ALGIERS, Algeria (AP) — Algeria’s government has flooded newly opened markets selling subsidized goods with pantry staples to stave off shortages during Islam’s holy month of Ramadan, when demand typically increases in Muslim-majority countries and prices tend to rise.
Authorities have moved to increase food and fuel imports and also limit exports, hoping to meet the demands of Algerians preparing nightly feasts as their families break the sunrise-to-sunset fasting during Ramadan.
The policies mark a reversal of the government’s longstanding practice of limiting imports to buoy local producers in the oil-rich North African nation with a struggling economy.
At one state subsidized market in the country’s capital, Algiers, shopper Sofiane Ameri commended the government’s strategy for reining in prices.
“Prices are lower here,” he said. “It’s about 20% (less).”
Prices of red meat fluctuated during the first week of Ramadan, which started earlier this month, but later stabilized. Others, including many fruits and vegetables, stayed steady through the first week and spiked in the second, raising concern among the public.
With more than half of Ramadan behind them, officials are applauding their efforts to stabilize prices of products such as meat and avoid shortages.
“The availability of products in quantity and quality is a palpable reality across the country’s regions,” Commerce Minister Tayeb Zitouni said on public radio this week. “With reasonable prices, I am sure that has a positive effect on the citizens’ purchasing power.”
But while grocery stores in Algiers and other cities and towns are well-stocked, residents of mountain regions have taken to social media with worries about whether the imports can get to their markets.
“If residents of Algiers are gorging themselves on affordable red meat from Brazil, we in Tizi Ouzou aren’t seeing or tasting it,” said a posting on a popular Facebook group.
Olive oil, white flour and semolina — key staples in this Mediterranean country — have stayed available so far through Ramadan.
But the price of potatoes has gradually risen, much like peppers, green beans, peas, oranges and strawberries.
UN Secretary General António Guterres on Saturday called for an immediate ceasefire in the months-long war between Israel and the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement in Gaza during a visit to the Rafah border crossing.
“Now more than ever, it is time for an immediate humanitarian ceasefire,” he said in a statement after inspecting the crossing on the Egyptian side.
“It is time to silence the guns. Palestinians in Gaza, children, women, men, remain stuck in a non-stop nightmare. Communities obliterated, homes demolished, entire families and generations wiped out,” Guterres added.
Rafah is the only border crossing into the Gaza Strip that is not controlled by Israel.
Guterres earlier on Saturday met injured Palestinians at a hospital in the Egyptian Sinai city of al-Arish after they had been evacuated from the coastal strip.
“I was extremely moved by their stories, experiences and the hardships they endured,” he said.
Guterres’ visit is part of an annual trip during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
“This Ramadan I come to the Rafah crossing to spotlight the hardships and pain of Palestinians in Gaza,” the UN chief said.
The visit came a day after the UN Security Council failed to pass a US-backed resolution calling for a ceasefire in the Gaza war after Russia and China vetoed it.
Fears have grown that a planned Israeli military offensive in Gaza’s southernmost city of Rafah near Egypt’s border would further exacerbate the humanitarian situation in the impoverished strip.
More than 1 million Palestinians have taken refuge in Rafah after fleeing fighting elsewhere in the coastal enclave.
Guterres’ visit to the Egyptian side of Rafah was his second since the Gaza war erupted in October last year.
Israel has been pursuing its military campaign in the Gaza Strip following the unprecedented massacre by Hamas militants in Israel on October 7.
The US, Qatar and Egypt have been mediating between Hamas and Israel for weeks to broker a ceasefire and facilitate the release of hostages still held in Gaza.
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Former President Donald Trump’s legal team faced a 5 p.m. deadline Monday to respond to special counsel Jack Smith’s request for a protective order in the Jan. 6 indictment. Prosecutors want to prevent Trump from posting potentially sensitive case information online, but Trump’s defense attorneys opposed the request saying the proposal is “overboard.” CBS News chief election and campaign correspondent Robert Costa reports.
