Pallets with 50% more supplies than first boat, Open Arms, being loaded in Cyprus
The charity sending food aid to Gaza on a ship travelling across the Mediterranean from Cyprus is loading a second boat with supplies, which it hopes will set off in the coming days.
Pallets containing 300 tonnes of food aid – 50% more than the first shipment – are expected to be screened and loaded by the end of Thursday, but there is no indication yet when it will leave the port of Larnaca.
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Lebanon’s National News Agency reports Israeli planes have overflown Jezzine in southern Lebanon. There are unconfirmed images circulating social media appearing to show airstrikes have been carried out. Israel and anti-Israeli forces in Lebanon have repeatedly exchanged fire since 7 October.
The aid ship from Cyprus expected to arrive on Gaza’s shores is only “a drop in the ocean” of what is needed to address the acute crisis in the territory, the International Rescue Committee’s lead on the crisis said late yesterday.
Continue reading...Senate majority leader says Israeli prime minister has ‘lost his way’ and warns that country risks becoming ‘a pariah’
Chuck Schumer, the US Senate leader and a top ally of Joe Biden, on Thursday broke with the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, over his handling of the invasion of Gaza and called for Israel to hold new elections, in comments that upset its ruling party and allies on Capitol Hill.
The shift by Schumer, the Democratic Senate majority leader and the highest-ranking Jewish official in the United States, came as he continued to press lawmakers to pass a military assistance package for Israel, Ukraine and Taiwan, the countries Biden has named as America’s top national security priorities.
Continue reading...Paris Club of creditor nations agree cancellation as Mogadishu moves towards financial normalisation amid ongoing conflict
The Paris Club, a collection of some of the world’s wealthiest creditor nations, has announced the cancellation of 99% of Somalia’s debt, in a major boost as the country continues its fragile economic recovery from an ongoing three-decade conflict.
In a statement released by the Paris Club, which is run by senior officials from the French Treasury, Somalia’s creditors, including the US, UK, Russia, Norway, and Japan, announced the cancellation of $2bn owed to club members as of January 2023.
Continue reading...Ro Khanna, Biden campaign surrogate, believes US president should take tougher line with ‘insufferably arrogant’ Israeli PM
Joe Biden has committed a “strategic mistake” by “bear-hugging” the Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, as he prosecutes war with Hamas, a leading congressional progressive Democrat and Biden campaign surrogate said.
“The bear-hugging of Netanyahu has been a strategic mistake,” Ro Khanna said, accusing the Israeli leader of conducting “a callous war” in Gaza, in defiance of the United States.
Continue reading...Group on outskirts of Geneina share stories from November when RSF and allied militias unleashed wave of sexual violence
Twice a week, a group of women gather together in a nondescript house in Ardamata, on the outskirts of Geneina in Sudan’s West Darfur state, to tell their stories to each other, cry, and drink coffee.
The women, who work or used to work in education, are all survivors of an ethnically targeted campaign of rape and sexual abuse carried out by fighters from Arab militias backed by the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group on 5 November, after the fall of the army garrison in Ardamata.
Continue reading...Analysis shows how jets and tanks are being kept fueled despite interim ICJ ruling warning Israel to prevent genocidal acts
Israeli jets and tanks bombarding Palestinians are being fueled by some of the world’s most profitable fossil fuel companies – and US tax-payers, according to research.
Israel relies on crude oil and refined products from overseas to run its large fleet of fighter jets, tanks and other military vehicles.
Continue reading...Where Spanish-flagged vessel Open Arms will dock, and how supplies will be distributed, is still unclear
A ship carrying aid is nearing Gaza about 48 hours after it left Cyprus, with further aid preparations being made aboard a second “much bigger” vessel. It came as the EU foreign policy chief said starvation was being used as a weapon of war.
After the 240-mile voyage, the ship will dock at a jetty being built by the World Central Kitchen (WCK), the organisation that will distribute the aid.
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Continue reading...IDF fired two rounds at ‘clearly identifiable journalists’ in Lebanon last year when there was no exchange of fire in area
An Israeli tank that killed a Reuters journalist and wounded six others in Lebanon last year fired two 120mm rounds at a group of “clearly identifiable journalists” in violation of international law, a UN investigation has found.
The investigation by the United Nations Interim Force in Lebanon (Unifil), summarized in a report seen by Reuters, said its personnel did not record any exchange of fire across the border between Israel and Lebanon for more than 40 minutes before the tank opened fire, killing Issam Abdallah, a 37-year-old video journalist.
Continue reading...New legislation could thwart planned £600m purchase of media group by UAE-backed consortium
The UK government plans to introduce legislation that would prevent foreign governments owning UK newspapers and news magazines in a significant move that could scupper the planned £600m sale of the Telegraph to a United Arab Emirates-backed consortium.
