Kipenzi’s calf, which will be named by the public in a voting competition, at 2 days old. Photograph: Werribee open range zoo A very large bundle of joy was quietly delivered to a Melbourne zoo last Sunday as a southern white rhino gave birth to a male calf. Mother Kipenzi, 11, and father Kifaru, 15, welcomed their 60kg baby into the world in the early hours of 18 August, Werribee open range zoo announced. Dr Mark Pilgrim, the director of Werribee open range zoo, said the new mother had been taking to her role very well. “It’s just incredible to see her mothering instincts coming out,” said Pilgrim. “It’s beautiful to see that with her.” The newborn is Kipenzi’s second – she gave birth to her first calf in March last year, but struggled to bond with it. That calf died within days, suffering internal trauma and cardiac arrest after Kipenzi, who weighs two tonnes, leaned against it soon after its birth. Kipenzi and the new calf have been closely monitored this week, with mother and baby being kept in a secluded area accessible only to keepers while they get to know each other and bond. They will remain there for some weeks before the calf is introduced to the other rhinos and then later to the public. Pilgrim said the zoo’s staff were delighted with the not-so-little family’s progress so far, especially with Kipenzi. “She’s being an amazing mum, really protective of [the calf] right now,” he said. “She’s doing her best to shepherd it and keep it close to her, and making sure that it’s not wandering off too far. So she’s just doing the perfect thing we expect a mother rhino to do.” The calf has already been showing a forthright personality, snorting and stomping around his enclosure, Pilgrim said. “He’s going to be a real handful later on.” Kipenzi herself was born at Werribee zoo in 2013 to resident rhino Sisi, but was hand-reared by keepers due to Sisi’s refusal to let her out of her sight – which meant she was unable to get underneath her to suckle. Kipenzi was given her name – which means “precious one” in Swahili – by a Wyndham Vale resident. Her new calf will also be named by the public in a voting competition in coming weeks. Southern white rhinos are native to southern Africa. A near-threatened species, they are bred at Werribee open range zoo in Melbourne as part of the Australasian Southern white rhino breeding program. It is estimated as few as 10,080 southern white rhinos remain in the wild. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/article/2024/aug/24/melbourne-zoo-white-rhino-calf-name-competition-kipenzi-kifaru

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping, shake hands during their meeting on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Astana, Kazakhstan on July 3, 2024 [Sergey Guneyev/Sputnik via AP] As the presidential race in the United States is heating up, the two candidates – Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump – have clashed on a range of issues. Whether it is immigration, reproductive rights or social spending, the two have sought to rally their bases by attacking each other on what they see as the key concerns of voters. However, there is one issue on which they seem to align: China. Although they have different visions on how to pursue US policy towards the superpower challenging Washington’s position on the world stage, they seem to agree that it is a threat that needs to be contained. How do they propose to do that? Harris appears to offer a continuation of President Joe Biden’s policies. She would seek to enhance the US’s longstanding security partnerships in Asia by transforming them into economic alliances while also waving a “big stick” against those who seek to violate US sanctions even in partner states. Harris will also likely continue to push for “de-risking” from China, a policy of relocating manufacturing industry out of Chinese territory – which the Biden administration has promoted as something that can benefit third countries. In the case of some key partners like Vietnam, that has been the case; the country has seen substantial FDI growth as a number of Western companies have moved their operations there. The Democrats are also keen on placing the CHIPS and Inflation Reduction Acts – which seek to promote domestic production of microchips and clean energy, respectively – not only at the heart of their domestic agenda, but also contextualising them as returning jobs and industries “stolen” by Beijing. Trump, on the other hand, has doubled down on the “America First” rhetoric of his previous campaigns and even gone further. His wider economic policy rests on a return to 19th century-style broad tariffs on almost all US imports, particularly crushing ones against Beijing. It is through these policies that he has most significantly affected US geo-economic policy. Today, there is no faction of either the Democratic or Republican parties that calls for actively engaging with China. The pro-free trade agenda that dominated both sides of the aisle in the 25 years between the Soviet Union’s collapse and Trump’s ascent to power is quietly ignored. When it is mentioned, it is to tar one’s political opponents. Trump and Harris’s campaigns thus offer different tactical visions of the same strategy – protecting US economic interests by pushing and pulling away from China’s. But both have failed to consider the fact that a far more aggressive Russia is also a threat to the US-dominated international economic order and taking on both Beijing and Moscow at the same time would be foolhardy. The US has to recognise that China is far more economically important to countries caught in this global rivalry, including allies. This is as true for Georgia and Kazakhstan – two countries that have not embraced the Western sanctions regime against Russia but have signalled some compliance with it – as it is for Germany and the United Arab Emirates, for whom China is almost as important a trade partner as the US. The “Middle Corridor” of Eurasian trade the West has sought to promote to deter Russia’s influence in the region makes little sense without Beijing’s buy-in. Furthermore, pushing too hard against China risks a backlash that would at best undermine or potentially even reverse some of the progress that has been made in restraining Russia’s geo-economic agenda. It is important here to point out Moscow’s ever-growing dependency on its large neighbour. Since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, China has become one of Russia’s top trade partners as well as a provider of access to international markets that are otherwise restrained by Western sanctions, with Russian companies seeking to use the Chinese currency, the yuan, for trade with Latin America, Asia and Africa. But despite ever-escalating sanctions under the Biden administration on Chinese trade, Beijing has yet to fully embrace Russian President Vladimir Putin’s vision of the world order. China does support his rhetoric, particularly at summits of the so-called BRICS nations where criticism of the West and the US in particular is the standard flavour. Beijing has been reluctant to directly challenge US sanctions on Russia or push hard for a new currency bloc to challenge the dominance of the US dollar. Chinese banks, for example, have significantly cut back on offering yuan trade for Russian counterparties following increased US secondary sanctions threats. Russian media, including slavishly pro-Putin outlets, have noted these challenges; Western media have done so far less frequently. Even on crucial economic projects, such as the construction of a new major Russia-China gas pipeline dubbed Power of Siberia 2, Beijing is wary of overcommitting. Agreed in principle just weeks before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, no progress has been made on talks around its development. Mongolia, through which the pipeline is planned to pass, recently indicated it does not expect it to be completed in the next four years. If the next US president decides to wage a two-front economic war with Russia and China, this would push Beijing closer to Moscow’s position. Presently, Chinese President Xi Jinping sees his country as the rightful centre of the emerging international economic order, displacing the US. By contrast, Putin believes that the existing international economic order should be destroyed, even if only rubble is left once it is gone. Russia’s commodities-dependent economy has no chance of being a great economic power like the US. That is why, it hopes that by knocking everyone down a peg it can compete as one of many moderate economic powers. This thinking lies at the core of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine and its willingness to politicise everything – from sovereign lending markets to gas trade in its aftermath. China is certainly a major economic competitor for the West and the US in a way that Russia cannot have any hopes of being in the foreseeable future, but its track record of invading neighbours is far less pronounced than Russia’s. Its economic warfare is also largely relegated to trying to improve its position through strategic loans, new institutional aims such as mobbing arbitration centres from the West to China, and state subsidies for critical industries. In short, it is a competition that the US can engage with and against over the long term, whereas Putin’s threats, risk tolerance, and willingness to wage war are far more pronounced in the short term. That is why, it makes more sense to pursue increased cooperation with China now, or at least try to ensure its support for Russia is as limited as possible. The battle over where automotive production and supply chains will run can wait. This logic should hold even for the most hawkish US voices on China – rebuffing Russia’s threat today will leave the US and its allies in a far stronger place to outcompete China in the future. The views expressed in this article are the author’s own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazeera’s editorial stance. https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2024/8/26/the-next-us-president-should-not-take-on-both-russia-and-china