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Last year, the Kremlin brought the Moskvich brand back after a 20-year gap as it tried to ramp up Russian car production to beat Western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine, but the rejuvenation of the Soviet marque received less-than-gushing reviews from industry experts, who pointed out that its cars were almost identical to Chinese designs.
Lada, Russia’s biggest car manufacturer, has also been struggling under Western sanctions and was forced to launch last year’s model without a satellite navigation system, airbags, or an anti-locking brake system.
In June, Maxim Sokolov, head of Russian car manufacturer AvtoVAZ, said that labour shortages caused by the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine were forcing him to employ gangs of prisoners. The iconic and unreliable Lada family car is being produced by amid a shortage of workers caused by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Still, Mr. Davankov is not the only Russian official to laud Russian cars.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of Russia’s lower house of parliament, said this week that he commutes to work in a Russian Aurus saloon and drives a Moskvich-3 at the weekend, which he praised as “roomy, economical, and reliable”.
And he ordered other MPs to follow his example.
“Parliamentary deputies will use Moskvich, Lada, and Aurus cars,” he said.
Russia’s Soviet-era car brand unveils Its latest release in Moscow on Aug 3rd – the Moskvich 6, a five-door compact hatchback – Getty Images
Officials in Russia have begun swapping their BMWs and Mercedes for Ladas and other Russian cars after Vladimir Putin said they should support domestic manufacturing.
Within hours of Mr Putin’s edict, Vladislav Davankov, deputy chairman of Russia’s lower house of parliament, posted a video of himself driving an electric Moskvich-3e.
“It drives quite well, it seems to me,” he said. “It’s a bit noisy but overall it’s okay.”
Mr. Davankov looked cheerful enough in the black hatchback as he trundled through the Moscow traffic wearing mirrored aviator sunglasses, but he is used to a faster commute to the office.
Russian parliamentary documents showed that the 39-year-old owns a Mercedes S-450 which can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in under 5 seconds and hit a top speed of 155 mph.
By comparison, the Moskvich-3e is described as an “urban crossover” with a top speed of 87 mph.
‘Buy Russian’
On Thursday, Mr Putin told a meeting of Russian industrialists that Russian officials should embrace a “more modest” look and buy domestic car brands.
Cars roll off the assembly line at the Moscow Automobile Factory Moskvich, after the production of vehicles under the Soviet-era brand commenced at the French carmaker Renault’s former plant on November 23, 2022 – Reuters
Last year, the Kremlin brought the Moskvich brand back after a 20-year gap as it tried to ramp up Russian car production to beat Western sanctions imposed after its invasion of Ukraine, but the rejuvenation of the Soviet marque received less-than-gushing reviews from industry experts, who pointed out that its cars were almost identical to Chinese designs.
Lada, Russia’s biggest car manufacturer, has also been struggling under Western sanctions and was forced to launch last year’s model without a satellite navigation system, airbags, or an anti-locking brake system.
In June, Maxim Sokolov, head of Russian car manufacturer AvtoVAZ, said that labour shortages caused by the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine were forcing him to employ gangs of prisoners. The iconic and unreliable Lada family car is being produced by amid a shortage of workers caused by the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
Still, Mr. Davankov is not the only Russian official to laud Russian cars.
Vyacheslav Volodin, the chairman of Russia’s lower house of parliament, said this week that he commutes to work in a Russian Aurus saloon and drives a Moskvich-3 at the weekend, which he praised as “roomy, economical, and reliable”.
And he ordered other MPs to follow his example.
“Parliamentary deputies will use Moskvich, Lada, and Aurus cars,” he said.
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The College Board has refuted claims its Advanced Placement African American Studies course contains the same language as a contested standard in Florida’s new African American history curriculum that says middle schoolers should be taught that “slaves developed skills which, in some instances, could be applied for their personal benefit.”
