After a string of attacks that left at least two civilians dead, Syrian government forces and Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces reached an agreement to end fighting in Aleppo.
Following the deadly clashes that erupted during a visit by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, the defense ministry claimed the army’s general command had issued an order to stop attacking the SDF’s fighters.
Recommended Stories
list of 3 itemsend of list
Fidan, whose nation views the SDF, which has control over large portions of northeastern Syria, as a “terrorist” organization, claimed on Monday that the SDF appeared to have broken its commitment to joining the state’s armed forces by a mutually agreed year-end deadline.
Following the SANA report on Monday evening, the SDF claimed in a later statement that in response to de-escalation contacts, it had issued instructions to stop attacking Syrian government forces.
The most recent arrival from Heglig is in Kosti, Sudan, where the flow of displaced people flees the conflict there is in no sign of slowing.
After its rival, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), withdrew from the area in early December, the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) seized the strategic Heglig oilfield in West Kordofan province.
Nearly 1,700 displaced people, the majority of them women and children, escaped the southern region’s fighting and the lack of basic necessities.
Some of them had the good fortune to board trucks as they escaped their nearby towns and villages. The Gos Alsalam displacement camp in Kosti, a city in the White Nile province, is where the displaced people made their way home after a long journey.
An elderly woman who appeared frail and exhausted said, “We left without anything; we just took some clothes.”
The arrivals at the camp are greeted with incredibly harsh humanitarian conditions. Tents are being pitched in a hurry, but the humanitarian needs of the displaced people increase as the number increases. Yet, even the bare minimum can’t be covered by human assistance.
Nothing, no blankets, no sheets, etc. A displaced elderly woman called her, “We are old people.
I gave birth in the street, I say.
14 million people have been forced to flee their homes in a desperate attempt to get safety and shelter from the intense fighting that has cost tens of thousands of lives as a result of nearly three years of conflict between the RSF and SAF.
In what the UN describes as the largest humanitarian crisis in history, 21 million people across the nation are suffering from acute hunger.
Umm Azmi and her newborn child are seated in a small corner of the Gos Alsalam camp. She recalled how she unaided herself on the road after being overtaken by labor.
The mother said, “I tried for nine months, but I gave birth in the street. The situation is very challenging.”
Indore, India: Madhya Pradesh, a soya bean farmer in the state of central India, has been disappointed by the state’s recently finished harvesting season.
The 57-year-old, who has more than 3 hectares (7.4 acres) of fertile land, claimed that excessive rain had caused his standing crops to be severely harmed the state’s soybean production.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
According to Patel, “the production is only about 9, 000 kg,” or one-fifth of what it should be.
As a result of the excessive rain, corn prices, which are grown close to soya beans, have fallen.
Farmers like Patel should be concerned about more pressing issues.
One of the main components of the ongoing trade negotiations between India and the United States is that the two agricultural products are extensively grown for both livestock and human consumption.
President Donald Trump has so far imposed tariffs on India, which have threatened to destroy several US-based industries that are heavily exporting.
The US’s access to India’s agricultural sector is one of the issues in trade negotiations. Washington wants to see the introduction of genetically modified (GM) corn and soybeans on New Delhi’s market.
In order to introduce novel traits that increase production in comparison to conventional breeding, the GM technology involves changing plant DNA.
After Brazil, the US produces 119.05 million metric tons of soya beans, accounting for 28 percent of the world’s production.
Prior to the trade war with Beijing, China was the largest buyer of US soya beans.
Because China, the organization’s former top buyer, has dramatically reduced its purchases, Suman Sahai, the founder of Gene Campaign, a nonprofit working for farmers, said the US desperately needs a market for its soya beans and corn.
Trump must sell this crop of soybeans and corn to avoid piqueing the attention of his large-scale political base, she said.
[Gurvinder Singh/Al Jazeera] Soya farmer Mahesh Patel claims heavy rains destroyed his crop.
India’s resistance to change
India has so far stopped the importation of GM-variety soya beans and corn because it produces non-GM, organic crops that have a global niche market and could be hampered by the perception that GM varieties are causing the strain to become too diluted.
Madhya Pradesh alone produces more than half of the world’s 13.05 million tonnes of soya beans.
