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UNSC set to meet over deadly Rafah strike

Diplomats said the UN Security Council would convene Tuesday for an emergency session called by Algeria to discuss the attack…reports Asian Lite News

The UN Security Council was set to convene an emergency meeting Tuesday over an Israeli strike that killed dozens in a displaced persons camp in Rafah, as three European countries were slated to formally recognize a Palestinian state.

Eyewitness on the ground early Tuesday reported fresh Israeli strikes overnight in the southern Gaza border city, where an Israeli attack targeting two senior Hamas members on Sunday night sparked a fire that ripped through a displacement center, killing 45, according to Gaza health officials.

The attack prompted a wave of international condemnation, with Palestinians and many Arab countries calling it a “massacre.” Israel said it was looking into the “tragic accident.”

“There is no safe place in Gaza. This horror must stop,” UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres posted on social media.

UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffiths pointed to the widespread warnings of civilian deaths that circulated ahead of Israel’s incursion into Rafah, saying in a statement: “We’ve seen the consequences in last night’s utterly unacceptable attack.”

“To call it ‘a mistake’ is a message that means nothing for those killed, those grieving, and those trying to save lives,” he added.

Diplomats said the UN Security Council would convene Tuesday for an emergency session called by Algeria to discuss the attack.

The EU’s foreign policy chief said he was “horrified by news” of the strike, while French President Emmanuel Macron said he was “outraged,” and a US National Security Council spokesperson said Israel “must take every precaution possible to protect civilians.”

The Israeli military said it was launching a probe.

Displaced Gazan Khalil Al-Bahtini was preparing to leave the impacted area, saying Monday that “last night, the tent opposite to ours was targeted.”

“We have loaded all our belongings, but we don’t know where to go.”

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told parliament the deaths occurred “despite our best efforts” to protect civilians.

The outcry over the strike came as Spain, Ireland and Norway were set to formally recognize a Palestinian state on Tuesday in a decision slammed by Israel as a “reward” for Hamas.

“Recognizing the state of Palestine is about justice for the Palestinian people,” Spanish Foreign Minister Jose Manuel Albares said Monday in Brussels.

It was also “the best guarantee of security for Israel and absolutely essential for reaching peace in the region,” he said alongside his Irish and Norwegian counterparts.

On Monday, Israeli Foreign Minister Israel Katz said he had told Spain’s consulate in Jerusalem to stop offering consular services to West Bank Palestinians from June 1 as a “preliminary punitive” measure.

Israel launched the deadly strike on Rafah late Sunday, hours after Hamas fired a barrage of rockets at the Tel Aviv area, most of which were intercepted.

Israel’s army said its aircraft “struck a Hamas compound” in the city and killed Yassin Rabia and Khaled Nagar, senior officials for the militant group in the occupied West Bank.

Gaza’s civil defense agency said the strike ignited a fire that tore through a displacement center in northwestern Rafah near a facility of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA.

“We saw charred bodies and dismembered limbs… We also saw cases of amputations, wounded children, women and the elderly,” said civil defense agency official Mohammad Al-Mughayyir.

One survivor, a woman who declined to be named, said: “We heard a loud sound and there was fire all around us. The children were screaming.”

Adding to already heightened tensions since Israel launched its Rafah ground operation, the Israeli and Egyptian militaries reported a “shooting incident” on Monday that killed one Egyptian guard in the border area between Egypt and the southern Gaza Strip.

Both forces said they were investigating.

Footage from the Palestinian Red Crescent Society showed chaotic nighttime scenes of paramedics racing to the attack site and evacuating the wounded.

Mughayyir said the rescue efforts were hampered by war damage and the impact of Israel’s siege, which has led to severe shortages of fuel and “water to extinguish fires.”

The Israeli attack sparked strong protests from Egypt and Qatar, both of which have played key roles as mediators in efforts to negotiate a ceasefire and hostage-prisoner exchange.

Egypt deplored what it called the “targeting of defenseless civilians,” saying it was part of “a systematic policy aimed at widening the scope of death and destruction in the Gaza Strip to make it uninhabitable.”

Qatar condemned a “dangerous violation of international law” and voiced “concern that the bombing will complicate ongoing mediation efforts” toward a truce.

The top world court, the International Court of Justice, on Friday ordered Israel to halt any offensive in Rafah and elsewhere that could bring about “the physical destruction” of the Palestinians.

Israel’s retaliatory offensive has killed at least 36,050 people in Gaza, mostly civilians, according to the Hamas-run territory’s health ministry.

