FTS 10:30 02/27: Continuing Israeli attacks on Palestine raise death toll to 29,782

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27/02/2024  FTS 10:30   * U.S. rice exports to Haiti register unhealthy levels of arsenic  * Argentina's southern province defies Milei and suspends oil and gas production    These and many other stories now!  Visit our website: https://www.telesurenglish.net/  Watch our videos here: https://videos.telesurenglish.net/en

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00:00 Israel begins its 144th day of the genocidal operation against Gaza, killing dozens of

00:17 Palestinians along the Strip.

00:21 In Argentina, Tierra del Fuego province announced the suspension of gas and oil production as

00:26 a way to protest Malay's fund cuts that have affected all provinces throughout the country.

00:34 And an investigation has confirmed that the United States has been selling rice to Haiti

00:38 with high levels of arsenic and cadmium.

00:45 Hello and welcome to From the South.

00:47 My name is Belén de los Santos and from the Tesseract Studios in Havana, Cuba, we begin

00:51 with the news.

00:52 An Israeli delegation arrived in Qatar on Tuesday to begin talks with the Palestinian

01:14 resistance on the hostage swap deal.

01:17 The event coincides with the US government's announcement of a possible ceasefire next week.

01:23 Earlier this month, the Palestinian resistance met for three days in Egypt to discuss the

01:27 release of Palestinian held in Israeli jails.

01:31 Although there has been no official statement from either side, there is some speculation

01:35 about the possible release of 400 Palestinians in exchange for 40 Israelis.

01:41 On the other hand, also on Monday, Washington confirmed that it is working on a draft of

01:46 a temporary ceasefire to be considered by the Security Council.

01:54 And in this context, Israel begins the 144th day of the genocidal operation against Gaza,

02:01 killing dozens of Palestinians along the Strip.

02:04 New attacks brought the death toll to 29,782.

02:10 More than 80% of these victims are women and children.

02:13 The Israeli aviation, artillery and even the Navy have launched a series of attacks against

02:19 the cities of Rafah and Han Yunis.

02:21 In this last city, the incursion was also confronted by the Palestinian resistance.

02:26 In the southern neighborhoods of Gaza, especially in al-Darash and al-Sabra, dozens of civilians

02:32 were killed and wounded by Syianist artillerymen.

02:36 According to Gaza medical sources, the number of wounded has risen to 70,782, while the

02:43 few active hospitals are losing capacity due to the ongoing siege.

02:52 In the Netherlands, the International Court of Justice concluded its public proceedings

02:57 in regard to the legal consequences of Israel's policies and practices in the occupied Palestinian

03:02 territories, including Jerusalem.

03:05 The six day-long sessions have now concluded and the court retreated for deliberation.

03:10 There is no certain time limit to prepare the pronouncement, with some experts expecting

03:14 it before the end of this year.

03:17 In Monday's hearing, Zambia and Fiji resembled earlier arguments of the United States and

03:22 United Kingdom, calling the court to decline providing the opinion.

03:27 For their part, Turkey, Spain and the Maldives condemned Israel's occupation and demanded

03:32 the end to the impunity the country enjoys before the international court.

03:37 The organizations like League of Arab States, Organization of Islamic Cooperation and the

03:42 African Union coincided that Israel must end the last oppressive, expansionist, apartheid,

03:48 settler colonial occupation, the last one standing in the 21st century.

03:53 Likewise, the representatives assured that Israel must dismantle the discriminatory regime.

04:01 Palestinians only want justice, equality, dignity and their long deserved independence,

04:05 they concluded.

04:10 Human Rights Watch said on Monday that the Israeli government has failed to comply with

04:14 at least one measure in the legally binding order from the International Court of Justice

04:19 in South Africa's genocide case.

04:22 On January 26th, the International Court of Justice ordered Israel to take immediate and

04:27 effective measures to enable the provision of urgently needed basic services and humanitarian

04:33 aid to Gaza and to report back on its compliance within a month.

04:37 However, 30 days afterwards, Israel continues to obstruct the provision of basic services

04:43 and the entry and distribution of fuel and life-saving aid in Gaza.

04:48 According to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs,

04:52 fewer trucks have entered Gaza and fewer aid missions have been permitted to reach the

04:57 northern part of the region in the several weeks since the ruling compared to the weeks

05:03 preceding it.

05:09 Also in Palestine, the Jordanian army carried out the largest aid landing operation on the

05:13 Gaza coast.