About 42 million tons of corn are produced in India, making about 80% of fuel-grade ethanol. Because of the lack of a processing facility for edible oil, the nation produces only corn on its own, but it imports soya oil for cooking purposes.
However, soya and corn farmers complain that traders are already charging less than the government’s recommended price. Additionally, the high prices of fertilizers, seeds, and other farm items are added to this, along with the unpredictable rainfall that has destroyed crops.
Because the government does not purchase from us, the traders can set the prices at their will. In Madhya Pradesh, corn farmer Prakash Patel, 50, said, “We are unable to even recover the production costs.”
We still have to pay the loans we used to purchase our farming equipment because the profit is a far-off dream.
Farmers worry that if US goods enter the Indian market, these losses will get worse.
In 0.40 hectares (1 acre) of land, a farmer in India typically produces about 1 metric tonne of soya beans. However, the same land area can support GM soybean production, according to Nirbhay Singh, a soya farmer in the state’s Piploda village.
Hemant Jain, an exporter of corn, is concerned about the impact of US goods entering India.
Because of their non-GM quality, Jain claimed that India’s soybean and corn products are in high demand internationally.
The import of GM products “would raise questions about adulteration in the minds of foreigners, who might be reluctant to purchase from us.”
According to experts, Indian growers cannot compete with US farmers who have sizable plots of land and substantial government subsidies.
Farmers in India, according to independent agrarian analyst Indra Shekhar Singh, have average landholdings of about 2 hectares (5 acres), where five to seven family members work and depend for food and income. They frequently have to work as laborers on other people’s land to earn more money.
This contrasts favorably with the US, where farmers have extensive fields to cultivate crops and, depending on the crop, receive substantial government subsidies.
Indian farmers can’t compete with the US government’s subordinated agri-commodities, saying that the US is trying to find a market alternative to China. Our farmers would be left deeply ill and helpless by them by the time they would have the entire market, Singh predicted.
Strong lobbying at work
However, some scientists and industry experts believe that India’s GM soybean and corn production has advantages.
Because they are not permitted to speak to the media, a senior scientist working with the Indian government on GM technology claimed that the introduction of the technology would allow farmers to use specific herbicides to control weeds without harming the crop.
The use of spraying insecticides and lower costs for farmers would be reduced thanks to the GM technology’s insect-resistant properties. Additionally, the GM method, which aids farmers in reducing their losses, significantly increases production.
According to Kawaljeet Bhatia, a 52-year-old Indian poultry feed supplier, the production of corn and soya beans will increase significantly with the introduction of GM varieties, which would benefit farmers and local businesses that are involved in the production process.
He suggested, however, that the government instead import GM seeds, producing their own.
“Some exporters, who claim to export organic products, pay a premium.” Because it benefits them, they want that status to continue. We only need to switch to GM in order to increase productivity, according to Bhatia.
Political analysts told Al Jazeera that the Indian government is being cautious. Agriculture accounts for 46% of the country’s GDP and contributes to it.
Sibaji Pratim Basu, an independent political commentator in Kolkata, West Bengal, quoted as saying, “The government is acting with caution, taking lessons from the massive farmers’ protest that had rocked the country in 2020-21. … referring to the yearlong protests by tens of thousands of farmers in northern India against three farm laws that the government has introduced. Only after the government withdrew those regulations did the protests come to an end.
At least five people have died as a result of a small Mexican Navy plane that crashed off the southern coast of the country killing a medical patient and seven others.
Four of the people on board were Navy officers, according to Mexico’s Navy in a statement released on Monday, and four were civilians, including a young person.
Recommended Stories
list of 4 itemsend of list
One person is still missing while two people survived the collision, according to the statement.
The Mexican Marine Corps expressed condolences to the families of those who perished in this tragic accident in a statement released.
At least five of the passengers on board had died, according to US coastguard Petty Officer Luke Baker, who did not name the passengers.
The crash’s cause is being looked into.
The Mexican Navy’s statement did not provide more details, saying the plane had an “accident” while passing through Galveston.
The plane left Merida, Mexico’s Yucatan state, at 18:46 GMT, and was last seen over Galveston Bay, along Texas’s coast, close to Scholes International airport at 21:01 GMT, according to the flight tracking website Flight Radar.