“We are aware that some in Florida have reviewed the Advanced Placement (AP) African American Studies framework and have suggested that the state’s recently approved middle school African American History standards align with our course requirements,” the College Board said in a statement. “We resolutely disagree with the notion that enslavement was in any way a beneficial, productive, or useful experience for African Americans.”
It added: “Unequivocally, slavery was an atrocity that cannot be justified by examples of African Americans’ agency and resistance during their enslavement.”
Frances Presley Rice, who was among the 13-member work group that devised the state’s new African American history standards that have faced widespread backlash, made the comparison in a statement in which she also defends the state curriculum.
“Significantly, the highly-praised AP African American History course has nearly the exact language and sentiment as is in the text under question,” she wrote on her Facebook account. “The critics who demanded that Florida adopt the AP course months prior are now decrying teaching this fact in Florida’s schools. The hypocrisy is astounding.”
Presley Rice referred to a portion of the AP African American Studies course framework that states: “In addition to agricultural work, enslaved people learned specialized trades and worked as painters, carpenters, tailors, musicians, and healers in the North and South.” It said that once free, African Americans used these skills to provide for themselves and others.
Presley Rice did not immediately return a request for comment. Three members of the work panel previously told NBC News that she and another member, William Allen, advocated for the most criticized language in the curriculum. The members said Allen advocated for including that enslaved people benefited from skills that they learned, and Presley Rice pushed to include that students learn about “violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.”
The College Board, a nonprofit group that administers the SATs and AP courses, said: “Unit two of the current framework includes a discussion about the skills enslaved people brought with them that enslavers exploited as well as other skills developed in America that were valuable to their enslavers. Enslaved Africans and their descendants used those skills to survive, build community, and create culture in resistance to their oppression.”
The College Board has been accused of caving to political pressure from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican presidential nomination. In January, DeSantis blocked the AP African American Studies curriculum from being taught in the state, saying it was “historically inaccurate” and violated state law. Less than three months later, the College Board said it would revise the course. DeSantis has defended the new standards while also distancing himself from them. The standards’ critics include Vice President Kamala Harris, as well as Black Republicans serving in Congress. Florida’s Board of Education was required to change its standards for African American history education, among other things, to comply with House Bill 7, also known as the Stop WOKE Act, that DeSantis signed into law in April 2022. The College Board said a final framework for its course will be released later this year.
Miami-Dade School Board member Steve Gallon, who has been outspoken in his criticism of the new curriculum, said in an interview Tuesday that there are three major distinctions between the new state standards and the AP African American Studies course, including the language in each and the ages of children who have access to each.
“Young children don’t have the capacity to debate and determine the veracity of some of these notions,” he said. Additionally, he said, AP courses are voluntary.
“The other is not,” he said, referring to the standards for middle school students. “The standards will be for all students. They don’t have a choice.”
Gallon said the bipartisan criticism the new standards have drawn should signal there’s a problem.
“Something has clearly risen above partisanship, where you have people on either side of the political spectrum denouncing this,” he said.
While there are some merits to elements of the state standards, they also attempt, in some parts, to find a silver lining to slavery that needs to be corrected, Gallon said.
“We’re talking about education,” he said. “There’s no margin of error to plant seeds of disinformation and misinformation. There’s no margin of error to plant seeds of believing that in some shape, form or fashion, that one of the most horrific crimes known to mankind that was levied against people based on the color of their skin, brought some silver lining.”
Janelle Griffith
Janelle Griffith is a national reporter for NBC News focusing on issues of race and policing.
U.S. officials held formal direct talks with the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, this week, with the American delegation pushing Afghanistan‘s hardline Islamic rulers to restore basic rights for women and girls and to free U.S. nationals detained in the country. The Taliban asked in return for its leaders’ names to be removed from sanctions lists and for access to their country’s government cash reserves locked in foreign bank accounts.
U.S. Special Representative for Afghanistan Thomas West led the delegation, along with Rina Amiri, the Special Envoy for Afghan women, girls, and human rights, and Karen Deker, the Chief of the U.S. mission to Afghanistan, based in Doha. The Taliban delegation was led by Afghanistan’s de-facto Foreign Minister, Amir Khan Mutaqi.
