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The country’s 13 million dogs create a lot of mess that’s hard to dispose of, dangerous and harmful to the environment A Yorkshire terrier. The numbers of dogs in the UK has almost doubled since 2011. Photograph: Liliboas/Getty Images An unlikely folk hero has emerged in the Venice beach area of Los Angeles. Their identity is unknown, but their po[CENSORED]rity is down to their homemade flags on cocktail sticks stuck into piles of dog faeces with messages like “Lazy. Pick. Up. Your. Dog. Poo”. The message is going down well. “I’m a big fan,” said one local. “No one wants to see a dog poop everywhere.” These are the exact tactics that were used in Britain back in the 1980s, when dog faeces on the streets first began to be seen as unacceptable. Campaigners stuck little flags with similar messages aimed at getting dog poo off streets and public play areas. In many ways it was a successful campaign. There’s now widespread consciousness of the dangers to children of toxocara disease caused by accidentally ingesting excrement via their hands. And there are very few who would put up a public defence that a faeces-littered pavement is a sign of the healthy freedom of its citizens. But in spite of reaching this level of public awareness, we still have an escalating problem of dog mess. Not only does the problem in public places still exist, but some of the strategies for disposing of it have spawned a whole set of new problems: bagged-up mess left lying about on the streets, overflowing bins or, even more maddeningly, bags of faeces hanging on trees. Such piles have far from disappeared from our streets, parks, nature reserves and beaches. There remains a hard core of refuseniks, like the elderly gent who walks his dog in our street after dark and never “scoops the poop”. Meanwhile, many unbagged heaps are the gift of dog walkers who conveniently “miss” the event, either because they’re walking too many dogs at the same time or they’re immersed in conversations or on phones. I’m sceptical about how genuine these oversights are. More likely, these are the soft-core refuseniks who know they ought to pick up but can’t be bothered. On the occasions I’ve pointed this out to the owners, I’ve been met with responses that range from outright aggression to a half-hearted search in an area from which the dog is long departed and whose offering cannot immediately be found. Part of the problem is the sheer number of dogs. There are now an estimated 13 million in the UK. The numbers have pretty much doubled since 2011 when there were 7.6 million. That means an awful lot of faeces and, probably even more serious than what’s left on the streets, there is the problem that there are no environmentally harmless ways of disposing of “waste” from all those dogs. Most waste bags are not truly biodegradable and, while compostable bags are available, there is currently no real way of safely composting dog waste. It cannot be added to domestic compost without extensive supervision. Nor can it be disposed of down toilets as there is a real risk of diseases entering the drinking system this way. The vast majority goes, via public bins, to landfill where it will eventually anaerobically degrade creating methane gas. As for the impact of dogs on the wider environment, some have suggested that due to their meat-based diet and its effect on agricultural production, the average dog creates the equivalent CO2 emissions over its lifetime as a medium-sized SUV. Dog owners don’t want to have conversations about the difficulties dogs can create for society or the environment more widely. It’s always other “bad” owners who are responsible – for dog mess, for delinquent dogs, for irresponsible disposal of dog bags. But as a non-dog owner, I do wonder why there isn’t more collective responsibility? Why, for example, don’t dog owners occasionally pick up the mess which someone else’s dog has left? And why is there not more support for the return of the dog licence? If that was restored at the cost of say £100 a year, it would at least make a significant contribution to the public purse. Importantly, it would recognise that dogs do have an impact in our shared social space. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/feb/25/how-about-charging-dog-owners-100-for-a-licence-to-cover-the-costs-of-poo

One of our favorite pickups tests the faithful by ditching V-8s for powerful twin-turbo inline-sixes. Traditionalism, in the car business, is often a euphemism for corporate penury. "Our buyers are very traditionalist," a car company will say, by way of explaining its continued deployment of some Bronze Age technology that should've been jettisoned decades before. Sometimes, there's a kernel of truth in there—certain Porsche fans still mistrust the dark magic of water-cooled engines—but more often the company in question simply amortized research and development costs long ago and is thus happy to keep furnishing leaf springs or drum brakes or hit-and-miss engines to its supposedly traditionalist buyers. Ram doesn't play that game, as evidenced by the 2025 Ram 1500 and its quiver of new engines, none of which is a V-8. That's right: The company that sent Jon Reep to stardom with the question "That thing got a Hemi?" no longer offers Hemis in its new pickup. What it does offer is a furious twin-turbocharged 3.0-liter inline-six, and we suspect that 540 horsepower will make its own argument to the pickup faithful. Out with the Hemi, long live the Hurricane. New Hurricane Six in Two Strengths Yes, the new 3.0-liter has a cool name, because Stellantis is not going to give an engine some bland alphanumeric moniker when it can invoke a terror-inducing natural disaster. In the Ram 1500, the Hurricane comes in two flavors, with the middle-of-the-lineup engine making 420 horsepower and 469 pound-feet of torque, improving on the 2024 truck's 5.7-liter V-8 by 25 horsepower and 59 pound-feet. That alone is a worthy upgrade, but there's also a high-output version that cranks out 540 horsepower and 521 pound-feet. The ZF-sourced eight-speed automatic returns, sending power to a stronger rear axle designed to cope with the Hurricanes' mountain of torque. Both engines get a closed-deck block and a forged steel crankshaft, with the high-output employing forged aluminum pistons as well. There are two turbochargers, each fed by three cylinders and enjoying its own exhaust plumbing—true three-inch dual exhaust, all the way back. The standard Hurricane makes 22.4 psi of peak boost, while the high-output's turbos huff 28.0 psi into the intake manifold. To address an obvious question here: Yes, you'll need to run premium fuel to hit those published power numbers. Both engines will run fine on 87 octane but will generate power figures that Ram representatives defined as "less." (Fuel economy is still to be determined, but Ram hopes for an improvement over the V-8.) To assuage worries that the wee six is overmatched for truck duty, Ram showed a video of the engine undergoing the company's most diabolical dyno test, in which the throttle is pinned while the entire engine is tossed around violently in a motorized cradle. If you somehow get your truck on the track at Millennium Force at Cedar Point, oil starvation will be the least of your worries. The Hurricane, in one strength or the other, is available on every trim, and there are plenty of those. As before, the Tradesman is the value-oriented work truck, and the carryover 305-hp 3.6-liter V-6 is standard. But the standard-output Hurricane is optional, as it is on the next trim level up the ladder, the Big Horn/Lonestar. From there, the off-road-oriented Rebel and the fancier Laramie are both exclusively powered by the 420-hp Hurricane, while the Limited, Limited Longhorn, and Tungsten—the new flagship model—are graced with the 540-hp version. That's a lot of bandwidth in a single lineup, from a $42,000 work truck to an $89,000 luxury chariot. If you opt for a base-model truck, the 2025 model isn't a wild departure from the 2024. Most of the body panels carry over, save for a subtle front- and rear-end restyling that brings standard LED headlights. But a Tungsten is like a different truck entirely, with its BMW M3–shaming engine, hands-free driver assist, 24-way power seats with massage, and 23-speaker Klipsch sound system. Come to think of it, the Tungsten not only makes more power than an M3 Competition, but it costs more too. Whatever the ceiling is on the half-ton truck market's appetite for decadence, Ram thinks we haven't found it yet. Driving the 2025 Ram As for the question of whether the V-8 will be missed: Yes, the 702-hp supercharged one in the TRX deserves its own national holiday. But anyone accustomed to the naturally aspirated 5.7-liter will find the standard-output Hurricane a marked upgrade and the high-output one on another level entirely. There might not be a huge difference in 60-mph times between the old 395-hp Hemi and the 420-hp six, but that wall of torque makes the Hurricane feel much stronger in around-town driving (it also shrugged off some light off-roading that included a few steep climbs). And it sounds great, as most inline-sixes do, issuing a throaty burr from those dual pipes. And for those who mourn the V-8 rumble, we'd note that the Hemi engaged its cylinder deactivation system whenever it could, and in that mode it sounded like a goat that fell down a well. The Hurricane always sounds pretty good. And in the Tungsten, it's tire-smoking strong. Perhaps the high-output six won't allow the upcoming Ram RHO off-roader to match the outgoing TRX's 3.7-second 60-mph time, but it ought to hang a lead on the 450-hp 3.5-liter Ford F-150 Raptor, which hits 60 in 5.2 seconds. In the Tungsten, the silken six aligns nicely with the upscale gestalt of the fanciest Ram, remaining mostly hushed unless wide-open throttle is called for. Mostly, it remains a complementary player, letting the new cabin hog all the attention. New Tungsten Interior And on a Tungsten, there's a lot to take in. A 14.5-inch central touchscreen is paired with a 10.3-inch passenger-side screen that allows the front seat passenger to watch a movie (or cue up functions from the main screen, like navigation) without the driver being able to see it. The seats have so many adjustments that the headrests alone are four-way adjustable. The massage function, when set to "rock climb," is so vigorous that you might find the herringbone pattern of the leather embossed on your back an hour after a drive. (This is the first time in recent memory that a drive impression was literal.) There are dual wireless phone chargers, and that Klipsch sound system will rock your skull with a 12-inch subwoofer. Out back in the bed—this is a truck, remember?—an inverter delivers 1800 watts of power to two outlets. Active lane management, adaptive cruise control, and blind-spot monitoring with cross-path detection and adaptive emergency braking are standard across the board, and evasive steer assist is available (and standard on Tungsten). The active lane management isn't a hands-free system, but it uses a capacitive sensor to detect the driver's hand touching the wheel rather than a torque sensor that requires constant nudging as proof of life—finally, a use of capacitive sensors that we don't hate! There's also that fully hands-free highway driver assist system, and while it's not as shrewd as GM's Super Cruise, it should be useful on major highways. Which are also the only places that it's enabled, as yet. All told, the 2025 Ram falls somewhere between a mid-cycle refresh and a thorough overhaul. At the 2025 truck's Texas debut, Ram also had two other models on display, the plug-in-hybrid Ramcharger and the electric Ram 1500 Rev. Both of those will soon be in showrooms, ready to make a truck with a gasoline inline-six look downright traditional. https://www.caranddriver.com/reviews/a46860235/2025-ram-1500-pickup-drive/

