Category World News

Mariela Gomez would not have imagined Christmas this year.

Or the one that thousands of other American Venezuelan immigrants would have assumed. However, Donald Trump quickly ended their US dream by making a second appearance in January.

For the first time in eight years, Gomez found herself spending the holiday in northern Venezuela. She had a smile for her in-laws, prepared food, and gave her son a scooter. Despite her best efforts, she was unable to ignore the main problems facing returning immigrants: poverty and unemployment.

Instead of the traditional Christmas dinner of stuffed corn dough hallacas, Gomez said, “We had a modest dinner, not quite what we’d hoped for, but we did have food on the table.” Since we are unemployed, making hallacas here is a bit expensive, and we couldn’t afford to make them.

In response to the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration, Gomez, her two sons, and her partner made a second home in Maracay on October 27 after crossing the US-Mexico border to Texas, where they were quickly swept up by US Border Patrol. They were taken to Mexico, where they began the dangerous journey back to Venezuela.

The family was unable to travel by boat across the Caribbean to Colombia after crossing Central America by bus. Instead of traveling the less expensive way along the Pacific’s choppy waters, they spent several hours sitting on top of sloshing gas tanks in a cargo boat before moving quickly to a fast boat until they reached a Colombian jungle region. They arrived at Venezuela’s border after about two weeks of detention before receiving their funds.

More than 7.7 million Venezuelans have left their country since the country’s economy has been damaged by a drop in oil prices, corruption, and mismanagement. Before deciding to move to the US in search of a new life, she spent years living in Colombia and Peru.

Rapid deportations

Many people like Gomez have lost hope as a result of Trump’s second term.

More than 14, 000 people from Venezuela, primarily from Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica, had already left the country as of September, according to data from Colombia, Panama, and Costa Rica. Venezuelans were repeatedly deported to their home countries this year after President Nicolas Maduro abandoned his longstanding policy of refusing deportees from the US.

On flights operated by a US government contractor or Venezuela’s state-owned airline, immigrants regularly arrived at the airport outside the capital, Caracas. This year, over 13, 000 migrants took to the chartered flights.

Gomez saw her now-female daughter when she fled Venezuela’s complex crisis after returning there. Knowing that this might be their last chance to drink together for a while, Gomez’s daughter will move to Brazil next month, they conversed and drank beer over the holiday.

Gomez wants to work as well as make hallacas for New Year’s Eve. However, her thoughts on the upcoming year are primarily focused on good health.

As forensic investigations and the preparations for the repatriation of the bodies are being conducted, Libyan and Turkiye officials have increased coordination over the investigation into a plane crash near Ankara, which resulted in the deaths of Libya’s army chief and seven other people.

Major General Mahmoud Ashour, the head of Libya’s Criminal Investigation Department, led a delegation to the Ankara Chief Public Prosecutor’s Office on Thursday as part of the joint inquiry.

Following discussions with the case’s Turkish prosecutor, the visit was made.

Shortly after departing from Ankara Esenboga Airport on Tuesday, a private jet carrying Libya’s army chief of staff, Mohammed Ali Ahmed Al-Haddad, reported an electrical problem.

The aircraft, which was heading for Tripoli, requested an emergency landing 16 minutes after takeoff, according to Burhanettin Duran, Turkiye’s head of communications.

The Dassault Falcon 50 was redirected back to the airport in Ankara by air traffic controllers, but as the aircraft sank, radar contact disappeared.

In the Haymana district of Ankara, the wreckage was discovered close to the village of Kesikkavak. Three members of the crew were among the eight killed.

After Turkiye’s Ministry of Interior launched emergency operations, search and rescue teams arrived at the scene as multiple authorities joined the crash investigation.

Funeral services were sped up

Al Jazeera’s Malik Traina reported from Misrata, Libya, claiming that although the timeline is uncertain, Al-Haddad’s body was still being recovered.

The minister of communications informed us that the funeral prayer will be observed tomorrow. That is beginning to change as government officials call in saying it could be delayed until Saturday, according to Traina on Thursday.

The recovery process, according to Traina, took longer because there were more remains scattered throughout the area and DNA testing was required.

There is a lot of pressure on,” he said. We’ll have to wait and see whether or not that will occur.

Five Israeli settlers have been detained for their alleged involvement in an Israeli baby’s alleged wounding at a Palestinian home in the occupied West Bank.

The infant was reportedly injured moderately to the face and head in the incident, which occurred late on Wednesday and involved “a group of armed settlers” who were throwing stones at homes and property in the town of Sair, north of Hebron.

According to Israeli police, five settlers were detained on Thursday after receiving reports of “stones being thrown toward a Palestinian home by Israeli civilians.”

Israeli settlements and outposts are Jewish-only communities constructed on Palestinian-occupied Palestinian land that are against international law. They can be found in a variety of sizes, from single-family homes to a number of high-rise buildings. According to the peace-focused Israeli organization Peace Now, about 700,000 settlers reside in East Jerusalem and live there.

In another West Bank incident, a 17-year-old boy was shot while dozens of Palestinians were inhaling tear gas during an Israeli army raid on the town of Beit Furik, east of Nablus, according to Wafa.

According to the report, “Israeli forces launched live bullets and tear gas canisters across the town’s neighborhoods.”

Following settler attacks, Israeli forces also detained three Palestinians in Masafer Yatta, south of Hebron.

Additionally, Israeli forces detained one resident in Masafer Yatta after they searched and vandalized their contents.

In the town of Deir Jarir, east of Ramallah, a Palestinian man was hurt in a settler attack.

Mohammad Bakri, a well-known Palestinian filmmaker and actor, has passed away in northern Israel, bringing his five-decade career to an end. He is one of the most influential figures in Palestinian cinema.

According to hospital officials, Bakri had heart and lung issues and passed away on Wednesday at Galilee Medical Center in Nahariya.

A renowned artist whose work directly challenged Israeli narratives and whose decades-long legal battles over censorship became a defining chapter of Palestinian cultural resistance after his death has been forgotten.

The 72-year-old was best known for his 2002 documentary, Jenin, Jenin, which gathered Palestinian residents’ testimony following a 52-person Palestinians-fatally-perished Israeli military operation there.

The movie sparked years of controversy in Israel, but it also elevated Bakri’s creative status, which would rule his entire life.

The Supreme Court upheld the prohibition in 2022, &nbsp, deeming it defamatory, despite Israeli authorities’ ban on the documentary in 2021.

Bakri stated at the time that the verdict was unfair and that it was “neutering my truth.”

Five soldiers sued Bakri, and the court ordered all copies taken and online links removed, leading to a final judgment against him that cost hundreds of thousands of shekels.

In a statement released earlier this year for the British Film Institute, Bakri stated, “Israel considers me their enemy, not my enemy.” They view my filmmaking as a traitor.

Bakri, an Israeli-born Palestinian national who studied Arabic literature and theater at Tel Aviv University, was born in 1953 in the Galilee village of Bi’ina. In Costa-Gavras’ Hanna K, he made his powerful acting debut, playing a Palestinian refugee attempting to reclaim his family’s home, at the age of 30.

In the 1984 Israeli film Beyond the Walls, his portrayal of a Palestinian prisoner won him both an Academy Award nomination and praise.

His career, however, was shaped by Bakri’s commitment to telling Palestinian stories. He directed and appeared in more than 40 movies that examined Palestinians’ experiences while they were living under Israeli occupation.

His solo theatrical production of The Pessoptimist, based on Emile Habibi’s novel about Palestinian identity, was performed more than 1,500 times around the world, cementing his place as a cultural icon.