 Hello and welcome to daily debrief brought to you by People's Dispatch, I'm Pragya. One of the deadliest operations by Israeli forces in decades has left nine dead and at least 20 injured in Janine in the occupied West Bank. In South Africa, the country's biggest union, NUMSA, has approached a court seeking an end to deliberate power cuts. These cuts are a result of austerity and privatization that are hurting the economy and everyday life. And there's unease in Memphis, United States over the Tyre-Nickels case. Five police officers are being charged for his killing but footage of his January 7 arrest is to be made public on Friday. A deadly Israeli raid has left a trail of death and destruction in Jenin. Reports after Thursday's raid cited residents recalling 2002. That was when Israeli forces killed 52 Palestinians in Jenin over 10 days of attacks. Weeks ago, Benjamin Netanyahu returned to power in Israel with support from the most hard right parties. Some have already backed Thursday's aggression and Israel is also seeking to illegally occupy more of the occupied West Bank. Prashant from People's Dispatch is joining us in the studio. Prashant, we always hear of raids by the Israeli forces in the occupied territories but even by those standards, what happened on Thursday was extreme. Can you tell us what happened? Right. So, Jenin of course has been a regular target of Israeli occupation forces for many, many months now. In fact, we know that in 2022, which is the deadliest year for Palestinians since records started being kept in 2005, total of I believe 167 to 170 people were killed, most of whom in the occupied West Bank and a lot of these people were killed in Jenin. So there have been continuous attacks on Jenin and this attack on Thursday actually is part of that pattern. It is of course very brutal Israeli forces going there, attacking people irrespective of age, irrespective of, you know, so a 60-year-old woman was killed, some, you know, very young people were killed, people, you know, ambulance health workers were attacked when they were trying to reach the wounded. There are reports, in fact, that tear gas entered one of the hospitals in Jenin. In fact, children's wing was affected, children in fact had breathing problems. They were extremely brutal attack. Now, Israel keeps saying that they are doing these attacks to so-called identify and apprehend terror suspects. Although, you know, what these terror cases are, there's really no, you know, there's no clarity about it. And more often than not, what happens in many of these raids is, you know, the soldiers and the occupation forces barge in, they, you know, they conduct very violent operations. Palestinians obviously will not take these lying down. So they resist. There's sometimes some stone pelting and then the Israelis double their aggression, kill the violence that ensue, often, you know, often into deaths. So in 2023 alone, we've had 29 people dying in Palestine and it's not, we're not even that cross one month, we're not even cross 29 days. So that's really, that basically goes on to show that 23 is likely to be no different. In fact, it's probably going to be worse when it comes to the kind of violence that is being perpetrated. Now, Jenin also important, because I think it's one of those places where there is also strong resistance brewing to this kind of offensives and attacks by Israeli forces. The Palestinians, they're very clearly saying that, you know, they're doing the best to say that we will not take this amount of violence that Israelis are perpetrating. So a very difficult situation. Jenin was also, well, last year, Shireen Abu Akle, the journalist was killed while she was covering a similar raid. So there is actually there's absolutely no accountability for what Israel is doing. It's complete impunity at this point because they are just floating this narrative of terrorism and terror suspects and clearly attacking people, most of whom are civilians, most of whom, you know, are being shot and killed and injured just because they refuse to have, they refuse to be the targets of this kind of violence. So very difficult situation as far as Jenin is concerned right now. Of course, the various Palestinian organizations have announced protests, have announced strikes. I believe the Palestinian Authority has said that they are going to cut defense cooperation with Israel. But whether any of these steps is really likely to stop this kind of wanton violence is, you know, it's a big question. It's very unlikely that it is going to stop this violence. So, Prashant, if you look at the issue of the land occupying newer territories, what is that plan all about? Right. So, I mean, we need to see this violence also in the context of the kind of the kind of government that is there, the project of this government and which is closely connected to this occupational plan because what Israel is trying to do with this violence is basically to convey to the Palestinians that, you know, that they basically have pretty much no rights. They're trying to convey to the Palestinians that they're basically that their role is just to be sort of enclosed enclaves at the most and live at the mercy of Israel. So that is why there are these continuous attempts to crush any kind of resistance, crush any kind of defiance on part of the Palestinians, you know, level these arbitrary charges of terror and continue to sort of continuous kind of violence. And we see that, of course, you know, there's, for instance, Jenin is in the occupied West Bank. We see the whole of Gaza, which is under a prolonged siege of a very similar sort in some senses and which is also