Al Jazeera journalist Wael Dahdouh reacts as he attends the funeral of his son, Palestinian journalist Hamza Dahdouh, who was killed in an Israeli strike, in Rafah in the southern Gaza Strip, January 7, 2024 [Ibraheem Abu Mustafa/Reuters] Sixty global press freedom and human rights organisations have signed a letter calling on the European Union to take decisive action against Israel for its escalating violations of media freedom and the killing of journalists in Gaza, the occupied West Bank and Israel. The letter on Monday urged the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and the imposition of targeted sanctions on responsible Israeli officials. It was signed by organisations including the International Press Institute (IPI), Human Rights Watch (HRW) and Free Press Unlimited (FPU). Addressing top EU diplomat Josep Borrell and European Commission Executive Vice-President Valdis Dombrovskis, the appeal underscored the urgent need for action against what they describe as “unprecedented violations of media freedom by Israeli authorities”. “These are part of widespread and systematic abuses committed by Israeli authorities in Gaza, the West Bank, Israel, and elsewhere, as documented or acknowledged by Israeli, Palestinian and international NGOs, UN experts, the International Court of Justice, and in a request for arrest warrants by the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court,” the letter, said. “These violations should trigger the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement and further EU targeted sanctions against those responsible,” it was added in the letter. The organisations outlined eight actions taken by Israel that require an urgent response by the EU, including the targeted killing of journalists, a ban on independent media access to Gaza, and record-high arbitrary detention of journalists. Since October 7, 2023, Israel has faced accusations of systematic abuses, including the killing of more than 120 Palestinian journalists and media workers in Gaza, and the arrest and arbitrary detention of at least 49 journalists. The letter also highlighted allegations of torture, enforced disappearances, and significant censorship within Israel and the Palestinian territory it occupies. The cumulative effect of these violations, the letter said, was to create conditions conducive to propaganda and misinformation, ultimately undermining the path to peace and security. In July, Israel killed Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Ismail al-Ghoul and his cameraman Rami al-Rifi in an air attack, striking their car in the Shati refugee camp, west of Gaza City. In January, Israel killed Hamza Dahdouh, the oldest son of Wael Dahdouh, Al Jazeera Arabic’s bureau chief in Gaza, who was also a journalist. In October last year, Israel had killed Dahdouh’s wife, his 15-year-old son, seven-year-old daughter and toddler grandson in an air raid. In December, Israel attacked and killed Al Jazeera Arabic journalist Samer Abudaqa and injured Dahdouh in an attack in Khan Younis, southern Gaza. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/26/press-freedom-groups-urge-eu-to-act-on-israel-violations-of-media-rights

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US President Joe Biden, left, and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu [AP Photo] A delegation from the Palestinian group Hamas has landed in Cairo on Saturday evening to “listen to the results of negotiations thus far” between mediators – Egypt, Qatar and the United States – and Israel. Observers are reluctant to call this a hopeful sign as conviction grows that Gaza ceasefire negotiations between Hamas and Israel are on the verge of collapse. Negotiations of some form or another have been ongoing practically since October 7, the day Israel launched a war on Gaza that has killed more than 40,000 people and destroyed most of the Strip – ostensibly in retribution for a Hamas-led attack on Israel that killed 1,139 people and took more than 200 captive. An agreement had seemed close in May when the US said it had a draft proposal approved by all parties and endorsed by the UN Security Council on June 10. Eleventh-hour failures Hamas agreed to the proposal, emphasising that it wanted the Israeli army out of Gaza, the return of people to their north Gaza homes that they had been driven out of, international engagement to rebuild Gaza, and the release of Palestinians held in Israeli prisons. Israeli officials kept making statements indicating that the war on Gaza must continue – and the Israeli army invaded Rafah. Yet the US maintained that Israel had accepted the proposal and the stumbling block was Hamas, which was holding up all progress. With a ceasefire agreement seemingly in arm’s reach, it disappeared. Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu maintained his rhetoric of continuing to fight until “Hamas is completely defeated in Gaza”, a goal long called out as unrealistic by parties on both sides. There has been one short pause since Israel began its war on Gaza, during which Palestinian prisoners were released from Israeli jails in exchange for Israeli captives held in Gaza. Shown here is a Palestinian prisoner embracing his family in Ramallah after his release on December 1, 2023 [Jaafar Ashtiyeh/AFP] He eventually also presented new demands: that Israel remain in the Philadelphi Corridor abutting Egypt’s Sinai, checkpoints be set up to “vet” people trying to go back to their homes in north Gaza, and that full lists be provided of all living captives Hamas intends to release. Senior Israeli officials said Netanyahu’s demands would sabotage the talks, and the mediators refused to pass them on to Hamas. Egypt has refused Israel’s demand that it be allowed to remain in the Philadelpi Corridor, which would violate the Camp David Accords between the two. Blinken’s rhetoric The US proposal followed past drafts, sticking to a three-phase process that would release all captives in Gaza in exchange for prisoners held by Israel, achieving a “sustainable calm” to lead to a full ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli troops from Gaza, the reconstruction of the Strip, and the eventual opening of crossings. “We had a proposal that [US President Biden] laid out in late May which was fairly detailed and passed at the UN Security Council as a resolution [with] global support,” Matt Duss, the executive vice president at the Center for International Policy in Washington, DC, said. “Yet, we’ve seen various rounds of new conditions added by Netanyahu who, despite Biden saying Israel supports it, made it very clear that he didn’t.” Netanyahu was criticised by Israeli negotiators for undermining talks after a local broadcaster reported comments he made about Israel not leaving the Philadelphi or Netzarim Corridor – which the Israeli army created to separate north and south Gaza – “under any circumstances”. US officials have been in the region trying to work out sticking points in recent days with a “bridging proposal” that reportedly includes withdrawal plans. US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, however, would not say if the proposal includes the Israeli army fully withdrawing from Gaza as earlier proposals mentioned. But he maintained his earlier assessment as to who was holding things up. “In a very constructive meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu today, he confirmed to me that Israel supports the bridging proposal,” Blinken said to reporters after a two-and-a-half-hour meeting