05:15 The Jordanian army revealed through an official statement that the operation involved four

05:20 C-130 planes, one of which belonged to the French armed forces, and that the aid included

05:25 relief items and foodstuff.

05:28 The army stressed that the operation was mainly aimed at delivering aid directly to the population.

05:34 The Jordanian army has so far carried out 16 airdrops with previous landing earmarked

05:40 for the Jordanian field hospital and one for about 800 people trapped inside San Feridio's

05:47 church in the same town neighborhood east of Gaza City.

05:51 The army stated that it would continue to send aid through the Al-Aresh International

05:56 Airport in Egypt.

06:01 The Israeli Defense Forces reported on Monday that Israeli army fighter jets attacked sites

06:07 used by Hezbollah's Air Defense Corps in Lebanon's Bika Valley.

06:11 The offensive took place near the city of Baalbek in the northeast of the Arab country,

06:17 almost 100 kilometers from the border between the two nations.

06:21 Moreover, according to local media, these are the most intense Israeli attacks inside

06:27 Lebanese territory since the beginning of the Israeli-Hamas conflict in the Gaza Strip.

06:32 The bombardment took place in two moments, the first by a missile that hit a food warehouse,

06:39 while the second one hit a house.

06:41 The Israeli army warned that it would continue its operations on Lebanese territory.

06:50 In the meantime, the Lebanese resistance shot down an Israeli drone as part of its solidarity

06:55 operations with the Palestinian people.

06:59 Through a statement, Hezbollah reported that it had intercepted the Hamas 450 drone with

07:04 a surface-to-air missile in the Iklim al-Tufa region in the south of the nation.

07:10 The resistance also stressed that the organization's fighters remain on alert so that the Tel Aviv's

07:16 army aggression do not advance further.

07:19 Hezbollah also confirmed an attack on Israeli forces located in the vicinity of the al-Baghdadi

07:25 siege.

07:30 Now let's take a short break.

07:32 But remember you can join us on TikTok @TelusarEnglish where you will find news in different formats,

07:37 news updates and much more.

07:43 Other stories coming up, stay with us.

08:06 Welcome back from the south.

08:07 The governor of the Argentinian province of Tierra del Fuego has declared that the province

08:12 would paralyze oil and gas output for 24 hours as an act of protest against the cut of funds

08:19 that President Javier Mele did on the jurisdiction.

08:22 The five governors of the Patagonian region held a meeting after the decision from the

08:27 Mele administration to withhold the transference of around $15 million in federal taxes revenue

08:34 that the Chubut province had to receive.

08:37 The Chubut governor, Ignacio Torres, affirmed in a statement co-signed by five other provincial

08:42 governors that the provinces existed before the nation and deserve respect and that nobody

08:49 could subjugate them nor extort them by threatening to restrict public funds that belong to them

08:55 by right.

08:59 In this same context, also in Argentina, the governor of the province of Buenos Aires,

09:04 Axel Gisilov, announced that he would appeal to the Supreme Court to recover the local

09:09 fiscal strengthening fund that was eliminated by the government of Javier Mele.

09:14 The Buenos Aires governor announced that he would ask the Supreme Court of Justice to

09:19 demand the Mele's government the return of the fiscal strengthening fund, which the central

09:24 administration recently took away from his district, saying that these were not resources

09:30 of a governor or a government, but of the people.

09:33 On the other hand, Gisilov anticipated that he would be holding dialogues with the mayors

09:38 of different political parties of the province in order to give a firm answer since the decision

09:45 that the necessity and urgency decree could not continue to be enforced.

09:49 At the same time, he considered it necessary that the governors of the country reach a

09:53 consensus to stop the neoliberal measures adopted by President Mele.

10:02 In other news, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro denounced the media campaign launched

10:06 by the US government and the press against Venezuelan migrants.

10:10 During his televised program with Maduro More, the president demanded the lifting of the

10:16 US coercive measures to put an end to the migratory problem.

10:20 The head of state called on Venezuelans abroad to return and join in the construction of

10:24 the country's future.

10:26 He also recalled that as a result of the US sanctions, the country lost 99 percent of

10:31 its income, which triggered a crisis in the South American nation.

10:40 Also in Venezuela, the consultation, debate and action of the so-called "Seven Transformations"

10:46 were included with multiple observations and proposals from the people's power.

10:50 The debate that began on January 18th counted with the participation of more than 60,000

10:56 community assemblies in the design of recovery and prosperity policies for the year 2030.