regularly attacked. So all this is part of, I think, Israel's larger plan to sort of occupy and take over as much land as possible. In recent weeks, we have seen instances of Israel trying to take over land in both Khan al-Amar and Masafariyat are two places which have been very controversial because Palestinians have been resisting attempts to take over these kinds of lands. We know that Israel already has built a number of illegal outposts or it is permitted a number of illegal outposts and illegal settlements. And the idea is to actually use these illegal settlements and illegal outposts to basically break up Palestinian land, to break up, you know, the possibility of any kind of contiguous Palestinian land. So the possibility of a Palestinian state can in practice no longer be achieved. So while the international community keeps talking about this two state solution on the ground, what is happening is that this two state solution has become almost unviable because the fact that these illegal settlements, illegal outposts, this kind of violence basically make it very difficult for any kind of Palestinian state to exist. And this is all the more compounded by the fact that under this new government, it is likely to reach new heights because we have ministers like Itamar Ben-Guir, we talked about in multiple times on this show who are basically the very phase, you know, the representatives of this kind of a hyper-aggressive approach to taking over land to basically trying to crush the Palestinian resistance as much as possible. So these two, I think these two aspects need to be seen as very complementary as far as Israel is concerned. The kind of continuous, relentless violence and the kind of legal processes that are taking place, which are also violence in another form where Palestinians are being evicted out of their land or they're being threatened with eviction, you know, basic structures like schools, health centers, all of these are under threat, all of these are under attack. So the idea is to sort of, is basically ethnic cleansing on a day-to-day basis. That's really basically what's happening right now. All right Prashant, thanks for joining us. In their appeal to the North God-Tank High Court in Pretoria, the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa and other organizations have emphasized the heavy costs of load shedding on the economy and society. It is destroying livelihoods and killing patients in hospitals, nooms are said in a statement after filing its application seeking to end prolonged power cuts. But how did the situation come about? And what is the way out? We spoke to Fakamele Hlubi Majola, the spokesperson of Noomsa. All right, Fakamele, thank you very much for joining us. And I think you're at some event right now. So we're just going to try and do this very quickly. Fakamele, why has the Noomsa filed a petition? Can you give us a brief context? Are you talking about the petition to court on load shedding? Right, so yes indeed. The National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa has actually filed papers at the North God-Tank High Court, which is one of our high courts, where we are asking the court to hear an urgent application to end load shedding. I'm sure your audience is aware that in South Africa, we've got a serious power supply problem. Our residents, our citizens have been subjected to rolling blackouts, scheduled rolling blackouts by the power utility, ESCOM, every single day. These rolling blackouts are devastating on the economy. It's been predicted that we've lost about two trillion so far, just from these rolling blackouts, I think in the last two years, if I'm not mistaken. At the same time, I mean, these blackouts affect everything. Every aspect of South African life is affected. Public schooling is affected. The public health care system, which is already on the verge of collapse, is now really experiencing serious strain, because you must understand that when they load shed, they load shed everybody, even public hospitals. Only 77 out of all our state hospitals are exempted. The majority of hospitals and clinics are without energy at different times during the day. So you can imagine what that means. It means that life-saving equipment at times is not operating. It means that patients are dying. As a trade union, we are losing thousands of members because companies are closing down because of the impact that this is having on production. And we're saying enough is enough. We are not convinced that the ANC government is serious about tackling load shedding. And this is why we're going to court, because we feel that in all of the platforms where we have tried to raise this issue directly with ESCO management and the board, we've been ignored, so we're taking this to court, and we're hoping that the court can compel the state, starting from the president to the ministers all the way down to the ESCO management and board, for them to be held accountable for the crisis that we are in. Camille, where exactly did the ANC government go wrong with how it's handling the power, the energy sector, the electricity sector? Well, the first thing that they're doing wrong is by allowing the private sector to play a role in energy generation. They are doing it through their renewable energy program. They are calling it a just transition. We are saying they are perverting the term, just transition, because just transition is not talking about empowering the private sector. It's about empowering communities and the working class to transition in a way that is not too detrimental for them from the dependence of fossil fuels to renewable energy. That transition