining this with perceived exclusion from the decision-making process for project development, fishing groups have strongly opposed proposed offshore wind projects.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov says on Thursday that the United States wanted China to be included in wider talks on nuclear arms control.
Ryabkov made the comments a day after senior U.S. and Russian officials restarted talks in Geneva to ease tensions between the world’s largest nuclear weapons powers.
Senior U.S. and Russian officials met in Geneva on Wednesday to restart talks to ease tensions between the world’s largest nuclear weapons powers with ties at post-Cold War lows.
Russia’s ambassador to Washington, Anatoly Antonov, said it was inevitable the powers would eventually have to discuss broadening the arms control talks to include more powers and that Moscow saw Britain and France as priorities in that regard.
“This question has taken on particular relevance in light of London’s recent decision to increase the maximum level of nuclear warheads by 40% – to 260 units,” Antonov said in comments published by the foreign ministry on Thursday.
In separate comments, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov said that the United States wanted China to be included in wider talks on nuclear arms control, the Interfax news agency reported.
U.S. Senate advanced a nearly $1 trillion infrastructure package in a Wednesday evening procedural vote, a significant development for legislation brokered by both parties and the White House as they seek to clinch a rare bipartisan victory on Capitol Hill.
After Republicans blocked the package last week, 17 GOP senators joined all 50 Democrats in the motion to proceed after a month of negotiations on a top Biden agenda item.
Senate Democrats and Republicans banded together on Wednesday to advance a roughly $1 trillion proposal to improve the country’s aging infrastructure, overcoming months of political deadlock on one of President Biden’s signature economic policy priorities.
The day of breakthroughs began with news of a deal, as a bipartisan bloc of 10 negotiators coalesced around a package to upgrade the nation’s roads, bridges, pipes, ports and Internet connections. The announcement from some of the group’s leaders, including Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.), capped off a series of frenetic talks that nearly collapsed amid behind-the-scenes battles about the new spending and how to pay for it.
With that once-elusive agreement finally in hand, the Senate hours later then took its first formal legislative step. Lawmakers voted 67-32 to put themselves on track to begin debating infrastructure reform this week, clearing the first of many hurdles toward adopting a proposal that the White House has described as historic.
100 women with Vesico Vaginal Fistula (VVF), had successful operation as the North East Development Commission (NEDC) and the Borno State Government flagged off Free Fistula Repair Campaign Project (FFRCP) in Maiduguri Tuesday.
The wife of the Borno State Governor, Dr. Falmata Zulum, flagged off the ceremony at the Conference Hall, State Specialist Hospital in Maiduguri.
Zulum, who was represented by Commissioner for Health, Mrs. Juliana Bitrus, thanked the NEDC and other development partners for complimenting the efforts of the Borno State Government towards the provision of health care services to its people.
Bitrus said the women had their Fistula repairs in successful corrective surgeries at the State Specialist Hospital, Maiduguri.
“This intervention is timely, as most women who are vulnerable due to activities of insurgency and the persistent poverty, which has caused a lot of women to fall victims to VVF, would benefit from the corrective surgery project.” She stated
She appealed to the beneficiaries to stay away from sexual intercourse in the next one year to enable them to have total healing.
The NEDC Board Chairman, Major General Paul Tarfa (rtd.), who was represented by the Board member North-West zone, Hajiya Asmau Muhammadu said: “Statistics indicate that there are about 250,000 women awaiting repair in Nigeria, out of which only 3,000 are fortunate to be attended to annually.
“12,000 new cases develop every year with a large number coming from the North-East due to the insecurity and increased poverty, which further hindered access to health care.”
“It is, therefore, important that all efforts are made to bring succour to these vulnerable groups of women to enable them to pick the pieces of their lives, by offering them a new lease for meaningful existence within their respective communities,” he stated.
Tarfa went on to note that it was unfortunate that women who experienced obstetric fistula suffer dejection from members of society.
The chances of Nigeria winning medals at the Tokyo Olympics has been dealt a big blow with the declaration of 10 of the country’s athletes as ineligible to compete.
A statement on Wednesday from the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU), an independent body created by World Athletics that manages all integrity issues – both doping and non-doping – revealed that a total of 18 athletes have been declared ineligible.
Nigeria is the most affected country, not meeting the minimum testing requirements under Rule 15 for 10 athletes.
The AIU explained that under the framework of Rule 15 governing National Federation Anti-Doping Obligations, which came into force in January 2019, National Federations are accountable for ensuring appropriate anti-doping measures are in place in their respective jurisdictions.
Among other things, the rule sets out minimum requirements for testing for the national teams of ‘Category A’ federations deemed to have the highest doping risk and considered as a threat to the overall integrity of the sport.
The key requirement in Rule 15 is that an athlete from a ‘Category A’ country must undergo at least three no-notice out-of-competition tests (urine and blood) conducted no less than three weeks apart in the 10 months leading up to a major event.