Philippe Lazzarini, head of UNRWA, which has been central to aid operations in the besieged territory during the war, said on social media platform X that “with every day passing, providing assistance & protection becomes nearly impossible.” “The images from last night are testament to how Rafah has turned into hell on Earth,” he said.

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Toll in deadliest Russian strike on Kyiv rises to 32

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko had said on Saturday that the December 29 strike was “the largest in terms of civilian casualties.”…reports Asian Lite News

A December 29 missile strike killed 32 people in Kyiv, authorities said Thursday, raising the toll of the deadliest attack on the Ukrainian capital since the war began.

Russia has in recent days intensified aerial attacks against Ukraine, which says it has enough munition to withstand a few powerful assaults but would soon need more aid.

“The total number of dead as a result of the enemy missile attack on December 29 is 32 people,” said the head of the Kyiv military administration Sergiy Popko. Thirty people were wounded, he added.

All the 32 killed were in a warehouse, Ukrainian authorities said. Russia says it only targets military infrastructure.

Kyiv mayor Vitali Klitschko had said on Saturday that the December 29 strike was “the largest in terms of civilian casualties.”

Russia had on that day launched 158 missiles and drones over Ukraine, the air force said, in an attempt to overwhelm air defences.

The attack killed at least 55 people and wounded 170. Ukraine has retaliated and the Russian border region of Belgorod faced a wave of attacks over the weekend, with 25 people killed — an unprecedented toll since the beginning of the offensive almost two years ago.

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Germany braces for nationwide rail strike

GDL Chairman Claus Weselsky defended the decision to call for warning strikes…reports Asian Lite News

Germany is bracing for a short-notice nationwide rail strike that is scheduled to start on Wednesday evening local time and last 20 hours.

The German Train Drivers’ Union (GDL) and state-owned rail operator Deutsche Bahn have been in negotiations for a new collective agreement since last week. The second round of negotiations had been slated for the coming days.

Following the announcement of the warning strike, Deutsche Bahn canceled the upcoming negotiations. “We will not be negotiating with the train drivers’ union this week. Either you go on strike or you negotiate, you can’t do both at the same time,” Deutsche Bahn Board member Martin Seiler said.

In the first round, the rail company offered an 11-percent pay increase and an inflation compensation premium of up to 2,850 euros (3,093 U.S. dollars). The union’s demand for a four-day, 35-hour workweek with no loss of pay was “not feasible,” Seiler said.

GDL Chairman Claus Weselsky defended the decision to call for warning strikes. “We are putting a bit more pressure on the employer to be willing to negotiate a reduction in weekly working hours,” he told Deutschlandfunk radio on Wednesday.

“The strike will have a massive impact on all German rail operations,” Deutsche Bahn wrote on a blog. Passengers were asked to “refrain from non-essential travel” or to “postpone their journey.”

On Monday, Transport Minister Volker Wissing spoke out against rail strikes during the Christmas season, when people want to visit relatives and friends. He appealed to all parties involved to “be aware of their special responsibility and to design possible measures in such a way that people do not have to suffer as a result.”

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Tentative Deal Reached After Largest US Healthcare Strike

More than 75,000 workers with the California-based healthcare provider went on strike for three days last week, demanding better pay and benefits.

 Kaiser Permanente, the largest healthcare nonprofit organization in the US, has reached a tentative deal with the unions representing over 75,000 employees, after the largest healthcare workers’ strike on record in the country.

“The frontline healthcare workers of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions are excited to have reached a tentative agreement with Kaiser Permanente,” union officials said on X on Friday.

Kaiser Permanente also posted a similar announcement on the platform.

Both sides expressed their gratitude to the instrumental involvement of Acting US Labor Secretary Julie Su.

More than 75,000 workers with the California-based healthcare provider went on strike for three days last week, demanding better pay and benefits.

Union officials had warned that the three-day strike “will be the initial demonstration of our strength to Kaiser” and “another longer and stronger” strike would be staged next month if a new contract agreement couldn’t be reached by then.

Kaiser admitted staff shortages in a statement, saying it’s a problem that every healthcare provider in the nation has been facing.

The organisation’s data confirm a chronic trend of staff shortages in the US healthcare industry, which was exacerbated by the pandemic.

This year saw a record of labor activities in the US, as the number of workers involved in strikes has reached at least 411,000, the highest since 2019, recent data showed.

This year’s strikes also lasted longer than those in recent history, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics and Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker.

Workers have walked out from various industries such as healthcare, entertainment, automobile, hotel and airlines.

Negotiations between Hollywood studios and the US entertainment industry’s largest union representing 160,000 actors and performers were suspended on Wednesday night after the two sides failed to reach a deal.