RedBird IMI – a partnership between a fund backed by the UAE’s vice-president, Sheikh Mansour bin Zayed Al Nahyan, and a privately owned US investment firm – is seeking to acquire one of the UK’s most influential newspaper groups.
Continue reading...The double Oscar winner’s film A Hero won the grand prix at Cannes in 2021 but was the subject of an alleged copyright infringement brought by a former student
Iranian director Asghar Farhadi has been cleared of charges of plagiarism over his film A Hero brought by one of his students, the agency representing him said on Wednesday.
The film, about a prisoner in the Iranian city of Shiraz, won the grand prix at the Cannes film festival in 2021.
Continue reading...Child suffered fatal gunshot wound after riots broke out at Shuafat refugee camp during Ramadan
A Palestinian boy has died after being shot by Israeli border police at a refugee camp in East Jerusalem in the first such fatality in the Israeli-annexed territory during Ramadan.
The child – who was variously reported as being 12 or 13 years old – suffered a fatal gunshot wound during clashes between residents of the Shuafat refugee camp and police.
Continue reading...‘Hasan’, 24, argued he would face persecution in Israel on grounds of his race, faith and its ‘apartheid regime’
A Palestinian citizen of Israel has been granted asylum in the UK after claiming he would face persecution in his home country on the grounds of his race, his Muslim faith and his opinion that Israel “is governed by an apartheid regime”.
“Hasan”, whose real identity is not being disclosed for his own protection, has attended pro-Palestinian protests in the UK, and his lawyers also argued that his activism would place him at increased risk of hostile attention on his return.
Continue reading...Itay Chen, 19, was serving in the IDF when militants attacked his base and killed him, and then took his body to Gaza
Joe Biden has said he was devastated to learn that a dual US-Israeli citizen thought kidnapped and held in Gaza had actually been killed during Hamas’s 7 October attack.
Itay Chen, 19, was about one year into his military service in the Israeli Armoured Corps when his base near the Gaza border was attacked.
Continue reading...US, UK and Australia and others will decide on Unrwa support only after seeing reports on Israeli claims, says Foreign Office minister
Countries including the US, UK, Italy, Switzerland, Germany, Finland, the Netherlands and Australia will not take a decision on ending the suspension of funding to the Palestinian relief works agency Unrwa until they have seen two interim reports on the organisation, the UK Foreign Office minister Andrew Mitchell has said.
Mitchell’s remarks put back a decision on the funding for weeks, and runs counter to the decision by Sweden, Canada and the EU to resume funding the agency.
Continue reading...Salah Fustok alleged by UK prosecutors to have been a middleman for nearly £10m in payments to Saudi prince
A Foreign Office official floated the idea of giving an honour to a businessman who was later alleged to have helped facilitate millions of pounds of bribes to a Saudi prince and his high-ranking associates.
Salah Fustok was alleged by UK anti-corruption prosecutors to have been a middleman for nearly £10m of payments to Prince Miteb bin Abdullah and other Saudi officials as “an inducement or reward” for the awarding of a contract by the Saudi Arabian national guard.
Continue reading...All parties ‘continuing to work in negotiations’, says Qatar; US president says he has heavy heart after learning of death of Itay Chen. This live blog is closed
A spokesperson for Yemen’s internationally recognised government told Reuters earlier that airstrikes that hit port cities and small towns in western Yemen were carried out by the UK and the US.
The UK’s Ministry of Defence has said that earlier reports that Britain was involved in carrying out the airstrikes were incorrect.
Continue reading...Yemeni group earlier warned it would escalate operations during Ramadan in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza
The US said it carried out six strikes in self-defence against Houthi targets on Monday afternoon and evening, hours after the rebel group warned it would escalate attacks during Ramadan in solidarity with Palestinians in Gaza.
US Central Command (Centcom) said it destroyed an unmanned underwater vessel and 18 anti-ship missiles belonging to the Houthis – but on Tuesday reports emerged of drones being shot down by an Italian warship in the Red Sea.
Continue reading...Charity ship seen sailing out of Larnaca towing barge containing 200 tonnes of flour, rice and protein
An aid ship that has been docked in Cyprus for close to a month has finally set sail for Gaza, taking almost 200 tonnes of aid in a pilot project to open a new sea route for aid to a population on the brink of famine.
A video showed the Open Arms boat departing the Mediterranean island’s southern port of Larnaca at an unknown time early on Tuesday. Government officials in Cyprus had said the exact timing of the vessel’s departure would not be released for security reasons.
Continue reading...United States Commission on International Religious Freedom cuts visit short after rabbi told to remove Jewish head covering
A US delegation on religious freedom said on Monday it cut short its visit to Saudi Arabia after one of its members was asked to remove his Jewish head covering, or kippah.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) said its delegation was near Riyadh visiting Diriyah, a historic town and Unesco world heritage site, when the commission’s chair, the Orthodox rabbi Abraham Cooper, “refused their requests that he remove his religious head covering”.
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