The US, Germany and other countries are seeking answers after an airstrike in Gaza killed seven aid World Central Kitchen aid workers. Israeli PM Netanyahu said the strike was "unintentional." Israeli military chief says strike was a 'grave mistake' Israel's top military commander said the strike that killed seven aid workers from the World Central Kitchen (WCK) in Gaza was a "grave mistake." "It was a mistake that followed a misidentification, at night, during a war, in very complex conditions. It shouldn't have happened," Halevi said during a video statement released on Wednesday.. The military chief made the comments after having been presented with the initial findings of a preliminary investigation that was initiated after the deadly strike. Halevi said the Israeli military will "continue taking immediate action to ensure more is done to protect humanitarian aid workers." "Israel is at war with Hamas, not with the people of Gaza. We are sorry for the unintentional harm to the members of WCK," Halevi said.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said that Israeli forces “unintentionally struck innocent people in the Gaza Strip” in comments on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, in the last day, there was a tragic incident where our forces unintentionally struck innocent people in the Gaza Strip. It happens in war, and we are thoroughly investigating it. We are in contact with the governments and will do everything to prevent such occurrences in the future,” Netanyahu said. Netanyahu’s remarks came after at least seven World Central Kitchen (WCK) aid workers were killed in Gaza. The Israel Defense Forces earlier on Tuesday said they were investigating the strike “at the highest levels.” In the same statement, Netanyahu said he is being released from the hospital after undergoing surgery to treat a hernia this weekend. Source: CNN  

A convoy of Chinese engineers was targeted by an attacker driving an explosive-laden vehicle, according to local authorities of Pakistan. Authorities in Pakistan said on Tuesday that five Chinese nationals were among six people killed in a suicide attack in the northwestern Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province. Regional police chief Mohammad Ali Gandapur said a convoy carrying Chinese engineers was targeted by a suicide bomber who rammed an explosive-laden vehicle into them. "Five Chinese nationals and their Pakistani driver were killed in the attack," Gandapur told news agencies. What we know about the attack The senior police official said the victims had been traveling from Islamabad to their camp in Dasu in the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province — which is the site of the Dasu hydroelectric dam, currently being constructed by the China Gezhouba Group Company. The attack took place along a winding, mountainous road that runs alongside a deep ravine. Previously in 2021, a bus transporting engineers to the same site was targeted in an attack that killed 13 people, including nine Chinese nationals. China has invested heavily into Pakistan's infrastructure over the past few years as part of the . The Chinese projects have led to a level of resentment in some local quarters, with separatist groups claiming those from the region benefit little, with most jobs going to outsiders. No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but Islamist militants linked to the Pakistani Taliban have previously targeted Chinese interests in Pakistan.   

