Israel’s military-tech industry is the subject of an author’s interview with The Palestine Laboratory.
How Israel’s military industry profits from war in Gaza
AI defence expo features latest tech, warnings of potential dangers
Artificial intelligence is on full display at an exposition in Washington, DC, where one of the main focuses is how to incorporate AI into weapons systems. Organisers say the technology will lead to a better future, but critics are warning of the dangers that come with the high-tech advances. Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi shows us around.
Canadian wildfire smoke spreads across a third of United States
Smoke from wildfires burning in three Canadian provinces has covered about a third of the United States, forecasters said, but had little effect on air quality except in New England and parts of New York state and the Midwest.
Alerts were issued on Tuesday for parts of Canada and the neighbouring US, warning of the haze, which brought hazardous levels of particulate pollution to Minnesota, stretched from the Dakotas through the Ohio Valley, into the Northeast and as far south as Georgia, according to the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. It was especially thick in New York and New England.
“Much of the smoke is aloft in the upper atmosphere, so in a lot of areas, there aren’t air quality issues”, said the National Weather Service’s Marc Chenard on Wednesday. “But there are air quality issues as far south as New York and Connecticut, where it’s thicker and in the lower atmosphere”.
Scores of wildfires have spread across Canada since the start of May. More than 212 active fires were burning in the country as of Tuesday afternoon, half of which were out of control, according to the Canadian Interagency Forest Fire Centre. So far, 2 million hectares (4.9 million acres) have burned. Most of the fires were in the west-central provinces of Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta.
A water tanker air base was consumed by flames in Saskatchewan province, oil production has been disrupted in Alberta, and officials warned of worse to come, with more communities threatened each day.
“We have some challenging days ahead of us”, Saskatchewan Premier Scott Moe told a news conference, adding that the number of evacuees could rise quickly.
Yang Liu, a professor of environmental health at Emory University in Atlanta, said infants, the elderly and other frail people were most susceptible to the smoke, but emphasised that everyone is at risk. “It will affect everyone at some level, all walks of life”, Liu said. “It’s bad”.
He said the smoke is comprised of small particles, some of them toxic, that are smaller than 1/40th of the width of a human hair and can get into the lungs and even dissolve into the bloodstream.
One of the worst spots for air quality in the northeastern US on Wednesday morning was Williamstown, Massachusetts, near the state’s borders with Vermont and New York. It registered a “very unhealthy” reading of 228, according to IQAir, a website that monitors air quality around the world.
An air quality rating of below 50 is considered to be “good”, and readings between 100 and 300 are deemed “unhealthy” to “very unhealthy”, while higher than that is considered “hazardous”, according to the website.
The ratings in other parts of the US Northeast were much lower, with New York City’s standing at 56 on Wednesday morning and Washington’s registering at 55.
Air quality levels in some parts of the Midwest had also improved on Wednesday morning. Ely, which is close to the border with Manitoba and near Minnesota, recorded a “moderate” reading of 65, down from 336 on Tuesday. Minneapolis, which had received a reading of 168 on Tuesday and was ranked as the third-worst city in the world in terms of air quality, was registering at 96.
Will Wilders’s gamble to withdraw from governing Dutch coalition pay off?
Leader of Party for Freedom hopes a tough immigration policy will win the election.
He has been dubbed the “Dutch Donald Trump.”
In a dispute over immigration policy, Geert Wilders has pulled his Party for Freedom (PVV) from the Netherlands-led coalition.
The NATO ally has experienced new elections and political unrest as a result.
The PVV tapped into Europe’s growing populism and promises to reduce immigration to claim the most votes in 2023, surpassing the opposition’s years of opposition.
His coalition partners objected to Wilders’ push for a 10-point plan that calls for the militarization of Dutch borders as well as the repatriation of all Syrian nationals.
Prior to resigning, Prime Minister Dick Schoof referred to Wilders’ actions as “irresponsible” and as “irresponsible” at a crucial moment for Europe.
Was Wilders’ decision to use caution or caution here?
And with only weeks until a NATO summit in The Hague, will it cause more uncertainty in the area?
Presenter:
Tom McRae
Guests:
Henk van der Kolk, University of Amsterdam professor of electoral politics, is
Zoe Gardner, a freelance researcher who studies migration policy
Sweden tries ISIL member over burning death of Jordanian pilot in 2015
A convicted Swedish member of ISIL has gone on trial in Stockholm, accused of war crimes for his role in the horrific 2015 killing of a captured Jordanian pilot, who was burned alive in Syria.