According to the website of the nonprofit, the Mexican Navy claimed the plane was supporting a medical mission in collaboration with the Michou and Mau Foundation, which provides emergency transportation to children with life-threatening burns to Shriners Children’s Hospital in Galveston.
The Texas Department of Public Safety announced on social media platform X that federal aviation administration and NTSB teams have arrived at the crash site.
NTSB employees are “aware of this accident and are gathering information about it,” according to a NTSB spokesman.
The crash was being responded to by the Galveston County Sheriff’s Office’s dive team, crime scene unit, drone unit, and patrol, according to the report.
If the weather played a role, it was not immediately known.
On Tuesday, December 23, 2018, this is how things are going.
Fighting
Russian Lieutenant General Finil Sarvarov was killed by a car bomb in southern Moscow, marking the third fatality of a senior Russian military officer in just over a year. Investors in Russia pointed the finger at Ukraine. The incident hasn’t received any comments from Kyiv.
In a second attack on the area in less than 24 hours, Russian forces struck Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odesa late on Monday, according to Ukrainian officials, damaging port facilities and a ship.
The most recent attack on Odesa is seen by Ukrainian deputy prime minister Oleksii Kuleba as part of Russia’s “disruptive maritime logistics by launching systematic attacks on port and energy infrastructure,” according to the Telegram app’s Oleksii Kuleba.
Kuleba claimed that the attack also damaged the Odesa region’s energy infrastructure, causing more than 120 000 customers to lose electricity. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, one person was seriously hurt in the attack.
According to media reports, the Hrabovske village, which borders Russia and the Sumy region and is home to 52 people, was taken by Russian troops by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. According to Zellenskyy, 13 Ukrainian service members were among those who were taken.
In an overnight attack, the Ukrainian military claimed to have set off fireworks and a fire at a Tamanneftegaz oil terminal in the Krasnodar region of Russia. According to the Ukrainian General Staff, the oil terminal was a component of Russia’s energy infrastructure, which supported Russian troops’ financial and logistical support.
Two other vessels in the same area were also harmed by a Ukrainian drone attack. According to regional authorities, the entire crew on the ships at the Volna terminal has been evacuated safely.
The eastern Kharkiv region’s Ministry of Defense claimed to have taken Vilcha village from Russia. It was impossible to immediately verify the assertion.
diplomacy and politics
In light of concerns about the progress of the negotiations, which Moscow and Kyiv are still at odds with, US President Donald Trump stated that the Ukraine war is “on hold.”
Meanwhile, Zelenskyy praised the Miami negotiations as being “very close to a real result.” He also admitted that “not everything is ideal with this, but the plan is there,” while also reiterating this to a group of Ukrainian diplomats who were gathering to discuss the peace process.
In his weekly video address to the nation, Zelenskyy also stated that the key question was whether the US could “get a response from Russia, real readiness on the part of that country to focus on something other than aggression.” He claimed that putting pressure on the Kremlin would help Moscow’s ability to start a war was essential.
The US and Russia’s discussions of ways to end the Ukrainian conflict should not be seen as a breakthrough, according to the Kremlin. Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for the Kremlin, stated to the Izvestia news agency that the discussions were going to continue at a “meticulous” expert-level level.
Peskov also questioned the accuracy of the sources mentioned in a report from the Reuters news agency, which claimed Putin wants to seize all of Ukraine and reclaim parts of Europe that once belonged to the former Soviet bloc. According to Peskov, the US’s intelligence conclusions were incorrect if the report was reliable.
Moscow is ready to confirm in a legal agreement that it does not intend to attack the US-led NATO military alliance, according to Russian deputy foreign minister Sergey Ryabkov, according to state media reports.
military assistance
On January 7, the National Security Council of the Czech Republic will discuss the future of a Western-led, Czech-led organization that provides Ukrainian ammunition for the country. Germany, Denmark, and the Netherlands are also among the foreign donors partnering with the program.
Regional security
Adler, a Russian ship that was flown over the weekend to conduct an inspection, was released by Swedish customs, who had marine tracking data that revealed it was moving once more. What kind of cargo did the Adler have been carrying, according to Swedish customs. The Adler is subject to EU sanctions, while M Leasing LLC, the ship’s owners, are both facing US sanctions for suspected involvement in weapons transport.