Around two decades ago, former Chinese president Jiang Zemin’s push for businesses to “go out” saw thousands of mainland companies head to Africa in search of new markets and raw materials. With them, went thousands of Chinese migrant workers and by 2015 they numbered around 263,000 in Africa. But since that peak, the number of Chinese workers in Africa has plummeted as funding for infrastructure projects has dried up, a situation worsened by the coronavirus pandemic. By the end of 2021, the official number of Chinese workers in Africa was about 93,000, a fall of 64 per cent from 2015, according to an International Monetary Fund (IMF) working paper about China’s economic engagements with Africa published in February. In Algeria and Angola almost 90 per cent of the number of registered Chinese workers left. The paper did note, however, the real total may be slightly higher as those numbers did not include informal migrants such as private traders, investors and shopkeepers. The decline in workers is inextricably linked to the gross annual revenues of Chinese companies’ construction projects in Africa. “There is a positive correlation between the number of Chinese workers and the gross revenues of Chinese companies in Africa, especially before the pandemic,” the IMF paper said. It said the revenue of Chinese companies involved in engineering and construction projects in Africa reached its peak in 2015, and then began falling gradually. In 2021, that revenue figure was US$37 billion, a 3 per cent drop from the previous year. According to data compiled by the China Africa Research Initiative (CARI) at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), the number of Chinese workers in Africa fell again in 2022 to a low of 88,371. The pandemic was responsible for a large part of the decline. In 2020 alone, the number of workers roughly halved because of Covid-induced travel challenges. “So construction was still down in 2022 from Covid. China did not open its borders until January 2023,” CARI director Deborah Brautigam said. CARI data showed that of the 93,526 Chinese workers in Africa in 2021, 72,526 were in project contracting and 21,000 were in services, including manufacturing labourers, hotel workers and cooks. In 2022, there were 62,686 Chinese workers in project contracting and 25,685 in services, according to CARI. In 2022, the top five countries with Chinese workers were the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Algeria, Egypt, Nigeria and Angola, which accounted for 42 per cent of all Chinese workers in Africa. CARI data also showed that in 2013, Angola had 50,526 Chinese workers but the number dropped to 6,784 by 2022. Similarly, Algeria had 91,596 Chinese workers in 2015 but by 2022, the number of Chinese workers had plummeted to 7,462. Dominik Kopinski, an associate professor in the Institute of Economics at the University of Wroclaw and senior adviser at the Polish Economic Institute, said that in Angola, the decline was directly linked to two factors: the economic crisis following the post-2014 oil price plunge and the drying up of Chinese loans. This led to the disappearance of most Chinese state-owned enterprises (SOEs) and their workers, as well as many Chinese businesses catering to Chinese migrants, such as restaurants, according to Kopinski. He said Angola was notable because, after the civil war ended there in 2002, the government essentially outsourced national reconstruction to Chinese firms. This resulted in a significant influx of Chinese SOEs, subcontractors and around 300,000 migrants. “Today the estimates vary, but my guesstimate based on the interviews we did back in 2022 is that there are around 20,000 Chinese migrants living in Angola,” he said. Kopinski said he expected that figure to rise, but the increase would be moderate and gradual. Large loans and multibillion-dollar infrastructure projects were also very unlikely to return. “Chinese migration in Angola has become more reminiscent of Portuguese migration after 1910, with small family businesses, traders and farmers venturing into inhospitable lands outside of large urban areas, where others do not dare to go,” he said. However, Egypt is bucking the trend, recording increases in Chinese workers in recent years, albeit small ones. Chinese companies have undertaken massive projects at the Suez Canal as well as the new administrative capital in Cairo, with the number of Chinese workers there rising from just over 2,000 in 2015 to 7,358 in 2022. It is a similar story in the DRC. Chinese investors and workers have continued to follow the fortunes of the country’s mining industry, which supplies most of China’s cobalt. The number of Chinese workers in the DRC rose to 8,705 in 2021 from 5,155 in 2014, figures that do not include many more undocumented Chinese migrants who run small businesses, including in artisanal mining. CARI’s Brautigam said the presence of Chinese workers was closely correlated with available project finance, such as bank lending in Angola and the Republic of Congo or commodity export revenues in Algeria. She said Chinese project lending flattened out and then declined after the peak of 2013, since Africa looked riskier as the price of commodities, like oil, fell sharply. “So fewer new projects were started and fewer workers were sent,” Brautigam said. She said some of the decline was also because Chinese companies increasingly hired local workers the longer they were present in a country. “And of course the sharp drop in 2020 and 2021 reflects the impact of the pandemic,” she said. Brautigam said there would be a recovery in the future but not at the same levels that were seen previously. “We are unlikely to see a return to the high numbers of the past decade,” she said.   Source: South China Post