Hollywood has shuddered to standstill since the start of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) strike in mid-July.

In another high-profile strike, more than 34,000 auto workers from the “Big Three” automakers — Ford, General Motors and Stellantis — are on strike, which has lasted nearly one month.

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Russian Drone Strike Hits Port Facilities on River Danube in Ukraine

Although Ukraine claimed that Russian drones had landed on Romanian territory, the NATO member state denied it…reports Asian Lite News

An overnight Russian drone strike has hit port facilities on the River Danube in Ukraine’s Izmail area, an official confirmed on Wednesday.

Oleh Kiper, Governor of the surrounding Odesa region, said the attack led to the damage of port and agricultural infrastructure, reports the BBC.

There has been no official comment from Russia on the drone strike.

Earlier this week, the Izmail region, located from across the river from Romania, had come under another Russian drone attack.

Although Ukraine claimed that Russian drones had landed on Romanian territory, the NATO member state denied it.

Russia has been hitting Ukraine’s port facilities along the Danube for over a month, trying to prevent Kiev from using the river to export its grain, the BBC reported.

Also on Tuesday night, the Ukrainian capital Kiev came under missile attack, the authorities said, but there were no casualties or damage.

All the Russian missiles were destroyed by air defences, a Ukrainian defence official said.

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Russian drone strikes damages port infrastructure in Odesa

As of 5:30 am local time, there were no reports of casualties, according to Kiper, though he added that the military command will provide the final data and results of combat work…reports Asian Lite News

The port and industrial infrastructure of the Odesa region were damaged after Kyiv met with a barrage of drone attacks in the early hours of Wednesday, CNN reported citing the head of the Ukrainian regional military administration, Oleh Kiper.

This comes after both Russia and Ukraine accused each other of carrying cross-border attacks on Tuesday. “At night, the enemy directed attack UAVs to the south of the Odesa region. As a result of the attack, fires broke out at the facilities of the port and industrial infrastructure of the region, and a grain elevator was damaged. All response teams are at the scene,” Kiper posted on Telegram.

As of 5:30 am local time, there were no reports of casualties, according to Kiper, though he added that the military command will provide the final data and results of combat work.

Meanwhile, the strikes come soon after Ukraine shot down 10 drones over Kyiv early Wednesday, CNN reported.

Serhiy Popko, head of the Kyiv City Military Administration, confirmed about shooting down 10 drones over Kyiv, in a Telegram post early Wednesday.

Initial information indicates that Russian forces used Shahed barrage munitions in the barrage of attacks, Popko said.

“Drone groups approached Kyiv simultaneously from several directions. However, the air defence forces detected and destroyed all aerial targets – over 10 UAVs – in a timely manner,” CNN quoted Popko as saying.

He said debris from the drones has fallen in the districts of Solomianskyi, Holosiivskyi, and Sviatoshynskyi in Kyiv and that some non-residential buildings and road surfaces were damaged, but no serious damage or fires.

Kiper had also warned of possible drone attacks on the Odesa region, and asked the people to take shelter while its air defenses were at work, CNN reported citing a Telegram post.

Earlier on Tuesday, Russia alleged that Ukraine again attempted a drone strike in Moscow targeting the “exact same building” that was hit on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Kyiv accused Russia of shelling a medical facility in the southern port city of Kherson, killing a doctor and wounding a nurse.

Ukrainian officials, including President Volodymyr Zelensky, have suggested that these attacks are meant to shatter any remaining sense of calm in the Russian capital.

“Moscow is rapidly getting used to a full-fledged war,” CNN quoted Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelensky, as saying,

Last month, Russian missiles badly damaged a historic Orthodox cathedral in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa. The Odesa strikes killed at least one person and injured several others, CNN reported citing Ukrainian officials. The attacks also destroyed other historic buildings, Ukraine’s culture ministry said. (ANI)

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Russia launches strike on Ukraine’s facilities producing drone boats

8 killed in Odessa shelling.(photo: https://twitter.com/DefenceU/status/1517919662557773830)

The cathedral is located in Odesa’s city centre, which UNESCO designated a World Heritage Site in response to the invasion threat from Russia…reports Asian Lite News

The Russian forces carried out an overnight missile strike on facilities that manufacture and prepare drone boats near the Ukrainian city of Odessa, the Russian Defence Ministry said in a statement.

“Last night, the Russian armed forces launched a group strike with long-range high-precision sea- and air-based weapons on facilities where terrorist acts against Russia were being prepared using uncrewed boats, as well as on places where they were being manufactured near the city of Odessa,” it added on Sunday.