with Netanyahu on Monday. “The next important step is for Hamas to say ‘yes’.” Blinken’s claims were rejected by Hamas, who maintained that they wanted to stick to the agreed-upon deal. “The Israelis have retreated from issues included in Biden’s proposal. Netanyahu’s talk about agreeing to an updated proposal indicates that the US administration has failed to convince him to accept the previous agreement,” Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan told Al Jazeera on Monday. Hamas’s Osama Hamdan spoke to Al Jazeera about the ceasefire proposals [File: Mohamed Azakir/Reuters] And while Blinken has held firm in public that Netanyahu agrees to the deal, Israeli media have reported things playing out differently behind the scenes. US backing Netanyahu ‘for inexplicable reasons’ The Biden administration’s continued support for Netanyahu, despite his reported obstinance, has left many analysts baffled. “We’re in this surreal situation where both Hamas and Israeli security officials are saying Netanyahu is the one blocking Biden’s ceasefire proposal,” Mohamad Bazzi, director of Near Eastern Studies at New York University, told Al Jazeera. “We also see that Netanyahu publicly rejected key elements of the ceasefire as Blinken has described the deal … but at same time both [US President Joseph] Biden and Blinken insist that Netanyahu supports the current deal and Hamas is the stumbling block. “So we end up with the US administration covering for Netanyahu for inexplicable reasons.” While Israel’s stated objective for the talks is retrieving captives held in Gaza, Netanyahu’s reported sabotage of talks has some questioning if he is genuinely interested in a deal. Some 109 captives remain in Gaza, according to Israeli government estimates, and US officials believe half of them to still be alive. Families who have loved ones missing in Gaza have been protesting regularly and calling on their government to save the captives. A person holds up their hand with ‘HELP’ written on it, as families of Israeli captives in Gaza since October 7 march from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem to try to pressure Israel’s government to make a deal to release their loved ones, on July 10, 2024 [Ammar Awad/Reuters] “There’s a very strong argument that Netanyahu doesn’t want a ceasefire at this point,” Bazzi said. “In many ways, why should he when the US won’t impose any cost on him for being the biggest obstacle to a ceasefire?” ‘Doomed’ Biden and his administration have criticised Netanyahu in the past. In April, Biden said Netanyahu was making a mistake in his handling of the war in Gaza. Then in early June, Biden suggested Netanyahu was prolonging the war for personal and political gain. Despite the criticisms, the Biden administration has refused to condition their support of Netanyahu’s government. “Biden has two very important levers, the primary being the holding or conditioning of military aid and the second is the political cover at the UN Security Council and other international bodies… and he doesn’t seem to use them.,” Bazzi said. The failure to hold Netanyahu and Israel to account has led to questions over the US’s accountability over the destruction of Gaza. “Biden is completely complicit in this war that wouldn’t have been possible in the first place, … without full US support and cover,” Gilbert Achcar, professor of development studies and international relations at SOAS University of London, said. “These negotiations were doomed to fail from the start… it’s basically a waste of time,” Achcar said. “The function is more for the Biden administration to try to show that it is doing something. But I think they know quite well that it’s leading nowhere because the gap between what Netanyahu wants and what Hamas requests is too wide to be overcome.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/24/is-the-field-level-for-hamas-israel-in-the-ceasefire-talks

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Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks to the families of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps in Tehran on May 19, 2024 [Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via Reuters] | By Ali Hashem Published On 21 Aug 2024 21 Aug 2024 In the shadowy corridors of Tehran’s power, the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh at the end of July – widely believed to have been carried out by Israel – shattered a fragile equilibrium. The timing of this escalation in the longstanding conflict between Iran and Israel could not have been worse, with newly sworn-in President Masoud Pezeshkian still getting used to his role when this geopolitical fireball was hurled into his lap. For Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the assassination of the Palestinian group’s leader was more than a provocation, it was an existential challenge. The explosion that killed Haniyeh, which Iran believed was a missile launched from within its own borders, was a breach of sovereignty that angered Tehran and put Khamenei’s 2003 fatwa prohibiting the manufacture, use and storage of nuclear weapons under increased scrutiny. Strategic implications The high-level debate over whether Khamenei’s fatwa on nuclear weapons served Iran’s strategic priorities was already continuing prior to Haniyeh’s assassination, according to a senior Iranian official who spoke to Al Jazeera on condition of anonymity. Khamenei has steered Iran through global shifts from the Cold War’s end to the rise of United States unipolarity and conflicts in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria – and through the fraught history of Iran’s nuclear deal with world powers. Now, at 85, he needs to secure the future of the Islamic republic, a critical juncture that requires more than manoeuvres in the “grey zone” – the space between war and peace that Iran has traditionally used to exert pressure on its adversaries. The implications could reshape the Middle East’s strategic landscape at a time when negotiators are scrambling to reach a ceasefire deal that would end Israel’s brutal war on Gaza and, three weeks after the assassination, Iran has yet to indicate what it will do. Asked whether Iran is withholding its attack on the Israeli regime so ceasefire talks can proceed, Iran’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Amir Saeid Iravani, told Al Jazeera: “The timing … of Iran’s response will be meticulously orchestrated to ensure that it occurs at a moment of maximum surprise.” The assassination prompted intense debate in Iran, sources told Al Jazeera, with some arguing restraint as the wisest course, fearing a retaliatory strike could plunge Iran into a protracted and costly confrontation with Israel, which could weaken Tehran and its regional allies. The restraint camp – from across Iran’s political spectrum – also expressed hope that calm now can serve as leverage in future negotiations with the US, potentially opening a new chapter in US-Iran relations and becoming a more potent response to Netanyahu’s provocations. A woman holds a poster as she attends the funeral procession of assassinated Hamas chief Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran on August 1, 2024 [Majid Asgaripour/West Asia News Agency via Reuters] Khamenei’s choice Khamenei did not agree. Speaking to officials on August 14, he said Iran must not be intimidated by the psychological warfare its enemies were using. Invoking the Quran, he added that “non-tactical retreats, whether in military, political, media or economic fields, will incur divine wrath”. Although there is no indication yet as to what he will do, it is a choice that could reshape the Middle East’s strategic landscape. The nuclear question adds to the complexity. Thus far, Iran’s nuclear policy has centred around its right to possess peaceful nuclear technology, Khamenei’s fatwa on the issue, and to exist in a nuclear-weapons-free zone, an official who wished to remain anonymous told Al Jazeera. “In the broad sense, Iran’s nuclear policy still does not fall under the category of nuclear ambiguity like Israel,” the official said, referring to Israel’s refusal to disclose what nuclear capabilities it has. However, a remark by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the UN last September and an Israeli minister advocating that Gaza be levelled with nuclear weapons have been perceived as threats by Iran, the official said, prompting Iran to rethink its strategy. The US’s unilateral withdrawal from the nuclear agreement is another reason for Iran to recalibrate its approach, they added, explaining that Iran entered nuclear talks hoping sanctions on the country would be lifted in exchange for restrictions on its nuclear programme. “But, what happened [when the US left the nuclear agreement]?” they ask rhetorically. “Iran had to face the US’s