Ireland 31-7 Wales Champions run in four tries to secure bonus point No sign of any letup. Ireland did not have to be at their best to beat Wales comfortably. The bonus point was not secured until the last play of the game, but you almost had to remind yourself that it had not been. This dismantling of a brave Wales team was total. Now for England at Twickenham. Let us not reach for too many cliches, but that one about men and boys does spring to mind. Wales are hard and flexible, but do not possess anywhere near the firepower they were up against here. It was something of an achievement to turn around just 17-0 down. And then they tore into the second half. They needed a penalty try for their only points, scored just after the break, but Ireland did not like what the visitors were doing at that stage. Dafydd Jenkins leads his Wales team off past Ireland after the game. No one really imagined a second-half comeback like Wales’s against Scotland in round one was on the cards. Sure enough, Ireland, having also suffered a yellow card, played their way out of the hole to secure the maximum points. That we are describing a 10-point lead as “a hole” says something about the dominance of this team. For more than half an hour the flow was almost entirely one way. Not until the last minutes of the first half did Wales manage to reach the Irish 22. They were duly hounded into mistakes. There seemed nowhere for Wales to turn. If they were not repelling wave after wave of green shirts, which they did remarkably well in the early exchanges, they were enduring a fearful pounding at the set piece. Ireland would not play at less than a hundred miles an hour, the ball rarely anywhere other than on Irish fingertips, Tadhg Furlong doing that fly-half thing he loves so well, as happy flipping passes off either hand as he is demolishing opposition looseheads. Wales were quite unlucky to concede the first points, a penalty converted by Jack Crowley after Nick Tompkins ended up around James Lowe’s neck as the latter charged forwards with a posse of mates behind him. But there was not much arguing with the tries that followed. Having put Wales through a non-stop defensive set for 20 minutes or so, Ireland resorted to more old-fashioned methods for their first try. Another fearsome pummelling at scrum-time was rewarded with a penalty, sent to the corner. Dan Sheehan, another front-row forward who might as well be a back, finished the subsequent lineout and drive. Try number two came from another penalty to the corner – Wales conceded a flood of them during the onslaught. After some meaty drives brought Ireland to the brink, Calvin Nash was given a go on the right. He was stopped somehow but wasted no time looping round to the left, where his deft hands put Lowe over in the corner after more fingertip passing from everyone else. Crowley converted from the touchline – obviously – to give Ireland a 17-0 lead but the bombardment felt more relentless than that. James Lowe touches down Ireland’s second try. Photograph: Charles McQuillan/Getty Images Wales were finally offered a couple of penalties in those five minutes before the break, both of which they sent to the corner too. No joy. They seemed to be running into brick walls. The mistakes followed inevitably. But 17-0 down is nothing to these boys. Ireland in Dublin is not Scotland at home, where Wales recovered by scoring 26 points from 27-0 down, but Wales came out of the traps in a mood all the same. They won a penalty, another sent to the corner, and Tadhg Beirne conceded a penalty try and a yellow card by swimming up the side of the advancing maul. Ireland spent most of the next 10 minutes playing more fingertip rugby, this as much to run down the clock as to make inroads into the Welsh defence. But now it was they who struggled to shake off the referee’s attention. Wales went for the corner three times, but Beirne returned for the third attacking lineout, which Ireland turned over. The threat was more or less defused. Ireland were far from precise, but they bossed the next 20 minutes, until their match-securing try. Bundee Aki reckoned he had it, going over between the posts after yet more sweeping attacks, but Robbie Henshaw had knocked on in the buildup. No matter, Ireland had their third 15 minutes from time. Welsh hands in the ruck during another onslaught set Ireland up in the corner. Aki drove, so too did Jack Conan, before Crowley sent Ciarán Frawley, enjoying his first start, through a huge gap to the line. In the last 10 minutes, Ireland suffered their second yellow card. They did the same as last time – got their hands on the ball and came at Wales, only this time they very definitely had try-scoring on their mind. Beirne it was who proved one last charging Irishman too many. Ireland had their bonus point. Another assignment ticked off. https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2024/feb/24/ireland-wales-six-nations-match-report