Foreign mercenaries were seen at the affected facilities, it said as quoted by Xinhua news agency report. All selected targets were destroyed, according to the Ministry.

Meanwhile, the Russian missile strikes that killed at least one and injured many have destroyed a famous Orthodox cathedral in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa, reported CNN.

In the latest wave of attacks on Odesa, several other historic buildings have also been destroyed. The largest church structure in Odesa is the Transfiguration Cathedral. It was consecrated in 1809 and later demolished in 1936 during the Soviet era. However, when Ukraine became an independent nation, the structure underwent a reconstruction.

Videos circulating on social media revealed the cathedral’s interior was filled with debris. According to Ukrainian officials, the patroness of the city’s icon had been rescued from the ruins, CNN reported.

The cathedral is located in Odesa’s city centre, which UNESCO designated a World Heritage Site in response to the invasion threat from Russia.

The Russian missiles have damaged as many as twenty-five architectural monuments in Odesa, the Ukrainian port city, alleged a Ukrainian local official, reported CNN.

Russia “deliberately aimed their missiles at the historic city centre of Odesa” which is protected by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), said Oleh Kiper, the head of the region’s military administration.

“Everything that was built with hard work by great architects is now being destroyed by cynical inhumans,” said Kiper.

Odesa is a significant cultural hub with long ties to Russia. Earlier this week, Russia launched a barrage of drones and missiles overnight at the Ukrainian port city of Odesa, CNN reported. Russia had cited Ukraine’s attack on the Crimea bridge for launching a strike on Odesa. (ANI)

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Hollywood faces historic industrywide strike

The union said it has instructed “all SAG-AFTRA members to cease rendering all services and performing all work covered by the TV/Theatrical Contracts.”…reports Asian Lite News

Hollywood’s largest union representing about 160,000 actors and workers in television and film announced a strike on Thursday, leading to the first industry-wide shutdown of the U.S. entertainment industry in more than six decades.

The national board of the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) voted unanimously to go on strike, said the union at a news conference.

The strike is set to go into effect at Thursday midnight and picketing will start on Friday morning, according to the union.

“It came with great sadness that we came to this crossroads, but we have no choice,” said SAG-AFTRA President Fran Drescher, noting that members of the union “are being victimized by a very greedy entity.”

The union said it has instructed “all SAG-AFTRA members to cease rendering all services and performing all work covered by the TV/Theatrical Contracts.”

“After more than four weeks of negotiations, the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP), the entity that represents major studios and streamers, including Amazon, Apple, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony, and Warner Bros Discovery, remains unwilling to offer a fair deal on the key issues that you told us are important to you,” said Drescher and the union’s chief negotiator Duncan Crabtree-Ireland earlier Thursday morning.

“Though we’ve engaged in negotiations in good faith and remained eager to reach a deal that sufficiently addressed performer concerns, the AMPTP’s responses to our proposals have not been adequate,” they noted.

In a press release, the AMPTP said, “A strike is certainly not the outcome we hoped for as studios cannot operate without the performers that bring our TV shows and films to life.”

“Member companies entered the negotiations with SAG-AFTRA with the goal of forging a new, mutually beneficial contract,” said the AMPTP, adding that it “presented a deal that offered historic pay and residual increases, substantially higher caps on pension and health contributions, audition protections, shortened series option periods, and a groundbreaking AI proposal that protects actors’ digital likenesses for SAG-AFTRA members.”

Disney CEO Bob Iger, one of the most powerful executives in Hollywood, told CNBC ahead of SAG-AFTRA’s announcement on Thursday morning that the unions are not being “realistic” in their demands.

“It will have a very, very damaging effect on the whole business,” Iger was quoted as saying.

“And unfortunately there’s huge collateral damage to the industry…It will affect the economy of different regions, even, because of the sheer size of the business,” he noted.

It’s the first time that Hollywood witnessed two industry-wide strikes at the same time since 1960 and is also the first actors’ strike since 1980. The SAG-AFTRA strike came two months after the start of an ongoing strike of the Writers Guild of America and its 11,500 members in May, which has brought Hollywood production on many new projects to a halt.

The strike made headline news in the country.

The Los Angeles Times, the biggest newspaper on U.S. West Coast, reported that the strike will widen “the scope of labor unrest in an entertainment industry that is already facing numerous headwinds.”

Another major U.S. newspaper, The New York Times, noted that the move will bring “the 134-billion-U.S. dollar American movie and television business to a halt over anger about pay and fears of a tech-dominated future.”

It marks the first time in 63 years that both writers and actors have been on strike to fight for better pay and working conditions.