maximum pressure policy without [being able to do] anything.” Will the nuclear doctrine change? “Iran’s response must … punish the aggressor for its act of terrorism and infringements upon Iran’s national sovereignty [as well as] bolster Iran’s deterrence capabilities to induce profound regret within the Israeli regime, thereby serving as a deterrent,” UN ambassador Iravani said. “Furthermore,” he added, “Iran’s response must be carefully calibrated to avoid any possible adverse impact that could potentially influence a prospective ceasefire [in Gaza].” That is a potentially impossible balance to strike. In this context, the anonymous official says, “The threats shown by the Zionist entity [Israel] and the shift from a policy of ambiguity about their nuclear programme to a clear policy of nuclear threats against Iran at the United Nations … suggest that they may later target the nuclear facilities themselves.” They add: “Iran needs to maintain its sovereignty, and … it is discussing revising its doctrine. If Israel’s nuclear weapons are not removed, there will be competition to possess nuclear weapons in the region, and Iran will absolutely reassess its strategy.” Iran’s ambassador to the UN Amir Saeid Iravani speaking at the UN Security Council on April 14, 2024 [Eduardo Munoz/Reuters] Asked whether they thought that Iran, if it changes its nuclear doctrine, would move to producing nuclear weapons, especially since Western and Israeli estimates say it is no more than a month away from producing a nuclear warhead, the anonymous official answered in the negative. “Any change in the nuclear doctrine does not necessarily mean moving towards nuclear weapons,” the official said, adding that it could mean altering the current nuclear strategy, and affirming that any change would be directed towards Israel because it is threatening Iran. Such a change may worry Iran’s neighbours but, the official added: “We’re open to any way to reassure our neighbours about our nuclear capabilities. “The question remains whether our neighbours are ready to reassure us about their arms purchases and the threats posed by the presence of American bases on their lands.” Ultimately, the choices before Khamenei are like the bitter cups he must drink from – the supreme leader faces a test of endurance as he weighs his options before him, each fraught with significant risks and uncertain outcomes. The stakes have never been higher, as the world watches Tehran grapple with its most critical decision in decades. https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/8/21/khameneis-calculus-ran-supreme-leader-faces-a-bitter-choice-re-israel

Suspected Israeli drone raid on a car in southern Lebanon kills a commander from a coalition of Palestinians armed groups. People and Lebanese army members stand near a burned car after an Israeli attack on the outskirts of the southern port city of Sidon [Hassan Hankir/Reuters] | 21 Aug 2024 A suspected Israeli drone attack on a car in southern Lebanon has killed a commander from a coalition of Palestinian armed groups as tensions remain high along the Israel-Lebanon border. The attack targeted a car in the city of Sidon on Wednesday morning, killing Khalil al-Maqdah, a senior officer of Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. A Hamas commander was also killed in the same region earlier this month. Meanwhile, the Israeli army launched a series of overnight air raids targeting what it said were ammunition depots belonging to Lebanon’s Hezbollah group in the country’s Bekaa region, killing one person and wounding at least 20 others. Hezbollah said it launched dozens of rockets towards northern Israel and the occupied Golan Heights. One person was wounded and some residential buildings damaged. Hezbollah said its rocket attacks were a retaliation for the Israeli attack on the Bekaa region overnight. Reporting from Sidon, Al Jazeera’s Zeina Khodr said the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades issued a statement, calling al-Maqdah a commander and saying he played a key role in “supporting the Palestinian people and supporting the Palestinian resistance in the West Bank”. “We have seen Israel target commanders and members of the Palestinian group Hamas in Lebanon and we have seen them target members of Lebanon’s Hezbollah,” she said, adding that such killings are “becoming a near daily occurrence”. An AFP news agency’s correspondent at the site of the attack said a car was struck near the Palestinian camps of Ain al-Helweh and Mieh Mieh, adding rescuers had pulled a body from the charred vehicle. Lebanon’s official National News Agency said al-Maqdah was killed “in a drone strike on his car”. Mounir Makdah, who heads the Lebanese branch of the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, told broadcaster Al Mayadeen that his brother Khalil had been killed, AFP reported. Hezbollah and its allies have exchanged regular fire with Israel in support of its Palestinian ally, Hamas, since the October 7 attack on Israel, which launched an offensive on Gaza. Since then, cross-border skirmishes have taken place almost daily between Israel and Hezbollah, but fears of a greater crisis soared when Hamas’s political leader, Ismail Haniyeh, and top Hezbollah commander Fuad Shukr were killed within hours of each other late last month. Iran has promised retaliation, blaming Israel for Haniyeh’s assassination on its soil, but has held off so far, with the United States sending additional forces and warning a wider war could destroy prospects for a Gaza ceasefire. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/21/palestinian-commander-killed-in-lebanon-as-israel-hezbollah-exchange-fire

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Actually you were good admin with us and nice behavior, Just improve your activity and comeback! So CONTRA for now

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No @El Máster Edwin?

Nick movie: Kanguva - Tamil Trailer | Suriya | Bobby Deol | Devi Sri Prasad | Siva | Studio Green | UV Creations Time: Saregama Tamil Netflix / Amazon / HBO: None Duration of the movie: 2 mins Trailer:

The 2025 Lamborghini Temerario packs a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 and a trio of electric motors. Total output is 907 horsepower and 538 pound-feet of torque that can be sent to all four wheels. Lamborghini also touts a more usable cabin with extra space and three large screens. A decade after the arrival of the Lamborghini Huracán, the Italian supercar specialists from Sant'Agata Bolognese are launching its successor, the Temerario. Unlike the Huracán and Gallardo before it, however, the Temerario trades the long-running V-10 engine for a V-8 powertrain aided by a trio of electric motors. Along with the modernized hybrid powerplant, the Temerario sports a fresh design with a focus on aerodynamics and daily use. With the arrival of the Temerario, Lamborghini's entire lineup is now hybridized. Hi-Po Hybrid The heart of the Temerario is a twin-turbocharged 4.0-liter V-8 with a hot-vee setup, situating the turbos within the V shape formed by the cylinder banks. On its own, the V-8 delivers 789 horsepower between 9000 and 9750 rpm and pumps out 538 pound-feet of torque between 4000 and 7000 rpm. The eight-cylinder can rev to a lofty 10,000 rpm, and the turbos have a maximum boost pressure of 36.3 psi. The engine features a flat-plane crankshaft and titanium con rods to minimize rotating masses, and Lamborghini says many of the materials used in the engine come from lessons learned in motorsport. The V-8's output is routed through an eight-speed dual-clutch transmission transversely mounted behind the engine. Lamborghini says they were able to shave off weight by creating an additional hollow shaft so the same synchronizers are shared for different gear torque paths, and the gearbox is said to weigh less than the seven-speed dual-clutch unit from the Huracán while executing faster shifts. Add in three electric motors, and the Temerario's total output rises to 907 horsepower. Each electric motor emits up to 148 horsepower, with two oil-cooled axial flow motors powering the front axle, giving the Temerario all-wheel drive when needed. Lamborghini says the entire front axle system weighs just 161 pounds, and the front motors can also drive the Temerario in full electric mode. Lamborghini claims its new supercar has 50 percent lower carbon dioxide emissions versus the Huracán. The third electric motor lives between the V-8 and the gearbox and acts as a "torque gap filler" to smooth out gearshifts, eliminate the effects of turbo lag, and improve responsiveness when accelerating from a standstill. This e-motor also operates as a starter motor and three-phase generator. The juice for the e-motors comes from a 3.8-kWh lithium-ion battery, and by placing the gearbox aft of