Isabella Tree, author of Wilding and architect behind the wilding project at her home on the Knepp estate. 19 July 2021 Picture by Jack Hill/The Times and Sunday Times. Photograph: Jack Hill/The Times Biodiversity campaigner Isabella Tree says wild areas work ‘hand in glove’ with food production as her Sussex estate boasts return of endangered species The Knepp estate in West Sussex is home to the first white stork born in the wild in Britain for over 600 years. It’s a place where endangered bats, turtle doves and nightingales are thriving, where “officially extinct” large tortoiseshell butterflies are breeding and where tens of thousands of people visit each year to experience “a story of hope” about the resilience of nature in the face of the global climate emergency. There have been many exciting changes at Knepp since 2018, when Isabella Tree wrote Wilding, her award-winning book about rewilding an unprofitable 3,500-acre arable and dairy farm. Now she has written a captivating illustrated book, Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back – An Illustrated Guide, updating her readers about extraordinary developments at Knepp and offering practical advice about rewilding their own spaces, however small. Jays: One of Angela Harding’s illustrations from Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back – An Illustrated Guide. Photograph: Angela Harding “We’re living in a world of eco-anxiety and most of us, I guess, stick our heads in the sand because these problems are so enormous,” says Tree. “How is one individual going to make a difference to climate meltdown and biodiversity? ‘It’s impossible,’ you think. Then you come to Knepp and you see what nature has done, how it’s rebounded in 20 or so years. It really is such a story of hope that I think people find it quite galvanising. It restores your energy and your belief that you can do something.” The book, out on 7 March and is aimed at older children (aged 9+) and adults, explains how and why Tree and her husband, Charlie Burrell, sold off their dairy cows and farm machinery in 2000. They stopped ploughing and spraying fertilisers and pesticides, pulled up their barbed wire fences, smashed their Victorian land drains, quit clearing their ditches – and “simply let things go”. “We wanted to work with nature for a change, rather than fighting against it all the time,” writes Tree. Exquisite illustrations by the printmaker and fine artist Angela Harding reveal how, step-by-step, wilderness and wildlife then returned to Knepp. “Nature bounces back, if you let it, wherever it can.” Tree with one of her oaks on the Knepp estate. Photograph: Charlie Burrell Some of the rarest creatures in Britain have now made Knepp their home, including kingfishers, hazel dormice, scarce chaser dragonflies and purple emperor butterflies. The river has returned to its natural course and the soil is now storing as much carbon per hectare as a 25-year-old plantation of trees does, according to recent tests. “That’s really exciting, because rewilding has been seen as fantastic for wildlife and recovering biodiversity, but people say it doesn’t answer the problem of climate change. We can say now, categorically, it does. That, actually, you can restore your soils by allowing an area to rewild – and just the soils alone will be the same as a carbon storage in a plantation.” This comparison is important, Tree says, because putting trees in the ground with a spade is not good for biodiversity. “What you’re creating as a single generational plantation with standing trees is a closed canopy woodland, which is very species poor.” By contrast, Knepp has wetland, scrubland, mature trees and deadwood, as well as mycorrhizal fungi and root systems under the ground. “All of that is way more significant for storing carbon than just planting trees.” Yet, in 2000, Knepp was merely an “unpromising piece of land underneath the Gatwick stacking system”. “If it can happen here, it can happen anywhere.” The release two years ago of a pair of breeding beavers was particularly important: last year, they had two kits, the first to be born in the wild in Sussex for centuries. “Seeing what the beavers have done during all these storms and floods is astonishing – they’re holding back probably four or five acres of standing water and helping to prevent flooding downstream.” During the 2022 heatwave, the beavers’ dams created something similar to a “little emerald oasis in the middle of an African savannah”, which is now “heaving with life”. Tree says: “It’s absurd we still have to have beavers under licence in enclosed pens in England, when they’re living free in Scotland and on the continent. Everyone knows how powerful they are for cleaning polluted water and restoring biodiversity.” She and Burrell have been campaigning to “get beavers back in England” for 15 years: “We’re so risk averse in the UK, while the planet is in meltdown. We’ve got to get braver and start reintroducing the keystone species that are crucial to restoring nature.” Beavers by Angela Harding from Isabella Tree’s new book. Photograph: Angela Harding Wild-living beavers were recently given protected status in England, but farmers are concerned that reintroducing the native species – which was hunted to extinction in the 16th century –will threaten their crops or livestock, for example by redirecting rivers and flooding agricultural land. Similarly, critics of rewilding argue that the government’s decision to offer farmers incentives to rewild their land, in order to restore 741,000 acres of wildlife habitats in England by 2042, is putting food security at risk, when the UK is already heavily reliant on global food supply chains. “People say we can’t rewild everywhere – how are we going to produce food? That’s the big pushback we’re getting against nature, certainly from the National Farmers’ Union,” says Tree. While she accepts that not everywhere can be rewilded – “we will always need land for food production” – she thinks that it can protect crops and provide farmers with a “life-support system” they desperately need. “We cannot carry on ploughing and using chemicals and artificial fertiliser. We know the pollution that causes, we know we’re losing our soils. So, for the long-term security of food production itself, we’ve got to shift to regenerative agriculture. But also we need to have rewilded areas around our food production to provide the dung beetles, the pollinating insects, the pest control, the clean water, the water storage and the buffers against extreme weather events.” Surrounding agricultural land with wild land is the only sustainable way forward. “Rewilding works hand in glove with food production. We can have both,” she says. “We’ve got the space for both.” Wilding: How to Bring Wildlife Back – An Illustrated Guide by Isabella Tree and illustrated by Angela Harding will be published by Macmillan on 7 March https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/25/rewilding-climate-change-biodiversity-isabella-tree-nature-planet-farming

