الكاتب: kafej

If negotiations succeed, the rebels will end their 50-year armed struggle and transform into a political movement.

The Philippine government will resume peace talks with the country’s communist rebels, in a bid to end decades of civil strife.

Authorities will re-engage with the New People’s Army (NPA), the military wing of the Communist Party of the Philippines (CPP), for the first time in six years, both parties and facilitator Norway announced on Tuesday.

“The parties agree to a principled and peaceful resolution of the armed conflict,” the two sides said in a joint statement, adding that the peace talks will address “deep-rooted socioeconomic and political grievances”.

If negotiations succeed, the rebels will end their armed struggle and transform into a political movement, according to Norway, which has mediated the island nation’s peace process for around 20 years.

Despite the progress, the government announced no immediate ceasefire and said operations against the armed group would continue.

However, military chief Romeo Brawner was hopeful an eventual peace deal would enable the armed forces to fully focus on “external or territorial defence”, rather than domestic conflict.

Fifty years of conflict

The Philippine government’s conflict with the NPA has raged for over 50 years, peaking in the 1980s, and killed more than 40,000 people.

Today, the NPA has only a few thousand fighters, compared to some 26,000 at its height, with many rebels surrendering in exchange for financial assistance and livelihood opportunities, according to the government.

However, NPA rebels continue to engage in deadly clashes in some parts of the Philippines, staging ambushes against those perceived as state collaborators.

Successive Philippine administrations have held talks with the communists aimed at ending the violence since 1986, negotiating with their Netherlands-based political arm, the NDF.

Formal talks were last held in 2017 when they were acrimoniously terminated by then-President Rodrigo Duterte.

Duterte left office in mid-2022 and was replaced by Ferdinand Marcos Jr.

The announcement of renewed peace talks comes less than a week after Marcos Jr issued an order granting amnesty to several rebel groups, including former members of the communist movement.

Under the amnesty order, former CPP, NPA and National Democratic Front of the Philippines (NDFP) members would be absolved of crimes they committed “in pursuit of political beliefs”.

Sex And The City actress Cynthia Nixon is among activists who have begun a hunger strike to demand US President Joe Biden calls for a permanent ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war.

Politicians from five US states are also taking part in the action that began on Monday.

Nixon, who formerly ran for mayor of New York City, told a crowd outside the White House her two children are Jewish and their grandparents are Holocaust survivors.

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She said: “I have been asked by my son to use any voice I have to affirm as loudly as possible that never again means never again for everyone.

“In seven weeks Israel has killed more civilians on a tiny strip of land than was killed in 20 years of war in the entire country of Afghanistan.

“I am sick and tired of people explaining away by saying that civilian casualties are a routine toll of war. There is nothing routine about these figures. There is noting routine about these deaths.

“I would like to make a personal plea to a president who has, himself, experienced such devastating personal loss, to connect with that empathy for which he is so well known and to look at the children of Gaza and imagine that they were his children.”

The five politicians taking part in the action are Delaware state representative Madinah Wilson-Anton, New York representative Zohran Mamdani, Oklahoma representative Mauree Turner, Virginia representative Sam Rasoul and Michigan representative Abraham Aiyash.

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Mr Mamdani and Ms Wilson-Anton are reportedly among a small group of activists who will be on hunger strike for five days.

Nixon has said she will end hers on Tuesday to return to New York for work commitments.

The hunger strike was launched to coincide with what had been the scheduled end of a four-day truce in the Israel-Hamas conflict.

Israel has so far released 117 of 150 Palestinian prisoners it said it would free as part of the agreement, while Hamas has released 51 Israeli hostages during the pause in fighting.

On Monday it was announced the truce would be extended for another two days.

A cruise ship passenger has told of his horror after discovering a spider had laid eggs inside his toe – including one that hatched.

Colin Blake and his wife were spending the evening in Marseille, in the south of France, after the ship had docked on their 35th wedding anniversary trip – when his toe swelled up and turned purple.

The following day, he visited the on-board doctor who told him a Peruvian wolf spider had bitten him and laid eggs inside his toe.

Wolf spiders, which are not poisonous, are often found in the French port city after arriving on cargo ships.

Mr Blake, who lives in Cramlington, Northumberland, told BBC Radio Scotland: “My wife thought it may be because I had new sandals and they were rubbing on my big toe and that was causing it to be red.”

The doctor cut his toe open, causing the spider’s eggs to pour out.

After the holiday, Mr Blake went to hospital in the UK where doctors prescribed antibiotics – but four weeks later, he noticed something else unusual in his toe.

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On another visit to the doctors, they discovered one of the eggs had hatched into a small spider, which was stuck underneath his skin.

He said: “They believe the spider was making its way out – eating its way out of my toe.”

Mr Blake chose not to keep the dead spider when asked by medics.

EXPLAINER

As the truce extends and northern Gaza’s hospitals fear fuel shortages, here are the major updates.