the engine, Lamborghini was then able to squeeze the battery into the central tunnel to create ideal weight distribution and keep the center of gravity as low as possible. An onboard charger can fully replenish the battery in 30 minutes at up to 7 kW, or the battery can be recharged via the regenerative braking from the front wheels or directly by the combustion engine. Lamborghini claims that the Temerario will be able to blast from zero to 62 mph in 2.7 seconds en route to a 213-mph top speed. The front-mounted electric motors also allow for precise torque vectoring that should make the Temerario nimbler in tight corners and stabler in high-speed bends. The torque vectoring system relies mainly on the e-motors, intervening with the brakes only when necessary, which Lamborghini says creates more natural driving dynamics. The Temerario includes a set of distinct drive modes—Città, Strada, Sport, Corsa, and Corsa Plus— along with three different settings for how to use the electric motors, Recharge, Hybrid and Performance. The Lamborghini also has a Drift mode, which has three degrees of adjustment to let drivers induce oversteer for some sideways fun. Aero-Informed Design The Temerario undeniably looks like a Lamborghini, with its iconic wedge shape and pointy details, although its a bit over five inches longer than the Huracán. As is modern Lamborghini fashion, hexagonal cues abound. The most notable ones are the daytime running lights. These sit in the lower bumper and incorporate an air tunnel which, along with air channels below the headlights, directs cool air to the brakes. Moving down the side, a large air intake sits just ahead of the rear wheels to feed the twin-turbo engine, helped by two more ducts sitting above on the Temerario's shoulder line and behind the side window. Hexagons reappear on the rear end with the simple taillights and the center-mounted exhaust pipe, which sit beneath a fixed rear spoiler. A wide diffuser with the rear bodywork cut away around the rear tires gives the Temerario a menacing stance. Air is sent to the diffuser through a series of underbody fins. Daily-Driver Supercar The interior continues the motifs found outside, with hexagonal air vents and a motorsport-inspired steering wheel. The classic Lamborghini start/stop button remains under a red flap, and Launch Control is activated with the press of a single button. The cabin is more livable than past Lamborghinis, offering an 18-way adjustable, heated, and ventilated seat. High-quality materials abound, including carbon, leather, and suede. Lamborghini also says the new aluminum space-frame chassis creates more interior space, with over an inch of extra headroom and legroom. The front trunk has a roughly four-cubic-foot capacity. While the driver is relayed information via a 12.3-inch digital gauge cluster, the passenger's side has its own 9.1-inch screen that can display driving details and vehicle functions. Still, the main entertainment and navigation systems are accessed via an 8.4-inch screen on the center of the dashboard, and apps can be slid from the central screen to the displays on either side. The infotainment system supports wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. The Temerario can also be spec'd with three cameras that enable a built-in dash cam and a "Memories Recorder" that allows owners to record up to two minutes of driving. The cameras also enable Lamborghini Telemetry 2.0, an onboard app that provides data when driving on racetracks, with over 150 circuits programmed in. Any Way You Like While the Temerario arrives with two new paint hues, Blu Marinus and Verde Mercurius, Lamborghini says that over 400 colors and special liveries will be offered through the company's Ad Personam customization division. Three different wheel designs are offered, all measuring 20 inches up front and 21 inches at the rear and shod in either Bridgestone Potenza Sport or Potenza Race tires. Carbon-fiber trim can be optioned both inside and out, and the seats can be specified in a wide array of colors and with four different stitch patterns. Lamborghini also created the Alleggerita package, a lightweight option that shaves off up to 55 pounds. The kit brings a carbon-fiber-reinforced-plastic front splitter, side skirts, and rear lid, while inside the door panels and passenger footrest are fashioned from carbon fiber. Different rear glass and polycarbonate side windows help knock off a few more pounds. The track-focused package also comes with a redesigned rear spoiler that adds extra downforce. Lamborghini hasn't announced pricing details yet and hasn't said when sales of the Temerario will begin. We expect the 2025 Temerario to start around $290,000 and go on sale by early 2025. https://www.caranddriver.com/news/a61883126/2025-lamborghini-temerario-revealed/

Football club owner Michele Kang photographed at the Mandarin Oriental Hyde Park. Photograph: Jill Mead/The Guardian There is an aura of assertiveness about Michele Kang, as she walks through the reception area of a central London hotel. It is there again in her handshake, then it is most prominent when she is soon calmly, yet enthusiastically, explaining her firm belief that investing in women’s sports makes total business sense. She has already put her money where her mouth is. A couple of weeks ago, the owner of Washington Spirit in the National Women’s Soccer League, Lyon’s women’s team and London City Lionesses announced a $50m (£39m) investment to improve female athletes’ health. In the same week, after seeing the USA’s women’s rugby sevens team win Olympic bronze at a packed Stade de France, on the spur of the moment she pledged a further $4m in a bid to see them win gold in Los Angeles. “Yes, that was an expensive game for me,” she says, jokingly but her tone is deadly serious when she says she is “very, very surprised” that a lot more investors did not put their money in before her. “I’m on a mission to prove that women’s sports is good business,” says the South Korea-born Kang, whose Spirit host Arsenal Women in a pre-season friendly in the US capital on Sunday. “The gap between where it is and what it could be, is huge. I’m flabbergasted that no one saw that. “This is not charity. Absolutely not. This is a serious investment. As a woman, I think it’s almost insulting that these world-class athletes are being considered by some people as some sort of ‘DEI [diversity, equity and inclusion] project’. No, I want to apply my business skills to solve these problems.” To sit above the three women’s football teams she owns, she has set up Kynisca Sports International Ltd, a multi-club ownership group, vowing that its new “innovation hub” and centralised resources for research on specific female athletes’ performance are a necessity for the women’s game. The $50m pledge is a lot of cash but she points to the recent, rapid increase in sale prices for clubs in the NWSL, with valuations of between $2m and $5m a few years ago to Angel City’s $250m valuation this year as a key indicator that women’s sports will be profitable. “The growth has been exponential. This is not somebody’s PowerPoint presentation. The proof is there.” She had never attended a women’s rugby game before seeing what she labelled as “unbelievably engaged fans” at that bronze medal match in Paris, nor had she attended any professional women’s football matches until after the Covid pandemic. Women’s sport was not, she says, originally part of her career plan. A keen tennis player in her youth, she moved to the US as a student and won awards for entrepreneurship and enjoyed lucrative success in the medical technology industry and venture capitalism, but now her motivations – as well as being financial – are based on a desire to improve things for young women. Barcelona’s Esmee Brugts and Lyon defender Ellie Carpenter (in white) in action in the Women’s Champions League final in May. Michele Kang’s Lyon lost 2-0. Photograph: Thomas Coex/AFP/Getty Images “I’m an immigrant and I was lucky enough to realise my American dream. So it’s my turn to provide the opportunity,” she says with passion. “I can’t guarantee an equal outcome, but I want to provide equal opportunity, and then the rest is up to you. I want more people, especially underprivileged, under‑resourced young people, to be able to achieve their dream. “I’ve seen incredibly talented young girls and women have to give up their dreams because there’s no viable professional career path – too many girls drop out of sport right before college or when menstruation comes at 11, 12, so I want to provide an environment where young women can pursue their dreams without any constraints, just like the next-door boy would have.” And when she says “everyone”, she means in every corner of the globe. For now, her new multi-club ownership group is just three-teams strong, all in football, but asked if Kynisca might branch out into other women’s sports she says “eventually, probably”, and then when asked how many football clubs around the world she wants to own, she says: “I don’t know [how many] but I definitely want to have one in each continent, and that’s not about greed or vanity. I don’t want girls around the world to watch on TV and say: ‘Oh, that’s just an English, French, American phenomenon.’ I’ll bring exactly the same thing everywhere so they can see it’s in their backyard and within their reach. That’s one of the major drivers for expanding globally.” After buying into Spirit in 2020 and taking over in 2022, in May last year she acquired a majority stake in the eight-time Champions League winners Lyon. The third part of Kang’s global expansion came last December, when she purchased the English second-tier side London City Lionesses. They were a bottom‑half club last term with rather modest turnouts, but Kang has snapped up Paris Saint‑Germain’s head coach, Jocelyn Prêcheur, and signed a flurry of players including the Sweden veteran Kosovare Asllani. Kang has moved the team to Bromley for the new season and announced plans to build a “world-class” dedicated training centre in Kent. Many outsiders may be asking, why choose the relatively unknown London City Lionesses? “The first and primary reason was, it’s independent,” says Kang, who has come straight from a meeting with the training ground architects. “Spinning off a women’s team that’s part of a men’s team is a very complicated deal. “Second, ‘London’, the fact that the name is ‘London City’, that’s huge in my opinion, and in the London City area there’s really no football presence there so it’s really right for us to go in and take that as the future.” Kang, who has said that her long-term target is to win the Women’s Super League, knows larger broadcast deals will be key to the future profitability of the women’s leagues, but concludes defiantly with an insight drawn from the Women’s National Basketball Association. “If you look at men’s sports, if you take the media money out, there aren’t that many teams that are profitable,” she says. “Now look at the deal the WNBA just made. It’s going to happen. The numbers are there for women’s football, it’s just a matter of time.” https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/aug/18/london-city-lionesses-owner-michele-kang-this-is-a-serious-investment

‘I loved many aspects of my job as a teacher, but I began experiencing memory fog and the strange sensation of being outside of my own body.’ Photograph: Hill Street Studios/Getty Images It sounds like you are dissociating, which is a trauma response. Find a therapist to work through this issue so you can break the cycle Philippa Perry Philippa Perry Sun 18 Aug 2024 06.00 BST Share 188 The question I am in my 20s, surrounded by a supportive partner, family, and friends. I am also lucky enough to have had a good education and to have done well academically. Earlier this year, I quit my job as a secondary school teacher in an inner-city comprehensive. I loved many aspects of the job and was good at it, but I began experiencing memory fog and the strange sensation of being outside my own body, even when teaching. Shortly before I made the decision to quit, a male student made a sexually violent threat towards me which wasn’t handled brilliantly by the school. After several years, I decided enough was enough and handed in my notice. Since then, I have been trying to pursue other jobs in all sectors. I have been largely successful in getting interviews and securing roles, which is nice. There’s only one problem: every time I get a job, I start to feel a horrible sense of claustrophobia and distress. Twice now, on my way to a new job, I have taken a train straight back home. I make up an excuse about why the job wasn’t right for me and start the search afresh. I fear feeling trapped again – which is how I did throughout a lot of my teaching career – so stave off this feeling by never properly committing to anything. But I’m starting to feel worried. Apart from the fact that I am burning through my savings at an alarming rate, what if I always feel this awful sense of entrapment and can’t hold down a job? I had another job before teaching and the same thing happened. Am I simply lazy and just don’t like working? Philippa’s answer Memory fog and experiencing yourself outside your own body sounds like it could be that you are dissociating when at work. Dissociation is a response to trauma. For example, people who have had bad car crashes often remember the seconds leading up to the crash and then the moments after it, but have no memory of the crash itself, even if they didn’t pass out. Once the body has a learned pathway to this dissociative response, you can slip into it when experiencing other types of stress. Now you are associating this feeling with work. Perhaps your body is fighting you and winning and not letting you go to work. It won’t have helped that you received a threat of sexual violence in your last job: this will be another negative association your brain will be making with work. Cast your mind back to when you first felt trapped and tackle it There is also something going on about being trapped, as you mention that you had this feeling at an earlier job. If you free-associate around entrapment, what comes up for you? If I do this exercise, I can see my childhood as being trapped – when we’re growing up, we must live by our family’s rules and don’t have much of a say about where and how to live. Work contracts can also be a bit like traps. Cast your mind back to when you first felt trapped: what was that situation? What I think you should do is see a psychotherapist experienced in trauma and do detective work together to find your original trauma. If we go back to the source of our troubles and tackle that, it can stop us getting stuck in a cycle of repeating that past dynamic that continues to haunt us. But to pay for this you will probably need to go back to work! Choose temporary work that won’t trap you. But it might also be that you haven’t found your true vocation yet. There is a book by Richard N Bolles, What Colour Is Your Parachute? containing exercises designed to help individuals understand their own career preferences and goals. Try, for example, the flower exercise. Draw a flower with seven petals. Each petal represents a different aspect of your ideal job and work environment. To fill in each petal you answer the following questions: what do you value most in life and work, including your core beliefs and principles? What areas of expertise and knowledge do you possess and are passionate about? Which types of people do you prefer to work with? What are the physical and environmental conditions in which you work best? How much responsibility are you comfortable with and what are your salary expectations? What transferable skills do you have? What are your preferred locations for living and working? By filling out each petal with specific details, you create a personalised picture of your ideal career, helping you to identify job opportunities and career paths that align with your strengths, values and preferences. You are not lazy, but you have some kind of mental block. You need to identify this so that you can get around it. Meditate upon this block, see what images arise for you and work with them. When we get stuck, we can also get unstuck – especially when we are proactive about it. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/aug/18/jobs-make-me-feel-trapped-so-i-never-stay-am-i-just-lazy