Prominent painter Sliman Mansour says that peace is possible when each one of us is considered a human being and ‘has the same rights’. Homeland, painted by Sliman Mansour in 2010, Sliman Mansour shows the dehumanisation and confinement faced by Palestinians at checkpoints [Courtesy of Sliman Mansour] I first encountered Sliman Mansour, whose paintings portray the daily and historical struggles of the Palestinian people, last year at Art Cairo in the pharaonic enormity of the Grand Egyptian Museum. The event brought together some of the most acclaimed painters, photographers, graffiti artists, and other creatives from across the Middle East. Mansour, who has famously helped to shape the contemporary art of Palestine for over half a century, was participating in a discussion about censorship and violence against artists and journalists. At that time, Mansour’s panel was considering the issue of future attacks on artists through the lens of those that had already occurred. Initially soft-spoken, his tone became fiery in response to another panellist who suggested that artists should toe the line in response to governmental censorship because one could not produce art if imprisoned or dead. This was unacceptable to Mansour, who asserted that it was the job of the artist to create art honestly regardless of the consequences. When I spoke with Mansour almost exactly one year later in January 2024, for Palestinians the matter was once again no longer historical or hypothetical, but all too present: The number of journalists and artists killed was continuing to skyrocket amid the latest eruption of violence. “I’m sad and angry,” Mansour told me when I asked him about the high rate of journalist casualties. “But it fits the thinking of the Israelis. For them, the narrative is very important. And who tells the narrative — it should be them only, because that’s the truth for them. Anybody who speaks another narrative should be put in prison. Or now they are killed.” Mansour spoke with me via Zoom from his home in Jerusalem, with the end to the violence nowhere in sight. He smiled amicably throughout our talk, but his eyes were sad and he seemed somewhat tired. When I asked him about the atmosphere in Jerusalem, he considered the question for a few long moments, then shrugged. “It’s very tense,” he said, “but there’s no physical threat [in Jerusalem]. It’s only tense because of the war and so on.” That “and so on” was doing a lot of heavy lifting. A lifetime of artistic resistance Seventy-seven-year-old Sliman Mansour has spent half a century expressing the perseverance and resistance of the Palestinians through his painting. Born in rural Birzeit before spending his formative years in Bethlehem and Jerusalem, his youth was marked by what he saw as the active erasure of Palestinian identity; various elements of Palestinian culture, such as the flag and even its colours, were repressed or outright banned. In 1973 he co-founded the League of Palestinian Artists, which brought a new sense of political urgency to the art of Palestine. Since then his singular style — which fuses elements of realism, abstract expressionism, and Surrealism — has given rise to some of the most powerfully emotive images to emerge from the movement’s cultural opposition to oppression. Mansour’s most recognisable works speak directly to the plight of Palestinians. In Rituals Under Occupation, a sea of forlorn people carry a cross, the pillar of which is a Palestinian flag that stretches off into the horizon. In Perseverance and Hope, a trio in traditional Palestinian dress looks up at a dove, their hands bound behind their backs, the backdrop a collage of terrible calamity. And of course, there’s Camel of Hardship, one of Mansour’s earliest works to find widespread acclaim, which portrays a man staggering forward with the burden of Jerusalem on his back. Rituals Under Occupation by Sliman Mansour [Courtesy of Sliman Mansour] The persistence of ‘sumud’ There is an almost pastoral stoicism to Mansour’s work that implores contemplation rather than cries out for attention. These paintings are some of the most internationally recognised works to present a concept known as sumud, a Palestinian concept that has also been captured by artists and writers such as Ismail Shammouth, Mahmoud Darwish, Issam Badr and many others. “The meaning of it in English is steadfastness,” explained Mansour. “For me, sumud is to not forget who we are and to fight all the time for our liberation. Not to give in to the demands of Israel — that if we want to live in this land, we have to live like a second-class people. That is mainly what Israel wants of us — to accept that they are the rulers of this land. Sumud, for me, means that I don’t agree with that. And I will fight that. That — in short — is the meaning of sumud.” And in the case of Mansour’s art, that fight is characterised by existence rather than violence. His painting, Memory of Places, for example, shows a man dressed in traditional Palestinian garb standing before a painting of an olive grove. The destruction of Palestinian olive groves on the part of Israeli settlers has been a fierce point of contention in recent years, and Mansour’s meta-portrayal of such a grove — which we presume has been destroyed, for the old man is standing before a painting rather than actual trees — insists that the view consider the obliteration of Palestinian identity. “A painting shouldn’t be full of force and bloody violence. If I paint just a beautiful landscape or people working in the field, it’s part of the sumud thinking.” From the River to the Sea is a 2021 painting by Sliman Mansour [Courtesy of Sliman Mansour] Red, green, black, and white In the 1980s, Mansour was among the artists who began using what is today a well-known symbol of the Palestinian movement — the watermelon — after Israel passed legislation censoring political art. “They gave us rules like that we should not paint in certain colours,” said Mansour. “That we should not paint in red, green, black, and white. This rule was published in newspapers and everywhere, including in Israel.” According to Mansour, when Israeli authorities asserted the colour ban, painter Issam Badr asked if the colours could still be used to paint flowers. No, said an officer, flowers were forbidden. Nothing in red, green, and black. Not even a watermelon. “They wanted to fight the notion of a Palestinian identity,” explained Mansour. “Because our existence here, for them, is ‘antisemitic’. That we exist, only. It’s not what we do — just our existence here is something that they hate. It does not fit their narrative about Israel. What are these people doing here? We came to a land that should be empty. So our existence here is something that makes them angry. Existence as workers — that we work for them in the fields or in factories and so on — that’s okay. But existence, existence as a national identity, as Palestinians — that’s what makes them mad. “And that’s the reason they forbid us to paint in these colours. Because these colours are the colours of the Palestinian flag and the flag is a symbol of the people.” Because the colours of a watermelon tested the bounds of the ban, it became a symbol of resistance among artists and is now commonly displayed at pro-Palestinian protests and by supporters online. Peace, by Sliman Mansour, was created with mud and wood. [Courtesy of Sliman Mansour] When I told Mansour that the idea of banning colours from a painter made about as much sense as banning a musician from playing certain notes, he nodded, adding that painting against the ban could also have very real consequences. “In 1982 to ’84, many artists painted everything in red, green, black, and white,” he said. “A landscape, a portrait — anything. And in 1984, an artist from Gaza painted the Palestinian flag and they put him in prison for six months. His name is Fathi Ghabin. He’s now in Gaza running away from the bombs and so on, but he spent six months imprisoned in ‘84.” Mansour recalls that the ban even inspired a number of Israeli artists to back their Palestinian counterparts by collaborating on exhibitions held throughout the early 1980s. “A group of Israeli left-wing artists came to Ramallah to support us and we became friends with many of them and we started making exhibitions,” explained Mansour, “and always the main title of the exhibition was, Down with the Occupation, and, For a Two-State Solution, and things like that. I understand the feelings of the Israeli artists who came to support us at that time. They were very embarrassed. They told us very frankly that they were embarrassed.” The dangers of contradicting the narrative There has been a historically high number of journalists killed in the latest war on Gaza, along with scores of writers, poets, and other artists. Mansour asserts that this is all part of an effort on the part of Israel to not only diminish Palestinian culture but eliminate threats to an enforced narrative. “The whole idea of Israel is narrative,” said Mansour. “It’s a story, and they are building over that — stories, stories — and they want to keep these stories alive, and they hate anybody who tells another story. So that’s why they hate writers and poets and people who speak another side of the story. And now the journalists.” And he’s quick to point out that the current violence is far from the first instance, and that these wordsmiths have faced even greater retaliation than the painters both today and in the past. Mansour noted the assassination of author and politician Ghassan Kanafani, who along with his niece was killed by a car bomb in 1972, with the Israeli intelligence agency Mossad claiming responsibility. “They were afraid of artists who dealt with the mass media, newspapers, and so on,” Mansour recalled. “ A visual artist was not such a great threat to them. They were angry with the people who wrote.” Palestinian refugee school children sit by a wall painting featuring Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, assassinated in 1972, in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the outskirts of Bethlehem on January 4, 2001 [File: Yannis Behrakis/Reuters] The struggle for humanity It is no secret that there is a stark narrative divide dominating the question of Palestine and Israel. When I asked Mansour how we can overcome this division, he said that it must start with the basic recognition of human rights. “If they accept our existence then there is another way of connection. If Israelis respect our existence here and accept it, then it would be much easier to talk to each other and to make a bridge between these narratives. “We have to decide first that everybody has the same rights here. We have to come to some kind of agreement.” How, I wondered, can that be achieved? “It’s a big question,” Mansour said, “But at the end, I think our fight is to rehumanise ourselves. There is a kind of dehumanisation of the Palestinian people — that these people, the Palestinians, are not fully human beings. They are less than human beings, so they don’t deserve full rights and so we can take the land and we can kill them. The formula is very clear. “I think the people of the world should understand that we don’t fight because we like to fight. We hate to fight, even. But we have to. It’s like a cage that we are put in, and we have to get out of that cage. It’s a trap and history put us in this trap, starting from the big wars. England, France, and all these imperialist states wanted to create a state here, and they write the history. Because history is written by the victorious, and we Palestinians are lost in this formula. “Then the United States took over from France and Britain as the big imperialist country. So it’s a big game and we Palestinians feel very small. We are not strong enough to fight this fight. Big powers stand in our way — we need the support of ordinary people in the world.” Three Cities Against the Wall, an exhibition that protested the separation wall construction by Israel in the occupied territories of Palestine, was held simultaneously in Ramallah, Tel Aviv and New York City in November 2005. Mansour helped to organise the event in Palestine [Courtesy of Sliman Mansour] The ultimate aim When it comes to the US, I asked Mansour what he wanted Americans to know about the situation, when their government has been supporting Israel militarily, financially, diplomatically and in shaping its narrative. “This is the big problem because the United States is the main factor here. And if they change their policy, everything could be changed here. But there is a policy of keeping the American people uninformed. You keep them in the dark all the time. And the Americans I know tend to think that the United States is the world. So they don’t care about anything else. But for us, this is a big problem. This attitude of theirs is killing us.” And if Americans do recognise their complacency and push for a change of policy, what does Mansour hope will be the outcome? “The future is peace. Peace between Palestinians and Israelis. Maybe starting with the two-state solution with the help of Egypt and Jordan. I personally don’t care how, I just want peace. I’ve been living all my life in this turmoil and slaughter and it’s too much for the people in it. Everybody wants a break. But I’m sure at the end it will be one state that people are living in with equal rights. I think this is the main objective for every wise human being, whether they are Israeli or Palestinian. This is the only way we can live on this land. “I have feelings about Jaffa, about Haifa, about Acre, about the sea, and I wouldn’t live in a country where I couldn’t visit these places. And I’m sure the Jews have feelings about the sea and many places in — they call it Judea and Samaria — in the West Bank, and so on. We Palestinians understand that here there were Jews before. We don’t deny their existence as they do our existence.” Despite the violence of Hamas’s attack on southern Israel on October 7 and the brutal Israeli invasion of Gaza that followed, Mansour holds on to that hope for peace and equality. “I’m not Hamas. Hamas came yesterday and I’ve been here for many years. Hamas came because of the occupation. And my friends and the Palestinian people — they are very peaceful. They hate fighting. They hate war. It’s not that we love to make wars. We hate it and would love to live as normal human beings — in peace. That’s our ultimate aim.” So what is the artist to do in times of conflict or war, I asked him. He’s been at it for 50 years, capturing the spirit of Palestinian struggle and sumud. “In my case,” he replied, “I think I’m siding with the right side of history and I’m doing my best in my ability to show that. I don’t think there is a formula for what artists should do. But they should be truthful with their feelings, and they should feel with other people. I can easily go and work in my studio and forget about anything else and make flowers and nice girls and make exhibitions and sell and so on. But that’s not how I am built. And artists should not do that. They should be more active in their society. “I believe in art as a social instrument, not as decoration for wealthy people’s houses.” The artist, Sliman Mansour, in 1992 [Courtesy of Sliman Mansour] https://www.aljazeera.com/features/2024/2/25/our-fight-is-to-rehumanise-ourselves-a-palestinian-painter-speaks-out