is not supposed to make the conditions of the masses worse. And when you look at what the South African government is doing with our power utility ESCO, they are collapsing. In 2018, on the 26th of January 2018, South Africa had excess energy. Now, in 2023, we are struggling to keep the lights on for 24 hours. The shareholder, the only shareholder of ESCO is the state, the ANC government. So that tells you that in that very brief period of time, pardon me, the ANC government has basically over or has been governing or has been a shareholder of this entity and they have allowed it to collapse to the point where it cannot even provide energy. And they've done that because when ESCO was operating at its optimal, there would have been no justification for the private sector to get involved. The only way that ESCO could get involved, I mean the private sector can get involved, is if there's no energy being provided. And how this has been achieved is because they've also been closing down power stations. They're saying they're doing it to make way for renewable energy. We're saying that the closure of power stations is premature. We still need coal as base load energy because that's what gives you guaranteed regular energy supply. And by them closing down these power stations prematurely, they're exacerbating and worsening these rolling blackouts because they're basically taking an energy away from the grid. So this is what we mean when we say that this is a deliberate action done so that when we are sitting in the dark we will accept energy at any price at any cost because we are told that the only solution is the private sector ESCO no longer can no longer effectively provide us with energy. Right, Bhagameer. Thank you very much for joining us with that update. Thank you so much for having me. Video footage of the arrest of Tyree Nichols who was beaten by five police officers on January 7 in Memphis in the United States will be released on Friday. The arrest which left Nichols severely battered led to his death three days later. There have been demands for greater transparency during this investigation and there are concerns of unrest due to anger among members of the community and how Nichols was brutalized. We spoke to Natalia from People's Dispatch. Natalia, thank you very much for joining us. Natalia, can you tell us what the latest is in the Tyre Nichols case and what action have the police taken so far? Yeah, so today people are bracing themselves because the body camera footage of Tyree Nichols death is going to be released to the public. Thus far, Tyree Nichols was beaten on the 7th of January. He died three days later from his wounds. Very quickly after on January 20, all the police involved, all five officers were fired. And then this week, that was last week, just this week, all five of those officers were arrested and charged with second-degree murder, which is extremely, an extremely swift response. Actually, I think it's quite unprecedented that the police officers have been fired and charged this quickly. Even the police chief of Memphis has expressed her outrage and horror at this particular killing. And several officials in Memphis have already seen the video, including Tyree Nichols' family who described it as obviously an extremely difficult video to watch. And so people are bracing themselves. It's predicted that the video of his death, based on the response of officials, is extremely, extremely horrifying. And so people all across the country are already organizing demonstrations in protest of the killing. How do you think people have generally taken the police view? They've been saying repeatedly that we've acted very swiftly. Would that, is that something that people also think that yes, quick action has been taken and sort of to relieve the anger? Yeah, I mean, I think that, you know, it's possible that some people feel like action has been taken, but a lot of people feel like, you know, a little bit, a little bit like, you know, this police department is urging that people are not angry and outraged over something that will generate anger and outrage naturally. I mean, this was like a brutal beating, a brutal three-minute beating of an individual. And, you know, it's not as if, it's not as if really anything can alleviate that pain and change the fact that that did happen and was completely just a miscarriage of justice. And I think that people, people want the killings to end, right? I mean, to some extent, like the firing and the charging of the officers with second-degree, I mean, again, this is not first-degree murder, so it's not the highest charge that they could have gotten. But people want the killing to end. People want the killing of unarmed black people to end. And just the fact that this happened in the first place, I think that it's going to generate outrage. I mean, it's very natural. And I feel, you know, I mean, the department has, is sort of acting as if they've already, everything's fine. They've done every possible thing that they could, but the reality is like this happened to an individual, right? Like someone was beaten to death. I think that people are not subdued necessarily by the fact that the officers were charged. I'm sure people are glad that there was justice in this way, but I think the true justice that people want is an end to the police violence in general. Right, Natalia. Thanks a lot for joining us. And that is all we have for you today. Thank you for watching Daily Debrief. To come back to us tomorrow, you can visit our website for more people's dispatch stories and watch our regular updates on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.