Luís Costa published his first volume of poetry, Two Dying Lovers Holding a Cat, in November. “It is not about cats,” he said. “It’s about two lovers who cease to be lovers. There’s just a lot of symbolism about cats.” The next month, his cat, Pierogi (“dumpling” in Polish), fell ill. “He had his own Advent calendar. That’s when I noticed he’d lost his appetite,” says Costa. Pierogi had cancer, which had spread to his bowels and his liver. He died just before Christmas. “A couple of weeks ago, while I was hoovering the house, I pushed the table aside and there was a whisker. He was a tuxedo cat, so he had white whiskers. The contrast with the floor was quite striking. That was very hard.” Everyone who has lost a pet will have a friend or acquaintance who said the wrong thing. When my puppy died of canine parvovirus, my friend kept referring to her as “it”. I’m not saying I have never forgiven her, but that was in 2003 and I don’t seem to have forgotten it. Other greatest hits include: “You still on about that?” and: “When are you getting another one?” “As if you’re just replacing one furry body with another,” says Susan, who volunteers for Paws to Listen, the grief support service of the charity Cats Protection. She lost Tabitha recently. “A very judgmental cat, certainly, but she was our difficult little madam,” she says. “And now she’s gone and it’s horrible. Her presence filled the house, so when she died … well, it’s just a house now. It isn’t a home.” ‘Some people are aghast to hear that it might be harder for someone to lose an animal than a person.’ Photograph: Catherine Falls Commercial/Getty Images Hearing such recollections, and recalling my own loss, it’s clear that pet grief is objectively, indisputably real. Many of us don’t need to be told what it feels like, but wonder why this great open secret – that losing an animal is enormously hard – is so often minimised. Diane James is the head of pet loss support at the charity Blue Cross. Its bereavement service, for all animals, has been running for 30 years. It takes 20,000 calls a year and advises similar organisations in the US and Canada. “Some people are aghast to hear that it might be harder for someone to lose an animal than a person,” James says. But it depends on the person or the pet. “When we compared it with the human grief cycle, we noticed some differences,” says James. “We talk about responsibility grief.” The custodian relationship has a particular anguish. Catherine Joyce, a team leader at Paws to Listen, says the bulk of calls are from people who have had to get their cats euthanised: “It’s an incredible burden.” The academic and writer Finn Mackay, who lost their soulmate, a cat called Solomon, just before Christmas, remembers when the vet said: “‘There’s nothing you can do; he’s dying.’ I signed this form and within five minutes they gave him a lethal injection through his paw. For a minute, I thought: this is really stark, this is alpha and omega, I shouldn’t have this power. It was awful.” ‘When a pet dies shortly after a person, or even a long time after a spouse or parent, it can be especially hard.’ Photograph: Westend61/Getty Images There can be an anticipatory grief, too, which seems to be worse with animals than humans. Your power to euthanise freights every moment with the painful question: are you prolonging their suffering for selfish reasons? But after making the painful decision to end their misery, says James, “people say they feel as if they’ve signed a death warrant or they’ve murdered their pet”. For some, the guilt will be so unbearable that the vet ends up on the receiving end. Lola, 52, lost her eight-year-old rescue staffie cross when she thought she was going in for a routine operation. “It didn’t seem mega-serious until we got a phone call saying: ‘We need your permission not to resuscitate her,’” she says. “I remember it so clearly, being in the kitchen, me pleading with the vet, trying to get him on side, while my husband went mad, shouting at him: ‘You wanker, you’ve killed my dog.’” It’s common for couples to have very different but equally intense grief responses. My sister and brother-in-law, who have two cats, were caring for a small stray, Slow Cat, who wasn’t allowed in the house. When he took ill suddenly and had to be put down, the vet gave them a moment to say goodbye. My brother-in-law said: “I love you, Slow Cat,” and my sister started laughing, even though she also loved Slow Cat. Sometimes, when you are mourning, the last thing you want to be is married. When a pet dies shortly after a person, or even a long time after a spouse or parent, it can be especially hard. This may be echo grief, the fresh loss bouncing off the original loss, the feelings similar in a way that may feel shameful, because you are supposed to think humans are more important than animals. So then you have shame on top of sorrow and no certainty over when, if ever, it will end. Maybe you really are grieving harder for your pet. That is fine, too. Mackay lost another cat, Pixie, before Solomon. “My father had died not long before,” they say. “As bizarre and hard to process as that was, I didn’t use to speak to my dad that often. I was close to him and I loved him very much, but we only spoke every so often on the phone. Pixie was always there.” Anyway, not all familial relationships are perfect. Costa, who is queer, says: “When I came out, I had a really terrible experience with it. The notion of unconditional love vanished for me at the age of 19. With this cat, I thought: hang on a second, it is possible. It was the first time I’d experienced that.” Pet mourners can also feel compound grief, when the pet was the mascot of a relationship or a time that has been lost. “People feel like all the memories have died,” says James. If you are talking about an animal with a long lifespan, such as a tortoise, that will bring up memories and losses all the way back to childhood. It can read to the outside world as if you cared more about your dog, say, than your dad, but it may be that you are mourning for both. ‘If you are talking about an animal with a long lifespan, that will bring up memories and losses all the way back to childhood.’ Photograph: Manu Vega/Getty Images Animals often provide solace for their humans through all kinds of difficultly. People struggled with losing pets after Covid, Susan says, “if they were on their own during lockdown with the cat and their relationship became closer by default. People will say: ‘This little cat saw me through my divorce, or my redundancy.’ The cat, knowingly or not, was supporting them.” The reason people take it hard, when someone asks them if they will replace a pet they are grieving, is the implication that the animal wasn’t unique. So, try not to say that. But James adds the caveat that she doesn’t like rules: “Sometimes, people find talking about loss difficult. We’d rather they say whatever they can, as compassionately as they can, than worry about making a mistake.” The decision to get a new pet will be personal. “Some people need to do it really quickly,” Susan says. “Some people will never get another cat. Some people need a cat in their lives, but they need time to grieve the cat they’ve lost. It’s hard to form a bond if you take in a new cat too soon.” When it comes to disaster stories of grieving pet owners getting new animals, dogs come into their own, being capable of wreaking so much more havoc than cats. The next dog Lola chose was a maniac, as is mine. I got a dog, Romeo, 11 months after the death of Spot, a prince. Romeo is the same breed, but he is not the same. I wouldn’t say we haven’t bonded, but a typical conversation with Romeo will go: “Come sit by me, you little tosser,” and he’ll bowl over, head-butt me in the face, eat my jaffa cake, then sit by me, like a tosser. A typical conversation with Spot would go: “You are a prince,” and he wouldn’t need to do anything, because he would already be sitting by me, like a prince. Mackay brings up the notion of the “grievability” of things, a subject the philosopher and gender-studies academic Judith Butler has written about. “Any living thing that is not replaceable is grievable,” says Mackay. “I lecture on that with my students; we do the sociology of pets. And they’re rolling their eyes, but as soon as we start to talk about animals they’ve known, they come out with all these unique traits. This dog doesn’t like walking in this weather. This dog growls at postboxes.” It’s interesting, because Butler was talking about war when she was developing the concept of how we divide lives into grievable and ungrievable by exactly that mechanism: amplifying the uniqueness of some, shading out the uniqueness of others. If you accept that every animal is unique, you accept that, some day, someone is going to be grieving them, hard. “Dogs don’t live long enough, in my opinion,” says James. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/article/2024/aug/15/the-surprising-shame-of-pet-loss-you-are-supposed-to-think-humans-are-more-important-than-animals