The overall expansion of North Field from 77mtpa currently to 142mtpa by 2030 represents an 85 percent increase in production. Qatar is one of the world's top LNG producers alongside the US, Australia and Russia [File: AP Photo] Qatar has announced new plans to expand output from the world’s biggest natural gas field, saying it will boost capacity to 142 million tonnes per annum (mtpa) before 2030. The new North Field expansion, named North Field West, will add a further 16 million tonnes of liquefied natural gas (LNG) per year to existing expansion plans, Qatar’s Energy Minister Saad Sherida al-Kaabi said at a news conference on Sunday. “Recent studies have shown that the North Field contains huge additional gas quantities estimated at 240 trillion cubic feet, which raises the state of Qatar’s gas reserves from 1,760 [trillion cubic feet] to more than 2,000 trillion cubic feet,” said al-Kaabi, who also heads the state-owned company QatarEnergy. These results “will enable us to begin developing a new LNG project from the North Field’s western sector with a production capacity of about 16 million tonnes per annum”, he said. This will bring Qatar’s production capacity to 142 million tonnes once “the new expansion is completed before the end of this decade” – a nearly 85 percent rise from current production levels, al-Kaabi added. The QatarEnergy chief said the firm will “immediately commence” with engineering works to ensure the expansion is completed on time. Qatar is one of the world’s top LNG producers alongside the United States, Australia and Russia. Asian countries led by China, Japan and South Korea have been the main market for Qatari gas, but demand has also grown from European countries since Russia’s war on Ukraine threw supplies into doubt. The latest expansion plans follow a flurry of announcements for long-term Qatari gas supply deals. Earlier this month, Qatar said it would supply 7.5mtpa of LNG for 20 years to India’s Petronet, with the first deliveries expected from May 2028. At the end of January, QatarEnergy announced a deal with US-based Excelerate Energy to supply Bangladesh with 1.5mtpa of LNG for 15 years. Last year, Qatar signed LNG deals with China’s Sinopec, France’s Total, Britain’s Shell and Italy’s Eni. Global price collapse Competition for LNG has ramped up since the start of the war in Ukraine, with Europe, in particular, requiring a large quantity to help replace Russian pipeline gas that used to make up almost 40 percent of the continent’s imports. The Qatari announcement came as the US gas prices trade near an all-time low if adjusted to inflation after a decade of meteoric rises in output which made the US one of the top oil and gas exporters. Prices of gas in Europe also fell steeply despite a drop in Russian supplies after the US and Qatar helped replace lost volumes. Despite the price drop, all leading gas producers, including the US, Australia and Russia, want to increase output betting on further demand growth and worries that their gas might not be needed decades from now if the energy transition makes green energy cheaper. The latest expansion may not be the last for the Gulf energy giant as al-Kaabi said appraisal of Qatari gas reservoirs would continue and production would be further expanded if there is a market need. On partnerships for the new trains, al-Kaabi said QatarEnergy will go ahead and begin the engineering phase of this project on its own without seeking partners and then take a decision on partnerships later. The North Field is part of the world’s largest gas field, which Qatar shares with Iran, which calls its share South Pars. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/25/qatar-announces-new-gas-output-boost-with-mega-field-expansion

Music title: Fave - Belong To You Signer: Fave Release date: 2024/01/26 Official YouTube link:

Nick movie: ICE AGE Time: Hollywood English Collection Netflix / Amazon / HBO: N/A Duration of the movie: 82Mins Trailer:

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The car that wowed the crowds at Le Mans wowed us at VIR. Lap Time: 2:26.7 Class: LLPRO In case you missed it, the NASCAR Next Gen Garage 56 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1, or G56 Camaro for short, is the stock car that raced alongside hybrid prototypes at Le Mans. Its naturally aspirated 5.8-liter V-8 won the hearts of the crowd and showcased the uniquely American motorsports series on an international stage. Hendrick Motorsports manufactured and managed the project, from which two cars were made: the development car seen here and the one that did 285 laps of the 8.5-mile Circuit de la Sarthe last June. We thought our Lightning Lap pitch would land in a spam folder, but Rick Hendrick not only read our email, he agreed to bring the car out and even let us drive it. The instructions were clear: Don't crash Mr. H's car. And the way his eye twinkles when he talks about the G56 project, it may be his all-time favorite car. He loves to watch it run, so much so that he flew in on his helicopter from his home in Charlotte, North Carolina. MICHAEL SIMARI AND MARC URBANO|CAR AND DRIVER Our sighting laps (because there is no way to go for time in a handful of laps in an unfamiliar race car) were enough to grasp that this car is rad in the most NASCAR way. It's loud. It's fast. It's big—almost as wide as a pickup, over 10 inches longer than a Corvette—but it's Bernese Mountain Dog, lovably big. The seating position is a bit lower and a bit more reclined than in a modern Cup car. Visibility over the long hood is fair, but the deep cockpit of the G56 car turns VIR's limited-sight areas—braking and entry into *****, the sequence after Spiral, and Roller Coaster to a degree—into blind events. Even lapping gingerly, the 700-ish-hp V-8 makes enough power to drive off corners with some yaw. The steering is ultra-quick and plutonium-238 reactive. It took a couple of laps to extinguish the cold-brakes warning (carbon-carbon rotors need heat to work properly), and while trying to explore grip levels, we locked the rears on the uphill going into Spiral and slid to a stop. Our man was only the sixth person to drive the car, and we hope the sixth to spin it. Back in the pits, we consult with Jordan Taylor. The 10-year IMSA veteran didn't race the car in France but did a lot of its development. He has good taste, calling VIR one of his favorite tracks in the world, and he admitted that he locked the brakes in the same spot, so we think this consultation was all he needed to change his setup for the final attempt at a flying lap. MICHAEL SIMARI AND MARC URBANO|CAR AND DRIVER He still locked the rears going into Turn 1, resulting in a low 1.19 g's of lateral acceleration there. The rest of the lap was clean, particularly on the Full Course corners he knows. Taylor marches up the Climbing Esses like the rest of the world is crawling, averaging 158.5 mph, more than 20 mph faster than any street car we've lapped and nearly 6 mph faster than Subaru's Airslayer. He trumps the Subie's minimum speeds by 6.7 mph in the difficult Turn 3, 6.1 in the off-camber Turn 10, and 4.2 in Hog Pen. Who says stock cars can't turn right? Taylor's 2:26.7 fell short of the Airslayer's best time, but we'd bet that with a little more sim work, he could match the Subaru's lap time if given another shot. We hope the effort expended to make a stock car run fast for 24 hours doesn't stop. An all-NASCAR endurance race might be more fun than that 24-hour race in France. https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a46594920/garage-56-chevrolet-camaro-zl1-lightning-lap-2024/

Russo 3 61, Clinton 19, Mead 37 89, Carter 70, Daly 90+3; Kirchberger 30 88 Grace Clinton scores on her full England debut Alessia Russo gets England off to a flying start against Austria in the third minute. Photograph: Fran Santiago/The FA/Getty Images England’s fresh start, as they prepare to get their Euro 2025 qualifying campaign under way in April, kicked off in style as Sarina Wiegman tried out a number of players who have sat on the fringes of a squad that has moved from tournament to tournament with little room for experimentation. “Very happy with Grace [Clinton], she scored a goal which is very nice for her,” said Wiegman. “She plays like a natural. She picks up the things we talk about very quickly. She takes things on board and just goes out there and plays.” Jenni Hermoso (left) celebrates with Salma Paralluelo after opening the scoring for Spain Spain reach Olympics with Women’s Nations League win over Netherlands Read more If the Lionesses have enjoyed the luxuries of a seafront Marbella hotel this week, arriving at the Estadio Nuevo Mirador was a more humbling experience. Around 950 fans had made the trip to Algeciras, about an hour’s drive south of Marbella, and were treated to a downpour that saw many retreat from the uncovered stand long before the end of the first half, while the covered stand opposite remained mostly empty. The Lionesses’ decision to play Austria in a friendly at a ground so difficult to get to – and more akin to stadiums they were forced into pre-professionalism – was an odd one. Wiegman’s side brought style and flair to the drab surroundings though and Alessia Russo’s goal in the third minute ensured the fans saw at least one Euro 2022 winner on the scoresheet. The Arsenal forward spun and found her clubmate Beth Mead. Her shot was parried by Manuela Zinsberger but Russo was there to turn in. There were four changes to the team which had put six past Scotland in December but failed to progress to the Nations League finals and earn Olympic qualification. One was enforced late on, with Fran Kirby withdrawn as a precaution after the warm-up with an aggravation of her knee injury. Ella Toone replaced her, while Hannah Hampton started in goal. Maya Le Tissier began the game at right-back in place of Lucy Bronze and the Manchester United midfielder Grace Clinton, who is on loan at Tottenham, was handed her debut. She went close to scoring in the 16th minute, hitting a left-footed effort off the inside of the crossbar. She would only have to wait three minutes for a dream scenario though, as she artfully headed in Lauren Hemp’s cross from the left. Grace Clinton, on her debut, celebrates her first England goal with Maya Le Tissier. Photograph: Naomi Baker/The FA/Getty Images Austria were poor, looking a shadow of the side that really tested England in the opening game of Euro 22 at Old Trafford, but Wiegman’s side also made them look bad. Despite England’s dominance, Austria exposed a weakness from set pieces to pull one back, Virginia Kirchberger heading in from a corner on her 99th appearance. The Lionesses picked up where they left off though, restoring their two-goal lead before the break, Mead powering her shot home after cutting inside. Wiegman made two half-time changes, intent on taking advantage of this friendly to experiment. “We have the opportunity to play these friendlies, see many players, lots that we saw today, many new combinations. We have another on Tuesday, which will be tough against Italy,” she said. Lotte Wubben-Moy entered the fray in place of Alex Greenwood, while Lauren James, who was involved in five of England’s nine goals across their two December games, replaced Hemp. Just past the hour mark, Russo grabbed her second, firing home from inside the box. There were three more changes almost immediately after that, with Russo replaced by Rachel Daly and Jess Park and Carter coming on. Carter added to England’s goal tally within seven minutes of stepping on to the pitch, a slick backheel bamboozling Zinsberger. Kirchberger provided another headed goal from a corner to show England exactly where the defensive gaps are – though they are missing their first-choice centre-back pairing Leah Williamson and Millie Bright. However, a minute later James raced clear and hit a low shot off the bottom of the post that Mead powered in on the rebound. The substitute Daly added a seventh, sprinting free through the middle before powering a venomous strike past Zinsberger. Job done, new combinations tested, there were a lot of positives from England’s first game of 2024 – how they deal with set pieces and stiffer opposition are questions that can be answered at a later date. https://www.theguardian.com/football/2024/feb/23/alessia-russo-and-mead-at-the-double-in-lionesses-7-2-mauling-of-austria