11:02 The closing ceremony in the state of Miranda was attended by the Vice President, Delsi

11:06 Rodríguez, who emphasized that the dialogue set the route for the recovery of Venezuela.

11:12 Rodríguez highlighted the importance of advancing towards the nation's technological, scientific,

11:17 cultural and economic independence.

11:19 She also reiterated that Venezuela would never again be dominated by any imperial power and

11:25 is now on its way to becoming a member of the BRICS bloc.

11:30 There are the BRICS, Venezuelans on the road with the BRICS, who are in the vanguard of

11:38 the transformation and change towards a different world, towards a world that respects international

11:44 law.

11:45 And above all, Venezuela will never submit to any imperial power.

11:48 It is marked in our history.

11:50 We inherited from Bolívar, from our heroes, from our heroines, to never submit ourselves

11:55 to any power.

11:58 For his part, Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro took to Social Network X to highlight

12:03 the advances made on discussion over the seven great transformations for the country.

12:08 In history, the President said that the bases had met, debated, had carried out consultations

12:15 and also established an action plan to move forward towards the 2030 goalpost, convinced

12:21 of their commitment towards the new generations and in efforts to guarantee them a greater

12:26 and prosperous land.

12:28 The President ended by stating that for this he counted on all citizens to transform Venezuela.

12:41 In Peru, 20 regions out of 24 forming the country have been declared in a state of emergency

12:47 due to the increase in cases of dengue fever in more than 100 percent over the last few

12:53 weeks.

12:54 The last rise of the epidemic has been fed by the unusual heat wave and the absence of

13:01 winter over the past year.

13:03 The government of Diné Boluarte decided to declare a state of emergency in all the regions

13:08 affected by the disease, which has so far reported more than 17,000 confirmed cases.

13:14 The Minister of Health, César Vázquez, revealed that so far 32 people have died of the disease

13:20 and eight more cases are still under investigation.

13:25 Among the regions that would be declared in emergency are some in imminent danger of being

13:31 overtaken by the number of cases that are occurring in these territories.

13:41 On Monday, in the United States, the University of Michigan published a report in which it

13:46 exposes that U.S. food suppliers have been sending rice to Haiti with harmful levels

13:51 of arsenic and cadmium.

13:53 In this sense, the U.S. university's scientific program highlighted that the rice that the

13:57 Caribbean nation imports exceeds the international limits of concentrations of these metals,

14:03 and the study amplifies that this issue increases the risk of suffering cancer and coronary

14:08 diseases.

14:10 It is worth noting that the rice represents for this Caribbean nation most of its basic

14:14 diet and precisely an agreement managed by the administration of the former president,

14:20 Bill Clinton, allows selling the rice with lower tariffs.

14:25 In this way, the report added that almost all of the samples analyzed exceeded the recommendations

14:30 of the United States Food and Drug Administration for children's consumption.

14:41 In Cuba, President Miguel Diaz-Canel received Nikolai Petrushev, Secretary of the Russian

14:46 Security Council, at the Palace of the Revolution in Havana to discuss fundamental issues of

14:53 binational cooperation.

14:55 The head of state assured that the secretary arrived on the island at a good moment.

15:00 Accompanied by members of the political bureau, he received the delegation in the second high-level

15:06 visit from Moscow in less than a week.

15:09 Petrushev, who had also met previously with Raúl Castro, president of the Cuban Council

15:15 of State, highlighted the strategic levels of the agreement in all sectors.

15:20 Cuban President Diaz-Canel ratified the consolidation of these ties.

15:24 The head of state also celebrated that charter and regular flights between the two countries

15:29 have been expanding, in addition to the fact that Russian tourism is the one that has the

15:34 highest growth in 2023 in Cuba.

15:38 Russia is currently the third-largest emitter of tourists to the island.

15:49 And we stay in Cuba, where international sales of Cuban cigars, the island nation's most

15:54 emblematic export, soared 31 percent last year as global demand rises for luxury products,

16:01 the country's main tobacco exporter representative said on Monday.

16:05 According to Jorge Pérez Martel, commercial vice president of Havanos S.A., the increase

16:11 represented a turnover of $721 million in the year 2023.

16:18 For his part, José María López Ichaúrbe, the company's vice president in charge of

16:23 development, assured that with the end of the pandemic, the luxury market in general

16:28 and the consumption of premier cigars in particular has seen very strong growth in demand in all

16:34 region.