According to a statement posted online by the Taliban, “the two sides discussed confidence building, taking practical steps thereof, removing blacklists and lifting sanctions, unfreezing DAB [Afghanistan’s central bank] reserves, economic stability of Afghanistan, countering narcotics, and issues on human rights.”
Afghan burqa-clad women walk past Taliban security personnel along a street in Jalalabad on April 30, 2023.
SHAFIULLAH KAKAR/AFP via Getty Images
A statement issued Monday by the U.S. State Department said the delegation had “expressed deep concern regarding the humanitarian crisis and the need to continue to support aid organizations and UN bodies delivering assistance consistent with humanitarian principles” in Afghanistan.
“U.S. officials pressed for the immediate and unconditional release of detained U.S. citizens, noting that these detentions were a significant obstacle to positive engagement,” the State Department said. In December, the U.S. government confirmed the release of two Americans who had been detained by the Taliban, and it alluded at the time to there being more U.S. nationals held in the country, but they have not been identified.
The U.S. representatives also voiced “grave concern regarding detentions, media crackdowns, and limits on religious practice,” the State Department said, adding that the delegation “took note” of the Taliban’s “continuing commitment” to stopping Afghanistan being a base for attacks on the U.S. and its allies, acknowledging “a decrease in large-scale terrorist attacks against Afghan civilians.”
Amiri said in a tweet that she and her colleagues had “called for the removal of restrictions on women & girls, including access to education & work; release of detainees; & end to corporal punishment, & crackdown on media & freedom of expression.”
Education activist Malala Yousafzai on the Taliban banning women from universities
04:23
The U.S. and the United Nations have made human rights demands of the Taliban since the group stormed back to power when the U.S. military withdrew from the country in August 2021.
Last year, Amiri declined to meet with a Taliban delegation over the group’s oppression of women and girls.
Since retaking the country, the Taliban has barred girls over the age of 12 from formal education, made it virtually impossible for them to work in most professions, and restricted their movements in public unless chaperoned by an adult male relative.
The most recent crackdown was a ban on beauty salons, which the clerics ordered to close countrywide last month, eliminating one of the last means Afghan women had of interacting and earning income.
Despite two years of consistent demands from the U.S., the United Nations and many other countries, the Taliban has not made any concessions to improve human rights in Afghanistan, despite the country continuing to receiving billions of dollars in aid annually.
Given the Taliban’s steady erasure of human rights, Amiri’s closed-door meetings with the Taliban delegation on Sunday and Monday in Doha drew stinging criticism from some Afghan human rights activists.
Fawzia Kofi, a former member of the Afghan parliament and the previous government’s negotiating team that dealt with the Taliban, said the U.S. and its allies, “only issue statements on the women’s and human rights violations, and then there is no action.”
“Each country is pursuing their political interests, as opposed to the interests of the people of Afghanistan and women of Afghanistan,” Kofi told CBS News on Tuesday. “That’s why people question the principles of engagement” with the Taliban.
Addressing Amiri by name in a tweet, activist Humaira Qadiri said she and the U.S. envoy had together met with Afghan women in the Herat province. They “all asked us [you and me] to be their voice and not engage with the Taliban,” she said, accusing the U.S. representative of betraying women’s trust.
“Dear Rina, women who really defend women’s rights in Afghanistan never want the continuation of Taliban power!” Parwana Ibrahim Khail, an activist who was detained for several weeks by the Taliban after she criticized the group’s severe restrictions on women, said in a social media post. “Please do not listen to the words of some women who support the Taliban! Taliban is a terrorist group!” she added.
“The Americans and specifically Rina Amiri shouldn’t compromise our rights and principles but work on safeguarding them and put pressure on the regime,” education and women’s rights activist Sodaba Bayani told CBS News. “Taliban are not representatives of Afghanistan or Afghan people and the reason why we are against any form of engagement and talks with them is that the results of such negotiations may have the same consequences as the previous Doha deal in 2020.”