Thirty delegates from across the US will represent voters who cast ballots in protest of Democrats’ pro-Israel policies. Delegates from the 'uncommitted' movement will be at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, Illinois, next week [Alex Brandon/The Associated Press] It started as a last-minute effort in February: Organisers in Michigan hoped to use the state’s Democratic primary to send a message to President Joe Biden to end his support for Israel’s war in Gaza. Six months later, Biden is no longer the Democratic presidential candidate. But the US’s “ironclad” support for the war continues. And so has the “uncommitted” movement, the protest effort born in Michigan. Initially, the aim was to encourage primary voters across the country to cast their “uncommitted” ballots in protest of the war. But now that the primary season is over, the “uncommitted movement” has set its sights on a new platform: the Democratic National Convention. Next week, 30 delegates from eight states, representing some 700,000 voters who cast “uncommitted” ballots, will be heading to the convention in Chicago. Though they have been denied an official platform to speak at the proceedings, they hope their presence will still send a strong message. “We’re the first delegation ever to be representing Palestinian human rights. And I think that that’s really important. We’re a small but mighty group,” said Asma Mohammed, who organised for the “uncommitted” movement in advance of Minnesota’s primary. Mohammed acknowledged the “uncommitted” delegates will be a minority at the convention. Still, she emphasised the voter base they represent could be decisive in November’s general election. “There’s 30 of us, and there’s over 4,000 delegates nationally. So we’re less than 1 percent of the delegates,” she told Al Jazeera. “But inside the convention hall, we will be representing the Palestinians that were massacred, representing the almost million voters nationwide who said that they want a ceasefire right now and that they want an arms embargo.” Activist Natalia Latif tapes a ‘Vote Uncommitted’ sign on the speaker’s podium during an election night gathering in Dearborn, Michigan [File: Rebecca Cook/Reuters] The group had requested for Dr Tanya Haj-Hassan, a pediatric intensive care physician who has worked in Gaza, to speak at the convention. Their appeal was denied, Mohammed said. Still, the delegates, under the banner of the Uncommitted National Movement, will hold a programme of events on the sidelines of the convention. There, they will meet with various caucuses and seek to rally other delegates pledged to Kamala Harris, the new Democratic nominee for president. ‘Fighting for human rights’ The Uncommitted National Movement has already used its position to protest against the continuing bloodshed in Gaza, where more than 40,000 Palestinians have been killed. Earlier this month, Harris was formally designated the Democratic nominee through a virtual roll call — an online vote in which all delegates could take part. Instead of voting for Harris, the “uncommitted” delegates nominated victims from Gaza. Mohammed was among the delegates who participated in the protest. “I submitted my vote for Reem Badwan, a three-year-old who was murdered in an Israeli air strike in Gaza,” Mohammed said. “And I made clear my vote [in the general election] was contingent on a ceasefire and an arms embargo.” Ahmad Awad, an “uncommitted” delegate from New Jersey, said the effort was a “symbolic way to highlight the many victims of the war”. The 29-year-old lawyer nominated Abdul Rahman Manhal, a 14-year-old killed in Gaza’s Nuseirat refugee camp in November. “The districts that I’m representing as an ‘uncommitted’ delegate encompasses Paterson and Clifton, New Jersey, which are home to a large Palestinian American community. It’s basically little Ramallah,” Awad said, drawing an analogy to the West Bank city. Awad explained that his participation in the “uncommitted” movement stems from a family history of fighting and surviving human rights abuses. “Fighting for human rights is something that’s really ingrained in my DNA,” he told Al Jazeera. “On my father’s side, both of my grandparents were born in Palestine prior to 1948. My mother’s side is Polish. My grandfather is a survivor of Nazi slave labour camps.” ‘Resolute is the best word’ In Harris’s abrupt entrance into the presidential race, activists have seen a potential opening for a course change in US policy towards Israel. Harris became the Democratic nominee after Biden withdrew from the race on July 21, amid concerns about his age and capacity to lead. Whereas Biden has advanced a policy of “bear-hug diplomacy” towards Israel, some observers believe Harris has signalled her intention to take a tougher stance. Shortly after entering the presidential race, Harris pledged to denounce the suffering of Palestinian civilians. “I will not be silent,” she said, shortly after meeting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a brief exchange with two “uncommitted” leaders — Layla Elabed and Abbas Alawieh — at a campaign stop in Detroit this month, she also said she would speak with the group. But her campaign has not set a date for the meeting, and a Harris campaign adviser doused hopes that she would support a full arms embargo on Israel. Michael Berg, a 49-year-old uncommitted delegate from Missouri, said there had been some positive signs from Harris, although he had tempered his expectations. “It’s hard to know where things are going,” said Berg, who named two-year-old Gaza victim Jihad Khaled Abu Amer as his vote during the virtual roll call. “I’m hoping that Vice President Harris is not as dug in on positions as President Biden seems to be.” Still, Berg explained he and the other “uncommitted” delegates are steadfast in their mission to advocate for a ceasefire at the Democratic National Convention. “So we are, I guess, resolute is the best word. We are going to the convention because we have a very clear mandate and mission from the people, and we’re going to do what we can.” ‘Standing with my fellow Kentuckians’ Violet Olds, for instance, applied to represent the “uncommitted” segment of voters in Kentucky but was not initially involved in the movement. Olds, a digital project manager, said that after she was selected by the party to represent uncommitted voters, she was approached by her local Democratic Socialists of America chapter, which connected her to the national protest movement. “I actually reached out and found ways to communicate with other Kentucky voters to find out why they voted uncommitted and how I can represent their voices at the convention,” the 41-year-old told Al Jazeera. “And it all comes down to basically Gaza and Palestine. So I’m standing with my fellow Kentuckians and with Palestinians.” During the roll call, Olds named Mohammad Bhar, a 24-year-old Palestinian man with Down syndrome who died after being mauled by an Israeli military dog in his home in Shujayea in Gaza. “I am autistic, and so that means that I represent a whole different class of people than I think the Democratic Party is usually used to representing, and my son is autistic, as well,” Olds said. “So when I heard Mohammad’s story, it really, really, really hit home.” Asma Mohammed, an activist with Uncommitted Minnesota, addresses media in Minneapolis, Minnesota [Stephen Maturen/AFP] Others, like Inga Gibson, a delegate from Hawaii, have long been part of the Palestinian solidarity movement. Nearly 30 percent of voters in Hawaii’s Democratic primary cast their ballot for “uncommitted”, the largest proportion of any state. Seven of the island state’s 22 delegates are “uncommitted”. Gibson attributed the turnout to Hawaii’s “own history of settler colonialism”. “A lot of native Hawaiians within the Palestinian freedom movement have drawn on that parallel,” she explained. Gibson, a 52-year-old environmental policy consultant, said that the relatively small size of the “uncommitted” delegation does not reflect wider sentiment against US support for Israel. Polls have repeatedly shown widespread disapproval of Israel’s actions among Democrats. Experts say the support for Israel could disadvantage Democrats in several key battleground states, including Michigan and Pennsylvania. “I do not feel that our movement, by any means, is in the minority, even if our delegates are, per se, in the minority compared to 4,000 others,” said Gibson. She named Gaza victim Ruba Yasser Nawas, a 22-year-old software engineer, during the roll call vote. “Everything that we are asking for is completely mainstream.” ‘Cannot just make this week a celebration’ June Rose, the sole “uncommitted” delegate from Rhode Island, also said it was incorrect to assume the delegation members come from the fringes of the Democratic Party. “We are Democratic professionals. I’m the chief of staff of the Providence City Council. I’ve made my career helping to elect Democrats and defeat Republicans who pose incredible risk to the future of our country,” the 29-year-old told Al Jazeera. “But my relationship with the party will never supersede my relationship with my values, and in this case, my values and my party are in direct conflict.” Rose named Eileen Abu Odeh, a toddler killed with her family in an Israeli air raid in Gaza, during the roll call. They explained the delegation’s presence at the Democratic National Convention can serve as a gut check for the party, as it prepares to chart a course forward on foreign policy. “Our party cannot just make this week a celebration, and I think that that’s the tone that many in our party want to take,” Rose said. “But that celebration would be on the graves of innocent children who’ve been slaughtered.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/8/17/uncommitted-delegates-bring-gaza-war-message-to-democratic-convention