Migrant workers returning after the Lunar New Year holiday have low expectations for a pay rise this year, as the number of jobs is not as high as last year. China’s economy has endured a challenging exit from its zero-Covid policy, with its 5.2 per cent growth last year not being felt by consumers or the job market Although there were still four days remaining until the end of the Lunar New Year holiday earlier this month, Baiyun Railway Station in Guangzhou was already packed with migrant workers who had left their hinterland hometowns early to take up jobs in the southern manufacturing hub of Guangdong. Jobseekers of all ages, with accents from all over China, were lingering briefly at the station’s square, dragging suitcases and carrying backpacks, taking a moment to rest, before flocking to the neighbouring cities. Like many newcomers, twenty-something Li Xiao was hoping for a higher salary than his previous night shift factory job in the central province of Jiangxi. “I can accept a waiter job of about 4,500 yuan (US$650) or 5,000 yuan since production line workers are expected to earn about the same this year,” he said. Thirty-something Xu Chao was also hoping to find a job in a car parts factory in Jiangsu. “I’ve been in Guangdong for a few days. The wages are not as good as I thought. There are more electric car companies in the Yangtze River Delta, the opportunities and salaries there may be better” Xu said. Most returning workers have low expectations for a pay rise this year, as the number of jobs in the service or manufacturing sectors is not as high as last year. Dongguan, an export hub in Guangdong which is often the top choice for rural migrant workers, anticipated 163,000 job vacancies after the Lunar New Year, the state-backed China Youth Daily reported earlier this month, citing the local labour and social security bureau. “With fewer export orders, there have been more workers than positions in local companies. Factories are not struggling to recruit workers this year, as lots of migrant workers from Guizhou and Henan have already come back,” said Justin Xu, a manufacturer of lighting products for exports in the eastern province of Zhejiang. The influx of migrant workers is occurring as there are less opportunities in hinterland provinces, with jobseekers in Henan – China’s third most populous province and a key source of migrant workers – crowding a recent job fair. “Our company has a labour gap of about 20 people, but more than 60 people have expressed interest in applying,” a human resource manager said, according to the state-run Henan Daily. The arrival of migrant workers has already reduced the hourly wage for temporary workers in China’s export hubs of Shenzhen and Dongguan by around a third from three years ago to between 18 yuan (US$2.5) to 19 yuan after the Lunar New Year holiday, according to an employee surnamed Li at a recruitment agency in Guangzhou. The period following the Lunar New Year is traditionally the most understaffed and high-paying time of the year as lots of workers remain at home. Li partly attributed the weak demand to factories relocating overseas and corporate endeavours to reduce costs. “Factory owners, if they have any surplus money, are considering investing in plants abroad, which is the only area where they’re still willing to expand,” said Peng Biao, a textile and clothing supply chain specialist. However, overall expectations from factory profits to orders could be even lower this year, Peng added. China’s economy has endured a challenging exit from its zero-Covid policy, with its 5.2 per cent growth in gross domestic product last year not being felt by consumers or the job market. Demand for workers in the new energy infrastructure sector is set to be stronger than last year, but employers are not worried about a shortage even at tough construction sites. Wang Rongshuo, founder of the Guangzhou-based Yangshuo Green Construction, said the photovoltaics infrastructure integrator already has a waiting list for the 3,000 construction workers it plans to recruit this year. “We have a lot of projects across the country. The workers will need to move throughout the year to different construction sites.” Wang said. “Most of our workers are aged between 30 and early 40s. They can earn about 8,000 yuan a month.” The labour surplus is also being seen in some regions in Zhejiang. “Some factory owners have not yet started production so far this year, mainly due to insufficient export orders and operational difficulties,” according to Zhou Libin, manager of Tianshu Mechanical Technology. In the past, many cities or counties in Zhejiang chartered cars and planes to lure workers from central and western parts of China back at this time of the year, however, this was not the case this year, according to Zhou. “Perhaps the government is aware of the limited orders and insufficient production,” he added. Economic uncertainty in the manufacturing sector has also affected the small and micro service sector. “Last year I hired a helper, but I don’t plan to hire anyone this year. My husband and I will work harder. Utility bills are increasing, but we dare not raise prices. We’re doing migrant workers’ business, and their income this year may be worse than last year.” said Li Jie, who runs a breakfast room in Jiangxi.

With 41 workers still trapped in a collapsed tunnel in India, rescuers were forced to dig by hand after their drilling machine broke. A new machine has also been brought in to try and dig vertically instead. Rescuers attempting to free 41 workers trapped inside a collapsed tunnel in India were forced to dig by hand on Saturday after their drilling machine failed. Part of the Silkyara tunnel in the mountainous Indian state of Uttarakhand collapsed on November 12. Rescuers were attempting to drill horizontally through 57 meters (187 feet) of rock and concrete when their machine ran into metal rods and construction vehicles that were buried in the earth. This caused the drilling machine, known as an auger, to become damaged just nine meters away from the trapped workers. "The machine is busted. It is irreparable," Arnold Dix, an international expert assisting with the rescue, told reporters at the site. "The mountain has once again resisted the auger." 'We will proceed manually' Government officials said workers would attempt to cut through the final nine meters using hand-held power tools. "We will proceed manually," Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami told reporters. Syed Ata Hasnain, a member of the National Disaster Management Authority which is overseeing rescue efforts, said the operation was becoming "more complex" and the process would become slower, compared to when the auger was used to drill. "We have to strengthen our brothers stuck inside. We need to monitor their psychological state, because this operation can go on for a very long time," he added.Syed Ata Hasnain, a member of the National Disaster Management Authority which is overseeing rescue efforts, said the operation was becoming "more complex" and the process would become slower, compared to when the auger was used to drill. "We have to strengthen our brothers stuck inside. We need to monitor their psychological state, because this operation can go on for a very long time," he added. Second machine brought in to dig vertically Rescuers have also hatched an alternative plan to reach the survivors from above. A new machine was brought in on Saturday and taken to the top of the hill via a specially-created track. However, this dig would be almost double the length of the horizontal dig and is a risky route in an area that has already suffered a collapse. Workers 'in good spirits' The workers trapped inside the tunnel have been supplied hot meals of rice and lentils through a 15-centimeter pipe. Oxygen is being supplied through a separate pipe, and a team of doctors including psychiatrists are monitoring their health from outside the tunnel. "They are in good spirits," said Rharm, the Uttarakhand chief minister. "They said: 'Take as many days as you require, don't worry about us.'" Many of the trapped workers are laborers from other parts of the country. Their families have traveled to the accident site and camped outside for days to receive updates about their wellbeing.