Only then do they become eligible to represent their national team at the World Athletics Championships or the Olympic Games.
For the year 2021, the seven identified ‘Category A’ National Federations are Belarus, Bahrain, Ethiopia, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, and Ukraine.
The Athletics Federation of Nigeria, which has been plunged into needless crises in the last 14 months is, thus, highly culpable in this development.
12 Top Nigerian Athletes Cleared and Eligible to compete in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics
•The Integrity unit of World Athletics has cleared 12 Nigerian athletes as eligible to participate fully at the Tokyo Olympics.These athletes are Blessing Okagbare, Ese Brume, Tobi Amusan, Divine Oduduru, Nwokocha Grace, Patience Okon George, Enoch Adegoke,Imaobong Nse Uko, Itsekiri Usheoritee, Enekwechi chuckwuebuka, Emmanuel Ojeli and Samson Nathaniel.
Reigning Nigeria sprint queen and 100/200m record holder, Blessing Okagbare tops the list of 12 athletes the Athletics Integrity Unit has cleared to compete in the athletics event of the ongoing Tokyo 2020 Olympics which begins on Friday. Okagbare who is making her fourth appearance at the games will be competing in the women’s 100m heat on Friday. Also cleared to contest are sprint hurdler, Tobiloba Amusan who is ranked number four in the 100m hurdles; long jumper Ese Brume who tops the world list in her event coming to the games and Grace Nwokocha, the home-based sensation who clocked 11.09 seconds in March at the MOC Grand Prix in Lagos to seal her qualification for the Tokyo Games.
Others are the trio of Divine Oduduru, Enoch Adegoke and Ushoritse Itshekiri who will be competing in the men’s 100m while Oduduru will also race in the 200m, an event he holds the national record of 19.73 seconds which he set two years ago in Austin, Texas in the USA to win the NCAA gold.
Shot putter Chukwuebuka Enekwechi who made it to the event’s final at the World Athletics Championship in Doha, Qatar in 2019 is also cleared to compete. The 4x400m mixed relay quartet of Imaobong Nse Uko, Patience Okon-George, Nataniel Samson and Ifeanyi Ojeli are also cleared to compete and will be in action on Friday in the first semifinal heat.
Prince Adeniyi Adisa Beyioku, Secretary General of the Athletics Federation of Nigeria says the athletes are in good spirits as they are determined to return Nigeria to the podium for the first time since 2008 when Okagbare and the women’s 4x100m won Nigeria’s last medals in track and field.
Beyioku is happy the 12 athletes have been cleared to compete and assured that the federation will continue to be the goose that lays Team Nigeria’s golden eggs at the Olympics.
Athletics accounts for 13 of the 25 medals won by the country at the games and two of the three gold medals.
t has only been seven days since the opening of the Tokyo Olympic Games but already athletes are starting their return trips as strict Covid-19 measures in Japan forbid any extended stays to soak up more of the Games atmosphere.
Teams normally stay on for a few days after their events have ended to take in the closing ceremony celebrations, watch other sports and party with other athletes.
This time, however, stringent health measures are forcing a quick return home well before the end of the July 23-Aug 8 sports extravaganza.
Athletes must arrive no earlier than five days before their competition starts and fly back within 48 hours of completing their sports to minimise the risk of infection and the spread of the virus among the local population.
Australia’s softball team departed for Sydney on Wednesday (July 28), as part of the first group of team Australia’s athletes to leave Tokyo, and will go into a 14-day quarantine back home.
“While the team is vaccinated and have been tested every day while at the Games, like every returning Australian, they will remain in quarantine for 14 days and will undergo regular testing,” said Australian Olympic Committee Chief Executive Matt Carroll.
“The team return and quarantine has been an integral part of our planning for these Games.”
By next weekend, some 250 Australian athletes and officials of a team of more than 850 will be back home.
For German kayak gold medallist Ricarda Funk, who is leaving on Thursday, the Games were a huge success but she barely had time to soak up the atmosphere at the athletes’ village, usually known for its active social life as more than 10,000 athletes from more than 200 countries live there.
Funk said: “It’s definitely sad because these are my first Olympic Games and I really wanted to enjoy the Olympic Village and the Olympic feeling a bit more.
“Especially because in the first days I was focusing on the competition and I couldn’t really relax. So in my last day here I’m trying to really take it all in.”
Athletics, the biggest sport at the Games in terms of the number of athletes taking part, does not start until Friday.
Olympic host city Tokyo recorded 3,177 new coronavirus on Wednesday, authorities announced, hitting a daily record high for a second straight day as a spike in infections puts pressure on hospitals.
The Games were postponed last year due to the pandemic and opinion polls have consistently shown that the majority of Japanese are against holding the Games during the pandemic.
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