16:35 He said that the development of high-end specialized products and limited and exclusive editions

16:41 were among the main drivers of this growth.

16:45 "This year is really a record year for the festival.

16:51 It is a record year because in 2023 we reached a record revenue figure of $721 million, which

16:57 represents a 31 percent growth compared to 2022."

17:02 "Production has already started to rise slightly, not in terms of value, but in terms

17:08 of units, because in terms of value it has risen a lot.

17:11 It has already started to rise.

17:12 And we're not able to meet the demand because demand has been multiplying."

17:17 And now we have a final short break coming up, but before we invite you to join our WhatsApp

17:21 community for our English-speaking audience.

17:24 You can scan the QR code on screen to join directly and also share the link to reach

17:28 more people.

17:29 Constant news coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean, as well as the rest of the

17:33 world.

17:34 Stay connected and informed with Telesurf.

17:36 Final short break, don't go away.

17:56 Welcome back to From the South.

17:57 The Hungarian parliament voted to ratify Sweden's NATO membership, ending more than 18 months

18:03 of delays that have frustrated the alliance as it seeks to expand in response to Russia's

18:08 special military operation in Ukraine.

18:11 Monday's vote, passed by 188 deputies in favour and six against, ended months of wrangling

18:18 among Hungary's allies to convince its government to lift its blockade on Sweden's membership.

18:24 Prime Minister Viktor Orban's government submitted protocols to approve Sweden's NATO membership

18:29 in July of the year 2022, but the issue had stalled in parliament because of opposition

18:35 from ruling party lawmakers.

18:37 Unanimous support for all NATO members is required to admit new countries, and Hungary

18:43 is the last of the alliance 31 members to give its backing as Turkey ratified the bid

18:49 last month.

18:54 The Burundi government accused on Monday the country's main rebel group of attacking a

18:58 Berbite family and killing nine people, including a soldier.

19:03 The attack took place late on Sunday in the western region of Buringa, just north of the

19:09 economic capital of Bujumbura, at the border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo,

19:14 where the Red Tavara rebel group has rear bases.

19:18 The Burundi government said that the rebels also ransacked an office of the ruling CNDD/FDD

19:25 party and accused Rwanda of backing the rebels.

19:29 The Red Tavara group is the most active of all rebel outfits in Burundi and is estimated

19:34 to have between 500 and 800 fighters.

19:38 The group claimed the attack on X and said its forces had killed six soldiers, destroyed

19:45 the CNDD/FDD office and seized arms and ammunition.

19:51 "They fired bullets as they entered the courtyard and we ran in through this door.

19:59 There were a lot of us.

20:01 We were fighting to get in and I was lucky to get in first.

20:05 They followed us with bullets.

20:07 I could only see bullets behind us."

20:23 Now we move on to other topics.

20:25 In Brazil, high Amazon water levels leave more than 11,000 people displaced from their

20:31 homes in the state of Acre, on the border with Colombia.

20:35 According to regional authorities, approximately 11,200 people had to leave their homes in

20:40 the northern state due to the overflowing of the Acre River, which exceeded 14 meters

20:47 in height.

20:49 Almost 6,000 people have lost their homes due to the rising water.

20:53 The city of Tordao, in the interior of the state, is reportedly the most affected by

20:58 natural event, with 80% of floods taking place in urban areas.

21:08 And we stay in Brazil, where expert studies on critical transition in the Amazon forest

21:12 system estimate that almost half of it could disappear by the year 2050.

21:18 According to the published materials, the potential alterations depend on five factors,

21:23 causing directly or indirectly caused by climate change.

21:28 And it was also stated that deforestation and degradation levels have so far exceeded

21:33 the 10% safety thresholds.

21:37 As for the reduction of precipitation, it was established that it is not possible to

21:41 exceed the deficit of 450 millimeters annually in dry season periods.

21:47 Scientists explained that as the largest continuous tropical forest on the planet, what happens

21:53 in the Amazon has and will have repercussions on a global scale due to its role as a climate

21:59 regulator.

22:06 Like this, we have come to the end of this news brief, but you can find these and many

22:09 other stories on our website at tellusoreenglish.net.

22:13 And also join us on social media.

22:15 We are on Facebook, Instagram, Telegram, and also TikTok.

22:21 For Tellusore English, my name is Belen De Los Santos.

22:23 Thank you for watching.

22:25 [music]

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