5 workers of wasa burnt in explosion from Gas line Leakage in Capital's Namapara on Tuesday, October 10. They are admitted to Sheikh Hasina Burnt unit.  More to follow...  

The number of registered sex workers in Germany at the end of 2022 was 28,280, a rise of 19.1% compared with the year before, according to official figures published by the Federal Statistics Agency (Destatis) on Friday. Experts attribute a large part of the rise to the reopening of businesses after restrictions in place during the worst two years of the coronavirus pandemic, 2020 and 2021. The total number of sex workers registered at the end of 2022 was still far below what it was before the pandemic — 40,370 — in 2019. How the numbers break down Just under a fifth, 5,204, of those registered, had German citizenship, with a large majority of foreign sex workers, 20,969, coming from within Europe. The three most common nationalities were Romanian with 9,870 (35% of the total registered), Bulgarian with 3,140 (11%), and Spanish with 1,760 (6%). The statistics agency reported that there were 2,310 prostitution businesses, compared with 2,290 at the end of 2021 and 1,170 at the end of 2019. The agency recorded 1,202 sex workers as coming from Asia and a further 661 as from the Americas. More than three-quarters of registered sex workers (76%) were aged between 21 and 44, with 1,050 (4%) aged between 18 and 20. Most of the registered businesses were prostitution establishments such as brothels but some 5% were agencies and 3% were logged as vehicles for sex workers or special events. No details on gender The figures were based on figures gathered under Germany's Prostitution Act, which came into force in 2002 with the aim of improving the social and legal position of sex workers. It means that sex workers and businesses are required to register with the authorities and mandates that condoms be used during sex work Statistics are based on the information provided when registering and details of sex or gender are not required. Unofficial estimates in 2019 placed the total number of sex workers in Germany at more than 400,000, meaning that some 90% were unregistered at that time — and technically working illegally. During the lockdown, such unregistered workers were unable to claim compensation. Among the reasons for not registering are privacy concerns, not having an address and a lack of legal residency status in Germany.

Railway workers have been blocked rail line on Sunday for demanding their permanent employment. As a result train communication with Dhaka has been stopped since the morning. Dhaka Railway Police Station Officer-in-Charge (OC) Ferdous Ahmed said, "around 10 am we got the news of rail line blockade at Malibagh. After going to the spot, I learned that the temporary workers of Bangladesh Railway have blocked the railway line to demand permanent employment."  Ferdous Ahmed Biswas, officer-in-charge of Kamalapur Railway Police Station, confirmed the development, saying that the workers are staged in their demand and are blocking the rail track. Railways Minister Nurul Islam Sujan said in a media that, there is no chance of making their jobs permanent as they work on the basis of daily wage.  

Railway lines in the capital halted as hundreds of temporary railway workers protested on demanding job regularization. Workers blocked the railway line near the FDC in Kawran Bazar around 10am on Sunday. They also said that they will not leave the railway until the demand is met. Around 7,500 temporary workers have been working in the railways for 12-14 years.  The workers said that the railway authorities promised them to make their jobs permanent within three to four years, but they did not keep their words. They alleged that the railway authorities were now trying to outsource new workers instead of making their jobs permanent.