Here is what to know about the situation on Tuesday, November 28, 2023:

Truce, prisoner and captive release

• At least 11 Israeli captives held in Gaza were released on Monday, according to the Israeli military. The release felicitated by the Red Cross included six Argentinians, three French citizens and two Germans.
• Qatari Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Majed al-Ansari announced on Monday that the truce is extended for two additional days until Thursday morning. A Qatari official said that this means at least 20 more Israeli captives held in Gaza and 60 Palestinian detainees held in Israeli prisons will be freed.
• Hamas has also said the truce is extended, but there has not yet been an update from Israel. However, Israel has not resumed bombardments in Gaza as of Tuesday morning.
• The Palestinian Commission of Detainees and Ex-Detainees Affairs released the names of three women and 30 children released by Israel from its military Ofer Prison on Tuesday morning.
• Released Palestinian prisoners were greeted by their families as they arrived in Ramallah in the occupied West Bank on Tuesday night.
• Teenage Palestinian prisoner Mohammad Nazzal told Al Jazeera that Israeli jailers beat him in prison last week, resulting in fractures on his hand and finger. He reported that no medical attention was paid to his injury until the Red Cross applied a sling after his release.
• The office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced on X, formerly Twitter that 50 additional Palestinian women are eligible for release from Israeli prisons. This is an addition to the list of 300 prisoners slated for release that was published before the truce deal by Israel.
• The Israeli Army Radio announced that Hamas released a new list of captives that will be freed. This is the first list that comes as a result of the extension of the truce deal. US-based news site Axios reported that the list contains 10 names.

Israeli crackdown in West Bank

• Four Palestinians were injured by Israeli forces on Tuesday during confrontations in the Dheisheh camp, south of Bethlehem in the occupied West Bank. Six others, including a woman, were detained in different areas of the governorate, according to Palestinian news agency Wafa.
• A young Palestinian was shot and killed early on Tuesday by Israeli forces, according to the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
• Two young Palestinian men were injured during confrontations with Israeli occupation forces in the town of Yabad, west of Jenin in the occupied West Bank. One was shot in the leg and the other was hit with a shrapnel on his head, according to Wafa.
• Two young Palestinians were injured with live bullets during an Israeli raid in the Deir Ammar refugee camp, west of Ramallah according to Wafa. Wafa reported that sources said that at the camp, Israeli forces blew up the apartment of Palestinian Daoud Abdel Razzaq Daras, 41, who was reportedly shot and killed on August 31.

Fallout of Israel-Palestine conflict

• Families of the three Palestinian students shot in the US state of Vermont said that they were targeted for being Palestinian.
• American man Jason J Eaton, 48, was ordered to be arrested without bail for shooting the three Palestinian students in Vermont. The US Department of Justice is investigating whether the shooting was a hate crime.
• Police in the Canadian city of Montreal are investigating the firebombing of a Jewish community centre that took place on Monday night.

Gaza’s hospitals and fuel shortage

• Gaza, which has been under a complete blockade imposed by Israel, faces food, water and fuel shortages. Israeli bombardment has caused widespread damage to hospitals, schools and residential buildings. The supply of aid, including fuel, has been agreed in the truce.
• UN humanitarian agency OCHA reported that small amounts of cooking gas – about 85 tonnes per day – have reached Gaza in the last four days.
• Palestinians are resorting to lighting fires for cooking and warmth.
• Dr Hossam Abu Safiya, head of the paediatric intensive care department at the Kamal Adwan Hospital, has appealed for urgent fuel supplies for the hospital, the only medical centre in northern Gaza that is still receiving patients.
• Abu Safiya told Al Jazeera that if the hospital is not supplied with fuel within hours, there is a risk of losing patients, including premature babies.

Diplomacy

• US Secretary of State Antony Blinken is planning to visit Israel, the occupied West Bank and the United Arab Emirates this week, the US State Department said on Monday.
• US President Joe Biden reiterated his call for a “two-state solution” through a post on X. “To make sure Israelis and Palestinians alike live in equal measure of freedom and dignity, we will not give up on working towards that goal,” Biden said.
• Jordanian Foreign Minister Ayman Safadi said world leaders must work “with vigour and with urgency” to ensure that the current truce in Gaza “becomes a permanent ceasefire”. He said that the two-state solution is the only avenue for peace in the region.
• US Secretary of Defense Lloyd J Austin has called Israel’s Minister of Defence Yoav Gallant. In the conversation, Austin reiterated the need for more humanitarian aid to be sent to Gaza.
• EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell on Monday said there will be no “peace or security for Israel” without the establishment of a Palestinian state.

A 12-year-old boy driving a stolen forklift truck led police in the US on an hour-long chase – and hit about 10 parked cars during the pursuit.

The truck, equipped with a forklift and weighing up to 35,000 pounds, was stolen from outside a middle school in Ann Arbor, Michigan, using a key found in the cab, the city’s police department said.

Police were called to the school around 6.45pm on Saturday and later found the boy driving down a street without the truck’s headlights on.

With emergency lights and sirens on, officers pursued the vehicle at 15 to 20 mph, the Ann Arbor Police Department said.

“This was a very dangerous situation that could’ve easily ended with serious injuries,” the force added.

“The incident remains an active and ongoing criminal investigation.”

In footage released by police of the pursuit, an officer can be heard urging the boy to “pull over now!” and saying “he’s lowering the hooks”, as well as warning a colleague not to go in front of the forklift.

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Nobody was injured in the incident, police said.

Officers stopped the pursuit about 7.20pm.

The Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office picked up the pursuit until just before 8pm when the child stopped driving.

The boy, whose identity was not released because he is a minor, was taken into custody Saturday night and put in a juvenile detention centre.