ISIS-K leader behind Kabul airport attack killed by Taliban, U.S. says
04:40
Given the presence of terrorist groups in Afghanistan, including al Qaeda and regional ISIS affiliate ISIS-Khorasan, some analysts argue the U.S. must maintain ties with the Taliban leadership to monitor potential threats originating from Afghanistan.
It’s unclear how much cooperation Washington can expect, given that the U.S. has expressed no willingness to meet the Taliban’s demands.
“The U.S. administration wants to keep in touch with the Taliban to ensure Washington’s security interests are preserved, namely that the Taliban continue the fight against Daesh [ISIS-Khorasan], which is an enemy for the U.S, its allies, and also for the Afghan people,” veteran regional analyst Torek Farhadi told CBS News.
“In exchange, the Taliban want things the U.S. cannot give them: Removing sanctions from Taliban leaders is not politically possible while the Taliban continue their repressive policies against women and girls in the country,” said Farhadi.
He added that un-freezing the roughly $3.5 billion in Afghan government cash reserves that U.S. has set aside in a special fund was “not possible either, since the bank is run exclusively by the Taliban and there are no guarantees the dollars would not end up with the sanctioned Taliban.”
Thousands of Israelis took to the streets Saturday to protest the government’s decision to forge ahead with its judicial reform package despite widespread opposition.
Demonstrators waving Israeli flags rallied in the country’s commercial hub Tel Aviv, keeping up the momentum of months of protests against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposals.
“We still love this country and we’re trying to fix all the problems,” said film composer Itay Amram.
“We’re not accepting any of it,” the 27-year-old told AFP, railing against what he saw as the government’s “constitutional revolution.”
Thousands of people gather to protest against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s judicial overhaul plan, in Tel Aviv, Israel, on July 29, 2023.
Mostafa Alkharouf/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images
From the northern city of Haifa to Eilat on the Red Sea, protest organizers promoted rallies nationwide in the biggest test of public opinion since the government put a key plank of its reforms to a final vote in parliament on Monday.
The vote to scrap the “reasonableness” law, through which the Supreme Court can overturn government decisions such as ministerial appointments, was met with concern from Israel’s top allies, including the United States.
Israeli medics responded with a brief walkout, while scores of military veterans have vowed to end their volunteer duties and trade unions are mulling further industrial action.
Netanyahu argues the reform package is necessary to rebalance the relationship between elected officials and the judiciary, but the premier’s opponents accuse him of a power grab.
“We refuse to serve a dictatorship,” warned a placard held by a demonstrator in Tel Aviv.
While an official turnout figure was not available, Israel’s Channel 13 estimated more than 170,000 people turned out in the city.
Wrapped in an Israeli flag in Jerusalem, near the prime minister’s home, Lotem Pinchover said she felt “heartbroken, helpless” after Monday’s vote.
“I’m very scared of what’s happening in Israel now and I’m very worried about the future of my daughter,” the 40-year-old academic said.
Months of protests since the judicial package was unveiled in January — including some in support of the government — have led to fears about widening fissures within Israeli society.
Stationed at a “psychological first aid” stand for protesters in Jerusalem, therapist Pnina Manes said the situation “tears families apart”.
“It’s started to feel like — and it’s very sad for me to say so — like two different groups” in Israeli society, the 59-year-old said.
There have been multiple petitions filed at the Supreme Court this week against Monday’s vote, with hearings set to be held in September.
The broader reform package includes ambitions to hand the government a greater say in the appointment of judges, as well as downgrading the status of legal advisers attached to ministers.
The legislative process is currently on hold due to parliament’s summer recess, with Netanyahu pledging openness in negotiations over future steps.
Opposition chiefs remain skeptical of talks with the government, a coalition which also includes far-right and ultra-Orthodox Jewish parties after earlier dialogue broke down.