Trevors are fighting back against the nerd stigma that’s tainted us for so long Trevor Cunningham: ‘We’re not seen as heroic or glamorous.’ Photograph: Rebecca Lupton/The Guardian I’ve never resented the name Trevor, but I have thought about it a lot. It’s not a weird name, it’s just not that common. I was named after the ambulance driver who took my mother to the hospital as I was about to be born. I’ve only ever met one other Trevor in person in my life. Growing up in the 1970s, it seemed that if there was a TV character who was a bit of a geek, he would be called Trevor. We’re not seen as heroic or glamorous. It was hurtful enough to make me wish I had a different name. After 35 years as an engineer, I retired in 2020 to Monton, a village near Manchester, and was volunteering at an Age UK charity shop two days a week. I’d done it for three years and enjoyed it, but decided I wanted to do something more fu There’s not a lot of money around these days, but there is a huge amount of skill, wisdom and experience, which costs nothing to share. I thought it would be cool if I could gather together a group of clever Trevors, from all over, who could help each other out by sharing their skills. If one Trevor writes in requesting advice, I just give them the email address of the person best placed and willing to help out. I wanted to recruit an army of Trevors (I also include people with the surname “Trevor”). I knew they were out there – the challenge was to find them. I started emailing professionals whose skills I thought would be useful to others on a day‑to‑day basis. My system is very basic. I Google “Trevor professional” and then find Trevors who are photographers, mechanics and so on. I wanted to discover ordinary people who really know their stuff. The other day I wrote to an audiologist, a public‑speaking expert named Trevor the Toastmaster, a botanist, a photographer and a golf pro. Maybe one in 30 will write back. Trevor the full-stack website developer replied, saying: “This is a bit weird, but I’ll help if I can.” I know it’s a unusual, but it’s a project with a good heart. For instance, someone wrote in wanting more information about antidepressants, and I connected him with the Trevor who’s a clinical practitioner. He’s not going to tell people which drug to take, but he could put them on the right path. I’ve now got 11 or 12 Trevors signed up. I think maybe if we have about 25 or 30, that would cover a lot for the time being. And I’m open to people who are a little bit out there. One person is a poet, counsellor and funeral celebrant who lives in Bristol. He’s offered to speak at the funeral of anyone in Bristol who’s called Trevor or is the loved one of a Trevor. I started work on the website in August last year. I saw that Trevor.com was taken, and thought Trevors United seemed too football-y. I went for Trevors Together, which has a nice alliteration. The data analytics and management company Trevor.io offered to help me out with data management for free. To spread the word, I started advertising in Private Eye in October, when the website went live. With the advertising and the website, I’ve spent less than £200 in total. This isn’t something I want to throw lots of money at; it’s more about the fun and creativity. It’s really important to me that everything is kept free – there absolutely must not be any exchange of money among people using the site. I’m basically creating a way for people to meet. Ultimately, the aim is for TrevorsTogether.com to help anyone, regardless of their name. But for now, to keep it manageable, it’s all about Trevors. It’s become my 9 to 5. The benefits for me are obvious. It pleases me that I’m trying to do a good thing, and it’s really got my tail wagging. I’ve realised that, like me, others get a buzz from helping people. Working on Trevors Together has changed my relationship with my name. Trevors are fighting back in the best possible way against the nerd stigma that has tainted us for as long as I can remember. Now I really like my name. I’m glad that not a lot of people are called Trevor. And I want the name Trevor to be synonymous with empathy, kindness and generosity. https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2024/feb/23/experience-i-run-an-online-support-group-for-people-called-trevor

Venomous snakes, primates and wildcats among creatures in domestic settings, wildlife charity Born Free finds A king cobra. Born Free said: ‘The majority of the animals that we’re talking about here will be held in people’s private homes or in their back yards or whatever.’ Photograph: Diego Azubel/EPA From camels in Wiltshire to bush vipers in Redditch, a veritable menagerie of wild animals is being kept in homes across Britain. According to data from the wildlife charity Born Free, there are more than 200 wildcats, 250 primates and 400 venomous snakes living in domestic settings across England, Wales and Scotland, with cobras, crocodiles, tigers, kangaroos and bison among other residents. Dr Mark Jones, a vet and Born Free’s head of policy, said the findings were of concern, noting that while some animals were held in groups on farms, most were kept in rather more modest surroundings. He said: “The majority of the animals that we’re talking about here will be held in people’s private homes or in their back yards or whatever.” The data was obtained by requesting the number of private licences granted by local authorities for animals recognised as dangerous under the Dangerous Wild Animals Act 1976. The approach excludes animals kept under zoo licences, required if animals are on show to the public for at least seven days a year. The charity found that more than 2,700 dangerous wild animals were being kept in private settings in Great Britain, with small wildcats – or crosses between these and domestic cats – the most common. The list also includes lemurs, dingoes, leopards and lions. The figure is a rise from the 2,500 dangerous wild animals recorded in 2022. More than 2,700 dangerous wild animals are licensed to be kept privately in Great Britain During the progress of the 1976 law through the House of Lords, Tufton Beamish said the general policy of the bill was clear. “It is that in future the keeping of dangerous wild animals by private individuals should be made a wholly exceptional circumstance,” he said. Jones said the number of wild animals being kept in private settings showed that the act was no longer fit for purpose. He said that to get a licence it was necessary to apply to the local authority, which should then inspect the premises. Jones said the resources and expertise councils had to do so varied enormously. “We’re really concerned that it’s proving far too easy for people to get licences for these animals, which really don’t belong in people’s homes,” he said, noting that unlike domesticated species, wild animals had not been bred “to live in people’s homes in close proximity to people, raising both animal welfare and health and safety issues”. He said another concern was that some exotic animals that ended up in private homes may have been taken from the wild, which could have implications for the conservation of po[CENSORED]tions and species. The charity also noted that the act did not cover species including constrictor snakes or monitor lizards that could also be considered potentially dangerous, while offspring of wild and domestic cat crosses were also exempt. “Born Free also discovered that some councils are unaware of the exact species of animal being kept, despite a requirement to identify this within the legislation, which raises further serious animal welfare, and health and safety, concerns,” the charity said. A spokesperson for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: “Anyone wishing to keep an animal covered by the Dangerous Wild Animals Act must be carefully vetted and apply for a licence which sets out strict conditions under which the animals must be kept. “We keep this legislation under regular review to ensure it remains effective in keeping the public safe. We have also increased the maximum prison sentence for animal cruelty to five years, as well as bringing forward legislation to prohibit primates being kept as domestic pets.” Born Free disputed the latter point. “What the government is in the process of implementing is a private keeper licensing system,” the charity said. “As a result, it will remain legal for the continued keeping, breeding and trading of privately kept primates so long as the keeper acquires the appropriate licence. It is important that government messaging is clear and honest in this regard.” https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/22/dangerous-wild-animals-kept-in-homes-in-great-britain