“Osama Krayem has, together and in agreement with other perpetrators belonging to IS [ISIL], killed Maaz al-Kassasbeh,” prosecutor Reena Devgun told the district court on Wednesday.
“Osama Krayem, in uniform and armed, guarded and led the victim Moaz al-Kassasbeh to a metal cage, where the latter was then locked up. One of the co-perpetrators then set fire to Moaz al-Kassasbeh, who had no possibility to defend himself or call for help,” Devgun said.
The case is considered unique as the other ISIL members involved in the brutal killing, which sparked international outrage at the time, are presumed dead, Swedish prosecutor Henrik Olin told the AFP news agency.
Krayem, 32, wearing a dark blue shirt and with a thick beard and long, loose dark hair, had his back to the handful of journalists and spectators who followed Wednesday’s proceedings behind a glass wall in the high security courtroom in Stockholm’s district court.
He appeared calm as the prosecution laid out the charges, which could result in a life sentence if Krayem is convicted.
In the 22-minute video of the killing, the victim is seen walking past several masked ISIL fighters, including Krayem, according to prosecutors.
The pilot, who was 26 years old, is then seen being locked in the cage and praying as he is set on fire.
Prosecutors have been unable to determine the exact date of the murder, but the investigation has identified the location.
‘The harshest penalty’
The defendant’s lawyer, Petra Eklund, told AFP before the start of the trial that her client admitted to being present at the scene, but disputed the prosecution’s version.
“He denies the acts for which he is prosecuted,” she said.
“He acknowledges having been present at that place during the event, but claims not to have acted in the manner described by the prosecutors in the account of the facts,” she added.
Krayem was identified thanks to a scar on the suspect’s eyebrow, visible in the video and spotted by Belgian police, which led to the investigation being opened, said Devgun when the charges were announced last week.
The pilot’s father, Safi al-Kassasbeh, told AFP on Wednesday the family hoped Krayem would “receive the harshest penalty according to the magnitude of the crime”.
“This is what we expect from a respected and fair law,” he said.
Krayem is already serving long prison sentences for his role in the Paris and Brussels attacks in 2015 and 2016, 30 years and life respectively.
He now faces charges of “serious war crimes and terrorist crimes” for his alleged participation in al-Kassasbeh’s killing.
Al-Kassasbeh’s killing shocked Jordan, which at the time was participating in the US-led coalition’s strikes against ISIL positions in Syria – the reason ISIL gave for killing the Syrian pilot. Jordan had declared a period of mourning following the pilot’s death.
On December 24, 2014, an aircraft belonging to the Royal Jordanian Air Force crashed in Syria.
The pilot was captured the same day by ISIL fighters situated near the central city of Raqqa and burned alive in a cage sometime before February 3, 2015, when a gruesome video emerged, according to the prosecution.
ISIL, which at the time controlled large chunks of Syria and Iraq, had been demanding the release of Sajida al-Rishawi – a woman held by Jordanian authorities since 2005 – in exchange for al-Kassasbeh’s life.
Rishawi was sentenced to death “for conspiracy to carry out terror acts” after a triple bomb attack on the Radisson SAS hotel in the capital Amman.
The propaganda video, in which ISIL also called for the killing of other Jordanian pilots, was one of the earliest videos released by the group.
Fight for the Pacific – Episode 3: China’s Pacific Wave
A dive into the economic tug-of-war between the US and China in the Pacific, seen through the experiences of locals.
In “China’s Pacific Wave”, the episode delves into the economic tug-of-war between the United States and China in the Pacific, seen through the experiences of locals like Jacob George, a Vanuatuan customary land owner confronting Chinese encroachment, and Maikolo Ikahihfo, a Tongan stall owner amid the rise of Chinese businesses.
Highlighting the Pacific nations ‘ growing debts to China, this episode examines the vulnerabilities and economic sovereignty concerns of these aid-reliant island nations, which received more than $40bn in development assistance from 2008 to 2021. Ronna Lee’s story in Samoa adds a personal dimension, exploring cultural links between the Pacific and China.
This episode underscores the challenges faced by Pacific nations, such as dependency on limited income sources and climate change threats, and questions their role in the larger geopolitical game: are they merely pawns, or active agents in their destiny amidst intense global power dynamics?
Fight for the Pacific, a four-part series, showcases the Pacific’s critical transformation into a battleground of global power. This series captures the high-stakes rivalry between the US and China as they vie for dominance in a region pivotal to global stability. The series frames the Pacific not just as a battleground for superpowers but also as a region with its own unique challenges and aspirations.