“See you on the picket lines until fair contracts are reached,” the Writers Guild of America tweeted on Thursday. “We’re making history while fighting for the future.” 

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Junior doctors announce new three-day strike in UK

They called this “simply not credible” as it would not match the scale of inflation this year, let alone pay erosion, and called on ministers to “get serious”…reports Asian Lite News

The British Medical Association (BMA) said they will strike in England from 14-17 June in a bid to force ministers “to put forward a credible” salary rise.

They warned that if the government “doesn’t change their position, we will strike throughout the summer”.

A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Social Care said it is “both surprising and deeply disappointing” that further action has been declared “while constructive talks were ongoing”.

But the BMA said talks “have now reached a stage where they are currently unproductive”. Dr Vivek Trivedi and Dr Robert Laurenson, co-chairs of the BMA Junior Doctors Committee, said: “Accordingly, we are in a position where we must call new industrial action.

“We are today announcing that junior doctors in England will hold another 72-hour full walkout between 0700 on Wednesday 14 June and 0700 on Saturday 17 June.

“And if the government doesn’t change their position, we will strike throughout the summer. This means we will call a minimum of three days of action every month for the duration of our mandate for industrial action.”

The BMA say they have had a 26% real-terms salary cut over the past 15 years and “deserve full pay restoration now”.

They want a pay rise of 35% to “stop the haemorrhaging of junior doctors from the NHS”, saying four in 10 are looking to leave the health service as it “staggers under a workforce crisis”.

In their statement announcing the new strike dates, the BMA accused the government of failing to recognise “the scale of our pay erosion” and said “this was made clear when they finally made their pay offer of 5%”.

They called this “simply not credible” as it would not match the scale of inflation this year, let alone pay erosion, and called on ministers to “get serious”.

However, the government accused the BMA of being “unwilling” to budge on their “unaffordable headline demands”.

A spokesperson said: “We made a fair and reasonable opening offer, and were in active discussions about both pay and non-pay issues.

“Unfortunately, it seems the BMA is unwilling to move meaningfully away from their unaffordable headline demands on pay.

“The government has been clear that strikes must be paused while talks take place, so while the BMA has chosen to end our current discussions, we remain ready to continue them at any point if strikes are called off.”

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Rail passengers face significant disruption in fresh strikes

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said the blame for the long-running walkouts should be placed on the train operators…reports Asian Lite News

Rail passengers across the country face significant disruption today as workers from the Aslef union walk out in a long-running dispute over pay.

Aslef members in more than a dozen train operators will strike on Friday with more walk-outs planned for 31 May and 3 June – the day of the FA Cup final in Wembley.

Meanwhile, members of the Rail, Maritime and Transport union (RMT) will strike on Saturday as thousands make their way to the Eurovision Song Contest final in Liverpool. Passengers travelling today and tomorrow have been urged to check their route before setting off.

Aslef general secretary Mick Whelan said the blame for the long-running walkouts should be placed on the train operators.

“We do not want to go on strike – we do not want to inconvenience passengers, we have families and friends who use the railway too, and we believe in investing in rail for the future of this country,” Mr Whelan said.

“But the blame for this action lies, fairly and squarely, at the feet of the employers who have forced our hand over this by their intransigence.

“It is now up to them to come up with a more sensible, and realistic, offer and we ask the government not to hinder this process.” Aslef said a 4% pay offer was “risable and obviously unacceptable”.

“We have been negotiating with employers – the train operating companies – for many months on pay. On several companies we have managed to come to an agreement, and on several others, multi-year deals have been honoured,” Whelan added.

“Unfortunately a number of companies still have their hands tied by the Department for Transport and aren’t able to negotiate a reasonable deal with Aslef members.

“We are still prepared to negotiate in good faith but, unfortunately, as we have been unable to come to an agreement, we have had to consider industrial action.”

Steve Montgomery, who chairs the Rail Delivery Group, apologised to customers for the strikes, saying it will cause “disappointment and frustration” for those attending the Eurovision and FA Cup final.

“While we are doing all we can to keep trains running, unfortunately there will be reduced train services across the network between Friday 12 May and Saturday 3 June, so our advice is to check before you travel.”

On Friday, Transport Secretary Mark Harper said train services run by TransPennine Express will be brought under government control after widespread delays and cancellations in the past year.

The operator, which covers an area across northern England and into Scotland, has been badly affected by drivers who are members of the Aslef union no longer volunteering to work paid overtime shifts.

Harper said his department has “played our part but Aslef now need to play theirs” by calling off strikes and the ban on rest day working.

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