Israeli plan envisions indefinite Israeli control over Gaza, and no ‘unilateral recognition’ of Palestine. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presented the plan for a post-war Gaza to the Israeli cabinet on Thursday [File: Ronen Zvulun/Reuters] The Palestinian Authority has sharply criticised a “day after” plan for Gaza presented by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, calling it “destined to fail”. “If the world wants security and stability in the region, it must end the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories and recognise the independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital,” Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the spokesperson for Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, was quoted as saying on Friday by the Palestinian state news agency Wafa. Netanyahu’s plan is his first official proposal for what comes after the war in Gaza – in which Israel has killed more than 29,000 Palestinians. According to the document, presented to members of Israel’s security cabinet on Thursday, Israel would maintain security and military control over all land west of Jordan, including the occupied West Bank and Gaza – territories where the Palestinians want to create their independent state. In the long-term goals listed, Netanayhu also rejected the “unilateral recognition” of a Palestinian state. He said a settlement with the Palestinians will only be achieved through direct negotiations between the two sides – but it did not name who the Palestinian party would be. In response, Abu Rudeineh rejected any effort to separate governance in Gaza from the West Bank. “Gaza will only be part of the independent Palestinian state … Any plans to the contrary are destined to fail,” he said. “Israel will not succeed in attempts to alter the geographic and demographic reality in the Gaza Strip.” “Netanyahu’s proposed plans aim to perpetuate Israel’s occupation of Palestinian territories and prevent the establishment of a Palestinian state,” Abu Rudeineh added. The White House also added its unease with the plan, with US National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby sauind that Washington had been “consistently clear with our Israeli counterparts” about what was needed in post-war Gaza. “The Palestinian people should have a voice and a vote… through a revitalised Palestinian Authority,” Kirby said. “We don’t believe in a reduction of the size of Gaza… we don’t want to see any forcible displacement of Palestinians outside Gaza and, of course, we don’t want to see Gaza dominated or ruled by Hamas.” Gaza to be run by ‘local officials’ The war in Gaza has revived international calls – including from Israel’s main backer, the United States – for the so-called two-state solution as the ultimate goal for resolving the decades-long Israel-Palestinian conflict. However, many senior Israeli politicians oppose the creation of a Palestinian state. While on Gaza, Netanyahu’s plan emphasised that the war would continue until Israel had achieved all of its announced goals: the dismantlement of military capabilities and infrastructure operated by Hamas and Islamic Jihad; the return of all captives taken on October 7; and the removal of all security threats originating from Gaza. The enclave will then be run by “local officials” who are not tied to “countries or entities that support terrorism”. Commenting on the plan, Al Jazeera’s senior political analyst Marwan Bishara said that the identity of these officials was unknown. “We don’t know who they are, he [Netanyahu] doesn’t know either … I don’t think they exist. There were attempts in the 1970s and 1980s to create such entities among the Palestinians and it failed in no time,” he said. It is also unclear whether representatives of the Palestinian Authority (PA) will be involved in controlling Gaza. Reporting from occupied east Jerusalem, Al Jazeera’s Hamdah Salhut highlighted that, in his draft plan, Netanyahu did not mention the PA’s role. “He [Netanyahu] didn’t say this officially in his plan but used broader terminology probably to reach a consensus among his right-wing government,” she said. “Remember the Israeli prime minister is under immense pressure from the Americans who want to see a revitalised PA to take over once the war is over. But Netanyahu has been quiet defiant to come in and take over Gaza,” Salhut added. The Israeli prime minister’s plan also outlined demilitarisation and deradicalisation as goals to be achieved in the medium term in Gaza. It does not elaborate on when that intermediary stage would begin or how long it would last, but says that the “the Israeli army will maintain indefinitely the freedom to intervene in Gaza to prevent the resurgence of terror activity”. It also proposes that Israel have a presence on the Gaza-Egypt border in the south of the enclave and says that Israel should cooperate with Egypt and the US in that area to prevent smuggling attempts, including at the Rafah crossing. Plans for UNRWA’s closure Lastly, Netanyahu’s plan also says that the UN relief agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, would be shut. Israel has long tried to eliminate the UN agency, which enshrines the right of Palestinian refugees to return home. Israel has recently made claims that UNRWA has links to Hamas, a claim that the body has fiercely denied, and that US intelligence assessments have cast doubt on, according to reports. Tamara Alrifai, UNRWA’s director of external relations and communications told Al Jazeera that attempts to get rid of UNRWA should be seen alongside efforts to remove the future prospect of a Palestinian state, highlighting Netanyahu’s display of a map of Israel that included the occupied West Bank, Gaza, and occupied East Jerusalem during an address at the UN General Assembly in September. “A map which includes and encompasses all the Palestinian territories where UNRWA works. I don’t find this a coincidence,” she said. According to Al Jazeera’s Bishara, this plan is not official and is one that Netanyahu is floating to the cabinet, in order to leak it to the media and to do a number of other things. “Firstly there is that approach towards his own base. He’s telling his radicals in the government and public that he remains steadfast … Secondly, I think it is quite stupid to be honest, because we know the Israelis have tried this [plan to take control of Gaza in some form or the other] before and it never worked,” Bishara said. “Lastly, it [the plan] is so sadist. We are in the midst of the fifth month of genocide against the Palestinian people. Still, the Israeli prime minister insists they will maintain control … that kind of sadism is unprecedented.” https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/23/palestinian-authority-says-israeli-post-war-gaza-plan-destined-to-fail

Kurz receives eight month suspended sentence after being found guilty of lying to a parliamentary inquiry. Before his legal troubles, Austria's conservative former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz was once seen as a 'wunderkind' of European conservative politics after he became Austria's leader at the age of 31 in 2017 [Leonhard Foeger/Reuters] Austria’s former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz has received an eight-month suspended sentence after being found guilty of perjury by a Vienna court after a four-month trial. The former leader, once hailed as a “wunderkind” of Europe’s conservatives, had denied downplaying his influence over the appointment of executives to the state-holding company OBAG when he was chancellor, and whose appointments were formally his finance minister’s responsibility. But Kurz’s corruption case centred on his testimony to a parliamentary commission of inquiry that he was “involved in the sense of informed”, but did not play an active role in appointments. The court, however, agreed with prosecutors that Kurz was actually the ultimate decision-maker, and produced evidence, including text messages and testimony from former loyalist Thomas Schmid, the first head of OBAG, who turned state witness. “I find this part of the ruling very unfair,” Kurz said after the ruling. “We have appealed and I am very optimistic that we will receive a ruling in our favour in the second instance.” The trial and other ongoing corruption investigations have damaged the reputation of the charismatic hardliner, and damaged any chance he had of a political comeback. In 2017, Kurz became one of the youngest leaders in the world at age 31 and formed a coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPO). Amid a scandal in 2019 when the FPO’s leader was embroiled in a video sting, the coalition collapsed. Kurz then won a snap election and formed a coalition with the Greens, who later forced him from office in 2021 due to the corruption investigation. But his Austrian People’s Party continues to lead the government under current Chancellor Karl Nehammer. Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz waves as he leaves a session of the Parliament in Vienna, Austria May 27, 2019 [File: Leonhard Foeger/Reuters] Kurz has insisted he is innocent of having misled a parliamentary inquiry probing wide-ranging corruption scandals that brought down his first government with the far right in 2019. Throughout the trial, he portrayed himself as the victim of selective prosecution and an opposition out to “destroy him”. Kurz said that while he had been informed about Schmid’s appointment, he did not decide on it and dismissed suggestions that he had sought to control everything. On the other hand, Schmid testified that Kurz had built up a “system” where he held the reins and could veto any appointment of personnel in critical companies. Separately, prosecutors are still investigating Kurz on suspicion of having embezzled public money to fund polls skewed to boost his image and pay for the favourable coverage that allowed for his success in 2017. However, they have so far failed to obtain any convictions since a video emerged in 2019 showing Kurz’s then-vice chancellor of the FPO offering public contracts to a purported Russian investor for campaign help. After leaving politics, the conservatives, who are in an election year, have slid to second or third in the polls, making it likely that they will lose seats in a parliamentary election this year, prompting speculation that Kurz could eventually return to lead the party and reverse its fortunes. Polls, however, have shown that a clear majority of Austrians say they do not want to see his return to government, and Kurz has said that he is happy as a businessman and is now involved with numerous private international enterprises. https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/23/former-austrian-chancellor-sebastian-kurz-found-guilty-of-perjury

Music title: SiR - No Evil (Official Music Video) Signer: SiR Release date: 2024/01/26 Official YouTube link:

Nick movie: KANE Official Trailer (2023) Time: Movie Trailers Source Netflix / Amazon / HBO: N/A Duration of the movie: 2mins Trailer: